Kristen Stewart co-authors AI paper - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/1/20/14334242/kristen-stewart-machine-learning-paper-ai <comment><USER2> She has a defined Erdős–Bacon number now: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s%E2%80%93Bacon_numbe...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erd%C5%91s%E2%80%93Bacon_number)

<comment><USER3> Looks like it's 9.

Bhautik Joshi, first author on this paper, collaborated with Sébastien Ourselin on e.g. [1], and Sébastien Ourselin has an Erdős number of 5 [2]. So Stewart's Erdős number is at most 7.

Her Bacon number is 2. 'We learned that Kristen Stewart has a Bacon number of two because she and Michael Sheen costarred together in "The Twilight Saga," and Sheen and Bacon starred in "Frost/Nixon."' [3]

[1] [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220677921_A_quantit...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220677921_A_quantitative_assessment_of_approaches_to_mesh_generation_for_surgical_simulation)

[2] [https://zbmath.org/collaboration- distance/?a=ourselin.sebast...](https://zbmath.org/collaboration- distance/?a=ourselin.sebastien&b=erdos.paul)

[3] [http://www.mtv.com/news/2442193/bacon-number- google/](http://www.mtv.com/news/2442193/bacon-number-google/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me of John Urschel: PhD candidate in mathematics (MIT) and offensive lineman for Ravens. Wrote six papers while playing in NFL. [https://math.mit.edu/~urschel/](https://math.mit.edu/~urschel/)

<comment><USER5> John Urschel is a legit full-time mathematician. Stewart's coauthorship seems to have more to do with her skills as a director than computer scientist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Bhautik Joshi posted a paper to arXiv on the topic of some consulting work he did for a short film, and listed the producer and actor as co-authors to garner publicity."

<comment> semi-extrinsic Actually, she's not an actor in the (short) film in question, she is the director as stated in TFA. The ML technique is applied to achieve a specific effect the director wanted to achieve.

Did she submit PRs to TensorFlow? Probably not. Did she contribute to the paper? Most definitely, I think we can even go so far as to say it's plausible she fulfills the Vancouver criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or (..)

AND

Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

AND

Final approval of the version to be published;

AND

Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work

Assuming she at some point revised the paper critically for content, which is plausible, there is no denying she's on the author list.

<comment><USER7> It is _plausible_ that she had some input to the paper beyond requesting the work, and artistic feedback. But it's definitely more likely that she didn't.

<comment><USER8> >But it's definitely more likely that she didn't.

Why is it "definitely more likely"?

<comment><USER9> Duh. She's a girl and everyone knows girls can't program. </sarcasm>

<comment><USER10> Perhaps more charitably, because she has no known history of having done so, and her talents in the acting profession are not generally considered directly transferable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Someone posted a link to the paper on HN a few hours ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13443107](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13443107)

Here's the direct link: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.04928](https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.04928)

</comment><comment><USER12> We have a new Erdos-Bacon number! (I assume)

</comment><comment><USER13> Is this the anti-Kardashian index? [https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13...](https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-014-0424-0)

</comment><comment><USER14> Does she have a background in the field?

</comment><comment><USER15> I look at the comments here and it becomes blatantly obvious why we have trouble getting women into STEM.

<comment><USER16> How does it become obvious? (Not snark, actual question)

<comment><USER17> _Women who do not follow the domestic norm are looked down upon in society. Beauvoir is explaining that woman referred as "the other." She states, "What is a woman?' […] The fact that I ask it is in itself significant. A man would never get the notion of writing a book on the peculiar situation of the human male. But if I wish to define myself, I must first of all say: 'I am a woman'; on this truth must be based all further discussion. A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man. […] It would be out of the question to reply: 'And you think the contrary because you are a man,' for it is understood that the fact of being a man is no peculiarity." (34-5) As for man there is no need to define what is to be a man, there is no reason because they identified themselves as the superior part. Man represents both "the positive and the neutral," which doesn't need to be explained or defined, and it is self-explanatory. "Thus humanity is male and man defines woman not in relation to herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being." (35) Men are the default setting and women are considered a recessive gender. "He is the Subject, he is the Absolute—she is the Other." (35) It is like an asymmetrical comparison, but masculine and feminine aren't asymmetrical. De Beauvoir defines women as the "Second sex" because women are defined in relation to men. Aristotle referred that women are "female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities." De Beauvoir also points out that St. Thomas referred to the woman as the "imperfect man ", the "incidental" being._

unification of the symbols from current context with this paragraph are left as an exercise to the reader

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir#Existential...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir#Existentialist_ethics)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I guess _that 's_ how you call peak hype.

<comment><USER17> Hype is not model-invariant

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I doubt she wrote a single word in that paper.

<comment><USER20> Why? It's not unheard of that an actress contributes to technology[0].

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr)

<comment><USER21> A nonspecialist such as Stewart may or may not have contributed to the paper.

All the evidence we have now is her name on the paper (for which there is obviously a strong propaganda/PR incentive for all authors, so that evidence should be at least partially discounted).

I certainly wouldn't consider this (fairly thin) body of evidence dispositive in an unusual situation such as this.

I'd be more convinced by e.g. a string of commits on the paper's repo coming from her account (if we were confident that her account was really hers).

The parent's skepticism seems to me entirely warranted, given the currently available evidence, and I don't think it should be downvoted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I read this article to find out who she was. I had assumed she was a noteworthy scientist I hadn't heard of.

<comment><USER8> Why do people on HN love to mention how they haven't heard of someone conventionally famous?

<comment><USER22> Thank you for the condescension. It was a request for clarification in the title.

I am sure there are plenty of people whom I consider "conventionally famous" whom you've never heard of. That doesn't make you an idiot.

<comment><USER23> There was no request of any sort in your comment.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Stanford launching launchpad-class.org and entrepreneur-class.org for startups - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/#!/ml_class/status/137347408693702656

<comment><AUTHOR> Clickable links: <http://launchpad-class.org> and <http://entrepreneur- class.org>

</comment><comment><USER2> Really would need more information to pick between these two.

And then there's all the CS classes to pick from too. Decisions decisions.</comment>


Zapproved: A Lightweight Meeting Killer - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/zapproved_a_lightweight_meetin.php

<comment><USER2> why would I want to share internal business decisions with an external site?

<comment><USER3> How is this any worse than having your email or bug tracking on an external site?

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. It has come to the point that groups must either concede that their work will be exposed to external entities, or miss out on such tools.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This seems like a prime example of the 'business metrics' startup idea from PG's 'startups we want to fund' list.</comment>


Hilarious patch notes from The Sims devs - <AUTHOR> http://flatluigi.tumblr.com/post/41443795900/did-you-know-how-hilarious-the-patch-notes-to-the-sims

<comment><USER2> Reminiscent of the nethack bugfixes; I guess any game that involves life-like elements is going to have bugs that correspond to amusing life situations.

<comment><USER3> Your comment reminds me of a situation years ago. It was photoshop or pagemaker about 10 years ago I think, my father showed me - every so often a popup was appearing saying: Warning, your printer is on fire. We never did work out what the text was supposed to read. It got patched in a later update and stopped occurring.

<comment><USER4> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lp0_on_fire>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> /r/mildlyinteresting seems to have adopted a HN look-and-feel today.

<comment><USER5> Seriously? It's the weekend, things are slow, we get some less VC/startup- related news. It's nice, it's funny, the community found it interesting enough to vote for it. Go away if you don't like it.

<comment><USER4> _Go away if you don't like it._

Strong words from someone who's had an account for about four months. Tell me more about what is and is not relevant on HN.

I'm personally all in favor of less VC-related news, but I would really prefer something more programming-related instead of retweets of reshares of Tumblr blogs. But I suppose that's my fault for not writing something better.

<comment><USER5> I actually looked at your profile before I bothered posting. I would've treated someone new a lot more kindly. As a senior member of the site and something of a thought leader (you've got a ton of karma), I hold you to a higher standard.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


10 Tr Command Examples in Linux - <AUTHOR> https://www.tecmint.com/tr-command-examples-in-linux/ <comment><USER2> Interesting, is tr functionality a subset of sed (roughly)?

I think tr < sed < awk < perl</comment>


FriendFeed, The Centralized Me, and Data Portability - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/30/friendfeed-the-centralized-me-and-data-portability/

<comment><USER2> OK, this is the second time I posted a comment to a previous comment I made to Friendfeed about a month ago. I think this time it's more justified to repost because the picture in the link above does what I was blubbering about some justice:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=123975>

I still will maintain that the application-as-node approach to building a social network is the right way to go because of the inherent connectedness of the web and the fact that there are good reasons to want to connect highly specialized web apps together.

The reason for stronger networks to form this way is because the applications provide a nice medium for two people to connect, as opposed to simply connecting because you know somebody...(as in "I'm connected to my sister on Facebook, but we have no similar interests, as opposed to the cutie who has an interest in Karsh Kale concerts -- WE should be connected!")

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd really like to know how friendfeed works, uses apis, and how it is in any way legal. All of the sites it aggregates have non-commercial APIs. So how does that work? Sweetheart deals all round? Is it just because they don't have ads yet?</comment>


Bringing an Economic Revolution to Chess - <AUTHOR> https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/05/the-new-economics-of-chess.html <comment><USER2> Chess is actually experiencing a popularity boom thanks to Hikaru Nakamura (if we have to credit one player).

<comment><USER3> Perhaps I'm counting this wrong, but Chess24 tournament coverage gets 10x or 20x more views than a Hikaru stream gets on any given day. For example today's Chessable Masters video has 50k+ views, yesterday's 80k+. Hikaru's stream will get 2k views on a random good day. I see numbers bigger than that on [http://analysis.sesse.net/](http://analysis.sesse.net/) whenever it's live!

There's no doubt that blitz - and people like Hikaru and Chessbrahs explicitly tapping into the e-sports potential - is driving a lot of interest, but it still seems like real tournament play, coupled with in-depth commentary and analysis, is very popular. I also don't think we should underestimate the impact of the explosion of content out of St Louis and Atlanta (which again, get higher views on every educational video than Hikaru gets on his streams).

<comment><USER4> > Perhaps I'm counting this wrong, but Chess24 tournament coverage gets 10x or > 20x more views than a Hikaru stream gets on any given day.

First of all, in the last tournament, Chess24 coverage barely hit 2k viewers on stream while Hikaru's stream had around 50k if I remember correctly.

> For example today's Chessable Masters video has 50k+ views, yesterday's > 80k+.

Comparing videos against live stream views does not seem right. Many people would watch recordings because of the time zones and availability. I think it might be fair to compare the number of followers: Hikaru has 416k right now on Twitch and 282k on YouTube, St. Louis Chess Club has only 282k. PogChamps finals (which Hikaru is the host of) had 85k __live __viewers ([https://twitter.com/chesscom/status/1274141325106065409](https://twitter.com/chesscom/status/1274141325106065409)).

> Hikaru's stream will get 2k views on a random good day.

This is simply incorrect. Maybe it has been true a long time ago, but I don't know if he had below 5k at any day lately (and he's been streaming __every day __for 60+ days or so). Here are the stats:[https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru](https://twitchtracker.com/gmhikaru). Average is 13k over the last week and 16.8k over the last month.

> I also don't think we should underestimate the impact of the explosion of > content out of St Louis and Atlanta (which again, get higher views on every > educational video than Hikaru gets on his streams).

This is also incorrect. Let's take a look at the St. Louis Chess Club videos: [https://www.youtube.com/user/STLChessClub/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/STLChessClub/videos). There are many 2k and sub-2k educational videos (even sub-1k in some cases) and just by looking at the numbers it seems like the absolute majority of educational videos are not even close to the __average __viewers on __live __Hikaru streams for the past month. Tournaments are obviously different.

To be fair, I agree with the importance of tournaments and in-depth commentary, analysis and educational videos. I just want to point out that the analysis you provide is not correct.

Tournaments are great and super exciting, but the general problem with chess is that most people who are below 1800 ELO can not relate and the content creators in the past were not generally interested in explaining the concepts to a wide auditory. Simply understanding what the commentators are saying would require an enormous amount of work for an average interested person.

Hikaru, on the other hand, makes it accessible for most players and, undoubtably, that's why there are more people interested in seeing him play blitz with random people than seeing GMs and super GMs comment Carlsen match in Chess24 tournament. I'm glad it's changing fast, but Chess24 tournaments should be grateful to Hikaru instead making a drama because he had more viewers and trying to stop him from streaming the tournament. Funny enough, that was after explicitly allowing him to use the channel to stream the tournament. If it wasn't for him, I doubt Chess24 would even get their 2k viewers on Twitch for the last tournament.

Both casual chess and tournaments are skyrocketing in popularity lately and I couldn't be more excited about Chess becoming really popular, I just think it's clear that casual chess has been the driver.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the corrections and showing me how to run the numbers on Twitch correctly - I was just looking at the figures on the past broadcasts page which presumably mean offline views.

I will still hold on to my curmudgeonly grumpiness about this trend but clearly it's valid and real.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Chess has been on the rise in the last 10-15 years and a lot of it was thanks to the internet and social media. I got into chess 15 years ago after playing on a defunct site called instantchess.com which had a live screensaver with chess matches on their site. Since then plenty of chess apps added to the effect and lastly the social media gave it another boost for the masses. It's a great game and more popularity will never hurt. I wonder what else will make a comeback next</comment>


A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it's bad for you - <AUTHOR> https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/a-belief-in-meritocracy-is-not-only-false-its-bad-for-you <comment><USER2> "Tailspin" by Stephen Brill is a relevant read in this context. If you measure the correlation between which percentile of income one's parents lie in a generation and which percentile of income one lies in a generation, it might be very high in most modern societies. This itself might indicate that there are problems with social mobility when it comes to meritocratic societies.

<comment><USER3> Meritocracy produces moderate social mobility.

Making success (income, etc.) uncorrelated between generations would require a lottery. This includes a lottery for parental care, for DNA, for attractiveness, and so on. It really isn't possible. Getting close would require severely restricting choice. We'd have to assign employment and spouses by lottery.

Going the other way, making success fully determined by parental success, would also require severely restricting people from choosing their own lives. It might be a bit less extreme. We'd still have to assign everything to people, but it would be according to parental success instead of a lottery.

The closest we've gotten to those extremes seems to be communism and feudalism. Either one forces people into choices against their will. Either one creates inefficiency.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think this article has a stupid definition of meritocracy. If I work really hard digging a giant hole in my backyard and no one pays me for it, few would agree that "meritocracy is dead". The article argues that there are programmers "as good as" Bill Gates that didn't become billionaires, but don't acknowledge that Gates never let being a good programmer get in the way of being a great business man. In doing so, I think they make an equivalent argument to the "digging holes in backyard" guy. Being merely a good programmer is insufficient to become a billionaire.

<comment><AUTHOR> The article in no way says that being a good programmer is sufficient to become a billionaire. It states that there were long-shots and coincidences that led to Bill Gates's stellar rise as Microsoft's founder, beyond his programming and business skills (It's not denying that his programming and business skills didn't contribute). The article states that, in competitive contexts, many have merit (programming + business skills, in the context of Bill Gates), but few succeed. What the article is effectively trying to say and the point you seem to miss is that, the the link between merit and outcome is tenuous and indirect at best.

<comment><USER5> "the the link between merit and (cladogenetic)[1] outcome(s) is(are) tenuous and indirect at best."

[1] : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium)

In new and fertile territory (random) variations that offer small (unforseeable) advantage can and often do dogpile until total victory is achieved, but I would hardly say the rest of the field flounders. Populations of 1%er's begetting the next don.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19359460](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19359460)

</comment><comment><USER7> Meritocracy is the worst form of societal organization, except for all the others.</comment>


Scunthorpe Problem - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem <comment><USER2> Imagine being called John Graham-Cumming. Long, long ago Google didn't understand that "Cumming" was a name. Google myself, get served ads for adult web sites.

And Eudora's Mood Watch feature would flag every single email I sent as offensive.

<comment><USER3> There's an old joke about a girl named Megan E. Cummings, who successfully petitioned for a change to her university e-mail, which had been auto- generated according to the scheme `substr($LASTNAME, 6).$FIRSTINIT.$MIDINIT`.

<comment><USER4> Nearly my first helpdesk call at a new job was for a Wayne Anker. Luckily we used family name + initial for ID and not the other way around.

I had a particular friend in childhood. What on earth Mr and Mrs Head were thinking about when they named their son Richard is beyond me. They already had a daughter called Rachel so should have got the hang of the naming process the second time around.

<comment><USER5> > I had a particular friend in childhood. What on earth Mr and Mrs Head were > thinking about when they named their son Richard is beyond me.

I knew a Richard Bates in college (yes, the same guy from the Silk Road trial). He betrayed one of my best friends in a really deplorable way, so you can guess the nicknames we called him behind his back.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Tom Scott did a video on this:

Why Web Filters Don't Work: Penistone and the Scunthorpe Problem - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcZdwX4noCE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcZdwX4noCE)

It's well done, like the rest of his content.

<comment><USER7> On a similar note, I wonder what web filters would make of the URLs for Pen Island stationers shop or the Mole Station creche websites.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Try keeping up with the journals as a chemist while on holiday behind an overeager webproxy. You are told that the subdiscipline of analytical chemistry is out of bounds.

But that's a feature. The voting public sees that you are trying hard and failing, that's somehow considered better than shaking your head at the intractable problem.

<comment><USER9> In my former life as a mathematician, I worked on analytic combinatorics. Mathematicians aren't quite as aggressive about abbreviating as chemists, so I never saw the abbreviation "anal. comb." in the wild, but I always expected to.

<comment><USER7> Philosophers have to contend with Aristotle's Posterior Analytics. The title was particularly striking on the old Dynix Automated Library System.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynix_(software)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynix_\(software\))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> That's like the British joke about which three football teams have swear words in their names: Arsenal, Scunthorpe, and MANCHESTER FUCKING UNITED. :-D

</comment><comment><USER11> I've run into this problem myself when parsing recipes for food allergies . Doughnuts has the word nuts in it but doesn't always contain nuts as an ingredient .

</comment><comment><USER12> Just had to update a conference web page because the sponsor logos had a css class of 'sponsor' which ublock and others were blocking.

<comment><USER13> This happened at Medium [0] because they hash paragraphs to a 4-digit hexadecimal string, and ad blockers would hide things like "#ad01", "#ad02", etc.

[0]: [https://medium.engineering/the-unluckiest- paragraphs-751dd36...](https://medium.engineering/the-unluckiest- paragraphs-751dd36d2d30)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Back in the late nineties, I attended the Norwegian University of Technology and Science.

Someone in the IT department figured it was an excellent idea to host all student accounts on the stud.ntnu.no subdomain.

We got a few odd bounces.

<comment><USER15> I was sure you were going for a NUTS reference with that first sentence. Alas, a missed opportunity for stud.nuts.edu. ;)

<comment><USER5> I had a professor once tell the class that Minix was created with the Free University Compiler Kit.

He realized his mistake a few seconds later when we all started laughing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Came across an instance of this recently, I think on the FT's website... It took me a while to figure out what was going on with "smar * * * * ches".

<comment><USER17> okay, I give up. Is it two words?

<comment><USER18> Think tech.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> When I'm bored, googling for "buttbuttination" provides nearly unlimited entertainment.

</comment><comment><USER20> TVTropes as a good list of amusing examples as well: [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScunthorpeProblem](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScunthorpeProblem)

<comment><USER21> Obligatory warning: probably the single most addictive website in existence. Don't go there if you have something else to do today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Many amusing examples in the source page, but this one really stood out.

> It also blocked e-mails sent in Welsh because it did not recognize the > language.

With my (very) limited exposure to Welsh, i kinda get that it would give spam filters fits.

</comment><comment><USER23> This problem could be solved by defining a logical rule (most probably through a regular expression) that would only filter the bad word when present as a single word.

I'm amazed how rarely this simple system is used. Instead you end up with monstrosities such as the power stars chat that mangles most words into unreadable mess of _____.

Could be a fun game though. Guess the words!

_ __ertion

Weight and m __ _

</comment><comment><USER24> When I worked for a company that made label printers we had a potential customer who wanted us to print labels with human readable and barcode fields with 4 random letters and 4 random digits but did not want the letters to spell any obscene words. We asked for a list of words to ban but they declined to provide such a list. We did not get the contract.

</comment><comment><USER25> Clbuttic

</comment><comment><USER26> Note that the problem of words being misunderstood when lacking context is not limited to computers. My father - a chemistry professor - was at a conference a few years ago about Free Radicals when he was approached by a member of the public who wanted to know if he could participate...

<comment><USER27> Not quite as funny, but I used to work for a company that had the word microwave in its name - we made radar components and such. We once were approached by someone who wanted us to repair their microwave oven. Our building had no obvious sign and didn't look like an appliance repair shop, so I don't know how they found us.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> [http://www.penisland.net](http://www.penisland.net)

<comment><USER29> expertsexchange.com was (is?) the most (in)famous of these.

<comment><USER30> I thought it was a dead heat between Pen Island, Powergen Italia, and Therapist Finder?

<comment><USER5> There was also Mole Station Nursery.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> kyle-rb I'm not sure if it's still the case, but it used to not be possible to trade certain Pokémon over the global trade system with their default name due to a filter like this.

I believe Nosepass and Cofagrigus were two of the affected.

</comment><comment><USER31> This is still happening on some subreddits, /r/latestagecapitalism for example.

</comment><comment><USER32> see wikipedia article "Internet_Watch_Foundation_and_Wikipedia"</comment>


NetBeans 7.4 – New and Noteworthy - <AUTHOR> http://wiki.netbeans.org/NewAndNoteworthyNB74

<comment><USER2> That features list doesn't give me much information. Can you tell me a few highlights that would make me say, "WOW" if I tried them out?

(I ask as a IntelliJ devotee.)

</comment><comment><USER3> Netbeans' Python support was quite nice as well -- so nice I kept a separate Netbeans 6.9.1 just to keep Python support. However, it was never ported to Netbeans 7 and upwards.

Sadly, that version is too old now. With no git and svn 1.7+ support, it's become just another text editor. I hope the Python plugin gets ported to this new version!

Its C++ support is also great, but a bit opinionated. I remember I wasn't able to get its cmake plugin to make out-of-source builds for example.

<comment><USER4> Netbeans is formally dropping support for Python and Ruby, isn't it?

<comment><USER5> That happened long time ago, as the JRuby guys left Sun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here are some plugins for other popular languages in NetBeans. I'm linking only actively developed plugins.

Shell scripts:

      Install Official C++ plugin

Ruby on Rails:

      Plugin - http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/38549

      GitHub Mirror - https://github.com/nbruby/nbruby

      Quick Start - https://github.com/MarkUsProject/Markus/wiki/NetBeans

Python (not sure about Django):

      http://wiki.netbeans.org/Python

      * UPDATE * - Sorry, there doesn't seem to be active Python support anymore.

Lua:

      Possibly active: http://sourceforge.net/projects/luatopping/

      Probably inactive: http://plugins.netbeans.org/plugin/29607/luasupport

NodeJS:

      https://github.com/timboudreau/nb-nodejs

</comment><comment><USER7> On Linux, I experience a lot of lag when I cycle through the menus on the top. Anybody have the same experience?

I have had this issue for the last couple of releases and I can't narrow down the issue. It works fine on Windows.

<comment><USER8> Not sure if this is related to your issue, but drop down menus in Java seem to have issues with some Linux desktop "themes" (GTK themes, I think). For example, on CentOS the default theme causes the menus in Netbeans to be drawn without any borders. Changing the theme to something else fixes the problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Question for those in the know: I had expected NetBeans development to stall after Oracle took over Sun - after all, there's not really any direct profit coming from it. My understanding of Oracle is that they mostly think along the lines of "no direct profit = no investment".

Why does it keep getting better?

<comment><USER10> I think it's more a perception problem with Oracle.

They've actually been fantastic for the Java platform and have been so for nearly a decade now i.e. even before the Sun acquisition. It's hard to dispute that the JVM is thriving right now with plenty of innovation amongst the various languages. And most of us were really happy to have their JRockit work (especially G1GC) embedded back into the core runtime when they could have continued to charge for it.

And people need to ask if things are really so bad with their OSS projects e.g. OpenOffice, MySQL, DTrace etc. Sure they have tightened control over copyrights but it's not like they have actively screwed their customers if anything the projects seem in a lot better shape.

<comment><USER11> Don't forget VirtualBox; IMO it beats out the competing commercial products

<comment><USER12> VMware Fusion is much faster than VirtualBox: [http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=vmware_vi...](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=vmware_virtualbox_osxcpu&num=1)

<comment><USER13> Not sure what you mean by "much" faster. Most of the benchmarks have fractional differences. I think comparing an Apple only, commercial program, to a free and open source multi-platform program, VirtualBox would "win" for a lot of people, because it's not just about benchmarks.

<comment><USER14> > _And what 's the point of comparing the performance of an Apple only, > commercial program, to a free and open source multi-platform program_.

If I have a Mac and need to virtualize things, 'free and open source' doesn't really matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> For a pure Java UI app - NetBeans 7.4 beta looks and performs acceptably. This is on a fast SSD with 16Gb RAM but still the fluidity of workflows has improved a lot. For example I just created a JSF based Enterprise Java app and modify/rebuild/redeploy were pleasantly fast. So was the code completion. Got contextual help on CSS properties as well! If this continues to rock I might dump Eclipse which has grown to be too complex, slow and disorienting.

</comment><comment><USER16> NetBeans is far from perfect but it is a pretty good development environment, so I'm glad to see things are happening on that front.

For 2014, I predict that Java will make a comeback in so called trendy circles, and it will also get more attention on HN.

Java 8 will bring less boiler plate code and more expressive code, and hopefully the general development cycle will get shorter. Java EE 7 is quite interesting for the type of development I do.

</comment><comment><USER17> Really looking forward to angular support improvements. Does anyone know of any plans/plugins that might bring sublime text-ish multi cursor editing to netbeans? Rectangular selection is, erm, all right. But I do seem to spend a lot of time with netbeans and subl open at the same time.

<comment><AUTHOR> multi cursors ..I too really wish they where part of Netbeans !

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> One issue I was having was it's support for Java 6 because Java 7 was not handling Retina screens correctly. Or is that taken care of?

BTW Git diffing between revisions is very cool, I used to have some custom scripts which would call meld to do that.

<comment><USER19> Netbeans 7.3's support? It works fine on Java 6, though it will only grudgingly use it if 7 is installed. If you're on MacOS (assuming that from the retina screen), then, in /Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans 7.3.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf

add the line

netbeans_jdkhome="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home"

(Yes, the configuration lives _inside_ the application bundle. Lovely.)

<comment><USER18> Yes I have done this for 7.3, but I tried a Netbeans beta and it said Java 6 is no longer supported.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> kinda offtopic, but on a related note: is it me or has Eclipse development stalled? I fail to find any noteworthy list of features for 4.3, and I don't remember any exciting changes during last version upgrade except growing into a bigger resources hog leaking memory like diarrhea.

those Netbeans features look really cool, any experience with Python plugins? how does it compare to PyDev/Aptana?

<comment><USER21> Several years ago, I tried NetBeans vs Eclipse and chose NetBeans altough it was far from perfect, but Eclispe was not better. The GUI was better.

I do not regret my choice. NetBeans has always progressively improved on its weaknesses, releases after releases. I revisited Eclispe a couple of times, but was not overall convinced by it.

<comment><USER22> Does it do incremental compilation now? One of the killers for me with NetBeans (and Visual Studio) was the compilation waits. I'd swap back from eclipse in an instance if they do that.

<comment><USER21> It has for a long time. Just invoke the 'Build Project' (F11) functionality, instead of the 'Clean & Build Project' one (Shift+F11).

Or if you mean dynamic recompilation of your code as you type it to warn you of possible errors, then yes, it does that too...

<comment><USER22> Excellent. Thanks for the information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> IMO, the best practical feature about Netbeans is easy code-indenting, while writing large HTML/JS code.

</comment><comment><USER24> I use Netbeans for PHP and I love it.

</comment><comment><USER25> I use NetBeans for everything and this looks really good.

</comment><comment><USER26> great to see nb moving forward. I've been a user since 5.x. it's serving me pretty well so far.</comment>


Magazine publishers with video ambitions see YouTube as safer bet than Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://digiday.com/media/reliable-smaller-video-publishers-see-youtube-safe-harbor/ <comment><USER2> I've always seen Youtube as much higher quality than facebook. More than being accessible to everybody regardless of being logged in or not, their players have always been top notch for me. I've always associated Facebook videos with low quality content that I see scrolling through a newsfeed, and FB video has always been _noticeably_ buggier than Youtube.

The focus of Youtube is video whereas video is just another feature of FB. If I want to binge something in the background or watch AvE tear apart power tools (seriously, he's awesome) I go to Youtube. I've never gone to Facebook when I wanted to watch video content.

<comment><USER3> > The focus of Youtube is video whereas video is just another feature of FB.

Today yes, but with FB's technical capabilities, I can't see why they couldn't knock off a respectable (if not superior in most respects, considering Google's apparent complete lack of skills or motivation in UI usability, and discoverability/search of all things) clone of YouTube in _way_ under a year. And, they have a massive engaged social network to go with it, something Google can't bring to the table (they tried and failed). It could take them a long time to assemble critical mass of videos, but unless YouTube forbid it in their TOS (which I doubt, considering many people are openly advertising their steemit channels) most producers would clone their content to FB very quickly, especially smaller ones who are pissed off at demonetization.

FB's weak links in my estimation are the stubborn insistence to have everything under Facebook.com (rather than a sibling site), and the trust they've lost in the last year.

<comment><USER4> > clone of YouTube in way under a year.

Probably because some aspects of computer science/website engineering are not entirely nailed down and years of experience still count for something.

<comment><USER3> Do you think I'm overestimating or underestimating?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> One thing is that various video domains have almost expected levels of quality. I assume that any video link to Facebook.com is likely garbage, and I almost always click a link to Vimeo.com, even though of course any file could be uploaded to either domain.

<comment><USER6> Twitter consistently pulls an absurdly low bitrate for the first 3-5 seconds of a video regardless of available bandwidth and it is maddening.

<comment><USER7> The only adjective I'd put for Twitter video experience is shit. I really hate it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Youtube seems to offer a better user experience than facebook for users who don't have an account or aren't signed into an account. I have no data to back this up, but I suspect users with no accounts or users who aren't signed in account for a sizable portion of the youtube audience.

<comment><USER9> I definitely would not say it is a sizable portion. I'd say it is infact a minority of Youtube's audience. Their CEO revealed they have 1.8b logged in users [1] every month watching videos.

[1] [https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billi...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/3/17317274/youtube-1-8-billion- logged-in-monthly-users-brandcast-2018)

<comment><USER10> But do they log in consistently? I log in by mistake every now and then, but I use it without being logged in 99.9% of the time.

<comment><USER2> This isn't a _huge_ percentage of the time for me, but I often use a device that isn't logged into anything because it's using the android builtin browser, someone elses computer, etc. Not having to care about logging in is a benefit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I really hate these news sites that overload their sites with graphics like images and videos.

I long for simple websites that dont have auto playing videos that are always on some corner even when scrolled down.

<comment> 52-6F-62 If you're okay with more of a microfiche-style experience:

[https://www.pressreader.com/](https://www.pressreader.com/)

Not sure if you can kill photos— but they're pretty essential to journalism.

<comment><USER11> My point is countless hours of dev time, resources and infrastructure is wasted on what is obviously a very bad design.

Making a bad design, then overcoming the bad design with another piece of software is pure wastage of valuable resources.

It's really sad. UX design does not get the authority it deserves.

<comment> 52-6F-62 Some publishers do better than others in that department. I can agree (from experience) that many run fast away from any dev work except for new plugins that return more data to the marketing and sales departments who come back with more requests for beating as blockers and direct ad insertion and the rest of it. It was very frustrating being somebody who knew how to build a better experience and see it rejected as bad business.

Edit: they have UX teams but they don't leverage them because of a goofy allotment of any sanctioned development work to CAPEX which they never want to spend because they often have little of that but tons of OPEX. It drives the "just get it done" part of my mind crazy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Given YouTubes weird stances on content moderation, I'm not sure that's a wise bet.

<comment><USER13> A brand publisher is in a much better position to roll with that than an indie content maker. Having worn both hats, it's strange how much your perspective changes.

</comment></comment><comment> 52-6F-62 Working for a major Canadian multimedia company (including some reputable magazines). Brightcove is pretty much at the core of it. Youtube is a sometimes, or just another endpoint. Facebook Live was used a few times but I haven't heard much from that lately.

<comment><USER14> It got a lot of press for live streaming literal murders, rapes, and child molestation.

I haven't heard anything about it since, but, then again, I don't use Facebook.

<comment> 52-6F-62 Right. I forgot about all that already. Good lord.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I just don't see smaller magazine publishers sustaining the production of video. It's extremely high cost relative to other content and they don't have the traffic or niche audience required to gather the ad revenue to support it.

<comment><USER16> It's getting cheaper and cheaper to produce videos these days though. We're kind of in the place that graphic design was in 10 years ago. As the equipment gets better, software more powerful, and generations of younger folks with substantial knowledge in the subject, the costs are going to go way down.

<comment><USER17> I'd say we're at the end of the cost reduction curve. Capital requirements for video production have been minimal for a while. Costs are overwhelmingly people. People don't get cheaper.

<comment><USER3> With the number of totally independent content producers on YouTube with _extremely_ high production quality (often indistinguishable from professional TV shows), I honestly don't think cost/people is a big factor anymore, _at all_.

<comment><USER15> But a publisher is paying people to produce the content - so I'm saying after the planning, shooting and producing, the cost at probably a few thousand for a publisher. Supporting that with video ad Rev is really, really hard if you're like the typical online magazine that doesn't have a look at T of scale.

<comment><USER3> > after the planning, shooting and producing, the cost at probably a few > thousand for a publisher.

There are all sorts of YouTube content creators who do _everything_ for their channel, had no noteworthy background in any of it, and turn out several videos a week with broadcast TV levels of quality, _in addition to holding down full time regular jobs.

You could spend several thousand per episode, but you no longer _have* to.

I agree though, covering these now minimal costs with ad revenue is something else entirely.

<comment><USER17> > You could spend several thousand per episode, but you no longer have* to.

You don't have to if you know how to do the work. It's like making apps. It's cheap to make an app and get it on the App Store if you're an app developer. But if you need to hire somebody, suddenly you're looking at multiple tens of thousands of dollars, at a bare minimum. The fact that there are all sorts of content creators doing video work for themselves doesn't mean that doing video work is somehow cheap. They're just working for themselves on spec.

<comment><USER3> This doesn't make logical sense to me....a lot of these skilled people run channels with next to no income, I would think only would many of them _gladly_ take on some side work for multiple tens of thousands of dollars, at a bare minimum, but would fight over it, bidding it down to way less than that.

To me this seems like basic supply and demand in action, I'm curious which aspects of this scenario we disagree on to come to such a wide disagreement?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There's not enough open-source back-end tools that would allow a site to host and publish videos on their own, without going through a third-party service.

Where is the video equivalent to WordPress?

<comment><USER19> A site can't do that. You need a CDN and streaming transcoders, etc. Of course if you only have a few viewers then HTML5 will play your self-hosted video files but I don't you think that's what you mean.

<comment><USER20> setting the discovery issue aside, there are SaaS companies like cloudinary.com that take care of all the transcoding / delivery / device matching stuff

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Wayyyyyyy safer, and yet still not.

</comment><comment><USER22> "...the shows are weekly, focus on evergreen topics and run up to eight minutes per episode..."

That's __obviously__ not a good fit for FB. Nothing more. Nothing less. To say anything more means someone has an ax to grind.

Perhaps the title oft his article should be: "Full Disclosure; Google Paid Me to Write This"?

<comment><USER23> I don't think I understand. Is it the 8 min part that isn't a good fit for FB?

<comment><USER22> How many people go to FB looking for "long form" evergreen video content? If you do, how easy it to search for?

One is a social network. The other a media platform. The expectations and usage of each is different. Put another way...you host it on YT and market it on FB, __not__ the other way around.

For a brand to pick the best platform for their __particular__ content is not new and noteworthy. That is, it's not news. It's fluff. It's clickbait.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What payment system do you use? - <AUTHOR>

Hey HN readers,
I would like to know which payment system are you currently using if you're selling products / SaaS subscriptions / eBooks / anything which can be bought online.
Thank you :) <comment><USER2> Recurly. Simple API and they handle everything on the credit-card side of things.</comment>


Lonnie Johnson's Mysterious 12 String - <AUTHOR> http://fraulini.com/2017/07/lonnie-johnsons-mysterious-12-string/ <comment><USER2> With Javascript off, I didn't even notice a scrolling problem. The story was fascinating.

I can't help but think the reconstruction is pretty speculative, but the sound is convincing, and it's a cool-looking guitar.

</comment><comment><USER3> I love it when articles about music spill on HN. Especially this one is a fantastic mix of music, historical investigation, engineering and art.

</comment><comment><USER4> This article should be an advert for why customizing the browsers scrolling is a terrible idea.

<comment><USER5> Fucking hell, the scrolljacking makes it completely unusable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Huh, yeah, that's not great. (Original submitter here.) I read it, and posted it, from an iPhone. No scrolljacking issue there.</comment></comment></comment>


Chrome reporting malware on techcrunch.com? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/

<comment><USER2> More here:

[http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=adsbyisocket....](http://google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=adsbyisocket.com/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hopefully this is some small accident and will be fixed soon.

There will be a dip in their traffic stats today, though...

</comment><comment><USER3> Yep, I got a Chrome malware notice about TechCrunch just now.

</comment><comment><USER4> It was a problem with the iSocket ad network. Fixed now.

</comment><comment><USER5> Seems clear to me. Fast fixes ftw!</comment>


The future of work will not contain resumes - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/collaboration/the-future-of-work-wont-contain-resumes/ <comment><USER2> Resumes, and the entire "fire a resume and pray" job search model, are for people who suck at sales and/or are ignorant about how hiring works. Have one, sure, but the main use is after you have gotten preferential consideration or an offer. (You get these by introductions by people trusted by the decision maker, being identifiably the best at the problem, etc.)

Networking, a portfolio, and a sales page on your website are much, much better plays for most of the people here.

</comment><comment><USER3> When reading resumes I always look for supplemental information first. I saw a post here recently that explained how to read patents. There should be a similar article explaining to candidates how technical managers/recruiters read resumes & CVs. Put simply, college/resume/coursework/memberships/keywords will get you past HR but the hiring manager or team will skip all that and look for project details. I'm only bothering to post this because you are saying exactly the same thing but using the context of the modern web. I just want applicants to know that they don't have to use the web to get interviews as long as their resume contains the same kind of information.

I wish university career counselors would teach students this....

</comment><comment><USER4> Resumes are sales tools.

The author is basically saying that since we have Angie's List, plumbers no longer need Yellow Pages ads.

Certainly hiring is becoming more complex, but saying the resume will disappear as a sales tool seems more than a bit extreme. It will evolve like everything else.

</comment><comment><USER5> Count me as skeptical. Ratings of past jobs only work for people who do one project per month, otherwise a single dispute distorts the rating. It's prone to extortion and manipulation. You do that feature for free or I'm going to ruin your score. People will spend lots of time massaging their online profile instead of getting work done. Lots of useless blogs, tactical contributions to open source projects, etc.

The only way to find out whether someone is good is to see first hand what he/she has done before or work with them on something small and then build on that.

</comment><comment><USER6> Author is the CEO of a "labor on demand" company; prefers elance-style ratings by past employers to the resume.

</comment><comment><USER7> It's not as if replacing resumes with some online tool like LinkedIn is a significant difference. Both are advertising tools, and both can be very misleading.

</comment><comment><USER8> While resumes are becoming obsolete, the actual cover letter can tell a lot about a person. One person might write the same stock cover letter for most of their job applications while someone else might personalize their cover letters for the particular company and job they are applying for. Which one do you think cares more about getting the job? Overall I agree that resumes are not a tell-tale sign of one's qualifications and personality, but if you are "Google-able", then at least you have something to supplement your resume (hopefully in a positive light).

</comment><comment><USER9> As a current college student sending out a _lot_ of cover letters and resumes at present, I have to say I sure wish that the resume was obsolete.

I definitely try to supplant it personally with my online branding / presence, but right now people still use resumes a lot for some positions. I have enough good, sexy things to put on a resume that I don't mind, per se, but...

What I have 150% observed from my painful process at the moment is just how very, very ripe for disruption this whole horrible 'job application' process is. So many terrible software solution providers out there, with so little innovation or competition apparently going on to make their products more usable, less painful, etc. I can't imagine that they are doing so much to help make things simple for HR on the back-end, either.

If this was a subject that I was really passionate about, I'd definitely be trying to start a start-up there... would probably help if I could code half decently, too, but the point remains valid. I don't find it sexy, but it's a big opportunity. Happy to vent in more detail and help someone who is inspired though.

<comment><USER10> I'd agree that there could be something done. There's vast amounts of information _about_ people out there. At least in the software industry I see software tools being very useful in pre-screening resumes before inviting people in for interviews.

It's something I've started working on. Job hunting myself. Lots of free time. :S

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have a an unstarted startup idea that basically looks at the hiring process as a series of steps in a value chain, then works out how to bust that up to break up the job-agent market. Anyone who has done freelance contracting has a grab-bag full of 'bad agent' stories. There's massive scope for connecting potential employees and employers together and eliminating the agent in the middle. But someone has to weed out the bad hires and process all the information, so the solution is crowdsourcing the bits and pieces that go into hiring-having a trusted resume sorter, an effective job-ad writer, etc. I think the existing hiring model is extremely outmoded given the technology available, but the right 'new' business model hasn't emerged yet. We're pretty much still at the point of putting newspaper ads online.

</comment><comment><USER12> If anything, LinkedIn profiles will replace resume's.</comment>


Google Public DNS vs OpenDNS vs Your ISP's DNS: Find out which is fastest - <AUTHOR> http://blog.browsermob.com/2009/12/google-public-dns-vs-opendns-vs-your-isps-dns-measuring-performance/

<comment><USER2> Pretty straightforward to test.

With random labels under amazon.com:

OpenDNS:

      [4:55pm:~] DIVISION:tqbf [0:1]% nsping -z amazon.com 184.108.40.206
      NSPING 18.104.22.168 (220.127.116.11): Domain = "amazon.com", Type = "IN A"
      + [   0 ]    55 bytes from 220.127.116.11:   29.254 ms [    0.000 san-avg ]
      ...
      + [  35 ]    55 bytes from 22.214.171.124:   28.894 ms [   43.104 san-avg ]
      ^C
      Total Sent: [  36 ] Total Received: [  35 ] Missed: [   1 ] Lagged [   0 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   43.104 /  232.379 /   24.222

Google:

      [4:56pm:~] DIVISION:tqbf [0:1]% nsping -z amazon.com 220.127.116.11
      NSPING 126.96.36.199 (18.104.22.168): Domain = "amazon.com", Type = "IN A"
      - [   0 ]   100 bytes from 184.108.40.206:   71.366 ms [    0.000 san-avg ]
      ...
      - [  27 ]    99 bytes from 18.104.22.168:   61.967 ms [   86.705 san-avg ]
      ^C
      Total Sent: [  29 ] Total Received: [  27 ] Missed: [   2 ] Lagged [   0 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   86.705 /  223.928 /   48.951

AT&T, via my home router:

      [4:57pm:~] DIVISION:tqbf [0:2]% nsping -h www.amazon.com 192.168.1.254
      NSPING 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254): Hostname = "www.amazon.com", Type = "IN A"
      + [   0 ]    48 bytes from 192.168.1.254:   48.595 ms [    0.000 san-avg ]
      ...
      + [  20 ]    48 bytes from 192.168.1.254:   34.261 ms [   36.207 san-avg ]
      ^C
      Total Sent: [  21 ] Total Received: [  20 ] Missed: [   1 ] Lagged [   0 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   36.207 /   59.454 /   30.943

But, note the + in front of the OpenDNS result, which means we didn't get NXDOMAINs for random names, which is, all due respect, some bullsh*t right there. The results just for "www.amazon.com", which read straight from the cache and don't measure the performance of the recursive fetch:

OpenDNS:

      Total Sent: [  21 ] Total Received: [  19 ] Missed: [   2 ] Lagged [   1 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   25.740 /   65.835 /   22.402

Google:

      Total Sent: [  21 ] Total Received: [  19 ] Missed: [   2 ] Lagged [   0 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   36.985 /   64.553 /   33.540

AT&T:

      Total Sent: [  21 ] Total Received: [  20 ] Missed: [   1 ] Lagged [   0 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   36.207 /   59.454 /   30.943

In case you're interested, compared to running dnscache on my local host, which is what I do normally:

      Total Sent: [  14 ] Total Received: [  13 ] Missed: [   1 ] Lagged [   0 ]
      Ave/Max/Min:   55.592 /  220.798 /   36.061

Third parties are faster, for obvious reasons (they have much better network connections, and using them minimizes roundtrips over my crappy network).

You can run these tests for yourself trivially. Just install nsping. I'm fond of it, despite how horribly coded it is.

<comment><USER3> OpenDNS does return NXDOMAIN for random names - just not by default. Here's one simple test on my Nexenta box:

        ~$ nslookup - 220.127.116.11
        > aorckhaosreckh.com
        Server:         126.96.36.199
        Address:        184.108.40.206#53

        ** server can't find aorckhaosreckh.com: NXDOMAIN

OpenDNS is configurable - by default it does a search, which I believe is part of how it funds itself.

<comment><USER2> This is very broken default behavior. It has real security problems (it violates an assumption of the same-origin policy that scopes your browser cookies), it disrupts email, it breaks any application that needs NXDOMAIN (whether you know it does or not), and it's part of an arms race to fuck up^H^H^H^H^H^H "monetize" the infrastructure.

Google doesn't redirect NXDOMAINs. That's worth _several_ milliseconds of response time for me.

<comment><USER4> Also what about fiddling with the google search . . .

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is not the thing to test. DNS resolution time is important, but even if the google resolver returned results faster than your local ISP resolver it would still make your browsing in the general case slower. The problem is that the IPs for the resolvers have presence in very few locations around the world. I believe this number is just three at this time (Virginia, London, Taiwan). The big problem with this is the effect it has on CDNs and GSLBs. The DNS response you get for large sites, like www.bing.com for example, depends on the location of the machine asking the question. If you use your local ISP as your resolver then you'll get an answer that's close to you. If you use the google resolver you'll get an answer that's close to the google resolver and that will generate additional latency for all the rest of the browsing session. This obviously will affect all big sites that are NOT google. They're obviously aware of the problem since they have special cases for their own sites. If you have access to machines in different countries you can see the responses you get from 220.127.116.11 have good locality properties for google sites. So I'm guessing they're just forwarding the queries to their location-aware DNS servers. Obviously they won't do that for akamai, and others.

End result: you're farther away from the resolver, farther away from your web pages, farther away from your CDN. I don't see how you can make a case that this is an improvement in general.

</comment><comment><USER6> You can also just use namebench (<http://code.google.com/p/namebench/>): It hunts down the fastest DNS servers available for your computer by running a thorough benchmark using your web browser history, tcpdump output, or standardized datasets in order to provide an individualized recommendation.

Namebench is completely free and does not modify your system in any way. This project began as a 20% project at Google and runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and UNIX, and is available with a graphical user interface as well as a command- line interface.

</comment><comment><USER4> But I am wondering if this is really the thing to test: _Unfortunately, this is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for us to independently test._ It is a bit like looking for your lost car keys under the lamppost even though you lost them down the alley. We measured what we could measure, but that isn't what Google says is better.

Also, this does not test proper standard behavior, which is the response to a non-existing domain. And the fact that OpenDNS seems to do something goofy when you search google for things.

</comment><comment><USER7> For several years now, one of many common things I do for my client networks as well as friends/family has been to put them onto OpenDNS. They have been speedy, stable and FREE from the beginning during a time when you had to pay for most 3rd party DNS services. They also offer amazing controls like easy content blocking for free compared to hardware devices that charge good money to do the same for business networks.

</comment><comment><USER8> Google's Public DNS is painfully slow for me. I have no idea what it is, but when I tried switching DNS servers last night I couldn't load anything within a reasonable time. For fun, I started a request in Safari with Google's servers, and let it sit for a few seconds. Then I switched to OpenDNS servers mid-request and it loaded instantly. I'm sticking with OpenDNS for the time being.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not too bad for us in Portland, OR but that's why we wanted to make the tool available for everyone. Hoping to get some good results that we can share next week. My guess: it's great for some folks and terrible for others (as it is in your case).

<comment><USER8> Yeah. What's strange is that I'm getting really good ping times of ~40 ms as an average. So strange. Oh well, I'm happy with OpenDNS (which is bearable once the OpenDNS guide is disabled).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Here are the results from more than 25 countries [http://www.manu-j.com/blog/opendns-alternative-google-dns- ro...](http://www.manu-j.com/blog/opendns-alternative-google-dns-rocks/403/)

Not 1000's of domains names though. But if you see the results, they are pretty consistent most of time even for a small number of results

</comment><comment><USER10> This is similar to what I found. It is still faster to use my local DJB dnscache than any of the ISP DNS servers. And Google DNS was slower than the rest.

I did notice that level3 and OpenDNS seem to cache better -- they get considerably faster on the 2nd request.

</comment><comment><USER11> I always picked my DNS from <http://www.dnsserverlist.org/indexbeta.php?oby=Q_RTT>

And my observation is Google DNS ie 18.104.22.168 & 18.104.22.168 are better suited for non-USA users.

</comment><comment><USER12> How is this supposed to produce any sensible result, since their testing servers are in vastly different locations than anyone's desktop? Their testing server can't even REACH the caching resolver running on my home gateway, and even if it could, it would be many more network hops away from it than my PC is.

I realise running bind or djbdns' dnscche is not for everyone. However, even your ISP's DNS server will be much closer to you network wise and thus experience less latency. No one should ever use OpenDNS or Google DNS.

(reposted because comments from my old account are invisible)</comment>


Ask HN: Games with good API? - <AUTHOR>

I am looking for some games(possibly MMOs or multiplayer of other genres) that offer nice API to build around. Something like League of Legends is great for example. Are there any other games that offer good API to explore the game data or even play? Browser games are good too.<p>Thanks <comment><USER2> Eve Online has a comprehensive API that befits its reputation as 'spreadsheets in space'. The character & corporations API allows querying user data from an authoritative source without exposing passwords and account names. It integrates into third-party management apps. There is also a recently-released CREST API that allows real-time access to in-game market data (think fintech for an MMO).

[https://developers.eveonline.com/](https://developers.eveonline.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Very interesting, thanks!</comment></comment>


Davy Crockett (nuclear device) - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device) <comment><AUTHOR> I was reading about the Massive Ordnance Air Blast ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_Massive_Ordnance_Air_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBU-43/B_Massive_Ordnance_Air_Blast)) that was used in Afghanistan yesterday, and remembered that lots of tactical nukes were developed during the cold war. The Davy Crockett was a nuclear gun that could fire a warhead with about the same yield as a MOAB. They manufactured about 2100 of these guns in the late 50s. It was a crazy time.</comment>


How a Tick Digs Its Hooks In - happy-go-lucky https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/03/20/594922001/watch-how-a-tick-digs-its-hooks-into-you <comment><AUTHOR> The article doesn't mention permethrine, a chemical derived from an oil found in chrysanthemums that is deadly to ticks and other creepy crawlies.

Spray your clothes with permethrine--pants, shirts, socks, hats--and let them dry. It kills the ticks as soon as they land on you.

Repellent is also a good idea, and tuck your pants into your socks. Don't screw around; Lyme disease isn't something you want to get. It's rampant in the Northeast, and is spreading.

Ticks in their nymph stage latch onto mice, so if you are at risk of ticks in your yard, fill some cardboard tubes with permethrine-laced cotton or dryer lint and toss them under bushes, woodpiles, etc. -- anywhere that mice might hang out. Mice will take the lint back to their holes and line their nests with it, and the permethrine will wipe out the baby ticks. Permethrine is said to be harmless to humans and other mammals, but still, be careful with it.

<comment><USER2> >Permethrine is said to be harmless to humans and other mammals, but still, be careful with it.

Except for cats. If you have cats, be careful using this substance.

<comment><USER3> Some dogs as well. Permethrin based flea prevention caused my healthy dog to become lethargic, labored breathing and over salivation. I washed it off, and he recovered in a few hours, but I've avoided giving him flea control since then. Luckily he has avoided ticks and fleas but I would bring him to the vet if he did pick any up.

[https://m.petmd.com/dog/conditions/neurological/c_multi_pyre...](https://m.petmd.com/dog/conditions/neurological/c_multi_pyrethrin_pyrethroid_toxicity)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > In California, adult ticks carry Lyme bacteria less often than nymphs > because of a biological quirk in the region. Ticks that carry Lyme bacteria > and feed on the western fence lizard lose their infection in the process. > The lizard's blood actually clears the infection, said Andrea Swei, who > studies ticks and disease transmission at San Francisco State University.

That's a new one for me. Any idea why the lizard blood cleans out the ticks?

<comment><USER5> Their immune systems are pretty great at killing viruses and bacteria. Alligator serum is tough against: HIV, West Nile, and Herpes.

A long, but good read, on lizard immune systems can be found here[0].

[0][http://jeb.biologists.org/content/213/5/661](http://jeb.biologists.org/content/213/5/661)

<comment><USER6> Yet weirdly the Komodo Dragon lizard has so much bacteria in its mouth that is how it kills its prey. It just bites, and then waits around for the prey to die of infection.

<comment><USER7> I was under the impression this wasn't really believed anymore. The only discussion I can find for it is here though:

[http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/27/the- myth-...](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/27/the-myth-of-the- komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth/)

<comment><USER6> Wow interesting that's the first I had heard that the bacteria theory was discredited.

<comment><USER8> You see? You thought this was a cool FACT but turns out it's just a theory. Be careful about theories people have in biology or zoology.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've usually removed ticks from pets with a tick hook[1]: slide it under the tick then spin it and they come straight off. Makes sense when looking at the mouthparts here, but slightly odd that the article doesn't mention it. Gripping the tick and pulling up risks squeezing infected blood back into the body.

[1] [https://www.otom.com/en/](https://www.otom.com/en/)

<comment><USER10> >Gripping the tick and pulling up risks squeezing infected blood back into the body

Not if you grip at the bottom.

>slide it under the tick then spin it

Spinning is exactly what can cause the fangs to detach and stay under the skin.

[https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/removing_a_tick.html)

<comment><USER8> It does say "don't twist or jerk the tick"

What does "groip at the bottom" mean?

I think this device can be used to remove the tick without rotating.

Which of you is right?

<comment><USER10> >What does "groip at the bottom" mean?

Exactly what the example images show. Move the tweezers as close to the skin as possible, then grab and pull the tick out with steady force.

>Which of you is right?

Most fragile objects break much easier when you twist them, because the twisting causes micro fractures by itself. I don't see why it would be different for the head of a tick.

German and Austrian authorities and independent sources give the same advice [1][2] as the CDC.

So it's pretty much common sense and the advice of several researchers against the advice of someone who wants to sell a product.

[1] [https://www.zecken.de/de/zecken- entfernen](https://www.zecken.de/de/zecken-entfernen)

[2] [https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/krankheiten/immunsystem/zecken-...](https://www.gesundheit.gv.at/krankheiten/immunsystem/zecken- krankheiten/zecken-entfernen)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I was doing some trail assessment work a few summers ago and while walking under tree cover heard a tiny something land on my hat, right above the back of my neck. I took my hat off and there was a tick. So apparently a full-brim hat is also a good idea.

<comment><USER12> My dad, an avid hunter/outdoorsman, has told me for years ticks drop from trees.

He's also told stories of ticks on deer the size of golfballs. This is why I stay indoors! [shudder]

<comment><USER13> More often than not ticks are hanging out on long grass waiting for you to brush up against it.

I believe it's a common (and unproven) myth[1] that 'falling from trees' is the primary way that ticks seek out targets...

1\. [http://medent.usyd.edu.au/fact/ticks.htm](http://medent.usyd.edu.au/fact/ticks.htm)</comment></comment></comment>


JqMobi Is Now Intel's App Framework - <AUTHOR> http://app-framework-software.intel.com/index.php

<comment><AUTHOR> If you thought it was tough to find comments and documentation when it was called jqMobi/jqUI and google would always get confused between jqMobile and jqueryUI, how do you think just calling something an App Framework is going to go?</comment>


Ask HN: As Indie Mobile Dev, is it better to do Apps or Games for profit? - <AUTHOR> As a (former) backend contractor, I decided to switch to mobile app development with aim to create some passive income.
As a solo developer who doesn't wish to expand and employ people (except odd help with graphics, etc) I want to focus on products, which can be delivered by one person and to create some income for myself.
From monetary point of view, I wonder whether it's better to focus on utility apps or games.
At the moment I'm playing with Unity and published few simple games. So far it didn't bring enough income, but then I accept my games aren't great and need to improve before any of my games will get some attention.
Nonetheless, I was thinking about switching to Xamarin and try to develop some utilities apps to see whether there's a better market response.
I can be equally passionate about games or tools development, so I'm not a type of person "I can do only games and it's all my life", so profit here is deciding factor where to go.
Please share your experiences. <comment><USER2> Validate demand. Look for local opportunities that you could reasonably have access to, first. Are the people, networks, or digital platforms that you want to use to gain employment at a rate you want offering work in one or the other? Game and mobile development have different funding cycles (eg: how much money someone "invests" before seeing a return). High rates for individuals are in the VR, AI, Data space - but they have dramatically different backgrounds. Reasonable rates for long term contracting are in the node.js, golang, ruby space (since many devs left ruby for node). Try to match your focus to the area you can land work. Me? I specialize in R&D for new products.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for feedback. Not sure if I clarified my question. I already was a contractor (in reasonable rates bracket). I no longer want to work for other business nor gaining employment.

I'm changing focus on working on my own and developing my own apps to sell via Apple AppStore and Google PlayStore.

Hence my question. Is more profitable developing utility apps or games as a solo indie developer.</comment></comment>


PM Trudeau announces Canada is banning assault-style weapons - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/01/canada-assault-weapons-ban-trudeau-nova-scotia-shooting <comment><USER2> Never let a good crisis go to waste: "The new ban would probably not have stopped Wortman from obtaining his weapons: he did not have a license to possess or purchase firearms, and police have said they believe the guns were obtained illegally in Canada and the United States."

</comment><comment><USER3> Trudeau is taking power from the people.</comment>


Madrid set to become first European city to scrap low-emissions zone - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/31/madrid-set-to-end-clean-air-project-in-rightwing-power-switch <comment><USER2> This article is setting off red flags for me. The whole conflating traffic, traffic jams and pollution seems slimy and the really short quote excerpts seem to indicate the author is trying to take the politician's statements out of context. Urban pollution has several facets (heavy trucks vs cars, particulate vs Nox, local climate, etc, etc,) and none of them are mentioned. Conflating residents in the affected zone voting for "the other guy" with specifically supporting the existing policy is seems dishonest.

Is there someone who actually knows this issue and can tell me what the article is omitting? I don't know what I don't know but the way this article is written makes me think there's a lot of nuance being glossed over.

<comment><USER3> I think my non-native English prevents me from fully understanding your question, but I'd say in general terms what is described in the article is what happened:

\- Party A takes the council 4 years ago

\- Party A implements the low emissions zone

\- Party B goes into elections campaign championing a reverse of the LEZ. The quote about they saying pollution and jams are part of the city's identity is true.

\- Party B does not win the election but, because of how the system works, they could take the council by joining forces with other parties (who were also against the LEZ)

\- If last point indeed happens, then they will revert the LZE

Actually, it is very possible that the LZE cannot be reverted because of EU's restrictions and fines for pollution quotas. Some media that are sided to Party B and were very critical of Party A and the LZE are now changing headlines to blame EU for the LZE, in what looks like a damage control operation now that they realise the possibility of their promise being not able to be fulfilled.

Source: I live somewhere some consider is Spain and some not.

<comment><USER4> People hated the LEZ. Things were going well, more or less, for Party A until they implemented it. They made the huge mistake of implementing the LEZ right before the election and they got rightly sacked. The council should work for its citizens. This is just democracy at work.

<comment><USER5> Why did people hate the LEZ in your opinion?

EDIT: Article says "City centre residents are happy with the LEZ "

<comment><USER6> It's probably residents far from the city center that hate the LEZ. Most residents in the center would likely prefer the whole center to be closed to cars, as public transportation is quite good there.

Notice that the politician in question is not a candidate for mayor of the city, it's the candidate governor of the whole region around the city.

<comment><USER7> > Most residents in the center would likely prefer the whole center to be > closed to cars, as public transportation is quite good there.

Are you speaking specifically about residents from Madrid center or just generic city center residents?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Article from last November with a map of the affected area (in Spanish). The areas in yellow were already covered by vehicle restrictions.

[https://elpais.com/ccaa/2018/11/26/madrid/1543235492_515611....](https://elpais.com/ccaa/2018/11/26/madrid/1543235492_515611.html)

The plan was to create a 4kmˆ2 ring bordering the important landmarks of the royal palace, museo del prado, buen retiro, Atocha station etc. The interior has quite a number of Metro stations and is thus quite navigable by foot.

Car-driving populism to revert a policy barely 6 months old seems to have prevailed. As can be seen from the guardian article's photo, Gran Via is a pretty major thoroughfare leading to the heart of the city, Puerta del Sol.

</comment><comment><USER9> That kind of prohibition is nice if:

\- You are rich and can buy a new electric/hybrid car.

\- You live in the center of Madrid and are allowed to use your car.

However, if you are "poor" and work in the center of the city:

\- If your car is not a low-emission vehicle, you are limited to go to work (only can by public transport).

\- If you are a deliverer of packages, you'd have to buy a new car that fulfill the emission restrictions without any kind of tax-exemption from the government.

This low-emissions zone creation has been a show without any kind of planning and without consulting the citizens. i.e. there has not been any type of car renovation plan or tax exemptions that could have helped citizens with this restriction.

I understand the ecology and health-care point of view, but tell that to somebody whose work depends on reaching to the center of the city to deliver some packages (for example).

</comment><comment><USER10> Just as a side note to the article, the Madrid city and state government are going through heavy negotiations right now, along the Barcelona city and Spanish government coalitions, so it's too early to say the LEZ "is set" to be wiped out.

</comment><comment><USER11> Tourism money > ecological concerns?

Unless the article is deliberately manipulated to send the wrong message, my above is how I'd summarise it.

<comment><USER12> I don't know about other tourists, but as a tourist myself, I like to visit cities that are clean and where I can easily get around using public transit. If I have to drive everywhere and there's lots of pollution, I pick someplace better to spend my time and money. In fact, the last thing I want to do in a foreign country is deal with driving a car: the traffic rules are all different (esp. in LHD countries), the customs different, and there's the question of liability. I don't even like touring American cities because of this (combined with the public transit being so awful), even though I live in this country; I'd rather go to Asia or western Europe where the public transit is excellent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> 'Fortunately' the only reason that lead to this change was that it was a rival political party who created the zone in the first place.

Similarly to how Trump would intend to demolish Obamacare.

So there are no big lessons for the rest of the world to learn.</comment>