Famine: amateur research on starvation, ketosis and cancer - <AUTHOR> http://www.tomcooks.com/starvation-famine-research <comment><USER2> <The liver and aminoacids start to build glucose from storage fat, a process called gluconeogenesis.>

I stopped right there.</comment>


Ask HN: Why would you prefer icon libraries over UTF-8 special characters? - <AUTHOR> I've used in many projects libraries like Font-Awesome, Ionicons, ...
But recently, I've found everything I need in UTF-8.
And the result is a huge reduction of the size of my asset bundle for my web applications.
Then, I must ask the question, why are those libraries so wide spread ? <comment><USER2> How would you know for sure that a given font supports the given utf-8 character?

I know you could technically "look it up" but to get "reasonable" coverage I believe you would really need to stick with system/standard fonts.

As an example:

System fonts on major platforms typically support thousands of glyphs (but each is free to specify how) and while the intersections are bound to be almost complete, there are also differences.

This pales in comparison to most custom fonts such as those offered by Google and Adobe. Google's Roboto offers only about 300 glyphs and those are almost exclusively traditional "characters" not emoji or symbols.

With an "icon library" you know what you are getting and typically in a format that is standard across platforms.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can see how it would be easier to just use an icon library, and I will definitely consider that on each project.

Yet, if I use only one or two icons from a library that weights near 10MB (Font Awesome Free is 8MB), when those icons are available as UTF-8 glyphs, is it still unreasonable ?

<comment><USER2> I certainly don't think it is unreasonable at all. If you have a font that is widely available or if you like the icons implemented by the typical system fonts I see no reason not to use them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not an answer, but may be add "Ask HN" to the title?

<comment><AUTHOR> done :)</comment></comment>


Xen hypervisor memory corruption due to x86 emulator flaw - <AUTHOR> http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-123.html <comment><USER2> This bug's existence and its patch have already made some worried. From the Qubes OS developers: [1]

        Additional thoughts by Qubes Security Team
        </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>=

        We see several problems that concern us about this vulnerability and
        patching process:

        1) It seems really difficult to understand why would anybody design a
        structure like the one shown above, which uses a union to store two,
        RADICALLY DIFFERENTLY TRUSTED data: an internal pointer into
        hypervisor memory and VM-provided UNTRUSTED DATA? Such design decision
        made by one of the core hypervisor developer is certainly worrying.
        We're not sure if it would be more worrying if this was done purposely
        vs by carelessness...

        2) We are not entirely convinced if the way Xen Security Team decided
        to address this vulnerability is really optimal, security wise. It
        seems like a more defensive approach would be to get rid of this
        dangerous construct of reusing the same memory for both an internal
        pointer and VM-provided data. Apparently Xen developers believe that
        they can fully understand the code, with all its execution paths, for
        decoding x86 operands. This optimistic attitude seems surprising,
        given the very bug we're discussing today.

        3) This lack of defensive programing and perhaps over confidence (in
        ability to fully understand all the code paths) has been demonstrated
        by the Xen Security Team also previously. In the recently released XSA
        109 [2], the official patch also seemed to address the problem much
        earlier in the execution path rather than at the actual offending
        instructions, i.e. those that performed the NULL-dereference. While
        asked specifically about adding at least an additional check on these
        instructions, the Xen developers were unwilling to implement it
        implying potential performance impact.

        4) This is all certainly a bit disconcerting and we hope we could
        start a bit more public debate on these issues, especially among
        independent security researchers. We still believe Xen is currently
        the most secure hypervisor available, mostly because of its unique
        architecture features, that are lacking in any other product we are
        aware of.

[1]: [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/QubesOS/qubes- secpack/mast...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/QubesOS/qubes- secpack/master/QSBs/qsb-018-2015.txt)

<comment><USER3> > We still believe Xen is currently the most secure hypervisor available, > mostly because of its unique architecture features, that are lacking in any > other product we are aware of.

Does anyone know why KVM would be considered less secure than Xen?

<comment><USER4> (from memory, there are some design docs for Qubes OS floating around that discuss this) Xen is relatively small and contained, KVM sits on top of a full Linux kernel and potentially can access all of it, making it harder to tell what is accessible/exploitable and what is not. KVM also uses Qemu running as a process on the host linux for interfacing the VM, again exposing more potential attack surface. And I think Xen is better at isolating drivers, which for Qubes OS is a fundamental principle.

<comment><USER5> >And I think Xen is better at isolating drivers

Xen allows for creating an entire stub domU solely for running the driver, then giving a running guest access via ring buffer in a shared memory segment.

(So, yep, you're correct in your thinking)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I wrote a blogpost with some more details about the bug, which you can find here: [http://www.insinuator.net/2015/03/xen- xsa-123/](http://www.insinuator.net/2015/03/xen-xsa-123/)

<comment><USER6> Interesting blog posts (it and the preceding one). It seems that reliably emulating the x86 architecture is made even harder by a few features not found in other popular architectures, like an extra level of indirection on memory access (segment registers and the corresponding segment overrides) and most instructions having a memory-accessing variant (instead of limiting memory access to separate "load" and "store" instructions, plus a few specialized atomic RMW instructions).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Stupid question: Why does Xen need to emulate x86?

<comment><USER8> tl;dr, Windows. But also various limitations of how PV or HVM hosts work.

PVH fixes it so you don't need emulation in Linux, but it's a brand new feature and probably not production quality. Read this (it's not too technical) [http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Virtualization_Spectrum](http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Virtualization_Spectrum)

As of this writing, Xen 4.4 and Linux 3.14 have experimental support for PVH DomUs and Xen 4.5 has support for PVH Dom0s. PVH allows practically native- hardware-speed guests without any emulation.

<comment><USER5> Completely eliminating emulation isn't always desirable, unfortunately. The problem with PVH is the forcing the use of event channels to deliver interrupts.

Local APIC emulation is fully accelerated on modern processors, which is a big win for any use case that is heavy on interrupts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Well, guess my Linode's getting rebooted again.

<comment><USER8> If they have one spare xen host they can live migrate all guests from one host to the spare, patch the original host, reboot, then live migrate the spare's guests back to the original, and repeat. Patching them all and rebooting them all at once might be quicker though.

<comment><USER10> Do you need to migrate them back? Would be faster to just use the newly patched original host as the new spare, and repeat like that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Non-maskable interrupts triggerable by guests " [http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-120.html](http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-120.html)

"Non-standard PCI device functionality may render pass-through insecure " [http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-124.html](http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-124.html)

the others also released today

</comment><comment><USER12> It's worth noting that most of these bugs are right in the innards of the x86 emulation. Xen/ARM is a breath of fresh air, since they took the decision to only support the new ARMv7 virtualization extensions. This eliminate the need for qemu running in dom0 per VM and the instruction emulation plumbing.

We've got a distribution of Xen 4.4/ARMv7/ubuntu for anyone curious to try it out on a cheapo Cubieboard2 or Cubietruck over at [https://github.com/mirage/xen-arm-builder](https://github.com/mirage/xen-arm- builder) (with prebuilt SDcard images at [http://blobs.openmirage.org](http://blobs.openmirage.org))

</comment><comment><USER13> Why is that Xen seems to have so many security issues compare to KVM?

<comment><USER14> More production use means more attention. Plenty of security issues everywhere.

<comment><USER15> In particular when you're developing in languages which are insecure by design.

<comment><USER16> Insecure code can be written in any language.

<comment><USER15> Just like any car can crash. However some cars are more dangerous than other cars, just as some programming languages are more likely to produce insecure code than other programming languages.

Nobody is proposing re-writing a hypervisor in Java or Python, but C/C++ isn't the only game in town anymore for unmanaged code, and the alternatives are designed from the ground up with security in mind.

<comment><USER16> > Just like any car can crash. However some cars are more dangerous than other > cars, just as some programming languages are more likely to produce insecure > code than other programming languages.

> and the alternatives are designed from the ground up with security in mind

The RMS Titanic was billed as one of the safest ships on the sea -- yet due to poorly implemented protocols and practices, negligent leadership, and disregard for best practices, it resulted in one of the most catastrophic maritime disasters.

Using the most "secure" programming language in the world, one can still design very insecure code. Conversely, using the most "insecure" programming language in the world, one can still design very secure code. This would boil down to the skill of the engineers, competence of leadership and adherence to best practices.

<comment><USER15> The RMS Titanic sunk, but the engineers made it much harder to sink than ocean liners which preceded it.

C/C++ starts you in a position where it is extremely easy to write insecure code. Even a competent coder can produce insecure code in either language without a great deal of effort or stupidity on their part.

Other languages aren't "unsinkable" to come back to the Titanic, but they make it harder to sink, and the requirements on the developer aren't as high. Just like with the Titanic you have to hit the iceberg in a certain specific way to sink, rather than sinking from any old collision.

Certain C/C++ compilers have definitely made the situation better when in "strict mode" as well as a lot of tooling to identify potential problem points. However ultimately the language is plagued by "undefined behaviour" and a large code-base where developers are using various insecure tricks to save pennies (e.g. this exact exploit, where they are creating insecure code to save a single structure's worth of memory, which on an 8 GB stick of RAM is less than 1/2 of 1c worth (assuming $60/8 GB stick)).

<comment><USER17> > C/C++ starts you in a position where it is extremely easy to write insecure > code.

It's worth mentioning K&R, which used to be where people learn C, has a huge number of instances of very risky practices.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


America's next president had better believe in restoring liberty - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/29/2016-presidential-race-surveillance-liberty

<comment><USER2> He won't. Or she, as the case may be. Nobody who is really serious about restoring Liberty has a snowball's chance in hell of getting elected.

The closest thing we have right now, to _any_ kind of shot of getting somebody in the White House who will do more than pay lip service to fundamental issues of Liberty and Freedom, is Rand Paul. If he runs, he might have a shot, IF the mainstream GOP leadership don't decide to go out of their way to marginalize him. If he somehow got the GOP nomination, I'd probably even pinch my nose shut and vote for him (voting for any Republican or Democrat typically gives me the creeps).

It's bigger than the White House though... the President has some power, but if we want real change in this country, we have to elect congressmen / congresswomen who believe in Liberty.

All of that said, as long as we elect using this first past the post / single member district system, I'm pretty doubtful that we're going to get much change. Switch to approval voting and/or implement some sort of proportional representation and maybe...

<comment><USER3> My issue with politics in general is the lack of sacrifice for the amount of power one gains. Lets take the President as an example, what does a presidential candidate sacrifice upon choosing (of own free will) to run? Aside from 4-8 years of no personal life there really is nothing important.

Becoming a politician and essentially gaining power over people is a free choice, why do we not expect them to make sacrifices? Here in Norway there is currently an ongoing discussion regarding politicians taking jobs at lobbying- firms and PR-firms. Some advocating higher "quarantines", some advocating a life-long ban. Personally, I'll not be voting on for instance a political party (we have 3 major parties and 4 lesser) whose Minister of Trade&Industry is a major player in offshore salmon-farms. (S)he might be a good minister, but with regards to corruption you are as secure as you would be in the olden days of passing power from Regent to Prince.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Americans. Always holding out hope that the next superman will rescue them from themselves.

I blame Hollywood.

</comment><comment><USER5> Amazing to see the Graun supporting Sarah Palin ;-)

</comment><comment><USER6> Naive author. The president's beliefs have no meaning. The only thing that is important is what the puppetmasters want.

This "Dan" fellow, author of the article, should be old enough to know this. On the other hand, if Dan wrote the truth he'd be fired.

<comment><USER5> It is more accurate to say that American interests are American interests, no matter who is in the chair. However the person in the char can only think in 4 year spans, and America's problems are more like 40-year spans. For example it will take at least a generation to restore the trust that the world had in America in the 80s.</comment></comment>


Write JSON Schema in Markdown (MSON proposal) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/apiaryio/mson#example-1

<comment><USER2> What problem do you have that MSON solves?

<comment><AUTHOR> As discussed in the MSON README - there is this Markdown format for documenting APIs; discussing / describing API payloads and resources in JSON Schema felt complex and not suiting well the settings of a Markdown document.

Besides some payloads are not just a JSON. So there is a need to describe these data in a media-type agnostic form.

<comment><USER2> Ok sorry if my question came off as snarky, the first example in your readme shows how mson can be converted to json which doesn't seem to be very useful.

I think you should better highlight the connection to json schema.

Also json schema is new to me. Any examples of it being used in the wild?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I write JSON schema in YAML, then js-yaml it to JSON. The source YAML looks remarkably similar to MSON

</comment><comment><USER4> Slightly off-topic - any recommendations on the best javascript/node JSON Schema library?

</comment><comment><USER5> We mostly need a replacement for JSON schema, which is not quite powerful enough.

<comment><USER6> What do you think about Teleport [0]? It is more like an actual type system (with dependent types!), with type signatures that get encoded in JSON. In Python (the only functioning implementation thus far), a real definition looks something like this [1].

Rather than providing a big fixed set of types, Teleport provides just the basics and allows you to define your own types, be it JSON-encoded primitives or fancy deeply nested structures.

Since my partner left to work on something else, work on Cosmic slowed down, but I'm successfully using Teleport at my day job and planning a new release soon, along with a complete JavaScript port.

[0] [http://www.cosmic- api.com/docs/teleport/python/latest/](http://www.cosmic- api.com/docs/teleport/python/latest/)

[1] [https://github.com/cosmic- api/cosmic.py/blob/master/cosmic/t...](https://github.com/cosmic- api/cosmic.py/blob/master/cosmic/types.py#L121)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Much benefit over coffeescript?

</comment><comment><USER8> umm, yaml?</comment>


Ask YC: Where have all the cowbo... web designers gone? - <AUTHOR>

In my spare time, I fancy myself an entrepreneur and maybe even a decent web designer. More specifically, I am a computer scientist who loves to hack away for however long it takes to bring a particular idea to life. (i.e., I am NOT an MBA looking for a handout and I do fully appreciate the difficulty of both frontend and backend development)
That being said, it is quite plain that accessible, standards-compliant, and beautiful(!) web design is just as essential to the success of a startup as is the code powering the thing in the first place. And frankly, my sorta-kinda-not-really-good-enough web design skillz simply won't cut it when it comes time to do the public launch.
Now, problem is, though I have something like one or two dozen friends that I could very easily ask for help on the technical end of things (with the promise of equity, partnership, a few beers, or whatever) I know exactly ZERO folks who could join up and help to build a sleek, functional, and standards-compliant frontend.
While I do realize that I could solve this problem by spending the Big Bucks and hiring someone with the aforementioned credentials, the problem remains that I'm not exactly loaded at the moment and I'm really just looking to launch something on my own with the help of some friends. After all, big design contracts can come later once a few investors have been brought on board.
Thus, we arrive at the big question: have any of you folks out there experienced a similar dearth of designers? And, if not, do you have any suggestions as to where one might find local web design talent whom share in the entrepreneurial spirit and are more interested in becoming part of a potentially growing startup than in being contracted for large sums of money? <comment><USER2> I've been noticing this as well. I have a couple of friends who do design work now and I am CONSTANTLY sending work their way.

I know some designers get frustrated because the constantly see the "We just need a designer" posts out there now. It's kind of like when we see someone say "Oh yeah, we've got everything we need; now we just gotta get a coder to slap it together."

<comment><AUTHOR> I couldn't agree more. However, I'm certainly not saying "We just need a designer"-- I'm saying "HOLY CRAP WE __NEED __A DESIGNER".

I absolutely respect web design and realize that it's a big deal which is why I'd love to involve someone with that particular talent in my startup and do so in a significant way.

<comment><USER2> Oh, I'm sorry; I wasn't insinuating that you were guilty of this at all. I was just making the point that I know that quite a few designers don't really freelance any more because they're tired of being devalued that way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why not learn? Pick up a few books on CSS and you'll learn quickly. I highly recommend any of SitePoint's books --

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Matt,

I've already read a few books on CSS and I definitely know my way around JavaScript, XHTML, etc. The point is that I'm no artist and I'd rather focus on what I do best: hacking. I want a person to assume the position of "artistic director" whose specific forte is web design and who will focus exclusively on UI, accessibility, and user experience.

Additionally, I wrote the above because I've been quite surprised to have not really met many folks through school or day-to-day life who are no-nonsense web designers.</comment></comment>


The Best Windows Laptop $1,000(ish) Can Buy - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsj.com/amp/articles/the-best-windows-laptop-1-000-ish-can-buy-1522162531 <comment> EB-Barrington The first example has 4GB ram and 128GB SSD.

Is that worthy of a "best" title in the $1000(ish) category?</comment>


Ask HN: Best way to launch your product? - <AUTHOR>

We are about to finish coding our first public beta of hotelninjas.com which means we can finally accept high volume of customers. And I was wondering what is the best way in your opinion to let the world know we're out there?
We're a bootstrapped startup with very little resources so everything we're looking at is low-budget, guerrilla stuff.
What launch tactics worked best for you?
What is a complete waste of time that needs to be avoided? <comment><USER2> In the past week, I've experienced a fairly epic failure in the launch of a project of my own. Perhaps you can learn from it?

I wanted to run a fundraiser for Syrian refugees, and I spent a lot of time with a mock-up product that fit my sense of humor (and that of several friends). I got the first 10 donors lined up, so I thought, now I should launch.

I used GoFundMe for the project (<http://www.gofundme.com/2d64j4>), but I did very little initial publicity. I worked my email lists of potential victims and shared it via Facebook. Well, many of the original donors decided not to contribute and I only heard from two random donors that found my project via the FB shares. Out of 115 visits, I have three donors, whereas I originally only contacted 20 people, out of whom I received 10 orders.

So, I would say that this is not the best way to launch. It's possible that I planned the entire project poorly, and I'm currently trying to think of other ways to tell the world about it.

With tourist season starting here in Turkey (where I live), I would suggest contacting hostels and pensions that are advertising online. Pitch them directly and give them a trial.

In my experience, there isn't a lot of planning ahead and I have been shuffled around as part of a hotel managers efforts to juggle their availability. Larger hotels surely have a solution for this, but small and mid-sized venues clearly don't. I encounter lot's of ledgers kept on paper, and little to no automation. Meanwhile, the owner has a laptop open on the desk displaying FB or an online game. So, I think you have a market here in Turkey, if you can convince them to pay the price. That would probably mean getting into the local language though.

Good luck, -s

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing your learnings.

If you are available maybe we can do something together in Turkey. We will be very happy to get customers there and our product works perfectly for the type of customers you're describing (small and mid-size, shitty tech solution to manage their property, tech-savyy employees)

<comment><USER2> Sure thing. My email address is in my profile. Or if you prefer, I can send you an email (if you provide and address).

<comment><AUTHOR> avi at hotelninjas com

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Find a cheap resource who can do the sourcing work for you. I know startups who hire interns (for free!) and have got the database ready.

In your case, can you get a team of interns to get a list of hotels and the email ids of the right person (GM or atleast the front office manager) ready. Getting hold of 10K email ids is probably a weeks job if you get 2-3 interns.

Then there are these email marketing companies who give you free emails ( You are a startup, look around, you will find deals)..

In a week if you reach out to 10K hotels, even with a 0.1% conversion, you make some money. After you do it 3-4 times, you would start making enough money to start arranging your sales force.

PS : Interns in Eastern countries need to do live projects as a part of their MBAs. This helps them have a better chance of getting a job. I am personally employing couple of interns for totally different reasons. :)

</comment><comment><USER4> Shoot me an email. I have a package that I offer to startups like yours. It helps them start quickly, and reduces the amount of stress of a launch. Plus it only costs $249. Includes a marketing package that simply works. Email templates, phone scripts, tactics, help with the copywriting, etc. Let me know you are from HN in the message.

</comment><comment><USER5> Launch now.

What is "launch" exactly? Do a Show HN. Tell all friends/family you're live and to start spreading the word. Email your personal networks and do the same. If you have a mailing list, let your list know you're live and ready to go.

Start getting feedback as soon as possible and don't ever stop listening.

<comment><AUTHOR> For us "launch" means the date that we can start charging money for our product.

We did the part of telling our friends/family when we had the closed beta ready, but there is a big difference for us between the closed (free) beta and an open beta that can accept paying customers.

<comment><USER5> Why?

<comment><AUTHOR> For technical reasons. We're waiting for a deal with a strategic partner to close, we can't technically start charging money or distribute our app before that.

Can't go into specific at this stage but imagine we're building an iOS app and waiting for Apple to approve it (not our case but close enough)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you don't have any potential customers in any mailing list, I'm afraid you have a lot of catching up to do.

</comment><comment><USER7> I was also looking for sources for showcasing my website: bizcoterie.com. One of my search results...

[http://www.quora.com/Startups/How-do-you-promote-your- startu...](http://www.quora.com/Startups/How-do-you-promote-your-startup- without-being-annoying)

<comment><USER8> Thanks, this is pretty nice reference. Btw, I will soon face the same problem with launching my service <http://besthi.re>

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that you're addressing a real issue for job applicants, but not sure about the domain name.

<comment><USER8> Thanks for the comment. Well, it's an experiment for now. I asked few HRs, and their reaction was positive ( of course this doesn't have to mean anything ). Beside emails, I think to offer blogs as well, something like john.besthi.re so we will see how it will go.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Do it now. And do it several times. Airbnb "launched" 3 (4?) times.

If your launch fails to gain you any traction, good, that means you can launch again and no one will know the difference.

</comment><comment><USER10> Reddit?</comment>


Norwegian traders convicted for outsmarting US stock broker algorithm - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/security/3244186/norwegian-traders-convicted-for-outsmarting-us-stock-broker-algorithm/

<comment><USER2> In yesterday's conviction of the Norweigan traders, the prosecution said the pair had given "false and misleading signals about supply, demand and prices" when they manipulated several Norwegian stocks through Timber Hill's online trading platform. Anders Brosveet, the lawyer for Veiby, admitted that his client had learnt how the Timber Hill trading algorithm would behave in response to certain trades. However, he denied this amounted to "market manipulation".

Brosveet told the Financial Times, They had an idea of how the computer would change the prices but that does not make them responsible for what the computer did.

\- Apparently it is ok for the computer to poll for supply, demand and prices.. but it's illegal for traders to do it. The last time I checked it is a free market out there, I guess I missed out on the fine prints.

</comment><comment><USER3> At this point the stock market truly appears to be by and for the big players who can process thousands of trades a second. For the rest of us it is basically akin to gambling in a fixed casino... that everyone knows is fixed.</comment>


EFF Stands With Innovative Developers in the Wake of Oracle v. Google - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/06/eff-stands-innovative-developers-wake-oracle-v-google

<comment><USER2> So, by implementing any of the interfaces, or extending any of the classes defined in the Java SE standard lib, I would be violating Oracle's copyright on Java.

;)

</comment><comment><USER3> While I'm not sure how I stand on Oracle v. Google, I don't really agree with EFF's legal analysis here.

Nothing in that case suggests that using an API is infringement. It's about re-implementing an API for a different purpose. So using Twitters API is fine, but copying Twitters API for use on a Twitter clone service, not fine.

I also don't think this case necessarily prevents re-using an API for interoperability. The case was about Google reimplementing Java API for use in the android davlik engine. That really isn't interoperability since Java wouldn't run on it. They just copied some java apis for the convenience of android programers.

Pardon my ignorance but is that really common in the programming world? To take someones API and use it for a totally different purpose?

<comment><USER4> It happens all the time, and that's a good thing.

> Twitters API for use on a Twitter clone service, not fine.

That's precisely what's bothering me the most. This is completely contingent on your definition of what is an API.

The judgement is setting a precedent in defining an API by its routes and not by what or how it processes data. To the court, it does not matter if you are doing data intensive computations or just stripping html from a string... if the route is the same you are screwed.

HTTP/1.1 GET /v1/news/latest_updates becomes intellectual property of Company Inc.

Imagine the amount of patent trolling wars that are going to be waged because of that ruling, what a freaking nightmare.

PS: The parent comment should not be downvoted.

\- I come to HN to hear people's opinions and learn from them, even if they are dissenting. It's fine to disagree, but do not silence people for thinking differently. Every constructive contribution should be part of the discussion.

<comment><USER3> Again, pardon my ignorance, my only attempt at API use resulted in a very poorly programmed python app that was supposed to tell me which train to take . . .

but isn't that just using the HTTP/1.1 GET method? Just using someone else's API with a new paramter isn't an expressive action and clearly isn't copyrightable.

But the court would say the HTTP/1.1 GET [url] api is copyrighted by whoever wrote the HTTP spec.

The court didn't rule than ANY api is copyrightable. Just that the specific Java ones at issue where.

For example, Copyright law has what is called the "merger doctrine" which essentially says that if there is only one or maybe a few ways to implement something, then it isn't copyrightable.

So while you can copyright Microsoft Excel, you probably can't copyright a simple method that adds two intergers together. There is essentially only one way to do it.

The Fed Cir. in Oracle rejected that argument because there are unlimited ways to implement the Java libraries API. Why did Google even call them java.XXXXXXX.XXXX when they could have been Android.XXX.XXX, etc.

There is another doctrine that states that industry convention can't be copyrighted. GET is industry convention and would never be copyrightable. But the data structure it send back may or may not be.

<comment><USER5> > " Why did Google even call them java.XXXXXXX.XXXX when they could have been > Android.XXX.XXX, etc."

That wouldn't be implementing the Java APIs any more, as evidenced by the fact that no code relying on the Java APIs would be able to compile against your hypothetical Android standard library. By the Java language's own definition, changing the package and class names makes it a different API.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Has Google got rid of apps from Hangouts? - <AUTHOR> I can only access them through an "Original version" link to the top-right. Their API docs still show the old version.<p>Is it a bug or is Google just silently getting rid of them? <comment><USER2> Google has a somewhat annoying tendency to release "new" interface versions for its various products that are far from feature complete, and only slowly add back the features the old version had - or sometime not add them. Presumably, they'll be added _eventually_ , but only time will tell.</comment>


Three female engineers sue Uber for sex and race discrimination - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/uber-is-the-latest-tech-company-to-be-sued-for-gender-bias/ <comment><USER2> Techmeme summary: _Joe Mullin / Ars Technica: Three female engineers sue Uber for sex and race discrimination, claim Uber pays female engineers less than male, white, and Asian-American counterparts_</comment>


Privilege Separated Key Handling added to OpenBSD daemons - <AUTHOR> http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20140430155940

<comment><USER2> It would be amazing to see common web servers such as Apache and Nginx adopt a similar mitigation against a future Heartbleed-esque attack</comment>


Apple to supply parts to independent repair shops for first time - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-repair-idUSKCN1VJ1F1 <comment><USER2> "The program will be free for shops to join, but they will be required to have an Apple-certified technician who has taken a free 40-hour training course and test provided by the company."

This seems like a reasonable requirement, given that Apple is trying to keep the quality up and not just let any random person purchase replacement parts.

It is disappointing that this project only includes iPhone parts and not other Apple hardware (Mac, iMac, MacBook [Pro]) parts as well.</comment>


How to Protect Strained, Sore Developer Eyes - <AUTHOR> https://piechowski.io/post/how-to-protect-developer-eyes/ <comment><USER2> Very useful and relevant (esp. for me). The exercises you list are easy enough to do and boy do my eyes get sore.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very happy to hear!</comment></comment>


The world doesn't need an Apple tablet, or any other - <AUTHOR> http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/The-world-doesnt-need-an-Apple-tablet-or-any-other/1262456214 <comment><USER2> TLDR;

Armchair quarterbacks always like to take up either the pro or con side of potential new trends and products. They all operate on blind speculation and random presumptions based on their own limited views (or fanboyisms).

Apple may or may not release a tablet-type device. It may or may not be a PC or an uber-iPod touch. It may succeed or fail. NOBODY KNOWS.

<comment><AUTHOR> He makes a good point though about it being an 'in-between' device. If it's less than a laptop and more than an ipod and iphone does that mean people will carry another device or are they going to make choices ?

<comment><USER3> who needs another newfangled gadget? mine still works just fine [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2007Computex_e21Forum- Mart...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2007Computex_e21Forum- MartinCooper.jpg) [http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/another- day-a...](http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/another-day-another- guy-using-a-desktop-computer-inside-a-coffee-shop)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hehe, good point, but 'new' does not equal success.

I remember the 'newton', and the tablet is suspiciously close to a modernized newton.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> C'mon, Gruber wrote the exact same thing 4 days ago. And there are other "web surfing on the toilet?" quotes from Jobs scattered all over the blogosphere.

It looks like we've broken the Mach 1 barrier in hype and are now designing the project _for_ Apple instead of just sitting back and speculating wildly.

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe he should use this knowledge about what a poor product positioning move a tablet would be to assume that the announcement is actually not about a tablet at all!</comment>


I'm bailing on San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://words.steveklabnik.com/sf <comment><USER2> The author works all the time, and thinks that by moving to New York, of all places, he will achieve a greater work-life balance. Having lived in both places and having struggles with the same issues: the work-life balance in both places is heavily skewed towards work, and in those places, that balance is heavily dependent on the person's ability to say "no" and to stand up for oneself. If the author had said "I am moving to a sleepy suburb in the midwest", then I'd say he's making a good choice that will require very few changes in his own ability to manage his life: the environment would impose. As is, he's just switching one high-pressure area for another.

Edit: apparently work/life balance isn't the issue, as the essay and comments here clarified. Very well.

<comment><USER3> Except he says specifically that working too much is not the problem:

 _I don't go home late. I go home at five. It's not work /life balance that's the issue. I'm just not psyched for the 'life' part._

<comment><USER4> To be fair to your parent, I edited that in a few minutes ago because people read the previous sentence differently than I meant it. I didn't know people would assume I was burning the candle from both ends.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hey all,

I mean, I already wrote the post, but what I will say is that I've spent a ton of time in New York, and I know exactly what I'm getting into. For example, the bustling environment will actually _invigorate_, not drain, me, because that's the kind of place I enjoy. I'll also be saving money on rent, get to enjoy the wonderful subway, and a whole host of other things.

There's also quite a lot of value in _being_ in San Francisco. If I was going to start a company, I wouldn't bother with anywhere else. But I'm not starting a company. So it's not for me. This post isn't titled "You should bail on San Francisco."

<comment><USER5> Hope you find in Brooklyn what you need/desire. It's become a place for young, single people, not families. We left NYC last year after 16+ years (the last 12 spent in BK) and crossed the water.

I resisted a move for many years because of the energy you cite, which I considered my lifeblood, but I've never felt better now that I'm surrounded by trees again. NYC (BK) really sucked the life out of me (and my wallet) and I didn't notice until I made my escape.

BK real estate has become unaffordable and the buying process is atrocious (expect to fall in love with an apt. multiple times only to be outbid by cash offers). BK rents are going through the roof. Despite what my friends who still live there assume, I don't miss it _at all_.

<comment><USER4> > It's become a place for young, single people, not families.

Sounds excellent. :) And as bad as BK rents are, SF rents are worse. Regardless, I'm glad you've found a place that works for you. I grew up on a beef cattle farm, and I know I need huge cities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For those of you disappointed by this article and want a great article about leaving SF, try this:

[http://needwant.com/p/im-moving-san-francisco-st- louis/](http://needwant.com/p/im-moving-san-francisco-st-louis/)

<comment><USER7> I hadn't previously read a description of St Louis quite like that - he makes it sound very appealing. Does anyone else have personal experience with living in St Louis?

<comment><USER8> I live in St. Louis.

We have a growing tech scene. Some of my friends refer to St. Louis's tech as the "Silicon Ghetto" as it's not quite as expansive as SF. More businesses are moving and starting up here because of Arch Grants and one of the co-founders of Square has a startup accelerator here as well.

Granted, I don't work for a company in St. Louis. I actually work remotely for a company based out of San Fran.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My girlfriend and I (both in tech) have also left San Francisco as of last month, but for slightly different (but related) reasons. The 75,000 mentioned people who have moved to the bay area for tech have caused rent to rise by such a large amount, that even though we can afford to pay, it feels like a huge waste of our money. We could be spending it doing other things or just saving for our future.

Instead we'll continue to work in tech doing consulting work, but we're going try our hand at being completely nomadic while doing it (starting with Central and South America, though we'll be picking a place and staying there for a few weeks to a month at minimum). We've sold pretty much everything we own and have whittled down our belongings to a large backpack and daypack each. It feels pretty amazing to be this lightweight and mobile, and our current budget has spending about 3x less than we were while living in SF (and still living very well).

<comment><USER10> _The 75,000 mentioned people who have moved to the bay area for tech have caused rent to rise by such a large amount, that even though we can afford to pay, it feels like a huge waste of our money_

This is also primarily a political problem, as I wrote previously here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7382097](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7382097) and as Kim-Mai Cutler cogently described here: [http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf- housing/](http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/sf-housing/) .

Seattle has somewhat similar problems ([http://www.smartgrowthseattle.org/sally-bagshaw-yesterday- to...](http://www.smartgrowthseattle.org/sally-bagshaw-yesterday-tomorrow/)), but they're not nearly as bad.

<comment><USER9> Agreed, both great pieces on the problems in SF at the moment, and I definitely didn't mean to discount those details as part of our reasoning for leaving. I love San Francisco and really all of Northern California, but we're getting out of dodge before things get really out of hand. I do hope to be able to return some day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Grass is greener" isn't a cliche for nothing. Seems like the author is making a classic mistake assuming different will be better. The main argument here seems that he enjoys taking vacations in NYC, not that there's anything there that will improve his daily life.

<comment><USER12> That is a lazy retort to make against someone who has listed specific grievances with a specific place.

If you are thinking of moving someplace different but cannot think of anything specific wrong with the current place, yes that is a classic grass is greener mistake.

But having lived in several places, each one has drastically different positive and negative attributes, as with any relationship. You wouldn't tell someone to stick with a partner who was beligerent when any number of other people could easily fit the bill, but somehow people talk as if a cty is totally interchangeable with another. That may be true with some specific options that share the same negative and positive qualities. It is not generally true.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I know what it's like to move out of a 'vortex', sometimes you just have to do it.

Don't listen to the naysayers! Good luck and do whatever it takes to get the SF FOMO out of the system.

</comment><comment><USER14> I know a handful of developers that moved to New York. Seems to me that New York is where the developers go when they are tired of SF. I am thinking Denver or Chattanooga, where I could actually afford to buy a house and a yard.

Edit: I have been in SF for 3 and a half years. It was only suppose to be 2 years to get my career started. I feel the black hole pulling and next thing I know it will be 10 years.

</comment><comment><USER15> Living outside of the Bay Area has consequences as well. For example, I'm an out-of-work developer currently living outside of SF, and I can therefore only really apply to positions that allow for remote work (which are much rarer than HN would have you believe).

</comment><comment><USER16> I hate San Francisco (and NYC and DC, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the non-SF SFBA cities). Unfortunately, it really is the best place for tech company employment, at least in a 15-500 person company. You need to have enough companies in a given area to make it possible to switch jobs without relocating, and I just don't see that anywhere else (NYC for non-core-tech tech-using companies, and DC for gov contracting).

Peninsula is losing out to SF itself for a lot of companies, too.

For a startup, having service providers in an area is important, but investors are more important, and remain reluctant to do anything remote to themselves.

<comment><USER17> _I hate San Francisco (and NYC and DC, and to a somewhat lesser extent, the non-SF SFBA cities)._

What places do you like?

<comment><USER16> First choice: HK or Singapore.

Within the Bay Area: Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside, Los Altos, Cupertino, and most of San Mateo County overall.

Otherwise: Seattle, Berlin, non-Berlin Germany, Portland (OR), Montreal, sort of Toronto, Amsterdam, .... Probably Texas, but I've never actually been there.

For some period of time 1-4y: Japan, Qatar, China, Indonesia, Las Vegas, Utah, Montana, ND/SD, etc.

In the Northeast, NH or VT.

Most of these don't really have enough diversity of tech companies to be viable for me, or a good enough ecosystem to start companies. (SV excepted; Seattle is borderline. HK/SIN don't do much in the kind of companies I like)

<comment><USER18> Japan (Tokyo) is amazing, highly recommended. Can be a little tricky getting a software job with little or no Japanese though.

<comment><USER12> If you are interested drop me a line. We are looking for smart people

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I was expecting it to be about getting outside the echo chamber of the valley, but it sounds like he just needed a change of pace.

<comment><USER4> Getting out of the echo chamber is _definitely_ part of it.

<comment><USER17> What do you think about Seattle, Austin, Boulder?

I lived in New York for 7 years. It's a really hard place to live. It gives a lot, and the benefits are immense, but the cramped living spaces, crowds, and fast pace are difficult. (For some, the climate's also hard. I got "Building SAD" when I lived downtown, but other than that, the climate wasn't an issue.) Of course, no one can predict how you'll react to it. My guess is that you'll probably find NYC challenging but enjoy what it has to offer (much more than SF; it's a real fucking city, not some colony for East Coast banking/consulting rejects turned VCs and the 25-year-old nerds they boss around). It's worth trying out, for sure. But I wouldn't expect it to be an _easy_ place to live.

<comment><USER4> I have never visited Seattle. I've spent probably a few weeks total in Austin and a month or two in Boulder, and I like Austin, but it's damn hot. One of the reasons I quit my _last_ job is that I would have had to live in Denver, and I didn't want to. I don't think Denver/Boulder is bad, I just don't think it's great either. I wouldn't complain about living there, but given the choice, would pick other places.

I've spent a lot of time in NYC, so I know what I'm getting into. It's fun to watch all these people make assumptions about my opinions and what they're based on.

<comment><USER20> What about Boston?

<comment><USER17> Boston is a beautiful town and has a really nice climate (summers 5 degrees colder than New York, possibly the best fall foliage in the world). Unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of progressivism in Boston companies. The _people_ I like, and the brainpower in that city is immense. On the other hand, I've interviewed with 4 or 5 Boston companies in my life, known people who work there, and the set of people who've made it into management or founding roles and making decisions seems... stodgy, conservative, prone to create regimented, closed-allocation, uninspiring companies.

New England is unbeatable, though, except possibly in comparison to the Pacific Northwest.

<comment><USER16> I went to school in Boston and would basically hate being in Boston if not directly attached to a university. NY has big positives and big negatives; nowhere else in New England has super strong positives, but a lot of them have less serious negatives. People obviously have vastly different preferences and weightings even for factors where they agree directionally.

<comment><USER20> What were the negatives for you?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> SF can suck you in, but there are loads of people in SF that have nothing to do with Tech at all. When I lived there my friends included a guy who worked on the Bay Bridge, a Hotel Manager, a financial advisor, a set designer, and a couple of musicians. The only tech people I talked to were at work. Those people are easy to find if you look.

</comment><comment><USER22> Why did this post disappear from the front page?

<comment><USER23> A moderator tagged it as unsubstantive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Some of the Pages on the author's domain are blocked on Chrome (Chrome Detected Malware).

Be careful if you are not using a secure browser.

<comment><USER4> Weird. Can you tell me which ones? That seems unusual.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> This thread is hilarious. People insulting Steve for wanting to leave SF and yet every other article TODAY on the FRONT PAGE is "Why is SF public transit so shitty?" or "Why is SF so expensive?" Get out of here.

</comment><comment><USER26> > So, at the end of the month, I'm leaving Balanced and the city. I'll be > arriving in Brooklyn [...]

> Every hour I spend in New York, I feel excited, and every hour I spend in > San Francisco, I feel drained.

To each his own, and from the looks of the comments here, he seems to be in the minority.

<comment><USER27> Most majorities started as minorities too, so that doesn't say much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Seeya! How is it SF's fault that you can't take a break?

Instead of changing things, you whine then leave. Yeah! That'll change the "SF work culture"!

Personally, I just went outside for the first time in two or three weeks. There are just more interesting things inside than out. I everything I need delivered or transmitted over the internet, including friends.

<comment><USER29> And clearly your life will never change and you are certain to always feel like this.

As a post script: it's also worth noting that this was merely a bulletin that Steve was departing, not a manifesto about work-life balance (which you'll note is not the reason he's citing for leaving SF).</comment></comment>


Earth Sets a Temperature Record for the Third Straight Year - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/science/earth-highest-temperature-record.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 <comment><USER2> In the "Graphic" section, the use of polar charts colored by the temperature anomaly makes for a nice visualization.</comment>


reddit.com/r/ModerationLog/search?q=snowden - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/ModerationLog/search?q=snowden&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all

<comment><USER2> only old posts in the search [http://www.reddit.com/search?q=snowden](http://www.reddit.com/search?q=snowden)</comment>


Extraction Zone app helps first responders safely cut through modern cars - <AUTHOR> http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/03/extraction-zone-app-helps-first-responders-safely-cut-through-mo/ <comment><USER2> Whoever wrote this app understood two simple business techniques:

1) In non-technological industries there are golden opportunities for software developers. A small app like this can make a huge difference for first responders.

2) Sometimes it pays to target small, specific niches instead of the entire market. Even if your potential users make up 0.1% of all users (e.g. iPhone owners) your specificity can pay off by capturing all of that 0.1%.

<comment><USER3> To get mandated against a niche either as the defacto standard or as literally specified by a government / industry body is brilliant as well.</comment></comment>


Metacademy - <AUTHOR> http://www.metacademy.org/ <comment><USER2> Co-creator of Metacademy here. Colorado and I are intending Metacademy to be a "package manager for knowledge," where you can easily find the particular thing you want to learn about (e.g. deep neural nets) without having to track down all the prerequisites (e.g. gradient descent) yourself. Basically, we've annotated a dependency graph for the core concepts in the field, and it uses the graph to produce step-by-step learning plans geared directly towards your goals.

Sorry if you can't reach the site. We're both doing this as volunteers, and I guess we weren't prepared for the level of traffic we're getting. In the meantime, you can find more details about our high-level goals here: [http://hunch.net/?p=2714](http://hunch.net/?p=2714)

If you don't have a particular goal in mind and just want a general overview, check out the roadmaps, e.g. [http://www.metacademy.org/roadmaps/rgrosse/bayesian_machine_...](http://www.metacademy.org/roadmaps/rgrosse/bayesian_machine_learning)

<comment><AUTHOR> Submitter here, thanks for creating metacademy. it's helped me a lot in school.

<comment><USER2> Glad to hear that! We'd love to get your feedback -- you can contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Link- IMHO, the dependency graph is pure gold! I think it should be the core focus of this project as it will be quite difficult to aggregate, clean and present all the needed information about a given topic (unless we're rebuilding wikipedia). It will be easier to link to credible resources available across the web through the dependency graph. Maintenance wise it would be much more interesting not to mention easier.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice work! I've been working on something very similar. My project still needs a lot of work (and talent, I started working on this site when I first learned html/css/js 2 years ago) but you can check it out at: [http://subjectflow.com](http://subjectflow.com) , or for a full tree: [http://www.subjectflow.com/viewer.htm?=mewvzl2i6bt97gnjf9i4](http://www.subjectflow.com/viewer.htm?=mewvzl2i6bt97gnjf9i4) (click on the white dots to expand the tree).

I really hope to see this type of idea take off. I would love to see this sort of thing combined with simplified git related operations to make it easy to improve education content. Additionally I think it would be great to add in a comment system where you can leave a question connected to the exact text that is confusing you.

</comment><comment><USER4> Been clicking around for 20 minutes. This is like TV Tropes for knowledge.

</comment><comment><USER5> How is "x hours to learn" measured? If I search for logistic regression, I get this page: [http://www.metacademy.org/graphs/concepts/logistic_regressio...](http://www.metacademy.org/graphs/concepts/logistic_regression) stating 1.7 hours - is that the estimated time to work through "Core resources", the "read" time + video length or something else?

Really exciting project, and very useful to me personally.

This is what wikiveristy should've been.

Good job guys.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you look on the left, the learning plan shows that it would take 22 hours to complete from the bottom up. Logistic regression page just assumes you know all prior knowledge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> this seem like an interesting idea, but it lacks some "high level structure", or possibly a better search.

For example, I am sure there are general topics for "classification", "recommendation", or "similarity", but I wouldn't know where to start.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is there a way to view the DAG of concepts itself?

<comment><USER8> Not sure if you can see the whole thing, but you can see big chunks of it by selecting an advanced concept and clicking the graph button in the sidebar.

Example: [http://www.metacademy.org/graphs/concepts/sequential_monte_c...](http://www.metacademy.org/graphs/concepts/sequential_monte_carlo#focus=sequential_monte_carlo&mode=explore)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> NB: Metacademy is open source: [https://github.com/metacademy/metacademy- application](https://github.com/metacademy/metacademy-application)

</comment><comment><USER10> The site is not accessible (not responding to http requests)

<comment><USER11> I can confirm the same.

</comment></comment><comment> dorian-graph I like the approach! I feel that search could use an improvement. I'm using k-means++ at the moment for something and searched for "k-means" which yield no results [1]. I clicked on the link to look at the full-list and found k-means mentioned 3 times, to my surprise.

[1] [http://www.metacademy.org/search?q=k-means](http://www.metacademy.org/search?q=k-means)

<comment><USER12> Works with quotes: [http://www.metacademy.org/search?q=%22k-means%22](http://www.metacademy.org/search?q=%22k-means%22)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Nice! This is the first time I've seen the dependency graph implemented in e-learning! Actually I started a programming site in spanish a while ago with the same idea (there is a dependency graph underlying the content). If you are curious: [http://www.minidosis.org](http://www.minidosis.org).

<comment><USER14> Doesn't the Khan Academy use dependency graphs? I had some fu Ngoing through highschool calculus on their site. Raking in the achievements and unlocking next lessons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think this is fantastic. Obviously stuff to be ironed out, tidied up and better organised but genuinely think this is a great idea, how does one go about developing something like the dependency graph? Would love to implement it in a site I am building while learning Rails.

</comment><comment><USER16> This deserves to exist and flourish. We built something similar (skilldom.org) but it hasn't yet deserved the love it should have... :) partly due to me not being disciplined enough to dedicate time to it.

</comment><comment><USER17> The DAG of concepts is brilliant. I've manually made my own DAG for interesting branches of mathematics over the years and used it as a guide for self study. This could be big for education.

</comment><comment><USER18> Metacademy looks like a great source for learning, one which preserves most of the associativity benefit of learning through e.g. wikipedia, but which allows for much more focus.

Thank you so much for doing this!

</comment><comment><USER19> love this. i've wanted something like this for a long time. Kahn Academy mind maps are awesome but limited in terms of subject matter. having an open database of this is amazing; enables self learning while eliminating the problem of not knowing what you don't know.

</comment><comment><USER20> I've been using this. It's extremely useful. I wish they did this for every subject.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is awesome. I can see this, if it gets larger, being a ton of help throughout college.

</comment><comment><USER22> Nice way to organize major sources for learning Machine learning topics.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is a dream, thank you.

</comment><comment><USER24> This is really cool. I wish I could give it more upvotes than the one I gave it.

Thanks for building something cool and useful. I love the idea and hope you develop it more.

</comment><comment><USER25> HFT?</comment>


Ask HN: Why Is My VPN's IPs Blocked from Hacker News? - <AUTHOR> A few of my VPN's IPs seem to be blocked. I just get greeted with an empty page (I checked inspect element). Is there any way to submit an unban request to these IPs? It's really annoying. <comment><USER2> This is in the FAQ: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html). If the unban link described there doesn't work for you, please email us and we'll take care of it.

I'm sorry that this is necessary, btw. We hate it when legit users get blocked, but HN is also hit by a ton of crawlers and it's hard to distinguish the two. Since our app server runs on a single core, we don't have a drop of spare performance.

Some big improvements which we've been working on for months will hopefully roll out soonish, which should allow us to loosen things up quite a bit.

<comment><USER3> Just curious--why is HN run on only a single core?

<comment><USER2> Arc is implemented in Racket and uses its green threads, which don't do multiprocessing.

<comment><USER4> The standard Racket threads do run on a single core. Racket (not Arc) does however support two forms of parallelism, namely futures and places.

[http://docs.racket-lang.org/guide/parallelism.html](http://docs.racket- lang.org/guide/parallelism.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Reminder that HN is proxied through Cloudflare so that might be the actual organization blocking your traffic.

</comment><comment><USER6> I use HN via Tor. Occasionally I get a 'prove you are legit' message, which is fine. The biggest problem is that my account seems to be permanently flagged for restricted posting; after even a few comments I get a message: 'you are posting too fast', and HN won't accept more comments for awhile.

@mods: Perhaps after an account gains a certain amount of karma, even 500, that flag could be disabled even for Tor users.

</comment><comment><USER7> Same thing happens to me. I've noticed that it works fine if I'm not logged in, but if I am logged in or I try the login page, I get a blank page if my VPN is on.

The Chrome network panel shows a 403 code (Forbidden).

Edit: I can write this up in an email to email@example.com if requested.

</comment><comment><USER8> What does the Network Panel say in terms of HTTP status code?

<comment><USER9> As an alternative, you could use curl with the verbose option:

      curl -v https://news.ycombinator.com

That will show you the status code along with any headers and body (if any) sent by the server in response to the HTTP request.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Requests like these are better sent to firstname.lastname@example.com, but note that they simply won't reply to you if they get busy or don't feel like it.

From my testing, HN has various anti-abuse features to prevent people from creating accounts to dodge bans or moderation penalties. E.g. if you create an account using Opera's VPN, your account's comments will all show up as [dead].

Perhaps they believe that there's no valid reason to use a VPN to check HN other than to dodge penalties. Either way, it's important to remember that we don't see the _good_ things that come of choices like this.

(Or that it's just a random bug.)

<comment><USER11> > Requests like these are better sent to firstname.lastname@example.com, but note that > they simply won't reply to you if they get busy or don't feel like it.

In my experience, the response rate is 100%. Responses are thoughtful, professional, respectful, and even friendly, and they obviously read through even longer messages. It's probably the best customer service of any organization I patronize, besides my attorney who charges a bit more. Given the number of users, the size of the staff and, knowing HN, probably users' demanding nature, I'm impressed.

Now, do I get my 1,000 karma? :)

<comment><USER12> _In my experience, the response rate is 100%. Responses are thoughtful, professional, respectful, and even friendly, and they obviously read through even longer messages. It 's probably the best customer service of any organization I patronize, besides my attorney who charges a bit more. Given the number of users, the size of the staff and, knowing HN, probably users' demanding nature, I'm impressed._

Not only that, but @dang's tears cure cancer. Sadly, @dang is so tough that he never cries! @dang has also counted to infinity. Twice! @dang can also strangle you to death with a cordless phone...

<comment><USER13> Sounds like Chuck Norris jokes to me

<comment><USER12> Dang > Chuck Norris

Hey, c'mon, you gotta admit, that cordless phone thing was pretty damn funny!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Background noise generator - <AUTHOR> http://sound.moodil.com <comment><USER2> How fact does it start to repeat itself?</comment>


Side effects of PhD programs - <AUTHOR> http://blog.vivekhaldar.com/post/4986502776/side-effects-of-phd-programs

<comment><USER2> _And they do it for dirt cheap rates._

This would seem to be an argument for students not to enter PhD programs—if their labor is undervalued, they're better off going into industry than getting advanced degrees in academia. It's certainly true that the current system works reasonably well for universities, but I think both "The PhD Factory" and "What is a Phd really worth?" are targeting people thinking about grad school.

I'd observe one other thing: a lot of undergrads might be getting what's paid for. That's one reason I wrote How Universities Work, or: What I Wish I'd Known Freshman Year: A Guide to American University Life for the Uninitiated ([http://jseliger.com/2010/09/26/how-universities-work-or- what...](http://jseliger.com/2010/09/26/how-universities-work-or-what-i- wish-i%E2%80%99d-known-freshman-year-a-guide-to-american-university-life-for- the-uninitiated)), as freshmen and sophomores often don't understand what grad students and profs are actually rewarded for.

<comment><USER3> While it might be true that TAs are "undervalued" in their paycheck, you have to also account for the fact that the university is often paying 5-20k+ for your tuition, fees, insurance, retirement, and other costs of being a student and employee. They are also training you to be an academic. Teaching undergrads the fundamentals of your field is very useful towards that end. Graduate school is not something to be undertaken on a whim--it is a huge commitment in time and resources. Ultimately, graduate school is not something to pursue if you're trying to make more cash.

I left a lucrative and successful career in IT 5 years ago to pursue my PhD because I wanted to research and teach in academia. I have met many other students who left lucrative positions to come back to school. Universally all these students understand that this career choice is not about the money, it is about lifestyle. The academic tenure-track job market is fiercely competitive and can be brutal. The tenure process is tough for young faculty members. Ultimately, a doctorate is for those who are passionate about pursuing high-quality, highly technical or theoretical research (either in academia, the government, or private industry) or for those who have a passion to teach at the university level.

I'm fortunate to have secured a tenure-track position at a research institution starting this autumn. The salary I'll be making will be considerably less than what I would have been making, not to mention the 5 years of not making a decent salary. The ability to continue pursuing my research agenda, collaborate with incredibly bright colleagues of my choosing, work more flexible hours than in my previous jobs, create and develop courses for undergrad and grad students which may have an enormous impact in their careers, and spend more time with my wife and kids makes me very happy with the "value" I'll be getting out of the time and effort it took to pursue a PhD.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Another possibility is the replacement of particularly the intro-level courses with lecturers instead of research faculty. Of course, that would mean giving up on the "you are taught only by professors at <X> university" tagline + US World News ranking point.

Caveat: I am currently one of those PhD-pursuing TAs. In fact, it's time to go proctor a midterm! <enqueue maniacal laughter>

</comment><comment><USER5> Couldn't agree move, save the point about professors hating dealing with undergrads. Even the most research focused professors actually enjoy talking to undergrads given that they are respectful and show some desire to learn (in my experience). Grading, yeah they won't touch that with a 10ft. pole.

I think the point about drawing internationals to America is understated. I never really thought about this, but its very true. I've personally met more high achieving, very intelligent foreigners who came for grad school and were planning on returning home, but for one reason or another ended up staying here. This is invaluable for the US, in my opinion.

<comment><USER6> It is, but unfortunately, the importance of retaining these highly educated people is too subtle a concept to express in the immigration yelling that happens at the national level. Most of my colleagues are not American, but they have to jump through hoops to remain in the US - despite being educated at public universities. We've already invested in them, the rational thing to do is to try to retain that investment.

<comment><USER5> I'm unaware of the legal hurdles immigrants have to face, never having to deal with it personally. It's upsetting to hear this, especially when we're talking about the kind of people our government keeps telling us we need. Such is the way of politics, I suppose.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It seems criminal to me that Universities are allowed to have teaching assistants teach classes. Aren't they supposed to be the assistants, not the teachers?

It seems OK to have them help with grading or tutoring, but teaching the entire class? Why do we allow Universities that do this to remain accredited? Why do students put up with it? In more expensive places, you are paying a TA's entire yearly pay for 4 classes.

<comment><USER6> I would agree with you if there was a connection between the quality of the teaching and whether or not the teacher is a professor or a TA, but I don't think there is. Professors are hired for their ability to do research, not teach. Many see it as a chore. And TAs are - in my experience - only allowed to be the instructor of record when they've been around for a while.

Personally, one of my best math teachers in undergrad was a grad student. He was _leagues_ better at teaching than all but two of the math professors I had. I also had two TAs who ran recitation sections (homework help and extra discussion) who were excellent. The TA who ran the recitations sections for one of my physics classes was a far better teacher than the professor for the course, and I would have preferred he teach the class.

I taught a class when I was a grad student. It was a summer course on intro to programming for non-majors. My department historically asks some grad students to teach the summer classes. Several of my students told me they were thankful that they got a good teacher.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> In most top CS schools, the teaching requirement for graduate students is minimal (e.g. you are only required to teach once or twice). This only works when the research groups are well funded and you don't need to teach to earn your living stipend.

<comment><USER9> If, as many articles seem to be suggesting, we decrease the number of grad students, then that just means that the ones left will teach more, which distracts them from the research and (presumably) lengthens the PhDs. It's not a completely linear tradeoff, but certainly something to bear in mind.</comment></comment>


What (if any) are your new year's resolution(s) for 2017? - <AUTHOR> Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah and a belated happy Festivus!  With 2017 around the corner, what (if any) are your new year's resolution(s)? <comment><USER2> Consider renaming your post to conform to the "Ask HN:" style.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good catch! Thank you for noticing (2nd time posting and I initially thought "Ask HN:" might be automatically appended). I left a tab open with this post, but when I went to click the "edit" link, the tab refreshed with the "edit" link removed. Would you happen to know if there is some other way I can edit this post? (Or does a moderator have to step in to do that?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Posted 2 hours ago

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13251138](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13251138)</comment>


Creately.com - Diagramming Just Got Easier - <AUTHOR> http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/creately-com-diagramming-just-got-easier

<comment><USER2> To me this submission felt more like an ad for killerstartups.com than a story about creatly, and I'm not really sure I liked that.

Linking directly to <http://creately.com/> instead would have been much better, and that page is much more informative and interesting.

</comment><comment><USER3> This story feels like spam. I don't want to 'Try Now' only to be taken to a sign-up form.

<comment><USER4> BugMeNot works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Creately looks great, I'm definitely going to try it for some UML goodness.

Am I looking at the wrong signup form? looks small to me <http://creately.com/creately-sign-up>

</comment><comment><USER6> Uuuh, stopped at the mega-super-large sign-up form... All that for making a diagram?!

</comment><comment><USER7> I believe the only other time I'd been to killerstartups.com was for a bio of Gliffy, another online diagramming tool. Having used both of these, and another 1/2 dozen other competitors, the web based diagramming tools just feel not to offer any serious competition to either Omnigraffle or Visio.

<comment><USER8> yeah, but they'll get there.

just like google docs and buzzword can't hold a candle to MS word.

most online apps are still quite early in their life cycles.</comment></comment>


How to balance being nimble with being productive? Scaling a company. - <AUTHOR>

Now it seems to be a general consensus that working the at a small nimble company with a startup atmosphere is "our" ideal working environment. Its the environment that promotes our creativity, and allows us to work with the least amount of useless bureaucracy. If you disagree or have different preferences, please share. However, all companies want to grow up as well. It seems to be another general consensus that large unwieldy companies are not as good a place to work for conditions are opposite as mentioned above (see microsoft, google, yahoo etc). So how do you balance this? How can you balance this in a business? At some point you need more employees, but once you get too big, you become unwieldy. Its a paradox. <comment><USER2> Many companies find ways to stay small. Take Lego for example. Making little plastic blocks is a pretty trivial thing, something that can be outsourced. So they have. Lego is now an IP/creative company with production of coloured blocks outsourced.

Or take vans aircraft, a small company that's been around 30 successful years. Or look at any number of small ISV's that's been around for ages. All it takes is willpower.

Interview with lego ceo: [http://www.monocle.com/sections/business/Web- Articles/QA-wit...](http://www.monocle.com/sections/business/Web-Articles/QA- with-the-CEO-of-Lego/)

<comment><USER3> But it turns out that making cheap plastic bricks is quite hard to do right. Lego's outsourcing failed and they pulled it back in-house: [http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2009/03/legos- newfoun...](http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2009/03/legos-newfound- love-of-insourcing.html)

I think you have to decide: Is this important? If it is, find a way to do it right. If it isn't, kill it.

 _You_ have to decided what to kill. This sounds easy, but is quite hard to do when looking at it from the inside. Its easy to be distracted by shiny things.

<comment><USER2> Well, the point really was that they've stayed small. One of the worlds most recognized brands is under 1500 employees. and has worldwide reach that even 2 year olds know.</comment></comment></comment>


How much do software engineers really make in each city? - <AUTHOR> https://www.codementor.io/blog/best-cities-software-engineer-earnings-271vpf599k#.WW5Weo5RcoA.hackernews <comment><USER2> That "Quality of Life" index is lame as hell. Maybe I'm biased as a New Yorker, but I'd live here over Raleigh any day. The access & immersion in culture, food, entertainment, diversity etc. is the best part of living here and is not accounted for. Oh, and I don't need a car.

Also, NYC is so large that it's hard to put a number on "cost of living". According to this chart I pay a San Jose rent in Manhattan. Brooklyn/Queens rents are way cheaper. If you average the entire city it jacks the rate up.</comment>


Drupal, Wordpress themes track users by design - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/ValbonneConsult/status/775820293545816065 <comment><USER2> Reading some more of this person's tweets, it appears they're upset about Google Fonts. While I agree this is a potential privacy concern, the tracking isn't "by design" of the theme developers or the CMS. Their intention is to include attractive fonts without dealing with distribution licenses.</comment>