Impostor syndrome strikes men just as hard as women in technical interviews - <AUTHOR> http://blog.interviewing.io/impostor-syndrome-strikes-men-just-as-hard-as-women-and-other-findings-from-thousands-of-technical-interviews/ <comment><USER2> It doesn't help that job ads are wanting "Top 3% only!" or "Only top 1% Ninja Rockstars need apply!". Kind of reminds me of the market for singers or concert pianists, you _absolutely need_ to be the best, even imperceptibly worse makes you unemployable.

Should those of us who aren't top 5%/didn't go to a top school just find another industry, one where sub-perfect work doesn't actively make other people's jobs harder?

<comment><USER3> There's another similar problem that I'm seeing that I don't think has been pointed out before.

Recently, I've been applying for web developer positions and am coming across applications with these sorts of questions:

\- What's the coolest thing you've done both in life and at work?

\- What are your dreams?

\- Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I certainly do have answers for these questions, but I can't tell if they're the ones that employers want to hear. And are these things for other random people to know?

There are things I've done that _I_ think are cool, but that doesn't necessarily mean that most people will think they are cool. Honestly, there really isn't anything about my life that is conventionally cool, even by the standards of the nerdiest nerds. Should my life have been more unique and exciting by this point?

The same can basically be said of my dreams, although I do not aspire for big dreams. I haven't made enough money yet to even think about anything more grandiose than simply living comfortably. Do my dreams need to be more exciting? Should I be shooting the moon? I feel like any honest answer I give to the question will sound disappointing to any startup.

Should I see myself anywhere in particular in 10 years? Beyond making more money and taking on more responsibilities in my career, where should I be in 10 years? My field evolves so rapidly that I can't honestly predict that far ahead, let alone 5 years into the future. But maybe I'm not cut out for what I do if I can't see that far ahead?

I could very well be what's wrong in the picture, but it seems to me like we are culturally intolerant of "normal" people who have a skill and want to make a living. Everyone needs to have dreams, grand aspirations, and a little clairvoyance. I tend to have pretty high confidence, but seeing this kind of language when applying for jobs does stir up that feeling of imposterhood in me.

<comment><USER4> I've made a point for myself to never ask questions like "what are your dreams" or "where do you see yourself in 10 years" in an interview, ever. For a long time, I've used these as a filter, too. Getting this kind of question in an interview is a big red flag for me and a huge disappointment.

Let me elaborate a little.

My dreams are none of an interviewer's bloody business. I'm here to work not share the things that give me hope in my darkest moments or the aspirations that shaped my adulthood. I find this question very creepy and extremely unprofessional.

I could maybe figure out a "lesser dream" to share, but then what's the point of this question? To find out the most intimate thing that I'd be willing to share?

Where I see myself in ten years is a meaningless question to ask after I've had, what, fifteen minutes of exposure to a company's culture? Maybe I'm the kind of person who sees themselves in management over ten years, but you've got such an amazing working culture that you could convince the most ambitious career builder to stick to engineering instead. Or vice-versa. Or do you really want to hire the kind of people who get an idea in their head, and then _do it_ , even if it takes them ten years and it's really, really, really bad idea?

I've heard all sorts of ways to justify these things. That it's a way to see if a candidate can relate to you and evaluate their empathy -- if anything, this will say more about an interviewer's biases than about anything else. To see if a candidate can communicate about abstract matters -- as if there are not countless questions about ethics, aesthetics and epistemology in our profession that you need to start prying into personal things. That it's a way to see if they're "career-oriented", whatever that means, as if someone who writes amazing code but wouldn't hustle for a promotion is a bad hire.

So far, it hasn't turned out to be a bad idea.

<comment><USER5> I see these types of questions as the sign of an inexperienced interviewer. Given how many inexperienced interviewers one can see interviewing at tech companies, I would call that a chartreuse flag at best due to lack of signal.

<comment><USER6> _I see these types of questions as the sign of an inexperienced interviewer._

Yup - that's all it is. And you're going to have a certain envelope of negatives (usually far worse than this) in any environment.

So while it does make the flag a bit bless verdant... to call it a "red flag" seems to be a bit of a stretch.

<comment><USER7> Props to both of you for the lovely synonyms for "greenish" :-)

(And as for the substance: agreed, and a capable interviewee should know how to work around those questions and similarly silly ones, like "what's your greatest weakness?". It's a two-way street. And while it's not a positive datapoint, it's hardly a KO-criterion. (viridescent? aquamarine? turquoise? :) )

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It makes me thrilled to see that we're finally talking about data around gender issues, regardless of what that data actually says. It seems like we're finally getting over the taboo and we're mature enough to look at facts.

<comment><USER9> Maybe in a couple years we can talk about statistics suggesting inherent gender differences in academic interest without getting screamed at.

<comment><USER10> it's almost impossible to prove that something is inherent to a gender vs culturally embedded (education, norms, myths etc.)

<comment><USER11> It is possible though, there has been scientific research in the matter. One interesting one is that gender differences in academic interest actually increase when people are given equal opportunities, pay, freedom of choice, etc.

<comment><USER10> equal opportunities? freedom of choice? How can you control for these really abstract concepts that involve thousands of variables. What constitutes freedom of choice when you have the internet and articles that say males should do x and women y? How can you say that something is inherited or environmental? Even with biology, most of the disease imply both factors.

I've seen some of the articles about the Nordic countries and was not conviced at all. They were saying that in Nordic countries women have more choice and they have a lower participation in CS studies. And bang, they thought they proved something...

<comment><USER9> The Nordic countries are the most egalitarian countries on earth with regards to rights, equal pay, and gender norms. The sex differences in many different academic fields and professions persist and are even more pronounced than countries which are more blatantly sexist. This is the best evidence available, and it suggests that not everything is socially learned. This suggests that some basic tenets of social constructivism are false _by its own criteria_.

Rather than accepting no evidence, why don't you suggest a better way to test this idea and explain why your test would be better?

<comment><USER10> Rather than accept poor science I suggest not pretending to do science if you can't do it in a rigurous, scientific way.

There is nothing wrong in saying that we don't know if coffee is good or not for your health. Science is not there yet with its tools to test for this. Instead of presenting studies over studies that contradict each other.

The same with inherited differences between genders. Science is not there yet to tell us anything about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Of course it does, it's not a gender problem, who said it was? How many of you have heard your friends and colleagues tell you, "wow I'm so lucky I got through that interview, there's no way I would pass it if I did it again today."

You shouldn't walk away from a good interview feeling like you nailed it. An interviewer should push you to your limits and the more you know, the more they should push. It doesn't mean you failed, it means you reached the limits they could push you in the time you had.

If you're rejected from the role, most likely you didn't reach the bar they needed you to be at, or you failed at the behavioral parts. Or, the interviewers you had weren't properly calibrated, which isn't to say anything about you other than bad luck.

<comment><USER13> Many of these people interviewing wouldn't pass their own interviews if the roles were reversed. The bar should be high, but not so high that you leave feeling demoralized.

<comment><USER14> As an interviewer, I've been in this situation. I hate interviewing other people and felt really guilty about it, but I didn't have control over what I asked. I've also been in situations where I wouldn't be able to answer the questions I'm asking if I hadn't just learned or reviewed them for the sake of interviewing itself. It's so stupid.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> As someone with no credentials or official training, and someone who also works at a big megacorporation as an engineer, imposter syndrome hits me fairly hard, especially during interviews. It's really hard to compete with the people who actually have proof that they know what they're doing, and I'm usually interviewing for a job that has a strict requirement of a "bachelors in CS, Math or Physics, Masters preferred".

I've managed to pull it off somehow, but I rarely go a day where I don't wonder if I really should have as good of a job as I do.

<comment><USER16> I've done 3 interviews in the last couple weeks where candidates couldn't do a simple Python dictionary lookup. These were people with a Masters in CS and have Python as their primary language.

I wouldn't worry about being an Impostor.

<comment><USER17> Am I missing something, or do you mean they didn't know `myDict['key'] `?

<comment><USER16> Yes. One candidate remembered to do it that way after some searching, the other never did.

Both started out by looping over the items in the dict and stopping at the correct one. Asking if there was a simpler way to get values out of dict didn't help.

The third candidate really didn't get far enough to get the dict wrong so I counted them as well but they may have known how to do a dict lookup.

Here is the exercise:

Given these dicts:

{"a":[1,2],"b":[3,4],"z":[5]} {"a":[66],"b":[77]}

Write a program in language of your choice that sums the common keys.

a and b are common so result is:

{"a":1+2+66,"b":3+4+77}

so output should be:

{"a":69,"b":84}

This exercise is stupid simple. Note this is in an IDE/Editor, not a whiteboard.

<comment><USER15> I remember how I didn't believe that Fizzbuzz eliminates some crazy-high percentage of candidates until I started interviewing. I think most of the people I have interviewed are relatively smart people, but a lot of them really haven't had a lot of need to practice their algorithms, so they don't.

I've had people fail the "tell me if these two strings are anagrams" thing, with one person's response being to have 26 counters, one for each letter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The practice interview point strikes me as odd. In large, because I have never done one. Do folks really typically do that many practice interviews?

I don't even know how to study. I sometimes consider it, but have never spent more than an hour prepping for an interview. :(

It worries me, because I know that interviewing is a skill. But are we not setting folks up to over index on that skill such that they have difficulty with actual job performance?

If anyone knows any literature into that general topic, I'd be very interested in perusing it.

<comment><USER19> I've been successfully employed the valley for over a decade (and other tech work before that). I've never done a practice interview, I don't worry about my GitHub. I agree with the cargo culting comment.

Work on your network. Apply for jobs that interest you. Interview. Get job.

<comment><USER18> I'd love to see numbers to show how many this is a good guideline for.

That is, I think this somewhat describes me too. However, I don't know as that I can give the advice of "ignore practicing interviews."

<comment><USER19> I didn't say NOT to do it, I just think people focus too much on it. And not even the practice interview itself. I think this mindset that everyone has to have an amazing GitHub and be a rockstar 10x engineer and do tons of practice interviews _in itself_ keeps people from applying for newer and better positions, and improving themselves on the job.

That is to say, it's a kind of meta imposter's syndrome. "I'm not even doing the right things to make myself good enough to put myself in a position to get a better job!" Which keeps people from even trying.

<comment><USER18> So, to those points, I'm pretty sure I agree with you. Curious if this is some sort of survivor bias, though. In particular, how normal are we? If we are the outliers through luck or some other factor, I'd kind of like to know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> When I was younger I was able to go into interviews with the mindset of, "it's their decision and it's okay if they don't think I'm a good fit."

It made interviewing easy, and in a lot of cases even enjoyable. Unfortunately for reasons still unknown to me, I'm not able to get into that mindset anymore. Interviews are extremely stressful now. No amount of rationalizing will help.

<comment><USER21> probably because you have bills, expectations, and reality hits hard when it wants to take a punch at you

<comment><USER20> That's probably true. Another factor is that I have support roles on my resume, and now it's really hard to be given a chance at anything other than support. I had an easier time getting programmer interviews when I had no experience, but that's another topic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I genuinely don't understand why there's any surprise here. Lack of confidence / fear / worry... it's a _HUMAN_ trait. Not a gender-specific one. Of course, this would strike men just as hard as women. Why would there be any difference at all?

On a related note... one of the best articles I've ever read on the subject... it's a Seth Godin blog post.

 _HIGHLY RECOMMENDED_

[https://seths.blog/2017/10/imposter- syndrome/](https://seths.blog/2017/10/imposter-syndrome/)

</comment><comment><USER23> I frequently wonder if my impostor syndrome was acquired in graduate school, or if it's an artifact of working at a job that is primarily intellectually driven. I didn't experience it until grad school, but I certainly still get it, not just in tech interviews, but in my regular programmer/tech lead job as well (making proposals, submitting high level features, etc.). I manage it fairly effectively at this point because I know what it is and how it feels, but it hasn't gone away and I doubt it ever will.

<comment><USER24> For me, moving out of the corporate world and into startup territory has removed most of the anxiety of feeling like an imposter.

When you can build and push major features of the product with little to no friction or stressful performance reviews, you can truly hone software as a craft.

95% of it is usually hammer and a nail, and the remaining 5% is a bottomless pit of version upgrades, new conventions, external libraries, changing requirements, performance bottlenecks, browser incompatibility, etc. No one should or can be an expert of these specific nuances, but you can learn to wrangle them all effectively at once.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I've gone through interviewing recently and it was a rather frustrating experience. I thought that the most challenging thing will be some tricky algo questions I don't use in real life or never heard of it. It turned out that the problem was to get to the tech interview at all by convincing the interviewer to believe that I actually have the experience that I claim. Didn't always work. It was mostly because they didn't care to assess my skills because I think my resume sucks: I couldn't provide any big or even local big names thus they probably went with someone who could actually namedrop. This was in Eastern Europe, to add some context.

I finally got two offers, dropped the ongoing processes and accepted one, but before I had some dark days thanks to these negative experiences. My takeaway from this is that interviewing sucks, but one company will realize what you can do and happily accept you as-is. I was lucky that I was not forced to take a sub-par offer by giving it enough time.

<comment><USER26> > convincing the interviewer to believe that I actually have the experience > that I claim

Yeah, I read about "impostor syndrome" on here, and maybe the people in question really are suffering from that, but I've never felt like an impostor: I know I'm good at this; I've been doing it successfully for three quarters of my life. Statistically speaking, I'm probably not the best that there ever was, but I do know that I'm at _least_ good enough to do a phenomenal job at whatever programming position I'm interviewing for. I personally suffer more from "I feel like you're just sitting up there on your high horse looking for any reason to reject me" syndrome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> "women leave interviewing.io roughly 7 times as often as men do, after a bad interview."

To me that means that imposter syndrome is striking women much harder than men, but that's not what the headline was talking about. They're defining imposter syndrome as whether someone is mis-estimating their own performance. Unfortunately, a lack of accuracy doesn't necessarily demonstrate imposter syndrome, in fact imposter syndrome is defined as self-doubt in the face of evidence of competence. So, imposter syndrome wasn't measured here at all.

The data shows women estimate their competence as well as men, and perform as well as men, and then when there are any signs of trouble they bail _seven times_ faster than men. To me that could very well be much greater levels of impostor syndrome, or it could be much lower confidence, but to actually measure it you'd have to actually ask questions about how people rate themselves against others, not measure how accurate their responses are.

</comment><comment><USER28> Isn't this really just a fancy way of stating that (some) people tend to become anxious when put into a high pressure environment?

The whole concept of 'impostor syndrome' seems to rely on unexplored assumptions, like the idea that it even matters whether you should be working at Google or not.

I think that's the key to solving it. Realising that actually, most of us are just rolling through life trying to get by and be useful. The rest is fluff.

If you're playing in a professional football team, you're a professional footballer.

</comment><comment><USER29> > Impostor syndrome

Does this refer to the company pretending they deserve better than you? I've seen enough incompetent people at companies declining good candidates because they are simply unable to recognise it. I've seen so many shitty companies pretending they are top tier, it's just the arrogance of power. Only once you're in you can see the flaws and mess it often actually is.

</comment><comment><USER30> Worth noting that Scott Kaufman, psychologist at Columbia, has correlated narcissism with Impostor Syndrome for quite some time.

Here is a pretty easy to read overview from last month's Scientific American: [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/are- nar...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/are-narcissists- more-likely-to-experience-impostor-syndrome/)

</comment><comment><USER31> This just seems so much myth making and gratuitous glorification so people can feel special just getting a job. The famed difficulty of getting hired creates a sense of elitism and exclusiveness and perpetuates a culture of insecurity.

This is very cult like, If people are indoctrinated to think that they are part of an elite group they will be devoted and would look at leaving as a step down. Cults are a great business model as the followers are very devoted.

It suits the agenda of employers to construct this and target individuals who derive all sense of identity and self worth from their jobs and when employed will work their asses off in a constant reaffirmation of 'specialness' just to retain their sense of self worth. Very cult like.

</comment><comment><USER32> One of the biggest factors I think affects the outcome of an interview are implicit bias in first few minutes. It can be related to gender, ethnicity, age, religion or nationality. This can heavily influence the interview process.

<comment><USER33> I think first impressions are key, no matter what.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I didn't see a link to the actual data. Be nice to see the sample size for women.

</comment><comment><USER35> Anyone would think that men... are equal to...

...

nah, doesn't seem to add up.

</comment><comment><USER36> Can anecdotally confirm.

</comment><comment><USER37> Who on earth said it didn't?

</comment><comment><USER38> "More experienced engineers are more accurate about their interview performance..."

Dunning–Kruger effect returns again!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect)

<comment><USER39> Dunning-Kruger shows up in some front page discussion almost once a day. What does that say about the "effect"?

<comment><USER40> Its a HN cliche. Like "strawman"

<comment><USER41> It's not unique to HN, Reddit has been rampant with both (and more) for as along as I can remember.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> black-tea If everyone has impostor syndrome, does anyone have impostor syndrome?

</comment><comment><USER42> If someone thinks that they may be an impostor, then they probably are.

Firstly, it means that they think that our society is a meritocracy (or close to it); this shows that they lack life experience/wisdom. Once you realize how far society is from being a meritocracy, it's literally impossible to feel like an impostor. There are so many successful people who are idiots that even if you were an idiot yourself, you would still be within the norm; I.e. not an impostor.

Another thing about people who have impostor syndrome is that it shows that they feel insecure about their intelligence and/or abilities. Insecurities are typically rooted in past experiences or traumas. Smart people often get positive reinforcement about their intelligence; they don't have traumas or insecurities when it comes to their intelligence.

<comment><USER43> This almost reads as satire.

There are so many assumptions here that are completely off base.... I would be described as an intelligent person by most anyone I know and yet I have very low self esteem, in fact many of the intelligent people I know are the same way. These kinds of issues can't be distilled that simply.

<comment><USER42> Self esteem is not related to confidence.

If you had very low self esteem and someone asked you what the result of 1 + 1 was, you would probably still be 100% confident that the answer is 2.

If your emotions or self esteem gets in the way of your logical reasoning, then your reasoning skills were probably not that great to begin with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Dang, I am so tired of hearing about imposter syndrome. I get it. It exists. Maybe I'm more comfortable knowing that there are lots of things I don't know, even as an experienced engineer? It seems like such endless studies and banter about a relatively minor thing that is (in my opinion) easily gotten over.

<comment><USER45> You shouldn't assume something is no big deal just because it doesn't affect you personally.

<comment><USER46> It is presumably a big deal to those whom it affects.

But why is it a big deal to anyone else besides those folks' friends, family, etc.?

(And, perhaps, to some hypothetical peddlers of self-help books targeted at those with impostor syndrome; my unentrepreneurial mind can't see any other way to profit from it, but you get the idea.)

<comment><USER47> > But why is it a big deal to anyone else

it's not. what's your point?

<comment><USER46> I agree it isn't. The person I was replying to, implied it inherently is.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Hadoop+HBase or Cassandra for medium time series data? - <AUTHOR>

I need to get a server together ASAP for collecting and querying some time series metrics...if I only want to work with a single node, which would be easier to setup/manage between Cassandra and Hadoop/HBase (running in pseudo-distributed mode)? Or something else entirely? Either that I mention would exceed my performance requirements. I've dealt with Hadoop/HBase before, but it's been a couple years...I remember it being a pain to manage (I was running everything on a single node in pseudo-distributed mode). <comment><USER2> I would use Cassandra or InfluxDB depending on the use case.</comment>


Volunteering to Setup Free VPN for Private VPN Usage - <AUTHOR> I want to help setup private VPN for those who are looking for home VPN. I will set it up on your choice of cloud provider. If you go with GCP, you can have your VPN for free as long as the server is in US. (GCP offers free f1.micro in 3 regions).
I am just doing this as hobby.
VPN will be setup with your cloud account. So, once setup, I won't have any access to your server. <comment><USER2> Thanks for making this post. I'd love to have one setup but I'm still not sure about this part:

>VPN will be setup with your cloud account. So, once setup, I won't have any access to your server

Can you elaborate a bit? What's the catch, if there's any?

<comment><AUTHOR> What I mean by this is, VPN server itself will be setup on a cloud service (say GCP, AWS etc.,).

You will have to create your cloud account and give me the access to it for me to setup your VPN and then you'll revoke the permission for me. This will ensure that I never have access to your VPN server after I set it up. I do this to essentially give you peace of mind. I recommend creating one just for this to keep things separate from any other things you want to do with your cloud service provider.

There is really no catch here. You control what gets tracked or not tracked on your VPN server, what level of logging do you want, how many clients do you want to connect, where do you want your VPN server to run etc.,

Let me know if that clarifies your concern.

<comment><USER2> That explains pretty much any follow up questions I could have had. It's a really nice offer from you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. For me it's easy to set it up. And I know that there is lot of people out there, who would love to have peace of mind, but don't know how to do it on their own.

I have helped setup now probably 20 - 30 people over the last 3 years. It's an awesome feeling when I see that emotional satisfaction they draw, knowing that their data is sent encrypted out of their devices.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Let me know if you have any questions. If you want to pay for my service, I'd suggest you contribute to one of your favorite charities/NGO. If you don't have one, I suggest Wikipedia.

</comment><comment><USER3> Could you write a blog post that would explain how you do it? This would be really helpful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, absolutely. I am planning on doing it. Maybe by end of tomorrow. My intent is to keep it simple, honest, transparent.

For actual installation, there are some good blogs out there - e.g [https://medium.com/teendevs/setting-up-an-openvpn-server- on-...](https://medium.com/teendevs/setting-up-an-openvpn-server-on-google- compute-engine-9ff760d775d9) & [https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/openvpn.html.en](https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/openvpn.html.en) . My plan is not to repeat that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> For AWS, you just need to use AMI for OpenVPN and it is extreme easy to setup in a few minutes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey,

I wanted to come back to share my AWS experience. In a nutshell, its even worse than what GCP Marketplace offers.

\- Burried deep in the EULA details - the free version allows only 2 concurrent connections, just like the one on GCP. (here is the horrible EULA doc [https://d7umqicpi7263.cloudfront.net/eula/product/fe8020db-5...](https://d7umqicpi7263.cloudfront.net/eula/product/fe8020db-5343-4c43-9e65-5ed4a825c931/39a4e067-e872-4a59-bcd8-b5e7a60d661e.txt) )

\- Experience of picking the type of product and launching is awful compared to GCP. Happy to share more details, but I definitely would say this is painful experience. GCP has done a much better job. I still honestly don't know whether I ended up subscribing to services that I don't really need/or will get billed. I just have to wait and see. (e.g had to create key value pair, security groups, I see a volume showing up in my EC2 dashboard, not sure if I am going to get billed for it! ). I don't work for either AWS or GCP, but honestly I feel GCP has done a much better job here. I don't like GCP marketplace OpenVPN also for the reasons I mentioned in my earlier post, but AWS is even worse.

\- Here is their documentation for setting up and configuring OpenVPN through Marketplace - [https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/amazon-web- services...](https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/amazon-web-services- ec2-tiered-appliance-quick-start-guide/) . I am honestly shocked that they did such a bad job for a so called "one-click" application. I honestly don't think this is even designed for personal. It's more like try-me bait before they ask you pay to have someone set it up for you.</comment></comment>


The Next Twenty Years of Java: Where We've Been and Where We're Going - <AUTHOR> https://blog.heroku.com/archives/2015/6/4/the_next_twenty_years_of_java_where_we_ve_been_and_where_we_re_going <comment><USER2> Glad to see that I'm not the only one who still likes the JVM after living through the good, the bad, and the ugly with it.

Freeing Java with the GPL was an amazing move by Sun and kudos to everyone who made that happen. Without that action, there likely would not be another 20 years at this point.

I think the article is good and I concur that the JVM's future as a compilation target looks promising. Personally I'm very excited about the prospect of the JVM being a major platform for Perl 6... Perl has an amazing community and I look forward to an influx of true hackers into Javaland.

<comment><USER3> > Freeing Java with the GPL was an amazing move by Sun and kudos to everyone > who made that happen.

But due to recent legal rulings (and assuming they don't get overturned in the supreme court) Oracle has effectively locked Java back down. Even if it is GPL, Oracle has managed to copyright the APIs themselves, making the GPL-ness of the Java codebase more or less meaningless.

Sun did make Java free, no doubt about that, but under Oracle it is hard to argue that Java remains free. It is an Oracle product that Oracle owns, and if you try to fork it you will be sued (Oracle has made that point abundantly clear).

To be honest the GPL is now inadequate against this new type of copyright enforcement.

<comment><USER4> I don't think you understand. That APIs are copyrightable means that the GPL applies even to the API. The GPL does not allow any further restrictions, and Oracle isn't imposing any. You may do with OpenJDK as you please as long as you comply with the GPL. You may re-implement the APIs, or use HotSpot's JIT to compile Brainfuck bytecode -- anything at all. That doesn't mean you can use the trademark Java for the result, but that's beside the point (and applies for all open-source projects).

If you _don 't_ want to comply with the GPL and you _still_ want to build an implementation of Java -- which is what Google did -- only then do you have to comply with Oracle's alternative licensing, which forces you to make your implementation fully compliant (Android isn't) and places further restrictions (such as the use on mobile devices).

In any case, whatever applies to Java applies to any other GPL project. As to Oracle suing you if you fork Java (and not abide by the GPL), let's just see what actually happened there: 1/ Google reimplemented Java not under GPL 2/ it did so while breaking compatibility, and 3/ to directly compete against what was then on of Java's main sources of income. So, yes, I think it's safe to say that if you make an incompatible implementation of Java to directly threaten Oracle's business, they will sue you. I have a feeling that other companies would do the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > _Today, the JVM runs on an estimated 89% of computers, 3 billion mobile > phones, and 125 million TV devices._

I'm not even sure the above is technically correct. But even if it is:

1) it runs on most of those "89% of computers" as Java Applets, a technology noone cares about, not as a readily deployed Java runtime for the desktop.

2) Those 3 billion mobile phones either are Android, in which case they don't exactly run Java, or are insignificant featurephones with mobile Java that again nobody cares about.

3) Nobody cares about those "125 million TV devices" as platforms either.

<comment><USER6> The JVM has had billions of dollars of engineering effort poured into it. At the same time, it is still out-performed by low-budget small-team efforts (e.g. LuaJIT, Inferno).

The article disassociates itself from Java the language. Java was a better C++ in 1994. It has long since been eclipsed by both improved old languages that have evolved (e.g. C++11/C++14) and new languages (e.g. Go and Rust) that are unencumbered by the JVM. This is despite recent incremental efforts to renew Java the language.

Instead, the article tries to claim some success for Java by switching focus to the JVM. The JVM is still slow and - by its design (a clunky stack-based architecture) - simple to implement but very hard to run fast.

Java will still be around for a long time to come. It's the COBOL of our generation: it's better than what it replaced, but far away from what we are capable of.

<comment><USER5> > _The JVM is still slow_

What are you talking about? It's the fastest widely deployed VM out there...

<comment><USER6> If you want to talk about "widely deployed VMs" then Dalvik is faster. If you want to talk about VMs in general then there are many that are faster, e.g. LuaJIT.

<comment><USER5> Actually no, Dalvik is slower than the JVM and with worse GC.

And LuaJIT faster than the JVM? Where you got that? You wont fine many benchmarks or people agreeing with you. LuaJIT is faster (much) than most scripting languages, but not faster than Java.

Are you comparing startup time?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > 2006-2010 [...] a new crop of JVM-based languages emerged. [...] JRuby was > soon followed by Groovy, Scala, Clojure and many others. Each language > introduced features that were unique and unavailable in Java

Languages that are JVM versions of already existing languages were out long before JRuby (JVM' Ruby) and Clojure (JVM's Lisp). I remember Jython (JVM's Python) was first released around 1997, then called JPython. At that time there was also the Jacl language (JVM's TCL).

Beanshell's also an older language, which Groovy cloned and added closures (since made obsolete by Java 8's lambdas) and a meta-object protocol to. As for Scala, it's like a more statically-compiled and functional version of Groovy, about which Groovy's creator said he'd never have created Groovy if he'd known about Scala.

<comment><USER8>
        Groovy cloned and added closures (since made
        obsolete by Java 8's lambdas)

Java's lambdas aren't real closures, though. Are Groovy's?

Edit: "Real" is, I suppose, arguable. By that I meant: Java's lambdas don't support mutation of captured variables.

<comment><USER9> _Edit: "Real" is, I suppose, arguable. By that I meant: Java's lambdas don't support mutation of captured variables._

Then Haskell doesn't have closures either ;).

I think the definition of a closure is: a lambda abstraction / anonymous function that uses a free variable in its definition. So, Java's lambdas are real closures.

<comment><USER8> Maybe I'm just biased because I was first introduced to closures by SICP, and so Scheme's take became my personal Platonic Ideal. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here's hoping that Oracle loses its US Supreme Court case over copyright of Java API's.

Otherwise I love that Java and GNU/Linux CRUSHED Microsoft in mobile.

<comment><USER11> One thing to note, GNU/Linux definitely did not crush Microsoft. Android/Linux maybe, but Android/Linux and GNU/Linux are pretty far apart. There is almost nothing GNU in Android. Honestly the whole "GNU/Linux" naming things makes a whole lot more sense in light of Android than it did when we Linux was basically only popular in conjunction with GNU based desktops & servers.

[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/android-and-users- freedom.en.h...](http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/android-and-users- freedom.en.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Java's best time may coming up because of the Internet of Things.

At Sun JavaSoft in the '90s, we had IoT prototypes working well, such as distributed networking, home automation, automobile controllers, and wearable computing.

It's great to see these IoT concepts are coming to fruition.

<comment><USER13> Java was truly ahead of its time in that vision. Its promise was initially its portability, and it always had a network-friendly orientation.

But the plethora of interconnected devices that we have and envision today simply didn't exist at that time. If Java hadn't hung in there, we'd be talking about another, more recently created language designed for this purpose.

<comment><USER14> Actually, Java was originally developed as a programming language for smart appliances. Its roots are in IoT and embedded systems with limited resources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> >It has grown under Oracle -- both in openness and adoption.

No it has not, basically Sun did all the hard work on this areas.

If Google looses (lets hope not) the lawsuit vs Oracle, I hope they give Oracle what they deserve and switch to C#. Either way I am not using Java (I don't dislike it!) for anything outside of Android.

<comment><USER16> golang is the way

<comment><USER17> Its not possible to use only Go for Android application development. The goal of both the Go team and the Android team is to make Go a candidate for JNI development as an alternate to C/C++. The rest of the Android app, especially the UI can only be written in Java.

<comment><USER16> It is possible, maybe not now, but very possible later.

UI just is graphics painting using OpenGL ES.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Odd not to mention Dalvik or Android in this at all.

</comment><comment><USER19> The blog is being served by a server called Cowboy, some quick Googling shows it's written in Erlang.

Overall if Oracle doesn't screw it up, Java (at least the platform) does have a bright future.

</comment><comment><USER20> Java's challenge over the next few years is going be how to make compatibility breaking changes to the language and standard library without ending up in the same quagmire that Python did.

If they can do that then I think both language and VM have a decent future ahead of them.

<comment><USER21> Java is where it is now because it is a stable platform. They would be foolish to introduce compatibility breaking changes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> "Nashorn"? I guess someone made a shout-out to Rhino ...

</comment><comment><USER23> In my mind, Java is the first programming language that was designed by adults.

<comment><USER24> Ada?

<comment><USER25> Algol 60?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It's really too bad RMS squashed gcc targeting the jvm.

</comment><comment><USER27> JavaScript beats jaVA in every reGARD.. Java is the CoBOL of the 2000s...

<comment><USER28> Actually it doesn't. Have you tried making a mobile app with it? The experience is unacceptably slow and janky. React Native isn't officially released. That leaves us... with Java or Objective-C.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Good write-up, but damn it that guy has got to learn the difference between "its" and "it's". It's killing me!

</comment><comment><USER30> Seems rather pro-biased towards Java.

Case in point: 1\. Not a single mention of its main competitor .NET. 2\. Not a single mention that as Java becomes more and more closed source and proprietary, under Oracle's stewardship, .NET becomes more and more open source and community driven (in the true sense).

</comment><comment><USER31> > Today, the JVM runs on an estimated 89% of computers, 3 billion mobile > phones, and 125 million TV devices.

Today, 100% of them run C. Without C, there'd be nothing for Java to run on.

<comment><USER3> "Run[s] C" doesn't actually make sense. C outputs assembly, so most of them run assembly. There are a lot of mobile platforms with no [obvious] C compiler, or certainly not trivial access to one.

Running Java makes sense, since JavaByte is a "thing." Running C is just another way of saying they run native binary blobs which is meaningless and obvious.

<comment><USER31> It makes as much sense as saying they run Java. Java bytecode is JITted into very same machine code. JVM outputs "assembly" [1] as well. The interpreters are also written in C or C++, even the partially hardware assisted ones, such as Jazelle.

All executable code is native "binary blobs" in the end. But they're written in language X. What I'm saying, is that 100% of those devices contain code written in C. C is also a "thing", it just happens to be usually compiled ahead of time.

[1]: Technically the term should be native/machine code or such. Assembly _usually_ refers to text format assembler listing.

Edit: Wow, so many downvotes? Even though that 100% was just as meaningful as 3 billion. Ok...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'm just happy I could deinstall Java on my mothers PC because 98% (?) of LibreOffice functionality runs without Java, so no need to keep this hell of update software on a Windows machine. The first thing Java and especially the main JVM maintainer for PCs (Oracle) should do is:

1\. stop distributing junk like Ask toolbar.

2\. make Java automatic updates as easy as updating Chrome.

JVM is big adware nowadays and annoying to update for normal non tech people out there.</comment>


Y Combinator Breach? - <AUTHOR> Today I was notified by Google that I should change my password on ycombinator because of the breach. Is this true? <comment><USER2> The google password monitor checks the password you are using on each site you visit (if it is stored in their password vault) and looks for that credential in known breaches. It doesn't mean HN was breached specifically.

<comment><USER3> Yup, this is a newer chrome feature or you can navigate to

[https://passwords.google.com](https://passwords.google.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's faster to get an official reply by sending an email to the mods firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER5> I am on a breach-monitoring service, and I have received no such notice. I'd be at least a little suspicious.</comment>


Do Not Use Acronyms - <AUTHOR> https://blog.bloomca.me/2018/06/05/do-not-use-acronyms.html <comment><USER2> Use of abbreviations is one of the greatest contributors to cognitive complexity I've seen in code. There's been plenty of times that I've renamed the variables in a method and all of a sudden what was completely inscrutable is really very simple.

Acronyms are a particularly nasty subset of abbreviations because they're accepted in discussion of business needs and even in tutorials and documentation.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like Elon Musk's approach and its blessing of widely-used acronyms. My industry both uses a ton of acronyms _and_ requires that formal written work define an acronym the first time it's used in a document. This requirement has no exceptions, even for widely-known acronyms like "NCIS"</comment>


Conclusion: Dropbox and Apache don't mix - <AUTHOR> http://scripting.com/stories/2010/11/29/conclusionDropboxAndApache.html <comment><USER2> I have some problems with this story. It highlights a potential problem, but so little information is given it is hardly more than anecdotal. Why not do some deeper analysis? What process is using all that CPU? dropbox or apache? Is this also an issue on *nix or os x?

I believe that the hacker mindset is about confronting problems given a toolset, and using said tools to come up with a solution. In no way is that reflected in this article. So you tried a new workflow, and it caused your CPU to spike. That is hardly newsworthy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just sharing what I learned. As they say "your mileage may vary."</comment></comment>


In Surprise Meeting, China's President Greets Michelle Obama - josh-wrale http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/03/in-surprise-meeting-chinas-president-greets-michelle-obama/

<comment> josh-wrale Is this photoshopped?</comment>


Rubber concrete that self-seals and is cheaper and more environmentally friendly - <AUTHOR> https://newatlas.com/materials/rubbery-crack-resistant-cement/ <comment><USER2> Rubber is a latex or elastomer, not the substance described here. The original article used rubbery in the title, an adjective that means tough and elastic. Better not to have been changed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Another interesting material is Papercrete.[1]

 _" Papercrete gets its name from the fact that most formulas use a mixture of water and cement with cellulose fiber. The fiber is usually acquired from recycled newspaper, lottery tickets and phone books. The mixture has the appearance and texture of oatmeal and is poured into forms and dried in the sun, much like the process for making adobe._

 _" Dried papercrete has very low strength, but fails by slow compression (due to the large air content and hence compressibility) rather than in a brittle manner. Concrete and wood (though dry soft wood can be as high as R-2 per inch, high moisture content reduces this value markedly.) are not known for their insulating qualities; however, papercrete also provides good insulation..._

 _" Unlike concrete or adobe, papercrete blocks are lightweight, less than a third of the weight of a comparably-sized adobe brick. Papercrete is mold resistant and has utility as a sound-proofing material."_

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

<comment><AUTHOR> Also hempcrete [1], an environmentally friendly variation on limecrete which was successfully used in an episode of the recent series Grand Designs: The Street [2].

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

[2] [https://www.granddesignsmagazine.com/grand-designs- houses/44...](https://www.granddesignsmagazine.com/grand-designs- houses/445-grand-designs-the-street-episode-3)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > rice husk cinder, limestone crushing waste, and silica sand.

Is this really a new idea? Back in the 90s when I did my civil engineering degree (I changed major later), my professor was big into rice hull ash as an concrete additive. He did tons of research into the properties.

<comment><USER5> It's probably not a new idea, but it might be newly-relevant seeing as concrete is under the magnifying glass for its emissions as it's curing.

More expensive concrete might have become economically viable if it emits less greenhouse gas or if you need less of it. And if it's not currently economically viable it might still become viable in the future, prompting more research into it by companies hoping to have first-mover advantage.

That said I'm not a concrete expert. I don't know why this sort of concrete isn't currently being used, nor the relative pricing of it relative to ordinary concrete.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> If it's cheaper and more resilient, why is it only focused on civil and military structures? What's the trade off?

<comment><USER7> Probably because (among other reasons) structural reinforced concrete _depends_ on cracking, both to develop internal strength and to prevent abrupt catastrophic failure. ACI building code (or a derivative) applies in most US jurisdictions, and it relies on heavily on the premise of concrete showing cracks before reaching the failure point of the internal steel. It ensures a failure mode that illicits a warning.

(The internal strength development _probably_ wouldn't be as much of an issue with the "rubbery" concrete, assuming the compressive strength is equivalent, but I'm sure there are other considerations I haven't thought of. You're changing fundamental properties of the material that is expected by most designers. Existing brittleness is accounted for and expected.)

Civil Defense and Military applications don't necessarily have the same design requirements, or need to be as compliant with a particular building code, as they're typically exempt from local building regulations and/or have their own separate building standards.

On the other hand, asphalt pavement design is based on principles that could benefit from such a material without having to completely re-invent the design code.

<comment><USER8> Great explanation, thank you. A cogent answer to a question I would have never thought to ask.

Maybe that visual inspection requirement will change as we develop non- destructive testing options.

<comment><USER7> Non destructive testing exists and is fairly mature for reinforced concrete. It's just more expensive. But it's not so much about testing, since once a structure is built, you're not going to get the owner to pay for any more testing, until signs of potential failure arise. You need an obvious reason to test in the first place.

Testing also somewhat implies that the design or material is defective; but that's only two paths to failure out of many. More likely, the structure is overloaded, or supplemental supports are removed prematurely, as is what seems to be the case for the recent hard-rock hotel collapse in New Orleans.

This isn't too say that new materials don't have a beneficial use. We would probably need to develop a new and separate sub-discipline, the same way pre- stressed and post-stressed concrete structures are designed, which have since been included into ACI code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> How does this bond with existing concrete? Could it be used for repairs/renovations of existing structures.

Also - reinforced concrete works as the steel rods that give the concrete strength, expand and contract at exactly the same rate as concrete. Is that still the same with this version?

<comment><USER6> >steel rods that give the concrete strength, expand and contract at exactly the same rate as concrete.

How cool, didn't know that. Makes so much sense.

<comment><USER7> They're close, but not exact. I think concrete on usually given as 13.5 (0.0000135 in/inR), and steel as 11 (0.0000110).

It's this difference that reduces RC life expectancy from 100's of years (as advertised by the concrete industry in the early 1900's) to the neighborhood of 10-50 years that we typically see.

Whereas glass and platinum, for instance, are generally considered to be exact, and are used for precision measuring and calibration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I doubt about the mainstream sustainability of it, if considered with mega structures.

Currently, more high-rise building are built then past. The base of building requires high-rigidness and compressible strength which is fulfilled by traditional concrete. But if we replace it with some flexible substance[ideally only at higher loads], It will start bending when traditional concrete would perform easily. moreover it will also affect all the application which are based on rigidness of concrete, eg, Floor tile/stone will crack open, furniture will break, your plumbing will bend etc.

so, much more research is needed. and possible whole other way of construction process has to be created to sustain new challenges.

<comment><USER11> I don't know the numbers but it doesn't sound like it makes concrete wobbly- wiggly.

And ther are always shearing forces, especially with high-rises (wind), and probably this added plastic helps with that. (Less creeping cracks, better handling of repetitive stress / cyclic elastic deformation - eg bridges, roads, floors.)

<comment><USER10> > it makes concrete wobbly-wiggly.

That is why i wrote "some flexible substance[ideally only at higher loads],"

yes, it can make positive impact on many use-cases. But I think we should focus more on the production of cement with negative or neutral CO2 yield. Cement is one of the least blamed cause of CO2 emission, but It really should be blamed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interesting how we use "more environmentally friendly" now instead of "less environmentally hostile". Language skewed towards marketability.

<comment><USER13> When has "less environmentally hostile" ever been used in the first place? Hostile itself would be the wrong term anyway - it is usually apathy not some deranged hatred of nature that drives pollution in building materials.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> How about this idea: Mix ping-pong balls with concrete. It becomes much lighter then. Because it is lighter it can much more easily support the weight of the (similar) concrete structures above it. Just a thought has anyone tried such a thing?

<comment><USER15> Two issues: 1) unequal dispersion of the balls could create super weak spots that are mostly empty space. I'm not sure how engineers could use a material where the structural integrity isn't consistent. 2) If water ever penetrated the swiss-cheesyness of the concrete in freezing weather, you'd be in big trouble.

<comment><USER16> Yeah, this is already a nightmare with rebar in reinforced concrete. Just imagine actual ping pong ball sized voids filling with moisture. Swiss cheese, indeed.

<comment><USER14> But it wouldn't be holes, it would be water-tight ping-pong balls.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What's the dry time? And can it be expedited with an industrial "blow dryer" ?

<comment><USER18> concrete doesn't dry, it cures. it's beneficial to spray curing concrete with water.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Would it flex too much where it shouldn't?</comment>


The Sticky, Untold Story of Cinnabon - <AUTHOR> https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2017/10/23/scents-from-a-mall-the-sticky-untold-story-of-cinnabon <comment><USER2> Totally random factoid: Cinnabon is huge in Saudi Arabia, which is one of the few places that gives the US a run for its money in having large numbers of wealthy and morbidly obese people who drive everywhere and get virtually no exercise.

I also spotted one in Tokyo earlier this year, nestled in the shadow of the Mori Tower in one of the toniest neighbourhoods in the country. The rolls were scaled down to Japanese size expectations, but the shop was still rattlingly empty every time I passed by around 9 AM in the morning at what you'd expect to be commuter peak hour.

<comment><USER3> Does 'toniest' mean wealthy / snobbish? I've never heard it used in this context. Thanks.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I think this is the first time I've ever even heard 'toniest'

<comment><USER5> Its a slightly older slang term but its obvious me what 'toniest' means.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> That's a neat little human interest story!

<comment> mark-r Yes it is. But the lessons for the HN crowd are to pay attention to the ingredients of your success. Even after nailing so many aspects of the business right out of the gate, they had to discover the factors that made for a good location. A/B testing is a wonderful tool that these folks didn't have.

<comment><USER3> I also liked the bit about being confident in what you are / what you have / what you offer. Instead of worrying about public opinion and blow back for being unhealthy or partnering with a television show about cooking meth the Cinnabon company embraced everything. It won't work so well for everyone, but I think companies and products that are a bit more on the unsavory side could take a big lesson, here.

It's much more endearing than lying or being fake. It's much more endearing to admit faults or to be honest with your customers and the public about your goals and how you perceive yourself. People might not love everything about you, your product, your services or what you stand for but they will find more reasons to hate you for being a liar than for simply acknowledging what everyone already knows about you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cinnabon is a guilty pleasure when I'm visiting family in the US and Canada. There was only one remaining store in the UK in the Trocadero Centre in London last time I looked, but it seems they have expanded again and have a bunch of London locations and a couple outside of London. When I was working in London I would go every now and again and buy a tray and take them back to the office. No one ever complained.

</comment><comment><USER8> Stories of chain restaurant origins are really interesting, except I find them hard to read because I'm so grossed out by the amount of obesity, diabetes, and heart-disease they've caused. Cinnabon is surely only a little behind Philip Morris in collateral damage caused.

<comment><USER9> > Cinnabon is surely only a little behind Philip Morris in collateral damage > caused.

I disagree. I had a bad bowel obstruction once after minor surgery. I was backed up for over a week. My doctor told me to head straight to the local mall and get a Cinnabon. It flushed me out like it was opening the gates of the Erie Canal.

It was a miracle. The doctor later told me that he is 14 for 16 for getting people to start pooping again through Cinnabon.

<comment><USER10> Cinnamon is a laxative, and has been used in herbal medicine for a long time.

In this case, it's the 15 teaspoons of sugar that helps the medicine go down!</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Chrome extension warning user of hitting maxlength in password fields - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jamespwilliams/MaxLengthWarner <comment><AUTHOR> After reading a number of comments on Hacker News recently expressing frustration at maxlength password fields on websites, I have written this (tiny) Chrome extension which gives a visual clue to the user that they are hitting the maxlength of the field.

The extension works on any website, and gives input fields a noticeable (but not obnoxious) shake effect when entering past the maximum length of the field.

The extension can be found here: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mpponigpclkmpdamde...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mpponigpclkmpdamdedffdlhcgdjcijn)</comment>


When C extensions crash: easier debugging for your Python test suite - <AUTHOR> https://pythonspeed.com/articles/python-c-extension-crashes/ <comment><USER2> This is why I think Python programmers are suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Why you'd write your app in Python and dealing with crashing C extensions, asyncio, mypy, etc, when you can write Go, which is fast, allows you to approach concurrency synchronously, and has a type system for anything other than data science is beyond me.

Go is really the successor to Python more than any other language. If combines the same love of simplicity, readability, and the "one way to do things" approach that made Python so successful with modern day takes on multithreading and safety.

<comment><USER3> You're missing the point of what makes Python attractive (to me at the very least):

-> Easy to pick up

-> Ecosystem of libs : whatever domain specific problem you're dealing with, there's probably something out there to help you.

-> Ecosystem of users : be it for hiring or simply stack overflowing your issues, there's plenty of people.

All of this contributes to make Python the best Swiss Army knife of programming.

If you go chopping some wood, I'd recommend using an axe / chainsaw / saw but for the day to day, your generalist tool does the trick.

<comment><USER2> None of those things are specific to Python. In fact Go's formal specification is small enough to be read in one sitting, and it omits concepts like decorators, generators, and sheds alternatives for single solutions, such as removing inheritance in favor of only composition. Go is designed to be picked up faster than any language.

Go is also designed to be easily understood. Python uses a lot of magic, like MagicMock, operator overloading, any all of the fun dynamic overloading you can do. Go favors being incredibly, stupidly simple instead.

Go also has a huge user base and although Go has no formal package repository, Go's popularity makes it exceedingly likely that you will not just find a package for what you're doing, but a package that is actually maintained and being actively worked on.

There's also nothing about Go that makes it less of a generalist language than Python.</comment></comment></comment>


The GoF patterns implemented in Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://clipboarded.blogspot.com/2007/10/gof-patterns-implemented-in-ruby.html <comment><USER2> These are great!</comment>


Welcoming Adrian Cockcroft to the AWS Team - <AUTHOR> http://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2016/10/welcoming-adrian-cockcroft-to-tthe-aws-team.html <comment><USER2> Nice addition to AWS team! Adrian was my boss at Netflix when Netflix started the transition to the cloud. Not only Adrian is a great smart guy but he had always been happy to share his knowledge. He was the best engineering manager I ever had in my career by a huge factor! Congrats Adrian!

</comment><comment><USER3> AWESOME NEWS!!! Very fortunate to call Adrian a friend, truly an incredibly kind and generous human. He gave me a lot of really good advice when I was working at DigitalOcean, so I can only imagine how much of a benefit he will be to AWS. Awesome awesome awesome.

</comment><comment><USER4> Anyone who did Solaris admin in the 90s and early 00s would know the name very well.

Interesting as of 2010 he had not even used Solaris for four years.

Good reading: [http://perfcap.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/open-letter-to-my- sun...](http://perfcap.blogspot.com.au/2010/08/open-letter-to-my-sun-friends- at-oracle.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> Woah ! Big catch. He's obviously got some super dope scale experience from Netflix. Can only mean good things for AWS, considering MSFT is snatching some big cos as customers.

<comment><USER6> > He's obviously got some super dope scale experience from Netflix.

Actually, it's the other way around. He designed and built it, and Netflix learned scale experience from him.

Probably the most influential and successful IT manager in human history. (I worked in his group at Netflix.)

<comment><USER7> > Probably the most influential and successful IT manager in human history.

Wow. That's a big claim. I'd think that Fred Brooks (System 360) or Steve Jobs (the mac) might be in the running as well.

<comment><USER8> Urs?

<comment><USER9> I'd say Urs is on another level than all known eng manager to the public. He directed the evolution of Google's infrastructure, which pretty much is always at the forefront of modern large scale infrastructure.

I work at Google

<comment><USER10> Google is the leader in large scale infrastructure for a single (or small set) of customers (Google, Youtube etc). You could call this "private hyper-scale cloud". AWS is the leader in vending that infrastructure to the rest of the world (a.k.a. public cloud).

I would argue that over time the second market will be much larger and more important than what Google built internally.

<comment><USER9> > a single (or small set) of customers (Google, Youtube etc)

Well, the applications inside Google are equally diverse compared to applications running on AWS, or at least on the same level. Google's infrastructure is used for an extremely wide range of use cases, from running a shell command remotely, to support planetary deployment of world's largest customer-facing applications.

It was not designed for simple or uniform use cases. Actually, it is impossible to design something that is simple and uniform, and at the same can support Google's growth on the way.

Your examples, Google (search), youtube, are actually examples that have extremely diverse requirements across their entirely tech stack. In fact, many of its requirements cannot be supported in any existing public Cloud providers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Adrian is an amazing guy.

Truly knowledgeable. Humble. Technically deep. I've never worked FOR him but I've heard several times how good of a boss he is.

This is a great win for AWS.

</comment><comment><USER12> Congratulations, Adrian!</comment>


Google's Widevine L3 DRM has been broken - <AUTHOR> https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/01/02/googles-widevine-l3-drm-used-by-netflix-hulu-and-hbo-has-been-broken/ <comment><USER2> Do many sites use L3 widevine anymore?

I've been running Android with an unlocked bootloader and no verified boot for a while, and none of my usual streaming apps have stopped working.

<comment><USER3> None that I'm aware of. This is two levels away from having real world impact.

<comment><USER4> and iirc Level 2 is rarely used.

L2 is iirc when its decrypted within a trusted platform and another method used for video decoding (So you could in theory pluck the video stream out between the TEE after its been decrypted and what ever is being used to decode the stream.)

But as far as I recall you can't (Bloody Typo's) do things like decode a L1 protected stream with an L3 attack.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Escapa clone - <AUTHOR> http://fog.hycken.com/escapa

<comment><AUTHOR> I was sent a link to an old game and found it too choppy to play, so I tried making my own clone using some more modern javascript features. Original: [http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html](http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html)</comment>


Ask HN: How Many Email Addresses Do You Have? - <AUTHOR>

Hey HN! I am just curious how many email addresses do you have? <comment><USER2> An infinite number. Gmail has tricks which allow for disposable email addresses and my domain email addresses are setup with wildcards, so I just create whatever email addresses I want on the fly. All email goes through the same pipes, but I can filter them based on what's on the left side of the @ symbol.

</comment><comment><USER3> One.

I used to have 5 or 6, some related to different companies, some for junk, etc., but now I find it much easier to just use a single address for everything.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> So I guess not many people have multiple emails. Hmmm

</comment><comment><USER4> One - that I've been using for 12 years.

</comment><comment><USER5> 1</comment>


Video: Scaling Scala at Twitter  - <AUTHOR> http://ontwik.com/scala/scaling-scala-at-twitter-by-marius-eriksen/

<comment><USER2> They should rename Twitter to Scaler.</comment>


PySide: LGPL Python bindings for the Qt Framework - <AUTHOR> http://www.pyside.org/

<comment><USER2> Related work: "Although based on a different technology than the existing GPL- licensed PyQt bindings, PySide will initially be 100% API-compatible with them."

Background: "Work on PySide was initiated within the Maemo division of Nokia once the lack of suitably licensed Qt Python bindings became apparent."

</comment><comment><USER3> It is very disappointing that Nokia and Riverbank couldn't find a way to work together. Phil (at Riverbank) has done a tremendous job of supporting Qt on Python, when Trolltech wouldn't. He has always been responsive, and attentive to details.

</comment><comment><USER4> I feel a bit sorry for Riverbank, the company that makes the existing PyQt bindings, because their business model is being wiped out as Nokia replicates their efforts 1:1. Riverbank relied on dual licensing (GPL + commercial) to monetize their open source work, but this doesn't work anymore as Nokia has converted the entire Qt ecosystem to LGPL.

But such is life for a toolmaker: when the platform provider decides that your product is good enough to be integrated, you're out of business. The best defense is probably to make tools that are not merely API plumbing, but have a user-facing component that is not easily replicated.

<comment><USER5> Could they just have sold to the platform provider? Maybe not in this case, but in general is a possible and good strategy?

<comment><USER4> The PySide FAQ says: _Nokia's initial research into Python bindings for Qt involved speaking with Riverbank Computing, the makers of PyQt. We had several discussions with them to see if it was possible to use PyQt to achieve our goals. Unfortunately, a common agreement could not be found, so in the end we decided to proceed with PySide._

It sounds like Nokia wanted to make a deal first. Maybe Riverbank underestimated Nokia's willingness to throw sheer manpower at working around them, or perhaps Riverbank thought that reimplementing the APIs through "cleanroom" reverse engineering would be more difficult than it turned out to be.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cool, though there is no Windows or Mac support (so far).

<comment><USER2> Now that Nokia owns Qt, it'll be interesting to see what stance they take towards Microsoft's and Apple's desktop platforms.

Somehow I think proprietary desktops have relevance to Nokia only as platforms for rich internet applications which currently need some access to native APIs, while the main focus is naturally on keeping their mobile offerings number one (based on the number of units in use). Qt as a cross-platform native API is an edge in this against Microsoft's and Apple's mobile platforms.

To help in this, they can continue to bring software from the Free desktops to the mobile world (Maemo, Qt, Python). They consider web developers important, which can be seen in their work to integrate WebKit, Javascript, CSS, SVG into Qt.</comment></comment>


Karachi Vice - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/21/karachi-vice-inside-city-riven-by-killings-kidnappings-and-terrorism <comment><USER2> I was fortunate to have spent a year or so in Pakistan helping launch Easypaisa - one of the biggest mobile banking deployments globally at the time.

I was told I was lucky to survive my first day without getting shot - I hung out on Karachi beach with the locals on National day which apparently made me a huge target for theft or kidnapping.

While I was in Islamabad the Taliban took over the military headquarters, the city was bombed a few times, and I spent one day in Karachi moving between safe houses as rival gangs took to shooting each other in the streets.

My wife is half Indian - we had to hide her identity when she visited (we went with "Persian").

The country was one of amazing contrasts. Kindness and terror, beauty (natural) and ugliness (man made).

I say "fortunate" because of the (a) new perspectives gained while being there; (b) having the pleasure of working with some of the brightest and hard- working people I have ever worked with; (c) being part of a project that has helped empower tens of millions of people.

The most beautiful place I ever went in over 40 countries I have visited was the foothills of K2 mountains, and watching a Polo match at the birth place of Polo in Baltistan (despite my Indian wife and I being surrounded by 15000 men chanting "Death to India" while war raged on in the SWAT valley a few hundred km's away).

A last footnote. Pakistan has been in the middle of so many proxy wars and have such a crazy history that most people I met have woven together the fabric of truth and fantasy to create some of the most amazing conspiracy theories you could ever imagine.

<comment><USER3> Depends which beach? While there is genuine danger, they might have been playing that up for you with respect to that particular location....I will point out that in 2000, they had a lower murder rate than Chicago, thanks to the excellent work of the CPLC.

I'm shocked you had to hide her identity in Karachi - usually there and Punjab are welcoming of visiting Indians, esp. if they're your wife

<comment><USER2> I forget which beach. I am glad that it is relatively safe now.

My first visit was 2006. On my return visits in 2008/9 I was accompanied by security who were probably over-protective as well.

As far as my wife is concerned, we travelled a lot throughout Pakistan - perhaps we were too cautious - although we did come up against a lot of anti- Indian sentiment. We found attitudes vary a lot from place to place about a lot of things, and this is no different.

I remember a well educated guy I knew telling me that he stopped going to the Wagga border post near Lahore for fear that he would throw a rock at the Indian border guards in the heat of the moment...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Being a born Karachiite I don't agree with the tone of the article, it's giving feeling it's more dangerous than FATA area of Pakistan which is definitely not. Here markets remain open late night, people stay with their friend and families on road on weekends. Just last week I had a wonderful 'Sea View' trip and it was marvelous. The guy behind `Humans of New York` recently made a trip of Pakistan including Karachi.

In short, Karachi is not part of Afghanistan and you may have a wonderful time here. Here crime rate is no larger than any other mega city in the world.

[http://tribune.com.pk/story/951511/crime-rate-in-karachi- fal...](http://tribune.com.pk/story/951511/crime-rate-in-karachi-falls- by-70-police-chief/)

</comment><comment><USER5> > News tickers revealed which gates the army was entering from, where police > were situated, and which areas were being cordoned off. Inside the airport, > the militants were keeping up with the TV updates and adjusting their > positions accordingly. "I accept this is the wrong thing," Hyder said later, > with a guilty laugh. "But what can I do? It's my work."

Hey, the militants must've also accepted they were doing the wrong thing, but what can they do? It's their job. /sarcasm

Great job for strengthening the terrorists' position. The good guys in the government and police are trying to combat the insurgency, and these leeches are undermining that effort.

<comment><USER6> This is what happened in the Mumbai attacks in 2007 too, the media was giving away every single thing happening outside.

<comment><USER7> That's the free market: competition between different media agencies and no government regulation.

<comment><USER8> No that's journalists not behaving ethically - just because your a hack doesn't mean you can shout fire in the crowded theatre.

And of course they are now on ISI, SIS and the CIA's watch list.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I live in Karachi. Please pray that I escape this city.

<comment><USER10> Is daily life that bad? I just had a look at Wikitravel and it sounded pretty nice. I was expecting warnings and stuff after reading this (like you get when reading about Mogadishu for example).

[http://wikitravel.org/en/Karachi#Stay_safe](http://wikitravel.org/en/Karachi#Stay_safe)

<comment><USER11> No it's not that bad. Most places in city are like some areas of New York city more or less in terms of security. Surprisingly, people are more helpful and friendly in Karachi than in NYC.

<comment><USER9> says the guy ... anyways :P

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> A little dated, but with many of the same characters (including a show- stealing appearance by now-jailed Uzair Baloch) is the "VICE Guide to Karachi" on YouTube. The Pakistani co-founder of VICE has some political connections, hence his ability to do interviews willy-nilly.

NB: The mustachioed policeman in the series, Chaudhry Aslam, was assassinated by a car bomb early last year.

<comment><USER12> Uzair Baloch skipped bail in Dubai a few months ago and disappeared, likely to Afghanistan where he apparently has warlord friends.

<comment><USER3> One wonders whether he has a empty pool to show off again

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I wonder what role optimization algorithms can play in reducing crime rates. The police are under staffed, but can those minimal resources be used for maximum output in terms of safety?

</comment><comment><USER14> >> the last two killed themselves by detonating their suicide vests.

Couldn't they take off the vests and detonate them, without blowing themselves up?

<comment><USER15> Not only would they generally prefer 'martyrdom' to capture, they're often locked in the vests. Survival is not a priority for these kinds of operations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I hear things are on the mend with the rangers operation. Soon (hopefully) Karachi will return to its former glory.</comment>


Myers–Briggs Personality Type Indicator - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers–Briggs_Type_Indicator <comment><USER2> Make sure to read the "Criticism" section of the article before you read any other parts.

This test is bad, and there are other tests that are better. I'm surprised by how frequently I encounter people who are familiar with the test, but not of the fact that it is far from even an attempt at good science.

</comment><comment><USER3> I find the classification to be surprisingly accurate. I've done several tests and every time so far I've learned something new/gained a fresh perspective.

It's mildly disturbing to me that we're so easy to classify, and the idea of having to perform a test like this as part of a job interview just feels wrong.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As an INTJ, I have been suprised about accuracy of the test + results.

I'm curious about what other people think about it.</comment>


OCaPIC: PIC microcontrollers programmed in OCaml - <AUTHOR> http://www.algo-prog.info/ocapic/web/ <comment><USER2> Just a note, this is for PIC18, which is C-friendly. The other 8-bit families (PIC10, PIC12, PIC24, PIC16), the popular ones, are not supported.

This isn't surprising since even a normal C compiler for those is VERY VERY hard. They are very C-hostile (hardware call stack, weirdly banked memory, etc). Some fixes exist in more recent chips (linear memory) but still these are hard for C.

<comment><USER3> To put it into perspective, the PIC10 has _up to_ 512 instructions and 64 bytes of RAM. IMHO it's not something you'd really want to program in anything other than Asm, because even if a C compiler is available, the "dialect" of C you get is so far from "typical" that you're really just using it as a not-so- portable assembler.

I'm not sure why you included the PIC24, because that's a 16-bit family and more into the region of "not too bad to use C with".

<comment><USER2> I meant 14. 24 is basically a PDP11 isa and is great for c

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Great news to see progress on this front. I'd love to see that for dsPIC33.

</comment><comment><USER5> Neat! How portable is the VM?

<comment><USER6> VM is written in PIC18 assembly. It is not portable at all.</comment></comment>


Oracle v. Google - What's The Deal With The Java Specification License? - <AUTHOR> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2012041812230622 <comment><USER2> The more this goes on, the more I'm flabbergasted at the incompetency of the Oracle legal team. I'm sure there are 99 ways to nail Google using Sun/Oracle IP, but the one they picked clearly ain't one.

If things keep going like this, it might actually be the first time in quite a few years that Ellison ends up losing a court case.

<comment><AUTHOR> Right. One thing is certain: Google did whatever it could to find a legal loophole in Sun's licensing to let it basically steal Java (I mean, come-on, legal or not, that's exactly what they did. After all, Dalvik has no technical merit over Sun's JVMs - in fact, it's inferior. Its only value to Google was as a means for legal maneuvering). So Google was certainly not acting in good faith, and I think that when someone is not acting in good faith, there's usually a way to nail them, especially if you can afford good lawyers.

<comment><USER3> Is this the same way Rubinius stole Ruby, Microsoft stole C++ and KDE stole JavaScript? I think the point here is that a language isn't really something you can own. An implementation, sure — but the language itself? Under what law? You can possibly copyright the text of the specification (but certainly not the facts therein), you can copyright the implementation, you can trademark the name and you can patent specific techniques used in the implementation, but what confers ownership of the language itself? I don't believe there is any precedent for a language being wholly "owned" in the sense that nobody else could independently implement the spec.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not the language that they took, but the whole platform. They don't provide a compiler from Java to whatever bytecode Dalvik is using, but from Java bytecode to Dalvik bytecode.

Now I'm not saying they're doing anything illegal or in breach of any contract - I really don't know - and I don't know whether or not you could own a language in the legal sense - I have no idea about that either - but all of Google's actions seem to be in bad faith.

Whether or not it has any legal merit, the Java licensing was specifically meant to ensure compliant implementations. In addition, Sun didn't want other mobile implementations and tried to prevent that. Then Google went ahead, forked Java into a non-compliant implementation (and that would have been fine, too), but built their entire tool system in such a way as to allow many _compiled_ Java libraries to run unmodified on an inferior JVM - sorry, a 'non-Java' VM - that they'd bought with the sole intention of circumventing Sun's licensing.

I don't know if Sun had a right to license Java as they did, and I don't know if Google did anything legally wrong. But what is clear that they've tried to stay as close as possible to Java (the whole platform - not just the language) without breaching the letter of the law in Sun's license. In fact, most of their technical effort was directed at precisely that - circumventing Java's licensing.

Now, I don't know why people are rushing for Google's defense as if they've been acting altruistically or something. Everything the did, or do, they do for profit.

There are no good guys in this story. There are simply two huge conglomerates in a business war. Oracle is trying to take advantage of Android's success where they've failed in the mobile arena, and Google is trying to take advantage of Java's popularity. Both companies are simply trying to exploit each other for their own benefit.

Whatever the legal outcome, I think both developers and consumers would benefit greatly if Android were to become a compliant Java implementation, and could take advantage of Oracle's superior VM.

<comment><USER3> Your only accusation of wrongdoing (either ethical or legal) seems to be that Google "acted in bad faith," but I have no idea what you mean by that. I believe that phrase normally means "used deception and subterfuge," but I don't see how Google did anything duplicitous.

You seem to think I'm "rushing to Google's defense as if they've been acting altruistically". This is incorrect. I don't know what your motivation is here, but I don't really have strong feelings about Google one way or the other. I'm just calling 'em as I see 'em.

All Google did is create its own implementation of a programming language. Never before in history has this been considered an evil thing. It happens all the time. I wouldn't call Rich Hickey or Guy Steele evil for "stealing" Lisp from John McCarthy, so out of consistency, I can't call Google evil for doing the same thing with Java. I also don't see how Google was deceitful in this, as you claim. They seem to have been quite up-front about what they were doing.

In fact, I'll go further: If any party acted in bad faith, it would have to be Oracle, which supported Google and Apache's alternative Java implementations up until it sued Google and gave Apache the middle finger.

<comment><AUTHOR> Google did not just implement the language. In fact, they didn't implement the language at all: to the best of my knowledge they haven't even written a Java compiler.

All they did was write a translation tool that takes Java binaries and makes them run on a different VM, not covered by the Java license. Unlike others who implement languages to provide technical benefits, Google had no such intention. Their only consideration when choosing to re-implement a piece of Java or not was whether it would allow them to evade Java's legal restrictions.

My stake in this is that as a Java/other-JVM-languages developer, I don't like the fact that we now have two incompatible Javas. Now, Google explain their actions by saying that Sun were dragging their feet during negotiations, and maybe they're right. Maybe, thanks to Google we have an almost-Java thingy on a successful mobile platform.

I think the parties should settle, and I hope the result (whether money changes hands or not) would be bringing Android in the Java fold, and making it compatible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Those slides are kind of funny: Oracle's are dark (background and other colors) while Google's are bright. How not to think of StarWars,dark force...?

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't take it this far. I think both companies have crossed over to the dark side a little bit in this matter.</comment></comment>


Nintendo Issues DMCA Takedown for Super Mario Bros. Commodore 64 Port - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/nintendo-issues-dmca-takedown-for-super-mario-bros-commodore-64-port/ <comment><USER2> They issue a takedown for a 34 year old game, ported to a system that's 37 years old. That takes a while to digest. I have noticed that every now and then, youtubers complain about Nintendo being real dicks regarding let's plays or even just using trailer footage in videos, which I can't really understand since it's basically free publicity. But OK, at least those cases are probably related to recent games, so it might make someone at Nintendo think they will lose money because people will watch let's plays instead of buying the game.

But this one is just ridiculous. What are they trying to accomplish? Stop this one dude who's most recent video game system is a C64 from playing super Mario bros for free?

<comment><USER3> Copyright enforcement "wisdom" is that if they don't stop _this_ they lose some of their power at stopping the next copyright infringement.

It does circle back though that Copyright was (constitutionally, in the US) meant to only be a temporary reprieve from the public domain/public access with the express purpose to make it likelier to entre the public domain/public access afterwards, but at this point we've pushed "temporary" beyond the span of a human lifetime for the benefits of inhuman entities (corporations).

Why _should_ 30+ year old things remain in copyright? Corporations collect nice rents on even 30 year old properties. I'm sure Nintendo appreciates how many people need to (re-)buy Super Mario Brothers every couple of years on a new console's "Virtual Console" store every few years to play it legally. Recent game Super Mario Maker even provides a legal way to remix Super Mario content in Nintendo-approved ways. But what is our culture missing out on that public domain won't see access to Super Mario until sometime nearing the end of this century (under current laws, who knows if someone might fight to expand them again), and subsequently outside the lifetimes of many of the folks that played Super Mario Brothers around its original release? Would people even remember Super Mario Brothers? Would what is left to turn back over to the public domain be archived well enough to even be useful to the public domain at that point?

<comment><USER4> Just to play devils advocate: Hollywood and the games industry pump out a lot of shovelware. If there are millions or billions in profits available for making worthwhile IP of lasting value, they might fund riskier, more worthwhile 'art' projects (taking video games to be an art form in this context). It encourages thinking longer time horizons than 'opening weekend' or 'initial Xmas sales', even if just to have an opportunity to make a series of sequels.

That said, 100 years is a bit crazy. Nobody actually plans on that scale, and nobody's bonus depends on projected sales 87 years from today. I think 20-40 years would be equally effective in practice.

<comment><USER3> That is the point of copyright, yes, that a limited monopoly on an intellectual property provides benefits to the creator to tackle other risks.

It's definitely the question of how limited that monopoly is that is at hand. Scale is exactly the question. The current copyright terms are outside of _human_ scale in that they extend past a human lifecycle (explicitly in the case of single, clear authored works as the current copyright is author life plus it's number of years). The original US copyright allowed for 7 years with one possible extension for an additional 7 (for a total of 14 years). That's relatively a lot more human of a scale. (That scale still covers the current 10 year scale of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date, for example. That's 3 MCU planning "Phases" of 3-5 year planning horizons. Imagine if it were only roughly four more years before, say, Iron Man 1 might expire from copyright.)

It doesn't seem likely that we will see copyright terms reduced back down to human scale, but it's a shame.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Its the feel good story of the year.

j/k Super Mario Bros shouldn't even be under copyright anymore. Our copyright laws are horrible and abusive.

</comment><comment><USER6> Well, Nintendo just lost a customer. There's only a certain level of petty bigotry that I can handle, and they've gone way, wayyyy lower than that. It's like the cops arresting a ten year for operation a lemonade stand without a license FFS (and that actually happened in my home town!).

<comment><USER7> I mean, playing devil's advocate, you've got Nintendo protecting a product that they still sell and distribute (3DS Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch Online NES, NES Mini, and various other ports) — and this port is literally just the exact same game: same graphics, music, levels, mechanics. Even if the makers of this clone aren't making a profit from it, the free distribution undermines Nintendo's continued ability to sell a game that people, evidently, still wish to purchase. It isn't as though the developers of the clone couldn't have changed the graphics, music, and level design to make a brand new game for the C64.

I mean, that's just devil's advocate.

To me, Nintendo still makes the most delightful, charming, and enduring games in the industry. Stopping being their customer over one business practice with which you mightn't agree seems like missing the forest for the trees.

<comment><USER6> I understand your advocacy, but their art loses it's charm when I think of the nastiness that their lawyers are wreaking. It's not like they are in a survival or scarcity environment. They are a large, multinational, multibillion dollar company. And they are loosing their million dollar lawyers on some guy for possibly damaging an incredibly small portion of their income. It's just so dirty; the more I think about it, the less happy I am playing their games. So I'd say the forest is already tarnished and dying in my eyes, unfortunately.

<comment><USER7> > on some guy for possibly damaging an incredibly small portion of their > income

No, they're maintaining the precedent that piggy-backing off the fruits of their labour without consent is unacceptable. When they go easy on one thing, that gives carte blanche to the next.

It's not dirty, it's business.

> but their art loses it's charm when I think of the nastiness that their > lawyers are wreaking

> the more I think about it, the less happy I am playing their games

The issue is with the copyright game, not the players who see no alternative but to play it. They have shareholders' investments to protect and must be seen to take action.

All I can say is that Nintendo's lawyers have been doing things like this since the NES, and if Nintendo's art wasn't tarnished in your eyes back then, then this really does sound like a knee-jerk reaction.

<comment><USER8> > When they go easy on one thing, that gives carte blanche to the next.

That's not how copyright works. They can let anything they want slide, and still sue the next one into nothingness.

You may be thinking of a trademark, which requires constant defense to maintain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> On the one hand, I do agree that this is absolutely insane and an indicator that DMCA needs serious reformation.

But at the risk of causing outrage, let me play devil's advocate. To me, this is like spending years building a small model version of a Saturn V rocket to painstaking detail and then not being able to distribute it publicly.

You just spent years on a hobby with little extrinsic value. What could you expect from spending so much time and energy on porting a video game created by a company that isn't owned by you onto a platform that isn't owned by you?

</comment><comment><USER10> Why not embrace the idea and hire them as a one shot contract for a special port (with some tweaks from Nintendo designers ?). They used to be very collaborative in the NES/SNES days .. (based on SimCity port).

</comment><comment><USER11> I think there is a court case that shows it is legitimate to distribute something like this as a patch that requires the original rom.

<comment><USER7> Except that you couldn't make a patch for a NES game that produces a C64 ROM. The patch would effectively be the entirety of the C64 ROM.

<comment> T-hawk You could. Maybe not by the commonly available ROM patching tools. But you could write a program that takes as input the NES ROM and outputs the C64 ROM, such that that program contains nothing copyrighted by Nintendo. It would convert the level layouts and tile/sprite artwork and sound effects and music and so on (maybe even the 6502 assembly routines for jumping and physics and such), from the NES ROM to whatever the C64 port will use natively.</comment></comment></comment>


Five tech-related companies that may not see 2014 - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/01/five-tech-related-companies-that-may-not-see-2014/

<comment><USER2> Spoiler, so you don't have to read it: Nokia, Best Buy, Groupon, AMD</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a good book on IT/Silicon Valley history? - <AUTHOR> Whenever I read about a technology company or a smart mind in the field, and I surf Wikipedia, I am most often left with a feeling of a very small tech world: some of the most interesting technology we use today has been invented in a garage and then been acquired by a "big tech corporation" which itself was likely been founded in another garage. And people involved in those fields are well known amongst each other. Of course, the valley plays a big role in that field which leads to even fewer distances between the "stories" and thus, more interconnection between them.
Since I love to read inspiring biographies, I wonder if there is a biography of the industry-a book about the who is who of tech and/or the valley which would make a delightful and inspiring read.
Any ideas? <comment><USER2> Well Patrick Collision, the founder of Stripe has an interest in silicon valley history. He maintains a list of recommended books on this topics on his personal website here- [https://patrickcollison.com/svhistory](https://patrickcollison.com/svhistory)

</comment><comment><USER3> Not a book but excellent history nontheless "Triumph of the Nerds" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115398/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115398/)

<comment><USER4> Another great video is American Experience: Silicon Valley

One oldie but goodie is Silicon Valley Fever (1984) - which goes into how the how things happened to make it the innovation machine for the 60s-80s (electronics, video games, early computers - pre-internet)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not comprehensive by any means, but _The New New Thing_ , by Michael Lewis, tells an interesting story about Jim Clark, and his role in founding Silicon Graphics, Netscape, myCFO, and Healtheon (later called WebMD).

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_New_Thing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_New_Thing)

</comment><comment><USER6> Heard good things about The Silicon Boys, although it seems a bit dated. [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1274944.The_Silicon_Boys](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1274944.The_Silicon_Boys)

</comment><comment><USER7> not a book, but an excellent story about the valley's early days: Something Ventured [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Ventured](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Ventured) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737747/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Not a book, but the computer history museum has a silicon valley exhibit.

</comment><comment><USER9> _Fire In The Valley_, by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine.

</comment><comment><USER10> Accidental Empires

<comment><USER11> Currently reading this book. Although not a great fit for "history", but it is a great story kind of book with a few good points of advice here and there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nerds 2.0.1, by Stephen Segaller</comment>