Blinded after applying contact lenses with wet hands - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39568781 <comment><USER3> I had acanthamoeba in 2001.

You pretty much have to have a corneal abrasion (scratch) before introducing the eye to water. It's not something you're going to get randomly from taking a shower or swimming. However, wearing contacts regularly for the last twenty years, I tend to get an abrasion once every two years or so. I'm extra careful during these times..

In 2001, there were about 7 cases in the US per year. It took me 6 months of excruciating pain and three eye doctors just to diagnose it. Luckily the third doctor really knew what he was doing. He diagnosed it in about 2-3 visits, snuck me some non-FDA approved drops with chlorine in them, and got rid of the infection.

I had to do a corneal transplant and still can't see very well out of it - cloudy with an astigmatism too large to correct.

Here's a good resource: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3972779/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3972779/)

<comment><USER4> How can you tell that you have a corneal abrasion?

<comment><USER5> It's can be quite unpleasant. The test for it is very straight forward - <USER2> drops and someone looks into your eye. Wear goggles when grinding steel and even if you do, take care when washing your face afterwards. Steel stuck in your cornea, cutting your eyelid when blinking is terrible.

<comment><USER6> > Wear goggles when grinding steel and even if you do, take care when washing > your face afterwards.

Go one further: Goggles and a face shield, minimum. Why?

Have you ever had a right-angle grinder wheel explode? I have (it was actually a cut-off wheel). At the time I wasn't wearing even goggles, just my eye glasses. Amazingly, nothing hit me in the face, but I do remember hearing the part ricochet around my friend's shop (fortunately, I was the only one in it at the time).

Unfortunately, a piece hit my knuckle - extremely hard; I thought I had lost my finger, but amazingly not (oh, I wasn't wearing gloves, either).

I should've got stitches, but my friend took care of it; we washed it out, wrapped it up, then he gave me a percocet to take the edge off the pain. I remember at one point we looked at it after it had been a few hours, to see if I could still move it; I started to flex it, and had a small Monty Python flesh-wound moment (seriously, it made me laugh it was so cliche looking - though completely real); but I could move it. All's good today, still typing with it!

Basically me doing everything wrong (it really was all my fault, I shouldn't have been handling that equipment - I think I was also wearing shorts, a t-shirt and open-toe sandals at the time - a total DERP moment, but that's all it took), I knew better even then, but I was stupid that day. Faster than you can blink, bam, and there it was.

I take a lot more precautions now before I handle spinning cutting/grinding shit moving at 20k RPM (though I am still not a fan of my friend's open-guard 9 inch grinder - the thing will grind anything off anything, but holy hell is it dangerous to use - if that thing let loose, no amount of safety equipment will save you).

Oh - and if you are arc welding, don't wear a white shirt; reflection of the arc can bounce off inside your helmet, and still cause "welder's blindness" \- which is basically a nice sunburn to the cornea; generally not a permanent thing, but hurts like hell for a long while.

<comment><USER7> Also, use a guard on angle grinders! And keep it in between you and the work! A man was killed by an exploding cutting disk at a company I used to work at. Shrapnel lodged in his chest, he took the guard off to get at something more easily.

<comment><USER5> Yes. It's a tradesman hack to buy a 115mm grinder (it's cheap), take off the guard and fit 125mm disks. People have been killed here recently by broken bits firing out. Cutting disks are so thin that a minor course correction can easily break them. Someone I know had a labourer use a grinder with a broken on off switch. One day the guy put it under his arm and plugged it in, and it cut through artery, vein and nerve. A year later and he is just starting part time work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 1\. Person suffers a loss or misfortune.

2\. Person decides to dedicate resources to educate and prevent the misfortune from happening to somebody else.

I think these people should get more recognition; it is a proof of their commitment to our society and to the well-being of their fellow humans. Much appreciated!

<comment><USER9> I don't quite see it that way. More often than not, it's

1\. Person suffers a loss or misfortune.

2\. Person makes widely inaccurate extrapolations on the actual danger, without seeing the broad implications or consequences by scaring people into woefully uninformed behavior, under the guise of 'but look! it happened to me! It'll happen to you!'.

Case in point from the media last week: ticks and Lyme disease. Some woman on the news on a personal crusade against Lyme because she contracted it when she was 13 and it caused major issues in her 20's. Sucks for her, of course, and some sort of public awareness about checking for ticks when you've been out in nature is good; but her message was hysterical. Our local equivalent of the CDC basically says 'we have basic awareness campaigns, but we don't want to scare people from going outside, because the benefits outweigh the risks'. And then you have one person who has her 15 minutes of fame, spreading massive misinformation about risks to a general population that isn't capable of understanding the concept a normal distribution curve, let alone make an assessment on an epidemiological risk.

<comment><USER10> Except that the tick danger is not exaggerated. If you frequent the woods (and I mean, go inside them, not just staying on the paths), then you _will_ get ticks (clothing doesn't make a difference unless you go in a space suit). And if you keep doing that for years, you will rack up a dozen - or rather, dozens - of ticks, and chances for tick-borne diseases are surprisingly high.

<comment><USER11> This depends on so many things - your comment is precisely hysterical.

It depends on where you live, whether or not you check yourself after you leave the woods, what kinds of ticks they are, whether the disease is being carried, and what kind of disease it is.

I grew up in the woods. I've had lots of ticks crawl all over me. I've only been bitten a time or two. And the ticks I've encountered don't carry Lyme's disease.

And that is NOT to say that my experience is everyone's experience and that there is no danger. But your comment is absolutely exaggerated.

<comment><USER10> My statements are true for most of central Europe. They are also true for large parts of the US. Solid data backs this up. This is not an emotional argument, tick prevalence is a well-researched field with lots of data.

<comment><USER9> The data says it's likely you'll get ticks, but _not_ that you'll suffer severe consequences if you do minimal care. Every bushcrafter and scout knows to check for ticks. The prevalence of life-long Lyme disease with debilitation consequences is very small. I know that you're not even claiming otherwise, but the way you're making your argument is scare mongering and misleading to those who know nothing about ticks and tick-borne diseases.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The only thing I can contribute to this is my experience of one-eyedness. I think people are probably more afraid of it than they should be, having had eyesight in two eyes till I was early twenties I can remember the difference. In terms of your daily life it's almost no impact, there are three things that for me are important.

Reduced spatial awareness on the bad side (duh), so you'll be slightly more likely to stumble a bit or bump into something and seem clumsy

Certain sports are much harder and you pretty much couldn't compete in them - almost any sport involving a ball. However this leaves lots of sports and I was fairly successful in grappling sports afterwards

Low level fear - I don't have a spare and being actually blind is obviously orders of magnitude more impact on your life.

<comment><USER13> It's amazing you mention that, I have amblyopia, but I actually learnt about that name into my late twenties. I always had a lazy eye (had an operation when I was 4, but did nothing...), so that lazy eye never properly developed, it hava a vision of like 2/10\. It only see the left far side, very blurry, so I have an almost 100% field of view, but that's about it.

It never bother me, except what you talked about, is some very particular tasks, some task like filling a glass of water can be challenging as I have no parallax, so no real depth of field. Sometimes I can't tell if your glass is right under my jug or not. Sports with ball, forget it, ping-pong and badminton was just impossible for me in high-school/college. Bumping into things happen often, and no 3D movies for me, also VR is a lot less appealing and immersive :(

<comment><USER14> I have amblyopia in one eye too, try doing LSD or one of its semi-legal analogues. While on 300µg I was able to read with the lazy eye and got 3d vision. I was looking at a tree with lots of branches and suddenly it clicked. I retained 3d vision for about 2 weeks afterwards, progressively weaker.

Interesting experience. 3d vision really means depth is directly perceived in the same manner as width and height. Now I understand why so many people are afraid of heights.

<comment><USER13> Funny thing actually there are treatments for amblyopia and they consist of hiding your good eye while you're watching psychedelic/highly coloured images with your other.

Can't find the name of the company who do that, I did contact them, but mine was too severe to be considered for trials.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> As a former contact lens wearer, infections like these, amongst a lot of other reasons, are why I chose PRK (laser eye surgery). Statistically, there's a higher chance of infection with wearing contacts than there is with receiving laser eye surgery[0]. I paid about $3k and came out with better vision than I had with glasses/contacts. The only negative side effects I've noticed are slight starbursts around lights at night, but its never been a problem and now I rarely notice it.

I would also recommend PRK over LASIK because LASIK requires permanent flaps to be cut on the surface of your eyes. This can sometimes lead to some nasty accidents with the flap being damaged in certain cases. PRK has been around a lot longer and requires wearing bandages over the eyes for a couple of weeks, which is why LASIK became more popular for a while (i.e. the flaps act as bandages). But now they can provide contact bandages for PRK where you aren't blind and useless for weeks making LASIK less desirable.

0\. [http://www.webmd.com/content/article/128/117072.htm](http://www.webmd.com/content/article/128/117072.htm)

<comment> dao- > I would also recommend PRK over LASIK because LASIK requires permanent flaps > to be cut on the surface of your eyes.

The newer SMILE procedure does not require a flap: [http://eyewiki.aao.org/Small_Incision_Lenticule_Extraction_(...](http://eyewiki.aao.org/Small_Incision_Lenticule_Extraction_\(SMILE\))

<comment><USER16> I'm interested in getting this, but am concerned that it is much less battle- tested than PRK. I'm currently leaning toward PRK since it is so tried-and- tested.

<comment><USER17> Go for PRK if you have low correction. I had -4.50 on both eyes and LASIK was kind of dicey. Just know that for a month or 1.5 months you're blind, guaranteed. Don't freak out like I did.

I also got weird stuff like my own blood plasma that has been centrifuged and filtered to put in my eye, as well as Mitomycin-C. Your doctor may offer those, and both of those seemed to have clinical trials to reduce the chance of hazing.

Just think whether or not glasses bother you so much that you need it though, I never really got bothered by glasses a lot, and laser ablated vision is a little wonky for me because my pupils dilate a lot and that causes lots of starbursting at low light which I think I didn't see with glasses.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm a contact lens wearer for about a couple of decades, and never had a problem. However, contacts are not for everyone. I have seen friends:

\- Pick up a dropped contact lens from the floor, blow on it, and put it on

\- Take it out/put it in without any hand washing

\- Rinse contacts with tap water

\- Reuse the same lens for weeks just because

What I do:

\- Wash hands before handling

\- Rinse fingers with contact/saline solution for a couple of seconds

\- Use daily disposables and do not reuse them

\- If I drop a lens, I just grab a new one.

It's hard to make decisions based on this unfortunate story without understanding that person's hygiene/lens wearing habits, personal health history, and so on.

YMMV.

<comment><USER19> That level of discipline is definitely beyond me! I'll continue to stick with glasses until I get my ICL surgery, I suppose.

<comment><USER20> Daily disposables make the hygiene aspect ridiculously simple: wash and dry your hands, and throw them out when done. They're individually cheap enough that tossing a dropped lens every so often doesn't really hurt.

Of course, when I started I ran into an interesting issue: occasionally I'd wind up pulling them out briefly and reseating them for comfort. Once or twice, that bit me in the, er, eye when an eyelash got inserted with the lens. I wound up trying a couple different brands as a result, before stumbling on my current choice (Dailies Total1 lenses). At the risk of sounding like an ad, they're beyond comfortable and practically impossible to feel. Which has its own disadvantages. On a couple of occasions, a lens got shifted to the side of my eye and I wound up putting another one in the following day. And let me tell you, that's painful as hell after a few seconds.

I just wish there was a similar disposable lens designed to alleviate digital eyestrain. No way in hell would I willingly go to 30 day lenses.

<comment><USER21> What is "digital eyestrain"? I know some people claim yellow/orange glass glasses help - but if it's dry eyes, it might help to simply blink more often - maybe set a timer like for exercise/change position? And perhaps add in a round of focus exercise (focus far/focus close; repeat)?

<comment><USER20> It's also called computer vision syndrome, and is pretty common. Everything you mentioned helps alleviate it. But I've noticed that my contact lenses sometimes seem to precipitate it; at other times, they're perfectly fine. After doing a bit of reading, a relatively new aspheric lens design (Biofinity Energys) might help with that. But I'd rather just wear my glasses while working than deal with monthlies.

0\. [http://www.eyedolatryblog.com/2017/01/tired-eyes- understandi...](http://www.eyedolatryblog.com/2017/01/tired-eyes- understanding-aspheric.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> As a contact lens wearer for almost 20 years, I wasn't aware of this. I regularly swim and shower with lenses in my eyes.

I'd really like to understand what role the lenses play in the infection occurring. Presumably an eye without a lens could also get the infection from a water source?

<comment><USER23> Do you wear dailies or monthlies?

I've worn both, and whenever getting monthlies, my optometrist always told me not to get in the water with them/avoid getting water on them. In regards to dailies, it apparently shouldn't be an issue, as presumably if you get in the water with a daily, you'll probably be taking it out <12h later.

<comment><USER24> I was under the impression that dailies were an elaborate scam, as they were identical to monthly contacts except for price. Have been wearing my dailies as monthlies but maybe I should research this a little bit more.

<comment><USER25> Dailies are prone to tearing if used multiple times.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I happen to know Irenie personally. One of the things that she's done to help others in the wake of her illness is to get together with other patients and medical practitioners at Moorfields Eye Hospital to write a pamphlet with information about Acanthamoeba Keratitis. It has information about the condition in easy to understand language.

Here it is:

[http://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/acanthamoeb...](http://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/acanthamoeba- keratitis-patient-leaflet.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER27> I don't mean to be insensitive to reenw/others, but this thread has thoroughly validated my decision to stick with glasses.

<comment><USER28> Yeah.. it's something I ponder every now and then. Been wearing contacts for 10 years, and never really had an issue with them.. But I know that if something was to happen I would feel a lot of regret.

It's a shame that headsets and glasses don't work together that well, and I hate the smudges that you get on glasses with a passion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I've been wearing monthly contacts for 3 years now. I take them out each night and soak them in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution (Clear Care), and dispose of them on the first of the month.

I highly value my sight, so I have a routine which makes me feel comfortable with sticking things in and touching my eyes twice a day. My optometrists have always told me to avoid using water, saliva, etc, to clean the lenses, and so I do.

1\. Wash my hands with soap and water, and usually scrub my fingernails with a brush.

2\. Grab a fresh paper towel and pat dry my hands to sop up the water. Rubbing my hands with the paper towel, in my opinion, could leave fragments which could transfer to my eye / behind the contact.

3\. Open the contact container, pull out the right lens, close the contact container.

4\. Insert the right lens.

5\. Repeat step 3 with left lens.

6\. Clean up the area with the paper towel from step 2.

I regularly (nearly every day) shower with the lenses in, though while I make an effort to avoid getting water in my eyes, splashes obviously happen. I've also spent weeks vacationing and swimming in the ocean with the lenses in.

It is my hope that by removing and disinfecting the lenses each night I can ward off infections while also minimizing inconvenience.

<comment><USER28> I have been wearing lenses for 10 years now and swim regularly with my lenses in. I do wear swimming goggles but of course some water sometimes enters my eye - never had a problem because of it.

I had one eye infection in my life which happened right after going to the optometrist and having my eyes checked (they put a fluid into my eyes to dilate the pupil, after that putting my lens in seemed to irritate my eye and caused an infection somehow).

But one thing I can not do is shower with my lenses in. I have done it several times but it always makes me feel so uncomfortable, the feeling of my eyes becomes so annoying (I suppose due to essentially taking steaming hot showers, the rising water vapor or something irritates my eye).

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> My dad is an eye doctor and has too many of these types of horror stories. While contact lenses are amazing, the fact of the matter is that the general population is either too ignorant or too careless to use them responsibly. So lots of people get infections or worse.

Both my sister and I used to wear contacts, but we ended up getting LASIK done several years ago. Best decision of our lives.

<comment><USER31> My fear with LASIK (and the other procedures) is that there isn't (I think) a ton of people who have had LASIK when they were younger (like 20) and lived up to 90 years old to know if there might be issues as we age, or incompatibility with other procedures... I worry that it could cause problems further down the line, as we age.

There's lot of people who've had these procedures done, mostly without consequences but some with issues of varying degrees of severity, but there is not a ton of people who've had this early in their life and been fine for 70 years.

Though I suppose plenty of people were corrected in their 50s or older and lived much longer and never had an issue.

<comment><USER32> LASIK dates back to 1983, so that's ~33 years worth of age related data. AKA some people aging from 25 - 58 and other doing 57 - 90, plus plenty of people in between. Also, considering how common it is there will be plenty of guinea pigs for the next LASIK alternative.

Further, people with Lasik will still get near or far sighted with age, but they tend to be better able to function without glasses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I've always been fearful of correcting my -7 short-sighted vision with anything other than spectacles. Probably started while I was working as an electrical engineer at a steelworks and being told of the risks of watching a high intensity electric arc from welding or a high voltage electric contact break and then inadvertantly peeling away your cornea removing a contact lens because of the fluid between the two drying out.

<comment><USER34> I have contact lens for my -8/-8.5. I've never been exposed to anything as intense as welding, but when my lens dried out from exposure to a bbq or bonfire, they're more likely to fall out of my eye than stick to it. The lens kinda goes brittle rather than shrinkwrap onto my eye.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Wow. The article says that she was wearing daily disposables, which are supposed to be much safer. Did AK really settle within <24hrs time?

<comment><USER36> I really wonder this too. I've known people who used daily contacts but would leave them in for multiple days at a time (and one was a swimmer). I've swam a lot with my contacts before as I'm mostly blind without my contacts and don't want prescription goggles. This article makes me a little more reluctant to go swimming with contacts but I throw them out every night.

<comment><USER37> I wear monthlies, but when swimming I swap for dailies, chuck them right after and wear glasses for the rest of the day. I feel safer that way. But I don't take any kind of precaution in the shower. I didn't even realise there was a risk there.

One more thing to live in fear of besides climate change, cancer, drug resistant bacteria, nuclear war, terrorism and the singularity. Yay.

Should I feel better or worse that it's far less likely to affect me than any of those things?

<comment><USER38> Additionally in the U.K. hot water may not be as safe as it is in the US. Older houses tended to be built with a hot water tank in the attic (loft) and apparently some were somewhat open to the elements and animals. A legacy of that is the dual taps you find in bathroom sinks/tubs.

<comment><USER37> The contact lens cleaner solution always insists that you wash your hands with it instead of tap water. I think I'll do that from now on when changing contacts

<comment><USER36> I think that's a little overboard. If you just wash your hands with soap and water and dry them with a non-bacteria infected towel I'm guessing you shouldn't be at risk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Another more common eye(lid) problem people often give themselves is painful infections on the tip of the eyelids called styes. It's usually caused by someone rubbing their eyes with their hands because it's a double-whammy of cross-contaminating eyes/hands and it embeds surface bacteria into crypts of sebaceous glands.

Also, I heard from a contact wearer another painful accident is forgetting to rinse contacts with sterlie saline after they've been cleaned, that it burns pretty good. Nothing like losing your corneas, but still Pavlovian human monkey training.

<comment><USER34> Back in my monthlies days, I forgot to rinse on a couple of occasions. My God, the pain is excruciating. There's no waiting it out, and hoping your tears will clear the burning - I had to squirt saline from the bottle directly into my eye to flush it all away.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Interesting that incidence of this appears to be a full order of magnitude higher in the UK than in the US (.2 per 10k vs 2 per 10k for contact wearers). Wonder if we treat our tap water more rigorously, use more chlorine in our pools, or are the contacts themselves different?

[1] [https://www.hindawi.com/journals/joph/2013/670242/](https://www.hindawi.com/journals/joph/2013/670242/)

<comment><USER41> As a European who has visited the US: you put a lot more chlorine in your tap water.

It smelled and and tasted like our swimming pool water to me.

Edit: and your swimming pool water had if course even more chlorine, much more then I'd expect to find in Europe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I have worn monthly contact lenses for almost 9 years without problems and switched back to glasses couple months ago because my eyes got tired and itchy too fast in front of the computer at work (I'm a front end dev so I spent most of the day in front the computer screen).

I have to admit that I didn't know that contact lenses shouldn't come in contact with water and that it could lead to such disastrous effects which can even end in loss of eye sight. However the first time I was at an optician to figure out what kind of lenses I need, they explained me very carefully that I should -always- wash my hands and dry (and not touch anything else other than the lenses in between) them with a clean paper towel before putting in our taking out my lenses.

Furthermore never to reuse the cleansing liquid you put into the little boxes where you store your contact lenses. I strictly followed this procedure over the years without any problems but when I was at the eye specialist to get my glasses subscribed I told her that I never had any infections using contact lenses and she smiled and said that it's only a matter of time. This really got me thinking because I was planning on using daily contact lenses for when I do sports or go out. :(

<comment><USER18> Have you tried switching to daily disposables? Also, f.lux for computer work. Both have been very helpful here for what you describe.

<comment><USER43> I wore contact lenses for 10 years, stopping a year or so ago. I had monthly disposables and would wear them daily from around 8am - 10pm without any major issues (although my eyes did noticeably become dry/tired in the evening it wasn't that serious).

The reason why I stopped was because the lenses started becoming dry quickly and I just couldn't see the screen clearly after wearing them for a couple of hours. Nothing in my computer setup or usage habits changed. I've seen various optometrists, but they couldn't give me a reason why this was happening. They just said if I can see better with glasses, I should do that for computer use :D

I now only wear dailies, but very rarely - usually only if I'm doing sports or swimming (although maybe I won't after reading this article...). Before switching I tried different brands of contact lenses (both monthly and daily), as well as turning down brightness and flux, but they weren't helpful in my case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Wow! This article couldn't have come at a better time for me. I recently started wearing contacts so that it's easier when I work out. But, I also started showering after my workout with the lens on. While I thought I was being plain lazy, I had no clue I was exposing myself to such a big risk!

Thank you so much for posting this and thanks to the lady in the piece for spreading awareness about this!

<comment><USER21> I occasionally use dailies - for swimming. But your example, and some of the stuff online doesn't makes sense: the difference between _showering_ wearing contacts and without is that the contacts scrape up the cornea, and that the natural washing of tears become less effective (lenses trap all sorts of stuff on the eye).

It sounds odd that if you throw away lenses after showering anyway - the risk would be different?

Sounds like if one has been wearing lenses for a few hours, one should take precautions with getting water in the eye - with or without lenses?

Also it appears, swimming with dailies - if one wears glasses before/after and throw away the dailies - should be reasonably safe from what I can gather?

Alternatively, it would seem a lot more people would be infected even not wearing lenses at all?

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> That's awful, but I'm not buying that she was:

A. wearing dailies for only a day at a time

B. didn't shower/swim with them

It is incredibly unlikely that a bacterial infection from tap water would be able to manifest itself on an otherwise healthy eye in less than 16(?) hours. The timeframe/exposure just doesn't add up for me.

<comment><USER45> >It is incredibly unlikely that a bacterial infection from tap water

It's not bacterial, it's amoebic.

I think you're being unduly skeptical and I can't find a reason beyond your own intuition, which doesn't really hold much weight against first hand accounts from individuals and trusted news sources without any clear bias or motivation to be misleading.

<comment><USER23> I'm not skeptical that this problem is correlated with wearing contact lenses, I'm skeptical that this problem is _not_ correlated to wearing them correctly.

My point is: who is more likely to get an infection? The people that sterilize their cuts and scrapes, or the people that don't? Same thing here: for such a tiny subset of total contact wearers, it's unlikely that it has nothing to do with your lens hygiene. I doubt any one of the 125 AK sufferers in the UK were following recommended lens care/application to the letter. That does not seem unduly skeptical to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> So, I never dried my hands before handling my lenses - I'd wash them thoroughly, rinse them with tap water, then rinse my fingertips again with a little saline or lens cleaning solution. My intuition was that my hand towel was likely to be laden with bacteria - is this wrong?

<comment><USER47> I have a similar usage pattern, and in the wake of this article I've been pondering how to safely dry my hands before handling contacts. Perhaps paper towels?

<comment><USER28> From what my optician recommended was to indeed blod them dry with a clean towel each time. But, I am not taking care of them that well, I rub them dry. I am not sure if blodding makes a difference.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> It's pretty nice to see her reaction to all of this. Instead of grieving and going around writing blogs blaming people she instead actually set up a successful campaign and is working so that no more people suffer her fate.

Now, this is very refreshing and nice to see, she seems a great person.

</comment><comment><USER49> I dont think i have ever put contacts in with dry fingers. I always have them wet from faucet.

So thanks.. Thanks for adding one more very rare thing for me to be constantly afraid of.

</comment><comment><USER50> This thread is a bit jarring. And I think confirms why normal discussion is nearly impossible online now.

Dissent is expressed by 'affecting' expertise but not actually offering any evidence of expertise ie. I am an eye doctor or I am a researcher in this area or I have some experience in this area, and here is the evidence and informed opinion from the industry and research.

Skepticism is backed not by reason or logic but rushing to minimize or rubbish the claims with outrageously baseless innuendo about the author's hygiene and 'personal feelings'.

You can be never too careful when it comes to your eyes, and yet the thread is seemingly full not of dissenters and skeptics but people who apparently don't care.

Since no rational individual responds to risk by ignoring or dismissing them that's not a scientific mindset, it's an irrational mindset overwhelming discussion and debate.

This is a toxic attitude in most cases. What makes it inexcusable is we can all be 110% sure if it affected them personally or their family in the slightest way they would not be rushing to diminish or question the authors hygiene but asking for her help.

<comment><USER51> Which thread? You aren't responding to anything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Maybe we should make our own sterile water?

To make sterile water, you must do the following: 1\. Use a pressure cooker, a hermetically sealed pot or an autoclave. Make sure that the temperature rises above the normal boiling point of water. 2\. Fill the cooker with water. 3\. Place cooker with water on a heat stove. 4\. Boil water for a minimum of 20 minutes. 5\. The temperature within the cooker should be maintained at 121 degrees Celsius or 250 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the boiling period.

[http://www.cascadehealthcaresolutions.com/How_to_make_steril...](http://www.cascadehealthcaresolutions.com/How_to_make_sterile_water_a/347.htm)

</comment><comment><USER53> Wow.

This has got me thinking of getting Lasik or prk so eliminate this whole class of potential issues.

<comment><USER54> I knew a guy whose PRK surgery was... unsuccessful. It mostly improved his vision, but one eye was always fuzzy. He had to wear sunglasses for an entire year, and kept hoping somehow the eye's inflammation would calm down and things would improve, but nope.

Our eyes are incredible. Whenever we try to improve them, we incur risks. I'm sure glasses are included in this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> This is informative. I often don't dry my hands between washing them and handling my contacts - ironically because I worry about germs from my hand towel ending up in my eye. TIL.

</comment><comment><USER55> I thought I had pink eye one time, went to the doctor weeks later after it had resolved itself and she said I had scarring from a corneal ulcer. If the scarring had been in the center of my eye as opposed to the corner, I might have lost vision. Was related to contacts.

More to the OP: Contact fluid has disinfectant in it, is it a solution to put a drop of it on the contact (inside) before putting it on? So any bad things that might get stuck under there are killed.

</comment><comment><USER56> Well, my hypochondria just kicked in. Taking my contacts out and working in glasses this afternoon since I ran out of my hydrogen peroxide solution last night and used regular no-rub solution in an old case (which I rinsed with solution before hand).

The CDC puts the rate of AK infection at 1-33 per million contact lens wearers, in case that makes anyone feel better. Still, it's something people should be aware exists.

</comment><comment><USER57> > Research suggests the density of pain receptors in the cornea is 300-600 > times greater than skin and 20-40 times greater than dental pulp,[14] making > any injury to the structure excruciatingly painful.[15]

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

Incredible! Why are there any pain receptors at all?

<comment><USER58> It's nature's way of telling you "your eye is important and whatever the hell is happening, MAKE IT STOP".

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> Ok, well there's a new thing to worry about.

</comment><comment><USER60> I wear hard gas-permeable lenses, and AFAIK those have to be washed with water as well as some detergent and then rinsed with water. Does anyone know if all the article says applies to hard lenses too?

For those who don't know the difference, hard gas-permeable lenses are more like a piece of hard plastic than a gel like substance, they can't dry out.

</comment><comment><USER61> So my habit of doing a martial arts class with contacts, showering at the gym with them in, and then continuing the rest of the day or evening with the same pair of daily contact lenses is a significant risk to my well-being? I need to bring an extra pair and switch them out after my shower, making sure to wash and dry my hands beforehand?

</comment><comment><USER62> If I hadn't chosen from an early age to accept the stigma of wearing glasses over the hassle of using contacts, this would make me nope the fuck out of using contacts even if it meant having to use the lamest, most Steve Urkel glasses they had.

</comment><comment><USER63> Quite hellish. I've done all of the no-no's in here many times in my youth (passing out and peeling lens off the next morning, washing in tap water etc) and must be lucky.

I wonder if those corneal scrapes are safe though.

</comment><comment><USER64> Is it safe to swim with one day only contact lenses and goggles?

</comment><comment><USER65> Are RGP lenses less likely to cause this disease than normal soft lenses (daily or monthly)?

</comment><comment><USER66> I recently tried contact lenses for the first time...rethinking it now.

</comment><comment><USER67> Someone needs to invent a sterile applicator.

</comment><comment><USER68> No, you were blinded by your own hygiene... Using contact lenses for 7 years now.

<comment><USER47> You're either trolling, or you didn't think this through. People can do all kinds of potentially dangerous things for an extended period of time without negative consequences (heroin, football, diet pills, etc). Extrapolating anything based solely on your own survival is weird.

Moreover, the infection being discussed in this article is incredibly rare - and contact lenses are generally quite safe - so the fact that neither you nor anyone else commenting here has been exposed to it shouldn't be surprising. That you've made it 7 whole years without going blind isn't some vindication of your own hygienic patterns, or an indictment of hers.</comment></comment>


Prediction: IPv6 will simply fade away - <AUTHOR> http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/8/23/161150/550

<comment><USER2> Plenty of Very Important IETF initiatives fail. Look at IP multicast. Clearly, 6 billion endpoints don't _need_ globally routable addresses for the Internet, in its current service model, to work. Moreover, it's unclear whether once the addressing problem is solved, the scalability problems will be tenable.

I don't know why the Kuro5shin comments are so harsh. I think the article makes a decent point. Here's a credible backup (although, from someone who is ultimately an IPv6 supporter):

<http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/ipv6mess.html></comment>


Google owns duck.com and points it directly at Google search - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/duckduckgo/status/1019565939317202944 <comment><USER2> As fun as this crazy conspiracy theory is, this is because Google acquired The Duck Corporation (which is what On2 used to be called), which owned duck.com. They basically predate DDG.

(they were acquired in 2009, ddg was started late 2008)

<comment><USER3> The difference seems to be that on2.com has an appropriate landing page: [https://twitter.com/Richiesque/status/1019973138417938432](https://twitter.com/Richiesque/status/1019973138417938432)

Whereas duck.com, a commonly interesting domain name for their competitor (which DDG claims confuses a lot of their users), gets redirected to Google's search engine with no other note whatsoever. Shouldn't duck.com have a similar page to on2.com?

<comment><USER4> What about Pulse.io? It also redirects to google.com

I believe most of Google's acquisitions redirect to the search engine (unless there's a more appropriate destination).

<comment><USER3> I know meebo.com is another acquisition that leads to a landing page rather than a redirect to Google.com. My guess is who puts what on what server and whether or not it's a redirect depends heavily on who is involved in the post- acquisition work, since Google is a big company.

I'm not discounting the possibility that it's innocuous, but it's strange that even among the _same acquisition_ , one domain goes to google.com and one goes to a landing page explaining the acquisition.

EDIT note: DannyBee's opinion here was posted around the same time as this comment, and suggests a specific corporate strategy: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17570412](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17570412)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> According to the internet archive, it started redirecting between November 2 and December 3 of 2010.

After mining a bit of HN history, DDG was already up and running and seeing some use by then (ex. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1334720](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1334720)).

The issue of the duck.com domain came up back in 2012:

> _He also said his company had tried to buy the duck.com domain from its > previous owner, On2 Technologies, but was rejected. Google eventually > acquired the domain when it bought the entire company, and redirects > duck.com traffic to Google.com._

> _" It only started redirecting after we inquired about (buying the domain > name)," said Weinberg. "It causes confusion."_

[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-21/business/sns-r...](http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-21/business/sns- rt-us-google-duckduckgobre8al00i-20121121_1_instant-search-feature-google-s- chrome-search-engine)

(with some wonderfully vitriolic best-of-HN comments at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4817466](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4817466) \-- including a reply from ~yegg explaining his position about this.)

edit: Neat, I was able to find DDG's debut on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=315142](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=315142)

That was on September 25, 2008. Google's offer to On2 was in August of 2009 ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On2_Technologies#Acquisition_b...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On2_Technologies#Acquisition_by_Google)) (the actual acquisition came later, after Google increased its offer). To be clear, I'm not convinced Google bought On2 just to screw with DDG. But the timeline is not as cut-and-dried as some people are making it out to be.

<comment><USER6> Come on!! Google didn't lawyer up and force a 3-word, confusing brand down Weinberg's throat.

If you want to compete with a market leader, whose domain is 2.5 syllables long, and you pick a confusing, 3 word megadomain for a brand, you don't get to cry foul over Duck.com !

<comment><USER7> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4817812](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4817812)

 _The main issue I have is with duck.com. A lot of people remember that we are a search engine "duck something" and so naturally try duck.com. As a result, there is a lot of confusion, e.g.:_

 _" I was telling someone about DuckDuckGo and they thought it was Duck.com and they went to Google. Is Google using this to find people who make the mistake to Duck.com instead of DuckDuckGo?"_

 _" Can't you do something about this? I keep going to Duck.com when meaning to visit DuckDuckGo.com They are using the DuckDuckGo name to get people to search Google."_

FTFC

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Duck!=DuckDuckGo.

If you're picking an awfully long name to compete against what is already a 2.5 syllable verb (Google), who's to blame?

Then there's the whole, "But our users only remember Duck" straw-man. Whose fault is that? Google's? Did they lawyer up and force a 3 word, 5+ syllable megaword as a brand/domain on you, when it defies common sense to pick LONG names for a service/domain you expect users to use a hundred times a day.

</comment><comment><USER8> I get a On2 page which mentions duckduckgo (the competitor search). This is from France at least.

</comment><comment><USER9> They could not be evil and redirect it to duckduckgo.</comment>


Don't shoot your friends - Twitter game with real consequences - <AUTHOR> http://toys.usvsth3m.com/dont-shoot-your-friends/

<comment><USER2> WARNING: loud

I really wish there was a browser setting to disable sound by default and ask permission. Just like the geolocation api.

<comment><USER3> It made me instantly close the tab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Who the hell auto-plays music in web-sites? what is this 1999?

</comment><comment><USER5> This was probably made as a joke, but I've had a lot of friends ask me what the best way to unfollow a lot of people on Twitter is. This could be way more efficient than using Twitter's web UI.

</comment><comment><USER6> Not even kidding, people have suggested I add a "shoot your friends to unfollow them" feature to Friend or Follow as a joke. There's nothing new under the sun.

Great implementation. Maybe default the music to off.

</comment><comment><USER7> I liked the original idea for this better (when the GiantBomb podcast pitched the idea of doing this for Facebook friends) but I'm just glad to see somebody implemented _some_ form of this.

</comment><comment><USER8> better choice for unfollowing peoples: [http://birdlaunch.biz/](http://birdlaunch.biz/)</comment>


Chinese government blockage carefully designed to look like Gmail problem - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/21/google-china-idUSL3E7EL1AY20110321

<comment><USER2> I'd like to see a precise description of what the PRC government did, and how it appears to the end users.

Not sure that's possible though...</comment>


Ask HN: Salesforce Integration - <AUTHOR> Does anyone here have any recommendations/experience for/with a Salesforce integration team that is very knowledgeable and is moderately priced? <comment><AUTHOR> We're looking to integrate a Salesforce solution and Salesforce recommended a firm that whose integration cost was very rich. Anyone here with any personal experience with an integrator that you could recommend?

</comment><comment><USER2> I had been working in salesforce + .net(C#) and salesforce + django, posting and searching in both side

<comment><AUTHOR> We're really trying to get a sense of what other good solutions providers are out there and what the cost may be.

<comment><USER2> I will need to know , what do you have in SAP, what do you have in Salesforce.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> what do you want to integrate it with? Also, what language/platform?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, we're using SAP

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> what do you need to do?

<comment><AUTHOR> We have no current CRM so we're looking to add Sales Cloud. We need to integrate it with our SAP ERP system. Also looking at Marketing Cloud as well.</comment></comment>


The hero of 'The Lost City of Z' was no hero - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/04/12/the-hero-of-the-lost-city-of-z-was-no-hero/ <comment><USER2> We must give credit to Hollywood for making us look like saviors throughout the world. I was amazed that an educated Vietnamese engineer actually thought Rambo was based on a real life story. I didn't have the heart to tell him about the My Lai massacre so I just smiled and let it pass. But I regret it because I feel that once that engineer and perhaps even the rest of the world learn the reality of history, they may hate us more because we tried to push this savior facade. I fear the blowback that I'm pretty sure will eventually come.

<comment><USER3> I'm sure your engineer friend appreciates your patronizing condescension.

I assure you as an American, there is little chance you know more about Vietnamese history than he does.

<comment><USER4> >I assure you as an American, there is little chance you know more about Vietnamese history than he does.

I'm sure your [fellow internet commentator] appreciates your patronizing condescension.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hadn't even heard of Fawcett before I read _Lost City of Z_ , which was a highly recommended book. Personally I thought the book was only 'okay', that the heroics felt...exaggerated? Now I guess I know why.

</comment><comment><USER6> Wowsers, this guy sounds like Gilderoy Lockhart.</comment>


Jobs fight: Haves vs. the have-nots - <AUTHOR> http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/business/story/2012/09/16/jobs-fight-haves-vs-the-have-nots/57778406/1

<comment><USER2> Why do people hate on arts students? I graduated at a college with many arts students. Admittedly, a top tier college (Merton, Oxford), but they were still doing these arts degrees which people hate on so much.

I got a great job after I graduated, at Google, but it's nothing compared to what many of my arts student peers did after they graduated.

My roommate studied classics. HN would laugh at that - what an idiot! He's now leading a team in a private intelligence agency that provides intelligence to companies working in places like Africa or China. He's done amazing stuff. He worked on the ground in Somalia, he's lived in Russia, France, China.

Another friend of mine studied Ancient English. What a moron, hey! He's now a Captain in the British Army. He's served in Afghanistan and Iraq. He's currently on secondment to the Pentagon.

Another friend did French Literature. Didn't he know he'd never get a job? Actually he's a top investment banker in London. He earns six times what I do at Google. What an idiot hey!

Another guy, didn't know him really but he was in my college, is now an MP - equivalent of the US house of representatives. He studied History. Didn't he know it would't lead anywhere.

I feel like an idiot for doing CS. Many of those companies wouldn't have hired me as I look like a geek with no social skills. Now I'm at a top job for my field at Google, and I learn less than most of my peers who did arts.

People who get STEM degrees become workers. Some of them found great companies, but not many. My arts students peers became leaders, politicians, managers at the top of massively important companies and agencies.

<comment><USER3> Liberal arts graduates got something that 'STEM' graduates will be missing their whole lives: education. Education not in the sense of training in a specialized technical domain but in cultivation, in deeper understanding of their own cultural, historical, social, economical and political context. It is not surprising that the zeitgeist disregards those fields of study.

<comment><USER4> > will be missing their whole lives

it seems rather pessimistic to presume that your education is limited to the classes you chose to study at university.

<comment><USER3> Not limited but based on your study at university. Most people never again get the chance to learn so much from educated people. I didn't realize and appreciate that when I was a student.

<comment><USER5> > Most people never again get the chance to learn so much from educated > people.

This. I didn't realize it either, and I wish I had. I have a decent number of interactions with educated, intelligent people now, but not with the sort of frequency and intensity with which I had them at university.

I don't know that I ever want to be a proper student again, but I do miss that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Big companies are not going to take care of you

This is the best takeaway IMHO. I think the way he characterizes liberal arts isn't quite hitting the mark, however. My experience is that there's less wrong with liberal arts schools/degrees as there is with the legions of young people who wander into university with no real plan, and expect to get a job when they graduate with and English degree (which they decided on in their third year).

Gone are the days where everyone should try and go to college after high school, even if they don't know what they want from it. It's too expensive now, and a BA doesn't serve you well if you have no plan for how to use it. Many would be better just starting working and see where that takes them; college can come later. Many more would do better to just take up a trade, go to a school for that. We'll need plumbers, electricians, and other service- oriented specialists for a long time to come. But so many "office jobs" that required no real skill have been and are being replaced by computers; there isn't the previous cushion for the aimless recent BA graduate to fall on any more.

<comment><USER7> It's a strawman argument.

Big companies should never be viewed as "taking care" of you. Your labor is only worth what the market will bear, and thats changes for better or for worse.

<comment><USER6> Not any more, but in years past that was the exact reason to go work for a large corporate.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Monetarily, the statistics pan out and STEM graduates earn more than liberal arts majors. But is that everything? There's a lot to be said for curiosity as a motivator for work - a lot of us here dive in to side-projects with zero care for monetary reward after. It's just to scratch an itch. Everybody has different itches to tend to.

Personally, I am an Art graduate (with a minor in Advertising). I graduated in May 2012 and have a 40hr/week job doing iOS development, getting paid more than I ever have (still not satisfied haha). Some of my peers on the Advertising side are really struggling for work, scrambling together portfolios to land an unpaid internship at one of the top agencies. I saw that landscape when I was still a student and diversified my skills - I started making apps, sans-CS (which is rather freeing once you get past some initial hurdles). I'd like to believe I'm a fairly competent iOS developer, coder and problem solver in general. Math was always my best subject throughout school, but the engineering school failed to scratch my itch. So did the business school, and the psychology curriculum, and really the advertising curriculum as well (but I had to get the degree sometime). I love art though. Learning about the importance of craftsmanship and really pouring my energy into creating something of aesthetic value is what I learned from my art degree. That was monetarily invaluable to me, despite paying tuition for those lessons.

I'm now on a STEM-ish career path with a liberal arts degree, albeit a little behind someone with a pure engineering background, but I'm a sponge when it comes to the new material - and it's all learnable.

Now that I'm at the end of my rant, I think the point of what I was trying to say is that Liberal Arts aren't a thing of the past, and can be very valuable. It's a little intellectually dishonest to believe that only CS based education is good.

<comment><USER9> I think you missed the point of the article. You are the exception, not the rule because you became an iOS developer. I inferred that the article was referencing art majors that don't teach themselves how to code.

<comment><USER8> I guess I thought that Andreessen made a correct abstraction, in that "superior creative talent or exceptional brain power will be essential" to succeed in the workplace (in 2042, and really every year before and after because nothing has changed). But his advice to only study STEM feels a tad biased - he's a STEM graduate. I'm saying that, from my perspective so far, STEM level education is entirely possible through the internet with self- motivation, and that had I done things entirely flipped (CS or equivalent Engineering degree) I wouldn't be happy from a creative perspective.

A lot of my art major friends may not be sitting with a fat check every month, but they're adding beautiful things to humanity and culture. To me that's a little more inspiring than a slightly bigger number in my bank account. But maybe I'm still young and naive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It is really tiring when the answer to emergent large scale economic insecurity in developed nations is "be the best" or "be in one particular field". Not everyone is cut out to be an engineer, and there is a tipping point for economic insecurity where civil unrest threatens the established order. The best and the brightest can't exist in isolation, harvesting the rewards of a larger than ever economy while the middle and lower classes slide into destitution. At some point they will simply revolt and demand redistribution of the automated, capital intensive economy.

<comment><USER7> > The best and the brightest can't exist in isolation, harvesting the rewards > of a larger than ever economy while the middle and lower classes slide into > destitution

Exactly, they won't exist in isolation.

Articles like this may appeal us as engineers who stand to gain from automation, or those afraid of "the computer" who stand to lose from automation. But these combined do not characterize all the jobs that exist. Those that work as doctors, lawyers, etc. have no fear of "the computer" replacing their jobs. Even most blue-collar workers (construction, etc) would not need to have that fear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have a liberal arts degree, and I've been a residential carpenter for the last 13 years. I guess the money I earn puts me in the middle class. Looking back on that time it's fair to say I've left a lot of money on the table by not seeking a higher-paying job.

I don't think it's arguable that a Google engineer will not make more money than a carpenter on my crew. The thing that bothers me about articles like this is the sense that technocrats like Andreesen assume their needs are everyone else's.

<comment><USER6> I didn't see this as the takeaway from the article. If anything, I think his point was that you shouldn't get a liberal arts degree with no real plan and expect to find a job out of school. Certainly with additional work and effort, as I'm sure you did, you'll find a job; but just like you, it'll involve an employable skill rather than a sheet of paper that says "bachelor of arts" on it.

I think his point with tech degrees is that you _can_ get one of those, have no real plan, and still get a job straight out of school.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> An article that contains this sentence doesn't inspire confidence: "Programmers write in binary math, all zeroes and ones."

<comment><USER7> It reads like it came straight from the 1970s. Beware of "the computer"

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I actually believe if you are thinking 20 or 30 years down the line your are actually going to need to have the AI merged into your own brain just to stay relevant, nevermind a job. The unaugmented humans will be, relatively speaking, mentally challenged.

<comment><USER14> 20-30 years?? Ok, Mr. Kurzweil.

<comment><USER15> I think we'll still be being beaten up in French McDonald's in 20-30 years for wearing AR equipment.

Humanity can lose a lot more than it can gain if the singularity did occur.

Yes I've read kurzweils book: thoroughly regrettable waste of time.</comment></comment></comment>


The SEC Has Set It's Sights on Cryptocurrency Exchanges - <AUTHOR> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-sec-has-set-its-sights-on-cryptocurrency-exchanges_us_59c2ae9be4b0c87def8834ab <comment><USER2> "It is sights"

<comment><USER3> Wow. The _HuffPost editor_ made that error, and the submitter merely repeated it.</comment></comment>


Only a small percentage of users buys stuff through Alexa, report claims - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/08/only-a-small-percentage-of-users-buy-stuff-through-alexa-report-claims/ <comment><USER2> People aren't really understanding Amazon's strategy. Amazon is playing the long game. Right now they are getting their foothold into people's homes with echo and Alexa. In time they will refine the process. I see a future where they have a visual part to ordering-- similar to an echo show.

As it stands now, digital goods are more practical to use with the echo. Example, I never used prime music until I got my echo. My Audible books were all played on my phone-- now I listen to them on my echo. It definitely gives me one more reason to stay with prime and buy more audiobooks.

Google's Android didn't bring much sales to Google early on. Now it brings in billions. It's too early to judge the echo's impact on Amazon's sales.

</comment><comment><USER3> For me, voice doesn't work well for shopping. I love Alexa/Echo and I have a dozen devices mainly for home automation and general questions (weather, lookup). But for shopping, I want to find the best product and look up the cheapest price before buying. I'm afraid of what might happen if I said "Alexa buy a 128GB microsd card" because they range from $8 to $50 and I don't know which one Amazon would pick. The items mentioned in the article as common voice repeat purchases I already have set up as subscriptions (e.g. pool chemicals, shampoo).

</comment><comment><USER4> There are still a few ways to do the auditory equivalent of fat-fingering commands with Alexa. It can get frustratingly far (and even more confused) when it is starting the wrong thing and you try to stop it.

As I see it, turning on "purchases" is a sure-fire way to accidentally order stuff every time I make a noise. Turned it all off.</comment>


English Wikipedia has surpassed 4 million articles - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics

<comment><AUTHOR> It happened at about 10:10 AM EST on Friday July 13th...

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Four-million_pool>

The 5 million pool is supposed to be closed at the 4 million mark but you may be able to get in in time.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five- million_pool_%28...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five- million_pool_%282%29)</comment>


An IRL bell that rings any time a bell character is displayed on your terminal - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tenderlove/analog-terminal-bell <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24412185](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24412185)</comment>


Ask PG:  What happened to the flag button? - <AUTHOR>

Just wondering where the flag button went, and what motivated the change.<p>There are articles about bitcoin on the front page again and I want a healthy way to express my anger. <comment><USER2> As a datum - I have a flag link. PG has previously mentioned an "Excessive flagger" test - I wonder if you tripped it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, yes that would make sense. I've probably been flagging more stories than upvoting lately. Didn't realize it might be a black mark on my record.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I still have a flag button.

Maybe there is a restriction on flaggings?</comment>


Climate change is not just about science:it's about the future we want to create - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/22/-sp-climate-change-special-report

<comment><USER2> BTW, here is a related article from some folks at Google who were involved with its "moonshot" renewable energy program, "What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change".

The main thesis:

"Today's renewable energy technologies won't save us. So what will?"

[http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would- rea...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/what-it-would-really-take- to-reverse-climate-change)

</comment><comment><USER2> The one point I think most can agree on: coal is not a desirable power source.

What we need is a crash program to replace baseline coal power with next-gen nuclear, and ideally before too long, LFTR. That would clean up the air a great deal, regardless of the impact of CO2.</comment>


What does MoarVM do with your Perl 6 code? - <AUTHOR> http://perl6advent.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/day-11-so-what-does-moarvm-do-with-your-perl-6-code/

<comment><USER2> For more on MoarVM see [http://moarvm.org](http://moarvm.org)

According to [http://perl6advent.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/the-state-of- per...](http://perl6advent.wordpress.com/2014/12/01/the-state-of- perl-6-in-2014/) "In 2014, MoarVM has become the de facto standard backend for the Rakudo Perl 6 compiler. Parrot and JVM are still supported as backends, but MoarVM provides much lower memory usage, faster startup time, and is significantly faster than parrot at runtime. Rakudo on MoarVM also has concurrency support, including reactive programming."

</comment><comment><USER3> _The simple program: my $i = 0; while ++$i <= 100000000 { } .. got a factor of 2.5 improvement with what we had several months ago_

If the topic is optimization improvements, is the improvement in question one that assigns the eventual value directly to $i? :-) (Or if that's literally the whole program, optimizes it away to nothing.)

<comment><USER4> It's quite hard to remove that loop.

First of all, keep in mind that the loop isn't empty - it includes the iteration condition.

Then think you've got a loop of 100000000 iterations. Are you suggesting we should unroll that so that it can be constant folded using conventional techniques? That's going to be prohibitively expensive in terms of space and time.

If we can't unroll we could peel it an iteration at a time, but we'll need some kind of analysis that will detect that the body of the loop can be constant folded, while at the still time having the control flow nodes in there. That might well be possible, but I'm not personally aware of how to do it - are you?

<comment><USER3> As I'm academically naive to the topic (though I have a long term interest) I was being 50% tongue in cheek and 50% "well, why not?" so take my comments in my capacity as an enthusiastic but ignorant buffoon basking in the presence of a certified genius.

With that said, I wrote the C equivalent of that Perl code, compiled -O0, disassemble, and it's what you'd expect.. add, mov, cmp, jg. At O3, the entire program is replaced by the no op: xor eax, eax.

I am surely comparing apples and oranges here and missing your point about the control flow nodes, but gcc is making such an optimization on a naive implementation so it seems conceptually possible in a more dynamic environment if the same limitations can be calculated to be present on such an example, maybe?

<comment><USER5> In a fairly dynamic language, it may be more problematic than in C. I mean in C you know _i_ is an _int_ and will not change. Maybe even know it's not used later on, so changing _i_ at all is useless.

I honestly don't know how much magic you can inject into Perl6, but there have to be languages dynamic enough that allow you to override integer increments and make _$i=10; ++$i_ return an array of oranges. Possibly even from another thread while you're iterating.

<comment><USER3> If only I knew how to poke around in V8 some more, I'd be interested to see what V8 would do on a JavaScript equivalent. JavaScript is reasonably dynamic and its performance has skyrocketed in recent years mostly due to jumps in JIT approaches and optimization. Of course, V8 has some of the smartest people in the field working on it and the backing of Google.. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The MoarVM folks are moving very quickly and achieving amazing results. Many kudos to them.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wasn't MoarVM actually an April Fools Day joke, or do I have it confused with something else?

<comment><USER8> You might be thinking of ParrotVM. Guido van Rossum and Larry Wall had an April Fool's joke in which they announced they would combine Python and Perl into a single new language, "Parrot". In spirit with the joke, ParrotVM strives to be a good target many dynamic languages in general (such as Perl and Python) rather than any specific language.

<comment><USER2> I was curious what happened to Parrot; it seems dead at this point.

[https://www.openhub.net/p/parrot/commits/summary](https://www.openhub.net/p/parrot/commits/summary)

<comment><USER9> _[W]hat happened to Parrot_

Almost all of its developers quit around the same time:

[http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2013/02/goodnight- parrot.h...](http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2013/02/goodnight-parrot.html)

<comment><USER7> Somebody finally explained to them that Parrot was actually a joke, and nobody was actually serious about Perl 6 either.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Framework Performance Tests RoR, Django, CodeIgniter, etc. - <AUTHOR> http://www.alrond.com/en/2007/jan/25/performance-test-of-6-leading-frameworks/ <comment><USER2> Misleading at best, see the comments section.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> True, if anything else this could mean more research should be done to test the frameworks in question. And findings can be built upon or disproved.</comment>


Wait. What? Is this an ad in HN? - <AUTHOR> https://www.dropbox.com/s/mcns3dhd6c6ytl0/Screenshot%202014-02-06%2019.47.30.png

<comment><USER2> YC companies can make posts with special status. As far as I know, this has always been the case. You apparently have simply missed them so far.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, never noticed one before!

It feels weird, by the way. Maybe I should wait to see a couple more and find out if that helps dispelling the feel...

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> No up / downvoting, no username, no "discuss" ... did I miss something?

</comment><comment><USER3> Mayabe some extension injected this add. btw, where does it links to ?</comment>


At 83, I Decided to Develop an App - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@DonRumsfeld/at-83-i-decided-to-develop-an-app-dadd4e53d342#.wt93bm5qs <comment><USER2> WSJ article: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/former-defense-secretary- marches...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/former-defense-secretary-marches-into- new-territory-videogames-1453483137)

        Mr. Rumsfeld can't code. He doesn't much even use a
        computer. But he guided his young digitally minded
        associates who assembled the videogame with the same
        method he used to rule the Pentagon—a flurry of memos
        called snowflakes.

        As a result, "Churchill Solitaire" is likely the only
        videogame developed by an 83-year-old man using a
        Dictaphone to record memos for the programmers.

        [...]

        "We need to do a better job on these later versions.
        They just get new glitches," reads one note from Mr.
        Rumsfeld. "[W]e ought to find some way we can achieve
        steady improvement instead of simply making new
        glitches."

Related reading? - [http://research.swtch.com/discover- debug](http://research.swtch.com/discover-debug)

<comment><USER3> To me, this seems like the sort of project that would benefit greatly by putting an experienced project manager between the client (ie Rumsfeld) and the dev team. Other than planning meetings, I really think non-technical stake holders should never communicate directly with developers. I say that as a developer.

<comment><USER4> So, we add another salary to the team for something that amounts to a small project? If devs don't have the acumen to deal with "clients" directly, then they ought not take on projects that would require working with clients.

I see this all the time, especially with offshore development. I was the lead for a US project with an additional India team. We had a US-based PM for the Indian contractor. Then we had an India based PM, then we had 3 developers. Any time I needed to discuss something, I had to consult with the US PM, the US PM consulted with the India-based PM and the India based PM would then ask the devs. Then the answer would go through that path in reverse. A simple question like, "Where is the setup script file in the repo?" That took literally 6 emails, with delays of several hours between responses.

Needless to say, that arrangement didn't last long before I fired the company.

My point is that you don't always need an experienced project manager depending on the scope of the project and the number of developers. 10 devs -- yes absolutely. But 2 or 3 devs? Not necessarily.

<comment><USER3> I agree with you completely. I think there is definitely a minimum project scope before a PM becomes a good investment. But I also think there should be a multiplier for how scattered/non-technical/crazy the client is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Guess someone should have pointed it out to him, that his childhood hero was an avowed racist ("I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion". Also see the Bengal famine; right up there with Holomdor.)

Why not call it Stalin solitaire then?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943)

<comment><USER4> Really? Let's find the perfect among anyone in history. You'll be looking for a very long time.

<comment><USER5> Big difference between perfection and a monster no? I mean he's known for the same thing Stalin is. Interesting that my comment sits in the negative. Says a lot about the crowd around here.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for posting your comment and showing another side of Churchill that I was unaware of. [1] But I think you are being down voted because the comparison with Stalin is ill chosen. Churchill seems to have been a bigger racist than was common for his time, and although he played a roll in the tragedy you link to, it was in the middle of WW2 and placing all the blame on him for 3m lives seems unfair. And to then compare him to Stalin, who inflicted tyranny upon large parts of the word and who killed between 20-60m people with possibly the worst "machinery of killing" ever created does an injustice to the point you where trying to make.[2]

[1] [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/not-his- finest...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/not-his-finest-hour- the-dark-side-of-winston-churchill-2118317.html) [2] [http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-did-joseph-stalin- kil...](http://www.ibtimes.com/how-many-people-did-joseph-stalin-kill-1111789)

<comment><USER7> His comparison with Stalin may be hyperbolic, but the article you cited gives Churchill's response to the famine you think is unfair to blame on him:

       Up to 3 million people starved to death while
       British officials begged Churchill to direct food
       supplies to the region. He bluntly refused. He
       raged that it was their own fault for "breeding
       like rabbits". At other times, he said the plague
       was "merrily" culling the population.

>[Stalin] killed between 20-60m people with possibly the worst "machinery of killing" ever created does an injustice to the point you where trying to make

And quoting or arguing that kind of unsubstantiated claptrap does a disservice to the point you are making.

I don't believe you are a neo-Nazi, I think you just pulled the first result from Google on "how many people did Stalin kill", but in my experience it's usually people with right or extreme right agendas who try to paint Stalin as worse than Hitler by quoting such nonsensically high figures.

<comment><USER6> My issue isn't with placing some of the blame on Churchill but all of it. The world was in a war where untold millions were killed and the outcome was anything but certain. My guess is that Churchill had to juggle multiple aspects of the decision, but the outcome and his words were used to paint the most unflattering picture in the linked article, perhaps justified, perhaps not, likely somewhere in-between. And I truly do appreciate counter viewpoints that expand my understanding of the world. The tragedy and his racist viewpoints clearly deserve more prominence in the histories of him.

You attempt to discredit my take on Stalin with rhetorical flourish, so generously implying that "you don't think I'm a neo-nazi", yet you provide no evidence that he wasn't a butcher. While I don't think you are an "uneducated fascist", most attempts to propagandize pro-Stalin viewpoints come from… Not a good way to change someone's opinion if that is your goal. You did make a good catch on the first google link, but hardly surprising when providing supporting references in HN comments. Wikipedia has the number at 3-60 million, with 3 being the "officially" recorded number. [1] Perhaps you are right that Stalin was better than my interpretation, but you haven't convinced me.

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

<comment><USER7> >You attempt to discredit my take on Stalin with rhetorical flourish, so generously implying that "you don't think I'm a neo-nazi", yet you provide no evidence that he wasn't a butcher.

I didn't say he wasn't a "butcher", so why should I have to provide evidence to that effect?

As for my "rhetorical flourish", most of the people online I see making the ludicrous claim that Stalin killed 50+ million people turn out to be Hitlerites.

>Wikipedia has the number at 3-60 million, with 3 being the "officially" recorded number. [1] Perhaps you are right that Stalin was better than my interpretation, but you haven't convinced me.

Apparently neither has Wikipedia and every historian who places the figure at less than 20 million, such as William Rubinstein and Yale University's Timothy Snyder.

As that Wikipedia article states, the 3-60 million wild guesses were before records became available after the demise of the Soviet Union. When researchers were able to study and analyse the records the ridiculously high estimates were revised drastically down.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Maybe I'm wrong for thinking this but I can't this man seriously anymore. I look at him in the same light as a common criminal. He should be in prison.

<comment><USER4> He and Hillary Clinton care share a cell.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I love the message that you can understand and do work in this space late in life. Props for that.

But I find his valorization of war really disturbing given his role deceiving the public into increased warfare. The way he writes about this game makes it seem like he has a fetish for callous, take-no-prisoners violence. I think it's an outdated mindset and it disturbs me to think about the human bodies that were burnt to a crisp under Rumsfeld's direction. So many people lost their lives and will lose their lives because of his war perversion.

</comment><comment><USER10> The aphorism "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" is actually a quote by Antonio Gramsci, a Marxist theoretician, citing Romain Rolland.

</comment><comment><USER11> App Store link:

[https://appsto.re/us/UvnC9.i](https://appsto.re/us/UvnC9.i)

</comment><comment><USER12> Rumsfeld has used a standing desk for decades, standing all day:

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A946-2004Jun23...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A946-2004Jun23.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> Inspiring.

</comment><comment><USER14> Then there's Rumsfeld Solitaire, in which upturned cards are known knowns, downturned cards are known unknowns, and unknown unknowns, which are cards slipped into or removed from the deck.

<comment><USER15> Unlike the other political comments, this one is on topic and, in my humble opinion, very funny!</comment></comment>


Waste Management sues SAP over ERP implementation (original article) - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/App/670/waste-management-sues-sap-080327/

<comment><USER2> Funny, I was just talking to my dad about this today. He works in finances for Waste Management and told me how much of a complete disaster rolling out the SAP system was. Screens would take minutes to go between, entering new customers into the system took 15 minutes as opposed to the promised minute, and customer orders were getting lost and duplicated constantly. The software basically could not handle any load at all. And this was just in one of WM's smallest markets.

My father mentioned SAP told WM the software was '90%' done and so they might as roll it out and patch up the last '10%'. Instead, he said the software was '10%' complete with '90%' completely broken. They had to rollback to the old software as they were losing customers in markets using the new software.

WM is now at least 5 years behind on upgrading their billing systems as they have to basically start the entire process from scratch. SAP tried to deliver a customized version of off the shelf software and failed miserably. I hope they get held accountable and destroyed in court. It disgusts me when companies can take ridiculously large contracts for solved problems and not deliver and then still get away with the money.

</comment><comment><USER3> I cannot convey how painful an experience I had implementing SAP at my last company. Big companies that aren't technology focused still need a way to keep all their information (orders, customers, inventory, invoices, sales, manufacturing, financials, accounting) organized. With SAP, the cure is worse than the disease.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well, it's nice to see the snowjob that is enterprise software finally being help to account, but I doubt this suit is going to very far.

<comment><USER5> I certainly don't want to defend SAP, but when enterprise software sucks, how much is the fault of the software and how much is simply the enterprise? If you started out with good software, could it survive an enterprise deployment -- and all the byzantine requirements and oversight -- intact?

<comment><USER6> I guarantee you that SAP is guilty as charged, they all are. When I did enterprise software, salespeople kept getting everybody in trouble by selling products that had never existed, in this business such practices are the norm, in fact in many enterprise software companies engineers are advised against speaking to "sales team"

<comment><USER7> And the engineers are brought in to meetings limited with what they can say; if the truth has a hard edge, its the sales persons job to smooth it over. Essentially, the engineer or tech is handcuffed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm truly not trying to bail out SAP here, but doesn't WM have a little bit of accountability here? How could they purchase something that supposedly is designed for the Waste & Recycling industry and be so far off on their analysis of its fit? If I'm a talent scout for Playboy and I pay Judge Judy $20 million to pose because her husband said she was hot, shouldn't I question my decision capabilities?

<comment><USER9> The demo was faked. In your analogy, you would see the wife, and she would be hot. But when you ask to see her in the nude the husband says "Not right now, she's not quite ready for that. but can't you see from her in a bikini that she's hot?</comment></comment>


Who's Behind the GandCrab Ransomware? - <AUTHOR> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/07/whos-behind-the-gandcrab-ransomware/ <comment><USER2> I am pretty shocked to find that they used their birth date as their password for so long and on so many accounts.

I think it's definitely worth considering that this may be a frame job for some poor unwitting person.

However, I agree completely that OPSEC is probably not at the top of most larval stage hackers mind's working out of countries they don't fear extradition in.

<comment><USER3> The opsec job was so shoddy that I immediately suspected misdirection. I mean, would anyone be so stupid as to use the same username they use for posting _videos_ of themselves for such a purpose? They might as well embed a picture of their ID in the binary.

I know that criminals tend to not be very bright, but this particular field would require at least some basic competence, I would assume.

<comment><USER4> OK, but the blog also points out that the pattern is typical of cyber criminals in this jurisdiction. It strains credulity that a ten year long trail of red herrings would be created, when it would be just as easy (easier!) to leave no evidence at all.

<comment><USER5> and remember we're often talking about people who would have been teenagers when the trail started.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Besides ransomware operators Krebs also likes to dox security researchers and people who leave negative reviews for his books.

[https://www.itwire.com/security/86867-infosec-researchers- sl...](https://www.itwire.com/security/86867-infosec-researchers-slam-ex-wapo- man-krebs-over-doxxing.html)

[https://twitter.com/arctaire/status/1121412963351420928](https://twitter.com/arctaire/status/1121412963351420928)

</comment><comment><USER7> This was an amazing read. I love these types of articles. It's nuts how easy it is to find people nowadays, especially with so many OSINT resources and tools and a little bit of Google'fu.

<comment><USER8> >Igor Vladimirovich Prokopenko from Magnitogorsk who was born on June 16, 1991. Recall that "16061991" was the password used"

Does this take into account the Julian/Gregorian diff?

<comment><USER9> Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1918, so I don't think it would need to.

<comment><USER10> Although there are a small number of Russian Orthodox Christians who remain disappointed about that:

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

(I don't think this would affect anyone's civil birthdate.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I trust Krebs to do the right thing, but hopefully he went to authorities with this before publishing this dude's personal information.

Of course, I may be a little too sensitive about this kind of stuff. I am in the middle of reading Neal Stephenson's REAMDE right now.

<comment><USER12> Unfortunately, Krebs has a history of not doing the right thing around individuals. [0]

[0] [https://hacked.wtf/2019/04/26/dear-brian-krebs-no-more- doxxi...](https://hacked.wtf/2019/04/26/dear-brian-krebs-no-more-doxxing-as-a- result-of-a-disagreement-please/)

<comment><USER13> Krebs is a charlatan like many others. I don't know why he's given so much clout in technical circles. At this point he's nothing more than a journalist.

<comment><USER6> Yes, Krebs is a journalist. I don't think that's a big secret.

I'm not a fan but I don't see how you could call him a charlatan, he's never claimed to be anything but a journalist.

<comment><USER13> Journalists are all charlatans since for the most part they know very little of what they're talking about. "Journalist" is practically an insult at this point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is RSA really bullshit, or did the crab people get the parameters right? (They used RSA 2048 to encrypt files and HN has been claiming it's a footgun)

<comment><USER10> Maybe the ransomware author used someone else's library instead of implementing textbook RSA from scratch.

It also occurs to me that (unfortunately) the ransomware setting may be one where comparatively few kinds of attacks are feasible. The ransomware will encrypt _one_ short fixed-length random value (chosen by itself, not the user) once and then stop. The public key is presumably fixed and was most likely generated offline using a separate tool like OpenSSL.

The decryption presumably happens only on the ransomware author's infrastructure and is gated by a payment, so it's potentially hard to perform oracle attacks (and perhaps different kinds of decryption failures don't produce meaningfully different observable behavior, especially if a human being is in the loop returning the decryption tokens to the ransomware victims who've paid the random).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> krebs is behind the malware himself. after years of deluding people about being on the hunt for these hackers finally he managed to get everyone into a state where he can steal 2 billion and not get suspected :D designing his emporium as a troll on himself to try and avoid being suspected. clever mr krebs! #alexjones2020

</comment><comment><USER16> Funny. "Windows" does not appear in TFA.</comment>


Apply HN: Free domain (.com) - <AUTHOR> A virtual cup of coffee in the form of a 1 year new domain (.com) registration (with GoDaddy account/200+ Karma). In exchange, check out my demo link and post a comment/feedback, and I will register any new .com of your choice and include you in the Beta. This is to highlight domain gifting is a "problem". Gift cards/promo codes are not available directly from the sellers. If nothing else, I will make it far easier to buy someone a domain name as a gift.
Demo/prototype:  tomorrowbook.com/trending
What is tomorrowbook?
Weebly with a social media enabled text message web builder (get notifications when your favorite domains post new content to their website and upvote content distributed across the network of member domains).
Me:  A practicing lawyer...don't hold it against me.  Currently I provide services similar to Stripe Atlas, cherry pick criminal defense cases and some IP work.  I have engaged in diverse side ventures including, V-Blood, a vampire themed energy drink, distributed through Hot Topic and more recently a liquidation event with tech startup I co-founded in the legal space.  Current project raise the funds to hire Gigster to develop the tomorrowbook Beta. <comment><USER2> I'm confused. You're offering a free domain name that's owned by you, technically? Or offering a solution to domain gifting?

I'm always extremely wary of "free domain names" because often the business holds onto the actual registration, and hence it can be hard to get it away from them.

<comment><AUTHOR> 1\. Leave your feedback and I'll email you.

2\. Reply with the available domain name you want and your GoDaddy email (apparently there is no way I can just buy you a gift card/promo code so you can register the domain independently).

3\. I will transfer the domain from my Godaddy account to yours.

4\. When the tomorrowbook.com Beta launches your domain will have a spot, this is optional and you can keep your domain with a 3rd party registrar.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, the biggest issue with this, is that if I wanted a domain, I wouldn't risk losing it by telling someone else what domain I wanted. Kinda sad GoDaddy doesn't offer gift cards. I guess they used to.

<comment><AUTHOR> >I wouldn't risk losing it by telling someone else what domain I wanted. Kinda sad GoDaddy doesn't offer gift cards.

Exactly! When my domain reseller launches I will be offering domain gift cards as just one way to proliferate domain registration. But since your the only one who comment before the post being taken down and the basis of your objection for my _free domain_ campaign, I'll send you a gift card when I launch, so you can register the name privately :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Sysdig vs. DTrace vs. Strace (2014) - <AUTHOR> https://sysdig.com/blog/sysdig-vs-dtrace-vs-strace-a-technical-discussion/ <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7568175](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7568175)

</comment><comment><USER3> How does it compare to SystemTap and other Linux based kernel probe/tap mechanisms?

<comment><USER4> I had the same question and came across Brendan Gregg's[1] excellent summary[2] (written last July) comparing various kernel tracers. Sysdig is one of the tracers covered, although Brendan did state in the post that he had the least amount of experience with that particular tracing framework.

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

[2] [http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2015-07-08/choosing-a- linux...](http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2015-07-08/choosing-a-linux- tracer.html)</comment></comment>


House Votes to Halt Aid for Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/us/politics/saudi-arabia-yemen-khashoggi.html <comment><USER2> I wonder if this is a sign that the new sexy war is being translated to Venezuela. Managing two wars in different continents at the same time is too costly probably.

<comment><USER3> No, it's politics: the House changed party control.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hope this momentum stays forever beyond being anti-Trump.

</comment><comment><USER5> All this excitement when it still takes the Senate and the president to make a law

<comment><USER6> This makes it a real deal. This puts the politicians one one side or the other. Are they yay or nay? This will guide people's decision when it's time for voting. Especially those who work with Yemeni population. This has an intangible effect even if it doesn't pass the senate.

Edit: My comment about Yemeni population means that it allows those people to see a outcome and notice it "first" hand the consequences of our voting decisions without actually participating in war. Hope that clears it.

<comment><USER7> It does not. With how the US senate works, the senate leader can just prevent a vote unless a large number of senators force it. If the other party than the one that put the House to the vote just never forces the issue, they will not have to declare a side.

The exact tactic was done repeatedly during the US's partial government shutdown. The senate leader blocked bills from a vote. A sufficient number of senators could've called for said vote, but the leader's party actually did not want to be found voting against the government reopening, so the bills to fully reopen the government were stalled for a long time.

<comment><USER8> They're operating on a mixture of rules and mutual understanding. The mutual understanding could change through political outrage, I think.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why Macros Impair Readability - <AUTHOR> http://www.cmp5sch.tk/why-macros-impair-readability-long

<comment><AUTHOR> Dr Turbak (the author of the article) is co-author of "Design Concepts In programming Languages" (along with David Gifford of MIT and he makes a _thoughtful_ (but debatable) case for macros hinder readability.</comment>