Facebook to Give Less Direct Support to Trump in 2020 Campaign - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-20/facebook-to-give-less-direct-support-to-trump-in-2020-campaign <comment><USER2> There's a 'rule' that requires broadcast TV and radio to give equal airtime to candidates[0], but no such thing exists for whatever facebook is (social media news, maybe? _shrug_ ).

If congress folks actually cared, rather than ask 'tough questions' and put on 'we care' theater, they could work to make this rule a law and extend it to cover whatever category facebook would fall under. But here we are, with all theater and no substance.

0\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal- time_rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-time_rule)

<comment><USER3> I'd like to agree with you here, but government moves slowly. Things might get done in the future, if our representatives are pushed hard enough. You can't expect a "move fast and break things" attitude because that will get you kicked out of office really quickly.

Democratic style governance is pretty pathetic, but it seems to be better than all the others so far.

<comment><USER4> > Democratic style governance is pretty pathetic, but it seems to be better > than all the others so far.

Not to detract from your comment, which is all accurate, but this statement is a pet peeve of mine: the same can be said of every other previous "best system so far"

Just because we dont currently know a preferable alternative does not mean we should give up on criticism of the flaws of what we have, nor should we just assume that nothing will ever be better. We shouldn't ignore the good of what we have, nor become crippled by anxiety, but surely there is a middle ground between that and apathetic resignation.

(Steps off soapbox)

<comment><USER5> Okay, so I'll bite. What's going to be a better form of government?

<comment><USER4> Do you always assume something is the best there can be until a new better is created? I'm guessing not.

I don't have a solution, I'm simply saying we should expect that things CAN improve instead of waving off all complaints. Sure, many of those complaints we CAN'T fix without an alternative, and we do know that known alternatives are generally worse, but there's a difference between "That is a legitimate problem, but we don't know how to fix it yet" and "stop complaining because there is no hope".

Why does it matter? Because if we aren't looking for change, we're unlikely to find it. For example, here are few things we do know:

* first past the post voting is one of the worst options in a democracy, regardless of your desired outcome. Some systems are better if you want compromise candidates, some systems are better if you want the most supported candidates, some are better if you want to avoid terribly unpopular candidates, but FPTP is subpar across the board.

* an American-style system can invite crisis where two sides (Prez and Congress) are opposed...and both sides are directly (ish) elected by the people, whereas a Parliament system does not.

* a representative democracy does not give decision power to people, but instead defines the boundaries within which the govt operates. Within those boundaries lots of unpopular decisions will be made, but so long as the boundaries are not violated, those decisions will still happen (and largely without consequence, though that's far harder to be decisive about).

We know these things because people have cared to notice, people have bothered to consider "does it have to be this way?" Even if the answer for now is "Unless we want things worse", that should be the answer _for now_, not the final answer.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask YC: Am I right in thinking that the introduction of particular online markets... - <AUTHOR>

...starting with a new kind of market for the ad spaces on blogs, will provide people with new and improved ways to develop, showcase and profit from expertise?
The details of my thinking are here:
http://www.loveatmadisonandwall.com/step-1/
(The site is "optimized" to appeal to single women, if you are wondering about the URL.)
Thanks kindly for any feedback.
Best, <comment><USER2> Spam?</comment>


Optimizing "Send More Money" in Racket - <AUTHOR> http://gus-massa.blogspot.com/2015/06/optimizing-send-more-money-in-racket.html

<comment><USER2> Tangential:

It would be interesting to have a progamming language where you could specify multiple equivalent pieces of code, and have the language double-check they are equivalent in debug builds, while picking the one(s) that seem(s) to be the fastest in release builds.

There are difficulties associated with this, of course, but it would still be interesting.</comment>


Show HN: GRADQUEST, a 16-bit graduate school simulation - <AUTHOR> http://www.kongregate.com/games/bendmorris/gradquest

<comment><USER2> This is awesome!

[Edit: How do I get more dice? I've 9 Semesters in and over 100K in debt and am only 40% with my dissertation]

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! If you don't have enough dice, try resting and allocating more dice to other things.</comment></comment>


Utah will pay for public employees to go fill prescriptions in Mexico - <AUTHOR> https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/10/28/fight-high-drug-prices/ <comment><USER2> In a few months, drug companies will change their pricing to be based on the citizenship of the patient, rather than the country of sale.

Suddenly giving up US citizenship to get cheap Mexican drugs seems a lot less tempting.

<comment><USER3> can you mention a source for this?

<comment><USER2> No source - it's my speculative prediction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You know your healthcare is f*ed up when its cheaper to fly out to another country for healthcare.

Seriously, I am dead serious here, why don't Americans vote for healthcare to be a societal service (before crying socialism, I mean it can be just like fire stations, police, schools, roads and our favorite expenditure, military)?

People are literally dying while Americans keep crying numbah 1 all the time. It's about time America realizes that these are solved problems and America can learn something from the rest of the world.

It's ok to be number 2. There's no need to kill your own just for the bragging rights of being number 1 in medical expenses (which btw is 20% of US GDP, 20% for just healthcare is just ridiculous)

</comment><comment><USER5> They got the name of the drug wrong, it's Avonex (generic name: interferon beta-1a), not "Axonex". The original SL Tribune gets it right.

</comment><comment><USER6> We've updated the link from [https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/888408/16](https://www.newsmax.com/t/newsmax/article/888408/16), which points to this.</comment>


Malicious Charging Cable - <AUTHOR> https://shop.hak5.org/products/o-mg-cable <comment><USER2> Shameless plug: the hak5 community[0] is super nice and while there are "can you hack facebook" people around there is also a dearth of super kind people who are willing to put in the time to teach people about computers.

I have been watching their shows since season two and recently was granted the proud responsibility of hosting their IRC these days[1]. (which is the shameless plug)

Obviously it's built for newbies but that's part of the charm and a lot of the content gets new people interested in security and computers in general. :)

[0]: [https://forums.hak5.org/](https://forums.hak5.org/)

[1]: ircs://irc.hak5.org/hak5

<comment><USER3> From context, I think you mean the opposite of dearth.

<comment><USER4> Heh, Steve Martin made the same mistake:

'I had developed a small reputation from my appearances at the Ice House, and on May 6, 1969, I wrangled a meeting and auditioned in an office for Steve Allen's two producers, Elias Davis and David Pollock. They accepted me with more ease than I expected, and when I spoke with them afterward, they commented, "There seems to be a dearth of young comedians right now." I looked puzzled. I said, "That's odd, I don't think there are many at all." Their stares made me realize my blunder. I knew the word, but I had the definition backward.'

From "Born Standing Up," an amazing memoir

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wow, could those photos be any worse?

[https://mg.lol/blog/omg-cable/](https://mg.lol/blog/omg-cable/) and [https://github.com/O-MG/O.MG_Cable- Firmware](https://github.com/O-MG/O.MG_Cable-Firmware) have more information about the cable, but is still severely lacking on technical details about the hardware and software used to communicate.

<comment><USER6> Based on the firmware[1], I'm guessing esp32.

[1] [https://github.com/O-MG/O.MG_Cable- Firmware/blob/master/READ...](https://github.com/O-MG/O.MG_Cable- Firmware/blob/master/README.md)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Similar to this is the USB Ninja, which delivers a remote payload like the Rubber Ducky.

[https://hackerwarehouse.com/product/usb-ninja- cable/](https://hackerwarehouse.com/product/usb-ninja-cable/)

<comment><USER8> For those who may be curious, how two very similar products (USBNinja and the O.MG Cable) exist, there is a bit of history.

Both products are based on the concept of a HID attack: most modern OSs (MacOS, Linux, Windows, Android...) trust HID (Human Interface Devices) implicitly. This means that when you plug in a Keyboard, Mouse, Storage device or Network device, they work instantly. You don't need to install drivers or explicitly enable them. The newly attached devices work instantly - even on a locked device.

The advantage here is obvious. The disadvantage is more subtle, but was exploited by the Hak5 "Rubber Ducky". By emulating a HID device (or even worse, multiple HID devices simultaneously..) - you could essentially control a computer and deploy / execute anything, as if you had full control of the device.

"The Classic" PoC is the Windows "Creds" attack [1] - which unlocks locked windows machines - later turned very, very nuclear by Samy Kamkar with PoisonTap [2], which essentially exfiltrates data, exfiltrates cookies and credentials, and permanently backdoors a locked PC.

The idea of moving from a dedicated device (Rubber Ducky) to an embedded device first came to surface with the BadUSB device [3].

The idea of moving it into a cable came from the NSA, a device called COTTONMOUTH [4][6], which was leaked during the NSA document dumps [5]. MG, the designer of BadUSB, built a prototype of this with today's resources.

RRG, the company behind the latest iterations of Proxmark 3, ChameleonTiny, etc prototyped and built the USBNinja. Their device is built on the Arduino (Ducky) framework, as opposed to the ESP32 Framework.

There is / was drama between MG (behind BadUSB) and RRG / Kevin Mitnik; MG claimed that it was his prototyped device was brought to market first by RRG.

Drama aside, both products exist, both serve the same purposes, and from a hardware point of view, they're both incredible devices that we could have never imagined 10 years ago.

Personally, I find the framework of the USBNinja to be slightly better in practical purposes, (Non-degraded USB-C charging and performance, non detectable wifi etc). I believe there is also a "pro" version slated for release that adds significant functionality.

Source / disclaimer for all of this: I source products for [https://Lab401.com](https://Lab401.com) \- so we performed a deep dive on both products before deciding which to stock. I also had the chance to visit the factories and witness the prototyping - absolutely fascinating.

It's worth underlining that when the COTTONMOUTH device came out in 2009, it had a value of over 1MUSD. 10 years later, arguably better and smaller devices are literally 0.01% the price, and you can have one in your hand. Progress is amazing.

[1] [https://shop.hak5.org/blogs/news/15-second-password-hack- mr-...](https://shop.hak5.org/blogs/news/15-second-password-hack-mr-robot- style)

[2] [https://samy.pl/poisontap/](https://samy.pl/poisontap/)

[3] [https://github.com/O-MG/DemonSeed](https://github.com/O-MG/DemonSeed)

[4] [https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/12/insid...](https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/12/inside-the-nsas-leaked-catalog-of-surveillance-magic/)

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

[6] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NSA_COTTONMOUTH-I.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NSA_COTTONMOUTH-I.jpg)

<comment><USER9> Im not sure how you managed to get almost all of this wrong.

Network adapter attacks like poisontap are not even HID.

COTTONMOUTH was hardware added inside a USB cable with the type of attack not detailed.

MG (twitter.com/_MG_) did not invent BadUSB. He was the first to put a HID attack inside a cable.

Kevin Mitnick asked MG to build him one. Two months later, Mitnick announces that he created the same cable with the help of RRD Group. In his first announcement he even said "this took longer to ship than to make!". His collaborators (twitter.com/vysecurity) were sorely misinformed about the internals of the cable they claimed to help build. They kept saying it was totally different hardware but it ended up being the same as MG's. Mitnick started threatening MG for telling people that he had previously shown Mitnick the internals of his prototype. MG eventually opensourced the prototype as DemonSeed around the same time he released the OMG Cable that has much more powerful hardware.

Stop shilling for crappy people. Stop shilling for an online shop that claims to do research that most obviously it never did.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> At some point iOS started asking if I want to trust the device, so I suppose if I use this malicious cable with charger and iOS asks me about computer or accessory, I would know things are fishy, would not I?

<comment><USER11> Theoretically. Unfortunately, the device trust settings are not reliably remembered. My phone regularly asks me if I want to trust my computer despite the fact that I haven't made any changes to it. So it _might_ be an indication that something is fishy, or (much more likely) it might just be that a trust setting has expired. Also, no device fingerprint is displayed along with the query, so there's no way to know which device the phone is actually asking you to approve.

<comment><USER12> Aren't you asked every time you reestablish a connection? If I unplug my iPhone (applies to Android too but with slightly different options) and plug it back into the computer I simply get prompted again. I think the trust is ephemeral and is forgotten the moment you disconnect from the USB port. From the phone's perspective there doesn't seem to be a trust store where devices are uniquely identified and remembered.

<comment><USER11> > Aren't you asked every time you reestablish a connection?

No. Sometimes it asks, sometimes it doesn't. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it that I have been able to discern.

<comment><USER13> > There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it that I have been able to discern.

How often do you charge your phone? I only get those prompts when charging with a computer, not with a charger. One explanation might be that it remembers your computer for 1 week (random guess), but if you irregularly connect your phone to your computer it might seem random to you.

<comment><USER11> I work from home, so my phone is plugged in more often than not. But I'll pay more attention to how long it has been away the next time it asks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Not sure I'm understanding what this does? The page lacks information in the extreme. Can this keylog? Does other data just transparently pass through or can this log it? Does it show up as an HID device when not activated? What wireless bands does this operate on?

At the very least a list of specs would be greatly appreciated!

<comment><USER8> Imagine a Rubber Ducky crammed invisibly into a cable, with wireless functionality.

Imagine what you could do on a terminal with keyboard mouse and storage, and that's pretty much what this can do.

In theory undetectable while not activated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Almost as awesome as building it into a server's plastic case hardware at the factory, but still awesome.

</comment><comment><USER16> What would the white-hat use case for this be?

<comment><USER17> I have one with a GSM radio in it. I leave it in my bag so when someone decides to steal it and the use it I can find my stuff.

<comment><USER18> It might lead you to the original person who stole your bag, but it likely won't help you recover your devices because those are very quickly forwarded onto organized crime networks which take stolen phones, reset and refurbish them, and sell them overseas or via used goods channels.

<comment><USER19> How effective is this type of crime system with Activation Lock-secured iPhones? You can't just wipe an iPhone from DFU mode and then set it up normally without the owner's Apple ID information.

Do they try to sell to people who they know won't check if the device has Activation Lock and then disappear when the buyer discovers it doesn't work?

<comment><USER20> There are very convincing phishing attacks used to get the original owner to reveal their Apple password: [https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your- iphone-is-stolen...](https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your-iphone-is- stolen-these-guys-may-try-to-iphish-you/)

I know someone who fell for this. Even though they were skeptical when they received the message, they thought there was a chance it was legit, and therefore gave them some change to recover their stolen phone. I guess they had nothing to lose, as the chance of recovering the phone was ~zero anyway.

<comment><USER21> Krebs really needs to stop publishing people's PII.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I wonder what it would look like if you tested these cables using something like this: [https://www.tindie.com/products/16907/](https://www.tindie.com/products/16907/) [cough, cough]

Presumably it wouldn't look like data lines were present

</comment><comment><USER23> I wonder how it looks in an x-ray scanner. Some secured facilities x-ray everything that comes in or out.

</comment><comment><USER24> So this is for attacking a phone, computer, or both?</comment>


Your social afterlife - <AUTHOR> http://liveson.org/

<comment><USER2> Is the world at a point where people care about their twitter feed once their dead? I hope not.

</comment><comment><USER3> How does this work?</comment>


N. Korea launches out-of-date OS - <AUTHOR> http://technology.canoe.ca/2010/04/06/13480176-reuters.html <comment><USER2> So, this isn't exactly breaking news. There was a review posted of it (albeit in Russian) over a month ago. While in Russian, it does have lots of screenshots (<http://ashen-rus.livejournal.com/4300.html>). I'm not so familiar with KDE to recognize which apps everything are in Korean, but it looks like a pretty standard KDE Linux installation with Firefox, office programs, etc.

Since that blogger got a hold of it, I'm sure it's available outside of North Korea, but I wouldn't want it on my machine. It's noted that it's not completely stable and I'm guessing it doesn't measure up to Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, or any of the well-polished Linux distributions that we're used to.

It's an interesting idea - that an authoritarian regime would use a freely modifiable OS to create something it probably wants very closed. The question is whether they have the ability to make all their people use it (or if that's their goal at all).

<comment><USER3> > Since that blogger got a hold of it, I'm sure it's available outside of > North Korea,

He is a student in Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It looks like an up-to-date Linux with KDE 3.5 so the comments about it being a 10-year-old Windows knock-off are amusing, but surely this is just South Korean propaganda that's being mindlessly repeated?

<comment><USER5> It does say a lot when non-techies view fairly recent linux desktops as "10 year old" software. I guess if they used kde4, the article might be calling it a Vista knockoff.

<comment><USER4> Actually, I think if you squint KDE 3.5 looks most like Windows XP which, while still wildly popular, is in fact 10-year-old software.

Still seems like propaganda to me though just the clever kind where you say something factually true in a way that most people misinterpret to your benefit.

One other thing I found out while reading about this is that this is a new venture for NK and in fact most computer users (though apparently there aren't that many) are in fact using Windows XP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _The Linux-based Red Star system borrows heavily from early versions of Microsoft and has knock-off copies of the computer giant's word processing, spread sheet and power point programmes, the report said._

ha, excellent, OpenOffice is now a knock-off copy of MS Office

<comment><USER7> Wasn't it always?

<comment><USER6> yep, it was, but it's sort of sad that most laymen use the derogatory term 'knock-off', since that implies some form of piracy

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> They built a crippled Linux distro? Didn't China try the same thing with red flag os?

</comment><comment><USER9> Can we get a copy? I'd love to try this. I'd worry about the North Korean government spying on me though.

<comment><USER10> If they are in fact phoning home, wouldn't that be interesting to know?

<comment><USER11> And it seems like the legal repercussions of DoSing the phone-home server would also be minimal. For someone in the US or EU, I mean.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I wonder whether the 'out of date' refers only to the interface conventions etc., or goes right down to the kernel. It does strike me that with NK's dreadful economy, it probably needs to be able to run on oldish hardware. Even if they can circumvent sanctions to get the latest and greatest components for Kim Jong-Il's personal workstation, or their defense department, most of the country is probably saddled with Pentium IIIs or similar.

<comment><USER13> You can easily run the latest kernel on a Pentium III without issue.

<comment><USER12> Indeed - I was thinking more of kernel modules using things like SSE2 or the like that I'd just take for granted now. I didn't mean to imply kernel bloat or a lack of backwards compatibility, but rather wondered if the paranoids in NK might be suspicious of current builds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So their OS is the equivalent of Windows 2000? Is that really as terrible as the article implies?</comment>


Advice for those seeking salary increases - <AUTHOR> http://pastebin.com/KG0Miais

<comment><USER2> Not much advice here. What he does have here isn't very helpful. In my experience, sometimes I've asked for a ~10% raise and almost laughed out of the room, usually this is the case. Your starting salary sets it for the rest of your career there. Other times, I've had companies respond and renegotiated my salary.

I think it would be to find another job that pays better if you're underpaid, and find out if you are asking around (recommend not at your same place of work, you'll possibly end up angry if you find you're dramatically underpaid), Glassdoor, asking recruiters etc.

If I'm not underpaid, I don't sweat it too much. Once you get to where you think you should be, probably not a great idea to keep knocking on the door each year asking for raises. Topping out is real unless you're going to become the boss (start your own business). For a sane maximum, look at places like Google and their salaries. Few will pay those ranges, but if you think you're going to go above you're probably kidding yourself, that's your cap. And you need to consider the market you're in. The OP is wrong, market-rate does matter, it affects the range possible. You can do the same job in Des Moines, Iowa for $80K that would be a $140K job in San Francisco. If you're in India it's going to be market rate there.

To break all the rules you need to own your own business, or pickup some truly esoteric or difficult to perform skills.

</comment><comment><USER3> The fact is a quiet baby gets no suck. If you are going to ask for a rise you've got to be prepared for it. First search for similar jobs in different companies. Try to learn the salary. When you've figured out an average price write down the pros and cons of changing the job. Because sometimes a little percentage of rise won't worth changing the job for career. If there is not much difference but a small amount of rise will change your living standards then go to your boss and talk like this: I need a rise, my cost of living is increased bec of child, home etc... and I am really happy working here. I think this is why i am productive, bla bla bla.. But currently i can't afford living. I think I've proven myself. On the other hand I'vent been searching for another job tho. Instead I prefered asking for a rise. I think it would really motivate me so that I can provide more."

</comment><comment><USER4> I thought the advice was spot on. Ask for what you want; at the same time it may not happen for reasons you may or may not know. Then if you are still not happy go to market. You may find higher pay is higher stress. Otherwise, be liked, big companies have churn so do small companies, so opportunities will present themselves. Be nice and play the long game. Add more value. Most likely what you are doing in a year won't be what you are doing now (especially in software).

</comment><comment><USER5> The people that get pay more usually know they are needed and they use it as leverage. Everyone else, be more needed ;)

</comment><comment><USER6> so tl;dr: be liked, don't be afraid to ask for raise?

I thought there would be more advices....</comment>


Nimporter 1.0 released (seamlessly import Nim code from Python) - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/nim/comments/fz7x3e/nimporter_v100_is_out/ <comment><USER2> Nim is the ultimate glue language. JS, python, c, c++, obj-c, even glsl... It's cool.

<comment><USER3> I want to second this sentiment. Wow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How about the other way around, e.g. importing stuff like NumPy and SciPy or PyTorch from Nim? Is that possible?

<comment><USER5> Haven't tried but [https://github.com/yglukhov/nimpy#calling-python-from- nim](https://github.com/yglukhov/nimpy#calling-python-from-nim)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can't wait to give this a try!</comment>


How A Peacock Shrimp Packs A Punch - <AUTHOR> http://cen-online.org/articles/90/i24/Peacock-Shrimp-Packs-Punch.html

<comment><USER2> They also have "hyper spectral" eyes that detect light using 12 different color receptors. Compare that with 3 color receptors in human eyes (plus rods).

I just learned about them listening to RadioLab last week: <http://www.radiolab.org/2012/may/21/></comment>


Most Code Is an Ugly Mess. Here's How to Make It Beautiful - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2014/09/most-code-is-an-ugly-mess-heres-how-to-make-it-beautiful/

<comment><USER2> Good article, surprised they didn't draw a parallel between event-driven programming and git/version control systems.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Vikram Chandra makes a lot of great points. He definitely is not a "hack first" kind of guy. I am of the opinion you build, then you re-build to be supportable, then you rebuild to be sustainable.

That doesn't always go over well, but if you keep code modular upfront it doesn't add much overhead, and gives you a good blend of Build once, or Build Fast.</comment>


Announcing the deprecation of GitHub Services - <AUTHOR> https://developer.github.com/changes/2018-04-25-github-services-deprecation/ <comment><USER2> First they remove the awesome ability to post anonymous gists with the API. Now they remove this feature that seems like is much engrained in various workflows. Thanks github. :/

</comment><comment><USER3> So did this have anything to do with the Microsoft buyout?

</comment><comment><USER4> Arggggg. Now I get to try and figure out how to port my legacy GitHub service.</comment>


'Legitimate' US healthcare pricing could reduce costs by a third - <AUTHOR> http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20161014/news/161019940 <comment><USER2> It's hard to overstate how bizarrely opaque healthcare pricing is in the US. Despite the quality of the care ranking favorably worldwide, medical bills are an after-the-fact surprise.

In the diplomatic, foreign exchange, and expat communities living in the US, a common advice is "don't get sick". Those who can afford to travel often get care "back home" or elsewhere in Europe or Asia, because the costs can be determined in advance -- not to mention almost always cheaper.

Meanwhile, Americans are subject to surprise pricing, supposedly-helpful "Explanation of Benefits" forms that itemize procedures into miniscule sub- steps costing several hundreds of dollars each, a complete inability to reconcile a bill with the corresponding insurance claim -- to say nothing about trying to correct a paperwork mistake should it occur, or even being able to detect it in the first place.

<comment><USER3> Few people ask what the price will be in advance. I do know people that do, and they can and do shop around. You can get quite a bit better prices that way.

Few procedures are an emergency.

<comment><USER4> When I needed an MRI, I called five different places and only one of them would actually tell me a price. All of the others said "we don't know the price until we submit the claim to insurance". Not sure if they were telling the truth or just being lazy at their jobs. Either way, getting a price in advance is not as simple as just asking.

<comment><USER5> In fact, they know two exact prices: (1) the price they will bill your particular insurance company & (2) the lowest price in actual total they can accept

Unfortunately, there's no benefit to them to tell you (2). And without verifying your exact insurance coverage (i.e. submitting a claim) they have no idea how (1) relates to your eventual out-of-pocket costs (and they're disincentivized from telling you the billed rate in case you're actually another insurer trying to negotiate lower rates).

<comment><USER6> Actually, as pmorici notes, there are three relevant prices. Without insurance, you will be charged the "cash price", which is always far greater (maybe 3-4 times) the price that they have negotiated with your insurance company. For large insurance companies, that price can be close to the lowest price that they will accept.

Even if you have insurance, they may be able to bill you for the difference between the cash and negotiated prices. It depends on relevant law and terms negotiated with your insurance provider. It's prudent to ask. Also, providers will sometimes "accidentally" bill you for that difference, even if they're not permitted to.

<comment><USER7> it's actually a little more nuanced than that. Hospitals/providers have what they call charge master. it is probably the cash price you are mentioning.

Even uninsured can end up negotiating the bill, albeit after the fact.

Sometimes, insurance might negotiate lower prices than what a certain procedure/treatment costs, i believe that's not uncommon. They make up for it from other procedures in general.

1\. The lack of health care cost transparency reduces price competition. 2\. people not asking for price in advance, or not caring because the are already past their 1. deductible 2. out of pocket maximum makes healthcare expensive[a]. Similar to reference pricing, high-deductible health plans (with added HSA benefit) makes people think twice before going to doctors. I also felt a lot of people are not price conscious about healthcare - just yesterday a friend mentioned "i picked the most expensive plan so i don't have to think about it". Completely reasonable, but one reason why prices get higher each year.

[a: reference pricing] [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/upshot/how-common- procedur...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/upshot/how-common-procedures- got-20-percent-cheaper-for-many-californians.html)

<comment><USER6> > Even uninsured can end up negotiating the bill, albeit after the fact.

Yes. One could say something like "I know that you're billing me three times what you get from insurance companies, and I know that you'd pay at least 50% to a collection agency, so will you accept 40% now?"

> Sometimes, insurance might negotiate lower prices than what a certain > procedure/treatment costs, i believe that's not uncommon. They make up for > it from other procedures in general.

True. Also from payers with less negotiating strength.

<comment><USER8> "Yes. One could say something like "I know that you're billing me three times what you get from insurance companies, and I know that you'd pay at least 50% to a collection agency, so will you accept 40% now?""

Unfortunately, this misses another pertinent point, that the provider/facility will be able to charge off and deduct as a loss either that 50% of the original amount they're going to charge you, as well as getting 50% from collections, or 100% if they're... 'creative'. This can often reduce incentive to negotiate.

<comment><USER6> Maybe so. But wouldn't that _increase_ the incentive to negotiate?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This idea is based on healthcare not being a scam. You can ask for a price and then will tell you a price but even if you pay that price, up front, in cash, you will later get bills for more "services", received or perceived. In any other industry people would go to prison.

<comment><USER10> Yes. My wife recently went for a physical, something covered fully under our plan. We were surprised to see a bill follow and a separate consultation charge (not covered) alongside the physical charge (covered and zero rated). It turns out because she asked the doctor a question the doctor decided that was outside the scope of the physical and constituted a separate consultation. Of course how you're supposed to know what is or isn't in scope I have no idea.

<comment><USER11> I had the same experience. As a part of small talk at annual physical, I asked a question to the Doctor to which they gave an answer which I already knew ("You do not need to worry about this"), and I got charged for that.

My workplace pays me incentive money for getting an annual physical. So, now I just go to physicals, stay quiet just so that I get the incentive money.

I wonder how doctors feel that their patients are scared of asking them any questions.

<comment><USER12> This is a little sketch - if the question you asked didn't required any additional work (specialized physical exam, detailed history taking, additional medical decision making), billing for it as a separate evaluation and management visit (as opposed to a preventative visit) isn't kosher. Often people come into their preventative visit wanting to discuss their insulin regimen, blood pressure history or a new acute problem, and this is the situation where the second charge is appropriate.

<comment><USER13> _if the question you asked didn 't required any additional work [such as] medical decision making_

That effectively of reduces the scope of meaningful _questions_ I can a _doctor_ to near-zero, right?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> My wife's wheelchair that the insurance company is paying for costs $6,000. The "loaner" wheelchair she's using now costs $400. The $6,000 chair being built is essentially the same as the $400 chair. Fraud like this is the reason we have the most expensive per capita healthcare in the world.

<comment><USER15> My mother needed a wheelchair, we went to Amazon and bought a $300 one instead of the $6000 one the insurance company wanted us to buy. No difference that we can tell.

<comment><USER7> good thing is those are the things you can shop around -easier-. when you are in a hospital getting care, you have very little idea about how much it's going to cost you.

<comment><USER15> Also don't throw stuff away. I had injured my knee and has surgery to correct it. I bought a walker until I got better. When my father got sick he borrowed my walker instead of buying a new one.

If you look in thrift stores you can find canes and walkers as well sometimes.

It is just like OTC aspirin, bring in your own bottle to save money as if a nurse gives it to you, you are charged $50 a pill. Buy one for $1 at a Dollar Store and use that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've often heard/personally espoused the belief that health shouldn't be treated like a commodity. Interesting argument here that if health were only "truly" treated like a commodity, we'd have much fairer pricing. Capitalism has many faces, of which the free market is only one aspect. The healthcare industry in the US functions a lot more like other examples of what Naomi Klein might call "disaster capitalism": preying on the fact that health is by its very nature un-commodity-like to extort the sick.

The problem with this whole line of reasoning may be that health just can't be fairly priced according to free market principles, and that acting like it can be will just continue to enable the status quo.

<comment><USER17> I worked for a health care insurance company during the 2008 debates on the cost and quality web applications.

Like people have mentioned, they only gave a range, and a useless one at that. This was during the big push to HSAs and how healthy people could save using them and roll that money over to an IRA later in life to aid in retirement, or kept in the HSA for medicare costs.

We read Redefining Health care at work and there was a lot of talk, but always with the for-profit ends (even through we were a non-for-profit, not to be confused with a non-profit).

I left the US for a while and I found it interesting that in other countries, doctors could always tell me a price. An office visit was never more than $70 and when I got better work visas, the doctors offices even worked with me to get a better rate (even though I didn't have a full residence visa needed for Medicare).

Every lab I went to for imagination told me the price on the phone.

The Affordable Care Act is terrible. I does help the very poor, but everyone in the middle still struggles between many terrible options. Contractors often get the worst plans that have little to no substantiation.

I have not seen a doctor for a year and only have minimal effective coverage ($17). Full plans from my employer start at $400/month. I've open enrolled in an ACA plan for next year, but it's still $200 a month and I plan on quitting my job and travelling. Because it's based on last year's income, I can't switch to a low income plan until the following year.

Employers should have been banned from offering plans at all, or at the very least, giving any discounts. But really, we should have a single payer system. The current state of health care under the ACA is still not good, and far from our European counterparts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm convinced employer paid insurance is the single biggest problem. Very few people buy plans in the healthcare marketplace, most get it from their employer, and most of those have no idea what that plan costs compared to other plans.

With employer paid care, the employer is the primary customer. A level playing field would be everyone having to go direct to insurer/broker or healthcare market. And people would be so irritated with that process, which also requires annually reevaluating to get the best price, as a society we'd either go back to bartering chickens or go single payer.

<comment><USER19> Part of the original plan for the Affordable Care Act was, as I recall, to require members of Congress to use the government-run marketplaces. Congress refused. Not surprising -- they probably have the best health insurance in the US.

If Congress were forced to "dogfood" the health system the way ordinary people experience it, I suspect Republicans would be falling over themselves to enact a single payer system.

<comment><USER20> Ridiculous healthcare is one of the perks for govt officials. Any one of the Congress people or Executive administrators can get a full body scan on a whim (e.g. it was all the rage in washington during the first bush administration through the second bush terms). You get a clean bill of health for your campaign, or you get whatever you find, treated and maybe get well enough for the next campaign cycle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think the pricing is an implicit way the cog in the engine works.

I don't necessarily agree with it, but I see it and always think about it when anybody points out how expensive medical care is here in the USA.

Biotech R&D advances in the USA are funded by monstrously price gouging insurance companies.

Are you a biotech innovator? Your best bet is to start in the USA because you can charge a lot of money and nobody will lift a finger that influences your market potential like what happens in other countries.

Hopefully a large pharma company will buy your small pharma or medical device company because they have 2 things you don't:

1\. Distribution - 1 sales rep for every doctor

2\. Synthetic Scaling Insight - They have deep insights and grandfathered advantages in this arena, lest you can double down on putting in 40M-100M to make it happen.

\---Or so this was the way it was explained to me through hundreds of interactions trying to build a genetics company in the USA. ---

The hunt for drug targets is the elusive hunt for the black swan. There's 8-10 new genetic tests that come out each day but very few if any of them can be tied to something specific, because it's tough.

Data doesn't necessarily make it easier, despite the notion of big-data optimization.

As such, prices will get higher, before they get lower. That or drug dev. stagnates.

The elephant in the room anytime we talk about US healthcare is our flawed food environment - Sugar. It's creeping up on other countries fast.....

</comment><comment><USER22> > They can continue to set their own rates, but a different rate for each > patient must be prohibited.

This is a terrible idea. That means no discounts for people in need, and no doctors saying "don't charge her for that aspirin" as both would become illegal.

I'm all for transparency in pricing, but the lack of flexibility in charging customers is already a big problem. When you go to the hospital, everything is charged at max-price, then insurance companies pay out their negotiated rates. People without insurance don't have the ability to negotiate and end up with ludicrous bills that even the most generous insurance company wouldn't pay.

<comment><USER23> Instead of subsidising those in need through price changes, the government can simply subsidise those in need directly, paying part of the bill itself. This is how it works in many other countries.

<comment><USER24> The 46% of the country that gets to decide who runs the country hates doing that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This is the tip of a really trashy iceberg when it comes to general healthcare costs.

Not only is consistent prices by patient a problem, but prices by procedure and by hospital has a huge range as well, as documented many times. An operation can cost $10K at one place and $100K at another. This isn't news though.

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/hospital-prices- cos...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/hospital-prices-cost- differences_n_3232678.html)

What isn't talked about is this: when you want to get a procedure done, and your insurance will cover it the same at each place, how do you choose your hospital? Location is usually a big factor. You'd also probably want to go to the place with the best facilities. What ends up happening is that hospitals will build these expensive facilities in good locations to attract, for lack of a better term in this story, customers. Billion dollar construction projects. Do you think their prices went up or down during this build?

That all is raw cost. Now throw in what you pay. If your insurance covers the 95K of the 100K, but won't cover any of the 10K, you're going to choose the 100K procedure. The health care insurer eats that 95K and then raises their prices across the board. Everyone nationally loses, except for that hospital, which is now closer to paying off its new facility.

This situation in reality is much murkier, and I skated over plenty of details I'm sure, some I didn't even realize I skated over.

Now, state of the art medical facilities are a good thing on their own, but there's a game being played here with the prices of the facilities themselves and how they are paid for. With the lack of transparency, we aren't really able to determine much.

All of these dynamics come from the complexities of a system that badly needs to be simplified, regardless of if you think it should be done by the government or privately. You can probably already see here how a single payer system or some sort of direct proportionality costs could make a big difference. I can't say I have the solution, but I think this part of the narrative is often missing.

</comment><comment><USER26> The other day I went to the doctor and had a minor procedure done (I had two moles I wanted removed) and asked "How much will this cost if insurance doesn't cover it?"

The answer: "I don't know"

How can you not know what the cost of a routine procedure like that is? If a simple thing like that can't be give a cost what hope do we have?

Edit: If anyone is curious, $580 but my insurance covered it.

<comment><USER27> How big was the medical facility? Might be the case that the doctor genuinely doesn't know since the hospital operations folks determine the price?

<comment><USER28> That's quite possible. And let's ignore insurance for a moment.

How is the doctor supposed to responsibly recommend treatment if they don't have the faintest idea of what it costs? If you need some kind of drug in the doctor can think of to that would probably work just fine, would it be really useful if the doctor knew that one was $1/pill in the other was $45/pill? If the difference in the price for the patient ends up being significant maybe that should be something to take into account.

However if you set up the system so that the doctors never actually know what it costs…

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> One reason for the bizarro healthcare pricing situation is that hospitals can claim the writedown (difference between huge fake price and actual price) as a loss when filing taxes. A few changes to the Internal Revenue Code would help put a stop to this.

<comment><USER28> IRS code is the same way we got in to the nonsense of almost everyone getting their insurance through their employer, which led to the situation where there was almost no market for individual policies. That meant they were insanely expensive and the cost effective only way to get healthcare was to be employed by a big company. And that meant switching jobs could be insanely expensive. And that meant you could pay people less because you had a form of lock-in. Don't want to lose that pre-existing condition coverage.

One little text change, design to either give companies more compensation options or promote health insurance (I'm not sure which) had a really huge unintended effect on the way the entire employment system runs.

<comment><USER7> a little context on the healthcare insurance by employer system: During WW2, the US banned increasing employee compensation, so employers looked for alternatives and they figured insurance would be one area. That's how the US got into the mess of "employer takes up the bill" :)

ref: [http://www.nber.org/papers/w14839.pdf?new_window=1](http://www.nber.org/papers/w14839.pdf?new_window=1)

So wars have long lasting impacts on the society, taxes and insurance are some important examples.

<comment><USER28> I didn't realize it was a war thing. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I know this is reference pricing rather than legitimate, but it seems likes a start:

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

</comment><comment><USER31> Truth in billing, which is required of telephone carriers would be huge by itself in the medical field. Also, being able to opt out of a $600 gown, etc...

<comment><USER32> > Truth in billing, which is required of telephone carriers would be huge by > itself in the medical field.

It would be, but Medicare would never let that happen, because opaque billing is how they ensure they can reimburse below cost and get private insurers to essentially subsidize Medicare patients.

<comment><USER8> This is a claim often stated, but rarely actually demonstrated - ways in which Medicare doesn't cover costs, that is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> If the ACA had sought to create a competitive market between the consumer and the provider instead of between the consumer and the insurer, it would have been a truly revolutionary leap forward.

Instead, we got entitlement expansion.

<comment><USER28> It got A LOT more people covered. It made it so you don't have to worry about losing coverage when you switch jobs due to pre-existing conditions.

No, it wasn't real reform. They could've allowed you to shop for plans offered in other states for example. But it was a truly useful step forward for TONS of people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> The methods of Medicare pricing were established by DeBakey's subordinates when Johnson pushed Medicare through. It's backroom deals all the way down.

</comment><comment><USER35> It's like he's never heard of "price discrimination" ( [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and- rubber-...](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2004/12/15/camels-and-rubber- duckies/) ). Yes, medical care in the US is priced to basically be as expensive as you (or your insurer) can afford. That isn't uncommon, as Spolsky points out. Airline tickets are priced the same way. But so is everything that has a premium model and a basic model, etc.

<comment><USER36> Ok, that article linked was brilliant. It points out all the hypocrisy of being too analytical about pricing.

The real question is how can your customers pay for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> > Healthcare providers must likewise be required to publish their rates in a > uniform format such as industry standard CPT codes or a percentage of > Medicare rates.

This proposal does not address the primary reason that price transparency is really goddamn hard: Even if you know exactly what a provider will charge for each CPT code, you don't know which CPT codes are going to be billed for a particular patient care event.

Inconsistent cost per line item is not the key problem with transparency. Tools like Castlight actually do a pretty decent job of guessing how much each item on a provider's CPT "menu" is going to cost a patient. In many (most?) situations, it is simply not possible to predict which CPT codes are going to be billed for a particular patient's care. This is the key reason price transparency tools tend to give a range rather than a specific price for a particular procedure.

(Also: Big picture, the idea that this would decrease costs by 33% is absurd. If healthcare providers had to publish real legit price sheets that were used by real consumers, prices would converge within a market, but they would not converge that low. Published pricing is not going to cause these businesses to collectively roll over and give up 33% of their revenue.)

<comment><USER7> There are many factors contributing to this actually.

1\. Doctors overprescribe because they are afraid of mistakenly underprescribing (we are a litigious country after all). This end up costing patients more tests/procedures, and cost doctors malpractice insurance premiums. 2\. Procedures are billed differently per insurance policy. There are millions of variations of anthem PPO, and what they cover and how much they pay differs.

3\. You, as the policy beneficiary, only care about your out of pocket cost. You don't really care about the price unless 1) you pay some percent of the money (reference pricing), 2) you are below your deductible.

So you are right, price transparency alone is not enough, but it is indeed a big step. If you knew in advance the price of thing, you probably wouldn't pay 400$ for a bag of saline solution [1]

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring- salines-s...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines- secret-costs.html)

<comment><USER37> > you probably wouldn't pay 400$ for a bag of saline solution

Hey, this is a great example: I might very well pay $400 for a bag of saline solution even if I knew the price in advance, because I don't care about the price of the bag. I care about the all-in cost of my treatment. If that total cost happens to include a $400 bag, I don't really care.

The "$30 Asprin" narrative sometimes misses the big picture of healthcare costs. The price of an apsrin or bag of saline solution is inflated to cover the enormous fixed costs of running a hospital with an ER. Could the ER charge $4 per bag or $0.25 per asprin? Of course, but if they lose their per-unit margin on the saline and asprin, they're going to jack up the price of some other CPT code because they have to cover their fixed costs somewhere.

<comment><USER7> that's a great point, and something that is actually telling about the us healthcare.

The 400$ saline bag is probably an illustrative example, but i believe it's a pretty common line item for most surgeries. I don't know enough about medical procedures, but i assume it's not one of the rare items/prescriptions where the high cost is somewhat justified.

I care about "all-in" cost of treatment. I don't see that. I don't see that until it's too late. I don't get charged for "all-in", i get charged per individual item in that "all-in" care i got.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I constantly feel like my doctors are hamstrung in providing me with the best medical care because of this. It's hard to recommend the best medical option for your patient when you have no idea at what point in time they will be able to afford it. It's fine to say a simple surgery will fix a problem for me but if you don't know how long I'll have to save to afford it it could snowball into a larger/more difficult surgery.

<comment><USER39> This week my wife and I went to the hospital here in Waterloo and delivered our third child. Total cost was $16... to park our car overnight in the garage.

Now, our delivery was as close to perfect as you can get. We were only there overnight, but there are a million unknowns with a baby, and I'm just so thankful knowing that no matter what might have happened, we would have received what we needed, when we needed it, and if it wasn't available at our local hospital, we would be transferred to where we needed to go— all at no charge.

There isn't really a message here, just grateful to live in a country where my medical professionals can recommend me the care I need without having to have a conversation about costs. And most importantly, that that same care is available to everyone in my country, not just those who happen to work a salaried white collar job.

<comment><USER40> What was the out of pocket? Thousands of dollars, correct?

How many bills did they send you and for how long? How many billing errors were made?

This is not normal in a developed country.

My favorite part is when they bill the baby for the cost of its own birth against its own seperate deductible.

<comment><USER7> hah - that's news to me. It could have been more interesting where they charge half of the delivery to the mother, and half (where the baby is out in the world) to the baby :)

Make that baby pay for it, America... oh wait!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> California's assembly passed a law requiring hospitals to charge Medicare's rates to self-pay patients. Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

</comment><comment><USER42> It seems like a similar price inflation affects anything sold to the military. Every time I hear comparisons involving the size of the US military budget, I always think "yeah but everything they buy (including hammers + toilets) are 5x-10x the price, so their effective budget is only 10%-20% of that"

</comment><comment><USER43> To get a closer-to-real cost of healthcare, especially surgical procedures look at veterinary care in the US. Similar tools and equipment, similar medicines, similar training, except pricing is not defused by third party payers and padded by liability insurance costs.

</comment><comment><USER44> If Thailand can do it, why can't we?

[https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/realcost-thailand- surgery](https://www.bumrungrad.com/en/realcost-thailand-surgery)

</comment><comment><USER45> The problem with this thinking is you don't know what services you'll require (apart from routine checkups and specific treatments for already diagnosed problems). It does me no good to have a list of all the thousands of possible things a hospital might do along with a price for each one.

<comment><USER46> That's definitely part of the problem too.. but that exists because of the pricing structure hospitals use.

If I go into a store and buy a part, they don't say, well let me call the factory, and they'll get a list of all the things that were done to create this particular part, and a price for each. The store comes back with a list: Raw materials: $ Packing materials: $ Surcharge for production delay caused by spill: $ Resurfacing of part because of material defect: $

If a manufacturer tried that, they would be out of business immediately. Yet that's exactly what hospitals do, even down to a charge for the 2 cents worth of aspirin.

In normal businesses, they charge a price for the product that covers the details, the mistakes, the extras required to delivery the product. The mistakes, etc are averaged out over all of the items produced, along with the cost of the misc supplies, equipment, etc.

<comment><USER45> The current system sucks but I have trouble picturing your alternative. If a person has abdominal pain it could be caused any number of things - some of which could have no cure at all and some of which will just go away on their own. What price list could they possibly consult?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> > "Congress need only mandate that all hospitals, physicians and labs publish > legitimate prices—like all other businesses"

Is that true for _ALL_ other businesses? I know some businesses are under control of price fixing legislation, but is that true for all?

<comment><USER48> As others have pointed out, it's not true for some industries: auto repair, enterprise software and college tuition. Also, cell phone and Internet service "bundles".

All of these industries have at least one thing in common: they're kind of scammy.

<comment><USER49> Sure it is. Auto shops have a labor rate. Say, $150/hr. That's the price. For parts, you'll pay the same markup as the next guy. You can negotiate, but you can negotiate ANYTHING.

<comment><USER48> They also have a big book of how long each individual repair should take.

If your insurance company has preferred repair shops, do you think the insurance company is paying the standard rate? They do have a better negotiating position than you do.

Of course, this isn't as big of a problem as it used to be, back when they didn't post an hourly rate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Here's a similar take -- [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-belk/hospital- bills_b_42...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-belk/hospital- bills_b_4257433.html)

</comment><comment><USER51> Error in the article: auto insurers also have negotiated rates with service providers, including body shops and auto glass repairers.

<comment><USER7> but there is less variance in prices, more flexibility in shopping, and less variance between estimated and final cost.</comment></comment>


Replacing the office keys with iPhones, N1s and Twilio - <AUTHOR> http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2010/our-door-opener-science-project/

<comment><USER2> I've wanted to build this for my garage door for a while. I'm always paranoid that I left it open.

Wish I didn't have to rely on the internet being up, though...

<comment><USER3> Kind of like Brad Fitzpatrick's Android proximity garage door opener? <http://brad.livejournal.com/2394220.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you want a more slick package there are devices made just for this. Here's a Bluetooth lock controller for example: [http://www.smarthome.com/70470/ECKey-EK2-Bluetooth- enabled-V...](http://www.smarthome.com/70470/ECKey-EK2-Bluetooth-enabled- Virtual-Keypad-Access-Control-System/p.aspx)

<comment><USER5> Sure, but that's much less fun. (and this router is currently only $60 shipped from Newegg -- that, plus maybe $10 worth of Radioshack components).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why hack up an entire router? Surely there is a better solution for a networked light switch.

<comment><USER7> There's probably a more elegant solution, but I doubt there's a cheaper one (at such a low quantity)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> ... and if the power goes out?

<comment><USER4> Then the lab wouldn't be too useful anyway and the existing keycard system would also be up a creek.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is great. I need to get this!

</comment><comment><USER10> Love it.</comment>


Predicting Attentiveness to Mobile Instant Messages (ACM CHI 2014) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://pielot.org/pubs/Pielot2014-CHI-AttPred.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Abstract:

> _" Mobile instant messaging (e.g., via SMS or WhatsApp) often goes along > with an expectation of high attentiveness, i.e., that the receiver will > notice and read the message within a few minutes. Hence, existing instant > messaging services for mobile phones share indicators of availability, such > as the last time the user has been online. However, in this paper we not > only provide evidence that these cues create social pressure, but that they > are also weak predictors of attentiveness. As remedy, we propose to share a > machine-computed prediction of whether the user will view a message within > the next few minutes or not. For two weeks, we collected behavioral data > from 24 users of mobile instant messaging services. By the means of machine- > learning techniques, we identified that simple features extracted from the > phone, such as the user's interaction with the notification center, the > screen activity, the proximity sensor, and the ringer mode, are strong > predictors of how quickly the user will attend to the messages. With seven > automatically selected features our model predicts whether a phone user will > view a message within a few minutes with 70.6% accuracy and a precision for > fast attendance of 81.2%"_

Thirty Second Video for ACM CHI 2014

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbyxOHZF1E8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbyxOHZF1E8)

ACM CHI 2014 Paper Citation:

[http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2556288.2556973](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=2556288.2556973)</comment>


The Problem of Artificial Willpower - <AUTHOR> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-of-artificial-willpower

<comment><USER2> already posted, id=9847335</comment>


Ask HN: Why do you browse the New tab? - <AUTHOR> i'm feeling a bit of guilt in that I don't browse the New tab at all, but I also just dont have a ton of motivation beyond "giving back to HN". just trying to understand why others do it and how I can do it better (i'm more focused on frontend/AWS/finance/career posts, for example). <comment><USER2> I love the new tab... Most of my best finds are in New.

For whatever reason, the home page tends to focus on "News" from Washpost/ NYtimes/etc ... FAANG/ Big Co stuff (releases, interviewing, blah) and a bunch of other stuff that is generally not interesting to me.

To find really good personal blog posts, interesting new companies, or up and coming technology its almost always on "new", "show", or "ask"

<comment> non-entity I agree for the most part, the front page gets some cool stuff, but it seems to be increasingly full of "meh" articles with garbage discussion threads.

Some of the thread most interesting me I see on mew that sadly dont go anywhere. I've wondered though, what times the site is most active.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > why others do it

I went to look in New after reading this page, and found this wonderful long article, about the world's reaction to the virus, which had been posted for 6 hours without getting an upvote! [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23934334](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23934334)

So thanks, I used to read in New all the time, but forgot how good it can get! The front page is a lil like the pop music of HN..and I dont listen to pop music, not sure why I trust the front few pages contain the best of HN.

</comment><comment><USER4> It takes almost no time to scan down the page. If I see something that looks interesting then I'll click.

So many interesting items fall off the "Newest" page without ever being seen or voted on, it's worth a quick scan. I often see something there that's worth a second look ... my interests aren't totally aligned with the core HN community, so much of what I would like never hits the Front Page.

Or, you know, just FOMO.

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah. i'll try to set this to my "start" page instead of going straight to front page then.

you know if we customize the front page then we basically get something like Reddit...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I run a tumblelog [0] and daily I browse the New tab looking for content to link to.

[0] [https://plurrrr.com/](https://plurrrr.com/), for which I wrote my own SSG [1]

[1] [https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog](https://github.com/john- bokma/tumblelog)

<comment><AUTHOR> cool project! starred.

<comment><USER5> Thank you very much!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I use "new", "comments", "ask", and "shownew"; I don't use the main list. What I would really want is a user option for purely chronological sort everywhere.

</comment><comment><USER7> New is a fire hose. You can read through 100s of pages

</comment><comment><USER8> After I post a link, I go to the New tab to wait for my karma points. While waiting, I upvote a couple of articles to show how generous I am.</comment>


Votecastr real time election day data - <AUTHOR> http://votecastr.us/ <comment><AUTHOR> There isn't any data yet, but they started capturing at 08:00-5.

</comment><comment><USER2> Is there some kind of API for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> From what I've seen, Slate and Vice have exclusives on the data - so probably no. But if it is successful and the company can stick around until the next election, perhaps they will consider syndication of some kind.</comment></comment>


CEOs of Seattle area's biggest companies: We need more middle-class housing - <AUTHOR> https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/ceos-of-seattle-areas-biggest-companies-we-need-more-housing-for-the-middle-class/ <comment><USER2> If there's a demand, you can bet someone will provide the supply. That's probably the thing capitalism excels best at.

Seattle may just need to open up their housing market more to market forces.</comment>


Torrent downloader Bitport.io premium for free - <AUTHOR> https://bitport.io/holiday-giveaway/ <comment><AUTHOR> Follow the link. After you register, you get your premium plan automatically. It is valid until the end of this year. Enjoy.</comment>


One power law to rule them all? - <AUTHOR> https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=43045 <comment><USER2> I know what kind of process generates a normal distribution, but what about power law and lognormal? I've googled for an answer and never found anything (just found the formula for distributions, etc).

<comment><USER3> "A Brief History of Generative Models for Power Law and Lognormal Distributions": [https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.im/1089229510](https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.im/1089229510)

<comment><USER2> This is excellent. Thank you.</comment></comment></comment>


2 Things I've Learned from other People's Failed Startups - <AUTHOR>

1) Starting a tech company is hard.<p>2) Writing about a failed tech company is easy. <comment><USER2> starting a tech company is easy. succeeding is hard.

almost all the failed tech stories are:

we didn't launch early enough so didn't start the conversation with our users fast enough. we built something people didn't want. we gave up.

</comment><comment><USER3> 3) People whose startup failed, thought they could copy successful startups without putting in the hard yards!

But .... hard work alone doesn't guarantee success, you need to create value, solve a problem make something that people want and MARKET. If people don't know about your product/service and the benefits of getting involved, they're not going to become paying customers.

</comment><comment><USER4> Starting a company is all about creating value. First you must be able to identify a void. Second you must solve the problem of how to fill that void.</comment>


Where to find good resources for "deciphering" a HTTP response message - <AUTHOR> I am using an HTTP REST API what upon requests returns a response message with the following level 1 properties:
[ '_readableState',
  'readable',
  'domain',
  '_events',
  '_eventsCount',
  '_maxListeners',
  'socket',
  'connection',
  'httpVersionMajor',
  'httpVersionMinor',
  'httpVersion',
  'complete',
  'headers',
  'rawHeaders',
  'trailers',
  'rawTrailers',
  'upgrade',
  'url',
  'method',
  'statusCode',
  'statusMessage',
  'client',
  '_consuming',
  '_dumped',
  'req' ]
This structure also contains a lot of nested properties. I would like to go through the entire structure - property for property - to understand each of them.
I am able to find general resources on the HTTP protocol but I have been unable to find resources that allow me to work "backwards" from the content of the response object to more general explanations of how each property takes its place in the standards of the HTTP protocol (to the extent a property does not deviate from the standards or constitute a property special to a given web service).
Does such a resource exist - partially or wholly? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. TIA! <comment><USER2> Most of those are not HTTP responses, that's why you haven't found them.

HTTP 1.1 protcol :

[https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt](https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.txt)

HTTP 2 protcol :

[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7540](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7540)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - I will look into those links carefully</comment>


Zerodium to Freeze Purchase of Several iOS Vulnerabilities - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/Zerodium/status/1260541578747064326 <comment><AUTHOR> I wonder why the sudden influx? Is it as simple as a bunch of researchers stuck inside on quarantine? Or is there some underlying architectural flaw that's been discovered recently and riffed on? Any insight this community has would be interesting to me.

<comment><USER2> I have a few guesses:

1\. iOS 13.5 beta releases have had security fixes that haven't still reached a stable release. See [1] for eg.

2\. The Apple iPhones for security researchers program[0] actually led to more security issues being found?

[0]: [https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20756629/apple-iphone- secu...](https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20756629/apple-iphone-security- research-device-program-vulnerabilities)

[1]: [https://siguza.github.io/psychicpaper/](https://siguza.github.io/psychicpaper/)</comment></comment>


When He Was A Young Man In Alabama, Tim Cook Stumbled Upon A KKK Cross Burning - <AUTHOR> https://finance.yahoo.com/news/young-man-alabama-tim-cook-133514902.html

<comment><USER2> This is blogspam (it's some joint Yahoo/Business Insider bullshit). The New York Times published a profile of Tim Cook which is the real content [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/technology/tim-cook- making...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/technology/tim-cook-making-apple- his-own.html)

<comment><USER3> Yes, and a dupe as well: [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=tim+cook#!/story/sort_by_date/0/ti...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=tim+cook#!/story/sort_by_date/0/tim%20cook).

Submitters: please do your due diligence before posting. If an article points to a more original source, post the latter instead. If a story has recently had significant attention on HN, please don't post it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, I didn't see it on HN at all.

<comment><USER3> No worries—nobody catches them all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > _" We do things because they're just and right," Cook replied. "If you want > me to make decisions that have a clear R.O.I., then you should get out of > the stock, just to be plain and simple."_

While Apple cannot claim clean hands when it comes to ethics, it is fantastic to see the company leader preaching corporate responsibility. Unsustainably evil hypercapitalism is all too often justified as some kind of moral imperative for shareholders.

<comment><USER5> I don't see how his stance can hurt the stock, looks more like clever marketing to me -- but then again I'm not an investor..

<comment><USER6> "One ... investor posed a question to Cook during a February shareholder meeting regarding whether or not Apple should avoid embracing environmental causes that lacked a clear profit motive."

Investors are pretty damn concerned about whether the value of the firm is going up or not. If that's not the top of your mind at all times as the CEO, then they tend to worry.

<comment><USER7> And, with that question directed to Tim, that particular investor did more damage to brand than he realized. Later that night, he silently weeped in his pillow, realizing the irony of his mistake. A "show me the money!" nightmare soon followed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> And the point of the article, besides being marketing for Apple, is...?</comment>


EPA says a little radiation may be healthy - <AUTHOR> https://apnews.com/6a573b6b020e453c90ecd5e84aa23f57 <comment><USER2> We already get hit with cosmic radiation —- we really don't need anymore.</comment>


'Right to be forgotten' used to force Google to remove medical negligence link - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/22/18192626/eu-right-to-be-forgotten-dutch-surgeon-medical-negligence <comment><USER2> Seems to me like a legitimate usecase. It involves the judgement by a panel of medical experts, in addition to a court judgement.

"The judge said that while the information on the website with reference to the failings of the doctor in 2014 was correct, the pejorative name of the blacklist site suggested she was unfit to treat people, and that was not supported by the disciplinary panel's findings."

<comment><USER3> Still, if that site is unfairly pejorative, isn't that the site that should receive the takedown restriction? Google supposedly+ just reflects the nature of what others are saying.

\+ yes I know there's a lot of wiggle in the "supposedly" but the principle seems clear.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, it seems like this ruling is wanting Google to become the police of the internet: burrying things the government doesn't like and only showing what they do like. I don't think that's a good thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Guardian link has more details: [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/21/dutch- sur...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/21/dutch-surgeon-wins- landmark-right-to-be-forgotten-case-google)

<comment><USER6> Not much more details, unfortunately.

What exactly was the error, how long ago has it been done, has the problem been corrected, what did the blacklist say about this person, and did it match reality?

The judgement was probably reasonable, based on my experience with the courts. But there are not enough facts in these 2 articles for us to form a reasonable opinion.

<comment><USER7> You can find some more information (in Dutch) at the below address. In short, the Dr. made some errors in a patient's aftercare, which lead to the probation. The lawyer of the Dr. argued that anyone on the Internet is free to attack this person, but due to patient/doctor confidentiality, the Dr. isn't free to respond.

[https://nos.nl/artikel/2267951-rechter-laat-google- zoekresul...](https://nos.nl/artikel/2267951-rechter-laat-google- zoekresultaten-schrappen-over-berispte-arts.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Let's take the worst accusation: child molestation. If one is found not guilty after his name was all over the media, his life is really ruined. Yes, he was accused, arrested and tried and these are facts, but they also ruin his life even 25 years later. We must balance the two.

<comment><USER9> I'm not convinced: consider a second child victim of the same perpetrator, if someday (s)he reads a clearer distinction or argumentation of what constitutes what, and decides to google the perpetrator's name (in case he was already convicted for a similar count) (s)he would be able to verify that, and it may convince the victim to come forward if (s)he perceives the probability of suing to be higher (otherwise the victim just risks losing money, credibility, ... but most of all his/her faith in society)

<comment><USER8> In my case he arrested but wasn't convicted. The mere fact that he was arrested and shows up in Google for ever means his life is ruined. Even if guilty, for a lot of crimes there needs to be a redo thing; like bankruptcy that doesn't show after 7 years in credit report (mostly)

<comment><USER9> I don't believe in censorship, note that such things can amount to destruction of evidence...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Maybe I just have a bad understanding of this law, but why stop with the internet? If a citizen has the right to be forgotten, then what about old newspapers stored on microfilm in libraries? Why not let citizens force librarians into censoring these documents, like some classified document from the CIA?

Maybe it's only the right to be forgotten when it's perceived as "easy" to erase something or easy to access something? Seems contrived.

<comment><USER11> It's not really a right to be "forgotten". it's a right to not have a minor, old incident be the most prominently promoted info about you.</comment></comment>


Rust 0.8 Prerelease Testing - <AUTHOR> https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/rust-dev/2013-September/005802.html

<comment><USER2> I'm really looking forward to Rust, but I'm waiting until 1.0 or real close to then. My question is, when will 1.0 be? Is there a roadmap? A list of items to meet before then? Is it just being worked on until the core team thinks it feels "right"? I guess I'm wondering what the goal is, and how the progress is judged against it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Changelog: [https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/RELEASES.txt](https://github.com/mozilla/rust/blob/master/RELEASES.txt)</comment>


Ask HN: Where do you search for talent? - <AUTHOR>

Clearly, a referral is best.<p>After passing a job description around to your network, where do you post or how do you extend your search? <comment><USER2> Hacker news is an excellent place to find talent. There is the monthly "who is hiring" job posting, and I know of at least one very successful firm that watches comment history to find candidates.</comment>


Ask HN: BI / Data Warehouse / Analytics Opportunities in Berlin? - <AUTHOR> In London there is a very large set of recruiters that supply freelance/contract opportunities. There is also a lot of dedicated job boards and websites listing contract roles.
I was wondering if anyone knows of a similar set of agents, contacts or job sites for contracting jobs in the Berlin or Hamburg areas in Germany?
It would be a bonus if the resources indicated whether Advanced level German language skills are required or whether English with intermediate German would be sufficient. <comment><USER2> Take a look at Xing, I get contacted by recruiters quite often.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much. I will definitely check it out.</comment></comment>


Walnut Creek PD threatens to kill protesters - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1268054038744125440 <comment><USER2> At least in tiananmen square the Tank tried to avoid the protestor

<comment><USER3> [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_...](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_Massacre)

"5\. FACT. ON ARRIVAL AT TIANANMEN TROOPS FROM SMR HAD SEPARATED STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS. STUDENTS UNDERSTOOD THEY WERE GIVEN ONE HOUR TO LEAVE SQUARE BUT AFTER FIVE MINUTES APCS ATTACKED. STUDENTS LINKED ARMS BUT WERE MOWN DOWN INCLUDING SOLDIERS. APCS THEN RAN OVER BODIES TIME AND TIME AGAIN TO MAKE QUOTE PIE UNQUOTE AND REMAINS COLLECTED BY BULLDOZER. REMAINS INCINERATED AND THEN HOSED DOWN DRAINS."

Tank Man is believed to be unharmed though. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man)

<comment><USER2> You're right. I did not mean to minimize the horrible events of Tianamen square</comment></comment></comment>