Python vs java vs c#? - <AUTHOR>

Hi; Java and python, I and my friend wanted to ask a few questions about C sharp. Our goal is a web-based projects, plug-ins to write programs that use the internet to encode. We want a full programming language as a rule. Priorities are in order of importance: 1. Speed is 2. Each system can work 3. Be easy, quick to learn 4. Sufficient for visual programming library or program. 5. Have sufficient documentation on the Internet 6. Business opportunity (most recent)
Which is better to choose?
Thanks ...
Sorry for my english. <comment><USER2> (Btw, i recommend to pastebin your question in your native tongue and paste the link here)

This Q is a can of worms. There is no perfect language, runtime, etc...

Especially so if you want 'easy, quick to learn' and 'speed'.

A good team ends up using the right tool for the job, and has a battery of languages at their disposal. Some languages are even made for unique tasks (MPP)!

If you had to shoe horn a lang, I'd choose Java. It satisfies most of your questions.

For the record, I've moved away from developing with Java yet understand that for a beginner it's a vast language of options (libs). This comes from being a professional Java developer for 10 years, and a student of Java since the start (1995).

Since I'm still on the record, I much prefer a mixture of Python, Ruby, C++, and JS (Node!) than using Java. But thats me...

</comment><comment><USER3> Stay away from versus threads that compare languages to use.

An application can be designed in such a way that it answers all your priorities you have listed, regardless of the language you use.

1\. Speed Design your application so that it harnesses the language's preferred method in processing either the data or the interface.

2\. Each System Can Work It will not only work if the application is designed improperly and addresses the wrong issues.

3\. Be easy and quick to learn There's no silver bullet in developing well- designed applications. It takes years. Read Joel On Software's article on good software (<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000017.html>)

4\. Sufficient for Visual Programming Library I did not quite understand whether you mean here to have a tool (like Visual Studio) to assist in the development efforts or using the tool for visual development. As most interfaces today are used with a variety of front end tools (HTML, CSS, Flash, jQuery, YUI, GWT, etc.), this marks a separation on the codes needed to process what they take and present.

5\. Sufficient Documentation I reckon that for all languages you mentioned, it would take more than your whole lifetime to be able to digest the amount of documentation for each language. Know topic you need to look specifically to address your needs.

6\. Business opportunity A well-coded and well-developed application in itself sells for its services. Enough said.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for all comments</comment>


The World's Biggest 'Bulletproof' Hoster - <AUTHOR> https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/07/meet-the-worlds-biggest-bulletproof-hoster/ <comment><USER2> Did I miss something in this article? Krebs mentions an "academic paper" about bulletproof hosting, then never gives a link to it, or even a title/authors, right?</comment>


Ask HN: Rails users, what is your release process? - <AUTHOR> How do you release a new version of your product? Do you just git pull? Do you zip? Do you rsync?<p>Thanks! <comment><USER2> Forget about zip and rsync, it's a 1990-x era.

Theare 3 options in 2020:

Manually from laptop:

1) Heroku (git push)

2) Capistrano (use ssh to copy files)

3) Docker images (git push)

Automatically:

1) Trigger by CI/CD (git pull)</comment>


How Many Days? Because everyday matters. - <AUTHOR> https://howmanydays.xyz <comment><USER2> Not sure if you're the dev behind this but just in case:

When opening the site with JavaScript disabled I just get a blank page, this should be fixed.</comment>


IPhone location provider SkyHook tracks individual phone for their marketing VP - <AUTHOR> http://www.skyhookwireless.com/spotrank/perp/

<comment><AUTHOR> She says someone stole her phone:

<http://twitter.com/Kate8>

I find it a little disturbing that they can, and will, locate a phone and publish it's location.

</comment><comment><USER2> What's the story?</comment>


Fax Your Representatives to stop SOPA / PIPA - <AUTHOR> http://www.hellofax.com/StopSOPA

<comment><USER2> I have to tip my hat to any company giving away its product to support a broader cause.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, this is just plain awesome.

<comment><USER4> And it's excellent marketing, too. Win-win.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wish this service would allow me to write my own personal message instead of appending it. The provided text, which I cannot change, has a line that I feel is too dramatic for the rhetoric I'm trying to keep: "provide cover for totalitarian regimes that want to undermine Internet freedom abroad."

Sure, that could happen eventually, but right now I want to express the immediate and probable effects of the bill that matters most to me (copyright holders bypassing due process to block online content).

</comment><comment><USER6> I love this. This not only speaks to their values, but to their long-term vision. Lots of companies speaking out against SOPA/PIPA would potentially be threatened by the bill, I doubt HelloFax would operationally [I may be ignorant though] but they have the foresight to still stand against it, and go as far as to enable others to effectively protest by providing their service for free.

</comment><comment><USER7> you know, I just spent all day here (<http://www.informationdiet.com/live>) talking to congressional staffers about the most effective way of communicating to Congress.

The conclusion: the fax is the biggest waste of time that there is for communicating to Congress.

<comment><USER8> What is a better use of time for communicating with Congress? Most people don't have time to set up an appointment and go to their offices. Writing a paper letter takes a lot more time, and then you have to find an envelope, stamps and go mail it. I guess we should try to do it anyway.

<comment><USER7> The effectiveness of advocacy is directly proportional to the amount of externally visible effort and sacrifice you put behind it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like hellofax couldn't handle the surge in traffic -- site is now down for me.

Whenever I see a site down like this due to a surge in traffic for a "free" opportunity, I always question whether it is in the site's best interest. For instance, if I was a hellofax customer attempting to send a fax right now, I would be unhappy -- I pay to be able to send / receive faxes, and an (perhaps from the customers perspective) "unnecessary event" has prevented me from doing that.

Brings up another question -- whenever companies do these types of "promotions" / "events", should they be hosted on a separate system to minimize impact on existing customers / site activity? I believe this year, Sparkfun use a separate system for free day to ensure the surge in traffic did not impact the main site (and paying customers).

(Edited to add further discussion)

<comment><AUTHOR> Joseph here, cofounder of HelloFax. The anti-sopa campaign produced a big surge in traffic. We'll working on resolving things now.

<comment><USER10> If you can let us know when it stabilizes, I'd like to then share the link to my personal network. (Although I guess that might be kind of self-defeating for your at this point? OTOH a significant portion of my network is small businesspeople who might appreciate having an inexpensive, email-accessible fax line on hand.)

To others here: Remembering HelloFax as a YC company, I signed up for and used it a month or two ago to fax my legislators on SOPA/PIPA at a time when my landline was having problems. (I signed up even though the free trial might have sufficed. TANSTAAFL.)

For $5 a month (and I didn't take the lowest plan), I have a web and email accessible fax machine, without the hassle of trying to set one up, myself. If I'm traveling, in the cafe, or whatever, it doesn't matter. My fax machine's with me.

There's still an annoying amount of stuff where fax is the only choice or the only choice that works for the other party.

And in the past, I've found my legislators to be consistently responsive to faxes. From my own experience and reading, they seem to have some of the impact of a written letter [1] while getting through in a timely fashion.

\--

1\. As I understand it, they generally are perceived as taking more time and effort to write and send, and as a message category there are fewer of them than e.g. emails and phone calls. And if and as they are printed out upon receipt (I'm not sure, these days), they represent a physical object in the office and in someone's hands, rather than another message on a screen or a tick in an intern's phone call tally.

P.S. I've shared it, now. Hope that generates a few more faxes and some good will (and maybe a customer or three) for you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Has HelloFax considered a service that would let other people set up a form like this, where HelloFax handled the backend faxing? It sounds like a great advocacy tool

<comment><USER12> I think the whole point is they hope to generate future revenue from potential clients from this. It might be somewhat wrong, but at the end of the day they're providing a great free service that will do a lot of good. I think it's smart and fine.

<comment><USER11> No--I'm suggesting that HelloFax sell a service to organizations to run a form like this one. So if I'm the NRA I can have a form on my website to send a fax to people's representatives about some sort of gun legislation, and HelloFax handles the faxing backend like with this SOPA form.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Genius marketing. I love this - I think faxing is actually a better approach than calling,too. I'll never use FaxZero again.

<comment><USER14> It's at least an additional approach. If you have the time to call as well it's worth doing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> My personal message (I'm from California):

Both bills are serious threats to many of the companies that have helped usher our society into the Digital Age. As a resident of the state that is home to most of the world's most innovative and progressive digital companies, I would hope that my representatives too take pride in the fact that these companies find California to foster a culture conducive to technological innovation. I ask you to help continue the progress, and to vote against these bills.

</comment><comment><USER16> I get the error message " _Please select at least one legislator._ " Sure thing, but where do I select them from? I don't see any listed anywhere.

Edit: I tried again and it worked. The problem was probably an unanswered JSON request for the legislator list, since the server was bogged down. The no- legislator-selected condition should be updated to ensure that the legislator list has been received prior to assuming it's a user error.

</comment><comment><USER17> The email address field is a bit too short for the email address I wanted to use. Some universities force students to use cumbersomely long emails addresses; e.g., California State University Long Beach makes its students use email@example.com.

May want to tweak your validation to allow a bit more breathing room.

<comment><USER18> Also, my personal message ran past the allotted space, and didn't expand, nor was there a scroll bar. So I couldn't see the last several words. An auto- expanding textarea or simply a scroll bar would be nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It couldn't find the representatives for my zip code, that's too bad.

<comment><USER20> Same here, and I'm 60189.

<comment><USER21> Have you tried using the wiki link to identify them?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip=6018...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip=60189)

<comment><USER20> I know my reps... just noting this here so if the site coders need some info to debug this problem for others.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Is there any way to provide this over https? I really do not feel comfortable putting my contact details over http.

I love this idea and would love to participate :)

</comment><comment><USER23> I think this is a fantastic service and I applaud them for providing it, but I get an "unexpected error" whenever I try to submit the form.

<comment><USER14> Sorry to hear that. We're having some load issues but we should have everything stable shortly.

<comment><USER23> The outage doesn't reflect poorly on your site IMO, it just demonstrates the quantity of people who appreciate what you're doing. Thank you for looking into making it better though!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'd love to, but I live in Washington, D.C. and the rest of you keep electing people that won't let me have any.

</comment><comment><USER10> Hey, I'm glad you all decided to push the button on this! I hope it works out well, for all of us!

PB

</comment><comment><USER25> Sending faxes is a complete waste of time. Offices don't look at faxes, they are normally discarded. Send messages through the Congressional website webforms, those go to the office CRM and are tallied and usually get a response.

<http://house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=>

<http://www.senate.gov/>

<comment><USER26> Completely disagree. Although traditional web forms are fine, I've worked in a staffer's office and I know that faxes are always reviewed. Receiving a large number of faxes is more likely to indicate a groundswell of opposition than a web form.

It's free and provides tangible/tactile evidence of opposition. I'm faxing my reps now.</comment></comment>


Why do websites require "secret questions"? - <AUTHOR>

I wish Google (for example) would give me an option to provide no secret question.
They seem terribly insecure and an easy attack vector e.g. "What was your first phone number?" would be incredibly easy to coax out of a person simply by calling them and pretending to be from x phone company.
In the days of two-step verification, is making a security question compulsory obsolete? <comment><USER2> There's no reason to answer such questions with the "right" answer. My mother's real maiden name is public information, so when asked for that I give a different memorable name.

About the only time I tell the truth on such forms is when it's legally required (like a credit check form).

As far as two-step verification: of a sample set of my relatively savvy but not necessarily hardcore tech friends, only two are using two–step verification out of about 30 people. The others know about it but don't get why they need it.

</comment><comment><USER3> You can simulate the option of no secret question, by giving an extremely wrong answer.

First phone number: Dwight Eisenhower.

</comment><comment><USER4> The sensible treatment of a "secret question" is as a second password. Since it acts in parallel with the password, like a second door to your house, it should be at least as hard to guess as the "main" password.

I would go further than saying that this is obsolete: it is simply bad security design.</comment>


Build apps for YOURSELF, not for revenue (and you'll make more money) - <AUTHOR> http://kanebennett.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/build-apps-for-yourself-not-for-revenue-and-youll-make-more-money/

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd love to hear any thoughts or opinions on this post, and on my blog in general!</comment>


BlackBerry Reports Massive $4.4 Billion Quarterly Loss - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20131220/blackberry-reports-massive-4-4-billion-quarterly-loss-inks-a-deal-with-foxconn/?mod=tweet <comment><USER2> Apparently they lost more money in this quarter than they made in the last few years combined.</comment>


Collider bias undermines our understanding of Covid-19 disease risk and severity - <AUTHOR> https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.04.20090506v2 <comment><AUTHOR> There's a lot of discussion on HN about things that increase or decrease covid-19 risk, and I thought this paper was interesting.

There's also a twitter thread here: [https://twitter.com/bristimtom/status/1259458854020165632](https://twitter.com/bristimtom/status/1259458854020165632)</comment>


At The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos has the paper thinking global domination - <AUTHOR> http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/washington_post_jeff_bezos.php?page=all <comment><USER2> This was a fascinating look not only into the modern newsroom, but into the mind of Jeff Bezos:

 _The origin of many of the hires could be traced to a phrase Bezos had used several times during his visit to the Post in September, when he said that the newsroom needed to "take advantage of the gifts the internet gives us." _

_...explaining that he was comfortable simultaneously running a secretive company and owning a newspaper, because he believed that "powerful minds can contain powerful inconsistencies."_

 _" All businesses need to be young forever. If your customer base ages with you, you're Woolworth's"_

This guys is full of gems. I'm not sure if that insight will be enough to save the Washington Post. It doesn't seem like any number of gadgets and no reasonable amount of money will be enough to save the newspaper industry. Jeff Bezos is one of the few people who could do it, but it's not clear whether he's fully committed to the challenge. I'll miss newspapers, but I bet they'll be replaced by something cooler.

<comment><USER3> So, disclaimer. Journalist turned web developer here. But I really don't think newspapers are going to go extinct, really ever. They are one of the only _permanent_ records of history. Digital publications disappear like yesterday's rainclouds. There will always -- _always_ \-- be demand for physical products, because as humans we are very tactile. I think one of the root problems is in the quality of the journalism. Experienced journalists aren't staying in the game because there's no money in it. The ones who do stay in it are one of three things: crazy, passionate about the job despite the compensation, or not dependent on the income. There's a very limited group that can make it.

Add in the fact that there's an extraordinary amount of pressure on journalists to produce unrealistic product goals and you've got a recipe for a mass exodus, paving the way for a decline in the industry.

Next, consider that you've really never paid for news. You've always paid for the advertisements in the newspaper. That's the business model journalism is built on. So people don't want to pay for something they've historically not paid for.

So what you're seeing now are a bunch of experiments in journalism business models. After a while, you'll find several that really work. In fact, I think there are several that show promise now. The only problem is you need someone with the financial ability, vision and appreciation for the work to back the industry, and I think Bezos has those things.

The bottom line is that there is always going to be a demand for newspapers and news in general. In fact, people have been predicting the demise of the newspaper since TV was invented. But the bottom line is that newspapers just fill too many roles for them to ever become obsolete. Also, I need lining for my bird cage, so I'm gonna go grab a paper now.

<comment><USER4> > _So, disclaimer. Journalist turned web developer here. But I really don 't > think newspapers are going to go extinct, really ever._

Still, particular newspapers have already gone extinct by the hundrends, and the trend is not showing any signs of reversing.

> _They are one of the only permanent records of history. Digital publications > disappear like yesterday 's rainclouds._

Sure, but it's not like people, the average consumer etc, appreciates that fact or gives a damn about "permanently recording history". Most of them don't even print their digital photos, maybe 5-10 of the best ones, whereas they used to have albums with 100s of family photos back in the day. (And most don't even backup their digital photos).

That newspapers served as "permanent records of history" was a byproduct of them being available, dominant and profitable. Not something people specifically bought them and subsidized them for.

> _There will always -- always -- be demand for physical products, because as > humans we are very tactile._

Well, tablets are quite tactile too. And people have quit CDs and vinyl for mp3s and digital downloads/piracy.

Sure, there's still vinyl pressed. But it's small quantities and is consumed without any wider cultural context in the society, just by a tiny niche of music fans. And pressing vinyl is a $1000 affair -- so you can afford to press 300 copies for stores etc, where running a newspaper is extremely costly, and a print edition even more so. So the difficulty of continuing one is not the same as continuing the other (vinyl) niche tradition.

> _The bottom line is that there is always going to be a demand for newspapers > and news in general. In fact, people have been predicting the demise of the > newspaper since TV was invented._

That's a common logical error. The belief that if people have been making the same prediction that didn't pan out, it will never pan out.

Not to mention: who said it didn't pan out? When radio/TV was invented, newspapers might not have vanished, but they lost a lot of their cachet as THE source of news and information.

The loss in readers was ofset by an increase in education and thus an increase in a middle class wanting to read newspapers. But that was a historical accident. The spread of the internet didn't see any such simultaneous increase of middle class or literacy (probably because they had already hit a ceiling during the seventies).

And TV, back in the day, had limited chanels and was live only. So not much of competition for the newspaper. Nowadays we have 200+ channel options, 24-hour news channels, Tivo and its ilk, and video on demand from the internet. Plus, written news on demand from the internet.

Plus, the numbers (of declining readership) are very different (and much worse) in the internet age vs the tv age.

<comment><USER3> Oh, I'm definitely not saying newspapers are hunky-dory. They obviously have plenty of challenges to overcome, and you're correct in that a whole slew of newspapers have shuttered their doors, and practically all have employed layoffs to combat declining revenues.

But the simple fact is that newspapers provide a valuable service and product. There just needs to be a change in business model, and there are lots of places trying new ones out. In many places, they're succeeding. Some have even reversed the downward spiral and moved back into profitable territory.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Okay, I read the OP and decided to give 'The Washington Post' another chance.

So, I started reading an article there. It made a claim but gave no data or references. So, the article failed standard high school term paper writing standards. So the 'content' was not solid information but something else. Tilt.

So, apparently The Washington Post is still the same old 'journalism' I've screamed about for years. So, for me, done.

If the 'new' Washington Post is just more of the same of old 'journalism', then I see no great reason Bezos should work to spread it around the US or the world instead of just inside the DC beltway.

So, for me, Bezos wasted his money. Sorry, Jeff.

</comment><comment><USER6> I was originally very excited by the Bezos takeover. As the article states, though, not much has changed from a journalistic perspective... yet. I'd love to see the Post become a contender of outside-the-Beltway content. When Ezra Klein bailed to start Vox, I found myself reading the Post less and less. If nothing else, this article makes me think that _soon_ something exciting _might_ come to the Post.

</comment><comment><USER7> there is a crazy yin/yang quality to bezo's face that makes him look simultaneously like a crazed diabolical genius and a thoughtful zen master at peace with himself and the universe. The right side of the portrait being the diabolical part.

<comment><USER8> Almost looks like he's had a stroke – if Steve Jobs could keep his cancer and liver transplant secret for a while, how long could Bezos? Doing a Google image search, there definitely seems to have been a significant change, sometime after the original Kindle intro.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The changes if any are not obvious. I say that as somebody who scanned the print version over breakfast today.

<comment><USER10> All I've noticed is more clickbait. [http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/](http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/)

<comment><USER11> Know More is a pre-Bezos product. Bezos took over on 10/1 and know more was launched on 10/7\. Meaning planning and development on Know More must've started before Bezos' control.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I wonder if this is Bezos doing what he normally does, vertically integrating --Amazon Newspapers?

<comment><USER13> I was under the impression that this was Jeff's own side-project and he had no intention of integration with Amazon

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Obviously, The Post will be delivered by Amazon drones.</comment>


4,400 year old Egyptian tomb discovered in the Saqqara pyramid complex - open-source-ux https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46580264 <comment><AUTHOR> Letting a horde of journalists rush to photograph the tomb at once seems like a terrible idea. That goes against the most basic precaution you could take to protect archeological artifacts. What kind of professional archeologist would let that happen?

<comment><USER2> I don't think I'm being overly dramatic to say that the antiquities governance in Egypt is a bloated, top heavy and mostly useless bureaucracy which - in the end - only has a cursory interest in archeology - aside from keeping the money rolling in.

It's all about giving high paying, long term jobs to political allies and family members and less about preserving one of the most fascinating cultures the world has ever seen.

<comment><USER3> So... ironically very similar to the ancient Egyptian priesthood they nominally protect?

<comment><USER4> I'm not an ancient Egyptian expert but considering their culture was obsessed about the past to the point they created these ancient tombs, i would imagine they had maybe just a little more respect for their ancestors.

<comment><USER5> Cultures change over 4,000+ years enough to be unrecognizable.

<comment><USER4> A few rounds of immigration from the romans and subsequent conquerers tends to change your culture. Doesn't dismiss the fact that ancient Egyptians had a culturural context that anchored to the past as opposed to the present/future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm still wondering about the secret tunnel in the Great Pyramid of Giza with double false door that was found with a robot. They never further researched what's on the other side of the second false door.

Also it is known based on radar screenings there are some empty spaces under the Sphinx, quite likely very ancient chambers. I wish they would dig bellow the Sphinx to find out what's actually there.

I guess it would cost a lot of money and be time consuming and risky so they won't do it (in both cases). Pity that we might not know what may be there.

<comment><USER7> Checkout The Pyramid Code series. They bring to light research and theories that tell quite a different story about what Giza may of been and was used for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Shouldn't we keep a couple of these unopened for the future? Maybe open one every time we make a radical progress in some measurement technique?

Is this already a thing?

<comment><USER9> The inner part of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, said to contain rivers of mercury depicting the rivers of China, etc., is still unopened: [https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emper...](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mausoleum_of_the_First_Qin_Emperor)

<comment><USER10> Wow, that's a really interesting page. One of the most surreal photos I've seen in a long time:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Xi...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Xian_museum.jpg/1920px- Xian_museum.jpg?1544997864428)

<comment><USER11> ... yes, surreal indeed. Even more so when you learn that no two statue is the same. Each has a unique face, hair, etc...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If you are interested in learning about the ancient Egyptian civilization, I recommend this book that I just finished (with basically no prior knowledge on the subject)

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8536070-the-rise-and- fal...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8536070-the-rise-and-fall-of- ancient-egypt)

[https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Ancient- Egypt/dp/0553384902](https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Ancient- Egypt/dp/0553384902)

</comment><comment><USER13> In college and high school I was taught they used radar years ago to find what was thought to be all of the remaining tombs. Anyone know why this one hadn't been found yet?

<comment><USER14> My experience with "found" in egypt means "hasnt been completely sacked by raiders 200 years ago"

I would love to be proven wrong this time

<comment><USER15> The article states that the tomb has been, "untouched for 4,400 years". Other articles (e.g., [0]) have explicitly stated that the tomb has not been looted.

[0] [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt- archaeology/egypt-u...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt- archaeology/egypt-unveils-one-of-a-kind-ancient-tomb-expects-more-finds- idUSKBN1OE0HD)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I felt like looking to google drive of an ancient man. I really would like to read about the meanings of the objects found in those walls.

<comment><USER17> It really looks in good shape (and color)!

Regarding the meaning of objects found I want to share this humorous story in which future archaeologists find a motel room and they believe to have found a great tomb similar to that of Tutankhamun:

"Motel of the Mysteries"

[http://sultanaeducation.org/wp- content/uploads/2014/06/Motel...](http://sultanaeducation.org/wp- content/uploads/2014/06/Motel-of-the-Mysteries-Macaulay.pdf)

<comment><USER16> haha, great example :) I generally think in the way the story points to. the reason we tend to give sacred meanings to ancient findings is because of our search for the meaning of life, I think. Finding details about their daily life would be more interesting and useful, however.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> 'The tomb was found in a buried ridge'

It is commendable how researchers do not give up digging, quite literally. I also understand this is intensely a resource (time and money) consuming process. However I wonder why and how this was not discovered until now. Can't we disperse autonomous devices/robots that discover hollow spaces deep underground using SONAR or other vibration techniques?

</comment><comment><USER19> 4400 years ago and we are rightfully in awe. What a way to leave a history.

Will my Geocities page be there 4400 years from now ? ;)

<comment><USER20> Doubtful your geocities page is around even now unless you backed it up or it got slurped by neocities.

<comment><USER21> Might already be on The Wayback Machine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Aziz, LIGHT!

</comment><comment><USER23> How do they possibly know the age of this tomb with certainty?

<comment><USER20> Often it's a combination of radiocarbon dating and historical records. Though probably not in this instance, there are sometimes records found in other places that say this or that person lived at the same time as another, so that can help to date things like this. Radiocarbon dating is highly accurate and 4400 years isn't that long ago, so it's generally accurate at dating organic remains to within a few decades. It gets less accurate over longer periods of time, but 4400 years is well within that window.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The YouTube channel Ancient Architects is pretty good at covering the latest ancient history news:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9UGStJHZZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9UGStJHZZM)

<comment><USER25> From a cursory glance at the channel's descriptions and video titles it looks sort of sketchy, to be honest. Is that impression wrong?

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscI4NOggNSN- Si5QgErNCw/abo...](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscI4NOggNSN- Si5QgErNCw/about)

> _Ancient history and civilisations channel brought to you by Matt Sibson, > offering alternative interpretations on the most well-known ancient sites in > the world. History isn 't always as it seems._

[https://www.patreon.com/ancientarchitects](https://www.patreon.com/ancientarchitects)

> _I find that most mainstream historical interpretations are full of holes, > both historically and scientifically and I intend to look at all of the > evidence and offer my own unique interpretation on ancient history and the > countless ancient mysteries._

<comment><USER24> > From a cursory glance at the channel's descriptions and video titles it > looks sort of sketchy, to be honest. Is that impression wrong?

I mean he's mostly looking for interesting stuff on Google Maps, then reading whatever information exists about whatever he's finding. So what he thinks things are sometimes changes from week to week as he reads new stuff. I wouldn't say it's sketchy per se, you just need to understand what it is and what it isn't. I think his own area of expertise is neolithic British monuments, so he isn't an expert in most of the things he's talking about, he's just an insanely smart guy who is very well read.

<comment><USER25> Thanks for the response. Would it be correct though to say the channel does not reflect mainstream academic views?

The creator of the YouTube channel describes himself on his Facebook profile as a geologist with an interest in Neolithic sites, but he does not appear to be an archaeologist, anthropologist, or any sort of professional historian:

[https://www.facebook.com/pg/MattSibsonAuthor/about/](https://www.facebook.com/pg/MattSibsonAuthor/about/)

> _Ancient history writer, geologist, currently re-writing the history of the > Stonehenge landscape with new interpretations of Neolithic monuments._

While amateurs are capable of good work, and scientific consensus can change, eccentric ideas are more often wrong than right. Matt Sibson may mean well, but I would not consider his YouTube channel a reliable source given that the videos appear to diverge from the scientific establishment on a wide range of topics.

<comment><USER24> > I would not consider his YouTube channel a reliable source

I mean that's like saying Star Wars isn't a reliable source; you're judging something on the basis of something it isn't meant to be in the first place.

Like when something like this tomb is discovered then he'll report what the discovery is. And when someone proposes a possible location for Atlantis, he'll report what that person is proposing. But saying that his channel is unreliable become mainstream academics don't think Atlantis existed is disingenuous.

<comment><USER26> > I mean that's like saying Star Wars isn't a reliable source; you're judging > something on the basis of something it isn't meant to be in the first place.

You described the channel as "pretty good at covering the latest ancient history news". It is being judged in part on the description that you gave. Unless you also describe Star Wars as pretty good ancient space news, then your comparison is extremely weak.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Jeff Bezos Eating Baby Orca (Illustrated) - <AUTHOR> https://jeffreifman.com/2019/07/30/jeff-bezos-eating-baby-orca/ <comment><USER2> So Jeff Bezos ate an iguana (not endangered one, but invasive one) that was supposed to increase awareness. And now because his business has helped Seatle's economy, he deserved to be depicted eating a baby ocra? How does this make any sense? What?</comment>


The Impossible Dream: Asimo robot conducts Detroit Symphony Orchestra [Video] - <AUTHOR> http://youtube.com/watch?v=qRUyVCfFh1U

<comment><USER2> Asimo is a horrible robot. Biomechanically, It just doesn't scale to a real walking system.

Here is the most useful video of Asimo you can find online: <http://youtube.com/watch?v=ASoCJTYgYB0></comment>


Most distant catch for ESA station - <AUTHOR> http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Estrack/Most_distant_catch_for_ESA_station <comment><USER2> > We had to upgrade some software at ESOC, as we discovered that one file used > for pointing the antenna did not have enough digits to encode the full > distance to Cassini

I'd bet this means they had to upgrade to a 64-bit executable since their old 32-bit software couldn't represent 1.4 trillion meters.

</comment><comment><USER3> So, they're matching the capabilities of DSN (Deep Space Network)?

But it's a good reminder of how not trivial this is, even though it looks easy</comment>


Judge Dismisses Shiva Ayyadurai's Lawsuit Against Techdirt - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/judge-dismisses-libel-lawsuit-filed-by-self-proclaimed-e-mail-inventor/ <comment><USER2> Thread on an article posted by the defendant : [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15190081](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15190081)

</comment><comment><USER3> It would be funny if the authors of the email RFCs sued Ayyadurai for defamation. Not likely to result in any useful outcome, but funny.

</comment><comment><USER4> > "False speech is not protected by the Constitution, and TechDirt's false and > malicious speech about Dr. Ayyadurai should receive no legal protection"

The irony this is the same guy who spoke at the Boston Free Speech Rally.

</comment><comment><USER5> What is this guy's claim? Email name? Since email as an exchange of messages has been around since (before) he was born.

<comment><USER6> Essentially, yes. Shiva Ayyadurai developed some little system that he called "email", which had little resemblance to the email we now use, and then recently claimed that he "invented email". And this in spite of the fact that the real email was developed and thoroughly documented by other people well before this guy's "invention".</comment></comment>


Zeigarnik Effect - <AUTHOR> http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Zeigarnik_Effect

<comment><USER2> While it's a cool read, the lack of inline citations in the article make me lose faith in it. There are some citations at the bottom, but they aren't inline wiki markup.

The actual effect seems to be written in the form of cause (task interruption) and effect (overestimation of time) but then takes a leap to say that the overestimation was due to frustration and failure.

With only two studies, and both showing different traits associated with interruption, it doesn't seem to be a universally accepted correlation.

<comment><USER3> Well, to be fair the first citation is Baumeister and the guy isn't in the habit of being wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've posted about it a few years ago here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6689741](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6689741)

original article: [http://blog.sandglaz.com/zeigarnik-effect-scientific-key- to-...](http://blog.sandglaz.com/zeigarnik-effect-scientific-key-to-better- work)

</comment><comment><USER5> Financial Times > Tim Harford > Multi-tasking: how to survive in the 21st century (2015-09-03)

Try this:

[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bbf1f84a-51c2-11e5-8642-453585f2cf...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bbf1f84a-51c2-11e5-8642-453585f2cfcd.html)

or this:

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KxM7NvY...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:KxM7NvYN2REJ:www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bbf1f84a-51c2-11e5-8642-453585f2cfcd.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk)

</comment><comment><USER6> I shall see whether I feel compelled to read the end of this article. I got to roughly the bit where I found out what it is, the desire to complete an unfinished task.

If you see this before reading the article, give it a try.

</comment><comment><USER7> User interfaces that don't provide breadcrumbs, back buttons, wizard-steps, or a means to "get back" to an initial state are said to evoke the Zeigarnik effect.</comment>


Very Cool & Simple Solution To Clean Up The Oil Disaster - <AUTHOR> http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/

<comment><USER2> Blogspam of a posting that has already passed here on another website.</comment>


The elevator pitch of failure (how and why I simplify when asked why we failed) - <AUTHOR> http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/The_elevator_pitch_of_failure/

<comment><USER2> Having just pulled the plug on one of the startups I have invested in, I deeply sympathise with your situtation. Please go read _Fooled By Randomness_ and then _The Black Swan_ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. I guarantee it will make you feel better, if you haven't read it.

One of the great problems we have as people, especially smart people who did well in school, is that we expect success to be the result of cleverness. We put faith in _a crafty plan that is bound to work_. This is not wise. And, since the people you meet in elevators believe the same thing, they will be asking you for _the stupid thing that made it fail_. But I know, and by the time you finish reading these books you will as well, that the thing you did wrong may have been nothing.

This is not what one generally tells people that fail. And, goodness knows, many more things fail because people did something wrong than 'you were just unfortunate'. So in general, analysing your failures in an extremely self- critical way, in order to learn from your mistakes is a beneficial activity. What you aren't told, alas, is that sometimes the answer is _nothing_. And beating yourself over the head for not being able to find out what you did wrong is not helpful if there is nothing there to find.

I am in no way competing in your area, and have a bit of a problem understanding what "social advertising ecosystem trending toward openness" actually means, but for my money if you want to shut people up about your failure, there is nothing surer than saying we needed XXX amount of revenue by quarter Y, we only had YYY, and we couldn't get another round of financing because the market continued to be uncertain. Techies, who generally want a technical fix, tend to shut up at this point. Of course if your problem is that it is the financial people who want to rip open your wounds and comment on what is inside, then your pitch may be the cat's meow. :-) Whatever works.

And you have to get up again, and start the whole damn thing over. Which you may have to force yourself to these days, but I promise you is worth it. But, after reading these books, and learning all about hindsight bias -- there is one question I would leave you with. Did you, in charting the business direction of your company, leave enough room for different possibilities for success, or were you stuck with a 'make-it-or-break-it' fragile plan that either had to work or you were all dead? Because your post did not make it clear.

Make-it-or-Break-its are often a good strategy, because if you are going to fail, you want to do so quickly so you can get up and do something else as soon as it is clear that this is not it. But it's not the strategy for something you put your heart and soul into.

And something in your writing made it clear to me that you are hurting right now. Been there. Done that. Deeply sympathise and wish things were different, and that we could all succeed with the things we love.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the thoughtful response.

Regarding our situation: the company ran for about 4 years. We raised a couple rounds and had customers like MTV and Sony, so it wasn't a total flop or anything.

I'm not actively hurting -- I've had two companies since then, which both quickly failed without funding or the drama of extensive hiring & firing. But I do talk to lots of early-stage founders, so I often reflect on that first failure when I see it happening in others.

I also see the stories in the PR circuit which don't quite ring true, but which are still some of the only guidance new founders receive. Like yours, my experiences suggest that reality is a lot messier and more ambiguous than that.

<comment><USER2> Partial Flops are worse than total ones. And PR circuits, well, they are PR. Shaded reality at best. And if you have had 2 companies fail without the drama, quickly, then you have learned the lesson I most wanted to make sure you knew before you ended up to your ears in unnecesary guilt.

You have managed to get up and get it going again.

I wish you all the best in your coming endeavours. And if there is a HN way to send a poster your email address, non-publicly, then let me know and I will send you mine. I am quite sure you have learned many things I would be interested in learning, and I'd love to swap adventures in money-making land.

best, Grävling (which means Badger in Swedish)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This was really great. Thanks.</comment>


Ask HN:Transitivity property of real numbers - <AUTHOR>

Hello HN,<p>The transitivity property of real numbers says if a>b,b>c then a>c.but when i test this property with real numbers it give's me false results.let a=1,b=2 and c=3 then the transitivity property says if 1>2,2>3 then 1>3 which doesn't make any sense.i'll be glad if someone could comeout with a nice explanation. <comment><USER2> Well, it's very simple. The "if" is the key to it. IF 1 were greater than 2 AND 2 were greater then 3, THEN 1 would be greater than three. Since neither 1>2 nor 2>3 is true, 1>3 is not required to be true by the transitivity property. If I am taller than you and you are taller than your mother, then I am taller than your mother. If either of the assumptions is broken, the conclusion does not hold.

<comment><AUTHOR> ah.that's a wise explanation .i even realised that it's just a fundamental law and not a theorem.anyways you made it clear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You can only infer something from something true.

</comment><comment><USER4> Start with two false assumptions, draw a false conclusion. Where is the problem?

<comment><AUTHOR> ya you may be right...let me do some research on real numbers and it's properties and then get back to you!!!!</comment></comment>


Kubernetes and lastminute.com: our course towards better scalability and processes - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/micheleorsi/kubernetes-and-lastminutecom-our-course-towards-better-scalability-and-processes <comment><AUTHOR> In one year we migrated a full set of micro-services into a new infrastructure based on Kubernetes and Docker. Here are the slides that present our experience</comment>


Mailable Live Animals - <AUTHOR> https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm <comment><USER2> The USPS has been handling poultry for probably as long as it has existed. (I received live birds in the mail just last week!) There is a special vented and reinforced mailer that is used. Newly hatched birds have nutritional energy reserves and don't need food or drink for a couple days. The biggest issue is temperature, even in summer. Hatchlings usually have a mother to warm them to 95 degrees. So most shipments have 15 or more birds so they can keep each other warm. Some farms even throw in an extra "warmer" bird on a order. I've received many shipments and never had a dead bird.

</comment><comment><USER3> Too funny. "Via air transportation. Only queen honey bees may be shipped via air transportation. Each queen honeybee shipped via air transportation may be accompanied by up to eight attendant honeybees."

Seems appropriate for the queen.

<comment><USER4> Perhaps it's because my family has always been beekeepers, but I don't get the joke? It's just standard procedure to ensure the queen can adapt properly.

<comment><USER5> One part that stands out is that "only queens" can be mailed, but attendants are allowed. As I read that, if I for some reason wanted to mail 8 non-queen bees, it would somehow only be legal if I added a queen.

<comment><USER6> Other than biological research, I honestly can't think of any reason somebody would want to mail bees without a queen.

<comment><USER7> Any legitimate reason maybe...

There's an Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode that covers this question, if you've seen it maybe you will remember the big "H" on the box is for "Hornets" so we all know it's a box full of hornets...

I mean, you could try mailing someone a box of hornets with a big "H" on it and tell them it's a present and the H stands for "Happy Housewarming," but you were talking about _legitimate_ reasons to mail bees, right?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> My father is a beekeeper. Once we were transporting honeybees. Queen honeybees are often delivered with mail for breeding and other purposed. Well they got stuck in the customs for few days without any reasonable explanation at first. Then got an invoice for unpaid alcohol tax ... turned out that someone had written "Caution! Live Beer" instead of "Live Bees" at some point, almost killing the queens.

<comment><USER9> I am trying to imagaine what the customs agent thinks "live beer" is, since apparently it is something you can import as long as you pay the tax.

<comment><USER10> Beer with live yeast still suspended in it, rather than filtered out.

<comment><USER9> Fair enough (I don't know much about beer)

<comment><USER11> 'Real ale' has live yeast, since it hasn't been pasteurized. It doesn't last on the shelf as long, but it's alive. You can also pirate it if you like the taste.

<comment><USER12> Damn these new drinks with their DRM, that you need to buy each time you want to consume them...

<comment><USER10> You can harvest the yeast from live beer and grow the yeast for use in your own beers.

<comment><USER13> We should start the free beer foundation!

<comment><USER11> The Free Beer Foundation is about 'Free as in freedom', not free as in 'free b...' wait...damnit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> For those who don't know, it's common (and essential) to ship honeybees around the country to where they're needed. Honeybees are shipped around different parts of the country all the time depending on the season and what kind of agriculture needs to be produced. There was a Planet Money episode on it I think... yup, here it is: [http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/24/517076055/episo...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2017/02/24/517076055/episode-756-the- bees-go-to-california)

<comment><USER15> These aren't usually mailed via USPS. USPS is frequently used to mail nucs, that is, hive starters.

<comment><USER14> Yes, but I thought it was worth mentioning for people who might not be able to imagine why anyone would seriously want to mail bees in the first place.

<comment><USER16> The commenter is saying that is not why you would mail bees and therefore not worth mentioning. They then give a useful example of what is mailed for the benefit of those who couldn't imagine why you would mail bees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I remember one late night I was at a large USPS center for work, and there were a bunch of packages sitting nearby. I was talking to the USPS official about the work that needed to be done, and suddenly... one of the packages moved! I nearly jumped out of my skin and told him that the package moved! He was very calm, and said "yep, those are geese". And then proceeded to tell me all the different types of animals (and bees) they routinely ship.

<comment><USER9> Imagine receiving a box of live scorpions by accident.

<comment><USER18> Honestly, I'd more fear opening a box of pissed-off geese.

<comment><USER19> A box full of scorpion sized geese would be kinda cute, however a goose sized scorpion would pretty much be the worst of all scenarios.

<comment><USER20> Naw, a goose sized-scorpion would probably collapse under its own weight. Exoskeletons just don't work for large animals. Respiration would also fail, as would the open circulatory system they have. The square-cube law is quite unforgiving of arbitrarily scaling animals.

<comment><USER9> I'm thankful that physics prevents many nightmare scenarios like goose-sized scorpions

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> My wife (who teaches at a university, not to be named here) once had flesh- eating beetles FedEx'ed to her lab in order to clean skeletons for student use. Unfortunately the box had a hole punched in it sometime during transport, and the FedEx guy literally ran into her office, threw the box, with beetles coming out of it, on her desk and ran back out.

<comment><USER22> I feel like the FedEx guy actually went above and beyond here.

<comment><USER23> or and created a hugely unsafe situation by not destroying the corrupted mailer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Timely. Today is the last day it is permissible to mail not-more-than-24-hour- old pheasants, until April 1 2018.

</comment><comment><USER25> It turns out that you're allowed to mail ants, but not ant queens. That is because it is generally illegal to ship ant queens across state lines. (Ants are very good at becoming invasive species.)

This is why if you buy an ant farm for your kids, the ants you get will always die out. :-(

(My son loooves ants.)

<comment><USER22> Surely there are companies out there that use local ants, and only ship locally? (Something something organic free-range...)

<comment><USER25> You can't ship the queens. You have to meet in person.

Your best bet is [http://www.antscanada.com/queen-ants-for- sale/](http://www.antscanada.com/queen-ants-for-sale/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Related:

 _A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail_

 _In the early days of the parcel post, some parents took advantage of the mail in unexpected ways_

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history- child...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-children- sent-through-mail-180959372/)

<comment><USER27> Thank you for that story, always fascinating to read about the genesis of institutions and their early days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Wearing a beekeepers suit and driving a car with boxes of beehives in the back seat makes traffic law about as applicable to you as it is to cops. Don't ask me how I know.

<comment><USER29> Aren't they sealed with a window (wire mesh) providing just enough air to breath?

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Old, but I still find it amusing: [http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/po...](http://www.improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume6/v6i4/postal-6-4.html)

</comment><comment><USER31> There's a queen bee farm (right term?) in my neighborhood. One time I walked into the post office and as soon as I open the door I hear a roar of buzzzzz... There was at least a full pallet of flat-rate boxes of bees.

<comment><USER32> Yes, beekeepers will routinely replace their queens with fresh ones, although queens can last several years. The "farm" in your neighborhood was probably someone breeding queens for sale, which are shipped in a small box with a few worker bees. It could also have been someone selling "nucs" (nucleus colonies) -- basically, starter hives -- although these packages would have been substantially larger.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I ship roaches on a regular basis through USPS. Good thing they accept them because UPS and Fedex label them as "pest" insects. They're just misunderstood. I label the box as "Live Insects" as a precaution which leads to me having to explain why I'm shipping them. Always gets some smiles and funny comments at the post office!

<comment><USER34> Just curious. What do you ship roaches for?

<comment><USER35> [https://www.xkcd.com/325/](https://www.xkcd.com/325/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> All kind of horrifying... lizards specifically can die if it gets cold enough.

I have a couple bearded dragons thinking of someone just shipping them, taking it to chance they don't get too cold and get sick, scared and alone is just a sad sad sad thought.

<comment><USER37> I have bought and sold hundreds of invertebrates around the world, all transported by standard mail services.

I've sent probably 40 parcels successfully and received around 80 in the past 15 years. We avoid sending them in winter, if it's not the height of summer (depending on species) we enclose heat packs. They are always extremely well insulated, ventilated and padded. Poor packaging and mailing is heavily criticised in the pet invertebrates hobby, people are ostracised if they continue to endanger livestock or potentially cause injury to mail workers.

I had one parcel containing dozens of centipedes from China damaged, with centipedes escaping.

I had a parcel from Germany containing tarantulas sat at the post office for days because the postman on foot thought the parcel was too big and the one with the van disagreed. Tarantulas died.

I have some limited experience of mailing reptiles in the UK from around 15-20 years ago but it's heavily frowned upon, probably illegal and reputable dealers will only use pet couriers. I could imagine a small snake could be mailed safely but I'm also horrified at the thought of mailing a bearded dragon or chameleon.

<comment><USER38> USPS/FedEx overnight is the go-to method for shipping snakes in the US. There is special packaging to maintain consistent temps. That's how I got my carpet python

<comment><USER39> According to the article, snakes and turtles are not allowed in USPS. I wonder why? I'd rather a 20 inch python escape than a 20 inch baby alligator.

<comment><USER38> I should correct my statement, I meant to say UPS/FedEx - not sure why USPS cares about snakes but until I hear more I'm going to blame Samuel L. Jackson

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Buddy of mine started a whole business around the rules regarsing shipping live frogs.

Even wrote a book about his adventures: [http://www.onemillionfrogs.com/](http://www.onemillionfrogs.com/)

<comment><USER41> Not a fan of their product though - two live frogs in a tiny plastic box. Seems a bit cruel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Fwiw, bees are sold by the pound.

I'm just waiting for the day when I can order 20lbs of bees on amazon prime... but shipped to my office.

<comment><USER43> I'm waiting for the day when I can order 20lbs of killer bees on Amazon Prime ... but shipped to someone else's office.

<comment><USER44> Just waiting for somebody to start a campaign to get everybody to ship bees and scorpions to their favorite Congress critter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> TIL you can mail live scorpions around the US.

[https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm#ep184083](https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c5_008.htm#ep184083)

</comment><comment><USER46> When USPS first launched Parcel Post in 1913, people would "mail" their kids to relatives. No joke:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/24...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/24/mail- that-baby-a-brief-history-of-kids-sent-through-the-u-s-postal-service/)

</comment><comment><USER47> I worked at a rural post office for a little over a year, sometimes we'd get chicks going out to the farms - other times it was insects. Pretty impressive the scope of services offered by the postal service

</comment><comment><USER48> Pets Over Night dot com!

<comment><USER49> GTA radio was hilarious!

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> I'm going to start CluckBox, a service to have a live chicken delivered to your doorstep every month.

</comment><comment><USER51> Meh. I was a Fedex Ground truck loader for 2 summers. When the box of Crickets en route to a petstore has a tear in the container and crickets are wandering all over the bed of the truck and boxes -- it's gross.

</comment><comment><USER52> I'm very surprised lobsters and other shellfish don't make the cut…

</comment><comment><USER53> I've ordered frogs in the mail before, still have them

</comment><comment><USER54> FWIW Dave Gorman's comedy show "Modern life is goodish" has an episode (S3.E4) about sending bees through the UK postal service.

</comment><comment><USER55> I'm surprised you're allowed to mail scorpions but apparently not spiders?

<comment><USER56> Spiders aren't prohibited. I used to mail tarantulas back and forth with breeders and dealers frequently when I kept them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> Possible way for the fed to save taxpayer money on domestic travel by utilizing the USPS:

"Small, Harmless, Cold–Blooded Animals"

<comment><USER19> There are some small-ish congresspeople, but I wouldn't call any of them harmless.

<comment><USER57> Perhaps it was a bit of a stretch in service of snark.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> I'm not going to sleep tonight, knowing that our mail might have live scorpions in it.

</comment><comment><USER59> So you can't send a cat [https://xkcd.com/325/](https://xkcd.com/325/)

<comment><USER60> Because the USPS wouldn't be sure if it were alive or dead...

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's a terrible joke, but I think it's was supposed to be cute because bees fly so ground transportation wouldn't work.

I think HN has been deteriorating lately because of comments lame jokes. There are a bunch in this story.

<comment><USER61> I thought there was also a chuckle there about the queen bee having "attendants" accompanying her, like in stories about human queens.

<comment><USER16> Differences in what is funny is why I think jokes just don't work well on discussion forums. I assume that this is the reason they are called attendants. Things that seem to follow logically are not comical to me.

<comment><USER62> The term "attendants" didn't come from anyone joking around in this thread. The linked USPS information page uses the word because it's what beekeepers call them:

> _Monday morning myth: attendants must be removed from queen cages_

> _Many beekeepers believe that you must remove attendant bees from queen > shipping cages before you introduce a caged queen into a hive. They believe > the queen will more likely be killed by the receiving hive if both the > attendants and the queen have a foreign odor._

> _This simply is not true. If you install the caged queen properly, the > attendants will cause no problem. Before long the queen's pheromone will > circulate throughout the hive. All the bees—as well as the attendants—will > then smell the same._

[https://honeybeesuite.com/monday-morning-myth-attendants- mus...](https://honeybeesuite.com/monday-morning-myth-attendants-must-be- removed/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER63> Sorry to be a downer but...what does this have to do with Hacker News, exactly?

<comment><USER64> It was submitted. Other HackerNews users voted enough for it to be on the front page.

<comment><USER65> Also, the plethora of Live Bees stickers that were placed around DEFCON this year comes to mind.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> Considering how terrible USPS is, why would anyone ever trust them with anything, never mind a _live animal_.

<comment><USER67> In my experience, USPS has been at least as reliable as FedEx and UPS. I've had more issues with those two (late shipments, delivery to wrong address, losing things in the mail) than I've had with USPS.

I've also been impressed with their physical locations. The workers are attentive and helpful (I don't mail letters very often; they have the answers to my many questions). This has been contrary to the stereotype of the post office being similar to the DMV.

<comment><USER68> It depends greatly on your location. Mine is very bad, I've lost maybe 10 packages over the past few years or so. Thankfully Amazon has been kind, but I worry I may eventually raise a flag there, even though I tell them constantly my local usps is trash.

The people in my post office are extremely rude and about as "I don't care" or "not my problem" as you can imagine. To be fair, I've also seen some extremely rude customers in the past too. From what I see, they are also very understaffed and probably under paid, but then again they have godly benefits and job security.

<comment><USER69> You have a lot more recourse with USPS, from calling the inspector general to getting your congressman involved.

With UPS/Fedex, forget it. They have bad branches too, particularly Fedex ground.

The other thing as a smallish shipper you can actually use the insurance. If you make claims with UPS/Fedex, they'll retailiate by raising your negotiated rates.

<comment><USER70> > You have a lot more recourse with USPS

no you don't, most of our workforce is union protected, they can poop in your package and not lose their jobs</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Best way to recharge netbook on a long plane ride? - <AUTHOR>

In a couple of weeks I'll be on a very long overseas flight. I have a Lenovo Ideapad S10-3, and I should be able to get about 6 hours out of the battery. My flight is more than 12 hours long, and it doesn't look like my coach seat has a power port. I could buy and bring a spare battery but would like to avoid that if possible.<p>What can I do to keep from spending more than half of my flight with a dead netbook? Thanks much. <comment><USER2> Some airlines have car-lighter sockets under the seats. Some have wall-plugs on the back of the seat in front of you. Things improve on new birds. But yeah, have multiple batteries if you gotta run it for a while. But have the plugs and the air/car charger just in case - although the plane might be 15V vs. 12V for the car.

You might be able to go to your airlines website and look at the inflight entertainment or technology entries (and the seat maps for the specific models/planes) to see what's what.

</comment><comment><USER3> Buy a second battery. Simple solution, though I have no idea what is and isn't allowed on planes anymore.</comment>


Twinkle Notes: Cross-platform encrypted notes app - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/twinkle-labs/twinkle-notes <comment><USER2> Just wanted to say I love this business model of providing a free open source app, with convenient secure syncing being the paid option.

The trade-offs for a user who's committed to not paying for the premium features are mainly about convenience and security (having to maintain a fork, and missing out on automatic security updates), which ressembles those they would have to make by pirating a closed-source app.

Right now the license is AGPL, is this temporary (since the website calls the app "Source available" vs "Open-Source")?

PS: The submission title should begin with "Show HN:".

<comment><AUTHOR> We are definitely using AGPL because, for the paranoid, they should be able to build their own binaries and distribute to their friends.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > end-to-end encrypted

[https://github.com/twinkle-labs/twinkle- notes/blob/45206f9d6...](https://github.com/twinkle-labs/twinkle- notes/blob/45206f9d61899a934c65db85f49a705730046fad/site-lisp/lib/space- list.l#L53-L66)

For AES in CBC mode, IVs have two requirements:

1\. They must never repeat.

2\. They must be unpredictable.

Generating them from a SHA256 hash of some low-entropy data is not a good practice.

[https://paragonie.com/blog/2016/05/how-generate-secure- rando...](https://paragonie.com/blog/2016/05/how-generate-secure-random- numbers-in-various-programming-languages#commonlisp-csprng)

Furthermore, not authenticating your ciphertext means padding oracle attacks can be launched against the app.

[https://robertheaton.com/2013/07/29/padding-oracle- attack/](https://robertheaton.com/2013/07/29/padding-oracle-attack/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for digging into the code. This is why we are going open source. The encryption you are referring to is for encrypting a list of keys for your local notes storage, which is not exactly part of the end-to-end encrypted syncing. Since you have got this far, could you please have a look at:

[https://github.com/twinkle-labs/twinkle- notes/blob/8ad7d9d0b...](https://github.com/twinkle-labs/twinkle- notes/blob/8ad7d9d0b544f4027ec1c7fa16d4780ee7695a2f/site-lisp/lib/space- storage.l#L264)

> They must be unpredictable

I am wondering if that is necessary, because the hacker can't perform those attacks without the user's actively using the app at the same time. From what I learned, the attacking process requires the presence of key somewhere. If the attacker can get on user's device while one is using it, then it's almost a hopeless situation. Please educate me if I am wrong.

<comment><USER3> > > They must be unpredictable

> I am wondering if that is necessary,

Yes, it is necessary. The IND security of Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) depends entirely on the IV being from a cryptographically secure random generator.

CBC mode requires unique and random IVs. CTR mode requires unique IVs (but can be predictable).

That's why we call the CTR input a nonce (number to be used once) and the CBC input an IV (initialization vector). Since they have different security requirements, we refer to them differently. Unfortunately, some cryptography libraries just name the parameter IV.

<comment><USER4> Is that distinction between nonce and IV held everywhere in the crypto community? For example, rfc8439 which defines the ChaCha-Poly AEAD does not require an unpredictable input nonce, and indeed calls it a "nonce", but many of the common implementations I've seen use "initialization vector" instead.

<comment><USER3> Loosely. The majority have given up on the public understanding of nuances and just phone it in with "just don't write crypto".

Because AES-CTR and ChaCha both refer to it as a nonce, and CBC calls it an initialization vector, the IV/nonce distinction does matter. But if you misuse the terms folks will know what you meant to say. Just don't mix it up when it comes time to implement.

<comment><USER5> Please don't ever stop this behavior. I'm just learning much of this in an applicable way and people like you make this not just easier but possible for those of us learning with little outside help.

The father I go down this rabbit hole the more I learn security should be like a religion of security (only one without dogma).

Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A few questions and observations:

* If I choose to use this notes app on multiple devices, and am careful enough to be the only person using it and complete any note taking on one device at a time (closing the app properly), I should be able to store and sync the sqlite database on any cloud storage service and wouldn't need the paid sync option, correct? In other words, the sync option makes multiple clients opening and making updates in the same time period a non-issue?

* The costing seems a bit weird when one digs in, because it defaults to counting in one GB increments even though the unit is stated as GBm and compared to things like KWh in the explanation. Even if you store only a few bytes of notes (or a few KBs), the documentation says that you'd still pay a minimum of 1GBm. So that works out to a $7.176 a year if you don't cross 1GB in storage used.

* Since this is open source with AGPL, anyone could fork it to support a custom sync mechanism that allows to store the database on cloud storage/sync services, but would have to make the source available if they distribute the app to others.

<comment><AUTHOR> > store and sync the sqlite database on any cloud storage service

It would be quite slow.

> a minimum of 1GBm

Our servers are quite dumb that if you are hosting your space with us, we need to reserve some storage space for you. That's a fixed cost for us even if you are not effectively using that storage.

<comment><USER6> Why would a notes database, that's mostly (or all text) even take up a lot of space and make syncing the entire database slow? If someone is using just a few MBs of data, the speed of syncing that is immaterial.

Your servers not being able to account for smaller storage sizes is a technical limitation that you have built. You can take a look at tarsnap for inspiration on how to account for very small amounts of data. I'm not saying you should account for bytes, but even taking it at a fraction of what you're currently doing would be better and fairer to paying customers. You would also discourage hoarders who thrive on utilizing a lot more and get subsidized by those who barely store much.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've seen a lot of these kinds of apps lately that have their own one-off sync mechanism. Can I ask what were the design considerations that led to that choice, rather than letting users sync a store via their own back end (Dropbox, iCloud, rsync...)?

<comment><USER8> I develop an app like this ([https://actualbudget.com/](https://actualbudget.com/)) and I'll give you my reasons.

Those kinds of syncing work will files, and treat each individual file as a blob. Apps don't work this way. Apps need databases and fine-grained change tracking. You absolutely don't want to make a change in two places on two separate devices and then have a sync conflict. If you throw the sqlite db file on dropbox, that's exactly what will happen.

You could try to build your app around files, but now you are rebuilding a database (and not a good one).

There are a few services that offer syncing more appropriate for apps, like Apple's CloudKit (I think that's the one?). These could work, but in Apple's case you can only run your your app on macOS/iOS.

There are a few generic syncing layers like PouchDB, and there are tradeoffs with all of those. Some of these tradeoffs are deal breakers. (there aren't a ton of good options yet)

But there are good reasons why you an app can't just eschew syncing onto the user, and assume they'll find a good syncing service. It needs to be tightly integrated with how the database works.

<comment> yoz-y Those are all good reasons but I'd argue that starting from the desire to be able to use existing sync services and building on that may be more user friendly.

Yes you essentially need to rebuild a database, but this is for example what 1Password did.

<comment><USER8> I disagree. I mean, it depends on the kind of app. The data requirements of some apps might do well in a simpler model that can work OK with existing syncing services.

But the majority of apps need more complex needs and you definitely should not go and build a new database. The user experience will end up being flaky (syncing problems) and/or slow (the database is not good). Not to mention that now in addition to setting up the app, the user now needs to go sign up for one of those services if they haven't already.

With integrated syncing, the user just fires up the app and syncing works and they never have to care about how it works.

There's a reason a whole field of research exists into things like CRDTs. Distributed apps are not trivial, and only ones with simple data needs could get by without a more rigorous approach.

<comment><USER9> I generally agree with your reasoning, but recently experienced a counter- example myself. I recently picked up Joplin for note-taking, and the fact that it can sync reliably through my NextCloud instance via WebDAV was the deciding factor in me sticking with it. If I had to rely on a company to stick around to sync my notes, or I had to run a custom backend, I would have simply moved on. As is, Joplin is pretty close to an ideal note-taking system for me.

<comment><USER8> That's awesome, there's definitely room for apps like that. I have nothing against them, but there are tradeoffs. Seems like that could work well for that kind of app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> And an actually free (automatic sync with no limit on data capacity) alternative: [https://standardnotes.org/](https://standardnotes.org/)

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm assuming this is an app with a GUI. I wish there were screenshots showing what it looks like.

</comment><comment><USER12> Tried it on mint (LTS). uname -a (base) Linux q 5.3.0-28-generic #30~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 17 06:14:09 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I get: /opt/app.twinkle.notes/twinkle (base) dist:/opt/app.twinkle.notes var:/home/q/.config/twinkle dist=/opt/app.twinkle.notes var=/home/q/.config/twinkle __* Twinkle Lisp 2020 __*

DevTools listening on ws://127.0.0.1:16780/devtools/browser/6d2dd982-a67d-4915-8517-83d4394054a3 error: file '/opt/app.twinkle.notes/lisp/lib/sqlite3.l': position 13622: line 386: invalid number #1: /opt/app.twinkle.notes/lisp/init.l:42: (load "lib/sqlite3.l") [2020-02-05 23:23:09,394950 init#0] finished due to run time error

This is the deb file on your website.

<comment><AUTHOR> This seems strange. Can't reproduce the problem here. Can you please help to check what's on line 386?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I was in search of a good cross-platform notes app. Like Evernote, but preferably free with the open data format. I concluded that for me, personally, emacs org-mode with notes files stored in the Dropbox folder turns out to be an optimal solution. YMMV.

<comment> c-smile I think that my Sciter.Notes ([https://notes.sciter.com](https://notes.sciter.com)) will qualify that.

Notes are stored in local db yet notebooks in the db can be mapped on file folders (e.g. folder on DropBox containing html files - each note is a single HTML file).

The note db file can be protected/encrypted by OS means.

Windows/Mac/Linux.

<comment><USER12> Agreed. Sciter notes is a gem. It's fantastically fast. C-smile, congrats on writing this masterpiece. I wish you best of luck. If you found a biz model to support it and add features, it'd be great. So much low hunging fruit in a world of electron apps and a crowd (HN) that mostly hates them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I prefer to write notes directly in VSCodium ans sync them to private git repository. Very useful. [https://github.com/patleeman/VSNotes.git](https://github.com/patleeman/VSNotes.git)

<comment><USER11> I can recommend [https://notable.md](https://notable.md) which I sync to a private git repo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Kudos on the courage to go with the AGPL. It immediately raises my interest quite a bit.

</comment><comment><USER16> _On windows /linux, we have no choice but to use chromium embedded framework._

But, there are so many choices. Does it really have to be html-based?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sometimes you just want to make something work, as soon as possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> really like the cross-platform nature and the E2E encryption. a powerful application masked by a humble appearance. ideal for creative workers. Would be good see this extended to include password protections, audio conferencing, etc.</comment>


AI is sending people to jail–and getting it wrong - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612775/algorithms-criminal-justice-ai/ <comment><USER2> Workaround for reading article without signup: [https://outline.com/duHeMZ](https://outline.com/duHeMZ)</comment>


Google interprets 'Linux' as 'Lenovo' in this query - <AUTHOR> https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=thinkpad%20431s%20linux

<comment><USER2> It highlighted Linux, too. It is auto-associating Thinkpad with Lenovo.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lenovo owns thinkpad</comment>


Unity 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://youtu.be/BXPVe-YHDzo <comment><USER2> Some forewords on whats going on will be good. Link takes you to 2+ hours long video of two man talking by the fire. Are they resurrecting old Ubuntu Linux desktop environment?</comment>


Gut Driven Development - <AUTHOR> http://kevinmahoney.co.uk/articles/gut-driven-development/ <comment><USER2> I've been on a team that was absolutely paralyzed by over analyzing every choice to death. We spent months arguing about chef va ansible, for example. Sometimes you have to just say: 'Fuck it, we're using chef' (or go, or aws) because the time you waste spinning wheels is more expensive than the loss of efficiency from making the less than ideal choice. And those are the times when gut instincts matter.

<comment><USER3> If the team can't hammer things out in a timeboxed meeting, there are some options.

With new technology, I'll have a pair of team members spend some time doing exploratory work. Spend some time with the top 2-3 technologies and see which is the best fit.

Taking notes through this process is important. If we're comparing databases, include benchmarks and tooling observations. For small organizations, this is usually a multi-day process. For large organizations, maybe up to a month. But at the end, the team can make a decision based on at least some experience and information.

If, on the other hand, we have competing factions that each has experience with a specific bit of kit, but can not come to an agreement: we roll for initiative.

Literally.

I have a set of dice in my backpack for this exact situation.

Often, the worst decision is no decision at all, and I would rather that the team go down the wrong road for a month (and learn from the process) then spend that month arguing over what color to paint the hangar de vélos.

<comment><USER4> I'm taking my dice to work from now on.

<comment><USER5> I have used Siri to flip coins and roll die in work. Often it's prompted people to make a call (rather than using what the dice/coin said), which is a great outcome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The writer discusses the prevalence of "gut feeling" in development, and how justifications are often retro-fitted to justify preferences which might be driven by familiarity, or novelty.

Let me say this in defense of gut feelings:

Sometimes the opposite of gut feeling is process. Bezos recently talked about the potential pitfalls of process, and Jobs famously warned us against confusing process with what he calls "content."

The issue is that if you have a process, you end up relying on it to make things good. It cannot. If someone were to walk into the process and say "This is just wrong. Come on, do it _this_ way," you could (rightly) accuse them of relying on gut feeling.

All of this is to say that there are gut feelings and then there are gut feelings, and it is important to tell them apart.

<comment><USER7> It felt to me like the argument was that gut-feeling stuff can impede collaboration. I'd argue that, in large collaborative settings, this is precisely where process is needed.

This contrasts against safety process, where you add process to defend against mistakes as opposed to enabling collaboration.

<comment><USER8> You have a point. A company's "process" to me has always represented the message passing system in a multicore processor. The process is the method by which each core is updated with pertinent information (consumables or just new rules for their task). Bad process looks like a lot of overhead where everyone spends more time "communicating" than working.

Ultimately, as long as you can quickly and effectively communicate the impact of a gut feeling, there is no problem, but they would seem especially hard to translate into a more formalized process for communicating thought out decisions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'll note that from my experience as a programmer and a manager the best coders (and best code) was done by the people who "just felt this is the right way". Usually the code produced is exactly good enough for the task at hand, and by creating a code base that can be easily refactored (for example, with lots of automated tests) it can be easily changed later. I always tell my junior programmers who tend to ask a lot of questions and get stuck up on process - code whatever you feel like coding. I trust your judgment. I'll correct you during CR if needed.

<comment><USER10> >I'll note that from my experience as a programmer and a manager the best coders (and best code) was done by the people who "just felt this is the right way".

I'll note that from my experience as a programmer, the worst code was done by people who "just felt this is the right way".

Note that I'm not disagreeing with you. This is a classic case of confirmation bias. Looking at what is common amongst great coders/code is the first step. But that step is incomplete unless you _test_ against crappy code. Is that feature you found in great code often present in crappy code? Then it likely has little to do with code quality...

Coding from the gut is the thing to do if you're a great coder. Not the other way round.

<comment><USER11> > _I 'll note that from my experience as a programmer, the worst code was done > by people who "just felt this is the right way"._

No, the worst code is by people who just wrote it that way because they didn't know better, and who don't have any strong opinions one way or another.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I practice Dirk Gently Driven Development.

Basically, I more or less know what I want to do, my fingers wander, encounter things I didn't anticipate and I modify my work. When it is done, I refactor and add tests where necessary.

Not the best methodology, but that's how my brain works -- all situational recall.

</comment><comment><USER13> _The Psychology of Human Misjudgment_ by Charles T. Munger is the single best thing I've read on this topic: [http://www.hb.org/the-psychology-of-human- misjudgment-by-cha...](http://www.hb.org/the-psychology-of-human-misjudgment- by-charles-t-munger/)

I think it's unique to tech that people are biased toward thinking things are good just because they're new. I've found that in most of the rest of the world, people think new things are dangerous, frightening, insubordinate, disruptive, and irritating.

<comment><USER14> Forgive me for getting political, but I think Trump was a good non-tech example of 'good because it's new'. Without a voting record and few concrete policies people were free to project their hopes on to him.

I have also noticed the 'dangerous/frightening because it's new' bias. I don't understand why it flips one way or the other. People are weird! :)

<comment><USER15> This seems very apt to me.

I voted for Trump, and found my justification after I had decided that I would probably do so. The bottom line was that I wasn't going to vote for Clinton and Trump was the only other viable option.

I've also chosen relatively untested libraries for projects because I'd already used the more mature choice for another project and hated it :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is why I can't understand age discrimination. We oldies have a wealth of experience which we can turn to. How can a new programmer have a "gut feel" which should be listened-to when there is little to no experience? The oldies "gut feel" is real because it is based on true experiences; either direct experiences or experiences of (say) a colleague.

And most of the experiences that I have, for example, are largely independent of a particular language or environment, they are more about the correct way to structure 'things' within programming regardless if it's GO or COBOL.

<comment><USER15> For reference: I'm 32.

It seems to me that developers go one of two ways as they gain experience - they either become set in their preferences and ideas and become resistant to change, or they consciously suppress that instinct and realize their preconceptions may be incomplete.

I try to be the second type.

For example: I have been writing HTML/CSS/JS for around fifteen years, and have established a strong pattern for separating structure (HTML), presentation (CSS), and behavior (JS). There are obviously instances where these barriers are crossed but those should be the exception rather than the rule. When I first picked up React, I was appalled by the mixture of the three. Using inline CSS is a _huge_ code smell to me, yet that seems to be the convention in React.

The other developers out there who created React and who use it idiomatically are not morons. Instead of trying to make React fit the way I want to do things, I set aside my "gut feeling" and follow the convention. I already know plenty about the type of debt that can be incurred by using inline CSS, so I watch for that to begin to accrue. If I start to run into those issues I can raise the alarm and refactor before it gets to the point where doing so would be a prohibitively complex undertaking.

My point is, you can find a lot of value in that gut feeling without allowing it to control you.

I'll even go so far as to say that my "gut feeling" is one of my greatest assets. If code smells to me and it costs very little to satisfy that sense, I refactor it. I don't have the space in my working memory to remember all the rules and guidelines I've developed over time much less the reasons for each of those.

Now, if I'm doing a code review, that's another story. Then I'll note that something has a smell, describe how I identified that smell, and describe my justification for it. I see code review as an opportunity to transfer that knowledge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Gut Driven Development is oftentimes confused with First Solution Encountered Driven Development or Familiarity Driven Development. Depending upon the circumstances, none of them are necessarily bad.

</comment><comment><USER18>
      In my experience, you can almost always examine your opinions
      and find some objective advantage. If you can't, your opinion
      probably isn't very solid. Recognising your gut feelings and
      examining them can be eye opening, and can make you a better
      developer.

This sort of introspection is useful for more than just developers.

      Once you recognise biases like this it will become clear to
      you that people often start with a biased opinion and then
      reason backwards from there to support it. You'll do it too,
      and it's OK to do that as long as you can examine it and put
      forward a solid argument. Never think biases don't apply to
      you.

To help counteract this, you have to put yourself in the position of questioning your views/feelings/beliefs, and putting them in the context of the opposing views. If you think X is right, find those that think ¬X, or a variant of X, and consider why they believe it. Genuinely questioning and not just seeking out confirmation to your positions, or counterarguments to theirs. Usually the correct views are somewhere in between, or will be revealed to be subjective (that is, no right or wrong, either irrelevant because it's unprovable or a matter of tradeoffs and what's considered more important by the different parties).

</comment><comment><USER19> One thing I learned working with many developers over the years it's that this is fairly dependent on the individual.

Some absolutely thrives in an environment without process, I've seen some who simply crushes it without processes and procedures. Beneficial for early stages of company who wants to get a product out asap.

And there are those who thrives with processes, useful and even critical for later stage of the company. I think it's important to have a good balance of these types of developers to maximize each of their strength and weaknesses.

<comment><USER20> I think it has something to do with different kind of processing in the left/right hemispheres of the brain. For most people left brain type of thinking (attention to detail, focus on process) dominates, it also may be harder for them to see where and how the "gut feeling" originates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think the last paragraph in the article is key, the most interesting and tiring arguments are the ones where both parties believe the other is arguing from the gut and have retroactively reasoned while they are being perfectly rational. Being able to see when you might be doing this as well often makes the discussion much less adversarial.</comment>


Ask HN: Haiku? - <AUTHOR>

  Reply in haiku.
  See one you like? Upvote it!
  Gather points to win!
 Original thread (6 years ago): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=780569 <comment><USER2>
        There was a young lady from Bright
        Who traveled much faster than light.
        She made love one day
        In a relative way
        And came on the previous night.</comment>


AI bots trained for 180 years a day to beat humans at Dota 2 - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/25/17492918/openai-dota-2-bot-ai-five-5v5-matches <comment><USER2> Somewhat misleading title: they're playing a restricted set of DotA 2 (only 5 heroes instead of 100+, some mechanics turned off), and some important decisions are handled by hard-coded rules rather than the main AI.

</comment><comment><USER3> >>On one hand, this is a testament to the power of contemporary machine learning methods and the latest computer chips to process vast amounts of data. On the other, it's a reminder of how fundamentally unintelligent AI agents are.

forgive any ignorance, but how do changes to the game affect AI behavior? E.g. New characters, new maps, balance changes, bug fixes, etc. Do the AI have to be re-trained in a similar amount time, or is it expedited? How adaptive are the A.I. systems?

What I'm getting at is - in a real world scenario (like the city transportation example from the article), how quickly can the A.I. respond to things unexpected changes (natural disasters, accidents, etc)? Will they be able to handle the unexpected in a safe time frame?

<comment><USER4> A Reinforcement Learning machine would have to be re-trained for changes such as that, but not from scratch. Depending on the size of the change, it would take much less time to adapt to such a change.

Several notes:

-The article notes that a lot of the hard parts of human video-game playing have been done 'for' the AI by hardcoding. It doesn't actually have to look at the screen to parse information--it has direct access to game variables that player would have to access through menus. More relevant to your question, a lot of the strategic decisions like item purchasing, ward placement, and probably character placement were just picked by the programmers or set to be ignored. The whole thing is less impressive than the headline sounds. I think it was just learning--where to run on the map and when to attack things?

-RL is based on deep learning, and there are fundamental issues with deep learning's ability to adapt to genuinely new scenarios. None of these system can presently adapt to something genuinely unprecendeted in a time frame you would consider 'safe'. They need at least several opportunities to observe how the world works after the changes and the consequences of their actions. To try to make this concrete--they can't reason about what implications a flood/power outage/landslide has for their traffic management. They can only learn from _trial and error_ <-(the important part) how traffic behaves during a disaster.

<comment><USER5> > RL is based on deep learning

False. Reinforcement Learning is a category of algorithm. There are many possible implementations, not only "deep learning". Further, you might be surprised at how well a generalized, trained model might mimic "reasoning".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A great achievement even for a game which is relatively simplistic like a MOBA. Still waiting for AI to become competitive in Starcraft which i think is a much greater challenge.

<comment><USER7> An impossible to beat Starcraft AI is already doable without all this AI training. Just by controlling every individual unit seperatly in impossible to counter maneuvers far beyond any human actions per minute.

You could basically get an AI to win every single time with a handful of zerglings in a few minutes this way.

You could train an AI for 1 billion years a day to play pong or you could hardcode it to never miss the ball.

<comment><USER8> Are you sure? i.e. has this been proven on pro level SC players?

I think a smart player could know the player was going Zerg, and wall in.. and make some decisions that make the micro of Zerg less useful.

<comment><USER7> Mostly speculation and observations of many hours in Starcraft. I don't think anyone has really set out to create an AI where the only goal is to never lose. I can imagine a program that can take one unit and program it to always remain 1 pixel farther than the maximum distance any enemy can shoot it unless for some reason it knows with 100% certainty it will win an engagement.

I'm not aware of any public api or hooks into controlling Starcraft or it would have probably been done by now. It would also be used for cheating so they can't make that anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Main discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17392455](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17392455).

</comment><comment><USER10> Please wake me up when the AI can play a serious grand strategy game with hundreds of long term options. Without mostly hardcoded reward function.</comment>