GitHub is working on renaming default branch from "master" - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1271253144442253312 <comment><USER2> I'm a strong supporter of social justice. I don't really object to people putting in work to change language like that if they think it's important. Especially when the work required is minimal.

That said, this is slightly ridiculous. Have customers seriously complained about the term "master"? And my impression was that the usage was more similar to "master copy" than "master of the plantation".

Honestly, it's frustrating to me that companies are willing to take token actions like this that are almost completely irrelevant in the scheme of things but unwilling to lose profit by, for example, not contracting with ICE. Actions like this feels like veiled advertising, even when, as I'm sure is true in this case, there are genuine motives behind them. It seems like the structure of corporations allows only the genuine intentions that require little sacrifice to be acted upon.

It's a stupid subject to have a flame war over, but I don't understand the logic at all.

<comment><USER3> I don't think it's because people are offended at the use of the word master, in this case. I think, that it's symbolic. By making a point of getting rid of the word master, you're showing that black lives matter.

<comment><USER4> What about all other races that are discriminated against or people that are bullied? Do those matter?

<comment><USER5> Please don't bring up tired tropes like that one here. It's never going to change, so we're only going to get a tedious flamewar out of it, which indeed you've been perpetuating downthread—which, please don't.

It's not as if we lack for new things to discuss and argue about.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As a black person, speaking just for myself, I really do not get the issue around semantics like this. The word "Master" is not synonymous with any race and so does not make me (or anyone I know) uncomfortable. The concept of masters (and slaves) exist and are useful metaphors for naming similar phenomenon. I would much rather focus on issues that make people truly less comfortable in technology, like hiring or sponsoring practices in organizations. If there truly are (black) people offended by this nomenclature, I would not oppose changing it but I honestly don't know any.

<comment><USER7> It just seems like an ultimately meaningless gesture. Is erasing the word "master" from the English language going to actually help anyone? What's next - is the lock company Master Lock going to have to change their company name?

<comment><USER8> After watching a lot of Lock Picking Lawyer episodes, I'd propose the word they need to change is "Lock".

<comment><USER9> Same, but also Bosnian Bill. Here's him opening a master lock with a plastic sheet as a pick: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayQIm3Lo6ZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayQIm3Lo6ZM) or a zip tie [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIq9khF- axs&list=PLTSWkYxuSl...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIq9khF- axs&list=PLTSWkYxuSlkVyTvKncLO54dKuoLCaQXsD&index=1) (he has an entire list of these ridiculously easy picks).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is just so damn pointless. It will cause some "great" controversy, people will be called white supremacists for refusing to stop saying master.

Now even if this catches on, then yeah OK I'll start naming my branches as main unless I want to make a political statement, which would just add to confusion when developing.

Meanwhile these people will pat each other on the back, yell "yeah! We sure made a difference." while black people keep getting fucked by the system and their lives don't get improved one iota.

just... why?

<comment><USER11> I love how this is making everyone mad at progressives. Not one progressive asked for this and not one progressive is going to call people white supremacists for using the word "master".

Let's call a spade a spade and recognize that this was a big company trying to sound "woke" without doing anything.

<comment><USER12> > Not one progressive asked for this

Is the SJW crowd not progressive? Are they not "real progressives"?

<comment><USER13> A lot of oughties progressives fail to realize that they won the lions share of the first phase of the culture war going into the early teens. At that point, they stopped being progressive, and instead became the status quo (not necessarily conservative, but relativistically more adjacent to conservatism now).

Because they can't see this, they're loath to let go of the label in spite of the fact that they're now 'just' liberals.

Left-aligned culture warriors (sjws) are far more deserving of the label 'progressive', and generally the target of teeth gnashing about progressives. This is often taken as a personal, and non-sequiturial affront by those previous recipients of the label.

<comment><USER14> Im so confused by these labels. I did the political compass thing and fell hard in the bottom left quadrant of left leaning libertarian.

Doesnt that mean i should align with these sjw types? Personally i find them detestful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Using the term master doesn't bother me - in my opinion the idea of the master/slave dynamic is much less problematic when you're talking in the context of bits and bytes flicking up and down on some silicon. Having said that, if it bothers people, change it. I do suspect to a certain extent though that people are more interested in changing it because they're worried it might be offensive to other people than actually finding it offensive themselves.

The follow up tweet from the original reqeustor is:

> 1\. "Main" is shorter! Yay brevity!

> 2\. It's even easier to remember, tbh

> 3\. If it makes any of my teammates feel an ounce more comfortable, let's do > it!

> 4\. If it prevents even a single black person from feeling more isolated in > the tech community, feels like a no brainer to me!

1 - Not sure that's an important reason, why not change it to just "M"?

2 - Not for people who are already using git and have lived their entire lives on master (or for those more considerate developers, have lived their entire lives PRing into master)

3 & 4 - This is what I'm talking about, is there _anyone_ who is actually feeling isolated and uncomfortable, or are there just a load of white people who have focused on literally the most unimportant aspect of being a black person in the tech community?

<comment><USER16> > This is what I'm talking about, is there anyone who is actually feeling > isolated and uncomfortable, or are there just a load of white people who > have focused on literally the most unimportant aspect of being a black > person in the tech community?

I'm a POC in the tech community and couldn't care less about "master" being problematic. The tweets you quoted likely came from a white person who thinks a little to highly of themselves and want to go after low-hanging fruit.

Want to make a difference for POCs and Black people? Vote the racists and profit-driven politicians out of office this November and replace them with people who are more qualified to lead and actually care about the public.

<comment><USER17> > ...people who are more qualified to lead and actually care about the public.

They're still politicians, right?

<comment><USER16> Anyone running for office is a politician. How they use their power is what sets them apart.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> What bugs me about crap like this is that it ignores world history, makes these people feel good about doing nothing of consequence, and takes attention away from things that will actually help.

If you are going to help, actually do something that improves the lives of people. Maybe, you should really put some effort into beefing up the Computer Science programs in black high schools and colleges? You are Microsoft, and had a damn policy of only hiring people from certain schools for certain job areas. In 90, one of your damn reps told a classroom of students that they were only good for "help desk" positions because of the school they went to. I'm betting some all black colleges were not on the hire list for actual developer jobs.

Actually doing something useful is hard, this is just signalling how cool you are.

<comment><USER19> A small symbolic thing is still worth doing, even if it doesn't directly improve the lives of people.

<comment><USER18> No, no it isn't. If it doesn't actually help improve lives, its just an indulgence.

<comment><USER20> Props to you for committing to your austerity, but we're not all monks in cells.

<comment><USER18> Austerity? Monks in cells? Really, none of that makes any sense?

Hell, switching your Amazon account to one of those smile accounts will do more good than signalling.

<comment><USER20> >Austerity? Monks in cells?

You're complaining about indulgence! You're saying that this change won't help people as much as something else. This is a fair criticism. Changing some technical term is probably not a optimally utilitarian use of resources.

However, while you may be trying to live an optimally utilitarian life, the rest of us aren't. I can only speak for myself of course, but evaluating all my life's actions on only that axis is too strict for me.

But, like I said, if you want to do that: props.

<comment><USER18> No, I'm saying that it won't help people at all. Its an indulgence to make the person doing feel like they are doing something. It will not materially improve lives.

It would be fine if it just made them feel good, but it substitutes for efforts that would help. Its a personal indulgence taking energy from a system when more is needed. It also is a distraction from actual issues. Nothing is often better than something.

> However, while you may be trying to live an optimally utilitarian life, the > rest of us aren't. I can only speak for myself of course, but evaluating all > my life's actions on only that axis is too strict for me.

Yeah, this is wordplay that has nothing to do with me.

<comment><USER20> You keep complaining about indulging! What's wrong with indulging in something every once in while?

<comment><USER18> If your indulging hurts others, then it is something worth complaining about.

<comment><USER20> I don't exactly understand how you're hurt by this, but fair enough.

Utilitarianism is a philosophical framework. It's not for me, but based on your comments you might be into it:

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

<comment><USER18> I am not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I really don't care what the default name for a branch is. I don't care if people want to change it. Hell, if GitHub starts defaulting to "main" instead of "master" I probably won't even care enough to change it from "main" to anything else in any new repos.

What I care about is that this will inevitably lead to companies and individuals that, for any reason (due to having the name "master" hardcoded in a lot of scripts, for instance), do _not_ make this change in their repositories being labeled as being pro-racism.

We all know how this goes.

This insanity just grows every single day. The purity policing grows ever more intense. It's making my world view bleaker by the minute.

</comment><comment><USER22> "Waiting for protests at universities to change the Masters degree to Main degree." Cracked me up.

I've never considered "master" branch anything odd, saying "master copy" makes sense. What about music? "Remastering" something... or the terminology around mastering a skill?

Things are a bit out of control. As people say if you look at that term and the first thought is race related that's on you.

I could see a desire to remove the word "slave" from any replication business. Since the "s" word is directly loaded. But the "m" word has many other definitions outside of that.

</comment><comment><USER23> These kind of requests are super US-centric without any regards to the rest of the world.

I understand these things stem from a place of discomfort with the racial crisis in the US - and I applaud the intentions.

However, these requests are not inclusive to:

\- The foreigner in your team trying to think and communicate in English, while tip-toeing around whatever was deemed offensive this week on Twitter.

\- The developer in Botswana trying to keep up with this week's terminology changes as dictated by Twitter influencers in the US.

I dread the day when someone gets in trouble for saying "Hey guys, I added the URL in the whitelist and pushed it to master"

<comment><USER24> I don't think anyone is going to get in trouble for saying that lol

The only reason someone would, is if they were repeatedly told "hey can you use this term instead?" but they kept using those intentionally to annoy others.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I support changing master - slave.

But the use of master here is from 5 b: an original from which copies can be made especially : a master recording (such as a magnetic tape)

There is no implied slave.

It's derived from masterpiece. Something that a master craftsman has created.

Master has many definitions and usages. Master of a slave is only one minor usage.

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/master](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/master)

<comment><USER20> Github inherited it from git, which inherited it from bitkeeper, the DVCS that Linux originally used and the one that inspired git. Bitkeeper used a master/slave architecture that git dropped.

[https://github.com/bitkeeper- scm/bitkeeper/blob/master/doc/H...](https://github.com/bitkeeper- scm/bitkeeper/blob/master/doc/HOWTO.ask#L223)

<comment><USER14> The dev that set git to using master says otherwise..

[https://twitter.com/xpasky/status/1272280760280637441](https://twitter.com/xpasky/status/1272280760280637441)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Nobody cares about the black slave auctions going on in Libya RIGHT NOW. But we are going to remove the word master from our software because it offends people whose ancestors were slaves generations ago.

<comment><USER27> Correction: because _we think it could_ offend people whose ancestors were slaves generations ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Honest question: are there people out there who are legitimately uncomfortable/upset about the usage of the terms "master" and "slave" in the context of technology? Or is this more so people trying to be too socially "woke" and assuming something to be offensive when it is not?

Master/slave are pretty commonly used terms whenever we talk about things like distributed systems and communication buses. Essentially everywhere that one process, controller, computer, etc. is meant to have authority or control over some other entity or entities, this is often described as a master-slave relationship.

<comment><USER2> Yes, there are legitimately people who believe the master-slave terminology trivializes American slavery. They are mostly in the U.S. and probably a minority of programmers but they exist.

But in this case, there's not even a slave branch.

<comment><USER28> > Yes, there are legitimately people who believe the master-slave terminology > trivializes American slavery.

I suppose this is something I don't understand. How do terms become trivial when used in separate contexts? They are simply descriptive terms. Furthermore, from an etymological standpoint, the term "master" has been used to signify preeminence since the 13th century. E.g. master's degree, master- key, master copy, etc. This is the meaning that seems more applicable to a version control system.

<comment><USER2> I agree with you in this case, since master is used by itself, similarly to master key.

But I'll try to provide some insight into the argument specifically regarding master and slave used together.

> How do terms become trivial when used in separate contexts? They are simply > descriptive terms.

This is where I think you are incorrect. Master and slave are not simply descriptive terms. Pretty obviously, they are an analogy, just like, for example, male and female plugs. The point of analogies is that they use existing relationships to describe new relationships, so that understanding the new relationships is easier.

So I think the issue for some people is that in master/slave architectures, the master node neither brutally beats the slave nodes nor justifies its power through a theory of racial superiority. Maybe a more accurate analogy would be that one node is the leader and the others are the followers. Maybe we should only use the master/slave in situations which are actually comparable to the historic instances of chattel slavery. Plus, an updated analogy can better serve the purpose of describing relationships. In the context of databases, for example, primary/replica or master/replica are IMO both much better analogies than master/slave.

Sure you can argue they are simply descriptive terms. But if that's the case, why did engineers choose existing terms in the first place?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> "main" does seem like an objectively better word to use. The definition fits better in almost every use case.

May seem like a silly gesture to some, but imagine feeling an emotional trigger every time you had to use a basic tool for your job. That'd piss me off.

<comment><USER30> trunk is probably a better name still.. since everything else is a branch.

<comment><USER31> master is just another branch in git, so trunk is an incorrect description.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> abc-xyz > 4\. If it prevents even a single black person from feeling more isolated in > the tech community, feels like a no brainer to me!

Does/did slavery only affect black people?

It's really tiresome to see companies and celebrities voice support for equality, freedom, human rights in America while staying quiet (and even telling people to keep politics away from their platform) when it comes to the Hong Kong protests.

</comment><comment><USER32> put more time into rebuilding the communities in which you physically reside than into bikeshedding quick symbolic actions to numb your conscience.

donate the cash equivalent to the engineering hours required to make and test this name change to BLM instead, and get something of actual consequence done.

 _Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?_

</comment><comment><USER33> It's a self censoring in western. It's anti-intellect. It happened and is happening in China. The result is a small group shuts up everyone. They could tag everything they don't like and stop using it, e.g. winnie. Please don't let it happen.

<comment><USER34> It's being sensitive to how words can undermine entire classes of people. Growing up kids used to say "that's so gay" all the time in school. Did they literally mean a shoe was homosexual? No, but they're using a sexuality in a bad or derogatory sense. And that sucks and is wrong, and being gay, it was offensive and destructive to hear. Luckily people eventually shifted away from it with some awareness.

This isn't the same thing as a government censoring opposition or 'insults' to the dear leader.

<comment><USER33> self censoring is even worse. What is happing in west now seems to me that some people don't allow others to talk with tags like racism etc, they punish others with losing job, internet bulling etc.

That's really scary!! In long run, you lost the freedom!

<comment><USER33> Rephrase it a bit.

Don't use moral or ethics to replace law. Otherwise you are using thought police to replace police.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I kind of get it, there's no real reason the default branch should be named master, but where do we stop? Will everyone with a master's degree have to update their resumes?

<comment><USER16> It stops when almost every word is offensive to someone in one way, shape, or form, and we are all forced to communicate in binary... excuse me, ones and zeros.

</comment></comment><comment> globular-toast I think what really bugs me about shit like this is it's just make-work. It's easy, mindless, and completely pointless work that is going to make some people feel like they've actually accomplished something. There are real problems in the world right now. This is not one of them.

</comment><comment><USER36> It's an old one, but relevant to the topic: Antirez from Redis wrote a blog article on this topic (demands to change master-slave terminology in Redis sources) roughly 2 years ago, [http://antirez.com/news/122](http://antirez.com/news/122).

<comment><USER37> The first comment is on the mark: [http://antirez.com/news/122#comment-4084872912](http://antirez.com/news/122#comment-4084872912)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Newspeak, book burnings next Thursday. Can't have those idioms any more.

edit: not to mention 30 years of:

if branch in ['master', 'main'] ...

</comment><comment><USER38> But "master" in git is not about master/slave relationship, its about a "master copy"?

</comment><comment><USER39> Making these words disappear is a disservice to fighting racism (and other culturally ingrained inequality.)

To address systemic racism, we need to change people's preconceptions and prejudices. These are things that are picked up and learned from other people in one's environment. Removing these words makes them even more intangible than they already are.

Creating prejudice is easy to communicate. Removing it, on the other hand, is an "absence" of something, which is much harder to get across linguistically, semantically and emotionally.

</comment><comment><USER12> What about people who lost somebody to a python attack?

<comment><USER10> If my dad died of Tetanus, should I be against memory safety?

<comment><USER12> The argument was "if somebody is emotionally triggered by using some term, we should replace that term with something else".

I'm not suggesting it's a good point, I'm just pointing out that there's going to be a lot of renaming to do.

<comment><USER10> You seemed to be making a programming related joke, which I responded with another one.

I wasn't really trying to make a point there, just wanted to be (arguably) funny.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Personally I think this is a mistake. As we all know, English words have context, the meaning is adaptive depending on the situation. "master" branch has precedent, we have trained our brains to think about "rebasing onto master". This small change will be disruptive, forcing us to unlearn existing, common phrases. Whitelist & blacklist I support discontinuing, however master is a homonym so doesn't have the same obvious connotations.

</comment><comment><USER41> Just wondering.

Unless git changes its default branch name to something else, isn't Github's approach futile?

When you "git init", git creates the master branch locally.

And then when you push, I sincerely hope GitHub wouldn't somehow rename that branch to something else...

</comment><comment><USER42> Wait for them to discover the "removeChild" DOM method...

<comment><USER38> `Out of memory: Kill process 4447 (python) score 519 or sacrifice child`

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> If it helps normalise the removal of problematic terminology in tech then this feels like a positive thing. Software development has a troubling history of being an overwhelmingly straight, white, male space, ridding ourselves of terminology that causes friction to new developers who don't fit the standard model has got to be a good thing.

I'm certain that most people would see renaming master to main as fairly benign. However. if a company like Github can be open to making a change like this, even if it is purely symbolic, it sends a message that changes to the status quo are possible.

I've also seen some comments complain about the technical difficulty of this change. If this forces developers to put some effort into updating tools that are hardcoded to refer to the primary branch as master then it's good from a purely technical perspective. Especially to help those of us following trunk- based development who already refer it as the trunk.

<comment><USER17> > Software development has a troubling history of being an overwhelmingly > straight, white, male space...

Software engineering is incredibly diverse. There are many East Asians, South Asians, Middle Easterners, and people from underprivileged backgrounds from former Soviet block countries. It also has a relatively high percentage of just unique folks.

Software engineering also has a diversity problem with respect to female, Latino, and black engineers in particular.

I'm just pointing out that "overwhelmingly white" is quite inaccurate.

<comment><USER44> I here Brazil's tech scene was able to attract a lot of latinos. Maybe a template we could apply elsewhere.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Is Mastercard going to be renamed Maincard now?

<comment><USER46> MainChef. Main of Science. Headmain. Main Wayne. Main of Puppets.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> The terms "master" and "slave" are part of standard vocabulary for those who work around hardware. I wonder what would become of them.

</comment><comment><USER48> One of the other submissions relating to this became flagged for some reason: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23526311](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23526311)

I don't often comment on things, but this seems like a slippery slope and a process that I'd like to counteract in some way, so input/comments are welcome. Original comment copied below:

I'd prefer it if things didn't change, including the master/slave terminology (the 'master' branch doesn't even have a 'slave' in git...)

Have the words themselves become bad to use? It seems that this is a USA centric view anyway with its history (and even then it seems ridiculous--why can't these things be compartmentalised as technical terms?)

Slavery certainly still exists in the world, and has existed in most places at some point. Should we rename 'slavery' to something else too while we're at it? Or forget it exists and existed?

Certainly certain terms become antiquated over time, like the vocabulary used in Emacs (yank/buffer/etc vs cut/window/tab/...), but master/slave doesn't seem to be there yet.

I wonder if there's some way to counteract this newspeak stuff? I think it's harmful that these things happen for such frivolous reasons. Does one just have to be as loud as the minority that drives these things, to counteract it?

</comment><comment><USER49> Why no one is addressing the biggest problem about programming: separating bits to 0s and 1s. Not only that, but also 0s have no value unless they are led by 1.

This is outrageous!

</comment><comment><USER50> So next up is academia renaming "Masters Degree" to something else?

<comment><USER51> I guess it can be renamed as PlusGradute degree. I think it would Doubleplusgood for everyone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Meanwhile slavery still exists in Libya.

I don't mind renaming it but it feels like a token action without any real weight.

<comment><USER53> Chattel slavery and slave markets have existed in Mauritania since before the first Europeans even set foot in Africa, and to this day they refuse to end the practice and have told the UN directly that they refuse to end the practice every time another UN member raises a fuss about it.

So yes, this is a token action meant to appease those that are never truly appeased due to their rapid movement of goalposts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Meh, just PLEASE don't call it "main". That's too generic. I like "trunk".

<comment><USER55> Agreed

</comment></comment><comment> j-pb Who broke the build scripts?

<comment><USER2> I assume this only applies to new repositories.

<comment><USER56> So... 5 years from now will we have to constantly guess whether old repos are using "master" or "main"?

<comment><USER37> This. It is hard coded all over the place in thousands of things.

In fact is it even git any more if the master branch isn't called master? Nope it's an incompatible fork by Microsoft purely by a chance encounter of irony.

<comment><USER2> Are you being sarcastic?

Where exactly do you depend on knowing the name of the default branch of an unnamed repository, and how do you handle cases where people delete the master branch.

<comment><USER51> > how do you handle cases where people delete the master branch.

I don't think anybody would want people who delete the master branch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> If we want we _could_ remove "master" from everyday usage:

master branch/copy - that's your _main_ or _primary_

master degree - is now an _expert_ degree

martial arts master - congratulations, you're a _guru_!

master bedroom - is now your _main_ , _great_ or _grand_ bedroom (in fact it used to be called the main bedroom not that long ago)

skill mastery - you _quashed_ it!

 _Should_ we make these changes? I don't know, I'm a white guy. What I _do_ know is it's time to put an end to systemic racism. If making these seemingly small changes are enough to change people's worldview in a meaningful way then I think we should explore it. There's potentially a lot to gain for such seemingly trivial and small changes in word usage.

<comment><USER46> Guru would be cultural appropriation

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> Why not this first?

Microsoft's shareholders, during last Dec's meeting, rejected Arjuna Capital's proposal that a report be compiled on the gender pay gap across Microsoft, specifically to include "the percentage global median pay gap between male and female employees across race and ethnicity, including base, bonus and equity compensation."

[https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-12-04-microsoft-...](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-12-04-microsoft- shareholders-reject-call-for-gender-pay-gap-report)

</comment><comment><USER59> This makes me sad. The only thing I can do in a case like that is to ABANDON every tool (having a replacement) whenever the company / group behind it starts to drift from the core idea toward strange waters having nothing to do with the objectives of that group... I urge you to do the same. Consider that personal integrity (calling a scam a scam is a matter of honor) is a crucial factor in being in a good relationship with oneself. Let's not accept immaturity as a new norm. Let's slowly and methodically make unfit ideas die, like evolution does. Peace. PS: I never thought that I 'll live thru that kind of crap from tech industry on a large scale. PS2: Think what would happen if evolution would be so easy on its creatures, leaving partially-sound ideas as blueprints for the humanity to deal with. You eat an apple, and you crash your teeth on an unexpected brick of gold inside of it. What? Although gold is precious, a bar of gold found that way is a misery. And it makes the existence of that kind of apple just... Inelegant. Wise nature doesn't do that, and you shouldn't too. Some things are the way they are because it's the most optimal way for them to be. The passage of time is an excellent tutor of what might be considered as a proven solution. The master branch concept has been working for a long time. I have it in my muscle memory by now. And NOW some kind of enlightened, progressive geniuses are going to tinker with how the feedback loops between my mind and the universe have been set up? No way bozos. Get back to school. Take some lessons on philosophy, and maybe even oh history, so you can understand that a wise man isn't going to speak until it's needed. Not even to mention that he isn't going to progressively cry on anyone's shoulder that he doesn't like a this or that definition. I'm a master of my own self, therefore I'm a racist. Said no one to anyone ;) One thing is sure - I'm not going to be a slave to the puppets of the neo-marxist war on language.

</comment><comment><USER60> It's sad to hear this instead of people taking action against actual slavery.

This is onomatophobia, fear of hearing names. Github is catering to people trying to ignore the problem (slavery) that still exists because of inaction instead of clearing the name "master" from the bad connotation. Logically, it's difficult to battle problems (like slavery) by forgetting it or ignoring that it exists in the first place.

The change is counter-productive for both social and technical contributions.

</comment><comment><USER61> Can I call that Githubs silly master plan?

Anyway, Fossils main branch is called "trunk" which actually makes more sense than "master" especially because Fossil also has leafs.

</comment><comment><USER62> All the time and money that will go into this would be much better spent donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or another organization fighting to solve the real problems.

</comment><comment><USER63> A StackOverflow thread describes some ways to do this when creating a new git repo. Here's an alias that seems to work:

        # https://stackoverflow.com/q/42871542/2040410
        new = !git init && git checkout -b main && git commit --allow-empty -m \"new\"

It's possible this alias will leave "master" defined but in a detached state (not pointing to a commit). I haven't checked this.

</comment><comment><USER64> First they came for the bikeshed...

</comment><comment><USER65> Ok, I have to ask - will one of them be a synonym? I imagine there are millions of hardcoded words out there that will break unless they both map to the same thing.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not really sure what this would look like in practice. Perhaps this would only apply to new repositories, or maybe it will only be the default default. It has never been mandatory for the default branch to be called "master" \-- it's just the default value from git and GitHub.

I suppose we will just need to wait and see what happens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER66> Everybody knowing that is a replacement for the word "Master". After 50 years, `Main` === `Master`. Will it?

`root` is better if you really want to make a change. Or rand() is your friend.

Maybe I'm not a native English speaker. After knowing the history of Master/Slave. I still not linking them to the bad side.

If they can, rename `Git` also. Acutally I have some complaints from my clients before.

<comment><USER67> Your clients complained about the name git? (As an aside, you know Linus named both his projects after himself? :)

<comment><USER66> Linus named Master branch is Master also. I know it but they don't. :s

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER68> [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/jenkinsci- dev/CLR55w...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/jenkinsci- dev/CLR55wMZwZ8)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12736061](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12736061)

</comment><comment><USER69> Reminds me of the santa hat stuff in vscode.

</comment><comment><USER70> Every time I commit I smile because I've just enslaved more bytes of code. I am the MASTER!!!!!

</comment><comment><USER71> Whats next, Master bedroom?

<comment><USER67> I have a Main degree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER72> Seem unnecessary to me, though I do like less keystrokes to type.

If the word master makes some black people feel uncomfortable, the issue isn't git. It lies in the society.

</comment><comment><USER73> This sounds like an April fool or an Onion article... Maybe they could take this opportunity to do something useful & provide a dark mode...

</comment><comment><USER74> I like the name change. It's shorter and makes more sense. If the current name affects many people in a negative way then I support the name change.

<comment><USER75> It doesn't. No one is offended by this.

<comment><USER74> Some are offended but not the majority.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER76> If that is the only thing that they can do to be part of the movement that is fine but it is a bit ridiculous.

</comment><comment><USER77> While we're at it, isn't the `git` word offensive? I mean, based on [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/git](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/git) git means foolish or worthless person! It's not acceptable to call any person worthless! Please change this name.

</comment><comment><USER78> Have the owners of the alternatives commented on this yet? What to use now? Atlassian? Gitlab?

<comment><USER14> [https://sr.ht](https://sr.ht)

</comment></comment><comment><USER79> So there is an actual problem that they could work on. Often the branch which most users should clone and use is not the bleeding edge working branch, which often is master. It would be nice if you could set the default branch for cloning for most users somehow.

Edit: so it does! You learn something new...

<comment><USER80> AFAIK you can already set default branches for github. Not sure whether that applies when you clone it using git.

</comment></comment><comment><USER81> companies like github should remain apolitical. this is pure nonesense, merely a show of force by otherwise impotent and misguided liberals. take your outrage somewhere else.

</comment><comment><USER82> The thought police are growing everyday

</comment><comment><USER83> But what about master-slave DB replication!

<comment><USER84> Typically replaced with primary-replica terminology.

</comment></comment><comment><USER85> Master/Slave labeling IS weird. When I first saw it in reference to drive configurations, I recall thinking how maybe there was a better way to label them.

But as others pointed out here, "Master" branch is not using that source for the term. Changing it in this context is actively harmful to BLM and race equality.

So, ignore this and don't be a pussy. (Historically pussy == cat by the way. So I am bringing this phrase back for the same reasons that my Master branch and Blacklist/Whitelist are historically clean terms.)

</comment><comment><USER12> I've said it before, and I predict it now again: a language that is named after valuable mineral chunks that are often/usually/predominately mined by slave labor in predominately non-white countries is better thinking about a rebrand.

Especially when it's basically ground zero for SJW activity in software development.

<comment><USER86> We're in a "six degrees of separation" between anything widely used in culture and something that can be deemed "racist." If you look, you _will_ find something, no matter how stretched or tenuous the connection.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why are so many companies changing their privacy policy suddenly? - <AUTHOR> I'm curious if there was a policy mandate similar to GDPR that recently came into effect. So many companies have sent communications to notify users of the updates to their policies but I don't see anything in the changes to justify it.<p>Does anyone have an idea of why it would be the case? The time period is roughly from the start of November 2019. <comment><USER2> California Consumer Privacy Act takes effect next year - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Ac...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Act)

</comment><comment><USER3> The CCPA has some sections around it, e.g. contact info on how to exercise your rights as a consumer, and formatting around how to show categories of personal information.</comment>


Khalid El-Masri - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri <comment><USER2> The conduct of the US government never ceases to reach new lows while the courts demonstrate that they can spread even more atrocities through their decisions. At this point, state secrets is obviously an excuse and a pretty poor one at that, but one that works because the people have absolutely no defense against it.

<comment><USER3> As a German, I would like to point out that the German government also behaved abysmally in these cases, both with Al-Masri and also with Murat Kurnaz[1].

The latter case has shown us that Frank Walter Steinmeier is a wolf in a sheeps coat. Despicable.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murat_Kurnaz)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is an unfortunate story, but demonstrates two basic principles of law:

1) American federal courts are domestic institutions and will avoid exercising jurisdiction in a way that causes them to sit in judgment of the government's military and security activities abroad. The forum for contesting the government's actions abroad are the political ones, not the courthouse.

2) The idea of "human rights" and a Court of Human Rights that cannot be back its judgments up with enforcement is a farce.</comment>


Pixel Buds review: OK Google, go back to the earbud drawing board - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/11/pixel-buds-review-ok-google-go-back-to-the-earbud-drawing-board/ <comment><USER2> I feel completely put out by the smartphone market when it comes to music listening these days. I care a lot about audio quality, and I run a lot. This means two problems:

1\. Bluetooth headphones usually have shit audio quality, and too little battery life for someone who listens as much as I do.

2\. I have yet to use a phone in the last 8+ years that I didn't destroy the 3.5mm jack on over the course of <1 year of running. The same thing is clearly applying to the USB-C adapter on my Pixel 2. It frequently needs to be removed and plugged back in mid-run.

It feels like I don't have any options here. Anyone have any good tips? Particularly for a Pixel 2? Is there maybe a better aftermarket adapter?

<comment><USER3> Do you really care about audio quality _that much_ when you're out running? You're not exactly in an ideal listening environment, and whatever bud type headphones you're wearing won't be able to accurately reproduce bass anyway.

<comment><USER2> This is a fair point but all the buds I've tried absolutely suck. I use Shure SE215 buds which I love, and I've yet to try anything wireless that feels as good. To be fair, I haven't tried many pairs, though. The main problem I've found is it seems almost all of them use rubber rather than foam tips, which conducts a huge amount of noise from the cord bumping around.

If you've got recommendations I'm all ears!

<comment><USER4> Westone makes a Bluetooth cable with the same connectors used on most Shure IEMs: [https://www.westone.com/store/music/index.php/bluetooth- cabl...](https://www.westone.com/store/music/index.php/bluetooth-cable)

<comment><USER2> Holy crap now we're talking. This is sweet, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Admittedly, I've really liked the Pixel Buds, but for some of the same reasons people dislike it:

* I absolutely love that I can still hear my surroundings. I've been able to bike with them in, but still feel like I can hear my surroundings. I'm not sure if I'd feel safe enough to listen to music my whole commute, but for podcasts, it just feels like I hear everything around and someone is talking next to me. Previously I'd use a speaker mounted to my bike, which I still didn't like to use too much, because I didn't want to annoy people too much.

* They are so comfortable. The first ear buds I can actually wear. I just can't stand the in-ear buds of any sort.

* For what they are and the places I'd use them, they sound rather good. I admittedly just ordered the wireless sennheiser hd-1 (which is on sale right now), so the pixel buds are not really for my high-quality listening needs either way.

* I think they look cool (I have the blue ones) and the strap is a plus for me. I also don't understand all the complaints about the case, the strap, or putting it in the case. It's super easy...

Basically, if you want in-ear buds, then avoid these. But, if you want comfortable buds that are not in-ear that you could safely wear while biking...these are pretty great.

<comment><USER6> For biking look at bone-conductive headphones - they sit outside your ear and work great for podcasts while still keeping your ears open.

<comment><USER7> Personally I wouldn't recommend any type of headphones for biking unless you are on a super safe bike trail. I have been saved multiple times by hearing noises.

<comment><USER5> With the bone-conductive headphones (And the Pixel buds to a large extent), you do hear everything around you.

From what I started reading on the bone-conductive headphones, it'd be no different than having a speaker mounted on your bike in terms of being able to hear around you.

<comment><USER7> Having a speaker on your bike also seems to be a bad idea. Biking is dangerous and you should be aware of your surroundings.

<comment><USER5> Does that mean you are against stereos in cars too? Hearing your surroundings while driving is also important.

<comment><USER7> I would argue it's more important while biking. If someone cuts you off while you are in a car you can risk a collision but with the bike it doesn't help not being at fault while you are dead. So hearing cars is very helpful.

I try to bike with the assumption that nobody sees me and I have to be ready for anything. Same with a motorcycle. Always assume to not be seen and always be aware of your surroundings.

<comment><USER6> I had the "nobody sees me" philosophy for a while and ended up with a few accidents with drivers not using turn signals, not giving right of way at an intersection, or just running red lights. The worst was crashing into the side of a bus that ran through an intersection and then getting into an argument with the bus driver while I'm bleeding and concussed.

I now bike as if every driver has a mild incentive to hit me if they can so I don't trust turn signals, I run through red lights if it's clear for me, go down one way streets the wrong way to avoid traffic, flip off drivers who tailgate me when they can pass, etc. I'm "that cyclist" but it's what you have to do to survive. Zero accidents or even close calls so far this year.

<comment><USER5> At this point I'm just happy when drivers use turn signals. I have a 6 mile one-way bike commute through the city. It's rare I have a whole drive with everyone signaling properly. Thankfully, bike infrastructure here in SF has dramatically improved over the years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Bluetooth Audio. Manufacturers have failed to pursue an "opt-in" deployment path.

If/when they wanted to make the transition, they should have made (the next revision of) Bluetooth good enough that users _want_ to use it.

Instead, after being present for years and years on phones, they finally decided to force adoption by dropping the headphone jack.

Why? Well, there are the "thin" and "no room" arguments (oh, and, "waterproofing" \-- really more splash-resisting), but those don't seem convincing of themselves.

There's the chance to sell expensive headphones at substantial markup.

And, there's however much behind-the-scenes pressure to transition the delivery channel to entirely digital, where DRM can ensure that content is not copied and, as part of a larger push, that all revenues for listening become recurring revenues in perpetuity. (The thing Microsoft's been trying to accomplish with Windows and Office licensing, for years now.)

</comment><comment><USER9> For me the magical thing in AirPods is that they are so easy to carry around in pocket and quick to put on for/during a call.

With wired things this never worked for me since you could not just tuck them in pocket. They had to be stored somewhere.</comment>


SAAS-TOKEN, (Ethereum) Smart Contract model for monthly subscription based SAAS - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/ethdev/comments/7l3hmc/saastoken_smart_contract_for_monthly_subscription/ <comment><USER2> Wouldn't this be an ICO?

<comment><AUTHOR> in the described model the monthly revenue that the product generates is shared among the token holders because the contracts, of course you could sell the token later. So the contract is the added value here.

<comment><USER2> Ah.. sort of like a dividend option.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes it would be like [https://ethereum.org/crowdsale](https://ethereum.org/crowdsale) but the reward would be based on revenue</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Python 2.6.2 Released - <AUTHOR> http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.2/

<comment><USER2> Stupid somewhat on topic question: how are we supposed to understand the parallel existence of python 2.x and python 3?

<comment><USER3> 2.6 is a bridge to 3.0 -- it implemented some 3.0 things, but kept a lot of backward compatibility. If a project can't convert to 3.0, they could convert to 2.6, which would then make the eventual 3.0/3.1 migration easier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> >Due to an error in the production of the release candidates (2.6.2c1), the release candidates already used the version number of the final release in some places. As a consequence, upgrading the Windows installation from 2.6.2c1 to 2.6.2 (final) will fail. Users of 2.6.2c1 need to uninstall it manually before installing this release.

Oops.</comment>


Lord Kelvin and Being Usefully Wrong - <AUTHOR> http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/01/01/lord_kelvin_and.html

<comment><USER2> IMO, Kelvin is a wrong example for being usefully wrong.

[http://www.usd.edu/esci/age/content/failed_scientific_clocks...](http://www.usd.edu/esci/age/content/failed_scientific_clocks/kelvin_cooling.html) He argued against evolution based on wrong assumptions (which at his time were speculative). He was arrogant and didn't submit to reason; He didn't publicly retract his stand even after he was proven wrong. All this points to his arrogance and fanaticism.

And Kedrosky's blog post is a little lame too: "Kelvin did not believe that heavier-than-air flying machines were possible and he regarded X-rays as a hoax" At the turn of the twentieth century he "claimed that physics was nearly complete and all problems would soon be settled." After mentioning these he goes on to claim that Kelvin's "genius as a physicist was manifested by the fact" that he predicted the "unexpected behavior of ether in Michelson-Morley experiment", and black-body radiation as two open problems in physics at that time.

the unexpected results of Michelson-Morley experiment brought classical physics to its knees. Anyone with a decent understanding of physics at that time would have considered that solving this problem is going to directly open doors to great findings.

Kelvin, sure was a genius in physics, but these are definitely not signs of it. And he didn't come across as an open minded person.

</comment><comment><USER3> Current top comment on the blog is a good one:

"Keep your mistakes cheap."</comment>


Help with my business plan - please comment - <AUTHOR>

If you have a del.icio.us or furl account, how often do you go back and read articles?
Do you ever go back and read or just add more?
Thanks <comment><USER2> I go back and read what i've saved. But i'm never going to pay del.icio.us a thing ever. I'd be intrigued as to where u think this is a business.</comment>


Using Intel's Xeon Phi for Brain Research Visualization - <AUTHOR> https://www.top500.org/news/using-intels-xeon-phi-for-brain-research-visualization/ <comment><USER3> The lowest price Xeon Phi in this generation is $2,348 (1.3ghz, 64 cores) - <USER2> can't help but feel Intel would do well to introduce an enthusiast product in to the lineup. Even 1.0ghz, 48 cores for $1000.

They're Tesla priced without an equivalent desktop gamer graphics card, and that means you can't just dip your toe into the water; you've got to buy the canoe up front.

Programming on a normal x86 doesn't really count, because there's no way to get a feel for what is fast and slow when you're using a monster of a core capable of running your poor code more quickly than it deserves.

<comment><USER4> As someone who has programmed both Phis and conventional x86 CPUs, I can confirm that the Phi is more sensitive to data traversal order and NUMA effects on which core accesses which memory. Also, the latest generation (Knights Landing) has much better performing cores than the previous generation.

<comment><USER3> Well, if it weren't the case and you had that core count without compromise, Phis would have come along a lot sooner with a price tag to match :)

Did you happen to use the Knight's Corner or the new Knight's Landing variant? I'd be quite interested to know how KL stacks up, as naively from the specs it seems like it should be a lot more tolerant with code (but not poor memory access patterns).

<comment><USER4> Both, and it agrees with your prediction. KNL's cores are each much faster than KNC's cores. A KNC core was over 10X slower than a mainstream CPU core, and a KNL core seems to only be about 4.5X slower (on my particular code). I also get linear OpenMP scaling from 1 to 64 threads on KNL, so the parallelism is all there.

<comment><USER5> Some questions out of curiosity: Is your application bandwidth-bound / compute-bound or something else? Also what modes have you been operating the KNL chip in?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Figure 1: Even first in-silico models show the complexity and beauty of the brain"

Man the human brain is such a narcissist

<comment><USER7> I'm imagining a new test for artificial intelligence measuring a system's capability for narcissism – the true metric of real consciousness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't know if using Xeon Phi for rendering makes that much sense. It's sort of the problem it's least competitive to solve on a raw performance, performance per watt or development cost basis.

> However, 'smaller' is a relative term as current visualizations can occur on > a machine that contains less than a terabyte of RAM. Traditional raster- > based rendering would have greatly increased the memory consumption as the > convoluted shape of each neuron would require a mesh containing > approximately 100,000 triangles per neuron.

That sounds like a poor approach to this problem. You could write a shader that renders thick lines for the dendrites, and the rest of the geometry can be conventional meshes. The same shader could have a pass specially designed for lines and depth of field rendering. That's the one unusual shader. It's hard, but not super hard to write. [0]

Besides, unless you need this to run in real time (which the Xeon Phi doesn't anyway), you could just raster render and page in the mesh data from wherever. So what if it's slow.

I think highly technical platform decisions like Xeon Phi versus NVIDIA CUDA is really about the details. You have to educate the reader both on the differences that matter and why they should choose one over the other. The comment in the article, "no GPU dependencies," is a very PR-esque don't-mention-your-competitor dance around what they're actually trying to say: the CUDA ecosystem can be a pain since you can't buy the MacBook Pro with the GTX 750M easily, installing all its drivers is error-prone, SIP gets in the way of everything, Xcode and CUDA updates tend to break each other, etc. etc.

I sound like I know what I'm talking about, right? Intel's just not getting it. Show a detailed application of where Xeon Phi really excels. NVIDIA's accelerated science examples go back a decade, and some, like the accelerated grid solved Navier-Stokes fluids examples, are still state of the art.

The competition in rendering is intense. Some level of production-ready renderers like Arion, Octane and mental ray (specifically iRay, NVIDIA's GPU accelerated renderer) perform best or are exclusive to the CUDA platform. Conversely, you probably get the most flexibility from a platform like VRay or Renderman, whose support for GPU acceleration is limited. Intel embtree has a great presence today in baked lighting for game engines, but I think NVIDIA's OptiX is a lot faster.

[0] [https://mattdesl.svbtle.com/drawing-lines-is- hard](https://mattdesl.svbtle.com/drawing-lines-is-hard)

<comment><USER9> > That sounds like a poor approach to this problem. You could write a shader > that renders thick lines for the dendrites, and the rest of the geometry can > be conventional meshes. The same shader could have a pass specially designed > for lines and depth of field rendering. That's the one unusual shader. It's > hard, but not super hard to write. [0]

You will be surprised how bad medical research and visualization is compared to their gaming counterparts. Most medical researchers use 5-10 year old technological approaches they learned in their PhD program.

On a side note, I have yet to see a Phi-vs-CUDA comparison. Intel is comparing Phi to Pentiums, which is utterly ridiculous.

<comment><USER10> Here is a comparison of the previous generation: [https://www.xcelerit.com/computing-benchmarks/libor/intel- xe...](https://www.xcelerit.com/computing-benchmarks/libor/intel-xeon-phi-vs- nvidia-tesla-gpu/)

They hold their own against GPGPU, but are probably the inferior choice if your code already runs on a GPU (OpenCL/CUDA).

The real advantage of the Phi is of course combining this nearly-as-good-as- GPGPU parallelism with the x86_64 toolchain and infrastructure. x86 supports more languages with more libraries, and is easier to develop for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> One of the interesting things to keep in mind is that these new Xeon Phi cards can be used as standalone CPUs, not just as PCIe cards like a GPU. This is the "self-hosted mode" the article talks about. So one can now think about comparing a lone Xeon Phi doing both jobs versus a CPU plus an NVidia GPU.

</comment><comment><USER11> This article is too fluffy, sounds like it had help from Intel's PR depr.

I certainly hope Phi has more advantages than the write once run anywhere / portability angle they kept pushing.

Has anyone chosen Phi for a real project that was in no way funded or subsidized by Intel?

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm excited for Xenon Phi even with the expense of it, Intel needs to realize that even though they dominate in x86 they need to price competitively.</comment>


LG Display Develops Quad HD LCD Panel for Smartphones - <AUTHOR> http://lgdnewsroom.com/press_releases/2734

<comment><AUTHOR> Whoever edited the title did a poor job. It was submitted as "LG Display Develops 538ppi (2560x1440 at 5.5-inch) AH-IPS Panel for Smartphones" to present all the important information at once. I don't know why the moderator prefers the marketing term used by LG.

</comment><comment><USER2> But what's the point? Can I really tell the difference past "retina display" density?</comment>


Will Bright Star Betelgeuse Supernova? - <AUTHOR> https://www.space.com/dimming-star-betelgeuse-red-giant-could-explode-supernova.html <comment><USER2> Honest title would be: It's probably a natural dimming cycle and the star will not be blowing up right now. If it did, not to worry, it's ~650 light years away, and it shouldn't hurt us (don't they always say that ;-)). It would be as bright as the moon if it went nova for a while.

<comment><USER3> If it were as bright as the moon but visually a point source, would it be safe to look at with the naked eye?

<comment><USER4> Yes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If it does go, it will remove the left shoulder of Orion, a constellation has been with us for all human history. A bit of a loss.

<comment><USER6> and bladerunner will make no sense.

<comment><USER7> Nah, Blade Runner is set in 2019, so it's fine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> They mention it in the article, but it's really fascinating how we've documented previous nearby (relatively) supernovae.

Modern scientists have identified that the Crab Nebula (6k light years away) was created by a supernovae. Historians then recognized that Chinese astronomers had actually _seen_ that supernovae in 1054 AD. This was corroborated by historical records from Islamic astronomers as well.

Similar attempts have been made to identify the Star of Bethlehem, but I don't believe there's consensus on that one.

(Some of the above may be inaccurate, I just love how long people have been studying the night sky.)

<comment><USER9> Just FYI, supernovae (with an e at the end) is plural. The singular is supernova.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Imagine being alive when it goes supernova (relatively to us on earth). That would be a spectacular thing to witness.

<comment><USER11> I am sure it will be cloudy where I am.

<comment><USER12> Even if you live in the tropics and it's during the rainy season, you still have a good chance of seeing one. It's not like a solar eclipse where you have very short time period to view it, it could last weeks to years (of course the peak would be shorter, but probably still on the order of days to weeks, at least long enough to travel to a clear location):

> Supernova SN 1054 was another widely observed event, with Arab, Chinese, and > Japanese astronomers recording the star's appearance in 1054 AD. It may also > have been recorded by the Anasazi as a petroglyph. This explosion appeared > in the constellation of Taurus, where it produced the Crab Nebula remnant. > At its peak, the luminosity of SN 1054 may have been four times as bright as > Venus, and it remained visible in daylight for 23 days and was visible in > the night sky for 653 days.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Out of curiosity, I wonder what the closest star to Sol system is that is large enough to supernova?

<comment><USER14> Maybe Gacrux (Gamma Crucis), a red giant 88 light years away:

[https://www.space.com/23710-gacrux-gamma- crucis.html](https://www.space.com/23710-gacrux-gamma-crucis.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I presume this will be then the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758, which Ford Prefect's father was the only person to survive

</comment><comment><USER16> I'll save you some time: Yes.

When? Nobody knows. Might have already happened.

<comment><USER17> Checks the sky. No it hasn't happened. So it's either not happened yet or events of your post and Betelgeuse going supernova are separated by spacelike interval and as such they do not belong in before-after relation.

"It hasn't happened" = it's not in our past light cone. "It's not happened yet" = it's in our future light cone.

<comment><USER18> The speed of light sucks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What would it look like, a really bright star? Or would we actually see something that resembles an explosion

</comment><comment><USER20> Man this would be awesome to observe. Hopefully it's not the 100,000 year estimate.

</comment><comment><USER21> Mods, can you add "Go" before Supernova in the title? Supernova is not a verb.

<comment><USER22> It is now. It's been verbed.

<comment><USER21> Source?

It sounds like one of those "how to summer" bastardizations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> In defiance of Betteridge's law on headlines, _technically_ the answer to this one is, yes, with an approximately 100% certainty. The question is not "if" but "when". However, the answer to "when" is unlikely to be anytime soon, from the point of view of an individual human being.

<comment><USER24> I would feel so, so fortunate to witness a supernova in my lifetime were it to occur..

<comment><USER25> Unless it were our Sun. Then we might not feel so fortunate. :-)

<comment><USER18> If only it were big enough.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Estimating the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow (2003) - <AUTHOR> http://style.org/unladenswallow/ <comment><USER2> Ahh such a great movie.

Looking back now, I think the old man didn't know what the answers were. Rather it was based on whether you indicated you didn't know or you were wrong.

Airspeed velocity of a swallow? 20 meters per second. Capital of Assyria? Quintora. Now move out of the way bridge keeper!

</comment><comment><USER3> The joke is right in the title folks. We all got it, no need to fill the comments with the same joke.

<comment><USER4> You're mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry

<comment><USER5> Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The problem I have with the paper, is it fails to take into account the drag coefficient of a coconut.

<comment><USER6> Unladen. UNLADEN!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> African or European?

<comment><USER7> African swallows are non-migratory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I genuinely, dearly miss those guys.</comment>


Stephen Fry: Why the Internet is such a wondrous thing - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7926509.stm

<comment><USER2> I did laugh - I always stumble over spelling accommodate as well...

</comment><comment><USER3> "The internet: Why Stephen Fry is such a wondrous thing"

(I see the fryuniversity.com domain mentioned at the end of the article belongs to a domain squatter. Doh.)</comment>


Show HN: Personalized Autism Genetic Report - <AUTHOR> http://www.generisk.org <comment><AUTHOR> Would love feedback and also please sign up to obtain your report if interested.

<comment><USER2> Why should I trust you with my genetic information?

<comment><AUTHOR> The raw data after the first analysis is not retained and updates are performed on-demand. We do not share this information with any third party or insurance companies. Also, analysis is performed double-blind.</comment></comment></comment>


Inspiring Young Writers with Minecraft - <AUTHOR> https://www.edutopia.org/article/inspiring-young-writers-with-minecraft-matthew-farber <comment><USER3> From the article: an 8 year old kid, Stroud, wrote a book about Minecraft.

okay.

Question is now: is it because of Minecraft that this kid "became a writer", or was it just the starting element? If the kid had been fond of frogs, rocks or knitting, would he gave wrote a book just as well?

If you take any random kid playing Minecraft, could you turn it into a writer like described in the article?

I think that the kid was a born writer, or is in the correct environment, but crediting Minecraft for this is not correct.

<comment><USER4> Maybe crediting Minecraft with it is "not correct", but I see with my own son too that a lot his creativity centers around open-ended games - <USER2> Minecraft - that helps provide structure when he wants to sit down and write.

It provides ample inspiration, and a setting that he can describe rather than have to invent from scratch, and that is very helpful "scaffolding" to be able to focus on the story in the beginning.

As he gets "caught up" in describing something, what he describes starts to morph away from the game world he started with.

Look at the vast amount of heavily scripted Youtube videos that use open-ended sandbox games as "set" and you see much of the same, where the games clearly affect the creative process by letting people act and react and describe rather than having to jump straight into inventing from scratch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a rather surprising development to me, I didn't imagine that this would inspire writers, but I quite applaud what Minecraft does for creativity at all ages!

<comment><USER6> My daughter loves telling Minecraft stories when we are going for walks or in the car. They're long quite complicated stories about her, me, and her friends having various made up adventures in the Minecraft world. More often than not they'll spin off to include elements not possible in the game, but they always start in the Minecraft world.

<comment><USER7> Wow, that's really awesome. If you don't mind me asking, how old is she? Do you have any clue where she got her imagination/love for story telling?

<comment><USER6> She's 6 and at least the Minecraft storytelling aspect came from watching people do so on Youtube. There are a bunch of people on Youtube (Stampycat being her favorite) who use Minecraft do semi-scripted lets-plays/machinima stories and for some reason she finds this to be the most fun and interesting thing ever created.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd love to see if the writers of these books made any money off of the books. I understand that probably wasn't the goal of the article, but I'd like to instill entrepreneurial values in my kids. Imagine if you were a kid that had no income (except for birthdays/holidays). You could write a book about something that you love and obsess over and get money for doing it. That would be magical for them.

<comment><USER8> IIRC the rules regarding income get fuzzy when basing one's written work on the Intellectual Property of another entity. As in a "Minecraft story" revenue would likely default to the owner of the IP, not the unaffiliated writer. If the entity such as Minecraft reaches an agreement to give the writer of the derivative content compensation, I think that's their choice (e.g. they never hired the writer and are allowed control of their IP, which can include take- downs). There's a lot of good publicity to be earned by including fan-works into a global campaign, for sure! Also, money! See: "50 Shades of Grey" and its relationship to "Twilight" being a way where both parties became fiscal winners.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Relying on Minecraft for education is similar to pushing the use of Word, Excel, etc---encouraging the use of proprietary software that locks the user into the _software_ rather than the general concepts that they introduce. Yes, you do learn about those concepts, but why not teach them in an environment that is friendly toward education, and then apply those concepts to the proprietary software (like Office) should they need to be used in the future?

In this case, how about something like Minetest? Inspire them with a program that they can share freely with their friends and family. With a program that they can express their creativity as far as they desire, down to the source code, even.

I think this was posted on HN a while back: [http://www.ocsmag.com/2016/04/04/mining-for- education/](http://www.ocsmag.com/2016/04/04/mining-for-education/)

[https://www.gnu.org/education/edu- why.html](https://www.gnu.org/education/edu-why.html)

<comment><USER10> Children want to play minecraft. All their friends play that, not Minetest. Who will they play with on their minetest server? You?

It's like when I was a young kid, I wanted a game boy, but I got those shitty tiger electronic games. My parents saw it as the same thing, but I couldn't trade pokemon with my friends or talk about Zelda. Proprietary software either way, but children don't care. Let children find their own way to FOSS, not force them into using some half-baked clone.

<comment><USER9> > Let children find their own way to FOSS, not force them into using some > half-baked clone.

A classroom setting is different than gameplay with peers.

I have a son. It's inevitable that he's going to want to play the games that his peers are playing, and my ideals are not more important than his social well-being.

But what a classroom uses and teaches is vastly different. It's _what_ is being taught that matters. For example, some teachers may choose to use online tools for teaching mathematics, whereas others will stick to textbooks and hands-on play. Both are viable methods.

I've already met with the school district on student privacy issues, and I plan to meet with them on other issues relating to software freedom, which they were receptive to.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wish more people felt uncomfortable with such a close marriage between commerce and lower education. Get em while they're kids and you have a customer for life...

<comment><USER12> Is that really the case though? I mean, I'm no longer a customer of Mavis Beacon, Mario Teaches Typing, and Dino Park Tycoon ...

<comment><USER11> It's more about breeding early comfort and familiarity with Microsoft software. It's the same tactic Apple and MS use in schools

<comment><USER13> Minecraft bears absolutely no interface similarity to any other Microsoft product. What you're saying happens and is already happening with the educational discounts on MS Office, but Minecraft doesn't contribute to that at all.

I can see that it might be creating familiarity with the company name (or is it? what fraction of people distinguish between OEM, OS and software vendor?), but unlike gas stations and hotels I don't see software as a place where that matters a lot.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


We'd have more quantum computers if it weren't so hard to find the damn cables - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612760/quantum-computers-component-shortage/ <comment><USER2> I am working with one of these dilution refrigerators of Oxford Instruments in my PhD thesis (not directly quantum computing, but a related topic in the direction of quantum computing). They are an incredible piece of machinery, with the push of a button they cool down your sample from room temperature to about 20 mK (admittedly, it takes ~30 Hours). That's 0.002 degrees above absolute zero.

I wonder how much of the 500k$ is really the material cost. As it was said in the article, the Helium-3 gas is already 40k$. And there is a lot of high- purity metals used: gold-plated oxygen-free copper for the main parts, silver wire for thermal anchoring and heat exchangers, indium wire for vacuum seals etc.

And thats just for the cryostat. To really use the cryostat for quantum computing experiments, you need to buy all of the cryogenic high-frequency electronic stuff. The cryogenic cables mentioned in the article by Coax, Ltd. are indeed really really expensive. Our last batch of NbTi-NbTi cables (i.e. superconducting inner + outer conductor) were about 1500$ per meter. Cryogenic microwave amplifiers (they operate at ~3.5 K to reduce microwave noise) cost about 5000$ per piece. Microwave circulators run at about 1500$ per piece. (According to the google paper, they used 9 cryogenic amps and 45 cryogenic circulators).

It's really very fascinating. But on the other side, I guess there is just not enough demand to justify founding another company building these fridges or superconducting cables. Unless of course at some point you manage to build these systems in large scale. But right now, that is just not feasible because it's no plug-and-play system. You have to constantly adjust and recalibrate the electronics to make the chip work.

</comment><comment><USER3> The article talks about superconducting cables, but these cryogenic cables are not superconducting. Seem like regular Kapton flex cables, either strip line or broadside coupled.

[https://www.delft-circuits.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/08/Da...](https://www.delft-circuits.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/08/Datasheet-CrioFlex-CF2.pdf)

I suppose you could use superconducting ribbon, or sputter thin film superconductor onto a Kapton core.

</comment><comment><USER4> Misleading title; also the article is mostly fluff. TLDR; quantum computers are expensive because superconductors are expensive to maintain, and companies like IonQ and Delft Circuits are looking into some solutions.

<comment><USER5> IonQ uses trapped ions, not superconducting circuits. Completely different technology.

<comment><USER4> That's still a potential solution.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> [https://archive.is/YVWm8](https://archive.is/YVWm8)

</comment><comment><USER7> I usually try Monoprice, or eBay.

<comment><USER8> Don't go for the monster quantum cables, they are usually a rip-off!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> You mean more than zero?

<comment><USER10> Are you saying that you personally have zero quantum computers or that nobody has more than zero quantum computers?

<comment><USER11> You can't tell if someone has a quantum computer until you observe it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Quote: "The problem is that these huge cylinders, which can cost between $500,000 and $1 million each, are custom-made, and researchers say that only a few companies, like BlueFors in Finland and Oxford Instruments in the UK, are producing high-quality ones."

There, the next unicorn - why only UK & Finland and not a Silicon Valley start-up as well? In the end it's just tech that requires investment, and God help us, there are plenty of venture capitalists looking for next unicorn. I mean the quantum computing field is so hot these days that everyday you find a new article about it.

<comment><USER13> I'm a little unclear on the benefit here. Say I have a hard problem and want to spend say $15 million for one machine, and further say that my problem might be suitable for a quantum algorithm, and further say I'm okay restocking all the exotic cryogenics etc.

At that price, I could buy at least 15,000 boring old machines using a boring distributed algorithm.

Is that quantum algorithm really worth it?

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h I assume the idea is that the technology is still in its infancy and in a few years it will be competitive.</comment></comment></comment>


What happens when your search engine is first to know you have cancer - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2016/06/10/what-happens-when-your-search-engine-is-first-to-know-you-have-cancer/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me of the story of how Target were able to quite precisely figure out whether their female customers were pregnant, and even when the due dates were: [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping- habits.h...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping- habits.html?pagewanted=all)</comment>