Rumor: Google negotiating $1 billion acquisition of WhatsApp - <AUTHOR> http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/google-acquiring-whatsapp/ <comment><USER2> Sometimes the mind boggles how companies like Google or Apple with its iMessages, who have all the ducks in a row, are so slow to capitalize on these things.

WhatsApp and most clones are pretty terrible, it is used solely because of network effects. But apparently two years is quick enough to reach escape velocity and lock it in. They are likely to get that billion.

<comment><USER3> Why exactly is WhatsApp terrible? I've been using it for about 6months and it works perfectly. Low memory usage, low disk space usage, low cpu usage, messages go through instantly and reliably. What more do you want in a messaging app?

<comment><USER4> There are some technical reasons, such as that the encryption is broken, the protocol isn't open and they have everybody's address books. Also, you can only use it from your phone. But (apart from the address book issue maybe) most people don't care about that. Usability-wise I like it more than Google's IM clients. Since I pay for the service, I trust them more than I trust Google, which is an advertisement company after all.

I'd much prefer it if everybody used XMPP, but unfortunately that's not the case.

<comment><USER5> As a user of the app, I don't care about any of them. As far as I see it - it's perfect. For example - them having my addressbook means that I don't have to set up any contacts. While I wish there was a desktop service, its lack is just that - something I wish existed.

I think a more precise way to describe it is "I disagree with certain technical solutions they chose".

<comment><USER6> Your opinion might change after someone sends messages to your contacts as you by spoofing your phone number (very easy).

<comment><USER7> It might be easy but is it common, i.e., is it a real world problem?

Friends complain about falling victim to Facebook scams all the time but I have never heard a complaint about WhatsApp … I know that such an anecdote is not of much use but WhatsApp seems at least not to have lost the trust of its users so far.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> That would make for a very nice middle finger to Facebook if they pull this off (allegedly they attempted to acquire WhatsApp before)

But $1 billion? I'm not sure if that evaluation is entirely justified. It has a pretty large user base, granted, but there's practically nothing that warrants people will continue using it in the next 5 years.

<comment><USER9> Outside of the US WhatsApp rules with an iron fist. Every non-tech person I know uses it. I hear it dropped in casual conversation at the table next to me in restaurants. It's got a public mindshare greater than Skype. And once all your friends are on it, it's not so easy to switch.

<comment><USER10> I can definitely confirm this, at least in The Netherlands literally everybody uses Whatsapp and it has slowly become a verb - "I'll whatsapp you the details!".

It's far from the best messaging app, but definitely the most popular (in Europe).

<comment><USER11> In Brazil here, my girlfriend literally bought a new phone, a low-budget android, just to talk with her best friends through Whatsapp.

<comment><USER12> India too...( where whatsapp adoption spread virally from blackberry, symbian, etc first and smartphones later)

i work on an im client[1], and my mom sent me a link about whatsapp :)

[1] to be fair, verbs.im is a gtalk/aol/yahoo multi-protocol client. infact, one day we could wrap over whatsapp as well. not exactly re-building a new graph but re-using your existing lists.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> To take the code focus for a second, this would be a great win for Erlang in that it would put a very high-profile Erlang powered app inside Google.

</comment><comment><USER13> Anybody think WhatsApp will still be here in a year or two?

<comment><USER14> Definitely. Its a really powerful force in 3rd world countries. Here is ZA they cornered the market completely.

Unless they screw it up themselves they aren't going to lose that head start. Not with the kind of network effects at play here.

<comment><USER15> ZA = South Africa?

<comment><USER16> Yes

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> here is the erlang factory talk by one of the lead developers of whatsapp : [http://www.erlang- factory.com/conference/SFBay2012/speakers/...](http://www.erlang- factory.com/conference/SFBay2012/speakers/RickReed)

</comment><comment><USER18> I don't think this should be on the front page. It's a rumor, citing "sources". It's not credible, even less when they cite Google Babble as a rumor. For those who don't know, Babble was a fake made by a spanish forum called Forocoches [1] [2]

[1] [http://www.adslzone.net/article11194-google-babble-rumor- ori...](http://www.adslzone.net/article11194-google-babble-rumor-originado-en- forocoches-traspasa-fronteras.html) (spanish) [2] [http://www.androidauthority.com/leaked-google-babble- screens...](http://www.androidauthority.com/leaked-google-babble-screenshots- fake-app-not-called-babble-source-says-176622/)

</comment><comment><USER19> How would they reconcile a Google acquisition with why they don't sell ads?

[http://blog.whatsapp.com/index.php/2012/06/why-we-dont- sell-...](http://blog.whatsapp.com/index.php/2012/06/why-we-dont-sell-ads/)

</comment><comment><USER20> Well if they can't buy whatsapp because they are asking for too much, they should buy LINE or whoever is next in line (no pun intended) with the biggest network of users, and is still growing fast. The strategy of buying one of these companies out to catch-up to iMessage in user base (not counting Gtalk users) is a sound one.

But whoever it's going to be and whatever Google is going to use, can we get OTR encryption enabled by default in there? Google doesn't need to have access to people's private conversations after all - right?

</comment><comment><USER21> Congrats Google: you're trying to buy an app as its going down. Practically everyone in Asia has switched to Line, and WhatsApp is definitely not what it was last year.

</comment><comment><USER22> Would this acquisition just serve to take it out of the market? Google already has a text-messaging (a better one) with Google Voice. I ditched my $20/month texting plan a few months back and have been quite pleased, especially with my ability to open my texts in a browser and use a physical keyboard.

Granted, the privacy is completely nonexistant; my texts might as well be on my facebook wall. But that doesn't really bother me.

</comment><comment><USER23> This scary me a little bit. Most of my friends have Whatsapp across different platforms and it would be a shame to find out that Google would shutdown the project in favor of GTalk

</comment><comment><USER24> These valuations are just absurd. Shades of a decade ago.

</comment><comment><USER25> I really thought Skype would snap this one up.

<comment><USER8> You mean Microsoft? Skype belongs to them for quite some time now.

Edit: Not sure why the downvote, Skype does belong to Microsoft, and for Skype to go after WhatsApp now would mean Microsoft has to actively pursue it, which given their track record of acquisitions seems a bit unlikely as opposed to Skype independently doing acquisitions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Samsung is insane for not acquiring WhatsApp.

<comment><USER27> i don't see how it makes any sense for samsung. they're a hardware company, and the only way an app drives hardware sales is if it is exclusive. if you make whatsapp exclusive to samsung devices, you take away all of its value.

<comment><USER26> They don't have to make it exclusive to Samsung but they can build it into their version of Android.

It gives them a leg up to iMessage since iMessage is apple-only.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> google would buy <http://mightytext.net/> \- iMessage for android founders by ex-googlers.

</comment><comment><USER29> It makes sense, but would be horrible for consumers. Google reading every instant message i send? Brr, please not.

<comment><USER30> You think your messages aren't already being read? That seems a bit naive.</comment></comment>


Draganfly and 'pandemic drone' pilot studies in the U.S. - <AUTHOR> https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/30/draganfly-pandemic-drone-united-states-pilots/ <comment><USER2> "By April 23, the Westport pilot was dead" was a really poor choice of words. It took me a few times to reread that paragraph and assure myself that it's just the experimental rollout that was cancelled.

<comment><USER3> Me too! They could at least have said "pilot project. "

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This stuff makes me very nervous. Together with the contact tracing apps we'll have total surveillance wherever we go.

<comment><USER5> The key to this sort of thing is to make sure that the legal use of these kinds of powers/tools by the gov't be extended by representatives at the federal and local levels on a regular basis.

<comment><USER6> That sounds great. How do we "make sure"?

<comment><USER5> It depends on the country, but the gist in Western democracies is usually "make it law" so that it can be enforced by the courts. It's why I took care to say "legal" use, as there'll always be abuses. The legal system just gives a chance (not a guarantee) of accountability.

<comment><USER7> That's gone so well in recent decades. Maybe they can use the patriot act as a model. That's only ever been used for its intended purposes and any rights violations that have occured under it have always been justly defended in courts.

<comment><USER5> The USA PATRIOT acts 4-year term was far too long, and the US senate voted to extend it after that lapsed.

What you're taking issue with is your representation, not abuse by the executive branch or some shadow gov't.

All I've said here is elect and advocate for programmes like this Draganfly to have very small windows, and require extension by elected officials. I don't think this is something you or grandparent comment are opposed to, is it?

<comment><USER7> I'll agree if they must exist that would be arguably the least evil of said options, but you'd have to convince me that mass surveillance using flying machines, in the name of 'public safety' is a thing i should be positive about in general first.

As it is, my attitude towards military and police drones is fairly cold. This might as well be some horrible dystopian sci-fi shit as far as i'm concerned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "The Vital Intelligence Project can help estimate the distances between people, but it can also monitor temperatures, heart rates, and respiratory rates of individuals in crowds and workforces."

So essentially, these are cattle helicopters for humans.

The amount of outright assholes in the "tech" industry is alarming.

<comment><USER4> I remember the movie and book "1984" where people were constantly monitored by all available means, and voila, we are rapidly getting there. Having helicopters and drones watching everything we do is seriously creepy and us tech people are happily supporting it.</comment></comment>


The First Rule of Privacy - <AUTHOR> http://www.baekdal.com/insights/the-first-rule-of-privacy

<comment><USER2> The author assumes that the complexity of Facebook's privacy settings are due to a lack of attention to good design. However, the rest of Facebook doesn't really suffer from this problem nearly as much. Which is more likely: Facebook happened to design this one thing poorly, or they explicitly opted for a poor design in this one particular case? To answer that, follow the money. Why would they want to over-complicate the UI which gives the users the keys to lock down the data Facebook is able to share with 3rd parties?

</comment><comment><USER3> The irony of the "share on" bar next to the post is quite funny.

<comment><USER4> There is nothing ironic about it. His whole point is that sharing should be something the user chooses to opt-in, which is the case with that "share on" bar.</comment></comment>


Introducing the $99 Linux Supercomputer - <AUTHOR> https://www.linux.com/news/enterprise/systems-management/692990-introducing-the-99-linux-supercomputer

<comment><USER2> This is the future of web servers. I like it. 5 of these + Residential land based broadband + LTE failover and you have your own mini data center.

<comment><USER3> Why do you think this is the future of webservers? As all 16 cores don't actually appear to Linux directly.

However I guess you could code a webserver specifically for it.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which popular companies/startups are based in privacy-conscious EU - <AUTHOR>

Ever since the PRISM scandal, I'm making a list of alternatives of Dropbox, Google, Yahoo, Outlook/Microsoft, Skype etc. which host their data in privacy-conscious European countries. Any little information or suggestion will be useful. <comment><USER2> The UK is in the privacy-conscious EU and apparently ([http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/24/gchq- tempora-...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/24/gchq-tempora-101)) taps all the internet traffic going in or out of Europe. So you may not be on to a winner with this approach :-(

Still, there are a bunch of cloud comapnies listed at [http://www.eurocloud.org.uk//Member- Directory?filter=all](http://www.eurocloud.org.uk//Member- Directory?filter=all)

And [http://prism-break.org](http://prism-break.org) is a good resource for better alternatives in general.

</comment><comment><USER3> The UK is covered by the Data Protection Act of 1998:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998)

The first paragraph mentions:

 _it was enacted to bring UK law into line with the EU data protection directive of 1995 which required Member States to protect people 's fundamental rights and freedoms and in particular their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data_

Having said that, US privacy laws did not stop the NSA from snooping. I don't wanna think about how much control the MI5 or MI6 have over UK's network connectivity. Being a small island I cannot imagine it being hard to control.

</comment><comment><USER4> The question I'm asking as european citizen is: Which european country is actually privacy-conscious? Germany has strong privacy legislature, however there are daily reports of the government or intelligence services simply ignoring them. I consider pulling the Berlusconi on a law (making another law with loopholes) as ignoring.

<comment><USER5> We are based in Germany, not yet popular but at least, it feels good to be here and have our server also hosted here with a German company (hetzner) .</comment></comment>


Fully customizable jquery sliders, Single/Double handles, Touch-enabled, - <AUTHOR> http://lokku.github.io/jquery-nstslider/

<comment><USER2> 1\. Make it keyboard accessible 2\. Use aria-attributes instead of data- attributes where possible: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/Accessibility/A...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/Accessibility/ARIA/ARIA_Techniques/Using_the_slider_role)

<comment><USER3> Done in version 1.0.2! I had to keep the data- attributes as they follow another semantic for my slider... but aria- attributes are added if needed. New demo page contains a demo of aria/keyboard as well: [http://lokku.github.io/jquery-nstslider/](http://lokku.github.io/jquery- nstslider/) .

Many thanks for the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice, a useful extension to the double handle would be having multiple pairs of handles so that you can segment up the bar.

<comment><USER3> Are you aware of any website using such a control? also, couldn't you just have multiple sliders on the same line to implement this?</comment></comment>


Re: [PATCH 1115/1285] Replace numeric parameter like 0444 with macro - <AUTHOR> https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/8/2/1728 <comment><USER2> Linus' reply: "I detest these patches."

[https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/8/2/1589](https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/8/2/1589)

<comment><USER3> > _" I don't want to see _any_ of these patches being applied."_

<comment><USER4> >"And part of it is exactly that there are nineteen billion of these "random letter combinations" "

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Another option to understand the magnitude of this fuck up is to have a look at today's chronological email list: [https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/8/2/](https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/8/2/)

<comment><USER6> My favourite thing about it is that there was no header email (usually [PATCH 0/n] is just text with an overview of the following patches. Then any top- level discussion (I.e. "NAK: octal is more readable") takes place in replies to that email.

Instead here there are 1285 separate threads of discussion with dozens of people all saying the same thing with no easy way to discover it's already been said (and at least one maintainer has replied to every single one he's CC'd on). Beautiful carnage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's an interesting question as to which is more readable:

        -module_param(max_sets, int, 0600);
        +module_param(max_sets, int, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);

However, I'm missing context. Did someone at Intel really spam 1,285 patches without any prior discussion?

<comment><USER8> Seems like it. I would hope Intel wouldn't hire someone that would think this is OK ... OTOH see Uber's writeup about how developers can't be expected to think about transactions.

Maybe there's some perverse incentive at Intel? Like performance review that considers how many patches you've sent? Or maybe its a broken tool to help submit patches?

<comment><USER9> I'd be inclined to think it was a commit per smaller change set and each commit got turned into a separate patch.

<comment><USER10> It looks like it got turned into one commit per file. Which is pretty atrocious.

<comment><USER11> Isn't "one commit per independent change" common advice in git tutorials? Each file can be changed independently of any other, so taken literally, exactly how you're supposed to do it.

<comment><USER10> That's wildly incorrect. "One commit per logical change" would mean that every single file modified in this way should have been in a single commit. By your logic, you could _never_ have two files changes in the same commit.

<comment><USER12> _> you could never have two files changes in the same commit._

We're going OT here, but i don't think that applies to C, where a "logical change" to a function definition may be split over two files (.c/.h).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I can understand that for someone has no background or long term use of chmod(1) would need some effort to decipher what 0644 actually means. However, for people who are well versed in this aspect, the numerical code is much easier to parse.

This reminds me of constantly looking up j dict [0] before I could remember what each number means. J's foreign conjunction is certainly an extreme here, but it teaches me that what is easy to parse really depends on one's proficiency in the language.

[0] [http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dx001.htm](http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/dx001.htm)

<comment> david-given I've been using Unix for years _and years_ on a variety of systems, including various sysadminy roles, and I _still_ cannot keep the octal permission numbers in my head. My current job involves using one tool which only supports the octal and I always go to an online site which calculates them for me because otherwise I will just get them wrong.

I'd vastly prefer the symbolic forms (and am slightly surprised that the kernel source has raw octal in it at all). Although I wouldn't have tried to implement the change as a thousand separate patches...

<comment><USER14> I'm the exact opposite - I can instantly understand what 600, 777, 664 and so on mean with barely a thought, but having used Linux for the majority of my life I still struggle to remember "chmod u+w" and whatever.

<comment><USER15> Those are different things though. "u+w" doesn't require me to know what the current permissions are, but only that I want to let the owner write.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The octal representation is such a deep-grained part of Unix on all levels (both C and shell) that replacing it is futile. These weird 0-prefixed octal constants will still be in common use a hundred years from now, for better and worse.

Also, it's not easy to argue that "S_IRUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH" is any kind of readability improvement...

</comment><comment><USER17> Linus is right because these are actually well known and easy to parse.

However, if instead of S_IRUSR|S_IWUSR (which I'd have to lookup up to parse correctly), it were possible to write "a-rwx"|"u+rw", it would be even easier to parse, without the need to memorize common octal numbers. In C, this could be achieved with the preprocessor, I believe, if you create a sufficiently smart CPP macro, especially since Linux is no stranger to heavy preprocessor use.

<comment><USER13> Yes, you can certainly achieve that with setmode(3) and getmode(3).

<comment><USER18> Not in the kernel, you can't :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sounds like someone ran a script without thinking too much.

</comment><comment><USER20> Shameful to see @intel.com in the signed-off-by on this spam train

<comment><USER17> Why is it shameful? Someone considered this an improvement, went through the process of creating >1000 patches and submitted them for review. That the patches were rejected categorically and someone presumably spent consideralbe development time on them is also not bad, because the likelihood of a good response to a question "what if I replaced .. with .." is low and seeing the huge patchset also drives home the amount of magic numbers one might replace.

It's just how software is developed where code is reviewed before inclusion and not committed-by-default and backed out later. And there's no Intel pre- mailing patch review group that has to vet kernel patches before a dev is allowed to send them out, ignoring NDA'ed things, of course.

There is no ill will here, and Intel has more unseasoned Linux developers now, so it's normal for seemingly naive patches to appear.

We need more developers who try, fail, try again, and that requires less shaming and more encouragement.

<comment><USER20> Blasting over 1200 emails to a mailing list with no heads-up appears quite tone-deaf, to put it mildly even if you presume good intentions.

Edit: The impact could be shown in a single email with a diffstat, for example. Complaining about a lack of feedback for such a thing sounds more like complaining about failing to draw others in to a bikeshedding competition.

<comment><USER21> Or a initial email going "heads up, big patch set coming through!", with the patch set as replies to that one.

<comment><USER17> That's usually what happens with a git formatted patchset that has you draft a patch-0 (aka introduction of the series) email.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The macros are for when you're _reading_ the value, not setting it:

        if(m & S_IRUSR) { ... }

<comment><USER11> That doesn't make a lot of sense. If you know the octal numbers, you don't forget them when reading the value.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> These numbers are almost hardwired in my brain and I am not even a kernel developer. I think most kernel developers should not need the help of these magic macros.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd be curious to see a graph of the load average on vger.kernel.org today. I can imagine a huge spike lasting several hours.

</comment><comment><USER24> Why did each of those need to be a simple patch? Couldn't they be just one big patch, which would have been a little easier to read?

(kernel muggle here, mind)

<comment><USER14> They didn't. Many maintainers will NAK purely because of that.</comment></comment>


Nanorobots made out of DNA seek and kill cancer cells - <AUTHOR> http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/nanobots-dna-origami-seek-kill-cancer-cells-32143/ <comment><USER2> Amazing advancement for medicine, but frightening potential bioweapon.</comment>


The Forgotten Ideas in Computer Science - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I_jE0l7sYQ <comment><USER2> Just finished watching.

Not quite getting the idea for tuple space.

</comment><comment><USER3> anyone know where to find the slides?</comment>


Our Government Doesn't Know how to Redirect non-www - <AUTHOR> http://distraction.gov/

<comment><USER2> What do you mean? I get redirected to <http://www.distraction.gov/></comment>


Humanity's Greatest Innovation | GrasshopperHerder.com - <AUTHOR> http://grasshopperherder.com/humanitys-greatest-innovation/ <comment><USER2> I love your use of pre-selecting quotatious words and offering the "tweet this" link. That's a clever idea and I'm surprised it's not more widely used.

<comment><AUTHOR> Stole the idea from Hiten! The man's got the gift.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Agree.. one hundred per cent! The 'tweet link'? makes life so-o-o much easier: keep on poaching the good stuff to pass on Tristan. Now if one could only comment WITHOUT having to create an account!! ...Sue

</comment><comment><USER4> I really enjoyed this but as a writer, my favorite part was in the first P.S.: "...but that's the great thing about words. The reader is an equal author of the meaning."

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice. I agree that Nivi/Naval probably did not mean that Tweet to be interpreted as such, but your PS nails it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I'm sure they didn't. I think the thing that got me riled up was that so many people retweeted and liked it without thinking about what it actually meant.

<comment><USER5> There are a lot of mindless retweeters out there...adds so much noise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great post and loved the plays on words.

</comment><comment><USER7> Voted up! Thanks for the "reminder"!

</comment><comment><USER8> Smart stuff!</comment>


A security update for the Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/a-security-update-for-raspbian-pixel/ <comment><USER2> I wonder if instead they could setup a fake or jailed SSH that would let you login, it would then display helpful info about how to really enable SSH and then it would kick you out?

<comment><USER3> You don't even need a jail for that. Just add those lines to the end of /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

      Match User pi
            AcceptEnv
            ForceCommand echo 'To enable SSH, do this and that'

EDIT: added an explicit empty "AcceptEnv".

<comment><USER4> Allowing untrusted users to run programs is a recipe for disaster. Forcecommand runs its commands using a login shell that gets a lot of information from the connecting user. It wouldn't be the first time someone found an obscure environment variable that turns this into a remote shell.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> TL;DR

> put a file called ssh in the /boot/ directory with any content to enable SSH > which we turned off by default to prevent unauthorized access of your devise > in public network.

I wonder how many people are going to scratch their head when their headless Raspberry Pi will be unable to connect to their laptop in same way as earlier without this piece of information.

I hope running sudo apt-get update, notifies them of this critical change.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes this ruins just about every Pi from scratch tutorial. The worst part is if this affects the "lite" distro which is headless. The beauty of using an image like Raspbian Lite was being able to flash, ssh (ip via DHCP), change password/hostname and done.

<comment><USER6> If you can flash an sd card you can turn on SSH with the new method. All my Pi's are headless, and this is a mild inconvenience at best. Way less inconvenient than the internet falling apart because users don't know anything about security.

<comment><AUTHOR> New method is what? I sometimes mount the Linux partition if I'm flashing from a Linux PC to edit hostname etc but this is extra hassle especially if using a Mac.

<comment><USER6> You add a file named ssh to the boot directory. This permanently enables SSH. The boot partition is fat formatted and can be edited on basically any device as a result. It's right in the linked article.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A great enhancement would be: if this file (/boot/ssh) is not empty, and ~root/.ssh/authorized_keys doesn't exist, then copy the file there and set up key-only ssh access.

<comment><USER8> Another great enhancement is a lot of ethernet speaking hardware ships with a sticker or something containing the MAC address but not the pi.

If the PI shipped with a little sticker containing the MAC address that would be quite trivial to change the username and password to the mac address as seen by /sbin/ifconfig which optimistically matches the physical sticker.

Of course there aren't many possible MAC addresses however, there are more than just one.

Another entertaining idea is if you're on a private network that can't access 22.214.171.124 or whatever then assume its safe to enable ssh by default.

Or if some sort of "what is my ip address" service returns a public ip addrs that matches /sbin/ifconfig then here be dragons and disable ssh by default.

Another fun idea is when you boot the first time sshd is enabled for.... a little while, and then blocked after some time or a power cycle. Some crontabs support a syntax like @reboot sleep 300 && block_ssh.sh where block_ssh engages a iptables rule that eats incoming ssh port packets. Or whatever time period feels right. So if you're on a public network and worried, simply boot and don't plug in for 6 minutes or whatever, and you're good. Or if you want ssh then you boot, and fast as possible log in via ssh and enable it. For the extra paranoid note its not hard with a script to ensure you get 5 minutes of working ssh only once per burning of the flash image, assuming your flash isn't in write protect mode LOL.

OH edited to add my favorite new idea, if you boot and GPIO port #something is pulled to ground, then enable SSH going forward. Sure would be nice if that GPIO pin were adjacent to gnd pin. Maybe you could code in something that flashes onboard LEDs to provide feedback.

<comment><USER9> OpenWrt does it somewhat like described. If booted unconfigured you can ssh into it as root without any password. The web interface asks for a new one as the first thing to do. I would like it if they would do the same via ssh so you immediately know someone had access before you.

I think it is the best solution because it makes you immediately notice that you might not actually want anybody to login without any password at all. And any other method has worse trade offs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Though the actual article title and URL state "For Raspbian Pixel" the author replies in the comments that this also applies to Raspbian Jessie Lite.

[https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/a-security-update-for- raspb...](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/a-security-update-for-raspbian- pixel/#comment-1265956)

</comment><comment><USER11> I had a wee wonder whether this could in itself be exploitable -- whether some other compromise could end up dropping a file in /boot/ssh and then waiting for a reboot to enable persistence. I guess by that point, however, you've _probably_ already lost so that threat model likely doesn't matter.

I'm interested in whether this will make a meaningful difference, however. It probably would have been nicer if Raspbian required users to put a root password into /boot/password or similar, and then deleted _that_ file on boot -- or mandated that users change their password on first login. My concern with this is that I suspect most tinkerers will press the "make it work" button, drop /boot/ssh in, and never bother changing the password.

</comment><comment><USER12> Isn't it a bit overkill? it's not like you can access them from the internet if they're on the local network. No?

<comment><USER13> If you have a Pi (or several) on a private network, say, behind a NAT router, there should be no problem either way.

I guess a sufficient number of people have put Pis on the Internet, or the recent wave of IoT-DDOS attacks has spooked the Raspberry people sufficiently to make this change.

<comment><AUTHOR> It feels like a pre-emptive precaution.. I'm sure most people running a Pi at home have no way for their SSHD port to be exposed and if they do set up NAT port forwarding they should look into how to make that more secure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So this is why my RPi is no longer responding to SSH?

<comment><USER15> No, it's not. This applies only to the images, it's not being pushed out. This only matters if you download and flash a new image to your pi.</comment></comment>


Google Irleand (UE) ToS - <AUTHOR> https://policies.google.com/terms/update?hl=en&gl=RO&utm_source=google&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Emmett <comment><AUTHOR> > When you upload, submit, store, send or receive content to or through our > Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to > use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those > resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that > your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly > perform, publicly display and distribute such content.

Doesn't this contradict what UE is trying to regulate now (the copyright bill)?

> Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you > personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, > tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs > as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored.

Can I opt out on this?</comment>


Mystery of India's lower death rates seems to defy coronavirus trend - <AUTHOR> https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/mystery-of-indias-lower-death-rates-seems-to-defy-coronavirus-trend/articleshow/75346712.cms <comment><USER2> Most people probably have better immune systems due to constant small exposure to pathogens.

The Western practice of being overly concerned with clean surfaces and constantly wiping areas down with antiseptics means that their immune systems never get properly challenged. (Even though many 'dirty' surfaces like computer keyboards or workdesks are always considered to be'clean')

In many parts of the world, people drink and swim happily in rivers that are so bacterially contaminated that Western people would get very sick using.

</comment><comment><USER3> Full lockdown implies less covid patients implies less deaths. Duh...</comment>


Magento One Page Checkout Extension by Knowband - <AUTHOR> https://www.knowband.com/magento-one-page-supercheckout <comment><USER2> A must have plugin for any Magento store to remove the multi-step checkout process. It helps in increasing the sale and ultimately conversion rate too. It also reduces the abandoned cart rate of the website.</comment>


I think I love you: What happens in that first nanosecond that makes us fall for someone - <AUTHOR> http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-mxa0629magspeedmainjun29,0,3551880.story?track=rss <comment><USER2> I know the girl in the featured relationship. She is in fact quite a looker. It's funny to read about her in this context.

</comment><comment><USER3> > They have watched about 25 of the 1,158 videos shot during the November 2007 > sessions and Eric and Erika's date is among the best.

I'd be more interested in the dates that went poorly.

Speed dating is an interesting experience, if you are into low-risk new experiences. I went to several speed dating-type events when I first moved to the city. Dating aside - it's a great place to meet friends of the same sex. I saw a lot of women trade numbers with each other. If you dislike the context of traditional dating (guy paying for dinner), it's a philosophical bargain.

</comment><comment><USER4> Misleading title. Article doesn't answer the question. Just says some people are trying to look into it, tells stories, mentions occasional guesses.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, but thought it was interesting anyway. I couldn't think of a better title.

<comment><USER5> adding a question mark at the end would have been more accurate

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, good point. I wish I could still edit the title...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Advice for the guys:

Do a very light, low-intensity workout before you meet women. I'm talking about a light, 20-minute jog to break just a minimal sweat. On 80+ sunny days, a long walk is enough. Don't wash up.

You won't smell, because the quantity of sweat is small, but you'll be putting out pheromones, and this will help with the first-second attraction. Does it always work? Obviously, no. However, it increases your odds dramatically, and it's the only reliable way I know of to hack women's attraction systems.

There's obviously the risk of overkill. If you sweat too much, you will smell bad, and then you have to shower.

</comment><comment><USER7> I forced myself to skim this article all the way to the end just to see if it says a single thing about its alleged topic. I found nothing. Anybody?

I did learn that telling chicks he studies romance scored one of the researchers a "torrid, monthlong [comma delimited] affair". Well, at least it was "torrid".</comment>


AboutUs Secures $5 Million in Funding - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/aboutus_wiki_five_million_series_a.php <comment><USER2> What? The economy is not completely dead? Potentially profitable ventures are getting funded? Blasphemy! We are in a HORRIBLE DEPRESSION which will end the age of American dominance, capitalism, and possibly humanity itself. Haven't they heard?

<comment><USER3> AboutUs /is/ profitable - big difference between that and "potentially"

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> We're very excited about this and some cool stuff we're doing that is launching very soon.</comment>


Automation allows team of 2 to support 50% of Facebook infrastructure - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/cloud/how-fbar-keeps-facebook-online-automagically/

<comment><USER2> Excellent example of what the DevOps movement has been accomplishing ... the FB article is great and I can't wait to hear the guys on DevOps Cafe discuss it in their podcast!</comment>


Stop the Internet blacklist - <AUTHOR> http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/stop-the-internet-blacklist

<comment><USER2> It would have been better to just link to the campaign Aaron Swartz has been running for at least a few weeks now.

<http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/>

I've donated a little money and would encourage you to do the same.

<comment><USER3> It would have been better to submit the demandprogress link a few weeks ago. The OP, however, is more recent, from a reputable organization most of HN already knows, and puts the issue in context with the upcoming election. I'm not sure if a link to demandprogress would have gotten as many upvotes, or a donation out of me, to be honest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If the idea of the government using technical measures to crack down on copyvio bothers you, Vixie's DNS RPZ mechanism should bother you _even more_ ; after all, the government is simply going to find other ways to shut down music sharing services, but RPZ seeks to standardize a method for any company to build blacklists for any reason.

<http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100728_taking_back_the_dns/>

</comment><comment><USER5> This seems like a pretty serious thing that I'd want to get behind, but the FSF has freaked out over such stupid stuff before that I don't know if I should trust them.

<comment><USER6> You should be evaluating whether things are worth supporting on their own merits. Why would you trust anyone else to do your thinking for you?

<comment><USER7> I think I get where dangrover is coming from. You really want to support an organization that looks through the bills or at the situation and determines if it is really a threat and how much. Most people don't have time to read the bill or the RFPs the Federal Gov puts out (Lord knows, I had to do it for quite a few years and it was time consuming and painful). This is one of the reason people like to find experts who can do the research.

// link-bait type headlines have an effect on belief [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/steve-jobs-watching- yo...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/08/steve-jobs-watching-you-apple- seeking-patent-0)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wonder why the proponents of COICA don't play the child pornography card to justify their filters. It almost worked in Germany last year.

<comment><USER9> Seems to be working for the Aussies, too. At least their PM played that card, and she doesn't seem to be bluffing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The article says that ISP's and others would be required to block the _domain name_. Theoretically you should still be able to access the site using its direct IP address. Of course, this doesn't justify the blacklist, and I certainly don't support it. I'm just thinking that even in the worst case scenario if the bill is passed it shouldn't be completely crippling.

<comment><USER11>
      >  I'm just thinking that even in the worst case scenario if the
      > bill is passed it shouldn't be completely crippling.

True, but that's also justification in some people's minds for taking no action. "Someone else will take action to prevent it, but if they don't then I'll be able to work around it."

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> ICANN has been a big drag on the world wide web for far too long. Perhaps stupid politics like this will be the straw the breaks the camel's back.

And attempting to censor the internet could well be the straw that breaks the US federal government's back. As if there isn't enough anti-federalist / libertarian sentiment bubbling up lately, they want to start following after China's Great Firewall? Smart move...

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm not to worried. Finally a chance to scare people off of the ICANN controlled root!</comment>


Kentucky lets Computer Programming satisfy their foreign language requirement - <AUTHOR> http://www.courier-journal.com/viewart/20140128/NEWS0101/301280100/Kentucky-Senate-passes-bill-let-computer-programming-satisfy-foreign-language-requirement

<comment><USER2> I think if they had been called something like "computer algebras" instead of languages then this idea would never have formed.</comment>


Contract HN: Build Graffiti for iPhone + iPad - <AUTHOR>

I run Graffiti on Facebook (http://facebook.com/graffitiwall). It's a top 50 Facebook app (with a higher user rating than any in the top 100+) that lets users draw for each other using a very simple interface. We have so far neglected to build Graffiti for the iPhone or the iPad and I think that's clearly a mistake since it seems like a perfect fit. Obviously it's a short time frame, but we'd really like to finish it before the iPad launches in a month or so, if possible.
The application will be simple: the user will draw (using color, width, and opacity), and then be able to send to a friend via facebook or email. There will also be a way to view Graffiti the user has sent/received, and ideally a way to replay the drawing like we have on Facebook Graffiti. We can handle most of the design but don't have any experience making iphone apps. It will most likely be a free application and we're going to promote it heavily from Facebook Graffiti.
Should be a fun project. If you're interested, shoot me an email at hn.jobs.tmt [at] gmail.com with your resume and links to any iphone apps you've built, plus your rates. <comment><USER2> I'm assuming that Graffiti on Facebook is written predominantly in Flash. With Adobe's export to native iPhone applications, wouldn't this be trivial to implement given the original source code? Maybe integrate Facebook Connect for authentication?

This is a great idea, and I hope one way or another you guys get the app done. Facebook applications are ready to break out of the walled garden, and this is the first step.</comment>


HP's data storage service: HP Upline - <AUTHOR> http://www.upline.com

<comment><USER2> they should have bought our site instead :) i2drive.com</comment>


How a Chinese hacker tried to blackmail me - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/02/new_york_times_security_breech_how_a_chinese_hacker_tried_to_blackmail_me.html? <comment><USER2> Single page:

[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/0...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/02/new_york_times_security_breech_how_a_chinese_hacker_tried_to_blackmail_me.single.html)</comment>


A coronavirus recession will mean more robots and fewer jobs - <AUTHOR> https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/3/31/21200010/coronavirus-recession-automation-brookings-mark-muro <comment><USER2> This feels like nonsense to me. His argument seems to be that automation saves money, and therefore in tighter financial times, businesses are incentivized to leverage it.

This take seems to ignore the fact that businesses are always incentivized to save money. The bottleneck to businesses automating everything is not economic conditions. If corporations could cut staff in half via automation, they would have done so already.</comment>


DoD Solicitation for Predictive Health (Scroll Down) - <AUTHOR> https://diu.mil/work-with-us/companies/cso-solution-brief <comment><AUTHOR> This is fairly unique to the OTA contract vehicle that Defense Innovation Unit uses, and I suspect of significant interest to start-ups:

"Companies are advised that any Prototype Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) awarded in response to this Area of Interest may result in the award of a follow-on production contract or transaction without the use of further competitive procedures."</comment>


Every BBC Essential Mix, 1993 to 2010 - <AUTHOR> http://thenine.ca/essential/

<comment><USER2> From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Mix> :

      The Essential Mix is a weekly radio show on BBC Radio 1
      currently broadcast between 03:00 and 05:00 Saturday morning.
      Originally broadcast on 30 October 1993, The Essential
      Mix features contemporary DJs and music producers of
      electronic dance music.

</comment><comment><USER3> For "open directories" like this, it's good form to use the Coral Cache in order to not overwhelm the original source: <http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/>

<comment><USER4> Unfortunately, Coral Cache doesn't cache anything >50mb, so for almost all of these it'll just redirect you to the original URL. (There are a handful of <50mb mixes, which it does serve up without redirecting.)

<comment><USER3> Sadly I noticed that only later ;-) Though at least the cache could speed things up for the window shoppers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does anyone else have fond memories of the Oakenfold mixes?

[http://thenine.ca/essential/2000/2000.02.13%20-%20Essential%...](http://thenine.ca/essential/2000/2000.02.13%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Paul%20Oakenfold.mp3)

[http://thenine.ca/essential/2000/2000.05.21%20-%20Essential%...](http://thenine.ca/essential/2000/2000.05.21%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Paul%20Oakenfold.mp3)

<comment><USER6> Oakenfold's 'The Goa Mix' is probably the best mix I've ever heard.

Should be these two: [http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/1994/1994.12.18%20-%20E...](http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/1994/1994.12.18%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Paul%20Oakenfold%20\(Part%201\).mp3)

[http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/1994/1994.12.18%20-%20E...](http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/1994/1994.12.18%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Paul%20Oakenfold%20\(Part%202\).mp3)

<comment><USER7> Goa is good, but there's a lot more to Oakenfold than just that set (love his set from Havana Cuba). I have to say I'm happy to see fellow trance dinosaurs here. The electro world has moved on from the days of Oaky but I still have a vast collection that I use for marathon coding sessions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I realise that other people's musical taste is not necessarily interesting, but [http://thenine.ca/essential/1995/1995.11.11%20-%20Essential%...](http://thenine.ca/essential/1995/1995.11.11%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20David%20Morales.mp3) is what got me really into dance music, is what opened my ears to the musical possibilities of stringing records together, and made me think "I've got to learn how to do this".

</comment><comment><USER9> I may regret posting this ....

But this is what you probably want to do:

user@host:/path/to/EssentialMixRip09.04.10$ wget -rl 0 -np -A .mp3 <http://thenine.ca/essential/>

<comment><USER10> Using Coral CDN:

      wget -rl 0 -np -A .mp3 http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/

<comment><USER11> Nogood, checkout the robots.txt

<comment><USER4> Since Coral considers itself a distributed caching proxy rather than a crawler, it doesn't respect robots.txt. It does respect the relevant cache- control headers, like "no-cache", but this site doesn't appear to set them.

However, the main problem here is that Coral doesn't cache any files >50mb, so almost none of these are cached. The few <50mb do seem to be, though, e.g.: [http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/1998/1998.01.01%20-%20E...](http://thenine.ca.nyud.net/essential/1998/1998.01.01%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Pete%20Tong%20\(Part%201\).mp3)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Does anyone have a torrent link to download these, or does getting music in bulk through a torrent feel too illegal in ways that grabbing individual tracks from a directory listing doesn't?

<comment><USER13> They are in a 110 Gigabyte torrent at themixingbowl, a site dedicated to mixes. I also highly recommend the BTTB series.

<comment><USER14> [https://isohunt.com/lite/files/148859505/Essential%20Mix%20t...](https://isohunt.com/lite/files/148859505/Essential%20Mix%20themixingbowl)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I recommend the Scratch Perverts mix at: [http://thenine.ca/essential/2004/2004.08.22%20-%20Essential%...](http://thenine.ca/essential/2004/2004.08.22%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Scratch%20Perverts.mp3)

<comment><USER16> seconded, that's a fantastic mix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've waited 15 years for this link. Thank you.

My personal favourite, from 1997: [http://thenine.ca/essential/1997/1997.03.02%20-%20Essential%...](http://thenine.ca/essential/1997/1997.03.02%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Daft%20Punk.mp3)

<comment><USER18> This is an epic one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Surprising to see this on HN. Regardless, here's my favs:

2009-03-10 Jamie Jones, 2007-02-18 Danny Howells, 2006-10-14 Trentemoller, 2003-08-24 Sasha live at Creamfields

</comment><comment><USER20> Aren't these copyrighted?

<comment><USER21> My initial reaction was "WTF is that doing on HN?":

From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Mix>:

"However in 2010, Mixriot, a website which hosted stream and download links to past Essential Mix broadcasts dating back to the first ever edition for its members, was asked to remove all its past recordings by production company Somethin' Else due to copyright infringement. The Mixriot website is still live though it has since taken down all Essential Mix broadcasts."

I would expect the owner of that site to be getting a nasty letter from a lawyer Real Soon Now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Been waiting a while for something like this, could anyone identify either this track or the set it's from? I know it's from Cor Fijneman's Outstanding Radio mix...

<http://lorinhalpert.com/puredj-Cor_Fijneman-Outstanding> Radio.mp3

</comment><comment><USER23> Awesome! I usually download three or four of these a year from the DJs I like.

And Yes! I'm glad this came to HN, otherwise I wouldn't find it and I love the Essential Mixes.

From 2010 I recommend the one from John 00 Fleming at 13-FEB-2010.

</comment><comment><USER24> You sir are a god amongst men. Wasn't aware that so many HN readers were into house, techno, trance, etc.

Anyone ever been to Ultra Music Festival? Most amazing time of my life.

</comment><comment><USER25> I've got a fairly good collection of the older mixes, and there's some amazing stuff in there, no doubt. Any pointers on what's been really great in the last couple of years?

</comment><comment><USER26> Extra info: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Essential_Mix_episodes>

</comment><comment><USER27> Oh wow, overload. Tempted to leach, but...

Anyway, here is a recommendation:

2006.03.26 - This is a good long mix I listened to many times.

</comment><comment><USER18> Oh my god I want this so bad but the server load is ridiculous. If someone could download it and put it on a torrent I'd love you so much.

</comment><comment><USER28> The server may get more load than it can stand.

<comment><USER29> It seems to be down now, for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> this was epic [http://thenine.ca/essential/1994/1994.05.28%20-%20Essential%...](http://thenine.ca/essential/1994/1994.05.28%20-%20Essential%20Mix%20-%20Billy%20Nasty.mp3) as well as the daft punk one posted earlier here.

</comment><comment><USER31> Not to be gauche, but where do I send the 1TB hard drive to get a dump of every mix? :D

</comment><comment><USER32> seems like the site was overloaded and exceeded bandwidth capacity

</comment><comment><USER33> Wish these were hosted on mixcloud.com

</comment><comment><USER34> paul oakenfold 18.12.1994 goa mix :ave

edit: i don't get it, why downvotes ?

</comment><comment><USER35> Really? _Really?_ Come on, keep this on Reddit please.

<comment><AUTHOR> I apologize. Justification for posting:

1\. As a time portal showing the evolutionary development of _electronic_ music over the past 17 years, it also a reflection of the evolution of personal computing. From atari and circuit bending roland synths to the macbook.

2\. Music is an important part of my coding or designing process.

<comment><USER36> No apology necessary - this is an awesome find. Essential mixes are probably my most listened to programming tracks.</comment></comment></comment>