Fed: Americans' wealth dropped 40 percent - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fed-americans-wealth-dropped-40-percent/2012/06/11/gJQAlIsCVV_story.html <comment><USER2> The report they are attempting to summarize covers the period from 2007 to 2010. It was just released by the Fed yesterday. It's publicly available, so I'm puzzled as to why they didn't link directly to the source material from the article.

Here it is anyway: [http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2012/PDF/scf12.p...](http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2012/PDF/scf12.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> This seems hugely misleading as an economic barometer. Isn't it the case that real estate wealth was surging absurdly [in 2007], obscuring a rise in debt? If debt growth has leveled off, it seems like the story is Americans getting their shit together and stopping their debt accumulation, not "losing" bubble wealth. No?

//edit: 2010?? Did they forget to hit 'publish' when this was still timely?

<comment><USER4> I was going to say the same thing, basically that article notes that house prices have tumbled 40% and that is the biggest asset most people have, and if you're leveraged (which is to say you have a mortgage) then the contribution of your house toward your net worth probably went away, and so now you are 'less wealthy'.

That reasoning completely sidesteps the fact that houses should not have ever risen to the prices they did. The sudden 'house wealth' bubble was directly attributed to extremely bad fiscal policy pretty much throughout the ranks. And while a number of us in Silicon Valley have already learned the lesson 'your not really rich if your wealth is all in a bubble asset' the rest of the country got to learn this too. It sucks, but its more like "you know what your house will be worth in another 15 to 20 years when it would have gotten there based on a reasonable fiscal policy and a 2% economic growth rate.

(and yes it appears to be a story from 2 yrs ago, just when the real estate market crash was in everyone's mind, although this reporter seems to have picked it up today for a few hits during an election year.)

<comment><USER5> > It sucks, but its more like "you know what your house will be worth in > another 15 to 20 years when it would have gotten there based on a reasonable > fiscal policy and a 2% economic growth rate.

Any reason for using 2% growth instead of something closer to the US average (which is around 4%)?

[http://visualizingeconomics.com/2010/11/04/log-scale-long- te...](http://visualizingeconomics.com/2010/11/04/log-scale-long-term-real- growth-in-us-gdp-1871-2009/)

<comment><USER4> When I'm doing armchair economic analysis I use the 2% growth rate as its one that pretty much everyone agrees is the 'floor' of all estimates. So if you read my comment and did the math, and 15 to 20 years from now looked at your house value, you may find I exactly called it, but you may find that it was a bit under as the economy grew better than that. The chance that you would see lower than 2% growth is small (but non-zero!). There was a time (pre-2000 btw) when I would use the more optimistic numbers when planning ahead :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> At least credit card debt has fallen across the board.

"The survey also confirmed that Americans are shifting the kinds of debts that they carry. The share of families with credit card debt declined by 6.7 percentage points to 39.4 percent, and the median balance of that debt fell 16.1 percent to $2,600."

[http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-net-worth-drops- level-1...](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-net-worth-drops- level-185603451.html)

<comment><USER7> This has recently shifted to student loan debt however. The effects of this type of debt are a lot subtler and nastier because you can't get student loan debt discharged in bankruptcy proceedings.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college- inc/post/student...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college- inc/post/student-loans-surpass-auto-credit-card- debt/2012/03/06/gIQARFQnuR_blog.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> How the hell is the median wealth of Americans 77k?! Does this not factor in debt?

<comment><AUTHOR> The Fed tags American wealth at around $58 trillion total, last I recall. I suspect the median is a bizarre way to calculate American wealth.

That includes equities, real estate, precious metals, homes, bonds, etc.

The stock market rebounding back upward nearly 100% added trillions to that no doubt.

I would think it'd be far better to take the middle 80% of Americans and find an average wealth value (lop off the top 10% and bottom 10%). That would give you a perspective on how most of the nation is doing, especially since the very top radically skews the data upward.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_in_the_United_States>

Interesting data point on the top 1% wealth wise:

"They [the 1%] controlled nearly a third of the nation's financial assets (investment holdings) and about 28 percent of nonfinancial assets (the value of property, cars, jewelry, etc.). These measures will be particularly interesting to revisit when the new, post-recession data arrives."

"The Times had estimated the threshold for being in the top 1 percent in household income at about $380,000, 7.5 times median household income, using census data from 2008 through 2010. But for net worth, the 1 percent threshold for net worth in the Fed data was nearly $8.4 million, or 69 times the median household's net holdings of $121,000."

[http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring- the-t...](http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by- wealth-not-income/)

<comment><USER8> The 1% has a very limited ability to drive change in the median wealth. The average wealth is very likely much much higher (probably closer to a half million) than the median, signaling vast income inequality.

The median is a much more useful statistic when dealing with this kind of distribution, as it applies to a much larger population than the average, which is useless for ~80% of the population as an indicator.

<comment><USER9> I'll be even more bold and declare that the top 1% has no more ability to effect the median than any other 1% of the population.

Using the median isn't strange at all for this kind of calculation.

<comment><USER10> I would suggest that the median is taken, in this case, because it provides the biggest and sexiest headline number.

The average (and by extension the total) wealth has gone down by a much smaller percentage since 2007. The fluctuations just happened to have hit the people around the _middle_ particularly hard. The people at the bottom haven't seen their net wealth decline at all, because they never had any. The people at the top have seen their net wealth decline substantially, but since it was largely in other asset classes less so [percentage-wise] than the people right in the middle, whose net wealth was dominated by home equity.

Bottom line: recessions suck. They happen every decade or so. Plan with this in mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> ...wealth we never really possessed.

<comment><USER12> I don't know how much economic sense that statement makes exactly; it's a little simplistic. Consider:

Some people bought new homes for the first time at the top of the bubble, trading real dollars and real future liabilities for a house. The fact that the house can no longer be sold for nearly as much materially impacts what they will be able to do with their future: they have lost wealth.

And at any time, many individuals could have sold their home to another person, in exchange for real tangible wealth which could have been put in a lasting form. That's an opportunity cost and represents a tangible loss as well. It's true that not _every_ individual could have done this, though, yes.

It's a complicated picture, really, and we oughtn't simplify it too far in either direction.

<comment><USER13> they haven't _really_ lost anything - they still own the same house, and no money, just as before(at the height at the bubble)

<comment><USER14> A house that was purchased with $250k of debt, that is now only worth $150k, has cost the buyer $100k, for nothing. That is $100k of lost wealth to the buyer. The buyer purchased $250k worth of house, using future earnings, and now only owns $150k worth of house (but still owes $250k of future earnings). That is a _devastating_ economic blow to a middle class family, and to dismiss it as "they haven't _really_ lost anything" is simplistic and cruel.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I just watched a documenry tonight that partially explains this: contains fairly obvious stuff that intellectually we know is true, but, the last 15 minutes suggest a few things that sheepal (that is, ordinary sheep/people) can do to improve our situation like not buying from misbehaving corporations. Yeah, maybe. One thing that is really interesting in the first part of the movie is how psychology was used to control consumers. Buy, baby buy, because it will make you FEEL better! Another main message of the movie, that war = profit for corporations is obvious, but worth thinking about. They also cover the fact that the corporate controlled news media is not to be trusted.

So, really obvious stuff, but well presented.

<http://www.ethosthemovie.com/>

This movie is on Netflix under documentaries.

</comment><comment><USER16> Wealth: I'm not sure that word means what you think it means.

[http://drduru.com/onetwentytwo/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/11...](http://drduru.com/onetwentytwo/wp- content/uploads/2011/02/110218_SP500vsGold.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER17> That's a pretty misleading headline. "Americans' wealth" /= "wealth of the median American".

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As others have noted, it was wealth Americans never really possessed. The data point that I'd find most interesting is how much debt was accumulated on the back of that phony wealth. That is, how much more debt were Americans able to accrue specifically because of the bubble (than they otherwise would have been able to).

Losing bubble wealth is bad enough (the psychological impact alone), losing it when you've stacked debt against it is a very real problem. The fake wealth was used to create very real debt. Suddenly you've got 1/3 of all home owners under water on their mortgages.

<comment><USER18> >As others have noted, it was wealth Americans never really possessed

This is one thing that definitely rings true to me. I grew up in a wealthy community that abutted many, many poorer ones. I would often ride my bike through all of these places, especially the most impoverished ones and lament to myself "So this is the richest country in the world?"

Later, after I graduated college and started looking for places to live it was amazing to me how much wealth was caught up in places I don't think I'd ever want to live. Nearly identical tract housing for 10s of miles in all directions. Nothing walkable at all, even sidewalks were just an afterthought. "So, is this is what wealth looks like?" I thought to myself. Obviously it wasn't wealth. That money never existed, but the debt people signed contracts for is real.

<comment><USER19> > rings true to me

The problem with complex macroeconomics and popular politics summarized in one phrase.

<comment><USER20> I wonder if we are best served by a democracy when, with perhaps the most important political issue there is, common sense and anecdotes provide little value and a higher education in a particular field is required to make an informed decision.

<comment><USER19> Well, that was the reason for the creation of the Fed in the first place, the idea that you could have technocrats setting macroeconomics policy without political influence. But then Allan Greenspan happened, an ideologue disciple of Ayn Rand. When the federal budget was running a surplus in 2000 he told congress that budget surpluses were dangerous, then he pushed for Bush's tax cuts and then he helped inflate real estate and ignored everybody that was saying it was an out of control bubble.

So no, unelected elites aren't going to save us either.

<comment><USER21> The Fed was founded because in fly-over country the financial system was rickety. Off the coasts, banks were regularly going bust and taking people's savings with them. This almost always happened during harvest season when demand for currency was high. In the urban centers the banking system was working fine. The problem to solve was a ridiculously inefficient and inept banking sector in large swathes of the country.

As soon as the idea of some sort of federal level reform got going the House Of Morgan and friends seized control and the Fed became a tool of the major banks, which were already working fine, to increase their profits and control. Almost from the start it was the case the Federal Reserve Bank of New York really ran the system, which was entirely not the original idea. The idea of the Fed originated from a temporary problem unique to a particular period of American history, but was immediately usurped by clever power and money hungry people.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: DIY Mealbox – Weekly recipes/shopping list without the overpriced food - <AUTHOR> https://www.diymealbox.com/ <comment><USER2> Says free now, which implies not free later. How do you compare with the numerous other similar services?</comment>


Tech Elites Recreate Burning Man Inside Their Living Rooms - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/29/style/what-is-a-soul-salon.html <comment><USER2> Tech elites have been _recreating their living rooms inside Burning Man_ for years, with air-conditioned RVs, generators, satellite internet, bordered compounds, catered meals, and elite security teams.</comment>


There's a coffeeshop called java.update() in GTA V - <AUTHOR> http://orcz.com/GTA_V:_Java_Update_Coffeeshop <comment><USER2> It doesn't feel like it's enterprise enough to be realistic.

        class TwoBaconRashersInsideTwoSlicesOfBreadFactory {

          /* Make a sandwich
           * <p>
           * Construct a foodstuff consisting of two slices
           * of bread with two slices of bacon.
           * @return TwoBaconRashersInsideTwoSlicesOfBread a sandwich
           */
          Public TwoBaconRashersInsideTwoSlicesOfBread getSandwich () {
           BaconRasherFactory pig = new BaconRasherFactory();

           BaconRasherInstance bacon1 = pig.getBaconRasher();
           BaconRasherInstance bacon2 = pig.getBaconRasher();

           SliceOfBreadFactory loaf = new SliceOfBreadFactory();

           SliceOfBread bread1 = loaf.getSliceOfBread();
           SliceOfBread bread2 = loaf.getSliceOfBread();

           return new TwoBaconRashersInsideTwoSlicesOfBread(bread1, bacon1, bacon2, bread2);
        }

Or something... trying to do Enterprise Java is hard.

<comment><USER3> Language bashing is what characterizes our industry.

I have the dream that one day we will recognize languages as the tool they are and be mature enough to chose tools by utility and not by hype, hipness or pop culture and see there benefits and limitations.

<comment><USER4> He is not bashing Java per SE but a special kind of Java: Enterprise Java and IMO that deserves a bashing on general principle. Enterprise Java just never seems appropriate.

<comment><USER5> HN youngers of today like to bash Enterprise Java, whereas the old guys already have their share of scares from:

Enterprise Clipper

Enterprise C

Enterprise C++

Enterprise Perl

Enterprise TCL

Enterprise _insert language here_

You just need to let the enterprise architects loose...

<comment><USER2> I'm probably young enough to have experienced Enterprise PHP, which by all accounts (at least when Symfony2 was just released) seemed like the love-child of Enterprise C++ and Enterprise Java.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> And a hilariously detailed start-up with a (Dropbox inspired?) play room. There's also a hacker character whose convincingly detailed computer setup shows several VIM sessions (one on a portrait oriented monitor).

<comment><USER7> The attention to detail in this game is crazy

<comment><USER8> Know your audience.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A void method that returns a value? How on earth did this coffeeshop compile?

<comment><USER10> A void method that returns a _sandwich_ , no less.

<comment><USER11> Requires root user to run

<comment><USER12> 'sudo make me a sandwich'

<comment> robinson-wall

        -bash: sudo make me a sandwich: command not found

<comment><USER13> I'm surprised you don't have _make_ installed. That's usually one of the first tools I install on any new system (if it's not included as part of the base install, like Arch does):

        sudo apt-get install build-essential

Incidentally, the _make_ error you'd get is amusing:

        make: *** No rule to make target `me'.  Stop.

<comment><USER14>
        sudo make me a sandwich

will result in sudo running with 'make me a sandwich' as arguments.

        'sudo make me a sandwich'

will result in 'sudo make me a sandwich' running.

<comment><USER13> Ah, yes. I didn't spot the quotations encapsulating the code in the parent post. That will teach me to skim-read jokes.

<comment><USER14> I like hilariously meta jokes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> There's also a garbage collector running around. But if you shoot him, the whole game pauses.

<comment><USER16> You just made my internet day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you're a developer and haven't played this game yet, I wholly encourage you to do so, just to witness the technical feat that this game is. There is a simply baffling level of detail and surely one of the most sophisticated open world engines ever conceived under the hood. It is stunning what the rockstar devs have pulled off here.

<comment><USER18> Has there been any improvements in the way Rockstar treats employees? If not then no thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Either it was Lester's house computer or one of the Lifeinvader computers, but it was using a text editor that looked strikingly similar to Sublime Text. I had to do a double take.

The whiteboards in one of the Lifeinvader rooms, gave me a chuckle. It read, "Remember! We aren't ripping them off if they don't read the T&C" with word privacy crossed out.

</comment><comment><USER20> If you look closely, Sublime Text is also in GTA5. It's on one of the screens in Lester's office.

</comment><comment><USER21> There's also a mission where you go to "LifeInvader" headquarters and kill a character who looks decidedly like Zuck. LifeInvader has many details that make it a great parody of a SV tech company (and the logo even uses the FB font).

</comment><comment><USER22> I would just name it Java.update() and leave it there. These people are trying too hard. They probably turn off the average geeks (who find it too geeky); and the hard-core geeks just tear them apart with all of the semantic and syntactic errors.

<comment><USER23> I'm a pretty hard core geek and I thought it was pretty funny.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'd heard that there were brutal scenes of torture in GTA V, but I had no idea.

<comment><USER25> There is one, and it's "brutal" if you have never seen an R-rated movie ...

<comment><USER26> In the context of a video game the scene has a very different effect than in the context of a movie. The game forces you to graphically torture an innocent man. Because you are selecting which torture methods to use, the player is personally implicated in the torture. I found the scene to be far more emotionally impactful than if I had watched the same scene played out in a movie. It's brutal more for how it makes you feel than for what it depicts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I believe the simpsons had an internet cafe named The Java Server.

</comment><comment><USER28> Does it install the Ask.com toolbar?

</comment><comment><USER29> This reminds me of "Eunux" from GTA IV.

[http://gta.wikia.com/Eunux.net](http://gta.wikia.com/Eunux.net)

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm sure it says something about me when I read the title and assumed that GTA stood for Greater Toronto Area. But I was having trouble figuring out what the 'V' stood for.

Now I'm hoping that someone will start up a coffee shop with this name.

</comment><comment><USER31> There is also a JSP breakfast store in Taiwan [http://iwannagothere.com/userfiles/pictures/0005/5397/P10409...](http://iwannagothere.com/userfiles/pictures/0005/5397/P1040978_big.JPG)

</comment><comment><USER32> Rockstar's going to get a call from Oracle over use of their trademarks.

</comment><comment><USER33> The Lifeinvader mission had me rolling around in stitches, really good stuff.

</comment><comment><USER34> I think that is meant to be return new Sandwich (bread, bacon); !

</comment><comment><USER35> is it thread-safe ?</comment>


Ask HN: Where is 'Who is hiring (September 2018)'? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> It will always appear on the first >weekday< of the month

\- [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=whoishiring)

<comment><USER3> Also it's a public holiday in the US on Monday 3rd so maybe it will be delayed another day?

<comment><USER4> Thx, I never noticed that precise/auto-scheduling. I always just keep checking once the first arrives so I can update my browser. Let's see what happens in 52 minutes. My bet is they did not go so far as to check for holidays. US postings on the other hand...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bam: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17902901](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17902901)</comment>


USDA Approves Sale of Non-Browning GMO Apples - <AUTHOR> https://futurism.com/usda-approves-sale-of-non-browning-gmo-apples/ <comment><USER2> They did this by suppressing four genes to minimize polyphenol oxidase production. What negative effect does this have on the apple? They do address this on the website, but I wonder what pesticide requirement these have. They state themselves PPO production plays a defensive role in many plants. I dislike this kind of manipulation for what amounts to practically zero benefit, especially if it further necessitates a stock regimen of chemicals to successfully grow.

<comment><USER3> The link is in the article, but here it is[0].

>What role does PPO play in the plant, you might ask? In some plants, PPO plays a defensive role – for example, tomatoes produce high levels of PPO when attacked by pests or pathogens. In contrast, apples produce very low levels of PPO, and only in very young fruit. Its presence is probably left over from apples of ages ago, playing no role in today's apples.

It sounds like the appendix or tail bones in humans. He does mention in the last paragraph that PPO's may be antioxidants, but whether PPO's are needed or not is not known. Unfortunately, if this takes off it will be much later down the line if we find out there are adverse side-effects.

To be fair, there is currently no known health issues with GMO plants, AFAIK.

[0] [http://www.arcticapples.com/how-did-we-make-nonbrowning- appl...](http://www.arcticapples.com/how-did-we-make-nonbrowning-apple/)

<comment><USER4> There may be some use for the appendix.

[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170109162333.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170109162333.htm)

When would they discover a use for PPO in Apple's?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In addition to the direct benefits, this also eliminates the chemical coatings previously used to achieve the same effect.

<comment><USER6> What chemicals are used for anti-browning commercially? For household use apparently citric acid, vitamin c, etc. are recommended, which doesn't sound too alarming.

<comment><USER7> McDonald's:

"Ingredients: Apples, Calcium Ascorbate (a blend of Calcium and Vitamin C to maintain freshness and color)." [https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our- food/nutrition-...](https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our- food/nutrition-calculator.html)

<comment><USER8> I don't think some calcium and vitamin C is much to worry about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sliced apples in my kids' lunchbox!</comment>


Jurassic Park recreated in Minecraft - <AUTHOR> http://newslamp.com/post/52225/jurassic-park-recreated-in-minecraft

<comment><USER2> Awesome!!! I am a huge fan of minecraft. Its amazing what you can build in this game</comment>


Alienware Area-51m as Portable Desktop Replacement - <AUTHOR> https://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-Area-51m-i9-9900K-RTX-2080-Laptop-Review.414667.0.html <comment><AUTHOR> Even though this is marketed as a gaming laptop I thought it might also be of interest to some of the readers here because of having similar performance to a full desktop, while still being portable.

See also [http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official- alienware-a...](http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/official-alienware- area-51m-owners-lounge.826831/) (700+ pages already)

I hope it's okay to post this, didn't find any previous thread about it.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I as a programmer start contributing to gnome sequencing - <AUTHOR> Been reading about genome sequencing and finding it rather interesting. But am lost about how programmers can learn and contribute to what is presumably a bio-tech field. <comment><USER2> It's all just pattern matching, strings being mapped to other strings.

Data is data--it matters not where it comes from, the computers couldn't care less.

</comment><comment><USER3> Gnome sequencing? Follow these three steps: 1\. Steal underpants. 2\. ??? 3\. Profit.</comment>


Show HN: MapMe.io, AR platform for IoT, primarily for transportation awareness - <AUTHOR> http://MapMe.io, a AR platform for the IoT, primarily for transportation awareness. Original motivation was to create an all-software solution for the bicyclist to be more aware of something coming up from behind - as I am mostly deaf. After a few startup weekends and intel edison incubators, I'm getting close to testing with small group of alpha users in a larger city like SF (where real-time data is available for public buses). The idea for the MapMe.io is to be the software platform where real-time notifications enhance transportation safety overall. Spotter view/tab will access the phone camera for "background" of app/"foreground" for user and the alerts will give relevant alerts based on user location.<p>Built on Firebase with Ionic. Any suggestions on functionality or initial impressions would be great!. <comment><USER2> Posts without URLs get penalized, so you'd be better off submitting this with a link to your site, then adding the above text as a first comment in the thread. Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> company website at beaconsafety.co</comment>


Transforming a Tesla Model 3 into a Pickup Truck - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/18/18682633/simone-giertz-tesla-model-3-pickup-truck-youtube-diy <comment><USER2> > It wasn't a project without its obstacles. After stripping the backseat and > the trunk of its many parts, the Model 3 refused to start. Ramirez explained > that the car was reporting "all of its many faults" to Tesla headquarters > via cell connection, or essentially "snitching" on the YouTubers who were > trying to modify it.

I started the article expecting to see this. That said, I'm glad Tesla was good enough to "certify" their changes. I'm also curious what it took to get around the software lockdown; any links or pointers?

<comment><USER3> It leaves a bad taste in my mouth that you can pay so much for an object and you essentially don't truly own it and can't do whatever you want with it without it phoning home and asking permission from its true owners who can capriciously brick your device for any reason they want.

<comment><USER2> Based off their actions in the past, Tesla will do as much as they legally can to avoid bad press due to accidents in a Tesla. And if you are in a publicly covered accident, you can be sure that data will be used against you in the court of public opinion (see "he took his hands off the wheel prior to the accident" comment from Tesla about the gore-impact fatality).

<comment><USER4> That is the PR reason.

The real reason is aftermarket changes/repairs/services.

Tesla wants 100% of that business, reminds me of Apple.

<comment><USER5> They both have the same schtick - create a walled garden then restrict access.

It results in predictable outcomes:

* products that are beautiful and in some ways without peer

* key parts/issues are only addressable through their service channel

* exclusivity of membership for better/worse.

* higher profit margins and healthy overall profit despite lower market share

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was expecting a disaster but it actually looks cool, like an updated Subaru Brat. I can see this becoming a trend, it definitely makes a statement.

<comment><USER7> It does look cool. TBH, I've never thought much of these pickup truck/car hybrids (which have a fairly long history) from a practical perspective. You get a car without a lot of interior space and a pickup bed that is too small for a lot of purposes. But it's a nice aesthetic.

<comment><USER8> There are a lot of people who don't need backseats, don't need a full-size pickup for towing or very heavy items, but need to be able to carry 4x8 sheet goods, large furniture, or sports equipment like bikes, kayaks, etc.

IMO there are very few people who actually need a pickup truck for towing or very large/bulky items, but they're still very popular since there aren't great alternatives in the US due to the chicken tax.

<comment><USER9> I really wish someone would bring back truly small trucks like the old Rangers, or even something like an el Camino. Having a truck is really nice sometimes, but driving a tank around every day seems just silly.

<comment><USER10> I agree, but I'd be somewhat satisfied if trucks just weren't so damn tall now. It sucks to have to climb into or flop up onto the side of the bed just to reach your tools. Lots of older trucks weren't made this way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> A fake commercial they made [https://youtu.be/R35gWBtLCYg](https://youtu.be/R35gWBtLCYg) but the whole thing is fairly worth watching.

</comment><comment><USER12> Reminds me of the Model S shooting brake (station wagon) [https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-shooting-brake- featu...](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-s-shooting-brake-features- cost-explained/), which I saw on display recently.

</comment><comment><USER13> Impressive work.

Looks a lot like the sedan-like Australian Utes ([https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nmBx_EY3UnM/maxresdefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nmBx_EY3UnM/maxresdefault.jpg)) that are quite popular there.

<comment><USER14> That's the first thing that came to my mind too when I saw it - looks like a Holden or Ford Ute from Oz. Her dog is an Australian Blue Heeler too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What are the economics of the YouTuber when it comes to this?

If the videos bring in $x thousand a week from adverts then is that how it all works?

Then get Rich from Rich Rebuilds in so subscribers get added to both channels?

If the car is paid for over a period of a loan then the revenue stream from the YouTube income pays, but, to the viewer, it looks like a $50K car has been hacked to pieces.

I do find it cool how Rich from Rich Rebuilds is now the expert. I am sure he feels impostor syndrome with that but he has put the work in and deserves his celebrity status.

If anyone has any guestimate numbers on how this works out as a business proposition then I would very much like to know. If it is lucrative then I just might have to do myself a 'Tesla campervan YouTube series'...

<comment><USER16> I don't know the youtube economics of it, but she has 6000 patrons paying $3 - $5/month to support doing things like this. [https://www.patreon.com/simonegiertz/overview](https://www.patreon.com/simonegiertz/overview)

<comment><USER15> That is real money!

So after Patreon take off their 8% that is $250K per year.

Then the views from the videos. Becoming a millionaire from a video channel that is just about yourself is ridiculous.

Anyway, I won't be subscribing. I prefer stock English rather than spoken with 'upspeak'. Someone just talking about themselves with every sentence ending with 'upspeak' makes me find something better to do.

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

<comment><USER17> For people who don't run a business 250k per year sounds like a lot. But after paying employees and contractors, office space, workshop space, materials, equipment, insurance, airfare, taxes, ... I'm not sure that there's enough left to call them a millionaire.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> La-ang Still looks Shitty to me :D

<comment><USER18> Looks like those downvoting your comment do not understand the reference.

Simone's 'claim to fame' was originally on the r/ShittyRobots subreddit, where she posted examples of her robots that performed tasks in a humorous ("shitty") manner, but obviously required exceptional engineering and design skills to create. She is quite famous there.

<comment> La-ang I didn't even notice the downvote. How can you tell? and thanks for your reference.

<comment><USER18> Typically when a comment turns a grey color, that means its been downvoted.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Simone Giertz is a human treasure.

<comment><USER20> She is doing great work and having a lot of fun.

Im sure she has a bright future.

<comment><USER19> She's had one bout with brain cancer and I believe is in her second round with it. I sincerely hope she does have a future.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Saw a similar looking Tesla modified into a truck being trailered in Windsor, CA last week. Tried to grab a photo but couldn't get a good one. Anyone else seen it?

<comment><USER22> Windsor could be (near) where the shoot happened. It's likely you saw Simone and/or her team.

Dark grey van? See 25m20s here: [https://youtube.com/watch?v=jKv_N0IDS2A](https://youtube.com/watch?v=jKv_N0IDS2A)

<comment><USER21> Definitely could have been it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> > I feel like I should pad this a little bit, but I'm not going to. f oil > companies. Seriously, f them.

Aren't a ton of the parts that make up a Tesla petroleum by-products?

<comment><USER24> She also says in the video that she's flying to New York, Hawaii, and New Zealand. Try doing that without oil.

<comment><USER25> Using oil does not mean approving of everything oil companies do. Especially when there are not alternatives for things like flying.

"Being an oil company" is not necessarily an inherently bad thing. Being one of the major oil companies in 2019 is -- but that will, hopefully, change.

<comment><USER23> I know people who have given up flying for this very reason. She could have chosen not to go and to conduct any business over the internet (I'm assuming she was flying for business and not for pleasure).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Reminds me of an El Camino I had once.

A friend remarked "It's not much of a truck. But then again, it's not much of a car either!"

</comment><comment><USER27> Looks nice, but I wonder how this will stand the humidity and time test respect to a unmodified tesla. Electric and water does not mix and this looks like a red carpet for rainwater. I hope they will be meticulous in this aspect and seal carefully.

<comment><USER28> Simone has a pretty stellar track record of creating high-quality and durable products. For some more of her work, check this video exposition: [https://youtu.be/O61wJPNJgZQ](https://youtu.be/O61wJPNJgZQ)

<comment><USER29> Is this a joke? Most of her inventions are purposefully designed to fail, and they do that extremely well (I believe she is very talented both as an entertainer and a builder). But as far as I know she has zero experience building long-lasting products that stand the test of time.

I'm not saying she can't do it or won't figure it out - but your comment honestly seems more like an argument to the contrary to me.

<comment><USER17> I'm pretty sure that the comment you replied to was meant as a joke.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Weight distribution could create safety issue. The Tesla doesn't have a 1/2 ton motor to balance the back side if you carry another 1/2 ton.

<comment><USER31> That could be an issue, but considering the car weighs about four thousand pounds in its stock configuration, it's probably okay.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'd call it a Ev Camino instead of a pickup.

</comment><comment><USER33> It looks great. I wonder about the impact safety after cutting the c pillars.

<comment><USER34> They built a solid looking roll-cage into the rear half of the vehicle (alongside and under the bed, as well as the roll-hoop behind the seats). One of the major contributors to the project has a background in building race cars, so presumably they've got the safety aspect covered.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'd so put a long solar roof on that ._.

</comment><comment><USER36> I believe that is called a "coupe utility", like the Subaru Baja and such.

</comment><comment><USER37> Just needs truck nutz.

</comment><comment><USER38> This is a cool, fun and obviously impractical project. It makes for good content and showcases some interesting engineering and fabrication skills.

So could someone please explain to me what is to be gained by posting comments complaining about the use of the word "generation" or the exact definition of "truck"?

<comment><USER39> because they are nitpicking in a sexist way. it's the same reason people are doubting how much work she "actually did" on the project

people should just embrace it as a cool, slightly ridiculous project that turned out well.

<comment><USER40> I doubt it is sexism, HN tends to be fairly equal in its pointless bikeshedding

<comment><USER39> You think if adam savage had done this project he would be subject to questions about how much work he did or whether it's a pickup or a ute?

<comment><USER41> Yes. Not only do they do that for men, but Elon specifically, and even calling him out on taking credit for work that an uncredited woman working for him did.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18093145](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18093145)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19636499](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19636499)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20078510](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20078510)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9812261](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9812261)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Terry would not approve.

</comment><comment><USER43> Would have been more interesting to take an old el camino and convert it to electric. Also way cooler.

<comment><USER44> They didn't want to steal your thunder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> Other than converting the trunk and passenger area into a cargo area, this hardly classifies as a truck. It appears that little was done to improve the vehicles handling off-road. The wheels and tires look to be stock meaning no gains in traction. No mention of suspension or ground clearance which means it will still be limited to fairly well groomed and paved roads. But as I'm familiar with Simone's content so I'm aware this is pretty tongue in cheek.

<comment><USER46> Do you really need off road performance to drive around San Francisco these days?

<comment><USER47> Well as someone with a Mini Cooper with low-profile run-flat tires, I can tell you that SF potholes will destroy road cars. I've had two (expensive) tires ruined, and it started rattling like hell from all the shocks soon after we got it. Maybe full off-road with a lift kit is overkill, but sometimes I wonder.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Calculate financial metrics for a subscription business - <AUTHOR> https://tanzaniteledger.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone! I created this site to learn how to calculate common SaaS metrics and to practice some JS skills. (I'm a C++ developer at my day job.)

If you know of a group of people who might find this a useful tool, let me know who they are and how I can reach them. If you have feedback about the UI or other SaaS metrics to include, please let me know.</comment>


Online High Schools Test Students' Social Skills - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125374569191035579.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm very familiar with the high school most featured in this article (knowing in real life several of the persons interviewed for the story), and the young entrepreneur I know best has been trying to do something about the social issues in that school. It's hard on the students when the administration doesn't have unified buy-in on the importance of student-to-student social interaction in an online learning environment.</comment>


Beej's Guide to Unix IPC (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://beej.us/guide/bgipc/output/html/multipage/index.html

<comment><USER2> Also check out his guide to C programming [0] and his guide to network programming [1]

[0] [http://beej.us/guide/bgc/](http://beej.us/guide/bgc/) [1] [http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/](http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I owe my career to Beej. I was getting burnt out of web development and his guides (along with Jesse Storimer's books) made programming fun for me again. I highly recommend learning how Unix systems work. It's a lot of fun and opens up a whole new world of programming!

<comment><USER4> I'm feeling the same way about web, I'd like to transition to something similar. I quite enjoy programming in C, so hopefully that helps. What are you doing at your job now? How did you go about making the switch from web to systems? Has it paid off with an increase in enjoyment?

<comment><USER3> Truth be told, a significant portion of my day job is still web application stuff. The web, whether that's HTML/CSS/JS applications or APIs, is inescapable at this point for a huge portion of programmers. Only the lucky few get to hack on databases, hypervisors and file systems for a living!

But, armed with the knowledge of sockets, processes, etc. and how this correlates to performance/scaling, I've been able to carve out roles where I get to spend a decent amount of time working on problems that I get excited about.

But even before I was able to work the knowledge into my day job, nothing beats the dopamine rush of learning things that fascinate you! The rabbit holes that learning the basics of Unix have opened feel like they could occupy my hobbyist hours for the rest of my life.

<comment><USER5> Its amazing how we think the grass is greener. I have been doing systems programming for the past 7 years and have been thinking about moving over to JS based web development for the past few months.

<comment><USER6> Actually both of you are right. You need a break from what you have been doing from a long time. Perhaps exchanging your jobs with one another might help. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ahh.... summer 98, discovering sockets, too poor to afford Stevens, 14.4 kbps modem, netscape 4.x rendering Beej's .edu site (forgotten now), me staring my future in the face.

Thank you for your efforts, Brian!

</comment><comment><USER8> Something I've struggled to implement on Linux is cross-process multicast notifications, where any process can post and multiple subscribed processes receive it. FIFOs and SysV IPC are unicast, and I think DBus is too.

On OS X there's notify(3) which is very nice. Any good options on Linux, other than writing my own socket server?

<comment><USER9> The solution for this kind of problem will depend heavily on what type of messages you're trying to send. When messaging becomes that complex, there are often other things that impact the overall design in important ways that need need to be considered.

For example, if I was implementing something that is usually associated with user events (rare-ish, basically zero bandwidth, complex signal with stateful messaging semantics), I would probably just write a simple server to manage it all. This has an advantage of centralizing any messaging complexity and lets you manage any multi-message state easily. Rebroadcasting messages to allow peer-to-peer messaging would be a trivial addition. This would probably UNIX sockets if the connections are persistent (which can changed into AF_INET{,6} sockets easily, if you wanted to add network support).

For something that requires very low latency (e.g. audio/MIDI), in the past I have had to use shared memory, which has zero overhead once it is setup (no syscalls or context switches). Here, the need for low latency dictated the design. Of course, this means managing locks. Not fun, but a cost that is sometimes worth paying.

There really isn't a one-size-fits all solution.

edit:

Or, as troglobit said, TIPC. I keep forgetting that we now have it has an option. :(

<comment><USER8> Thanks for the reply. My use case is very simple: a stateless "something happened" notification, which can be delivered asynchronously. Coalescing or even occasional drops are fine.

I did originally use a Unix domain socket server, but that added a lot of complexity: one has to arrange for it to be launched, guard against the possibility that it gets stuck, version it, deal with permissions, etc.

My new solution on Linux is a total hack: there's a FIFO, and to post a notification, you write to it. Clients see that the FIFO became readable, and that change represents the notification. The sender then drains the data it wrote, so that the FIFO becomes unreadable again. This is a total abuse of FIFOs, but it's proven to be much simpler than trying to manage a separate server.

I've never heard of TIPC. From a little searching it looks like it's very capable but geared towards clusters, and is overkill for my use case. What do you think?

<comment><USER10> We had a similar problem to solve for iOS and OS X and settled on the using FIFOs in that manner as well. A colleague wrote up a blog post about the various alternatives that were evaluated before settling on that approach: [https://realm.io/news/thomas-goyne-fast-inter-process- commun...](https://realm.io/news/thomas-goyne-fast-inter-process- communication/)

<comment><USER8> Ha ha ha, that's great! If we are sent to programmer purgatory, at least we'll have each other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'll add to the chorus of praise for Beej's work. I've often consulted this particular guide and the companion piece for networks as well. Helped me write web and other servers, a great way to learn about important technologies, providing knowledge that stays useful even if the production server runs on Node.js.

Besides, I'm biased. "BJ" happens to be my wife's unofficial name. She's a remarkably smart person, so I was predisposed to think "BeeJ" would know what he's talking about and it turns out he did.

</comment><comment><USER12> Beej helped me pass my Operating Systems final last semester. Really quality and entertaining guides he puts together.

</comment><comment><USER13> Thanks for reminding me, I really need to put this into practice, so much great stuff in here.

</comment><comment><USER14> Beej is great. I've printed this book out and have it sitting in a binder on my bookshelf.

</comment><comment><USER15> what about an update to posix IPC instead of sysV? I thought Posix IPC is "better" these days?

</comment><comment><USER16> beej! how can i forget the his network programming guide!</comment>


ANGEL – Browser-Based RISC-V ISA Simulator - <AUTHOR> http://riscv.org/angel/ <comment><USER2> Here are my notes on running Linux on RISC-V under qemu. I wonder when RISC-V support will go upstream in qemu?

[https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/booting-risc-v- linux-w...](https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/booting-risc-v-linux-with- qemu/#content)

<comment> s-macke I guess the problem is, that the new privileged ISA has to be implemented. With this ISA, Linux runs only via a proxy kernel and the devices have to be accessed in a special way. I guess it will take time until it will go upstream.

</comment></comment><comment> iso8859-1 Github: [https://github.com/riscv/riscv-angel](https://github.com/riscv/riscv- angel)

jor1k has som RISV-V support now too, I wonder why that was done if this was in the works.

<comment> s-macke The RISC-V port in jor1k supports only 32-Bit whereas Angel supports only 64-Bit. Also jor1k supports the newest privilege instruction API whereas Angel hasn't been updated yet.

Especially the jor1k port is assembler optimized by looking at the code the Javascript engines produce. I get up to 120 MIPS. But a comparison with Angel is unfair, because Javascript doesn't support 64-Bit yet.

From my side the main idea is support the number of MMIO devices with virtio, framebuffer, network, sound and so on. Unfortunately the device support is still in an unfinished state and I don't know where RISC-V will go in the future.

So at the moment you get just a dumb terminal and block device, which is pretty useless.

There are also other reasons. The RISC-V project is more active currently than OpenRISC. So I hope to get finally a real distribution running with package management. There is still no native gdb for OpenRISC for example. But for RISC-V I know, that someone develops it. The same is true for other software.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> First thing I tried was a fork-bomb. Funny how the browser didn't crash but the simulator isn't responding. I feel evil. :D

</comment><comment><USER4> The fact that the uname is "ucbvax" is a nice touch.

<comment><USER5> I might have used 'kremvax'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> ?</comment>


I no longer want to be a developer - <AUTHOR> http://programmers.stackexchange.com/q/78956/9732

<comment><USER2> I remember an almost identical post somewhere else some time ago, so people programming finance must have some sort of deeper sense of morality and pursuit for happiness, or (more probably) somebody is trolling around.</comment>


Blockchain's present opportunity: data interchange standardization - <AUTHOR> https://steemit.com/blockchain/@ivoras/blockchain-s-present-opportunity-data-interchange-standardisation <comment><USER2> What are the current standards efforts for blockchain data interchange?

W3C JSON-LD, ld-signatures + lds-merkleproof2017 (normalize the data before signing it so that the signature is representation-independent (JSONLD, RDFa, RDF, n-triples)), W3C DID Decentralized Identifiers, W3C Verifiable Claims, Blockcerts.org

W3C Credentials Community Group: [https://w3c-ccg.github.io/community/work_items.html#draft- sp...](https://w3c-ccg.github.io/community/work_items.html#draft- specifications-and-reports) (DID, Multihash (IETF), [...])

"Blockchain Credential Resources; a gist" [https://gist.github.com/westurner/4345987bb29fca700f52163c33...](https://gist.github.com/westurner/4345987bb29fca700f52163c339a270f)

Specifically for payments:

[https://www.w3.org/TR/?title=payment](https://www.w3.org/TR/?title=payment) (the W3C Payment Request API standardizes browser UI payment/checkout workflows)

ILP: Interledger Protocol [https://interledger.org/rfcs/0027-interledger- protocol-4/](https://interledger.org/rfcs/0027-interledger-protocol-4/)

<comment><USER2> > _W3C JSON-LD_

[https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/](https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld/) (JSON-LD 1.0)

[https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11/](https://www.w3.org/TR/json-ld11/) (JSON-LD 1.1)

> _ld-signatures + lds-merkleproof2017 (normalize the data before signing it > so that the signature is representation-independent (JSONLD, RDFa, RDF, > n-triples))_

[https://w3c-dvcg.github.io/ld-signatures/](https://w3c-dvcg.github.io/ld- signatures/)

[https://w3c-dvcg.github.io/lds- merkleproof2017/](https://w3c-dvcg.github.io/lds-merkleproof2017/) (2017 Merkle Proof Linked Data Signature Suite)

> _W3C DID Decentralized Identifiers_

[https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-primer/](https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-primer/)

>> _A Decentralized Identifier (DID) is a new type of identifier that is globally unique, resolveable with high availability, and cryptographically verifiable. DIDs are typically associated with cryptographic material, such as public keys, and service endpoints, for establishing secure communication channels. DIDs are useful for any application that benefits from self- administered, cryptographically verifiable identifiers such as personal identifiers, organizational identifiers, and identifiers for Internet of Things scenarios. For example, current commercial deployments of W3C Verifiable Credentials heavily utilize Decentralized Identifiers to identify people, organizations, and things and to achieve a number of security and privacy-protecting guarantees._

> _W3C Verifiable Claims_

[https://github.com/w3c/verifiable-claims](https://github.com/w3c/verifiable- claims)

[https://w3c.github.io/vc-data-model/](https://w3c.github.io/vc-data-model/) (Data Model)

[https://w3c.github.io/vc-use-cases/](https://w3c.github.io/vc-use-cases/) (Use Cases: Education, Healthcare, Professional Credentials, Legal Identity,)

> _Blockcerts.org_

[https://blockcerts.org/](https://blockcerts.org/)</comment></comment>


iPhone 6 Plus operates perfectly after being dropped down from 3 floors height - <AUTHOR> http://www.prleap.com/pr/228519/iphone-6-plus-operates-perfectly-after-being

<comment><USER2> shit</comment>


Database constraints: The last line of defense - <AUTHOR> https://www.citusdata.com/blog/2018/03/19/postgres-database-constraints/ <comment><USER2> Every single time I've seen someone say something like, "We don't need constraints; we have validations", they've had to clean up their data — when it turned out validations aren't enough.

Please do future-you a favor: use constraints.

<comment><USER3> I would never use constraints ever again. Period. Billions of rows of data to POCs. It's interesting to note that AMZ data largely runs without constraints (the largest systems). Working in Southern California, where tenures run a few years before you end up somewhere else, everyone comes to a consensus in a decade. It's obvious to me that embedding business logic in SQL along with the server app and whatever presents data to third parties, is just making everything harder. Then you run into the inevitable of data changes and fighting the existing constraints. It's a waste of effort, but an obvious path-to-job-security for DBs.

> And of course you can get quite clever and fun here....create a function > that checks if a function is a fibonacci number

The fact this is presented as a reasonable (trivial!) thing to embed in the DB screams, this is a terrible place to work.

<comment><USER4> A lot of things that are really, really good ideas for most applications might not apply at Amazon scale. Most of us don't work at Amazon scale.

I agree on the fib constraint, though. Fun, but nothing you'd ever really do.

> embedding business logic in SQL along with the server app and whatever > presents data to third parties, is just making everything harder

Not in many cases. In the past 15-20 years, think about how many application stacks have come and gone. We've had Postgres that whole time, and plsql. Core business logic in the DB never needs to be rewritten, no matter how many different front-end rewrites you go through.

<comment><USER5> With your last point, you're conflating language longevity with code longevity. Code in the DB changes as often as any other code: as often as the business requires it. The last company I worked for who used stored procedures had a change for those stored procedures with every frontend release.

And logic in the DB is inherently capable of only scaling as large a your DB cluster (i.e. not very), and can cause your DB cluster to scale prematurely (an event which incurs a lot of potential technical debt and additional monitoring).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Check constraints and foreign key constraints will save your bacon.

I don't like triggers though, as a rule. Not that they are always the wrong thing, but its easy to kill performance with them, and just generally having "behind the scenes" side-effects triggered by other operations can be surprising, to say the least.

<comment><USER6> You might want to look at [1]; you can send a message to a queue and process that independently. It breaks transactional boundaries though (if you abort the transaction the message is still in the queue). Using transactional queues will probably not help because then the transaction has to wait for the message to be processed so you're back to square one.

[1] [http://www.madeiradata.com/service-broker-asynchronous- trigg...](http://www.madeiradata.com/service-broker-asynchronous-triggers/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> These are good, I've forgotten about some of them as well. As to:

      EXCLUDE USING gist (
       id WITH =,
       period WITH &&
      );"

What the heck?

<comment><USER8> It's so you can't define two billings for the same period (say, the same month). To prevent you from double-billing someone.

&& is the range operator that checks for overlap.[1]

You have to use gist indexes to do this. And in fact this page doesn't mention it but you have to enable the btree_gist extension with:

        CREATE EXTENSION btree_gist;

before the snippet above will work.

[1]: [https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions- ran...](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/functions- range.html#RANGE-OPERATORS-TABLE)

<comment><USER9> They're very nifty, as you can use this to easily prevent all kinds of date range overlaps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Want to ensure tweets aren't longer than 140 characters, make sure you set your tweet column to varchar(140) and not to text."

This is fine if all your users are content with ASCII. As soon as double-width characters from Chinese or emoji start interfering, the database will limit some users to 70 characters. It's ok to make restrictions, but be sure to fully understand how they'll affect your users.

<comment><USER11> In PostgreSQL varchar uses actual characters (as specified by the database character encoding), not bytes, IIRC. The same thing should be true for (at least recent versions of) MySQL.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Errors in memory are temporary, errors on disk are permanent. Don't approach them both the same way.

</comment><comment><USER13> One thing I like about SQL constraints is that they're so much shorter than in a procedural language.

Has anyone developed an elegant system for bubbling them up to the user interface? It seems you either have to write the same constraints again in JavaScript or build some massive list that maps ugly database errors to friendly user errors.

<comment><USER6> C# MVC has an attempt at creating some validation and automagically promoting that to the UI but it's (of course) limited to stuff like "this field is numeric" or "this field is required". Anything more complex needs duplication.

I would assume that something like node.js or meteor have it easier, since they're using the same language in both layers; I believe there are also attempts at tools that automatically translate other languages to JS but I haven't used any of them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Yup. I still remember the day I found out about constraints, and I became kind of angry nobody had told me about this before.

I can imagine one can get carried away and shoot themselves in the foot when being careless, but all in all, I think constraints are a valuable tool to protect the integrity of my data.

</comment><comment><USER15> Once I was building a small application, I didn't want to use a whole database such as postgres that is amazing but does require some maintenance, so I settled for using just Redis.

It was fine but the lack of constrains and structure was killing me making everything harder, but I liked the zero maintenance things...

So I build RediSQL[1] a module to provide SQL capabilities to Redis to get the best of both worlds: stability, easy maintenance, velocity, constrains and structure in data.

[1]: [https://github.com/RedBeardLab/rediSQL](https://github.com/RedBeardLab/rediSQL)

</comment><comment><USER16> Does MySQL support CHECK constraints yet? Last time I used it it silently ignored them if they were in the DDL.

<comment><USER17> Good heavens, then why even have them?

<comment><USER18> Everytime I deal with mysql I ask why there is mysql. It's terrible when compared to postgres at consistency, correctness, functionality (e.g. check constraints, cte, and window functions, pg_tgrm, full text search, index flexibility and that's without thinking about PostGIS, pg-routing and many of the other excellent 3rd party extensions) and error handling and nearly equivalent when it comes for basic queries that mysql even supports.

Edit: forgot transactional ddls, real ones, not the ones mysql has in the pipeline.

<comment><USER19> Mysql has better replication (at this point). Postgres does seem to be catching up in that area.

<comment><USER18> Better by what metric, and is it worth the hardship in every other area?

<comment><USER20> I think mysql supports multimaster, and other replication formats. Postgres just supports master and slave.

<comment><USER18> Not true. [https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Replication,_Clustering,_an...](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Replication,_Clustering,_and_Connection_Pooling) postgres has a variety of ways to do replication, including multimaster (mainly asynchronous). Core is also getting improvements that will make this easier to do without extensions, mainly through the infrastructure pglogicql brings.

Until 5.7 I believe mysql required extensions to do multi master as well.

<comment><USER11> BDR is available in the open (aka for free :D) only up to PostgreSQL 9.4 though, and that's really the only somewhat-equivalent solution to MySQL multimaster IIRC.

<comment><USER18> Also not true.

9.6 is supported and the next release (scheduled soon) will support 10. Those changes will eventually end up in 12.

[https://www.2ndquadrant.com/en/resources/bdr/](https://www.2ndquadrant.com/en/resources/bdr/) [https://blog.2ndquadrant.com/news-and-roadmap-for-bdr- multi-...](https://blog.2ndquadrant.com/news-and-roadmap-for-bdr-multi-master- postgresql/)

I'm not sure what you mean by somewhat equivalent. Both are primarily asynchronous multimaster approaches.

<comment><USER11> > (NEW! Postgres-BDR 2.0 on Server Version 9.6 Now Available!) 2ndQuadrant is > proud to announce the availability of BDR 2.0 running as an extension to > community PostgreSQL 9.6 for its support customers. You can now make full > use of the additional features offered with PostgreSQL 9.6 while using > Multi-Master Replication from BDR, fully backed by 2ndQuadrant's world > renowned 24/7 Production Support. Fill out the contact form below to get in > touch with us.

This suggests to me it's not really open to the public. And there is no release 2.0 on github ([https://github.com/2ndQuadrant/bdr/releases](https://github.com/2ndQuadrant/bdr/releases)).

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong and the 2.0 release is accessible without a 2ndquadrant support contract (or reverse engineering the changes from the github repo branch, which pretty much ensures you're never going to production with it), I'm genuinely interested.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Computer intrusion inflicts massive damage on German steel factory - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/article/2861675/cyberattack-on-german-steel-factory-causes-massive-damage.html <comment><USER2> I've done some work in steel factories, though only for offline/closed systems that have no interaction with the main control code.

Factories like this one probably operate at around 60%+ capacity, so they'll be operating sometimes all day, sometimes all night. If you ever get the chance to visit, do so, even if you don't really care about how steel is made. The sheer scale of everything is amazing.

Everything is very big, very hot and if you have to hit the big red button, it costs a _lot_ of money. Unscheduled downtime is very expensive. Steel tends to be workable when it's hot/molten and therefore pliable. If you suddenly stop a machine then you're left with solid steel in places you don't want it which takes a lot of time and effort to remove.

One of the common reactions to this story is "Why didn't they hit the emergency stop?" \- the answer is because it costs an absolute fortune to do so.

<comment><USER3> The more interesting question is why is the industrial control computer connected to the internet.

Shouldn't these things be on a separate network protected by an air gap all the time?

Having stuff that doesn't need internet access connected to the internet is like asking for trouble.

<comment><USER2> That wouldn't necessarily solve the problem, if you look at what happened with stuxnet. Getting a USB stick into a domestic steel factory probably isn't hard.

As another commentator said, these plants are designed to be operated by people who don't know the difference between a mouse and a keyboard. The systems _must_ work perfectly 24/7\. I've seen the legions of machines running XP because the legacy software runs on it and God forbid they upgrade to Windows 8.

That said everything seemed pretty secure there, loads of IT red tape needed to get anything on the network.

<comment><USER3> Well the usual solution to that is glue up the USB port or no USB stick is allowed to enter or leave the facility.

This doesn't make it impossible to get access but it make it a hell of a lot more difficult.

For one thing the hackers don't have direct access they need to rely on the virus to do the dirty work and cannot do intelligence gathering on what systems are being used that well either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> i am working in a steel plant for over 20 years now, and it is easy to bash the security of those people.

but just some facts from my world :-)

first those plants are build for lifespans of over 30 years. general problem is 15(normal review time) years ago no one was thinking about network security as we thinking about it know . most businesses didn't even have a large internal network wich did include the production and were connected to the internet.

second you can't just shutdown this things. if you have to shutdown a blast furnace we are talking about minimum stand time of 5-7 days. calculate about 400k to 1m € per day on standstill cost. and that is only for the blast furnace. if the blast furnace is not running in some steel plant NOTHING will run. (e.G. hot rolling plants)

third there is no good solution on the market. if some of your guys would look into the software wich is sometimes running those large machines you would get sick to your stomach. As a more security focused person in my plant just to convince management to change the std admin passwords was a handful (well that changed like a year or two years ago). The thing is market decides what security is gonna be implemented. since there has now been a breach and a very expensive one most companies i am talking to are more focused on security now. The thing is they won't just throw away their software stack they worked on for 30 years. and reviewing software is hard and time consuming. so it will be interesting how this is developing.

and no i am not working in that plant ... :-)

and sorry for the bad english

<comment><USER5> You can make your English look a lot better by starting every sentence with a capital letter, and capitalizing the word "i".

<comment><USER6> Spelling feedback is bike-shedding. The content is fine.

<comment><USER7> It's an interesting case of misplaced good intentions though. Here's someone with good intentions providing direct, actionable feedback. And getting negative feedback. It's how the system is supposed to work, but I hope a lot folks realize their well-intentioned comment that gets downvoted might well be getting downvoted for similar reasons: your good intentions are misplaced.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I never understand why people need to connect industrial plants to the Internet. Do they actually need to control them over the Internet instead of on-site?

And, if they need to use the Internet on-site, can't they make an air gap and segregate the computers that can access the Internet from computers that can access the plant machinery?

<comment><USER8> OK, granted they may want to monitor the plant remotely. Then they could have a plant-connected machine dump UDP monitoring packets to an Internet-connected machine, and have the plant-connected machine block all incoming packets from the Internet-connected machine.

<comment><USER9> It seems that there are many ways this could be done right (and does not seem a particularly hard challenge), it's just that people in charge probably were pretty much inept at that task.

You know how it is, no one cared about it until it happened. It just wasn't a priority.

<comment><USER10> I get the impression from dealing with german companies that they tend to be very good at traditional "engineering" but when it comes to it/computers they are 10 or 15 years behind.

I also think that in germany its considred that the good engineers and asociate profesionalas want go and work for firms like Audi.

<comment><USER11> It's not just Germans. Anyone that isn't primarily in software has this phenomenon. Mobile phone makers, for example, are a disaster, and it's only having a whip wielded by a software company with some power over them that prevents it becoming a complete train wreck.

In my experience the most dangerous are engineers in other domains that learned just enough programming to get the job done but can't understand the giant holes they've created and not run into.

<comment><USER10> Testify (Brother or Sister) having worked for a big telco we regarded the mobile side as grade inflated "amatuers"

I still recall one of my colegues (working on the core IP network) being amused that one UK mobile provider was still using NT4 in their core network.

Ill be nice and not write what we thought about the US cariers

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The German document isn't that useful. It's just a general overview of computer security with anecdotes, not a technical analysis of this attack.

Interestingly, there was a cooling water leak and an emergency shutdown at a steel plant in Pakistan in October. That plant is still off line. That's probably unrelated, though.

[http://www.newspakistan.pk/2014/10/27/pakistan-steel- mills-r...](http://www.newspakistan.pk/2014/10/27/pakistan-steel-mills-remain- shut-3-weeks-sign-resumption/)

</comment><comment><USER13> More background info about the incident: [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de?sl=auto&sl=de&t...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de?sl=auto&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fsecurity%2Fmeldung%2FBSI- Sicherheitsbericht-Erfolgreiche-Cyber-Attacke-auf-deutsches- Stahlwerk-2498990.html)

Steel plants run for years without a shut down, so this was a large scale incident as the had to shut it down because of major damage.

Not related to the plant in Germany in any way, just to get you an idea how some other steel plants operate: C# WinForm based GUI control room app and Java based server app on Windows server. The server controls the various SPS. Several steel plants around the world were build with that software setup and it was not designed to be connected to the internet.

<comment><USER10> The register has speculation that it was a Thyssen Krupp plant in Brazil I susepct that if it had been actualy ingermany there might have been better security.

<comment><USER14> Nope. Just last year, Germany's biggest IT magazine ran an article about hundreds of industrial systems having remote control UIs with insufficient security (unencrypted login, default passwords) exposed to the internet.

<comment><USER10> But where they hacked?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Url changed from [http://www.popularmechanics.com/_mobile/how- to/blog/hackers-...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/_mobile/how- to/blog/hackers-control-german-steel-mill-17562155), which points to this.

Edit: and also from [http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/computer- intrusion-i...](http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/computer-intrusion- inflicts-massive-damage-on-german-steel-factory/), which points to this.

<comment><USER16> Oddly enough, the Ars article is just a slight rephrasing that adds zero value beyond the original article: [http://www.itworld.com/article/2861675/cyberattack-on- german...](http://www.itworld.com/article/2861675/cyberattack-on-german-steel- factory-causes-massive-damage.html)

<comment><USER15> Thanks! Changed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> To do external monitoring, couldn't you have the computer for the plant display the information on a screen in a particular font and then an internet- connected computer read the video and OCR it?

</comment><comment><USER18> I can't help but feel there's a rush to judgement here. If you read the article it clearly states that the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) said, quoting the article:

"describing the technical skills of the attacker as "very advanced.""

And

"not only was there evidence of a strong knowledge of IT security but also extended know-how of the industrial control and production process."

And HN rushes to judgement to quickly blame workers who can't use a mouse and Microsoft.

Yes, the average worker in a manufacturing plant is not a CS grad. It is the job of engineers to develop systems that are usable by, well, the target user.

Most Heart Surgeons don't have a CS degree. And based on meeting a number of them during the course of my business I am comfortable saying that quite a few of them are "computer challenged". Yet, most of us would not have a problem being on that operating table, yes, with a room full of computers, a good number of them running MS software and with an OR team that is likely to use the same "123456" password on everything.

In a hospital you have IT and engineers who setup an infrastructure medical professionals can use. The same is true of steel plants. Yes, there's probably a lot more older code in your average steel plant. I just don't think characterizing them as IT or security morons migt be fair.

The BSI characterized the attackers as sophisticated across disciplines. Let's not engage in senseless conjecture.

I've owned and operated a small manufacturing plant consisting mostly of what I call "big iron" CNC equipment. Things are seldom as simple as discussions on various fora on the 'net would like them to be. Yes, in my case I air-gapped the plant and even individual machines and remote monitoring was done through a separate network that had no command-and-control capabilities at all, just sensing and reporting. There was no way to jump from the sensing network to command-and-control of any one machine, much less the plant. Even if you were physically at the factory this was pretty much impossible. Nobody wants a CNC milling machine with a 30HP spindle controllable from the internet. People are not that stupid...even if they can't use a mouse.

</comment><comment><USER19> This sounds like an inside job, seems too specific (and obscure) an attack. Idle speculation, maybe a disgruntled ex-employee's offspring? Who knows.

</comment><comment><USER20> Anyone know what's the motivation?

People do not work that hard to destroy something without a reason. Someone was really mad at them - ex employee maybe?

<comment><USER21> I doubt it's another steel manufacturer but who knows? Maybe someone in the business with connections to black hats had some money to spare and said: Look what you can get going about this cyberwar stuff everyone is talking about...

There is also this: [http://www.heise.de/security/meldung/Verwundbare- Industriean...](http://www.heise.de/security/meldung/Verwundbare- Industrieanlagen-Fernsteuerbares-Gotteshaus-1902245.html) (In german)

<comment><USER22> I have to admire your cynicism. To consider that this attack might have been nothing more than a _sales demonstration_...

That's a scary thought, even as it sounds like something out of a James Bond film script.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Particularly relevant for me since I'm currently reading Countdown to Zero Day.

</comment><comment><USER24> Stuxnet made it "acceptable" to do this. I hope the US government recognizes that.

<comment><USER25> Actually the Trans-Siberian pipeline made this acceptable, which was a cyber attack in peacetime responsible for the largest man-made non-nuclear explosion in history. Or the Turkish pipeline attack. Or the Enigma Machine hack.

The crucial parts of warfare systems are C4ISR: Command, Control, Communications, Computation, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Recognizance.

Computer systems have been a target of covert ops for as long as they have existed. What's happening now is that middle-weight nations (North Korea, Iran) and non-state actors (Anonymous, al-Qassam) are now able to get in on the game, which is disrupting the status quo established by the USA and USSR.

<comment><USER6> Unambiguous rankings of explosions is basically impossible, so claiming it was the biggest man-made explosion in history is nonsense. This overly-bold claim was promulgated by former Air Force secretary Thomas C. Reed.

[http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/2014/12/largest-man-made- non...](http://seanlinnane.blogspot.com/2014/12/largest-man-made-non-nuclear- explosions.html?m=1)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_non- nuclear_explosions)

<comment><USER25> We can agree it was a pretty large fuel-air explosion caused by the failure of SCADA software? The rest is just details.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


2017 FIRST Robotics Competition STEAMWORKS - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMiNmJW7enI <comment><USER2> That guy is overly excited.

Otherwise, awesome! Good luck to all the FRC teams out there!</comment>


Microsoft's Bing versus Google, some observations - <AUTHOR> http://jacquesmattheij.com/Microsofts+Bing+versus+Google,+some+observations

<comment><USER2> This link doesn't work for me. A link that does work, and lots of discussion already there, can be found here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2174677>

</comment><comment><USER3> Working URL: [http://jacquesmattheij.com/Microsofts+Bing+versus+Google,+so...](http://jacquesmattheij.com/Microsofts+Bing+versus+Google,+some+observations)</comment>


California power lines spark wildfires and prompt blackouts. Why not bury them? - <AUTHOR> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/11/bury-california-power-lines-wildfire-blackout-fix-unlikely-work/3946935002/ <comment><USER2> > A report prepared by the Edison Electric Institute, "Out of Sight, Out of > Mind, An Updated Study on the Undergrounding of Overhead Power Lines," found > that while most new commercial and residential developments across the > United States tuck electrical facilities underground, burying existing > above-ground electric distribution systems can cost up to $5 million a mile > in urban areas.

They've linked to 2009 version of this report, although the numbers they use are from the 2012 version. If that confused anyone else, the 2012 version can be found here:

[https://www.eei.org/issuesandpolicy/electricreliability/unde...](https://www.eei.org/issuesandpolicy/electricreliability/undergrounding/Documents/UndergroundReport.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> Burying AC power lines causes them to incur higher losses than aerial, as the alternating current interacts with the surrounding earth. This generates heat in the insulation and eventually the insulation will fail. Our neighborhood recently had the lines dug up and replace due to this - they were 35 years old. The aerial lines to the neighborhood are much older and have never been replaced.

To get around this, you can go HVDC, but that really only makes sense when you have a long distance line. Pretty pricey.

Varmints like gophers will dig down, encounter a power line, and then attempt to dig through it. Those are fun to repair.

Also, varmints with backhoes have been known to take them out.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yet another idiotic, ignorant conflation between HV distribution lines, which CANNOT be buried (not without lots of cost-prohibitive infrastructure), with local distribution lines, which CAN be buried. Hell, why not just pipe in hydrogen or methane ONLY to homes and generate power at the neighborhood level, and skip the losses and dangers incurred by inter-(regional/state/national) HV distribution? Then those lines, at 208-380V range from local generation over short distances can be easily buried as many are now. No more power going out from stormy, windy, icy, hot or dry conditions, same check underground utilities maps before digging process. It's much safer to pump around high energy-density LP fuels than maintain top-down, nonredundant electrical grids that cause fires, go down and take out hundreds of thousands of customers, are inherently risky to lives and property, and require constant and extensive arboreal maintenance.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hmmm, how does the gas company afford to bury the gas pipes then ? If it's cost prohibitive for electric lines why does it pan out for gas ?

<comment><USER6> > Hmmm, how does the gas company afford to bury the gas pipes then ?

According to Wikipedia, pipelines tend to be buried because soil acts as a thermal insulator, thus reducing thermal fatigue and consequently maintenance costs.

Electricity isn't transported through pressurized pipes, thus it isn't subjected to the same constraints.

<comment><USER2> Actually, most existing underground transmission cables run through pressurized pipes full of oil. Look up HPFF; it's pretty wild.

Newer cables tend to be solid, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> tl;dr: It would cost $243 billion, or $15,000 for every customer. Also makes repairs a pain in the ass.

<comment><USER8> Burying cable would cost more than building 25K kilometers of fast rail in China, sure, that totally checks out.

<comment><AUTHOR> a gazillion, trillion, million permits of all kind, cost of labor, land buyouts. Compare them to China</comment></comment></comment>


A Quantum Computation Course - <AUTHOR> https://www.askamathematician.com/2020/01/a-quantum-computation-course/ <comment><USER2> These are really nice PDF notes using the Physics perspective on QM (walk through lots of historical experiments that explain why QM was invented). A good math background would be required to follow the notes, especially linear algebra.

Here is a free chapter from my book on linear algebra that covers quantum mechanics basics from a computer science perspective: [https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSLA_quantum_cha...](https://minireference.com/static/excerpts/noBSLA_quantum_chapter.pdf) Some useful analogies like SQL SELECT-statements and ADC/DAC converters.

<comment><USER3> And heres a free chapter from mine that does the Deutsch-Josza algorithm using only a very simple graphical (really string rewriting) set of rules: [http://qisforquantum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PART- I-d...](http://qisforquantum.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/PART-I-draft-Q-is- for-Quantum.pdf)</comment></comment>


Gorgeous particle animation experiments using HTML5's canvas - <AUTHOR> http://playpit.kowareru.com/#/1

<comment><USER2> Very cool. I really like the numbers / page changing system as well -- thought it's a fairly small area to have to click.

Nicely done!

</comment><comment><USER2> Played with it a bit more... numbers 9 and 10 are particularly gorgeous.

</comment><comment><USER3> Could you elaborate more on the making of these animations?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm afraid I can't help you- they're not mine! I became aware of them through this tweet: <http://twitter.com/#!/hakimel/status/190534855761723392>

If you find anything out, keep me posted. I'm curious to hear more too, but the website they're posted on seems a bit of a mystery.

Cheers!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why is it restricted to Chrome?

<comment><USER5> Works for me, using Firefox 13.</comment></comment>


ZenPayroll Raises $20M From General Catalyst And Kleiner At $100M+ Valuation - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/cloud-based-payroll-app-zenpayroll-raises-20m-from-general-catalyst-and-kleiner-at-a-100m-plus-valuation/

<comment><USER2> ZenPayroll is night and day with _all_ other payroll services. They really remove the need for an accountant at all. The software and support are both superb.

Particularly for a small California business, there is no reasonable alternative I have seen, unless you feel like you have to go with one of the dinosaurs like ADP or Paychex.

I blog and Tweet about ZP somewhat frequently because it's been so refreshing: [http://andrewljohnson.com/article/how-to-manage-a-micro- busi...](http://andrewljohnson.com/article/how-to-manage-a-micro-business- without-an-accountant/)

<comment><USER3> Curious to know why someone would have to go with ADP or Paychex. I've used one of those before. Painful.

<comment><USER4> We had to go with Paychex because we have some remote employees in states ZenPayroll isn't available in.

<comment><USER3> Pretty sure they do all states now. I don't work for them, but I'm definitely a fan.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> No problem with Intuit's payroll system. How does this compare?

<comment><USER6> Same question here. Signed up for intuit since 2009 through bank of america; happy since.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> ZenPayroll is just awesome sauce all over. We're ZenPayroll customers and love it. I've used other payroll services from the big incumbents... awful. When you use ZenPayroll, you kind of want to find someone from their team and hug them.

</comment><comment><USER7> We use ZenPayroll (at Sourcegraph) and love it. It has been super easy. Congrats!

</comment><comment><USER8> ZenPayroll rocks. Grow to more states faster guys, we have a distributed team :)

</comment><comment><USER9> went through YC with these guys and I'm also a customer. I can attest to their awesomeness personally and as a company. Congrats and good luck!</comment>


"I Can't sign in to Google calendar on my Samsung refrigerator" - <AUTHOR> https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/calendar/UhfpcwO0X0c <comment><USER2> Note: late 2014 incident, with Samsung releasing firmware fixes throughout 2015. It seems not all users report resolution, as of this post, due to Samsung delivering firmware updates only to fridges with certain newer panel display boards, which implies users with older displays may need to upgrade their panels to receive the firmware updates. This represents the Samsung RF4289HARS refrigerator (28 cu. ft. French Door Refrigerator with Twin Cooling Plus Stainless Steel), running a custom Samsung-maintained GNU/Linux operating system, and an LCD touch screen with apps, so you can use vendor-maintained apps, such as Pandora and Google Calendar, in the kitchen. It seems, unlike Android/iPhone apps, the fridge-based Google Calendar app may contact different Google-hosted equipment...Google may have moved that equipment, without updating the settings in their Calendar app (?) It seems users report resolution, with Samsung firmware update 2.690 and above. At the thread, user shared an example of the error: [https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/calendar/UhfpcwO0X0c/...](https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/calendar/UhfpcwO0X0c/W-k5-_X8mB4J) . Some users report getting into their fridge Developer Mode: Enter Engineering Mode and then L - L - L - R (over and over until in), which unlocks a "force update" option, but "may require an SD card with software loaded in it to do anything." One user successfully swapped out the panel and shared a few pics: [https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/calendar/UhfpcwO0X0c/...](https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/calendar/UhfpcwO0X0c/sAhWzUITAgAJ)

</comment><comment><USER3> Why on earth does a fridge need software? If I _really_ wanted Google Calendar on my fridge, I'd attach a cheap tablet with magnets.

The Unix "do one thing well" idea applies to hardware, too.

<comment><USER2> Not disagreeing with you. It's a thing (someone at the linked site called it a "frablet"). Opinions will vary. Some consumers preferred the integrated Samsung approach, went with it, and have had a bad time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Samsung tech support: "restart and then unplug your refrigerator".

</comment><comment><USER5> #FWP

<comment><AUTHOR> #0thWP</comment></comment>


Stay Focused & Keep Shipping - get your own print - <AUTHOR> http://print.imaj.es/ I created this in homage to the now famous FB print. I think we should all have it in our offices- and i'm going to be making it a reality. Order now! :) <comment><USER2> I'll buy a case of beer for the first person who can correctly guess the font used on the original poster on Zuck's desk.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also, I'd really appreciate any feedback - please let me know what you think. :)

</comment><comment><USER3> ha, nice. I kinda liked my Congrats idea better <http://twitpic.com/8ehuxs> :-P</comment>


DrawMatch-iOS app measures how well people draw with image processing algorithms - <AUTHOR> http://www.drawmatch.com <comment><AUTHOR> This iOS game is in the final stage of external testing. The expected release data will be at the end of Sep/2015.

To get any early built version for testing purpose, please send email to email@example.com.</comment>


Google's Area 120 launches Byteboard to improve technical interviews - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/17/googles-area-120-launches-byteboard-to-improve-technical-interviews/ <comment><USER2> > "So despite companies investing 7 to 9 hours per person on interviewing, > they miss out on great, capable talent by testing for memorization instead > of practical application of skills."

I'm not sure if I agree with this, I can easily eliminate 80% of candidates by telling them to show me a project that is either in production or you have recent patches that are classed as significant to well-known open-source projects based on the technologies I require. That in itself raises the barrier to exclude candidates who fail this threshold.

I don't think that what Google's approach to technical hiring solves anything other than contributing to yet another way of screening candidates by implementing a side-project for free in 40 mins with it being tied to your Google account.

No thanks.

</comment><comment><USER3> Disclaimer: I am google employee, all opinions expressed are my own.

Really excited to see interview platforms focus on time-constrained, mini- projects. I also like the idea that there is an element of choice for the applicant as well as potential employer -- having a one-size fits all interview approach for different disciplines never made sense to me even if everyone in the company is as "generalist" as they can be. I got to see the Byteboard team put together this platform and I've been really impressed at the passion involved in creating this product -- the team really put their hearts into making something accessible and efficient that looks to respect both parties time during the interview process.</comment>


The 'Good Samaritan' Story is About Violating Taboos - <AUTHOR> http://www.fakesteve.net/2010/12/hate-spewing-christians-need-to-listen-up.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's the Bible story: [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10:25-37...](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+10:25-37&version=NIV)

And Fake Steve Jobs' interpretation: The Samaritans and Jews weren't strangers to each other — they hated each other. Like, seriously hated. Like, Jews weren't supposed to talk to Samaritans or they'd be unclean and need cleansing or something.

But wait, there's more. One of the guys who wouldn't touch the beaten Jew was a priest. The other guy was a Levite — meaning, a big deal super-duper high- class extra-holy Jew. You know why those two guys walked by the injured Jew and didn't help? Because it was considered unclean to touch a dead body, and they figured that if they tried to help the guy and the guy turned out to be dead, they would be defiled. So they walked by.

Do you get it now? Jesus, your big hero, was saying that if you have some rule or conventional wisdom that causes you to do harm to people, violate the goddamn rule. You probably cannot understand how shocking this story was when Jesus told it. Because this was really, really shocking. First, he's saying that the priests and Levites are jerks; and second, he's saying that Samaritans, the skankiest, nastiest, grossest, most reviled people in that part of the world, were better than priests and Levites.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I commit code to muscle memory? - <AUTHOR> I have noticed that the ease of getting answers from StackOverflow is vastly hampering my ability to come up with solutions. People say "You don't need to memorize code. Just Google it".<p>I think this mentality is taking toll & I see myself going back to SO repeatedly. Even for the code I had copied previously. I'm sure many face this issue. Would like to know how you overcame this? <comment><USER2> I think SO is actually not a good place where to get your resources. My suggestion is to refer to official docs. You want to know what you need to achieve and then what you want to find is the syntax of what to do, which you will most likely find on the docs.

<comment><USER3> SO is bad.

Sometimes you get good answers on SO. Sometimes you get no answers, or you get wrong answers, or answer #5 is good but the ones above are all brain damaged.

Somebody ought to curate SO so there is at most one answer because you don't need more than one answer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a great question.

> "You don't need to memorize code. Just Google it".

This is the same as saying "you don't need to memorise english words, just look them up." Just imagine what the flow of the conversation would look like. Or how one would engage in commenting on HN.

> Would like to know how you overcame this?

I guess the answer is the same as with learning any other skill. Practice. In a dedicated learning setting, not at work.

And as a side note, I still believe a formal education, as oppose to self- taught, has some merits.

</comment><comment><USER5> Try writing code from scratch without using StackOverflow. If you need to know how to do something, use only language and API references (e.g., [https://docs.python.org](https://docs.python.org) or [https://developer.mozilla.org](https://developer.mozilla.org)). This will force you to understand how the code works, which is something that doesn't happen if you just copy/paste it.

<comment><USER3> I do this.

I got pulled kicking and screaming back into Python two years ago and I have learned how to look everything up in the official docs.

Other sources really aren't much easier to understand and they are often out- of-date or wrong.

Back when I was doing mainly Java I would read the Spring and Maven docs on my tablet while spinning at the gym. Spring and Maven are both fundamentally simple if you start with the fundamentals, but if you are working on a system that was written by people who didn't know the fundamentals and just cut-and- pasted from SO you will go insane.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Commit to the same language, framework and tools for a few years, build deep experience.</comment>


Live Sports is 3-D TV's Toughest Challenge - <AUTHOR> http://m.spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/sports-3d-tvs-toughest-challenge <comment><USER2> This article highlights one really big drawback to 3D capture. When we researched 3D at my former company, we realized that while in the 70s you were able to provide color TV with the backwards compatibility of black-and-white to consumers you can't really do that with 3D and provide 2D and satisfy both classes of consumers. A good 3D videofeed can stay in the same position for very long shots and allow viewers to wander their glance around and experience the scene. I have shot 3D videos of concerts and you can have a really great viewing experience of seeing an entire song from one front-row position, because it allows you to really capture that same experience and to feel space. In 2D you must use lots of movement to keep a viewer engaged and you need to use pans to simulate space. All this results in two separate productions and mixing environments for 2D and 3D if you want to do them both justice... And this is why 3D has so many challenges right now because it is too costly to provide it to what is currently a niche market.</comment>


Beyond Norm: Coleman's data leak disaster - <AUTHOR> http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2009/03/beyond_the_norm.html

<comment><USER2> Obviously Senators themselves aren't going to have a clue about data security, but one would expect them to have competent advisors. Yet these are the folks who are writing the legislation to govern how we build our data systems.</comment>