Life After 'Life': Aging Inmates Struggle For Redemption - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/2014/06/04/317055077/life-after-life-aging-inmates-struggle-for-redemption?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140604 <comment><USER2> Reading this article reminded me of the scenes from the film, Shawshank redemption. You know, where Brooks got released, but was institutionalised for so long that he couldn't cope with the outside world and commits suicide? And which was then used as a suspense moment when Red also reaches for the chair and goes to the same beam?

EDIT: Not to mention, how Red narrates how hard it was for him to go on loo breaks without asking for permission :(

<comment><USER3> This is one reason the Scandinavian prison systems try to gradually move people out into society prior to full release, as kind of a phased-in release. It's common to move people who are considered less of a security risk to minimum-security prisons that are less prison-like and more like boarding schools, and then allow weekend releases towards the end of sentences, where prisoners can leave for the weekend to spend time with family, but have to report back on Monday. Sometimes this leads to bad headlines (prisoners can "escape" by just hopping a short fence at a minimum-security facility, or deciding not to come back from weekend release), but overall I think it has positive effects.

<comment><USER4> Simply write the timings in such a way as where before they would have been paroled at time t, their move to low security and reintroduction occurs at t. Therefore they don't get to escape "easily" any sooner than they would have under a previous systm?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A condition for parole seems to be that the prisoner accept that they did the crime ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocent_prisoner's_dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocent_prisoner's_dilemma)). I don't know the circumstances of the case, but assuming that the prisoner who drove over his wife during an argument maintained that he intended to reverse, would he have been paroled?

<comment><USER6> No. It is galling to me that, as your linked article states and has been demonstrated in several court cases, factual innocence is not an immediate overturning of the conviction, an expungment, and a written apology from the governing body that erred.

<comment><USER7> > factual innocence is not an immediate overturning of the conviction

Someone who can show that they are actually innocent can file a federal habeas petition, and their proof of actual innocence will get past any procedural hurdle that stands in their way: [http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/05/opinion- analysis-innocence...](http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/05/opinion-analysis- innocence-exception-survives-innocence-claim-does-not).

The problem is that most prisoners cannot show actual innocence. It's usually a matter of showing some new evidence or some flaw in the original evidence that doesn't rise to the level of convincingly proving that the original verdict was incorrect. That's why DNA evidence is so often the basis for releasing the innocently convicted: they rise to the level of convincingly showing that the original verdict was in error.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I just don't see much point in sentences beyond 30-40 years.

<comment><USER9> That might be explained by the US prison system being one of punishment, not rehabilitation. [0]

[0] [http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab.aspx](http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab.aspx)

<comment><USER10> It's both punishment and big business.

[http://www.thenation.com/prison-profiteers](http://www.thenation.com/prison- profiteers)

<comment><USER7> Only about 8% of prisoners are held in for-profit prisons: [http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers- the-u.s.s-g...](http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers- the-u.s.s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry). Moreover, the prison population started exploding long before for-profit prisons arose. The U.S. prison population started exploding in the mid-1970's, as states passed tough- on-crime measures like three strikes' laws in response to dramatic increases in crime rates: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_Sta...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States#mediaviewer/File:Incarcerated_Americans_as_a_Percent_of_Population.jpg). But even by 1990, only a negligible percentage of U.S. prisoners were in for- profit prisons: [https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/bankingonbondage_20111102....](https://www.aclu.org/files/assets/bankingonbondage_20111102.pdf).

I strongly oppose for-profit prisons, but the whole "prisons are big business!" trope the NYT likes to trot out is bullshit. For-profit prison companies are opportunists, taking advantage of the trend of growing prison populations combined with the heavy emphasis in the 1990's on trimming the number of public employees.

But CCA didn't create the massive U.S. prison population. Voters did: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three- strikes_law#Enactment_by_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three- strikes_law#Enactment_by_states). Frightened suburbanite baby boomers watching the news, shrieking "Just Say No!" at school events, voting for Three Strikes' laws and aggressive drug enforcement. I.e. NYT's core readership.

<comment><USER11> While I agree in general, there was serious lobbying for the Three Strikes Law by people who stood to gain financially. It may have happened even without their support, but they thought it was worth the payoff to put in millions of dollars.

[http://www.npr.org/2009/08/13/111843426/folsom-embodies- cali...](http://www.npr.org/2009/08/13/111843426/folsom-embodies-californias- prison-blues)

<comment><USER7> California's Prop. 184, which is probably the harshest three-strikes law in the country because it doesn't require the third felony to be serious or violent, was a ballot initiative that passed 72-28 in 1994: [http://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_184,_the_Three...](http://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_184,_the_Three_Strikes_Initiative_%281994%29). Washington's Initiative 593 passed 75-25 the year before: [http://ballotpedia.org/Washington_%22Three_Strikes%22,_Initi...](http://ballotpedia.org/Washington_%22Three_Strikes%22,_Initiative_593_%281993%29).

You can't get American voters to agree on anything by that kind of margin, other than apparently the idea that you should get life in prison for stealing a few hundred dollars each on three separate occasions.

Honestly, what really irks me about the "prison lobbying" angle is that it's just a way to shirk responsibility. "Oh, it's those lobbyists that are to blame, not my parents, friends, or me."

<comment><USER11> That's the one the NPR article talks about (unless there was another in 1994).

 _Then came the "Three Strikes You're Out" law in 1994. Offenders who had committed even a minor third felony — like shoplifting — got life sentences._

 _Voters at the time were inundated with television ads, pamphlets and press conferences from Gov. Pete Wilson. "Three strikes is the most important victory yet in the fight to take back our streets," Wilson told crowds._

 _But behind these efforts to get voters to approve these laws was one major player: the correctional officers union._

 _In three decades, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association has become one of the most powerful political forces in California. The union has contributed millions of dollars to support "three strikes" and other laws that lengthen sentences and increase parole sanctions. It donated $1 million to Wilson after he backed the three strikes law._

 _And the result for the union has been dramatic. Since the laws went into effect and the inmate population boomed, the union grew from 2,600 officers to 45,000 officers. Salaries jumped: In 1980, the average officer earned $15,000 a year; today, one in every 10 officers makes more than $100,000 a year._

 _Lance Corcoran, spokesman for the union, says it does what is best for its members._

 _" We have advocated successfully for our members," he said._

... EDIT

You also show how it worked in Washington, which is a good comparison. Was there similar lobbying there? (This is an earnest question, I do not know the answer.)

<comment><USER7> Here's a story about I-593: [https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1996/may/15/citizen- ant...](https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1996/may/15/citizen-anti-crime- initiatives-how-the-gun-lobby-bankrolls-the-war-on-crime). It took $200k to get on the ballot, apparently funded by the gun lobby. Meanwhile, environmental organizations spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on persuasion efforts, and can't get shit passed. Persuasion is cheap when people already agree with you.

Here's the thing. A few million is enough to let my mom know that there is a "tough on crime" proposition on the ballot and she should go out and vote. Ten times that much won't convince her that being "tough on crime" is a bad thing, that her granddaughter isn't in constant danger of getting kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking, etc.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Who can explain what the python lines at the end do? - <AUTHOR> http://lists.tartarus.org/pipermail/putty-announce/2011/000017.html

<comment><USER2> prints the following: "Simon Tatham"

Specifically, it takes a power mapped string sequence and shifts the values off. Each set equates to a line of #'s and spaces. Pretty ingenious, actually.

<comment><AUTHOR> How exactly is he using the pow function? It's a number to the 37th and then mod 0x13AC59F3ECAC3127065A9, how did he select the numbers and why is he doing that operations?

<comment><USER3> What it's doing is computing row = x * * 37 mod 0x13AC59F3ECAC3127065A9 with seven different values of x. The "row" bit i encodes either a 0 (for space) or 1 (for hash), for i in range(0, 79). I think that part of the output you understand.

The question is how to get the values of "x" and how to get the modulo value. You just need to compute row * * (1/37) mod 0x13AC59F3ECAC3127065A9 . I can't for the life of me recall how to do it, but you can see the result at Wolfram Alpha: [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=x+**+37+mod+14864685590...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=x+**+37+mod+1486468559035429142160809+%3D+604462963859271849083326) .

How then do you get the 0x13AC59F3ECAC3127065A9? It needs to be relatively prime to the values, and larger than any of the output values. Beyond that, I don't know why that specific (composite, with two factors) number was chosen. Nor do I know why 37 was chosen.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think you're on the good track. Since there are no new suggestions, my opinion is:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(algorithm)>

The answer to "why" is: he's the author of the Putty SSH client, and he decided to use the bignum feature of Python to demonstrate the encryption in as little code as possible and make the signature out of it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Open this link in Chrome... - <AUTHOR> http://isizulu.net/

<comment><USER2> It remembers me all those gov, or big old school corporate websites that highly suggest you to use IE. I remember one not long ago suggesting IE6 - true story.

</comment><comment><USER3> I appreciate the sentiment but good luck with this one.</comment>


Startup Accelerator on a Cruise Ship - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/17/unreasonable-at-sea/

<comment><USER2> I think this idea is brilliant - putting entrepreneurs in the same confined space for months at a time, and stopping in countries where they can see first hand how to design their products differently and scale the in international markets. Being on the ground matters.

I'm lucky enough be on the staff for this first voyage.</comment>


Getting Real about NoSQL and the SQL Performance Lie - <AUTHOR> http://www.yafla.com/dforbes/Getting_Real_about_NoSQL_and_the_SQL_Performance_Lie/ <comment><USER2> Reddit did a story about how they're scaling up on Amazon, and what struck me was how low the demand really was. They were serving up 100 hits per second.

I remember working on a solution in the 2000/2001 era that dynamically generated pages in the 300 renders per second range...on a low end desktop.

Scaling out for a lot of these guys allows them to manage to duct-tape something together in spite of their abilities, not because of it.

</comment><comment><USER3> To be fair, if so many are so bad at relational databases, maybe it is best for the world that they just move away from it before they injure someone.</comment>


A Supermassive Black Hole Is Heading Earth's Way at 110 Km per Second - <AUTHOR> https://www.physics-astronomy.org/2018/04/a-supermassive-black-hole-is-heading.html <comment><USER2> Not really new. Andromeda, our next galaxy, is 2.5 million light years away and it will collide with our Milky Way galaxy in about four billion years. Andromeda also has a huge black hole in its center, similar to ours. Would make an interesting sci-fi movie maybe, nothing more. 2nd law of thermodynamics at work.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision)</comment>


Randall Munroe infographic puts radiation dosages in perspective - <AUTHOR> http://imgs.xkcd.com/blag/radiation.png

<comment><AUTHOR> Source: <http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/03/19/radiation-chart/></comment>


How to protect your source code, your main IT company asset - <AUTHOR>

Hello, I see often people that setup new IT startup and hire a lot of people. My question is, how can you protect the main asset of the company, the source code ? <comment><USER2> The main asset for many if not most companies WRT their "IT" is the people who know how to make the code do its thing. If they, or too many of the crucial ones leave, dead code on unmaintained systems isn't going to get you very far.</comment>


Some mind blowing facts about COMPUTERs - <AUTHOR> http://easycppcodes.com/article/some-mind-blowing-facts-about-computers/

<comment><AUTHOR> The best one is last one.</comment>


UK supermarket TV advert on palm oil banned for being too political - cirrus-clouds https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/09/iceland-christmas-tv-ad-banned-political-greenpeace-orangutan <comment> black-tea People will tell you that consumers have the ability to cause change. They say that if we care enough we can just choose companies that are ethical. So this company has decided to be ethical and advertised the fact and it's offended people so it gets censored.

A free market cannot exist without consumers having perfect knowledge. If we can't have perfect knowledge then we completely rely on the government to do the right thing.

<comment><USER2> >it's offended people so it gets censored

No, it's been "censored" because there's a prohibition on political advertising on TV. It's nothing to do with the _content_ of the political message.

<comment> black-tea It's not political, though, is it? Unless you think the decision to use palm oil or not is solely down to the government. And if that's the case then why is the UK government positively supporting palm oil?

<comment><USER3> From the article: ""The creative submitted to us is linked to another organisation who have not yet been able to demonstrate compliance in this area."

It's a Greenpeace video with the logo taken off. So it's political.

It's not about the topic of palm oil - it's about how much an advert can take content directly from an organisation that is a political organisation. Without this, you open a massive backdoor into all TV advertising in the UK.

<comment> black-tea Bullshit. Greenpeace has a political agenda, but without the Greenpeace logo it was merely calling for consumers to take ethics into account when choosing where to shop. It's not political just because a political organisation happens to support the same cause. Just about every other advert on TV is some company talking about their green credentials. That's not banned just because the Green Party would also agree with it.

<comment><USER3> Again, it's not about the topic. It's not about who else supports it. It's not about the benefits of a product. It's not about Iceland's policy on palm oil, or the virtues thereof.

The problem is taking, wholesale, content from a political organisation and using it in a realm that has laws about political content.

Removing the logo is, if anything, worse - it hides the origin of the video and ads dishonesty to the mix.

If Iceland made their own video about the consequences of the palm oil industry and advertised it, I'd be interested to see if ClearCast approved it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As an advertisement, the piece is brilliant. I now know that a) there is a company called Iceland (still don't know what they sell -- but I now know of it), b) they put together a compelling story, c) they are environmentally aware and care for cute animals, d) that I might not know how to pronounce orangutang. Does not matter that the ad won't air in the UK. Major free press is free.

Their PR department and advertising agency needs a raise.

</comment><comment><USER5> How can this article not link to the video? I guess it's this one? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQXstNh45g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQQXstNh45g)

<comment><USER6> It's right there at the top? Is your ad blocker removing it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Having political ads banning is quite interesting. Here in the USA I have always looked at the avalanche of political ads as simply a "gift to the media owners" who must be collecting billions every election season. I look at that revenue as why we don't have saner political advertising regulation - <AUTHOR> advertising lobby won't allow it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Streisand that orangutan!

Headline sounded a little surprising until I learned it was a rebranded Greenpeace short.

<comment><USER9> > Streisand that orangutan!

Nobody is trying to suppress the video, so talking about 'Streisand' doesn't make any sense.

They're just saying it can't be shown _as an advert on TV_.

<comment><USER8> Thanks for the correction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Banning political ads is good. But IMO this ad is not political at all.

It is about climate change and the impact on the environment and animals. It is like maths and physics and not a matter of debate. It is not associated with any political party...

<comment> radford-neal That's the ticket! Define your opponents' views as "political", and hence not allowed, while your views are not political since they are just obviously true. And away you go!

Of course, things that are actually "not a matter of debate" do not need to be debated. Nobody is interested in producing ads affirming that, say, water expands when it freezes. Your statement is self-refuting.

<comment><USER11> There is evidence to support one side of issues such as climate change. Those issues are very different from issues such as abortion or marriage equality that require an examination of one's views of morality and the role of government.

Your comment seems intentionally obtuse.

<comment> radford-neal Yes, and there is evidence to support the other side of those issues too. Numerous, indeed most, political issues hinge on factual disputes, not just on moral judgements.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> See, I used to make jokes about the Fun Police in this country. But it seems a lot less funny, these days.

</comment><comment><USER13> What exactly distinguishes a political end from any other kind of end?

</comment><comment><USER14> ...I had no idea that political advertising was banned in the UK, but there you go.

As an American, some of the quotes from this this BBC News piece five years ago are really interesting: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk- politics-22238582](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22238582)

"Political adverts are - and have always been - banned on British TV and radio. That ban has wide support and has helped sustain the balance of views which is at the heart of British broadcasting - and ensures the political views broadcast into our homes are not determined by those with the deepest pockets."

"The US experience shows the only people who would profit from TV attack ads are moneyed interest groups, TV networks and paid political consultants. The biggest loser would be democratic debate in Britain."

I'm not quite sure how to evaluate those perspectives in light of more recent political events, but still a really fascinating difference in something I've taken for granted as an American.

<comment><USER15> Our broadcast news channels are regulated too, i.e. there are no "right wing" or "left wing" news channels/programmes here in the UK because of this regulation.

<comment><USER16> Nigel ferage has his own radio show, and it's very popular, and as you might have guessed, swayed towards reminding its listeners they are under imminent attack

<comment><USER15> I'm not sure if radio is subject to the same regulations or not

<comment><USER17> I am guessing it probably counts as entertainment not news and current affairs.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Timeless Decision Theory Paper Released - <AUTHOR> http://singinst.org/blog/2010/11/12/timeless-decision-theory-paper-released/

<comment><USER2> The linked paper, TDT-v01o.pdf, is bit-identical to a draft I downloaded in November. Which is odd since I thought I remembered a few drafty features in it like incomplete references to be filled in later, and it ends with "This manuscript was cut off here" and a one-entry bibliography.

Did they link to the wrong version?

<comment><USER3> You do realize that the linked article dates from November the 12th, do you? It linked to the most recent version which was then available.

<comment><USER2> I didn't notice -- thanks. I only skimmed the announcement and got the impression of a polished version ready to submit to some fancy journal.

It's interesting as is, anyway, judging by the first half. I'll be getting back to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The title of the paper is a bit misleading, and rhetorically clever if intentional. When I read this headline the first time, I parsed it as "Timeless (Decision Theory Paper) Released", so that "timeless" was an adjective describing the (non-specific) "decision theory paper", which had apparently just been released. :-)

<comment><USER5> I don't think it's intentional - TDT is so named with good reason. I'm not sure I can explain why at almost 5AM, but it has to do with sort of treating one-shot games as iterated games, or something roughly similar in spirit to that. One way to think about it is to imagine that you may be a simulation of yourself being used to predict the real you's behavior, and therefore to adopt the behavior that you would want the simulator/predictor to predict from you. Now, if you're not a simulation of yourself, you still need to adopt that decision theory so that when you are simulated, the simulations behave that way. At least, that's how it solves Newcomb's Problem - that's quite possibly not a good overall summary of TDT.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I know I'm not supposed to snark. But teach yourself LaTeX, Mr. Yudkowsky. It'll be a gift to us all.

</comment><comment><USER7> Okay, I'll bite.

What do I need to read before reading this to get a grasp of what's going on?

<comment><USER8> A good start is the LW Decision Theory sequence: [http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Decision_theory_%28sequence%2...](http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Decision_theory_%28sequence%29#Sequence)</comment></comment>


Yet Another Study Shows How Copyright Can Hinder The Spread Of Knowledge - <AUTHOR> http://techdirt.com/articles/20100809/03545810554.shtml <comment><USER2> The article fails to make clear that the article it is describing compared Germany and the UK in the mid 1800s. Back in those days copying technology was slow and expensive, and books earned most of their money quickly after publication.

Some have argued (including Stephen Breyer, who later became a Supreme Court justice: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Uneasy_Case_for_Copyright>) that because of this, book pirates could not get their works out fast enough to cause a significant impact on the sales of the original, and so there was little need for copyright.

The key word there is "was". Copying technology has improved somewhat in the last 150 years.

Given that copying technology was limited in the mid 1800s, it seems unlikely that the differences in copyright law between the UK and Germany had much impact on the difference in literary output. It was far more likely to have been cultural. Wasn't Germany also outproducing the UK at the time in science, mathematics, music, chess, and philosophy? Only one of those might have been affected by copyright laws, and so it seems more likely that the greater German literary output was due to the same factors that gave them greater output in most intellectual pursuits.

You can still see this kind of thing today. For example, compare the New Orleans Jazz scene to the Fresno, CA Jazz scene. Copyright laws are the same in both cities. New Orleans has just developed as a more music-oriented culture than Fresno.</comment>


Write Effing Text - <AUTHOR> http://www.bigeffingtext.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> The background images are pulled dynamically from Tumblr using Tumblr API!</comment>


Is it finally time to end no-reply emails? - <AUTHOR> https://jonathannen.com/no-reply.html <comment><USER2> Pay Pal does an even nastier version of no-reply with their Swedish customers. Their actually important support tickets are sent from firstname.lastname@example.com but if you to email an respond to an issue that Pay Pal has raised, you get an 550 error (#5.1.0 Address rejected). Which is weird because the address doesn't even signal that it's a no-reply. I would rather them send emails from no- firstname.lastname@example.com with the only contents being that the support ticket has been updated and can be accessed by logging in to Pay Pal.</comment>


Ask HN: Is it ethical to ask me to write software for free before an interview? - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/surya-soft/Interview/commit/cc9da7af8a26871d2e252ef375deb8df6697d595 <comment><USER2> Is there any other profession that would do something like this? Can you imagine a lawyer or accountant spending several hours on a fake case/audit to prove themselves.

I would be willing to spend several hours on a project for them if they spend the same number of hours doing something to help me. Then see how many want to put that effort in.

<comment><USER3> Or imagine a surgeon being asked to perform a fake surgery before being offered a job.

If my degree does not mean anything at all in the software field, I wonder why we spend so much money on getting a degree!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> From their interview problem page at [https://github.com/surya- soft/Interview/blob/master/WS.md](https://github.com/surya- soft/Interview/blob/master/WS.md) :

"The point of this exercise is to benchmark your writing skills. Write an approximately 500 word article about something you're passionate about that's technology related."

The holier-than-thou approach taken here is sickening. Why does this company expect a prospective employee to do all this without even a guaranteed date for an interview?

They have invented a deplorable interview screening procedure where the company has to invest zero time on the candidate but the candidate has to dedicate a few hours to prove that you can read and write before they are willing to engage in a conversation with you. This inequality is disgraceful.

</comment><comment><USER4> In my opinion, this is unethical. If I spend a few hours developing software for a client, I would earn about between $30 to $200 depending on where I am. It is unreasonable to expect me to spend that time developing a purposeless toy software without being paid and lose my roughly $100 of income.

I don't know much about Surya Software Systems but if you look at their organization page, there are exactly two repos: The Interview repo of this post link and SwiftUtils which they don't seem to have any intention of maintaining.

It is ironical that they have not contributed anything to the open source community despite owning a GitHub account but are gratuitously demanding a software project to be developed for them even before you could apply for a job there.

No, thanks! There are plenty of companies out there that are more respectful to their employees.

</comment><comment><USER5> Reminds me of another prior discussion at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15275182](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15275182)

I wonder why software companies these days take it for granted that professional software developers who code for a living would spend half a day from their schedule or work overtime for free.

Now, don't give me the argument that many developers do it anyway by writing open source code. That falls in the category of "volunteering". Working overtime and spending 4 hours on solving a toy problem is not volunteering.

</comment><comment><USER5> With the kind of poor reviews this company has on Glasdoor ( [https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Sahaj- Software...](https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Sahaj-Software- Solutions-EI_IE919928.11,35.htm) ), I am surprised that they want me to prove my essay writing skills before even agreeing to meet me.

Can I ask them prove their management skills or ability to compensate me well enough before I jump through their hoops?

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been asked to do a codility test (online 3 problem coding test) before one interview and a short basic form processing code for another interview. Both took about an hour. That seemed fair to me, though if it were longer I probably wouldn't feel that way. It also was clearly not "real" work they could use for production.

<comment><USER3> A toy problem to be solved in an hour is quite reasonable. Anything more than 2 hours and I would expect to be paid by the hour!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It doesn't seem _unethical_ to me. It does seem _unreasonable_ to ask someone to spend 4 hours doing a test before you talk to them about the job. I couldn't be sure when the "write some code" part comes in the interview or application process.</comment>


Show HN: Backup MX Service with GPG Encryption - <AUTHOR> https://emxbackup.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN!

I started this service for myself as a way to ensure all my email is encrypted at rest on infrastructure I don't own. It's a mail exchange service that ensures incoming mail is encrypted to your public GPG key.

I think others might find this useful so I've wrapped it up as a subscription service, free 30 day trial included.

Feedback is welcome!</comment>


Ask HN: Could you please suggest a service for reviewing English texts on site? - <AUTHOR>

English is not my native language. I would like a service which provides fast reviewing English texts on site.
I think such services can be useful for many entrepreneurs here. <comment><USER2> I haven't used them yet, but this is what I found sometime ago when I was looking for something similar: <http://www.wordy.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Great! It seems it's what I need. I should try it. Thank you very much!</comment></comment>


Ask: Best Hack Toys - <AUTHOR>

So on a lighter note, let's say it's time to create the perfect hacking den. You've got the USB nerf guns, you've got the squirt guns. So what's next? Pinball games? Billiards? Darts? Laser Tag?<p>What's the best hack toys to increase productivity with the team when you need to take a few minutes' break? <comment><USER2> Beer!

The cause of, and solution to, all of the worlds problems.

</comment><comment><USER3> An indoor remote controlled helicopter, a yo-yo, a tennis ball are my current distractions. I've seen pinball, foosball, ping pong, and pool all work well in an office setting, but video games are generally too involved for the casual 15min distraction. Unless, of course, you're making video games.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm a big fan of Guitar Hero. I can confidently state that I will beat everyone here. I am really looking forward to getting moved into an office so I can sit there and play Guitar Hero all day. Productivity is very relative.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm thinking pinball.

Its got enough of an addictive quality to keep you busy for a few minutes, but games usually don't last 40 hours like some video games would. Plus -- it's very physical and analog.

Of course, laser tag would be awesome too, but you'd need a heckuva big office.</comment>


Metric system, round numbers messing with daily Seattle weather stats - <AUTHOR> http://komonews.com/weather/scotts-weather-blog/metric-system-round-numbers-messing-with-daily-seattle-weather-stats <comment><USER2> The sooner you round a number, the bigger the differences will be in the end.</comment>


How Do Campaign Spending Limits Affect Electoral Competition? - <AUTHOR> https://www.dropbox.com/s/t96hcfls5a1g3ss/SpendingLimits.pdf?dl=0 <comment><USER2> Here's a nice nugget towards the beginning:

 _Consistent with theory, the results suggest that when spending limits are raised by £100,000, on average the mean cost of a campaign increases by £43,000, 0.3 fewer can-didates run for office, the percent of candidates with an upper-class background increases by 10 percentage points, and the percent of money and votes that flow to incumbents surge by approximately 10-15 percentage points. In summation, high levels of permitted spending diminish electoral competition._</comment>


Disney will pay out $100M over wage-suppression claims - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/disney-will-pay-out-100m-over-wage-suppression-claims/ <comment><USER2> I hope they have to pay through the nose for this as well:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9653389)

In 2014, they laid off American IT workers and made them train their H1B replacements.

<comment><USER3> They suppressed wages for 6-7 years through no poaching agreements and are only paying about $10k per class member over that time. They saved more money than they're paying out.</comment></comment>


Pied Piper IRL: Compress videos up to 80% - <AUTHOR> https://www.compressifyapi.com/ <comment><USER2> The more I looked at it, the more the compressed side looked awful.

I am not sure if it is differences in the compression or differences in the base image, but I can make out the tree branches much more clearly on the uncompressed side.

The "as a service" thing seems self defeating in a number of ways.

One reason I want compression is because the network is slow. I have ADSL with an awful upload speed, but I have some very powerful computers. So far as I am concerned, state-of-the-art image compression in the cloud might as well be on the moon.

Also I hate the "monthly plan" BS. It's a dark pattern. It's evil. You might say it helps your cash flow, etc. but really you are hoping people will forget about it and you'll keep charging their credit card for years. Someday the FTC will crack down on this.

<comment><USER3> I can't see a difference IMO.

I think it's for companies rather than consumers. Edit: Just noticed they also have a prepaid plan</comment></comment>


Michael Pollan on Psilocybe Azurescens - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/what-its-like-to-trip-on-the-most-potent-magic-mushroom/561860/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Just want to mention for people interested in mushrooms or hallucinogens/drugs in general, check out Erowid: [https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml](https://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml)

This has always been my go-to for objective information on drugs and experiences people have while using them.

<comment><USER3> That site is as old as the Internet... I remember reading it when I was a kid looking to learn about drugs.

I'm in my mid 30s now. Looks like it hasn't changed a lot since the 90s.

<comment><USER4> Just like Craigslist, they got it right the first time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I recently just finished Michael Pollan's (author of this article) new book about psychedelics, and I absolutely recommend it. I've always been somewhat skeptical about the science, but the book eloquently explains the history and its exciting future.

"How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence" by Michael Pollan

</comment><comment><USER6> Apparently, Paul Stamets of "Star Trek Discovery" is named after Paul Stamets in this article:

[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/paul- stamets-...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/paul-stamets-star- trek-mushroom-expert-mycology-1.4454204)

<comment><USER7> The real Paul Stamets was interviewed on one of the episodes of After Trek as well.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Submission note: the title is admittedly sort of click bait-y, but the content is not. I've been making my way through the book from which this is excerpted (Michael Pollan's _How to Change Your Mind_ ) and have been really enjoying it.

Previous discussion of the book here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17087961](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17087961)

<comment><USER8> The recent Joe Rogan interview w Pollan is also quite interesting. [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4CrWE_P0g](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4CrWE_P0g)

<comment><USER9> Yaeh, it made me subscribe to audible and listen it for free: [https://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoirs/How-to-Change- Your-M...](https://www.audible.com/pd/Bios-Memoirs/How-to-Change-Your-Mind- Audiobook/B07B1J873J) I enjoyed the book, but the claim that quantum physics might suggest that matter can have mind (because of wave particle duality) kind of killed it for me. Also, I don't find opinions of proponents of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning) very relevant. But it's a nice overview of history of psychedelics and introduced me to some fascinating figures, e.g. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Matthew_Hubbard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Matthew_Hubbard)

N.b. Pollan presents his subjective experience. If you liked it, you will love reports on [https://www.erowid.org/](https://www.erowid.org/) and there's a lot of information on [https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page](https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page) if you decide for firsthand experience.

<comment><USER10> Erowid is I think is nearly as old as the internet, it's good to see that it's still around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Genuine question for people that have taken mushrooms, would you recommend it?

<comment><USER12> Yes, but one thing that I think is often missed is that you want to have 1-2mg of Xanax (or equivalent) laying around just in case things go wrong.

A lot of people into the hippie side of psychedelic culture don't like pharmaceuticals because they're unnatural or whatever, but in practice, there's a chance that your psychedelics are going to trigger hours and hours of rolling panic attacks that feel like you're dying, to the point where you may convince yourself that you've certainly died, or perhaps that you've never been alive.

You're considering ingesting some very weird chemicals. Have Xanax on hand just in case, so you can essentially put yourself down. If you have to take it, you'll still be tripping but you simply won't care, you'll not remember much, and you'll have turned one of the possible worst PTSD-triggering experiences of your life into a "meh, that sucked" experience.

That said, you might have a great trip that opens your mind and changes your perspective on life. I'd say it's 100% worth it if you're in the right set/setting, but not worth the risk of having a terrible time without an benzodiazepine escape hatch, because things can get seriously uncomfortably weird.

<comment><USER13> You don't need Xanax and that might just make your trip a lot weirder.

You can kill a mushroom high quickly with lots of caffeine and sugar - say one red bull.

<comment><USER14> Urban legend. Not true at all. Nothing can kill a trip except time. Not even Xanax - it will just help you relax and kill the panic and anxiety.

The caffeine part is particularly bad advice, as a stimulant is the last thing you want to ingest when you are already highly agitated.

<comment><USER15> enough lorazepam and you're done

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Question: if one of the potential side effects of this particular mushroom is muscle paralysis, is going for a 30 minute walk after ingesting them a great idea?

<comment><USER17> Depends on where you're walking and who you are with, and of course dose but that can be hard to control. In the right setting, it can be a great idea.

I would argue that such an effect is seen more at high doses and rarely at that. If your setting is a nice woodsie stroll then you can probably safely lay on the ground and watch the leaves until the moment passes. What's interesting is you'll suddenly realize your ability to move and have striking appreciation and respect for that, and that can stay with you forever. You'll also have just spent 20 minutes with the bugs and watching the trees and have strong feelings about all of that. All sorts of thoughts and perspectives you've built up over decades of life shattered. It's a great idea to see where the experience leads you.

That said, if you are dosing high enough that you expect wild effects in general, you probably shouldn't be in a setting where temporary paralysis is going to be an issue. Yeah it would be an issue to have to lay down on a sidewalk in a populated area, but so would heavy visuals and associated strange thought processes and perspectives in that setting. You don't want to talk to a stranger on high doses, and definitely not the police or an EMT.

edit: At doses that could cause paralysis, there will likely be debilitating sensory perception and cognitive processes in general, like synesthesia and your vision turning into a recursive zoom tunnel of over saturated hues, not understanding or abiding by some social constructs and speaking in metaphors that make a lot of sense to you and no one else.

<comment><USER16> Are you talking about psilocybin mushrooms in general, or the particular species of mushroom discussed in the article? In the article, the mycologist who identified the species and picked mushrooms with Pollan told him not to consume them on their camping trip because paralysis was not unlikely at normal doses.

I'm not asking the general question of whether taking walks while on mushrooms is a good idea. I'm sure it is!

<comment><USER17> Ah sorry I kind of skimmed the article realizing I listened to him about this book on Fresh Air and assumed that statement was more general since it's possible with psilocybin (and I guess psychedelic trips in general).

RTFA and you know what making an assumption and all that...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I always liked McKennas theory that the mushrooms arrived from outer space via spores.

<comment><USER19> It's somewhat plausible considering their unique biology - radically different to plants and animals. His book on mushroom cultivation is a classic. But honestly later he had some crackpot theories.

<comment><USER18> I first encounters McKenna's work when was 17, hiking though the woods on LSD in Erie, PA.

A young hippy materialized out from behind a tree and told me he had spent time on McKennas farm in Hawaii. He recommended I read True Hallucinations & The Archaic Revival.

A day later I walked out of my local coffee shop and saw the same kid sitting on the street, which reminded me to get the book.

Some twenty years later, I was just interviewed on a podcast after Dennis McKenna about my experiences with psychedelics.

[https://thethirdwave.co/podcast/episode-48-anthony- adams/](https://thethirdwave.co/podcast/episode-48-anthony-adams/)

<comment><USER20> That synchronicity is wonderful, and for me, characteristic of the psychedelic experience.

Also, I am commenting so my future self listens to your podcast!

<comment><USER18> Let me know what you think!

I just got invited to speak at the "Working With Psychedelics" workshop in NYC this month.

[https://www.eventbrite.com/e/working-with-psychedelics- tools...](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/working-with-psychedelics-tools-for- growth-creativity-and-vision-tickets-46617898389)

If you are in town, it would be fun to meet you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> It's great to see a new subject from this author.

I've read several of his books, which just seemed like re-writes of the same topic in more concise formats each time.

Omnivore's Dilemma (450 pages) -> In Defense of Food (256 pages) -> Food Rules (140 pages)

</comment><comment><USER22> > "Plants and mushrooms have intelligence, and they want us to take care of > the environment, and so they communicate that to us in a way we can > understand." Why us? "We humans are the most populous bipedal organisms > walking around, so some plants and fungi are especially interested in > enlisting our support. I think they have a consciousness and are constantly > trying to direct our evolution by speaking out to us biochemically. We just > need to be better listeners."

That statement just killed my enthusiasm to ever try mushrooms. If using them results in this sort of thinking process, I think that I would be better off steering clear.

<comment><USER23> > If using them results in this sort of thinking process, I think that I would > be better off steering clear.

This is a normal sort of thinking process, psychedelic or not. Let's look at this sentence:

> _...so some plants and fungi are especially interested in enlisting our > support. I think they have a consciousness..._

Pollan is exploring a metaphor. The metaphor in question is "plants as people": plants are "interested" parties, plants "have a consciousness." He's using the metaphor to better understand how plants work. Anthropomorphization is a major feature of how humans understand their environments.

You'll note we use similar mental constructs with software, if you look closely at the language... Metaphor is the root of all abstract understanding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Interesting, I've also experienced the temporary paralysis mentioned here on shrooms, feeling unable to move for almost 2 hours.

</comment><comment><USER24> On Amazon, Pollan's "How to Change Your Mind" is $16.80 in hardcover form, and $27.00 in paperback.

Is this some attempt at gaming bestsellers lists or something?

<comment><USER25> That's because it's the Large Print edition paperback. Those usually are around $30.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I guess the "mostly plants" part of "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants" was to leave room for fungi.

</comment><comment><USER27> I have such a hard time reading articles that I know are marketing a book. I just feel like I'm reading an ad the whole time. I'm not sure what authors can do about it though.

<comment><USER16> It's not an "article marketing a book"; it's an excerpt from the book. They're giving you part of the book for free, like a song played on the radio.</comment></comment>


Massive Stash of Rare Earth Minerals Found Near Japanese Island - <AUTHOR> https://weather.com/news/news/2018-04-16-japan-minerals-rare-earth-discovery-minamitorishima-island <comment><AUTHOR> Link to the Nature-published study. [1]

[1] [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23948-5.pdf](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23948-5.pdf)</comment>


How many of these accounts do you guys have? 6? - <AUTHOR> http://www.knotlink.com/channels

<comment><USER2> 12</comment>


Next Time Your Mom Says Don't Go Out in The Rain, Spray Yourself With This  - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/02/07/171370893/next-time-your-mom-says-don-t-go-out-in-the-rain-spray-yourself-with-this
<comment><USER2> Well this concept is based on superhydrophobicity. I do not know the working of this coating particularly, but it seems to be superhydrophobic. A superhydrophobic surface(SHS) is one where water has very high mobility i.e. an extremely water repelling surface. Is is due to a surface having low surface energy and a textured topography. They hold very high commercialization potential. Lotus leaf is one natural occuring example of this phenomenon. The research into this field started extensively in 1997. SHS can be employed in variety of applications theoretically i.e. cars, windshields, toilets, ketchup bottles, kettles, phones, power lines, preventing ice accumulation, on boat hulls, on shoes in rain, fabrics, solar cells, around sinks, shower curtains... the potential is unlimited. Many researchers are working on making it possible, and they are very good ones too.

So after you have been primed about the subject, what is preventing their wide spread usage? Durability. Not a single one of them is able to sustain mechanical duress. And one of the most widely used chemical is Teflon, which is expensive. Hence, reapplication is not possible time and again. Many researchers are working on it, but a solution remains elusive until now. These sprays are nice such that they open the field, but much more still needs to be done in this field, since these sprays have been in market for at least 5 years now.

</comment><comment><USER3> What no one seems to think about is the potential health consequences of this application of nanotech.

This is basically something made with particles that are much smaller than your cells. The material can probably get into your body by osmosis alone. Will the materials affect your body? Cause cancer? Get stuck in your lungs? Do something else that we don't know? There has been very little research on this area, and the little research that has been done is worrying. Putting this in consumer products is a very large and uncontrolled experiment.

We should be careful of starting to use materials like these with no further study or testing. There is a risk we might end up looking like the guys who brushed their teeth with radium or used a portable x-ray video machine to examine their kids' feet at the shoe store.

<comment><USER4> "x-ray video machine to examine their kids' feet at the shoe store"

Except there's no real evidence this ever hurt anyone?

And xrays are an incredible medical marvel that has saved millions of lives.

Fear hurts more than it ever helps, if they had delayed xrays for even a few years imagine how many more deaths there would have been.

The precautionary principle is a dangerous idea that has somehow has gotten mainstream acceptance. It regularly kills people, people somehow think it's a safe concept when it's not.

<comment><USER5> You're posing a false dichotomy, in that we either use X-rays for everything, or nothing. Using X-rays for medical imaging is worth the risk, using them to try on shoes isn't.

Consequently, using this material to avoid getting your boots soaked and freezing to death on a mountain might be worth the risk, but using it on your coat isn't.

The truth is that, indeed, we don't know the health risks. Fear has saved more lives than taken, I suspect.

<comment><USER4> Through the magic of hind-site you can claim there is no dichotomy.

xrays could have given cancer to the people conducting the treatments. Using fear, xrays should have never been used for anything.

Is it worth the risk that doctors using xrays might get cancer to save some patients?

Is it worth the risk of giving a patient cancer just because they might have a 10% chance of a life threatening injury.

If you look at all clichéd stuffups with technology their kill rates are tiny, often like DDT they saved many many lives.

Now take all the things people get scared of - TV, Mobile phones, electricity towers, chemicals(What ever this means).

Mobile phones perhaps should only be used for emergencies in case they are cancer causing. Imaging how many 3rd world people would die if we made the decision.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This stuff seriously seems like a game changer. Could be all hype but if it's legit I think it'll be huge.

Never having to clean the toilet again in itself would be amazing. Cost reductions in business here alone is significant.

Anti graffiti capabilities would make it huge for government applications. On park benches etc keeping communal equipment from ageing. The whole cleaning industry could be changed.

Waterproofing electronics.

Hygiene in hospitals might save many, many lives.

I do like living in the future.

<comment><USER6> Anti-graffiti use is the first thing that sprung to my mind as well.

As you said, it may all be hype- but if it delivers, I suspect that the company making it (UltraTech?) is going to have a nice few years ahead of it :)

<comment><USER7> How about making graffity with it in a rainy place? It could look very cool and would be hidden most of the time.

<comment><USER8> An art student I know did this at my school (U of Calgary) about three years ago. The design is invisible unless it rains or you splash a bucket of water on the wall. It's also in a low-traffic area, so I don't think very many people know about it.

<comment><USER7> Is it still there / how long did it last?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For those curious about the composition of the hydrophobic coating, the FDA and USDA guidance docs talk about the constituents:

[http://www.spillcontainment.com/sites/default/files/FDA%20an...](http://www.spillcontainment.com/sites/default/files/FDA%20and%20USDA%20approvals%2010-1-12.pdf)

It looks like it is fumed silica in carrier solvent with polyurethane adhesive. The fumed silica is branded "Aerosil", and made by Evonik:

[https://www.aerosil.com/product/aerosil/en/products/hydropho...](https://www.aerosil.com/product/aerosil/en/products/hydrophobic- fumed-silica/pages/default.aspx)

Interestingly, it looks like Avon has a patent that covers applying hydrophobic Aerosil to keratin fibers (hair):

[http://www.google.com/patents/EP2293760A1?cl=en&dq=evoni...](http://www.google.com/patents/EP2293760A1?cl=en&dq=evonik+hydrophobic&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9T0WUbzZKZHviQLr3ICADQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwADgU)

<comment><USER10> "[0025] As used herein, the term "keratin fiber" includes hair of the scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, facial hair, and body hair such as hair of the arms, legs, etc. Keratin fibers are not limited to humans and also include any keratin fibers from a mammal, such as, for example, pet hair and mammalian fur."

I see. They've patented the waterproof dog. ;)

<comment><USER11> Water proof cow?

No need for barns, they can't get wet

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The demo at about the 1:50 mark with the liquid gathered in the center of the glass pane is mindblowing. The firs thting I thought of was using the hydrophobic stuff as a mask for pcb fabrication using a copper sulphate solution for the hydro part. That's probably pointless for the purpose, but it seems like this would be an insanely useful manufacturing technology.

<comment><USER2> Well wow. You know what? "We" already came upon this idea (the last sentence) and you will be seeing something cool in about 5-7 years. :)

<comment><USER12> OK, you do the product development, I'll file the inevitable patent lawsuit, and we can both be famous!

<comment><USER2> ...and rich!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Useful for surfaces which only come in contact with liquids. Not so much for a lot of stuff they demonstrate though, like hammer, gloves, boots, or generally anything where the coating would rub off in less than half a day's work.

Also, how many construction workers are concerned with keeping their work boots and gloves free of dirt stains? lol.

<comment><USER14> _how many construction workers are concerned with keeping their work boots and gloves free of dirt stains_

Many actually, especially toward the completion of projects when interior decorations are starting to be installed and the architect/owner/designer may demand removal of boots to prevent workers from tracking dirt on freshly laid carpet and flooring (I've seen this mostly on high-end residential but it also happens on commercial projects).

<comment><USER12> That sounds odd (removal of boots) to me since it compromises safety and creates liability. Hardware and paint supply stores sell tough fabric bootees that fit over regular workboots for this sort of situation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Was curious what happened if you inhaled it. Nothing specific on their site, but it does say:

        The coating has been found to be safe for use in nonfood contact areas
        of food processing plants. The coating meets FDA and USDA regulations for those
        types of applications.

Still curious.

<comment><USER16> I remember seeing old videos of this tech used inside a ketchup bottle. I wonder if we're going to see food-safe versions soon on products like toothpaste and peanut butter :)

<comment><USER17> That was MIT's "LiquiGlide"[1]. Theirs was created from food-safe materials.

[1] [http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679878/mits-freaky-non-stick- coa...](http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679878/mits-freaky-non-stick-coating- keeps-ketchup-flowing)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This reminds me of that spray you can buy at the shoe store. It does work, for a while. Also see "LiquiGlide":

[http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679878/mits-freaky-non-stick- coa...](http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679878/mits-freaky-non-stick-coating- keeps-ketchup-flowing)

</comment><comment><USER19> Watching the video one wonders whether they sprayed the "untreated" side of the tests with a hydro _philic_ coating, to actively attract more liquid. Some of those looked a bit _too_ sticky.

Guess we'll never know :)

</comment><comment><USER20> Spray this inside your computer everywhere except at key places requiring cooling (like on the top of the CPU). Flood the computer with water. Passive silent cooling !

<comment><USER21> People are already doing immersive liquid cooling with oils. Distilled water should be safe, too, as it's completely non-conductive.

EDIT: Follow-ups, thanks for the correction.

<comment><USER22> Distilled water is a bad choice. While deionized water is non-conductive, it can act as a solvent for so many things that almost any impurities it comes in contact with will result in the water being made conductive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> For reference, there's also NeverWet[0] (I recall seeing their ad a few years ago) and MIT's 'non-stick coating' (has an HN thread[1]).

Apparently a few superhydrophobic coating solutions exist already. On the first sight it looks like Ultra Ever Dry beat everyone in getting their product to consumer market, though.

[0] <http://www.neverwet.com/>

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4010762>

</comment><comment><USER24> Wear, tear and abrasions is what will certainly reduce the possible area of deployment. Unless this materials happens to be very resistant to abrasions.

</comment><comment><USER25> The comment about painting the boat reminds me of supercavitation <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercavitation> used to greatly increase speed of some torpedos.

You could probably retain stability of the boat by painting stripes from front to back. They would act similar to fins.

</comment><comment><USER26> I see a version of this every year. Still never seen it released commercially, or even non commercially.

<comment><USER27> <http://www.ultraeverdrystore.com/products/> isn't a commercial release? (Admittedly I didn't try ordering any.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I so much want this...

The site the OP links to is called "Global Industrial" but the only country available on the checkout page is "United States".

(Why they call themselves "global" is beyond me; why they need a select box for only one option is further beyond.)

</comment><comment><USER29> Something like that has been available for years in Germany. I'm wondering why it didn't have the success I expected it to. <http://en.dienanoexperten.de/>

<comment><USER30> They have no prices and no links to where you can buy things.

<comment><USER29> When I first saw them (it must have been more than a year ago) there was an online shop, but I can't find it anymore. I also remember a discussion here in HN about the safety of the material (which is basically glass, but with a new configuration). I wonder what happened in the meantime.

EDIT: found it: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1092741>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I guess this is what it might have felt like when people first saw plastics.

<comment><USER32> and Bakelite

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Like the article mentioned, coating a boat seems like it could be awesome. No drag, zip through the water. If it does work like that, I'd imagine we'll also start seeing it in competitive swim suits.

<comment><USER2> It will reduce the drag, not eliminate it. Shark skin use this concept.

[http://www.beilstein- journals.org/bjnano/content/pdf/2190-42...](http://www.beilstein- journals.org/bjnano/content/pdf/2190-4286-2-9.pdf) A good introduction, and from a journal without paywalls, and having quality papers on the subject.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> If someone were to spray themselves with this and fall into a body of water (pool, lake, ocean) wouldn't they drown? I would imagine that it would be very difficult to swim.

<comment><USER30> No, it'd be like wearing a thin layer of very smooth clothing. The effect is only seen very close to the surface

<comment><USER35> To be fair, when facing drowning, the "very close to the surface" part is the part that matters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> When they stuck the work gloves into water, the effect of the treated glove looked exactly like Magic Sand. I loved playing with that hydrophobic stuff when I was a kid:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1id-gHQjbs>

</comment><comment><USER37> I want this on all of my clothes! How cool would that be? Never sweaty!

<comment><USER38> well, no... you'd drip sweat.

<comment><USER37> Yea, it drips on the ground instead of soaking in and making me smell bad. Worth it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> No home-owners in this thread? I'm thinking _roof and gutters_.

<comment><USER40> Well, gutters don't get clogged with water. They get physically clogged with leaves and dirt. I don't think this coating would help at all with that.

<comment><USER39> They get clogged with snow & ice. I'm curious if a coating of this would let the snow and ice flow off the roof and gutters instead of freezing to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Superhydrophobia is way cooler than hydrophobia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies>

</comment><comment><USER42> I wonder what that would be like on a car... Would you never have to clean it again? How much water would that save in the U.S. from being wasted?

<comment><USER43> Only if you have a white car, though. From the specs, the color of the coating is a translucent white, so that pretty much eliminates possible use on any other paint than white.

<http://www.ultraeverdrystore.com/products/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Very interesting technology, known since more than 10 years now and widespread in 2007-8 on the WWW.

I guess many applications will be found in every day life.

</comment><comment><USER45> Reminded me of this: <http://liquidglassshield.com/>, which looks very similar.

</comment><comment><USER46> Clark Griswold would be impressed.

</comment><comment><USER47> Can someone buy this and do a comprehensive review?

</comment><comment><USER48> This is how Michael Phelps won his Olympic medals?

</comment><comment><USER49> So, we don't know what it is, how it works, or if the ad is fake, but this is worthy of the NPR banner? It's like they use the label "blog" to mean "BS link bait crap".

We expect better from NPR.

<comment><USER50> Robert Krulwich is one of their pop-science journalists/bloggers, this is pretty much what he does. He's one of the co-hosts of RadioLab, an entertaining pop-sci radio show on NPR. I think you're disappointed because this is the first time you've been able to recognize pop science reporting for what it is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Headline directly contradicts safety advice in the article. Bad NPR.

</comment><comment><USER51> That's amazing.

Finally such a thing has been invented. That's the future. I'm looking forward for other incredible nanomaterials.</comment>


Evaluating the privacy implications of a canvas fingerprinting countermeasure - <AUTHOR> https://antoinevastel.com/tracking/2018/07/01/eval-canvasdef.html <comment><USER2> OK, so how _does_ one interfere with canvas fingerprinting?

I mean, we know that simply blocking it doesn't work.[0]

0) [https://multiloginapp.com/how-canvas-fingerprint-blockers- ma...](https://multiloginapp.com/how-canvas-fingerprint-blockers-make-you- easily-trackable/)

<comment><USER3> Mozilla is planning to block it (and the APIs it relies on) by default for all content, I think, regardless of how many apps it breaks. That seems like a reasonable countermeasure since people with canvas fingerprinting blocked will not be a small identifiable group.

<comment><USER2> That's _great_ news. Thanks.

And that reminds me, Apple too in macOS: [https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/05/apple-safari-canvas- fing...](https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/05/apple-safari-canvas- fingerprinting/)

<comment><USER4> Yeah, that's great. Blocking/spoofing fingerprinting is a bit like wearing a mask. If it's only a handful of people, it may even be worse from a privacy/tracking perspective -> _look, the guy with the mask_

<comment><USER2> Well, if Canvas Defender actually worked, you could change fingerprints daily or weekly or whatever. So you'd still have a valid fingerprint. Just not invarient.

<comment><USER4> Still, you'd get a pretty unique fingerprint, so even if it changes, it can help reduce the entropy bits if the trackers are half smart (hey, this is the guy with the Nixon mask, now he's wearing an Obama mask instead). You don't need to just hide your real fingerprint, you need to make it look like everybody else's.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It doesn't seem like canvas defender replaces HTMLCanvasElement.prototype.getImageData anyway, so one could simply use that to generate a hash.

Hiding the fact that the function in non-native requires replacing Function.prototype.toString with something that will return a fake result if the function being tested is one of the modified ones. If an userscript replaces that toString prototype before you can grab it, I'm unaware of any other way to test if a function is native.

</comment><comment><USER6> How does canvas fingerprinting work when Javascript is disabled in the browser?

What if the HTTP client used to fetch the page does not run third party Javascript?</comment>


Zenefits Co-Founder Sold Stock Months Before Scandal - <AUTHOR> https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/zenefits-co-founder-sold-stock-months-before-scandal?utm_term=.ytkWxqokvb#.wxwM4X2kPN <comment><USER2> I never would have believed it a few years ago, but Buzzfeed has become a force in investigative journalism.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is it too much to ask that the article go into some detail about why this should bother me as a Zenefits employee? How does this compare to other founders? Would this be a disturbing sign to investors? What is the point of the headline if none of this is going to be discussed?

<comment><USER4> It insinuates fraud took place.

<comment><USER3> does it?

<comment><USER4> Did Conrad know he was breaking the law ("macro", perjurying one's self to insurance regulators, etc) when he sold his stock to someone? Did he disclose this material information?

All signs point to yes for the first question, and no to the second. As a Zenefits employee, it probably doesn't matter much to you. It does matter to whomever bought his stock.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Awesome for him!</comment>


Netbook Boom Likely To End With Better Economy  - <AUTHOR> http://www.techweb.com/article/showArticle?articleID=217201079&section=News

<comment><USER2> I disagree because I think there are two fundamental drives to the Netbook craze that are not dependent on the recession.

1\. Netbooks typically are not the main laptop of the user. As such, they do not need to be super fancy and used more as a very portable backup.

2\. As computers get more powerful, more and more people are finding that most applications can run without massive computing power. Thus, people are starting to find Netbooks to be a much better value than their more expensive counter-parts.

</comment><comment><USER3> What a load of hogwash. I'm considering adding a netbook to the stable. This would add to the 3 laptops and 5 desktop computers already in this house. The reason is for the portability, not because of the power. Small enough to take with you, large enough to have a proper screen and keyboard and run real applications. They're everything PDA's definitively are not. People buy them for the cheapness and portability, not because they can't afford something bigger.

</comment><comment><USER4> Rubbish. If people have plenty money to buy laptops for themselves, they'll still buy netbooks for their kids. In fact the relative lack of power will be an asset, since parents won't want to think they're buying one so the kids can run Crysis.

</comment><comment><USER5> Weren't they booming before the economy tanked? They're small, dirt cheap and you can get online with 'em. That's not a hard sell no matter what the economy.

</comment><comment><USER6> Ridiculous. Netbooks and phones are convergent.</comment>


Scylla Summit 2017: SMF: The Fastest RPC in the West [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdFYY3vEcxo <comment><AUTHOR> Associated slides: [https://www.slideshare.net/ScyllaDB/scylla- summit-2017-smf-t...](https://www.slideshare.net/ScyllaDB/scylla- summit-2017-smf-the-fastest-rpc-in-the-west)</comment>


The Future of Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://nathany.com/ruby-design

<comment><USER2> It's not really clear what the issue is/are.

Anyone can propose a change. It just takes a lot of effort because language changes often have a lot of ramified implications. Most of the ideas are crap and it's frustrating to the originator but adding a process won't solve that issue.

Most of the discussions are available trough <http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/> or the ruby-core mailing-list and the language's behaviour is well defined thanks to the <http://rubyspec.org/> project.

The only real issue that I know of is that some of the discussions are done in Japanese which secludes the biggest part of the developers. Instead of proposing a scatter-gun solution it would be great to have something specific in that regard.

<comment><USER3> The largest issue seems to be that Ruby implementations other than MRI have to replicate its bugs in order to be considered a 'Ruby'. A language specification/design would help to solve that problem.

I for one would like to see a focus put on cleaning up the standard library (gem-ifying much of it?) rather than a design committee.

<comment><USER4> I still don't really get the problem.

If a bug is recognised as such, simply don't implement it in the same way. If it's not, it's either a bug not previously discovered or intended behaviour.

<comment><USER5> Easier said than done when developers have "write once, run anywhere" expectations. Mono famously has to duplicate bugs when implementing .NET.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Some of this has been tried in Ruby before. They're called RCRs (Ruby Change Requests).

[http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2003/12/19/new-ruby- change-...](http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2003/12/19/new-ruby-change- request-rcr-process/)

The experiment…failed.

<http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/148408>

While it would be nice to see more discussion off-email, I think that's hard enough to be unlikely.

<comment><USER7> That's an interesting find.

I hope the failure in 2003-2008 doesn't predetermine the outcome of such an effort in 2012, assuming such an effort does takes place.

<comment><USER6> For me, it wasn't a find. I was there. In the wars. The horrors I could tell you of the RCR Wars of ought-five… The find was merely providing a [citation] to my memory of the earlier process.

Seriously, problems around things like refinements aside, it seems to me that Ruby is progressing _faster_ and more _regularly_ than it has for years. Yes, it sometimes takes major alarmist posts by non-MRI implementers to get the attention of enough people to get a course adjusted (e.g., refinements), but I think that we're seeing much better collaboration and development on Ruby and more compatible Rubies than would be possible with the RCR mechanisms that were previously involved.

Imperfect, but by keeping to the tools that the main developers already use (email)…it is less problematic. I also think that it has helped that there have been implementor summits at several of the major conferences. Further, I think that it's helped that Matz himself is _also_ working on an alternative implementation (mruby).

<comment><USER7> The communication is improving and Matz is onboard. I was really happy to see the IRC logs from December 10th. At least people are talking.

As mruby gains traction, people will want to know the differences between mruby and MRI. I think it's a perfect reason for Matz to be involved in RubySpec, and for an accessible language reference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> So, basically its People with ad-hoc system Vs Process advocates.

It would be interesting how these discussions pan our. something to keep an eye on

<comment><AUTHOR> I think Python's process is pretty ad-hoc too, in that anyone can champion an idea and everyone can discuss on the mailing list. There aren't many formalities, other than (1) a few core people get to make the final decision, and (2) at the end of the discussion the yes/no stamp (and importantly, the reasoning behind the decision) is documented.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Perl has/had this same problem. The route forward, that was chosen, was to formalize the process with Perl6. It's been 12 years in the making so far, it's not quite production ready, and it's certainly very different than Perl5.

The lesson I learn from this is that with programming languages governance is part of the thing, radical changes affect everything. The language is not hived off from its governance.

</comment><comment><USER10> > If someone were to say "Ruby is defined by its' > implementation", we could > not argue... [ elided ] > This is why we need a language reference.

Huh?

I'm entirely open to the ideas proposed here, but I fail to see any ACTUAL benefits. The fact that a new process to define and manage the language prevents a rhetorical device from being used - that's a serious argument in favor of the change?

Am I missing something?

<comment><USER11> A formal definition of the language could separate implementaion specific bugs from actual language features. It would thus help implementers of alternative implementations of Ruby.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why are companies paying ransom ware fees? - <AUTHOR> Can anyone explain? <comment><USER2> Obviously it would be better in the long-term, global perspective for no one to pay. If no one paid, no one would continue making ransomware.

But that requires that the everyone hit by ransomware before people give up on making it be willing to sacrifice their own good for the good of those who would be hit after them, since equally obviously it's better for a company to lose $20k than $20MM worth of information.

It is very difficult to get people to sacrifice their own good for the good of others in the future, even when that future global good vastly outweighs the present local good.

See also: Climate change

</comment><comment><USER3> It is simple, as others have said. It is a small cost to pay to get back in business quickly.

That said, what is going to happen is no different then what has happened in history for other forms of "terrorism" (which essentially ransomware is, someone is terrorizing an organization by holding them hostage).

Once a company has been hit multiple times or has had enough the company will assemble one or more response teams, they will spend money to go after the people and start preventing it, that is when companies will stop paying. Companies already get the authorities involved, but face it that is an investigation after the fact right now. It won't change until companies essentially protect themselves better and become more offensive in nature, which in some corners they are doing. BTW -- offensive doesn't mean they are out killing people, just that they are putting on an offense to prevent this stuff instead of waiting for shit to happen and being forced into paying a ransom.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you consider this an assumption? > It is a small cost to pay to get back in business quickly.

Theres no guarantee by paying the ransom that you receive your data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Because the cost of paying is often far lower than the cost of not paying due to lost productivity.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think that this is basically a case of the Prisoner's dilemma. In the long- term, big-picture, it would be best not to cooperate, but each business that has been targeted is in a situation where they need immediate access to their files. Their immediate survival is at stake and they can't afford to make an investment in the long-term view. While it doesn't exactly parallel the formal statement of the dilemma (all victims not participating wouldn't get their files back), in the long term it does by removing the motive for creating the ransomware in the first place.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma)

</comment><comment><USER6> Because they forgot to pay for backups, so don't have copy of the data they need.

</comment><comment><USER7> Well, what's your proposed alternative?

<comment><USER8> Use git?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> for the same reasons we pay taxes.

Its not that we are not capable to crowdfund the construction of a bridge without gov. intervention.</comment>


Opinion: The Mac Pro isn't overpriced, it offers something nothing else does - <AUTHOR> https://flip.it/AEj48p <comment><USER2> The only thing that Mac Pro offers that "nothing else" does is a valid MacOS license in a workstation class tower suitable for pro media production.

I don't know why the author needs to spout bullshit about the specs like you can't build an equivalently (or higher) spec'd machine for less money. You just can't put MacOS on it without some effort and violating the ToS.

As for the MPX connectors, I don't see how those are different than the kinds of PCIE slots you'd see in top of the line ATX/EATX mobos.

As an aside, the improvement over the iMac Pro is largely proper cooling (Apple's AIOs haven't been able to take a fast multicore processor to respectable loads in like a decade) and availability of disk space worth a damn.

<comment><USER3> The afterburner card ...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > "if you needed a 28-core computer with 1.5TB of RAM, would you really be > quibbling on the price"

Yes - when you need a few thousand of these to render your SFX, you shop around for alternatives. Then some startup that recently built a cloud render farm for this exact use case will save you the CapEx, give you a manageable OpEx and prove this Op-Ed wrong. SFX studios are legendary for hiring and firing elastically, you think they care about Apple hardware lock-in?

Also, if you're a software business built on Apple, do some research - they'll fuck you over in a heartbeat. Maybe they'll block you on the Mac Store for using a private API [1], or retroactively apply a bogus rule [2] if they want to compete with you. Control your destiny by moving off an exclusive-Apple strategy

[1]: [https://m.slashdot.org/story/362994](https://m.slashdot.org/story/362994)

[2]: [https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2018/6/5/17430532/apple- app-store-rules-valve-steam-link-game-streaming)

<comment><USER5> Don't most VFX packages now have linux renderers? At least Autodesk Maya's own documentation shows how to kick off renders on a linux CLI and most of the renderers nowadays have headless linux clients.

I guess the mac pro makes sense for animators, etc.

<comment><USER4> > I guess the mac pro makes sense for animators, etc.

Is that because animation software is Mac only? Is there any hardware or software benefit unique to the Mac that they (animation software developers) rely on?

<comment><USER3> Maya , imho , the best animation software, has a native client for Linux.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> On the flip side, it's the only offering from Apple that offers what everyone else does. Nobody is complaining that Apple offers a $6K tower. They're complaining that Apple doesn't offer any towers less than $6K.

I could put a Mac Mini on my desk with half a dozen adapters sticking out of it, but even then I still can't upgrade the RAM. The last Mac Mini with user- upgradeable RAM was 2012.

The 2019 Mac Pro feels to me like an Apple Lisa. Even at 1/4 the price, it would seem steep to me. I want what it has, but there's no way I'll ever be able to justify that.

This is new territory for OSX-era Apple. It didn't used to be so expensive to buy an expandable Mac. You could get a PowerMac G5 for $1800, and a PowerMac G4 from $1500.

<comment><USER7> Although Apple says that users can't upgrade memory, you can. [https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/owc/apple-mac- mini/20...](https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/owc/apple-mac-mini/2018)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> >It is Apple's attempt to meet the needs of people like Ridley Scott and Calvin Harris.

We have already established [1] that even ColdPlay level musicians or Hollywood level Audio effects does not Mac Pro level computational power. Something we assumed for a long time I guess we now have evidence to call this a fact.

And everything in that video could have been done on a iMac Pro or even latest MacBook Pro.

So apart from SFX or Data Science / AI, I cant think of anything that requires these level of Computation power. And none of those are on the Mac Platform.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv5HIrOrn2o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv5HIrOrn2o)

</comment><comment><USER9> It's a legal Hackintosh. You finally get access to workstation class hardware legally from Apple. Running a Hackintosh on an inexpensive surplus server (40 core servers cost less than $1000 on eBay) would serve similar purpose but not be legal.

<comment><USER10> Afaik, Hackintoshes are not illegal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's just first on the consumer market with 32 cores. Wait until AMD and Intel's comparable chips hit the mass market. 32 cores isn't unbelievable l like it use to be.

      Putting multiple graphics cards in a machine has been common for a long time in gaming rigs. Crypto-miners run +12 graphics cards in an attempt to be profitable.

     There's nothing unique mentioned in the article except the proprietary video stream processing, and I guarantee you, there's other high end machines that do the same thing if not more.

I really wonder what the author's specialty is, since he thinks these specs are actually unique to Apple.

<comment><USER12> It's the integration and testing and support that Apple offers.

In fact, the more demanding your requirements, the more likely you need all of these fairly exotic components to work seamlessly together.

If you're working on the next Star Wars movie, there are billions of dollars at stake; you can't rely on some Linux box a guy you know put together, no matter how good the specs supposedly are.

Even if you could get comparable components, you're not going to have the driver support you need. If you have downtime, you can't wait for some guy on an email list who's day job is not supporting this mission critical driver, to get back to you.

And you're not going to get the performance of Apple's APIs like Metal2, etc. which blow OpenGL, etc. away.

<comment><USER13> You get get that from Dell. They and HP have been selling this stuff forever.

<comment><USER12> Yes, Dell and HP sell perfectly fine workstations.

No, there's nothing like the current Mac Pro.

A quick look doesn't show a Dell Precision desktop workstation that goes beyond 48GB RAM, for example, while the Mac Pro goes to 1.5 TB.

I also didn't see anything like the MPX Module:

 _The MPX Module starts with an industry-standard PCI Express connector. Then, for the first time in a graphics card, more PCIe lanes integrate Thunderbolt and additional power provided to increase capability. With up to 500 watts, the MPX Module has power capacity equivalent to that of the entire previous- generation Mac Pro._

Didn't see a way to have up to 8K streams going at the same time or the ability to attach up to 12 4K displays on the Dell site.

It goes on and on. You can _approximate_ a lot of what Apple is offering, but you can't _duplicate_ what they're offering at a lower price.

There's so much Apple-designed silicon in this box, it's literally impossible for Dell, HP or anyone else to compete with off-the-shelf, commodity components.

For the target market Apple is going for, the cost of even a tricked-out Mac Pro is a rounding error.

<comment><USER14> look again at e.g. the Dell 7920:

Up to 3 TB RAM, 4 GPUs with 4 DP ports each if you want, dual processor if you want (so 56 cores), ...

Costs more or less the same as the Mac though, or more if you go higher-spec. MPX might be interesting, although I notice the Apple marketing comparing it to previous Macs and not competing PC-workstation cards, and of course application-dependent.

<comment><USER12> _MPX might be interesting, although I notice the Apple marketing comparing it to previous Macs and not competing PC-workstation cards, and of course application-dependent._

They were saying this one card has more processing power than the last generation Mac Pro.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The Mac Pro is worth exactly what people pay for it. If it sells then who are we to judge it's price/utility?

<comment><USER16> I've always hated the "it's worth what the market will bear truism." We are all part of the market, we all get to contribute to the assessment of value.

<comment><USER4> As much as I disagree with apple's BS pricing, this take on the fundamental definition of market and customer is even less true. They literally didn't expect and count price sensitive buyers as their target customers, so no, you are not the market.

However, I agree with you that their business acumen is lacking, pricing at 25-50% over their best quality competitor would have vastly expanded the market, and their bottom line. But someone is advising them to be the Hermes/Versace of computers and somehow making business sense to decision makers, so this is what we get.

<comment><USER16> I'm not part of the target market segment, but I am part of the market. As another poster pointed out, I could buy one but won't, depriving Apple of revenue. More importantly though, that truism is used to shutdown discussion of value and worth of products and ideas, Even though those discussions in fact actively changing the. We are having a public discussion of price, which may effect purchases of others. If a major publication published an article about how new Mac Pros were failing catastrophically with data loss, it would effect the general assessment of value of a Mac Pro and change the market, even if the author never purchased one.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Fast Resettable Flag Vector - <AUTHOR> http://upcoder.com/9/fast-resettable-flag-vector/

<comment><USER2> The "threshold" counter is a clever idea for optimizing a very specific situation, but it's extremely odd that there's no mention of std::bitset in this article. That won't give you an O(1) reset time, but it'll be a whole lot faster than a vector of bools.

Specifically, vector<bool>::clear() is not at all equivalent to bitset::reset()

<comment><USER3> I agree a bitset is probably a better use here, but this may be a case where the requirements or actual usage numbers tilt the design this way?

I'm guessing if the size of the vector is very large, and the set bits are very sparse, then this threshold counter idea would be faster. But that would beg the question of why a bitset and tracked offsets (similar to the other idea mentioned in the article) wouldn't be fast either. Especially considering the caching effects of the bitset.</comment></comment>


Facebook deletes medical marijuana pages - <AUTHOR> http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2016/02/facebook_cancels_pages_for_medical_marijuana_dispe.html <comment><USER2> Really now, training their classifier to distinguish between pages containing "420" and "bong" versus words like "dispensary" and "medical" couldn't have been very hard. That is, provided you stop and actually think first about what you're trying to classify _for_.

Which apparently no one did, in this case. "Mark says no more pro-drug pages out there, please -- advertisers don't like it." "Mmm OK! Done!"

It doesn't matter how many experts they hire, or how many vanity projects they publish -- or how many fancy graph algorithm questions they ask in their interview process -- if they don't examine the basic, common sense, wetware- level decision-making process that determine how these tools actually get _used_ , they'll never stop making boneheaded mistakes like these.</comment>