Disney Assumes Full Control of Hulu in Deal with Comcast - <AUTHOR> https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/disney-full-control-hulu-comcast-deal-1203214338/ <comment><USER2> I am surprised Disney didn't just buy out universal. If they did they would own all 10 of top 10 grossing movies of all time. As it is they own 8 out of the 10 with the fox purchase.

It feels like Disney is becoming too powerful. I am surprised regulators didn't look harder at the Fox deal.

<comment><USER3> It was an asset deal. Should regulators really be preventing a team of people from buying up historical intellectual property? Fox put its property on the market, this wasnt a hostile takover.

<comment><USER4> Yes when one group starts to control too much. I feel like that's the primary purpose of antitrust regulations.

<comment><USER5> Benedict Evens' newsletter this week made a good point in regards to breaking up tech:

"anti-trust theory, on both the diagnosis side and the remedy side, seems to be flummoxed when faced by products that are free or as cheap as possible, and that do not rely on familiar kinds of restrictive practices (the tying of Standard Oil) for their market power. The US in particular has tended to focus exclusively on price, where the EU has looked much more at competition, but neither has a good account of what exactly is wrong with Amazon"

I think this is salient...what is Disney doing (so far) to BLOCK competition?

<comment><USER6> In actual film theaters (not VOD) they're forcing theaters to give up a larger % of the ticket revenue, requiring that films be shown in the larger auditoriums and enforcing multi-week showtimes.

This article describes the requirements for The Last Jedi, but my understanding is that this is pretty close to the requirements for any Marvel/StarWars/Disney film at this point.

[https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-requirements-to- show-...](https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-requirements-to-show-star- wars-the-last-jedi-in-theaters-2017-11)

<comment><USER7> I have no doubt the requirements for Endgame were ridiculous. I waited a week to see it and of the 9 screens in my local Cineplex, 8 of them were still showing Endgame. The theater I was in was mostly empty, although to be fair it was a Sunday matinee.

I can kind of see demanding that kind of coverage for the first week, but for a second week you're just robbing from competing films and the theaters themselves.

<comment><USER8> >for a second week you're just robbing from competing films and the theaters themselves.

Which is absolutely the point

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why is Disney going to keep their Disney Plus streaming service separate from Hulu??? Why is Disney keeping ESPN Plus streaming service separate from Hulu (with hulu's massive push into live sports this year)???

<comment><USER10> It's actually a really wise business decision to keep all these separate.

\- Hulu advertising tier: this can be the dumping ground for all the mainstream network television that Disney and Fox owned, allowing them to monetize that content after broadcast

\- Hulu premium: compete with Netflix for premium television, can be more mature, and allows for monetizing viewers willing to pay for ad-free.

\- Disney+: obviously a different brand with content requirements, it can allow Disney to grow their brand, and monetize the most "die-hard" fans, on top of other channels.

\- ESPN+: live is very important, and allows premium advertising revenues to be generated. Sports does not have much crossover with other channels, and has unique business models.

All of these allow Disney to continue making tons of money from the current cable bundles, while opening new markets and segments for monetization, all while defending against threats like Netflix, etc.

I don't own Disney stock, but their current situation seems very considered, given the current market and where it is going. I think they have single handedly disrupted Netflix's plan to be the new "TV".

<comment><USER11> Netflix can't be the new "TV" in the traditional sense. The two lanes of consumption, traditional live linear and VOD (video-on-demand), have different audiences with different needs. Netflix can compete in the later but Disney is going for BOTH.

<comment><USER12> > traditional live linear and VOD (video-on-demand), have different audiences > with different needs

{{citation needed}}

I found myself enjoying live Tennis on Amazon Prime, and it serves a very similar purpose to me as watching their vod shows

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm worried that it will be difficult for the majority of people to realize how domineering Disney is beginning to become due to it's historic legacy. It's easy for someone to immediately point fingers at a company blandly titled Comcast or Viacom.

It's hard for someone not at least somewhat industry aware to see evil in the Mickey Mouse Mass Media Cruise Ship Marvel Starwars Conglomerate.

</comment><comment><USER11> Biggest take away from me is that NBC is raking in $500MM a year on their catalog, wow.

</comment><comment><USER14> What if Yahoo had gained traction in video streaming as part of their MaVeNS strategy? It seems like even if they were an also ran as a streaming service they would have added a lot of value to the company. Unfortunately they did not execute successfully. But in hindsight I think that was a very good idea.

</comment><comment><USER15> Seems like Hulu is US only. At least I can't subscribe to them where I'm living. Can't really understand why they don't like to take my money. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to pay them, so that I could at least watch Handmaid's Tale.

<comment><USER16> Worked at a similar company. The answer is licensing. It would require a complicated, multi-party legal re-negotiation, and I suspect Hulu doesn't see the upside.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Now that they have Hulu and Disney + , ESPN + and MoviesAnywhere,will there be a combined offering in line?

hope they don't kill Hulu's $6 ad supported plans..

</comment><comment><USER18> What can I say, Playstation Vue is in deep trouble

</comment><comment><USER19> Revert copyright back to the original 28 years and Disney's increasing domination of the media market becomes less of a concern. Of course this probably won't happen because the US and other world governments exist to serve Disney and their shareholders, but it's the easiest way to fix this that doesn't involve a long and complicated antitrust case that the government might lose in the courts.

If you want to be even more daring and spend a little bit of public money, you could have a publicly financed streaming service with most major public domain works. You could make it available through the Library of Congress.

<comment><USER20> I don't see the public interest angle here. This is merely entertainment. If even entertainment is something the government should be butting into because of unspecified "public interest" considerations, then what is _outside_ the government's role?

Goodfellas, Dances with Wolves, Edward Scissorhands, Total Recall, Ghost, the Hunt for Red October, Back to the Future III, Pretty Woman, and the Godfather Part III were all released in 1990, 29 years ago. These were all created by a group of individuals, and studios spent millions of dollars paying those people to make those movies. The government had nothing to do with creating any of those movies. Why should the government be able to take those movies and release them for free?

<comment><USER21> By this logic there should no copyright protection in the first place for entertainment. Why should the government use law enforcement resources to track down people and take away their freedoms because they copied a movie?

Only because the government is already involved, protecting their interests, is there even anything to "take" in the first place.

<comment><USER20> The government shouldn't use law enforcement resources to enforce copyright. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to file a civil suit for infringement. That doesn't cost the government anything other than the general cost of having courts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> All these media monsters are already too big. They should be split apart, not allowed to buy more stuff.

</comment><comment><USER23> We used to have an entertainment industry in the United States. Now we just have Disney and Comcast. But $DEITY forbid we use existing antitrust laws (not to mention the Commerce Clause in the Constitution) to break up the megacorporations and clear the field for meaningful competition, because that would be _socialism_ and we can't have that.

</comment><comment><USER24> Name a movie that doesn't belong to Disney in 10sec. Go.</comment>


What are your metrics for success in life? - <AUTHOR> What does success mean to you? How do you measure it? <comment><USER2> How well I sleep. Am I worried or confident? What keeps me up at night? This may not work in your 20s but the older you get the less you can bullshit yourself, especially not at 3 o'clock in the morning. Though it is certainly possible and quite likely to have irrational fears, the quality of the fear doesn't matter; my metric is to have as much inner peace as possible.

</comment><comment><USER3> Success in life for me is how much free time I have to work on things I want.</comment>


40 years on astronomers have revisited the pulsar from the iconic album cover - <AUTHOR> https://theconversation.com/joy-division-40-years-on-from-unknown-pleasures-astronomers-have-revisited-the-pulsar-from-the-iconic-album-cover-119861 <comment><AUTHOR> Full title: "Joy Division: 40 years on from 'Unknown Pleasures', astronomers have revisited the pulsar from the iconic album cover"</comment>


Twitter bans security maven for sharing naughty link - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/09/twitter_bans_security_maven/ <comment><USER2> There should've been a recovery process, obviously. But still this is something even google has taken wrong: automating things without a back button.

PS: Anyway Twitter is on right track with having malware protection. It just need some tuning.

</comment><comment><USER3> What's worse, having your account suspended or having to read that message explaining the reasoning? Talk about adding insult to injury...

</comment><comment><USER4> Obviously there needs to be a clear process to reclaim an incorrectly flagged account... But maybe you also should post barely obfuscated links to malware on Twitter.</comment>


Morons Judging Ballmer's Performance - <AUTHOR> http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2013/08/28/defending-ballmer/

<comment><USER2> There is a saying in Argentina that we have forty million soccer coaches because everyone talks like an expert while watching a soccer match.

<comment><USER3> There is a saying in Russia that if you aren't satisfied with what government officials do, go and sue them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well, at least _someone_ is willing to defend Ballmer in public. Microsoft's revenue and profit increased tremendously over Ballmer's tenure. But that still doesn't make Ballmer a good CEO. The profit was mostly from continuation of monopoly products that existed before Ballmer became CEO.

What follows is a rant that I posted on the linked website:

You have neglected to discuss the many many failures Uncle Fester was responsible for.

Here's a simple failure: Zune, the brown bar of turd. Born purely from Apple envy. Even my pre-teen children knew it was destined for failure, why couldn't Fester figure it out? Did he surround himself with toadies who were afraid to give him honest advice? The posters at Mini-Msft seem to think so.

But it's not just Zune, it's obvious to the most casual observer that Microsoft can't be trusted (in the Zune arena or in any other). Why did they abandon PlaysForSure when they introduced Zune? How could they be trusted again after doing something that stupid? Microsoft has been stabbing customers and partners in the back for decades. It continues with how Surface just stabbed all their hardware partners in the back. And still failed. To me that's long-term failure, nothing to be proud of.

And then there's stack ranking. Which means Microsoft can't ever put together a team of ten star people to achieve something more than mediocrity. Because in six months only one or two of those ten will be considered a star, seven will be "meh", and one will be in the process of being pushed out the door. What a brilliant plan for long term success. Stack ranking is almost universally despised within Microsoft, and yet Fester still thinks it's a great idea. That's not being tone deaf, that's gross stupidity.

I don't blame Fester for failing at big things, such as missing mobile. That's something that the visionary Steve Jobs got right, but many others failed at. I blame Fester for failing at simple things that even teenagers know are stupid.

<comment><USER5> _" You have neglected to discuss the many many failures Uncle Fester was responsible for....Even my pre-teen children knew it was destined for failure..."_

Sure, even your pre-teen children and other arm-chair analysts would have grown revenue and earnings like Ballmer did. It's easy to say "revenue and profit increased tremendously over Ballmer's tenure" but find a thing here and there. How about wondering how bad Microsoft might have been under a different CEO? Ballmer's Microsoft might have screwed up a few things (who hasn't!) but a nice $25 Billion profit a year allows room for that.

P.S. These writers get paid to write and attract clicks : Ballmer is in the news so I am gonna fill my quota with Ballmer today.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Keysniffer – an academic functional Linux kernel mode keylogger - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jarun/keysniffer <comment><AUTHOR> `keysniffer` is a Linux kernel module to grab keys pressed in the keyboard, or a keylogger.

It's also an academic project for devs willing to learn Linux kernel module programming, with extensive comments, checkpatch.pl scanned code, standards- compliant Makefile and DKMS support.

`keysniffer` was initially written for the US keyboard (and conforming laptops). By default it shows human-readable strings for the keys pressed. Optionally, the keycode shift_mask pair can be printed in hex or decimal. You can lookup the keycodes in `/usr/include/linux/input-event-codes.h`.

The keypress logs are recorded in debugfs as long as the module is loaded.</comment>


How I come up with (and kill) new startup ideas - <AUTHOR> http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/2011/12/how-i-come-up-with-new-startup-ideas-in-4-steps/

<comment><USER2> Great job for highlighting "your assets" and "your constraints", which deserves much more attention than they are receiving.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very cool!

I'm going to apply this to my own pile of ideas. Picking an idea and focussing on it has always been my main problem. (See my idea-pile here: <http://ideashower.posterous.com>)

</comment><comment><USER4> Nice, he's using the Business Model Canvas: <http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/>

</comment><comment><USER5> For some reason this site is unzoomable on android and is basically unreadable.</comment>


How to Create a Repeatable Consulting Process - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/100k-freelancing/100k-15-creating-a-repeatable-consulting-process-w-kelsey-kreiling-dabee1b19c6e <comment><AUTHOR> Hey! Interviewer here. Willing to answer questions about the interview topic if you have them. Hope this helps!</comment>


OverStock.com will pay $5K for s/w developer referrals (java). - <AUTHOR> http://www.overstock.com/javajobs

<comment><USER2> The market is getting really tough to find people. I new this was coming when the .com bust happened and the outsourcing craze was at it's peak. I remember I had went back to school at the time of the .com bust and it was literally one day a full class and the next it was me and two other guys. When the quick bucks where gone, the classrooms emptied. I remember thinking then 5-10 years from now it is going to be very interesting. It is looking more and more like those days have come, with the giants sucking up all of the talent whether directly or by proxy through contracting outfits, guys like Overstocked are left to fight for shelf space on the recruiting isle.</comment>


If Programming Languages Were Running Shoes - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@tygertec/if-programming-languages-were-running-shoes-2ec50fc7f8a1 <comment><AUTHOR> Alternate link, for the huddled, Mediumless masses: [https://www.tygertec.com/programming-languages-running- shoes...](https://www.tygertec.com/programming-languages-running-shoes/)

</comment><comment><USER2> PHP: a pair of worn out Crocs. HTML CSS: a pair of unmatched flip flops</comment>


Upstart's Credit Decision API for instant credit decisions - <AUTHOR> https://www.upstart.com/blog/introducing-credit-decision-api <comment><USER2> Has anyone used this? If so, happy with the functionality? I'd be interested in using this to decision borrowers for auto loans.</comment>


Here's What I Think My Purpose in Life Is - <AUTHOR> http://www.michaelthomasblog.com/writing/on-purpose <comment><USER2> A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Focus on taking that step.

But purpose can also depend on beliefs. If you believe in reincarnation for example, making the world a better place is a valid goal, since you are much more likely to be reborn in Africa/South Asia in absolute poverty than in the richer parts of the world or in a rich family.</comment>


30 Interview Questions You Can't Ask and 30 Sneaky, Legal Alternatives to Get the Same Info - <AUTHOR> http://www.hrworld.com/features/30-interview-questions-111507/ <comment><USER2> And we're supposed to respect assholes like this?

It's good to know there are employers who waste valuable interview time wondering whether the guy with the funny-sounding name with a great track record and a degree from IIT is a (gasp) _Hindu_! A god-damned heathen Hindu! Jesus H. _Christ_ , we do not hire heathens at this here company.

<comment><USER3> Reading between the lines...bigotry against Christians.

In any case, calm down. I would frankly think twice about someone who actively worshipped a magic multi-armed, elephant-headed monstrosity.

<comment><USER4> Your post demonstrates bigotry against Hindus - no reading between the lines is necessary. Before you post ignorant comments, perhaps you should read the Bhagavad-Gita.

What if the best coder you had ever seen happened to be a Hindu? If you still thought twice about this person based on their religious belief, I would think twice about your judgment.

Most (all?) religions require their followers to take something on faith, which implies suspending scientific, critical judgement. And most people believe in some religion (computer scientists included - Knuth is an obvious example).

In other words, beliefs have little to do with intellectual ability/productiveness/excellence in software. Get over it.

<comment><USER3> If somebody _literally_ believed in a multi-armed, elephant-headed monstrosity up in the clouds granting wishes[1], I would THINK TWICE about him. I reserve the right to THINK TWICE about people who are completely deluded. As an employer, might I still exploit this person's labor? Quite possibly. But you better believe that modern-day medievalists give reason for pause. Most people are only nominally religious, or behave so, which is expected.

Sorry for repeating myself, but when I say something that is 100 percent reasonable, I don't really like taking a lot of shit from people.

 _ignorant comments, perhaps you should read the Bhagavad-Gita_

The day I read the Bhagavad-Gita or Rama-rama Ding Dong for that matter in order to _reduce_ my ignorance is the day I die.

 _which implies suspending scientific, critical judgement_

...which implies stupidity. I know, I know. That's the problem. I don't want people suspending scientific, critial judgement.

[1] Or whatever the hell it does--it's not relevant.

<comment><USER4> Suspending scientific, critical judgement wrt religious beliefs does NOT imply stupidity - I thought my previous post made that pretty clear.

As to not wanting to read the Bhagavad-Gita, I don't really care if you do or don't - but don't expect to be taken seriously when you deride Hinduism.

And if you don't like taking a lot of shit from people, perhaps you could try respecting others first.

<comment><USER3> _but don't expect to be taken seriously when you deride Hinduism_

There's a whole army of people on reddit and elsewhere who deride Christianity endlessly and are very much taken seriously when they do so. It's a common double-standard, and I'm always amazed when people get offended by it merely being pointed out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sneaky is right.

It's good to know that the HR industry is trained to be a giant pool of snakes right from the get-go.

My advice: At most companies that I'd work for, the HR person carries very little weight. If you get any questions that you think are "sneaky", ask why they're asking.

</comment><comment><USER6> I like this one:

      What you can't ask: Do you take drugs?
      What to ask instead: Do you use illegal drugs?

Hum...

</comment><comment><USER7> Is anybody of the opinion that these questions are somehow immoral? Like: how old are you? Got any kids? Live nearby? How tall are you?

Some of these are obviously too intrusive, like what's your religion. But heck, most of this is stuff we'd ask each other over drinks at a mixer anyway.

With the hiring laws the way they are, it is no wonder that HR folks have gotten the reputation as conniving. It's a job I would never want to have in a million years.</comment>


Any iPhone can be hacked with a modified charger in under a minute - <AUTHOR> http://www.geek.com/apple/any-ios-device-can-be-hacked-with-a-modified-charger-in-under-a-minute-1557142/

<comment><USER3> It's interesting how the progress of iPhone hacks is mirroring that of the PSP homebrew scene 5 or 6 years ago. First there were a bunch of easy to use vulnerabilities or hidden features in apps (like the hidden browser in WipeOut)that provided functions that were offered natively in future versions of the OS. Then the hacking scene moved to OS vulnerabilities. As Sony locked down the platform tighter and tighter, people moved to hardware, using modded batteries to boot the PSP in some kind of troubleshooting mode.

Eventually, both Sony and the hackers kind of lost interest, I think -- I haven't kept up with things, TBH. That said, Sony had the PS Vita to move to, but I don't see the iPhone changing significantly in the next few years (risky words, I know, but I'll be happy if proven wrong).

</comment><comment><USER4> Unfortunately, since it is a university research group, they probably disclosed responsibly and whatever defect allowed this form of jailbreaking will soon be fixed. That means that it's unlikely that people will have a perennial, easy jailbreak going forward from this source.

<comment><USER5> >Unfortunately, since it is a university research group, they probably disclosed responsibly and whatever defect allowed this form of jailbreaking will soon be fixed.

I wouldn't consider that unfortunate. Responsible disclosure should be praised!

<comment><USER4> In almost all circumstances, I agree. However, the one circumstance I don't agree is when systems are being kept secure mainly against their own users. In this case, insecure systems are preferable (as a user), especially when the attack vector is likely to only be triggered intentionally. Since I don't plug my iphone into random USB cables pretty much ever, the only likely case where this vulnerability could be exploited against my phone is if I chose to jailbreak it.

<comment><USER6> Please stop speaking in generics. I assure you that, for the vast majority of iPhone users, insecure systems are _not_ preferable.

<comment><USER7> You're right, but then again, I also like being able to run my own software on my own devices.

If _secure_ means _closed_ well, that is not a trade off a lot of people are not willing to make. Just take a look at the outrage from the Windows 8 secure boot loader that can theoretically stop linux from being installed.

Personally, I like it when companies include some physical mechanism of getting root access to the machine. Whether we have to get root access through the charger port, or pressing F12 when the PC is booting, this mechanism will by definition have to be a 'vulnerability.' Of course, root access in this sense is referring to bootloader root access, not the operating system - <USER2> would be bad. We can only assume which type of root access is being referred to in the hack above.

<comment><USER6> _If secure means closed well, that is not a trade off a lot of people are not willing to make_

You're living inside a tech bubble. The vast majority of iPhone owners don't care about "open". They care about "it works". These people are benefited greatly from having a "closed" yet secure system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> With hardware access all bets are off.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, but I think this is a bit worse than that.

If a faulty ethernet driver lets you compromise a laptop just by plugging it into a malicious network, that's a legitimate vulnerability, not really a case of "well, they had physical access".

USB may be customarily treated as more trusted than ethernet, but there are clearly still scenarios where untrusted people may be able to send you USB messages.

<comment><USER10> "Here, mind if I plug my video camera into your Firewire port to charge (and trawl through your ram and swapspace looking for any usernames and passwords)?"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Hardware access is root access.

<comment><USER12> That rule of thumb usually refers to having unfettered access to the hardware - to be able to crack it open, snoop on internal signals etc.

In this case the problem is that the dock is expected to be a safe interface (untrusted), when it actually isn't. For ex, people would be surprised if their computer could be hacked by plugging it into a malicious power socket. And likewise they'll be surprised if they find out their phone can be hacked by putting it on an alarm-clock ipod dock in their hotel room.</comment></comment>


So far, little demand for Silverlight developers - <AUTHOR> http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/03/06/mix-little-demand-yet-silverlight-programmers

<comment><USER2> From the article: Silverlight is being downloaded and installed an average of 1.5 million times a day

Does that include or exclude the AOL Mail users ( <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=130000> )?

</comment><comment><USER3> Except for the ones with "1-3 years of experience" :)

</comment><comment><USER4> There aren't many jobs, but there are even fewer developers (especially experts). Obviously, Flash is on the other end of the spectrum.

I've done a couple of Silverlight projects and they've been quite lucrative due to the short supply of Silverlight-educated developers. If you know Silverlight well and are looking for work, let me know -- I've had to turn down work many times.

</comment><comment><USER5> Since I first heard about WPF and Silverlight, I thought of the "Lisp is a better XML" and wondered what it would take to program silverlight in Lisp, or rather, write Lisp that generates XAML. Then you get a cross-platform GUI. access to the .NET library, rich graphics, plus all of the good abstraction- building power of Lisp. Any thoughts?

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm about to use Silverlight in my current project.

<comment><USER7> How do you like it so far? What led to the decision?....just curious.

<comment><USER6> Mainly because we get a desktop application for free, and partially because we can deliver a next-generation experience compared to existing browser apps. As far as liking it? Haven't written a line of code yet, but I love working with WPF and supposedly Silverlight is the same thing. We're waiting at least another month for the third party tools market to catch up with the current Beta release.

<comment><USER8> _"Mainly because we get a desktop application for free, and partially because we can deliver a next-generation experience compared to existing browser apps."_

So...you're using Java?

<comment><USER6> Silverlight is a subset of WPF so we should be able to compile it as an EXE, put a different template and tabstrip on it, and have something that looks like a Microsoft Office 2007 app. I don't know any way to do that with Java.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What's the point? It's only 6 months old.....</comment>


The Rise of the Outrageously Long Commute - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/extreme-commuting/408754/?single_page=true <comment><USER3> What an odd sentence in the article: "But a more child-centered approach to parenting also seems to be a factor, as these executives make other major sacrifices in order to balance their professional and home lives."

I would argue that not having a parent at home in the evening (because they are commuting) is the _opposite_ of child-centric. Yes, they get a nice suburban home and parks, but what about parental bonding?

<comment><USER4> And they kept saying "I didn't want to uproot my family blah blah." Is there no value in exposing your children to unique and different experiences? I'll have failed if my kids grew up in the same town/city all their lives.

<comment><USER5> I grew up in the same small Scottish town my whole life, as did all my friends. I'm now 32, live in London, have travelled the world, but best of all, I still very regularly see my old school friends. Giving kids culture growing up is one thing, but giving them the gift of being friends with the same people since they were 3 is amazing. My uni friends have come and gone, I barely see them, but I see my old school mates every few weeks and every time it's full of laughter and reminiscing from a lifetime together.

My dad worked in the oil business in the 80s and 90s and spent months at a time in places like Saudi, Norway, etc. In hindsight, I would never have wanted to move around with him as a kid. Sure I would have liked him at home more, but at least we all knew where home was.

<comment><USER6> I agree with this. My dad was in the military, and we moved every three or four years. I was always jealous of kids who had lifelong friends, and tired of always being the new guy.

<comment><USER4> Its unrealistic to have expected to make lifelong friends with people whose only commonality you have is where you grew up.

<comment><USER6> And yet a lot of people do just that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've done various commutes in my working life. Nothing beats being able to walk to work:

1) It's not too far,

2) It's exercise - what's not to like?

3) It's always, ALWAYS, the same length of time. Which allows you to plan.

4) It's not too far.

My least favourite commute is on the British motorways, one day it could take the minimum amount of time, the next it could be 4 times longer. This amount of variation adds to working stress levels. It's really difficult to plan to get something 'out of the way' in the morning when you don't even know if you'll be there in time.

(btw, I walked to work this morning.)

<comment><USER8> this

you never really truly appreciate what impact your commute has until you have a 5 minutes walking commute.

I did this at some point for around 1 year. It was awesome.

3) above did not apply though. I had to cross a really busy street (i.e. car traffic) and the pedestrian traffic light took around 2.5 minutes (I kid you not). Depending on that damn traffic light my commute time could be 4 minutes or 6+ minutes. Recall being really annoyed, to the point of hating the traffic light.

<comment><USER9> Indeed, it's something you can really appreciate on a university campus where most everything you need as a student is within 10 minutes of walking. Amazing how easily we give that up for a fat paycheck and a mortgage.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> "…taking the 10-hour redeye on Sunday nights and returning on Thursdays. This way, he says, he doesn't have to uproot his family of 10 kids."

No wonder he spends most of the week away!

<comment><USER8> maybe it's his family of 10 [binary] kids :)

and yes, 10 kids is can be overwhelming. hell, even 2-3 kids can be overwhelming.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is this the next "I work 27 hour days and never leave the office" thing people will brag about? I understand keeping a family together is good parenting but is choosing to spend 3-4 days a week elsewhere good parenting? I would question that versus relocating them if needed.

<comment><USER12> Being at home tired Fridays to Sunday afternoons is not what I would call good parenting. It means the wife (and I guess we're mostly talking about women here) is carrying the family.

<comment><USER13> Spot on - the wife/partner carrying the family is the biggest issue in my daily 4hr commute. Also an issue is just not able to be there in an emergency. For example, my wife locked herself out of the house yesterday and fortunately her parents who are close have a spare key. But children or pets get sick/injured and you really need to be close and that is always a worry.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Sorry to use this occasion to brag about my commutes for the last 10+ years: 6 miles, 4 miles, 2 miles, and 4 miles. For the last 7+ years it's been 100% by bike.

A 20-25 minute bike ride is actually better than a shorter commute because you get just enough exercise every day.

<comment><USER15> Almost 1 year ago I gave up a 90-minute each way train commute in Sydney for a 20-minute cycle commute in Ireland (obviously there were other factors).

I love the freedom to come and go when I please, and not be held up by seemingly random infrastructure failures that can ruin your whole evening.

I've actually found myself extending the bike route to get a bit more exercise in (when it's not lashing that is).

<comment><USER16> Yep. When's the last time a crash on the bike lane added 40 minutes to your commute (unless it was your crash)? Construction on the bike lane = extensive detour? Nope.

<comment><USER17> I'm two years into my bike commute. I ran into a woman on the street as she was not paying attention.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Those very long commutes are actually the perfect way to be away from the family while looking as someone who sacrifices everything for it.

</comment><comment><USER19> Wait till cars become automatic. 4 hour per day commutes could become quite normal.

It could really change the structure of living in cities.

<comment><USER20> A four hour commute with a self-driving car will be just as painful as four hour communute with a train, except that the cost with the car will be much higher. I honestly don't see self-driving cars changing a lot here.

<comment><USER21> Picture this - you could be sleeping in the car while it drives itself. It doesn't sound so ridiculous then.

Anyway, I think telecommuting is going to be the norm pretty soon. Commutes would themselves be rare. They might be a lot longer though.

<comment><USER20> Honestly, how many people can get up in the morning, get ready for work, go to a car and then just fall asleep again? I guess the percentage of people who will be able to sleep on a commute will be quite low; I know I wouldn't be able to do that.

<comment><USER22> And even if you could, would you really want to go directly from waking up to being at your desk?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> guard-of-terra This is a stupid way of living our lifes.

Structuring your life quality, and structuring out cities for life quality, should become the norm. We should be eager to sacrifice work efficiency.

Unfortunately our civilization took this wrong race-to-the-bottom turn where instead of ten 30 hrs/week jobs we have four 70 hrs/week jobs. This is wrong and unsustainable, and we're going to lose a lot of people to a combination of burning out, family failures, suicides and other bad stuff.

In the century XXI, we should fight the network effect, not embrace it.

</comment><comment><USER23> And here I thought my hour commute was kind of long. I dread the thought of even increasing it to 90 minutes.

I wonder if flying this much is ever a wise decision in light of the health risks: [http://www.fastcompany.com/3050543/hit-the-ground- running/wh...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3050543/hit-the-ground-running/why- frequent-business-travel-is-so-bad-for-you)

</comment><comment><USER24> Tangentially to the article, this whole sacrifice of personal life is starting to make me think about other options. And I don't even work long hours.

Last week I had to travel, to work abroad for that week. To be there on Monday morning, I flew Sunday just after lunch. I missed around 25% of my weekend and all the "after-work" time and activities I usually have. I just moved (within the same city, a few days before traveling), and my girlfriend had to finish the packing, cleaning and all that _fun stuff_ by herself.

It was not a big deal actually, as it doesn't happen frequently, but - <USER2> this post - it got me thinking. Shouldn't we make a bigger deal of it? The fact that companies expects this kind of commitment - very outside _working hours_ \- reveals so much about the inequality in the employee-employer relationship.

And I'm not even mentioning the fact that I work on a country where I'm paid _x_ , but was traveling to work in a country where my fellow associates in similar functions are paid 4-5 _x_. :)

<comment><USER25> It seems that the author assumes that readers uderstand that the comparison is between the described lives/jobs with ones in the past where it was basically you never see your family (or, more likely, you don't have one).

<comment><USER24> Yeah, sure, ergo _tangentially_.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I would argue that it would be better for the kids to live abroad. They'd become bilingual for free, and most importantly it'd give them perspective and a better understanding of the world.

Unless his kids are planning to become professional American football or lacrosse players, his justification seems very weak to me.

<comment><USER27> The guy was born in Brazil, lived there till five, moved to the US, then lived in Brazil for two years as a missionary, and is now doing business there. He probably has a pretty good idea of how beneficial living in Brazil would be for his family.

He's also very wealthy and can afford to give all his kids personal language tutors if he/they want to learn another language. The value of knowing Portuguese in the US is generally not that high (although obviously he's an outlier). They can travel internationally whenever they want. If they moved there, they wouldn't be living or going to school with your average Brazilian, they'd be living in a wealthy neighborhood and going to an English-language international school. They live in one of the wealthiest places in the US, so they probably attend very good schools right now.

Since they're Mormon, many of these kids will end up being missionaries in foreign countries and learning another language anyway and getting a decent perspective on the world outside Connecticut since their living environment as a missionary will be roughly equivalent to the average person wherever they're assigned.

Don't underestimate the importance of high school sports to kids that love them and are in high school. I'd rather my kids have four years of positive team sporting experience than learn Portuguese. One can learn and grow from sports in many ways even if they don't become a professional athlete.

As for what will best help their career, it's probably the stable familiar living environment they currently have at a private school that will best prepare them to get into a good college and do well there. Being good at sports doesn't hurt either for getting into good colleges.

Finally, he can easily sleep in first class for the two direct flights he takes per week and he can spend (potentially, we don't know how much he works on the weekends) Thursday (not sure how much of the day), Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with his family. He can also potentially video conference with them every other evening. And they've probably come with him on occasion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is it a coincidence that the folks mentioned in the articles are in high profile high salary jobs? These folks has these commute already factored into their salary package.

Here is a question, how many middle level managers or engineers are doing these type of crazy commutes in the US?

</comment><comment><USER29> This is crazy. I'd rather take a low paying job somewhere close if I can't move for some reason than spending half my life commuting. Currently I feel that my 20 minute bike commute is pretty long, but I couldn't find a nice apartment closer to work.

</comment><comment><USER30> How is this new? This is the sort of thing the wealthy and the C-suite have been doing for decades. The internet makes parts of it a little easier, but it's not novel.

The whole conceit of the Concorde was Executives could live in New York and work in London or vice versa.

<comment><USER31> This is not just a 1% phenomenon. There are plenty of families where one partner commutes 2-3 hours each way on the greyhound bus because they can't find a job in the same town and can't afford to live on a single income.

<comment><USER32> The examples in this article kind of are a 1% phenomenon. They are an active choice made by the commuters to spend a lot on airfare and (presumably pricey) accommodations, rather than just relocating their family to similarly luxurious accommodations closer to their workplace.

In your example, you're talking about people for whom the choice of living closer never presents itself, due to unaffordability.

The former is a luxury choice, the latter is a forced circumstance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm about to go from a 40min commute to an hour and a half commute (or so). It's quite astounding how many people commute in from the suburbs to downtown when it would be much easier and cheaper just to setup smaller offices in the suburbs or allow more remote work.

It's also amazing to me that after 30+ years, the suburbs are barely built up. It's somehow economically sustainable to move a bunch of people from point A to point B but not to have point A built up with more shops, industry, etc.

<comment><USER33> Zoning won't allow it - the suburbs are not built up intentionally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> If you are optimising for having nice accommodations for your family, but never see them, you get points as a provider I guess, but you fail at being a parent or spouse.

I would of waaaay rather of lived in a trailer, and grown up actually having a father around, instead of some distant workaholic male figure that is the "great provider" that allowed an upper middle class lifestyle.

For some I feel being far away making money to send home is the easy way out of having to actually be a parent.

<comment> saiya-jin ... and by providing kids too much you actually spoil them easily and make... worse people out of them? or more likely they don't reach their potential as human beings, at least not that easily.

I mean, look around you, there are usually plenty of people who had it damn easy in life. this generates weakness. I am very happy I had to work my way up by myself, no cash cushion, no free apartment when turning 18 etc.it builds character to rely only on oneself, a priceless and one of most important lessons in life.

I say give kids good sporting equipment, give them free quality education (tricky bit in some places, but more expensive isn't automatically better for them), love them, support them and give them freedom, and you are excellent parent. rest is up to them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Although I don't work remotely, I'm happy that the tech/software industry seems to be one of the best industries for allowing people to work remotely. I would guess that this is influenced by the nature of our work, and the improvements in collaboration/communication/workflow applications.

Taking a 10-hour flight on a weekly basis would be too much for me, but then again he is the founder of an airline, so maybe he enjoys the flight!

</comment><comment><USER36> This made me feel a little better about spending ~4hours a day on the bus commuting... always envy people who leave comments like "even 20 minutes is too long for me"

<comment><USER37> You know.. IMO you shouldn't and you should consider to relocate or change your job. There are probably towns / cities that allow for a great job and a great place of living close enough that you don't have to commute for 4 hours.

I have as of now, approx. 20 minutes with the subway which I think is kind of long. But in my new job (in the process of changing it) it will be less. At summer time I will be able to bike to work in about 20 minutes.

Also, it is a more meaningful place of work IMO. You can do that kind of change too.

<comment><USER36> Maybe it's just the beauty of being entry-level haha.... the stuff i'm working on is pretty interesting so I haven't really thought about about till recently, maybe i'll have to start thinking about it, thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I think SOME people enjoy the long commute to be away from family chores/responsibilities. If you have to make that LONG commute so that you can provide for the family and miss out on doing laundry or doing dishes, hey who's gonna complain?

You can love your family more than anyone else, but you still don't want to do the chores.

</comment><comment><USER39> Hell, I'm already annoyed by the 20 minutes I spend on the tube here in London.

</comment><comment><USER40> Why do people sacrifice their lives for their work?

It doesn't make any sense.

<comment><USER41> For some folks, work is their life. It's the measuring stick by which they are defined, so they make it their sole goal.

In the past, they were workaholics. Now they're just considered to be "passionate".</comment></comment>


DigitalOcean Block Storage - <AUTHOR> https://www.digitalocean.com/features/storage/ <comment><USER2> When will we know what pricing looks like? Can you describe the availability model for said storage?

</comment><comment><USER3> How is this different from current storage options?</comment>


The Lessons of Gamergate – Live with Brianna Wu - <AUTHOR> https://realm.io/altconf/

<comment><USER2> I find it ironic that she is against sexism, yet her entire company is comprised of only women and designs games only for women.

She also regularly uses words like "cis" and other offensive pejoratives aimed at men.

She is only hurting her cause for equality.</comment>


Show HN:InviteBuzz.com - Create a buzz by calling/sms your clients - <AUTHOR>

I created this as a side project last year and never got around to launching it. So decided to revive it and put it out there to see if anyone finds it useful. With the site you can create a buzz by automatically calling your clients to play pre-recorded message (mp3), computer generated message (it reads your text) or an SMS. <comment><AUTHOR> link [http://www.invitebuzz.com](http://www.invitebuzz.com)</comment>


Asciiflow in VS Code - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/zenghongtu/vscode-asciiflow2 <comment><USER2> This is neat.

I reckon there's a reasonably large subset of DSLs in the computing world that lend themselves to a 2D description, rather than a simplistic 1D sequential list down a text file. Anything involving concurrency in particular needs more than just a list.

A graphical language like asciiflow would serve this well. Edit your graph in the flow diagram and parse it in a specialised parser.

Are there any generic asciiflow parsers out there?

<comment><USER3> Most source code is already three dimensional, and running code has at least two, but oddly, only one in common. Any block of text has an X and Y axis. But we keep jumping in and out of it to other files or functions, which is another degree of freedom.

A Turing machine has one dimensional storage, but the order of operations matter quite a bit. So the second axis is time. But in a network, _where_ it happens also matters. Although one might argue that the entire network is a single synthetic Turing machine with a segmented tape, and thus it's just 2 dimensions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It should soon or now be possible to define custom editors for file types in VS Code[1], so I think this extension would fit very nicely for contributing a custom editor for plaintext files. I may be wrong, but at first glance, it doesn't look like this extension makes use of that functionality yet.

[1]: [https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_44#_custom-text- edi...](https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_44#_custom-text-editors)

</comment><comment><USER5> See also Emacs Artist mode (1998)

[http://www.lysator.liu.se/~tab/artist/](http://www.lysator.liu.se/~tab/artist/)

<comment><USER6> Which is built-in releases of Emacs for as long as I can remember, btw:

M-x artist-mode

<comment><USER7> I have still yet to see a strong argument for what is so bad about Emacs. When it seems everything winds up trying to recreate it as they go.

Not that I mind reinventing wheels. I'd hazard Emacs itself reinvented a lot.

<comment><USER8> My main problem with emacs is the lack of out of the box source code indexing and autocomplete.

I'm sure there's a way to set it up, but even after years of using emacs, I haven't figured it out.

It took me 10 minutes to get VS code to import and index a non-trivial C++ code base, and that's with no prior VS Code experience. It even popped up some hints when stuff started going sideways.

<comment><USER9> If you're willing to give Emacs another shot, check out LSP-mode [0]. It's an implementation of the language server protocol, the same tech that powers the autocomplete/jump-to-def/etc. in VS Code, and so it offers exactly the same functionality for all the same languages. It's true that it's not built into Emacs, but it's easy to set up and works well.

It's been a total game changer for me - it's allowed me to transition to using Emacs full-time for professional Python programming.

[0] [https://github.com/emacs-lsp/lsp-mode](https://github.com/emacs-lsp/lsp- mode)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Shameless plug: [https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/](https://mbarkhau.keybase.pub/asciigrid/)

</comment><comment><USER11> Neat, reminds me a bit of Monodraw - [https://monodraw.helftone.com/](https://monodraw.helftone.com/)

</comment><comment><USER12> This is great, I am using ascii art a lot in comments to visualize flows (etc.) of code where it is needed instead of additional documents that no one reads and have much greater possibilty to get out of sync with the code (although comments have that tendency too). Love it, just provide enough of primitives with it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Is there a declarative GUI (cruddish) generator using ASCII art? Asking for a friend. Preferably for the terminal.

</comment><comment><USER14> I thought for a moment it was asciinema in vs code. Now that would be cool!

</comment><comment><USER15> unfortunately this is really hard to look at when using a dark theme - switching to a light theme is a workaround but it's too bad it's so glaring in a dark mode.

<comment><USER16> Version 0.2.0 supposedly added support for dark mode.

[https://github.com/zenghongtu/vscode- asciiflow2/issues/1#iss...](https://github.com/zenghongtu/vscode- asciiflow2/issues/1#issuecomment-612443792)

<comment><USER15> > released 7 hours ago

Nice, thanks for letting me know.</comment></comment></comment>


More on Apple's Removal of Airfoil Speakers Touch From the App Store - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2012/05/more_on_airfoil_speakers_touch

<comment><USER2> So, only Android and other devices will end up being "airplay speakers". Brilliant.</comment>


Oh the Irony  - <AUTHOR>

"We expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers." -- Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, 1998
 http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

<comment><USER3> You are misinterpreting that statement. What they are referring to in the above quotation is when search results are altered due to change in advertiser dollars. Kind of like when Yahoo used to have top advertiser links above the normal search results, and undifferentiated from the content.

Google, as a result, made a separate, distinct location for advertisement links. Because they separated the location of advertisements from the search results, they preserved the integrity of the search results.

This structure has not changed, as you can clearly see sponsored links are separated from search results: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pizza](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pizza)

<comment><USER4> FWIW, there are plenty of people who don't grok that the top-of-results ad placements are ads.

<comment><USER5> They are labeled as ads. Is "grok" really the world you were looking for?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> "For me, search and ads are almost the same." -- Google executive Marissa Mayer, 2007.

</comment><comment><USER6> a case can be made that advertising at the correct moment in time for a particular individual is information. you want a new mattress, open the pipe, mattresses galore, buy, close pipe. the key is to figure out the when and the personalisation, search is the first to get close to it (and it's still not perfect - the next thing i'd like to see is trimming but i assume that'll take that semantic web thing i keep hearing about)

</comment><comment><USER7> Followed by:

"Hey Sergey, take a look at what these guys at Overture are doing..." - <USER2> Page

</comment><comment><USER8> The quote is from appendix A:

<http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html#a></comment>