Show HN: I got tired of stressing about my karma, so I wrote this. - <AUTHOR> https://bitbucket.org/anthonyb/nohnkarma/overview

<comment><USER2> I like the karma system overall, and I think the general quality of discussion on HN is evidence that things are mostly working well.

The only thing I find off about it is the average karma on profile pages. Personally, I find that it subconsciously dissuades me from commenting anywhere that is likely to result in few/no upvotes. My first comment on a story might get 20, 40, 80 upvotes, but any extended discussion is going to be rather nested, and so you're essentially burning through your average as each comment sits with only one or two votes. Similarly, commenting on "unpopular" articles means few people will see your comment, so you're pulling your average down again.

Should karma matter to me? Probably not. But I will confess to looking at people's profiles to see their average karma and time on HN as a way of knowing a bit more about them. I don't think it's unreasonable to feel that the average should be more representative than a straight average of all comment votes.

I don't like to complain without offering a solution, so this would be mine: weight the comment average as a function of the overall points on an article, to allow for more conversation around niche topics. Weight comments according to how deep in a thread they are, to allow more in-depth conversations to occur without a karmic penalty.

Karma can sometimes feel like a superficial way of "keeping score," but I think it serves a valuable role in promoting quality discussion. It still has room for improvement, though.

<comment><USER3> _"The only thing I find off about it is the average karma on profile pages. Personally, I find that it subconsciously dissuades me from commenting anywhere that is likely to result in few/no upvotes. My first comment on a story might get 20, 40, 80 upvotes, but any extended discussion is going to be rather nested, and so you're essentially burning through your average as each comment sits with only one or two votes. Similarly, commenting on "unpopular" articles means few people will see your comment, so you're pulling your average down again."_

It's not just commenting on unpopular articles and deeply nested discussions that will pull your average karma down, but commenting on old articles.

By the time I find an interesting article to comment on, it will usually be at least a day old. Nevertheless, I tend to comment there anyway, in full knowledge that very few people will ever read my comment or upvote it, because most of the action on HN happens within the first day, and most people move on to the newest articles very quickly.

The way HN handles average karma calculation in such circumstances is pretty sad because of the disincentive it places on people to comment on good older articles, which are often much more interesting and worthwhile than your typical new article.

This problem is compounded by HN's attempts to disallow duplicate article postings (though there are ways around that), and lack of automatic linking to previous discussions on the same article (though manual linking is occasionally done by HN users themselves).

In short, there should be a way to keep productive discussions going, rather than effectively placing a limit of about 1 day on any given discussion.

I hate to praise web forums in any way, but I do think one thing they get right is to usually bring any threads which have been recently commented on back to the top. HN would benefit from a similar approach.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is one of the downsides to the karma game - people tend to be reluctant to do anything which will hurt their score. Stories are dead after about 12 hours, and almost nobody checks their comments unless they're in a flame war.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I actually quite like the Karma system. I think that the way that it's implemented on Hacker News is pretty awesome - it has certainly made me be more careful in the comments I've made. I have actually made one or two snarky comments, but I immediately went back and deleted them before anyone replied. Other times it's been a misunderstanding, and being downvoted helped me understand that something wasn't quite right.

Certainly it's doing its job, which is to keep the signal to noise ratio high.

The only disturbing aspect of Hacker News is the way that valuable contributors can be hellbanned even after only a few comments. For instance, I saw an individual hell banned for commenting on a controversial story: they weren't trolling (which I assume is the purpose of the facility), only engaging in a debate. I suspect that the one who did the hellbanning did it because they didn't agree with what was being said. As there is no review mechanism, this is purely speculation on my behalf - I will never know why this was done!

<comment><USER5> > it has certainly made me be more careful in the comments I've made.

Isn't this the ultimate form of groupthink?

<comment><USER6> Often times the people complaining about groupthink are also the ones acting immature. If you inject in your comment the feel of someone trying to rebel ("I know I'm going to get down voted..." or "I hate to be that guy..."), you're already starting off wrong. Act the part of an adult and you'll be treated like one.

I've found that if I spend a few minutes to justify my belief, and approach the discussion as that of peers rather than assuming my opinion is all that matters, things go very well, even when we disagree.

So yeah, HN does have an element of groupthink: that those who are disrespectful are not welcome here, regardless of their opinion. Most likely, their opinion can be found in other comments but written by someone that is looking to engage in an adult conversation and not out to belittle or insult the rest of us.

<comment><USER7> >Often times the people complaining about groupthink are also the ones acting immature.

Not everytime though. Especially in topics like Microsoft/Apple/Google, the moderation is brutal if you don't fit in the groupthink.

A big example: <http://winsupersite.com> is hellbanned on HN from being submitted as a story(if you do it will show up for you, but actually it's killed so won't show up for others at all). What crime could the site have possibly committed to deserve such an extreme banning(there are no instances of other tech sites that I know of getting banned, can you give me any?).

Post complaining about the banning: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3408883>

The answer is simple, the site is of Microsoft watcher, insider and enthusiast Paul Thurrott who posts breaking news, analysis and reviews with a sometimes positive slant. That is enough for some "enthusiasts" of other platforms here to flag it to death and ultimately to hellbanning. I am guessing someone who innocently submits stories from there regularly will get their account hellbanned to, for not conforming to the groupthink on here.

This is just the visible tip of the iceberg of the groupthink which downvotes comments and flags any legitimate news that doesn't conform.

You think the point in this post is just a figment of the author's imagination? <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3663447>

Another example of legitimate news getting flagged to death:

<http://i.imgur.com/fSJqq.png>

How long before Winbeta is hellbanned from ever appearing on HN for being a Windows-centric news site?

Just because you haven't experienced this does not mean that others have not constantly been downvoted for their (non disrespectful) opinions. I believe that's behind their defensive "I know I am going to get downvoted..." lines.

<comment><USER6> > Not everytime though.

No doubt. Hence my careful phrasing. =)

> Just because you haven't experienced this...

I have. But even then, if I take an honest look at what I wrote, I find I could easily discern how it comes off as me acting the part of an asshole.

You post several examples (of which many are merely people complaining about downvotes which aren't contributing anything meaningful and should not be encouraged), but really, they mean anything. There will always be exceptions, but they only prove their is no groupthink beyond being respectful, intelligent, and contributing to the discussion.

> I believe that's behind their defensive "I know I am going to get > downvoted..." lines.

Honestly, if someone spends more time writing "I know I'm going to get downvoted... HN groupthink... go ahead downvote me but you know I'm right..." then they do putting thought into their comment, I will down vote. Stop worrying about little arrows, and just be polite, post intelligently, and contribute.

<comment><USER4> _Stop worrying about little arrows, and just be polite, post intelligently, and contribute._

I think that's what he's trying to do!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If any of you are 'stressing' about a pointless number next to your username, then I think you need to take a step back and put things into perspective.

<comment><USER9> I think that's good advice, and I would like to send it along also to the tiny-minded portion of users here on HN who campaign personal, pityful battles on others by systematically downvoting their posts for no apparent reason, as well as those who just can't seem to let things fly, but rather just _have to_ hammer down on users with opinions they simply don't agree with.

I think the karma system as it stands now is problematic because of how it simply enables the generally grumpy crowd of HN to fuel their own overgrown negativity.

<comment><USER10> Who can down-vote? Not me. Seems to me that it's people who have written lots of good comments that can down-vote. And of course, people running scripts that help them achieve high karma that they can abuse.

A simple "I Like This" without any count would be enough IMHO.

Or at least a simple rule that you can only down-vote if you write a positively karma'd comment to the post you down-vote.

<comment><USER11> I think you need maybe 500 or 750 karma before you can downvote.

In theory this means that people only downvote for "doesn't belong on HN" or perhaps "blatantly factually incorrect" posts, rather than "I do not agree with this posts".

HN does have some protection against "voting rings" - so a script or a bunch of friends that all vote for each other probably would be caught. I don't know any of the internals.

I like your idea about only allowing downvoting if you can create a coherent post about why you're downvoting. But the most blatant trolls don't deserve any comment.

<comment><USER10> > In theory this means that people only downvote for "doesn't belong on HN" or > perhaps "blatantly factually incorrect" posts, rather than "I do not agree > with this posts".

The intention was that maybe, but is it true in practice?

> But the most blatant trolls don't deserve any comment.

Old-school individual "killfiles" would do. As it is now some people seem to be locked out of HN by a crowd of anonymous people. It seems to me that the current system is a bit naive about the goodness of how high-karmas act.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Something I'd like to see is a "HN Enhancement Suite", kind of like Reddit. I don't at this time have the JS chops to pull something like this off, but what I'd add:

        * User tagging
        * Un-hellbanning per user (Find someone who has legitimate contributions yet is hellbanned? Restores their posts to a normal color and moves their post closer to the top in a thread)
        * Ignore text lightening for downvoted posts
        * Hide post on flag or downvote
        * Popups on username mouseover with profile page info
        * Custom CSS (why not?)
        * An "ignore karma" switch. Hides comment thread vote arrows, ignores hellbans and text coloring, hides all mention of points anywhere on the site.
        * Ignore option, hides all posts by a given user

</comment><comment><USER13> I follow this simple rule when dealing with trolls online.

"Don't argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience"

It's better not to engage in the first place.

<comment><USER14> Your rule reminds me of Mark Twain's line, "never argue with a fool; a bystander may not be able to tell the difference."

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> You'll still get banned by the cabal running HN when you inevitably bump into the guy who can't accept an opinion different from his.

Add a "you've been banned, try again" notifier.

<comment><USER9> Couldn't have said it any better. Just look at how your post was downvoted for simply pointing this sensitive fact out. The action speaks so loud and clear. In every social construct and gathering you always find that group of "socially immechanical" people who, with every means possible, try to assert some kind of status or rank over others. In the case of HN, it's done by downvoting posts of users holding a different opinion than your own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The iPhone app I use to access HN when I'm on the move goes one further. It removes the name from everyone, still lets me reply... but doesn't show me the username.

Now in all honesty I think something broke it last year because it used to show, but I've forgotten about karma and it just lets me focus on the content and context of the post.

</comment><comment><USER17> earlier work using greasemonkey (no idea if it still works) - <http://www.acooke.org/cute/HidingHNKa0.html>

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd forgotten about [dead] comments. I'll add that in - thanks!

<comment><USER18> For something as straightforward as this, I think you shouldn't load jQuery and use native JS instead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I noticed you're loading jQuery before testing the page's URL. You'd be better off testing the URL first to prevent unnecessarily loading jQuery.

<comment><USER18> Or better, get rid of jQuery completely.

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you have against jquery?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I can safely say I've never been stressed about my karma.</comment>


Snip.it acquired by Yahoo – site to shut down - <AUTHOR> http://snip.it/ <comment><USER2> I'll spare everyone the effort and post the mandatory acqui-hater comment:

"Ugh, I can't believe these people would work tirelessly for two years and then leave me on the hook for a product I never paid for. Sell-outs. Don't they realize that anything besides an IPO is failure?"

<comment><USER3> I'm always happy for people who get aqui-hired, but at the same time the constant threat of this happening is why I don't bother using new web services that don't already have a huge critical mass, it just isn't worth the hassle to get all my data into some service and then have it go away a few months later.

In any case, kudos to the Snip.it folks for handling this in probably the best possible way I've ever seen one of these services handle something like this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What was Snip.it?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Looks like the price was $10m + bonuses

[http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/yahoo-buys-snip- it-10-milli...](http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/22/yahoo-buys-snip- it-10-million/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Snip.it was a good service. One replacement is Scoop.it. And they have a revenue model, so they will hopefully not disappear too fast.

<comment><AUTHOR> Scoop.it and Clipboard are good alternatives. One of these services should work on an import function

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Shameless plug: If you're a snip.it user looking for an alternative, my app <https://annotary.com> is a similar replacement, which also includes highlight and annotation features. We're also bootstrapped and have a revenue model, so we're not on a countdown to taking an acquisition offer.

</comment><comment><USER7> Why is it that most every time I'm informed of a compelling, well-implemented service, it is in an article stating that it's shutting down?

</comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone know how much financing they took on?

</comment><comment><USER9> The hall of fame is a really nice idea.

</comment><comment><USER10> why do so many sites/projects end up like that?

<comment><USER11> Money. Lots and lots of money.

<comment><USER12> 10M looks like a lot initially. Break it down after vesting and investment and its actually not much at all. Its a "nice bonus" for the founders and early employees, at best.</comment></comment></comment>


I Made My Shed the Top-Rated Restaurant on TripAdvisor - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15861136](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15861136)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this is a complete riot. But I also feel tremendous empathy. I get maybe one nice night a year with my wife. I know nothing about fine dining. But maybe I find this place and I take her. I'm almost in tears right now feeling the hypothetical gut wrenching realization that I completely ruined the evening.

I'm so afraid, to a fault, that I'll mess up the perfect days she deserves, so maybe I'm alone in how awful I feel that they actually fooled with real people by the end. A bit too far.

<comment><USER4> Is it really so bad that they fooled real people at the end? The people thought they were getting a world class meal. Their enjoyment of the experience is real.

And even if you did end up going to this "restaurant" and later found out that it was a fake restaurant that somehow made it to the top of TripAdvisor, then you end up with a story about being one of a dozen or so couples that got to have this experience.

It seems like a win either way.

<comment><USER5> The shed isn't actually serving world-class meals or anything that appears as such.</comment></comment></comment>


Playing 20 Questions Using a Brain-to-Brain Interface - <AUTHOR> http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0137303 <comment><USER2> We changed the URL from [http://www.kurzweilai.net/first-brain-to-brain- telepathy-com...](http://www.kurzweilai.net/first-brain-to-brain-telepathy- communication-via-the-internet) to the original source that it points to.</comment>


Bitcoin currency collapse - where next for digital cash? - <AUTHOR> http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/06/21/bitcoin-currency-collapse-where-next-for-digital-cash/

<comment><AUTHOR> Bitcoin's own site still isn't saying what happened, but it looks as though the servers of one of its "Bitcoin-to-real-money" gateways, known as Mt. Gox, were hacked. Badly-hashed passwords were stolen and useable logins recovered. Uncontrolled fraudulent trades then quickly pushed the real-world value of Bitcoins close to zero.</comment>


A World Without Work - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/09/world-without-work-david-susskind-review <comment><USER4> I have trouble imagining a future where people don't want to trade their time for more goods and services. New phones, nice holidays. Especially with the advertising industry constantly bombarding them with messages about how their lives could be better if they just spend a little more.

A UBI paid for by taxing capital might help feed and house people, but I think people are always going to want more, and they will be unhappy if they can't trade their time for it.

<comment><USER5> I think the definition of 'work' here is work that must be done for day-to-day survival. It is not meant to include all possible enjoyable pursuits, like trading your time for goods and services. I don't think Wilde or the author or others wish for the elimination of all human creativity.

There's a big difference between 1) learning sciences or arts or anything at all for the purpose of _improving_ your life (being able to trade your now- valuable time for other things, or simply for the enjoyment of the tasks themselves) and 2) working menial, drudgery tasks simply for the ability to purchase food and ensure a roof over your head one month at a time.

Many people I've met think that #2 is a required part of humanity; that if you do not spend most of your waking hours _contributing something_ to society that you don't deserve to keep living. I think we need a societal shift in thinking to allow for a world that is coming, where basic needs for all ought to be met and our unique human experiences can be better spent - either with family, or exploring the cosmos, or building new inventions.

It hasn't really been possible before that we are so close to building a society where few human jobs will be required to sustain our populations' needs.

<comment><USER4> Yes, but the point I was trying to make was that I still think we will need an economy so that somebody will pay you study or be creative. Otherwise, what will you give the owners of the AI in trade for the new Phone / House / Holiday.

People will probably still want to trade about 30-40 hours of time a week doing whatever utopian pursuit pays best.

I think the transition from our current economy to this "post work" economy will be very interesting.

<comment><USER6> Someone has to provide you the basic materials and sustenance for any pursuit. Certain things will still be rare or kept that way for advantage...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The main reason I wouldn't retire early on a very minimal income is that I think there might be expensive anti-aging treatments on the horizon in the coming 40 years. I would like to be situated to take advantage of those.

<comment><USER8> So are you wasting your existing time available for a chance at extending your life to do what? Work even more to extend even more?

This dilemma always reminds me of Dunbar from Catch 22 [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/496826-dunbar-loved- shootin...](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/496826-dunbar-loved-shooting- skeet-because-he-hated-every-minute-of)

Personally I'm most happy about the fact that life ends at some point. Whatever I do, whether I waste my life (whatever that meant) or live it "meaningfully", at one point it wont matter any more. Don't get me wrong, I like my life more or less and try to live it "meaningfully" but constantly thinking about whether I'm doing the right thing at the moment and what will happen "in the future" is quite tiring.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Let's say we have machines that will produce an unlimited quantity of any good that is currently on the market today. We put one in every house, since that machine can also produce copies of itself. Does this mean nobody have to work?

You still need doctors. You still need police. You still need yoga instructors. Plumbers. Somebody to fix your internet. And the need to pay those people means you will still need to find a way to earn money. Plus, land is still expensive because physics, and now that people can afford to pay more, landlords will charge more. Want higher density? Zoning is also not free. Nor are architects and builders.

All that happens is that goods are excluded from the economic system, but the system will keep going. The prices for still-limited services will simply go up to the point where you will still need to work 40 hour weeks to afford them.

<comment><USER10> This is already here to some extent, we have a rentier economy and the bigger it gets the more of a load it will put on everyone else.

I do wonder if rather than UBI we should be pursuing UBH (Universal Basic Housing). Cheap food is a solved problem for everyone but the very poorest, housing isn't.

<comment><USER9> Of course it is already here. I think this is in fact the core problem of Medicare and why costs are going up and up with no end in sight.

In the same vein, all that a UBI / UBH would do is shift around allocation of actually-limited resources while causing inefficiency, waste and accounting headaches for everybody. What's more, you'll be shifting those limited resources away from the most materially productive segment of society - <USER2> middle class - and onto the underclass, who is not going to all of a suddenly take over the burden of mass production, since that requires many years of education and training. So what I'm saying is you'll start to get goods shortages too.

The whole system is an intricate jigsaw puzzle with a billion moving pieces. People keep suggesting we fix it by hitting it with a hammer and setting parts of it on fire.

<comment><USER11> > while causing inefficiency,

More inefficiency than we already have?

> accounting headaches for everybody.

What headaches would they be?

> goods shortages

In the developed world we already have more stuff and kinds of stuff than most of us need. Reducing the supply of new mobile phone designs is not going to materially reduce anyone's quality of life.

A lot of the world just needs the kind of stuff we already have, and we already know how to make that stuff. As William Gibson said "The future is here, it's just unevenly distributed"

<comment><USER9> >More inefficiency than we already have?

Yes, more than there already is. This is the standard thing that happens whenever there is massive redistribution of _anything_ by government fiat. Stuff gets redistributed arbitrarily, people who need it don't get it, poeple who don't need it get too much of it, stuff is lost via administrative error or outright fraud or political finagling, people being careless with billions of dollars in other people's money because it's not in their KPI, etc.

Note that most things are not literally on fire currently and there is no looting. Those things are not guaranteed.

>In the developed world we already have more stuff and kinds of stuff than most of us need.

Really, now. Do you think we'll be OK if we stop the mass production of fertilizers and concrete for a while? Just a few months until things settle down? How about meds? Those tie up a lot of man-hours and medically trained people to produce, and we could definitely use those people elsewhere (or they could go take long, UBI-piad holidays).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I see very little of that "machine-enhanced" future. Case in point: construction work (buildings, houses, roads) is still carried out by humans, and will likely always be.

Humans have shifted from subsistence and self-preservation to provide services of many sorts to each other, and most of the high-value ones are non-physical in nature (hold that thought!).

Toil is something that our society and industry has eliminated in mass- production scenarios, to be sure, but there is still a way to go - <USER3> that ambulatory robots of almost any kind (except vacuum cleaners) are still niche affairs.

</comment><comment><USER13> All of these comments come down to one thing: if work was purely voluntary, would you still work?

<comment><USER14> Yes, but the work I would do probably wouldn't resemble closely what I do now.

If I have the comfort of being able to carefully choose rather than having to find anything to pay bills then I would try hard to find something that would allow me to enrich my community.

I've always wanted to work in assisting illiterate adults in learning to read but I have no teaching degree (doesn't pay well enough to support my family) and I don't have the luxury of time to seek those kinds of positions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Or it could be like in Culture ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series))

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm down for a world with "less" work but when I think back to the moments when I'm not working and they suck, I always get anxious and depressed usually start binge drinking and getting super fucked up. :/

<comment><USER17> Nobody's proposing you wouldn't be allowed to work; just that you wouldn't have to. If you want to go find a boss and be their employee, have at it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> How many hours of other people's worktime do you consume every day? Obviously they want you to work for them too. That's what trade is.

So what does fair trade look like? How much forced charity is fair?</comment>


Pope Francis reveals top 10 secrets to happiness - <AUTHOR> http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1403144.htm

<comment><USER2> Even the vatican is taking to the BuzzFeed model. Now I'm expecting him to come out with the top 11 things you didn't expect Jesus to say, or their 27 favourite Lazarus moments

</comment><comment><USER3> "6\. Find innovative ways to create dignified jobs for young people."

Hmm... I hope he's not suggesting a job guarantee.

<comment><USER4> We should have asked... how much is young?</comment></comment>


The reasons for forgetting aren't really forgetting - <AUTHOR> http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/the-reasons-for-forgetting-arent-really-forgetting

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm pretty sure there's a companion to the 3rd "output" example yielding a nice symmetry, i.e. :

When general details cloud knowledge of specifics (I know they live in Australia, which is that place on the South of the world .. oh what city was it again?).</comment>


Cool at 13, Adrift at 23 - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2014/06/23/cool-at-13-adrift-at-23/

<comment><USER2> Although some huge changes take place in middle school, I wonder how much this same pattern (even with different specifics) plays out at additional 10 year segments, like 18 to 28.</comment>


The Stanford AI Index 2018 Annual Report [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://cdn.aiindex.org/2018/AI%20Index%202018%20Annual%20Report.pdf <comment><USER2> How different is this from state of the AI report?</comment>


Free OpenStreetMap tile library: watercolor, black and white, terrain - <AUTHOR> http://maps.stamen.com/#toner/12/37.7706/-122.3782 <comment><USER2> I try to contribute to OSM whenever I get the chance from my smartphone. I like that others do too; often times it'll give me walking directions through a mall or whatever sometimes shaving 10 minutes off. It's only as good as it's users though, so I encourage more to contribute.

<comment><USER3> Sadly these maps still have our driveway as a "road."

Years ago I heard that Apple was going to use OSM data for their map app. I contacted OSM to remove our driveway. They did demote our driveway to a "private road" (the best I could do). Luckily, our driveway is not in the Apple maps app. I am still somewhat irritated particularly when I see our driveway in apps like this.

<comment><USER4> I am an OSM contributor and could try to fix it for you, if you give me the location. My email address is in my profile.

<comment><USER3> Thank you for your kind offer to fix my driveway. I just sent you an email.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> None can surpass the Spinal Map tile library [https://www.thunderforest.com/maps/spinal- map/](https://www.thunderforest.com/maps/spinal-map/)

<comment><USER6> There's a few Easter eggs in the place labels that are worth seeking out...

<comment><USER7> "Atlantic City of Rock" is one of my favourites, but there are more!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why do many online maps like Google have so little contrast? It's very different to printed maps over here. You basically have a really hard time seeing the white roads on the light grey background, especially when looking at the display from some angle.

<comment><USER9> Google Maps is now a business directory with a map interface.

The highest contrast is reserved for business that are paying Google for advertisements, followed by other shops, hotels, restaurants and bars.

Everything else, but especially roads and railways, are desaturated into mush.

Compare Streetmap UK[1], which was the first popular online mapping service for the UK in 1997. The web design has hardly changed, and up to the linked zoom level they're still showing the standard (government-produced Ordnance Survey) "paper" maps.

[1] [https://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=531405&y=181525&z=115](https://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=531405&y=181525&z=115)

<comment><USER10> I'm somewhat sure that the low contrast predates advertisement on maps by several years. I also doubt Google would willingly compromise Maps's usability for the sake of advertising, especially right from the start where there is enough low-hanging fruit and revenue is bound to be negligible. That would be like plastering ads over the google.com homepage, something they continue to resist two decades in.

My money is on either a wish to make (all kinds of) labels stand out, or just aesthetic preferences. FWIW I always found OSM to have too much contrast (and too much details), and the emergence of all these services rebranding OSM in different styles would seem to be evidence for other people also considering OSM's default style to leave room for improvement.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Sadly, these tiles haven't been updated for several years. They are beautiful though. Probably best used for zoomed out maps.

<comment><USER12> Does anyone here know about the process of updating a tile set?

<comment><USER13> Unless you need to do that, I wouldn't suggest trying. It's a nightmare with several sets of contradictory, overlapping out of date docs needed to do the whole thing properly. Then of course it breaks and you don't know why. It used to be that tilemill kinda nailed it but that just went away.

<comment><USER14> Tileoven was the working fork for awhile but it seems plain Tilemill is back

<comment><USER15> I know some people moved to [https://github.com/kosmtik/kosmtik](https://github.com/kosmtik/kosmtik) after tilemill stopped being developed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> For those interested, carto also has some lovely OSM tiles

[https://carto.com/blog/positron-dark-matter-new- look/](https://carto.com/blog/positron-dark-matter-new-look/)

</comment><comment><USER17> OpenStreetMap is one of the greatest open source initiatives out there.

</comment><comment><USER18> A thread from 2012: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736247](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3736247).

</comment><comment><USER19> Thunderforest has a free tier that has served my hobby projects for years. [https://www.thunderforest.com/maps/](https://www.thunderforest.com/maps/)

</comment><comment><USER20> The tile set I've been unable to find is an overlay of all roads, suitable for drawing on top of satellite and terrain maps. Are there any? There aren't any listed on [https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_servers](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_servers)

<comment><USER21> If you use vector tiles, you can use any of the major providers:

\- Mapbox ([https://mapbox.com](https://mapbox.com))

\- MapTiler ([https://maptiler.com](https://maptiler.com))

\- Stadia Maps ([https://stadiamaps.com](https://stadiamaps.com))

\- [https://switch2osm.github.io/providers/](https://switch2osm.github.io/providers/)

…then you style / display only the road data and exclude the rest of the data and overlay that on your tiles.

(Note: I'm co-founder of Stadia Maps.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I would be curious to see how much memory would be saved if those tiles would use 1bit black and white.

I just tried saving one of those shade-of-grey "Toner" tile to "4 grey" in xnview, which I guess is a 2bit PNG, meaning it would use 4 shades of grey, so black, white, #555 and #AAA.

The tile went from 32kb to 6kb, so a 80% size reduction.

I'm really curious if this would allow one to store a country region with tiles on a smartphone. OSMand lets you download vector maps to browser them offline, but rendering can be a little slow on some phones.

EDIT: OSM tiles use a 256 colors palette, most tiles less than 10kb. I guess there are tools out there to generate a 8, 16 or 32 colors palette. XNView seems to use libimagequant to generate a palette.

<comment><USER23> The current state of the art for small tilesets is to store vector data in tiles on the device, then render to raster there. It's way, way smaller than any realistic raster image.

<comment><USER22> sure but it's also slower to render

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I love the watercolor map. I seareched how they do this but I don't understand how they do it

<comment><USER25> The sources are here: [https://github.com/stamen/watercolor](https://github.com/stamen/watercolor). You can import the project into Tilemill ([https://github.com/tilemill- project/tilemill](https://github.com/tilemill-project/tilemill)).

<comment><USER26> Hi. I work for Stamen. We have a very old blog post that goes into more detail about how we made these tiles: [https://hi.stamen.com/watercolor- process-3dd5135861fe](https://hi.stamen.com/watercolor-process-3dd5135861fe)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Could someone lend a hand and tell me where can I find OSM Carto tiles legend? As in colors for different tag combinations? I am trying to build something that requires a custom legend.

<comment><USER6> Out of interest, do non-British English readers understand "Map key" as a synonym for "Legend"? I've always called it a "key" (as a British English speaker) but Americans often don't seem to understand this.

<comment><USER28> American here, I've heard both "Map Key" (or just key) and "Legend" used interchangeably for map Keys/Legends for as long as I can recall. So I suppose there's more to it than just American vs. British English.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Sweet! My first thoughts when I seen this. [https://community.glowforge.com/t/1871-denver-map-on- granite...](https://community.glowforge.com/t/1871-denver-map-on- granite/37818)

</comment><comment><USER30> Anyone else notice that when you update OSM, Google maps miraculously updates too?

<comment><USER31> Er, no. Do you have evidence that Google Maps is copying data from OpenStreetMap? Because if you do, please document it. It would be a _bombshell_.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> What tools do people like for generating tiles themselves?

I found one powerful one that I liked quite a bit, but it was primarily written for generating sea charts and never put labels on open polylines.

</comment><comment><USER33> I really like the Toner style. Simple, and high-contrast.

</comment><comment><USER34> US is hell now</comment>


Playing with Go1.1beta2, it's much faster - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ant0ine.com/typepad/2013/04/go1-1-beta2-much-faster-.html

<comment><USER2> One wonders what Go was doing with that extra 36% time in the previous version. Was it all due to map memory allocation and associated cache misses?

<comment><USER3> Well, 36% is not a large improvement at all, considering Go is still slower than Java.

Go has a some way to go still and it can be improved in all areas: GC, algorithms, heuristics, code generation, ...

<comment><USER4> Slower than Java at what?

At program startup time? Java is a joke in this area.

At memory consumption? Java has a high fixed memory cost. It also uses more memory than Go does. There are fundamental reasons for this. Java needs to keep around runtime type information because the code can change at runtime due to new classes being loaded. Go does not. Java also chose to implement a scheme where any object can serve as a mutex or condition variable. The result is a few words of extra memory per object when compared with Go... usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 or 16 bytes per object, depending on architecture. Using memory efficiently is _HUGE_ in modern architectures and Go is better at that.

Go also gives you more control over how your program uses memory. This is because Go has both pointers and value types. The result is that things that would have had to be "boxed" (i.e. separate memory allocations) in Java can be unboxed in Go. If you know C, think of it as the difference between doing a malloc for each structure element, and just having a bunch of structs stored by value inside another struct.

Go is faster at interfacing with native code. Have you checked the speed of JNI lately? Speaking as someone who's written a lot of JNI... it's not pretty.

Java still has the edge in one area: HotSpot has a precise garbage collector, something Go doesn't currently have. But I have a feeling that gap is going to be closed.

Note: I am oversimplifying the unboxing discussion a bit. In theory, it might be possible to unbox certain structures in Java, such as non-nullable final fields. However, Go preserves a lot more of the intentions of the programmer in this regard-- and without knowing how the programmer intended to use the memory, most optimizers will struggle.

<comment><USER5> For most applications the startup time is irrelevant. The startup time of a server app which runs for months is not an interesting data point. The throughput in requests per second is far more important and this is where the JVM has been very strong (3x faster than Go 1):

[http://www.techempower.com/blog/2013/03/28/framework- benchma...](http://www.techempower.com/blog/2013/03/28/framework-benchmarks/)

Memory consumption is often not a major concern on modern systems, saving 50 MB or even 500 MB is seldom as important as the ability to process more requests per second.

I'm busy learning Go, and am very impressed by the performance gains in 1.1 (and GC improvements). My main concern at the moment is how much less expressive the language is relative to Python, Scala and Ruby. Go is fast, but so is Scala, and Scala is also very expressive compared to Go.

Go has a definite edge in environments where memory footprint is important and simple interfacing with native libraries is critital. Scala and the JVM are still more appealing to me in most other areas.

<comment><USER6> To be fair, I would rather write this: [https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/blob/mast...](https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/blob/master/go/hello.go)

rather than this: [https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/blob/mast...](https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/blob/master/netty/src/main/java/hello/HelloServerHandler.java)

(not to mention the 2 other Java files to setup the server).

<comment><USER7> Well, that's using a particular framework (netty). Play seems much simpler.

<comment><USER3> Not to mention this gives you a lot of flexibility and quite a battle tested backend, whereas the Go equivalents are still mostly in progress and less flexible.

Oh, and in the recent shootout, netty gets to 30,000 rpm, whereas Go peaks around 10,000.

<comment><AUTHOR> First off, is was 14k vs 38k. Just wait until next benchmark update when they have switched to Go 1.1

Based on these results Go and Netty should be much closer: <https://gist.github.com/errnoh/5320784>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's a pity this is a comparison with Go 1.0.3. That's so old as to be a almost useless comparison given that everyone who's serious about Go uses something from the hg repository.

<comment><USER5> Those serious about Go are running (production?) systems using pre-release builds? Is that a common practice?

<comment><USER9> It's not very common. John (the GP) uses the Go bleeding edge at CloudFlare because he needs some of the recent improvements. To do this, he really needs to know what he's doing (and he does). Typical Go users just use the stable branch.

<comment><AUTHOR> I know of two more Go heavy start-ups and one large company that also use tip.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Introvert – Generative artwork to keep you off your phone - <AUTHOR> https://iamintrovert.co <comment><AUTHOR> Hey! Thank you for your interest and comments!

Just a bit of background thinking.

The app named Introvert is a generative artwork aimed to help you stay off your phone. Right now we´re being asked to lead a sedentary life (for the sake of others and our own wellbeing). Only the mind is allowed to wonder.

I wish Introvert can help us lead a focused everyday where mindful practise will direct us to make the most of these strange days a head.

It's rather experiment/art project then productivity app:)

Introvert is free and open source.

Please have a try, I would love to hear any feedback!

<comment><USER3> Great app, I love the ethos.

It would work wonderfully on Apple Watch to show the art being drawn, it's even the correct aspect ratio.

<comment><USER4> I agree, this would look amazing on the watch.

<comment><AUTHOR> We already working on it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't get what introvert has to do with focus.

Besides that, if you really need to stay off your phone, consider a "distraction free" phone as outlined in the book _Make Time_ by Jake Knapp. Its a solid book but you can also glean that part of it from his blog:

[https://medium.com/make-time/six-years-with-a-distraction- fr...](https://medium.com/make-time/six-years-with-a-distraction-free- iphone-8cf5eb4f97e3)

His version might be extreme for some. At the very least disable all notifications (save maybe texts from your SO/children) and delete social media apps.

<comment><USER6> I've switched to a "dumb phone" over 2 years ago and I have no plans of turning back. I've recently published a piece about it [https://pawelurbanek.com/mobile-internet-addiction- focus](https://pawelurbanek.com/mobile-internet-addiction-focus)

<comment><USER7> As I paged-down to start reading, I got four words in ("Mindlessly checking social networks") before four social network badges animated in from the left. Seems a little ironic.

Regardless, it was a good read. Your idea about dumbphone+SIM-less smartphone is something I've not heard before and might try.

<comment><USER6> Yeah I should hide social bar on this one not to be hippocratic :)

<comment><USER8> hypocritical is the word you're looking for.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I got touched by:

> The app is free.

> No in-app purchases.

> No advertising.

> We do not collect your data.

> Use the code in any way.

</comment><comment><USER10> Oooh! I have long wanted something like this, something both compelling and soothing. When I've been doing something intense, it's hard for me to shift my mind into a lower gear; I often find myself back on Twitter or rummaging through the news. This seems like a great alternative.

Edit: Oh no! IOS only!

<comment><USER11> [https://www.binky.rocks/](https://www.binky.rocks/)

<comment><USER12> I would use some binky.ycombinator.com, put me on the waitlist for THAT.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I use Forest ([https://www.forestapp.cc/](https://www.forestapp.cc/)) which does something similar: plants virtual trees (you can pay to plant real ones too) for every time interval when you stayed focused.

I will also try this one when the Android version appears. The generative artwork makes it very compelling.

<comment><USER14> > plants virtual trees (you can pay to plant real ones too) for every time > interval when you stayed focused.

One of my many pet-projects-I'll-never-implement is creating one of these addicting Facebook-driven social games like Farmville (I have no idea what it's modern equivalent is) and instead of distributing profit from ad revenue / in-app purchases, donate all of it to an NGO that does IRL whatever people are doing online. So if planting an in-game tree generates $0.02 in profit from ad revenue / in-app purchases (after operating expenses, taxes, capex, etc) and planting a tree in real life costs $20, the NGO would plant one real tree after users plant 1,000 online trees

I think it's a killer idea for a socially-conscious app and I think users would feel incentivized to play this over any of the stupid casual online games with no positive real-life implications.

<comment><USER15> > I think users would feel incentivized to play this over any of the stupid > casual online games with no positive real-life implications

With all due respect, I think this is wrong. People play games that are fun, regardless of real-life implications. If you can make a fun game that is socially-conscious, more power to you. But socially-conscious by itself does not make a killer game.

<comment><USER14> Right, I'm starting from the assumption that it would be as much fun as Farmville

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Cool program. Thanks creating and open sourcing (MIT), @ilyayudanov!

Built with React Native. Source here: [https://github.com/IamIntrovert/Introvert](https://github.com/IamIntrovert/Introvert)

</comment><comment><USER17> Just curious, why is this named "Introvert"? Is it that this app is thought to be more appealing to introverts?

<comment><USER18> I took it as instead of texting, or checking social media, you're alone with your own thoughts.

For people who want something to do with their phone when they're bored, but hate social stuff.

<comment><USER19> I read it as a noun rather than a verb but you're making me think it was intended as a verb

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Step 1: minimize or remove social media from phone. Only keep messenger apps.

Step 2: remove all apps and games that require you to use it daily for some sort of reward.

Step 3: eliminate any or all notifications save for messages, email, phone, or automated alerts for particular things (like slickdeals or stocks).

Step 4: treat your phone as a tool, not an entertainment machine.

<comment><USER21> I try to do it, but then I end up using websites, log out, then log in after some time and get hooked on again... I used to have a blocker app acting as a pseudo VPN on iOS but I just turned it off constantly.

<comment><USER20> I treat it exactly like I treat online purchases. No auto logins, I MUST enter my credit card (or use paypal, which requires 2FA everytime, no remembering), and I always log out of everything.

It makes making a purchase a hassle just like it makes checking up on social media a hassle. I intentionally put barriers up to manipulate my own behavior I know well enough. Yes it's annoying, but I've made a habit of it for so long it's a nuisance that is the "Right" way to do it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Funes- I don't think setting up a timer _on the very device that is distracting you_ will significantly help you stay away from it, especially on psychological terms. I reckon it will make you dependent on your phone as well, but in a different sense.

In my opinion, the development of deeply-rooted discipline and self-control must primarily--even exclusively--come from one's will, at all times and at all levels, in order to be successful. Otherwise, what are you going to do if you cannot access the app for whatever reason? We need to aspire to have a firm will, not a straightened one (by whomever or whatever external).

<comment><USER22> That's my argument against two - factor authentication, which is spreading like herpes across workplaces. I like having my phone off and far from me during work hours, but 2FA made it impossible.

<comment><USER23> The security gains of multi-factor authentication are significant. They are so large that choosing to forego them might at this point in time be deemed negligence. That said, you're absolutely correct that it's wildly unreasonable that so many of them require you to make use of your personal phone - <USER2> you are wisely and responsibly trying to ignore

Fortunately, there are a lot of good ways to do 2FA that don't rely on your personal phone! A second device, physical RSA tokens, and U2F keys are all viable options that let you both be responsible by ignoring your phone _and_ be safer. Some password managers will also do your TOTP code generation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This looks like a lovely way to replace a pomodoro timer and similar.

I assume there are no plans for an Android version?

</comment><comment><USER25> I purchased a Kitchen Safe for $50 and lock my phone up 14-15 hours a day. In an emergency, I can smash the safe for $50 and get my phone out. Works wonders for productivity.

</comment><comment><USER26> I investigated where the generation if images where created. Took me some time but it comes from a forked repo from long ago. :)

Here is the code: [https://github.com/Elf2707/react-native-image- processor/blob...](https://github.com/Elf2707/react-native-image- processor/blob/master/ios/RNImageProcessor.swift#L86)

</comment><comment><USER27> This looks nice. I'd prefer that the app clearly states upfront that the numbers are in minutes, instead of someone having to guess what it is. It'd also be nice to start at one minute and have one minute increments for the first 10 minutes. Sometimes one just needs a short break. The current minimum length of 10 minutes seems too long for that.

</comment><comment><USER28> A little more padding for the top buttons to distance them from the notification bar a little would be great!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for pointing it out. Missed it while testing on my old iPhone 8. Will definitely fix it in a new release!

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Love it, please do an android version!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We'll figure out android soon.

<comment><USER30> Do you have something like a mailing list for when it is ready?

<comment><AUTHOR> Just added form to the bottom of the website. Thanks for pointing out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Sorry if this is a naïve question. Once you have the timer running, are you supposed to keep focus on the art getting generated or you can focus on the work you are doing? (Say reading, in that sense you are focused on the reading and not touching your phone).

</comment><comment><USER32> Nice! Looking forward to the android version.

Small nitpick: change "an unique" to "a unique".

</comment><comment><USER33> I found a glitch/bug: you can accidentally go back to the launch screen (with no way to go forward other than force-closing the app) if you swipe near from the edge right below or above the number scroller/selector.

</comment><comment><USER34> Hey, If you are the author, the design details are not visible in the video (I am on my mac), I mean the details aren't visible. Maybe edit the video to zoom on the design when it starts generating for a few seconds?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey, thank you, for letting me know! We'll look into it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> In a similar vein, a friend of mine released a really simple finger labyrinth app awhile back:

[https://www.labyrinthjourney.app/](https://www.labyrinthjourney.app/)

</comment><comment><USER36> I have found that all these distraction elimination apps are ultimately useless once their novelty wears off.

The only truly lasting way I found to stay off my phone is to wear an Apple Watch and leave my phone at home.

</comment><comment><USER37> "Attention, the ability to pay it and where it is directed, is the most valuable tool..."

Oh snap, the MOST valuable tool. Shit. ADD is really holding me back.

</comment><comment><USER38> I like your thing.

I posted it to [http://reddit.com/r/generative](http://reddit.com/r/generative)

Are you familiar?

</comment><comment><USER38> It's like you are co-opting reality here. An alternative to the phone-dream presented within that very dream.

</comment><comment><USER39> Interesting use of generative technologies

</comment><comment><USER40> hmmm....subliminal mind control

</comment><comment><USER41> is there an android version?

</comment><comment><USER42> Love it!

</comment><comment><USER43> Cute!</comment>


Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation - <AUTHOR> https://keybase.io/blog/keybase-stellar <comment><USER3> Blog author from Keybase here. Always game for a Hacker News discussion!

There's a subtle point I cut from my post for simplicity reasons, but which feels perfect for HN. I've been convinced by Mazières and the Stellar team that the classic "blockchain" works great for native tokens but is extremely dangerous for anything with counterparty redemption. For example, imagine the shitshow after a truly contentious fork, if there are tokens which are supposed to be redeemable with a counterparty.

Let's say Deutsche Bank had put €1 billion into colored coins on Bitcoin. Suddenly, after a fork (e.g. bitcoin vs. bitcoin cash), there would be €2 billion IOU's in the wild. The people on each side of that fork would not roll over and die, and it's not simple to say "Oh, whoever Deutsche picks wins." Or even "Whoever has the strongest chain wins." I have a hard time imagining a company would ever take that risk. I worry big companies would never dare to put anything real-world redeemable directly onto, say, Bitcoin or Ethereum, for this reason. They'd just get sued over and over again.

The Stellar federated consensus story (HN debates about SCP below [1][2]) has Deutsche Bank as an actual player on the network. If you want DB redemptions then you would include them in your trust lines / quorum slices, and if Stellar fell apart and became partitioned, you would stay on DB's side. All said, it seems significantly faster and more stable for cryptocurrency-to- real-world mappings, both for the consumer and counterparty.

Fun discussions:

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9341687](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9341687) \-- of particular note, because it has David Mazières, Vitalik Buterin, and Greg Maxwell all weighing in.

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16125920](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16125920)

<comment><USER4>
      I've been convinced by Mazières and the Stellar team

As someone who's been in the cryptocurrency space for a long time I can guarantee you got swindled. Countless investors I have seen move to centralized "blockchains" due to buzzword powerpoint presentations and floating_nodes.jpg bootstrap landing pages.

This is no different than what current financial institutions do other than a new UI.

<comment><USER5> I don't understand this comment. It doesn't seem to address any of the key technical points behind the Stellar project as it is actively used today, but instead tries to imply that the foundation is some group of fly-by-night scammers that have won over keybase by nothing more than a twinkle in their eye.

My impression was that Lumens seemed to be solving one of the legitimate problems of the world—the inefficiency of the SWIFT system for cross-border transactions—and appears to have a viable model for doing so.

I don't see how whether or not it's centralized makes it a swindle?

<comment><USER6> It's possible more than one system could replace SWIFT, but why would it be Stellar/Lumens who are still in the gate with their fork when Ripple/XRP seem to be already round the first bend with seemingly very large momentum in terms of interest, trials and actual production use by financial institutions?

<comment><USER7> How is Stellar still "in the gate," more than two years after deploying their decentralized Byzantine agreement algorithm?

Ripple has only just now, in 2018, published their decentralized consensus algorithm (Cobalt), which as far as I know is not even in production use yet, and doesn't provide optimal safety. (In settings where Cobalt is guaranteed Safe, SCP would be too, but not vice versa.) Their production network still uses a protocol that, by Ripple's own analysis ([https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.07242](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1802.07242)), fails to guarantee safety without >90% agreement on the UNL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Last time Keybase came up I made sure to post about how great using it is and that I am super-duper enthused about Keybase. I entreated 'malgorithms to let me _give him money_ for Keybase. And I have recommended Keybase to a ton of people and a bunch of my clients, using it in a bunch of workflows. Now those people and those clients are going to have cryptocoin bullshit stuffed into a _work_ tool?

Thanks, Chris. You're doing a great job of making _me_ look like an asshole for believing in you guys.

I don't want your "monetization plays" and my clients don't either. _Giving you guys money_ for Keybase is infinitely preferable to having cryptocoin crap, Stellar or otherwise, being jammed into a tool I use for _work_. (Or anything else, really, that I ever have to touch.) And I feel like a sap for being an enthusiastic user of Keybase and recommending it to people when _this_ sort of garbage is coming down the pike.

I am really, really disappointed.

<comment><USER9> Why are you disappointed if Keybase includes a wallet or a way to send people Lumens? Can you not just not use it?

<comment><USER8> I recommended Keybase to people as a security tool. This isn't security. There is no reason for cryptocurrency bullshit to exist in tools I rely upon. There is no reason for cryptocurrency bullshit to exist things that I use in production capacities.

It is the pure addition of risk to my operations and my clients' operations and offers nothing to me except a ding to my reputation, because I now look like an asshole because a security tool I recommended and spoke highly of is now going to be flogging funbux.

<comment><USER10> I could maybe see your concern if Keybase were announcing an ICO for their own token, but that is not what this is.

This really is about Keybase bringing expertise with identity to the table and it makes a lot of sense for the two teams to work together. The currency side of things is still going to be handled by Stellar as far as I can tell.

<comment><USER8> I understand what they are doing.

Here's how normal people look at something like this. It's not "oh, but they're just _facilitating_ ," it's "why is there cryptocoin crap in this thing we use for work?". Then it's "Ed, why is this thing you recommended and spoke so highly about doing this? Are they cryptomining on our computers now?". Then, even after an explanation, they're probably still suspicious and probably right to still be suspicious because the cryptocurrency universe is, by normal and sane people, still viewed as a scammer's paradise. (To be clear: is this entirely justified? No, and I think there are decent people trying to make a go of it. But there's _plenty_ of dirt going on and people should be suspicious until it's proven otherwise.)

I don't want this on my computers. But, more than that, I don't want my clients thinking that I am a party to shady business because of the tools I recommend that they use.

<comment><USER7> If you are so allergic to cryptocurrency, why didn't it bother you when Keybase started writing their root into the Bitcoin blockchain ([https://keybase.io/docs/server_security/merkle_root_in_bitco...](https://keybase.io/docs/server_security/merkle_root_in_bitcoin_blockchain))?

There are obviously annoying ways in which keybase could support cryptocurrency, but you are making a lot of assumptions about what Keybase is going to do that are not based on the blog post. For example, wallets do not mine coins and Stellar does not support mining.

Why don't you wait to see what comes out and submit a feature request if you don't like it, instead of flipping out about some hypothetical feature you won't like.

<comment><USER11> Thou art too wise sir. I guess we all have to do is to first wait and see how the implementation is done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This post is very oblique in a way that makes me suspicious.

1\. Is Keybase still a for-profit corporation?

2\. No actual technology is announced here. Is the purpose of this post to announce funding? If so, how much funding is it and what are the conditions under which it is provided?

3\. How is Stellar compatible with privacy? Keybase mentions MobileCoin in this blog post, but they are only using Stellar's consensus protocol, not the full Stellar protocol. I think that is because Stellar isn't private. What is Keybase doing to solve that if they are using the Stellar network?

<comment><USER13> I think the translation is:

1\. We are now taking money from Stellar, so...

2\. We will support UserA/FiatX to UserB/FiatY in app, whenever we're allowed to talk about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> > And traditional banking, with its branches and offices and free dog treats, > uses even more electricity than Bitcoin.

Isn't this disingenuous, to say the least? First, traditional banking uses more (for now) but also performs orders of magnitude more transactions. I'd be surprised if banking used more per transaction. Secondly, a bank does a lot of things that Bitcoin doesn't even _try_ to do. I can walk into my local bank and get quarters for me laundry, Euros for my trip, a loan for my house, set up a retirement savings account and get advice on what to do with it, request help if I've been defrauded, and probably a lot more I haven't ever considered.

</comment><comment><USER15> I first heard about Stellar from Patrick's (patio11) Harry Potter post around 3 years ago: Harry Potter And The Cryptocurrency of Stars[1]. I have been following Stellar closely since then and am also running one of the biggest Stellar communities.

It's one of the rear cryptocurrency and "blockchain" technologies that actually make sense to me. They have a simple structure: you are able to issue assets/tokens on the network and you are able to send and trade them for other tokens. I think that this simplicity allowed it to gain a lot of credibility with bigger companies (Stripe, IBM, now Keybase, ...), while other technologies like Bitcoin/Ethereum are getting just more and more complicated with 2nd layer networks and locking up tokens in them. They stayed true to the original ideas without introducing a bunch of buzzwords around them and trying to avoid hype in their announcements[2]:

> Our agreement with Keybase entails many practical Stellar-centric > deliverables. Rather than giving out a list now and spinning up yet another > crypto hype-cycle, we'll announce products jointly with them as they're > completed or near completion. We know the Keybase team very well and expect > they will create critical Stellar ecosystem components over the coming > years.

[1] [https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/08/05/harry-potter-and-the- cr...](https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/08/05/harry-potter-and-the- cryptocurrency-of-stars/) [2] [https://www.stellar.org/blog/keybase-and- stellar-partnership...](https://www.stellar.org/blog/keybase-and-stellar- partnership/)

<comment><USER16> You know what is even better? A SQL database. Very simple and you can do almost anything with it. Also very proven technology.

<comment><USER17> Stellar is a postgres database under the hood and its just the stellar concensus protocol (SCP) that determins which queries/transaction to apply to your database in tandem with all the other nodes

<comment><USER10> They support SQLite as well :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I've stopped recommending keybase since they removed all references to being able to do operations directly with gpg (which is a real shame - it worked incredibly well and was the best example I've ever seen of web/CLI integration). The whole thing is becoming very opaque and startup-y and hey- we're-an-app have-you-downloaded-our-app why-not-app-our-app app-app-app- app... I'm really not a fan of these "minimal" growth-hack-y websites which seem so popular these days.

<comment><USER19> Just curious, around how long ago was this change made? Can you find web.archive.org links for a page which was changed? I'd find them useful for discussions with my peers.

<comment><USER18> The gpg approach was available in September 2017, when I used it to setup my account. I can't tell you any better than that though, and that's part of the nature of opaque aggressive growth startups today. Things just disappear or change with no acknowledgement of the past unless it's part of the story the company wants to tell about itself _today_. It's reasons like this that I tend to lose all interest in a project as soon as I hear they've taken VC.

<comment><USER20> I recently used the terminal/gpg method to update my keys.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Read the announcement of the Stellar Foundation [1] for more detail. TLDR:

"We see a future where, say, I can send my friend 100XLM, and, via Keybase, I can send it to her by knowing only her Twitter or Reddit handle."

[1] [https://www.stellar.org/blog/keybase-and-stellar- partnership...](https://www.stellar.org/blog/keybase-and-stellar-partnership/)

</comment><comment><USER22> You get a sense of positivity by just going through the stellar website and documentation (eerily similar to Stripe). It is beautifully designed and easy to understand. Kind of gives the feeling that they are in it for the long run unlike many other get rich quick Ponzi cryptocurrencies out there.

<comment><USER23> I recently had extensive contact with someone on their support staff(Robert) regarding issues with my stellar coins(issued back in 2014 which I had completely forgotten about until a month ago). We exchanged probably 10-20 emails trying to resolve my issue, which was eventually satisfiable resolved. I came away with a very positive opinion about the seriousness of the team.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> The thing I love the most about Stellar is how its founders want it to become "the SMTP of payment". It's kind of amazing we still haven't such kind of protocol widely available, and have to rely on private companies like Paypal, Stripe or any bank's IPN to send money on the internet, decades after its creation.

</comment><comment><USER25> Very cool news. It's always exciting to see Keybase introduce new features, and the thought process behind them is usually pretty interesting to read.

There's definitely a very real need for an anchored cryptocurrency that isn't a huge scam like Tether. It's cool that Stellar seems to solve this in a way that doesn't require me to hand over all of my trust to the currency creator.

Also, that FAQ was awesome.

</comment><comment><USER26> How does this change the threat model for using keybase? It would seem to increase the target value of compromising the client. Is that immediate impression wrong?

<comment><USER27> Yes. I don't believe Keybase will not store Stellar private keys in any way, this would be horrible.

<comment><USER28> what does prevent you from storing your private keys today? Nothing. The association with Stellar might imply a higher likelyhood of something valuable crypto related being there. However, I don't care, if the security of keybase is somehow broken, I'd rather find out early on and with the increased exposure, they may be getting free pen testing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Welp, time to uninstall. I like Keybase a lot, but there are zero ways in which I want my crypto to mix with my cryptocurrency.

<comment><USER30> Probably should have done some more research before you installed the first time. Keybase has been mixed with cryptocurrency since 2014 [1]

[1] [https://keybase.io/docs/server_security/merkle_root_in_bitco...](https://keybase.io/docs/server_security/merkle_root_in_bitcoin_blockchain)

<comment><USER31> eh, publishing audit log hashes into the buttchain doesn't really "mix" it on the users' side

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> The FAQs are the bottom are amazing. Seems to cover just about every HN objection ever:

> Does Keybase itself have Lumens?

Thus far, SDF has supported us with cash — "dirty fiat" — which is what it takes to build software. But yes, we will hold Lumens later.

> But Stellar is not Turing complete

Ok

> Hodl on a second - aren't these anchored currencies the same thing as > "tethers" (USDT)? I hear bad things about them.

Sort of. How Stellar's view of real-world currencies is different:

you choose which issuing parties to trust. No one seems to know if Tethers are redeemable. the exchange itself is decentralized; you can change your trust lines whenever you like, and you can trade away the rubbish. This is very different from being stuck in a centralized exchange with one questionable currency-pegged token.

> What about Keybase profiles' support of Bitcoin and Zcash addresses?

This won't change. We continue to be big fans of Zcash (for all the reasons mentioned here), Ethereum (for its flexibility), and Bitcoin (for its relative stability). We're also excited for Filecoin.

We really are pro cryptocurrency across the board.

> Where can I learn about Stellar?

Here's a Talk at Google about it. After the video, you could read the Stellar Consensus Protocol paper. And here's their blog post announcing their support of us.

> Won't this distract the Keybase team from its other work?

All of our existing product (chat, teams, files, identity, etc.) should only get better, with more total resources put into them.

> So are you launching a coin, like MobileCoin or Kik's?

No. We will be helping Stellar in general, not launching our own coin.

> Have you ever heard of the Dutch tulip craze?

It sounds familiar. Have you ever heard of proof by example?

> Any advice on storing cryptocurrency today?

Advice we've gotten is the Ledger Nano S.

> WHAT ABOUT MONERO??

...

</comment><comment><USER33> I <3 Keybase, though I wish I could generate my device keys with pgp rather than _only_ having keybase do it for me. And of course, I'd love to store an ssh key with keybase...

</comment><comment><USER34> I wasn't convinced about Stellar in that article. Some arguments given were strawman like, especially when attacking proof of work (PoW) or other things that are irrelevant because Stellar is something completely different. Besides, I found the overall tone to be somewhat condescending, especially due to the Monero snide at the end.

There are plenty of other low-fee, non-PoW coins out there, that the article should have spent more time comparing to instead; So we know that stellar doesn't use PoW - what I want to know is why the Stellar consensus algorithm is better when compared to the other similar alternatives out there, and what makes it faster and more secure. They also leave an elephant in the room - <USER2> is Stellar more resistant to censorship? What I'd really be interested in reading is why they chose it based on technical merits, rather than talking down other projects.

</comment><comment><USER35> Isn't Keybase a for-profit corporation? What does it mean for a non-profit to support a for-profit? An emtry in the FAQ explaining this would be appreciated.

</comment><comment><USER36> >>We think Stellar can fulfill Bitcoin's original goal of fast, cheap, worldwide payments.

Stellar will not remain fast, cheap and global. It has counterparty risk in the form of the trusted third parties that form its consensus nodes. These TTPs will censor transactions and introduce costly registration requirements for the same reason traditional fintech companies do: to comply with the demands of regulatory agencies.

The only networks capable of providing fast, cheap, worldwide payments are decentralized protocols without trusted third party intermediaries, like Bitcoin (Bitcoin Cash) and Ethereum.

<comment><USER37> Only the third party issued tokens have counterparty risk i.e you trust the issuer to redeem them somehow. Is that different than an ethereum ERC20 token? The native asset itself (XLM) has no counterparty risk.

> The only networks capable of providing fast, cheap, worldwide payments are > decentralized protocols without trusted third party intermediaries, like > Bitcoin (Bitcoin Cash) and Ethereum.

IMO it is a trade off between degree of trust and scalability. Bitcoin requires no trust but has a costly PoW consensus algorithm which does not allow instant transactions and has a very low tps limit. You can't have both (unless someone comes up with a better consensus mechanism)

<comment><USER36> XLM and everything else on a ledger like Stellar's has counterparty risk, because consensus on these types of ledgers is established by a set of trusted third parties. The TTPs are counterparties, and if they fail, the ledger fails.

>>IMO it is a trade off between degree of trust and scalability.

In my opinion, the right approach to managing this trade-off is to build more centralized platforms on top of the decentralized base layer. That way they have a highly immutable/trustworthy base layer they can all interact on.

An example of this approach is the POA Network, which uses a set of US public notaries to run high throughput validator nodes for a permissioned instance of Ethereum. This permissioned ledger is a side chain of the Ethereum main chain, which can interoperate with it, and has the advantage of being able to scale to 1000s of transactions per second. One could envision multiple trusted or semi-trusted ledgers operating on top of a decentralized ledger that acts as the settlement layer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I'd be really interested in adding Twitter (etc) support to Lumenette with help of Keybase, if possible. Hoping there will be an API for other wallets to interact with the features Keybase is working on.

I've been using Keybase git and file storage for some time now. Really excited about this partnership!

Lumenette wallet, for reference: [https://galactictalk.org/d/1159-lumenette- android-ios-stella...](https://galactictalk.org/d/1159-lumenette-android-ios- stellar-lumens-wallet)

</comment><comment><USER6> Given that stellar/lumen is a fork of ripple/xrp, and ripple/xrp seem to have a massive head start with what 100+? bank and payment providers already on board - are stellar/lumen not just competing head to head with Ripple with essentially the same technology but with a handicap of being behind in terms of development and not having an in-use production network and settlement solution?

<comment><USER39> Is the current code still a fork? I thought stellar switched to their own thing quite early alreaxy

<comment><USER40> Yeah, it hasn't been a fork for a long time. Disclosure: I work for stellar and took part in the big rewrite.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> As a long time Keybase user and Stellar holder, I couldn't be more excited for this news! Congratulations to all!

</comment><comment><USER42> I feel like there's a very real synergy possible here. Keybase has a solution covering security, identity, chat and multi-device usage that could be very interesting when combined with a crypto-currency like Stellar Lumen. I wonder what they have in mind in terms of features. Any guesses?

<comment><USER43> Given keybase is a social product around cryptographic security my bet is on some kind of a social platform where stellar tokens play a big role.

</comment></comment><comment> xerxe-sans-s Attaching a transaction history and wallet to an identity perfectly positions keybase as a player in the credit scoring industry.

I'm excited to see this, and hopeful that it takes off. However, I've enjoyed utilizing keybase as an identity tool. I've had a decent experience with the system as a workplace productivity tool (chat, git). I'm worried that the team will lose focus by branching into a third, and potentially fourth area of focus.

</comment><comment><USER44> Sorry if this question is a bit stupid but could somebody enlighten me on why Keybase seem to regard Monero quite poorly? From what I've heard it seems that its anonimity is more trusted than that of Zcash at least, and both it and Zcash are proof-of-work coins anyways. Is it simply because they already had Zcash, so they'd rather not put something similar in there?

</comment><comment><USER45> That's a very good partnership! Since Keybase maps social media identities to encryption keys in a publicly auditable manner, as well as Stellar implements Lumens as a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions, to control the creation of additional units, and to verify the transfer of assets

</comment><comment><USER46> In response to the environmental backlash argument, isn't the lightning network supposed to substantially mitigate those concerns?

<comment><USER47> Lightning doesn't reduce mining in any way. Note that energy consumption of mining is not related to transaction throughput.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Beware of anything Jed McCaleb touches. The author of eDonkey, the horrid PHP code that was MTGox, ripple and now stellar.

<comment><USER49> Perhaps truer words were never spoken...

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> > But Stellar is not Turing complete… Ok

This made me smile.

</comment><comment><USER51> Is Stellar private by default, or do you have to add tumblers to gain some semblance of privacy?

</comment><comment><USER52> this is going to be awesome. I need to look at that now. So many coins to be aware of and to study to navigate a seemingly confusing new world, though.

</comment><comment><USER53> I was just thinking this morning how keybase would be useful as a tie-in for crypto identity on blockchain, when this is desirable. This is fantastic news.

Just confirms that Stellar is great platform.

</comment><comment><USER54> >Have you ever heard of the Dutch tulip craze?

>It sounds familiar. Have you ever heard of proof by example?

Well played!

</comment><comment><USER55> awesome!

</comment><comment><USER56> Stellar doesn't work.

Disturbed by energy consumption, their solution is to divide(shard) the blockchain graph. Does that result in a consensus though? Not in their own prior version.

Will the topology they are claiming emerge? There is no proof.

</comment><comment><USER57> Why someone use this kind of chat? Same Slack, Hipchat it's look to me like expansive irc. And this "blog post" is more Stellar commercial.

<comment><USER58> Because it's end-to-end encrypted for just the people in the chat. Slack and Hipchat store the logs in the clear for themselves and the contents could be revealed if they were ever hacked. Since they're _also_ centralized this poses an issue because they're an easier target than say a member of the chat's device.

Since keybase is all encrypted, signed, and authenticated the fact it's centralized only matters as far as the service going down, but the content is all secure.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: who are the most interesting new entrepreneurs? - <AUTHOR>

Who are the most interesting new entrepreneurs that you think deserve more exposure?<p>The Startup Conference in Silicon Valley wants to give an opportunity for the most interesting founders to share their experience and insights. But who are they? I'm counting on the wisdom of the crowd to tell me :-) <comment><USER2> It's an enigma. The ones you think are interesting are just ones who manage to market themselves better/more than others, but it doesn't mean they're most interesting.

I think everyone who decides to be an entrepreneur is interesting, just in different ways.</comment>


Ask HN: What influence do you think Ayn Rand had on the modern world? - <AUTHOR> I keep seeing her name come up everywhere. I've explored her work and am familiar with objectivism. I'm aware of how she has had a major influence on many thinkers and creatives over the last few decades.
I agree with some aspects but also disagree as well, she seems to be ignoring a major part of the human experience and dismissing it as primitive. I look at her life and wonder if she was aware of this or not, hard to tell.
If you know some good articles or essays, I'm looking for those as well. <comment><USER2> Alan Greenspan Former Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States, is a life long devotee. He had great influence over the economy from 1987 to 2006. A period that saw a great market boom and collapse.

<comment><USER3> He has several essays in _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal,_ as well. It's sad to see how he changed his ideas about the Fed once he was put in charge of it. :-(

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had _enough_ influence over the world.

I think Rand would be horrified at the current popularity of socialism. She rightly points out that, historically, it's created nothing but poverty and misery.

I would highly recommend her essay, _A Textbook of Americanism,_ available free online here: [http://laissez- fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm](http://laissez-fairerepublic.com/textbook.htm)

Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament.

<comment><USER4> _Her book, "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" is a series of essays written in the early 60's. Reading it today, I would say she hasn't had enough influence over the world._

I can't agree strongly enough. Everybody should read _Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal_. And go into it with an open mind, instead of planning to reject it based on preconceived biases. A lot of people might be surprised at how they feel about things at the end.

All of that said, I think Rand hurt herself in one crucial way w.r.t her writing. And that is her somewhat nonstandard use of certain words, especially "selfish" and "selfishness". For better or worse, her use of those words is a bit different from the common, colloquial usage, and most people - in my experience - don't bother to try and really dig in and parse out what she meant.

I'm not even sure a word exists that, by itself, captures exactly what she meant by "selfish" or "selfishness". Something like "self interest" or "inner desire" or maybe "self reward" comes close, but those all feel kinda clumsy if inserted into her works in place of "selfish" and its other forms.

 _Perhaps if more people read Rand (especially her nonfiction), we might not be in this predicament._

Agreed. Sadly, even among people who have read Rand, too many just read _Atlas Shrugged_ and formed their opinions there. And while I enjoyed AS and think it has a lot of virtue, it's not a great novel in many ways, and as a non-native English speaker, her writing in AS can feel a bit wooden and stilted at times. I think _The Fountainhead_ is a bit better in this regard, in addition to being shorter, and generally recommend it as a better intro to Rand's fiction, for people who want to go down that path.</comment></comment>


Horizon BCBS loses laptops with PII (including SSNs) of 840,000 people.  Again. - <AUTHOR> http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2013/12/horizon_bcbs_notifying_840000.html

<comment><AUTHOR> We got a letter from them yesterday. My wife was insured by them over 2 years ago, but apparently still had her data sitting on some staffers laptop.

In 2008, they lost another 300,000 peoples data the same way, but of course they "take security seriously".

For all the time we spend worrying about PCI and HIPPA compliance, one wonders how a gigantic insurer can get away with ignoring even the most basic precautions.</comment>


Google earth for the Sun - <AUTHOR> http://www.jhelioviewer.org/index.html Neat program that lets you control the sun. <comment><USER2> I worked on the web version as well as an upcoming iPhone version of this over the summer.

Check out: <http://helioviewer.org/> for the web version, and <http://helioviewer.org/wiki> for info on other related projects.

</comment><comment><USER3> Neat, although the extremely small number of heliophysicists who might actually have some use for this probably have some other way to view the data already.

</comment><comment><USER4> Very nice. Released at AGU meeting.

More details:

[http://news.gislounge.com/2010/12/esa-makes-the-sun- availabl...](http://news.gislounge.com/2010/12/esa-makes-the-sun-available-to- everyone/)</comment>


Ask HN: Anonymised DB with real DOBs for parents and children? - <AUTHOR> sorry for not been clear, I need to find a DB with real DOBs of parents and children. as many as possible but real information. just DOBs nothing else <comment><USER2> I'm not familiar with any, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. If you are willing to pay you could probably buy the data from Acxiom though.

</comment><comment><USER3> you could just apply some of the same design principals used in HIPPA approved software. instead of using publicly identifiable information, use numeric ids etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> the DOBs of parents and children have to be real. the study is trying to find/prove a relationship between the DOBs of parents and children.</comment></comment>


I'm keeping my Instagram account - <AUTHOR> http://gregmeyer.com/2012/12/18/im-keeping-my-instagram-account-heres-why/

<comment><USER2> Instagram new policy: You are not our customers, you are the cattle we drive to market and auction off to the highest bidder. Enjoy your feed and keep producing the milk.

The guy seems to understand that his just a cattle and he likes that or even if he doesn't like it he chooses to use the service because the feed is good, but not every one likes to be a cattle.

src: [http://raganwald.posterous.com/translation-from-legalese- and...](http://raganwald.posterous.com/translation-from-legalese-and-pr-speak- to-eng)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is crap.

> I'm not sure what your assumption was all along when you started using this > free service. My assumption was that when I posted the information to > Instagram's servers that I was trading utility

> for control (because I pay nothing for this service, I expect that it could > go away at any moment.)

Yeah, we did trade utility for control - but now the control part of the bargain has changed, and that is why people are angry. It was predictable, but that doesn't make people's sense of betrayal any less real.

</comment><comment><USER4> How does this affect Instagram accounts that are set to 'private'? I know a lot of people that only use the app for photo filtering and cropping instead of the sharing aspect.

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice take on this, I think the outrage is a bit overblown here and seems to have taken on an angry mob with pitchforks mentality.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - there are lots of great options out there, and not many that already have 100m users to share with ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think my usage will shift to Flickr as Instagram becomes more integrated with Facebook.</comment>


BitCoin-24 Founder Learning About SQL Transactions - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15026825/php-mysql-how-to-prevent-two-requests-update

<comment><USER2> Seeing this kind of thing is like finding a jumbo healthpack for my career.

</comment><comment><USER3> And BTC24 is currently offline, having had their bank account shut down by the Polish Authorities. <https://bitcoin-24.com/></comment>


Como hacer un sitio web con Bootstrap 4 - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMtXsp6WRrw&t=1556s <comment><USER2> [Hi from Argentina!]

This looks on-topic, but this is a English speaking forum, so the submission will probably get ignored of flagged, unless it has some very interesting material that is not available in English.

At least translate the title and add [in Spanish]. But videos are difficult to follow in other languages, specially if they don't have subtitles in English. Also, the sound is not loud enough, and I had to increase the volume to the maximum to heard this.</comment>


Why you should care about DevOps - <AUTHOR> http://piotrgankiewicz.com/2017/03/27/why-you-should-care-about-devops/ <comment><USER2> Nicely written!

I've been in a similar situation to the one you describe and I've learnt the hard way to optimize DevOps to cut off costs. Now I feel confident that I'm not going to cry when I get next months bill.</comment>