US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/business/dealbook/household-debt-united-states.html?_r=0&hn=true <comment><USER2> I don't know if it's a "bubble" (I am not qualified to say that), but I can't imagine that the current trend with student loans will continue. Looking at the numbers for someone entering college in 2017, it feels nearly predatory what a good portion of private and out of state colleges are charging. Even with financial aid, $30-40k a year for 4-5 years is insane.

I was fortunate enough to have parents who made saving for my college a priority, but watching them go through the same dance with my younger brother makes me wonder how most people get it done.

There's a huge value in going to higher education, but the ever increasing cost and amount of debt people are taking on is setting everyone but the top 10% of graduates up for a life of being in debt, which is kind of horrifying. Especially since they are debts that are impossible to shed through bankruptcy.

<comment><USER3> I truly don't understand the USA sometimes. Don't you guys know that in Europe higher education is free? Well where I'm from there was a very low nominal cost but my father was a public servant so cost was waived, I literally studied CS for 0 cost. And these countries are able to afford it all! Magic!

I don't understand how people in USA are not aware of this and literally rioting in the streets. At the very least swing public opinion and voting. Don't even start talking about the we are americans we don't like taxes BS, you really think being a young adult with a 200K student loan and a $6K deductible for healthcare insurance is better than an extra ~5-10% of tax? It's truly mind boggling.

<comment><USER4> I don't understand why the cost of higher education has gone up so much. My grandparents paid for college via a job they only held in the summer and my parents paid for college working part time during the school year and full time in the summer - both of those jobs paying a little better than minimum wage. Yet I'm looking at 5 years of debt with a tech industry salary.

Having to paying for higher education wouldn't even be such a problem if it still cost what it did when my parents attended.

Although, maybe this whole thing is that the military budget has gone up by 80% since my grandparents attended college and education spending by the federal government has gone down 10 times. Also with the fact that there are five times as many Americans attending college than when my grandparents did, I definitely agree it's time we sat down as a nation and discussed whether we as a nation should pay for our children to be educated to the level necessary to excel in the modern economy.

I don't think the tax hike would even be that extreme. The reason tuition is what it costs right now is that it pays for the people who are getting free rides for various reasons. We got a letter from University of California once that among other things stated that only about 40% of tuition for someone who is paying to attend actually goes to education that student, the other 60% goes to paying for people the UC gave grants and scholarships to. [Warning - Napkin Math] If it actually cost something like $10k per year per american college student, of which there are 20.5 million students attending both public and private universities, we would need something like an addition $210 billion in tax revenue per year, or an addition 6.4% revenue. So your 25% federal tax bracket would turn into 26.6%. That's not all that much when you think about it. Or, the government renegotiates their military contracts to stop being price-gouged in order lower the defense budget. Then use the savings to help fund education...

<comment><USER5> Universities are doing price discrimination. They want to charge rich kids a lot, middle class kids something, and poor kids nothing. That requires a high sticker price for the tuition, plus discounts.

It's hardly a perfect system but the basic idea is not unreasonable. And remember, if one pumps money into the system from the government side (which, IMHO, should happen) the counterintuitive result is that rich kids are likely to be the first ones to benefit.

<comment><USER6> Possibly, but talent-based scholarships (supposedly) are not discriminative.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> An alternative view, and one I happen to subscribe to: a balance sheet analysis shows that US debt _must_ go up over time to support exogenous capital flows.

Whether US debt grows in the housing sector, student loans, revolving debt, etc is a function of internal, domestic dynamics (including laws, local economic structure, etc). But the total capital flow into the US exceeds the outflow; that money ends up on a balance sheet somewhere.

It's sort of the flipside to our conventional notion of trade balance, that the capital account must be equal and opposite. The difference is that capital flows are now 4-5x what's necessary to account for trade, so it's really capital movements wagging the trade dog.

The net effect of inbound capital flow into the US is people must consume more than they produce, to absorb the additional capital. That is debt. And that debt ends up somewhere, either on the government's balance sheet, in the corporate sector, or households.

Major hat tip to Michael Pettis for his work describing this. His writings are dense but very digestible ([http://carnegieendowment.org/chinafinancialmarkets/](http://carnegieendowment.org/chinafinancialmarkets/)).

[edited a typo]

<comment><USER8> I'd like to understand this better. There's two villages. A businessman from village B comes to village A and buys a store from Bob for 100$. Bob keeps the money for a rainy day. Where is debt increasing?

<comment><USER9> In this case, the net capital flow is zero. $100 is transferred from B to A, and a business worth $100 is transferred from A to B.

<comment><USER7> There's merely a transfer of liquidity if the two villages share a currency. But that's a delicate equilibrium; to wit, the Euro area, where capital flows can't be balanced by the exchange rate mechanism, so they're balanced by unemployment.

Pettis does a better job of explaining (my previous, insanely-long-winded post is exhibit A), but the net result of unbalanced capital flows is typically an increase in debt, which is often manifested in the unemployment rate for an open economy. That's basically the story in peripheral Europe right now; Greece suffered more from a fixed exchange rate with Germany than from corruption and tax avoidance. At least, if you subscribe to the balance sheet analysis.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> $600B additional student debt over 10 years sounded high to me, so I did the ballpark check.

$600B over 10 years is $60B/year.

There are about 20 million college students [1].

That means $3000 per student per year on average.

If loans are paid back over 10-20 years, this really says that students are borrowing $3000 more per year than they were 10-20 years ago.

The article suggested that borrowing was about $600B total, 10 years ago, so essentially it has doubled. FWIW, CPI inflation over the last 20 years is ~50%, the other 50% is either real increase in borrowing or due to the fact that college tuition rates have been increasing faster than inflation.

[1] [https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372](https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372)

<comment><USER11> Tuition and Room and Board are increasing way faster than inflation.

[https://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Articles/Educa...](https://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Articles/Education_Inflation.asp)

CNBC has a fun infographic interactive from 2014 to look at where those increases are going.

[http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so- high...](http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-and- rising.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> $13.6 trillion is a ton of debt (literally?). At the same time, I think debt versus net worth is a more descriptive metric.

Back in 2008, household net worth (HNW) was about $56 trillion, so household debt was about a quarter of HNW. With HNW at about $93 trillion, reaching $14+ trillion in household debt doesn't sting as much.

[https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/z1.pdf](https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/z1.pdf)

At the same time, interest rates are still near historic lows, and may assets have appreciated because of this. I wouldn't be surprised to see real estate drop a bit as the Fed raises rates, which would take a chunk out of HNW.

<comment><USER13> > $13.6 trillion is a ton of debt (literally?)

IIRC, in $100 bills, $100 million is a ton. $13.6 trillion is _136,000 tons_ of $100 bills.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> For those who just read the title, the cause of this new high is ballooning student debt, not mortgages. Housing debt is still mostly declining.

<comment><USER15> Why is student loan debt not dischargable in bankruptcy? If it were, banks would be far less likely to issue them, students would find cheaper education alternatives, and universities would be forced to provide greater assistance.

<comment><USER16> _Why is student loan debt not dischargable in bankruptcy?_

Because there isn't a way to take back the knowledge/skills/information learned while in college. If you default on a home loan, then can take your house. If you default on a car loan, they can take your car.

What can they do when you default on your student loans?

<comment><USER17> You can still declare bankruptcy when you don't have the collateral for your car/house loan anymore, though. For example, if your car was totaled, or your house burned down.

<comment><USER18> Yes but what you are describing is essentially unsecured debt. The government is guaranteeing your loans, why do you think student loan rates are so much cheaper than credit cards?

The price you pay for that guarantee is that you can't declare bankruptcy. The government is propping up this industry and it has some parallels to the US housing before 08 (encouraging lending to subprime homebuyers)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Keep in-mind this household debt is above and beyond each household's share of their municipal, county, state and federal debt.

If you live in LA County, CA:

\- about $4,200 in State Debt.

\- roughly another $4,000 or in LA County debt.

\- $161,000 in federal debt.

\- $16,000 in credit card debt on average.

\- Car loan, home payment, etc.

And on average your savings are minimal. Most importantly, if this isn't you, its still someone you'll be bailing out through higher taxes and/or some other shared burden.

Ironically, the more indebted we become the more dependent we are on our government to address the problems widespread indebtedness creates. This may explain why efforts to enact economic growth policies that restore 5-6% GDP growth are met with all talk and no action in most state capitals and Washington, D.C. Its almost as if they wish to intentionally drive the the country over the fiscal cliff.

<comment><USER20> What economic growth policies could we enact that would result in 5-6% GDP growth? From my admittedly limited understanding, that seems to be quite the stretch.

<comment><USER21> You have to shrink the base to get high percentage growth - a war that is devastating have the effects of reducing labor and increase the need of labor to rebuild infrastructure so it gives a decade or two of rapid growth...

Aside from that - nuclear fusion, space travel and colonization are the only technologies that could possibly give this kind of sustained growth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This appears to be an even worse situation than 2008 because housing debt has gone down not because homes are cheaper, but that people can't buy homes. And other forms of debt with far smaller effect on net-wealth and GDP as well far harsher discharge terms are eating up the difference. This makes for the same (or more) debt load in an even riskier, more individually onerous, combination.

<comment><USER23> I don't want to say that student loans aren't a big problem or that there isn't a bubble, but I think the panic of a potential repeat of 2008 is missing a big portion of the mortgage crisis.

In 2008 there was a feedback loop that caused things to spiral out of control. Every house that was foreclosed on hit the market at a lower and lower price. This made it harder for people to refinance their existing mortgages. This was a huge problem because adjustable rate mortgages were all the rage leading up to 2008. The result was more foreclosures and then the loop repeated itself.

That isn't possible with student loans. If the student loan market pops, it will be awful for banks, it will be awful for the stock market, it will be awful for the country as a whole, but it isn't inherently going to make other people's student loans more difficult to pay off.

<comment><USER24> We are kind of in the same place as the 2008 crisis, except the sub prime mortgages have been extrapolated out a level. The comercial product being sold today is the rent collected from the properties and the mortgage is the collateral. So if the renter can't pay, kick them out, The market shouldn't tank all at once, it will continue to go up 20% a year until nearly no one can afford to live in a house period. Then crash. [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/blackstone- renta...](http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/blackstone-rental-homes- bundled-derivatives)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> In nominal terms ignoring the ~15% inflation.

PS: Inflation only shows up once as "The household debt figures are not adjusted for inflation" but that still renders the headline meaningless.

<comment><USER26> Also, "per capita"?

<comment><USER27> Also no mention of "share of GDP".

Basically, the article is rubbish.

<comment><USER28> Share of GDP seems important. Why is this rubbish?

<comment><USER29> Not the OP, but I think the comment meant that without inflation adjustment and proper ratios, you can't draw correct conclusions.

The nominal number is big, but 2008 number is today's dollars would have been $14.17 trillion, or 11.3% higher than the current debt reported.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think it's going to hit housing hard (again), but probably not anytime soon. A lot of my friends have student loan debt that will never be paid off. They either can't get a job that pays enough to pay it off in a timely fashion or they choose not to grind for 5-8 years to pay it off. Instead, the plan is to do as little as possible for the next 25 years until it's forgiven, and try to keep as much cash off the books as possible so they can live a life worth living. I can't say I blame them. We can probably ride the debt train for the next decade or so, but at some point there will be too few buyers with capital because they spent the last two decades intentionally not building assets.

<comment><USER6> This is only possible in certain situations for certain borrowers who borrowed a certain kind of loan.

Too many people think there's forgiveness light at the end of the tunnel. I feel really bad when they realize there isn't. Except death, maybe. I bet we'll see some of that, too.

[https://studentloanhero.com/featured/federal-student-loan- fo...](https://studentloanhero.com/featured/federal-student-loan-forgiveness- actually-begin/)

<comment><USER30> It's possible in most situations. Most people have federal student loans—which are the ones that aren't easily discharged—and as long as you are on an income-based repayment program, the loans are forgiven after 25 years.

You are basically given two choices as an average person after you hit over $150k debt: 1) Spend 5-10 years throwing your life away to a job to try and grind away your debt; or 2) Work a low-income job for 25 years and spend your time more meaningfully.

Low income doesn't mean no income, it just means you don't get to participate in consumer capitalism the way those without debt do. You can fault people for their lack of foresight, but honestly if I was in that situation I'd probably opt for option #2 as well.

<comment><USER6> For those with private student loans, the options are much less; usually deferment or forbearance, usually short-term.

Most people who have/had private loans did so because they didn't qualify for FAFSA to determine that their federal loans covered room and board, but also didn't have enough saved to offset this cost. I think a lot of people are forgetting that, and a large group of people fall into that category.

<comment><USER30> Private loans are much easier to get discharged or reduced through bankruptcy though. Something like close to 50% are. And in some states the statute of limitations for collections of private student loans is under 5 years.

<comment><USER6> I wasn't aware of that. I assumed the no-default rules a la Federal loans.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Why not go to Germany, get a degree there (many universities offer english speaking courses) for free? You end up with much less debt (if any) and have some additional experience.

I studied in Germany in English and there were a lot of people from all over the world in my course (only 20% from Germany) but there wasn't a single person from the US. Maybe the Uni wasn't as good as Harvard but certainly better than many colleges you'd find in the US.

What keeps US students from coming to Germany and study there? It shouldn't be a visa problem nor language.

<comment><USER32> >What keeps US students from coming to Germany and study there?

Increasingly more Americans _are_ studying in Germany (and elsewhere).

[http://www.dw.com/en/leaving-the-us-for-a-german- degree/a-18...](http://www.dw.com/en/leaving-the-us-for-a-german- degree/a-18599858)

But,

I think you underestimate how difficult it is to move to another country. Language, visas (and other bureaocracy) are indeed issues, as are uprooting one's life and moving to a foreign place; no friends, family, familiarity. Of course studying in Germany or the NL or another country where the education is taking place in English is less of a barrier than moving to a place where that isn't the case, but it is a barrier nonetheless. It can be nervewracking and overwhelming. It's a major step; much more so than simply moving to another US state for college, for example.

I say this as someone who left the US years ago to study. I adapted quite well, but I recognize what a big shift it can be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> According to the public OECD data [1] the US household debt as a % of disposable income is on a downward trend.

[1]: [https://data.oecd.org/chart/4Qct](https://data.oecd.org/chart/4Qct)

</comment><comment><USER28> Leave it to America to make children a pseudo-slave right when they enter adulthood.

<comment><USER34> It's how you can tell we have so much freedom and economic liberty.

<comment><USER35> Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Excellent. Which group of poor decision makers will I get to bail out soon (oh, students, superb!) while reading my daily "The Death of the Middle Class" article?

<comment><USER37> Why would a bunch of rich kids get the bailout we should instead give the money to all those poor banks that put themselves at risk.

<comment><USER38> /s?

A bank's core function is to evaluate credit risk. If a bank can't do that, the people running it should be doing something else.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> When looking at this in relation to the fact that the united states is bigger than it was 10 years ago in a number of regards. See these for less dour views:

[https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HDTGPDUSQ163N](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/HDTGPDUSQ163N) [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TDSP](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TDSP)

</comment><comment><USER40> The 100% chart is quite deceptive. Student loans take a larger share of the debt. Is that because increased tuition fees (probably), is that because more young people have become students (ie. higher education available to more people), is it because young graduates won't buy a house and still live with their parents (and thus stay in the Student Loans category instead of moving to the Mortage category) and opt for a car instead (thus moving part to the Auto Loans category)? Is it because houses (and thus underlying loans) are cheaper?

Basically all this 100% chart says is that people are taking out less of a loan for a house.

<comment><USER41> I would disagree with your last statement. The chart is ambiguous (which is just poor reporting on the part of NYTimes). It's unclear if auto loans have grown, student loans have grown, the average home loan has shrunk (or just gotten paid down since 2008), or if there is another effect in play. The 'percentage share of consumer debt' each item is isn't a useful fact on it's own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> FYI, it's not adjusted for inflation so in real terms we're likely under the peak.

The article talks a lot about debt with no mention of the income supporting it, which is a glaring oversight for any kind of financial analysis. All I can find quickly are median real numbers through 2015. It's not pretty. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#/media/File:US_Real_Household_Median_Income_thru_2014.png)

</comment><comment><USER43> Germany provides excellent educational opportunities in many fields for American citizens at close to zero out of pocket expense for the student. Google "Germany Erasmus".

<comment><USER44> Erasmus is a EU programme for student exchange between cooperating universities for up to a year, it's not relevant in this case.

However, they should look at German universities in general because they are practically free for anyone.

<comment><USER45> "Free" meaning coercion via the state to fund other people's pursuits. Perhaps we should look at why costs are rising? People need to seriously evaluate if it's really needed for them. I reject your notion that everyone, or even most people need a college degree. (I didn't, and I live quite comfortably thanks to tech with a 6 figure salary)

Part of the problem is exactly that we're subsidizing many people, forcing more scarcity and leading to higher prices. Using force to make someone else pay for my stuff isn't something I want to condone.

<comment><USER43> Germans gladly accept the state taking half of their paycheck for pursuits such as this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> I work at a major state university that is claimed to be one of the most efficient in the US. On the administrative side it is a disorganized cluster bomb, full of frivolous spending, wasteful processes, and is years behind in technology and software. The things I've seen people manually doing on a computer all day... Throw on top the spending on social justice initiatives and you have your self a fat burden to pass on to students.

<comment><USER6> When was any university ever efficient?

When they wanted me to pay a parking ticket. They had that shit down to an exact science.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> The last paragraph makes the whole article seem like an advertisement:

"That made last month feel like an opportune time for Caitlin Farrell, 34, and her husband to buy their first home, a 1,500-square-foot, two-bedroom house in Sacramento. Ms. Farrell, who works as an education policy researcher, got her home loan from SoFi, a start-up online lender that moved into the mortgage market last year."

</comment><comment><USER48> This page has fantastic data: [http://www.usdebtclock.org/#](http://www.usdebtclock.org/#)

Another stunning data point is that in the wealthiest, most productive society that's ever existed, over 40 million people are on food stamps!

</comment><comment><USER49> This is very worrisome. This is ballooning student debt. And unlike other forms of debt, you don't get to discharge student debt in bankruptcy.

So..plan a career, get higher education, have your plans disrupted, and your life is ruined with no escape. Enjoy the 21st century.

What is really sad is that there is no evidence that colleges are providing a better product. In fact the switch to grad students and adjunct faculty means that the actual delivery of their education _should_ be cheaper. (Of course universities are getting less efficient, so it isn't. But the cost of classroom instruction time is not what is going up...)

</comment><comment><USER50> From the state point huge student debt is wonderful. Fresh workforce starts with negative balance: they are vulnerable and controllable (trying to pay out it or begging for mercy to aid with debt).

</comment><comment><USER46> How to graduate with little to no debt and no scholarship:

\- Go to community college and live at home for the first two years

\- Work part-time even if it takes you longer to finish

\- Don't get a fracking auto loan. A well maintained 90s Japanese car will go a long way. If you can program, basic car mechanics is easy.

\- Don't pay out of state tuition

\- If your going for an MS, get a basic full time job at a university first (A lot of schools have tuition waivers for employees)

\- Don't YOLO on someone else's dime, if you're frugal and modest you can do it later on your own.

</comment><comment><USER51> How is having a higher percentage (double) of student loan debt that should be payable in a few years today any better than higher mortgages... it seems to me, this is a bad trend in general... :-/

<comment><USER2> Considering the collateral against that student loan debt is nothing (hence them not being dischargeable in bankruptcy), I would think it's much worse than an increase in mortgage values. Of course, there have been other articles on the HN front page as recently as today talking about rising home costs as well.

America (and the world? I don't feel qualified to say that) has a very odd relationship with debt, and it's driving all sorts of weird societal behaviors, like taking $100k+ in debt to get a college degree. I don't forsee it ending well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> _US Household Debt Surpasses 2008 High_

Yeah but this time is different :).

Memo to self: looks like US stock market goes from feast to famine in 10 year cycles. Sell now and buy at 40% discount 1-2 years later. Rinse. Repeat

</comment><comment><USER48> Yes, the student debt growth is unsustainable. It's up 10x in a bit over 10 years. Unbelievable!! There are only three things whose relative cost has gone up in the past 40 years: education, health care, and housing.

It's also amazing to me is that total household debt is 12.5 trillion, while the federal debt is just about $20 trillion.

In $12.5 trillion so many people have gotten an education and own a home. What exactly did anyone get with that $20 trillion the federal government has spent?

<comment><USER53> Opportunity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> The amount of debt may surpass the 2008 high, but the debt service required is still near a four decade low.[0]

[0][http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/tell-the-alarmists- to-c...](http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/tell-the-alarmists-to-calm-down- the-debt-crisis-is-not-coming-back)

</comment><comment><USER55> Looking at the total dollar amount of debt makes a good headline, but is simplistic. With lower interest rates, households are spending far less to service their debt than they were in 2008. The article only mentions this briefly near the end.

</comment><comment><USER56> "People don't own their things. The banks do." -Varg Vikernes

</comment><comment><USER57> Gee, account for inflation much</comment>


SourceScape – Query source code like it's a database - <AUTHOR> https://sourcescape.io <comment><AUTHOR> Hey there HN,

I'm Jieren, creator of SourceScape. SourceScape is a query engine for source code that lets you build up constraints for the code you want to see, much like a SQL query. You can also think of it as a very fast no-code builder for static analysis checks.

Throughout my career, I've always felt that there was this gap in our ability to dig through source code quickly. Text search is good, but very unreliable. Static analysis takes too long to write. I wanted something that could, for example, find all `.create calls from any instance of UserServiceClient` with 100% accuracy, and quickly.

Earlier this year, I was working on a microservices logging migration that took way longer than it should have. The frustrations I encountered on that project around coordination and verification of the migration became the impetus for me to build SourceScape.

Would love to get your thoughts on this.</comment>


Star Simpson's first interview on the Boston airport LED sweatshirt scare - <AUTHOR> http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/19/bbtv-star-simpsons-f-1.html

<comment><USER2> Reading that she dropped out of MIT and that the judge required her to do community service and make a public apology makes me so sad.

<comment><USER3> She must have had a terrible lawyer. "possessing a hoax device" requires that the person possessing the hoax device intended to scare someone. Since she was just meeting a friend and wanted to impress him (her?), I just don't see the hoax intent. It's like brushing your teeth and shining your shoes before picking up a friend at the airport -- not illegal.

Anyway, if she is appealing, I would like to donate some money to her legal fund so she can get a fair trial.

<comment><USER4> The "possessing a hoax device" charge was dropped and she was only convicted of disorderly conduct which she explains doesn't require intent.

The real disgusting thing here is the abhorrent conduct of the police and judicial system.

<comment><USER5> _The real disgusting thing here is the abhorrent conduct of the police and judicial system._

This happened in Boston. You know all those movies and TV shows that stereotype Boston cops as a corrupt tribe of violent irish guys? That's really what they are like. Plus, Boston cops like to seem tough on terror since their community supported IRA terror during The Troubles and they feel a bit guilty and conflicted about it these days...

This is a classic case of town vs. gown. The townies won.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Being perfectly honest, her device could be confusing in an airport context, given the fact that you never know who is the person you deal with. I can understand the arrest, but not what has happened next.

The press seems to have been called too early and my guess is that the officials didn't want to look like fools when their sensationalistic "suicide bomber" story - that was supposed to get them promoted - just vanished. "Suicide bomber arrest" was the first thing I ever heard about this story in a french newspaper. If the lies didn't spread so fast, the story wouldn't have gotten so big and the officials would prolly have released her the next hour with no charges at all. Fuck that, I hope she recovers well.

<comment><USER3> _If the lies didn't spread so fast, the story wouldn't have gotten so big and the officials would prolly have released her the next hour with no charges at all._

This is all the more reason to hold the government accountable for their actions. They did not deserve to win this case and ruin Star's life.

Why don't the TSA employees go to jail when actual bombs get past the security checkpoints? That's an actual risk.

Oh right, it blows the illusion of security theater. Never mind. I thought we were actually trying to protect the traveling public there for a second. Silly me.

<comment><USER7> Geez, the drama.

How has her life been ruined?

<comment><USER8> She had to drop out of MIT and move out of Boston because of jerks spitting in her face, who think the media gave them 100% of the story that she tried to do a "bomb hoax".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is what terrorism does - it terrorizes people. The unfortunate deaths on 9/11 were a means to that end.

</comment><comment><USER10> Americans never had the honor to live in a real dictatorship, i would suggest you guys try it for a few decades, you will learn not to trust the guys making laws pretty fast.

<comment><USER11> Unless I'm hugely mistaken, American trust in the government isn't anywhere near a high point right now. Unfortunately I can't find a source to back this up, so take it as you want.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> if you were the boston police and wanted to minimiZe nuisance calls from the airport, making an example of this seems like an efficient way to do so.

<comment><USER13> That's just it. They'd prefer to send a strong "don't be different" message. They think if they can coerce everyone into absolute conformity, it will lower the cost of searching out tur-ists.

What really happens is they create a set of protocols that are simple to learn that will allow real terrorists to hide in plain sight.

<comment><USER12> I think they send a strong "don't waste our time" message.

<comment><USER14> They also send a "we're incompetent, dangerous (carrying around loaded automatic weapons in an airport terminal is _dumb_ ) fools" message.

<comment><USER12> Ever flown out of Tel Aviv?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Poor girl, really sad to see this.</comment>


Rubyists Should Focus On ChromeOS - <AUTHOR> http://krainboltgreene.heroku.com/log/7

<comment><USER2> What a bizarre piece - no examination whatsoever of what the implications of the success of ChromeOS might be - just a self-referential exhortation to blindly put your personal energy into it "because it will be successful".

</comment><comment><USER3> Its sort of forward thinking, yet I got to the bottom of it and that... this also applies to iOs devices.

"json packets" - I like.</comment>


In Coronavirus Fight, China Gives Citizens a Color Code, with Red Flags - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/business/china-coronavirus-surveillance.html <comment><AUTHOR> >a piece of the program labeled "reportInfoAndLocationToPolice" sends the person's location, city name and an identifying code number to a server</comment>


How does the US's debt rating stacks up to the rest of the world? - <AUTHOR> http://www.rogerkempa.com/2011/08/blog-post_4561.html An infographic on how the US's debt rating stacks up to a variety of other entities. <comment><USER2> Interesting chart. I found a similar chart, albeit much less artistic, specific to countries while browsing the NYT.

[http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/08/06/business/06sp-r...](http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/08/06/business/06sp- ratings-graphic.html?ref=global)</comment>


The US is losing its edge for startups - <AUTHOR> https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/10/america-losing-its-edge-startups/572323/ <comment><AUTHOR> Interesting, but they look too much at 'share' and perhaps don't focus on the 'total pie', which as everyone ought to know, does not have a fixed size. "It's not a zero-sum game" in other words.</comment>


Is Aaron Swartz the Paris Hilton of Web 2.0? - <AUTHOR> Is he "famous" for no reason?  He speaks at web 2.0 conferences, there are stories about him on news.yc all the time... (Yes, I'm using the word "famous" liberally.)  Why?  What has he done exactly?
Here's what I've got.  Feel free to add more.  He:
a)  worked on rss 1.0 when he was 13.  woopty-doo
b)  there was the Infogami - Reddit merger, which made the AOL - Time Warner merger look like a genius move for Time Warner in comparison.   it is often said that aaron added no value after the merger, while taking a huge chunk of reddit's stock in the process.    There's a lot more to this story, but I won't go into the details.
c) started a half-dozen half-baked startups.  (I'm using the word "startup" liberally here).
d) has a blog
What am I missing?    Can we stop up-voting every story that even mentions the guy now? <comment><USER2> Guys, I'll tell you the same thing that I tell to people who attack Paris Hilton: lay off. If I see Steve or Alexis make a post like this, which I haven't, then I'll pay attention. For everyone else, what the hell did he ever do to you? He's contributed an impressive portfolio to the open-source community before even turning 18 -- bested, off the top of my head, only by Blake Ross and Marcello Tossatti -- and if he's created six half-baked startups, then he's done three times as much baking as the vast majority of the people reading this thread.

<comment><USER3> But the 'startups' that get posted here from him are lame IMHO An on line book library catalogue thing? A text based wiki thing? I mean come on. Credit where credit's due, and it's certainly not due IMHO.

<comment><USER4> You can't tell yet. A lot of good startups sound that lame when they first launch.

<comment><USER5> If I had heard the idea for reddit I would have shrugged and said "done already". In 94 or 95 I would have told Sergey, Larry, or Jerry Yang they could have great jobs at Lockheed Martin or Motorola with their resumes, quit that hobby web crap and get serious. And that was when I was in my 20's! So I would agree here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think if you're going to say something like this, you should sign it with your real name. Whatever his flaws, Swartz wouldn't sink to what you've done: if he was going to criticize someone he wouldn't do it anonymously.

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure which is worse-- criticizing Swartz anonymously as qwertyy has done, or criticizing everyone else in a public, self-centered, and conceited way as Swartz has done.

I don't think his projects are bad or anything, but his writing just drips of egotism that makes him a great target for attack.

<comment><USER4> I can't remember him attacking a lot of people by name.

As for the dripping with egotism bit, that is an interesting problem. I probably would have sounded like that too at his age, but back in the pre-Web era there was no way for anyone to read what most 20 year olds wrote. Now that people can start publishing so much younger, we'll have to learn to be more tolerant of various flaws of youth.

<comment><USER7> why do people call him egotistical? is it because they are offended by his intelligent and well-rehearsed writings?

this is like the movie idiocracy where luke wilson gets called "faggy" because he has a command of the english language.

i think pg defends him so (puts him into yc, puts him in reddit etc..) because aaron has a good balance of intelligence and doing things well. he's a good weapon for anything intellectual.

<comment><USER8> "With this amount of noise in the signal, it's hard to tell good hackers when you meet them. I can't tell, even now. You also can't tell from their resumes. It seems like the only way to judge a hacker is to work with him on something."

(From <http://www.paulgraham.com/gh.html>)

I wonder what the reddit guys think of aaronsw.

<comment><USER9> Good question. Come to LA in a couple weeks, let them get sauced and we'll find out!

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> At least he continually puts himself out there to be judged. He's managed to get noticed and people actually care what he's up to. That's a heck of a lot more than most people. I think it's totally fair to critique his public work, but there's no reason to get mean about it. Let he who is without personal faults cast the first stone.

<comment><USER11> Do you realize that all of what you said applies to Paris Hilton, too?

<comment><USER12> In 50 years, she'll be bigger than Mother Theresa

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Have you read the book he is writing? It's much better than most of the crap I read on blogs these days (most of which constitute things like your comparison here: is X like Y? here's why blah blah)

Most of the books he recommends are really good (I just bought "Punished by rewards" after finding it through his site. It's a great book.)

So he doesn't finish his projects and does some drama. So what? His projects are almost always decent (I enjoyed reddit, have played around with web.py, have used books.theinfo.org several times and liked the first few chapters of his novel), sometimes noble (the site giving advice to school kids) and quite often useful.

Get a life and lay off him. The real reason you are doing this is because he got rich of Reddit while still a teenager and you think he didn't deserve it. So what? That's life for you and he's still an o.k. guy.

<comment><USER14> If you like Punished by Rewards, then I'd recommend No Contest. I loved Punished by Rewards, but I think No Contest is actually more insightful. And certainly better written.

<comment><USER13> Thanks for the recommendation. Just added it to my wish list.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Most web stars from the codinghorror guy to joel are not actually better than many others in the field technically, it's more a matter of ability to write things with a strong style and the ability to analyze facts to express an original point of view. Many other hackers may just don't have the time or the inclination to write. About Aaron specifically it is a clear creature of the "PG effect", a lot like reddit itself.

</comment><comment><USER16> Personally I've never been a big fan of Aaron and wasn't impressed by all the hype around him 'co-authoring' RSS. But I have to saw my opinion of him changed after playing around with web.py

Although I dropped web.py for Pylons for new project I really like the idea behind web.py and applaud him for starting and continuing to oversee this project (though a bunch of new work is being done by other great hackers like Anand).

<comment><USER17> Why did you switch to Pylons? Would you now recommend it over web.py? I'm still on a quest to find the best Python framework for myself.

<comment><USER18> I also switched from web.py to Pylons. Long-term, I think you're better off with it; it's much more mature and won't choke on things like deployment, or internationalization, or multiple database servers.

But if you're new to Python web frameworks, I'd start with web.py and write a few apps with that. It's much simpler to get into, and you'll understand how things work a bit better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> web.py -- is good. I am using it, even thou i am replacing it's parts bit by bit with my own implementation, it is a good start for a very basic python framework (then you can grown your own out if it).

That it is still pretty good for a young guy. He probably has work/startup ADD. Starting lots of things, but never finishing anything up. Maybe lack of discpline, b/c of lack of work ethics guidance when he was a kid?

Other than that boh... Now qweartyy, why so jelous of him?

<comment><USER20> I suffer from work ADD, so I can relate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> He can't be -- _Robert Scoble_ is the Paris Hilton of Web 2.0.

<comment><USER22> Maybe he can be the ESR of Web 2.0 then?

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Couldn't you say the same sort of things about almost anyone? What have Larry and Sergei done that's so great? They figured out a way to compare web pages. Big deal. Well, yes, it is a big deal. What did Richard Feynman ever do that was so great? He wrote some stuff. What had Donald Knuth done by the time he was 23?

I like Aaron Schwartz. He's smart and original and he writes well.

I would not, however, pay him $200,000 to show up at my party.

</comment><comment><USER24> Come on, give Aaron his due. He's had an impressive career to date, for such a young chap. He's a smart kid, hopefully, he has a shell to protect against such silly demeaning posts like this...

Lots of startups end up going nowhere, it takes more than brains and ingenuity, a bit of luck and fortunate timing also comes into play...

Still, Aaron has had a heck of career already -- hell, I didn't even graduate from college until I was 23 (of course at that time, the PC was just a toy, and most Americans did own one, and programmers mostly worked on 24x80 green screen terminals in that day...), yet he reached the pinnacle for a programmer...

</comment><comment><USER25> Like Paris Hilton, Aaron does seem to spawn lots of useless, uninteresting discussion in other people. That probably is less his fault and more the fault of people like qwertyy.

</comment><comment><USER26> ""famous" for no reason?"

just a side note for fun

Paris Hilton is a marketing genius ...

her stake in the Hilton hotels is worth just under 30mil in total

she makes over 20mil annually just by selling her own products, and using her name

she is not the only rich girl out there, but she def is the most successful one no matter how much you like her or hate her

and she does have a huge target market and does a great job at satisfying them

also: it won't be hard for you to prove pg is wrong, just sign your name and leave a link to yourself on your profile... but I wonder if you'll do that?

</comment><comment><USER27> I don't think you guys get it: qwertyy IS Aaron Swartz!

</comment><comment><USER28> Who is Aaron Schwartz?

Really I don't know. But now I guess I have to look around and find out. Thanks for letting me know that I should know something about this celebrity, lest I come off like a bumpkin.

Actually screw it. I am lazy and not interested in this. So I will just be a bumpkin who doesn't know. Besides I am 40 and thus will never run with the celebrity crowd in any case. Yawn...

<comment><USER25> You can read about who he is on his site: aaronsw.com

<comment><USER28> What's in it for me? I am interested in technology and opportunity. Personalities of the digital culture kind of bore me. It sounds like a waste of time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> And what have you done qwertyy? Aaron has managed to start many companies and wrote software that others use. He hasn't started the next Google and he hasn't written the next awesome Python API, but why fault him for that? He is trying, and by most measures, he is very successful.

Your points:

a - That's pretty impressive, at 13 what were you doing, and the rest of us?

b - I don't know the specifics of the merger, but that happens all the time, and good for him.

c - He is a good starter and most people go through many startups before they hit it big.

d - That many people seem to like.

This whole comment has nothing to do with hacker news or startups. I'm surprised it got past PG and I can't believe how many people actually commented on something that isn't worth commenting on. Thanks for wasting my time.

</comment><comment><USER30> pg, can we get one down arrow per month?

<comment><USER31> I'm inclined to wonder if 18 real users voted this up, or if qwertyy created a bunch more sockpuppet accounts.

<comment><USER32> I'd be inclined to think that people vote it up not because they agree, but because they enjoy the drama. Or they made a smashing good comment and want people to see it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Somewhere an irony detector explodes from massive overload.

</comment><comment><USER34> But pg got famous after eating breakfast!

</comment><comment><USER35> That's really unfair. The whole thing about Paris Hilton is that she's famous for no good reason. Aaron Swartz, on the other hand is an _incredibly_ productive guy - he's been running several great free software projects, is developing the open library, writes in his blog and lately in print too. I sometimes wonder whether he sleeps at all.

You're just being nasty, and doing it anonymously ... really.

</comment><comment><USER36> >Can we stop up-voting every story that even mentions the guy now?

Like this one?

</comment><comment><USER37> _"... Is he "famous" for no reason? ..."_

I wouldn't say famous which is such a _"media cliche"_. More recognised for his contributions. There's the

\- rss spec <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/start.html?pg=5/>

\- rdf spec - [http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-rdfcore- wg/2001Apr/0...](http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-rdfcore- wg/2001Apr/0062.html)

\- webpy python web framework <http://webpy.org/>

\- writing <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity>

Maybe the biggest thing Aaron may have to offer is speaking out - a trait that seems to be devoid in his generation ~ <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/shifting1> As much as he might an annoying _"shirt"_ to some, you cannot take credit away from the technical work he's done at such a young age.

</comment><comment><USER38> If you think he is so bad, why not take it as a life lesson: if he can do it, you can do it, too! Once again, the difference is in the doing or not doing. I for one liked his writing, but apart from that, it seems many famous people are not that great. It just goes to show that by putting yourself out there, you can still win.

</comment><comment><USER39> Sounds to me like sour grapes at another's success on the web?

</comment><comment><USER40> PG, The more important thing that should worry you is, "Do you have cabal/clique detection and elimination built into Hacker News" - that's what basically ruined reddit.

</comment><comment><USER41> If he's Paris Hilton, you're another Star Magazine. You're only contributing to his fame. I only point this out because you seem to have a problem with him.

</comment><comment><USER42> qwertyy: Did you create a new profile just to post this? Gosh, get a life dude!

</comment><comment><USER43> Well I think that he has a lot of interesting things to say and that he can hack like a man. What else do you want?

</comment><comment><USER44> leave the guy alone!

<comment><USER45> please do a video about Aaron Swartz in the style of "leave Britney alone!!!!".

<comment><USER13> After watching said video, I must say I second this demand.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some of his writing is good, though. I get something out of some of his essays.

<comment><USER45> Yeah, a lot of his writing is worthwhile and/or interesting. The six chapters of novel he wrote were worthless, though.

<comment><USER38> He announced it as an experiment and never claimed to be the new Shakespeare. Where is the problem? Experimenting with writing is what blogging is about, among other things.

<comment><USER45> Ok, "worthless" is a bit harsh and failed the "would I say it to Aaron's face" standard. His 6/30ths of a novel was an interesting experiment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> You have to admit he's a pretty awesome writer and is quite intelligent. That combo is enough for people to respect you.

Last time I checked Paris Hilton didn't exactly fit in this category.

</comment><comment><USER12> sounds like you've got a crush!

</comment><comment><USER46> This is why I'd want a down-vote on submissions.

</comment><comment><USER47> qwertyy - put your rubbish up on <http://www.iheartrant.com/> \- there you can write anything you want and get it out of your system.

</comment><comment><USER21> qwertyy: news.yc is as good as you are. If there's stuff that you want to see, post it. If you don't, just STFU or get down with Greasemonkey to edit out whatever you don't want to see.

</comment><comment><USER48> Is quertyy the Paris Hilton of Trolling 2.0?

</comment><comment><USER49> If so, this thread is the sex tape.

</comment><comment><USER47> Don't lay into qwertyy for laying into Aaron. For a start Aaron's a public figure and qwertyy's not.

<comment><USER48> > For a start Aaron's a public figure and qwertyy's not.

qwertyy's a throwaway pseudonym with one post to his name. If he gets publicly humiliated, he can simply create a new account, and nobody's the wiser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I think he's funny.

</comment><comment><USER32> No.</comment>


In the Future Everyone Will Wear a Smartwatch - <AUTHOR> https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyone-will-wear-a-smartwatch/

<comment><USER2> It's been more than twenty years since I last wore a watch and I'm really happy with that situation. I see nothing a smartwatch can even theoretically do, which a smartphone can't, which would motivate me to start wearing one.

I completely disagree with the author's assertion that "we'd give anything for a bit more of either [health or safety]". If that were true, there would be a long list of lifestyle changes I would make first, before I would consider buying a fancy computer gadget and strapping it on my wrist every morning.

In fact, most people routinely make tradeoffs against health or safety in exchange for other things they want out of life. I see no reason smartwatches will be an exception.

<comment><USER3> The smart watch can -- if designed like Pebble -- provide ambient awareness of "notifications" without interruption. The smartphone cannot.

Unfortunately, Apple Watch and Android Wear don't do this nearly as well; they are closer to the smartphone interrupt interaction model.

Pebble prevents response from the interruption which is a feature. Apple Watch minimizes response effort, but is still disruptive. Smartphone risks maintaining the interruption longer as the UI affords off task rabbit holes.

<comment><USER2> You have a point. I had been thinking about sensors and computation, but the ambient use of touch was something I hadn't considered.

I still don't expect I'll ever want one. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Everyone who ever makes absolute statements is always wrong about everything.

I didn't wear a watch for a long time. I used my phone instead. However, living in a place with proper winter means wearing winter clothes. Digging out a phone from a jacket pocket becomes a whole operation. It becames evident that wearing one more thing was preferable to using my phone to check the time.

For a long time I thought I wanted a smartwatch. I was eagerly awaiting a Pebble.

After a while, though, I realised that the lifetime of smartwatches if fairly limited. They're high tech, electronic tiny computers, networked via Bluetooth to a smartphone. They might last several years, physically, but even before that, they might become obsolete due to software changes.

I'd rather not have a throwaway gadget, especially one in the price range of smartwatches. Seems all manner of wasteful.

Once the technology matures, this might change. We're still waiting for that to happen with phones, especially smartphones, but let's give it a while. I've been using mobile phones for two decades now, maybe in another decade they'll be mature technology. And smartwatches might mature too, two or three decades after that.

Meanwhile, I went for a fully mechanical watch, from the low end if you ask watch collectors, but still cheaper than a Pebble. It's supposed to last a few decades, and should thus outlast me. I like that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Google, Apple, Samsung, and perhaps Microsoft are about to enter an arms race with smartwatches. Progress will be made fast. This won't take 2 or 3 decades.

Also, I wouldn't rule out smart mechanical watches either:

[http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22366/20141218/tag- heuer-h...](http://www.techtimes.com/articles/22366/20141218/tag-heuer-hints- at-mechanical-smartwatch.htm)

<comment><USER4> All four of those have been making smartphones for many years now. Smartphones are still fragile, crashy little devices with miserable battery life and short lives.</comment></comment></comment>


Tax software companies made $1B charging people who can file for free - <AUTHOR> https://www.propublica.org/article/turbotax-and-others-charged-at-least-14-million-americans-for-tax-prep-that-should-have-been-free-audit-finds <comment><USER3> I don't know about the US system other than described in the article, but based on the UK system, where HMRC (our IRS-equivalent) supplies its own free- to-use web application, I can think of two possible reasons that third-party software could be worth paying for:

\- improved usability

\- requiring certain form pages that are not provided in the government's own solution (HMRC web filing covers most, but not all, use cases - if you fall under one of the edge cases, as I did last year, you have a choice of filing on paper - requiring hand calculations, and a much earlier deadline - <USER2> paying for a COTS solution)

</comment><comment><USER4> Fear sells.</comment>


Bill to have the White House create a database of APT groups passes House vote - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/bill-that-would-have-the-white-house-create-a-database-of-apt-groups-passes-house-vote/ <comment><USER2> Great. I wonder how long it is until me and my friends are on this new list for supporting socialist/left wing politics as citizens of the USA.</comment>


Ask HN: Can you help with Google App Engine question? - <AUTHOR>

Hello:
I have been reading the Google App Engine documentation to learn how to use the Images Python API. I asked several questions in the appropriate forums but so far there were no relevant answers. I was wondering if an expert here help me out with this. I put the entire script here http://pastebin.com/dxWJPNCa
These are the questions that I asked in StackOverflow and Google groups for GAE:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4353939/how-to-write-an-image-to-datastore
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4350193/how-to-display-an-image-from-blobstore
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4351375/how-to-use-images-python-api-correctly-to-display-an-avatar-with-user-comments
http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine/browse_thread/thread/3c55ed3461e6395b?hl=en#
These are the sample code that I am trying to copy:
http://www.renepedersen.com/2010/04/12/how-to-serve-images-dynamically-from-google-engines-datastore/
http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/images/usingimages.html#Serving
Thanks! <comment><AUTHOR> <http://pastebin.com/dxWJPNCa>

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4353939/how-to-write- an-i...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4353939/how-to-write-an-image-to- datastore)

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4350193/how-to-display- an...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4350193/how-to-display-an-image- from-blobstore)

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4351375/how-to-use- images...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4351375/how-to-use-images- python-api-correctly-to-display-an-avatar-with-user-comments)

[http://groups.google.com/group/google- appengine/browse_threa...](http://groups.google.com/group/google- appengine/browse_thread/thread/3c55ed3461e6395b?hl=en#)

[http://www.renepedersen.com/2010/04/12/how-to-serve- images-d...](http://www.renepedersen.com/2010/04/12/how-to-serve-images- dynamically-from-google-engines-datastore/)

[http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/images/usingima...](http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/python/images/usingimages.html#Serving)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Issue resolved: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4353939/how-to-write- an-i...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4353939/how-to-write-an-image-to- datastore)</comment>


Show HN: Republic Crypto – Bringing Inclusivity to Token Sales - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@joinrepublic/bringing-inclusivity-to-the-blockchain-space-2a2a89296187 <comment><AUTHOR> Incredibly excited about this project. Since Title III of the JOBS Act went live last year, we've created one of the first equity crowdfunding platforms. We focus a lot on inclusivity and social impact.

Obviously, there's been a wild amount of excitement (and skepticism) around the frenzy in the new ICO market. We think a lot of long-term value will come from the decentralization of our markets. We love the promise of open and democratic blockchains, but we noticed that most of the large ICOs this year were either happening behind the scenes and only open to "accredited investors," or were liberally breaking securities regulation. We're fixing that. We give everyone access to ICOs while complying with all US regulations.</comment>


Why is google always out-innovating the competition? - <AUTHOR>

how can google always out-innovate the competition? (Microsoft , yahoo...etc) are the engineers at Google too smart for the rest, is it the company culture or is the competition just too slow? Can the competition do anything against this at all? it seems like facebook just choose to go after google's engineers, probably not only a facebook practice.<p>(english knowledge: beta RC) <comment><USER2> Sort a loaded question, I don't believe they alwasy do. I feel most of the time they spot things that are 'innovative' and either acquire or copy it. I tend to think that for something to be innovative it needs to also be well received. That requires good timing.

Google Wave was impressive technically, but the world wasn't interested. Google Instant search is impressive, but would you switch search engines for such a feature? Will you even see this feature during the day? I won't, because I never go to the Google homepage to search.</comment>


Show HN: To Round – Task manager designed for visual thinkers - <AUTHOR> http://to-round.com/ <comment><USER2> Clever idea! I think your key to success will be to integrate with calendars and another task lists.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! In the near future we will add these functions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice app! I tried to finish task by long press, but you have another way. May be idea will useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, hope that our app will be helpful.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Are there any good media management systems available? - <AUTHOR>

I have been tasked with finding or creating a media management database to store and serve audio, video, and images ala a Flickr/YouTube like site.  On one side, we have staff members who are trusted to add content that will be featured and all.  On the other, we want individual users to upload content to share and comment on and such.
This isn't a project to take over the world or anything like that - we won't be competing with YouTube, Flickr, et. al.  It doesn't need to scale to high concurrency and so a nice Rails application that allowed users to upload media and transcoded it, administrators to sort through it, comments to be applied to the media, etc. would be ideal.*
If you were going to be hosting some social video, audio, and images, what software would you use?
*That's not any judgement on whether Rails can scale: more a judgement that we don't need things like sharding or some fancy storage interface or some transcoding process that will handle large volumes of video. <comment><USER2> Have you taken a look at Miro Community? <http://www.mirocommunity.org/>

It's open source, Django, and seems to do a lot of what you want in terms of video. Given Django's ease of use, it probably wouldn't be too hard to extend it to also handle photos and audio.

<comment><AUTHOR> Miro is really nice. The issue is mostly just that, as data policy, we require ourselves to host/control/backup our data. Miro seems to be about a front-end for YouTube where users can comment and see the videos in your site. And that's wonderful for a lot of people, but it isn't what we're looking for since our policy is that we need to host the video ourselves.

I don't necessarily agree with the policy, but I understand it: other sites could take a video down that we don't want to lose or we don't have control over things like watermarks or whatnot or YouTube could (conceivably) break Miro in the future. That last one might not even be on purpose - if Miro is relying on YouTube acting a certain way and they change it, it could leave us scrambling a tad to get it working again.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: a "modeling" tool for Rails?  - <AUTHOR>

Is there something like an abstracting tool(commercial or not, ide/browser/console or whatever based) to create, manage and have a complete sight over a Rails application models,their relationships (and validation as a plus)?
I've made my research but I could not find anything all-around enough...
An alternative could be a tool to import db tables and relationship into rails models...
Any advice? Thanks. <comment><USER2> Have you looked at Rubymine ?

I have used its model diagrams in the past to get an overview of models, and it also has class diagrams.

[http://www.jetbrains.com/ruby/webhelp/viewing-model- dependen...](http://www.jetbrains.com/ruby/webhelp/viewing-model-dependency- diagram.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> but the diagram part it's not interactive.. right? It's just a visualization tool I suppose? Thanks

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not aware of an interactive modelling tool. There are visualization tools like [http://railroady.prestonlee.com](http://railroady.prestonlee.com) which generates graphs showing your model layout. Don't expect too much on the cosmetic side though.</comment>


Mailtrain, the open source Mailchimp clone, is getting automation support - <AUTHOR> https://mailtrain.org/archive/SJoYB3MN/EysIv8sAx/SklBfpME <comment><USER2> The page 404s for me?

<comment><AUTHOR> You think you test everything and then this happens :S I fixed it now, there was a log-in requirement to see the page</comment></comment>


Doctors are surprisingly bad at reading lab results. It's putting us all at risk - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/10/05/feature/doctors-are-surprisingly-bad-at-reading-lab-results-its-putting-us-all-at-risk/ <comment><USER2> Good article, however the probability is a bit weird concerning the test false/true positives. something with a false positive rate of 5% with a prevalence of 1/1000 only means a 2% true positive rate if you assume the only thing we know about the patient is their test result. If I go in complaining about flu symptoms and my test comes back positive for influenza, there's a much higher likelihood of me having the flu than whatever the prevalence is vs the false positive rate of the test.

The choice of which test to administer is also a financial one for doctors, which fact researchers hate, because tests with a high correlation for problems leads to higher insurance payouts for preventative care, etc.

Finally, while I do somewhat agree with the main point of the article, that doctors need to be trained better on these tests, right now the movement in testing, especially with imaging-based tests, is to quantify and extract metrics so that interpretation plays a much smaller role. Ultimately the first test administered after a visit needs to be chosen more carefully, however the odds aren't as bleak as the author suggests, in my opinion.</comment>


After men in Spain got paternity leave, they wanted fewer kids - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/work/1614893/after-men-in-spain-got-paternity-leave-they-wanted-fewer-kids/ <comment><USER2> As a dad who has taken two 12w paternity, I realized a few things after the birth of my second child.

• There was no limit to the amount of love I could give to my second child.

• There was a limit of time and attention I could share with both children which I felt started to hamper my ability to share that love.

• The logistics of a second child made everything take exponentially more time. Meals, transport, dressing, wrangling...it all became much harder. Manageable with my wife--far more difficult when I am alone with them (which is every morning and evening since my wife has a longer commute).

At this point, I can't envision having a third child. I can't imagine splitting my time and attention into thirds. I have a minivan and I'm not sure how I'd fit the kids and requisite stuff in the car. I'm certainly not ready to handle getting three kids ready in the morning alone. And I'm not ready for the guilt when I travel for work.

How did paternity play into this? With insights from my brother who has two kids, the costs didn't take me by surprise. The effort and complete consumption of time and energy did. Would I trade it for anything? No. Do I think I can handle more children? I think I've learned about myself that no, I can't--both because I don't feel like I would be my best self in that situation and because that would then reflect on my interactions with my kids.

<comment><USER3> As father to three children, my experience is that you only think two is exponentially more complex than one. At least with two, they don't always outnumber you!

<comment><USER4> "It's a whole different game when you have to switch from man on man coverage to zone defense."

<comment><USER5> And eventually, perimeter ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> While the idea of the article is entertaining, the data is ridiculous.

3 data points: '00, '05, and '10.

The policy came into play in '07\. Yet the downward trend was already visible in '05\. It barely changed for '10.

A more interesting (and honest) take of the data is in women's desire for more children. It was on a decline in '05, but ticked up sharply for '10\. So if I was writing this, I would have said: "After men in Spain got paternity leave, women wanted more kids."

<comment><USER7> Here's my snarky theory about it: after men got paternity leave, they were forced to be at home and help with the child-rearing, which took some of the burden off the mothers. This made the mothers want more kids because now they didn't have to do so much work.

However, now the men got to see firsthand what a pain in the ass kids are, instead of being able to relegate that work to their wives, so now they don't want so many.

<comment><USER8> That's the pathetic "liberal" sexist caricature you see on TV and media. And like most caricature in media, it's nonsense.

The problem is that both men and women are deciding to having less kids. And that trend has continued with maternity leave, paternity leave and even paying people to have children.

In poor countries, they have more kids. Is that because of your caricature or lack of it?

Europe has provided great benefits to women and men to have more kids. Birth rates have declined.

[https://www.thelocal.it/20180627/italy-declining- birthrate-p...](https://www.thelocal.it/20180627/italy-declining-birthrate- population)

Governments are even paying women to have kids and that hasn't helped.

[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/11/03/141943008/when...](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/11/03/141943008/when- governments-pay-people-to-have-babies)

The only thing that increases birth rates is an increase of poorer and less educated women. The wealthier and better educated women are, the less children they have. That is the only consistent correlation across ethnicities, cultures, religions, etc. Educate women and reach a certain level of wealth and birth rates drop.

It's true in japan

[https://thediplomat.com/2018/01/japans-births-and- marriages-...](https://thediplomat.com/2018/01/japans-births-and-marriages- spiral-to-record-low/)

korea, china to iran and all the way to europe.

If we really wanted to increase birth rates, kicking females out of school and removing any and all benefits would be better than increasing benefits. It's counterintuitive, but it's true. Or maybe we could accept that population decline is going to happen and prepare for that? It's strange how we think we can bribe women to have more children. That's never going to happen, so we should learn to live with our current reality.

<comment><USER9> I think you've walked around the part where traditional cultures actively pushed women to get married and have kids, forced even, through arranged marriages or selling them to basically go live with the man's family. It's not so much as drawing back benefits as it is literally forcing them either through extreme social pressure and isolation or physical force. Anything less has been a slow decline as we slowly drift away from that sort of strict culture

I recall at least a few articles suggesting that among ancient humans far fewer men than women engage in reproduction, suggesting that only a handful of men (proportionally speaking) were selected to breed by a larger population of women. I hate that it sounds like incel speak but we could probably see more babies if we 1) get rid of monogamous culture altogether and 2) limit birth control options. The alternative is to return to a stricter marriage and baby making enforcement culture.

I'm not advocating for anything here to be clear. I just dont think theres a "solution" that lands perfectly where everyone wants it to

<comment><USER7> Exactly. Birthrates were high in the past largely because women had no power, no choices about their future, and birth control didn't really exist. Their entire value in society was as an incubator and sex toy. Now that's changed, and surprise surprise, they don't want to have a bunch of kids, because kids are a lot of work.

Add into this that families have changed. It used to be that people lived with their extended families, so parents had help raising kids, from the grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, etc. Now no one lives with their extended families, and have gone to the "nuclear family" model, and raising a bunch of kids with only 2 parents is just too much work, so parents stop at 1 or 2, if they have any at all.

Paying women to have kids isn't going to work unless you're going to pay them enough to hire a full-time nanny.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> And this (the jumping to conclusions and the lack of data points in the article) is the reason people in real sciences sneer at sociology...

This isn't science, this is politics.

<comment><USER8> Or as Richard Feynmann wisely and correctly called it - pseudoscience.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWr39Q9vBgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWr39Q9vBgo)

It's pseudoscience used by people to push ideological and political agenda. Ever since science pretty much knocked religion down a peg or two, the activists created a new form of "religion" to further political goals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fallacy: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc)

</comment><comment><USER12> Mind the date:

 _Economists studying the effects of the original 2007 policy..._

<comment><USER13> _The global financial crisis, for example, hit Spain in full force about a year after the leave policy was introduced._ Yes, I'd been extremely cautious drawing any conclusion...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> California's (or san Francisco's... Not sure) six weeks of paid paternity leave made this dad want more kids. Babies are the best! Maybe if they gave more time off they'd want more children

<comment><USER7> After seeing other peoples' ADHD kids and what misery it is to try to parent them, I don't have much desire to have any kids.

<comment><USER15> You do you, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that anyone who says "I don't want kids" should be left alone on the matter.

On the flip side I think a lot of parents do this to themselves. Kids are not born knowing how to be polite, respectful, play well with others, etc, it has to be trained. It is an exhausting thing to train but it pays dividends. Ironically the less effort you spend on this the worse your kids get, making it even more of a misery to parent them.

Of course there are exceptions (I don't know if you were being serious/clinical with ADHD but that's one of them)

<comment><USER7> I don't know about a _clinical_ diagnosis of ADHD, but in my observation, American kids certainly act this way, and have terrible behavior in general. You're right, this stuff has to be trained, but American parents have been failing badly at this for a while now.

I was recently in Japan on vacation, and by contrast, all the children there were extremely-well behaved. It made me think I might actually like to have a kid even, something I never feel when I'm in the US because kids (and adults too) are so poorly behaved.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> jon-wood According to the article "Farré and González think that spending more time with their children—or the prospect of having to do so—may have made men more acutely aware of the effort and costs associated with childrearing".

Another (arguably more positive) reason could be that new fathers formed a better relationship with their child, and be extension felt more fulfilled in that relationship. That could potentially then lead to them not feeling the need to have more children.

<comment><USER16> Whether the study or data is flawed or not, anecdotally it makes perfect sense. Splitting childcare duties with my wife have given me an excellent relationship with my child, but I'm sure as hell not going to do this shit again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Well, that certainly congrues with my personal experience. As the oldest of eleven children, I left home with a strong set of babysitting skills and an even stronger desire not to raise any children of my own.

</comment><comment><USER18> "As the authors point out, it's impossible to draw sweeping conclusions from this observation of a single data point in a single country. Correlation isn't causation, and it's possible that other factors weighed more heavily than paternity leave on men's family preferences."

TLDR: "You just wasted 5 minutes of your life".

</comment><comment><USER19> That's a good thing, there are too many people in the world already. Funny how values change when you actually have to deal with the consequences of your actions, though.

<comment><USER20> Let's see how we handle going from a 4+:1 working:retired ratio to something closer to 1:1 though. It's very concerning, especially with all these "XX% of the population live pay-check to pay-check" articles. Up until now the whole system was relying on continuous growth to take care of the elderly (both physically and financially).

It's a good thing in the long term, but it might suck big time short term wise.

<comment><USER21> I'm confused by your reference to people who live paycheck to paycheck. Shouldn't lower supply and higher demand for workers result in higher wages?

At the same time, automation will result in lower demand. Hard to say which trend is more important. Combined, I would expect a lot fewer truck drivers and more healthcare workers.

<comment><USER20> When you have a 4:1 worker:retired ratio the burden on workers is much lighter than when you have a 1:1 ratio. See public retirement funds as a big ponzi scheme, it only works if people getting in > people cashing out. Living pay checks to pay checks means that you have 0 margin and will l00% rely on society to survive.

> Shouldn't lower supply and higher demand for workers result in higher wages?

I don't think it's that simple. It's a societal / economical problem on a world scale, not an economy 101 course, I don't think anyone can predict where we're going but it'll definitely require some major changes.

> At the same time, automation will

"Automation will ..." has been used for 60+ years. If all these prophets were right we'd be working 3 hours a day by now. As long as we (collectively) are not ok with people not working, all automation does is moving people from shitty jobs to other shitty jobs (mostly in the service industry).

<comment><USER21> I see a combination of concern for the elderly (who will take care of them) and contempt for the work required (these are shitty jobs, aren't they)?

I don't particularly want to do that work either, so I'm certainly not immune to this criticism. But I think we might need to get over that. Since it's actually pretty important, this work should be respected and better paid, and it's actually a good thing if other work can be automated and more people move into taking care of others.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Cold calling versus Google Adwords - <AUTHOR> http://blog.asmartbear.com/cold-calling.html

<comment><USER2> Some advice (I used to work on large £100,000/month AdWords campaigns):

* Start small, just like the author did. Try to spend as little as possible, either the 1p/click minimum or target the bottom of the page (position 9.9 so you're just "above the fold"). Cap your spend.

* Measure, measure, measure. It's not even worth starting a campaign unless your whole site is being measured in every way possible. Personally I'd recommend tailing the Apache logfiles in real time to start with, rather than relying on an analytics package. You can move to analytics later once you've got the deep understanding from the logfiles. Also, save those logfiles forever.

* Don't rely on Google's tools for choosing keywords etc. They seem designed to waste your money (no surprise there!). Instead, look at the natural and paid search terms people actually use -- by following those logfiles -- and generate your keywords and your _negative_ keywords from there. Be careful with broad-match keywords. We tended to use exact match only.

* Don't use consultants, positioning tools etc. At least, not to start with. They're all expensive and won't be as good as doing it yourself. When you've got the deep understanding, then you can go with 3rd parties if you choose.

<comment><USER3> What metrics are you looking for in the Apache logs?

<comment><USER4> It is better not to pre-focus on concrete metrics too early. Better have the mindset of a scientist trying to figure out an unknown phenomenon. Observe, look for patterns, ask the what-if questions, form hypotheses, try to verify them, etc. Not my direct experience, I just once helped a guy who started with this approach and needed some better scripts to gather and analyze more data. This is fun stuff, everybody should try it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been doing marketing for a while. Mostly for my own businesses. After some painful trial and error I found out that direct marketing is usually the more effective choice for a lot of businesses (including startups).

Adwords might seem direct, but its not. It is marketing at large, and depends heavily on things that are out of our control. Software like ad-blocker makes things worse.

Yet, the do work as a combination with direct marketing. Approach them as you would a radio ad on a small station.

Now, cold calling. There is nothing like selling over the phone. It just works, and repeatedly. I will always try to work into any campaign some kind of calling program. It allows you to break the ice. People do respond well to it and response ussually raises significantly.

Problem with cold calling and phone marketing is that people approach it wrong. They let the prospect take control of the conversation. They call with just some script and maybe behind a computer.

I don't. I prepare as if going to battle. Everything I might need is close and ready. Pen, notepad, calculator, specs sheet, the actual product, at least 2 scripts, the computer connected to the net with DDG ready to go, etc.

I take command of the call and just set out to conquer. Now, I hardly ever sell a product on the phone anymore, but I sell the appointment which will ussually lead to the sale.

</comment><comment><USER6> I might be crazy, but I like doing cold calls -- and I'm a "technical" guy.

In my case I believe strongly in what I'm selling and I know there are gaps between the stuff I work on and people's ability to use it -- so I know (i) I've got to understand what those gaps are, (ii) it will take calendar time to make sales.

<comment><USER7> Are you selling Ontology 2 (<http://ontology2.com/o/>)? It looks really interesting. Who are you trying to sell it to?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Great article - I really like the point about scaling;

>> At this point in my company it was far more valuable to land a dozen orders, learn a ton about what my customers really think, how they speak about their own problems and my product, and therefore figure out exactly how to thrill them and sell them. This part doesn't need to "scale," it just need to happen. The only way for it to happen is to talk to a lot of people.

Verify that there is a business to scale first. Scaling is one of those good problems to have. It's also a very different problem than you have at the beginning.

<comment><AUTHOR> _"Verify that there is a business to scale first. Scaling is one of those good problems to have. It's also a very different problem than you have at the beginning."_

I think that your final line sums up the approach nicely. Speaking to your customers will tell you more about their needs and likely help you build a better Adword campaign.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Getting an appointment with _everyone_ you cold-call sounds like you're simply delaying the subject from turning you down. Surely not all of these converted?

Are you creating too wide of a funnel and causing a problem further down the line in lost time pitching to those who you wouldn't let turn you down on the phone?

TL;DR did you over-optimize your cold-call?</comment>


Amazon Registry - <AUTHOR> https://www.amazonregistry.com <comment><USER2> pretentious.moi is already taken :(

<comment><USER3> Not a very good TLD imo, .me is cheaper/not some weird unheard of string of letters.

<comment><USER4> It's French for me but yeah I do agree it's a fairly terrible branding.</comment></comment></comment>


Rare Footage of Pallas's Cat Cubs in Mongolia's Zoolon Mountains - <AUTHOR> http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2016/09/01/rare-footage-of-pallass-cat-cubs-in-mongolias-zoolon-mountains/ <comment><USER2> Pallas cats are one of my favourite animals. I've had the luck of seeing a very vocal and grumpy one in person. They also have a very unique low meow, which also sounds like they're constantly pissed off: [http://www.bioacoustica.org/gallery/sounds/Felis_manul1.wav](http://www.bioacoustica.org/gallery/sounds/Felis_manul1.wav) [https://youtu.be/DKmBt9sA9hk](https://youtu.be/DKmBt9sA9hk)

<comment><USER3> Sounds like one of our pair of Burmese cats - same cat can do a remarkably good impersonation of a young child saying "mum".

<comment><USER4> Pair? You're brave. We had one and it was both noisy and destructive.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There's an April 2016 BuzzFeed video [1m30s] with facts about this cat. You might want to mute it (electronic music overlay).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpakZ0fHzck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpakZ0fHzck)

<comment><USER6> Awesome. Looks like something out of a Studio Ghibli film. Wonder if the round pupils mean it is less of a night hunter

Edit: the answer - [http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/7/e1500391.full](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/7/e1500391.full)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hunted for their pelts. Don't buy real fur coats.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you are ever near Fargo, ND, the Red River Zoo[1] has 3 that you can come see in person! :-)

[1] [http://redriverzoo.org/animals/pallas- cat/](http://redriverzoo.org/animals/pallas-cat/)

</comment><comment><USER9> 2 years ago I found out about sand cats (google them, the ears are amazing). But these Pallas cats are positively prehistoric looking!

</comment><comment><USER10> Cats can see infrared

<comment><USER11> Not really.[0]

I didn't know this off the top of my head or anything, the cats' eyes in the video reflecting the IR back at the camera prompted my searching for the answer.

[0]: [https://www.quora.com/Can-cats-see-IR](https://www.quora.com/Can-cats- see-IR)</comment></comment>


Great talk on the Python GIL [video][slides in comments] - <AUTHOR> http://blip.tv/file/2232410

<comment><USER2> I posted this earlier: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=654560>

</comment><comment><USER3> Some really good sleuthing, but unfortunately no conclusions on what to do about the problem.

Lots of folks have started to tackle this in the past and given up in horror.

<comment><USER4> From Python 2.6 there is a nice multiprocessing library which based on OS processes. It's more heavyweight from the OS point of view but you don't need to worry about issues with GIL. I'm using it on an EC2 image with 8 cores and it rocks.

<comment><USER5> Plus it has the added benefit that if you design your architecture with queues as your distribution primitive you can scale across multiple machines pretty easily. There's a mostly drop-in interface [1] to AMQP that mimics the native Python Queue interface.

[1] [http://www.lshift.net/blog/2009/06/11/python-queue- interface...](http://www.lshift.net/blog/2009/06/11/python-queue-interface- for-amqp)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> very interesting and thorough explanation, + easy to understand!

recommended for everyone who wants to know more about python, threads, ticks and signal handling.</comment>


Police Use Dog To Find Memory And Hard Drives In Search - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/08/329501226/police-use-dog-to-find-memory-hard-drives-in-search?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140708

<comment><USER2> Do they realise yet how ridiculous they sound?

What is the scientific basis for this? Because unless it's _very_ recently manufactured and still outgassing, I'm far from convinced hard drives, circuit boards or chips in general have any odour detectable to GLPC, let alone dogs!

Far more likely prospect - aren't "K-9 units" widely renowned for corrupt practice, in particular training the dog to react on command to enable illegal searches and the planting of evidence?

I'm not saying _they 're_ corrupt, of course, but I do find that more empirically likely.

But perhaps my judgment is affected by the picture with the hard-bitten glares and the hats. The hats don't help. <g>

<comment><USER3> have you worked with hardware? I think i myself can sniff out a motherboard :) And dogs are very useful in detecting C4 for example, and i don't see why they can't detect various chemical stuff going into electronic components.

<comment><USER2> A new motherboard which is still outgassing, _definitely_. But the kind of thing they want to find - a well-aged microSD card - which is all chip packaging and doesn't even have a circuit board?

My friends who do hardware RE and occasional chip forensics generally have to _dissolve_ that stuff (with happy fun acids that I don't particularly want to handle, like fuming nitric acid - I don't know which particular one, but I know it tends to be hypergolic - and hydrofloric acid, which my dad was familiar enough with and I _never_ want to be friends with) before gas chromatography to identify it, because they wouldn't get anything if it had a magic smell and they just put it in there! Their reaction at this story when it was over on Slashdot was to laugh and wonder if they could replace the acids with dog slobber.

<comment><USER3> >But the kind of thing they want to find - a well-aged microSD card - which is all chip packaging and doesn't even have a circuit board?

i bet that the specific plastics types used for the cards are easily identifiable by dogs.

>Their reaction at this story when it was over on Slashdot was to laugh and wonder if they could replace the acids with dog slobber.

they could try :

[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/277012.php](http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/277012.php)

"A new study from Italian researchers, presented at the 109th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association in Orlando, FL, found that specially trained dogs were able to detect prostate cancer from urine samples with 98% accuracy. "

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What gas could possible emanate from a flash drive that wouldn't emanate from any other electronic device?

<comment><USER2> Indeed, an SD card in particular is about as embedded a device as you'll find - but maybe when executing a search warrant their focus is in fact in finding _every_ electronic device and marching off with it (that certainly wouldn't be unusual practice in LE, particularly local LE with no digital forensics expertise).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I could see this being used in repressive countries to find devices or memory cards full of e-books and learning materials.

<comment><USER6> Oppressive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Once the solvents used to clean a PCB are gone, what's left should be inert. A search of literature on chemical signature detection comes up with nothing regarding electronics. I smell voodoo.</comment>


Doordash substitutes tips for the driver delivery pay - <AUTHOR> https://notipdoordash.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I discovered this website in a comment ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18853446](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18853446)) to this post ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18853232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18853232)). I'd like to repeat the comment I made there ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18855110](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18855110)):

DoorDash is a YC company (#8 by valuation as of October 2018) [0][1]. Could we get some insight here from people working with DoorDash?

[0] [https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies](https://www.ycombinator.com/topcompanies)

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoorDash](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoorDash)

</comment><comment><USER2> As a previous employee of DoorDash I can confirm, this is accurate. Its a fairly sleazy system. They are able to honestly say that '100% of the tip goes to the dasher' (legally they have to give the tip to the dasher[0]) but that is because they use the tip money instead of, not in addition to what DoorDash would have paid the dasher.

For example if they tell the dasher they will make $6 on a delivery and you tip $5 through the app the dasher still makes $6

If you tip $10 the dasher gets $11 (DD always pays $1, I assume for pr or legal reasons)

Basically if you tip through the app you are just paying twice and subsidizing a company that is supposedly worth $4 billion.

Just tip in cash, the drivers always appreciate it and if you do it enough you can get good at smoothly slipping money into someone's hand which feels pretty cool.

Semi related - I worked at DD during the roll out of the this driver pay model and they spent months working on the messaging for the dashers.

[0] [https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.htm](https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs15.htm) "all tips received by the tipped employee are to be retained by the employee except for a valid tip pooling arrangement limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive tips"

</comment><comment><USER3> Even if this is the case, Doordash has to make money somewhere, they also have to insure the drivers. I see this no differently than every major pizza chain charging several dollar delivery fee that does NOT go to the driver.

To me this site seems like 2 things:

\- A hit site against Doordash, either made by a competitor or just some generally unpleasant person. It makes accusations against Doordash that are contradictory to public statements from the company and recommends you accuse them of dishonest practices to local media and to share the site on social media.

\- Somewhat of an attempt at tax evasion, recommending cash tips.

The fact the site offers zero evidence whatsoever, and is attempting to solicit donations for hosting that is likely dollars a year... yeahhhhhh.

<comment><AUTHOR> DoorDash could make money and insure their drivers at a per delivery level. That they scale how much they pay the driver based on how much a particular customer tips is what is questionable.</comment></comment>