Facebook says Apple blocked it from informing about App Store 30% fee - <AUTHOR> https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/facebook-says-apple-blocked-it-from-informing-about-app-store-30-fee-2020-08-28#:~:text=Facebook%20Says%20Apple%20Blocked%20It%20From%20Informing%20About%20App%20Store%2030%25%20Fee,-Contributor&text=Facebook%20(NASDAQ%3A%20FB)%20is,to%20impart%20to%20its%20users.&text=According%20to%20Facebook%2C%20it%20asked,Image%20source%3A%20Getty%20Images. <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24301332](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24301332)

<comment><USER3> I think the media are trolling Facebook now by reprinting the same story every day.

The Streisand effect of sorts.

<comment><USER4> Or it might be Facebook trying to keep the Apple tax news longer in the headlines. (I'm just speculating)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> All: These $BigCo vs. $BigCo threads are getting increasingly repetitive and nasty. Please don't post like that. The HN guidelines ask you not to, and every such post degrades this place for future discussion. We're trying to stave off the well-known internet phenomenon in which the site becomes nothing but repetition and anger, and the best users all leave. We want _curious_ conversation here, so if you have a substantive point to make, please make it thoughtfully, and if you don't, please don't comment until you do.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> Back in the day, Apple simultaneously:

* wanted a 30% cut on all Kindle book sales (sold via iOS)

* had negotiated with most major book publishers that any book distributer (aka Amazon, Apple, B&N, etc) must sell their books at exactly a 30% markup.

\---

Also, we had built a native store experience for the Kindle app before launching it.

Yet, after submitting to Apple (and not hearing anything back for weeks), Apple announced their _intent_ to roll out in-app purchasing many months later

They also immediately blocked our submission and forced us to take out all references to the native store or even linking to the web store.

<comment><USER7> Why we didn't hear anything about it at the time?

<comment><USER6> Amazon didn't want to blow up the relationship.

Though, Apple did eventually get taken to court for the book publisher pricing agreements:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Would you be okay with if a web based company, say Google:

1) Delisted you if you didn't support their payment option. 2) Blocked any content that tried to criticize it. 3) Forced you to support their login as an option, and also didn't place it as the first option on the list.

Then why are we okay with someone trying to do this for the mobile internet?

Apple treats apps like they own the phone. My own mental model is it's my phone, and apps are an extension of the mobile internet.

</comment><comment><USER9> I feel the text might have been better if they said "the business will receive 70%, Facebook doesn't take a cut"

<comment><USER10> As a donator, I'd be alarmed if a company tried to hide a 30% surcharge on my bill.

Not specifying the line item is just plain sketchy.

<comment><USER11> It's not a surcharge on your bill. That's when you have to pay 30% more than the main price. This is you paying the main price, but the organization you (likely) want to support is only getting 30%.

<comment><USER12> 70%, Apple takes 30%.

<comment><USER11> Oops, yeah, that was a dumb mistake.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> FB: Apple blocked us from warning small businesses that 30% of their revenue on Facebook goes to Apple. Fuck Apple.

Also FB: We're a multi-billion dollar company but we can't cover the 30% ourselves because fuck Apple.

Also also FB: Apple warned users that Facebook tracks them which hurts advertisers because users think tracking is awful. Fuck Apple.

<comment><USER11> > FB: Apple blocked us from warning small businesses that 30% of their revenue > on Facebook goes to Apple.

Was FB trying to warn small businesses? I read the article as FB trying to warning users making a purchase, not small businesses organizing an event.

> Also FB: We're a multi-billion dollar company but we can't cover the 30% > ourselves because fuck Apple.

You think it's reasonable for FB to lose $.30 on every dollar that passes through? That's not a sustainable model.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> A 30% cut isn't really out of line with the markup most stores or distributors put on nearly everything you buy, nor are secret business details.

I'm not trying to judge right or wrong, but hoping to point out a store taking that cut is the standard not the exception.

<comment><USER15> That isn't really the issue. The issue is that you _have_ to use Apple's store. There's no alternative.

<comment><USER14> You don't have to use an iPhone and your product doesn't have to run on one. In order to prove laws have been broken you have to prove that there is a higher issue than just lack of choice on the platform, if "that isn't really the issue" then there isn't any issue, legally.

If you want there to be something illegal about the lack of choice itself you have to think very long and hard about how you want to correct it with legislation, which would not be an easy thing to do right.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This situation is very good for the first start-up that will offer a website that works like an application store and provides crossplatform games/apps etc. along with a good SDK. Time for the web to neutralize the old monopolies

</comment><comment><USER17> Is this the end of Apple? Will I actually switch mobile platforms from Android because third party stores are now available? Tune in next time on "2020: The Year Monopolies get questioned"

<comment><USER18> As mobile gamer Android has been the only option for the longest time already. There's just too much geolocking as the strongest mobile games come from Asia. If someone is interested in exploring this more check out Qoo app store.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> All utilies (Electricity, water, phone, etc.) should ask their commercial customers a 30% cut because they build and provide an ecosystem that is mandatory for them to exist.

Going a little further and what if MasterCard and Visa requested a 30% cut to apple. They should also ban Apple from CC acquiring if they make this public.

</comment><comment><USER20> So what percent DO you guys think is fair?

<comment><USER21> They can take whatever percent they want while also letting developers use alternate payment processors.

<comment><USER22> Or even better, allowing users to opt to install apps from other app stores.

<comment><USER23> Or even better, allowing people to buy other phones

<comment><USER22> The arguments are well-repeated by now, but your comment is analogous to saying if I buy a Ford, I can only fill it with Ford gas. It's OK to have laws that prevent and forbid that because it's not good for the people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> So Apple wants a 30% cut on the money that could easily go to small business owners and artists. A $2T company that makes tens of billions in profit every year can't help being as extractive as it can in the middle of pandemic when everyone is struggling.

How can anyone be okay with this blatant abuse of power? How does it matter if the event is online or offline. If it's happening on a Zoom call or in a coffee shop. Apple isn't just harming big companies like Fortnite, it's harming individual creators. If this isn't case for anti-trust, I don't know what is.

<comment><USER25> Abuse of power? They have guidelines every developer must follow. Give one a break, what about the rest?

<comment><USER5> Please don't post unsubstantive and/or flamewar style comments to HN. These threads are getting exceedingly repetitive. They're also getting nastier. We don't want those qualities here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

<comment><USER25> I'm being downvoted flagged and accused of "flamewar" for simply saying that Apple has a set of rules developers must follow and they can't make exceptions otherwise where would it end?

<comment><USER5> Actually I think I misread your comment. I thought "Give one a break" was snark, but you were talking about developers. Sorry!

<comment><USER25> Ah I can see that now :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It's almost like Apple are trying to become the villain.

<comment><USER27> Now that everyone has smart phones and phone lifetimes seem to be growing not shrinking (good job Apple) the only way for them to grow their revenue is raising the price of phones (which they've slowed down on) or "services" which are essentially milking everyone using their platform.

<comment><USER28> They're not raising any prices on services that I'm aware of. Haven't these policies and fees been in place for a long time?

<comment><USER29> Apple's service revenue just reached an all-time high. [https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.statista.com/chart/amp/1462...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.statista.com/chart/amp/14629/apple- services-revenue/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This is really why the law should come down like a ton of bricks on Apple. They aren't just bleeding everyone dry, they're also trying to prevent people from realizing Apple is doing it.

<comment><USER31> FB, etc get the use of Apple's infrastructure, they get the benefits of apple providing updates to hardware for 5 years without charging consumers.

That shit costs money, whether it costs 30% I don't know, but given that seems to be in the order of the charges of every other store (what % of sale price do companies get on retail sales?).

The problem here is a bunch of companies have decided that they want special rules for themselves that don't include paying for services that they benefit from.

Any iOS device apple sells has 5 _years_ of ongoing costs - software support, service upkeep, etc.

Google's store doesn't have the update and software maintenance costs, and the actual hardware sellers have demonstrate no interest in taking them on, so it's clearly not free. In fact google charges 30% on everything as well, but also makes money from all of the surveillance they have on the platform (after all, spying is how google makes its money).

Put very simply. Apple makes a profit from a sale of hardware when the user buys a new device. That's it. They continue to support that hardware for 5 years.

Google makes profit from every android device as long as that device is being used. If you buy a second hand android device then that device continues to generate revenue for google.

Despite this google charges the same commission/rent as apple.

<comment><USER32> > FB, etc get the use of Apple's infrastructure, they get the benefits of > apple providing updates to hardware for 5 years without charging consumers. > > That shit costs money

Exactly. That shit costs money. And by that I mean iPhone. People pay $1000 dollars for that. It's not a freemium game where transactions on the platform support the product. It's one of the most expensive phones on the market, and long term update support is part of why their prices are so high.

<comment><USER31> You mean like the $1000 android phones?

All the reporting I've ever said that it isn't apple's flagship phones that are most popular, it's the lower priced ones which are in the $300 range.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Interesting how every big dog is attacking Apple as they continue to be the lone-wolf in enabling privacy and a secure platform for their users. Apple users are mostly computer illiterate because its Apple's mission statement to enable computing for everyone. Because of their ease of use, they are now targeted to open up their platform in ways that will jeopardize both their increasing user-privacy and user-security.

</comment><comment><USER34> Seems like a surprisingly lazy political play from Facebook.

<comment><USER35> Exactly. I actually do not believe FB on this.

<comment><USER36> Do you mean to say Apple is not taking 30% and Apple is not admitting this is an unacceptably high fee by trying to prevent FB from informing its users about it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Was Facebook blocked from informing people about the Facebook 70% fee?

<comment><USER11> Facebook's fee is 0%.

[https://www.facebook.com/business/help/274870883877590](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/274870883877590)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> If Facebook squares off against Apple in a PR war they'll lose every time.

Should have kept this in the boardroom.</comment>


Tokyo mechanical keyboard meetup photos - <AUTHOR> http://romly.com/archives/2019/05/tokyomk6_en.html <comment><USER2> Hello I'm Romly. Sorry for the down. I used boost function on my hosting service so I think the server holds for a while... I hope.

By the way I'm making a keyboard by SLA printer which named as #Thumbxy! (Typing with it right now) [https://twitter.com/search?q=%23thumbxy&src=typed_query&f=li...](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23thumbxy&src=typed_query&f=live)

And also making "Keycappie"s, fairies of keyboards! [https://drop.com/buy/romly-keycappie-novelty- keycaps](https://drop.com/buy/romly-keycappie-novelty-keycaps)

Anyway enjoy the photos of unique keyboards!

<comment><USER3> Thank you for sharing your work and the pictures, I love what you do (especially the Keycappies, if you know where I can get a huge switch for a Keycappie God, please let me know :))

<comment><USER2> Thank you! You can buy them at Romly Shop in Shapeways! [https://www.shapeways.com/shops/romly](https://www.shapeways.com/shops/romly)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder why the small spacebar never caught on in the mainstream. I know that the goal of a large spacebar is to be able to hit it no matter where your hand is on the main part of the keyboard, but it seems like you could cram in a couple more easily-accessible modifier keys if spacebars where just a little shorter.

<comment><USER5> The best thing to do with a split spacebar is to put things like shift there so you never have to reach again.

That's why a lot of ergonomic designs have thumb clusters to better make use of an underutilized finger.

<comment><USER6> I didn't really think about it until now, but a shift key in the middle of the keyboard would be fantastic idea. It doesn't really make sense to have two separate keys when one could fulfil the same purpose. I only hit the space key on the right side of the bar with my right thumb anyway, so having something for my left thumb to do would be ideal, while also freeing up 2 keys for other common functions.

<comment><USER7> Honestly just having access to a few extra layers and modifiers on the thumbs can greatly reduce the size of a board and improve ergonomics. I can't use boards without thumb clusters anymore! Once you have access to those layers/mods the amount of finger-extension and wrist shifting while typing is extremely reduced. I took this to a logical extreme with Georgi [1], which is surprisingly usable for programming work despite it's size!

I would love to see more boards adopt a chorded [2] approach. I spent a bit too much time with the steno crowd and some of their ideas rubbed off. Even applied to a traditional keyboard simple chords can reduce motion and improve speed. On average I don't have to move more then half a key on Georgi and my wrists thank me for it :)

[1] [https://www.gboards.ca/](https://www.gboards.ca/)

[2] [http://docs.gboards.ca/](http://docs.gboards.ca/)

<comment><USER5> I use a Mitosis which has even fewer alpha keys and even more thumb keys: 3x5 alphas and 2x4 thumb.

<comment><USER8> A Mitosis is on my "to build" list. It's wireless design has been influential for a microcosm of wireless split designs, so my collection definitley needs it.

<comment><USER5> Just as a warning: my wireless Mitosis dropped keystrokes, and I never actually preferred the split, but I liked the layout so much that I eventually made a hand-wired, hard-wired, non-split version.

[https://i.imgur.com/q4umLuL.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/q4umLuL.jpg)

<comment><USER8> I remember upvoting that when it was posted... did it go on r/mechanicalkeyboards or r/olkb? I don't recall which one.

Looks like a great board to type on. The Atreus I made in 2016 had clicky Gateron Green switches, and it was great to type on. That was before Box Navies even existed. If they were around back then, I probably would have chosen them. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like the site got Slashdotted, here's a cached version from the Wayback machine:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20190606134704/romly.com/archive...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190606134704/romly.com/archives/2019/05/tokyomk6_en.html)

(Protip: you can append !wayback to a url if you use DuckDuckGo as your search engine to pull up a cache automatically)

<comment><USER10> Here are links to the videos:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhwa9xxTm-Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhwa9xxTm-Q)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrbWjevbao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrbWjevbao)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_oa3z1UHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_oa3z1UHs)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> That Thinkpad keyboard is awesome and a great idea! Does anyone know a site that shows you how to do it? Or is that flat ribbon cable to USB board in the picture custom?

E: Found this Hackaday article [1] and one of the comments linked to the keyboard shown in the picture [2]!

[1] [https://hackaday.com/2018/12/04/teensy-liberates-the- thinkpa...](https://hackaday.com/2018/12/04/teensy-liberates-the-thinkpad- keyboard/)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nqvHDSDzKk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nqvHDSDzKk)

<comment><USER12> Lenovo sells them as regular USB keyboards: [https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo- ThinkPad-Compact-Keyboard-Trac...](https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad- Compact-Keyboard-TrackPoint/dp/B00F3U4TQS)

<comment><USER13> While Lenovo still sells the _wired_ version[1] (ThinkPad Wired USB Keyboard with TrackPoint), they regrettably stopped selling the bluetooth version a while back. Hopefully it's clearing stock for a refresh, but...

[1] [https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and- monitors/keyboa...](https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and- monitors/keyboards-and-mice/keyboards/KEYBOARD-US-English/p/0B47190)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm glad I've become dependent on the ergonomics of my Kinesis Advantage keyboards because I fear I'd own way too many mechanical keyboards otherwise...

<comment><USER15> You can print your own Kinesis Advantage style mechanical keyboard that's smaller and adjusted to your personal hand parameters. It uses Clojure to generate OpenSCAD file. There are also many variations.

[https://github.com/tshort/dactyl-keyboard](https://github.com/tshort/dactyl- keyboard)

<comment><USER14> This is pretty cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Service Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

<comment><USER17> [https://web.archive.org/web/20190606104623/http://romly.com/...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190606104623/http://romly.com/archives/2019/05/tokyomk6_en.html)

Glad I could help. Archive.org doesn't cache the YT-videos, but it should be possible to look them up by their ids.

<comment><USER10> Here the the videos:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhwa9xxTm-Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhwa9xxTm-Q)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrbWjevbao](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BrbWjevbao)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_oa3z1UHs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_oa3z1UHs)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Wow, cool stuff.

Seeing the DIY small keyboards reminds me of the Textblade, a super enticing tiny mobile keyboard that has been stuck in preproduction for several years now. I cancelled my preorder after waiting for a year or so and they still haven't released their product.

</comment><comment><USER19> What are the best resources for building a keyboard like this?

<comment><USER20> This long talk goes at length on how to make your own keyboards and provides several resources too:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWNgy1pldtM&t=15s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWNgy1pldtM&t=15s)

<comment><USER18> Here's another great video about a procedurally generated keyboard frame

clojure.core/typing - Matt Adereth

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3A41U0iO4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk3A41U0iO4)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Site is down, but judging by the photos on Flickr, there were some really weird and unusable (?) keyboards on display.

Are these considered art or experiments? Or do people have actual use for things like 20-key layouts?

<comment><USER22> Some people just like tiny keyboards. Moreover, keyboards are quite fun to build and typing on a keyboard you built yourself is satisfying : you have so much choice regarding components.

I think that very tiny boards are not really used by their owners (see the Gherkin board for example), but they still are a lot of fun to build. Just don't take it too seriously.

The OLKB Planck seems to be a nice tradeoff between usability and space efficiency.

<comment><USER23> I think you're right about English tiny keyboards, but Japanese ones seem more potentially useful to input kana.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Appears to have gotten the hug of death.

<comment><USER25> [https://web.archive.org/web/20190606104623/http://romly.com/...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190606104623/http://romly.com/archives/2019/05/tokyomk6_en.html)

The photos aren't archived, but there are at least links to a flickr account and some YouTube videos for the curious.

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/164140344@N07/sets/72157708768...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/164140344@N07/sets/72157708768047012/)

<comment><USER26> Thanks for that, all of those boards are awesome. The split ortholinear boards have my HHKB feeling woefully inadequate.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'd like to propose a new phrase. A gathering of mechanical keyboard enthusiasts should be called a 'clack'.

</comment><comment><USER28> I've used mechanical keyboards at home for years and love them. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with a mushy OEM keyboard at work (not allowed to bring in your own stuff here). Same deal with mice (I prefer trackballs).

<comment><USER29> I have to admit I'm curious as to why you prefer trackball, from my experience there is no actual benefit to it over laser, expect perhaps if you prefer heavier mouses

<comment><USER30> I use a trackball so I don't have to move my arm or stress my wrist. I use a Logitech trackball that only requires moving my thumb.

<comment> cbm-vic-20 I love my old-school TrackMan Marble Wheel. It's even better than the modern Logitech trackball.

<comment><USER30> That's the one I use. I even bought some extra since I hear the wireless isn't quite as crisp.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> These are beautiful. Rather more boring is the Topre I bought last year. I think I've finally found the keyboard that I will never need to change. I tried both Das Keyboard and WASD and was quite disappointed.

<comment><USER32> I had a similar path. My first mech was a Das Keyboard with MX Browns, and it wasn't bad. But I switched (no pun intended) to Topre as my daily driver on advice of a friend, and I haven't looked back.

I do have a WASD with MX Reds for gaming, because my fingers were getting tired gaming on Topre.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I am looking for a DIY kit for a split ergonomic keyboard _with_ an attached num block.

Does anyone know if such a kit exists? There are a few kits for split ergonomic layouts but none of them seem to include the num block.

<comment><USER34> Because there is regularly no need for these. You can add num block to any part of the keyboard and switch to it with one key press(Hold or Tap) You can also get separate and programmable num block in addition if you really want it.

<comment><USER5> On my ergo I use the home row for the numbers. It's way faster because you can use 8 fingers for 10 numbers instead of 3 fingers for 10.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> >hex-shaped keys

Alright, I definitely need one</comment>


Boston Startups mapped - Infographic - <AUTHOR> http://howtowriteabusinessplan.com/2013/03/kinvey-boston-startups/ <comment><USER2> A tiny unreadable picture. Pretty useless...</comment>


Listening To Our Customers Almost Killed Our Startup - <AUTHOR> http://www.getdigsy.com/blog/small-business/listening-to-customers-almost-killed-our-startup/

<comment><USER2> I was trying to tell multiple times here on hackernews that you should not listen blindly, but have the vision and push until you make it reality. Everytime I got down-voted by lean followers. People often do not know what they want and are IRRATIONAL. Let the down-voting continue.. just like NASDAQ and S&P today :)</comment>


Introduction to the Dial Telephone (1936) [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaQm30DDHL8 <comment><USER3> Some new, and some familiar DTMF[0] there. You can try it out directly with xmms by playing this "location": tone://440;480

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-tone_multi- frequency_sign...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-tone_multi- frequency_signaling)

<comment><USER4> nice. didn't know xmms could play tones like that. I've moved on to using mpd+theremin on this install, but I still have good 'ol xmms through pkgsrc ;)

really cool stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> later versions contained an Easter egg: If you dialled a certain number you could listen to a voice announcing the time.

This eventually became so popular that it was eventually implemented as an official feature.

Also this eventually inspired David L. Mills to come up with the initial design of the NTP protocol.

OK I'll see myself out ...

<comment><USER6> In the US, the voice would say "At the tone, the time will be 12:23 and 40 seconds ... BEEP!"

But in the UK it was "At the third stroke, the time will be 12:23 and 40 seconds ... beep! beep! beeeep!"

I like the UK version because you can get into the rhythm, like when a music conductor counts beats before an entrance. It would be interesting to know if anyone had done a study to see if the UK version produced better results.

A local radio music show in the 70's edited the US version for their intro into "At the _time_ the _tone_ will be 1 .. 2 .. 1 2 3 4" <music starts>.

<comment><USER7> OMD's "Time Zones" from _Dazzle Ships_ used a number of various telephone-time recordings from different countries.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwx8A0XUpfM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwx8A0XUpfM)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What was the 'usual manner'?

<comment><USER9> You had to talk to a telephone switchboard operator, and they would manually patch you in, I believe.

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Photogra...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Photograph_of_Women_Working_at_a_Bell_System_Telephone_Switchboard_\(3660047829\).jpg)

[http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp- content/uploads/2014/1...](http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp- content/uploads/2014/11/vintage-switchboard-operator.jpg.jpg)

<comment><USER10> That's correct. There was a very lengthy intermediate period, ranging from the introduction of dial telephones to as late as I believe the '70s in some areas (Santa Catalina island off LA comes to mind as an area with manual operators extremely late), where some areas had dial telephones and others had operators - and for some time long distance trunks were split the same way!

This means that some people had dial service but, to make a long distance call, had to speak with an operator. Other people had manual operator service, but when they wanted to make a long-distance call the operator would connect them to the trunk and then dial for them. For this reason many later-model telephone switchboards had a rotary dial built into the desk.

Customers also weren't necessarily expected to have dialing down pat early on, either. To this day, the error messages that you hear if you e.g. call a phone number that does not exist are referred to as "intercepts." The reason for this is that on early dial phone systems, when a customer encountered an error the line would be flagged as needing attention and a human operator would "intercept" the call to help the customer. These days this function is always performed by a boring recording, which starts with the SIT tones - <USER2> system of beep codes intended to tell automated dialers what went wrong.

<comment><USER11> In about 1999, on holiday with my parents in the USA, we had to make a long- distance call from a payphone (somewhere in the Rocky Mountains to Michigan, or something like that). I remember helping my dad to feed in the quarters as fast as possible, as the huge cost of the call — $6 or something — plus the low value of American coins meant the machine rejected the call before we could pay for it.

On about the third or fourth try, an operator came on the line! I guess that's a real "intercept". I don't remember what he did, he spoke to my dad, but the call was made.

(We were on a very long road trip, and there was some problem with the car we'd borrowed from American relatives.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Stop Building Apps and Start Disrupting Industries - <AUTHOR> http://www.mikekarnj.com/blog/2011/05/15/stop-building-apps-and-start-disrupting-industries/

<comment><USER2> If you're a small team with limited runway, you can't simply decide to disrupt an entire industry. That's a huge undertaking, and a hopelessly vague one. What you _can_ do is bite off a small piece of the problem, find some customers who really want to give you money, and iterate. Once you have a proven track record and solid revenues, you can aim higher.

Once upon a time, VCs didn't insist on taking baby steps, and would fund people who wanted to "revolutionize the grocery industry." That led to disasters like Webvan, and the first dotcom crash. For a good history of how Webvan bit off more than it could chew, see _Four Steps to the Epiphany_. For some online overviews, see:

[http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-07-12/technology/17606161_1_...](http://articles.sfgate.com/2001-07-12/technology/17606161_1_webvan- kozmo-delivery)

[http://www.beyondvc.com/2010/10/dont-build-an-empire- overnig...](http://www.beyondvc.com/2010/10/dont-build-an-empire-overnight- lessons-from-freshdirect-and-webvan.html)

Today, you're still allowed to dream big. But you're expected to start small, and build from there.

<comment><USER3> I agree. All companies should dream big and then break it down into actionable and realistic steps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _There are complete industries built on creating zero value for the world (investment banking)._

Maybe he's watched one too many Oliver Stone movies, but I don't think he understands the importance of investment banking. While SV VC's provide capital to startups on a comparatively small scale, investment banks provide capital to businesses on a much larger scale. Love 'em or hate 'em, they do provide a much needed service to our economy.

<comment><USER5> Depends on the area. Many banks act as middlemen for OTC trades that could and should be on an exchange. They purposely scuttle public exchanges because it would eliminate their lucrative fees.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I appreciate his sentiment and especially his motivation, but I'm not entirely sure everyone who is setting out to build an app must make the strict distinction between changing the world and not changing it. This borders on being an either/or fallacy - who's to say that you can't just build something for personal enjoyment and THEN watch it grow bigger and change the world?

</comment><comment><USER7> Disruption needs to be driven from industry knowledge. Certainly technology will be the major enabler of disruption, and may be the catalyst to disruptive ideas, but it industry insiders know where to make the changes and how to achieve acceptance.

So raising your hand and offering to build the tech is not the hard part. The hard part is finding those insiders who know every detail of the industry, but do not buy into the status quo.

</comment><comment><USER8> The argument is largely subjective. For one person, making the world a better place is achieved by spending more time with the family to raise good kids that can improve upon their parent's success and keep building.

To others, it's creating something like Paypal or Square.

To another, it's Kiva.

Lastly, as another commenter said, you need money and time. You can buy time with more money, so let's say you just need money. Apps can be used to get that money.

</comment><comment><USER9> I agree with the sentiment here completely, but sadly, there's almost zero support for true disruption these days from Silicon Valley.

FaceCash disrupts the credit card companies and banks. Not a single VC has offered a term sheet to date. (I'm not necessarily upset about this, but it's an interesting fact.) Students would generally rather work for Facebook or Google where they can make more money in a summer. Industry conferences don't want to hear from the people working on the hardest problems; they want to hear from the people who have made the most money.

There are some real systemic problems here that, if they don't eventually get worked out, will end up keeping us locked into a steadily declining system in a number of industries.

<comment><USER10> I don't know enough details about your or Square's technology and business, but every time I see you complain about how no one supports true disruption and even the cool new startups are doing the same old thing, I remember this video by Sean Murphy on technology adoption:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4h68mrzuwc>

I hope it will help you and you will take my comment as constructive criticism.

<comment><USER9> It's a good video and an interesting graphical representation of the problem I hadn't seen before. It also helps explain why so many startups work on small issues rather than large ones. Thanks for sharing it!

Unfortunately, what it doesn't explain is the hidden cost that such an approach has, when repeated indefinitely, on the greater context of the Valley's infrastructure and incentive structure. Investors today simply are not rewarding risk.

<comment><USER10> I hope you will find someone to back your daring innovations. Godspeed!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Disruption is a fundamental change of the business model, economics and user experience.

</comment><comment><USER12> If you want real disruption, you're not likely to find funding for it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Stop building apps and start building platforms which can eventually disrupt industries.

</comment><comment><USER14> _snip_

<comment><USER3> The derivatives market is an arbitrary market where money just moves from one place to another.

Real engineers build things like bridges and websites. Bankers build dreams and leverage the shit out of it to put the whole country in debt.

[http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great- american...](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american- bubble-machine-20100405)

<comment><USER15> _Real engineers build things like bridges and websites. Bankers build dreams and leverage the shit out of it to put the whole country in debt._

Without banking you can't have infrastructure: no financing, no cement, no salaries, one can't acquire land.

Shorter: you can't boot strap a bridge.</comment></comment></comment>


User-Friendliness on Windows and Linux - <AUTHOR> http://feathe.rs/20120901378 <comment><USER2> I liked the analogy, but I think Neal Stephenson did the definitive one...

Search in page for "MGBs, TANKS, AND BATMOBILES" at

[http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.sht...](http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.shtml)

<comment><USER3> That kept getting sillier right up until the end, but this last bit is very true:

Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!"

Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!"</comment></comment>


The Gap Between Large and Small Companies Is Growing. Why? - <AUTHOR> https://hbr.org/2019/08/the-gap-between-large-and-small-companies-is-growing-why <comment><USER2> I work for a large european behemonth with business all over the world. It's all you would imagine of an old-style management large company, with an insane amount of bureaucracy and an uphill battle to make anything productive.

The way to achieve results is based on throwing a lot of money at problems, trial and error and making employees and customers suffer in the process.

It's a company that has made a lot of stupid decisions (especially ruinous acquisitions in the past), but good decisions have a huge impact simply because of a matter of scale. And it seems to work.

As I was saying, internal operations are a disaster, the applications we use as employees were already the typical corporate application with problems, but last year someone lit a light bulb, and decided it was time to do it all web, with CSS and responsive. Now everyone has a beautiful frontend with many colors and buttons with :hover, but the information structure is so bad and so unintuitive that employees want to cut their veins and die on the spot.

Most of the operations, say 99%, are outsourced companies that operate with incentives. This is a constant free for all fight.

Among our competitors there are more agile companies, with lower prices, with better services, with better customer service, with better defined services, with clearer internal operations, with corporate applications that make sense, and so on.

And yet it works.

So what I do is walk calmly to my job. I fight the battles that I think I have an opportunity and let the others pass. And when my time comes, I walk home, change my clothes and go to the beach or whatever I want.</comment>


How to stop Apple from listening to your Siri recordings - <AUTHOR> https://9to5mac.com/2019/07/29/stop-apple-listening-siri-recordings/ <comment><USER2> Good luck removing

2019-05-03 Removed allowSiriServerLogging from the Restrictions Payload.

[0] [https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configura...](https://developer.apple.com/business/documentation/Configuration- Profile-Reference.pdf)

<comment><USER3> I created my own profile for this and have removed and re-added it just to test. Not sure what you think it's preventing.

<comment><USER2> Oh I meant good luck removing server side tracking, allowSiriServerLogging key is not valid anymore, so has no effect as far as I can see.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Stopping Apple from listening to Siri, stopping Google from listening to Google Assistant, stopping Amazon from listening to Alexa, stopping Google from collecting data from android devices - these sort of articles and arguments seem flawed right at the title.

Those companies have created those devices to listen to you, and your surrounding, to understand you better and serve you the right product or service or their ads. You can not have both smooth service and complete privacy if the data is restricted, as the system will not get to learn you.

<comment><USER5> Game theory suggests that I want to turn off _my_ recordings and hope that most of you do not. That way I benefit from the improvements that result from you giving up your privacy, while retaining my own.

<comment><USER6> A lot of these improvements are based on personalization. A common problem for me would be searching for Django related stuff - Duck Duck Go would return a lot of things based on the film, while Google knew that I was interested in the web framework.

<comment><USER7> But the difference is covered literally by just adding 'python' to your query.

<comment><USER8> The art of crafting query strings seems to have fallen by the wayside. Almost any query I do involves giving topics or categories first, followed by more qualifiers to nail it down more, usually followed by double-quoting the terms that the search engine seemingly ignores in the query string.

All the code to find like terms and phrases and whatnot is great and not privacy threatening, but I wish the search giants would stop trying to guess my motivations and just present me with the most relevant results based on what I asked for, and not what it thinks I was probably asking for.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Funny to see an article promoting the use of Apple Device Profiles on the front page.

There was just an article last week on the front page describing how installing device profiles is unacceptable: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20514833](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20514833)

<comment><USER10> Device profiles are the superset. It allows a wide range of features and functions.

Mobile device management uses a subset of what device profiles allow for, along with additional external tooling.

They're similar, but the thread you linked to is about MDM, not device profiles in general.

Deploying a device profile is akin to accepting a self signed certificate. When it's of your own generation, it's probably fine, if someone else has done it, you should question what's happening and whether or not it's right for you to accept it or not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> _INSTRUCTIONS—For those who wish to do this on their own without downloading and installing a third-party 's profile to their device(s) (and have a Mac):_

1\. Download Apple Configurator 2 from the Mac App Store.

2\. Open the app, plug in your iOS device, and click on it to activate working on it.

3\. Command+N to create a new Profile.

4\. Under General, fill out the mandatory info (only name is required).

5\. Click Restrictions, then click Configure. Un-check the 10th top-level checkbox that says "Allow server-side logging of Siri commands". Take a look at other things you'd like to control.

6\. Command+S to save the profile. Close the window.

7\. Click on Profiles in left sidebar. Click Add Profiles. Select the profile you just saved. Ensure your device is unlocked, and it will be added to your device.

8\. Go into Settings app on your device. There will be an entry at the top that says "Profile Downloaded". Tap into that and select to install the profile.

</comment><comment><USER12> "curl some rando's plist" still gives me the willies, honestly. And i know it's just XML!

<comment><USER13> If you go to the github [0] linked in the article, it tells you how to create your own using Apple's Configurator application [1]. In the "restrictions" section, uncheck "Allow server-side logging of Siri commands". You can also preview the raw XML of the config profile on github without downloading the file [2].

[0] [https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri- NoLoggingPLS](https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri-NoLoggingPLS)

[1] [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jankais3r/Siri- NoLoggingPL...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jankais3r/Siri- NoLoggingPLS/master/configurator.png)

[2] [https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri- NoLoggingPLS/blob/master/P...](https://github.com/jankais3r/Siri- NoLoggingPLS/blob/master/Prevent%20server- side%20logging%20of%20Siri%20commands.mobileconfig)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> How about a better question -- if you turn off everything Siri in the settings, are there circumstances in which an iPhone will _still_ send audio to their servers?

This to me would be the only _reasonable_ way of stopping Apple from listening in, while still using an iPhone.

</comment><comment><USER15> So does anyone know if this actually works?

<comment><USER16> How could we ever check?

<comment><USER17> Network traffic logs.

<comment><USER16> Your voice is always sent to Apple to process it since Siri doesn't work locally; what we are wondering is whether that voice recording is permanently stored or destroyed as soon as it's processed.

<comment><USER18> So… This is just a "please, don't record what I send you"? How could anyone believe apple will obey this demand?

<comment><USER19> How can anybody trust anyone to do anything?

They have a good track record of respecting user privacy.

<comment><USER20> But.... Let's try again... How do we know that?

<comment><USER19> You don't know it for a fact. You trust them to not do it.

Yes, _let 's try again_, how do you know you can trust _anybody_ to do _anything_?

Do you hold a gun to their head? Do you trust the courts to uphold written agreements/contracts that dictate the other party's behavior? Do you observe their past behavior and use that to guess future behavior?

In 99% of our daily actions, we use the last option, and right now is no exception.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Not Apple, but I'm pretty happy with the Amazon firestick. It only listens when you press the button on the remote. Seems acceptable if that's all Amazon is logging.

<comment><USER22> As I understand it, Apple devices don't start sending audio data to Apple until you say "Hey Siri" (which is interpreted on the device). It may not be as explicit as pushing a button, but it seems close.

<comment><USER23> And most important, you can disable "Hey Siri" trigger on your iPhone/Mac or Apple Watch. If you disabled "Hey Siri" trigger (and left "Siri" on) then you have to long press "Home" button (or button on the right, if you are on iPhone X and later) to start "Siri"

<comment><USER21> I know, but that prevents CarPlay from working, which I really like...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This sounds too easy: do not use Siri in the first place?

</comment><comment><USER25> Does this just disable logging for the device you install it on, or the whole Apple account? What about Siri on Mac, HomePods, etc?

<comment><USER11> Profiles are only activated on the devices you install it on, iirc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> "Hey Siri, can you stop Apple from listening to my Siri recordings?"

"Hey Siri!… Siri?!"

P.S. If someone out there has an Apple device, I'm interested in knowing what the actual response to this request is.

<comment><USER27> Siri responded with a web search that resulted in some articles about how to accomplish what you ask about. I think it included this thread. I didn't bother to visit the resulting pages.

<comment><USER26> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Another option is of course to simply not use an iOS device.

Having to download some third-party thing to disable it, really shouldn't be necessary. There should be a simple setting in iOS to turn Siri's listening on or off.

<comment><USER29> You don't need a some third-party thing, you can create the profile yourself using the Apple Configurator. Agree that this should be an easily accessible system setting like OP suggests.

<comment><USER30> As a matter of fact it should be "default" and need an actual "opt-in" to allow the server side logging.

<comment><USER31> It's on by default because it has a very important function for Apple. If it was opt-in, Siri would be a much weaker service.

<comment><USER32> The configuration to allow listening at all (to start Siri by code phrase) is opt-in during device setup. While I would like to see a checkbox for allowing human review of Siri messages also, at least there is a way to _opt out_ - something most mobile devices simply do not have.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Birth Control As A Service - <AUTHOR> http://www.readytogroove.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> For everyone wondering about this method, it's called the sympto-thermal method and is _not_ the same as the rhythm method. Planned Parenthood lists it as 99.6% effective with perfect use. See the "What is the Sympto-thermal Method" section in the link below:

[http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control...](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control/fertility-awareness-4217.htm)

<comment><USER2> The 99.6% effectiveness statistic comes from the planned parenthood website and I'm assuming they quoted it from this study since they do not cite their source [http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.short](http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.short)

99.6% is the method-effectiveness (i.e. the efficacy if used properly) or 0.4 unintended pregnancies per 100 "women years" (13 cycles)

Other interesting results from the study: \- the method-effectiveness rate found for this method is comparable to oral contraceptive \- 9.2% stopped using the method due to dissatisfaction \- Couples that had intercourse during the fertile period had an increased pregnancy rate of 7.5% \- This study was done in European countries and the pregnancy rate was lower than similar studies performed in developing countries

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Albeit a great app, this method is less reliable than having proper birth control at hand.

I see mentions of "But it's 1.8% failure rate!" \- thing about Cumulative Probability is, that is a pretty high number of failure after about 10 years.

After 10 years you have a Cumulative Probability: P(X = 1) of about 15% of getting pregnant.

If you don't want to be a dad/mom - use a condom. Or go double dutch.

<comment><USER4> Fortunately, probabilities for birth control methods aren't presented in this way. Generally, when an organization like Planned Parenthood says that the symptothermal method is 99.6% effective, what they really mean is:

"Of 100 couples who use the symptothermal method correctly for one year, 0.4 (fewer than one) will have a pregnancy." (Source: [http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control...](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control/fertility-awareness-4217.htm))

So after about 100 years of using this method, you've got a .4% chance of becoming pregnant. Seems like decent odds to me.

<comment><USER5> > So after about 100 years of using this method, you've got a .4% chance of > becoming pregnant. Seems like decent odds to me.

No, after _one_ year you've got a 0.4% chance of being pregnant. Assuming this stays steady over 100 years, you'd have a 33% chance of being pregnant (1 - (0.996 ^ 100))

Their maths for a 1.8% failure rate over 10 years is right, it's about 15%.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm a little bit confused. The title mentions birth control but the website is talking mostly about fertility. Is this a tool to help women get pregnant or prevent pregnancy?

<comment><USER7> Apparently both. On this page [http://www.readytogroove.com/app/](http://www.readytogroove.com/app/), it explains how you can learn which days you are or are not fertile.

Is this really a reliable birth control method though?

<comment><USER8> This is Fertility Awareness / Natural Family Planning[1], branded in a way that will be more palatable to a secular Silicon Valley audience.

My wife and I use NFP. This is actually the slickest app I've ever seen.

It's pretty reliable if you want to use it for birth control, provided the woman has at least somewhat regular cycles. Even with irregular cycles, there's useful information that can be gleaned from cervical mucus and basal body temperature.

It's probably not for people who absolutely cannot tolerate one or two "surprise" children, but it will at least prevent you from becoming the Duggars if that's not your thing.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_family_planning](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_family_planning)

<comment><USER9> Sorry to say so, but you're wrong about two things:

1\. A women doesn't have to have a regular cycle for this method to be safe. Why? Because if the cycle is irregular, the cycle cannot be evaluated / charted and you have to assume fertility.

2\. The method is as safe as the pill. The risk for getting "surprise children" is the same as with the pill.

<comment><USER8> For your objection to (1), you'd be right if we were talking about the rhythm method, but we aren't. There are other signs of impending fertility that can be tracked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Misleading title.

It's a fertility tracking app. There are dozens of those.

When I see "{physical thing} as a service", I expect some sort of monthly fulfillment service, like Dollar Shave Club.

<comment><USER11> Agreed on the title, there is an old joke, "Question: What do you call people who are using the rhythm method for birth control? Answer: Parents." As a fertility timer to help people maximize their chance of conception though I think it is probably a useful tool.

<comment><USER9> Scroll all the way down in the comments here, that joke has been told before and downvoted for its unrelatedness. This app is based on the symptothermal method, not the rhythm method.

<comment><USER11> Fair enough. Various folks seem to put it slightly above the rhythm method in practice [an example [1]] and pretty much less effective than any mechanical system [2]. The original joke was a statement on the variability of trying to gauge the internal state of the system versus mechanically disarming the system. And in that analysis it still holds.

Nothing is quite so impresses as a natural system that has evolved through selective pressure to be effective in so many adverse situations.

[1] [http://www.fertility.com.au/Docs/Contraception/Contraception...](http://www.fertility.com.au/Docs/Contraception/Contraception%20Success%20Rates.pdf)

[2] [http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/UnintendedPregnancy/PD...](http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/UnintendedPregnancy/PDF/Contraceptive_methods_508.pdf)

<comment><USER9> Please check this long-term study: [http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.short](http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/22/5/1310.short)

It's as effective as the pill. But you're right that it doesn't provide birth control during the fertile days.

It depends on how you define birth control. Is it something that enables you to have sex during fertile days or is it something that enables you to know more about your fertility?

So, seen in the first way, the sympto-thermal method is just a method for observing natural processes. Nothing that prevents pregnancy during the fertile window.

If you want mechanical birth control, there are really only three reversible options: condoms, IUD, diaphragm. Everything else that's reliable is based on hormones. In that light, I think it's a good idea to use the sympto-thermal method to be at least 50% less dependant on other mechanical tools.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The app looks great. Does it work for the Creighton Model ([http://www.creightonmodel.com](http://www.creightonmodel.com)) as well?

Also, you may want to get added to this list: [http://contraception.about.com/od/naturalmethods/tp/fertilit...](http://contraception.about.com/od/naturalmethods/tp/fertility_apps.htm)

<comment><AUTHOR> I suppose you could technically use the Creighton Model with our app, though it's not the method we provide educational info for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> > Upgrade your account to practice natural and effective birth control, get > pregnant easily, or take control of your reproductive health.

"Get pregnant easily" is not something you should be advertising. There are tons of reasons why someone can have trouble getting pregnant that are completely external to your app. Just a heads up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, very true. Perhaps the wording should be revisited. Thanks for the feedback!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is there anyway boyfriends can get access to this?

<comment><USER15> Yeah! Would be great if it synced so that I could get a "Go" or "No Go" signal!

<comment><USER16> Go or no go where? Am I missing something?

<comment> rkuykendall-com The app is designed to provide birth control by letting you know when have sex, or when to not have sex. He was asking for a companion app without all the management, just the current status.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> After having read the HN headline I had an impression of someone hiring someone else to carry a bucket of water around during dates...

</comment><comment><USER18> This doesn't seem to be available in any of the worldwide stores except the US store. Is a worldwide release coming?

</comment><comment><USER9> Kudos to you, it's alway great so see people talking about natural birth control methods without mentioning _God_ or _religion_ in the same sentence. It's virtually impossible to find good resources about the sympto-thermal method in English without landing on a very Christian-oriented website.

But I'm wondering: What's the business model you have?

I'm asking, because I'm in the same space. Mostly in Germany, but I also have an app for the English-speaking population: [http://mynfp.net/](http://mynfp.net/)

It costs 5.99$ and it's certainly nothing I can live from alone. However, the app is just an "appendix" to my SaaS business which is the same thing, but bigger and better, which generates revenue to be sunstainable in the long term.

<comment><USER8> You can't find secular versions of NFP because the hormonal birth control and sterilization industry created what they felt was the perfect no muss, no fuss solution, and couldn't imagine why anyone but the "religious crazies" could possibly want an alternative to it.

You can thank the religious people for continuing to develop the science over the decades when the world went absolutely bananas for the pill.

<comment><USER19> So if I'm understanding you right, industry as a whole chose a method which though it has benefits also has drawbacks – so much so that they ignored research?

And it was religious people who continued fundamental research?

Very interesting! And not what I've seen in other cases. I'm happy to have my stereotypes challenged.

<comment><USER9> He's at least partly right. Most studies in this area are directly or indirectly sponsored by the church. This doesn't make the sympto-thermal method a religious thing and the studies are still scientific, but the church was one of the few who gave financial aid.

Thing is, the method can be done on a piece of paper. So far, not many people had commercial interest in further research. The few who had, used their finances to build birth-control monitors (a piece of hardware) and tied their studies to their specific products.

So, yeah, the church definitely put money in it whereas not many corporations or investors did.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Seriously, rhythm method is not effective birth control (24% failure rate/year). Please don't rely on it!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_birth_control_met...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_birth_control_methods#Comparison_table)

<comment><AUTHOR> See the "What is the Sympto-Thermal Method" section: [http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control...](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control/fertility-awareness-4217.htm)

EDIT: posted the wrong link before...sorry =)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Q: What do you call a woman who depends on the rhythm method for birth control?

A: A mother.

As a tool to help you get pregnant, awesome, kudos, very well done.

Promoting it for birth control? Not very clever.

[http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control...](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control/birth-control-effectiveness-chart-22710.htm)

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a common misconception that the method our app relies on is the same as the rhythm method, which it is NOT. The rhythm method _predicts_ fertility based on cycle length, which is a really BAD idea. The sympto-thermal method pinpoints the fertile window using scientifically-backed signs of fertility.

Planned Parenthood lists an effectiveness of 99.6% (see the "What is the Sympto-thermal Method" section: [http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health- topics/birth-control...](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/birth- control/fertility-awareness-4217.htm)

<comment><USER21> I apologize for conflating the rhythm method and the sympto-thermal method.

It's still a bad idea for most people.

All from the same Planned Parenthood site:

Twenty-four out of every 100 couples who use fertility awareness-based methods each year will have a pregnancy if they don't always use the method correctly or consistently.

whereas:

Vasectomy is the most effective birth control for men. It is nearly 100 percent effective.

and

Less than 1 out of 100 women will get pregnant each year if they use an IUD.

\---

I want to control my systems. I have many choices: Puppet, Chef, cfengine, writing my own system... you're offering me a system that requires maintenance every single day, I can't pay someone else to do it for me, and if I screw up, it's 76% likely that I won't have unintended consequences. But there are a bunch of other systems on the market where I configure them once and they work for years without attention, and even systems where I just have to be picky when I'm conducting operations, not every single day.

<comment><USER22> The 24% failure rate cited by Planned Parenthood includes ALL couples who claimed to be using fertility awareness, from those who had taken classes and were using a modern method, to those who were just guessing. IIRC, over 80% of the couples were not properly trained in a modern method of fertility awareness. Not surprisingly, they had very high pregnancy rates. Someone did the math (can't find the article) and figured untrained users had about a 28% pregnancy rate while trained users had a 7% pregnancy rate. (80 * .28 + 20 * .07) = 23.8 The 7% pregnancy rate is comparable to the real-world use of the Pill.

As for your system analogy, if your automated system was a significant resource hog or ran the risk of corruption of data or crashing the system, would you use it? You focus on efficacy without factoring in side effects.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Am I the only one that thinks TDD is really antithetical to agile development? - <AUTHOR>

I've read a lot about TDD including a few good tutorials, and I've watched a few screencasts, and I tried it out a couple times (once last year and again more recently). And I really do "get it". I do understand where the value of it comes from.
I just think it's a slow and bureaucratic process where the same value can be obtained in better ways.
I saw this definition of TDD online: "one way to think through your requirements or design before your write your functional code". That's one good characterization of TDD, and where most of its true value comes from, but there are processes to "think through your requirements or design" that are both much quicker and more effective.
And like all design methods, TDD only works well if you're doing it right. If seen it postulated that good TDD forces (or highly encourages) you to write good code. But that's almost a tautology. If you're good enough to do TDD well, you're good enough to code without TDD. It doesn't help you any more than you help yourself.
And I have seen a whole lot of bad TDD out in the wild, where the tests offer no value or nearly no value because they are badly designed. In these cases it just adds boring busywork and a false sense of security to the coder (which might lead to even worse code than if there were no "tests" at all).
Am I alone in thinking this? <comment><AUTHOR> Note to self: search archives _before_ posting. Just found this: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2240595>

</comment><comment><USER2> I've seen a few examples of TDD that, like you say, offer a very clear benefit for writing your logic and making sure you're covering your bases. However, they feel as though you're going around your ass to get to your elbow.

I'm still a very firm believer that you should be created your code base with being able to write proper testing in mind (separation of concerns, IOC/DI, etc), however I would be lying if I said that pure, evangelist style TDD was my cup of tea.

But TDD can be one of those religious style debates that I typically like to avoid...

</comment><comment><USER3> If TDD helps you achieve your goals faster, which in some cases it can, then use a TDD-based approach. If it's holding you up, making what should be a throw-away prototype take significantly longer to implement, then abandon it, but be aware of the inherent risks.

Obsessive TDD doesn't help anyone. You have all these "test cases" that give you false confidence, and worse, take forever to maintain as you try and improve your product. You can literally test something to death this way.

</comment><comment><USER4> Of course not. Most startups avoid TDD.

More generally, trust your gut, especially when people start talking about Methodologies. Your instincts are good.</comment>


[Ebook] Deploying Rails with Kubernetes - <AUTHOR> https://leanpub.com/deploying-rails-with-kubernetes/ <comment><USER2> can you consider making the sample project in the book, more real-world like? Perhaps, have kubernetes manage the deploying of redis, and the sidekiq daemon.</comment>


Set in Our Ways: Why change is so hard after our 20s - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=set-in-our-ways&print=true <comment><USER2> Is it that odd? Think of it like this: your 20s are like that new program in Rails. Nothing holding you back. No legacy structures to support. Just wonderful. But as life goes on, it starts looking more like that Java program with jars everywhere, weird structures no one knows why they were made, requirements that no longer make any sense. Eventually, you build up enough cruft that you have Cobol programmers picking over lines just to keep you running.

I'm in my 20s, but kinda lame so I'm already thinking about a house, what city I'll end up in, planning for my retirement. Every one of these decisions locks me into something. As I put money into retirement accounts, I become less agreeable to changes in the tax code. For example, I'm not as for wonderful new national pension since I've already locked money away for retirement. As I lock myself into a city/area, I become less amenable to things like market competition. For example, if I moved to Seattle for the long haul, I would want the government to defend Boeing since its downfall would really hurt the place I've invested myself in.

We achieve more ownership in the world as we age. It ties us into the decisions of our past. Most importantly, at that point, a lot of change becomes negative. One of my professors from college is teaching a course to state Cobol programmers to teach them Java. They hate it. They just want to hang on and not loose something rather than compete with young Java programmers in a language they just learned.

We make changes as a society. Change is often very beneficial. It's often opposed by those who have ownership before the change. Maybe we should take into consideration how change adversely affects people and help them through it - like the course teaching Cobol programmers Java so that they're still skilled for modern systems. Yes, they're not so happy with the training, but it keeps them relevant rather than simply letting them become skill-less as Cobol programs get retired.

<comment><USER3> Good post. Increasing investment in the status quo is a nice way to look at this.

A long time ago someone made the point, which stuck in my mind, that all of this is an argument in favor of death. If people didn't die, stuff wouldn't change.

I think the habit-forming nature of human consciousness goes far deeper than we've yet admitted. That might also explain why people change less as they age - they've been around longer so habits have had longer to form. Gene Clark had a great line, "The longer you're in one place, the harder it gets to leave."

<comment><USER4> I recall a quote: 'Progress is made one death at a time.' but I can't remember who said it.

<comment><USER3> There's also a famous line from Max Born (or was it Planck) who said: New ideas are accepted in science not because anyone changes his mind, but because old scientists die. (I'm paraphrasing.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Don't waste your time like I did. I'll summarize it for you:

People don't change as much after 30 because like maybe it's because they have more responsibilities?

<comment><USER5> Turning vague scientific studies into overpromising articles is a habit many writers find hard to change.

<comment><USER6> Somehow they all find jobs at Scientific American

<comment><USER7> And New Scientist!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I recommend everyone see the Seven Up series (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Up>!) as it is one of the best documentaries ever made. In it, Michael Apted interviews a group of British children from a variety of backgrounds every 7 years, from the time they are 7 until (currently) they are 49.

It is quite striking to see how people change and progress as they age, and you can definitely see how little they change after their 20s in the series.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think a lot of being "set in our ways" has to do with not accepting that we might be wrong about something, or that we might not fully understand something. As we age, we like to believe we know things and feel certain of the way things are. As an infant, we quickly learn about gravity and come to accept that it pulls things to the ground. We put our life in the hands of that belief when we learn to walk. When we start making decisions in life, we like to believe that we know enough to understand everything involved.

The older we age, the more we seem to be driven to find answers to things we don't understand. When we find answers that seem to fit we find comfort in locking them in place as pure fact, since they make future decisions that much easier. Children _know_ they don't know, and therefore are more open to learning, growing, and changing. Keeping this process going as we age involves looking objectively at _everything_ and never accepting one answer as the only answer.

I've already noticed myself being locked into a particular way: I've been anti-social my entire life and I grew to accept that. I was happy with it, and it didn't bother me. But recently I realized that the one thing I'm _not_ good at should be the thing I work hardest at improving, otherwise how can I continue to grow in life? Children are playful because they're constantly curious, constantly asking questions. Hackers maintain this curiosity, this questioning mentality, which is exactly why they're the ones at the frontier of so many emerging technologies.

I'm only 26, so I'll just have to wait and see if my thinking is correct. :)

<comment><USER10> I think that mdasen's comment is much closer to the truth. It isn't arrogance or excessive confidence that makes people more conservative as they get older, it's the investment, responsibilities, and ties they develop to the status quo. These are the same reasons that people will keep trudging along in a job that they _know_ that they hate -- the devil you know is better than the one you've yet to meet.

Personally, I'm not becoming more arrogant or confident about what I know as I get older; if anything, I'm less sure about most things. I certainly hedge a lot more of my bets. The only bits of knowledge that I'll stridently defend are really just higher-order patterns: happiness is more important than wealth; hard work doesn't guarantee success; fads are fickle, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The title's accounting is a bit off:

"They found that openness increased modestly up to age 30 and then declined slowly in both men and women. The survey results suggest that men begin adulthood slightly more open to new experiences than women but decline in openness during their 30s at a faster rate than women."

This puts 30 at the peak of openness and suggests that people may be as open to change in their 30s as in their 20s.

</comment><comment><USER12> This hasn't been true for me at all. For me, leaving my 20s has been a great motivator to try/do all kinds of new and different things.</comment>


Show HN: Nebula - Cross-Platform Electron Apps and WebSockets - <AUTHOR> https://mimix.io/nebula-tech/ <comment><AUTHOR> David here from Mimix. Today, we're releasing Nebula, an open source scaffold we use to build Electron applications for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Nebula includes a local web server, WebSocket server, WebSocket client management, Chromium browser, pre-built routing, commanding, and components (AngularJS), JSON navigation & config, Bootstrap UI, and support for custom colors and fonts. You'll also find stems for Google authentication and protected routes, JSON data from local files and Firebase, and a page and blog-style CMS. There are no dependencies or separate installation steps for any platform.

Most importantly, all these pieces are themselves modular and open source. You can swap out React for AngularJS and use everything else as-is. Or keep our front end and use a different back-end server. Changes to the HTML/JS components don't require a build step and can be tested in your regular browser.

We put this together because we couldn't find a working, well-documented way to get all the components together inside a single installable that worked everywhere. The solutions we found were all partial and we spent considerable time getting these parts together and explaining them. We hope Nebula makes it easier for you!

Source: [0] [https://github.com/themimixcompany/nebula](https://github.com/themimixcompany/nebula)

Installers: [1] [https://github.com/themimixcompany/nebula/releases](https://github.com/themimixcompany/nebula/releases)

Nebula App Documentation: [2] [https://mimix.io/nebula- tech/](https://mimix.io/nebula-tech/)

Builder Documentation: [3] [https://github.com/themimixcompany/nebula/blob/master/README...](https://github.com/themimixcompany/nebula/blob/master/README.md)

Nebula Concepts: [4] [https://mimix.io/nebula/](https://mimix.io/nebula/)

<comment><USER2> Interesting stuff. Congrats on the release. I'm a bit stuck post install as I'm not finding the Hello World but only seeing the local World. It appears that (@WALT Walt Disney) sets the atom in the local world (AFAIK) but (@WALT) doesn't return `Walt Disney` when it's submitted to the Local Mimix. Is that the flow? Set and then Get? mxCommunicator comes back false when I look in the devtools. Is there a first time / tire kicker guide or short example video? Any pointers would be appreciated.

<comment><USER3> I also just came across it and had the same issue. I haven't decided to whether to get invested in it enough yet to submit a github issue.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for looking and trying it. When the Hybrid Database that stores MSL ships, we will include the source for it, as well. The next release will let you play with real MSL running against a local Hybrid Database.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Helium leak from MRI disabled all Apple devices in the facility - <AUTHOR> https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/9mk2o7/mri_disabled_every_ios_device_in_facility/ <comment><USER2> How does one of the most inert gasses in the universe 'interact with microcontrollers' ? The only reason it can kill humans is because it displaces a critical gas (oxygen) if breathed in massive quantities. Is it displacing some other gas that is required for these microcontrollers to work? (seems highly unlikely)

<comment><USER3> TL;DR Possible fault in an onboard MEMS oscillator from helium exposure.

[https://file.scirp.org/pdf/JST_2013122009560886.pdf](https://file.scirp.org/pdf/JST_2013122009560886.pdf)

> Exposure of absolute pressure sensors, resonant microtube density, binary > concentration sensors and chip-scale vacuum packaged pirani gauges to room > temperature helium resulted in a gradual drift in sensor output. No effect > was found for differential pressure sensors and pirani gauges vacuum > packaged with ceramic or metal packages. The observed results apply to other > vacuum packaged MEMS devices such as gyroscopes, voltage controlled > oscillators, infrared and Coriolis mass flow sensors. Potential causes for > this loss of hermeticity are discussed as well as application limitations > for MEMS sensors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love how sure everyone was that it's EMI.

Now I'm thinking of some crazy scenario where someone saves the day by putting an iPhone in a helium balloon to reversibly disable it.

</comment><comment><USER5> One of the comments is this:

"Try one of two things:

1) Hold power and home button for 10 seconds and see if the device reboots.

2) Degauss the device then try step 1.

Source: Had an arc welder in proximity lock my 4s up once."

</comment><comment><USER6> Looks like the salient comment:

Helium affecting Apple device's MEMS clock source and IP67 not helium-proof

[https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/9mk2o7/mri_disabl...](https://old.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/9mk2o7/mri_disabled_every_ios_device_in_facility/e7g5rcw/)</comment>


Show HN: Prod – Blocks addictive websites until you've finished your to-do list - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/prod-%E2%80%94-the-thoughtful-to/cpelgckpifnonijeenjbaglajimalpcl <comment><USER2> Very nice extension. I think one of the best things that's happened to me productivity-wise is switching from an employer who was very loose/lenient about personal use with company computers to one who is very strict about it (we work with much more sensitive data). Knowing I can't just jump over to HN whenever I want makes it a lot easier to focus. I also like the clear segmentation between my digital work environment and my personal one.

<comment><USER3> I agree on the segmentation. I actually have no work-related reason to keep everything separate, but purposely do so for the distraction-related reasons you mentioned. I do this by keeping each type of work and personal project in its own Chrome user profile. This creates a silo'ed workspace for me to keep things only related to that project, but still have a personal profile to keep all my interesting bookmarks that I like to waste my time on.

<comment><USER4> I went a bit further a created separate macos users for work and personal stuff. It helped with distractions but I did encountered a minor inconvenience when wanted to sync vscode / shell configurations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This wouldn't work for me - my to-do list only grows bigger, not smaller :-)

Anyway, I've had a lot of success with Cold Turkey for blocking distracting websites and applications. I even bought a license for the extra features since it is so good. So yeah, I recommend it. Not affiliated.

<comment><USER6> What do you do when you're building?

<comment><USER7> SSH into a remote server and read HN using w3m.

Gotta go, compiler throwing errors...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> First of all, this looks like a great project...

...but the problem I've always had with these types of systems is that there's always that one item on your to-do list which ends up more complicated than you expected: So at the end of the day you're stuck with either (1) redefining the scope of that one to-do list item so that you can enjoy your evening and browse the web or (2) sticking with the original scope of your todo item and then you don't get to enjoy your websites/evening, even if you've worked hard otherwise.

In this way, what was supposed to be a cut-and-dry, objective productivity metric unavoidably devolves into a subjective decision.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking it out. I think that's a real problem with all to-do lists. I often have to break down my to-dos into smaller chunks just so I can have the satisfaction of checking them off. I used to write "write to-do list" on my to-do list.

<comment><USER9> Perhaps it would be worth adding a To Don't list? I mean, it's not the To Do List that makes or breaks us, but doing things we shouldn't be doing (that pours sand in the gas tank of productivity).

That said, and perhaps this is outside your scope, what kills me is social media. I know #duh :) let me finish :) For example, I'll be stuck on something semi-pressing so I'll post it on SM. That leads to checking back for answers. Or having something to share to SM and not wanting to forget about it later so it becomes a now thing.

<comment><AUTHOR> To some extent that's what this does, it has a to-don't list of sorts; the list of sites you'd like to block. I'd suggest just deleting all social media accounts, you won't miss them. Email is still king.

<comment><USER9> Yes. But __maybe__ if the To Don't stared you down as well that would be helpful. Maybe even keep score somehow? Evidently, afaik, a score is a good nudge when it comes to influencing human decision making / behavior.

Ultimately, these things fail us (or us them?). I'm what-if'ing a couple of tweaks that might help just a little bit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is not production perfect yet, but it integrates with Github, DuoLingo, and several education sites to offer similar help to develop better habits. Target market is children, but we added a github option to measure progress as an alternative to the learning sites.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/studycity/jhehahil...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/studycity/jhehahilkccjclfadmmplhpdnjjdgdlo)

</comment><comment><USER11> My main problem with the web usage is not blocking unwanted websites but rather understanding which when and how I should or shouldn't block them.

For example, On one hand, I can't block Wikipedia Stack Overflow or GitHub because I need them for work. On the other, I find myself hours later browsing the source of a project unrelated to the task at hand.

By far, the only way I found to work is to introduce a delay between the need for information and the actual retrieval.

Like you write down queries to the Google and then do something else. In ten minutes time, you do exactly what you wrote in your log file. If you want to search for something else, you introduce it into the journal again, and in ten minutes repeat it. So goes the cycle.

But then, because you have this lag you can't do research faster because your every step is now bound by drag and red tape that you introduced yourself.

TBH, this is a book material here, because working with internet but not abusing the information hoarding instincts is a methodology question.

Not a technical one.

</comment><comment><USER12> My go to is meditation. Everytime I find my mind wandering I take a break for 3 minutes and concentrate on my breathing. I find it brings my brain back to focus on the present.

<comment><USER13> Sounds... exhausting :(

What happens when you're mind wanders while you meditate?

<comment><USER14> the whole point of meditation is focus your mind..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Cool! I made one awhile back called Todobook, it replaces the FB Newsfeed (and various other sites' feeds/lists, like HN) with a todo app that unlocks the feed when you finish your task(s) (either all or one, via config). Fun project :)

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/todobook/ihbejplhk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/todobook/ihbejplhkeifejcpijadinaicidddbde)

</comment><comment><USER16> It looks great and I think there are a lot of potentials. But you need to create a to-do list which could be finished in the right amount of time. But in the beginning, it's difficult to know how long you need for which task. Is it possible to unlock the websites after x finished to-do's? Maybe unlock it for 30 minutes?

We build our own productivity Tool Zenkit and that's why I need to discover tools in a different way.

</comment><comment><USER17> Personally self control and discipline is the only way to avoid productivity nightmares. Still I can see it as a productivity enhancer for many usecases.

<comment><USER18> Discipline is a habit that can be built in part by cutting out the habit of the distraction. No matter how unconsciously one may type in facebook.com, etc., it's an immediate cut to the loop.

<comment><USER19> I think discipline is more about being completely honest with yourself than habit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Thanks for your work. I have been wanting a tool like this. It really appreciate the design; both in terms of functionality and aesthetics.

</comment><comment><USER10> One way to use this plugin would be to break tasks down into manageable pieces. It is usually easier to motivate yourself to knock out a 15 min task than to do a 4 hour task.

</comment><comment><USER21> Is it open source? If not, any chance of a ff extension?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, it's not open source. Once I've nailed the Chrome version, I'll release one for Firefox. Stay tuned.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The idea is good but I still think you could just schedule use of various websites like any other meeting.

</comment><comment><USER23> Does it work for https? I've found blocking on the router level often fails and the hosts file is more reliable. Especially because of browser hopping, firefox for security, chrome for google services, opera for specific sites, iexplore when things are too broken a by ublock origin and no script or older camera firmware.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello, do you mean will it block websites using https?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> ...and hands all your browsing over to someone from the internet.

<comment><USER25> Have you validated that this is true? I just pulled the extension to look at the source (it's not minified). It does have google analytics on it, but that is noted by the author in the extension.

All of the blocking logic is done client side, with a single web request that I could find (not posting any data).

<comment><USER24> What I mean is that you run code on your machine from a guy you know nothing about. It has full control and you have no idea what it does.

The average user does not know how to study the code before installing it.

Heck, _I_ don't know it. How do you do it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Is this open source?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm afraid not. I plan to monetize it, but not in an annoying way.</comment></comment>


Publishers blocking IPs for alleged sci-hub use - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/HPS_Vanessa/status/1149648473819500544 <comment><USER2> Mirrors:

[https://archive.is/20190712170650/https://twitter.com/HPS_Va...](https://archive.is/20190712170650/https://twitter.com/HPS_Vanessa/status/1149648473819500544)

[https://web.archive.org/web/20190712170652/https:/twitter.co...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190712170652/https:/twitter.com/HPS_Vanessa/status/1149648473819500544)

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't think this is about using Sci-Hub. It looks like the journal is trying to prevent mass-exfiltration of its articles to Sci-Hub.

Why would they do that based on IP-addresses and not based on accounts? Maybe they're actually combining those. So when an account used the same IP-Address like a "ripper" account, it will get associated with it. And the blocking message shows the old address. This can easily happen at a university where a lot of accounts access the journal through the same IP-Address.

Well... Sci-Hub doesn't have these blocks. So just use that service if you want to get work done.

Also, WHOIS says the IP-Address 220.127.116.11 is used by British Telecom: AS2856 BT Public Internet

<comment><USER4> Aren't most accounts site licenses? I assume it's like a raspberry pi running on a university library network somewhere

<comment><USER3> You mean you don't have to login to use the journal? That authentication is done by IP-Address? Possible, I don't know how they implement access-controls.

Sounds like a fun way to piss of universities who pay for access: Block their gateway!

<comment><USER5> > You mean you don't have to login to use the journal? That authentication is > done by IP-Address?

Depends on the journal/resource. Many resources purchased by universities are authenticated by IP. It's less friction for students when trying to access something, and provides psuedo-anonymity.

There is some push to move to something like OpenAthens for all authentication/authorization, but universities do not want to lose the privacy aspect for their students.

<comment><USER6> > _There is some push to move to something like OpenAthens for all > authentication /authorization_

Or shibboleth - we treat shib as a gateway to our auth service at this here journal publishing salt mine.

Seems to work well enough - at least, the roof doesn't fall in on us when an IDP entity (federation of universities, et al) goes offline denying their collective users access.

A "have you switched it off and on again" message to the federations IT bods usually works.

<comment><USER7> Ugh Shibboleth, the greatest SSO system if anyone, including the original developer who wrote it, could figure out how to configure it properly.

I've always wondered how it ended up catching on in seemingly exclusively academia.

<comment><USER8> > including the original developer who wrote it, could figure out how to > configure it properly

Oh, Scott knows how to configure it, the problem is he's the only one. I'm a developer at the university works/created it at, and anything that needs to use shibb goes through him. Fortunately, he manages all the configuration (I'm assuming because no one else here knows how), requesting shibb for a new site or whatever is dreaded. It's almost a rite of passage for devs to get a scathing email back from him (almost always in less that 5 minutes) because your request wasn't filled out correctly, the worst part is he will only tell you what you screwed up and not give much help (or any) as to how fix it, and then indirectly (or I've heard directly too) to not waste his time.

As a user, shibb isn't really that bad. As a developer, I hate it so much. Scott, from what I can tell, is a strictly Java developer. So that means we're stuck with Apache and a shitload of XML, there exists a module on GitHub to integrate shibb with Nginx which I think literally every dev here I've talked to would love to be using rather than Apache, but that's probably not going to happen here unfortunately. And Apache with all the XML crap wouldn't be all that terrible if the documentation wasn't extremely vague or just plain missing.

I wanted to get some extra information about the user on signin that, according to the docs, would be available but wasn't clear enough that I felt I could just go in to even our staging servers and monkey around with. So, I figured I throw together some docker containers tinker with before I did it on anything real. It took me an entire week, to get a working shibb setup in docker since the docs literally only got me as far as getting things installed before they stopped being helpful. But, I'm now the only one in my department (at least) that knows how to get shibb up from scratch -- but I wouldn't trust it outside development.

Apologies for the rant, but shibb is probably my least favorite thing I have to deal with here -- when you hear the guy that made it works here, you'd at least think we'd get some good/helpful information about it from the source, but he seems quite happy being the only one that knows anything about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I hope scihub engages in a full-scale campaign for university professors setting their computers as scihub proxies. Only a professor in each major university would suffice to block all universities from the extortionist journals! That would certainly be a boost to scihub!

<comment><USER10> Scihub is probably just buying hacked edu proxy/vpn creds for 1-2 dollars each. There are widespread phishing campaigns targeting .edu mails, and lots of sites selling the credentials.

<comment><USER11> That would be extremely counterintuitive given how pristine Scihub's image is among academia. It is much more likely people are "donating" access from within university networks.

<comment><USER12> When every talk, study, etc. discussing it (e.g. [https://greenelab.github.io/scihub- manuscript/](https://greenelab.github.io/scihub-manuscript/)) includes a statement like "Users of Sci-Hub do so at their own risk. This study is not an endorsement of using Sci-Hub.", I don't think it can be called pristine.

And from articles like [https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/09/18/guest- post-th...](https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2018/09/18/guest-post-think- sci-hub-is-just-downloading-pdfs-think-again/) there seems to be some connection between Sci-Hub and the cyber underworld, although perhaps it's just the cyber thieves sending Sci-Hub papers and Sci-Hub isn't an active participant.

<comment><USER11> > "Users of Sci-Hub do so at their own risk. This study is not an endorsement > of using Sci-Hub.", I don't think it can be called pristine.

People being forced to cover their asses due to a broken copyright system does absolutely nothing to tarnish Sci-Hub's image.

> articles like [...]

Well, you'll have to excuse me if I don't take the allegations of a publishing industry mouthpiece like SSP seriously.

<comment><USER10> >Well, you'll have to excuse me if I don't take the allegations of a publishing industry mouthpiece like SSP seriously.

Just read some ezproxy mailing list posts then, there's a plenty of edu sysadmins who have discussed this and don't work for the publishing industry.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Honest question: I want to download all papers I am an author of (I have joint copyright, and limited redistribution rights for all of these), but I don't have logins for the publisher sites for all of them, and finding the long tail of papers in my backups is a PITA.

I haven't used scihub, but it sounds like the best tool for this purpose. Any hints on how to proceed? Has someone written a script to do this or something?

<comment><USER14> [http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/](http://gen.lib.rus.ec/scimag/) I would use this

<comment><USER15> Ah genesis lib. My saviour :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Archive.org: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190712120132/https://twitter.c...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190712120132/https://twitter.com/HPS_Vanessa/status/1149648473819500544)

</comment><comment><USER17> Still wondering why SciHub is not yet on IPFS or dat://.

</comment><comment><USER4> Surprised it took so long</comment>


Merkel urges Germans to put aside fear of big data - <AUTHOR> http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002211364

<comment><USER2> the title is slightly incorrect as Merkel, as usual, does not address "Germans" but "business leaders" on a conference for business leaders.

It seems for Germans, there a bit of a divide there as the government appear to cater a lot more for the industry than for the people.</comment>


Pump-Powered Antennas Could Replace Metal with Fountains of Saltwater - <AUTHOR> http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-11/seawater-antennas-could-replace-metal-communications-arrays-streams-saltwater <comment><USER2> Story (from a different source) submitted some days ago, with comments:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1872559></comment>


Biologist proposes to his girlfriend Using DNA fragments - <AUTHOR> http://io9.com/5970795/biologist-proposes-to-his-girlfriend-using-dna-fragments

<comment><USER2> Really creative! Big props, super geeky but guaranteed to be a winner.

Money quote: "...giving his girlfriend a big surprise when she imaged his electrophoresis gel."</comment>