Unfortunate Python - <AUTHOR> http://excess.org/article/2011/12/unfortunate-python/

<comment><USER3> I agree with the portions of this dealing in obsolete libraries (e.g. asyncore, SimpleHTTPServer, array).

I also agree that __del__ and copy expose pain points and should be treated carefully.

isinstance() is often a code smell for sure, but I don't think it's potentially harmful in the same way as using os.system/os.popen; sometimes, INSIDE your own code, you want to fail early with a more informative message if a class does not explicitly contract to provide a certain set of interface behaviors. (I don't necessarily want to find out that a large/complex behavior is wrong only after it has occurred).

(I don't find it particularly nice to start writing tons of IWhatever objects and such to get behaviors already provided by built-in language constructs.)

"if __name__ == '__main__':" is ugly buts its purpose is not to be pretty, it is to make your module more fool-proof and explicit about what should happen in a script run vs an import. I don't see a good general substitute. If you are sure that only you or someone sensible will be importing/running your module, then I can agree with the advice just to keep those two kinds of scripts separate.

And I agree that any Python code compiling giant strings is in serious need of fixing (including that nasty bit in namedtuple as well as Simoniato's otherwise very nice non-stdlib code for signature-preserving decorators - there's really no other way I know of yet for doing that without ugly hacks)

<comment><USER4> The isinstance() criticism is in principle outdated after PEP 3119 [1] but in practice it is indeed mis(/over)-used more often than not.

Compiling strings is usually a code smell but at least in the case of namedtuple I'm pretty sure it is justified for at least one reason: performance. It's certainly possible to be implemented in more idiomatic python but the result would probably be less efficient compared to, say, dicts or regular objects.

[1] <http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-3119/#abcs-vs-duck-typing>

<comment><USER5> I am with you, it seems like a knee jerk reaction to call all exec or eval code bad. Complexity has been pushed into a library, and the amount of clarity that namedtuple adds is more than it has "hurt" by its use of exec.

<comment><USER3> Yes; to clarify, I believe that if it is necessary to compile big old strings to get a certain sort of behavior, then that might be a point at which Python should be improved to allow similar code to be constructed dynamically (and more safely).

And if it is necessary for performance reasons, Python should probably be able to do a similar thing efficiently without compiling big old blobs of text.

It is true, of course, that this can be hidden as an implementation detail with relatively little impact to end users... but the mere possibility of relatively clean and judicious uses do not change the fact that as a pattern, it is tricky and hard to read and easy to mess up in horrible ways. It is not that it is fundamentally unworkable. But if it is the only/best way, then that probably indicates a place where Python could be incrementally improved...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Most of this I agree with, with a few comments/caveats:

> Easy Stuff First

The unfortunate part about this particular example is that subprocess's interface isn't really that well-designed, and so people resort to os.system simply because it is less complicated than subprocess.

> Ducks In A Row

I don't think isinstance is really that bad, but checking based on something's exact type is definitely wrong.

> Toys are for Children

One of the problems of a batteries-included stdlib is that you have to support it just about forever. Though I would like to note that for basic async programming Tornado is surprisingly good, and less complex than Twisted.

> Foreign Concepts

Apparently this is especially useful for scientific and mathematical computing. I can't see how it's especially dangerous since just about everyone will use list instead.

<comment><USER7> I disagree that subprocess is complicated. Replacing the os.system() is really simple: [http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#replacing- os-...](http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#replacing-os-system)

I think people are just used to system(), particularly if they come from C.

<comment><USER8> I think people might be complaining about how hard it is to do the equivalent of procs = `ps -ef` in ruby, not to mention crazy ways you can combine it with string interpolation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Okay, here's one no one has disagreed with yet: copy.

If I write a Python class that is going to be used with someone else's code, then it is up to me to make sure that my class behaves reasonably -- in the context of Python's normal behavior. For example, if I define a bracket operator, then Python will make me an iterator; I need to be sure that iterator behaves well.

And similarly with "copy". Someone might want to write a generator that spits out instances of my class. If we apply list() to the output of that generator, then the result will not be correct unless the generated objects are actual separate objects. copy.copy is a good way to make things actually distinct, that might otherwise not be.

That means that instances of my class need to behave well if someone calls copy.copy on one of them.

I don't see that the issues here are much different from those involving regular old methods in a class. If I'm putting together a class, and I write a method that does something nasty, then code that uses that class and calls the method, will have bad results. Similarly copy.copy needs to avoid doing nasty things, too.

SO, I don't have a problem with expecting copy.copy to produce reasonable behavior, when I use it with a class written by someone else.

In any case, this is a nice article. Thanks for posting.

<comment><USER10> I was surprised to see "copy" there. I'd agree that deepcopy (and its friends like pickle) could be tagged with a big "use with care" sign, but especially when one can implement __copy__ to control exactly how shallow copies are made, I don't think it's a problem at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I found myself nodding along with this until the bit about the array module. The array module is very well suited to doing real work. Maybe it seems arcane if you're coming from a web dev background, but given the space inefficiency of Python's lists, the array module is awfully useful in a lot of situations.

<comment><USER12> Not just space, but speed as well. I've often noted _significant_ speedups in many operations by switching to array.array. In some cases, the speedups are comparable to or even slightly better than using numpy (which is much more heavy-weight).

<comment><USER13> Out of curiosity, what are you doing for which arrays are more suited than NumPy?

I've been using NumPy for a while now, and I've literally never had a reason to use array.array where NumPy arrays have worked.

<comment><USER12> I find numpy too heavy weight for a lot of stuff and also not very good for communication/interchange with other programs. For a lot of my work, I often need to write data files to disk (for C programs to use) or mmap'ed files for concurrent access. In these situations, the fact that array.array offers precise data alignment rules and toString() and toFile() methods that are actually sane, I end up using it instead of numpy.

Of course, if I do significant computations in my python program itself, I just use numpy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > If you're debugging at the interactive prompt consider debugging with a > small script instead.

I don't understand this suggestion. The ability to interact with my code via the REPL is a very important python feature for me, is the author suggesting I abandon that?

<comment><USER15> I think the author is just saying if you're debugging something in a REPL _and you're finding you need to reload() frequently_ , then you might want to consider switching to debugging with a small script instead (and of course there's no reason the script couldn't just import the things you're debugging, and then dump you into a REPL).

<comment><USER5> You mean like when I debug a script as

        ipython>import foo as t
        ipython>t.test(10,20)
        ipython>reload t

Roughly 2/3rds of this guy's rant is off base. Maybe if he had flushed out his arguments with citations, but seriously. It is all opinion.

Reasoning with opinion is dumb.

<comment><USER16> You did the same thing. What's so bad about reasoning with opinion?

<comment><USER5> You just got stabbed by an ironicaltite

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This article / talk is a collection of relatively random python things of which only a few are unarguably good advice such as not using deprecated terms or checking for exact types. The rest is not a good basis for pythonic best practice that I would recommend.

</comment><comment><USER18> This is just a lot of nitpicking, parroting of common wisdom, plus uninformed opinions and misapplication of use cases.

To complain about SimpleHTTPServer is not for use as production public web server is ridiculous. That was never its intended used and most people understand this. Not every HTTP server is a public web server however. It is very convenient to fire up one as a test server and to get around some of the browser security constraint on the file:// scheme. It is also useful for a lot of light weight internal integration and configuration UI. To deploy SimpleHTTPServer for production web server is not a correct use. But neither is deploying a heavy weight HTTP server like Apache for testing or light weight integration appropriate.

I agree JSON is preferable to pickle in most situations. But you have to understand the history context. Pickle was the standard way to serialize object well before JSON is popularized. Serialization is an important topic in general and you will find many other computer language provides similar facility. Also JSON only address a subset of the serialization problem.

The array module is used not only for performance. It also support tight packing of data. If you have a million integer, array pack them tight as 1 million x 4 bytes. To store them into a list will have a much larger memory footprint because the are stored as 1 million individual objects plus the data structure of the list. I happen to have written a proprietary database engine in Python where memory, disk and I/O footprint matter hugely. Go easy on berating it because there are use cases you are not aware of.

It is sad that the author do not understand namedtuple but choose to mock it. I studied the code extensively and emulated it in a my application. To appreciate namedtuple, think about what is the alternative to this implementation? Try to write your own that serve the same function. Yes you can more easily and the code more readable by doing it with __setattr__ and __getattr__. The only problem every time you access an attribute you get hit with a big overhead. The use of exec is not a hack but a deliberated decision to provide attribute access at a speed comparable to standard attribute access. I agree with the author, "do not do this at home". Leave the heavy lifting to the experts unless you really known Python inside out like namedtuple's author Raymond Hettinger.

</comment><comment><USER19> With regards to "Ducks in a row", I don't think the answer is try..except. You either have a code smell, or you should use type-dispatch multimethods. (I think Guido's "Five-minute Multimethods in Python" was recently submitted here, but anyway: <http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=101605> )

</comment><comment><USER20> Who really uses SimpleHTTPServer in production or for serious work?

<comment><USER21>
      python3 -m http.server 8080

is a useful one-liner to serve a directory over http. There's no good reason to have it in the standard library — mapping directories to html listings and http paths to filesystem paths is a bit idiosyncratic — but now that it's there I'm happy to use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> > This leaves only one place where pickle makes sense — short lived data being > passed between processes, just like what the multiprocessing module does.

ZODB disagrees.

</comment><comment><USER23> _try treating the object as the first data type you expect, and catching the failure if that type wasn't that type, and then try the second. This allows users to create objects that are close enough to the types you expect and still use your code._

Is chaining try-catches as a trial-and-error way to figure out a type really the Right Way to do things these days?

</comment><comment><USER24> I agree with most of these, but a couple seem pretty specific to the use of Python as a language for serious, complex, fully packaged applications. Sorry, but Python has another use as well - to create quick utility scripts in a better language than bash or perl. For example...

* When discussing "__name__ == '__main__' he complains about 13 non-alphanumeric characters, and then proposes a setuptools-based alternative that's 12 extra _lines_.

* He disses asyncore/asynchat, and then proposes the much more complex Twisted instead.

If your project is already big enough to have multiple files, already complex enough to require Twisted-level functionality (though even then Twisted sucks compared to Tornado or just about anything else), if it's already being packaged for general use via setuptools, then following these suggestions is almost free. OTOH, they're way overkill for other situations. About three years ago some colleagues and I wrote an asynchat-based server to coordinate certain administrative actions on a 1000-node system. It was stable, it performed as well as it needed to, and - even after working around some "infelicities" in asynchat - it was still only half as much code as would have been necessary in Perverted.

I don't think I'll be signing up for any idioms or coding standards that are based on an assumption of using Python as a direct replacement for Java. Neither should anyone else.

<comment><USER25> _I don't think I'll be signing up for any idioms or coding standards that are based on an assumption of using Python as a direct replacement for Java. Neither should anyone else._

I am not sure, But if I'm using Java or C++ or another equivalent say even Clojure. Then the glue language for the rest is going to be Perl/Bash not Python. The reason is Perl does the scripting far too well than Python.

Python is more fashionable today courtesy Django, Twisted and other frameworks.

And I think that's the problem here. Python is trying to be half serious in both the Java and Perl worlds. Java and Perl have nearly orthogonal goals. If you try to do half work in both the worlds. You end up pleasing neither. Try to be either in this camp or the other.

<comment><USER3> Python certainly imposes greater overhead if all you are doing is writing a short shell script of a few lines in a few minutes. I feel that Perl is closer to bash than Python is (whether that's good or bad just depends).

But if you want to be able to go back to that code later, or reuse it in a bigger system, or have things like robust error handling and testing, you are out of the domain of short shell scripts anyway. Now you have a choice of whether to write nice Perl code, which takes a little overhead and effort and thought more than just using Perl, and writing nice Python, which is pretty directly what Python's language design is about. I figure it's a matter of what you know best and what you like and what libraries you need.

I reckon the reason you won't use Python is that you are relatively uncomfortable with Python for whatever reason. That's legitimate, but it doesn't mean that Python won't be a great solution for someone else doing the same task.

As a 20-year old language from the Unix/C world with mostly boring Algol- family syntax, I don't find Python very fashionable at all, and I think it is just weird to accuse Python of "trying to be half serious" in anything except being Python. If people prefer to write big apps in Python or Rakudo Perl, and those languages facilitate writing big apps, it doesn't really have anything directly to do with Java (except that all the involved languages have some shared heritage, concepts of objects, etc.) The same is not true of C# or Scala, which have really deep and undeniable debts to Java, nothing like the very general family similarity you see between Java and 90s interpreted languages like Perl and Python.

The problem with treating Python as Java is that Python is NOT Java (and has never attempted to be Java) - so the results of treating it like Java are often not as a Java programmer expects, giving the impression that Python is a bad Java. But it isn't supposed to be a Java at all; this is just Doing It Wrong. The same is undoubtedly true with other language combinations - <USER2> isn't fair to judge Ruby harshly for responding poorly to C idioms, for example, because it just ain't C.</comment></comment></comment>


List of freely available physics books - <AUTHOR> http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/6157/list-of-freely-available-physics-books

<comment><USER2> Thank you so much for sharing this :)

So much to learn so less time ..

</comment><comment><USER3> thank you.

</comment><comment><USER4> The following is a list of physics books I have the time to read.

<comment><USER5> are you busy trying to learn the newest web application development framework?

<comment><USER4> I am trying to implement an FDTD for Schroedinger's equation with the aim of providing a theoretical backing for a certain kind of nanopore (like) sensor.</comment></comment></comment>


Can Google Get Its Mojo Back? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/08/google-mojo/

<comment><USER2> Wow, what a one sided piece. the flops from google: "Buzz, Wave, Google TV, and the Nexus One". As Paul Buchheit points out,

"They take big risks. People often point to projects such as Wave as evidence that Google has "lost its magic" or something. To me, it's evidence that they are still willing to take risks on new ideas and new ways of doing things (Wave was run as a completely autonomous project in Australia). If everything you do works, then you're not taking many risks and probably aren't innovating either. Obviously, if everything you do fails, that's not good either, but there's a sweet-spot somewhere in the middle. Google has enough big successes, such as Chrome and Android, to show that they are somewhere near that sweet- spot"

It's not that google doesn't have problems, but with every possible negative issue piled on in such a one sided manner, it seems more FUD than any sort of earnest critique.

<comment><USER3> I agree with you, some of those projects are way to new to be considered failures (Buzz, Google TV). They might be but I find it premature to call them that. As for the Nexus One, it wasn't selling like the iPhone but I know of a few who did get one, but in the end how many iPhones were purchased online? The best part is that other Android phones tried to match it's spec once it came out, no need to call that a failure.

The only argument I can agree with in the post was about the relation Google has with devs and users. Sometimes they do release stuff and then it seems they forget about them. But I think most of the time that's just lack of time by the people working on those projects, they try to add features and move forward and that's always a tradeoff with maintaining whats there and developing relations with devs/users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _Google is in serious decline._

I didn't bother reading past that. Just scanned down a bit. Total, utter dreck. Does anyone here take these fluff pieces by TechCrunch seriously?

A more appropriate question on HN would be, "Can TechCrunch Get Its Mojo Back?" The quality of stories has decreased dramatically, and I've dropped them from my RSS feed. I don't think this has much to do with AOL-- the rot had already set in well before that-- but I don't think it will help the quality come back.

<comment><USER5> > Does anyone here take these fluff pieces by TechCrunch seriously?

Does anyone here take any pieces by TechCrunch seriously? I'd really appreciate it if someone made a userscript to hide submissions from domains of my choosing.

Edit: <http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/27105>

Supports Reddit as well.

<comment><USER4> I doubt TechCrunch really cares that these stories are worthless, after all this is just linkbait deployed to increase their weekend ad impressions.

<comment><USER5> Which is why we should _stop clicking on & upvoting them_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> How quickly the media turns.

Looking at how much effort Google is putting in mobile, and how much success they're having, I'm not sure their mojo has gone anywhere. [1][2] It's easy to concentrate on the failures, and overlook the successes.

Sure, they've had a few flops lately, but that's an inevitable result of a company that is trying hard to innovate.

[1] [http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/13/google-mobile-searches- grew...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/13/google-mobile-searches- grew-130-percent-in-q3/)

[2] <http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375411,00.asp>

</comment><comment><USER7> from the article...

       the data is compelling

...

       Even their money fount, AdWords, is problematic. An
       illustrative anecdote: I ...did this and that...

...

       While I can't quantify this, I'm confident that most engineers will agree:

the article claims to argue from data, but presents no actual data: simply anecdotes. c.f., [http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2011...](http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2011/01/for_those_of_yo.html)

</comment><comment><USER8> I honestly would like to understand what possible motive(s) the "media" could have to write this kind of one sided, nearly 100% wrong, senseless article that claims something really big.

You've got to wonder - is it paid for by a rival? Is it that in the world of anyone-can-write-for-a-blog, we are seeing utterly stupid people getting chance to write anything they can dream? Is it just an opinion vs. fact? Is the writer pissed off by the corporation he/she is writing off in some way?

<comment><USER9> Sometimes with FUD articles like this when you check the background of the author they're either working for, or closely allied with, a rival company (like Microsoft), but as far as I can tell this is merely a case of cluelessness rather than partisanship.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I find it quite amusing that they chose Microsoft as a company who has its mojo back, despite the total failure of the Kin and low sales of Windows Phone 7. I don't see how Bing, a search service with low market share that is losing money is a success and google, a search service with high market share that is making money hand over fist, is a failure.

</comment><comment><USER11> We must thank Google for its contribution and effort to fight off computing monopolies. Enterprise with Google Apps vs Microsoft, Android vs Apple, coming soon xxxMe vs FaceBook, AppEngine/Boutique vs Amazon. But this is kind of spreading too thin and fighting the whole world alone. Looks like its their destiny rather than their vision.

ps. Arrington should put forward the question to the CEO and post the video, like he did to others.

ps. Its too early to write off Google TV. Chrome browser and Android are great success.

</comment><comment><USER12> This article handily leaves out that the products most crucial to Google's core business - selling ads against search - are on an absolute tear:

\- YouTube is now the world's second biggest search engine.

\- AdMob grew by 4x in the last year and is growing FASTEST in China which is hugely important.

\- Android is well on its way to becoming the ubiqutious consumer phone platform.

\- Gmail is growing like a weed and rolling out really useful and innovative features reguarly.

I agree that Google has lost some of the spit shine and I would never want to work there, but I don't think he's properly framed the "failures".

<comment><USER13> but the fear is gone. Remember back in the day when everyone feared going into a market that Microsoft might get into? There was a similar fear with Google, but it's not there anymore. That's a problem for Google.

<comment><USER10> Microsoft still tried to compete in search, Apple are competing despite Google's smartphone entry, there are other mobile advertising networks being founded and people are still attempting to found alternative video networks. Did the fear actually stop competitors? I think not.

<comment><USER13> the fact that some competitors exist does not mean that others were not scared away. Hell, most could have been scared away.

Your argument is a non sequitur.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I consider "Google in Decline" articles to just be linkbait.

</comment><comment><USER15> It seems to me that the industry is ripe for disruption right now, with the massive focus on mobile everything, major companies have forgotten about 'normal' users on a desktop (or laptop) with a beefy Internet connection, huge processor and big monitor.

</comment><comment><USER16> Can Techcrunch only publish articles by Arrington and Wadhwa?

It sucks that I don't know whether to expect a hot story, an in-depth column, or some guy's delusional subjective opinion.

</comment><comment><USER17> The most surprising stat in the article is the claim that Google actually lost 1.2% of search share from Oct-Nov 2010. To who? Bing? Really?

The one thing Bing does have going for it is that its video search is significantly better than Google's. And that drives an important category [ahem] of web searches. I suppose Googlers could see whether that particular category was impacted, to the extent these numbers are real.

</comment><comment><USER18> I can't think of a big company more ambitious than Google or one that gets involved in such a variety of new projects. As a result they are bound to fail a lot but the money is still rolling from their main products, and young engineers are still attracted by that ambition. No mojo lost.

</comment><comment><USER19> Does anyone know what percentage of Google's products that originated from companies they purchased?

I know Wave and Android were purchases, but it is always good to keep in mind the difference between Google built products and Google purchased/hyped products.

<comment><USER8> Android was not in a shape where it could compete with the iPhone when Google bought them. They bought it sure - but they also made most of what makes it successful in today's market.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> A few anecdotes and blog posts by angry sites owners who don't get to appear on top of google results are no arguments. Google is doing more than fine.

</comment><comment><USER21> This article is so spot on.

If you discount its success on Android, Search, etc and high-performing stock, Google has pretty much been a failure.

</comment><comment><USER22> The amount of google bashing is ridiculous these days. When will Facebook reach that ugly part of the hype-cycle? 2 years maybe?

</comment><comment><USER23> I'll just leave it at that: [http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&...](http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1294526272009&chddm=614290.0000000001&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=INDEXDJX:.DJI&cmptdms=0&q=NASDAQ:GOOG&ntsp=0)

</comment><comment><USER24> I don't think Google is loosing mojo. But I do see one problem: Google revenue is all connected to search, and the next disruptive innovation seems to be in area of search (I personally, I'm not satisfied with quality of google search).

Or maybe ad $$ will move from search advertising to something similar to GroupOn.

</comment><comment><USER25> What kind of weak bullshit is that?!

Dismissing products that didn't have immediate traction as failures instead of recognising them as innovative attempts and experiments.

Characterising a few wildly over-echoed departures as brain-drain (too many outlets are trying to push that narrative) and ignoring the fact that they have their largest payroll yet, they bought like 30 startups last year I bet there is some talent there.

Also characterising chatter in code pages as a problem instead of community engagement. The App Engine team just released a major update merely a few weeks ago.

This distortion field these 'reporters' seem to encounter whenever they write about Google is astonishing, and I fear there are some alterior motives behind all this.

Edit: Also to contrast the nonsense (I am quite annoyed by it) with data:

 _Google Mobile Strategy Playing Out Almost Flawlessly: Ads Growing, Android Beating iPhone_ [http://searchengineland.com/google-mobile-strategy- playing-o...](http://searchengineland.com/google-mobile-strategy-playing-out- flawlessly-ads-growing-android-beats-iphone-60565)

</comment><comment><USER26> "Can Google Get It's Mojo Back?"

Loaded question, whether you answer yes or no, you admit that Google lost its Mojo. When did you stop beating your wife by the way?

</comment><comment><USER27> No. Companies don't get their mojo back.

 _Edit: with the exception of when certain original members of the company come back._

<comment><USER28> IBM got their mojo back several times, yet the founders are rotting in the ground and would probably cause a panic if they came back.

<comment><USER27> Could you explain just what IBM did that demonstrates a return? They're certainly still profitable, but people don't fear them as a competitor.

<comment><USER28> Do you fear Amazon?

<comment><USER27> I'd like to hear you examples and continue the conversation but I think email is more appropriate. jdennis at google's mail service

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Article is fud/shit.

Having said that, maybe I'm stupid - but I'd really like to see Google taking a bit of holistic approach to its management/product management.</comment>


Steve Blank Wants to Fix Startup Board Meetings with LeanLaunchLab.com - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2011/06/30/leanlaunchpa/

<comment><USER2> Any YC startups using this (and willing to talk about it)?

<comment><AUTHOR> We haven't launched yet so no startups are using it yet. If anyone is interested please ping me directly at email@example.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> While communication with my investors and advisors is really important, I really hope this (or a related) tool can help guide the customer development process. I would definitely pay for that (And signed up for the beta hoping that will be the case).

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi SoftwareMaven. The tool will _definitely_ help guide the customer development process. One of the core features is an interactive canvas diagram that allows you to enter your hypothesis and keep track of which ones are validated.

<comment><USER4> I'm imagining interactive versions of many of the diagrams / figures from Blank's book "4 Steps the Epiphany". Just being able to enter your own text into the various customer development diagrams is a nice and simple idea. Is that close to what you mean?

<comment><AUTHOR> The business model canvas diagram is the only diagram we're including for v1. You will be able to enter your own text in each box, and the system will save state so you can go back and forward in time to see how your business model has evolved.

<comment><USER5> Ash Maurya (author of Running Lean) is also working on something similar called Lean Canvas (<http://leancanvas.com/>)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'll definitely be using this to blog about my new social media content discovery site I've been hacking at called <http://upvot.es/>.</comment>


WeWork Plans to Shed One-Third of Technology Employees - <AUTHOR> https://www.theinformation.com/articles/wework-plans-to-shed-one-third-of-technology-employees <comment><USER2> "1,500 software engineers, product managers and data scientists" ?! What were they all doing?! WeWork is not a technology company - it doesn't have a software product or service, it has a website. This is madness.

<comment><USER3> The other thing this does is that it will force employees who have vested options (and not RSUs) to have to quickly make a decision on whether to exercise. Terrible timing since there's so much uncertainty around share price.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, that's going to depend on what strike price they got in at. But this is the whole reason startup options are a lottery ticket, not actual compensation. Sometimes you win, and most of the time you lose.</comment></comment></comment>


BBC launches iPlayer downloads on Android - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/iPlayer-Video-Downloads-for-Android

<comment><USER2> Just trying it now - brilliant - TV shows downloaded from BBC to my Nexus 10. Works great although download speeds are way slower than those to my Sky box (format differences I suppose)</comment>


Weekly Robotics #49 - <AUTHOR> https://weeklyrobotics.com/weekly-robotics-49 <comment><AUTHOR> I know this content doesn't get too much traction on HN but I wanted to highlight two pieces from today's issue:

Acutronic Robotics closing down [1] - I personally think that this is kind of a big deal for the ROS community. Acutronic Robotics was heavily involved in ROS2 development, micro-ROS project [2] and developed H-ROS [3].

BettleCam 10th Birthday Video [4] - this was the first time I learned about BettleCam - a robot for taking photographs of wildlife. I really enjoyed the video and the anecdotes about the robot meeting wild animals (often not surviving these).

[1] [https://acutronicrobotics.com/news/acutronic-robotics- closes...](https://acutronicrobotics.com/news/acutronic-robotics-closes-after- both-series-b-and-acquisition-plans-fall-through/)

[2] [https://micro-ros.github.io/](https://micro-ros.github.io/)

[3] [https://acutronicrobotics.com/technology/H-ROS/](https://acutronicrobotics.com/technology/H-ROS/)

[4] [https://youtu.be/EsEQVWyvI80](https://youtu.be/EsEQVWyvI80)</comment>


Russia Getting Rid of Capital Gains Tax  - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10349679.stm <comment><USER2> I want to repeat a point that I read in one of Jim Roger's books. He was in favor of repealing all capital gains taxes simply to allow individuals an option in the fight against inflation. The example is of a person who has enough cash for 100 cheeseburgers. They decide to put that money in something like gold. The government prints lots of money causing inflation and the nominal value of the gold is now much higher. If the investor sells the gold he still has enough money to buy 100 cheeseburgers. However the government will say that he has a net capital gain and must pay tax. Jim Roger's point was that without capital gains tax people could put their money into any form that they thought would preserve their wealth better than fiat currency. With capital gains we all become speculators trying to beat inflation and still realize a net profit after taxes.

<comment><USER3> I get the point, and agree with it somewhat. However, this truly seems like a perfect example of treating the symptom while ignoring the cause.

Since this is all theoretical, wouldn't it make more sense to just stop governments from stealing the wealth of the people through the hidden 'inflation tax?'

<comment><USER4> Vague complaints about "inflation tax" do not contribute anything constructive to monetary policy discussions. No one disputes that excessive inflation is a regressive and unsustainable tax. Currency collapse is almost always caused by, or at least mediated through, governments using inflation to pay debt (or, more accurately, to partially default on debt). Preventing this is the primary reason modern central banking exists. Even those opposed to this solution still support its goal; the "End the Fed" movement wants less inflation, not more.

Nobody--whether left, right, liberal, or fascist--thinks inflation is a good way to finance government. The only disputes are how to prevent it from doing so, as those in office have constant incentive to favor short-term stimulus over long-term stability, and how to balance such restraints against other goals like preventing deflationary shocks and making monetary inflation reflect growth in the real economy.

Suggesting we stop taxing with inflation instead of minimizing its drawbacks is no more helpful than saying, "We should start preventing murders instead of building prisons," or, "Let's reduce the violence in Afghanistan instead of endangering more of our soldiers."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you invest in a kleptocracy, capital gains tax is the least of your worries.

If you don't kowtow to the right people, murky authorities seize your business on trumped up tax charges, and anyone who fights dies mysteriously in jail.

[http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/hermitage- capit...](http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/hermitage-capital- lawyer-dies-in-russian-jail/?scp=1&sq=hermitage&st=cse)

<comment><USER6> No capital gain taxes is important for internal Russian businesses. It would boost Russian economy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not sure this is hacker news, but if it is, could we skip the blogspam and link straight to the article (<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10349679.stm>)? The blog post doesn't add any value.

<comment><USER8> It does embed that absolutely hilarious Cato Institute video.

<comment><USER9> Center for Freedom and Prosperity is not Cato; it is not a Cato Institute video.

<comment><USER8> The person speaking in the video identifies himself as an employee of the Cato Institute, it's not hard to imagine why I made the mistake. Not to mention the fact that half of the board of directors (and some of the listed experts) of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity work for or have worked for the Cato Institute.

In any case, you are correct, the video was created by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, and I apologize for the error.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's not enough to get me to do business in a country lacking rule of law. While I respect the functioning of the Chinese economy, I also wouldn't start a business there for the same reason. Usually I am comfortable with risk, but shakedown by government under threat of extreme lack of liberty, torture, or death is a risk that really messes with my expected value calculations.

<comment><USER11> It's misleading to compare china to russia like this[1], commercial law in general (IP rights being an exception) is paid more respected in China than in Russia. As a businessman in the former you don't face the risk of "shakedown by government under threat of extreme lack of liberty, torture, or death" in Russia the risk to both your property (apart from IP) and personal safety is considerably larger (and less predictable).

[1][http://books.google.com/books?id=YlKYLRjcoi0C&pg=PA39...](http://books.google.com/books?id=YlKYLRjcoi0C&pg=PA39&dq=%22Rule+of+law+in+Asia%22&ei=hcIASqy4KKGeygSpzf2vDQ#v=onepage&q=%22Rule%20of%20law%20in%20Asia%22&f=false)

<comment><USER10> I'm aware that China is safer to business people than Russia, but I still do not trust the CCP enough to do business with them. Look at what happened with Google.

<comment><USER12> what happened with Google? They left themselves AFAIK?

<comment><USER11> You're right, "what happened to google" was neither unpredictable nor unavoidable. The decision to stop cooperating with the CCP was commendable (and probably good for the shareholders too) but they were not _forced_ out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Since, as the blogger put it, "The former communists running Russia apparently understand tax policy better than the buffoons in charge of U.S. tax policy.", he must be in favor of the US having a VAT, like Russia does.

<comment><USER14> I'm not accusing you of this, but a common misconception I've seen from Americans is that VAT is "yet another tax." It's (usually) not. In California, I was paying 8.25% sales tax (and this can go up to 10.75% with some local sales taxes added) and in the UK I pay 17.5% but there are _no_ sales taxes, and certainly not any "local" ones I need to be aware of. A can of coke that costs 60p in London costs 60p in Edinburgh too.

<comment><USER15> Most Americans who are A: informed enough to know about VATs and B: against their introduction here are concerned that it _would_ be instituted as just another tax here. Resistance would be lessened if there was a credible promise to simplify the rest of the tax code (not eliminated, but lessened), but I don't know who has the moral authority to make such a promise right now, whereas I have a pretty clear idea who has the legal authority to institute a VAT. The motivation for it being discussed in the US is not for it to be a revenue-neutral modification to our tax code.

<comment><USER16> An additional problem with VAT is that it is mostly transparent to the people being taxed.

If you raise my taxes with VAT, I'll notice prices of assorted goods going up slightly, be too lazy to add up the various cost increases. If you raise my income taxes, I'll immediately notice that I'm $2000 poorer than I was before, and maybe I'll vote for the other guy.

<comment><USER15> Your argument is what I was thinking of when I said "not eliminated, but lessened". I'm against it for that reason too, but I am pretty sure many people are resisting simply because it would be a tax increase.

I also think that the stealth nature of the tax is the actual reason it is being discussed, but I figured that was getting political, and what I posted was fairly defensible on (relatively) objective grounds.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Interesting article. I guess the author wants America's economy to be as sound as Russia's?

<comment><USER11> High taxes does not make an economy sound; a sound economy economy makes high taxes possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Spurring investment in a country whose economy subsists almost solely on oil and coal controlled by former soviet Politburo officials and their hanger-on thugs, who then "nationalize" and otherwise stifle outside competition. Then they all hole up in their high-rise Onion domes in Moscow while the rest of the country fights for the scraps in an all-grey market economy.

Sounds like a sound business plan to me. Where do I sign?

</comment><comment><USER19> note, cutting capital gains only helps you when you sell (or when you are getting investment on the promise you will pump up the company and sell.

for those of us who plan on holding, lowering capital gains does not help. i have to pay income tax on all my income, like any other working schlub.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm curious, do many people here subscribe to Dan's blog? He was formerly my boss.

<comment><USER20> No, but I am curious, what is this guy like in person?

<comment><USER9> Equally sarcastic and condescending, but far more nuanced. It's a requirement of people who work for think tanks or politically motivated organizations -- on both sides of the isle -- to over-simplify. For people who study politics, economics, or whatever, it's infuriating. At the same time, you almost can't expect anything else; democracy is a game where you win when you have the most (marginal) voters. You enlist them easier through anger than rationality; Rationality requires work on behalf of voters.

<comment><USER20> Haha, thanks for that. I'd like more about the person, but I appreciate the rational of his ridiculous tv persona.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Breaking News!! Protests break out by people who sold investments yesterday!!

(Just kidding. The value gain to existing investments from this new law will only cause a small immediate jump in prices, and the rest will ramp up gradually over the days before the change goes into effect.)

<comment><USER22> wouldn't it make more sense, assuming they are trying to incentivize investment, for this change to apply to investments made after the change takes effect?

<comment><USER23> Big assumption. The motivations are probably more akin to the US's 1998 _retroactive_ copyright term-length extension.</comment></comment></comment>


Russian ads, now publicly released, show sophistication of influence campaign - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/russian-ads-now-publicly-released-show-sophistication-of-influence-campaign/2017/11/01/d26aead2-bf1b-11e7-8444-a0d4f04b89eb_story.html <comment><USER2> Wow, those ads are terrible. The fact that some of these[0] exist says a lot about the people in this country.. I get the impression that all of this 'political action/interest' against the tech companies is really just treating the symptom, and not the underlying problem.

0\. [https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wash...](https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/11/01/Others/Images/2017-11-01/russianads001.JPG?uuid=kVlzVL87EeeSlHBfgBZPbg)

<comment><USER3> Do you think this could really have any impact on the elections?

I don't see how any of those images or texts could change my opinion on who I want to be the president. Why would anyone take them into consideration?

P.S. I'm Russian. I'm no fan of propaganda and I just want to figure out whether our government really wanted Trump to be the president and if so, then why? I might have missed something, but I don't see that the decisions Trump making are any good for Russia. I see the opposite.

For example, Trump wanted to remove the oil production limit, which would have affected Russian economics.

<comment><USER4> Clinton was campaigning on policy of starting a war with Russia in Syria (establishing a "no fly zone" i.e. by shooting down planes that were flying). Trump was saying he'd make peace with Russia. So there is a motive.

However, I think this sort of article raises more questions than answers.

Firstly what makes them think this was the work of the Russian government vs private sector Russians with an interest in US politics? The only evidence seems to be the use of a particular payment service and the rest is assumption.

Secondly, how are these ads meant to benefit Russia specifically? What are these ads supposed to achieve? The evil plan being to "sow division in society"? US society is already very divided and has been for ages. It's very hard to imagine any government signing off on the purchase of a bunch of stupid Jesus arm wrestling memes, especially as there's no coherent theme to any of this.

The whole Russia-American-election story continues to look to me like a huge set of suppositions and dubious mental leaps. It's all very clearly an attempt to get Trump impeached. Motivated reasoning is bound to follow.

PS. I am not Russian.

<comment><USER5> >Firstly what makes them think this was the work of the Russian government vs private sector Russians with an interest in US politics?

The opposite reasoning also works. Why assume this is a private sector Russian with an interest in politics, when there is a more simple/straightforward answer in who would create something like this?

I do agree that Russians should have been interested in the election, as most of the world should for a country that has a large impact on the socioeconomic fabric, but any time you begin to input your own time/money into something, you immediately become obviously vested in the outcome of something you have no right in influencing.

>Secondly, how are these ads meant to benefit Russia specifically? What are these ads supposed to achieve? The evil plan being to "sow division in society"?

Come on, it should be very clear to you why these are beneficial to a supposed Russian effort to affect the election. Demonization is a classic, and effective strategy to influence opinion, and while I do agree that this meme is a very ineffective rhetorical strategy to you/me _when we look at it in a more skeptical light than normal,_ just seeing this on your Facebook feed randomly could be very effective to many people.

>The whole Russia-American-election story continues to look to me like a huge set of suppositions and dubious mental leaps.

It's an investigation that hasn't been finished yet, so I do understand a skittishness in the veracity of some of the claims made so far in the dossier, but the idea that the entirety of the Russian collusion saga has just been trumped-up charges is a joke. Two men have been indicted, and another plead guilty to crimes that are at least casually related to a possible Russian collusion.

>It's all very clearly an attempt to get Trump impeached. Motivated reasoning is bound to follow.

Politically it's absolutely an attempt to impeach Trump, yet day after day more information is released/revealed/found that is more and more damning to the idea that something illegal _didn 't_ happen in the 2016 election.

Remember, the idea of Russian collusion isn't something that was just made up after Trump became President. There has been a natural build up of evidence/steam that has slowly shed more light on possible activities by those strongly linked with Trump, or by Trump himself.

>PS. I am not a Russian.

Neither am I. It doesn't matter.

<comment><USER4> _Why assume this is a private sector Russian with an interest in politics, when there is a more simple /straightforward answer in who would create something like this?_

I don't agree it's more simple or straightforward. Governments don't do anything without signoff in triplicate. For a government to end up buying large quantities of Jesus memes would require a fairly large number of people to be involved, and they would have to justify themselves to the hierarchy. This seems extremely implausible to me. For one, if this was even slightly effective, wouldn't we be seeing all governments at it against each other?

In contrast people in the private sector spending their own money can do what the hell they like, without having to justify to anyone.

In fact the original perps don't even have to be Russian. They could just be paying a firm in Russia to do it.

 _Come on, it should be very clear to you why these are beneficial to a supposed Russian effort_

No, I'm afraid you'll have to enlighten me. Generic "sowing division" \- if it had any benefit to foreign powers at all - would benefit lots of countries simultaneously, i.e. any country that wanted the USA to stay out of their own politics which is most of them. How would they scope the benefit to just Russia? And if it can't be scoped in this way, what's the evidence that it's them?

 _Two men have been indicted, and another plead guilty to crimes that are at least casually related to a possible Russian collusion_

So what? I don't trust the US establishment to be even slightly sane in regards to this. As you admit large parts of it want Trump gone and have been throwing around overblown accusations for the past 18 months to try and get that.

 _Remember, the idea of Russian collusion isn 't something that was just made up after Trump became President_

I'm afraid that's not how I remember it. I remember it being very much something that came out of nowhere after Trump won. After a month or two of trying to pin Trump's victory on sexists and racists, I think the Democratic establishment realised that attacking Trump voters directly wasn't going to work and alienating half the country wasn't great politics even if it did work. So they shifted their efforts to a new strategy - imply the election itself was illegitimate, imply that people who voted for Trump aren't really people deep down, they were just brainwashed by dank memes. That allows direct attacks on Trump without direct attacks on his voters.

Since then I've watched as every day the Russia/Trump conspiracy reaches new ludicrous heights. If the USA doesn't get a collective mental grip it may end in civil war.

<comment><USER6> > Governments don't do anything without signoff in triplicate.

Once a broad strategy and objective for a sensitive covert operation is signed off from the top, yes, they often do things with considerably less bureaucratic oversight and control than the same government would apply to less sensitive operations.

Compartmentalization isn't just a thing for non-governmental criminal/terrorist/rebel groups (in fact, many of those, particularly in the latter two categories, were taught it by their government sponsors.)

And governments where the executive isn't subject to effective legislative and judicial oversight frequently are fairly slapdash with controls even outside of covert operations on issues where the leadership is more focussed on the perception of progress than specific documented accountability.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I noted in an earlier thread Obama was lauded for his use of data science and big data: [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/509026/how-obamas-team- us...](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/509026/how-obamas-team-used-big- data-to-rally-voters/)

We have come a long way since then. Data collection has become even more pervasive. And with such tools existing they were bound to back fire at some point of time. Sure people might blame FB etc for this but then whose fault is that the data collection is so pervasive.

</comment><comment><USER8> Though, it is wrong for non-US organizations to try to influence US elections? They paid for the ads fair and square.

The fear mongering isn't any worse than local tv news ads...

<comment><USER9> Election related TV ads have stringent requirements about disclosing financiers, relative to other kinds of ads.

Is this more insidious than running a blatant attack ad with a donor list? I'd say that it definitely is.

The more pressing question IMO is on what grounds we get upset that a foreign nation did this to us, when we do the same and worse to weaker nations across the globe?

<comment><USER6> > The more pressing question IMO is on what grounds we get upset that a > foreign nation did this to us, when we do the same and worse to weaker > nations across the globe?

No, more the reverse, even leaving aside the accuracy of the fact claim underlying your claim of significance; it's fairly normal, if not abstractly desirable, for people to recognize something is wrong when it is done to them, and then only after that examine and correct their own behavior. So, it's more natural (again, granting, _arguendo_ , the premise of your question) to ask: _given that we see this as wrong when it is done to us_ , how should we correct our behavior toward others?

<comment><USER9> I may have worded my original comment poorly. I meant "why do we not find this hypocritical?", not "how do we manufacture a difference between our actions and theirs"

I agree that such behavior by America is unacceptable most if not all of the time, even when there's a plausible moral imperative (eg replacing a violent dictator with a nonviolent one)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Note I'm not a twitter user so I have no real idea how far the average tweet spreads. That said I find it interesting how few impressions a lot of these tweets had. It is fascinating to see this "new" sort of propaganda though, it will be interesting (and horrifying) to see how propaganda like this evolves.

</comment><comment><USER11> Sophistication? I'm of decidedly average intelligence and I laugh at these ads.

Probably not the target demo though.</comment>


Inside the FBI's Fight Against Chinese Cyber-Espionage - <AUTHOR> http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/05/27/exclusive_inside_the_fbi_s_fight_against_chinese_cyber_espionage <comment><USER2> DOJ Plans To Indict State-Sponsored Cyber Attackers [http://www.defensenews.com/article/20121218/C4ISR01/31218000...](http://www.defensenews.com/article/20121218/C4ISR01/312180009/DOJ- Plans-Indict-State-Sponsored-Cyber-Attackers)

The above article was published in 2012. They are right on track, all predictions, down to the last detail, have come true in 2014.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can't help but to be amused by the irony of the NSA systematically weakening computer security and swooping in to help the FBI when American companies become victims of foreign spies that exploit poor security.

<comment><USER4> What's even worse is creating a market in zero-day exploits. That's like doing biology research by creating a freelance development market in bioterror microbes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I got it. The NSA keeps us safe, the Chinese spy on us. Sure thing.

<comment><USER6> As a German, I feel very much the same.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not so easy to stop foreign spies when you've been caught doing it to everyone else.

(That said, while they are hypocrites, they are still in the right)

</comment><comment><USER8> Plot twist: the FBI doesn't have a cyber-espionage division (which would fall under NSA or CIA jurisdiction.). The whole department is a Chinese plant.

</comment><comment><USER9> Let the 'war on Chinese hacking' begin (now that the 'war on drugs' is lost and the 'war on terror' is off the front pages). Was this supposed to distract us from Obama handing over Guantanamo terrorists or that Snowden used all the appropriate channels to report the NSA's illegal activities?

At least the US hasn't been gaining unfair competitive advantage in Chinese markets via their own 'deep burrows'.</comment>


Arduino count to the next Friday - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/modInfo/Countdown-to-next-Friday-Arduino <comment><USER2> Quick read through at midnight because kitty won't let me sleep. So please forgive anything I've overlooked. Also this isn't criticism just some feed back.

The DS1307 is great to start with but I would replace it with something like the ds3231(which is what you will find on eBay, just as a note with the common modules on eBay. You can remove the resistor that's on the simple battery charger and the resistors on the i2c lines if you use plan to use the internal pull-ups on the atmel) or the DS3232/4.

The 3231/2/4 come with intergrated crystals and preform temp calibration and are generally much more accurate.

The 3232/4 allow you to configure then that temp calibration happens furthering battery life (guess that's what your trying to achieve when you bring up about lowering power usage and making the CPU sleep).

The 3234 is the SPI version as your using SPI for the led driver might as well shift the RTC to the SPI bus too and power down the i2c bus completely or shift the led driver over to the i2c bus.

Another trick you can do is power the RTC from one of the micro pins, connect the RTC to power the interrupt from the RTC battery. That way you can cut the power to the RTC, wait for the interrupt. Decide if your going to read the time from the RTC, power up the RTC, Read the time. Kill the power to the RTC again. Note: This will reset a few things that will need to reconfigured with the RTC. But it will still tick.

Maxim have a very nice sample policy and they have sent me parts to my home address using my personal email (though not a free email provider). They did deny me once but I was being cheeky and asked for a "fancy" one wire ibutton reader. They sent me the cheaper one instead. Can't complain at that. As wel all sample options. Play nice and don't take the piss.

Also iirc the falling edge of the RTC SQW at 1hz is half way though the second.

Also ready the atmel power guides. Iirc if you set all the I/O your not using as inputs you will lower power usage, also disable all the prefs your not using such as the ADC [http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/user- manual/group__avr__power...](http://www.nongnu.org/avr-libc/user- manual/group__avr__power.html)

Good luck and enjoy your clock :-) (I have have one of my own but isn't counting to Friday).

Also there is a bit in the RTC (forget which bit in which register and don't have the data sheet to hand) that get set if the RTC lost battery power. You can use this and the default time of the RTC to determine if you need to set the RTC time (like your doing using the compile time in setup()) another trick with that. I've found the 2nd compile in a row is normally much faster then (not always the case) so instead of just uploading the code. Verify the code first, then it upload that way your not rebuilding the whole thing and the set time to compile time will be a little more accurate.</comment>


Ask HN: What is your programming language of choice for web development? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Depending of the sort of software, but for common administrative systems, with plenty of CRUD's and relationship between data, with no doubts PHP.

Reasons:

\- GroceryCRUD ([https://www.grocerycrud.com/](https://www.grocerycrud.com/)) make really easy and fast to develop CRUD transactions. \- Run in any hosting, even shared hosting. \- It's open and free. \- It's mature. \- Have lots of libraries and classes and code examples. \- Work with almost any database. \- etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> D Lang on the server side, html/sass/JavaScript on the front end.

</comment><comment><USER4> ES7 (i.e. ES2016+)</comment>


Why Did San Francisco Schools Stop Teaching Algebra in Middle School? - <AUTHOR> https://priceonomics.com/why-did-san-francisco-schools-stop-teaching/ <comment><AUTHOR> > "While SFUSD insists that its new approach does not compromise the rigor of > its education, but ensures that all students enter high school with the same > mathematical foundation, many parents see the district's new standards as a > dumbing down of the curriculum."

So to ensure equality is to lower the bar? Isn't this going to create more inequality? We know that economically-challenged families would not, statistically speaking, be able to afford tutoring, so they depend even more on public school teachers to teach their kids. Yet the answer of the SFUSD was to push students _less_ in school. Guess who will eventually suffer?

I find it insulting and outrageous.

<comment><USER2> Is it really a bad thing to not know algebra at the 8th grade?

I understand what you are saying, but I cannot reach the same conclusion as you that they are lowering the bar.

Even if at the moment a lot of people are exposed to algebra at a very young age, a very few people understand the maths behind, they use it as a set of rules to apply, which is very far away from how maths works..and then, leads to a bad use/generalization in unknown problem.

I didn't follow precisely the common core thing, but if I remember correctly, the idea behind is to teach to the child's to 'think' instead of having a rule based system. Ultimately leading to understanding algebra better and faster at a later stage, when it becomes only a corollary to one's thought.

When you can think more deeply and more abstractly at a young age, this may lead to better thoughts power, better logic, and ultimately better skills at math and in life. At least, I think this is the true idea behind the core, please if there is an expert on math education here correct me if I'm mistaken.

Of course, this is often difficult to accept for adults, as we want our child's to have 'at least' the same education of ourselves. But it is not obvious that the way we larned math, is a good way. If it is: why so many people do not like/understand maths? Isn't it a good thing to try newer teaching methods that we think are better?

I may be doing a big shortcut here: but from what I remember the core was worked out by very capable mathematicians in both mathematics and education and they were inspired by Korean/Japanese math systems that encourage the child's to think. If someone has references to this I would be interested as well :)

<comment><USER3> > Is it really a bad thing to not know algebra at the 8th grade?

Knowing it is a better thing

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Where have I seen this before? No algebra in 8th grade, try to get the students to develop an intuition for math...ah, yes, I remember: my own 8th grade, in 1967. It was called The New Math, and we got a smattering of set theory (enough to distinguish intersection from union), trivial geometry (nothing about axioms and theorems, afair), and number base systems. Ostensibly this was to make us think about the basics of math; afair, it did nothing of the sort.

My Junior High went the New Math route, but some of the other Junior High schools that fed into the same High School did not. The result was that I, and all the other freshmen from my school, were a year behind the freshmen from these other schools. (The New Math helped us not at all.)

I did well enough in math over the next few years that one of the High School's math teachers persuaded me to take Algebra II and Trig both in my junior year (everyone else who was in to math took them in sequential years). That allowed me to take calculus in my senior year, along with a dozen or so students from the Junior Highs that had not dabbled in New Math. The rest of the students from my Junior High were not so lucky.

The excuse that not teaching algebra in 8th grade "ensures that all students enter high school with the same mathematical foundation" sounds like something someone who felt threatened by math must have come up with.

BTW, I did not become a mathematician, but it did prepare me for other STEM disciplines. Geometry in particular was a revelation in a way of thinking that for me bled over into many other disciplines.

</comment><comment><USER5> SFUSD's defense: [http://www.sfusdmath.org/secondary-course- sequence.html](http://www.sfusdmath.org/secondary-course-sequence.html)

It basically says that they are including more stuff in 8th grade curriculum so Algebra 1 gets pushed out to 9th grade.</comment>


Tell HN: My "remote employee management" startup - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,
I've been working on a startup for the past few weeks to get our MVP out the door. We're ready to let the world know about our product, called HiveDesk.
HiveDesk is a solution for managing outsource/remote workers. The idea actually came from a friend who manages 5 Filipino employees on monthly salary. He was concerned that they weren't being honest about their hours worked, and didn't want to keep paying 10% fees associated with outsource portals like oDesk (who offer time tracking/screenshot capturing software). What he needed was a 3rd party service that let him manage his workers at a cheaper price. Thats where we stepped in.
HiveDesk lets employers oversee and manage remote workers through our client software. The worker installs it and "checks in" to a project whenever they're ready to work. The timer is started and automatically tracks time worked, and screenshot data is submitted every 10 minutes. It helps keep bosses in the loop as to work progress, and keeps contractors honest (no lying about hours worked, or goofing off on your dime).
You can learn more about HiveDesk at http://www.hivedesk.com
What do you think guys? We still have yet to build a proper business model / price points. Opinions and suggestions appreciated. Thanks <comment><USER2> I like it, and will probably end-up using it and wouldn't mind paying for it. I know you just got your MVP out the door, but a couple things that I would like to see before I start using it:

* Delete/Edit button for projects created; * SSL option (on/off in account settings); * Mac/Linux client; * Option to turn off the screen capture per project or per user.

<comment><AUTHOR> heymatty, thanks for the suggestions. We are actually thinking of porting over to Java to support Mac and Linux. Delete/edit should be simple. We'll look into SSL.

May I ask why you need the option to turn off screenshots? We considered this initially, but logic was that screenshot updates was the point of our software and weren't sure why anyone would use our service to turn off screenshots. Thanks

<comment><USER2> The fundamental for me is to adequately track hours worked for my remote workers. The screenshot feature is a tool to verify that the hours logged were for actual work.

I want to be able to track time without relying on the user to submit it manually. I want a tool that submits automatically with me controlling the idle time and if I want screenshots or not.

After a while when you develop a trust relationship with your remote workers you don't necessarily want to take screenshots all the time and/or for all projects. Screenshots are not always necessary and can, if used all the time, wear down morale.

If you work with a new remote workers on a quick project, sure why not. But when these remote workers becomes part of your company and are working 40+ hours a week for several months, it's overkill.

Also for sensitive projects - I don't necessarily want screenshots published on a 3rd party site and/or be submitted over an unencrypted connection.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://www.hivedesk.com>

</comment><comment><USER3> At first I was really put off by auto-uploading screenshots, but I actually think it's a pretty solid idea.

I'm tempted to suggest a way for you to pop up a chat window to your employee, what do you think of that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi there, thanks for the comment.

Auto-uploaded screenshots aren't for everyone, its something that definitely has to be negotiated with the employee of course.

Our competitor oDesk (an outsourcing portal) offers similar software. They offer a chat system within the client (we could too). Its not a priority at the moment because it would probably only add marginal value; employees already communicate with their bosses through skype, MSN, email, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting ... I am sometimes at my desk and working on the design of my app for quite a long time without using the computer...

HiveDesk would consider I am not working if I am 5 minutes idle, right? have you considered an additional periodic webcam screenshot ?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you haven't moved your keyboard or mouse for a duration of 5 minutes, then you would start logging idle time. This is an issue of the job at hand, because jobs like your job (and writing/designing/thinking) don't require the worker to always be on the computer.

We considered periodic webcam screenshots, but we find that to be a bit creepy and overbearing. oDesk does that, but I'm not sure thats something we want to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> What would be better if you let employers get real-time screenshot data as often as they want (maybe even video). Seems like this is where the value of your product lies.

</comment><comment><USER6> I like it as well. Maybe integrate it with existing project management software out there (37signals.com).</comment>


Microsoft plans multibillion-dollar expansion, renovation of Redmond campus - <AUTHOR> https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/microsoft-plans-multibillion-dollar-expansion-renovation-of-redmond-campus/ <comment><AUTHOR> The timeline for all of this is interesting– it seems especially ambitious. The pedestrian bridge over SR520 for example is projected to be finished in 2020. Wow.</comment>


Startup Looking for a Hacker - <AUTHOR>

I am one of three founders of a startup developing a personal/social CRM product. We are currently in talks with a few potential investors and VCs. In an effort to speed up our development, we are looking to bring another technical founder on board. If you are interested in joining our startup, please contact me at my personal e-mail address, email@example.com.
Regards,
Nick <comment><AUTHOR> We have not yet made any choices. Please contact me by e-mail if you have specific questions. firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER2> Um like have you already made any choices re: what technology you are developing on? Is this a web product?

</comment><comment><USER3> Would you be willing to accept a remote founder?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're open to discussing scenarios for the right candidate. Send me an e-mail if you'd like to discuss further.</comment></comment>


Libor trial - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32879690 <comment><USER2> I'm so glad they're finally putting a whipping boy on trial.

Now, I know some of you are a little skeptical about the efficacy of punishing whipping boys, but let me explain. We can't possibly whip banking executives when they do something wrong because we live in a civilized society that respects the "divine right of banking executives". Instead, we assign each executive a whipping boy and the executive then develops a strong emotional bond to the whipping boy. When the executive does something wrong, he will be forced to watch his close companion, the whipping boy, suffer for his crimes.

This will act as an effective deterrent for any future wrong doing for the executive and send a strong message to other executives their crimes might jeopardize the well-being of their own whipping boys. Some may call me optimistic, but I think this single act of justice will have the desired effect of transforming our banking system. If bank executives know they're putting their whipping boys in real jeopardy, I think that will force their hand to rethink their organization's incentive systems and institute checks and balances into their organization to reward honesty, transparency and compassion.

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

<comment><USER3> Bankers are being tried, see, for instance: [http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/13/uk-iceland- bankers-...](http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/02/13/uk-iceland-bankers- idUKKBN0LH0OC20150213)

<comment><USER2> I can't tell if you're being funny or not. If you are, well played. For those who don't get the joke, Iceland was really on the verge of collapse and took extraordinary measures to save their economy. If you did what they did in the US or UK, you'd be labeled a communist. Basically, Iceland's reaction to the credit crisis is the complete antithesis of what has happened in the rest of the world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It sounds like the trial will focus on Mr Hayes, but this was only possible because of the collaborative effort of other banks. His co-conspirators should be tried as well.

<comment><USER5> Of course, it is going to focus on him; it is his trial. However, the article says:

 _The first criminal trial . . ._

So, it sounds like there are more to come.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's a whole network of nasty crooks behind this. I demand more blood.

[http://graphics.wsj.com/libor- network/#item=Hayes](http://graphics.wsj.com/libor-network/#item=Hayes)

</comment><comment><USER7> if any hacker wants to help disrupting the banks: [http://mapthebanks.com/](http://mapthebanks.com/)

<comment><USER8> FYI this is a project by [https://opencorporates.com/](https://opencorporates.com/) (the largest open database of companies in the world).

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> this trial will change nothing; whole financial system is a circus of stupidity. the "scandals" will never end. people will always try to game the system and that's normal. this guy is basically on trial for not being ethical.</comment>


Show HN: Challenge Hunt – Chrome extension for competitive programming - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/challenge-hunt/cgbnhngdlmhjbmgkekedepoapmoingjj

<comment><AUTHOR> Challenge Hunt is a side project that I and my friend wrote. It shows you all the active and upcoming challenges from around 25 platforms including TopCoder, CodeForces, HackerRank, Kaggle and the likes. The idea of Challenge Hunt came to us when we had to go on check 3-4 websites every time we sat down to solve some competitve programming problem. The project is open source: [https://github.com/ChallengeHunt/challengehunt](https://github.com/ChallengeHunt/challengehunt)

If you want to know more about it follow this blog post that I wrote [http://architv.me/challenge-hunt-from-idea-to- execution/](http://architv.me/challenge-hunt-from-idea-to-execution/)</comment>


Solar has won. Even if coal were free to burn, power stations couldn't compete - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/07/solar-has-won-even-if-coal-were-free-to-burn-power-stations-couldnt-compete?CMP=fb_gu

<comment><USER2> "could". "may be". "for several days". Lots of slipperiness here. And keep in mind this is _just_ for Australia, this year: many other factors including weather, regulations and local pricing don't make this a global success story.

As much as I like solar, it seems absurd to celebrate "the end of coal" just yet.</comment>


Fast blurring algorithm written in JavaScript and demoed using YUI - <AUTHOR> http://people.mozilla.org/~shaver/StackBlurDemo.html <comment><USER2> off-topic, but this reminded me of an idea i had for a firefox extension: when visiting a questionable url, be able to tell firefox to blur the page/image heavily before rendering it. as you slowly decrease the blur and realize that it's something obscene/gross, you can close the tab before seeing the gory details that your eyes cannot unsee.

<comment><USER3> That's actually pretty funny.

But I think you'd get annoyed by blurred pages taking forever to unblur and then not having anything bad on them. I think most people are desensitized anyway, and just look off-image until they can close it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> And the important bit of the source: [http://people.mozilla.org/~shaver/StackBlurDemo_files/StackB...](http://people.mozilla.org/~shaver/StackBlurDemo_files/StackBlur.js)

<comment><USER5> Useless without the paper, imo. Here is the closest thing I could find:

<http://www.codeproject.com/KB/graphics/blurringwithcuda.aspx>

When I was a much bigger idiot, I used to read C sources for open source audio codecs, in order to teach myself fixed-point numeric tricks. Turns out, there are entire handbooks of that stuff, with prose. No need to reverse-engineer precomputed tables with bleary eyes.

<comment><USER6> Care to share links to any of those handbooks?

<comment><USER5> The handbooks are at any university library, I use George Mason in U.S., and UTS in Sydney.

The papers, however, are everywhere. Search for the SIGGRAPH stuff here:

<http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/>

Everything's there. See you in about a year :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The URL for this item points to my lightly hacked version, but the real thing is at [http://www.quasimondo.com/StackBlurForCanvas/StackBlurDemo.h...](http://www.quasimondo.com/StackBlurForCanvas/StackBlurDemo.html) . (I just made it update when the slider moved, instead of requiring a button press, so that I could see how FF4 beta did at maintaining interactive perf with it.)

<comment><USER8> set radius to n where n>0, click render, set radius to 0, click render.

Doesn't unblur.

<comment><USER9> Seconded. I am on Chrome (7.0.544.0 dev) on 64-bit Linux.

<comment><USER8> Can't believe I forgot to include my platform in a bug report. What an ass.

Firefox 3.6.10 on OSX 10.6.4

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I wonder what browsers support Canvas but not SVG's gaussian blur filter:

<http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/filters.html#feGaussianBlurElement>

Canvas is of course arguably more flexible.

</comment><comment><USER11> Awesome. I tried to write something like this, but it was way out of my league. Glad to see someone did it. Used correctly, blur can be really neat in UIs.

</comment><comment><USER12> very interesting indeed, but perhaps still not quite ready for production systems:

moving the blur control back and forth in a fast motion creates some interesting effects

<comment><USER13> Like what? I'm on Chrome 8.0.552.0 dev and can't make it not work perfectly.

<comment><USER14> If I slide it over to the right quickly, sliding back to the left doesn't unblur it all the way.

<comment><USER15> That seems like more of a problem with the slider control.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Leaked Contract between Coursera and U of Michigan Explains Possible Rev Models - <AUTHOR> http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/400864-coursera-fully-executed-agreement.html

<comment><USER2> tl;dr:

3 monetization models, called as (i) coursera, (ii) university, and (iii) registered student.

(i) coursera (pg 3): university builds the material, company monetizes it. 6 to 15% of gross rev to university: 6% for 3 mos, plus an extra 3% for every additional 3 mos the course runs (pg 28); plus 20% of gross profits.

(ii) university (pg 3): university monetizes it and shares with coursera; the rev split (pg 28) is agreed on in a course development agreement for each individual course (pg 29).

(iii) registered students model (pg 4): coursera appears to simply host material / run classes for registered students in the university.

Other potential monetization (pg 40): certs to be purchased by end user; secure assessments (ie a test center); employee recruiting (employees can query perf by class); NB: employees have to send email through coursera and coursera appears not to share contact info; employee or university screening; human provided tutoring or manual grading; corporate/univ enterprise model; sponsorships; tuition fees

Other interesting things: university keeps ip (pg 8)

ps -- if anyone at coursera is bothered by this, I'll happily delete.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> See pg 28 for revenue split (6-15% for UoM) and pg 40 for 8 possible revenue models.

</comment><comment><USER3> Will we ever be able to use clear, concise language for these sorts of things?</comment>


COBOL will outlive us all - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/career/341879/cobol-will-outlive-us-all <comment><USER2> This is just PR from Micro Focus (a COBOL compiler vendor). COBOL is dead and a joke.

I've never heard of a successful startup in the last 30 years that wrote their main revenue-generating product in COBOL, and there's a reason for that.</comment>


Yahoo probes possible huge data breach - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36952257 <comment><USER3> _However, attempts to contact more than 100 of the addresses in the sample saw many returned as undeliverable with auto-responses reading: "This account has been disabled or discontinued," which might suggest that the data is old._

Or another sad possibility is that this may be representative of any sample of yahoo email addresses.

<comment><USER4> One of my friends had years of correspondence stored in a Yahoo Mail account, including letters from people who had then passed away.

She did a study abroad, and when she came home a year later discovered that Yahoo had closed the account. All of that correspondence was gone forever.

<comment><USER5> Classic from old Hotmail as well.

Don't think hotmail do this anymore but I am sure I fell victim to it 16 or so years ago.

<comment><USER6> hotmail / outlook does still delete email from inactive accounts, and then the account itself. you have to log in every <270 days (9 months) to keep the system from deleting your mail and in <12 months to keep your email address/account alive.[1] but you will get emails to your secondary email address as a warning before this happens. gmail also does the same, but likely on a longer time horizon[2].

[2] I worked on outlook.com and [http://answers.microsoft.com/en- us/outlook_com/forum/oemail-...](http://answers.microsoft.com/en- us/outlook_com/forum/oemail-orestoremail/deleted-hotmail-account-due-to- inactivity-i-need/252611c1-94d6-4b48-974c-005038ea46f7)

[2] [https://www.quora.com/Will-Google-deactivate-my-Gmail- accoun...](https://www.quora.com/Will-Google-deactivate-my-Gmail-account-if- it-is-not-used-After-how-long-does-it-deactivate)

<comment><USER7> The quora link you posted also says that gmail does NOT do that anymore - <USER2> clause was removed from their policy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In the interest of making this a learning experience for myself and others, I would like to get any feedback on the following questions.

What would be considered as strong/good/secure password/authentication algorithms if one had to implement this today?

What would you recommend today as a good/secure authentication library that one can use with a micro framework like Python Flask (or others)? What about the authentication library in the batteries included Django framework?

What about recommended general authentication libraries for other web application frameworks such as Phoenix/Elixir, Node based, Go based, etc?

Here are some links from OWASP/Google that offers some details:

[https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cryptographic_Storage_Cheat_...](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Cryptographic_Storage_Cheat_Sheet)

[https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Password_Storage_Cheat_Sheet](https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Password_Storage_Cheat_Sheet)

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R6c9NW6wtoEoT3CS4UVmthw1...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R6c9NW6wtoEoT3CS4UVmthw1a6Ex6TGSBaEqDay5U7g/edit)

<comment><USER9> _What would be considered as strong /good/secure password/authentication algorithms if one had to implement this today?_

Use salted bcrypt or another slow salted hashing algorithm. The goal is to make it expensive to crack. For reference, the GPU version of hashcat (cudahashcat or oclhashcat) is very popular, and look at these benchmarks to choose a hashing algorithm and to understand what to avoid like the plague:

[https://gist.github.com/epixoip/c0b92196a33b902ec5f3](https://gist.github.com/epixoip/c0b92196a33b902ec5f3)

Clearly md5 is a no no and bcrypt and a few others are a huge improvement.

However, I feel compelled to add (and please don't flame me for this, just sharing reality) that even MD5 can actually be very hard to crack if your users use a long password (12 chars or above) and a large enough character set. In other words, using 12 char or more passwords with uppercase, lowercase, numbers and symbols is hard to crack even if they used a crappy algorithm like md5.

So the ideal combo is a strong hashing algo and enforcing complex long passwords.

<comment><USER10> Is it even necessary to actual enforce password complexity? Or is it enough that those characters theoretically could be in the password? The size of the password-space is the same.

<comment><USER11> Whoever is trying to find a password that hashes to the known hash will order the passwords they try in order to prioritise testing more frequently used passwords like aaaaaaaaaaaa rather than mj(8anZ0$uQ,! , so if you can encourage people to choose a less predictable password you increase the cost of discovering the password for an attacker.

<comment><USER9> Correct. They'll also start with dictionaries of a few hundred million passwords which they'll run through fairly quickly. Then they'll use mask attacks as @ximeng said in ascending order of length and complexity.

[https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mask_attack](https://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mask_attack)

So it's critically important to enforce length because short passwords will be cracked quickly even with slower hashing algorithms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Am I right in understanding that the passwords were hashed with MD5? WTF?

<comment><USER13> While we found some MD5 weaknesses, it's not broken in the general case. If I give you a well salted MD5 hash of a password, your only option is still bruteforce.

While you can produce two files with the same MD5, it doesn't help you to reverse a hash.

<comment><USER14> Problem being that MD5 is incredibly fast, as opposed to e.g. Bcrypt, which makes bruteforcing so much easier.

<comment><USER13> True. Assuming one round of MD5.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Oh man, all of my spam, and mail from people I didn't want having my real address will be compromised.

<comment><USER16> Its becoming increasingly the case that the idea of semi reliable "privacy" is rapidly disintegrating and perhaps this is not a bad thing

</comment></comment><comment> at-fates-hands _Using the name Peace, the hacker said the data was "most likely" from 2012._

So you're saying as long as you updated your password from the 2014 breach, you should be fine.

</comment><comment><USER17> Rather timely, given their recent buyout.

<comment><USER18> A last minute security fix. Funny that Myspace got hacked too apparently

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> What's shocking to me is that Yahoo! still uses MD5 hashes. Those can be decrypted almost instantly with hashcat and tools like it. There's some confusion about the age of data in question but I hope they've moved away from MD5 since the breach occurred.

<comment><USER20> Only for weak passwords. Strong (80-bit plus) passwords are still safe, even with unsalted MD5. Too bad people are really bad at choosing passwords.

<comment><USER21> Too bad as well that very, very few sites support 80 character long passwords.

Ever since I switched to a password manager, I've always made sure that the length of it is the maximum length that the site will accept.

I am getting pretty pissed with the sites that have ridiculous "security" schemes like 1 capital letter, 1 one number, 1 special character, must rotate every three months...but will only allow a password between 8-12 characters long.

<comment><USER22> wait, which one is strong enough under MD5 hashing? 80 bit or 80 character?

<comment><USER23> 80 bits of entropy (20 really random hex chars) should be safe enough.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > The passwords appear to be hashed - which means they have been scrambled - > but the hacker has also published details of the algorithm allegedly used > for the hash.

I like how BBC triedto explain what cryto hash does to plaintext, but this is a poor way to describe what hash is because scramble means re-ordering, but hashing doesn't reorder. I hope this reporter takes time to come up with a different way to explain to general public.

</comment><comment><USER25> Can I admit seeing this right above the Verizon post (as it is right now) makes me giggle

Well, I'm not sure Verizon is going to love NOT being a dumb pipe...

</comment><comment><USER26> If some of these accounts have been deleted how has a hacker got a username and password for them?

<comment><USER27> Old breach from 2012. Just being reported now and some of the accounts breached have expired.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Grammar police: "Yahoo probes possibly huge data breach"

<comment><USER29> This fundamentally changes the meaning of the title. "Yahoo probes possibly huge data breach" implies that there was a data breach, and it may or may not be huge. "Yahoo probes possible huge data breach" implies that there may or may not have been a data breach to begin with.

<comment><USER28> Not at all. [http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/possibly](http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/possibly)

If you really want to go there, then one could say any reference or dependence on possibility implies probability, which necessarily includes the possibility of the event not happening at all.

<comment><USER30> I don't think that was the point of the comment you are responding to. Possibly can only attach to "huge", so it parses as "probes [possibly huge] data breach". Whereas possible attaches to the whole data breach and parses as "probes possible [huge data breach]".</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Predicting Sales on Amazon Using Deep Learning - <AUTHOR> I used Apache Spark and H2o to predict sales of a product on Amazon.
The blog post http://blog.aihello.com/2017/03/predicting-amazon-sales-usin... <comment><USER2> Could be because your page takes too long to load..I couldnt see it for 40 secs so closed the browser..hn might have tried to access and timed out

<comment><AUTHOR> Thats weird. The blog is hosted on blogger.com run by google.

[https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=...](https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.aihello.com%2F2017%2F03%2Fpredicting- amazon-sales-using-deep.html&tab=desktop)

I get load time of 5 seconds. But yes, the first error I got from HN was timeout and then it started complaining about too many submissions and then bam! spam!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> For some strange reason I get the "stop spamming us" message when I submit the link directly although I have never submitted this domain to HackerNews.

I bought this domain 6 months ago. Would the previous owner have abused this domain?</comment>


New Typeface Merges Braille You Can Touch with Letters You Can See - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcodesign.com/90166173/this-new-typeface-merges-braille-you-can-touch-with-letters-you-can-see <comment><USER2> I hope this doesn't catch on. Why force people to read a hard-to-read monospace font (making it less accessible to non-blind users) when alignment between braille and font really isn't necessary? Unless they have to be really small (and then legibility is even more important) you can easily print over the braille text unaligned and it's readable completely fine.</comment>