Apple tells app developers to disclose or remove screen recording code - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/apple-glassbox-apps/ <comment><USER2> I think we are approaching a transitionary period where lines by various companies are starting to be drawn in the sand with regards to privacy and user hostile design choices. It's still a little blury, but as the lines become clearer users will start to shift. And either by choice or regulation the lines will be drawn. Apple's hand is being forced in some cases, but usually in a direction they are already heading. Google will find the balance much harder due to the nature of their revenue model.

<comment><USER3> Actually I'd say Apple is swinging only toward user choice where it suits them. The recent change to the default media player for play-pause away from the last app and to Apple Music is one example. Dropping Do-not-track from Safari is another.

<comment><USER4> Expedia's privacy policy [0] is a perfect example of why DNT, in current form, does nothing more than misalign customer expectations around privacy.

"Do-Not-Track Signals and Similar Mechanisms. Some web browsers may transmit "do-not-track" signals to websites with which the browser communicates. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. Participants in the leading Internet standards-setting organization that is addressing this issue are in the process of determining what, if anything, websites should do when they receive such signals. We currently do not take action in response to these signals. If and when a final standard is established and accepted, we will reassess how to respond to these signals."

[0] [https://www.expedia.com/p/info-other/privacy- policy.htm](https://www.expedia.com/p/info-other/privacy-policy.htm)

<comment><USER5> "Some cars are now coming straight from the factory with 'do not track' stickers already applied. As such, we cannot know for certain whether an individual driver actually wants to be tracked. What does Do Not Track really mean anyway? We have therefore chosen to attach tracking devices to all vehicles that visit our premises."

"Some letterboxes have 'no junk mail' signs attached, but it's often unclear whether these were even placed by the current occupant. The current resident may be completely unaware that they're missing out on our great deals. Therefore we have chosen to deliver to all addresses regardless of signage."

What an incredible way of thinking. You could rationalize anything this way.

<comment><USER6> Agree entirely. Take a clear statement. Say it isn't clear what someone may want from that statement, claiming it is confusing when it really is not. Do what is clearly the opposite intention, blaming deliberate stated confusion. Grrr.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> When the average app can send dozens of megabytes with no one blinking an eye, lots of stuff can slip though.

I've long said that platforms need to _enforce_ limits, _hard limits_ , on all I/O. And in order for something to get an exception, the system should have a big, obvious, inconvenient work-around that places plenty of blame directly on the developer (e.g. "The application Foobar is using an extremely abnormal amount of your battery power, and has used your Internet service more extensively over the past hour than any other app on your device. We recommend uninstalling this program completely, or select one of the throttling choices below:".)

And frankly, there is no shortage of reasons why we should do this: to prevent abuses like this latest one, to prevent draining batteries, to avoid expensive data plan overages, etc. (and heck, to save the planet, because stupid simple things should not require a pile of natural resources to download to your device).

I'm truly sorry if your overblown JavaScript framework can't draw 3 lines of text on the screen without transferring an entire 1990 operating system's worth of code over the network for each paragraph. Yet if devices start enforcing really tiny limits (my vote is, oh, 2 _kilobytes_ of data), I bet your organization will finally figure out what data is really important. Good luck.

<comment><USER8> I can't say I agree at all with this hyperbolic reaction. How about people just be judicious about what they install and who they trust as always. I'm for privacy as much as the next person but not when it infringes on an open platform to the degree that you suggest, and Apple already overreaches in terms of censorship and control IMO.

<comment><USER9> > How about people just be judicious about what they install and who they > trust as always.

That sounds good, but how well does it work? I'd you find an app that solves a use case for you - what factors do you use to determine whether you trust this developer? How can the average iPhone (/smartphone) user apply this?

<comment><USER8> It works great. Even my parents learned what to install and not install on their windows PC. The key being that the safety features are all on by default. But for those of us that need to run software off the beaten path, we can.

<comment><USER9> I'd love to teach my parents, but I'm still challenged by giving them indicators to determine what should or shouldn't be installed. I actually find it hard to do myself, so maybe you can help. For example: My mom likes to play Sudoku. How should she go about to determine whether it's fine to install this app: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easybrain....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.easybrain.sudoku.android) ? How can she (or I) determine whether this data is uploading data collected on her phone or doing some other sort of shenanigans?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's a good thing that platform providers are locking down this sort of thing.

The problem is a culture of 'it's ok, everyone else does it, the world runs on it, maybe things need to change, but we need to find an alternative equivalent first.'

No.

It was always wrong. It was never justifiable. Permission was never requested, only assumed.

If you are recording my screen without making it abundantly clear up-front that you are doing so and why, and without allowing me to decline _without_ providing any additional identifying information, you are automatically unworthy of my trust, not only now but forever. The people who thought this was acceptable are unfit to make such decisions, now and forever.

In short: fuck you and your advertising.

Why is this sort of bullshit even allowed to be technologically possible? Because someone profits. Screw their thumbs until it isn't. You want to make money from the people using your software? You get it from them, specifically from them, by providing a worthwhile product. You should be punished for selling them to someone else.

Unless you can teach them the value of that which you ask in exchange for your product, you are committing fraud.

You don't get to benefit from the information you siphon from people who don't understand the value of it. You know exactly what you've done and always did; no second chance is warranted.

<comment><USER11> Devil's advocate question: do you (should you) have to agree to be video-taped before entering a store on security cameras? What if you had to do that for every single store?

> In short: fuck you and your advertising.

Nah, I don't want to pay for every single site I visit. Content is not just given out for free. Are there limits to what counts as too much? Sure, and that's the type of discussion we should be having.

> You should be punished for selling them to someone else.

That's not how online advertising works. Rather, it's would be the equivalent of someone on your block knowing that your house is a 3-bedroom 1-bath, but know nothing about the people that live inside.

<comment><USER12> > I don't want to pay for every single site I visit

I do - if the content is good, the price reasonable, and the transaction frictionless.

And if that's what it takes to get rid of intrusive advertising and user tracking, sign me up.

<comment><USER13> You'd also have to pay more than what you're worth at status quo today.

By some estimates your data's worth $240, assuming you're an exactly average user: [https://medium.com/wibson/how-much-is-your-data-worth-at- lea...](https://medium.com/wibson/how-much-is-your-data-worth-at- least-240-per-year-likely-much-more-984e250c2ffa)

Since not every user will pay or can afford to pay, and presumably heavier users are worth more, you might have to pay thousands, or tens of thousands (in case you bought a house or something based on targeted ads).

You can sort of simulate this today: imagine if you were to bid past all other ads shown to you for every ad slot on every site, then you could replace them with an empty picture. That might get expensive.

<comment><USER14> > By some estimates your data's worth $240

Thanks for putting a price point on the amount that people^H^H^H^H^H^H^H advertisers will pay to ruin my freedom. I value it much more than they.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > "Your app uses analytics software to collect and send user or device data to > a third party without the user's consent. Apps must request explicit user > consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or > otherwise making a record of user activity,"

Every big app collects analytics without such disclosure (and definitely no visual indicator). I honestly can't think of a counterexample.

If Apple's declaration is taken literally, this will have massive fallout on the analytics ecosystem.

<comment><USER16> Not every big app. Every app.

It can often be difficult to determine root cause of an issue when you are just given a stack trace. I suspect we will soon see two patterns arise: (1) Popups when the app launches to get consent and (2) Screen recording that still happens but only phones home if an exception occurs and where they get consent at that point.

And what does this mean for core metrics like Google Analytics ?

<comment><USER17> I have published several apps on the App Store and none of them make use of any analytics or screen recording or any telemetry, really. So your statement "every app" is categorically wrong as far as I can understand it.

<comment><USER18> What kind of metrics can you get from Apple. Clearly number of downloads, but how about things like Daily Active Users?

<comment><USER19> And if your app has any kind of online component, there's probably an HTTP request hitting your server whenever the user launches the app. So even without explicit telemetry in the app, you can easily get decent data from your web server's logs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I think many people would be surprised by the amount of analytics data leaving their phone _all the time_. I recently was doing some work where I had my iPhone proxied through mitmproxy on my laptop, and was blown away by just how much data was being sent. Some apps were sending a request to one or more analytics firms every single time I touched a UI control. I would set up a pi- hole and VPN to block this stuff, but I'm sure the app developers will just start tunneling the requests through their own hosts. Maybe some day one of these open source phones will actually be viable.

<comment><USER21> I wish the AppStore review team would simply reject any app that generates unnecessary network traffic for no good reason.

They don't even need to MITM the traffic. Just the fact that an app makes network requests when using a supposedly offline feature should immediately get them rejected.

And iOS should introduce a visible network activity indicator that can't be manipulated by applications, like they do for location tracking.

<comment><USER22> I would love a Little Snitch for iOS.

<comment><USER23> [https://guardianapp.com/](https://guardianapp.com/)

<comment><USER24> I use this app. So far, it blocked 1108 data trackers and 3 locations trackers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> pablo-massa And when browsers will protect users against activity recording without consent?

For example Hotjar [1], I did a review [2] of the product a year ago and I could not believe the creepy surveillance level of this tool.

For me, manually disable JS or install content blockers will not get mainstream appeal for the regular users who just want to browse the web (and didn't know that maybe are being recorded).

This should be blocked by default on every browser.

[1] [https://hotjar.com](https://hotjar.com)

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

<comment><USER25> It's creepy indeed. Not only do they collect all your actions (key presses included) but I believe they also send the activity to their servers via HTTP, rendering the SSL on the page that includes their script, useless.

<comment><USER26> If it's a HTTPS page, wouldn't that be blocked due to mixed content though? Or is HTTP requests from a HTTPS-loaded script allowed?

<comment><USER27> Modern browsers should block all backend/javascript http communication if the main request is made over HTTPS, unless you specifically disable it with a Content Security Policies.

<comment><USER14> Better to just disable javascript altogether. Sure, there's no dynamic loading of garbage, but I didn't want that anyway. If your back-end server can't render HTML then you need to build an app.

At least with native desktop apps I can put that garbage into a VM or container. Load whatever you want. I can then apply my own firewall/containerization/VM rules.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I wonder if this move is related to this recent story [1] from theappanalyst, which reveals not just a privacy, but also a security nightmare.

The article even seems to mention it _" Even though sensitive data is supposed to be masked, some data — like passport numbers and credit card numbers — was leaking."_

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19102036](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19102036)

<comment><USER29> It's almost certainly a response to that.

<comment><USER28> It just seems to be really fast. The article appeared on HN 21 hours ago. Unfortunately there is no date on the blog post itself.

When I read the report I was hoping that it will have serious consequences for Glassbox and similar services. Good that Apple is taking action so fast. I hope Google kicks in soon too.

<comment><USER29> I think there was some associated press coverage for the last couple of days, of which that article was on the tail end of.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I appreciate and welcome this requirement from Apple.

Some time ago I built something I call "Network Blackhole".

The project intercepts HTTP traffic from applications that I installed in either my MacBook or iPhone. An excellent example of this is Crashlytics [1], Segment [2], and Sentry [3], which are among a list of popular web services that many developers use to report bugs and crashes in their software, and the famous Google Analytics, which I hope I don't need to explain what it is used for.

With the help of Little Snitch [4] a popular network monitor for macOS, I detect when an app tries to connect to one of these services, or similar. Then I execute a tool written in Go like so: "blackhole example.com" which does the following:

1\. Inserts domain into /etc/hosts

2\. Create an HTTP web server (in Go)

3\. Adds a match-all endpoint to the server

4\. Creates an SSL certificate with mkcert [5]

5\. Creates an Nginx virtual-host for the server

6\. ???

7\. Profit

In the end, and after 1-2 minutes, I have all the traffic to that domain gracefully redirected to a black hole, reducing the amount of data that I leak to 3rd-party websites.

However, don't get me wrong, I understand the purpose of these services, I haven't said they are evil or anything like that. I would probably use them myself if I had to, but I certainly would add an alert to ask for explicit consent from the user to send this information to a service that I won't even have control over. If one of them leaks my customer's data, I will be the only one facing the consequences.

I hope I don't have to add another domain to my network black hole anymore.

[1] [https://crashlytics.com/](https://crashlytics.com/)

[2] [https://segment.com/](https://segment.com/)

[3] [https://sentry.io/](https://sentry.io/)

[4] [https://help.obdev.at/littlesnitch/](https://help.obdev.at/littlesnitch/)

[5] [https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert](https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert)

<comment><USER31> You have two links labelled [4], and also didn't share your tool; which was the more interesting content of your comment ;)

<comment><USER30> Thank you, I add the missing link.

Unfortunately, I cannot share the tool because it contains multiple zero-days for apps that make use of Paddle [1] and Devmate [2] to grant and validate software licenses. It also contains zero-days for apps developed in partnership with Panic [3] and MacPaw [4]. I've been in contact with some of the developers of these apps to patch their software, and until they all release security updates I cannot share the code with the world.

[1] [https://paddle.com/](https://paddle.com/)

[2] [https://devmate.com/](https://devmate.com/)

[3] [https://panic.com/](https://panic.com/)

[4] [https://macpaw.com/](https://macpaw.com/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Seems like a poorly thought out policy. It should be another permission. "App ABC would like to capture your screen Y/N"

Also IMO if Apple was really serious about privacy they'd remove the permission for apps to use your camera and see all your photos and instead require apps to use a system camera a UI (so the system takes the picture, not the app) and similarly if an app wants a photo from your library it should be required to use some system photo selector so that the app can only see the photos you select for it.

As it is, every app that asks for camera permission can use the camera anytime it wants for any reason.

Similarly any app that asks for permission to see your photos can see all of your photos anytime it wants.

Neither of those is compatible with the idea that Apple is a privacy first company.

Note that if Apple enforced those you wouldn't need to grant most apps camera and photo library permissions since they wouldn't get access to the camera data unless you took a picture while in the app or select photos.

I get it might suck in that gating the camera to system only means experimental camera apps are out. Maybe they could find a way to add secure hooks or maybe they need to add a new permission that hopefully security conscious people would rarely grant which is "Can this app access the camera anytime it wants for any reason including spying on you?"

Similarly only using the system photo selector would mean apps can't make fancier photo selectors but again, you could add permission for that if it's really important. For example Dropbox/Google/Flickr/Facebook upload all your photos features would need a "Can this app spy on 100% of the photos on your device?"

AFAIK access to depth data currently requires no permission. Seems again that that's not a privacy-first policy.

Also, Apple is apparently yanking the ability for for webpages to access orientation data. Why should apps be any different?

<comment><USER33> I naively thought that was how computers worked when I was younger. It still feels weird that it isn't the case

<comment><USER34> define younger, computers use to be the wild wild west where you could do anything. nowadays companies are locking up things left and right - if you don't have technical expertise you mostly can't do anything except corrupt your OS

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Oh no, how will we track user engagement now? I need those engagement numbers for my promotion case by May, thanks Apple! >:(

On a more serious note: it's nice to see that Apple is finally cracking down on these shady analytics SDKs. I'm _this_ close to forgiving the headphone jack thing...

<comment><USER35> I, too, am thrilled with this development. Feel happy for supporting Apple, bought an iphone after years of Android because of their vocal and increasingly militant stance on privacy.

Let's ban the entire Google analytics framework while we're at it, including in Safari. Then we're getting somewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> As a product developer, screen recording has been a game changer for finding UX bugs. There's no real replacement for watching your users use your app in real world scenarios.

It seems apple is only banning screen recording tools that send data to "third party" servers so hopefully there are open source self-hosted alternatives that we can use instead.

<comment><USER37> Ok, then you pay some people to be a sample group who will allow you to do so, not just keep it under the hood and pray you aren't found out. Things like thjs are exactly why every app should make network requests approved by the user.

<comment><USER38> Could you give people In-App purchases for free in exchange for the allowance to work together to improve UX?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> My company app screen record everything (using repro.io). I've tried to talk with my superiors but they don't care. Is there a way to report the app to Apple?

<comment><USER40> You want to report your company's app? That's unusual. I don't see any winners in that scenario.

<comment><USER41> The people?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> As an Android user since the original Samsung Galaxy I only have this to say - I'm literally browsing the iPhone section of the Apple website right now.

</comment><comment><USER43> > explicit user consent

Is this possible?

Opinion:

 _Explicit consent_ can only be given if a person fully understands what they're agreeing to. The weight of evidence suggests that once personal identifying information is out in the wild it can't be retracted.

While the banks, police, and media continue to refer to such a concept as _identity theft_ , I don't believe it's possible for _anyone_ to give _explicit consent_ to their data being _leaked_ and used by people with ill- will.

Edit: leaked, or intentionally sold to bad actors. Or the parties collecting the data in the first place are bad actors themselves.

</comment><comment><USER44> Why doesnt the Apple app review team catch this prior to deployment?

I thought that was the big thing about having to use the app store was Apple kept it locked down tight to prevent this from happening?

<comment><USER17> Because the app review team only evaluates a compiled binary, it is fairly easy to obfuscate nefarious activity. It could be as simple as serving different javascript from your backend to a [JSContext evaluateScript] call based on a flag you set after the app is approved, for example.

<comment><USER45> Of course, serving up javascript from your backend to a [JSContext evaluateScript] call is itself a violation of the app store guidelines. Interpreted code not executed as part of a web page rendered by WebKit either has to be bundled in the app itself, manually entered by the user, or has to be in the context of a learning app with a slew of restrictions around the UI (basically, the exception for Swift Playgrounds).

<comment><USER29> Apple's guidelines around this are pretty clear, but almost everyone that tries to use this to A/B test seems to get through app review. I'd really rather this just be outright banned, but it looks like the current policy is annoyingly lenient.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> I specifically put a disclaimer on my website (sephware.com) that my apps don't even collect, let alone sell, any of your data. Ironically my app (Autumn) was rejected and not allowed on the App Store, even when I filed an appeal, because it uses Accessibility, despite there being a good handful of apps of the same type on the App Store that were grandfathered in before that rule, many of them long abandoned and receiving recent poor reviews with the users asking for them to be updated. I have aimed for Autumn to be not only one of the more polished and aesthetically pleasing apps on the App Store, but among the most ethically conservative also.

<comment><USER47> If your app is using the Accessibility APIs, is it actually an assistive app, meant to help people with disabilities? I've seen apps get rejected for using Accessibiliy but not actually being accessibility apps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> I'm waiting for the reveal of what Apple does with state actors, and I am waiting for the evidence there can be anything close to 'sunlight on certificates' or other forms of transparancy around what they do. So, yes, we win when Apple fights for our privacy. What I need to understand is what we lost in this, and what compromises lie underneath, and how much the state(s) at large secured wins which we aren't winning on, they are.

Key escrow for instance. Insights into phone use. Monetisation of information feeds forbidden to third parties.

I still prefer signal to iMessage.

</comment><comment><USER49> This is a really dumb move. It's not like Apple was previously unaware of this, there were entire venture backed companies built entirely around being able to do this and they've been around for years.

Despite seeming scary, this is actually the most benign form of data collection. People have this naive notion that companies have this obsessive desire to track them as an individual. Working at tech companies, this could not be further from the truth. I do not give a shit about you as an individual, I care about you as a collection of attributes that I can correlate with the attributes of the rest of the user base. The only time I care about you as an individual is if you're reaching out to our customer service as an individual with a problem and I want to help diagnose it.

The problem with screen recording data is remarkably useless for anything else because it's too high fidelity to be aggregated. If I want to serve you more personalized ads or manipulate you into purchasing something, there are other tools that are far more appropriate for the purpose.

The only reason Apple is doing this is for PR reasons, to help signal to everyone that they're a privacy conscious business. But they're doing this by leveraging people's misunderstanding of how data collection is done and banking on emotional fears rather than actual damage.

</comment><comment><USER50> Several friends and I recently noticed the red navigation bar indicating screen recording for a couple seconds after closing instagram. At the time I wrote it off as nothing, but now I wonder if even apps that big are doing similar things.

</comment><comment><USER51> I think this needs to be clarified more.

At the same time as appreciative I am about Apple's privacy stance, it really worries me that they're the only large company that seems to care.... and when they don't, who will?

</comment><comment><USER52> They should just ban first, explain later, in this scenario. The app developers know full well what they're doing, and the remedy should be punitive for scumbag outfits that operate like this.

</comment><comment><USER53> I've used screen recording systems in both web and mobile and found them to be very valuable tools. And I've only ever used them to troubleshoot and improve the product. Never shared the data. That said, I've always been disturbed that it was considered fine to do. I think Apple's move is great. I hope other apps stores do the same. I think it should be done for text-based analytics like GA as well, as they get so detailed that it's pretty much the same as screen recording.

</comment><comment><USER54> Hah, you think that's bad just look at all the sites that use Hotjar. Some entry-level UX person at thousands of companies can see you typing in all your credit card data.

<comment><USER55> Or Fullstory! Way back in 2016 that analytics package could already show you the full screen and every click on someone using a website or native ios/android mobile app.

All so you can "optimize your A/B testing" lol.

But don't worry, there won't be a Netflix documentary or Congressional subpoena till 2025, LOONNNNG after your startup's exit. Until then, Zuckerburg gets to be the face of this general disdain and luckily gets to honestly have no idea about what is going on, because third parties integrated into his apps are the ones doing all the recording, user monitoring and data sharing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I see this more of a perf thing than a privacy thing. Since most apps connect to a remote backend, any app developer can create backend tooling that perfectly recreates a user session from server logs, with local actions logged locally and uploaded on the next request. But they're usually too lazy to, and waste my bandwidth by uploading logs directly from my phone to a third party.

</comment><comment><USER57> Perhaps Apple was already waiting for an outrage like this. It allows them to be "forced" to shut down third-party logging. Which only hurts competitors. What can Google say? "Well....on Android we're not a third-party..."?

They've kicked out tracking already on Safari. This is the next step. It makes Google's software look like spyware.

</comment><comment><USER58> I think apps that do recording/tracking should be forced to have a message similar to tobacco products. I think users should be able to do whatever they like with their devices, so I'm against closed ecosystems. But users should at least be able to make informed decisions.

</comment><comment><USER59> Let's pretend that clicktale or something similar doesn't exist on the majority of big websites

</comment><comment><USER60> I don't understand why it is sending 'notices' to developers. Why can't it be a proper permission like all others - which the users have to explicitly allow when an app tries to do that? _That_ will be proper security.

<comment><USER61> How would that be technically possible? All the app needs to do is log the user's taps and swipes and then replay those inputs on a copy of their app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER62> Do any of the first party iOS apps (imessage, safari, podcasts, etc) collect analytics data?

<comment><USER29> They do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> This is one of the reasons why I won't own a computer I can't root. On my Android phone I'm running AdAway which blackholes ad and tracking hostnames. This is currently impossible on iOS without using your own external DNS server.

<comment><USER13> I suspect companies will move to owning their own endpoints and having the info forwarded to google/mixpanel on the backend. Though to be honest I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> But what about these "recordings" in a web app that Apple has no control over? As far as I can tell, grabbing a screenshot of a canvas element and sending it to a server is still doable without being reprimanded by Apple.

</comment><comment><USER65> Is this not hypocritical? I assume Apple does similar (analytics)?

<comment><USER29> Recording people's screens without disclosing that they're doing so? No, not really.

<comment><USER65> Disclose, like in the small text that nobody reads?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER66> > "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone"

Users might get into serious trouble with this kind of mis-information. Apple should rephrase their slogan.

</comment><comment><USER67> I've personally used FullStory.com to debug some especially spurious bugs in many a browser. I do with it was opt-in only but I haven't seen such a system.

</comment><comment><USER68> Yet another reason why I'll happily interact with your business on the web, but I won't download your app unless it's obviously essential.

<comment><USER53> Same thing for web - [https://www.fullstory.com](https://www.fullstory.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why not refuse to load sites in Safari which do similar mouse and click tracking?

Does Apple.com?

(Real question. I'm guessing because it's too common or too CPU intense.)

<comment><USER69> Because there's no centralized approval process for websites, you'd have to find a robust technical means to detect such tracking, which is pretty difficult. Identifying a particular domain or filename wouldn't work well because it could be trivially evaded – although if that's what you want, content blocker apps can do that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> They raising voice now to cover the obvious question underneath, how did such app bypass their precious review and approval system?

</comment><comment><USER71> I think if the next iPhone will have USB-C, I will switch over from Android.

The general app quality on iOS seems to be much better than Android.

</comment><comment><USER72> Why not provide this as something the user has to give permission for, similar to providing access to the microphone or camera?

</comment><comment><USER73> I can't even read this because of the leading space tripping up my eyes!

</comment><comment><USER74> Is this really a response to the Air Canada teardown yesterday?

That went viral quickly

</comment><comment><USER75> ..and many analytics startups die in one night.

</comment><comment><USER76> Click-baity title. Should say "Apple tells app developers to disclose or remove screen recording code" which is much more reasonable than a heavy- handed forced action.

<comment><USER77> The article mentions that Apple forced a developer by threatening to take away app store distribution:

> Apple gave the developer less than a day to remove the code and resubmit > their app or the app would be removed from the app store, the email said.

<comment><USER78> I'm sure the developer was happy to get some time, but as a user I would rather see any app that's violating the agreement removed immediately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER79> This is a thing? What?

</comment><comment><USER80> I guess they could have made that impossible to begin with. But, you know, reasons.

<comment><USER81> How would you do that? If code can render something to a screen, how would you prevent it from rendering to a video?

<comment><USER80> The point is to not make it so easy. It doesn't need to be easy, or automatable.

<comment><USER82> You can make it hard as you like, but if it's still _possible_ then someone will wrap it with a nice API and documentation, maybe even sell it and make bank, and you're back to where you started.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Development of the C Language - <AUTHOR> http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/chist.html

<comment><AUTHOR> It's long, but it's very interesting if you feel partial towards the language design.</comment>


7 Best Free Analytics Courses on Coursera - <AUTHOR> http://www.edupristine.com/blog/7-best-analytics-courses-on-coursera

<comment><AUTHOR> Coursera's website is an educational platform that has partnered with top organizations and universities across the globe to offer online courses for anyone for free. You can select any course that suits your profile and sign up for it and learn with your own convenience. Best Analytics Courses online

</comment><comment><USER2> In my opinion, and haveing done lots of online courses the best analytics course is the "Analytics Edge" by MIT. Hands on with many exercises and examples.</comment>


Peter Molyneux Explains the Design of Black and White - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69HTviSeQeE <comment><USER2> Peter is a legend, B&W games and Godus are amazing games.

<comment><USER3> I spent many hours on B&W as a kid and definitely feel like it deserves the label.

But Godus? When I tried it, it just came across as an in app purchase infested cookie cutter town building game.

Game designers will still mention B&W many tears from now, but can the same be said for Godus?</comment></comment>


3DNes adds another dimension to classic NES games - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2016/03/09/3dnes-emulator/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, my friend developed this emulator. Any comment and feedback would be appreciated :)</comment>


Is Police brutality a handcuff design issue? - <AUTHOR> Police brutality in the US happens while restraining the suspect. I am from a country where police brutality means beating the shit out of the suspect until they confess. So the American problem is a design issue. The Handcuffs is a dumb design. It's not ergonomic. People are too wide, too fat and too tall and too big these days to be restrained with handcuffs behind their back. The police departments need help to redesign the handcuff and find better ways to restrain suspects with non lethal equipment. Hackers, product designers, martial artists and even those who are bondage fetish professionals can contribute greatly. All lethal weapons are by definition lethal. There has to be a mechanism to deactivate them.  <comment><USER2> I think the problem here in the US goes far beyond handcuffs. See this recent spreadsheet[0] listing incidents of police brutality in the US during the George Floyd protests.

[0][https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1YmZeSxpz52qT-10t...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1YmZeSxpz52qT-10tkCjWOwOGkQqle7Wd1P7ZM1wMW0E/htmlview?pru=AAABcql6DI8*mIHYeMnoj9XWUp3Svb_KZA)

<comment><AUTHOR> I am not going to argue that...but I am questioning the notion that we still need to restrain suspects in something archaic and badly designed handcuffs.

What are going to be the non lethal means of questioning, restraining and holding etc..(I don't know the exact terms for what they do now..).

If there is no need for an arresting officer or a police officer to even approach a suspect, then we are eliminating the chances of something bad happening right at the beginning. Perhaps a lot of procedural accidents can be avoided.

This is not to say that racism would be eliminated or reduced. But if it does exist As a reason for arrest, it doesn't have to be lethal and take a life.</comment></comment>


Fabric 2 is out - <AUTHOR> http://bitprophet.org/blog/2018/05/09/fabric-2-is-out/ <comment><AUTHOR> > modern Fabric is really a few separate libraries, and anything not strictly > SSH or network related has been split out into the Invoke project.

> This means that if you're in the group of users leveraging Fabric solely for > its task execution or local, and never used run, put or similar - you don't > need to use Fabric itself anymore and can simply 'sidegrade' to Invoke > instead.

</comment><comment><USER2> I like the fact that fabric 2 is a library first, instead of somekind of 'recipe' language. Putting aside invoke in its own library is a great move. Now, I can happily avoid Ansible.</comment>


Returned online purchases often sent to landfill, journalist's research reveals - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-dec-12-2019-1.5393783/it-s-pretty-staggering-returned-online-purchases-often-sent-to-landfill-journalist-s-research-reveals-1.5393806 <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21789564](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21789564)</comment>


Apple's 16GB iPhone 6S is a serious strategic mistake - <AUTHOR> http://www.vox.com/2015/9/11/9311203/apple-16gb-iphone6s <comment><USER2> _" A 64GB flash storage chip is more expensive than a 16GB flash chip, but it's not anywhere near $100 more expensive, so pushing people up the chain increases not just revenue but profit margins. [...] This highlights the fact that the margin-boosting potential of the 16GB iPhone 6S doesn't serve any actual purpose."_

That's not the strongest logic. If the 64GB one has higher margins, adding a 16GB option gives buyers the opportunity to go for a lower margin product.

I think the reason the 16 GB version exists is to give money-constrained buyers an option to buy an iPhone without giving less money-constrained, but money-conscious, buyers a reason to also go for the cheaper model.

<comment><USER3> It is a common pricing tactic to have a premium product that no one buys because it makes the mid-range product seem more reasonable vs settling for the low-end.

This could be same thing in reverse. By having a low-end that is so low, it sets the expectation floor so low that the others seem like reasonable upgrades even though they are actually low/mid-range implementations at mid/high-end prices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> 16GB is very appealing to people who do not use the app store at all. A number of people just use the iPhone as a (gasp!) phone with just calendar and contacts and a bit of email. For such a small segment, that makes the 16GB a logical loss leader to get people who would not ordinarily think of getting an iPhone and who then might go for the 64GB model a year later.

</comment><comment><USER5> The entry-level 16GB model is still practical if you rely on cloud services for the storage and retrieval of media files. 16GB is still enough room for iOS, bundled apps, and a moderate number of third-party apps. That said, I think it's likely that the 2016 iPhone will start at 32GB.

</comment><comment><USER6> What about RAM? Please don't tell me the iPhone 6S still comes with only 1GB of RAM in 2015 for $650+.

<comment><USER7> There are a number of articles that have have "confirmed" it has 2GB (I'm VERY happy about that).</comment></comment>


Bumbag – A React UI Kit - <AUTHOR> https://bumbag.style <comment><AUTHOR> Bumbag is an accessible & themeable React UI Kit that allows you to rapidly build React applications whether it be an MVP or a large-scale application.

Featuring: \- 🧱 70+ components \- Global & component-level theming \- Flexible composition \- Page shells \- Color modes \- Variants \- and so much more!

</comment><comment><USER2> "There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation, off by one errors and naming things."

<comment><AUTHOR> hahahahahahaha</comment></comment>


MicroConf Europe 2014 is on right now: Follow the live blog here - <AUTHOR> http://www.it-engelhardt.de/microconf-europe-2014-hub/

<comment><USER2> I went last year and thought it was a great conference - it was so much fun to meet up with a bunch of like-minded people. I would highly, highly recommend it.

On the other hand, this year I figured that most of the good information would probably leak out like this, and I could just spend the time actually working on my site. For me, time is the limiting factor, not ideas about things to do.

</comment><comment><USER3> I always enjoy these notes. Thanks for posting them.</comment>


Show HN: USA visa refusal by country - <AUTHOR> http://usa-visa-refusal.miguel.im/ <comment><USER2> What happened in 2007 that the refusal rate for Mexicans grew from 10% to 33%?

<comment><USER3> Spain's rate went 11% higher too after 2011. Was there any policy change?

<comment><AUTHOR> The case of Spain is not highly representative since B types visas are ordered in extraordinary circumstances. Spanish people is allowed to enter USA by having an eVisa: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_System_for_Travel_A...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_System_for_Travel_Authorization) About your exact question I do not know why that difference in 2011 and the following years. It would be interesting to know.

I only found that in 2011 the ESTA fee was introduced but I do not know if there were more changes in the visa policy.</comment></comment></comment>


History of computing in Scandinavian Airlines System [in Danish] [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.sdsk.dk/2010/sas_data-hist/FUTv03.pdf <comment><USER2> I can only curse myself for not learning enough Danish by now.

Another interesting source of practical applications of computing machinery is the book "Computer" by Herb Grosch: [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/computer.html](http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/computer.html)

He also lets on that remote electronic flight booking was already possible in the early 1960s.

Also have a look at Frank da Cruz's pages about computing history at NYC's Columbia University: [http://www.columbia.edu/~fdc/](http://www.columbia.edu/~fdc/)

</comment><comment><USER3> It would be interesting also to see what they are using now.

<comment><USER4> Yeah correct - flight planning, crew is managed by Sabre FPM and Crew Manager (afaik). ACARS are managed through FPM , HERMES and some strange interface for the old mainframes (the rest of the comm is going through this). The rest is mostly SAAS, but in the RDP sense. I can assure you, its definitely not "Cloud", but Remote Desktop Computing. SAS also has multiple small airlines (local) attached to it, some of them are using their own stuff, but most of it is central.

This is by far one of the most stale industries as yarper mentioned. Really long sales cycles heavily relying on connections and also large implementation/customization fees are part of it. Esp. in flight planning - where 0.1% fuel savings are important, things haven't moved anywhere.

<comment><USER5> Sounds like healthcare at the medium hospital and up level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there a version in English?

<comment><AUTHOR> I have not been able to find an English translation. Google Translate does a great job at this text and I think its worth the work for people interested in early global networked messaging and computing with Mainframes, Unix, pre- TCPIP, post-TCPIP etc...

After googling after some exotic hardware mentioned in the text, I found a translated section from this text in "History of Nordic Computing" [0].

I am helping my girlfriend with an internal project in SAS, and I found this text when I was searching for documentation on an ancient Mainframe "QQLIF file" which is still in use today! This text does indeed contain a description of it:

"All messages in and out of systems were logged on logtapes, so we started using them to extract traffic in the network. IBM mainframe computer was we used for our data processing and SAS (Statistical Analysis System) was the "language" we programmed in. At an earlier point, we had been losing track over which terminals we had and where they stood. Therefore, we had already built up a widely used file called QQLIF and contained a variety of information about each terminal. It was both a real time online "direct access" file at Unisys, and a batch copy on IBM. Mainframes known terminal's trust, and by means of QQLIF file could be translated into PLID. Because of strict PLID'ens building could we add line drop, controls, and terminal for individual messages."

[0] [https://books.google.dk/books?id=c7MlCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=P...](https://books.google.dk/books?id=c7MlCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA276&lpg=PA276&dq=lorenz+agentset&source=bl&ots=kH7t_NKsLg&sig=v3PTowEl_6lY8X-nxafQ9fOA5Ac&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAGoVChMIq8jBkeDpxwIVxZ1yCh26zgoK#v=onepage&q=lorenz%20agentset&f=false)

<comment><USER7> Google Translate told me "The page you requested was too large to translate" \- got a working GT link?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am afraid you have to translate the section you wish to read by copying and pasting into Google Translate. A minor hassle imo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you enjoy reading about the history of airlines, I highly recommend Thomas Petzinger's "Hard Landing"...a good chunk of the book is devoted to the airlines' brutal fight over computer systems...reading it is a great look into how something so seemingly mundane as arranging ticket reservations was so revolutionary in changing the business...and how so fundamentally even primitive computers impact our lives:

[https://books.google.com/books?id=GF5GZaTd8qsC&lpg=PA62&ots=...](https://books.google.com/books?id=GF5GZaTd8qsC&lpg=PA62&ots=EKsOUN6uRE&dq=hard%20landing%20thomas%20petzinger%20computer%20george&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false)

Here's an excerpt regarding the state of the industry before computers:

> An airline seat is like fresh food—a grapefruit, say—in that it spoils after > so much time on the shelf. Every empty seat taking off on every flight is a > spoiled grapefruit and exactly as valueless. Both required time, effort, and > money to create, and both came to a wasteful, meaningless end. And on an > exceedingly large number of flights, the sale of one last seat, according to > the First Rule of Airline Economics, could easily decide whether the plane > flew the entire distance in the red or the black. As the builder of American > Airlines, C. R. Smith had agonized continually over the problem of matching > passengers with seats before the latter perished upon departure. The trick > was to balance reservations against inventory, a far greater task than it > might seem. At first, in the early 1930s, a single ledger had passed from > hand to hand as agents in a central office recorded reservations and erased > those that were canceled.

> With the advent of the DC-3, as the fleets and schedules of the airlines > swelled and as the seating capacity of each plane increased, a single book > became impractical, so multiple books were maintained. These had to be > reconciled frequently—a massively time-consuming process—and even so, each > book was inherently out-of-date at all times. Books gave way to chalk and > slate boards and eventually to electric light boards. More and more agents > were crammed into the reservations offices, with the line of sight to the > blackboard limited by the space between structural support columns—22 feet > in most buildings of the time. Some agents peered through opera glasses. > Teletypes clattered. Clerks known as "card boys" scurried from desk to desk, > eventually to be replaced by mechanical conveyors. One blackboard gave rise > to multiple blackboards, which quickly encountered the same problems that > multiple ledgers had caused.

> A science called "reservations theory" was born to cope with the > exponentially worsening challenge, but to little avail; as with so much else > in the airline business, there was no economy of scale in handling > reservations. The more the airlines grew, the less efficient they became. > The need to coordinate reservations among multiple cities—indeed, among > multiple airlines—added still another dimension of complexity. For most of > their history the airlines had been scheduled like railroads: numerous stops > along a single line, with passengers boarding and disembarking at each stop, > sometimes to board a second flight on a different airline flying in a > roughly perpendicular direction. Confirming the itinerary for a single > passenger traveling on two connecting airlines required no fewer than 20 > separate communications, making the airlines, even in the 1940s, among the > world's biggest users of leased telephone lines. But what if the entire > process could be automated?

Petzinger Jr., Thomas (2010-12-01). Hard Landing: The Epic Contest for Power and Profits That Plunged the Airlines into Chaos (Kindle Locations 1270-1275). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</comment>


If you could meet one person... - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/if-you-could-me.html <comment><USER2> meet yourself. Most people don't know themselves deep enough to figure out their own plusses and minuses and act on them. Every person has the potential to achieve success, but it begins from self realization.

<comment><USER3> The problem is, the guy I met yesterday is not the same guy today.

<comment><USER4> Are you sure about that?

<comment><USER3> I think so.

<comment><USER5> What if time was multidimensional?

<comment><USER3> Whoever is simulating us (and this universe) probably will deploy a patch that will make sure that that won't change things one way or the other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I would like to meet the person who have a failed startup on his account and trying the next time... many people don't even have the courage to start the first time.

"Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know."

<comment><USER4> It's me. On my second start-up now, and certainly learned a lot from the first one. Don't think you'd get that much from meeting me though - why not just start your own start-up, fail, then start again? Then you can have conversations with your ideal person-to-meet all day long for free!

<comment><USER6> great advice. will try to fail as early as possible, to start again..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Another good one from Seth. I'd add that one of the best ways to meet the kind of people who want to help you is to be helpful yourself. It's the whole "giver's gain" thing. The more you put yourself out there and try to help folks, the more they'll want to help you too.

</comment><comment> puzzle-out "Years ago, I went to the AOL partner's conference. I'm no runner (unless someone is chasing me) yet I signed up for the early morning run because I knew Steve Case, CEO of AOL, would be running. I ran with him for twenty minutes, almost killed myself". Seth Godin the Movie has light comedy potential. A shaven headed Jim Carey for the lead?

</comment><comment><USER8> so who is the one?

is s/he yourself?</comment>


Office UI Fabric by Microsoft - <AUTHOR> https://dev.office.com/fabric <comment><USER2> I like the Best practices, for example button [https://dev.office.com/fabric#/components/button](https://dev.office.com/fabric#/components/button)

 _Do

Make sure the label conveys a clear purpose of the button to the user.

Button labels must describe the action the button will perform and should include a verb. Use concise, specific, self-explanatory labels, usually a single word.

Buttons should always include a noun if there is any room for interpretation about what the verb operates on.

...

Don't

Don't use generic labels like "Ok," especially in the case of an error; errors are never "Ok."

Don't place the default focus on a button that destroys data. Instead, place the default focus on the button that performs the "safe act" and retains the content (i.e. "Save") or cancels the action (i.e. "Cancel").

_

Pity that MS doesn't always follow them...

<comment><USER3> Coming from windows (trying out mac), I have run into instances where (as I'm so used to the MS way) it's actually kind of jarring seeing dialogs that don't follow that "Don't" suggestion.

Granted, I haven't used much new MS software lately, so if they've gotten worse about that as you say that's a shame.

<comment><USER4> One of the things I remember about moving to Mac was dialogs without a "cancel"-button.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I always get infuriated by custom UI components, because they are _always_ poorly implemented for keyboard accessibility. _Always._ I have never met an exception. Seriously, is it _that_ hard to copy the platform behaviour for keypresses, _& c._? Sure, some of the details vary by platform, but it shouldn't be difficult to get the vast majority of it right. Especially for Windows, given Fabric's primary target.

Fabric is still no exception, though I find it better than the alternatives in almost everything.

(The menu bar component that seems to be used with Electron apps is extremely irritating in its keyboard handling: left and right arrow keys don't let you switch between menus like they should.)

<comment><USER6> i have a little experience in this. The shortcut keys don't just vary by platform but can also vary by region / keyboard config. Ctrl-I might do italic text in your version of word, but it might do something else in another region, where italic does not start with I.

Getting THESE consistent is very complex. Granted some (like arrow keys) could be done better, though in the case of electron this is part of webkit and not a separate component, so app developers (I'm pretty sure) have no control over it

<comment><USER7> Office shortcuts do not tend to vary with region unless you have a complete IME installed for Office as well (and even then most of them stay the same), and IIRC this is only available for only a few edition of Office, and I'm not sure if the past 2-3 versions even had that.

Overall the rule of thumb is that anything that is ctrl/winkey + key will stay the same, what Windows changes with the region is the alt shortcuts when you click alt + the a letter key it will use a UI component (usually) starting with that letter this is a literal shortcut rather than a functional one and it's fully converted via IME (IIRC MSFT even has an API that does this automatically), ctrl shortcuts are not literal, some are but mostly due to a coincidence rather than intent.

e.g. ctrl c - for copy, but x and v for cut and paste are there for ease of use due to the location while if you do with with alt then it will be Alt + E for the Edit menu, then C for Copy, T for cuT and P for Paste.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It took me a while to understand what this is and I am still not sure. IT seems like a CSS/JS component framework like Bootstrap but themed based on Microsoft Office design language? Is there any other relation to Office other than that?

<comment><USER9> Yeah, this is probably meant to be used for their "Office Store" Add-ins. You could think of them as web apps that are "iframed" into Office applications.

They have a store full of these web add-ins at [https://store.office.com/en-001/appshome.aspx?ui=en- US&rs=en...](https://store.office.com/en-001/appshome.aspx?ui=en- US&rs=en-001&ad=US) and dev docs at [https://dev.office.com/docs/add- ins/overview/office-add-ins](https://dev.office.com/docs/add- ins/overview/office-add-ins)

<comment><USER10> Additionally the app it's embedded in can be driven. Kind of like vba.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It is really frustrating to develop Office 365 Apps (pretty limited APIs) so I don't understand why they are not spending more resources on the API rather than the UI aspect. It seems like Microsoft is an unconnected company without cohesion.

For example, you cannot have an event that notifies you when a new e-mail arrives... and this issue is only the beginning.

<comment><USER12> Considering how large Microsoft is, I can't help but imagine that they have different engineering teams on each of those projects already.

I'm sure the frontend engineering team was excited about this, but somebody needs to give the backend engineering team a push

<comment><USER11> Considering how large Microsoft is I can't believe they can't organize the company better. You need a product manager that have the whole vision about their different offerings.

<comment><USER12> The point is more that the resources that would make this are different from the resources that would better the API.

Complaining about resources going towards this rather than that are silly, with that in mind.

<comment><USER11> It seems you never worked with OWA Office Addins, they are not prehistoric but unusable.

I can complain all I like because I am a Microsoft customer, premium MSDN, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I would drop the fade effects if I were MS. I can't be the only one who notices how bad most "effects" look in the browser. It reminds me even more that I'm not in a native platform.

</comment><comment><USER5> When making UWP apps with web tech, should Fabric be considered a successor for WinJS, a good technology to use? Sure, it's designed for Office UI, but there's rather a lot of overlap in it with Windows design guidelines.

Perhaps a variant of it? It'd be good if Microsoft made the situation clear.

<comment><USER14> If I am not terribly mistaken, WinJS has been declared obsolete by MS themselves. So Fabric is your new bet if you 're willing to take one ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is pretty snazzy. Looks like they're taking bootstrap concepts a step further with implementations for varying platforms. It's clean and simple design. I dig it.

</comment><comment><USER16> Still trying to figure out how to add a simple function to Excel. This is an old attempt at adding a function `double` that doubles it's argument. [http://kalx.net/ExcelUDF.html](http://kalx.net/ExcelUDF.html) Seems to no longer work.

</comment><comment><USER17> hmmm... looks interesting. I've struggled with quirks of frameworks implementing Material UI in React - I'm guessing mainly because the frameworks don't have a large company supported team. Will try this out.

</comment><comment><USER18> Does it have a progress bar component that goes backward like in Windows :) ?

</comment><comment><USER19> > "Community-driven project with for Angular apps"

Grammar.

<comment><USER19> Downvotes for trying to help. Cheers guys.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Yay, large attack surface!

</comment><comment><USER21> So nowadays VBA is replaced with ES6 and React?

</comment><comment><USER22> Still no cure for VBA though.

Hah!</comment>


Should the U.S. Air Force Bomb Forest Fires? - <AUTHOR> https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/a22674251/air-force-bomb-forest-fires/ <comment><USER2> Some of the smaller tactical nukes might would work quite nicely in this regard.</comment>


Reader Thing: This something very useful for a book reader - <AUTHOR> http://i.imgur.com/Wuck08J.png

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure this gadget is going to be comfortable in the long run.

For the matter I find book reading really uncomfortable and would read more if I found a better solution than sitting with my neck bent or lying in bed with my harms hold high.

I think I'd need a device that could hold the book in front of my head in the same way than a computer screen. Turning the pages might be complicated though.</comment>


Ask HN: How much time do you spend "thinking" about a hard problem each day? - <AUTHOR> I'm really curious to learn about how others allocate (or find time) in their schedule each day to reflect on a problem they're attempting to solve (personal or professional).
My personal anecdote:
I find that I tend to solve "hard" problems during periods of unconscious processing (times where I'm NOT actively thinking about the problem). However, I also know I need to spend a lot of active time thinking about the problem first, before my brain can "take over". I'm usually able to structure in the unconscious processing time with things like exercise, in particular long distance hiking (5+ hours ideally) on weekends.
Finding time to reflect on problems in the middle of the week, in an active sense, has been my hardest challenge. As someone who codes all day for my startup, I can easily get into a groove for 10+ hours and not take any meaningful reflection breaks. <comment><USER2> Does research count? For hard problems that I'm not sure how to answer I usually start by looking for any existing tool/framework/technique/blog post/paper that has solved a similar problem. I put copy what I find into Evernote, then, when applicable I sketch out a few different flow diagrams / schema diagrams / etc. to get a handle on how the pieces of my solution fit together.

If something is really complex / important / hard to change later, then I'll usually stop after the research phase and allow my unconscious mind to chew away on the solution, most commonly for me the 'Aha moment' comes during my morning workout. When I'm really stuck I re-read all my collected material, search for prior art again and repeat the process. Sometimes time forces me to just _start_ building, although those are the times when I typically end up refactoring later.

I definitely agree that time away from the problem to reflect leads to a better solution, but IMHO you have to have a really great problem statement and good context for the subconscious to do its best work.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your comment about needing a great problem statement resonates. For me, I only achieve this by really obsessing about a problem in some form of deep thought for a while.

What I wonder, based on your comment, is if I can distill exactly what I'm trying to do down to a simple statement or phrase, can I use some sort of technique to "imprint" the thought to my subconscious so it knows to go "work on this" for a while. Mind you, this may not even be a thing and this concept is all pseudo-science placebo, but it at least anecdotally rings true for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Once I get that "I'm getting kinda stuck in a rut here" feeling I usually take a lap around the building. (~5 min). That's usually enough.

I also go to the gym throughout the week but I usually am focusing on the workout too much to think about coding.

Sometimes I just have to more or less sleep on it though. I work on some other part of the project and come in the next day with fresh perspective. It's probably always kinda rolling around in the back of my head to some degree.

The Learning How to Learn course(free on Coursera) talks about focused mode vs diffused mode of thinking. I think you might find topic interesting. [https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to- learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I'll definitely checkout that link.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Good question. Got me thinking. I do not consciously allocate time for thinking about a hard problem, it just stays with me. Usually my AHA! moment comes during early mornings after the problem has stayed long enough and the moment is ripe.

</comment><comment><USER5> I find that I really don't allocate set time periods for reflection on hard problems. Instead, I tend to think about pieces of it over hours and days in order to flesh them out properly, and tend to "attach" a piece to the solution whenever I feel like it's ready to go.

</comment><comment><USER6> For me, early morning is best before I've been pulled into meetings or chats for various topics. That's the best time to block off time to focus on hard problems for a while.

The book 'Deep Work' by Cal Newport has some good perspectives on this.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think most people will share similar experiences that good ideas often are not forced out during a scheduled session but come from 'nowhere' like during a walk, or drive, or shower.

</comment><comment><USER8> What's your startup?</comment>


Pac-Man Turns 40 - <AUTHOR> https://kotaku.com/pac-man-the-japanese-game-that-took-over-the-world-tu-1843548980 <comment><USER2> I remember Pac-Man on the Atari 2600 and how awful it was compaired to the arcade. I had a Commodore 64 that had a better version of Pac-Man. It has been ported to many different platforms.</comment>


Were we contacted by aliens in 1977? - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqdbgk7

<comment><USER2> Maybe the "Wow!" Signal was an "end of file" marker, signaling the completion of a decades long knowledge dump from an alien civilization. Unfortunately, we started listening too late.

</comment><comment><USER3> Betteridge's law of headlines.

</comment><comment><USER4> Just as an aside, the mobile site is extremely well done.

</comment><comment><USER5> So probably not.</comment>


Apple issues fix for Mac password security problem - <AUTHOR> https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/HT208315 <comment><USER2> Finally, because it was at least 2 weeks known on Apple developers' forum [https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/79235#277225](https://forums.developer.apple.com/thread/79235#277225)

</comment><comment><USER2> Looks like apple support found about this issue from this tweet: [https://twitter.com/lemiorhan/status/935578694541770752](https://twitter.com/lemiorhan/status/935578694541770752)

</comment><comment><USER3> But texting the word "I" is still broken? I would have thought that one was easy.</comment>


Business Failures learned at 19yrs old - <AUTHOR> http://saadmalik.net/entrepreneurship/a-little-more-about-me-my-business-failures-lessons-learned/

<comment><USER2> Thanks for sharing my blog post on HN! Please feel free to share your thoughts. I'd appreciate any feedback.</comment>


A simple "Hello World" app for Node.js using the Twitter Streaming API - <AUTHOR> http://freezing-light-5807.herokuapp.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Not much to this, I started to learn Node.js today and this is the result. Using Socket.IO, ntwitter and Google Maps, this is just a few hours work and pretty much a Hello World entry into Node.js.

Any ideas for extensions and more complex things to try that will help me learn more about Node would be great.

Code at <https://github.com/danpalmer/node-twitter-experiment></comment>


Google: Taming The Long Latency Tail - When More Machines Equals Worse Results - <AUTHOR> http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/3/12/google-taming-the-long-latency-tail-when-more-machines-equal.html

<comment><USER2> The "insightfulness" of these points is overblown, especially if you've worked at Google, where the solution to "our bloated application server takes 20 minutes to recompile" is "then use our distributed compiler that runs on 100 machines," and the solution to "sometimes a worker machine takes a long time to come up or doesn't come up at all" is "then use redundant workers and fire up 200 machines."

I wouldn't be surprised if Google does pull off some snazzy new real-time architecture to use internally, but so far I think their strategy of farming out execution to huge numbers of crappy machines, while innovative and very successful, has pretty much exactly the problems you'd expect it to have.

<comment><USER3> _the solution to "our bloated application server takes 20 minutes to recompile" is "then use our distributed compiler that runs on 100 machines,"_

This is a bit disingenuous. The app servers are bloated because every library is rebuilt and statically linked, avoiding deployment problems and apps that use massively-outdated libraries. Continuous integration is expensive, but we can afford it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > With flash you can read 4KB of data in 100 microseconds or so, if your read > is stuck behind an erase you may have wait 10s of milliseconds. That's a > 100x increase in latency variance for that particular variance that used to > be very fast.

I had never heard this claimed before -- is this true? Wikipedia says:

"Less expensive SSDs typically have write speeds significantly lower than their read speeds. Higher performing SSDs have similar read and write speeds."

So it sounds like this isn't as much of an issue as the article claims.

<comment><USER5> I'm going to over-simplify a bit (and try to remember; it's been years since I've actually paid attention to flash). Flash works effectively by erasing to all-1s, and NAND'ing data with an existing block of bits. If you have a freshly erased block, it's already all 1s, and you don't have to clear it off before you can use it. This is fast.

If there are no free blocks, or for whatever reason, the flash device elects to use a block you've already written to, you need to erase the entire block, even if you're only writing one bit. This is relatively slow.

Most high end flash devices, as I understand it, try to keep a pool of pre- erased blocks so that they can stay on the fast path, on average.

As far as I can tell, what they're saying in this article is that sometimes you can hit the slow path, and that causes high latency. On average, it's not a big deal, but for some random small number of writes, it can be an issue.

<comment><USER6> Note: This is my own opinion, and not that of my employer (Google) or based on trade secrets or other IP from my employer.

Keeping pre-erased blocks is useful, but it can only reduce the write latency to what the chip gives you. And the chip gives you a longer write latency than read latency, especially for MLC with smaller process sizes.

<comment><USER5> True, there is a difference between read and write latency, but at least that is consistent and therefore easy to plan for. Large variance makes things far more difficult, in my opinion.

<comment><USER7> It's actually not consistent. On MLC flash, individual write operations can vary by a factor of 6.

see: <http://cmrr-star.ucsd.edu/starpapers/309-Grupp-1.pdf> (PDF)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It is possible to fix the max latency problem. If you have K distinct queries, just make sure that each such query is answered by N servers. If you do this you go from worst latency amongst all servers to worst latency amongst all N-tuples. Overall latency will then approach average of the slowest distinct query as N increases.

<comment><USER7> Sure. It's trivial to arbitrarily reduce the probability of this one issue by throwing N times the hardware at it.

Now you have to deal with the problems of:

1) Buying, powering, managing, etc N times the hardware. When you buy hardware by the warehouse, this will be a big bill :-) 2) Since you are now increasing your network traffic, power, etc. by _at least_ N times, it is very likely you will hit another problem that produces latency spikes.

Or, as Chris Colohan likes to say: "If you think solving problems is massively parallel computing systems is easy, please come join my team" :-)

<comment><USER8> I'm not saying that its easy, but the problem formulation in the article is simplified enough to be solved by this method. So I guess that my major objection is how the problem is stated.

Also in practice you don't really need N times the hardware. You pick out the queries with the worst jitter and either solve it or install two or three of these services, and you are good to go.

To summarize, I agree with you in principle, but would like to add that the method still is sound, but perhaps not in its most extreme form.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Well, in the ordinary "enterprise", people put throughput first and could case less about latency... With disasterous effects on user experience.</comment>


Rise of the sex robots - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2017/apr/27/rise-of-the-sex-robots-video <comment><USER2> I dont know how the reporter kept her professionalism during the video. For me it looks like the iPhone moment in this "technology" is a long way off.

</comment><comment><USER3> At last, the killer app for virtual reality.

<comment><USER4> To be honest, porn has always been the killer app for any nascent medium.

<comment><USER5> Those dolls go beyond being just porn. People (some anyhow) treat them as their companion --there is attachment to those things.

Some people will find that distressful but you know, if it's not harming anyone outside that "relationship" why not?

<comment><USER4> As far as I observe, many mediums pertaining to the portrayal of people, such as but not limited to "traditional" porn, has demonstrated its capability for its audience to develop an attachment with the person of portrayal. This attachment, however unilateral it may be, can qualify as an elementary form of relationship. It seems to me that porn, as much as its primary purpose is instantaneous sexual discharge, has further thrived from a kind of emotional attachment, i.e. crush, by its audience to their actresses of interest.

As much as the initial purpose of obtaining sex robots may be likewise to traditional porn (sexual discharge), it tangibility will likely enhance the formation of relationships. This time however, the "crush" will become a motive that one can act upon.

P.S. How is a sex robot different from a doll asides from being electronic?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What feature would you want HN to have? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Comment threads collapsed by default, so that initially only the top-level comments are visible. Then I could drill down into threads only if I am interested in continuing.

However, one of the best "features" of HN is its relative lack of features.

</comment><comment><USER3> \- Exchanging the position of the vote and the collapse buttons or just moving the collapse button the the leftmost spot.

\- Also a way to filter out (to make invisible) comments based on when the comment matches a regex (or at least a direct string match)

</comment><comment><USER4> Proper Markdown support for inline elements such as __bold __, _italic_, [link]() and `code` (and maybe ```fenced code blocks```). While having full GitHub Flavored Markdown would be nice, I think image, headers and tables and other block elements should stay turned off, because they disrupt the flow of the text

</comment><comment><USER5> Larger vote and collapse buttons for mobile so you're not constantly tapping the wrong thing by accident.

</comment><comment><USER6> I would very much love a "feature" to disappear: the silent rewriting of titles in submissions.

Just right now: "The Forgotten Lens" became "The Lens".

Some time ago, someone posted "How I Choose What to Read" (an essay on how he selects books) which became "I Choose What to Read" (must be an angry rant about main stream media shoving fake news into his face).

Unfortunately, the mods have already clarified that this "feature" is here to stay.

</comment><comment><USER7> I call it commment thread bailout collapsing.

I'll often have read ten deep into a long thread and have reached my fill of the discussion but it's a but cumbersome to scroll back and find the parent to collapse the thread. I want to just bail out.

</comment><comment><USER8> Hashtags / labels som that the content becomes curated.

Only sorting by upvotes / comments is too 1 dimensional for me, and it does not favours to the future readers of the site, nor to the goldmine content posted here.

<comment><USER9> Not a perfect solution, but the algolia search index is pretty good at finding topical articles that are most popular. If you don't use it already, it's the search bar at the very bottom of the front page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ability to only see new comments. Maybe kind of gray out previously read comments. On the main page tell you how many new comments there are.

</comment><comment><USER10> History of recently viewed posts like Reddit, things can disappear from the front page fast.

</comment><comment><USER11> Probably just web push notifications for when users directly reply to your comment.

<comment><USER12> This. Or just some way to keep track of a conversation without constantly refreshing

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> An option to highlight comments that were added since I last read the thread. Often when I find one interesting, I start reading comments (and possibly replying) early and check back several times. It's annoying to have to go over everything again that was already there last time. Right now I have to search repeatedly for '2 hours ago', '1 hour ago' and 'minutes ago', or wait until the thread has cooled down to read all at once.

</comment><comment><USER14> Decent styles and markup. I like the simple design, but:

\- the font is too small. It's impossible to read on a mobile or tablet. Body font is set to 10pt; comments to 9pt. Just use the browser default size (1em ~= 16px)

\- the markup is really bloated for what it does. The nested tables are unnecessary.

Bookmarklet to fix the font size on mobile: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19468463)

<comment><USER5> Agree about the markup, but the current font is perfect on small phones. Anything larger would have a line length with too few characters to be legible; and reader mode doesn't work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> A kill file.

Automatic highlighting of not-yet-seen comments.

<comment><USER15> There is a "hide" button. Not sure if that's what you mean by "kill file."

<comment><USER16> A "kill file" was a feature popularized by Usenet news readers. It lets you save a list of terms that you're not interested in seeing. For example, you may never want to see articles or comments from a particular user or which contain a particular phrase.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'd like to see downvotes only used when a comment doesn't add to the conversation, not when the comment gives a wrong answer. Some comments highlight a popular misconception which is useful to the conversation.

I think this is more a UX problem, where sites like Stack Overflow use downvotes to indicate that they disagree with the answer.

Maybe instead of a downvote button it should be a flag or -_- emoji. (edit: apparently HN removes emojis)

</comment><comment><USER18> Ability for me to mark a user as "someone I'd like to meet". If they also mark me within 12 months, then we both get an automated email. If they don't, nothing happens.

It would probably need some anti-abuse mechanism, to prevent someone from just marking every single user.

</comment><comment><USER19> Auto wrapping code quotes.

</comment><comment><USER20> Ability to make links open in a new tab by default.

<comment><USER21> Middle click links? It's a good habit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Perhaps NNTP service</comment>


The Best Advice We Overheard at First Round's CTO Unconference - <AUTHOR> http://firstround.com/review/the-best-advice-we-overheard-at-first-rounds-cto-unconference/ <comment><USER2> Can't emphasize how important this is for a new hire (and for the startup):

Assign new employees an early win.Consider giving new recruits a small project they can accomplish during their first month on the job. Have them all spend five minutes presenting whatever it is they did at the next All Hands following their first day. It's an opportunity to make immediate impact and introduce themselves to everyone in a positive light. It'll also build camaraderie between folks who started within the same span of time.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Interesting view:

When hiring candidates, ask for their operating manual. Tell candidates: "Imagine you're a robot. What does your manual say under 'ideal operating conditions.'" Once they answer, follow-up with this question: "What does the 'warning label' say?" You're likely to get insightful, unpredictable and humorous answers in this very low-lift way of gauging self-awareness and revealing personality.

<comment><USER3> Follow up by yelling at them to dance and firing bullets at their feet.

A large fraction of the people answering your question well will mostly be adept at figuring out what you want to hear (rather than revealing anything about themselves).</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why is the ESPN website still a subdomain of go.com? - <AUTHOR> ESPN is a huge site. According to Alexa, it's #17 in the U.S. and #68 worldwide. It's a HUGE site, obviously.
So, why does espn.com redirect to espn.go.com?
My first thought would be SEO/SEM. But there are countless ways to keep SEO/SEM when you change domains, and presumably Disney has the resources and manpower to make something like this happen.
They promote it as espn.com, so why, after 15+ years, do they still redirect to a subdomain? <comment><USER2> I believe this is done to share a cookie across Disney owned companies (ESPN, ABC, Disney) web properties. These are <http://abc.go.com>, <http://espn.go.com> and <http://disney.go.com>. There are more if you look at the footer of <http://go.com>.

This is also practiced by Yahoo for their country domains (i.e. <http://www.yahoo.de> turns into <http://de.yahoo.com>).

</comment><comment><USER3> Given the companies involved, they're likely hedging their bets. I'd put it that it's _only_ been 15 years to them.

</comment><comment><USER4> Wow, I've never noticed this until just now. The base domain go.com doesn't look respectable or trustworthy at all, either.

</comment><comment><USER5> You could expand the question to say why do abc, disney, and espn all include go.com in their url? Obviously they all share the same ownership. Although I think there would be better ways to promote cross brand pollination.

<comment><USER6> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go.com>

There's an interesting history there. I'm not sure why they haven't changed to just use their own domains, given how much of a failure the go.com portal concept was.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Their information architecture is a little odd too. Back when I was looking at their jobs a year or two ago, they had a Jobs page from 2002 still up on their site with an old school design. I just checked back, and it finally redirects to their Careers page, which is on a separate domain. It seems to me that they've kind of cobbled things together as they've moved forward.

There may be some SEO value from keeping all of the sites on the go.com domain, but that doesn't really seem to explain it. My best guess is that if they changed it, it would break something.

</comment><comment><USER8> Many search engines and Alexa don't discrimiate subdomains, therefore Go.com will have a super high rank and/or link weight.

Yahoo does the same and so many big companies.

I will say SEO purposes but also their whole infrastructure its quite obsolete.

This whole domain, sub domain or sub folder has a looong almost-philosophical debate.

</comment><comment><USER9> This is old school portal logic. money.cnn.com animal.discovery.com

Go.com email shut down earlier this year, btw - <http://go.com/mail/help></comment>


David Miranda Heathrow detention: No 10 'kept abreast of operation' - <AUTHOR> http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23769324

<comment><USER2> It's the stuff like this that lends credence to the 9/11 truther nuts. While I still don't think 9/11 was an inside job, it's very clear that the 2nd phase of that theory is in full effect all over the world. They're using terrorism as a justification to silence people and control us, right before our very eyes. This is scary stuff folks.

<comment><USER3> It's a shame that only about 5% of us give a shit about it as well.

It's working pretty well.

<comment><USER4> 5% seems very high. Maybe 5% of geeks? Maybe they'll just round everyone up who wears glasses or just datamine our hacker news posts. Balls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> grey-area A copy of the letter from David Miranda's lawyers is now available here:

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/aug/20/dav...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/aug/20/david- miranda-letter-home-office)

Looks like they want to take this to the high court if possible.

</comment><comment><USER5> "A Home Office spokesperson said: "The government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security."

It's starting to really piss me off how these governments think they can do anything as long as they mention "national security" in their public statements. It's like they think we're all morons and we'll actually believe it everytime they say it.

Commenters here on HN saying terrorism should be treated as any other crime are rights. Eliminate all "special terrorist-laws", and you'll stop these abuses.

<comment> k-mcgrady Another problem with the blatant over use of terrorism and national security is that people are finally starting to realise it's bullshit. When there is actual legitimate concern of terrorism or fear for national security people will ignore it. No doubt they'll invent another phrase to get their point across and we'll go through the same cycle of overuse again.

<comment><USER6> > people are finally starting to realise it's bullshit

Unfortunately when this happens, we have white flag terrorist event happening, caused and sponsored by government, just to put people back in their places. It seems to always work :(

I really don't know what the solution is, but this is not about pushing the switch that will always jump back (if you understand my analogy). We all need to come together and push it so hard that it will immediately switch over to the other side. Those in charge who says that kind of bullshit will stand on our side. Military called in to "cleanup" will refuse. Those who are about to declare "martial law" will declare those who tired to gave that order, terrorists.

This is the only change that, at this point, will work. Any other attempt will put you in jail for long time or life, will get your belonging confiscated, your family scrutinized and God knows what else.

<comment><USER7> _we have white flag terrorist event happening_

I believe the phrase you're looking for is "false flag" or "black flag".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Dupe of recent [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6242908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6242908)

More comments there; BBC changed title of story.

</comment><comment><USER9> This counterproductive use of the courts is just the latest development in a story which doesn't quite add up. Miranda said that the police asked him to hand over all his passwords ("they got me to tell them the passwords for my computer and mobile phone"), and (in the same interview) claimed "he didn't have a role", but then Rusbridger says (in the same article) that "[Greenwald] is regularly helped by David Miranda. Miranda is not a journalist, but he still plays a valuable role in helping his partner do his journalistic work." Miranda also claims that he didn't know what he was carrying, despite assisting his partner, visiting this film-maker, and knowing all the passwords!

Greenwald, the Guardian et. al don't get it: in order to convince me that they are in the right about surveillance, they need to be _beyond reproach_. I don't necessarily agree with the use of surveillance programs, but I certainly don't agree with the cynical truth-mangling tactics of the other side: because the truth is really the only advantage that side has. How did we get into this situation?

<comment><USER10> > they need to be beyond reproach

I don't understand this thinking. Greenwald and the Guardian have very little power in comparison to the intel agencies and governments they report on. Why is their conduct more important than the people they're reporting on, people we already know are misusing law and the power of government?

If anything, intel agencies and governments need to convince me they're beyond reproach or I'm just going to assume that their amoral ways will only get worse.

<comment><USER9> All I want is the truth. The details are inconsistent - someone's being economical with the truth. We found out that the NSA lied repeatedly, and I'll be bitterly disappointed if the other side doesn't hold itself to the high standards it (and we) expect of our governments.

<comment><USER10> I trust Greenwald more than I trust the NSA and the government. Glenn doesn't spy on me, for one.

<comment><USER9> Another inconsistency: check out Greenwald's original write-up [1]

> At the time the "security official" called me, David had

> been detained for 3 hours. The security official told me

> that they had the right to detain him for up to 9 hours

> in order to question him, at which point they could

> either arrest and charge him or ask a court to extend the

> question time. The official [...] said David was not

> allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow

> me to talk to him.

But then, in the report on Greenwald's detention [2]:

> He was offered a lawyer and a cup of water, but he

> refused both because he did not trust the authorities.

Let's be honest: if the official was lying, Greenwald would have pointed it out. So why didn't he? Greenwald just _presumes_ that I'll believe him since he's so much more trustworthy than a sinister figure on the end of a phone. That presumption must end.

[1] [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/david-m...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/david- miranda-detained-uk-nsa)

[2] [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/david- miranda-i...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/19/david-miranda- interview-detention-heathrow)

<comment><USER10> Miranda was offered a government lawyer at first, not one of his own choosing. He was smart to refuse their stupid offer.

<comment><USER9> He was smart to refuse the lawyer, but Greenwald's assertion that Miranda was not allowed a lawyer present was not actually grounded in reality. This whole thing stinks.

<comment><USER11> I have no issue with the statement.

There's a big difference between being offered a lawyer and being offered to call your lawyer. If he was not allowed to call a lawyer of his choosing then he was not allowed to have a lawyer present. A lawyer provided by the government is just another agent of the government in the room.

Since many law enforcement agents at the federal level (in the US at least) happen to also be lawyers then, by your logic, there is already a lawyer present. No need to get another one involved.

<comment><USER9> _There 's no logic involved_: Greenwald said something that _wasn 't true_ (whether that something came from him or the official who spoke with him is not yet clear). Then the closer you look, the more emerges: Miranda in his later interview said "I don't have a role" but then Rusbridger admitted this morning that he _did_ have a role. Rusbridger then insisted that Miranda "was not a journalist" but assisted his partner in "journalistic work". If the NSA's position fell apart under such basic cross-examination, we'd be all over it, so why do these guys get a free pass?

<comment><USER11> If you don't know where the statement originated then you don't know enough to state that it is untrue. Either way, I still have no problem with the statement. We are essentially arguing over semantics at this point. You say any lawyer will do, I say it has to be a lawyer of his choosing.

I fail to see how several different people making a statement about the man's level of involvement in the reporting is relevant to anything. The man says he has no involvement so anybody else stating otherwise is mistaken. What's the relevance to what's being reported?

You're complaining about it; we're discussing it; I fail to see the free pass they have supposedly received.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Alternative/Abandoned methods for AI? - <AUTHOR> We have come a long way by Statistical methods. Last night, I went into a rabbit hole of Cognitive Architectures like ACT-R[http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/] and OpenCog[https://wiki.opencog.org/w/The_Open_Cognition_Project]. The intro ofcourse was not as documentation friendly as the width of excellent docs on Deep Learning.<p>Are the Symbolic methods abandoned because they are proven to not work? Also, are any new researchers working on this? <comment><USER2> Here's some decision tree learners that were pretty cool at the time.

Decision tree learning is the construction of a decision tree from class- labeled training tuples. A decision tree is a flow-chart-like structure, where each internal (non-leaf) node denotes a test on an attribute, each branch represents the outcome of a test, and each leaf (or terminal) node holds a class label. The topmost node in a tree is the root node.

There are many specific decision-tree algorithms. Notable ones include:

ID3 (Iterative Dichotomiser 3) C4.5 (successor of ID3) CART (Classification And Regression Tree) CHAID (CHi-squared Automatic Interaction Detector). Performs multi-level splits when computing classification trees.[11] MARS: extends decision trees to handle numerical data better. Conditional Inference Trees. Statistics-based approach that uses non-parametric tests as splitting criteria, corrected for multiple testing to avoid overfitting. This approach results in unbiased predictor selection and does not require pruning.[12][13] ID3 and CART were invented independently at around the same time (between 1970 and 1980)[citation needed], yet follow a similar approach for learning a decision tree from training tuples.

</comment><comment><USER2> Soar had some success in the past.

TacAirSoar [https://www.isi.edu/soar/ifor/agent/](https://www.isi.edu/soar/ifor/agent/)

<comment><USER2> Here's a whole list of them.

[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.08602.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1610.08602.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Doug Lenat never gave up. ([https://www.cyc.com/](https://www.cyc.com/))</comment>


IPOs Are Too Expensive and Cumbersome - <AUTHOR> https://newsroom.spotify.com/2018-08-08/ipos-are-too-expensive-and-cumbersome/ <comment><USER2> Looking at this with another lense; Spotify could use a DPO to cash out quickly, fearing they are a relative flash in the pan. The streaming service market is in an interesting place right now, with Hulu posting big losses and Disney about to come on the market.

I know they have 70mil+ subscribers and are profitable, but tech companies swing wildly so who knows!

</comment><comment><USER3> Any examples of successful direct listing ?

<comment><USER4> Spotify?</comment></comment>