The Social Transformation of Trust in Government (2005) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan044542.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> Found this document referenced in an article [1] I read about trust in American institutions. I usually skim these things but I was so surprised to hear that America's dropping trust in institutions is shared internationally that I ended up getting fascinated enough to read it.

I'm especially fascinated by the facts that a) this drop started at roughly the same time for most of these nations (the 1960-70's) and that b) we evidently know that in both Germany and Japan trust in government was rising heavily post-war until this point.

[1] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/03/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/03/03/americans- have-lost-faith-in-institutions-thats-not-because-of-trump-or-fake-news/)

</comment><comment><USER2> Wish I could say "Because more people read anatomy of state?"

<comment><USER3> I find radical libertarian ideology more childish and ahistorical than socialism. A strong state is a miracle that has enabled humanity's most amazing achievements. There is almost no history of societies without a strong state because without a strong state humanity has proven time and again that it is unable to achieve much more than violent tribalism.

<comment><USER4> The State is a parasite that feeds off the productive class. People have been prospering as a result of technology and the market in spite of the state.

> "There is almost no history of societies without a strong state"

Umm, what about the Renaissance which happened in relatively small & weak Italian city-states.

<comment><USER5> Human beings have always lived in organized societies, and indeed cannot survive without them.

Once you move from foraging to agriculture, inevitably it leads to large states. The only question is how much power the state will have. There has never been a large society in which the state has as little power as the libertarians wish, and I doubt there ever will be.

As to the market and modern technology, they exist only because there is a state to guarantee things like paper money and contracts, and to sponsor scientific research and also new technologies like the internet.

<comment><USER4> Organized society != State. Agriculture does not require a large state. Just because we haven't had a large society without the state doesn't mean it isn't possible. Money can be provided without government paper, for instance Bitcoin. Contracts can be make without the government, for example etherium. Anarcho-captitalism provides a framework for which contract enforcement can be provided in a distributed p2p fashion. People may still pool their resources to sponsor scientific research and new technologies. Considering that people are willing to do these things nowadays means that people will still be willing to do these things without a state.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Am I just dense or are the figures in this paper completely unrelated to the text?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope, it took me a while before I realized I wasn't just stupid and that that graphs were completely unrelated too.

Here's a link to a version that seems to have the correct graphs: [http://sci- hub.cc/10.1080/03906700500038819](http://sci-hub.cc/10.1080/03906700500038819)

I found Figure 3 particularly striking. Education (pre-1950) used to be correlated with greater trust in government, now it's correlated with less.

<comment><USER7> Civics courses are and were little more than rote indoctrination in the status quo. It makes you appreciate the political system. (E.g., take them in the UK and you will learn how great monarchy is.) But our current education policy has less civics now.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure if you're referencing the paper or not, but its conclusion lead me to a similar idea. The author points out that previously, higher education was mostly reserved for the elites of society and that its increasing prevalence among developed countries happened around the same time greater education began to gradually change from being correlated with greater trust in government to being correlated with less.

The obvious idea I had was that a greater amount of people were coming into contact with more information about the various failures their government (and every government) has. People are getting a "reverse civics" class now -- and in a way, ignorance was bliss.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Taiga.io + GitHub = Love? - <AUTHOR>

Taiga.io now integrates with GitHub! If your code lives on GitHub, you'll love how Taiga's Free, Open Source, Agile Project Management sits over your code. Enjoy!<p>https://blog.taiga.io/taiga-dryas-hookeriana-release-v130.html <comment><USER2> Clickable link: [https://blog.taiga.io/taiga-dryas-hookeriana- release-v130.ht...](https://blog.taiga.io/taiga-dryas-hookeriana- release-v130.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> This looks awesome. Thanks for x-posting to Techendo as well. :)

</comment><comment><USER2> And GitLab integration soon!</comment>


Securing North Korean nuclear sites would require a ground invasion – Pentagon - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/securing-north-korean-nuclear-sites-would-require-a-ground-invasion-pentagon-says/2017/11/04/32d5f6fa-c0cf-11e7-97d9-bdab5a0ab381_story.html <comment><USER2> Can you hear the war drums? Because WashPost is beating them (again).

Why isn't the administration going after _this_ leak to the press, I wonder?!</comment>


Google Hiring Committee Stories - <AUTHOR> http://piaw.blogspot.com/2010/04/hiring-committee-story.html <comment><USER2> At one time, decision-making by Bureaucracy and Committees was considered a weakness and failing of large corporate institutions -- a negative, to be succinct. I guess it's different when you're a Committee member. Or, maybe its just another reality that Google has changed (yes, I'm being sarcastic).

This writer, being a member of such a process and committee, is unsurprisingly very self-congratulatory about how it works, and seems quite enamored of himself and his committee-mates. "And then I told this really clever joke, and we all laughed....".

I'm not learning much here except that Google has achieved a Cult following within its ranks. I say that in congratulation to Google - they're doing it better than M$ did in the 1980s.

<comment><USER3> Two things. First, it seems that the HC has thus far been doing a pretty good job selecting candidates. People seem very happy with how Google is doing overall, and it's widely thought that the engineers there are on the whole fairly good at their jobs. Maybe things would be better if decisions could be made by individuals throughout the company. But it also seems like this could lead to more bad apples, and eventually to organizations full of them, like the MSN org at Microsoft. Being on a committee makes it psychologically easier to reject candidates, which is probably a desired effect.

Also, who do you propose might make the decision if not a committee? Managers certainly can't be allowed to, at least not unilaterally, because they have all kinds of conflicts of interest that might encourage them to hire subpar people.

I don't think "committees are universally bad" is a widely held view. For example, almost all companies are led, ultimately, by a committee (a board). They have their uses. Maybe hiring is one of them.

Now, about cult followings. One of the guys in that story, Bogdan, is famous for terse denials of various sorts of requests that might be sent his way (e.g. for more bandwidth, for a certain service in a datacenter, etc.). This was true to the extent that for a long time googlers on the kernel team maintained an extension at /proc/bogdan. When cat'd, it would print things like:

        No.
        No.
        We're already doing that.
        No.
        Absolutely not.

<comment><USER4> _I don't think "committees are universally bad" is a widely held view. For example, almost all companies are led, ultimately, by a committee (a board). They have their uses. Maybe hiring is one of them._

False. The board has the power to fire the CEO. They do not have the power to "lead" the company.

The executive board is led by a single person (the CEO) and that one person makes all the ultimate decisions, except for those which he delegates to his or her executive team.

Committees are pretty much universally bad. Their main purpose is diffusion of responsibility and inflation of work. I'm not saying this specific committee didn't work - there are always exceptions - but most committees are disastrously bad at getting anything done.

<comment><USER5> Committees are good for one thing: making sure that risky decisions aren't made. In some cases that can be good - for example, in some cases (eg: safety committees) risky == bad.

Note: Obviously, in some cases risky == good, too

Note 2: Group-think (eg, bay-of-pigs) is a counter example.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As with all committees, Google's hiring committees seem to fail at one important metric: speed.

I know a lot of smart kids who didn't end up at Google because it took them two or three months to hear back about their interview results and by the time they had already accepted another offer.

I like erring on the side of caution and tough interviews, but there has to be a faster way of doing that. At companies where a manager is hiring for her team, once she has found a good candidate she will want to hire them quickly. There is a sense of urgency. It seems to me that one side effect of not having hiring managers is that this sense of urgency is lost and so no one is really motivated to push for getting back to individual candidates on time.

<comment><USER7> I've heard Google doesn't assign new hires to a team right away, so the hiring process might just be a big talent search, where teams then interview newly acquired talent for a position on their team, after they are in-house.

<comment><USER8> I can verify, anecdotally. A friend of mine got a full time offer from Google a couple months ago and accepted right away. He's been told won't find out his team until just before starting in June (or July?).

<comment><USER9> That's not always the case. That suggests your friend is going to be working on something secret in some way to me.

<comment><USER10> These things change dramatically over time, and as you can imagine, mitigating circumstances and experience can make one candidate's experience vastly different from another's.

One thing I'd like to remind everyone about is that I'm writing about a time long gone. Trying to guess what Google today does based on what Google did 5-6 years ago brings to mind the adage: "Past performance is no guarantee of future results."

<comment> x-g These days there are multiple levels of hiring committee, plus comp, plus Page. Sure some parts are "automatic" but they add useless weeks onto a slow bureaucracy meanwhile goog loses great candidates to companies which move faster. Sure there's a luxury of being the "best place to work" but the cream of the crop are the least willing to wait.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Lucas's feedback for the candidate started with, "I spent the first five minutes of my interview calming the candidate down after his interview with Piaw..." When the others got to this part of the feedback there was a lot of laughter. I think that was the moment I realized that Bogdan and I would get along, because he high-fived me across the table."

You're a douchebag. I don't think I'm breaking HN etiquette, because I would have no problem saying it to the guy's face.

</comment><comment><USER12> Human nature being what it is... one has to wonder: is there a sadistic element to these technical interviews?

<comment><USER13> I would say no. Or rarely. High-pressure work breeds a certain humor (eg ER medics) that can be mistaken for callousness.

<comment><USER12> Couldn't high-pressure work also lead to sadism as a way to relieve that pressure?

<comment><USER13> Yes, but rarely, in my experience. That kind of behavior is ultimately self- defeating.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> brown9-2 Has anyone read Piaw's book? <http://books.piaw.net/guide/index.html>

<comment><USER14> I have, and unlike the previous poster, I appreciated how short it was. I'm so used to books packing in a lot of fluff to appear fatter and better value for money. This book is thin but it's dense with information.

<comment><USER10> Now that's a compliment. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> As I'm in Google's hiring process right now, it was interesting to read this story.

It does make me a little nervous though, as I'd really like to work there but it seems the chance of rejection is really high and I didn't get the impression that I did exceptionally well on the interviews.

<comment><USER9> I've heard it said (and experienced myself) that the hiring system at Google is designed to favor false negatives in order to reduce the risk of false positives. I know of plenty of cases where the first (and sometimes even second) trip through the hiring machine at Google rejected someone who now is happily employed there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Besides knowing someone who will recommend you, how exactly do you even get an interview?

<comment><USER17> You fill out an application and send in a resume. Works surprisingly well.

<comment><USER18> Only if you went to the 'right' school or previously worked for the 'right' company.

There are a _lot_ of screens prior to a human reading your resume, and without a recommendation, you have a slim chance of a callback.</comment></comment></comment>


Most cancers are caused by bad luck not genes or lifestyle, say scientists - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11320497/Most-cancers-are-caused-by-bad-luck-not-genes-or-lifestyle-say-scientists.html

<comment><USER2> (Not strictly a response to the article, just something I've been wondering for a while now.)

> They found that the more cells need to divide to stay healthy, the more > likely cancer is to develop.

So basically to improve our chances of staying cancer-free we ought to make such dietary and lifestyle choices that preserve the existing cells, reducing the need for their division?

And I suppose learning about genetic and environmental factors that correlate with higher chances of cancer in certain organs, and researching choices affecting cell division rate in those particular organs, can give additional significant advantage.

Is it that simple?

<comment><USER3> No because we can't control cell reproduction to any significant degree compared to what happens automatically. If you're careful not to cut your skin and cause extra cell reproducing as it heals, you're still shedding your entire skin surface every few days due to natural growth and death anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It seems to be counting types of cancer (by their location in the body) rather than incidence. This makes it potentially meaningless. Those 9 cancers caused by lifestyle, might also be the 9 most common or most deadly ones.

<comment><USER4> From what I can tell, they were counting incidence, and relating it to the rate of cell division of that particular tissue. This strong correlation allowed them to rule out outside influence (not just lifestyle, also genetics and other environmental factors) as being statistically significant to the incidence of those cancers. Only a couple cancers (the article specifically notes lung cancer and certain skin cancers), had statistically significant deviations from what the rate of division would suggest.

The chart at the top is a bit disingenuous - you can't really say that those cancers are "caused" by outside influences, but it does indicate that they actually play a role in a statistically significant number of cases, as opposed to the other cancers, which are due largely to random chance (if the study's results are correct). There are probably still a large number of lung cancer cases, for example, caused by bad luck.

Regardless of the conclusions regarding the environmentally influenced cancers, the impact on our understanding of other cancers, which include very common and deadly ones such as pancreatic and colon cancer, is still immense and important.

Disclaimer: IANA doctor or statistician

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm not sure how an oversimplified popular science article is relevant to HN

</comment><comment><USER6> _All_ cancers are a result of bad luck. Genes and lifestyle only shift the odds.</comment>


Onion Terminal  is a Web Browser Unix Terminal - <AUTHOR> http://www.coralbits.com/oterm/ <comment><USER2> Pretty much immediately I found a bug in his session generation:

[https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/blob/master/src/onion/s...](https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/blob/master/src/onion/sessions.c#L34-L55)

The fact that in amongst the doc comment is "not really safe" should probably be a big red flag.

Then this happens:

[https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/blob/master/src/onion/s...](https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/blob/master/src/onion/sessions.c#L65)

Not to mention that here:

[https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/blob/master/src/onion/h...](https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/blob/master/src/onion/handlers/auth_pam.c#L53-L54)

It'll just let you in if you can guess someone else's session.

Seriously. Systems ship with crypto API's. And uuid libraries.

USE THEM, FFS.

<comment><USER3> Good eye. Patches are welcome. I will add right now these errors to the issue tracker, although caching if you are logged in (last link) is the standard behaviour: I dont think that if you change the password on the console you are inmediately logged out.

<comment><USER3> I just fixed at master the most important one, the first.

<comment><USER2> Your patch.. fixes.. one of the issues. Kinda.

I commented with a link to the CPRNG you should be using.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can somebody help me understand why you would ever want this? SSH is included by default in almost every mac or windows machine I've ever used, and putty is a pretty tried-and-true executable to run.

Who on earth is thinking "man, I wish I could run a terminal in my browser!"

\--

Cool project, and I love the "because we can, and because it's cool" aspect of it, I'm just curious if I'm missing a use case for "why".

<comment><USER5> Restrictive networks where you can't SSH out.

Restrictive computers where you can't run Putty or SSH (though you shouldn't connect from those anyway, but well).

I can't think of any other reasons.

<comment><USER6> If you can't SSH out, how does this program get around that fact?

<comment><USER7> It needs to proxy via either straight HTTP or websockets (I haven't checked which) to be able to serve things up to the browser.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I thought that this would have something to do with TOR or anonymity in general. Not the best name to select for your framework if you ask me.

The product itself seems very useful.

<comment><USER9> I was thinking the same thing, and was really struggling to figure out how this, in any way, was secure enough to work with Tor over a standard browser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Chrome/Chromium have had something similar... [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure- shell/pnhec...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure- shell/pnhechapfaindjhompbnflcldabbghjo)

<comment><USER11> The Secure Shell Chrome Extension is actually quite different than what is being offered here. The Chrome extensions is effectively a SSH client, like PuTTY, in a browser. You still need a network path to the host.

Onion Terminal is a HTTP server that serves a Javascript-powered terminal connected to the box through HTTP in your browser.

The benefit of the latter is you can get a shell on your box behind a restrictive firewall where only HTTP(S) traffic is allowed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Similar Web-based SSH[0] projects include:

• shellinabox

• GateOne

• AnyTerm

• AjaxTerm

• tty.js

I currently use GateOne. It's a little bloated and buggy though. I may give tty.js a shot. I've heard good things.

[0]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web- based_SSH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_SSH)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is David, the author of oterm.

Thanks for all the positive comments. I'm glad people are like it.

Actually oterm was designed as an advanced example of a use of the onion http library (agreed, not the best name, accepting suggestions).

Maybe I should make it a separate project.

<comment><USER6> Cool project. I originally thought this was a joke by "The Onion" due to the title, but I think I get what you were aiming for: layers of an onion :: layers of the OSI?

What kind of projects do you intend to use the HTTP library for? That sounds almost more interesting than the terminal use case.

<comment><USER3> Initially it started when I was working on the AISoy1 Robot (www.aisoy.com) which was using a very limited ARM processor. We decided to give upgrade and management capabilities via a web application to the robot; we tried first with a Python based one, but it was consuming too much memory, so I started this project. We continued using it, although now we use Raspberry Pi which is quite more powerful.

Nice projects are right now rasppi-style projects where you are interested in doing an application that almost does not consume resources: 2MB RAM for example for oterm, not including shared libraries, as fast as the fastest.

Also I use it as a platform to easily develop C/C++ web services where performance is paramount, on real big servers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Looks great. But how does one secure that insecure connection between you and the box you're hosting the terminal on? Anyterm offers SSL at least.

<comment><USER5> According to the Github page, Oterm supports SSL: [https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/wiki/Oterm](https://github.com/davidmoreno/onion/wiki/Oterm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Another cool project is [https://github.com/petethepig/devtools- terminal](https://github.com/petethepig/devtools-terminal)

</comment><comment><USER14> Happy to see the terminal-in-browser space get more attention!

Check out [https://github.com/chjj/tty.js](https://github.com/chjj/tty.js)

</comment><comment><USER15> Very nice, looks great!</comment>


Meet Connexion: Zalando's Open-Source REST Framework for Python - <AUTHOR> https://tech.zalando.com/blog/meet-connexion-our-rest-framework-for-python/ <comment><USER2> This library makes it really easy to write REST services using python. Saved me a lot of time when doing prototyping of simple (and not so simple) services.</comment>


With Time Running Short, Jobs Managed His Farewells - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/07/technology/with-time-running-short-steve-jobs-managed-his-farewells.html?pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> This is a sweet story, but I just wanted to point out that this is pretty common for someone with terminal cancer. Jobs was a private, controlling man, for sure, but I feel like this reporter is unfairly stretching the narrative to fit this caricature.

The endless stream of visitors to the house can be absolutely exhausting for a person who already only has enough energy to stay awake and active a few hours each day. A big part of the family's responsibility, and burden, is prioritizing and intercepting visitors.

I'm sure many of you here on this board have had the misfortune to experience this yourself, so you know what I'm talking about.

It's not a big deal; it was a good article. But for once, Jobs' behavior didn't stem from being some larger than life cartoon figure of a business- genius-prophet-dictator.. he was just really sick.

</comment><comment><USER3> Every summer Steve had a talk with the Apple interns. In 2008, I was there (at what, as far as I know, would end up being his last intern talk). One question came from the audience: "What is your dream?"

After a beat, his dead-pan response: "To not be asked questions like that."

</comment><comment><USER4> > "I once asked him if he was glad that he had kids, and he said, 'It's 10,000 > times better than anything I've ever done.' "

Take note guys, this is coming from the guy who practically invented modern computing.

<comment><USER5> That was the line that got me. At the end, after everything he had accomplished and all the billions of dollars he had made, all he wanted to do was spend time with his family.

I might never be anything more than someone who's pretty good at his job and is appreciated by the people he works for, but I get to do the exact same thing that Steve Jobs held most dear — spend time with my wife and son.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Amazing that so many people knew, and no one leaked it... Most famous people who died suddenly of an illness like that (e.g. Freddie Mercury, Bill Hicks) kept it secret except to a circle of close friends. Presumably, hundreds or even thousands knew about this illness, yet not one of them peeped about it.

Of course, it would have been an incredible lack of decorum to do so, and that's probably what stopped them. And yet, it seems fitting that news of Steve's rapidly declining health were even more leak-proof than the average Apple product release.

<comment><USER7> His death didn't come unexpected to me. Tabloid pictures from this summer showed how bad his health was. I wouldn't consider it a kept secret.

<comment><USER8> My girlfriend's father died of the same illness as Jobs. When she saw Jobs giving a keynote in June, she was amazed that he was still working when it was so obvious (to her, having watched her father fade away) that the end was near.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I have to admit, when I first saw this I wondered why Jobs was managing firewalls at all. I think I need better glasses.

</comment><comment><USER10> > _"10,000 times better than anything I've ever done."_

That's perspective.

<comment><USER11> That's two orders of magnitude less than the usual cliche of 1,000,000, coming from a guy with a reality distortion field,.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> "Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition."

I'll print this and place it in my office at home.

</comment><comment><USER13> Something about this is just heartbreaking. I can't put my finger on it...

<comment><USER14> "His tone was tenderly apologetic at the end. He felt terrible that he would have to leave us."

So much sadness.

<comment><USER15> I'm sad that Steve has died and do not mean to be disrespectful. That line touched me too, and a moment later I realized that his sister said it and she is a writer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's odd that the article didn't mention that he gave a pretty big part of the WWDC keynote in June, in the middle of the period mentioned in this article.

But I guess that doesn't fit with the tone of a retired champion receiving visitors for the final time.

</comment><comment><USER17> Hes not giving away any of his money, and people still worship him?!?

<comment><USER18> And this is why all my personal donations are in cash and anonymous. It's no one else's business, I'm not going to be pretentious about it, and receiving "services" from an organization will not be predicated on how much I give.

<comment><USER19> I think there's value in giving money away publicly if it makes other people more generous.

<comment><USER3> How do you know it wouldn't have the reverse effect, and make others think, "Oh, now I don't need to bother, Gate's has this..."?

I don't have the source handy, but I remember reading about when Gates and Buffet went to Germany with their giving pledge. One of the German billionaires they approach replied something to the effect of: "Why should I give money to support life-saving research or to feed the poor? Isn't that the job of the government? If I give the money on my own, then that removes the incentive for government to figure out how to take care of societies ills."

<comment><USER19> It seems unlikely that by giving $X we reduce the government's giving by even 1/4 $X. There's a huge amount of room for funding, and I don't think the apparent need the government sees decreases much as private charity increases.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there an app for that?</comment>


Google Nexus 4 Sells Out In Less Than An Hour (in Australia) - <AUTHOR> http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/11/google-nexus-4-sells-out-in-less-than-an-hour/

<comment><USER2> I've said it once and I'll stay it again: this phone is a steal. It has comparable specs to phones that cost twice as much so it's not really a surprise that it's selling so well but like someperson said, there's no telling how many units were actually sold. I have a feeling that the entire Nexus line will do quite well this year.

</comment><comment><USER3> What matters in this case is the number of units that were available (now sold) - it's likely a small amount on purpose, since selling out fast is great for publicity.

Though unlike Nexus 7, the Nexus 4 pricing is competitive to the US price - the AUD is worth more than the USD and the Australian price is only $50 more (most of which is accounted by the 10% GST tax.)

Australia still has to pay a little more than the US than justified by tax differences, but it's better than the huge price differences it normally has.

<comment><USER4> Well if they sold out, wouldn't the units available and sold be the same? Unless they are selling units that don't exist yet. Apple does this too, they say "We sold out in x hours" and neglect to say how many units they sold. That info does come out later after the headline wears off.

<comment><USER5> You are missing the point. If they sold out of 10 units, that is not impressive. If they sold out of 10,000 units, that is pretty amazing for Australia.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I assume it's sold out in the UK.

For a brief period of time the 16gb model showed as being available, but a very buggy shopping cart meant that it was nigh on impossible to actually checkout.

Now it's showing as "coming soon" again.

Edit: And now I've just received the email saying that it's available... oh no it's not.

<comment><USER7> This was so frustrating, to add the item to your cart, to then be thrown constant errors and being unable to proceed.

Of all the people, you would have expected Google to be able to handle the traffic.

<comment><USER8> You would think so, but this isn't new for Google.

<comment><USER9> When has this happened before?

<comment><USER10> Google checkout/wallet is possibly the worst product Google ever made (excluding products that were eventually killed). If you've ever used it as a seller you've probably come across multiple issues that are never solved despite many people desperately trying to contact google (mostly failing to contact any human being, let alone one that would forward issues to developers) about them. It's no surprise it couldn't handle shit. The team left Google a few months ago too (there were some stories here about it I think).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's probably worth mentioning that in Australia, off contract phone are far more popular than they are in the US. We have many competitive pre-paid options, so buying a phone outright often is cheaper, or better value than going on a plan. The Nexus 4 may have found the perfect market for skipping carriers.

<comment><USER12> Plus with LTE having very low presence / uptake (and tiny coverage area) the no-LTE disadvantage is meaningless.

<comment><USER13> I would disagree. LTE is rolling out pretty rapidly, and there are quite a few places where 3G is useless, even on Telstra. Melbourne CBD has been a long running issue, so has parts of Perth and Sydney, apparently.

DC-HSDPA is great but the lack of uplink speed upgrade to go with it seems to be an issue, IMO. I've seen a few situations where I can pull a few megabits/s on 3G but now the uplink is seriously congested, so interactive applications become very poor.

<comment><USER14> But if you buy this phone now, and you can reasonably expect there to be a new version out in a years time with LTE support... right about the kind of time that you start to get good LTE coverage. It's the same story in the UK. There is only a few trial areas with LTE at the moment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Ugh, I need to have the company's purchasing department buy a Nexus 4 for our dev team, but if it's going to sell out so quickly, I'm virtually guaranteed to be out of luck :(.

<comment><USER16> Not to sound cocky but No developer with self respect should be working for a company that wouldn't let developers buy THE DEVELOPMENT phone if developers are working on smartphones.

<comment><USER17> His company is letting him buy it. The phone's just sold out, so he can't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's selling in Spain right now, but can't get it because the Play Store has melted.

edit: It's gone now, so that was about 15 minutes. I got mine, yay! It's funny how even Google can't properly plan for huge traffic spikes.

</comment><comment><USER8> When (what time) does it go for sale in the US?

<comment><AUTHOR> Seems like no one is sure, but there's a lot of people on twitter (#nexus4) who are planning to wait until 3am EST (12am PST)

<comment><USER19> 6am in the UK and still nothing in the UK Play Store :(

<comment><USER20> It will launch in the next 90 minutes in Germany. (The German Google press dude confirmed that yesterday evening) <https://de.twitter.com/frischkopp>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> French play store is selling it but it's buggy.

Fun to see that even Google can't sometimes handle load.

<comment><USER8> Google has regularly demonstrated an inability to handle large volumes of buyers. The Google IO ticket sales have been a joke the last two years.

<comment><USER10> The problem is google wallet/checkout, it's a joke. Worst payment processor ever.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Got the mail that the Nexus 4 is available at 9:39am, by then it was already sold out for 20mins (Germany)... a bit unlucky, today being the only day this week where i had an unskippable meeting at 9.

This launch was a big fail and especially if the shortage was planned, this will backfire at Google. You cant announce a big product launch (at a bargaining price) and then just have a few thousand units available (it cant be more, i was quite succesful in the Touchpad fire sales last year which lasted longer). Additionally the 9am launch (on a working day) wasnt even announced beforehand and google should have known (at least from E-Mail notification subscriptions) that demand outstrips supply by far.

Anyway, hope they can handle my scraping traffic now, waiting for new ones ;).

</comment><comment><USER23> Waiting patiently for the Nexus 10 to be available here. Anyone else looking at getting one of these?

<comment><USER24> I am for the screen as well. But like others; I really need a keyboard dock. Why don't all big tablet makers learn from the Transformer? Or is it only geeks who like that thing? But for the resolution the Nexus 10 is too good to not buy.

<comment><USER25> Given the number of pogo pins, they must be for both power & USB, so a keyboard dock is quite possible. (If it is just power, the dock could use bluetooth.

If the Nexus 10 is successful, somebody will make a keyboard dock for it. I'm almost confident enough of that to buy a Nexus 10 today and use my bluetooth keyboard for the time being.

While I'm confident somebody will make a keyboard dock, I'm not as confident that it will be a GOOD dock. So I'm going to wait for a bit.

<comment><USER24> Well yeah, that's my reasoning as well. I really like the transformer dock but it can be better. When I dock I want to go for some serious work so it doesn't have to be THAT portable (like the transformer). I hope it's successful or that a transformer-like comes with the same resolution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> What is the status in the U.S.?

<comment><AUTHOR> I got an order in for a 16GB Nexus 4 after about 5-10 minutes of shopping cart and payment errors on the Play Store. My order's timestamp is 11:50am. Looks like it's all sold out in the US... before the stated 12pm PST release time. I think Google pissed a lot of people off today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Can anybody recommend another Android device that's competitive in terms of quality? I've been holding off buying in hopes of geting the Nexus 4, but the prospect of holding off again and perhaps having the same experience as today isn't very appealing.

</comment><comment><USER28> Like everyone else in this thread, I agree what's interesting is not that it's sold out, but how many were actually sold.

Sadly nobody seems to have those numbers available.

</comment><comment><USER29> I'm such a nexus nerd, but my International Galaxy S III is just killing first and asking names later. I might geat the international Note II

<comment><USER30> It's weird how with all the adulation over the GSIII, no one dings the screen. The quality hit is pretty noticeable in an AT&T store. I wandered back and forth from iPhone, Lumia, etc, and had also checked out the RAZR HD earlier that day -- which has the same subpar sparkle-grains display.

This is one of the cynical things that makes me wonder if sites ever actually have time to review new devices. Their "one job" should be to see through the marketing-speak ("Super AMOLED", "IPS", "retina display") and tell us what A) looks better, and B) uses less power at a given nits.

I've had an iPhone 4 for 2 years now, and can't really stomach going to one of those poorer screens. The Optimus G is beautiful, and that's why I'm going to snag a Nexus.

<comment><USER31> I have a buddy who has an international Galaxy Note II, and for what it's worth, I think the screen looks magnificent compared to the screen of the Nexus 7, which isn't half bad (my phone is a Nexus S 4G, so the comparison is moot).

<comment><USER30> You're right, the Note II in store was pretty good, but with its size the density was slightly less pleasant. I think that'll be more of a personal preference thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Sold out in Canada. Turns out it went on sale ~20 minutes ahead of time. Guess I'll be waiting a few more weeks to replace my N900.

</comment><comment><USER33> How about Canada? I was supposed to get an email today but never did. Anyone else from Canada get one?

<comment><USER34> Same here. Guess we wait until 9 PT? I've got my credit card# copied into memory, ready to paste ;)

<comment><USER35> Wouldnt it be faster to use it to create a google wallet account then just pay in one click? Whatever gets you an edge over the competition :-)

<comment><USER34> ^^ This is a better solution. I've learned my lesson in not getting my phone :(</comment></comment></comment></comment>


First SpaceX launch to supply Space Station is next Sunday - <AUTHOR> http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/sep/HQ_M12-194_NASA_SpaceX_CRS-1_Coverage.html

<comment><USER2> The previous Dragon cargo flight this year was a demonstration flight, this one is the first operational resupply mission.

Also relevant, the Cygnus spacecraft from Orbital Sciences Corp. is another ISS commercial resupply vehicle and is set to have its first demonstration mission soon (in early 2013). However, unlike the Dragon the Cygnus isn't designed around a manned capsule system and it burns up on reentry.

<comment><USER3> "I would like to die on Mars," Elon Musk says, "Just not on impact." [1]

Many HN readers may already know, but pay attention to SpaceX. There's nobody even close to what they're doing, and they aren't slowing down.

[1] [http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/71446-elon- musk...](http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/71446-elon-musk- the-21st-century-industrialist)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's about time we get a launch window before midnight on the East coast.

<comment><USER5> The entire concept of an instantaneous launch window is pretty wild.

<comment><USER6> Can anyone tell why they're having instantaneous launch windows? AFAIR when NASA was flying Shuttles, the window had a significant size.

<comment><USER7> The Shuttle probably had similar launch windows for docking with the ISS. You need to match both the speed and position of the ISS to dock with it.

The ISS is moving at 7.7 km every second; if you miss by 10 seconds, you would need to (roughly) drop your orbit by 10km, wait 3.6 hours, then climb back up that 10km to make up for it.

Matching position is even harder. The ISS isn't equatorial. It swings north and south of the equator in a sinusoid.

It's probably _possible_ to have a computer or pilot dynamically respond to all these things to make up for them. But easier to just deal with it by waiting a few days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone know if this will be an arm capture again or if it will it get to dock directly this time?

<comment><USER9> Arm capture for this round. A direct docking may be an option for later flights, and is planned for manned flights.

<comment><USER10> What are the advantages/disadvantages of each method?

<comment><USER11> Less risk with an arm capture.

With an arm capture they manoeuvre the craft a safe distance from the ISS then check it can hold position and move slowly toward/away. When they're satisfied then they edge it close enough to capture with the arm.

If it docks itself then you have to trust there won't be some weird last- minute f*ckup causing it to crash into the station.

<comment><USER10> So why not always do an arm capture?

<comment><USER3> One way of answering your question is that the ISS already has automated resupply missions: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Transfer_Vehicle>

Secondarily, the limited time & manpower on the station makes streamlining a resupply mission good sense - as long as there aren't huge risks.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Case for the Single Founder Startup - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/09/the-case-for-the-single-founde.php#.Tid5C0eWzV8.hackernews <comment><USER2> Paul Graham is a great guy but he is now more an investor than an entrepreneur (or at least that is how he functions with Y Combinator). We should therefore realise that when he says that he prefers to invest in companies with more than one founder, he is saying this from the perspective of an investor.

And from the point of view of an investor, it makes a lot of sense to have more than one founder. You invest about the same amount as you would with a single founder business but you get double or more the passionate people working desperately to make the business work.

From the point of view of a founder, however, things are very different. Get in a cofounder and you have immediately halved your stake and possible payout. You have also lost a lot of control. You are no longer in complete control of the company - many decisions now has to vetted by your cofounder. Not necessarily a bad thing but there is something to be said - from a self- actualisation perspective - for having complete responsibility for your destiny.

</comment><comment><USER3> The being nimble and touchy relationship stuff is nice, but the real reason you dont need a cofounder is: why split the equity 50/50, 75/25 or whatever it is? You used to need partners to share risk (mainly the infusion of capital). In this industry there are very small barriers to entry, faster returns, and _plenty_ of money available if you have a good idea. Meaning there is very little risk on the part of a entrepreneur.

Why give up a substantial chuck of the equity for a "co-founder" when you can bring that same or similar person aboard 6 months later for a percent or two (5 at most) and get the same results.

<comment><USER4> _Meaning there is very little risk on the part of a entrepreneur._

This line, more than anything else in the last year, is pinging my bubble radar. Ping, ping, _ping_!

It isn't skydiving without a parachute, but essentially everybody capable of doing a fundable business is also capable of getting a six figure job _tomorrow_ in the current economic environment. If it takes 1.5 to 3 years of your life to discover that the brilliant idea to upend ad distribution through social networks on iPhones was not quite so brilliant, you've very much lost something. (1.5 to 3 years _of your life_ , and, by the way, some money.)

<comment><USER2> You have probably learnt a lot however. Also, you assume that if someone was not working on their start-up, they would be doing that high paid tech job you refer to. But the reason that many people do a start up is that they could not stand to do that high paid tech job in the first place.

<comment><USER5> _You have probably learnt a lot however._

Well, that is inevitable, regardless of what you do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> At the very early stage it make perfect sense to just go for it and scratch that itch, but all too easy to then get burnout or bogged down in other aspects of the business. Good advice re mentors. If you're on your own, you do need to have those external sanity checks.

</comment><comment><USER7> Too bad readwriteweb doesn't cover them.

</comment><comment><USER8> Would you sign up for the MIT Puzzle Hunt as a team of one? To build a successful startup you will have to complete challenges that are even more diverse and difficult, so why do it alone?

</comment><comment><USER9> This should be read by anyone with the drive to make their own future. I believe passionately in building strong relationships with as many people you can- but having someone that truly shares your type of drive is rare.

I think this article should be as useful to all you current co-founders, too, as a reminder of the elements to work toward in a genuinely symbiotic partnership.

Excellent advice.

<comment><USER10> Having a co-founder is better than going alone, but only if the person shares same values, passion, attitude to work etc. Instead of trying find this person (which is more difficult and takes more time outside the Valley) it's better start working on the idea by yourself while still keeping your eyes open for co-founder/1st employee.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ycombinator not funding my startup cost them 10 million dollars.

<comment><USER12> Cost !== Lost Potential

<comment><USER13> What does it mean when a ! is followed by a double equals? Is !== different from != in netspeak?

<comment><USER14> Strict equals - it doesn't cast types.

Programming distinction, and no idea why the author used that. Mostly the same meaning though, for conversational purposes.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Nokia X2 gunned down in Syria, saves the life of its owner  - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcgerms.com/nokia-x2-gunned-down-in-syria-saves-the-life-of-its-owner/

<comment> simba-hiiipower say what you want about Nokia these days, but they know how to _build_ phones.

validity of this story aside, with all the times I've dropped my old N95 (and down multiple stories at times) I'm pretty sure that thing could take a direct shot from an assault rifle anyday.</comment>


Who Blames the Victim? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/26/opinion/sunday/who-blames-the-victim.html?ref=opinion&_r=0 <comment><USER2> > IF you are mugged on a midnight stroll through the park, some people will > feel compassion for you, while others will admonish you for being there in > the first place.

(I'm assuming in the following that the park is known to be dangerous at night).

And some, like me, might do both.

Suppose they took such a stroll, but did _not_ get mugged. Then admonishing them for taking that reckless stroll would clearly not be blaming the victim because there is no victim. The question in deciding whether or not to admonish them in this case is whether or not it might help them avoid making future bad decisions.

So why should that change if they _do_ get mugged? The mugging does not retroactively alter whether or not the earlier decision to walk through the park was reckless, and if an admonishment from me would discourage them from doing the same thing in the future then it is still useful just as it is in the no mugging case.

So, I'd feel and express compassion over the mugging, and also admonish them for the flawed decision making that led them to take a walk through the dangerous park to try to reduce the chances it happens to them again (but only if I didn't think the mugging itself would do that).

<comment><USER3> I find it useful to distinguish between moral responsibility and causal responsibility. One can bear some causal responsibility for acting recklessly and putting oneself in a dangerous situation without assigning moral responsibility to anyone but the perp. I wouldn't consider that victim blaming.</comment></comment>


See who opens your emails - <AUTHOR> http://www.getsignals.com/

<comment><USER2> how does this differ from Yesware?</comment>


Apple Has Already Approved The Official Google Voice App For iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/27/google-voice-iphone-3/

<comment><USER2> Frankly, I'm really surprised this took so long. The mechanism by which a phone call is routed/made is a compliment to the iPhone, and hence any direction Apple can take that commodifies the process is good for their core business (making great devices). I'd love to see Google start competing with AT&T on the value they provide to the iPhone.

<comment><USER3> Other than text messages though, Google really _isn't_ competing with carriers via GV. You still need to have a carrier plan and phone number to send or receive calls from GV on your mobile phone, and you still need to have a data plan from your carrier to send or receive text messages. I love GV, and I have used it exclusively for everything since they re-opened the service, but I still have to pay my carrier for a voice and data plan.

Even if Google decides to implement a VOIP service as part of GV, users will still need to have a carrier data plan to make use of it, and if a lot of people switch to data-only plans to use GV, carriers will simply respond by further increasing the cost of "unlimited" data plans...

<comment><USER4> Speaking of "carriers" in general, rather than just AT&T with the iPhone:

IIRC, on Verizon my parents paid $30/month extra -- above and beyond the data plan -- for unlimited texting, because some of their business contacts are inveterate texters who won't or can't currently switch to email on their phones.

They are already paying Verizon's top tier prices, including for unlimited data, and then get walloped an extra $360 a year for the privilege of cramming brief messages into the spare room of the network's status/heartbeat messaging.

I mentioned a Voice account (or two), but that was a bit too far afield for them, at the time (and imagine their contacts' confusion over a second number). Nonetheless, saving $30/month seems like a bit of motivation, in general.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Only one thing to say about this...

"Pizza."</comment>


Neat iPad keyboard for Windows - <AUTHOR> http://taptype.me/

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm using it on my Pioneer Dreambook 7", it works pretty well. PS - you should also try a Dreambook - it's a great tablet!</comment>


Ask HN: What is your preferred text editor color scheme? - <AUTHOR>

I was wondering, what color schemes do hackers use when programming? is it mostly dark background or bright? does it change for different programming languages?<p>For people who use dark color scheme: doesn't it hurt your eye? <comment><USER2> I like the railscasts theme. I use it in macvim and sublime text 2. <https://github.com/jpo/vim-railscasts-theme>

</comment><comment><USER3> Solarized Dark! Actually, dark schemes are better on the eyes than light ones, but when you're browsing while coding, most Webpages tend to have a bright background, and too frequent switches between the dark console and the light browser may tire the eyes. But for long coding hours, definitely a dark colour scheme.

</comment><comment> jarek-foksa I use Resesif color scheme.

Screenshot: <http://i.imgur.com/oUL5U.png>

Download: <https://github.com/sonereker/resesif.tmbundle>

</comment><comment><USER4> Emacs default for me, thanks! I used to play with color schemes, preferring Vim's desert and solarized among others, but if the screen's too bright now, I just turn down the brightness and/or make the font bigger.

</comment><comment><USER5> Zenburn! It's beautiful and I use it for everything. It's dark and I can code for hours.

<http://slinky.imukuppi.org/zenburnpage/>

</comment><comment><USER6> Sublime Text 2 and Tomorrow night scheme was a real discover for me.

</comment><comment><USER7> sublime or textmate with Railscasts. It's a dark theme, very nice. I find it very clear, easy to distinct keywords, variables, methods, comments just by the color.

</comment><comment><USER8> Solarized light for everything</comment>


Ask HN: How to learn to sleep on your back? - <AUTHOR> Hi. Do you know any techniques, tricks etc. how to learn to sleep on your back? I tried yesterday night and after couple of hours I gave up. I was just about to sleep, maybe even sleeping a little bit but then I was awake. After few cycles I was so tired that I just turned on my side and slept like a baby till morning. I'm sure that my current position is incorrect because I have often pain in lower spine or headache so I'd like to sleep in a proper position eventually.<p>Thank you in advance for all your help! <comment><USER3> I have only my own body and anecdotes to go on so they may not fit you.

I have always slept on my side or almost stomach. One reason is when I sleep on my back I often get the night terrors (not sure the proper term). It's a thing where my mind snaps awake but not my body and it's as though I'm paralyzed. I hate that so that's one reason I don't sleep in my back.

The other is like you I don't fall asleep easily in my back.

About 10 years ago I got a tempurpedic memory foam mattress and suddenly I could sleep in my back.

After 2 years or so though i got rid of that mattress. it was too hot and it hurt my back in other ways. Something happened to my back such that sleeping on my back will often trigger severe pain that doesn't happen on my side.

one other thing I found is soft beds kill my back. it's a different kind of pain from the severe pain mentioned above. More like all my bones hurt at the joints when I wake up after sleeping on a soft bed. If I'm at a hotel and the bed is too soft I either have to sleep right on the edge of the mattress where it's stiffest or just sleep in the floor.

so recommendation number one. try different mattresses

the other thing that helped my back tremendously is excercise. I can't stress that enough. If I'm lazy and don't excercise for 8-12 days the pain comes back.

no idea if that was helpful.

<comment><USER4> > It's a thing where my mind snaps awake but not my body and it's as though > I'm paralyzed

This is called Sleep Paralysis and it's pretty horrible to experience.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis)

<comment><USER5> Sleep paralysis is only horrible when your mind makes it so. The sudden experience of not being able to move makes people panic, and that panic then snowballs into terrible hallucinations. If you know it is just your own mind you are witnessing, then you can steer the experience.

<comment><USER6> The key is to not fight it or keep forcing your body to move. The best move is to relax, go back to sleep, then attempt waking up at some other point. I have experienced headaches after forcing my body to move during that paralysis phase.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Apparently there is a pillow you can get which is shaped to curve up on the sides, making it uncomfortable to turn over to your side when sleeping. I've heard several people claim that it helped them "train" themselves to sleep on their backs; some even made their own makeshift barriers on the sides of their normal pillow to discourage flipping over.

I don't have such a pillow yet, but I also noticed folding my arms under my head (in a way where my right hand loosely grips my left shoulder and vice versa) creates a comfortable "nook" for my head when on my back. However while this position is comfortable for me, your arms do want to move after a while so it's not really practical to stay in that position for the entire night.

I've also heard it suggested that putting a long pillow or a foam tube of some kind covered with a blanket under your knees at night makes the position of lying on your back more comfortable. The idea is basically to raise your knees slightly instead of lying dead straight on the bed. That does indeed seem to be more comfortable for me, so I'm in the market for such a large firm pillow myself now.

<comment><USER8> There's also a pillow that gives you the correct head position[1] for sleeping on your side. Why change your position when you can just get rid of the headaches?

[1]: [https://www.amazon.com/LoveHome-Softness-Orthopedic- Cervical...](https://www.amazon.com/LoveHome-Softness-Orthopedic-Cervical- Therapeutic/dp/B018370J8Y)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have even 2 such pillows but I can't sleep on any of them even when I'm on my side. I guess they are comfortable when you sleep on your back.

Anyway, mostly I suffer from pain of lumbar part of spine.

<comment><USER9> Are you sure you're putting the high part under your neck?

<comment><AUTHOR> If I remember correctly I was using both ways and for some reason it was uncomfortable for me. Maybe I should give it a try and lying on my back.

<comment><USER9> I don't know about the back, but it's fantastic on my side (the high part should be supporting your neck). Maybe give it another go?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> You're looking at Youtube movies, but don't look at your own body. You're jumping to conclusions while you don't have enough data.

Setup a ceiling camera to film yourself while you sleep. Study the result carefully. Try to determine why your body is doing what it is doing.

<comment><USER11> Wow, this is obvious but I didn't think about doing it. I don't have sleeping issues but I do have other posture problems (eg while sitting and coding) that I could debug that's way. Thanks!

<comment><USER12> I would recommend the WyzeCam, it's a $20 camera that I think would work well for your situation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is a totally wild guess, but what if you use a hammock?

Hammocks are kind of popular in Colombia, and we use it a lot when in vacation. To rest on them in sunny days. Or windy, like in my case!

Hammock make almost impossible to sleep against their curve, so this could make the trick.

BTW this kind of hammock is the most confortable:

[http://hamacasdedioses.com/](http://hamacasdedioses.com/)

Is made by the indians in the guajira region, and them sleep in them by tradition

[https://www.semana.com/especiales/articulo/la- hamaca/79627-3](https://www.semana.com/especiales/articulo/la-hamaca/79627-3)

<comment><USER14> For anyone interested in this: Do _not_ get a hammock with two of those wooden bars to spread the hammock. Those are beyond awful. Other than that you'll also want to lie in your hammock at an angle so you're not shaped like a banana.

<comment><USER13> +1.

The trick is "lie in your hammock at an angle". Or your back will yell at you

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I had to learn how to do this a number of years ago due to a severe spine injury. What I've found helps is having a large-ish but very soft pillow that accommodates my head lying to one side or another while I'm sleeping on my back.

<comment><AUTHOR> How long did it take you learn that? Did you have any system to do that? Eg. every night lay on the back 15 minutes longer? Or you just had couple of sleepless nights until you got used to it?

<comment><USER15> Well, it helped that doing anything other than lying on my back triggered absolutely massive waves of pain. So I didn't really have a choice. I recommend taking a sleep aid beforehand and following all the usual advice for insomnia - avoid screens, read a book, lower the lights.

It felt very weird for about 3 nights, and after a few weeks started to feel natural.

<comment><AUTHOR> So it seems that just keeping position on back should do the trick. Sleeping on back sounds so abstract and not fitting to me... that I need to give it a try! Thanks for sharing your experience!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's probably easier to set up your mattress/pillow to let you sleep comfortably on your side. This advice - [https://purple.com/blog/the-side- sleepers-guide-to-sleeping](https://purple.com/blog/the-side-sleepers-guide- to-sleeping) \- is from a mattress company, but several of the tips were things I learned from a physiotherapist, and in particular the pillow between my knees feels like it helps my lower back relax.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is funny... Only because I can relate but in the completely opposite sense. I am often told to sleep on my side to reduce snoring noises, but I find sleeping on my back much more comfortable and will always roll on to my back after a few hours on my side.

One old snoring trick to avoid back sleeping is to put a tennis ball in a sock and attach it to your shirt. Maybe you can build something similar to avoid side sleeping... Though mechanically might be a bit harder to attach to your body.

</comment><comment><USER18> I had pain in my lower back until I bought a knee pillow. Found it online of course. In addition when I do need to sleep on my back, because of a sinus issue (allergies), if I raise my feet and my head it helps.

A few years ago my wife convinced me to buy one of those beds where you can raise the foot or head. We paid WAY too much for it, I later found cheaper ones online. But I must say I am grateful my wife convinced me to buy it.

</comment><comment><USER19> Three things:

\- sleep on a very hard surface \- you are more vulnerable on your back than on your side (fetal position) so make sure you are in a 'sacred space' where you feel safe \- don't force yourself to sleep like this always, it's pretty advanced and not every day is a high confidence day

You could also try a flotation spa while you are getting to learn to relax on your back. Yoga nidra is another possibility.

</comment><comment><USER20> You might want to get rid of your pillow. Pain in neck and head often is related to that.

@Tharkum is right. Sleeping on the back is heavily related to snoring.

</comment><comment><USER21> Is it just because of back pain?

I think there is some evidence side-sleeping is best, eg [https://americanpostureinstitute.com/proper-sleeping- posture...](https://americanpostureinstitute.com/proper-sleeping-posture-for- brain-drain/) So maybe it's your bed.

</comment><comment><USER22> You may have sleep apnea. Consider seeing a sleep doctor.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think I have it because I sleep very well on my side. But it causes back ache in the morning. Anyway - thanks for suggestion.

<comment><USER23> I get this. My default, most comfortable position is to sleep on my back, but if I do get terrible nightmares, headaches, and general shittiness.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you sleep on your side you have no nightmares or you have no dreams at all? If the latter, I'd suspect that you don't get REM phase.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I love sleeping on my side but you're right, it causes back, neck, shoulder, chest issues from being curled up all night.

The best thing I found was to invest in a great firm mattress. Then every couple of nights I'll remove my pillow. It was tough to do at first as we're not used to lying so flat.

However it does force you to lie on your back, align your back and neck in a flat position. You can feel it all resetting to the correct position. Putting your pillow on one side of your face helps to stop your head rolling sideways.

Even if you only do this for a few hours a night before grabbing your pillow back it still makes a positive difference.

</comment><comment><USER25> For most of my life I've slept on my stomach. That changed when I moved to Chicago for a 6 month period.

At the time a bed was too expensive for a temporary situation and I always hated air mattresses. So, I decided to sleep on the floor.

The floor was carpeted, but the hardness punishes you if you move during the night. After a couple of weeks, I was having the best sleep of my life. I'd sleep the entire night without moving.

It's been about 5 years. I no longer sleep on the floor, but I do continue to sleep on my back. I also sleep for most of the night.

</comment><comment><USER26> I've never slept on my back and never want to.

If the problem is a sore back, get a better mattress.

Oddly enough the best mattresses can be cheap. A thin-ish (4 inch) rubber mattress on a hard base is ideal for me.

</comment><comment><USER27> I would suggest kneeling and placing your weight on your toes (curled underneath, heels touching one another with butt resting on them, think Japanese praying in front shrine) this puts a lot of weight on your pelvic floor and strengthens the lower back and spine which gets out of whack from sitting long periods. Do it barefoot, shoes are cheating. Sleeping on your back will naturally keep you more awake , don't fight it !

</comment><comment><USER28> I bend the lower part of a pillow up to make a small "V" in which I position my neck. I find this comfortable, and a good way to prevent me from rolling my head in my sleep, which causes neck pain.

I've also found that I can only sleep on my back with my legs crossed. I'm not sure of the ergonomic consequences of this position. I also have a very firm mattress, which just makes sleeping on my side untenable.

</comment><comment><USER29> I suggest not using a pillow, or using the thinnest one you can. I used to have upper back/shoulder pain and went to a chiropractor. He showed me that my "head carriage" was off - I held my head too far forward, which caused neck/shoulder muscles to strain more to keep the head up. I corrected it by not using a pillow when laying on my back. A decade of pain gone in a couple of nights! YMMV

</comment><comment><USER30> It's much harder to choke in your sleep if you're on your side (especially important if you've been drinking)

</comment><comment><USER31> I can't sleep on my back either. I've tried multiple times, but I just can't get asleep unless I lay on my stomach.

Thin pillows and/or rolled towels seem to help, as well as strategically placing them under the knees, lower back and neck.

I might have to give blackout curtains, sleeping mask, earplugs and weighted blankets a shot.

<comment><AUTHOR> According to study I've done on the Internet, sleeping on side was considered as 'not that bad', 'you can use it if you're unable to sleep on back' etc. But sleeping on stomach was always considered as wrong. Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I was never able to sleep on my back. I usually slept face-down with me head tilted a bit. I didn't know why. I now know I had sleep apnea my whole life. I started using a cpap about 15 years ago and I can now sleep any way I want.

</comment><comment><USER33> Use one of those $20 airport plane neck pillows to help you learn to sleep on your back. I think this will work because it will give your neck the comfort and support that you get from sleeping on your side.

</comment><comment><USER34> Get a harder mattress, a flatter pillow (you might have test a couple) and try locking your hands under the pillow behind your neck.

Also, get a lower spine MRI scan and go see a specialist about your pain...

<comment><AUTHOR> I've gone through few web pages and videos on YouTube and I'm 100% sure that my sleeping position is just wrong. Basically I'm kind of 'twisted' \- upper part is lying on side but hips and below are like lying on stomach. So even if my spine problem is not caused by that (I think it is), I want to learn proper sleeping position to avoid that factor now or in the future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Just keep a pillow below your knees. It will keep your knee slightly bent and relaxed. The pillow prevents turning to the side. Works for me, otherwise a stomach sleeper.

</comment><comment><USER36> Just jam yourself in position with your quilt and pillows so that you can't unconsciously roll. You want a pillow under your neck, but not too much and not too hard.

</comment><comment><USER37> I would love to learn to sleep on my side...I snore terribly when I'm on my back. No matter what I do, I always find a way to turn onto my back in my sleep.

<comment><AUTHOR> I used to snore so bad that no position was helping. I've had surgery of soft palate and nasal septum and now even I want to try make sound of snoring, I'm unable to. If I'm snoring now, it's not due to mechanical parts of my mouth but the liquid produced by nose due to allergy. Yesterday night I found that that liquid is going back to my throat and my nose stays clean. The only problem is that I can't sleep on my back.

And there is third factor which makes people snore - overweight.

<comment><USER17> Curious what your feedback is on that surgery? Are you happy you got it done? Many people lose weight after getting it too...

<comment><AUTHOR> When I was teenager, during some play I got my nose hit. At the beginning I didn't notice anything special - my nose had been usually blocked due to allergy so I was mouth breathing anyway. After couple of years I got signals that I'm terribly snoring and it occurred that my nasal septum is broken and my soft palate is too loose which are the reason of snoring. I had my surgery done but it failed - my nose was still completely blocked (I wasn't able to take 1 full breath) and I was still snoring. So that was many (15?) years ago.

Until 3 years ago it was getting worse. I was easily getting cold and other infections, snoring (which caused not sleeping well), cough. Until one day when I got constant cough that each repetition was literally making my head to explode. It was Saturday so I get to emergency when I got some strong drugs (something based on morphine) to stop that horrible cough. Then I decided that I had to do everything what was possible to do.

So I went to otolaryngologist who detected 3 problems: 1) completely destroyed tonsils causing ease of catching infections (and some "cosmetic" discomforts); 2) broken nasal septum which were blocking nose; 3) loose soft palate causing snoring. Tonsils were in bad shape so they were only to be removed. So the doctor fixed all the 3 points.

So what changed since then: \- no snoring at all - even if want to simulate it my throat does not allow me to. Its shape really changed. Before it was like top left, now it's top right at the picture: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea#/media/File:UPPP._...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea#/media/File:UPPP._4_figures..png) \- no infections at all (literally nothing!) \- I am able to breath by nose as long as I want to, even during moderate effort (eg. during going by bicycle) \- I started to have dreams. It seems that due to snoring and vibrations made by that I wasn't getting REM phase \- no more every morning headaches \- more energy

But: I keep forgetting to breath by nose. That's something I've been working on and it's getting better. My wife claims that I'm still snoring but on the video she took I can hear that it's sound like normal person make when has running nose. And I still have my allergy which every so often makes me sneeze and blocks my nose. So I get up morning with dry, open mouth and blocked nose (by allergy).

Until yesterday - when I was lying on my back in bed (barely sleeping) I felt that my mouth was closed all the time and the liquid made by allergy was going to throat.

So besides all the things I've read about sleeping on back - spine, muscles etc. I hope it would help me with my nose breathing too.

<comment><USER17> That's great info - thank you for sharing your journey. It sounds like UPPP was on balance quite positive for you. I feel like its sort of a blunt instrument in solving a very common and widespread problem people have. It can do more damage than good. But good to see that its brought some benefits for you.

<comment><AUTHOR> > I feel like its sort of a blunt instrument in solving a very common and > widespread problem people have.

Well, I think it's the only way to fix it. I've never heard any pill or exercise could fix your nasal septum or soft palate. Surgery is never nice nor safe, but what else can we do?

> It can do more damage than good

Each surgery may cause problems, especially when you need anesthesia. I heard that after badly treated palate you may have problem with swallowing - <USER2> your food and liquid may go through your nose, but doctor said that it's very rare and even those cases are temporary.

The decision for me was quite easy considering where I was before it. Practically I wasn't able to function normally so I didn't have much choice. Constant infections, bad sleep, always tired, headaches... continuing that could do only worse. And when you're in worse condition, the more risky is any surgery. So I really needed to remove root of the problem. I didn't want to waist any day longer having cold (again), not being able to go skiing, losing energy every year. I'm glad I've done it.

That's my story but you have to think about you. Take all the good and especially bad sides of having surgery and decide - have it now, some other day, or maybe never? Good luck!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> As someone who exclusively sleeps on his back, what's the benefit?

I find it very hard to sleep on the side and impossible to sleep on my stomach.

</comment><comment><USER39> from personal experience pain in your lower back after sleeping can be due to muscle weakness, or dodgy mattress among other things.

</comment><comment><USER40> It's easy: start working out a lot. If you're truly exhausted at the end of the day, you'll fall asleep easily, even on your back.

<comment><USER41> Or study a lot. A mental workout can be more exhausting than a physical one.

<comment><USER42> Do both!

<comment><USER43> For most higher animals mental effort and physical effort are coincident. Same for our ancestors. I think it would be wise for us living a modern lifestyle to try and emulate at least an average daily balance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> For back pain, the first step I'd recommend is to see a physiotherapist and get their opinion on your situation.

</comment><comment><USER45> I recommend placing two or three pillows under your knees if you are trying to fall asleep on your back.

</comment><comment><USER41> Try this - use a crumpled up blanket for a pillow and sleep on the floor. I bet your bed is too soft.

</comment><comment><USER46> Whenever I want to sleep on my back I keep a hand on my stomach, otherwise I dream of falling..

</comment><comment><USER47> Buy a pocket T-shirt comfortable to sleep in.

Buy a tennis ball.

Insert tennis ball into pocket.

Sew or glue pocket shut.

Good for stomach sleepers, anyway.

</comment><comment><USER48> Duck tape and plastic wrap.

</comment><comment><USER49> You could tie a plank across your stomach preventing rolling over.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess you're referring to the situation that someone starts sleeping on back but wakes up in different position? I haven't gone that far - last night I was just lying down couple of hours, very tired and sleepy but unable to fall asleep while lying on my back. Eventually I gave up, decided to ask HN, turned on my side and slept like a baby till morning. I was a little bit late at work though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Get into BDSM and have your partner tie your down on your back?</comment>


Ask HN: Why Ruby not preinstalled in GNU/Linux distribution? - <AUTHOR> I was learning ruby recently. When installing ruby via its version manager, I realized that Python or Perl usually preinstalled in GNU/Linux distribution. Why ruby not preinstalled in GNU/Linux distribution? <comment><USER2> Because many of the default CLI and GUI tools in Gnu/Linux are written in Python. So including Python interpreter is necessary.</comment>


Are Go maps sensitive to data races? - <AUTHOR> http://dave.cheney.net/2015/12/07/are-go-maps-sensitive-to-data-races <comment><USER3> Any data structure that isn't explicitly designed for concurrent access will not work when used concurrently.

Since a concurrent map (aka. Dictionary aka. Hashtable) is a lot more complex and slow than a non concurrent one, it's very very unlikely that Go would ship with its standard map type being a concurrent one. It would be a huge waste.

More likely there is a separate concurrent map type. It's exactly the same in other languages with mutable collections (Java, .NET, C++, ...).

<comment><USER4> > Since a concurrent map (aka. Dictionary aka. Hashtable) is a lot more > complex and slow than a non concurrent one, it's very very unlikely that Go > would ship with its standard map type being a concurrent one. It would be a > huge waste.

We should develop a system where maps are unsynchronised by default, but when you access them from a second thread they are then converted transparently by the runtime to a thread-safe implementation.

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure that's possible. If the first thread isn't explicitly synchronizing the memory, it won't even detect when the map was changed (made thread-safe) by the second thread!

A half-solution could be using very lightweight synchronization (e.g. a MVar containing an unsynchronized map) that's later converted as you describe, but it would still incur _some_ cynchronization overhead (even for single-threaded use).

<comment><USER4> You could use the existing hardware memory protection mechanism, if you can do that per-thread. Each thread allocates into memory protected from other threads by default, and on a page fault caused by access from another thread it's then moved into shared memory, and converted to concurrent if needed.

You could then profile allocation sites so that if a map is frequently converted to concurrent, you then start allocating it as concurrent in the first place.

<comment><USER5> But how would the first thread know when the map/data structure has been moved? I guess you could cause a page-fault in the first thread after the move, although that would rely on inter-CPU synchronizaiton of kernel memory maps...

<comment><USER4> The same way a thread learns about an object being moved by the GC - <USER2> all the pointers to point to the new one when you move it. Do this in a safepoint so access to the object is not interrupted.

<comment><USER5> So... the second thread needs to wait for the GC in order to modify the map concurrently? I mean, it is an optimization for the most common case (single- threaded access), but it imposes a quite high penalty for concurrent access...

Although I could imagine a similar "signaling" mechanism, where each thread would periodically read a single snychronized variable, to check if there's any additional "re-synchronisation" work it needs to do. But I'm guessing that CPUs are implemented that way anyways.

<comment><USER4> > So... the second thread needs to wait for the GC in order to modify the map > concurrently?

No nobody needs to wait for a GC, but we use the same mechanism that the GC does.

> Although I could imagine a similar "signaling" mechanism, where each thread > would periodically read a single synchronised variable

And that's how the GC already works. Except instead of a variable normally a 'test' instruction is used on a page of memory, and instead of setting the variable, the permission on the page are changed triggering a page fault.

<comment><USER5> > Except instead of a variable normally a 'test' instruction is used on a page > of memory, and instead of setting the variable, the permission on the page > are changed triggering a page fault.

Which GCs do that? The only one I know is Azul's Pauseless JVM GC, but that's a kind of a special case, given that it needs support from the kernel.

<comment><USER4> All of HotSpot's GCs for example. Here's a survey of different approaches for stopping in GC.

[http://dl.acm.org/authorize.cfm?key=N98613](http://dl.acm.org/authorize.cfm?key=N98613)

Also note that Azul almost certainly has the same mechanism to do things like stop the world for dynamic class loading, even if it isn't using it for GC when running the pauseless collector.

And Section 4 and 5 of this paper talks a bit more about it's implemented [http://chrisseaton.com/rubytruffle/icooolps15-safepoints/saf...](http://chrisseaton.com/rubytruffle/icooolps15-safepoints/safepoints.pdf).

<comment><USER5> Thanks, I'll check these out!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The other reason: things _inside_ maps are often pointer types with mutable data. Even if access to the map is properly locked, if two threads take a pointer out of it and directly or indirectly keep a reference (for example, re-slicing a slice without copying it), then one can stomp on the data the other is reading.

The fixes for this are subtle and annoying. Either you have to lock around your data, make it somehow immutable, or force copying rather than referencing (by making it "value" data).

Go would really benefit from a port of Clojure's data structures.

</comment><comment><USER7> A concurrent map is the top of my wants list for go by a long stretch. The next thing on that list is a high performance concurrent queue. That these things aren't available is a direct result of the decision to not support user defined generics in go.

<comment><USER8> > The next thing on that list is a high performance concurrent queue.

That's called a channel in Go.

<comment><USER7> A channel is a simple abstraction around a giant mutex. It does not scale throughput very well and has terrible latency performance to boot.

Something like the disruptor ([https://lmax- exchange.github.io/disruptor/](https://lmax-exchange.github.io/disruptor/)) is more along the lines of what I was thinking of. Without generics support you have to write it over and over again for each use case.

<comment><USER4> A go channels implemented using a mutex? I would be surprised if that was the case (but it might be). I would imagine such a fundamental construct built into the language would be lock-free.

<comment><USER7> [https://golang.org/src/runtime/chan.go](https://golang.org/src/runtime/chan.go)

Lines 28, 152, 401

<comment><USER4> I stand corrected. I guess it must have some more complex functionality that I thought, needing a lock.

<comment><USER7> That is the charitable way to interpret it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Mentioned in the FAQ: [https://golang.org/doc/faq#atomic_maps](https://golang.org/doc/faq#atomic_maps)

</comment><comment><USER10> "no, there is nothing wrong with Go's map implementation."

"Getting your locking wrong will corrupt the internal structure of the map."

Ahem.

If you have a non-concurrency-safe map implementation in a language that's advertised as being good for concurrency, there is _definitely_ something wrong.

<comment><USER11> > Ahem

Maps are not concurrency-safe, you know what else isn't? Integers, floats, pointers, structs. And not only in Go, but in pretty much almost all languages with mutable state, like C and C++.

The map implementation in Go is consistent with the rest of the language, plus it allows for great performance under some rather common scenarios.

But I guess it's fashionable to snark on message boards than rather understand all these facts.

<comment><USER10> I apologise for expecting better of language designers. After all, the solutions to these sorts of issues has only been around for a couple of decades. Far too soon.

<comment><USER3> This is a library thing, not a language thing. And it's a performance tradeoff: they could have shipped with a concurrent map only, that is 1/10 as fast as the current one, but never causes a data race. However everyone that _isn 't_ doing anything concurrently would be paying for it. Not very clever. I trust the class library designers thought this through. They reached the same conclusion as pretty much _every other library designer in every other language_. For the same reasons.

<comment><USER12> Data races are not the same thing as non-atomic accesses.

<comment><USER3> Sorry, I interpreted the statement as being about concurrency in maps, not about atomicity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Golang devs should have a look at Clojure and it's `core.async` library. It works very similarly to Go (heavily inspired by the good stuff), but all data structures are persistent, meaning you will never have problems with concurrent mutations (because there there are no mutations in the API, only internally).

I recommend Go users to install the boot utility, and playing around with Clojure & core.async. These communities can share many things.

<comment><USER14> It's been a while since I used Clojure, so I apologize if what I'm saying is wrong or out of date. Having used both Clojure and Go there are some significant differences in how coroutines work in each.

For instance, in Go making a blocking system call inside of a goroutine "just works" as Go will create additional goroutines as necessary. But if you do the equivalent in Clojure, you risk thread starvation.

"However if you are using go blocks and blocking IO calls you're in trouble. You will in fact often get worse performance than using threads (in the normal case) since you will quickly hog all the threads in the go block thread pool and block out any other work! ... Since the go block thread pool is quite small, it's easy to block all the threads and thus stopping all 'go processing'."[0]

Now there are some ways around this; I think that you can use promises for blocking IO inside of a Clojure coroutine. But this is one area where you don't have to worry about this kind of thing in Go, even if you do have to know that the default map implementation isn't thread safe. :)

[0] [http://martintrojer.github.io/clojure/2013/07/07/coreasync-a...](http://martintrojer.github.io/clojure/2013/07/07/coreasync- and-blocking-io/)

<comment><USER15> Its problematic to mix blocking and message-based paradigms together. Its kind of worse than either one alone, because added complexity. Yet its so hard to come up with an entirely blockless design, especially since OSs won't cooperate (rarely have non-blocking APIs throughout).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Share memory by communicating; don't communicate by sharing memory.

[https://golang.org/doc/codewalk/sharemem/](https://golang.org/doc/codewalk/sharemem/)

<comment><USER6> Easy to say, hard to do.

You need to make sure that once you've done with the item and passed it on, you don't have any overt, tacit, or deeply-buried pointers into the item you just let go of.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > _Go maps are not goroutine safe_

Which types in Go are goroutine safe? Do we need to use sync.Mutex for all global variables which are read and written in goroutines? My understanding is only read-only variables are goroutine safe.

<comment><USER6> If you copy value data inside a mutex, access to the copy you made is goroutine safe.</comment></comment>


Yik Yak, Secret, and the Minimal State - <AUTHOR> https://october.substack.com/p/yik-yak-secret-and-the-minimal-state?r=v30q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=hn <comment><USER2> I liked Yik Yak. I haven't heard that name in _years_, but have fond memories of the things I'd see people post there. I miss it

<comment><USER3> What happened to it? Suddenly was just dead</comment></comment>


Top 3 UI Techniques That Users Hate Most - <AUTHOR> https://uxplanet.org/top-3-most-hateful-ui-techniques-b81eb337e3b9 <comment><USER2> This seems to be hosted on medium, which forces a floating "share bar" aka "dick bar" in Gruber's terminology.

Those are much more annoying than push notifications, because i can just not enable notifications for that site. I had to write a custom package for 1Blocker to get rid of medium's bullshit

</comment><comment><USER3> I hate push notifications promotions If notification is about basic functionality is fine, I'm not interested in your offers If I want I can just go through offers page</comment>


Want to get hundreds of backlinks for free? Get to the Hacker News front page - <AUTHOR> https://jic94.com/backlinks-hacker-news-aggregators/ <comment><USER2> Either the author is misunderstanding things or I am.

I was under the impression that HN had a relatively liberal policy on scrapers, allowing hobbyists to scrape the content and present it in alternative UIs, such as [https://hckrnews.com](https://hckrnews.com) or [http://hn.elijames.org](http://hn.elijames.org)

That doesn't seem analogous to PBNs, where the value they add is not a better browsing interface but just some extra link juice.

<comment><USER3> Oops, thank you! I wasn't completely sure about this either. But you may be right that the reasons are less sinister than they are!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How many HN clones using X new JS framework XYZ or UI reskins are out there in the wild using the Firebase API? It feels like you see one on the front page at least once a week. And that is what almost all of these sites shown in the screenshots of the article are, not some kind of grey/black hat SEO optimization ring.

<comment><USER3> Interesting! Do you have any clue on why these websites are being made? Reddit also has many aggregators, but some of them are literal blogger websites.

<comment><USER4> HN is a relatively simple, well understood web site, and there is an easy-to- use API that one can get access to without much ceremony. It's almost as common a "getting started" type project for a new front-end framework as creating yet another todo list app.

I've assigned it as a take-home project for job candidates before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> You are jumping to conclusions. Because the HN UI is not everyone's cup of tea, there are a lot of people that have reworked the UI for mobile, etc. Also, there isn't or wasn't an HN API, so scraping was the only option. Finally, there's a lot of people who take on the exercise for fun, so you get "HN in VueJS" which aren't nefarious, just exercises.

Look at your results, why would you think "React HN clone" on github.io was something other than just a personal fun project.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is HN becoming too popular?

I don't want HN to become a place where people game things.

<comment><USER7> The good thing is that it's currently impossible to game things I think. My blog is mentioned in this article. I post all of my articles on HN and so far I haven't noticed any pattern that would help me predict which ones will do well. The algorithm seems pretty robust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I thought the value of backlinks was dependent on the number of backlinks the backlink has, so if all the backlinks are random scrapers with little traffic, why should it boost seo?

<comment><USER3> Hey, I'm the author of this article :D. It's included in the article. They still give out SEO juice regardless.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great analysis. Interesting side effect of devs hobby projects scrapping off the HN has created pbns like impact on seo.

</comment><comment> yoz-y Unsurprising. And also not really actionable advice.</comment>


Working from Home: Why the Office Will Never Be the Same - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/style/office-culture.html <comment><USER2> I'm not sure there is really anything in here that hasn't been said before. But the longer it goes on, the clearer it becomes that this isn't a blip for work that can support it. And, while some teams will embrace a hybrid model, people who really want an in-office experience will probably have to consciously seek out like-minded employers and teams.

There's probably also a tipping point where if remote becomes a typical option for certain types of jobs, many people--as noted in the article--will move to a location where they can no longer take a hike into an office once a wekk or so.</comment>


YouTube threatens legal action against video download service - <AUTHOR> https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-threatens-legal-action-video-downloader-160530/ <comment><USER2> Isn't that a bit like the pot calling out the kettle?

"You stole our stolen content and you'd better stop."

They should require Youtube to send them a DMCA takedown notice for each video, wait the maximum allowable time to comply, and then allow others to re- upload the same video.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Copyright_Infringement_Liability_Limitation_Act#Take_down_and_put_back_provisions)

Google has claimed it supported opening up closed systems. But it now looks like it really just depends on who is making/losing money.

<comment><USER3> I think it's more like kicking down the ladder. Once you climb to the top you want to kick the ladder away so others can't follow you. It's the usual greedy mindset that often comes about when people get rich.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There's one thing I can't stand, that the article mentions:

       Music labels in particular are not happy
       with the fact that music videos can be easily
       downloaded from the site with help from
       external services.

How about putting those videos on iTunes? I'd love to buy them legally, but I haven't figured out how to. In the meantime, I'm forced to use one of these download services unless I want to be tethered to the internet whilst viewing videos.

</comment><comment><USER5> the arguments against this are very similar to adblock legality issues.

Google wants to say "You can only view this content in a specific way" \- Thats pretty much the same argument against ad blocking. The issue is if a ToS can force the issue.</comment>