Linux compressors comparison: lzo vs. lz4 vs. gzip vs. bzip2 vs. lzma - <AUTHOR> http://www.ilsistemista.net/index.php/linux-a-unix/44-linux-compressors-comparison-on-centos-6-5-x86-64-lzo-vs-lz4-vs-gzip-vs-bzip2-vs-lzma.html

<comment><USER2> I first thought "Where is the benchmark?" It's not clear enough that the article has many pages. (By the way, the benchmarks start in page #4.)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Linux compressors comparison and benchmarks</comment>


School IT allegedly took "thousands" of pics in webcam case - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/04/school-it-allegedly-took-thousands-of-pics-in-webcam-case.ars <comment><USER2> I understand _why_ this is a big deal, but I can't help but feeling like if this case involved a company and its employees than there wouldn't be any controversy at all. (Employer: "They're our laptops and we can do what we want with them.")

Does anybody else feel this way? Am I way off base here?</comment>


Easily get the user's Apple ID password, just by asking - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/KrauseFx/steal.password <comment><USER2> Can't believe this didn't front-page. I'll never type into one of these without being on the home screen ever again! Thanks!

<comment><USER3> It made it to the front page [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15441537](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15441537)</comment></comment>


Space Emerging from Quantum Mechanics - <AUTHOR> http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2016/07/18/space-emerging-from-quantum-mechanics/ <comment><USER2> For some context, there is a very intriguing formulation of General Relativity in terms of entropy. [1] What this suggests is, that gravity emerges from a underlying thermodynamical system. In OP the authors construct explicitly one of these systems.

Unfortunately together with the success of perturbative quantum gravity [2], this suggests that quantum gravity is just not experimentally accessible. (That's a thought by Freeman Dyson originally.) The formal argument would be, that a lot of different theories lead to the same thermodynamical limit, so that one can not determine the true underlying theory. Or put it in more hacker news terms, the problem is analogous to trying to learn about TCP/IP by looking at the output of black hole simulations, there is the layer of numerical mathematics in between, which is at least very hard to breach.

[1] Older guestpost by Grant Remmen on Carroll's blog: [http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2016/02/08/guest- po...](http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2016/02/08/guest-post-grant- remmen-on-entropic-gravity/)

[2] For this discussion, it is basically cheating. You quantize gravitational waves on a classical background geometry. The approach works very well because gravity is weak, it also tells us nothing interesting, because one breaks the relationship between gravity and space time (the central feature of General Relativity) by hand.

</comment><comment><USER3> Tidbits (stars for the top two ideas):

* -* "Or, more accurately but less evocatively, "find gravity inside quantum mechanics." Rather than starting with some essentially classical view of gravity and "quantizing" it, we might imagine starting with a quantum view of reality from the start, and find the ordinary three-dimensional space in which we live somehow emerging from quantum information."

\- "If we perturb the state a little bit, how does the emergent geometry change? (Answer: space curves in response to emergent mass/energy, in a way reminiscent of Einstein's equation in general relativity.)

It's that last bit that is most exciting, but also most speculative."

\- "But the devil is in the details, and there's a long way to go before we can declare victory."

\- "In some sense, we're making this proposal a bit more specific, by giving a formula for distance as a function of entanglement. "

\- "We're quick to admit that what we've done here is extremely preliminary and conjectural. We don't have a full theory of anything, and even what we do have involves a great deal of speculating and not yet enough rigorous calculating."

* -* "Perhaps the most interesting and provocative feature of what we've done is that we start from an assumption that the degrees of freedom corresponding to any particular region of space are described by a finite-dimensional Hilbert space."

\- "A finite-dimensional Hilbert space describes a very different world indeed. In many ways, it's a much simpler world — one that should be easier to understand. We shall see"

My 1 cent:

I don't know enough about this subject but...it's this creative thinking that is desperately needed in the sciences. I'm not trying to tear down others but instead just say that this is what happens when education advances. When enough (abstract) people focus on a subject, we will find a breakthrough.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is impressive. Not that I understand it. But it's encouraging to try to derive space and gravity from quantum mechanics.

Quantum mechanics seems to be how the universe really works. Outrageous predictions of quantum mechanics, from the two-slit experiment onward, have been experimentally verified. So it's a sound base for further work. Physics has been stuck for a century trying to reconcile relativity and quantum mechanics. This might be a way forward.

It might even lead to something that's experimentally verifiable.

</comment><comment><USER5> I would suggest reading "Space time quantization" [1] published in 1999 presenting a theory based on the same idea. This theory has since being developped and the latest results have been submitted for publication. These results are multiple. The most important of them are the explanation of the nature and properties of dark matter. But there is much more.

The seeding work on this theory was published as early as 1967 and 1978.

Publication into arXiv is too restricted, because of the endorser requirement, for the article to be published there.

[1] [http://www.meessen.net/AMeessen/STQ/STQ.pdf](http://www.meessen.net/AMeessen/STQ/STQ.pdf)

<comment> semi-extrinsic I'm not casting any evaluation or judgment on the work you cite at all, but it's a lot easier to get a paper on the arXiv than into a non-trash journal. If the subject is too controversial to appear on the arXiv, most journal editors will bench reject it.

<comment><USER6> In fairness, Foundations of Physics (where this paper by Meessen was published) isn't a trash journal, but it is an odd duck. The editor in chief is Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft, who everyone agrees is brilliant, and generally still rigorous strictly speaking, but whose interest have become much less mainstream. Articles published in the journal are rarely flawed in a technical sense, but they do often explore highly speculative avenues that are usually considered unpromising for good reason. I'd say there's a good analogy to cold fusion, which is a field that is highly unfashionable for good technical reasons, and which has attracted a lot of cranks, but in which there are still formally open problems and which can't be completely dismissed.

<comment> semi-extrinsic Yes, 't Hooft seems to have some interesting interests these days. I believe he's one of very few who think superdeterminism is a tenable explanation of entanglement.

<comment><USER6> Yep. Here's him talking about it at the Perimeter Institute: [http://pirsa.org/displayFlash.php?id=15050094](http://pirsa.org/displayFlash.php?id=15050094)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This sounds super interesting to me as someone with a passing interest in astrophysics but no real study. But it also seems such an obvious approach that I'd be shocked if it hadn't been tried before. Is it really that novel?

<comment><USER5> See my other comment about "Space time quantization".

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This has seemed to me for a while the right approach (gravity from quantum mechanics, vs. quantized gravity). Can anyone speculate on the discovery of "gravitational waves" \- i.e. in a quantum mechanical description, what are gravity waves made of? A sort of quantized spread of entanglement?

</comment><comment><USER9> I don't know enough about this subject so I would like to ask the following.

Does this means that gravitation "force" can be actually just a function of entanglement (between regions of space, particles, etc.)?

<comment><USER10> Basically, yes. Although gravitation is not a "force" but a manifestation of the geometry of space-time. The aim is to show that this geometry can be derived from entanglement relations in the Hilbert space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's way above my league, but possibly related is an old article from nature communications, "Quantum correlations with no causal order":

[http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n10/full/ncomms2076....](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n10/full/ncomms2076.html)

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't see what's testable or falsifiable in here. Okay, it's good to get rid of epicycles, and intellectually pleasing, but it still looks like the same objections apply as have been raised around string theory. Even if this _is_ the 'theory of everything', will we not end up with shorter equations that describe the same observations?

<comment><USER12> If they do find a way to predict space and gravity from quantum mechanics it probably will have testable predictions. They don't seem to have cracked it yet though. (Disclaimer - didn't read the paper.)

I've long thought this would be a good way to go for research. I once had a crack at understanding Feynman's arguments that you could get general relativity from spin-2 particle theory in the book Lectures on Gravitation based on his 1965 lectures with the intention of writing a simplified version for Wikipedia. I failed - too hard - maybe someone else can do a laymans version? As far as I know there hasn't been very much progress since Feynman's attempts which were not renormalizable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> What's unique about gravity which is different from other forces?

<comment><USER14> It is a ficticious force:

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Wait, is this suggesting gravity is really entanglement writ large?</comment>


MIT 6.004: Computation Structures - <AUTHOR> https://6004.mit.edu/web/fall19/resources/lectures <comment><USER2> Somewhat related: looks like Prof. Harry Lewis is also teaching a class on "Classic CS" during the Spring 2020 term at MIT.

"This subject examines papers every computer scientist should have read, with an emphasis on the period from the 1930s to the 1980s. It is meant to be a synthesizing experience for advanced students in computer science: a way for them to see the field as a whole, not through a survey, but by reliving the experience of its creation, relating the original work to the field as it exists today. The aim is to create a unified view of the field by replaying its entire evolution at an accelerated rate, giving students the opportunity to become sophisticated generalists"

[https://www.eecs.mit.edu/academics-admissions/academic- infor...](https://www.eecs.mit.edu/academics-admissions/academic- information/subject-updates-spring-2020/6s897)

<comment><USER3> That sounds pretty awesome, does anyone happen to have a list of the papers the class covers, I can't seem to find it online.

<comment><USER4> It's probably similar to this one [https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/34992/assignments/syllabu...](https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/34992/assignments/syllabus)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> wow. setup and hold times have been demoted to 'demystification only' and not something that is part of the formal curriculum. when I helped teach this course in the 90's, it was a major section and if you could not answer basic questions about synchronous clock discipline, you could not get an A. It was as important as stack-based calling conventions.

I mean, I guess most 'computer science' folks today can have a fecund and profitable career and have never heard of these concepts, but... I hope some people still wonder, why do we have clock speeds, and what other alternatives might exist?

<comment><USER6> The previous version, with full labs, autograded tutorial problems and exercises is still available here:

[https://computationstructures.org/lectures/info/info.html](https://computationstructures.org/lectures/info/info.html)

Also, an archived version of that course is still running on edx ...

[https://www.edx.org/course/computation-structures- part-1-dig...](https://www.edx.org/course/computation-structures- part-1-digital-circuits)

.. where there is a forum available, so people can still ask questions about how to build a 32-bit CPU from scratch using MOSFETs :)

It's also on OCW,

[https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and- compu...](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer- science/6-004-computation-structures-spring-2017/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This seems very comprehensive and beautifully comprehensible.

It reminds me closely of _The Elements of Computing Systems_ and its companion web-based incarnation _Nand2Tetris_ available at [https://www.nand2tetris.org/](https://www.nand2tetris.org/)

</comment><comment><USER8> It seems MIT changes the url:

[https://6004.mit.edu/web/fall19FA19/resources/lectures](https://6004.mit.edu/web/fall19FA19/resources/lectures)

<comment><USER9> Thank you! I really needed this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Last time I looked at MIT 6.004 the lecture slides seemed like they were useless without the speaker but there were no videos so I moved on.

Looks like there's been an update since so will take another look...

<comment><USER11> I started trying to read through the slides in the link and I felt the same way - this looks like fascinating stuff that I wish I understood better, but I got lost trying to just read the slides without a lecturer going over them. There were a few textbooks listed (including Hennesy & Patterson's excellent "Computer Organization"); I might check out the other two instead.

<comment><USER10> I'm finding nand2tetris much better for covering what I gather is mostly the same.

The 6.004 for 09 has more of the physics than nand2tetris but I can live without that

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I kind of like their Minispec HDL - I don't think I've seen it before though I guess it derives from Bluespec. I have always liked Wirth's Lola as well.

Verilog and VHDL are serviceable, but I think there is an advantage to having a simple, friendly syntax without the verbosity and overhead of VHDL.

I also liked how Wirth's course involved running on FPGA hardware. It looks like you might be able to do that in the MIT course as well although I didn't see specific labs for it.

</comment><comment><USER13> I was hoping to learn about GPU and neural network accelerator architectures. This seems like a conspicuous absence in the course.

<comment><USER14> This is an undergrad course, "200 level" in the standard course numbering (which MIT does not follow). It's for people who know how to program, but relatively new to the field. It's mostly going to be getting people used to assembly and basic computational building blocks.

You might be interested in the new class: 6.812 Hardware Architecture for Deep Learning.

<comment><USER13> Indeed. Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is the site just temporarily down? I was watching one of the lecture videos and when I came back to the site I got a 502 error.

</comment><comment><USER15> I get 502 error</comment>


Racket v7.5 - <AUTHOR> https://download.racket-lang.org/v7.5.html <comment><USER2> IMO the big news in this release is the relicensing from LGPL to dual Apache / MIT.

[https://blog.racket-lang.org/2019/11/completing-racket-s- rel...](https://blog.racket-lang.org/2019/11/completing-racket-s-relicensing- effort.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm going to teach Racket in my PL course next semester. I'm excited to have an excuse to use it again :)

<comment><USER4> Great! Privileged students. I wish I had learned more and especially earlier with Racket, than I did.

Having gone through the mainstream computer programming education, I can only look back with regret, at all the time I lost, because of mediocre education. How much more I could do or know today, if only I had started learning with courses and books, that actually teach core programming concepts and do not limit themselves with their choice of language.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Any news on the status of "Racket 2" planning? That announcement demotivated me to want to invest in Racket. Is racket-without-sexprs still the plan for mainline mindshare?

<comment><USER6> The project is now called Rhombus, not Racket2. A project plan was posted on the Racket mailing list about 6 weeks ago: [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/racket- users/rhom...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/racket- users/rhombus%7Csort:date/racket-users/-x_M5wIhtWk/52HWNnspDAAJ)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> > Racket CS remains "beta" quality for the v7.5 release, but its compatibility > and performance continue to improve.

Does this mean Racket CS is faster than the default Racket?

<comment><USER8> _fwiw_

[https://benchmarksgame- team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/...](https://benchmarksgame- team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/fastest/racket-racketcs.html)

<comment><USER9> Note that several of these benchmarks use 4 cores on Python but only one on Racket. Time to revisit the Racket programs and use places.

Look at the single core benchmarks to get a more 1-1 comparison.

<comment><USER8> > Time to revisit the Racket programs and use places.

Please contribute improved programs:

[https://salsa.debian.org/benchmarksgame- team/benchmarksgame/...](https://salsa.debian.org/benchmarksgame- team/benchmarksgame/blob/master/README.md)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Is it used anywhere outside of education?

</comment><comment><USER11> Seems to be a lot faster to start up, particularly loading all the extensions, which will increase the chances of me using it more.

</comment><comment><USER12> I like DrRacket's debugger but i can only run it once on a large program! Even if i increase the memory i can only run it once. The second run results in strange behavior. Does anyone else have problems with DrRacket?

</comment><comment><USER13> Question : is racket still useful if you plan on building a DSL not based on lisp syntax ?

<comment><USER14> Yes. Some examples:

With the default installation of Racket you get an implementation of Algol 60 [https://docs.racket-lang.org/algol60/](https://docs.racket-lang.org/algol60/)

You can download and install form the package repository the language Honu, that is a Java-like language [https://docs.racket- lang.org/honu/index.html](https://docs.racket-lang.org/honu/index.html)

With the default installation of Racket you get Scribble, that is the language that is used to write the docs. (It's the same spirit of LaTeX where everything is a string unless you use a magical character, but the magical character and the details are very different.) [https://docs.racket- lang.org/scribble/](https://docs.racket-lang.org/scribble/)

<comment><USER15> My favorite example: [https://docs.racket- lang.org/2d/index.html](https://docs.racket-lang.org/2d/index.html)</comment></comment></comment>


For a brief period, the Windows kernel tried to deal with gamma rays - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20181120-00/?p=100275 <comment><USER2> Invalidating the caches is kind of a cringe inducing approach on this (actual) problem. Especially in HPC radiation related single event upsets have become a real problem. If you do the math, all the silicon area devoted to memory (DRAM, caches, registers) adds up, and what you've got is essentially particle detector.

Compared to the effective volume of a purpose designed one (ATLAS, CMS, Super Kaminokade, etc.) rather small, but a particle detector nevertheless.

A couple of months / years ago, there was an article (also linked here on HN, IIRC) that did a few back of the envelope calculations regarding expected event rates. IIRC it was something on the order of 1 event per day per 10^12 transistors. (EDIT: not the one I thought of but blows the same horn: [http://energysfe.ufsc.br/slides/Paolo- Rech-260917.pdf](http://energysfe.ufsc.br/slides/Paolo-Rech-260917.pdf) )

Also radiation hardened software has been researched (and still is). Essentially the idea is to not only have redundant, error correcting memory, but also redundant, error correcting computation. NASA has some publications on that. e.g. [https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/pub- archive/1075h/1075%20(Mehlitz)...](https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/m/pub- archive/1075h/1075%20\(Mehlitz\).pdf)

<comment><USER3> Could physicists and astronomers use all this distributed particle detection for research?

Like a app in a phone or desktop that sends reports back with location and time information.

<comment><USER4> You may be interested to learn of arXiv:1510.07655, "Detecting particles with cell phones: the Distributed Electronic Cosmic-ray Observatory" by Vandenbroucke et al.

I don't know if any novel results have come out of this kind of thing.

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.07665](https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.07665)

<comment><USER5> There was also this one, a bit earlier, "Observing Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays with Smartphones".

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895](https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.2895)

I (thought I) signed up to be informed of beta releases, but never heard anything. I just checked their website[0] and it mentions a beta app, but that seems to just go to a signup page.

[0] [https://crayfis.io](https://crayfis.io)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If you don't believe in bit flips, try this!

[http://dinaburg.org/bitsquatting.html](http://dinaburg.org/bitsquatting.html)

I did that for a bit on cloudfront.net and got dozens of them in a short amount of time.

<comment><USER7> bitflips are also single char typos in ascii. I'm guessing that is what you saw

<comment><USER8> I think the article gives good reasons to believe they are not typos, why do you think otherwise?

<comment><USER7> While i like the sibling comment's network errors answer better then mine I didn't see any reasoning other then a unfounded statement[1] in the article or on a quick skim for "typo" in the referenced whitepaper:

[1] "These requests were not typos or other manually entered URLs"

<comment><USER9> _" All of these requests used only four domains in the HTTP Host header, as shown in Table 4. Three out of four domains contain more than one bit error, ruling out a simple mistype of fbbdn.net for fbcdn.net. "_

<comment><USER10> Not to mention, the number of people typing "fbcdn.net" into a browser has to be vanishingly small to begin with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Embedded people deal with this all the time. One class of solutions involves a checker task running continuously, which verifies the integrity of the data structures, kind of like a poor man's ECC. Really important code generally does everything three times, so there's a tie breaker in case there's a temporary fault in code or memory. I've seen this done with macros in ways that result in pretty wild code, like running a computation three times, storing each of those results three times, and then comparing the resulting nine outputs three times. That was in a diving related application, so it's not crazy to do all that work over and over since it had to be right.

Complex embedded systems like your cellphone's baseband processor usually just give up at some point and suicide a task or even the whole OS if they detect a problem. For a while I had a Qualcomm debugger attached to the internal cell modem I had in a netbook I was working on, and the baseband crashed all the time due to hardware faults. I thought I had a bad chip for a while until I realized it never happened when I left it in an underground parking lot.

<comment><USER12> This. Cache is the least of their worries in aerospace. It's common to see satellite IC's dosed up so high on the ol' Gamma that the silicon MOSFET junctions themselves start disintegrating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A bunch of years ago Cisco had an issue with some RAM in a new switch model, I think it was in the 65xx. They where crashing randomly but only in certain places in the world. Cisco spent tons of money on this. No idea. They brought in a physics professor. The devices with the most issues were located in countries up near the artic circle. Cosmic Rays caused a bit flip in this particular set of RAM due to something in its design. Sorry for the light details, it's been years.

I also worked at a switch manufacturer. We had some ASICs from one of the big companies. Had crashes that we could not explain at all. We knew it was not us. Proved that bits where flipping in the switch ASIC. Turn out they had forgot to spec low alpha solder. Alpha partics will not go through your skin, but when it is layered right on to the chip....oops.

<comment><USER14> I used to work for two switch chip companies also. I know both of them has SW/logic in the switch chips guard against random errors in SRAM - "Alpha particles". I have seen detail test report that ran the system in nuclear lab and graph out the level of radiation level vs impact on the system error/recoverable error rate.

I knew big customers (such as Cisco) can ask for such test reports and they do get it.

It would be very interesting experiment to position some modem/old (7, 14, 28 nm chips) electronics (cell phones, raspberry Pi + solar panels) to various distant near nuclear accident site, monitor them remotely, classify and log the failure rate over the months/ years.

<comment><USER13> We would take the switches to the labs and have the "shoot" various types of particles other radiation sources at it to check resistance in both HW and SW. Depending on what you did sometime it takes months get get the device back as it has to "cool down".

It was pretty neat.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Way back in the late 90s IBM had a problem with alpha-source-contaminated plastics in their SRAM chips. Those chips were used as caches in Sun SPARC processor modules. IBM told some customers, but not Sun. This caused random bitflips in the processor cache, leading to assorted failures and crashes in what was supposed to be reliable UNIX servers.

</comment><comment><USER16> So ... here's what I'm thinking, as a complete layman with respect to how radiation affects memory devices. RAM is DRAM, i.e. dynamic RAM. It has to get automatically refreshed relatively frequently.

So, maybe (again, me being a layman) what happens is that usually gamma rays hit a DRAM cell, but haven't imparted enough energy to cause a flip. A millisecond later the cell gets refreshed erasing what little influence the gamma ray had. No harm done. A flip would only occur if enough particles hit the cell within the refresh time frame. That's of course possible, but more rare.

Contrast this with processor cache. On-die cache is most likely SRAM, Static RAM. It doesn't get refreshed. So the slight voltage errors caused by gamma rays can slowly build up over time.

Perhaps this normally isn't an issue, because even though the cache is SRAM and doesn't get refreshed automatically, it'll get "refreshed" by virtue of being cache. i.e. as long as the processor is busy the cache is constantly getting re-written with new cache lines.

But that won't hold true when the processor is asleep. The cache will be sitting idle, making itself susceptible to accumulated charges. Thus the likelihood of a gamma flip is greatly increased.

All of that crude logic aside there's one caveat:

> he workaround was removed once the problem was fixed in microcode or in a > later processor stepping.

So ... either everything I said is a load of bollocks and actually this was a processor bug that some CPU engineer mistook as gamma flips, or maybe my theory is correct and they changed the CPU to occasionally wake up and "refresh" its cache automatically.

The mystery remains...

<comment><USER15> > Contrast this with processor cache. On-die cache is most likely SRAM, Static > RAM. It doesn't get refreshed. So the slight voltage errors caused by gamma > rays can slowly build up over time.

Static RAM is basically a flip-flop. It's a bistable circuit that's actively held in a stable state. Single-event upsets work by, essentially, putting the energy into the circuit required to make it transition into the opposite state, i.e. basically the same way the SRAM cell is written to.

<comment><USER17> In layman's terms, it's being continuously refreshed.

<comment><USER18> No its not, that is what makes it fundamentally different than DRAM.

<comment><USER19> Yes, it is. That's what makes it fundamentally different from DRAM, which isn't being continuously refreshed, which is why the memory controller has to manually refresh DRAM at frequent intervals. DRAM has much simpler cells, at the cost of more complex control logic.

I recommend you just take a look at Wikipedia or something for an explanation of SRAM. Each bit is typically implemented using six transistors, four of which form a loop of two inverters.

They are continuously powered, which causes the continuous refresh the parent was talking about.

<comment><USER20> There is no continuous "refresh". The circuit is _bistable_ which means that the system has two states in which, once reached, it will remain until some energy is expended to change that.

Imagine it like two valleys with a hill between. Rolling a ball from the OFF valley to the ON valley requires some energy. If it's not enough the ball rolls back into the valley it's currently in.

The process is entirely analog, ie, there is no refresh circuit that looks at the voltage and says "that's almost a ON, better fresh up the voltage". The output of the circuit is digital. (You can play with the R/S latches of most SRAM on an oscilloscope and it's quite fun, the output of non-integrated SRAM will react in an analog fashion. If it's integrated, ie has a controller, this is not possible sadly)

Until you cross the threshold, the circuit will simply slide back to the original position, once you cross it, it'll slide into the new position without any additional effort.

<comment><USER19> That seems awfully nitpicky in this context. Look at russdill's comment, then look at the throwaway, which is reasonable to interpret as stating that DRAM is being continuously refreshed - which it isn't, it happens at discrete intervals.

Anyway, what you're writing isn't wrong but I'd say misses the context of the conversation a bit :)

(Also, it's a great example of mansplaining...)

<comment><USER20> I'm not mansplaining, I don't even know who you are. You don't know who I am. I'm attempting to make the comment digestible for a broader audience and not only for you. You're not alone on this website. I'm sorry for doing that then.

Tbh I find that accusation incredibly rude.

<comment><USER21> The explanation you were replying to was more digestible than yours.

Your definition of "refresh" is unhelpfully specific and not particularly correct. The circuit that "looks at a voltage and freshens it up", also known as an amplifier, is just a transistor or pair of transistors.

<comment><USER15> > The explanation you were replying to was more digestible than yours.

The analogy presented is fairly accurate and easy to understand. GGGGGP talks about loops of inverters and continuous refreshing, the latter of which is invented terminology.

> The circuit is bistable which means that the system has two states in which, > once reached, it will remain until some energy is expended to change that.

> Imagine it like two valleys with a hill between. Rolling a ball from the OFF > valley to the ON valley requires some energy. If it's not enough the ball > rolls back into the valley it's currently in.

<comment><USER21> The analogy is an okay description of part of what happens, but not why. It also gives a pretty misleading idea of what happens to the voltages. It would be much better if it was combined with a simple explanation of how the inverters actually behave, which would only take a few words. This is why the previous post mentioned them and said to check the wikipedia page.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I found this code as an intern at Microsoft, while the manufacturer is hidden in the post, I'll give you a clue - the company starts with "I" and ends with "ntel"

<comment><USER23> Unless you know what you are doing, you might want to delete that. Probably goes against the NDA you've signed, no?

<comment><USER24> It's pretty obvious that when people at Microsoft say "processor vendor" it's a euphemism for "Intel".

Not as true anymore now that they support arm but... Still kinda true.

<comment><USER25> You do know that the 64 bit version of Windows XP was made for AMD processors before intel had any.

We also had Transmeta. I bet all of them have some kinks just as different models from the same vendor have different bugs etc. that require special handling.

Meltdown/Spectre is just a recent and very visible artifact that would demonstrate this.

<comment><USER24> Yeah I know. But I think at MS they work closely with Intel and think of other vendors as not as important.

I did work there too, and to be clear, did not witness anything like this. Just a personal opinion/hunch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> If you have a large enough fleet, and log your ECC errors, you have actually built a not-very-sensitive and very expensive scientific instrument- a cosmic ray detector. Physics is awesome.

<comment><USER27> An app was created to use smartphones for this very purpose!

[https://news.wisc.edu/physicist-turns-smartphones-into- pocke...](https://news.wisc.edu/physicist-turns-smartphones-into-pocket- cosmic-ray-detectors/)

<comment><USER28> Duct tape the smartphone camera lens and keep observing the camera feed, hoping the cosmic ray hit the camera.

Doesn't need ECC memory for that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> To answer the question in the OP: yes, the processor cache might be more susceptible than RAM, if the RAM is ECC.

I've heard many stories about bit-flips causing serious problems at higher- elevation sites. Apparently a major installation at either NCAR or UCAR was delayed by a month fighting such problems. While I haven't actually confirmed any of these stories first hand, I've heard enough to believe that a little paranoia is justified.

<comment><USER15> Internal data buses and caches are typically ECC'd. In fact, DRAM and the memory bus are most likely the only non-ECC parts in desktop computers.

<comment><USER30> The way I remember it, when this happened on our Sun E10Ks, the RAM was ECC but the cache was not.

Maybe I misremember. It was 20 years ago.

<comment><USER31> That was my thought process as well, that an early silicon spin / chip wasn't ECC because it would change state frequently and the circuit budget wasn't worth a soft error; but the external RAM might be ECC because a longer running state might not have such a refresh/detection of error.

I agree that these days I'm unaware of any "serious" CPU where the data isn't at least protected by at least a parity bit on chip.

RISC-V : spec mentions ECC, but in a phrasing that makes it clearly optional. [https://github.com/riscv/riscv-v- spec/blob/master/v-spec.ado...](https://github.com/riscv/riscv-v- spec/blob/master/v-spec.adoc)

"Many processors use error correction codes in the on-chip cache, including the Intel Itanium and Xeon[28] processors, the AMD Athlon, Opteron, all Zen-[29] and Zen+-based[30] processors (EPYC, EPYC Embedded, Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper), and the DEC Alpha 21264.[23][31]" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_memory#Cache](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECC_memory#Cache)

I prefer to always use ECC and layers of defenses where persistence of data is in question. Jeff Atwood's reference does point to other options, assuming that validation is baked in to the storage process and distributed in such a way as to identify and correct errors across a distributed infrastructure rather than a single system; the distributed nature means it could be more resilient and the validation of data at rest / comparing results is arguably a higher level of integrity than just ECC can provide. [https://blog.codinghorror.com/to-ecc-or-not-to- ecc/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/to-ecc-or-not-to-ecc/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Bit flips are real. I used to see them on my (admittedly low end) webserver. Eg. There were occasional errors like "myOfunction not found". A quick glance on a ASCII table shows that the original function name "my_function" is indeed one bitflip away (0x4F vs 0x5F)

<comment><USER33> If you were seeing errors like that with any regularity there's almost certainly a hardware issue on your server. Cosmic ray bitflips are really rare, and tend to be basically invisible until you're monitoring an entire datacenter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> When I was fresh out of college, I worked as a contractor for a prominent agricultural equipment manufacturer. I was responsible for building out the touch-screen interface for the radio (a Qt app). I was told by an engineer who worked for the equipment manufacturer that my application wasn't good enough because needed to be able to operate correctly in the face of arbitrary bit flips "from lightning strikes"\--I kindly asked her to show me the requirements which was sufficient to get her to relent, but that was still the wackiest request I've ever received.

<comment><USER17> The requirement request is a great way to push back on feature creep. There's a lot of cargo culting that goes on in the "protection against bit-flips". You sometimes have to go a step further and ask what error rate are you required to be below. Once you have that number, you can start asking what your current error rate is without mitigations, and how much a given mitigation will reduce your error rate.

<comment><USER35> My favorite entry in that problem space is metastability[1].

Do you interface two different clock domains(which is basically most things)? Guess what all of your computing is built on the "chance" that bits won't flip.

Granted, statistics make this pretty solid but kinda blew my mind when I first stumbled across it.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_(electronics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability_\(electronics\))

<comment><USER17> Yup, a large portion of hardware design is based on getting below a required maximum failure rate. For metastability, you just keep adding more flip-flops. BTW, the cache invalidation request may be due to this. They figured they could more easily reach their time between failure interval if they could discount time during S1.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I once saw a postmortem where a server process mysteriously tried to delete whole data (fortunately no actual data was lost). After much confusion, the conclusion was that a cosmic ray flipped a single bit in a register, making it point to 8 bytes past the correct address in C++ virtual function table. As a result, instead of calling UpdateRow(), the process executed DeleteTable().

Of course cosmic rays don't exactly leave a trace, so we will never know.

</comment><comment><USER37> I've heard stories from the supercomputing folks about trying to put their machine rooms underneath parking structures, to get the added protection of layers and layers of concrete overhead.

</comment><comment><USER38> Could it be that the manufacturer was aware of a bug and chosed to circumvent it by using gamma rays as a pretext ?

<comment><USER39> That's the implication of the mentions of processor steppings, that almost everyone is ignoring in favour of discussing a more exciting subject. (-:

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Microsoft allow commented-out code in their kernel?

</comment><comment><USER41> A pedantic point (good thing I'm on HN), but I wonder if they didn't actually mean muons and not gamma rays?

<comment><USER42> Apparently 95% of "bit flipping cosmic rays" are neutrons:

> _At the Earth 's surface approximately 95% of the particles capable of > causing soft errors are energetic neutrons with the remainder composed of > protons and pions._

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_error#Cosmic_rays_creatin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_error#Cosmic_rays_creating_energetic_neutrons_and_protons)

<comment><USER43> Sounds about right. I've been a part of a radiation test giving a SoC gamma exposure for total irradiating dose measurement. I didn't see a single upset the whole test.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Relevant: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_C._May](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_C._May)

May is most noted for having identified the cause of the "alpha particle problem", which was affecting the reliability of integrated circuits as device features reached a critical size where a single alpha particle could change the state of a stored value

</comment><comment><USER45> For people concerned, discover the wonderful thing called 8T SRAM

</comment><comment><USER46> Maybe the cache should be made using Silicon on Sapphire for radiation hardening? But I am not sure if multi-process silicon fabrication is viable.

</comment><comment><USER47> It did not</comment>


Show HN: Send a word get a word back - <AUTHOR> Hi everyone, I recently released a basic API that return the Part of Speech of a given word and also return another word with the same Part of Speech.
You can send up to 10 words at a time via POST request.
You can use it to create random sentences using an structure. Try with the sentence "today is a good day"

    curl -X POST -F "msg=today is a good day" https://victorribeiro.com/pos/word.php

 It will give you the POS of each word and a new word with the same POS.
https://victorribeiro.com/pos/ <comment><USER2> I love it! I love how your demo is curl and not a web page frontend!

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad you liked it. You can also send it as json.

curl -X POST [https://victorribeiro.com/pos/word.php](https://victorribeiro.com/pos/word.php) -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"msg":"today is a good day"}'</comment></comment>


Lego Calendar syncs with Google Calendar - <AUTHOR> http://www.creativeapplications.net/objects/lego-calendar-by-vitamins-design-syncs-with-google-calendar/ <comment><USER3> Now this is really cool stuff. Though i have to ask, what exactly are the benefits* of making it physical rather than digital (like a shared board).

*apart from the coolness factor

<comment><USER4> There no benefits of a shared board like this as it's the worst of both worlds; a ridged, inflexible layout that you'd get with a digital calendar but without the user friendly labels / legends to explain what you're seeing.

What this is, is a publicity stunt to show off the individuality and inventiveness that this particular company wants to be known for. And for that reason alone, this deserves to exist.

There's so many businesses competing for our attention with the same products but remixed and with the same corporate speak, that it's nice to see something that engages my inner child. Whether this is practical or not almost seems irrelevant because it's fun, motivates me to invent my own projects and, most importantly for them, it stands a greater chance of going viral - <USER2> equates to free advertising.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great idea! One question though, what about other way around - Google calendar to Lego calendar? or It will just merge with existing events in Google calender?

<comment><USER6> Yeah, this is what I was expecting based on the phrasing of the title.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, it "syncs to" rather than "with"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> OT: That canvas home badge/icon/image is incredible, it's slowly enough animated that it's not distracting and you don't really notice until you go to use the button at which point you notice the beauty.

<comment><USER9> Are you referring to the hugely distracting nonfunctional never-ending animation that calls constant attention to the least important part of the page?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you're looking for a purely functional website, this is probably the worst site for you to be on.

<comment><USER10> Just look at the ASCII art that just says Creative Applications . Net right after the doc type declaration.

<!-- ____ __ ______ ___ __ __ __ __ /\ _`\ /\ \\__ __ /\ _ \ /\\_ \ __ /\ \\__ __ /\ \/\ \ /\ \\__ \ \ \/\\_\ _ __ __ __ \ \ ,_\/\\_\ __ __ __\ \ \L\ \ _____ _____\//\ \ /\\_\ ___ __ \ \ ,_\/\\_\ ___ ___ ____ \ \ `\\\ \ __\ \ ,_\ \ \ \/_/_/\\`'__\/'__`\ /'__`\ \ \ \/\/\ \/\ \/\ \ /'__`\ \ __ \/\ '__`\/\ '__`\\\ \ \ \/\ \ /'___\ /'__`\ \ \ \/\/\ \ / __`\ /' _ `\ /',__\ \ \ , ` \ /'__`\ \ \/ \ \ \L\ \ \ \//\ __//\ \L\\.\\_\ \ \\_\ \ \ \ \\_/ |/\ __/\ \ \/\ \ \ \L\ \ \ \L\ \\\\_\ \\_\ \ \/\ \\__//\ \L\\.\\_\ \ \\_\ \ \/\ \L\ \/\ \/\ \/\\__, `\\__\ \ \\`\ \/\ __/\ \ \\_ \ \\____/\ \\_\\\ \\____\ \\__/.\\_\\\ \\__\\\ \\_\ \\___/ \ \\____\\\ \\_\ \\_\ \ ,__/\ \ ,__//\\____\\\ \\_\ \\____\ \\__/.\\_\\\ \\__\\\ \\_\ \\____/\ \\_\ \\_\/\\____/\\_\\\ \\_\ \\_\ \\____\\\ \\__\ \/___/ \/_/ \/____/\/__/\/_/ \/__/ \/_/\/__/ \/____/ \/_/\/_/\ \ \/ \ \ \/ \/____/ \/_/\/____/\/__/\/_/ \/__/ \/_/\/___/ \/_/\/_/\/___/\/_/ \/_/\/_/\/____/ \/__/ \ \\_\ \ \\_\ \/_/ \/_/ \-->

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> would be handy to just have a webcam pointed at a wipeboard ... then save any snap different from the previous one (sans people standing in the way). and detect certain shapes to auto-link with a URL. also, i would like a pony!

<comment><USER12> That was my first thought, it seems like the 'take photo/email to special address' step is a bit long winded.

They should just slap a raspberry pi / webcam on the opposite wall and get it to take a photo every 10 minutes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Cool. It would be even cooler, and more useful, if someone builds a Lego robot that reads a Google calendar and then updates the Lego version on the wall...

</comment><comment><USER14> So the guy sitting next to the stacked blue, white and pink pieces is the accountant? Lego-powered steampunk!</comment>


30 Year treasury yield hits all time low - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/21/us-bonds-treasury-yields-in-focus-as-coronavirus-concerns-grow.html <comment><USER2> Coronavirus will be blamed for everything that happens from this point forward, but it will mostly be lies.

The economy has been breaking down in fits and starts for the last year. The yield curve inversion several months back should have been the wake-up call. The Fed intervention in the repo market at the end of last year should have cemented the consensus that recession and/or big financial troubles lie ahead. That doesn't seem to have happened.

On the other hand, the 30-year yield has been on a downward slope for the last 20 years:

[https://www.macrotrends.net/2521/30-year-treasury-bond- rate-...](https://www.macrotrends.net/2521/30-year-treasury-bond-rate-yield- chart)

Recent history has shown that negative-yielding long term sovereign debt is no longer out of the question. The 30-year treasury could eventually end up with a negative yield. There are ways to make money from this, many of which end badly.</comment>


The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo - <AUTHOR> http://correlatedcontents.com/misc/UWWFN/UWWFN.html <comment><USER2> That was fun! Spoiler-ish talk below.

I'm not entirely sure what to make out of the last ending - I personally got a feeling that this was a demonstration of trying to escape addiction. Stereotypically gamers enjoy games because they are empowered in the gaming world, which could be something that they lack in the physical world. Understanding that addiction and getting to the root of a friend's problems can help them break that.

I don't think that's exactly what the author intended, but that's what I got out of it. _shrug_

<comment><USER3> More philosophically, and judging by the author's notes, they mention that video games _" would keep [us] playing with them until it killed us"_.

I think the interesting thought here is that a video game character's world and life only exists as long as someone is playing the game. As soon as the off button is pressed, they cease to exist, so it makes sense for them to need the player to continue indefinitely to prolong their own existence.

Very thought-provoking piece of fiction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Door opens, kids screaming, "Undefined Error". Hmmmm

<comment><USER5> THIS IS MY NIGHTMARE

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Btw: The discussion with your friend (about games) is different (i.e. much more interesting) if your friend is female!

</comment><comment><USER7> was the "bad expression" and "Undefined Error" part of the story?

<comment><USER8> Yes, keep playing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't think these errors are part of the game:

Error executing macro stopsound: [Exception... "An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable" code: "11" nsresult: "0x8053000b (InvalidStateError)" location: "<unknown>"]Error executing macro stopsound: [Exception... "An attempt was made to use an object that is not, or is no longer, usable" code: "11" nsresult: "0x8053000b (InvalidStateError)" location: "<unknown>"]

</comment><comment><USER10> At the beginning during the dinner, you have the option to make an observation about the drink your friend's father is having. It says beer at first, but if you click it, you will realise its actually lemonade.

But what impact does this have on the story? I presume it does have an effect, because after reaching an ending, whenever you restart at the 7pm checkpoint, the game first asks if you thought the father was really drinking lemonade or beer.

But I didn't notice any difference in the process of getting all 6 endings.

</comment><comment><USER11> I loved the audio. I started air playing to my stereo for more immersion. It was well done!

I also enjoyed how the site went fullscreen as soon as things started to happen.

Well done!

</comment><comment><USER12> This was quite immersive. I think a little more content would've gone a long way to produce a more interesting story.

<comment><USER13> I really enjoyed the game, but (possible minor spoilers) the game crashed in Chrome Canary right when I think I was about to see an ending. On purpose?

<comment><USER14> It moves into full screen. That might do it. Worked on my chrome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I got the first 3 endings, not sure how to get the last 2.

<comment><USER16> Click on the LOCKED text to get hints. Once you get one of them the other is really easy to figure out.

<comment><USER17> Not really, you need to know when to play games to get to play alone and find the smiling man, and THEN guess what answers are right in response to the following conversation.

<comment><USER16> That's not the only way to get there (in fact I never saw the scene you are referring to). I would guess that any anomaly involving the uncle is sufficient to get into the conversation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It took quite a while to load, I thought the page was broken. Your patience will be rewarded.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you liked this game, check out the links listed as inspiration for the author:

[http://correlatedcontents.com/?p=1868](http://correlatedcontents.com/?p=1868)

There are several other similar games there.

</comment><comment><USER19> Interesting. I got a lot of things that said "BAD EXPRESSION" and looked glitchy. I'm not sure if that was intentional, or if my browser was incompatible.

<comment><USER8> It was intentional.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there a sixth ending? I unlocked all 5 and I can click the ˄ſ̳Ɏ on the bottom... Is that a hint at a 6th ending or are there only 5?

<comment><USER21> Do everything you did for the last ending, except wait until it's too late for your mom to pick you up. When uncle shows up, run to the kitchen even though you're not allowed to go there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Played one time. I liked the experience so far, but I got the "undefined error" ending and that was a complete disappointment.

I don't care about alternative endings if the first playthrough wasn't worth it. Give me one good ending, one good playthrough, and then I'll consider playing again to get to the alternative branches ...

<comment><USER23> You found an intentional glitch, the alternative endings are not alternative but rather continuations, keep playing.

<comment><USER24> I think his point is that the first ending isn't that interesting, so he didn't continue. I was pretty much the same way.

<comment><USER25> Only, the first ending isn't and `ending' but more like the first chapter.

<comment><USER22> It would have been good for the game to tell me that. I played another time and got a slightly different ending. It doesn't make much more sense.

The game is great the first time around, but it's absolutely boring the second time around. I'm just skipping through the text because it's stuff that I've read the first time around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> "Sorry to interrupt, but this page's code has got itself in a mess (Script error.)."

hm :) might want to somehow [tag] this.

</comment><comment><USER27> There's a fairly hard-to-find scene where you go to the bathroom and it's all different. Does anyone know how to get back there reliably?

We should make a list of the interesting bits people might not have found, even after getting all 6 endings!

<comment><USER28> I got that scene after visiting the bathroom when it's normal, then going to the kitchen and having a drink. When I returned to the den, my character needed to go to the bathroom, and I when I went again, the bathroom was different. This was around 10 PM I think, though that might not matter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I don't normally like horror games but that was great!

</comment><comment><USER30> Had to play this in IE11. Wouldn't work on any other browser i have installed.

Found a fun existential secret ending though.

</comment><comment><USER27> Coolest thing I've seen in a while!

</comment><comment><USER31> So, uh...how many endings are there?

<comment><USER16> 6 that i found

<comment><USER32> How do you get any of the last 3?

<comment><USER33> Rot13 encoded to avoid spoilers, all six endings:

      1: Zrrg gur hapyr ng gur qbbe
      2: Jnvg sbe gur hapyr, uvqr va gur onguebbz
      3: Pnyy lbhe zbz rneyl rabhtu gb tb ubzr
      4: Ernq nobhg Zrj, nfx nobhg hapyr ohg qba'g svtug onpx, nfx nobhg gur fgbez naq yrnea nobhg gur hapyr, gura tb ubzr.  Qba'g cvpx hc gur Tnzrobl
      5: Fnzr ohg cvpx hc gur Tnzrobl
      6: Jnvg sbe gur hapyr, gura tb gb gur xvgpura (guvf bcgvba vf haninvynoyr orsber raqvat 5 vf haybpxrq)

If you already got the first three I'd say go for the spoilers, but if not definitely get a couple of them before you spoil it for yourself. Also the author's essays after everything is unlocked are very much worth reading.

<comment><USER34> So basically this game is creepypasta where you are supposed to get horrified about how violent and uncaring gamers are, have a meaningful conversation with your friend where you just try to understand his problems (video games?) without getting frustrated, then call your mom to save you in order to win. Then it lets you go back to save your friend from video games because you understand.

THEN you find out it's all just feminist propaganda to talk about how horrible the gaming industry is.

I thought it was pretty interesting in the end but it has not convinced me there is any issue with video games. I grew up on Nintendo since I was 3 years old and would certainly consider myself a gamer. I believe it has had very positive influences on my life, and I also believe that a lot of the power I have supposedly lost is superficial anyways.

There are plenty of good influences that can be gained from video games, and it's especially disheartening that the author blames Nintendo, which is not even responsible for the violent/repetitive gaming culture. I honestly don't have much of a say in this recent argument because most of my gaming was done from 1988~2011, and from 2002 and beyond it has been majority MMO and rhythm games (I have continued to play MMOs - FF14! - when I can, but I'm currently taking a break so I can progress in the game of life)...I did play through GTA4 with a friend and would like to play GTA5 when I have free time again. I suppose that people that are choosing to play these mainstream violent games a la Call of Duty and the ones the feminists are talking about may be negatively influenced by them, but I'm more in the camp that the video games let us immerse ourselves into worlds where we can just enjoy and challenge ourselves, and take part in amazing creative stories. They are sort of virtual reality books, and books have the same spectrum of playing with our human and animal mind, appeasing to us however we are instinctively prone to being appeased. They are a good way to relax and stimulate our brains. Meh, like I say, I'm not really part of the demographic that is playing these games that feminists have such a huge problem with anyways.

<comment><USER35> I'm sorry but I call BS. In the author notes it doesn't try to say that games are a bad influence at all. Nor does it try to shame the gaming industry.

The author notes go over why he created the game, and how his childhood experiences and the current state of the gaming industry both affected the creation of the game.

He doesn't even mention Nintendo what-so-ever in the notes, neither does he focus on violence.

You severely miss-interpreted what the author wanted to portray.

He focuses on how video games and their authors attempt to toy with our emotions, and how it can be a much more powerful medium to effect the way people think than with books, television or even social media.

<comment><USER34> I admit I could be misinterpreting a lot here. The author isn't being very straight forward about his opinions, but there is absolutely a negative light being cast on the gaming community, maybe because of exactly what you say, that it is a powerful medium.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at least you could say that this entire creation is a response to the "gamergate" scandal that has been going on?

My take from this is that it is calling out mind controlled gamer zombies for attacking and persecuting women and minorities. This is precisely what is frustrating for me because my view is that video games are harmless and even stimulating for us, and that they are just a reflection of our inner instincts, not people manipulating us. The gaming industry is just giving us what we want. Here's the relevant part of the author's "On Topicalality" writing:

"We may not believe in the uncle who works for Nintendo anymore, but he is certainly still at work."

...[Edit:[I suppose I did misinterpret this as him attacking Nintendo, he's just using it as a line from the gamer community that they have secret ties into a hierarchy? He also mentions Nintendo Power, which I grew up with, and I suppose he is blaming these secrets and hierarchy for shutting out and attacking groups of people who aren't in the know. Nintendo touched my heart growing up and I'm glad to have been able to bond with other Nintendo gamers throughout my life. I never dealt with issues of people using this uncle line and I'm just a bit offended by the author's claim that the Nintendo/industry/capitalism is corrupted with people trying to control me. They have delivered much higher quality content than many other areas of industry]]...

"Women and minority voices are under attack. The finer details of this organized harassment campaign are, by this point, both fatiguing and immensely abhorrent. I will not bother to recount them here. Suffice it to say: the contingent of players taking up the flag of "gamers" are, in many ways, the realization of the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that constitute the "enemy" of this game."

And here are the links from the "Gamers Being Over" section, one of which does strongly focus on violence (not that that is the main issue even I was talking about, the main issue is feminism's argument about the negative aspects of games and the response from the gaming community):

[http://ellaguro.blogspot.com/2014/09/on-gamers-and- identity....](http://ellaguro.blogspot.com/2014/09/on-gamers-and- identity.html)

[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_t...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/224400/Gamers_dont_have_to_be_your_audience_Gamers_are_over.php)

<comment><USER36> "They don't know how to dress or behave."

Thanks Gamasutra, it has been a long time since I read a opinion article this well argued.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I got all the endings and I still don't really get it...

SPOILER

So she had a gaming addiction and we had to help her out?

</comment><comment><USER38> Took too long to load. Left.

</comment><comment><USER39> Willy Beamish?

</comment><comment><USER40> The last ending is reminiscent of Giygas.

<comment><USER41> Definitely my impression as well. I was downright expecting a reference to someone's Mr. Baseball cap in there.</comment></comment>


Apple Employee Threatens to Leak User's iCloud Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001890/apple-employee-threatens-to-leak-users-icloud-data <comment> threwaway-1 Something about this article feels "off", as if it were a fabricated and unsubstantiated story meant purely to sow uncertainty over the integrity of Apple's security in China. It felt off enough that I bothered to look into who this "sixth tone" publication is and create a throw-away -- according to foreignpolicy.com[1], it's affiliated with and at least partially funded by the state-owned Shanghai United Media Group.

[1] [http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/03/china-explained-sixth- to...](http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/03/china-explained-sixth-tone-is- chinas-latest-party-approved-outlet-humanizing-news/)

<comment><USER2> So what's your takeaway? I would assume that the last thing the state would want to do is sow uncertainty about Apple's security in China. This would lead me to the conclusion that the story is real.

However, I can imagine another scenario. Assume that Apple's storage in China is still entirely safe from the state, but that Apple's main competitors are totally in bed with the state. In that case, the state could want to get people off of Apple, even as Apple moves the data into China.

<comment> threwaway-1 The latter would be my takeaway as well, based on how effectively Google's search technology was extricated from China -- to Baidu's and the surveillance state's benefit, despite the results from Baidu being about as effective at finding useful information as AltaVista was at the end of it's reign.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> (Assuming this is a true story) this is very unsettling and makes me anxious, not only for the Chinese people but also for companies that do business there.

 _" I'm really curious why you don't want to use Guizhou-Cloud Big Data's service," the technical advisor asked Qin during their recorded conversation._

This quote in particular made me cringe. If you haven't read the article, Guizhou-Cloud Big Data is a state-owned service where Chinese customers' iCloud data is now stored. The terminated Apple employee was implying that that Qin had something to hide, and regardless of whether that is true, Qin will surely end up on a government watch list after this ordeal.

Chinese HNers - what is the attitude over there in light of this and recent actions taken by Xi Jinping and the communist party?

</comment><comment><USER4> Chinese government must be just delighted with all of the data that they soon will have access too from the US instance of iCloud coming to China. There is so much information that people don't know that gets synced to iCloud. I am constantly finding stuff that automatically get turn on after every OS update from Apple.

<comment><USER5> Only the Chinese users data is transferring to Chinese servers, not all of iCloud.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't understand this -- this "article" doesn't actually say that the Apple employee had access to the customer's private data, only that the employee made threats.

If the threats were credible that would be a big deal.

<comment><AUTHOR> From the original post at Weibo (link in this article) in Chinese, the affected user also claims the Apple customer support logged in his iCloud account, since he receiving a login notification from Apple.</comment></comment>


Plankalkül - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl <comment><USER2> The wikipedia page sadly doesn't show the original, 2D structured notation:

[http://www.catb.org/retro/plankalkuel/figure3.png](http://www.catb.org/retro/plankalkuel/figure3.png) (found with other info on[http://www.catb.org/retro/plankalkuel/](http://www.catb.org/retro/plankalkuel/))

<comment><USER3> I had wondered what that would look like. It is even more confusing than I had imagined.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Syntax and historical merit aside, I think this is one of the coolest names for a programming language ever.

Technical/mathematical German has - to me as a native German speaker, at least - a sound to it that is somehow ... neither cool nor uncool, actually, it somehow transcends the entire concept.

<comment><USER4> Kalkül is the word for calculus used by Leibniz. So that Plankalkül is a calculus for plans.

the code example for finding a maximum of three numbers is a bit complex. I mean you can do shorter in assembly

<comment><USER5> I took it to mean "a calculus for planning" in the GOFAI sense of "planning".

<comment><USER3> I don't think Zuse had AI in mind at the time. The planning would have to be done by the programmer.

This also fits in better with the fact he invented (or at least envisioned) a "Planfertigungsgerät" (plan preparation device) to convert the "Plan" from human-readable notation into something the computer could run (effectively, a compiler).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Slightly related is a kick-scooter that goes by the same name. Made by the hacker MechBern who is also part of the Bodenstaendig 2000 band. Together they produced a great song and promotion video for the Plankalkül scooter called Extreme Einkaufing: [http://www.bodenstaendig.de/plankalkul/video- en.html](http://www.bodenstaendig.de/plankalkul/video-en.html) [http://www.bodenstandig.de/media/extreme%20einkaufing%20352x...](http://www.bodenstandig.de/media/extreme%20einkaufing%20352x288%20wmv8%20950%20wma8%2064.wmv)

</comment><comment><USER7> There's part of me half expecting some HN'er to pop up and tell stories about cutting their teeth on a Plankalkül code base as a young whipper-snapper.

<comment><USER8> Followed by a link to a Plankalkül web framework on GitHub.

<comment><USER9> ...and an incomplete js transpiler ( _), and a heated discussion about how exactly the TIOBE index is unfairly skewed against plankalkül.

(_ implemented by comparing the provided source against any plankalkül implementations that might exist on [http://www.99-bottles-of- beer.net/](http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net/) and emits the highest rated js implementation if it matches, undefined otherwise)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here is a paper that describe the Plankalkül in more detail.

* R. Rojas, C. Göktekin, G. Friedland, M. Krüger, Plankalkül: The First High-Level Programming Language and its Implementation. ftp://ftp.mi.fu-berlin.de/pub/reports/TR-B-00-03.pdf

</comment><comment><USER11> The Second World War stopped a lot of good things. One of them was Konrad Zuse.

</comment><comment><USER12> Ah, German. Such a beautiful language.</comment>


The Final Journey of Anders J. Smedsvik - <AUTHOR> http://www.dagbladet.no/magasinet/the-final-journeynbspof-anders-j-smedsvik/62942815 <comment><USER2> Really great read. Guy sounds like he lived a crazy life and went out in his own way. I have a hard time accepting that logic, but then again I'm a young healthy person. Perhaps he saw his strength and individualism dwindling with his age and decided that he'd rather go down at sea than lay in a bed for a year and pass away 'gently'.

<comment><USER3> One of my dads sailing buddies was a 80 some year old retired merchant marine. He used to take a small open sail boat out of the Golden Gate to watch the whales. Guys like that have made peace that the end is rushing up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Do you guys have the same rendering as me? Being: the font jumps size for _each_ character.

[http://i.imgur.com/3ZABB1y.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/3ZABB1y.jpg)

Chrome / Ubuntu 16.04

<comment><USER5> Not me, Kubuntu 16.04 and Chrome too. I did CTRL-+ a few times though -- maybe that helped?</comment></comment>


Economic Denial of Sustainability: Inflating bills for cloud computing customers - <AUTHOR> http://rationalsecurity.typepad.com/blog/edos/ <comment><USER2> The name _Economic Denial of Sustainability_ is clunky. But the idea is interesting, something analogous to DDOS.

Where once synthetic traffic was most likely to cause something to reach implementation limits and fall over, now smooth scaling in the cloud may mean the first thing that breaks is not your service but your budget.

Fake CPC clicks designed to deplete a competitor's budget is a related idea. Fake downloads from S3 in order to 'infinitely scale' your expenses would be the cloud/EDOS equivalent.</comment>


Vapor from dried toad secretion related to satisfaction with life - <AUTHOR> https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00213-019-05236-w <comment><USER2> by no means does it apply to everyone though, my nature means i tend to form short obsessions with things, at one point that interest turned to psychoactive chemicals. i have personally tried 5-MeO-DMT and a staggering number of other psychedelics, many have been fun and interesting but not once have i had any sort of meaningful or spiritual experience of any sort, no ego death or loss of sense of self etc

im unsure if being on the spectrum or my resultant lack of empathy mean im incapable of such experiences

</comment><comment><USER3> Reading this article cover is also a way to increase satisfaction with life.</comment>


Freakonomics: Is Divorce Contagious? - <AUTHOR> http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/is-divorce-contagious/

<comment><USER2> I noticed this after my divorce when friends and acquaintances started coming to me for divorce recommendations.

My theory was that before the divorce, my friends would look to my ex-wife and I and say, "well, we aren't that bad and they can do it".

Once we got divorced they no longer had a low bar to measure against.</comment>


Should Employers Be Allowed to Ask for Your Facebook Login? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/should-employers-be-allowed-to-ask-for-your-facebook-login/71480/ <comment><USER2> And what of people like me who have chosen to never create a Facebook account? How do you think that would go over??

As the corrections officer in question points out in the video, this is very dangerous ground. When you ask for someone's Facebook account as a condition of employment you are getting access to a tremendous amount of information about that person. Very likely including information such as marital status, religion, sexual orientation and the existence of children - all things which, as a matter of law, prospective employers are _not_ allowed to ask employees in the hiring process.

If you're not allowed to ask it directly, you shouldn't be allowed to ask it indirectly either.

<comment><USER3> You say they are getting access to information about that person.

Actually, it is much worse than that. They are getting access to information about all the person's friends, including some very private information.

I might trust my friends with ages, photos, and school locations of my children, but I shouldn't have to worry about whether that same information is being given to some creepy bureaucrat working in a department of corrections office.

And to be clear, I'm not at all talking about the risk faced by a job applicant. I'm talking about the risk incurred by a friend of the person.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Should Employers Be Allowed to Ask for Your Facebook Login?"

I say yes, they should be allowed, and you should be allowed to refuse, and they should be allowed to not hire, and you should be allowed to find a better place to work and breath a sigh of relief since you just dodged a bullet.

<comment><USER3> What recourse do you think that leaves for people whose Facebook friends do not refuse? If one of my Facebook friends allows this, they are, unbeknownst to me, sharing information that I consider private with that employer. I choose to put certain information on Facebook, trusting Facebook, its partners, and my friends with that information. I do not choose to trust random employees of random prospective places of employment with that same information, so this is a violation of my privacy expectations as a user of Facebook, and as a friend.

"You shouldn't put information into Facebook if you are afraid of that information getting out." I don't.

But people (including you, by your response) do not fully understand the risks they are taking.

<comment><USER5> What stops your friend from copying your facebook data and publishing it on the web?

<comment><USER6> nothing "stops" them... it's called trust. why would a friend do that

<comment><USER7> Right, but if that trust was valid then you could likewise count on them not allowing an employer, or any third party.

<comment><USER3> Not if they overlook the problem, as many of the first posters in this discussion did.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I would think that this should be obvious, but sharing your password in such a circumstance appears prohibited by the Facebook terms of service[1]. More specifically:

      You will not share your password, (or in the case of developers,
      your secret key), let anyone else access your account, or do anything
      else that might jeopardize the security of your account.

1- <http://www.facebook.com/terms.php?_fb_noscript=1>

<comment><USER4> And there is a fantastic answer to such a question: "As a responsible worker, I take my contractual obligations seriously. The Facebook terms of service which I agreed to legally prohibit me from giving that information to anyone. I [have the terms here|can get them for you] if you would like to read them." If they reply, "Well we want it anyway." then the next reply is "I don't understand why you are asking me to break a contract. That is unethical. Do you routinely ask employees here to perform unethical or illegal acts?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's a shame that people are so desperate for jobs and willing to sacrifice privacy for the illusion of security; if it weren't so, things like this would never have a chance to become real problems, because everyone would just walk out of the interview at that point. The interviewers would report to their superiors, "Everyone is running full-speed in the opposite direction when we ask for their Facebook password," and the policy would be changed almost immediately.

<comment><USER10> Basically what you're saying is, you wish privacy didn't have an economic value, which it must so long as people are willing to concede it for slightly higher wages.

<comment><USER11> Exactly why government should step in to remove its economic value. This is what governments do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This reminds me a bit of Scientology's policy of collecting and archiving secret information from their members, so that threats of blackmail could be made later on if needed.

I think a good solution to this situation is to in turn request the screener/interviewer's credentials. After all, it's no big deal right?

<comment><USER4> Great points. Rather than the interviewer, the interviewer and the board of directors and the CEO. I've done that a few times when I get requests for salary history, I ask to see theirs first. When they say that it's not relevant then I respond "Well there you go." I can't say that this tactic always works, but it doesn't really matter. I've never gone long without a job. Skills has its benefits.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Would you give a potential employer your GMail password? Hell no. Your Facebook login is not only a trove of information that employers aren't supposed to ask about, it's a login gateway to _many_ other sites. Facebook is probably the largest delegated authentication provider on the internet, and you expect me to hand that info over?

The only person that has my Facebook login info is my wife, and she's also the only person that has my email login info. I don't care if you're the Pope, you're not getting access to any information that gives you the keys to the kingdom.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm uncomfortable with the idea that a government job† should demand a Facebook login, because I generally feel like they (a) should be held to a higher standard, (b) involve the people's relationship with the government, which is inherently adversarial, and (c) have an outsize impact on the standards and practices used in the private sector --- so "if it's ok at the DoC, it must be OK at Bank of America".

On the other hand, in the private sector, I don't see how this is any of our business. Should employer be "allowed" to "ask" for Facebook logins? You mean, should employers be "disallowed" from asking? Of course not. And candidates should say "no" if they don't want to give the login up. Employment in the US is at will, and outside of race, nationality, religion, gender, &c, hiring is totally at the discretion of the company.

† _(at least, one that doesn't require clearance)_

<comment><USER11> No, they should not be allowed to even _ask_. The problem is that when some people are allowed to give up certain rights for a potential advantage in hiring, then it becomes the de facto standard that everyone has to give up that right in order to have a chance. In most industries the employer holds all the card, so that everyone will just go along with it because they feel they must in order to be considered.

You're naive if you think the "market" will correct itself such that these types of invasions of privacy are eliminated. When we're talking about people's livelihood you can't expect them to act in such a way that maximizes their rights. They act in a way that maximizes their livelihood, potentially giving up rights that they otherwise would not have. Government is the only thing able to keep employers from having that power.

<comment><USER10> So, given a hypothetical scenario in which two equally qualified candidates are in consideration for a job, do you also think one candidate shouldn't be allowed to _offer_ their Facebook login to the employer to settle any concerns they might have?

<comment><USER11> My gut reaction is to say no they should not. However, if hypothetically there were some question that came up that could only be resolved by checking their facebook account, then I think it can be allowed in that instance. The difference is there being (some equivalent of) "probable cause" to even question something that could be resolved through such a check.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's equivalent to in the pre-internet era asking a job applicant to hand over all their private snail mail so that a prospective employer can read them and approve or disapprove of their private life and personal or political opinions.

</comment><comment><USER15> Should they be allowed to enter your house and search your room for family albums, traces of pot, porn, love letters, naked pictures of your gf, etc?

Where do we draw the line between a real or virtual invasion of privacy?

<comment><USER4> Ah, but you just shifted from asking to just doing it.

No, they should not be allowed to just do it. But should they be allowed to _ask_ if they can search your house and private things (which is indeed comparable to requesting to be friended)? I say, yes, they should be allowed to ask, and all intelligent people that value their privacy should be allowed to say no, laugh, mock, walk out of the interview, and then post their feelings about that company on their Facebook page, or on HN, or reddit, or their personal blog so that others may be warned from wasting time applying at such a place.

<comment><USER16> There are plenty of other things employers aren't allowed to ask (even if some would have given it up willingly). I'm not sure why this would be different. Under most circumstances you can't ask about religion, most everything about family, nationality, native language, age, etc. There are usually ways around these things, but some are just areas employers can't go. They are free to ask, but then set themselves up for a pretty open and shut lawsuit.

<comment><USER4> The question before us is not are they doing it or are they allowed, it is should they be allowed. This is going to be a matter of opinion.

I say "they" should be allowed to ask anything at all. Marriage, religion, sexual preferences, political party, etc etc etc.

And when they do ask questions that are none of their business, people should have the good sense to refuse to answer, and if they pursue it at all, stand up and walk out and go to another job that respects them as humans.

The problem is not with the law or the companies, it is with the people who put up with abuse and condone and encourage it and refuse to push back to say "No, I am not going to answer that and frankly you are an ass for asking because it is none of your damn business." Because of the internet, everyone with a bad experience can blog about it and warn others which companies to avoid. The result here is that MORE people will have accurate information about which companies are staffed by assholes who can't mind their own business, and these companies can starve for want of talented responsible workers. And that's a good thing.

Right now we have ridiculous laws like restaurants are not allowed to discriminate by color of skin. I am not white myself. I would LOVE to know which restaurants are staffed by racists and bigots that don't want me to eat there, because then I would know not to give them my business, and I would know to preach word of that far and wide, and keep an eye on who does eat there and have nothing to do with those folks either. That would be great. As it is we have all these people with latent hidden racism. It's there, but it's not in the open, so I can't see it. Sometimes it sneaks up on me from behind. That's not good. Let it be in the open instead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> To answer the question: No.

 _... That alone isn't going to derail the Facebook juggernaut, but it might slow down people's engagement on the site as they realize maybe a private, unknown email account is a better way of sending sensitive messages._

That isn't going to happen either. It's like saying that because people are aware that smoking is a cause of cancer they'll only smoke half a cigarette.

<comment><USER12> I don't think your analogy works. Sure, half a cig doesn't make sense, but you can have a facebook account without handing over trusted information.

<comment><USER17> The analogy is actually directed more to the _"slow down people's engagement on the site"_ part of the sentence. The part about people opening anonymous account is a fantasy that presumes that people care. We've been spammed through email for years now, yet only few people can be bothered to open a dedicated account just for the purpose of signing up to various services.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I like what he said in the video, and he's right. Asking for this kind of information is just like asking a woman, "Are you pregnant?" Or, asking people to take "IQ tests" that favor whites. In fact you could write a law that simply said:

"An employer may not compel an applicant for any access to private information that may indirectly lead to a violation of existing Equal Opportunity Employment laws."

Ideally this law would amount to:

"Paying someone to do a job does not make them your fucking lifetime slave asshole."

</comment><comment><USER19> Sure, they can _ask_.

Do you background checks the GOOD old-fashioned way, and get some actual results. Or, waste your time in someone's facebook account they set up specifically for you to check for this job interview.

<comment><USER20> Aha! Business opportunity: create ad hoc facebook accounts, complete with "friends", games, lolcat photos, and all the rest, for a fee.

Of course it violates the Facebook terms of service. Handing over your password already broke that.</comment></comment>


The Untold History of Toontown's SpeedChat (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://habitatchronicles.com/2007/03/the-untold-history-of-toontowns-speedchat-or-blockchattm-from-disney-finally-arrives/ <comment><USER2> I see this all the time in MercadoLibre, the most used e-commerce platform in my country (and all of Latin America I think). If you want to buy something you should hit the "Buy" button, which puts you in contact with the seller and also charges the seller a small fee. But you also have a small Q&A section where you can communicate with the seller; and in there you will see many clever attempts of communicating some contact information (usually the phone number) between the parts to avoid paying that fee. The section is automatically (and I think manually too) moderated, but it looks like a never- ending war where the platform is always losing.

</comment><comment><USER3> From 2010 with one comment: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1581628](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1581628)

</comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me of Nintendo freaking out about people posting this friend codes on Tumblr and removing the over-the-internet drawing exchange from 3DS.

<comment><USER5> Do you have any more details on this (or a link to a news article)? I'm curious but my Googling isn't turning up much.</comment></comment>


How do I help a treasured friend chat with me? - <AUTHOR>

When a friend used to work at the same company with me, we had a great low-intensity chat stream that helped us both work productively and kept morale high.  Now, she works at another company where they monitor browser usage, and probably some other kinds of internet usage.
I would love it if we could find a non-browser way for us to be able to continue to chat.  Sure, all internet traffic is probably monitored, but if it were some kind of... command line encrypted jabber client, wouldn't that kind of operate under the radar?  Or maybe we could SSH to a common server and use one of the *nix tools for talking on the same server?
Ethics professors: Yes I realize she could just respect her employer's policy but... zero chat?!  You have GOT to be kidding me!  Plus, I doubt getting caught doing some occasional chatting is going to get her fired, probably just a warning.  She's a great employee otherwise.  And, this is our quality of life we're talking about here! <comment><USER2> Your company's IT department likely hasn't blocked Etherpad, which has a chat feature.

</comment><comment><USER3> 'mcabber' is a nice console-based Jabber client, this fits your SSH scheme. 'talk' on unix-based machines is a possibility but just isn't as nice as Jabber. You could also just use any old X11 Jabber client over X11-over-SSH.

</comment><comment><USER4> might be able to do some snooping around to see if the https gmail also encrypts the chat traffic. seems like that could be the most simple solution.

<comment><USER5> It does. Settings > "Always use https"

But from that post, it looks like her company is blocking gmail also.

<comment><USER4> perhaps. if they're that restrictive, though, they would probably also be wary of SSH open to a remote server for long periods.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Try <https://www.meebo.com></comment>


Ask HN: What's the sense behind Hackermeter's acquisition - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Considering that Hackermeter didn't really have a chance to build our their Product or their Business, Pintrest was probably interested in the Founders Personally (as in, their Skillset). It seems that some people view this entire scenario with a negative light, but I think they did a great job. They got into Y-combinator, they launched their Product, and they were getting Traction. That right there is no easy task, regardless of what I think (or understand) about their Product. Pintrest probably saw them as being valuable, and wanted them on the Team. Good for them! The only downside here (from what I can see) are all the people that signed up and invested time doing these challenges, to then have the service shut down and have nothing to show for it. That's probably pretty frustrating as an End User.

</comment><comment><USER3> Acquihire. The product has been scuttled.

<comment><AUTHOR> I believe YC accepted them for the idea and not for their strategy for acquihire. Kind of baffles me that just a 2 month old company gets acquired for talent, and that too for a not-an-out-of-the-world product

<comment><USER3> I assume they weren't able to get any additional funding, and were at the point where they needed to wind down the company. Another company comes along and says "we'll give you good jobs, and make your investors whole." So they take it. It's not like there was a Plan B.</comment></comment></comment>


Graying Thieves Who Nearly Got Away with a Record Heist in London - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/world/europe/london-hatton-garden-heist.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 <comment><USER2> Key point: a chunk of the evidence against the thieves was collected via wireless bugging devices.

Reading between the lines they'd also racked up an impressive stretch of prison time, individually and collectively. So perhaps were behind the curve in understanding just how modern intelligence-led policing and the surveillance state have converged to make their former profession extremely questionable.

(A supplementary point: the problem with criminology is that it's the study of the criminal mind -- but the only criminal minds available for study are _the ones who were stupid enough to get caught_. These guys got lucky (if the on- site security guard had done his job and checked inside the premises properly, they'd have walked into a police trap on their second attempt), but luck wasn't enough. They were still running on a classic 1970s-80s London gangland script, and were known to the Met as robbery suspects with prior form. By _speaking aloud_ about what they'd done they basically handed the police enough evidence to roll them up. Score: old-school bank robbers 0; modern surveillance state: 1.)

<comment><USER3> > Key point: a chunk of the evidence against the thieves was collected via > wireless bugging devices.

They continued to talk about it. Mistake, period. Just, no. If I ever do something illegal, I will never talk about it after the fact.

I have even had conversations with friends when I was younger:

"Hey, how did you manage to get away from <place that got busted>?"

"<incredulous look on my face> Why would you even ask me to admit I did something illegal that actually got busted by the police? And, even if I were there, why would you expect me to be _stupid enough to answer_?"

<comment><USER4> Two things:

1) You're saying this because you're intelligent. But because you're intelligent, you're also less likely to turn to a life of crime. You can make money honestly and you have a lot to lose if you get busted. Crooks tend to be uneducated and ignorant.

2) It's easy to keep a secret that only you know. But there's usually more than one person involved in a crime. Are all of your companions in crime going to be as careful? People just can't resist talking. They want to brag. They want to tell their friends and loved ones. And as time goes on, people let their guard down.

<comment><USER5> > Crooks tend to be uneducated and ignorant.

Only the ones you've _heard_ about.

Also: Wall Street is full of educated guys who are outright criminals.

<comment><USER6> > Also: Wall Street is full of educated guys who are outright criminals.

That is "white-collar crime" which is a different thing entirely. It revolves around exploiting the loopholes around laws, rather than actually breaking them. He is talking about "blue-collar crime" which is about outright breaking the laws. In the white crimes, no statesman can punish you since there is no legal evidence against you - the issues are with the legal framework.

<comment><USER4> Your definition of white-collar crime is way off the mark. White-collar crime is real crime. Fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering are not "loopholes around laws", they are crimes just like murder, larceny, and rape. The government brings prosecutions all the time, and there are plenty of white- collar criminals in prison and paying hefty fines.

The absence of violence (murder, rape, assault, robbery, etc.) or physical force against property (burglary, grand theft auto, etc.) is what defines a white-collar crime. They involve abuses of trust. "White-collar" just refers to the fact that people in white-collar professions are typically the ones have enough power entrusted to them to be able to commit these crimes.

Of course, there's no perfect taxonomy and you can argue all day about whether a particular crime is white-collar or blue-collar.

<comment><USER7> One aspect of the difference is that the physical force and violence with white collar crime are indirect / externalized, because the crimes involve manipulation of intangibles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There is a cool BBC documentary about this heist: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9thHKGgW4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr9thHKGgW4)

<comment><USER9> It's interesting how wrong the speculations were about robbers. Their experts thought it was a Hollywood style "Reservoir Dogs" robbery with precision planning, recruitment from the "dark web" and that the loot was likely already out of the country (possibly hidden up a horses ass). One guy even speculated that they tripped the alarm on purpose, to see what the response would be.

What turned out was pretty far from that. Still, it was worth the watch, for the recreation of drilling through the wall, decent into the elevator shaft and safe deposit box smashing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I must have walked past that pub at least a hundred times, and immediately when I read this story it just felt very right for this particular establishment to figure in it. Not just because, well, it's a London pub and most of them would fit in to a story like this; but also because this particular pub is placed on the corner of Baron St and Pentonville Rd. Pentonville is also the name of a nearby prison – HMP Pentonville[1].

Poetic, in a way.

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

</comment><comment><USER11> Criminals seem to actually deal with a bit of a distributed trust problem. They rely on a reputation consensus to determine trust but that seems to require a culture of disclosing what you've done (bragging).

<comment><USER12> That seems to be an interesting problem for the crypto community to have fun with.

Could a person prove that one has successfully stolen a large amount of money in an unspecified series of heists, without actually incriminating oneself with having been a participant in any given heist?

<comment><USER13> Is that a version of a Zero Knowledge Proof problem? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero- knowledge_proof](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-knowledge_proof)

<comment><USER14> Yes, but it's not a version that has a known solution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A lot of the people were uninsured with tens of thousands of dollars in assets, if not more. I'm guessing that it's because they didn't want to report the assets to the government. Is that fair speculation?

<comment><USER15> No, people assume safe deposit boxes are secure so they don't pay for insurance. There are no taxes on assets, or requirement to report them to the government.

<comment><USER9> I'm speculating that they earned money without reporting it and then used that money to purchase those assets. The gov't doesn't tax the asset you own but it would be interested in knowing if you reported the income that you used to purchase the asset.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The safe deposit box company website[1] looks like it's from the year 2000, complete with a clock in the header of the page. I guess this business was more likely to get customers through word of mouth than their website, so it didn't matter too much.

[1] [http://www.hattongardensafe.co.uk/index.html](http://www.hattongardensafe.co.uk/index.html)

<comment><USER16> A business like that relies on location and reputation. Advertising is definitely secondary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The Wikipedia article is rather neglected, it contains very little information so far:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_bur...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatton_Garden_safe_deposit_burglary)</comment>