Show HN: How I Wish Scientific Papers Were Displayed - <AUTHOR> http://egocodedinsol.github.io/raised_cosine_basis_functions/ <comment><USER2> Stepping into an area about which I have strong opinions. I appreciate your effort, I just think you're way off base.

Physical Review Letters in journal (aka pdf) format are ideal. Nothing is especially stylish, but it's a simple, easy to read format that highlights figures as a way to convey the meaning of the work. I much prefer the PDF to the online version.

Some critics of your site (all in the spirit of "I hope you take this as a challenge to do better or maybe just realize there's not a lot wrong in the first place"): -your color contrast hurts my eyes (light grey on blue...) -the graphs are hard to understand (no axis labels on some, no captions to understand what's going on since that's all most people read first anyways, lack of contrast) -typeset equations are ugly (can't beat LaTeX) -drastic font size difference between code and text is jarring -no authors listed so I can instantly disregard your work because I've learned not to trust your methods (I kid, I kid... kindof) -the draggable figures did nothing for me -your column width was too narrow. Aim for 10-14 words per line. -because I have to scroll it's hard to quickly scan it for parts I actually want to read. When you read 10-20 papers a day, this is important.

One thing I really like: click the Fig. # and it scrolls to be beside the text. That is a nice feature that online journals can learn from.

In short, I think you're trying to solve a non-existent (or at least minimally existent) problem. LaTeX is beautiful, but perhaps you don't appreciate it. Journals in print (except for Science and Nature which blend all their articles together) generally look really nice. The PDF's of individual articles are the thing to read online, and I think your solution is a long way from any sort of reasonable online reading experience.

<comment><USER3> As a grad student who reads lots of papers (with a typical length of 30+ pages), I too have a strong opinion on this. I think PDFs do not serve the needs of the day and such efforts are a step in the right direction.

PDFs okay if you plan to print out the papers to read and are just about bearable if you read the papers on a large monitor. They are quite unfriendly for tablets or smaller laptops -- starting with the multiple vertical columns, which are taller than the screen height. The font size is dictated by the aim of reducing printing costs rather than reading convenience. Just for starters, a "responsive" reader with the ability to resize fonts would make a big difference. Notes/references which appear on the side (rather than the bottom of the page) or links to interactive data (which scientists will have to figure out a good way of using) would drastically improve the reading experience and the efficacy of this mode of scholarly communication.

<comment><USER4> You mention printing. This is the singular reason why I prefer pdfs myself. PDFs are viewable in the browser and resizeable. They are operating system agnostic. Most importantly, they preserve the formatting that the original author intended.

This is not to say it can't be all done natively in a browser, with resizing based on screen or print resolution. Just that most paper authors will not be savvy enough to do it right. It's enough for them to learn LaTeX properly (the _only_ option for typesetting equations) and I doubt tooling for doing what you suggest will come any time soon.

<comment><USER3> > PDFs are viewable in the browser and resizeable. They are operating system > agnostic. Most importantly, they preserve the formatting that the original > author intended.

So are most webpages.

> Just that most paper authors will not be savvy enough to do it right. [...]

I believe this can be done gracefully in a manner where the authors just supply a source file and the software chain will generate the requisite output formats (much like pdflatex or Pandoc do the job today). Scientists should NOT have to muck around with HTML/CSS/JS/etc else the solution would be DOA.

<comment><USER4> > So are most webpages

View hacker news on multiple browsers and operating systems. It won't look the same. My gmail looks different too. Fonts are different which means the numbers of words per line are different.

> I believe this can be done gracefully in a manner where the authors just > supply a source file and the software chain will generate the requisite > output formats (much like pdflatex or Pandoc do the job today). Scientists > should NOT have to muck around with HTML/CSS/JS/etc else the solution would > be DOA.

Agreed but this is much much easier said than done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Slightly off topic, but I wish there was a change to how scientific papers were _written_ (and this comment doesn't pertain to this article - it's just a general comment). For some, inexplicable reason, it sometimes feels like authors are challenging one another to write the most convoluted, unclear account of what is actually a fairly intuitive idea.

Clearly, this is not always the case, and obviously complexity doesn't lend itself to nice 10 word summaries (hat-tip to Jed Bartlet), but equally the choice of language used and the pace of arguments can make a _huge_ difference. There is no need to use "big" words, when simple ones will do just fine. There is no need to use technical language in place of standard vocabulary where it adds nothing to further your ideas. Don't "hit the ground running" but introduce a new idea with an analogy, or a toy example.

Write papers so humans can understand them - often the science being portrayed is complicated enough, there's no need to further complicate your ideas to the point where you leave English speaking audiences trying to decipher the message, let alone what foreign readers must think.

The best papers are the papers you can read abstract-to-conclusion without stopping and asking yourself, "What does that mean?". This is all too rare an occurrence for me. /rant

<comment><USER6> Scientific papers aren't written for you, the layman. They are written specifically for scientists in that particular field. I'm a PhD student, and never have I read a paper with wording that I would describe as "convoluted."

<comment><USER7> Lucky you! I agree, though, that the problem isn't as severe as the OP suggests, but it does exist. You see it especially in papers that aren't that great, where the author obfuscates what they've done because the reality isn't as impressive as they'd like (which is a shame, because that doesn't mean it's not useful research -- and if it was presented more concisely, it'd probably be more accessible by more people -- not everything needs to be groundbreaking!).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A great example of a web-friendly, interactive view of a scientific paper is the eLife Lens, example here: [http://lens.elifesciences.org/#00380](http://lens.elifesciences.org/#00380) . They announced the open source project back in June (blog post [http://www.elifesciences.org/lens/](http://www.elifesciences.org/lens/)). This is the direction that web-based paper views are moving toward, and some publishers (notably PLOS) already have quite nice interactive components.

PubMed, the government-run biomedical abstract database, also recently introduced its PubReader app for reading biomedical papers ([http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/pubreader/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/about/pubreader/)). But my money's on eLife here — NCBI is better known for its databases than its user interface design (to say the least).

It would be great to see some innovation here (some publishers have absolutely _awful_ web-based journal article views). But as the main format for paper publishing and dissemination, I think the PDF won't be going away anytime soon.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for the Lens link! I may have to try this with my next paper.

<comment><USER10> Lens reads JSON, and we convert from XML to JSON using this component: [https://github.com/elifesciences/refract](https://github.com/elifesciences/refract). We are working on updated documentation, and a getting started guide, our hope is to make the base system flexible enough to display any "component".

<comment><USER9> Any existing tools to help author NLM XML?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> A great example in this vein:

[http://worrydream.com/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt...](http://worrydream.com/ScientificCommunicationAsSequentialArt/)

You can mess with the sliders, etc.

Video @ [http://vimeo.com/67076984](http://vimeo.com/67076984)

<comment><AUTHOR> I love BV!

fwiw I considered using the Strogatz paper as an example for consistency (maybe it could become something of a standard for reimagining paper layouts), and use tangle or knockout, but I decided to get feedback sooner rather than later after reading a line in pg's essay today re: procrastination.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like it!

Clicking on a link and having a figure appear solves a small but real problem.

In mathematical papers it'd be nice to be able to do the same with equation references --- click on the equation number, and the equation would magically appear in the margin. Ditto bibliography entries, theorem statements, definitions, and so on. I guess there are possible solutions other than having them appear in the margin, too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I was thinking about doing the same with bib refs since I don't like being sent to the bottom of the page like a footnote. I really like the idea of doing the same thing with theorems, defs, etc.

I'm a bit worried about what to do with column overload, though, if I add a col for X, a col for Y, etc. Perhaps a hover-text is better but that would obscure the content ...

<comment><USER12> I'm not sure I see why you'd want separate columns for X, Y, etc. Why not have one margin, and use it for theorems, definitions, etc?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is quite unreadable with the low contrast colors and the columns are much too small. If you pick a random paper on the arxiv[1] and imagine how much vertical space it will take to just to show the text you'll see the problem.

[1] [http://arxiv.org/list/hep-ex/new](http://arxiv.org/list/hep-ex/new)

<comment><AUTHOR> I think you're right re: contrast, but I'm still conflicted about column size. On the one hand, a wider column gives better justified results, but on the other hand, it makes the sliding figure column more difficult on 13 in. Screens. Which did you find more beneficial, wider columns, or sliding figures?

<comment><USER14> Contrast[1] is too low for me as well, and text should not be justified[2] IMO.

I too appreciate your effort, but keep in mind the differences between print- and web- layout design. Most scientific papers are published in PDF, using Latex. These two work great for the print. Correct hyphenation, good justified text, etc. Browsers are not that far yet, unfortunately.

[1] [http://contrastrebellion.com/](http://contrastrebellion.com/)

[2] [http://www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/webaccessibility/articl...](http://www.rnib.org.uk/professionals/webaccessibility/articles/Pages/justified_text.aspx)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> [http://www.ctan.org/pkg/tufte-latex](http://www.ctan.org/pkg/tufte-latex)

<comment><USER16> I came in to mention the tufte latex class. It is unfortunate that you posted the link with no context. If you are going to post a link with no context I would think that one of the two samples would have been a better choice:

sample handout: [http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/tufte- latex/sam...](http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/tufte-latex/sample- handout.pdf)

sample book: [http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/tufte- latex/sam...](http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/tufte-latex/sample- book.pdf)

For those looking for some context:

 _" The Tufte-LATEX document classes define a style similar to the style Edward Tufte uses in his books and handouts. Tufte's style is known for its extensive use of sidenotes, tight integration of graphics with text, and well- set typography. This document aims to be at once a demonstration of the features of the Tufte-LATEX document classes and a style guide to their use."_

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The layout is nice, but I found the text really difficult to read with the lack of contrast. I imagine it would be next to impossible for someone with a vision impairment.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Did you like the auto scrolling of each column depending on what was clicked?

re: contrast, I've found black on white is too harsh for me (I like the 'lights out' setting on project euler for instance.) Do you prefer dark text on light bg, or light text on dark bg?

<comment><USER18> I like black on white, because a lot of the displays I use (e.g. my mobile phone) are too washed out to display more subtle differences in color.

Have you considered using a user stylesheet to override the default font colors in the browser?

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, thanks. I considered doing a lights on/off button like project euler, but decided not to. Part of it was that it seemed like additional complexity and I was worried it might overload the minimalist design, and part of it was that I'm not a javascript developer, so additional overhead is more of an issue than it would be, say, for a n intern at the Khan Academy ;)

Ultimately, it would be great for someone to do that, but this is more proof of concept than a product per se.

<comment><USER18> Oh, User CSS is something you do in your browser to override what site authors do.

Here's the docs for Opera, although I think this is also a feature in Firefox (and maybe Chrome; I'm not as sure about that one).

[http://www.opera.com/docs/usercss/](http://www.opera.com/docs/usercss/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't generally read scientific papers, but I found it annoying that I had to click on the "Figure 1" in the text to see the figure, and that the space in the figure seemed useless until you hit the reference in the text.

Part of me wants parallax scroll, but I'm sure that would be a terrible fit unless you had the right number of diagrams and the references to diagrams were equally spaced out (as opposed to having two in the same line).

This also reminds me of good old <frame>s from the 90s...

Edit: I realized afterwards that you refer to some diagrams multiple times, such as Figure 4. I guess this is a step towards not having to flip back three pages in the PDF to get to that diagram, but I'm not sure it's a "300x improvement" that would cause scientists/academics to switch away from LaTeX (or use your new LaTeX module, if you went that way) any time soon.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not sure what you mean re: click on "Figure 1" to see it. You could scroll back up, but I thought that was the equivalent of flipping back pages. In a lot of scientific papers I read the figure is not on the same page as the first introduction. I considered fixing them to one position, or placing them within the text like most people do, but this interrupted the flow for me.

re: "Edit" It's not a 300x improvement by any means. Definitely less cool than the research I get to do ;) That said, I would like to see things switch away from LaTeX as typesetting gets better on the web. I love LaTeX, and was even offered a part-time gig as a LaTeX editor for an economist that has 3 full- time typesetters (I'm not even kidding, he must take division of labor seriously). But it doesn't seem to allow for the same kind of freedom we have now as a result of newer media: it's optimized for print, even with addons like hypertext.

<comment><USER18> So I find that in order to see the diagram, I need to either scroll manually (O(n) linear search) or click on the reference in the text (makes my hand hurt).

I 100% agree with the problem you've identified, but I find your solution confusing.

Then again, I found LaTeX confusing when I first used it, so I guess it might just be me not being used to it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> You should make the source more discoverable, particularly on your 'homepage'.

Particularly on a site like this, but also in general, in doesn't take much more effort to write a pull request than it does to write a comment.

For example, modifying the colour scheme or layout would be a few lines changed in the css. Encourage people to give the most useful feedback they can - patches!

I should probably go and raise a PR implementing this now, but I've already spent so long writing this comment... ;)

[EDIT] Adding a Readme to the repository would help people understand how everything is organised as well (for people who want to look at the nuts and bolts), and a License file would clarify what, if any, modification of your work is allowed.

<comment><AUTHOR> it's all there at github.com/egocodedinsol/egocodedinsol.github.io, or did you mean adding a direct link to it?

I'm not sure how much it's a software project so much as a proof of concept. If you did want it to be more of a project, what would you suggest doing?

<comment><USER19> Sorry I missed this earlier!

I do mean explicitly adding a link to the source from the site itself. Sure, you may not get anyone to contribute, but at least there are no excuses not to. The best feedback almost always comes in the form of a patch :)

If you wanted to make specific components more of a project, consider splitting them into their own repositories. If you have a branch 'gh-pages' it will be served under username.github.io/repository

If you know of existing issues or feature requests, make use of the Github issue tracker. This shows people that you are thinking about the future of the code, so they feel comfortable that if they contribute it won't be wasted effort. This also lets people know of an easy way to provide feedback that won't get lost into the aether.

Lastly, continue to invite discussion and ask for contributions. If somebody says "The contrast is too high" say to them "here is where the colour scheme is defined, what should the values be?"

Hope that all helps, I really like the ideas that you have. Innovation is always important!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> To use: click 'text' to sync text col to reference of figure in text, multiple times if there are multiple are multiple references, drag a figure, resize a figure, click 'reset', click a figure reference to sync to the figure col.

I know there are a few editors that read this, I would love to see better interfaces for your journals ;).

</comment><comment><USER20> what on earth is happening to the kerning? chrome/linux the line "but is better than the hand-waving I was doing." is awful (no space between words).

edit: word-spacing: -2px; wtf?

<comment><USER21> Narrow column + no hyphenation + justified = typesetting disaster, especially with the crude type handling in web browsers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I wish they simply hyperlinked their sources.

</comment><comment><USER23> You guys should take a look at eLife sciences journal then... I think it is what you want...

</comment><comment><USER24> Oh, why the color! I can't read anymore.

</comment><comment><USER25> onfirefox22.0onwindowsthetextlookslikethis thanksbutnothanks

<comment><AUTHOR> Odd, it doesn't do that for me on ff22windows. I originally messed with word spacing because it looked too sparse, but I'm going to switch it back to something safer. Thanksforthefeedback;)</comment></comment>


Otto the octopus wreaks havoc - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3328480/Otto-the-octopus-wrecks-havoc.html

<comment><USER2> _The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts._

Electricians who had never heard of _cameras_. No wonder the octopus is in charge.</comment>


Rentaholism over Shopaholism - <AUTHOR>

Or should be anyway, that's the premise behind www.therentaholic.com, but I'd love feedback. If renting were easier (we deliver to you), would you do it for those things you know you'll only use occasionally? What would you want to rent? <comment><USER2> It's a good idea, but I had to scroll down an entire page to see suggestions for things I might be able to rent.

My suggestion would be to create a Javascript scroller at the top of the page with suggestions for things that could be rented scrolling across the top. I think if rental suggestions were the first thing that visitors saw, it would better convey what your site is about.

<comment><AUTHOR> ok great idea thanks!</comment></comment>


I Abandoned 22% of My Life - <AUTHOR> https://www.keaganstokoe.com/post/why-i-abandoned-22-percent-of-my-life <comment><USER2> You can't just throw out a number like 22% and not explain it. Can you?</comment>


Show HN: Made a website for shooters to track target practice - <AUTHOR> Website: https://targetarchive.com
Screen Shot: https://imgur.com/a/qlzuJ
I built this website initially for myself since I just wanted an easy way to track my progress as a new shooter. I'm curious if others will find it useful and I would love some feedback.
It's pretty simplistic right now but if you sign up and try it out I'll be happy to hear feedback and implement new ideas. <comment><USER3> Keeps giving error when creating a new target entry.

I would suggest to provide a bit more information on the landing page - <USER2> a visual guide - and default weapon/target already built in. Asking for email and picture upload before trying/seeing anything might be too much trouble for some users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Odd, did it say what the error was?

[edit] I think I found and fixed the issue. Thanks for mentioning it.

Yes, working on having a better landing page for sure. I just pushed a small update to clean it up a bit. Been trying to get some design help though.

I like the idea of a default entry. I may have to play around with that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ha! I just thought about doing something similar yesterday. Except, I'm looking to focus more on dope books. And maybe eventually add course of fire tracking and similar things.</comment>


The Thickener Industry for THC Vape Liquid - <AUTHOR> https://www.inverse.com/article/59207-vitamin-e-acetate-thc-vapes <comment><USER2> Horrible, horrible people who use untested products in vape liquids to increase their profit margins instead of simply producing a higher quality distillate. Oh, no, that would prevent them from making the absolute most money possible, which is the sole goal. Monsters. Horrible monsters.

And that is why capitalism, while obviously the best solution that we have come up with, needs to be regulated up the wazoo. I'm also looking at you, Apple.

People are lazy and unethical and they take shortcuts.

Including the writer of that article, who took the easy path to sensationalism instead of examining the real problem: lipoid pneumonia has appeared in vape users who inhaled only nicotine and glycerine.

The CDC (and the medical profession in general) does not even have a likely suspect at this point. The only meaningful statement in the entire article came from Michelle Peace, Ph.D., who says, "we still don't have definitive clinical evidence that vegetable glycerin or propylene glycol, the more commonly accepted additives in vape liquids, are safe, let alone vitamin E acetate."

The rats are scurrying for the shadows because they know they did something wrong by using thickeners to make their shitty rip-off products look high quality.

A thoughtful article would perhaps examine the evidence in lipoid pneumonia cases, but it's easier and more sensational to go after the scumbags who, bless their little black hearts, may not turn out to be the cause of the problem after all.</comment>


Ask HN - Review my startup: singlePAGERS - <AUTHOR>

http://singlepagers.com
Marketing buzzwords aside, a singlePAGER is an organized personal directory of your online social involvements. A digital vCard, basically.
It's certainly been done (magntize.com, dooid.com, card.ly, etc) but I always feel like the "pro" themes are a bit, how shall I put this, un-sexy. (I'm a Graphic Designer).
I built it for WordPress because I figured a lot of people know and are comfortable it.
I'd love some feedback/ thoughts?
thanks, <comment><USER2> Initial thoughts:

\- _Intended for a very specific purpose, singlePAGERS layout and functionality are designed with that specificity in mind._ \- drop the thesaurus and talk like a normal person

\- Learn more and demo links are hard to see on the homepage

\- Pricing link doesn't show any prices

\- I can't find anything telling me why I shouldn't just use vanilla wordpress + plugins

\- _sign up is free while singlePagers is in Beta_ \- What happens after that?

\- for something that is going to help me be socially visible on the net, I don't see a single mention of facebook or twitter or RSS or any "Web 2.0" stuff

\- support link should give me contact information, not a hard to navigate slideshow

</comment><comment><USER3> What will the pricing be after the beta ends?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm still working out pricing and tiers. Figured I should get feedback asap though. How much would _you_ pay for it?</comment></comment>


DeepMind's 'Starcraft II' AI Is Now Better Than 99.98% of Human Players - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb5ny9/deepminds-starcraft-ii-ai-is-now-better-than-9998-of-human-players <comment><USER2> While this is clearly an impressive accomplishment, blizzard has said each season has ~150 _thousand_ 1v1 players.

That puts them around 300th (+/\- some unbound error margin), so I assume that means much lower success against pro-level gamers.

I would be interested in seeing a new set of rematches, that don't silently randomize which DM player the human players are up against. In the early rounds the pro gamers were able to play much more effectively whenever they knew which player they were against.</comment>


GitHub for Poets - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/backing-and-hacking/github-for-poets

<comment><USER2> not what i thought it would be.

-bowerbird</comment>


Mozilla CEO: Premium version of Firefox coming this fall - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/mozilla-ceo-premium-version-of-firefox-coming-this-fall/ <comment><USER2> I'm looking forward to seeing what these extra features will be.

It would be weird if it's something that FF users like currently, like the ability to go in about:config for example. It would also be weird if it's things that current users don't use, like pocket.

I want to get the subscription, but I hope the price and the perks are good and worth it, and at the same time not making it terrible to the free tier. Imagine they choose something that most people want but don't want to pay, and in the end FF loses users. I don't even want to think about it.

<comment><USER3> They're not likely to abandon the free software aspect of Firefox. I can't imagine anyone at Mozilla considering turning a FOSS browser into a freemium proprietary product; for one, that would be a very efficient way to kill off their brand and community in one stroke.

What is being hinted at is providing services like VPN and secure storage in the cloud from within the Firefox browser. Services that have a real cost in terms of bandwidth and storage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I hadn't thought of supporting Mozilla, but if they had a reasonable cost premium service... I probably would.

It really wouldn't so much matter what the cost to benefit is to me provided the price was reasonable.

</comment><comment><USER5> Already discussed here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20145344](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20145344)</comment>


As Suicide Rates Rise, Scientists Find New Warning Signs - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-suicide-rates-rise-scientists-find-new-warning-signs-1465235288 <comment><USER2> Some big takeaways:

"Meanwhile, rates of suicide deaths are rising in the U.S. The rate jumped 24% from 1999 to 2014, from 10.5 to 13 per 100,000 people, according to an April 2016 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

"While depression is the mental illness that is most strongly associated with suicidal thoughts, it doesn't often lead to suicidal acts. __Recent research has shown that it is other mental illnesses, like anxiety disorders, problems with impulse control and addiction, that are actually more strongly linked to suicide attempts. Most first suicide attempts occur within a year of the onset of suicidal thoughts. __" [Emphasis added]

"Another study from the same NIMH group has found that, among severely depressed subjects, spending more time awake between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. (as measured by a sleep study called polysomnography) is linked to increased risk of suicidal thinking the next day."

"Computers analyzed more than 30,000 different risk factors, including traditional ones like age and mental-health history. But some surprising issues—such as gastrointestinal problems, infections and injuries like rib fractures—were tied to increased risk."

"In a study published in 2010 that followed 157 people who had visited a psychiatric emergency room, subjects are asked to classify words into categories. The study found those subjects who were quickest at classifying death and "me words" into the same group had three times the rate of suicide attempts in the next six months compared with those who were quickest at linking life and "me words." (A past suicide attempt is the strongest predictor of a future one.)"

<comment><USER3> > "Another study from the same NIMH group has found that, among severely > depressed subjects, spending more time awake between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. (as > measured by a sleep study called polysomnography) is linked to increased > risk of suicidal thinking the next day."

I wonder if something more general could be inferred - when I'm getting bad sleep (stress-related, mostly), I tend to wake up at around 4AM. My day is often cranky, sometimes I'm completely ineffective until noon.

Could overall sleep levels be more coincident with lower suicidal thoughts?

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder if that 4am to 5am timeframe is relevant. I've been falling asleep at ~5am for the past few years...

The key part may be "among severely depressed subjects," but I've noticed that whenever my sleep changes (stress-related, too, or a random early meeting) my following day is simply awful and I accomplish more-or-less nothing.

Something that seems obvious now, but wasn't obvious to me until recently, is that people should be realllllyyy protective of their sleep. I guess that study supports that idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wonder if diet high in refined processed carbohydrates is a factor. I've switched to paleo-like with fat no-carb/less protein(and somewhat calorie restricted) days and much of that anxiety is gone. Can sugar be literally murdering(some) people?

<comment><USER5> As an inanimate object, sugar cannot be literally murdering people. It's possible that it's killing people, but "murdering" is both incorrect and unnecessarily emotive language that looks like it's being used in an attempt to bias the discussion.

<comment><USER6> google literally.. ie. informal - used for emphasis while not being literally true.

<comment><USER5> The problem is more the "murdering" than the "literally". Even if you read it as "figuratively murdering" it's still excessively emotive language.

<comment><USER6> I would argue that literally here is a modifier to murdering, and in fact both are used here in an intentionally excessive (or emotional if you prefer) in order to underline a point. By all means disagree with the point, but sugar can actually be figuratively murdering people.

As an aside, to suggest that someone is using words to bias a discussion pretty much misses the whole point of mounting an argument, does it not?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Well having had fun with depression I am never went through the suicide side of things. However what I have noticed is a lot more medications seem to be carrying the "suicidal thoughts warning" than used too. I am used to seeing the "it causes sleepiness, don't operate heavy machinery" notes but I am wondering how many combinations are needed before you find the secret "oh my god I think life would be better without me". Its like the Joker from Tim Burton's Batman, which combination kills.

</comment><comment><USER8> > Computers analyzed more than 30,000 different risk factors, including > traditional ones like age and mental-health history. But some surprising > issues—such as gastrointestinal problems, infections and injuries like rib > fractures—were tied to increased risk.

> Dr. Nock says that some of these may be self-inflicted or related to > impulsive behavior. Using the historical data, the approach was able to > detect 45% of suicidal acts an average of about three years before the > event.

> A study using similar methods looking at suicide risk among U.S. Army > soldiers in the year after hospitalization for psychiatric issues was > published in 2015 in JAMA Psychiatry. The algorithm was able to predict > about 53% of the suicides in that high-risk period.

I wonder what the false positive rates on these are.

</comment><comment><USER9> >>> Researchers are hunting for so-called biomarkers, such as patterns of brain activity on fMRI scans or levels of stress hormones in the blood, linked to suicidal thoughts and acts.

It is so very western to treat suicide as a disease, a disorder of the brain. We ignore the concept that suicide can be a rational act. In the east (Japan) suicide is considered a private decision to be respected. That doesn't mean that it isn't an evil that society should attempt to prevent. Some people have may suffer medical conditions that make them prone to suicide, but other perfectly healthy people may opt to kill themselves. We cannot treat them all as medical problems. Sometimes the answer is much more practical, sometimes the problem is purely economic.

Except in cases of assisted dieing. There we switch the approach and suddenly declare that killing one's self can be rational decision. It is strange how we muddle rationality and reasonableness, as if the fact that someone makes a decision society disagrees with is per se irrational.

<comment><USER10> I was thinking exactly the same thing. Yet there's a whole subthread debating the wisdom of gun ownership because that's a popular axe to grind. Getting at the root of the issue is trickier. Clearly depression and suicide are popular topics on HN. We know that there's some kind of social problems that lead to depression and suicide, but the best some people can come up with is to talk about gun ownership.

Looking at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate), the US is in a tie for 50th place for suicide rates. So in spite of the fact that the US has a high gun ownership rate, we're not anywhere close to being the top of the suicide rates.

Also, recall the articles around middle aged death rates in the US: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10499434](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10499434) One of the takeaways is that people may be committing de-facto suicide by following a pattern of life choices (addiction for example). The "Leaving Las Vegas" effect (if you saw the movie, recall Nicholas Cage's character tried to drink himself to death) is really hard to measure.

Side note: suicide is illegal in Nepal and "attempted suicide is illegal in Nepal and people who attempt suicide when caught are subject to imprisonment, fines or both", yet Nepal is ranked 7th on the list. One might be led to conclude that this law is ineffective, if not counter-productive.

<comment><USER9> The gun thing is just crazy. It's one of those subjects where everyone can paint on their own philosophy. So it winds up in every discussion. That makes it a great weapon for those who want to maintain the status quo. They throw the gun debate into the mix in full knowledge that it will shut down any other meaningful discussion, thereby preventing anything from changing. In terms of suicide, guns just make attempts more likely to succeed. I'd rather focus on preventing the attempts from happening in the first place.

Laws against suicide are a little silly imho. Someone willing to kill themselves is operating at a level beyond criminal laws. Nepal probably needs to keep suicide legal for purposes of inheritance, so that surviving families don't suffer. Laws that penalize suicide risk encouraging non-suicide suicides that endanger other people such as "suicide-by-police".</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Recommendations for Learning TCP/IP? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Ben Eater has a 110-minute, 13-part Networking Tutorial covering TCP/IP, ARP, Ethernet (not Eater-net, sadly), OSI layers, routing, etc.

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowKtXNTBypH19whXTVoG...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLowKtXNTBypH19whXTVoG3oKSuOcw_XeW)

</comment><comment><USER3> Computer Networks - A Top Down Approach by Kurose Ross gives a very good overview of computer networks and dives deep into each of the layers of the networking stack.

</comment><comment><USER4> RFC-1180 TCP/IP Tutorial, very good and clear introduction to TCP/IP

[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1180](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1180)

</comment><comment><USER5> Genuine related question - what is learning TCP/IP good for? When is it useful to know?

<comment><USER6> 1\. When you need to communicate across the network and don't have a library to do it for you.

2\. Troubleshooting

3\. Insights. Knowing how things work can sometimes give you big insights into potential solutions or pitfalls to avoid

<comment><USER7> Additionally, tuning/optimization when dealing with high-latency networks, possibly with more frequent packet loss than you'd get in a local data center (think data replication from Hong-Kong to London in a global bank, etc).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Forouzan, TCP/IP Protocol Suite 4th ed</comment>


Ask HN: Which should I use: Yahoo Groups, Facebook Groups or Google Groups? - <AUTHOR>

I am trying to create an online community (not social network)for Nigerian Internet Entrepreneurs (Globally) and I am wondering what I should use.
I am am looking for something we can use to discuss issues, collaborate, share news, stories, ideas etc. I am familiar with Google Groups via Lean Startup Circle but is seems a bit boring. Facebook Groups require people to join FB not including the additional distractions from logging in. I have not used Yahoo Groups in a long while so I do not know the state.
Are there other options asides the one I mentioned? Of course it would need the special moderating features, and the ability to be invite only etc.
I would really appreciate your feedback. <comment><USER2> Out of those 3 options, I'd stick with Google Groups. It's easy to moderate/manage and search through content. Facebook Groups seem very distracting to me and until they fine tune the notifications part, its a wee bit gimmicky. Yahoo groups, well I haven't used that in a while but it certainly was susceptible to spamming a lot more than google groups I've run.

</comment><comment><USER3> LinkedIn is another option.

In terms of 'boring', what should be interesting is the content, not the presentation. HN itself, is pretty 'boring', isn't it?

</comment><comment><USER4> I am a fan of Wordpress in combination with buddypress. There are tons of plugins to tailor the community to what you like, from Chatmodules, groups, extended profiles, etc. And it is very easy to set up a few pages about the community, rules, etc. All you need is some virtual server to install wordpress. Mine is about 8,95 € per month...

</comment><comment><USER5> I would say really do some analysis on your audience. I found these questions helps: What is going interesting or engaging about my content / group to other people? E.g. is it going to get them funding, network contacts, ideas for their business, problem solving

Also consider that their maybe already be some good groups for this content on Linked-in, Meetups etc.

If you have some form of this already What about my content / group are or willl be people responding to? How can I use that to get more attention?

Then do some analysis of the pro's and cons of each group based on your analysis and requirements e.g. I was reading that Yahoo groups has the largest number of people currently, Facebook groups is new and ideally suited if you want primarily have friends on Facebook contributing.

I also like the idea of linked in groups if you want this to primarily be a professional focused network

</comment><comment><USER6> Starting next month, regular files will need to be stored in Google Docs in order to be accessible -- inconvenient, but better organized.

"Starting in November 2010, Groups will no longer allow the creation or editing of files and pages; the content will only be available for viewing, and only existing files will be able to be downloaded. If you would like to keep the content currently on the pages and files sections of your group, we highly encourage you to export and migrate it to another product. In February 2011, we will turn off the pages and files features, and you will no longer be able to access that content."

[http://groups-announcements.blogspot.com/2010/09/notice- abou...](http://groups-announcements.blogspot.com/2010/09/notice-about-pages- and-files.html?hl=en)

</comment><comment><USER7> Like @rakkhi said I think it really depends on your target audience. I've setup Google Groups, Yahoo Groups and Facebook Groups before. If you're targeting a more tech-savvy group, then Google Groups is it (non-techy people tend to think it is). For non tech-savvy groups, Yahoo Groups does just fine.

Facebook Groups in my opinion are a no-no even if all your group members are on Facebook and my reason for this is that it doesn't encourage active discussions. You always have to check with the group to know what's going on.

HTH

</comment><comment><USER8> If you have your own hosting, you can try BuddyPress. It's simple and easy to setup and use.

</comment><comment><USER9> Other option: self hosted groupware, please specify?

<comment><AUTHOR> I wouldn't want to host anything extra. I want wamothing people can join with only an email addy. LinkedIn and Facebook require a lot(filling profile) as basic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> GroupSpaces

<comment><AUTHOR> From my understanding GroupSpaces is ideal for hierarchically structured groups e.g oExecutive to members. This is more like a flattened distributed groups where person to person interaction is the way.

<comment><USER11> We're working on improving this - in particular reply-all listserv in the pipeline ;) \-- Andy @ GroupSpaces

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> You could setup your own NNTP server: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_News_Transfer_Protocol>

<comment><USER13> Nobody has access to NNTP anymore. You could complement it with a web gateway perhaps - what are good open source ones?

<comment><USER12> NNTP is alive and strong. Google groups includes most usenet groups for example. Yeah, most ISPs don't give out free access any more but just google for "news server access".

<comment><USER13> I have tried for a while in Germany, but eventually just gave up. Maybe you have it better in the US.

So what would be a free news server everybody can access? You should be able to name one, the one you are using for instance?

Google Groups - true, but Google doesn't have a free NNTP server, or do they? I admit I forgot that Google Groups are backed by NNTP.

<comment><USER12> I'm in the UK. I use nntp.aioe.org, a quick google brought up www.teranews.com .. hope at least one works out for you.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Which crypto token is undervalued is likely to rise like Antshares recently? - <AUTHOR> Which crypto token is hugely undervalued and is likely to rise like Antshares,1337 and ecccoin recently? <comment><USER2> SONM, STEEM, BAT. You may have to wait a few months for the big growth to materialize though (with its ups and downs).

<comment><AUTHOR> Why Are these undervalued</comment></comment>


As Long As It's Black: iPhone 4 Now Shipping With Anti-Tampering Torx Screws - <AUTHOR> http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/11/long-black-iphone-4-shipping-antitempering-torx-screws/ <comment><USER2> Didn't the original Macs require something special to open the case, which only dealers had? While Torx bits aren't hard to find, and jailbreaking and third-party apps rank far above cracking the case (of a solid-state device with almost no space for tinkering), I keep being disappointed their customers are content not to be treated like tool-using human beings.

<comment><USER3> I'd forgotten about that. IIRC, they required a "star" headed screwdriver with a long shaft, to access a couple of deeply recessed screws.

There was also a... "cracker", or spreader, I seem to recall, to aid in getting the pieces of the case to separate. One inserted it into the narrow seam, which it then widened.

EDIT: The important part was to discharge the CRT, before you did so inadvertently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Note, Torx screws are not "anti-tamper" screws.</comment>


Making the Ugly Elegant: Templating With DOM - <AUTHOR> http://camendesign.com/dom_templating

<comment><USER2> I've long wondered how well using a DOM serializer that was a reasonable inverse of a browser would work. I feel like it appeals to my math-y "generalize everything" side, but might not work out well in the "many pages have special needs" real-world.

This is pretty interesting. I'm interested to see how maintainable "pretty" HTML ends up being.</comment>


NTPD DDoS Attack Analysis  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.mazebolt.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Don't take your website security for granted. Make sure to test your systems capabilities to mitigate DDoS attacks.</comment>


Don't leave anything out. - <AUTHOR> http://drex.svbtle.com/dont-leave-anything-out

<comment><USER2> Good post. This is why I like screencasts. Writeups are a version of reality. Unfortunately writeups are faster to produce.

Trade offs!!</comment>


A flutter in time: Quantum mechanics is immune to the butterfly effect - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/08/15/quantum-mechanics-is-immune-to-the-butterfly-effect <comment><USER2> I'm not surprised by this. The Butterfly Effect only applies to nonlinear chaotic systems and at the quantum level everything is linear. Nondeterministic, but linear.

You can easily build macro-scale nonlinear systems from micro-scale linear quantum systems; a double pendulum for example.

I rather dislike that the word "chaotic" gets applied to all sorts of things. It has a specific meaning, and it refers to nonlinear systems with sensitive dependence to initial conditions. It does not imply some vague connotation of "random."

Chaotic systems are nonlinear and thus theoretically deterministic but practically unpredictable. Quantum systems are not even deterministic in theory, but they're linear and thus they do not exhibit sensitive dependence (the Butterfly Effect).

<comment><USER3> Quantum mechanics is deterministic in most interpretations _except_ Copenhagen, which is losing favor.

<comment><USER4> Is there a term for deterministic but where there is 'hidden' state such that it appears random?

<comment><USER5> Hidden variable theories don't satisfy the bell equation.

There are other interpretations that don't require hidden variables and yet are fully deterministic. There is no free lunch though, so usually these interpretations require you "lose" something else.

As a layperson, the one that I can make most sense of is the Everettian interpretation (often called Many Worlds, although I personally find that a source of confusion).

In the Everettian interpretation there is only a quantum state and the observer is part of it. Thus the non-determinism and the wave function collapse is just an illusion due to the fact that the observers themselves are in a superposition state (which they are not aware of) and entangled with what they observe.

<comment><USER6> > Hidden variable theories don't satisfy the bell equation.

No, _local_ hidden variable theories don't [1]. De Broglie–Bohm pilot wave theory [2] is a non-local hidden variable theory.

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

[2]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie%E2%80%93Bohm_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Broglie%E2%80%93Bohm_theory)

[3]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlXdsyctD50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlXdsyctD50)

<comment><USER5> Oh yes, pardon my sloppiness. I was focusing be contrast between determinism an indeterminism and I was giving locality for granted.

The Everettian interpretation is fully local, where any non-locality is just an illusion caused by observers observing correlations they cannot otherwise explain if they insist on the impossibility of themselves being made of matter itself being in superposition.

EDIT: it's understandably hard to throw away the first person pooling if view and our innate feeling of self and identity. Fuethermor the mechanisms of consciousness are poorly understood. I'd argue that what's making it hard to make progress on understanding consciousness is entangled with what makes it hard to accept the Everettian interpretation (which is the simplest consequence of basic quantum mechanics, nothing is added )

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> 1\. Researchers set the value of qubit X to zero

2\. They pressed rewind on all qubits

3\. They scrambled the value of qubit X

4\. They pressed "play"

5\. They checked the value of qubit X to see how close it was to zero. Turns out it was very very close to zero.

This calls for an explanation of the recovery of the final value of qubit X despite the destruction of its initial state during step 3. The article proposes that the information necessary to recover the final value is encoded in the qubits with which X is entangled.

I don't know enough about QM to understand how the system is able to use this information to "set" the qubit to the value that it "should" be. Do the researchers' actions influence the values of the qubits with which X is entangled in such a way that the forward evolution results in a system where X recovers its initial (final) value?

My background is in deep learning. If I look at the activations in the final layer of a network, and want to achieve an output for a particular element, I can set that element to the desired value and run the network backward to reconstruct an input that would give that value. If I perturb that input slightly, the network will produce a slightly different activation pattern. If I take an adversarial approach, I can have what would appear to be an outsized influence on the final layer activations. I wonder if such an adversarial perturbation has a quantum analogue.

<comment><USER8> Following your numeration, I'll try to ELI25:

0) Let's assume they have 4 qbits. Then the system has 2^4 = 16 possibilities, so the complete estate of the system is a complex vector of length 16

(v_0000, v_0001, v_0010, v_0011, ..., v_1110, v_1111)

such that

|v_0000|^2 + |v_0001|^2 + ... + |v_1110|^2 + |v_1111|^2 = 1

And |v_abcd|^2 is the probability that if you measure the value of all the qbits you get the value a in the first one, b in the second one, c in the third and d in the fourth. When you measure the value of all the bits, the system "collapses" and randomly select one of the possibilities using this probabilities. (Yes, it is weird.)

1) Let's assume that X is the first qbit. They made a system where the first qbit is zero. This is means that the last 8 coefficient of the vector, i.e. v_1000, ..., v_1111 are zero. So if you measure the system you always will get a 0 in the first qbit.

They probably made an easier initial configuration, where one of the coefficients is one and all the other are zero, but the important part is that at least all the coefficients of the vector where the first qbit is 1 have the value zero.

2) Letting the system evolve in time (without an intermediate measurement) is equivalent of multiplying the vector of length 16 by an unitary matrix. The coefficients of the matrix are determined by how you connect the quantum gates or how your quantum system is made. The important part is that is unitary.

Reversing the time means multiplying by the inverse. If you make no measurements, yo can go(simulate) back in time and return, and you get

v_new = U U^-1 v

so v_new = v

Here we must assume that the matrix U and U^-1 are not very diagonal or has block, sparse, whatever. Let's assume that it is full or almost full and the values of the vector are mixed thoughtfully by the matrix multiplication.

3) After going back in time, the state is w = U^-1 v. Then they measure one qbit. Let´s assume that it is the last one. When you measure only one qbit, you can get a 0 or a 1. Here you have to distinguish the coefficients where the fourth qbit is 0 and the coefficients where the fourth qbit is 1.

The probability of getting 0 is related to the values of the coefficients where the fourth qbit is 0

|w_0000|^2 + |w_0010|^2 + ... + |w_1100|^2 + |w_1110|^2

and the probability of getting 1 is

|w_0001|^2 + |w_0011|^2 + ... + |w_1101|^2 + |w_1111|^2

They sum 1, so it's a probability.

As a side effect of the measurement, if you get a 0, all the coefficients where the fourth qbit is 1 get erased and only survive the coefficients where the fourth qbit is 1. You have to multiply all of them so the sum is again 1. But the important part is that half of the information is destroyed.

If the result of the measurement is 1, then the other half of the vector of length 16 is erased. The important part is that in either case, half of the vector is erased. You get a new vector w_half. :)

4) Now you return from your trip to the past. This is like multiplying the new vector by U. So the result is

v_new = U w_half = U Msm w = U Msm U^-1 v

where Msm is the measurement operation.

Now v_new is not equal to the initial v, because the measurement in the past is messing the calculation.

5) Now they measure the value of the first qbit in the new state. It is like in 3. The probability of getting a 0 is

|v_new_0000|^2 + |v_new_0001|^2 + ... + |v_new_0110|^2 + |v_new_0111|^2

and the probability of getting 1 is

|v_new_1000|^2 + |v_new_1001|^2 + ... + |v_new_1110|^2 + |v_new_1111|^2

The result of the article is that in this last measurement there is a high probability of getting a 0.

Note that if you apply this calculation to the initial states made in 1) you get a 100% probability of getting a 0. So the idea is that the measurement in the simulated past has not messed too much this value.

The important part is you can't use any unitary matrix U, it must be not very sparse so U^-1 distribute the initial information in all the coefficients, and when half of them are erased, you don't loose too much information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The "butterfly effect" is only possible in some classic systems. For example imagine that you put a drop of ink in a glass of water (with some sugar). If a butterfly drinks some water, it will not change the final equilibrium state where the ink is evenly distributed.

This prove that one particular quantum system does not have an important butterfly effect, not that any quantum system does not have a butterfly effect.

(Note that (as far as we know) reality is described by quantum mechanics. So it they prove that any quantum system does not have a butterfly effect, then the weather and all the other macroscopic systems do not have a butterfly effect.)

<comment><USER9> _> So it they prove that any quantum system does not have a butterfly effect, then the weather and all the other macroscopic systems do not have a butterfly effect._

You can build a chaotic system from non chaotic parts, so that doesn't follow at all.

<comment><USER8> Completely agree. The problem is that they build _one_ small system that is not chaotic. They didn't prove that _any_ quantum system is not chaotic as the article try to present it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks like this is the paper: [https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.12...](https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.040605)

ArXiV: [https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.07267](https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.07267)

</comment><comment><USER11> I've heard people claim that the mind cannot be strictly physical for there to be free will, therefore free will must arise at the quantum level where there are "free variables" that can interface to the strictly causal physical world. Somehow these quantum events percolate up to the macro level to make manifest that free will.

The butterfly effect only works when a physical system is on the knife's edge, that it is prone to unstable/chaotic behavior. While it is conceivable that these conditions could exist at times (all the way from quantum level to saying "I'd like strawberry" vs "I'd like vanilla"), it seems unlikely to me that those conditions happen frequently enough that one's free will can direct the desired outcome consistently.

Secondly, the idea ignores the problem of how this free will "knows" which quantum events to perturb such that their effects would cause the pachinko machine of sub-atomic -> atomic -> molecular -> nervous system interactions to achieve its intended outcome.

<comment><USER4> I think the notion of consciousness arising from quantum behavior is a kind of 'god in the gaps' fallacy ([https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps)).

<comment><USER12> I think parent didn't talk about consciousness, but free will/randomness generated by the brain.

We already know that consciousness is lagging the decision processes in the brain (we have decided to go for vanilla ice cream 30ms before we are consciously aware).

It also seems obvious to me that the human brain can generate entropy somehow (we can unpredictably go for chocolate ice cream). While I am sure that we will be able to measure with sufficient accuracy any brain process that leads to such decision while a decision is being taken, it seems that any suggestion that we will be able know the outcome of the ice cream decision a time x prior to presenting the choice (say 60 seconds) is impossible.

<comment><USER13> I agree, but free will is not somehow being generated by that happening. In my opinion, the sensation of "free will" is strong enough in most people to cause them to defend it's objective existence, even though the evidence is doubtful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Wouldn't this be simply because of the small number of variables compared to a non-quantum scale system?

</comment><comment><USER15> Because everything builds on behavior of elementary particles, which behave randomly, everything more or less must behave randomly.

Because of things like laws of normal distribution when lots of randomly behaving particles work together we have a way of predicting how the world behaves. But we can never make 100% accurate predictions because at the bottom there is randomness.

Butterfly effect amplifies the initial randomness, a small difference in the random initial state can cause big differences in the end-state. But, there even isn't any definite initial state. Therefore Butterfly Effect rules

This causes (in my view) the Arrow of Time. Because there are no definite initial conditions there can not be any definite final conditions either. Therefore it would be impossible to "reverse time" by following the equations backwards from a given end-condition, because there are no definite end- conditions.

Everything starts with a fuzzy quantum state of say momentum. Even when our equations are deterministic because the initial condition is not knowable in principle neither is the end-condition. And this must apply in the other direction too, reversing the equations and starting from indefinite end- condition we can not "reach back" to a definite "same" initial condition. Therefore Time can not be reversed.

Now I am not a professional physicist, this is just my intuition. Based on the above it seems intuitive to me why it is not a mystery that the Arrow of Time can have only one direction.

<comment><USER16> Besides the Thermodynamic Arrow of Time, there is also the Adaptive Arrow of Time, which is effectively its reverse.

The theory of Natural Selection is an example of the Adaptive Arrow of Time, since over time, variability in a population is minimized instead of maximized, as the law of Thermodynamics would have it. That is to say, in living things, randomness decreases disorder, at least for the time that a thing is living or exhibiting life-like behaviours. Conway's Game of Life is so named because of it.

Thermodynamics favours, among a set of probabilities, the most probable state. Natural Selection, on the other hand, favours the improbable state. A purely thermodynamic arrow of time would disallow increasing stability in populations, and the entire concept of species.

There are other "arrows of time," but I don't know enough about them to compare. My point is merely that thermodynamics explains only one of them. It is a fascinating topic, and they are all probably related in some magical way we are yet to understand.

<comment><USER15> It is fascinating. Are there any theories about why and how evolution is able to work in the other direction than "time" in general?

<comment><USER16> Here are two videos that explain it better than I ever could here:

[https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/103-origins-of- li...](https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/103-origins-of- life/segments/9707)

[https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/103-origins-of- li...](https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/103-origins-of- life/segments/9708)

Click on the Lectures tab if you are interested in Origins of Life. I took the course, and fully recommend it. But only these two videos are specific to the topic at hand. Some of the other materials overlap a little with quantum subjects, but it's not really what the course is specifically about.

If you're interested in all the stuff you're hearing about COVID-19 with all the vaccine trials etc, and what all this "spike" business is, you'll actually understand it in depth if after going through the course in its entirety. And you'll appreciate on a technical level why they keep hammering you to wash your hands with _soap_. And as a side effect, you'll at least partially understand how certain quantum calculations work.

If I sound like a fanboi, it's because I enjoyed the course greatly. Despite it being so thorough, it is free. I donated, 'cos the world definitely needs more courses like this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Maybe they thought they destroyed the information but it was still present somewhere.

<comment><USER18> You can't destroy (or create) information in QM; a consequence of it being linear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This gives difficult to grasp answers about what time really is. If I understood this right it implies that the present is a state of coherence, and that the past and future diverges.

<comment><USER20> This experiment merely "mimic the effect of evolving a quantum system backwards in time".

Since this was a simulation there are no implications regarding time whatsoever.

<comment><USER19> That doesn't seem right. Why would they simulate something with no relevance to reality?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Quantum mechanics is unitary time evolution? Apart from measurement its all linear, look at the Schroedinger equation... there's no chaotic dynamics. A trivial result? Pity I cant read the rest of the article behind a paywall.

<comment><USER22> Not that I could ever endorse such behaviour but have you tried calling on Alexandra, patron saint of the paywalled scientist?

<comment><USER23> Would that work? This is an article for the general public in a weekly news and opinion magazine. Isn't that out of scope for the site you are hinting about?

<comment><USER22> Oops, I messed up. It would not help of course. My bad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> My heart fluttered as i thought this was another post about Flutter.

</comment><comment><USER25> Mirror (non-paywall): [http://archive.is/SBBrp](http://archive.is/SBBrp)</comment>


Belly of the Beast: Illicit Photos from Inside the Soviet GEV Plane "Ekranoplan" - <AUTHOR> https://www.rferl.org/a/photographer-sneaks-inside-the-legendary-soviet-ekranoplan/30777774.html <comment><USER2> Amazing pictures! I hope this machine can be preserved and made visible to people: engineers and children will be amazed!

However, I don't believe their story of a guard sleeping while they were walking through metal frame and taking pictures with flashes. Bet that they paid the guard and agreed on the story he was sleeping to not put him in trouble...

<comment><USER3> > Bet that they paid the guard and agreed on the story he was sleeping to not > put him in trouble...

Nice call.

I remember we went to a illicit rocket gambling site after hours on the Thai Cambodia border and took some photos, the same, except he was also rotten drunk, I'd guess possibly the same here, bored and keen to see people :)

<comment><USER4> What is rocket gambling!?

<comment><USER3> Exactly that. Fire up a rocket, bet where it lands. Multi billion $ off books industry.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> 076ae80a-3c97-4 Here's a great video to accompany this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVdH_dYlVB8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVdH_dYlVB8) The rest of this guys channel is equally as good, the animations are fantastic.

</comment><comment><USER5> While I loved reading about it, it's curious someone felt the need to do this weeks before it was presented to the general public. I mean what's the point not waiting a bit more?

</comment><comment><USER6> They failed because the efficiency was theoretical and never tested before in practical terms on real cargo sea routes.

<comment><USER7> I think the big issue was that they were tricky to take off and land in less than perfect sea conditions, their main advantage in efficiency getting mostly erased by cheap and abundant air travel infrastructure.</comment></comment>


Bitbucket: Support GitHub-style pages for repositories and teams - <AUTHOR> https://bitbucket.org/site/master/issues/3932/support-github-style-pages-for <comment><AUTHOR> tldr: issue changed from "new" to "open" after over 4 years</comment>


Neat and small hack to find Facebook friends ranking score using JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://arjunsreedharan.org/post/65979958297/find-your-facebook-friends-ranking-score

<comment><USER2> oh!! facebook has an endpoint exposing friends ranking data? cool.</comment>


News is a lousy business for Google too - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/2010/03/07/news-is-a-lousy-business-for-google-too/

<comment><USER2> Does somebody have a link to the forward-thinking newspaperman whose thesis was that the newspaper business model was fundamentally that they had a regional monopoly on social permission to mail a bunch of ads direct to your doorstop in such a manner that you would actually read them? I saw it on HN first, I think, and it dovetails with this post very well.

Google is now the business with social permission to beam advertising directly into your brain.

<comment><USER3> Bill Wyman's _Five Key Reasons Why Newspapers Are Failing_ may fit the bill:

[http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key- reaso...](http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key-reasons-why- newspapers-are-failing)

 _Some people liked the news, sure; most thought they were paying for it. And some papers spent more money on news than they had to. But the papers weren't selling the news. They were selling ads and charging a lot of money for them because of one thing only: They held an informal monopoly on a societal convention whereby they deposited those ads—around which they wrapped some reporting, some of it serious, some of it fluff—on subscribers' driveways._

Wyman is a long-time arts journalist and editor. He's also the author of one of my favorite bits on San Francisco:

<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/11/03/sf/index.html>

<comment><USER2> That is it, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> News is only lousy for Google because Google insists on relevant, targeted, advertising.

Compare in the pre-internet world with CNN.com. They had no product except news. Yet lots of companies are very happy to advertise with them. Yes, they know that the ads aren't well targeted. But branding ads aren't supposed to be.

If Google was willing to accept a lower tier of branding ads, they could make more money from news.

<comment><USER5> Or if they are willing to use identity and behavioral targeting to direct interesting and targeted ads that needn't be relevant to the particular page a user is browsing.

<comment><USER6> They are willing to do that: It's a large reason they acquired DoubleClick. But yes, this is one of the more promising areas of development for ad serving companies, privacy concerns aside. I recently moderated a panel where the panelists explain that, without anything but an IP address, they could tell if a reader had browsed a car site, a new parenting site, etc. and then target ads on a completely unrelated website with that info.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The problem with the news business is making people aware that information delivery is separate from journalism. A lot of people want the latter. A lot of "journalism" has devolved into trash, however. There is a big opportunity to make money with an easily accessible quality product.</comment>


ngx_mruby – A Fast and Memory-Efficient Mruby Extension Mechanism for Nginx - <AUTHOR> http://ngx.mruby.org/ <comment><AUTHOR> There's a benchmark [0] showing better performance than Lua, but it's not clear if plain Lua was used and not LuaJIT.

[0]: [https://gist.github.com/matsumoto-r/6930672](https://gist.github.com/matsumoto-r/6930672)

<comment><USER2> new benchmark result, ngx_mruby vs lua-ngx-module(LuaJIT)

[https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r10&hw=...](https://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/#section=data-r10&hw=peak&test=plaintext&w=4-0)

<comment><USER2> benchmark setting for Lua [https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/tree/mast...](https://github.com/TechEmpower/FrameworkBenchmarks/tree/master/frameworks/Lua/openresty)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! There's a fork for mruby JIT compiler. Any plans to merge it into the core? As far as I recall, the only issue with the JIT compiler is that it's 32-bit only.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Twofish is looking for a Sysadmin - <AUTHOR> http://www.twofish.com/jobs-linux-systems-admin.html http://www.twofish.com/jobs-linux-systems-admin.html
(Clickable link in the comments below)
We're a growing company focusing on the virtual gaming space, specifically in providing reporting, payment, economy management, items, and a long list of other important things to our customers in a tidy turn-key package.
Because we're growing, we've got a lot of projects coming up, and we're looking for a sysadmin with decent Ruby or Perl skills and experience in centralized configuration management via Puppet, CFEngine, or a similar system.
Our main office is based in Palo Alto. <comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link: <http://www.twofish.com/jobs-linux-systems-admin.html></comment>


Validation of YC approach? ~ another vc funding webapps only - <AUTHOR> http://www.startusup.com <comment><AUTHOR> Noticed this mob hawking interest on flickr (startup tag) this morning for Geezeo. Followed the site & found this site.

Interesting points:

\- backers are business types

\- no tech founders at the head of the table.

\- not transparent (no information on terms, process)

The reason YC is an interesting vc prospect is the whole process is _transparent_. You know the details upfront. Not so with other companies, why?

</comment><comment><USER2> What makes you think they're investors? I don't see any mention of funding on their site. All they say is that they're "all about entrepreneurship," whatever that means.

<comment><AUTHOR> '... What makes you think they're investors? I don't see any mention of funding on their site. All they say is that they're "all about entrepreneurship," whatever that means. ...'

On the about page ...

_'... With over 20 years experience building financial software and technology companies they are dedicated to helping entrepreneurs bring enterprise level success to their ideas. ... if you'd like to have a simple chat with us to tell us about your project or learn more about us, we'd love to hear from you ... '_ ~ <http://www.startusup.com/about.php>

On the project page ...

_'... Start Us Up recently joined up with the founders of Yamji, Theron Parlin and James Carppe to build business development opportunities and strategic alliences so Theron and James can focus on what they do best ...'_ ~ <http://www.startusup.com/projects.php>

I don't know what they stand for. There is a complete lack of transparency. My guess is they are an offshoot from a parent financial company spinning their products to the user market. I've seen this type of setup before.

Hawking for 'startups' developing web based apps. Pitching without doing the _hard-yards_. And not being explicit, in what they offer or stand for.</comment></comment>


A Useful Thing in Bash - <AUTHOR> https://coderwall.com/p/oqtj8w/the-single-most-useful-thing-in-bash <comment><USER2> GNU Readline is really quite a remarkable piece of technology that everyone uses and yet hardly anyone has any idea how to actually use it efficiently.

Along the same lines of the article, these things have served me well:

This one is great for just getting the quick commands to help you get around the command line more efficiently

[https://readline.kablamo.org/emacs.html](https://readline.kablamo.org/emacs.html)

This one gives you all the exhaustive options around how you can tweak readline via your inputrc file

[https://linux.die.net/man/3/readline](https://linux.die.net/man/3/readline)

Its sounds really dumb, but after getting to know the bash and readline man pages I have stopped using fish and zsh and just started using more vanilla bash and built in linux tools and its been fantastic. I don't feel like I have lost any productivity and my terminal is a lot more responsive.

<comment><USER3> GNU Readline, for those who doesn't know, also comes with vi mode, where you can search with '/' and '?' keys. You can enable it with 'set -o vi' in bash shell or putting 'set editing-mode vi' it in ~/.inputrc.

If you put it in ~/.inputrc, you will get vi mode in all tools/shells which are using Readline like mysql, rlwrap, psql...

[https://github.com/pkrumins/bash-vi-editing-mode-cheat- sheet...](https://github.com/pkrumins/bash-vi-editing-mode-cheat- sheet/blob/master/bash-vi-editing-mode-cheat-sheet.txt)

<comment><USER4> If using readline in vi-mode, I recommend also setting `set show-mode-in- prompt on` to provide visual feedback on which mode you're in. Maybe it's just me, but sometimes I walk away from a repl for quite a while (weeks sometimes) and when I come back to it I stumble for a moment because it wasn't in the mode I was expecting.

<comment><USER5> Agreed, I just wish it could be a bit more customisable. like so [https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?109610](https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?109610)

<comment><USER6> It's completely customizable! Just takes some creativity.

[https://superuser.com/a/1467056/731833](https://superuser.com/a/1467056/731833)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Forgive me for a semi-relevant question... How do you do tab completion in a "dd" command, e.g. "dd if=MyOs_version_<TAB>..." ? The equals always suppresses the completion.

<comment><USER8> Not quite a direct answer, but you could define a shell function for "dd" which took if and of as positional arguments and passed all the rest through.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Zsh with oh-my-zsh does the same. Pretty useful feature. It is good to know it's that easy to configure it in bash.

<comment><USER10> But didn't zsh development get stalled?

<comment><USER11> Not at all (last commit to master 11 hours ago): [https://sourceforge.net/p/zsh/code/ci/master/](https://sourceforge.net/p/zsh/code/ci/master/) (beware of the commit dates: they aren't necessarily in chronological order).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> fzf is arguably more useful and replaces this and ctrl+r too

<comment><USER13> How did you plug it into history? Or do you just go $(history | fzf)? :)

<comment><USER5> fzf asks you if you want to enable this during installation.

<comment><USER13> On MacOS I installed it using Brew and I don't remember seeing any prompts :(

Edit: nevermind:

> # To install useful key bindings and fuzzy completion:

> $(brew --prefix)/opt/fzf/install

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's quite funny and sad (no disrespect to OP or anybody) how people is still discovering what we people on fish take for granted. We can even auto-complete parameters only if we so wish. No need for any hidden setting, no need to install any additional (and usually heavy) packages. Built-in, baby.

I started using it when it was known as Ridiculous Fish, circa 2009-2010, and I've never looked back. I also learned ways of moving around the shell with Readline commands, but I cannot really attribute that to fish; I think I did that on bash/zsh as well.

I don't have too many functions, so I cannot really say which one is really better as far as scripting goes, but with enough aliases and fish built-in functionalities, you're pretty much set.

<comment><USER15> I've been using fish for several years now, but I always have to jump back to bash when I need to write an moderately complex command.

Does anyone know if there's an equivalent of Bash's `(...)` (without '$') in fish? What about anonymous pipes `<(...)` and `>(...)`?

<comment><USER16> The anonymous pipes are also called "process substitution", and are done with `psub` in fish:

        sjl at alephnull in ~/scratch/tmp
        ><((°> diff -U0 (ls -1 | psub) (ls -1 | grep -v foo | psub)
        --- /tmp/.psub.cIcXKeQj3O       2019-10-10 10:21:58.940444840 -0400
        +++ /tmp/.psub.7W6mBnxcQD       2019-10-10 10:21:58.952444799 -0400
        @@ -3 +2,0 @@
        -foo

<comment><USER15> Amazing, this is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is inbuilt in fish-shell, which I highly recommend. (I understand the functionality is inbuilt in readline, what I mean is fish exposes it in this manner by default)

<comment><USER18> IMHO fish's history + autocompletion is even better because it keeps per- directory histories. You get the most likely match in the filesystem location you currently are while typing, and then can search for other matches on the fly with the arrow keys.

There's a plugin for zsh which implements the same behaviour (this is what I'm using now):

[https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions](https://github.com/zsh- users/zsh-autosuggestions)

<comment><USER2> Zsh autosuggestions are not quite the same as the built in fish autocompletion. Fish's autocompletion has much nicer functionality.

<comment><USER18> Hmm, I've used fish for years before switching to zsh with this plugin, and I can't find any difference (although I might not have discovered every feature of fish). The 'front-end' behaviour of showing a greyed-out suggestion while typing with per-directory context, and flipping through options with arrow up/down behaves exactly the same.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I don't know about this. I use Ctrl+R a lot, and I sometimes like to be able to go up the history, then down to the command line I was writing. I probably need to try this (or a variant) out, thougt, as it boils down to muscle memory.

zsh: [https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/16101/zsh-search- hi...](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/16101/zsh-search-history-on- up-and-down-keys)

<comment><USER20> YMMV, but I've used both quite a bit and I find the shortcut in the article much more convenient than Ctrl-R, at least if I'm actually sure of the first characters of the command. They're not exclusive, anyway. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is great. Frankly ctrl-r is almost useless. I've never had it find the command I want, because if I can remember enough of the command to find it, I can just write the whole line myself. And if it was a black magic command I'll wind up digging through log files because I won't be able to remember enough of it to find it.

<comment><USER22> ctrl-r works great if you have a standard command with a long file path you can't remember.

Just an anecdote though.

<comment><USER23> It works best for me in the opposite situation: an easy-to-remember path or subcommand, as part of a long line (usually involving if or while, and a series of commands)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> in addition to settings mentioned in the article, I have these two settings as well:

        "\C-d": unix-filename-rubout

this allows me to delete complete filenames to the left of the cursor.. by default, you have Ctrl+w that deletes till whitespace and Esc+backspace that deletes words, but what I want most of the time is deleting filename

        set echo-control-characters off

this is occasionally useful for my workflow, when I use Ctrl+c to abort currently typed command, I do not like the control character mangling the command in case I wish to copy paste that command again

</comment><comment><USER25> This is so much better than CTRL+R that I've bound the key combo (CTRL+R/F) to this. `history | grep` suffices in those rare cases where I need the original CTRL+R behaviour.

I tried binding the arrow keys first, but it turns out I sometimes give up in the middle of writing a command in favor of reusing one from recent history, for which I need the original arrow bindings.

</comment><comment><USER26> It works like this in the Matlab console, of which I am a heavy user. I got used to it and always wondered why it wasn't the same in bash/ksh.

Thanks for the tip, but would it work also with ksh ?

Edit : ok just saw it is actually a readline functionality.

</comment><comment><USER27> This was one of the only reasons I was using fish as that feature is by default.

</comment><comment><USER28> First thing I do on every distro. Why is this not standard?

</comment><comment><USER29> For a second I thought "isn't that already in bash!?" And then I realized what it does... Gosh, that's actually really useful (I wish I knew this earlier, now I need to do it in zsh).

<comment><USER30> I'm not 100% sure if it's in the default configuration or if it's something I turned on, but my zsh has the same 'search up/down based on the beginning of the line' style behavior.

<comment><USER31> Same here, probably something added by oh-my-zsh</comment></comment></comment>


State of Remote Work 2017 - <AUTHOR> https://www.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work <comment><USER2> Nice piece of content. I think remote work will be more common as time goes on.</comment>


Yobongo Will Be In The Running For The Addictive App At This Year's SXSW - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/yobongo-sxsw/

<comment><USER2> Do you guys have a flagging system in place? If some coffee shop loc' insists on telling everyone he's going to kill them, this might be frowned upon.

</comment><comment><USER3> Really interesting concept. Any plans to pair it with location checkins to let people chat with other people at a specific location (i.e., a specific restaurant rather than a general neighborhood)? I could see that as being interesting -- for example, arriving at a restaurant and either asking about what's good, or viewing a cached transcript of recent chats.

</comment><comment><USER4> Great commercial!

Wishlist: Android version

<comment><AUTHOR> We hear that, send a great android programmer our way!</comment></comment>


Ugliness, in the cry of the beholder - <AUTHOR> http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/in-the-cry-of-the-beholder/ <comment><USER2> [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/07/ugliness-a- cul...](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/07/ugliness-a-cultural- history-gretchen-e-henderson-review)

A better article, though a review of only one of the books.

While 'ugliness' should be fascinating, it appears there are few books on the topic that don't resort to lurid bathos. If anyone can recommend a better alternative book to these (and excluding Umberto Eco's paean to monstrosity), I'd love to hear about it.</comment>