Ray Tracing Is No New Thing - <AUTHOR> https://www.bytecellar.com/2018/08/31/ray-tracing-is-no-new-thing/ <comment><USER2> Sure, but real-time raytracing at home is quite a new thing and that's what the hype is about. Right?

<comment><USER3> Doom was real time ray traced.

<comment><USER4> definitely not. [https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_rendering_engine#Rendering](https://doomwiki.org/wiki/Doom_rendering_engine#Rendering)

<comment><USER3> You are right-- sorry

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Obviously. Good article but clickbait title. "A History of Ray Tracing" would have done the job.

<comment><USER6> What prompted me to write the article was running across several tech news articles declaring ray tracing to be a new technique on pieces about the RTX hardware -- real-time aside. To clarify that ray tracing is not new but real- time ray tracing (generally) is was my purpose in writing the piece.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd say that it is rather obvious that ray tracing is not a new thing, since it is simulates how light physically behaves.

I consider this 3d rendering as a spectrum: rasterization requires little computation but has little to do with physics. Ray tracing is what requires a lot of computation and has everything to do with physics. Somewhere in between are hybrid methods: rasterization with ray tracing components added to it, or ray tracing with approximations.

For instance, pure rasterization cannot do shadows. It is approximated by rendering the scene from the viewpoint of a light and test the rasterized scene for occlusions casting shadows. And the other way around: real time ray tracing cannot compute all indirect lighting paths, a subset is only considered at the cost of e.g. variance.

<comment><USER8> > For instance, pure rasterization cannot do shadows.

Well... the technique that you describe (shadow mapping) is actually _pure_ rasterization it just requires more than one rasterization pass. This also ignores the fact that there are other techniques for getting shadows in rasterizing renderers (stencil volumes and other stuff that is rather considered historical today).

I get your point that rasterization doesn't support shadows "naturally" like ray tracing, but in my opinion your wording and the example is rather unfortunate. The same goes for reflections, I would say SSS or caustics probably are better examples since they are really only done with techniques based on ray tracing.

<comment><USER9> SSS has been done with point clouds for a long time. Only recently have films switched to ray tracing for SSS.

Games these days implement SSS in screen space using rasterisation, no rays tracing either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Can someone from AMD/NVidia please jump in and explain the difference between Radeon Rays (2016?) and RTX (2018)? Thanks!

<comment><USER11> And if someone from Game development communities could explain how hard is it to do RTX or DirectX RT on current games? Would companies now have to do two set of graphics, design, and code path? One that does it with DirectX RT the other doing it with all the Rasterisation technique such as Shadow mapping etc.

Basically I am interested in the Cost of such Direct X RT implementation. And what sort of time frame could we see these on the market.

<comment><USER12> Naturally multiple code paths are required, as always.

<comment><USER11> Yes but it means another set of path to test and optimise. Another set of Graphics design asset for RT. As if the current AAA titles budget are not expensive enough. Instead of making quality games cheaper, we are making graphics intensive games even more expensive to build. And I don't think it is healthy at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Gamers have long been clammering about how they can't wait until in-game graphics match those of pre-rendered cinematics (that said, a lot of cinematics these days are no longer pre-rendered). Ray tracing is such an expensive operation. According to this quora, it took 29 hours to render a single frame of "Monsters University": [https://www.quora.com/How-long-does- it-take-to-render-a-Pixa...](https://www.quora.com/How-long-does-it-take-to- render-a-Pixar-film)

We're probably nowhere close to getting real-time Pixar-quality rendering in our games right now, but we've definitely made leaps and bounds over the last few decades.

<comment><USER14> That's because it's a moving goalpost. Pixar keeps increasing the quality to take advantage of faster hardware and better algorithms.

We'll never be close to getting today's real-time Pixar-quality until Pixar rendering is good enough that they stop meaningfully improving it. What we can have is yesterday's Pixar quality rendering in-game.

<comment><USER15> That should be a new goal post: can it render a pixar film in real-time. e.g. Do we have a Toy Story capable card yet?

(Note: I know offline rendering and real-time raster rendering we use in GPU's are completely different methods. But there is a point where the raster trickery can catch up and match the offline stuff.)

<comment><USER16> Today's GPU are probably much closer to what Renderman was doing back when Toy Story was made than you think. They used an algorithm called REYES, which has nothing to do with raytracing and in fact can only barely be made to combine with ray tracing at all [1]. It was completely thrown out of Renderman only on the last couple of years for that reason.

REYES really is an early take on rasterization with tesselation, designed for hardware with extreme memory constraints. Although the actual tesselation algorithm works differently from GPU hardware tesselation, the basic idea of tesselating dynamically to the required level of detail for the current frame carried over intonthe hardware.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Im an Amiga fan but in what way is the Juggler demo relevant here at all? Ray tracing and storing the 2D result, was surely done much earlier on workstations from SGI, Sun etc

<comment><USER6> I wrote this article. The Juggler was the first time I'd seen raytracing on a computer and watching these pre-rendered animations on the Amiga was one of the thrills of the system, as it surpassed all consumer micros of the day graphically, as far as on-screen colors. The Amiga's Hold-And-Modify (HAM) mode could render the full 4096-color palette on-screen and was very well suited for displaying ray traced scenes with their realistic coloring and shading and could do so at a resolution of 320x400 (4:3 aspect) and at a sufficient framerate, given the flexibility and power of the Amiga's blitter and memory architecture. As such, it seemed worth a mention here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The article concludes with a succinct TL;DR, but it's worth a read if you're at all interested.

 _So, ray tracing. It's a rendering technique that has been around for over 45 years. It's nothing new. Finally seeing the benefits of this technology enhance the environments in our games and VR worlds — in real time — thanks to a new API and dedicated consumer hardware, that's the New Thing._

<comment><USER19> We did learn POV-Ray in high school computer class. We rendered on our faithful Sun Microsystems workstations. Good times.</comment></comment>


Secret FBI Subpoenas Scoop Up Personal Data from Scores of Companies - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/us/data-privacy-fbi.html <comment><USER2> Hi. I'm the reporter on this story. Thanks for discussing it!

I thought it might be helpful for me to make a couple points.

First, national security letters have been around, AND controversial, for years now. A number of tech companies have fought the gag orders. The news here is really that we are seeing for the first time which other specific companies get a lot of these — especially banks, credit agencies and so forth, which have all been silent on the subject.

Second, @hammock is correct to say that these are not approved by a judge. Nor are they grand jury subpoenas. They are administrative subpoenas, but unlike other administrative subpoenas, almost all of these come with stringent, long- term gag orders. So, they're a pretty special type of subpoena, not one with which everyone is familiar.

Thanks again for reading.

<comment><USER3> Fwiw, it was the PATRIOT Act, passed shortly after the events of 9/11/2001, that allows for these administrative subpoenas and gag orders and removed any effective judicial oversight. Many of those provisions in the act were set to expire and those expirations were extended by both president Bush and Obama. IIRC the AG or their subordinates have to notify the judiciary of these subpoenas but can issue a gag order along with the disclosure effectively removing any judicial oversight.

<comment><USER4> A little more background on administrative subpoenas:

We Don't Need No Stinking Warrant: The Disturbing, Unchecked Rise of the Administrative Subpoena ([https://www.wired.com/2012/08/administrative- subpoenas](https://www.wired.com/2012/08/administrative-subpoenas))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We can't keep pretending this is still a Democracy when we have a completely unaccountable NSA/CIA/FBI that seems to repeatedly hide their mistakes and the dubious legality of their sources & methods behind the classification and national security walls.

<comment><USER6> It was very eye opening to me when I had a conversation with a family member who is retired CIA/NSA/Rand. Not a low level person. I was asking them about when President Clinton asked about the UFO's, and why the president was not told the answers he was seeking. Their reply: the presidency is not the highest security clearance and the president does not have a right to know everything. I wonder if that's what the founders had in mind when they formed our government. And what happens when those people disagree with whoever is in office? They control what the president knows, as they are the ones who brief him, and only what "they" think is appropriate. They decide.

<comment><USER7> Your family members were lying to you if they said that the president doesn't get to see whatever classified material they want. The president doesn't even have a security clearance like everyone else requires, they get to see whatever they want and can declassify anything they want.

<comment><USER8> Both of you are correct.

Technically, the president can classify or de-classify anything they'd like to at any time. He is the sole and only person in charge of the branch of government responsible for this.

Practically, over many years presidents have delegated this authority all over the place, and in such byzantine ways that most of the folks in compartmentalized projects wouldn't know that he had the authority -- and even if they did, they could just point to various laws and signing letters that make it less than clear how a president would go about declassifying anything.

So yeah, in theory POTUS could take an afternoon off, walk down the street into a government building and declassify whatever he wants. That's why we fight so much over who gets the job: the illusion that these powers are present. In reality, however, if he could get the SS to allow him to take a walk (unlikely), he'd be stopped at the door of wherever he went (both by his own and that department's security services), and then the red tape nightmare would begin. By the time it was all over he'd be better off staying home and watching daytime TV.

For what it's worth, and I hate using movies as historical examples, in the movie Nixon there was a great scene where Nixon went in the middle of the night to talk to protesting students. He wanted the war to end too, didn't they know that?

It was contentious, but then one kid got it and said it aloud, something like "You don't have the power to stop it either, do you?"

Nixon looked completely defeated at that moment. Seconds later he was dragged off by his security staff.

Without getting into the veracity of that exchange, the gist of it is something we see confirmed over and over again in the historical record: large groups of administrators simply cannot be governed and instructed by one person, no matter what the documents technically look like. It's system itself that does the work and enforces the norms, whether it's General Electric or the NIS

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A gag order can be reasonable: "give us what you have on user John Smith birthday 1/1/1950 but don't tell him anything" makes sense if you're, say, investigating a criminal ring John is part of.

What is _unreasonable_ is that companies can't reveal they've been gagged, or what type of data they were compelled to reveal, even after the fact. Companies should be allowed to say "we have disclosed access logs, location history, searches, encrypted backups for 1-50 accounts in response to lawful request from law enforcement." And they should be able to disclose the letter after an investigation has closed (whether it resulted in legal action against the individual or not).

<comment><USER10> Yes, a gag order can be reasonable. Wiretaps with warrants usually have them. IMO, there should be no gag order, and the subject of the subpoena should be required to be notified and allowed to challenge the subpoena if it is issued without a judge.

Gag orders should be allowed, but only if signed off on by a judge, and only for a reasonable amount of time to complete an investigation. If the government gets your information, and decides not to bring charges, you should have the right to know about that at some point.

<comment><USER11> > If the government gets your information, and decides not to bring charges, > you should have the right to know about that at some point.

Disagree. There are numerous cases where it takes multiple investigations to "get" a career criminal (think organized crime). If each batch of subpoenas or sealed warrants were exposed even when there is no charge this time, that gives said suspect a very nice opportunity to clean up loose ends.

TLDR: If people know they are being actively looked at they will attempt to destroy/suppress/hide evidence.

<comment><USER12> > Disagree. There are numerous cases where it takes multiple investigations to > "get" a career criminal (think organized crime). If each batch of subpoenas > or sealed warrants were exposed even when there is no charge this time, that > gives said suspect a very nice opportunity to clean up loose ends.

Subpoenas are only supposed to be issued if there's a reasonable belief that the subpoena will find evidence of criminal activity. In theory, subpoenas _should_ find evidence most of the time--if subpoenas frequently don't turn up evidence, then subpoenas are being issued without the proper burden of proof being met.

For this reason I strongly disagree that we should build any policy around the idea that subpoenas won't turn up evidence of wrongdoing on a regular basis. This just encourages law enforcement to go on fishing expeditions, instead of doing proper, evidence-based police work. If law enforcement know the person will be notified of the subpoena after some time, then they'll be incentivized to only apply for subpoenas that are sensible and strategic, rather than applying for frivolous subpoenas that don't turn up anything.

<comment><USER11> I see your point. It opens a door for a lot of bullshit.

Really, I suppose I am advocating less for secret subpoenas and more for secret warrants. If someone really has a reason to keep something concealed in the interest in justice, then they should have no problem with a Judge signing off on it, under seal of course.

And if the secret warrant is a part of a series against a suspect, again I think a reasonable Judge could be convinced of the necessity of keeping the ongoing investigative activities concealed for the time being.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I spent a long time in the hosting industry, most of which was in early 00s. When the feds couldn't get a court to order to hand over data we simply sold the data to them. They paid, quite handsomely at times.

<comment><USER14> This is pretty telling of the present state of U.S. law... there's no law against this (even today).

The existing laws that protect privacy and what can be done with information companies collect have _never_ been updated post computer revolution... the same generation that was in power before then is still in power, and they've never had any interest in changing that.

The US government started failing a long time ago, and everyone in that generation is either part of the problem or unwilling to admit it IS a problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> NSLs are not subpoenas. They are "administrative subpoenas," the difference being that they are not issued by a court and have no review or oversight by any judge or court officer. They are about as much a subpoena, as the FISA "court" is a court of law.

<comment><USER16> >"In most instances, a subpoena can be issued and signed by an attorney on behalf of a court in which the attorney is authorized to practice law. If the subpoena is for a high-level government official (such as the Governor, or agency head), then it must be signed by an administrative law judge. In some cases, a non-lawyer may issue a subpoena if acting on his or her own behalf (known as pro se representation)."

[https://litigation.findlaw.com/going-to-court/what-is-a- subp...](https://litigation.findlaw.com/going-to-court/what-is-a- subpoena.html)

A judge's approval is not needed. The attorney (e.g. a prosecuting attorney) is the "court officer".

<comment><USER15> You missed the point. Your citation refers to a traditional subpoena, which I was saying is distinct from these "subpoenas." NSLs are not issued by prosecuting attorneys.

<comment><USER16> >However, the most commonly used type of NSL can be issued directly by the FBI Director, an Assistant Director, and also by all FBI Special Agents in Charge, who are commanding officers stationed across the country at FBI field offices.

[https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security- letters/faq#3](https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters/faq#3)

Most of these, and certainly the Director, are also attorneys. At least James Comey was. Plus they have FBI staff attorneys to consult with. Practically speaking, how does this differ from the local prosecutor issuing a subpoena? The local country prosecutor is essentially part of law enforcement and reports up to the AG in the executive branch of government. The local county prosecutor has dozens of detectives working for her.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Subpoenas have been used frequently for decades to request "records kept in the ordinary course of business". The only thing different in this case seems to be that there is a perpetual gag order. But if the local prosecutor subpoenas your phone records because you are being investigated for bribing an athletic coach at a university, I don't think the phone company will tell you about it.

<comment><USER17> The major thing that is different is that no judge or court is involved - these are issued by the requesting organization directly with no oversight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The use of administrative subponeas with effectively limitless gags is very concerning, but I also feel that the attention is somewhat misplaced.

The US government receives far more private data about people from companies selling it or simply giving it away, than they get via administrative subpoena. The practice of paying for requested data also makes companies complicit in these orders, when they are issued-- they're a revenue center.

Without stronger laws barring the collection of data and providing stiff civil or even criminal penalties for disclosure (including to the government) the bulk of the situation will not be much improved.

</comment><comment><USER19> Seriously, we need to kill off this warrant workaround that the US gov has decided is valid.

Almost every product you buy now ends up sending your data to some company, and the government has decided that means you have no expectation of privacy, which is clearly nonsense.

</comment><comment><USER20> And don't forget FBI is the one pushing against encryption

<comment><USER21> The Justice Department as a whole has this agenda under Barr, not just FBI.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I am surprised that more NSLs have not been leaked or "hacked".

Just store the NSLs next to your user data so that when it gets stolen and published then your NSL is published as well.

</comment><comment><USER23> I really got worried when I stopped getting these and other subpoenas from 3 letter agencies. I knew we had to beef up our server defenses. :/

</comment><comment><USER24> I am the odd duck libertarian who believes we need a minimum income welfare safety net and health care as a right. However, I scoff at giving the government more power in the areas of surveillance and police power. I just do not understand people backing up the government in taking away civil rights and personal freedom in the name of "making us safer". Honestly we are far safer than even as recent as the 90s, let alone the 1890s. People will always find things to clutch their pearls over, and it's all relative.

</comment><comment><USER25> Based on what I read online in discussions and in the news, there's little nuance into the circumstances around the data retrieval:

\- Is it related to someone stealing classified information, spying / or spy cell, or could be planning a terrorist attack? In that case, they may be more sophisticated, or the investigation shifts to preventing something from occurring in the future, or its a matter of trying to figure out what a cell of foreigners from Russia/etc. are trying to get.

\- Is it something related to a drug investigation? If it's involving drugs, countries everywhere have roving wiretap abilities because druglords use burner phones, and like above, they go to great lengths to hide / mask what they're doing as if it's legitimate business.

\- Is it related to any other criminal investigation? Police has more ability to intercept communications than civilians. There is a whole world _inside_ here of nuances. An example in USA is subpoena'ing email records where unopened email is treated as abandoned, they don't require a search warrant. Not that there's many cases prosecuted relying on abandoned email retrieved that'd be thrown out if the law changed :P

\- Protect/regulation around data of medical (HIPAA in US, I think GDPR in EU), children (COPPA in US)

\- Normal consumer privacy protections (GDPR in EU)

Here's an example of Germany's constitution (Article 10 [Privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications] , [https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/chancellor/basic- law-...](https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/chancellor/basic-law-470510)):

> (1) The privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications shall be > inviolable.

But, then it says:

> (2) Restrictions may be ordered only pursuant to a law. If the restriction > serves to protect the free democratic basic order or the existence or > security of the Federation or of a Land, the law may provide that the person > affected shall not be informed of the restriction and that recourse to the > courts shall be replaced by a review of the case by agencies and auxiliary > agencies appointed by the legislature.

The above basically gets you what most countries have anyway, so maybe it wouldn't address the concerns people have. _If_ there was a constitutional check for privacy over the wire/data in the cloud it'd be upheld at the judicial level to check the executive / legislative branch. However, there'd still be mechanisms where the government can access data, one way or another. It'd probably end up having the phraseology around them narrowly tailored, there'd be less swept in when decisions are in a gray area.

<comment><USER26> The citation from Germany's constitution is a bit misleading. In Germany, law enforcement warrants must be signed by a judge (in urgent cases, a prosecutor can sign them, and they have to be confirmed soon afterwards by a judge). There is an exception for communication interception by the intelligence services: those warrants must be confirmed by the G-10 committee which is organized like a court, but directly appointed by parliament. The main differences to the US system are strict separation between law enforcement and intelligence services, and direct oversight of the latter by the parliament.</comment></comment>


Show HN: A Halloween-themed WebGL map of the world - <AUTHOR> https://mapzen.com/ghost-map

<comment><USER2> Very cool. Digging how re-focusing the map changes the URL.

How did you pull off?

</comment><comment><USER3> mega-lol!</comment>


7,541-Pcs Millennium Falcon Is the Largest, Most Desirable Lego Set Ever Created - <AUTHOR> http://io9.gizmodo.com/this-7-541-piece-millennium-falcon-is-the-largest-most-1798426562 <comment><USER2> most desirable to whom?

</comment><comment><USER3> Clearly not for children.</comment>


Anti-vaccine groups outreach to Minnesota Somali families over measles outbreak - <AUTHOR> http://m.startribune.com/in-minnesota-measles-outbreak-health-officials-fight-a-two-front-war/420786463/ <comment><USER2> 2017 and anti vaccine groups still lying about the link between vaccines and autism?

They are very dangerous

</comment><comment><USER3> I've never thought this way before, but after reading the story of that woman it hit me. You're someone, perhaps with low education, and your baby is diagnosed autism. He/she had a vaccine some times ago. As most human being you're looking at something or someone to blame. And then you hear of the rumors about relation between vaccines and autism. You surely connect the dots. And start talking to friends and family. And the rumor grows. I have a better understanding of why now. Still frightening.

<comment><USER4> There are groups with higher education that are looking into the data.

[http://oatext.com/Pilot-comparative-study-on-the-health- of-v...](http://oatext.com/Pilot-comparative-study-on-the-health-of- vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-6-to-12-year-old-U.S.-children.php#Article)

<comment><USER2> And now, it is retracted

[http://retractionwatch.com/2017/05/08/retracted-vaccine- auti...](http://retractionwatch.com/2017/05/08/retracted-vaccine-autism-study- republished/)

<comment><USER4> What's the reason it was retracted? My vision is not so great (not being sarcastic sorry if it sounds as such).

[http://oatext.com/pdf/JTS-3-186.pdf](http://oatext.com/pdf/JTS-3-186.pdf) [http://oatext.com/pdf/JTS-3-187.pdf](http://oatext.com/pdf/JTS-3-187.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm so confused by this headline and the same label is in the article. Should it be anti-anti-vaccine groups or just vaccine groups?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope. Basically anti-vaccine groups are doing advocacy in the community encouraging people NOT to get their children vaccinated as a measles outbreak happens. It so screwed up.</comment></comment>


What I learned on a round-the-world yacht race - <AUTHOR> http://www.tonyhaile.com/2011/09/25/four-things-i-learned-on-a-round-the-world-yacht-race/ My old boat died today, during a crane mishap. I thought I'd share some of the ways it changed me. <comment><USER2> I've heard of skippers going at guys with winch handles. If you're going to do distance sailing i.e. more than 5 days at sea, it's best to invite a well interviewed/researched stranger as crew rather than your best friend. That way you risk gaining a new friend rather than losing an old friend. If you're crew, talk to other crew about the skipper before you commit. People behave in unexpected ways on long trips. Some of them are awesome, in the galley every day baking bread, doing the dishes in rough seas, etc. Others get really weird, stay in their cabins and sulk, throw random temper fits, etc. Some skippers are awesome, chilled. Others have reputations for being psycho assholes [not mentioning names].

I have around 20k nautical miles, 2 atlantic crossings, cruised africa, thailand, and my younger bro and parents put me to shame in miles/experience.

</comment><comment><USER3> Once in a while I am blessed enough to come across a post like this. It made me think a lot about my life and who I wish to become. I've been working a "normal job" and just forgot that it is possible to do something like this.

<comment><USER4> I started on the training for the 2008 race, however after 2 sessions, the Global Challenge business folded due to lack of a headline sponsor (it had previously been BT).

In your training manual the first page has the perfect quote.. _"There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. "_

I'm not into cheesy inspirational posters, but this is the only one on my wall.

<comment><AUTHOR> It was gutting to see the Challenge business go under. The 2004 race also had major challenges and only just got round financially. That is a great quote though

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can anyone comment on how doable it is for an ordinary Joe to get involved in something like this?

<comment><USER6> First off, I would love to make this comment longer but I'm pressed for time. If you would like to, send me an email. My HN name @gmail.com.

I was born & raised on a boat so it is hard for completely put myself in your shoes (notably, I do not get sea sick, _no matter what_ ), but I personally think it is do-able. I have not done it yet, but I've sailed quite a bit and someday I want to start crossing oceans. Financially it isn't as bad as most people think. I actually think that the oppurtunity cost of quitting your job for a year or two is the biggest expense.

First off, you need to know how to sail at its most basic level. The cheapest way to learn is to get a dinghy (a Laser, maybe a Hobie 16 or Hobie 17 are all easy to find. Something decently high performance - you want to wipe out sometimes so that you learn.) You need a lot of time on the water and there is absolutely no substitute. You need to learn how to drive by the feel of the wind on your neck, and you need to learn which clouds are safe and which ones are going to wreck you.

Then you should step up to 30-40 foot keelboats. You probably don't want to buy one straight away. Learn on someone else's boat as crew for racing or deliveries. (a delivery is generally moving a couple hundred miles for the owner, i.e. the owner needs the boat moved from NYC to Maryland, but can't do it himself. He hires you to move it and pays all expenses. I've done this several times and it always seems to lead to the hairest situations because you are forced by the schedule to sail even if the weather doesn't cooperate. Generally you will be shorthanded 2-3 people which is good practice for offshore work)

So at this point you probably have been sailing for 3-5 years or so, know how to do everything on someone elses boat, and you need to buy your own boat. There is a lot of discussion on a fast boat vs a slow boat. A fast boat means you spend less time out there which is good mentally, but they are more physically demanding (bigger sails, crash through waves harder, get wetter, etc), but you can also avoid weather if you know a storm is coming. Faster boats break more often. A slow plodding boat can survive everything, but you can't avoid anything. Slow boats are cheaper.

You also need to figure out your route. Sailing non-stop around the world is one thing, but honestly that is kind of boring. I know 3 couples who have done it, and they made a point of stopping a lot along the way so it took about 3 years each. (1 couple stopped in New Zealand and taught school for a year, 1 couple was in Indonesia during the tsunamai on their boat in the harbor, and in the aftermath stayed for a year because they were doctors). The stops sound like more of the journey than the sailing honestly.

If I were to think of places to start, I'd subscribe to some sailing magazines. Cruising World comes to mind, there is also Sail, and Sailing. For websites, try Sailing Anarchy (rough crowd in the forums for sure, but there are some gems). You will definitely find them ridiculing people for what not to do on Sailing Anarchy.

Disclaimer: sailing is very dangerous. Way more dangerous than most people realize. I personally know 5 people that have been killed sailing in the last 4 years. It can happen in a lot of different ways. And I personally have been involved in some really close calls. Sinking boats, out of control boats, overturned boats. The fastest boat in the world (Rambler 100) just flipped and almost killed its crew off of Ireland. In the 70s the Fastnet race killed 50 people. The Volvo Ocean Race had a professional get killed in its last go- round. The ocean is no less forgiving now than it was in the 1700s. The Coast Guard can only reach so far, and when you are in the middle of the ocean you are absolutely alone.

As just one example, a few weeks ago we went out racing on a wednesday night (3 man high performance boat). It was a clear, calm night. Thunderstorms were rolling in, we saw them, we thought we could keep the sails up about 2 minutes longer than we should have. We knocked the boat over on it's side, the guy driving fell below and cut open his shin and was bleeding everywhere trying to get back up, the boat had no driver, and the 2nd guy on the boat froze like a deer in the headlights. Our sails were dragging us down and the wind was up like crazy and the rain rolled in to the point where we no longer could see our competitors who were 75 feet away. I crawled up to the bow and cut down one of the sails and hand over handed the thing into the boat, and when we finally got it all sorted out and the rain cut back, we were still sailing at full speed and realized we were in the middle of a reef. We got out of the reef without sinking the boat and decided to just quit the race and go home. I think my adrenalin was still going 4 hours afterwards.

I flipped my race boat a couple years ago while teaching my girlfriend to sail and the keel broke. The boat started sinking, and she started getting hypothermia. Another guy who was out that day coaching jumped in the water in full clothes to help me get it back upright and took her in by powerboat while I sailed the sinking boat back to the crane to get it pulled out.

The point is, unlike other sports when shit hit the fan, there is no time out. You don't blow the whistle and talk about it. If there are rocks coming up and your boat is out of control - you are going to hit the rocks and sink. If the boat flips - you better hold your breath and start swimming and hope it comes back upright. If something snaps and the rig falls down, better start cutting before it punches a hole in the boat and sinks you. When things start going wrong you can feel really exposed out there, with little to no safety net, so you better be prepared.

Anyone can do it but you have to do your homework. You have to put in the practice and preparation.

edit: My god, I posted that before reading the article itself, I can't believe how close his story is to my experience. Aside from the 90 foot wave comment (90 foot waves simply are not common, hurricane irene was throwing legit 30-40 footers around but it's hard to believe much more than that), he is spot on. I've never put a word on it, but initiative is exactly right. That day I went out and I mentioned the 2nd crew had the deer in the headlights look, he had 10x the experience of me, owned a boat bigger than mine, but in that moment he was completely stuck and useless until we started yelling at him what to do. This is an amazing account of what it is actually like. Really not that much hyperbole (which believe me, sailors are prone to, but it really is like this).

<comment><AUTHOR> Love this comment, thanks for this. On the 90ft wave front, you find them down in the Southern Ocean. There's no landmass to break them up so they just roll around getting larger and larger. In Southern Ocean storms we regularly had waves above the mast (95ft).

Having said that, it is a sailors prerogative to increase the height of waves by 10 ft for every year since their journey. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I do a lot of whitewater kayaking and have been involved in swiftwater rescue training a number of times. The first lesson I learned and have tried to teach others is that _most people do not want responsibility._ One of the first things I teach people is that if they are the first on the scene of an incident, in almost all cases, others (even those demonstrably more experienced or qualified) will defer responsibility to the first on the scene because they want to be told what to do (just human nature). The most important thing you can do is immediately establish who is in charge, and think hard about being that person. Overcome your natural tendency to follow. The best way to do this is practice, and it's the single most important lesson you can take away from being in situations like this (or even better hearing about other people's experiences).

</comment><comment><USER8> Fantastic post, very good to see someone's similar experiences. I haven't sailed around the world, but been through things that taught me the same; I'm glad for it every day.

</comment><comment><USER9> I really enjoyed reading this. Especially the section about bravery, "the opposite of fear is initiative not courage". Well said. I'm leaving today for a big wall climbing trip and trying to prepare myself mentally for the intense fear that I feel high on the wall. Sometimes that fear will shut me down and I stop climbing even though I'm safe. When this happens I have to keep moving and keep making decisions.

</comment><comment><USER10> listen to the little voice and act immediately

</comment><comment><USER11> _Blowing his horn and chasing Cape Horn dreams, Harry [Mitchell] sails out of Charleston on September 17 1994. 'For the rest of your life don't waste any time. Make the best of what you may before you turn into clay,' he told students before he left Sydney for the Southern Ocean._

(Harry Mitchell, age 70, was lost at sea in the Southern Ocean in the 1994 BOC solo around the world yacht race).

\-- Paul Gelder, The Loneliest Race

 _I began to understand the struggle and the despair in the simply written ships' journals, in the monochrome prose that could suddenly bloom with feeling:

March 29, 1913: Terrible heavy NW gale. Lost mizzen upper topsail and main lower top gallant sail. Got two men hurt. All hands on deck all night.

30th. 6 AM: quick shift from NW to SW with hurricane force, with terrible heavy cross sea. Ship under two lower topsails and under water. Lost outer jib. Washed off the boom.

31st: wind SW. Very heavy gale.

April 1st: terrible heavy WNW gale, ship under two lower topsails and drifting to the eastward, and my heart is broken under these heavy gales all the time.

So reads the log of the Edward Sewell, 263 days out from Philadelphia to Honolulu, battering to westward in the grip of The Horn for 67 days._

\-- David and Dan Hayes, My Old Man and The Sea

</comment><comment><USER12> Filing this under 1st world problems right next to "almost dying while climbing Everest".</comment>


Network Solutions' scammy bullshit signup funnel - <AUTHOR> https://easydns.com/blog/2019/05/03/network-solutions-scammy-bullshit-signup-funnel/ <comment><USER2> I've been watching NetSol devolve in this direction. It started when they were acquired by web.com. They have really gone downhill. I had to teach their escalation support how to use "dig" against external / authoritative servers.

That said, I have found they are still better than most of the registrars that have popped up since. Some of the registrars can't even handle apex names as NS records. The scammy upselling appears to be a trend and isn't limited to registrars. Comcast did that to me as well with their bandwidth plans.

<comment><USER3> NetSol were scammy long before the web.com purchase. Back in 2007/2008 they were "front-running" meaning that if you searched for a domain name and didn't buy immediately, those dickheads would buy the domain and then demand a much higher price to sell it to you. Then when they got called out for it they tried to act all "oh, this is for YOUR benefit."[1] And they blatantly lied about the details of what they were doing.

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/01/network- soluti...](https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2008/01/network-solutions- defends-frontrunningto-stop-frontrunners/)

<comment><USER4> Your source doesn't support your assertion.

> _He acknowledged that the company does, indeed, put a hold on the domain > name after a search is performed and reserves it for four days, but that if > a customer searches for the same domain within that time at > networksolutions.com, it will be available to register. After the four days > is up, the domain is released._

<comment><USER3> I'm the source because I experienced this firsthand in 2007. I found the article because I needed to validate an almost 12 year old memory. :)

As for the quote you picked out, it's a partial truth.

The partial truth is that sure, the domain was "available to register"...at a multiple of the standard price. I don't remember what the multiple was. And if you wanted to purchase through another registrar you couldn't because NetSol held the domain.

This all resulted in a class action lawsuit: [https://techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/network-solutions-icann- su...](https://techcrunch.com/2008/02/25/network-solutions-icann-sued-over- domain-front-running/)

That was settled a year later: [https://domainnamewire.com/2009/04/29/network- solutions-sett...](https://domainnamewire.com/2009/04/29/network-solutions- settles-class-action-from-frontrunning-practice/)

Edit: I removed where I said the part about the domain being released after four days was a lie. I remember it being much much longer but at the same time, I don't remember all the details well enough to make a statement of that potency.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been an American consumer all of my life. Everything in here is business as usual for American consumers (and this comment is clearly hyperbole). Thank you for pointing it all out though.

In seriousness though; I sure wish these practices were illegal.

<comment><USER6> Most of that stuff _is_ horribly illegal in the EU. Explicitly even.

Plus if you took them to court after getting a surprise-bill, I'd imagine even a US court siding with you.

This is just fraudulent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Man, I have only heard horror stories about Network Solutions. When I started out I was using 1&1, turned out they weren't that great either so switched to hover.com and have been very happy there. Not sure if it is true but I have heard people say they check if a domain is available on Network Solutions, then check the next day and suddenly it is more expensive, very shady if true.

<comment><USER8> I have been very happy with hover.com as well

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Mark may be bombastic, but he's not usually wrong.

It's hard to believe they actually did the pre-auth - anybody here at PayPal reading this?

<comment><USER10> Right? It's blowing my mind that it's possible to pre-approve PayPal payments without knowing how much you're going to be billed. The system should _not_ allow users to hand a blank check to a retailer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> What you document solidly here are definitely deceptive practices. The adding on of services and labeling them "FREE" when they will result in ongoing recurring charges is highly deceptive.

</comment><comment><USER12> The prices aren't listed in the dropdowns, but if you choose an option, then the price should be displayed on the right: < [https://imgur.com/a/1hSJOUq](https://imgur.com/a/1hSJOUq) >

<comment><AUTHOR> Added an update to post to acknowledge this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> NetSol is a plague. Web.com was garbage and bought them to consolidate even more garbage in house. They don't even encrypt customers passwords. I was asked to confirm a plaintext password once on behalf of a client. No identity confirmation required!

Typically I login and simply want to change nameservers for clients and I'm prompted to buy services while I navigate through their convoluted portal for a simple change. It's almost amusing how pathetic it is.

</comment><comment><USER14> Kinda off topic.. but does anybody here have any experience with the registrar dynadot?

I have a few domains with them since last year and it's been uneventful. But I was just wondering if anybody else had any good/bad stories about them?

</comment><comment><USER15> >Netsol charges $35 for a 1-year .com renewal! (It's $15 here).

And $8 at cloudflare.

<comment><USER16> Just to note however that they only do renewals and transfers, no new registrations

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Is this kind of behavior legal in the EU?

</comment><comment><USER18> Remember when they put a wildcard in the gLTDs? Assholes.

<comment><USER19> This was Verisign, which acquired Network Solutions in 2000. Verisign had already spun off the registry unit from Network Solutions when this incident happened. The remaining registrar business of Network Solutions, along with the name, was sold less than a month later.

As of today, the registry unit is still part of Verisign, while Network Solutions changed hands many more times.

<comment><USER18> You're right, it was in 2003.</comment></comment></comment>


Accredible - Reusable and beautiful startup job applications - <AUTHOR> http://www.accredible.com <comment><USER2> I feel it doesn't really hurt the candidate in my mind to use a service like this—provided I also get a very personalized email / cover letter.

The execution here really looks pretty good. However, as a business, I have two concerns:

1\. I am generally wary of "life event businesses": things like job searching, weddings, etc. Why? Because the already hard prospect of customer acquisition is now even harder: Not only do you have to reach your target market, you have to catch them right at the point of need. It's a rapidly closing window. I think you'll hear a lot of: "Looks great, I'll take a further look when I start to think about changing jobs".

2\. All the money to be made in the jobs industry is paid by the employers. I think you might be trying to target the wrong party. It's really tough to find good candidates, and employers are ready and willing to pay $1,000 to recruiting firms for the right candidate. Plus, larger companies are almost ALWAYS hiring, so there's no "event window" like described above. I'm not sure what your revenue model is, but I'd certainly look to be earning revenue from the employers and keep the service free to the job seekers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Our intention is to charge on the employer side to search for and be matched to candidates if job seekers opt-in to making their profiles searchable (think OKCupid for recruiters with actual evidence of skills & experience for you to browse through) . The idea is that the cards that you use for job applications can be generalized and turned into a profile (either public or private) to show to future stakeholders as well as for reuse in future job applications but that you can create new cards for new projects, courses, etc. without having to apply for a job at the same time. We've had some good ongoing activity with users in our closed beta who are using Accredible as a way to track their ongoing learning (especially MOOCs - most of our early beta testers came through the Coursera forums) and using it for much more personal reasons - almost like a trophy cabinet of their learning. So we think we have a good chance at avoiding the trap of users only using it for life events. Appreciate your thoughts on this - thanks!

<comment><USER3> I think the cards are, at least as presented on the landing page, really elegant and sharp looking. I would present my career related information this way.

Constructive Criticism/ Devilishly Advocating:

In agreement with root comment, it's much saner to target employers, which you seem to agree with. Therefore, it seems like presentation of the information doesn't really matter _to employers looking to fill a role_ when compared to how easily searchable, filterable, and readable (both machine and human) that information is.

Therefore, having the service become something more of a "General purpose learning tracking" tool feels at odds with this. Inherently increasing the noise in your system and making it harder for employers to find experts that possess the skillset to meet their need.In other words, it seems like general purpose accomplishment tracking would increase the noise (as presented to employers) and diminish the signal employers are willing to pay for. Have you noticed this issue or given any thought to how to handle it?

Of course, I'm not privvy to your back-end or what you're presenting to employers; the above criticism was just my first thought based on your reply.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the kind words! The feedback is much apprecaited too. It's currently used largely as a learning tracking tool by our beta community (we intend to launch the open beta early Q1 2014!). We started to focus on the employer side a lot earlier than we had planned due to user feedback and encouragement from startup employers (we wanted to avoid the chicken/egg situation, which is why we focused on building up the consumer side as a learning tracking platform first). Keeping people's data searchable, filterable and readable is certainly top of our minds as we flesh this side out and this is indeed one of our bigger challenges at the moment. We are still working out the best way to tackle this without sacrificing too much flexibility, but at the moment (with a smallish user base) a system of tagging your cards and narratives with skills and then backing that up with a combination of attached evidence and references (using LinkedIn profiles to verify referee identity) for credibility seems to be working pretty well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe my mindset is too far from the startup scene to understand the appeal, but personally I would not be impressed by an applicant who uses a resume-as- a-service system. At least not any more than I would someone who copy-pastes a resume from about.com or something similar.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! We are hoping to make it easier for people to be able to show their personality and passions and to tailor their job applications to each opportunity by making it quick and easy to create a narrative as to why they'd be great for the job, backed up with actual evidence that you can flick through, rather than just a resume-as-a-service. We see it more as cover- letter replacement than a resume replacement to that effect (the idea is you'd attach your resume to this).

<comment><USER5> Kudos for the cover letter replacement. Maybe you could state it clearer on the website?

<comment><USER4> Agreed, it definitely makes more sense to me if you think of it as a cover letter replacement.

I still think, however, that as a potential employer I would have a hard time getting over the bias of thinking "oh, he just used a tool to generate this." Not sure how you could escape that outside of allowing users to heavily customize the appearance and experience, as well as self-host the end product and remove any links or references back to Accredible.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> That's a interesting hiring aproach trade-off.

Would a hiring company prefer to receive a personalized aproach by the candidate? It shows that the candidate is particularly interested in working on that company and took some time and effort to apply. But also may signal that the candidate is only saying what he thinks the company wants to hear, faking himself as a cultural match and etc.

Or would a company prefer to receive an honest, idiosyncratic, but standard candidate resume? It shows more about the candidate, his profile, culture, personality. It looks more honest and straight forward. But also may signal that the candidate is sending the same stuff for dozens of other companies, including some that he just don't care if he is not hired. So he may not really want or care enough to work on that company.

I would guess that nowadays recruiters care more about a resume personalized to them, even if it is telling some white lies or half-truths.

<comment><USER7> There's no reason even with a standard resume to only have one. You tailor either per company or per position type. For example, for a iOS job, you'll emphasize iOS, maybe Android since it's in a similar space, and de-emphasize any other skills you have.

Resumes are marketing documents, not chronological histories of your life. Still, even as a marketing document it shouldn't lie.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes - absolutely. One of the frustrations we often hear when talking to recruiters is that it's difficult to place confidence in anything written in a resume without sitting the candidate down for an interview. We are thinking that by allowing you to attach evidence of each of the claims you make it'll be harder to lie using something like Accredible and at the same time making it easier to add credibility to things that traditionally would be hard to include on a resume such as online courses, self-education and personal projects. With an approach like this, you can actually demonstrate all the work, learning and knowledge you have gained.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like the site (agree that it looks more Resume aaS versus Cover Letter aaS).

Could you elaborate more on the multiple narratives? If I have a long and sordid job history with multiple industries, am I picking only specific companies/positions that I worked with in my application, or am I picking bullet points within the company? I'm slightly confused why Tom Webb would be an iOS developer, Lead Front end, and Customer Service Manager. Maybe iOS, front end, and something else programming related would better illustrate the example. The example job application doesn't change going between Tom Webb and Tina Zuick to really drive this home.

If I have multiple narratives, do they each have unique URLs?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! This feedback is super useful for honing our wording. The idea is that you create narratives around each of your key competencies/skills (e.g. programming, design, customer service) - each consisting of cards that outline specific projects, experience or education and then (optionally) back that up with evidence for extra depth. You can then apply to jobs by selecting which of your cards you think are relevant for that particular opportunity and tweak the wording to tailor it to that startup before hitting apply.

We thought it would be cool to be able to showcase yourself, then reuse that with minimal effort later - or just keep around as a way to track your progress as you continue to hone your skills.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You absolutely positively need to switch from a rounded font you are using (Bariol) to something less cute and cuddly. It has no place on _any_ resume, leave alone a technical one.

<comment><USER9> And it's not "beautiful".

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Do you not find massive pushback from employers who _require_ that CVs be in Word format so that they can be uploaded to whatever applicant tracking system is being used?

And I think it's naive to think that startups aren't using ATS when there's lots of free or open source systems available.

<comment><AUTHOR> We think that focusing on startup (and smaller company) jobs should tend to avoid this type of requirement as they are generally much more flexible and open-minded when it comes to job application format requirements and generally want to see more depth on prospective employees - especially on areas like personality traits and interests, which are hard to express in a traditional resume or cover letter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> As someone in the middle of a lot of hiring, I'd love to see applicants apply with Accredible narratives! (And if you want to send one my way - [https://getclever.com/about/jobs](https://getclever.com/about/jobs))

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll shoot you a mail :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> (Slightly offtopic -- but could you actually say a little about the accredible.com site itself for a moment? Was it constructed using Zurb's Foundation?)

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure - we are building it using the Grumby frontend framework ([http://gumbyframework.com](http://gumbyframework.com)) with Rails & AngularJS

<comment><USER12> Thanks!

Of course, the reason I ask is because the site design was beautiful and was curious about how a few things were done. Best of luck with accredible!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks - appreciate the kind words :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just wanted to say thanks everyone, we really appreciate your thoughts. The open, honest and thoughtful discussion is what makes this community great.

</comment><comment><USER14> Ouch, there's a few display errors in Chrome on Windows. Not good given the objectives of the service.

<comment><AUTHOR> Is there? Tested pretty thoroughly here on Chrome - did we miss something? Thanks!

<comment><USER14> \- The "Sign up for early access" input box thats in the last section (not the one in the first section) disappears as you scroll past it.

\- screenshots in "Find dream jobs and let jobs find you by telling your story" are left aligned on large monitors (should be centered aligned as they are on smaller resolutions.

\- the background image on the first section should load sooner. The text- shadow'd text shows by itself for a couple seconds. the background iamge there should be prioritized over the social buttons and over js etc.

Just my opinion on that last one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Yeah... I'll just use LinkedIn.

<comment><USER16> Problem with LinkedIn is that you can _say_ you can do or know anything but you can't necessarily _demonstrate_ it. I agree the power of a recommendation/referral network like LinkedIn is useful, but this product seems to let you show how good you are to others.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's exactly the idea! We wanted to create a way to back up the claims you make about yourself. The idea originally actually came from a big interest in MOOCs and self-education. We wanted to create a way to be able to use this kind of education in job interviews that would be credible. It shouldn't matter where or how you learned something - just that you did. We also wanted to help people provide extra depth about the learning they did in more traditional settings (like college). For example in my case I studied Computer Science - but what does that mean I can actually do? This is a way to show that in a (hopefully) elegant way whilst keeping it skimmable in under a minute.</comment></comment></comment>


Apple tablet to be called "Canvas" ?  - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/01/22/canvas

<comment><USER2> If that's true, all the people with html5-related canvas domains just won the lottery (canvasgames.com, etc).

<comment><USER3> Just call it iCanvas and they are not that happy anymore. Considering that both canvas.com and icanvas.com are already owned, at least icanvas.com seems to have its owner information hidden, so it could actually be the case.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> All this talk of apple's new device is killing me with suspense. It's hardly even worth saying, but apple's ability to create hype is amazing.

</comment><comment><USER5> The "art" design of the invitation may be a red herring. Remember the "in the air" posters before the MacBook Air announcement? <http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/01/macworld-theres/>

They sparked all sorts of speculation about WiMax devices and wireless streaming.

</comment><comment><USER6> Or 'Easel', but iCanvas works much better than iEasel. ;)

</comment><comment><USER7> I hope it's called canvas.</comment>


Ask HN: What changes has your company made to save money? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Lay me off</comment>


Alternative Lending Platforms Should Not Own the Loans They Originate - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@alibhamed/why-alternative-lending-platforms-should-not-own-the-loans-they-originate-and-the-danger-of-asset-d5862f800f14?_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_zAfQkok8WmILxGIwRmVEz8h96VrfeTQ5xrVE7E6EZ5j0Oq8-26Ij_jMtevyVO7xccfI-13sv5iZJGxMQ84O7qeySoUw&_hsmi=22715035 <comment><USER2> "Companies should focus on their core competency of origination, underwriting and servicing — not managing their credit holders."

This makes no sense, as it could apply to any business which gets secured loans from a bank.</comment>


React Static Site - <AUTHOR> http://braddenver.com/blog/2015/react-static-site.html <comment><USER2> I am using static-site-generator-webpack-plugin [0] on a client project now and it has been fantastic. I have one json file full of all the data of the site and then a bunch of components that render it in various ways. I've got translations in several languages plus the components can use React-Intl to get text, dates, etc. in the right format for the locale.

The experience has been fantastic compared to other static site generators (very limited control over display of content) or CMSes (too indirect for what is basically simple logic, especially around internationalization).

It was a bit fiddly getting everything set up so that React, React Router, React Intl, and Static Site Generator all played nicely together. But after about a day of banging my head on that, it's just worked ever since and been a dream.

If I could ask for one improvement: right now the build first runs the code through Babel and then runs that through WebPack. Problem is, if parts of the Babel build fail, there's no error reporting, and instead I get a WebPack- stage error about some file not being available. I then have to manually run the file through Babel to see that there's a simple syntax error.

[0] [https://github.com/markdalgleish/static-site-generator- webpa...](https://github.com/markdalgleish/static-site-generator-webpack- plugin)

<comment><USER3> You can use babel-eslint [0] and the eslint-loader [1] to catch all errors babel might have.

[0] [https://github.com/babel/babel-eslint](https://github.com/babel/babel- eslint)

[1] [https://github.com/MoOx/eslint-loader](https://github.com/MoOx/eslint- loader)

<comment><USER2> Awesome, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The React DnD docs/examples site is rendered in a similar manner:

[https://github.com/gaearon/react- dnd/blob/master/scripts/bui...](https://github.com/gaearon/react- dnd/blob/master/scripts/buildSiteIndexPages.sh)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is a pretty neat approach to building a static site, and it reminds me that a couple months ago I was experimenting with building a static site generator in Clojure. Which makes me think – is there any reason something like this couldn't be done with Clojurescript and Reagent? I've been itching to try out both of those but haven't come up with a good project for it.

The hard part might be routing, since there doesn't seem to be a robust solution for doing that in Reagent yet. I found [https://github.com/ghedamat/reagent-react- router](https://github.com/ghedamat/reagent-react-router) but it hasn't been updated in months and the author calls it "very very alpha."

<comment><USER6> I've been using reagent with re-frame[1]. Routing just uses goog.events and goog.history to listen for navigation events, secretary[1] to define routes, which update the state rendered by your components. The code is here: [https://github.com/Day8/re-frame- template/blob/master/src/le...](https://github.com/Day8/re-frame- template/blob/master/src/leiningen/new/re_frame/src/cljs/routes.cljs)

[1] [https://github.com/Day8/re-frame](https://github.com/Day8/re-frame) and [https://github.com/Day8/re-frame-template](https://github.com/Day8/re-frame- template)

You'll have to do `lein new re-frame <project> +routes` to pull in the routing template.

[2] [https://github.com/gf3/secretary](https://github.com/gf3/secretary)

<comment><USER5> Thanks for this! re-frame's probably little heavyweight for what I'd want to do, but secretary looks rad, so at the very least I'll look into that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Also have a look at metalsmith-react:

[https://github.com/coodoo/metalsmith- reactjs](https://github.com/coodoo/metalsmith-reactjs)

</comment><comment><USER8> Facebook does this with the React Native website I believe:

[https://github.com/facebook/react- native/tree/master/website...](https://github.com/facebook/react- native/tree/master/website/server)

</comment><comment><USER9> What is the argument for going _completely_ static? Static as in not using React on the client, not as in static files.

It seems (to me), that it would be useful--in addition to the static html-- load React on the client and from that point navigate with push state and small static (JSON?) files. It might perform better if your blog has a lot more interactivity. Although, here I can definitely see that as being fluff.

<comment><USER10> I played around with building something similar. The problem becomes that you have to send down twice the amount of data for the page - the statically rendered html generated from your data and then the data itself so that when the React components mount their props/state match the statically generated html.

<comment><USER11> A few of the flux implementations have the concept of "rehydrating" state (serializing and deserializing the stores), which does allow the client side to reuse the data and keeps the component from refetching the data.

A useful pattern I discovered was fetching just what is necessary to render the page on the server. Then pass the state to the window object through a script tag and recover the data on the client side and rehydrate. Any additional data (or potentially slow returning), I fetch client side via `componentDidMount` [0] which isn't called on the server. This way, I can get a loading screen up as quickly as possible with a few elements custom to the user.

I should note that even thought the flux library I was using, flummox [1], works great for this, I can't recommend it as in the month and a half I was working on my project they've decided to quit and recommend a different library, so I'm not sure what to recommend now (the frustration I feel over this quick turnaround is an entirely separate topic, though).

0: [https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/component- specs.html#m...](https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/component- specs.html#mounting-componentdidmount)

1: [http://acdlite.github.io/flummox](http://acdlite.github.io/flummox)

2: [https://github.com/acdlite/flummox#40-will-likely-be-the- las...](https://github.com/acdlite/flummox#40-will-likely-be-the-last-major- release-use-redux-instead-its-really-great)

<comment><USER12> the newly recommended library, redux, is great. Flummox was great too, but redux is better, I recommend giving it a shot if you haven't.

To the original point, you are still sending the data twice, once in rendered html, and once in that state that gets rehydrated.

<comment><USER13> Depending on the kind of content t you have, that's hardly an issue. I've built a big site like this, and gzip does an extremely good job at filtering out duplicate data. Check the source of [http://viva.vlaanderen/](http://viva.vlaanderen/)

<comment><USER12> when you view the source of your page, you see that very little of the dehydrated state is used to build your initial markup.

The entire rendered source is 142K. I isolated the actual markup, and it weighs in at 31K.

In other words, your dehydrated state is 4x bigger than your html rendering. And that's not including your 750K main.js file that also gets downloaded.

That's almost 1MB of downloads (not including images and stylesheets) just to "app-ify" your 31K of markup. I tend to agree, it's not a problem. Or perhaps, it's not one of the biggest problems. But it's not "hardly an issue" either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> [http://docpad.org/](http://docpad.org/) seems to be an alternative. It worked great as a static blog generator with multitude of npm plugings and tools to choose

</comment><comment><USER15> I use Octopress, it's basically a wrapper around Jekyll.

[http://octopress.org/](http://octopress.org/)

You just have to memorize a few command to publish stuff.

Also of course, know Markdown.

<comment><USER16> I believe you have to install Ruby as well -- don't you?

<comment><USER15> I'm not sure if you're joking but... it's a given.

Likewise with PHP and wordpress or Node.js and Ghost.

<comment><USER16> It's not a given, and I wasn't joking.

I've used Jeykl and Octopress and a few others. I dislike having to install random libraries just to get simple blog to render properly.

Go-lang built tools (like the free and excellent Hugo - [https://gohugo.io/](https://gohugo.io/)) are single binaries. Just get the one that works on your platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> _I don't feel the need to join the WordPress cult_

Blogging 101: If you write petty, snarky comments about millions of other developers, people will focus on those rather than the content of your post.

</comment><comment><USER18> I like the idea of React. However, Mixing HTML in your javascript is a very bad thing. You are mixing presentation with logic, and i always try to prevent that. Keep your logic away from your templates. I think its doable with react, but most people dont do it... Can somebody explain me why?

      +    return (
      +      <html>
      +        <head>
      +          <title>{this.props.title}</title>
      +        </head>
      +        <body>
      +          {this.props.children}
      +          {script}
      +        </body>
      +      </html>
      +    );

[https://github.com/jlongster/blog/blob/master/src/components...](https://github.com/jlongster/blog/blob/master/src/components/header.js)

<comment><USER19> React is a view layer, so a good React component is all presentation and doesn't contain any business logic. The only logic in a React component is presentation logic, which belongs together with your presentation structure and your presentation style, IMO.

<comment><USER18> I like this answer, however, its still not sufficient. Because you dont want to mix the "structure" of your UI with the behaviour of it. But in very dynamic apps behaviour = structure. So in that case React makes sense.

However, i dove into web components with Polymer, and it seems that this is the "official" direction of components in the future web... It also doesnt try to mix HTML with JavaScript. In fact in the future there will be more langauges than javascript since there will be a bytecode for the browser. Having your app written in React poses a real problem when you want to switch your logic to a different programming language.

So isnt the Web Components solution much better?

It seems that React and Web Components can be combined: [https://github.com/Wildhoney/Maple.js](https://github.com/Wildhoney/Maple.js)

<comment><USER20> > you dont want to mix the "structure" of your UI with the behaviour of it.

And you don't have to with React. But you can do this kind of mess with any templating langauge - it's not a React issue, it's a bad programming issue.

> Having your app written in React poses a real problem when you want to > switch your logic to a different programming language.

It really shouldn't. It's a View layer and the JSX part will be (practically) HTML still so it'll be _really easy_ to port. The rest of the view logic would have to be ported no-matter what you use to decorate it.

So this isn't really an objection.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


AngelList Reversed: VCs/Angels - Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR>

Paul Graham has his Request for Startups. It's quite often that I hear that VCs/angels have great ideas that they would like entrepreneurs to work on but can't find people to work on them.
Is there currently a service that fits this need?
I imagine if you had a service like AngelList, but reversed, it would be quite popular. For example, entrepreneurs who are interested in this could sign up indicate their areas of interest and specialty.
Angels could then sign up, create an RFS, and push it to people they think are best suited to execute on such ideas. The service could help angels find the best matches for their ideas and get the conversation started.
It would be great for both parties. For entrepreneurs, they know they'd be working on an idea that at least someone is very interested in funding. For angels, they can have people pursue what they think are great ideas and create that initial relationship with the entrepreneurs.
Perhaps this is a feature that could be folded into AngelList. <comment><USER2> I don't think it'd work. Great founders are usually passionate about their business and have been thinking about the problem for a long time. It's unlikely that an "idea from the outside" would be well absorbed or by the right kind of person. Ideas are a dime a dozen anyway. It's all execution.</comment>


Partisan: Enabling Cloud-Scale Erlang Applications - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.02652 <comment><USER2> I wonder how does Partisan compare to Scalable Distributed Erlan proposed by Natalia Chechina team?

[http://www.erlang- factory.com/static/upload/media/1394469405...](http://www.erlang- factory.com/static/upload/media/1394469405429206nataliachechina.pdf)

The problem is joining multiple clusters - you really don't want to do all P2P gossip in such cases, does Partisan address this somehow ?

<comment><USER3> Partisan builds upon HyParView for membership which seems to address many of the issues with connection scaling over fully connected meshes (section 3.3.4). It'd be interesting to see these benchmarks run with various faults injected.

I'm not sure why you'd want to avoid p2p gossip completely in these cases but they address the trade-offs by using a combination of protocols.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Direct link to the github : [https://github.com/lasp- lang/partisan](https://github.com/lasp-lang/partisan)

</comment><comment><USER5> The philosophy of Erlang is a single cathedral. In fact the internal part of Erlang VM itself could be viewed as a distributed system, which is designed decades ago, far more before stuff we're familiar with today.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is it possible to limit/whitelist the gen_server's that nodes can communicate with? Particularly for limiting code replacement / system calls. With message forwarding features it seems plausible to do. That'd be great for siloing data systems but still utilize an Erlang distribution layer, especially in systems with GPDR or HIPAA requirements. Or perhaps IoT applications.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is this production ready? Are there any real-world examples?

<comment><USER8> AFAIK it is productiom ready and there are a couple of real use case in prod. Both with and without Lasp. Chris would know more.

Short answer yes.</comment></comment>


Feel an earthquake in Eastern North America? - <AUTHOR> http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010xwa7/us/index.html

<comment><USER2> We were just outside the "secure zone" for the G20 when we felt the rumbling and shaking. Two large U.S. military/governmental helicopters (they said "United States of America" on the side) were taking off from just beside the CN Tower. Man those Americans have powerful helicopters we thought.

</comment><comment><USER3> Felt it in Ottawa. It woke me up (yeah, took a sick day today), I ran outside and half the neighbours were out talking about it. I tried to call a few people, but for a couple minutes I couldn't get any calls out. It took about 5 minutes to start hearing sirens (ambulances?).

My mother lives closer to the epicenter (north of Ottawa), and portraits fell from the walls and she kinda freaked out.

</comment><comment><USER4> Ground floor in Toronto, the house shook. Although that may say more about the house than the quake...

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://www.zazzle.ca/2010_toronto_earthquake_tshirt-23500711...](http://www.zazzle.ca/2010_toronto_earthquake_tshirt-235007114594064856)

From earthquake to t-shirt in an hour and a half. What a world we live in. (not my shirt)

</comment><comment><USER6> I was shocked when we felt it in Milwaukee minutes _after_ already hearing about it.

But apparently at 6 km/s, it would take a full 3.5 (edit: more like 6) minutes for the seismic wave to travel from the epicenter to Milwaukee.

<comment> a-priori Obligatory: <http://xkcd.com/723/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I felt it up in New Hampshire. I was sitting at a coffee shop on the second floor of a building and the building oscillated. However, it was not much more jarring than when large supply vehicles roll by an airport terminal. Consciously, I decided it was not an earthquake --- but at the same time, it did cause me to look out the window and decide that I could make it to the ground floor, if necessary, without breaking a bone.

</comment><comment><USER8> A while back someone started a post about which disasters we were most unprepared for. A major Earthquake on the east coast should be pretty far up that list.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm in Western Québec, and was off today (tomorrow is also a provincial holiday). I was out biking, and had no idea what was happening. I got home, and my cats were hiding, and books were strewn everywhere, having fallen from the shelves. The only actual damage was a broke bulb from a fallen lamp.

</comment><comment><USER10> Felt it in Toronto, on 10th floor, monitors we waggling all over the place. Strange feeling.

</comment><comment><USER11> Felt it in Montreal. 8th floor of an office building. It took me a few seconds to know it was an earthquake. The windows of another building near us were shaking. My reaction was a little slow. Went away from the windows toward a support beam.

</comment><comment><USER12> In Barrie, Ontario, it was quite gentle where I was. I thought I was developing a tremour, but then I noticed the wee containers of jam and marmalade at the coffee shop were shaking too. It was pretty gentle, and only lasted half a minute.

</comment><comment><USER13> We felt it in Grand Rapids, MI, which is a ways from Quebec. A couple people in my office said, "What was that?!", but it took a moment to realize that those mysterious seconds of slow, deep swaying had been a distant _earthquake_.

</comment><comment><USER14> I was on the phone with some one in New York, he was very surprised.

</comment><comment><USER15> Here's a report from Hamilton, Ontario: <http://www.raisethehammer.org/blog/1777/earthquake>

</comment><comment><USER5> It was a strange one here in Toronto - chair was swaying side to side, pretty strongly but slowly. Used to much sharper quakes.

</comment><comment><USER16> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455636>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> We felt it (mildly) in Allentown PA - there was enough concern to evacuate the office building.

</comment><comment><USER17> 12th floor of an apartment building in Woodside Queens. The whole building was swaying.

</comment><comment><USER18> People in my building in Ann Arbor, MI felt it. I didn't but I'm on the ground floor.

</comment><comment><USER19> Felt it in Cincinnati, OH, too.

</comment><comment><USER20> Felt it on the 13th floor in Cambridge, MA

</comment><comment><USER21> Yes, in Ottawa - Near the epicenter.

<comment><USER11> [http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/recent_eq/2010/20100623...](http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/recent_eq/2010/20100623.1741/index- eng.php)

<comment><USER21> Thanks, very useful page - I had the link to some US organization but not to NRCanada

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Definitely felt it here in Vermont.

</comment><comment><USER23> Nothing in Rochester.

</comment><comment><USER24> Didn't feel anything.

Montreal.</comment>


Espressite – Personality-based website generator - <AUTHOR> https://www.espressite.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Espressite is an AI-powered, personality-based website generator that creates a website in a coffee break. All that by answering simple this or that questions.

We are looking for beta testers for our upcoming startup. You can see a sneak peek on our website with a video. If you are interested, then head over to our site.</comment>