We Don't Use Software That Costs Money Here - <AUTHOR> http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001097.html <comment><USER3> Quote: "These people used to be called _pirates_. Now they're _open source enthusiasts_."

What is that supposed to mean? The issue is way more complex than that, and how can you paint all the legitimate open source companies with a big red "pirate" brush like that? That doesn't even make sense! The issues are connected, sure, but not the same! It's because of insipid stuff like this that I quit reading Coding Horror.

<comment><USER4> His preceding sentence explains it: "It's tempting to ascribe this to the "cult of no-pay", programmers and users who simply won't pay for software no matter how good it is, or how inexpensive it may be."

He's saying that if you were asked to guess -- Family Feud-style -- a name for a person who won't pay for software, the obvious term was once "pirate", whereas today the obvious term would be "open source enthusiast". I don't think he means that these terms describe the same person, although it's easy to see how this could be misconstrued as such -- it was my first reaction as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> In my experience free software tends to be better, that's why I also tend towards a "we don't use software that costs money" approach.

Another advantage of free software is that it is available everywhere. If I switch company, or if I am traveling with my notebook or whatever, I can just download the software anew and start coding. It think it is worth a lot - <USER2> saving the hassle of evaluation.

If I use an IDE that costs 10000$, that skill will be unlikely to be of any value at the next company I will work for.

Also, free software tends to concentrate on the important aspects, whereas commercial software tends to look good superficially, but is often crap below the hood. (yeah, broad generalization, but that is how I have come to feel).

The only commercial software I have is Windows XP and Computer Games (and XP is needed for the games).

<comment><USER6> > In my experience free software tends to be better, that's why I also tend > towards a "we don't use software that costs money" approach.

Even if it's not better, you can _fix_ it, if it's actual free software and not "freeware." Or fork it and make a version that is better. And if the creator abandons it, it's easy for anyone to pick it back up again.

For me, dead ends and a lack of user extensibility are as big a problem as the cost when it comes to commercial software.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have no problem paying for software if there isn't a high quality piece of open source software immediately available.

I would rather pay $100 for a piece of software with great documentation and quick setup then spend a day trying to figure out a mostly undocumented but free and open source solution. A lot of people forget the value of their own time when figuring these things out.

<comment><USER8> Time spent learning (and possible improving) an open source tool is time _invested_. I will be able to carry on getting a return probably forever.

Time I spend learning commercial software, even if it is shorter, is more often wasted or time/context limited.

Which do you think is more useful to me today... the 100-200 hours I spent learning Access/VBA or the 300-400 hours I spent writing a bunch of library code to talk to Postgres? I still reuse some of that 8 year old DB glue, but no one has asked me to develop anything for Access 97 in quite a while :)

<comment><USER7> I think comparing Postgres to access is a flawed comparison.

It would be more fair to compare Access to OO Base, and Postgres to Oracle in my opinion and in which case the decision of which is more valuable to learn is less clear.

<comment><USER8> Except that there was (at that point) no option to learn Oracle because... it cost money. I was also using Postgres to do very similar things to Access.

This is in a way part of my point about value. You wouldn't get very far proposing to use Oracle to run a five user app, and (although it has been done) only a lunatic would run a five thousand user app on Access. The price, capability and support options of Postgres are compatible with both (partly because it is open source), so you only have to learn one tool, and the time invested it has a longer life cycle too.

<comment><USER7> That was my point. :)

Oracle is to Postgres as Access is to OO Base.

They can both is used to store data but they are hardly comparable so saying that learning Postgres was more valuable because Access 97 knowledge is useless is flawed. By the way up until 2005 when I removed all traces of vba work from my cv I was getting a lot of offers for Access 97-2K work which is almost the same.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Free as in cost software is often just simpler. When I "beg off" suggestions like Beyond Compare, it usually comes from the idea that instead of spending time rooting around for my credit card and putting my personal information in a whole bunch of forms and submitting it, I could spend time finding an option that wouldn't make me feel burned when it doesn't live up to the hype.

<comment><USER7> Do you really find it that difficult or time consuming to type in your credit card number and billing address?

The average time from clicking checkout to finishing paying for the last 5 or so pieces of software I've bought has been less than 3 minutes.

How long do you spend finding your alternatives?

<comment><USER5> Some people also have to bother to earn the money first, before they spend it.

<comment><USER7> True, and that is a very valid reason for avoiding commercial software.

I was however questioning the suggestion that the reason he doesn't use commercial software is due to the difficulty/time consuming nature of purchasing said software.

<comment><USER5> He also mentions feeling burned after paying for worthless stuff, so the worth of money seems to play into his argument.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I love free as in speech software, I don't mind so much if its free as in beer.

I just want to be able to see the source code, tinker with it, and be able to trust it.

<comment><USER5> That reminds me of Microsoft givng their source code to the European Union (or somebody, I forgot), supposedly so that the European hackers could check that it is safe.

Frankly, I don't think it works that way. People don't check a billion lines sourcecode for security holes just for fun. With normal Open Source software, the code gets some scrutiny because man different people look at it, and they are motivated to do so because they want to improve on it or learn from it. Both motivational factors are missing for commercial software, no matter if the source is open or not.

<comment><USER10> Even if the software is commercial as long as it is open source, you have motivations to tinker with it, to adapt it to your own problems and preferences and people will still look at it to learn.

Why is the fact that would the fact that you paid for this source-code make you not want to change that color there, that shortcut here etc...

<comment><USER5> Personally I wouldn't. If I tinker with open source software, at least I can publish my results, so it is that much more efficient than tinkering with closed source software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If there is an inherent agility to team-based, distributed free software development, then it will definitely be increasingly hard for organizations with any significant inertia to stay in play once their problem domain has been noticed.

I wonder if that means that companies will either need to become smaller and more talented to compete or work on a project with a high up-front cost or high infrastructure cost over the long haul. The last option because it would be hard to distribute those costs across a free team and then recoup them.

<comment><USER12> companies will probably start working on projects that don't get as much traction in the OSS land because they're not particularly "interesting" problems for hackers to solve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I don't think it's the money. It's the absence of the need to deal with paying.

For instance, I recently wanted to check out a memory-resident database. Suppose that there was one that costs $50, and one that is free and open source. Like most devs, I don't have a company credit card, so I'd have to go off and ask financial for $50. They'd give it to me (with no grumbling), but I have to send an email, find them, fill out the form, get a req #, and so forth. Even if I do have the right to spend money without asking first, I'm still probably going to try the free one. As a result, I build my mental model around the free one, and then whatever I look at next seems different. The pay one has to be considerably better to overcome this disadvantage.

Everyone else does this too, so when I type "memory resident database" into Google, the free ones tend to pop up first. And when I start wondering how memory resident databases handle resultsets differently from disk I/O, the programmer who wondered about this earlier and wrote an article about it has almost always used the free, open source one (because the code is right there for review, and can be analysed), and uses it to illustrate. Eventually, the amount of documentation for the free/open source one greatly exceeds the one that costs money.

In the end, it's hard for commercial software to compete with open source/free _in commodity products_. Keep in mind, I'm not equating commodity with simplicity. Linux, mySQL, Rails, Python - these are all way more complicated than most products that sell for money.

In other words, the code that handles supply chain calculations is a lot more likely to sell for money than the database, operating system, and web server used to host it.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm way too into open source to pay for software unless absolutely necessary. I'd rather contribute a bit of code or support on a mailing list.

Edit: Wow... I didn't do more than glance at the article because I don't really care a lot for that guy's writing, but I missed this: equating open source with pirates. This is generally the point where I decide that a well crafted reply is not worth my time and respond with an insult.

<comment><USER15> he meant users, as someone up there said.

<comment><USER14> Does he think that I'm so stupid, that when I produce open source software, that I don't realize some people will be free riders, and that I still don't mind?

I'd like people to contribute back, but if I used that license, it means that I'm ok with people using the software under those terms.

The only thing that really irritates me is when people don't report bugs... that drives me crazy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Ummm... nothing wrong with discussing whether we feel like paying for software, but if I may throw a different question into the mix:

What does this mean for startups and business models? Is this effect stronger in some niches (programmer tools, for example) but weaker in others (enterprise integration applications)? Does SAAS change the game? Does pricing a product so that it is credit-card-ware change things?

<comment><USER6> In enterprise software, the cost of the product is usually a tiny part of the TCO, the bulk of which is typically labor (whether in-house or consulting). In some cases, it is far more important to buy a product that is popular (and thus comes with its own labor pool from which to recruit) than to save money by finding a less-expensive product. In other cases, a particular integration product that connects your particular endpoints may be rare enough that no one would ever bother to build it unless they could get reimbursed reasonably.

That's why it's not surprising that there is free a free version of something common like Java middleware (JBoss) that's pretty solid (but not worth the trouble of switching to if you have a significant investment in a proprietary vendor's tools), but if you want a less common tool like one that allows you to plug an asp.net web application into a Java portal framework, you should expect to pay a premium for it.

I think the reason this hasn't been addressed from a startup standpoint is that these lessons have been absorbed so thoroughly that only startups with a really clear, well-defined niche would even consider the possibility of going into the desktop software market, because everyone knows it's a tough row to hoe. Web business models like advertising are premium accounts a lot more plausible, even as it look like web advertising may be looking at a correction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I realize this is only incidental to his article but the Lisp Regex Coach donation-ware is nice: <http://www.weitz.de/regex-coach/>

<comment><USER17> That's the one I was thinking of! Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Programmers' love for "free" software is one of the strangest things to happen to any industry in history. It's like...winemakers refusing to pay 20 dollars for the occasional bottle, but forgetting that they sell a million/year to the public. You lose on one side more than you save on the other.

<comment><USER19> I think there is an implicit assumption that, if the pay product was any good, why hasn't someone made a free clone yet?

I think that with development tools, this makes sense. It makes less sense with consumer software.

<comment><USER20> Development tools tend to be an exception in general. Apple provides lots of development tools free of charge, ostenisbly because it's good for the Apple platform if more programs are written, thus attracting more users... but on the other hand, Apple charges a non-trivial amount for their other professional software packages.

Microsoft doesn't give away as much in the way of development tools (just "lite" versions, I guess), but maybe they don't think they have to, since they already are the dominant platform?...

<comment><USER21> That may be, but that attitude pushes away prospective developers. When I was a budding programmer the only way I knew of to access a C compiler was to use the GNU toolchain. But getting it to work on Windows was enough trouble that I just made the move to Linux. It's been ten years now, and I've never looked back. It's Microsoft's loss.

<comment><USER7> Microsoft does actually give a way a lot of development tools for free including compilers. The only thing they don't give away is their IDE. Even in that case they do give away versions of it that are only somewhat crippled but still very usable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I clearly remember when we had the reverse... which was really a problem. Business users shunned free software coz it was free (and hence, they reasoned, worthless).

Jeff is a windows programmer... 'nuf said. (I don't say that as an Ad Hominem. I say that as in "He is a serial killer.")</comment>


Show HN: QR code to allow iOS devices to easily connect to your wifi network - <AUTHOR>

Today's project:
This is a web page that allows you to create a QR code that you can print out and put somewhere in your house.
When someone with an iOS device scans it, it will automatically download a wireless profile to their device to auto-connect to your wireless network (SSID & key automatically inserted).
If you enable geofencing and someone gets a hold of the QR code or URL that it links to, it won't work unless their browser reports their location within 1/2 mile of the original location where you created the QR code.
http://www.getonmywifi.com
(Yes, you will be trusting me with your wifi ssid & key for this to work) <comment><USER2> This part needs a bit more explanation. I for one have no idea how to scan QR codes with an iPhone and how this ties into configuring the WiFi settings on it.

 _When someone with an iOS device scans it, it will automatically download a wireless profile to their device to auto-connect to your wireless network (SSID & key automatically inserted)._

<comment><USER3> iPhones need an extra app to handle QR codes. Search the App Store for "QR Code Reader".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome! It would be great to open source this so others who don't want to trust someone else with their password can still take advantage :)

</comment><comment><USER5> Great idea!</comment>


SASM – Simple Crossplatform IDE for Assembly Languages - <AUTHOR> https://dman95.github.io/SASM/english.html <comment><USER2> This is pretty neat. Neat enough to make me use it over Emacs? ...maybe. But Emacs+GDB is pretty hard to beat. Unless you're an MDB user, I suppose. Other than syntax, I never really saw the difference.

GAS support is nice. I actually like AT&T syntax, but I seem to be in the minority on that.

<comment><USER3> Emacs + gdb is something I have absolutely never seen in any "featurful IDE." It's an absolutely incredible development experience!

<comment><USER4> I never saw it like that in the days I had to change Borland, Zortech and VS experience by UNIX one in the late 90's, and from my latest experiences it hardly changed.

DDD was always one of the gdb frontends I installed to make things somehow better.

<comment><USER3> > I never saw it like that in the days I had to change Borland, Zortech and VS > experience by UNIX one in the late 90's,

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this. Can you explain? Also, what did you not like about the experience?

<comment><USER4> Vidarh already explained it quite good.

Also there was no support to display structures graphically (ddd could do it though).

Nowadays modern graphical debuggers also provide a very nice set of features to debug multi-core code.

<comment><USER2> Don't many GDB frontends provide this, however?

<comment><USER4> Back then it was only DDD in regards to data structures. I mean converting a struct into a visual tree, navigable between nodes, think UML like.

As for parallel debugging I am not aware of any front-end with the same feature set as modern IDE debuggers.

<comment><USER2> Okay. Well, then, now we know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> When i was a teaching assistant for a Microprocessors course(undergrad), I used SASM and the students really liked the low entry barrier. Combined it with masm for Assembly fundamentals.

Recommend it.</comment>


How to actually ship software that actually works - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@thomasfuchs/how-to-actually-ship-software-that-actually-works-cf269f6578f7

<comment><USER2> I think the "Coding > Configuration" is quite insightful. Admittedly I like writing code (which is a useful trait as a programmer...). There are some advantages to using libraries and frameworks:

\- You don't have to write the code (obviously)

\- Popular packages are likely to be free of the more obvious bugs since many people have already used it.

\- If you have a common problem, someone probably has a ready made solution on StackOverflow

\- You can hire people who already know the library/framework so training time is reduced.

\- You can often avoid learning anything about how the library works and only pay attention to the API (saving learning time). Probably more importantly, there are some things you should _not_ write yourself because you are almost guaranteed to get it wrong the first few times(dates and timezones, encryption, etc, etc).

But there are advantages to writing your own too:

\- Because you only have to solve your problem and not the problems of 2 million other users, your solution can often be an order of magnitude smaller. Less code, less bugs, more flexibility.

\- The solution can be tailored to your problem exactly. Often you need to work around design decisions made in the original library (this is especially true of frameworks). These work arounds tend to breed other work arounds as each one creates undesirable code. Sometimes the use of a library that is close, but not quite what you want results in so much disruption to your design that you would have written less code had you not used the library.

\- You don't have to deal with political problems with people you have never met. Often maintainers make strange decisions which they refuse change, leaving you out in the cold. You often have nothing but a passing relationship (at best) with the maintainer, so it is often next to impossible (and incredibly time consuming) to negotiate design choices, bug fixes, etc going forward. This is especially true if package X depends on package Y, but the maintainer of package Y has significant personality disorders. Trying to track down all the dependencies of package X and identifying possible risks can be quite difficult.

\- Being forced to know how everything works can often bring significant benefits down the road. This is especially true for security issues.

Clearly I don't avoid libraries and frameworks entirely. That's cutting off your nose to spite your face. However, when evaluating libraries, I usually favour writing my own unless there is a popular, well supported library that does exactly what I want and very little more. Or if it is one of those things that you should not write yourself because you will certainly get it wrong.

<comment><USER3> Hey, I'm Thomas, the author of the article. I do agree with your observations pretty much entirely.

I'm mostly talking about the "throw a component, library or jQuery plugin at everything" sort of mentality. That just yields and unmaintainable buggy mess—unfortunately I've encountered this all too often in the wild. (While I was a consultant, I could make a good living from cleaning up these messes, so I won't complain too much!)

It all boils down to, however, a willingness to actually think about the things you're doing, and trying to do good solid work. IMO not enough people do that, or even aspire to do that, which makes me a bit sad about "my" profession.</comment></comment>


In Defense of the Floppy Disk [video] - <AUTHOR> http://breakoutroom.co/v/652 <comment><USER2> The gist of the talk is right, but there are a lot of underlying errors. Kids today know that 'floppy disk' means save because... floppy disk has 'always' been the ideograph for save. They're not functionally mapping it to the physical device. It's a bit like people know that 'a' means the first letter of the English alphabet because... it's an ideograph that means that by convention - even though in handwriting it's written differently. People have been trained to understand what that shape means.

There's lots of these errors of understanding throughout the talk, but the biggest one is the rolodex card icon. It looks like an ID card more than a rolodex card, since the latter do not have portraits on them. Check it out on a google image search; some companies make cards for you with their logo on it, but most cards are blank for your writing, and there is no portraiture. Presented with that icon, photo-on-the-left, text-on-the-right looks like a pretty default ID card. The underlying point is right - that the teenagers recognise the meaning of the icon - the but rationalisation for why is incorrect.

So why do teenagers understand that floppy means save? Because 'convention'. Not because "they're smart, and backward-map old technology". If we had a different icon for 'save', and one company just today started using the floppy, then no-one would understand it.

<comment><USER3> I think you're adding unnecessary complexity into the analysis. Whether we call it a floppy disk or refoofoofah, clicking on that icon saved your document. Thus, we would expect this behavior to generalize given a similar icon in a slightly different environment/app (stimulus generalization).

Using the word "meaning" here is problematic because it comes with some intellectual baggage (e.g, connotation). What does anything "mean" really? The most straight forward answer to me is it "means" what it does. That is, function is meaning, especially in UX.

<comment><USER2> I'm a bit waffle-ey by nature, but really I mean two points: first, that the icon means save because we're trained to see it as the icon for save (if we want to talk unnecessary complexity, you've transformed my 'trained' into 'stimulus generalisation' :D); and second, kids know that the icon is related to floppy disks because everyone asks at some point "wtf does this have to do with 'save'", and gets a history lesson. Two separate but related events.

The unnecessarily complexity is what's in the video: the user sees the icon, recognises it as a floppy disk, understands that the floppy disk is storage from some prior experience (ha![1]), and then reverse-engineers the question "why does this icon look like a floppy disk" into "something to do with storage - probably saving the document to it". It's a very convoluted and unnecessary cognitive path.

[1] Does anyone really believe that the youth of today learned what floppy disks were _before_ they learned about saving documents?

<comment><USER3> Hahaha I don't think putting stimulus generalization in parentheses makes my explanation any more complex. I explained the phenomenon in 2-3 simple sentences and then I used two words that could substitute for those 2-3 sentences--stimulus generalization.

If you compare our two analyses some of the claims you make cannot be tested via experimentation, such as "convoluted unnecessary cognitive path." I'm not sure what that means, how we would determine if the user has gone down that route, or how we would measure the convolution of a "cognitive path."

Nonetheless, I like this discussion. I think UX is really cool and represents a great application for applied behavior analysis.

<comment><USER2> That 'convoluted cognitive path' is a qualitative assessment of what the presenter is describing in the seminar. You don't need some measure of convolutedness to see it touches a number of different cognitive aspects.

But if it's robust testing you're after, then you should be railing against the seminar altogether. A self-selected, self-reported study done on the internet, with zero way to identify demographic accuracy? An assumption that puerility like 'email@example.com' are only done by teenagers? An assumption that "it's really easy to tell when someone's messing with you", which just means you can't detect the subtler trolls? This isn't experimentation, it's a survey, and it's been interpreted with a lot of cognitive bias, with the researcher projecting a lot of assumed meaning. It's certainly better than nothing, but it's not robust at all.

<comment><USER3> First paragraph: You're still making major assumptions.

Second paragraph: I concur, sir!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Regarding the hamburger icon, I suspect most people have seen it many places and recognize that it can be clicked/tapped, but they interpret it as "here be dragons" which is why it always scores so low on A/B testing. Even knowing what it's just an innocuous menu, I rarely sneak a peek at what might be lurking there unless the function I'm seeking isn't to be found anywhere else.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wonder which of the dozens of scripts on that page looks up and inserts the youtube embed from godknowswhere

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

</comment><comment><USER6> TBH, I wouldn't be so surprised that teenagers know that a floppy icon means save, because they use text processors to do their homework, and at least the most popular software (Microsoft Word) emphasises so much that particular icon.

Although being honest, I got impressed by the "tape" icon used for voicemail.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nothing wrong with the Floppy Disk icon. It's unique, which is all that matters. It no longer represents a physical thing that people use routinely, not a big deal. Now, if we could only figure out how to have search and zoom use different icons...

<comment><USER8> Some applications use binoculars to indicate search. Yet that could easily me mistaken for zoom, though...

Iconifying things is hard.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Really interesting talk. Skip to the last 5 minutes for the history, and appropriate use, of the "hamburger" menu icon.

</comment><comment><USER5> disappointed she didn't include results for that download icon that looks like an inbox

also I do think a nicely simplified telegraph key could be an excellent 'send' or 'communication' icon</comment>


Don't Think Like a Millionaire, Act Like a Billionaire - <AUTHOR> http://ritholtz.com/2018/04/dont-think-like-millionaire-act-like-billionaire/ <comment><USER2> 1\. Be Reality-based: Ray Dalio writes this explicitly in Principles; just about every member of this group discussed discerning aspects of reality that others have either missed or misunderstood. Howard Marks explains why you need to not only understand reality, but take it to a second level. Failing to understand the world as it is will prevent you from achieving success.

2\. Work Hard: No inherited wealth here – all of the billionaires were self- made. They all discussed working long and hard, especially in the early days of their careers. Many of them out-worked, out-hustled and out-smarted their competitors to achieve their success.

3\. Focus on Process: None of this group were outcome focused – they are all process oriented investors. Understanding probabilistic outcomes, learning from errors, failing well – these were each repeated frequently by this group.

4\. Read widely: Another trait all of the group shared. They all read widely. Not just finance related books, but a huge assortment of history, biography, and philosophy. The billionaires all wanted to get smarter, learn more, and have a deeper understanding of the world.

5\. Be Lucky: Of all the sentiments widely shared by this crew, the consistent recognizing of the role of serendipity in their lives was perhaps the most surprising to me. Every person mentioned in various ways how much random good fortune had come their way. They also were prepared to capitalize on what providence provided.

6\. Be humble: Success in the market requires humility. At times, it can be humbling. But the humility of this group — despite all their success — was another unexpected surprise.

<comment><USER2> Wonder how important each of these in the overall performance. Assuming each is a scale 1 to 10. Would you need 10s for all of these or a few 8s or what.</comment></comment>


Great interview with George Lucas - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl2zoEEOUCg This Charlie Rose interview of George Lucas has some really interesting parts about how art is technology.  That is, technology is simply a way to realize a vision - an artistic vision in George Lucas' case.  I think the particularly interesting stuff is around 23:30 and 27:00.  Lots of parallels with Hackers and Painters. <comment><AUTHOR> This Charlie Rose of George Lucas has some really interesting parts about how art is technology. That is, technology as a way to realize a vision - <USER2> artistic vision in George Lucas' case. I think the particularly interesting stuff is around 23:30 and 27:00. Reminded me of Hackers and Painters.

<comment><USER3> I didn't watch the video (yet), but your comment makes me think of my experience with artists with whom I've been impressed: A lot of them are really good technicians in the technical areas pertaining to their art.

Somehow, when I grew up the overall message I received regarding art seemed to want to separate the "creative" from the technique. It just isn't so. It takes a lot of technique to reliably record the creative.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are your thoughts on C# on Linux? - <AUTHOR> It's in the same space as Java/Go, and .Net Core seems to be getting a lot of love on Linux. The recent 3.0 announcement shows some awesome performance gains and some sweet new features, including ready to run to reduce startup time, and moves toward AOT / single binary (although coreRT already does this?). <comment><USER2> I have been working with C# for a long time now, so it's pretty cool to watch it become a contender in cross platform server-side development (Mono has been there for some time now for desktop stuff, but I don't know how much traction it got. I don't think many people used it for back end work).

I think the language is really well-designed. It does have a lot of features, but still feels pretty coherent and not overwhelming. LINQ is great. As for what's coming, I'm particularly excited about the non-nullable types in C# 8.0.

I wish it would get low syntactic overhead sum types, similar to Haskell, OCaml and F#. That's the biggest thing I currently miss.

One thing I am disappointed in is going with async/await paradigm instead of supporting green threads. This essay explains why pretty well, and has already been linked on HN a few times: [https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2015/02/01/what-color- is-...](https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2015/02/01/what-color-is-your- function/)

<comment><USER3> To be fair, in C# a function can "opt out" of async-await with Task<T>.Wait()/.Result/.GetAwaiter().

In a way C# will use a mixture of green-ish threads/threads already, in that await-ed calls are either scheduled on a thread worker pool (via a TaskScheduler) or executed synchronously ("inline")... Which comes with it's own set of surprises and gotchas.

        async Task<bool> DoSomethingElse() {
          // [0] do something long-running
        }
        async Task DoSomething() {
          var otherTask = DoSomethingElse();
          // [1] do something long-running
          var other = await otherTask;
          if (other) {
            // do yet another thing
          }
        }

So, when will [1] run? Before [0], concurrently on another pool thread to [0], or after [0]? The answer is: you cannot really know from the information presented. The compiler might decide that DoSomethingElse is to be called synchronously ("inline", attached child tasks), so before [1] will get a chance to run. Or it might decide to run it concurrently, but then the TaskScheduler might decide it's doing enough of concurrent work already (e.g. every thread in the pool is busy) and run [1] before [0].

This is usually nothing to be concerned about, until it is. Coming from js' world of async-await where a certain order is guaranteed, I footgunned myself in C#... my real-world DoSomethingElse() essentially was a forever-loop that would only terminate on a CancelationToken (basically a "is this canceled" flag) and the compiler decided it should be executed synchronously for me, so [1] never got a chance to run. The fix was Task.Run(DoSomethingElse) btw, thus explicitly not "inline"-ing the call.

[https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel- pr...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel- programming/attached-and-detached-child-tasks)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> C# is a fine language and it has had traction off the Microsoft platform for a long time.

For instance, many games for the PS(3|4| Vita) are written with something called the PhyreEngine which is based on .NET and lets you make pro-quality games that are portable across those platforms, the PC, and some other platforms too.

<comment><AUTHOR> The Unity ecosystem also seems pretty sweet. Especially the new Burst compiler.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> C# is my new python: batteries included + Nuget, but faster and properly typed with LINQ sugar on top. What is missing is a great http library, tho the batteries-included stuff usually is enough although a bit clunky.

<comment><USER5> Have you played with RestSharp at all? I tend to stick with the standard library in .NET, but a lot of people swear by RestSharp.

<comment><USER3> Played with yes. And it makes things less clunky, indeed. But it's still built on top of System.Net.HttpWebRequest, meaning it inherits its limitations too, like e.g. sub-par http(s)-only proxy support.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've been deploying production .NET apps on Linux in Mono and NetCore for a few years now- Core is vastly superior to Framework even if you're not targeting Linux.

We target netcoreapp2.2 and execute the binary by using the dotnet tool pre- installed in containers but you can also just output a binary that can be executed standalone in your chosen platform.

I was able to set up a build agent for CI in a couple of hours; you really only need the SDK and you don't need to go through painful guesswork about what you need to install or copying targets that only exist in the desktop version of Visual Studio or stuff like that.

Also, you don't need to tangle with various runtimes and their licenses (like Java) because there is only one and Microsoft seem to only be interested in monetising their development tools, operating systems and cloud offerings.

I would not have believed you if you told me 5 years ago that C# development could be this good. I could not possibly imagine targeting another language (with the possible exception of front-end code and perhaps front-end web apps)</comment>


Parse.com seems to be down – 4/28 20:30 Eastern - <AUTHOR> http://status.parse.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been getting frequent 502 errors from the service today.

The status page shows intermittent issues over the past day it seems.</comment>


Ask HN: What are the reliable data sources to learn about Corona virus? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> These daily updates on r/supplychain have been interesting and, from what I can see, well sourced: [https://www.reddit.com/r/supplychain/comments/fbcc9h/covid19...](https://www.reddit.com/r/supplychain/comments/fbcc9h/covid19_update_29th_feb/)</comment>


SpaceX's Unnerving Silence on an Explosive Incident - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/04/spacex-anomaly-dragon-nasa/588277/ <comment><USER2> Is this literally just a hit piece on spacex because they only released one official statement so far? You'd think it would be normal operations to release a statement, run an investigation, then release another statement after it concludes.

</comment><comment><USER3> As I recall, a few years ago when one of their rockets exploded during a test they were similarly close lipped until they were able to determine the root cause. And it took quite a long time.

In a situation like this, there's not much point in talking until you have something definitive to say.

<comment><USER4> What even could they say? "Uh, well, it blew up." We knew that.

<comment><USER5> SpaceX is famous for having a lot of telemetry channels, so it's possible they have a lot of data for the event. It's also more likely than not that they had plans for various outcomes of testing, probably including this one, even though one of the extremes. Specific data can influence future plans, which won't be final until the end of investigation - but openly start talking about details and options now will do wonders to build trust with the public, which all PR departments should crave for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't think journalists are necessarily aware of (maybe they just don't care) how long root cause investigations can take. Obviously the euphemistically described "anomaly" is going to set them back, but going public without a clear root cause would make them look incompetent.

<comment><USER5> That's the point. Public wants to see confirmation of their competence, and that's best seen in handling situations like this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Pretty useless article, these things take time.

Worst case scenario is that SuperDracos has to go and be replaced by an external system (I.e a tower)

</comment><comment><USER8> This is the epitome of bike shedding. Every journalist thinks they know what Elon Musk should be doing.

<comment><USER5> It doesn't matter, as soon as journalist correctly represents the public's opinion. It's the job of company to answer those expectation, if they don't want to risk misunderstanding from the public.

<comment><USER9> I'm part of 'the public' and I also understand it's a complex investigation. They have nothing to say because the investigation is ongoing. Full stop.

<comment><USER5> Not all public believe they shouldn't say anything before investigation is over.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> As long is NASA and the SpaceX board are happy, what does it matter what this reporter thinks? Also the word 'unnerving' is pure clickbait.

<comment><USER5> > what does it matter what this reporter thinks?

A lot, as reporter here represents the general public - which is more important to them (the public) than NASA or SpaceX board.</comment></comment>


Google Health Begins Its Preseason at Cleveland Clinic - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/google-health-begins-its-preseason-at-cleveland-clinic/index.html?ref=technology <comment><USER2> "would you trust google with your medical records?" 32% yes, 68% no[0]

the follow-up questions should be: -do doctors trust information patients write up themselves? -how much of that patient-provided info is clinically relevant (signal to noise ratio)?

[0] [http://www.ask500people.com/questions/would-you-trust- google...](http://www.ask500people.com/questions/would-you-trust-google-with- your-medical-records)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm a little skeptical of Google Health. If a patient doesn't even remember to take their medicine, how do you expect them to go update their medical record? I think this will only catch on for a small subset of active patients.

</comment><comment><USER4> Google will manage to do what the KGB and CIA where unable to.</comment>


Ruby "with statement" - <AUTHOR> http://blog.mrbrdo.net/2013/02/ruby-with-statement/ How would you implement "with statement"? <comment><USER2> Article claims that this implementation provides something like the "Pascal or Python" with statement. But its nothing like Python's "with" statement (PEP-343), which is a tool for encapsulating initialization, exception handling, and cleanup logic, not a tool to avoid identifying the object on method calls.

It'd be pretty easy to do something like Python's "with" statement as a library method in Ruby, but this isn't it.

<comment><USER3> Nope, article doesn't claim that. I just said that Python and Pascal have a with statement, I didn't say here is an implementation of Python's PEP- whatever in Ruby. And I have no interest or desire to get into language flamewars. For me this basic functionality is enough.

<comment><USER2> > For me this basic functionality is enough.

Its not about "basic functionality": this does exactly nothing in common with the function of the Python with statement.

What you provide gives very similar functionality to the "with" statement in Pascal or Visual Basic, but, aside from the name, has nothing _whatsoever_ in common with the "with" statement in Python (which itself has more in common with Ruby's new-with-block idiom for opening, using, and closing a resource than with the Pascal/VB use of "with" as shorthand for object-member-access- within-a-delimited block.)

If you didn't know what Python's with statement _does_ , you probably shouldn't have mentioned it at all in reference to what you are providing for Ruby.</comment></comment></comment>


Why what we think we know about schizophrenia is wrong - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/11/nathan-filer-schizophrenia <comment><USER2> Treating DSM categories as if they were a single disease is completely misguided. The DSM describes syndromes, and ignores pathophysiology because we still have little to no idea of what happens in the brain (at least not enough to properly understand the relevant functional aspects).

Genome-wide association studies have recently shown that schizophrenia was in fact several distinct diseases [0]. Their symptoms turn out to be mediated by the same drugs, to the extent that they makes the people who suffer from those ailments manageable.

If your house suddenly becomes cold in the winter, putting on a jacket will help you feel better. You wouldn't infer from that that your furnace is down because of a clothing imbalance.

[0] [https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2...](https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14040435)

<comment><USER3> This is why I think very highly of the transition in DSM V to diagnosing on spectrums. It's not perfect but it really helps get away from putting people into buckets they don't really belong in.

<comment><USER4> At the expense of putting people on spectrums where two people with the same diagnose have wildly different symptoms and effective treatments, rendering the diagnosis moot.

This is a crisis in "autism", where Asperger's and autism are different on such an extreme scale, yet the language, medical literature, and treatment plans and funding are muddling it up to the detriment of all involved, creating a culture war between people who say their mild Asperger's is a personality type not a disorder, and caregivers of people who cannot speak or provide basic self-care for themselves -- because DSM dumps them in the same diagnosis and society loses the language to disambiguate the scenarios.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My youngest brother has schizophrenia, which started when he was 19. He just turned 31, and were it not for his family supporting and caring for him, I'm sure he would be homeless or worse. He's one of the most sensitive, gentle people I have ever known. My wife and others who have gotten to know him would agree.

Although he's "stable", thanks to an injection every 3 weeks, he's not going to ever get better. In fact he continues to retreat further and further away from the world and life. Why don't you go to the bowling group, movie night, job placement, etc, I used to ask him (events organized by a local psych facility for their patients, etc). Those people are crazy, he said.

It's a baffling disease. Besides his hallucinations and delusions, the defining feature seems to be that it resists treatment of any kind that would lead to what you and I would call a normal life.

<comment><USER6> It might be he doesn't want to associate with people, groups, events that revolve around the diagnosis. Perhaps that labels him an "other" and it feels little much. Why not similar activities with the general population?

That is not meant to belittle the point that delusional people will strongly deny their symptoms, of course. Being close to somebody like that gets tough, especially when the delusions have led to harm to self or others -- even after they get treatment and it works, it's easy to become paranoid of relapse and fear that every small act of legit defiance or assertion of self is a recurrence of symptoms.

<comment><USER5> Extreme agoraphobia, social anxiety, very little to talk about... Most 31 year olds are working, raising children, etc., and don't live in their parents house. Don't underestimate the shame he feels when around others. Outside his family, I think it is overwhelming for him.

<comment><USER7> I think this is a very important point. He doesn't fit in and humans love to ask one another about their lives. If you give non-standard answers, then you're seen as weird or a failure in life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The diagnostic words that start with "schizo-" are a train wreck.

Schizophrenia is characterized by hallucinations, delusions, thought disorder, catatonia, etc. You don't hear much about catatonia these days because it is cleared up by benzodiazepines reliably.

Schizoid people have reduced emotional reactions compared to other people but they are in touch with reality.

Schizoaffective disorder seems to pick a few symptoms from schizophrenia and bipolar but doesn't fit the criteria for either. You might think that sounds less severe but it can be devastating.

The romanticization of schizophrenia of r.d. Liang, "one flew over the cuckoo's nest", szasz and others strikes me as particularly cruel when I see how it keeps people who are suffering from getting help.

<comment><USER9> I don't think "one flew over the cuckoo's nest" romanticizes mental illness, for me it is about demonizing institutionalization.

It pictures the time when mental illness diagnostic was an easy method to put away anyone annoying or inconvenient (the subject really having a mental illness or not made little difference). It talks about institutional cruelty like torture and lobotomy.

But then I didn't read the book, just watched the movie - perhaps the "romanticization of illness" angle is more pronounced in the book but I'm pretty sure it was not the main theme and the novel did more good than bad for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability.

<comment><USER10> I mostly agree, but I think the movie romanticized the end of institutionalization, making us believe we've progressed "beyond" it, when we merely have people screaming on street corners and sleeping in the gutter. Institutionalization should've been reformed, not all but eliminated (I know it still exists, but only for the most extreme cases).

<comment><USER11> If someone is not a threat to themselves or others, but has strange beliefs and behaviors, should we really take their freedom away just because we don't think they are taking care of themselves adequately or we don't like the sight/sound of them?

As someone with bipolar disorder (very stable since diagnosis and medication) I'm always a bit dismayed when people call for locking ill people up "for their own good." (Not that you're necessarily saying that - it's just something I do see people advocating for sometimes).

I'm in SF and previously lived Tenderloin-adjacent so I'm quite familiar with the unfortunate cycle of mental illness and drug/alcohol abuse from self- medicating. It's not a pretty sight and I do think we should do everything we can to help these most vulnerable people in society. I'm just not sure taking their liberty is necessarily the best course of action.

<comment><USER12> I think that society probably has the right to enforce basic social norms so I think it is reasonable to for society to intervene if someone is being threatening or violating basic norms (e.g. by defecating in the middle of the sidewalk). Both of which are common in the Tenderloin.

The problem that I see is: what options are available other than violating their freedom by forcing them to undergo treatment or locking them up? You can't, for example, fine someone who doesn't have anything. Besides, I think its unlikely that punishment would accomplish anything

So I guess I'm not sure I see a good solution to the problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> About ten years ago I made a documentary film about homeless people. On my first day of shooting I had an encounter with a schizophrenic guy named Daniel, which I captured on film. I've put a clip of that encounter here:

[http://graceofgodmovie.com/superdanny.mp4](http://graceofgodmovie.com/superdanny.mp4)

It's worth watching all the way through. The difference in his attitude when I stopped being afraid of him and started treating him like a human being instead of a threat is dramatic. I learned a lot about life that day.

<comment><USER14> This is a nice thought, and I do agree that we need more a lot more of this perspective in the world.

But we need to be careful not to downplay the incredibly severe difficulties involved in helping, treating, and even simply co-existing across the months and years with those who have schizophrenia.

I had a good friend stay with me for 2 months who ended up having significant schizophrenia-like symptoms (never found out the actual diagnosis). I tried my best to treat him like a human and get him the help he needed, but I was unable to. I don't want to go into details, but a lot of stuff happened. It was a very difficult time.

<comment><USER13> Oh, absolutely. I'm not saying that you can just treat schizophrenics like normal people and everything will be hunky-dory. All I'm saying is that not being afraid of them (because most of them (though not all) are totally harmless) is a good first step.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > It was during my own nursing training that the currently favoured term of > "service user" gained traction, as it was deemed more neutral.

Patients overwhelmingly prefer the term patient, and this holds true every time we ask them what they want to be called.

Service user is a term imposed upon them by well-intentioned mental health professionals and academics who don't recognise their own power dynamic and who do a poor job of coproduction.

> while the council of the Royal College of Psychiatrists recently recommitted > to "patient".

...after they asked people what their preferred term is.

<comment><USER3> Academics can be the dumbest smart people.

<comment><USER16> Academia teaches you there are simple solutions to common problems. And that non-academics are stupid.

Most real world solutions are shitty and incomplete.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Ah, where do I start. Two of my close relatives have schizophrenia, people whom I've known since they were born. They were both diagnosed around 19 and are now 29. In the last ten years we've tried many medications, hospitalizations, with little to no avail. I never understood the word curse when I was a kid. I read about it in stories and I had seen people curse each other. Living with schizophrenia is the definition of a curse. Lives wasted in an alternate reality. The lives of the care givers and family impacted terribly.

</comment><comment><USER18> > Importantly, what we call psychosis can also be a response to extreme stress > or trauma. For many people it might best be understood as... a coping > strategy gone awry or a form of storytelling carried out within the mind as > a response to unbearable life events.

This. The day that mental health professionals realize this is the day that we start improving outcomes.

> there is no uncontroversial language when talking about mental illness – and > that includes the phrase "mental illness"

Glad the author brought up this important point. "Illness" is bogus because it implies disease/biomarkers for which there is no evidence as the article states.

A more useful term would be "mental injury" as it frames the symptoms as a result of trauma. But I think the best term is simply "trauma" or "developmental trauma" when it goes back to childhood.

</comment><comment><USER19> Well, this article didn't lead to any answers or any insight for me. The whole unexplained opening of poisoning is cryptic and unhelpful. Does this nurse see the nuclear options as poison or was this doctor trying to give Amit cyanide? Who knows.

I've spent a month of evenings at Langley-Porter and then again at Zuckerberg, and the staff there didn't strike me psychzombies. The last thing they wanted to do was to commit to a diagnosis of schizophrenia for my relative. I sat for an hour with the Attending on his outtake and she did everything to assure us that in her expert opinion it wasn't black and white - drugs were part of the toolset and not The One Answer.

What's wrong isn't that people are ignorant. They always have been and always will be. Until you've been there, you won't get it.

What's wrong is we have brilliant people who are hamstrung by process. At SFGH it's "If you aren't a threat, you're out" 7 days after the 72 hour lockdown. It's a factory, because that's all the runway WE give them.

We're lucky. We're wealthy enough and there's enough of us that we can probably make this work.

But the other 90% in those wards? They don't have anybody. So unless WE want to fund that level of intervention/compassion, the factory and pharmacology is the solution.

</comment><comment><USER20> I've often wondered if it's possible to induce psychosis and symptoms of schizophrenia in a subject via environmental conditioning. This seems practical to test these days, given the expanse of information possessed by large tech companies, and their lack of regulation. Perhaps this would be related research for a larger automated behavior control initiative. Does anyone have any pertinent references or info?

<comment><USER21> Mind elaborating on the connection between psychosis and automated behavior control.

<comment><USER20> Restated, is it possible to develop (eventually automated) ways to "drive people crazy". Is it possible to use data and algorithms to manipulate someone into losing contact with reality, for instance, or trick them into manifesting schizophrenic symptoms

<comment><USER21> I don't think so. One of the primary theories of schizophrenia is that the glial cells in the brain are doing too much synaptic pruning. It's more of an organic disorder than say depression or anxiety which is heavily affected by environment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I find Xavier Amador very engaging and convincing on how to actually help schizophrenic people who say "I'm not sick, I don't need medicine": [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lstn6WNnCRc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lstn6WNnCRc)

</comment><comment><USER23> DSM and other such systems(icd for example) are for CLINICAL use. I.e. they are not academic. If 2 different mechanisms create the same symptoms and are treated by the same drugs then from a clinical aide of view separating them is pointless. Academic research on the mechanics of diseases is much more nuanced than what an article on a news site can cover. Once something is clearly separated as 2 different entities in a clinically meaningful way via research then the classification system will be updated. What this means is that if e.g. we find a way to differentiate between 2 different mechanisms for schizophrenia with each of the responding better to a different drug( even if those are already existing drugs, it gives us a shortcut to choosing the right medication without trial and error) then DSM will split schizophrenia to schizo due to x and schizo due to y with further guidelines for medication. Or split them into 2 different things entirely.

</comment><comment><USER24> Schizophrenia can run in families. A family we knew was killed in the middle of the night by their step son with a hammer. Apparently, the disease can have a sudden onset. The mother and step father were teachers, and the whole community was affected. The son (teenager at the time) was diagnosed and has been held in a facility now for many years. The biological father has been in and out of institutions and homeless.

Such a terrible disease.

</comment><comment><USER25> Most of the supposed "mental-health conditions" are manifestations of stress. There are two kinds of stress: biological and emotional.

Biological stress is related to things like being malnourished and/or having hormonal imbalances (thyroid, cortisol, progesterone, etc), not getting enough sunlight (no red light -> winter sickness / UV light-> Vitamin D), etc. Biological stress is worsened when a person is medicated with patent medicines that are approved for treating behavioral symptoms by implementing wrong- theory about the cause of the behavioral symptom (i.e., inadequate serotonin -> depression [0], excess dopamine -> psychosis, etc).

Some scientists rediscovered a few years ago that the behavioral symptom of "psychosis" is strongly associated with an inability to make adequate amounts of the stress hormone cortisol [1].

Emotional stress has to do with people feeling trapped. From the article: "Importantly, what we call psychosis can also be a response to extreme stress or trauma."

Emotional stress leads to the release of cortisol too. If a person's long-term emotional stress exceeds their ability to compensate, their "mental health" will suffer.

One part of this article is about forcibly medicating people whom the professionals think don't realize they need the pills they're prescribed. IMHO, it is an act of violence to force a person to take pills that make them suicidal [2]. The legal systems generally recognize that people have a choice in medical treatments, but struggles with patients who don't even realize they have a problem [3], and/or don't like the treatments the professionals think they need. In the US the courts have decided that people can't be "helped" against their will without a court order. This is why Jared Loughner, the man who shot up Congresswoman Gifford's event, couldn't be helped, even though the people around him noticed that his behavior had changed [4].

The professionals tried to label my girlfriend as "schizophrenic". Really she was just stressed ("lonely"), and was suffering from the adverse effects of various medical interventions. Methadone causes sugar cravings; she'd taken to treating this medication-induced metabolic problem with alcohol a few days before we'd met (alcohol has 7 calories/gram, while sugar only has 4 calories/gram).

In my initial assessment she also reported being injected with a prescription endocrine disruptor maybe 10 years before [5]. This prescription drug has warnings about endocrine disruption [6], but doctors don't appreciate their patients' iatrogenic deterioration when it's associated with this defective drug.

My girlfriend became psychotic when she ran out of alcohol , but rather than treating her for the cause [7] they treat her for the symptom with "anti- psychotics". I consider her involuntary treatment program to be "medical assault". I found a lawyer a while back who was familiar with how the state's involuntary treatment system works, but lawyers are expensive, so I tried to go at it myself. Maybe the legal guild didn't take kindly to a legal-nobody pointing out that their system is ugly.

I guess I'm going to hire the lawyer.

tl/dr: The conventional practices of the mental health industry are wrong. Institutional inertia prevents the profession from fixing itself. Little bits of progress have been made in recognizing the system's contribution to the patient's problems. As I said before, the system needs a re-write: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545964](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19545964)

[0] What has serotonin to do with depression? - [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471964/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4471964/)

[1] [https://psychcentral.com/news/2016/06/04/low-morning- cortiso...](https://psychcentral.com/news/2016/06/04/low-morning-cortisol- levels-linked-to-psychosis/104266.html)

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia#Drug- induced](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia#Drug-induced)

[3] Anosognosia - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosognosia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anosognosia)

[4] Jared Loughner - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner#Behavior_ch...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Lee_Loughner#Behavior_change) "In the months leading up to the shooting, Loughner's parents became increasingly alarmed at their son's behavior, at one point resorting to disabling his car every night in order to keep him at home."

[5] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depo- Provera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depo-Provera)

[6] "Effects on the Hypothalmic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis: Some patients receiving medroxyprogesterone acetate may exhibit suppressed adrenal function. Medroxyprogesterone acetate may have cortisol-like glucocorticoid activity and provide negative feedback to the hypothalamus or pituitary. This may result in decreased plasma cortisol levels, decreased cortisol secretion, and low plasma ACTH levels.The use of DEPO-PROVERA Sterile Aqueous Suspension may, due to its cortisol-like glucocorticoid activity, also produce Cushingoid symptoms such as weight gain, edema/fluid retention, and facial swelling." \- [https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/01...](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/012541s086lbl.pdf)

[7] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance- induced_psychosis#Su...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance- induced_psychosis#Substances) \- "Alcohol is a common cause of psychotic disorders or episodes, which may occur through acute intoxication, chronic alcoholism, withdrawal, exacerbation of existing disorders, or acute idiosyncratic reactions. Research has shown that alcohol abuse causes an 8-fold increased risk of psychotic disorders in men and a 3 fold increased risk of psychotic disorders in women. While the vast majority of cases are acute and resolve fairly quickly upon treatment and/or abstinence, they can occasionally become chronic and persistent. _Alcoholic psychosis is sometimes misdiagnosed as another mental illness such as schizophrenia._ " (emphasis added)

(edit: added reference [7])

</comment><comment><USER26> I dislike psychiatry grossly because the victims of the field are not compensated by how the errors destroy the victim's life.

I'm a person who was medicated with the older & new generation of antipsychotics for two years of my early 20s because I was suffering religious conversion therapy "best I can describe it" from family and where I was in circumstances any other person would have great amounts of stress. The outcome of unfortunate events made me with a doctor who disliked me for desiring to be a woman (I was born a male) and attempted to convince me it's delusions & hallucinations; when I attempted to communicate I never suffered from either. The medication would result in me doubting myself but I eventually broke away from it all. It was impossible to find anyone to help sue for the tremendous pain (I still suffer to this day from it all) and it's been many years since it all happened.

Anyway I deeply believe there should be a special hell for people who go into this field but I doubt anyone had any will in the outcome for me being any different because I've read philosophy on determinism since then. I think the field has done more damage than good and is a net negative with getting away with it all because of government allowing it. People prefer to believe something is good and when it really isn't.

<comment><USER27> There is a book "A Road Back from Schizophrenia: A Memoir"[1]. Arnhild Lauveng came back from schizophrenia, got a degree in psychology and wrote the book, describing how it feels to have a schizophrenia. She describes doctors too. A bad ones and also those, who helped her to get back from schizophrenia.

I believe you would like that book, her experiences are like yours.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Road-Back-Schizophrenia- Memoir/dp/161...](https://www.amazon.com/Road-Back-Schizophrenia- Memoir/dp/1616088710)

<comment><USER26> No, the experience was meaningless like life and nothing more than torture. I believe the field will die slowly and my life was worthless. I plan to act on suicide in the near future because of the torture.

<comment><USER27> The meaning of your experiences is what you make from it. It is the reason why I suggest you reading this book. A similar experience through different eyes. A psychologist probably might say about a therapeutic effect of this, but I'm not a consulting psychologist, so I rather say in a technical terms: it is hard to find meaning having just one point of data. You need at least two to draw a line.

By the way, did he disliked you because of your desire to be a woman, or for some other reason?

 _> I plan to act on suicide in the near future because of the torture._

It makes hard to me to speak with you. It feels like a minefield, one wrong step, one wrong word and I became a cause of someone's death.

I'll try to ignore that. Why are you suffering now? If I understood you right, torture ended at least a few years ago. Some kind of "flashbacks"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Most mental health workers know that the popular conceptions about what schizophrenia is and how its managed are wrong.

</comment><comment><USER29> Much, if not all, of mental health is based on theories and assumptions."

"It's thought that..." when referring to how medications work.

Let's just agree that we all know nothing about mental health.

<comment><USER8> We know a lot.

If there is a comprehensive theory it is that mental disorders and developmental disabilities come in layers.

You might have a genetic predisposition to certain problems, have that exacerbated by traumas, but learn how to compensate for them in some ways. You might do badly at certain things or certain situations but if you have support from other people, understand the difficulty, etc. you can do O.K.

The big trouble I think is that mental illness and developmental disabilities interact with the expectations that people have about others.

For instance much of the satisfaction parents get out of parenting is using their children as "self objects"; they want to dress them up, show them off, bask in their accomplishments, etc. An autistic child can't do that for them and they find that hard to accept.

The marketing of SSRI's is also distorted. They are prescribed a lot by primary care docs who need to be on top of a wide range of medical problems and can't be experts on mental health too. That is a good thing because they help people and it can be hard to get real help from a specialist.

Depression has many symptoms and for many people SSRIs help some symptoms but not others. For me, for instance, SSRIs help me control my emotions in situations where I might get overwhelmed and yell at people. I believe that they increase my self-control as opposed to suppress my emotions.

I have other symptoms that SSRIs don't help with, but I do feel like they've helped me a lot at being a parent.

<comment><USER2> _> We know a lot._

Yet we know very little, like, we knew how to make fire before Lavoiser discovered the role of Oxygen in combustion.

The various paradigms we use are approximate, not unlike humor and miasma theories were of some help before we understood physiology and discovered the existence of germs.

The main theories of the 20th century (psychoanalysis and chemical imbalance) have been steadily eroded by research, but are still have far too much importance in clinic.

 _> You might have a genetic predisposition to certain problems, have that exacerbated by traumas._

Once we understand what genes and genes circuits are involved, and how trauma makes it worse, we'll be getting somewhere.

<comment><USER8> On some level.

There is a lot of social complexity that means we may not take advantage of those facts. For instance we might get better drugs and other treatments but will that really help the people who are crapping on the street in San Francisco?

Autism in particular challenges the assumptions of society. The one thing aspies really can't do is "see the emperor's clothes". In asperger's day they did not get along well with National Socialism, today they have problems with neoliberalism.

You might fantasize that getting real help for aspies would increase their productivity a lot, mean they pay more taxes and make the help profitable for society, maybe even bend the curve of our civilization.

From another viewpoint there is more talent than there is opportunity. Maybe Aspies are 1% of the people in the top 2% of IQ, salvaging them means a small increase of the talent pool, and if you at the top of some insanely competitive pyramid (etc. academia, business) why spend money to make it more competitive for your kids...

Similarly, social structures tend to constrain the performance of science. We create the script that there is a "depression gene" and people build a career around that, maybe somebody wins a Nobel Prize, but really science is "what scientists do" and is about making stories that make sense to some people at a certain time and saying that some people are winners and others are losers. Go look at a Cochraine report on this or that and you'll see that 5000 studies got done, maybe 5 of those were done right, and there aren't enough samples to really be conclusive.

Astronomy is like this. We "know a lot" but every time somebody does a new study of Cepheid variables we find the cosmic distance scale isn't what we thought it was, the cosmological models are broken, etc.

That is, science manufactures a certainty that isn't there. "Reason" is often a label people use to attack other people. "Reason" magazine for instance has that name to say that socialists, labor unions, regulators, etc. are not "reasonable" and shouldn't be listened to.

<comment><USER2> The social aspects are also off course crucial. I'm lucky enough to live in a country with a social safety net that's stronger than what you have in the US (there are still homeless folks, but psychiatric care is free in France). Still, I'm well aware that mental care is a luxury.

Psychoanalysis is still very potent here though. The mothers of autistic and schizophrenic people were, for decades, vilified as responsible for the problems of their children.

A friend of mine who was anorexic for years had to endure cruel and demeaning treatments (based on Freudian BS). As she said: "As if it were funny to lose all those kilos :-/".

It's recently been found that, at least in some cases, anorexia is the result of auto-antibodies that stimulate the melanocortin receptor in the brain (the main satiety hormone). Those antibodies occur due to a cross-reaction with a protein secreted by E. Coli (CLPB). Bulimia and binge eating can have the same pathophysiology (where the antibodies block the receptor instead of activating it). Yet my friend was treated as if she was making it up, "to ultimately affirm herself".</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Dear FFC, - <AUTHOR> https://dearfcc.org/?1

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure if the cookie cutter form letter has less impact than other approaches, but I liked that it made me consider my personal reasons for supporting net neutrality:

The success of the internet and the incredible rate of its innovation result largely from its great equality -- that it is difficult for large corporations to entrench themselves to the detriment of disruptive innovators. Net neutrality is a central reason for that equality, the idea that there is no way for ISPs to become gatekeepers that can auction access, offering a legal means for converting money into a moat that needlessly raises the bar for entering the market. The internet is a powerful societal force, and giving ISPs pernicious influence in how content is propagated seems a dangerous step in conflict with the equality and freedom that has thus far characterized the internet.

<comment><USER2> Thank you for your post here, jal. I hope many take heed, I know I am.

There's also this as well:

Call FCC - *please be courteous

1\. Dial 888-225-5322

2\. push 1, 4, 0

3\. a person will answer.

4\. they will ask for your name and address. you can just give them a zip code if you want.

5\. "I'm calling to ask the FCC to reclassify Internet Service Providers as Title Two Common Carriers."

6\. They'll ask if there is anything else you would like to add.

7\. "No, Thank you for your time."

8\. hang up.

<comment><USER3> A recording at that number now asks people to email their concerns to email@example.com

It only takes a minute to dash off a message... Don't forget to include your zip code.

Also- Consider where else you could post this email address.

<comment><USER2> Thank you for the head's up, reneherse!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> s/FFC/FCC/

</comment><comment><USER5> I like the idea, the problem would be the let my address publicly available to everyone.

<comment><USER6> that's what public comment is.</comment></comment>


The "legal blackmail" business: inside a P2P settlement factory - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/09/amounts-to-blackmail-inside-a-p2p-settlement-letter-factory.ars

<comment><USER2> Not to nitpick. But wasn't the operation actually named "Payback is a bitch" ?

While I absolutely don't endorse free for all when it comes to copyright(ed) works I'd be hard pressed to feel sorry for Mr. Crossley, which, if I'm correctly informed, made his email stash and those 4000 email addresses (with the list of porn titles, they are accused of sharing illegally) freely available on his web server as a zip file upon restoring it from 4chans DDOS attack.

A public tarring and feathering seems in order in this case.</comment>


WHO official refuses to acknowledge Taiwan during bizarre interview - <AUTHOR> https://www.foxnews.com/media/who-china-taiwan-interview <comment><USER2> Video of the incident [1].

The interviewed WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward has his biography removed from the WHO's leadership webpage after the interview [2].

[1]: [https://twitter.com/emilyrauhala/status/1243905923048976384](https://twitter.com/emilyrauhala/status/1243905923048976384)

[2]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Aylward#Controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Aylward#Controversy)

<comment><USER3> This is some truly bizarre nonsense. Like if it wasn't truly incompetent, it might give me that "are you trying to gaslight me?" vibe... but it is some extremely naive nonsense on the part of this guy. Fake out, hang up, then panic, pretend, and plunge his head into the sand to complete the cartoonish ostrich impression as he cuts it short and hangs up on the interviewer.

I encourage people to watch the linked video here if they haven't already.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Muxamp, a unified playlist for YouTube and SoundCloud - <AUTHOR> Muxamp is a unified playlist that lets you search for and play YouTube and SoundCloud media back-to-back. It is my first web app, written entirely in JavaScript (thanks to Node.JS).
Link: http://muxamp.com/
Features:
* Easy track search
* Drag and drop playlist rearrangement
* Sharing your playlist is as easy as copy-pasting the URL
* Attractive UI, thanks to Bootstrap and CSS
* Free, no sign-up required
This is a personal project of mine that I used to learn more about JavaScript and web programming. Feedback is appreciated! (Tell me if it sucks or not.)
This project is hosted by Nodester (http://nodester.com).
Thanks for reading! -Robert <comment><USER2> Hello Robert,

As an avid music fan and a self-taught web-developer/designer) I've been having thoughts of building something similar to SoundCloud/YouTube integration for a while now (since the end of 2010 already, to be honest). However, it was just recently I came to a conclusion that it could be worth building, since Spotify, Rdio nor any other music streaming service doesn't seem to moving in this direction. The service should probably have to include Dropbox integration and "collaborative listening" as well in order to gain some kind of competitive edge.

Anyhow: is it okay to email you the design ideas I have so far?

\- Andrus

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Andrus,

Thanks for the interest in my project! I am glad to hear that there are other developers interested in creating music streaming solutions, but I am not looking to compete with other sites at the moment. This is a personal project, and I don't view it from a business standpoint.

<comment><USER2> I see, no problem. The more the merrier, I suppose.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> very cool! it'd be nice to import playlists from youtube and favorites from soundcloud, and even save stuff back to them.

i'm building something very similar, but as a native mac app that lives in the menu bar: <http://cloudplay.fm> \-- competition in this space is definitely good :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi Amir! Thanks for your kind words. You're right, there is definitely potential for user interaction of that sort, and considering those features are further down the line. I am happy so far to have published my code and made it look presentable. I look forward to seeing what you develop (iTunes integration is a great feature), but since I don't use a Mac I won't be using it. You have a great idea, and I wish you luck! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Nice work... Thanks for sharing.

The only question I have is if the playlist URL might become problematic with longer lists? That might mean you would have to persist something serverside, but otherwise, very slick!

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, most browsers recommend using URLs < 2048 characters (particularly a problem for IE), so it is a problem for larger playlists. That's due to the way I'm choosing to iterate on the application. I wanted to get the site off the ground and enable URL sharing without getting bogged down in DB design. I consider that part outside the MVP. Thanks for checking out the app!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Text link: <http://muxamp.com/></comment>


Ask HN: How should I gain project management experience? - <AUTHOR>

I worked for Microsoft for a year as a Windows 7 trainer, finished my degree in computer science, then took a good job outside of IT as that was the best thing available.
How do I stop myself from de-skilling in IT, and gain the experience needed to be a project manager (or Program Manager) whilst working full-time in an unrelated industry?
I don't just want to halve my salary and go back into a server admin job to 'work my way up', but I can't afford to do huge courses in project management. What should I do? <comment><USER2> I think we have to define the reason behind your desire here: are you looking for relevant work experience for the function of procuring a job, or are you looking to educate yourself in that area so you can personally become better at it?

If it is the latter, I would suggest that you find some local organization or non-profit groups that you could become a board member of. Obviously a group that does project-oriented things would be best, but festivals, film festivals or groups that hold fund-raising activities are all good places to get your feet wet in terms of managing a project and leading teams of people. It can also be an excellent networking opportunity, and the _right_ employers look at voluntarism as a big plus, especially if you can use it to demonstrate leadership skill. Who knows, there may even be some larger groups or not-for profits that could benefit from some IT skills as well.</comment>


Coronavirus: China suspends tours abroad as Xi warns of "grave situation" - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html <comment><USER2> Historically the Communist regime has controlled the narrative tightly. If they say the situation is "grave" its probably apocalyptic.

edit: 58 mil chinese in lockdown ->[https://www.zerohedge.com/political/56-million-chinese- lockd...](https://www.zerohedge.com/political/56-million-chinese-lockdown- virus-spreads-australia-malaysia)</comment>


How to End This Pandemic - <AUTHOR> https://www.virology.ws/2020/08/06/how-to-end-this-pandemic/ <comment><USER2> I'm almost embarrassed to admit this but here goes. I think there is a protocol to end the pandemic [0]. I'm taking it, and I'm certain it will help me lessen my chances of getting covid-19. It's straight forward: A daily dose of zinc, vitamin D,C,A, and a zinc ionophore (in my case quercetin). Happy for someone to burst my bubble and set me straight.

[0] [https://knowledgeofhealth.com/modern-medicine-knew-zinc- cure...](https://knowledgeofhealth.com/modern-medicine-knew-zinc-cure- coronavirus/)</comment>


Any Beta Tester? - <AUTHOR> https://cloud.komiser.io <comment> chupa-chups You probably wanted to link to:

[https://komiser.io](https://komiser.io)

since the link you provided gives no information whatsoever what is going on :)

<comment><USER2> Definitely. I came here to write "no, because it doesn't even explain what it is about."

Starting from the home page it looks like an interesting service.</comment></comment>


Glassbooth: Semantic matching of your views with presidential candidate - <AUTHOR> http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/glassbooth-matches-views-closest-presidential-candidate/

<comment><USER2> How is this semantic matching? Seems to me another pop-quiz.</comment>


General Assembly cofounder's next startup is a coliving company - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/3047371/general-assembly-cofounders-next-startup-is-a-co-living-company

<comment><USER2> Sounds like it would be a lot of fun and a great chance for bootcamp students (or anyone relevant) to keep a good learning environment. I just hope their execution goes well.</comment>


On Generators - <AUTHOR> http://wingolog.org/archives/2013/02/25/on-generators

<comment><USER2> Wow, what a terrible article.

There's zero context for what he's talking about. And he doesn't help much by going off on a million tangents and trying really hard to be cool.

And opening with "Hello! Is this dog?", a bunch of empty space, and then half a picture of an old meme is kind of dumb. I mean, I had to scroll down a screen just to find out the article was confusing and written badly.

<comment><USER3> It's a blog post, not a wikipedia article. Andy has a fairly large, already established audience, so being conversational and launching directly into a topic is fine, as is including a picture if he wants to (the white space just seems to be a formatting issue due to his skinny template). Even if you hate the image, I'm not sure why a small amount of scrolling rained on your day so much.

If you stick with the article for just a minute you get plenty of context, and if you're still confused, there are a ton of links in there to find out more. The million tangents is his usual style, and maybe not for everyone. However, the article is a comparison of _specific_ implementations of generators (to give insight to the ES6 proposals) and a review of new iterator literature, with a bit of an introduction to them to get everyone on the same page. There are plenty of more gentle introductions to generators; this really isn't for the same audience.

I found it to be quite a good article, insightful like just about every other post he writes. This is exactly the kind of content I wish there was more of being produced. Usually you can only piece together the kind of stuff he has in his blog from random forum comments (or by reading the V8/JavaScriptCore/Guile source, in Andy's case), as you rarely get JIT compiler implementors actually blogging.</comment></comment>