40-Thread Xeon PC Build for Less Than the Price of a Broadwell-E Core I7 - <AUTHOR> http://www.techspot.com/review/1218-affordable-40-thread-xeon-monster-pc/ <comment><USER2> Their use of Intel ES (engineering sample) chips seems a bit questionable, though I've read that people usually have success with them.

From [http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/00...](http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/processors/000005719.html):

-Intel ES Processors are the sole property of Intel.

-Intel ES Processors are Intel Confidential.

-Intel ES Processors are provided by Intel under nondisclosure and/or special loan agreement terms with restrictions on the recipient's handling and use.

-Intel ES Processors are not for sale or re-sale.

-Intel ES Processors may not have passed commercial regulatory requirements.

-ES Processors are not covered under Intel warranty and are generally not supported by Intel

They're also occasionally earlier steppings of the chip than the production version and may have some hidden issues. _Caveat emptor_.

<comment><USER3> What would be interesting is the "NDA" spec updates for these chips.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The trick is the Xeons are an older generation and/or Engineering Samples rather than retail processors.

The result is more, slower threads.

For some workloads, that's a good trade-off. Probably not for videogames, though, where single-thread performance is still very important. Games haven't really utilized more than one CPU well until quite recently. Even a quad core is overkill.

<comment><USER5> I built one of the dual E5-2570 PCs, put in a GTX 1080 and all latest games run very good on maximum graphics settings.

I get the same results as what I see in other tests with GTX 1080 and 6700K. So I can't confirm that there would be any real performance impact on games with such a setup... Even if I get lower results, it is marginal and way over 60FPS (2560 resolution)

<comment><USER6> You will probably get the same results with an i5-2500k too. Most games don't use that many cores.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I still have a 2500k at 4.6 with no over-volting on air. I wish I had an m2 SSD, but with the GTX1080 and a new 4K IPS TV which also does 120hz at 1080p (Vizio p55-c1, but read the rtings.com review about the lack of true 4:4:4 chroma if you're considering this one), it's been great for 4K and fast action gaming at high frame rates. Has no problem holding 120fps at 1080 with max settings in Overwatch, though I tone some effects down to make it less distracting and easier to spot baddies.

It's crazy to me that this old CPU is still all I need, but the ROI from an upgrade just wasn't worth it. Going from 2X Radeon 6870 to the GTX1080 was a huge performance boost, though, and I'll never deal with multi-GPU again if I can avoid it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I did this recently, costs/specs:

Case + Mobo + Heatsinks + PSU: $740

2x E5-2670v1 (8c/16t ea, not ES): $120

128GB DDR3 Ram: $240

6x 4TB 2.5in Disks: $650

Total cost: $1750

Motherboard has 2x 10GbE, 16x port LSI SAS/SATA controller. Case is a 2U, 24x 2.5in bay, with 2x 920W Platinum quiet PSUs. With a larger budget 256GB of ram and 2x 14c/28t CPUs are pretty reasonable (~$1000 more)

<comment><USER9> 128GB RAM for $270? How is this possible?

<comment><USER8> Go nuts: [http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-128GB-16x-8GB- RAM-2RX4-PC3L-...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-128GB-16x-8GB- RAM-2RX4-PC3L-12800R-DDR3-1600Mhz-ECC-Server-REG- Memory-/371597641105?hash=item5684f20591:g:FCgAAOSwiylXC2II)

It was actually on sale for $237.50 when I bought it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> According to Linus Tech Tips on the Wan Show the reason why the Broadwell-E is so unattractive when compared to Xeon chips is that they don't want to cannibalize their Xeon processors for workstation so the 6950X is something that you don't get much of a tangible performance boost per $. See [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfj- Rq9bX40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfj-Rq9bX40) and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-9N6rzQ_3M#](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-9N6rzQ_3M#)

</comment><comment><USER11> at 14nm Intel does 16 cores on the same silicon at it was doing 4 core at 32nm. If Intel had competition, those 16 cores would be at the same price of $300 everywhere. Moore law just doesn't work that efficiently without competition.

</comment><comment><USER12> On the other (far more practical, IMO) end of the spectrum, I'm impressed by the $200 35W quad core i5-6600T ([http://ark.intel.com/products/88200](http://ark.intel.com/products/88200)). To me that's the sweet spot in a home/workstation setting.

<comment><USER8> TDP aside, you can get a used E5-2670v1 (8c/16t) @ 2.6Ghz for $60... The low- power "L" model Xeon's are also available.

<comment><USER12> Interesting option, especially if you live in a cold climate :)

Hard to imagine a cooling setup for these that is not at least a bit noisy, especially since most affordable PSUs and fans will be meant for servers and therefore noisy. Good if you have a ventilated closet nearby, not so good otherwise.

<comment><USER8> I have 2 of them running in the closet next to my bed, can barely hear it if I'm not maxing out the CPU. At max fan speed, sure, it's pretty darn loud. One could do better with a large case and larger, quieter fans.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does anyone know of any other high thread count builds on the cheap?

</comment><comment><USER14> > a single copy of HandBrake can't fully utilize 40-threads

That's it. I prefer a few fast threads instead of bunch of slow ones. That's why Xeons are server CPUs and workstation editions (W) ussually have much less threads - it's hard to utilize all of them.

</comment><comment><USER15> You could make a very nice 'private cloud' with this machine, or even a 20-core setup if 64GB of RAM is what's going to bottleneck you.</comment>


Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Pick Up a Shift at Dairy Queen [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQWkNXr2ujI <comment><USER2> You figure in the thirty minutes that Bill and Warren spent 'working' at that Dairy Queen their wealth probably increased by more than every employee in the entire chain combined will earn this year!</comment>


Parents Ready for Some Love from Silicon Valley Companies - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/us/parents-ready-for-some-love-from-silicon-valley-companies.html <comment><USER2> This is great. That said, is it also time for child-less employees to get some love as well?

For example, its very difficult (aka impossible) to get equivalent leave as a child-less employee to pursue our passions for a month or two.

Note: I am not talking about taking a vacation. I am talking about taking leave to go volunteer in a literacy program (in my case).

Said another way, why is leave tied to having kids?

<comment><USER3> Leave is tied to having children because having children means you can't walk away or take a break. The time off with your child isn't time you get to choose - instead, you're at the beck and call of a helpless human who relies on you for everything.

In your example, if you were sick or didn't feel like it for the day, you could just choose not to go in. You simply don't get that choice with kids.

<comment><USER4> > The time off with your child isn't time you get to choose - instead, you're > at the beck and call of a helpless human who relies on you for everything.

You chose to have a child. Why should our employer subsidize that choice any more than my choice to go to India for a few months to 'find myself' or whatever.

<comment><USER5> A co-worker explained it thusly: if you want to attract folks who have (or plan to have) children, you have to offer them a way to do so while working for you... Or they'll go with a different employer who does. Of course, in the past it's been common for NO ONE to offer such benefits, which also works. If you simply don't care about attracting parents, you can not offer these benefits (though nowdays you'll be limited in how much you can cut them by various employment laws).

If you want a job that gives you a few months off every year or so to go on a spiritual journey, then your best bet is to negotiate that up-front, keeping in mind that - like parents - you'll be reducing the number of places willing to hire you by doing so.

Don't like it? I don't blame you. But I can tell you about plenty of folks who lost their jobs when they had kids and didn't like it either.

<comment><USER6> > if you want to attract folks who have (or plan to have) children, you have > to offer them a way to do so while working for you...

Thanks to modern science and moral bankruptcy, you can do this for a small fee. See [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/magazine/30Surrogate-t.htm...](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/magazine/30Surrogate-t.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Firefox tracking protection decreases page load time by 44% - <AUTHOR> http://monica-at-mozilla.blogspot.com/2015/05/tracking-protection-for-firefox-at-web.html <comment><USER2> Man, ads are great. They allow content to be targeted towards people that could potentially not afford the content and towards people that might not necessarily use the product normally. The world is already significantly divided by wealth. Assuming someone poor even has access to a service like Google, imagine if it was behind a paywall. Could they afford it? If not imagine how much of a life advantage someone wealthier has over those would can not afford it. Your idealistic 'superior' ad free world is as alienating and as segregated as Silicon Valley is...

<comment><USER3> The whole point of ads is to convince people to buy things that they may otherwise not. That seems like the opposite of helping poor people. Also, if you are struggling financially, ad supported "content" is probably not a major concern in your life, and certainly not a solution to your problems.

<comment><USER4> "If I were starting life over again, I am inclined to think that I would go into the advertising business in preference to almost any other. The general raising of standards of modern civilization among all groups of people during the past half-century would have been impossible without that spreading of the knowledge of higher standards by means of advertising."

\- Franklin D. Roosevelt

<comment><USER5> That was a time before modern communications technology made it very easy for knowledge of higher standards to spread naturally, and a time of much less dangerous advertising. Advertisers today literally use brain scanners to design adverts that manipulate people most effectively. See: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromarketing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromarketing) And advertisers have the ability to test and refine their ads far beyond what advertisers of Roosevelt's time could do, using tracking that would be considered stalker behaviour if an individual did it. If advertising reverted to 1930s level there'd be much less need to defend yourself from it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "To enable Tracking Protection in Firefox 35 and later, visit about:config and set privacy.trackingprotection.enabled to true"

Edits -

This quote from the article is interesting, especially considering Google the worlds biggest advertising industry company also has a browser.

"That Firefox is first and foremost a user-agent, not an industry-agent"

<comment><USER7> The thing I don't understand: why not just make the "Do Not Track" switch set this, as well as sending the eponymous header? The user has stated an intent to not be tracked... so help them accomplish that!

(In the same sense, I'm surprised that "incognito browsing" windows don't implicitly download a Tor "component" and route through it, the same way DRMed <video> elements implicitly download the Adobe DRM component.)

<comment><USER8> The GNU IceCat web browser (derivative of Firefox) does that with Tor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's interesting to think of this as a nuclear option for Firefox. The only incentive they have not to turn it on immediately is that it could poison relationships with site owners such that they stop testing their sites on Firefox or outright block Firefox users, but if Firefox market share ever diminished to the point where site owners were _already_ neglecting Firefox then I see no reason why Mozilla wouldn't damn the torpedoes, start aping Chrome's UA, and turn this on by default. It would be a compelling value proposition at the expense of a lot of mysteriously broken sites (though I wonder how many of those sites would be just as broken for Chrome users running AdBlock). It's also literally the only feature that Chrome can never, ever, ever, ever gain, due to obliterating Google's revenue model (which, actually, makes it intriguing to entertain the notion of Microsoft and Apple following suit for precisely this reason).

<comment><USER10> Mozilla could also implement shims, to make sites continue to work. So if a site breaks because it makes a call to a tracking library but that's now throwing an error, just provide that same tracking library's functions, but obviously they won't do anything.

This would at least fix sites that aren't going out of their way to break things.

<comment><USER11> While the shim idea is interesting, I suspect we could get a lot of privacy _and_ working websites by hard-caching anything that even remotely looks like jquery and all the other well-known js libraries. (and do the same thing for fonts).

It's trivial to implement - just ship a list of hashes for every published js library on all the popular CDNs (+ anywhere else that comes to midn), and if a HTTP request returns a file that matches one of those hashes, put that URL on a hard cache list. (it would be worht experimenting if wildcarding all query strings is feasible)

The only UI change needed would be a menu option to flush the cache for any files associated with current page, so the user can simply reload any website that hasn't figured out how to version their js files.

This method wouldn't fix everything, of course, but it would cover a lot. Additionally, it's easy to use, no copyright is violated (the user still downloads any cached file at least once - firefox would only ship hashes). and it would be trivial to extend in the future.

<comment><USER12> Wouldn't lying be a better option to protect from finger printing ? Like: "what font's do you have" and just return a generic list ?

<comment><USER11> There isn't much to fingerprint when you cache a font or javascript library approximately forever. Of course it is a huge data leak to ever let the remote server enumerate fonts, but my ideas is attempting to accommodate the idea that interesting fonts _can_ be used, while the only extra network traffic should be the font down load on first request.

I acknowledge that it isn't perfect. Someone who is really determined could (and will) send HTML with unique URLs for every javasscript/css/whatever, effectively making a cache useless. That takes proactive effort on their part, though, and in the meantime there is a lot of low-hanging-fruit.

For example, currently Google can track those of use that ban google-analytics at the router when we load any non-Google page that requests jquery fron Google's CDN. Limiting that to "about one" load to fill the cache would be easy and help in the short term..

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For those wondering what Firefox tracking protection is - [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection- fir...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection-firefox)

From my, very quick, tests it appears to work quite well as a poor man's adblocker as well. Nice!

<comment><USER9> Just last week I opted in to Firefox's multiprocess branch, and one of my biggest complaints is that this breaks pretty much every extension. I eagerly welcome this if it can replace Ghostery.

<comment><USER14> Out of curiosity, which extensions are broken for you?

I've been running multiprocess Firefox as well, and every extension that I use regularly still works. The only exception was Vimperator, so I had to write my own extension to give Vim keybindings[0], since none of the others support e10s.

I'm curious which extensions have given you trouble, since Ghostery, NoScript, and uBlock all work for me (at least for the most part).

 _EDIT_ : I forgot that some extensions may need to be disabled/re-enabled the very first time after enabling e10s[1].

[0] [https://github.com/ChimeraCoder/electrovim](https://github.com/ChimeraCoder/electrovim)

[1] [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=947030](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=947030)

<comment><USER15> [http://arewee10syet.com/](http://arewee10syet.com/) Ad blockers, password managers, and download helpers seem to be the most commonly broken.

<comment><USER16> ublock origin and umatrix work fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > _Advertising does not make content free. It merely externalizes the costs in > a way that incentivizes malicious or incompetent players to build things > like Superfish, infect 1 in 20 machines with ad injection malware, and > create sites that require unsafe plugins and take twice as many resources to > load, quite expensive in terms of bandwidth, power, and stability._

That's a good point. Reminds me of "coal energy is cheap"...except for the millions of people it's killing or the billions of dollars paid in healthcare costs. And that's without mentioning coal is usually heavily subsidized by taxpayer money.

In the same way advertising that's more and more focused on monitoring everything you do or _say_ online (thanks to all the companies that don't want to enable end-to-end encryption in their IM's - Google, Microsoft, etc) is causing a lot of harm as well.

<comment><USER18> What harm is targeting causing?

Users constantly complain that ads are not relevant, so it's either/or...

<comment><USER19> Objective harm, I don't know of any. But there's a long list of people out there with a relation of everything I brought on the last few years... Still, they mean me no harm... today... and the data is useless for attacking me... today.

Anyway, now I can think about some harm. Since they got their data, ads have become less relevant (yes, those people are extremely incompetent). But that isn't much of a trouble.

<comment><USER18> Social networks like Facebook keep far more information than any ad network. Most networks usually purge data beyond 30-60 days because it is no longer relevant for targeting. And Facebook doesn't have to scrape any info since people supply it willing.

My point: Privacy issues are somewhat pointed at the wrong institutions who really aren't a threat.

<comment><USER19> Having something worse around does not make ad networks better.

Yes, Facebook is a bigger problem. State level universal surveillance is even bigger. Fighting any one of the three is worthwhile.

<comment><USER18> I think you skipped the part that ad networks only keep about 30-60 days of data. Keeping things forever doesn't help when targeting ads to user intent, which changes pretty frequently. It's also anonymized and we don't have personal information like names or addresses. You're also discounting the value it brings to lots of consumers, marketers and website publishers alike to have relevant messages.

I really dont understand this argument of privacy as if everyone was living off the grid somewhere. What is the impetus here? And in context of web publishers, if you dont want ads then you'd have to pay for content directly, which is no more private and in fact reveals even more info.

The reason you use a credit card and not cash during real transactions is because you care more about value and convenience than privacy, so why are ads online such a target of all this?

<comment><USER19> Look, I'm one of those few people that likes ads. I get how ads subsidizes free things, but well, it doesn't really matter because I like good ads by themselves.

Yet, I block ads on most sites because I don't like being tracked. The argument is quite simple. I don't know you (ad network), and I don't want you to watch everything I do. I'm pretty sure you won't do anything bad with that data, but I don't like it anyway.

I'm quite ok with my bank knowing what I spend money on, because I do know them, I have a choice on what bank to use, and because the service they provide me does require that data. None of that is exactly true for ads.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> As a user of NoScript + Firefox and as a developer of a browser with an express goal of "privacy by default"[1], I am thrilled to see this getting more attention. The more people use privacy features, the more will _website developers_ ensure that their products degrade gracefully when, for example, third-party scripts are disabled. Which will enable even more users to migrate towards a "privacy by default" configuration. And hopefully, this will be a positive feedback cycle.

1: [https://gngr.info/doc/introduction.html](https://gngr.info/doc/introduction.html)

<comment><USER21> I use ublock with firefox. I worry the opposite will happen:

When a website doesn't work, you can look at the specific blocked domains and types of content and selectively unblock for the current domain, or you can be lazy and just turn off ublock for the current domain.

I worry that if tracking/ad blockers become very popular, then websites that don't work will be _rewarded_ with all the tracking/ad blocking being turned off by most people.

I used to just use flashblock for click-to-play. I like the simplicity of that - it attacks the biggest problem in a totally generic way, and if the main content is flash, you can almost always just click on it.

<comment><USER22> for powerusers µMatrix may be a better choice than µBlock, it allows you to selectively allow/disallow specific content types from 3rd party domains.

E.g. this thread's article requests a lot more than what it needs to be readable:

[http://i.imgur.com/wPML2lM.png](http://i.imgur.com/wPML2lM.png)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I would love for Mozilla to find other means of funding online content besides advertising. In either case I'd love to see them take a hard stance on privacy and against tracking.

They should block trackers that have no effect on website features and restrict and monitor the ones that do effect features.

...and this is another reason Mozilla needs to have their own search engine. They could have much greater influence on these this things if they had the ability to punish bad behaving websites.

<comment><USER24> What is this "content" you speak of, that must be funded through advertising? I checked the internet, and have been able to find very little worthwhile ad- supported content.

<comment><USER25> You must be very selective. I'm curious how you'd feel if it turned out most of Ycombinator's successful ventures depended upon advertising; thereby supporting this very site and community.

<comment><USER26> DropBox? AirBnB?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The following post has some facts: [https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/11/12/quantifying-...](https://blog.mozilla.org/nnethercote/2014/11/12/quantifying- the-effects-of-firefoxs-tracking-protection/)

</comment><comment><USER28> This is no news to anybody that ever tried an ad blocker, a proxy/content filter or even a generic hosts file. The difference is very noticeable. In fact, it's the main reason I run such filters. The difference is not only in traffic saved/lower latency, but also much lower cpu usage.

However, this it would be a bit hypocritical for Mozilla (and probably the reason why the filter is off by default). Firefox is not much better than Chrome when it comes to phoning home and privacy invading features. Heck, on mobile it's even worse.

What about disabling by default "beacon.enabled" for a start? Contrarily to massive ad blocking, nobody would notice. Err, maybe these ad networks would? Oops.

At every new Firefox release I do a tour of new settings/flags and it's saddening how many times I have to switch something off.

<comment><USER29> Can you elaborate further on the various ways Firefox phones home? I'd like to take steps on my machine to disable if possible. Thanks.

<comment><USER30> I don't have Firefox open now, but I remember there are three such options in Preferences > Advanced > the second tab from the left. I think two of them are checked by default – they involve sending anonymous usage information. You can uncheck the checkboxes to disable them.

On the second launch after a new install or new profile creation, Firefox shows a notification bar about these settings with a button to quickly change them. I don't remember how long ago those settings were added, nor whether they showed the notification bar for those updates.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I find the second part of the post especially interesting. Money makes the world go round. Mozilla as we all isn't immnune to this. The problem however is the huge amount of control the handfull of big global players have gained and still gain. Small local businesses have no chance. Top pick at Google wins. Trend scouting and more importantly trend creation get's customers. Advertising works through our unconcious mind. We can't decide to ignore ads, they will influence us. Also, Mozilla will or if the deals are signed has already lost it's independence irreversibly.

See also this small thread about the new advertising through suggested tabs.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9586073](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9586073)

</comment><comment><USER32> If you want to turn on (enable) tracking protection in FF, hit the following link [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection- fir...](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-protection-firefox)

Or do this:

1\. in the address bar type _about:config_ , press return

2\. search for _privacy.trackingprotection.enabled_

3\. change the value to _true_

4\. all done

<comment><USER33> Thanks, this works on Mobile Firefox versions also!

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> In a not too distant future there will be a Mozilla browser with servo and a no tracking option. I'll leave chrome after several years and never look back.

</comment><comment><USER35> I'm surprised that Mozilla didn't enable this feature by default. They're either serious about differentiating themselves on the privacy front, or not. It's the every day users who need this protection, not the more advanced users who probably already use an adblock extension.

<comment><USER36> They're very cautiously dipping their toe in the water given the holy shitstorm that happened a couple years ago when they announced they were going to block third party cookies by default. I imagine that doing it this way means they can show metrics that blocking in this way doesn't meaningfully affect bottom lines.

<comment><USER37> Still makes me wonder why Safari can block third party cookies by default, while Mozilla can't.

<comment><USER38> Safari doesn't. They advertise that they do but the policy is riddled with heuristic exemptions added in as they tried to fix broken websites. This (IMO dishonest) behaviour is what led to the Murdoch-driven blowup about Google and ad tracking a few years ago - Google was using one of these workarounds when the user had opted in to ad tracking and it ended up disabling more of the safari cookie blocking logic than they expected. This undocumented behaviour then became Google's fault somehow, although really Safari was just not doing what it claimed it would do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Can anyone explain exactly what Firefox Tracking Protection does & doesn't do? The label "tracking protection" makes me think it might block analytics tools and retargeting/remarketing cookies, but this blog post seems to suggest that it might block advertising altogether.

<comment><USER33> Yes, it does block advertisements.

They just have a blacklist of sites that they block, it's not much more sophisticated than that from what I read. All of the localstorage, cookies, and other tracking across domains goes away if you filter requests like that. I'm sure they are doing more things, but they have to make sure it doesn't break a large number of sites, and if a site is broken it seems like an "all or nothing" allow/deny system, which is not ideal.

I use uMatrix and it defaults to blocking all 3rd party scripts unless they're globally trusted or have been trusted in the past. This creates lots of problems for many websites. Most new websites I visit I have to enable some 3rd party scripts, refresh, make sure there are not any critical javascript errors in the console, then I can properly use the site. Normal users cannot be expected to do this, they must have it work the first time or they will freak out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Weird. If browsers can detect these trackers, could an alternative be to just de-prioritize the trackers, so they load last and won't slow down page load time (since I assume they're invisible anyway?)

<comment><USER41> This should be doable for well-written trackers like Google Analytics that use script tags with the "async" attribute. In fact, those are probably already likely to load after the main content.

For ads or trackers that are embedded as img or iframe elements, I think this is also viable and could speed up page load time.

For ads or trackers that use inline scripts or non-"async" script tags to load content, the web browser has to block while loading/running the script, or risk breaking the page. Otherwise things like document.write() would have incorrect results when the script runs later.

<comment><USER40> So does this FF mode that blocks them entirely also risk breaking the pages?

<comment><USER41> Yes, it does, though for slightly different reasons. Mainly, it can break pages with first-party scripts that depend on blocked third-party scripts. I've encountered and reported a few of these while testing the feature.

<comment><USER33> I wonder how difficult it would be to duplicate the Google Analytics object with blank functions for just such scenarios.

Rather than "ga is undefined" the ga.whatever function would just return without sending any data.

Do any third-party script blocking systems do this?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> But it seems likes the data set used was that of top 200 news sites. Its my experience that media sites have around 60% of the http requests made to third parties and hence the reduction you see in load time

<comment><USER42> It will be interesting to run the same analysis on bank websites which typically have the least amount of third party

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Is this more or is it less effective than a large /etc/hosts blacklist? It doesn't seem to be doing anything special like the Privacy Badger. The only relevant sections in the paper I saw were

      We implement an API based on Google Safe Browsing, a
      mechanism for efficient URL-based blocklist updates and
      lookups [9]. We use a subset of approximately 1500 domains
      from Disconnect's privacy-oriented blocklist to identify
      these unsafe origins [10]. We update the blocklist every 45
      minutes to minimize the effects of incorrect blocklist
      entries.

      Another open challenge is applying Tracking Protection only
      to third-party content. We can avoiding cross-site tracking
      by blocking content from high-volume sites such as
      facebook.com without breaking them when visited directly.
      Heuristics such as the Public Suffix List4 can help better
      determine the set of domains that are considered first-
      party.

Would it hurt to copy their blacklist into /etc/hosts? I'd rather do it on the OS-level so I can use any browser I want, anyways.

<comment><USER44> I "did the /etc/hosts" thing for a long time. But it seemed like some things hung and tool longer sometimes. Overall /etc/hosts was a big improvement. Where are the good lists and what is the current thing you map all the bad hosts to (is it localhost, or something else?)?

<comment><USER15> It hangs because it waits to time out. It will fail faster if you set the IP to something impossible instead of merely unavailable.

<comment><USER22> 0.0.0.0 works well for that purpose since it's invalid as a remote address

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> How does this compare to something like Privacy Badger[1]? I haven't done any benchmarking, but if it causes similar slowdowns, it isn't bothersome and the benefits are definitely worth it.

[1] [https://www.eff.org/privacybadger](https://www.eff.org/privacybadger)

<comment><USER6> I'd also like a comparison with ublock and/or ghostery. It appears that this becomes enabled after the blocking plugins.

<comment><USER46> ublock is more about ads, and this is tracking.

While they usually come hand in hand, Facebook ads (eg: while on facebook) don't add additional tracking.

<comment><USER47> I specifically emphasize on the home page of the project [1]:

"uBlock Origin (or uBlock₀) is not an ad blocker; it's a general-purpose blocker."

It will report _everything_ to the user -- including behind-the-scene network requests [2].

\---

[1] [https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#philosophy](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#philosophy)

[2] [https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Behind-the-scene- netw...](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Behind-the-scene-network- requests)

<comment><USER48> So this firefox feature is just a subset of what ublock does?

BTW, thanks for ublock.

<comment><USER49> If I remember correctly from the presentation (I was at W2SP where the associated talk was given) there were unspecified performance benefits over having this outsourced to the plugin architecture. I can't download the paper right now for some reason, but I'm sure it's detailed in there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> You can measure the page load times on this webapp [http://ba.net/util/ping/any1.html](http://ba.net/util/ping/any1.html)

</comment><comment><USER51> Firefox: my new favorite browser.

</comment><comment><USER52> I'm running noscript, ghostery, addblock, and a few others.

pages might load faster, but not every page loads. Ironically, the linked article is one of them.

</comment><comment><USER53> I justed visited [https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/](https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/) and browsed the source, and they still have the Google Analytics tracking crap on their website. Strange for a company that claims to be "committed to your privacy."

<comment><USER54> Mozilla has an enterprise agreement with Google that limits what data is collected through GA and how it can be used. Quote:

        Our Google Analytics premium account is set to opt-out on all of 3rd party
        uses of the data and the only people who have access to the anonymous
        aggregated data is Mozilla Employees. This is not the normal Google
        Analytics setup that most people use on other websites.

        Also, to increase privacy we flipped the anonymize flag in the Google
        Analytics request [...] and don't do any cross-domain cookies within Google
        Analytics.

[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1122305#c8](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1122305#c8)

<comment><USER53> If it's on Google's servers, then clearly Mozilla employees aren't the only ones with access to it, and the anonymization he's referring to is mere IP address anonymization, where the last octet of an IPv4 address is zeroed. The viability of browser fingerprinting as demonstrated by the EFF's Panopticlick shows cookies, cross-domain or otherwise, are no longer the only viable means to persistently tracking users.

<comment><USER55> Google obviously have systems in place to allow employee access for absolute emergencies - but alarmed in case of unauthorised access.

in any case, the analytics data is anonymised and as such cannot be used to identify you. google goes to huge lengths anonymising data to aggregate you as a user into groups of millions for advertisers to bid on, you are simply not a big enough fish for special treatment.

edit: an explanation for downvoting is customary.

<comment><USER56> I didn't downvote you, but...

> google goes to huge lengths anonymising data to aggregate you as a user into > groups of millions for advertisers to bid on, you are simply not a big > enough fish for special treatment

You're mixing different products and people here. That may be true of Google Analytics data (I don't know either way), but it's not true for their advertising services. Google purposely tracks individual people in a non- anonymous way in order to sell remarketing products, to e.g. show a banner of items currently in your Amazon shopping cart alongside an article you're reading at CNN through their AdSense/DoubleClick platforms.

<comment><USER55> is that not amazon sending cookies?

[http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=5160028011](http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=5160028011)

i don't how that is google tracking you individually. can you please elaborate?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> In desktop browsers (and some mobile browsers), you can use filters.

On a mobile OS level, however, you cannot: There is probably not a single mobile app that does not connect to at least one ad, tracking etc. server. I hope that at least Apple will offer solutions on an OS level.

</comment><comment><USER58> There is no place like 127.0.0.1 [http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm](http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm)

</comment><comment><USER59> so, this is adblock?

</comment><comment><USER60> After 10 minutes of using this. Everything feels faster. Lovely. +1 ;)

</comment><comment><USER61> Ghostery is your friend.

Despite ironically being owned by an advertising company.

</comment><comment><USER62> Any modification of content by browser, ISP or any third party should be illegal.

<comment><USER63> Your view is incompatible with the idea that I should be able to run any program I can write. Personal freedom ought to trump commercial interests. Once your bits arrive at my computer, they're no longer yours. They're mine, and I can mangle them however I want.

<comment><USER62> I perfectly understand your position of freedom. However, you should understand that the articles you read, are written by people. They have families to support. If you as visitor are not willing to pay, who will pay the salaries of all writers in the world?

The website is a trader, the visitor is a customer. The trader is agreeing to sell the content to the customer if the customer pays the price - view ads (or pay subscription). The visitor agrees with this and receives the content. If the visitor (with the help of the third party tool - browser or extension) disable ads, the visitor is violating the user agreement.

If this option "Disable Ads" is OK, and is accepted by all browsers, this mean there will be nobody willing to write content, because ads are main source of revenue of most of the websites.

I simply cannot understand how this could work.

For me, it's clear that Mozilla will negotiate with Google and other Ad providers to receive some money to remove this feature.

<comment><USER64> > The visitor agrees with this and receives the content.

I'm sorry, on most websites, if I come from HN or IRC or whatever, I don't recall being forced to agree to shit before being able to read the content. Unless your site is Quora.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Russian 'Mythbusters' Shoots an RPG at 45 Layers of Bulletproof Glass - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-russian-mythbusters-shoots-an-rpg-at-45-layers-of-bulletproof-glass?utm_source=mbtwitter <comment><USER2> The RPG-7 uses an initial explosive charge to propel the rocket a safe distance away from the soldier who fired it, before the rocket ignites as takes the RPG the rest of the way. Otherwise the soldier would get a face full of rocket exhaust.

On the first test at around 1:16 you can see the rocket is lit.

On the second test at around 3:59 you can see the rocket motor failed to ignite.</comment>


The Yuan: The cheapest thing going is gone - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/china/21579488-after-enduring-decade-criticism-its-weakness-chinas-currency-now-looks-uncomfortably?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/the_cheapest_thing_going_is_gone

<comment><USER2> For anyone watching the EM Markets space, the RMB's rise has been one of the most discussed topics of the year. With economic growth focused on exports, a weaker yuan was integral and the source of much scrutiny from the US. So there has been confusion as to why the government has made moves to strengthen the yuan when economic data has been deteriorating.

The real reason is that saving the exporters is no longer the priority. Exports have been falling and the trade surplus has shrunk, and global demand is still weak. Instead, the government is focusing on investment/capital flows. With a strengthening RMB, flows/hot money is less likely to leave the country and the government is actively courting capital inflows. If they were to let the yuan appreciate now, the amount of investors running for the exits would be unprecedented and cause widespread panic in the market, and stability is their current goal.

</comment><comment><USER3> I guess I'm an accidental currency speculator, having most of my savings in RMB and the rest in CHF. It is definitely good for those of us who earn RMB, vacations are much cheaper. But imports haven't really fallen accordingly; I will believe it when Apple lowers their prices according to the exchange rate value (they are out of synch now, normally their prices are pretty close + 20% tax).

<comment><USER4> Spot on. After watching the value inflate over the last 10 years, I left! It's too damn expensive to be in China now. Imported products are ridiculously expensive, too. Wander down to Hanoi just over the border in north Vietnam for a pleasant shock!

<comment><USER3> Are prices really much better in Hanoi? I mean for imported goods like Levi jeans, Apple computers, cars, shoes (all of which are made in China, but...).

I'm OK with the expenses, I just shop when I'm on holiday in the states.

<comment><USER4> Beer, wine and cheese - yeah. Most food - yeah. Hotels - iffy, most people get taken for a ride, but there's good deals I would say are cheaper than China given location and quality. So all in all - yes, it's far cheaper (and far more international!) in my opinion.

<comment><USER3> Food made locally is cheap in China also. I'm not complaining about restaurant prices, even the good ones that serve western food (and WTF, why are hamburgers in Beijing better than anywhere else?).

Hotels definitely are iffy in China, most people get ripped off. I don't bother holidaying in China, if I want the beach, its like Thailand or Philippines, the values are remarkably good off peak. I haven't tried Vietnam yet, I heard it wasn't really a resort place yet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The question is how this impacts the various countries that trade with China, as well as China's export economy as well.

Then in turn, how will the western markets, both real and financial react, especially in light of the US Fed giving signs of winding down fiscal stimulus?

</comment><comment><USER6> Yuan is strong because it is manipulated by the government that controls 1.6b people in a global market. But it is not sustainable because the bill printing machine is now obviously out of control.

<comment><USER7> Wait .. doesn't turning on the bill printing machine weaken a currency instead of strengthening it?</comment></comment>


We should treat algorithms like prescription drugs - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1540594/treating-algorithms-like-prescription-drugs-could-reduce-ai-bias/ <comment> xkcd-sucks Something that's a huge fucking hassle and a hugely inflated monetary cost, so you get them from India with Bitcoin?</comment>


Steve Jobs's Strategy? "Get Rid of the Crappy Stuff" - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/article/the-innovation-secrets-of-steve-jobshttp://www.fastcompany.com/article/the-innovation-secrets-of-steve-jobs

<comment><USER2> It's good advice.

However, IMO, I still don't credit Jobs with the success of Apple.

Woz was the hero behind the technology of the original Apple, and Jonathan Ive was the hero behind the modern look and feel of Apple, which arguably was and still is the main success driver. Throw in some good marketing folks and the NeXT acquisition, and you have the modern Apple.</comment>


US Occupations Over Time - <AUTHOR> http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/09/occupations_ove.html

<comment><USER2> I was hoping this would show something like this:

[http://www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/cda06-02.c...](http://www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/cda06-02.cfm)

<comment><USER3> I'm glad it didn't. Although the graph in the article could use a bit more detail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When I read the title on HN I thought it was going to be about military occupations :-)

</comment><comment><USER5> NB: The graph in the link shows only male occupations. If you click through the graph you can see both male and female occupations.

Two major trends: the near disappearance of Farmer and Farm Laborer; and, the sharp influx of women into the workforce from 1950 to 1960.

</comment><comment><USER6> Has anyone found the keyword for computer-related jobs? I've tried filtering on 'software', 'computer', 'information', 'engineer' (which does have results but no computer-specific ones aside from EE). Or do those get lumped under 'Professional - Misc'?

<comment><USER7> It's using categories that were defined in 1950. So they presumably had to lump computer jobs into something else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Fascinating. I noticed that the fraction of managers/owners appears to have shot up faster than any other category in the last 30 years or so.

<comment><USER9> Isn't that part of the complaint about western economies?

Too many middle managers, not enough people doing/making things.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to implement realtime tracking in a webapp - <AUTHOR>

I recently started to help out a startup which already had some software in place.
The front-end is written in Angular.
We wish to track activity of the users, especially how much people are currently active on a page(actually thats a route).
Currently we have a polling mechanism in place to update the data on the front-end. So I attached additional logic which creates a REDIS key with with the IP and a cookie, to track each client. Keys are structured in a similar manner:
viewing:resource:ip:cookie
And there is a TTL on each key. Consecutive call refresh that key. Now I only count the viewing:resource:* keys and I have a number of people on this resource.
But the solution is done in an urge of drunken 'brilliance'. How do the big players track concurrent online visitors on webaps? <comment><USER2> Can't you use google analytics for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> We additionally want to have the data exposed to partners, so we need an access through an API. As far I'm aware on the pricy enterprice edition of GA provides an HTTP API.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> MixPanel?</comment>


Expressive Writing Cools Brain on Stressful Tasks - happy-go-lucky http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/for-worriers-expressive-writing-cools-brain-on-stressful-tasks/ <comment> Chiba-City We used (enforced) a writing method for software developers of three categories: So Far, More To Go, Save It For Later. It was something like a personal Kanban board for project members sharing a real schedule in weekly compiled/tested feature deliveries. This was a visibility feature for schedule and release rationalization. There were no Hail Mary pass negotiations or requests permitted. The prose mattered and project leads were forced to read them. It was not anything that could be rushed at the end. "Save it for later" kept team time boxed and synchronized and gave managers features to schedule for future version releases and sales messaging. We fired people who could not write English right alongside their Java and PL/SQL. It worked great. 100% project completion over 125 projects. I attribute it to HR weeding out ADHD gamers suffering bad grammar of inadequate educations needing paychecks. Software is 100% a product of communicative action. There are few excuses for execution failure absent bonafide academic grand challenges.

<comment><AUTHOR> "We used ( _enforced_ ) a writing method"; "project leads were _forced_ to read them"; "We _fired_ people who could not write English right alongside" (emphasis mine in all cases).

Forgive my bluntness, but your place of work sounds awful.

"I attribute it to HR weeding out ADHD gamers suffering bad grammar of inadequate educations needing paychecks."

Ironic, considering how poorly constructed this sentence is.

You treat people like children and they will act like them. Let me reiterate: your place of work sounds terrible.

<comment> Chiba-City Smart clever people loved racking up resume win after win with high profile clients. Liking it is not in your job description.

<comment><USER2> > Liking it is not in your job description.

Of course it is. Culture is very important to one's job. In fact, if you don't _like_ you're job, you're not going to _do_ a good job. Some companies make millions off of that premise (see Bonusly).

I actually completely agree with the idea of prose being written alongside technical requirements, but the work environment (and your tone) sound god- awful.

And for what it's worth, I'm a gamer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I enjoy literate programming in part for some of the benefits this article describes. Even if the documentation is separate from the program, sometimes escaping into writing for a while provides a sufficient amount of relief to just get back into hacking. Since the matter is related to the task at hand, it also helps me to organize my thoughts and be better prepared (and therefore less stressed) to re-introduce myself to the problem.

I also use hand-written notes. This allows me to escape a screen entirely, write candidly about whatever I please, and naturally reform the stress into something workable.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have also found that it helps to put swear-words in the commit messages when I'm struggeling a lot with something.

Once I get to that point I will stop working on that specific problem until the next day, but swearing about it in the commit message helps me not think about it anymore and also when I come back to it the next day I can see from the commit what I was struggeling with.

Obviously only do this for repositories that you aren't sharing with anyone.

You _could_ also do it in a shared repo if you don't push the commits and you squash them first. Personally I'm not a squash kind of person and I'd also fear that I pushed without remembering to squash even if I really were planning on squashing.

<comment><USER5> See: [1]

[1] [http://www.commitlogsfromlastnight.com/](http://www.commitlogsfromlastnight.com/)

<comment><USER6> This is what the world is built on

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This study gives credence to the GTD's book claim that putting all of your tasks in an "inbox" reduces stress, which was the only worthwhile insight I got from it.

<comment><USER8> Speaking of GTD - if you found the book impossible to read, consider watching this video version: [https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Getting- Thin...](https://www.lynda.com/Business-Skills-tutorials/Getting-Things- Done/170776-2.html)

<comment><USER9> Great link! I found it very possible to read; I read it at least 2.5 times across multiple physical and digital copies of two editions. Turning the words into actions is the hard part for me. Surely this is the format that's going to work :)

<comment><USER10> For me, turning the words into actions was the easy part. The hard part was sticking to the habit of doing weekly reviews. I always fail at this after few weeks, and if you don't do weekly reviews, suddenly the whole GTD methodology falls apart on you and you have to start over...

<comment><USER11> Same here. The only thing I apply from GTD is that if the task can be done under 5 minutes do it.

Making todo lists and sticking to them require too much discipline. In my professional life I keep todo lists, reminders etc. But in my personal life I'm a lazy lazy person.

I can't seem to find a solution to this.

<comment><USER12> I write daily to-do lists either in the morning or the night before, on a small post-it note sized stack of paper. Throw it away at the end of the day, whether or not I finished everything. I try and be realistic and still usually end up with 1 or 2 tasks not done.

It's nice crossing things off, it also never gets out of control.

Of all the things I tried in my personal life to get more things done, this is the one that's generally worked. I still go through phases of not doing it but it's really easy to start doing it again as the stack is always on my desk.

The other thing that works very effectively for me, much like this article says, is occasionally when feeling overwhelmed I write down everything that's stressing me out in a temporary text editor (an unsaved notepad++ note, which remains between computer restarts). I include things like "I'm pissed off with Bob because he did X" or "I'm worried about client Y not being able to pay their bill" or "I feel like I'm not putting enough time into doing Z".

I almost immediately stop stressing about it, and generally end up closing the unsaved note after a week or two, usually without reading it again. When I do, most of the stuff I was worrying about turned out fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> In my former job I kept a secret "project shitlist" detailing my feelings about the worst parts of the codebase(usually 8-year old technical debt).

Now I see that they were actually pretty tame. Here's an example:

 _Variables used before declaration because "code style"._

<comment><USER14> What language is this where you can use a variable before declaring it?

<comment><USER15> Javascript allows it.

<comment><USER16> Does it actually allow it? I thought the declaration is just hoisted to the top of the scope?

<comment><USER17> I just recently read about this in the You Don't Know JS series of books:

"We can be tempted to look at var a = 2; as one statement, but the JavaScript Engine does not see it that way. It sees var a and a = 2 as two separate statements, the first one a compiler-phase task, and the second one an execution-phase task.

What this leads to is that all declarations in a scope, regardless of where they appear, are processed first before the code itself is executed. You can visualize this as declarations (variables and functions) being "moved" to the top of their respective scopes, which we call "hoisting".

Declarations themselves are hoisted, but assignments, even assignments of function expressions, are not hoisted.

Be careful about duplicate declarations, especially mixed between normal var declarations and function declarations -- peril awaits if you do!"

[https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know- JS/blob/master/scope...](https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know- JS/blob/master/scope%20%26%20closures/ch4.md)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Study: [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyp.12990/abstra...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psyp.12990/abstract)

The sample for the experiment is N = 40

</comment><comment><USER19> That's why keeping a journal or diary can be helpful as well. [http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/writing-in-a-diary-can- redu...](http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/writing-in-a-diary-can-reduce-83950) Or alternatively, the Ignatian daily examen: [http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the- exam...](http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen)

</comment><comment><USER20> "If you can't explain what you're doing to a 6-year old, you don't know it yourself" (ascribed to several famous physicists).

This is pretty true, and thus the exercise of explaining things in plain prose is very useful to make you polish your understanding, and find any problems in it. When hand-waving is not acceptable, problems in understanding become very visible.

Even if nobody reads this, it's very useful if node honestly. Having other people to read it just keeps you from slacking off.

</comment><comment><USER21> Is it writing did the trick, or any verbalization will do? Maybe all you need is to spend 8 minutes on thinking about task?

<comment><USER19> There are cognitive benefits to talking to an imaginary person. [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/smarter- living/benefits-o...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/smarter- living/benefits-of-talking-to-yourself-self-talk.html?mcubz=0) [http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/05/the-perks-of-talking- to...](http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2017/05/the-perks-of-talking-to- yourself.html)

<comment><USER22> Sometimes it doesn't have to be a person, or even alive: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I absolutely agree with the article. I personally keep a daily journal and it helps me a great deal - relieve stress and everything. Kinda cool for productivity as well. You just vizualize things when you write and then have not so many problems actually doing them.

</comment><comment><USER24> I enjoy expressively writing to cool off sometimes, so I was interested in checking out the study itself.

The link to the actual study from 2017/09/08 can be found here:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28884815](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28884815)

"The effect of expressive writing on the error-related negativity among individuals with chronic worry."

> The error-related negativity (ERN), an ERP elicited immediately after > errors, is enlarged among individuals with anxiety. The relationship between > anxiety and enlarged ERN has spurred interest in understanding potential > therapeutic benefits of decreasing its amplitude within anxious individuals. > The current study used a tailored intervention-expressive writing-in an > attempt to reduce the ERN among a sample of individuals with chronic worry. > Consistent with hypotheses, the ERN was reduced in the expressive writing > group compared to an unrelated writing control group. Findings provide > experimental support that the ERN can be reduced among anxious individuals > with tailored interventions. Expressive writing may serve to "offload" > worries from working memory, therefore relieving the distracting effects of > worry on cognition as reflected in a decreased ERN.

The study is not shy about what conclusions should and shouldn't be drawn from it. There is large "Limitations and future directions" section. Here are some excerpts:

> Although the current study sheds light on the utility of expressive writing > in reducing the ERN among worriers, there are limitations that should be > addressed in future studies.

> First, the samples size (N540) was rather small for a between-subjects > investigation, and, unfortunately, this is the rule rather than the > exception in comparable cognitive neuroscience studies (Holmes & Pizzagalli, > 2010; Klawohn et al., 2016; Olvet & Hajcak, 2012)

> Second, we examined the ERN only after participants engaged in the writing > and were therefore unable to assess how these processes changed from before > to after writing.

> Third, we did not include a low-worry control condition. The purpose of the > present study, however, was to provide a very specific test of the effects > of expressive writing on the ERN in individuals with chronic levels of > worry. Indeed, we meant to build upon the prior study that tested the effect > of attention bias modification on the ERN (Nelson et al., 2015) by examining > high-anxious individuals instead of college students sampled without regard > for anxiety symptoms.

> Fourth, because we utilized a student sample, it would be useful to examine > the effects of expressive writing on the ERN in clinical samples in future > studies. However, as we detailed in Method, the individuals in our sample > reported worry symptoms that were comparable to previous studies of patients > with GAD, and by using a well-validated measure in the PSWQ, it is likely > that many of our participants had GAD. Moreover, college students are not > immune to psychopathology.

</comment><comment><USER25> Seems to work for me, hurricane or not.</comment>


Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Says Company Is Profitable in U.S - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/18/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-says-company-is-profitable-in-u-s/ <comment><USER2> It's interesting that the article says their competitor is 'buying up market share" I thought Uber priced their offering at a low price to gain market share too.</comment>


The Difference between the UK, Great Britain and England Explained (video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10

<comment><USER2> My friend who worked at a travel agent in london was asked on a regular basis by US "college educated" kids on their post-college world tour if they could please buy a bus to Ireland.</comment>


Ask HN: How do tech folks deal with support guys - <AUTHOR>

Is it just me or do you, hacker news folks, also find Apple Store guys mansplaining things too often? How to get them fix exactly the thing you know is wrong? <comment><USER2> If they eventually fix it, it doesn't bother me.

In many situations in life I find that if I act ignorant or say "assume I don't know anything about X" the other party will teach me something I didn't know because they aren't afraid of insulting me.

I looked up "mansplaining" and I do understand the natural response might be to be pissed because they aren't recognizing your/my competence. The thing is, I don't care if they think I'm a genius or an idiot.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, that's the strategy I'd probably like to stick with as long as the support folks end up taking the right steps.

Unfortunately, listening to someone "mansplaining" also involves making inaccurate statements which almost feels like you are being cheated.</comment></comment>


SolarSinter: Using Solar and Sand for 3D printing on site - <AUTHOR> http://www.markuskayser.com/work/solarsinter/ <comment><USER2> Could this be combined with Theo Jansen's Strandbeest idea, to make a machine that (very) slowly melts a glass road through the desert, powered only by the sun and the wind?

[1] [http://www.exploratorium.edu/strandbeest/meet-the- beests](http://www.exploratorium.edu/strandbeest/meet-the-beests)

<comment><USER3> I wonder what possible applications could come out of using a fresnel lens+a stirling engine to drive pistons in a desert: [https://youtu.be/CDCTANU8Tfk?t=1m1s](https://youtu.be/CDCTANU8Tfk?t=1m1s)

<comment><USER4> The goal of such a system would be self-replication[1]. So the material that the stirling engine is made from should be sourced locally from the environment. Perhaps iron or aluminium.

Also make use of molten salt energy storage systems to keep the system running over night.

Calculate your doubling time and extrapolate to determine when you've solved the worlds energy problems, or when you've turned it into grey goo. ;)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDo2OeeimHA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDo2OeeimHA)

<comment><USER2> Ok, but one step at a time! :)

<comment><USER4> The key to this kind of a system is to reduce both part and element count.

That way full-closure of hte system will be easier to achieve and full self- replication will be an easy step to take.

Stirling engines and Fresnel lenses are the right path for both electrical and thermal energy production. If you can keep as much of the system as possible derived from sand and clay it's pretty much producable anywhere on Earth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This was on here 5 years ago.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2695979](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2695979)

<comment><USER6> And should have the appropriate [2011] marker in the title.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This will be so awesome, once the thing can integrate lenses, solardriven circuitry and silica-gel to its constructions.

Imagine a structure that collects dew and heat during the day, and transports that water up during the night. Providing a canopy and a microclimate in the dessert from which forests can sprout. And its printed on side, with no additional materials needed.

Shoot it to mars, print domes with alge in it.

<comment><USER8> What are the downsides to cultivating large areas of desert?

<comment><USER7> Eh, usually use up of limited resources for irrigation (oil, fossile water), but this could create transforming machines from glass and energy. Well.. if you like sand boarding or dune buggy this thing has a downside..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Please add (2011) to the title.

</comment><comment><USER10> we could build bases on mars and the moon by creating sintered pyramid shaped buildings, I think the pyramid shape would lend itself well.

we need three types of robots: the duster, the sinterer and a shovel type robot, to move suitable materials and then sinter it into block.

after each level the robots can create a ramp and repeat the process.</comment>


Billionaires who made their fortunes by trying to stop climate change - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-green-billionaires/ <comment><USER2> It's amazing to me that Trevor Milton (of Nikola) is a billionaire when his company hasn't even built a factory yet. What a time to be alive.

<comment><USER3> I'll buy 0.0000001% of your company for $1 and you can be a "billionaire" too.

<comment><USER4> deal!

<comment><USER5> Sold to the man in the floppy pink bunny rabbit hat.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Its quite a blow to the credibility of this article, if Elon Musk is listed second as "climate change billionaire". Since when is building electric vehicles preventing climate change? Where do people think where this energy comes from? If we even have enough resources to furnish every living soul with an electric car, the electricity for that is certainly not coming from solar panels or windmills.

<comment><USER7> Electric vehicles can run off carbon neutral sources. They can take advantage of any future improvements in electrical power generation and storage. It is literally impossible for ICE vehicles to be carbon neutral.

Solar and wind are already becoming more profitable than running existing coal plants in some areas. Market forces in tandem with continued technological development will accelerate these shifts. It would also be prudent for government to nudge this process along.

<comment><USER8> > It is literally impossible for ICE vehicles to be carbon neutral.

Biodiesel and [m]ethanol fuels are a real thing.

<comment><USER9> These are not carbon neutral, a vehicle emits CO2 when burning them and that is not captured even in half by the growing plants.+

And you have to fertilize them for this efficiency, and those either require non-neutral manufacturing process, or composting which releases methane (in itself a biofuel that could be used but isn't). Plants also release some methane on their own when growing.

That's not even counting loss of biodiversity or replacing carbon-negative fields, farming grasslands and forests.

You could make a biofuel carbon neutral but we're not even close. Bioethanol for example has a CO2 producing fermentation step. Going biohydrogen and burying the plants could work. (Even methane is not clean enough to offset planting, unfortunately.)

And we do not want to go neutral but to reduce emissions.

\-- +) The number is 37% according to in-depth study: [http://theconversation.com/biofuels-turn-out-to-be-a- climate...](http://theconversation.com/biofuels-turn-out-to-be-a-climate- mistake-heres-why-64463)

<comment><USER8> I'm not here to pettifog about various definitions, studies and calculation methodologies. "Literally impossible" was claimed but now requires, uh, _interpretations_.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon- neutral_fuel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon-neutral_fuel)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Building millions of electric cars and shipping them around the world is extremely energy intensive. Many countries where those cars are shipped to use fossil fuels as their main source of electricity too. Nothing about it is green or will "stop climate change", but it gives them good marketing.

<comment><USER11> You seem to be concerned about climate change. Do you have a better idea than electric cars to address the problem?

<comment><USER12> Build infrastructure for public transportation and bicycles and such things. Try to eliminate cars.

<comment><USER13> You can't move food and goods with bicycles and public transportation.

<comment><USER14> All of my food and goods are moved with bicycles and public transportation.

There's a big hospital not far from where I sit, too. All of the food and goods for 1100 patients there are moved with bicycles and public transportation.

You might argue that you didn't mean _all_ kinds of public tranportation, you meant only the kind of vehicles whose interior is designed to carry people and a bit of luggage. Not the kind that's meant to carry goods for the general public. But why shouldn't the companies that transport for the general public be free to choose vehicles, routing, perhaps even timing to suit the loads and other needs?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Since when is manufacturing palm oil stopping climate change? Palm oil is responsible for massive biodiversity and carbon sink loss.

<comment><USER16> this is news to me, everything I read pointed to palm oil causing deforestation

<comment><USER15> Precisely. This is a bigger threat than CO2 because once the biodiversity is gone it's gone. We can always cleanup the carbon once we have the tech to deploy at scale.

<comment><USER17> Biodiversity appears automatically if you stop human intervention. The problem isn't that it's irreversible. It's that we destroy it at a faster rate than it recovers.

<comment><USER15> Depth dissappears with extinction

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Does anyone have actual data that suggests any of these people have had a positive impact on "climate change?" Does anyone have any data that "Climate Change" is even bad? Also, if everyone is SOOO concerned with CO2 emissions or waste in general why is Nuclear power not being discussed? It is only the most clean energy source on the planet considering waste to energy production lb for lb. Also, does anyone know the pollutants created making solar panels or super light weight material for wind mills? If not, why not? That is something to be concerned about is it not?

Point is most if not all of you haven't a clue about "Climate Change" just like the political scene. For the last 60+ years "global cooling," "global warming," and lastly "climate change" have been used to make unethical people a lot of money playing off people's ignorance and fear.

<comment><USER19> 'Does anyone have any data that "Climate Change" is even bad?'

Depends on what you consider "bad". But there seems to be a lot of material that climate changes is mostly negative economical and health wise for humans. (e.g., [http://www.oecd.org/env/the-economic-consequences-of- climate...](http://www.oecd.org/env/the-economic-consequences-of-climate- change-9789264235410-en.htm) )

'Also, if everyone is SOOO concerned with CO2 emissions or waste in general why is Nuclear power not being discussed?'

It's impossible to escape the nuclear discussion on this topics. Many threads about anything climate or CO2 related are full of discussion of nuclear.

'It is only the most clean energy source on the planet considering waste to energy production lb for lb.'

I couldn't find any numbers on this, but I am willing to believe it. Could you provide a citation? I'd like to know more about it.

'Also, does anyone know the pollutants created making solar panels or super light weight material for wind mills?'

It has been in mainstream news and outlets a few times, so I assume most people are aware that toxic materials are used to produce solar panels. As far as I can tell from the reports I saw, these can be disposed of reliably, and fairly easily while still being safe. (unlike nuclear waste as far as I can tell.)

'If not, why not?'

Most people have limited capacities and do not concern themselves with everything.

'Point is most if not all of you haven't a clue'

This is true for most people on most topics and has never stopped anyone from forming an option, discussing it on hackernews, or call people that might actually have a clue out on not having a clue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> A considerable number of these "green billionaires" are riding on the backs of Lithium battery development and production. Lithium mining, refining, and the battery-making process hardly seem green to me. Is there any research (not funded by these billionaires) to show definitively that battery production is a substantial net gain?

<comment><USER21> #3: Wind-power manufacturing #4: Paper recycling #5: Solar cell manufacturing #6: Renewable power #7: Solar manufacturing

About half of them have nothing to do with lithium.

<comment><USER20> 50% is pretty much how I would define "considerable". Additionally, solar is also made of some pretty awful stuff. Better than burning dead tree, but by how much?

<comment><AUTHOR> In addition to my other comment on amortising manufacturing pollution of electric cars, see the below scientific articles on the time required for energy payback of solar panels. Many people are investigating this.

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012385...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123859341000374)

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00380...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0038092X01000330)

<comment><USER20> Thank you for these. The solar articles talk about the energy payback of the PV systems, but is this necessarily equal to the environmental cost to produce them? I would think that energy usage != CO2 cost, as energy may not factor in mining, refining, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Pratt does packaging and inherited the business and vast wealth. Made it? No. Grew it? Maybe - haven't looked at the detail. Recycling of this kind has a stink of "tax optimisation and subsidy claim" about it but I don't know this as a fact in this case. It's a massive stretch to say he made his fortune trying to stop climate change when he grew it by growing his inherited packaging business. Claiming he made it trying to stop climate change completely degrades the whole idea of this story, really. Number 4 on the list. Net Green Worth 6.8 billion. The same has his entire net worth. It's comic. If you haven't thought about it much, landfill use is very, very low on the list of things to address in stopping climate change. As its own issue it lacks the climate change urgency yet always get itself shoehorned into the climate debate somehow with subsidy to follow.

No doubt we'll have yet another hollywood style celebrity who knows nothing, is famous for being attractive to look at and if they have any skill at all it is lying convincingly go on to tell us to tackle climate change we should refill our water bottles in stead of placing them in the bin in the follow up article. "Well it's a start" No it isn't, it's nothing at best, it's a distraction from adults talking intelligently and undermines grass roots movements, which is the whole point of the publicising of celebrity advocacy in general. "Let's ignore this person who knows and makes a solid case, because Angelina Jolie has thoughts her publicist would like to share as long as you agree to these terms so she massage her image while you farm your clicks."

Bloomberg. Yeah. Bloomberg claims to be better than this. Now let's play "What has this article got to do with Mike Bloomberg trying to undermine the reform of the massive corruption in the Democrat party?" Unless you think he's actually seriously trying to be elected, which is something worth discussing if you do. What isn't worth discussing is weather Bloomberg News are, possibly among other things, his personal propaganda, because they've actually announced that themselves.

Genunine idealogically Republicans and Democrats alike are all desperate for reform. From just about anywhere, which is a concern because there are places we don't want it from, like the extremes. Under-qualified Obama got in on that ticket. Democrats voted for Donald because "Just maybe a maverick outsider, and anyway unlikely to be actually worse" Plenty of republican support for Bernie because "Just maybe a maverick outsider and anyway unlikely to be actually worse"

It saddens me that Bernie as the most credible Democrat reformer would have smashed Donald as the most credible Republican reformer at the last election. It saddens me because Donald was the most credible Republican reformer and that there still doesn't seem to be anyone better among Republicans standing against him.

Anway back to businesses making money saving the planet. We need more. This list is very, very thin and contains ring ins.

<comment><USER23> This rant almost sounds like it was written by a AI gone crazy

<comment><USER5> We're probably simulations, so indeed it was. It happens to me with not enough sleep and forgetting actual ADD meds.

<comment><USER24> I must be an instance of the same AI class, reads perfectly coherent to me. Anger doesn't mean crazy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> The omitted word "These" at the front seems important

<comment><USER26> It was probably removed by the automatic filter of titles in HN. If you send an email to the mods email@example.com they will probably fix it.

<comment><AUTHOR> As the OP, I can confirm it was automatically removed. I stuck to the HN guidelines and did not editorialise the title.

<comment><USER27> Thanks! Sorry the software got it wrong in this case. It's ok to click 'edit' and fix it when that happens.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google, can you use your AI to punish articles showing irrelevant videos? - <AUTHOR> Google, you guys are pretty great at punishing sites within your search rankings that do things that are annoying or harmful. The most irritating thing that I've experienced on the web recently are videos at the top of articles that aren't at all, or just barely are related to the article.  Can you discourage news outlets from doing this please? Also, are other folks as annoyed as I am by this? Thanks! <comment><USER2> Most are hosted by Google, so ....</comment>


The 500 best games of all time: 100-1 – Polygon - <AUTHOR> https://www.polygon.com/features/2017/12/1/16707720/the-500-best-games-of-all-time-100-1 <comment><USER2> commenting so I can read at home

<comment><USER3> For the future, there is a "favorite" link under each submission, and a list of those in your profile.</comment></comment>


The New and Improved Privacy Badger 2.0 Is Here - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/12/new-and-improved-privacy-badger-20-here <comment><USER2> It's a lovely tool, but the design is very ugly!

</comment><comment><USER3> How does this compare to Ghostery?</comment>


ASK PG: What were your first thoughts knowing for sure Viaweb would be acquired? - <AUTHOR>

Just finished reading Founders At Work. Amazing book! I am curious, Paul, what were the first feelings you had when you knew for sure the Yahoo acquisition was for real? What did it feel like? Was it a big relief? Becoming rich? What were you first immediate thoughts?<p>Thank you for sharing with us. <comment><USER2> The main thing I felt at first was relief. For the whole three years we'd endured one disaster after another. There was literally some new mortal threat every few months. When the deal finally closed, the feeling of finally being able to relax was so strong (and so unfamiliar) that I was practically high for several months on it.

When I was in grad school I once had a kidney stone so bad that I ended up in an emergency room on Thanksgiving Day. They gave me some fairly strong opiate intravenously. If you've ever had something like this, you understand the appeal of heroin. Especially coming after a week of being curled up into a ball with pain. The feeling when we sold was a less intense but longer lasting version of this.

In retrospect, we could have made Viaweb a lot less painful by spending/raising less money. That was what made it so stressful. But startups were more expensive then. Or at least, everyone thought they had to be.

<comment><USER3> One day I would love to hear about these disasters. In my own experience I have literally faced utter failure in the face only to somehow manage to bounce back stronger than before.

I've told people that running your own business is a lot like playing one of those racing games where you get 30 seconds to get to the next checkpoint at which point you'll earn yourself more time. On several occasions it has felt like I have literally ran out of time only to coast through a checkpoint and be gifted more time.

<comment><USER4> My favorite description of entrepreneurship is jumping out of a plane and trying to build a parachute before you hit the ground.

Note: I know it's not a perfect analogy. I'm comfortable with that.

<comment><USER5> I think that's a better analogy for launching a new startup. The racing one more closely matches the on-going experience of running one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hamburger... I hate Ramen.

<comment><USER7> Is this an allusion to the Ramen-profitable thread or just non-sense? I want to be in on the joke :)

<comment><USER8> As in, "No more Ramen, I can now afford a Hamburger." (Which totally makes it not funny... oh well.)

<comment><USER2> Our ramen was rice and beans. In fact the rice and beans I used to make during Viaweb became the basis of the dishes we make for founders at YC dinners. (I say we because we now have a cook make the dinners, but I made them for the first 7 cycles.)

Rice & Beans For 2n

       olive oil or butter
       n yellow onions
       3n cloves garlic
       n 12-oz cans Goya white beans
       n cubes Knorr beef bouillon
       n teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
       3n teaspoons cumin
       n cups rice, preferably sushi rice

Put rice in rice cooker. Add water as specified on rice package. (Default: 2 cups water per cup of rice.) Turn on rice cooker and forget about it.

Chop onions and fry in oil, over fairly low heat, till glassy. Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and a little more fat, and stir. Keep heat low. Cook another 2 or 3 minutes, then add beans (don't drain the beans), and stir. Throw in the bouillon cube(s), cover, and cook on lowish heat for at least 10 minutes more. Stir vigilantly to avoid sticking.

<comment><USER9> While not only delicious, one reason Rice & beans is preferable to Ramen is that it is a complete protein[1], "a source of protein that contains an adequate proportion of all of the essential amino acids for the dietary needs of humans" [2].

[1] - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_protein> [2] - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_and_beans>

<comment><USER10> You probably want a little more fat than this diet provides alone. Also be sure to watch out for Vitamin B12 deficiency :-)

<comment><USER11> That's where the donuts come in:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=511085></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Mossad 2018 challenge - <AUTHOR> https://www.r-u-ready.xyz/ <comment><USER2> Spoiler:

... as it was said, the first brainfuck program prints xor-with-key. The second program doesn't output anything but it sets the memory "array" with 12 non-zero values. By XORing these values with the phrase present in the image (12 characters too) you get "126.96.36.199" which can be an IP (something in Google's ranges), geographical coordinates (interpreted as x,y they point somewhere in Israel, in fact) or I don't know whatever else.

<comment><USER3> This link leads to page with the first challenge: "Your help is needed once again to solve an urgent matter. Our digital forensics division is trying to track the source of a phishing attack on one of our government officials..."

<comment><USER2> HaHaha! (cit.)

<comment><USER4> Yeah that's HEX decoded but I don't think it has anything to do with the solution. I'm not sure though.

<comment><USER5> I think it's more a joke from the fake 'anonymous' hacker in context to the tech-news. After some testing I think the solution could be within this so called 'pass-through' attack which is described in the tech-news.

There is an 'admin' account, with whom I think you can access the /administration site. For now I think the solution could be with modifying cookies, maybe the session cookie (after you create an account and log in) to get access to the admin account

<comment><USER6> I think the exploit would have something to do with the PNG profile picture upload feature, I've figured out how to upload my own files but not sure what I can do with this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7>
      >+-++<>-+--><[+-[
      ]+-]<+--+>[+--+]<
      [+>+<-]><----[-->
      +++<]>--.</comment><comment>--
      -.+++.[++>---<]>+
      +.-[----->++<]>-.
      +[->+++<]>+.+++++
      ++++++.</comment><comment>----
      --.----[->+++<]>+
      .-[-->+++++<]>---
      .</comment><comment>.[--->+<]>
      ++.[-]>+-++<>-+--
      ><[+-[]+-]<+--+>[
      +--+]<[+>+<-]><>+
      -++<>-+--><[+-[]+
      -]<+--+>[+--+]<[]

      +++++++++++[>++++
      +++++++<-]>+[<+>-
      ]-[>+<</comment><comment>-]>--
      -[<+>-][<+>-]>++>
      +[>++[-<++++++>]<
      <]>[<+>-]>+>++[++
      >++[-<+++++>]<<]>
      [<+>-]>+>+[>++++[
      -<++++>]<<]>[<+>-
      ]++++++++[>++++++
      +++++<-]>+[<+>-]+
      ++>>+>+[->+++[-<+
      ++++>]<<]>[<+>-]+
      +++++++[>++++++++
      <-]>+[<+>-]+++>++
      ++++>+>+-++<>-+--

</comment><comment><USER8> Isn't that brainf*ck?

<comment><USER9> Yes. The highlighted areas are:

>+-++<>-+--><[+-[ ]+-]<+--+>[+--+]< [+>+<-]><\----[--> +++<]>\--.</comment></comment><comment>-- -.+++.[++>\---<]>\+ +.-[----->++<]>-. +[->+++<]>+.+++++ ++++++.</comment><comment>---- \--.----[->+++<]>\+ .-[-->+++++<]>\--- .</comment><comment>.[--->+<]> ++.[-]>+-++<>-+-- ><[+-[]+-]<+--+>[ +--+]<[+>+<-]><>\+ -++<>-+--><[+-[]+ -]<+--+>[+--+]<[]

=> xor-with-key

+++++++++++[>++++ +++++++<-]>+[<+>\- ]-[>+<\</comment><comment>-]>\-- -[<+>-][<+>-]>++> +[>++[-<++++++>]< <]>[<+>-]>+>++[++ >++[-<+++++>]<<]> [<+>-]>+>+[>++++[ -<++++>]<<]>[<+>\- ]++++++++[>++++++ +++++<-]>+[<+>-]+ ++>>+>+[->+++[-<\+ ++++>]<<]>[<+>-]+ +++++++[>++++++++ <-]>+[<+>-]+++>++ ++++>+>+-++<>-+--

=> z.\SUY.ZA...

(hex values of the key: 7A B3 5C 53 55 59 03 5A 41 03 06 01)

xor-ing the .png with the key gives a data blob, so it's either an executable (which I'm not going to run) or I did something wrong.

<comment><USER10> z.\SUY.ZA... and Israel-is-70 (text from the picture) have the same length.

Coincidence?

<comment><USER9> No coincidences with games like this. :) (I went over it again, and of course a simple blob isn't just a binary, it has no magic bytes or anything, stupid.) Using "Israel-is-70" gives me ... 3?.205.32.11 Which of course looks like an IP-address, but incomplete (the ? is C0). Probably made a mistake with the decoding of the key-part of the brainfuck. Still, only 10 numbers to pick from: 3[0-9].205.32.11

Edit: thanks to Seagull for pointing it out already, the key was off by one byte. So that gives 188.8.131.52

<comment><USER10> Ok, so actually the puzzle has been cracked. Nothing else we can do. This end was definitely not happy.

<comment><USER2> You're wrong... Go through an Israeli proxy to that IP (or via TOR by configuring exit nodes), it's only the beginning. ;-)

<comment><USER10> Perhaps, but the fact IP hidden behind the wall means that this challenge is not for everyone. Disappointing. Good luck in your adventure though!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If someone wants to take a stab at it with OCR, these are the two highlighted portions of brainfuck

[https://imgur.com/a/6r48NEN](https://imgur.com/a/6r48NEN)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Fellas, please, keep the politics out of it. You got Facebook for that... :)

<comment><USER12> You are incorrect, we are allowed to discuss politics on hacker news and have opinions on politics, especially when it intersects technology. It is done all the time here on hacker news.

<comment><AUTHOR> From the guidelines:

        Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

This story was posted as one of technical interest. The political side effects are not of technical interest.

<comment><USER12> > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're > evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

You are quoting a guideline about what stories should be posted to Hacker News, and using that in your argument that we can not discuss political aspects of a story. That is not the case.

> The political side effects are not of technical interest.

This is your opinion, which you are trying to pretend is a rule here on hacker news.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not trying to pretend any rules. Just convention I've seen here over the years with some reference in the guidelines. If you feel you need to discuss politics, by all means - go crazy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Has anyone gotten farther than registration? I'm stuck in the 22.214.171.124 page and I don't know how to advance from there. Any help anyone?

</comment><comment><USER14> Is this supposed to be some penetration/decryption challenge? If I get in, I get a job?

<comment><USER15> The page description is 'Mossad 2018 challenge countdown'...

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> What to after I enter to the blog I don't get it from yesterday

</comment><comment><USER17> Why would anyone who is aware of what's going on in the world today want to work for military/intelligence murderers? Deception is the main weapon for these scumbags and that very weapon is _regularly_ used to fleece the rest of the population.

Unless you're going to work from the inside to expose their massive amounts of bullshit, I find it deplorable. Honestly, I think you'd have to be either brain-washed by the cult-like repetition of nationalism and military-hero worship or just a real evil asshole to dedicate your life to helping these people.

</comment><comment><USER18> Recall when the Mossad assassinated someone in a Dubai hotel: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d9KDysPbZ0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d9KDysPbZ0)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Mahmoud_Al- Ma...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Mahmoud_Al-Mabhouh)

The only reason I point this out is because many (most?) techies have a natural aversion to helping out this sort of thing.

It's totally fine if you don't. But it's easy to forget the end result.

<comment><USER19> He is a murderer and a terrorist. If you murder people because they are Israeli and you think you can get away with it, think again.

<comment><USER20> This is the attitude that makes it hard for me to take Israel seriously. Like they have an inherent right to go after whoever wherever.

It feels like a CIA / KGB learned trait.

I think I'm most frustrated by the notion of other nations going to work in my country. You do you. But not in my yard, eh.

<comment><USER21> I'm curious, how do you interpret the above as the "right to go after whoever wherever?"

<comment><USER20> The parent comment disappeared so I cannot answer you without recalling from memory what was said. That's unfair because I don't have confidence in my memory.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>