Why I Just Closed My LinkedIn Account - <AUTHOR> http://www.ripton.net/blog/?p=84 Do not ask for your users's email passwords.  It's phishing, pure and simple. <comment><USER2> I don't understand why people complain about being contacted by recruiters on LinkedIn. It's your public CV and professional contacts; recruiting is what LinkedIn was designed for!

<comment><USER3> Exactly! I get multiple e-mails a week from recruiters on LinkedIn, and it's not hard at all for me to just kindly decline their offer or ignore it all together. I've never understood the stigma against recruiters, and why you would get mad at someone that wanted to try to place you at a job, that just sounds backwards and unappreciative.

<comment><USER4> The problem is... They are trying to place you at a job and taking a commission by obfuscating the actual salary paid by the company. I've personally hired developers, salaried under big recruiting firms, who were getting shorted 35% of their potential income just for allowing someone with a marketing degree forward over a resume. With demand as high as it is for skill sets in the tech fields... you are foolish to believe they serve any purpose other than spam. Especially when spending an hour or so shotgun emailing your resume personally with a cover letter would net you nearly double the salary.

Alas the core issue in this blog post has nothing to do with the abundance of recruiter contact. Anyone with a Linkedin has already managed to figure out how to manage the difference between spam recruiters and the good guys.

<comment><USER5> Your comment doesn't make any sense to me. It's in the recruiter's best interest to maximize the salary they get the candidate, so that they can maximize the %-amount of the fill. They want to get the candidate 150K so that the recruiter's 30% cut is 45K. If they only get the candidate $125K, then there fee would only be 37.5K.

Are you confusing recruiting for a job with someone that does body-shop contracting?

<comment><USER6> _" It's in the recruiter's best interest to maximize the salary they get the candidate"_

Actually, it's in the recruiter's best interest to maximize the return he gets over _all_ his candidates. If he can place candidates three times as fast by offering them at 50% off their market rate, he makes a bigger total commission.

<comment><USER5> I'd buy that argument in a buyer's market. But I'm not aware of too many recruiters with a surplus of sourced tech talent right now. And they have to go through a lot of effort to source someone...so I'm going to still stand by my comment that a good recruiter is going to maximize the candidates value.

Edit: I'd also add what tech talent is going to be so unaware of their market value that they'd take 50% of it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I allowed it to connect to my gmail, hit the uncheck all (for inviting friends) and checked one person. It ended up sending invites to a few hundred people I had only had vague communications with. Apparently "uncheck all" only means for the 10 they're currently showing you. A lot of awkward "do I know you?"'s

<comment><USER8> How long ago was that?

<comment><USER7> Probably a couple months? They very well may have made it work differently by now, but it wouldn't be much in their benefit to do so (other than to stop people complaining).

<comment><USER9> More accurate to say, "but they may not perceive doing so to be in their best interest."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Don't most social media sites ask for permission to upload your contacts from elsewhere? The answer (as Nancy Reagan taught us) is to Just Say No.

Yes there is (a lot!) of job-hunting spam on LinkedIn, but when you need a job the spam can help. Even if you don't, it's useful to have a public place with an email address for professional contacts to find you, in case you switch firms.

<comment><USER11> Yes most sites do ask for permission to upload your contacts, but they do it without needing your password. No need to log in as the user anymore to do this.

[https://developers.google.com/google- apps/contacts/v3/](https://developers.google.com/google-apps/contacts/v3/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not everyone uses Gmail.

<comment><USER12> Are the similar token-based schemes for non-Gmail services? Seems like OpenID or the like could provide similar functionality to avoid having to provide your actual password to other services so they can look at your inbox.

<comment><USER13> GMail allows you to give OAuth access to your email in an admirably simple way that anybody could adopt:

[https://developers.google.com/gmail/xoauth2_protocol](https://developers.google.com/gmail/xoauth2_protocol)

In practice, I don't know any other email provider who does this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Interesting.

Being primarily a Gmail user I never realized that LinkedIn will ask for a password directly when it doesn't recognize a service associated with the domain.

The site appears to spend some time trying to do something with the bogus credentials I provided. Now I'm really curious what that something is.

<comment><USER15> I assume it attempts to hit the server with IMAP with the details you provided, then scavenge email addresses from your sent email.

<comment><USER14> Right, that's certainly logical, but if they are doing something like that, particularly considering their big breach last year - wow.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> My biggest annoyance with LinkedIn is the Endorsement feature. I have people I barely know endorsing me for skills I barely have. Right now my highest endorsement total is for PostgreSQL. While I'm proficient with Postgres, there's other skills I know way better that only have 1 or 2 endorsements. If a recruiter were to contact me (I'm not looking), I'm assuming it would be for db work. It would be a waste of both their time (to contact me) and mine (to respond and apologize that some of my contacts don't understand my job).

</comment><comment><USER17> I don't _love_ LinkedIn, but there really isn't any other platform where to keep professional contacts at the moment (at the same level or close). I get their spam from time to time (join groups, free pro-membership for a month) but not a lot of recruiters, which is great.. and I have a lot of professional contacts.

I'm wondering if you might be overlooking the _connection_ gains to bad wording in LinkedIn's part. "Give us your password, it's secure" is pretty dumb language if you tell me. My understanding is that they supply you with the ability to use 3rd party APIs to gather your email contacts from various sources. That is not really giving your password to them -per say-.

<comment><AUTHOR> No, there was a password input box. Definitely giving them my password per se.

(Someone else noted that Gmail has a contacts API, so if you use Gmail then they can harvest your contacts without actually getting your password. Which is much better, though still kind of rude to your friends.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> >> LinkedIn leaked 8 million users' passwords less than a year ago, because they were storing them in the database in plain text.

The password leak from last year was really a leak of the password hashes. I'm pretty sure they didn't store passwords in plaintext.

I think the backlash was because they didn't salt the hashes and only used one iteration of SHA1 instead of a more appropriate hash function.

That being said, this doesn't really change the OP's point. Which was, "secure my ass"

<comment><AUTHOR> I apologize for the error and have edited the post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sigh, so LinkedIn is trying to boost their numbers and you didn't fall for it. Good on you! Why the hate? If you want to get a ton of unsolicited links to connect just put 'VP' in your title. Amazing. I've only got two policies on LinkedIn, one I only link to people I actually know and have worked with _already_ , and two I don't allow { recruiters | sourcers | HR } types to link to me after having a bad experience of one of them trolling all my contacts with "Hey I'm working with Chuck and would like information about what you're up to ..." emails.

But a lot of people really dislike the service and I completely support that choice of theirs, but so far I haven't seen a lot of discussion about the service the people _wanted_ when they joined but didn't get. Is it 'view only' (as in I want to view other people but no one can view me!) or maybe (no contact) as in only my contacts can email me?

<comment><USER20> The complaint wasn't about marketing tactics, or about LinkedIn's quality of service. The complaint was specifically about LinkedIn asking for the passwords to their users' email accounts.

As the author points out, LinkedIn doesn't have a very good track record on security, plus giving out your email password isn't a very good practice in any situation. Unfortunately, because of LinkedIn's clout among professionals, many people are unwittingly putting their online identities at risk.

In the end, the author doesn't close his LinkedIn account because of recruiters, but rather as a protest against this bad practice.

<comment><USER19> _" The complaint was specifically about LinkedIn asking for the passwords to their users' email accounts."_

Fair enough. He didn't enter his password, it isn't required to use the service. It is only useful for discovering more people via your contacts (and perhaps to spam them as you, that would be bad).

So they implement a feature poorly. Why the hate? The automatic climate control on my Subaru sucks dead gophers through a hose, but I don't translate the fact that Subaru let an crappy design get of an auxiliary feature get into production with "the car sucks, I'm selling it." Especially if my use of it doesn't require a lot of climate management (which it doesn't in California). I might think differently if the car wouldn't start unless the windows were up and the climate control engaged on automatic, that _would_ cause me to sell it.

So I'm confused about the LinkedIn rant a bit.

<comment><AUTHOR> You and I are educated enough about web security that we know not to type one site's password into another site.

Many people aren't. Phishing is a real problem.

When "legitimate" sites start doing slimy, insecure things like asking for third-party passwords, three things happen. One, those "legitimate" sites have the power to do things that most users don't really want them to, like spam their entire contact list as them. Two, it becomes harder for unsophisticated users to distinguish legitimate sites from phishing sites. Three, it means that if a criminal breaks into a "legitimate" site, there's more valuable information there for him to steal.

<comment><USER19> Completely agree, the confusing bit then is the call to action, instead of "Help me educate LinkedIn" its "I'm deleting my account."

Does the author want to fix LinkedIn? Do they want a different service (or the same service done differently?) or a nearly the same service? It is easy to be dismissive of this form of rant, and sometimes that is actually the best response. But if there is something to learn here[1] that would be good too.

I suspect I'm overthinking it and the author was just venting.

[1] I get the 'here is another exemplar of stupid design' thought as well.

<comment><USER21> the call to action it's up to you I guess, the author exposed some annoying, dishonest and potentially dangerous interaction that LinkedIn is using.

when you read the news do you ask yourself: "what's the call to action of this article?"

<comment><USER19> _when you read the news do you ask yourself: "what's the call to action of this article?"_

Always.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> LinkedIn is everything I would expect from a social network created by and for enterprise software business types. I don't know anybody who actually _likes_ LinkedIn other than recruiters.

</comment><comment><USER23> Wait. In order for this to work, wouldn't they HAVE to store your email password in plain text?

O_O

<comment><USER24> Does it actually store the password? Perhaps it simply passes it on to the IMAP or CardDAV request to get your contacts?

<comment><USER25> Who would discard this kind of precious info?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Oh good, another "why I'm taking my ball and going home" article.

<comment><USER23> I know, right? I mean, complaining about a major social network straight up asking for your email account password is just so WHINY!

Especially when said social network has had major data breaches in the past. What could possibly go wrong?

Stupid whiners!

<comment><USER26> So why not just send them an email instead of posting a blog post with a link- bait title like "Why I'm leaving X" and then posting it yourself to HN? Am I supposed to help with this cause? Is there a petition? Should I leave linked in immediately because there is a box that you can voluntarily put your password into? Well I guess I'll just add it to the list of "things I need to be outraged about today".

<comment><USER27> Because the author is trying to effect change and that is much easier with a little publicity.

<comment><USER26> I didn't see any mention of actually contacting linked in. Maybe he should start with them.

<comment><USER28> I'm sure they know that what they are doing is slimey. Asking them to change won't have any effect. Hitting them in the wallet is the only influence he has.

<comment><USER26> That's not fair. I would hope someone would at least contact me regarding my products before lashing out and having people call me slimy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> LinkedIn seems far more sensible once you realize it's a honeypot.

</comment><comment><USER30> Good reasoning here.

Might I add that LinkedIn has implemented the same stalker features that make it just as creepy as online dating websites...

Can you imagine if Facebook had a "who's been viewing your profile" page? It'd be gg.

Not to mention the NSA would be overloaded with 'suspicious activity'.

<comment><USER31> I was about to post the same thing. I can't believe they get away with having this feature. If I click a Linkedin link on Google, oops I'm logged in, my viewing history is for sale.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I don't know if anyone noticed this, but LinkedIn didn't store their passwords in plain text. they were stored in SHA1, with no salt, which is as close to plain text as you can get without being plain text, but there is a difference :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I apologize for the error and have edited the post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I haven't seen the "Enter password box" and I have a hard time imagining why it would exist. Why would they choose to deal with logging into your email, scraping for email addresses(spawning parallel processes etc), risk blacklisting and (more)user hatred (not to mention trying to prove to google you're not a robot)when there is a perfectly good OAuth(2) protocol/spec that along with good google apis to retrieve this data securely (well: [http://hueniverse.com/2012/07/oauth-2-0-and-the-road-to- hell...](http://hueniverse.com/2012/07/oauth-2-0-and-the-road-to-hell/)). I agree its still cheap and tacky but not really nefarious.

There is a 10 message / api-key / day limit using the linkedin messaging API I think [http://developer.linkedin.com/documents/throttle- limits](http://developer.linkedin.com/documents/throttle-limits) still annoying getting spammed.

<comment><USER34> I believe this password box is something you only see if they don't recognize your email address as something that they can interact with via OAuth (i.e. Gmail).

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm very impressed that you actually managed to close your account. Every time I've tried to do that I was sent into some bizarre redirect hell that seemed downright malicious.

LinkedIn seems like a prime example of what happens when you substitute good product design for a series of A/B tested micro-optimisations. The net effect is a shitty product that gets worse and worse...

<comment><AUTHOR> I _think_ I managed to close it. I had to click 4 or 5 times, but the process didn't seem to generate any errors. We'll see.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Congrats man. LinkedIn isn't all that useful to anyone but recruiters anyway. I closed mine long ago because I simply never used it.

<comment><USER37> Yup, same here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> It's really not practical to stop doing business with every large company with whom you have a disagreement, especially when they are the dominant player in their industry. I'm sure most of us could find a nit to pick with both Apple and Microsoft, not to mention Google.

If you will never need LinkedIn, that's fine. If you might, then you're only hurting yourself.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a pretty defeatist attitude. If nobody complains when companies do bad things, what incentive do they have to stop?

<comment><USER39> Because what you consider bad isn't necessarily bad.

Let's take your post at heart, and we'll ignore the part about phishing (ironic, considering your own site's setup).

Your assertion is mostly paranoia, what could happen, and what LinkedIn shouldn't do. LinkedIn should not ask for your email password, despite that being a way to access email. Now, I'm not suggesting you hand over your email password without thought, but you do hand out your email password.

You hand out your email password to any email client you choose to use, with the hope that it doesn't share out that password to anyone else. After all, just as a LinkedIn employee could steal your password, so could a Google or Apple employee as well. I mean, Google even asks for the password to other email accounts if you want to use Gmail for non-Gmail accounts. And let's hope that no browser is tracking anything. It might be open source, but have you checked the source code?

Sounds crazy.

So leave LinkedIn. But really, it's a rant, and not even a good rant at that. And we didn't even talk about glass houses.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have a plain old Wordpress blog. What is it doing that you consider phishy? (Should I disable comments? I hardly get any anyway.)

<comment><USER39> It's your assertion that LinkedIn is trying to phish people, when phishing has a very real meaning. If that is phishing, then what you have displayed when someone goes to comment could be considered just as phishy. You have to remember, WordPress is not just an app that you can install, but it's also a hosted service. Your page has the WordPress logo on it, and it's asking to log in. Is someone supposed to use your site's u/p or the WordPress's hosted services credentials.

You don't intend to steal anything, but you could, making you just as guilty as LinkedIn. That is to say, not guilty of anything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Why I never had LinkedIn. Back in the good old days the only way to prevent it from spamming you on behalf of your friends was creating an account and then unsubscribing from emails.

I had to contact costumer support twice to remove two email addresses from their databases.

Fortunately mass emails or notifications without a single-click unsubscribe button are forbidden now.

</comment><comment><USER41> If you've used this particular contact system before, you'll know that your e-mail login information won't pass through LinkedIn's servers. A popup from your e-mail provider's server asks you to grant LinkedIn access to your contacts via that provider's APIs.

<comment><AUTHOR> LinkedIn showed my email address on their web page, and provided a box under it to type my email password.

Maybe they wouldn't have actually stored my password locally, but there's no way for a user to know that for sure.

<comment><USER41> Ah, I use GMail, which allows that the type of functionality I mentioned. I didn't see that it behaves differently with other providers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> All platforms are like hookers - they are generally offering some in-demand service, you might get a nasty bug, you get what you paid for (or not paid for) and they are not obligated to please you.

So use platform for what it's good for, but do not rely your business on it.

Gleb

</comment><comment><USER43> LinkedIn has a new service where they offer to centralize your contact management by importing all your contacts from wherever and giving you one central place to keep track of them.

It may or may not be a good idea, but it isn't phishing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Asking for my email password is phishing, period.

It may be phishing for a less nefarious cause, but how's the average enduser supposed to know the difference? We need to plant the meme that any site asking for another site's password is always wrong.

<comment><USER44> Cancel all your social network accounts. Everyone does it. They say they don't store email addresses, technically true but they store a hash of it. They use this data to recommend friends/connections. It can also be used to recommend friends/connections when a new user signups during the signup flow.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have cancelled two out of two accounts that have tried to phish my email password. (Udacity and now LinkedIn.) "Everyone" certainly does not do it. (I know Facebook does it, but just because the slimiest big company on the web does something doesn't mean it's okay.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> The main problem with LinkedIn, especially for the HN crowd, is that it's essentially just go-go-gadget arm for recruiters, who themselves represent a very broken system ([http://bit.ly/14gMFnB](http://bit.ly/14gMFnB)). Modern recruiting is a horrible mess ([http://bit.ly/11Jnnez](http://bit.ly/11Jnnez)), so a social network that encourages and magnifies their actions is of course going to produce pretty terrible results.

LinkedIn is a _great_ business development tool. Want to know the name of the person at company X who could use your product? LinkedIn is awesome for that.

But time and time again, the main thing one hears about LinkedIn is the (systemically encouraged) abuse of the system by spammy recruiters, not the 'business networking' it should be a haven for.

A significant move away from the traditional recruitment paradigm as a whole is the only thing that will make LinkedIn enjoyable to use. When traditional recruiters aren't the best way to find talent, LinkedIn will be free to grow and prosper as a business networking community.

We're trying to solve this problem at Mighty Spring ([https://www.mightyspring.com](https://www.mightyspring.com)). Whereas on LinkedIn your information is public and ripe for recruiter abuse, Mighty Spring profiles are only visible to the public in a cleansed, anonymous form. Behind the safe walls of our system, our users are free to indicate their career aspirations, explore new opportunities, and accept incoming interview requests (from first party companies only, not agency recruiters). Externally, the profiles are anonymous, so no one even knows you are a member of the community unless you choose to reveal your information specifically to them and accept an interview.

We're in private beta now, but are already successfully connecting our users with great companies -- all at each user's discretion, of course! We'd love to help all of you solve your problems with LinkedIn, so we'll live-monitor signups coming from Hacker News and expedite beta invites to all you guys. Definitely let us know if you have feedback or questions. My email is in my profile.

<comment><USER46> Please don't use URL shorteners on Hacker News. It is contrary to established norms.

<comment><USER45> Noted, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Wow, offering to log into an account that holds contact information in order to retrieve those contacts and automatically invite them to connect with you. I'm glad the innovation will both start and stop here – it's a good thing MySpace never did this. Or Facebook. Or any one of a million other services. I'm not trying to detract from the potential severity of anyone actually going ahead and _doing_ it, but OP, is this seriously the first time you've seen something like this? I'm very surprised.

<comment><USER7> I think the issue was with it actually asking for the password itself. If it were an OAuth screen he probably wouldn't have blinked. Would I have shaken my head and even MAYBE deleted my account if I were having a bad day? Maybe.

Would I write a blog post about it even if I did? No.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> The only things I supply to LinkedIn are things I would put on a resume and send to strangers. It is a useful service if you can be disciplined about what you share.

</comment><comment><USER49> Can anyone confirm LinkedIn actually sent this email? I mean, straight out _asking_ for your customers' email password is pretty ridiculous.

<comment><AUTHOR> LinkedIn sent me an email saying I had a new contact. When I clicked the link in the email, it put me on the LinkedIn site. As an afterthought on the "we added your new connection" page, they tried to phish my email password.

<comment><USER49> It's a shame that a company with an already bad track record in user security would do something so careless yet again.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Interestingly, I have received lots of great contacts and work through various sites I use, but never anything through LinkedIn. Different communities gravitate to different channels. For me, I wouldn't miss my LinkedIn account. Though maybe I'm just not trying hard enough.

</comment><comment><USER51> Can't you do what LinkedIn does with your contacts through some kind of Google universal auth API? Why does LinkedIn actually need my freaking password to view my contacts?</comment>


Ask HN: If you had participated in today's hearing, what would you have asked? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I probably wouldn't have asked Google why they took down a post on Twitter...

</comment><comment><USER3> There was a hearing?

</comment><comment><USER4> What hearing?</comment>


Show HN: Triadex Muse in a Browser - <AUTHOR> http://till.com/articles/muse/ <comment><AUTHOR> The Triadex Muse was a digital algorithmic music composer invented in 1969 by Marvin Minsky and Edward Fredkin at MIT.

The Muse is incredibly rare; one report claims that only 280 were built, and a small fraction of those are likely in working condition today. And that's a shame, because this was a remarkable device and we can learn much from it.

This is a Javascript simulation of the Muse that runs in a browser.

Please enjoy!

<comment><USER2> I've got a Muse sitting on a desk across the room staring at me right now. I'll definitely be checking this out when I have a chance to play around with it later.

<comment><AUTHOR> "I've got a Muse sitting on a desk across the room staring at me right now."... That's something you don't hear every day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice work, I had not come across this before, here's the lightbox part in a video, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEIpFvfhYYM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEIpFvfhYYM)

</comment><comment><USER4> The patterns are surprisingly interesting considering the relatively simple algorithm. I'd love to try this out with better sounds and maybe some more dynamics.</comment>


10 Reasons To Buy A Tablet (And 5 Reasons Not To) - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/12/10-reasons-to-buy-a-tablet-and-5-reasons-not-to/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> I'm interested by the nosedive in attention to netbooks.

Obviously the media has gotten bored and moved onto tablets, but have consumers really moved past netbooks? I thought they filled a real niche and would be significant for a lot longer

<comment><USER3> I see a lot more real people using netbooks as opposed to tablets. Tablets still seem like a toy for older rich folks while netbooks are a viable cheap computing option for a lot of people who don't need a machine that does any heavy lifting.

<comment><USER4> I see netbooks all the time. I'm the only person wandering around the local coffee shops with an iPad.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Their reasons not to buy a tablet are somewhat flawed.

They essentially say that...

       1. Tablets aren't portable
       2. Tablets don't have hardcore games
       3. Tablets can't do "real" work
       4. Tablets aren't better than laptops when it comes to surfing the web,
          watching movies, etc.
       5. Tablets will be replaced with other tablets (who would have thought!)

Reasons 1-4 are all based off the assumption that tablets should be able to compete with laptops and phones at the same time. However, tablets are in a different market than phones and laptops for a reason. Apple and some other companies have come along and created something that people have been longing for a while: an intermediate device between a phone and a laptop.

Tablets are portable, but not the same way phones are. That's because people would rather carry around something of bigger size with more functionality than a phone.

Tablets don't have hardcore games, because the majority of users are casual gamers. Hardcore games are for people who sit down at their computers for hours while leveling up on a game. Casual games are for people who want to play games in short spurts for quick fun. No long term commitment is needed.

Tablets do the work most people need to do on the go. "Real" work is done at a desk on a laptop or desktop. Tablets are there to fill in and help get the basic work done when you're on a taxi, plane, etc.

Tablets let you surf the web and watch movies anywhere, with ease. Instead of some distant interaction with your laptop using a mouse, tablets offer direct control using touch. They give you the features you need and no more. Content consumption and entertainment has never been better than it has with the tablet.

I will refrain from discussing the last argument listed in the article, as another argument will come along in a few weeks and replace that argument. There's no worth wasting my time doing something like _that_. :)

</comment><comment><USER5> In my experience, the iPad (and, by extension, all current 10" tablets) makes a mediocre e-reader. I found the form factor uniquely uncomfortable for casual reading in bed or in a chair - it's too heavy to hold comfortably for more than 5 - 10 minutes. I liked the portability, but ultimately there was no use case where I wouldn't prefer an ultraportalbe laptop or a Kindle. I sold mine on Craigslist after 4 months. If they can shave a quarter of a pound off, I'll be interested again.

<comment><USER6> I wouldn't mind it because in bed, I don't even hold books. Instead I place it on the mattress and lean to it. So the weight is unimportant. What's imporant is that its flat and relatively short like the size of a large tradeback novel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've never really understood tablets.

I'm of the opinion that if I was going to carry around something too big to fit in a pocket, I might as well just make that thing a laptop.

<comment><USER8> I love mine. I never carry it around, but I use it all the time. I guess I sometimes carry it from the nightstand to the sofa, or to the kitchen, or to my desk to sync. Those journeys are too brief for a pocket.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I do that with my laptop. It does everything, and I can use it for hours without discomfort.

<comment><USER8> I like to lay flat on my back - with my 14 month old son napping on my chest - watching some tech presentation video (or browsing, or even playing the LASW RTS. These are sublime moments that my laptop can't bring me.

<comment><USER9> I'm having a hard time picturing this being comfortable (or more comfortable than having a laptop sitting next to you). Are you holding the tablet above your son the entire time? Don't your arms get tired?

<comment><USER8> I had to watch myself do it because I had never noticed the specifics. Turns out it varies. Sometimes I'm holding it over him, but the weight is being transferred through my forearm to the sofa beside my body through one or both elbows. Other times my hand is just balancing it and little Henry's diaper- padded posterior is propping it up. I have a cover on it that flips behind the tablet,like one would fold a magazine cover behind a magazine, and sometimes I hold the thing with my index finger extended horizontally into this hinge, with a moment of force being applied by the side of the device into the palm of my hand.

It's never been something I had given much though to. The idea of craning my neck and reaching my arms to operate a laptop on the table beside me strikes my as uncomfortable, though.

To each their own, I guess.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: I got kicked out of an Ivy League, now what? - <AUTHOR>

I got withdrawn from the Engineering program at an Ivy League because of my grades. Looking back, it was completely my fault, but I can't change that now. I was transitioning from a "core" engineering major to CS but before I could, I was asked to leave. I've applied for transfers but lets see where that goes. I'm a fairly decent coder, getting better and better now that I have nothing else to do, and I want to know if its even necessary to have a university degree at the end of the day. Do employers really care where you went to school as long as you have a great portfolio of projects you've worked on? Also if anyone knows of any programs or universities I could apply to that would seriously consider me despite my situation, that would be helpful, especially if they are tech/entrepreneurial programs (like makeschool). <comment><USER2> Everyone says they do, but really they don't.

Tom Cumming, one of the very finest embedded systems developers that has ever walked the earth, never even applied to college.

I myself was kicked out of caltech for being mentally ill. That would be illegal now, but the americans with disabilities act had not been enacted yet. I transferred to UC Santa Cruz, but eventually dropped out to work as a coder.

I did so for six years - with no degree - but eventually did complete my degree, but only because I grew weary of being asked by interviewers why I never graduated.

If you are someone who, like me, is commonly discriminated against, a good solution is to start your own business. I'm working on that right now, and I've done it successfully in the past.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you go open source a degree is not necessary.

If you go enterprise, it will be hard to get your first job. In enterprise it may limit your ability to be promoted.

</comment><comment><USER4> My understanding of ivy league schools is you really gotta screw up to get the boot. Are you sure you're ready to continue school.

<comment><AUTHOR> got one F and i was told i couldn't continue

<comment><USER4> Without more to it, that is very atypical.</comment></comment></comment>


Dark Web Map - xkcd-sucks https://www.hyperiongray.com/dark-web-map/ <comment><AUTHOR> I found the screenshot of a hitmen-for-hire service. [https://imgur.com/a/6vfcx](https://imgur.com/a/6vfcx) I wish users could share the coordinates of any item in the map. But it's a really fascinating work. Kudos to the creators!

<comment><USER2> Is it me or is that an easy way to make money? Create a "murder-for-hire" website, or whatever illegal service you want, then disappear with the bitcoins.

<comment><USER3> Sure, you could do that but bare in mind that you're dealing with criminals and whatnot. I wouldn't want to fraud such people.

<comment><USER4> Why not? They wont go to the authorities and without assistance it's unlikely they'd be able to find an anonymous actor who took the right precautions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This looks ominous, anyone have any ideas on how to solve the puzzle?

[https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW](https://imgur.com/XXpyoqW)

<comment><USER6> Ideas:

\- The "vbizukfplsqf...." is not part of the puzzle

\- The original website is available at [https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion/](https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion/)

\- The page title is "Caesar Was Rome's 2nd Emperor", hinting to Caesar cipher

\- In a HTML comment: "kcovjgfktgevgf" which is "I am the directed" encrypted via Caesar cipher

\- In a HTML comment: "6e6f71696e796c6e646e7179736d77666163766a7272666a0a" which is the hexadecimal for "noqinylndnqysmwfacvjrrfj\n"

\- The image is named "vigenere.png", hinting to Vigenere cipher

<comment><USER7> The solution is

> endofthelinenineninenine

every one of your obervations was correct (btw I got to know the tabula recta as vigenere square [1])

kcovjgfktgevgf was the key for noqinylndnqysmwfacvjrrfj\n (and \n is indeed endoftheline)

I used an online vigenere chiffre "applet" (ok it is javascript so not really an applet but who cares) and I got an off by one (just define the alphabet as bcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyza or use jbnuifejsfdufe as the key)

PS. Without tor you can use [3] and thx for making me waste that 5 minutes :D it was fun

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

[2] [https://cryptii.com/vigenere-cipher](https://cryptii.com/vigenere-cipher)

[3] [https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion.link](https://vbizukfplsqfdhbr.onion.link)

<comment><USER5> So what does that solution mean? Are you supposed to visit /999?

<comment><USER7> Don't know it isn't my puzzle. Maybe I'm wrong and this isn't the solution and there is still some way to go.

Edit: damn wanted to try the /999 but the site is down (yeah I'm using tor and not the onion.link link) I hope this is just the HN effect and it will soon work again

Edit2: I hoped to find something hidden in the image itself but it wasn't

Edit3: If anyone else wants to give it a shot [https://blacklotus.github.io/](https://blacklotus.github.io/) uploaded the index.html and vigenere.png (oviously no other files)

<comment><USER6> I read "Hax and Vax" as "Horizontal axis and Vertical axis", but I'm not sure what to think about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wait until after work to take a look at this one. Even before you agree to the disclaimer a lot of enterprise filters will alert based on the description of the content it hasn't loaded.

<comment><USER9> ... if it's still even up by then. Things like this tend to disappear pretty fast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> If an image containing illegal content is sent to the browser of an unsuspecting user, does that constitute a breach of the law? If a CDN goes rogue and suddenly starts pushing out child porn then is every person whos browser cached that image now guilty? What if they didn't even know it got cached? A very grey area with these sorts of things.

<comment><USER11> Not illegal:

(d)Affirmative Defense.—It shall be an affirmative defense to a charge of violating subsection (a)(5) that the defendant— (1) possessed less than three images of child pornography; and (2) promptly and in good faith, and without retaining or allowing any person, other than a law enforcement agency, to access any image or copy thereof— (A) took reasonable steps to destroy each such image; or (B) reported the matter to a law enforcement agency and afforded that agency access to each such image.

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2252A](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2252A)

Also, the main charge of possession is __knowingly __possessed

<comment><USER12> That may be the case in the US, but FWIW it is not necessarily true across jurisdictions. In the UK, for instance:

> A person who views an image on a device which is then automatically cached > onto its memory would not be in possession of that image unless it can be > proved that he / she knew of the cache [...but...] the person would also > have "made" the image in question. Subject to there being evidence of the > act which constituted the making and the necessary mental element, an > offence contrary to section 1 of the PCA 1978 is preferable and in most > cases would suffice. [...] The charge of 'making' [has been] widely > interpreted to cover such activities as opening attachments to emails and > downloading or simply viewing images on the internet.

Further note:

> So, for example, in a "pop-up" case, it would have be to be proved [for the > act of making] that suspect knew that accessing a website would generate > "pop-ups" and that those "pop-ups" would depict, or be likely to depict, > indecent images of children

That is far shakier legal ground than I would like to be on, especially for readers of this thread who would presumably be aware of the cache and where it has been hinted that the images may contain at best questionable content.

[https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/indecent-images- childr...](https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/indecent-images-children- iioc)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This one site says if I give them 1 Bitcoin I will make 350% profit in 48 hours...Bernie Madoff approves

<comment><USER10> If he's not a Nigerian, I'd be careful. It's possible he's not insured by a recent family inheritance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The censoring is not 100%. The map is cool, but there are definitely some thumbnails you don't want in your browser cache.

</comment><comment><USER15> Why does Indeed.com have a dark web site? Is there an advantage to that?

I'm also surprised at the number of pun-sites/joke-sites on here. It's like the early internet.

</comment><comment><USER16> The disclaimer didn't make it clear (I thought it would just be showing hostnames), but this map shows screenshots of hidden service home pages.

So it's probably wise not to look closely at too many.

<comment><USER17> > Each site is represented in the map as a screenshot,

and

> The Dark Web Map contains uncensored content from thousands of dark web > sites.

You thought the (onion) hostnames would be considered uncensored content? and that this required a disclaimer?

and

> These sites include mature and/or offensive content, including pornography, > violence, and racism.

and

> By clicking the "Accept" button, you are affirming that you are at least 18 > years old and accept all responsibility for viewing this content.

<comment><USER18> Why on earth would they think posting uncensored screenshots from the dark web would be a good idea? When browsing the dark web you should always be going in with images turned off, before you run into child porn at work and end up in prison.

<comment><USER19> Because it's the only reason the project is somewhat interesting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The most interesting thing about this was how the "map" part of it was completely irrelevant. From a quick scan every single large interconnected subgraph contained only completely or virtually identical sites.

</comment><comment><USER21> Wow, didn't realise the darkweb was so tiny.

<comment><USER22> They made this map by spidering public onion sites, so you're only seeing sites that were publicly linked to on a site they crawled. You could brute force the .onion address space to get a more accurate estimate of the number of onion sites currently online, but that would take a long time at the speed Tor operates.

<comment><USER23> There are 2^80 possible onion addresses, so it would take a very, very long time at any speed.

<comment><USER24> to get an estimate, you only need a sample

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> the intresting stuff is on the side ;) (looking at the map it seems to be a 90-ish version of the internet made by wiredo)

</comment><comment><USER26> SO, that's annoying and pretty pointless. I can't search the HSDir names or the related content per page. I have to manually and visually look at a map. I was curious if my services were on there, as I run quite a few HSDirs. But no way I'm going to look at every image.

This would have been interesting if they either released the data or make the content searchable. Oh well.

<comment><USER11> How do you think they got this data? It appears more than just hidden wiki entries.

<comment><USER26> Any bridge can see announced HSDirs communicating to it. So technically you can be a bridge and save all HSDirs that are being passed.

This will get your bridges banned by Tor __IF __they know you 're doing that. So the ones who do, stay quiet about it. I'd give it 3 days before their bridge is distrusted and revoked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> That is very hard to navigate and slow to render. I suggest you simply use standard image tiling via [https://www.maptiler.com/](https://www.maptiler.com/) or something similar.

</comment><comment><USER28> I suppose it's a very small portion. either that or the dark web is really way smaller than I thought.

<comment><USER11> The blog post states it is about 10% of the total sites.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> What makes it so hard for undercover agents to browse this stuff and make purchases of <insert illegal substance or act here> to nab the seller? Or set up fake services and nab buyers?

It must be a mess. I can't see how people wouldn't be paranoid on here to the point of chilling it.

<comment><USER30> Undercover agents can buy whatever they like. But smart sellers aren't so easy to identify. There's always a risk in mailing stuff, of course. But Bitcoin can be anonymized well enough.

Buyers are more vulnerable. Many have stuff mailed to their actual addresses. Even if they pay with well anonymized Bitcoin. Some have stuff sent to places that are empty, where people are on vacation, or infirm, and so on.

I haven't heard of fake markets. But investigators have taken over markets, and identified both sellers and buyers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> A search button would be cool.

There used to be a cool site by Harry71 that listed all onion sites. But I suspect that it was trawling hidden service directories, which Tor Project frowns on.

</comment><comment><USER31> A small oversight in the censoring of the onion addresses: some of the screenshots show websites that list the full address somewhere on it (e.g. 'gunbizme…').

<comment><USER31> Also, some of the pages shown link to other (uncensored) onion addresses in the screenshot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Thanks but no thanks. The last thing I want for my Friday afternoon is to see a picture of an abused child or worse.

<comment><USER32> They removed them from what I understood. It's mostly filled with prank sites.

<comment><USER33> Looks like about 1/3 of everything are the equivalent of "It works!" pages (the huge white clusters and the large cluster of "You made a site on the dark side").

Doesn't mean that there is nothing to be accessed on those servers, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> How can I get the full link address?

<comment><USER26> You can't. Creator intentionally crippled HSDirs for "reasons".</comment></comment>


AWS Tokyo Region – Major Connectivity Issues - <AUTHOR> https://status.aws.amazon.com/ <comment><USER2> One of my instances here became unresponsive for about 30-60 min. Rebooting did nothing, no but stopping and starting fixed it.

</comment><comment><USER3> According to their status page this is limited to a single AZ, but that doesn't tally up with what we've been seeing.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a IMU sensor with BLE and API available on the market? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking for some 6 or 9 DoF IMU sensor with integrated bluetooth for a prototype.
Basically I'm developing an iOS game (Android is also in focus) where I can play with one remote control i.e. with an IMU sensor on it, which is connected via bluetooth.
With this IMU sensor I would like to recognise 6 different states in a shaken environment (1. Left down,2. Left up, 3. Middle down, 4. Middle up, 5. Right down, 6. Right up) maybe a barometer will be required!?
This is what I thing this IMU has to be able:
+ accelerometer, gyro
+ Magnometer and Barometer... maybe?
+ sensor fusion API will be great -> Motion in specific axis (shakes) without being affected by the accelerometer gravity
+ Bluetooth BLE connection
I found out a sensor with similar characteristics, but is not available yet: Meta Motion C – 10 Axis IMU + Sensor Fusion - https://store.mbientlab.com/product/meta-motion-c/#add-a-sensor
From the same company (MBIENTLAB) there are other sensors (MetaWear family). The question is if you know other similar sensors available on the market Thank you for the help! <comment><USER2> the Arduino 101 has a built in 6DOF IMU, accelerometer and bluetooth.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wiimote, if normal Bluetooth is ok as well?</comment>


Who Should Control the Internet? A Vanity Fair Feature - <AUTHOR> http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/05/internet-regulation-war-sopa-pipa-defcon-hacking.print

<comment><USER2> This is a great article that seems to have been passed over by a lot of people. The conference's three points brought ot the table by "Order" really seem to be completely missing the real crisis at stake outlined by this article's author in conjunction with the forced of "Organized Chaos". However, given that Organized Chaos has no organization and that DefCon is still really small, is there a chance at mkaing enough of an impact so that the real issues are brought up instead of internet taxation and requests for government surveillance?

</comment><comment><USER3> in the end, nobody can control it, it being, by defininition, a collection of independent networks using some common protocols and whatnot to cooperate and communicate. thats why it exists in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER4> "No".

</comment><comment><USER5> No one should control the Internet. Unfortunately the only way to ensure that is to make it so no one _can_ , and the changes required to make _that_ a reality will make getting people to switch from IE6 look like a piece of cake. At any rate, if the US government is the "voice for Internet freedom" in Dubai this December, then every entity on the planet that isn't a government is going to lose something. The United States has absolutely no credibility or capability as a defender of freedom, on the net or otherwise.

<comment><USER6> >The United States has absolutely no credibility or capability as a defender of freedom, on the net or otherwise.

If you make childish statements you will be treated as a child, and rightly so.

<comment><USER7> Can you explain what is childish about that statement, instead of saying it is childish and leaving it at that?</comment></comment></comment>


The US Government Still Uses Floppy Disks to Manage Its Nuclear Operations - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/joseph-steinberg/the-united-states-still-uses-floppy-disks-to-manage-its-nuclear-weapons.html <comment><USER2> offline is the safeline</comment>


The Unabomber has become an unlikely prophet to a new generation of acolytes - <AUTHOR> https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html <comment><USER2> It says "Against Civilization" is "spreading versions of his message", meaning Kaczynski. But "Against Civilization" was written by John Zerzan, and Zerzan was saying these things before "Industrial Society and Its Future" was published.

In fact, while Kaczynski was more militant, Zerzan is more radical, he sees the problems not starting with industrial capitalism, but with the original agricultural slave empires of the Middle East.

Defining primitivism by Kaczynski is like defining Zionism by Baruch Goldstein, or the anti-abortion cause by Scott Roeder or so forth. Or US patriotism by the torture in Abu Ghraib.</comment>


Earth's Magnetic Field Flip Could Happen Sooner Than Expected - <AUTHOR> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-s-magnetic-field-flip-could-happen-sooner-than-expected/

<comment><USER2> One flaw that bugs me in the article: "the dangerous cosmic radiation spewing from the sun in the form of solar winds." From the Wikipedia: "Cosmic rays are immensely high-energy radiation, mainly originating outside the Solar System." It might not be strictly wrong (as language leaves open that some cosmic rays may come from our sun; and the Wikipedia solar wind article has "The solar wind affects the other incoming cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere of planets."). But cosmic radiation is most famous for being very high energy (cosmic scale) and of exotic origin. A small pedantic point, but lack of distinction makes me think of this [http://explosm.net/comics/3557/](http://explosm.net/comics/3557/) .

Edit: I know cosmic rays are not typically em-radiation. The name rays (which usually denotes em-radition) is a historic accident. Hence "cosmic rays" and "cosmic radiation" are fairly close terms. And yes our sun produces tons of rays and radiation- but not typically at the "cosmic" energy scales.

I don't mind getting down-voted for being overly pedantic (and perhaps worse yet trying to be pedantic, while being possibly wrong- this isn't my field). But some of the follow-ups really look like they are missing the same type of distinction in the exact manner I was originally complaining about (which is why there is some small value in trying point this out).

<comment><USER3> "Cosmic rays" are not the same as "cosmic radiation". Cosmic rays are charged (massive) particles which are moving at relativistic speeds, and are not electromagnetic radiation. In contrast, cosmic radiation consists of photons.

I see the wikipedia article for cosmic rays [0] does state they are radiation, which is misleading and should probably be changed.

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

<comment><USER4> Cosmic rays are particle radiation [0], so its not misleading to state that they are radiation.

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_radiation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_radiation)

<comment><USER3> Yes, you're correct. My bad. Though, in my experience, "radiation" without a modifier almost always refers to the electromagnetic variety. But I guess that could vary depending on what circles one hangs out in.

<comment><USER5> IME in physics, the term "radiation" usually refers to particles whose total energy is much greater than their rest mass. Not all free electrons constitute beta radiation; only those whose velocity is some considerable fraction of the speed of light. Massless particles such as photons, on the other hand, are always radiation according to that definition.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is an interesting result. An old paper [1](1988) was my first exposure to asking the question about whether or not periodic pole reversals were tied to other cyclic phenomena such as volcanism, glacial periods, and mass extinctions.

I observe that the magnetic field has a fairly material impact on the upper atmosphere, so it seems reasonable to include it in the models on climate change.

[1] [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30064982?uid=2&uid=4&s...](http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30064982?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104496247763)

</comment><comment><USER7> "Still, there is no evidence that a weakened magnetic field would result in a doomsday for Earth."... "Researchers think power grids and communication systems would be most at risk."

Somebody give it to me strait, do I need to build a doomsday bunker ASAP and start stockpiling supplies?

<comment><USER8> > do I need to build a doomsday bunker ASAP

No. The cost of building and maintaining a bunker is higher than any chance of ever realizing a benefit. This is true for any doomsday type scenario but if you live in a place with dangerously high winds or tornadoes a cellar might be a good place to weather a storm.

> stockpiling supplies?

Yes, you should always stockpile food and water in case of emergency [1]

[1] [http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/foodwater/prepare.asp](http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/foodwater/prepare.asp)

<comment><USER9> Do they still have that ridiculous law that makes you a potential terrorist for stockpiling more than 7 day's worth of food?

[http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/10-ridiculous-things- tha...](http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/10-ridiculous-things-that-make- you.html)

Apparently something like that just happened last month:

[http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/06/23/fbi-raids-home- dange...](http://www.dcclothesline.com/2014/06/23/fbi-raids-home-dangerous- doomsday-prepper-agents-find-legally-owned-firearms-barrels-food/)

<comment><USER10> There is no such ridiculous law, as the (somewhat unhinged) article itself makes clear.

If you hold your nose and click through to the original source they link to, it's even further from your summary, referring to stockpiles of MREs, on a short list that also includes night vision goggles, rifle tripods, high- capacity magazines, and ammunition pouches.

(The flyer seems pretty clearly geared towards "suspicious" militia types).

<comment><USER11> Uh, MREs are a pretty normal part of a survival kit. I've owned them before. It is a pretty stupid law, even if it's scope is targeted towards militia types.

<comment><USER10> What law? There is no such law.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I thought Mars lost water and have thin atmosphere because of loss of its magnetic field.

 _Mars owes its dry and dusty appearance to its wispy atmosphere, less than 1 percent of the thickness of the Earth 's. But it wasn't always that way: The Red Planet formerly had a much thicker atmosphere that probably allowed for liquid water on the surface, an atmosphere that was depleted when the planet's magnetic field faded away._

[http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/moon- mars/what...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/moon-mars/what- happened-to-mars-atmosphere-15277534)

<comment><USER12> We are not losing it, it is changing polarity ("flipping"). It may be reduced for a short time while the flip happens. It has happened many times before.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> As a short-term solution, I propose iron credits. I'll launch the yellow revolution, whereupon concerned citizens will send our non-profit organization of care some money. I will use this money to plant fields of corn, which will be used to produce bioplastic, which will in turn replace the use of iron (the ferrous metal that started all of this mayhem in the first place) world-wide.

The long-term solution is to place a tax on iron. This price chart ([https://bitly.com/Wa4lD3](https://bitly.com/Wa4lD3)) illustrates an increase in demand for iron. A simple 41.3% tax on iron and iron-based products and on the income of all global citizens and companies that use at least 1 product that contains iron or is made by a company that used something containing iron to produce it will promote responsible and sustainable manufacturing practices. If we don't act now, it'll be too late. Polarity shift levels have risen over 3 inches in the past year alone, and our independent and intelligent panel of scientists estimates that a shift of more than 6 inches over the next 100 years will set us back to the stone age.

</comment><comment><USER14> Very minor nitpicky grammar point: "... the Swarm satellites — three separate satellites floating in tandem."

Can three things operate in tandem?

<comment><USER15> No. Tandem also implies one behind the other which, even in the context of an orbit, doesn't make much sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> does this mean earth is going to rotate backwards, just like it says in the holy bible?

<comment><USER17> There is no such thing written anywhere in the Bible.

<comment><USER18> "Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down." (Isaiah 38:8)

<comment><USER17> I completely forgot about that passage. However it was only God playing astronomy tricks _to make a particular point_ ; I don't recall any case where there is written that the Earth is supposed to start rotating backwards in the future (or the Sun going in the other direction, etc.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The Preppers are going to really flip over this.

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


Saving Canada's only desert - <AUTHOR> http://www.dw.com/en/saving-canadas-onlydesert/a-19470246 <comment><USER3> There is the opposite problem, which for me is way more serious: The desert growing. In Spain it grows each year in the South East.

But Spain's desert is small compared to Sahara's, that is as big as Europe. Its dunes are as big as buildings, with pictures you can't really grasp the enormity of this dessert. When Sahara grows each year it literally engulfs entire villages.

In Egypt and center of Africa there are cities that were prosperous in the past that were engulfed by dessert and disappeared.

Honestly I would not shed a tear for big parts of the big dessert going away. When solar energy and desalination becomes cheaper I expect Sahara to be one of the most fertile places on Earth.

You can probably preserve the biodiversity freezing eggs and sperm of the creatures that live there. There are not so much. I believe that with pesticides and herbicides we have destroyed way more biodiversity of our world(not the desert but our forest) and nobody has complained.

<comment><USER4> Currently a wall of forest is being planned to stop the desertification of southern Africa. The accompanying satellite photo on the wikipedia article is quite telling of the enormous size of the desert.

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

<comment><USER5> "a wall of forest is being planned to stop the desertification of southern Africa". Very interesting, no kidding. Who is planning that? The last successful country in such endeavour is Kazakhstan. And to certain extent - China. Making 'wall of forest' is a programme with planning horizon of more than 50 years. I'd like to know the name of stakeholders.

<comment><USER4> So apparently Africa has a union not unlike the early EU [1] and they are in charge of it, as prominently mentioned in the wikipedia article above.

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

<comment><USER5> Thank you. Forest plantations in arid zones are tricky thing. I know that, because I studied that topic for about a year. Expensive too. I wish them 100 years of piece and prosperity to complete that, and will gladly assist, if invited.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I see in some places people are trying to stop deserts from turning into something else and in other places people are trying to stop something else from turning into deserts.

Are we always trying to stop things from changing, and a posteriori inventing arguments for why that particular change is bad? (Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all change is equally indifferent either)

<comment><USER7> Those are 2 different things, and usually both are caused by humans.

Desertification is a big problem and it has many human linked causes, large cities change rainfall patterns, deforestation causes soil migration changes the mineral content of the soil and reduces its moisture content and most importantly desertification affects humans as it creeps into arable land increasing the cost of growing crops or in some areas making it almost impossible.

The other problem is the destruction of natural deserts due to buildup of man made structures, agriculture, diversion of water sources, overall climate change (a desert doesn't have to be a "hot" place, many deserts are actually in danger due to rising temperatures which increase rainfall, melt glaciers, or soil locked ice) and many other things.

No one is inventing posteriori arguments and decides arbitrary what is good and what is bad, one environmental change can drastically affect human civilization including costing human lives in the long run, the other is unnecessary destruction or damage to existing natural habitats which do not have much (negative) impact over human civilization or lives but can and should be prevented if not reverted. This is not different than any other preservation effort, you want bears in the wild, doesn't mean you want them living in the woods just by your house, and it also doesn't mean that you would not shoot them if they come and endanger human lives.

<comment><USER6> But much like you say "humans have an impact on what's around them, causing it to change, and eventually that could cause loss of lives", you can also say that for anything at all, can't you? Replace humans with X = bears, trees, anything...

<comment><USER7> Humans are not really subjected to natural selection anymore, we need to really screw up the planet for that to happen and by that time it would be too late.

Nature tends to balance itself out, this is slightly harder to do with humans which have the technology to geoengineer their habitats.

But even if it was so it doesn't matter, no person in their right mind would think it's ok for me to die, and for millions or billions of other people to die just because it's the natural order of things.

And for the most part you can't even hide behind it's a "natural process" because humans are geoengineers we build huge concrete cities, we build dams, we divert rivers, we strip whole mountains and dig the decomposing biomass of our "ancestors" and burn it as fuel.

Bears and trees don't do that.

<comment><USER6> Ok, so your argument is to object to my claim that things other than humans can have an impact that leads to loss of lives? I ask this because of your final comment that "bears and trees don't do that".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In case it helps anyone unfamiliar with the geography, the Okanagan Desert is the northern tip of the arid region which covers the Eastern half of Washington state; it lies in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains.

</comment><comment><USER9> Not really related, but I just wanted to share - there's another desert that almost no one knows about, and it's right in the middle of Europe - in Poland:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%82%C4%99d%C3%B3w_Desert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%82%C4%99d%C3%B3w_Desert)

It's slowly disappearing though.

<comment><USER10> Why would you want to conserve that? Isn't reverse-desertification a good thing?

<comment><USER11> Desert areas often have unique plants and animals living in them that would quickly die if competing with faster growing lifeforms. This tends to not be a good thing, because in proper deserts, there are times of the year where there is a lot of rain, but a long period of time where there is little to no rain. So, these invasive species will shoot up in the winter and spring, then dry out and die in the summer and fall when there's no rain to keep the plants alive. The resulting tinderbox is ripe for a fire to burn through and cause problems for everyone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > by the Okanagan Desert, a semi-arid region

aren't deserts defined by being arid regions?

<comment><USER13> You are correct.

It is "technically only semi-arid shrub-steppe." [0] which are "Shrub-steppes are distinguishable from deserts, which are too dry to support a noticeable cover of perennial grasses or other shrubs" [1]

Semi-arid regions are also colloquially called "semi-deserts". As far as the semi-arid regions I have visited go, it seems to have pretty decent vegetation compared to others.

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

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrub- steppe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrub-steppe)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Our only desert? There is a small desert in Yukon, as well: Carcross Desert. At least by my definition of a desert: wind blown sand dunes with little patches of hardy shrubs and scrawny trees.

Maybe the fact that it formed from a lake bed makes it not a real desert?

<comment><USER15> Sounds like some swaths in Saskatchewan. Even the badlands in Alberta has areas like that. I wonder what the distinctions are?

<comment><USER5> I was wrong. I admit that. Saskatchewan does not have Lael Parrott - <USER2> of Sustainability.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The whole tundra is a desert. Everything north of the arctic circle is a desert.

<comment><USER17> _"Everything north of the arctic circle is a desert"_

Nope ;-) [https://www.flickr.com/photos/83908676@N02/12262674976/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/83908676@N02/12262674976/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Not sure why the Carberry desert doesn't qualify as a desert: [https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g1871864-d50114...](https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g1871864-d501147-Reviews- Carberry_Spirit_Sands_Desert-Carberry_Manitoba.html)

I was under the impression it holds the largest piece of "soft desert" in Canada, but maybe that's wrong.

<comment><USER19> "There are almost as many definitions of deserts and classification systems as there are deserts in the world. Most classifications rely on some combination of the number of days of rainfall, the total amount of annual rainfall, temperature, humidity, or other factors. In 1953, Peveril Meigs divided desert regions on Earth into three categories according to the amount of precipitation they received. In this now widely accepted system, extremely arid lands have at least 12 consecutive months without rainfall, arid lands have less than 250 millimeters of annual rainfall, and semiarid lands have a mean annual precipitation of between 250 and 500 millimeters. Arid and extremely arid land are deserts, and semiarid grasslands generally are referred to as steppes"

[http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/what/](http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/deserts/what/)

As I understand it Carberry gets 300-500 mm of rain per year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> That area is just the northern tip of a larger "desert" area in Washington State. There's plenty of "desert" in that area. It's just mostly on the other side of the border.

It looks more like Silicon Valley in dry season than a real desert.

<comment><USER21> "a real desert"

What does that look like? Antarctica is the largest desert in the world, does it look like "a real desert"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The way things are going, they could probably introduce the threatened species to eastern Ontario, which is slowly becoming a desert it seems.

</comment><comment><USER23> I thought this was about maple syrup. :/ Sorry for my ignorance.</comment>


Casting Glass from 3D Printed Molds - <AUTHOR> http://amosdudley.com/weblog/Casting-Glass-from-3D-Printed-Molds <comment><USER3> Also see 3d printed aluminum casting molds:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVgPM1ojyLw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVgPM1ojyLw)

<comment><USER4> Myfordboy is an excellent mechanic and engineer, and one of my favourite youtube channels.

VOG [1] runs another channel that does a lot of (artistic) metal casting with mostly 3D printed positives, called "lost PLA casting".

He uses casting plaster and built his own vacuum chamber and furnace to improve the quality of his casts.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkEYj8wtK3aEW8vSGhlB43g](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkEYj8wtK3aEW8vSGhlB43g)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I taught a similar course at Pilchuck in 2015, which was the first 3D-printing/digital fabrication course taught there, and was also up there taking a flameworking course when Amos was TA'ing for Yoav and Angela.

First off, Pilchuck is amazing, and if you're at all interested in glass, you should seriously consider taking a course there.

Second, modulo a few tricks for clean burnouts, if you can print it, you can investment-cast it in whatever material you want. It's amazing how powerful cheap printers become when you combine them with a little casting skill - <USER2> can access nearly arbitrary geometry in some useful, high-performance materials without a $100k printer.

<comment><USER6> Do you know what kinds of results are possible with a standard consumer 3D printer? (A PLA printer?) The page says, "Any layer lines in the print end up transferring through to the glass, which makes polishing a lot more difficult," but does "a lot more difficult" mean impossible?

(I have an Ender 3 printer, and a microwave, so it looks like I can possibly get started for <$100. But both because of price and turnaround time, I am not very interested in using online resin printing services.)

<comment><USER7> I've got no practical experience with 3D printing, but surely dremel + grinding/sanding bits = no more layer lines?

<comment><USER8> Yep, sanding is an option. I've also seen people fill the valleys with some sort of goop filler and then start sanding from there, just to get it a little closer to smooth. But I can't say if introducing different materials like that might interfere with casting. They were doing it to paint over.

Another approach is vapor smoothing - you can use acetone vapor to smooth ABS prints. Acetone won't do anything to PLA though.

I've heard of other chemicals being available for smoothing PLA, but they're nastier than acetone and I don't know anyone who's actually tried them.

<comment><USER9> You should be able to use acetone. See the solubility table [0] for PLA. It takes longer, but it works.

[0]: [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/app.38833](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/app.38833)

<comment><AUTHOR> Acetone really don't work well for PLA. You need tetrahydrofuran to smooth PLA in the same way that acetone smooths ABS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Glass is definitely my favorite material to work with. I started messing with it after following the instructions for setting up a lab in "The Golden Book of Chemistry Experements." (I can't believe that's a children's book haha)

</comment><comment><USER11> > Once you have a model, the problem you need to solve is how to make a model > with no undercuts. Undercuts will make it impossible to remove the 3D > printed positive

Is there a mathematical term for solids with this property? It reminds me of the vertical line test, but in 3D.

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

<comment><USER12> Convex perhaps?

<comment><USER13> There are non-convex shapes that don't have undercuts. I think convexity implies that you don't have undercuts, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is great stuff!! As a hobbyist glassblowing and 3d-printer, this is exactly the kind of content I've been looking for. Thanks!

<comment><USER14> I did some pate de verre lost wax casting to make glass armguards a while back but they turned out too rough to wear. 3d printing might be the answer! (Check out my attempt here: [https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk45IFqBhbL/?igshid=16fgxi4oubho...](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk45IFqBhbL/?igshid=16fgxi4oubhod))

<comment><USER7> I'm curious about the too-rough-to-wear bit. Would an extra (leather/plastic) layer below the glass be impossible?

<comment><AUTHOR> Pâte de verre is typically rougher than kilncasting from a larger billet, because you're fusing glass granules without fully melting them together. So you could get a smoother surface just by adjusting the peak kiln temperature.

But yea, certainly you could add a leather wrap underneath.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Here is another artist who uses the technique.

[https://mtyka.github.io/art/2016/12/11/lostpla-casting- glass...](https://mtyka.github.io/art/2016/12/11/lostpla-casting-glass.html)

</comment><comment><USER16> This is fantastic. I've been wanting to make some custom liquor bottles. One step closer :)

</comment><comment><USER17> This would be fun to get with our company logo in the last photo of the snake head. If only we weren't paperless and could use a paper weight...</comment>


How I improved my life with a PS3 controller - <AUTHOR> http://www.n00shie.com/post/16665960442/ps3controller

<comment><USER2> MotionToJoy is pretty hard to setup IMO - they should work on their UX. IIRC you plug in the PS3 controller THEN install the software THEN go to the device manager tab of the software THEN install driver THEN restart the program because it doesn't work otherwise THEN go back to the first tab and pick the right profile for your needs (PS2 is the simplest because you don't worry about tilt sensors) THEN activate the profile THEN open the game controller panel to calibrate the new joysticks that appear. This is just for USB, bluetooth you have to have a specific kind of dongle and then override the drivers/pair the controller to your PC which is more steps.

</comment><comment><USER3> _> the analog sticks will be perfect for emulating the mouse_

My experience has been the exact opposite. I can barely browse on the PS3.

<comment><USER4> I've tried what the OP has done in the past. I ran into the mouse issue and what I did to make it better was to map the button under the analog stick to increase the mouse speed. Getting the pointer to a rough position quickly is a more gross muscle movement involving pushing down on the stick while moving it in some direction. Fine positioning is done then by letting up on the stick and maneuvering using fine motor control. I agree that using analog sticks for the mouse is kind of awkward though.

<comment><AUTHOR> I tried to be very cautious with what you were doing. I thought about it as well, but moving the analog stick while pressing it would probably put too much unnecessary stress on your thumb muscles. Try doing what I did, I have mentioned it in the comment above.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use a combination of a 360 controller, a wireless receiver for windows[1] and joy2key to control XBMC and emulators for classic games. The 360 controller is a lot more pleasant to hold and use IMO compared to a PS3 controller.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Gaming-Receiver- Wind...](http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-Wireless-Gaming-Receiver- Windows/dp/B000HZFCT2)

</comment><comment><USER6> Hmm, actually makes me want to try something similar, but with a Wiimote. I picture grand orchestra conductor-like gestures to close and switch tabs…

</comment><comment><USER7> Would love to see a video of this being used. I can't visualise this working.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here you go Andrew: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=velQZzXG-s4#)!</comment></comment>


The Zynga Abyss - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2012/01/the-zynga-abyss/251920/

<comment><AUTHOR> An interesting snippet from the article:

 _At IndieCade in October 2011, Adam Saltsman, Canabalt's creator, discussed the notion of "time until death." All of us have a finite amount of time on earth, and any time we spend on a particular activity is time that we can't spend doing something else. This means that the time we spend gaming represents most of a game's cost of ownership, far more than any money that we spend. If that time is enjoyable (or rather, if its benefits outweigh its costs), then the game was worth our time._

I think this is an interesting perspective. Personally, I don't calculate opportunity costs except at an intuitive level, and as a result I'm probably getting it wrong.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Another interesting quote:

 _The games themselves aren't where the action happens; the strategy component is: when do you reach out into your social graph? When are you going to spam that list? How frequently are you gonna do that?_

I'm thinking that these game mechanics can be very powerful - I'd love to see them employed in a non-farmville situation. I'm not a MMORPG gamer, but I'm guessing some of the social elements of MMORPG play are along these lines?</comment>


The Genius of Wordpress (and why it's doomed) - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jasongowans/the-genius-of-wordpress-and-why-it-s-doomed-d9fd571712fe#.ul3xmvmna <comment><USER2> When you use clickbait headlines (where's the part that spells out doom? Answer: It's not given and there was no intent to do so) you discredit your own analysis. This just becomes yet another fluff piece promoting a static site generator.

Why is it that alternative publishing platforms compare themselves to WordPress in order to justify their existence? Especially when platforms offer wildely different value propositions to users. Be your own thing, the market is huge. You don't need an immense userbase to have a succesful platform.</comment>


Show HN: Some.cafe – an email based message board that looks like a chat app - <AUTHOR> https://some.cafe/about <comment><USER2> Interesting project. I like the idea of instant organization-specific message boards and the heuristic you chose for creating them. I do, however, suspect that choosing the optimum way to handle subdomains will prove tricky. (Should cs.example.edu be considered the same as psy.example.edu or alumni.example.edu? If not, would it make sense to have a parent example.edu board that is shared between all of them them? The same goes for company departments with subdomains.)

Two suggestions on user onboarding: 1) put a log in and a registration link in the hamburger menu; 2) consider clarifying what "email-based" means when you use that term, i.e., point out that you do not actually send your comments via email.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the well-considered feedback.

For now a match is when everything after'@' is the same. I figured this would be acceptable because many schools and businesses give users multiple addresses (address@domain and email@example.com).

*also it's possible to add up to 3 email addresses through the settings page, though I haven't done a good job of making that known.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I think it will be useful for interacting with classmates or coworkers. What it looks like: [http://imgur.com/p83fxEV](http://imgur.com/p83fxEV)

Anyone with an email address can talk to other people with addresses on the same domain (firstname.lastname@example.com & firstname.lastname@example.com will have a different view from firstname.lastname@example.com and email@example.com).

Posts are deleted after 1 week and are not anonymous unless you post in the anonymous section. There are other small features like keyboard shortcuts, opt in notifications, and multiple email addresses as well.

<comment><USER2> If you made this, you should mark it as "Show HN". See [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).

<comment><AUTHOR> I've updated the post - thank you for letting me know the proper way to submit self-made content.

<comment><USER2> You're welcome! Note that this is not mandatory: you can submit your project without the "Show HN" label, though it is more likely to be noticed with it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Contact lenses may slow nearsightedness in children - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/well/family/contact-lenses-may-slow-nearsightedness-in-children.html <comment><AUTHOR> >Effect of High Add Power, Medium Add Power, or Single-Vision Contact Lenses on Myopia Progression in Children: The BLINK Randomized Clinical Trial

[https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article- abstract/27692...](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article- abstract/2769263)</comment>


Former Uber Security Chief Charged with Concealing Hack - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/technology/joe-sullivan-uber-charged-hack.html <comment><USER2> Isn't Joe Sullivan the CISO at Cloudflare now?

Edit: Yes. [https://twitter.com/eastdakota/status/1296522269313785862?s=...](https://twitter.com/eastdakota/status/1296522269313785862?s=19)

Edit2: full indictment [https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press- release/file/1306781...](https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press- release/file/1306781/download)

<comment><USER3> That makes sense as CloudFlare also has a history of minimizing important security breaches, like when they sprayed their customer's and customer's customer's private data all over the Internet:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbleed#Cloudflare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloudbleed#Cloudflare)

Tavis Ormandy said:

 _I had a call with cloudflare, and explained that I was baffled why they were not sharing their notification with me._

 _They gave several excuses that didn 't make sense, then asked to speak to me on the phone to explain. _

[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=11...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=1139#c16)

 _Cloudflare did finally send me a draft. It contains an excellent postmortem, but severely downplays the risk to customers._

[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=11...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project- zero/issues/detail?id=1139#c19)

Maybe that was before this guy's tenure, not sure. The point is that most companies do this, and users and customers should push back on it.

<comment><USER2> >Maybe that was before this guy's tenure, not sure.

That predates him joining Cloudflare, as far as I can tell.

<comment><USER4> I believe the parent implication is that he aligns with CF's way of doing business in regards to disclosure of security issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> From the affadavit:

      Records further indicate Uber's management team, with the sole exception of Uber's C.E.O. at the time, had no contemporaneous knowledge of the details of the data breach and had no role in the decision to treat the breach under the Bug Bounty program.

Does this suggest that Travis might be guilty as well?

</comment><comment><USER6> This is still baffling. To have that many records leak, and try to play a hush-hush strategy AND pay the hackers makes no sense at all, especially from a former federal prosecutor standpoint.

There's more to this story that is being told to the public.

<comment><USER7> There was an ongoing FTC investigation into a S3 data breach from 2014. At around the same time they were trying to argue how very sophisticated their security practices now were after hiring Joe, this 2016 breach occurred, again from unprotected S3 data. Disclosing it would have obviously doomed the efforts to end the FTC investigation (escalated it in fact) and of course put his ongoing tenure as CSO in jeopardy.

So, no, this is just run of the mill executive cover-up. The only reason there is a federal charge here is because he lied to the FTC to make it happen.

<comment><USER6> I just find it difficult to see why the CSO would take such a big personal liability onto himself, but I guess we've seen some funky actions around the big startups elsewhere..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Will this change anything? Every last place I have ever worked at I am 100% certain concealed successful hacks in the past either internally for political purposes or purposefully externally for PR purposes.

I still think it should be on the shareholders to hire brutally honest employees and CXX's or face the consequences of fines from employees concealing successful hacks. Don't put stress of having to manage expectations of greedy shareholders that don't want to hear about hacks and having the threat of some prosecutor somewhere drawing their own grey blurry line in the sand and saying you crossed it. That stress should 100% be on the shareholders - they will have to make sure to hire the right people and make the right culture that won't conceal hacks for internal, political purposes and external PR purposes.

If we're going to keep ignoring corporate law and go after employees for their own mistakes, we're never going to fix our objectively awful collective security culture in our tech companies where we work and we're never going to hold greedy shareholders for the shit they could have prevented by fixing their employees' security culture.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm having a really hard time understanding the legalese around these charges.

In 2014 Uber was hacked and the FTC opened an investigation In 2016 Uber was hacked again but Sullivan supposedly didn't disclose this to the FTC

* Why would he be compelled to disclose information to the FTC about an incident unrelated to the one being investigated?

* The charge of "Misprision of felony" is new to me: [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4)

Since when does anyone have an obligation to report felonies to law enforcement? If I overhear some kids planning to burglarize a house, I have a legal obligation to report that? Isn't freedom of speech involved here?

<comment><USER10> > If I overhear some kids planning to burglarize a house, I have a legal > obligation to report that?

No, because you did not become aware of the commission of a felony. If you overheard those same kids discussing a murder they had committed, yes, you are legally liable if you sit on that.

Isn't this common knowledge?

<comment><USER11> Excuse me, I did not get it. Is burglary not a felony? Is it about past vs. future?

<comment><USER10> The distinction comes down to whether something rises to the level of conspiracy, if you were hypothetically aware of a crime before it was committed. Beside that, however, burglary in the United States is not a federal felony, which is the specific charge being discussed here.

I shared a general legal principle. If you become aware of the commission of a felony and leave a significant amount of evidence showing that you intended to conceal it, it's absolutely open and shut, and you will be treated as an accomplice. All Americans have a duty, whether they like it or not, to disclose commission of a crime for investigation. Failure to do so can lead to liability down one of several paths. This is one of them.

Freedom of speech is completely irrelevant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I would like to hear about ONE thing Uber did during Travis's tenure that wasn't completely shady.

<comment><USER13> They vastly improved the transportation industry from the standard that cab companies had set...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> anyone have a non-paywall version

edit: found one:

[https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904113981/former-uber- executi...](https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/904113981/former-uber-executive- charged-with-paying-hush-money-to-conceal-massive-breach)

<comment><USER15> > also concealed it from many other Uber employees, including top management — > with one exception. According to the complaint, Uber's CEO at the time, > Travis Kalanick.

So, COO kept in the dark. Is "Need-to-Know basis only" standard corporate cover-up practice?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: how to respond to copyright infringement? - <AUTHOR>

Someone has lifted one of my PHP scripts in its entirety, removed the license files (GNU GPL) and is redistributing under his own name, demanding license fees of 200 euros from any commercial org using 'his' script.
It isn't the first time my work has been rebadged but previously a C&D via email has worked.
So, what do you do if a cease and desist is ignored and the host isn't interested without a court order?
Any advice - even if it's "get over it" - appreciated :) <comment><USER2> Not legal advice for sure and take it with a grain of salt, but first I'd:

\- Get all of the evidence you can that you distributed it first. If this requires contacting another company to confirm records of when you made it available, do that first to have it ready.

\- Contact the FSF, send them that evidence, and ask what you can do/should do.

\- Send a summary of the evidence you have (or at least some of it, and depending on what the FSF folks suggest) to the person, telling them you wish them to stop selling your script. They will probably stop.

If that doesn't work and FSF couldn't help I'd either:

1\. Attack via social networking. Blog, comment, tweet, etc. the hell out of it in areas you know will affect his/her market, linking to your free source.

2\. Just give it up.

Good luck!

<comment><USER3> I would also like to add to contact the SLFC. <http://www.softwarefreedom.org/services/> They are likely to also be helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> DMCA takedown notice by an attorney. Could lead to all host's clients being excluded from US availability...in theory. Alternatively, namme & shame using git commit logs or similar to verify seniority of your code.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't live in the US (and I'm not sure where you are, or the other guy), so maybe I've got this wrong, but isn't this what DMCA take down notices are for?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the responses all - before posting this I blogged and that seems to have done the trick as the guy has caved.

I am sure this will be useful for future reference, though!

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd lawyer up-- there's a principle involved, and IMHO it is worth the outlay of cash. If that's difficult for you, I'd contact the FSF and EFF, as the GPL is involved.</comment>


My post on Scaling Lessons Learned from About.me - <AUTHOR> http://www.trueventures.com/blog/2011/04/12/scaling-lessons-learned-from-about-me/

<comment><USER2> About.me a TrueVenture portfolio company? aren't you guys an AOL company now?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're an AOL company now but I think that wording is reasonable.</comment></comment>


Happy Days(Project Zomboid Update) - <AUTHOR> http://projectzomboid.com/blog/index.php/2011/04/happy-days/

<comment><USER2> Good news for these guys, but I don't think it's a happy ending if one has to first create a media shitstorm in order to attract the attention of a Google CSR.

<comment><USER3> That is just the Google way it seems. Try getting help for an Adwords/Adsense issue and you get the same nonsense.

Sorry Google, not matter how hard you try, good customer never scales as easy as you'd like.</comment></comment>


Common Lisp on Heroku - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/comp.lang.lisp/TKM3eFyObLw <comment><USER2> Well, Heroku certainly seems to be a major leader in the "Coolness" factor here. How good are they from a business perspective? Is their uptime good? How much do they cost? Would love to hear from the community.

<comment><USER3> I've had a few relatively minor issues with Heroku over the last few weeks putting apps together. Every time, Heroku support has got back to me with a fix within a business day!

They pushed code to fix an issue I had just yesterday

The documentation is excellent - although I have found a few things not documented or hard to find

It costs nothing to get a small app running to see if it can work for you.

One thing that feels like a problem is that the difference between the top end of the shared database ($15/month) and the bottom end of the dedicated database ($200/month) is a really big jump.

<comment><USER4> I haven't tried this yet, but you can now share a $200/month dedicated database across multiple Heroku apps, and since I think that most Heroku users have multiple apps deployed, that helps mitigate the cost.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> (cross-posted from a dup of this story...)

Although the move to the cedar stack introduced a lot of complexity, Heroku's flexibility is really starting to shine through - I've seen work on a smalltalk buildpack as well.

Long-term this trend is only going to accelerate, where we can assume an app- receptacle (lxc-containers, heroku's 'app', etc.) is setup properly out of the box. There are almost no downsides to this when executed well on the provider's side, and infinite upsides.

<comment><USER6> I wonder if we'll start seeing higher level buildpacks. Not just for languages, but frameworks sitting on top of languages which are optimized in some way, and take a much simplified DSL / templating & let you avoid building all the pipes as well.

<comment><USER7> Heroku hacker here. Buildpacks are definitely designed with composability in mind. Here are a couple already existing higher-order buildpacks: <https://github.com/ddollar/heroku-buildpack-multi> and <https://github.com/kr/heroku-buildpack-inline>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is there a buildpack for Arc?

</comment><comment><USER9> anyone know of a good common lisp book/tutorial?

<comment><USER10> Practical Common Lisp is very good and it's free: <http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/>

For more advanced stuff, On Lisp and Let Over Lambda are both good, and both (mostly) free.</comment></comment>