It's Tough Being a Right Whale These Days - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/you-really-dont-want-to-know-what-its-like-to-be-a-right-whale-these-days/566009/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> so sad. but it seems like simple measures could make such a difference. how does one change the behavior of fishermen to reduce the suffering? new laws, but will we ever be organized enough to do so?

</comment><comment><USER3> > Would-be whale watchers knew where to go: There's an app.

Judging by the vernacular this is not from 1970.

<comment><USER4> And I don't think "vegan" was in common use in 1970 either.

<comment><USER5> Coined in 1944. Not sure about widespread usage.

[https://www.etymonline.com/word/vegan](https://www.etymonline.com/word/vegan)</comment></comment></comment>


The first real successful attempt to reimagine the daily newspaper for tablets? - <AUTHOR> http://talkingnewmedia.blogspot.ca/2013/04/quebecs-daily-newspaper-la-presse.html

<comment><USER2> Tablets + GIF-revival = harry potter newspapers!</comment>


Show HN: Better domain names shown on HN (Greasemonkey script) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jcs/better_hn_domains

<comment><AUTHOR> here's an animated gif showing what it does on the current frontpage: <http://i.imgur.com/ZNo0D.gif>

</comment><comment><USER2> Would be great if you could add support for selected sites like github.com/USERNAME(/maybeevenrepo), code.google.com/PROJECT etc.

</comment><comment><USER3> Cool stuff. I simplified it a bit :

<https://gist.github.com/1063836>

Should work on Firefox 3+ and Chrome 4+</comment>


Sea creature makes a thousand eyes from its shell [video] - <AUTHOR> http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/11/video-sea-creature-makes-thousand-eyes-its-shell <comment><USER2> Wow. Chitons move very slowly but can clamp down tightly onto their substrate. The video suggests they can detect predators at a distance of at most 2m, so the eyes allow them to clamp down "just in time", leaving only their armour plating exposed to the predator.

Interestingly, the lens in each eye is made of the same material as the shell itself, but the grains of the material are aligned parallel, to allow light to pass to the retina. Grains in the rest of the shell are randomly oriented, resulting in opacity.

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESab_umifCU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESab_umifCU)

<comment><USER4> That's horrible.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best solution to use for a remote dev environment? - <AUTHOR>

Lately I find myself working from about three different machines, all in different locations. I'm doing mainly RoR work and as such, setting up development environments on each of these three machines and keeping them relatively in sync is quite a pain.
I've been tossing around the idea of running an EC2 instance with Ubuntu on it, getting it set up to use as a development desktop and remoting in with NXWindows. As far as practicality goes, this (in theory) should work rather well, but I'm open to other ideas for doing the same sort of thing.
Has anyone done something similar before? Any tips, recommendations, etc? Thanks! <comment><USER2> I develop using 3 different computers every day. My work laptop, my personal desktop at home and my personal laptop. This is the setup that I find myself using most often - even with my laptop:

1\. Eclipse (with Aptana plugin, remote system explorer plugin) on all computers 2\. Github hosting my project repos 3\. Two personal linux servers. One at my apartment on my personal internet and the other in the cloud

With those three things, I am able to SSH into whichever Linux server that benefits me most at the time and pull my most recent code from Github. I usually SSH into my cloud-based server if I am not at home, otherwise I SSH into my home server over the LAN. Once I have the most recent repo cloned then I just use Eclipse-over-SSH to connect to that Linux server and edit the code.

This setup works great for me. It's awesome because it's the same editor on all different computers of mine - one being a MBP, the others Windows. I also don't have to install all of my dev related tools, such as databases and stuff, on my main machines. Also, I can leave my sites running, for testing, on my linux servers while the rest of my machines are turned off.

Granted, prior to this I used to just SSH into the servers and use Vim for everything. :P

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh wow, I had no idea the RSE plugin for Eclipse even existed! That might be my golden ticket. I think I might try what you do with the remote server setup. A free-tier EC2 server should be just fine for it.

Thanks for the information, it really helps!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I tried a similar setup remoting into a virtual windows machine for awhile and ultimately abandoned it because of latency. I didn't fully realize what a difference a small amount of latency could make until I went back and it'd take a lot for me to try it again. So my recommendation is to make sure it's very comparable in terms of performance because the development time you can lose from latency will dwarf keeping machines in sync and may even go unnoticed for awhile.

</comment><comment><USER4> I personally use vim and svn when I work. Keep it simple.

When I know I will continually have internet access, I will ssh to my server and launch vim instances within `screen'

</comment><comment><USER5> That sounds like too much overhead. This is why laptops were invented. If your laptop is too heavy then get a MacBook Air instead.

<comment><AUTHOR> Laptops also cost a great deal of money up front. I don't have the funds around to get one, otherwise this wouldn't be an issue. ;)

<comment><USER4> Apple has a financing plan if you are concerned about upfront funds ...

Also keep in mind that, if you are in the US and properly structured your startup, you can take a section 179 deduction if you are using it solely for business. And if your business is in NY you can take a 121.3 sales tax exemption</comment></comment></comment>


ISRO's Journey to Space. Turning Miles into Milestones - <AUTHOR> http://blog.functionspace.org/news/2014/9/5/isros-journey-to-space-turning-miles-into-milestones

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is an intersting infographic about stories related to ISRO's journey to the red planet.</comment>


"HTML5" versus Flash: Animation Benchmarking - <AUTHOR> http://www.themaninblue.com/writing/perspective/2010/03/22/ <comment><USER3> Interesting to see the variety of results people are getting here. If anyone is using the Flash 10.1 beta they'll probably find the tests never get above 60FPS due to alterations in the timing system from previous versions.

The one slightly misleading thing about this test case is I'm pretty sure canvas would fall behind quite quickly with a scene with more complicated shapes (understandably so, you have to call JS functions to redraw everything every frame, whereas in Flash you could draw once and then move objects around and let the renderer deal with it without the overhead of calling the drawing functions every time).

<comment><USER4> Exactly

something like this www.audiotools.com would not even be possible in canvas me thinks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> For me (Chrome on Linux and Windows) Canvas edged it. Flash had a slightly higher peak framerate (about 42fps) but it varied wildly (dropping to 25fps at times) and also paused a lot on Linux.

Canvas as consistently 38/39fps.

<comment><USER6> Similarly for me, flash varied (from 20 to 50fps) with pauses, in chrome on linux. Canvas & html both around 40fps, svg slighlty lower. Based on my experience, I would rule out flash, but since majority of users are on win or osx I second the author that flash is probably best choice for him.

<comment><USER5> I actually had the 'pauses' on Windows using Firefox 3.6 as well. So it's not 100% cut and dried - but, I think his conclusion (use Flash, but Canvas is a growing alternative) is good.

<comment><USER7> I think his conclusion should be taken with a big grain of salt, because, if you look ahead, to the inevitable future, Flash will probably not be anywhere close to as big an actor as it is today, while Canvas will without doubt grow and grow. But I guess if time stood still, which seems to be the case with most Flash protagonists.....

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure anyone is arguing Flash will be better forever, it's just at the moment everyone is getting excited about Canvas even though it's not a viable replacement in most situations _yet_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Going with the 500 particles / shadows on, link, I get results like these on Firefox 3.6.2 on Windows 7:

        666   Flash
          3.5 SVG (but I did not see shadows)
              Actual rate for SVG looked more like 0.2 FPS
         13   Canvas

I wonder if the Flash is hardware accelerated? I have a beefy graphics card, an AMD 5870.

For Chrome, the results are quite different:

        110   Flash
         43   SVG (still no shadows)
         14   Canvas

With the unadorned links:

         17   HTML/Chrome
         14   HTML/Firefox (between 25 and 14, GC? pauses)
         85   Canvas/Chrome
         40   Canvas/Firefox
         40   SVG/Chrome
          3   SVG/Firefox (again, looked more like 0.2)
        100   Flash/Chrome
        666   Flash/Firefox

<comment><USER9> Athlon1.1GHz with 768MB running Kubuntu:

FF+html: 2.5; +canvas: 4; +svg: 1; +flash: 15fps

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I noticed something off - in Chrome on the Mac Flash never dropped below 40 fps while canvas and SVG never went over ~25 fps, but perceptually it seemed things are the other way around - canvas and SVG animations seemed smoother than Flash.

Has anyone else noticed anything similar?

<comment><USER11> I noticed the same thing. I was getting ~70fps in the flash version, but it looked like it was stuttering and dropping frames. Try the link at the bottom that's rate limited to 25fps. It appears very smooth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Performance is only half the story...

As the comments show, different systems will have different performance benchmarks. Maximizing performance on your dev system doesn't guarantee performance for your users. A full test suite of all platforms and browsers and Flash versions, while possible, seems like a burdensome undertaking for most folk.

I'd spend a lot more time maximizing the performance of my underlying code than benchmarking which platform can edge out the other. If you NEED that edge, you can be sure that some systems out there won't cut it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Opera 10.51 on Windows XP minimum fps:

HTML 23 Canvas 25 SVG 13 Flash 50

No contest here :-/

<comment><USER14> I'm using Opera 10.51 on Windows 7 (Boot Camp), on a 2006 Macbook Pro, and canvas was competitive with Flash. Canvas started at 30 and Flash at 60, but both quickly converged to 45...and there was some minor stuttering with Flash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's a pity he didn't throw Silverlight into the mix, it would make an even cooler benchmark.

<comment><USER16> Yes. I was pretty astonished by this comment: "At the moment I can see 3 viable alternatives to Flash for animation: HTML, Canvas and SVG"

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I took a look at his Javascript code, in the "HTML" example, and it was far from as well written as it could be - I could easily do the same effect with a whole lot better framerate. I am not sure how fair a test this is.

<comment><USER17> Would you like to go into specifics and teach us something?

<comment><USER7> I think the general rant I'd throw comes down to the fact that this guy is a "software engineer". He constructs code as if he was designing a mechanical machine, which is just awkward and inefficient. Don't get me wrong on the whole "software engineering vs programming" thing, but I discern good, fast, efficient code from bulky, clunky (but still working) code; you can't "drive car" with a sailing yacht, you can't "breakdance" the Waltz, and you can't go "industrial engineer" on programming - sure, it'll get you somewhere, but it's just not the best way for the end purpose's fullest efficiency - <USER2> EFFICIENCY MATTERS.

Play with this a bit: <http://pastebin.com/wauSARbt>

1000 plots, averages to 35 fps on my 2.25ghz Macbook on Safari 4.0.3, and this requires more computational power per object plotted than a smart version of the "bouncing balls" effect he tries to do.</comment></comment></comment>


The push to create a $30 portable brain recorder - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/id/101062968

<comment><USER2> It's highly doubtful the example mentioned (checked brain waves after an injury) is something EMT's are dying to have available in a portable format. Checking brain waves regularly as part of triage of head injury by an EMT is unlikely, imo. Less technical triage methods work fine.

Other than perhaps some use in doctors without borders, the only really useful brain activity that could be recorded with anything close to $30 worth of tech would be during sleep.

I had a few sleep studies several years ago; the electrodes were really not comfortable because of all of the wires. If that $30 sensor could be hooked to an iPhone and came with 8-10 reusable wireless electrodes (though hopefully it would only take 2-4) that were comfortable to wear while sleeping- and in the morning it could give me the amount of time in each stage of sleep- that might sell.

<comment><USER3> I suspect DARPA wants brain sensors in every Advanced Combat Helmet. Add some accelerometers and impact sensors and you could start to collect all sorts of interesting data--biomarkers for TBI, perhaps even early predictors of PTSD.

<comment><USER4> To take it a step further, once you're equipping soldiers with sensors, you have the ability to build workflows around the data. You'll assign medical teams to people _as the damage occurs_ , and have them standing by when the person returns with all the data necessary to perform whatever treatment is required.

<comment><USER2> Yes, per the post we're discussing: "Including EEGs in basic military first aid kits would also help with both medical diagnostics and clinical care for deployed soldiers"

However, unlike what the parent comment said, brain waves on the field are not going to be used in the short-term to diagnose PTSD. Potential uses of sensors in the helmet would be:

1\. Control of other devices (and this better be wired, or the enemy could really screw with wireless).

2\. Feedback/stats about the resource in question, e.g. he just got blown up, is his brain still working?, OR these guys just got hit with nerve gas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >> "Having EEGs in every classroom in America would engage students in science and technology in a way not previously possible in the field of neuroscience."

If we could just get kids to learn the fundamentals I would be happy. For example, should we show EEGs instead of ohms law?

</comment><comment><USER6> NSA will be all over stuff like this when it will happen. I can already see them saying "We've got to know what the terrorists are _thinking_ , to protect the nation."</comment>


Ask HN: Startup Equity to Iranian National and Delaware Inc - <AUTHOR> Hello, need a hand here. We are a small tech start up and have a team of 6 from all over the world. One of our team is an Iranian national, based in UK on a work visa. We are all working for equity right now and the company is based in UK today.
We are considering registering our company in Delaware and it looks like US sanctions might give us a challenge.
Does anyone have any experience or advice in this area / lawyers to recommend etc?
Thanks Dave <comment><USER2> The US Embassy in London has a list of UK lawyers who have experience with US Law:

[https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen- services/attorney/](https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/attorney/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm not a lawyer. Issues with Iran aside. A Delaware C corporation may need to pay its employees actual wages. Not equity. Not complying with labor laws is a known method for creating legal problems later if the company becomes successful. Business practices that might work for proprietorships, partnerships, and LLC's don't scale out to C corps. Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> yes definitely consult a lawyer, it might introduce complications working with US companies.

There might be other ways you can structure his compensation that would be better for the company, maybe as a profit share and a bonus if the company sells that matches up to what would be his % ownership.

But it's the right move to find an attorney with experience.

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe you could ask at a US embassy if you don't find answers?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is licensing your Software a viable business model? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> It can be, in some circumstances.

I mean, clearly, consider: Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Adobe, AutoCAD, etc. They all license their software, either as a one-time license purchase, or (increasingly) as an annual license fee.

On a smaller scale, I've worked at several companies that license their (proprietary) financial trading software to trading firms. The software is used to connect the customer's algorithmic trading applications to stock exchanges, etc. Licensing fees are tens of thousands of USD a year.

For something like Microsoft Word, there's a bunch of circumstances that contribute to it being a viable product despite the existence of eg. LibreOffice. Those circumstances are probably hard to replicate for an individual or small team though.

For something targeting a more specific niche, it can be easier to deliver enough value to the potential customers that they're prepared to pay for the software. Often, the licensing is part of a package deal involving ongoing support, customisation work, and access to the software.

I've noticed that some customers seem to actually prefer to pay for something, for a combination of reasons including a feeling of access to something others don't have, a feeling that they'll have more input into the future development, having someone (contractually) responsible for answering questions/fixing bugs/etc, and even just a general desire to contribute to the upkeep of something they leverage in their business.</comment>


Tutanota: encrypted DANE based mails - <AUTHOR> http://tuxdiary.com/2014/10/21/tutanota/

<comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8483800](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8483800)

</comment><comment><USER3> Now we don't have to rely on CAs. After scandals with Comodo, DigiNotar and so on a good opportunity.</comment>


List of April Fools Day Announcements (2018) - <AUTHOR> Instead of cluttering the front page with fake product announcements, let's just post them in here instead. One thread where each top-level comment is just a title and a link. <comment><AUTHOR> ROCK 'EM SHOCK 'EM ROBOTS: TESLA VS. EDISON: [https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/krvu/](https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/krvu/)

FORTNITE R/C BATTLE BUS: [https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/krvv/](https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/krvv/)

<comment><USER2> Rick and Morty Screaming Sun Alarm Clock [https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/krvn/](https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/krvn/)

(I would legit buy this)

<comment><USER3> I would buy all of these too! They should sell it! It's awesome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Standolier portable standing desk by Twelve South

[https://www.twelvesouth.com/product/family/standolier](https://www.twelvesouth.com/product/family/standolier)

<comment><USER5> This looks like they took this idea scarily seriously.

<comment><USER4> TwelveSouth makes fantastic products, so I'm sure they put plenty of thought into this, too :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Introducing Google Cloud Hummus API - Find your Hummus!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_5X6N6DHyk&feature=share](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_5X6N6DHyk&feature=share)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Google Maps Where's Waldo?

[https://www.blog.google/products/maps/wheres-waldo-find- him-...](https://www.blog.google/products/maps/wheres-waldo-find-him-google- maps/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Deprecating Raw Pointers in C++20

[http://www.bfilipek.com/2018/04/deprecating- pointers.html](http://www.bfilipek.com/2018/04/deprecating-pointers.html)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Honda Sixth Sense

[https://youtu.be/blaL64WbI2s](https://youtu.be/blaL64WbI2s)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Tetris coming to Julia language for v1.0

[https://julialang.org/blog/2018/04/tetris-and- you](https://julialang.org/blog/2018/04/tetris-and-you)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Burger King's Chocolate Whopper

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXf2ct7C2fQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXf2ct7C2fQ)

</comment><comment><USER8> Stackoverflow added a rubber duck [https://i.imgur.com/t1468Bt.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/t1468Bt.jpg)

<comment><USER5> That was a joke? That was super annoying haha I feel dumb.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ethereum announces an official stablecoin

[https://blog.ethereum.org/2018/04/01/announcing-world- trade-...](https://blog.ethereum.org/2018/04/01/announcing-world-trade-francs- official-ethereum-stablecoin/)

IMO, not quite as good as the 2017 one

<comment><USER10> 2017 one: [https://blog.ethereum.org/2017/04/01/ethereum-dev- roundup-q1...](https://blog.ethereum.org/2017/04/01/ethereum-dev-roundup-q1/)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Google Files Go Bad Joke detector

[https://www.blog.google/topics/next-billion-users/no- laughin...](https://www.blog.google/topics/next-billion-users/no-laughing- matter-files-go-introduces-bad-joke-detector/)

</comment><comment><USER11> [https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc- devs/2018-April/01555...](https://mail.haskell.org/pipermail/ghc- devs/2018-April/015557.html)

Proposal: Professionalizing GHC Development

</comment><comment><USER12> [https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/103862](https://go- review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/103862)

Golang blockchain implementation

</comment><comment><USER10> StackOverflows's QuackOverflow: [https://stackoverflow.com/](https://stackoverflow.com/) (it's in the bottom right of all pages)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Brewolingo, by Duolingo: drink a beer, learn a language

[http://brewolingo.duolingo.com/](http://brewolingo.duolingo.com/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> T-Mobile Sidekicks

[https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/sidekicks](https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/sidekicks)

</comment><comment><USER6> Introducing Google Wind

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAwL0O5nXe0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAwL0O5nXe0)

<comment><AUTHOR> This was last year's ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> [https://cli.growsumo.com](https://cli.growsumo.com)

</comment><comment><USER14> TumblCoin Tracker in Tumblr. (shows up as a rotating coin on your dashboard)</comment>


Three Ways to Beat Burnout - <AUTHOR> http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/gergen-vanourek/2008/12/three-ways-to-beat-burnout.html <comment><USER2> #4) xbox #5) sex

<comment><USER3> Amusing the order you chose.

<comment><USER4> The order is even in a song: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmZL0fmhTbA> (have to give it to at least 1:09)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The easiest way to tame burnout for me is Wii Fit balance board. 30 minutes of yoga and balance games cure tiredness like nothing else.

<comment><USER6> Tiredness in the physical sense or the mental sense? I associate burnout with mental fatigue.

Sleep is the best cure for physical tiredness, but mental tiredness is much harder to overcome.

Probably the best way to prevent mental fatigue is to force yourself to do different things on a regular basis. It's all about not getting stuck in a rut. I find that my mind needs to feel a sense of accomplishment to keep me from feeling burnout. Even an "easy win" is better than no win at all.

<comment><USER7> > Sleep is the best cure for physical tiredness, but mental tiredness is much > harder to overcome.

I believe it is exactly backwards. For several times in my life I got myself in a shape where I went to the gym and did my full routine, yet felt mentally so tired I could only think in the same way a drunk person would.

For me, at least, sleep deprivation taxes the mind much quicker and much heavier than it taxes the body. Good quality sleep without an alarm clock seems to be the best way to handle mental exhaustion.</comment></comment></comment>


Node.js module for CoffeeScript complier Growl notifications  - <AUTHOR> http://wesbos.com/growl-notifications-coffeescript-nodejs/

<comment><USER2> Love the coffee icon!

Growl notifications are also available in Jitter, my custom alternative to `coffee -cwo`: <https://github.com/TrevorBurnham/jitter>

Jitter has a couple of other little perks: It watches for new source files as well as changes to existing source files; it can run tests after each compilation; and it never replaces JS files with identical JS files (keeping timestamps intact).

<comment><USER3> Yes, Jitter has more nice features.

I don't need "successfully compiled!" notification because it is nothing special. Coffee icon is cool, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> One alternative that works for me is vim, with the syntastic plugin (<https://github.com/scrooloose/syntastic>). It comes with a coffee syntax checker.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is there a Less.app equivalent for Coffeescript? (<http://incident57.com/less/>)

<comment><USER6> Actually, the author of Less.app is currently working on a new app that supports CoffeeScript, along with other languages. Dunno what the ETA is, but I'm looking forward to it as well.</comment></comment>


A* - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A*_search_algorithm <comment><USER2> Contraction hierarchies[0] are a nice extension over which A* works even better and I believe these are used in osrm. I read a paper by Microsoft Research where they optimized the setting to enable shortest path routing in average of 5 memory reads, or something ridiculously unbelievable like that. [1]

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

1: [https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp- content/uploads/...](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp- content/uploads/2010/12/HL-TR.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Related question: do you know how leveraged GPUs are in shortest path implementations and research?

<comment><USER4> The [1] paper contains a reference to PHAST [https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/research/publication/phast-h...](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/research/publication/phast-hardware-accelerated-shortest-path-trees/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My favorite variant of this is IDA _

<comment><USER6> link?

<comment><USER7> Iterative Deepening A Star</comment></comment></comment>


YouTube has been hacked and lots of popular music videos like Despacito defaced - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/10/17218512/youtube-hack-despacito-vevo-music-videos <comment><USER2> I'm not sure why I didn't hear about this when it happened and why it didn't float to the top right away. I only found it through a search after noticing a missing video and trying to figure out why it was missing. Though this may be unrelated, it was, again, still surprising that this didn't have more attention.</comment>


Artificial intelligence is helping old video games look like new - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/18/18311287/ai-upscaling-algorithms-video-games-mods-modding-esrgan-gigapixel <comment><USER2> Wow! There exists an entire subreddit devoted to game upscaling and AI superresolution techniques ;)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/GameUpscale](https://www.reddit.com/r/GameUpscale)</comment>


A look inside the developer's toolbelt - <AUTHOR> http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=tree;f=src;h=7abbce53c2ff95feddc9ce2387fb1cdb8e62be13;hb=HEAD

<comment><USER2> For a good time,take a look at some of the commits on c99-to-c89.diff. Looking at a diff-diff makes my eyes cross a little.

[http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=histor...](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=history;f=src/c99-to-c89.diff;h=a5dd6c9b808db7c074bb6ddb8609a99933be788f;hb=HEAD)

[http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commit...](http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=b60a32376eff0e78cb789e68998d1be55e74db65)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm always looking for sources like these, but I can never find a place that let's me just look at __file 1 __and move on from there.

If anyone's got any resources that might give me an idea of the file progression – from OS to OS with teeth – I'd be extremely obliged. I'd like to grok *nix.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd really rather not look inside anyone's toolbelt. Their toolpants just might slip down. That would be embarassing for all concerned.</comment>


Show HN: Get a point by verifying a phone number - <AUTHOR> https://pointsproject.org/ <comment><USER2> Trying to verify my phone yields:

"Oops, something is broken. Please contact Dorian, he will fix it as fast as he can."

So what is this? A virtual currency based on nothing that Dorian can issue anytime he wants?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, should be fixed now.

The idea is that it's backed by my money for now, so I can issue points but I need the money to back it (1 point = 1 dollar = 1 euro for now).

I'm still thinking about the economics.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> phone verifying off or bypassing</comment>


Facebook Apps On Any Website - <AUTHOR> http://developers.facebook.com/news.php?blog=1&story=73

<comment><USER2> Surely this is not that big a deal - The title's misleading - in particular, this announcement doesn't enable "facebook apps on any website" in a way that wasnt previously possible since the api was first released, pre-platform even.

The point here is that they've released a javascript interface to the api that sits alongside the existing ones for other languages (php, ruby etc). The news is that now you can build FB apps without having to use server-side code. Can anyone suggest a "useful use" for this, where you wouldn't want to use a server-side language..?

TC, mashable etc all seem to have missed the point here due to misunderstanding the technicalities. Now, if FB _did_ open up a platform to enable _existing_ FB apps to be embedded on web pages external to facebook (like google gadgets for your webpage) - now _that_ would be interesting. Thats what everyone is implying, but sadly it isnt so this time..

</comment><comment><USER3> There's really nothing new here at all. Just a Javascript library to make calls to the API.

</comment><comment><USER4> It would be cool if users coming to their site could just put in some information and then you could import all their data and network. It would make facebook essentially a totally open data platform. I wouldn't have to bother trying to get an ap on facebook too.

Data exportability makes things more valuable, not less.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not. In a way it could work a lot like openid where the user only has to log into Facebook.

<comment><USER6> It would be nice, if they just joined with the OpenID community though. I mean, out of all the sites that is a virtual address book (outside of your e-mail), Facebook could be the best OpenID provider out there. They don't even need to give the contacts and the network, but just the information (b/c the user would have to enter it anyway).

There is huge business potential for Facebook as it becomes the central hub to sign into other sites and it has huge potential for publishers who want to access the Facebook base. I'm guessing a business guy though is afraid that it would kill their competitive edge by being more open though.

<comment><USER5> That would be awesome if they joined. If only we could get Google to extend open social to Facebook... I don't think these guys are realizing what they could do if they worked together. And it's not like it would cost them anything either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Awesome. This seems work similar to how the Google Maps API works.

I assume it's safe to include your application key client side?</comment>


Show HN: Use Slack for Everything - <AUTHOR> https://operator.im <comment><USER2> I'm not sure if this service specifically requires full access permissions or not, but I do know a ton of these (awesome/neat) plugins like this popping up require a company to give the plugin full write/read permissions. And for that reason, it's stopped our company from being able to use them.

I'd be curious to see how many companies would actually allow a 3rd party service to have that full amount of permissions. It's sort of like GitHub and how some services require the access to private repos. I'm not sure of a solution, but am just curious how it really holds back awesome services like this when companies don't feel comfortable giving it the level of access it has to have (but may not use that full access).

<comment><USER3> Run an IRC server, configure a hubot. Yes, 'cloud'-based chat is pretty, but it's a new coat of paint over something that's been around for decades (IRC). For a company less than several thousand people, running your own singleton IRC server is about as complicated as setting up a basic 3-tier web application (i.e., a little fiddly, but not hard at all)

<comment><USER4> Clients on the other hand are somewhat lacking for IRC.

We use Slack in a company of ~30, and while all the devs could easily use IRC, most of the rest of the company would struggle with it, and certainly wouldn't be able to communicate in the wide variety of ways (uploaded files, images/gifs, videos, code snippets, etc) that they do now. Slack is great at making all those rich media types 'just work', and while it was possible with plugins to some IRC clients, the UX was prohibitively bad in my experience.

<comment><USER5> On one hand, you're completely right, on the other, I wish I could block all GIFs from Slack (or just not get notified about them). That kind of thing doesn't help me get work done, which is what I'm at work to do - not to share funny pictures.

<comment><USER6> That seems more like a Slack setup issue than an issue with Slack itself, to be honest. We have a separate #random channel for stuff like that and have turned off notifications for it. It's still there, but it's much less intrusive.

You might also want to check out the settings in the Messages & Media section, specifically "Expand links to images, video and audio from external sources". That might help to disable the inline GIFs, although I haven't tried it myself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is neat, but I guess I don't really understand the problem this is solving.

The company I work for uses Slack and I like it a lot. However, I've never found myself wishing that I could get a stock quote (or do a trade!), map an address, or play hangman there. Similarly, I think I could do a lot of that stuff from Emacs, but I never have. I use Emacs to edit text and I use Slack to chat.

It might be because of the number of times I've been burned by plugins that break after I upgrade the host application, but I'm a little conservative when it comes to extensions and plugins. I tend to stick to default settings. The Slack instance we use has only one integration enabled - Giphy (animated gif responses).

For the people here that are excited about this, is there a function in particular that is a killer function for you?

<comment><USER8> The stock quote and hangman plugins are really just demos. Where services like this really shine is when you integrate them with your existing systems. Starting a Jenkins build from your Slack channel is pretty nifty.

<comment><USER9> But this would need setting up to interact with Jenkins? Assuming yes, at that point, why not just hop on over to the Slack App Directory and pick up something there?

e.g. [https://slack.com/apps/A0F7VRFKN-jenkins- ci](https://slack.com/apps/A0F7VRFKN-jenkins-ci)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Slack mania reminds me of Twitter mania before Twitter decided to throw out the sharecroppers.

</comment><comment><USER11> Looks like risky business to me since this is exactly what Slack is trying to do (Marketplace for commands)

<comment><USER12> Will we have the inevitable Twitter moment when Slack closes things up, and it becomes a crisis of unfairness for companies that built upon another?

<comment><USER13> I'm going to say yes. I thought it was common knowledge at this point not to base your entire service on the good will of another service? They're also banking on Slack not changing their API without telling them.

<comment><USER12> There were quite a few startups that built upon Twitter's API, and when access was taken away/limited, many pitch forks was raised here and elsewhere (to pretty much no effect)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I've never used slack but how does it compare to hipchat's new connect api?

[https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2015/12/going-way- beyon...](https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2015/12/going-way-beyond-slash- commands-with-uber-and-hipchat/)

<comment><USER15> We left hipchat for slack for several reasons. First, we saved some money. There were more integrations for slack. The result has been mixed with my more technical users embracing slack, and my less technical users revolting. Hipchat is easier on the eyes and the UI is more intuitive. Both have a long way to go.

There are too many chat clients around and far too many methods to communicate period. Aggregation is badly needed.

<comment><USER16> Aggregation is badly needed in the whole of technology, but big corporations have all decided that having proprietary cables, closed APIs and locked-in platforms is better for their bottom line than what would be good for the consumer. Also open source/free software advocates are pretty terrible at making cohesive user experiences.

When it was AIM/YIM/MSN, etc, Trillian and Pidgin came in and made the experience usable. Now its Gchat, Telegram, Hipchat and Slack. Some of these have XMPP interfaces (all?) but frankly both companies will keep their APIs as closed as possible because they want to make money on their own platform.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Remember the time you could already do all of this with IRC?

</comment><comment><USER18> There's a minor typo in the About section. It says "...We use Slack all the _time wanted_ to...".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

<comment><USER19> Should also move your CSS include to the head.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Heh, can I use this as my bash shell? It would actually be useful to have my bash on one of my VMs in a chatroom where I can discuss things with a colleague.

</comment><comment><USER21> What happened to the website icon fonts? They work in Chrome, but are giant Times New Roman text on Safari, both desktop and Mobile.

<comment><USER21> Looks like they trusted Google's recommendation and used WOFF2 which doesn't work anywhere but Chrome and Firefox.

\- [http://google.github.io/material-design-icons/#icon-font- for...](http://google.github.io/material-design-icons/#icon-font-for-the-web)

\- [http://caniuse.com/#feat=woff2](http://caniuse.com/#feat=woff2)

<comment><AUTHOR> You nailed it! Fixed. :)

<comment><USER21> awesome :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> No way in hell this specifically will take off. Slack will integrate this eventually (given their new App marketplace).

</comment><comment><USER23> why limit this to slack? make it a general purpose text command workflow. terminals, email, anything.

</comment><comment><USER24> FYI, on iPhone this shows up at maybe 2/3rds width of the screen with the rest as white space.</comment>


Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/13/extra-virginity-tom-mueller-review <comment><USER2> My parents retired to Italy a number of years ago, to a place with a hundred or so olive trees in the garden, and each November some of us head over to pick the olives (much to the amusement of the locals, who think we're crazy to do agricultural work in our spare time) and take them to a nearby pressing plant (where you can wander around and see the process to make sure your harvest isn't being mixed up with other, lesser olives). The end result is much spicier and harsher than anything I've ever bought. Personally I think it's delicious, but I'm hardly an unbiased judge...

<comment><USER3> Once a year I get some 5 liters of cold pressed virgin organic olive oil. I know it´s origin for sure because it comes from a private guy doing his own stuff on a small cold press (he is not for quantity just for the best quality for his family, it´s a hobby for him). I agree with you that you won´t find anithing similar in a store: It´s more acid, spicier, deep green, clowdy (it´s unfiltered) and very very tasty (it has some taste to the olives still in it). It defenitely gives flavor to your salads or bread. You can not use it for frying as it will give a distinct flavor, not that it´ll ruin the food but it´ll taste to green olive oil.

Just to give you a sense of the difference, we are used to cook almost exclusively with olive oil. We buy "virgin" olive oil from reputable brands for the saladas and special dishes. The home made one is soo much better compared to those.

I love it!

<comment><USER4> It baffles me how people are not puzzled how the "extra virgin" olive oil they use doesn't taste anything like olives. I mean, c'mon people, have you never tasted olives? How do you expect the "unadulterated" extract to have none of that flavor at all?

<comment><USER5> It baffles me that people expect to buy "extra virgin olive oil" in canola- oil- sized- jugs and expect it to have huge flavor; I get that it's frustrating that the "extra virgin" label has been diluted to meaninglessness, but really, just treat cheap extra virgin oil as if it was "pure olive oil" (saute with it, for instance) and seek out _specific_ oils you really like.

Serious good olive oils all taste very different, so the whole idea of them being interchangeably good is a bit weird.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> There is absolutely no way anybody who is serious about olive oil could mistake a serious Tuscan or Greek olive oil for Bertolli, for exactly the reason the article points out: serious olive oil has a grassy, peppery flavor that fills your throat and sinuses; it's unmistakeable, like the difference between a 3 Floyds Dreadnaught DIPA and Bud Light, and the reason Bertolli has "corrupted" extra virgin olive oil is that American consumers won't routinely buy it. I find the anecdote at the beginning of the article hard to reconcile with the rest of the piece!

(Bertolli-style oil is a fine thing to have in your kitchen, too; you might not want your mayonnaise to taste like strong Greek olive oil.)

<comment><USER6> So, unless you are "serious" about oil, you have to take a shot in the dark? I'm no professional cook, but I do have a passion and cook new dishes weekly. I couldn't possibly know, from the store labels, what I can expect out of the 50 versions of EVO on the shelves. They're all EVO, unless I'm serious? They're all from Italy or Greece, unless I'm serious? There's no grounds for oils between Bertolli and "serious" oils that are better suited for salads or dipping -- the "serious" EVOs? The problem exists for $8 to $50 bottles; how can consumers possibly inform themselves that they are buying crap?

Luckily for me, I stumbled upon California Olive Ranch oil.

<comment><USER5> Yes, if you're buying olive oil at the supermarket, it's going to be a crap shoot. But you're going to know immediately that you've got bland oil (if it tastes anything like other supermarket oils, it's bland; the difference isn't subtle --- again, think about the difference between an IPA and a lager).

Again, a good way to handle this is to drop $35 on a bottle from some place like Zingermans, and just use it as a benchmark.

<comment><USER7> Zingerman's is like oil overload. Last time I was there I couldn't even dream about picking a single one out of their entire stock. I just wish there were a way to reliably find reasonably priced, quality oil since I can't afford to spend anywhere near $35/bottle on olive oil more than once or twice.

<comment><USER5> That's true, but the good thing about them is that they don't stock any crappy oil; you can pick at random.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone have any tips for finding quality olive oil?

The only way I've had success is to buy inexpensive single-source stuff, even if it's inexpensive and non-Italian. Best olive oils I've had were single- sourced from Spain; $2 from a discount store. Maybe no-one wants to fake non- Italian oil?

<comment><USER9> Best olive oil is Greek. Italian or Spanish ones are nowhere near the quality of Greek. In Greece more than 80% of total production is extra virgin while in Italy the percentage is less than 40% and in Spain 20%. Italians buy bulk olive oil from Greece and they mix it with their own oils to raise the quality. There are small brands that offer high quality extra virgin oil and I guess you could look some of them at your local super market or grocery store. If you want top quality you should look for small privately owned brands rather than big companies, at least for Greek oil. A few well known and trusted producers are Gaea [1], Papadimitriou [2], WEP [3], Eleia [4], Moria Elea Deluce [5], Maleas [6].

[1] [http://www.gaea.gr/](http://www.gaea.gr/), [2] [http://www.papadim.com/en/products/extra-virgin-olive- oil/](http://www.papadim.com/en/products/extra-virgin-olive-oil/), [3] [http://www.fiveoliveoil.com/five-olive-oil-from- greece/](http://www.fiveoliveoil.com/five-olive-oil-from-greece/), [4] [http://www.eleia.gr/index_en.html](http://www.eleia.gr/index_en.html), [5] [http://www.moriaelea.com/?page_id=42](http://www.moriaelea.com/?page_id=42), [6] [http://www.maleasoliveoil.gr/en/olive- oil](http://www.maleasoliveoil.gr/en/olive-oil).

<comment><USER10> Seconding this. It also tastes somewhat different, which is a matter of preference admittedly. I personally love the typical flavor of oil from Kalamata olives, which makes up a large part of the Greek-labeled production (i.e. bottled as Greek olive oil, rather than exported for blending).

Greek marketing and distribution has been poor, however, and very slowly improving. The traditional place to buy it in the U.S. has been in 5-liter tins at Mediterranean grocery stores catering to immigrants (depending on the region, these might be "Greek", "Lebanese", "Turkish", or "Arab" supermarkets). These are a great deal, especially if you cook with it, but off the radar of most regular shoppers. Lately I have been seeing it in smaller bottles in normal grocery stores more often. Trader Joe's now has a house brand of 100% Greek Kalamata olive oil, which they buy in bulk and bottle, and is very good for the price.

This is one thing the Italians got way out front of the Greeks on. Both Italians _and_ Greeks at home will not typically buy small glass bottles of olive oil; the 5-L tin is the typical container. Partly that's because it's used in cooking, not just to sprinkle on salads or pasta. Especially in Greece and southern Italy, it's the main cooking fat, since butter, lard, canola oil, sunflower-seed oil, etc. are not widely used. But Italians realized that selling smaller bottles to the boutique export market was a good business, while Greeks only realized later that there was this market for premium-priced oil in a 500-mL bottle, aimed at people who use it for smaller-volume things (i.e. not for cooking imam baildi or French fries).

It does last a long time, though, so if you want a good deal, find your local Mediterranean market and pick up a tin, then transfer portions to a more convenient bottle with a funnel. Kept in a cool, dark place, you should get several years of shelf life.

edit: Everywhere I said 5-L above, substitute 3-L. Misremembered the size. The tins are rectangular and look like this: [http://www.thegoodfoodnetwork.com/shop/images/26713/Iliada-p...](http://www.thegoodfoodnetwork.com/shop/images/26713/Iliada- pdo-kalamata-extra-virgin-olive-oil.jpg)

<comment><USER11> Nobody that I know buys 5-liter tins of oil (I'm italian) and I wouldn't even know where to buy them. The most common format is 1 liter, followed by 0.75

<comment><USER10> Apparently I have bad memory, because 3-L is what I was thinking of, not 5-L. I'm not Italian myself, but my Italian landlord brings these kinds of things (not the same brand, but same format) regularly: [http://www.colavita.com/store/images/products/EV_Oils/Med- Ti...](http://www.colavita.com/store/images/products/EV_Oils/Med-Tin.jpg)

Most households in Greece will have something like that, and they're easy to find in any country if you go to a Turkish, Greek, or Arab supermarket. I could be wrong about Italy.

<comment><USER12> Don't confuse olive oil for cooking (commonly purchased in 3 liter tins) with extra virgin olive oil. This article is about extra virgin olive oil. EVOO is usually consumed raw, unheated, with bread, cheese, on salads - it would completely defeat the purpose of the EVOO production technique which is one of low temperture, purely mechanical extraction, to heat EVOO to high temperatures as is commonly done with lower grades of olive oil.

<comment><USER10> Just checked my 3-L tins to be sure, and they're extra-virgin also. The problem with the lower grades is that they're extracted with chemical means (hexane solvents) and generally worse for any usage. The modest price savings isn't really worth it, since better stuff is affordably priced anyway.

It varies by country, but _heating_ doesn't necessarily exclude an oil from "extra-virgin olive oil"; the separate "cold-pressed" label covers that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> For more on this, see the _New Yorker 's_ 2007 article "Slippery Business: The trade in adulterated olive oil" at [http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_...](http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller).

I'm surprised "they" haven't worked to further regulate the field; apparently one problem is that developing chemical tests to reliably discern real from fake olive oil is very difficult.

<comment><USER14> Similar problems apply in other markets too (as I'm sure you are aware). Fake Manuka honey is one that causes locals here some grief. [http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8928858/Manuka- hone...](http://i.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8928858/Manuka-honey-fall- fouls-of-overseas-tests)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I use olive oil regularly in my cooking and now, I don't know what to think.

I'm curious why the original article wasn't the one submitted (though it's inserted at the bottom of that entry).

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/13/extra- virginity-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/13/extra-virginity- tom-mueller-review)

<comment><USER5> If you're cooking with it, it doesn't much matter. Heat very rapidly destroys the flavor of good olive oil.

Personally: stories like this should read as _good_ news; they mean you have a lot to gain for dorking around with new oils.

<comment><USER16> Definitely. There's a handy table on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point) I'm thinking about the table color-coded smoke pt and a space for notes. A bit "paint by number", but there's plenty of other variables.

<comment><USER5> Smoke point is another good thing to know about (you can saute in olive oil but probably don't want to double-fry french fries in it) but you'll degrade the flavor of a good Greek olive oil way before you hit 160c.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> UC Davis does olive oil testing a little more systematically:

[http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/services/services](http://olivecenter.ucdavis.edu/services/services)

<comment><USER5> UCDavis does a lot of cool food science stuff.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I found my favorite olive oil, Alfar La Maja, in a small shop in San Sebastian, Spain. It comes from Mendavia, Spain, which is part of the Navarra region and is well known for its' olive production. At the time I bought it I had no idea it would be the best olive oil I've ever had, but I had two things working in my favor: 1) San Sebastian's residents and tourists are incredibly serious about food, 2) it was fresh, single source, small production, local, etc.

Later, I looked it up online, and found this gem -- according to the NY Olive Oil competition, "Alfar La Maja is one of the world's best extra virgin olive oils for 2013."

</comment><comment><USER19> Fairway in the NY area has an olive oil bar with about dozen varieties and bread for dipping. Most are domestic and labelled as such. The nuance in flavor is easily detectable. I find most supermarket brands taste about the same. The olive taste is so distinct you'd never confuse it for canola, corn or anything else.

<comment><USER20> There's a fantastic olive oil store in Downtown Denver as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> There are many kinds of olive varieties, some of them growing in the span of one or two towns. Saying it is supposed to taste like this or like that without saying from which kind of olives it was made sounds kind of nonsensical.

Another matter is that of honesty. Italy is known to export more olive oil than it produces and it is buying production from quite a lot of towns in my country and then mixing it and packaging it with oils from other places.

If you want good olive oil, try to find small productions, ensure that it was stored in the dark if possible and taste it first (dipping bread on the oil not just sprinkling, it should be quite soaked). Supermarket olive oil of any price is only suitable for frying, that much is known.

<comment><USER22> _Supermarket olive oil of any price is only suitable for frying_

Yeah, yeah.

 _and both the [eminent] foodies gave a thumbs-up to Unilever 's much-derided Bertolli brand._

Same as with wine. It's just a fruit and the variations from its production simply aren't as great as people like to think. Anyway, the best fat comes from bacon.

<comment><USER21> I'm just saying how we do it in my oil producing town. The oil you get from your production or from a town producer in the local mill is for salads, toasts, etc. Oil bought in packs of 3-5l in the supermarket (extra-virgin brands) is what we use for frying.

It is so much like that, that now that I live abroad I'm flying with 8l packs of my town's oil at least twice a year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> That the rougher taste is the most original reminds me of that old story I found here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3201540](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3201540)

</comment><comment><USER24> My first experience with proper olive oil was ordering some from [http://www.amphoranueva.com/](http://www.amphoranueva.com/) after one of their coratina oils was suggested by someone on some forum who'd done chemical assaying on a number of oils looking for polyphenol content, as relevant to some moderately supported study results on positive health outcomes.

I couldn't have been happier with the result... and even if you use a fair amount of oil it still takes a while to go through 750ml of the stuff, so that fact that it's $18/bottle doesn't break the bank. (and it keeps well if kept isolated from air and light) Er, well, I mean used properly: raw in food, not for cooking. You shouldn't heat good evo as its smoke point is lower than random supermarket mystery olive oil, and heating it removes most of the flavor anyways.

Opinions may differ though, I could certainly see some people really disliking the grassy acidic flavor of strong EVO.

</comment><comment><USER25> Really interesting article, OP. I love coming across these type of links on HN — just seems like it happens less often these days.

</comment><comment><USER26> Anyone know a good olive oil obtainable in NYC?

(I'd rather not pay huge shipping fees for some of the other things listed here.)

<comment><USER27> If you are okay with Greek olive oil (and you probably should be) go over to Astoria and visit one of the Greek supermarkets.

E.g. [http://www.titanfoods.net/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store...](http://www.titanfoods.net/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=TF)

Actual Italian immigrants are scare on the ground these days, so I'm not convinced you'd see anything particularly unique in e.g. the Arthur Avenue section of the Bronx. But I could be wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Personally, I only use grapeseed oil. I've tried olive, it's too heavy. Tried canola, it's okay. But grapeseed is amazing. It has no particular flavor, you could drink it and not become sick from the heavy load that typical oils will give you, etc.

<comment><USER5> I cook in grapeseed, but use olive oil for every raw application.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I thought everybody knew this already. Store-bought (TJ, WF, etc.) doesn't look, taste and isn't priced anything like the real thing. If you didn't see it go in the bottle yourself, it probably has cheaper oils mixed in. Caveat emptor.

</comment><comment><USER29> Here's a plug for my local olive oil producer: [http://www.bvranch.com/](http://www.bvranch.com/)

Quality conscious and low on bullshit.

</comment><comment><USER30> I use lemon pressed olive oil on almost all my cooking now and it's delicious.

<comment><USER18> Round Pond Estate has some wonderful olive oil with citrus aromatics, including one with Meyer lemon that you would probably love. If you're in the SF area, they also do tours of their winery + olive oil press/facilities.

<comment><USER31> Their red wine vinegars are worth a try too. (Honestly, it's the only non- mass-market red wine vinegar I've tried, but I'm really happy with it.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Many people buy into the supposed health benefits on olive oil, which probably boils down to its phenolic content. However, this depends on many things and drops over time.

The end of this article has some tips to ensure getting the best oil.

[http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/olive-oil-health- bene...](http://news.discovery.com/earth/plants/olive-oil-health- benefits-1307104.htm)

<comment><USER33> Hardly 'supposed'. There are plenty of peer-reviewed studies indicating the benefits of olive oil.

<comment><USER34> Good olive oils contain an anti-inflammatory substance called oleocanthal, which is similar to ibuprofen. It's been suggested that it's part of what makes the Mediterranean diet so healthful:

[http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/olive_oil_contains_...](http://www.monell.org/news/news_releases/olive_oil_contains_natural_anti_inflammatory_agent)</comment></comment></comment>


Open Bazaar – decentralized Bitcoin marketplace - <AUTHOR> http://openbazaar.org/ <comment><USER2> I work on OpenBazaar and I'm happy to answer questions.

This website links to the current version of OpenBazaar, but we're just about to launch a completely new version, which you can read about here:

[https://medium.com/openbazaarproject/openbazaar-2-0-p2p-trad...](https://medium.com/openbazaarproject/openbazaar-2-0-p2p-trade- takes-the-next-step-4d75b7f23ec8)

The 2.0 is built with Go and uses IPFS. It's open source and we welcome any developers into the project:

[https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar- go](https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar-go)

<comment><USER3> Since you have merged PRs allowing use via Tor, you seem to be tacitly encouraging Open Bazaar to be used by those who want to hide their identity. In the wake of the recent darknet market closures, people have been saying that the drug trade might move to decentralized markets like this. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14828864](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14828864)

As facilitators of this technology, do you have an opinion on how it should be used? Are you concerned that the primary use case might be to acquire drugs? And are there any controls in place to encourage or discourage certain types of items from being bought and sold on this platform, or is it a complete free-for-all?

<comment><USER4> Dear Vint Cerf, since you have created TCP-IP, and another contemporary of yours - HTTP, you seem to be tacitly encouraging a decentralized worldwide exchange of information used by billions around the globe to facilitate exchange of ideas, pleasure, and commerce, free from government censor...

<comment><USER5> I thinks it totally different. At the end of the day, the law could reach the original Internet. It really wasn't much different than telephone lines. Encryption is where everything changes. I think everyone should be at least a little bit nervous about where these crypto technologies are taking us. Once criminals learn how to use this technology, there's probably no going back.

<comment><USER6> Drug purchasing sites have actually helped reduce violence and crime associated with prohibited items/activities. I'm more nervous about where authoritarian government is taking us.

<comment><USER7> * citation needed.

<comment><USER8> Well, there are some that I know. The original is here:

[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2436643](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2436643)

Then there is Neil Franklin a Maryland police officer and director of the organization "Law Enforcement Against Prohibition"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc29nw4Si3Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc29nw4Si3Y)

And his interview in the Deep Web documentary at minute 60 (it is in Netflix).

<comment><USER9> This paper doesn't directly support what you said. In the abstract it says: "With Silk Road functioning to considerable degree at the wholesale/broker market level, its virtual location should reduce violence, intimidation and territorialism."

There are 3 mentions of the word "violence", one says that the typical internet drug dealer is typically less violent than their offline counterparts but this doesn't meant that gangs will just let others take away their income because the new dealer is dealing out of a living room instead of on the street. Silk Road was B2B, as the paper mentions. But those businesses still need to get their drugs to the end user which seemingly happens on the street.

So it's an assumption, not a proven fact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Seems to be some confusion...

To clarify OpenBazaar's _" No Transaction Fees"_, it means there are no _marketplace platform_ fees.

To compare with ebay, to sell an item for $500 and charge $20 for shipping ($520):

\- eBay fee: ~10% of final bid value + 10% of any shipping charge added on = $52

\- PayPal fee: 2.9% of payment = $15.08

The bitcoin network would eliminate the PayPal fees. (The bitcoin fees would still exist but presumably would be lower than 2.9%)

The OpenBazaar platform would eliminate the eBay platform fees.

<comment><USER11> It is a good idea to pay someone for escrow services.

<comment><USER12> IIRC OpenBazaar still has paid escrow- it's just cheaper than eBay's fees.

<comment><USER13> Only in the case of a disputed between the buyer and seller where arbitrage is needed.

<comment><USER12> Good point! By the way the term is arbitration- arbitrage is a different thing

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> People are talking about drugs or questioning that it is not exactly for free. But my big question, from the point of view of someone who has owned a small online store, is security for the buyer. In a completely p2p transaction, the biggest difficulty lies in the assurances that the two parties are completely satisfied with the deal. The first purchase is the most important move in any market, paying a premium so that everything goes well is not so bad.

<comment><USER2> There is a built-in escrow, which uses Bitcoin 2-of-3 multisignature. This means that if both buyer and seller are happy, they are the only two of three parties needed to release funds, but if either of the parties is unhappy they can bring in the escrow party.

Escrow is provided on a marketplace as well, anyone can act as an escrow agent.

<comment><USER14> Sounds cool, I just read the explanation, it's on the Features tab. But in the gif it is showing that you will have to pay for it, and it will be a % of the total business. Similar to what already occurs in other markets. But, as it will depend on a person, not a company, what is the legal responsibility of that third person in the deal? Will these people have a profile or decision history so you can decide who to trust? And are they responsible for the quality of the product or just to ensure that people will receive their product?

<comment><USER15> > But in the gif it is showing that you will have to pay for it

Only if the escrow resolves a dispute. The escrow agent doesn't actually learn of the transaction if all goes well.

As to the rest of the questions, the arbitration is a bit ad hoc at the moment.

The vendor selects the escrow agent he's willing to use and offers that as part of a "bundle" with product.

If the buyer doesn't know the escrow agent or doesn't trust him then he should not buy.

Obviously, having reputable escrow agents will be critical and there currently isn't any good in-app way of evaluating the reputation of the escrow.

Currently people tend to bring their reputations in from other platforms and use other platforms to recommend trusted escrows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Chris

If I understood the docs correctly, openbazaar 1.0 server is written in Python but since it's release the team has worked on V2 in Go.

I'd really appreciate learning the motivation for the migration to Go and think others may as well. Go programs are faster than Python programs but lo and behold is a viable v1 - a server whose performance may have been good enough?

Please, enlighten!

<comment><USER15> 1.0 is a bit of an MVP. While there's tons of room for optimization, Go is still much faster.

That plus the fact that the main IPFS codebase is written in Go were the main considerations.

<comment><USER16> Thanks for the response! So the choice wasn't driven as much by _actual_ performance issues, that might have been solved with refactoring, re- engineering, or simply running through pypy. The catalyst was the adoption of an IPFS library written in Go.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> mike-cardwell Installed. Run. First screen: Select your language. English already selected. Hit "Next". Nothing happens. No apparent way of actually selecting a language or proceeding. Uninstalled.

<comment><USER17> Ran into this same issue. Peeked into the developer tools window. Looks like a bug in:

onboardingModal.js:177 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'css' of undefined

Had to change line 177 to this so I can move forward:

var oldPos = 0//parseInt(this.accWin.css('left').replace("px", "")),

<comment><USER18> I got this weird error too in my mac

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> > How are there no fees and restrictions?

_Someone_ is paying the TX fees. Who? It can't be a single party, especially the developers, without betraying the decentralization.

> Pay with 50+ cryptocurrencies on OpenBazaar: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, > Zcash, Dash, etc. Seller receives payment in Bitcoin

How does this work without a middleman or central party?

<comment><USER20> TX fees are paid to miners.

Currency conversions are probably done using ShapeShift [https://shapeshift.io/](https://shapeshift.io/)

<comment><USER19> Hm, if that's indeed the case then this is free, feeless and decentralized only to the depth of its landing page.

<comment><USER21> What part of it do you think is not decentralised?

And how would you propose they implement the system in such a way that Bitcoin miners are incentivised to include fee-less transactions?

In terms of fee structure, it is quite clearly an improvement over centralised marketplaces. OpenBazaar is not charging any fees.

<comment><USER19> If e.g. Shapeshift can walk away with my money when they feel like it, that's not decentralized. If the law can kill off Shapeshift for shady transactions and not following sufficient KYC protocol, that's not decentralized.

I'm not sure how to solve the problem of Bitcoin transaction fees. Much, much smarter people than me haven't. But I'm also not promoting a Bitcoin service with "no transaction fees".

And I'm not sure I agree that this is an improvement over centralized markets. With those I can buy escrow and some amount of assurance I'm not being swindled by the platform itself, which the platform is on the hook for legally.

<comment><USER21> OK, using ShapeShift isn't decentralised, but you don't have to use ShapeShift unless you want to pay in a currency that the merchat doesn't want to accept. (And even then, you don't have to use ShapeShift. You can use any currency exchange).

You can buy escrow on OpenBazaar too.

You can't really be swindled by the OpenBazaar platform. It's just open source code that you run yourself. There's no way for anybody to jump in and change the rules from underneath you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Shouldn't need to be said, this does not remove fees from BTC/Ether transactions.

The feature is that it does not ADD fees to use the platform.

</comment><comment><USER23> It's not anonymous at all right now. I believe they're working on Tor support for the future however.

<comment><USER24> how bout this? [https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar- go/pull/342](https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar-go/pull/342)

A PR for "Tor"

<comment><USER2> That's in the 2.0 version (about to launch), but the current version doesn't support Tor.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Nothing is free, so here are my brief ideas for funding this:

\- Ads

\- "premium features" for sellers

\- "promoted" sellers

\- Fees for those that want to be "Secure Escrow and Dispute Resolution" accounts

<comment><USER26> According to [https://www.openbazaar.org/about/](https://www.openbazaar.org/about/)

 _They founded a company, OB1, with a $1 million venture capital investment from Union Square Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. [...] OB1 received a second round of investment for $3 million in the fall of 2016._

OK, so just to clarify, this is a for-profit project produced by a central party with no stated plan for monetization. That is IMHO dubious. Their website [http://ob1.io/](http://ob1.io/) includes a couple of hints as to how profits may be eventually sought: a search engine for Open Bazaar and a cloud based Open Bazaar store launching service. Then there is the fact a small cabal have probably premined all the easily obtainable coins (SYSPOOL, Give Me Coins, F2Pool), which means if the value goes up they profit handsomely.

Note that [http://ob1.io/about.html](http://ob1.io/about.html) lists some more investors: BlueYard Capital, Digital Currency Group and William Mougayar.

<comment><USER27> OpenBazaar is non-profit project built by multiple for-profit groups. Us at OB1 are just one group. [https://duosear.ch](https://duosear.ch) and [https://mubiz.com](https://mubiz.com) are two others.

<comment><USER26> [https://duosear.ch](https://duosear.ch) = another search engine, no about page, domain registered to an individual, just over 1 year old.

[https://mubiz.com](https://mubiz.com) = another search engine, very small French company

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Dont know why this is even being discuss just use syscoin with VPN,TOR and ZEC and your sorted and everything is on the blockchain no servers to be traced. This is the setup [https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/5s63o3/guid...](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/5s63o3/guide_syscoin_tor_setup_fully_decentralized/)

</comment><comment><USER29> Hello, I am looking for a decentralized store that lets me:

* Host digital goods (like run a server, or issue an asset ID that can be redeemed on a bittorrent style network for the file download) * Receive payment > register an asset or return a download key to the account of the user who sent it.

I want automated digital good downloading, paying & receiving BTC. (Bitpay, Stripe etc pay in BTC but seller receives $Currency)

<comment><USER30> This comment isn't relevant.

Also, dude, you're gonna get caught up by the feds so fast.

<comment><USER29> How is this not relevant? "decentralized bitcoin marketplace". I want to sell digital goods (games) for BTC and receive BTC. And where did I say anything about avoiding taxes?

<comment><USER30> You are not contributing to a discussion, you are asking for a service. Also I didn't imply you are trying to avoid taxes. You suggested that yourself.

<comment><USER29> Then what was your "feds catch up" about if not avoiding taxes?

<comment><USER30> Anything. Selling drugs, for example. You are implicating yourself. Stop.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Some previous discussions: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=openbazaar%20points%3E15&sort=...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=openbazaar%20points%3E15&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0)

</comment><comment><USER32> I can't find details on dispute resolution. Are they using multisig escrow transactions like Silk Road?

<comment><USER33> I'm fairly sure Silk Road never offered multisig transactions.

Here's a (fairly old) blog post describing how escrow works in OpenBazaar:

[https://blog.openbazaar.org/how-moderators-and-dispute- resol...](https://blog.openbazaar.org/how-moderators-and-dispute-resolution- work-in-openbazaar/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> [https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/5s63o3/guid...](https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkNetMarkets/comments/5s63o3/guide_syscoin_tor_setup_fully_decentralized/)

</comment><comment><USER34> How does the unit economics work here? To my understanding, BTC (even after SegWit) has non-negligible transaction fees. Is this site just eating into VC money to make things feeless?

<comment><USER35> I'm sure you still have to pay Bitcoin transaction fees. They should really say that there are no _additional_ fees to use Open Bazaar since it is open source.

<comment><USER36> They should really move to Ethereum. I have regularly been paying ~$0.01 for transactions that verify in under a minute.

<comment><USER37> > They should really move to Ethereum.

The project is opensource. If you feel there are features that you would like to have in it, I'm sure they will appreciate your input to the project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Not sure if anyone used Open Bazaar on Hacker News. I tried it and forget to close it. After 24-hours, this program leaked 4GB memory. How could the developer let this happen?

</comment><comment><USER39> Seems interesting but I couldn't get pass the language setup on Mac.

<comment><USER2> We've gotten a few reports of this now, we're looking into it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Would like to see a sellers API / webhooks for automation.

</comment><comment><USER41> Is there currently a plan how the OB company will make money?

</comment><comment><USER42> In the crypto-darknet community, the word is that this is where the drug trade is going to move to after the recent busts of the past weeks.

<comment><USER43> How pleasant

<comment><USER44> Better than in the streets.

<comment><USER45> People who buy drugs "in the streets" generally aren't versed in how to acquire and manage cryptocurrency. Most people buying drugs have a personal relationship with a dealer and don't do transactions "in the streets". Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise suspicions and alienate "street buyers". Finally, in my personal opinion, a street transaction would be preferable to giving out my address to anonymous dealers on the internet, but I know some may agree on that point.

<comment><USER21> > Additionally, actually acquiring cryptocurrency requires a bank account in > good standing and a ton of invasive KYC paperwork which will raise > suspicions and alienate "street buyers".

This is false. You can acquire cryptocurrency just as easily as you can acquire cash: sell things for it, exchange currency with friends, exchange currency with people you find on LocalBitcoins, steal it, run a business taking payment in it, ...

<comment><USER45> > _You can acquire cryptocurrency just as easily as you can acquire cash:_

This is obviously untrue. Cash is ubiquitous throughout every corner of society, while cryptocurrency is extremely niche to the point of practical obscurity.

> _sell things for it_

The overwhelming majority of potential buyers will not have even heard of crypto.

> _exchange currency with friends_

Very few people have friends who dabble in cryptocurrency.

> _exchange currency with people you find on LocalBitcoins_

Risky, time-consuming and impractical, especially for someone that's only looking to buy some weed. Additionally, localbitcoins puts you back "in the streets", you're better off just exchanging cash for drugs in the streets rather than exchanging cash for crypto in the streets so you can go back online to buy the drugs.

> _steal it, run a business taking payment in it, ..._

That is absurd. You're not making a very convincing case.

<comment><USER44> Bitcoin ATMs are very popular and easy. I know a guy who runs some and I know what kind of clientele use it... A lot are in rough shape to say the least. And he does very large volume that is growing fast.

<comment><USER45> Bitcoin ATMs are rare, notoriously unreliable, often require invasive KYC and _always_ come with a gigantic markup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> What's the business model for openbazaar.org, i.e. the core team? How are you going to sustain development?

</comment><comment><USER47> It's just like Napster->Kazaa->Gnutella all over again! In 10 years there will be iTunes.

<comment><USER48> In what sense? This is not a file sharing platform. Also, money is exchanged here.

<comment><USER49> In the sense that it's not clear how openbazaar developers will earn money.

<comment><USER50> They can add the fees later, when (if) it gets popular. If the fees are low enough, forking it would be too much hassle.

<comment><USER27> As an OB dev myself, I could and would remove any amount of built in fees. We can make money providing services to users without rent seeking from everyone.

<comment><USER49> Yes, but you probably agree that putting ethics above money means there's a higher risk of losing the long term game in a capitalist world.

<comment><USER51> Funnily enough, putting money over ethics also presents a high risk of losing the long term game... if your long term goal is to end up with something user- centric and ethical.

<comment><USER49> Not sure I'm getting the point. "end up with something user-centric and ethical" also implies the much simpler requirement of "end up with something".

Maybe if one implies that to "end up with something unethical" is as bad or worse than "end up with nothing"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER52> What's the point if it doesn't support Tor or some other anonymizing service?

<comment><USER53> It seems it does, as of this year: [https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar- go/pull/342](https://github.com/OpenBazaar/openbazaar-go/pull/342)

<comment><USER52> I stand corrected. Wish this project the best.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> Aaaannnnndddd..... Silk Road has re-launched.

I actually think technologically this looks like quite the achievement, but it's hard for me to see this being used at all for legal commerce. It's just so much of an audience barrier to trade exclusively in cryptocurrencies.

I like the use of Multisig though. Nice touch.

</comment><comment><USER55> Does this version still require the vendor to keep their PC online 24/7?

<comment><USER27> 2.0, which is not yet released but coming soon, does not require an always-on connection anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> Is there a business model? Compensation for continued development?

</comment><comment><USER57> I cannot wait for 2.0 it has been a longtime coming.

</comment><comment><USER58> How does this work? Where is the store list stored?

<comment><USER21> It is distributed over a peer-to-peer network.

<comment><USER58> They mention ipfs. Ipfs doesn't have a method of multiple people writing to one key.

How do they tackle this problem?

Edit: thanks in advance. I reached my time cap trying to find out

<comment><USER27> When a vendor creates a listing it's created as an ipfs file. Vistors download and seed them and we've added broadcasting so when you update your store changes will be pushed out to willing nodes preemptively.

<comment><USER59> Is there an architectural diagram or a protocol flow somewhere? I would love to understand the lifecycle of a listing.

In particular, I'm curious if in effect every client has to find, download, validate, and index every listing. And how far you expect that to scale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> This is huge!

</comment><comment><USER61> Ah the good ole days when I had $5 in my wallet and paid by taking the $5 note out and handing it to the cashier.

</comment><comment><USER5> Am I the only one here that gets a little terrified by this kind of thing? I mean I'm fine if they're just selling recreational drugs. But, we all know that there are much worse things people will be selling on these crypto markets than just plain old LSD and marijuana. Can we find a way to help law enforcement police at the very least the really, really bad stuff?

<comment><USER62> > Can we find a way to help law enforcement police at the very least the > really, really bad stuff?

Law enforcement was designed to protect people (or their property) from the actions of _other people_ , not _themselves_.

Law enforcement is fundamentally incapable of protecting people from themselves. That is why the "war on drugs" has been so ineffective.

The most effective method to stop the drug (opioid, etc.) epidemic is _treatment_ and _education_ , not law enforcement.

<comment><USER63> I think that the _really really bad stuff_ here is e.g. Human trafficking, chemical weapons, assassination services, etc...not even any drugs, and as you've pointed out, people harming other people. How do you police that here, or don't you?

<comment><USER64> All of those require physical actions apart from just a digital transaction. At some point a human is trafficked somewhere from somewhere else, they can follow that. Chemical weapons are sent somewhere from somewhere, they can follow those. An assassin shows up somewhere, they can grab them there.

All of which can be orchestrated by the police themselves. In an anonymous transaction the other party could very well be the FBI.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER65> Don't wanna be the partypooper but Blockmarket wins the dex marketplace niche ;-)

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

<comment><USER27> There's no reason for a p2p marketplace to be tied to certain medium of exchange or to use a blockchain for anything else but identity and reputation.</comment></comment>