Homemade 16TB NAS - BlackDwarf - <AUTHOR> http://www.willudesign.com/BlackDwarfTop.html <comment><USER2> There is something funny in the name here, given that a black dwarf is what results after a star has gone through a melt-down and I think that is a serious risk with that many drives in such a tight enclosure.

He seems to have that factor under control though, 90 watts under load really isn't that bad.

Reminds me of this: <http://www.clustercompute.com/> , no longer in service because it got replaced by a single gpu card.

<comment><USER3> These stars are called white dwarfs.

<comment><USER2> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dwarf>

I'm aware of what a white dwarf is, black dwarfs do not currently exist (we think) but are definitely a possibility, think of them as the burned out ashes of a white dwarf, which is an intermediary.

For variety there are also red, orange, brown and yellow dwarfs, it's quite a family.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Uh oh... I see Green Power HDD's. We used them for a while in big Raid configurations and their failure rate is bad.

<comment><USER5> Always use black HDDs for servers man (if using WD)!

<comment><USER6> Why not use the Raid Edition drives if you're at it? Supposedly better mtbf, longer warranty, and the to-me-unquantifiably-better TLER feature.

<comment><USER7> TLER is well worth the 50% premium, in many cases. With desktop firmware, my experience has been that fully half the time when a disk fails, it doesn't properly fail, it retries forever. Linux MD and 3ware hardware raid (the only hardware raid I tried) both hang up waiting for the drive to fail. (the 3ware keeps resetting the drive... but it will sit there and suck for two days just like md)

Back when I used desktop drives, I had several outages caused by a bad disk in a mirror. I log into the box and manually fail it out of the raid and we are good, but customers tend to get mad when their I/O hangs for hours on end.

It only takes one hung mirror in production, for me at least, to pay for a whole lot of 'enterprise' firmware drives.

<comment><USER8> Many (most?) new consumer drives have support for ERC (the standard term for what WD calls "TLER"), which is part of the ATA-8 standard. See here for the spec (ERC is described in section 8.3.4):

[http://www.t13.org/Documents/UploadedDocuments/docs2007/D169...](http://www.t13.org/Documents/UploadedDocuments/docs2007/D1699r4a-ATA8-ACS.pdf)

Until recently, you often needed a vendor-supplied MS-DOS executable to enable or modify ERC features on consumer drives, but smartmontools supports it as of v5.40, thanks to this guy:

<http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~greg/projects/erc/>

I just bought a 1.5TB Samsung HD154UI for $99 that supports ERC. There are reports that P-model variants of the WD 15EADS don't support TLER anymore, but I have several S- and R-model variants of that drive that do, including one that was manufactured in March; so it's still possible to get WD consumer drives that support TLER/ERC, you just have to be picky about the variant.

<comment><USER7> huh. neat. where are you finding out what is and is not supported? user forms? or do drive data sheets actually have useful info?

<comment><USER8> It's purely anecdotal. HardForum is a good source of information because of its enthusiast user base. A large group of home NAS builders post there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> That a nice project and all, too bad he's likely to have it go TU on him when his first drive fails.

[http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/why-raid-5-stops- working-i...](http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/why-raid-5-stops-working- in-2009/162)

I would also be concerned with the single point of failure with his fan. If that seizes up for any reason the temp in that thing is going to skyrocket very quickly.

Personally, after I outgrow my current RAID5 -- similar to the one I built here (<http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6558>), but using SATA drives now -- I'm going to switch over to mirrored large drives instead of RAID5. As long as I don't start videotaping every second of the kid's lives I should be ok.

</comment><comment><USER10> Doesn't look like there's enough space for ventilation. Unless I'm missing something, heat could be a serious problem with this setup.

</comment><comment><USER11> His other mods are actually more impressive to me (<http://www.willudesign.com/CinematographTop.html> and <http://www.willudesign.com/TheDeskTop.html>) especially.

<comment><USER12> Agreed. Storage, even big NAS, just does not do it for me anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I purchased a NAS array from <http://lime-technology.com/> and couldn't be happier with it. 15 drives in a standard form factor case running off of an internal USB key slackware custom distro. Only one drive is needed for parity and you can swap drive sizes as much as you want, just as long as the parity drive is as wide as your largest data drive.

It is running its own version of raid called unRAID, which is a RAID4 derivative. No data is striped across any of the drives so your data loss is contained to the single drive with issues if it is not repairable by parity. The servers are great for the price, check them out.

</comment><comment><USER14> The Video of him building the machine is really worth watching:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BatakM9iAik>

<comment><USER15> The video is quite amazing, but I think he made several crucial mistakes: never drill, file or arc solder anything with tiny and sensitive electronic parts around! A bit of metal in one of the PCBs is enough to ruin the day.

The other thing I noticed is that he used the welder without full protection in both hands: the arc gives out UV, besides the hot metal flying around, which is dangerous.

A funny thing is the construction/design as it goes along, I do that sometimes myself, without designing it first with a CAD.

<comment><USER16> "never drill, file or arc solder anything with tiny and sensitive electronic parts around!"

He used dead drives during the construction, so this isn't a big deal.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Looks nice :D I hope he has better results with Raid5 then me tho. I have reverted back to a dual drive NAS for stability after having raid 5 servers for a long time. Somehow IDE and SATA drives and raid cards don't cut it for me. I have lost my data so freaking often by corrupt arrays it's not fun anymore.

The first server I had used a Promise card (Supertrak SX6000) card (with 4 * 80 GB drives) that gave me nothing but problems (very poor performance and corrupt arays about once every 2 months). It was running on a standard non- server mobo with a decent but standard PSU, so one of the components might have caused problems tho.

The second was running on an Areca ARC-1210 card (with 8*320 Gb drives) on a tyan thunder dualxeon server mobo with an 850Watt Tagan server PSU and was put behind a 2200VA UPS. Even then the array seemed to dropout quite often and I have spend 100's of hours in total (updating drivers/firmware/OS'es, recovering lost data, replacing parts, cables, moving the server etc...) trying to get it to run decently.

Eventually I just sold the whole damn thing and bought me a simple COnceptronic CH3SNAS with 2 1,5TB drives for the cash I sold the old server for. I have ever never had a single problem in the whole year i've had it and am very happy with the purchase. The performance is totally not comparable (600MB/Sec vs 20 MB/Sec), but even the slow NAS is sufficient enough for me (it streams HD movies just fine and my backups aren't TB's big anyways ;) ). Plus the power usage is literally 1/10th, it's very quiet and a lot easier to carry around and take with me if I need to.

Maybe I just fail at fileservers, maybe I just had bad luck with 2 bad cards, but I'm not convinced a simple affordable RAID-5 solution means your data is safe.

But I must admit I wouldn't mind having that self made NAS at my home tho, it looks cool :D Maybe one day i'll try again.... ;)

<comment><USER18> Next time do try ZFS on Fuse (linux userspace filesystem) - I have a 1TB setup and it works quite well.

You could try making a RAIDZ volume and see how it goes.

<comment><USER19> Have you had good luck with this? I'm running zfs on an open solaris server, but I hate solaris and would like to switch to linux. I never got the impression that zfs on fuse was stable enough to trust with all of my data.

<comment><USER20> I use ZFS under FreeBSD 8-RELEASE in a 6x1.5tb raidz2 (dual-parity) and it is rock solid. The benefit of running ZFS under FreeBSD over Linux is that you don't need to use FUSE, as ZFS has been really well integrated with FreeBSD's filesystem layer.

<comment><USER21> Would you mind writing up a tutorial. I am interesting in ZFS under FreeBSD, I have 8-Release downloaded and ready to go. Still working on getting the hardware up and running for it though.

Are you using 64-bit? I heard ZFS loves 64-bit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Impressive, but I'll second the heating remark.

I just bought one of these <http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001E03444/> and swap out the drives as I need them. + two Fractal 120mm fans (incredibly quiet yet powerful, highly recommended) from the sides to keep the heat away. I chose that instead of building a similar frame, since a frame for 25 drives (that's what I have :-) ) would need some serious additional cooling and power, whereas the swapping solution doesn't.

</comment><comment><USER6> Nice job, though I shudder to think about the vibration noise made by 8 hard- mounted drives in an aluminum enclosure... I'd be surprised if it didn't sound like a mouse stuck in a coke can full of nuts (the threaded, metal kind, that is... ;-)

<comment><USER23> I wondered about that also. I was a little surprised to see that he didn't (appear to) put in any sort of shock mounts or buffers between the side plates and the drives themselves.

He seems to know what he's doing, though, so perhaps it was a purposeful tradeoff in order to use the sides as heat sinks? By mounting the drives without shockmounts, you can transfer heat directly from the drives to the enclosure chassis. In terms of preventing drive failure that might be more important than vibration reduction.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> At 4 platters per drive, I bet the room doesn't need heating in the winter.

Can you actually put one drive physically on top of another like that, long term, without any ill effects from one magnetic field to another?

<comment><USER25> If the magnetic fields were strong enough to hurt a drive a few centimeters away, they would ruin the other platters in the same drive, and the data on the platter a few millimeters away.

Drives get as close as they can in ordinary servers and cases as well.

It would be more common to worry about heat issues, although there's a Google study floating around the net and their findings are that the role of heat in hard disk failure is much less significant than commonly thought.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Well, he's 1/10 of the way to filling it already. (The video project made while building the NAS is 1.5TB)

Good design, not often a NAS actually looks great.

<comment><USER27> The Black Dwarf looks exactly like a plastic 5" floppy storage box I once had. But it'll store a magnitude more data!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> > 88MB/s write and 266MB/s read

That's appalling for 8 drives !

<comment><USER29> It's hardware RAID running on a single cheap controller. Use case is network- access only, so speed was not a concern for this build.</comment></comment>


Google Housing? - Google now searches Real Estate and Rentals - <AUTHOR> http://consumerist.com/consumer/google/google-housing-lets-you-search-real-estate-and-rental-listings-251024.php <comment><USER2> If craigslist would put their listings on Google Base it would be the listings market would shrink even further. Compare craigslist broker listing fee of $10 vs yahoo's fee of $49.95.</comment>


White House Bars Times, CNN and BBC from Briefing - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/white-house-sean-spicer-briefing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726886](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726886)

It was #1 on the homepage then was instantly buried to #20. I'm not sure how that happened, tbh. This one is also being buried.

Edit: now basically killed.

<comment><USER3> Perhaps it was flagged because this doesn't fit the news guidelines, and as interesting as it is, it's still just politics.

<comment><USER2> Politics isn't banned.

<comment><USER3> Nothing is _banned_ as they are guidelines, but the first words from the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics...".

<comment><USER4> If a popular story doesnt have a STEM, privacy or startup aspect, it likely belongs elsewhere. Otherwise, HN becomes more of a generic news thread app than a startup community.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Trump administration will just get more and more desperate as they 1\. get totally nothing done, and nothing passed, except singing a bunch of worthless EOs. 2\. get caught in various scandals, and the investigations get more and more intense 3\. economy stalls

<comment><USER4> Wars are often used to distract from domestic inadequacies. Another million dead world citizens to make the MIC rich because a whiny despot doesn't have a clue.

Also anecdotally, DJIA closed up on another numerical record, so a deep recession might be possible when the Goldman Sachs' Wall St accomplices' latest trickery overheats the economy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> dupe of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726886](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13726886), also on the front page

</comment><comment><USER7> Reason enough for me to buy a subscription to the NY Times.

<comment><USER8> same here

<comment><USER9> bought mine last week

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is what oppressive totalitarian regimes do.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is most likely not going to happen and if it did probably going to end badly: What if nobody showed up for these briefings and press conferences anymore?

<comment><USER5> I'm sure Trump / Bannon's ideal scenario would be to have only Breitbart report on Whitehouse news, and Trump will communicate through Twitter. They'll also manipulate various data released through official channels to reinforce their reality. This is the first president that has been arguing that the unemployment rate is higher than the official recognized rate (I know there are various measures) while he is in office.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Better to get the information from leaks anyway. Likely more accurate.

</comment><comment><USER13> There's only so many times you can put out misleading content and get away with it.

<comment><USER14> Do you think the WH has a problem with the accuracy of the news reports, or do you think they care more about silencing criticism?

I'm also curious to know your thoughts on how the Executive Branch and Press relations look like in South American countries, it looks like in Bolivia things aren't as bad as they are in Ecuador [1][2].

Evo is on his way to being in power until 2020, Correa doesn't look like he'll let up (after inheriting Venezuela from Chavez), and Maduro is supervising the collapse of his country.

Like Trump, these so called leaders have promised "el pueblo" (i.e. the people, aka the forgotten man etc...) change. He is clearly showing the same tendencies of opinion repression that allow a permanent hold on power (for his benefit really, not of the people who were swindled).

Are some of us too worried about the eery parallels?

[1] [https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom- world/2015/bolivia](https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom- world/2015/bolivia) [2] [https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom- press/2015/ecuador](https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom- press/2015/ecuador)</comment></comment>


Problems with Agile? Check your Culture | Agile Zone - <AUTHOR> http://agile.dzone.com/news/problems-agile-check-your <comment><USER2> Those who can't do, manage.

Those who can't manage, subscribe to pop-management theories.</comment>


Opera Mobile Emulator - <AUTHOR> http://www.opera.com/developer/tools/mobile/

<comment><USER2> It'd make my work so much easier if all the major mobile browsers released tools like this (outside their ecosystem's SDKs). Opera and FF are in the unusual position of not being the native choice and are/should do this.

I wonder if there might be reticence, or possibly no incentive, to do so as the apps market is booming. A stronger web might be bad for app-stores in general.

<comment><USER3> Firefox has an emulator too: <http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/mobile/> (the "Developer Tools" download is just a Fennec.app. It's rather spartan, but does the job)

This is huge contrast with testing in Android Browser:

• requires Android SDK

• launched from commandline (README file explaining that is longer than Info.plist needed to make it runnable with a click).

• needs extra package downloads started manually from withing the SDK

• needs creation of virtual device (with dozen of irrelevant options to fill in that are confusing to newcommers)

• slow as hell

RIM with Windows-only SDK scattered over several packages _requiring registration_ is even worse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's about the easiest way to test a website on a mobile browser, in my opinion.

</comment><comment><USER5> The downloaded .deb is only 32 bit, with no obvious 64 bit option on the page.

</comment><comment><USER6> I use this at work to go through blocked websites. Better than nothing.

<comment><USER7> I haven't tried, but I think that enabling Turbo in Opera Desktop might have the same effect?

<comment><USER8> It should, actually. Unfortunately I can't test this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> how close does it emulate the websites on feature phones like Nokia, Samsung and other feature phones?</comment>


The Apprentice – Lean Startup Builds Minimum Viable Product in Two Days? - <AUTHOR> http://sparknlaunch.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/the-apprentice-lean-startup-builds-minimum-viable-product-in-two-days/

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for visiting. Is The Apprentice showing us the lean startup way? can we learn anything?</comment>


Computer science course fills seats, needs at Harvard - <AUTHOR> http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/11/26/computer-science-course-breaks-stereotypes-and-fills-halls-harvard/7XAXko7O392DiO1nAhp7dL/story.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's the Syllabus: [http://d2o9nyf4hwsci4.cloudfront.net/2013/fall/lectures/0/w/...](http://d2o9nyf4hwsci4.cloudfront.net/2013/fall/lectures/0/w/syllabus/syllabus.html)</comment>


Gene name errors can be introduced inadvertently when using Excel in bioinformatics - <AUTHOR> http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=15214961 <comment><USER2> I can't get into specifics per confidentiality at my job, but I'll tell you this: if you saw some of the things being done in the financial sector with Excel that I have you'd cry and go into a fit of rage.

<comment><USER3> Whenever I think about the financial sector at all, I cry and/or go into a fit of rage already. So it's probably for the best that I don't know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> A few years ago I had an office at an incubator, and my neighbour company made a better spreadsheet. He had worked in the financial sector before, and had conducted research that showed that around 90% (Don't remember the exact number) of excel files in the financial sector had mistakes in them. Scary stuff..

<comment><USER5> If you are doing any sort of data analysis you really need to avoid spreadsheets.

Unfortunately, most data analysis is just as bad. I have worked with SAS & R code, thousands of lines long, all without a single test. Basically a big series of hacks. Mostly, statisticians I have worked with have no _concept_ of testing, or even why it's necessary.

I shudder to think of the gross error in research results from all I have seen!

<comment><USER6> Trying to do real programming in SAS is a nightmare. The language sucks. Also, it's proprietary and expensive.

It's surprising that statisticians would fail to understand the importance of testing, given that a lot of the root issues in statistics (e.g. the Bayesian/frequentist dispute over "what is a probability?") are epistemological.

<comment><USER7> One of my undergrad classes was for SAS, and they mixed MIS, CS, math, and statistics people in this class. It took weeks for those on the CS track to get that when your code says "proc average", you're _calling_ a procedure, not defining a function. We had no idea where the code was supposed to go. There was a serious disconnect between the students and the professor in that class, who, I later realized would have just needed to say "this calls the procedure average" and things would have been fine. We had no idea, initially, how we were getting results.

Of course, we had to run all this on VMS and print it out on a fan-fold line printer, and it wasn't very interactive. SAS products seem to be more visual and interactive now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This paper is from 2004, any updates? Did microsoft add an option to disable the conversion? Are public databases cleaner?

</comment><comment><USER9> Excel has a cell format called "TEXT" that prevents all of these problems. If you plan to use a range of your spreadsheet as text (and not as numbers or dates), format it as Text and excel will never misinterpret what you type.

You can also start the cell entry with a single quote to make a single cell store text.

</comment><comment><USER10> Excel shouldn't be used for science. Or for that matter anything important and numerically intensive.

But there's silly people everywhere, even in science.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is the sort of error that worries me a lot about "programmable" business systems.

That people who don't know the domain and tools well enough, and don't have the pernickety edge-case worrying mindset will introduce errors like this. Writing a report that doesn't take into account a new database table, editing permissions and leaving a big hole in them, etc.

What I'm not sure about though, is whether it really matters. Whether the tradeoff with only allowing certain people to make changes saves enough trouble that it's worth the limitations. Businesses with people are very good at surviving errors, after all...

</comment><comment><USER12> Beyond the floating-point problems, there's also the automatic name capitalization, the automatic replacement of "teh" for "the", the automatic conversions of numbers into dates, and many more.

Everyday practice gets me a bit more and more annoyed at all the automatisms that software office packages come with. And they are nearly all on by default! It takes a skilled person about 10 minutes to disable nearly all automatisms in MSWord or in OpenOffice Write, in several menus. In MSExcel, I don't even know where to look myself (having switched to Gnumerics long ago).

We would all appreciate one single button that says: "Don't do anything unless I told you to."

<comment><USER13> "Don't do anything unless I told you to."

For a moment there you made me have a bad flashback to Microsoft Frontpage circa 1997.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I worked at a hedge fund where one of the phone-screen brainteasers was "How many zeros are at the end of 35!?"

The very not-smart people would try to use Excel for this, and get hilariously (and obviously) incorrect results due to rounding errors.

<comment><USER14> Took me a while to figure out where the "extra" 8th zero came out.... namely 25. That there are at least 7 zeros is evident, since 5 and 2 is needed for each 0, and 5s are more scarce than 2s in 35!

<comment><USER15> Aha, so that's the elegant way how this was supposed to be solved (in your head and on the spot).

<comment><USER6> It's basically an honesty test, since the interviewer explicitly says not to use paper or a calculator (which would include Excel). Quants are given harder questions, and I doubt that a trader would be dinged for not knowing the correct approach, since it's not a brainteaser that would correlate highly to trading acumen. But the Excel answer (14, I believe) is a very wrong one.

<comment><USER15> Interesting, 35! according to various tools:

      10333147966386100000000000000000000000000 (Open Office Calc)
      10333147966386100000000000000000000000000 (Excel)
      10333147966386144000000000000000000000000 (Gnumeric)
      10333147966386145000000000000000000000000 (Windows Calculator)
      10333147966386144929666651337523200000000 (Python)

<comment><USER6> Python is correct. It's promoting to bignum, while the others are using floats, presumably, and passing them off as integers. I think they ought to display 1.0333147966386144e40.

Your average wannabe-banker/Wharton undergrad has never heard of Python, however, but has used Excel. Quants are familiar with Python, but they get harder problems.

Most quants don't, however, get to use Python. For some inexplicable reason, a lot of them are mired in C++, of all languages, and tend to be poor-to- mediocre programmers. There are exceptions, though; the one I worked at used an FP language and had excellent programmers.

<comment><USER15> _I think they ought to display 1.0333147966386144e40._

Actually, they did show the result by default as floats in scientific notation, it was me who changed number display options for easier visual comparison.

I assumed quants preferred C++ because of performance. When I occasionally have to go back from Python to C/C++, I'm surprised much faster it is.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


On Inequality and Risk Capacity - <AUTHOR> https://www.theinformation.com/articles/on-inequality-and-risk-capacity?pu=hackernewsc8sk76&utm_source=hackernews&utm_medium=unlock <comment><USER2> I'd agree that risk capacity (or element of ruin, as it's known in gambling circles) is a big factor in rising inequality. But there are many other advantages that the wealthy enjoy that may also explain the divergence. The wealthy can borrow money at much more favorable rates, they can meet minimum investment thresholds in ventures or funds that provide higher rates of return, they benefit from economies of scale in large businesses, the list goes on and on.

And just as there is no one major cause, there is no one major solution, like a wealth tax. Rather, we need to overhaul much of our financial and business regulation to favor decentralization. Limits on corporate and real estate ownership, corporate board participation, and business advertising would all go a long way toward reinvigorating small business and creating a healthier, less homogenized economy.

<comment><USER3> I see the solution in another direction. For every monopoly I see I also find a government enforcing that monopoly. Limit government power, not private ownership if you wish to improve the lot of the average person.

<comment><USER2> You confuse cause for effect. Emerging monopolies gain the power to warp regulations in their favor by virtue of the concentration of wealth and power. That concentration is an inevitable consequence of the wealth-income feedback loop. Without limits on wealth, capitalism collapses in on itself like a black hole.

<comment><USER3> > Emerging monopolies gain the power to warp regulations in their favor by > virtue of the concentration of wealth and power.

Exactly. And no civilization on earth has yet solved the "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." problem at scale. In what society does power not exist in some form? In even the most primitive of human societies the first and best portion of the meal would be given to those who had the most political favor. We have control of a single vector in this equation, the size of the government. I see no other way.

<comment><USER2> _I see no other way._

You're not looking very hard. As I suggested above, we can pursue government policies (largely independent of government size) that favor decentralization. We don't have to throw up our hands in defeatism. We have perfectly good processes to implement these policies and improve our society. The only real obstacle, frankly, is the kind of fatalistic passivity you're proposing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is really what sold UBI for me. Making it possible for more people to give entrepreneurship a try and explore their business ideas seems like it could be very valuable to our society. I'm not saying it would be a slam-dunk great investment, but it would do a lot to address this inequality of risk- taking ability.

</comment><comment><USER5> It's not just overt financial risk. For example, tying health insurance to a job makes it hard for many people to leave their job (to start or join a new business).

Just as the roads provide an effective baseline for physical communication, universal health insurance of some sort provides a baseline or substrate for innovation.

There are other examples (e.g. clean air) but the health insurance case is most significant in the USA.

</comment><comment><USER6> The cause of inequality is a combination of inherited wealth, workers not having control of means of production, and a lack of real direct democracy in how we make decisions as a society. This inequality is enforced with violence by those hoarding all of the wealth and power. Both capital and the state are to blame here.

Interesting mental exercises aside, this article is hard to take seriously.

<comment><USER7> To start with just one of your assertions, I don't think "real" direct democracy is likely to reduce inequality. As one example, California Prop 13 was passed by direct ballot and many would point to it as a major _cause_ of inequality.

People vote mostly of out self interest, but mediating their expression of self interest through elected representatives enables pragmatic compromises that make the most good for the most people. Ultimately, I view representative democracy as a recognition that the political process will always depend on a small number of powerful people, so it's better if those people have some accountability to the people. Direct democracy circumvents that political process, forcing representatives' hands and blocking compromise. The result is stuff like Brexit.

I do think there is a place for direct democracy, but it is very limited. Historically it has been useful in affecting constitutional change e.g. the 1967 Australian referendum to grant citizenship to Aboriginals.

<comment><USER8> There are also ideological factors at play here. When GP is arguing for direct democracy they're not arguing for it in isolation, they're arguing for it as opposed to the political-economic system of today which they see as under the thumb of capital, which in part is due to the representative model. But simply removing the representative model won't rid us of capital's totality, nor its mechanisms (inequality through equality etc.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Let's not forget that government regulation specifically prohibits people below a wealth threshold to take part in earlier stage investments.

"Accredited investor" is a complete joke of a term. It implies some kind of education in the topic, but the only qualifications are making enough money each year or having enough money in the bank.

As if no one making less than $200k has the money or the mental capacity to invest in something risky.

</comment><comment><USER10> To say that risk capacity is the "real" source of inequality is simply incorrect.

There are _plenty_ of people at or below poverty level who have little/no aversion to risk - it's just that the high-stakes gambles accessible to them are of a different nature than those accessible to a person of middle/upper class.

Risks with high rewards associated with impoverished people:

      - Theft/robbery

      - Scams/fraud

      - Selling drugs/other illicit items

Risks with high rewards associated with the middle/upper class:

      - Investing (stocks, crypto)

      - Quitting your job to start a business

For the impoverished, the consequences and chances of things going awry are stronger than a person of middle/upper class, yet they do pursue those risks, likely at a higher rate than the upper/middle class pursues the risks listed for them.

</comment><comment><USER11> Let's not forget ZIRP and QE Infinity:

[https://fortune.com/2019/05/02/fed-interest-rates-income- ine...](https://fortune.com/2019/05/02/fed-interest-rates-income-inequality/)</comment>


Ask HN: Depressed need help - <AUTHOR> I have loads of books. Due to distractions of social media, blogs, new articles, I am not able to focus and finish a single book in past 1 year. It's serious problem. I need some serious advice to curb the distractions and focus on learning something. what are your tips to read a book<p>How to read a book? <comment><USER2> Go to the doctor and seek professional help

<comment><USER3> underrated comment

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If the books you are trying to ready aren't technical books, programming etc. See if you can get the audiobook version. I can't tell you how many books I get through this way just listening to them back and fore to work. Also, if you have to read paper books. Relocate to somewhere without social media. Go sit in the Garden or Basement or Roof etc without your phone. Try for 30mins (on your watch not phone :) )

</comment><comment><USER5> How about trying an audio book. I was also struggling with reading books while I kept buying new ones. I then tried an audio book and to my surprise I really liked it. Now a days I finish an audio book in a week.

I would suggest to listen to the audio book at a fixed time everyday like early morning or before going to bed. In my case I found the routine to be quite helpful .

</comment><comment><USER6> Turn off your electronics for a bit. No displays for a few hours. Get used to focusing on things for a bit. Examine boring corners of the room. Then try reading while 'captive'. Train, bed, camping, or anywhere with minimal distraction. Books are amazing, but the initial wow factor is less than blinky things, so you have to spin down a bit.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is probably a very common problem these days. One thing you could try is to use a timer and start with smaller goals, like reading for 20 minutes straight. Gradually increase it to an hour or so, and decrease the breaks.

I find that when doing really boring work, just having a timer present makes me focus. Obviously I'm not using a timer now...

</comment><comment><USER8> Read it out loud (even whispering).

For me it's a bit easier to prevent my mind wandering if I do that.

Obviously, try to read it away of your computer on either your ebook reader or a physical book. If you read on a tablet/phone, don't forget to stop __ALL __notifications.</comment>


Donnfelker/android-bootstrap · GitHub - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/donnfelker/android-bootstrap

<comment><AUTHOR> This basically wraps a bunch of useful libraries for android.</comment>


I Spent $500 Trying to Stump the Magic Delivery Service - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/03/stump-magic/

<comment><USER2> Unless you are really wealthy and have no time, I still don't see a use for this service. All of the things described in this article, I can do myself for less money and less hassle (in the time I can send 4 or 5 text messages, I can actually go to the individual sites and order what I need).

I thought with all of the stats on unemployment and that millennials can't buy a house or a car because they aren't making as much money as their parents that they wouldn't have the expendable cash for a service like this. What happened?

It reminds me of Web Van, even though it's a different sort of service.

<comment><USER3> I agree. It's a concierge service, which is labor intensive. The high end has had such services for a long time. If there were an increasing upper middle class, then I could see the market for it. But there isn't.</comment></comment>


The /E/ Google-Free, Pro-Privacy Android Is Now Available - <AUTHOR> https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/09/25/2129247/the-e-google-free-pro-privacy-android-clone-is-now-available <comment><USER2> /e/ is not as "un-googled" as they claim to be: [https://ewwlo.xyz/evil](https://ewwlo.xyz/evil) [https://infosec- handbook.eu/blog/e-foundation-first-look/](https://infosec- handbook.eu/blog/e-foundation-first-look/)

PS: These posts _may_ be outdated

</comment><comment><USER3> Glad to see more Android firmware choices that use MicroG instead of Google Play Services.

Previously, I would have recommended LineageOS for MicroG, which supports a different set of devices:

[https://lineage.microg.org](https://lineage.microg.org)

If your device is supported by /e/ but not LineageOS, then /e/ is a good alternative that allows you to use MicroG on your phone with no additional flashing needed.

</comment><comment><USER4> > Duval's approach hasn't been to reinvent the mobile operating system wheel, > but instead to clean up Android of its Google privacy-invading features and > replace them with privacy-respecting one ...

I would love to see one of these phones in action.

And I wouldn't mind if someone like Huawei started using this on their newer phones. Puts some pressure on Google.</comment>


Skills: a tool for identifying expertise and passion in developers - <AUTHOR> http://skillsapp.com/

<comment><USER2> Sounds like Brainbench. In fact, Brainbench did exactly this for me when I got my job 5 years ago. The company paid them to test me on my programming and personal skills, I took the tests, and the company got the results. (The company then gave me a copy of the results.)

Before the BB test, the other guy they were interviewing practically had the job. His resume looked much better than mine. But after the test, they said it was exactly the opposite.

The company eventually stopped using BB, probably because it was too expensive to give to every candidate. (I'm guessing at the reason. I never knew the prices.)

I recently had a job interview that had a pre-test that consisted of a simple CRUD application you have to built from scratch, to spec, and a puzzle. The puzzle was simply explaining how you'd write code to solve a scenario which happened to be a modified Traveling Salesman puzzle. The changes were just to make it a lot easier.

The CRUD app just showed that you can follow spec and actually deliver working code. Also, you can write instructions on any deployment steps needed.

The puzzle showed a few things, too. You can understand complex issues. You can reason out a solution without code. You can explain that solution to others clearly.

All that was before the interview, making sure they only interviewed people who were up to snuff!

I actually got hired at another company before I went to that interview, but I was hoping they would use the interview to go over some of the code and puzzle and ask why things were done that way as a final check that you really wrote it, and that you can explain verbally as well. It's possible it would just be a normal interview, though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sounds interesting, but it hasn't launched yet.. Please post again when there's something to see

<comment><AUTHOR> Scroll down. There are links to the Skillsapp blog, about page, etc. You can also follow them on Twitter @skillsapp or email questions you might have before they launch.</comment></comment>


City of Drones - T-A http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/city-of-drones/

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice art piece, and somewhat close to how I imagined Gibson's cyberspace, but the interaction is hopelessly broken. I felt like I was drifting around randomly and the HUD doesn't seem particularly responsive to what I'm doing. despite trying for 10 minutes (including a reload to check the instructions again) I couldn't navigate towards any feature of interest or control my flight in any way.</comment>


Show HN: Coderfit – All you need to know for your programming career - <AUTHOR> https://gumroad.com/l/cdrft/pre <comment><USER2> You usually don't rise from programmer to CEO unless you are the owner of the company.

<comment><AUTHOR> But sometimes to CTO, I have seen it happening.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Ways to improve testing skills for a developer? - <AUTHOR> I have 5 years of experience working as a Software engineer and most of it was working for small startups and teams. Now I am looking for a job change and all the coding tasks and interviews seem to give lot of importance to Unit or Integration testing. Can anyone guide me on how to tackle these situation? and also how to learn advanced testing skills. <comment><USER2> What's an "advanced testing skill"?

I believe good testing skills generally boil down to good coding skills: good code is (almost) always easier to test.

Be specific: what testing skills do you think you're lacking?

</comment><comment><USER3> If it's about passing coding tests, my advice is to ask money for that (like a wage of 42$/h). As you are skilled, you don't need to prove it (you already know you are). It's their problem if they don't trust themselves at evaluating people. Best companies I've worked for didn't ask me to pass tests.

Customers I work with use to say "I want work with you (and not with someone else)" after talking a bit with me. Make that situation happened and you will feel better and earn more money.

<comment><USER4> From the OP's post I got the impression that they are talking about testing your code (eg unit tests, integration tests...), not coding tests in interviews.

<comment><USER3> Yeah. It wasn't clear.</comment></comment></comment>


Did EIG secretly buy CodeGuard? customer support tanked - <AUTHOR>

Anyone else use CodeGuard for remote backup solution for clients? Was wondering why their support pretty much died during the last several months, about the same time HostGator and GoDaddy started partnerships with them. Oh and Rackspace too apparently. If EIG hasn't purchased them yet, it seems they are getting pretty friendly anyway:
http://blog.codeguard.com/cloud-backup-hostgator/
http://www.rackspace.com/blog/simply-backup-cloud-sites-with-codeguard/
EIG is web cancer. I'm dead. <comment><USER2> CodeGuard has not been purchased by EIG, and we apologize that you had a poor support interaction. It is possible that your experience was an anomaly; recently CodeGuard started tracking support ticket customer feedback scores, and the overall score is 95% right now. Also, CodeGuard recently surveyed our customer base, and the net promoter score (NPS) was over 50, which indicates a high level of customer satisfaction.

CodeGuard's focus, now more than ever, is on our agency, developer, and designer customers who are using CodeGuard for their clients.

-David Moeller, CEO

</comment><comment><USER3> EIG did not buy CodeGuard.

I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with our support. Please ping @Codeguard and I assure you someone will look into your issues and provide the support you deserve.</comment>


RSS Subscribers or Twitter Followers: Which Are Worth More? - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2009/08/01/rss-subscribers-or-twitter-followers-which-are-worth-more/ <comment><USER2> RSS of course, _except_ for one thing: there is no viral aspect to RSS. If you belong to my feed, no one else knows. Your friends don't know. At least with twitter, once you follow me, people who like you may check out who you follow (assuming it's not in the thousands :-)

Other people here quoted a ratio of 10 to 1. That sounds about right. How the viral aspect (and growth) of twitter changes that number when you look at tour subscriber growth over a year, I don't know.

</comment><comment><USER3> RSS Subscribers ofcourse. They have both the desire to actually read what you write and the ability to read more than 140 characters.

<comment><USER4> Also if RSS is integrated in the browser (e.g. like in Opera) users are always notified and they are more up to date. While on Twitter accounts may be checked a lot more sporadic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> My anecdotal evidence definitely agrees with these conclusions. My Twitter click-through rates are pretty low. In fact, the best clickthrough rate I get is from people who subscribe to my blog via email.

<comment><USER6> as far as which can be monetized with the ease currently vs in the future ...

I think RSS subscribers are currently worth more; but the potential for new developments which can monetize it better than current models... is low in my thinking...

On the other hand Twitter, hasn't been really monetized at all either by twitter itself or 3rd parties... so the potential should be greater as long as its not 0 :) , Then again - having your message hit 100's of cellphones of your followers is really cool and more connecting then hitting 1000's of rss inbox's ...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Well, yeah, it's obvious twitter followers are worth less. I would have liked, even as a WAG, just how many twitter followers is worth one RSS subscriber?

Anyone got any anecdotal evidence?

<comment><USER8> You can look at the number of clicks/views generated by each. I read once that Ashton Kutcher tweeted about a service which reported the number of visits from his tweet equated to about 3% of his follower base at the time. He probably gets a lot of RTs, but we can use that as an estimate. For RSS subscribers, I've seen roughly a 25% "reach" via Feedburner. So, that would mean 1 RSS subscriber = 8 twitter followers. That's assuming you have all legitimate, natural twitter followers and haven't tried to inflate your twitter count. It probably varies greatly by the types of users and quality of content.</comment></comment>


Enerjy - Automatically review your java code by comparing to open source - <AUTHOR> http://www.enerjy.com/learn.html <comment><AUTHOR> Interesting concept. I wonder how well it works.

<comment><USER2> probably not too well

the most important metrics it uses to determine if your code is bug prone according to their tech paper are: # of comments, file size, javadoc usage, and using { } after if statements.

These kind of metrics probably do statistically correlate to correct and incorrect programs. Careful programmers often use javadoc and heavy commenting.

However, just because you don't use comments doesn't mean your code is incorrect. And programmers already know if they use javadoc and comments, they don't need a tool to tell them.</comment></comment>


Derek Sivers' 3-min reality check - <AUTHOR> http://copy-cat.co/blog/derek-sivers-3-min-kick-in-the-pants/

<comment><AUTHOR> A lot of people probably already know this one, but it's just so good. I rewatch this gem of a clip regularly.

'Dude! "Online dating, with music!"'

:)</comment>


Show HN: Cut Web Bloat with Google WebLight - <AUTHOR> https://lite.website/http://hackerne.ws <comment><USER2> This strikes me as what Google should've done instead of AMP. (Google, can you _please_ delete AMP now?)

I'm presuming Chrome-flavored browsers will do this at the site author's own URL, and the lite.website workaround is just so you can force-preview it. Assuming that's true, it repeats the general concept that: This is what Google should've done instead of promoting AMP.

</comment><comment><USER3> Oh, this is a Show HN for the "[https://lite.website/<actual_website>"](https://lite.website/<actual_website>") shortcut.

</comment><comment><USER3> The great thing about this is that we can click on a link and go to the original page.</comment>


Ask HN: [RoR Devs] Where did you learn Ruby on Rails? - <AUTHOR>

I'm a beginner when it comes to programming. Are their any good resources for me to link into, I want to learn Ruby On Rails, and want to ask you guys for advice, and how I should get started.<p>Thanks! <comment><USER2> You need two main books to get started:

\- <http://pragprog.com/book/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9> \- [http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development- with-r...](http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails)

Read them in that order so that you learn Ruby first. After that your'll want to polish your Ruby and Rails idioms with:

\- <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672328844> \- <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321601661>

Enjoy!

</comment><comment><USER3> I know this is a very specific case, but as a professional .Net guy I'm finding this book to help out tons: <http://pragprog.com/book/cerailn/rails- for-net-developers>

Also reading The Rails 3 Way (<http://tr3w.com/>), but I wouldn't recommend this one right away unless you are pretty comfortable with programming and Ruby already (or you know another language and pick up fast).

Also I second <http://ruby.railstutorial.org/>, that one is free and super helpful.

</comment><comment><USER4> I had multiple years or coding experience in other languages. Learning RoR hasn't been pretty. But I'm pretty impressed by the language and framework _so far_.

1) I'd highly recommend taking the Rails for Zombies course. it is free from code school. 2) In terms of online resources, RailsGuide and RailsTutorial have both been quite useful. 3) In terms of books, I like the Agile book. I like the reference in the second half of the book more than the tutorial coverage (which I also got from the sources listed in #2 above)

Some tips:

a) While scaffolding seems cool when you first see it, I suggest not using it for your first project. It hides too much stuff that you should probably understand.

b) I'd suggest going with Rails 3.0 for now. That's the advice I got.

c) I'm using MacOS and heroku. Fantastic experience so far!

d) Don't start with mastering the ruby language first. I did a quick primer and got started with rails.

</comment><comment><USER5> <http://ruby.railstutorial.org/>

Definitely worth buying his video series that accompanies the book (which is free online).

then:

<http://railscasts.com/> (start with the early ones and work forward - I found these great to do at the end of a day)

Although I'd certainly also recommend the books that glasner mentioned, particularly "The Rails Way" by Obie Fernandez (although, from experience, it will freak you out a bit as a beginner if you try to read it cover to cover...)

Finally, <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/ruby-on-rails> \- there won't be many questions you'll have initially that haven't already been the subject of a great answer (or indeed multiple great answers).

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://guides.rubyonrails.org/>

[http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development- with-r...](http://pragprog.com/book/rails4/agile-web-development-with-rails)</comment>


U.K. Parliament Gives Theresa May Permission to Start Brexit - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-13/may-set-for-late-march-brexit-trigger-as-parliament-clears-way <comment><USER3> Apparently, this triggered Scotland to call another referendum to disolve the united kingdom[1].

[1] [http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland- politics-392551...](http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland- politics-39255181)

<comment><USER4> Purely alt-history, hypothetical, might-turn-it-into-a-novel idea here - <USER2> what would happen if the UK 'occupied' Scotland post succession Crimea-style?

I'd pay to see that movie!

<comment><USER5> We have had that sort of thing. Look at Northern Ireland fifty or a hundred years ago, that is exactly what will happen.

And given that Scotland has thrice the population of Ireland, and an unpoliceable land border with England, you would see bombings in England like you haven't seen in 70 years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Regardless of your political beliefs and opinion this is democracy in action. I didn't know that the queen has to sign bills though, but that's purely a ceremony and legacy process.

<comment><USER7> Actually I think Brexit is a demonstration of what happen when people don't understand democracy and the powers exploit that ignorance.

Here is what one of the Lords said today: > The Lib Dem peer Lord Taverne says that peers are entitled to refuse to back down on this issue because MPs have abandoned their commitment to representative democracy. They are now acting as delegates, not representatives, because they are giving primacy to the views of the people as expressed in the referendum.

      1. the MPs acted as delegate, the easy way out to protect their career
      2. the referendum in was >2/3, while the referendum out was barely
         >50%, you need a supermajority threshold on such a long-term issue
         where the opinion can swing bellow/above 50%
      3. most know a democracy needs a free and honest press to function so
         that the people can be informed, which essentially is good
         information, and not be deceived, especially for a referendum.
         However after the referendum a number of leave voters were
         disappointed to learn that one of the top promises of UKIP was a lie

Democracy is not simply about following the rule of the 50% (also known as the rule of the mob), which populists love to lean on, but all the finer details.

<comment><USER8> 1\. MPs acted as delegates because the government was elected on a manifesto promising a referendum and to deliver on the result. The referendum happened, the UK voted to leave, and so the majority of MPs respected the will of the people and voted the bill through.

2\. Considering we didn't have a referendum to join the EU in the first place, I'm not sure it makes sense to have a threshold. If the threshold wasn't met, I'm not sure how the default can be to be part of something the British people never said they wanted.

3\. I absolutely agree that people need to have accurate information to base their decisions upon. So it was a real shame a lot of the information published by the remain campaign was not entirely true. I'm not sure what promise UKIP made you're referring to.

It is true that democracy requires more than simply going with what the majority want. But in this case, there was a clear choice between leaving the EU or remaining. I really don't see how it can be democratic to keep the UK in the EU after the result of the referendum.

<comment><USER9> I think parent was referring to the "let's fund our NHS" idea... The one on the big bus.

In my opinion the referendum was too simple to mean much. So much about leaving was not known. When a concrete deal is proposed and the terms and consequences are more clear, I think the public should have another vote on whether that specific deal passes muster. Leave voters surely did not all intend "leave in any way possible no matter what the conditions".

<comment><USER8> I think much about remaining was not known either. One thing that was clear was that a vote to remain was not a vote for the status quo.

But sure, it would have been nice to have been provided with more detail on what sort of Brexit we'd have. Perhaps the government at the time could have given greater clarity regarding that. Although, given the fact the government underwent a massive reshuffle, and the fact that the UK still has to negotiate terms with the EU, it might have been rather a challenge.

<comment><USER10> What was unknown about remaining?

<comment><USER8> For one thing, how much further the "ever closer union" would go. There had already been chattering about an EU army, and it was only until after the referendum vote went through that we got concrete details on it. There was also the prospect of other countries joining the EU. Was that going to happen or not? We simply didn't (and still don't) know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If Scotland were to have a referendum, and if they elected to leave the UK, would it be a possibility that, instead of Scotland leaving the UK, and then having to rejoin the EU, it was England, Wales, and Northern Island who left the UK, forming their own independent country, leaving Scotland as the "UK", and a member of the EU, and saving a lot of trouble for everyone?

<comment><USER12> Last Scottish referendum, the EU was playing hardball, largely because other countries have restive separative regions. I suspect a region wanting independence because its parent country wants to leave will play out rather differently this time.

<comment><USER11> I'm not too sure about that. Mariano Rajoy, until very recently, was still against.

<comment><USER12> The Spanish were always going to be the strongest against though.

<comment><USER11> I am not sure if all the Spanish. The Partido Popular is against, but I am not too sure about the left.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Follow the money (and power): Who benefits from a dramatic cutback of the 'administrative state"?

I'm not sure I know the answer. Industries that are regulated may think they benefit (but a regulatory and legal framework also provide stability that attracts investors and allows businesses to focus on productive work). Those interested in fraud benefit, but that's far too broad to be meaningful and I'm not sure it's a large number of people. Wealthy and powerful people benefit: Essentially the withdrawal of the power of voters (government) leaves a vacuum at the top; but again, that is very broad.

<comment><USER14> A lot of private companies stand to profit for things which were done by the government. In the US for instance we pay Intuit for tax prep software, private prisons to run detention centers, and insurance companies for healthcare.</comment></comment>


The advent of cheap, renewable hydrogen is nigh - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/renewable-hydrogen-could-be-competitive-in-a-decade-researchers-say/ <comment><USER2> > The researchers concluded that "renewable hydrogen is projected to become > cost competitive with large-scale fossil hydrogen supply within the next > decade."

So a decade to reach cost parity and then another decade or so to convince the main fossil-to-hydrogen converters to switch to this type of system?</comment>


CSS Tips I Wish I Knew When I First Started - <AUTHOR> http://www.myinkblog.com/2010/04/19/css-tips-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-first-started/

<comment><USER2> I was a bit skeptical at first due to the frequency I read articles like these with nothing really new to report. However, this post is a collection of solid tips and explanations that are very important to practice.</comment>


Omega - Language of the Future - <AUTHOR> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4088

<comment><USER2> The first thing I want to see when I hear about a new programming language is an example. The best examples of Omega that I've found so far are part of the test suite for the interpreter:

[http://code.google.com/p/omega/source/browse/#svn/trunk/test...](http://code.google.com/p/omega/source/browse/#svn/trunk/tests)

<comment><USER3> Reading code like that makes me want to puke. So, he wants to increase productivity by making us think about and write theorems in addition to our normal code (don't underestimate the time you invest in this), making our code even more static and less reusable in the hope that the reduction in time for bug hunting and testing will make up for the time invested in thinking about and creating more complex code? Hard to believe. Do those language designers create this stuff to show off how intelligent they are or just for the sake of having fun or are they seriously trying to make development easier? I can't imagine building a website with this. But then again, maybe those languages are designed for satellites, space shuttles, and simulations (i.e. where correctness is far more important than productivity)? Well, I think most of us have to make a compromise between productivity and correctness. It's the same as having 100% code coverage. Nice in theory, but it makes refactorings and development too costly and still doesn't guarantee that your software is 100% correct. Here's a nice post if you still believe 100% code coverage is the ultimate #1 goal of your project: [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cashto/archive/2009/03/31/it-s-ok- no...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cashto/archive/2009/03/31/it-s-ok-not-to-write- unit-tests.aspx)

<comment> loup-vaillant A web site with no bug (I mean, no error) is a web site with no vulnerabilities. Wouldn't that be interesting when your customers trust you with their credit card number?

<comment><USER4> You're implying all vulnerabilities are bugs due to coding error.

To take a high-profile recent case: this would do _nothing_ to prevent padding oracle attacks. Or future crypto attacks using techniques unknown to us now. Why? Because the encryption is working as it should. As advertised. As _proven_. Or imagine you used Rot13 for encryption.

Your DB could hold people's credit cards in clear-text; how will this language prevent that from happening?

Your website has no authorization tools, so you can access others' data by simply going to their URL; this is still a provably-correct logic structure.

<comment><USER5> How is any language going to fix the problem of bad programmers programming badly?

And, more relevantly—how does the fact that a language can't fix those errors make preventing other errors a useless endeavor? It's true that there's no such thing as a programming language that can only write good/safe/acceptable programs, and a lot of people (myself included) who advertise programming languages as a solution to problems tend to overstate the relevance of type systems, correctness proofs, pure functions, &c, but that doesn't mean you can't eliminate a certain variety of error through good language design or by enforcing programmer rigor.

<comment><USER4> It's not, which is the point. loup-vaillant's comment implied that it _was_ possible to write a "perfect" program in a proof-oriented language, as it would have no vulnerabilities, and people could trust your code.

I wasn't intending to imply that, because language X does not solve likely- intractable problem Y, language X is worthless. Just that likely-intractable problem Y is likely intractable in language Z as well as X, as it's an inherent quality of the problem.

edit: I _will_ however explicitly imply that more syntactically complicated languages are probably more likely to hide many kinds of logic errors. More brainpower spent decoding your code is more brainpower _not_ spent analyzing your logic. Each to their own, clearly; I most definitely side with highly- readable code, and know several people who would likely feel right at home with Omega (e.g.: my brother is a math + philosophy double-major).

<comment><USER3> Regarding "to each their own": Programmers aren't necessarily the best source for an objective view on productivity. This here is a nice example of CS students claiming subjectively which programming style they found easier, contrasted by a more objective comparison of the actual number of bugs in the code in each programming style: <http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4070>

Studies like this tell me to never trust the opinion of a developer about programming languages and programming styles. In some cases not even my own. ;) Of course in this case we had not very experienced developers, but if we look at what expert developers often claim and how widely opinions differ I often have the impression that expert developers' fundamental opinions about programming languages aren't much better than that of a student.

<comment><USER4> Did you mean to link to something else? 4070 brings me to "Is Transactional Programming Actually Easier?" which deals with concurrency. I'd be interested in what I think you intended to send me to, but I can't find it.

<comment> loup-vaillant It was the good link. Here's the key point:

 _"On average, subjective evaluation showed that students found transactions harder to use than coarse-grain locks, but slightly easier to use than fine- grained locks. Detailed examination of synchronization errors in the students' code tells a rather different story. Overwhelmingly, the number and types of programming errors the students made was much lower for transactions than for locks. On a similar programming problem, over 70% of students made errors with fine-grained locking, while less than 10% made errors with transactions."_

Transaction are felt as being of average difficulty, but they in fact spur far less errors. I bet we could find the same kind of bad judgement with "map" higher order functions vs "for" loops.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _It seems somewhat obvious that sooner than later all code will be written in this (or a similar) way._

LtU is just outright adorable sometimes.

<comment><USER7> It makes sense when you parse "sooner or later" in the way people use it outside the technological domain:

\- Sooner or later we'll go back to the moon.

\- Sooner or later we'll understand how the brain works.

\- Sooner or later the earth will crumble to dust.

...and so on.

But seriously, we've only been programming for 50 years now. There's still plenty of time for some revolutions and paradigm-shifting—just because the Mythical Man-Month has been heart-rendingly applicable for the last 50 years, doesn't mean that things can't change.

For example:

1\. If everyone agrees to target some highish-level bytecode or another, every language will basically have access to every other language's libraries (let's hope it doesn't end up being the JVM, though things seem to be heading there.)

2\. If we stick content hashes in function and class names, there will no longer be such a thing as API versioning conflicts, because you'll always know what you're calling—and you can just import random code from remote sites (i.e. invoking on a URL as an identifier = loading whatever bytecode is available at that URL), because you'll just hash it and guarantee that it matches its name before jumping to it.

3\. If we can stop requiring that the source code we write be exactly the same source code the compiler parses, we can treat code files as a serialization format for an AST data structure (in XML or SEXPs if you want to keep the source-source human- _readable_ ), and work with it however we like in an IDE, even "rendering" it as one old-style-"language" or another.

And so on. These are problems that just need to overcome 20 or 30 years of inertia, and, ever-so-slowly, we're doing it.

<comment><USER8> As I read around, the JVM seems to be the state of the art for language runtimes. Can you elaborate why you hope it will not be the unified one in the future? Just curious.

<comment><USER9> What the JVM has going for it is the incredible amount of resources thrown at it in order to make it fast. Technically, the CLR seems more interesting (it has runtime type information for generics, it allows structs, it allows unboxed data, ...).

Personally, I'm not a fan of runtimes. They don't give me the same warm, fuzzy feeling as compiling to native code and running directly on the OS.

<comment><USER10> Are you sure all of these makes the CLR more interesting? One can argue some of it just makes it more complicated. Real generics, I agree about, but structs and unboxed data? I am not sure that implementing these instead of investing time in making the compiler & runtime smarter is the thing to do.

<comment><USER9> Unboxed data (incl. structs) can be a performance win, because it removes indirections = memory loads.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> On the problem of using "omega" a its name, I recall a discussion I had, a long time ago, about Zope.

Zope is an application server. In a given point in its history, Zope Corp, then Digital Creations, decided to "do it right" and fix each and every design wart from version 2 on version 3. The end result is that Zope 3 is more or less incompatible with Zope 2, specially with the kind of app we were developing with it in 2001 (IIRC).

A friend of mine joked Zope 3 should no longer be called "Zope", but, since "Z" is the last letter of the alphabet, the only reasonable choice would be "Yope" and that would suggest a step backwards instead of the jump forward it was.

With that in mind, I never built a product whose name started with Z.

<comment><USER12> AAope?

<comment><USER13> Aaope you're kidding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It seems nice, but it's more of the same: programming by specification.

There's a place for that, but the future of programming languages, in my mind, lies in changing the metaphor of the process from specification to experimentation. After all, the problem with the specification metaphor is figuring out what the specification actually _is_. To me, the best route to get there is experimentation.

Make programming more about experimentation and I think we'll get somewhere.

(I'm still going to read more about Omega. It looks interesting enough.)

</comment><comment><USER15> > programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for > machines to execute.

</comment><comment><USER16> The post is a bit of fluff, but the paper is better. Haskell already has GADTs, as the paper points out. Those of you crying out for examples, just read the paper. The real gem are these extensible kinds, which I haven't seen mentioned in Haskell before.

I don't mean to keep throwing water on the fire but the research community already made trees that can't be unbalanced because they wouldn't typecheck, by encoding the depth of the tree into its type. Okasaki demonstrated the concept in Haskell, I believe. Getting it to work for RB-trees sounds new though.

<comment><USER17> <http://hackage.haskell.org/package/she> \- _"The Strathclyde Haskell Enhancement is a somewhat inglorious bodge, equipping ghc with automatic lifting of types to kinds, pattern synonyms, and some kit for higgledy- piggledy literate programming."_

From one of the authors of Epigram: <http://e-pig.org>

I heard they intend to include functionality of SHE into GHC.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> There is a really nice prototype language by Gunther Blaschek also called Omega, and it predates this by at least 15 years.

It was Self with mathematical rigor and some MOP elements, IIRC.

<comment><USER18> Yes, Blaschek has a book on it, _Object-Oriented Programming with Prototypes_.</comment></comment>


Greta Thunberg and German railway engage in raging 'tweetstorm' - <AUTHOR> https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/12/16/world/social-issues-world/greta-thunberg-german-railway-engage-raging-tweetstorm/ <comment><USER2> Move along now, nothing to see here. Just another unhappy passenger sitting in first class being called out by a German train service.

</comment><comment><USER3> I feel like Greta should reduce her social media use because everyone wants a piece of her popularity now. And this kind of dramatization of a simple train ride is kind of ridiculous. But oh well, maybe I'm too old for social media.

<comment><USER4> That was the point of 'calling out the world'. If you say inflamatory things, people react. Speech is free, except from repercussions. Her family can lie in the bed they made.</comment></comment>


UK says illegal downloaders may lose web access  - <AUTHOR> http://www.3news.co.nz/UK-says-illegal-downloaders-may-lose-web-access-/tabid/417/articleID/118247/Default.aspx?ArticleID=118247

<comment><USER2> Well, the 1984 Video Recordings Act has been declared unenforceable in the UK so better get downloading so you can get all the movies you want before they create a enforceable new law.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandor...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6083182/Selling- illegal-DVDs-not-illegal-because-of-blunder.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder what would happen if google.co.uk included a hidden iframe containing an "illegal download", such as a short story or newspaper article. How would the law treat that?

</comment><comment><USER4> In a way, this is a signal that the Internet is a society of its own. If, in the real world, I mean, the world out side the internet, you commit crimes against other people in that real world, you are removed from that real world.

In this UK law, if you commit a crime in the internet world, your punishment is removal from that internet world. If you don't "Behave" in the internet world, you do not get to participate in the internet world.

<comment><USER5> I find that to be an interesting observation. It will be interesting to see how policy evolves regarding cyber crime in the coming years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> .. but will still be allowed to use all other protocols besides HTTP(S).

<comment><AUTHOR> I think that by web access he meant internet access. This can be confirmed searching for other posts of the same news ( like in: [http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1742440/uk_proposes_...](http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1742440/uk_proposes_to_cut_internet_access_to_filesharing_offenders/index.html) )

Even if it was just HTTP access, that would be bad enough already!</comment></comment>


New Tricks for an Old Z-Machine, Part 1: Digging the Trenches - <AUTHOR> https://www.filfre.net/2019/10/new-tricks-for-an-old-z-machine-part-1-digging-the-trenches/ <comment><USER2> > So, even if highfalutin phrases like "virtual machine" weren't yet tripping > off the tongue of the average bedroom hacker, it wasn't hard to divine what > Infocom must be doing in the broad strokes. The specifics, however, were > another matter. For, while Infocom didn't hide the existence of a Z-Machine > in the abstract, they had no vested interest in advertising how it worked. > ... But plumbing the depths of a virtual machine whose very existence was > only implicit was hard work

This is extremely misleading. Sure, some of the depths weren't published, but Infocom published how the Z-machine worked in a variety of forums. Most accessible is "How to fit a large program into a small machine" by Marc S. Blank and S. W. Galley, published in Creative Computing, 1980. Creative Computing was widely read at the time. It explained how integers and strings were stored as well as the general approach. Blank was one of the key developers of Zork. You can view the paper here: [https://mud.co.uk/richard/htflpism.htm](https://mud.co.uk/richard/htflpism.htm)

Of course, it took some effort to work out the exact opcodes, but there was a _lot_ of publicly-available information to start from.

<comment><USER2> In addition to Creative Computing, 1980: "How to Fit a Large Program Into a Small Machine" by Blank/Galley

There were at least two other articles published at the time that provided a lot of details:

* IEEE Computer, 1979: "Zork: A Computerized Fantasy Simulation Game" by Lebling/Blank/Anderson

* Byte, 1980: "Zork and the Future of Computerized Fantasy Simulations" by Lebling

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Part ii: [https://www.filfre.net/2019/11/new-tricks-for-an-old-z- machi...](https://www.filfre.net/2019/11/new-tricks-for-an-old-z-machine- part-2-hacking-deeper-or-follies-of-graham-nelsons-youth/)

Part iii: [https://www.filfre.net/2019/11/new-tricks-for-an-old-z- machi...](https://www.filfre.net/2019/11/new-tricks-for-an-old-z-machine- part-3-a-renaissance-is-nigh/)</comment>


Emil Cioran: Anti-philosopher of Life and Death - <AUTHOR> http://www.fourbythreemagazine.com/issue/death/emil-cioran-the-anti-philosopher-of-life-and-death <comment><USER2> "Buddhism was too foreign a fantasy of escape for a deracinated westerner."

This is where Cioran missed his 'escape latch' from the egocentric fear of death's grasp. It's challenging to explain this concisely:

We die all the time. Every time you go to sleep, every time you learn something that changes your behavior, every time you leave your home, and ultimately, we die pretty much any time we engage in life. Why? Because everything about you changes over time- the cells on your body (they get replaced every ~7yrs) and the neuron behavior in your brain. The ego is an illusion the brain sometimes manufacture to internalize action. Talk to people that have experience "ego-death" via meditation or hallucinogens- they often drop the feeling of death's sting, in my experience. Death of oneself only causes the amount of fear in proportion to the attachment to 'oneself'. It's like being afraid that magic will die one day... which might be a terrible fear provided you truly believe in magic. But if you do believe in your ego, then you have no other choice than to fear non-existence. You might ask how does one carry on in the world without ego? You engage in the world much like the natural world engages with you. You live your values, which will prompt you to action. There's nothing wrong unboxing your ego when you need it from time to time, provided you dispel it when it's no longer useful... just like how we decide to believe in magic when we go see a magic show.

There's an amazing class taught by Professor Kagan on Life and Death that I'd highly recommend:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2J7wSuFRl8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2J7wSuFRl8)

<comment><USER3> I can't help but thinking, for those of us interested in living the life we have until we can't any more, that this line of thinking is ultimately much more helpful. Death is a single, important, instant in our existence. We must give it the consideration it is due, but I also don't like the idea of being trapped by my own mortality. It will come when it comes, and I don't want to cheat myself of all the moments in between wrestling with its specter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think Ciorian is interesting to understand as a case study in how an ecstatic nihilism can lead one to embracing all kinds of horrors. Before there was /pol/ recruiting white supremacists and online ISIS pledges, there was a young Ciorian aligning himself with the Nazi-affiliated Romanian Iron Cross.

Understanding the draw of his thinking can help one understand the intellectual premise on which disaffected young men and women are seduced further into darkness.

<comment><USER5> Mechanicism combined with nihilism is a solid foundation for amoral realism. Of you give power to that thinking you'll basically fabricate an opportunist personality that will do social engineering justifying means thought ends. Invariably, genocide will be closely lurking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late. -E.Cioran

<comment><USER7> Emil Cioran is a pretty twisted individual, but his writing is amazingly beautiful. In particular, _De l 'inconvénient d'être né_ is pretty fantastic, especially in French (haven't read any translated versions, so can't vouch for it).

I was introduced to him by my previous boss. I was going through some rough times, and my boss recommended some of his books, summarising Cioran's thoughts on the matter of suicide as being a crutch to survive.

He saw suicide as an eternal escape hatch. No matter what happened, he still had the comfort (and control) of being able to say "Stop."

I'm not sure I would agree that it is the main message, but it is true that _On the Heights of Despair_ does allude to that way of thinking.

I highly recommend Cioran, to anyone who is interested by philosophy. As with most philosophers you will read about, there will be major disagreements between you and the author, but his works have definitely shaped how I perceived parts of life.

<comment><USER8> Indeed, I'm a native Romanian — his original works are almost lyrical. They did wonders during my depressive stages, especially "Pe culmile disperarii" ("On the Heights of Despair") — will try it in English soon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Another poignant anti-natalist/pessimist/nihilist that is not to be missed is Thomas Ligotti. He picks up right were Cioran leaves off.

Both have terrific yet bleak senses of humor and beautiful prose.

<comment><USER10> Hell, I don't know.

He's definitely a gifted writer, there's no doubt about that. But the core of his writings... I've tried to read his stuff, since it was quite popular in some circles I was frequenting back in college. I just couldn't. I had a truly physical reaction of revulsion. I literally felt like throwing up.

Very gifted individual, but deeply afflicted by depression. His was a medical case.

<comment><USER9> Are you talking about his short stories or his nonfiction?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > The Ancients are no good; to think about death is not to experience it – to > believe one is not afraid of it only shows one has not yet met it:

What about people who thought they will die and were ok with it? Or those that did indeed die and were, at least apparently, ok with it? Those cases are not so rare.

It seems to me that, all philosophical attitudes apart, fear of death is a matter of character. Fear, after all, is an emotion and as such it is difficult, though probably not impossible to control consciously.

</comment><comment><USER12> And then there was Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, with the cynic's version of Buddhism.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Robert_Eduard_von_Hartm...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Robert_Eduard_von_Hartmann?wprov=sfla1)

</comment><comment><USER13> Yeah. Love this guy.

If you like him and aphorisms, you may enjoy this Colombian: [https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/340970.Nicol_s_G_mez...](https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/340970.Nicol_s_G_mez_D_vila)

</comment><comment><USER14> Albert Caraco [1] is even darker than Cioran. He committed suicide right after his father's death.

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

</comment><comment><USER15> I love this quote: "If philosophy struggled to make sense of life, what could it possibly offer on death?"

</comment><comment><USER16> Bit of a gloomy chap, isn't he?

</comment><comment><USER17> An unbearable philosopher-wannabe writing the same platitudes and whining for decades on end while living a cushy literary/academic life.

Pass, and go directly to someone like Schopenhauer...

<comment><USER18> You're a pretty great poster and I hope you know that the frequency with which your posts are greyed out is a good indicator that you often push the right buttons.

A bunch of tech-nerds who routinely act skeptical of women testimony about harassment, waxing poetic about the nuances of the thought of a Nazi sympathizer.

<comment><USER18> > "there is no present-day politician that I see as more sympathetic and > admirable than Hitler",[1] while expressing his approval for the Night of > the Long Knives—"what has humanity lost if the lives of a few imbeciles were > taken"

HN: "wow; beautiful, thoughtful stuff. really makes me think."</comment></comment></comment>