Just fucking figure it out - <AUTHOR> http://www.scriptmag.com/2010/10/29/primetime-juggling-writing-and-a-job-figure-it-out/ <comment><USER2> I know nothing about the entertainment industry, but this idea of 'putting in your dues' by working your way up from a menial position based on personal relationships has always seemed naive. Either you can do something or you can't, and working as a dogsbody isn't going to impart those skills.

This advice seems like the equivalent of telling someone who wants to be a game programmer to start in the QA department. You're better off just becoming a programmer. Create a game. Someone with a kick-ass demo is going to get ten times as many interviews as a guy who spends the same time pumping his connections.

Maybe I'm naive about the way television works, but if I wanted to be a writer in TV I'd start by trying to write something that was so good, people couldn't ignore me. And if I couldn't find someone to produce it, I would try to produce it myself. More than one career started with a film that only cost a few thousand dollars to produce. And if it didn't work out, at least I'd have spent the time doing something creative and productive rather than wasting my life fetching coffee and dry cleaning.

<comment><USER3> "I know nothing about the entertainment industry..."

Then maybe you shouldn't speak about it as if you do. I have heard the same advice in this article from a number of people working as tv writers (either reading articles, or as part of my mfa in creative writing), and it does seem like the vast majority of them only got where they are by "working their way up". The idea that you can just make something good enough that people can't ignore it is, in fact, the view that is hopelessly naive. It isn't like the internet where you can easily achieve massive distribution. You have to get it in the hands of a very small number of people who are swamped by an incredibly large number of people in the exact same situation as you.

The amount of good content that is generated by writers is overwhelming and, in fact, incredibly easy to ignore. Not saying you can't point to success stories of people who produced their own stuff. You can just point to more stories of people who lost a lot of money producing their own stuff and have nothing to show for it. Building relationships certainly seems to be a more reliable way to go about breaking into the industry.

<comment><USER4> > The amount of good content that is generated by writers is overwhelming and, > in fact, incredibly easy to ignore. Not saying you can't point to success > stories of people who produced their own stuff. You can just point to more > stories of people who lost a lot of money producing their own stuff and have > nothing to show for it. Building relationships certainly seems to be a more > reliable way to go about breaking into the industry.

Obviously, the answer is to write terrible shit, because no one is putting any of that heaping pile of good content into consumable products.

<comment><USER5> As many famous screenwriters have been at pains to point out, a movie is a very, very large collaborative enterprise by at least a dozen _departments_ full of people, the leader of any one of which can make or break the results.

What this means is: There are a lot of bad movies made from good scripts. Don't assume that the quality of the average finished film is representative of the quality of the average script, let alone of the skill of the average writer (who is, after all, operating under many, many constraints).

<comment><USER6> That's nothing new. Read what Heinlein has to say about the making of _Destination Moon_ in 1949 in his Guest of Honor Speech at the Rio de Janeiro Movie Festival twenty years later. It was published in the posthumous tribute collection, _Requiem_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> daniel-cussen I've always sort of admired people in the entertainment industry for their ambition and determination. Someone who is taking time off studying CS at Stanford and trying to make a company work is not taking a risk of remotely the same magnitude as someone dropping out of highschool, getting a GED, and working in the music industry (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kesha#Childhood_and_youth>).

If you're a programmer, you have so much to bank on (the CS knowledge/degree) and even if you fail people will be pretty understanding. Try getting a good job in any industry with music skills and a GED.

At the end of the day, a technical stopout founder is taking a smaller risk (really, losing the college experience) for a bigger potential reward (billions) and attractive intermediate rewards (talent acquisition). And frankly, the odds of making it big as a programmer (industry celebrity-big) are not very different from the odds of making it big as a musician (standard celebrity-big).

<comment><USER7> _Kesha described herself in an interview as being "very studious" in high school; she would drive to Belmont University to listen in on Cold War history classes after school and achieved "near perfect" SAT scores.[7] However, she dropped out at age seventeen and earned her GED afterward.[9] She left school after being convinced by Dr. Luke and Max Martin to return to Los Angeles to pursue a music career. They had received Kesha's demo after Pebe passed it to Samantha Cox, senior director of writer/publisher relations at BMI, and were impressed._

Why would she pass up that kind of opportunity? If it didn't work out, she could always go back to college.

<comment><USER8> Ha. A friend of my father-in-law used to be a Montreal hipster. She and her husband ran a folk club (folk was the indie rock of the day) and Robert Zimmerman came through before he'd changed his name to Bob Dylan. His show was ok. Annette told him, "Kid, you need something to fall back on. Go back to college!" She was fond of recounting her spectacularly wrong moments. (The other was when Leonard Cohen played _Suzanne_ for her and she told him it was dreck and asked him who wrote it.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Best advice in this article: stop driving and take public transport. This applies to hackers as well as writers--really, anyone who can do creative / useful work on a laptop. If a typical commute is 30 minutes by car or 1 hour by public transportation, you may feel like you are losing an hour a day leaving your car at home, but you are actually gaining an hour of time if you bring your laptop, assuming you want to spend at least 2 hours a day working on things on your laptop outside work. Other upsides: cheaper, less stress, safer, better for the environment.

<comment><USER10> Or move closer to work.

When I was in Boston, I had an hour commute, half by car and half by train. Yeah, I could read a book on the train. It was still a pain in the ass, and I could be doing much more productive things at home.

When I moved out to Silicon Valley, my #1 priority for deciding where to live was "It must be within 15 minutes of work." I ended up getting a place that's 5 minutes by car or 15 minutes by bike from work. It was probably one of the best decisions I made moving out here. Now I can roll out of bed and into work, and when I leave work, I'm home and can do whatever I want.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Loved this message. Some of the most successful people I know fucking figured it out and just got shit done. Here on HN, we're exposed to countless stories of people with five kids getting shit done, and introverts making sales and getting shit done, and people with no money finding money to get shit done.

Anyone can think of 100 excuses to not push forward, but in the end, we all have problems, failures, and setbacks, and a lot of life is about silencing our own excuses, fucking figuring it out, and plowing ahead.

</comment><comment><USER12> Disclaimer: Everything I know about Hollywood I learned from watching Entourage...

A big difference between breaking in to the script writing world and breaking in to the web app / internet startup world is the amount of effort required to evaluate your work.

A new web app / start up can be evaluated in a few seconds. We do it all day long on this website ("Check out my new project...").

A new script for a movie or show probably takes a few hours to read (excluding Michael Bay movies...). That's a huge commitment to ask of someone. You always see producers / director being asked to "read my script". That's a lot of work.

So, my guess is that all the work to start at the bottom and build relationships is required because the people you need help from (producers / directors etc.) need to like you before they will invest the 3 hours in reading your script. Michael Arrington doesn't need to like you to take 5 seconds to look at your MVP page.

<comment><USER13> You could make a 5-minute trailer and put it up on YouTube.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This guy doesn't even include Pareto principle in his guide to success. This guy has us working most of our time getting coffee.

I say, better to write the script without a job and produce a 2 min trailer with your friends and show a couple people, than to work for months serving coffee that you hate and only to work on a script you can't complete.

[I don't support balls to the walls philosophy, only do stuff that gets results, be ruthless about efficiency. Activity is not productivity.]

<comment><USER15> The Pareto principal is relatively easily applied by young programmers, but how can young screenwriters apply it? It's an industry of relationships. If they are a great writer they might get attention, or their brilliant script might never be read. If they aren't actually talking to people in the industry they'll never know, and if they aren't actually working in the industry the only way to talk people is to randomly harass them so their first impression of you is annoyance. Under that lens, getting people coffee might actually be the best 20% for an entry-level screenwriter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Reminds me of something I read about the advent of cheap disk-based digital cameras with video capabilities and iMovie when they came out in the early to mid 2000s. The NYT or Rolling Stone or some other magazine interviewed a couple of documentary directors about how they were using these tools to test out ideas or do simple, short pieces.

One of the directors basically said now that these tools were available, people who wanted to break into the industry no longer had an excuse to not make movies. "Lack of available time" might be considered a fallback, but as TFA points out, getting up an hour earlier every day, multitasking during your commute, or switching off the damn TV can work wonders.

<comment><USER17> You know it's funny you mention that, because I just finished reading an AV Club interview with the producers of the original Saw movies. It was one thing to have a script passed around from place to place, but these guys went the extra step and made a 5-minute short to demonstrate the concept.

Telling people you're talented and _showing them_ you're talented are two different things, and it's surprising how few people take that one step to get into the latter category. And sometimes it's not that difficult to actually do.

<comment><USER18> So you are suggesting that people who want to make movies should create a trailer as a MVP? interesting concept.

<comment><USER17> From the interview:

 _"When we came to L.A., we had our script in one hand and this DVD in the other hand. People liked the script, but they loved the DVD. As you quickly find out in Los Angeles, everybody's got severe ADD. Reading a script is fairly boring—it's a nightmarish task. Whereas people loved to be able to put the DVD in..."_

I used to be in a business similar to the film business where everyone and their brother had a winning concept, but the people that hand-built a prototype in their garage got the meetings. People are visual creatures, reading about a concept isn't the same as actually touching it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The Paris Review ran a series of interviews with successful writers. The one thing they had in common was a fixed, immutable writing schedule. A schedule impervious to deaths of family members (some will take offense to this, but writers aren't necessarily nice people--I grew up with one).

I'm reminded of an alt.writers post from the annals of USENET.

"... My opinion is that if you want to be a good novelist, start by being a bad novelist, not by becoming a good magazine article writer. Start at the top and work down -- don't start at the bottom and work up.

On the other hand, I know people for whom "start small" has worked. But it doesn't for me."

</comment><comment><USER20> Reminds me of Gary V's line: "stop watching 'effing Lost"

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4>

<comment><USER21> Believe me, that's at the top of my list of Things to Do Right After I Get My Time Machine Working. Go back and invest in Apple and Microsoft, bet on the Saints to win the Super Bowl, and try my best to convince the LOST writers that they'd be better off playing World of Warcraft instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Yes, you need to just find the time to write and get on with it.

For example I am sitting here on a Saturday evening writing an article on my laptop (as well as occasionally browsing the net!). I could be watching TV or playing computer games or something else, but I am writing.

You need to dedicate time to write, and once you start you will find it easier and easier, and generally quicker and quicker to write. As Nike used to say, Just Do It.

<comment><USER23> You're so good.

<comment><USER22> No need for sarcasm. I was just making the point that getting something done requires commitment and often sacrifice.

<comment><USER24> Try sacrificing something real like time with your family and let me know how it feels. Not everyone has regular TV time to replace.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> So if somebody comes up with the greatest script on earth, but doesn't work 17 hours a day as a slave for some TV producer, his script will never be made?

<comment><USER25> Correct, correct, correct.

Television (and music and film, for that matter) are hardly a meritocracy. What ends up on screens and CDs isn't determined by quality, at least not primarily. There are fantastic scripts out there, masterpieces that will never get made. Crap gets turned into two-hundred million dollar blockbusters.

[EDIT: This gets voted down why exactly?]

<comment><USER26> Because I don't believe that there are fantastic scripts out there not getting made. The crap we see is the best there is, sadly. (I have several friends in the movie industry.)

<comment><USER27> I read this in the article, " You have to be an amazing writer, the best writer people have ever read… and you have to have a large Rolodex of personal/professional contacts who will hire you, rehire you, support you, recommend you."

Based on what I see on TV I have to believe that the Rolodex counts for far more than the writing skill because there's a ton of crap getting produced.

On the bright side, there's way more stuff than I can reasonably keep up with, so the relatively small amount of good stuff is maybe about enough.

<comment><USER28> "Based on what I see on TV I have to believe that the Rolodex counts for far more than the writing skill because there's a ton of crap getting produced."

Like, for example, "Reality Binge" or "Celebrity Drive-By"? Which happen to be the author's two shows (<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1941257/>).

<comment><USER27> Not only haven't I seen those shows, I've never even heard of them before.

Based on the titles, though, I would hazard a guess that they would trigger my Crap-o-meter.

But as another poster pointed out, "crap" depends on your goals. If eyeballs and ad revenue are the metric, maybe these shows are models of quality.

Discussions on "How to be Successful in $INDUSTRY" really need to clarify the meaning of "successful."

For some, the prospect of selling scripts so long as they are in the realm of low double-digit-IQ appeal may not be considered a win, while others might see that as hitting pay dirt. Either way, you should know before following someone's career advice where it will lead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> A recurring problem with the creative media industries is that the path from initial concepts to audience awareness is quite lengthy and convoluted. Even great creative products tend to have a preferred niche, and rarely is the marketing information available to nail down niche audiences for a big launch day.

But these industries are still mostly focused around big launches, because they have to completely reorganize with smaller budgets to attack the long tail. Music, comics, and writing have all made some progress towards this reorganization since both their production and marginal costs in digital form are low, so there's a great opening for the non-pop genres. Games are a bit less so, and video probably the least. But what's slowing this process down the most right now is that a niche audience has to be built from scratch, on a per-creator basis.

So either you work within the system and hope for a big door-opening break, or you go completely indie and bootstrap your entire business model, customers, etc. from nothing - which effectively means that even if you are indie, you still need to find a bandwagon to jump onto, or you'll probably never get a critical mass of interest.

I suspect that there's a business in providing aggregation mechanisms for untapped genres; I've just started building something along these lines in the last few days :)

</comment><comment><USER30> A corollary to the entrepreneur's mantra, JFDI: [http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/19/what-makes- an-...](http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/11/19/what-makes-an- entrepreneur-four-lettersjfdi/)

</comment><comment><USER31> Or _revealed preference_ sans expletives:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revealed_preference>

</comment><comment><USER32> I love the message and the attitude in this article. Although it's about writing in the entertainment industry, I like that it's part of the Hacker News list. The point of this article (To get where you want, you have to make sacrifices and work your ass off) is applicable across anything in life. As a hacker, as an athlete as a business person, etc.

This is hard to do. Why do you think there's such a short list of people that are absolute "guns" at their trade?

</comment><comment><USER33> This snippet basically sum's it for me:

"Yes, it's hard. Yes, it's lonely. Yes, you give up many other things that are important to you. But that's what being an [entrepreneur] is."

</comment><comment><USER34> similar thought to jffio is behind why i try remember to tell people "because i don't make time" in stead of "i dont have time" when they ask why i havent started/finished the projects i talk about.

making time aka passion, drive, determination is major factor in peoples "sucess"</comment>


The Zen of Python (by example) - <AUTHOR> http://artifex.org/~hblanks/talks/2011/pep20_by_example.html

<comment><USER2> Troll bait for Pythonistas. At least I hope that's what that is, because this needs some serious zen-ification otherwise.

To summarize, while switching religions: "The Tao that can be expressed is not the eternal Tao".

But if you're going to try to express the Zen of Python, you can do a hell of a lot better than this.

<comment><USER3> Indeed. Half of it seems to be bashing popular libraries the author doesn't like, and the other half is a mixture of extremely contrived examples, and examples that miss the point of whatever particular part of the Zen they're supposed to illustrate.

<comment><USER4> I thought I was missing something. I sure feel better about myself now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Even as a fledgling Python coder, I found this distinctly unenlightening. But, as a biologist, the part that really bugged me were the functions that regard yeast as invertebrate animals.

</comment><comment><USER6> The "identify this animal" example has a serious bug. This:

      def identify(animal):
          if animal.is_vertebrate():
              return identify_vertebrate()
          else:
              return identify_invertebrate()

should be

      def identify(animal):
          if animal.is_vertebrate():
              return identify_vertebrate(animal)
          else:
              return identify_invertebrate(animal)

Arguably this mix of OO and procedural code is bad as well. But less arguably, the initial example (with a simple identify function) was far better than the rewrite.

<comment><USER7> In any case the else: is pointless.

<comment><USER8> its subjective, arguably a style using ternary operator is better because it is composable - it evaluates as an expression, as opposed to a series of statements. it's something the lisp and functional programming people like - no implied dependency on order in which statements execute.

i dunno if this is valid python but it demonstrates the idea

      doSomething(
        identify_vertebrate(animal) if animal.is_vertebrate() \
        else identify_invertebrate(animal))

      doSomething( if( is_vertebrate(animal)
                       identify_vertebrate(animal)
                       identify_invertebrate(animal)))

      (doSomething (if (is_vertebrate animal)
                       (identify_vertebrate animal)
                       (identify_invertebrate animal)))

this is part of "referential transparency", and once you get past "OMG parens" you realize its a Good Thing. parens are caused by a style preferring composition of expressions over executing statements, not lisp.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In #3, SQLAlchemy loses because it's "complex" while JSON is "simple". In #4, SQLAlchemy loses because this time it's "complicated", whereas inlining SQL create table statements is merely "complex".

Conclusion: for Hunter Blanks, SQLAlchemy can never win.

<comment><USER10> IMO, #3 was more about YAGNI[1], i.e. you probably won't need the speed, integrity constraints, relations, etc. delivered by SQL, so keep your data model flexible and lightweight until a shortage of those things is actually getting in your way.

I wouldn't be surprised if many people criticizing #3 had no practical experience with NoSQL and the benefits brought by its lack of baggage.

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aint_gonna_need_it>

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Previous discussion on HN: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2203101>

</comment><comment><USER12> Hi, all. I'm Hunter Blanks (email@example.com).

Folks seem to have found a lot of implicit meaning and bugs in what was, at its grandest, a 5 minute talk at RedSnake Philly 2011. I'll just make two comments:

1) This in now up on GitHub at: [https://github.com/hblanks/talks/tree/master/2011/zen_of_pyt...](https://github.com/hblanks/talks/tree/master/2011/zen_of_python_by_example.20110208)

so if you feel strongly about making this better, you should send me a pull request.

2) People seem to have decided that the top (or the bottom?) of every example is the more pythonic one. I suppose I should have kept a consistent order, but, as I noted in the initial HN thread, that just wasn't necessary since this was delivered in the context of a talk.

</comment><comment><USER13> This doesn't work. I think it's an attempt at a closure, which you can do in the latest Python 3.x by `nonlocal i` as the first statement in the function definition...

      def make_counter():
        i = 0
        def count():
          """ Increments a count and returns it. """
          i += 1
          return i
        return count

<comment><USER14> You can cheat in Python 2.x by giving the inner function a keyword argument that defaults to the value you want to close over:

        ...
            def count(i=i):
                ...
        ...

<comment><USER15> Won't do what's intended in this case. I tried it now just to make sure.

I'd use itertools.count().

<comment><USER14> Yes, I just meant to point out that there is a way to do closures in Python 2.x. Looks like here the author wants a function that saves its internal state, i.e., a generator.

<comment><USER15> Closures actually do work without that trick since many versions back. It's setting a nonlocal that still sucks.

<comment><USER14> Well, they sort of work. Closures don't work properly [0] in some lexical contexts without using the default-argument trick because of the way function definition works in Python:

        fs = []
        for i in range(5):
          def f():
            print(i)
          fs.append(f)

        gs = []
        for i in range(5):
          def g(i=i):
            print(i)
          gs.append(g)

The functions in `fs` all print 4 because they all refer to the final object assigned to `i` in the `for` loop. The functions in `gs`, on the other hand, print 0 through 4, as they "should" because the `i` in `g` is assigned to the object currently referenced by the `for` loop's `i` each time the `def` statement is evaluated. This distinction in behavior is obscured in the classic function-inside-a-function example of closures because you pass the object to be closed over to the outer function each time you want to create a new closure. So the result is analogous to using the default-argument trick in the example above.

Anyway, that's all I meant to point out. I misinterpreted your reference to `nonlocal`, which I'm not very familiar with as I don't really use Python 3 much yet. So sorry for my nonsensical reply.

[0] By "properly" I mean as closures work in pure functional languages, where they originated. I realize a programmer who understands Python's data model shouldn't generally expect them to work that way in Python.

<comment><USER15> Oh, yes, good point, though I wouldn't call it a problem with how closures work -- Lisp has the same issue, for example, if you did a (dolist) or (loop) just like your Python code's 'for' loop. In both cases we have a language not originally designed for a style using frequent closures and running into some gotchas thereby.

My answers above were really short because I was on a tablet. May have come across as curt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> make_counter and make_adder are not equivalent. How can he compare the two?

</comment><comment><USER17>
        from menagerie.models import cat as cat_models

This is not recommended at all

<comment><USER18> Also, it should have read

        from menagerie.cat import models as cat_models
        from menagerie.dog import models as dog_models
        from menagerie.mouse import models as mouse_models

Because otherwise it doesn't match the code in the first example for #3, and also because if your packages are ordered that way, then why not just

        from menagerie.models import cat, dog, mouse

and forget about changing the local module name.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Boat – Big O analysis tool - <AUTHOR> https://boat.algorithm.city <comment><AUTHOR> BOAT is a quick tool I made for analyzing and comparing the Big O growth rate of mathematical functions. I built it to help students get a sense of Big O notation, as its a common class exercise to have to rank several math functions in terms of their Big O. BOAT works by trying to find an upper and lower bound of a given math function by comparing the function against a set of known functions. If it can't find a tight bound, it tries to find an upper bound.

If it's given two functions, it will try to locate their crossover point (if any) using a binary search, as well as compare their growth rates to determine which will eventually grow faster. It might get some wrong (I'm curious which) as it only has a handful of function classes.

The last feature it has is an automated master/muster theorem solver. It's pretty simple - you give it the values of a recurrence relation and it tells you the big O.

Thanks for looking!

</comment><comment><USER2> Doesn't appear to be very accurate.

[https://boat.algorithm.city/analyzer/?&f=N*lg(N)*lg(lg(N)](https://boat.algorithm.city/analyzer/?&f=N*lg\(N\)*lg\(lg\(N\)))

"The Big Theta of N * lg(N) * lg(lg(N)) is O(n * lg(n))"

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback and good catch!

The list of big O classes is the following:

       var classes = [
          define_func("0"),
          define_func("1"),
          define_func("lg(n)"),
          define_func("sqrt(n)"),
          define_func("n"),
          define_func("n * lg(lg((n)))"),
          define_func("n * lg(n)"),
          define_func("n * sqrt(n)"),
          define_func("n**2"),
          define_func("n**3"),
          define_func("n**4"),
          define_func("2**n"),
          define_func("n**n"),
          define_func("factorial(n)"),
          define_func("2**(2**n)"),
          define_func("n**(n**n)"),
        ];

lg(lg(N)) is very small, for 1e30, the value is approximately ~6 and at 1e60 it is ~7.6, at which point lg(lg(N)) is pretty much a constant value (or trivial), but yes - it is technically included in the growth rate, but for practical purposes can probably be ignored

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great name!

So it analyses math equations you input? I would call this a simulation, as my first impression was that it would _analyse_ source code...

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it analyzes a formula or recurrence relation - sorry to get your hopes up :-D I wish it could analyze source code, but the halting problem says that would be a bit difficult.

I think one could execute source code with varying size inputs to get an idea of a function's growth (assuming the function does halt), but I haven't thought about what that entails

PS: maybe I should have named it BOFAT (Big O Formula Analyzer Tool)

<comment><USER4> Surely the halting problem only applies in the general case, i.e. given a ideal enough language you could use heuristics or give results applicable only when in _xyz_ conditions e.g. when these nested for loops are in action it's _O(n^2)_

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, this is likely true - I really need to think about it more, though. I don't know how to do static or runtime analysis, so I can't say much about it

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Big Theta of N^N^N^N is O(n * sqrt(n)) :)

<comment><AUTHOR> wow, that's way off!

for n = 2, n^n^n^n returns 65536. for n = 3, javascript thinks its infinity.

i guess BOAT should start using decimal values for n so we can detect this problem.</comment></comment>


Loss of sense of smell a marker for Covid-19 infection - <AUTHOR> https://www.entuk.org/loss-sense-smell-marker-covid-19-infection <comment><USER3> I had something a few weeks ago. I completely lost my sense of smell/taste for a week. No congestion. 102 fever, very tired. I was out for a whole week. Mild shortness of breath doing normal things. The loss of smell/taste was nothing like I had experienced. It continued after my fever was gone. It was like a switch was flipped and it was turned off. Usually congestion makes me lose taste, but this was very different. Usually through breathing or snuffing a bit I could smell or taste something. I couldn't even smell my baby's poopy diapers. I was beginning to think it was never going to come back. One week later out of the blue it slowly came back to normal. Everyone I know became sick too with varying degrees of illness. One of them couldn't breath at 2 am and went to urgent care and was given steroids. My co-worker with asthma ended up in the hospital for a week. I'm starting to think we all had coronovirus.

Edit: i looked back and it was the 16th of February

<comment><USER4> You had a fever and shortness of breath and you didn't suspect coronavirus? No offense, but have you been living under a rock?

<comment><USER3> It might of been more than a month now. The virus was in the news on January and then kind of disappeared out of the news. The way it was being reported too was that it was contained in China and hasn't made it out. I thought maybe I had it but it I thought it was unlikely considering the news.

<comment><USER4> Fair enough. I guess the idea that a disease which had exploded in the way it did in China could ever possibly be contained doesn't really make sense to me, but maybe you don't live in a place with a lot of asian immigrants. I'm on the west coast of the U.S. and there are just huge numbers of asian immigrants here. There's just no feasible way a disease in China could somehow not make its way here. Way too many flights and way too many people here with connections to China.

<comment><USER3> I'm in Philly, my wife travels through phl (intl airport) quite often for work and we have a sizable Asian population. I was just naive to think we had a handle on this thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I remember getting that a few years ago with some bad infection.

It is awful - nothing has any "taste" (using quotes as we often confuse taste and smell. I could taste sweet/salty etc but this is a very small part of the overall sensory experience compared to smells)

I would eat blue cheese and raw garlic to try to get some kind of taste, because everything was insipid. So I would barely eat anything, unless I felt hungry. Then, I would mostly eat pasta, because at least the texture was nice. Only texture mattered.

Spices helped. Lots of them, put directly over the pasta. Meat felt like old bubblegum, something hard to chew and without any flavoring.

In my case, it took more than a month to heal. I believe my sense of smell was permanently altered because since then, I don't like anymore many things with a faint taste that I loved before.

Raw mozarella for example still tastes like chewing boiled spaghettis. Only the texture is different. I loved the aftertaste of mozarella before, but I can't find any taste to it anymore.

</comment><comment><USER6> This seems like a potentially game-changing discovery - if we could trivially diagnose 30%+ of cases, that could drastically diminish growth rate.

Are there standard anosmia tests? I'm wondering how to make this actionable in the most efficient way.

<comment><USER7> 30% is a big number. Reducing number of silient carriers would be great.

I am also wondering if, in general, our societies would benefit from a periodic self-quarantine, as a prophylactic measure.

I guess, if, after this pandemic is over -- we see fewer cases of H1N1 and other upper-respiratory transmittable viruses -- we could conclude that periodic, world-wide self quarantine should be written into laws of public health.

May be every 5 years or so, for 1.5 months stop all non-essential travel, work commute, public gatherings and so on.

Do not know if the above idea has any historical precedent, but, clearly our world has developed into very inter-connected, redundant, essentially unbreakable pathogen re-transmission network. So we need to respond to this.

<comment><USER8> Alternatively, just mandate giving service workers more paid sick days and actually enforce the laws against making them come in while sick. Allow telecommuting to be the norm. Implement better, universal healthcare.

As it turns out, lots of crazy leftist policies are actually good for the public health.

<comment><USER7> I am not sure that >"mandate giving service workers more paid sick days and actually enforce the laws against making them come in while sick" ,

is an alternative to what I suggested earlier

> "... word wide self quarantine should be written into laws of public health. > May be every 5 years or so, for 1.5 months stop all non-essential travel, > work commute, public gatherings and so on...".

With regards to your note on >"... lots of crazy leftist policies .. ."

In my view, centralized control of public health, appears to be a bottleneck to rapid response (not just because of process structuring, but also because massive centralization of money appropriation mandate, becomes a mechanism for unstoppable corruption spread, and non-meritocracy based promotions).

I never heard that conservatives are against telecommuting...

If anything there is, probably, a conservative sentiment _against_ massive urbanization and globalization of supply lines.

<comment><USER9> Ahh, indeed. Unlike the meritocratic private insurance industry, which definitely doesn't benefit from and encourage corruption, "centralized control of public health" would be a total waste of taxpayer money! It's not as if every country with a system like that is exponentially more functional and livable than those without!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> People often lose smell when they have a cold. Is this loss different?

<comment><USER11> Isn't that due to mucus buildup in the nose? I think Covid doesn't have that.

<comment><USER12> I had a cold once that led to a total anosmia that lasted for over a week after my nose had cleared. It was very disturbing. I couldn't smell anything at all. Not peanut butter, ammonia, gasoline, anything. Then like a light switch it all turned back on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I had lost my sense of smell, had a very mild fever for 3 weeks that started to turn into a dry cough. But yesterday all symptoms seem to have stopped. Hopefully I've already had it but impossible to say...

<comment><USER14> Did you get your sense of smell back???

<comment><USER13> It seems fine now, but cough has returned, was getting worse but a really good deep sleep seems to have helped (5htp + zinc + phosphatidylserine + 1mg melatonin).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I know this is not research, but two friends of mine that are reporting symptoms of covid19 and report anosmia are also reporting ageusia (loss of taste), not sure if this has been or will be confirmed by research though. It's been around 4 days since they started complaining about this already.

<comment><USER16> From what I understand, the sense of taste is intertwined with the sense of smell.

[https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-connection-between- taste-a...](https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-connection-between-taste-and- smell?share=1)

<comment><USER17> It definitely is. I know a relative who lost their sense of smell and they also report being unable to taste anything other than _plain_ salt, sweet, pepper-heat, sour, and bitter. They have lost the ability to taste spices, recognize different types of sour, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Full text: (site is going up and down):

Post-viral anosmia is one of the leading causes of loss of sense of smell in adults, accounting for up to 40% cases of anosmia. Viruses that give rise to the common cold are well known to cause post-infectious loss, and over 200 different viruses are known to cause upper respiratory tract infections. Previously described coronaviruses are thought to account for 10-15% cases. It is therefore perhaps no surprise that the novel COVID-19 virus would also cause anosmia in infected patients.

There is already good evidence from South Korea, China and Italy that significant numbers of patients with proven COVID-19 infection have developed anosmia/hyposmia. In Germany it is reported that more than 2 in 3 confirmed cases have anosmia. In South Korea, where testing has been more widespread, 30% of patients testing positive have had anosmia as their major presenting symptom in otherwise mild cases.

In addition, there have been a rapidly growing number of reports of a significant increase in the number of patients presenting with anosmia in the absence of other symptoms – this has been widely shared on medical discussion boards by surgeons from all regions managing a high incidence of cases. Iran has reported a sudden increase in cases of isolated anosmia, and many colleagues from the US, France and Northern Italy have the same experience. I have personally seen four patients this week, all under 40, and otherwise asymptomatic except for the recent onset of anosmia – I usually see roughly no more than one a month. I think these patients may be some of the hitherto hidden carriers that have facilitated the rapid spread of COVID-19. Unfortunately, these patients do not meet current criteria for testing or self-isolation.

While there is a chance the apparent increase in incidence could merely reflect the attention COVID-19 has attracted in the media, and that such cases may be caused by typical rhinovirus and coronavirus strains, it could potentially be used as a screening tool to help identify otherwise asymptomatic patients, who could then be better instructed on self-isolation.

Given the potential for COVID-19 to present with anosmia, and the reports that corticosteroid use may increase the severity of infection, we would advise against use of oral steroids in the treatment of new onset anosmia during the pandemic, particularly if it is unrelated to head trauma or nasal pathology (such as nasal polyps).

There is potential that if any adult with anosmia but no other symptoms was asked to self-isolate for seven days, in addition to the current symptom criteria used to trigger quarantine, we might be able to reduce the number of otherwise asymptomatic individuals who continue to act as vectors, not realising the need to self-isolate. It will also be an important trigger for healthcare personnel to employ full PPE and help to counter the higher rates of infection found amongst ENT surgeons compared to other healthcare workers.

<comment><USER18> Oh no is this a permanent loss of sense of smell?

<comment><USER19> This has been a personal fear, the death toll is significant, however being in a younger demographic I am more readily concerned (personally, not trying to be callous) with permanent disability. After seeing what SARS left people with I had a new appreciation for the other side of "recovered". It seems too early to tell long term effects, hopefully everything is temporary.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Copy of article: [https://beta.trimread.com/articles/8606](https://beta.trimread.com/articles/8606)

</comment><comment><USER21> Oh man. The girl I'm seeing just came back from traveling to Peru for spring break last week. She said she hasn't been able to smell for about a week, and most of the others in her group are reporting the same symptom.

<comment><USER22> The girl you "were" seeing >:/

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Starting to emerge that anorexia (loss of appetite) is a symptom in many cases, might be related to not being able to smell or taste.

</comment><comment><USER24> Google Trends shows a massive spike as well [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&q=%2Fm%2F0m7pl)

<comment><USER25> March 15 shows an uptick in "loss of smell" in USA

[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&ge...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%203-m&geo=US&q=loss%20of%20smell)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I had this starting around March 6th and it lasted for approximately a week.

I could _barely_ smell some things like say peppercorns, or coffee beans, but the intensity was 1/100th of what it should have been.

I never had a fever or a cough but I did feel a bit more tired than usual.

</comment><comment><USER27> I lost my sense of smell when I took a zinc tablet to prevent covid-19 (serious but funny). Maybe I shouldn't have dissolved it in my throat (as was suggested). Zinc is really bitter! My sense of taste is off too - <USER2> tastes good.

Thanks to this thread, I won't know whether my diminished smell is from the zinc tablet or I've contracted Covid-19!

Time will tell, maybe.

</comment><comment><USER28> I had these symptoms back in early December. This was before we even really knew about it in the US.

I was really sick for about 2 weeks, which included a mild fever for a couple of days.

I remember thinking that I can't remember being this sick in a long time and I wonder now if I had the Covid-19 infection.

</comment><comment><USER29> What about a headache and/or body aches? Been having mild symptoms of this for the last week+ and I'm in a corona hotspot (NYC). Smell seems to be ok, but I'm not sure of a good way to test other than smelling something strong.

<comment><USER30> Headaches and muscle aches are typically symptoms of normal flu and not COVID if what I read online yesterday is correct (can't recall the source sorry).

<comment><USER31> I read that a headache is a COVID symptom.

<comment><USER32> Well Coronaviruses also are sometimes behind " the common flu". Headaches are not unique to Corona.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> As many people are taking zinc supplements it's worth noting zinc in high doses causes this effect too so hard to say the effect being driven by covid or zinc popping or both.

</comment><comment><USER33> Is this full loss or partial? (article isn't loading for me)

<comment><USER34> For me I could still smell strong laundry detergent very faintly. But the sense of smell appeared to be completely gone as if my olfactory nerve had been snipped.

<comment><USER33> Wow, thank you for sharing. I assume you're thankfully fine now? Can I ask how long it took, how bad things got, etc.?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Is this loss of scent permanent or temporary?

<comment><USER36> The virus only existed since ~November or December last year. There's no way anyone could reasonably tell you if its temporary or permanent.

<comment><USER37> If most of the people that noted the loss from the infection also reported that they got it back, that would be decent evidence that it was temporary.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> This is dumb. Loss of sense of smell (and changes in the perception of taste) is also a "marker" for cold, flu, and _allergy_. Allergy season is ramping up as we speak.

Case in point: I had this a week ago. I'm pretty sure I don't have COVID19 though, even though I'm in Wuhan, WA.

<comment><USER39> Why don't you think you've had it?

<comment><USER38> No symptoms whatsoever. No rise in temperature (as measured from the forehead using IR thermometer), no cough, no tightness of chest, no tiredness. My wife and son had the sniffles shortly before (which is not a symptom of COVID19), but also no fever or cough. I didn't even have the sniffles. I also work from home, so I barely get out of the house even without a quarantine, other than to go for a hike or to buy groceries. I've embraced social distancing years ago. :-)

<comment><USER40> Isn't a large proportion of cases asymptomatic?

<comment><USER38> I have these symptoms (loss of smell and partial loss of taste) every spring. _Millions of people_ have these symptoms every spring.

Let's not create even more panic than there already is. That, above all, was my point.

<comment><USER40> The desired effect of telling people about temporary anosmia symptoms that go along with infection is to help them make more informed decisions about when they may be infected and to quarantine themselves. The point is not to cause "panic", but sometimes a little fear is actually necessary to motivate people into action. In this particular case, slightly more fear is probably better.

<comment><USER38> The "desired effect" here is Internet brownie points. Unfortunately this time those brownie points could cost lives.

<comment><USER40> There are much better places to accumulate internet brownie points.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


APOD: LIGO detects gravity waves... - <AUTHOR> http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html <comment><AUTHOR> Currently a "Placeholder APOD" until the LIGO Press Conference at 11AM (ET)...we're waiting!!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> ...and now there is an interesting image showing the signals from the twin LIGO detectors - fantastic!!</comment>


Keyword (Named) Arguments in Python: How to Use Them - <AUTHOR> http://treyhunner.com/2018/04/keyword-arguments-in-python/ <comment><USER2> Very good thank you</comment>


Nevada's $35B fund manager does as little as possible, usually nothing - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/what-does-nevadas-35-billion-fund-manager-do-all-day-nothing-1476887420?mg=id-wsj <comment><USER2> _" He generally doesn't work outside 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. hours. He commutes in a 2005 Honda Element with over 175,000 miles on it. His 2015 salary was $127,121.75, according to a Nevada Policy Research Institute database."_

Seems like a fairly careful kind of chap.

 _" Despite the investment success, Nevada only has about 73% of assets needed to fund future retirement obligations to workers."_

I'm wondering what they will do about that. Increase contributions to new members? Increase employer's contribution (if any)?

<comment><USER3> The same that way that all sovereign debt problems are solved - higher taxes if possible and default if not.

<comment><USER4> Hope no one thinks you are being snarky, but court cases have come to that conclusion more than once and it includes cases where the pension fund lost money in the market or suffered theft. In all cases the taxpayer is on the hook for the difference.

Now a recent case in California suggests that pension agreements can be adjusted but I expect that to lose on appeal. Regardless more states and cities will have to go to court to fix their overly generous pension agreements (even in my state the number of double dippers or pensioners with 70-100k incomes from pensions is high)

<comment><USER5> There's two different types of laws in play. One has to do with already accrued and vested pensions. Under federal law those are tangible property that can't be adjusted outside of bankruptcy.

Separately some states, including NY, IL, and CA have state constitutional doctrines that forbid changing the accrual formula for existing employees. This is much more stringent rules, and means that any change will take many decades to work through the system.

<comment><USER2> I can see that the second regulation would slow down change significantly. The first paragraph I think is fairly general.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > _" He generally doesn't work outside 8 a.m.-to-5 p.m. hours. He commutes in > a 2005 Honda Element with over 175,000 miles on it._

Really, really strange that both of those things are stated as if they are inherently "bad".

Shouldn't that be the goal of every office worker? Work relatively sane hours and be content with the perfectly functioning vehicle you already have.

<comment><USER7> I don't think they're stated as bad, just as surprising given common perceptions of people in those roles, which is usually shaped by movies like _The Wolf of Wall Street_ , since most people have no other window into the lives of top-level executives.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> As much as I'm a fan of passive investing, I think there are key differences between personal investing and institutional investing. The article mentions that much of the money is in equity indexes. This strikes me as very risky for a pension fund. What if the market tanks? Presumably the value of the fund will plummet, but he fund will still have to pay out benefits. This is the equivalent of buying high and selling low.

A big part of the job of institutional investors like pension funds and endowments is investing in stable, uncorrelated things. This is trickier where it sounds and accounts for at least some of the higher overhead at other state pension funds.

<comment><USER9> _" What if the market tanks?"_

It would have to tank long term. If it does, it would take an exceptionally good and somewhat lucky fund manager to constantly find places where the flow goes against the tide and thus still make a good profit. Also, the larger the fund, the larger those places where the flow goes against the tide have to be to make any reasonable impact, and those larger places are rarer.

So, if there is a long term problem, it's hard to avoid. For example, obligations in solid economies are stable income sources, but currently all bring little or no interest. That's something that hits pension funds fairly hard now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It seems fitting that the guy from Nevada knows it's better to bet with the house than against the house.

</comment><comment><USER11> If anyone is curious about their asset allocation, here's a recent document detailing it:

[https://www.nvpers.org/public/investments/pers/PERS- Investme...](https://www.nvpers.org/public/investments/pers/PERS-Investment- Policies.pdf)

Pretty vanilla 3-fund portfolio plus 10% split between private real estate and private equity.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm a bit surprised that taking the link into Google and clicking on WSJ links from Google don't show the full article anymore.

<comment><USER13> Incognito works.

<comment><USER12> Thanks for that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Click bait. Doing nothing relates to he fund he's managing, i.e. his trading policy is to do nothing.

<comment><USER15> The WSJ is not currently in the business of clickbait. This is a substantive article related to the superior _passive_ investment strategy of a state's pension manager.

<comment><USER14> "What Does Nevada's $35B Fund Manager Do All Day? Nothing"

This title implies that he manager does nothing all day long. But when you read the article it comes clear that doing "nothing" is his trading policy.

"His daily trading strategy: Do as little as possible, usually nothing."

I consider this a click-bait.

<comment><USER16> He does nothing like programmers value laziness. It's harder than it sounds.

<comment><USER17> Definitely. That's why saying "he does nothing" is a bit clickbaity.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What startups are innovating in affordable housing? - <AUTHOR> I think this is a huge problem – particularly in the UK – and was wondering whether there are any innovative building companies disrupting the housing market? <comment><USER2> There is this (American) company: www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

I don't think they are outright _disrupting_ the market. But they are offering a new-ish alternative.

Housing is expensive to produce. Trying to produce "affordable" housing has inherent problems because there is somewhat direct conflict between your product goal and your profit motive. So I think if you want to see real disruption in the housing industry, it will probably be packaged differently than "affordable" housing. That tends to be code for "cheap piece of crap aimed at helping poor people." I don't think that is likely to be a strong position from which to disrupt a market. Early adopters of new stuff tend to be well off. If you want to bring down housing costs and also appeal to the upper class, you have to market it some other way.

</comment><comment><USER3> There are some developers in the Bay Area experimenting with "Micro Apartments" ([http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Micro-apartment- devel...](http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Micro-apartment-developments- on-rise-in-S-F-4951775.php))

But not a ton of companies are tackling it. Apparently the zoning issues are non-trivial.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd also like to hear about this. Unfortunately, the problem is as much legal (zoning, building codes etc.) as it is technical.</comment>


Olia Lialina, 'Summer' (2013) Animated GIF - <AUTHOR> http://reas.com/olia/summer <comment><AUTHOR> The Current Museum put together a really wonderful write-up regarding Olia's work. [1]

An excerpt:

In Summer (2013), a GIF of a woman swinging back and forth from the viewer's browser bar, Lialina devises a clever way to mimic earlier, slower web experiences on a more modern connection. The 18 frames of the GIF are hosted across 26 different sites, making them vulnerable to the whims of load times, site bugs, and outdated code. Michael Connor writes, "It reminds us that each time we view the work, we will experience it in a slightly different way, reflecting the shifting conditions of the network and our position within it."

[1] [https://d.rip/thecurrent/posts/RHJvcFBvc3QtMjQ3OQ==](https://d.rip/thecurrent/posts/RHJvcFBvc3QtMjQ3OQ==)

<comment><USER2> See also [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olia_Lialina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olia_Lialina) (I really liked her "Turing Complete User").

<comment><AUTHOR> Holy shit. Gonna bookmark this for later, and study up on this one. Thanks for sharing.

For those interested: [http://contemporary-home-computing.org/turing-complete- user/](http://contemporary-home-computing.org/turing-complete-user/)</comment></comment></comment>


NASA's IceSat space laser tracks water depths from orbit - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49799752 <comment><USER2> So it should map out a considerable number of ship wrecks</comment>


Want a Personal Hoverbike? Well You Can Order the HoverSurf S3 Right Now - <AUTHOR> https://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/want-a-personal-hoverbike-well-you-can-order-the-hoversurf-s3-right-now-ar183210.html <comment> xkcd-sucks Those unshielded rotors look really... Exhilarating</comment>


Am I being tracked? - <AUTHOR> http://amibeingtracked.com

<comment><USER2> Tracking issue highlight on EFF: [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x- uidh](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/verizon-x-uidh)

</comment><comment><USER3> Whatever this site concludes - the answer is still yes.</comment>


How to Block 100,000+ Individual IP addresses - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/q/15579620/1226894

<comment><AUTHOR> How come most firewall do not have api to pragmatically add/remove IP address ??</comment>


Ask HN: How do you respond to security questionnaires? - <AUTHOR> A software company we are integrating with wants their 100 question security assessment questionnaire completed. Any advice?
We are a two engineer team without a SOC audit and without a third party pen test that stores medical and financial data.
These questionnaires are time consuming and redundant. It seems insecure to produce something that details our security too. Does a /security page with some details suffice? Am I just being lazy? <comment><USER2> > _We are a two engineer team without a SOC audit and without a third party > pen test that stores medical and financial data._

> _These questionnaires are time consuming and redundant._

This is how data breaches happen. You should be willing to jump through a few, usually reasonable, hoops if you're storing medical and financial data.

Instead of looking for a quick-fix that will "suffice", you may consider actually securing the sensitive data you hold on other people.

Edit: After a little googling, I'm genuinely concerned about the product you are offering, at a firm of your size, with no compliance. Yikes from me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well our conclusion is to work on security for a week and then submit. I didn't say anything about not having security/compliance rather about completing another security questionnaire.

<comment><USER2> You may not have specifically said it, but it is certainly clear from the way you are speaking about security as an annoying burden.

Just, for example, your comment "Work on security for a week and then submit". What does that even mean? Security is a going concern, not a one-and-done. What do you expect to accomplish in a week?

You mentioned you have no 3rd party pentest, nor SOC compliance. Regardless if they are required by law, not having a rudimentary pentest (which are fairly inexpensive) speaks volumes about your companies posture on security.

I hope you let the people that are trusting you with their _extremely private medical and financial data_ that you are tired of answering security questionnaires, and aren't too concerned about having a 3rd party validate your security.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Charge extra, or rather tell the company they need the enterprise pricing plan, to make it worth the time investment. Companies with those questionaires are used to suppliers pushing back, charging extra or dropping out (either not returning the questionaire or answering insuffiently). It's part of dealing with enterprise B2B clients. I had to sign anti-slavery and anti-human- traffiking statements...

Some questions you won't agree with, e.g. I've been asked how often we change our wifi passwords. Better to be honest and let them assess the risk than overpromising.

<comment><AUTHOR> For a customer we absolutely would. We aren't charging and vice-versa as integrating is value added for both parties. They could double our usage so we'll work on security for a week to get a passing score and then submit the questionnaire. Thx

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is it even legal to hand over medical data to a company without SOC 2 compliance?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes. Typically there's a business associate HIPAA agreement that outlines use. SOC 2's start at $35,000 with a month of an engineering time and 99.9% of insurance agencies don't have one. Getting it done is the long term plan.</comment></comment>


How Doctors Take Women's Pain Less Seriously - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/emergency-room-wait-times-sexism/410515/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> The main source in the article is a paper saying

> In general, women report more severe levels of pain, more frequent > incidences of pain, and pain of longer duration than men, but are > nonetheless treated for pain less aggressively.

In other words, yes, doctors and nurses take women's pain less seriously. But since women overreport pain, that might be the rational thing to do. Whether it is rational or not would depend on the amount of overreporting and the amount of discounting by doctors and nurses.

Or, to put it in reverse, which might be less gendering: It is possible that doctors and nurses treat women's pain in a default way. Men, though, are raised to be stoic and "suck it up", and so men less often report pain. Doctors and nurses realize that men underreport pain, and therefore when men _do_ report it, they know it is statistically more likely to be severe, so they take it more seriously.

<comment><USER3> _But since women overreport pain, that might be the rational thing to do._

Not doing a proper diagnosis is _rational_?</comment></comment>


The Worst Bug Ever? - <AUTHOR> I initialised something to 1e64 instead of 1f64. It somewhat affected the results. By 64 orders of magnitude ;)
The Rust compiler, always so full of complaints at other times, was of course happy with it.
This just shows how all error checking, no matter how sophisticated, compilation and runtime, is doomed in the face of the slightest typing error. <comment><USER2> What about mounting a sensor upside down and destroying a Proton-M space rocket that costs 65mln$ per launch?

[https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/10/4509190/upside-down- senso...](https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/10/4509190/upside-down-sensors-said- to-cause-russian-rocket-crash)

<comment><USER3> Like the 737 Max crashes the root cause might be a sensor but there's along chain of failure leading to the crash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Every graphics related bug, result in black screen nothing rendered and no error messages</comment>


Apple's Mac Mini Is Now Three Years Old, No Refresh Date in Sight - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2017/10/16/mac-mini-now-three-years-old/ <comment><USER2> The lack of effort on the Mini line demonstrates Apples focus on profit over its customers. Boosting desktop market share, gaining new customers, while still operating a profit are all worthwhile focusing on. Given they're all long term goals, it's well worth while investing in.

I'm disheartened with what Apple did with the Mini line up. I love the form factor.

</comment><comment><USER3> Apple should create a "Mac Mini Retro", an update of the 2012 Mac Mini.

<comment><USER4> the 2008 minis would still be perfectly useful machines if they still got browser upgrades, or better yet OS upgrades

<comment><USER5> They'll probably run Windows 10. I've got a couple of 2006/2007 MacBooks that I ended up installing Windows 10 on, since Apple long ago stopped making OS updates for them. (One was stuck on Snow Leopard, but still runs Win 10 fairly well, especially any Win32 apps.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hackintosh Minis have never been more popular.

For those who are weary: I've made my Hackintosh Pro a daily-driver for the last 3 years without issue. i7/4770k/32GB/Gigabyte mobo/1070/1TB SSD. Even seamlessly upgraded from 10.9 to 10.10 to 10.11 just like you would any other Mac.

Happy to answer any questions.

<comment><USER7> It's not too hard to pirate Windows either. That doesn't make it a viable option for individuals, or, especially, businesses who don't want to engage in copyright infringement.

If you make your living even in part by using a Hackintosh, that is, at best, hypocritical.

<comment><USER6> I have a trashcan pro that sits and collects dust (I paid more than $3k for it). Then I needed to upgrade the video card and was left SOL. My Hackintosh Pro is simply my "backup". I don't feel the need to further justify my decision, but I've supported Apple for a very long time. I'm simply one of the many buyers who they've seem to leave behind.

<comment><USER8> "I'm simply one of the many buyers who they've seem to leave behind."

Exactly. It's fairly mindboggling that a company with Apple's resources isn't doing a better job at producing a sufficient lineup of machines.

Minis with CPUs up to quad core i7s would be great. Apple also ought to introduce a mini-tower with (gasp) upgradable components. That is in fact the "greenest" type of computer, as it won't be recycled for much longer. Apple could then, once again, legitimately claim to offer some of the most powerful consumer systems - something it's a long way from at the moment.

Finally, Apple should offer a true "pro" laptop with a Xeon processor, lots of ECC RAM, and a choice of "pro" graphics chips. HP, Dell, and Lenovo all do.

Apple is the last company left with a viable commercial Unix. It needs to offer powerful machines!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Apple has really dropped the ball on the Mac mini (and also the Mac Pro, though that got some attention in some official interviews). It's a shame that the company, even with so much money, is unable to segregate work among different teams and get things done. Since a Mac is a required machine for iOS/tvOS/watchOS development, pushing out new MacBook after MacBook and pushing out new iMacs once in a while just isn't enough. The Mac mini is a really great machine by itself, and the older models that were also easily upgradeable on RAM and secondary storage were fantastic (the Intel CPU based models can still run Linux if they do not have official support for the latest or recent versions OS X or macOS).

</comment><comment><USER10> Aren't there hundreds of small form factor PCs available now? Just get them. It's a commodity market. Apple is unwilling/incapable of competing on such low margin boxes.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think the article covers it pretty well, I don't have much hope for a refresh, and I didn't buy the last one.

Still using a 2012 MM that runs superb. Was waiting for an upgrade, then saw the processor and passed on it. I would love to see a new MM with a real CPU in it, and the two drive option. Will likely never happen, but at least Intel is getting into the smaller form factor market with the NUC.

<comment><USER12> If you really like macOS, the Hackintosh route is keeping quite stable these days. The NUCs have such generic hardware that there is practically no .kext fiddling and with the Clover bootloader any adjustments that need to happen are a breeze.

Up until recently graphics issues with my Radeon cards kept me from using macOS full-time on my rig, needing major backflips to get acceleration and full resolution support working reliably. Now it's just a zero-config .kext drop in, whereas the common suggestion was just to get an Nvidia GPU or live with the on-board graphics.

Even better is the recent work to support AMD CPUs. Dev interest in getting them supported fell off quite a bit since the Leopard and Snow Leopard days but it's seeing a strong resurgence now.

Just to put things in a more perspective, though I have a few years of effort put into understanding what goes into Hackintoshing my latest effort in getting High Sierra working on an APFS drive took less than an hour overall. Whereas before, it was a weekend job. Better still, if you're in the market to buy new, the common build guides are bullet-proof. Basically anything from Intel (like Ethernet controllers) works without any issues and has for some time. Most hardware that looks something like an iMac or Mac Pro will be reliable and trouble-free, especially if you hang back a dot release or two.</comment></comment>


Etherpad pro is in beta - <AUTHOR> http://etherpad.com/ep/pro-signup/

<comment><USER2> can anyone else sign up - it doesnt recognise any of my email addresses!

<comment><AUTHOR> Try the link from the front page of the site to start the beta process. Oops.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looks a little like google wave, only not in an "email" form.

Sign up worked for me.</comment>


Validate your idea before writing any code - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cykho.com/2013/12/how-to-validate-your-product-idea.html

<comment><USER2> I've seen a few posts before where they had a kickstarter like indicator for email collection. for some projects it seems like it might be helpful. video seems like a good idea but it seems expensive to build

</comment><comment><USER3> This topic has been covered a few times before - here are a few:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=validate+your+idea](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=validate+your+idea)</comment>


OpenBSD imports nginx into tree as future apache replacement - <AUTHOR> http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=131673440721777&w=2 <comment><USER2> Pretty amusing, in a weird sort of way (perhaps just a sign of some stupid tech-snobbery on my part) to see a very recent message indicating that a large, pretty high-profile and deeply entrenched and respected software project is using CVS.

I'm so used to the constant bombardment about Git (and other DVCS:es) here, that even projects using Subversion seem to be a bit "left behind", and here's all of OpenBSD doing their thing with CVS.

I guess it proves that the tools aren't everything.

<comment><USER3> >I guess it proves that the tools aren't everything.

Sort of, it proves that a psychotic mob of minutiae obsessed sufferers of Autism are capable of incredible productivity in spite of anachronistic tooling.

Cf. people that build houses using pre-19th century technology and refuse to use modern plumbing.

<comment><USER4> Tools are just means to an end. The OpenBSD devs can write better software with punch cards than you can with a modern language. Take your hipsterer- than-thou attitude and shove it.

tl;dr fed the troll.

<comment><USER3> >The OpenBSD devs can write better software with punch cards than you can with a modern language.

I'm a coder that lives inside of Emacs and m-x shell. What about what I just said would make you believe anything other than that I consider the person to be more important than the tool?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does OpenBSD still maintain their own fork of Apache 1.3? If so, that might explain their interest in a replacement.

<comment><USER6> yes, it is heavily patched to support things like IPv6 (which the Apache foundation claimed was "impossible"). However, the code-base is getting a bit long in the tooth, a more modern replacement will be nice. I am curious however about how they are going to implement CGI with nginx, as tons of applications still rely on this.

<comment><USER7> nginx supports FastCGI, and CGIs can be supported via fcgiwrap and similar tools, it works remarkably well, and configuration's easy.

<comment><USER8> Nginx is a well-engineered piece of software. The only problem, in my opinion, is that does not support loadable modules; any features you want or don't want need to be configured at compile-time, and those are only the official ones that are part of the mainline code. Third-party "modules" such as Phusion Passenger are essentially patches. Since Nginx has a modular architecture, those patches are admittedly very clean, but it's still a pretty ugly situation compared to Apache's elegant loadable module system.

<comment><USER9> For a base web server included in OpenBSD by default, I don't think dynamic loading is actually a huge win. Auditing and hardening a single, statically- compiled binary is easier than doing the same thing for one that loads shared objects at runtime.

Since adding and removing Apache modules already requires a restart of the httpd process, a good source-based build system like ports can make adding and removing modules via build flags nearly as straightforward as dynamic loading.

<comment><USER8> Not for OpenBSD, maybe, but for other operating systems based on precompiled binary packages. Nginx uses a forked worker model that probably would allow adding/removing modules without restarting the entire server.

<comment><USER10> Considering that you can upgrade the binary without any downtime then yeah, it probably would. I personally think there are bigger issues that needs to be covered first, such as support for persistent connections to backends and HTTP/1.1 support when reverse proxying. (Was just added in 1.1.4, now it just needs testing!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Though not a bsd user myself, I'm glad to see this happening. A few extra security-minded eyes on the nginx source code can only make it better.

</comment><comment><USER12> I presume they mean nginx will be the default web server, rather than removing Apache altogether? You can't just replace Apache with nginx, they're two different pieces of software - admittedly with some overlap.

<comment><USER13> > I presume they mean nginx will be the default web server, rather than > removing Apache altogether?

It says "to provide an apache replacement for base." OpenBSD has a Base system, plus it has Packages and Ports. Packages and Ports do not go through the same security audit as the Base system. Currently the version of httpd in Base is 1.3.x, which is all patched and secure, Packages/Ports has httpd 2.2.x. I suspect they mean nginx will replace httpd in the Base system, while httpd will still be in Packages/Ports.

<comment><USER14> Or in other words it'll be on the CD and Apache'll be in a repo.

<comment><USER15> No - that's not how things work in *BSD systems.

On Linux distributions, all software is typically "equal" - everything is a package, and the only difference is what repository it comes from.

In BSD, the base system and ports are entirely distinct. The base system is a single coherent unit installed and upgraded as one piece (although the installer allows you to omit some portions of it).

The ports provide additional software packages installed and managed separately on top of the base system. The base system is maintained and patched by the core developers and officially supported by the organization. The ports are provided effectively as a convenience, and are not covered by the same security and maintenance procedures as the base system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Some more discussion on reddit where the original poster found this link and title: [http://www.reddit.com/r/BSD/comments/kp3e7/openbsd_imports_n...](http://www.reddit.com/r/BSD/comments/kp3e7/openbsd_imports_nginx_into_tree_as_future_apache/)

</comment><comment><USER17> what's the usr.sbin in the path? why isn't that usr/sbin? this looks like some convention i've never met before (and i have no idea how to google for it...)

<comment><USER18> It looks like this way of organising the source (src) tree started in 4.1BSD (1982?). Before that, all the commands lived under /usr/src/cmd/. See <http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4.1cBSD/usr/src> and <http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=4BSD/usr/src>

I guess it's there to flatten the source tree depth and probably had something to do with tiny disks of the time, shells without tab-complete or it was just a whim. In any case the convention stuck and it is now that way in all modern BSDs.</comment></comment>


Open Email - The better communication paradigm - <AUTHOR> http://blog.grexit.com/open-email-the-better-communication-paradigm/

<comment><USER2> Unfortunate name at the moment as it is overshadowed on Google by the Greek exit from the Euro zone worries, or Grexit. "Better" communication paradigm? I don't know about that. I personally have always felt "email" in and of itself would be replaced by a "better" communication paradigm, rather than re- invented. Social media is pulling us aware from such archaic models, after all...</comment>


Why Big Business Is Racing to Build Blockchains - <AUTHOR> http://fortune.com/2017/08/22/bitcoin-ethereum-blockchain-cryptocurrency/ <comment><AUTHOR> "In the Walmart test, food shipments were tracked and digitally recorded via a blockchain. (Yiannas's team's manual search was the "control.") From the start of their journey at the farm, pallets of mangoes were tagged with numeric identifiers. Every time they crossed another checkpoint—from farm to broker to distributor to store—their status was signed and logged."

How is this different from some kind of RFID tracking system? Still trying to understand the value add of blockchain in this example.</comment>


Why Are Brands Now Active in Cultural Conversations? - <AUTHOR> https://www.annecyagency.com/post/why-are-brands-getting-more-active-in-cultural-conversations <comment><USER2> Because Nike doesn't want you to think about the person working for $2 dollars a day to make your shoes in a sweatshop.

<comment><USER3> Totally agree. It's also easier for McDonalds to post a black box to say they care rather than address that 75% of their black female employees will experience sexual harassment at some point while working there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Because the Left is a controlling religion -- controlling in the US in a way that Christianity has not been for a hundred years.

If you dare to go against the Left they will destroy you. Is it mere coincidence that every corporation that expresses a cultural opinion expresses an opinion that is amenable to the left? I think not. Do not folks on the right punish? Well, we're too lazy, for one thing. But we also believe (I would say) in freedom of thought. We will not destroy you for thinking differently than we do.

<comment><USER5> Those on the right may punish. But those on the left have the megaphone right now, and if you're worried about publicity and how it affects your brand, you're worried about the opinion of those with the megaphone.

<comment><USER4> You are entirely right. But I would respect the Left more and fear them less if they relied more on persuasiveness rather than a cudgel. And it seems no matter how far to the left you are, you will eventually be attacked on your left flank.</comment></comment></comment>


France's second-largest ISP deploys ad blocking via firmware update - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/01/frances-second-largest-isp-deploys-ad-blocking-via-firmware-update/ <comment><USER2> Free.fr has been trying for years to force big content providers, and especially Google, to participate in ISPs' infrastructure costs. This move is most likely a way to dry up AdSense revenue, hoping that Google will cave in.

Free.fr, and beyond the company its boss Xavier Niel, has a consistent track record of pissing of big players in established markets. Niel made his wealth with Minitel, including sex and dating sites, then consistently disrupted networking markets with Free.fr:

* they first sold dialup connection for the cost of a local communications, without ads;

* they established the price of unlimited ADSL around €30/month;

* they introduced TV over IP and free phone calls over IP through the freebox (the ADSL router that comes with a free.fr subscription)

* they started a bandwidth race, offering tens of MB/s when historic operators were stuck at 512KB/s.

* they slashed mobile phone prices: no subsidized phones, no contract, but unlimited calls and data (bandwitdth capped beyond 3GB/month) for less than 20€/month.

Their whole business model has always been about pissing off fat cats, big time. They're trying their luck against Google.

<comment><USER3> Just wait until Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all block Free.fr IP blocks until they cut this out.

It's one thing to piss off your competition, but pissing off the people who supply _the only reason_ why you have customers is kind of stupid. Sorry, but if I couldn't get Google I'm switching ISPs tomorrow.

<comment><USER4> It also looks like Google and a lot of other people can and should sue them. From the featured comment on Ars, it seems they are blocking everyone's news sites, _except_ for his own.

<comment><USER5> Google analytics is also blocked, it's not just ads.

<comment><USER6> Indeed: [http://www.numerama.com/magazine/24672-free-ne-bloque-pas- qu...](http://www.numerama.com/magazine/24672-free-ne-bloque-pas-que-la- publicite.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have a hard time empathizing with the ad companies in this case.

I'd rather pay money for many of these services, but I'm rarely given the option. In the meantime, my browsing is regularly interrupted by ads that I have to click through, ads I have to wait through, ads that pop up and block what I was trying to read, and ads that play noises I don't want to hear.

I think it is fast becoming time where ads as a source of revenue for a site is going away; it's time for people to find better ways to monitize the content they're publishing.

<comment><USER8> Maybe you'd be willing to empathize with me, then? :) The business I work for lives off ads, and is actually a good business and supplies a lot of fun to millions of people a day. And as far as paying customers, most of our userbase are kids, so that's not going to work very well.

Also we are a global site and get a good deal of traffic from overseas, so this French ISP is actually affecting our business (it's not going to get anyone laid off though).

Just something to think about -- the internet is working relatively smoothly as it is. Playing around with the basics like this will have more effect than you may realize.

<comment><USER7> Our definitions of "smoothly" vary a bit.

If I speak as a consumer, then it's not very smooth when I want to read an article and can't, due to the in-line words which pop up intrusive ads when your mouse comes anywhere near them. I can't hardly watch a 30 second video without spending another 30 seconds to 2 and 1/2 minutes watching ads. It actively annoys me that Amazon has started serving ads on their homepage. I've ended up going to other retailers to purchase things on the principal.

As someone working (indirectly) for companies that make revenue off of ads, I've noticed that there's always that nagging fear in the back of their minds about Google cutting them off with no recourse. Of loosing customers when a new ad in the rotation pisses of parents due to the scantily clad nature of the characters in the ad. Of loosing customers due to poor performance of ads or conflicting javascript.

It is always very unfortunate when people get laid off. However, to have to lay people off _just because someone doesn't download specific bytes from the internet_ signals a broken system to me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> That is disgusting. ISP have no job of interfering with any traffic to the end user. Their role is to be just dumb pipes that provide bandwidth.

They should not inspect or monitor their users traffic for any reason short of court order.

<comment><USER10> It's not the ISP, it's the router doing the blocking. The ISP is still just being an ISP. This is, from a technical standpoint, no different to configuring a proxy/filtering server yourself. Going off what the articles have said, the ISP themselves are not doing any filtering or monitoring it's all happening on the router.

<comment><USER9> It is turned on by default on a router that the ISP is capable of upgrading (which is scary enough) and that the ISP forcefully upgrade without notifying the customers.

If the title was - French ISP upgrade routers to block porn it would have been an uproar. It is the same.

So the ISP is not being just and ISP it is assuming the role of a gatekeeper with a device on which they have root access.

<comment><USER11> Is it that rare for it to be possible for ISPs to update their provided routers? My ISP (O2) has the ability to forcefully update firmware at any time.

<comment><USER12> It is fairly common for routers to be backdoored like this. Best get your own... or disable it if you feel like it (the O2 one has a telnet interface with available password that can control stuff not on the web interface).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I setup a new router today (ASUS RT-N66u) with TomatoUSB; it lets one run scripts and I installed a script that does ad-blocking on everything / all devices.

I found the script here [http://www.shadowandy.net/2012/11/adblocking-with- tomatousb-...](http://www.shadowandy.net/2012/11/adblocking-with-tomatousb- router-ad-free-internet-for-all-your-devices.htm)

It seems to be working pretty well so far.

<comment><USER14> Can you comment on how this technique is better than simply having AdBlock extensions in browsers? They seem pretty reliable to me. But maybe there's an advantage to having adblocking at router level? If so, please explain.

<comment><USER15> One that I can imagine is this works on all devices and all browsers regardless of any external factors. For example, is it possible to install an AdBlocker on Safari Mobile? I know it's not on my Windows Phone. Having to install an extension on every device, every browser, every computer gets tiring.

Another bonus is when people visit, ads are blocked for them as well.

<comment><USER14> So, simply put: convenience. Plus, some small saving on computational resources on the browser device.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This serves as a good example of how net neutrality rules would impinge users' rights and give big(ger) business an advantage.

This is not a net-neutral move by the Free.fr. Clearly some content is being treated differently than other content, based on source.

However, I think it's up to users (and by extension, the services they purchase) to decide how to handle web content. Users might or might not like this particular move, who knows. But it's up to them to keep using the ISP, or to change the setting in the router.

Under net neutrality law, should it exist, the ISP's move would be illegal, no? Which means that Google uses regulation to ensure delivery of its product. Incumbency protection.

In fact, look for Google to posit exactly this net neutrality claim. My preference is that Free.fr and Google fight for your affections.

<comment><USER17> My preference would be that my ISP not interfere with my traffic without my consent. It baffles me to find any other opinion expressed here.

<comment><USER18> Yeah, I was going to complain that this is really something that the user needs to be able to disable or otherwise opt out of. As it stands there's content filtering going on outside of user control which isn't a good thing at all (seriously, there's probably less controls on free.fr than the local police station)

<comment><USER17> The user can disable it, but screwing with the user's traffic shouldn't be the default in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Working in information security, I spent a good amount of time tracking down malware infections on our company's machines. While most of them are from email attachments, a good number of them source from ad servers that have been hijacked to serve malicious content.

I see a comment on Ars that says ad-based malware is overblown as a concern, and let me assure you it is not. Hijacked ad servers are an incredibly effective way to spread your malware across many unsuspecting users. If this was overblown, you wouldn't see so many people working so hard to find new browser 0-day exploits.

</comment><comment><USER19> I cant see this being a good thing for the internet industry. A lot of websites rely on advertising to keep their websites running.

Sure users can already do this, but that has been limited to a very small subset of users, and was always user choice. Automatically doing it for everyone through that isp is crazy.

I wonder how this could relate to censorship, first ads, what next? Just a thought...

<comment><USER20> I don't see the problem, it's just a switch in the settings, you can turn it off in one click.

<comment><USER21> The problem is that an ISP is altering legitimate content that it's supposed to serve to their customer by contract, that they took this decision unilaterally without suggesting a change in the contract, that the feature is opt-out, that this unilateral decision will reduce by ~10% the global revenue that companies can make from advertising to French internet users in 2013.

This is not a matter of being pro or anti adblocking, but rather about realizing how far the consequences of a default value can reach.

<comment><USER22> The modem is rented out by the ISP and it is their property -- this is not a clause in the contract that you signed. If it offends you then install your own modem.

<comment><USER5> Sure let's filter also porn by default, and anything that could be offending, or that might look like copyright infringement.

I think there are legitimate questions: at which point would it become not acceptable for you? who decides what is blocked? should it be enabled by default?

Also if the ISP is in the business of "editorializing" what the user sees, maybe it becomes actually responsible for the content (no safe harbor). That also seems like a dangerous game for them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I fear the response from advertisers, which will trigger a technology war that will eat endless computer cycles with complicated ad-content delivery networks.

An easy solution is to equate blocking AdSense with blocking Google.com. I am not sure why Google hasn't already taken this step.

</comment><comment><USER24> same story posted on <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5003525>

</comment><comment><USER25> Doesn't this violate the spirit (if not the letter) of net-neutrality principles?</comment>


Read Stoner Now - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/magazine/you-should-seriously-read-stoner-right-now.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I think this review does a great job of talking about this book in relationship to our cultural moment, heavily directed by Silicon Valley and the internet, about the question of living a life displayed. Because that's what we are encouraged to do. Blog us, Post for us, Make Videos, Dance for us, Mug for us, Twitter us, on and on.

Stoner suggests that this is not what matters, and I think the book is right. What matters is not what we display ourselves to be, but who we actually are. Almost the antithesis of the internet.

Anyways, Read Stoner.</comment>