Why are there so many crazy bums on San Francisco streets? - <AUTHOR> http://trythisroad.wordpress.com/2013/04/27/why-are-there-so-many-crazy-bums-on-sf-streets/

<comment><USER3> California accounts for nearly a quarter of the entire homeless population in the United States [1], largely due to its climate, its support programs, and its dense network of municipal services and population centers. Approximately 14% of all homeless in the US are military veterans, many of whom suffer from PTSD and were turned out of VA clinics in the 1970s and 1980s due to budget cutbacks. The article is correct in placing a lot of the blame on Reagan, who as governor of CA and president of the US, aggressively scaled back support for both veterans in specific, and the homeless in general. As the article mentions, he also closed a lot of psychiatric hospitals, whose inpatients were turned out onto the streets, left to their own devices. Reagan wasn't the only legislator responsible for this turn of events, but he was probably the most powerful.

Perhaps homelessness is inevitable to some degree. Perhaps some proportion of the population in a laissez-faire, competitive country like the modern US is always going to fall through the cracks. Perhaps we lack the will or the budget to solve the problem completely or permanently. Perhaps some people just can't be saved. I'm not going to launch into an armchair, pollyannaish prescription for solving this problem when I don't have a fantastic solution. (That said, I suspect the best long-term solution is at least as preventive as it is rehabilitative.)

Regardless, there's one thing we _can_ control on an individual level: the way we view and treat the mentally ill and the homeless. Let's not further the stigma, or wax poetic about the homeless in SF as some sort of quirky, fun landmark. I suspect that's not the author's intention -- he's setting out to celebrate the homeless, not to denigrate them -- but some of his language lends itself to misinterpretation. As someone with a close friend who's been homeless, and other friends who've been institutionalized, I don't find the "crazy bums" characterization very constructive.

[1] [https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/pit- hic_suppleme...](https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/pit- hic_supplementalaharreport.pdf)

<comment><USER4> My understanding is that the story of deinstitutionalization is a bit more complex: there was a movement in the 70s and 80s to have the mentally-ill returned to the community, instead of being treated in state institutions. However, many of the local facilities that the mentally ill were to receive treatment in were never actually established. At the same time, commitment laws were changed in many states, as part of a civil rights movement, to make it almost impossible to commit someone against their own will unless they were a physical danger to themselves or others.

Additionally, Reagan was never a legislator, but only served in an executive capacity, as Governor of California and as President of the US.

<comment><USER3> Fair points, especially about the commitment laws. And point noted about the use of the term "legislator" w/r/t Reagan. Good catch.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My mother was one of those "crazy bums". She spent the last 3 years of her life on the streets there.

She lived in the East Bay before, so when she finally lost it it was natural to migrate to the nearest large city where she could "live in peace" on the streets.

I think a key problem is not just that the mental institutions are closed, but that it's now impossible to detain them unless they are an immediate threat to themselves or to anybody else. So you can be very sick but if you aren't lying in a pool of your own blood or waving a knife or gun then you are free to do your own thing.

The way I would like to address this would be to build micro communities out in the sticks, fashioned as quasi-monasteries. The energy of the city is not healthy for these people and the programs eat up a lot of cash. My understanding is that SF spends ~$200M/year on homeless services.

<comment><USER6> Why did you let your mom live on the streets?

<comment><USER5> She was in a "care home" and checked herself out against doctor's orders. I wasn't in a position to have her live with me, and had been dealing with her illness for about 30 years and was, quite frankly, so frustrated and burnt out that I had given up.

I had _no_ resources to work with, what the hell was I to do?

Edit: I shared my story for 2 reasons. The first was to point out that these "bums" are somebody's family member -- it's easy to forget that. The other was the bit about rethinking what to do with them. I think the "monastery" approach is the most humane _and_ cost effective.

<comment><USER7> I don't have anything to say- but just wanted to post to say that you have no requirement whatsoever to defend your life circumstances to complete strangers on the internet for whom it is very easy to judge you, comfortably behind their screens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Don't forget Greyhound Therapy either! (Over which SF is currently suing the State of Nevada)

[http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/23/nevada- sued...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/23/nevada-sued-for- greyhound-therapy-for-mentally-ill-patients.html)

The history in this article is very interesting, but I always figured that the answer was more simple: (1) generous social programs compared to the country's norm, and (2) mild climate.

<comment><USER9> There's a great south park on that subject.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> One answer that I had heard was that it's been standard practice for various municipalities to buy vagrants one-way tickets to SF. (Don't know if it's true or apocryphal.)

(edit: TIL it is called "greyhound therapy" as described in brandur's comment: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6830558](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6830558))

That, combined with the mostly hospitable climate for homelessness, and the municipal tolerance for ... _unconventional_ ... lifestyles, would explain at least part of it.

Also, it's where the 60s "happened", so at least some of the head cases can be attributed to taking too many strange drugs.

<comment><USER11> The first estimates I found on Google show 130,000 homeless in California with 500-1,500 sent here via "greyhound therapy". It's not a small amount, but it's still only ~1% of the homeless population.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This article offers the best, most detailed explanation for why there are so many homeless in the streets of SF and why that's not going to change anytime soon: [http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/arise- tender...](http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/arise- tenderloin?page=2&src=longreads)

<comment><USER13> Wow, that article is fantastic, and provides an amazing degree of background and depth to the picture I'd already had of the TL. Thanks for linking to it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Life-long Boston area resident here. On my only visit to SF, what I observed was that the homeless people I saw were much more aggressive than their Boston counterparts. They were very much in the face of the people they were interacting with. Also, I saw a lot more of them. Weather? Generosity? I don't know.

</comment><comment><USER15> I guess there's just not enough $3,000 studio apartments in the Mission to go around.

</comment><comment><USER16> They are just javascript programmers who realized the truth sooner than others ...

</comment><comment><USER17> "food not bums"? i think you mean "food not bombs"

</comment><comment><USER18> 3 decades back ,in the state of Kerala in India,the govt built houses for the poor, under a scheme called Laksham Veedu(hundred thousand houses).Now, most of these houses are in a pathetic state due to lack of repair.Here is what the govt agency website says [http://www.kshb.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&v...](http://www.kshb.kerala.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=26:mn- laksham-veedu-renovation&catid=21:mn-laksham-veedu-renovation)

</comment><comment><USER19> I recall a period during my stint in SF where they started allowing drinking in the parks because "the homeless live in parks and should be allowed to drink at home"

I think they're there because they don't freeze and an idealistic population allows it.

<comment><USER20> Drinking alcohol in public places has always been illegal in San Francisco.

<comment><USER19> Perhaps it was police at the time deciding to take a less aggressive stance? This was ~15 years ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I had my first trip to SF last week. I knew ahead of time there was a problem of large numbers of homeless, and _some_ of the underlying reasons for it. Even though, I was completely unprepared for the sheer scale of the issue - <USER2> was way beyond anything I'd ever imagined. It felt like everywhere I looked there was at least 1, and often, if I looked again closer there were 2-3. Walking around some areas of Market Street felt intimidating as there was a virtual "gauntlet" of homeless to walk through.

It didn't really take away from my trip, but it was certainly an eye-opener. The links in this thread will be good further reading in preparation for my next visit!

</comment><comment><USER22> Vancouver (Canada) has a similar problem to SF. I think it's the climate, since compared to the rest of Canada it is quite mild. I think the causes here are different though, and mostly drug related, but someone with more knowledge can correct me.

</comment><comment><USER23> Because the political climate allows it.

Court rulings made crimes used to arrest homeless people illegal. That's why a ranting maniac can soil himself in the public library and not be booted. Back in ye olden days, the cops would arrest him and sober him up for a day or two.

Even with that, there are more homeless in San Francisco, and I'd say that it's a combination of opportunity, a sympathetic environment and the fact that it's a real life city! (Vs a car suburb)

</comment><comment><USER24> The author has quite a "Grapes of Wrath" style of writing.

[edit: Grammar. Oh, the irony.]

</comment><comment><USER25> Surely it's better asked as two questions. Why are bums often crazy, and why are so many in SF? Answer to the first part is pretty obvious and supposedly part of the answer to the second comes down to climate and buck-passing by other states.

</comment><comment><USER26> My initial impression of SF when I first visited in 2009, Damn, motherfuckers trying to be the "king of homeless"!

</comment><comment><USER27> San Francisco native here. We have homeless in San Francisco for the same reason that Burning Man is in the Black Rock desert and we have the Folsom Street Fair. We want to make it a little uncomfortable for the fussy intolerant people who tend to show up in this great city on a regular basis. I'm kidding, but only sort of. :)

</comment><comment><USER28> Toronto has a similar problem. It isn't just Regan.

</comment><comment><USER29> One possible answer:

[http://theprofoundprogrammer.com/post/31260129412/](http://theprofoundprogrammer.com/post/31260129412/)

<comment><USER30> What does that mean?

<comment><USER31> It seems he's saying/joking they're all failed startup founders.

<comment><USER29> Joking ... and getting downvoted into oblivion for it. Perhaps I struck a nerve? ;)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN:Free Feedback widget for websites - <AUTHOR>

Need to have reviews about feedbacker. URL: http://feedbacker.bakarbox.com/ <comment><USER2> Maybe you should allow people to mark out/highlight an area for feedback? the issue may not be obvious from a whole page screenshot. Other than that, nice.

<comment><AUTHOR> you mean google plus type??</comment></comment>


Limits on Matrix Multiplication - <AUTHOR> https://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2018/08/30/limits-on-matrix-multiplication/ <comment><USER2> I didn't see in the paper why these methods are not used in practice. There are parallel implementations of strassens algorithm out there (I have written one). Yes they are faster but they do not guarantee stability. Also they are significantly harder to parallelize than block cyclic MM.

<comment><USER3> _> There are parallel implementations of strassens algorithm out there_

Do you have one off the top of your head you could link the code too? Doesn't have to be your implementation specifically. I just want to read the code for a parallel implementation.

<comment><USER4> Parallel Strassens sounds like just a log2 n sequence of map-reduce jobs

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hope it is 2. That would be surprising.

<comment> dan-robertson I'm not sure it would be surprising if it's 2. Many people believe it is 2, or at least can be less than 2+epsilon for any epsilon > 0.

I would however be impressed if it were constructively proven to be 2

<comment><USER6> And the constant wasn't so huge as to be impractical.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What is the connection with the continued fraction?

</comment><comment><USER8> It seems that not very many mathematicians are working on optimizing this problem but matrix multiplication used every day by many people and companies.

Did we already exhaust economics of scale on this one?

<comment> dan-robertson Well most matrix multiplications tend to be small matrices (eg 4x4) and the time complexity of multiplying 4x4 matrices is O(1). These _are_ actively optimised in the practical, hand-written assembly and new hardware, sense.

If one has to multiply very large matrices then the goal is usually not so much to optimise matrix multiplication in general but to optimise the multiplication of the subset of matrices one is interested in. In these situations one cares about eg density and symmetry and choice of basis. There is a lot of information in a large random matrix and there is typically less information in an interesting large matrix. Therefore the goal is to skip the work required by all the entropy one does not have

<comment><USER9> This is no longer there case, given deep learning, though. Right? Effectively, the training process can be seen as a giant matrix multiplication in one step.

<comment> dan-robertson If deep learning we're just a big matrix multiplication then it would not be deep, it would be linear. The (eg sigmoid) functions mixed between the layers make it deep. I'm not really sure what it is about the training that you think is just a matrix multiplication.

It's also worth noting that eg a convolution can be written with matrix multiplication (or rather some tensor products and contraction but there would be much redundancy from the fact that distant points cannot influence each other and the same thing is done to each point in the convolution. This is much less general than matrix multiplication

<comment><USER10> If floating point values were real numbers, simple matrix multiplications would not produce nonlinearities.

However, researchers at OpenAI demonstrated that the use of subnormal floating point values and their discontinuity [0] provides sufficient nonlinearity to learn nonlinear associations.

[0] [https://blog.openai.com/nonlinear-computation-in-linear- netw...](https://blog.openai.com/nonlinear-computation-in-linear-networks/)

<comment><USER11> Then, would it be better to store rationals as 2 ints with understood division, and irrationals as 2 ints as understood powers?

Why are we working with these numbers so imprecisely, and with such discontinuity? When I've done math work in school, I always worked with the primitives without approximating.. 2^.5 was handled as such unless asked for an approximate answer.

I also ran across this in AutoCAD. Because they force arbitrary precision, one cannot define a sqrt length. 1.414 doesn't reach all the way on a r-triangle with 1,1 .

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The OP's WordPress install appears to be infected with malicious adware; every time I load the site I get quickly redirected to a random one of a number of scummy pages which hijack the back button, have autoplaying sound, display false error messages, and attempt to ask for browser-level permissions.

<comment><USER13> Why does the Ad industry suck so much?

Put some nicely formatted text such as Google ad results and clearly mention it as an ad. WHY the fuck do ad companies have to do insanely annoying borderline unethical things? Why is this industry so rotten to the core?

<comment><USER14> Because suckers who are not using not adblockers are the only market segment for these ads.

In this time and age, every computer literate person install adblocking in every system or asks someone to help to do it and almost nevers sees these ads. What is left is people who are more likely to fall for scams.</comment></comment></comment>


Patients' Drug Options Under Medicaid Heavily Influenced by Drugmakers - <AUTHOR> https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/07/18/629575118/medicaid-under-the-influence-how-drugmakers-sway-medication-options-for-patients <comment><USER2> Most of these drugs are just expensive patent medicines.

> Since Ramadan joined the committee, the drugs Invega Sustenna and Abilify > Maintena have always made the preferred list.

These two drugs are atypical antipsychotics. They are palliative drugs that are prescribed to hopefully prevent patients from further deterioration, but experience has shown they don't work very well [0].

Abilify's patent expired in 2014. Ability Maintena is a still-patented injected form of this drug that sells for $1000/injection.

Injected drugs of this class are used because patients don't appreciate Abilify's side effects (compulsive behavior, etc). When a court orders people to submit to their psychiatrist, the doctor doesn't have to care if the patient is actually being helped by their forced treatment.

[0] [https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/07/new-research- suggests-b...](https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/07/new-research-suggests- brain-abnormalities-schizophrenia-result-antipsychotic-drugs/)</comment>


Show HN: Garbage collector-sensitive trie in Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Kentik/patricia <comment><USER2> Almost enough to make an old C hound not hate on Go all the time.

(Full disclosure: Blake and I work for the same company)</comment>


Show HN: Connect your link in bio to multiple links - <AUTHOR> https://enter.bio <comment><USER2> This isn't providing multiple links. This is just giving me a place to put multiple links, while hijacking the location of my 'profile'.

I'll just go put my links on a personal web page, and call it good.</comment>


Americans – especially but not exclusively Trump voters – believe crazy things - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/12/28/americans-especially-but-not-exclusively-trump-voters-believe-crazy-wrong-things/ <comment><USER2> "Bob Woodward was born in Geneva, Illinois, in 1943. After graduating from Yale University in 1965 Woodward joined the U.S. Navy where he served as a communications officer for naval intelligence. Later, Woodward was assigned to Admiral Thomas Moorer, chief of naval operations.

Woodward left the service in 1970 and began his career in journalism on the Montgomery County Sentinel. The following year he joined the Washington Post.

On 17th June, 1972, Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker and James W. McCord were arrested while breaking into the Democratic Party campaign offices in an apartment block called Watergate. It appeared that the men had been to wiretap the conversations of Larry O'Brien, chairman of the Democratic National Committee."

You are absolutely right, Washington Post. For example, the story of how a Naval Intelligence officer right in the thick of things leaves it for a newbie job at the [http://www.thesentinel.com/](http://www.thesentinel.com/) (conveniently located in DC suburbs) and then lands a job in [https://www.washingtonpost.com/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/) (a mere one year later kids, so never give up ..) and then gets handed deep secrets of none other then the President of the United States by a dude codenamed "Deep Throat".

You are right. Not just Americans, most people are very gullible indeed.

<comment><USER3> "Deep Throat" was eventually revealed to be Mark Felt, AD of the FBI disgruntled about being passed over for the Directorate.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_%28Watergate%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Throat_%28Watergate%29)</comment></comment>


Show HN: We're releasing SoundBrush, an app that lets you draw music - <AUTHOR> http://getsoundbrush.com <comment><USER3> I use a lot (actually way too many) music creation apps. This looks really nice, but there are a few things that made me turn away after only a minute:

1) In order to use any instruments other than piano I need to like or share. I haven't even had a chance to build a song. As a user, I'm not comfortable enough to recommend your app to friends or endorse it.

2) There doesn't seem to be much available in terms of drums / bass. I might be missing something.

3) This is more of a nice to have, but customizing sounds through effects or parameters would be amazing and add to the diversity of sounds.

I really do love the interface. I think with a few changes you could be on to something great!

<comment><USER4> Do you have a recommendation for an app that I can use to make basic music for a game (think Ludum Dare level)? I'm not a music creator, but I want be able to create some sort of music without having to learn much about music creation.

<comment><USER3> The easiest one I've used is Figure ([http://www.propellerheads.se/products/figure/](http://www.propellerheads.se/products/figure/)). You'll probably want something on your desktop/laptop to pull everything together. Feel free to reach out if you'd like help with workflow.

I made this using mostly Figure and Garageband (to give you an idea of what can be done): [http://rickohalloran.bandcamp.com/](http://rickohalloran.bandcamp.com/)

<comment><USER5> +1 for Figure.

Looptastic HD is quite nice for putting something together with almost no effort.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am not musical. This app has not changed this. Everything I draw sounds like crap.

<comment><USER7> That's because it's chromatic; the smart thing would have been to let you pick a scale (a subset of the 12 notes that sound good together, and which are standardized)and then constrain your note input to that, using the inaccuracies in your drawing for expression.

Also, in-app purchases for individual sounds, no MIDI, and no audiobus? Sorry, total fail. No musician is going to buy this and no non-musician is going to be any better off with it.

Nsxwolf, I suggest a copy of Animoog (if you feel spendy) or Borderlands Granular (if not), either of which will allow you to enjoy a rich musical experience within certain limits by applying touch to other things besides chromatic sample playback.

<comment><AUTHOR> We actually do have the ability to constrain notes to a scale (the default for new songs is in fact C Major Pentatonic, not chromatic). We're also working on MIDI and other import/export options for future releases.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The 'music' category is one of the very few places left in the app store where you can actually charge a reasonable price for your work and still get traction. It's a shame to see something like this show up as a free app, especially with such granular IAPs as separate 'synth pads' and 'synth leads'. It smells a bit of the worst parts of free-to-play.

Also, you're risking a future rejection by requiring the camera when the app doesn't use it. Apple has a long history of pulling apps which request specific features that they don't use.

The interface is nice, an appealing take on the piano roll.

</comment><comment><USER9> I like the interface, and the marketing website / video did a great job of explaining the product.

</comment><comment><USER10> No offense. This looks nice for casual user and whatnot..

But I was expecting something actually _interesting_ like being able to draw waveforms like oramics. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oramics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oramics)

<comment><USER11> It would be neat to create a VST based on oramics, though I think OP's product is more of a DAW than a specific instrument.

<comment><USER10> Yeah a vst would be great! There is a thing for ithings already actually I have just discovered.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nice app. I find the overall color of UI elements to be a little too dark. Right now with a little room light reflections on my iPad I find it hard to see some parts of the UI.

The biggest issue I have is, unless it supports CoreMIDI that leaves anything I create trapped in the app and makes it much less interesting and useful to me as a music creation tool. It also rules out using it in conjunction with all the other music apps out there. I would really encourage looking into this and it is something I would probably pay for to enable.

Also I don't (and won't) use Facebook so that rules out any sharing, etc... for me. I'm not opposed to sharing features at all, I just won't use Facebook to do so.

edit: a word

<comment><AUTHOR> We're definitely planning MIDI export and possible CoreMIDI support, stay tuned! The new Inter-App Audio in iOS7 also looks interesting...

In terms of sharing, Facebook definitely isn't required - you can email the song to your friends or you can upload it to our Discover service and share the link.

<comment><USER12> ok, I see that Facebook isn't required now but it wasn't completely obvious to me. When I tapped "create", it still showed the login via Facebook button and that confused me that it was asking to create a Facebook account. Maybe a carefully placed "Or" would make it clearer.

Inter-App audio as well as Audiobus (since it has so much traction) support would also be nice.

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the feedback, we'll take a look into making that clearer

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Had fun playing with it. Trying to play [http://i.imgur.com/ArXK5rW.png](http://i.imgur.com/ArXK5rW.png) didn't go so well, it exited after one or two notes.

</comment><comment><USER14> I haven't tried your app, but from the video it seems you have those discrete notes. Have you though about having a sort of continuous time/frequency domain? I guess you could do that with an Inverse Wavelet transform or Inverse Short Time FT with logarithmic frequency scaling. I'm assuming your sounds are synthesized, not recorded.

Another idea - how about making a part of the app sort of "real time" (or short delay), like an instrument? Seems it would take the intuitiveness and freshness of gesturing to a whole new level.

<comment><AUTHOR> Those are some great ideas. We actually do have a realtime component - <USER2> note labels on the left side can be played like a piano without messing up your drawing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Reminds me of SoundBow [0].

0: [http://www.binaura.net/stc/wrx/soundbow/](http://www.binaura.net/stc/wrx/soundbow/)

<comment><USER16> Hyperscore was my first thought

[https://hyperscore.wordpress.com/](https://hyperscore.wordpress.com/)

Though in the intervening years (6 shit!) it appears to have gone from a cute mit tech demo to a commercial application.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Just downloaded it - beautiful app! I also love the intro video - slick and professional, but gets straight to the point and gives an excellent overview of how the app works.

</comment><comment><USER18> Looks quite good.

Can you tell us how long it took to develop and challenges or technologies used.

(I know this sounds like a job interview question but I'm actually quite curious :-)

</comment><comment><USER19> It looks awesome, however I'm very hesitant to download free apps at this point. I would rather buy something for $5 or $10, because then I have more confidence I'm not going to have popups or have to endorse or recommend it for rewards or something.

I still don't mind in-app-purchases. Free always sets off warning bells though.

</comment><comment><USER20> I've recently started to compose music, and nothing beats the simple notation software like TuxGuitar. I don't even attempt to use any other complicated software. Note I'm only talking about composing, not effects and mixing.

But a very impressive looking software and very cool introduction video. And a good composition too!

</comment><comment><USER21> Looks really cool. Too bad SoundBrush is already the name of Roland's app for their 'GS' MIDI extension. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_GS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_GS)

(Not that most people would notice.)

</comment><comment><USER5> This looks promising. It would be nice if you could constrain single strokes to only play single notes simultaneously — as it is you often get very discordant hits when a line gets steep.

I also wish you could draw strokes when zoomed out.

My daughter loves playing with the app.

</comment><comment><USER22> Ok so its a piano roll sequencer with nice chrome and a locked set of mildly acceptable instruments. Sorry but this just isn't overly exciting to me in its current state.

Unlock all the instruments, add MIDI and charge for it. Then we're talking

</comment><comment><USER23> Lovely execution. This is the type of app that I feel Bret Victor is talking about, allowing you to explorer and create in new ways with immediate feedback.

The disappointing part is seeing that this is an iPad only app.

<comment><USER24> I'm sorry that we're iPad only, but you won't believe how large SoundBrush is, and how small our dev team is (just the two founders). We're right now strained for resources, but hopefully that won't be so later on.

<comment><USER23> I completely understand, best of luck to you guys!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Impressive interface!

What I would love: When tapping a note for the second time would make it disappear. Currently, when Im trying stuff, I constantly switch between the piano set and the eraser. Thats pretty tiresome.

</comment><comment><USER26> Unfortunately you need a fairly new Android phone to be able to pull something like this off. I wish Android didn't take so long to fix the audio latency issue.

</comment><comment><USER27> Slick UI and cool concept. One comment on the website: the "share & discover" section is jumbled on Chrome

<comment><USER24> hmm... that's interesting, we use chrome for our web dev, so I'll take a look at that. Thanks for the heads up. But can you tell us what system you're on?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> It's a shame it won't install on my iPad 1 -- the required camera seems like more of a frill.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, it's less of the camera and more of the iPad 1's processing power and memory. We do have an iPad 1 in the dev office - but no matter what we tried, we couldn't get it to run properly on it. Sorry, but this is something we probably won't be able to support in the future.

<comment><USER28> Fair enough! Good luck with it, it looks neat.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The video is awesome! Looks like the app is free? What's the $$$ plan?

<comment><AUTHOR> The app is free to download and includes all functionality and 1 free instrument. You can get additional instruments by liking us on Facebook and tweeting, or through in-app purchases

<comment><USER7> I would like to recommend it to my fellow electronic musicians, but with such restrictions it is literally not worth the time. Make a lite version that presents the interface and 2 or 3 instruments simultaneously, and a premium one that just unlocks everything. There's a huge variety of electronic music software on the iPad, and musicians don't have the patience to be nickel-and- dimed.

<comment><USER30> In my experience with iOS music apps, most of them use IAP. YMMV.

<comment><USER7> I guess I'm biased towards the more pro end, though some pro SW like Animoog does that too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Probably one of the best video introduction I've seen in a while!

</comment><comment><USER32> Been playing with this for 10 mins now...awesome concept. Instant fan!

</comment><comment><USER33> Very cool, love the fusion of music creation and touch gestures!

</comment><comment><USER34> Would love to see Dropbox integration for backup and sharing :)

<comment><USER24> So would we! No promises on feature release date, but we would love to get it into our user's hands ASAP!

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Really cool app. Are you planning to add an iPhone version?

</comment><comment><USER36> This is a really neat idea. Great app, and great execution!

<comment><USER37> Great execution, old idea. It's the basic piano roll most midi editors had in the early 90s, or even before.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Its amazing what a good video can do to sell an app.

</comment><comment><USER39> HHmm reminds me of fruity loops

</comment><comment><USER40> very nice. now if it could only export notated music...</comment>


Bitcoin Cash Litigation "Response to Complaint" Countdown Timer - <AUTHOR> https://www.bitcoincashlitigation.com/ <comment> k-ian uh. what? what exactly is the crime here? from the presentation:

"The lawsuit moves against multiple defendants: Bitcoin.com, Roger Ver, Bitmain Inc. Bitmain Technologies LTD. Bitmain Technologies Holding Company, Jihan Wu, The Kraken LLC, Jesse Powell, Amaury Sechet, Shammah Chancelor and Jason Cox. This legal action will seek to prove that specific key actors, including some of the biggest US-based and international names and entities in the digital currency world, have been operating with the support of the Chinese government to centralize the Bitcoin cash network resulting in Chinese entities now having established dominance over this important segment of the cryptocurrency market with proprietary software checkpoints and instituting other means of control over the system."

The lawsuit is almost equally vague, talking about "hijacking the Bitcoin Cash network, centralizing the market, and violating all accepted standards...". Later on the lawsuit document goes into the ABC/SV split and how this has led to a lower value for both chains.

The plantiff is apparently some company behind "the development of a low cost, rapid deployment solution for operation of cryptocurrency mining – the BlockchainDome. The BlockchainDome is a passive "cooling ground-coupled heat- exchanger"..." basically sounds like they use excess energy from chimneys to mine bitcoin (and bitcoin cash)

</comment><comment><USER2> What's the summary, here? A civil lawsuit in and of itself means nothing to a spectator.</comment>


Lack of freemium support hurts the iPhone ecosystem - <AUTHOR> http://iphone.broadersheet.com/2009/10/freemium-and-the-iphone/

<comment><USER2> I disagree with the conclusion of the article. Right now, I try free apps often, and upgrade to the paid versions a reasonable fraction of those tries. If Apple allowed billing from within iPhone applications, it would make me uncomfortable about downloading new apps to try them out. I haven't even considered the AT&T GPS thing precisely because of the stealth billing/continuous billing involved. A la carte purchasing of an application's features might bring more revenue to a few developers, but it would decrease the revenue of the entire ecosystem.</comment>


Google's 'bro culture' meant routine sexual harassment of women, suit says - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/28/google-lawsuit-sexual-harassment-bro-culture <comment><USER2> "Shooting nerf balls"</comment>


Configuration Drift and Next-gen Configuration Management - <AUTHOR> http://blog.lusis.org/blog/2012/05/24/configuration-drift-and-next-gen-cm/

<comment><USER2> Lately I've been thinking about the concept of config management, and I've come to some conclusions:

1) Configuration management has the same problem object oriented programming and imperative programming have: state is intermixed with identity and behavoiur. This makes it more difficult to reason about.

2) Configuration management is too low level: One should not describe the state of configuration to keep, but the desided behavoiur of the system. The configuration part should be automatically derived.

3) Configuration management breaks locality: If a config manager is running, the point of change of the system is not in the config files anymore. If I have a problem and the documented solution tells me to change a particular configuration, an additional step is added toward the solution. Also, if something doesn't work as expected, configuration management must be additionally investigated as a possible source for the problem.</comment>


Best Practices for Software Testing? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking for advice on how to flesh out and standardise our testing processes as our testing/DevOps team expands<p>I'm currently using VSTS to keep track of all of our feature requests/bugs but I'm not sure if we want to use this for testing too? <comment> chupa-chups I don't think the tool to track bugs matters much.

I'd recommend focusing on:

* intuitive testing: taking the perspective of the customers, explore the product: what does not work as expected? File bugs

* automated testing: make sure user-relevant aspects are covered by automated tests

* use integration tests where UI automation is not easily possible to make sure that if a regression occurs it is easily fixable (since the functionality upon it is based is trusted and working)

* use unit test for the lowest level to make sure edge cases and coverage are considered

After that, focus on tooling.</comment>


Honeybee brains seem to use alpha waves similarly to primate brains - <AUTHOR> https://www.zmescience.com/science/honeybee-brains-alpha-waves/ <comment><USER3> I think many insects are far smarter than we have assumed.

Bumblebees can learn to pull a string to receive a reward [1]. But maybe that's just blind conditioning? Well if another bumblebee watches it happen from behind a glass wall, it can perform the task without being trained at all [2].

1: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSCr5OxXN1A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSCr5OxXN1A) 2: [https://faunalytics.org/bumblebee-school-learning-and- teachi...](https://faunalytics.org/bumblebee-school-learning-and-teaching-by- example/)

And of course Portia spiders show remarkable memory, planning, and on-the-spot flexibility in hunting strategies. Also they can do the same kind of counting that many human cultures do: 1, 2, and many.

[https://phys.org/news/2017-07-spiders.html](https://phys.org/news/2017-07-spiders.html)

<comment><USER4> Sounds like an instance of Clarke's first law: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

Over and over again we've assumed that something simply isn't possible for creatures other than humans to do, and over and over again we've eventually discovered that we're not that unique after all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> "In 1929 Hans Berger discovered the alpha oscillations: prominent, ongoing oscillations around 10 Hz in the electroencephalogram of the human brain. These alpha oscillations are among the most widely studied brain signals, related to cognitive phenomena such as attention, memory and consciousness. However, the mechanisms by which alpha oscillations affect human cognition await demonstration. Here, we suggest the honey bee brain as an experimentally more accessible model system for investigating the functional role of alpha oscillations. We found a prominent spontaneous oscillation around 18 Hz that is reduced in amplitude upon olfactory stimulation. Similar to alpha oscillations in primates, the phase of this oscillation biased both timing of neuronal spikes and amplitude of high-frequency gamma activity (40–450 Hz). These results suggest a common role of alpha oscillations across phyla and provide an unprecedented new venue for causal studies on the relationship between neuronal spikes, brain oscillations and cognition."

</comment><comment><USER6> Admittedly I'm very pedestrian when it comes to neurology. But my understanding is that much like the bands of the EM spectrum (radio, ir, visible etc), the bands of brain waves (alpha, beta, gamma etc) are just human imposed categorizations. There's no real dividing line. Eg you won't find a lack of brain wave frequencies right on the borderline between alpha and beta.

I think it is fairly obvious that brain waves on the 10Hz scale must be useful for processing / reacting to / controlling phenomena that happen on 1/10th of a second time scales. The shorter the time scale, the higher the relevant frequency. In my rank speculation, bees have "alpha" waves because something they do happens to be on that time scale.

I doubt there is some cognitive mechanism to consciousness that humans, bees, and no other species has in common.

<comment><USER5> Oh, the key signal processing idea is this: alpha is the dominant frequency band (highest amplitude, most resonant frequency). The other bands are roughly harmonic doublings or halvings of alpha. That is how the brain couples different time scales together -- it can synchronize gamma cycles to the beat of alpha. It's like music, then, for integrating different rhythms together.

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030439401...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030439401930504X)

<comment><USER6> Well that's interesting but raises a big question for me. Why does the brain need to couple different time scales together? Why should my breathing rate be a multiple of my typing rate. What does synchronizing processes at different time scales accomplish?

<comment><USER5> Generally speaking, information integration is entropy reduction, which is essential for life.

As for what it accomplishes, think of how walking is a large rhythm involving the synchronization of many smaller rhythmic units. Or how perception of an object involves the integration of many small textures and elements into a whole. If those textures can be viewed as rhythms (FFT everything), it's another practical example of what synchronizing processes accomplishes.

Singer has evidence that seeing objects as a whole uses 40hz inhibitory interneurons to synchronize the firing of features associated with a different object. So, another object would have a different 40hz phase. In that way, the synronizing creates wholes from different parts.

<comment><USER6> Next question. If the background illumination of a room were blinking at 40Hz (Eg florescent light bulbs on 40Hz AC power), would that interfere with my visual perception? If not why not?

<comment><USER5> It probably would, because i believe objects blinking at 40hz facilitate certain motor responses. "In addition, it has been shown in humans that stimuli which flicker at gamma frequencies are processed faster by our brains than when they flicker at different frequencies" [1]

I'm super curious whether 40hz line AC might not be healthier for aging populations. Or 80hz. [2]

[1] [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/38134861_Human_EEG_...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/38134861_Human_EEG_responses_to_1-100_Hz_flicker_resonance_phenomena_in_visual_cortex_and_their_potential_correlation_to_cognitive_phenomena)

[2] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6700637/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6700637/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Aren't these frequencies merely defined by the rate of chemical reactions that occur between neurons (eg. how fast action potentials get generated and travel)?

If that's true, it seems that this study points in the direction that bees and primates have similar neurotransmission for the brain regions studied.

<comment><USER8> This is less true than you might think. While the main neurotransmitters are the same serotonin conveys different signals in mammalian and insect brains. Additionally these chemical reactions are modulated by the cells and a long period wave like alpha is related to more macro scale connectivity. The fact that a similar macro pattern emerges is not guaranteed by the fact that a neuron is a neuron. As a metaphor water molecules are identical but a snowflake and a raindrop are totally different in their material properties.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Bees are dead stupid, though. They have varroa mites sucking their juices and don't even do anything about it. That's like if half your family had cat-sized vampires stuck to their sides and you all went about your business as usual.

"Hey Mom, how are you doing? You look pale. Must be that fat vampire that's been sucking your blood this past week. I have one too now, though - <USER2> kinda cool! Oh well, gotta go, see ya!"

And whole bee hives actually get destroyed by those mites. Arrgh. So don't talk about the intelligence of those buggers. They're brain-dead where it matters.

<comment><USER10> That's a fun visual and I never knew about it, but can't help but immediately think about the 'Hey Mom! How are you doing? You look obese. Your arteries are completely clogged.' analogy of self-destruction in humans, even though it's not a great comparison. But I think aliens or a higher power or some more evolved species would look at many things humans do - or don't do - and think we're brain dead.

I think it's about the idea that blindspots are obvious to everyone but the being with that particular blindspot.

<comment><USER11> That's true, but I don't think we have to wait for Aliens, may be within couple of decades we gonna think how stupid we are to overdose on sugar and sugary drinks.

<comment><USER12> > within couple of decades

We already do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does that mean that Bees brains can think together like a group due to the longer wave length of Alpha waves? Ie are their thinking linked? I am thinking like short wave radio which travels long distance, vs High frequency radio which travels short distance.

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

</comment><comment><USER14> I wonder, has anyone attempted to study whether any aspect of decision-making or reasoning fall along this frequency range? Waves could be something like a CPU clock cycling. Which may affect neuron function globally, representing different mental states like sleep.</comment>


With Paid Leave, Gates Foundation Says There Can Be Too Much of a Good Thing - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/upshot/paid-parental-leave-sweet-spot-six-months-gates.html <comment><USER2> Something that's bugged me a long time about paid leave is the wrong group is paying it.

The company paying means the company has a strong incentive to minimize how much of it is used. They don't really receive any benefit for paying out leave, it costs them a lot, both financially and in terms of work done. It creates strong incentives to discriminate against people who might take the leave in hiring process, to subtly retaliate against people who take leave, and so on. (Yes, all those are illegal, but proving that a hiring manager is doing so is next to impossible in all but the most egregious cases)

The whole "people might not come back" thing is just another instance of the misaligned incentives. It's probably good for society if we have people raising their own children, but it's bad for the employer who is currently expected to pay leave.

We should take all of this entirely out of companies hands, run it through taxes and the government (leaving the general payout scheme unchanged). It would remove the worst of the misaligned incentives (now at least companies aren't paying someone who isn't producing value for them) and should come at minimal cost (you'd have to worry more about fraud, companies and people conspiring to get more leave than they are entitled to).

<comment><USER3> I believe the company is less concerned with paying someone who isn't working - which is basically just a fixed cost they can absorb - than they are about the lost productivity while that person is gone. That may or may not be replaceable, and often is not for shorter time spans (say, up to a couple of months). Unfortunately, the government paying for leave wouldn't fixed that misaligned incentive.

<comment><USER4> If a company is not profiting from their work more than their absence, that says little for the empolyee. Training is often estimated to be nearly a year of pay in functional terms. I think you underestimate the impact of a lost employee.

<comment><USER5> Not everything a worker does provides immense leverage like software development. Many times it is 1:1 with hours worked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The downside of long paid leave, apparently, is that women are more likely to become full-time parents rather than re-enter the workforce. Is it fair to say that this makes long paid leave a bad thing? It seems wrong for me to consider a woman's life choices bad one way or another (whether they choose to re-enter the workforce or not). An organization is cutting benefits to try socially engineer a certain demographic outcome. I'm not sure if that action is something to be commended.

<comment><USER7> Paying parents to take leave is a form of social engineering to begin with. Once you're already engaged in social engineering, it's important to consider the impacts that alternative social engineering policies will have.

"Life choices," moreover, don't happen in isolation. They happen within a broader social context. My wife and I basically have the same job--we're attorneys of similar seniority at corporate law firms. Over the years, she has faced so many more headwinds related to parenting than me. People stop my wife on the street to remark about how our 5 month old is dressed (warmly enough, etc.). I could stroll him down the street in nothing but a diaper in 40 degree weather and people would either offer to help or tell me how I'm such a good dad for not immediately ditching my family when he was born. (I'm joking but only a little bit.)

(One of the neat things about "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is that it shows how it was socially acceptable for rich people in the 1950s-1960s to completely delegate parenting. In 1965, 70% of kids were not breastfed even in the hospital. It's much more socially acceptable for women to work these days, but in some respects the expectations for "mothering" are much higher. Decisions about whether to return to work are made in the context of these differential social expectations.)

<comment><USER6> I agree that any form of paid parental leave is in part a form of social engineering. But I clearly see the benefit of it: to encourage people to have children. This is beneficial because developed countries face the demographic challenge of an ageing population.

But the question I am asking is, between a couple taking a year of leave and one (usually the woman) decides to become a full time parent vs. a couple takes 6 months leave to have a kid and both stay in the workforce. Why is the latter better than the former?

My first thought was that it would improve gender imbalance, but the article states that Gates Foundation employees are two thirds women. So that's out the window.

So the only other justifications require subscription to the belief that a woman who chooses to become a full time parent isn't as good a thing one that stays in the workforce. Sure, the latter improves a country's labor pool. But there's a lot of intangible benefits of having a full time parent. It seems kind of manipulative to cut workers' benefits and try and justify it because it makes more women keep working, when the evidence seems to be that many would have chosen differently if the benefits weren't cut.

<comment><USER7> As you acknowledge, it's usually the woman that takes the longer leave. Part of that is free choice. But part of it is also that women have lower opportunity costs to taking leave, and higher opportunity costs to staying in the workforce. A couple might realize that a woman will face additional headwinds to achieving seniority in her employment, since as you go up the ladder management tends to be disproportionately men. Moreover, a women will also face more headwinds for doing less mothering in order to continue in her career. Longer parental leave amplifies the effect of that pre-existing differential treatment, which is a downside to be accounted for.

<comment><USER6> > Moreover, a women will also face more headwinds for doing less mothering in > order to continue in her career.

I'm not sure how cutting parental leave eliminates pr reduced these headwinds. It seems to me that it's deliberately putting more financial pressure on women to tolerate those headwinds. Not eliminating those headwinds. Women's choice is strictly less with 6 months of paid leave as compared to 1 year. Women have the choice to take 6 months of leave instead of the full year (the article mentions that they use 77% on average).

It still seems like this is trying to justify limiting women's choices and benefits, because it makes more of them work.

<comment><USER7> It reduces this headwinds in the long term. Girls raised by working moms are more likely to have careers, earn more money, and hold supervisory positions: [https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/kids-benefit-from-having-a- workin...](https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/kids-benefit-from-having-a-working-mom). That, in turn, reduces gender inequality for the next generation.

<comment><USER6> > Girls raised by working moms are more likely to have careers, earn more > money, and hold supervisory positions.

Note that "reduced headwinds" isn't one of these. Countries with high rates of mothers in the workforce don't necessarily have more flexible gender roles. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have the highest rates of working mothers, but have some of the strongest workplace segregation.

It's also a largely circular justification: more working mothers are better because their daughters are more likely to become working mothers. Again, this only functions as a justification for those that subscribe to the belief that working mothers are categorically better than non-working mothers.

My original point, from which we have diverged significantly by now, is that this article and many in this thread seem to believe that working mothers are categorically better than full time mothers. This seems to have led us to respond positively to measures that increase the former, even when those measures are coercive (in this case, cutting benefits and putting more financial burden on mothers).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Average total tenure at companies is around 2.8 years for people between 25-34 ([https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwi7ourz7YngAhXwUt8KHWRtCzgQFjADegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw15P5oks9e6CjAJqrih6vsV&cshid=1548451107850)).

If you have 1 year off for parental leave, and probably months before and after to hand off work and take it back up, that would be almost half the job tenure on parental leave efforts.

That's rough for the company and the employee.

<comment><USER9> Paid parental leave should accrue over time. That solves the issue in a way that is reasonably fair to the employee and business.

An employee with no interest in having children should also accrue parental leave, which can be cashed in in some manner. That keeps the system from being unfairly biased against people with no interest in having children.

The only alternative is to socialize the matter fully. Take the average salary from the prior N years and the government then pays for the parental leave out of taxes. That would also require all workers to pay into the system. One issue would be how to make it fair for people that never draw against that system. It would also take about five minutes before the first stories started showing up about how people earning $300,000 per year were being paid large sums by the government for parental leave. I suppose there could be an attempt to scale it based on pay as a percentage of income.

Entitlement systems are always fraught with edge cases though. Both of my parents died before they were able to draw social security, despite paying into the system for a combined ~70-80 years. That money was stolen from them by a flawed system.

<comment><USER10> thats simply stupid. So ppl should get children at 50, when they have acruued parental leave?

People should get parental leave when they need it..

<comment><USER9> > thats simply stupid.

Is that really all you have to offer?

> So ppl should get children at 50, when they have acruued parental leave

The very obvious flaw in your "thats simply stupid" conclusion is incorrectly speculating on how fast I think parental leave should accrue. Why would it take decades to accrue? N months per year, then cap it at a reasonable maximum until or unless it's used, with the accrued time/value persisting (which could have benefits for grandparents, people that adopt at older ages, and so on).

<comment><USER10> I think its funny that ppl (mostly Americans), try and invent complicated new ways of doing things like this, instead of using how 90% of the civilised world does it.

Accrued Paid Paternity Leave, wouldnt work because of these reasons.

What if you get pregnant "by accident"?

What if you want to change jobs/company?

What if you get fired?

The rest of the world, solves this by having the leave not directly paid for by the employer, but by a fund. This also means that female employees, are more or less "risk free" for employers, as the leave, is not a direct expense.

This fund is paid into, by all employers, for about 43USD pr quarter pr Employee. (Danish figures). That small amount means 28 weeks of fully paid paternity leave for all. (After that, you get a smaller amount, based on sallary but capped)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What I don't get is, why don't they make a study on how first world countries do it, see which ones are having trouble, see which ones are thriving (France I think), implement trials in a few states, see what's what, then go from there. Bill Gates' opinion on this shouldn't matter.

</comment><comment><USER12> IMO this should be woman's (or man's if man is staying at home with the kids) choice, and their choice alone. And paid leave should be at least 2 years, even if partially paid. The job market hasn't been this tight in 50 years, now would be a good time to introduce longer paid family leaves.

<comment><USER13> Two years seems absolutely absurd on many levels.

<comment><USER14> It is not absurd. We have (I think partially-)paid 2-year parental-leave here in Romania and people and companies manage just fine. Of course, not all of the involved people choose to stay for the whole two years at home, but I have lots of former colleagues and acquaintances that did just that and they were more than ok, even more than that, the companies hiring them managed to stay in business, even if they weren't owned by successful business people like Bill Gates. 6-month only parental-leave is a joke, no parental-leave is barbarous.

<comment><USER15> Six months? My wife and I receive exactly as many paid days as we have saved up PTO. So, about three weeks each. Any time after that is unpaid, but we're protected from being fired for three months.

<comment><USER14> This sounds so wrong to me, and I don't even have kids yet. Until issues like this one aren't resolved then the inequality between men and women (in wages, management positions) will continue to remain the same, no matter the media rhetoric, for the simple fact that many women will choose not to go back to work (it's mostly women that make that sacrifice).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> No-one on this thread has mentioned breast feeding. The WHO recommends exclusively breast feeding a child for 6 months, and to continue until they are at least 2 years old. I understand that this is not possible or desirable for many parents, but the choice to do so should be available.

No surprise that even the most socially responsible companies in the US are skewed towards the extreme low end of parental leave allowance relative to other countries.

US employment law doesn't incentivise long term employment full stop, so little wonder some on here find it hard to understand why it is worth paying employees to come back.

<comment><USER17> There is nothing wrong with bottle feeding. Some children do not breast feed well, some do. You should just go with what works.

<comment><USER18> Formula can be consistently made. The "breast milk is best" argument depends on cherry-picked breast milk.

Is it still better than formula if Mom drinks or has some health problem? Stuff passes into breast milk. If Mom takes an ibuprofen, into the breast milk it goes.

Can HIV pass through breast milk? No clear answer:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8826332](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8826332)

If you look at the scientific arguments about how breast milk is better, they revolve around hair-splitting. Like increased risk of necrotising enterocolitis in pre-term babies.

<comment><USER19> Your post is mommy-shaming FUD.

Ibuprofen is considered safe to take while breastfeeding. A brief web search didn't turn up any concerning evidence (maybe you know of some?). There are some medicines which concentrate in breastmilk, but ibuprofen is not one of them.

Women who need certain prescription medicines, are undergoing chemotherapy, have HIV or certain other viral diseases, have had significant lead exposure, etc. are clearly warned not to breastfeed.

Mom has to drink alcohol extremely heavily on a regular basis to make a serious problem for a breastfeeding baby.

Alcohol content in breastmilk is roughly comparable to blood alcohol content. 3 drinks and it's like 1 part in 1000. I wouldn't advise breastfeeding women to drink several drinks at a time, but more for their own health than their infant's – if mom loses motor control, becomes belligerent, starts making poor choices, etc. that isn't great for her family. People in general should use alcohol sparingly, but new mothers don't deserve any special scorn for drinking.

At worst, some studies suggest that babies drink less on average in a breastfeeding session immediately after the mother was drinking, presumably because the taste is strange.

The dangerous one for the baby is not a mother drinking while breastfeeding, but regular or heavy drinking during early pregnancy. The period of time when alcohol can have the most severe negative effects often comes before a woman realizes she is pregnant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Question: Does this work for both parents? That is, in theory, both parents are eligible for a year (or six months?) of paid leave? Might it be possible to not have both parents take the time simultaneously? That is, one parent takes the first six months then the other parent the second six?

Mind you, that takes some coordination, but it's not impossible, is it?

</comment><comment><USER21> I think paid leave is just plain immoral. It is up to the parent to evaluate how much they care for their child vs foregone salaries. Paid leave is just a distortion: it makes employees and employers dance around a topic that is not in the employers business.

How can you correctly price how much the time with your kid is worth if you get gifted money for inflating it?

The worst part of this debate is that its a constant pull between two players that understand the same policy in different ways: employees think they are getting free money, but in reality the employer distributes the cost from one employee to the others. (ie. if you have a budget for 10 employees, and you make employees 10% more expensive, now you get 9 employees).

So employees ask for something thinking its in their benefit, and employers are thinking "as long as the competition gets hurt as much as we do, we don't care".

And to add insult to injury, its the richest of the richest that get the longest paid leave benefits, longest pto, etc etc, mostly to reduce tax burden.

<comment><USER16> > I think paid leave is just plain immoral. It is up to the parent to evaluate > how much they care for their child vs foregone salaries.

This is delusional or dangerous thinking. Are you an ultra privileged & sheltered young man? You do realise that even if a parent chooses to work, they have to pay someone for childcare?

<comment><USER21> Quite the opposite, form a very unsheltered life. It is the sheltered people that want to get paid leave, which is why the highest income workers are the ones that get the most paid leave of all.

> You do realise that even if a parent chooses to work, they have to pay > someone for childcare?

That is an argument against paid leave: if a worker takes up the "nanny job" for their own son, they are capturing 100% of the value they do. No need to pay them twice for it.

<comment><USER16> > It is the sheltered people that want to get paid leave

The sheltered people in your life. Are they the ones that have mortgages?

<comment><USER21> The unsheltered people of my life don't have stable salaries or jobs, dont even imagine what paid leave is. The ones with 6 figure salaries are the ones on paid leave. Still anecdotal, but im pretty sure you will find that most paid leave is taking by people that dont need it. The ones that need it the most dont have stable jobs or benefits.

<comment><USER16> Would like like to reword your first answer to take into account your last answer?

Also, my bad - not sure where you live but it sounds horrifying. I can't believe there is somewhere in the world where people on 6 figure salaries are the only ones with access to basic employment benefits, and those less fortunate have no government provided safety net (now that sounds morally bankrupt to me).

I'm curious as well to find out if there are any people considered to be in the middle classes? Say...two full time earners taking in less than 6 figures, for instance? Is that a rarity in your country?

>im pretty sure you will find that most paid leave is taking by people that dont need it.

Not where I'm from, no. Most of the people I know that take paid leave are families where both parents need to continue to work to cover cost of living.

<comment><USER21> > not sure where you live but it sounds horrifying

San Francisco, US.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The important number in here is that only 16% of American workers have access to paid time off. Many people are considering whether twelve days is too much before the loss of income causes serious problems, debating the ideal length seems like a less important issue.

</comment><comment><USER23> Is the framing of this article normal in the US? Until a single paragraph at the end it reads like women are the sole parent. Also the complete lack of perspective of seeing parental leave as an end in itself, rather than some career crippling modernity.

</comment><comment><USER17> Unpopular opinion: Extended paternal leave is unnecessary in most cases. I took one week off (my choice) for the birth of my son and it was plenty. My second is on the way and I will probably do likewise.

</comment><comment><USER24> >> The average cost to provide center-based licensed child care for an infant in the United States is $1,230 per month.

It's interesting, how is it in other countries?

</comment><comment><USER25> How soon those feel good foundations go from low infrastructure toilets, to risky gene drive research, to economic proscriptions.

</comment><comment><USER26> It's going to be difficult to have this discussion without deriding the state of affairs in the US, especially in comparison to the rest of the world. I'm Canadian, so my points are through that lens.

The Gates Foundation is a private entity, so they're free to make whatever HR decisions they see fit. Realistically, 6 months of paid leave is still very generous compared to what's legally mandated. And their justification for reducing it from 12 months makes sense when you look at it from their perspective. They have work to do, and it's disruptive to have new parents leave, and be paid to do work that is unrelated.

Which is exactly why it's a shared financial burden when you look at other countries with paid parental leave. The benefit of paying a parent to take care of a new child is not seen directly by the parent's employer. Instead, that benefit is seen by the rest of society, insofar as the child is properly taken care of.

I'm a new parent, my son just turned 5 months. My wife is taking 18 months of paid leave, since that's become an option here in Canada. It comes at a reduced payout rate (i.e the same money you'd get if you took 12 months, but spread out over 18 months), so my wife has not met another mom who has taken 18 months. Furthermore, our new budget is adding 5-8 weeks of secondary parental leave that is only available to the other caregiver/parent.

There is a _lot_ to do when a new baby arrives. Realistically, even though I didn't take time off, my productivity dropped, since I did my best to help out as my wife adjusted and healed. Furthermore, there is a _lot_ to do as our son grows, to ensure he grows and learns enough to enter the education system by age 4. To turn him into a productive, functioning adult is 18+ years of work. As a society, we're asking every parent to make a significant investment in our future.

Therefore, it makes much more sense to socialize the cost. Paid parental leave should be provided by the government, not (directly) by the employer. And that support shouldn't just end at some arbitrary age cutoff. Sure, an 18-month-old is much more developed than a newborn, but my wife and I cannot imagine putting our son into daycare at that age. Instead, we're asking our family to take care of him until he's 2 years old. Then he's going into daycare, which we have to pay for out of pocket. Oh sure, there are some tax breaks available, but even when you factor that in, my wife's salary barely covers the cost of daycare. His daycare will cost more than my engineering tuition + housing cost.

My point is that in Canada, we've socialized the cost of the first 12-18 months, given some tax breaks for the 18 months to 4 years point, and then finally, socialized the cost of education when the child enters school. There's a gap there that should be filled.

In short, private employers cannot be expected to bear these costs alone, which is why most countries socialize it. We all know the US is way behind on this, and kudos to the Gates Foundation for trying to do something for their employees.

But this move is shortsighted, but it's endemic of the shortsightedness of our society as a whole. We expect everyone to be well-adjusted, educated, and functioning members of society, but are unwilling to bear the costs of supporting parents in raising children. Then, we wring our hands wondering why certain kids/adults seem to be lagging behind.</comment>


What is a functional programming language? - <AUTHOR> http://enfranchisedmind.com/blog/posts/what-is-a-functional-programming-language/

<comment><USER3> I found this post to be a poor attempt at shoehorning the notional of functional languages into lambda calculus. Sure, functional programming is inspired by lambda calculus, but it doesn't reduce to it, and, what's important, never has - from the very first LISPs on.

So, for example, Church's encoding of naturals is introduced, which is totally irrelevant to all practical functional languages. Despite what the author is saying, using computationally sane integers is not "nothing more than an optimization", but a fundamental part of the language (and don't get me started on floats). It's just that actual functional programming languages model a lambda calculus with atoms - basic objects, like integers, that are _not_ functions. It's really OK - not everything needs to be a function! The fact that it's possible, in pure lambda calculus without atoms, to model integers using Church's trick is cool and has theoretical significance - <USER2> no relevance at all to functional languages.

Similarly, functional programming has always included languages with mutable data. LISP was mutable from day 1, and so was the even more functionally- inclined Scheme. There's nothing in "functional programming", as has been practiced for decades, that necessarily excludes mutable data. Now, "pure lambda calculus" is another story... but it really _is_ another story, one that serves as a motivation for functional programming rather than all of its being.

The requirement that a functional language, in the author's opinion, _must_ have tail call optimization, is weird (many LISPs don't have that), and its explanation is weirder yet: a functional language must have TCO because it's based on lambda calculus where everything is done with recursion, so you need infinite stacks (???), but real stacks aren't infinite, so "you need tail call optimization to allow the use of recursion for looping". Well, what if you don't use recursion for looping, just as you don't use Church's encoding for integers, because _you are not after all writing in lambda calculus_?

Overall, I felt that the author let his intuition of what a functional language could be settle too firmly on Haskell (with the understanding that static typing is optional), and is trying to redefine functional programming in accordance with this vision.

<comment><USER4> Lisp was by all accounts an attempt to make a working lambda calculus[1]. However the machines weren't very quick then and speed was a real issue. Even later on when Scheme was designed, speed was an important consideration, and it probably did affect the resulting language.

What the author was saying about TCO was that, based on the fact that all our machines today use stacks, and not wanting to have programs that break(!), any implementations of lambda calculus on these machines must have TCO to allow as much of the lambda calculus as possible to be available in the programming language, lest you reject otherwise correct programs.

But make no mistake, Lisp[2] and functional programming languages ARE based on the lambda calculus. The article really did hit the nail on the head.

\--

[1] "Lisp was originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, based on Alonzo Church's lambda calculus."

\-- Wikipedia (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_%28programming_language%29>)

(and lots of other sources agree with this)

[2] Sorry to say it, but Lisp isn't the center of the Universe. It's a cool trick, but it isn't that great.

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure I agree with this first statement. For sure scheme was motivated by lambda calculus, but I do not believe McCarthy (a functional analyst by training) was aware of lambda calculus when he invented Lisp. Rather he was motivated by symbolic calculations often performed in functional analysis.

NOTE: I stand corrected, I just checked and McCarthy's Lisp paper does cite Church's thesis work. Somehow I had thought Algol was motivated by lambda calculus

<comment><USER6> interestingly, I believe scheme was a failed[1] attempt at building OOP

[1] of course a closure is an object with exactly one method, apply

<comment><USER7> No, it was an attempt to implement the Actor model in Lisp. The Actor model isn't what people usually have in mind when someone says OOP - it's more like Erlang or Termite.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Really enjoyed the explanation of how addition falls out of the lambda calculus, as I'd never seen that before.

<comment><USER9> You can also do sequencing (assuming applicative order) and conditionals:

      'a; b' ==> (fn x -> b) a

      true  = fn x -> fn y -> x
      false = fn x -> fn y -> y
      if    = fn p -> fn -> c -> fn a -> p c a

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I really enjoyed the distinction between languages based on turing machines and languages based on lambda calculus. I'd had a fuzzy idea of the distinction before, but this article set it out clearly.

</comment><comment><USER11> okay, here's the argument as I read it: 1) functional languages are made of lambdas a) when they aren't made of lambdas, it's "just an optimization." 2) non-functional languages aren't made of lambdas b) when they have lambdas, it's just "style"

<comment><USER7> Try this:

Functional programming languages have an underlying model based on _function composition_ (with one argument functions, etc.). To the extent that they have arguments with multiple functions, etc., it's ultimately just syntactic sugar and optimizing for common cases - While nobody generally writes the low-level "lambda calculus virtual machine language" stuff by hand outside of academic papers or bootstrapping, Scheme's "let" is implemented in terms of lambda at compile-time. (Scheme without set! is representative.)

Imperative languages have a fundamental underlying model of cells in memory and sequential operations that modify them, branch based on them, etc., including an instruction pointer specifying where instructions are currently read. (C is representative.)

Intuitively (and without busting out the Greek letters): compare languages for which functions are a list of _expressions_ , and return the value of the last, versus languages for which functions are a list of _statements executed sequentially_ , the last of which can optionally return a value. A lot of other issues are ultimately due to how that choice directs default behavior. Even when a language has the amenities to borrow the other's tools, the defaults channel common usage.

Likewise: Relational databases are ultimately based on the relational model, even when parts of SQL fill in conceptually irrelevant details for sake of performance; Prolog is based on backtracking and Horn clauses, and well- structured Prolog can be reasoned about in terms of them, even when cuts are used to avoid wandering about needlessly in known dead ends. The ultimate result would (eventually) be the same. Both models are fundamentally different from pure functional or imperative programming, as well, and the languages built on them are as different as Erlang is from Smalltalk.

I'm self-taught and not a mathematician, so I couldn't give a really exhaustive or formal analysis of the distinction -- probably the best way to understand it (and learn quite a bit else, PS) is to work through the exercises in SICP and CTM. The second chapter of SICP includes Church encoding ([http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book- Z-H-14.html...](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book- Z-H-14.html#%_sec_2.1.3)), among many other things. SICP covers functional programming quite well, but CTM makes the fundamental differences between the different programming models and their strengths and weaknesses clearer.

You can use functional idioms in imperative languages, but they may lack features such as tail call optimization or garbage collection, which mean that you're working at cross-purposes to both the semantics of the language and the cases for which its implementation has been optimized. Whether this means attempting to do so is actually infeasible (e.g. stack overflows in Python) or just slow and/or verbose depends on the language. Likewise, modeling problems in functional languages that are intrinsically better-suited to imperative languages can be messy and confusing.

(OO is a completely different direction, but as people have wildly inconsistent ideas of what it actually refers to, I'm not going there.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> That was really well-written. I liked this line:

> The Lambda Calculus is innocent of the notion of mutability

</comment><comment><USER13> A student once asked his teacher "is Scala a functional programming language?" The teacher gave a shout and began hitting the student mercilessly with a chair, until he was forced to flee the room.

The student was enlightened, and wrote his program in Scala.

</comment><comment><USER14> This strongly reminds me of listening to the first couple of lectures of SICP.

</comment><comment><USER15> Didn't know clojure tries to do OO

<comment><USER16> Aside from all the Java crap it has multimethods, but it doesn't really make sense to call them OO because there's no object that they're attached to.

<comment><USER17> OO is not about methods, it's about the data. Single-dispatch OO is just a special case of multimethod-based-OO, anyway.

(Remember the whole "sending a message to an object" thing? You do that with both variants. In the single-dispatch case, the method is a structure in the metaclass instance. In the multiple-dispatch case, some other helper object finds the right method. Same idea, though.)

<comment><USER16> Multimethods are ambient actions. You could implement them with functions and any sort of type system. Maybe also a way to have variable-length parameter lists. If that's OO then functional programming is object-oriented programming.

<comment><USER17> Yes, functional programming is very similar to OO.

OO:

        class SomeType {
            <data> ;
            SomeOtherType function1() {
                this.whatever ;
                ...
            }
        }

FP:

        data SomeType ...
        f1 :: SomeType -> SomeOtherType
        f1 this = whatever this >> ...

Same idea, different syntax. (Type classes will allow polymorphism, if that's what you're after.)

You are thinking of the abstraction in terms of its implementation. There is no reason why a method in a class would physically be in that class; the class just acts as a namespace:

       class Foo { method }
       Foo.method();

and

       (defmethod Foo.method ...)
       (Foo.method)

are the same.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Handlebars: YUI Library's take on Mustache - <AUTHOR> http://stage.yuilibrary.com/yui/docs/handlebars/ <comment><USER2> Howdy. I'm the guy on the YUI team who ported Handlebars to YUI, and I can't stress enough that this is _not_ something new that we created.

As the linked page clearly states right up at the top, Handlebars is an existing project (see <http://handlebarsjs.com/> and <https://github.com/wycats/handlebars.js/>) originally started by Yehuda Katz. All we've done is wrapped the Handlebars source in a YUI module, added a little bit of sugar to make working with it from YUI easier, and written the documentation linked to by this post.

These folks deserve all the credit for Handlebars itself: <https://github.com/wycats/handlebars.js/contributors>

</comment><comment><USER3> That is just a port of handlebars to YUI, not YUI's take on mustache.</comment>


Engineering is the easy part except when it's not - <AUTHOR> http://projectidealism.com/posts/2014/9/4/engineering-is-the-easy-part-except-when-its-not

<comment><AUTHOR> I hope I was able to communicate clearly. This wasn't meant to be a rant on why engineering is so hard.

Instead, it's meant to show why the technology part may not be that important in the beginning; however, as your product grows, it becomes a vital part - just like customer support, product ownership, project management, etc. etc.

I didn't want to point to specific examples because I didn't want to throw people under the bus. If you feel like this post comes across the wrong way, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!</comment>


Show HN: Shout It – Go shout your feelings - <AUTHOR> https://www.apprester.com <comment><AUTHOR> Over the past 2 weeks, we have changed our design, implemented some new features and we want to share the updated version.</comment>


Ask HN: List of Computer terminology/Ideas that I absolutely need to know - <AUTHOR>

Lately I started treating computers and computer science a little more seriously and I started learning basic programming as well, but I feel like something is missing. I have absolutely no idea how computers actually work and I've found out that I actually don't understand a lot of terms that figure in my materials. Could you help me out? <comment><USER2> I'd start by checking out something like CompTIA's A+ materials, if you want to understand the hardware components. Same for networking (Net+). They'll give you a basic understanding as to what's going on--they're not a deep dive by any means. But they may prove useful. You may also take a look at something like hackr.io, which has a ton of resources.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll check it out. Thanks a lot!

<comment><USER2> No problem!</comment></comment></comment>


World War II's Strangest Battle: When Americans and Germans Fought Together - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/12/world-war-ii-s-strangest-battle-when-americans-and-germans-fought-together.html?via=twitter_page

<comment><USER2> Was on the homepage for a while a few months back: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8813018](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8813018)

</comment><comment><USER3> Very interesting story full of awesomeness.

French politicians putting aside differences to fight.

Anti-nazi Germans fighting German nazis.

Women staying to fight to protect their trapped husbands.

And it's all in a castle, which is just the icing on this ridiculous cake.

</comment><comment><USER4> Cool story. The book is a little dry -- it would have been a better long-form magazine article.

</comment><comment><USER5> Just as strange is that the British Royal Navy took the lives of a thousand French sailors after France fell to Germany. This because the Brits didn't want a French ship to fall into NAZI hands.

</comment><comment><USER6> Recently read Band of Brothers - pretty sure this story was one of the ones that is mentioned in passing towards the end of the book.

</comment><comment><USER7> The author really likes to mention how very true and factually accurate this story is.

</comment><comment><USER8> sure that isn't the strangest battle in WWII</comment>


12+1 Signs That You Have Founderitis - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2010/02/02/founderitis/

<comment><USER2> Bah, most of my friends have at least 3 of those symptoms, and we're just graduate students. :P</comment>


Which Story Are You Telling? - <AUTHOR> http://thecancerus.com/which-story-are-you-telling/

<comment> deepak-kumar I mostly fall into second category and I believe failures are part and parcel of life.</comment>


Ask HN: New Technology, Needs Advisor - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN, I need your help.  I created a new language whose paradigm I'm calling Declarative Reactive. It's quite strange, but the benefits are both wide and deep.  There are five or six ways I could introduce it, either as an application on the technology or the technology itself.<p>The problem is, I'm too close to it to judge well. I could really use a fresh pair of eyes to help find the best path from its raw state to something that's clearly consumable. I can explain more via email. (My email is in my profile.) Thank you! <comment><USER2> I'm interested. I think you will get a better response though if you put more information in this post. Either way, email me some more info. My contact info is in my profile.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Please? Anyone?</comment>


How to come up with a business idea - <AUTHOR> http://ilyasemin.com/how-to-come-up-with-a-business-idea/

<comment><USER2> Liked the link to the talk. He's very straight forward, but I'm torn. I recognize that finding your ideal customers and their pain points first is generally the best approach, but if you have domain knowledge or insights, and have an idea for a product that you know you'd use yourself and that you're passionate about, that's just as valid as going off solving someone else's problem. Obviously there needs to be a market for it and people that'd pay for it besides yourself, but it's a good start.

It might still be safer to find a problem you're disconnected from emotionally and that has a higher chance of success (and really don't care about much). That might work well for business majors, but that's not why I want to start a business. Maybe I'll rethink that after my first business fails though...</comment>


BeeDNN 1.00 (alpha) – deep learning library and a compagnion GUI application - <AUTHOR> http://edeforas.free.fr/?p=270 <comment><USER2> No source === risk of malware.

No thanks.</comment>