C++: Using Variadic Templates Cleanly - <AUTHOR> http://florianjw.de/en/variadic_templates.html <comment><USER2> C++17 fold expressions will make this kind of thing a bit more convenient and allow you to do some other neat things with a lot less boilerplate.

[http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/fold](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/fold)

<comment><USER3> What if you want to use a function instead of an operator?

<comment><USER2> Then you just fold the comma operator.

<comment><USER3> I don't see how that would help. Maybe we're thinking of different things.

<comment><USER2> Yes, sorry, I misunderstood you. You can't use a fold expression to fold a binary function over a parameter pack as far as I know. You can fold application of a unary function using a fold over the comma operator though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a former C++ programmer, I appreciate everybody that tries to make programming in this language more logical.

I just think, that C++ and particularly the whole template system is just to complicated.

I have enough work to do, finding solutions for the real world problems that must be implemented -- I don't want to have more work fiddling around with language specifics and even more trickery, just to have my programs running maybe 1% faster.

C++, particularly the template system and the new standard library that is based on the STL, disappointed me long time ago, when a whole group of programmers where trying to find out what the compiler errors where about deep inside the STL. The whole error handling inside the templates where so muddled, that it was nearly impossible to find out what the trouble was, without reading big parts of the STL source.

I trust, that today's compilers generate better error messages for templates, but still I am not sure that the whole thing -- and particularly the STL -- is worthwhile for most real-life problems.

<comment><USER5> 1% faster?!

And what do you mean by "most real-life problems"? HN is rather biased towards web development, so...

C++ is used for real life problems from web browsers, to physics engines, fluid solvers, photorealistic renderers (in fact, pretty much all software used to make most visual effects CG for movies is in C++), autopilot systems, and pretty much everything in between.

And as yet, there's nothing else that comes close to allowing both high-level abstractions/encapsulations and low-level memory alignment/allocation/control as and when needed, which is important for high performance and memory efficient (bit packing, tagged pointers, etc) code.

<comment><USER4> What I meant was: I want to spent my time with the problems that I _must_ solve, not with by programming language induced problems!

When I really need speed, I always can implement single routines in pure C -- I don't need an STL abstraction for that, that feigns speed to the programmer, but in the end it does not give it to him, because he chose the wrong abstraction. It seems so easy: Just use the STL/std-c++ library and all your speed problems are solved -- but std-libraries do not make a bad programmer a good one -- instead, it creates programmers that invest their time in language specifics instead in data structures and algorithms. So bad programmers will be even worse in the end.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I appreciate the work here, and I'll remember this when I need it, but C++ is long past gross.

Enough already, the committee needs to be less prideful and just add complete macros/metaprogramming to the language already in C++14 and let apparently smart programmers who can disentangle variadic type templates to stop wasting brainpower and valuable time doing that and just write the compile-time transformations they want to have happen.

<comment><USER7> There are not so many language who can directly compile and optimize to machine code though.

I'm not sure if java or C# can easily jit to have something that is close to machine code. Anyway having machine code directly (and no need for VM) is useful if you want to reduce the overhead and fully exploit your hardware.

Surely it's not for students or for casual programmers, but it has a use.

<comment><USER8> It would be easier to just design better language that compiles into C++ and can use existing libraries than continue with C++.

<comment><USER9> Ironically this is exactly how C++ itself started out: With a compiler that compiles C++ code into C.

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


Notes on "Notes from Underground" (2000) - <AUTHOR> http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/dostoevsky.htm <comment><AUTHOR> While it's just an inkling at this point, I cannot help but feel that this book and the analysis provide a very interesting perspective on the 'angry white men' phenomenon that is often brought forward in recent discussions about SJW/redpill/Trump/alt-right.

(Whether these 'angry white men' actually exist as a group is separate question, of course)</comment>


October 2015: The End of the Swipe-and-Sign Credit Card  - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/02/06/october-2015-the-end-of-the-swipe-and-sign-credit-card/

<comment><USER2> Yet another major issue for Coin: [https://onlycoin.com/](https://onlycoin.com/)

 _Coin does not support chip & pin (EMV) yet. If the country you live in requires EMV for credit and debit cards, we recommend holding off your purchase for now unless you only plan to use Coin for gift, loyalty, and membership cards._

I find it a little hard to believe they'd be able to implement EMV very easily, given that EMV was designed to prevent exactly the kind of credit card skimmer fraud that Coin makes so easy.

<comment><USER3> Great - so we'll still have a better, more secure interim solution with coin for the next two years or so until the majority of our system transitions!

<comment><USER4> Assuming coin gets out the door.</comment></comment></comment>


1Password Watchtower Mac App Integration - <AUTHOR> http://blog.agilebits.com/2014/04/30/1password-mac-watchtower/

<comment><USER2> Do you know what would be amazing?

The ability to change all vulnerable passwords, automatically as a group.

I know it's very challenging because password change/reset procedures vary widely, but that part of the process is still manual. 1Password already automates logins almost entirely successfully. Perhaps password changing can be automated as well?

If it were robustly automated, you cold easily rotate your passwords once a month, with very little fuss, for example.

This is really something that authentication schemes could benefit from supporting an automated API for.

Good work on the service. I suspect that heartbleed was the current use case, but this service will be very helpful for future breeches and issues. For example they could alert you that XYZ Service had a data breech, it's fixed, and you should rotate your password.

Great work.

<comment><USER3> [I work for AgileBits, makers of 1Password]

Thanks for the feedback!

Filling into sites and gathering the necessary information for this I think is far easier than determining how a password change takes place. We have an algorithm that we've developed over years that is constantly changing in subtle (and not so subtle) ways to make filling more accurate. Some of the biggest changes in a long time will be coming in the 4.2 version of the browser extension, currently in beta.

But you're right, sites and their password change processes differ greatly. Some require the old password, some require only the new password. Some only require the new password once (admittedly rare).

I think at best though we'd only be able to do this if we went to the password change page for the site and attempted to fill the data in for changing the password. There's no way we could bulk update as that would probably require we hard code each individual site rather than relying on an algorithm for filling data into the site.

It's a tricky thing, but we're always trying to come up with new ideas and ways to accomplish those ideas.

Heartbleed was the first use case for Watchtower, but you're correct in that it'll be available for other situations as well. Now that the foundation is there we can leverage it for other issues in the future.

Thanks again for the wonderful feedback!

Kyle

AgileBits

<comment><USER4> > Filling into sites and gathering the necessary information for this I think > is far easier than determining how a password change takes place.

Maybe start talking it out with browser developers and big websites stuff so there's a way to standardise an endpoint or in-page meta-information allowing for automated password reset?

<comment><USER2> This could be a real win. If there was a way of marking a standardized form with some meta data or tags to say "hey, this is safe to use automatically in the expected way" such as the typical form with old > new > repeat new or something. One little HTML change and it advertises compatibility.

That way, classy sites could enable a 'safe enough/good enough' flag that any software could use.

There is also the thought that it may be worth hard-coding for the biggest sites. The high profile sites are the most vulnerable when a vulnerability hits, there are big existing databases of user names around, and these can be exploited automatically and quickly on relatively high value targets (gmail accounts, amazon, facebook, twitter etc). Even top 10 would be helpful, but top 100 seems approachable, especially since the bigger sites are probably more consistent. The payoff here could be big next time around.

Also if the framework were around for doing this, you could target a particular site or three that just had a major breech, and push the rules for reset out with the breech notification.

I know it's a huge amount of work to do manually, but even a relatively focused effort could have payoffs, and if working with big sites can start a 'automated password reset' standard rolling, others might adopt it.

Just thinking out loud, I know you've got to juggle priorities and features with limited time.

Thanks again!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a neat integration by 1Password! 1Password is probably my favorite Mac/iPhone app that I use. Their product is always top notch. Great work guys!

<comment><USER6> How do you get around the lack of bookmarks in the 1password browser for ios?

<comment><USER3> [I work for AgileBits, makers of 1Password]

You could use the Favorites section. I favorite my most frequently used sites and use that for most logins that I access often.

Would that work? If you have a particular use case that you can run me through that would be wonderful.

Also, user gwkoehler, currently above me in this thread, suggests the op[http://](http://) and op[https://](https://) in front of users to open in 1Password. There is a bookmarklet for this here:

[http://www.macstories.net/links/1password-4-1/](http://www.macstories.net/links/1password-4-1/)

Kyle

AgileBits

<comment><USER6> My wife bookmarks like a dozen tumblr pages, Reddit posts, fanfic stories, random websites a day on her iPhone and then reads them in bed on her iPad at the end of the day. She's not real tech savvy so I've got her using Chrome which syncs them up to all of our devices: 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, a PC that boots osx and windows, and a Nook. She can pick up any device and her bookmarks are there. It would be difficult to get her to give up that functionality or have to switch browsers depending on what site she's on. Even the bookmarklet that switches you to 1Password isn't intuitive. I wish 1Password would manage bookmarks and sync them between devices like Chrome does.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for this information!

I'll take this feedback and see if there's anything we can do in future updates to try to come up with a solution.

I can't make any promises, but I'm sure you're not the only one with a similar type of use case. That said though, I don't think we'll be able to integrate with Chrome Sync, pretty sure that's closed up pretty tight.

Personally, one of the things I'd love to see is the ability to save a page to Pinboard, which is what I use for bookmarks that I want to read later or reference later. Not sure if that would be of any real use for you though.

Thanks!

Kyle

AgileBits

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> AGKyle:

Since the update, I've spent the majority of the day updating zillions of passwords. As other users have mentioned, bulk updates would be amazing, but I can't imagine how complex that would be. Even trying to "open and fill" is frequently wrong because 1password has saved the webpage as the new user registration page instead of a true login. Small pain for the amazing product you have.

I would recommend one thing very highly. Please give the user some information why there is a vulnerability. I've noted some of them are marked from previous large user/pass dumps that are available. If the user knows this, she will know to never use that user/pass combo again. If the user is unaware, they may rotate to another common user/pass that has also been released.

Thanks for considering my thoughts...

<comment><USER3> Hi davak!

We've made some improvements to the new user signup form end of the spectrum in the latest beta version of our extension. You can install the beta by visiting the page below:

[http://www.agilebits.com/browsers/index.html](http://www.agilebits.com/browsers/index.html)

Make sure you click "Enable Betas" below the Download button before installing. This should improve things quite a bit in most cases. If you run into any sites with issues please email us with the URL so we can test (support at agile bits . com). If we don't know about the site having problems we can't fix it.

If you're viewing a login that has a known vulnerability, you see a red bar at the top that says:

"Vulnerability Alert - Change Password..."

If you click this, it shows a popover, that popover displays a bit more detail with a "Learn More" link. That sends you to the Watchtower site with a lot more detail about why and what to do next.

I suppose we could be better here and tag it differently saying it was part of heartbleed, but not all vulnerabilities will have such a memorable name (CVE-2014-0160 is hardly memorable, agreed?)

Does that explain things a little more?

Please let me know if you have any trouble with the beta extension, too.

Thanks!

Kyle

AgileBits

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Kyle,

Are there any plans to update the Android version of the app? I love 1Password on my mac, but on my nexus 5, the experience sucks! Anything in the pipeline on that? Or is agilebits just focused on OSX/iOS for now?

Thanks!

<comment><USER3> Hi!

Absolutely, we've posted a bit about it on our blog:

[http://blog.agilebits.com/2013/11/15/1password-4-for- android...](http://blog.agilebits.com/2013/11/15/1password-4-for-android-the- beta-like-winter-is-coming/)

The beta is coming along nicely, you can still sign up for the beta if you wish to try it out.

Let me know if I can do anything else to answer any of your questions or concerns.

Kyle

AgileBits

<comment><USER9> For months, autofilling doesn't work on Mac. Neither on stable, nor on development releases. Firefox and Chrome complain about browser signature.

<comment><USER3> Sorry to hear you're having trouble.

Please email in to support @ agile bits . com, and mention my name please and that I asked you to email in. I'll get this all fixed up for you. Give a brief description of the error to jog my memory.

Kyle

AgileBits</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Graphics Chip Chronicles - <AUTHOR> https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded-revolution/graphics-chip-chronicles <comment><USER2> It would be hard to overstate the importance of VGA in the history of personal computing. The original IBM PC's graphics capabilities (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter)) were laughable. The PC/AT's 16-color EGA ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Graphics_Adapter)) chip was better, but still lagged behind what could be done with a machine like an Amiga. It wasn't until the introduction of VGA that the PC platform had a really industry-leading graphics capability.

VGA made the IBM PC into a credible multimedia machine, which led to the obsolescence of the "home computer" vs. "business computer" distinction as the PC could now sell equally well into both categories. And _that_ led to the world where a "computer" was defined as "an Intel x86 machine running Microsoft Windows."

<comment><USER3> One of the "what ifs" I often have when looking back at this period is that if CGA/EGA had fully supported user-defined palettes(the actual support for it is "in some modes, kinda", with the original CGA monitor design being a major factor in why it isn't available), and the PCjr/Tandy sound became standard in the mid-80s, the audiovisual capabilities would have been almost exactly on par with the Atari ST, which was viewed as the direct competitor to the Amiga when it launched. And in that case, would the market have settled on the PC even earlier? The games being made in the late 80's were generally not memory- intensive enough to support assets over 4-bit color; it was the fixed palette and reliance on beeper sound that made PC games look and sound ugly compared to other platforms, with the raw horsepower being a secondary consideration, though the rapid advancement of x86 made it appealing on that front too.

<comment><USER4> EGA had credible support for indexed color. It had 4 bit indexes into 6 bit RRGGBB color. Honestly, it was pretty good.

CGA was craptastic though. It would have been so much better if it would have just supported 2 bit indexed color into its 4 bit palette. Literally night and day better. I legitimately don't understand why they didn't go that route, the circuit would be trivial.

<comment><USER5> You could pick the happy color palette (red, green, yellow, black) or the boring color palette (cyan, magenta, white, black). games were so dull.

Even 90's web pages were more visually appealing.

<comment><USER6> Don't forget CGA composite. Featuring both direct color as well as artifact color. CGA was better than RGB-only usage suggested. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_artifact_colors#CGA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_artifact_colors#CGA)

<comment><USER5> I personally never saw CGA hooked to composite, just to the IBM color monitor with the shiny tube.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great topic :) ! Horrible horrible website :(!

<comment><USER8> Hijacks back for a newsletter sign up. This is the kind of shit that makes my blood boil.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Absolutely awful, unreadable web site, and I am unfortunately not exaggerating - an advertisement actually half-covers the small section of content that is actually even visible on my iPad, meaning even if I wanted to slog my way through the 'get as many as views as possible' page-by-page design, I couldn't even read the content.

Shameful. How did this make it up to page 1?

</comment><comment><USER10> 82786 was a strange part. I programmed it for one product. As I remember it was mostly set up for windowing with a handful of primitives and not really worth the trouble. We probably should have used an ASIC.

Also used the 34010 and 34020.

I do remember the fuss when VGA came out. The hardware guys took apart one of each of the PS2s. Nobody cared about microchannel some interest in VGA.

</comment><comment><USER11> Should have been titled: The (PC) Graphics Chip Chronicles</comment>


Effective Feature Flags - <AUTHOR> http://yellerapp.com/posts/2015-07-20-feature-flag-tips.html <comment><USER2> The biggest three tips I'd offer for feature flags are:

1\. Don't use a feature flag unless you _absolutely have no other choice_.

2\. If you must use a feature flag, ensure that it's short-lived. (A/B testing, migration paths, etc).

3\. If you must use a feature flag, ensure that everyone knows about it. I've found a "sticky of shame" in a highly-visible place helps limit its spread.

Feature flags are, by nature, tools to _at least_ double your app's cyclomatic complexity with each one and make deterministic testing/debugging/bug-repro that much harder.

Feature flags are the most dead-on application of the old "a developer had a problem....now he has two problems" joke that I've ever come across: a developer had a problem with an existing codepath, so he thought "I'll add a feature flag". Now he has N problems, where N is the number of possible states of the feature flag.</comment>


Confirmed: Intel says HDCP 'master key' crack is real - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/16/confirmed-intel-says-hdcp-master-key-crack-is-real/ <comment><USER2> > "For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to > implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," Waldrop told Fox News, and > that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware -- something > Intel doesn't think is likely to happen in any substantial way.

I'm sure thats just a PR statement, however, in most currently available products that require these keys, they are stored in flash so they can be revoked or changed in the future. Firmware these days is much more spongy than its predecessors. Hacking a legitimate firmware update for popular devices to embed new keys will soon be an automated process for anyone willing to do it. What would it take for a Chinese knockoff builder to create a BluRay player that generates a new key every time it boots and stores it RAM? That'd be nearly impossible to blacklist, since anytime you rebooted the player, it would appear to be a brand new device.

The implications of this crack are much more far reaching than dvdcss, and potentially far more economically threatening to the model they spent so much time and money on.

<comment><USER3> Is it economically threatening? Really? I have my doubts about that.

As I understand it, the hardware manufacturers were peddling a fantasy to rightsholders that their hardware could protect their content from end to end. By getting rightsholders to buy into this fantasy, these hardware manufacturers got a whole lot more leverage, licensing revenue, new (i.e. forced) hardware sales, etc.

But I'm not sure it did a whole lot for the rightsholders other than try and assuage their fears of the digital dawn, a kind of snake oil, as it were. I don't think people who actually want to view content without paying for it even noticed. The people who did notice were consumers who were inconvenienced by the incompatibilities created by coordination problems being made unnecessarily difficult etc.

If anyone is the loser here, I would think it's a handful of big-brand hardware manufacturers and patent / license holders, trying to e.g. exclude cheap no-name Chinese manufacturers from competition.

<comment><USER4> I think it's simpler than that. The labels would only support a standard with DRM, but secure DRM is impossible, and making copying inconvenient won't keep the content off torrents. It must have sucked to be on that standards body.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip,"

I admit I know little to nothing about HDCP, but this sounds like BS to me. What about things like FPGAs?

And why can't it be done in software? Not enough raw processing power?

<comment><USER6> HDMI typically sends uncompressed streams of audio and video. Basic math would be:

        frame = 1920x1080x3 (Full-HD RGB)
        videoBytesPrSecond =  frame * 60 (assuming full progressive video)
        audioBytesPrSecond = 3 * 96000*6 (24-bit, 96kHz, 6 channels)
        totalBytesPrSecond = videoBytesPrSecond + audioBytesPrSecond
        totalBitsPrSecond = 8 * totalBytesPrSecond ~= 3gbps

And that's just the payload, no transmission headers, no protocols, no signal- synchronization.

You do need a pretty cool computer to process _and_ do crypto on that realtime. I say dedicated silicon/FPGA would be the way here.

<comment><USER7> But as long as ripping concerned - does it really need to be realtime?

<comment><USER8> Maybe not, but that is still 384MB\s sustained write speed to your disk which is 22GB\minute so you'd need a 2TB disk for the average movie.

Maybe in a couple of years when 2TB SSDs are cheaply available...

<comment><USER9> Or pipe a fifo to x264...

<comment><USER10> Because high-quality real time 1080p encoding is so easy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > "For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to > implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," Waldrop told Fox News, and > that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware -- something > Intel doesn't think is likely to happen in any substantial way.

"A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done."

Andy Grove, former Chairman and CEO, Intel Corporation

</comment><comment><USER12> I hope this means I can watch a movie I have purchased without 10 minutes of unskippable commercials in front of the feature.

Just like mp3s, decss, etc this will not decrease the amount of money I spend on entertainment, it will only increase my options in how I store and watch it.

<comment><USER13> Nope, for that you'll need to remove AACS, not HDCP. AnyDVD HD can do that for almost any disc <http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html> , and the free BackupBluray can do many older discs. <http://wesleytech.com/backupbluray- guide/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The description of the algorithm is eccentric. I'm guessing it's written by a lawyer. It's not the way cryptographers or hardware people talk.

<comment><USER14> The careful use of English sentences and spelled-out words sounds like it might be aimed at making it harder to suppress it as non-speech. The law's still sort of gray-area around there, but in general courts are more willing to allow "devices" to be banned, and are more protective of "descriptions of devices". Machine code, or pages of hexadecimal numbers, seem like they could be construed as closer to a device, while an English explanation of a mathematical expression is at least a bit closer to a description.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Since when needs decryption to be done in silicon? That's P.R. A captured data stream can be decrypted "offline" in as many time as is needed. Storing the stream for offline decryption however does need an immense storage capacity. But we all know, storage capacity is steadily increasing.

<comment><USER16> Can a HDCP stream be captured by a non-HDCP device? I thought that HDCP needed a handshake of something?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High- bandwidth_Digital_Content_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High- bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection)

<comment><USER15> Right, but you can capture the traffic between the devices that did a handshake and decrypt it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> That blurb by the end about having to implement it in hardware seems silly to me - surely there are software blueray players, right?

There might even be a market for an open source one, like there are open source dvd players, and they would be able to decrypt these movies using this key.

<comment><USER18> _they would be able to decrypt these movies using this key._

Actually, no.

Movies are encrypted using AACS or BD+ on the actual blu-ray disc. The player decrypts the disc and re-encrypts it for HDCP, which it will only do if it establishes a valid HDCP handshake with whatever device is plugged into its HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort port. For a software Blu-Ray player, the HDCP handshake is delegated to the graphics card, and the player software will refuse to run unless the operating system guarantees that the handshake has taken place.

For an open source Blu-Ray player, you need the AACS/BD+ keys (which do periodically turn up, and then get changed on the next batch of discs), _not_ HDCP.

<comment><USER19> Actually, BD+ and AACS have been circumvented time and again by various people and tools. But regardless, breaking HDCP means we can access the digital uncompressed/unencrypted signal and manipulate it at will, as opposed to relying on the analog hole.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Even if you can't decode it real-time without a chip, will this at least facilitate ripping?

<comment><USER21> Ripping a Blu-ray disc requires a $50 BD-ROM drive and a $100 copy of AnyDVD HD.

HDMI/HDCP ripping requires a $200 HDMI capture card, a $XXX FPGA, and a RAID array.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The security of HDCP seems immaterial. Hasn't Blu-Ray been cracked?

<comment><USER23> No. Blu-Ray's BD+ scheme (which was co-designed by an HN contributor) is _renewable_ , which means that when you break it, Rovi can push out a new version on the next round of disks that can't be ripped by the same code.

It's been "cracked" several times now, but not (so far as I know) permanently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> _"For someone to use this information to unlock anything, they would have to implement it in silicon -- make a computer chip," Waldrop told Fox News, and that chip would have to live on a dedicated piece of hardware -- something Intel doesn't think is likely to happen in any substantial way._

<http://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Detail.cfm?Prod=NEXYS2> Less than $100 with student ID! What a deal, folks. Step right up.

<comment><USER25> Hey, it's Digilent! I know their president and founder--he teaches EE classes at my college and I took one from him. Aside from being a successful founder he's also a very entertaining lecturer.

<comment><USER24> They do some great work. The Nexys2 is one of the few genuinely open FPGA boards out there.</comment></comment></comment>


Newspack by WordPress.com – A New Publishing Solution for News Organizations - <AUTHOR> http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/newspack-by-wordpress-com/ <comment><USER2> This is great. Local news, in my opinion, needs to be able to innovate online, but they can't. They seem to all be using some monolithic old publishing system because without a better system available, they're afraid of the complexity and can't get tech expertise to help them.

</comment><comment><USER3> They need to add CDN, caching etc. in the core WP and anyone can have a viable self-published, self-hosted site. Why depend on minefield plugins and/or paid hosting?

</comment><comment><USER4> It'll be released too. [https://twitter.com/wordpressdotcom/status/10848773177747374...](https://twitter.com/wordpressdotcom/status/1084877317774737408)

</comment><comment><USER5> Is it just me or does it give no information about what sort of functionality this will include?</comment>


Cloudflare has stopped API support for cf/ga/gq/ml/tk domains - <AUTHOR> https://community.cloudflare.com/t/unable-to-update-ddns-using-api-for-some-tlds/167228/11 <comment><AUTHOR> I use a cf domain on cloudflare for testing purposes and just got this response via the cloudflare API:

``` You cannot use this API for domains with a .cf, .ga, .gq, .ml, or .tk TLD (top-level domain). To configure the DNS settings for this domain, use the Cloudflare Dashboard. ```

Anyone know any news about this? Maybe since those TLDs are given out for free, Cloudflare is using this as a sign of spammy users?</comment>


Rare miniature rock art found in Australia - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/rare-miniature-rock-art-found-in-australia/ <comment><USER2> I was going to make a joke, but I've edited it to point out that Australia's care and consideration for Aboriginal artefacts is a disgrace.

To save you a click:

'Mining giant Rio Tinto has apologised for blowing up 46,000-year-old Aboriginal caves in Western Australia dating back to the last Ice Age.

The Juukan Gorge caves, in the Pilbara region, were destroyed last Sunday as Rio Tinto expanded an iron ore project agreed with the authorities.

Many prehistoric artefacts have been found at the remote heritage site.'

[https://www.bbc.com/news/world- australia-52869502](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52869502)

This is relevant because it happened last week.

<comment><USER3> The apology feels cheap, as there's no mention of any repercussions whatsoever for the mining giant. Looks like it's business as usual.

It's a terrifying precent set here when mining companies can simply blow up ancient sites like this, say "oops, sorry", and carry on with business.

<comment><USER2> The apology is cheap, and there are no repercussions.

It is business as usual. That's Australia.

46,000 year old Aboriginal caves dating back to the last ice ace, where 4,000-year-old braided hair had been found. The timelines of Austraila are almost incomprehensible, and yet there is no duty of care, we blow that shit up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I know this is silly, but I'm curious what you see. I see a man eaten by an elephant.

<comment><USER5> here the beeswax recreation by the archaeologists that appears in the article: [https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp- content/uploads/2020/05/recre...](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp- content/uploads/2020/05/recreating-rock-art-980x953.jpg)

to me it looks like a guy that went on a dismembering spree? or maybe someone showing us his collection of weird antlers? or a guy attacking wifi signals with a sabre?</comment></comment>


Apple banning Facebook's info-sucking research app - <AUTHOR> https://seekingalpha.com/news/3427520-apple-banning-facebooks-info-sucking-research-app <comment><AUTHOR> [https://seekingalpha.com/news/3427520-apple-banning- facebook...](https://seekingalpha.com/news/3427520-apple-banning-facebooks- info-sucking-research-app)

> "Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting > app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple," > Apple says. "Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute > apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did > in this case to protect our users and their data."

</comment><comment><USER2> WTF is Facebook doing? They've been making bone-heading privacy-destroying decisions for at least a decade now, but it somehow seems like it's gotten worse recently even as they've increasingly been coming under scrutiny? Isn't this the opposite of how a rational actor should be responding? Or are they figuring since they're already taking the heat for it, they might as well continue doing it?

<comment><USER3> Facebook has yet to face any real consequence for their actions, so they persist.

This isn't ever going to change until governments do their job and take protecting the population they are sworn to protect as a serious part of their jobs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Facebook trying to see how low and far they can go before people or other companies object. Good job Apple.

</comment><comment><USER5> Since this is marked as dupe, where is the original?

<comment><USER6> Current discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19033451](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19033451), which includes a link to the previous thread here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19031055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19031055).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Will Facebook just get another enterprise certificate though and do it all over again? Facebook's track record makes it seem like they will.

This also doesn't help those on Android; I know it's not illegal, it's still shady as most user have no idea what they are agreeing to.

<comment><USER3> It doesn't sound like getting a new cert is an easy task, it's not a fully automated process from the sound of it.

I wish Apple would revoke all of their certificates and show they are deadly serious about protecting user privacy.</comment></comment>


NYT reducing number of free articles available before paywall - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/subscriptions/Multiproduct/lp6128.html?campaignId=39UWK

<comment><USER2> So they're lowing their relevance, and hn readers find this unappealing, fine, but can we really view this as anything but a hopeful indication that they drive more revenue by bringing the wall forward by ten articles.

The nytimes paywall has never been popular among the tech crowd, for obvious reasons, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work.

In my mind there are two possible things going on here:

1\. The paywall is working to a degree, they have tested a reduced number of free articles and it leads to a higher conversion, and they are making this move to increase revenue.

2\. The paywall is failing, an executive is concerned about meeting their revenue targets, and is going forward with an untested free article decrease as a ditch effort.

Let's hope it's the first, or at least a vaguely responsible combination of the two.

</comment><comment><USER3> I hate the skeezy way they quote their subscription fees: "First four weeks $99 cents" against a regular price of $15 or more per 4 weeks. Why 4 weeks and not per month? Are they really trying to grab the extra partial billing cycle? Do they think their subscribers won't notice?

In contrast, The Economist has one price (in the US) for all their platforms, including print:

<http://www.economist.com/products/subscribe/noreg>

I dropped the NYT because they are charging nearly 4x what The Economist charges for a similar level of reporting. Switching to the Washington Post & LA Times wasn't as hard for me as the NYT seems to think.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm sure there are people for which 15$/month is a bit much, but I imagine for most HNers it's just a drop in the bucket.

Could someone explain their revulsion to paying for the NYTimes? They have expenses that need to be paid somehow. They produce a product that, although flawed[1], seems to do a good job of educating me about the world. I'm a satisfied online subscriber.

[1] OT: Among other things, they seem to have an obsession with pointing out the flaws of the PRC; especially the IHT articles.

<comment><USER5> It really is just a case of people's emotions largely being based around what they are used to. If a new industry came up that meant in 15 years we could all get great-quality cars for free, suddenly the idea of a normal car for £10k would seem hilariously insulting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It would be interesting to hear the real answer to "Why is The Times changing its free access from 20 free articles a month to 10?" I guess they think hitting the wall at 10 instead of 20 will drive more subscriptions? I find that doubtful... as mentioned in another comment, the price is rather expensive and a huge step up from free. When I hit the pay wall, I just go "oh well" and read something else.

<comment><USER7> Or you can just open nytimes.com in private/incognito mode and read to your heart's content.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Eh, NYT also reducing their online relevance then I guess.

$240/year for a digital subscription is absurd.

<comment><USER9> Not to mention that they still serve obnoxious ads when you have a subscription.

<comment><USER10> Exactly! I once wrote NYT feedback asking, "how much would I need to pay for a no-ad version?"

Their response was insulting. Essentially quoting the digital subscription rates without even addressing my question.

<comment><USER11> I assume it was just a form letter, and I have difficulty getting angry at / being insulted by form letters. It's an efficiency thing that probably adequately covers more inquiries than you would think. (Government is a different story; I get annoyed by government form letters because they're supposed to represent me, and if they can't be bothered with even pretending to listen, then it pisses me off.)

That's not to say I don't get frustrated at them, however. A few weeks ago, I was looking to buy Petzold's Code from Amazon.ca, and noticed that one of their pages, linked from the checkout page, listed the free shipping option for orders over $39. They had changed it to $25 probably more than a year ago at this point, presumably partially because that's the threshold for Amazon.com and partially because that's the free shipping price the otherwise more expensive Chapters.ca uses. I sent them a message telling them the listed threshold was wrong, with a screenshot, and explaining that I did know the real price by quoting it. They responded with a form letter telling me what the threshold was without any indication that anyone had noticed that I'd pointed out a problem with their site.

I sent a second message explaining that I'd got a form letter and this time they responded that the issue had been forwarded to the relevant department.

I just checked, and the incorrect value is still shown on the website. C'est la vie.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> simply block cookie from their domain and set your referer to a google query, problem solved

<comment><USER13> The average HNer will know to do this but the majority of the internet won't. So they'll likely have the effect they want (reducing the number of unpaid pageviews) and a bunch of side-effects they don't want (drastically reducing their relevance as a source of information on the web)

[Edit: Grammar]

<comment><USER14> I was surprised at a family gathering recently how many of my in-laws reach the paywall and then clear their cookies. Even non-techies can work around the paywall.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> There is an embarassing amount of whinging in this thread about paying $0.50 per day for what is probably the best newspaper in the country. I've been paying for the Times for several years now and it isn't even a blip on my budget.

</comment><comment><USER16> I've always felt that gnashing of teeth over the NYT paywall was moot anyway, since any right-thinking person will have a print subscription to the Times for the crosswords.

<comment><USER17> This is so wrong. I hate crosswords. I read the NYT a lot. Back when I could, I paid them $8/mo. They no longer offer that option. I'm also allergic to newsprint, and I generally don't like handling a newpaper, so I won't be getting home delivery.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I am surprised they haven't also added a pay per article feature. I am very non-committal about subscriptions, but might fork over a buck to read one article.

<comment><USER5> New readers can already fork over a buck (well, 99c) for a four-week trial subscription - of course, plenty of people dislike that because they don't trust themselves to cancel in time.

The problem for subsequent use is that I suspect a.) very few people would be willing to pay $1/article (maybe $1/day might be more likely?) and b.) Bringing it down that cheap may well mean it will have fairly stupid credit card processing fees.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm not surprised. Even thugh I added scripts to defeat their paywall my viewing habits have changed from around five articles a day to five per month.</comment>


Bill Gates personally quashed Microsoft-Yahoo merger - <AUTHOR> http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080523/microhoo-the-gates-factor/ <comment><USER2> Sorry, but what is marijuana_sql.gif doing as the pic attached to that story? Too funny...

<comment><USER3> "Yahoo is convinced they are a strategic imperative for Microsoft, although I think sometimes that their execs must be smoking something," said one source who has been briefed on the talks.

<comment><USER2> Sure, but a picture used to extol the multitudinous virtues of the pot plant? It seems like there must be some algorithm that thought that picture fit that line, and not a human being.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bill >> Steve

listening to him is what MSFT should do more of.

</comment><comment><USER4> Bill >> Steve

listening to him is what MSFT should do more of.

</comment><comment><USER4> Bill >> Steve

listening to him is what MSFT should do more of.</comment>


Ask VC & HN: What was more important than Pandora for 300 VCs? - <AUTHOR> I was reading an article that says Pandora got rejected by 300 VC's.  Three Hundred.
I read similar happened with Google and other similar companies.  Skype, I heard, had 40 rejections.
I have a mindset that a good idea will reveal itself as a good idea to those who are looking for a good idea.  This same mindset is also convinced that a good team will reveal itself to be a good team to those who are looking for a good team.  In another way, I believe a good investment will reveal itself as a good investment to those who are looking for a good investment.
Which comes to this question.  What was in the mind of all these investors that rejected a good idea, a good team, and a good investment?  What were they looking for?
Rejection by a few, I can understand.  But rejection reaching in high double digits to even triple digits for a good idea with a good team - I just don't understand.  What were they looking for? <comment><USER2> Its very possible that many vcs passed because they know how much trouble music licensing is and how expensive it is. Put it this way, Pandora, even though it is one of the best at monetizing advertising especially affiliate advertising, still hasn't turned a profit.

Now you have to realize that the project they pitched with may have been very shaky or just may have been outside the partners expertise

</comment><comment><USER3> If it were that easy to identify good ideas/teams then venture capital as an asset class wouldn't have consistently negative returns.

To put it another way: If you think you can identify winning ideas/teams with even 50% accuracy, then drop what you're doing and raise a fund, because you're going to be the most successful investor of all time.

<comment><AUTHOR> "To put it another way: If you think you can identify winning ideas/teams with even 50% accuracy, then drop what you're doing and raise a fund, because you're going to be the most successful investor of all time."

Oddly, I think I can but I probably won't be as good as guys like Jeff Dean of Google as a big whale of an example. The principals that Jeff Dean provide aren't rocket science. They are grounded in science, theory, and a bit of art.

If I were in a hiring mood and an unknown guy like Jeff Dean walked up to me and started talking about computing. It would probably take only less than 5 minutes for me to want to hire him. If I brought him to chat next to Anders Heisenberg of Microsoft, I'm sure Anders would want to hire him just as fast if not faster than me.

Now if I brought Anders and Jeff to a typical corporate world (obviously hiding their resume & history), I can see a small disaster occurring. They would probably insult them both and suggest they start at the lower end of the corporate ladder. They probably won't even hire Anders due to his lack of degree. (I still don't understand the corporate mindset as well).

A very good technologist is extremely noticeable (unless they are also a very good actor) once they start talking about technology and how they think about how stuff works together. It's like a giant spotlight shining on you. It's hard to not be blinded.

I don't see a difference a big difference in the investing world vs the technology world. A very good investment should have the same effect but for some reason - people ignore the light.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm also surprised by the amount of rejections in your examples! That said there's so many elements that need to come together to get your idea over the line (pitch, team, an idea the VC feels an affinity towards etc). Big ideas are sometimes the craziest ideas, so it's best to embrace that and expect rejection as a natural part of the journey. Here's to the crazy ones!

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://www.quora.com/Venture-Capital/What-is-the- probability...](http://www.quora.com/Venture-Capital/What-is-the-probability- that-300-VCs-turn-down-a-company-that-ultimately-becomes-worth-2-7-billion)

</comment><comment><USER6> Don't think that's true of Google. They got $100k from Sun founder (Andy Bechtolsheim) very early.</comment>


Doom on the MacBook Pro Touch Bar [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD0L46y3IqI <comment><USER2> It's funny, a long time ago, my brother and I were debating what would be a good definition that draws a line between a real "computer", as opposed to a calculator/controller/toy/etc. I was advocating running a real OS kernel as a heuristic (but then you'd have to define what a "real kernel" would be), and him, being a Doom fan, came up with:

"It counts as a real computer if it runs Doom."

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry to tell you it is even more complicated than if it can run doom. Does this count as doom?

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TuupoxmeQ6U](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TuupoxmeQ6U)

Another definition i have seen is the QWERTY keyboard restriction. If i remember correctly some good calculators from Texas Instruments have abc keyword to be allowed on some big math tests in US. (Or is this maybe just a myth in Europe?)

<comment><USER4> > If i remember correctly some good calculators from Texas Instruments have > abc keyword to be allowed on some big math tests in US. (Or is this maybe > just a myth in Europe?)

Not a myth. College Board has a blanket ban on QWERTY keyboards in tests, so TI Nspire line has ABCDEF keyboards

<comment><USER5> Wait, why would they ban _keyboard layouts_?

<comment><USER6> I imagine they were trying to define "computer" versus "calculator," and then banned computers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The classic Doom Law of Computing: As the time from a computer's release increases, the odds that it will gain a Doom port approaches one.

This is probably in part because Doom is simple enough to implement on most (relatively modern) machines, but also because we're all massive nerds, and Doom is one of the most beloved computer games ever (right behind Tetris, SMB, and Quake).

<comment><USER8> If you can believe it, the classic Japanese x68000 machines still don't have a completely working port of the game.

<comment><USER7> Wait, the m68k? No, that's not right: The Amiga got a port, and it's 68k.

Or are you thinking of a different processor?

<comment><USER8> Behold, the greatest computer of its age: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X68000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X68000)

and a great video on some of the games [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQPt69UCyIA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQPt69UCyIA)

<comment><USER7> Ah. You should be able to port DOOM to that fairly easily. Especially if it's got SDL, but even if it doesn't...

I expect nobody has bothered yet, because it was Japan-only, and DOOM is largely a western phenomenon: I don't think Japan even got DOOM when it was first released.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Neat! But how great would it be if it just rendered the DOOM status bar down there, while the rest of the game rendered fullscreen on the main display? :D

</comment><comment><USER10> The best comment on YT so far:

 _minigunexo12 hours ago (edited)

1300$ just to play doom, amazing we've come full circle._

</comment><comment><USER11> What's the resolution on the touch bar?

<comment><USER12> 2170x60

<comment><USER13> I can only imagine the company sourcing these displays thought that was a typo. It's such a crazy aspect ratio.

In another universe that touchbar would be used to relentlessly hound people with advertising since a classic 468x60 ad would snug right in there.

<comment><USER5> Give it a few months, and that "other universe" will silently merge with our own.

YOU HAVE BEEN INFECTED - CLICK HERE TO CLEAN IT! <click> ... <touchbar gets full of jumping monkeys> HIT THE MONKEY TO WIN $$$$$ !

<comment><USER14> Just wait for the Chrome team to make it have a JS API

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is clearly a gross misuse of the capabilities of the new MBP, clearly it was designed for flappy bird....

<comment><USER16> Wolfenstein 1D would fit the bill as well: [http://www.wonder- tonic.com/wolf1d/](http://www.wonder-tonic.com/wolf1d/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Okay, this is the first time the touch bar convinces me, hahaha.

</comment><comment><USER18> Only a question of time, really.

</comment><comment><USER19> Between cat videos, Rick Astley, and Doom Everywhere future digital alien archeologists are going to be very confused.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm holding out for the one with "special offers" pricing :D

</comment><comment><USER21> I didn't know the bar was that high res.

</comment><comment><USER22> Slightly off topic but it happened so often in the past, that apple products would be ridiculed on launch. Now the same people who complained how Apple is not making computers for them anymore are thinking of "cool" ways to hack the touch bar.

<comment><USER23> That has nothing to do with how efficient (or not) it is replacing actual keys with a screen. Try again.

<comment><USER24> Not to mention that every time you read about "same people" complaining about X but doing Y there's no evidence that it's ever the "same people".</comment></comment></comment>


Help people from flood-affected Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/p/61eb5cbbc5f1

<comment><USER2> Thank you for posting this, thought of doing the same if noone else did it. To all the people out there, the situation is horrible, a lot of people lost everything they had. If you can help, please do so, every cent is really valuable. Thank you all!</comment>


How far off am I? - <AUTHOR>

Hello-
Long time listener. First time caller...
After a fifteen year career as a pilot, I lost my job last year and can't find another one. I went back to school and am taking C++ and intro to databases and everything else I can get my hands on, in order to catch up.
I have no background in technology or business, basically a pilots license with a pretty degree attached to it. Nothing applicable to the real world. For all intents and purposes, I am starting from square one and trying to make my way as a programmer. After eight months, I don't feel I know how to actually program anything.
Entry level jobs are looking for 1-2 years of programming experience and mentors are hard to find.
Am I blowing this out of proportion? Does anyone recall what it was like when they started out? I mean really started out?
Thanks.
Edit: Thank you for all the comments. You lose sight of the big picture from ground level. Just need to stay the course. <comment><USER2> Not everyone will agree with the following, so you'll need to take this, and their comments as well, with a large dollop of critical thinking.

Use Python and write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. Then change it so that when a number is divisible by 3 it prints "Fizz" instead. Then change it again so that when a number is divisible by 5 it prints "Buzz". If the number is divisible by both 3 and 5 have it print "FizzBuzz".

Then write it again in C++.

Now ask, how could your program be made simpler? How could it be made clearer? If someone came to it in 6 months time, what would the y need to know in order to assess whether it's doing the right thing?

If you can do all that effortlessly then you're a long way there and in need of a harder challenge that gives you some satisfaction. If it requires any real thought then you need lots and lots of practice at writing code.

<comment><AUTHOR> I will look into the Python. The coding in C++ is not a problem. I do the puzzles on ProjectEueler and the exercises in the textbooks but I don't see how they apply to real world development.

I understand the need to practice code and take to it religiously. My wife hated when I was gone all the time. Now I am home and she hates that I am on the computer. You are right about increasing the level of difficulty. Thanks.

<comment><USER2> Here are some random questions to help you explore what you want to do.

Just to get a feel for the kind of code you write, perhaps you could take this little challenge:

      Write a C routine with the
      following prototype:

      void condense_by_removing(
          char *z_terminated ,
          char char_to_remove
          );

      Your routine should modify
      the given zero-terminated
      string in place, removing
      all instances of the given
      char.

If you're brave you can post your code here ...

Apart from that, the challenge is to decide what kind of job you want, then make sure you develop a resume to get it. If you want a web developer job then you have to write some web apps. If you want a systems programmer job then you need to write some slick algorithmic code.

Do you know what a B-tree is and when you would use it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's what I came up with. It compiles and executes but the result is a random symbol on the console. Definitely missing something.

      #include<iostream>
      #include<string>
      #include<cstring>

      using namespace std;
      void condense_by_removing(char *x, char y);

      int main()
      {
    	char *string;
    	string = new char[50];
    	cout << "ENter your name: ";
    	cin >> string;
    	cout << endl << "Enter the character to remove: ";
    	char ch;
    	cin >> ch;
    	condense_by_removing(string, ch);
    	cout << endl << "new string is: " << *string;

    	char dit;
    	cin >> dit;

    	return 0;
      }

      void condense_by_removing(char *z_terminated, char  char_to_remove)
      {
    	char *chPtr = new char;
    	char *trailPtr = new char;

    	for(int i = 0; i <= strlen(z_terminated); ++i)
    	{
    		chPtr = z_terminated;
    		if(z_terminated[i] == char_to_remove)
    		{
    			trailPtr = chPtr;
    			delete chPtr;
    		}
    	}
      }

<comment><USER2> OK, now's the time to learn about debugging. Writing clean code to solve small problems from scratch is easy. Debugging existing code, especially well- written code, is hard. This is where you need to use your problem solving skills.

Pretend that you're the computer and walk through the code in small steps, tediously detailed. Make sure you really understand what the code is doing.

What exactly happens when you execute "char *chPtr = new char;" ?

What exactly happens when you execute "delete chPtr;" ?

And why do I say that debugging well-written code is especially hard? Because the names, clarity and simplicity in well-written code seduce you into the same mindset as produced the code that has the bug.

<comment><AUTHOR> I could have used you as my professor in my recent data structures class.

I imagine you have myriad responsibilities in the course of your day and I am grateful for the time you are affording me.

I will work on this tonight.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> A fifteen year career as pilot is hardly "square one." At the very least it would make you the best candidate if you ever try to land a job or make a business around this niche.

The great programs are made by the people who used to need them.

<comment><USER4> You have the (rare) experience of a pilot. Therefore I would suggest you think about making iPhone, iPad and Android apps for pilots (i guess most of them use iOS). Start with really small ideas (virtual horizon, display pitch, etc.) and grow to more sophisticated projects (eg. flight planning and so on).

There is a lot of money to be made on those platforms; pilots are willing to pay for tools that help them, and non-pilots don't know what they need and can't easily produce such apps out of the blue. I bet you would also easily find a co-founder once you have concrete ideas / concepts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The biggest thing that helped my career and confidence was participating in open source projects. I was a terrible coder at the time, but I learned a great deal and it gave potential employers an additional degree of confidence.

Given your unique experience, you could probably find niche pilot tools that could use help. Check out freshmeat.net and other sites to find projects that are both interesting to you and could benefit from additional input.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Will check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> After 8 months where were you as a pilot? Were you ready to fly cross country solo?

Programming is hard because you may understand the solution, but you don't know your equipment well enough yet to get you there.

If you know what kind of industry you want to work in (Games, Web, Enterprise) focus on the tools that are used in that industry (C++, Django, .Net). Once you zero in on these specifics it will be much easier to find a mentor/community, because a flight instructor is pretty useless if he doesn't know where the landing gear is.

</comment><comment><USER7> _I have no background in technology or business_

Not quite true. I bet avionics companies (and plenty of others) would be very interested to talk to you.

My dad used to be a pilot and now works in technology, though he made the switch a few years ago now.

As for the programming, after learning the _very_ basics you really have to write something and learn as you go. Try writing a little Android app. I bet you could without even knowing Java.

It could be that working as a _programmer_ isn't right for you (maybe a business role related to aerospace), but if you kept it up on the side and used it as your "secret weapon" ^ you could be a real success. Good luck.

^ See Zed Shaw's thoughts on <http://sheddingbikes.com/LearnPythonTheHardWay.pdf>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the link. Python is next on the list. Took one Java class. Maybe Android apps would be good too.

Thanks again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You'll find it easier to start with web development than C++. Learn Ruby on Rails or the equivalent, churn out a few simple apps to build a portfolio and then hit the pavement as a freelancer (it requires less programming skill than you may think). After a few small contracts (don't over-reach - it requires more skill than that!), think about looking for a real job (if you want one).

Starting from nothing, that process can take a couple years - you'll need some money somehow during the learning period, Make sure that's taken care of because the money won't come quickly as you learn.

I did almost exactly this, and it worked for me.

<comment><USER9> I agree, if you're looking to work and not just program as a hobby, start with web projects. There's always a friend of a friend (or somebody on Craigslist) with a $1000 and an idea. Your effective hourly rate will be low, but you'll be learning and getting paid at the same time. You'll also find out whether you really want to be a programmer for hire, as it is often the case that the programming is the easy part while the clients are the hard part.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> When I REALLY started out (in 2006) I got an internship with a defense contractor and kind of worked my way up from there. The project I was on had a lot of ex-military people with no programming skills testing our software because that's who our end-user was.

Don't discount a 15 year career as a pilot - you might be able to get a job testing simulators for Lockheed, Boeing, or one of the others, and if you still want to write code you'll have your foot in the door already.

</comment><comment><USER11> Along the line of some of the advice below...Programming is hard but you become better with experience. I wont raise your hopes, it really does take years to get to the point where you can get a programming job,it is much more than just learning a programming language (just as learning English wont turn you into JK Rowlings)... unless of course you are much smarter than the average programmer.... I am giving you advice based on experience. I am 30yrs old and have been programming for about a decade. Some of the things you can do after a decade of practice:

<http://www.colabopad.com>

<http://www.meshipu.com>

<http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/visual_java.aspx>

<http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/ruler_control.aspx>

<http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/videochat.aspx>

<http://code.google.com/p/rhythmote/>

[http://pugoob.blogspot.com/2008/01/pugoob-image-search- tool....](http://pugoob.blogspot.com/2008/01/pugoob-image-search-tool.html)

Just a sample of my work, doesn't include what I actually do at work. How long do you think it will take you to learn how to build the kind of software above? I would hazard a guess, it will be a looooooong time. I currently work as a System Architect and even so I am not considered a senior person. Programming is like athletics, after a certain age you really shouldn't pursue it as career. You can try to learn it as a hobby, but spend your time and energy on more attainable career goals in the short term. I hate to sound uninspiring but I have seen enough of this type of thing, mid-career people trying to find a lucrative career and thinking programming is the way to go, mostly it is a waste of their time. I am in an MBA class with someone who's about 33yrs old and is taking Oracle classes trying to get into the IT field, he is mostly likely wasting his time.

IF YOU MUST

 _Start with PHP not C++ (Not likely to get you a job anytime soon)

_ Learn how to setup an entire LAMP (google it) system first, you could install virtualbox on what I am sure is your windows system

 _Then try to create some website, maybe a dating site or something your neighbors might find useful.

_ Be prepared to spend a lot of time on web forums asking questions

Hope this helps clarify some things for.

<comment><USER12> The advice on PHP might be correct, and it might jive with most of the collective experience of HNers... However, my company is always hiring C and C++ developers... we interview maybe 3 people a weak and hire maybe 1 person every 2 or 3 months.

That said, there is absolutely a shortage of C++ jobs... but this shortage has created an equal shortage of competent C++ programmers. We can't find C/C++ programmers to hire fast enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Here's my advice: Go build something!

It doesn't particularly matter as long as its appropriate for your skill level (but still challenging)

Example: After taking my second ever programming course I decided I wanted to make an iPhone app. So I picked up two books, made a storyboard, a paper prototype, and then went for it. It was a cookie cutter "inspirational quotes" app but I learned a lot and I was proud of it!

<comment><USER14> Even better: Go build something you're interested in. It needn't be important, just fun for you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This shit takes years, man. I started 3.5 years ago and couldn't do shit for the first year and a half. Then I got a tutor who got me set up right, and I could sometimes do stuff. Then, three years into this, I started taking off.

I will point out, however, that I decided to go straight into Lisp.

<comment><AUTHOR> Where did you find a tutor? Any recommendations of where to look?

<comment><USER15> Ask about grad students at a good local college.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> What made you choose programming? The IT industry is in nearly as bad a state as aviation. Neither really recovered from 2001 (dotcom crash + 9/11).

Is there any way you can leverage your domain knowledge? Work in avionics or games/simulation?

<comment><AUTHOR> Why did I choose programming? Vin: It's like this fellow I knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him the same question, "Why?" Calver: And? Vin: He said, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." -The Magnificent Seven

<comment><USER17> Also, programming is likely to be around in a few hundred years. Programming is AI-hard. Few other lines of work are.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> mipnix, I noticed a few people suggested looking into work at avionics companies; I think this is a good idea. I work at Rockwell Collins (www.rockwellcollins.com) and I know that we have hired a significant number pilots and ex-pilots as engineers.

Good luck.</comment>


Kafka: A Life Beyond Literature - <AUTHOR> http://www.spiked-online.com/spiked-review/article/kafka-a-life-beyond-literature/19511#.WL5AfRjMzv1 <comment><USER2> I thought this was going to be about Kafka.

<comment><USER3> It is about Kafka.

<comment><USER4> It is not the Kafka.</comment></comment></comment>


OpenBSD chief de Raadt says no easy fix for new Intel CPU bug - <AUTHOR> https://www.itwire.com/security/83347-openbsd-chief-de-raadt-says-no-easy-fix-for-new-intel-cpu-bug.html <comment><USER2> Carmack said it best:

 _" Putting anything that gets benchmarked in a position of security responsibility is very, very dangerous."_

[https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/395927588108918785](https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/395927588108918785)

I think the original context was WebGL, but it applies everywhere.

<comment><USER3> Makes me wonder that Matt Dillon, Theo De Raadt, Linus Torvalds, John Carmack and Bryan Cantrill would have been able to make if they were founders of a company together.

<comment><USER4> They would make forks ;)

<comment><USER3> Not before they had a solid source code management system, ... oh wait!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is the solution to this and previous side channel bugs to simply not run untrusted and trusted code on the same machine?

Basically a revert to the security model of Windows XP. We should assume access to execute any code means the same security level as having physical access to a machine (I.e. full machine ownership)?

<comment><USER6> No, as he points out in the article even a kernel call can change the virtual address space so even two threads of the same program may leak data. There's basically no known fix except to disable hyperthreading entirely.

<comment><USER7> If you pin VMs to different cores, never sharing hyperthreads, then the risk is contained per VM (or per core).

<comment><USER8> Let's hope there's no inter-core side-channel lurking in the shadows :(

It is time to rethinking the engineering methodologies we use in the electronics/informatics field.

<comment><USER9> Breaking x86 backward compatibility? That would be fun.

<comment><USER8> So we are between a rock and a hard place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So, it turns out Intel took every shortcut they could.

<comment><USER11> It is interesting to see the same pattern that we've watched play out in financial markets repeated in such a different area. High performance from unstated changes in risk. Now that it has been exposed we know who has been swimming naked and over the next couple of years we will learn just how naked they were. Luckily I only run software that I trust on boxes where security is an issue.

<comment><USER12> The curious thing I'm learning about investors reacting to revealed disasters (caused by poor risk management) is, __they don 't seem to care as long as the long term story is there __. A couple of examples:

* The INTC bugs came out around the beginning of the year, but if you zoom out you can barely tell. It was 34 a year ago and it's 52 today.

* FB fell around 6pct for the CA privacy news, to 152, and then a little for the EU hearings, but it's back in spades to over 200 now.

As long as you provide a plausible hole in the sand, it seems the market will gladly stick its head there and ignore whatever us nerds are FUDDing about.

<comment><USER13> To be fair, prior Intel issues were mitigated, and even if they couldn't be there might be limited reasons to think that prior issues will impact future sales without sufficient competition in the market. If it turns out that these older Intel chips can't be used for cloud computing anymore then it might just mean that cloud providers like Amazon take a hit but Intel makes a gain in selling them new chips.

And Facebook privacy issues are frequently panic'd about briefly and then forgotten. Markets doing that pretty much mirrors the people who "delete facebook" every time there's a panic and then come back minutes later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Well, Spectre was already an exploit without "an easy fix" but a lot of nasty workarounds.

</comment><comment><USER15> I'll be curious to see the details of the exploit. The TLB should only hold metadata about the address spaces involved (e.g. virtual-to-physical mapping, how many times the entry has been used recently), whereas to extract a private key as claimed, one needs the side channel to have a dependency on the data.

</comment><comment><USER16> What is the current fastest In Order CPU with no SMT? My guess it is from ARM?

<comment><USER17> Probably Cortex-A53. And it isn't fast

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Will it help to use VMs? Say something like Qubes OS?

<comment><USER19> No, VMs will make things worse.

<comment><USER8> You must pin them to specific cpu cores. But then you lose a big part of the convenience offered by VMs. It is like using gpu passthrough vs virtual 3d card.

<comment><USER20> Not that big part at all, you can change these settings at will. Sharing the CPUs (overcommiting) is probably out of the question though.

Just most VM management UIs lack the functionality.

GPU passthrough is special because they have weird initialization and shutdown handling. Plus are chunky (all our nothing) until SR-IOV variants become commonplace. CPU cores don't have these problems.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


TrendMicro is recording every click for over 3 years - <AUTHOR>

I created a ecommerce for a couple of clients.
Today i noticed unauthenticated requests from Japan (static ip registered by TrendMicro), with an ip range from 150.70.. . Weird, because all of our clients are from Belgium....
As i'd like to keep my error logs to zero, the following post popped up (another Belgium user though).
http://compxnonsense.blogspot.be/2011/04/trendmicro-is-recording-your-every.html , which was posted 3 years ago.
Why are they doing this? This is the same as what spyware does! <comment><USER2> There's money in tracking people. Over the past decade, consumer grade anti- virus software has turned into crap/spy ware.

Slow performance and automatic credit card charges drove me away from Symantec/Norton after more than a decade. I landed on Kaspersky, but after a few years it was suspect too.

In the end, I decided that the only product worth trusting was MicroSoft's free Security Essentials. I figured that their interests aligned with my interest in keeping problems at bay, and if MicroSoft wanted to spy on me, they didn't need anti-virus software to do it.

</comment><comment><USER3> If you purchase and install "internet security" software that claims to protect you from malicious websites, you shouldn't then be surprised when their crawler visits the links you click and checks them for malware.

<comment><AUTHOR> Shouldn't internet security check for malicious websites immediatly when you visit them, instead of afterwards through crawling?

And why it is trying to do 40-50 requests in 2 hours (that's every action a user took to complete an order with shipping).

Also, it's a bad method, i place a cookie on the client, if the client has that cookie. I give them malware. Or i do a iplookup and if the action isn't associated to *.trendmicro.com or doesn't originate from Japan i gave them malware.

I wouldn't pay for a product that secures people in that way :-S, it's so 1999

And don't forget, it gives false errors on websites, where the site owner can't do anything to fix it.</comment></comment>


Django 1.9 Released - <AUTHOR> https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2015/dec/01/django-19-released/ <comment><AUTHOR> This might be a good time to mention that Django is always trying to raise funds: [https://www.djangoproject.com/fundraising/](https://www.djangoproject.com/fundraising/)

The really quick turn around on tickets and pull requests is largely thanks to the Django Fellow, who is paid to manage the community. The last two or three releases have been on time because of the Fellow. The Fellow is funded via Django Software Foundation fundraising activities.

If your company is deriving financial benefit from using Django, consider asking your company to sponsor the fellowship program, so that we can ensure that bugs are getting fixed, releases are happening on time, and security releases are being processed as a priority.

(Disclaimer: core member).

<comment><USER2> Good call, this is very important!

It's baffling that such a huge project, used by thousands of companies including at least one billion dollar unicorn, have such a hard time finding money to fund only one single developer. As a solo owner and happy Django user, I've donated what I could and encouraged others to do so but would love to find a solution to entice larger businesses to donate regularly.

<comment><AUTHOR> The Django Software Foundation has just hired a part time person to organise fundraising [0]. There is also discussion happening around the community about trying to find a sustainable way of funding open source projects and Django in particular.

Part of the problem is that it's hard to get companies to "donate" money. If they can purchase something like "support" or something else tangible, or "sponsorship" out of their advertising budgets, there may be more opportunities of gaining funding.

Thank you for donating though! Django gets a lot of their money from regular developers' pockets. I, personally, feel that bigger companies using Django to generate lots of revenue should be contributing a greater portion to support the stack that supports them.

[0] [https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2015/nov/23/introducing...](https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2015/nov/23/introducing- dsfs-director-advancement/)

<comment><USER3> Maybe I do not know some important details, but why DSF (Django Software Foundation), does not do Django consulting in the first place. They very highly likely can do the best Django consulting in the world.

Secondly, maybe DSF could bake some great products for/from Django? The first ideas I have is Django specific, and user friendly:

\- PaaS;

\- analytics (as in 'new relic');

\- crash and performance logging (as in 'sentry' and/or 'opbeat')

\- CI;

DSF can just simply make business, by making great infrastructure stack around Django.

<comment><USER4> It's important to remember that the DSF is a non-profit foundation registered under US laws, which restrict what it can do. Many types of "just act like a business and sell things" ideas are automatically illegal for a non-profit foundation.

<comment><USER5> Can they open/own a for profit consulting company, which is taxed as a normal company but gives all profit/dividend back to foundation?

<comment><USER6> Yes they may. The proceeds of that company would be paid to the foundation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Before anyone says something about Django not being hip enough for realtime stuff, just know that you can layer Pushpin ([http://pushpin.org](http://pushpin.org)) in front of it. This may sound like a bandage but it's actually good design, regardless of programming language.

Disclaimer: author.

<comment><USER8> I didn't hear about Pushpin before, looks like a solid product, will definitely look into it. I'm not sure if that's a valid question, but how does the Pushpin compare to something like SwampDragon ([http://swampdragon.net/](http://swampdragon.net/)), besides not being tied to Django?

<comment><USER7> SwampDragon is a more comprehensive solution. It comes with a JS client and lets you define data models. Pushpin is lower level. It has no client protocol nor client library and handles various push primitives on behalf of the backend.

If you want to add realtime endpoints to an existing Django project, or if you want to build an API, then Pushpin may be preferable. SwampDragan may be preferable for new, non-API projects.

It might be cool to see the two projects integrate somehow, since they actually sit at different levels in the stack. There could be value in SwampDragon being able to delegate push responsibility to Pushpin.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Excited about the new JSONField added: [https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/contrib/postgres/f...](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/contrib/postgres/fields/#jsonfield)

<comment><USER10> I upgraded from hstore a couple days ago. I expected it would take me a couple days, but it only took two or three hours. I basically just had to replace the field in the model, and was surprised to see the test suite passing. But it turns out that all of the application code just magically worked as is. And it's also a security win since you needed to be a Postgres superuser to install hstore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you are deploying a new django project, let me suggest hendrix (twisted + django) as your WSGI publisher.

hendrix makes concurrency simple, fun, and fast using Twisted, which is battle-tested and experiencing an amazing renaissance of young talent (as evidenced by the amazing vibes in the Twisted room at the PyCon sprints).

[https://github.com/hendrix/hendrix](https://github.com/hendrix/hendrix)

<comment><AUTHOR> I can't say I've used twisted at all, but Amber had a fairly good talk at Django Under the Hood this year on this topic: [https://opbeat.com/events/duth/#twisted-and- django](https://opbeat.com/events/duth/#twisted-and-django)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm curious what the redesigned admin looks like, does anyone have screenshots?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's CSS only changes to be backwards compatible.

Here's a screenshot I dug up from google. [http://imgur.com/3xGdZ04](http://imgur.com/3xGdZ04)

The changes were originally released in a 3rd party package: [https://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-flat- theme](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/django-flat-theme) that has some screenshots too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Thank you everyone who committed their time and code to this release.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is still better when you are able to experiment versions without quirks and workarounds. Hail virtualenv.

<comment><USER15> Django is really easy to deploy manually too.

Download the tarball, untar it, make a symlink from inside your project dir to the "django" subdir. If you want to try another version, you just change the symlink to point to the other version. If you are curious which version you're running, you can just do a "ls -l" in the project dir. That's it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I just got around to skimming the release notes, and I'm curious about running tests in parallel. I'm looking forward to upgrading, and seeing if this has a meaningful impact on my tests. I don't have a large number of tests yet; my project runs its full test suite in ~10 seconds at the moment. But I'm well aware this should grow significantly as my project matures.

Does anyone have any sense yet of how this affects the speed of the test suite in your real-world projects?

[https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/releases/1.9/#running-...](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/releases/1.9/#running- tests-in-parallel)

<comment><USER17> Massive speedups once you get to thousands of tests. We 12 minute runs for the 3 apps that are part of a release. When we went parallel it reduced it by 1/6 (6 test processes).

Of course, we also had some slow tests we rewrote and had to fix some tests that did not play nice concurrently. But it was well worth it.

I don't think you'll see a big benefit for a current 10-second run because of fixed cost of startup is some of that. But running tests in parallel may reveal some bad testing practices: leaving data behind or improper mocking that cause tests to fail in parallel. Fixing all that once you get to a massive set of tests is really painful and slow becuase you have to fix them ALL before switching your testing config. So that might be a benefit to turning it on soon and growing your tests already in an parallel environment.

<comment><USER16> Thanks for the thoughtful response. I appreciate the perspective on what it means for large test suites, and why it's beneficial to think about this in early development stages as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is the Django team planning anything big for a 2.0 release?

<comment><USER4> Expanding a bit: the plan is that 2.0 just switches us to a new versioning system. The tl;dr is:

Versions start going 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, then 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, then 4.0, 4.1, etc.

Every X.2 is a long-term support release.

The deprecation cycle gets tweaked so that if you're on, say, 2.2 LTS and your codebase runs with no deprecation warnings, then you'll be able to just run as-is on 3.2 LTS. You can then clean up any deprecation warnings on 3.2, and you'd be good to go for 4.2 LTS, etc.

<comment><USER19> And as a special case of that: according to the current roadmap, 1.11 will be the last version to support Python 2.7, 2.0 won't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Music to my ears! I literally just installed 1.9rc2 thirty minutes ago. Congrats to everyone involved in the release.

</comment><comment><USER21> Not looking to start a fanboy-war here; but i would like to hear some opinions. If you were to start a new small to medium sized web app today, would choose Ruby on Rails or Django?

<comment><USER22> I'm shocked, frankly, at how lousy both are out-of-the-box. I just don't get why a simple CRUD app (which many/most apps are) has to be so difficult. I had trouble figuring out how to do email login on Django and just gave up. At first, Rails seems like it's going to be a lot better. I don't care for generating files. Don't like TDD. And found the migrations very confusing (if I make a typo in a field name, I delete the whole project and start over).

I can't believe this is the current state of web app development. I know everyone's moved on to Node and Angular, but, c'mon!

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately it looks like you hit a bit of a sore spot with regards to django auth. There isn't a good out of the box solution for email based usernames. There are patterns available, and the "swappable" user framework is there to allow email based usernames. But an email based model isn't available. I'm fairly sure there are tickets or ideas to make this happen, but we're not there yet.

Django really is quick and easy to get going though. If you can make your way past the email based usernames, I think you'd find a really capable and easy system waiting for you.

<comment><USER10> I think a bigger issue with regards to usernames and email is the fact that neither are titlecased before getting indexed. I get that there are certain legacy considerations or whatever, but it really seems like there should at least be a note in the documentation about this given the massive clusterfuck that would potentially ensue should someone not figure this out before launching.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you mean that usernames/emails aren't normalised to a single case to prevent "duplicates" of "jarshwah" and "Jarshwah"? If so, this was recently brought up on the mailing list: [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django- developers/SW...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/django- developers/SW7_qI81G58)

I agree this should probably have a solution or at least documentation to be wary of.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, I actually hadn't seen that, but I know there are also longstanding tickets for this. I actually don't like the solutions in those threads, I think better to just add an extra field to the models, so have something like 'db_email' and 'display_email'. I realize you can do this with a functional index or whatever, but I think that's actually kind of hacky given the lack of ORM support for functional indexes.

My big issue with the current state though is that if you're relying on usernames or email addresses being unique then you're potentially opening yourself up to all sorts of security issues without realizing it.

<comment><AUTHOR> FWIW I agree the solutions in that thread aren't good enough, especially since most of them are postgres specific. Now that migrations can be shipped with contrib.auth, a better solution might be possible.

I'd probably prefer a functional unique index since it would be easier to maintain (rather than duplicate fields). We just need to get expression support into indexes.

<comment><USER4> Well, I hear there's this expressions API and that now it's possible to use them during the initial creation/save of an object... maybe there's some normalization people could do with that :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Parallel tests, curious if folks are seeing a big difference in their existing testing suite?

On_commit sounds nice.

</comment><comment><USER24> This is the second perfectly on-time major release in a row. Way to go team!

</comment><comment><USER25> What does the new admin style look like?

<comment><USER24> [https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/intro/tutorial02/#ente...](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/intro/tutorial02/#enter- the-admin-site)</comment></comment>


StandCrafted – The Minimalist, Modular, Wall-Mounted Standing Desk - <AUTHOR> http://www.standcrafted.com <comment><USER2> After seeing so many overpriced standing desk solutions, such as a cardboard box for $250, I'm not interested in following something like this to launch without some kind of general price tag.

It may have been mentioned in the video, but if it was and not elsewhere on the site, why have the rest of the site?

<comment><AUTHOR> WalterSear, thanks for the comment and we completely understand. We've withheld the price from the website as its not our direct selling platform at this time. The site is a landing page to provide general information and generate interest from customers for our Kickstarter launch. All product details including price will be published on our Kickstarter. sneak peak, the HPDE Early Bird desk including all 4 modules will sell for $395. If a cardboard box desk is $250, we think we have some value to offer!</comment></comment>


Apple iPad users' e-mail addresses harvested by hackers - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10282263.stm

<comment><USER2> May we finally start laying the blame for this on AT&T for their craptastic website vulnerability that enabled this, instead of on Apple who simply provided the hardware?

Also, details are vague... This didn't affect any of the WiFi-Only iPads, right?</comment>


What's the rationale for null terminated strings? - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4418708/whats-the-rationale-for-null-terminated-strings <comment><USER2> The question should be: "Why doesn't C have a string data type?" C only considers a pointer to a char, it's the programmers' fault they treat this structure like a string.</comment>