White House Considers Restricting Chinese Researchers Over Espionage Fears - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/us/politics/trump-china-researchers-espionage.html <comment><USER2> 20 years too late.

</comment><comment><USER3> Professor mentioned in this article still has what seems like foreign educated students working in his lab, so maybe he has put in additional measures already? [http://people.ee.duke.edu/~drsmith/people.htm](http://people.ee.duke.edu/~drsmith/people.htm)

</comment><comment><USER4> Isn't this the strategy that helped China develop nuclear weapons?

<comment><USER5> The Soviets explicitly helped the early Chinese nuclear weapons program.

There are reports, like the Cox Report, that China used espionage to help improve their weapon and ballistic missile designs. Other discredit at least some of the veracity of that report. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_Report](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cox_Report) .

If there has been leak of nuclear secrets to China then Chinese espionage is much better than Soviet espionage, where we were able to find several spies.

Wen Ho Lee received $1.6M because of misconduct and misrepresentations of the US government when they accused him of nuclear espionage. So it isn't like the US isn't trying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> More blowback from Mr. Xi proclaiming himself President For Life.</comment>


Apple's New Thing – iPod (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500

<comment><AUTHOR> Some really funny comments, but I think it's interesting to consider this in light of the watch announcement.</comment>


Introduction of C4 traits into rice to increase photosynthetic efficiency - <AUTHOR> https://c4rice.com/the-project-2/project-goals/ <comment><USER2> _land that currently provides enough rice to feed 27 people will need to support 43 by 2050_

if there were fewer mouths, you would need less rice. I realize it isn't an area the Gates Foundation is active in, but there is quite a bit of evidence that educating and empowering women reduces population growth[1]. In many parts of the world women are still treated like property, forced into marriage, and have no access to family planning or education.

1\. [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-women-can- sav...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-women-can-save-the- planet/)

<comment><USER3> Actually that is an area the Gates Foundation is active in: [http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global- Development...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/What-We-Do/Global- Development/Family-Planning)

<comment><USER4> From your link:

>> Invest in New Contraceptive Methods

>> Some women do not access or use contraceptives for a variety of reasons, even when they want to avoid pregnancy. They may have misconceptions about their risk of becoming pregnant, or be deterred by the cost, inconvenience, _or concerns about side effects._ ... "

The Gates Foundation is paying for "a reformulation of Pfizer's Depo-Provera® (medroxyprogesterone acetate)" [1]. The usual side effect of this drug is gaining weight. Usually it's about 20 pounds. Some women gain 40+ pounds after a few rounds of this drug [2].

[1] [http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press- Releases/2...](http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Media-Center/Press- Releases/2012/07/Innovative-Partnership-to-Deliver-Convenient-Contraceptives- to-up-to-Three-Million-Women) [2] [https://www.reddit.com/user/ihateyoudepo](https://www.reddit.com/user/ihateyoudepo)

I suspect that the Depo Provera injections at about age 20 is what turned my friend into a drug addict. Drug use caused her first psychotic episodes, and her first court-ordered psychiatrists weren't smart enough to make the connection between her previous use of a prescription endocrine disruptor (Provera) and the following depression that she self-treated with street drugs.

Anyone who uses Provera drug is ignorant of the harm it actually causes, or is malicious.

edit: fixed italics above edit2: changed txt above to 'endocrine disruptor'

<comment><USER5> > I suspect that the Depo Provera injections at about age 20 is what turned my > friend into a drug addict

Have you considered that post hoc is not necessarily proper hoc.

<comment><USER4> > Have you considered that post hoc is not necessarily proper hoc.

Disruption of the endocrine glands is on the drug safety information [1]:

      Effects on the Hypothalmic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis

      Some patients receiving medroxyprogesterone acetate may
      exhibit suppressed adrenal function. Medroxyprogesterone
      acetate may have cortisol-like glucocorticoid activity
      and provide negative feedback to the hypothalamus or
      pituitary. This may result in decreased plasma cortisol
      levels, decreased cortisol secretion, and low plasma ACTH
      levels. The use of DEPO-PROVERA Sterile Aqueous
      Suspension may, due to its cortisol-like glucocorticoid
      activity, also produce Cushingoid symptoms such as weight
      gain, edema/fluid retention, and facial swelling.

[1] [http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ucm2323...](http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/ucm232329.htm)

edit: p.s. Thanks for commenting, I'd never looked at Depo Provera's safety information before. Someone else had said that he thought that Depot-Provera's FDA approval, in spite of what's known about it, is a good example of 'Regulatory Capture'. Psychosis is associated with cortisol deficiency [2], so this safety information strongly supports my theory about the origin of my friend's mental health struggles.

[2] [https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2016/june/stress- hormon...](https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2016/june/stress-hormone-link- with-psychosis)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Rats consume a sizeable percentage of rice production. From an earlier story [1]:

      The next call came from Australia in 2006. Biologists there
      wanted an adaptation of Mouseopause for rats. Rats, they told
      her, were eating 30% of the rice crop in Australia and
      Indonesia. If she could reduce the rat population by even half,
      they claimed, the crops that would be saved could feed millions
      of people.

[1] Man v rat: could the long war soon be over? (theguardian.com), [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12542718](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12542718)

Agricultural output is always variable. The world needs more storage capacity [2], and to better support small farmers. There's the ancient parable about "seven years of abundance" preceding "seven years of famine". Only "old" grain should be fed to animals.

For the most part, genetic engineering has been used to sell pesticides. While this C3->C4 innovation might not be as harmful as Monsanto's, it would be better to deal with our other agricultural problems too. Getting rats' numbers under control, and other low-tech investments (such as was undertaken in Thailand starting in the 1960's [3]), would be just as effective as throwing new seeds at farmers...

Haiti demonstrates that politics is the most important factor for determining agricultural output. [4]

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_silo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_silo) [3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_production_in_Thailand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_production_in_Thailand) [4] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12531999](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12531999) \- "Why Are Haiti's Coffee Trees So Tall?"

</comment><comment><USER7> One of the members of this team - Jane Langdale - did a talk at Stewart Brand's Long Now Foundation.

Well worth a listen: [http://longnow.org/seminars/02016/mar/14/radical- ag-c4-rice-...](http://longnow.org/seminars/02016/mar/14/radical-ag-c4-rice- and-beyond/)

</comment><comment><USER8> We are using most of grown crops as feed in meat production. So we don't have to increase production to keep up with population growth, the other option is to cut down on conspicuous consumption in what we eat.

<comment><USER9> Do you think that the majority of meat consumption is conspicuous consumption?

<comment><USER10> I think a lot of it if force of habit combined with the externalities of meat production not being reflected in the price of meat, making it cheaper to buy than it is in terms of overall cost. Meat consumption is a cultural element as well as a dietary one.

<comment><USER9> I agree that habit is a big driver. I don't see how that makes it conspicuous consumption.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _land that currently provides enough rice to feed 27 people will need to support 43 by 2050_

Honest question: can't we assume that, as population grows, people will just plant more rice?

Sure this cannot be done everywhere, but there's surely some arable land somewhere that can grow, and maybe technology can help in other ways than by manipulating the genome of plants.

For instance, if we had cheap energy or a very efficient desalinating tech, we could desalinate ocean water and cultivate normal rice where there are deserts now...

In France farmers are complaining that the prices of farm products are too low and it sounds like there are many places where we produce way too much for too few consumers.

Instead of playing god to reduce a risk in 2050, can't we try _right now_ to find economical, political, or technical ways to take the surplus from one place and bring it to places where food is _already_ dramatically lacking?

EDIT: formatting

<comment><USER12> Sure we can! Which rainforest do you want to cut down to make space for the new fields?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is an interesting proposal though I'm not sure it'll come to much. It's an awful lot more complex than any of the commercial GM plants, requiring a number of genes spread across multiple cells all of which need to be switched on at the right time and place, plus structural changes to the plant leaves whose genetic roots apparently aren't understood: [https://c4rice.com/the- science/engineering-photosynthesis-wh...](https://c4rice.com/the- science/engineering-photosynthesis-what-we-are-doing/)

<comment><USER14> I agree. The researchers are aware of the challenge. There is so much we don't know about the C4 pathway and then to somehow successfully merge parts of it into a C3 plant. It might be easier to develop a C4 plant that can thrive in a rice-centric environment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Reminds me of golden rice. It was created to solve nutritional deficiencies in about the same populations, but didn't succeed. I hope this initiative does.

<comment><USER16> Golden Rice isn't a failure, it just hasn't yet been deployed at a large scale. The folks working on it have been making a lot of progress, but it's been slow. (See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice#Golden_Rice_2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice#Golden_Rice_2))

Sadly, part of the reason why it's been delayed is due to fearmongering by groups like Greenpeace who are ideologically opposed to genetic engineering.

<comment><USER17> > Sadly, part of the reason why it's been delayed is due to fearmongering by > groups like Greenpeace who are ideologically opposed to genetic engineering.

Some of the delay was calm objection to massive corporations. [http://whqlibdoc.who.int/bulletin/2000/Number%2010/78(10)new...](http://whqlibdoc.who.int/bulletin/2000/Number%2010/78\(10\)news.pdf)

Golden rice had a bunch of patents from over 20 organisations -- putting farmers at risk of licence violation. Pressure from Greenpeace and WHO (and WHO aren't known as a radical anti-GMO org) helped companies like Monsanto declare that they wouldn't be using terminator genes and would allow farmers to collect and sow some of their crop. (But only farmers who earn less than $10,000 per year).</comment></comment></comment>


When do you write your best code (relative to local time)? - <AUTHOR>

I know when I am coding at my best.  Usually it is 3-4pm in the afternoon (know what I want to get accomplished before I leave the office) or 9-10pm at night (know what I want to get accomplished before I go to bed).  What is your best coding hours (relative to your timezone) and why? <comment><USER2> Generally after midnight, when everyone else is asleep or quiet.

</comment><comment><USER3> My best hours at work are between 8am and 10:30am. This is usually because I arrive earlier than my workmates who are in my immediate vicinity and as a result I have less interruptions.

Second to that is 4-5pm for the same reason as the OP(know what I need to get complete before I leave the office).

</comment><comment><USER4> Night time. When the noise has gone down.

</comment><comment><USER5> Usually my best hours are spent in the mornings just after I wake up. I'll sit down, check on a bug and start hammering away at home before heading to the office several hours later. The main benefit for me is I can approach problems with a clear mind that I likely don't have the rest of the day.

</comment><comment><USER6> 4am. I don't get up that early too often, but when I do it's perfect. It's late enough that I can be up for the day, but early enough that I can get into a good focused work zone, and stay there for a couple hours.

</comment><comment><USER7> It's usually not a matter of when, but what I'm coding. I can be energetic but if I'm coding some boring, trivial task, I probably can't get myself to focus right away

</comment><comment><USER8> Whenever I can smell the fresh aroma of Coffee</comment>


BlackBerry confirms 'Priv' Android phone will launch this year - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/25/blackberry-priv-android-confirmed/ <comment><USER2> Three words: Dell Venue Pro ...which was a fantastic phone. I love this form factor. Will this spark a physical keyboard resurgence or is this dead on arrival?</comment>


An Asset Grows in Brooklyn - <AUTHOR> https://thebaffler.com/latest/an-asset-grows-in-brooklyn-kazior <comment><AUTHOR> > _The economic revelations of TreeKeeper, along with the New York City's > Street Tree Map, have an undeniable impact on rent and property values of > the surrounding neighborhoods. As green gentrification has long afflicted > the surrounding neighborhoods of Prospect Park, the living ecosystem of the > so-called public park has been unwillingly recruited as a source of value > for the propertied class, ... "_</comment>


[Show HN]: justcharity.org - <AUTHOR> http://us.justcharity.org/

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a friend's new site that aggregates info from various donation sites and charts progress. Seems to be useful to JustGiving and Virgin Money at least, they're using it (possibly unofficially) internally already :)

It was originally UK focused (at <http://justcharity.org/> ) but has a US- specific set at <http://us.justcharity.org/> as well</comment>


Announcing the Winners of the 2018 MIT Media Lab Disobedience Award - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/mit-media-lab/announcing-the-winners-of-the-2018-mit-media-lab-disobedience-award-921d58548dcb <comment><USER2> It is a colossal misstep for the MIT Media Lab to move into social activism, and that is what this award is doing. If you'd like to be perceived as scientists, you lose your credibility to do impartial investigation of social trends. It's hard to trust a paper you've published on the impact of #MeToo when your department is literally rewarding the founders.

If you'd like to be perceived as engineers, you demonstrate a serious lack of focus. The Media Lab has historically been focused on innovative human- computer interfaces. When most people have spent significant time and several years interacting with social media, the Media Lab is no more qualified to speak on social media movements enabled by technology than the average person. They're borrowing the reputation of the lab to promote a political position, but its reputation is harmed by doing so.

<comment><USER3> Disagree. I think this is like saying Einstein shouldn't have been vocal about the Bomb. I think scientists (and scientific institutions) _should_ use their visibility to make a social point, and that shouldn't at all undermine their scientific credibility.

<comment><USER2> The integrity of a hard science like physics is rarely compromised by political persuasions. I have little idea how his positions on the bomb would have affected his ability to produce unbiased scientific results. The conclusions of those papers have little ramification on the ethics of nuclear weapons.

But if you're trying to do research which investigates the social ramifications of a movement like #MeToo, then a biased researcher will seek out methods which highlight how positive and powerful the movement is, while ignoring metrics which make it look weak, unpopular, or causing negative impacts. Getting the title "Doctor" doesn't magically remove one's bias, especially when there is a systemic bias promoted by the institution at large.

<comment><USER4> Medical Doctors are biased against diseases like cancer that kill people, and hospitals have systematic institutional biases against cancer, too -- is that so wrong?

Sexually assaulting people and institutionally supporting the perpetrators and covering up their crimes is simply wrong. There isn't another valid side to that argument. The #MeToo movement is on the right side of that argument, and anyone who opposes it or denies it's a problem, like Trump or the Catholic Church, is simply wrong, and likely motivated by their desire to cover up and excuse their own crimes.

You can't fault medical doctors for being biased against cancer, or researchers for being biased against rape and sexual assault.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't think MIT should be anywhere near these kinds of things after the whitewash re. Aaron Swartz.

They stopped being 'cool' and they won't get that image back by pretend stuff like this.

[http://swartz-report.mit.edu/](http://swartz-report.mit.edu/)

Having Aaron win the Disobedience Award would have been a fitting punishment, instead they took it to the max.

<comment><USER6> They lost me at "social justice experts" and "toxic masculinity".

<comment><USER7> Why?

Both of those terms have definitions based in rational discourse, but they are often misunderstood. E.g. "toxic masculinity" does not mean that masculinity is toxic, it means there's a subset of masculine behaviors that can be toxic when over-represented.

If reading the term 'toxic masculinity' is enough to cause you to disengage, I'd encourage you to take a moment and understand why that just happened.

<comment><USER8> Toxic masculinity get judged based on the meaning it express as words. Languages in the end is all about expressing meaning.

If we talk about toxic Muslims as the subset of terrorist behavior, then most people would still see it as an generalization that invoke a expression of racisms and hate. Lumping together all Muslims, only to then say "Its a misunderstanding, I only meant this small subset that is toxic among Muslims" don't work. Does not work for racism, and it does not work for sexism either. The term toxic masculinity will always seem like veiled hatred against men, and no amount of "that is only a misinterpretation ..." will change that.

<comment><USER4> So whenever anybody mentions "toxic food", you jump to the conclusion that they're saying all food is toxic? When somebody warns you about eating toxic food like Romaine lettuce, do you assume they hate all food? Or do you go out of your way to eat Romaine lettuce just to spite them, like so many people who disengage from rational discourse, thump their chests, and grandstand to defend all men from the perceived slight of being called toxic?

<comment><USER8> That is silly. Toxicity as a word originated from venom and is decades older than when the feminist movement started to use it to describe other human people in order to dehumanize and spread hate.

But lets go to a political term that currently is seen in the news with wild disagreeing views: the _illegal immigrant_. The US administration defines this as only being about the subgroup of immigrant that has committed a crime. They see no problem talking about deport all those _illegal immigrants_ , how the _illegal immigrants_ are a drain on the country, and how many of the _illegal immigrants_ are rapists and gang members. And yet when the opposition object they are all talking about _immigrants_ and how _immigrants_ are important for the country and economy. How among _immigrants_ there are very few rapists and gang members, and how the administration are racist when they make general statements about _immigrants_. And in return the administration accuse the opposition for disengaging from rational discourse, thumping their chests, and grandstanding to defend all immigrants from the perceived slight of being called rapists and gang members.

If you want rational discourse then start by using language that do not dehumanize people. Second step is to avoid large generalization that is only veiled hatred. Only then is there even a possibility for rational discourse.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So this is how cool and forward-thinking MBS is. Now the prince of KSA supports organizations handing out disobedience awards. Who would have thought?

[0] [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/30/elite-...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/30/elite- universities-selling-themselves-mit-harvard-saudi-arabia-mohammed-bin-salman)

</comment><comment><USER10> If I was giving out a disobedience award for 2018, it would go to Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed.

(This is not to imply that I think anyone in this article is undeserving of an award for things they've done.)

<comment><USER11> Agreed. I'm not sure how #metoo is "disobedient" in any way. It's the popular position of almost the entire media, Hollywood, and liberal leaning people in the USA.

It's the safest stand you can possibly take in 2018.

However, Defense Distributed should get the disobedience award, not Cody Wilson.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I am surprised Alexandra Elbakyan did not win this because of her work with sci-hub. What could be the biggest disobedience of all other than freeing science from the grasp of Corporate profithood by sacrificing your own freedom of movement?

Specially when the award is given by a science lab.

<comment><USER13> Yes, I think she'd be an obvious candidate. I'd be interested to know if she was nominated, and if so, what the discussion was.

My guess (as an outsider but with some small insight into the group making these awards) is that Elbakyan would have generally strong support for her direct work on Scihub, but would be unsupportable to some because of her political beliefs. That is, I think her anti-capitalist ideology and less- than-full-fledged support for modern liberal beliefs may more of a problem for the committee than her anti-copyright stance.

Here's a presentation where Elbakyan talks more about her political beliefs: [https://openaccess.unt.edu/symposium/2016/info/transcript- an...](https://openaccess.unt.edu/symposium/2016/info/transcript-and- translation-sci-hub-presentation)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Stunning and brave... To support as "disobedience" something that every large corporation, every media organization, and a large swath of government supports.

<comment><USER15> MeToo was started in 2006. If "everybody" supports that anyway, why was there even anything to start?

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement- tarana...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana- burke.html)

> _In 1997, Tarana Burke sat across from a 13-year-old girl who had been > sexually abused. The young girl was explaining her experience, and it left > Ms. Burke speechless._

Have female friends ever confided stories in you that left you speechless, helpless, and angry? And even that would normally just be the tip of an iceberg, not a full, detailed report of all the stuff that is going on... not even in their life, not to mention the world. The abuse that is going on is greater than our capacity to even face it.

And it _is_ hard for people to speak about this stuff, and while I agree that it might not be "as brave" to encourage others to speak out, I think it's absolutely fine to award her. She's not the kind of person who gives a shit about awards. She wants actual abuse to actually end, she wants actual wounds to actually heal -- nothing more, nothing less, fair enough, godspeed, you go girl, all the good things... not just for her, but for the people she represents, and who are acknowledged by this award as well.

> _Tarana Burke said she will not let her movement that she founded in 2006 > and that has resulted in her getting death threats and having to challenge > black leaders to support it, be co-opted by pretty girls and Hollywood._

So everybody agrees -- except the abusers, the people who don't want to hear about abuse, and the people sending death threats of course :P

[https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/metoo-founder-tarana- burke...](https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/metoo-founder-tarana-burke-blasts- the-movement-for-ignoring-poor-women/)

> _"We heard every manner of excuse 'It's really about white supremacy because > our folks don't have a history of that kind of thing back in Africa' or 'the > real issue isn't sexual violence, it's false accusations against black men' > or my personal favorite 'This is not a social justice issue; this is a > social work issue.' "_

> _She cited statistic after statistic about women who aren't famous but > attacked because of their gender identity or economic powerlessness. But the > worst, she said, was the fate of indigenous and Native American women "the > group we talk about the least," she said._

> _She cited a Justice Department study that found that an estimated one in > three Native American women will be assaulted in their lifetimes, that 92 > percent of Native American girls reported having been forced to have sex > against their will — and that nine of 10 Native American women and girls who > survived rape or sexual assault were attacked by assailants of a different > color, most of them white._

> _"That's definitely a racial justice issue," she said. "And, at the end of > the day, it's a human rights issue."_

She seems to have the heart in the right spot, I'll say that much. Every "movement" can always attract anyone to do anything in its name, but I am absolutely down with what I read of that woman so far.

<comment><USER14> If the Media Lab had awarded their award in say 2007, would you agree that would be different than awarding it today?

<comment><USER15> Do you agree that there was courage involved? You're not even acknowledging the death threats, nothing, you're shifting the goal posts as if I had written nothing at all.

And you shift them into a complete own goal, too. From what I could find, that award only exists since 2017:

[https://www.media.mit.edu/galleries/2017-disobedience- award/](https://www.media.mit.edu/galleries/2017-disobedience-award/)

It comes with a cash prize of $250k, and that would probably have been great to get earlier on. On the other hand, maybe they now had over 11 years of experience, and know a much better use for the money than they might have 11 years ago. I have no clue, but I don't see how this is anything but trying to see a problem where there is none.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> _So, in a nutshell, the System 's neatest trick is this:

\- For the sake of its own efficiency and security, the System needs to bring about deep and radical social changes to match the changed conditions resulting from technological progress.

\- The frustration of life under the circumstances imposed by the System leads to rebellious impulses.

\- Rebellious impulses are co-opted by the System in the service of the social changes it requires; activists "rebel" against the old and outmoded values that are no longer of use to the System and in favor of the new values that the System needs us to accept.

\- In this way rebellious impulses, which otherwise might have been dangerous to the System, are given an outlet that is not only harmless to the System, but useful to it.

\- Much of the public resentment resulting from the imposition of social changes is drawn away from the System and its institutions and is directed instead at the radicals who spearhead the social changes._

[https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-the- sy...](https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-the-system-s- neatest-trick)

</comment><comment><USER17> Somewhere, a woman undergrad read this thread and said to herself "screw this" and transferred out of computer science.

<comment><USER18> I understand the sentiment here but can we shut up about it for five seconds? As a guy I feel like I'm walking on eggshells every time I'm around women after reading enough of these.

I feel like I'm going insane.

<comment><USER19> As a dude I'm exhausted too. As a boyfriend and a son of a mother, I'm accepting that I'll continue to be exhausted by it until it changes.

But, I'm not walking on eggshells. I'm having, and will continue to have debates with women, and more often than not, have my view expanded by the conversation.

Things are changing, pretty rapidly. I hope the continue to change. Current situation is untenable for men and women, which is probably a societal improvement over situation way untenable for women.

I'm also accepting that this is going to continue until men do a better job of policing men.

<comment><USER11> I think it's optimistic of you to think it'll ever be "enough". It's a pendulum, not a scale, it never stops because things are even.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft: How We Evaluate the Experiences We Engineer - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/09/28/how-we-evaluate-the-experiences-we-engineer.aspx

<comment><USER2> Whew, that's gag-worthy.

I think their problem is they are trying to make "experiences" when people really just want quality software.</comment>


HP/Autonomy and Oracle/Endeca: Is everything now "big data"? - <AUTHOR> http://maxschireson.com/2011/10/18/hpautonomy-and-oracleendeca-is-everything-now-big-data/ <comment><AUTHOR> Didn't Vonnegut write something about this? Meaningful phrases become catch- phrases, then buzzwords, then fuzz out into meaninglessness ("big data" is at that fuzzword stage).</comment>


IOS Tutorial: Creating a chat room using Parse.com - <AUTHOR> http://attila.tumblr.com/post/21180235691/ios-tutorial-creating-a-chat-room-using-parse-com

<comment><USER2> I've been using parse for the last 3 weeks. One thing I've discovered is that it works very well for situations like a chat room, where the app is expected to always be online. For apps which need offline mode, like mine does, things start to deteriorate quickly. Object associations, for example, can't be saved while the app is offline. This has forced me to create my own hacky UUID method of storing and looking up object associations which I'm not particularly happy with.

These are joys of beta, closed source software, I suppose.

<comment><USER3> Hey ZitchDog, I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with offline mode. We try hard to make things work offline. You probably already get this, but it isn't like a chat room in the sense that you need an open socket. The standard model is more like an app like Foursquare uses, where you refresh at specified times, but we do also let you cache network operations like saving data to run once the internet is available again.

So, unless there's something here that I don't understand, this specific case seems like something that should work. If you 'd like us to explain in more detail how you can get things to work, drop us a line at firstname.lastname@example.com and I will help get the appropriate folks involved.

<comment><USER2> Note sent. Thanks!

Also, all crankiness aside, aside from this issue Parse has been very nice to work with. I'm impressed at how easy it is to get a new project up and running.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I can't write __block without grinding my teeth.

<comment><USER5> Why?</comment></comment>


Show HN: Eleventy blog template to manage agile web development - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mjgs/eleventy-agile-blog <comment><AUTHOR> I wanted a self-hosted solution to manage an agile development workflow so I built this eleventy starter template for a static site blog / agile tool.

It's blogging + agile development + git

Nothing fancy, just markdown files and metadata tags. Easily view and manage a backlog of stories.

Might be worth checking it out if you want something to help manage your work.

Very unlikely to break over time because of software dependencies / upgrades.

Demo site: [https://festive-haibt-b7ead0.netlify.app](https://festive- haibt-b7ead0.netlify.app)</comment>


How I hacked 37signals job board to save $400 - <AUTHOR> http://grep-i.com/

<comment><USER2> There's a big difference between searching for a certain content or information, and searching for a certain product. This difference has hardly been addressed yet by the current players in the field.

While searching for contents fits the medicine cupboard analogy, searching for a product is similar to visiting a shop, and browsing stuff till you find something worth buying; you don't know what you're looking for, and a vast array of things might provide the right answer.

The difference between these two searches seems to be a major reason for the current frustration with search engines.

<comment><AUTHOR> would definitely agree. the only thing that's sure for now is that there is confusion and frustration with search engines.

I do not think a one-size-fits-all search engine would be the answer here. :)</comment></comment>


Archaeogenomic evidence reveals prehistoric matrilineal dynasty in Chaco Canyon - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14115 <comment><USER2> If you can make the trip to Chaco Canyon, I highly recommend it. During the day, you can spend time exploring (and I really felt like I was _exploring_) the canyon and spend the nights looking at the nicest views of the night sky you'll ever see.

PS Rental compact cars can get totally handle a 13 mile dirt road.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. Mesa Verde in Colorado is also fantastic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> One fact I find notable with these "massive" societies in the American South West is how small they were. For example, the linked article describes a site with hundreds of rooms. That implies thousands of people.

And, Chaco was the kingpin. Many other fascinating sites, such as Walnut Canyon, had "tens of rooms."

</comment><comment><USER4> One thing I have lately wondered about, is whether humans were mostly patrilocal before the dawn of recorded history, or mostly matrilocal, or sometimes one and sometimes the other.

There are some matrilocal societies now extent which seem to date from the dawn of recorded history, like the Muso.

<comment><USER5> Do you mean the Mosuo of Yunnan? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosuo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosuo)

Another interesting prehistoric tradition still alive in Yunnan but which has almost died out is cliff burial - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_coffins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_coffins) \- recently I searched for and found the sole remaining area in which it is practiced across continential Eurasia in a remote part of eastern Yunnan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Apparently, prehistoric means between 800 and 1130 CE.

<comment><USER7> For America? Sure. History is a period with written records.</comment></comment>


Soundnode Desktop SoundCloud App Built with NW.js, Angular.js and Soundcloud API - <AUTHOR> http://www.soundnodeapp.com/ <comment><USER2> Been trying this out the last few days and love it. No ads too! Good work guys, and congrats on your PH launch.

</comment><comment><USER3> Github homepage is more informative: [https://github.com/Soundnode/soundnode- app/blob/master/READM...](https://github.com/Soundnode/soundnode- app/blob/master/README.md)

</comment><comment><USER4> Downloading executables over http always leads to a good time.</comment>


"I never saved anything for the swim back" - <AUTHOR> That's a quote from the movie Gattaca by the main character answering his genetically superior brother's question as to how he beat him in a swimming competition in the ocean.
I really like that quote, and thought it was appropriate at a time when YC apps are coming due. Jessica Livingston says in "Founders at Work" that the common trait between the founders was determination. Maybe the best example that I can remember is Evan Williams who went through a lot before Blogger was successful (losing friends and more).
What has struck you guys as the best modern-day example of determination (it need not have turned out successful)?
Another good one was the guy the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" was based off of (though I'm not sure how accurate that story was) <comment><USER2> Also, I have my own anecdote.

I worked my tail off for a year in China. I had two other founders/partners back in N. America -- I was the only one on-the-ground, and I was also the youngest & most inexperienced.

I basically stayed there until I was physically, mentally, and emotionally sick. I was living in my office and had no salary (expenses covered, nothing more), a tough schedule (mornings & evenings needed to get back in touch w/ N. America), my first experience in management (6 staff or so), and had almost zero encouragement from my partners, because our expenses only increased with time as we realized what we were _really_ getting in to (China is not exactly WYSIWYG when it comes to business) -- and I had no contact with the main decision-maker, who was the only person with any real experience in what we were doing (for political reasons I had to go through founder #2 to get to founder-investor#1).

I was literally stressed out of my mind. I lost a good portion of my short- term memory (until I quit). I could no longer predict what I was able to do in the future -- no ability to manage my own commitments & performance. Forgot why I wanted to live. Took up smoking.

I kept going as long as I did because I believed in the value of "sheer persistence". I wish I'd taken more drastic action sooner.

My experience was probably not typical, and so it's probably not worth drawing generalizations from it. But -- I'm incredibly glad that I quit. Today I'm learning new things and I'm happy to be alive -- I feel like a vibrant human being again. And I'm still excited about startups... but not to the point of self-destruction.

<comment><USER3> I believe the problem here is just microfocus. When people focus too much on one thing, they tend not to take a step back every now and then to see if things are still the same as when you started. Let's say I want to start a business in china making valves for microturbines. I spend half a year and progress is very slow. It's time to realise that things are bad, take a step back and review the process. If things are hard, you are doing something wrong.

Sometimes it's neccesary to work hard. But sometimes is not a year. One has to take life in 6 month chunks, and you only have about 140 of those. You lose one, you will never get it back. A year is two of those chunks. It's too much time to be unhappy in.

I'm one of the fastest developers I know because I was taught the technique - when things start going slow, stop, zoom out and analyse the reason why it's going slow. Then go back in, but approach things differently. This time you want to maintain the quality of work, but reduce the time spent on it. It's not difficult to optimize that.

<comment><USER4> <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki/?SlowDownToSpeedUp>

<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SharpenTheSaw>

BTW, this'll be familiar to anyone that's learned a musical instrument. The way you get speed in music is to slow down the tempo until it's at a level where you can easily play the piece (with a new piece, this is often 1/4 or less of actual speed). Then you work on control and rhythm only, until you've got it perfect. Then gradually bump up the tempo for as long as you can maintain control. If you start getting sloppy, slow it down and practice more at the lesser tempo. Eventually, you'll be able to play it perfectly at tempo, with a good reserve if you wanna speed it up for effect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> My thoughts on this matter were summed up today by Marc Andreessen:

 _In my view, entrepreneurial judgment is the ability to tell the difference between a situation that's not working but persistence and iteration will ultimately prove it out, versus a situation that's not working and additional effort is a destructive waste of time and radical change is necessary._

 _I don't believe there are any good rules for being able to tell the difference between the two. Which is one of the main reasons starting a company is so hard._

<comment><USER5> A few years ago, when struggling with a big decision, I wondered: if persistence is such a good trait, why have I gotten into such trouble with it? The solution I found was to distinguish between persistence and stubbornness. Both are committed to reaching the goal no matter what, but persistence means changing what's not working, while stubbornness simply repeats what's not working.

This distinction has proven quite helpful to me. Your Andreesen quote may be the first time I've run across it elsewhere.

<comment><USER6> Someone famous once said something along the lines of:

"Persistence isn't trying the same thing over and over. That's just annoying. Persistence is having the same goals over and over."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Reminds me a little of the metaphor that starting a business is like jumping out of an airplane with the materials needed to build a parachute.

</comment><comment><USER8> Watch "pumping Iron" - an old documentary following Arnold Schwarzenegger on his quest to become Mr. Universe. Besides the absolute hilarity of seeing a young Arnold pumping his muscles you get a glimpse of why he won mr. universe 6 times, became one of the greatest actors of Hollywood despite the obvious lack of talent, and is now Governor of California.

He is so determined that you won't believe it. So he wins.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've seen it actually, and also love that one. Despite Arnold coming off as a cocky ass, he definitely does show his determination when he decides to not go home for his dad's funeral as it would interrupt his training before the event (I think it was his dad's funeral anyways, can't quite remember)

<comment><USER9> it was indeed his dad's funeral

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I liked that quote, too, but at the same time I was wondering if it isn't complete bullshit. In the real world, the guy would simply have drowned.

Maybe it was just another brainwashing attempt by Hollywood (American values bla bla yadda yadda).

<comment><USER11> Or maybe it just means we underestimate our abilities, and conserve _too much_ for the swim back.

Or to apply this to startups, instead of giving it your all even at the risk of failure, you never really devote yourself to something, so you have an excuse in the case that you do fail.

(As an aside, I modded you up. Not sure who puts someone at -2 for expressing an opinion.)

<comment><USER6> (In reply to the aside: I modded him up too. Some people mod up and down based on whether the comment is on-topic, polite and well-thought-out. Others mod up and down based on agreement with the thought. Guidelines for each are not immediately obvious.)

<comment><USER12> Discussions about moderation are pretty boring, but I will say that I was one of the ones who modded the original comment down, mostly because I thought that the suggestion that Hollywood is deliberately trying to "brainwash" people into accepting "American values" was just plain silly, and also showed a poor understanding of what "brainwashing" really means, not to mention a poor understanding of how Hollywood works.

<comment><USER10> You think both are false, or Hollywood is brainwashing, just not for American values?

I am under the impression that for example the theme "sacrifice yourself for the common good" is pushed excessively in Hollywood, and I consider it to be brainwashing and American-valueish. In any case, most movies have a kind of moral they want to force upon their viewers. Another common theme is adultery, where cheaters make valid "shock effect victims" (ie if somebody has to die, at least make it the cheater, he is not such a big loss for society).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Rick Little. 155 grant proposals turned down. Stubbornness paid off. Eventually awarded second-largest-ever grant in US History ($65M)

This reads sort-of like an underdog movie...

"Rick had one last chance. Activated by desperation and conviction, he managed to talk himself past several secretaries and he secured a lunch date with Dr. Russ Mawby, President of the Kellogg Foundation..."

<http://www.iyfnet.org/section.cfm/2/242/545>

"Rick Little's life is a testament to the power of commitment to a high vision, coupled with a willingness to keep on asking until one manifests the dream."

Yes, from Chicken Soup from the Soul

<comment><USER14> > Chicken Soup from the Soul

Normally it just comes from chicken stock...

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This reminds of me the archetype of the 'hero's journey', best described by Joseph Campbell. Which basically perfectly underlines why successful enrepreneurs are considered our contemporary heroes. Fighting against impressive odds with limited resources and little to no regard for one's own safety? Sounds pretty heroic to me...

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey>

<comment><USER9> nice comparison

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> As someone that's done a modest amount of swimming, that's a horrible metaphor. If you don't pace yourself, there's no way you'll win a race.

<comment><USER17> You have to put it in context then. It wasn't about speed, it was about who was willing to go further out on the water, knowing they had to have enough energy to swim back to shore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> _These questions are very profound, Mr Dedalus, said the dean. It is like looking down from the cliffs of Moher into the depths. Many go down into the depths and never come up. Only the trained diver can go down into those depths and explore them and come to the surface again._ -James Joyce, "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"

</comment><comment><USER19> I just saw that movie for the first time the other night! Great film, great quote!

</comment><comment><USER20> I'd rather get warmed up in a wading pool (day job) and then go for broke.</comment>


Ask YC: Dealing with a major event like death? - <AUTHOR> I am a senior in College and studying for finals right now.
On thursday(6/5) I returned back to my apartment in the evening and found my roommate dead in his room. The reason for death is still unknown but it is most likely due to an accidental overdose. He had been diagnosed with chronic fatigued. It has been a hard few days since then.
I have also been working on my startup/side project in the mean time and have milestones to finish.
Has any of you been in this position? It has been emotionally tough for me and I am trying to stay strong and keep my mind focused.
EDIT: Thank you YC for all your support. This community means a lot to me. <comment><USER2> I'd hate to give you advice that I know won't work, because I've received the same in the past. I can only tell you what I've learned from my experience.

Last year, as finals were approaching, I would drive up north every weekend to see my grandpa in the hospital. He was suffering from a bad case of kidney failure. It was an immensely stressful time of my life, ultimately ending in him passing away the weekend before finals. We were extremely close. After hearing the news, attending the funeral, etc., I realized I hadn't cried much, and thought that was weird. I was bottling up my emotions thinking that is was the 'manly' way of coping. What happened was that I had bottled up so much emotion, that the bottle couldn't contain any more, and every so often the bottle started to leak emotions, and I found myself in periodic ruts of depression. So the lesson for me was to just mourn.

So, just mourn. Of course, realize that you have responsibilities and goals that need attention, but if taking time off will help you cope, then so be it. Face the situation and don't try to run around it, because it will catch up with you.

My condolences.

</comment><comment><USER3> My condolences. That must be very, very tough.

Many colleges have counseling services and I'd advise you to seek them out ASAP. They can help you. Among the _least_ important of the things they can do is help you try and get some extensions on your finals so that you don't have to concentrate on some stupid book less than a week after this terrible shock.

If your college can't help I'd still advise you to see a counselor. As someone who is married to a counselor, I assure you that they have skills that I will never match, especially over the freaking _Internet_. I do love the web, but sometimes it really is a lousy substitute for a face-to-face conversation with a human being.

I will confine myself to this advice: Your finals are unimportant, and your "milestones" an order of magnitude less important than that. Your well-being is important. Give yourself permission to mourn. You need to do it -- _everyone_ needs to do it -- and it's unreasonable to expect it to be _possible_ to shunt it off to the side and focus on work. And, in general, the people around you will understand this. The world will not come to an end if you take some time for yourself.

[Composed before I read kyro's post, which is precisely on point.]

</comment><comment><USER4> I watched a friend of mine slowly die of AIDS over a number of years. I was in the room at the Hospice when he actually died.

I drank to deal with it.

My wife's 18 year old brother died of a stroke in his sleep. He was an adopted kid who's biological mother was a cocaine addict.

She wrote a book about him.

I ended up with alcohol problems and she is close to getting a book deal. I'd say her approach was the superior one.

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure what the best way to put this is without sounding insensitive, but death of a loved one, although tragic, can be an opportunity for a sobering-up unlike any other. lyime, maybe this is a good time to re-consider the fundamentals in life, take some time to think about what you want and where you are going?

<comment><AUTHOR> When you say re-consider the fundamentals of life what exactly are you referring to? What should I think about, sorry just trying to understand what you are saying.

<comment><USER5> No problem, it's hard not to be vague... I'm not sure how close you were to your roomie (I've been close to most of mine), but I imagine I'd take time to reconsider my friendships, my ambitions, goals, etc. Is your startup really all that important right now, or can it wait a couple of years? What do you want to do now that you're graduating - would you be happier doing something else (academia, traveling, volunteering, teaching)? Should you get a puppy? Or a new haircut? Write an emacs extension? Read that book you've been meaning to (or one you haven't)?

I've been very fortunate not to have lost loved ones so unexpectedly as you just did, but I find letting my mind wander in times of such stress is the best way of coping with loss.

On the other hand, this probably varies by personality, so consulting a professional (shrink, priest, rabbi, etc) is probably your best bet.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the reply. My roommate was close to me otherwise I wouldn't have posted this on YC. I think I am going to seek professional counseling as many of you have recommended. In terms of reconsidering things... I have always put my relationships with friends/family in front of everything else. I believe that people are more important then anything else and so I give me best in that respect. Although I find my self happy when I am doing what I enjoy the most. For me it is technology, it is learning and it is applying. This is why I am here; being part of this community.

<comment><USER5> _I think I am going to seek professional counseling as many of you have recommended._

Great idea. Just don't go to anyone who can prescribe you pills.

 _For me it is technology, it is learning and it is applying._

Well put. But here is what keeps me up at night: as the tiny fraction of humanity's population lucky enough to be born in the right place at the right time, we have more ways of "applying ourselves" than the vast majority of people ever born has. How do we figure out what the best way of applying ourselves is? Is it grad school, or startups? If it's teaching inner city high school, why not rural India?

<comment><USER6> >How do we figure out what the best way of applying ourselves is?

if we could figure that out and everyone figured it out and applied themselves we'd hit utopia overnight.

<comment><USER5> Utopia? Oh, no pressure, then... :-P

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> You don't deal with death. It deals with you.

In a short span when I was younger, a friend killed himself, my great grandmother died at 99 years 11 months of age, an acquaintance died in a car accident, and an old friend's brother died in a freak golf accident from a brain aneurysm.

It's not an exaggeration to say it all changed my life permanently. My advice is to let it. Don't go stoic and pretend it is something that happens every day. There is a quote by Camus that gives you a sense of the solemnity and the terror of the thing: "Don't wait for the Last Judgment; it happens every day."

This one may not be for everyone, but John Donne wrote some words about death that I have found useful at these times.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

<http://www.online-literature.com/donne/409/>

Those words are not just about your friend... they're about you. Death is deeper than cells and physics. Be involved in mankind. Don't be an island. Lean on your friends and family.

And take time to process things. Life can wait.

</comment><comment><USER8> "This community means a lot to me."

And you mean a lot to this community. You are not alone.

My condolences for your loss.

I have been in this position several times, so I'll share my thoughts, which may or may not help. That's the biggest thing: everybody's different.

In my experience, there's not a whole lot of healing that happens. Time does not heal. Time "eases". So you have to let that happen organically. Postpone your finals. Put your startup on hold. It's OK. (OTOH, some people need something to do but that's not me.)

Get another room. You shouldn't have to relive that day every time you go home.

Be supportive of your roommate's family; they need you now. Do whatever you can to help them .

Get counseling. You don't need Dr. Phil or Oprah. Just a stranger with some credentials who knows when to listen and when to shut up. You'll probably want to talk, so you'll need a good listener who'll know just what to say to help you along your path. I have found group sessions especially helpful; it was always comforting to know that others were going through (almost) the same thing.

Most of all, let things happen as they do. Some of us find comfort sooner than others. Don't be surprised by how you react; you just don't know.

All any of us ever gets is x days. Although your life will never be the same, I wish you the best in resuming living your x-n days as soon as you're ready.

(If you find help from books, an excellent resource is "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" by Harold Kushner.)

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm a believer in grief counseling. Instead of asking a bunch of hackers who can at best somewhat relate due to something somewhat similar, go ask a professional trained to help you in this sort of situation.

<comment><USER10> _"... A professional will know how to sort out those different feelings and process them. It would be hard to do that on your own. ..."_

I'd hesitate to advise someone to be debriefed by a professional. For all their training, empathy, my thoughts & feelings are my own. Not to be dissected, diagnosed and cataloged. A diagnosed "cure" coming from a pill.

When I was a bit younger than most of you blokes, I organised and executed a medical emergency extraction. The young lad later died from severe wounds. With hind sight I'd would have done 2 things

\- postpone my studies

\- repeat the story to as many people as I can tell

The first point recognises you are likely to be in shock with all the associated symptoms - numbness, forgetfulness, irritability, inability to concentrate. The second point is a pretty good antidote for PSTD and I practice it when I get the occasion. A chat to a group of sympathetic mates down the pub over a pint, is going to more than turning a tragic event into a medical event.

So put the startup plan on hold. Do something different. You will gain perspective over time. Look out for trigger events. It can give you flashbacks. I started to get them years after and had to use different techniques and put to rest ghosts of the past.

<comment><USER11> "I'd hesitate to advise someone to be debriefed by a professional. For all their training, empathy, my thoughts & feelings are my own. Not to be dissected, diagnosed and cataloged."

That's an archaic attitude towards psychology.

A trained psychological professional, will, for example, differentiate between their own experiences and those of their client, while the people on here will tell their own stories as if their stories have relevance on how this guy should proceed. (That can be healthy, too, but it's not a substitute for a primary relationship with a person trained at recognizing the places transference operates).

What you shouldn't do is take any advice on here. That would be like getting programming advice from a psychologist. I've done a couple years of work with people on hospice, and have done a little with suicide prevention stuff. So I'm aware that these professionals should be respected and used, and I'm also aware how pathetically easy it is to get duped by transference during these situations involving grief.

Get real help.

<comment><USER10> _"... That's an archaic attitude towards psychology ... Get real help ..."_

Archaic but effective. I imagine my repressed Anglo-Celtic ancestry where death & grieving was followed with a "wet-wake" ~ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_>(ceremony) I imagine served them well. Tragic as it is death is also a part of life. While groups of like kin may be devoid of the latest medical advancements they do have advantage of common sense. There is quite a magnitude of difference b/w grief and mental illness quite visible to people you know well.

 _"... What you shouldn't do is take any advice on here. That would be like getting programming advice from a psychologist. I've done a couple years of work with people on hospice, and have done a little with suicide prevention stuff ..."_

By your own admission I wouldn't take yours either. But I do see your point.

<comment><USER11> You are presenting a false dichotomy. A professional is not going to stop you from grieving in whatever modality feels right to you, while helping you identify emotions, process them, and dealing with what unique challenges come up.

You can have both. Get the professional help.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> You know, I seriously, seriously think that transhumanists have an easier time dealing with death. We're not all conflicted about death. We have no concept that we ought to be bottling up the anger. We don't think we ought to be "coming to terms" with death. Making peace with death is not a goal. Death is horrible and we have to stop it.

There, that's it, you're done. That's the resolution.

<http://yudkowsky.net/yehuda.html>

(my little brother, he was 19)

<comment><USER13> That is a spectacular essay. Thanks for the link. I have questions about your take on transhumanism, but I don't want to derail this thread. Email?

<comment><USER14> Do we really need to worry that much about derailing threads when we have nested replies?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Lyime,

I am really sorry for your loss. I had a similar experience. I worked at a spot a few years ago. I had one particular guy stick his neck out for me and help me a lot. We worked side by side and he would drive me home almost every day after work.

I would never forget. I was sick on Tuesday and he was very caring and asked me several time if I needed anything. The next morning I came to work and found he died. He collapsed at home and when they got him to the hospital they found he was at the final state of diabetes and he never knew it.

I was shocked and did not cry right away. I was extremely hurt and I felt better when I stop trying to be tough and cried when I wanted to.

Acceptance will help you. Think of the good moments you had and cry about it as well. It will be good.

I wish you the best and always remember "what does not kill, makes one stronger".

</comment><comment><USER16> Sorry for your loss. I'd suggest taking a short break from the startup to focus on finals and getting through this tough time. You'll know when you're ready to get back at it.

<comment><USER17> Finals can also be put off. The school will certainly have a leave of absence program.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> When my mother died about 6 months ago it was hard, but I was surprised at how fast i could put my self together and concentrate on my real dreams. I started to learn programming for seriously(before that it was just some curiosity) Started orienting myself and stopped wasting time, because I realised i have no time to lose. You have to be great and have to work hard at your goals. I still wish my mother's guidance and support were here, but i manage pretty well on my own. In the morning when my aunt came to tell me she said "you are a philosopher,you understand, life sometimes sucks" It takes some philosophical patience and understanding to deal with a tragedy, and its always hard. Hope you all take care of yourselfs and not do stupid things, just try to understand your situation and take time to heal if its needed. I needed only a week before i started school again and its nice to talk to people. If i have something as an advice it should be something like "Don't isolate yourself" I know some hackers are loners by nature(im a pretty extreme case) but its good to be around people, that's why we gather in times of tragedy.

</comment><comment><USER19> So, a long time ago, my best friend died. It was really hard. I didn't eat or talk much. I still go to his grave from time to time. It was a fundamental change in my life.

Take the time you need. A week of renting old movies or playing video games is a tiny tiny risk to both your degree and your startup.

I'm not sure what's best for you, but for me, i had to take time to figure out what it meant that my friend was never coming back. It's hard. Once I came to grips with that i thought a lot about what really matters.

If it was me, I'd not work on the startup, and just doing enough school to keep up for a day or three... Spend time thinking through exactly why I was in school, and why i'm doing a startup. But again, do what's best for you. Maybe work is just the thing to keep your mind off how tough something like this is.

Call your parents. Talking to my dad was a lot better than my mom.

If you feel like i think you feel, these words won't really mean any thing, but you have my deepest sympathy. It gets easier... but there are always tough days.

</comment><comment><USER20> Just 3 weeks ago an Uncle that I was close to died. He wasn't even 50, and he left a wife not even 40 and two children (my cousins) not even 10 years old. Just yesterday I got back from the memorial service. Each person is different, but my advice is to do the following:

A: Do things that need to be done right now, with little emotion. You may still be in shock and your best bet is to keep your studies up, and do any necessary work on your startup.

B: Take the time (maybe even up to a week or so) to mourn, and psychologically "let go" or accept his passing. It will be hard to move forward if you don't do this and the shock wears off and the reality catches up with you.

C: Get back to life. Memorial services are referred to as "Celebration of Life" services because it's the time when you've accepted reality, said your goodbyes, and let go, which allows you to appreciate the time you had with this person, and then move forward a stronger person.

For the past 3 weeks, I feel like I've been living life 1 day at a time. My uncle died while I was house sitting for other family that was away on vacation, and 1 week before finals. Basically, it wasn't a "convenient" time (though I'd be hard pressed to explain what a convenient time would be). Now that the memorial service is over and the family has gone back home, I feel that I can move forward now. I just started a job today, and I'm taking 2 classes over the summer. Letting go has made it easier for me at least to appreciate my uncle's life and move forward with my own.

My condolences to you.

</comment><comment><USER21> Although I am fortunate because I can say that nothing like this has ever happened to me, my sincerest, warmest condolences go out to you and your roommate's friends and family. I cannot imagine what it must be like. I hope you find strength and light in a time of darkness.

I wish you the very best of luck on both your last year of college and your startup; enjoy them as much as possible!

Let us know if you need anything - I am sure I speak on behalf of the YC community in offering you our heartfelt support and assistance.

</comment><comment><USER22> Take time to deal with the emotional side, the milestones can wait.

<comment><USER11> I'm not sure I agree.

If your side project is really important to you, and this event derails it considerably, then you risk your memories of your friend being tainted with resentment. If it is a matter of a couple days, that is different.

You should process the emotions (by seeing a grief counselor) but you should be open to deciding to keep with your project so that disappointment over derailing your project does not morph with grief and other negative emotions from your friends dying.

<comment><USER23> A startup requires a lot of effort. If he is still excited by the idea and can work on it, then go for it. If he is finding that he is a different person, that's fine too. Everybody responds differently.

I know that with the loss of a family member, the general guidelines are not to make major choices for a year or so. If he is graduating from college, then that may not an option.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'm sorry for your loss.

Some milestones, perhaps self-imposed professional ones, can wait. Others, like doing well on finals, can't. We all have responsibilities. Prioritize as best you can.

Now might be a good time to call in some favors from friends, family, and your school's faculty. Ask your dean and professors what policy is in situations like this. Talk to your friends. Go to your family.

Part of community is providing aid in difficult times. Don't hesitate to use the resources available to you.

</comment><comment><USER25> I've had a close friend of mine taken in a very bad way this past year, which also happened to be my senior year of college. Luckily for me, she was not only my friend but very well known throughout our community and we all came together to mourn our loss AND celebrate her great accomplishments. I still think about her often and hope to live by the goodness she represented. I've gotten to think of the entire event as a blessing in disguise, as our loss has now brought us together and caused us to reevaluate our goals, principles and lifestyles.

My sincerest, heartfelt condolences to you for your loss. Spend time with those who are close to you and remember him, what he stood for, his impact on you and what you can do to better yourself. I know it must be very hard now but just know that in time, it will pass. Life will move on and it is our responsibility to remember those lost and live our lives the best we can. Surround yourself with your loved ones in tough times, that is probably the best advice I can give. Good luck on finals.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm really sorry that you are going through this, best of luck. My only advice is to not avoid the tough questions things like this bring up in your mind. Our culture makes it very easy to go through your whole life without ever thinking about the "big" questions. Taking the opportunity to do some soul- searching could bring something positive out of a really horrible situation.

</comment><comment><USER27> talking with someone (as many have suggested) is great _if you feel like talking_. A recent study shows what I've long suspected: not everyone benefits from talking it out, and in fact those who don't want to talk about it and manage toavoid talking about it do even better long term than those who prefer to talk and do.

</comment><comment><USER28> Try a change of scenery, avoid doing things and places that remind you of your roommate. Try to study at a different location, maybe the library or a starbucks. Find a different place to sleep too, crash at friends maybe. Don't mourn or even think about what happened until you've hit your milestones. Thinking even a little will open a flood of emotions. Play a game or something (flash game / mine sweeper / super mario) whenever you need to take a break or when you lose focus, but don't let your brain go idle. Get more sleep deprived than usual, so your brain will be a bit less reflective and you will fall asleep quicker too. Oh, and try to completely avoid news sites and all that stuff.

At least, this is how I handled it when I didn't have time to mourn. Your milage may vary. My condolences and I hope you'll make it through this period.

</comment><comment><USER29> First let me say I'm sorry for your loss.

The only advice I can give you is talk about it with someone, it doesn't have to be a counselor or something, just a good friend. Also don't think that it does nothing to you anymore in a couple of weeks, it stays hard to cope with but it will get better. Best of luck!

<comment><USER23> Sorry for your loss too.

It's doesn't have to be a counselor, but it can be easier to deal with a professional. I wish I had, because in my situation, I didn't have the right friendships to be able to handle this.

So share with friends. If you have friends that can get you through this, treasure them. Friendships can be a tender thing, and there aren't many people that can handle this easily, let alone with the stress of finals. With this in mind, make it clear to them that they shouldn't feel obligated to be your support. This should help avoid misplaced guilt that they couldn't do more, as well as help you avoid worries about being a burden. Most people have no idea on how to deal with something like this, and even if they do, everyone responds differently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is definitely a time to put everything on hold and think about life for a bit.

School, jobs, and startup can wait - talk to a dean about your finals, you can take them at the end of the summer. As far as jobs, write "Expected graduation: Summer 2008", on your resume and get a letter from your school explaining there are extraordinary circumstances that prevented you from taking your finals.

Spend time in places without distractions (mountain, park, beach?) and let your mind wander for awhile - think about life, about what your roommate's passing means in respect to your life. When you feel ready to get back, you'll be more focused than before.

Death of a close one is always a sobering experience - take some time to take it in fully before getting on with things.

All the best, practically and emotionally, Andrey

</comment><comment><USER30> Most colleges would let you postpone finals after something like this, so you should be able to remove at least that cause of stress, if you want to. On the other hand, you may want to get them over with.

I recommend going somewhere far away for at least a week or so, to reboot your brain.

</comment><comment><USER31> At the risk of sounding like a Chinese Fortune Cookie: be where you are.

I've been through various major changes like this while working hard technology problems. Sometimes I tried to put my head into the computer and it just didn't work. Other times it was the best thing to do.

Take time and make yourself grieve. If you need a little alcohol, or a sad movie, or some quiet time in a park -- do whatever it takes to make sure you have given yourself permission to cry.

Be in that grief and live it. I almost want to say "enjoy" it, because grieving is a process of remembrance and release.

Then get back to work. If you haven't grieved enough (you find yourself still obsesses with thinking of your friend) then your head and you heart are in different places.

Be where you are. Live in that world fully.

</comment><comment><USER32> This spring I defended my PhD. The very next day I had to fly home to see my cousin, who I grew up with, one last time. She had cancer and died about 5 days later. I am very sad that she is gone, but extremely happy that the timing of events in my life happened such that I was able to get home one last time to see and talk with her before she passed. So, hopefully you will get an explanation for cause of death, but either way maybe you can try and remember a pleasant event with your roommate and use that as a source of comfort. We can't always explain events in life, but we definitely have the power to remember and enjoy what has happened.

</comment><comment><USER33> I'm sorry to hear that, lyime.

The reality is that coping with such an event is different for everyone.

You owe it to yourself to keep your best interests in mind right now. And if that means putting off your startup and getting finals extensions, then you absolutely should.

</comment><comment><USER34> My condolences.

I went through the death of my brother many years ago and it was hard. Looking back, I did some stupid things and some good things. From my experience these may help you:

* Acknowledge your emotion. Cry when you need to. * Talk. The face-to-face conversations I had with my friends were truly life-saving. Even the times they didn't say anything. * Talking a stranger on a bus journey also helped in my case. There was something about it that also helped. * Spend some time alone in a place that you love. * Writing also helped a lot. I wrote a lot. Most of it without really thinking - just pages and pages of anything and everything. It was a great release.

Take care.

</comment><comment><USER35> dealing with death is usually very difficult when you do not know how it sits with you, and how it sits with your world view (religion, faith, family, geography, and your expectations). i think that mourning is just a part of the process to find out what you really believe in, its a hard test that life throws our way. just know that you can pass it and look forward to what is next. i find comfort in knowing that death is just a part of life, like birth is too. i find comfort in knowing that God has a plan for all of us, and that everything is a part of that plan.

</comment><comment><USER36> I would not let someone else's freak accident derail you, or allow yourself to think that your physical proximity to it is particularly meaningful. Absolve yourself of any responsibility and move on.

</comment><comment><USER37> My condolences.

I think one there arae very few unhackable things in life. Unfortunately, feelings are one of them. So I'd join the recommendation posted above: try to get professional help.

</comment><comment><USER13> In the last year, two very good friends of mine lost fathers to suicide. One friend chose to seek emotional shelter in his family and friends, and he let the necessary depression and mourning take over his life for about a year, while he was in a safe place.

The other became an alcoholic and a drug dealer.

Honor your friend and his memory, by putting him first now, so that later in life, you will know that you have made your peace.

</comment><comment><USER38> 1) Keep your friends and relatives close to you 2) Amuse yourself - TV, Movies, books, chat, etc. 3) Exercise - Jogging, Basketball, etc. 4) Move on and accept that sometimes things happen...

</comment><comment><USER39> May your friend rest in peace, and may you find some source of comfort and solace.

I wish I had some properly good advice, but I'm woefully behind on my project for a very similar reason.

</comment><comment><USER40> Grieve, Don't try to escape the pain!

</comment><comment><USER41> No amount of grieving is going to bring anyone back from the dead, so try to move on with your life.

<comment><USER42> _No amount of grieving is going to bring anyone back from the dead_

That's not the purpose of grieving. Surely that's obvious? It seems to me its purpose is precisely _to_ move on with one's life. Disconnecting from your feelings is not a very effective strategy in the long run.</comment></comment>


Silent Technical Privilege - <AUTHOR> http://pgbovine.net/tech-privilege.htm

<comment><USER2> > Instead of facing implicit bias or stereotype threat, I had the privilege of > implicit endorsement.

In my life, this has always felt like an important asset. I started observing it happen to me in high school, and it's sort of continued through life. (Surely it was happening long before that, but I didn't notice when I was much younger.) At this point I can see it happening in realtime... and I still appreciate it.

I shudder to think how life would feel as a child and young adult if people assumed incompetence rather than competence. Getting credit that you didn't earn, at least for me, is one of the most powerful ways to get me to strive to earn it retroactively by giving thoughtful effort.

</comment><comment><USER3> This was buried ridiculously quickly. It fell from the front page to position 153 in a matter of minutes.

Can anyone think of an explanation why?

I know there were special rules in place for NSA stories. If the same rule applies to stories on privilege or equality in tech, I'd be worried.

<comment><USER4> For anyone curious, it happened again (8 days later) with repost: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7064853](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7064853)

I'm only posting this because I opened the comments and the article in background tabs, read the article, read the comments and refreshed the comments page (my usual workflow on HN) only to see them turned off and the topic marked dead. It's actually my first time witnessing this... And I'm not sure how I feel about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Actually, the existence of privilege needs empirical evidence, and until then it's just a hypothesis. There's no such evidence at least where I live.

Making a claim doesn't automatically make it true, even if we're talking about privilege. Yes, I know that the believers of privilege always say that 'privilege exists but you just don't notice it'. As a believer of the scientific method I actually need some empirical evidence to believe in something.

In effect, the article states that because of privilege a white male who has a lot of experience should be able to get a job easily, since "they look the part". Empirically that claim doesn't apply to me. You can "hand-wave" about it being even harder if I was a woman, but it's still just hand-waving unless there's some evidence to back it up.

In addition, I notice any privilege I get. Besides, women programmers have some privilege over me: they don't need to waste one year in forced labour. All women are basically one year ahead of me because of military service.

<comment><USER6> You forgot child labour. See how you didn't notice the privilege -- or is that still not enough empirical evidence?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I grew a beard so that people would listen to me. It worked.

</comment><comment><USER8> The second good article about ethics and technology since HN came back up. Maybe they should crash more often, sure beats articles about "x does y better"

<comment><USER9> It was posted on HN before the crash and hit the first page with 268 pts but then the HN ids were reset after the rollback and id 7017480 got assigned to some comment on some other article (you can look it up on HN search or in google)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great I cant wait for this to catch on, Check your tech privilege.</comment>


Smoking fast Haskell code using GHC's new LLVM codegen - <AUTHOR> http://donsbot.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/smoking-fast-haskell-code-using-ghcs-new-llvm-codegen/

<comment><USER2> Looks like this project began as someone's undergrad thesis. Impressive, to say the least!

<http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~davidt/>

<comment><USER3> I hope Google/Microsoft Research/etc. are writing this guy letters like right now.

<comment><USER4> I bet that pg hopes that he will apply to ycombinator.

<comment><USER5> Because... what? Any skilled engineer is somehow automagically also blessed with entrepreneurial spirit?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The best part is that any improvement in LLVM will automagically speed up GHC as well.

It took me years to realize what a killer project LLVM actually is. I bet this won't be the last success story for LLVM, either.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wow! I can't wait to try this out. I've been having some problems getting Haskell to match C's performance in code heavy on buffer mutation, but halving the Haskell execution time would put it on roughly equal footing.

This provides a lot of encouragement to start some of my rainy-day projects -- my goal is to have a Haskell library with a proof of correctness that can outperform equivalent C. That day draws ever closer.

<comment><USER8> > that can outperform equivalent C

Isn't that a bit like saying that it "can outperform equivalent assembly"?

And why can you not prove the equivalent C correct? After all, you're doing that proof by hand either way. A Haskell compiler will only help you prove that your program is well-typed. If you're mutating buffers then you're in a monad like IO or ST and the the compiler will throw it's hands up and tell you that correctness is entirely your problem.

<comment><USER9> In theory, the information a Haskell compiler has available should allow it to make better optimizations. Things like drastic whole-program optimizations aren't viable in C because the compiler can't guarantee safety and doing the optimizations by hand would render the code base completely unreadable. This is why, for instance, FORTRAN can easily outperform C for certain classes of program.

In practice, the overhead of supporting Haskell's other features means it's still generally slower than most popular compiled languages, though not by much. I have much higher expectations, however, for improvement in Haskell optimizers than I do for nontrivial static analysis for impure languages becoming viable.

<comment><USER10> _This is why, for instance, FORTRAN can easily outperform C for certain classes of program._

Not quite. To quote the master:

       <pengvado> gcc fails to optimize it because gcc has always sucked at arrays
       <pengvado> that's *the* benefit of fortran

The benefit of FORTRAN is due to array and aliasing issues in C, not really whole-program optimization.

<comment><USER11> hence __restrict

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's interesting that the Haskell project is getting good results.

Go - <http://golang.org/> \- doesn't use LLVM because they claim it is "large and slow". Search for llvm on <http://golang.org/doc/go_faq.html>

</comment><comment><USER13> This is seriously cool. The compiler-writer part of me enjoyed * LLVM transforms the code far more aggressively* and later references to where it was hard to figure out what the assembly code does.

Wondering if they have done the test where the llvm flag has recompiled ghc.</comment>


Unleash The Game Creator in You By Entering Our Holiday Gaming Competition - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2013/12/05/unleash-the-game-creator-in-you-by-entering-our-holiday-gaming-competition/ <comment><USER2> Why can't I up vote this ?</comment>


Google News Lab - <AUTHOR> https://newslab.withgoogle.com <comment><USER2> Looks like all the same tools they've always had available, but now with a nice front page to access them all.

</comment><comment><USER3> One of my favorite ways to collect news sources still is RSS, and now that Reader's gone, I've moved on to Feedly.

<comment><USER4> I would try digg reader. Adina.com is an interesting entry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Their "tools" are very primitive since they've pulled programmatic API access from the most significant ones.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd like to see a really good news summarization tool.

<comment><USER7> [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events)</comment></comment>