Push It - Pure CSS Push Buttons - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/adrianrodriguez/push_it

<comment><USER2> I don't really get it.. In the demo:

* The font is almost unreadable. * The buttons don't seem to move/click, which has confused me in the past on a slow connection.

<comment><USER3> The demo is just an image, he explains further down that he doesn't have a spot to host the demo. The font is easily replaced.

It's just a simple button that clicks down a bit when pushed. It's designed nicely enough with just CSS but I would still prefer using images until CSS3 is more common. There's a simple enough solution to do the same thing using a sprite sheet and CSS2.

It only interacts with the click event and needs to be expanded to include hover as well.

This seems more like an example of how to create the buttons as opposed to a drop-in solution. You would have to edit the css quite a bit to get it to work with your design unless you happen to like the button design offered.

<comment><USER4> The heading above the images is somewhat misleading:

"Check out what these pushovers look like: Demo"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not to be confused with my project on github with a hundred followers that offers browser-based pubsub <http://github.com/aaronblohowiak/Push-It>

<comment><USER6> Are you legitimately trying to clear up any confusion? I am perhaps just being cynical but it did not read that way to me...

<comment><USER5> How would you word it to come across as being more helpful?

I want to disambiguate in case people google "push it" or have read me talking about it here or on twitter. I do not want people to hear about my Push-It and think that it is this project. While progress in features and popularity have been slow, I've been working on Push-It since march of last year and would like to maintain a clear distinction around an open-source project with that name. If you're not vigilant with _any_ brand, you risk dilution and confusion.

While it is a little rude to name your project the same as another currently- active project, I did not think my original post stated or implied anything of that nature.

<comment><USER6> I'm honestly not certain. I absolutely understand where you are coming from and why you included the information you did but when I first read "my project... with 100 followers" it struck me wrong.

I guess it's one of those situations where the projects are so different that having to throw in some mark of delineation seems unnecessary and more like a plug...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Even if the author fixed the line-height, type choice, text-shadow, background gradient, border-color and box-shadow, the resulting button would still have been done many thousands of times before.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's true, this has been done a thousand times, but I wanted to see how well I can do it and improve it in any way possible. Thanks for at least checking it out. :)</comment></comment>


Why Sony Keeps Getting Hacked - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/why-sony-keeps-getting-hacked-1667259233

<comment><USER2> I worked at Sony from 2004 -2007. They're software engineering talent is far from top tier. A big part of the reason is their comp packages. Salaries are average, bonuses way below avg, and they don't give any equity incentives (even ESPP) to anyone below VP level. I W-2ed about 5-7% more than my base salary. Compare that to Intuit, right down the highway in San Diego, where I made ~50% more than my base once my options and RSUs started kicking in along with a 25% bonus plan.</comment>


Is ProtonMail lying about their encryption? [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhdJzjC7Leo <comment><USER2> When this scandal first came out, I poked around in their documentation. While they claim that even they don't have your private keys and can't read your email, a little investigation will show that they can reset your password. Now I ask you, if you can't read someone's keys, how can you reset their password? That's an obvious backdoor.

Compare this with Tresorit (Swiss private cloud storage) whose documentation clearly says that if you lose your password, they can't help you.

The original video is absolutely correct that ProtonMail reduces your exposure to third party and advertising-based spying. He's also right that a desktop or mobile app is theoretically safer than JS running in the browser. It's interesting to note here that it was leaked that the NSA can and does force providers to push you your own, individually-hacked versions of apps if they want them to. In other words, you could very well be running a different web page or app than the other users without you knowing it. Australia's new surveillance laws list that exact behavior as an explicit requirement that must be supported if the gumment asks a provider to do it.</comment>


Hovercraft ferries could be coming to Silicon Valley for your commute - <AUTHOR> https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/new-ferry-south-bay-hovercraft-sf-bay-san-jose-13571389.php <comment><USER2> Would these be solar powered, does anyone know? I should think a few solar cells on the roof would easily power a multi-ton loaded hovercraft.</comment>


If Congress doesn't act, unemployment and a ruined economy may come soon - <AUTHOR> https://www.vox.com/21327754/coronavirus-economy-second-stimulus-unemployment-extend-congress <comment><USER2> Yeh Vox can't be a trusted resource. They never actually give the devil its due and never display the strongest counter argument to it's claim.

You could argue the EU for example had a stronger response the the last recession. Yet like Germany growth since them has been in GDP per capita terms 2k. The US gdp per capita grew 20k yet was considered to have a much worse response because how they left so many to figure their life out.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why all the Vox hate? Real question. I don't have an informed opinion about the site.

With things like high joblessness, rents/mortgages going past due, and unemployment assistance set to expire, the road ahead in the US looks pretty bumpy to me.

<comment><USER4> Economist is reporting a similar story:

[https://www.economist.com/united- states/2020/07/22/americas-...](https://www.economist.com/united- states/2020/07/22/americas-backwards-coronavirus-strategy)

>Hence the need for another stimulus package. Democrats released their proposal, a $3.4trn behemoth called the Heroes Act, two months ago. Republicans have gone from suggesting a "pause" on future stimulus, as Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said in May, to agreeing that something more is needed.

Vox's premise isn't controversial.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> OMG

</comment><comment><USER6> Whether you like Vox or not, what the articles talking about is an overt issue. Berate vox, but don't ignore reality.</comment>


How we cache at CollegeHumor - <AUTHOR> http://www.adamgotterer.com/2009/03/01/how-we-cache-at-collegehumor/

<comment><USER2> Interesting but all pretty straightforward. The more interesting question around caching is how to keep the cache fresh - do you just cache for short amounts of time and let them expire, or do something clever at the front end (such as tagging cache items) so that a set can be removed on batch when the database is updated. Further, what exactly is being cached? database result- sets, serialised objects or something else?

<comment><AUTHOR> We cache everything. Database queries, objects, rendered views. Anything that gets processed we try and cache. The length of time depends on what it is and where its presented. It's tough to put a rule on setting expiration time.

Objects (users, pictures, videos, articles, etc.) are cached for 24 hours. We cache the row of results and rebuild the object from that. They are busted if they are updated, otherwise the data usually doesn't change.

Database result lengths depend on what they are used for. Anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours or days. Data that is requested more frequently (homepage) usually busts more frequently then say the user profiles page which gets far less attention.

Every section on our site is rendered in different views. These also depend on the frequency of use. The comments section of a video is cached for a short period of time. A recently released video is busting comments every few seconds or minutes as users comment on it. Something like the physical contents of an article can be cached longer, because once its written it usually doesn't change. It's pretty subjective.

We experimented with "cache groups". Which were collections of cache keys that were related. From there we could bust tons of related keys. We found the extra work of tracking the keys to not be beneficial for our site. Most of our data isn't related or mission critical, If something is stale for a few minutes it usually doesn't make a difference. Tracking the extra keys became too complex.</comment></comment>


Google legal may force developers to take down the Keyczar crypto library - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/keyczar-discuss/WpUWGcDIEYI

<comment><USER2> If it was already released as Apache and everyone contributed under that license, contributors outside of Google have no need to sign a Google CLA. Everyone can continue using it outside of Google without issue.

<comment><USER3> That depends on whether there's documentation that Google legal did indeed approve the release of Google-owned code under the Apache licence as Steve Weis claims.

If not, Google can't claim to own the whole project, but they can claim they own bits of it and refuse to allow distribution of those bits, just as they could if someone had release core parts of the Google search algorithms without permission. In that case, the choices for the project are to either create a clean fork without any of the Google contributions, or cease distribution altogether. It also leaves downstream users in a somewhat awkward legal position. I certainly wouldn't want to depend on the project for something that directly competes with a Google service, for instance.

Still, more likely it's just a mistake by Google legal and furthermore, it's highly unlikely they would go around suing people, especially when it's not 100% clear that the IP was released without permission. Still a bit of a messy situation though.

<comment><USER4> Google is distributing this library under Apache license "as we speak". But I would not use OS lib if it has such question mark.

<comment><USER5> Doesn't mean much, if you are a developer for company X and you have restriction in your contract which are fairly standard these days that grant full or partial ownership on any thing you do on or off the job while being employed sticking an open source license for it won't save you.

I've seen quite a bit of "open source" projects being pull off when the employer discovered them, and while it's true that you can't effectively pull anything off the internet, it also means that no one with a shred of common sense would ever touch them again with a 10 feet pole.

This is slightly more complicated since it's been released by the corporation under an OSS license. It's also less about employees doing something on their own, and more about the company fearing that some one external will lay claims to parts of the cod from what i understand. But there can be still internal legal complications that would result in this being pulled off completely or dropped.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thats why it is a good idea to have a CLA in the first place. I don't understand why postgres for instance doesn't require one.

<comment><USER7> IANAL, of course, but ...

1\. There's no suitable legal entity that could receive the copyright/rights on behalf of the PostgreSQL project. There are entities handling domains/... but that's not really useful.

2\. The fact that developers keep all the rights (except for implicitly allowing use by submitting the patches) makes the project immune to particular changes. For example no one can suddenly change the license used by the project - it's going to be MIT-like license forewer.

3\. I really wonder how this CLA works outside USA, in countries with different copyright laws. Say, Europe, Japan, South America - where a lot of PostgreSQL contributors live.

The fact that PostgreSQL has no CLA is one of the reasons why I work on this project. I'm the one who keeps copyright, etc. I'm not saying establishing a CLA would make me quit immediately.

Moreover, I don't see how a CLA could be established after 15+ years of a project.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Any way to see this without a Google account?

<comment><USER9> It loads fine without logging in.

<comment><USER10> Google has a weird state between logged in and logged out. I believe it happens when your session has expired, but the cookies are still being sent. You're constantly asked to login again to access completely open pages.</comment></comment></comment>


Sry gotta bail mayb nxt tme (Is this tweet rude?) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/fashion/let-your-smartphone-deliver-the-bad-news.html

<comment><USER2> To me, this doesn't seem like technology enabling friends to be rude so much as technology-assisted blurring of the line between actual friends and acquaintances.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best way to implement feedback form on my site? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> That depends on the nature of your site, why you care about feedback, and what kind of feedback you hope to get.

<comment><AUTHOR> Simple form with e-mail and questions from site visitor. I want to do it without server.</comment></comment>


How scientists across three continents produced an Ebola vaccine - <AUTHOR> https://www.statnews.com/2020/01/07/inside-story-scientists-produced-world-first-ebola-vaccine/ <comment><USER2> I recall that another fortuitous concurrence was that when Ebola arrived in Lagos, the Nigerian megacity, a nightmare scenario was avoided thanks to the containment skills of the polio eradication team that had been recently trained using Gates Foundation money. Here's one link I found: [https://fortune.com/2015/10/14/polio-surge-ebola-gates- found...](https://fortune.com/2015/10/14/polio-surge-ebola-gates-foundation/)

</comment><comment><USER3> This article is an awesome write-up. I love how it walks through the process of discovery from the beginning- or as close to it as readers will bear. Its insane to think that we are at a point where we can just swap a coating on a virus as easily as I can un-solder a component from a motherboard. Its also scary as hell to think about what plagues could be created in these labs for biological war.

Like sure we get atomic power its super clean- but now we also have nukes. Tasty yummy nukes.

Where is the biological nuke equivalent here? I don't want to spread Microsoft style FUD about such exciting news but it does make me wonder what classified work is being done in Andromeda strain style labs.

I am both excited and scared as hell about what we can do these days.

</comment><comment><USER4> The account of the German researcher pricking her finger with a needle containing the Ebola virus... Oh man, that's terrifying. It's very reassuring to hear the vaccine worked out for her.

<comment><AUTHOR> Reminds me of the first week of my internship at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center in July 1974. I needed to get an arterial blood gas from one of my patients — a drug addict with hepatitis and so-called "cannonball" fungal lesions in both lungs. I couldn't find the radial artery in either of his wrists, so I took the syringe and needle and moved down to his groin and tried a femoral stick. He was really obese and I couldn't feel his femoral pulse, so I tried to separate his abdominal fat pannus from his thigh with my right hand while plunging the needle into what I hoped would be his femoral triangle. The blind stick impaled my right index finger. My heart sank. I was sure I was gonna get hepatitis and/or his fungal infection, and spent the next month or so on tenterhooks waiting to wake up one day feeling sick. By some good fortune, I didn't get either of his illnesses.

<comment><USER5> Call me crazy, but I felt like this story was perhaps a little too specific.

<comment><USER6> Haha reminds me of a story a psychiatrist once told about how he/she would generalize people's problems that happen to all sorts of patients and yet would routinely be accused of sharing a unique and deeply embarrassing story by their patients, who don't realize it but all face the same problems.

<comment><USER7> if it happens to all or just almost all or even just some of the patients it would still be sharing a somewhat private story from all of them, no? Being accused of sharing this (not so) unique story tells me it was even told to somebody that knew both people. I think you should refrain from that in this profession...

<comment><USER6> Psychiatrists have to tell these stories in order to train new psychiatrists. The only thing they cannot share is personally identifiable information. Sadly, so many people think they are struggling alone and their situation is completely unique, which is rarely ever the case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> [https://www.rug.nl/rechten/onderzoek/expertisecentra/ghlg/bl...](https://www.rug.nl/rechten/onderzoek/expertisecentra/ghlg/blog/ebola- burial-practices-and-the-right-to-health-in-west-africa-02-10-2017)

"The WHO identified burial rites for the dead as one of the contributing factors in the disease's spread. The burial rites included family members washing and oiling the corpse, and sometimes physically modifying it for burial .. Additionally, the practice of moving the body to be buried in a different village impeded efforts to quarantine certain areas."

</comment><comment><USER9> It's the cynic in me that notices that over a thousand poor brown deaths is a nonstarter for human trials to move the vaccine forward, but when the white researcher lady might die, suddenly the machinery all kicks into gear.l

<comment><USER10> > white researcher lady

How do you know she was white?

<comment><USER9> Same way I can assume the majority of the 1000+ ebola deaths mentioned by the article were people of color: the majority of people from Germany are white.</comment></comment></comment>


Evolutionary programming – the next big wave of growth in A.I? - <AUTHOR> https://www.zeroequalsfalse.press/2019/01/08/evolution/ <comment><USER2> It is kind of funny to see this. Evolutionary programming was around for a very long time. Is there some novelty happened recently that brought it into the spotlight?</comment>


GitHub Issue template improvements - <AUTHOR> https://blog.github.com/2018-05-02-issue-template-improvements/ <comment><USER2> This will greatly help open source projects (at least my projects) to sort and filter issues. I'm happy to see GitHub start shipping again at a more frequent pace well crafted and intelligent features (not like the first iteration of projects which was... not on par with their usual level of quality).</comment>


Australia is fast becoming a hot place to do startups - <AUTHOR> http://www.rogerkermode.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Australia-is-fast-becoming-a-hot-place-to-do-startups.html&Itemid=5

<comment><USER2> Short list of successful exits

Retailmenot.com sold for USD 90 Million It took four years and they claim to of only spend $10 on the site.

tjoos.com exit unknown but guesses put it in the USD 10-15 million range after 18 months

spreets.com.au sold 3 weeks ago for AUD 40 million (USD 40.4 million)

Timeframe about 1 year

There is a real buzz with Silicon Beach Australia and many other people helping to create an interesting place to do start-ups.

</comment><comment><USER3> Any examples of successful startups in Australia?

<comment><USER4> Campaign Monitor seem to be based in Sydney. <http://www.campaignmonitor.com/our-story/></comment></comment>


MetricsGraphics.js – a lightweight graphics library based on D3 - <AUTHOR> https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/12/metricsgraphics-js-a-lightweight-graphics-library-based-on-d3/

<comment><USER2> Previous discussion, about two weeks ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8607366](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8607366)</comment>


Degreed- Jailbreak the 4 year degree - <AUTHOR> http://degreed.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> I just backed this project, and it sounds like an awesome way to quantify all the learning that happens on open platforms like iTunes U, MIT Open Courseware, and others. Might be a way to finally create a new accreditation for online open learning.</comment>


Google: Links from Wikipedia Does Nothing for Your Site and Has No SEO Value - <AUTHOR> https://www.seroundtable.com/google-links-wikipedia-seo-29996.html <comment><USER2> If they're all nofollow it's no surprise there would be no SEO value.</comment>


Local Police Want Right to Jam Wireless Signals - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/31/AR2009013101548.html?hpid=artslot

<comment><USER2> I think it would be incredibly dangerous to give police this power.

Once always-on, instant-upload digital recording equipment becomes commonplace, it will hopefully spell the end of abuse by police officers. They won't even be able to confiscate your camera to hide the evidence anymore, because the content will already be online.

But if police can just shut off your wifi, we're back to square one.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am familiar with the technology and have worked on it directly with one of the companies mentioned in the article.

It was originally designed for CT measures in Iraq, since roadside bombs were being detonated by remotes on GSM and CDMA bands.

That people want to carry it out to this extent frightens me. Big brother aside, it limits our ability to use 911 services (unless you specify a certain reject code to kick the phone to emergency mode).

We seriously need to put local and state governments under scruitiny when it comes to using cellular exploits such as these. Cellular protocols are not secure at all so any attack you can think of is plausible (intercept, tracking, man in the middle, etc). I don't know what sort of precedents that there are for other communication mediums, but we need to develop a sensible legal framework within which to work when dealing with these technologies.

<comment><USER4> So, at least with bombs, wouldn't jamming devices allow for better targeting?

For instance, if I know jamming is employed, I could create a trigger that detects the jamming (not very subtle and only available to the military), and goes off when the jamming intensity starts to decline.

This would allow the bomb to go off right as the jamming device passes, causing maximum damage, no?

NOTE: I would never build such a device.

<comment><USER3> That's not how cell phone jamming works; it's not a real "jam" of all frequencies. I don't know how much detail I can get into, but essentially you pretend you're a base station and you disallow all calls to that phone.

So your trigger would have to be much more intricate than that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> To me, that article was an amazing technical achievement. The author went on for three pages about police seeking the right to jam cell phone signals, and not once did they mention the ramifications for the ability of the populace to hold the police to account for abuses. And they did so less than two weeks after damning cell phone video of the execution of a civilian by a police officer on the BART system.

While I would admire the author's technical skill in skirting the issue (truly amazing), I now have even deeper reservations about the editorial policy and institutional bias of the Washington Post. While many of the participants at HN write very lucidly, I wouldn't guess that many of us have worked as writers. I have, and I could not have _designed_ a piece of writing to better omit the issue of civilian surveillance of law enforcement officers given the subject matter they were handling.

</comment><comment><USER6> From the article: _Police and others say it could stop terrorists from coordinating during an attack, prevent suspects from erasing evidence on wireless devices, simplify arrests and keep inmates from using contraband phones._

Now how in the heck is an RF jammer going to prevent the erasing of evidence? I guess if the evidence is stored remotely, you can't send the kill signal or something, but that falls so far into movie-plot terrorism that it isn't even funny. If the police asking for these kinds of new sweeping powers can't even get such a simple technical point right, then why should we trust that crime prevention is the true objective or that they are competent enough to have these powers?

Now don't get me wrong-- there's a lot of good cops out there. I think that these kinds of problems are systematic and not individual.

</comment><comment><USER7> The main issue with this is that remote bombs do not seem to be a big issue in the US. So we are giving away our freedoms for what amounts to scaremongering: there's no actual reason to use it outside of very few high-profile targets (and maybe not even then).

<comment><USER8> and its not like they need a cell phone to remotely detonate stuff...they can always lay down a wire and detonate it that way.

Or a pressure sensitive switch.

<comment><USER9> Or blow it when it stops receiving signals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I have met the local police, and I don't trust them with this responsibility. I am sure the Blackberry slinging FBI won't want to let them do this either.

</comment><comment><USER10> I believe the discussion should not be whether the Police should have the right to jam wireless signals or not, BUT under what conditions and what kind of jammers should the Police have the right to operate.

Boundaries must be clearly defined. Jamming wireless signals in a small area may be a good idea. Jamming an entire city, for instance, would arguably be a blatant example of abuse of power.

On the other hand, it seems that all that potential terrorists would have to do would be to use spread spectrum techniques and operate on frequency bands not used by commercial devices. There's a lot of room for everyone in the EM spectrum.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point, the potential for it to be used to block innocent people from communicating is far greater than any real usefulness against people using cell phone bomb triggers- which isn't that common.

<comment><USER10> Anyone who has the technical know-how to build a remote-triggered bomb has the technical know-how to build a jam-resistant system. RF jammers can't possibly jam all the EM spectrum, and any evil-doer would easily be able to break this "security" measure.

<comment><USER11> _I_ can build a remote-triggered bomb, but I am not going to be building it using a spread-spectrum frequency-hopping or ultrawideband trigger because I am not a RF hacker. This does not make the distribution of jamming equipment to local law enforcement justifiable, but let's keep the discussion grounded in reality. Remote-triggers for bombs that use common off-the-shelf RF tools exist and are well-documented, ones that are jam-resistent are not common (if they exist at all...)

<comment><USER12> Perhaps the reason that jam-resistant triggers are uncommon is because there is no need for them. If signal jamming does become common, then jam-resistant triggers will be common, off-the-shelf, and well-documented.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How To Give (Negative) Feedback Effectively - <AUTHOR> http://www.jasonshen.com/2012/how-to-give-negative-feedback-effectively/

<comment><USER2> The often cited "POsitive-negative-positive" method is terrible and is used by those with zero feedback skills.

The most important component I have found from working in a company with an open, expected and established culture of consistent feedback, is that objectivity comes from specificity. This leads to a much better outcome and people having less of an issue taking the feedback onboard as it removes emotions and concentrates on the issue and not the person.

My particular approach, learnt from a previous organisation I worked for, and which works brilliantly:

Take time to actually adequetely identify the 'specific' action/habit/issue that needs correction and then find a clear impact on a given stakeholder. I know this sounds obvious, but is often overlooked. A great way to find if you're are specific enough is that it should come down to something you can see or hear. You can't see someone "being too negative", only actions that lead to the subject being percieved so.

Now keeping the clearly identified action/s in mind, you can approach the person with an open mind, ask for permission to give the feedback (you want to set an environment conducive to the process), and then let them know the problem as well as how it is affecting customers/the team/you.

The impact not the negative action is possibly the crucial element here depending on the actual problem.

Of course, it is important to not come across condescending but it will pay off to not tell the person how to fix this behaviour, but let them offer it to you. I have found that many times people will not know what they were doing was wrong and come to the right conclusion themselves.

Work together to find a way to overcome the issue if necessary, and offer to help in the process or to point them in the right direction—for instance if persons problem comes down to time management, and one of your peers happens to have that as a strength, then maybe they could spend time together on a project and that peer could share the way they effectively manage their time.

After the exchange it's also important to make sure that they know everything is 'cool' between you two, so later in the day/week it may be advantageous to strike up conversation on a completely unrelated topic, or just ask how their week is going, even invite them for a drink after work etc.

If done correctly this approach will work literally every single time. It did not fail me once in four years.

</comment><comment><USER3> Also recommended is this book: [http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-Will- Listen/dp/145166388...](http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-Will- Listen/dp/1451663889/)

</comment><comment><USER4> tl:dr; fill your comment with (often meaningless) things just to make the person you're giving the feedback feel better.

(I'm all for being polite and framing negative feedback positively, I try it myself, but ultimately it's all completely pointless. If someone can't take "I don't like that you did x, it should be why because z" without it starting with "I really love this and I love what you're trying to achieve ... but I guess you made that choice for a reason, so keep up the good work!" they might need to rethink creating things... someone shouldn't need to say they care and say they respect the person: if someone is giving you feedback then it's already clear they care... but then I guess that's the human brain, we're weird creatures that constantly need positive reinforcement)

<comment><AUTHOR> People often leave comments that are poorly worded, poorly thought of and sometimes completely irrelevant, all to make their voice heard and not because they care. There's too many of those here on HN

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I find it helpful to avoid using the word 'you' unless the feedback is actually personal.

<comment><USER6> This is very useful. I've noticed this helps keep feelings smooth between my wife and I as well _even if it is actually personal feedback._ Avoiding saying the word "you" makes it easier to not come off as attacking the other person. It's already hard enough to be on the receiving end of negative feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I think every HN user should read this and consider it when posting their next comment.

<comment><USER7> Well, or downvote, the cowardly little brother of negative feedback ^^

But to pad everything with sucking up to a total stranger? Nah. At least not when talking about general or bigger stuff, as opposed to personal suggestions or projects. I show people I care; just not necessarily about them. They kinda have to earn that, first.

<comment><USER8> I'm surprised that you see politeness and qualification of criticism as "sucking up". But if constructive and moderated criticsm is seen as a sign of weakness, it kind of explains why unconstructive criticism and flaming is rampant on the internet.

<comment><USER7> _I'm surprised that you see politeness and qualification of criticism as "sucking up"._

I don't, I see sucking up as sucking up. E.g. If someone says all black people should be killed, do I even have a right to assume they have great, superb, excellent intentions? Should I really start my response with lauding those? Nah. There's limits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The "shit sandwich" or positive-negative-positive method or sugar-coated version is easy to hate. On the face of it, it seems like doing this waters down your message.

But it's important to understand the real point of such a technique- which is to prevent the other person from becoming defensive and shutting down. That is really what you're trying to avoid, and there are a variety of ways to do that, including but not limited to the above. Because if they are defensive then they aren't receptive, and you've failed in giving feedback.

As michaelochurch says below, framing the criticism as it applies to their goals (as opposed to yours) is one way to make their ears perk up and keep listening.

</comment><comment><USER10> Everybody's different. You can be more straight-forward with some people, and others need to hear a lot of positive framing.

Always be kind and positive about what you say though. Assume that their intentions are, like you, to create a good product or do the right thing.

Another direction that you can take this is in getting other people to agree with you and speaking indirectly through all of them. However this is complicated to do right...

</comment><comment><USER11> One thing I have been taught to use is the "shit sandwich". Positive, negative, positive. The danger is your negative lesson being lost so this method does favour directness.

The advantage of finishing on a high is it often lets the conversation continue so that your subject can ask for clarification if they need it.

<comment><USER12> Indeed, the problem I find is that people come away with two positives, and unless they are actively trying to look for your advice it can be missed.

I think you just have to contextualise the feedback to show you understand the issue then explain where you see the problem. Then if asked give your advice on what you would do to fix the issue. Leading with your chosen solution is another common mistake. There may be good reasons they didn't do that to start with, and the problem you were addressing becomes lost.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think the best way to give negative feedback is to indicate how the person is failing to achieve _their_ goals, preferably in fairly objective terms, and how they would benefit if they improved. Preferably the improvement needs to be genuine (i.e. you'll be more effective and happier) rather than artificial (i.e. this matters for political reasons).

People don't want to listen to you if you're sniping at them for how they failed to serve _you_ , but if you can indicate to someone a way they could more effectively pursue their own interests, you become a mentor and leader rather than a slavedriver, because you're showing them how to more effectively pursue what they already know they want.

For example, I knew someone who was trying to get his team to come in at 9:00 because the rest of the business was in at that time. If he put it in the right terms, e.g. "coming in at 9:00 will improve the image of our group and serve us better in getting promotions", he could have gotten what he wanted. But he pulled the "because I say so" / "fuck you, I'm your boss" card and flopped. If you manage from authority rather than leadership, the good ones leave you and the bad ones bring you down through incompetence if not outright sabotage.

</comment><comment><USER14> A good resource on responding to feedback can be found at <http://www.gotjuice.co.uk/blog> all their articles are geared around how to improve on bad reviews and how to respond</comment>


Show HN: Timber – Structured Logging for Elixir, Ruby and Node - <AUTHOR> https://timber.io <comment><USER2> I've been using Timber.io for a few months now with my Elixir apps. Very easy to integrate with lots of platforms, nice free plan to get started, very responsive and helpful support from the developers themselves. Highly recommended.</comment>


T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta - <AUTHOR> https://thehustle.co/11052019-deutsche-telekom-lemonade-color-rights/ <comment><USER2> For some background, the reason these laws exist is to protect consumers from counterfeiters. If someone produces jewelry in a clean baby blue box, customers will start to expect that same level of quality, etc. They will be ripped off if someone else uses the same packaging but a low quality product.

However many things have to be considered from the consumers perspective. Is there likely confusion? Is one of the main things courts are supposed to consider.

<comment><USER3> Yeah I don't understand their reasoning here. If some cell service company started using the colors of verizon/sprint/T-mobile I could see that as confusing and potentially misleading.

But outside of their market, they should have no say on who uses that color.

<comment><USER4> From the article, there is overlap in their markets.

      To add even more color to the kerfuffle, Lemonade filed a motion yesterday with the European intellectual property office to loosen Deutsche's legal vice-grip on the color, and has petitioned to remove DT's color-rights on magenta in the insurance sector.

      The problem is, T-Mobile actually does offer insurance on services like cybersecurity and tech-gadget protection policies, which could add a touch of gray to the magenta dispute.

<comment><USER5> Please don't quote with code blocks. It's painful to scroll horizontally, especially for mobile users.

Without code blocks:

> To add even more color to the kerfuffle, Lemonade filed a motion yesterday > with the European intellectual property office to loosen Deutsche's legal > vice-grip on the color, and has petitioned to remove DT's color-rights on > magenta in the insurance sector.

> The problem is, T-Mobile actually does offer insurance on services like > cybersecurity and tech-gadget protection policies, which could add a touch > of gray to the magenta dispute.

<comment><USER6> I know HN is super minimalistic but I'd love a way to indent quotes considering how often we do it here

<comment><USER7> I'm not against that but what is wrong with using a carrot? It works well.

<comment><USER6> It doesn't indent

<comment><USER7> Why is this a problem? Visually, it's very clear what is and is not a quote.

<comment><USER6> So that it's more clear? and supports multiple paragraphs

Do you indent your code? Or are the curly braces enough?

<comment><USER7> ...clearly we're not going to agree on this. Yes, I indent code, but—while I've never thought about this before—I actually think using carrots could work equally well! I'd add one carrot per ident level to the start of every line.

Back to quotes, for multiple paragraphs, I just add a ">" to the start of each paragraph.

<comment><USER8> I totally agree with you, but FYI they're called "carets". Much as I like the idea of carrots in comments :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For those curious, based on the CSS on their respective websites, they aren't _exactly_ the same HEX color, just pretty similar.

(Lemonade is #ff0083, while T-Mobile is #e20074. Comparison here: [https://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html?color0=e20074&c...](https://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html?color0=e20074&color1=ff0083))

<comment><USER10> Is this really what companies worry about? An insurance (edit: ha, I thought it was a beverage company until I read another comment) company is using a _similar_ colour as our telecommunications company so let's get lawyers involved?

<comment><USER11> Yes, they do.

Lots of companies trademark their brand colors. UPS has a particular shade of brown.

There are others, including 3M, Barbie pink, the yellow of a Wiffle Ball bat, and Cadbury purple.

<comment><USER12> Cadbury lost that courtcase though [https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/cadbury- purple-trademark-c...](https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/cadbury-purple- trademark-court-of-appeal-nestle-193906)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This might seem like overreach, but is just a natural consequence of trademark laws.

If you can trademark a name as simple as "apple", and if you can trademark an icon as simple as 4 squares of identical size and shape next to another (windows/microsoft), then it becomes quite obvious that colors are treated the same.

In the end, trademark laws as a whole will have to be reformed, but this is just a natural consequence of the current laws.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, there is a thing called colormark, But as far as I know, color marks apply to companies from the same industry. T-Mobile and Lemonade are not in the same industry therefore, Lemonade should be able to use Magenta.

<comment><USER14> They both sell insurance, so one could argue they are in the same industry. Unless we're going to sub-divide insurance between Home/Car and Phone.

<comment><USER15> >They both sell insurance..

Does anyone know whether T-Mobile sell THEIR insurance or they act as brokers selling someone else's insurance (e.g. Allianz, AXA, etc.)?

I also wonder the % of revenue of T-Mobile from insurance Vs their other business lines.

(I don't really wonder)

<comment><USER14> Most consumer insurance companies are selling upstream insurance. They buy insurance wholesale, and then resell it making a cut and taking care of the customer facing part.

T-Mobile does the same. So in that way they're no different than any other type of consumer insurance company.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This ownership of color is just ridiculous.

By that logic, Google is literally using the Fuchsia color #FF00FF for Fuchsia OS which is literally classed a Magenta as the web color!

T-Mobile, I dare you to sue Google.

<comment><USER6> And in that case you could argue that they're in the same industry

<comment><USER17> The magenta industry or the smartphone industry?

<comment><USER18> The surveillance industry

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I hate when I buy renters insurance only to find out it's a national cellphone carrier...

<comment><USER20> Not that it makes it much less silly, but the article mentions:

> The problem is, T-Mobile actually does offer insurance on services like > cybersecurity and tech-gadget protection policies, which could add a touch > of gray to the magenta dispute.

<comment><USER21> Slightly tangentially O2 (Telefonica) my mobile provider also sold my car insurance (though underwritten by Ageas), they weren't even a consideration until they popped up with a good deal on a comparison site.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is incredibly ridiculous. If a _color_ can be owned by a trademark, what's to prevent a particular audio frequency being trademarked, or a particular temperature, or a particular luminosity? What if my construction company trademarked "8 meters" — could I go and sue everyone who builds 8-meter-high buildings from then on?

Good on Lemonade for fighting it. But something is really wrong with the world when claims like Deutsche Telekom's are taken seriously in the first place.

This is almost like the "illegal number" involved in decss years ago. Here's the color: #e20074

<comment><USER23> You sound surprised that it is possible to trademark a color. This has been part of intellectual property law for quite some time: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_trade_mark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_trade_mark)

I'm not saying I agree that colors should be trademarked, just that it's fairly common practice.

<comment><USER24> The problem is it's too broad a claim. Trademarking a color is limited to (1) a specific competitive space, and (2) when it is a distinctive identifier of your brand (e.g., DeWalt's yellow and black scheme in the power tools business).

T-Mobile is in the telecom business, and Lemonade is in the residential insurance business. T-Mobile should not be trying to take-down a company that is not in their competitive space for using the same color on their website.

I am not a lawyer, but I have dealt with this at work. This is not legal advice.

<comment><USER25> Related to tools and colours, SparkFun got in trouble a few years ago over selling knockoff multimeters with the same colour scheme as the iconic Fluke one: [https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428](https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428)

<comment><USER26> > Sparkfun: So we really only have two options, ship them back [the > multimeters, to China] or have them destroyed.

I wonder if they would consider the idea of painting them in a different colour...

<comment><USER25> Given that they were destined to be sold for $15 a pop, and already assembled ready to go, I very much doubt that this would have been economically workable. Even sourcing a paint that would adhere to the plastic body of the device would be a huge headache.

<comment><USER26> Could be sold for $17 also, people would understand it, and the other option is to distroy the products and lose the entire investment or to give out the product for free at your coast and maybe close the project for lack of funds.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> There needs to be some kind of association for shared defense against bullies. Increase the cost of patent/IP trolling while reducing the risk of defending.

NATO for small-businesses and startups.

</comment><comment><USER28> Modern trademark laws (and IP laws in general) are generally upsetting. It seems like they exist primarily for the benefit of large established players.

Nevermind that owning the exclusive rights to use a particular colour in this way is absurd.

<comment><USER29> Honestly, I'm not sure the laws are the issue, but rather the cost of fighting lawsuits in the courts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> They're not even using the same pink! So this isn't just a usual "trademarks just work this way" thing, it's also a question of how much of the colorspace a trademark can own.

The techcrunch article is a bit more informative -- [https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/04/lemonade-gets-a- nastygram-...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/04/lemonade-gets-a-nastygram- from-deutsche-telekom-over-its-use-of-magenta-says-it-will-fight/)

<comment><USER31> I'm going to trademark the color blue. Now every silicon valley startup is infringing.

<comment><USER32> I bet if your company was named IBN and you used a similar font and shade of blue to IBM's, you'd be hearing from their lawyers.

In this case, I don't think a typical consumer would see brand confusion, which is really the benchmark for trademark enforcement usually.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Sounds like a fun math excercise:

For any trademark of color T(represented as a vector in RGB colorspace), the chance that a brand using color C can be successfully sued is equal to 1-k*||T-C||, where k is lesser than 1 divided by the maximum distance between any two points in RGB colorspace. Find the minimum number of trademarks needed so that for any color the chance of successfully suing is greater than or equal to P.

</comment><comment><USER34> Particularly ironic based on the history of the Beatles' "Apple Records" (music) suing Apple, Inc (tech) around apple logos.

Here it's T-Mobile (tech) suing Lemonade (music) over a color.

<comment><USER35> Lemonade is an insurance company, not music.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Although this is clearly ridiculous, it does seem a little odd that Lemonade isn't using a bright shade of yellow.

<comment><USER37> I was slightly irritated by the same - what's the logic behind such branding? Imagine "Orange Mobile" using purple as their primary brand color...

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> This reminds me of a similar case between SparkFun and Fluke from 2014 where Fluke demanded that SparkFun stop selling their own multimeters which had the same colors as the Fluke brand multimeters.

[https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428](https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428)

<comment><USER39> Plenty of yellow multimeters (not Fluke copies) made outside the USA where nobody cares about their childish crayon hoarding. And people wonder why stuff isn't made in USA anymore?

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> This is worrisome, because they claiming a broad swath of the colorspace around magenta. It's hard enough to get the exact right color, without worrying that huge players will assert copyright.

FWIW I found this website useful when deciding on complementary colors; you can see how other companies have solved combinations.

[https://brandpalettes.com/](https://brandpalettes.com/)

... and here's what they have for T-mobile (no listing for lemonade)

[https://brandpalettes.com/t-mobile-color- codes/](https://brandpalettes.com/t-mobile-color-codes/)

</comment><comment><USER41> Unfortunately they have to do this if they don't want to lose the trademark. You can't trademark something if it's deemed to be of common use. Of course if your trademark is a color then this can be quite difficult.

<comment><USER42> I am more amazed that they issued that patent in the first place.

 _edit_ \- sorry, mistake, I meant trademark. I didn't know that wording mistakes were downvoted so harshly.

I am amazed they can even claim a trademark over magenta, is that better?

<comment><USER43> Trademarks are not patents.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> What's next? Sue Lemonade for using 'L', 'e', 'm' and 'o' alphabets because they're also used in T-mobile's name?

</comment><comment><USER45> Imagine the implications once you consider there are people who are color blind (and you are all hereby on notice that I own the color CCCCCC.)

<comment><USER46> I think you'll find that colourblind people don't typically see the world in grey scale.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Protections should only apply to things that add _something_ beyond basic elements. For example, it might make sense to allow a particular _pairing_ of colors to be attributed and protected, since that at least requires more creativity than picking a single color.

This is like telling everyone that you now own the letter "D" so no one can ever use that in a word again.

<comment><USER48> The basic elements of colour that most people perceive is pretty limited. But within just "pink" there are lots of different shades that have different properties and need careful thought. I think there is something here more than just the basic elements. But it is not always obvious or objectively measurable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> Props to Lemonade for fighting the claim. I just hope EU/German laws are as punishing as US ones when it comes to trademark abuse.

</comment><comment><USER50> Unrelated to the post, but I'm reminded that the color in question (at least as far as light goes) does not actually exist and is made up by our brains: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9dqJRyk0YM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9dqJRyk0YM)

</comment><comment><USER51> There's a good overview of color trademarks here.[1]

[1] [https://www.colormatters.com/color-and-marketing/color- brand...](https://www.colormatters.com/color-and-marketing/color-branding- legal-rights)

</comment><comment><USER52> This article led me down a Wikipedia trial until this interesting defense against trademark infringement:

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

</comment><comment><USER53> Lyft also has a similar color as T-Mobile. Did T-Mobile make the same ask of Lyft?

</comment><comment><USER54> Both trademark and copyright laws need reforms, and fast. This is getting ridiculous, they're not even in the same industry.

</comment><comment><USER55> Worth reading just for the colorful puns.

</comment><comment><USER56> and pink insulation foam [https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate- courts/F2/774...](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate- courts/F2/774/1116/10307/)

</comment><comment><USER57> Is this where minimalistic flat design eventually ends up? Trademarking colors?

</comment><comment><USER58> Cyan, Yellow, and Black called, they want their color back.

</comment><comment><USER59> TMobile I demand you stop calling your internet service UNLIMITED.

It's not, there's tons of fine print and multiple limits.

</comment><comment><USER60> TLDR; Clickbait headline. This is a fairly common practice. T-Mobile has filed and enforces a color mark, a type of trademark, as do many other corporations, for a specific shade of pink known as RAL 4010. Not the entire magenta range.

</comment><comment><USER61> The "protect people from counterfeiters" argument is a laughable defense

This is supply side protectionism at its root

Release a proper spec and let people implement

These rules enable protection for a middle man who owns a logo but otherwise produces none of the physical equipment or theory behind the functionality itself

It's exactly the sort of nonsense ownership we need less of

Make these CEO actually contribute literally not through popularity contests and regulatory capture

</comment><comment><USER62> It's not unprecedented, by any means. John Deere has won cases against companies using its trademarked green and yellow color scheme. Granted, that was within the same industry.

[https://www.deere.com/en/our-company/news-and- announcements/...](https://www.deere.com/en/our-company/news-and- announcements/news-releases/2017/corporate/2017oct17-deere-wins-trademark- lawsuit/)

<comment><USER63> Green and Yellow, on tractors, is quite a bit more narrow than Magenta, in any industry.</comment></comment>


Google Drive leaks suggest 5GB free storage, in-app document editing - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/30/google-drive-leaks/ <comment><USER2> I remember when Gmail first came out to the public with a whopping 1GB of email storage, 50-100 times what the competitors were offering[1]. It was a great, streamlined mail experience that users flocked to immediately, leaving Yahoo Mail and Hotmail in the dust.

If this leak is true, it will be one of the most underwhelming releases by Google in quite a while. 5GB? That's 2.5 times what Dropbox gives you for free (and they've been giving 2GB away for years), at parity with Amazon Cloud Drive (in 2011), and 1/5th of Microsoft's SkyDrive (25GB).

What happened to the Google that would release products that really rocked the boat?

[1] <http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/gmail.html>

<comment><USER3> If pure higher storage numbers are the way to rock the boat, wouldn't Dropbox be one of the least impressive options and everyone would be praising Skydrive? There is clearly much more than just greater bytes equals greater storage service. Even if Gmail only offered a similar amount of storage as Yahoo/Hotmail when it launched, it still would have been a leap forward for its interface alone (though the lanuch would have lost some of its punch, obviously).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think Google has a major opportunity here by integrating this to Google+ and Circles. File sharing would become really easy.

</comment><comment><USER5> Looks like they are matching Amazon's offering. Even though Amazon has not released an API to its cloud drive (its only a matter of time before they will).

Dropbox really should have sold to Apple when they had a chance. It will be interesting to see how iCloud and these new offerings impact their adoption rates. Looks like Box did a better differentiation by going explicitly after the enterprise integration.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. I would not have believed it if you told me three years ago, but box.com is positioning to significantly outpace dropbox in the enterprise space (i.e., the pay for service space). I work with banks and law firms. Dropbox is perceived as the devil (though I don't think it's as bad as our IT admin makes it out to be). On the other hand, many have formally adopted a branded versions of box.com. Crazy.

<comment><USER7> Box has very confusing pricing for personal use. Why limit file size? Makes no sense.

They are also 2x times as expensive as Dropbox. $20/month only gets me 50gb on box.com, whereas I get 100gb with dropbox. And no annoying file size restriction.

Dropbox teams also seem like a much better deal.

<comment><USER6> Frankly, in my experience, it's all about perceived security. That and the utility of setting permissions for third party access with read/modify logs. It's kind of like Merrill's data room, but web 2.0'y and faster/more user friendly.

Dropbox was easier (I loved being able to right click a zip file sitting in my public folder), but our clients told us it was too risky to have a document sitting on an open live link without password/user access control. We're currently using sendthisfile.com, but I believe we're moving to box.com soon. We're a top end AmLaw 200 firm.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 5GB? I expected there'd but some kind of limit but I didn't expect them to set it smaller than gmail.

<comment><USER9> If true, I suspect this is part of their apparent move to a more paid-service model. This has been happening with Google Apps, where they've increasingly obscured the free/Standard/whatever-they're-calling-it-now level, have reduced the user cap for that level most recently from 50 to 10, and are promoting the paid business level more heavily including e.g. on the sign on page for (just/plain) Gmail.

5 GB for free. Or sign up for Google Checkout, erm Wallet, erm... What's-It- Now (Play?), and get more space.

Could be wrong. But that's my off-the-cuff read, if the information is accurate.

That said, 5 GB might be plenty for the casual, Gmail-type user. Also, I'd like to know whether it is a separate allocation; since it is less than the current "free" allocation for Gmail, I'm assuming so.

P.S. One could also compare this amount to the per user quota in Google Apps free/Standard/erm level. I'm not recalling what that is, right now -- 5 GB (which would match this, WRT documents), or 15 GB. IIRC, the Apps quota includes email storage.

<comment><USER10> I would be so much happier with a free 5GB product plus paid extra capacity than a free huge capacity which generates no revenue and thus gets neglected like every other non core Google product.

<comment><USER9> Just to be clear, I meant my comment more as observation that critique (whether favorable or unfavorable).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm still skeptical. These rumours have been around for so long without anything ever surfacing, it seems unlikely that anything ever will.

</comment><comment><USER12> Here's my wishlist:

1\. OS and platform agnostic

2\. Easy to use

3\. High storage at least on the paid version

4\. Secure

5\. and above all, an unequivocal guarantee from Google that they won't "peek" into my files just to show ads on gmail or search based off this info, even in the free version.

<comment><USER13> Considered rsync.net? I was pretty happy with them, but got burdened enough with slow-uplink home networks to have to drop them as my backup provider.

<comment><USER14> Rsync.net always looked cool but is way too expensive at .80c/gb. I can use duplicity and do incremental backups to S3 and encrypt with gpg all in one command for much cheaper.

<comment><USER15> <https://nimbus.io/>

Almost public release, and $0.06/GB.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Drive needs: 1) increased storage space for a fee and 2) the ability to grab files from an FTP server somehow. I'm in for sure then.

<comment><USER17> 1 is dead certain. 2 is a bizarre request, and you're probably the only person who'd want that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Well it better have a Linux client, and not require a web browser to be logged into Google+ all the time. Otherwise it'll be another G-fail.

<comment><USER19> Almost all of Google's products work over the web. The whole "cloud" idea is kind of their thing. Google uses a single login for almost all products now (the same one that's used for G+). Why in the world would you think that they would somehow regress and create a separate login for this that doesn't require the browser?

That said, nothing Google's done has forced people to use G+ when a browser isn't required. So, again, why would you suspect that they would do something like that?

If this comes with a client, I seriously doubt it's going to require that you log into G+, but the login you use will be the same one you use for all other Google products I'm sure (G+ included). If it has a browser interface (which I'm sure it will), then I can assure you it will use the same login that's used for G+ just like almost all of Google's web apps.</comment></comment>


Small Newspapers May Be Able To Prolong Death Longer Than Large Counterparts  - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/small-newspapers-may-be-able-to-prolong-death-longer-than-large-counterparts/ <comment><USER2> what on earth is 'prolonging death longer', does that mean you have to die earlier ? I think the author meant to say 'stave off death' or something to that effect.</comment>


Online invoicing and time tracking - Ronin - <AUTHOR> http://www.roninapp.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> This looked like one of those things that follows 37signals' advice to a T (including copying their look and feel). Wonder if they'll do as well?</comment>


Ask HN: What's up with Data Scientist in 3 months programs? - <AUTHOR> I have a bunch of friends especially female lately that are telling me that they will quit their job and become data scientists.
There is apparently a program that costs around $3k and takes you as a totally non-tech person working in sales or whatever unrelated subject and turns you into a data scientist.
I find this dangerous. First of all in no way if you have no idea about a p-value is you can become proficient in ML, using support vector machines or even writing code in R and Python.
What maybe they mean is you can become a marketing analyst and crunch some numbers but that's about in in 3-4 months.
What do you think? <comment><USER2> You have a lot of people with questionable knowledge including a) The people paying for the courses b) The people in HR taking these courses seriously c) The body shops that just want cheaper bodies and need a certificate to point to in order to demonstrate that their people are qualified.</comment>


Ask HN: Has anything from your past come up and cause issues for your company? - <AUTHOR> I have said and done a handful of dumb things in my 20's. It's behind me today as I've grown out of that self-destructive phase of my life. Yet in the back of my mind, I wonder if someone will 'expose' me one day when things are going really well and cause me to crash and burn.
I don't know even know where else to even talk about this besides here.
Sorry if it's a dumb question. <comment><USER2> How dumb?

[https://tisiphone.net/2017/01/25/thwart-my-osint-efforts- whi...](https://tisiphone.net/2017/01/25/thwart-my-osint-efforts-while- binging-tv/)

I suspect this is going to be a bigger problem in the future (for society in general) as more and more people have lengthly digital trails.

<comment><AUTHOR> nothing that shows up on any sites when I enter my name and the state. I can delete particular tweets and facebook posts from years ago.

I think I was just having a bad day.</comment></comment>


Node.js v5.1.0 - <AUTHOR> https://nodejs.org <comment><USER2> This might not be the right forum for this question, but is there any movement on es6 support? I realize they are tied to v8's support of es6 but it was my understanding v8 does support most of es6 at this point. I've had a hard time finding information on this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Obviously yes, read this article [https://nodejs.org/en/docs/es6/](https://nodejs.org/en/docs/es6/)

Latest Canary V8 engine covers almost 80% of ES6 spec. So when it will go to production it will be surely available in Node.js too.</comment></comment>


Rock climbing and the economics of innovation - <AUTHOR> http://www.softmachines.org/wordpress/?p=2388 <comment><USER2> I loved this article.

One other aspect I think it omitted, likely to balance brevity with scope, is about standard deviations.

When you only have the most rich and privileged doing a sport (e.g. travelling to summit mountains) the "best" will be selected from a relatively small pool of candidates. As an activity gains popularity, and as more people have the means to pursue it, the pool of people for "best" grows and it's no surprise that the max of the distribution increases.

There world's population has grown 2x since 1957 when El Capitan was first submitted. The number of people doing fitness in their free time, I'd suspect is up 10x or 100x. This is double true for activities like Chess or Olympic sports where nation states have started searching for talent in wider and wider ways.

<comment><USER3> I think the main innovation is actually climbing gyms and their popularity, and I'm surprised they weren't talked about in the article. For instance, Alex Honnold replicated many of the difficult moves of Freerider in indoor gyms, which makes it logistically possible to train far more often and intensely. It also serves to further democratize the sport because you don't need the unlimited funds to travel to these spots in the middle of nowhere.

The campus board was only invented in 1988 by Wolfgang Güllich while he was training for Action Directe. Now there's one hanging in every gym in the world.

And I think Lynn Hill has said that one of the things that made her first free ascent of the Nose possible was new climbing gyms, that let her train more intensively than was possible before.

So yeah, as the sport grows we also get more gyms, which further grows the pool of potential record breakers to those who can't travel as much.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The very interesting trend right now is there are so many new climbing shoes vendors start appearing within a couple of years. I suspect it's because the Olympic accepted free climbing.

I was skeptical at first on these freshly new shoes vendors, but when I tried out their products, it's on-par quality with the existing vendors. Even more, often time, these newcomers has far durable product than the traditional vendors.

My guess is, traditional vendors aimed for the too high end product and losing the durability. They aimed for the high friction and more natural naked foot feeling, resulting their sole ever softer rubber and thinner. Usual climbing shoes sole has 4mm thick. But these high end product go as thin as 2.5mm.

If your weight isn't less than 50kg, you'll wear it out in 3 month.

My other complaint for a particular famous Italian climbing shoes vendor is, that they don't use strong glue. Perhaps, Italia is less humid than Japan so their glue doesn't need to be that strong, but this particular Italian-made shoes has serious issues on their glue so the shoes start to disassemble itself before the sole wear out.

<comment><USER5> My primary shoe for bouldering is the Scarpa Drago, which has 2.5mm rubber. The toe rubber wears out after ~3 months. That's pretty fast for a $200 shoe, but it can be resoled several times (~$40 for a pair) for a total cost of ~$320/year. To me, that's worth it for the comfort and performance.

But I'm not sure this is really a trend overall; there are still plenty of high-end shoes from Scarpa, La Sportiva, etc. with thicker rubber.

Definitely great to see all of the new entrants though. It's amazing how much climbing shoes have evolved even in just the past decade.

<comment><USER4> If you want the absolute best to win the climbing competition, that's a viable strategy and totally worth the money for.

But for a casual climber like me whose best grade is 3級(Japanese grade standard, equivalent of 6a+/6b or V3) and climb once per week in a indoor gym, it's a diminishing return.

I want my shoes to be durable enough for at least 9 months. The resole is cheaper but necessary effort for the resole(bring shoes to the resole service, negotiating how I would like to be resoled) is a quite hassle for me. So I'd rather buy a new shoes.

<comment><USER6> Think you're putting too much focus on the shoe. I've had a $40 pair of shoes for nearly 8 years without a resole for when I want comfort. Climbing V6 without issues (at least not because of my feet).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It still amazes me how climbing gear continues to find ways to improve every year. The pads I land on and the shoes I climb in today are undeniably better than the ones I was using just five years ago.

Take shoes. Here's what the brand new Scarpa Instinct looked like nine years ago:

[https://www.climbing.com/gear/new-and-notable-scarpa- instinc...](https://www.climbing.com/gear/new-and-notable-scarpa- instinct-2010-gear-guide/)

Notice the tiny scrap of rubber they stuck on to the top of the thing. That was revolutionary at the time. Today, that rubber takes over the whole upper surface of the shoe. Here's a pair of mine in action last year:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcN3WETCDzM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcN3WETCDzM)

Trust me, I tried that problem quite a bit harder back before rubber-topped shoes came into vogue, and there was no holding that toe hook. The method of the day was to use your heel, which was, well, harder.

If you check out the shoe range of just that one company, you'll find that this is like their fifth most technical shoe. Kept around because old timers like me still like them.

<comment><USER8> What's funny is that I feel somewhat the opposite. Most revolutionary things were developed right when I started (1996?) and now it's just incremental changes. To wit: my favorite climbing shoe, the Sportiva Miura VS came out in 1996! They're still used for cutting edge climbing. The rubber was what was really important to the shoe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Someone should invite that economist to a modern rock climbing gym. Then explain every piece of technology that made those wall designs affordable and commonplace in most major cities. Being able to train in state-of-the-art facilities, focusing exactly on the moves you need to make, day and night, rain or shine, that's crucial.

<comment><USER10> Eh, I'm not too sure about that. Plastic is a poor substitute for real rock, and seasonal climbers experience a noticeably marked atrophy of outdoor climbing ability during the off-season when they are limited to gym climbing.

<comment><USER11> Especially true if you predominantly climb cracks.

<comment><USER12> Username checks out

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I surprisingly agree with the opinion put out. Shoes have made a night-and-day difference. Also Alex was able to practice climbing indoors on artificial walls no matter the weather outside, starting from an early age.

And also Alex is the very definition of an Outlier. Everything kind of came together.

<comment><USER8> To maybe give an idea on how important those shoes that Alex wore were - or at least how perfect they were for the ascent: the athlete that designed them w/Sportiva, Tommy Caldwell put up all but two of the free routes on El Capitan (so only 8 or so in total), including the hardest free route on the wall. The shoes were effectively made for that one area.

<comment><USER13> Huber Brothers did more than 2 (Freerider, Golden Gate, El Nino, Zodiac). Skinner and Piana freed Salathe, Lynn freed the Nose. Most repeats aren't done in TC Pros.

But yes, TC Pros are great.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Scale, scale, scale. There are FAR more rock climbers, and FAR more people climbing El Cap than in the past. With ALL of those rolls of the dice, you're bound to find a prodigy like Honnold (or Beethoven or whoever, pick your field+prodigy).

More people, more scale, more chances at finding prodigious talent.

</comment><comment><USER15> I think that the most recent reelrock with AH and TC speed climbing the nose gives way more context on the same topic.

The technology really is the same in both the speed climb and the solo,; the ability to catch long falls without much human intervention is the big deal in being able to rehearse the moves at a point where they can be done "safely".

You can try to divorce technique (knowledge) from technology, but how we use a tool is so much of what a tool is.

</comment><comment><USER16> Not to mention that the sheer amount of people exposed to climbing is at least 10,000 times higher than it was when the first ascent took place.

</comment><comment><USER17> I think the fascinating takeaway from Cochrane piece, and this response article, is how much innovation improves a person's performance, even if indirectly. It's a great reminder of how hard it is to measure the effects of technical innovation.

It's also amazing that even before some of these innovations (dynamic rope, cams) how many people were able to climb incredibly tough routes. The technology has opened the sport to people who enjoy the it but aren't so interested in risking their lives on a second-by-second basis.

And as an aside, having climbed the Salathe route featured in the Free Solo movie, I can't even begin to imagine the mindset you would need to consider climbing it without protection.

</comment><comment><USER18> The comma between 'free' and 'solo' in the first sentence is unnecessary and could actually imply a different style of climbing, rope soloing. see [https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/keita-kurakami-makes- fi...](https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/keita-kurakami-makes-first-all- free-rope-solo-and-fifth-free-overall-ascent-of-the-nose/)

<comment><USER19> On the top of solo, free climbing: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CikzYN0z4zU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CikzYN0z4zU)

Pete Whitaker's 1 day solo, free ascent of Freerider, the same route that Honnold free solo'd in just a few hours.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Not this again... flawed ideas built on an an extremely narrow and false premise.

Previous discussion regarding the blogpost referred to in this article:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19914023](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19914023)

</comment><comment><USER12> "And to return to Alex Honnold, perhaps the most important lesson a free- market loving economist should draw is that sometimes people will do extraordinary things without the motivation of money."

My dad likes to visit the same coffee shop every morning, where he sees more or less the same people. He likes to show his friends pictures of his son on big routes in Yosemite or the Andes, preferring the ones with dangling- portaledge or freezing thousand-yard-stare shock value. They almost invariably ask, "does he get paid for this?" I ask him how he restrains himself from asking, "have you ever done anything for fun?"

<comment><USER21> > sometimes people will do extraordinary things without the motivation of > money

Spending money and doing things will always be more fun than earning money. People earn money to spend it on pursuits like rock climbing, even if climbing the rock itself is free, buying the equipment and taking time off to climb it costs money, so those extraordinary things were done thanks to an earlier motivation to make money.

<comment><USER22> Rock climbing has a very long and storied history of climbers living on absolute scraps to get by, just so they can climb more. This persists in the culture to this day. Yvonne Chouinard, depicted in the article, was one of those climbers. He tells stories of eating catfood and stealing leftovers from the hotels in Yosemite Valley to survive.

While you're right that making money helps people live an easier life more able to do extraordinary things, climbing culture exemplifies those extraordinary things are possible without it. Much of the development of modern climbing was done with almost no money.

Read Steve Roper's "Camp 4".

<comment><USER8> I think the myth of the dirtbagger is a little played out. It makes for great marketing though.

Post War America was a time of relative easy living, especially if you were born in America, white, and a man (and were dodging the draft, too!)

<comment><USER23> It is a much different world now, My friends who did the dirtbag life are now finding their hens coming home to roost in a major way as they hit their late 20s/early 30s. If you don't have wealthy parents or connections it is going to be very difficult for someone with no degree and little work experience to catch a break at that age.

The freewheeling artist/hippy lifestyle of that time period was probably partially encouraged by how strong our economy was. Almost anyone could take the "risk" of dropping out of the workforce for a time to explore their spiritual side.

A white dude in his 30s with a high school diploma in the 70s-80s still had plenty of opportunity to jump into the workforce and start down the road to home ownership and family life.

<comment><USER24> It's funny because the economy is currently in one of the longest bull runs ever, and yet the above is no where near possible. The income inequality today is staggering.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> A lesser known free solo in El Potero Chico, Mexico done by Alex many years back: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phl82D57P58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phl82D57P58)

<comment><USER26> Another great one is this documentary of the Fitz Roy Traverse by Honnold and Caldwell. It's a high alpine adventure rather than a free solo, but it's a different sort of amazing achievement to watch unfold.

[https://www.redbull.com/int- en/episodes/AP-1MQAPEZX91W11](https://www.redbull.com/int- en/episodes/AP-1MQAPEZX91W11)

<comment><USER27> Another one, even though it's not about Alex per se, but about Brad Gobright (another great climber who loves to free solo) I'd recommend watching "Safety Third". It's on vimeo[0] if anyone is interested.

[0] [https://vimeo.com/ondemand/safetythird](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/safetythird)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> An interesting point to note is that one of the world's strongest climbers, who recently put up the hardest problem in Fontainebleau, is Charles Albert, who spends most of his time climbing barefoot: [https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/charles- albe...](https://www.planetmountain.com/en/news/climbing/charles-albert-at- fontainebleau-climbs-world-s-second-9a-boulder-problem.html)

</comment><comment><USER29> A great article and a lovely author - he helped me develop some ideas on my final year essay while I studied at the University of Sheffield, even though he wasn't lecturing me.

</comment><comment><USER30> Great article. I hadn't considered the physics of friction with rubber. I'd known about the temperature link with other uses such as rubber bands.

</comment><comment><USER31> Has anyone else found that people who are really into rock climbing always feel the need to bring climbing up?

<comment><USER32> It the new skiing. Or maybe sailing and golfing, to a smaller extent. A thing well-off professionals go do (and yes, not _just_ them, same as the other things) then come back and talk about.

<comment><USER33> But climbing's a lot cheaper than those things. If you're in a midsize city you can get an unlimited gym membership for maybe $50 per month. Shoes, generously will run you $200 per year. That's $800 per year all-in. The equipment alone, even without the travel or membership expenses, seems higher for the other hobbies listed.

<comment><USER34> I agree with you as far as startup costs go.

But your example is only if you only boulder indoors. Costs add up quickly if you want to move outdoors and want the flexibility to do a variety of climbs.

You can easily have a couple thousand dollars in gear.

Harness $70 Belay device $20-150 Rope $150+ (possibly multiple) Quickdraws $10-14 each, you probably want a dozen or so. Some slings Some carabiners

That'll get you outside and working on bolted routes.

Then you get into climbs that don't have man made bolts that you can clip into (trad climbing).

Each piece of protection at this level costs $60-80 new, and you'll probably want like 10 of them at least.

And it goes on and on.

<comment><USER15> Yes and no. You can go a long time with very little gear.

I have a pretty nice trad rack, but most of the time I could get by with shoes, harness, belay device, etc. just because I'm typically climbing with other folks.

If you're learning to climb, then you really don't need the equipment beyond personal stuff at all because your partners will have it.

Like, I haven't had to use my rack for about the last 3 months just because the guy I was climbing with liked his better.

Not to mention that I have cams in my rack from the 90s... a lot of this stuff lasts a very long time and has a reasonable used market.

IME, it is way cheaper than, say, lift-serviced skiing or golfing.

It's like anything else, you could spend a lot. You could also live in your car and still afford to do this stuff.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Stumptown Acquired by Pete's Coffee and Tea - <AUTHOR> https://www.stumptowncoffee.com/blog/a-note <comment><USER2> I think that's *Peet's</comment>


BitTorrent Creator's New Software DissidentX Hides Secrets In Plain Sight - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/01/15/bittorrent-creators-new-tool-dissidentx-hides-secrets-in-plain-sight/

<comment><USER2> So if I understand this correctly, he's written a program that can mess with the contents of a file such that when you run the file contents through some hash function, the resulting hash is an encrypted message you generated with someone's public key. Then, the owner of the private key can try and decrypt the hash of the file to see if there's a message for them, effectively letting you hide an encrypted message covertly inside the file. It's very difficult to tell if the hash is an encrypted message, or if it's just a hash.

But how do they modify any type of file to generate the correct hash? A carefully designed hash function?</comment>