The Planet Nine Hypothesis - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.10103 <comment><AUTHOR> PDF link: [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.10103](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1902.10103)

From the abstract, "This paper reviews the observational motivation, dynamical constraints, and prospects for detection of this proposed object known as Planet Nine".

I decided to share this paper from M. Brown and K. Batygin as I know there are many, on HN, interested about Planet Nine, and this paper seems to be a great review from the authors of the original paper itself. For users interested in shorter posts, I recommend checking out Batygin's posts from findplanetnine.com</comment>


Ask YC: which editor to use for LISP programming? - <AUTHOR>

I have used emacs many years ago, but I wonder if that is still the way to go? Are there IDEs that make sense? <comment><USER2> I've been using the Lispworks IDE for the last few years with medium to low satisfaction. Our production server is running SBCL on Ubuntu (which runs considerably faster that LW) and my cofounder is working with Slime. He swears by Slime and I'll be making the switch soon. We are also moving from SVN to GIT.

<comment><USER2> Performance Note: Our code is running _at least_ 10x faster on Ubuntu with SBCL over Lispworks on Windows

<comment><USER3> Do you attribute most of the difference in performance to the OS change or to the implementation change, though? (I'll never use Windows, but I've been considering using Lispworks again on OS X for a few things.) I've always used LW with Emacs in the past, not the LW IDE. I use Aquamacs for almost everything now...and SLIME is great.

What Lisp libs are you using, if you don't mind my asking? I'm trying to figure out why CL-Memcached is slower than freaking PHP and Python for most things (!)

\- dcphillips /AT/ runbox /DOT/ com

<comment><USER4> You call being slower by a (sometimes) 34 msec over 10000 network io requests as slow ? Most of the io stuff for php etc. is pure C. If you have /any/ non trivial application then the stability and performance of CL systems become apparent. If that is your problem, then try benchmarking string operations of CL vs. the rest of the gang.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Besides Slime, there's also the Cusp plugin for Eclipse (although I haven't used it):

<http://bitfauna.com/projects/cusp/index.html>

And for Scheme/Emacs there's Quack (google quack.el)

</comment><comment><USER6> I was quite happy hacking lisp code (cmucl and then sbcl and a bit of clisp) in emacs with slime

</comment><comment><USER7> I can't recommend slime highly enough - I miss something comparable now that I'm hacking Python.

<comment><USER8> Maybe IPython would fit the bill for you: <http://ipython.scipy.org/moin/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Vim and SBCL.

<comment><USER10> How do you interact with your REPL? SBCL is designed around SLIME. I find it virtually unusable without it.

<comment><USER11> You could use vilisp.vim[1], which will basically copy-and-paste Lisp forms into your REPL for you. If you use OSX, you can try pg's method[2] of dragging text between terminals.

Better yet, you could resurrect Slim-Vim[3] if you really want SLIME-like features.

[1]: <http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=221>

[2]: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=72863>

[3]: <http://wiki.alu.org/Slim-Vim>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Nedit is very nice.

<comment><USER13> Can Nedit send expressions from the file you're editing to a REPL? I think that's a requirement for a decent Lisp editor.

<comment><USER12> I don't think it can, but I tend to copy and paste code from Nedit into a REPL.

<comment><USER13> I did that sort of thing when I first started out with Lisp too. Do yourself a favor and try an editor that integrates with the REPL. It makes life so much easier.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Stanford CS243: Web Security - <AUTHOR> https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs253/ <comment><USER2> If you are interested in learning web app security and can't get into Stanford, consider checking out this book: [https://www.amazon.com/Web- Application-Security-Exploitation...](https://www.amazon.com/Web-Application- Security-Exploitation-Countermeasures-ebook/dp/B085FW7J86)

Covers basically everything a software engineer needs to move into security.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's great to see slides and lectures freely available. Thanks.

</comment><comment><USER4> Review of this course ?

</comment><comment><USER5> Lecturer is the guy who started the controversy about terminal ads in npm.

</comment><comment><USER6> Why is this on the HN frontpage? Am I missing something?

<comment><USER7> Perhaps people find it interesting there is actually a college course dedicated to the subject.

I remember when I started at Travelocity in late 2007 that nobody cared about security. If it couldn't be solved with Spring MVC, cookies, and HTTPS then it was the users fault. Marketing and media were the only concerns. We found it a challenge just advocating for usability and accessibility. I remember finding that interesting because I was doing information security as a part time job in the army reserves at the time.</comment></comment>


WSJ:Professor Randy Pausch (A Final Farewell - Encore) - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120951287174854465.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_journalreports

<comment><USER2> With the title of this I assumed Randy had died. In case anyone else jumps to that conclusion before reading the piece, he hasn't (as of yet). It's a sad story, but ultimately an inspiring one.

<comment><USER2> There's a Diane Sawyer ABC Special from April here:

<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=265263428002185148></comment></comment>


Study finds putting people in prison increases re-offence rate vs. probation - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailycal.org/2017/10/05/uc-berkeley-professor-co-authors-study-saying-people-sentenced-prison-likely-return/ <comment><USER3> Throwaway because I want to put my past behind me.

I've been to prison. Convicted of assault when I turned 18 years old. At 20, I was released and the system provided no re-integration efforts for me. In Feb 2003, I was homeless, no family, and I lost all my friends.

I applied for over 100 jobs while sleeping in the back of an abandoned car with no luck.

Finally I lied to get employment at a local McDonald's. Then I begged a literally insane person to let me sleep on her couch until I received enough money to get a place of my own. I had to pay her in sperm donations (as she wanted a child).

I had to steal food to eat in those first few months.

On top of that, I had $18,000 in restitution and 10 years of probation. If I missed payments, I'd go back to prison.

Fast forward 10 years, I put myself through college, paid off the restitution in full, got off probation 5 years early, moved the hell away from my home town, and built a million dollar company.

I got curious a few years ago and looked up all my fellow inmates. 100% of them were back in prison.

When I think of how lucky I am to have escaped that life, I have no words...

<comment><USER4> Wow, what an awesome story. I don't think you should be ashamed of it - <USER2> inspiring.

Being a company owner, would you be more or less likely to hire folks with a criminal record based on your experience?

<comment><USER3> I wrote a book describing my experience in detail and how I overcame particulars, but every time I think about publishing, I back down. The last few years, I'm finally rid of that "black spot" over my head that I'm not ready to bring it back quite yet. Not to mention, I need to focus on running my company at the moment.

I never ask if a person has been arrested/convicted of a felony during the hiring process. People can do great work regardless if they're black, white, male, female, immigrant, or felon.

<comment><USER5> Your story isn't just an inspiration, but it's also what the world needs.

I've never been to prison, but I have been homeless for months; battled addiction; jailed for minor offense; still haven't achieved a higher education. Still though, now I'm an engineer at Google.

What we can find is that being ashamed of our past is a very limited way of thinking. There are millions of people out there who can benefit from our struggle. People in better situations and worse situations. The more we share our stories, it helps society as a whole.

And, really, that's what this is all about, isn't it?

Would love to read your book, and would definitely endorse it. Hell, I'd would be interested talking more sometime as well. Add me to your mailing list if you have one! Email: firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER3> Congrats on making it out as well.

I wrote the book thinking about the people I could be helping, but I don't publish it because I finally feel "free." I'm not sure if it's an irrational fear, or something I need therapy for, but the idea of going back to how I felt is something that I'm not ready for right now.

Quick story for emphasis:

In 2011, just as my company was off the ground, I found out I had a warrant for my arrest. When you're on probation and you are convicted of another crime, you serve length of probation + new crime. In my case even though I was not on active probation, my unsupervised probation cited that I would serve 10 years plus new crime.

The people who know me today would describe me as very stable and light- hearted/funny. When I got that warrant notice, I had a complete meltdown. I left work, physically ran to my apartment, and locked myself away. I was informed on a Friday, so my attorney couldn't get back to me until Monday with all the information as to why I was being warranted.

The reason? It turns out the State that I moved away from had lost all the records of me paying my restitution.

Lucky for me, I'd been carrying those receipts around for nearly 10 years at that point. I photocopied every single one of them and a week later, the warrant was revoked.

I lived in chaos after prison for years, and in fear for more than 10 years. I just need a bit more time to heal up before I'm ready.

I'm away from SF (where I typically live) for a few more months, but I'll reach out when I'm back.

<comment><USER5> I'm glad you had those receipts.

Looking forward to your contact :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here is a presentation[1] of one of the maximum security prisons in Norway. If you treat people better you will have lower rates of reincarceration[2]. In essence, they are trying to create "good neighbors" out of the prisoners.

And we are certainly not a homogeneous society that many use as an argument that this would not work elsewhere.

In my city, Drammen, a bit outside of Oslo, about 1/3 of the population are not native Norwegians and there are over 100 nationalities here. My daughters school has over 30 nationalities. (And I don't think this is a bad thing)

[1][https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB037gVIpJc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB037gVIpJc)

[2][http://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system- is-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so- successful-2014-12?r=US&IR=T&IR=T)

<comment><USER7> 86% of Norway is ethnically Norwegian. Then there are the folks from Sweden, etc. Suffice it to say Norway is highly homogenous.

<comment><USER8> 73% of the US is ethnically European, Germany is 81% ethnic Germans, France is 89% ethnic French (and another 5% from their colonies).

Yes, Norway is fairly homogeneous. But most countries are fairly homogeneous, Norway doesn't really stand out.

<comment><USER7> The US is 61% non-Hispanic white, which is not a single ethnicity but a grouping that includes everything from Irish to North Africans. And of course there is a long history of race-based conflict between those groups (e.g. see the local politics in Chicago or NYC).

<comment><USER9> > The US is 61% non-Hispanic white, which is not a single ethnicity

The idea that "non-Hispanic white american" is not a distinct ethnic identity (usually just "White American" or even "American", with Hispanics viewed as non-White , actual ancestry aside, outside of bureaucratic systems and foreign in ethnicity) despite recognition of distinct _national_ origin, is somewhat dubious. Its true that some of those national origins _historically_ were viewed more as distinct ethnicities and even treated as just as non-"White American" as Blacks (or, perhaps more germane to the point, White Hispanics) are now, but while the national identities persist, that treatment has largely changed. I mean, sure there is a time when _by virtue of his mere name_ Bill O'Reilly would be a reviled enemy of the nativist defenders of White American identity, rather than in a position to be an icon of nativism. But that time is long past.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> But the decision between probation or a custodial sentence is based partly on the attitude, risk profile and situation of the offender. Surely that's going to skew the statistics?

<comment><USER11> I hope that was controlled for somehow. I'm on mobile and can't pinpoint the paper itself to read and find out - [http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t5XxEi8AAAAJ&hl=en](http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=t5XxEi8AAAAJ&hl=en)

<comment><USER10> My knowledge of statistics is negligible, but is it possible to measure a system and control for the same factors that the system itself is trying to control for?

<comment><USER12> >is it possible to measure a system and control for the same factors that the system itself is trying to control for?

It's hard to have a meaningful discussion of these issues in the abstract, but the short answer is:

        1) it depends
        2) bias correction is not a trivial matter

Firstly, you have to have some sort of quantitative estimate of the bias. This is not always possible, and even in cases where it is, said estimate may be noisy or, itself, biased.

Bias correction is useful and often legitimate, but its use should always be interpreted as weakening the epistemological rigor of the analysis. In lay terms: bias correction should be consumed with a grain of salt.

General entry point into the subject matter: [https://stats.stackexchange.com/q/31253/17054](https://stats.stackexchange.com/q/31253/17054)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The bad part of jail system is that law-breakers are put in contact with other law-breakers. It's no secret environment infuences people and people learn by example.

This post is inspired by Finnish education system. I read an article which mentioned a bad behaving class, which was merged with a good behaving one. Their behavior improved, because they were suddenly under good influence and bad behavior was no longer universally tolerated.

What I'm trying to say is perhaps law-breakers should be inserted into some MODEL society, some kind of modern utopia/forced labor camp where people are treated nice and work is hard but satisfying. And not a place where everything they get is for free.

Do you know any examples where something like this took place ?

<comment><USER14> we need new Australia! but on Mars.

<comment><USER13> Ahh, Australia, the continent where going to toilet at night requires checking your shoes and looking under toilet seat. Where even silly looking platypus is venomous.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Seems like the study is confusing cause/effect. Those on probation are probably less likely to commit another crime partly because the crime they did commit was a first offense, less serious/violent, etc. -- otherwise they probably would not have been paroled (e.g. you're more likely to go to prison if you killed someone than if you got caught with a small quantity of illegal drugs).

Similarly, the article talks about how "education reduces recidivism by 50%". However, this is a self-selecting group of prisoners who decide to go to school/college, and so they are less likely to commit future crimes. I doubt those kind of numbers would hold if you forced all inmates to gain education. Since HS education is free, and most people now can get a loan for college and go somewhere (at least as good as prison college), almost all of these people who didn't get the education "on the outside" decided not to pursue it. So logically, those prisoners joining these classes voluntarily are mostly prisoners who realize they need to change and already see education as a "way out" \-- so its not really a cause/effect but a correlation.

Edit: Clarity of last sentences

<comment><USER16> > Seems like the study is confusing cause/effect.

The article provides literally no context on which to base that judgment. The study could most certainly have been designed to (at least attempt to) disambiguate all of the issues you're talking about here. Everything you've mentioned is experimental design 101, these are routine things to take into account.

Of course, since the study ([http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/09/26/1701544114.abst...](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/09/26/1701544114.abstract)) is PNAS and not open-access, I also have no context to make any conclusions.

<comment><USER17> Quickly reading through the study, they stratify prisoners by severity of crime, claiming this is a natural experiment because the only remaining variation is in the judge selected. Not an expert in sentencing but I thought extenuating circumstances can be considered which wouldn't be corrected for here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Am I missing something?

The leading picture is about California prisoners, the study is on Michigan ones (BTW between 2003 and 2006), and most considerations are about US in general.

Besides obvious differences in demographics and possibly "types of crimes", AFAIK in Michigan there is no "three strike Law":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three- strikes_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law)

(while there is, and it is seemingly enforced very aggressively, counting even what other states/coutries would define minor offences) in California.

</comment><comment><USER19> Dear HN audience. For almost all of the topics discussed here, if you haven't already, please go read this book:

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison [1]

The seminal book on questions like: Where do prisons come from? Why did anyone ever think that they were a good idea? Do they work?

Highly recommended

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

<comment><USER20> People that did bad things are not running around freely anymore... It's not rocket science ._.

<comment><USER19> Well, I think the OP should give you the idea that if your goal is (for example) to reduce violent crime rates overall, then the answer might be more complicated than that...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The problem with prison in the US is that we, as a country, really don't have a way to separate the difference between those who we're truly afraid of as a society versus those who we are just upset with.

</comment><comment><USER22> Wow what a miracle who could have seen this coming -_-. It is an absolute mistery to me how a county this big still runs a prison system that is so obviously dysfunctional.

<comment><USER23> It's a misery, but it's very functional for them:

1\. cut democratic voters by half. Blacks used to vote democratic. Once in a prison you cannot vote anymore. 50% of all young black men in the working age once were in prison. Mostly due to selective targeting and drugs policies.

2\. prison for profit. It's modern slavery, free workforce. Together with the colluding justice system a perfect slavery system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Studies like this are frustrating. The conclusion confirms my own biases, so I want to respect the study - but there are, invariably, issues that make it difficult to take their conclusions at face value. Put another way, it's entirely possible somebody looking at the data a different way could present an entirely incompatible conclusion.

For instance an issue this study faced was that it's difficult to control for the fact that extenuating circumstances and other factors help determine the sentencing for individuals. A judge, presumably, will make some effort to attempt to sentence individuals who are less likely to reoffend to probation rather than prison, and vice versa. The study argued that the random assignment of judges to cases, each of whom has their own sentencing tendencies, works as a control here but I think that is less than compelling. A judge may be more or less lenient on average, but that does not change the fact that all judges are going to be aiming to achieve the same thing. You're not comparing apples to apples.

It seems the only solution would be genuine random sentencing in a controlled experiment, but there are obviously certain ethical issues there. It's unfortunate since our system is completely broken. You create environments where individuals are treated like dehumanized animals and pushed towards greater degrees of sociopathy with no meaningful effort made towards rehabilitation. And suddenly after being in this situation for years, they're supposed to come out better than ever ready to integrate and become a productive member of society? Obviously the idea is that fear of being put in that circumstance is supposed to be a deterrent. But given an overall recidivism rate now of 76.6% [1] over 5 years, it should be self evident that this idea is quite obviously not working.

[1] - [https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4986](https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4986)

</comment><comment><USER25> I saw someone suggest on Reddit, "What if after someone is released from prison, we paid the prison a bonus every year they go without being convicted of a crime?"

Seemed super smart to me. Incentivise the right behavior.

<comment><USER26> Until some prison warden decides to cripple as many prisoners as possible to ensure they can't reoffend.

<comment><USER25> That would be illegal. And they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Or, maybe just the harder criminals are always going to reoffend. Vs the probation criminals did something, which they learn from. Because they are the softer criminals.

</comment><comment><USER28> This is only partially related to the article but I still feel it is relevant and I'd like to know if anyone has data to support either side on this. Summed up, it explains that asocial violence or antisocial aggression in general are directly correlated with warmer climates.

[http://www.bbc.com/news/science- environment-23538771](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-23538771)

</comment><comment><USER29> You honestly can't expect much more from a state whose top attorney says "We need all this free slav^W^W prison labor to keep our state going!"

</comment><comment><USER30> Tricky, because I would also think it's almost impossible to factor in the likelihood of deterring a first offence either might have

</comment><comment><USER31> some people deserve their full sentences and not probation, but instead they are locked up and released early and recidivise.

<comment><USER32> > deserve

I don't think anybody is qualified to know what people 'deserve.'

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Highly recommended for anyone who liked this article: [https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/impact- incarceration-c...](https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/impact- incarceration-crime)

</comment><comment><USER33> It seems nearly impossible to do this study ethically and also remove all confounding variables. The best way I could think of would be to compare the results of sentences given by different judges or jurisdictions who have different tendencies to imprison for the same exact offense.

The problem is that there's not really any such thing as "the same offense."

If you talk directly to people who work in law enforcement they indicate sentencing is much less about the precise crime and much more about whether all involved perceive the offender as a "bad guy."

If the people involved (da, police, judge, jury) are in any way accurate in that assessment, it will stand to reason a person incarcerated will be more likely to reoffend. That's what everyone was perceiving which is why they incarcerated the person in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER34> Prison was always about revenge. And slavery. Nasty, childish thing.

<comment><USER6> Now, this is what has always baffled me about the US. I will try to condense this a bit.

The US is primarily a christian country supposedly founded on christian values etc.

I am an atheist, and a nihilist in that I do not think there is an inherent moral in the universe. However, that means that life is a chance happening. There is probably life elsewhere in the universe but it is rare as far as we know. This means each life is inherently special and we should strive to enable each and everyone to reach their maximum potential and explore this great opportunity we have. This means adopting a humanistic approach to life (and in my case, life as in all life not just humans).

Back to the US. I have read the bible and I have taken many lessons from it even though I am not religious. Jesus was one of the first real humanists and have many great things to say.

Do no kill.

Do to others as you want them to do to you.

Turn the other cheek.

Forgive..

This is the essence of christianity.

They make sense to me even if I am not religious. Many of his guidelines would improve everyones life. But in the US you are so hell bent on revenge that the words fall on death ears. I know I am generalising here and this is not the case for every American. But as you say, prisons were always about revenge.

Is there any explanation for this paradox?

<comment><USER35> The Christian standard of appropriate punishment for even the smallest transgression is burning in a fire for eternity.

<comment><USER6> I can't believe I am actually defending christianity here, but yes this is true. I am not religious and have just taken the humanistic parts of Jesus to heart not the religious parts.

However even in christianity it is god who will exact this punishment, not the people. He sais men is not to judge each other. I can't get this to fit with the revenge mentality either.

For the record, the hell part is, in my opinion, one of the most glaring inconsistencies in the religion. God loves all.. but you will still burn in hell for eternity if you do not accept him/her/it blindly. I find that very sadistic and cruel.

<comment><USER36> I feel it's worth noting that the doctrine of annihiliationism asserts that non-believers will simply be consumed by hell and cease to exist, with proponents asserting that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment is a mis- reading of the original text influenced by Western/Platonic notions of the immortal soul.

<comment><USER6> This is actually what I think will happen when I die, I will cease to exist. It is much better than being told that I will be tortured in hell forever :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> just as intended, this is business, not some societal good doing.

<comment> wu-ikkyu Despite the down votes, you are correct. Jon Oliver did a bit a while back about for profit prisons, which revealed how "high recidivism rates" were part of the investor sales pitch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Study finds not putting people in prison increases crime rate</comment>


World War Bot - <AUTHOR> http://worldwarbot.com/ <comment><USER2> This page wasn't loading correctly from me, although I assume my privacy extensions probably blocked the content.</comment>


8 things you can do with a proxy - <AUTHOR> http://devcentral.f5.com/weblogs/macvittie/archive/2008/10/08/8-things-you-can-do-with-a-proxy.aspx

<comment><USER2> using a proxy to block ads is still the way to go, far better than adblock. i use privoxy for this.

the big win is that every browser on your system now gets the same level of adblocking.</comment>


Writing code on whiteboards is hard - <AUTHOR> http://ericlippert.com/2015/06/01/writing-code-on-whiteboards-is-hard/ <comment><USER2> So why are you having candidates use a whiteboard?

I don't understand why this approach is so popular for interviewing. If you want to give the candidate a practical programming test (and why not? seems wise to me) why not have him actually write some code on an actual computer, in a normal programming environment?

Personally, I have no problem with whiteboard programming. I think it's fun and it doesn't stress me. But I don't understand why we _do_ it instead of letting people use an actual freakin' keyboard.

Imagine if you were interviewing a car mechanic and you said, OK, on this whiteboard here, draw out how you would change an oil filter. You'd have to be completely mad! If you want to test his ability to change an oil filter (and why not? that's something they should be able to do) then get a car and say, show me.

I can't see _any_ advantage to the whiteboard, so why do we do it? The only thing I can see is that it would have saved on capital costs back in the ancient days of yore when computer hardware was expensive and quantities were limited and getting every candidate in front of a computer wasn't practical. Thankfully that's not remotely true now.

<comment><USER3> He gives a bunch of reasons for what he's actually looking for (the way you problem solve etc) which is the first time I've heard an interviewer give a reason for the whiteboard test.

Ultimately the author is after the candidates thinking process and he misguidedly (in my opinion) thinks a whiteboard test will help him get that information. But instead, it will help him find people who are good at whiteboard coding under pressure. People who have practiced for that particular activity which they will not be getting paid to perform on a daily basis... just like asking brain teasers help you find people to hire that are really good at solving brain teasers (but may suck at their actual day to day job).

Edit I'm going to use this opportunity to point out that I have been freelancing as a python / node.js / php / front-end (js, html, less etc) for about 4 years full time, 12 years total. I worked for a number of companies (small and large) for around 7 years. I get almost all of my current work through word of mouth and reputation. The interview process is pretty much me telling them what I can do, telling them what I have done, who I know and that's it I'm hired within the same phone call and I make a hell of a lot more money solo than I did when I worked fulltime (I'm getting ready to scale back to 20 hours per week to work on a project of my own).

Yet, when I attempt a whiteboard test, a brainteaser or just about any other interview question for a full time position, unless I'm able to get past my crushing depression, social anxiety, interview anxiety etc. I will fail spectacularly. The entire standard interview process (and tech job for that matter) is total bullshit.

<comment><USER2> He gives reasons for a coding test, but he gives no reasons for preferring a whiteboard over a computer. The idea of using a computer barely gets mentioned and is never really compared, except for a brief bit where he says of course I won't ding you for forgetting a semicolon or whatever.

I really don't see any justification for his use of a whiteboard. He just says it's normal, and that he does it too.

<comment><USER3> Ah thanks - i actually skimmed pretty fast through the article because I'm busy and thought his reasons were for whiteboard testing. I still think on site code tests are garbage too... and working in offices when we can easily work from our homes. I like how most of build all this great technology to connect ourselves through the internet and then think its somehow more productive to work in an office setting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _Practice_

On my first real software interview, even though I got 90% of the answers correct, I didn't get an offer. I didn't ask specific enough questions, constrain the problem, or quantify my reasoning to satisfaction. And the funny thing is I knew I needed to do that. I had been preparing a while before the interview, and knew I had to do everything stated in this article, but it just went out the window. And I'm very good at doing this on the job. But at the whiteboard I didn't even realize I wasn't _really_ explaining myself. I knew the answer (more or less) and just blurted it out, happy to be correct. But process is much more important. And it takes discipline to slow down and explain yourself. Now when I'm practicing, I talk to myself while writing on the whiteboard, and I have a little script I follow in the beginning of the problem that ensures I spell out my assumptions, the input/output, and the expected behavior of the algorithm. When I get myself in this mode of breaking down the problem, I find questions just roll off the top of my head.

<comment><USER5> I dunno - couldn't the interviewer just ask if they want those things from you?

<comment><USER4> You're expected to ask them. It's a minefield, really. But it's really not far off what I do on my job. When I get a spec I always ask questions like that. It's just hard to come up with scenarios when you've been given an isolated algorithm.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why is this approach used? I have never, in my life, have coded on a whiteboard while actually building a product. I draw, I brainstorm, I even write plain English steps, but never code.

It's extremely weird that companies are trying to act like S.H.I.E.L.D., and every interviewer thinking he is Fury. And they are almost always wrong. You're recruiting to someone to do a job, not to transform them into something. If they will likely never do something in the actual job, it is mindless testing them on something.

Founders should be aiming to hire people better than themselves. Fury is awesome for hiring Avengers, not field agents. And no Tony Stark is coding on whiteboard happily.

> _It's hard in part because you don't have IntelliSense or syntax colouring > or any of the other tools at your disposal that you normally do when writing > code. I know that, and I'll take that into account._

This is weird. In what conceivable situation would one not have access to those tools on job site? Hell, I've seen a lot of programmers quickly check API available to them in a new language before forming a mental map of it.

While the author may think he knows what he is doing. My personal guess is that he is alienating a lot of amazing people. If you test Lance Armstrong on his ability to ride a unicycle, you might miss out on him. That is essentially what you're doing with whiteboard coding.

<comment><USER7> I take it into account by asking a problem that is so simple and straightforward that you do not need google, intellisense, or any other tool to solve the problem. As I mentioned in another comment above, I have asked problems as simple as "add and subtract four numbers". A candidate who needs to use Google to determine how to add and subtract doubles in C++ will not be successful.

Now, perhaps I am alienating candidates, but first, I am very willing to accommodate any candidate who wishes to demonstrate their coding skills to me in some other way, and second, my primary goal is to prevent bad hires. If good hires go to the competition, that's too bad, but it is way more important to prevent a bad hire. What I am not willing to do is fail to test candidates on their coding ability; I have had candidates -- some with advanced degrees -- show up who had no demonstrable ability to solve practical problems.

<comment><USER6> > _I have had candidates -- some with advanced degrees -- show up who had no > demonstrable ability to solve practical problems._

For real? I'm assuming you imply advanced degrees for reputable university? From my experience in CMU, it is hard to imagine someone slip through the system without an extreme command on general programming.

Maybe it can happen at a research focused Masters, but someone with a BS in Computer Science from the top 5 should not flunk an interview.

<comment><USER7> Oh yes really.

I have had candidates with PhDs in computer science who had a deep understanding of static analysis of programming languages, but who did not know how many bytes were in a pointer on a 64 bit operating system, who thought that there was an algorithm for compressing any 64 bit number into a 32 bit number, who could not describe the possible consequences of a buffer overrun in C, and who had no idea whatsoever what a virtual function table was.

Now, to be fair, as Dijkstra is said to have pointed out, astronomers are not experts on telescope building. People with deep knowledge in one small area of a field are often ignorant of other areas, even closely related areas. In those cases it's even more important to get a sense for how the candidate approaches problem solving, whether they can learn on the job, and so on, because you know that they are going to be deeply in problem solving mode very quickly when faced with their first real-world problems.

I hold up myself as a case in point; I helped build the JavaScript engine that was in Internet Explorer in the 1990s, but know practically nothing about HTML, the browser DOM, CSS, and so on. If I were interviewing someone like me for a web developer position, I would have to be convinced that the candidate could learn quickly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Writing code on whiteboards is hard, writing code on an unfamiliar computer in an unfamiliar room while a stranger watches on is hard, writing code in the middle of a job interview is hard (and unrealistic since we never do that during the course of normal work).

So maybe you should stop making candidates do it. Give them a coding test they can work on in their own time, or whatever works for your situation.

<comment><USER9> And how many employees doing these interviews can actually write code on a board? Not to sound too wimpy, but holding your arms up like this is physically taxing for the unpracticed. Unless you're pulling in a lecturer for an interview, it's just not natural for an actual programmer.

And why would you want to disadvantage actual programmers when you're hiring one? It just makes no sense. Whiteboards are for argumentation during design discussions. They're great for high-level block diagrams and all that. They're NOT great for long runs of text, and _especially_ bad for code.

If you're in-person, pair program. If you're remote, find a good online code- friendy (syntax-highlighting, monospace) scratchpad and use it with a voice or video chat solution. And if you can't schedule time with them, ask them to submit a repository with a solution to a harder problem. If they need to explain why they did something, that's what commit messages and READMEs are for. If they don't understand that, that's a mark against them.

It's already enough of a conceit to ask someone to e.g. reverse a linked list when they're practically _never_ going to be doing that in their day job. To ask them to do so using a dry-erase marker writing with 4" lettering on a whiteboard while standing is crossing into the ludicrous.

<comment><USER8> Well, part of my point is that the whiteboard isn't really the issue, it's just the most egregious aspect of the situation.

You say if you're in person, pair program. But where, on what computer, doing what, in what editor, etc? All these things plus the inherent pressure of the situation make the experience unpleasant enough, and the results unreliable enough, that you just shouldn't do it in my opinion.

<comment><USER10> I take your point, but I have been interviewed with the "pair programming" concept and found it much easier.

It also tells the interviewer how you really interact with a computer.

I find the whiteboard stressful. I'm tempted to use short variable and function names to save writing. I can't easily insert more lines of code. The code tends to get cramped and illegible.

In a text editor I'm more likely to make huge changes as the concept evolves.

A significant proportion of good programmers use vi or emacs. I realize there are outliers who just have to have Sublime Text set up the right way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> _A word of advice: writing code on whiteboards is hard. Practice!_

Yes. If you are able, try to get some experience teaching. If you do it well, it will give you plenty of experience writing code while discussing its relative merits. Hell, spend enough time with academics and you will get in the habit of writing code on paper first and only typing it later as an after thought.

And wait till you get one know-it-all student! They act like sufficiently smart compilers, correcting both syntax and semantics. They will make sure you follow what you teach!

All this sounds hard, but the curve doesn't have to be more steep than you want it to. The world is full of programmers who could use a few minutes of your time to understand that pesky algorithm that you know backward and forward.

<comment><USER12> I totally agree. IMO it doesn't even have to be a CS course; my experience TAing calculus helped immensely with whiteboard interviews.

I think it's the process of pacing yourself through the problem. If I see some fancy integral, I might be able to solve it in one or two lines. But if I want the students to understand, I'm not allowed to skip steps so it'll take more like 15 lines, and I'll have to verbally explain each line as I write it. It's getting used to switching back and forth between dictation and logical process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Whiteboard tests are already stupid, but some companies take it to another level. The last time I went to get interviewed by Amazon, they told me to write a complete, syntactically correct, "ready to go into production" code (I was literally told this). I didn't get that job.

They did even worse when my friend was interviewed by them. He was told to write production quality code on a whiteboard, and when he did that, they asked for an explanation, and clicked a photo of it through their smartphone to evaluate it later, _probably on a real compiler_. Really, when you can't even understand production quality code on a whiteboard by yourself, how do you expect people to write it in a tense setting?

<comment><USER14> The photo was probably clicked to attach it to some sort of internal candidate feedback form. Photos ensure that the interviewer does not make a typographical mistake while entering it in.

Also production quality code is usually interview speak for "Your code should be more robust i.e. check inputs and return values from library functions. Fix it."

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Here's a story. I interviewed for Amazon a while back, online whiteboard (laptop + phone interview). They asked me to code up some esoteric binary tree algorithm that I definitely didn't remember. In "real life" I would do the responsible thing and google/wikipedia this algorithm, re-teach myself how it works, etc.

But nope, gotta do it on the spot. Alright sure - open up a new tab (while on the phone), google it, and proceed to rewrite someone's StackOverflow answer, explaining it along the way. Now that I believe takes skill, especially since you gotta fake out the interviewer and make your discovery process seem "realistic".

Suffice to say, I decided not to follow up with them for the next interview. If this is what they look for in their workforce, go hire kids who waste their time memorizing "Cracking the Coding Interview".

I'd rather write useful software with my time, thank you very much.

</comment><comment><USER16> Writing code on a whiteboard is something I'm perversely good at. It's because I'm a teacher and not a developer, and I often end up shoving quick Python or Pseudocode algorithms up on my classroom whiteboard.

I also encourage my students to code on whiteboards. I have a class set of mini-whiteboards that they can use at their desks to jot down bits of code, flowcharts or just their thoughts.

I've noticed when touring tertiary academic institutions (Edinburgh School of Informatics for instance), that every room and office has whiteboards filled with scrawled code. So maybe this is just a practice from academia that has trickled down into industry.

</comment><comment><USER17> When white board coding is required, I really feel it is better suited to allow a fair bit of psuedo code to be used in it. This article basically says they will take into account the lack of things like InteliSense, but their example is of what would be a pretty minor syntactical error.

I mean I guess I fail to understand why if you show that you know the algorithms you are trying to implement, and the data structures needed to do so, what does it matter if you rely heavily on auto complete to give you the correct method calls off of those objects when programming?

I realize a programmer using auto-complete which knows the method signatures well enough to not use auto-complete, will have a slight speed advantage while developing over someone who actually needs auto-complete. But there have to be better ways to test for development speed if that is truly your concern.

Similarly I realize the interviewer would like to see how you respond when you can't remember or don't know something, do you get frazzled and frustrated or do you ask questions. However there are definitely far situations you can create to to watch for these type of reactions than simply expecting someone to know the syntax of a language well enough to write it on a white board.

Honestly what am I missing?

</comment><comment><USER18> IMHO, any interview (phone or onsite) for a tech job that rejects a candidate because of some deficiency is found in technical skills during the interview, whoever scheduled the interview is at fault. That manager/HR-person just cost the company easily a few hundred dollars.

Such determination of one's technical chop should've been made well early in the screening process, from past work or online tests or coding example (like take home project type).

Interview process is expensive. It takes 1-5 hours of manhour from your company. It takes similar or more from the candidate. Think about how much you pay each engineer.

just my 2 cents.

</comment><comment><USER19> And it's even harder to draw on a keyboard :)

It's stressful to write code during an interview but it's necessary since it really helps understanding how the developer thinks when he's trying to solve a problem.

I usually ask candidates to write code on paper, or even speak the code they want to write. If they know the algorithm but not the function names I don't care. This test is done after the first part of the interview where the candidate is given multiple questions so, usually, I already know if the candidate is good or not ;)

<comment><USER17> "it really helps understanding how the developer thinks when he's trying to solve a problem."

How does it do this over watching them code on computer? Could you please provide examples of how this helps more than say them bringing in their own laptop (being provided with one for use if they don't have one) and you hooking it up to another display and watching what they write as they write it in the same room with them?

<comment><USER7> I have tried that as well in the eleven years since I wrote this article. It is much more work for me to set up a development environment, get the monitoring software working, blah blah blah, and there are many points of failure, but if the candidate feels more comfortable doing it that way I'm willing to do so.

The problems that I ask are so easy that it really does not make a difference whether the candidate is writing on a whiteboard or typing on a computer; most of the problems I ask can be solved in fewer than six lines of code. I am using the code as a starting point for the conversation, not the end point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> It remains crazy that whiteboarding in interviews is even a thing. We don't test to see how well candidates perform interpretive dance, and that bears about as much semblance to real work in this profession as does a whiteboard exercise.

[https://www.exratione.com/2012/09/whiteboard-exercises- are-a...](https://www.exratione.com/2012/09/whiteboard-exercises-are-a- terrible-way-to-investigate-coding-ability/)

</comment><comment><USER21> Best thing I've found is to get someone to tackle a problem you've recently faced or are going to face and see how they handle it.

Not on a whiteboard, but with actual code and examples. Some companies will pay for this, and others just take it as a part of the initiation process.

It really lets you see what people focus on, how they handle it (time, code, style, design, etc), and how dedicated they are to the actual problems you face.

</comment><comment><USER22> Agreed. I write a lot slower than I type, especially when writing a programming language. This messes me up. I also tend to write a general structure then insert code. Doing this on a whiteboard is hard because you can't move text around, you can just erase it.

That said, with a calm mind and practice, its not that bad.

</comment><comment><USER23> A number of years ago, I got into the habit of bringing my laptop to any job interview. If I couldn't convince them over the course of the interview the merits of writing code on a computer and running it vs a whiteboard, I didn't accept the job offer.

</comment><comment><USER24> Never write on the whiteboard: [http://www.jperla.com/blog/post/don-t-write- on-the-whiteboar...](http://www.jperla.com/blog/post/don-t-write-on-the- whiteboard)

</comment><comment><USER25> really the whiteboard interview is about telling the story of development.. not solving the problem.

it would be interesting to see two scenarios up online in video format:

scenario 1: dev writes out very elevant well crafted/optimized solution quickly and explains it and is done.

scenario 2: dev makes elaborate song and dance routine explaining the problem space, then writing some code, then changing the code, then optimizing the code. the whole time, very compelling/emotionally engaged and "passionate".

Have community vote on who is the better developer to hire. I have my suspicion of who would win.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'd disagree with wanting candidates to be confident in their solutions. You should be confident in a solution when the tests pass - and maybe, not even then.

</comment><comment><USER27> I really don't understand the hate that whiteboard coding has on HN. In Germany, this is used a lot in the programming tutorials on universities. It's not that there isn't a projector in about any larger seminar room. But most exercise instructor will strongly prefer whiteboard coding for explaining how to design an algorithm that solves the given exercise. The strong advantage is that you can easily draw pictures at some other corner of the whiteboard that illustrate the idea of the algorithm lines that you just wrote. This is also the preferred way for students to explain their implementation of the exercises. They could easily just show the source code on their laptop that they implemented. But I (and many other students and exercise instructors) see that the explanations are a lot more easy to follow if they have to build their implementation step by step on the whiteboard explaining their ideas thereby. On the other hand, if you have no idea how to solve the algorithm you can still write a skeleton of the algorithm and draw pictures by the sides to show where problems might occur.

Most exercise instructors would say that only really good students are able to directly write an algorithm down into the computer. On the other hand, any student should be able to draw, say, a flowchart, of the algorithm. If you have done that (and are confident that it looks correct), _then_ you can write a code snippet next to each box of the flowchart that implements (this is only one example. There are exercise instructors that prefer other ways than flowcharts. For example when you instead use recursion, there are other, better, methods). This way you wrote down an algorithm using the flowchart as an intermediate abstraction to simplify the problem.

It might be that in the US a different way is used to teach programming (I really don't know which).

Also in the internship whiteboards were regularly used when discussing about the best way to implement an algorithm (in about the same way they were used in the programming tutorials with the only difference that once everybody understood the idea, all got back to their computer to implement the algorithm). I never had to whiteboard code anything in job interviews, though.

So I really claim that I wouldn't be really worse in whiteboard coding than if I were coding on a computer. I also have reasoned why whiteboard coding is a lot more comfortable in particular in the case when you don't have an idea how the complete algorithm even has to look like (than things that you can be done on a whiteboard, as drawing pictures, drawing flowcharts or writing down recursion equations can badly be done directly in a source code editor). Thus the only explanation that I have for the (nearly) universal hate of whiteboard coding on HN is that many people (me too) have difficulties writing code under stress situations (say, job interview). But this also applies if you write the code on a computer. Thus I believe the hate on whiteboard coding is rather a scapegoat for a lack of programming skills. If it were replaced by another method of a systematic assessment of programming skills, they wouldn't fare better (they just wouldn't have the scapegoat of whiteboard coding anymore).</comment>


SeeqPod CEO: Major Lawsuits Are 'Non-Issue,' Acquisition Imminent - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/04/seeqpod-ceo-acquisition-imminent/ <comment><USER2> Is it just me or does the CEO here seem a little bit full of it? He's awfully confident about a deal that will hopefully happen in _several months_ and will leave him, along with his investors, with a significant loss. And yet from his comments in the article you'd think the company was the next Google. A little perspective might be nice.</comment>


The 15 most important security startups of 2013 - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/15-most-important-security-startups-2013-1#bromium-letting-malware-happen-safely-14

<comment><USER2> I don't see why some of these "tech media companies" don't spend some time covering more types of startups such as some of these mentioned here. Why do they all seem to only cover some social app where it "solves" the problem of sharing things with your friends online, created by some 20yr old? The people featured seem to be mature and pretty seasoned professionals that are tackling some serious problems and making some pretty cool solutions but they'll never get as much spotlight : /</comment>


Paris Is Sharing Electric Cars by the Thousand—Will It Play in Indianapolis? - T-A http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-17/paris-is-sharing-electric-cars-by-the-thousand-will-it-play-in-indianapolis- <comment><AUTHOR> I'm a regular Autolib user in Paris, and I have to say Autolib is just pure awesome. It's the piece of the puzzle that has been missing in public transport, because sometimes you just need a car. Some examples:

Moving large bulky items

Getting around quickly in the suburbs, out of the city centre

Rerving parking in the city centr a ahead of time

Actually, those are the three main use cases for me. I do everything else with my electric bike or the metro. Still, the service has changed my life - I no longer own a car because of it, and I'm not alone in that. Just yesterday another friend was selling her car on Facebookfor the same reason.

Anyway, I think the Indy city council would do better by stopping worrying about who had the right to do what, and just get behind this thing. It just makes people's lives better.

<comment><USER2> I live in Paris suburb and Autolib isn't useful for me and the lost of parking space complaint is quite real. So 'pure awesome' for its customers, probably, annoying for other: that's true also.

<comment><USER3> As someone who uses neither Autolib nor regular car, I'm way more annoyed by the regular cars completely filling the roads everyday (one person by car, 95% of the time), polluting, making buses late and taking a huge part of the city/sideways, than by someone using Autolib once in a while.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the car they are using: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollor%C3%A9_Bluecar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollor%C3%A9_Bluecar)

Approximate total cost of ownership over 7 years is €25.000 but you only need €19.000 upfront plus another €80 to lease the battery each month. 150KM highway range.

<comment><USER5> There is an issue with the battery technology though. AFAIK these cars must stay plugged and draw power when not in use to keep the battery above 70C.

<comment><USER6> It's an issue only if you don't reach an appropriate usage rate of the car. Which is a non issue for shared cars in town.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The mayor of Indianapolis implemented this program by fiat, without any legal basis. The city-county council is furious.

There are no special legal carve-outs for the use of city parking spaces or municipal land by the autolib vehicles -- they're parked illegally and they'll start getting towed the minute a new mayor enters office.

As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.

<comment><USER8> > As far as I know, it's not even legal to import the electric cars, much less > drive them on public roads. They certainly don't meet NHTSA standards.

Why would it not be legal to import electric cars? The cumulatively most sold electric vehicle in the US, the Nissan Leaf, started off manufacturing in Japan only, and the initial batch in the US was all imported. The just launched BWM i3 and i8 are both imported, as well as the VW e-golf and a number of others.

And not be legal to drive? By the end of 2015 we will be at nearly 400k electric vehicles sold in just the US [1]. A faster adoption rate than hybrid vehicles [2].

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug- in_electric_vehicles_in_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug- in_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States)

[2] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug- in_electric_vehicles_in_t...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug- in_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States#/media/File:DoE_EV_Everywhere_Blueprint_p5.png)

<comment><USER9> From a quick google search:

> We are currently making the modifications necessary to meet the Department > of Transportation (DoT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration > (NHTSA) requirements. Fully compliant Bluecars will be produced in Q4 2014 > and will be brought to Indianapolis for the public opening of the BlueIndy > service. Among the modifications are additional airbags, braking and bumper > modifications. A first set of European Bluecars is being brought to > Indianapolis for demonstration and testing, under a temporary import > authorization from NHTSA. A first batch of 10 will be used for a public > demonstration starting on May 19. These temporary import Bluecars will > subsequently be shipped back to France and replaced by the US model.

[1]: [http://www.in.gov/oucc/files/44478_OUCC_Testimony_of_Edward_...](http://www.in.gov/oucc/files/44478_OUCC_Testimony_of_Edward_T__Rutter_.pdf)

<comment><USER8> Thanks. I actually mis-read the parent comment as "it's not even legal to import electric cars" instead of "it's not even legal to import _the_ electric cars" referring specifically to the Bollore Bluecars.

Though I don't know much about the local controversy with the blue car launch in Indy, I highly doubt the relevant federal agencies would allow the importing and driving of hundreds of vehicles that have not passed through the relevant steps.

<comment><USER9> Ah, but they do, as long as it's for "demonstrations, racing, training and investigations"... :)

[http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/06/17/indy- councilor...](http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/06/17/indy-councilors- question-blueindy-safety/28878131/)

<comment><USER10> 10 == 100s?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> San Diego has had the electric Car2Go service for several years: [http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/04/car2go-san-diego- upgrade...](http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/04/car2go-san-diego-upgrades- fleet-400-new-electric-2014-models-now-service/)

</comment><comment><USER12> (Rewriting) Another similar company also in the US is car2go.

[https://www.car2go.com/en/columbus/](https://www.car2go.com/en/columbus/)

</comment><comment><USER13> Not sure that the article is right in saying having silent cars is an advantage - increases risk to pedestrians and cyclists

<comment><USER14> That's FUD without statistics to back it up.

<comment><USER13> In that case why do electric/fuel cell cars/buses have noise makers?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The appeal of sharing cars is directly proportional to how ugly and soulless the new cars are designed to be. The world has been on that path for a couple of decades now, and it looks like we will hit the sharing economy precisely at the time when most new cars look like such that nobody would ever want to own one.</comment>


Linguistics Challenge Puzzles - <AUTHOR> http://webscript.princeton.edu/~ahesterb/puzzles.php

<comment><USER2> I found these pretty fun. Effectively just pattern-spotting exercises, but good ones nonetheless.

It's curious how few examples you need to begin forming new ones.

</comment><comment><USER3> The Chickasaw puzzle is broken. Javascript errors on every browser I tried, so no way to check if the answers are correct.</comment>


Encryption Pioneers Disagree About Apple-FBI Case - <AUTHOR> http://www.tomsguide.com/us/crypto-legends-apple-fbi-rsa,news-22344.html <comment><USER2> What I'd give to be in a room with Ron Rivest, Whitfield Diffie, Martin Hellman, Adi Shamir and Moxie Marlinspike...

<comment><USER3> Also, apparently one of them isn't a "prominent cryptographer".

Wonder which one of the five they don't include.

(Or is it a typo and supposed to be 5 instead of 4?)

<comment><USER2> Maybe Moxie? He's a personal security hero and he (co?)wrote the Axolotl protocol, but I'm not sure if we can call him a cryptographer.</comment></comment></comment>


Good review of T-Mobile G1 - <AUTHOR> http://www.macworld.com/article/138334/2009/01/g1review.html <comment><USER2> I think the author works a little too hard to be fair to the G1 but it's a decent review.

The G1's only hope right now is to get enough early adopters to sustain it until developers rush to it and make it as good if not better than the iPhone. That might not happen but that's what Google is hoping for.

That's basically what he says in the review. Lots of potential but very rough around the edges. That said, he doesn't mention what I think is the most relevant point which is the Palm Pre being on the horizon. Anyone looking for an alternative to the iPhone would be foolish to buy a G1 before the Pre reviews start coming in

</comment><comment><USER3> I didn't like this review. He compared it at every step to the iPhone.

It isn't the iPhone. It isn't trying to be the iPhone. I'd even venture to say that the target market isn't the same as the iPhone's. It's built upon choice; you can choose to do things different ways. You can't do this with the iPhone.

It doesn't assume the user is a moron.

<comment><USER4> True, but let me tell you a story. I walked into the T-mobile store a few weeks ago to get a G1 and the salesman told me not to, that it was a bad phone. Now he didn't know that I have been a T-mobile customer forever (since they were called Mercury and only had 2 handsets and 2 tariffs) and pretty much any phone I want would be "free" now[1] - he'd rather have not made the sale at all. That tells me everything I need to know about the G1.

[1] Unless they have some weird technology to detect my SIM when I walk in the door...

<comment><USER5> The salesman was probably calling you 'a moron'... :-)

<comment><USER4> Well, fair play - if "a moron" means someone who wants their phone to make and receive calls and not have to spend the whole time fiddling with it to make it work... Runs Linux you say? :-P</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Matz's Ruby Developers Don't Use RubySpec and It's Hurting Ruby - <AUTHOR> http://rubini.us/2014/12/31/matz-s-ruby-developers-don-t-use-rubyspec/ <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8821015](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8821015) (291 points, 244 days ago, 112 comments)

<comment><USER3> It was also revived and discussed here: [http://eregon.github.io/rubyspec/2015/07/29/rubyspec-is- rebo...](http://eregon.github.io/rubyspec/2015/07/29/rubyspec-is-reborn.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The RubySpec project has since been discontinued for many reasons: [https://gist.github.com/nateberkopec/11dbcf0ee7f2c08450ea](https://gist.github.com/nateberkopec/11dbcf0ee7f2c08450ea)

<comment><USER5> The linked article is the blog post announcing the discontinuation of RubySpec.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Note that this blog post is from 2014.</comment>


Why are people attacking Google buses? - <AUTHOR> http://evbogue.com/googlebuses/

<comment><USER2> >This isn't about gentrification, as some people are making it. It's about how pissed people are a Google.

Above statement is false, no matter how much author or submitter want it to be true. The author insinuates he left because of rent, but more digging reveals another cause.

People aren't smashing bus windows because of NSA revelations or other privacy violations, it's because they are being hit hard in the wallet and the buses are a visible source of it.

<comment><USER3> funny how the anti gentrification activists are all white where are the latino and black people who have been gentrified or where they gentrified out a generation ago so they dont count any more?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> >the talentless ex-programers they hand paychecks to every other week will go find other things to do with their lives.

Someone seems bitter.

(I don't work at Google)

<comment><USER5> Yeah, it's hard to parse out his good points from the obvious bitterness :/

<comment><USER3> It's all a part of being a self fulfilling media node :-) surprised that no one has rebooted Nathan Barley yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "To video chat use WebRTC" \- maybe the poster might actually want to consider putting as much energy into usable suggestions as he did to ripping on google.

WebRTC in and of itself is a set of APIs for enabling assorted communication activities. It is not a service.

<comment><USER7> Even funnier, WebRTC was originally open sourced by Google [0].

[0] - [http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public- webrtc/2011May/00...](http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public- webrtc/2011May/0022.html)

<comment><USER6> WebRTC is still in the process of standardization both in the IETF and W3C. That said, my understanding is recent versions of chrome and Firefox have inter operating versions.

A technology is not a service. User discovery, nat traversal, signaling and others may be needed depending on the service.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why this is the only SF problem? Google offices are everywhere but only in SF we have such attackers, huge rent prices etc. Maybe there something wrong with city itself, with local authorities, local laws?

</comment><comment><USER9> Except that they also attacked Apple busses.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you use to build your resume? - <AUTHOR> I was curious as to what was the best way to create a resume. <comment><USER2> I actually just redid my resume here [https://udokah.github.io/resume](https://udokah.github.io/resume)

Created with React/Webpack/HTML5/CSS3

The cool(or not so cool) thing is that it generates a PDF version of the page using NodeJS for every new update which is downloadable via the link provided.

Hosted with Github Pages.

<comment><USER3> This is very cool. I like the dark & light theme for the web view as well. I wish the data was pulled in from YAML, reStructuredText or Markdown though.

<comment><USER2> Thanks. That's a good point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a professional resume editor, I am still forced to rely on MS Word since headhunters and often internal HR require it. If you use a more "sophisticated" toolset like Latex and have the liberty, try to send your resume in pdf since I see way too many MS Word resumes with formatting all screwed up. You can't be sure what app/version the reader will be using.

Working on an R-Markdown/Latex combo, this can work great for individuals (check github for examples) but hard to quickly switch for larger volumes of client work since nearly everyone has a different background and so the sections need to be tweaked.

Was a real bummer json resume as a standard didn't take off particularly due to the non-rendering of MS Word versions. PDF was also an issue.

Vince Fulco, CFA, CAIA vfulco[@]weisisheng.cn

</comment><comment><USER5> When posting job opening for my company, we always ask for resumes in PDF format. It's amazing how many applicants send NOT PDFs.

I suggest reading the description to see if there are any format requests.

Yes, I know pdf is not the tool to make the resume, just an output. But I think this is a related input.

</comment><comment><USER6> If you like LaTeX, there's some templates here: [https://www.latextemplates.com/cat/curricula- vitae](https://www.latextemplates.com/cat/curricula-vitae)

<comment><USER7> Or here: [https://www.sharelatex.com/](https://www.sharelatex.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Personally I use a text editor. Doesn't matter which one, Word, Open Office, Bean, Simpletext, have all done their time.

The best way is the most robust way for YOU.

Some process where in 3-5 to 10-15 years you can pick it back up again, and worst case scenario know where all your files are and have at least an open source solution for editing it. So, don't rely on an online tool or format. And at the very very least keep a hard copy in your archives next to your seven years of tax records.

</comment><comment><USER9> You can check out Resumonk: [https://www.resumonk.com](https://www.resumonk.com)

Disclosure: I'm the Co-Founder of Resumonk.

</comment><comment><USER10> The tool matters less than the content.

Focus on what the reader wants to see and stick that in a .doc .pdf or whatever they want.

<comment><USER4> Yes excellent point. So many DIY writers use fancy graphics while the prospective employer runs the document through a parser/database store and all the hours of design and tweaking get lost. At least in most of the US, Canada, EU, produce good content, not a glam piece of paper.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I really like the formatting tool ineedaresu.me. It has an easy interface and clean templates.

</comment><comment><USER12> I use a very simple setup of HTML + template engine (Jinja2). Then I maintain the entries of my resume in a YAML file. Finally, I export HTML to pdf.

If interested, I describe it here: bernhardwenzel.com/articles/jinja-yaml/ \+ github

<comment><USER3> Nice, thanks for the article. Care to share what the template looks like in terms of HTML?

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I just use a Microsoft Word template. Hasn't hurt me yet.</comment>


WordPress Abandons React Due to Patents Clause - <AUTHOR> https://wptavern.com/wordpress-abandons-react-due-to-patents-clause-gutenberg-to-be-rewritten-with-a-different-library <comment><USER2> As an aside, there's a 'try-vue' now. [https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/tree/try/vue](https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/tree/try/vue)

</comment><comment><USER3> Why not just use Inferno (which is MIT licensed), or Preact?

Inferno has 1:1 feature parity with React, and is significantly faster. With react-compat it can even masquerade as React entirely, allowing people to use the React docs to learn and develop with it.

<comment><USER4> If the issue is _patents_ , not copyright, moving to Preact isn't going to make you any safer.

<comment><USER5> Then neither is any front end lib that could be violating broadly defined patents.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Anyone know which are the patents in question?

Reactjs was released in 2013. I just did a quick search for a few plausible keywords on Google Scholar, and it revealed nothing.

It would be nice if Facebook would come clean as to which of the patents that they would claim cover React.

<comment> _-david-_ Its not just patents in React. Its patents in "any software, technology, product or service of Facebook or any of its subsidiaries or corporate affiliates"

[https://github.com/facebook/react/blob/master/PATENTS](https://github.com/facebook/react/blob/master/PATENTS)

<comment><USER7> There's three sets of patents mentioned in the license.

First, there is the set of patents that Facebook is licensing to you.

I'll call this set "the React patents".

Second, there is the set of patents that someone might sue Facebook over, alleging that Facebook has infringed. If you are involved in such a suit you lose your license to the React patents.

Third, there is the set of patents that someone might sue someone else over, alleging infringement, and for which that alleged infringement arose at least partially from "any software, technology, product or service of Facebook or any of its subsidiaries or corporate affiliates". If you are involved in such a suit you lose your license to the React patents.

I'll call the union of the second and third sets "the triggering patents", because suing over them can trigger loss of of your license to the React patents.

The part you quote is referring to patents in that third set, which are triggering patents, not React patents.

Facebook has stated that termination of the patent license does _NOT_ terminate your copyright license [1].

The question grizzles asked about what Facebook patents cover React is interesting and important because if it turns out that the React patent set is empty then you don't actually need a React patent license from Facebook. All you need in that case is the copyright license.

I've not heard of anyone finding any React patents, but that doesn't mean there could not be some applications pending from Facebook that would cover React. It used to be that a good patent attorney or agent could keep a patent application delayed and secret a very long time so that there was no way in general to tell if something was safe.

I vaguely recall that there were changes to US patent law that made that a lot harder, but I'm not sure if they completely made it impossible, so I'm not sure that we can ever be sure that we don't actually need the patent license.

[1] [https://code.facebook.com/pages/850928938376556](https://code.facebook.com/pages/850928938376556)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Too bad about this...</comment>


Godin to no longer publish books - <AUTHOR> http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/authors/new_york_times_bestseller_seth_godin_to_no_longer_publish_books_traditionally_171395.asp

<comment><USER2> If I can recommend a link for context: jakonrath.blogspot.com I spent two hours reading about this author switching from print to ebooks (primarily fiction on Kindle) and how it changed his life. He _gets it_ like nobody in that business I know, and I think he is good reading for many here.

Anyhow, Godin has been doing non-traditional things with his books for forever. He gets marketing (one would hope, right) and brings a dedicated group of followers to anything he does, even the bad ideas like Squidoo. I am at a loss to name anything a publisher gives him of comparable value to what he gives a publisher.

<comment><USER3> _I've read from several sources that ebooks are currently 8.5% of the total book market. By the end of the year, they may be over 10%._

I wonder if those are US or global numbers? One downside of going Kindle only is that you've basically killed any chance of selling books outside the US.

<comment><USER4> You do realise that Canada, the UK and most of western Europe have Kindles and iPads too right... we're not backwards!

<comment><USER5> The offering here in Europe is abysmal though. iBooks is just guthenberg (in NL at least) and most kindle ebooks go for between 10 and 20 euro. _20 euro for an ebook_. So actually, there is some room for improvement ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The original announcement: [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/moving- on.ht...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/moving-on.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> On one hand, you do need to remember that Godin is not your average writer. He already has a huge following, a very popular blog, and he specializes in creating buzz.

Having said that, this is great news and I suspect (like in music) we will see more authors cut out the (middle man) publishers.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm pretty glad that he's going to stop putting out books that state every thing from the TED videos and nothing from his own experiences. But I don't think he's going to stop telling people to stop working hard.

</comment><comment><USER9> I think there needs to be a more one of book publishing model.

Where I can get the ebook...read it...then if it's something truly valuable, I can spend $10-20-30 to have it printed as an actual hardcover book and shipped to my house.

I know there is on demand publishing now...but most of it is just so cheap. There needs to be a more premium solution where you get something you'd actually feel good with putting on a bookshelf.

Personally I think the only reason to publish traditionally is to get on all of the bestseller lists...which help drive more sales.

<comment><USER5> I would very much like it to be the other way around. If I buy a dead-tree book, give me the ebook along with it.

I like reading books for their bookiness and the way I can quickly reference them by walking up to my bookcase and pulling one out. However, if I want to read on the go, I don't want to drag along a big hardcover book when my iPhone is perfectly capable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> That's got to be one of the most unflattering pictures of him I've ever seen. Looks like something that crawled out of 70's Star Trek episode.

I get it why he does it, he is a marketing machine all by himself and effectively does not need the publishing industry anymore, whose role has been reduced to pure marketing now that distribution has been completely disintermediated.

<comment><USER11> >Looks like something that crawled out of 70's Star Trek episode.

My first thought when I saw that picture was: "He looks like a Ferengi (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi)>.

<comment><USER12> He looks exactly like an "olmec" in the cartoon "The Mysterious cities of Gold".

[http://thumbnails.hulu.com/18/915/93693_512x288_generated__6...](http://thumbnails.hulu.com/18/915/93693_512x288_generated__6NDrj2O7zEyuWIvUuwvPIg.jpg)

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Godin's "new dynamics of book publishing" talk from several months back makes for great listening, even for non-publishers: [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/files/publishinggodinkeynote-1....](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/files/publishinggodinkeynote-1.mp3) [MP3]

</comment><comment><USER14> There is a God</comment>


How Discord Stores Billions of Messages (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.discordapp.com/how-discord-stores-billions-of-messages-7fa6ec7ee4c7?gi=2f166b25ea5e <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13439725](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13439725)</comment>


Radius Bank working with Treasury Prime (YC W18) on online business checking - <AUTHOR> https://www.americanbanker.com/news/radius-in-boston-working-with-fintech-firm-to-create-online-commercial-checking-platform <comment><USER2> If you get stuck at an American Banker paywall, just search on Google for the article

"Radius in Boston working with fintech firm on online business checking platform"</comment>


Azure Database for PostgreSQL - <AUTHOR> https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/postgresql/ <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14309089](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14309089). Seems fair for that submission to win since it has seniority and mentions both dbs (though we all know who the darling is here).

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd be hurt except you appropriately called out who the darling is.</comment></comment>


Folders : a language where programs are encoded as hierarchies of folders - <AUTHOR> http://danieltemkin.com/Esolangs/Folders/ <comment><USER2> This is fun, esoteric programming languages can help you think about things differently, and often change your perspective.

But I think one of the central conceits is wrong? They claim folders take up zero space on disk. I assume they're pulling my leg.

I'm not a Windows expert by any stretch, there are certainly accounting rules that I don't know, but things that persist across reboots and travel with the disk between computers definitely are stored somewhere on the disk.</comment>