Ask HN: Change Country to Ease Bootstrapping? - <AUTHOR>

I might soon take the plunge and start working on a few startup ideas full-time (bit of saved money), and I was wondering whether I should do this from another country. Being European, moving around there doesn't cause any big legal complications. I live in Bavaria, Germany, and while it's a really nice place (especially after spending quite some time in New Jersey recently), it ain't exactly cheap. Going east and/or south would probably make for cheaper rents and a generally lower cost of living. As I still could aim my business (and possibly small contract jobs) at higher-paying economies, this seems like a good way to stretch my savings and thus give me more time to focus.
Still, I wonder whether getting accustomed to a new country, learning the language etc. won't distract too much.
So it would be great if anyone has some experiences about that, or has some nice cities/countries to recommend… <comment><USER2> I think you'd have to go a long way south to get a _lot_ cheaper. Here in northern Italy, things are somewhat cheaper than up there (or at least than in Tirol), but probably not so much that it'd be worth your while to pick up and move (although my standard offer stands: come by Padova and I'll take you out for drinks and/or pizza or something as time permits).

I think to get really _cheap_ , you'd have to go to Portugal, in terms of "south".

Why not move to a cheaper bit of Germany, like Berlin? You wouldn't be so cut off that way: you'd be able to meet and talk with other people working on startups.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think I'd rather learn a new language than being subjected to the Berlin accent all day. But seriously, I'm still talking about major cities, so I don't think being cut off is that much of a factor. If we're talking about friends and family, even a couple 100 km will do that. Moved a lot recently, worked abroad for quite a while, so right now both material and social ties are pretty low, which is part of why I can even consider this.

Portugal doesn't sound too bad. I'm not constraining myself to neighboring countries.

<comment><USER3> If you have any question about Portugal, hit me up, my email is on my profile.

Oh, I'm in Lisbon!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If your startup targets developed markets (US, W.Europe) so reducing development costs by moving to another country can be a good idea. I think you can find decent developers and designers in Eastern European countries like Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Poland or Ukraine, for much less money than in Germany. Cost of living is lower there as well. We're doing startup in one of these countries and expect total cost of beta to be less than 20K.

<comment><USER2> Croatia actually sounds nice. Fairly warm in the right parts of it, and I found it to be pleasant the week I spent there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Take a look at this thread (pros/cons of various eu countries): <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1565375>

</comment><comment><USER6> These kinds of stories make me wonder if there's a market for 'startup holidays'. Jet off to some cheap location like Thailand or China, code like mad monkeys for 3 months & then jet back for launch.

</comment><comment><USER7> Go to somewhere warmer, it will help you keeping your mood up. How's Greece looking these days?

<comment><AUTHOR> Greece might be a bit depressing nowadays…

<comment><USER7> If you have to make your living there, sure. How about bootstrapping?

<comment><AUTHOR> The bigger cities of Greece didn't used to be that cheap, because of tourism. Rents might be pretty low, though. Still, while you are building your stuff, people around you go bankrupt, and I don't know if there's a grudge against Germans because of that whole Euro hullaballoo.

So, if I'd be thinking about that region, why not Bulgaria?

<comment><USER7> Not warm enough.I also hear stories of corruption all the time. This of course might or might not affect you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, Athens is setting European heat records all the time. Also, I'll probably spend a lot of time inside anyway, and blankets are cheaper than air conditioning.

<comment><USER7> You open windows in mediterranean countries and buildings are made for heat.And the extreme heat is around about 2 months. Winters are pretty mild, fall and autmnn are much more enjoyable.

It's about the time you spend outside, I find I recharge a lot faster in warm climates. Maybe it's the sunshine, maybe people's attitudes...</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Here's what Ashley Madison members have told me - <AUTHOR> http://www.troyhunt.com/2015/08/heres-what-ashley-madison-members-have.html <comment><USER3> Anyone notice that the media is eating this up? But let me tell you the media also lent its support to this website. I was watching CNBC a few years ago and they had the CEO of Ashley Madison on and had a great time talking about their "brilliant business model", and how great the site was. No one seemed morally repulsed then.

Well I was curious just from a business perspective (and curious how many people would actually go for it). Turns out you could not even peek at the site without giving them your email address. So I did, thinking little of it, and discovered to my surprise that is all it took to create an account. After being thoroughly unimpressed (honestly I don't even recall the site it was so lack luster) I went to delete my account only to discover they wanted $80 to do so. Well, I discovered their brilliant business model.

Far more disgusting than any individual that wound up in this data dump are the heads of this business. How have we come to accept this kind of immoral behavior on the large scale, while blanket condemning all the individuals who fell prey to their game?

<comment><USER4> >How have we come to accept this kind of immoral behavior on the large scale

Cheating is legal and doesn't affect me a customer. Its crazy that an entrepreneur forum is obsessed with exposing these men and women. Not too long ago, my dad's generation were saying "A company run by a gay? I'd never do business with such a morally bankrupt pervert!" Meanwhile, my own bosses have said things like, "Hire someone who smokes pot? Well, we don't hire immoral criminals here! Now piss in this cup."

Now here we are, again. Maybe we should just stop moving the goalposts and understand that what people do privately is their own fucking business. I don't care how many affairs you've had. I just care about the value proposition. I hate how cheating makes everyone a moralist and a biblethumper, when they otherwise have secular liberal values. I hate this entitlement and culture of shame it brings out in people who should know better.

<comment><USER5> I care about cheating because it tells me that the person is OK with lying to people close to them. If they're OK lying to their spouse, my concern is that they're also OK lying to a customer.

If people want to have an open marriage or practice polyamory, fine, that's entirely up to them.

The deception is the thing here that is problematic.

<comment><USER6> And how do you know which is which? If you see a name that you recognize that used AM, do you ask them to clarify which bucket they belong in, or do you just assign them one yourself?

<comment><USER5> The site, as far as I know, bills itself as a place to find cheating partners.

The poly people I know seem to have their own places for finding potential relationship partners. The poly people I know are also all quite open about their relationship choices.

If I saw a name I recognized on Ashley Madison, I'd assume they wanted to cheat and keep that hidden from their partners.

<comment><USER6> And that's my point. You get to pick how you judge them, and you do. You don't hire cheaters, I don't hire judgers. To each his own.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Reading this made me think about the hard problem of "removing" yourself from the internet. I don't think it is possible. But I do think there might be an opportunity for a service that creates so much conflicting and false information about a person that it is not possible to know the truth about them: false addresses, phone numbers, credit histories, you name it. Just a thought.

<comment><USER8> Having lots of false information is (very) worse in many cases. People don't know it's false and will assume it is true and about you. So, for instance if this "False info Service" created an account (probably several) on AM, you'd probably be unhappy now. Or posts on some nasty 4Chan that prospective employers find. Or puts up false past address that happened to be the real address of sex offender and now your name shows up next to it on OMFGAMCGTBR.com. Or uses alias of some known criminal and a prosecutor subpoenas "False info Service" to find the real name/address of this criminal, you.

The only ways to not be embarrassed by what is online about you are. [And I understand embarrassment is not the only reason to be anonymous, but if people are honest with themselves it is 90% of the reason they care.]

1\. don't give a shit / don't be embarrassed / don't live by other's standards or norms (this seems easiest to me but I'm sort of anti-social amoral and have not been giving a shit what others values as they apply to me from a young age, YMMV)

2\. Don't do embarrassing things. Sort of corollary of #1 (as in the less you are embarrassed by the easier it is to not to embarrassing things.

3\. Don't live in modern society. Get born some place with no electricity and kill (optionally eat) all the scientist who come to study/photograph you.

<comment><USER9> To further go with this, I have a simple email I scored when gmail first opened. Basically it's a single name with no extra characters. Anyways tons of people sign up for things under that email, and that email is of course in the Ashley Madison leak. It's also part of a ton of other leaks but it's never me. Someone even has a facebook account under it that they won't let me delete. People have used it for AT&T, Verizon, AllState, Honda. Hell even FarmersOnly.com.

I had to stop using that email because of all this over the years. It's unfortunate but this email address is tied to me, I've tried to erase my name from it as much as I can on the Internet tying it to me over the years.

Mostly I just laugh it off, it's annoying. At least my wife knows I wouldn't be on farmersonly.com.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, I have a firstname.lastname@example.com address which is full of misdirected email. I don't use it either, though it is my default throwaway email for access walls (enter your email to read this article!) and the like. Someone opened a facebook account with it, an instagram account with it, etc.

I get cell phone bills which you can't unsubscribe from, since the auth is actually tied to the phone. I get tons of email newsletters. For a good chunk of them the unsubscribe flow doesn't actually work, so I wind up marking them as spam.

Apparently people signing up to gmail with bogus secondary recovery account emails that Google has a whole flow for "disavow this email from your account". I wind up using that flow 2-3 times a week.

The concept of email is hard I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What I'm curious about is future changes in user behavior in response to this kind of stuff. Private data, public data and the public-private grey areas like pseudonymous posts, access restricted (FB-like) profiles and such are getting leaked all the time.

Paranoia is definitely building. Awareness of how exposed people are is building. Yet, exposure is going up not down. People are posting more stuff online. I wonder if, for example, the cloud hack has impacted the trend of people taking nude picture at all? I suspect it hasn't. I suspect that none of these leaks will impact user behavior.

On one hand, a leak of an Ashley madison profile or salacious photos makes people aware that the danger exists. On the other, it confirms how widespread and normal it is to do these things.

Here's my (soft) prediction: Norms concerning fidelity and/or modesty will give before online behavior does. If the choice is stop sending nudie pictures or stop getting embarrassed when they leak, we'll go for the latter. For infidelity… maybe strict monogamy will soften as a norm.

<comment><USER12> There's also the fact that for all those hacks, a non-negligeable portion of the people think the victims "had it coming". They feel it's wrong to take lewd pictures of yourself or join a site like Ashley Madison, so those hacks are justice being served.

They don't see the real underlying issue about privacy and informatic data. The day it's something more sensible like medical or financial records being leaked, I hope they'll change their outlook at it.

<comment><USER13> >They don't see the real underlying issue about privacy and informatic data.

And many against even these hacks feel that the victims of hacks of hidden tor services 'had it coming'. Most people think that a sufficiently immoral online action means the hacked individual 'had it coming'. The difference is in what counts as sufficiently moral, not in the underlying view of if it is possible for someone to deserve to be hacked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> One thing that struck me about this is that all the messages from people worried their data are from men. Troy even states that explicitly: "very close to 100% of the emails I got were about men having accounts on the site".

Why is that? Is it because men are more likely to cheat, or because men are more likely to need the help of online services to do so?

I suspect both are true, but can say with confidence that the latter is definitely true. Women don't need sites to help them cheat; all they have to do is go out and they will be hunted down. As a woman I find this a clear sign of the remaining, quite sinister, gender inequality.

<comment><USER3> You don't understand what it is like to be a man then. It has nothing to do with "inequality". When it comes to sex it is woman that hold most of the cards. For a man, unless they are handsome, wealthy and well endowed (i.e. perfect) then they are at the mercy of women. Which means they have two choices, they either "beg" for it or try to "take" it. Both come in a variety of subtle and overt forms. In either case it is a very insecure state for a single man. And ironically woman can sense that. Woman are always more interested in the taken man because that insecurity is no longer present. So in a cruel twist of fate, a taken man who struggled to woo his current mate discovers now he has many more options for the taking.

<comment><USER15> I agree with you that women (and men for that matter) find confidence attractive. You don't have to be in a relationship to be confident. I would be careful of conflating the two.

From my experience, most women are not interested in holding sex as a trump card. Like you and I, they are simply looking for companionship - for someone they can count on for support and non-judgement during times of crisis, but who will also push them to become better and achieve their goals. Like you and I, most are at least partially attracted to looks, confidence, humor, power, intellect, etc.

It sounds like you're pretty bitter about something or other. I think you should make more friends that are women so that you can talk to them about the way they view relationships.

<comment><USER16> > _It sounds like you 're pretty bitter about something or other. I think you > should make more friends_

That's a pretty unkind thing to say to a stranger on the internet. I lose a bit of faith in humanity every time I see such things.

<comment><USER15> I'm not trying to be mean. I'm pushing OP to reflect on why he holds some of the viewpoints that he does.

I'm also not trying to imply that OP does not have enough friends. Just that he might get a broader picture of women in general if he had more female friends.

I read your edited comment about how that made you sad. A lot of things on HN make me sad - there are many unnecessarily mean, rude, snarky comments posted here with amazing regularity. I try to make helpful comments without putting others down. I'm sorry if my comment came off in a negative manner. I'm not trying to add to the general negativity of the site.

<comment><USER16> Fair enough. Sorry if my own comment was unnecessarily harsh.

<comment><USER15> No problem. See you around HN :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Immediately, somebody should begin a study on the impact of this data leak. Millions of cheaters exposed? What will be the increase in counseling? Divorce rate? What percentage of folks will carry on like nothing has happened?

It's an incredible story. I'm not sure the English language has a word to describe this: watching millions of people go through marital pain all at the same time. It's not a train wreck -- you can watch that and see that there are real people suffering. This is all just some huge faceless mob.

I am reminded of Stalin's quote: when one man dies, it's a tragedy. When a million men die, it's a statistic.

(I absolutely do not approve of lying and cheating on spouses. I will not keep your secret for you. But I also do not approve on taking action that would result in folks I do not know getting exposed. Folks have a right to their own lives.)

<comment><USER18> _> But I also do not approve on taking action that would result in folks I do not know getting exposed. Folks have a right to their own lives._

I do not think there is such a right, because what you are describing is (in probably many cases) a right to break an agreement (marriage in this case) and keep pretending that you honor it until _you yourself_ disclose it.

In simpler terms: you may have "a right to your own life", but do you have a right to lie to your partner?

<comment><USER19> Do you have right? Yes. Should you lie to your partner? Probably not. People have the right to do many things, even if those things are not beneficial to them in the long term.

<comment><USER20> This isn't just an issue of lying or not lying to their partner.

Many people may have already worked out the cheating issue with their partners, and put themselves past it. However, now their friends and coworkers and neighbors can pretty easily search to see if they're in the dump. Not because they need to know... just because they're curious.

I don't think these people need to be exposed to that kind of scrutiny.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The section about how confused the layperson is about technical details, e.g. what a database is and how the Internet generally works, makes me think that this data release is going to exacerbate paranoia about data and the Internet in general, rather than lead to a general awareness of better security precautions. I think as more fallout happens, there will be an increased sentiment in favor of such things as "right to be forgotten"...though perhaps that's not such a bad thing if it is in the context of requiring companies to wipe out old customer billing data upon request.

<comment><USER22> > is going to exacerbate paranoia about data and the Internet in general

Which seems rather appropriate given the extremely sick facts delivered to us by Snowden on a silver plate and the absence of change of course of society.

<comment><USER23> You don't even have to get to the dump itself to see expressions of extreme paranoia. See anyone in the media simply at a loss about 'the darkweb' and it being so full of unknown things by its nature.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Think about how easy it would be to ruin someones reputation by signing them up for all kinds of shady services and then waiting for the (inevitable) breach.

Of course that possibility will not stop the witchhunt but I'm fairly sure that at least a small percentage of the people in that database have no idea they're even in it.

<comment><USER25> Or, run an internet forum and wait a while.

I've been signed up to so much over the years that I mostly ignore it now, just unsub from the things I can and mark as spam everything else.

BTW, if anyone implements a "Thank you for signing up" email, please please please put the original IP address used to sign up in the email along with the "If this is not you". The few services that have done this have enabled me to identify (from my own web server logs) the users of the forum(s) that have been peeved at me on those days. That at least gives me the chance to talk to them and stem the flow of porn emails (or whatever they've decided to sign me up to).

<comment><USER26> > BTW, if anyone implements a "Thank you for signing up" email, please please > please put the original IP address used to sign up in the email along with > the "If this is not you".

+1; doing a macro-level lookup of the IP address's location would be useful, too, for less tech-savvy consumers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'm not religious, but I think the appropriate quote here is: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

<comment><USER13> Why would it be appropriate here when very few people hold such a view? A lot of people say they don't judge others and think judging others is wrong, but they are always limited in scope to some subset of judgments. They will often be quick to judge a thief or worse who is on the stand.

In the original story this quote comes from, the one guilty was to be stoned to death because they had committed a crime deserving the death penalty. In comparison to crimes with similar punishment today, how many would say to not judge a murderer unless you are blameless? Say it and mean it?

<comment><USER27> > the one guilty was to be stoned to death because they had committed a crime > deserving the death penalty. In comparison to crimes with similar punishment > today, how many would say to not judge a murderer unless you are blameless?

Surely you are aware that the "crime deserving the death penalty", in this instance, was the "crime" of adultery. Based on that, I don't think your line of questioning holds up.

<comment><USER13> I don't see how our modern view of what was then a capital crime matters. When the quote was said, it was said to a group who were asking to carry out a death sentence for a capital crime. That is to say, the line of reasoning is that you should not carry out an execution for a capital crime unless you are without sin.

To insist that this quote only applies to adultery and not to other actions which different societies may or may not judge as capital crimes is about as meaningful as insisting that this literally means to not throw the first stone, but other punishments, including other means of execution, are allowed.

<comment><USER27> I don't agree. I think that this quote expresses a more modern understanding of human transgressions such as adultery than what was present in the culture at that time. It called into question whether in fact capital punishment was appropriate for a transgression of that sort.

I'm reminded of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's comment when he defended a bill decriminalizing homosexual acts: "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation".

<comment><USER13> >I don't agree. I think that this quote expresses a more modern understanding of human transgressions such as adultery than what was present in the culture at that time. It called into question whether in fact capital punishment was appropriate for a transgression of that sort.

Comes from the same set of books where anyone guilty of breaking one law is guilty of breaking them all, and comes from the guy who claimed to not only be the son of the one who made the laws that carried capital punishment, but who was there to give people a way to not be punished regardless of the crime. Nothing in His message was 'these crimes here are far worse than those crimes there'.

As for the bedroom bit, I find that almost no one believe that as soon as you have either money exchanging hands or some person who has been around the sun one too few times.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28>
      So got a call, from our church leaders yesterday, saying
      my husband's work email was on [redacted], oh my!

This is extremely irresponsible and repulsive! I'm surprised that some organizations can take the liberty to encroach onto people's personal lives!

<comment><USER29> If I got a call from a church, bearing gossip for the purposes of sowing discord in my family, I would have an important conversation with my spouse about immediately ending our relationship... with that church.

If you value families, you should not go around hammering wedges into every crack you find in them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'm still taken aback that a church would comb through the dump and email peoples' spouses. Just terrible.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, that one has been bugging me all day for some reason. The utter hypocrisy!

Of course, it may be that she is just a paranoid spouse but needs to concoct a reason to look up her husband's email without sounding too paranoid.

Either way, it's sad beyond belief.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> As a poly guy I like how this incident holds a mirror up to society.

So many people who lied to everyone about how they believe in mongamy.

<comment><USER32> +1. Getting on the soapbox... It's more sad than anything. Maybe some of the poly world is looking at this and thinking, "See? I told you!" and maybe feeling smug about the outing of hypocrites. What we really have here are people who for whatever reason can't, won't, or don't go down the road of consensual non-monogamy but their desires and needs don't go away so some of them cheat. I think that's wrong, not because it's immoral, but because they're engaged in lying, breaking trust, and hurting other people. The dispersal of the account information is also hurting people and providing a salacious topic for gossip when it's none of anyone's business but the people involved. It's not my or anyone else's obligation to out someone who avoided the communication, risk, and work for the consensual part of non-monogamy but I believe I should avoid that person because they are not trustworthy and show a lack of concern for other people. Exposing them publicly to prejudice and ridicule confirms the worst attitudes about sex and love.

Sorry for the throwaway, my relationship status is no secret to family, friends, and colleagues but I don't want my private life public.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> What is the legal status of looking at hacked datasets like this?

<comment><USER34> In the UK, it looks like a breach of the Data Protection Act - [https://iconewsblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/personal- data-i...](https://iconewsblog.wordpress.com/2015/08/21/personal-data-in- leaked-datasets-is-still-personal-data/)

Likely to be similar across Europe.

<comment><USER35> I'm not entirely sure about that.

It's personal data in the sense that you're likely not allowed to process them (as a business or corporation -- whether for commercial use or not). But most of these laws are written for companies and for individuals granted access to personal information by those companies.

As a person you're certainly not allowed to distribute the information (or at least not any personally identifiable parts of it) but mere "looking at them" doesn't seem like it would be a breach in and of itself.

The article you linked would indicate this: looking at the data isn't a breach of the data protection act, it merely means whatever you do with the data falls under the provisions of that act, limiting what you can do with it.

<comment><USER33> That is what I took from the link as well. It is OK to get hold of the data. However, it is a crime e.g.: to use it to personally identify someone, or to distribute it (even accidentally! (you have obligations under the data protection act to prevent this)) (this would probably also cover using torrents to download it).

So in the UK be careful and anonomise it _before_ working with it -- as is required with e.g. similar (legally obtained) datasets in the social sciences. Then totally delete the raw dataset from your system -- otherwise if you e.g. lose your laptop you become liable for any further re-distribution.

Not planning on looking at it anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> In northern virginia, fairfaxunderground website, was nice enough to parse only information pertinent to this area. Now, everybody and their friends have searched through it looking for people they know. My wife actually found a good friend's dad listed twice...and he's still married. So, now all those facebook connection have this awkward knowledge and no one will tell the friend.

<comment><USER37> Is it "nice" to encourage violating other people's privacy?

Spouses are the real victims in these situations. Part of the pain of infidelity is the humiliation. Airing a whole community's dirty laundry just makes it worse for the victims.

<comment><USER38> Can you clarify your meaning of community in this context? You mean the AM community or the "victim's" community? Also, who are you referencing as the victim, the person who had their data leaked or those affected by the fallout?

In the context of those affected by the fallout, if enough are affected, then one could claim the opposite: That it makes it easier knowing that so many were affected that nobody is passing any judgment on their specific incident because everyone is in the same boat - thus the humiliation is actually less.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> WTF [http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/08/21/ashley-madison- india...](http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/08/21/ashley-madison- india_n_8020242.html)

<comment><USER35> Prior to seeing that map I wasn't even aware the service operated in Europe. I wonder what the actual user numbers look like across the globe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> People who seriously used this site made their own bed and will have to lie in it, that's their life to live. But attacking this bunch of idiots at Avid Life is fair game; their security was stupid on a mega scale.

</comment><comment><USER41> Anyone else think this is funny?

<comment><USER42> In this case; [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_i...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11500538) you might call it funny. But I'd probably call it sad.

I don't think that exposing peoples private lives, even though they did something wrong, on this scale is remotely funny. I think it is quite sad. It does not only effect the members of the site, but also their families, the company they work at, etc.. This breach has so much collateral damage.

I can not really understand how it is funny.

<comment><USER43> It's not funny, it's tragic -- which can have a element of dark humor. It's exposing several dark facets of human nature: the desire to cheat on one of the most solemn commitments a person can make, and the vengeful joy others take in seeing those cheaters exposed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> If you get caught red handed (or offend someone, or stuff like that) - <USER2> explain, never complain and under no circumstances - apologize. Neither of those things will help to improve your outcomes. And the people writing often break all 3 of them.

You can go on offensive though (also known as the half Trump).

Basic rules of maleness.</comment>


Ask HN: Is Intel still selling chips with the vulnerability? - <AUTHOR> If they are, when will they start selling chips without it? <comment><USER2> It appears so. If you go to their 'products' page, you can find vulnerable chips, as well as laptops using them. For example, they are currently selling the unfortunately named 'HP Spectre' here: [https://www.intel.com/buy/us/en/product/laptops/hp- spectre-x...](https://www.intel.com/buy/us/en/product/laptops/hp- spectre-x360-13-ac076nr-270ghz-i7-7500u-133-1920-x-1080pixels-touchscreen- silver-hybrid-2-in-1-599920)</comment>


Rails in Realtime - How LayerVault updates every page in a second - <AUTHOR> http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/30932219739/rails-in-realtime

<comment><USER2> Cool article, thanks for the insight into your stack. One thing that threw me out of the gate, though, was lumping in Backbone.js in with Meteor & Ember. Backbone at it's heart is just a way of providing some structure to your JS models - it doesn't really have anywhere near the level of complexity that Ember, Meteor, and some of the other frameworks have, and it still doesn't provide anything for server-side persistence, synchronization, access control, etc, so transitioning away from Rails to Backbone wouldn't really be an option. :)

Big thanks for dropping the link to cache_digests too, not sure how I've managed to miss out on that so far!

</comment><comment><USER3> Congrats for successfully getting your rails site to load faster, but it's still slow.

Honestly, what you're doing at this point is delaying the big rewrite. That's not a bad thing, but it will still be necessary at some point to offload your real-time features to systems that are intended for those kinds of things from the ground up.

Rails was fundamentally designed to optimize for programmer productivity over speed of execution, with the idea that people generally cost more than hardware. Unfortunately once you get to serious scale the hardware necessary to keep things quick starts costing a lot and operationally it becomes a big headache and stuff just _doesn't work_.

It's going to take a seismic shift for rails to suddenly outperform lightweight 'real-time' frameworks running on faster scripting languages. We need to be honest and aware of both the benefits as well as the limitations of our tools.

<comment><USER4> > _Congrats for successfully getting your rails site to load faster, but it's > still slow._

Looks pretty snappy to me.

> _Honestly, what you're doing at this point is delaying the big rewrite._

That sounds brilliant! As in:

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html>

<comment><USER3> That's definitely a classic article. It just doesn't apply here. Hard to explain why without going into a ton of details, but basically:

      Layervault in 2012 != Netscape in 1996

      Netscape's crufty spaghetti C code != Layervault's elegant but slow Rails code

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As someone relatively new to Rails who is working on a "near" realtime system this was great, thanks for the article.

Wanted to point out that you can simplify your "folder count updating" code by using a relatively unused jQuery function: ".load" [1].

      $.get($section.attr('data-url'))
        .success(function (response) {
          $section.html(response);
        });

would become

      $section.load($section.data('url'));

[1] <http://jqapi.com/#p=load>

</comment><comment><USER6> Can I ask that all product blogs provide a link to the actual site? Not everyone knows what layervault is and it would be nice to browse to the site without having to manipulate the address bar.

</comment><comment><USER7> Here is a recent video of DHH, discussing some of the techniques and issues mentioned in this article, such as backbone vs rails, pjax, Russian doll caching:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkLVl3gpJP4>

</comment><comment><USER8> Really interesting article. But it the final line seems slightly disingenuous _Building a realtime web application does not require you to begin with a realtime framework._

Rails is used for CRUD operations but Node/Socket.io/Jquery _are_ your 'realtime' framework. Its just simple, proprietary (and not in a bad way) and does exactly the job you need.

<comment><USER9> As soon as the author wrote "socket.io" the gears in my brain ground to a stop.

Use observers, pusher, and a client side MVC. Don't serialize records deeply, your client side controller or framework should handle the updates nicely. IMO use `after_commit` <http://rails-bestpractices.com/posts/695-use-after_commit> . Just let that data flow, brawhlings.

<comment><USER10> Why oh why is pusher better than a websocket here? Especially since pusher is a third party service and it's probably using (or is able to use) websockets as a transport for that push anyway?

Sure, you can use Sever-Sent-Events, but a Websocket would be sufficient too (and probably works in more places, no less).

<comment><USER9> Let me clarify, you can use pusher, or something like firehose.io.

Pusher uses a web socket. Pusher is cheaper when comparing against running our own dumb pub/sub server.

Rails 4 will support SSE, however we're not riding that edge as there were existing solutions to the problem.

-

I think this covers most realtime problems without having to code that much, let alone a secondary server/service to handle the problem, we outsourced it, were happy.

<comment><USER10> Hm, I guess I'm blessed with a library for it, but I'm using my own WebSocket server with no sweat right now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Nice post with lots of cool stuff. Any particular reason you're using delayed_job for async jobs + memcache for caching and not resque/redis? Not saying anything bad about the former, just wonder if there are pros/cons you considered when choosing between the two?

<comment><AUTHOR> When first building LayerVault around this time last year, the simplicity of delayed_job appealed to me. Not having to set up and maintain a Redis application was a bonus. The simple '.delay' syntax sealed the deal for me.

That being said, the day where we need to separate our queueing system will come. But delayed_job/MySQL has brought us much further than I'd thought possible.

<comment><USER12> I think this is a fantastic illustration of how it's more important to get something 'pretty good' out in front of customers, even if you could have used the latest/coolest/hippest things. You're illustrating how you can go back and improve it later, when you're clearer on what needs doing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just a quick heads-up in case any LayerVault peeps are reading: the post rather badly misspells "David Heinemeier Hansson".

<comment><AUTHOR> Whoops. Fixed and gave you a credit in the post footer.

<comment><USER13> Excellent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> You made two points that sound contradictory without further explanation, if you don't mind providing more insight. First, you mentioned that you want to stick with Rails without duplicating views, etc. Second, you mention that you're using Socket.IO (i.e.: Node.JS as opposed to Ruby/Rails).

How are you integrating Socket.IO with your Rails app? Do you have a separate Node.JS server that is just glossed over in your post, or do you use something like execjs to integrate Socket.IO directly into your Rails app?

Thanks for sharing!

</comment><comment><USER15> Hey guys you mentioned that you have the observer send a message to the room. How does the Rails code send a message to the node server?

<comment><USER14> This is along the same lines as a question I asked here too. Hopefully we'll see at least one of ours answered, as I'm curious as well. :)</comment></comment>


American airports do not rank in Top of the world - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2013/04/airport-rankings

<comment><USER2> My wife is French and after arriving at Logan, Airport from Paris after an overnight flight, we both waited in the "Non-US Citizen" line. We waited over two hours for our turn along with everyone else, just to get a stamp. The agent then thought my wife's picture wasn't perfect so they detained us to verify her identity. We were were subjected to stupid and unnecessary abusive questioning until they realized they were obviously wrong and let us go. So 3+ hours of nonsense and they let us go.

I realize that most people don't have to go through detention, but how can adding ~2 hours unnecessarily after (typically long and difficult) international travel be a good idea? It's a self-defeating waste. Investment in speeding up the process would no-doubt be returned to the economy and in better-will.

<comment><USER3> I dunno. I spent 2 1/2 hours in a line at Heathrow for "Non-EU" citizens because only one agent had been assigned to us for the entire 747. The flight got in just before 10, so I missed the last train ride into London. Had to spend the night in the airport because I couldn't afford the 60 pound taxi ride in.

I don't think the US has the monopoly on crappy government services.

<comment><USER4> Yes, but there was general outrage at the terrible queues at Heathrow - e.g. see <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18672286> it was raised in Parliament even, everyone said it was unacceptable and it was then fixed. Is the poor service in the US seen as a problem that's being sorted? Or just accepted?

<comment><USER3> > Is the poor service in the US seen as a problem that's being sorted? Or just > accepted?

I think differences in acceptance vs. verbalized outrage are less important than whether things _actually_ get fixed. (I'll definitely admit, though, that I'm irked by the acceptance I've seen among fellow Americans.) Do you know whether wait times actually went down substantially, or just that "something was done"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Until the U.S. get their act together regarding sterile transit, the international airports are going to continue to be forced to operate effectively with one hand tied behind their back. The sheer inefficiency of forcing everyone passing through to go through arrivals and then departures is ridiculous and must put a stupid, utterly unnecessary strain on the airport.

As an aside, I went through Changi airport (the current number one) and it really is lovely. I watched the Koi being fed and wandered around their butterfly garden in Terminal 2.

If the U.S. does in fact have sterile transit and I'm just misinformed, I stand by to be corrected :)

<comment><USER6> Changi airport is exactly what airports should be like. It's a nice place to be instead of a horrible warehouse with lots of signs warning you that you're an accidental bottle of water away from being labelled a terrorist.

<comment><USER7> Um, every other sign in that airport reads "death for drug traffickers". That's not any more pleasant than the TSA.

<comment><USER5> It's WAY more pleasant.

I see the sign, it doesn't affect me, I am happy.

I see the TSA, they go through my stuff, they treat me like a terrorist, I wonder if they're going to steal something, they enforce arbitrary rules at their discretion, they take up my time, the whole thing is very unpleasant.

<comment><USER8> I wouldn't be so sure about that.

([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_Drugs_Act_(Singapore...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_Drugs_Act_\(Singapore\)))

> _The law creates a presumption of trafficking for certain threshold amounts, > e.g. 30 grams of cannabis. It also creates a presumption that a person > possesses drugs if he possesses the keys to a premises containing the drugs, > and that "Any person found in or escaping from any place or premises which > is proved or presumed to be used for the purpose of smoking or administering > a controlled drug shall, until the contrary is proved, be presumed to have > been smoking or administering a controlled drug in that place or premises."_

<comment><USER5> Do you routinely carry 29 grams of cannabis through airports? I don't.

<comment><USER7> Do you ever rent an apartment on a site like AirBnB? If so, you could be guilty of drug trafficking.

<comment><USER5> That's not what it says. It says you are presumed to be in possession of drugs if you have the keys to somewhere containing the drugs. Is that a misread, or do you know of a law that states having drugs in your house is considered evidence of trafficking?

<comment><USER8> You are considered in possession if you have the keys to a property that contains a drug.

You are considered to be trafficking if you possess a certain quantity of that drug.

There is a mandatory death sentence if the quantity of the drug that you "possess" for trafficking is over a certain amount. In the case of cannabis it's over 500 g.

Singapore == scary laws.

People go to prison in some countries for grains of cannabis resin stuck to the sole of their shoe even if they have no trace of cannabis in their system.

<comment><USER9> Imagine the ease of getting someone legally murdered with 15g (less than a tablespoonful) of heroin, simply by getting it in/on their car or hotel room. Journalists in Singapore probably don't sleep very well.

<comment><USER7> I'd go for LSD, where in the US, you're charged with possession of the media as though it were the drug. A few sugar cubes later and you're in prison for life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> Al-Khwarizmi It's surprising that the article doesn't mention the absolutely over-the-top security procedures in American airports.

I've been to Changi and Incheon, security was fast and smooth, and then you had waiting spaces with comfortable armchairs, nice exhibitions and beautiful gardens. In US airports the security process is slow, they confiscate your snow globes for no apparent reason, and the PA system constantly reminds you that you have to be watchful because the alert level is orange (or it was like that a few years ago, at least). And the article seems to think that what they need to make us feel better is to invest some money on having better shops...

<comment><USER10> Agreed.

American airports generally do a bad job is many areas. The number and access to electrical outlets can be awful. WiFi is usually nonexistent or for-fee and lame. And food is often just sad.

<comment><USER11> I think the difference is that outside the US the interested parties have decided to make airports a good, efficient experience. In the US, anything controlled by the government is low budget by choice and design, and anything above the minimum is left to the supposedly superior "private sector." But apparently there's no money in "good airport experience" for the private sector and we're all left to suck air.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's odd, whenever I flew to SFO I had a great time. The TSA agents were more than happy to give me free massages, which you don't see anywhere else.

<comment><USER13> Think you're joking, but I came here to write - SFO is the best I can remember. Easy in and out, free wifi that actually worked and desks with power cords to use it from, regular and easy-to-understand shuttle bus system with helpful staff around, good access to cheap car hire and trains to town. Belongs miles ahead of Abu Dhabi. I bet Californians are a pickier bunch than the average airport visitor :)

<comment><USER12> I will agree with that. Apart from the "we'll take naked photos of you" thing, it's a pretty nice airport.

<comment><USER14> I know everything you're saying is tongue-in-cheek, but I will point out to those who may not be 'in the know' that you can always opt out of any intrusive scan for a pat-down instead. Perhaps not any more comfortable, at least the sweaty TSA agent brushing your inner thigh is just as uncomfortable as you are. Hopefully.

<comment><USER12> I've always opted out, hence the "free massage" thing. They always half- heartedly try to intimidate you by not allowing you access to your things, and they go through the motions of a pat down. It depends on the employee, but it was definitely better than the scanner.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> These rankings are wrong - the nightmare that is Heathrow should not come ahead of Copenhagen, which is one of the most convenient and pleasant airports I have used.

</comment><comment><USER16> From the top 10 airports in this list one which I frequent often is Zurich Airport.

I'd like to say that one of the things I really like about it is that it's really intuitive and a person can navigate easily to the gate he needs to be and the personnel is really kind.

And when I enter the EU through this airport, as a Non-EU citizen, in average I pass this checking procedure in 5-10 minutes (there is always more than one agent and long lines don't form).

</comment><comment><USER17> My experience with JFK airport (New York) is not so good, too. It's very chaotic, staff at the helpdesk doesn't listen to you questions but fill in what they think you want, everybody seems to be at their first day on the job, they can only do what their screen says, some places are dark (no lights), airline desks are/seem to be made from cardboard, etcetera.

</comment><comment><USER18> Reading this headline while sitting at Newark Airport, I wholeheartedly agree. An easy proxy for airport quality seems to be cleanliness and comfort of the bathrooms. In the US they usually are too small, there is no privacy and they are frequently dirty.

</comment><comment><USER19> What do people love so much about Incheon Airport (South Korea)? I've been there at least a dozen times or more and never noticed anything special about it. It's better than U.S. airports for sure but wouldn't really imagine it as a top spot or even #2.

<comment><USER9> Free spaces to sleep, free showers, free internet, easy navigation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Nice, South Africa's three major airports all rank in the Top 30.

<comment><USER21> Possibly because they got attention prior to the 2010 Football World Cup. Always good to see that some money goes to meaningful infrastructure projects.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Direct link to the list -> <http://www.worldairportawards.com/Awards_2013/top100.htm>

</comment><comment><USER23> Other issues such as immigration process is a major cause of discontent at US aiirports when compared with other countries immigration workflow, particularly for non-locals.

<comment><USER24> Heathrow also has craptacular immigration and security handling and still managed to make the list. So there has to be more to it than that.

<comment><USER9> Heathrow has the most aggressive Skytrax campaigning I've seen (note: some compared with nearly none) in the 7 of the top 10 airports I've been to, which might have something to do with it. It's definitely not in the same league as the likes of Incheon and Hong Kong in my experience.

One serious issue in Heathrow is that gate numbers are not shown (not even printed on your boarding pass) until 30 minutes before departure, and the gates are supposed to close 15 minutes before departure, but it takes 20 minutes to walk to some of the gates from the waiting area. Of course they bend the rules so that people make it to their flights, but what happens when they don't?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Just a note, I have been several airports in the top 50 and I certainly do not agree with the rank. I don't know how they measured it, but I don't understand how Singapore can rank that high, I found it close to terrible while visiting. Furthermore, I would rank Copenhagen much higher than e.g. Zürich.

I don't use lounges, perhaps they represent a major part of the rank.

<comment><USER26> Singapore airport is great. Delicious Laksa, a butterfly enclosure, spacious with good shopping. Not sure which airport you went to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> One thing that stood out to me is Lima airport being top 30. That airport unless it was completely overhauled in the last 2 years was a huge POS. I say that because half the flights are hours delayed every time I have flown there, the place was filthy each time I visited, and felt like a regional airport not a world class one.

</comment><comment><USER28> I've been to many of the top airports listed. Honestly after a while, they are all pretty much the same. I didn't think Narita or Incheon had better airports than Dallas or Atlanta. The only thing I can think of is that people in American airports get annoyed at the extra security.

</comment><comment><USER29> Oh. my. god. American airports are not the best. Quick, everyone stop EVERYTHING your doing, we have a crisis on our hands.</comment>


Introducing Little Flocker: File Access Enforcement for MacOS - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=6178 <comment><USER2> Thanks for making it open source!

I hope I'll be able to contribute some commits, I wanted to build a similar tool but was still in the learning stage. :)

One idea I have right now: a simple mode similar to Radio Silence, but with folders like Photos, Videos as targets.

<comment><AUTHOR> Have been going back and forth on this. The trade off is that you lose a lot of potential to alert the user to suspicious behavior. For example, you might get promoted to give an all permission to use "your Library" (for access to certain cache folders); but if it later misbehaves then you won't see it accessing other cache folder, some belonging to other apps. On the other hand, it's still better than not using it at all, which most novice users will end up doing for a power user app (not using it).</comment></comment>


JuliaBox – Run Julia from the browser - <AUTHOR> https://juliabox.org/

<comment><USER2> The ijulia notebook proves to me how much it would be wonderful if the iPython notebook took org babel's direction and made multiple backend support in the same document possible.

It'd be neat, however I realize it would increase complexity of the "reproducible" notebook.

<comment><USER3> [http://BeakerNotebook.com](http://BeakerNotebook.com) does this.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Another way you can try Julia online at the moment is William Stein's cloud.sagemath.com

If you really want to try juliabox.org you can look at the other post about Julia on the HN page. Near the bottom of the HN comments are some details that may or may not be useful with regard to getting an invite code.

</comment><comment><USER4> I see this come up from time to time, but have yet to receive an invitation despite signing up.

I would love to evaluate it as I've found IJulia useful.

</comment><comment><USER5> So how do you get the invite codes?

</comment><comment><USER6> What is Julia?

<comment><USER7> A programming language, aimed mainly at the scientific communities and at replacing e.g. R, Matlab, Scientific Python packages, … [http://julialang.org](http://julialang.org)</comment></comment>


Be Kind When People Are Mean to You - <AUTHOR> http://jackkaufman.net/kindness/ <comment><USER2> His first example doesn't seem like a place where this is a good plan.

The person who takes joy in hurting others will not treat you well for letting him hurt you. They will only try harder to get a reaction.

More to the point, they will try hard on the next person. That person might be worse off than you. Less able to defend themselves.

So, no. Being nice is not the right thing in all cases. The best response to a bully is still to hit them where it hurts.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this depends on the type of person. When you're kind to some people even though they're mean, they don't improve. With others I've seen them be nicer to me, but I felt our value were really different so although they wanted to be friends with me, I didn't want to be friends with them.But I may have to work on refining how nice I am and to what sort of people etc.

</comment><comment><USER4> "A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare."

Proverbs 15:1

"If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them water to drink. You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads, and the LORD will reward you."

Proverbs 25:21,22

<comment><USER5> And all with a caution:

Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Proverbs 9:8

Moral: You need to be very careful with whom you deal with. :)</comment></comment>


Bike - phpMyAdmin replacement for geeks - <AUTHOR> http://webcheatsheet.com/php/bike_phpmyadmin_replacement.php

<comment><USER2> The issue behind phpMyAdmin IMHO neither is the fact that it's written in PHP nor that it looks unsexy. The problem is that it exists.

It's too tempting to leave it running on some server and promptly forget it. Or get it installed without knowing by some third-party CMS.

Even if it had a spotless security track record (it doesn't), this is just too big an attack surface.

MySQL and especially Postgres have really good command line utilities you can use over SSH which will have the additional advantage of you learning DDL syntax for emergencies. And of course GUIs exist too (use SSH port forwarding).

About Bike: I didn't install it, but this looks like a pure frontend to type in queries and get back results. This provides the security problems of phpMyAdmin minus the specialized GUI to save you from learning DDL or server internals.

As such it provides the worst of both worlds. I wouldn't call that "phpMyAdmin for geeks". CLI mysql is phpMyAdmin for geeks.

<comment><USER3> So wouldn't you just setup a simple secure tunnel and run this on your local dev machine (with key-auth and an ssh agent to manage the connections)?

That's how I run my phpAdmin. No server security issues.

<comment><USER2> That of course works too, but then again, I wonder what features of phpMyAdmin warrant the overhead of actually installing it plus the webserver it needs as opposed to just using the mysql command line tool (honest question - I haven't been using MySQL in a long time and on Postgres' side there's nothing that a GUI would allow me to do quicker than what I can do in the CLI psql utility)

<comment><USER4> There are a ton of things I can do quicker in a GUI when using Postgres. That's simply because I'm not proficient with the Postgres CLI. Of course I can and try to fix that, but that takes time I don't always have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you go to their github page it says the following under security: "On current stage I don't care about login functionality. Put Bike into folder with name like 'tASTDKUWYVEjhas' or just use Apache httpauth as workaround."

So basically... they have absolutely nothing built in for security, other than hoping you choose a good folder name. Even if you ignore that, this is an all- around poor attempt to be an alternative, let alone compete.

UPDATE: Looks like the Bike developer is not trying to be an 'alternative' to phpMyAdmin and whomever made this post either used bad info or think it's an alternative themselves. Either way the guy says it's just supposed to be a lightweight and simple tool... not any sort of alternative. With that said, it's not so bad... but still, security needs to be a higher focus if this thing can access/modify your database.

<comment><USER6> "So basically... they have absolutely nothing built in for security …"

So I wonder how long before this becomes a trending search query?

[https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fbike+%22Run+Qu...](https://www.google.com.au/search?q=inurl%3A%2Fbike+%22Run+Query%22)

(a slightly more refined version of that search, which I'll leave as an exercise for the reader, has already revealed 3 probably exploitable urls, based on the google snippet - I'm not prepared to click the links to confirm…)

While I can understand the author writing a tool that scratches his own itch, where that itch doesn't include the need for strong access control for the tool - releasing it in a "default unsafe" configuration seems, ummmm, unwise. I'd suggest perhaps publishing the software with a hardcoded 10..1 ip address as the only address it'll respond to, so that you can't just download and run it with the result of a wide-open access to your databases. If someone's savvy enough to safely use the tool, updating that hardcoded ip address to their own will be obvious, and while opening it up to the world will still be _possible_, at least it'll require some intentional effort.

<comment><USER5> i didn't even think of that (the google search). i fear for all the novice developers that use this and do nothing more than just install it and leave it wide open.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I realize that this is a totally different strategy to solve the mySQL admin thing, but WOW is Sequel Pro great if you're on a Mac: <http://www.sequelpro.com/>

I used phpMyAdmin for 10 _years_, and switched after using Sequel Pro for 5 minutes.

<comment><USER8> For Windows users, HeidiSQL is also pretty damn good: <http://www.heidisql.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Adminer [<http://www.adminer.org/en/>] is a pretty sweet db administration tool. It's only one sub-300kB file with no installation or configuration (so if your hosting provider doesnt have any db tool you can upload yours in seconds), supports MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL and others, and does much more. I didn't had to use phpMyAdmin even once since I learned about this.

One "killer" feature for me: Adminer automatically links items in columns that have foreign keys set, so you can click on a value and it jumps to that item in linked table.

<comment><USER10> phpMyAdmin has that feature as well. I noticed it a few weeks ago as I've never paid much attention to it, but it's there and it works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I often see systematic scans for phpmyadmin installations in my weblogs. phpmyadmin has had a series of security issues.

New software, new bugs.

I am not very confident that the bike developers will have an eye on security, since there are a couple of spelling errors on the site and they brag about how good looking and ajaxy the software is. Wrong focus.

</comment><comment><USER12> > Bike will finds out where it were uploaded and reads connection settings > from WordPress, Drupal or Joomla confif file automatically.

Please no.

</comment><comment><USER13> Just came here to say SQLbuddy. <http://sqlbuddy.com/> Perfect for quick tasks.

</comment><comment><USER14> dumb title - if it was phpMyAdmin for geeks I would say it should have more features, not less.

Looks nice - but as most of you said, there are far better options for handling this. If you are using MySQL and like some "nice tool", the MySQL workbench supports tunneling directly.

</comment><comment><USER15> For mac, <http://www.sequelpro.com/> is the shit

</comment><comment><USER16> There is no need for this software to exist. No need. No need for it to exist.

<comment><USER6> FWIW, I've got (or have to deal with) several ultra-inexpensive webhosting accounts where I don't get shell access, so command line mysql isn't an available option.

Every one of these kind of accounts I've got, and the ones I'm happy to help friends out with, are all cpanel accounts, so I've pretty much always got phpmyadmin available.

I'm not saying Bike (or phpmyadmin) are a good idea - but I do have a need for something like it to exist.

(Arguably, if this software _didn't_ exist, webhosting companies would maybe give shell more readily to even the lowest of low-end hosting accounts, but that's not the reality I live in right now.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> One thing it could use is table/column completion assistance.

</comment><comment><USER16> phpMyAdmin replacement for geeks? Uninstall phpMyAdmin?

</comment><comment><USER18> Anyone have opinions on NaviCat?

</comment><comment><USER19> nope.

we need navicat for the web.

</comment><comment><USER20> "open in the _borwser_ "

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm not sure which, but Bike either selling itself short, or overexaggerating it's abilities by comparing it to phpMyAdmin like this.

<comment><USER22> I couldnt agree more, setting up Bike on every other server gives you the same maintenance headache(perhaps a little simpler) as having a version of phpMyAdmin on each.

I just yesterday wrote a blogpost about tunneling mysql and using a locally hosted phpMyAdmin for those needs. That will give you the benefit of having phpMyAdmin at one place and you'll be motivated to keep that updated and properly configured. [http://text.krona.tm/post/25982176151/using-phpmyadmin- witho...](http://text.krona.tm/post/25982176151/using-phpmyadmin-without- remotely-without-installing-it)

<comment><USER23> A bit of topic, but wasn't tm the expensive tld which you need to register for 10 years? When no can you tell me where you registered yours?

<comment><USER22> Yeah, it is, but I have a long commitment to my last name. :)

<comment><USER23> Sounds plausible. I had also a lot of luck with a .ch domain, which fits my lastname ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Geeks use mysql from the command line</comment>


The only terminal emulator you need for your development on Windows - <AUTHOR> https://codesips.io/the-only-terminal-emulator-you-need-for-your-development-on-windows/ <comment><AUTHOR> The only terminal emulator you need for your development on Windows.

</comment><comment><USER2> What about WSL2?</comment>


Why exercise alone won't save us - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/03/why-exercise-alone-wont-save-us <comment><USER2> > If being fit promotes long life, you might expect being an elite athlete to > help you reach a ripe old age. It doesn't. Olympians buy themselves an extra > 2.8 years on average, according to a 2012 study.

I don't think is a good comparison point to make for general fitness. Olympic athletes push their bodies to the extreme, putting insane stress on their whole system. I wouldn't be surprised to find that that level of churn on the body actually reduces life expectancy from a certain point forward. What ever benefits they gain from steady medical attention, good diet etc would be offset by the insane strain.</comment>


Support for extension sideloading on Firefox has ended - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2020/03/10/support-for-extension-sideloading-has-ended/ <comment><USER2> Seems like a poor choice of vocabulary. "Sideloading" traditionally refers to an action taken deliberately by users to install programs or extensions that don't come from a storefront or other centralized repository.</comment>


Loving Books in a Dark Age (2015) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.longreads.com/2015/08/20/loving-books-in-a-dark-age/ <comment><USER2> A superb and enchanting glimpse into the world of books, a thousand years before our time. I find it amazing that books already had that kind of importance during an era we call the "dark ages", and that they were being actively spread over much of Europe.

Thanks for sharing!</comment>


The Irresistible Urge to Build Cities from Scratch - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-02/the-irresistible-urge-to-build-cities-from-scratch <comment><USER2> Since nobody has cited it yet, see Christopher's Alexander "A city is not a tree" [0] for an architect's take on "natural" vs. plannes cities.

[0]: [http://worrydream.com/refs/Alexander%20-%20A%20City%20Is%20N...](http://worrydream.com/refs/Alexander%20-%20A%20City%20Is%20Not%20A%20Tree.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Wow I enjoyed this essay. I'm enthusiastic about graphs, and have spent a few dinners with my girlfriend imagining designing our perfect city. I didn't expect to run into a well-written article at the intersection of those topics.

For anyone interested, the ethos of our dream city is walkability. High density, mixed use buildings. The main "streets" are walking and biking only, with limited roads for service vehicles. Public parking and transit at the city edges allow people to leave their car behind when visiting.

<comment><USER4> Your city sounds very unfriendly to people with disabilities, that are out of shape, or temporarily disabled that does not allow them to bike or walk (think having surgery on your leg, undergoing chemo, etc). I would at least have a tram, trolly or cable car, some type of green transportation that can get you from A to B quickly.

<comment><USER5> Perhaps there could be a subway system (complete with elevators) under, at least, the inner portion of OP's imaginary city?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm a huge fan of the winding maze like structure of cities built upon the old. It's nice to be able to wander and explore. I suppose blank slate cities (like most in America) are a lot more convenient to navigate though.

<comment><USER7> I enjoy being a _tourist_ in winding mazes. But when I want to get to work? Give me wide straight roads.

<comment><USER8> >But when I want to get to work? Give me wide straight roads.

Why? Is getting lost on the way to work a problem? A month into working anywhere, you learn all the ways to get there anyway.

And a 45-minute tram ride to work on winding streets beats a 1.5 hour traffic jam on a nice, wide, straight 101 North any time.

<comment><USER9> Wait, what? You think a 45-minute commute is good? The 1.5-hour thing is simply beyond the pale.

You need to get out of the urban megacity.

I've lived in several parts of the USA. My worst commute was 20 minutes by car, and my current commute is 3 minutes by car or 15 to 20 minutes by foot. These were all software development jobs.

The reason is that I choose small cities. I choose places that have suburban density, though they aren't technically suburbs because people aren't commuting into an urban megacity. The jobs are local.

Another nice benefit of this choice is my expenses. Houses go for 10% to 20% of what you pay in a place like the Bay Area, not even counting the extra land you get. Nearly everything else is cheaper too. Gas is half the price. Groceries are cheaper. Taxes are much lower.

<comment><USER8> Well, my current commute is 30 minutes by bicycle (South Bay), but that's about to change.

And yes, I guess living in NYC for a while seems to have affected me in many ways :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Seems like architects have similar urges as software architects :)

<comment><USER11> Yes. And they also underestimate the cost and time to build such a thing.

From the article, "The project is closely identified with President Xi Jinping, which means it's unlikely to join a long list of Chinese "ghost cities" financed by local governments."

A lot of initiatives are started by people with an idea but without resources or knowledge to execute it.

I think that city planning is an awesome idea. I grew up in Barcelona and the results are very good ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eixample](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eixample)). But creating a new city from scratch is more difficult. And it is harder to get the experience to do it right as the execution of the project will take decades.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Big point totally missed by the article is that Shenzhen - an undisputed success story, is itself is a "from scratch" development.

</comment><comment><USER13> Interesting case study: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras%C3%ADlia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras%C3%ADlia)

<comment><USER14> And isn't an amiable city to live in. You basically live inside your car, there are very few opportunities to do things within walking distance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Most of the cities the Romans founded were based on a grid system and were logically laid out. Even Paris as we mostly know it today was built in the 1850's during the reign of Napoleon III.

</comment><comment><USER16> Are there any cities which are a series of concentric urban rings with parkland between them?

<comment><USER17> Moscow to some extent, and traffic is disaster. Rings are especially jam- prone.

<comment><USER18> Moscow had plans for "chordal" roads that would connect radial roads in a faster way than concentric-ring roads do. But the land allocated for these roads was all built upon in 1990s, so the traffic problem stays.

As in e.g. NYC, subway in Moscow is generally a faster commute than a car, if there's a station where you need to go. Unfortunately, Moscow subway is _also_ concentric rings + radial lines mostly, and has the same problem of getting somewhere "diagonally" without hitting the crowded central hub stations.

Moscow is still pretty walkable, compared to many US cities, with sidewalks, crossings, etc. Though in areas built past ~1960 you have to be ready to walk for significant distances.</comment></comment></comment>


Apply HN: Discovery List – Product Hunt for products you can actually buy - <AUTHOR> Discovery List Beta: https://www.discoverylist.com
Problem: We're targeting people with a spare $100 to spend and want to buy something unique and exciting. Online retailers like Amazon only work well when you know what you're looking for. Discovering new products by trawling through product blogs and browsing Twitter feeds is inefficient since most of them cover the same products as each other.
Discovery List: provides 3 lists of user-submitted products (under $100, over $100, pre-orders) upvoted by other users. Each product has a price, description and buy link. Users can save products to a wishlist to find them later. Eventually, we want Discovery List to be a detailed directory of everything buyable on the internet.
Making Money: We make money when people buy products from our affiliate partners.
About Us: We're two brothers who live in Melbourne, Australia. I'm an actuary who codes and my brother is a software engineer with a PhD. <comment><USER2> Might be useful to focus on products within a certain niche and/or people of certain profile (e.g. comic book enthusiasts or specific genre of art). Otherwise, there are already so many gift/shopping suggestions services with big user communities and large product directories. I wouldn't be inclined to use a new service unless it demonstrably found me items that others didn't.

</comment><comment><USER3> Similar idea to this [https://thieve.co/](https://thieve.co/)

ps. Good to see Melbourne being repp'd on HN :-)

</comment><comment><USER4> Like your idea.

Maybe additionally create a gift idea generator.

Users will add products they wish to have, and other people with vote if they like them.

You can then suggest gifts for people with similar interests.

<comment><USER5> Timothy here, one of the co-founders. A gift idea generator/recommender is definitely in the works. We would use the users upvotes and lists to feed into a collaborative filtering algorithm. Thanks for the pointer!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What's your marketing plan? That is, how will you find buyers who are interested in this concept, and get them onto your site?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link: [https://www.discoverylist.com](https://www.discoverylist.com)</comment>


MTV News covers "The Internet", video from 1995 - <AUTHOR> http://www.openculture.com/2011/07/time_capsule_the_internet_in_1995.html <comment><USER2> I found MTV's coverage of "piracy" (which of course didn't exist back then) to be particularly enlightening. They clearly showed websites where people could listen to their favorite band's songs, and yet there was no mention of theft or the poor artists who won't get paid. Instead, they, and the artists they interviewed, cast it as a great way for fans to gain exposure to their music and interact with them. Dave Matthews comparing it to how "bootleg tapes spread the word about us" was particularly telling.

<comment><USER3> Maybe because it wasn't really practical to download music from the web? What you could get was of obviously inferior quality and it was just not possible to download a lot of it. I think the music industry would be quite happy with a world in which every music file is a 32kbit/s MP3 and it's not possible to download more than three or four songs per week.

It was no threat to anyone. The reaction at the time is not all that surprising, what might be surprising is that no one seems to have predicted the development.

I'm not even sure whether Frauenhofer's (then still relatively new) MP3 encoder was already pirated in 1995 and quickly spreading through the web. That might not even have happened at that point in time.

<comment><USER4> Organized music piracy (mp3 scene) began in the summer of '96 when 3 of the major groups were formed (of which RNS was the most famous and long-lived). By '97 it was 'adopted' by the software (warez) scene, and also borrowed its supply and distribution chains--there was now competition for having the fastest releases, as well as means for getting these ahead of official release dates--precipitating popularity.

According to mp3scene.info, there's was mp3 piracy on usenet as early as '95.

<comment><USER5> I downloaded my first few MP3's in 1998. I was either on 33.6 or 56k. It took like an hour.

So the problem was clearly limited to university networks. The existence of MP3's doesn't indicate the advent of modern "piracy."

No, that began a couple years later of course when everybody began getting cable modems. And napster was written.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was shocked by two egregious prosecutions mentioned in the video:

 _Jake Baker Arrested for posting rape/murder fantasy on the internet case dismissed_

 _Robert Thomas Tried for transmitting porn on the internet sentenced to three years in prison_

We must remain guarded against such assaults, even to this day. I don't think there has been much of a shift in politicians' technoliteracy or indeed their ulterior motives.

<comment><AUTHOR> That kind of blew my mind too. Three years in prison for "transmitting porn", prosecuted in a state in which he didn't even reside? WTF.

Here's some more detail from the US Appellate Court: <https://www2.bc.edu/~herbeck/cyberlaw.thomas.html>

<comment><USER7> The main subtlety is that they took personal information when they charged for their content (the decision specifically says there's no squashing of freedom of speech, since they could have screened out people from TN).

Someone signing up with an account from TN is therefore analagous to someone mail-ordering porn from TN, which would also be illegal under this law.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "Some people would be strongly advised to avoid the Internet: the hypersensitive, the humor impaired, and Puritans of every stripe." -- Kurt Loder (MTV), 1995

Great quote.

</comment><comment><USER9> HEY EVERYONE 1995 NEWT GINGRICH SAYS INTERNET PORN IS CONSTITUTIONAL

</comment><comment><USER10> I still get a laugh at Hulu's 1996 index.htm page:

<http://www.hulu.com/index.htm>

</comment><comment><USER11> In a sense, Moby was years ahead of his time. He identifies the social underpinnings of the internet which went on to flourish in the form of Facebook etc.

"we all have this basic deep need to communicate with other people, so I think that explains the popularity of something like this" Moby

</comment><comment><USER12> I love all the websites! Flashy and totally original. Anyways, its interesting to see lot of people were referring to Internet as "cyber space", which was prevalent during those days. Surprisingly, nobody refers to Internet as cyberspace now a days.

<comment><USER13> Except they do. At the moment, search results on Twitter are largely polluted with the article in question, but you can still see plenty of everyday folk using the term. News outlets still use it all the time, and it's something a regular news.yc reader should see quite often: [http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+cybers...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aycombinator.com+cyberspace)

<comment><USER14> Sure, the word 'cyberspace' is used everywhere these days, but I don't think it carries the same meaning it did back then. Virtual reality was "becoming" a thing of the present in 1995, and whenever the word cyberspace was used, it seemed to mean "sure, you're stuck in 2d now, but just wait a few more years and you'll be totally immersed in a 3d cyberspace." I guess I'm a little nostalgic about the old "cyberspace" :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think the most interesting thing about this video is that MTV didn't use to be crap.

</comment><comment><USER16> David Bowie's stance at the end is interesting - just a few years later he launched his own _ISP_ called BowieNet.

</comment><comment><USER17> Best part..

"If you ain't on the information super highway baby then where is it?" - Coolio

</comment><comment><USER18> "almost as cool as - well - television!"

</comment><comment><USER19> I find the cyberpunk and mind-altering culture of the very early 90s Internet (referred to briefly in the video) to be fascinating. I wish I'd been a few years older so I could have properly witnessed it.

Random things I remember from the time:

* Billy Idol's strange Cyberpunk album <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_(album)>

* Mondo 2000 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_2000>

<comment><USER20> I found Doug Rushkoff's _Cyberia_ to be an effective substitute for having properly witnessed that era. It has the advantage of not being a look back, but a look around. I get the sense, in flipping through it again now, that a historical look at the era would leave out so many things that seemed important at the time but didn't subsequently flourish beyond the fringe.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberia_(book)>

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> "Whats attracted many of them is the World Wide Web, with its proliferation of special interest truck stops called websites". Oh Kurt Loder.

</comment><comment><USER22> I didn't realise Coolio used to moonlight as an IT consultant.

</comment><comment><USER23> i wonder if we've made progress at all...

</comment><comment><USER24> Thanks, but this is 16 years old.</comment>


Essential JavaScript Design Patterns For Beginners - <AUTHOR> http://addyosmani.com/resources/essentialjsdesignpatterns/book/#writingdesignpatterns <comment><USER2> This is a good, if long-winded document. At over 100 pages, it will take a dedicated reader to sift the gold.

 _As other patterns covered display aspects of DRY-ness with JavaScript, let's take a look at how to write DRY code using jQuery. Note that where jQuery is used, you can easily substitute selections using vanilla JavaScript because jQuery is just JavaScript at an abstracted level._

That is jibberish, and it shows in the code examples: Using an ES5 shim is best-practice these days, so that you can use Array.prototype.forEach and not jQuery.each (with its weird argument order), amongst other things that are commonplace in modern JavaScript code. Yet the auther defers to jQuery throughout.

 _As jQuery is accepted as one of the best options for DOM-manipulation and selection, we'll be using it for our DOM-related examples._

More likely that the document is filled with jQuery because the author is heavily involved with the jQuery project, no?

<comment><USER3> _That is jibberish, and it shows in the code examples: Using an ES5 shim is best-practice these days, so that you can use Array.prototype.forEach and not jQuery.each (with its weird argument order), amongst other things that are commonplace in modern JavaScript code. Yet the auther defers to jQuery throughout._

Could you expand on this a little bit, particularly the "other things that are commonplace in modern JavaScript code"? As someone who's just getting into heavy client-side JS, it still feels like the whole world is very jQuery- centric. In particular, material targeted at beginners (such as this article) tends to lean heavily on jQuery for anything more complex than really basic core language stuff. I'd be very interested in alternatives, if only to broaden my horizons.

<comment><USER2> "Modern JavaScript code", like I was saying, uses an ES5 shim and functions like Array's forEach, map, some, every, Functions' bind, etc. I just didn't want it to sound like I thought the only thing ES5 provides is forEach.

Regarding your other question, jQuery/JavaScript is a false dichotomy. jQuery's just another DOM library with a few utility functions.

<comment><USER4> He is trying to explain patters and how to use it in real world solutions; that means cross-browsers solutions that do not rely on ES5.

<comment><USER2> jQueryIsAwesome, you must not know what an ES5 shim is. It _is_ a cross- browser solution.

<https://github.com/kriskowal/es5-shim>

Especially when you note that JavaScript is not just run in browsers these days, and that most server-side deployments do implement ES5 features, it makes very little sense for modern tutorials to avoid ES5 features unless they are trying to demonstrate drop-in snippets with no library dependencies. It seems clear that the author is not shy about including other libraries with his code.

<comment><USER5> > In many cases, this means that these shims cause many ES5 methods to > silently fail.

Considering you don't even get the opportunity to detect the problem and turn off the failing progressive enhancement in favor of the non-js behavior, this doesn't seem like a realistic alternative to just writing pre-ES5 code that's known to work.

<comment><USER2> That's just FUD though. The potentially "silently failing" methods are all documented, and do not include any of the most commonly used ES5 features (Function.prototype.bind, Array.prototype.filter, etc.).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One book that I found to be really good was 'JavaScript Patterns' by Stoyan Stefanov. Great book, though I am not sure how much this article overlaps with the book.

[[http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Patterns-Stoyan- Stefanov/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Patterns-Stoyan- Stefanov/dp/0596806752)]

<comment><USER7> Definitely recommend Stefanov's JavaScript Patterns. I'd suggest reading both concurrently since JavaScript Patterns covers best practices with JS as a whole while Essential JS is focused almost exclusively on design patterns.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> On just length alone, if this is the beginner's version, would love to see the intermediate/advanced versions ;)

I like the references to Backbone.js and other modern frameworks...the explanation of Backbone's router vs Spine's controller was particularly helpful, mostly because I _know_ Backbone's router is not a controller but hadn't taken the time to see how Spine does it.

I thought the introduction...everything before the actual examples/cases, was a little too long-winded for me. It was interesting to read as an experienced programmer, but I can't imagine a beginner trudging through all of that without seeing a simplified use case to break up the long narrative text. If the audience for this book is beginners, why go into such great detail about the philosophy of patterns (including a discussion of antipatterns) when most beginners are at the level where they probably don't know much OOP or even things like closures?

Otherwise, another fantastic addition to the open-source bookshelf.

</comment><comment><USER9> There is a better way to do the mixins in JS. See this awesome post by Angus Croll:

[http://javascriptweblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/a-fresh- loo...](http://javascriptweblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/a-fresh-look-at- javascript-mixins/)

`this` in JS generally incurs a lot of wrath, but this is one cool hack with `this`.

</comment><comment><USER10> Dunno, seems to be a regurgitation of GoF patterns along with some JS-specific ones. I'd rather see a link to the GoF patterns, with a concentration on the JS-specific ones. Shouldn't articles be DRY as well?

<comment><USER11> In fact, I would rather see someone forgetting about GoF, focusing on the problems that do exist in this different environment (Javascript) and coming up with solutions to those, thus formulating patterns that are really relevant in the context of Javascript.

Because, you know, the pattern is not the solution, but the sum of problem + context + solution.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think you can shave off the "for beginners" from the title. It's really worth the read no matter your skill level. There are so many interesting and different ways to use JavaScript that I think almost everyone can gain something from this. Really enjoying it so far :)

</comment><comment><USER13> The revealing module pattern is one of my favorites for writing jQuery plugins. This is a great reference for front-end developers once they've gotten good enough to be dangerous with JavaScript. I stumbled across this a while ago after writing my first non-trivial mobile web app from scratch with JavaScript, and it made everything click.

<comment><USER14> I got the same 'click' recently, from reading about js design patterns (the oreilly book in particular), while working on a non-trivial html5 app. Ive been conscious of my tendency to write spaghetti code for a while, but didnt have any concrete guidelines on how to level up (just general advice like 'read good code' and 'fork github projects').

I had the sudden realization that using and recognizing design patterns was exactly what I was missing to get over the beginner-intermediate hump in the learning curve. I'd heard of design patterns before, but they'd come across as a rather lofty concept.

After a second and third look, I realized its immediately practical boilerplate stuff that one can copy/paste (and even more importantly, recognize in 3rd-party plugins and frameworks). Design patterns should follow after reading a 'cookbook'. Its just a name for techniques beyond your basic for/while loops (which could be thought of as the simplest of design patterns).

Pub/Sub can be viewed as a simple form of the observer pattern, and MVC is a more elaborate form (notice that in the article's TOC, MVC comes right after Observer). I've lost a lot of time banging my head on MVC too soon. For some reason, the introductory articles on MVC I was finding made scant mention of design patterns. Great to see more material discussing the concepts together lately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> To be specific, jQuery is a utility library with a large set of DOM utilities. Sizzle is actually the DOM workhorse.

As for the article: it's a valuable resource. Especially for those that believe jQuery is JavaScript. It's a goodie.

</comment><comment><USER16> Wow, this will be hard for a beginner to process. Unless that beginner has a week to read it, and has a good background in programming languages and design patterns. And then he probably won't need to read this.

</comment><comment><USER17> Freaking amazing, I've been utilizing MVC heavily to develop HTML5 games. Mainly borrowing ideas from Android and iPhone development with their layout engines and staying out of the way as much as possible.

</comment><comment><USER18> Wow and I thought I knew Javascript</comment>


How doing something can be faster than not doing it - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2014/06/13/10533875.aspx

<comment><USER2> Note that were the comparisons _unsigned_ , we could use adc instead, which uses one register less, and as a result gets rid of quite a few instructions; the unsigned version is basically

         mov edx, [esp+8]
         xor eax, eax
         mov ecx, array_start
        L:
         cmp [ecx], edx        ; CF = (unsigned) [ecx] < edx
         adc eax, 0            ; eax += CF
         add ecx, 4
         cmp ecx, array_end
         jb L
         ret

and this version is 40% faster on my machine than the signed version.

<comment><USER3> Nice. I think you might be able to shave another cycle off if you were to use [base + 4 * index] addressing with base = array_end and a negative index. This allows you to get rid of the second compare and use 'add index_register, 4' 'jnz L' for the loop test and exit when index == 0. This saves another instruction as well as a cycle of dependency.

Of course, you could also go all out and vectorize: vpcmpgtd, then vpaddd for per-column subtotal, then sum the elements at the end, then negate. Combined with the negative index trick, you might be able to get it down to single cycle per 8 ints. Ahh, the joys of micro-optimizing toy loops!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone made a processor that speculatively executes both branch options? I guess good simulations would show weather that or branch prediction is better.

<comment><USER5> I think this is called dual or multi-path execution if you want to Google for it.

[http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/eager.html](http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/eager.html) says _...I 've seen it alleged that some mainframe processors in the 1960s and 1970s executed down both paths beyond a branch; but, as far as I'm aware, multiple-path execution has never been done by a commercial processor._

<comment><USER6> From what I recall reading about this in the academic literature, the primary concern here is that speculative operations on the alternate paths consume power just like any other operation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If indeed

      if (array[i] < boundary) count++;

is slower than

      count += (array[i] < boundary) ? 1 : 0;

Any reason why compilers can't infer the latter?

<comment><USER8> Linus once wrote a nice (typically Linus) rant on why cmov is a terrible idea in most cases:

[http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/cmov.html](http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/cmov.html)

> In contrast, if you use a predicated instruction, ALL of it is on the > critical path. Calculating the conditional is on the critical path. > Calculating the value that gets used is obviously ALSO on the critical path, > but so is the calculation for the value that DOESN'T get used too. So the > cmov - rather than speeding things up - actually slows things down, because > it makes more code be dependent on each other.

<comment><USER9> Huh. I guess the reason it works in the article is that the value is not calculated, it's just a constant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The title of this is misleading, and so is this part:

>>The cost of a single increment operation is highly variable. At low boundary values, it is around 0.03 time units per increment. But at high boundary values, the cost drops to one tenth that.

The cost of an increment operation has nothing to do with it. It's very fast and doesn't change. What matters is the cost of flushing the pipeline on every mispredicted branch.

Maybe you're supposed to get that that part is "naive" and ignore it once you've read the whole article?</comment>


Covid-19 Projections - <AUTHOR> https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america <comment><USER2> Wouldn't there be a second peak as soon as we lift social distancing and other measures of containing this virus we have _currently_ in place?

These models assume that the same level of societal restrictions continue to be present into the future?

<comment><USER3> I believe these models just don't even try to project subsequent peaks.

<comment><USER2> We are no where near herd immunity for COVID-19. I don't see how we can keep the cases low and open up the economy. Wall Street says otherwise - market is up this week.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm in Texas and our projections look shockingly optimistic. At time of writing this says we will, at peak, fill only 30% of our ICU beds capacity, or 75% in the worst-case scenario.

I want to believe this is true but it's hard to believe.

</comment><comment><USER4> > assuming full social distancing through May 2020

Are there any projections that have the social distancing set as a variable, from 0% to 100%?

</comment><comment><USER5> Can someone explain how this model works?

I see 1000-ish deaths in the US on the 5th. On the 7th, there are 1900-ish. What is the grounds for believing that the curve is headed down shortly after this?

Or, what is the calculation behind the estimate of deaths for day[n + 1]?

</comment><comment><USER6> Glad to see the US projection decreasing from 80k to 60k.

The UK is still at 66k, I hope they abandoned their herd immunity strategy like the government said.

</comment><comment><USER7> This projection seems kind of optimistic based on the figures we are seeing. They may need to update it tomorrow.

</comment><comment><USER8> So after June 1 no more deaths at all. Virus is beaten. How can this model be accurate. It's not.

<comment><USER9> they cover this in the FAQs, which are worth reading. They indicate that, if distancing measures are maintained, the first wave will be done by early June. They explicitly say that a second wave is likely unless extra measures, like contact tracing and mass screening, are taken. I also think anyone who is using this model to make (edit) healthcare resource allocation decisions knows about the limitations of the model, and is using multiple models.</comment></comment>