Emacs 26.3 - <AUTHOR> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2019-08/msg00577.html <comment><USER2> Great job a very good example of programmable editor.

Emacs had been my work horse since 2002 and never disappointed. In the meantime tried many ide only vim and emacs stayed with me. Sometimes do use nano and sublime text but then back to either emacs or vi.

All those shiny IDE based on electron, Java or C++ are just too slow to be productive be it VScode, atom or eclipse or visual studio or kdevelop. I am forced to use them due to tooling support for some framework. But I avoid them as much as possible once I have configured emacs to work with the language or sdk or framework or library in question.

<comment> non-entity The one thing that keeps me from moving lightweight editors like vim or emacs from the bloated IDE stuff if the ability to easily find definitions, etc. If I have hundreds or thousands of source files and I want to find the definition of say a struct or function, being able to _right click- >go to definition_ or similar is a godsend. Maybe emacs or vim have similar features via plugins though? I'm not sure.

<comment><USER3> My package dumb-jump might be what you want:

[https://github.com/jacktasia/dumb-jump](https://github.com/jacktasia/dumb- jump)

<comment><USER4> It's easily the best zero-configuration, nigh any language symbol locator, for _any_ editor or IDE.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm sick of managing 5-6 different installs of language server protocol servers. A couple are installed with my package manager (clangd), some are installed with pip (pyls), some I just have symlinked into ~/.local/bin (microsoft/python-language-server). It's overly difficult to get right.

If anyone is aware of a better way, especially for emacs users, I'd appreciate it. Is this something where docker or snapd might fit in well?

<comment><USER2> For python just use Elpy [1] or anaconda-mode. Microsoft Language Server is nice but use it for things you can not find a package in elpa or melpa.

Obviously you can use emacs-prelude [2] or spacemacs [3] in the beginning and as you get familiar write your own init.el or packages to make it work the way you want.

I have yet to see anything like tramp allowing seemless work on file over ssh, org-mode, ledger-mode, ERC in any other editor except may be some in vi.

Indeed magit is better than any tool you will find for managing git repository. I can go on and on. You have to give it a try to see it for yourself, it pays for its learning curve over the time you use it.

Initially those parentheses looks awkward, but once you get around it with understanding lisp, you will not want to go back.

[1] [https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/elpy](https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/elpy)

[2] [https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude](https://github.com/bbatsov/prelude)

[3] [https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs](https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs)

<comment><USER5> I have my configs where I want them, packages installed with straight.el, managed with use-package, I'm not confused on how to set up the emacs side of things. I just want a unified mechanism to install dependencies.

> Microsoft Language Server is nice but use it for things you can not find a > package in elpa or melpa.

That's overly restrictive. I use company as my capf provider and hook company into lsp, it's a nice unified interface and it never gets in my way.

What I'm looking for is a mechanism to manage the dependencies of extensions. For example, the elpy readme clearly says, "pip install jedi rope flake8 autopep8 yapf black".

<comment><USER6> Ask yourself the number of ways packages might get installed on a given system (apt, chocolatey, homebrew, pip, pacman, nix, guix), and recalibrate how smart you want humble emacs to be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> NEWS: [https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/news/NEWS.26.3](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/news/NEWS.26.3)

<comment><USER8> So ... only two relevant changes this time?

<comment><USER9> for many of us this fixes a show stopper bug while downloading packages from MELPA/ELPA. I was just trying to setup on a new Fedora box (emacs-26.2) and my setup kept failing on "Failed to download archive...".

<comment><USER10> Which change fixes that?

<comment><USER8> The new certificate mentioned in the announcement, probably.

<comment><USER10> Am I blind? I can't see a certificate mentioned in the link or the parent's NEWS link...

<comment><USER8> Right from the link:

> This release is mainly a maintenance release, which contains a new GPG key > for GNU ELPA packages.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I recently tried to seriously use Emacs over my usual Vim. Mainly because I've got so used to the GNU readline emacs shortcuts in the terminal and quite like the idea of not having to switch between command and insert mode, but damn after looking into some configuration options it really is a massively complicated piece of software, I mean not to start using it, it's probably easier than Vim but just looking at all the various modes, plugins, the whole ecosystem behind it. Even emacs lisp doesn't put me off, with some albeit minor exposure to Scheme and Clojure in the past. Especially now that I have got comfortable with Vim having no plugins but knowing enough Vimscript to be productive, I really don't think I'll switch, it's too much of a commitment.

<comment><USER12> Emacs users are often so enthusiastic about all the things emacs can do that they overcomplicate the experience.

Just open emacs with no customizations.

You can do everything with a tiny handful of commands, many of which you already know: c-F for forward char, c-B for backwards char, c-P for previous line, c-N for next line. It's modeless so if you type you'll see your keystrokes. Run the tutorial to learn a few more (c-H t -- c-H is "help").

One difference in emacs compared to many other editors is that search is so lightweight that it's trivial to use search to move the cursor around. So actual "cursor movement" is less common.

I was pair programming with a colleague who's been using Emacs about as long as I have (since 1978) and the other day he learned a new command. "I can't believe I survived with this command", he said, but really, he had done just fine.

<comment><USER11> Yeah it's good advice, it's how I treat Vim really, I have a handful of keybindings to make it easier, but generally just stick to the defaults with everything and stay away from plugins.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The improved js-mode in 27.x is definitely worth checking out, especially if you use React/JSX. Had many issues wrestling with indentation in previous setup. [https://github.com/mooz/js2-mode/blob/master/README.md#react...](https://github.com/mooz/js2-mode/blob/master/README.md#react- and-jsx)

<comment><USER14> Consider the poor quality of the existing js modes for 26.x, any idea why this depends on a future version of Emacs instead of current versions?

Alternatively, could somebody convince the author of the railwaycat port (Emacs with better macOS integration) to get a version 27 out soon?

<comment><USER15> > Consider the poor quality of the existing js modes for 26.x, any idea why > this depends on a future version of Emacs instead of current versions?

You might as well look at the thread js2-mode was revoked[0] and ergoemacs' article[1].

> Alternatively, could somebody convince the author of the railwaycat port > (Emacs with better macOS integration) to get a version 27 out soon?

Er... I would like to point out that it's not 'railwaycat' port but more of Mitsuharu Yamamoto's port[2], and AFAIK he has claimed that he has no interest in maintaing an emacs27 version.

[0] [https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs- devel/2009-08/msg00...](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs- devel/2009-08/msg00409.html) [1] [http://ergoemacs.org/misc/emacs_javascript_mode_war.html](http://ergoemacs.org/misc/emacs_javascript_mode_war.html) [2] [https://bitbucket.org/mituharu/emacs- mac](https://bitbucket.org/mituharu/emacs-mac)

<comment><USER14> Disregarding the history behind js2-mode, if it has been decided that Emacs 27 will feature a much improved js-mode, I was just puzzled that it wasn't put into 26.x as a package already.

I couldn't remember the name of Yamamoto, which is why I said the author of the railwaycat port, where the latter is mostly packaging if I understand it correctly. But Yamamoto is doing most of the heavy lifting yes, and I'm thankful for it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I tried vscode the other day to see what it's about and it's nice, but I found plugin development convoluted and very limiting compared to emacs.

No chance of quickly writing a script to automate something in the editor, because it takes so much time that it's not worth it for quick editor code snippets.

Other editor users simply have no concept of how easy it is to whip up some quick script to perform some task in emacs.

<comment><USER17> > Other editor users simply have no concept of how easy it is to whip up some > quick script to perform some task in emacs.

I don't want to start a flamewar, but I moved most things I was doing in Emacs to Textadept a while back because I found Textadept more convenient. That's not to say TA does everything you can do in Emacs, but it replaced all of the scripting I was doing with Emacs.

You have the full power of Lua inside TA. Emacs always has a lag when I start it up, whereas TA is instant. I slowly built up functionality inside TA to the point that I realized I could replace everything I was doing in Emacs.

It's so small and lightweight that, just for fun, I wrote a "web browser" inside TA. It calls out to lynx and loads a readable text version of the page. I use a keyboard shortcut to open links. I have functions for searching the web, I can search YouTube and open the videos in VLC, and so on. This was a practical thing to do: I can use TA as a browser on really old laptops.

It maybe isn't for everyone, but in Emacs when I was doing this[1] to duplicate a line:

C-a C-SPACE C-n M-w C-y

I asked why I wasn't using a better text editor. In TA, it's C-d. Just as Emacs is an interface for Emacs Lisp, TA is an interface for Lua, and with a lot less overhead.

[1] [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/88399/how-do-i- duplicate...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/88399/how-do-i-duplicate-a- whole-line-in-emacs)

<comment><USER16> Of course I meant editors which I know and tried like vscode. I don't know Textadept, so it may be easy to write quick scripts in it.

As for your C-d example, it's a trivial function in emacs which I too wrote many years ago and bound to C-d, so it's not a compelling example, because it can be added trivially in emacs too.

<comment><USER17> > it can be added trivially in emacs too

Agree with everything except "trivially". Emacs is a house of cards. Pretty much every shortcut is already taken, so then you have to figure out what's already bound to C-d, and how your change is going to interact with everything else you do. For one binding it doesn't matter, but doing that kind of customization over and over gets annoying, causes the init file to balloon, and slows the startup time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> From TFA:

> This release is mainly a maintenance release, which contains a new GPG key > for GNU ELPA packages.

</comment><comment><USER19> I have been a happy Emacs user for over 20 years. I love that I am _still_ learning new things about it!

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm running with the emacs version from git for a while, and on the Linux machines even with the jit, but it's pretty unstable still. The jit causes lot of memory pressure, and on save it often runs a blocking major GC, which needs half a minute or such. Or even more. Very annoying. On Mac I'm running some latest version without jit, which is also very unstable.

Have to test if 26.3 without the jit is more stable.

</comment><comment><USER21> I treat emacs as the only alternative to vim on the server. On your own GUI machine there are plenty of alternatives.

Do people recommend the use of emacs over vim on servers? (Mainly editing server config files and reading long logs) Any good plugins to enhance its use for this use case?

I have pretty much ignored emacs for the last 15 years when I felt it didn't act as snappy as vim.

</comment><comment><USER22> On MacOS, I wish homebrew emacs-plus can be updated with the lastest version of Emacs quickly.

<comment><USER23> I use [https://emacsformacosx.com/](https://emacsformacosx.com/)

what is the "plus" in emacs-plus?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Any improvements for the Windows GUI ? I find it to work better with WSL and VcXsrv.

<comment><USER25> The Windows version is complete unusable for me because of how slow magit is on Windows (though that's not the fault of magit or emacs).

I haven't yet tried WSL (I run Windows on a work issued laptop), so my emacs sessions run in a Linux VM to get acceptable performance.

<comment><USER26> > how slow magit is on Windows

I am relieved, though, that it's not just me.

<comment><USER27> From my experience, Anything that launches subprocesses is slow on Windows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I like [https://emacsformacosx.com/](https://emacsformacosx.com/)

</comment><comment><USER28> In dired-mode, now you can zip a directory using command 'Z' over the directory. Wow!</comment>


MBA or Startup? - <AUTHOR>

I'm 23 and recently graduated a good college with a degree in computer science. I have a standard 9-5 day job, which pays the bills, but my true passion is when I get home and hack.
I'm currently looking at a few options for what to do with my free time: - Play it safe: Go for an online Entrepreneurship MBA or - Risk it: Try founding a startup.
Or maybe the solution is to do both? I just worry that both the startup and the studies would suffer as a result of trying to do both with the little free time I have.
I'm looking for a little advice from people who have been faced with a similar decision. What did you do and if you could go back, would you still have done it? <comment><USER2> I would personally suggest to you (and almost anyone else) that you do neither right now. Go out and get a job at an actual established mid-sized company (ie: not just some other startup). Do that for about 3-4 years (not too long, but more than a year).

It is extremely valuable (IMO) for both the MBA and the found-a-startup tracks to know what a "real" business is supposed to look like and work like.

Learn about all the socio-political stuff that goes on in a typical organization

Learn about sales, booking sales, recognizing revenue and other aspects of cash flow

Learn about product design, development, testing, etc.

Learn about manufacturing, shipping, operations, logistics.

Basically, you get the idea. This experience will, again IMO, give you a far better knowledge (and financial) basis upon which you can then launch into your next trajectory.

Trust me, you have more time than you are led to believe to found or participate in a startup.

</comment><comment><USER3> "my true passion is when I get home and hack"

You've answered your own question! Your true passion isn't going to school, or taking business classes online, so why do it?

I started a company out of college, made every mistake possible, and loved every minute of it.

<comment><USER4> Exactly, do what you love doing. For inspiration, watch Steve's speech at Stanford.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA>

<comment><AUTHOR> I just got around to watching it and really enjoyed it.

Thank you for the inspiration.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think there are two factors you need to use to decide for yourself.

One, what would you rather be doing? You're young you have time so you cannot go wrong in either direction.

Two, what opportunities are available to you? Can you go to a really good MBA program? Is there a start up you are going to join that you are passionate about? Are you going to start your own business? If so do you really know what that entails?

So my advice analyze your opportunities, decide what it is you really want to do, but unless you have a killer idea and some people to help both technical, marketing, and business wise don't start your own start up yet.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the responses so far. Its amazing how varied they have been.

Trying to found a startup is a very risky business. Statistically, I'll wind up with some very good experience, but no company to show for it. In the long run, wouldn't it be wiser to get the MBA, even if it slows down my work?

<comment><USER6> In efficient markets, risk and reward are always proportionate. So all other things being equal, the rational choice is to take as much risk as your life can stand at any given point.

<comment><USER7> Most startups implicitly disbelieve the efficient market hypothesis, since they'd be able to get the same level of risk by using leverage. Most of them seem to think they might have an edge, in which case the proper criterion is:

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A lot of schools don't wish for you to have experience they REQUIRE it. The MBA should come after you've worked full-time for a couple of year. And online doesn't sound that great. A lot of the value of the MBA coursework is learning and discussing material in-class and analyzing problems and cases with other students. Most MBA courses are more interactive than undergrad, so I think you're better off in a standard classroom environment.

Also, many companies hiring MBA grads are looking for people who also have good domain knowledge or past full-time experience. Big companies will hire fresh MBAs with no work experience but they are heavily recruited and if you're not coming from a top tier school, you're going to have a harder time...and you probably don't want to work for a big company anyway!

<comment><USER9> I second. If you're going to pay for an MBA, do it in person.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Working on a startup will be very valuable experience for once you decide to get your MBA (if ever). I also find that a lot of business schools tend to prefer students who have a couple years of work experience, as opposed to students fresh out of college.

</comment><comment><USER11> If you go to the right MBA school you can get hooked up with investors. CMU has a "meet the VCs class" and it's one of the best ways to meet the illusive Pittsburgh investors. I don't think you will get the same connection at an online school.</comment>


Three-Factor Authentication Using EEG Earbuds - <AUTHOR> https://biosense.berkeley.edu/portfolio/brainwave-authentication-and-brain-computer-interface-using-in-ear-eeg/ <comment><AUTHOR> Security overkill but a cool proof of concept for using brain waves as an authentication method.

More technical details here: [http://maxtcurran.com/files/Curran_PhyCS2018.pdf](http://maxtcurran.com/files/Curran_PhyCS2018.pdf)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you increase your Dunbar Numbers? - <AUTHOR>

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar_number Networking is hard. <comment><USER2> Why do you want to maintain stable social relationships with more than 150 people? That might the more important question.

Networking is only somewhat related to the point of Dunbar's number.</comment>


Our Iraqi Interpreter Sammy - <AUTHOR> https://www.alexkras.com/our-iraqi-interpreter-sammy/ <comment><USER3> I was an interpreter with U.S. army as well, 617th MP Co. I also worked as a contractor for BearingPoint (bought by Deloitte) on an INL funded project to build a centralized database for the Iraqi Justice System (lookup IJIP - <USER2> justice integration project). I too wanted to help rebuild the country but was labeled as a traitor. I literally dodged death twice and received multiple direct and indirect death threats during the time I worked with American forces and companies. I was lucky enough to be granted a refugee status in 2008. I had multiple recommendations from the people I worked with including one from the U.S. embassy in Baghdad that helped push my case forward a lot faster. Other interpreters weren't so lucky, many have died and many are still stuck waiting for their refugee status including, unfortunately, my best friend.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your service and sacrifices! Really glad to hear that you are safe now!

<comment><USER4> Reading you saying this, I might be inclined to think that the guys that labelled him a traitor were literally right, after all.

<comment><AUTHOR> Apples and Oranges, he worked for US during the rebuilding stage, by then Sadam was long gone.

Of course you must buy into an idea that democracy is better than dictatorship, but assuming it is I can't see how wanting what is best for your country is being a traitor. What was the alternative at that point? Being ruled by ISiS like organization?

<comment><USER4> > Apples and Oranges, he worked for US during the rebuilding stage, by then > Sadam was long gone.

Still, he helped americans while thousands of iraqis were been killed, mostly civillians.

> but assuming it is I can't see how wanting what is best for your country is > being a traitor.

He probably wanted the best for him, and succesfully got it, unlike some of his colleagues that sold off the same stuff in exchange of hope.

<comment><AUTHOR> Source for mostly civilian being killed? We are talking end of 2004 and up.

Everyone wants what is best for him, believe me working with Americans in end of 2004 was not a good proposition from a risk/reward stand point.

<comment><USER4> > Counts of deaths reported in newspapers collated by projects like the Iraq > Body Count project found 174,000 Iraqis reported killed between 2003 and > 2013, with between 112,000-123,000 of those killed being civilian > noncombatants.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It is shocking that people who put their lives on the line to serve [US|UK|whomever] weren't granted more than, at best, refugee status given that they were more than likely to be killed once they were no longer 'required'.

Interestingly the Soviets tended to take their own home-trained interpreters, partly to prevent them being turned by the local population. One of the most famous from the Afghan war was Vladimir Girigoryev who went on to establish ArtOfWar.ru for veterans of that conflict.

The USA and UK do have an extensive language-training school at Chicksands in England but the graudates of that school tend to serve in the ISAR trades rather than being embedded with combat units.</comment>


4 tricks for designing data-heavy applications - <AUTHOR> http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/12/4-tricks-for-designing-data-heavy-applications/ <comment><USER2> The site is obviously image/ad heavy, less so text heavy.</comment>


Lavabit returning in 19 days - <AUTHOR> https://lavabit.com/ <comment><USER2> Hm, feels a bit weird. If they already got served with an order to share the data and they refused to comply, closing down the service instead, what can have changed today? Wouldn't this mean that someone else took up the service, agreed to the order and now this will become some sort of honeypot?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something, but I don't understand how anyone could trust Lavabit to either stick around or actually be private and/or secure.

<comment><USER3> Force end to end PGP encryption for all users? If they do that then I'd assume they could hand over data and say "good luck".

They could also setup a P2P delivery & backup system so that it's not guaranteed they have the data. If all the data is encrypted, it's not really an issue to distribute everything (but then again we'd be talking AES512 or better for something crazy like that).

<comment><USER4> From StackOverflow [0]:

"We can't implement "AES 512 key size" because AES is defined for key sizes k∈{128,192,256} bits only; much like we can't make a bicycle with 3 wheels."

[0] [http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/20253/why-we- cant-...](http://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/20253/why-we-cant- implement-aes-512-key-size#20258)

<comment><USER5> I was about to disagree with the bicycle analogy, and realized that a tricycle is indeed different than a bicycle, at least by name & definition. Clever analogy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Protonmail looks interesting. They do not store keys. They can only handover encrypted data. It is open source software. - [https://protonmail.com/blog/switzerland/](https://protonmail.com/blog/switzerland/)

<comment><USER7> i just went through several paid email providers over the last few days and was astonished to see how few allow wildcard mailboxes on custom domains.

protonmail is one of the worst in that regard with only 5 aliases on a regular subscription.

<comment><USER8> I use FastMail, they handle custom domains excellently.

<comment><USER9> Agree. FastMail does email very well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There's really no coming back for Lavabit. Nobody can trust them anymore, and this isn't just about Lavabit, but about e-mail. If a person is privacy- conscious enough not to use Google, they know not to use anyone else either.

<comment><USER11> I may have missed something about the original Lavabit affair, but my take- away was always "He's proven to be the rare individual willing to take a significant hit for his principles".

If they now added whatever the state-of-the-art is for a service such as this, wouldn't that create quite a compelling service?

<comment><USER10> > If they now added whatever the state-of-the-art is for a service such as > this, wouldn't that create quite a compelling service?

Right, but that wouldn't be e-mail, and this seems to be e-mail. He made the decision to shut down e-mail accounts (including mine!) to prevent data leakage and that is not a decision that anyone should be forced to make; it is a deficiency of the system.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> relevant: [https://moxie.org/blog/lavabit- critique/](https://moxie.org/blog/lavabit-critique/)

<comment><USER13> Looks like everyone on HN understand that architecture should be changed. If Lavabit is just relaunched, it cannot be used.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wonder how they plan to approach security this time, given how much of the previous demise of Lavabit centered around how they had they ability to circumvent the encryption, despite some marketing claims that that wasn't the case

</comment><comment><USER15> Ladar acted with integrity and self sacrifice. He's earned trust in a way that not many others have.

I am looking forward to trying darkmail, or whatever they're branding it as now.

</comment><comment><USER16> Will this be the debut of Dark Mail in a production service?

[https://darkmail.info/](https://darkmail.info/)

<comment><USER13> I guess not based on activity on GitHub: [https://github.com/lavabit/](https://github.com/lavabit/)

<comment><USER16> Looks like DIME hasn't been touched in a while. After the initial talk about this stuff a couple Defcons ago there doesn't seem to be much public progress.

We'll see what he puts up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Great! Why now? Why on Inauguration Day?

<comment><USER18> Marketing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I wonder if their sysadmins will be able to read your mail or just promise not to. :/

<comment><USER20> This is why you always encrypt on your machine not your email service. TBH I don't get why people get excited about things like Lavabit. You shouldn't be relying on one particular email service for security when email is not secure by design. Secure your content properly and then it shouldn't really matter what email service you use.

<comment><USER21> I agree with you, but sadly things like PGP are not universally adopted and can be a PITA to explain to someone not technically inclined. So it all boils down to the lack of standardized an universal encryption in e-mail.

<comment><USER22> Then sadly you don't have security.

Understanding the threat model is fundamental: If you don't know what this protects against, it might as well protect against nothing at all; My ISP received my emails in plaintext, so I have to assume that they've got a plaintext backup of those emails.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Is this supposed to imply that they feel they'll have more freedom/less censorship under Trump (Jan 20 is inauguration day)? Does FISA change ownership/control between the parties when a president's term ends?

<comment><USER11> No, it's implying a heightened need for secure communications with the new administration.

And no, courts aren't owned by parties. FISA judges are appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. That's been a conservative for the last, ugh..., well longer than FISA exists, anyway.

Also, even if I subscribed to the current dystopian view of politics, I'd argue it's never the parties that excerpt control of a court, but always the administration. There is, in theory as well as in practice, a difference between the two.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Without any details on why this time the service is secure and won't be able to hand over actual user data, it is hard to get excited about the relaunch. Also, nice marketing ploy with re-launching on Inauguration Day.

</comment><comment><USER25> I'm running my own e-mail server now using mail-in-a-box. Don't think Lavabit can beat that. If you want secure e-mail use PGP.

<comment><USER26> If it's running on a VPS on AWS or somewhere, it's still subject to the provider tampering with it.

Secondly, PGP is not nearly widespread enough to be considered secure and additionally provides no anonymity properties which in this day and age should be the focus of any secure e-mail provider.

Additionally, running your own email server also reduces the anonymity to basically null and leaves you with a weak pseudonymity at best.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Does this mean Groklaw will come back?

</comment><comment><USER28> Is this actually going to be secure? Because there _is_ a reason they closed last time...

</comment><comment><USER29> Something about me does not want to trust a webmail host who has an ad running on their front page reading "date rape appreciation station." This appalling lack of professionalism makes the entire service suspect to me.

edit: I would like to thank all the misogynists in this thread voting this down. Thanks for keeping tech a welcoming place for women and victims of assault!

<comment><USER30> >This appalling lack of professionalism

I don't think anything about cock.li is meant to imbue professionalism.

I think one of the points is that it almost immunizes them from psychological operations. [1]

I know it sounds conspiratorial, but social justice movements in online communities can be easily leveraged by orgs like the NSA to disrupt an organization. Combined with anti-meritocracy ideals, it's easy to get someone "at the top" who doesn't have any credentials (and who isn't really trying to get there for any other reason than disruption).

It might not be his actual strategy, but the offensive things serve as a deterrent against lowest common denominator character assassinations. He has no reputation to destroy.

[1] [https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig- manipulation/](https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/)

<comment><USER29> I'm sorry that demands to be less awful to groups of people that aren't you make you feel like outside orgs are attacking your freedoms in some sort of conspiracy to destroy your insulated world, ESPECIALLY considering the context that the US has used malicious actors working against gender and racial equality to destabilize groups striving for better social justice.</comment></comment></comment>


Facebook hires Ted Ullyot from the Bush admin. as VP and General Counsel - <AUTHOR> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/09/facebook-hire-1.html

<comment><AUTHOR> I found this quote particularly interesting:

"Ted has extremely strong connections with the Republican party, and we think that's a good thing,"

Some of the executives, higher-ups, and investors that find their way into Facebook make me raise an eyebrow.</comment>


What's the Matter with Baseball? - <AUTHOR> https://deadspin.com/whats-the-matter-with-baseball-1837585854 <comment><USER2>
      We've so far seen the attendance dip blamed on high ticket prices

Generally, it's never been _cheaper_ (in real dollars) to get in the door. Resale prices are artificially suppressed, and teams are offering more aggressive discounts on direct sales than ever.

MLB's deal making StubHub, a marketplace with no meaningful price floors, its official resale marketplace has been an economic disaster from which MLB will never recover.

Most games become a mad race to the bottom for prices as the game approaches, as buyers have learned to wait for the inevitable collapse. Result #1: few advance sales. Result #2: season ticket holders abandon their seats rather than take major losses every year. Result #3: taking advantage of kickbacks from StubHub to teams, now teams dump their own inventory on StubHub at fire- sale prices. Result #4: buyers kearn to not buy directly from teams, given the much cheaper inventory on StubHub. Result #5: even fewer advance sales and more abandonment of seats by season ticket holders. It's a death spiral.

The teams' only hope will be to opt out of the StubHub deal and use only resale marketplaces that have appropriate price floors (that vary with original ticket cost) and stop the predatory practice of competing with their own season ticket holders with heavily discounted tickets in official resale marketplaces.

Also, teams have to quit friction-heavy ticketing procedures such as mobile- only ticketing and punitive entry procedures.</comment>


Ask HN: How do we know Bitcoin is not in a bubble? - <AUTHOR> Bitcoin's rise has been astronomical in the last year or so. How do we know that this isn't a bubble that will bankrupt 95% of its users? <comment><USER2> It very obviously is. Nothing can grow at such an insane rate and be a stable, long-lasting thing. No one knows how high it will go, but that it will collapse hard soon is 100% sure.

<comment><USER3> If you are certain it will collapse you can make a lot of money shorting it. If you are 100% sure, there is no downside.

<comment><USER4> What financial mechanisms exist to short Bitcoin?

<comment><USER5> Here's an idea. Ethereum smart contracts to short bitcoin. You borrow my BTC for 30 days, with a 5% fee. Someone could make a killing off of that idea.

<comment><USER6> [https://medium.com/dydxderivatives/introducing- dydx-2d0f0f32...](https://medium.com/dydxderivatives/introducing- dydx-2d0f0f326fd)

Note: I'm not affiliated with that project, but I did see them present yesterday at Token Summit and it looked very interesting!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The question should be, what should happen so that it stabilizes. If Bitcoin and cryptocurrency marker were to stabilize, the competition between different cryptocurrencies should mean the trade off between their different features will be directly reflected in the cost to their user. The possible features are: \- Transaction time (Bitcoin is relatively bad here) \- Transaction fee (Bitcoin is also one of the worst options here) \- Smart contacts / other integration features (Bitcoin is going nowhere here) \- Anonymity (Bitcoin isn't in the best spot here, might have the advantage of being the most commonly used BUT this is a matter of momentum only). \- Resistance to attacks from large groups of people (Bitcoin's biggest advantage, but again only a result of it's initial momentum, which might not hold forever).

Now you can also notice that all these features are composite. If you really want to pay for anonymity, you can tumble though the most anonymous currency. If you need smart contacts, go through eth. Resistance to nation state attack is a noble ideological concept, but has low demand, and a cheaper but weaker coin will be dominant in most scenarios.

You will also know a market is stabilized when there no incentives to create competition without innovating. There's nothing stopping you from creating yet another crypto coin, which will have better transaction fee and will still be as decent as others.

Anyway you can clearly tell the market is clueless when the talk isn't about which coins gives you the best features for the most cheap price, but instead about which coin rises the most (which is usually exactly the opposite).

</comment><comment><USER8> You can't know. For those who are saying it is obviously a bubble: If bitcoin "succeeds" and becomes widely used as money, then its value will grow a lot more, since there can only ever be 21 million bitcoins. It is inherently deflationary. One bitcoin is worth, roughly (and circularly) speaking, the total valuation of bitcoin divided by the number of coins. Another way of looking at it: imagine bitcoins become as widespread, and as desired, as USD. Now think about how many USD are in circulation compared to BTC.

I know it is not really that simple, and dollars have some special properties compared to bitcoin: you have to pay your US taxes in USD, for example. Also, it is easy to talk about "valuation" (in e.g. USD, EUR) if you view bitcoin as a commodity - but if it becomes a dominant currency it is not so simple. You can still reason about exchange rates, and my point is, the asymptotic exchange rate USD:BTC (assuming no dollar inflation) is not of the order of 10000:1, but much higher, maybe 1000000:1.

<comment><USER9> Bitcoin cannot become "widely used money". It is technically impossible. It is transaction rate limited to 6 txn/sec. Worldwide. Even band-aids such as increasing the block size won't help enough.

I'm not saying bitcoin prices will crash anytime soon. Simply that the dream of bitcoin replacing fiat currencies in daily commerce is just that: a dream.

<comment><USER10> It was once __impossible __to stream movies over the internet because modem technology was limited to 1200 bits per second. Even band-aids like doubling capacity wouldn 't help enough.

Technically. Impossible.

<comment><USER11> Streaming movies was impossible over dial-up, and still is. But you can if you have different internet connections like DSL, Cable, Fiber, etc.

For the original bitcoin that is currently being priced at $13,000 it is indeed technically impossible to exceed 6 transactions per second. Sure you could make a new crypto protocol, but it's not "bitcoin".

<comment><USER10> The protocol (proof of work based system using wallets and addresses) doesn't define the implementation and the implementation defines limits. The protocol especially does not define the implementation of other layers built alongside it, so this is a straw man.

If your argument is "any improvement to the current system" "isn't bitcoin" then that's a no true scotsman sort of argument and I don't think it holds much water.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> As a fiat currency, it is almost by definition a bubble. It's fundamental value is essentially nil, yet it's "price" is positive. In the current equilibrium, people seem to agree that Bitcoin is a good store of value (because it is perhaps limited in supply and ownership is verifiable). Fortunately/unfortunately, other cryptocurrencies are just as useful in this regard. As such, Bitcoin's value is something of a sunspot equilibrium. Any sufficiently big shock or event could shift the focus to another cryptocurrency or other product entirely.

<comment><USER13> "It's fundamental value is essentially nil,"

That's not strictly true. It's fundamental value is the effort required to obtain it - which at the moment is some rather large amount of electricity and hardware. If you have deployed those resources you will not let the Bitcoins go for any less in real exchange unless you absolutely have to.

That is the same for anything that is a currency. It's base value is what you have to do to get it.

The problem with crypto-currencies is that nobody has to hold them to deliver them anywhere. There is no solid drain other than to savings.

<comment><USER14> You've confused fundamental value with fundamental cost. A hand-knit sweater will not _necessarily_ (or even _usually_ ) fetch a selling price equal to the input value of the labor that went into it.

There are many endeavors which produce goods whose market-clearing price is below the value of effort required to produce them.

<comment><USER15> Houses are a good example. When land is plentiful, the cost of a house is usually a slight discount over what it would cost to build a similar one for new.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Such price increases may be simply a bubble (possibly a temporary bubble as we've seen in the past), but they may also be a sudden price adjustment. One explanation for such a price adjustment is an increase in the number and wealth of its users. The user base has moved from crypto enthusiasts to wealthy individuals, and now it seems to institutional investors with bitcoin futures going ahead. Such a thing didn't exist before 2009, so we don't have much to go on as far as how valuable it'll be.

Cryptocurrency may not be pinned in value to anything tangible, but is useful and unique as an asset class for its ability to transfer ownership by virtual means. You can't store a bar of gold in your memory, and you can't send it through a computer. I believe its long term value is in how much people want money that has this property.

Long term, a threat to Bitcoin's value is competing altcoins. Bitcoin is arguably a bad cryptocurrency at a technical level (high transaction fees, slow transactions, bad for the environment, etc.), it's difficult to use for commerce, but seems to be winning out against the others for now, maybe just by first mover advantage and established network effect.

</comment><comment><USER17> You can't know that it's not a bubble. Maybe it is and crashes tomorrow. Maybe it is and crashes in a year. Maybe that crash brings it back to fundamentals but that price is still higher than it is today. If you could perfectly predict the future you'd be pretty much God.

</comment><comment> Sol-Savage I wonder how bitcoin will look in the aftermath of other technological novelties. Usually, these things start off as a niche novelty of an insular crowd, then savy people take part, then it goes mainstream and the influx of traffic forces regulation and more overhead due to demand. The drivers of the technology leave, then there's a slow burnout time where people try to maintain the appearence that the tech isn't dying.

</comment><comment><USER18> When you look into bitfinexed articles regarding the Tether pump and dump and wash trading, you would be crazy to think the value of Bitcoin is sustainable.

</comment><comment><USER19> This chart might serve as a good indicator : [http://charts.woobull.com/bitcoin-nvt- ratio/](http://charts.woobull.com/bitcoin-nvt-ratio/) , similar to stock market P/E Ratio, it uses NVT Ratio (Network Value to Transactions Ratio).

</comment><comment><USER20> we don't.

<comment><USER21> We even know it is a bubble.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> We only know bubbles in hindsight. No one can say for certain.

</comment><comment><USER23> It probably is a bubble.

The problem is when it bursts, we don't know if we'll be in better positions having entered now, or having entered after.</comment>


Ask HN: What Will You Be Hacking Over the Holidays? - <AUTHOR>

With much of the UK and US snowed in, Christmas 2010 is shaping up to be a hacker's delight. What will you be working on? <comment><USER2> Let's see:

\- Need to get the examples included with Monkeybars (<http://monkeybars.org>) up to date, so I'll likely clean up one or two, and see how annoying that is. I suspect what's broken for one is broken for all.

\- Started playing with using Monkeybars to talk to my Kinect; data manipulation is too slow in JRuby, so I will explore Mirah as a nicer alternative to using Java when speed is needed.

\- I'm due to give a preso at the next AZ Hackers meeting (<http://azhackers.com>) so I have to do _something_ with my Lilypad Arduino. Been hitting a wall on Bluetooth, so might just have an accelerometer drive some blinky lights. (Ultimately I want this to drive some OSC-friendly apps.)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'll be working mostly on Quoddy ( <https://github.com/fogbeam/Quoddy> ), but may also work on Neddick (<https://github.com/fogbeam/Neddick> ) a little. Both are part of something called ScrewPile: <http://code.google.com/p/screwpile/>

I'll also be spending some time with the _Programming Scala_ book, and probably fiddling around with Twitter's FlockDB ( <https://github.com/twitter/flockdb/> ) a little.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'll be working on <http://electric-journey-269.heroku.com> (haven't picked a name yet) a web app that will help you find, get reminded of, and participate in live podcasts.

My somewhat unrealistic goal is to build a profitable web app completely on heroku's free level of hosting. I'm not even sure I'm going to buy a domain name, I might just try to get a catchy bit.ly or tinyurl address.

</comment><comment><USER5> I will be learning how to hack! Planning on going HTML > CSS > Javascript > Ruby. Not all over the holidays, of course.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been on winter break from school for the past two weeks, and I've been spending a lot of my time beginning to fix bugs in Chromium, and I've also been honing my graphic/web design skills, studying type, element placement, CSS, JQuery etc.

I also have the TI Launchpad that I still haven't done anything with.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm working on a plugin for a chat server for my uncle and building a site for the hacker news communities. More news on the latter once I've finished.

</comment><comment><USER8> I don't like existing application analytics services, maybe I'll have to make a simple one for my own use.

</comment><comment><USER9> "...US snowed in..."

I hate LA even more now.

</comment><comment><USER10> Android version of my iPhone app.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm currently committing up a storm of my own, I want to get Hackety Hack 1.0 out the damn door already, on Christmas.

After that, I'll be hacking on it some more.</comment>


A case against syntax highlighting (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/syntaxhighlighting/

<comment><USER2> > It encourages you to skim through code rather than understand it.

Personally I find it _allows_ me to skim through code so I _can_ understand it.

I'm not generally interested in syntactic overhead. I care about the names and structures of things. Occasionally I care about the type of things, but less often than I care about what I can actually do to that thing.

</comment><comment><USER3> Comparing code to natural language is dishonest. Code is nothing like that. In code, the structure and exact wording is important, while you probably wouldn't notice if a paragraph of fiction was rearranged and had words substituted with synonyms.</comment>


Advent Locker: an Amazon Locker Christmas treasure hunt - <AUTHOR> http://adventlocker.com

<comment><AUTHOR> A bit of explanation: @iamdanw came up with this idea about 24 hours ago, and it was constructed entirely over a 3G connection in that day. It's shown up a few interesting issues with Amazon Lockers - including that items which don't have a confirmed size in Amazon's systems show up as being "too big". That's taken out a lot of our 'trinket' buying options...

Got encouraged to submit it here as it sort-of qualifies as a hack on top of a service that wasn't really designed for this sort of thing...

</comment><comment> jack-r-abbit Awesome idea. Would be cool to see this in other places too... sadly, I am not in London. :(

</comment><comment><USER2> Sounds brilliant! Shame I'll probably be in work when they get announced! (also a shame I can't get to soho tonight! :P)

</comment><comment><USER3> Great idea, I'm just hoping a location comes up that is near Canary Wharf so I can "nip to the loo".

</comment><comment><USER4> Absolutely love this idea! If I was in London this Christmas I definitley would have taken part.</comment>


A huge fireball exploded in Earth's atmosphere in December, according to Nasa - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47607696 <comment><USER3> This one was detected by satellite, but scientists have been using acoustic detection of meteorite explosions for some time. Fittingly, they used detectors made for nuclear explosions, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization's infrasound network [1].

I learned this from reading this highly recommended book on the subject: Asteroids: Relics of Ancient Time by Michael K. Shepard [2] (amazon link)

[1] [https://www.norsar.no/r-d/safe-society/nuclear-test-ban- moni...](https://www.norsar.no/r-d/safe-society/nuclear-test-ban- monitoring/infrasound-monitoring/)

[2] [https://www.amazon.com/reader/110706144X?_encoding=UTF8&quer...](https://www.amazon.com/reader/110706144X?_encoding=UTF8&query=kiloton#reader_110706144X)

<comment><USER4> Vela Incident [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also: "Imagine what might have happened if this meteor had exploded not over the Bering Sea but over nuclear-armed North Korea, India, or Pakistan during a time of increased tensions or actual conflict."

[https://twitter.com/AtomicAnalyst/status/1107660418967916545](https://twitter.com/AtomicAnalyst/status/1107660418967916545)

<comment><USER5> Chelyabinsk meteor exploded almost over a city:

"The first explosion was the most powerful, and was preceded by a bright flash, which lasted about five seconds. Initial newspaper altitude estimates ranged from 30–70 km, with an explosive equivalent, according to NASA, of roughly 500 kilotonnes of TNT (2,100 TJ), although there is some debate on this yield (500 kt is exactly the same energy released by the Ivy King nuclear explosion in 1952). According to a paper in 2013, all these ~500 kiloton yield estimates for the meteor airburst are "uncertain by a factor of two because of a lack of calibration data at those high energies and altitudes."

The hypocentre of the explosion was to the south of Chelyabinsk, in Yemanzhelinsk and Yuzhnouralsk. Due to the height of the air burst, the atmosphere absorbed most of the explosion's energy."

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I mean, with all the money the US currently spends on military budgets, I can't for the life of me figure out why it is so hard to find the 50-100mil or so (estimated) it would cost for a few orbital IR telescopes and just deal with this problem once and for all.

A Pegasus XL rocket can lift 976 pounds (443 kilograms) into low-Earth orbit for about $13.5 million...put two "budget" telescopes on one launch and get to work.

<comment><USER7> It is expected to happen only about 3 times in a century (from article).

In other words, building this system of telescopes won't affect the next elections in any positive way.

<comment><USER8> Everyone else likely missed it, but I want you to know I appreciate this joke.

<comment><USER9> > _Everyone else likely missed it_

I'm sure you're the only one to notice the obvious joke.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's possible that in 1178 an asteroid hit the Moon with a 120,000 megaton blast - an Extinction Event if it had hit the Earth.

(By way of comparison, the Hiroshima Bomb was 15 kilotons).

Recorded by monks at Canterbury at the time, and only a possibility - <USER2> something to consider.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno_(crater)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno_\(crater\))

<comment><USER11> According to the same page, more recent developments don't support the theory:

> High-resolution images obtained by the Japanese satellite SELENE in 2008 > were used to date the crater by counting the smaller craters within it and > its ejecta deposits. This gave an age of 4(+6, −3) million years, much too > old for the hypothesis.[2]

> This raises the question of what the monks saw. An alternative theory holds > that the monks just happened to be in the right place at the right time to > see an exploding meteor coming at them and aligned with the Moon. This would > explain why the monks were the only people known to have witnessed the > event; such an alignment would only be observable from a specific spot on > the Earth's surface.[8]

<comment><USER12> What the monks reported sounds like it might be consistent with the optical disturbances caused by superheated air:

> From the midpoint of the division a flaming torch sprang up, spewing out, > over a considerable distance, fire, hot coals and sparks. Meanwhile the body > of the Moon which was below writhed, as it were in anxiety, and to put it in > the words of those who reported it to me and saw it with their own eyes, the > Moon throbbed like a wounded snake. Afterwards it resumed its proper state. > This phenomenon was repeated a dozen times or more, the flame assuming > various twisting shapes at random and then returning to normal. Then, after > these transformations, the Moon from horn to horn, that is along its whole > length, took on a blackish appearance.

An air burst between observer and observed would move around on the wind, causing ripples to come and go.

<comment><USER11> > An air burst between observer and observed would move around on the wind, > causing ripples to come and go.

Agreed. Far more likely that an impact causing the moon to wobble or visibly move, which would have to be an obscenely destructive impact.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Assuming we (Earth) get some reasonable warning time for a problematic impact, the logistics of alerting -and then moving- a large metropolitan area like NYC, for example, are interesting. Where do we place these people? What about the city's infrastructure? Do we just stand by, brace for impact and hope for the best? Or is there something more we could do to mitigate the disaster? I know a lot of that depends on the amount of time beforehand, but I find the problem intriguing.

<comment><USER14> You may be interested in a recent episode of the 99 Percent Invisible podcast ([https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atomic- tattoos/](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/atomic-tattoos/)). The title of the podcast comes from a Cold War program carried out in 1952 in which students could opt to receive a small tattoo of their blood type, with the goal of creating a "walking blood bank" in the event of a disaster requiring mass transfusions.

Related to your question, the episode also explores the history of "duck and cover." It turns out it's there is some credibility to the technique. In September 1945, the US sent a team called the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission to Japan to research and interview survivors of nuclear blasts. They located survivors just a few blocks from the explosion epicenter, who had been sheltered by concrete basements. They also heard stories of people who were killed just by shattering windows and falling debris. With just some ability to shelter, survivability might be higher than you suspect.

<comment><USER15> We had a recent example of the value of "duck and cover" \- and more specifically what happens if you _don 't_ do it - the Chelyabinsk meteor.

"Its explosion created panic among local residents, and about 1,500 people were injured seriously enough to seek medical treatment. All of the injuries were due to indirect effects rather than the meteor itself, mainly from broken glass from windows that were blown in when the shock wave arrived, minutes after the superbolide's flash."

Many of the injured went to a window to see the spectacle in the sky, not realizing that the shock wave was about to shatter the window in their face.

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

<comment><USER16> >Many of the injured went to a window to see the spectacle in the sky, not realizing that the shock wave was about to shatter the window in their face.

Same thing happened in the Halifax explosion.

<comment><USER17> That explosion was close enough that there would be basically no chance to react between the actual explosion and the shock wave.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> > Measuring several metres in size, the space rock exploded 25.6km above the > Earth's surface, with an impact energy of 173 kilotons.

What causes a meteor to explode 25km above the earth? Thermal expansion of internal gas?

<comment><USER19> It's called an explosion, but it's more of a conversion of kinetic energy to heat due to friction against the air. As the rock heats up, it starts to fall apart, and then smaller pieces go through that as well.

Here's a neat simulation of the process:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbh6GjRChnQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbh6GjRChnQ)

<comment><USER20> Isn't it more about air compression instead of friction ?

<comment><USER21> Correct. Further reading: [https://www.quora.com/Why-does-a-spacecraft-heat- up-during-r...](https://www.quora.com/Why-does-a-spacecraft-heat-up-during- reentry)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Well this is terrifying. Time to call in the Space Force!

<comment><USER23> To justify the costs of Space Force, First, we need to find space terrorists. Or, find aliens and sell weapons to them.

<comment><USER24> There's oil on Titan!

(No, really, there is!)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> > The space rock exploded with 10 times the energy released by the Hiroshima > atomic bomb

Well, that's fun.

<comment><USER26> Kinetic energy is a hell of a thing. That squared term really adds up quick

<comment><USER27> Can you elaborate plz?

<comment><USER17> The energy of an object is (1/2)mv^2. Doubling velocity quadruples the kinetic energy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Why does the BBC not use the NASA acronym?

<comment><USER29> Certain languages (British English and Portuguese, to name the two I know) dictate that if you pronounce the acronym as if it were a word, you only capitalize the first letter.

Nasa and Nato, but NSA and WTO.

<comment><USER30> Example reference: see the "abbreviations and acronyms" section in: [https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style- guide-a](https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a)

Hilariously enough, "Nasa" is specifically called out as an negative example from the English Wikipedia style guidelines: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Capi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Capital_letters#Acronyms)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> While I was working at NASA I was told by a colleague that Trump canceled the asteroid deflection program that was being ran at the LaRC facility. Now looking for a reference all I can find is news about him starting an asteroid deflection program because of this incident.

I'm not sure of the details since I was working in an AI research department.

<comment><USER32> I mean, that's not how the US budget works. But yes, his budget proposal included nixing an Obama-era project to redirect an asteroid to lunar space for a manned mission. I wouldn't call that a deflection program.

<comment><USER33> I'd say deflecting an asteroid so that it goes closer to Earth still counts as deflecting :) That said, the cancellation was a shame since it gave the Lunar Gateway a concrete and useful purpose.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Lindley Johnson, _planetary defence officer_ at Nasa, told BBC News a fireball this big is only expected about two or three times every 100 years.

Best title ever.

<comment><USER35> Can't compete with that guys job title at the class reunion.

<comment><USER36> Well, there's also a "planetary protection officer", Lisa Pratt (and deputy planetary protection officer Elaine Seasly) :-)

<comment><USER37> There was also this 9 years old kid who applied for planetary protection officer position :)

[https://www.businessinsider.de/child-applies-nasa- planetary-...](https://www.businessinsider.de/child-applies-nasa-planetary- protection-officer-job-opening-2017-8)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> The gods are angry

</comment><comment><USER39> "That's another thing we have in our defence, there's plenty of water on the planet."

so that's what planetary defence people do :D since it's unrealistic to prepare to defend the planet actually, let's just point at things :D and call them out for being in our defence! :D we have mountains too! they are also in our defence!

</comment><comment><USER40> Womp womp, article didn't get picked up when I posted it last night. Guess I should have retitled / waited until morning!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19418939](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19418939)</comment>


DIY Standing Desk Plans on Kickstarter - <AUTHOR> http://www.core77.com/blog/furniture_design/lousy_non-industrial-designers_eating_our_id_lunch_to_hell_with_your_affordable_cleverly-designed_standing_desk_27464.asp

<comment><USER2> Should just link to the Kickstarter page instead of this blogspam.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidyamnitsky/press- fi...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davidyamnitsky/press-fit-standing- desk-affordable-portable-made-i)</comment>


Ask HN: I just started my first real workday, any tips? - <AUTHOR> Hi HN!
I have a question.
One of Julia Evan's posts give amazing tips like maintaining a brag document. It's a log of every workday with a short description of what you have done that day [1]. When your performance review comes around, you can remember exactly what you did! There was a more debated, but in my mind interesting, post about a career cold start algorithm [2].
I am wondering, are there other tips that I should think about when one just joined a startup and had their first day?
I created a reflection document. I state what I did, what I thought went well and what could go better as I think it's more effective than a brag document as it helps with more processes (your own reflection, retrospectives and performance review). I also read the whole discussion on the career cold start and made my own variant of it. I call it: meet everyone one on one and get to know them.
One nuance: the place where I started, Triply [3], is seemingly not a pure startup. IMO, it is transforming to a scale-up, as they are looking for developers.
It made me realize that the tips might differ on the startup, scale-up and corporate level. So I wonder if people think whether there are certain tips that pertain only to a certain company size. Or how do things differ from US vs EU vs Asia vs <categories I forget>?
Second nuance: I know it's tough for some during the corona lockdown. It's one of the reasons why I mention that they are hiring. I hope it helps someone/somewhat.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20665225
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16550270
[3] triply.cc, based in Amsterdam. The name pertains to linked data (triple stores). But I like to think it pertains to "three times is a charm!" :D <comment><USER2> Congrats on starting!

One bit of advice I would personally give is to remember that work is just work.

You will have responsibilities, deadlines, arguments, critisms and one day you might find yourself anxious and stressed out. When that happens, it's nice to remind yourself that the critical bug or whatever you're working on is meanigless in the grand scheme of things. No matter how passionate you are about your company, your personal life and principles should always come first.

It sounds obvious but humans tend to forget that kind of stuff.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is an amazing back to basic tip that I actually fully implement. My variation is: work is just work, and when working make the most of it during the time that you work.

Without that addition, one could interpret the "work is just work" too negatively.

The discussion that this advice has created is something that I'll reread a few times as I have experienced similar experiences while I was studying at university.

<comment><USER2> I only just noticed your reply, sorry for the late answer. I agree with your variation. Work can certainly be enjoyable!

> I'll reread a few times

Me too! I'm glad to hear my comment sparked something helpful :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Set aside some time at the beginning of each day to buff your tools and skills. Over time these sessions compound like interest and make you wealthier in human capital and a more valuable employee.

I do it for one pomodoro, 25 minutes. For me an example might be installing and learning a new vim addon or scripting a common task or focusing on a tough corner of a programming language. Something useful to the job but not directly making progress on an assignment. This is an easier habit to acquire if you do it from the start, before your routine consolidates.

<comment><USER4> This is a great idea!

Sometimes I take time from some task to do things like this, but as this time off isn't a regular ocurrence, once it does happen, it ends up taking a lot of time, making me feel like I'm delaying an assignment. Small but regular steps like this could help with this feeling.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Don't be afraid to admit ignorance.

"I don't know what that means." and "Can you explain that to me?" are two of the most wonderful phrases. I use them regularly and have been programming for over 30yrs. Every time I do, I learn something new.

My coworkers know that I'll speak up if I don't understand something, and when you're finally experienced, it helps the new kids to not feel like such imposters to see that an experienced coworker doesn't know all the things.

<comment><USER6> Upvote! New people or people interviewing are always afraid to ask questions. I find they think people expect them to always know the answer. I'd much rather hire someone who will find the right people and ask questions when they don't know how to do something. Communication skills.

<comment><AUTHOR> I always say what I don't know during interviews. Based on my experience here is what I've learned:

\- Most companies will believe you're inexperienced

\- It act as a filter to those type of companies

So one should inhibit themselves if they want more volume / don't care if they end up at a place where this is an issue during the interview process.

I have to say, Triply's interview process was quite unique in this: saying what you don't know was kind of the nature of the game. They were simply interested in how you thought based on what you do know and how quick you get to understand certain topics. I'll admit, I'm probably biased, honeymoon period, etc. but I've had a lot of interviews and I found only a few sane things in the whole process. The only other sane thing that I remember is that Brilliant.org had a sane online coding challenge, just enough related to data structures and algorithms to test your mettle, but also practical enough that you could see yourself using that during actual web development.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Here are my tips: [https://erkanerol.github.io/post/adapting-a- project/](https://erkanerol.github.io/post/adapting-a-project/)

Quote from the blog post: "Last but not least. Feel responsible from day one. You are a part of the team and you are responsible for every failure and every success. More or less. If there is a pain in somewhere in your team, feel it in your heart. In companies, there are always some "local people" and "tourists". Tourists are only interested in "fancy" things. They follow their interests. They hate problematic situations. They don't take some much responsibility in case of failure. They always blame decision makers since they never try to be one of them. When they get bored, they just fly to yet another city. In reality, there are lots of limitations and we are not living in a perfect world. Unfortunately they are not aware of this fact. Maybe they are just prefering ignoring it. I don't know. What I want to say be one of the "local people". Local people know not only good places of the city but also the suburb. Local people think about how to manage the city, how to "survive" in the city, how to make the city more beautiful. They can live with the bad sides of the city. At least for a while :)"

<comment><USER8> how can you reconcile that with the fact that job-hopping in 2-5 years is proven to be a more effective way to raise your salary?

Being seen as "local" may have its benefits but I doubt that being one is more beneficial.

<comment><USER7> That is why I said "At least for a while" at the end. You can take initiative and feel responsible in that 2-5 years.

<comment><USER9> "your job is not your job; your job is to find a better job."

Adams, Scott. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life (p. 31).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've managed a number of interns and new hires over the years. Here is what I tell my newbies.

Keep a small notebook, or use a to-do app and track everything that gets assigned to you. If something is assigned to you make sure that you get a clear deliverable time or date and time. If you have any questions about what's been assigned to you ask the person who assigned the task, even it your question doesn't pop up until later.

If you take notes in meeting etc. use a separate notebook or app for the notes. You want to be sure that you don't clutter up your to do list with notes.

First thing in the morning: \- Review your to-do list. \- Check your calendar for the day \- Check your inbox

Before you leave at the end of the day: \- Create a bullet list of everything you did for the day. \- Check your calendar for the next day \- Check your inbox one last time. \- Check to make sure that you don't have any unfinished emails.

Learn how to use all the office tools, even if you think they are stupid, lame, outdated. It's what you'll be using, complaining won't change the fact that you'll need to conform. First impressions.

There will be a lot of things that won't make sense, roll with it. Intra and inter system dependencies drive most things that don't make sense when you walk into a new place. Telling people how to do it better won't win you any points.

Take a few months of your first job and be humble. Listen more than you talk. I like to tell new hires to be like a human Golden Retriever. Positive attitude, want to help always, look like you are smiling all the time. Don't bark unless it's absolutely necessary. Look good at all times.

I'm not suggesting that you completely alter your personality, just ease into things. You'll be working for the next 40-50 years of your life so you have plenty of time to be yourself.

</comment><comment><USER11> Ask questions and be willing to discuss your thought process with people. Don't be afraid to try and improve things even if they've been like that a long time. Try and find something to work on you're genuinely interested in.

My first job out of school (8 years ago) was a pretty effective springboard. Unfortunately the secret to success was basically to be excessively keen and interested in doing anything and everything. At the time it was fun - I worked too much and I made myself look foolish at times, but I was junior enough that it didn't matter.

Now that I've been around for a couple years and I'm a little more jaded I don't think I could do it again. But if you're very keen I think just being enthusiastic and learning things will get you far.

</comment><comment><USER12> Close social media tabs and silence your smartphone notifications.

You will be blessing the concentration you'll gain

</comment><comment><USER13> Try and be principled in your interactions with people and with the work you produce. Don't get too confused with the myriad of tactics and behaviors people pretend are required for success in the work place. Work is people, be the best person you can be. Good luck :)

</comment><comment><USER14> 1) Find a way to make the folks around, above and below you look good.

2) Invest in both technical and productivity learning.

3) Until you've built a reputation, show up a little early and stay a little late. First impressions disproportionately matter, and this is all they can judge you on.

4) Know how your internal and external customers use your product to hit their goals.

5) Be as nice to the security guards and admins as you are to the CEO.

6) Write lots of Thank You notes. Email people's bosses when you send.

</comment><comment><USER15> Write everything down. Keep detailed todo lists, break todos into smaller units when necessary. At the end of the day try to give yourself an easy task for the morning, so you can accomplish something right away before you're fully in the zone. Listen to the salespeople, they might be promising some feature that's not on your radar yet. Don't eat the donuts.

</comment><comment><USER16> There have been some comments about staying off HN (or any news site). But some tech news can further your knowledge and skills...so instead of foregoing news altogether, just don't make it the first thing you do in the morning. Instead, get some nugget of productivity done first.

Productivity, for me, has a strong "momentum" component to it. Once you get going, it's easy to keep going as long as you can keep distractions down. But if you start on a news site, that sets your momentum for the morning in the wrong place.

Another thing along these lines are to leave a task unfinished in the evening so that you have a place to jump right back to in the morning (balance this with the ability to not think about work after work).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the momentum tips. I actually visit HN after I'm done with work (it's 17:30 here in Amsterdam).

The unfinished work thingy is a handy one, I'm testing it now. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Whatever role you're in, don't underestimate the value of relationships, communication, and soft skills in being able to influence the impact and value of the work you can deliver.

If you can persuade a product manager to drop a bad feature you might be able to ship a more valuable feature at a higher quality.

If you can persuade a procurement office to change a supplier you might be able to ship a better design faster.

If you can get involved in the hiring process you might be able to pick the team you work with.

Always make friends with the admin person, accounting that pays you, and stay on the right side of HR.

<comment><USER18> +1 on knowing the administrative assistants. They run everything.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the amazing response so far. I just closed off the second day and just read all your responses.

Day 3 will see a lot of incoming change :D

It's a lot of info, but here is what I digested and what I'll experiment with:

\- 25 min. of skill building time

\- Work is work, I have a life outside of that. In fact, one of my own tips is to be playful at certain times to lighten the mood. Living a life outside of work really helps with that to stay playful and keep team spirits up.

\- "Take care of your health. Eat well and exercise. Sleep is important."

\- Admitting ignorance

\- Feel responsible for the company (I read the discussion, I figured I might try the other side if feeling responsible has mixed results)

\- Keep separate apps and notebooks

\----- Working at Triply in Amsterdam:

If you're interested in working with Triply -- and me ;-) -- and can work in Amsterdam, medior/senior software engineers are still looked for [1].

We're focusing on improving the developer experience for using linked data and creating linked data (sets). As I understood it, the whole topic is too academic, Triply is changing that by making it more UX friendly for developers and data analysts.

[1] [https://triply.cc/career](https://triply.cc/career) (I'm not sure if they do remote)

</comment><comment> blaser-waffle \- Personal Analog Assistant: literally just a small notepad where I jot notes and To-Dos. A cell phone or desktop app could work just as well, but I like the paper approach.

\- "Spellbook": any command that's not something bog-standard and simple gets added to a Notepad++ file; e.g. a bunch of Cisco commands go in the Network Spellbook, SQL queries go in the DB Spellbook, Linux one-liners in the Bash Spellbook, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your tip reminds me of an amazing app for the Mac: Boost Note [1]. It allows you to have all the spellbooks in one place.

[1] [https://boostnote.io](https://boostnote.io)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Take care of your health. Eat well and exercise. Sleep is important.

Learn about personal finance and the power of compound interest. Create a budget and start saving for retirement. Contribute to a 401k/IRA/etc. Your goal should be to save 12-15%. If you can't save that much today, start lower, but increase it every 6-12 months and every time you get a pay raise. Save 6 months of expenses for a rainy day fund -- this is especially important in 2020. Pay yourself first. Save for a vacation every year and take it. Travel the world and get a different perspective.

Every year you don't save for retirement means you'll need to work another year, or save even more when you're older (think 20-30% of your salary).

I'm making up for lost time now. I used to buy new cars and toys. I bought my current car 27 years ago; it still runs great.

I wish someone had told me this 30 years ago. I hope I would have listened.

<comment><USER20> What would some recommended reading about saving for retirement? For example, I have a healthy amount of savings but none is invested and it sits in an account doing nothing (@ 0.1%).

I read the obvious subreddits, have a basic working knowledge of financial concepts, understand that I should just invest in the broad market / ETFs and not touch it for decades.

But when I go to invest, I feel I have no idea what I'm actually doing. When I look for brokers I'm bombarded with advertising and marketing and get frustrated with what I feel is a lot of dishonesty. Decades of stories about pension funds screwing people over mean I have no trust in the "systems" at all, which is probably wrong. Why would I pick one broker over another? Or a pension fund over another? Should I just go with a big name like Vanguard as I could always move it later?

For example, I've never had anyone answer this question: If a pick company Z, invest through them and one day they go bust or disappear, what actually happened to what I invested? I understand risk and that some financial instruments are like bets and so on but seemingly can't wrap my head around this concept. If I buy specific stock Y, through broker Z and broker Z disappears, what happens to my stock Y? Like where is that actual record kept that I have X quantity of stock Y?

It's really dumb questions like these that stop me doing anything and lead me to fill an account, technically losing money from inflation.

<comment><AUTHOR> I know this one!

Disclaimer: not a financial advisor, I do trade stocks as a hobby and am interested in personal finance.

Invest in an index fund. I am a fan of Vanguard based on that one good friend of mine is a fan of it (and he studied finance) and that one acquaintance who has this as a very big hobby is a fan of it. (early bitcoin investor, read way more personal finance books than me, etc.).

I only know specific vendors in The Netherlands. If I were you, make an ask HN about it. I'm sure that enough people on HN can give you some directions as even high frequency trading people frequent this site. My point is that people who work in the field of finance are probably happy to help and guide you with this question, but it's better to create an Ask HN than to dump all your lifesavings into Vanguard just because I say so :P

Disclaimer: I only have a portion of my lifesavings in Vanguard. I actually trade stocks more often, but that is a hobby, not a saving mechanism.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Make sure your desk is set up correctly ergonomically speaking. Start early and your back and neck will thank you later. Don't hesitate to request a different keyboard and mouse if what you are provided isn't comfortable.

<comment><USER22> And if they won't provide, look to bring your own. This is a big part of your day, being comfortable is huge.

<comment><AUTHOR> I remember a friend who did that, he bought his own monitor and brought it to work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Try to understand what your colleagues have done. This will help you get to really know the team culture.

If you're a programmer, read through some parts of the codebase, if possible, to get a sense of how your colleagues are doing their work.

<comment><AUTHOR> As in just open random files and read? Or open up a UI and see what it does under a debugger? Or open up the test files first to see how things are supposed to be called/used?

I wonder what your structure is.

<comment><USER23> If the code base is huge, maybe just read some of the code your team has been writing (if you have a fixed team). Seeing how things are supposed to be called / used is also very important if you're collaborating with others on a project. Probably you'll find some internal libraries written by others useful.

Maybe start with reading the parts related to what you expect to be doing?

This of course comes after getting their consent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Forget the ergonomics, tackle the requirements by diving into it. A good developer knows how to help the system engineer meet their goal once the requirements are understood.

</comment><comment><USER25> Congrats.

I'd advise you to avoid setting too many goals each day, especially when you are getting up to speed at a new workplace. I like to make a morning checklist of just three things that - if I was to achieve them - I'd finish the day thinking "That was a good day".

Not my original idea but seems to work, and three is a far more manageable number than five. ;)

</comment><comment><USER26> Shameless plug: I wrote an article exactly for people like you [https://medium.com/@lolski/career-tips-for-young-software- en...](https://medium.com/@lolski/career-tips-for-young-software- engineers-21f7422ac95e)

Congrats on starting your first job!

</comment><comment><USER27> Read _The Beginner 's Creed_, by Peter J. Denning

[https://web.suffieldacademy.org/cs/intro/beginners.shtml](https://web.suffieldacademy.org/cs/intro/beginners.shtml)

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a beautiful poem!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Stay the hell off HN!

</comment><comment><USER29> Stay away from HN!!!

</comment><comment><USER30> They hire remote?

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually don't know, they have a careers page, so you could ask them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Congratulations on your first day!

Here are a few thoughts that you might find helpful.

Be teachable. Prioritize learning what you didn't know you didn't know.

Don't try to be an expert. I call this the "amateur expert" phenomenon. It's OK to want to be an expert and to strive for that every day. But it takes time. And the only way to get there is to listen and learn.

Be approachable. Don't be too busy for people. Yes, everyone appreciates a good work ethic. But it's more important for people to want to work with you. If you don't make time for other people they won't make time for you.

Don't make it a goal to impress anyone. Your work will speak for itself. Focus on making steady progress every day and you will naturally stand out.

Triple your estimates. No matter what you're asked to do, until you've done it several times it will take you a long longer than you expect. If you have the option to influence how much time you're given to do the work, under commit and over deliver. This is way more important than some people think.

Be nice to others, but not too nice. If you're super nice to people, they'll expect that from you every day. And when you have the inevitable "off day", people will get way more upset with you just because it's such a big contrast. So be nice, clearly. But again, let it flow naturally. Don't try too hard.

Learn how to make mistakes well by placing small bets and learning from your mistakes. You're going to screw up. Sometimes you'll screw up and people will tell you. But if you keep screwing up two things will happen. First, people will stop giving you opportunities and you'll eventually wither and probably either leave on your own or be asked to leave by your boss. Second, people will stop telling you when you screw up. They will lose faith in you. And this is a terrible place to be. Avoid this at all costs by simply learning from your mistakes.

Batch up your questions. As you learn all the ins and outs of a new environment you'll have many, many questions. And no matter how much you learn over time, every time you move to a new environment you'll go through this process again. You'll see things in the code that don't make obvious sense. You'll have ideas about how to improve things. Some things will start to make sense as you just spend more time with them. Other things you will need help with. What you want to do is try to be as efficient with other people's time as you can. If you ask questions constantly it will begin to annoy your co- workers, even if they say it's ok. So write down your questions as they come up. Make an honest effort to figure things out on your own. Then schedule time once a week or so with more senior people. They'll appreciate you making it so easy for them to help you and some of them may even become your champions.

Invest in relationships. As you take on more and more responsibility your ability to influence other people will become more and more important. It won't be enough to simply solve problems. People won't follow you just because you have answers or experience. But when people feel connected to you and know that you care about them as people, they will want you to succeed and go a long way to help.

Continue to learn on your own time. You will have some opportunities to learn on the job. But you will also make a lot of mistakes as you learn. Think of the time you invest outside of the office as study time and what you do in the office as the test. Contributing to an open source project is a great way to try things out and get feedback from people with more experience.

I wish you the best out there. Take care and enjoy the ride :)

</comment><comment><USER32> Close HN and get to work</comment>


Ask HN: Advice on first round of VC funding - <AUTHOR> Long-time lurker, using a throwaway account.
I'm the cofounder of a tech startup and we are in the B2B SaaS space. So far we've been fueled by founders' own savings, some angel funding and some revenues. We have established product-market fit, and while the general tendency is a 3-6 month sales cycle, we think we can accelerate it.
We recently began our fundraising efforts for a Series A round, and I am seeking advice from others who have been through that journey.
In particular, I would like to learn what level of details to share during tech due diligence, what sort of financial projections make sense, how detailed they need to be, how to best share a product roadmap (any tools that you prefer?) and so on.
Would really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you! <comment><USER2> Let me focus on the financial part: First question is if funding the right route for you – if it aligns with your goals for the business. I'll assume it is.

For the pitching phase: You want to show you understand your market and your customers – if you found product market fit – what is that market, how big is it, and what is your approach to achieve that? Your roadmap and strategy and leading. Your financial projects should back up your story and show you understand how you plan to scale your business and what it takes to do that. So the metrics and and projections to include depend on your exact business. 2 sources with suggestions on key metrics:

[https://tomtunguz.com/saas-startup-benchmarks/](https://tomtunguz.com/saas- startup-benchmarks/)

[https://abel-finance.com/8-saas-performance-metrics/](https://abel- finance.com/8-saas-performance-metrics/)

In the pitching phase – in the main deck you don't have space for much detail – 1 or max 2 sheets with financials (cashflow, MRR, and some key metrics) - but do prepare more detailed sheets to have at hand if investors ask.

In the DD phase: You're going to have to be very open – you want to show the truth, your positive and realistic assumptions and be honest about your challenges. This is the time to build and solidify trust. You're probably going to share your full financial model with the investor. Investors don't expect you have every potential challenge solved. They expect a leadership team that understands where they are going and how they want to get there, and is capable of dealing with roadblocks that arise along the way.</comment>


Show HN: A man page database that isn't awful - <AUTHOR> https://helpmanual.io/man1/man/ <comment><USER2> I think this is great. Could it source examples? e.g. from:

\- [http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse](http://www.commandlinefu.com/commands/browse)

\- [http://www.bashoneliners.com](http://www.bashoneliners.com)

\- [https://bashhub.com](https://bashhub.com)

\- [https://github.com/awesome-lists/awesome- bash#community](https://github.com/awesome-lists/awesome-bash#community)

</comment><comment><USER3> So, this is what GNU info was supposed to do, twenty years ago. And yet, everyone hates info because they can't figure out the interface and they want manpages. Or because info manuals are too verbose, perhaps.

I wonder if having everything on a web browser is what should have happened (and this is what GNU info does too). Or maybe the problem is that nobody likes writing documentation in a format such as info.

<comment><AUTHOR> The groff format which is the basis for man pages is pretty unpleasant compared to it's modern equivalents, I suspect that's half the problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The feature running the command with --version and --help and variations thereof is great :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. It's pretty nasty to generate. Lots of commands do horrible thinks when run with "\--help" or "-h".

Running it for ~8000 commands cause about 100 "something went wrong system messages", a few hundred random file to be generated, the desktop manager to crash completely a few times and the speakers on my desktop to start buzzing occasionally.</comment></comment>


Linode down yet again? - <AUTHOR>

I can't reach anything on the fremont network, or blog.linode.com. Not sure if this is linode-specific or Hurricane Electric again. Anyone else having issues? <comment><USER2> My sites in Fremont were down for about 45 minutes total (so far). Status update history:

\- "We do not expect a significant interruption of service during this maintenance window."

\- "There will be a brief period of connectivity-loss while our network infrastructure undergoes this maintenance."

\- "Routing for some subnets has been affected. We working with the NOC to bring them back as soon as possible."

</comment><comment><USER3> This has been a scheduled maintenance that's been on the Linode status page (where you should always check if there's an outage) for a week: [http://status.linode.com/2010/12/scheduled-network- maintenan...](http://status.linode.com/2010/12/scheduled-network-maintenance- in-fremont-december-12-2010.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> A hosting company that doesn't actively inform customers of outages? Unprofessional. Nobody is going to read a status blog every day to see if an outage might happen at some point in the future. Passive notification isn't acceptable, imo.

<comment><USER3> I'm sort of mixed. On one hand, you're right: it's a little ridiculous that users who are known to be affected wouldn't be alerted in advance.

On the other hand, it is great that Linode had alerts posted on the status blog in advance, and worthy of note that _every_ host will have downtime. Having a backup solution in place should be a responsibility that lies in the hands of the customer, but you're right: without verified notification it's a little hard to plan ahead.

I have to say though, having switched to Linode from a more crowded, oversold host (BurstNET), the difference is amazing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It seems just network maintenance. I can connect to my server now and based on the log, there is no restart event. (after about 1 hour interruption).

</comment><comment><USER5> I can get to linode.com but not blog.linode.com There were so many reasons I chose Atlanta for my linode. No outage yet there!

</comment><comment><USER6> My fremont-based sites are all online and working fine.

I can't get to their blog though.

<comment><USER7> The blog is coming up for me... just very slow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Dallas DC seems to be fine.</comment>