Ask HN: What sites do you contribute to the most, besides HN/Twitter/FB? - <AUTHOR>

We are almost finished building a tool (Thoughtly) that quantifies people's written contributions online, so people can display their life experience in a broader context. We want to make sure our first version accounts for platforms and data sources that users find the most valuable. Do you publish academic papers to sites like Mendeley? Are you an active Redditor? Stackoverflow? What are your go to sites to engage in intellectual dialogue, besides HN (and social platforms like Twitter/FB)? With so many data sources and API's to choose from, we want to make sure we  account for what people care most about! Thanks. http://thoughtly.co <comment><USER3> I contribute a bit to Quora. Despite the bad rap that Quora has on HN, Quora does a really good job of curating posts, and there are a lot of extremely high quality posts related to software and startups. It's a lot less nitpicky than HN because anecdotes and opinions are perfectly fine on Quora.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's interesting. While it may be slightly less particular it allows for more organic conversation. I appreciate your insight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I do a lot of very informal writing online, mostly in Subreddits related to my field, but also in comments on news articles at places like Wired and Ars. I find that you learn almost as much from the (non-insane) comments as you do from the articles themselves. This is probably the same reason I use/read Reddit. I do have some more academic writing published on Academia.edu and SSRN, but I don't engage in discussion there. Best of luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome, thanks! Published work is - whether the author thinks about it this way or not - now considered just a foundation/framework for ongoing discussions. If you can filter the batty (which I hope we can help with), then the comments are really an addendum to the original article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am an occasional Yahoo answers user. However recently, it has been Hacker News and Facebook for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Do you have a history with Yahoo answers? How do you compare it with other Q&A sites? Also, the vicious HN-FB cycle, we all empathize with. Thanks.

<comment><USER5> Hey!

Yahoo Answers is pretty interesting and it works on a point based system. Basically, the more questions you answer, the more points you gain. You also get points for "voting" on the best answer to each question (not as many as answering though). If the most people vote for your answer as "best answer" then you get 10 points.

That may have been a confusing explanation, but I definitely like the system (which keeps users engaged). And Hacker News does this as well with its karma system, although it works in a different way. Some of my friends are hooked on to this one chatting website (www.zobe.com), and it has a karma system as well. Basically, all the sites i've seen that have a point based/karma system are quite "vicious" as you put it (they have very consistent users).

I also forgot to mention- I also began recently using Quora, and i've liked it so far! Reminds me of Yahoo Answers but it definitely seems newer and fancier.

I'm interested in hearing more about the project you're working on! Please elaborate on what you're trying to do :)

<comment><AUTHOR> No, that's a great answer. Contribution based karma system seem more value- driven than a popularity based (or only) upvote platform. That's really what we are trying to address.

We see the problem as social media visibility is based on popularity - <USER2> the fact that the popularity doesn't ensure quality. Afterall group think isn't necessarily a good thing...

Emerging social media and news platforms try to identify quality content but their quality metrics are based on popularity.

Thoughtly approaches the problem by accounting for users written contributions online. By quantifying users' personal data - from sites like Stackexchange and Quora we display an individual's involvement in a field. This allows you to objectively compare perspectives from different kinds of people. Think, "actions speak louder than words." Well, we finally for the first time in human history have enough data from disparate sources that we can rely on actionable data and not just resumes and mildly subjective about me sites.

I'd be happy to discuss it further and thanks for your interest. I hope you check us out. We are launching to iOS soon - the app is approved, now we are polishing the backend data sources.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Stackexchange (and to a lesser extent Quora and LinkedIn) are the obvious answers

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice, we are currently implementing the rest of the Stackexchange sites, as we started with just Stackoverflow. The caliber of content on the stackexchange network is phenomenal. Is there a specific stackexchange site that you would be proud to display your credentials from? Thanks!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: US Federal Deficit - What to do? - <AUTHOR>

So while driving this morning, I had NPR on listening to US lawmakers give the typical run around about spending cuts. It seems like we are coming close to a dangerous stand still, which would obviously have dire consequences for the future of the US.
How come both sides can't seem to realize that when it comes to spending cuts EVERYTHING needs to get cut and unfortunately taxes need to be RAISED. No one wants to hear this - heck I don't want to pay more taxes. I also don't want to see gov agencies doing great things be cut severely, but the fact of the matter is that 14 trillion isn't going to go away quietly.
Now regardless of whether you think I am right or wrong in this assessment, I have continuously been impressed by the massive brain power behind HN and I am curious to hear people's thoughts on what needs to be done and why. If you are an international reader, feel free to share your outside perspective! <comment><USER2> The interactive map doesn't allow one to account for increased economic growth. That's the argument behind supply side economics. There are two books that best lay out an approach to fix the budget deficit by cutting taxes. I know this sounds crazy, but I encourage everyone to give them a read. I've also included JFK's speech to the New York Economic Club (He'd be with Republicans today on fiscal issues). Even if you read them as a mental exercise, it will help you understand why Republicans advocate cutting taxes:

JFK's address to the New York Economic Club:[http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkeconomicclubaddr...](http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkeconomicclubaddress.html)

Econoclasts by Brian Domitrovic: (This book shows why when Bush 43 cut taxes it didn't lead to growth. Mundell's policy mix is key) [http://www.amazon.com/Econoclasts-Supply-Side-Revolution- Pro...](http://www.amazon.com/Econoclasts-Supply-Side-Revolution-Prosperity- Enterprise/dp/193519125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298048013&sr=8-1)

The Growth Experiment by Lawrence Lindsey [http://www.amazon.com/Growth- Experiment-Policy-Transforming-...](http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Experiment- Policy-Transforming- Economy/dp/0465027512/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298048203&sr=1-1)

I don't disagree that spending is the main culprit of the budget deficit, but there is a way out of our predicament that few if any are talking about. Historically tax revenue is equal to about 18% of GDP. So in order to have a balanced budget at 3.73 trillion we would need a GDP of 20.7 trillion . To balance our budget, assuming no growth in spending, it would take 7 years of 5% growth. It would take 5 years at 7% growth and if we could get to 8% growth, agreed to keep the budget at 3.73 trillion, in year five we could pay 300 billion of our national debt down. In my opinion, growth is literally the only way out of our problem without devaluing our currency. The tax raises necessary to fix our problem would choke off our ability to grow.

<comment><USER3> Even though its counter intuitive tax cuts work, but they have to be the right kind. All these credits, temporary cuts, refunds don't do anything. Its the flat rate lowering and tax simplifications that increase growth and revenue because it alters long term behavior. A great recent example is Egypt, they lowered their rate from 40% to 20% and doubled revenue while standard forecasting said it would be cut in half. Other example are abound throughout the former Soviet Bloc, you lower/simplify taxes you get more revenue.

In the US we spend more money complying and avoiding taxes then actually do on the taxes themselves. Think about that. If you look at US government tax revenue it's always about 18% of GDP no matter the tax rate. (Look it up, its really interesting it's called Hauser's Law) So the only way the increase revenue is to grow the economy and the highest correlation to economic growth is how many billion dollar companies an economy produces each year. So everything the government does should be centered around freeing start-ups to become billion dollar companies. That means simplified regulation and the removal of corporate welfare, both protect large companies from smaller start- ups.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The new york times had a really cool flash app that let you balance the budget..

[http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/d...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits- graphic.html)

Here is how I did it: [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/d...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/11/13/weekinreview/deficits- graphic.html?choices=wvxj35rc)

It isn't easy, but getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan and letting the Bush tax cuts expire go a long way.

<comment><USER5> Can't upvote this enough.. Back when this came out, I shared the link on Facebook. It was interesting because I know a whole spectrum of very liberal to very conservative people among my family and friends.

This exercise really opened a lot of eyes, and I saw people with very strong political views start to change their minds about long standing beliefs. In order to fix the deficit, we will need to put politics aside and accept the best ideas from both sides.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> -Drastically cut defense spending (The cold war is over. We aren't getting into any dogfights or naval battles. Concentrate spending on urban/guerrila warfare.) -Reform social security and medicare -Cut where you can elsewhere

<comment><AUTHOR> Curious - Do you agree with 500 million for cyber security?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Raise taxes, quickens deflationary collapse

Cut spending, quickens deflationary collapse

Print money (QE), hyperinflationary collapse

"Now, America's just another broke ex-super power looking for a handout and wondering why." - Max, Dark Angel

</comment><comment><USER8> If we only reduced spending to what it was in the year 2000, we could completely eliminate the income tax. That's how much spending has increased in the last decade.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Update: Also I am curious to thoughts specifically on the $500 million for cyber security. Too much? Too little?

<comment><USER9> We should probably be spending more on cyber-security than for, say, making sure our fighter jets are 3x better than anyone else's...</comment></comment>


Chess boxing - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing <comment><USER2> I loved this idea of combining physical and intellectual combat.

The Wikipedia article for Go says:

Backgammon is a "man vs. fate" contest, with chance playing a strong role in determining the outcome. Chess, with rows of soldiers marching forward to capture each other, embodies the conflict of "man vs. man". Because the handicap system tells Go players where they stand relative to other players, an honestly ranked player can expect to lose about half of their games; therefore, Go can be seen as embodying the quest for self-improvement—"man vs. self".

So the pairing of boxing with chess is quite apt. Which physical games would you choose for backgammon and Go?

<comment><USER3> To run with the "man vs. self" idea, I would consider pairing a climbing competition with Go.

<comment><USER4> And Backgammon with Russian Roulette.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some years ago we invented this sport independently, but our version had three components: boxing, chess, and alcohol.

<comment><USER6> A round of shots after each round of boxing?

I think it could also be livened up by making the event simultaneous: Attempting to avoid falling behind by more than 2 shots or letting your clock run out on the chess game (presumably on a large, sturdy touch screen to let you designate moves while wearing gloves) while dodging punches.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Next chessboxing event in London is now on Saturday! If you haven't seen it, you should. It's brilliant!

[http://www.londonchessboxing.com/PAGES/Events-%20Up&Comi...](http://www.londonchessboxing.com/PAGES/Events-%20Up&Coming.html)

</comment><comment><USER8> I have read a long article on this (on paper, so no links). It explained that even people who are good at both chess, and boxing, often have issues combining them. The rush of adrenaline of the boxing interferes with the thinking needed for the chess part.

</comment><comment><USER9> Well, there's barely know Antichess, or Suicide-Chess <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichess> and I'd love to see a Anti-Chess- Boxing.

"stop hitting yourself!"

</comment><comment><USER10> There is a certain ELO rating required to participate; can anyone familiar with chess tell me how difficult it is to reach this level? Is it something an amateur can fairly easily obtain or does it really require significant talent and/or study?

<comment><USER11> If I googled it correctly, elo 1800 is required. I'd say with average chess talent, it can take about 4-5 years of regular study and competitive play to reach 1800. So taking your description, it's something between...but hard to quantify since how quickly one advances in chess play levels is highly individual.

<comment><USER10> Yes it's 1800, sorry thought it was mentioned in the Wikipedia article but didn't know it by heart. Well there goes my chance of ever becoming a chess boxer then I guess :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> There's an RTS called "Kung-fu Chess."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung-fu_chess>

It would be interesting to see a game of speed-chess played on a rather large field with 200 to 300 pound weights used as pieces. Another variant: speed- chess on a large field where the pieces are soccer balls. This would lead to tactics where the opponent is made to move a powerful piece like their queen so often that they tire out and make a critical mistake.

</comment><comment><USER13> i worked for the organization (www.showroommama.nl) that helped this artist to realize this. it was a really interesting project!

the artist had a title battle in amsterdam back then, fighting an amature boxing friend of his. after a heavy battle, the artist, iepe, won by the flag on the chess clock.

funny fact: "kung fu" has sometimes been called chess-boxing, as there was so much tactics to it.

<comment><USER12> There's also a real-time strategy game based on chess called "Kung-Fu Chess".

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung-fu_chess>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I prefer Tressling.

<comment><USER15> Is that like wrestling, only with Tessla coils?

<comment><USER16> ha ha ha!!! ...woah! I just found the Tresling page: <http://tresling.org/>

<comment><USER17> Well, the people in the picture at the bottom of that page sure do look like they're having fun!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is anyone doing any kind of analysis on if players chess play begins to suffer as they take more shots to the head?

<comment><USER19> No analysis necessary, getting hit in the head is bad for your health/concentration.

<comment><USER10> Well we don't know without analysis... Health concerns are mostly long-term, and there's no definitive answer on how much getting hit in the head is required for permanent brain damage. Re: concentration, I'm even less convinced; maybe it's not the getting hit that is bad for concentration but the switch between mental/physical activity. Or maybe concentration improves with more adrenaline.

<comment><USER20> No definitive answer? Surely there are plenty of boxing champions and football players for data on this.

<comment><USER10> Yes, for boxing champions, but even there it's hard to say what is caused by the boxing and what is caused by genetic factors. People often say 'look at Ali!' but there's no way to tell if it's really because of the boxing. But more importantly, note that I said 'how much getting hit in the head is required'. See e.g.

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070502093035.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070502093035.htm)

<http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7624/809.full>

Both from 2007. First one says that amateur boxers do get brain damage, second one says they don't. (there are the top google hits, I looked into this deeper about 5 years ago; at that time there was very little research done, let alone consensus.)

Point being, the question is: does getting hit in the head pose linear risks/ I.e, simplified, do a number of cells die for each punch or kick to the head? Or does it require a certain threshold of damage for there to be any cognitive effects?

I don't compete in any sport but I've trained plenty of full contact sports over the last 10 or 15 years. I've been punched and kicked in the face _a lot_ , with and without gloves, been knocked out briefly once, been choked out several times. Still my head/brain has taken nowhere near the amount of punishment a pro or even good amateur fighter gets; my brains gets plenty of time between trainings to recover. I can never know for sure if my training has caused brain damage, and if it did, in what form that will manifest itself (or has already, maybe), but I don't have reasons to believe it affected my cognitive functions. Maybe it did and the damage caused decreased intelligence, making me believe that it didn't :)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How a load-balancing bug led to worldwide Chrome crashes - <AUTHOR> http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=165171#c27

<comment><USER3> The last discussion was mostly about how the title was linkbait. I want to hear people's opinions on whether they think it's appropriate for a browser (Chrome) to be designed such that it doesn't operate independently- that it can be crashed (or self destruct bug, insert your own word here) by a remote server at any time.

To my knowledge, Firefox doesn't do that. Safari doesn't do that. Internet browsers are probably the #1 most important app on a computer these days, browser reliability is vital.

<comment><USER4> Chrome Sync is, AFAIK, not a push service. Something polled a Google server, it returned a bad answer, it crashed the browser. Why is this important?

Because it's entirely possible that Firefox or Safari, for example, could have been crashed by contacting the safebrowsing server, and the safebrowsing server returning an answer that crashes it.

Firefox also does remote firefox update checks and plugin update checks, etc.

None of the browsers you mention are "independent" of internet servers anymore. They are meant to function independently, as is Chrome, but exactly the right remote bug could likely crash all of them.

<comment><USER5> Why is it possible to receive a response that crashes the browser? I'll allow (with reservations) your premise that browsers aren't so independent anymore. But it seems to me that input from an external source (even trusted) ought to be validated, and malformed input should raise a warning or something. The fact that crashing is a possible behavior upon receiving unexpected input is surprising to me.

<comment><USER6> Well that's the point of a bug, isn't it? Chrome didn't handle malformed input appropriately and crashed because of it.

It wasn't a command that shut down Chrome, it was just poor handling of an edge-case which resulted in unexpected behavior (crash).

It's a sad truth that most programs will explode if you fling garbage at them. When push comes to shove, many development timelines don't have room to bulletproof against everything

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hmm, a load balancing bug which eats several production services for lunch and has a bunch of second-order effects. I wonder if it involves running a script and pushing the output without looking at a "diff" view to see what changed, and they managed to push a config which sent all of the world's traffic to one location.

It seems like just the other day when I was thinking about this very thing. <http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2012/11/19/lb/>

</comment><comment><USER8> Previous discussion (perplexingly marked dead): <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4904125>

<comment><USER9> Worryingly marked [dead] in fact, how did it end up dead?

It might not be the greatest article, but it highlights a very real and new point of failure that cloud apps are introducing. I was hoping for a good discussion to check out later.

<comment><USER8> Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.. :) HN's code is weird in places, e.g. it's possible to accidentally kill your own posts by double-clicking submit (I can't remember why it does this, but there was a sensible-ish explanation)

<comment><USER10> Yep, happens the same thing with comments (found out thanks to a mouse malfunction)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm surprised at the level of hyperbole here on this thread.

</comment><comment><USER12> on the server side, it looks like the problem could have been avoided with better types - it seem that there was a confusion between status values that can include 0 and those that cannot (alternatively, perhaps better, there was no status for the case where the status was undefined?) and then a hand- written assertion that a particular case could not happen (and so was not tested for).

the bug report describes all that, roughly (if i've understood) but doesn't seem to be worried about the higher level issues - the inconsistent types and need for fragile human assertions about type logic.

(not java bashing - don't see why this couldn't be solved in java)

but i guess this is just a bug report. for an outage like this i suppose there's going to be a major review? is that all internal? would be interesting to watch.

<comment><USER13> > (not java bashing - don't see why this couldn't be solved in java)

Chromium is c++. The code diffs in the bug report are c++. Where is Java coming into picture?

<comment><USER12> oh, sorry - didn't look at code, assumed java from some comment. but either way, same point - when you talk about solving problems with types, people tend to assume you're thinking of haskell or similar, but just because you're not using some super-cool functional language doesn't mean you shouldn't demand all you can get from your type system.

(ps i was talking about the code on the server side; not chromium)

<comment><USER13> > (ps i was talking about the code on the server side; not chromium)

Oh I see.

> on the server side, it looks like the problem could have been avoided with > better types - it seem that there was a confusion between status values that > can include 0 and those that cannot (alternatively, perhaps better, there > was no status for the case where the status was undefined?)

From what I understood, they are talking about protocol buffer types. The sync server sent message to chromium to throttle for all types say A, B, and C. Chromium didn't know about type C, some code returned 0 for unspecified type, another piece of code calculates index based on what is returned in the previous step, and then due to the 0, a negative index was accessed in the bitset leading to out of bound exception.

The issue is server sent all types to clients rather than sending only types known to the client, and the client didn't gracefully handle unknown types. I don't think a better type system would have helped the server - that looks like a logic bug, not a typing bug.

<comment><USER12> what i was trying to say is that you can (often) push this kind of logic bug into the type system - by having, if you like, different types of statuses, or a special type for unknown values (a "maybe status").

 _if_ you can do that then you can get the "infallible" compiler to provide the "this branch will not be executed" logic. but there may be efficiency trade-offs, or it may be so directly tied to low level protocols that it is impossible.

five ten years ago i would not have thought of the problem in this way - <USER2> would have agreed with you (and the bug report) that it is just logic. but slowly i am starting to learn to rely more on types. but i don't know enough here to suggest details...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Quick question for those that experienced it: did it take down the whole Chrome process, or just a single tab? I'd be very displeased if that happened again and I lost work as a result.

<comment><USER15> It took down the whole Chrome process.

<comment><USER14> That's grim and completely unacceptable!

<comment><USER16> Switch browsers

or

Contribute to Chrome development.

<comment> mh- you can't contribute to Chrome development unless you work at Google, fwiw.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Bugs are a part of software life. Considering the great track record of Google Chrome, I'm not concerned and the issue was resolved pretty quickly. Even Google developers make mistakes as do the rest of us.

</comment><comment><USER18> Im pretty unconfortable with my browser to have "hardcoded" code to connect me with one walled cloud.. be it google, microsoft or apple..

wheres is the choice? look like these days using anything software or hardware from the tech giants means to be their pets

<comment><USER19> Perhaps you should use WebKit or Chromium as your browser then.

<comment><USER20> Chromium has the same code.

<comment><USER19> Chromium has Chrome Sync??

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I don't understand why the crash happened when visiting Gmail if the bug was in Chrome Sync.

</comment><comment><USER22> Currently getting "500. That's an error. " page. Seems like even the bug has crashed too...!

</comment><comment><USER23> Had significant issues with the Chrome Web Store yesterday - images not loading from some content servers, extensions failing to install ('The extension file was not a CRX'). I guess this was the cause.

<comment><USER23> "That quota service experienced traffic problems today due to a faulty load balancing configuration change. That change was to a core piece of infrastructure that many services at Google depend on. This means other services may have been affected at the same time, leading to the confounding original title of this bug."

Why the downvote?</comment></comment>


Alexis Ohanian - "I don't regret selling Reddit." - <AUTHOR> http://dmtri.com/posts/28/alexis_ohanian_-_%22i_don%27t_regret_selling_reddit

<comment><USER2> I saw Alexis interviewed in NYC last week by Jason Calacanis for This Week in Startups. He was asked the same question there and he went more in-depth in that interview about the opportunity cost of not-selling. Any startup with growth can go downhill for a variety of factors -- they were young and offered a life-changing amount of money. Due to a number of things going on in his life, as he said is explained in the book, it made sense to sell.</comment>


Critical Software Update for Kindle E-Readers - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201994710 <comment><USER2> you get a backdoor, you get a backdoor, everybody gets a backdoor!

<comment><USER3> I was an happy owner of a Kindle Keyboard, on which I could easily manage my collections with Calibre and go on reading four hours a day for a month without recharging.

With paperwhite (first gen) I got roughly two weeks of charge even with lowest brightness because I can't turn the lights off, and for using Calibre I had to crack my Kindle and keep it offline or it would upgrade itself...

So whatever this update does, it's a NO-GO for me.

<comment><USER4> I have gone with an Android eink reader so that I can use calibre companion on it. It makes calibre a lot more useful. Look into it when you need to upgrade or replace your kindle. If you are using calibre with your kindle I am assuming you remove drm anyway.</comment></comment></comment>


How do I advertise my Kindle book? - <AUTHOR>

Amazon is launching its ad-supported kindle very soon, and I'm curious how I go about being an advertiser for the kindle. There are plenty of affiliate links out there about how to be a "publisher" and make money by referring money to kindle books, but what if I'm on the other side?<p>Any tips would be appreciated. <comment><USER2> I'm not sure if it's applicable, but you could try writing a blog. I've found out about many ebooks from authors' blogs.</comment>


Binary SMS – The old backdoor to your new thing - <AUTHOR> https://www.contextis.com/blog/binary-sms-the-old-backdoor-to-your-new-thing <comment><USER2> Back around 2000, shortly after The Matrix came out and everyone was buying "those" Nokia phones, I was tasked with writing a couple of applets for a certain UK mobile phone operator.

One applet was to design operator logos. The other was to compose ringtones. Both popular things at the time. I was given access to an SMS gateway, a PDF of the Nokia message format and a deadline.

The exact UI was phone-dependent, but typically these updates would pop up a confirm box saying "Accept new ringtone?" or something similar. I was surprised to discover that this was triggered by sending an SMS, because there was usually no indication that a message had been received. If you were lucky you would be told where the file had come from, but often the phone just assumed it was an update from the network. On some phones there wasn't even an alert, it would just obey, silently.

The message just had to start with "//SCKL", followed by a code, followed by some data. That's it. On first reading I assumed the "header" part would require direct access to the SMS gateway, like the SMTP HELO or similar.

Nope. First thing I tried once I had some PoC data was to send a message from my phone directly to a colleague. It worked.

Over the course of that project I sent so many of those text messages I still can't get the code //SCKL1581 out of my head. JFTR, sending someone a really awful ringtone (a single diminished fifth or something) is way more annoying than sending them "0" as an operator logo, especially if their phone only has one ringtone.

[https://www.activexperts.com/sms- component/sms/sckl/](https://www.activexperts.com/sms-component/sms/sckl/)

<comment><USER3> Do you know if it's possible to change the displayed operator name with this, and if yes, how?

Every since a few years ago my SIM believes its operator to be a random sequence of characters that's definitely not the operator, and I'd love to fix that.

<comment><USER2> Depends on the phone. I don't think any modern phones support this, but you could try.

The prefix for the logo is //SCKL1581 and IIRC all you need is an unencoded bitmap in hex. I.e., "0" is 4 black pixels and "f" is 4 white (or vice versa). The data format for ringtones is a lot more complicated.

In theory you can just hex dump a monochrome bmp file of the correct size, although the byte order may be wrong and you'll need to strip the headers.

However you also need to know the codes for the network/country. If the first link doesn't cover it I found another one here:

[https://www.csoft.co.uk/archive/sckl#an-operator- logo](https://www.csoft.co.uk/archive/sckl#an-operator-logo)

IIRC images are zero-padded automatically so you can send in a single message as long as it's not full size. The other problem is that modern phones handle multipart SMS automatically, so it might mangle the preamble. You might have more luck sending from an ancient phone or going via an SMS gateway API directly.

<comment><USER3> I meant the actual operator name. It's displayed as text either Netz (German for "network", which is... not the actual name) or as something like ⅛£⅜±⅛°%).

<comment><USER4> It's been a while since I've done any telecom work, but from what I recall, the SIM card just sends a message to your phone with the operator name. The origin of that string could either be baked in the default app running on the SIM card or come from a message received from the network (eg. for a multi carrier SIM card).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder why we haven't seen more exploits targeting SMS PDU mode. Is it the barrier for script kiddies just too high? You would probably need a network tester of some kind to properly try to find exploits.

I used to work for a big mobile phone manufacturer and once in a while we would get "secret" fixes to merge into the source. The commit message would be something unrelated and the builds would be pushed silently without much fanfare.

I was in charge for the merging, which is how I know this. Some of those fixes were for SMS PDU mode or related to stuff happening when PDUs were received. Not sure how phones handle these messages today, but I assume they follow spec, which means there are certain SMS PDUs which will be reacted on silently in the background (stuff in the PDU body is parsed and applications launched if necessary).

I should try to get an old R&S tester from eBay maybe. Could be fun to try to explore this area. Could be a nice security business niche to get into.

<comment><USER6> I think I've seen a presentation from CCC years ago where they demonstrated an "SMS of death" (similar to the "ping of death") where they rebooted various brands of phones. I don't have a link at hand, I recall they used a SMS modem and they didn't reveal a lot of details (I'm not even sure if they rebooted or bricked the receiving phones) for abuse concerns, but it should probably easy to find.

edit: it was easier than I thought, first hit on Google: [https://media.ccc.de/v/27c3-4060-en- attacking_mobile_phones](https://media.ccc.de/v/27c3-4060-en- attacking_mobile_phones)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> _Law Enforcement can track a phone with 'silent' SMS messages designed not to alert the user._

well, that's something i didn't know

<comment><USER8> As far as I know they can only see to which tower your phone is connected, so it's not too accurate.

I'm not an expert in this field though.

<comment><USER9> If you repeatedly triangulate a phone at < 100m resolution for a few hours, it should become trivial to identify its exact location. The more people in the area, the less reliable the method is. But in rural or suburban areas, it's going to be pretty good.

See the LocationSmart stories the past few days for more on this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've always wanted to play around with raw SMS PDUs. You could construct MMSes "from scratch", for example; or send "ephemeral alert" messages that (at least by the standard) don't get stored in SMS conversation history, just popping up and then disappearing instead.

Does anyone know, then, why Twilio and its like don't let you construct/send raw binary PDUs? If it was a matter of cellular network security, well, that was already out the window once you let people with rooted phones into the network. Why not give virtual "phones" the same capability?

<comment><USER5> Binary PDUs can be tricky to send between operators - especially when those operators are in different countries. Often you will find that the PDU messages simply disappear. Internally within an operator network there shouldn't be any problem usually.

That is probably why twilio doesn't support it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Are there tools available to monitor if I receive a silent SMS?

I think it's safe to assume that all popular brands of phone are compromised and exploitable with these SMS PDUs. If I buy a Seeed Rephone open-source DIY kit and use it as a GSM-to-WiFi modem, will that be any more secure? I guess that reverse triangulation from cell towers is still possible to determine my location.

<comment><USER12> While not directly silent SMS, SnoopSnitch can check mobile network security and monitor for dome of the message types - [https://f-droid.org/app/de.srlabs.snoopsnitch](https://f-droid.org/app/de.srlabs.snoopsnitch)

<comment><USER13> Interesting. Requires root and a Qualcomm chipset, compatible device list here: [https://opensource.srlabs.de/projects/snoopsnitch/wiki/Devic...](https://opensource.srlabs.de/projects/snoopsnitch/wiki/DeviceList)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It just remind me dirty 'hack' from 2005-2010: if you set format for SMS as "E-Mail" on _Siemens C65 /C72_ phone, then send SMS from this _Siemens phone_ to _SonyEricsson K210 /K750_ phone -- this SMS on _SonyEricsson phone_ shown as _sent from anonymous_ ;-)

<comment><USER5> That might be my fault. I worked on the tcpip and sms protocol stacks for the 55 and 65 series Siemens phones..

Sorry..

I know of at least one small Easter egg if anyone has a S65 lying around somewhere. I don't believe it was discovered by anyone before. Might also work on the 55 devices - don't quite remember as it was a long time ago.

<comment><USER14> > I don't believe it was discovered by anyone before.

It was so funny when I discover this Easter egg and then use it for trolling own friends... Awesome time where I was like "phone hacker" :-D

Thanks Siemens developers that gave us time for thinking...

      ╔═══════════════════╗
      ║                   ║
      ║                   ║
      ║  Please, wait...  ║
      ║   ●  ●  ●  ◐  ○   ║
      ║                   ║
      ║                   ║
      ╚═══════════════════╝

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> SMS was always an effective procedure writing to certain parts of the phone without checks

</comment><comment><USER16> > Setting the PID to 0x64 would be a silent SMS known as a 'type 0' SMS which > all handsets receive and must acknowledge without indicating its receipt to > the user. As previously mentioned, this has been used by law enforcement to > actively 'ping' a handset on a network.

I don't like that. Why should a device that I have paid for contain this backdoor? Manufacturers should not forget from whom they get the money.

It might be difficult to fix in hardware but if it is handled in software then open source projects like Android could do it and do not reply to silent SMS or display them to the user.

<comment><USER5> Actually the reply to the ping originates from the network itself and not the phone and it would work with any class of SMS - you just need to set the "delivery receipt" bit in the SMS. Then the network will send a receipt to the sender when the message has been delivered.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Unrelated to the article, but when I zoomed in to 150%+ in Chrome, this image [1] turned into this image [2]:

[https://www.contextis.com/media/images/made/media/images/con...](https://www.contextis.com/media/images/made/media/images/content/RF_box.width-800_800_533_75.jpg)

[https://www.contextis.com/media/images/made/media/images/con...](https://www.contextis.com/media/images/made/media/images/content/RF_box.width-800_800_533_1.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER18> i used to use this (in my company) to provision OTP secrets. this was before iphone. after provisioning, OTP requests could be offline. thus no worries about sending an otp over sms.

of course the secret was itself encrypted via pre-provisioned Key Encrypting Key.

or users could manually enter the wrapped otp secret on the off chance the sms didn't work. it worked for nokia and blackberry so that covered nearly 100%.

the article talks about abuse but in my case quite a useful "backdoor".

</comment><comment><USER19> Nice little write up. Rather than using the USRP I'd probably use a LimeSDR, if you can get hold of one.

</comment><comment> noir-york Great article! Thanks for posting.</comment>


ACID in Theory and Practice - <AUTHOR> http://danweinreb.org/blog/acid-in-theory-and-practice <comment><USER2> Good article. Too many people just keep using the "ACID" term without really understanding what their transactional semantics are.

A good example of bumps you might hit is a problem I encountered a while ago: the default level of transaction isolation in postgres is "Read Committed", not "Serializable" as the SQL standard mandates. This sounds fine, until you get constraint violations under load because of race conditions. See [http://jan.rychter.com/enblog/2009/6/6/postgresql- transactio...](http://jan.rychter.com/enblog/2009/6/6/postgresql- transactions.html) if you want the full story.

BTW, I suspect problems like the one I encountered exist in lots of software systems, they just rarely get discovered.

<comment><USER3> The VAST majority of database transactions operate correctly in READ COMMITTED mode. A vanishingly small amount need REPEATABLE READ, and even fewer need SERIALIZABLE, which, in reality, is not actually truly serializable in any MVCC database. The transaction isolation semantics in SQL were created before MVCC databases took hold and generally only roughly represent their intentions in an MVCC implementation.

<comment><USER4> Do any databases allow you to specify that a transaction needs a particular mode, and then that mode is implemented only for that transaction? e.g.,

      START TRANSACTION MODE READ REPEATABLE;

or something like that. It would seem to be a way to only use the extra resources when consistency is paramount. Of course it would take a lot of careful thought to determine which transactions need this mode...

<comment><USER5> PostgreSQL can do that: [http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/sql-set- transactio...](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/sql-set- transaction.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Posted this on Dan's blog, but will add here too:

A counterpoint to the nobody really uses full isolation levels is VoltDB. Due to it's unique single-threaded architecture, it can ONLY perform transactions with full serializability guarantees, and it does it with remarkable performance. Our head of field engineering, Tim Callaghan, used to be a die- hard Oracle user and he keeps saying how refereshing it is to actually not have to think about concurrency.

<comment><USER7> It is a triumph of vendor marketing (Hi, John Hugg!) that reasonably informed engineers think ACID == SQL/relational and that NoSQL == EC. Both are false. As a couple of examples, have a look at Google Percolator <http://research.google.com/pubs/pub36726.html> and Scalaris <http://code.google.com/p/scalaris/> .

<comment><USER6> I am John Hugg. I do work for VoltDB. I am proud of our transaction isolaton.

Not sure why this comment was a reply to me though. I've never claimed all NoSQL is EC, not all SQL/Relational is ACID. I totally agree there is a lot of unfortunate confusion, though I wouldn't limit the blame.

<comment><USER7> From the VoltDB FAQ (<http://community.voltdb.com/faq#id545596>):

Key-Value stores are a mechanism for storing arbitrary data (i.e. values) based on individual keys. Distributing Key-Value stores is simple, since there is only one key. However, there is no structure within the data store and no transactional reliability provided by the system.

<comment><USER6> Sorry. I didn't write it and I'll see what I can do about toning down the language. In the defense of the text, while some Key-Value stores provide atomic operations on individual values, I'm not aware of many that offer actual transactions in the traditional sense of the term.

If you want to complain about our marketing, feel free to email Fred Holahan (fholahan at voltdb.com). He didn't write everything on our website, but he's in charge.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What I have seen in the real world is that different parts of those guarantees are used in different situations. ACID guarantees are often relaxed, as he rightly says, but for some transactions or reports it is absolutely critical to get it right and performance is secondary. A missed deadline or an error in an important financial report can be an existential threat to a company. That's why database technology is bound to be changing very very slowly for mission critical tasks. It's not an academic issue.

</comment><comment><USER9> "Oracle DB has more than one "isolation level". The strongest, READ REPEATABLE, provides ACID transactions."

i couldn't read his blabber past this point. Before talking about something you don't know about, check the docs at least:

\---

[http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b283...](http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28318/consist.htm#i17856)

"Oracle Database offers the read committed and serializable isolation levels, as well as a read-only mode that is not part of SQL92. Read committed is the default."

\---

To make it clear:

1\. there is no READ REPEATABLE in Oracle

2\. in general, among the isolation levels, READ REPEATABLE isn't the strongest

</comment><comment><USER3> Most people don't operate in a 100% ACID environment. However, This has a pretty low impact on web applications, so many of us can breathe easy. PostgreSQL's default isolation level is READ COMMITTED and InnoDB's default isolation level is REPEATABLE READ. While this might seem like a big difference, the SQL standard is pretty loose in the definition of these, and because of their implementations, they have roughly equivalent consequences. From what I understand, most InnoDB users that demand better performance in high concurrency situations switch the default to READ COMMITTED.</comment>


Show HN: Turn your fancy, expensive computer into a stupid typewriter - <AUTHOR> https://couchto50k.club/write-only/ <comment><USER2> I was expecting the graphic to animate as I type, with the ribbon holder jumping up and down, maybe even display the text itself, and hoping to hear that satisfying sound of the letters against the platen. Obviously the shutdown hasn't lasted long enough.

I'm only half joking. I like the concept of re-implementing typewriter constraints on the writing process, but the skeumorphism was lacking. It took me a second to figure out why there were 2 text boxes, and the word-based tokenization is not type-writer like at all.

More importantly, one key aspect of the typewriter was lacking: the immobility of the cursor. In a typewriter, it was the page/canvas that moved, and your cursor stayed fixed. You could type paragraphs even an entire page without moving your head or even your eyeballs by just staring at the contact point of the letters.

Searching for "typewriter simulator" found this which is very close to what I was imagining: [https://uniqcode.com/typewriter/](https://uniqcode.com/typewriter/)

It even recreates the problem of missed letters if you type too fast (though I suspect it's a bug). At least it doesn't jam.

<comment><USER3> >missed letters if you type too fast (though I suspect it's a bug)

It states it's intentional:

>Just like a real manual typewriter, you can only press one character key at a tim

I have never used typewriter, but I don't think this is correct, the limitation should apply only for adjacent keys, not globally for all keys. This is the whole point of QWERTY layout, to type faster by spacing letters in words as far as possible to avoid jamming typewriter.

<comment><USER4> Nope. Letters from almost any part of the keyboard could jam the machine if you typed fast enough. That was one of the reasons that the IBM Selectric typewriter were so popular with professional typists. The ball mechanism had nothing to jam against.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been taking a writing class through Second City, and I've found it incredibly useful to write out my first drafts on paper, by hand. I don't think I'm losing any time by having to type my second draft into the computer afresh - you're going to be looking at it anyway, and it's useful to be forced to reread every word. It's easy to skip over parts if you don't need to touch them.

There's the bonus that my notebook had no flashing lights, no notifications, no way for me to switch to my email.

Also I enjoy the tactility of a fountain pen on paper.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, this is a great tactic for those inclined. I'm afraid I'm too impatient. I can type _much_ faster than I can write long-hand, and there's a better chance of my being able to decipher it later. :)

<comment><USER5> It depends what you're writing. I find the writing time to not be a big impediment - for creative writing, I have to think about what's coming next anyway. If I were writing other things, it night make more of a difference.

<comment><USER6> For me in creative writing, "what happens next", tends to appear in large batches of inspiration, and I really want the high bandwidth of a keyboard to make sure I can record all/most of it before it decoheres. It's a personal thing. I always respect those with the patience to draft longhand. :)

<comment><USER5> Fair enough! I'm writing mostly things of a short nature -- this class focused on satirical writing, so under 1000 words. I've also done some sketch comedy, so perhaps five pages. It might be very different if I were writing anything longer, that didn't require tiny pieces to fit together.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a concept that comes up fairly often and I must stress that what works for one person may not work for everyone else, whether that's writing longhand on paper, a mechanical or electric typewriter, dedicated word processing device, WordPerfect 5.1 in DOS, Microsoft Word, Google Sheets, Notepad, Emacs, Vim, iA Writer, or anything else.

And though constraints can be helpful in some cases, I don't find the appeal to nostalgia like this site uses to be all that useful. Again, find what works for you.

And I find this particular implementation very hard to use, because text jumps from the input box to another box as I type, which is very distracting. The Hacker News comment input box is easier to work with and use as typewriter than this is.

<comment><USER8> Shout out to WordGrinder, a word processor (not a text editor) for the Terminal:

[http://cowlark.com/wordgrinder/](http://cowlark.com/wordgrinder/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is cool! In the spirit of "an app can be a home-cooked meal", I wrote something similar in the last few weeks: [https://github.com/jasonahills/wemustgoforward](https://github.com/jasonahills/wemustgoforward)

<comment><AUTHOR> Parallel invention! Do you want to be Newton or Leibniz?

I'll be honest. Your typewriter has a better enamel finish. :)

<comment><USER9> I'll take Leibniz. That said, I think the actual typewriter inventors have both of us beat by a fair amount. :)

How has the "typewriter" changed the way that you draft?

<comment><AUTHOR> Right now I mainly use it in my morning warm-ups: I'll set a timer for five minutes and get as many words down as I can. It's taken some getting used to, but it's definitely helping me learn to Just Write. I plan to start using it for drafting my WIP soon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Expensive Typewriter: [http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/DEC/pdp-1/...](http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/DEC/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1972.102650079.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> I didn't realize it was such a long tradition! :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've enjoyed writing short (mostly ghost) stories for friends and family over the last number of years, but I've never considered going for something like 50K words (and as a runner, I did appreciate the analogy!) until now. Thank you for sharing this!

This might be a bit tangential, but over the last few months I've been working on a collaborative writing project called Storylocks ([https://www.storylocks.com](https://www.storylocks.com)) to make writing practice more fun and be able to riff on other writers' ideas. Excited to see more applications in the creative writing space coming out of the woodwork!

<comment><AUTHOR> It's nice to know someone got the joke. :) Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think that learning to type on an actual typewriter makes these kinds of exercises not as useful for me. Although I learned on electric typewriters that allowed one full line of text, displayed in a LCD, to be typed before "printing", the first half of the class we were not allowed to use this feature.

When I want to put words down without intrusion, I disable spellcheck and generally don't find myself that concerned with mispelling.

<comment><AUTHOR> I bet. I'm in the first generation raised on Mavis Beacon, and I've been writing in malleable text environments most of my life. The temptation to edit as I go can be overwhelming, and I sometimes envy the writers who were forced by their tools to work in actual drafts.

<comment><USER13> What's whiteout for if not edit as you go? I used so much of it back in the day.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha, now that you mention it, I remember my mom using a lot of white-out too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I would like it more if the "full-screen" mode was almost completely the content written, similar to a typewriter display.

No picture of a typewriter, minimal controls, a small box for the new line, and everything else is what you've typed so far.

<comment><USER15> Check out my app: [https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/](https://getcoldturkey.com/writer/)

It looks a little like Word, and there's no new line box, but it has the other things you mentioned. You can also set it to block everything else on your computer until you write a certain number of words, or for a certain amount of time. I'm adding typewriter scrolling soon too.

The pro features let you disable certain keys, etc. but you get a lot of value out of the free version.

<comment><AUTHOR> This looks great. I wouldn't have guessed typewriter-mode from "advanced key controls". For my use case, I needed to disallow any going back and editing. If Cold Turkey can do that, you may have yourself a new customer. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> For the writing-on-paper crew, of which I am a longtime member-

For decades I have worked my way through a box of Levenger Circa paper a month, writing with Namiki retractable fountain pens- later Zebra Steel ballpoints-

I love thick, tactile writing paper and ergonomic pens but have been able to transition pretty well to writing on a Remarkable tablet. It isn't quite the same, doesn't always engender the same flow, but it is pretty close and I am in eager anticipation for the next round of hardware coming this summer.

If you are looking for a digital bridge for the paper writing habit, check out the Remarkable.

(Just an impressed user, no relationship).

Cheers.

</comment><comment><USER17> This reminds me of how Jonathan Franzen writes on a giant old laptop with no internet. (Forgot where I read this.) Different dimension of keeping it simple.

Interesting to contrast with the likes of grammarly or google suggestions. I can't stand having that stuff in my ear while writing. However, I did have a friend who was a non-native English speaker and he liked it because he felt less self-conscious about screwing up grammar elements when writing.

<comment><USER18> My approach is to do heavy writing in a plain text editor, then I paste into a word doc and format. Having to worry about spell correct and auto-indent doing weird stuff, grammar suggestions, all very distracting when you're trying to brain-dump words into a document.

<comment><USER19> Drafts ([https://getdrafts.com/](https://getdrafts.com/)) was made for this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> i bet there is an emacs minor mode that disables backspace and various other editing commands. If not, someone ought to do it.

<comment><USER21>
        C-X C-Z cat > my.txt

\-- _S 'il vous plaît_</comment></comment>


Advice for Entrepreneurs Entering "Small Business Puberty" - <AUTHOR> https://hightouch.co/small-business-puberty-remembering-who-you-are-where-you-belong-and-finding-your-people/ <comment><AUTHOR> Many young, small businesses try to cast as wide a net as possible across markets--making it easy to forget the original mission. It's called "small business puberty," and this entrepreneur offers advice for coming out on the other side better than you went in.</comment>


[yourname.per.ws] Own your Personal Wordpress website For Free - <AUTHOR>

https://per.ws/ <comment><USER2> [http://wordpress.com](http://wordpress.com). Own your personal WordPress website for free</comment>


Using Istio in production? - <AUTHOR> Istio has been announced a couple of months ago. I was wondering, is anybody operating it in production ? How happy are you with it ? <comment><USER2> The same question with you :)

Best Regards,</comment>


Seeking the Source of Ebola - <AUTHOR> http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/ebola/quammen-text <comment><USER2> Highly recommended this "Ebola - The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus" book.

Same author as the linked NatGeo article. It is sort of a short form book. I picked up to read on for at four hour flight and finished it, and I am not a speed reader.

<comment><USER3> Thanks! [http://amzn.com/B00O3GS0FE](http://amzn.com/B00O3GS0FE)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Open-source license for self-documenting code? - <AUTHOR>

Hi!
I'm about to release my Physics PhD thesis. My thesis is automatically generated from prose, code, and raw data, going from raw data to a complete document without human intervention. The codebase spans thousands of lines of Octave, Gnuplot, LyX, Make, and many other GNU-licensed tools. I'd like to make it freely available, certainly for inspection and most likely under modification and sharing terms similar to the GPL.
The trouble is that the single git repo is both a document and code. The document is meaningless without the code, and the code is meaningless without the document. It seems that GPL-like licensing is inappropriate for documentation, and documentation licensing like the FDL is inappropriate for code.
Are there licenses that treat code on equal footing with documentation?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> [IANAL]

GPL comes into play if the source code of a GPL's application is modified. For example, it applies if you modified the source code for Octave.

The source code that you write for Octave to execute is typically not subject to GPL. Considering the case where you typed in code from a textbook for a course is illustrative. Typing in the code doesn't make it GPL'd and the copyright remains as before. This means that unless your thesis contains code that modifies GPL'd programs, GPL doesn't come in to play. [1]

If that's the case, I'd recommend considering something like Creative Commons unless you have a strong desire to actually enforce a more restrictive licence. However, sponsors ans/or your university may also have license requirements, so you may want to consult an attorney.

Good luck and congratulations.

[1] and in that case you are well on your way to making the modifications available.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed on all points. In this case, I'm actually interested in a share-alike license. I'm making this code available because it makes the research world stronger. If someone else extends it, I'd like to encourage them to share the code back to the community. So, the GPL comes up of my own volition.

In the case of prose, though, I want people to be clear whose words are whose. Even changing a word or two can change the meaning of the document significantly. The GNU FDL appears to address this sort of thing, but doesn't apply to code.

In this case, the prose is laden with included code, so I'm sitting between licenses.

<comment><USER2> One of the issues with open sourcing projects after their done is that it's often a lot of work to clean things up.

But to me, it comes down to enforcement. If you're not willing to lawyer up, it's rather pointless to get involved in enforceable licenses that lie between all-rights-reserved and do-whatever-you-want. To put it another way, if hiring a lawyer for advice on licensing seems like overkill, how much does the licensing really matter deep down where push comes to shove?

Considering that in any academic setting, people should cite you regardless of license and those who don't wouldn't even with all-rights-reserved, why make it harder for the good guys?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm primarily concerned with encouraging code-sharing. If it's explicit in my act of sharing that "I'm sharing code with you with the understanding that you'll share with me", then perhaps it's more likely that other research groups will share openly, too.

Our field is on the verge of developing an open code-sharing culture; this is a chance to define it.

<comment><USER2> GPL is conditional sharing. Those conditions can impede acceptance of the offer.

Don't get me wrong, I like GPL and admire Stallman's position. I just don't have the dogma in me to believe that lawyering up is always worth the bother of threatening to do so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The BSD licenses mention code and documentation together ("this software and associated documentation files") so I assume any of those would provide you the same protection for your entire work. I don't know much about the GPL.

You could always make the source (of both code and documentation) public but non-free, and make the generated code and documentation available separately with their own liberal licenses.

By the way, did you use literate programming? I'm always curious about large programs made in that style, it's very rare.

<comment><AUTHOR> Alas, I'm not so formal as to do anything so beautiful as literate programming. This is perhaps just slightly higher quality than your usual physicist spaghetti code. It runs, it works, and it's reproducible.

I can't figure out if the non-free "No License" option on GitHub is truly non- free. The GitHub terms of use grant the right to view and "to fork" without any clear definition of what "forking" means in that context. Is that "fork so you can see what it looks like" or "fork so you can use it and incorporate it into your own analysis without sharing"?

If it's the former, I'll just throw it up on GitHub unlicensed or with an "all rights reserved" tag, as making the guts of the code visible is my highest priority. I'd be very happy to table for later the actual issue of selecting a license (and appending it to the header of files in >5 different interoperating computer languages).

Thanks!</comment></comment>


Collected Quotes of DPR, Founder of The Silk Road and Radical Libertarian - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/04/29/collected-quotations-of-the-dread-pirate-roberts-founder-of-the-drug-site-silk-road-and-radical-libertarian/

<comment><USER2> You're a boss!</comment>


Using NYC Taxi Data to Identify Muslim Taxi Drivers - <AUTHOR> http://theiii.org/index.php/997/using-nyc-taxi-data-to-identify-muslim-taxi-drivers/ <comment><USER2> If you dig through to the source reddit posting [1], you can see that the post only really puts 6 different individual taxi IDs out there for visualization. To me, only the first 4 seem like a good visual fit for the prayer times, and the overall trip heatmap [2] suggests that they may just be part of a larger pattern of eating/taking a break at sunrise, noon, and sunset for all cab drivers. While the blog posting is begging the question of whether or not the data release contains personal data as a result of these findings, much more invasive findings have already been published (and posted to HN) with this NYC Taxi data, like corroborating individual trips by high profile people. [3] Notwithstanding the privacy issues and questionable methods used to obfuscate the data, I personally think that the release is a great step in the right direction for open data.

[1] [https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/2t201h/ide...](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/2t201h/identifying_muslim_cabbies_from_trip_data_and/) [2] [https://i.imgur.com/lyK0qTI.png](https://i.imgur.com/lyK0qTI.png) [3] [http://research.neustar.biz/2014/09/15/riding-with-the- stars...](http://research.neustar.biz/2014/09/15/riding-with-the-stars- passenger-privacy-in-the-nyc-taxicab-dataset/)

EDIT: For better or worse, deducing ethnicity, country of origin, and/or religion is probably much easier based on this data set [4]. People have come up with analyses like this [5]. The data analysis is great, but my fingers are crossed that tabloid newspapers and their ilk don't pick this up and run off xenophobic, fear-mongering articles.

[4] [https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Transportation/Medallion- Drive...](https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Transportation/Medallion-Drivers- Active/jb3k-j3gp) [5] [http://vizual- statistix.tumblr.com/image/107987401281](http://vizual- statistix.tumblr.com/image/107987401281)

</comment><comment><USER3> In Copenhagen, it was revealed a few years ago that racist customers who didn't want a muslim taxi driver told the central when ordering a cab that they were 'bringing a large dog', and the operators at the centrals knew and respected this as the secret code that the customer wanted an ethnic Danish driver. This is obviously illegal but I dont know whether they stopped the practise.

<comment><USER4> OT: Sorry, that made me laugh...I can't even imagine how that would even work in New York...you'd be waiting forever to get a ride; the Redditor mentions a previous name analysis of drivers (TLC releases names/licenses of taxi drivers as another dataset) indicating that maybe half of all NYC taxi drivers are Muslim.

After living in New York, I have a Pollyannish belief that if you were inclined to be unconsciously racist...you'd give up that inclination in day- to-day life...or else, how could you cope with the sensory/panic overload? Everyday you're exposed to hundreds, sometimes thousands of people of every ethnicity and religion, just being normal.

<comment><USER2> Despite the diversity of NYC as a whole, my anecdotal experiences suggest that people can still harbor those sorts of unconscious thoughts while living their entire lives in a "diverse" city. I say "diverse" because there are lots of enclaves in NYC, sometimes with stark divides across streets. (See the Dot Map [1]). Outside of gentrifying/gentrified areas like Long Island City or Prospect Heights, or white flight areas like Morris Park, neighborhoods look rather homogeneous. (Exercise for the reader: see if you can find out where the Landmark/Historic Districts are in Brooklyn.)

[1] [http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/](http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/)

<comment> rkuykendall-com Unfortunately, last time it was posted, it was noted that that map has drawing bias. The dots are drawn in order of race, not randomly, and so the earliest color dots are underrepresented and the later dots overrepresented. I'm afraid I can't remember the which order they are drawn in. Just something to keep in mind.

<comment><USER5> Interesting, I wasn't aware of that, thanks for bringing it up. From the code[0], it looks like it's drawn in the order [White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Other]. You're definitely right, that would skew things.

[0] [https://github.com/unorthodox123/RacialDotMap/blob/master/do...](https://github.com/unorthodox123/RacialDotMap/blob/master/dotfile.py)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Yeah, the OP has serious blinders here. Like the student who threw alarmist BS about how the data could be used to track visits to stripper clubs...this seems to be an example of cherry-picking the data. So, I'm not good at discerning deviation from thousands of small dots...what's the numerical measure of the correlation here? What are the significance of those blue lines when they show a trend over empty black space?

And what does the analysis/trendlines look like on drivers who can be discerned as _not_ being Muslim?

I'm all for personal data protection, and the TLC erred in not anonymizing the data. But this weak analysis and alarmist bullshit by a PhD serves little but to give governments more excuse to hide public data.

edit: Linking to someone more well versed than me, regarding the cherry- picking of data in the "Riding with the Stars" article [http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2014/11/21/the- antidote...](http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/infolaw/2014/11/21/the-antidote-for- anecdata-a-little-science-can-separate-data-privacy-facts-from-folklore/)

<comment><USER6> > What are the significance of those blue lines when they show a trend over > empty black space?

The blue lines are not trends, but prayer times plotted on top of the graph.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Observant Muslims _</comment>


Personal Space Is a Fear Response - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/personal-space-is-a-fear-response <comment><USER2> Wait, how exactly perception of "personal space" is a response; secondly, please drop the pretense that "fear is bad, mkay". It is perfectly fine to feel fear when a red hot poker enters your personal space (i.e. it can harm you). There's nothing to be fixed here, system self-preservation subroutines work just fine, thank you.

Oh, and, _edit_ , just because amygdala is partial to fear responses, it doesn't make all the actions that it takes part in "fear". It controls a lot of other functions, such as pleasure, sexual behavior, aggression, memory consolidation; not to mention that a lot of information passes through it both into the brain and out of it. Please, age of phrenology is over. It's not coming back. Human brain and human behavior is not "black and white" anymore, it's never going to be. It's a complex system of neuron junctions and pathways some of which are more specialized than others, sure, but, to reiterate, the incredible malleability and the sheer number of connections in human brain make neuroscientists even doubt the necessity of well established "centers" such as Broca's area. God. Damn. It.

<comment><USER3> Someone took the article personally.

<comment><USER4> The article happens to pattern match a current politically-charged argument in which opposition to some particular position is labeled as coming from fear, which is labeled a -phobia, which is therefore labeled as being irrational and whoever has it is mentally ill. Unsurprisingly, people rarely respond to this by saying "Oh, yes, you are correct, you have cogently shown me I am mentally ill, thank you so much for pointing this out!" and instead develop a rather hostile response to anything that even smells like the argument.

I actually somewhat carefully read the article to see if it ever suggested that fear in response to personal space violation was bad, and I don't think it did. I do think that it poorly supported its case, as a couple of other people are arguing, because just because certain activations look the same doesn't mean they are the same, but it never claimed this was a bad response.

Personally, based on how it feels from the inside, I can well believe that personal space is _related to_ fear, and may activate some of the same circuits as fear, but that it "is" a fear is going beyond the evidence. Especially given the overloading of the word "fear". I am "afraid" of touching a hot oven, but I'm not running around in constant fear. It's a perfectly rational, controlled, situational "fear", not "a fear". Personal space violations strike me as rather more like the rational, controlled, situational case even if we are going to call that a "fear" response, which is perfectly fine scientifically, but serializes into conventional English poorly.

<comment><USER5> For me, I was reading "fear response" as physiological. A ball comes flying towards my face, my body releases adrenaline, my heart rate spikes, I tense or flinch. In that case I _also_ experience the emotion of fear.

But sometimes the emotion is absent, see generalized anxiety disorder. I wasn't _afraid_ , but if you observed my heart rate, breathing, blood pressure two summers ago you would've thought I was having a constant panic attack. I wasn't experiencing any fear (emotion), if anything it was confusion (I'd not experienced anxiety on that level in years so I wasn't prepared for it again).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The fact that fear is the response to a perceived invasion of personal space doesn't mean that your perception of personal space is a fear response.

You can't just lump things into two categories: [https://youtu.be/bXKvRNnXF3A](https://youtu.be/bXKvRNnXF3A)

</comment><comment><USER7> Marshall McLuhan has an alternate but related theory for the difference between "close talkers" and those who like to be able to see the whole person when talking.

In The Gutenberg Galaxy, McLuhan infers that "close talkers" are often tribal cultures who rely primarily on the spoken word for means of communication whereas highly literate cultures like to be able to see the whole person because of the stress the print medium has on the eye.

</comment><comment><USER8> Why are so many of the commenters on this page acting as if they were personally attacked? Nowhere in the article are "fear responses" described as bad or unusual.

The knee-jerk hostility and lack of any sense of irony is quite telling.

<comment><USER2> Please point me to the articles' irony. It's easy to miss in that mess.

<comment><USER8> Histrionic knee-jerks reactions are a common response to fear. Numerous people here are simultaneously announcing that they are protective of their personal space, and lashing out at the article -- one person even admitted that it triggered his "flight or fight" response. All of this is anecdotal proof of the thesis.

(Just as an additional anecdote of the flip side of this, I have no personal space issues -- I like crowds and subways -- and have somewhat reckless tendencies)

<comment><USER2> Histrionic statements receive histrionic reactions; I fail to see connection with fear, fright or threat. I mean, we're all just flinging poo here and that's about it.

What got to me is not the title, but the way how an fascinating topic was dragged down to the gutter and then just choked to death.

I mean personal space is just another boundary, which one has to cross to "get up close and personal". It is an act of aggression. Now who displays that aggression, is what determines what kind of response you'll get. If it's your sweetheart in a sexy mood, the response will be sexual. If it's a skinhead with a knife, it will be a fear response. The action is the same: violation of personal space; the circumstances are not. You could write a dissertation on that alone. And well here we have a person obviously not in the field, writing a biology column on neuroscience using one quote of neuroscientist and a case study of a brain-damaged patient to drive her point that "personal space is a fear response" and not even doing that well. Sorry. The article is just bad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why the assumption that it's always fear-based? Personal space boundaries are also cues to kinship ties, and sexual willingness. To my understanding, this is observed even in much of the animal kingdom.

<comment><USER10> Exactly, I'm not afraid of something when I feel that some woman enters my personal space against my will. I'm just not interested.

I'm also not afraid of the colleague entering my personal space, I'm just not interested in friendship with that particular person.

<comment><USER5> I find language interesting. The word "afraid" suggests some conscious level understanding of the fear you're feeling. A fear response doesn't require you to be conscious of it.

When someone stands too close behind me, particularly if it's unexpected or a stranger, while I'm not _afraid_ (I am not concerned about being assaulted in any form), my body still tenses up. That's a fear response.

Something comes quickly at you, seen in your peripheral vision, you react by flinching, perhaps some adrenaline. A fear response, it may cause an emotional response of fear, or it may not. But it creates the physiological response to it.

<comment><USER10> I'm not a native english speaker so my use of the language is more basic than yours.

But yes I agree, if a stranger is for some reason standing very close behind me in an unexpected situation (in public transportation it would be okay) then of course there would be a fear response directly leading to either moving away from that person or showing aggression. (fight or flight)

But I don't believe that this fear is wrong on my part and that I should do something about it.

It is unexpected and unwanted behaviour in our Western societies and this person should be aware of this and behave appropriately. If the person does not then he/she either doesn't know what our social rules are (can be dangerous) or something is wrong with that person (also dangerous)

For example: I am at a party and go home at night through some lonely street, in front of me (10 meters or so) there is some unknown women going the same way. The appropriate thing to do is to keep more distance so she is not afraid, even though I don't have any intentions of harming anyone. (but she cannot know this, I'm a stranger)

What do you propose how she should feel if for some reason a person would not keep a safe distance? Is she wrong if she is afraid in such a situation? I don't think so.

<comment><USER5> > But I don't believe that this fear is wrong on my part and that I should do > something about it.

I agree. And I think the article is saying the same. Fear (the emotion) is an appropriate response to numerous things, including someone entering your personal space.

My response, poorly worded, sorry, was intended to say that a fear _response_ is different from _fear_ (the emotion). Even a non-stranger could elicit a fear _response_ from you, even a trusted person or lover, by entering your personal space. But it may not trigger the _emotion_ of fear. That is, if I know you and trust you, you could be in my face during a conversation. I wouldn't fear you or the situation. But I may still experience the heightened senses, the increased heart rate, due to your proximity because of a physiological response (fear response).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> je-so Personal space is a natural right!

Even animals has this right except farm animals.

</comment><comment><USER11> This has been said over and over and over again. Privacy is irrational, a response to fear.

Why model a future after a fear?

<comment><USER12> _...is irrational, a response to fear._

You do realize that fear isn't always (or even usually) irrational, right?

<comment><USER11> I do realize that.

What if a person is afraid of guns. Would the solution be for the government to subsidize body armors?

<comment><USER12> I have no idea what you're trying to get at here.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Clever (YC S12) Launches A Twilio For Educational Data - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/26/clever-launches-twilio-for-ed-data/

<comment><USER2> We built Clever because we realized that integration with legacy school systems was serious overhead for anyone building cool educational software. If you've run into this problem personally, we'd love to meet you.

Our API docs are at: <http://getclever.com/developers/docs>

<comment><USER3> Everything listed on your site is for K12 - any plans to support higher ed packages?

<comment><USER4> We're currently K-12 only. Higher Ed is something we'd love to do, but there's a lot to do in K-12 first.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's this years school MIS that claims not to be an MIS.... The last one was Instructure Canvas. The problem isn't a technical problem yet companies try to solve it with a new piece of technology.

The problem is two fold:

1) Legacy MIS' are a nightmare to migrate from. Legacy MIS' have horrible tie ins and proprietary data storage. Clever isn't open source. So despite it having an API the software is still proprietary. Clever doesn't solve this problem. Getting your data out of the legacy MIS will still be a nightmare and the resources required to move data from each MIS available in the market at the moment will be extremely costly.

2) Training to use a new MIS often outweighs the cost of the software itself. Because the training costs are so high any monetary saving from moving to lower cost MIS' is canceled out.

Clever isn't what the market needs. Y-Combinator doesn't have the resources to compete w/ Capita/Pearson/RM/Serco just to name the leaders in the UK market. Imho it is a naive effort unless they are going to sink a lot of resources in.

I do wish Clever the best of look but Y-Comb should know that this is a really mature market place and making software that's main pitch is "REAL TIME LEARNING" shows a complete misunderstanding of the market.

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the feedback. Just so you know, we're not creating an MIS or SIS, so we're not trying to do either (1) or (2).

<comment><USER7> > It's this years school MIS that claims not to be an MIS.

it seems like you are claiming not to be an MIS!?!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't think "a Twilio for educational data" does this product justice. It sounds more like the missing API for every schools' internal data systems, and it's a great idea.

<comment><USER9> I don't get why they are referring to this as a Twilio for x either; it seems like they're just saying that it is an API that abstracts away some things, which quite a few do.

Just last week I met someone from Code for America where they talked about creating an API for working with local governments. This seems like an education version of that. (Although perhaps Code for America isn't famous enough yet to use it as a comparison in a TechCrunch article.)

Edit: The reason why I don't think Twilio is all that unique for making that comparison is you could call it the "HopStop for schools" (since HopStop allows you to get mass transit directions without having to interface with each bus company, subway system, etc.) or the "Singly for schools" since it allows you to abstract away Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, etc. I suppose that Twilio just has better branding, though.

Edit2: Code for America seems like a more direct comparison (but perhaps more obscure and not as suitable for marketing purposes) since it involves creating an API for programmers to use to connect with government institutions that use a diverse set of typically hard-to-interact-with-programmatically software.

<comment><USER4> If you want to build an app that uses voice/SMS, but don't want to deal with a bunch of complex telecom systems, you use Twilio.

If you want to build an app that needs student data, but don't want to deal with a bunch of complex student data systems, you should use Clever!

That said, I love the grandparent's description of what we do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> As an ed-tech cofounder at a company that needs data like this, this is exciting. You guys are YC backed and from all appearances you'll be in direct competition with the Imagine K12 backed LearnSprout <http://learnsprout.com/> . It's exciting in that clearly smart people are working on this problem and I hope the competition pushes both companies to make great products.

</comment><comment><USER11> What are some example use cases for an API like this? Perhaps you could add a page like Twilios How To's (while we're making the comparison).

</comment><comment><USER12> the doc page is beautiful!!

<comment><USER13> <http://swagger.wordnik.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Not just big data, but big data standardization.

</comment><comment><USER15> I sell an educational product where teachers have to enter all their students into my system, and some have hundreds of students. Unfortunately, it looks like I must wait until Clever has signed up many schools before this is useful to me. Unlike Twilio which is useful to developers out of the box, this seems to have a marketplace challenge.

<comment><USER4> If you have entire schools or districts signing up for your product, Clever is a great fit. We build co-branded signup forms for developers like yourselves, which make the account setup process dead simple for schools.

Sending you an email now!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Will this integrate with schools' registration systems (add class, drop class, is-class-full, etc?). When I was in school I made some decent college cash with something I built called "Classgrabber" that registered for hard-to-get classes automatically. I had to write a registration "bot" that acted like the web browser. With an API, it would have been much easier, and more open to innovation. The school's response? They outlawed Classgrabber, but it didn't stop people from using it (after all, they needed to get their classes).</comment>


Introducing Capsicum: Practical Capabilities for UNIX - <AUTHOR> http://www.usenix.org/publications/login/2010-12/openpdfs/watson.pdf <comment><USER2> If you don't want a PDF or scribd, clicky to Cambridge project page: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/capsicum/>

<comment><USER3> In particular, the Usenix talk about Capsicum has been recorded: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raNx9L4VH2k>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Somewhat related -- I have always thought it would be cool to build a capability system like this into a language with a strong H-M type system. I think it would be an interesting study to have the bare minimum privileges passed via type dependences. Done well this would have any given bit of code only have the bare minimum to do its job.

Also: some types of automatic security checks at compile time too!

<comment><USER3> Have you seen <http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1635> (Lightweight static capabilities)? Author's page: [http://okmij.org/ftp/Computation/lightweight- dependent-typin...](http://okmij.org/ftp/Computation/lightweight-dependent- typing.html)

<comment><USER4> I had not seen that, thanks for the pointer!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A note for those who thought that Unix has had capabilities forever. POSIX defines something called capabilities that are very, very different from a true capability system. This is a true capability system.</comment>


Gene Smoke - <AUTHOR> http://miraclejones.blogspot.com/2010/12/gene-smoke-i-learned-everything-i-know.html

<comment><USER2> Awesome entertainment. It felt like watching a scene from a dark movie, à la Tarantino. I'm sorta ashame to say that I'm even tempted to give some of those advices a try (not the killing and blowjob parts), even though I know this is probably pure fiction.

<comment><USER3> Pheromones are tricky things. And this: "We want exactly what is right for us, though we are often shocked at what this means." _scratches head and ponders_</comment></comment>


UNIX As Literature - <AUTHOR> http://insecure.org/stf/scoville_unix_as_literature.txt

<comment><USER2> The point of view of the article is very personal, but it is true that UNIX smells text, and I like this feeling when I'm using Emacs or vim, org making a script with awk, grep and the rest of the family.

I'm not a programmer at all, I use the computer to do science, and I feel quite comfortable with the UNIX toolbox. I don't know why, but it just sounds right, even though it might be quite arcane. Yesterday I did, quite fast, some nice figures using, basically, grep, awk and gnuplot, and a little bit of dc to do some calculations. But it is true that this figure could have been done with python, IDL or anything else.

The article point of view might not reflect reality, but I liked its love for words.

<comment><USER3> _Yesterday I did, quite fast, some nice figures using, basically, grep, awk and gnuplot, and a little bit of dc to do some calculations. But it is true that this figure could have been done with python, IDL or anything else._

True that you could have done it with python, or IDL, or dozens of other tools, but I'd challenge you to do it with the built in stuff that comes with Windows or MacOS <= 9. Those programs you mentioned are environments specialized for doing things like making figures (among other things). I doubt K&R would've said one of the main objectives of *nix is to make a system that can easily create figures. Something that unifies all the things you mentioned is that they are inherently text-based, while the OSes I mentioned are inherently not.

If you're a polyglot, you'll notice that there are some things you like about some languages, and things you don't like. So you might prefer to express some kinds of thoughts in one language, and this is equivalent to using a different (text-based) environment. But when you get down to it, you are expressing the thought through the lens of a spoken/written language, each of which has its own literature. Pictures, on the other hand, are fundamentally different, and I'd be hesitant to call a sculpture a piece of literature (although it may well be an incredible work of art). I'd be curious to know how many people in the author's Unix shop were Art History majors.

<comment><USER2> Yes, I'm a polyglot (I work in English and French, I live in Catalan and Spanish and I have fun in Esperanto). And sometimes I have fun trying to say things that sound ok in one language in another one and the results are usually quite interesting :-). I love words and I love to live in text mode.</comment></comment></comment>


China's reunification is the answer to the Taiwan question, needn't be peaceful - <AUTHOR> https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1174282.shtml <comment><USER2> > The only way to avoid non-peaceful means to achieve reunification is that > the island puts forward its own reunification plan, Zhou said

Reunification plan

1\. Development of independent judiciary in PRC.

2\. Democratization of PRC and free elections.

3\. Freedom of press.

..

10\. Unification</comment>


Invisible Bike Helmet Protects Head, and Fashion Sense - <AUTHOR> http://medgadget.com/2012/08/invisible-bike-helmet-protects-head-and-fashion-sense-video.html

<comment><USER2> Yeah - it's totally awesome a but few things to note to be the devils advocate.

1) It cost around $10 million to get it to this point - that's OK as they have got it working but it's a significant capital spend. 2) It cost $600 USD approx for 1 helmet 3) Once it's deployed, time for another $600 USD - it's a one-use helmet (hey it does save your life)

If they can get the price point down it would be totally awesome and they probably will with time. But until it provides a greater flexion point than the good old $20 bike helmet - it's probably not going to sell to governments etc who would be a huge market for this.

<comment><USER3> All bicycle helmets are one-use in that sense - if your helmet is involved in an impact, you're supposed to throw it away.

<comment><USER4> True, but hasn't everyone fallen off of a bicycle _without_ hitting their head? In other words, false positives cost $600 a pop. Perhaps that's totally insignificant. This is without a doubt an amazing accomplishment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A fashionable bike helmet isn't really "saving the world" by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a nice video.

Anyway, airbag vests already exist for motorcycles... There are various designs, protecting the body and the neck. I've never owned one, but it looks like they typically operate using a cable which is attached to the motorcycle and a CO2 cartridge. Cost is similar, maybe $500, and they are usually reusable assuming they aren't actually tweaked in the crash.

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4388056>

</comment><comment><USER7> "People wonder how girls could invent anything this technical"

Errr...what? I know it was a girl who said that, but jesus that sounds like a sexist thing to say.</comment>


Age, Race, and Gender Affect Software Engineering Pay - <AUTHOR> https://whoisnnamdi.com/age-race-gender-software-engineering-pay/ <comment><USER2> s/affect/are correlated with/

<comment><USER3> Author here

An important distinction!

I cover this and the overall methodology here [1]

[1] [https://whoisnnamdi.com/highest-paid-software- engineers-2020...](https://whoisnnamdi.com/highest-paid-software- engineers-2020/)</comment></comment>


Eligible iPhone 3GS owners can trade-up to an iPhone 4 for free at Radio Shack - <AUTHOR> http://www.edibleapple.com/eligible-iphone-3gs-owners-can-trade-up-to-an-iphone-4-for-free-at-radio-shack/

<comment><USER2> From the site: _To clarify, most iPhone 3GS owners aren't upgrade eligible. Most iPhone 3G owners probably are and can pick up the new iPhone for $100._

I'm sure this update was posted after the article was initially submitted. Still, a useful clarification.

</comment><comment><USER3> Really!? Afaik a iPhone 3gs on ebay can easily fetch $300-$400 why trade it away for $200. Drop me an email if somebody is selling an 3gs in good condition for $200.

<comment><USER4> Why so much? Or is it only for the ones that are unlocked?

<comment><USER3> Some reasons:

a) Ship to other countries

b) Unlocked phones so they can use it with other Carriers.

c) People who are not upgrade eligible from ATT and want a iPhone now (My wife)

d) People who dont want to add a 3g plan since they are in wifi areas most of the time etc.</comment></comment></comment>


Hacker News Restyled - <AUTHOR>

I just noticed the new design (and I like it), is this going to remain? <comment><USER2> They do this in some way every year for Christmas.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=408253>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1015550>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2034624>

Note: The above URLs and the current story number (3389705) give you an idea of the growth in number of posts/comments per year.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't see a new design. You should add a screenshot.

<comment><USER4> <http://i.imgur.com/wU7fq.png>

<comment><USER3> I guess my browser cached it. thanks

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> looks like christmas colors to me.

</comment><comment><USER6> I assume you mean the Xmas theme:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3389607>

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I hadn't noticed that discussion, thank you. And yes, your word "theme" is more correct than what I said (design).

<comment><AUTHOR> By the way, speaking of design, does anybody know, why HN still uses old HTML4 elements like <center> and <font>? Too conservative I think! I am for cutting edge HTML5/CSS3 slick design for HN!

<comment><USER6> My general understanding:

HN is a side project which does have a business purpose for Y-combinator in that they require applicants to have an HN account (and if you don't have one, you have to create one to fill out the application) and Paul Graham (if not others) will check your comments/make a mental note if they recognize you/some such when reading through your application. However, since it doesn't directly make money and is a free service (with a much, much larger membership than just the YC applicants), it gets whatever time and energy Paul Graham can spare. So restyling it is not a high priority.

There are a number of "themes" which have been written by members that you can add on top of it, if you care to. For example: [http://blog.vezquex.com/dark- and-wide-user-style-for-hacker-...](http://blog.vezquex.com/dark-and-wide- user-style-for-hacker-news?do-not-kill)

You can always search the site for others to find something you like (or write your own if you have such skills). But I get the impression that HN itself is unlikely to be overhauled any time soon in that regard.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, that would explain of course, thank you for your theory and the link.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> anyone knows the reason?

<comment><USER7> It's Christmas.

<comment><USER8> Hm.. no, that's not ringing any bells. Other ideas?</comment></comment></comment>


Roaming robots looking for metal to eat; what could go wrong? - <AUTHOR> https://cloverly.com/blog/new-energy-scavenger-powers-itself-by-eating-metal/ <comment><USER2> Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, OK; sorry.</comment></comment>