Why Taylor Swift Is Asking Congress to Update Copyright Laws - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/08/08/487291905/why-taylor-swift-is-asking-congress-to-update-copyright-laws <comment><USER2> Quite a flattering lead-in for the subject. I can sense the slant right out, but I stuck with the article for content. I follow the Safe Harbors argument closely and have several opinions on the matter, but I'll just point out something to keep in mind:

> _" It involves continuously finding more ways to save and downsizing. And > trying to keep ahead of the decline basically," Rosenthal says. "I had 11 > people working for me in the '90s and now I have two part-time people > working for me."_

Rosenthal is describing the absolute zenith of the profit making in recorded music that coincided with the CD becoming the dominant - and EXTREMELY PROFITABLE - format. Pining for that is like saying it's hard to make a decent living in the horse-carriage and buggy whip business. Time moves on, being disingenuous doesn't make me feel sympathetic to him. Rather, it sounds like the same old same old "We're getting ripped off, rather than doing the ripping off!" which is the earned reputation of "music business" in the grand scheme of things.

Granted, I think YouTube is garbage for having a 3rd party that - apparently - I have to pay $14.99 per release to have the Content ID system work for me. I'm still looking around and knocking on doors, but it makes me mad outright just thinking about such a strong-arming of "Pay us a larger sum than you could possibly hope to recoup from our system, which is, you know, able to identify your stuff but we won't until you pay us."

That's a different issue than Safe Harbor. I like Safe Harbor. I think, practically speaking, both sides are simply arguing the most extreme perspectives, which leaves a lot of middle ground. I prefer a reasonable middle-ground with the DMCA et al, and with DRM over regarding the bunniestudios case.

I know I'm in the minority, because I seem to dislike both parties' tactics and rhetoric equally.</comment>


Independent reviewers offer 80 suggestions to make Starliner safer - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/07/independent-reviewers-offer-80-suggestions-to-make-starliner-safer/ <comment><USER2> Turns out that NASA not betting on one horse is a good thing. Until Boeing flies with humans we have SpaceX at least.</comment>


Earthworms can reproduce in Mars soil simulant - <AUTHOR> https://www.wur.nl/en/newsarticle/Earthworms-can-reproduce-in-Mars-soil-simulant.htm <comment><USER2> It's crazy how scientists are researching worms for Mars and yet our scientists in agriculture actively preach practices that compact soil and kill soil biology. Monsanto chemicals and John Deeres tractors are ruining systems that literally self renew.

Maybe we should try to work with earth's nature here before trying to emulate it on another planet?

<comment><USER3> Do you have a source for any of this?

<comment><USER2> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1aR5OLgcc0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1aR5OLgcc0)

For more on this topic, please research:

\- no-till farming

\- polycultures (no monocultures)

\- cover crops (or cover soil when not in use)

\- reduce or eliminate chemical inputs

\- permaculture

<comment><USER3> Most farming is no-till now, because of the "chemicals" you seem to hate.

<comment><USER2> That is false. Most farm land is tilled, plowed, driven on by machines for seeding and harvest, and disturbed regardless of the chemical inputs.

<comment><USER3> I can only speak for my region. But plowing and cultivating has become a lot less common over the past few decades. Herbicides kill the weeds effectively which reduce the need for it.

I think you don't know what you are talking about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> But can they reproduce in the soil at the same range of air pressure found in habitats, with the same gravity / gas mixture? Can they still reproduce after 50 years?

<comment><USER5> Need to run that experiment on the ISS in a Mars-gravity centrifuge.

Despite a lifetime of 6-9 years, though, their generation length is only a few months; if they reproduce in that radiation environment for a year or three and there aren't serious mutations, they'll probably be okay in the long run.

<comment><USER6> And in a few generations probably evolve to build further resiliency for the subject radiation/gravity/air pressure conditions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'll paste in my previous comment about this. The tone is bit harsh, the context was more hypeful

> Ugh. I feel like Wamelinks researchs importance is way overblown. > Hydroponics has shown that you need no soil to grow plants, so is it really > surprising that Mars soil simultant that has been specifically treated to be > friendly can sustain plants and worms? Especially when the simultant might > not have been very accurate chemically to begin with. Personally I think the > first generations will be using heavily hydroponics, and during that period > can do actual in-situ experiments that are far more informative than > anything we can do here on earth.

> Direct quote from their 2014 paper (I couldn't find the earthworm paper, > links would be appreciated):

> > Our results show that it is in principle possible to grow plants in > Martian and Lunar soil simulants although there was only one plant that > formed a flower butt on moon soil simulant. _Whether this extends to growing > plants on Mars or the moon in full soils themselves remains an open > question. More research is needed about the representativeness of the > simulants_ , water holding capacity and other physical characteristics of > the soils, whether our results extend to growing plants in full soil, the > availability of reactive nitrogen on Mars and moon combined with the > addition of nutrients and creating a balanced nutrient availability, and the > influence of gravity, light and other conditions.

<comment><USER8> It's not just about food though, is it? Being able to grow plants on mars is, I would have thought, an important step for terraforming.

Also, if we work out which plants _kinda_ work, we might be able to isolate the genes that improve survival and add them to other plants.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you find this interesting you might appreciate the Red Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson.

</comment><comment><USER10> If we are able to conclusively determine that Mars is no longer host to life, should we try to seed the planet with carbon dioxide & methane producing organisms in order to create an atmosphere?

<comment><USER11> That wouldn't do much good unless we can re-establish the magnetosphere.

<comment><USER12> I think it is still an open (and hotly debated) question on if planets need magnetospheres to retain an atmosphere.

<comment><USER13> A magnetosphere is required to shield from charges particles and other harmful radiation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Of course it would turn out that the first thing we could grow and eat on Mars would be rocket.

<comment><USER15> For the confused, rocket is called arugula in American English [1].

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

<comment><USER9> And sometimes spelled as roquette

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Did they include perchlorates in the simulated Martian soil? It seems unlikely that they did but I might be mistaken.

The big issue with either growing plants on Mars or simply being exposed to Martian dust is perchlorates in the soil: [https://www.space.com/21554-mars- toxic-perchlorate-chemicals...](https://www.space.com/21554-mars-toxic- perchlorate-chemicals.html)

</comment><comment><USER17> So it might work! Can we boostrap a real, nutrient-rich regolith and ecosystem from scratch? That would be some amazing terraforming - and some major value for mankind.

And here I thought The Martian's most unrealistic part was growing the potatoes.

<comment><USER18> The most unrealistic part was the dust storm in the beginning. Not enough air pressure on Mars for wind to do much.

<comment><USER19> Somebody did the math: [https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9301/could- you-fee...](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9301/could-you-feel-the- wind-on-mars)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I feel like sending earth worms to Mars is like sending pigs to South America. Perhaps there is nothing living there... I don't know. But do we need to have such an imperialist attitude with planets too?

<comment><USER21> Imperialism is not a bad thing.

Successful species spread and thrive. Failed species are extinct -- and we will be too if we don't get off this rock.

<comment><USER20> That sounds like the mantra of an anthropomorphised virus. But my down-votes seem to suggest it's popular opinion here.

I'm just saying there was more to learn from America than "potatoes and corn are good".

<comment><USER22> Some things live in a realm "beyond good and evil" and are just pure creation. I think Mars terraforming is one of those things. We are creating an entirely new system within which new goods and new evils might subsist. The entire notion of "Imperialism is bad" is a banal historical platitude in this context.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Doge is invading the web (and he's 100% open source JavaScript) - <AUTHOR> http://dogeifyit.com/

<comment><USER2> Is this anything but spam?

Doge is great and all, but their invasions of other communities is getting a little annoying.

<comment><USER3> Considering how often we see bitcoin spam on HN compared to doge, I don't think it's that annoying.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I suppose I'll take non-serious spam over self-important spam. It's easier to filter if I'm not in the mood.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I support your initiative of Doge.

</comment><comment><USER6> Why are memes HN-worthy?

It just looks like yet another flash-in-the-pan bandwagon.</comment>


Adventures in Piano Building - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@hackmancoltaire/adventures-in-piano-building-c3fe5fa0b56b <comment><USER2> Wonderful piece, but the author is wrong about one point.

The idea that Piano rolls predate all other programmable storage medium is factually incorrect. Surely the Jacquard loom and its punch-card system, patented in 1801, pre-date the piano rolls of the 1900's?

Other than that, a great piece, but I would be remiss if I missed a chance to remind people of how amazing (and early) the Jacquard loom must've been at the time.

<comment><USER3> It's still just as amazing today, even more amazing that they are _still in use_!

<comment><USER4> And also that it was considered a diabolical device designed to steal from artists who deserved simply to make a living when it was introduced.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _I also found some very hard and crusty pieces of cotton wedged between a few of the hammers that didn't look like they were supposed to go anywhere and were blocking some of the parts_

Those were the dampers, without them the sound will be "harder" and more percussive:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Piano_action_- _Project_Gut...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Piano_action_- _Project_Gutenberg_eText_17571.jpg)

With such a big LCD I think it would be a fun addition to embed a PC inside it, with the keyboard of the piano acting as its... keyboard. After all, the original PC/AT keyboard only had 84 keys.

...and those who liked the article might find this interesting too: [http://www.linusakesson.net/chipophone/](http://www.linusakesson.net/chipophone/)

<comment><USER6> Oh also, there is a Mac Mini controlling the display. The next phase of the project is to install key scanning hardware that would detect key presses. So it COULD in theory act as a regular keyboard as well. The music would be pretty random though, but interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I really enjoyed and liked the going down the rabbit hole aspect. And the confidence that at every step, even as they got more fractal, there would be a solution.

As someone who has taken a woodworking class or two, I love the ethos of how sometimes experienced wood workers tell the beginners to just throw in a shim [1]. I know that some wood workers would blanch at that - but art is about compromises.

I wonder out loud how we can start getting underserved kids to learn how to make more physical stuff with digital help (CAD drawings).

Reminded me of Tim's Vermeer

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim's_Vermeer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim's_Vermeer)

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shim](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shim)

</comment><comment><USER8> Bravo! It's so fun and... whatever that word is that is a mix between inspiring and intimidating... to see journals of projects like these where so many different interests and passions come together. I loved the visualization exploration, too - aside from the lines, most of them didn't really communicate anything to me but I was surprised at how well the circles one worked.

<comment><USER6> The small clips I recorded don't really convey the connection as well as when you're standing right in front of it. You see the connection between the keypress and the visualizer much better when it all works as one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you're interested in getting into the nitty gritty of piano building and maintenance, check out this book: [http://www.pianosinsideout.com/](http://www.pianosinsideout.com/)

It's basically an engineering textbook for pianos.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for that - I've never seen that book before but it looks incredibly thorough and comprehensive.

Another book on the subject is Arthur Reblitz's classic "Piano Servicing, Tuning, and Rebuilding: For the Professional, the Student, and the Hobbyist" which I do own and highly recommend.

[http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Servicing-Tuning-Rebuilding- Prof...](http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Servicing-Tuning-Rebuilding- Professional/dp/1879511037)

<comment><USER9> My tuner recommended Inside Out to me after he saw I bought Reblitz. Apparently Reblitz is pretty out of date as far as tuning methodology goes? Can't really speak to it myself as I now own both and have read neither due to that particular hobby getting backburnered for a bit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fantastic! I love your integrating the display into the whole experience. Its really surprising how nice the tuned piano sounded. Your tuner worked some real magic there.

</comment><comment><USER12> I've seen the same shiny-eyed ethos in piano builders as I have in computer makers. There's something very aesthetic about both sciences, which makes them so valuable - at a spiritual level - to us all. Piano's will never feed you, nor computers - but both can be used to motivate our fellow man into the effort, and thats all that matters I suppose.

</comment><comment><USER3> That's one of the best posts for the year. Thanks cevn!

</comment><comment><USER13> Wonderful article. I've played piano all my life, except for the first 6 and a bunch of layoff years, and other instruments (woodwinds, strings, percussion, mostly). I understand the others and tune them myself to the extent i can, but pianos are a mystery.

I have to be _that guy_ and remind people that are inspired by this to truck a piano home, that hantaviruses are a thing, sometimes a fatal thing, and mouse droppings are biohazards.

<comment><USER6> Masks and gloves were worn during cleaning, plus lots of ventilation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I have no interest in pianos. How interesting could this possibly be?

WOW! This is something that would bring a smile to... hmm, I would guess, damn near everyone.

</comment><comment><USER15> One thing i know from my own Digital Piano is how important the force and speed of the key strokes is.

Something that the article did not mention accounting for.

<comment><USER6> Since the original player piano mechanism doesn't support force there was no need to incorporate it into my design. Many of the original QRS piano roll scans don't even have that information. Although with further work and a switch out of the solenoid to a pressure control valvle I might be able to control the pressure of the key stroke.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is a great post! Thanks for sharing. Makes me want to pick up a hobby that involves something other than staring at a computer screen.

</comment><comment><USER17> This looks like a piano from the future. It's different and mixes traditional (the piano) with modern (that giant screen.) Neat job!

</comment><comment><USER18> Fantastic work, really enjoyed the article.

</comment><comment><USER19> Interesting

Pianos, as they're advances, are very prone to decay

I wonder if there are studies of building pianos with more stable materials (like polymers?)

That being said, it would be better if the author knew about the difference between "its" and "it's"

<comment><USER6> The author knows. But between desktop autocorrect and not enough proof- reading. It's hard to get it all right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> damn, that's really cool.</comment>


How the NSA would get phone data under Obama administration's new plan - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/how-the-nsa-would-get-phone-data-under-obama-administrations-new-plan/

<comment><USER2> Detail, detail, detail. The key is that at least there is top level visibility that the Government needs to get it right and that we need a balance between security and privacy. Hopefully there's more coming.</comment>


Kudzu, the vine that never truly ate the South (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/true-story-kudzu-vine-ate-south-180956325/ <comment><USER2> There is a key bit in this article that isn't expanded upon. It's something I only learned about after spending hundreds of hours controlling invasives and talking to other people.

Plants that are considered noxious weeds and plants that are harmful to our natural environment are pretty different things.

If you look at who has authority under the Federal Noxious Weed Act, you'll see it is the department of agriculture. They really don't care about natural areas much at all, they only care about how much agriculture you can get out of a piece of land. If a plant impacts this, it is considered noxious.

A prime example of this is the USDA noxious weeds list for my state, [https://plants.usda.gov/java/noxious?rptType=State&statefips...](https://plants.usda.gov/java/noxious?rptType=State&statefips=39)

It doesn't even include truly heinous invasives like Privet, japanese/amur honeysuckle, or garlic mustard, but DOES include a couple of natives like grape vines and butterweed!!

It's pretty disheartening, because a lot of people don't realize this and it can cause some issues. I am friends with someone at a local nature center where they remove butterweed due to it being considered a noxious weed even though it is not at all invasive and is a native wildflower.

<comment><USER3> A thing I heard somewhere, I think on an episode of the Permaculture Podcast [1], was to stop thinking of it as "invasive" plants. Plants aren't "invading", they're filling a niche that is under-served. The way to keep those plants from growing is to supplant them with other (potentially native) plants filling the same niche, or modify the environment to fix whatever deficiencies the unwanted plant is gaining it's advantage from.

They also tied it into the immigration debate, which I thought was interesting. They mainly played off the fact that the same people who are pro- immigration are often pro-native plants. Is it really the best idea to eradicate species from regions, when we could just learn how to live together more effectively?

I feel like I probably did a very poor job reiterating all of that. We've really enjoyed listening to that podcast though.

[1] [https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/](https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/)

<comment><USER4> In Beyond the War on Invasive Species By Tao Orion, the author gives facts and numbers to back this up.

People are destroying native plant habitats, and creating the perfect conditions for invasives. In fact 90+% of native species aren't threatened by invasives. The invasives actually help heal the soil for native plants.

The author then asks, why then is there a war on invasives? And that's where the book gets good imo.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25782048-beyond-the- war-...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25782048-beyond-the-war-on- invasive-species)

<comment><USER5> Would you mind expanding on why there is a war on invasives?

<comment><USER6> Invasive plants displace native ones; in the mid-Atlantic where I live, Chinese tree of heaven are everywhere. They crowd out walnut and other hardwoods, they aren't as tall and attractive, and the wood isn't clean burning. Our problem is also deer over-population-- the deer devastate the native trees and bushes but not the invasives.

<comment><USER7> >Chinese tree of heaven are everywhere.

Ghetto palm also attracts the latest chinese hell: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_lanternfly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_lanternfly)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For those interested, check out the work of Doug Tallamy, an entemologist at the University of Maryland. His basic thesis is that insects drive ecological health and that invasive species that don't have thousands of years of coevolution with native insect populations provide ecological dead zones that are equivalant to concrete.

[http://www.bringingnaturehome.net](http://www.bringingnaturehome.net)

My opinion based on his work and others is that kudzu and others dramatically reduce biodiversity and upsetting ecological balances that took thousands of years to create. It's wonderful that pests show up to consume kudzu (like the bug referenced in the article), but it's not the same as a native species occupying the same niche that provides forage, pollen, seeds, habitat, and other necessities that make native insect populations thrive, which in turn supports larger fauna like birds, mammals, etc.

<comment><USER9> As a side note, he's at University of Delaware not University of Maryland.

<comment><USER8> Whoops, you're right. Thanks for catching it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've seen the kudzu vine videos, but this article misses the point though it does touch on it

>More important, it obscures the beauty of the South's original landscape, reducing its rich diversity to a simplistic metaphor.

The destruction of that 'rich diversity' is the problem. It's same way Himalayan blackberries take over roadsides and provide monoculture ecosystems in the northwest. That 'rich diversity creates canopy layers used by different wildlife, bird and insect species. How many species were adapted to living in the natural habitat there before those kudzu patches, while not as big as sensationalism says, have overrun other natural species.

Introduced species that dominate the ecosystems they're introduced to cause more problems then we can even understand because in many cases, the historical data just doesn't exist and we're not even sure what was lost.

<comment><USER11> I think you are arguing a point that the author doesn't make. It's not that kudzu isn't invasive, nor that it doesn't smother the landscape. The main point of the article is that it doesn't expand quickly beyond the disturbed places where it was originally planted, like road cuts.

When I was a kid, we were told stories of kudzu growing feet per day, and of people going away for a trip and coming home finding their house engulfed. Southerners legitimately thought it would grow to engulf _everything_. However, as the author points out, the giant fields of it that were there when I was a kid, are still there today, and they aren't much bigger than they were then.

<comment><USER12> It certainly adds to maintenance costs near where I live.

It swarms over sidewalks/power poles/lawns. The city has to come cut it back every 3 to 4 weeks, and I consistently lose bike lane space to it.

Now - it was here when I moved in, so maybe in the absence of kudzu, something else would be doing the same thing.

But it really does seem to love the spaces that we've cleared for use, and it makes keeping them clear much harder.

One house that was flipped about a year ago borders a large patch of it. The flippers put up a fence to block the hillside (sloping down away from the house) and stop it coming into the yard. It's about 13 months later now, and it's about to drag the fence down. I've seen the folks who moved in clear it off the fence at least twice.

That said, you can go a mile over and struggle to find any, since the soil/sunlight conditions are different.

I would hesitate to buy property with large swathes of it nearby, since it truly is a nuisance. That said, areas we haven't cleared seem mostly free of it. So more of a people problem, less of an ecological problem.

<comment><USER13> In the effort to find something the plant is actually useful for, a high school classmate's science project was to see how much ethanol you could get out of it. Turned out - not much.

But he did find that goats will eat it -- if there isn't anything tastier around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I grew up in a southern town that was built out of whole cloth in the 40s (Oak Ridge, TN). It wasn't carefully done, and there were lots of issues with erosion. Enter kudzu to the rescue. For a long time it appeared that the town was going to be swallowed up by the stuff, but once the trees got tall enough, it started fading away and now you have to look hard to find it.

</comment><comment><USER15> I was researching this because I know of someone who suffers from acoholism, "A Single Dose of Kudzu Extract Reduces Alcohol Consumption in a Binge Drinking Paradigm"[1].

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510012/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4510012/)

</comment><comment><USER16> I remember a few years ago when kudzu bugs first showed up. There were swarms of them, and I remember for a few weeks I'd get them on me when walking from the car to the front door.

Then the next year I thought they'd all vanished, until I looked at a kuzdu vine and noticed it was covered in them. It's almost like they didn't know where the kudzu was when they showed up, but now that they've found it that's where they stay.

<comment><USER17> I didn't know what they were but now I see that they're those little green things that remind me of square ladybugs. I had one tag along on my bike ride today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> About 6 months ago I applied for a job at Chicago Botanic Gardens, which was hiring on the basis of a 10 million dollar grant from the "Negaunee Foundation." After doing a little digging, I discovered that the Foundation was run by a Koch-type billionaire family. It cannot be a coincidence that the majority of the money seemed to be earmarked for eliminating invasive species. Literal NIMBYs

A contrapuntal perspective, which I haven't gotten around to reading yet, is "Beyond Invasive Species" by Tao Orion. Not an expert, but I would imagine that as in most things, the first rule of permaculture/ecology should be "first do no harm."

[https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_W._Colburn](https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_W._Colburn) [https://www.chicagobotanic.org/research](https://www.chicagobotanic.org/research) [https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/beyond-the-war-on- invas...](https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/beyond-the-war-on-invasive- species/)

</comment><comment><USER19> > Conservation biologists are taking a closer look at the natural riches of > the Southeastern United States, and they describe it as one of the world's > biodiversity hotspots, in many ways on par with tropical forests

I often hear that the southeastern U.S. has some of the highest biodiversity of anywhere on earth, but as someone who grew up there, I'm not sure that it's really that apparent, at least visually. The vegetation all the way from Atlanta up to Maine tends to look like this ([https://static.rootsrated.com/image/upload/s-- nsRlDT5Y--/t_r...](https://static.rootsrated.com/image/upload/s-- nsRlDT5Y--/t_rr_large_traditional/l6gsrwwz7zojibuumx0v.jpg)). If you dropped me in the woods in any state along the east coast, I wouldn't be able to identify which state I was in. Perhaps there is diversity in the number of species, but the trees and plants themselves don't look that different from each other. I moved to the west coast two years ago, and at least in appearances, it _seems_ like there is more biodiversity ([https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Od2CTO9JsJw/Wq7QDGEtQ6I/AAAAAAAAD...](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Od2CTO9JsJw/Wq7QDGEtQ6I/AAAAAAAADn8/yULxcPG6cwcB- ACcC5dz2o-bXn04MgBUwCEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_2898%2B%25282%2529.JPG)). Does anyone know what might explain the discrepancy? Just north of SF, there are redwood trees and cypress trees, which look strikingly different from each other.

Also, for those of you that grew up on the west coast, I'm curious what was your subjective impression of the vegetation in the southeast the first time you visited?

<comment><USER16> I think it's just your perception. I can easily spot when a movie or TV show was filmed in a North Georgia forest. And when driving from Atlanta 2 hours west to Birmingham, 2 hours east to Augusta, or 2 hours south to Columbus you can tell a huge difference in vegetation.

As for your pictures:

[https://explorebeaufortsc.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/04/spa...](https://explorebeaufortsc.com/wp- content/uploads/2019/04/spanishmoss.jpg)

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Ph...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Photo_of_the_Week_- _Great_Dismal_Swamp_National_Wildlife_Refuge_%28VA%29_%284578425529%29.jpg/300px- Photo_of_the_Week_- _Great_Dismal_Swamp_National_Wildlife_Refuge_%28VA%29_%284578425529%29.jpg)

[https://www.gatlinburgtnguide.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/09...](https://www.gatlinburgtnguide.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/09/Fall-colors-in-the-Smoky-Mountains.jpg)

[https://natureconservancy-h.assetsadobe.com/is/image/content...](https://natureconservancy-h.assetsadobe.com/is/image/content/dam/tnc/nature/en/photos/tnc_86407773_4000x2200.jpg?crop=0,113,4272,2236&wid=1280&hei=670&scl=3.3375)

All in the Southeast.

<comment><USER17> There's interesting variations, too. Most of Georgia seems to be a good place to grow Slash Pine but near Savannah it also grows a pretty moss on the bark.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Kudzu is a bitch to fight, but areas where it grows best aren't good for much else anyway. In my area the kudzu patches cover areas almost too rough for goats to graze.

I hadn't known of the beetle mentioned in the article, but I've seen wild grapevines beat kudzu in a couple places the past decade and wondered why. Suspect that's the reason.

<comment><USER21> Are there places too rough for goats to graze? They're commonly climbing almost vertical surfaces whether wild or domestic.

<comment><USER20> They can survive, and wild ones thrive, in places where a commercial goat farm could not be made to operate. I have in mind a particular neighbor who _tried_ to run goats in an awful kudzu covered gorge on his land. The kudzu survived, the goats didn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've spent maybe a hot minute in the south, and even I know the legend of the dreaded kudzu. This article has destroyed a myth from my youth!

I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between, as invasive species always displace something, even with moderate penetration.

</comment><comment><USER23> spent more time than I'd like to admit watching kudzu videos on youtube, and it seems like there are many fans of kudzu because of all the benefits of it: kudzu jam, kudzu vine basketry, kudzu baked goods, etc.

</comment><comment><USER24> Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10113294](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10113294)

</comment><comment><USER25> I sure could use a few of the "Japanese kudzu bugs" mentioned in this article to control the kudzu that I keep chopping back around my place in New Orleans.

</comment><comment><USER26> Kudzu is medicinal. I grow medicinal herbs in my farm and so I get to 'hear in' what herbalists discuss amongst themselves.

Kudzu in combination with other herbs was considered for covid during early times. I subscribe to homeopathy myself rather than herbalism and found Byronia Alba a close substitute. Altho I use it as a prophylactic. (Not medical advice. It's just for my own constitution and supports my constitutional remedy. Not falsifiable)</comment>


Bay Area city blocks 5G deployments over cancer concerns - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/09/10/bay-area-city-blocks-5g-deployments-over-cancer-concerns/ <comment><USER2> I live in a part of unincorporated Marin county (Tamalpais Valley) that has a Mill Valley postal address, and the discussion about this issue on our local NextDoor was BANANAS. You could satirize this situation any way you like and it wouldn't come close to how terrible and anti-science the comments were.

Meanwhile, I don't even have cellphone service of any kind at my own house, not even 3G/4G, thanks to a combination of hills and NIMBYism about more towers. My family has to rely on a combination of a microcell and WiFi calling. It's infuriating.

Actual discussion:

Guy: Come to this meeting or else they might put a 5G cell on a telephone pole right outside your house!

Me: OMG that would be amazing, yes please!

<comment><USER3> If it makes you feel better, the discussion of 5G on Nextdoor in Oakland was and remains bonkers. It's not Marin, it's people of a certain age. There just happens to be more of them in Marin.

<comment><USER4> One of my physicians won't take me seriously because he's had too much of them and their abuse of the internet. He would rather that I stuck to exactly what he had prescribed - that was failing - than humour me, my degree, and my academic journal access.

Fortunately, the specialist he referred me to was pleased with the steps I have been taking.

I can't really blame the first specialist - I'll concur that he is going to do the greatest good to the greatest number with his tactic. But, it means that our interests are in conflict: not an ideal relationship to have with your medical counsel.

<comment><USER5>
      not an ideal relationship to have with your medical counsel

It's a reasonable relationship to have considering you'll only spend an hour or so a year in direct consultation. In some sense it is ideal. He's putting you on notice that you can't rely on his advice in such a context because he has neither the access nor the diagnostic resources to personalize his advice, neither in the moment nor especially on an ongoing basis. Time budgeting is at the root of many professional relationships and their tensions. If you want more personalized advice, you have to be prepared to pay for it.

I've run some ideas past doctors and have always tried to make clear that I understand any thumbs up or thumbs down is contingent on the absence of complicating factors. But that's a difficult position in which to put a doctor, lawyer, engineer or most any other professional. Even if they agree to play along, the value of their affirmation is questionable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Under 47 USC § 332(c)(7), the FCC can administratively set aside local laws regulating cell towers if the FCC determines the regulations are based on the local government's perception of safety risks related to RF emissions

> No State or local government or instrumentality thereof may

> regulate the placement, construction, and modification of

> personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the

> environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the

> extent that such facilities comply with the Commission's

> regulations concerning such emissions.

> 47 USC § 332(c)(7)(b)(IV)

<comment><USER7> > if the FCC determines the regulations are based on the local government's > perception of safety risks related to RF emissions

Which creates an incentive to the localities to create other pretexts. The FCC could try anyway, but it would have to pick its its fights.

...and that's not a bad thing. It's good for various groups (in this case local councils) around society to be able to push back against centralized diktats. The issue here is that (a) such groups are often batty, and (b) the pushback comes in the form of saying "no" to what is other people's business.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Reminds me of that tower that was causing all sorts of ailments in the community, only to find out it hadn't been active for 6 weeks.

[https://mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/11099-massive- revela...](https://mybroadband.co.za/news/wireless/11099-massive-revelation- in-iburst-tower-battle.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> I live in Mill Valley, and I must admit, sadly, I was passively following the controversy on Nextdoor merely for entertainment value. (It was absolutely bonkers. 375 posts on the thread last time I looked.)

I did not think the city council would actually act on this. Putting on my big-boy pants to go fight this.

Help please! I need ammunition -- if you have links to peer-reviewed research refuting the nonsense, please share.

<comment><USER10> Point out that the sun gives them more energy per time.

Point out that light bulbs probably give them more energy per time.

Tell them to hold up their hands to a light bulb (or do this yourself) so they can see visible light from light bulbs are enough to penetrate the skin, yet we don't get sunburnt sitting under a light bulbs all night.

<comment><USER11> Frequency matters, not just energy. There's a reason microwave ovens operate at the frequency they do.

You'd be better off citing evidence that the frequencies used in 5G don't have adverse long term effects on biological systems.

We've had millions of years to evolve complex biological systems to deal with the radiation from visible and UV light spectrum. Microwave radiation, not so much. It's fine for people to be cautious.

<comment><USER10> You're right, the point is as long as you're below UV, then you can think in terms of dielectric heating is the important take away, because it's only when ionization can occur that you start to care about cancer I guess. But no, the reasons why microwave ovens work have less to do with their frequency than UV interactions do, which are QM in nature. The only real effect wavelength has in classical EM matter interactions is penetration depth.

Anything longer wavelength than visible light has less energy per photon and thus can't ionize, that goes beyond saying, may be I should have opened with that. The only thing that matters after that is intensity and penetration depth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Far more people in Marin County will die from diseases caused by air pollution from cars, exasperated by the bay area's inability to properly zone development and build real mass transit solutions. You would think that they would try to fix the actual problems in their community, but I guess it's easier to set policy based on an article they read on some conspiracy blog.

<comment><USER13> Anyone who's sat in Bay Area traffic wants changes -- don't let that cloud the facts: car based transportation is not a major source of emissions in the Bay Area, and overall emissions have been dropping since at least 1990 [1].

Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5, aka the stuff that causes disease) is less than 20% due to on-road vehicles. The big sources are "combustion" (burning organic matter) and fires. [1]

[1] [http://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/Files/Planning%20and%20Researc...](http://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/Files/Planning%20and%20Research/Emission%20Inventory/BY2011_CAPSummary.ashx?la=en)

<comment><USER14> That report doesn't cover pollutants created by brake dust, which is a problem even from electric vehicles. See [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170303091332.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170303091332.htm)

I just wanted to suggest that respiratory health issues caused by vehicle traffic may be a more complicated issue than the metrics of that report suggests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Worries about Ghz radiation at probably less than 100 watts from a tower that follows inverse-square, then walks around outside under 1000 watt per meter at the ground terahertz radiation from the nuclear fireball in sky that actually is ionizing and can cause cancer...

Be careful that light-bulb in your room puts out 10-100x the radiation of your cell phone.

<comment><USER16> Doesn't radio have inverse cube falloff? That's the thing that somewhat worried me about mobile phones, it has inverse cube falloff and has to speak to a tower miles away, so putting it against your brain for hours on end (I don't like calling, so that's not an issue to me) seems like a bad idea.

<comment><USER17> _> Doesn't radio have inverse cube falloff?_

No, inverse square.

 _> has to speak to a tower miles away_

But the tower has a very sensitive antenna, so your phone doesn't need to put much power into transmitting. The effect of the phone on your brain and body is small compared to ordinary thermal noise at your body's temperature.

 _> putting it against your brain for hours on end_

If you're going to be talking that much and are worried about this (which I don't think you need to be, but everyone has to make their own judgments), you can use a bluetooth headset. Bluetooth transmit power is an order of magnitude smaller, at least, than cell phone transmit power.

<comment><USER18> Inverse square, in free space.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> > _According to the city, it received 145 pieces of correspondence from > citizens voicing opposition to the technology, compared to just five letters > in support of it — a ratio of 29 to 1_

There's a joke in New York political circles about the technological ineptitude of our elected governments being virtually guaranteed by the correlation between technological domain knowledge and political disengagement.

</comment><comment><USER20> Shh, don't tell them about Wifi access points!

5G will use frequencies around 3.5-4GHz. Wifi already uses 2.4GHz and 5.2-5.7GHz.

<comment><USER21> Or that 2.4Ghz is wide open because it's what comes out of microwave ovens. Spooky scary!

<comment><USER22> 2.4Ghz is not wide open and microwaves are around the 100Ghz range.

<comment><USER23> Not sure what exotic microwave you have, but it's a very well known fact microwaves are 2.4ghz. It's a contributing factor to why that frequency is part of the ISM band.

<comment><USER22> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave)

<comment><USER23> See OP, they had _oven_ immediately proceeding the word you solely focused on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'm not sure all the contempt in this thread is remotely productive.

I think the easiest way to persuade people is to engage them in a friendly way, listen, explain your feelings.

But maybe people on this thread thread don't care about making changes, but just venting some inarticulate frustration into the void of the internet.

<comment><USER25> Turns out that recent studies say you're wrong. Counter-intuitively, making rational, fact-based arguments actually makes "them" reject scientific fact even more strongly. Look it up.

<comment><USER26> Which is why you decided to leave out any details?

Given the quality of the average study I'm not going to drop my arguments for the yelling. "There is a study" means little or even nothing at all.

Also, I think I read about what you mean and I think you are misinterpreting it. Of course in the end human life is all about emotions and what controls inside your brain what evidence is accepted naturally is quite complex or we would not have that "old scientists need to die" meme, but it does not mean at all that arguments don't ever work.

The problem with the average argument - don't know if adding "especially on the Internet" is justified or if it's actually not much different than the rest of life - is atrociously bad. I would not be persuaded by most arguments made to me and I think that this is very rational.

There is more than one side to this. The problem is good arguments take a lot of effort and time - and it's an iterative process. It needs someone to take somebody else seriously, mostly to be able to "read" the other person, what their issue actually is. Very often it isn't what somebody says. The brain puts thoughts into words not like a computer, where what you get on the outside is a correct representation of internal state. Instead, human speech is itself an iterative process and develops dynamically. For example, it may very well be that what somebody really needs is somebody they feel they can trust, rather than that they need the actual details. Even worse, while you say things, if you really put effort into it, _what_ you think may very well change too!

That lack of trust is an issue for very good reasons in large parts of our society is a fact, unfortunately. I think the discussion is full of "barking at the wrong tree". Yes, I think technical arguments won't help because underneath there is a severe lack of trust in authorities, medical, technical, administrative. Which quite frankly I don't find irrational.

I think arguing about frequencies and what they do is like trying to treat the skin problems of a severe disease instead of the underlying cause. Of course, it is much - MUCH - harder to get at that underlying cause, which is way to obig and hard to get at, far easier to go after the symptoms. Because to really treat such issues deeply would mean big changes to our society.

By the way, it is not true that radio frequencies can't cause cancer at all (and that we are certain of this knowledge), as I read in some comments here. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10926722](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10926722) Yes that's very specific and extreme, they were right under the radar for much of their life. I read it first in the context of German Bundeswehr radar technicians (example: [https://www.dw.com/en/german-army-cancer-victims-sue- us-rada...](https://www.dw.com/en/german-army-cancer-victims-sue-us-radar- firms/a-1098125)). Also: [https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/radio-frequency- radiatio...](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/radio-frequency-radiation- may-cause-cancer-israeli-study-suggests-1.5918197)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> some local context: marin is the anti-vax capital.

</comment><comment><USER28> Gosh Baby Boomers. Spends all day in Nextdoor and City council meetings and comes with ridiculous proposals like banning 5g or stopping housing projects. City councils are also extremely responsive to their bogus movements, like preserving neighborhood character.

</comment><comment><USER29> (theguardian)"The inconvenient truth about cancer and mobile phones"

 _" We dismiss claims about mobiles being bad for our health – but is that because studies showing a link to cancer have been cast into doubt by the industry?"_

[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/14/mobile- ph...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/14/mobile-phones- cancer-inconvenient-truths)

<comment><USER30> I suggest not reading the guardian when it comes to anything related to health and tech. They are not reliable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> From the article: "Reduced radiation emissions from 5G antennas compared to 4G antennas would presumably further reduce any health effects of this technology."

So, they ban a technology which reduces the radiation they are concerned about while leaving a technology which radiates more than the tech which was going to replace it with.

Because 1% of the residents decided to chime in and offer their advice...

From the same people who also have lower vaccination rates for their children than average...

<comment><USER10> The fact that 1% moved the needle shows how powerful and easy it is for a motivated group to affect local politics.

<comment><USER32> It also shows how easy it would be to win an election — if anyone with sense would bother to run.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> How come they did allow 4G and earlier cellular network technology before that, then?

</comment><comment><USER34> Ironically, both the left-wing conspiracy theorists and the right-wing conspiracy theorists seem to support this idea.

Here's one example on the other side of the political divide:

        https://www.infowars.com/you-have-been-warned-electromagnetic-5g-cell-phone-radiation-is-designed-to-decimate-the-population/

I can't remember a topic that both extremes agreed upon. Interesting that this is one.

</comment><comment><USER35> Doesn't California also require Starbucks to display "this may cause cancer" on its cups?

<comment><USER36> The difference is that coffee will actually very minutely increase your risk of certain cancers (and reduce your risk of others). Microwave radiation on the other hand won't.

<comment><USER37> not just coffee, any "hot beverage more than 65℃". [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IARC_Group_2A_carcinog...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IARC_Group_2A_carcinogens)

<comment><USER38> You telling me the Mormons had the right of it?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> T-Mobile 4G and 2G service in Mill Valley is pretty spotty as it is.

<comment><USER2> Yes, and AT&T too. It's non-existent at my house in Tam Valley (unincorporated Marin county but Mill Valley post office and school district), except for the extreme back corner of my garden.

More worryingly, basic cellphone coverage is not even available at some of the Mill Valley elementary schools. When there was an active shooter situation earlier this year at an apartment complex near one school, there was no way to call most people at the school to check on them or to let them know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Marin Country?

</comment><comment><USER41> There's a belief that high powered wireless signals may cause DNA damage, especially to sperm.

[https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/study- link...](https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/study-links-autism- epigenetic-changes-dads%E2%80%99-sperm)

<comment><USER41> From a direct study: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4074720/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4074720/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Can you blame them? If they don't particularly value having the service, and have been informed of [0], of course they don't want this in their backyard.

Does Mill Valley already have 4G coverage, or have they stayed completely dark? If it's the latter, I can at least empathize. If it's the former, then the objection seems at least a bit misguided considering this should reduce the power levels relative to 4G.

[0] [https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/9890/2017-12-14/calif-...](https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/9890/2017-12-14/calif- health-dept-warns-cellphone-use.html)

<comment><USER43> Mill Valley has LTE, but there are black holes (e.g. Tam Valley).

<comment><USER42> In a black hole I can at least see why people might want to keep it that way.

Where there's already LTE, not so much.</comment></comment></comment>


Why I Don't Have a Smart Home - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@bozhobg/why-i-dont-have-a-smart-home-cb6abf424eb5 <comment><USER2> I disagree that in order to have a connected home it will be complex and that it doesn't "just work". From having added a suite of products from Ubiquiti and somewhat thought out the design of my home network I have less issues than before. Yes I have more to tinker with but I don't, and now the household can stream any media they like on any TV or device, and play games with low latency at the same time. I don't even have what you would consider a hobbiest setup.

Of course, in order to correctly manage IoT devices and the sort on the network you need a bit of knowhow, but its not essential. And purely comes with the nature of connecting these devices in your home.

Mentions privacy as a concern, but probably still use a mobile device? And you mention you don't need a TV, but okay that's clearly what your projector is used for.

Also the smart blinds comment, your issue with the smart blinds was to do with blinds themselves not the smart component.

</comment><comment><USER3> I agree with almost all of these points, and de-smarted my home with the exception of my cameras on the exterior, and even those I would consider getting rid of.

There was no convince in most devices. Smart locks were slower than keys. Smart lights were more problematic to use than a light switch. My life has been better after I got rid of them.

<comment><USER4> I've been thinking of designing my own smart devices, but they will need to fall back to simpler devices. For example, I want to build a smart lock that unlocks with a GPG key on my phone, but still has a key (bolt on motor to existing lock).

I just don't understand these smart devices. At best they're marginally more convenient, but they come with a lot of risks. I'm worried about software not getting updated, data in the cloud being compromised, or simple loss of function from not degrading gracefully.

My smart TV is nice because it has Netflix built in, but nothing else on the market is interesting to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I agree with some of these points, but disagree vehemently with others.

> A smart thermostat could save a lot of money in a hotel. It would save > pennies in a 2 bedroom apartment.

My smart thermostat has paid for itself multiple times over. Not to mention, it's made my home significantly more comfortable (due mostly in part to the ability to have a temperature sensor in my bedroom). Could it have been done without being connected to my wifi? Probably. But it was fairly inexpensive, it's saving me money, and it's doing its job. It's simply false to assert that the devices mentioned serve no utility for _any_ consumers just because you don't find them useful.</comment>


Video + presentations from BlackHat US 2008 - <AUTHOR> https://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-usa-08/bh-usa-08-archive.html

<comment><USER2> Highly recommend my friend Nate Lawson's presentation, "Highway to Hell"; Nate reversed the Bay Area Fastrak toll road transponders, and broke the whole system. Nate is awesome.</comment>


Handy netmask reference - <AUTHOR> http://unixwiz.net/techtips/netmask-ref.html

<comment><USER2> Why does Cisco have to be so backwards?</comment>


Aspect-Oriented Programming in Ruby using Combinator Birds (revised extensively) - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/raganwald/homoiconic/tree/master/2008-11-07/from_birds_that_compose_to_method_advice.markdown#resubmit_reason_major%20revision <comment><AUTHOR> ...and reposted. Please let me know if it is indeed worth another look. If not... moderators may want to kill it.</comment>


Is Silicon Valley Racist? - <AUTHOR> http://www.mamiverse.com/techno-bigotry-6722/

<comment><USER2> I assume notifyneal is a brand new user, not located in SV??? You sound a little uniformed and here's why:

The beautiful thing about the internet world is that you're not judged on your face/race/religion. You're judged according to what you can produce???

A better more reliable approach to the "data" your gathering would be to find out what percentage of Software engineering students are black/white/asian/hispanic and find out if there is a substantial deviation represented in the larger community.

<comment><AUTHOR> and i know you're a user who created his account 96 days ago; hence you're a genius because you're a three month user of a platform somebody else built. you've really made something of yourself, and i congratulate you. let your tombstone read, "here lies gamechangr the person with an awesome ycombinator account!"

it's a question based on stats I found on the internet. answer it, or get a life... period.

<comment><USER2> Sure notify:

You're right. I don't consider myself an expert on HN at all. I was truly trying to be helpful, as I could tell you were wandering into an ongoing conversation that you didn't know existed.

I have seen similar topics about SV (sometimes it's there are too many people from India, not enough women, age discrimination against 50 year olds, Europeans not happy with immigration).

I actually DID answer it, so Let me give it another try:

No. Silicon Valley is not racist. Not at all. They would hire an eskimo if he could produce something promising.

Have you had a negative experience in SV that you would like to share?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I wish I had enough karma to down vote this. It's just a bunch of random semi- related statistics thrown together into a infographic. Yes, Silicon Valley is "racist" in the sense that it aims to hire people who have been trained to do certain jobs that minorities are usually NOT trained to do. But this infographic does nothing more than muddy the waters with meaningless facts and poor logic.

Transcription of the statistics presented:

According to CNN: Half of the faster growing jobs are in the tech industry and black unemployment is the highest it's been in 27 years.[0]

Median amount of funding for internet start-ups in the US: All-Black founding team: 1.3 million All-White founding team: 2.3 million[1]

Distribution of internet company founders nationally: 87% white, 12% asian, 1% black.

Tech industry booms again (somewhat unclear what the following means exactly, assumed it was change over time): 16% increase of work force of SV's 10 largest companies, 16% decrease of black workers within those companies, 11% decrease of Hispanic workers within those companies.[2]

U.S. Population: 12.8% black, 15.4% Hispanic, 71.8% other SV Employment Population: 1.5% black, 4.7% Hispanic, 93.8% other

Filmmaker Andrew Wilson .... [3]

Technology problems related to race[4]

Comments:

[0]: Obama is president and gas is going up. My water bottle isn't full and it isn't raining outside. Apple is giving back money and I don't own an iPhone. Putting two potentially related facts together with an "and" really doesn't prove a point.

[1]: What about the average team? Why is this all-black vs. all-white only?

[2]: What about the overall movement for black and hispanic workers in Silicon Valley? What if they are all starting their own companies? Also, what is the time period for this? Last six months? Last six years? Last six decades?

[3]: Actual video: [http://www.andrewnormanwilson.com/private/portfolio/4j7e/704...](http://www.andrewnormanwilson.com/private/portfolio/4j7e/70411)

Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2500082>

[4]: What if it is harder for cameras to detect people of color in low light environments than pale white people? Is this more likely than a systematic and purposeful degradation of technology when used by people of color?

<comment><USER4> You actually can't downvote submissions at all. Your only option is to flag it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Underrepresentation != racism/sexism/any other -ism

The overwhelming majority of carpenters are male. Does this make carpenters' unions sexist? Of course not.

I'd hire a talented developer even if they had green or purple skin.</comment>


Oceanic Airlines - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_Airlines <comment><USER2> Going down the rabbit-hole led me to this within a few clicks, and made me giggle.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Studio_Services#...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Studio_Services#Banknotes)</comment>


Show HN: Self-Service Crypto Index Fund API - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/chnsh/crypto-index-fund <comment><AUTHOR> The idea is to have a value-investing style crypto indexing strategy</comment>


Microsoft Office for iPhone, iPad, and Android revealed - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/7/3612422/microsoft-office-mobile-ipad-iphone-android-screenshots?=1 <comment><USER2> If it's just a viewer, why even bother with it and not use something like Quick Office that will probably be free very soon.</comment>


How to make your product a habit  - <AUTHOR> http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/how-to-make-your-product-a-habit/ <comment><USER2> This post reminds me of internet applications that have become habits: twitter, youtube, etc

But of all Google has been the best habit. :) anything I want, there's Google. From search apps to office suite to hosting, they have it all.

The toothpaste example doesn't apply to software. Because a new toothpaste may claim that it does X or Y or Z as we see in the ads. We ofcourse don't have time to test it. So most only 'believe' it. Incase of software, example: if someone claims to be better than Google, you can easily notice the difference. I once read on TC about megavideo and watched a video on Megavideo and found that its faster than youtube. That's not yet made a habit, since there's no community there like on youtube.

Toothpaste and Google still have something in common - if I find it good, I'll surely tell my friends.

</comment><comment><USER3> Classic marketing stuff. Definitely applies to the web but i do think the rules are changing with behaviour evolving so rapidly. Back when I was a brand consultant we often encountered situations with clients trying to launch new products (or innovations, as we referred to them in marketing breeze!), with the objective of changing the category.

The general learning was that changing a category or changing consumers' behaviour in a category can be done but it's important to maintain "hooks" in the existing category norms.

</comment><comment><USER4> Having already read the article on soap, I didn't find this follow-up worthwhile.</comment>


Show HN: My First Web App - <AUTHOR> http://www.onionornot.com/ <comment><USER2> Good work, but tell us more eg. technology stack?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's html, a lot of fancy CSS transforms, and jquery/js. The headlines are currently stored in just a static json file with urls I picked out. I found it surprising that it's actually easier to get quality "real" headlines (fark, onionlike.tumblr.com/) than believable onion articles. The next challenge is having the headlines stay up to date. We're currently planning on seeding the database using the onion rss feed. The problem is filtering out the headlines which are too obvious. Any ideas?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Next feature ideas would be interesting

</comment><comment><USER3> i would upvote again if i could. professional and fun site.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Feedback welcome!</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best way to get started with D3? - <AUTHOR> I am looking to get started with d3 (https://d3js.org/). What is the best way to do this? <comment> et-al I would start with an fairly recent tutorial written by Bostock himself: [https://observablehq.com/@d3/learn-d3](https://observablehq.com/@d3/learn-d3)

A point I personally needed to grasp back when I first worked with D3 was that the data drives the visuals (hence _data-driven_ documents). It was not an animation library. It's also not a charting library, but some charting libraries are built on top of D3.

Lastly, the D3 wiki also contains links to other tutorials, but they're most likely running on v3:

[https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki/Tutorials](https://github.com/d3/d3/wiki/Tutorials)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I will start there!

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> I have recently taken up a project to build out a dashboard for realtime data analytics. I did some exploratory research of the available data analytics frameworks mainly in Python. I found Plotly to be very popular. How much extra work would it be to just use D3 on the frontend with a standard python web server on the backend versus using just the Plotly library?

</comment><comment><USER3> I liked this book:

[https://www.newline.co/fullstack-d3](https://www.newline.co/fullstack-d3)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, I purchased the book!

<comment><USER4> There's an Orielly book too.</comment></comment></comment>


Apple rejects Valve's Steam Link game streaming app over 'business conflicts' - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/24/17392470/apple-rejects-valve-steam-link-app-store-ios-game-steaming <comment><USER2> Apple _should_ be restricting its business interests to "things that make people want to buy the device", and any kind of game streaming certainly qualifies. A Steam app would increase the ownership value of a device and therefore should be desirable.

Instead, they seem to look at everything from the point of view of "one day we might do this ourselves, therefore go to hell", which is becoming increasingly irritating. Seems that developers have to aim for things way in left field, lest their app be discarded unceremoniously into the trash when Apple enters the game.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Seems unfortunate if they view it as a way to circumvent App Store by buying apps on Steam and streaming them to mobile devices.

iPad Pro can be a perfect RDP client, and it would be awesome if you could connect to any remote app service or device.

Maybe I misunderstood but it could be they don't have a business model for that and want their 30% vig on the whole LCV if it touches an iOS device.</comment>


MS Azure uses random SSH port for "defense in depth." - <AUTHOR> http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/WAVirtualMachinesforLinux/thread/c11f3cf0-3b99-4124-9777-c1551b69ed7d/

<comment><USER2> Changing the SSH port from the default can be one part of a full defense strategy. The term "defense in depth" means there is more than one defensive mechanism, typically so that if a baddie is able to circumvent one mechanism, they'll be trapped by another. In this case, moving the SSH port massively reduces exposure to naive port scanners. I agree it's not a particularly strong protection, but it's a practical one (at least until everybody does this, at which point the cloud providers will just start adding port knockers).

<comment><USER3> Indeed. Obscurity is not security, but it can act to harden and enhance any _real_ security measures which are in place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't see the issue here. From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_in_depth_(computing)>:

> In terms of computer network defense, defense in depth measures should not > only prevent security breaches, but also buy an organization time to detect > and respond to an attack, thereby reducing and mitigating the consequences > of a breach.</comment>


Wait – A handy Christmas countdown - <AUTHOR> https://ktrvs.com/wait/ <comment><USER2> Pardon my ignorance. What's particularly beautiful about this timer?</comment>


OneTab extension for Google Chrome - <AUTHOR> http://www.one-tab.com/

<comment><USER2> The first tab extension for Chrome that actually does something useful. Well done !

</comment><comment><USER3> wow, this is pretty awesome. very welcome extension.</comment>


Something Rotten in the Core - <AUTHOR> http://www.codersnotes.com/notes/something-rotten-in-the-core/ <comment><USER2> I've thought this ever since i learned to program in a Unix environment. Bash scripts suck and command line interfaces make for terrible apis. Error handing is non existent, which inevitably leads to unreliable software. It's definitely great to have an interface that's composable with other programs, but a character stream is a blunt tool to work with

<comment><USER3> There was a reddit comment I came across years ago and saved because it sums up the limitations of shell scripting so well:

 _I think I 've just come to realize a sad fact though: processing raw text streams through mostly-regular languages is really weak. There aren't that many problems that can be solved through regular or mostly-regular languages, and not many that can be solved well by the former glued together with some Turing-complete bits in-between._

[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2svijo/command...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/2svijo/commandline_tools_can_be_235x_faster_than_your/cnth8vd/)</comment></comment>


You cannot start a tweet with "D. Tusk" - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/mitsuhiko/status/620641902770159616?s=09 <comment><USER2> There is a list[1] of things you can't start tweets with

[1] - [https://support.twitter.com/articles/14020](https://support.twitter.com/articles/14020)

<comment><USER3> The fact that "D Name" starts a direct message doesn't explain why "D. Something" gives an error, except for shoddy coding.

<comment><USER4> It's probably so that people don't accidentally publish something they intended to DM by tapping the spacebar twice after the command. It'd still imagine it should be allowed from a full keyboard, at least.

<comment><USER5> Nice idea, but 'internal server error' (per the linked tweet, didn't try it) isn't exactly a good reaction. IF someone thought that this might make sense, the result should not/would not be a 500..

<comment><USER6> It could be that an internal service is returning an error, which the externally facing server is not handling properly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd guess this is related to the in-band use of 'd nickname" to send a direct message. Which is also a bad idea, since that makes it too easy to accidentally make a private message public.

<comment><USER8> This was the only way to do it with the SMS interface.

<comment><USER9> I'd be really interested to see how many users still use the SMS interface. I switched away from it as soon as I got my first smartphone and haven't looked back.

<comment><USER10> My guess is that the number has recently increased, with most phone plans now offering unlimited talk+text but metered data. On a prepaid plan, when you've run out of data, some carriers will just do a hard stop on your data and others will reduce it to a slow trickle, so the SMS interface might be the best.

<comment><USER11> I very much doubt it. Using Twitter is such a way would be absolutely awful these days, and few people (outside of the tech bubble) hit their data plan limits.

<comment><USER12> The tech bubble? More like the teenagers with snapchat, youtube and twitch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm from Poland. We have Donald Tusk (D. Tusk) here, who is the President of the European Council since 1 December 2014, and previously he was Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014. It would be funny if that had any connection to this issue.

<comment><USER14> He's in the news today due to his role in the Greece crisis over the weekend: [http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f908e534-2942-11e5-8db8-c033e...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f908e534-2942-11e5-8db8-c033edba8a6e.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fbrussels%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3flt2uoG6)

<comment><USER15> Which he keeps fucking tweeting about: [https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/620486708233129984](https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/620486708233129984)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> For those commenting about why you would want to do this in the era of smartphone and apps: its useful in areas of low bandwidth.

I'm in IL typing this from a 2G mobile network. It's painfully slow, the data connection goes in and out. Loading my Twitter app is a feat of patience.

SMS works fine though, and getting and sending messages via 40404 is easy. If this is how you're used to using Twitter, why shouldn't you be able to interact this way on the web?

</comment><comment><USER17> Though if you'd really want to: [https://twitter.com/9uuso/status/620680719245946880?s=09](https://twitter.com/9uuso/status/620680719245946880?s=09)

<comment><USER18> Is there an escape mechanism?

<comment><USER19> I just did this by modifying the curl request to '…status='\1'D.+Tusk…'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> From the Twitter help center: _" Note about DM fails: Your service provider may split SMS messages greater than 160 characters into multiple messages. In this case, the second message will post as a normal Tweet because it doesn't begin with d+username, as the first message did. Please be careful to ensure that your messages are under 160 characters._"

Twitter doesn't have multipart SMS reassembly? Twitter advertises that the size limit for direct messages is now 10,000 characters.[1] But apparently you can only send big from their app, or when advertising ("sponsored tweets"), not from SMS.

Multipart SMS reassembly isn't all that hard; every smartphone does it. Messages are split into 153 byte fragments with a binary header, with a max of 255 fragments. At Twitter's scale message parts may come in to different front end machines, which means having to reassemble fragments across multiple processes/machines. Most SMS gateways don't reassemble fragments on inbound because of that scaling problem, but Nexmo and Twilio will pass through the fragment numbers so you can do it. (This is a new Twilio feature in beta. Ask Twilio to turn it on if you need it.) Outbound, SMS gateways almost always handle multipart. Have to be able to send big ads in bulk, after all.

[1] [http://time.com/3918810/twitter-direct-messages- length/](http://time.com/3918810/twitter-direct-messages-length/)

<comment><USER21> While the ordering of messages is part of the protocol, it's not a required part - there's no guarantee that a phone will correctly indicate the number of parts of the message in the header(s).

Given that, I'd rather say "this feature will fail in this way" than "sometimes, depending on your phone and carrier, your long SMSs may be split into multiple parts, the second of which will posted as a public message".

<comment><USER20> For GSM, number of parts is a required item in the multipart message header.[1] It's field 5 of the UDH.

Some phones have had trouble with reassembly. There's an old Android bug which manifests as a new incoming message being reassembled with parts of an old one, sometimes an old one from months ago.[2][3] That indicates a broken reassembly implementation. It's easy to see how that can happen. The "unique ID" on multipart messages is only 8 bits (16 bits with an alternate header format). That number is generated by the calling phone. Unmatched fragments should be discarded (or delivered as an error) after a few minutes. Android keeps unmatched SMS fragments for the life of the phone, resulting in the occasional reuse of long-forgotten message fragments. Worse, when this happens, when the correct fragment comes in, it's saved as an orphan. So once there's been an orphaned fragment, 256 long messages after that, there will be another bogus reassembly using the old fragment, with the correct fragment being saved as a new orphan. Some users changed their phone number to get around this bug.

Google's reaction to years of bug reports on the problem was to close the bug report as "Obsolete" without fixing it.[3]

To work around this botch, there's an app: "SMS Multi-Part Cleaner". Really.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concatenated_SMS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concatenated_SMS) [2] [https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17769](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=17769) [3] [https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=28697](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=28697)

<comment><USER22> "For GSM, number of parts is a required item in the multipart message header.[1] It's field 5 of the UDH. "

number != order.

As said, sms's are not guaranteed to be received in a particular order, nor is the order recoverable (because the clocks are not guaranteed right, etc, so even sorting by time, ...)

<comment><USER20> Read the spec. The header on each multipart message fragment has the number of fragments, the fragment number (counted from 1, for some reason), and a semi- unique ID generated by the sending phone. You also get the source phone number along with the message. This is sufficient for correct reassembly.

The semi-unique ID is normally only one byte, and so old unmatched fragments can match new messages. Android keeps old unmatched fragments in a database for the life of the phone, which is insane. (We drop them after 5 minutes in our system. A more conservative approach would be to wait until a successful message from the same phone, indicating communications have been reestablished, and a few minutes after that, purge old fragments from the same source.)

<comment><USER22> I've read the spec. In fact, i'll go further. I've built multiple election systems that use SMS to send data around :)

Every carrier tech i've talked to tells me the same thing - the order of messages is not guaranteed nor is it recoverable.

So while it's not that i don't believe you, it's that "in practice, it seems everyone thinks and does otherwise".

"This is sufficient for correct reassembly." Except, as you prove later, it isn't when the unique ids can match other messages :)

<comment><USER20> If you have your own system which doesn't send UDH headers, and you can't reassemble, it's your problem. SMS messages are not ordered, but then can contain ordering info. The major smartphones all send UDH headers, which have enough data for reassembly. At least if you don't keep old fragments for insanely long periods.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> One trick for faking out various tweet parsing is U+200B, Zero Width Space. I use it a lot to tweet domain names without them being turned into t.co links. There should be one for you to copy and paste here >< there.

<comment><USER24> Whats the intended use case for having this character in the first place? It seems like you could use it in a whole bunch of places to bypass regex/classifiers, or potentially a lot of things without proper encoding. I could potentially register at NelsonM<>inar somewhere and who would know the difference at a cursory glace?

<comment><USER25> Lots of services limit usernames to a certain range of characters, but some don't. However, there's tons of invisible unicode characters that you can use instead, so even without this one, the problem would still exist.

<comment><USER26> Thеrе arе many cyrillic lеttеrs looking idеntically to latin lеttеrs. In previous sentence all "e" letters were cyrillic, for example. So probably the only sane way is to limit username characters to latin letters.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> That is because Tusk isn't following you on twitter. D. followed by username and then a message sends the tweet as a direct message to that user.

</comment><comment><USER28> I would guess the inband signaling is a carry form Twitter's SMS days, but DM's and mentions were after-the-fact additions to Twitter.

I wonder what the 160 character equivalent of 2600 hz tone is?

<comment><USER29> Wavelength of 2600Hz at 44100Hz sampling rate would be slightly under 17 samples, so any repeating string of 17 single-byte characters would do (44100/17 = 2594Hz, dunno if that's close enough). Or 34 or 68, depending on whatever is playing it expects stereo and/or 16-bit data.

Unless the higher harmonics (5200Hz, 7800Hz, etc) mess up the tone (no idea how strict the old 2600Hz hack used to be). In which case you need some characters that approximate a sine wave. Which isn't too hard, given that you don't care about DC bias and max amplitude.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> As far as I can tell, you can't start any tweet with "D." without getting an Internal Server Error. Not related at all to the "Tusk" part.

</comment><comment><USER31> Had a similar issue when I tried to tweet about M. Night Shyamalan at some point. I thought my Twitter account was limited for some reason.

</comment><comment><USER32> D.TUSK sounds like a secret Street Fighter character.

<comment><USER33> It also sounds like someone listed his fourth favorite Fleetwood Mac song.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Somewhere someone is finding a way to make this a buffer overflow. Wonder how long this will take to get fixed. I totally forgot about Twitter's in-band and SMS features until now.

<comment><USER35> It is likely a scala program running, no buffer overflows to be found. In a modern language, you have to be very careless to allow RCE.

<comment><USER36> buffer overflow is not the only way to get a RCE.

String manipulation and 'eval' (which gives access to system APIs) is a common culprit

<comment><USER37> Is anything like eval commonly used in Scala? That language is static as all get-out.

<comment><USER38> I've started seeing (and occasionally using) util-eval as a configuration language for Scala, but it's generally pretty rare.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> This is just an accidental coincidence. Has nothing to do with Daniel Tusk

<comment><USER40> He's name is actually Donald.

<comment><USER41> Pronounced Donalt

<comment><USER42> I think everyone knows Donald Duck.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Seems like someone should submit a PR for this. Oh wait.</comment>


Russian President Medvedev asked to fund Windows clone - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14899507

<comment><USER2> Opportunity comes to the prepared.

Good luck to this team. The Russian government has a big incentive to use an alternate O/S, since they banned Windows a few years ago due to security concerns & political retribution against Microsoft. So I'd say these guys have a pretty good shot of having further discussions with someone from the government.

</comment><comment><USER3> They're really hammering in the great evil monopoly that is Microsoft, which really this isn't the case as it was when they began work on ReactOS. That said, always nice to see new players get some clout.</comment>


Gordon Ramsay's new 'authentic Asian' restaurant: cultural appropriation dispute - <AUTHOR> https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/gordon-ramsey-asian-restaurant-cultural-appropriation-intl-scli/index.html <comment><USER2> Is non-European people wearing suits and ties 'cultural appropriation'? No, it's influence.

Cultures influence each others all the time. If other cultures copy parts of your own it means you exist and you have something others think is worth copying. You should be proud, not offended.</comment>