Obama sharply criticizes China's plans for new technology rules - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/02/us-usa-obama-china-idUSKBN0LY2H520150302 <comment><USER2> I laugh at the blatant double standards held by the U.S. government here. They want to do exactly the same thing in the U.S. with all companies, yet they criticize China for wanting to do the same thing there? You can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want China to drop that policy, then you have to be willing to drop that policy too.

<comment><USER3> The basic US premise is that we are the good side so the same rule for all does not apply to us. Only police can have weapons not everyone.

<comment><USER2> and we all knows what happens when you walk down that path... even if benevolence is your goal, that's a dictatorship, not a democracy. You will do what we say, not what we do. That's hypocritical and is the cause of things like terrorist attacks.

If you want to live in harmony with the world around you, you have to _work_ to live in harmony with the world around you... with all the world's leaders one team, working together for the good of the world. You can't have one in there telling everyone else how they're going to act and then acting completely contrary to that themselves. That's not how things work.

Have these people not seen Star Wars? That's what happens when you try and control everyone. The U.S. is The Empire trying to enforce their will on the universe... and the terrorists, as clumsy and abhorrent as they are, are playing the role of the Jedi - except they're playing without honour or any form of human decency it seems.

That's what happens when you enforce your policies on other nations who have their own internal problems to worry about without you bitching about what they are or aren't doing for you.

If the U.S. wants to stop being at war with terrorists, how about find a way to give the terrorists an appropriate voice at the table. What is it they want? Why do they want it? What are they hoping to solve by getting it? How can the U.S. help them find a morally decent solution to their problems? Maybe then instead of constantly making enemies, they can make some friends. Friends are what you need when times are tough... and given U.S. unemployment, poverty and levels of incarceration just now, I'd say times are pretty tough. They could do with making some friends instead of just working to be part of the popular crowd [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes)]. It's about time to drop being the school yard bully throwing their weight around and expecting everyone to bend to their will.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wait, wasn't it his own government which decided to spy on their own people ? Didn't he force his own country's companies to spy on his own people?

I used to like obama a lot. Used to...

<comment><USER5> He also said he was against warrantless wiretapping during his campaign.

<comment><AUTHOR> To be fair, people change opinions.

<comment><USER6> To be fair if you make campaign promises and then change your mind as soon as you're in power it doesn't look so good.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> China is only trying to be upfront and public about things the US and Western countries have been doing in private for years.

That is not to say I approve, (I do not) but my respect for Chinese authorities just went up a notch. The good thing about this is that it brings debate far more into the open and shines a light on some very shady policies.

<comment><USER8> The Chinese government never never really care about counter terrorism, all they care about is keeping their power. To keep their power they need to control their people's mind, to control people's mind they need to control the internet. That's it. It's not about privacy, it's about free speech. Please do not confuse this with the debate (about privacy) happening in the western countries.

<comment><USER9> The debate about online privacy vs. the government in the West is largely about free speech vs. governments exercising total control to maintain power, so I'm not sure what distinction you are trying to make.

I'm not saying that there isn't a very large difference in the current state of China vs. the West in this area, but the _subject_ is the same.

<comment><USER8> In China the control over internet is simply control over people, there is absolutely no benefit for the people - if you keep speaking against the government without hiding your identity, you are in trouble. So, there is no debate over whether more control from the government is good or bad.

In the West there is at least still a debate between privacy (potential impact to free speech) and safety against terrorism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It only took two people (Manning and Snowden) to remove any remaining credibility left in US foreign policy. You almost have to feel embarrassed for Obama and co.

<comment><USER11> Well, in reality, the two people that removed any remaining credibility left in the US foreign policy are George W Bush and Obama. Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice helped, though.

<comment><USER12> Come on, are Obama and W much worse than Reagan, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Rossevelt? The US will keep using up the last of its credibility year after year, and of course that just means it isn't.

<comment><USER13> I'll bite.

Yes, in terms of foreign policy, I think that W and especially Obama have been profoundly, historically, difficult-to-believe bad.

I'm not trying to downplay Iran-Contra, Gulf of Tonkin / Vietnam, etc., but the last two administrations have taken what was unduly hostile (and expensive) logistical capability around the world and turned it into Empire.

The needs, wants, representative processes, laws, and sovereignty of other nations have reduced in relevance to the Empire's decision making process to zero.

It's interesting you bring up Roosevelt: don't forget - that was an actual, declared war - by Congress. So in terms of assessing foreign policy that's different for sure.

By comparison, Obama has attacked no less than seven different countries in undeclared wars. I think this is, as you say, "much worse."

<comment><USER12> The last two presidents will always be the worst ones then? There was a lot of shady stuff going on during W2 that makes today's situation look like child's play.

The last 8 years have been relatively quiet compared to the 00s or 90s or 80s. Historically speaking, I bet 20 years from now most of Obama's interventions are mere footnotes, like Reagan's mostly are.

<comment> mkr-hn It's hard to top putting hundreds of thousands of citizens in camps and stealing all their property. And that's just if we limit it to the 20th century to present.

<comment><USER13> Of course that occurred to me, but I declined to mention it because it's not, strictly speaking, foreign policy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This appeared mere days after Yahoo's security chief told NSA's new boss, Mike Rogers, that this is exactly what would happen if US, the "freedom loving country", would push for backdoors.

NSA's chief brushed it aside as a non-issue, saying "I'm sure we can find a _legal framework_ " for backdoors to work.

Well, here's your "legal framework", America - from China. How do you like it now? Does taking your own medicine taste good?

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

</comment><comment><USER15> Interesting how he 'sharply criticises' while it is his desire, and to a point already an achievement, to do the same thing.

</comment><comment><USER16> I disagree with Obama. Government computers have become national-security critical infrastructure. No reason for countries not to roll their own, if they can. It's one of the dimensions along which a country should be self- sufficient, along with food and defensive military capability.

</comment><comment><USER17> How many ways can HN say hypocrite?

<comment><USER18> This is a logical fallacy we always fall for: just because someone is a hypocrite, doesn't mean he's wrong!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Did China put out plans for NOT monitoring all of their citizen's communications? Because then the title of this story would make sense.

</comment><comment><USER20> I have to mirror the general sentiment of most posters. Nationstate's criticising these measures are entitled to but in my opinion are committing an act of hypocrisy. At least I am entitled to that opinion I suppose. Even if it means I may be investigated for terrorism, without a warrant, behind my back. The audacity of criticism.

</comment><comment><USER21> Classic case of pot calling the kettle black. Perhaps they consider themselves to beyond all the rules like they are in their own country. Given the standards they have set for themselves, they have to expect and deal with other countries trying to do the same.

</comment><comment><USER22> Oh the irony.

</comment><comment><USER23> "This is something that I've [p]raised directly with President Xi," Obama said.

</comment><comment><USER24> It would be funny if it wasn't the fact that deranged, warmongering nuts like Obama run America.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hm. I'm no particular fan of Obama, but warmonger? Why that? It's not like he started a war for false reasons or anything like that, right?

<comment> mycroft-holmes Continued wars. Drone strike killed an American citizen. Didn't close Guantanamo. Engaged in new wars. If all this had been done under a president named Bush the left would be outraged.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Oh the irony.</comment>


Ask HN: How does incognito/private browsing work? - <AUTHOR>

In incognito/private browsing mode:
If I log into my gmail and then do a search is that search still saved on Google's servers? Can a service like Google search tell if the browser I'm using is in incognito/private browsing mode?
What does the browser do? Does it remove all cookies/cache information when I go into private browsing mode? Or does it keep all the cookies and cache data from regular browsing but just doesn't save any new ones?
Thanks. <comment><USER2> > If I log into my gmail and then do a search is that search still saved on > Google's servers?

Depends what you mean by "saved" but generally data will be processed on the server-side in the same way as from a non-incognito browser.

> Can a service like Google search tell if the browser I'm using is in > incognito/private browsing mode?

Not in a reliable fashion.

> What does the browser do? Does it remove all cookies/cache information when > I go into private browsing mode? Or does it keep all the cookies and cache > data from regular browsing but just doesn't save any new ones?

Neither, even though it may vary from browser to browser the general approach is to create a second temporary clean browser instance, which is separate from any other non-incognito instance.

</comment><comment><USER3> "You've gone incognito

Pages you view in incognito tabs won't stick around in your browser's history, cookie store, or search history after you've closed all of your incognito tabs. Any files you download or bookmarks you create will be kept. Learn more about incognito browsing

Going incognito doesn't hide your browsing from your employer, your internet service provider, or the websites you visit."

I think this is pretty straightforward.</comment>


Show HN: Waymark – Roadmaps for product presentations - <AUTHOR> https://waymark.io <comment><USER2> Nice and simple. I like it! How about the ability to add animation, and export as an animated gif or video? Why not provide a couple real-world (more detailed) examples of what it can do? Sure its simple, but if you want people to "get it", one of the best ways to do that is to show it in action. Also, have you thought about the ability to add forks?

<comment><AUTHOR> More examples makes sense! I'll add that after adding some more visual styles / more customization options. I haven't thought about forks yet, but sounds like it would be useful. I remember using coggle.it which is quite convenient and supports forks

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> probably one of the best products i've seen launched here in a while. simple, useful, requires no effort to get started. I wish you luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Cheers! What kind of features would you like to see added?

<comment><USER4> Hey I enjoyed using this. I think the simplicity is strong.

Features that might be valuable (might): \- Add image functionality (I suppose you could do this with emojis) \- Export in further different / editable formats \- Additional formatting? (bolding, bullet points) \- Multiple paths for option routing? e.g. Alternative routes that we could take?

Keep up the great work

<comment><AUTHOR> Very good feedback. I have similar ideas in mind, noted!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Really easy to use and convenient to create a nice roadmap fast.

Do you plan to expand the idea (i.e. add collaboration features)?

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally, what are the things you would like to see added?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Site appears to be down 4pm EST with SSL errors, I can't access it.

</comment><comment><USER7> Hey tried editing the roadmap on Chrome and didn't work.</comment>


Siberian town in arctic circle hits 101°F (38°C) - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2020/06/22/the-arctic-circle-hit-101f-saturday-its-hottest-temperature-ever/#38fff16f4eb6 <comment><USER2> In case somebody is wondering about the significance of a temperature record

[https://books.google.com/books?id=N0FLSOmeFPsC&pg=PT59](https://books.google.com/books?id=N0FLSOmeFPsC&pg=PT59)

Bottom line: records are extremely rare if events occur at random. If new records become far more common than the harmonic series predicts, then this is telling us that annual climatic events are no longer independent annual events but are beginning to form part of a systematic non-random trend.

<comment><USER3> 1915: 100 degrees (from the article)

2020: 100.4 degrees (unverified, as described in the article)

How significant is this newly reported record temperature?

Is it conceivable that the warm day in 1915 reached 100.4 degrees?

Maybe we've changed

      - the amount of reporting of records
      - the way we measure (thermometer and other equipment changes)
      - the frequency of measurement (periodic to continuous)
      - the immediate area (urbanization, equipment use)
      - the number of measurements (every location gets a chance for a record update)
      - the precision of reporting

etc.

<comment><USER4> Why is this downvoted? These are entirely reasonable questions.

One reason why climate research is so hard is because of the variability of historic temperature data.

<comment><USER5> because hivemind no like

<comment><USER6> Please don't post dross to HN. As you know, we're hoping for a bit better than internet default here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Reading some of the comments in this thread, it's amazing that the scientific study of climate and the atmosphere has become a matter of political identity.

<comment><USER8> What do you think is the reason? Some of the arguments that I heard include the suggestion that some of the radical environmental plans may cause serious losses of jobs and tax revenue, and increase poverty, while other heavy polluters would get ahead and dominate the world's politics and economy.

<comment><USER9> "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" \- Upton Sinclair

But more charitably, I could also see people going past worrying to denial/dismissal

<comment><USER10> Very small sample size and a different issue to be sure, but with people I've interacted with that dispute the validity/importance of the Coronavirus, they are being driven primarily by denial/dismissal.

To accept it and and work from there to adapt and mitigate is terrifying. I think you can probably say the same about climate change.

Additionally, I think you could draw a line that these denials are influenced by those protecting their "salaries"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> There's an upper limit to human survivability given heat and humidity levels: Wet Bulb temperature of 35C.

Humans can't sweat fast enough to maintain homeostasis.

[https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat- index](https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat-index)

Hasn't happened yet for sufficient periods in any substantially populated impoverished area, but when it does, well, the horror will be incalculable.

<comment><USER12> I don't disagree - but the south of USA this is just called "August"

<comment><USER13> It might be >35C as read on a regular thermometer in August in the south of US.

However the wet-bulb temperature[1] is, as the name implies, the temperature a thermometer covered in water-soaked cloth. If the water evaporates, it will cool the thermometer down, and as such will read less than a regular (dry- bulb) thermometer.

For example, if the dry-bulb temperature is 35C and the relative humidity is 75%, then the wet-bulb temperature would be about 31C[3]. This means the body can still evaporate sweat to cool down, albeit not by much.

If you got both a wet-bulb and a dry-bulb thermometer side by side, you can use it to calculate the relative humidity[2].

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet- bulb_temperature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature)

[2]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygrometer#Psychrometer_(wet-a...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygrometer#Psychrometer_\(wet- and-dry-bulb_thermometer\))

[3]: [https://www.psychrometric- calculator.com/HumidAirWeb.aspx](https://www.psychrometric- calculator.com/HumidAirWeb.aspx)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is this true? That's hotter than most days here in tropical Singapore! Where are the photos and videos of the locals sunbathing? I'm really curious how they are reacting to the unusual (for them) warm weather.

<comment><USER15> As mentioned in another comment, this is not very unusual (summer days are often above 30 degrees C). The town Verkhoyansk is in an extreme subarctic climate, and along with other famous places like Oymyakon and Yakutsk they're known to have the largest amplitudes of temperature in the world, the only places with "a temperature range higher than 100 °C " between coldest and warmest throughout the year.

<comment><USER16> >a temperature range higher than 100 °C

Uh, you meant Fahrenheit, right?

<comment><USER17> On an average year Yakutsk goes from −42.7 to 25.5, a measly 68.2°C (120.6F) range

The record high is 38.4°C, and record low is −64.4°C, which is a historical range of 102.8°C (185F), although presumably not in the same year.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> While it is still a temperature record, I want to point out that +30C range temperatures were not unseen there before. There are hot summers in Siberia due to the extreme continental climate.

(Source: was born in Siberia).

<comment><USER19> NORTHERN Siberia?

I'll grant you that Barnaul certainly knows of 35c+ temps, but arctic circle? Heat records have been broken. Source: broken heat records.

<comment><USER18> Yup. "In June, July, and August, daytime temperatures over +30 °C (86 °F) are not uncommon.[19]" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkhoyansk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verkhoyansk))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "This dramatic warming of the Arctic up to triple-digit temperatures was not expected to happen until 2100 from climate change."

It happened one time, I am not sure if this statement is warranted. In 1937, Montana recorded the hottest temperate it ever recorded when it reached 117 degrees in Medicine Lake.

Not saying this was a fluke, but it could have been. It happens all the time.

<comment><USER21> Flukes seem to be happening a lot these days. I know some of it is sensationalism but still, 38ºC north of the arctic circle is something.

<comment><USER22> Is it happening more often (probably is) or are you just hearing about it more (probably also true).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Headline: The Arctic Circle Hit 101°F Saturday

Actual details from the article: This past weekend, a small Russian town in the Arctic Circle hit ... 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit

How can Forbes justify using this headline?

<comment><USER19> Ummm it's factually correct?

Re: "A small Russian town" lol, Do you propose that temperatures were different 50km away?

There is a massive heat wave rolling through NORTHERN Siberia right now, and it's not been confined to one town nor is this "record" the only broken heat record.

Southern Siberia, like the Altai region, hit's such temperatures regularly, but that's Novosibirsk and south. What we are referring to here is unprecedented, so let's please stop acting as if ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE wasn't a factual reality threatening mammalian life on earth.

<comment><USER24> Literally no one here is saying that, please stop acting as if people are.

<comment><USER25> I agree that the language used to diminish the event matches the inaccuracies of the article.

However, no one is communicating well here, and you're not a moderator on this thread.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> The average high is 68 so this recorded high is an offset of about 32 degrees which is huge. Imagine what that does to the ground that is normal filled with frozen moisture.

For some reason it has been consistently 8 to 15 degrees cooler than normal everyday this summer here in Kuwait. Not as extreme a difference but still strange weather. November 2018 Kuwait saw its largest flood event on record and then 10 days later there was a second flood that was 2 to 3 times greater than that record setter.

</comment><comment><USER27> Maybe the wildfires burning has a lot to do with it. [0]

[0]: [https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-siberia- russia-2645912533...](https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-siberia- russia-2645912533.html)

</comment><comment><USER28> Folks, let's be consistent.

Either we accept record highs as an evidence for climate change, but also accept record lows as an evidence against, or we refuse both based on the statement that "weather is not climate".

<comment><USER29> Both record highs AND record lows can be evidence of climate change. [0]

[https://scijinks.gov/polar- vortex/#:~:text=A%20polar%20vorte...](https://scijinks.gov/polar- vortex/#:~:text=A%20polar%20vortex%20is%20a,temperatures%20in%20the%20United%20States).

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I read the article. The author (a tropical geologist) mixes up weather (temporary) with climate (long-term), among other things.

The concern of arctic residents is if the weather is hot enough, for long enough, to melt the permafrost. That has numerous repercussions, including emissions, transportation and wildlife.

For example, any highways or pipelines on top of permafrost will dislocate if permafrost melts.

But overall, Canada is in favor of glabal warming. Most of our land mass is not arable with the current climate.

Source: Canadian, eh.

<comment><USER31> > The author (a tropical geologist) mixes up weather (temporary) with climate > (long-term)

Right, sure, the guy with a "PhD from Duke University where I studied the geology and climate of the Amazon", understands less about climate and weather than you do.

Do you truly not understand that this is _extremely basic_ stuff to everyone _except_ the Climate Change "Sceptics"? They really do have this bizarre habit of quoting schoolkid level science as though it's some amazing insight they've just discovered.

<comment><USER32> I'm afraid you're not painting a correct picture here. There are climate sceptics (they call themselves realists) that used to work for the IPCC. There are established professors among them (no not psychologists, geologists).

Please do not act as if they are dumb f __ks. That is not the case.

<comment><USER31> I'm afraid most of them are. Would you care to give an example of one who is not? I'll happily look over a blog or video and give my opinion.

<comment><USER32> I don't think you are sincere since you already mention blog and video, which are the usual mantra words of the politicizing discourse but I encourage everyone who is interested to look into [https://judithcurry.com/](https://judithcurry.com/) for an example.

<comment><USER31> You don't think I'm sincere, because I asked for a link to a blog, so you give me a link to Judith Curry's blog?

I'm familiar with Curry's "work". I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, but then she went from warning about caution to outright lies. Frankly, I'd rather someone who was honestly stupid than Judith Curry who _knows_ she's lying, but does it anyway.

See: [https://www.skepticalscience.com/Judith_Curry_arg.htm](https://www.skepticalscience.com/Judith_Curry_arg.htm)

Oh, FFS, I just read through her last few entries. She's got worse. Now it's the Anthony Watts technique of linking to articles with suggestive headlines without commentary. Example: "Misconceptions of global catastrophe [link]". Now, that article is about the _real_ issues that will arise from Climate Change, and about people's misconceptions about them, but she knows very few people will actually read the article, and will instead take the wrong implication from the title.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> The town is Verhoyansk for those who don't want to click a forbes article.

I feel this is clickbait (at least the title). Continental climates fluctuate a lot. One day breaking a record could simple be a statistical outlier. A poke around the records does show that the entirety of June so far has been well above average, and that this is not normal. But I guess "global warming slowly driving more extreme high temperatures in artic siberia" doesn't get as many clicks.

June 2020 weather records for Verhoyansk: [http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/monitor.php?id=24266&month=06&ye...](http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/monitor.php?id=24266&month=06&year=2020)

<comment><USER34> It has trends for the past 40 years

> It is well known that the poles warm faster as a result of climate change. > For example, the average increase in temperature on Earth over the past 40 > years is 1.44°F. In comparison, the Arctic has warmed by more than 3.5°F > during the same period, more than double the global average.

<comment><USER33> I wonder if there is some connection between variance in temperature extremes and average warming? I feel it could either be due to the same underlying cause or because larger variance will mean the average warming will appear larger. I suspect the former (i.e. it really is warming faster in the poles). I guess one could think of Siberia as a canary in the coal mine for global warming. Not that we should need one.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Breaking News: Weather glitch confirms climate change came 80 years faster than expected!</comment>


Mac OS X market share surges 32% in one year - <AUTHOR> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=operating_systems&articleId=9106098&taxonomyId=89&intsrc=kc_top <comment><USER2> Wow... Linux gained 18% - nice. The numbers still seem pretty low to me. A close examination of Austin coffee shops would suggest that macs have at least 70% market share and Linux is at least 10% while bookstores have 80/20 split of OSX/Linux with Windows laptops nowhere near.

Meanwhile nation-wide numbers for UNIX-derived systems are lower. Damn you, Oklahoma and Midwest... :)

On a serious note, I wouldn't want Linux market share to grow above 10% and OSX - above 25%. Anything above will lead to these systems losing their essential properties: OSX will become bloated with shitty software, trojans and malware, and Linux won't be geeky anymore.

I'd like Linux to stay within 3-5% to ensure that we'll continue getting a decent hardware support, and Macs should stay around 10% to keep Apple hungry. Maybe at some point they'll finally switch default setting to gamma 2.2 and fix Finder, iPhoto, Mail, Aperture and other similarly dysfunctional softwares: kind of hard to recommend a Mac to a Windows-based photo enthusiast (especially Picasa user), he'll laugh to death after glancing at OSX which is supposedly superior when it comes to photo work.

<comment><USER3> I must say I'm enjoying OSX and am thinking of buying my first mac of some form soon.

I purchased a copy of OSX off Apple's site and am duel booting it on my notebook just to give the software a bit of a good test run before I commit a couple of thousand dollars into a machine, and so far the experience hasn't been half bad.

<comment><USER2> Aim higher: at some point you may want to move a file in Finder or create an email attachment that can be opened by a PC user! Soon you may want to attempt to see photos online without distorted colors and reduced contrast!

Those things are something Apple users apparently don't really do, that's been my impression so far. If you're into photography, try coming in with 4-6GB worth of RAW photos and process them without leaving a million of copies all over the file system in various idiotic "libraries", since Apple doesn't believe their users are smart enough the grasp concepts of a filesystem, folders and files.

And from a programmer's perspective try mounting an SSHFS via Finder's "connect to server..." or try doing anything FTP... Or join the army of hackers combating "acid blue" in Terminal, or meet your new habit: Alt-tabbing through a giant list of running apps that don't even have a window open, like Skype or Adium or always-stuck-in-there Preview.app

Or you could try something truly basic, like selecting multiple non-adjacent files with a keyboard or resizing a window, or switching... ok I'll stop. My list of OSX limitations and shortcomings is about 80% of Windows' issues. When I'm on a Mac I just fire up Safari and hide inside of it, there is no point of using anything else: it's like every consumer app bundled by default was designed for a 4 year old: pretty but useless.

People tend to like bright beautiful objects, pretty looking women, brown puppies and OSX, but watching them doing actual work on a Mac is like watching a tortoise racing.

Some of the issues can be fixed/corrected through obscure or not settings/tweaks or installing/purchasing non-Apple software, but not all. With that in mind, check out Linux/Gnome if you're after getting shit done.

P.S. I'm on OSX right now, enjoying awesomeness of Safari's HTML rendering and coolness of MBP's keyboard/screen combination: if nobody critiques, they won't get better. :-P

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Website metrics != sales. Certainly can't be a bad sign for Apple though.

</comment><comment><USER5> yay for capitalism</comment>


The Victoria Secret model that codes - <AUTHOR> http://pando.com/2014/01/02/from-coding-to-the-catwalk-this-high-fashion-model-has-a-secret-double-life/

<comment><USER2> Who codes. Or was the objectification intentional?

</comment><comment><USER3> Now there is a link-bait headline for HN if ever I have seen one. I will resist the temptation, personally. (From some other story sources, I might have been pulled in to read the article.)

</comment><comment><USER4> >her first publicly released app, coded in iOS

ugh

Edit: I mean the phrasing. not the fact that it is an IOS app.</comment>


Higher-Order Perl is available for free as a PDF - <AUTHOR> http://hop.perl.plover.com/book/

<comment><USER2> I read this book several years ago when I was still doing a lot of straight- ahead PHP. Was a bit of a mind opener at the time and totally changed my approach and understanding of programming and programming languages. Much of the book is applicable to Javascript, Ruby, and Python. I don't have much use for Perl now, but it's still a great read.

<comment><USER3> I also read it several years ago too and I frequently pick it up and re-read bits. It's changed my programming style for the better, not just Perl, but related languages. MJD, wherever you are, good work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone seen mjd lately? I haven't heard from him and he hasn't updated his blog since January. I'm starting to get worried. (This PDF was put up long before that.)

<comment><USER5> Last I checked, mjd appeared to be out of a job, and was soliciting donations for his (awesome) higher-order perl book. It's a shame he's out of a job, because if mjd cannot get a job, what about the rest of us?

<comment><USER6> He's working with rjbs over at pobox.com now. I've seen him in #dbix-class swearing at my code a few times.

We tried to get him to YAPC::NA but he has this thing called a family that apparently sometimes intervenes with his ability to gallivant across the country, so I had to get Damian to heckle my "I wanted to be MJD when I grew up" joke instead.

<comment><USER7> >> _I've seen him in #dbix-class swearing at my code a few times._

That sounds about right: [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.perl.misc/msg/b2f91...](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.perl.misc/msg/b2f911d6d9c5cef2?pli=1)

(Note: I used to have a little program to pick one of these out at random and insert it as a signature for Mutt, but I seem to have lost it. I got some great replies based on some of those.)

 _Edit_ \- better link - thanks mjd

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It was really mind-boggling when reading it - but then I did not have much chance to apply the techniques in my work. I've read a lot of positive reviews of this book and how it changed the way people programm - but what was exactly the technique that you picked up from it?

I once copied the crawler using iterators ( <http://hop.perl.plover.com/Examples/ALL/ItRobot10.pl> ) when we needed a quick script to check our links - and it worked nice for about a 1000 entries and then it suddenly started to be really slow. I tried to find out where that slow down happens and it was after the return statement in traverse - it seems like this code triggers some garbage collector problem. I did not have time to analyze that further - but it happened both in 5.10.1 and 5.12.1.

I've also send a simple bug report to mjd (for the line 'my $html = get($url); - it redeclares $html and so the value becomes invisible from outside of the loop and in particular for the return statement), but I never got any answer from him.

<comment><USER9> I'm sorry that I didn't get your error report, or that you didn't get my reply to your error report. But I maintain an errata page, and that error has been on it since 2005-05-24. See <http://hop.perl.plover.com/errata/errata-p-1.html#p196>.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The regex as a value generator in this book is really quite good. I've been dying to see somebody write it up and stick it on CPAN.

<comment><USER11> It's been a while since I read the book, and I don't remember this use of regexes; but is it by chance covered under Ovid's HOP::Parser module (<http://search.cpan.org/~ovid/HOP-Parser>), or another in that family (<http://search.cpan.org/search?query=HOP>)?

<comment><USER10> I've been looking for such a beast in the wild for quite some time. I've seen a few on CPAN that'll take a regex (or some type of expression, or some limited dialect of regex) and spit out a few random strings. Even Microsoft's REX tool (<http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/rex/>), which is the best I've seen, gives nondeterministic random results.

Having a tool that would take a PCRE (or some subset of the language), apply some constraints on repetition operators (like *->{0,2}, +->{1,2}) etc., spit out a deterministic list of values (don't care how long so long as it's reasonably finite) would be extremely powerful for software testing. Even the rather limited capabilities in REX have helped me fix some invalid assumptions I was making about valid inputs.

It's always seemed strange to me that regular expressions are described in the literature as string generators, yet I've pretty much only ever seen them used as string acceptors in practice in the form of a predicate (s in set <REGEX>?).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> can't we just let Perl fade gently into that good night? I mean really. Time's up.</comment>


Good place to code in SF? - <AUTHOR>

I'll be in San Francisco all day, and I'm trying to figure out a good place to work on my app.<p>Ideally somewhere relatively quiet with ample cheap parking (rare or nonexistent in the city, I know) and free Wi-Fi. Any suggestions? <comment><USER2> Citizen Space (<http://citizenspace.us>) might be a good option for you. For a small donation (they recommend $10 to $20) you'll pretty much have what you need for working on your app. You should give 'em a call just to make sure there's space available, however. Not sure how quickly the drop-in slots get filled up.

Of course, Starbucks now provides free Wi-Fi so that may turn out to be good enough. I occasionally use the 'bucks across from the Metreon (4th & Mission). It's right next to a parking garage (not all that cheap, however) but does have lots of power outlets, and there's plenty of decent food options within walking distance.

<comment><AUTHOR> Citizen Space sounds a bit like Hacker Dojo in the South Bay.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> If you're in the mission, check out Philz Coffee at 24th and folsom. Then check out Haus coffee across the street (sorta).</comment>


Show HN: Reverse-engineered game worlds using WebGL - <AUTHOR> https://noclip.website/#smg/HeavenlyBeachGalaxy <comment> s-macke That's an impressive list of games. I don't know how many hours were spent reverse engineering these games.

I did a bit of reverse engineering myself on some 3D game worlds. Test Drive 3 [1] and Comanche [2]

[1] [https://simulationcorner.net/td3/td3.html](https://simulationcorner.net/td3/td3.html)

[2] [https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace](https://github.com/s-macke/VoxelSpace)</comment>


Life is y = f(x) and can be optimized via gradient descent - <AUTHOR> https://farza.substack.com/p/omg-are-u-wearing-unprofessional <comment><USER2> It's not really a great analogy.

In machine learning the cost function is static and is defined by a smart person working hard to come up with something sensible. In life, the cost function changes constantly and is developed consciously as well as subconsciously. Indeed, the training examples (previous experiences) will influence the dynamically evolving cost function.

Moving along the gradient in a ML framework means that every refinement of the framework will influence cost non-positively, while in life we often act in ways that decrease utility.

Also, to put it bluntly, life is just a lot more complicated than that.

<comment><USER3> Or to put it more succinctly, life is path-dependent.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's a few trivial points dressed up with remedial ML concepts.

The homeless problem is not all about drug abuse and that idea is harmful because it's used as an excuse to ignore it.

Everyone knows that they need to have life goals. Even addicts know that they are optimizing the wrong thing.

</comment><comment><USER5> There is a really interesting idea in this book, "The Myth of Meritocracy" that we are now forcing ourselves to invest so much into human capital (and his thesis is that most of that investment is a waste in an education / self improvement arms race) that we have to optimize the return of our lives, particularly financially but alos in other quality metrics. I just don't think this is a good way to think about your life.

<comment><USER6> Life is becoming one long job interview and it's only going to get worse as more data is collected.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Seems to me that life is fundamentally different from y = f(x). It's more like an imperative x = f(x), where the output keeps getting fed back into the input. That inherently produces more interesting behavior, even when f is relatively simple.

And the thing that is missing in AI today is the back-and-forth conversion of correlations to causal relationships, which, yes, humans are not that good at, generally don't consciously do, but have a built-in mechanism for.

</comment><comment><USER8> Life is single-objective?

</comment><comment><USER9> I've thought this as well but there is more. You are constantly pulling from memory and examining that input combined with other inputs from other memories that you might not have had in the past resulting in a new memory and input built entirely from past memory.

<comment><USER10> There are a scary amount of parallels between humans and advanced robots built out of organic materials.</comment></comment>


All the Ways to Make a Web Component – April 2020 Update - <AUTHOR> https://webcomponents.dev/blog/all-the-ways-to-make-a-web-component-april2020/ <comment><AUTHOR> 30 variants of the same Web Component compared. Source code, Bundle size and Performance.</comment>


The Semicolon Wars - <AUTHOR> http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.3489,y.0,no.,content.true,page.1,css.print/issue.aspx

<comment><USER2> Nicely written up but superficial analysis and trite conclusions. It would be nice if someone took this comparative analysis of programming languages a little more seriously and go beyond the tiresome "should a semicolon be a separator or a terminator" or the naive imperative-functional distinctions.

Take for example ML (prototypical high-level functional) vs C (prototypical low-level imperative). What makes them essentially different? In ML you have the common imperative features (assignment, references) and in C you can write functions including higher-order (via pointers). The answer you are looking for is "memory management", automatic in ML versus manual in C. Everything comes out of this distinction, down to the fact that in C you don't have lambdas and currying (because no garbage collection means no closures).

What makes ML and Algol 60 different? Both have a strikingly similar set of primitives, imperative and functional. The difference is call-by-value in ML vs. call-by-name in Algol 60, which leads to global effects in ML vs. local effects in Algol 60.

What makes Lisp different from Scheme, the misunderstanding of alpha conversion in Lisp versus its correct implementation in Scheme.

And so on. It would be fun if someone who actually know programming languages beyond the naive and the trivial took time to write a proper potted history and/or comparative analysis.

<comment><USER3> Eventually, I would like to compare the cognitive load of different programming paradigms / languages / styles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This entire piece seems to have a bit of a fallacy running under it, that there exist ideal computer languages, and that we should treat all of them equally.

Rather, I'd argue that there are ideal computer languages for specific problems, and most of the holy wars he mocks have their roots in people working on different problems rightly concluding that their language X is ideal and language Y is inferior. The flame wars are peripheral.

That said, there are solid reasons for Dijkstra's critiques of BASIC and in lesser degrees Pascal and friends. Almost all the dialects of BASIC deserve to die.

<comment><USER5> I would love to see evidence of Dijkstra's critique of Pascal (which is NOT a basic dialect.)

Dijkstra hates Basic, Fortran, Cobol and APL .. but not Pascal. He wrote an Algol compiler and used Algol-based languages and formalisms throughout his entire career, even inventing some himself.

The reason is simple: Pascal is hard to hate (or love for that matter.) It's a reliable 4-door, automatic sedan.

<comment><USER4> You're right. I meant to comment on the titular semicolon argument, where I fall strongly in the "statements should have consistent syntax" camp.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The programming world isn't as balkanized as natural languages. If Tiobe is to believed, the top 20 programming languages account for 85% of "use". By contrast, the native speakers for the top 20 natural languages only have 50% of the world population. Here's a spreadsheet with the data.

      http://j.mp/hiPGXA

Other factors to consider: learning a new programming language requires less than a tenth the effort of learning a natural language (my estimate). That's for people. Getting my laptop to speak a new language is mostly a matter of downloading the interpreter or compiler. Granted the interpreter or compiler has to be initially ported to the architecture or OS. So not only is there less programming language balkanization, but the cost of balkanization is less.

<comment><USER7> I think the differences between computer languages are more profound than the differences between human languages. Human language differences aren't necessarily "not profound" but for the most part they have the deep structural similarities mentioned in the article and their interestingness comes from other sources. (I think a profoundly different language would have to be something that isn't a reshuffling of noun, verb, adverb, adjective, etc, such as the one in the classic _Darmok_ episode of ST:TNG [1]. Which I think also can't work in practice, but at least it's _different_.)

The challenge of learning a new human language lies primarily in their sheer size; especially assuming two essentially unrelated languages like Chinese and English, you must relearn _everything_ ; the words, the phonology, the surface grammar, even as you still really have noun, verb, adverb, adjective. Learning a new programming language on the other hand can cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about programming in general... but you can do it relatively quickly because opening a file, reading some strings, chewing on them, and spitting them out into a new file just doesn't take several thousand verbs and nouns.

I make these observations without value judgment. I'm not saying one is better or worse than the other; both are worth pursuing. If I have a particular point at all I guess it would be that using the learning of a computer or human language as a metaphor for the other doesn't seem like a great idea to me, there's too many relevant differences for the points people want to make.

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I thought this a very nice, even-handed treatment of the various religious wars and the reasons for them over time. Of course, I also prefer Lisp, so I am predisposed to agree with the author.

</comment><comment><USER9> The picture is an odd programming language family tree. Since when was CLOS a programming language, descended from Common Lisp? The Common Lisp Object System -- that's what CLOS stands for -- is just how Common Lisp does objects. You can make another object system as a library, if you want to. In fact, that's a pretty fun exercise.

<comment><USER10> But they place Common Lisp in 1984, probably because of the publication of the first edition of Common Lisp: The Language. CLOS came much later. And as the Common Lisp standard never included a full meta-object protocol, I think it's fair to list CLOS seperately.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> We almost did our web framework in Scheme back in late 90s, but for some weird reasons settled on PHP instead. Our project, and maybe the state of Open Source CMSs could look different if we had chosen otherwise (Midgard, our framework, was the second free software CMS out there, and the first for PHP).

Anyway, this article made me buy the Wizard Book and Land of Lisp just to get back to the language... Last time I read (parts of) the Wizard book was in the student commune some time around 97.

</comment><comment><USER12> > JavaScript for annoyances such as pop-up windows

A bit unfair but I guess vulgarization is more important than correctness in this context.

<comment><USER13> _"... vulgarization is more important than correctness in this context. ..."_

Toy language? ...but also possibly the most important ~ <http://javascript.crockford.com/popular.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The premise is the fatal disease. Programming languages are tools of expression. Asking which programming language is "best" is like asking which musical instrument is best. All the centuries of refinement and craftsmanship that go into making a good violin don't invalidate the piano.

<comment><USER15> It's more like asking which musical notation is best.

<comment><USER14> The textual nature of the two aside, I think this is perhaps a superficial comparison. Western musical notation has survived largely unchanged for hundreds of years because it covers the the bases of practically every major genre. While many computer languages are theoretically the same in terms of Turing completeness, they are also expressive media in in that they each bring affordances to the table that facilitate or discourage particular concepts, abstractions and patterns.

<comment><USER16> Western musical notation has been continuously evolving.

It is far from being 'largely unchanged for hundreds of years'.

For example, look at the notation for this piece by Iannis Xenakis. (Shows the sheet music in the video). <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZazYFchLRI>

Compare to this gregorian chant: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Graduale_Aboense_2.jpg>

Or to this piece by his teacher oliver messiaen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Messiaen_Oiseaux_exotiques...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Messiaen_Oiseaux_exotiques_excerpt.jpg)

There are some important things that are the same between the chant and the piece by Messian, but the notations are very very different, and have accumulated some really important stuff over the years.

Saying that musical notation has been largely unchanged for hundreds of years is kind of like saying that English has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years.... in that it is incorrect.

<comment><USER14> I probably should have made myself clearer, but I was referring to the modern standard of notation, which if I am not mistaken, is indeed largely the same as what you would find dating back to the 17th-18th centuries, i.e. several hundred years ago. A more instructive comparison, in this regard, would be between the Messiaen you linked and Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.

Yes, I'm familiar with the experimentation with notation of 20th century composers such as Xenakis, Cage, Stockhausen, etc, but they're beside the point (no offense to you or Xenakis, I happen to like his work). Their music is obscure and inaccessible to a great deal of Westerners, even many of those who could ordinarily be considered "musically literate", and few of these modern, experimental forms of notation, to my knowledge, have caught on in a way that's comparable to the popularity of even an "obscure" or "academic" computer language such as Haskell. There have been and always will be exceptions, not to mention music that falls outside the realm of Western tradition entirely, but you have to admit that the umbrella of expression that fits the modern standard of notation is pretty wide.

The point to take away, I think, is that once a standard came into common use that allowed composers to convey enough relevant information about the music they were creating, innovation in notation became a lot less important, for quite a long time. By a similar token, while English has of course been constantly evolving throughout its history, as all languages do, standard English orthography hasn't changed much in the last few hundred years either. You don't need a new kind of staff or notehead to represent chromaticism vs. baroque counterpoint, any more than you need new letters of the alphabet in order to write words and phrases that no one has ever heard before, in dialects that didn't exist at the time Walt Whitman wrote "Leaves of Grass", or what have you. As long as you're talking about notes over the chromatic scale, time and key signatures, common rhythmic subdivisions, and so on, you can notate whatever it is you like.

In any case, the point I was making earlier in the thread is that this seems fairly different from the development of computer languages, and I think that a lot of it has to do with the inherent nature of computer languages as tools of abstraction that extend beyond the merely representational. Hence the comparison with musical instruments – in my view, code is more like a hammer than it is a book.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Curl and Links are web oriented programming languages? As I use and understand them, they are both webbrowsers.... Maybe haven't been keeping up with development..

EDIT: apparently both _are_ languages as well. What retarded naming!

<comment><USER18> The author put an odd amount of emphasis on those languages. I'd never heard of them, and the amount of emphasis he gave them seems disproportionate to the actual amount of interest there seems to be in them.

I suspect he's not a 'web guy'.

<comment><USER19> No, he's a Lisp guy, from Boston. Curl is a Lisp programming language from the early noughties by some other Lisp guys from Boston, and Links was, as I understand it, a 2006 attempt by the Haskell guys to bring the goodness of Haskell to the web; Haskell being the language that took over the mantle of Most Advanced Functional Programming Language from Lisp sometime in the 1990s, a title it had held since its inception in 1959. It's not surprising he'd mention the two of them.

<comment><USER5> Haskell didn't take it from Lisp, and the taking didn't happen in the '90s. There were Hope and Miranda, long before, darlings of PL research.

And the language that took the research baton from Lisp was Peter Landin's ISWIM, and its descendant, the Meta Language of LCF.

<comment><USER20> > Hope and Miranda, long before, darlings of PL research.

And before them SASL and the Kent Recursive Calculator.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> People, please mark your old articles as such. This one is from the July- August 2006 issue (Volume 94, Number 4).

<comment><USER22> Seriously? You consider 4 years to be "old"?

Something that Wirth or Hoare wrote in 1970 deserves to be labeled old (and that's only because computing is such a new field - in quite a few other fields, that would be relatively recent). An article from 2006 is hardly old, and I think it still reflects the current state of the programming world.

<comment><USER21> It doesn't matter whether 2006 is old or not for an article on programming, I just like to know the context of things. Just like when I watch a movie I like to know what year it was made, who was the director and who wrote the script.

EDIT: sorry, this came across terribly entitled. To put it differently, I think it helps to know the context of things, and the year something was made is part of the context. If the article submitter had linked to the actual article instead of the print version, the sidebar would have given the date. Alternatively, the submitter could have simply added the year into the title. Both wouldn't have cost anything and would have added a bit more context to the submission.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> ML - Miranda - Haskell???

Perl to PHP?????

Smalltalk with no descendents?

That language diagram is crazy.

</comment><comment><USER24> I had assumed by the headline that this was about the (mis-)use of semi-colons in English; so few know how to use them correctly.

<comment><USER25> You had assumed by the headline that this was about the (mis-)use of semi- colons in English, so you were surprised about its actual contents?

<comment><USER24> Indeed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> No Go? :(</comment>


Ioke is a folding language - <AUTHOR> https://ioke.org/

<comment><USER2> I don't know what "folding" is supposed to mean in this context and it's not defined elsewhere on the page. Is there a common usage of the term when describing a programming language that I'm not familiar with? I first thought of a functional fold but that doesn't appear to be the intended meaning here.

<comment><USER3> From wikipedia:

In functional programming, fold – also known variously as reduce, accumulate, aggregate, compress, or inject – refers to a family of higher-order functions that analyze a recursive data structure and through use of a given combining operation, recombine the results of recursively processing its constituent parts, building up a return value. Typically, a fold is presented with a combining function, a top node of a data structure, and possibly some default values to be used under certain conditions. The fold then proceeds to combine elements of the data structure's hierarchy, using the function in a systematic way.

<comment><USER3> I was trying to help out those asking about what Fold is. I guess it doesn't show well if the Wikipedia explanation is confusing!

<comment><AUTHOR> The definition of folding in Wikipedia is not relevant to Ola Bini's usage of the term.

<comment><USER3> Thanks. I misunderstood both of them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't get it. The page mentions what goals ioke is trying to achieve, but then offers no meaningful demonstration whatsoever of the language's compelling features. I'm left with the impression that "it's good because I say so."

I'm really intrigued, but I don't even know what I'm looking at. The language guide didn't help either.

<comment><USER5> I haven't looked at it recently, but a couple of years ago, the idea seemed to be (explicitly) "I'm willing to give up run time to reduce program length and coding time", but (implicitly) without straying far from Ruby+IO.

The "what's different" examples back at the time showed a few Ioke programs that were half the length of the equivalent Java and Ruby ones and running at 5 times as slow; Coming from an APL/K/J background, I was unimpressed by this tradeoff.

Have no idea if things are different with Ioke today, and not enough time to look at it again right now, sadly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Important: [https://github.com/olabini/ioke/issues/9](https://github.com/olabini/ioke/issues/9)

</comment><comment><USER7> The name is due to Steve Dekorte's [http://iolanguage.org/](http://iolanguage.org/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Ola kind of ran out of time--as stated back when it started, it was an experiment. I was pretty excited by its expressiveness.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> A podcast interview with Ola Bini discussing Ioke:

[http://www.se-radio.net/2010/01/episode-154-ola-bini-on- ioke...](http://www.se-radio.net/2010/01/episode-154-ola-bini-on-ioke/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Oh, work by Ola Bini, I remember him for his contributions to JRuby. Interesting experiment.

<comment><USER7> Circa 2010</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do you often see issues with Datastore writes in Google App Engine? - <AUTHOR>

Logs on Google App Engine show errors with this text:
Datastore writes are temporarily unavailable. Please see http://code.google.com/status/appengine for more information.
However that status page shows 100% availability and only green OK symbols: http://imgur.com/ug3JF
Latest problems were last night, writes were not working for 35 minutes.
I have seen this two or three times in the last few months, and have worked around it with additional application logic. Luckily I am not writing anything vital. But this makes me wonder: What should I do for stuff that must be written somewhere? And how can I ever be sure of the status if such events don't show up in the status-page?
Does anyone else have similar experiences? <comment><USER2> Sounds like one of the scheduled maintenances. You might find these links helpful:

1\. Tips on graceful degradation for your app (Java specific): [http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/java/howto/maintenance...](http://code.google.com/appengine/docs/java/howto/maintenance.html)

2\. Scheduled Maintenance Calendar: [https://www.google.com/calendar/b/0/embed?src=4chlpo92ci2f54...](https://email@example.com&ctz=America/Los_Angeles&gsessionid=OK)

3\. Downtime Notification Group / Mailing List: [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/google- ap...](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/google-appengine- downtime-notify)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I had not seen these resources before. On a quick glance the listed events seem to match with what I have been experiencing.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable links: <http://code.google.com/status/appengine> Shows this: <http://imgur.com/ug3JF></comment>


Ask YC: Is there a chart for iphone sales based on the price? - <AUTHOR>

I remember seeing an article (I'm 95% sure it was on news.yc) that had a graph showing how popular various apps are at different price points. Does anyone remember what the link was?
I've searched for it for about an hour but haven't found it yet.
Thanks and happy new year everyone. <comment><USER2> This one may be: [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/15/free-apps-no-longer- dom...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/15/free-apps-no-longer-dominating- iphone-app-store/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think this is the link you're looking for. There are some other related posts on the same blog.

[http://www.mobileorchard.com/price-and-popularity-the- iphone...](http://www.mobileorchard.com/price-and-popularity-the-iphone-app- stores-data-shows-whos-making-the-big-money/)</comment>


Symfony2 REST API: the best way  - <AUTHOR> http://welcometothebundle.com/symfony2-rest-api-the-best-2013-way/

<comment><USER2> Still some non-developers thought about PHP in 2013.</comment>


Great video of Human Interface guru Bill Buxton on the design process - <AUTHOR> http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=323680309&channel=324389485 <comment><AUTHOR> Bill is guy worth learning more about: www.billbuxton.com

Among the many interesting points in this talk are his criticisms of the ipod.

Aside:

I'd add one ipod criticism of mine - you have to look at the ipod to find the music you want. Kind of dangerous when you drive. I'd fix this by adding a text-to-speech engine that says either the first letter of the album/artist/song or the first word, or the entire entry depending on scrolling speed.</comment>


Zoom's Biggest Rivals Are Coming for It - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/technology/zoom-rivals-virus-facebook-google.html <comment><USER2> they saw zoom coming for them with people calling zoom a social network for the virus age. Will be an interesting fight. But the telemeeting industry is set to explode, so it's good to have competition.

Once we get all business meetings recorded and transcribed and searchable, it can potentially create a much more transparent organization.

It's a great reason to exponentially expand the network bandwidth also for everyone.

There is also lots of room for innovation with plugins, and even larger meetings.

</comment><comment><USER3> maybe people like zoom because it's not associated with FB or Google.

<comment><USER4> Nor microsoft, apple or cisco...</comment></comment>


Former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason on what the roller-coaster ride felt like - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/andrew-mason-on-groupon.html <comment><USER2> One key point in this - long term vs short term thinking.

I was a groupon user / and higher value to restaurants I'd like to think (ie, strong income, would go out to eat at a nice place, if I liked a new place I'd go to it more) but also someone who doesn't want a lot of hassle, time is money etc.

Groupon went from actually good deals, hassle free, to endless marketing emails / wall to wall shlock deals (50% off supposed $300/hr personal trainers? 20% off the latest MLM scam) and lots of scammy / scummy merchants who did everything they could to rip you off.

These dying places pulled every bogus trick. I'm sure there are cheap customers willing to fight through it all, but the money is probably in the folks able and willing to pay bigger $ just looking for an excuse to try some place new.

Then you read all the crap the groupon sales managers pulled to get folks on board (ignoring do not call, threatening bad yelp reviews).

Yuck.

<comment><USER3> Doesn't that dying-place-pulling-every-trick thing describe Groupon's arc itself?

I think of Groupon itself as one big pump-and-dump. I don't see that there was ever a long term for it, not outside of a niche business. Promotional coupons are not exactly a new idea. If Groupon had stayed small and figured out a way to bring businesses new customers that stuck around, it might have had a future.

But they used the power of the internet in exactly the wrong way. The internet can get you instant volume by getting many people to act in concert. But limited-capacity local businesses don't want a flash mob; it's a bad experience for all concerned. And the internet can collect niche audiences and really serve them. But Groupon's best niche audience is cheapskates who are super focused on going from great deal to great deal. Carefully managed this might have been a decent small business, but I don't think it could ever have been a large one.

And I think they must have known they were fucked from the start. When they IPOed, 86% of the money raised, over $800m, went into the pockets of insiders.

<comment><USER4> _> Promotional coupons are not exactly a new idea._

The new idea was using the Internet to build a gigantic new audience for those coupons. Once you have that audience, you then become more attractive to businesses that want to advertise to it. In other words, Groupon was just a 21st century version of the age old "pennysaver" ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennysaver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennysaver)) publications you can pick up in places like coffee shops, or that you get periodically in the mail (ugh).

An electronic pennysaver could possibly have worked, if they'd grown organically and kept the operation lean. But instead they went the other way, figuring if they got big enough fast enough they could then use the size of their audience to muscle the advertisers who wanted to reach that audience into swallowing hugely disadvantageous terms in exchange for access. (See [http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/08/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/08/groupon_earnings_report_the_daily_deals_site_s_crummy_business_model_is_finally_dead_hooray_.html)) for details on that.)

It worked for a while, when their rapid growth made them look like an unstoppable juggernaut that any small business was going to have to learn to live with. But then the growth stopped and smart advertisers fled as they realized that the terms made dealing with Groupon more trouble than it was worth, which meant the one choice Groupon had left to justify its valuation was to get into bed with scuzzy advertisers looking to rip off that big audience. But then the audience eventually realized it was getting ripped off, and boom, death spiral.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> [https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/04/03/the-locust- economy/](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/04/03/the-locust-economy/)

> He added one little factoid I did not know: offering a Groupon deal is by > now so strongly associated with a desperate, dying restaurant that > professional food critics tend to write off any restaurant that offers one > without even trying it.

<comment><USER6> [https://twitter.com/kenjennings/status/339170784406810624](https://twitter.com/kenjennings/status/339170784406810624)

<comment><USER7> Sounds like something someone who can afford to spend $300 on a meal would say.

<comment><USER8> If you're making food for people who spend $300 for a meal, why would you suddenly offer discounts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Andrew Mason is still worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Sure, he was fired from his job, but I wouldn't exactly call that a "fall". It's not like they took away his equity in the company.

<comment><USER10> In fact, he was able to cash out before he was fired. How often does _that_ happen?

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanlappin/2013/03/05/dont- cry-...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanlappin/2013/03/05/dont-cry-for- groupons-andrew-mason/)

The entire Groupon story is a black stain on Chicago startup history.

<comment><USER11> > How often does that happen?

For execs? I'd assume frequently.

<comment><USER10> Well, sure. I guess I meant it in more of a "able to cash out pre-IPO while still raising money" context.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I really recommend the "Without Fail" podcast [1], where this is taken from. Alex Blumberg is an interesting guy with a rare perspective (a journalist and radio host turned venture funded entrepreneur), and these are part interviews part conversations. Really liked the first few episodes.

[1] [https://www.gimletmedia.com/without- fail](https://www.gimletmedia.com/without-fail)

<comment><USER13> If you like without fail I'd also recommend internet history podcast [http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/](http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Every groupon I've bought I haven't used as a result of me missing some small detail in the "fine print". For example, one groupon was only able to be used on Thursday's. I tried to go with my wife on a Saturday only to be told it would cost $50.

I know I should have read the fine print, but it's so easy to miss.

</comment><comment><USER15> Ex-Groupon, before and after IPO. Groupon would make a great case study. The fundamental problem was that everyone knew "deal" websites would be a good business, that it would be very winner-take-all because of customer attention and supply, but no one knew how big that industry would be. So lots of companies got into it, but no one knew ahead of time how much it was worth spending to win the fight.

</comment><comment><USER16> Q:"Just remaining a gigantic private company seemed impossible?" A:"You have to go public at some point. The way we were structured and the way we had raised money, we were just engineered so that, if we weren't going to get acquired, that was the only exit option for us."

Why? Is this because investors want to make a quick buck on this?

<comment><USER17> The way funds are structured mean that money out is expected within a ten to twenty year window. Staying private and paying dividends is more of a hundred year window outcome.

The reason funds are structured this way is that it gets complicated to pay out things like bonuses or to do estate planning when so much capital is uncertainly tied up in a single, illiquid entity. Divorce happens, tax rates change, people reasonably want their money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm surprised there is no mention of the Rocket Internet investment. From what I heard it was the non-US part of Groupon (which was what Groupon acquired from Rocket) that partly dragged the company down.

</comment><comment><USER19> Groupon, today, is a two billion dollar public company. That is no small achievement.

</comment><comment><USER20> Why did he get fired? At that time the company was attracting lot of customers and doing fairly well. I like this guy. He is so funny. The lay off letter was hilarious.

<comment><USER21> The article explains it, he had a few issues with board members and after bad performance on Q3 numbers, he was told make it happen Q4. They had some sort of tax liability in France that hit them $10 million and because of it didn't hit Q4 numbers. That was that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Is there functionally anything bad about getting fired vs resigning? In this situation or any?

<comment><USER23> I know that in some jobs if you resign they don't have to pay out to the end of your contract. If they fire you they do (unless you're in breach on contract I suppose).

Also if you resign it can be more difficult to get social welfare benefits.</comment></comment>


Cloudflare Provides Cybersecurity for at Least 7 Terror Groups - <AUTHOR> https://news.yahoo.com/u-tech-giant-cloudflare-provides-171234439.html <comment><USER2> I remember when they shut off that stormer site[1].

So apparently how do you decide who to shutdown: How does this affect net neutrality and all that. Where do you draw the line?

[1] [https://blog.cloudflare.com/why-we-terminated-daily- stormer/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/why-we-terminated-daily-stormer/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Cloudflare provides cybersecurity for a lot of politically unpopular groups, such as groups criticizing totalitarian regimes. Whenever I see someone bashing Cloudflare, I just assume it's someone with an axe to grind.

<comment><AUTHOR> The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is the very definition of a terrorist group. They aren't criticizing— they are blowing people up.

Setting yourself of fire — that's speech. Suicide bombing- that's not speech. You can criticize and even hate. But when that turns to the promotion of killing innocent people, that crosses the line from dissent to terror.

If white supremacy is taken down but groups that actually blow up innocent people as a tactic are not taken down, that's a weird inconsistency. This would be a non story if Cloudflare were consistent. By taking down the white supremacist sites but not taking down al-Aqsa, Cloudflare has taken a position inconsistent with content-agnostic management of their platform.

Hamas could be debated, but there isn't any logical reasoning behind al-Aqsa being allowed while white supremacists aren't. Both groups are far beyond "criticizing totalitarian regimes." If we can't see the moral difference between al-Aqsa and dissidents, then we have lost the plot.

<comment><USER3> I don't think you understood my comment at all.</comment></comment></comment>


Attic: The Holy Grail of Backups - <AUTHOR> http://www.stavros.io/posts/holy-grail-backups/ <comment><AUTHOR> Obligatory: rsync.net (since November) has full, native[1] support for both attic and borg.

HN Readers' discount. Just email.

[1] As in, borg and attic on the server side, and no need to do silly workarounds like mounting over sshFS...</comment>


Ask HN: What legal mumbo jumbo does my startups website need? - <AUTHOR>

I am running a typical web startup. A website about my favorite topic. Running on a LAMP stack. Using Analytics, Adsense and affiliate links from Amazon and other retailers.
Users love it. I get over a million monthly pageviews now. I am very happy that people like what I build. Life is good.
I do it all completely based on what people want me to do. I run user surveys all the time and talk to users directly.
One of the things nobody ever asked for - and therefore is absent on my site - is legal mumbo jumbo.
Somehow I feel that might cause problems at some point. So what should I put up?
Lately I got an email from Google saying that users of their services shall put up that annoying "This site uses cookies. Click here to get rid of this popup." message to european visitors. I don't know any local european sites that do that. But when God^Hogle says so, you better comply, right? So looks like it's time to implement geotargeting.
That probably also implies putting up a privacy policy, as the full message in that popup shall be "This site uses cookies. OK|MORE" and MORE linking to the privacy policy. If I understand it correctly.
Similar with Amazon who wants publishers to put up an "Ad Disclosure" statement on their site. It's unclear where that has to go and if you have to link it from every page and if that can go on the "About" page or on a separate "Ad Disclosure" page or whatever Amazon wants. They don't give any more info about this requirement.
And then there is the local law. Sites in my country have to carry the information who runs them, the owners address and an "easy way to contact the owner". So either email or telephone I guess.
Can these 3 things (Address, Privacy Policy, Ad Disclosure) be put on one page? Is it enough to link to that page from an "About" link on every page of the site?
Anything else that I have to put up? How do you guys handle this? <comment><USER2> Of course, the best course of action is to have a lawyer draw up the "Terms", etc.

That said.

I think you can get "Terms" from Google and several other companies like WordPress/Automattic under a Creative Commons License. I'm sure you can find boiler plate terms of service all over the internet. Just do a search.

The Europeans can hit you with a stiff penalty for not having a cookie/privacy policy. (But probably won't.)

"The ICO (the body responsible) has the power to serve penalties of up to £500,000 (about $800,000) to organisations that seriously breach the law."

In Spain:: "Two companies were investigated and fined. The decision concludes that the two companies had failed to comply with the obligation to provide clear and comprehensive information about the cookies they used.

"The total amount of the fines, 3,500 EUR, is very modest, especially if one considers the great enforcement powers of the Spanish DPA who could have potentially issued a fine up to 30,000 EUR per infringement in this case."

<comment><USER2> Note that several U.S. states have varying requirements for a cookie/privacy policy also.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Usually, 2 things at a high level:

      - Privacy Policy

      - Terms and Conditions

For address and contact, just create a "About us" or "Contact" page and add those information there. Have these in your top level menu on every page.

Privacy policy is where you talk about what you do with user data, cookies blah blah. What information do you collect and what you do with it. Check out any well known SAAS and get inspired :).

Terms and conditions is where you define the rules of your system. Remember this is your system and you want to set the rules even if you have paying clients. What users can do, what they cannot and should not do. For example, if you offer ecommerce platform, then users cannot sell drugs etc. If users want to cancel their account, what needs to be done and what you offer. Things like that.

Oh, and always put a "Last updated" date on top of the Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions page. This helps reassure that you are constantly looking at this. Don't fool the users though by using dynamic system date:)

Finally, whenever you update these, send an automated email to let your users know. Not sure if this required by law in some countries.

</comment><comment><USER4> With a million monthly page views it's probably worthwhile paying a few grand to a lawyer for help with this ...</comment>


Iowa used to have 23 different Daylight Saving dates - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/11/04/termination-of-chaos-how-daylight-saving-solved-americas-clock-craziness/ <comment><USER2> The current title of the article is,

'Termination of chaos': How daylight saving solved America's clock craziness

That's probably better than what's at the top of this page; Iowa makes only a brief appearance in the story.</comment>