Coming Soon in HHVM - <AUTHOR> http://hhvm.com/blog/8405/coming-soon-in-hhvm <comment><USER2> Yay! I'm so excited to use the `async` methods in production with MySQL. The biggest bottleneck for our PHP apps can now have a workaround in some cases, that's brilliant.

 _> Integration of LLVM as a further optimization step to make the hottest code run even faster on HHVM._

These multistage JITs are absolutely fascinating, I believe Safari is doing something similar with Javascript. Intuitively I would've assumed the overhead of firing up yet another JIT and VM to run it on would make it not worth it, but I guess the instructions currently generated are so far off optimal that it _is_ worth doing.

EDIT: Anyone know of any papers regarding multi-stage JITs that I can check out?

<comment><USER3> Async MySQL queries have been available to you in PHP since PHP 5.3.0 released in 2009:

        http://php.net/mysqli.poll

If that has been your bottleneck, why haven't you been using them?

<comment><AUTHOR> The async support you linked, while useful, isn't really the same thing. It requires explicit, manual coordination between different parts of the code that want to fetch data. You're responsible yourself for batching fetches, polling, and running other code until the results are returned.

With Hack's async support, the runtime manages all of this for you. You call "await $query", and then your function is suspended until the data is available. Other code automatically runs until it too hits an await statement -- which might block it on MySQL, memcache, curl, or anything else, with no extra manual coordination needed. The runtime manages it all for you.

[http://hhvm.com/blog/7091/async-cooperative-multitasking- for...](http://hhvm.com/blog/7091/async-cooperative-multitasking-for-hack) has some examples for what this looks like with curl -- in the final example, notice how you can just "await" on a bunch of different things and let the runtime worry about coordinating all of them.

<comment><USER2> ^^^ What he said :)

The async stuff in HHVM is far more powerful than the meagre-at-best support for asynchronous operations in the original PHP runtime. In usage, HHVM's will be much more powerful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how long it'll be before HHVM starts driving the PHP project, implicitly or explicitly.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm rather disappointed that full, non-experimental xdebug support isn't on this list. I can't think of a more pertinent feature. I like HHVM's development as well as Hack, but without proper remote debugging, it remains rather inaccessible. I would personally love to contribute to getting some of the major frameworks that are not quite 100% compatible up to par but have been deterred in being able to fix bugs in a timely matter because of the lack of debugger support.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not on the list since it was released a few versions ago! Try it in the latest stable version, and please file issues on GitHub if you run into problems. There are already a couple of known issues filed there that are being looked into, but at least the PHPStorm developers have told us that it works well enough they are able to work on XDebug+HHVM support in their IDE.

<comment><USER5> Awesome! I must've missed the announcement (if there was one). I'll definitely be checking it out soon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have recently tried out to run our huge, about 10 years old application using HHVM. Interestingly enough, aside of few 5.6 features it didn't support yet, the process was surprisingly painless.

However, HHVM was generally between 2 and 5 times slower than vanilla PHP at rendering pages. In micro benchmarks it was way ahead, but running the whole application was a very different matter.

I decided to wait until the thing matures a bit more before trying again and then hopefully with more time to investigate the causes of this huge difference in performance.

<comment><USER7> Did you run enough requests to allow the jit to work? some jits require thousands of runs (in this case requests) to warm up.

<comment><USER6> I would hope ab -c 5 -n 1000 would be enough. I've used -c 5 because the VM wasn't exactly beefy, but that's still quite a few requests.

<comment><USER8> do you have any profiling information to share? if you could post it as a github issue, we'd be very interested. This sounds unusual.

<comment><USER8> also, if this is an open source workload, any chance you could submit it to [https://github.com/hhvm/oss-performance](https://github.com/hhvm/oss- performance) ? We generally optimize based on those benchmarks, and Facebook itself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Any sign of official PostgreSQL support?

</comment><comment><USER10> We just need the Mongo extension ([https://github.com/mongodb/mongo-php- driver](https://github.com/mongodb/mongo-php-driver)) to be supported to try HHVM out.

<comment><USER8> People are having lots of success with [https://github.com/mongofill/mongofill- hhvm](https://github.com/mongofill/mongofill-hhvm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Sorry for yet another rant against php, but does anyone else here feels a bit sad that those obviously brilliant people work so hard to improve this language instead of basically any other main one ?

Edit : seems like i wasn't clear. I don't mean sad for the people working on the project ( i'm sure they love what they're doing), i mean sad because as a non-php dev ( but basically everything else dev), i know many "better" languages that would benefit from having those kind of people on board.

<comment><USER12> HHVM is the answer to the following conversation:

P1 - "PHP sucks, it's a terrible language with no proper design and no serious person would ever want to use it"

P2 - "But tons of large projects are built on it and people ship with it everyday"

P1 - "So? It's still terrible"

P2 - "What do you think is so terrible?"

P1 - "Oh lots and lots of things, I wouldn't even know where to begin"

P2 - "How about this: let's throw boatloads of cash on it for a while and see where we get."

P1 - "Oh gee, I dunno if..."

P2 - "Boatloads of cash it is.

[edit] After seeing how my comment could be seen as ridiculing HHVM: I'm a PHP dev and I'm loving every second of what they're doing. I think they're right on the money.

<comment><USER13> I actually appreciate the work that Facebook is doing in this space... it's definitely beneficial to those running PHP codebases that have been around a long time. While I don't like PHP the language, I can understand the utility of it.

That said, I'm appreciating the move to containerization and micro-services more... replacing some pieces with better options becomes far easier when those pieces are smaller. I can prototype in something like node, and move those troublesome bits to something like go or c++ if needed.</comment></comment></comment>


How to make your best employees quit - <AUTHOR> http://creationisconsumption.com/2011/12/20/how-to-make-your-best-employees-quit/

<comment><USER2> I think the point is reasonable, but there _is no_ "agile done wrong"; it's simply "not agile development". If a team claims to follow well-defined principles then it's everyone's responsibility to know them and identify any deviations. In this case, treating a date as more important than any other goal should have been a red flag. The _team_ should never have allowed it to reach the point of longer hours over holiday breaks.

</comment><comment><USER3> Dates are always important. It doesn't matter who is in charge, that show, or holiday opportunity, or funding drop-dead date is real. Agile cannot fix that.</comment>


Covid-19 is making our personal data more exposed than ever - <AUTHOR> https://saymineapp.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey Hackers, My name is Gal Ringel, and I'm the co-founder and CEO at Mine.

Mine lets you discover your digital footprint and remove your personal data from services you no longer use. So far, 40,000 users have already used our product to send more than 250,000 deletion requests to companies, in order to reduce their online exposure and keep their data safe. We make privacy regulations accessible to everyone, and help users to leave their data only where they really need it.

During March alone, we were able to save more than 5,000 users from being part of data breaches, because they deleted their data on time.

Since the Coronavirus started, we detected a spike of more than 50% in personal data exposure, which put us at risk more than ever.

We all spend more (or all) of our time at home due to quarantine instructions or personal choice and forced to move 100% of our day to day needs online. We order online instead of leaving home, preparing our emergency stock by boosting online shopping activity, and are therefore more exposed to the risk of our data being collected and used by companies and hackers.

We are here to help you reduce your online exposure and avoid potential digital risks in the future.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

<comment><USER3> > more exposed to the risk of our data being collected and used by companies

You seem to be contributing to the problem by having Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics on your website. I am not sure where you are based but analytics need to be strictly opt-in according to the GDPR and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Our website saymine.com does allow you to opt-out from Google Analytics as the GDPR instructing. saymineapp.com is a web application where we use Google Analytics to track anonymous clicks and to identify errors. Check out our privacy policy here: [https://saymine.com/privacy- policy](https://saymine.com/privacy-policy)

<comment><USER3> How can it be "anonymous" if you're implicitly sending the IP address to Google (by making requests to them) and the IP is considered personal data as per the GDPR?

<comment><AUTHOR> From Google's documentation: "IP addresses are not available in your Google Analytics reports. So, while Google does collect IP addresses, Google doesn't provide that data to end users. The bottom line is you are not able to see IP addresses anywhere in your Google Analytics reports."

<comment><USER3> Google collecting IP addresses is exactly my problem. I don't mind _you_ having access to them (and in fact you do in your server logs), I just don't want a malicious third-party knowing what I'm doing on your site.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was not comfortable with the read access.. but decided to go for it.. the app is really slick and clear. But how do I know that I can trust you?

<comment><AUTHOR> Mine is built upon a foundation of transparency and trust, with you - <USER2> user, at the center. We help you keep track of your personal data and identify digital services that you don't use or that are no longer providing you with value. Of course, that means that Mine is on the list as well, so if for some reason you feel you're not getting value from our product, go ahead and reclaim your data from Mine. You can also request a copy of the data we collect about you, so you can see for yourself what we actually have. We are inline with GDPR and CCPA.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love the product! Mine found too many companies in my footprint, is there anyway to select a few together and then delete, rather than going one by one?

<comment><AUTHOR> Check out the "Quick actions" screen that supports multiple actions at once.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> That's a first:) never thought I would get into a privacy policy page and enjoy reading it... Spice girls lyrics are indeed much more interesting;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Transparency is a key value to our company. We committed to keep the bare minimum of personal data and to serve as an example.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was expecting a few hundreds but WTF? 1738 services? What have I been doing online.. feels like a chapter from black mirror

<comment><AUTHOR> We are here to increase awareness and to empower you to be the owner of your personal data. Now that you are aware of how many companies hold your data, you can start reclaiming to reduce your online exposure and be safer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> What the f __ __* 847 companies.. holding my data?!?! How do I reclaim from multiple companies?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you want to reclaim multiple companies in a single click, all you have to do is to visit the "Quick Actions" screen. There you'll find recommendations tailored to your footprint to help you decide what to do and take multiple actions at once

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just what I was waiting for! Great work guys. But I have to ask.. how do you make money out of it?

<comment><AUTHOR> In general, tech companies that are not interested in your money are interested in your data, your online behavior, or other personal assets they can monetize. In other words, if an app is free, they're probably getting their money from somewhere else :) Our goal is the opposite - we want to make data ownership accessible for all without monetizing our users' data. So our future business model will be based on a subscription model, with pricing to be announced in the near future. However, at the moment, Mine is free, because we are still crafting and shaping it together with our users' precious feedback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Amazing app! what happen after I reclaim my data? how do you make sure its gone?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you decide to reclaim your data from a company, an email with a deletion request will automatically be sent to that company directly from your inbox. According to the GDPR, the company has up to 30 days to comply. During that time, the company may reach out to you to verify your identity to make sure it's not deleting somebody else's data by mistake.

Once your reclaim request is complete, you should receive a confirmation email from the company. In the near future, we will notify you when it happens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Hey guys.. really nice. Does the progress bar on my activity runs automatically?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, we are monitoring the entire deletion process. So just like you can see where is your package when you order from Amazon, Mine will show what is happening with your deletion requests until full completion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Awesome app, quite surprised by my footprint size. No support for Yahoo?

<comment><AUTHOR> Enjoy reclaiming your data! As for Yahoo, we are almost done with adding it as our third email provider. Stay tuned!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Great idea! but how do you know my footprint?

<comment><AUTHOR> We built a non-intrusive technology that reconstructs your footprint by scanning your email inbox, only looking at the subject lines of your emails, the sender (the digital service), and the number of times they appear in your inbox. It is important to note that we never read, process or collect the content of your emails!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Awesome idea. Do you have any intention to support more privacy regulations other than GDPR and CPPA?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, we are going to add additional privacy regulations such as PIPEDA (Canada), LGPD (Brazil), OAIC (Australia), DPDA (Singapore), and basically to follow each geography that will legislate similar regulations.</comment></comment>


7 minutes of terror - Curiosity - <AUTHOR> http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120731.html

<comment><USER2> This is very old and has been posted many times</comment>


Show HN: Purely Functional Scripting - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/topshell-language/topshell <comment><AUTHOR> Hi all, TopShell is a reactive scripting environment that I've been working on for a while. It's purely functional with type inference that runs as you type, as well as a bit of autocompletion.

You can work with SSH, files and HTTP requests, and there's a pure DOM library for scraping. You can draw with SVG or HTML.

I'm looking forward to your feedback!

<comment><USER5> TopShell looks very interesting, thank you for sharing!

This is a problem domain which I've been thinking a lot about recently. I write _tons_ of shell (bash) scripts. I hate bash and its peculiarities, but it remains one of the quickest ways for me to get work done; I've tried to use many other languages to fill the gap of writing scripts that start as quick one-offs but have the potential to evolve into a more refined piece of software over time, but so far haven't had much luck.

Most languages force me to go to great lengths for everything I want to do in this domain:

\- implementing command-line arguments/flags/subcommands: either overly- simplistic (getopts) or overly complex (cobra)

\- force me set up error handling for everything that could possibly go wrong

\- aren't flexible enough to transform 'soupy' data between various representations without basically writing a full-blown custom parser

\- can sometimes be difficult to distribute a minimal-dependency release to remote machines or other users

Functional languages are awesome for many of these things, but can be awkward when dealing with the side-effects that we normally _want_ when dealing with scripting tasks.

So far, what I gather from your readme/wiki is that TopShell is:

a) A functional language seemingly inspired by ML, Haskell, et al.

b) A reactive development environment for the language, à la Jupyter

I love the code examples in the readme; I think this is something most people want to see but a lot of projects overlook. However, I think the readme is a bit barren on the philosophical front. You have a great wiki page [0] for that - I think it could be condensed and integrated into your readme so new visitors have a good idea of your vision.

As someone who would consider using TopShell, my concerns are:

\- I can't find documentation on how I can use my own editor/environment if I want, rather than the web interface (which is nice for its notebook-like experience, but I don't see it fitting into my normal workflow)

\- I want to continue to integrate with programs which adhere to the unix philosophy; how does TopShell fit into this?

\- How dedicated are you to the development/maintenance of the project?

\- Do you forsee growing a community of contributors (and if so, how?), or do you want to keep this as a personal pet project?

\- Do you think the project will be alive in 1, 3, 5 years?

[0]: [https://github.com/topshell- language/topshell/wiki/TopShell:...](https://github.com/topshell- language/topshell/wiki/TopShell:-Reimagined-Terminal-and-Shell)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the long and thoughtful comment. I think you bring up a lot of valid points, and I don't have complete answers to all of them yet, but I'll do my best to address them here.

> Functional languages are awesome for many of these things, but can be > awkward when dealing with the side-effects that we normally want when > dealing with scripting tasks.

I think that's a common sentiment, but I have a different take on it - <USER2> functional programming is actually great at expressing _intended effects_ \- as _opposed_ to side-effects!

With the right standard library, I think it might be possible to make I/O at least as easy as in imperative scripting languages like Python. As a small example, compare reading a file as a string in Python and TopShell:

Python:

        file = open("testfile.text", "r")
        text = file.read()

TopShell:

        text <- File.readText "testfile.text"

Does that translate to bigger examples? I think it does, but a more serious efford to compare the two would be required for a convincing argument.

> I can't find documentation on how I can use my own editor/environment if I > want, rather than the web interface

This is not yet possible. What I have in mind for this is moving the code execution to the backend and having some way for an editor to communicate with the TopShell server - perhaps through the Language Server Protocol.

> I want to continue to integrate with programs which adhere to the unix > philosophy; how does TopShell fit into this?

TopShell can _use_ such programs, but TopShell scripts can't currently _become_ such programs. I'm still looking for the right way to do this - <USER3> way would be to have a `main : System -> Stream Bytes -> Stream Bytes` where `System` contains command line arguments and so on, and `Stream Bytes -> Stream Bytes` is stdin to stdout.

> How dedicated are you to the development/maintenance of the project?

I'm not sure what an answer to that looks like - though what I can say is that I use TopShell for all my own ad-hoc scripting needs.

> Do you forsee growing a community of contributors (and if so, how?), or do > you want to keep this as a personal pet project?

I hope for a community of contributors, but I have no experience in community building per se. There are many low-barrier ways to contribute though - <USER4> example, by extending the standard library. Any tips?

> Do you think the project will be alive in 1, 3, 5 years?

I do think so, but as it is, there's a "bus factor" of 1. Please don't bet your business on it right now unless you're prepared to take over maintenece on a moments notice.

> Can sometimes be difficult to distribute a minimal-dependency release to > remote machines or other users

To me, a script is a single file I can send to a friend (or put on a machine), and it will just run. Most scripting languages don't really do this, because they assume that package management is handled somewhere else, and implicitly depend on an environment. When TopShell eventually gets a `main` function, the goal will be that all you need to run a script is the script file and TopShell.

<comment><USER5> > TopShell can use such programs, but TopShell scripts can't currently become > such programs. I'm still looking for the right way to do this - one way > would be to have a `main : System -> Stream Bytes -> Stream Bytes` where > `System` contains command line arguments and so on, and `Stream Bytes -> > Stream Bytes` is stdin to stdout.

That actually sounds perfect. If you were able to implement this, I could see this tool coming in very handy for tons of things.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the project, thank you for your thorough response!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This looks great, and I'm eager for more!

I was initially put off by going straight to the repo's declared homepage (the Playground) and just seeing two empty text areas. The repo README isn't quite enough on its own - as you say, the interactive scripting experience is a huge part of the value here.

I strongly recommend doing what you can to get visitors to that experience as directly as possible. For example: pre-filling the Playground with a short, good example (e.g. the JSON-to-table one). Many people won't get as far as pasting that into the empty Playground. Once I tried it, everything made considerably more sense to me. (I'm not a regular FP coder; I've done some Elm, some Miranda in college, that's it.)

There are plenty of other things you can do (embed a couple of GIFs in the README; offer a choice of examples in the Playground) but I'd focus on (a) getting people to the Playground (b) prefilling the Playground with an example (c) add a few explanatory comments to the example.

Again, this looks great, and I'm eager to use it. Congrats!

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a great idea - I will look into that. Perhaps even a little menu with a few different examples. One challenge is that the Playground is sandboxed, so the more interesting examples involving eg. SSH or scraping are mostly off limits.

Thanks for the feedback, and be sure to leave an experience report if you do try it! TopShell is very young, and its future evolution will be guided by concrete use cases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Looks like Elm.

Why did you add magic imports? It seems strange to go for purely functional behavior and then add magic side effects.

<comment><AUTHOR> It is indeed in the Haskell family of languages, just like Elm and PureScript.

TopShell is all about the out-of-box experience - not just a language, but an environment that emphasizes an interactive scripting experience, where you can see data as you fetch and manipulate it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Seeing how closely TopShell resembles Haskell I am curious why you chose to implement it in Scala rather than Haskell or Purescript.

<comment><AUTHOR> The reason is that I do Scala at my day job, and thus I'm simply more experienced in that than Haskell.

While I've written a compiler in Haskell in the past, and prefer the language in many ways, I don't know how to do front end programming in Haskell, compile Haskell to efficient JS or debug performance problems. I also don't know if there's a good Haskell IDE these days. PureScript would have been risky for me, since I haven't done anything in it before.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The first example is a HTTP request, aren't network requests inherently _unpure_? as they rely on state outside of the program and could cause side effects...

<comment><AUTHOR> Purely functional programming languages can't have _side effects_. But they can have _intended effects_.

Like Haskell, TopShell uses monads to represent effects, and eg. Http.fetch returns a Task, which is similar to the IO monad in Haskell.

The returned Task is a pure _description_ of how to perform the HTTP request. Every time you apply Http.fetch to the same arguments, you get exactly the same description back, thus maintaining referential transparency.

Only the top level knows how to interpret such a description and perform the effects (eg. open a HTTP connection etc). Thus you compose Tasks into bigger tasks and then let the top level run them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> to OP: How long have you been working on it? What was the biggest challenge you ran into when working on it?

How does piping work? Can you split and join the streams?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been working on it for a little over a year. The biggest challenge so far has been designing and implementing a type system with the flexibility required for ad-hoc scripting. Building a standard library that can tackle dirty real world problems as nicely as possible is an ongoing challenge too.

In TopShell, Streams are analogous to pipes. The primary way you use TopShell Streams is by combining and transforming them into new streams. The interface for streams is very similar to what you might find in a Functional Reactive Programming library, and indeed it can be used to eg. animate SVG based on data that's streamed from somewhere.

<comment><USER10> Why would ad-hoc scripting require more flexibility with a type system? What kind of flexibility? Is it that you need more types? Or more union types to handle all the different variations that are the same, but all slightly different?

<comment><AUTHOR> Anonymous records and variants are convenient in a scripting language because you don't have to declare them. This in turn leads to anonymous record types and anonymous sum types, which require something beyond HM for type inference, and I wanted to avoid introducing row variables.

TopShell uses type constraints for this, and I've never implemented a type constraint solver before TopShell. There are also some extra things to do around checking explicit type annotations, when the user provides them.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Psychedelics and Psychotherapy - <AUTHOR> http://m.timeline.com/stories/psychedelic-drugs-clinical-use-anxiety-terminally-ill-mdma-ecstasy-molly-lsd-magic-mushrooms <comment><USER3> I used to suffer from pretty bad anxiety, particularly existential anxiety, and would sometimes have panic attacks. My doctor recommended SSRIs, but I declined due to the increased risk of suicide.

Taking psilocybin mushrooms in a positive environment with my friends was perhaps the single most therapeutic and rewarding thing I've ever experienced.

In the months since, my anxiety has evaporated, my panic attacks have stopped, and I've been taking better care of myself and my environment. For me, it has been a wonder-drug.

Above all, I have a lasting sense of well being—that everything is going to be alright. And I think to deny that experience to people, particularly people who are grappling with death as I was, is simply inhumane.

<comment><USER4> I haven't commented on HN for a long time, but this hit far too close to home not to respond to.

I have had exactly the same kind of existential anxiety from a very young age (I remember discussing this extensively with my parents at ~7 year old). It used to be something that only happened late at night when I was alone - <USER2> the first time it hit me in a completely normal situation. I was literally mid conversation and suddenly all I could think about was my inevitable mortality. I can not describe the feeling of shock and helplessness. The floor disappeared beneath me.

I walk out of the house every morning and look at the people in the street, and I just don't understand how they can function normally in the face of certain death. Terminally ill people are often anxious because they're going to die. But _everyone_ is going to die. We are all terminally ill with this fatal disease called "life".

It's nothing to do with wanting to accomplish more before I die. It's the very idea of not existing that I can't comprehend. I'm sure anyone would agree that the world ending would be a fairly grim prospect. When you die, the world ends. Game over, even if everyone else continues.

Alcohol is a wonderful escape from an over-active mind, but guzzling a substance that's likely to screw with your health long term... isn't exactly ideal for an existentialist and hypochondriac. SSRIs seem to help regulate things until - months in - you realise they are actually pretty nasty drugs with too many observable side effects to count on both hands.

Maybe shrooms are the answer, indeed, though having never dared touch them from - strangely enough, fear of their inducing a panic attack - I've yet to be able to comment on that.

<comment><USER5> > guzzling a substance that's likely to screw with your health long term...

Low-to-moderate alcohol use has been shown to have significant health benefits over the long-term.

For me, three beers is enough to have a strong enough stress-reduction effect, two if they're strong. My mind just unwinds and I relax. I used to think I'd develop a tolerance and start needing more and more to get the same effect, I no longer think so after many years of roughly the same level of consumption.

Alcohol is generally not a problem unless you start really young or had the kind of abusive childhood that leads to addictive behaviors.

<comment><USER6> > Low-to-moderate alcohol use has been shown to have significant health > benefits over the long-term.

There is a well publicised study that claims that, but it's been pretty heavily criticised. It turns out that only women over 65 get benefits from moderate drinking. Everyone else needs to restrict themselves to light drinking to get the benefits.

That's an important distinction because few people know how much they actually drink. People tend to under-estimate the number of glasses they have, and under-estimate the size of the glasses, and under estimate the amount of alcohol in each glass.

You've said that 3 beers produces a de-stress result. It's not clear what you mean by "strong" \- 5%? 8%? 10%? Three pints of beer at 5% ABV are 2.8 units each, about 8.5 units for all three. This is no where near risky drinking (unless you do it more than twice a week) but it is wrong to suggest that it is a healthy activity.

Alcohol is not just a problem for those who start yumg or who've had abusive childhoods. Alcohol is a causal factor in many deaths and accidental injuries; alcohol is involved in many suicide attempts; alcohol is involved in a lot of violence. It is wrong to suggest that all those people started drinking young or had abusive backgrounds.

[http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h384](http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h384)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9043577](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9043577)

[http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/put-down-the- booze-...](http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/put-down-the-booze- drinking-may-not-be-good-for-you)

<comment><USER5> > Alcohol is not just a problem for those who start yumg or who've had abusive > childhoods. Alcohol is a causal factor in many deaths and accidental > injuries; alcohol is involved in many suicide attempts; alcohol is involved > in a lot of violence. It is wrong to suggest that all those people started > drinking young or had abusive backgrounds.

Alcohol is involved in a lot of things because it's the only legal consciousness-altering drug available in many countries. If you're going to start making statements for or against alcohol, you need to account for this cultural fact.

> People tend to under-estimate the number of glasses they have, and under- > estimate the size of the glasses, and under estimate the amount of alcohol > in each glass.

They do because they have a reason to, nobody wants to be seen as a drunk. If they didn't they'd self-report more accurately. Studies on the social effects of alcohol probably don't account for this, considering the difficulty of doing so.

> You've said that 3 beers produces a de-stress result.

The beer I typically drink is 3.2%. At my bar they serve 14 oz pints. Strong beers can be anywhere from 5-10%. I know roughly how much I've been drinking both because I keep track of my intake and because different amounts feel very different.

For me, the line between "comfortable buzz" and "achey, dizzy, ready to throw up" is a skinny one. So in order to keep my nights and weekends fun, I have to moderate pretty strictly. On weekends, I've learned to have a few beers during the day, go home for a few hours, then go back out for the evening. At bars there's pressure to drink more, I mostly manage to avoid that pressure simply because it can ruin my night fast.

> it is wrong to suggest that it is a healthy activity.

I honestly don't know whether it's healthy or not, I personally have a tough time understanding what is meant exactly by "healthy", but there's some recent archaeological results that suggest that our evolutionary history with ethanol is long, meaning our brains and bodies would have had ample time to adapt to it.

Personally, I'm convinced that stress, both self-induced and external, has a far worse effect on a person's quality of life over time than any of the physiological effects of moderate drinking. So to compare the effects of drinking alcohol to not drinking alcohol, you also have to understand the effects of the stress that's being relieved. Of course, there are social costs that one can incur as well, the most dramatic of which seems to be DUIs or worse, alcohol-induced accidents, but again, I suspect that on the whole, especially if one can avoid getting those, a stressed person is better off drinking moderately and letting it go than he is holding it in. Of course, there are other ways of relieving stress, but they may not be as effective or as cheap. Alcohol is incredibly reliable at doing this, that should count for a lot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I have a vivid and fond memory of one particular experience with psilocybin many years ago. I was not "tripping" or in any way lacking in function, but it was as if a switch had flipped and every ounce of self-consciousness, anxiety, and depression was replaced with feelings of contentment and goodwill towards everyone around me. That was the only day in my life where I was a true extrovert. Unfortunately I have never had that experience again, but it gives me hope that someday researchers will discover and refine whatever caused that transformation and this will lead to breakthrough therapies.

</comment><comment><USER8> I used to have an unconventional hobby. I collected information. More correctly, I collected Ebooks, converted them to text format, and printed them. I had access to a free printer at school and would do 20-50 pages a day and take them home with me.

The e-books were almost exclusively survivalist material, but I ran out of things to print and started printing educational manuals of all sorts. Math, Chemistry, Biology, etc, etc. I was doing this because I was scared the world as we know it was going to end at any time. I was constantly researching firearms, and survival gear. I was going to the doctor for sinus infections to get antibiotics that I didn't need, just in case.

It was pretty borderline behavior.

It continued until I discovered DMT. I smoked roughly 2 grams over the course of a few months and had some very tremendous experiences. Early on in the process, It was always a continuing experience, starting up where the last trip had let off.

Long story short, I met "god", this multi-dimensional being that assured me that this state of life wasn't the end. It expressed to me that what comes after this is just as splendid and precious as the life I have now.

I smoked DMT too much. 2 Grams is roughly 60-80 doses. I smoked until I arrived at too much of a peace with death. I didn't care if I lived or died. Not that I wanted to die, mind you, but it just didn't bother me anymore. When that thought crossed my mind, it was a shock. I got rid of what was left and never dosed again.

I am very excited to see psychedelic research done. We stopped learning 50 years ago because uneducated old people were scared. It is time to grow up and let science do what science does. Almost all research done has been overwhelmingly positive. A smart man once said something like the war on drugs is a war on Americans. This is such good news.

</comment><comment><USER9> I have always been fascinated by the intersection of technology and psychedelic use. As in, that I feel as if a higher percentage of those of us in the tech space have experimented with these drugs than in other fields. Although, this observation is purely anecdotal.

I think that I read a good article about this intersection but I am having a hard time finding it.

These comments remind me how out-of-touch society is about who actually uses psychedelics. My educated guess is everyone here who has admitted to their past or current use of psilocybin/lsd/etc is a highly intelligent and "productive" member of society. I wonder if a tipping point on the stigma around these drugs will be reached in our lifetime, of if the exploration of our own consciousness will continue to be forbidden.

<comment><USER10> There's an excellent book by Timothy Leary he wrote right before he died about cyber culture and LSD; makes the same point. That book is what planted the seed for me: computers and their communities as shared consciousness. I can't remember the title but it connected rave culture hacker culture and such with a very convincing line of thought.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The possibility that excites me the most is the effect of MDMA on sociopathic individuals. Maybe it won't lead us to a "cure" for sociopathy, but it can at least tell us more about the brain and how it gets wired up.

<comment><USER12> This presupposes there's something wrong with sociopathy. Note that most sociopaths are living in society without causing harm to others, so who are we to say their state of being is inherently wrong or that we should be vested with authority to change them?

If they're voluntarily seeking help, then that's different, of course. How often does that happen? (Genuine question. I have no idea, and I'd love to find out.)

<comment><USER13> > _without causing harm to others_

Not all of them all the time, of course. And some of them never. But the same could be said of pedophiles. Whatever you may think of the DSM, sociopathy is listed as a disorder. It is associated with violent crime and crimes against humanity.

Or, look at it this way: Let's say you're not a sociopath and a taking MDMA is just a pleasant experience. Wouldn't it be worthwhile to administer it prophylactically? Or in vocations, like policing, where there's a large risk of developing sociopathy. Might make your next flight less dicey.

<comment><USER14> If you replaced your argument for treating potential sociopaths with "treating potential gay people", do you see why that's a kind of dangerous approach to psychiatric diseases?

It's pretty dicey to just say "it's a disorder in the DSM associated with (negative things) and therefore we should push for administration of treatment to otherwise healthy/happy people."

It isn't too long ago now that being gay was also in the DSM. Respected scientists claimed all sorts of "harm" that the "gay lifestyle" caused to people in it and outside of it.

I suppose my question is: your logic would you suggest that it is worthwhile or valuable to administer prophylactic treatment to every DSM disorder, for those considered "at risk." You assert that MDMA is "just a pleasant experience", but I'd counterclaim that no drug is always just a pleasant experience, and you always need to consider the side effects (which for MDMA read like the side effects of many legal psychiatric drugs that affect the seratonin/dopamine/norepinephrine system). Keeping in mind that psychiatric disorders are some of the few disorders where the consent of the patient still isn't absolutely legally necessary to administer treatment, that means that you are arguing that these should be at least considered for administration to actively unwilling patients.

Given the difficulty of diagnosing these illnesses in the first place and the possibility of misdiagnosis (see also: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenhan_experiment)), I think it's important to be careful of the arguments made for treatments. Treatments often are applied to involuntary patients (who may be considered incapable), and both the DSM and psychology (as a science) are not some be- all, end-all bible of things that can be stated to be definitively negative or harmful or unwanted which exist outside of the culture they're formed in.

<comment><USER13> You missed my point: In the use of MDMA, is there a downside to misdiagnosis? Let's say MDMA was effective treating alcoholism, but had no therapeutic effect, nor any harmful effect, on anyone else. Lots of people take it recreationally. We can certainly find out if that population is suffering any negative consequences.

I take your point about the dubiousness of some parts of the DSM. But what's your theory about sociopaths? Are you seriously suggesting sociopathy will be redeemed in some way?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> To take the opposing position, use of hallucinogens or other psychotropic agents will physically alter the brain and may cause real, permanent effects, e.g. HPPD¹. The consequences and danger are something I choose to avoid and I would encourage others to reconsider as well.

1: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_percep...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_perception_disorder)

</comment><comment><USER16> This is fantastic, it really is, but I am uncomfortable with the idea that there has to be something medically wrong with you in the first place for you to be able to benefit from psychedelics.

Me and a group my friends take psychedelics regularly but not often. Every single one of us reports not only enjoying the experience but more importantly IMHO, we feel long lasting positive effects.

Our favourite thing to do is a `candyflip' which is taking LSD and then MDMA a few hours afterwards. You can read about what the drugs do individually elsewhere, but I will attempt to describe the combination briefly here.

One of the effects of LSD is that it makes your emotions very slippery, and what I mean by that is that you can very easily and quickly transition from feeling intense happiness to intense feelings of negativity and anxiety without apparent cause. I describe the MDMA as propping up the emotions you experience during the LSD trip so that they are entirely positive. It allows you to access and talk about memories that are usually repressed, in my case childhood bullying, without fear or dread^1. LSD on it's own can produce intense euphoria with the right set and setting, but it is certainly easier to achieve it with a little bit of MDMA ;-) .

Since taking psychedelics I have noticed that I have become more open minded, more accepting of who I am and have a greater ability to appreciate the time I am living in now as opposed to waiting for 'life to get good'^2.

One of the long term effects I have enjoyed the most is a greater ability to empathize with others, I am not only much more aware of my own mind, it's fallibility, emotions and thought processes, but when in a crowd, I can't help but feel awe at the hundreds of minds surrounding mine that are all equally complex as mine. Everyone has emotions, difficulties, hopes, dreams and desires as I do, this is something I had never really thought about before.

Finally, I am now at peace with the idea that I will in all likelihood not be a silicon valley billionaire or even wealthy at all^3. I understand now that success is not just measured by economic and social status. A normal person living in a normal house with a normal family could very well be more `successful' in my opinion that anybody else in the world, so long as they are happy, and content with their situation in a way that I am finding difficult to put into words. I am reaching here to describe such a person and the word that is coming to mind is enlightened.

Unfortunately, if I had come across a post such as this a year ago, before trying psychedelics, I would have dismissed the author as a hippy, somebody who is making excuses for their own failure or even perhaps somebody with mental illness.

Psychedelics are really something that must be experienced to be understood, we do not yet have the language to accurately describe to an outsider the happenings of ones own mind outside of a strict subset of feelings and emotions such as happy, hungry or sad.

Prohibition is a terrible event that is forcing people to live without ever experiencing these things. Your brain is normally limited to the inputs it receives from your senses. Psychedelics allow you do disconnect from such a sober world and invent your own inputs to an extent and it is wonderful. To think that most people never get the opportunity to do that is painful to me.

^1: This is characteristic of MDMA in isolation as well.

^2: Of course this is anecdotal and is difficult to distinguish from a placebo effect. I can't imagine a double blind experiment that could prove this, when asked about long term effects, the active drug group are going to be very aware what group they were in, but the question you want to answer is not did you notice the drug, but did it have a long term effect on you.

^3: I come from a moderately wealthy background and there was a huge amount of indirect pressure to have a stable career and earn lots of money.

</comment><comment><USER17> Tangential to the conversation, but the website (Timeline) is new to me, and it is quite interesting.

Does it seem to anyone else that the design is completely backwards? After reading a news article, I'd wanna learn about what has been happening recently with the issue, and dig a little deeper slowly. This forces a model where some small bit of news is followed by a wikipedia entry of sorts.

</comment><comment><USER18> Well, another one of these posts. Let's beat this topic to death even more.

But real talk, it would be cool if steps were taken forward to change the way these substances were treated legally and what-not.

<comment><USER19> There are those ahead of you, and behind you, all of us a continuum of experience, lesser and greater, reaching towards the light.

Remember not that you have already reached for the light, but that others right now are reaching for it, and guide them instead towards it instead of flipping the switch to "off."

<comment><USER20> "We're all just walking each other home." ― Ram Dass

<comment><USER18> One love brother <3</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Equity Expectations for Founder Funded Startup? - <AUTHOR>

I've been approached with an opportunity to work at a new startup. I've known the founders for several years, working with them at one point or another. They understand both the business and technology side and have had several successful exits.
This is all great, but because of this, they're self funding and not offering a lot of equity, but a pretty competitive salary (10% drop from my current mark which is on the high end in my location). My risk is essentially nil, and my upside will be nice if we're successful, but I'd like to have more skin in the game than the 2%, grant not option, they're offering at the start.
We've started doing some work and I'm making most of the technical decisions, developing our architecture plan, etc. This is my first time at the ground floor, like we don't have an office yet ground floor.
On the plus side the founders can fund us for a while, and if things go well we'd probably be able to skip several rounds of funding, leading to less dilution. But the downside is that since I'm not putting a few hundred grand into the pot I'm not a founder but merely a first employee.
With the realization that I'm taking the job, and enjoying the ride either way. Do you, HN, think that I have a shot at moving that percentage up, either through some incentives if I continue down the road of "CTO" for the company, or some other way? Or is this just part of the deal when working for something funded when the founders don't need to distribute risk? <comment><USER2> Now is the time to negotiate not later. If they really want you they will give you what you ask for. Remember you have the advantage here... they need you not the other way around.

<comment><AUTHOR> As fare as the advantage goes it this case I'm not so sure :) but I agree. I learned long ago that raises and major changes in jobs aren't a reality for most tech work these days.

<comment><USER2> Your advantage is that you can walk away if they don't give you what you want and you have to be willing to do it. It's like buying a car. You could also get them to come up 10% in salary if they won't budge on equity. The important thing is to get them to actually compromise in order get you on board. At early stages there are going to be tons of compromises and you need to know they can handle making them to get a good outcome for everyone involved.</comment></comment></comment>


Eternal Fascism (1995) - <AUTHOR> http://interglacial.com/pub/text/Umberto_Eco_-_Eternal_Fascism.html <comment><USER2> It is worth reading this article. There are few as authoritative treatises of fascism. The author is Umberto Eco, an Italian semiotician who lived in Moussolini's Italy as a young boy. He is also a renowned author, particularly well known for _The name of the rose_ and _Foucault 's Pendulum_.

But regardless of who it was who wrote this essay- it is an essay that is really, really worth reading if one is interested in the least in understanding the rise of fascism in Europe, historically and in modern times.

</comment><comment><USER3> To the final point of the essay, "Newspeak", I find it extremely discomforting at the many words in recent public discourse which surface frequently and whose meanings have been stretched beyond all recognition. Words such as "racism/racist" on the one side, or "anti-semitism" on the other, have taken on new meanings so thoroughly divorced from their textbook denotation and common sense that it's become impossible to have any dialogue around related topics that doesn't end in indignation and frustration. (For more examples of hot newspeak, look to Twitter.)

The effect is, of course, that the national conversation is split into two groups that now fail to have meaningful communication with one another. Whether you attribute this to the intentions of any particular group is up to you, but make no mistake, great resources and coordinated effort have been expended to bring us to where we are.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of all of it is that for all the ideologues (of all persuasions) trumpeting on social media, not one seems to ever address essential definitions. Day in and day out, the words are mis-used and no one asks what is meant by the words, each of us feeling that our individual conception is the intended one.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Flagged? Sorry?

<comment><USER4> As soon as I saw it, I wondered how long hackernews could tolerate having Umberto Eco's guide to spotting fascism up on the front page.

Is a touchy subject on here, for some peculiar reason.

Now I wonder what that could possibly be.

<comment><USER5> You can't talk about fascism on hackernews.

<comment><USER6> Please don't post shallow dismissals here. That's in the site guidelines too: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

Had you taken a few seconds to check it before posting a glib swipe, you'd have seen that it's obviously untrue: [https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story...](https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=fascism%20points%3E30). This very essay has had multiple discussions on HN in the past:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173823](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173823)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17413908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17413908)

And that was the full original essay, not the Utne Reader's digest version. The issue here is not "you can't talk about fascism". It's that the talk going around at the moment is predictable partisan flamewar and name-calling, with the F-word being the biggest tomato thrown. It's that which we don't want on HN. When thoughtfulness returns to the discussion, I'm sure users will stop flagging submissions like this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Having only read the subtitles for each section, it is interesting to me to see how this could easily be understood by either political party to vilify their opponents and find things that they do that fall under each. Some categories seem to apply more to the current-day left, others the current-day right. Maybe it means they're both screwed up and we're on the path to disaster. Maybe it means neither is really all that fascist and we're kind of okay for now.

<comment><USER8> Early on the essay makes clear distinctions that not all moves toward fascism are necessarily fascist, in the very first bullet calling out "traditionalism" as being very distinct from "fascism."

I myself find solace in some of the points of fascism- that part of the meaning of life is struggle, and the cult of heroism (are the Marvel movies fascist?). I certainly don't believe that qualifies me as a fascist, especially because I also strongly believe that tolerance of others is one of core principals of political morality.

<comment><USER9> Leftist culture can also traditionalist about different things. Nature. Organics. Natural birth and parenting. Unions. Public schools. Native languages.

> I also strongly believe that tolerance of others is one of core principals > of political morality.

Maybe not you, but there is definitely a strain of the "anti-fascist" culture that is pretty fascist. In the name of diversity and tolerance no less. Including firings, blackballing, and public beatings in extreme cases.

Of course there are fascists that appeal back to an idyllic monoculture that never really existed, but they get enough press that it's already well covered.

<comment><USER10> > Leftist culture can also traditionalist about different things.

From a US perspective, I would add "we are a nation of immigrants (therefore immigration should continue)" to that list.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Umberto Eco is generally considered to be one of the best analysts regarding the politics of fascism. For those who find this essay to be discomforting reading in light of our contemporary political movements, perhaps it is not the words of Umberto that are in need of critique.

</comment><comment><USER11> The full Umberto Eco essay: [https://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur- fascism.pdf](https://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf)

Another 14 point list by Dr. Lawrence Britt that is also relevant: [https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html](https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html)

A Scholar of Fascism Sees a Lot That's Familiar with Trump [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-scholar- of-...](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-scholar-of-fascism- sees-a-lot-thats-familiar-with-trump)</comment>


The Facebook tool which turns your mobile into a snoop (Loopt competitor?) - <AUTHOR> http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3656103.ece <comment><USER2> The blatant sexism is paragraph one is vaguely annoying.</comment>


Exponential water tank - <AUTHOR> http://bl.ocks.org/hanbzu/9787042 <comment><USER2> This thing plays way too slow. Got bored and closed it.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you invest in yourself? - <AUTHOR> What investments do you make when it comes to human capital? Health? Well-being? And which ones have the highest returns? <comment><USER3> > which ones have the highest returns

Build good, strong relationships.

As geeks we dont tend to value human relationships.

However, good, strong relationships will pay out dividends and change your life for the better.

They will encourage you to improve yourself, improve your health, improve your knowledge.

On the other hand it's also important to realize bad actors and act accordingly.

Check out my latest ASK HN thread for an idea on handling bad actors.

</comment><comment><USER4> A good investment is goal driven. Vague (Human capital) goals are no good. In lieu of specific goals or outcomes I assume you are talking about life in general.

1\. Health: a)Physical- stay fit by exercising daily,eat healthy(this is a broad topic), lead a active life even if through hobbies. B) mental - <USER2> and become self aware. Understand what activity and people contribute to positive state and what to negative states. Practice gratitude and honesty with yourself and others.

2) relationships: do hobbies with friends and family. Build bonds by seeking out experiences.

</comment><comment><USER5> I would recommend, by order of priority \- sleep enough and drink enough \- eat well and perform 30 minutes exercise a day \- invest in relation with your loved ones (parents, children, significant others). If you are in the phase in your life where you do not live with your family (young adult), have a few valued friends.

If you have all this, whatever happens at work will not kill you, and this is a good thing.

</comment><comment><USER6> For me this year the best improvements have come from time - these have the highest returns monetary wise too as most are free.

\- Meditating (Headspace or Waking Up App - try the 30 day trials)

\- Heavily exercising 3-4 times a week ($15/week gym)

\- $8 Gratitude Journal app

\- Eating clean and cooking (cheaper than eating out)

In the last 10 years (I'm nearly 30) I've invested a lot in coaching, training, conferences and books - nothing has really helped even close to as much as the above. At the end of the day my increases in salary have been mainly from keeping a critical mind, not further training. A great daily practice also makes every book I read much more meaningful.

</comment><comment><USER7> From a spending money perspective, I don't hesitate to spend on food. Whether it's eating out at nice places or buying high quality food products - I won't really think about it.

From a mostly time perspective, going to the gym and staying fit.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you`re talking about money: I`m investing in my health (food, yoga and so on) and appearance. Sometimes family. But if we`re speaking about not material stuff: self-development (different courses or reading something like this: [https://ivypanda.com/essays/were-the-founding-fathers- blatan...](https://ivypanda.com/essays/were-the-founding-fathers-blatantly- sexist-and-misogynist-in-the-foundation-period-of-our-republic/) and so on) and family.

<comment><USER3> Right on the money!

I also suggested building good, strong relationships.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> A commitment to healthy eating, an exercise plan and a complete and ruthless approach to only having relationships that have an objective net benefit to psychological wellbeing

</comment><comment><USER10> I have the same question.

I want to invest in myself, but the uncertainty of future employment and the unknown quality of paid study resources limit my choices.

</comment><comment><USER11> Taking sleeping and walking seriously.

<comment> non-entity Seriously how do you do the former. It seems damn near impossible to balance work, personal development for my career in the future, social life and health while still getting recommended amounts of sleep?

<comment><USER12> First step is to track your sleep with an Oura or Fitbit or other device. These devices are not going to be as accurate as an EEG used in a sleep study, and they are good enough, even if they usually cannot tell the difference between fiddling with your phone in bed and light sleep. Maybe you can survive on less sleep. But the first step is to figure out your baseline.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I invest time in creating the right habits.

</comment><comment><USER14> i think health is good one</comment>


Linear Regression in C with comments (in case someone wants to try out) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vc-30/numerical-programing/tree/master/simple_linear_regression <comment><USER2> I'm not sure this should be on the front page. It is quite trivial, and more of a homework exercise than usable code (also, almost all programming languages have LR libraries/functions that are production-ready).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback, and I understand your point. I will be focusing on adding codes which are more difficult. Also maybe you can check the Kalman Filter code using C++ (again one find this in popular framework, but someone who is learning might find it useful).

<comment><USER2> Kalman Filters, while not as trivial, are also very common and there are already tons of excellent tutorials and code out there (many of them have been posted here before -- feel free to search on hn.algolia.com).

I encourage you to push yourself a bit more and explore areas beyond textbook material, and maybe write an article with your contribution to the subject matter.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ok noted. In the phase of learning to write technical blog , hopefully will soon be able to come up with one. And once again thanks for providing your valuable guidance.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Rogue One Won't Have a Sequel - <AUTHOR> http://collider.com/rogue-one-sequel/#images <comment><USER2> Yes it does it's called A New Hope.</comment>


Is thepiratebay down? - <AUTHOR> http://thepiratebay.se

<comment><USER2> <http://www.isup.me/> says it's up, but i have 5 different people from different countries saying it is down for them also

<comment><USER3> It is down for me as well. USA here.

<http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/thepiratebay.se> also says it's up.

Not sure what's going on. Possibly an ISP level block?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In Serbia timedout / down too... retarded PIPA, SOPA, APIPA and it all started with that idiotic Metallica lawyers... hope they will rot in hell

</comment><comment><USER5> it seems they have bgp route propogation problems - in the last few hours all the routes to their IP range (220.127.116.11/24) have been removed from global routing tables.

Their uncached DNS still points to addresses in those ranges, so it's unlikley to be deliberate migration - more likley hardware failure, accidental misconfiguration, or blocking by their only upstream provider.

</comment><comment><USER6> not able to access in India.

few days back many ISPs in india blocked access quoting government instructions. but last two/three days it was again available directly without proxy.

today it is not available with or without proxy.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm still not able to reach the the website.

<comment><USER6> tpb is accessible through proxies.

tpb can be accessed in - <https://piratereverse.info>

refer - [http://nonviolentconflict.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/can- the-p...](http://nonviolentconflict.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/can-the-pirate- bay-be-silenced/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Same here, in Argentina, south america

</comment><comment><USER9> Same with me I cannot reach it either.

</comment><comment><USER10> Down in Brazil... using proxy</comment>


Show HN: Our Q&A-style gift ideas site, NoSweaters.com (1000 invites) - <AUTHOR> http://nosweaters.com/referred/hackernews

<comment><USER2> You should let people browse without needing to register for an account. Otherwise, how do I know if I want to create an account?

Looks like a promising idea though. Good luck!

<comment><USER3> Yeah, thats basically just a product of the private beta. We struggled with how much to lock down for the private beta. Perhaps you are right though, so we are going to open up the search sections. Ill reply back when its done.

<comment><USER3> OK fixed :)

<comment><USER2> Thanks! I like the auto-generated placeholder user icon sweaters on the users page. That's a nice touch.

<comment><USER3> Hah! I always liked the idea of gravatar's but the patterns are so damn ugly. Seemed like a perfect fit for an ugly sweater. Thanks for the compliment.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hidden charges when using Amazon AWS' Free Tier - <AUTHOR> http://mhlakhani.com/blog/2011/01/hidden-charges-aws-free-tier/

<comment><USER2> Amazon remaps the availability zones for each user randomly in order to load balance between then, making your "us-east-1" possibly be Ubuntu's "us- east-4". That is likely the source of these charges. Unfortunately, Amazon does not provide any official mechanism to figure out that mapping, but someone once noticed some trick I am now forgetting (and can't find as I have to run out) involving some UUID or hash-based serial number from one of the services exposing the maps.</comment>


Americans Need a Disaster Reality Check - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2015/10/13/americans-need-disaster-reality-check/ <comment><USER2> "would improve their chances of surviving a disaster"

A 1% improvement is still an improvement. If I think I can survive with X then I'm sure that having X+Y will lead to an improvement in my ability to survive.

(Assuming I don't have to lug the extra Y around with me.)</comment>


All the external private APIs referenced by iBooks.app version 1.2.1 - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/830865

<comment><USER2> I think it's probably within Apple's rights to use their own private APIs.

People don't seem to get too upset about Facebook or Twitter not providing access to their own internal APIs, yes it's limiting as a developer but them's the breaks. You get to choose between system-level access (Android) or money (iOS).

WebOS doesn't give you access to private APIs either, which I suspect will actually be a really big benefit to their ecosystem.

<comment><USER3> > I think it's probably within Apple's rights to use their own private APIs.

Only if it doesn't provide applications produced by other parts of their company (say, iBooks) an unfair advantage over other e-Readers on the platform (GoodReader, Kindle, etc.). Otherwise, how is this situation any different from Microsoft's exposure of internal APIs for the Office team that Novell was not aware of? I only ask this question in a structural sense, not legally, as IANAL and there's probably a monopoly position test or two that people could argue about for another 200 comments.

[http://www.internetnews.com/bus- news/article.php/3435371/Nov...](http://www.internetnews.com/bus- news/article.php/3435371/Novell-Files-WordPerfect-Suit-Against-Microsoft.htm)

<comment><USER4> Apple has no monopoly on digital book readers or digital books. It doesn't even have a dominant position in the market. That's what matters.

<comment><USER5> The idea is that they might use a controlling interest in another market (mobile application sales and distribution; despite the fact that Android is or at least will soon be the dominant hardware platform, its application market sucks) in order to gain an unfair advantage in another market (digital books). The fact that Apple is not already leader in digital books is almost a prerequisite to make this claim.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One of the benefits of this could be allowing them to drive-test private APIs in order to eventually make (or not, or alternative ones) them public eventually.

</comment><comment><USER7> Note that this isn't even all their private APIs: Just the private classes.

They also use tons of undocumented, private APIs on public classes -- some of which are _very_ useful.

</comment><comment><USER8> There's also nothing keeping someone from writing their own versions of these private APIs. Though I do keep the thought that Apple is effectively nerfing the competition in the back of my mind. Very far back.</comment>


The Rich Douchebag's Approach to Basic Income - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@pashapiro/the-rich-douchebags-approach-to-basic-income-73e9c64f9504#.wikxt269x <comment><USER2> The title should have been a dead giveaway to the weight of the article. Does every Basic Income article make it to the top of HN now?

</comment><comment><USER3> This article is total rubbish. It reads like the fan fiction "confessions" that 9/11 truthers write.

</comment><comment><USER4> There are are reasons to be skeptical of BI, but the author is willfully misunderstanding what it is ("all profits go to me"???) and being an asshole about it.

<comment><USER5> I think (though I'm not entirely sure) that this is intended as a somewhat satirical piece arguing _for_ basic income based on its ability to unleash productive human potential trapped by economic circumstance, using the "all profits go to me" arrangement as a device to be able to construct a self- interested narrator so that the _social_ benefit being advocated becomes a _personal_ benefit of the narrator.

That is, I'm sure its satirical; I'm less certain of the exact intent (and particularly there are some choices of examples that are odd given the apparent intent.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Author here. You pretty much nailed it.

The exact intent is what you describe plus "make people that read HN laugh". If some of the meaning gets muddied for the sake of comedy, well, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

If it's not funny, well, that's the risk of satire. In any case, I'll keep working on the story.

<comment><USER6> I also thought it was great. I think people are put off because they hate the character.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, the darkness is a big part of the point. You should feel sort of dirty when you're done reading it, but still be able to see that an entity driven by greed can provide a social good.

Ideally, a good basic income program would provide a mix of incentives to maximize both social and economic good. The story challenges the reader to consider even the slimiest, scummiest greed as an incentive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What a horrible article.</comment>


Pi explained - <AUTHOR> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Pi-unrolled-720.gif

<comment><USER2> Pi is the wrong constant.

That animation looks great, but it's misleading: the fundamental measurement of the circle is the radius, not the diameter.

Measured with a unit radius, we'd see 2*pi for a full "turn" of the wheel. Twice pi, or tau, is the magic number.

See <http://tauday.com/> for details.

<comment><USER3> Random speculation: Maybe pi was chosen because the symbol for tau (τ) is hard to distinguish from a 'T' when hand-written?

BTW, I don't mean to take anything away from your comment; that link was awesome.

<comment><USER4> When π was "invented" it could have been 2 x 3.141. The author makes a case for tau because it is too late to redefine π

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I only really understood bezier curves after I saw a similar Wikipedia animation: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9zier_curve#Constructing_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9zier_curve#Constructing_B.C3.A9zier_curves)

It's amazing just how much seeing something move makes a difference.

</comment><comment><USER6> You can also calculate pi by throwing frozen hot dogs: [http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Pi-by-Throwing-Frozen- Hot-D...](http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Pi-by-Throwing-Frozen-Hot-Dogs)

<comment><USER7> Or you can see how ants calculate it in "The accuracy of Buffon's needle: a rule of thumb used by ants to estimate area" at <http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/12/6/655.full.pdf>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> While I doubt this would actually explain pi to anyone who didn't already understand it, it is nonetheless kinda neat.

<comment><USER9> It could help someone who's just learning about pi to grok it more easily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Next question: Is it possible for a piece of string to be pi units long? How do transcendental numbers translate to the real world?

<comment><USER11> Just as difficult a question: Is it possible for piece of string to be 2 units long?

In the real world, you always run into limits on how finely you can measure things before you run into quandaries about number theory.

<comment><USER12> I think something could be two units long. Two is discrete, and at a microscopic level, things can be exactly discrete values (i.e. two angstroms...). I think asking if something could be exactly pi long is a different question.

<comment><USER13> Actually, no they can't. At a quantum level things do not have definitive sizes. They have sort of "clouds", where the center of the cloud is more likely to be their size, and the edges are less likely - but still possible.

<comment><USER14> So a string of 24 carbon atoms is not 2 dozen carbon atoms long? Unit=dozen carbon atoms, length=2?

<comment><USER13> No. A carbon atom does not have a fixed size.

And especially when you attach atoms together the spacing between them varies depending on the strength and type of the bond.

Additionally, molecules are constantly in motion (heat) - one of the motions is changing the size of the spacing between them.

But even if you froze it to absolute zero (which is impossible), it doesn't matter, the size is not determinate, it's only probabilistic.

So a real physical object can never have a fixed size.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Another diagram that gets the number for pi wrong: <http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=452917>

</comment><comment><USER16> How about some animations relating that to calculation of pi via assorted algorithms? esp. the "pick a digit" one?

</comment><comment><USER17> "The Amazing Number π" by Peter Borwein,

[http://www.nieuwarchief.nl/serie5/deel01/sep2000/pdf/borwein...](http://www.nieuwarchief.nl/serie5/deel01/sep2000/pdf/borwein.pdf)

one of the leading researchers on π, has a history of investigation of the number and formulas for calculating π to increasingly accurate place-value approximations.

A very interesting secondary school textbook in English from Kerala, India

[http://www.education.kerala.gov.in/englishmedium/mathseng/te...](http://www.education.kerala.gov.in/englishmedium/mathseng/text10.PDF)

shows the same visual representation of π on the number in section 3.1 of chapter 3.

</comment><comment><USER18> Kinda neat. But I was always more intrigued by the Monte Carlo approximation for thinking about pi. <http://www.eveandersson.com/pi/monte-carlo-demo>. Although it does take alot of iterations to converge to a decent estimate of pi.

</comment><comment><USER19> An animation is worth a thousand incantations.</comment>


Elon Musk's Neuralink Plans to Put Chips in Human Brains by 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@Synced/elon-musks-neuralink-plans-to-put-chips-in-human-brains-by-2020-d7ad5f7afde1 <comment><USER2> How can Musk be involved in so many high-stress projects and still have the clarity of mind needed to pursue even awesome-er projects? Crazy dude.</comment>


Build fast, fix later: speed hurts quality at Tesla, some workers say - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-quality-insight/build-fast-fix-later-speed-hurts-quality-at-tesla-some-workers-say-idUSKBN1DT0N3 <comment><USER2> Hilarious how official company statements seem to ignore reality or even try to deny it blatantly. Feeding such bs to people will fire back, and denying that a problem exists shows Tesla has no plan to improve</comment>


Most Internet traffic bypasses tier-one networks - <AUTHOR> http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/2009/10/most-internet-traffic-bypasses-tier-one.html

<comment><USER2> That's quite a relief to hear, with the future of net neutrality in perpetual doubt.</comment>


Bizongo – Business on the go - <AUTHOR> https://bizongo.in

<comment><AUTHOR> Bizongo is a fresh take on a B2B Marketplace, building a one-stop solution for connecting businesses</comment>


A Primer on Aquaponics in the U.S.A - <AUTHOR> http://www.frostyfish.com/2014/11/03/a-primer-on-aquaponics-in-the-u-s-a/ <comment><USER2> If you've got any thoughts on what should be added, please let me know!</comment>