Should Zuckerberg remain Facebook's CEO? - <AUTHOR> http://live.wsj.com/video/should-zuckerberg-remain-facebook-ceo/6B8776C4-B480-4726-912B-B997507ECAAF.html#!6B8776C4-B480-4726-912B-B997507ECAAF <comment><USER2> Investors annoyed that Zuckerberg's management beat them at their own game! Film at 10!

Bankers didn't have to go out at $38. Investors didn't have to buy at $38. I should think the VCs who sold into the IPO would be happy they got such a premium. The ones who bought into the IPO are probably feeling burned. The insiders who had a lockup are probably feeling burned. That's the way it goes on 21st-century wall street.</comment>


Fresh Cambridge Analytica leak 'shows global manipulation is out of control' - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/04/cambridge-analytica-data-leak-global-election-manipulation <comment><USER4> "There's evidence of really quite disturbing experiments on American voters, manipulating them with fear-based messaging, targeting the most vulnerable, that seems to be continuing. This is an entire global industry that's out of control"

Lets be clear this is the explicit purpose of the advertising and public relations industry.

1\. Create Art (writing, multimedia etc...) intended to influence viewer

2\. Distribute Art via Large Scale Channels

3\. Hope that people exposed to it take the action you want them to

For Coca-cola they want you to "Buy Coke"

For AirBnB they want you to book a stay

For Politicians they want you to vote for them

Politicians have always used the media channels of the day to advertise themselves. So it's extremely unclear what is news here aside from the fact that Politicians are following Corporate levels of sophistication for advertising.

I think what it really shows is that Advertising in total is a toxic and corrupting business and should be banned outright for all things.

<comment><USER5> As long as free speech is considered important, ads aren't going anywhere (note: I consider free speech important).

Even if you ban directives from ads (Buy Product Now!) ads can be reduced to simple voicing of opinions on a media channel ("I love product X, you'd love it too, I'm sure!"), which is what most ads are anyways - <USER2> persuasion, not the old style "Johnny's Canned Beans are the most nutritious!" from the early days of TV.

And if you're talking about banning all paid endorsements, I guarantee there will be 10,000 loopholes that look like Citizens United/SuperPAC behavior, where a person performs the advertising speech in public for free, and then is later given gifts and trips and other things for "unrelated reasons" from an "industry interest group."

In short, we need to incorporate critical thinking/mental and emotional resilience/manipulation resistance into the educational system, which I'm pretty sure will never ever happen since the Powers That Be are all there precisely because, as you said, they all use the media channels of the day to manipulate.

<comment><USER6> Adverts are not free speech. Public service announcements on billboards might be, like the band trying to promote their underground concert in town, or an association promoting a cultural event. But you can't put those in the same basket as big corporations paying multiple k$ for premium attention-grabbing spots with fancy graphics to make you dream of things you don't need.

<comment><USER7> Where is the line drawn, in your opinion? How do we objectively tell the difference?

<comment><USER6> If it tries to sell you something (item, product, experience) where the paid message's intent is to generate revenue, it's not free speech, it's marketing.

<comment><USER8> I genuinely love ultramarathons. I encourage people to do them for various self-improving reasons (and because they can be super fun, etc). I also work for a race company that produces ultra marathon focused events.

Do I get free speech, or does my potential to continue making a living preclude me from that right?

<comment><USER9> Likewise, I love Apple products, and wish for them to generate more revenue (ostensibly, more resources for them to improve said products and create new ones). I neither work for Apple nor have any vested financial interest in saying so (no stock in the company, no relatives that work for them, and zero way that their increased revenues in any way impacts my bank account or the bank account of anyone I know). Is my promotion of them, which in some ways feeds my ego (for making such wise purchasing decisions) and makes my life easier via a larger user base to compare notes with, find support, etc, considered free speech, or advertising?

Also, related to ultrarunner's point, is it not possible to freely promote something that is both in my interest financially and in the best interest of my audience? Isn't that in fact the ideal scenario, mutually beneficial arrangements where everyone benefits via aligned incentives?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> From early posts in the @HindsightFiles feed

Malaysia: [http://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01012020/malaysia.zip](http://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01012020/malaysia.zip)

Kenya: [http://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01012020/kenya.zip](http://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01012020/kenya.zip)

Brazil: [http://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01012020/brazil.zip](http://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01012020/brazil.zip)

<comment><USER11> Iran: (2014-2016) [https://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01042020/iran.zip](https://repo.hindsightfiles.com/01042020/iran.zip)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> The problem with targeted advertising in free elections is that voters need to know what the candidates are saying everywhere. Transparency is not the enemy of free speech, at least with respect to elections. Either voters need access to all campaign ads (and to whom they are targeted), or targeted campaign messages need to be eliminated, or some combination.

Or maybe there's a better solution, but at least let's agree on the transparency problem.

</comment><comment><USER13> > There's evidence of really quite disturbing experiments on American voters, > manipulating them with fear-based messaging, targeting the most vulnerable, > that seems to be continuing.

Ironically, it's not clear which party they re referring to

<comment><USER14> Isn't she explicitly not referring to only one party? If she is, why is it ironic that it's not clear which?

<comment><USER13> > The documents reveal a much clearer idea of what actually happened in the > 2016 US presidential election, which has a huge bearing on what will happen > in 2020. It's the same people involved who we know are building on these > same techniques," she said

I m confused, were the Democrats being accused of using manipulative social media ad campaigns in 2016?

<comment><USER15> Do you accuse people of the obvious a lot? Because manipulative ads seem to be the lingua franca of us politics.

<comment><USER13> Not accusing anyone

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This reminds me of the HyperNormalisation documentary. You're instinct is to verify the information by reading about it elsewhere but it's hard to verify something so obscure.

</comment><comment><USER17> It would seem as though people don't care. Time after time people are told to their face "you have been manipulated" and rather than resolving to be more vigilant they shrug their shoulders and go about business as usual. People of older generations seem particularly indiscriminate, accepting the "credibility" of any source that has a website. I'm not sure if it's a kind of desensitization or if people don't believe it / don't care but it strikes me as tacit acceptance of massive-scale manipulation which saddens me.

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm a professional ad manager.

These lists have 0 value. At scale, it's always better to use algorithmic targeting than uploading lists to target. This is true on any ad network, but especially on Facebook.

<comment><USER19> Why? And dont you sort of know the population skews a certain way given the platform you choose (guessing quora differs from bing which differs from coupons in the mail)?

Restated, and this might be so off base and tangential that maybe it's not worth answering, but if you were say....something reasonable like a dentist. And you were fairly far along in your practice and had tenure. Let's say in that case your "list" represents a fairly not insignificant amount of the people around you. Say 5%? 10%? Whatever is reasonable.

Even in that case the algorithm is better?

<comment><USER18> I actually have a subspecialty in targeting narrow business verticals, and yeah, the algorithm is better 95% of the time.

<comment><USER19> Oh cool. Interesting!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there anyone seeing people reflect increased skepticism of internet sourced information following this stuff? Like, I learned in HS to discount the validity and value of "stuff I read on the internet" to 0 until I could verify if through alternate sources.

<comment><USER21> I saw people express skepticism before this stuff, that is part of why this is effective. It partly depends upon there being low trust in "sources of truth". Want to know the funny thing? The people that eroded the trust are now the ones complaining the loudest about the results.

Also, why does sex sell? Because people desire sex.

<comment><USER20> Yep, that's what keeps me up at night. I've had family express their individual preference for sources with zero credibility or authority over sources from medical doctors/phds/other reputable sources. They're predisposed to believe manipulative stuff and prefer it!

<comment><USER22> There is also the phenomenon that conspiracies tend to be more interesting, and sources without credibility deal in these. And, they can pump out a lot quickly, since they do not fact check. So, more exposure overall. I know a lot of people who start out entertained by them, but soon believe them wholesale. Why read counterpoints to pizzagate when I can read even more theories about how it takes place?

<comment><USER20> Solipsism, man, it's all solipsism. You're right too.

(On an unrelated note, that's also what made Star Trek much more interesting to me than Wars. Until pretty recently there weren't any or only one tv show to really watch in the Wars universe. But lots of Trek.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> "intelligence expert behind the so-called "Steele dossier" into Trump's relationship with Russia"

A political opponent (with the help of a political party..and possibly a president) worked with a foreign government to dig up dirt on an opponent and affect the 2016 election. It didn't work, but the deed has been done.

It's scary that a political party can get away with this with impunity.

If it would have worked, would we even be seeing anything about it?

</comment><comment><USER24> Alternate title: "the guardian discovers marketing is used"

</comment><comment><USER25> See, in the present world, the majority of voters have no good prospects - <USER3> purely objective, technologically-driven reasons. Therefore, there are only two ways to make society workable - shut down popular democracy, or manipulate. Meaning, there is no way an average American, or even European, would vote for anything which won't be a blatant lie: because it is too grim.

Alternatives as i see them are either "democracy with prequalification", limiting voters pool to 1-10% of population (back to good old days, basically), or outright dictatorship (which is unstable). If i were to pick, i'd probably prefer the manipulations route.

<comment><USER26> "democracy with prequalification" is not democracy at all

<comment><USER25> But this is how democracy worked from the very beginning. Only free men, property owners voted. The Greeks would call "democracies" of today, ochlocracies, which they deemed to be the worst form of government. Voting of largely irresponsible people with nothing to lose.

It's either prequalification, or manipulations to make those voters irrelevant, reduce them to just noise. And of course, in today's world of lies, manipulations are the way to go.</comment></comment></comment>


Don't Let Math Pull the Wool Over Your Eyes - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323374504578219873933502726.html

<comment><AUTHOR> This article starts out rather poorly.

"Other research has shown that even those who should be especially clear- sighted about numbers—scientific researchers ... are often uncomfortable with, and credulous about, mathematical material."

Followed less than a paragraph later by discussing the results of adding a spurious mathematical model to an abstract:

"Those with degrees in math, science or technology rated the abstract with the tacked-on [math] as slightly lower-quality than the other."

I worry that this is just another example of science being poorly interpreted by media outlets. More importantly I'm not clear why I should be surprised that busy professors who don't have a close relationship with mathematics should be expected to evaluate an abstract (NOT a whole paper) less favorably because it includes a model.

We live in a world where the scientific method is more frequently under assault from parties who's interest lie in viewing it as mere opinion. This doesn't help.</comment>


Lisp Porn (2002) - <AUTHOR> http://www.lemonodor.com/archives/000028.html

<comment><USER2> Someone should do an updated post showing Lisp porn from this decade.</comment>


Fly Flicker: Flies on Pies - <AUTHOR> http://www.foddy.net/flies/ <comment><AUTHOR> My highscore is 1. But I'm fairly certain I could reach 2 if I gave it an evening or so.</comment>


[Urgent Legal Question] Quitting job. - <AUTHOR>

I have decided to leave my job. I started August 05, 2010. My contract says "All sign-on bonuses and relocation must be repaid should you resign or leave the company on or before twelve (12) months of your start." Does that mean if I give notice on august 06 to leave 2 weeks after I should be fine? <comment><USER2> Echoing what the other commenters have said - I'd imagine that once you have been working for them for 12 months, that term in the contract has been satisfied. If you're seriously concerned, you may want to consider speaking with a lawyer - especially if the bonuses/relocation amounts are large.

I would also avoid giving notice until after the 5th, as you mentioned, to avoid any potential "funny business".

</comment><comment><USER3> If I were in your position, I'd add an extra week or two before giving notice, just to be extra-safe. I don't know how much cash is your "sign-on bonuses and relocation" but I'm sure you wouldn't want to have to repay that just because you left one week early.

</comment><comment><USER4> That would be a full year, so you should be fine. I wouldn't give notice such that your last day is August 06, because then that opens the door for shenanigans where the company sets things up (e.g. releases you early) so they can claim you didn't work the full 12 months.

You might be technically correct in doing so, but it's not worth the potential hassle.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the responses everyone. How can I delete this thread now?</comment>


We got 1k new subscribers on Product Hunt in 48h - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/getshuffleapp/how-we-got-1-000-new-subscribers-on-product-hunt-in-48h-53890cee4dbc <comment><AUTHOR> A week ago, we launched The Weekly Shuffle on Product Hunt. In 48 hours, we went from 0 to hitting a 1,000 subscribers for our email newsletter, and got to #2 on Product Hunt. This is a step-by-step account of how we did it. Hope this is helpful for any other entrepreneurs thinking of launching on Product Hunt!</comment>


How the CIA used Crypto AG encryption devices to spy on countries for decades - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/ <comment><USER2> Reading between the lines on this, it's plainly apparent why there's been repeated attacks on encrpytion by the US government. From this, through RSA's Dual_EC_DRBG, to the present day, it's obvious that the US highly values rigging the deck to aid their decryption, and that the current democratisation of encrpytion protocols is a threat to them.

I mean, you only need to read their repeated admissions that without MINERVA their intelligence recovery would've dropped from ~80% to ~10% to see why they're trying to play the same game plan again and again. Whether that's through puppetmastering encryption companies like in this article, sneaking it in via bribes (RSA's Dual_EC_DRBG), or most recently trying to legislate it through (FB, Whatsapp, etc. E2E encryption), it's all essentially the same play.

As a corollary to all this, it's another point of evidence that strong encryption really is beyond the reach of even the biggest three-letter- acronyms, and that there's no secret sauce technology out there letting them mass-decrypt everything. If there was, then perhaps there wouldn't be such a strong push to rig the deck in the first place. At least that's heartening.

<comment><USER3> I'm pretty sure the US government is why the TrueCrypt devs stopped all work. They got hit with a national security letter (NSL) or heavily leaned on and pressured to stop making their product so awesome and un-breakable.

<comment><USER4> From the TrueCrypt webpage: [http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/](http://truecrypt.sourceforge.net/)

> WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security > issues

The fact that they use awkward wording that contains words whose first letters that start with NSA (not secure as) is pretty suggestive that you are right.

<comment><USER5> Wow. In a different timeline I'd dismiss that as tinfoil hat time, but in this one it seems spot on.

<comment><USER6> Nope, still tinfoil hat. This is just apophenia.

<comment><USER5> Thank you for the new word.

You make your case as if you have proof, which you likely don't. It's a moot point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It has been known for a pretty long time that the Crypto AG is affiliated with or controlled by intelligence services. It was also always firmly in the "security through obscurity of our own cipher designs" department. Their C-52 (52 as in "1952") cipher machines were designed to enable decryption by Western intelligence.

> Le Temps has argued that Crypto AG had been actively working with the > British, US and West German secret services since 1956, going as far as to > rig manuals after the wishes of the NSA. These claims were vindicated by US > government documents declassified in 2015.

[http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9088423.html](http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9088423.html) (1996) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG#Compromised_machines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG#Compromised_machines)

<comment><USER8> I saw this article and that is exactly the first thought that popped up. Second thought was why is Washington Post feigning ignorance of this fact.

<comment><USER9> They didn't, following the arrest in Iran and subsequent release of a Crypto AG salesman in 92, they cite the salesman as talking with news organizations, they also cite a Swiss TV broadcast in 1994 and reports from Baltimore Sun in 1995.

The new fact is that the company was co-owned, then fully owned by the CIA.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Gives you a sense of why the U.S. intelligence community is so nervous about having Huawei at the core of the domestic 5G network. Would not be fun for the U.S. to have done to them what they've done to others.

And as a U.S. resident, even as I acknowledge and deplore what the U.S. intelligence services have done to others, I still don't want China to do that to me. This is not an area where equitable (but bad) treatment makes things right IMO.

<comment><USER11> Funny, I don't really care China spying on me as much since they just don't have any handles that would be relevant. Your own government spying on you is much more dangerous. And since I don't have influence on policies of China, I can at least hold domestic politicians that strive for more surveillance accountable. At least theoretically.

History shows that government isn't your friend at all. The US might be a rare exception from time to time. But even that would be very, very limited.

Doesn't mean I wouldn't mind 5G spyware from another country.

<comment><USER12> Even saying that the US is your friend isn't really true. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment and MKULTRA were only ended in the 70s, Orlando Letelier happened the same decade, as did the discovery of Operation Mockingbird and other Church Committee findings. Every peek we've had into that world since then continues to come up dirty too. Operation SHAMROCK was considered a big deal at the time, but we've since then allowed American intelligence to vastly eclipse anything even conceivable at the time.

Other countries programs aren't good or anything, but anyone who's deluded themselves into thinking the US is some kind of clean actor, not participating in this sort of stuff, or only using it for good is more optimistic than I could ever manage being.

<comment><USER13> Ruby Ridge and Waco siege happened only in the 90s as well. Currently we have killer drones assassinating people without trial, CBP ignoring policies ([https://vc.gg/blog/so-its-been-a-while.html](https://vc.gg/blog/so-its-been- a-while.html)), sending agents to scare activists ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6946909](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6946909)), and police blowing up houses of innocents and refusing to compensate them ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21399770](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21399770)).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What a treat to read a well written piece based on decent research. It's a long read but well worth your time. Kudo's to the journalists who helped uncover it.

And the 'coup of the century' is far from clickbait, it's definitionally warranted for what the CIA and BND did here.

It's a little ironic as well, especially since the US is so keen on blocking Huawei over espionage concerns.

<comment><USER15> There's nothing ironic, weird, or surprising about the US wanting to stop other countries from doing to them what they do to other countries. It's hypocritical in some sense, mostly because the US tries to project itself as the good guys, but it's just basic international relations. That's how every country has always operated and will always operate.

<comment><USER16> The US mostly tries to project itself as "the good guys" to its own inhabitants, and secondly to the local and international media. But in most of the world you are often faced with the business end of a US-operated or US- financed weapon.

<comment><USER17> To be fair, it's a spectrum. The US has its share of bodies, but it also doesn't grind its citizens into a pulp with tanks when they protest.

<comment><USER16> The thing is, its subjects are mostly non-citizens, so it's enough to grind _those_ into a pulp. So far, the US has not seen a popular uprising which threatens the stability of the state(, excluding perhaps that of the native Americans, who were actually ground to a pulp, eventually).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The popular belief is that the CIA and its intelligence colleagues will go to any lengths to protect its power and secrecy. But apparently a Crypto engineer discovered the secret conspiracy in 1977, and even fixed vulnerabilities on behalf of the Syrian state – and the CIA was content to leave him alone for the next 40 years?

> _In 1977, Heinz Wagner, the chief executive at Crypto who knew the true role > of the CIA and BND, abruptly fired a wayward engineer after the NSA > complained that diplomatic traffic coming out of Syria had suddenly became > unreadable. The engineer, Peter Frutiger, had long suspected Crypto was > collaborating with German intelligence. He had made multiple trips to > Damascus to address complaints about their Crypto products and apparently, > without authority from headquarters, had fixed their vulnerabilities._

> _Frutiger "had figured out the Minerva secret and it was not safe with him," > according to the CIA history. Even so, the agency was livid with Wagner for > firing Frutiger rather than finding a way to keep him quiet on the company > payroll. Frutiger declined to comment for this story._

</comment><comment><USER19> Two parts of interest that jumped out to me:

> The overlapping accounts expose frictions between the two partners over > money, control and ethical limits, with the West Germans frequently aghast > at the enthusiasm with which U.S. spies often targeted allies.

> Hagelin had once hoped to turn control over to his son, Bo. But U.S. > intelligence officials regarded him as a "wild card" and worked to conceal > the partnership from him. Bo Hagelin was killed in a car crash on > Washington's Beltway in 1970. There were no indications of foul play.

<comment><USER20> > There were no indications of foul play. Yup

<comment><USER21> Have you ever driven on the beltway?

<comment><USER19> I have. Nowadays it's generally slow enough that it's hard to imagine dying in an accident there. But this was so long ago that I imagine things were different with the Beltway back then, and of course cars were much more deadly at the time too.

<comment><USER21> Indeed. But it seems people keep finding new and innovative ways to crash spectacularly as well. Maybe it's foul play all the way down, but I'd bet most of money on Marylanders :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> > U.S. officials were even more alarmed when Wagner hired a gifted electrical > engineer in 1978 named Mengia Caflisch. ... But NSA officials immediately > raised concerns that she was "too bright to remain unwitting."

Wow, those are words to aspire to

<comment><USER23> You cannot get a better compliment than this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This story was originally reported in CovertAction Quarterly 22 years ago: [https://covertactionmagazine.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/01/...](https://covertactionmagazine.com/wp- content/uploads/2020/01/CAQ63-1997-4.pdf) (Page 36)

<comment><USER25> ... What? This is a well written article covering essentially the same information. This is so confusing, why did nobody react back then? Why did governments continue to buy equipment from Crypto AG?

Amazing. The only explanation I can think of is that CovertAction had much worse reputation and could be easily dismissed as conspiracy theory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> It follows that private VPN firms would be a similar target for deep pocketed state intelligence agencies. What do you think the chances are that the VPN service or software you use hasn't been co-opted, compromised or is outright owned by state actors in China, Europe or the US?

<comment><USER27> It would be hopelessly naive to assume that intelligence services don't run a large number of VPN providers an tor relays, just as the used to run mix master smtp (email) relays.

<comment><USER28> While at the same time taking out the competition they can't get to comply [0]

[0] [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/30/cyberbunker_cb3rob_...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/30/cyberbunker_cb3rob_germany_police_raid/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> It certainly does make one wonder who else in the worlds of high technology (and journalism!) May be – wittingly or unwittingly – working for Uncle Sam.

I've seen some deep integrations that have made me despair of any organization being free from the overweening influence of the "security services." I'm talking about groups as large as multi-billion dollar public US technology infrastructure companies and as small as anarchist cells planning to attend a political convention.

Sometimes it seems that internal turf battles, budget disputes, careerism, and rank incompetence are our only protections against the machinations of the National Security State.

<comment><USER30> US Telcos have been jointed at the hip w/ the USIC for generations. AT&T's history of proactively helping the US spy on US Citizens+Everyone hints at the company's deep desire to be a spy entity in it's own right.

Even though the knowledge of that is/was public, it wasn't widely know until the Edward Snowden revelations - largely due to the relative disinterest of US news orgs (even when faced with clear evidence of US's ethical lapses -- eg: Mark Klein whistleblows AT&T's NSA taps on the internet backbone).

Most of the US Press still behaves as if USIC's primary goal was safeguarding the public instead of furthering the interests of US Gov & political financiers.

<comment><USER7> Worth pointing out that the rules around telco accounting are pretty much designed to give Interested Parties a single point to siphon off call metadata.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The same report by the ZDF (second german television): [https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/cryptoleaks-bnd- cia-o...](https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/cryptoleaks-bnd-cia- operation-rubikon-100.html)

</comment><comment><USER23> The CIA's current strategy is placing spies in all major tech companies: [https://news.yahoo.com/shattered-inside-the-secret-battle- to...](https://news.yahoo.com/shattered-inside-the-secret-battle-to-save- americas-undercover-spies-in-the-digital-age-100029026.html)

</comment><comment><USER32> Being able to read diplomatic messages is a definite gold-mine.

Of course, knowing the contents of diplomatic messages isn't always enough. A good example is described in Peter Wright's Spycatcher: the Brits were breaking the French diplomatic cipher, using an ingenuous attack on the electromagnetic noise of the cipher machine in the embassy. But all this intelligence was unable to stop De Gaulle thwarting their entering the European Common Market.

<comment><USER33> Assuming they aren't coded as well or double enciphered

eg XXX in 21Land is a WW

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> This article has made me decide to never mistake Huawei's ties to Chinese government surveillance for US political nonsense ever again.

I may not like our current US president, but it doesn't mean he can't use truths as political instruments.

Due to China's and Russia's human rights abuses, they are who I dislike the most. It might be by a small margin, but I would feel more comfortable having the CIA and NSA spy on me any day, than China or Russia.

What's wild is that I know many in China would feel the same way - but in the reverse.

</comment><comment><USER35> >Their [Soviet Union & China] well-founded suspicions of the company's ties to the West shielded them from exposure, although the CIA history suggests that U.S. spies learned a great deal by monitoring other countries' interactions with Moscow and Beijing.

Fascinating use of 'negative space' in intelligence. Also appreciated the dig at Reagan, apparently gross intelligence breaches at the highest levels aren't anything novel.

<comment><USER30> > gross intelligence breaches at the highest levels aren't anything novel

True. Same portrayals too. If breacher is an R they're incompetent, it's a D they're a traitor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Related question: do modern diplomats/negotiators automatically assume their comms are compromised? Are their "secure" lines ever truly secure? Surely they know the NSA/CIA would be listening.

<comment><USER37> Not all communication is compromised; for example for an embassy it could be practical to use a true one time pad which is uncrackable and attempts to intercept the key would lead to a diplomatic incident.

Much of their communication probably isn't that sensitive though.

<comment><USER38> Until the people slip up and use the same pad twice [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/19/russia_one_time_pad...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/19/russia_one_time_pads_error_british/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> [https://outline.com/tTTmh6](https://outline.com/tTTmh6)

And

[http://archive.is/1w61P](http://archive.is/1w61P)

<comment><USER40> Thanks, it gets irksome at some points that a large number of submitted content on HN is paywalled. I can't subscribe to all of these, just to read a couple of articles a month per publication.

<comment><USER41> Yes. It would be useful to have an accessible version posted with the original each time, and for it to be a preferred guideline for submitters.

Though to be fair, I'm not sure if there are copyright issues involved, which might make such a guideline difficult.

<comment><USER42> It is posted each time. Under the article, there are a number of little links ("flag", "hide", "past", and so on). You want the one that says "web".

<comment><USER40> Thanks, I'll keep this in mind in the future.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> A slightly related article is this [1].

[1] [https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/crypt.html](https://www.bell- labs.com/usr/dmr/www/crypt.html)

</comment><comment><USER44> TL;DR Swiss firm Crypto AG sold tech to governments for decades, but turns out to be owned and operated by CIA and BND who benefited from backdoors. From their POV, a wildly successful operation, beyond imagination.

> At times, including in the 1980s, Crypto accounted for roughly 40 percent of > the diplomatic cables and other transmissions by foreign governments that > cryptanalysts at the NSA decoded and mined for intelligence, according to > the documents.

</comment><comment><USER45> Makes you wonder about other Swiss based encryption providers like Proton Mail?

Proton Mail would be a great honey pot for the CIA.

</comment><comment><USER46> Same story from the Associated Press: _Switzerland investigating alleged CIA, German front company_ \- [https://apnews.com/fbd5fe4261c8b326f860936de7c32a87](https://apnews.com/fbd5fe4261c8b326f860936de7c32a87)

</comment><comment><USER47> Would be cool if the Agency did relatively more of this kind of thing and relatively less of, for example, paying psychotic Afghan pedophile warlords hundreds of millions of dollars for reneged-upon power sharing agreements and HUMINT of dubious value.

</comment><comment><USER48> It has long been known that the NSA had their hooks into Crypto AG; for example, that's how they managed to intercept Libyan communications. What's new is the report that the CIA actually partly owned the company.

</comment><comment><USER49> My new startup focuses on human nervous system faraday cages embedded into next generation fashion technology. This tech covers your entire body, keeping you safe from remote scans, and includes realistic facial and body disguises. For your safety, our tech constantly scans your thought patterns and memories and keeps them safe with a static filled triple scrambled encryption method, and encodes them into specially placed augmented cellular technology at undisclosed locations in the body.

For funding, please visit [https://CE.YA/](https://CE.YA/)

<comment><USER50> I love it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> Can anyone here point out an actual case where the NSA was able to break or legitimately hack someone's crypto? I was under the impression that their track record was basically nil on this, and that virtually every instance of them spying on encrypted info boiled down to some sort of inside job that actually resulted in the encryption being weakened or thwarted. People speak about these guys like they have off the charts abilities, yet the available evidence is not so indicative of that. Just looks like a big government operation kinda bumbling along to me.

<comment><USER52> If they had that ability they certainly wouldn't broadcast that capability, but I've seen enough crazy shit in the legal 0day market alone to think they have some insane capabilities. However, you'd never know If they could crack RSA/AES, but assuming quantum computing is on its way I'm sure it won't be long or happened 8 years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> There may be some new documents available now, but the story as such seems to have been known for a while. I first learned of it last summer while reading some of the drafts for Ross Anderson's update of his excellent _Security Engineering_.

See chapter 26, [https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html)

</comment><comment><USER54> There was a documentary about this company and other surveillance topics aired on Swiss TV in last November.

[https://www.rts.ch/dossiers/la-suisse-sous- couverture/](https://www.rts.ch/dossiers/la-suisse-sous-couverture/)

It's in French and may not be accessible outside Switzerland but I highly recommend it.

</comment><comment><USER55> It's weird this article talks like this is new information. I guess it's not probably not widely known, but this stuff was discussed in James Bamford's Puzzle Palace, published in the early 1980's (nearly 35 years ago).

</comment><comment><USER56> John Schindler (Former NSA) has hinted Signal isn't secure either...

</comment><comment><USER57> This is one of the reasons why my tinfoil hat has been shinier than ever;

</comment><comment><USER58> I'm surprised no one is talking about all the companies that have In-Q-Tel as an investor.

</comment><comment><USER59> Anyone have a link to the leaked doc referenced in the article?

</comment><comment><USER60> And that's why we can't trust Uncle Sam with backdoors. You bet your ass they'll be reading _everything_ and we won't find out for decades, if ever.

</comment><comment><USER61> Is there a list somewhere of companies who are known to have bought and installed Crypto AG devices?

</comment><comment><USER62> I have to disagree with the headline. The "intelligence coup of the century" came much earlier, during WWII.

The Allies were reading a good deal of both Japanese and German encrypted communications. This saved the lives of many Allied solders and, perhaps, tipped the balance of the war.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(cryptography)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_\(cryptography\)) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra)

David Kahn's book, the Codebreakers, is a good introduction to cryptography and has a lot of this history in it.

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

<comment><USER63> also how Poland kept the Bolsheviks from sweeping across Europe

[https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/10/05/polish- ciphers/](https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/10/05/polish-ciphers/)</comment></comment>


IOS design: a case study - <AUTHOR> http://www.slideshare.net/Wolfr/ios-design-a-case-study

<comment><USER2> A little off-topic, but HN gets so many slideshows posted so I have to ask this: Why don't any of these slide sharing services have a decent "all on one page" option, or a powerpoint-style outline view? (this one has some SEO-text of all the slides at the bottom, but it's not very readable) I really hate clicking next-next-next through individual slides that are pointless when you don't have a presenter talking.

<comment><AUTHOR> The SEO text is auto generated by Slideshare. Download the PDF and things should be easier to skim. I try to make my presentations make sense online by using "sticky notes". But you certainly have a point.

<comment><USER3> BTW, thanks a lot for the sticky notes - I was fearing another very carefully designed presentation with few words that works for the actual audience, but not an individual reader. If not as a video recording of the presentation (- Google bought this amazing startup that allowed embeds of the presentation slides and video synced up in adjacent windows), this is how all presentations should be posted.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I question whether it makes sense to implement custom UI with transparent PNGs like the slideshow describes. It's pretty tough to get it exactly right, and that approach leads to a lot of interfaces that look a bit off.

On iOS, with some drawing code you can build custom table cells that are more flexible, are easy to reuse and look exactly right.

(Kudos to the author by the way -- the design methodology in this presentation looks really good).

<comment><USER5> I think that's why the author stressed to think long and hard before you try customizing - it's really hard to do it right. Even with custom drawing code it's not much easier IMO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is really fantastic. I've passed it along to the all the designers I work with, and will certainly be using some of the resources you reference.

A very small suggestion - when you mention various design resources it would be great to just put parenthetically whether they are free or not. For those of us who are not professionals but like to play around it would save a number of clicks. Thanks for the great presentation, and I love the sticky note format!

<comment><AUTHOR> Most of the resources mentioned are free, somebody on Twitter suggested I make a blog post about all the resources since that is an easier format, keep an eye on the blog. (wolfslittlestore.be/journal)

<comment><AUTHOR> See <http://wolfslittlestore.be/2012/03/28/ios-design-resources/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Thanks for sharing..I went through all 110 slides, even though I started out meaning to see only the first few.

</comment><comment><USER4> Thanks for all the killer links in here - I got a bunch of useful tools (rotated iPhone image template) that I didn't know about out of it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Didn't open on my iPhone. :( O, the irony!

<comment><USER9> I thought Slideshare switched all their presentations to HTML from Flash... apparently not.

I tried to view this in Safari (with no Flash installed) using the default user agent and iPad user agent and neither worked. :(

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is the direct PDF download link for the people who don't want to have Flash on their machine: [http://www.slideshare.net/Wolfr/ios-design-a-case- study/down...](http://www.slideshare.net/Wolfr/ios-design-a-case- study/download)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I will recommend this to everyone I know that works with iOS in some capacity. What a great resource! Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER11> Thanks for this presentation. I passed it along to our team's designer. Definitely provided clarity for us on how to go from design to development. For example, we weren't sure if it would be best to use images for the backgrounds of tableview cells and buttons or to use iOS coloring.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This presentation delivers some insights on the whole process of creating an iPhone app from scratch to finish.

<comment><USER12> Thanks for sharing, this, it's incredibly helpful for the design challenged developer like me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is that just me or Svbtle looks a lot like Wolfr's website?

<comment><USER12> Don't be so Obtvse. ;)</comment></comment>


Twitter is displaying China-made ads attacking Hong Kong protesters - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/18/twitter-china-ads-attack-hong-kong-protesters <comment><USER2> "Here's the question: a bunch of young people in Hong Kong are standing up to their government, at terrific personal risk, to fight for basic human rights. Will a bunch of Twitter employees, at far less risk, stand up to their CEO and refuse to be used as a weapon against them?"

If anyone here works at Twitter, please, stand up for what's right.

<comment><USER3> Does anyone with knowledge of Twitter's terms of service know which rules are being broken?

<comment><USER4> I would expect a few from the Rules [0] _could_ apply. Depends a bit on exactly how they're phrasing things.

> You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on > the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, > gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease

> You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other > people to do so.

> You may not use Twitter's services in a manner intended to artificially > amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or > disrupts people's experience on Twitter.

[0] [https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter- rules](https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This reminds me (in kind, not degree) of how the Yellow Vests were treated by the French state and corporate media. They were literally labeled "breakers" (as in vandals) across the board, the word "violence" was incessantly repeated in as many contexts as possible surrounding protest days, video of blatant human rights violations would often be ignored in coverage while vandalism or looting replayed nearly non-stop, etc.

<comment><USER6> I dont even think it's similar in kind. Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least pretend to sympathize while China is hostilely mischaracterizing HK protestors and encouraging mainlanders to hate.

<comment><USER7> > _Even during the violence everyone, even Macron and French state media gave > lip service to their grievances and went to great lengths to at least > pretend to sympathize_

The SWAT police had hit an eldery woman badly, and Macron said to the press "I hope this teaches her a lesson".

I think that's enough of the sympathising and faux-grievances...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> You might as well just read the Twitter thread that the article links to [https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1162711159000055808](https://twitter.com/pinboard/status/1162711159000055808)

<comment><USER9> Scrolling through the twitter message, there is a link to this quora article, makes an enlightening read:

[https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-specific-examples-of- medi...](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-specific-examples-of-media-bias- in-reporting-Hong-Kong-ongoing-unrest/answer/Gordon- Hsu-1?ch=3&share=0d82ad1b&srid=uYmGw)

<comment><USER10> This is downvoted. Can someone explain why? That would be much more helpful for debunking the link (if it can be debunked).

<comment><USER8> I'm not sure where the Quora link comes from, and it's a bad answer because it parrots the claim that there were hundreds of thousands at a static rally at a venue than doesn't hold more than about 20,000.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> rm--rf It's interesting to watch the comments for this article on endgadget. As of rn, there are 17 comments from 9 accounts. 3 accounts are pro-china, one of which has 7 comments/replys in that thread, and the activity for all three is solely within the comments of this article, which also has multiple 'leader' (high usage) accounts all of which have commented in support of the protesters.

</comment><comment><USER11> A relatively simple way of (partially) dealing with this would be to just completely disable ads for specific hashtags.

It would sidestep a lot of the issues around banning a specific (powerful) advertiser.

</comment><comment><USER12> I really hope ppl get to see both sides of what goes on in HK, not that I don't support the HK protesters but how the western media portrays the protests is extremely biased.

</comment><comment><USER13> Clicking the link forwards me to [https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=3_...](https://guce.advertising.com/collectIdentifiers?sessionId=3_cc- session_645de847-53f1-4ec2-a1ab-c4e2f15a90f8)

I guess that would then redirect me to the article but I block that domain at the dns level.

</comment><comment><USER14> I quit Facebook a while ago, but recently have been increasingly frustrated by Twitter's advertising, promoted tweets, and curation. I'm done. Goodbye Twitter.

</comment><comment><USER15> For extra context, the author of the quoted tweet wrote this blogpost a few days ago: [https://idlewords.com/2019/08/a_walk_in_hong_kong.htm](https://idlewords.com/2019/08/a_walk_in_hong_kong.htm)

Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20712762](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20712762)

</comment><comment><USER16> In my eyes this is particularly damning in light of their upper management's milquetoast, flaccid response to recent allegations of political bias. This is the same company that would have us believe that they are responsible and morally righteous enough to wield the enormous power it has without requiring any form of regulation or government intervention. I commend Tim Pool for how aggressive yet fair and level-headed his interview with Vijaya Gadde and Jack Dorsey on the Joe Rogan show was. Vijaya Gadde left an incredibly bad impression on me from that interview. Striking me as incredibly duplicitous, disingenuous and dishonest. Jack Dorsey came off looking like a moron. We've seen this same issue with Google recently as well. Both of these companies are happy to pay lip service to moral stances against the Trump administration, presumably on the basis of moral outrage against nationalism. But then they prove with their actions that they are more than willing to assist the Chinese government in cracking down on the civil liberties of their own citizens.

</comment><comment><USER17> Why is there such a disconnect between the tech elite and the generally well- intentioned and helpful people of this site? What happens between fighting to make your way in the tech world and becoming a cynical fuck-the-world jerk like Dorsey, Thiel, or Zuck?

Is it really that hard to benefit humanity and do the right thing?

</comment><comment><USER18> Will someone please tell me what the purpose is of this article being published? Is it to criticize the Chinese government for producing Fake News? Is it to blame Twitter for it's lack of activism to stand for the free folk of Hong Kong? I'm guessing there's more than one side of this story..

Media will always be used as a tool to combat other media in order to sway public opinion. Why are we not constantly talking about Tibet anymore or police brutality and #BlackLivesMatter in the US? There seems to be a different motive, and for the average reader that consumes media, it becomes increasingly harder to form a coherent self-thought opinion by themselves and reach out of this echo chamber.

It seems like every article I read about HongKong in -Europe & the US- is amped up on anti-Chinese sentiment whilst a large part of the people that demonstrate are doing so because of dissatisfaction on living conditions and purchasing power. They live in a city with wild inequality, and they could also care less about economic disruption and incurred costs by the aviation/hospitality sector. It seems to me they're just "pissed and want things to change". Fueled by the international media-attention. However blatantly simplistic that might sound.

<comment><USER19> That is an incredibly stupid accusation and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking it. Listen to yourself - the whole fucking point is human rights to not be snatched away in the middle of the night to show trials! Purchasing power is a fucking stupid thing to accuse as their real motive as if they wanted to change that they could move onto the mainland.

The point is how China has persistently tried to delegitimize it doing things like disrupting /overseas/ protests. That isn't normal and shame on all who try to normalize it.

<comment><USER18> I'm not quite sure if I should answer to your reply, as it seems you've wrote it in quite an angry spur of the moment. Did you perhaps take the time to read my whole post? Or was the last alinea enough to make you drop your panties and throw insults and swears around?

The spokesmen of protesters are demanding the extradition law to be upheaved indefinitely and Carrie Lam to be dismissed, one of which has happened already. Four months back there was absolutely no traction for any massive protest like this, not to mention the flares of violence. Even though this law has been in the making for years and published in March of this year. Can you think of any other legitimate reason the overall population is demonstrating so fervently other than dissatisfaction about the way their current government is running their city into the ground?

You speak of moving onto the mainland as a solution to purchasing power but I don't think you have any idea what it means to uproot your existence in a city which you consider your home. Especially when you're living from paycheck to paycheck and can barely afford the housing anymore. It's not as stupid to the majority of the inhabitants working in the service sector in Hong Kong and the fact that you see this as an 'accusation' to protest instead of a right to demonstrate is quite telling.

<comment><USER20> "Even though this law has been in the making for years and published in March of this year. Can you think of any other legitimate reason the overall population is demonstrating so fervently other than dissatisfaction about the way their current government is running their city into the ground"

Because it takes time, energy and a sense of urgency to mobilize people to action even on issues they should be concerned with?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Things to Ponder on Your Employment Anniversary - <AUTHOR>

What kind of things should a salary-man/woman ponder on their employment anniversary? <comment><USER2> 1) How has he/she benefited the company over the course of the year.

2) How has the company benefited him/her over the course of the year.

3) Has he/she been able to expand their knowledge set because of, or for the sake of the company of employment.

4) Does the current compensation package (not just salary but also vacation days and other perks) feel fair compared to the last year of employment.

5) How he/she can improve further over the course of the next year and set various goals to meet.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Elliott. Five more things I can think of:

1) Are you (still) proud to tell people you work for this company?

2) Does your job (still) make good use of your skills and abilities?

3) Does your immediate supervisor (still) do a good job at "managing the work," that is, making appropriate work assignments, setting priorities, scheduling, etc?

4) Is there (still) an open, honest two-way communication?

5) Do the people you work with (still) cooperate to get the job done?</comment>


Are Microsoft subsidising Windows Web use over Linux? - <AUTHOR>

123-reg have renewed their VPS offering. The curious thing is that Windows servers are cheaper than CentOS/Ubuntu and they're promoting the fact.
What's going on here? Are Microsoft subsidising this? Have 123-reg decided it's cheaper to support Windows Web.
Does not compute. https://www.123-reg.co.uk/vps-hosting/ <comment><USER2> Maybe they're tired of wasting money licensing Windows for undersold servers, so they've adjusted prices to move demand to meet the excess supply?

Have you _asked_ them if Microsoft is subsidizing this?

<comment><AUTHOR> I've put the question to them.

Maybe the price will rebound if demand grows, but this smells more like a permanent/ongoing arrangement and a USP for them.

<comment><AUTHOR> And the response was:

"Yes we are working in partnership with Microsoft to offer you these prices. This deal will stop for new customers at some point."

No idea when that might be though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> does that deal include antivirus, malware, rootkit and crapware protection? the risk is just too high to even consider it seriously, even if I got payed by M$ more moeny directly, my response is always the same, NO!</comment>


One way to Innovate: Follow User Behavior - <AUTHOR> http://markbrenneman.com/this-is-awkward

<comment><USER2> The other way that people have been thinking about this is through the lens of pain points and inefficiencies. Any time you can disintermediate you're probably creating something more useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, pain points and inefficiencies are a popular way to look find ideas.

However, I have found following a user behavior to be a little more useful for me. Sometimes the new idea or innovation is not easily categorized as a pain point, like in the case of Twitter. People were posting status messages incessantly in IM. Once Twitter launched, users had a service that aligned closely with that behavior.

Most people wouldn't recognize the status message feature of IM as a pain point or inefficiency, it was just a feature.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Anyone have experience with Radeon deep learning? - <AUTHOR> https://instinct.radeon.com/en/6-deep-learning-projects-amd-radeon-instinct/
https://rocm.github.io/
Despite the ridiculous price point, I enjoy the portability and battery life of MacBooks. Almost all of my ML projects are on AWS or Linode or something, but if I were to even consider forking over for a MacBook Pro w/ a GPU, some sort of GPU ML support would be a must.
Anyone have experience with Radeon deep learning libraries? Thoughts?
(not trying to have a debate about the obvious impracticalities of mac laptops – just curious if anyone has done ML w/ Radeon libraries) <comment><USER2> Maybe you found these StackOverflow Threads and Websites already [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37892784/using-keras- ten...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37892784/using-keras-tensorflow- with-amd-gpu/40814520)

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

[https://gpuopen.com/compute-product/miopen/](https://gpuopen.com/compute- product/miopen/)

From reading these articles the consensus is that if need speed now and can't wait use an NVIDIA while AMD plays catchup. Who knows how long this situation will last.</comment>


Android to iPhone, power user's perspective - <AUTHOR> https://www.ribice.ba/blog/android-to-iphone/ <comment><AUTHOR> I've recently had the opportunity to switch to an iPhone as my daily driver for 3 months, after using Android as a 'power user' for last 6-7 months. In the blog post are my observations from this switch.

I'm open to all suggestions and I'd like to know whether I missed something or not.

This topic is quite popular between Android and sometimes iPhone users, so I decided to write it in details. At the end it's subjective view, so your experience might be a bit different.</comment>


Regular expression to match a chemical element - <AUTHOR> http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2016/02/04/regular-expression-to-match-a-chemical-element/ <comment><USER2> How about just /Ac|Ag|Al|Am.../. Let the regex compiler do the work for you, and keep it readable and maintainable.

(A true regular expression is compiled to a DFA, which is unique for the set of input strings matched, so there is nothing to gain performance-wise from factoring out common prefixes. That is quite literally the job of the compiler.)</comment>


This Year in Conrod – An Update from the Rust GUI Library - <AUTHOR> http://blog.piston.rs/2016/09/13/this-year-in-conrod/ <comment><USER2> It's worth noting that Conrod doesn't use any unsafe code [1].

In light of the "Why I'm dropping Rust" post, it's nice to see a proof point that it's possible, and easy, to write heterogeneous trees in Rust without using unsafe code. It looks like Conrod uses petgraph via the daggy crate [2].

[1]: [https://github.com/PistonDevelopers/conrod/search?utf8=%E2%9...](https://github.com/PistonDevelopers/conrod/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=unsafe) [2]: [https://github.com/mitchmindtree/daggy](https://github.com/mitchmindtree/daggy)

</comment><comment><USER3> Couple of minor nitpicks _re_ naming:

1\. `Oval` should really be `Ellipse` given that its sizing assumes symmetry on two axes.

2\. Can't decide which side of the Atlantic it's on - it has `color` and variants (US English) but also `centre` and variants (British English). Much as it pains me, programming has generally standardized on USian spellings.

3\. The use of `kid` in names feels slightly odd, especially when the documentation for those names consistently uses the more common `child`.

The current theme support looks kinda limited - is it ever likely to expand to support things like gradient fills, rounded corners, drop shadows etc? Or would that be pushing too much complexity into the rendering backends?

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm sure this is great from the perspective of a Rust developer who wants a Rust GUI library, and the post is basically written from that perspective. If I'm not using Rust, are there compelling reasons for me to switch from Qt? Does conrod have the equivalent of QOpenGLWidget so that I can mix 2D widgets with 3D visuals?

<comment><USER3> The "Why use it?" section of the Conrod docs might be relevant:

[http://docs.piston.rs/conrod/conrod/guide/chapter_1/index.ht...](http://docs.piston.rs/conrod/conrod/guide/chapter_1/index.html#why- use-it)

If you haven't encountered an immediate-mode GUI API before, you're probably going to find it a bit strange coming from Qt.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there support for antialiasing? Some of the shapes and text look jagged.

</comment><comment><USER6> I am looking to use Rust to write Delphi and C# type of (business) apps. Can Conrod be used and how would it be painful? I am interested in getting things done, and I don't care much about looks. Note I much prefer a spartan GUI, as Conrod apparently proposes, over some Java-style widgets.</comment>


Less is more than enough: go to the gym less frequently but still gain strength - <AUTHOR> https://www.painscience.com/articles/strength-training-frequency.php <comment><USER2> TLTR bro ....</comment>


How could your company improve its support of its software developers? - <AUTHOR> I'm doing research for an article, and one of the sections involves recognizing the need to support software developers.<p>If there was one thing your company could do to improve its support for software developers (encourage higher quality software or improve morale), what would it be? <comment><USER2> Have easy access to outdoors, and possibly have some trees and nature like courtyards within the building. I get sick of sitting in a chair constantly and need a change of scenery. A sterile modern office environment really doesn't do it for me.

You'd be surprised how many dirty looks I've gotten for stepping outside in the middle of the day at most jobs and not smoking or going to lunch.

</comment><comment><USER3> To get higher quality code

\--Do code reviews

\--allows workers to learn from each other as well as other people outside of engineers.

\--Have a coding standard

\--Use boring technology as most of the bugs would have been found

To improve morale

\--Treat people with respect

\--Allow people to explore different aspects of the business

\--Recognize people when they do a great job

\--Allow for constructive criticism

\--Don't let management get out of touch with the business

</comment><comment><USER4> I think some clarifications are in order. Do you mean internal software developers or 3rd party developers? What do you mean by support, to what end (happier devs, better code quality, lower costs)?

<comment><AUTHOR> arkitaip, I'm more interested in how a company can better support its own staff, rather than contractors.

By support, I mean encourage development teams to produce higher quality software and improve morale.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Protect us from open office noise and visual distractions. Hire enough people (or adjust expectations) to move at the desired pace while paying down tech debt instead of accumulating more.</comment>


Show HN: Block annoying forwards from your Whatsapp contacts - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/whatsilent-for-whatsapp/egidokdmejppdbdadlamgceafjobinik <comment><AUTHOR> I have been getting WhatsApp forwards from my loved ones that are blatantly false. I have begged/urged them to stop sending them to the point of rupture in the relationship. But, they continue to do it instantaneously when they see the news without thinking. So, instead of blocking them altogether, I wrote this Chrome extension to hide/silence their forwards. Your feedback, please?

</comment><comment><USER2> This is a common problem in India. WhatsApp limited the number of forwards to 7 per day, after some WhatsApp rumors led to murders. This sounds like a good solution for receivers. Question is, how do you stop people from forwarding?

<comment><AUTHOR> Very true! I think allowing receivers to block forwards would be a good starting point because:

1\. They didn't ask for it in the first place.

2\. If there is enough adoption, senders will be discouraged from sending them, when they know their forwards are being ignored.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Chrome extension is good, but mobile app will be the one that will be useful. Otherwise, I still have to use regular app. Is it possible to build a mobile app, since WhatsApp doesn't have an open API?

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree. It is hard to build a mobile app without open API, but not impossible. Given the number of virtualization technologies that exist today, it should be doable, IMO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is really cool! Can i also silence loudmouths in my Whatsapp group with this? :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet! But, that's a really good suggestion. Thanks!</comment></comment>


DNSSEC to fix the SSL mess? - <AUTHOR> http://www.gnegg.ch/2011/04/dnssec-to-clean-the-ssl-mess/

<comment><USER2> Yep. DNS-based Authentication of Named Entities (DANE): <http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dane-protocol-06>

I'm glad DNS has been getting a lot of love lately. I just wish people would realise what other cool stuff it's useful for. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I _knew_ I didn't just invent the sliced bread there. I'm happy to see that the draft is from march 2011 though, so at least I wasn't years behind.

Now if only we could get DNSSEC going.

<comment><USER2> Well it was first drafted in 2002, and Jakob Schlyter actually wrote about it recently: [http://www.circleid.com/posts/20110327_death_of_the_pki_drag...](http://www.circleid.com/posts/20110327_death_of_the_pki_dragons/)

Along the same lines Google recently launched a DNS based service for certs it knows about: [http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2011/04/improving-s...](http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2011/04/improving- ssl-certificate-security.html)

DNSSEC is now deployed at the root level for .com/.net/.org/.edu/.gov.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This presentation by DJB talks about DNSSEC a lot: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2047794></comment>


HelloFax (YC W11): Sign And Send Faxes From Your Browser, Without The Hassle - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/yc-funded-hellofax-sign-and-send-faxes-from-your-browser-without-the-hassle/ <comment><USER2> YC has switched over to HelloFax and we love it. With 250 companies we have to deal with a _lot_ of faxes, because every later funding round or acquisition means we have to sign stuff. So not having to deal with actual paper faxes makes a big difference for us.

<comment><USER3> I dont' want to come off as a naysayer - I can see this taking off - but I do have some real questions. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

Don't you keep hard copies of these documents? Just wondering. For us, if it requires a signature, we usually need a hard copy (original) for our records.

Since we are printing it out (or receiving via fax in the first place), it seems just as easy to walk over to our $40 fax machine and send it (via our $9/mo Vonage fax line).

I am sure I am missing something here.

<comment><USER2> No, we just use Dropbox.

<comment><USER4> If Dropbox looses your data, all company documents are gone? Or just all faxes you sent?

<comment><USER5> There is no end to what if's.

What if Dropbox screws up? Data is gone!

What if your building catches fire? Those documents will burn with pleasure!

What if your hard-drive decides to get a heart-attack [crash]?

What if world ends?

Paper is so 90s thing. Even in offices, yes.

<comment><USER6> Don't be silly. It's reasonable to plan for disaster scenarios, especially in this case where it's something important, and the probability of disaster is unknown. Do you look both ways across the street, even if you have the walk sign?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I love HelloFax. Really, I do. Started using it a few weeks ago, and discovered undocumented features that were EXACTLY what I wanted. Before when I ran a web dev company I had to sign contracts all the time, and this was my process: save from email -> word -> enter text / insert image (signature) -> print to pdf -> efax. Now I can do it via HelloFax in about 1 minute.

<comment> old-gregg +1 We got a chance to use HelloFax very early on, and we never actually sent any taxes - we were using it to sign documents: vastly superior to my old way of scan&convert to PNG, open in Gimp, paste my signature, merge layers, convert to PDF... Ughh. So it's not just about faxing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> So the only thing that differentiates it from the thousand-odd online fax services that have been around since the 90s is that it lets you skip the "photoshop my signature onto this image" step?

I'd say this would be a tough business to be in, unless of course you had the schmooze power of YC behind you. Amazing how that can transform a site like this that would otherwise live out its life in a little crack on the 3rd page of Google for "online fax" into a viable business.

(I suppose it also helps if all your competitors stop improving their products in 1998.)

</comment><comment><USER9> As co-founder of an online fax service[1], I'll be watching HelloFax closely. It's a mature market, but most of the existing players are crappy, so I think there's a big opportunity here. It's a difficult marketing problem, though. AdWords advertising for fax related keywords is very expensive, and there are services out there that offer completely free faxes (even if they are cluttered with ads). Perhaps the signing functionality offered by HelloFax will give them enough differentiation to generate good word-of-mouth awareness.

[1] <https://www.faxfresh.com/>

<comment><USER10> _Perhaps the signing functionality offered by HelloFax will give them enough differentiation_

I think the editing capability is key. The signature feature might work for a device with a stylus but is difficult with a mouse. I opened up an image editor and wrote my signature with a mouse. The result wasn't legible (at all), and more importantly, it didn't match what I consider to be my legal signature. So users would probably need access to a scanner to upload the signature image.

<comment><USER11> Hey nhebb, Joseph here, co-founder of HelloFax. Check out the third option for signing, which is taking a picture of your signature and emailing it to firstname.lastname@example.com. Then, we automatically place it on top of your document. That skips the scanner :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Yes, a thousand times, yes. This is great, I hate having to dig up a fax machine when I want to fax something. Unless I can find one at an office, I have to go to Kinkos, because I don't even have a phone line.

<comment><USER13> Every time someone asks me to fax I have this same problem. Though it is normally a paper form someone has given me to fax, and without a scanner I would still be stuck.

<comment><USER14> I am terribly sorry but due to the need to get a green image my company has forbidden the use of paper. It's totally stupid but my boss is a complete environment nut and I could get into real trouble if I broke the rules.

I sorry the fax machine is busted. We are required to attempt to have it fixed before we can get a new one, but the repair guy won't get here until Monday.

Big companies do stupid stuff all the time. Take advantage of this.

<comment><USER13> Sure that would cover 1% of the reasons I have to fax. Normally I am dealing with someone like a real estate agent or a government department or something I have to have witnessed etc I can't do that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Just a comment on HelloFax.com: the headline says "Throw away your fax machine!"

I don't have a fax machine. I'd guess lots of visitors don't either. Just saying, maybe there's a better headline to be written.

Good luck guys, efax is terrible!

<comment><USER16> Possibly they could go with something along the lines of "Never have to find a fax machine again", as I see it useful for when your dealing with some large company one off with crazy old processes that require you to fax something through.

<comment><USER17> How about "Goodbye Fax Machine, HelloFax!"

I know... way too corny and confusing :)

<comment><USER18> I upvoted you, but that won't let others know which part of your comment I liked (the "Goodbye Fax Machine, HelloFax!" part), hence this reply.

<comment><USER17> ha, thanks. I'll leave out my opinion on my own slogan idea next time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is great. I have a fax/printer/scanner at home for this purpose, but I am lucky if I send 5 faxes a year. Plus, if I ever drop the landline, it won't work. I really like the idea of paying per fax. None of the subscription services make sense for a casual user. Good luck HelloFax.

<comment><USER20> If the casual user has to ever receive a fax, then I don't see how to get around a subscription, after all, you have to have your own fax number to receive a fax, right? There isn't some technology by which users could share a number and use an extensions as a discriminator, right?

<comment><USER21> Sure there is, as long as the reciever can give instructions to the sender. It wouldn't be too hard to OCR a customer number.

Or, more likely, very short term number rental. Pay $1.95 to be able to recieve faxes on a particular number for a period of an hour.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> If you could allow me to receive fax with the same kind of pricing, that'd be awesome.

Whenever someone ask me for my fax number, I start sweating. It rarely happens, but when it happens, I'm stuck.

Let me buy a "disposable" fax number for 12-24 hours for $2. I don't want to pay monthly for something that I rarely use, but I'd be happy to pay a flat fee to receive a document.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is a very crowded and somewhat mature space, which makes for an interesting marketing problem. I'd love to hear about how you guys approach it in some future blog posts!

<comment><USER24> For starters, their marketing strategy included:

\- not requiring a 37 step signup process

\- not requiring a user to choose between a dozen different monthly plans _before_ being able to sign-up

\- not requiring a monthly subscription just to test and send the odd fax

It's been a while since I looked at the available options, but the few I previously evaluated required far too much overhead to make them effective.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Little misleading... it says "throw away your fax machine" but has no support for receiving faxes.

I'd love to use a service like this, even at $1.99 per fax, but without receive support (so sad that companies sign first and want to fax to you) it's no good to me....

<comment><USER2> That's coming very soon, I believe. I just nagged them to launch when they had a quantum of utility.

<comment><USER26> Yep, that's coming very soon! We'll keep HN updated :-)

<comment><USER27> Are you using freeswitch to send & receive faxes? I've been using it for almost 6 months now and it feels much more robust than asterisk's system.

<comment><USER11> Hey, we're actually using Asterisk. Out of curiousity, what are you using your fax server for?

<comment><USER27> we use it to send & receive faxes because we don't want to buy a fax machine :-)

I have a small 50 line ruby script that converts attachments from emails into outgoing faxes, and a 10 line ruby script that converts incoming faxes into emails with a pdf attachment.

You should try freeswitch instead -- the rxfax thing from Asterisk would sometimes truncate incoming faxes. Not sure why.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you're like me and looked to cancel your eFax subscription, here is the related URL: <https://www.efax.com/cancelLiveChat.html>

</comment><comment><USER29> Congrats on the launch! HelloFax is a fantastic product, and an excellent example of launching an MVP when you have just enough features to make some group of users very happy.

The ability to sign documents within the app alone has been an incredible time saver. It makes you think "How is this not the default way to send faxes yet?"

</comment><comment><USER30> This is awesome. Now if we could just get people to accept these electronic signatures reliably, things would be golden.

Yes, I'm talking to you, Wells Fargo.

<comment><USER26> That's one of the problems we solve. That's a big differentiator between us and other electronic signature companies. With HelloFax, the other party doesn't have to accept electronic signatures - just faxes.

We've actually used HelloFax ourselves to fax Wells Fargo.

<comment><USER30> Yes - it just occurred to me after I wrote that that my good friends at Wells probably would never have known...

Good stuff. This is a major annoyance for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Congrats guys - huge moment and just a sign of bigger things to come

</comment><comment><USER32> Not to be a downer, but this brings to mind Fred Wilson's warning the other day about bridge-technology startups: "Most of the time they do really well while the transition pain [from old- to new technology] is high but once most individuals and enterprises have made the change, their business slowly disappears." <http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/02/bridge-technologies.html>

<comment><USER26> We plan on bringing some innovation to the electronic signature side of this as well. We won't be resting on on laurels. :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Will you guys have an API? Also I guess the problem for the infrequent user who wants to receive a fax is the id problem...Say for example that I want state farm to fax me a document. If you go with a pool approach and match by phone # expected, then there could be interceptions. The safest way seems to be to have a dedicated # (if it were always from a savvy source, you could have them post a unique code that you could ocr to identify, but you can't rely on that for the general case)....How much does it cost for that? The other difficulty is what happens if I use the service, get my state farm fax and stop using the service. If the number is then recycled, then if state farm decides to fax me something else without notifying me, it then goes to someone else (and may have data in it)...A difficult problem. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER34> These guys really identified a pain point. This is hands down the most useful application I've used.

</comment><comment><USER35> Really one of the most useful startups I've seen in a while. I would definitely use their service.. but, unfortunately, I usually need to send faxes to non-US numbers and that is, at this moment, still not supported. Still, great job, you guys, I wish you all the luck!

</comment><comment><USER36> Everytime I have to fax something, it used to be such a huge hassle.

Here's the heuristic:

1\. Find the nearest Kinko's/FedEx Store

2\. Find my old or get another Kinko's card Kinko's/FedEx Store card

3\. Put 1 dollar on it

4\. Fax for $0.25

Two or three months later, repeat the same process.

HelloFax is a great example of a solution to serious pain point.

Good luck and congratulations!

</comment><comment><USER37> Hey guys, I love how each page has a clear goal. I'd suggest to add a call to action at the end of this page: <http://www.hellofax.com/content/learnMore>

<comment><USER11> You absolutely right. I think in our rush to launch, we missed out on some important polish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> We used HelloFax to sign our incorporation documents- was a real timesaver!

</comment><comment><USER39> What's a fax? Wasn't that my grandmother's email provider or something?

<comment><USER40> My company spent maybe $1500 last year in fax marketing.

<comment><USER41> Isn't fax spam illegal in the USA? Or are you elsewhere?

<comment><USER40> Legal loopholes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> D'oh. I was excited that I might actually be able to throw out my fax machine. I just sent a fax through HelloFax and the service seems to be very useable. I went through the interface trying to figure out how to add a credit card to my account and determine how expensive the service is. But they don't have pricing yet.

My small business uses Packetel for incoming fax-to-email and a real fax machine for outgoing faxes. I would love to get rid of the fax machine and the stupid copper phone line it requires.

</comment><comment><USER33> All I have to say is, Thank God! I look forward to using this the next time I have to deal with sending a fax. And once you can receive faxes and do everything in one place...For the dedicated fax #, do you have any plans to do this for infrequent users who don't need a regular #?

</comment><comment><USER43> I used hellofax recently for the first time, much better than pamfax, and no hidden charges like efax.

</comment><comment><USER44> Amazing looking service. However, there's a typo on the "About us" page, which I thought I'd bring to your attention.

"Joseph Walla Enterepeneur with a soft spot for the public sector."

Good luck with everything though, you guys are going to kill it.

</comment><comment><USER45> I love how this could essentially be used as a way to bypass physical signatures which are still required by some painfully-useless laws. I shall keep this in mind if I'm ever required to fax something.

</comment><comment><USER46> I have previously used the subscription-less <http://payperfax.com>

Anything I should know to make me use hellofax? (20 free faxes is definitely a nice start!)

<comment><USER26> We're great for when you need to fill-out or sign a document. You can upload it (we support all common file types), sign it, fill it in, and fax it within minutes. Much faster than printing, signing, and scanning.

I hope you get to give it a try soon. Let us know what you think!

<comment><USER47> Is it possible to print directly to the fax service? That's what we've did once for a very similar service: Provide a server using the Internet Printing Protocol (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Printing_Protocol>) that clients configure as remote printer (this works fine in Windows and Linux, we didn't test OS X at this time). The things that a user has printed are stored in an "outbox", where the user can just click on an item and specify where it should be sent. The advantage of this method is that you don't need the upload step and that you are able to support any application (without requiring users to convert the data to PDF first).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> You know the "Try it" in the learn more section, I found it a little bit annoying that it takes you to the homepage instead of back to the learn more section.

<comment><USER26> Yep, I hear you. It was a late addition to the site and we didn't have time to fix the issue. We'll fix it soon :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER49> signed up for the 20 free fax! would last me a lifetime :)

</comment><comment><USER50> Aren't web to fax gateways a 'bridge technology' as recently discussed (interms of avoiding investment) on HN?

Ie, immediate use, dwindling long term prospects?

</comment><comment><USER51> Will it send faxes internationally, i.e. outside the states?

As a specific example, if I'm in Australia, and I want to send a fax locally, can I use HelloFax?

<comment><USER26> Unfortunately, not yet. But we do have an eye on the international market and would love to support faxing internationally.

<comment><USER52> It will work to send a fax to a US number from another country, right? I only need to send 2-3 faxes a year, and currently do it from a dial-up modem on an ancient computer over my US VoIP line that I have overseas. I very rarely need to receive faxes, so sending is all I'd need. This would really take the pain out of those occasional faxes!

<comment><USER26> Yes, you can send a fax to a US number no matter where you are located.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Have you figured out your pricing yet? It bothered me that I couldn't find any pricing info before signing up for the service....

</comment><comment><USER54> You have a typo on your sign-up page:

"Get 20 fax fages free"

Otherwise, cool idea.

<comment><USER26> Nice catch! Thanks!

Fixed.

<comment><USER55> great job guys! btw.. another typo at the bottom of the learn more page "now do do both".

<comment><USER26> Thanks for catching that! Clearly we need to be checking our copy more carefully.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> Congrats! This is awesome. Looks like a GREAT idea and looks like you executed really well. High five!

</comment><comment><USER57> thank god i don't have to worry about buying that blasted fax machine!

</comment><comment><USER58> Neither did I send any faxes in the last few years nor did I use any other online fax services, so I refrain from commenting about your site but please do change the favicon to your site logo. :)

</comment><comment><USER59> It will take a lot of work to steal me from Faxzero.

<comment><USER26> We've built the editor/signature tool to try and add value. Are there any other features you'd like to see that might persuade you to switch over?

<comment><USER59> You know what - I concede. I had a 2nd look, and I don't think I fax more than 20 pages per year, and with your editor, there is zero reason not to use you over faxzero.

I'll have to test out the validation process, but on _2nd_ glance, it looks good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> does it have google docs integration like echosign?

</comment><comment><USER61> faxing? talk about early adopter!</comment>


Physics Today is temporarily making its archive freely available - happy-go-lucky https://physicstoday.scitation.org/journal/pto <comment><AUTHOR> I get Physics Today every month (since I'm an APS member). One of my favorite things about it, strangely, is the ads.

<comment><USER2> I assume they are targeted ads for physicists? I remember "fondly" the times when a website about kiteboarding would serve kiteboarding ads. Those were actually very useful. Now they are showing more blenders after I just bought one.

<comment><USER3> This is the big issue with ad networks (well, after the tracking).

I used to read a lot of geeky blogs when I was younger and they would advertise stuff that I thought was cool - gadgets and doodads mostly.

I went back to a couple of those sites this year and the ads are now mostly for single women in my area -_-

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> May I humbly recommend a terrific summary of the Davisson Germer experiment? [1] It is a great biographical summary of developing the experiment itself, with some experimental data not published elsewhere online of the electron diffraction phenomenon.

[1] [https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3001830](https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.3001830)

<comment><USER5> The design of the experiment is often as important as the result. It opens up a whole avenue of discovery as the same technique is applied to other problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> My favorite article ever in Physics Today: "The Urinary Drop Spectrometer"[0], and a followup note ("Urinary Drops Again") suggesting an audio version[1].

"Information from the external urine stream permits early, painless diagnosis of obstructions with an optical instrument developed by an interdisciplinary group."

Japanese toilet models now have this kind of instrumentation, but the idea lay dormant for decades. I wonder if anyone has tried the audio version in the followup? Spectrometry on a stream of drops was _hard_ in 1974, and relatively easy today. If I could avoid another kidney stone, I'd pee into almost anything.

[0] [https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3128862](https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3128862)

[1] [https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3069186](https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.3069186)

</comment><comment><USER6> My second favorite article in Physics Today, at the same time hilarious and chilling, was the transcription of a talk by Irving Langmuir of GE Labs in 1953. In it he gives a first person account of just how badly an esteemed scientist can fool himself. Consider it a brilliant example of Feynman's advice that you are the easiest person to fool. Of course, the same psychological process is going on in countless entrepreneurs as they convince themselves that they are on to the next unicorn.

Pathological Science: Certain symptoms seen in studies of 'N rays' and other elusive phenomena characterize 'the science of things that aren't so.'

[0] [https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.881205](https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.881205)

</comment><comment><USER7> The AIP also maintain free access to their oral histories: [https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr- library/oral...](https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral- histories/)

They interviewed many famous physicists. Mostly autobiographical, but unlike in books, the interviewees don't have time to edit the answer, so the reading experience is generally better.

</comment><comment><USER8> What is a good resource to learn physics online? Mostly interested in understanding how stuff works not really interested in solving physics problems.

<comment><USER9> You wont understand how stuff "works" if you cannot solve problems, at least not in any meaningful sense.If you want a superficial knowledge (Nothing wrong with that) you have youtube channels or there are conceptual physics textbooks for non science majors.

<comment><USER10> I disagree. You can grasp the meaning of pv=nrt without memorizing the value of r. You can understand that electrons exist in probability shells without remembering what atomic number the d orbital starts at. You can understand that e=mv^2 is only an approximation that works at low velocities without being able to do a Lorentz transform.

<comment><USER9> > You can grasp the meaning of pv=nrt without memorizing the value of r.

Do you actually think that memorizing physical constant values is solving problems?And ,yes, anybody can grasp what PV= nRT means,but what about stuff like: "The average speed of the molecules doubled, what is the temperature now"."Derive the relation between pressure and height for an ideal gas and use it to estimate at which height the atmospheric pressure halves".Interesting stuff like that and not plugging numbers in a formula.

> you can understand that electrons exist in probability shells without > remembering what atomic number the d orbital starts at

The d orbital "starts" at n=1. Hydrogen has d orbitals.You are confusing orbital existence with the occupation of them by electrons.

> You can understand that e=mv^2 is only an approximation that works at low > velocities without being able to do a Lorentz transform.

The e = mv^2 you propose here is not an actual formula in physics. It is either Ek = (1/2)mv^2 in classical physics, so just kinetic energy, or E =mc^2+mv^2/(1-gamma^2)^(1/2) in special relativity. Which of course at low velocities is approximated by E= mc^2 + 0.5mv^2 the second term being the Ek as calculated in the classical theory.

I think your comment shows beautifully what I meant with my original assertion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Really great magazine, my wife used to have a subscription and it was consistently readable and fascinating to an 'educated layman' (maths and computing degree but no real physics knowledge beyond reading a bit and doing it at school).

</comment><comment><USER12> Any recommendation for similar resources for computer science?

<comment><USER13> ACM is providing free access to its platform till July (requires registration). There are lots of computer science research papers and journals there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> It'd be great if we could actually archive this "archive", but alas, it is behind a (temporarily disabled) paywall, which first requires user registration and login.

</comment><comment><USER15> You will have to register to Scitation and the free access is only temporary.

> Scientists and students in affected regions can now register on > Scitation.org to activate temporary free full-text access to content through > April 30, 2020.

<comment><USER16> Hm. 4/30 was yesterday.

<comment><USER17> Perhaps a misprint and they meant either 5/30 or 2021?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> > AIP Publishing is making our content freely available to scientists who > register on Scitation.</comment>


They thought they were going to rehab. They ended up in chicken plants - <AUTHOR> https://www.revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/ <comment><USER2> Horrifying. What can an ordinary person do about such a grotesque miscarriage of justice, when it's backed by powerful moneyed interests and the local "justice" department is fully on board?

>Before CAAIR, McGahey had no interest in drugs. Now, he says he can't live without them

That's some "rehab".

</comment><comment><USER3> It's not a matter of when class war will break out in the US, but rather when enough of the working class will realize they've been losing it for decades.

</comment><comment><USER4> This reads like a horror you'd expect from China or North Korea. Rather than the USA.

<comment><USER2> This kind of abuse is pretty quintessentially capitalistic. It is exploiting the weak for no reason but to make money - no ideology underpins it but the bottom line. You might find a similar story in China now that it is economically capitalist, but the horror of North Korea is of an entirely different character.</comment></comment>


ShowHN: first attempt at HTML5, my weekend project - <AUTHOR> http://thestategame.com

<comment><AUTHOR> This is my first attempt at writing an HTML5 game, done for the purpose of learning more about javascript and canvas. Any feedback on the browser compatibility (I only tested it with chrome) and/or game play appreciated.

<comment><USER2> All I get in IE10 is a spinning loading screen.

For the gameplay, I doesn't seem like I can select the right state while the map is rotating. Not to mention that hitting the small states is incredibly hard when they're moving targets. If clicking is supposed to stop while rotating, you might want to make it happen much faster.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll check out IE10. So far I only tested compatibility on Firefox and chrome on my linux workstation.

<comment><USER3> BTW, if you're new to IE development, since IE8 there are developer tools if you press F12.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's REALLY hard to click on RI when the map is rotating. Otherwise, cool idea!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Yeah I have problems too, especially on a touchscreen :/ I tried to blow up the east coast states but RI is still too small.. maybe I need to try to magnify it more by itself or something

<comment><USER5> Just pause the game while the map is rotating.

For tablets, maybe have the state you're currently touching fisheye, kind of like keyboards, and it's not selected as a choice till you remove your finger from the screen.

<comment><AUTHOR> yeah but that's cheating :) I just made a change to make the tolerance greater for RI and DE, I hope that helps. If there are other states that are difficult let me know, unfortunately I don't have a tablet to test on :/

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very addicting, nice work.

</comment><comment><USER6> I love this game. Not sure that the rotation is necessary though. The fun beings when multiple state names start popping up. Great way to learn the US map.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback, I guess ill add an option to turn off rotation (maybe for a point penalty)</comment></comment>


SlideMail 2.0 – An open experiment to create a better email client - <AUTHOR> http://blog.slidemailapp.com/slidemail-2-0-an-open-experiment-to-create-a-better-email-client/ <comment><USER2> I am always lookout for a good email client (iOS and OS X). I used Sparrow years after it was acquired by Google and had no support. It was a great email client. Surprisingly, the iOS client that works for me now is Outlook.

I just checkout out SlideMail from app store (1.0, I guess?) Looks simple and well designed, but confusing UX. Why 'All Mail' is called 'Done'? Compose makes it easy to pick the recipients, but there is no way to see their email address. It just shows their name and picture. I can't tell if I am sending an email to their work email or personal.

Would be cool to try out v2.

</comment><comment><USER3> >If you're on iOS _and have a Gmail account_

Should have called it a better gmail client.

</comment><comment><USER4> Spark Mail already does what SlideMail aims to do really well.

Important emails are consistently shown at the top. It does that so well that I don't even see all the incoming noise that would otherwise bury the important stuff, though its all there when I'm ready to look. When I check the same mailboxes via other clients, it's just chaos.

Swipes and snoozes like Mailbox, but you don't give them server-side access to your data like Mailbox does. Nor do they have Condi Rice on their board.

Amazing degree of configurability. Saved searches, customized swipe actions, integrations with Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, Evernote, OneNote, Readability, Pocket, Instapaper.

I've tried so many clients. This is the one.

</comment><comment><USER5> What's 'open' about it?</comment>