Should Developers have Access to Production? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.serverfault.com/post/893001713/should-developers-have-access-to-production <comment><USER2> I think tearing down walls between SysOps and Developers is important. I don't like the "this is mine, stay out" attitude. That being said, I'm all in favor of dependable and repeatable environments, and when you give people carte blanche to do what they want on the boxes, that can be a recipe for disaster.

"Oh, I just upgraded this package, yeah, can you put that in our master image?" _sigh_

Do it right, and you can get the developers all the info they need without having access to the box itself. Not only that, but you make it easy to spool up new dev environments for new employees.

If access does need to be granted today, then thought should be put in to see if that can be avoided tomorrow. Need a tcpdump today? Great. Access granted. Tomorrow, I'll have a script for you that takes a tcpdump and puts the file where you can access it. Access revoked.

<comment><USER3> Dependable and repeatable environments are essential.

At my company the issue is that dev/qa/stage/prod are all not ===. We end up with two options to fix something. Make a fix and send it through the deployment process (over and over again). Or sit in a sysadmins lap and try to fix it. Both options are extremely frustrating, for both parties, and generate a lot of animosity.

<comment><USER2> It's not easy, is it? Imagine being able to spool up a new environment (on one server as opposed to, say, 5 in production) and feed it a copy of production data, run tests, and then tear it down. And imagine knowing that this environment was identical to production in every way except for minor configuration changes to get it to run on one box. And when you're done with it? Throw it away. That's really powerful. A new employee comes on board? Here, here's your environment. Mess with it as much as you want, we can just rebuild it if you totally hose it. All QA except for performance testing, which would need to be done on real hardware anyway, could be done in these environments.

<comment><USER4> I worked at a company where we had a similar system set up. We had automated database snapshots of production taken every two hours, and stored locally and in our account at Rackspace's Cloud Files. Eventually, I got fed up with people asking me to update staging with a copy of the production database, so I wrote a simple Python script and stuck it in the repository. As long as you weren't running in a production environment, it would give you a fresh copy of the database in a matter of minutes.

We were (slowly) working towards a system where the entire app (gems and all) was self-contained, and we had a list of all the system packages that needed installation; once we reached that point, setting up a new server would have been a five-minute job - a git pull, a package update/install, and a database pull. Sadly, we never did get around to finishing it (actual work took priority), but it would have been nice to have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If developers want access to production, _they_ should respond to the call from the helpdesk when production goes down in the middle of the night because of the "simple little tweak" the developer decided to make on the server before leaving for the day.

<comment><USER6> This is reasonable, and it's been the way things have worked any time I've had access to production as a developer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> At several bigcorps where I've worked (>1000 in IT, billions of dollars, lots of regulation) this has been a very big deal and cause of never-ending friction.

1) If the admins don't do at least minimal code reviews then it's meaningless. Developers will find ways to circumvent the inefficiencies in the system.

2) Admins don't do even minimal code reviews.

3) If developers don't have read access to production (code and logs) then admins become the weak link. (Obviously ssl keys and such not included.)

4) If a system is so locked-down as to completely eliminate the possibility of anything going wrong it will also be so locked-down that nothing can be fixed or improved.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is silly. The answer here us, "it depends". For example, if you have sensitive data in a production environment, maybe you don't want developers to have access to the environment regardless of the size of the organization. For smaller, less mature apps, having a full blown IT managed server might be overkill and get in the way. In my previous life as a consultant at Kaiser, we had both situations which was entirely appropriate.

<comment><USER9> This is what I'm experiencing. As in application team, I'm supporting a reporting app whose users are C _O or_ D. I have zero access to the production app, to the server, and to the data. Reason given was because of the data sensitivity. But realistically, the test data comes from production data, so what is the conclusion there?

I'm having hard time to ensure if the data is correctly processed every month, since I have no access at all.

Note: the app was done by other people and was handed over to my team.

<comment><USER10> There are commercial solutions that can pull data from Oracle and massage it for full testing capabilities.. (As in - replace this users name with a generated name, replace this address with a generated address, replace this CC with a generated/valid-format cc).

That might be an option if you can't get at any decent test data?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've worked for several "mid-sized" web companies (between 75-200 employees) and this has always been an issue. Here's why:

1) The development team interacts directly with a single business unit but the administrators serve the whole company. So say you're a developer that works in the SEM team. All the technical products and processes that manage the company's SEM campaigns, that's what you work on. You directly communicate with the product team and project management. If there's any bottleneck or issue on your projects as you work on them, the entire team is easily made aware of it. You tell your project manager, "Dan in analytics was supposed to get me the data and if I don't get it tomorrow then I'll be late," and your project manager talks to Dan or Dan's boss and you get your data... or you don't, but it's on Dan anyway.

However the administrators serve the whole company and they have entirely different sets of priorities and responsibilities that you have no visibility into. So you're ready to go to production and you submit your ticket with your release notes, which is pretty much just, "push these files from SVN and run this SQL on this DB." And it just sits there. A day passes. Then another day. Dan asks why your project's not available yet given that it's "done." You ask your project manager to ask what's going on, he says he's trying to find out but the sys admin manager hasn't been around. You try dropping by the admins yourself (usually sequestered in some remote location in your building, if they're even on site at all!) and ask about your project and they snarl and say, "load on the consumer site has been up 12% all week, we have bigger problems" and mumble a bunch of other things about permissions and server racks and subnets and all you know is that whatever to-do list they're working off of, you're all the way at the bottom.

And then...

2) The production and development environment just aren't in synch and this never gets addressed. The sys admins finally get to your ticket a week later. Finally, you think, this will go live. Then two hours later you get an e-mail from an admin named Stan that says, "Release failed, please fix the permissions on the directories your application creates and re-submit the ticket." And your ticket's closed. What the hell? Your application didn't even create any directories.

If you're lucky Stan included a copy-paste of his shell with the commands he used to export your code and whatever barfing error he got. If not you have to hunt Stan down, ask him to see what exactly the error he got was. Stan sighs, because they're just sooo swamped and sooo busy and the site load has been up for 12% since last week, but he grudgingly does what you say. Oh, yes, your application uses a directory which is owned by 'application1' in dev, but is owned by root in production. So you tell him to just chown the directory to application1, and he says submit a ticket. You blow up and say, "You're right there! Just type in the freaking chown command!" and he says he can't, you have to submit a ticket, and then submit another ticket for the release again. Then one of the other admins says, "Stan, foosball?" and Stan gets up to play some goddamn fucking foosball, while your project is now going on its second week of being late.

The next time you meet with your boss and mention how much things easier would be if you could have access to production, and your boss sighs and says it's just not happening. So then you talk to him about how you need better integration with the sys admin team, and it's critical to ensure dev and production environments are identical, and your boss agrees to talk to Stan's boss, and ultimately nothing gets done and you just resent the lack of control over your own projects.

<comment><USER12> Being the admin, I'm pretty sensitive to:

1) People trying to bump the priority of their own tickets by showing up in my cube. This is inevitably at the expense of other, more polite, users of the system. Prioritizing requests is one of the toughest parts of operations job - if you think I'm doing it all wrong, you can talk to my manager.

2) People who think that "open a ticket" means "go to hell". It actually means "We need to document all changes done to production and we need to prioritize requests. Please help us do our job by using the system designed to do so. The request will be done within 5 minutes if its urgent/important/really simple. But we still need a ticket to document it and follow up if it causes issues in the future."

On the other hand, if you boss is competent, he can raise the availability and priorities of admins in all kinds of management meetings. Hopefully resulting in better priority for developer requests and maybe even hiring few more admins.

<comment><USER13> I don't work in such an environment, so what is the proper response to a ticket that took a week to process and is closed with no useful detail? Open another ticket to ask for more detail on why the previous ticket was closed?

<comment><USER14> Make friends with some sysadmins. When the gears aren't spinning, ping them on IM to find out why. Usually there's a very good reason for that.

Sysadmins are your friends if you treat them well, like human beings, and you respect their work. If you treat them like a ticket processing machine, or worse, like an obstacle, you'll struggle.

I learned this from 4 years of deploying apps at UBS (one of the world's largest banks), which had exactly this kind of ticketing system (called GCMS, iirc). I was IRC-pals with 3 different sysadmins in 3 different continents (yes, there was an internal IRC system), and so whenever things got stuck in the pipes, I could ask them to have a look in the system and see what was going on. As for the other sysadmins, I always treated them courteously, used the ticket system, and got the necessary approvals whenever I could.

The one downside of this is I ended up being stuck managing lots of deployments, because I was good at it.

<comment><USER15> I think this goes both ways. I understand that sysadmins are human and get busy and/or make mistakes. Most of the time though, nagging developers could be pleased by sysadmins being a bit more proactive in communicating with people.

After all, when a ticket has been open for a week with no response, most people will start to get a bit frustrated and take it out on the sysadmin. A simple "Hey, know you've been waiting on this a while, but I have X, Y, and Z to take care of before I can get to it" will do wonders for sysadmin/developer relations.

<comment><USER16> It goes a bit deeper than that - a ticketing system by itself is just a tool, and isn't a process or a solution.

If Sysadmin just threw up a ticketing system and said "put your stuff in there and we'll get to it" - then they can't expect things to get much better than email. It's a start, but only a small one.

They need to put the proper process, SLA's (even if they are approximate) and review procedures around the system to make sure it's meeting the needs of the rest of they organisation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> There might be federal or state regulations that govern the access to production data. Health and Financial systems are particularly touchy.

<comment><USER18> Developers can touch the code but not the data, production/operations can touch the data but not the code. That's the oldest quality control rule in IT to prevent fraud.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> According to the regulations that govern my employer's domain, developers cannot have access to production. We have a sysOp representative who knows the software (but isn't a dev) who does have access to troubleshoot issues. In cases of serious bugs, we will work directly with the system administrator to troubleshoot.

The point regarding good relationships between engineering and systems is critical. I have a great relationship with our admin, and therefore, when problems arise, we can quickly work together to sort things out.

</comment><comment><USER20> If your company is obligated to follow regulations like those set forth in something like PCI standards, then devs will certainly not have access to production.

Otherwise, good practice could be to have everything automated in the production env...whatever you're doing on production, make it as scripted/automated as possible. That way, you're forced to examine your processes ahead of time.

</comment><comment><USER21> I've been at this startup long enough that it's no longer a startup. Originally, the 'developers' were expected to handle everything IT-wise. I had minimal skills in some areas, but it was enough to get the job done and keep the company working.

Now that we're bigger, I keep wishing that we'd divide responsibilities and have SysAdmins that are responsible for servers and their maintenance, and programmers that are responsible for creating code. I've seen so many projects get off-track because programmers are asked to do sysadmin work and end up being late on their official work. And of course, everyone gets pressured for being late then.

Startups need to be nimble and just get things done. That means that many jobs need to get done with only a few people. But once you're no longer a startup, you need to start treating everything like a big company.

I love working for a startup, but working for a company that tries to act like a startup is painful.

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm surprised this thread has gone on this long without reference to the DevOps movement that is looking to address this process problem. One good link: [http://www.jedi.be/blog/2010/02/12/what-is-this-devops- thing...](http://www.jedi.be/blog/2010/02/12/what-is-this-devops-thing- anyway/)

</comment><comment><USER23> Read Access should be allowed, but that is it. Good communication and installation docs are a must.

</comment><comment><USER24> Yes. With a deployment tool that provides an audit trail, an easily searchable log with description of changes, locking, change reversion (not revision), and optional change management and code review. They should get read-only access to the webserver configuration and logs, but no actual write access in production. Just enough access that they can fuck up code in production, but enough checks and balances to make un-fucking the code easy for Operations. Obvious practices such as 'never deploy code Friday afternoon' and 'financial code requires change management approval' also help. Limited restarting of services allowed with big fat e-mail warnings to Operations and dev groups, with audit trail.

</comment><comment><USER25> NO</comment>


Ask YC:  Is there currently a good way to have very long-lived debates on the web? - <AUTHOR>

Do you see any benefit in having a service specifically for this purpose?
I was thinking of something where for a given debate topic, you would "subscribe" to people whose comments you would like to see more of.
It's kind of like having a huge debate involving many bloggers.
But in this service anyone can subscribe to anyone and you are encouraged to forward comments to your fans.  Each comment has a history showing you all the people that it passed through to get to you.
The service could show you in real-time a visualization of the active parts of the debate network and also a summary of what is currently being discussed and by whom.
One could also provide a search across all comments, where the ranking takes into account the fan count of the comment's author at the time the comment was made say. <comment><USER2> slashdot ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> www.debatewise.com</comment>


Singular Value Decomposition Part 2: Theorem, Proof, Algorithm - <AUTHOR> https://jeremykun.com/2016/05/16/singular-value-decomposition-part-2-theorem-proof-algorithm/ <comment><USER2> An excellent algorithm to know backwards and forwards.

It's one of those tools you always want to try first if you can assume a somewhat linear approximation will work.

</comment><comment><USER3> The fact that the SVD algorithm is backwards-stable is still somehow surprising to me, despite being very familiar with the proof. Very few algorithms that produce more data than they take as input have this property.

<comment><USER4> > Very few algorithms that produce more data than they take as input have this > property.

Although a useful metric, measuring only the amount of input and output misses other useful characteristics.

The SVD produces more output than input, but the output is very heavily constrained.

<comment><USER5> This got me thinking. How many numbers do you need to describe any unitary matrix of size N?

<comment><USER6> In the case of matrices with real coefficients, these matrices constitute the famous ortogonal group. The ortogonal group is a Lie group of dimension n*(n-1)/2\. A table of Lie groups with their dimensions is here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Lie_groups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Lie_groups)

Every Lie group has an associated vector space with the same dimension, so many question about Lie groups can be addressed by studying the associate vector space.

To suggest an application of Lie groups and their associated vector spaces, in machine learning one can reduce the number of parameters when a group act over a space (rotations and the like), so you obtain new features to train your machine in a more efficient way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This might be a far out question, but is there a connection/analogy between the SVD approximation and a fourier transform+low-pass filter.

<comment><USER3> It's true that a 2D discrete FFT can also be used to produce an orthogonal expansion of an input matrix, but a truncated reconstruction using it (like a band-pass filtering) won't have the rank properties (e.g. optimal low-rank approximation) of a truncated SVD-based approximation.

They are relatable in many ways if you are interested in data filtering and analysis (viewing matrices as data structures rather than as operators in a function space). Generally the SVD is nicer to have, but the FFT is easier to compute (O(n^3) vs O(n^2 log (n)).

Another way to think about them:

An FFT will describe your data in terms of a fixed orthonormal basis: sine and cosine functions of varying frequency.

An SVD will describe your data using a basis that is also orthonormal, but is entirely based on your data.

<comment><USER2> If you are interested in this stuff, check out Strang's Linear algebra course lectures (mit opencourseware iirc).

He goes through SVD and FFT in terms of matrices. Really illuminating course.

<comment><USER8> This one? [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear- algebra-...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-06-linear-algebra- spring-2010/video-lectures/) Do you know if there is a written version? Videos are sometimes a bit harder to follow at your own pace, I find.

<comment><USER2> Chapters from his textbook are available online.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just a little nickpick, reading the first lines, I would prefer the author to explain the Pythagorean theorem in R^n like this (is a very simple proof)

v . v = |v|^2, and u and v are orthogonal (u . v = 0) then |u+v|^2 = (u+v) . (u+v) = u.u + v.v = |u|^2 + |v|^2

A nice example of a projection, if v=(1,1,1,...,1) then the projection of u over v is mean(u)*v

</comment><comment><USER10> What an incredibly well written tutorial! Do you plan to cover some of the work around thin/skinny SVDs?

</comment><comment><USER8> Is there an analog of SVD where you optimize the L1 / sum of absolute errors, rather than the squares?</comment>


The messy, brilliant life of Pablo Neruda - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-messy-brilliant-life-of-pablo-neruda/2018/04/17/836d2ad4-3ce4-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html?utm_term=.32747e46344d <comment><USER2> When talking about Neruda's life, don't leave out the fact he had a mentally challenged daughter. He had her institutionalized to never visit again in her entire life. He was a great poet, lived a lavish life, had many women and an eccentric lifestyle. But he was no role model, in fact, he was far from it.

<comment><USER3> I maybe wrong in this assumption but I think very few know about a rape[0], at least that's what I think it was (from his memoir[1]), that he committed in Sri Lanka (Ceylon back then). It was a native Tamil woman. Doesn't at all read like a consensual act or an act of a transactional nature (which could be considered consensual).

I loved his love poems and I think I would still like them (maybe) but for some reason I don't think it's going to be the same after knowing about this incident from his life. Maybe I need to work on separating the art from the artist, if at all that can be a thing.

[0] [https://globalvoices.org/2015/10/05/portrait-of-nobel- litera...](https://globalvoices.org/2015/10/05/portrait-of-nobel-literary- prize-winner-pablo-neruda-sparks-debate-about-rape-culture-in-chile/)

[1] [http://tamilwoman.tumblr.com/post/79412843312/tw-rape- pablo-...](http://tamilwoman.tumblr.com/post/79412843312/tw-rape-pablo-neruda- a-glorified-rapist-of)

<comment><USER4> Nah, I don't think you _need_ to do anything but what you feel is just and right. I personally enjoy my art in context. Same when I make a purchase or cast a vote.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It is not clear if Neruda died from cancer as his death certificate indicates. Most likely got killed by the regime because of his political affiliations.

<comment><USER2> Wrong, he died from Cancer. Only in the past few years this conspiracy theory surfaced. It is well known he was very ill way before the military coup. In fact, the left wanted him to be the candidate instead of Salvador Allende, but he didn't go for it, because he was involved in medical treatments.

This is just the left trying to rewrite history, and please don't cite journalists as sources. It is said that journalists have a bast amount of information but an inch of depth on it.

<comment><USER5> Wrong, forensic doctor Aurelio Luna, Director of the external service of forensic science of University of Murcia found traces of a cultivated bacteria in the exhumed body of Pablo Neruda. This is enough to raise suspicions about his death.

Remember that assassinations in hospitals during this period were not uncommon. It is also suspected that former Chilean president Eduardo Frei Montalva was killed by the regime during a hospital stay.

<comment><USER2> Only one forensic doctor backs those claims. Not enough for me, sorry.

<comment><USER5> He spoke on behalf of team of doctors he represents.

Just concede the point. It is a known fact that the regime killed people for much less and Neruda had already provoked them enough by then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> wapo typo: "Neruda's funeral be came a spontaneous public demonstration of defiance against the new regime."

</comment><comment><USER7> "Poetry is like bread, It should be shared by all, by scholars and by peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity."

And yet, do the vast majority of humans actually read poetry? Perhaps they access it tangentially in Bob Dylan or The Beatles, but more likely than not, they're consuming Netflix or cable TV or much less high art than poetry. What are the top most sold books on Kindle, for instance? So many are romance novels, not Earthy, gritty, brilliant poetry like Neruda's.

<comment><USER8> You don't have to shit all over romance novels, "the kids the days", or (through omission) music made in the last half-century to encourage people to appreciate poetry more.

Incidentally, many forms of poetry are fairly popular these days. The Hamilton musical is one of the most successful pop culture phenomena of our time. Tons of artists like (recent Pulitzer Prize winner) Kendrick Lamar are shoving poetry into the ears of millions of people constantly.

Edit: I'll put this here as an example, and since it's a cover it shows the widespread enthusiasm that's out there for the material: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqGGmfDZsWU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqGGmfDZsWU)

<comment><USER9> You must be trolling. This is not poetry.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I postpone my consumption of time? - <AUTHOR> It turns out, I have no problem saving money for the future, consumption in the sense of buying unneccessary stuff will probably never be an issue in my life. But I do strugle in terms of consumption of time. I prefer to consume my time now and invest it later, not the other way around. What might be the source of this discrepency and how can I correct it? Also, is it procrastination I am talking about? <comment><USER2> Tell me about your mother.</comment>


How do wombats make cubed poo? - <AUTHOR> http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD18/Session/E19.1 <comment><USER3> > ...provides insight into new manufacturing techniques for non-axisymmetric > structures using soft tissues.

I'm glad to hear that future technology may use the same manufacturing techniques as the the cubed poo of the wombat.

<comment><USER4> For inexpensive factory production of sugar cubes, broth cubes and the like...yum!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Many wombats died to bring us this information.

(These wombats died in car accidents, and their bodies used to learn more about wombats: [https://phys.org/news/2018-11-scientists-wombats-cubed- poop....](https://phys.org/news/2018-11-scientists-wombats-cubed-poop.html))

</comment><comment><USER6> A more digestible explanation: [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/wombat- po...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/11/wombat-poop-cube- why-is-it-square-shaped/)

</comment><comment><USER7> Does cubic poo help the wombat in any way?

Does it use poo cubes to build things?

Edit:. A quick internet search suggests they poop in high up places to mark territory, and presumably the more typical round poop would fall off high up rocks and be a bad marker.

<comment><USER8> Yes, as cmroanirgo notes, they're renowned for this, and sometimes it can be quite amazing to 'spot the poo' after you've left some object out for only a day or two. I see them regularly on 50mm wide poly (irrigation) pipe - <USER2> accuracy of placement is astounding.

Wombats are territorial, and very regular in their nightly movements. The cubic poo may be in part a simple consequence of their body shape (squat, narrow, long - evolved to wiggle into tight holes leaving only their impenetrable back plate exposed to would-be predators through the day), or, as you observe, assisting in perching scat with less risk of it being moved.

As I understand it, the extra height allows for other animals to more easily detect (by smell, I'm guessing, but may be visual as well) their presence in the area - presumably with the intent that those other animals keep away.

<comment><USER9> "and very regular in their nightly movements"

I see what you did there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> David Hu (last author) is famous in the fluid dynamics community.

See also [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest- blog/confessions-...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest- blog/confessions-of-a-wasteful-scientist/)

<comment><USER11> Prof. Hu has a delightful pop-science book about animal-inspired engineering called "How to walk on water and climb up walls."

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I look forward to the authors receiveing their IgNobel prize!

<comment><USER13> > NOTE: This the SECOND Ig Nobel Prize awarded to Patricia Yang and David Hu. > They and two other colleagues shared the 2015 Ig Nobel Physics Prize, for > testing the biological principle that nearly all mammals empty their > bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds)

[https://www.improbable.com/ig- about/the-2019-winners/](https://www.improbable.com/ig- about/the-2019-winners/)

<comment><USER14> That abstract is a work of art. "This study addresses the long-standing mystery of cubic scat formation"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Quote of the day:

"By emptying the intestine and inflating it with a long balloon, we found that the local strain varies from 20 percent at the cube's corners to 75 percent at its edges"

Edit: Square sausages anyone? (I'm aware of Scottish square sausages)

</comment><comment><USER15> Somewhat off topic, but the podcast Wow in the World did an excellent episode on this. It is a podcast aimed at children that is all about science and is not annoying to listen to as an adult. Highly recommend.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't this would really be the result, but it would be cool if this led to factories with more organic shapes and processes. The current state of the art factories would be amazing but somewhat recognizable to a Victorian time traveler (well, maybe not chip fabs, of maybe them too).

</comment><comment><USER16> That's the kind of titles that makes me love HN so much

</comment><comment><USER17> EDIT: Nevermind.

>This study addresses the long-standing mystery of cubic scat formation and provides insight into new manufacturing techniques for non-axisymmetric structures using soft tissues.

I hope they didn't kill a wombat just so they could inflate it's lower intestine like a balloon & write about the shape it made. Seems like an unethical waste, no?

<comment><USER18> It's answered in the linked abstract:

"...derived from veterinary euthanized individuals following motor vehicle collisions in Tasmania, Australia"

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This seems to be an abstract for a talk rather than the actual full paper?

<comment><USER20> Correct. At least in physics, there's no paper. The abstract is what's submitted to the conference, and gets published before the conference begins. Peer review is limited to deciding whether your talk gets into the conference schedule or not, slotted into a different division of the conference, or perhaps to a poster session.

You could contact the author and see if they have a preprint or something to share.

The intent is to provide an outlet for "lesser" stature work, student projects, or preliminary results en route to writing a full paper. I was a physics student 25 years ago, and there was an informal culture of "everybody gets to publish." You were pretty much guaranteed a slot at one of the conferences, even if it was a poster session in a dark hallway alongside the guys who were proving that quantum mechanics was a hoax. That way, nobody could say, "they refused to publish me." And the field was never so crowded that there wasn't room for a few of those abstracts.

How it should be done in the contemporary era is of course an open question. ;-)</comment></comment>


Kap – An open-source screen recorder built with web technology - <AUTHOR> https://getkap.co/ <comment><USER2> saw this on producthunt, once it will be able to export as a GIF, I'll definitely use it more :)</comment>


FANN.js – Fast Artificial Neural Network Compiled with Emscripten - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/louisstow/fann.js/

<comment><USER2> If you haven't already, check out Synaptic [1] by Juan Cazala. I use it in many of my ML projects and it contains a lot of useful examples and documentation. I recommend you take a look at the source as well, which is easy enough to understand.

[1] [https://github.com/cazala/synaptic](https://github.com/cazala/synaptic)

</comment><comment><USER3> Those of you HNers working with or studying artificial neural networks (or armchair enthusiasts), is there any research you've seen recently that had you particularly excited?

<comment><USER4> Jason Weston (Facebook) etc's work on Memory Nets[1]

Anything to do with transfer learning (the 2013 _Zero-Shot Learning Through Cross-Modal Transfer_ [2] paper is a good place to start)

The increasing amount of demos around using NNs to _generate_ "things" that look kinda-almost "intelligent". I can't point at a paper, but Andrej Karpathy demo of generating Shakespere-like writing, "Wikipedia" pages and "C" code in _The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Recurrent Neural Networks_ [3] is the kind of thing I'm talking about.

The beginnings of work around goal-seeking. The (now Google) DeepMind Atari demo[4] and Marl/O[5]

Finally, the work being done on making this stuff usable by programmers (Torch etc).

[1] [http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.3916](http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.3916)

[2] [http://arxiv.org/pdf/1301.3666.pdf](http://arxiv.org/pdf/1301.3666.pdf)

[3] [http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn- effectiveness/](http://karpathy.github.io/2015/05/21/rnn-effectiveness/)

[4] [https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~vmnih/docs/dqn.pdf](https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~vmnih/docs/dqn.pdf)

[5] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6UVOQ0F44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6UVOQ0F44)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I can't see how the 'fast' claim is quantified.

<comment><USER6> Browsers don't support WebCL yet and their asm.js is single-threaded. And their auto-vectorization abilities also might be questionable. I don't see how it could possibly compete with things NNs running on a GPU.

"Fast" might simply refer to efficient algorithms implemented in C?

<comment><USER7> Browsers will probably never support WebCL.

<comment><USER8> Why do you think so?

<comment><USER7> The WebCL spec has been finished for well over a year now, and was fairly stable for a while before that, yet no browsers have implemented it. Mozilla has publicly stated they aren't interested and are going with WebGL 2.0 instead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Allright, now somebody please hook this into a game of 2048 and let the machines show us how it' s done.

<comment><USER2> Already done: [http://ov3y.github.io/2048-AI/](http://ov3y.github.io/2048-AI/)

<comment><USER9> That's just an algorithm, a far stretch from a neural net playing 2048.

It has been done though: [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=neural+net+2048](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=neural+net+2048)

Still, it would be awesome to see a JS neural net playing a JS game

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Some more tutorials would be nice. I tried to learn it addition, but that failed miserable.

</comment><comment><USER11> This should be published on npm</comment>


jQuery.smarttruncation - A Responsive Text Truncation Plugin - <AUTHOR> http://polarblau.github.com/smarttruncation/

<comment><AUTHOR> Via Functionn - Open Source Resources For Web Developers & Designers: [http://functionn.blogspot.com/2012/11/jquerysmarttruncation-...](http://functionn.blogspot.com/2012/11/jquerysmarttruncation- responsive-text.html)

P.S. Functionn contains a whole lot more of awesome resouces like jQuery.smarttruncation. There only a fraction of them I can post here at a time. Take a look if you're interested, and subscribe:

<http://functionn.blogspot.com></comment>


The iPhone 4 is great (but there's a giant asterisk) - <AUTHOR> http://www.marco.org/804442562 <comment><USER2> The iPhone 4 reminds me of the Macbook Air. It has been squashed to an amazing size and filled with a huge battery, but it just kind of isn't their best product engineering-wise. (Air was riddled with requirements like only having 2GB of memory, 1 USB, 0 NICs, and 80GB HDD due to its "ground breaking" thin size.)

Maybe I'm being naive - but I think this will be bad in the long-term for Apple as new Android based phones flood the market with quality products.

<comment><USER3> A lot of the popular Android handsets out there have their share of problems too. When the N1 came out people were demanding recalls over the 3G switching problem and multi-touch problems. The EVO has that weird 30FPS cap and battery issues, the Droid _still_ has a battery cover problem 8 months later, The Eris/Incredible have the "silent call bug" Seems like the pressures to produce new models every 6-12 months with major software updates over the same time period is starting to catch up with everyone these days. I think if we're going to keep demanding lower prices, more frequent releases and keep up the _OMG I need it on launch day or I'll just die!_ attitudes we're going to keep getting shoddy products.

<comment><USER4> "the Droid still has a battery cover problem 8 months later"

Given the entire controversy over Apple's tendency to have non-removable batteries, this problem in particular amuses me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is basically an echo of the news that been going around.

Yet still, everyone _loves_ it. Why should Apple do a recall?

<comment><USER6> Pretty much. My hands reliably short out the antenna. I like the phone so much that I'm happy to change the way I hold the phone.

Marco is right, though: Apple's damage control strategy is backfiring. For the time being, though, it might not matter. It's a really, really, really nice phone.

<comment><USER7> It's a really, really, really nice _device_. Not so much a nice telephone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> the proximity sensor bug is x10 more annoying than the antennae issue. i hope it can be fixed with software.

</comment><comment><USER9> About the antenna problem. I always read that it is a bar number problem. But is there _real_ reception problem? I mean, has someone experienced that the Phone reception was bad when held in the _bad_ manner?

<comment><USER10> Aside from the anecdotes of plenty of people with YouTube and Twitter accounts, the antenna problem has been thoroughly tested by Consumer Reports, according to a blog post that made the rounds yesterday: [http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple-i...](http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/07/apple- iphone-4-antenna-issue-iphone4-problems-dropped-calls-lab-test-confirmed- problem-issues-signal-strength-att-network-gsm.html)

Engadget is reporting that Apple has been deleting references to the Consumer Reports blog on their support forums.

The antenna problem affects actual people, who really do experience dropped calls when they're in an area with weaker coverage and they bridge the two antennae. I'm continually surprised at this notion amongst many iPhone4 users that if it doesn't happen to them, then it must not exist, despite plenty of evidence that it does exist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> What makes him think the proximity sensor issue can't be fixed with a software update? Seems like making it less sensitive or mapping it to a different sensitivity curve would do it.

</comment><comment><USER12> Or maybe the AT&T network does not suck that much and the Iphone has always been the device terrible at making and keeping calls. AT&T has just gotten the bad rep from the apple fanboys all along.

<comment><USER13> Nope. I (a customer of Rogers Canada) have never experienced a single dropped call, or any static, or even anything less than three bars of service, in my last two years of iPhone ownership. I never hear any stories from anyone around here about such things, either; only read them online. I do believe it's your shitty cell infrastructure. :)

<comment><USER14> I've had dropped calls on my iPhones (3G & 3GS).

Inside an elevator or while walking through a tunnel surrounded by 2 metres of concrete in an underground carpark...Never at any other time.

This is from using it in 3 different countries (none of which was the US).

I think I concur with your conclusion.</comment></comment></comment>


An Illustrated Theory of Numbers (2017) - <AUTHOR> http://illustratedtheoryofnumbers.com/ <comment><USER2> I hope you enjoy the book -- the AMS sale does give a great price! Part of the reason I went with the AMS was that they're a nonprofit and their prices are reasonable for a hardcover book printed (offset, not digital on-demand) in color.

As the author, I'll add a few remarks and answer some questions about the book.

1\. I made a book webpage at illustratedtheoryofnumbers.com. The errata are there. Also you can find a series of programming tutorials, if you wish to learn number theory with Python. I go from programming basics to primality- testing, RSA, etc.

2\. I didn't provide solutions in the book. :( But there's always online discussion boards. Someday I'll write many more exercises and provide some solutions.

3\. It's been used as a textbook for undergraduate number theory, e.g. at Rice, UC San Diego, next semester at Georgia Tech I think, etc.

4\. No full e-book version is planned. It's all very old-fashioned, but I spent a lot of time on page layout, optimizing for print, etc.

5\. I took a stronger stance on zero being a natural number in an early draft. Now I just try to make it clear that it's the convention I choose. If it's good for Bourbaki, it's good for me.

Feel free to drop a note if you have more questions about the book. My email is not hard to find.

Happy holidays! Marty Weissman

<comment><USER3> I'm apprecticative of the amount of work and effort you put into the book. Please consider the self-learner and those that don't have access to solutions, a classmate, a TA, or a professor.

I know you probably don't want to expose solutions to the exercises so they can be used in a classroom, but for people like me, I don't want to create an online discussion to every problem I attempt just to check my work.

I prefer to read textbooks that have solutions, so I can know for sure my answers are correct.

I don't really buy the "you know when your solutions are correct". The beginner can easily fool themself into thinking their solutions are correct, when they aren't.

Due to that, I won't be buying your book.

<comment><USER2> That's cool -- you might like Underwood Dudley's book on Elementary Number Theory. It has a similar set of topics, and I think it has more exercises and contains some solutions. And it's inexpensive!

<comment><USER3> Thanks! I'll check that out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm submitting this beautiful book right now because the American Mathematical Society (AMS) is having a large sale, it's 40% off until the 17th. (You have to make an AMS account).

Table of contents (pdf): [https://bookstore.ams.org/mbk-105/~~FreeAttachments/mbk-105-...](https://bookstore.ams.org/mbk-105/~~FreeAttachments/mbk-105-toc.pdf)

Sample Chapter (pdf): [https://bookstore.ams.org/mbk-105/~~FreeAttachments/mbk-105-...](https://bookstore.ams.org/mbk-105/~~FreeAttachments/mbk-105-prev.pdf)

<comment><USER4> I presume you need to be a AMS member to get the discounted price? Creating an account with the bookstore doesn't seem to get you the sale price.

<comment><USER5> It did for me. Just click "Register" at the top of the checkout page.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > In some time past (long before 3000bce), a shepherd paired sheep and > pebbles: as the first sheep walked by, he placed down the first pebble; the > second sheep walked by and down went the second pebble. At the end of the > day, the number of pebbles placed down equaled the number of sheep that > walked past. Whether sheep and pebbles, or red dots and blue dots, equality > of numbers is defined by pairing off.

Good one.

<comment><USER7> More concisely: sets of numbers are equivalent if there exists a bijection between them.

EDIT: Oh, the sample chapter actually mentions this exact point in a footnote. I guess I can still be clever by saying, "Sets of numbers are equivalent if they're isomorphic." :)

</comment></comment><comment> alok-g Does the book discuss foundations of numbers? Peano's axioms, etc. It does not look like from the contents or the sample chapter.

<comment><USER2> Nope -- I didn't take an axiomatic approach, or give a set-theoretic construction of different sets of numbers. Instead, I take basic arithmetic and algebra and properties of real numbers as a starting point. I do dwell on things like division with remainder and prime decomposition.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks interesting. On the page I noticed a sale price of ~$41 in red text but upon checkout it is $69. I don't mind paying $69, but just want to confirm I'm not missing some opening sale.

<comment><USER5> Create an account by clicking "Register" at the top of the checkout page. You should then see the discounted price, at least until tomorrow (it seems the sale runs until then).

<comment><USER8> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> This looks great, but are solutions provided? Books like this are almost worthless for me to self-study since I don't have access to a classroom or professors and no way to check my solutions.

<comment><USER7> It's a nice book, but I wouldn't use it for study or as a textbook. And solutions are not provided as far as I can tell. I'm afraid you're going to have a difficult time finding books which contain solutions to their problems.

<comment><USER3> Thanks. I won't bother buying it then. Do you have any recommendations on good math books to work through on my own that have solutions floating online, so I can check my work? I'm looking for a theoretical math book to work through. Primarily looking for intro to proofs or algebra related books. But anything will do. I just want something proof-y aimed at beginners.

<comment><AUTHOR> Polya & Velleman are classics. They're about problem solving & proof writing techniques, but won't teach you any abstract math. I've only ever heard good things but i've actually never read them myself! Some other suggestions:

Niven - The Theory of Numbers. Contains hints for some of the proof based exercises, and answers for many of the computational exercises. I used it for my undergrad course, I remember it being reasonably beginner friendly.

Pressley - Elementary Differential Geometry. Has terse answers to _every_ exercise! The subject is a nice mixture of concrete and abstract, calculation and proofs, and there's some interesting work using differential geometry in CS via computational geometry. Also i think it's used in robotics and a few other things? This book is very beginner friendly, it will get you about 1/2 way to General Relativity.

<comment><USER3> The differential geometry book sounds awesome. Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> I should probably point out the prerequisites. You need to know basic multivariable calculus, and basic matrix algebra.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is there a full ebook available somewhere?

</comment><comment><USER10> Are there sample pages available?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sample Chapter (pdf): [https://bookstore.ams.org/mbk-105/~~FreeAttachments/mbk-105-...](https://bookstore.ams.org/mbk-105/~~FreeAttachments/mbk-105-prev.pdf)

<comment><USER11> _In this text, we declare: 0 is a natural number_

It's nice that they got that right, on the first page!

<comment><USER7> Eh, I think it's fair to consider the natural numbers as either the non- negative, nonzero integers or the non-negative integers. As long as an author declared which use they intend front and center, I don't think one or the other is more "right." Very established texts and papers alternate freely between including and not including 0.

<comment><USER11> As the author says, it's a matter of taste. The author's good taste is "right" in the same sense that e.g. 0-indexed arrays are "right": it avoids problems that not including zero causes. How many elements are in the empty set? Why shouldn't the natural numbers be able to answer that question?

<comment><USER10> What is 0 minus 1? Why isn't that a natural number? Why shouldn't the nth natural number be N?

The author's own book discusses the _1st_ prime, in chapter _0_ , which begins on page _1_. How is this natural?

 _Problem 0.4 Add the odd numbers between 1 and 30. " Why would you say 1 and 30 instead of 0 and 30, since 0 is natural?

Getting hung up on notation and arguing over conventions will hold you back from learning math.

Offsets (0) and ordinals (1) aree both useful in arrays. The only thing _wrong* is not saying which you mean.

[http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2013/10/22/citation- needed/](http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2013/10/22/citation-needed/)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Too Much Freedom Is Dangerous: Understanding IE 11 CVE-2015-2419 Exploitation - <AUTHOR> http://blog.checkpoint.com/2016/02/10/too-much-freedom-is-dangerous-understanding-ie-11-cve-2015-2419-exploitation/ <comment><AUTHOR> the entire history of this bug is fun:

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28114732/internet- explore...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28114732/internet- explorer-11-crashes-when-angulars-http-post-is-used-with-large-complex)

[http://www.h0wl.pl/2015/06/browsing-stackoverflowcom- for.htm...](http://www.h0wl.pl/2015/06/browsing-stackoverflowcom-for.html)

[https://twitter.com/yuhong2/status/620144615098744832](https://twitter.com/yuhong2/status/620144615098744832)

I wonder if this is what led to: [https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/srd/2016/01/12/triaging-...](https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/srd/2016/01/12/triaging- the-exploitability-of-ieedge-crashes/)</comment>


Forward Page Tables vs. Inverted Page Tables - <AUTHOR> http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/page_tables.html <comment><USER2> The whole point of inverted page tables is that when size(virtual mappings) >> size(physical memory), you can avoid eating up a lot of space with page tables. With an inverted page table, you only need one PTE per physical page, versus one PTE per virtual page.

The problem is that in practice you need to keep information about each virtual page anyway, or at least it's very convenient to be able to do so. For example, the Linux MM stores (or at least did last time I looked), uses the PTE to store the location of swapped-out pages. The UVM paper describes very thoroughly why it's useful to have per-virtual page state around: [https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/usenix99/full_papers/cra...](https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/usenix99/full_papers/cranor/cranor.pdf;) see also [http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~krj/os/lectures/L17-LinuxPaging....](http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~krj/os/lectures/L17-LinuxPaging.pdf).

<comment><USER3> The other point is that TLB misses can be satisfied with a single cache line fill.

Or that is the theory, as told to me by a big inverted page table advocate a couple of years before of Linus's comments.

Personally, I tend to favor Linus's perspective. Particularly because making an optimal decision about how large the page table hash is, turns out to be pretty hard to do at runtime. Changing the size is even harder. This means that you either waste a lot of unnecessarily memory on the inverted tables, or you tend to take excessive page table misses, and waste a lot more than 3 cache line fills satisfying them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > I even wrote my masters thesis on why it was done the way it was done (the > only actual academic use I ever got out of the whole Linux exercise ;)

Brilliant sound bite. I've always love academic work, however it does really account for a very small portion of actually creating something.</comment>


Offer HN: I'll build your iPhone App idea For $200 - <AUTHOR>

Email me at natasha at natashatherobot.com if you'd like me to build your iPhone app idea.
Why I'm doing this:
I recently learned iOS development and am looking to get more practice / build up my iOS portfolio outside my job.
Why $200? I'd like to work with people who are passionate enough to pay for their idea but might not be able to afford the actual price tag.
I currently have 2 apps in the App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shoplater/id664768597?ls=1&mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/alphavit/id668011464?ls=1&mt=8
How it works:
1. First in, first out: The sooner you email me, the sooner you get your app. I'll have a queuing system set up, so as soon as I'm done with the first app, I'll move on to the next.
2. Once I'm ready to start working on your app, we'll have a Skype call and keep in contact via email to clarify the requirements and figure out the business logic. Communication is key and I want to make sure you're happy with my work, so please be available to answer questions promptly while I'm building your app.
3. Payment: $100 up front, $100 on completion.
4. Design: If you have a design ready to go, I'll implement it. Otherwise I'll be using the native UI components. You'll need to provide the app store icon and loading screens.
5. Back-end: If you have an API to use, I'll use it. I can also use Parse, but you're responsible for paying for it. I'll also implement CoreData as necessary. If you need a more heavy back-end API component, you'll need to build it yourself.
6. You own the code, but I can blog about how specific features were implemented. You can see examples of my blog posts on natashatherobot.com.
7. I have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.
Let me know if you have any other questions, and I'll answer them in the comments. <comment><USER2> If you have the requisite skill to release two apps onto the App Store (both of yours look great, btw), you have enough skill to freelance at $100/hr.

I mention this because, as a nervous middle schooler who had fumbled around with Wordpress a few times, hosted a few sites for non-profits, but never did anything "big", I kept on telling myself "there has to be so much more to this, I need to get more experience, there's no way I'm worth more than minimum wage".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the encouragement. Right now I have a full time job as an iOS developer, so this is just something I'm doing more for fun than for the money. I'm currently in between ideas for my own apps, so working with others seems like fun.

<comment><USER3> Hey, me too. I have some really great ideas and I'm taking time off school and work for one year starting September once my work contract is over. I want to work on fun ideas for a year to gain as much experience as possible. My email is m at eveo dot org, send me a note and we'll talk?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hi Natasha, I've been casually reading your blog and I'm familiar with your CS106 repo on Github (sent a few friends there for help when they needed it ;-)). Just want to say that it's nice to see you getting yourself out there!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for reading my stuff :) The journey just gets more fun every day!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Natasha, if you get inundated with requests and need assistance, let me know (vega dot andrew at gmail dot com) and I can help you out with by taking care of one of those clients for you by honoring the same deal.

</comment><comment><USER6> Wow great offer! You really seem like a robot!

</comment><comment><USER7> Email sent. Hope to work with you.

</comment><comment><USER8> Awesome, thanks! EMail sent.

</comment><comment><USER9> if you need an api I can build one for you in rails for 200$. Emails : firstname.lastname@example.com firstname.lastname@example.com</comment>


Show HN: ReactiveSearch 3.0 – ElasticSearch UI Components - <AUTHOR> https://opensource.appbase.io/reactivesearch/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN,

ReactiveSearch is a UI components library for creating powerful search experiences. While we originally created it with React in mind, we have added components for Vue.JS and React Native.

This release is a major rewrite of the library for more extensible component rendering support and adds support for controlled components, state access and also comes with experimental support for voice search, search operators and GraphQL. Here are the release notes for 3.0 - [https://github.com/appbaseio/reactivesearch/releases/tag/v3....](https://github.com/appbaseio/reactivesearch/releases/tag/v3.0.0).</comment>


Scientists take strides towards entirely renewable energy - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2019-11-scientists-renewable-energy.html <comment><USER2> Paper: [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12994-w](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12994-w)

<comment><USER3> thanks

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Even better would be to use this to efficiently produce CH4. Now the entire natural gas power infrastructure becomes a giant battery.

<comment><USER5> You'd still need to capture/sequester the CO2, which to me sounds much harder (or else you're only solving the "renewable" part rather than the global warming part). Water is nice because it naturally precipitates out of the atmosphere and returns to oceans/lakes/etc.

<comment><USER4> CO2 + 2H2O + energy -> CH4 + 2O2

Discharging the battery is this reaction in reverse. It's net zero carbon. It's basically a rechargeable fuel air battery using incredibly abundant materials so it can scale.

<comment><USER6> For comparison, the efficiency of photosynthesis is something like 1% (probably 2% in C4) but the result is glucose instead of methane. Most organic reactions have a very low result, I'd be surprised if your reaction has more than a 10%. Most of the time the molecules have another opinion about how to combine and they don't produce what you want.

And there is also a problem with the combustion, in a gas turbine you have only an efficiency up to 65%. So it's a very ineffective battery.

<comment><USER7> > Most of the time the molecules have another opinion about how to combine and > they don't produce what you want.

For energy storage, this is, by definition, all of the time. The fact that the molecules have a different opinion of how they should combine is what gives potential energy to the form we produce in the first place.

<comment><USER6> My handwave chemistry is not strong enough to be sure, but I expect that this will form also a small amount of ethane (that is not a problem) and also some soot like goo that will clog the battery and be difficult to burn cleanly anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not an expert in the field but the source below already claims 80% efficiency in the large scale electrolysis of water, so with little room for improvement.

[https://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/07/20180728-tk.html](https://www.greencarcongress.com/2018/07/20180728-tk.html)

<comment><USER9> This research is to find cheaper catalyst for electrolysis. The efficiency is good with expensive catalysts, but the cost of the catalysts makes scaling up hard. They want to find cheaper catalysts so that the use of electrolysis to produce hydrogen can be increased.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It seems like they "just" created better tooling for searching for reaction catalysts, rather than actually found a good new catalyst.

Maybe this is a great stride; but it's difficult to tell from the article whether that's really the case or whether it's mostly fluff in a grad student's project. We'll know if/when they actually find something with it.

</comment><comment><USER11> My understanding is that a key reason cheap electrolysis is important is that the hydrogen it produces can be substituted for fossil fuels in many industrial processes, thereby eliminating an important source of co2 emissions.

</comment><comment><USER12> This century will be defined by flipping competition upside down to a race for efficiency and not power increase.

<comment><USER13> They could call this new efficiency savings negawatts ? maybe write a book about it called "Reinventing Fire" .. could be big

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> would be nice to have a link to the paper. Anyone?</comment>


Business people spend an average 28% of their work week in email - <AUTHOR> http://attentiv.com/email-takes-time/ <comment><USER2> crap article</comment>


Air New Zealand Flight 901 - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_New_Zealand_Flight_901 <comment><USER2> It's a shocking story of a major communications screw-up and the resulting corporate cover-up. Probably the most interesting airline disaster in history.

There's a good documentary film about the accident, the cover-up, and the resulting court inquiry, called Erebus: The Aftermath.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erebus:_The_Aftermath](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erebus:_The_Aftermath)</comment>


My Problem with Email Logins - <AUTHOR> https://jlelse.blog/thoughts/2019/12/email-login/ <comment><USER2> Passwordless logins through email should be an option, not the only method.</comment>


Cool alternative to Material Design - <AUTHOR> http://www.carbondesignsystem.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> A design system from IBM. They should consider merging it with 'IBM Design Language' ([https://www.ibm.com/design/language/](https://www.ibm.com/design/language/)) though.</comment>


Drought Has Revealed Spain's Long-Submerged 'Stonehenge' - <AUTHOR> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/spanish-stonehenge-drought <comment><USER2> "7,000-year-old Dolmen of Guadalperal"

"While the Dolmen of Guadalperal has widely been compared to Stonehenge—and rightly so—the Spanish example was once an entirely enclosed space. And it could also be around 2,000 years older."

kind of dovetails to [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this- britain/celts-des...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this- britain/celts-descended-from-spanish-fishermen-study-finds-416727.html)

" A team from Oxford University has discovered that the Celts, Britain's indigenous people, are descended from a tribe of Iberian fishermen who crossed the Bay of Biscay 6,000 years ago."

<comment><USER3> Of course you contradict yourself, the Celts cannot be Britain's indigenous people according to the article itself.

There were movements of people, and movements of culture, which could be separate, but Celts are late Indo-European arrivals to the British Isles, either directly from the Celtic heartland in Germany, or indirectly along the western coasts from Spain.

The Celts just happened to be the culture in place when the first accounts were written by the Greeks and Romans. So they have self-appointed themselves to be poor down-trodden invaded brutalized indigenous people - but they were just the previous wave of ruthless invaders!

There were people in the British Isles 10s and 100s of thousands of years ago. Britain was wiped clean by ice ages and repopulated. Britain was connected to Europe by a land bridge, _etc. etc._ All this long before the Celts turned up.

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

There is no Celtic presence in Britain before about 500 BC. Stonehenge and Guadalperal are much, much too old to have been built by the Celts. _Celtic druids did not build Stonehenge._

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wish more people saw how fragile our grasp on the past is -- and how much we still don't understand about our emergence at a basic, basic level...

<comment><USER5> I wish society as a whole had a better memory. Even events from 4 years ago are lost easily from the collective mindset.

<comment><USER6> Can you give an example of an important event in 2015 that has been lost in the collective consciousness?

<comment><USER7> Disclaimer: I cheated by googling, but that's the point - I forgot about these events because they were no longer in the collective consciousness.

Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris - dunno what happened with this. Overshadowed by: Paris terrorist attack on stadium and club - 130 people died Charleston Church shooting - Replaced by more shootings that happened afterwards (in that year alone: Roseburg, Lafayette, Chattanooga, Planned Parenthood, San Bernardino). Thoughts, prayers, and calls for gun control even if neither of those fix the underlying issues. European Refugee crisis - Agreements with Turkey and Libya have turned this 'crisis' around, but, more boats are arriving in Greece lately.

Just a few examples I blatantly copied off of a website. Nobody talks about these things anymore because Trump used a sharpie.

<comment><USER5> US presidential history is seemingly rich of examples. Not holding myself to the 4 year framing:

All the accusations Bush 43 made against the democrats for being Russian- leaning communists contradicts today's politics badly.

The stimulus checks to stabilize the economy during descent into the Great Recession.

The interruption of Pres Obamas first state of the union. Just how abnormal that was seems to have simultaneously led to today's lack of governmental progress and yet been not just forgiven but embraced and promulgated.

<comment><USER8> > _All the accusations Bush 43 made against the democrats for being Russian- > leaning communists_

I don't recall Bush 43 accusing Democrats of being "Russian-leaning communists" even one single time, let alone so often you could talk about "all" the times he did it. I loathed nearly everything about Bush 43 and his administration, but can you cite an example or two (more would be better) where this actually happened?

I don't know if it's my memory that's faulty or yours, but you're the one lamenting our poor memory of recent events and I don't believe these particular recent events even happened.

<comment><USER5> I think it was during press briefings. Particularly when he would discuss the previous administration or working "across the isle."

<comment><USER9> how about linking to a cspan recording, or an archived news article, or perhaps even the presidential archives and actually providing evidence instead of just more anecdotes that you "think" happened.

<comment><USER10> Here is an NPR article [1] summarizing US-Russia relations during the GWB era, and describing GWB's attacks during his first campaign, on Bill Clinton for being too chummy with Russia... I think it would be fair to say this represented a general feeling on the right (around the early 2000s), that Democrats under Clinton had been too friendly with Russia (since GWB was able to make this into a campaign issue):

> At the time, George W. Bush was campaigning for the presidency, lambasting > President Clinton's chummy relationship with Russian President Boris > Yeltsin. Bush promised to end personal favoritism and protect American > national security. Taking office the following year, he began by expelling > 50 Russian diplomats from Washington for alleged spying. Defense Secretary > Donald Rumsfeld snubbed the Russian defense minister soon after by refusing > to meet him on the sidelines of a NATO conference.

[1] [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114736...](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11473661)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Obermier, who discovered and preserved this site did fantastic work at the the cave of Altamira in the 1920's. He deserves more credit. His work at the Dolmen of Guadalperal wasn't even known about until 40 years later.

</comment><comment><USER12> We (Spain) have a similar story but with a more recent church:

[https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sant-roma-de- sau](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sant-roma-de-sau)

<comment><USER13> In the Western Cape in South Africa ours is not quite as dramatic but grape vines from farm that was active 35 years ago became visible during the recent drought. The vines and farm usually submerged.

[https://www.traveller24.com/Explore/watch-ghostly- vineyard-h...](https://www.traveller24.com/Explore/watch-ghostly-vineyard- hidden-beneath-the-theewaterskloof-dam-20170603)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Wow!

I have to say, I am totally with the zeitgeist in terms of recent interest in the early neolithic and late paleolithic. These are fascinating to me. It's particularly fascinating how widespread (both time and place) the motifs are, structural and functional/symbolic. Celestial-solar calendars. There are similarities to British henges and Irish granges. I'm sure there are (the

BTB...Are they really going to re-submerge this site (or move it)?!! It seems insane.

<comment><USER15> I didn't know the interest in neolithic is also a Zeitgeist phenomen. I mean, I am interested and my circle of people, but is it really more widespread?

<comment><USER14> ..maybe not lady gaga level zeitgeist.. nonfiction book sales and such.

<comment><USER15> Do you maybe have some recommendations about good books on the topic?

(english or german)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's really a shame that we are destroying or have destroyed so many sites like these for (relatively) short sighted dam building.

<comment><USER17> Pretty much any place you build in Europe, you would have to disturb a historical site. We can abandon the earth to its past, or move on. As population grows, we don't have much choice?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> they look like the proposals for ominous landmarks of radioactive waste burial sites, which makes zero sense of course!

<comment><USER7> Yeah I've seen numerous links to that pointed to from HN over time. The problem with all of those proposals is that to an ignorant archeologist from, say, a hundred years ago, any visible sign, warning or construction will only pique the curiosity. I mean Tutankhamun's tomb had plenty of warnings inscribed on it, but they were dismissed as silly curses and there's no such thing as curses. The same will happen with nuclear storage sites that are 'protected' like that.

Better to put it away very deep, where erosion and tectonic shifts won't expose it for a million years and just forget about it. I read something about putting it in deep boreholes the other day.

<comment><USER17> There was a discussion of how to permanently (100.000 years or more) mark a dangerous site. Creative solutions abounded. I like the one where it kills you quickly, so it stays obvious that the site is dangerous. Better than killing thousands slowly over many years!</comment></comment></comment>


SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal from Deep Space - <AUTHOR> http://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-drill-seti-is-investigating-a-possible-extraterrestrial-signal-from-deep-space/#.V8SEYIMksgY.facebook <comment><USER2> FYI: "«Baffling» «signal» «from HD 164595» is probably none of the above."

[http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?nowrap=true&...](http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?nowrap=true&id=80193)

</comment><comment><USER3> It would be the ultimate prank if someone could fake such a signal :)

</comment><comment><USER4> What if the signal is not artificial?

<comment><USER3> This is the most probable case. No real claim here on the artificial nature. I think the key thing is in this quote:

> "Basically, if the signal was beamed out into the galaxy without aim or > direction, that would require an enormous amount of power to actually be > detected."

So there's too much energy involved, hence it might be artificial.

What I don't see anywhere is details about the signal, but that's probably what they going to announce on September 27. Sigh, that's a long time to wait.

<comment><USER4> That seems plausible</comment></comment></comment>


Make a RogueLike game in 7 days, 2011 7DRL challenge - <AUTHOR> http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.development/browse_thread/thread/924204b3b910be48

<comment><USER2> The time has almost come! Gather all your strengths and build a roguelike, be it your first one or your next one.

A good roguelike is an expression of pure gameplay: as a developer you can turn your ideas into games for the people to enjoy, without the constraints of 3d modeling or expensive graphics creation.

Developing a roguelike also allows you to portrait a theme within the limitations of abstract or simple gfx output, but having imagination as a tool to recreate infinite environments and stories

Summon your indie gamedev friends, be they roguedevs or not for this, the annual roguelike development party!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you're not familar with the genre: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike>

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great fun. Had a record turnout last year -- almost not enough time to play them all!</comment>


Nordic Ice Skating on Thin, Black Ice in Sweden Is an Art and a Science - <AUTHOR> https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/activities/winter-sports/skating-thin-black-ice-creates-sound-nordic-spd/ <comment><USER2> Here is the video without the very slow site: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3O9vNi- dkA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3O9vNi-dkA)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here is what happens, when he falls through ice:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px5uQuRT3EE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px5uQuRT3EE)

<comment><USER3> Wasn't he looking? That thin patch was really obvious.

<comment><USER4> If you want to be safe, you need to intentionally fall in a lot in order to practice getting out.

Generally true of all dangerous activities. This is the purpose of "play" you practice dangerous things in relatively safe, intentional "silly" space, so when you have an actual leopard trying to eat you, you're not trying newbie stuff for the first time.

<comment><USER3> You make a good point, but I had a laugh picturing him going "alright, managed to get out of the ice safely. I am 100% ready for leopard attacks."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> PSA: Never go to thin ice, or ice of unknown thickness, without company, ice picks or claws [1], and a plan for how to get to warmth after a water excursion. Remember that ice strength and thickness depend on multiple factors and may vary rapidly from one spot to another. Make sure you know how to get out of water should you fall in, and how to safely assist a companion if they do.

[1] [http://lakeice.squarespace.com/ice- claws/](http://lakeice.squarespace.com/ice-claws/)

<comment><USER6> A special note should be dedicated to river ice. The running water can pull one under the ice, which is very dangerous.

<comment><USER7> And ice is thinner where there is running water.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's a bit weird seeing this now, since we're currently experiencing a heat wave here in Sweden that's been going on for about two months now. It's around 30 degrees C and very little rain, so farmers have to send their cattle to early slaughter since there's no food for them. The water supplies are really low, and trees and grass have turned yellow.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, inside the forests it is dry and one can really see how some plants are struggling. It is a dry heat, barely any moisture at all. Today it was near +30 C. The ground with pine/spruce needles and moss smells fantastic though, something resembling warm cinnamon.

When one encounters a field or an opening with grass, it is more likely than not burnt, yellowish ferns are a norm rather than an exception at this time of the year, and ditches which used to have a stream of water are barren.

If the upcoming winter is dry without much snow, the ground water levels won't be replenished and, with the lack of rain, next year will be worse.

The high heat creates local thunders with apparently do not carry much rainfall. Lightning strikes seem to have started at least a few of this years forest fires.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Searching youtube for ice skating on black ice led me to apetor a while ago - one of the few channels I subscribe to. There's something strangely soothing about how goofy this guy is.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Q2jwEX11U&list=PL73A6AD7F0...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Q2jwEX11U&list=PL73A6AD7F0D222DC6)

</comment><comment><USER11> What makes it safe is the assumption that when you fall, it's not a big deal when you are prepared.

If you have been swimming in ice-water, you already know that you survive several minutes without a problem. Ice claws hanging from a neck strap make it easy to crawl into safety. You have dry clothes in watertight container in you backpack if you are far away from warmth, of course.

<comment><USER12> I was curious about ice claws and found this informative: [http://lakeice.squarespace.com/ice- claws/](http://lakeice.squarespace.com/ice-claws/)

Edit: and if I'd read a few comments down I'd have found this without Google.

<comment><USER13> I was expecting something fancy compared to the barn spikes I carry on the ice with a name like ice claws, but nope they are basically the same damn thing.

<comment><USER14> Better handles for manipulating with cold numb hands seems like an important feature.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm fascinated by the description "laser-like" for this sound. Does this touch on a broader synaesthetic phenomenon or it based on the historical sci-fi presentation of laser/phaser guns? I suspect the latter.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the first use of that sound was in War Of The Worlds in 1953, they didn't even had lasers at the time :) I couldn't find any explanation, how they arrived at the sound (it's supposedly just electric guitar + reverberation).

[https://youtu.be/G5H4yK_tiGI?t=116](https://youtu.be/G5H4yK_tiGI?t=116)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's very popular in Sweden really, it has had the right kind of lakes and climate to often produce the conditions for it.

There's nothing "wild" about this, not more than taking a run in an actual forest.

<comment><USER5> There's also "wild swimming" [1], swimming in natural waters. From a Nordic perspective there's little "wild" to it but apparently it can be an exotic experience in other countries. I wouldn't be surprised if "wild running" was a thing somewhere, after all in many places like England finding an actual forest to run in can be highly nontrivial.

[1] [http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/](http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/)

<comment><USER17> I don't understand, is there a way to assume you would swim in something that's not natural?

For me, in Brazil, surrounded by waterfalls and beaches it's not only common but also necessary for you to relax sometimes.

<comment><USER5> I think in the UK both waterfalls and beaches are in short supply.

<comment><USER18> There's quite a few beaches in the UK, [https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south- east-england/](https://www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south-east-england/).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Mesmerizing video! A mathematician exercising predictive control over thin ice brings to mind Kislowski's wonderful Dekalog 1 ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekalog:_One](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekalog:_One)), which is my favorite among the set of ten.

</comment><comment><USER20> There seems to be a rule of thumb for black ice strength: kilograms = centimeters squared times 5. Seems to jibe with recommendations for a 80 kg walker (4 cm), 2000 kg car (20 cm) or big 48 ton truck (1 meter).

</comment><comment><USER21> With less and less snow hitting the Sierra early in the winter season the lakes stay snow free longer with good ice. I've seen people out skating, particularly on the drier and colder Eastern Side. I think I'll try and go skating up near Carson pass this winter, maybe hike out to Winnemucca lake if I want to carry some skates in. Should be a nice change from hiking before snowshoe/ski season starts.

</comment><comment><USER22> I did some of this at Hellasgården, Stockholm in January this year. The rising sun makes for a spooky video: [https://youtu.be/WdmCIC2Hoks](https://youtu.be/WdmCIC2Hoks)

After learning more about this, I would only go with other people now.

Bonus video: [https://youtu.be/eGdvQVoQOUQ](https://youtu.be/eGdvQVoQOUQ)

</comment><comment><USER23> The current title here is "Nordic Ice Skating on Thin, Black Ice in Sweden Is an Art and a Science". The NatGeo title doesn't currently have "Nordic Ice" at the beginning, and it doesn't seem to parse (at least, not without a colon: "Nordic Ice:" or so). Is it really supposed to be there?

</comment><comment><USER20> If there is no ice on the lake, how about water motocross. With a dirt bike, not an aquabike/waterjet. [https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10298809](https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10298809) (finnish text).

</comment><comment><USER24> I love that "Trygg" literally means "safe" in Swedish. :)

Epic aptonym.

</comment><comment><USER25> I live in Zürich and just met a gentleman who goes to Sweden and Russia every winter to skate on frozen lakes. I had never heard of this, but was fascinated by his videos, pictures, and stories.

</comment><comment><USER26> 45mm isn't that thin, is it? As a kid, I always learned that ice had to be at least 5 cm thick. This is only half a cm less.

<comment><USER5> It leaves you with perilously little error margin though. You have to be very aware of spots of potentially weaker ice, like places with water currents. With such a small surface area, skates also create a much greater pressure against the ice than shoes, though I'm not sure how exactly that affects the dynamics in practice.

<comment><USER26> We wore skates too, obviously. Weak spots were generally recognisable by there being no ice at all, and we kept a safe distance from such spots.

A quick search turned up these guidelines for ice: [http://www.natuurijswijzer.nl/ijsontwikkeling/ijsdikte/](http://www.natuurijswijzer.nl/ijsontwikkeling/ijsdikte/)

Is says:

      0-4 cm: unsafe
      4-8 cm: strong enough for a single skater
      8-12 cm: suitable for larger numbers
      12-15 cm: time for the Elfstedentocht (a 200km skate marathon; we haven't had one in 20 years)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Careful, the website hijacks the back button (at least on my mobile device. iPhone 7Plus.) One of the most infuriating design anti-patterns.</comment>


16 year old iOS developer makes Look - <AUTHOR>

Look is a social networking app that lets you share anything from vines to CNN articles (as URLs) with friends and then group message (no notifications) about it.
https://itunes.apple.com/app/id814866062
Story: I always find cool things on the internet, from a cool new app to a funny vine, and want to share it with my friends. Okay simple, just text the link to them right? But its not that simple. This method of sharing things is so unorthodox because when the user clicks the link, it open safari, you have to go back to iMessage to continue the discussion, group messaging notifications get annoying, etc.
So that's when I came up with Look. I wanted to make sharing cool things... cool. And after 2 long months of development (and 1 month of waiting for Apple to approve it), I've finally done it.
So what exactly is Look? Well, you add/invite friends, then you can share 'looks' with them. These 'looks' can be links or images and they have a post title. Recipients can then group message about the "cool thing" and favorite it to hold on to it.
I really believe this app makes a break through in social networking, at least for someone like me (teen nerd/tech obsessed.) And that's why I believe in Look, because I know it's something I use, it's something my friends use.
I applied for Y Combinator, so my fingers are crossed, I really hope they see what I see in Look.
What do you think? <comment><USER2> Looking forward to other cool things you make in the future. Glad to see young devs!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, you can see the rest of my apps here: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/rizwan- malik/id687592255](https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/rizwan- malik/id687592255)</comment></comment>


Proof that Telstra Bigpond is Throttling Youtube Bandwidth in Australia (video) - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iDRynyBl0c#t=4m49s

<comment><USER2> We've found that telstra throttles all kinds of things on the way into and out of Australia. So much so that a simple openvpn tunnel between our rack there and our rack in NJ (USA) makes just about everything better.

</comment><comment><USER3> Ouch, I feel for Australians. Even the best numbers there are pretty low, and the lowest ones (Telstra's, it seems) are atrocious.

For comparison, here's mine: <http://ss.corecursion.com/myspeed-20100509-142516.png>

<comment><USER4> Who do you have for your ISP, if you don't mind me asking? Here's Telus (25Mb fiber): [http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/349/chartchxtx2cychds3auw...](http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/349/chartchxtx2cychds3auwz1.png)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Remember, these are averaged numbers.

The Australian broadband market is highly segmented according to speed. Until quite recently Telstra Bigpond was offering a 256Kbit connection labelled 'ADSL broadband' with 512Kbit and 1.5Mbit connections priced significantly higher. The idea of an 8Mbit or 20Mbit connection would be almost science fiction to their traditional customer base.

Now that FTTH is coming into play in some areas and Bigpond's market share is dropping, higher speeds are becoming more affordable but there are still a lot of people on those lower speed plans. I suspect this is what is skewing the graph labelled 'ISP', more than any selective throttling by the ISP (though I certainly wouldn't put that past them either).

The comparison to other ISPs is not entirely fair either because their customers tend to be clustered in areas where the ISPs have their own hardware in Telstra's exchanges and can therefore offer higher speeds and attractive pricing. Elsewhere in the country, Bigpond and lower speeds are both much more prevalent.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is shocking. Let's hope this gets some media attention.

</comment><comment><USER7> 4.29 Mbps average, in melbourne, significantly higher than all the other rates (including my ISP, iinet). It bursts up to 8 Mbps. It's probably because I'm very close to the exchange (I checked before I moved).

FWIW, it has made no impact on my life satisfaction whatsoever. People rave about highspeed internet, esp in Japan; it sounds cool, but the applications aren't there yet (not for me, anyway). I'd appreciate lower latency, though, for games.

<comment><USER8> If you look at future applications , there isn't a big benefit from higher bandwidth.

For video , 720p takes 2mbit(youtube's 720p) , and the difference between 720p to 1080p isn't very big.if we go to 3D , it might be doubled , but with smart compression , might be less.

For video conferencing , the compression is much more effective because of the small frame to frame changes, so i think you can get 1080p at 2mbit up + 2mbit down.if i recall right , in the right setting , 1080p is needed to give you the illusion of being in the same room.

For bit-torrent,to make streaming possible(i think streaming is the most natural way of video consumption), probably what is needed is higher uploads ,and configuration such that uploading doesn't slow the download side , not a higher download bandwidth.

For video game streaming(onlive.com) , what's important is the latency . i believe the speed is good enough.

The other future application of fast bandwidth is using cloud storage as your HDD. not a very attractive application if you ask me. dropbox is good enough.

So i don't see anything in the horizon requiring very high bandwidth internet for the home. 10-15 down / 4 up would be more than enough for any average family.

<comment><USER7> "640K is enough for anyone" (misquote). When there's an excess of computing power of some kind, it may make possible that was previously inconceivable. And if you're the one to conceive and act on it...

An easy one is 3D video (1080p x 2); but I like the idea of omni-video, on a spherical screen with you at the center (or like omniMax, like iMax, but hemispherical so it also covers your peripheral vision - I've experienced it, and the effect is amazing).

Thought expt: what data is inconceivably massive to transmit?

<comment><USER9> Humans have physically limited sensory bandwidth. Your ears, eyes, nose, etc. can't process more than a limited amount.

So higher bandwidth can help move some processing about and make different architectures possible, but they can't make the experience much richer.

<comment><USER7> Interesting point, but the thing about eyes is that they can look in unpredicted directions, so you need much more data available than just what the eye can process.

This wouldn't be true if we didn't have lag (then we could just stream the right images for where the eye was looking). But our eyes are extremely sensitive to lag - even done 100% locally, it's difficult to be fast enough (or used to be).

To compensate, we can download a whole environment, and track the eyes locally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Telstra's subsidiary in New Zealand was also at the bottom of all rankings, but this week they installed the Google cache boxes to mask the issue.

YouTube now hits 3-5Mbps for me. At start of playback it appears to burst a chunk of video, and as it gets close to needing to buffer, it bursts another chunk.

Maybe the Australian parent should look into it, it helps a lot.

I can actually watch 720p and higher without having to pause and come back in 10 minutes.

<comment><USER11> Gut instinct is that's unlikely to be caused by anything that a cache box can fix as international connectivity isn't as big of an issue on this side of the pond¹.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Australia...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Australia#International)

[http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3435625/Top-business- figures...](http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3435625/Top-business-figures-in- bold-broadband-bid)

¹ I'm not saying international connectivity is great in Australia, just that it's a lot better than what the Kiwis have.

<comment><USER10> Good to know as I'm planning on crossing the ditch soon :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> While I don't agree with the tactic, it is actually a very clever way of reducing bandwidth usage by Telstra. Most youtube videos stream fine at 1Mb/s. I'd guess that a lot of youtube clips are closed before they are over and any buffered data is "wasted".

<comment><USER13> But Google does a lot of trafic shaping as well: If you Wget a video, you see the first bytes stream in really quickly, after which the speed goes down. No need for your ISP to do this as well. I assume Google tweaks it so your buffer doesn't get empty, but also not too full: if you decide the close the video, the buffer is wasted (which, on Youtube's scale, is a LOT of data).

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Have you ever met anybody with a more agitating tone in his voice?

<comment><USER15> That's your only comment? My voice and accent is what it is. If you want the technical details, it's called a High Rising Terminal. Show us YOUR video blog and we'll all pass judgment on you. Dave.

<comment><USER16> Just wanted to say, thanks for the work you've put into EEVblog. I stumbled upon it while looking for info about the Rigol scope and have been following your stuff ever since. Keep up the good work.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: TurboRLE – Turbo Run Length Encoding using SIMD - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/powturbo/TurboRLE <comment><USER2> For anyone else who didn't know:

> Run-length encoding (RLE) is a very simple form of lossless data compression > in which runs of data (that is, sequences in which the same data value > occurs in many consecutive data elements) are stored as a single data value > and count, rather than as the original run. This is most useful on data that > contains many such runs. Consider, for example, simple graphic images such > as icons, line drawings, and animations. It is not useful with files that > don't have many runs as it could greatly increase the file size.

> RLE may also be used to refer to an early graphics file format supported by > CompuServe for compressing black and white images, but was widely supplanted > by their later Graphics Interchange Format. RLE also refers to a little-used > image format in Windows 3.x, with the extension rle, which is a Run Length > Encoded Bitmap, used to compress the Windows 3.x startup screen.

> Typical applications of this encoding are when the source information > comprises long substrings of the same character or binary digit.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run- length_encoding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_encoding)

</comment><comment><USER3> Hi powturbo! Seeing as these benchmarks are for Sandy Bridge, I thought it would be interested to see how the numbers changed for Haswell and Skylake. I couldn't immediately figure out how to replicate the benchmark, though. Could you give (or point to) some explicit directions on the steps to follow? Thanks.

<comment><AUTHOR> hi Nathan, glad you want to benchmark TurboRLE on Haswell and Skylake. Well, it is very simple: 1- download the lkatest TurboRLE from github 2- cd TurboRLE 3- make 4- ./trle file

The enwik9bwt must be generated. The two other files can be directly downloaded. You must also download rle64 if you want to use test it.

The better option is to use TurboBench: [https://github.com/powturbo/TurboBench](https://github.com/powturbo/TurboBench)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Where is RLE encoding used _a lot_ nowadays? Or is this code mostly an academic exercise?

<comment><USER5> OK, a couple people posted examples. But wouldn't all of these get better compression out of an extremely low compression level gzip or something?

<comment><USER6> RCT was handwritten in Assembler, which is probably one of the reasons for using something so simple as RLE.

<comment><USER5> Ah yes of course that makes sense.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


3-SAT in polynomial time, or P=NP - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1658

<comment><USER2> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3097684>

...same entry, [deleted] but with a little discussion.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I looked for other entries but couldn't find them. Interesting discussion

<comment><USER2> You're welcome. Got it using the RSS feed. Have you checked the FAQ on the "showdead" option in your profile?

      In my profile, what does showdead do?

      If you turn it on, you'll see all the submissions and comments that have been killed by the editors. They're mostly spam and duplicates.</comment></comment></comment>


Intel's Haskell Concurrent Collections: on scaling to 32 and 48 cores - <AUTHOR> http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2010/06/24/haskell-cnc-new-paper-available-tests-on-32-and-48-cores/

<comment><USER2> Intel must be quite concerned that it's latest chips, while just grand for web serving and other concurrent-but-primarily-isolated use cases, don't do much for my mom and dad compared to those of a couple years ago. So, I can see why they're putting so much effort into parallel computing research, open source, etc. But, the world has a long, long way to go before I can tell my dad that he would really benefit from an eight core processor. Maybe Intel has also concluded that the desktop computer as we know it is in the twilight of its existence in people's homes?

I don't play games, so I can't answer this question.... Do gamers benefit from eight cores? I think Photoshop does a reasonable job of parallelizing compute- intensive stuff, so the graphics crowd would benefit from an I7. CAD users, etc. of course. Is the PC soon to be a niche product?

<comment><USER3> A lot of vendors have been predicting that we are going to start having more virtual desktops, in the home, not just the office. All mom or dad would need is a monitor, keyboard, Internet connection, and a small box that never has to be upgraded. While in the backend you could be moved to different hardware in the middle of the day and not even know it. When this happens and people trust it, you pay 15$ a month for a "computer service," have a lower chance of failure, and improved features to make computing even easier for the general mass.

The personal computer would be a niche then. But, it is a niche now, isn't it? Tons of companies are using virtual desktops. (Not to mention that a "PC" at work isn't really a PC most of the time since you can't do whatever you want with it. Hence 'workstation' ?) How many more are using laptops? How many others only need to use their smartphone? iPad? Even just your TV?

<comment><USER4> Everything old is new again?

My high school ran on that well over a decade ago. I hope they have it right this time as it was pretty nasty back then. The biggest problem was when it broke none of the school IT staff could fix it so it would be down for a day or two while they waited on someone to come out and fix it.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Yojata – Earn Money with Your Digital Footprint - <AUTHOR> http://www.yojata.com <comment><USER2> So it's spyware then?

This is hardly a new development.</comment>