For San Francisco Cab Drivers, Once-Treasured Medallions Now a Burden - <AUTHOR> http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/09/24/for-san-francisco-cab-drivers-once-treasured-medallions-now-a-burden <comment><USER3> This is an especially poignant story, and it's hard to not feel bad for this driver.

On the other hand, people face investment risk all the time, i.e. when franchising a restaurant. When Chipotle or whoever comes in and devours the fast food market, I wonder if the local struggling burger franchisee asks the city for help?

I can't speak on behalf of other cities, but anyone who has lived in SF pre- Uber has no shortage of nightmare stories from taking cabs. For people who had to wait years and pay enormous costs for their medallions, many taxi drivers acted smug, entitled, rude, and sometimes even downright shady. I know you can't say this about _every_ taxi driver, but there's no doubt that the current ecosystem treats the consumer many orders of magnitude better.

<comment><USER4> People face investment risk all the time, but medallions are a case of a city setting explicit expectations when selling the medallions and then changing the terms of the deal post facto. Chipotle devoured a huge chunk of the fast food market, but the city didn't collect money from McDonalds for a guarantee that Chipotle wouldn't be allowed to enter.

Notably, this is illegal by federal law for auto manufacturers and other franchisors: if you promise a 25-mile exclusivity radius and get a franchisee to build a dealership, you cannot renege on that without being liable for damages. Interestingly, it's auto manufacturers who lobbied for these laws, wanting to kickstart a dealership ecosystem and knowing that franchisees would not invest money in building and marketing dealerships if they did not have suitable protections. Taxi drivers are a form of franchisee, and they are asking for similar protections.

One possible solution is for the city to buy back all the extant medallions at some fixed price, do away with the system, and finance the purchase with an excise tax on all types of transportation going forward, whether rideshares, taxis, etc. You can imagine how Uber feels about that, and how they can mobilize their vast PR capabilities against such a concept.

<comment><USER5> Hold on -- there's a big difference between "the government reneged on its promise to keep squatters off your land" vs "no one wants your land anymore". If they start turning a blind eye to squatters, it's fair to criticize that government for reneging. If the other city becomes such a vibrant spot that no one wants to live near you -- different story entirely.

While local governments are arguably failing to require newer livery services like Uber and Lyft to meet e.g. higher insurance requirements, they are _not_ reneging on the medallion promise, which still gives holders the exclusive right to pick up street hails. That right is still enforced, and the Uber/Lyfts of the world are not infringing on it. The situation is much closer to "street hail pickup rights aren't valuable anymore" than "governments enable encroachment on the right to pick up street hails".

And before you dismiss "arranged hire" (livery) vs "street hail" as a technicality, there are very good reasons to put a cap on the latter but not the former (and otherwise subject the latter to harsher regulation):

\- By necessity, street hails require clogging of "Schelling points" where drivers can expect to get line-of-sight to a potential fare, and vice versa. That doesn't happen with livery, where they go only where requested, not significantly different from a private car.

\- Street hails create a risk of fighting over fairs, livery doesn't.

\- Street hails enable you to pressure naive passersby/tourists to take your rate, livery requires you to ask for the fare from a central service.

\- Medallion holders get use of the scarce privileges to use taxi stands and bus-only lanes, livery doesn't.

\- Livery creates a central, auditable record of the event, while street hails can rip you off without showing up on an audit.

To be sure, Uber/Lyft _are_ flouting even some of the requirements of livery services ... but the medallion case looks more like "street hails are becoming obsolete in the information age, so of course they'll lose value".

<comment><USER6> Everything you say is technically correct, but when something has been valuable for a _very_ long time _primarily due to government regulation only_ , and then it suddenly loses most of its value in the span of just a few years, I don't think it's fair for people who _just recently entered the market after years of waiting_ to suffer all the loss (while their predecessors, purely by chance, made their investment back many times over). At the very least this loss should be spread around in some way - Uber and Lyft drivers could bear some of the load, recent purchasers of medallions could be bumped to the front of the sales line, etc. Many different options.

I don't want to live in a society where government regulation leads to financial disaster for individuals, and the society and government response is "tough luck".

<comment><USER7> That is really no different from any other investment. If you buy a house, you are relying on the government to uphold your property rights, otherwise anyone could come in and take it over. Let's say you buy a house in SF, hoping for a steady income from rent. Let's say people finally manage to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and the tech industry moves to Utah. You're going to lose a lot of money, and the government is under no obligation to make you whole.

I cannot live in a society where profits get concentrated when things go well and losses get spread around when things don't, because that is not a sustainable society.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This isn't unique to San Francisco, the entire industry is in a free fall nationwide... It is incredible to watch the effects of a little innovation and (effectively) deregulation.

Chicaco: "Once a sure bet, taxi medallions becoming unsellable" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9564478](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9564478) [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/17/taxi- medallion...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/05/17/taxi-medallion- values-decline-uber-rideshare/27314735/)

New York: "New York City Taxi Medallion Prices Keep Falling" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856231](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8856231) [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/upshot/new-york-city- taxi-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/08/upshot/new-york-city-taxi- medallion-prices-keep-falling-now-down-about-25-percent.html)

Philadelphia: "Philly medallions fetch less than 17% of asking price" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9528301](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9528301) [http://observer.com/2015/05/the-taxi-industry-is-in-total- co...](http://observer.com/2015/05/the-taxi-industry-is-in-total-collapse/)

<comment><USER9> Don't forget that the "innovator" is operating illegally in many jurisdictions and is actively trying to buy protection (i.e., lobbying).

<comment><USER10> In Toronto, it _feels_ like the entire public is on Uber's side. But that could be good PR as well, since I can only poll my circle of friend-users.

<comment><USER11> Good PR or superior product + service?

<comment><USER10> Possibly all 3. Venture capital can buy a lot of things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I had a great professor who specialized in (Economics of) Public Utilities who made a very important distinction about types of regulation; of which, he said there are essentially two: economic and "safety and soundness." He said, about them, economic regulation is strictly* bad. Safety and soundness, is always* good. Make sure you know which type a regulation is, e.g. Many financial regulations are for safety and soundness of "the markets"; not economic.

In this case, I think it's key point out, the pain felt is due to economic regulation. Which was/is putting up barriers for entering and exiting the market. The government removed competition, it raised prices, and was generally bad (I.e. State santioned monoplies). When innovation, and change, eventually moved around those economic barriers it was bad for those protected by 'em.

I hope going forward any regulations are strictly safety and soundness related with taxi service. It'll save a lot of pain on all sides.

* If you've taken enough Econ, you'll know strictly and always are going "depend on ..."

<comment><USER13> Of course, you can also regulate for more safety than the public needs. (Eg trains in the rich world are safe enough arguably, but we ask for even more safety from our planes.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Cab driver /= medallion owner.

For every poor hardworking cab driver who has taken a mortgage out to buy a medallion, there are a dozen sleazy operators who own piles of them, do not drive, and have leased them out to cabbies at horrific rates.

<comment><USER15> > there are a dozen sleazy operators who own piles of them, do not drive, and > have leased them out to cabbies at horrific rates.

How is that sleazy? If cabbies are willing to pay then it sounds like the market is working.

<comment><USER14> By 'sleazy' I mean this: [http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi- medallion-king/i...](http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi-medallion- king/img/feat_taxi36__05.jpg)

Full article: (heavily discussed on HN a couple weeks ago) [http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi-medallion- king/](http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-taxi-medallion-king/)

Sleazy business operators are those who take advantage of employees, who do things like allocate risk from the highest earners to the lowest. In taxis, this is commonly done by charging a fixed rate for a limited asset (medallion/cab) used in a highly variable business. Individual drivers then carry the risk rather than the millionaire. Legal, but sleazy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "So many people wanted one that they were hard to get. Drivers used to sit on a waiting list for more than 10 years. When their names finally came up, the city charged them $250,000 to buy one."

This is the source of the problem.

</comment><comment><USER17> Let me guess. For every person in this situation, there were probably ten in his situation a few years back. I suspect if you were to ask him or folks in a situation similar to him before he got his medallion, they would have complained about _overregulation_ from the city and definitely wouldn't have called for more. Perspective.

</comment><comment><USER18> I feel bad for the guy, but no way I would have made that purchase in 2012.

A basic SWOT analysis would have made me hightail out out of the taxi business instead of taking on debt to spend $250k committing myself to it.

If he gets his $250k back less the processing fee that feels like justice to me. He shouldn't have to wait for a buyer to come up though - it should just automatically be an option now that not regulating Uber seems to have become policy.

</comment><comment><USER19> I see a lot of comments suggesting that medallion owners should be compensated. But the government is not morally obligated to compensate people whose investments lose money due to changes in regulation. And it would be prohibitively expensive to do so, because it is a one-sided affair. No one who made money investing in medallions when they went up in price was arguing "when we bought medallions, we thought that the number of available medallions would increase with demand, resulting in a stable price. Instead, prices shot up, so we feel we should pay back the government some money because their unexpected policy change benefitted us".

The government might _sometimes_ compensate people, but that would depend on many factors such as 1) To what extent the person was unable to avoid the risk, and to what extent they willingly bet on the price of the medallion, and 2) Whether the government did all in its power to keep policies predictable, given the unpredictable nature of technological change.

</comment><comment><USER20> It's hard to feel bad for people who chose to invest in rigged markets. Their frustration should remain squarly with local representation. Show me the public vote that decided to implement medallions. It's like voting to regulate the number of restaurants in a given city and leaving half that market to mcdonalds. (For safety of course) People would laugh at not leaving that up to supply and demand. The only reason it worked with cabs is because nobody used to care how it worked keeping it open to political grease balling. Suddenly people care and now everybody is scrambling trying to explain their positions on it. And make no doubt about it... Every representative from when it was implemented to today is responsible for allowing it to continue under their watch. Once they know you all are going to hold our representitives personally responsible it will go back to supply and demand faster than anybody can thrown money at it.

<comment><USER21> Most, if not all, of the people holding the medallions had nothing to do with their institution or even maintenance as a monopoly. They are simply entrepreneurs playing an existing game. A game whose rules have drastically changed.

<comment><USER22> That's the risk in the entrepreneurship. And that's exactly why people push for less restrictive regulations - to reduce this risk coming from regulatory change. Of course you never can take the risk of change out of entrepreneurship, but at least you can reduce the risk from regulatory challenges and changes. What seems to be happening instead is simultaneously arguing for more regulation and to insulate people from the effects of change in the regulation - which will only breed more regulation, more people hurt by it and demand for even more regulation to compensate for it. The only way out of this vicious circle of regulation to fix regulation is to minimize the regulation to the minimum necessary to ensure basic equal access to the market, basic contract enforcement, etc. and then let the market participants figure it out. That way at least the regulatory component of the risks is greatly reduced. If you are not forced to pay $250k for the privilege to do business, there's no way this investment would go bust.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I don't know what to say. These people made a bet that the future would look like the past. They were wrong, and it's costing them significantly.

Yet... what are we supposed to do about it?

<comment><USER24> If the medallion is the only way you can be a taxi, then enforce it. If Lyft and Uber are legitimate, then lose the medallion and pay this guy back his $250K.

<comment><USER25> A medallion is not and never was the only way to be a "taxi."

Yes, there is little difference between street hailing and dispatch these days. But the law never guaranteed them immunity from dispatch innovation.

No one was scammed. But you can still feel sorry for the guy.

If there is one thing to learn - DIVERSIFY YOUR INVESTMENTS!

<comment><USER26> fair enough, but it's often hard to diversify your time and employment.

How do you diversity your investment in your employer?

<comment><USER27> By renting out the medallion from owners, instead of becoming an owner. So you'd pay more for the medallion per unit time, but have the freedom of moving onto other services when they become more popular.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> There are 1800 medallions for all of SF ( [https://www.sfmta.com/services/taxi- industry/medallions/meda...](https://www.sfmta.com/services/taxi- industry/medallions/medallion-holders) )

At 250k, buying them back would cost $450 million.

The city could tax the new cabbies on a percentage of each fare, while buying back medallions over the next few years.

</comment><comment><USER29> Here's the thing I don't understand -- if the main attraction (from a customer point of view) is the app (with everything that comes with it), why haven't the cab companies got in on the same game? Either put out their own app to hail rides (and maybe give their cabs a more luxury look to them), or sign up as Uber/Lyft drivers themselves? Or is there something I'm missing?

<comment><USER30> in sf, specifically, the taxi companies are utter shit (and evil, to boot).

I badly broke my leg and, because I lived too far from public transportation to crutch over, had to take taxis to work 4-5 times a week, often both ways. No taxi company in sf will reliably come, even if you make it clear that you are going to take a cab at least 4 days a week for most of the next year. Instead, even when you are in the middle of the mission in a relatively dense location and going to soma, dispatch simply lies and says "10 to 15 minutes". A 95% wait time was 3 hours, and a 85% time was 1 hour 15 minutes, for what should be an approximately 15 minute drive. Even simple requests like calling a couple minutes before the taxi arrives so I could get down 2 flights of stairs on crutches without detaining the driver or having the driver leave couldn't be followed. Needless to say, this causes significant disruption to your life when you have to leave 90 minutes plus the length of the drive before going somewhere if you want to have any hope of reliably getting there on time. And god forbid you have to see your surgeon or something else with a hard deadline. The taxi services should be ashamed of themselves, and frankly participated in a violation of my civil rights as done by a quasi-governmental monopoly. And there are other issues: when I would occasionally have to pay with a card, the meter would suddenly be broken until you made it clear drivers had two choices: call the card in or not get paid. A fucking miracle would occur, and the card reader would start working. The taxi system literally shat on their customers.

The advantage of uber is simple: when requested, they either come, or say they won't. That allows you to be an adult and either make alternative arrangements or tell the other party you'll be late. I used uber even when they cost 2x as much as a cab just for this reason.

In conclusion, fuck taxis. Also, fuck sf. Only in sf is "a taxi that comes" a disruptive service.

<comment><USER31> I love the 'But Uber is illegal!' argument. A government protected industry is forced to face real competition after years of ignoring their customers needs. Boo Hoo.

<comment><USER32> Maybe I've a rather european perspective on this: But most of the arguments around Uber's services not being entirely legal here are around the kind of driver's license and such. At least in Germany, and I'm fairly certain it's the same in a couple neigbhouring countries, there's two things to driving a cab in a city: 1) Special kind of driver's permit that allows you to transport passengers in a commercial setting. That includes a background check, medical, and some lower limits how many traffic infractions you can have than a normal driver's license 2) A permit to drive a cab in a specific city/area.

To me requiring a special kind of driver's license to transport passengers makes a fair amount of sense iff it's reasonably easy to get.

Uber doesn't require that for UberX, which is the main point of conflict in many of the trials Uber lost over here.

<comment><USER33> At least in the U.S. states that I've lived in, drivers licenses are segmented by the type of vehicle that you are allowed to drive, rather than the purpose of driving it. So, for instance, in Maine, there are 3 main tiers:

Class A license - certified to drive tractor-trailer trucks.

Class B license - certification to drive non-tractor trailer multi-axle vehicles; kind of an amorphous collection, but think buses, large commercial panel trucks, dump-trucks, highway plow trucks, etc.

Class C license - any kind of normal passenger automobile.

What I find interesting about Uber, and the backlash against it, is that it is largely just a scaling of under-the-table, unregulated behavior people have always indulged in. What, really, is the difference between calling up your circle of friends and acquaintances, asking for a lift somewhere, and throwing them some cash for gas money and their time, versus using Uber? They are evil because they enable you to search a wider network then just your personal circle? Or because they take a cut for providing a reliable, safe, centralized payment service? Or because they have enabled a market that competes with a rent-capturing incumbent, and the product they provide is cheaper, more convenient, and higher quality?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Sad story but every economic change for the better creates winners and losers. You can't regulate away loss without regulating away improvement.

He is better off forgetting the medallion and finding work somewhere else to repay the loan. He should be able to make a few dollars renting the medallion in the meantime.

As for the government stepping in - live by the fake government market, die by the fake government market. I have no sympathy for people who build businesses behind government firewalls or with government subsidies, and suffer when those rules change. Because plenty of legitimate businesses have engine to the wall when the government arbitrarily creates regulations where previously there were none.

I just don't understand why this guy doesn't start getting uber pickups - <USER2> that is the problem, just join them.

<comment><USER35> >Sad story but every economic change for the better creates winners and losers. You can't regulate away loss without regulating away improvement.

The government isn't a third party here. Compensating him isn't just handing him money for a bad investment. It's compensating him for the fact that SF scammed him out of a quarter million dollars.

The reason why the government should have to compensate here isn't because he lost money and pour him. It's because the government sold him a license and then devalued the license on purpose.

You could argue that the city never promised to prevent all sorts of transportation competition. And he took that risk knowing that, for example, people could take limos or whatever. But you at least have to have that debate. You can't just write it off as a bad investment. The government is the cause of his loss. Not the market.

>As for the government stepping in - live by the fake government market, die by the fake government market. I have no sympathy for people who build businesses behind government firewalls or with government subsidies, and suffer when those rules change.

You act like cabs were regulated for the cab drivers benefit, but that's not how or why they were regulated. They were regulated for the benefit of the city and the rides. The medallion system was the other side of a compromise between the city and the taxis. The city would regulate pricing and dictate key parts of their business model, but in exchange they would be protected from competition. It was a quid pro quo.

IF you think the medallions shouldn't have been sold in the first replace, why isn't just returning them for the price paid the best solution?

<comment><USER36> No, this guy made a bad decision despite plenty of available evidence. Uber started in San Francisco in 2009. By 2012 it had expanded internationally, so it couldn't be regarded as a fly-by-night operation. Yet he still chose to dump a quarter million dollars into a medallion? Well, sorry. He chose poorly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> you know what'd be a good PR move? Uber helping private cab drivers such as those in the stories out by buying out the medallions and letting them drive under Uber. Win win.</comment>


VCs' Conversations: How Differently They Talk About Female Entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> https://hbr.org/2017/05/we-recorded-vcs-conversations-and-analyzed-how-differently-they-talk-about-female-entrepreneurs <comment><USER2> > Many of the young men and women were described as being young, though youth > for men was viewed as promising, while young women were considered > inexperienced.

This to me is a very interesting finding because it seems so _blatant_. I'd be interested to see more research on this perception of experience/promise.

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/etap.12275/full](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/etap.12275/full)

The full study, which is somewhat less sensationalized. Albeit still without any actual data.</comment>


MicroG Project: A re-implementation of Google's Android apps and libraries - <AUTHOR> https://microg.org/ <comment><USER2> This is great. This can be shipped on custom ROMs with only attribution required, correct? Can we (ROM builders and developers) incorporate this at the current state of the project?

<comment><USER3> The current state is not for the faint of heart. There are occasional Issues which need some logcat analysis. \- But I'm running it for many months and it works out for me. It is not feature complete though, just mostly.

But I think if the ROM Developer community takes an _active_ interest many edge cases could be polished out.

<comment><USER2> Hmmm... Nice. I might be integrating this into special builds for testers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> So this does not affect app developers, but rather firmware developers, right? Also, do these libraries end up talking to Google backends or there is a choice to use some other backends with compatible API? Sorry for a newbie question, I tried my best to avoid Google APIs in my APKs so far, so I don't really know much about them.

<comment><USER5> GmsCore is helpful for Android users who want to stay away from Google (even when application developers don't!). For example, it makes it possible to use Signal without depending on Google Cloud Messaging. (This is also helpful when Google stuff may not necessarily be available, such as on Amazon devices.)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10665520](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10665520)

[https://o9i.de/2015/10/23/howto- gmscore.html](https://o9i.de/2015/10/23/howto-gmscore.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was hoping something like this would come off the ground. It's good to have alternatives!

</comment><comment><USER7> Interesting. I'm guessing that we can ship this with androidx86?

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm using this and its pretty great.

Normal Play Store works for me. The installation procedure with Needle is not for the average User but doable.

The apk must be in system-priv or somewhere for everything to work, I always forget, but the XDA Thread has the Info on that.

For me this is exactly what I wanted, Push Notifications and Play Store. The other google cruft can stay where it came from.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is good, and it makes sense for many apps that are unavailable on f-droid, amazon store, replicant, cyanogenmod and others.

</comment><comment><USER9> What is it that would stop Google from turning off access to the Google Play Store by way of Store (Phonesky), especially if MicroG becomes popular?

<comment><USER10> Technically, they probably won't see the difference between Phonesky and the actual Google Play Store if they mimic enough the APIs. The problem is more legally if that's possible, I'm not a lawyer but technically, it will be really difficult to stop.

<comment><USER11> They can always add some obfuscated code in their proprietary version and require a code every so often or something similar.

Google has been known to do this [https://moderncrypto.org/mail- archive/messaging/2014/000780....](https://moderncrypto.org/mail- archive/messaging/2014/000780.html)

"As an example, I created a system that randomly generates encrypted JavaScripts that are designed to resist reverse engineering attempts."

If they provide a binary blob that resists reversing, there might not be a way around including that blob.

<comment><USER10> That's indeed true. Android phones are not still really updated often and I guess they need to keep backward compatibility for lots of things limiting their options for this kind of tricks.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Which Device for Which Task? - <AUTHOR> http://shawnblanc.net/2010/06/tasks-and-devices/

<comment><USER2> Interesting that "Make Call" and "Text Message" disappear from the task list when rating devices on how well they perform. I find this notable because I think iPad's biggest competition will come from devices that are actually big phones, rather than web tablets. Just like phones ate up the PDA and the iPod and the GPS and the gameboy and the portable DVD player.</comment>


Reefer Madness 2.0: What Marijuana Science Says, and Doesn't Say - <AUTHOR> https://undark.org/article/reefer-madness-marijuana-science/ <comment><USER2> Two wrongs don't make a right. Complaining about what you call a book review by providing a book review is a bit crabby.</comment>


Famous Russian hacker Kris Kaspersky passed away - <AUTHOR> http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4835689;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;guest=226471785 <comment><USER2> This is not Kaspersky Lab's Antivirus creator Eugene Kaspersky.

<comment><USER3> Thanks. Probably most people will assume that's who it was, as I don't know any other famous Kasperskys.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, first response was "oh, Putin didn't like something they did and he 'died' "

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> More links (in Russian): [http://rsdn.org/forum/life/6717583](http://rsdn.org/forum/life/6717583) \+ [https://xakep.ru/2017/03/07/kris-kasperski- rip/](https://xakep.ru/2017/03/07/kris-kasperski-rip/)

Wiki page about Kris [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Kaspersky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Kaspersky)

</comment><comment><USER5> skydive incident... and John Peterson (PL) [https://twitter.com/PhilipWadler/status/839134370854227970](https://twitter.com/PhilipWadler/status/839134370854227970) climbing incident ...

</comment><comment><USER6> From the article: "He was flying above his skill level"

<comment><USER7> Also from that comment:

> I hope he recovers, but to say it for the 10,000th time, if anyone tells you > you need to cool it and you are being sketch, listen! You were probably > sketch long before anyone actually said anything.

Skydiving has some formal rules, both from the FAA and the USPA, but there is a _lot_ more institutional knowledge passed along through informal channels.

Experienced jumpers commonly see something, recognize it as an issue, and talk with the person about it, even without being in a position of authority. If drop zone staff sees something sketchy, they'll talk to the jumper in much the same way. Safety is usually treated as an educational problem, with informed opinions (usually) staying well inside the box of what's permitted by the rules.

If you're a skydiver, listen to your peers. They are an important part of the skydiving safety picture.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The title says he was famous, but what was he known for?

<comment><USER9> [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Kaspersky](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Kaspersky)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> RIP.</comment>


Assange is reportedly gravely ill, and hardly anyone's talking about it - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/assange-is-reportedly-gravely-ill-and-hardly-anyones-talking-about-it-15fe916ff3f <comment><USER2> Why are they trying to delay his extradition to Sweden? That's the best place for him. Good medical care, strictly compassionate care of prisoners. I can think of no other place I'd rather be incarcerated.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is there any confirmation of Assane's ill health from any source that isn't Assange's lawyer?

If not, can the absence of such confirmation readily explain the lack of interest in the claim?

<comment><USER4> Proof of severe and chronic respiration and dental issues are available at the WL file repository. Those papers include a stressing letter from a doctor stating he needs to go to a hospital albeit can't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Julian Assange's Swedish lawyer Per Samuelson has told the press that "Assange's health situation on Friday was such that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him."

Uh huh. The court isn't interested in such a claim, without so much as a doctor's note, either.

<comment><USER6> this is just step one in his plan to get out of jail, step two is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vFjjXu2klw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vFjjXu2klw).

<comment><USER4> Large chunks of J's medical records are publicly available at the WL repository. The records proof a long history of medical issues without him being able to receive proper medical care, as signed for by doctors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Assange was chemically lobotomised within days of being admitted to Belmarsh Prison, which has a long and sordid history of providing the military- industrial-pharmaceutical complex with safe cover for its wet operations.

He is, essentially, dead to the world now.

However, his legacy remains - you cannot destroy ideas with chemical torture so easily. The next round of whistleblowing will be especially painful to the American people, as yet more evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity is being prepared for release.

While we were all being distracted by the scary orange puppet, the US and its coalition partners ratcheted up the tempo of its criminal war operations.

Evidence regarding US involvement in Yemen, for example, is going to reveal the true nature of American military power in the 21st Century, and it is not going to be pretty.

If you are an American who feels suitably embarrassed by the actions of your oompaloompa in chief, be prepared for a sobering realisation when the next round of whistleblowing starts happening. And, be prepared for the distraction that the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex has in store for the American people.

<comment><USER8> Would you please stop using HN for political and ideological battle? Regardless of what your politics are, fiery rhetoric is not what this site is for, and we ban accounts that do it. We've warned you several times already, so you need to fix this if you want to keep posting here.

When it comes to divisive topics, the guidelines call for comments to become more thoughtful, not denunciatory. Denunciation is a different type of game than the one we're playing here. Your non-denunciatory comments look fine, so this shouldn't be hard.

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

<comment><USER7> You may feel it necessary to your own safety to censor those of us who are paying attention to these things - but as history has proven time and again, you're shooting yourselves in your own feet by banning speech you deem unsuitable for your purposes.

Good, interested hackers can without doubt find other places to discuss the very relevant machinations of the military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex and its negative influence in contemporary hacker culture - but if HN is no longer a safe, relevant place to be discussing the nature of whistleblowing, technology, or indeed world politics in the technical age, then so be it: why allow anything to be posted about Assange, at all, then?

His story is nothing but political in nature.

<comment><USER8> I posted at length about this the other day: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20013092](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20013092). If, after reading that, you feel like there's a relevant point about how we moderate political threads that it doesn't address, I'd be happy to hear what that is.

There seems to be a misunderstanding in this bit:

> you're shooting yourselves in your own feet by banning speech you deem > unsuitable for your purposes

Our purpose is to optimize HN for intellectual curiosity. You're right in that sense, but only that sense. HN moderation has no purpose related to Assange or any other hot topic, nor are we moderating based on what we agree or disagree with. I moderate comments I agree with every single day. Perhaps that sounds weird? After a while, one gets used to it.

If you take a step back and look at HN threads on topics with political overlap, you'll find that many HN users have figured out how to express their views thoughtfully, without resorting to fiery rhetoric or denunciation. You'll also find that many of them are expressing views similar to yours. Please be more like them. It's really just for good conversation. No one wants to be in the room that someone is blasting with a megaphone, regardless of the megaphone's views.

<comment><USER7> "Mind your manners", I can agree with.

"Don't mention the war", I cannot.

I believe that censoring opinion around the subject of the Wests' criminal wars only provides further cover for those who profit from it.

<comment><USER8> Nobody said you can't mention things. You need to drop fiery rhetoric, denunciation, and other weapons of ideological battle when posting here.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why forgotten password forms shouldn't tell you when the email doesn't exist - <AUTHOR> http://busted-app.herokuapp.com <comment><USER2> Indeed.

Imagine a similar page to this that searched a whole bunch of NSFW sites doing the same trick - and then a site that feed your whole address book through them.

Imagine HR depts routinely feeding applicant's emails into such a system.

Hard to imagine that _someone_ isn't already doing this sort of thing...</comment>


Twitter Names Marjorie Scardino As The First Female Member Of Its Board - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/05/twitter-names-marjorie-scardino-ex-ceo-of-pearson-as-the-first-female-member-of-its-board/ <comment><USER2> So while Silicon Valley screams of sexism, we're still far short of diversity with the lack of representation from an ethnic minority (racism).</comment>


A comparison of C++11 language support in VS2012, g++ 4.7 and Clang 3.1 - <AUTHOR> http://www.cpprocks.com/a-comparison-of-c11-language-support-in-vs2012-g-4-7-and-clang-3-1/

<comment><USER2> A detailed list that is regularly updated, with exact version numbers has been around for years on the stdcxx Wiki:

<http://wiki.apache.org/stdcxx/C++0xCompilerSupport>

<comment><USER3> Indeed, I suspect it's a reasonable bet that the guy (Korban) just used the apache.org page and reformatted the contents with his target audience and personal goals (which seems to be selling his book) in mind.

[Which is not a bad thing, mind you—the apache page is fairly accurate and up- to-date (at least for the major compilers), so it's better people use that as a reference than doing it themselves badly. It would have been nice if he'd included a link though ...]

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> That site should clarify that they are talking about the open source Clang 3.1 and not Apple Clang 3.1. Apple is unfortunately using the same version numbering as the open source clang yet their compiler is significantly less featured. It's ironic that Apple started clang, yet their clang is the most out of date.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is missing the supports list for the Intel Compiler (which to my knowledge has a pretty good C++11 coverage).

<comment><USER4> Isn't Intel using a modified EDG front-end? Or has Intel completely customized EDG to the point that they are maintaining their own branch?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> GNU tracks C++11 support in recent gcc versions here:

<http://gcc.gnu.org/projects/cxx0x.html>

</comment><comment><USER7> There are still a few features that C++ lacks. If it only added a s-expression syntax and macros, and built-in logic programming support, it would be perfect!

</comment><comment><USER8> This is desperately missing color coded cells :(

So is the linked wiki at apache.org.</comment>


As an iPhone developer, I'm glad Apple banned cross-compiling - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cubeofm.com/as-an-iphone-developer-im-glad-apple-banned-c

<comment><USER2> I think he's looking at it from the wrong starting point, and getting confused about who is benefiting.

1\. Apple are increasing the barrier of entry for him in to OTHER mobile development worlds - he's no longer able to develop a solution that is easily portable to Android, WinMo, BB, for example. He's betting his ability to write popular mobile apps on the fact that Apple will always provide him the platform he needs, and (more worryingly) that they will continue to keep his App in the App Store. If Apple chose to duplicate the functionality of his app themselves, he can't easily move to providing it for Android - so he's screwed. I contest that his job is less secure than ever.

2\. His last point suggests he's made himself more valuable and unique by learning ObjC. That's nice for him, but it isn't a reason to be happy with the new ruling from Apple: if anything, the new T&Cs likely to result in MORE ObjC developers, so reducing how remarkable he is as a programmer.

<comment><AUTHOR> You actually make very good points, and I think you are correct. The way I advocate functions in the short term, but in the longer term, your way is better.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> He's happy basically because Apple has raised barriers to entry against some of his (potential) competitors.

<comment><USER4> Exactly this - the points he makes in the article are all correct, but they're all related to monopoly. His point is merely 'Anything that prevents others making better products is good for me'. That may be, but it's bad for the consumer.

It's like if Microsoft made it harder to write Office software for Windows, it would be good for sales of MS Office, but wouldn't be good for the consumer if it prevented people developing competing, better software.

<comment><AUTHOR> What about the case where a large amount of apps are in the store. This is bad for both the consumer and the seller.

<comment><USER5> How is that bad for the consumer? Lots of apps means lots of supply, which means lower prices for the consumer.

<comment><AUTHOR> The lowest price is already mandated by Apple. There is no lower price possible. Lots of apps means a big discovery problem by the consumer. They can't find the good apps then.

So prices stay the same and the customer does not find what he wants.

<comment><USER6> Firstly, what do you mean, they can't find the good apps? There are already tens (hundreds?) of thousands of apps, and people seem to do OK with the store rankings, ratings, and with word of mouth.

Secondly, I'm curious where you found a magic oracle to tell you how to eliminate all the _bad_ apps from the store, but keep all the _good_ ones. I don't think that "(eq language objective-c)" is that oracle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As a midwestern corn farmer, I'm glad the US has placed tariffs on Brazilian ethanol.

</comment><comment><USER8> That's not what a cross-compiler is. You're using a cross compiler to code for iPhone unless you are compiling natively on the iPhone. (i.e, A cross-compiler is a compiler that generates code for a platform other than the one it's run on. So unless your "Flash cross-compiler" is written in Flash...)

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cross- compiler](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cross-compiler)

</comment><comment><USER9> Or: "I've found a niche! Don't let other people into my niche, they might do it better/cheaper/faster!"

<comment><AUTHOR> It's more: I'm glad more people are not coming into my niche. If they did, devs will adapt, but if they are being kept out - well, that's good news.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "Developers are lethargic - they are not springing about learning new languages"

Damn, guess I'm not much of a developer. I mean, if I wanted to build something real in Obj-C, I would take a hit up front like anyone else to learn my way around, but the developers I've worked with who don't want to learn new things are NOT the ones I'd be worried about competing with.

<comment><USER11> "Developers are lethargic - they are not springing about learning new languages"

I am learning Erlang and playing with Clojure.

It's not any new language. It's just that ObjC is not very attractive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> As a person whose is in a position similar to his, I agree with the spirit of his comments.

Basically, what are things of value in this world? Scarcity is probably the biggest driving force, especially when coupled with demand. It's what drives the prices of precious metals and stones, truffles, caviar, etc.

The same logic applies to any business. A high barrier to entry is one way that a business keeps competition at bay. Specialization of skills is another. Of course, having a specialized skill loses its value when there is no demand for that skill.

As a programmer, part of my job is learning new things before everyone else so I can stay ahead of the curve. Once the world catches up and the technology becomes commodity, the money dries up. For almost all things related to technology, from hardware to software, it's a race to the bottom so you had better jump to the next train which is still moving.

</comment><comment><USER5> Sorry, but "I'm glad because I don't have to learn something new" just isn't a convincing argument to me. If something is useful and worth learning, the short-term cost of learning something is repayed many times over in the long term.

And I think that Flash and other cross-compilers are worth the time in the long term. Using just one programming language exclusively is like having a hammer. The thing about hammers is that when they're all you have, every problem has a nasty habit of turning into a nail.

<comment><AUTHOR> Using a cross-compiler is like having a hammer and using it for nails, screws, thumbtacks etc.

There is this myth that any programmer can learn lots of new languages. That just is not true. Most programmers are good in just a few languages - the rest they are not good in.

<comment> tomh- It is true, a programmer can learn lots of new languages. It is mastering all the libraries and infrastructure which is time consuming. And you guys are all forgetting that writing large portions of your code in c++ is at the moment the most portable solution. It works on IPhone, IPad, Android NDK, PSP, Xbox, PS3, PC, Mac etc. The only thing you need to do is to hookup the platform specific gui code to your app logic.

<comment><USER13> 1> Any compatibility layer is _also_ forbidden by the agreement. So classes that make it easy to port (or c modules or whatever) would also be forbidden. They did more than ban flash here

2> C++ is a unreliable target on android still for fullscale development. C/C++ is really for computation heavy libraries, not end to end development. You're supposed to call into your C with JNI and do most of the app with Java

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> this seems like a common "if you can't beat em, join em". you would've been better off counting your objective-c learning as lost time and moved to a cross-compiler like everyone else (since they support publishing to multiple platforms and can do tween animations :D).

you're not entitled to anything being an iphone developer, and specifically ripping on cross-compilers because they found a more efficient way to do it means you aren't willing to adapt. your loss

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't know the exact nature of Max's 'many small apps', but given that Apple comes down on Flash, I wouldn't put it past them to come down on cookie-cutter apps, too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could happen, but if flash devs were let in, it would happen even quicker.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> "If a new popular cross-platform framework suddenly arrived, I would have to go back and relearn it."

That is the way of things when you're a developer.

</comment><comment><USER11> The simplest route around this problem is to cross-compile to ObjC source. Is that too hard a problem?

<comment><USER17> That's exactly what Apple has disallowed.

<comment><USER11> Apple also forbids me from making notes with pen and paper before I start writing source-code because then the paper notes are the _original_ representation of my ideas and I rarely represent my ideas as Objective-C code.

Actually, I am more inclined to think the synapses and neurotransmitter concentrations in my brain are the original representation of the program, but that's another story. ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> "For Apple, they are following the Microsoft Mantra: focus on the developers."

Seems comically false to me...</comment>


Astronomers discover the largest structure in the universe - <AUTHOR> https://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/224-news-2013/2212-astronomers-discover-the-largest-structure-in-the-universe

<comment><AUTHOR> Link to the actual journal article for anyone interested: [http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/07/mnr...](http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/01/07/mnras.sts497.full)

What the heck is this thing?</comment>


Who will win the streaming wars? - <AUTHOR> https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2019-10-10/streaming-wars-winners-and-losers-disney-plus-netflix-hbo-max-peacock-quibi-apple-tv <comment><USER2> No one? Like asking who will win the cloud wars or car production. There will be several major players</comment>


John Hughes on Why Functional Programming Matters - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoq.com/interviews/john-hughes-fp <comment><USER2> Here's a link to a readable transcript: [http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATkBKEXbo6n8ZGdrNzhoM2dfNT...](http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATkBKEXbo6n8ZGdrNzhoM2dfNTVjYnFxOWRnaA&hl=en)

<comment><USER3> if you've read Hughes' papers before, it's worth listening to the interview. Brings in his personality in a way that isn't conveyed well via the transcript.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Link to a downloadable/non-404 version of Hughes' paper:

<http://academic.research.microsoft.com/Paper/702256.aspx>

Two pdf links below the summary paragraph.

</comment><comment><USER5> I lol'd when he made the jib "this is our great new language; it can't do assignments! ".

That's exactly how I felt when I first started with FP.

</comment><comment><USER6> I know it's difficult to interview people on these complex topics but is Sadek Drobi really the best they can do?

<comment><USER7> I agree. That guy gets to interview so many cool people and he does such a piss poor job at it. His other interviews are just awful. I think he asks generic questions and he doesn't seem to have followed the authors work. The only thing that saves him is that most of the interviewees are pretty interesting.

<comment><USER8> Well maybe the fact that I am choosing cool people to interview means I follow what they are doing. Can you be constructive and tell me where do you draw your conclusion from? Keep in mind that I am interviewing for a wide variety of audience, and that I can't all of a sudden ask about technical details of using Arrows for parsers. If you get some bits of interest out of the interview then this means that I did my job well, since you are not my only target audience.

I guess I better off doing these interviews since all what I get from it is these arrogant destructive comments. Thank you</comment></comment></comment>


Security How-To: Create a Paraxinal Botnet - mac-n-chz https://macnchz.com/how-to-make-paraxinal-botnet/ <comment><AUTHOR> How do I know that this article about botnets will not add me to a botnet?</comment>


Why not to use two axes on a chart, and what to use instead - <AUTHOR> https://blog.datawrapper.de/dualaxis/ <comment><USER2> IMO, most charts aren't big enough to require more than one axe.

Using two axes to chop up a small chart seems to be overkill and maybe even counter-productive.</comment>


4 Successful Bitcoin Double Spends - <AUTHOR> https://blockchain.info/double-spends <comment><USER2> There are only 2 listed there now. Looks like not all of them were really successful.</comment>


Learning Objectness with Convolutional Networks - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/weichengkuo/DeepBox <comment><USER2> This seems intriguing.</comment>


Ask HN: How would you scale Apple's web store? - <AUTHOR>

Apple's web store goes down after every announcement.  Clearly, they have a huge amount of traffic, but shouldn't it be possible to handle that kind of traffic spike?<p>I don't have much experience on that scale, so I'd like to hear from some experts about how it could be done. <comment><USER2> I'm not sure if you are talking about the right thing. They take the store down to update the products (so they don't leak a product and not a spike in traffic)

In terms of scale, maybe it's just not on their list of immediate concerns.

If you people are buying your product such that you sell-out and get flak for running out so quickly, you would focus not on making your point-of-sale more efficient. In fact, it might even not be worth the extra millions that it'd cost for scaling on the one day of an announcements.

How would you? Use the power of a distributed CDN and cache everything.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd say it's more of a marketing move than a scale issue.

</comment><comment><USER4> At this point it's like a government service.

Why should they care if you have to wait in line for two hours at the DMV? Where else are you going to go?

Apple has a product they sell for $500 to $900, their website collapses every new release, and they still have to limit people to "Two per customer."

<comment><USER5> Sort of, government services are usually impossible to survive without. Apple however, can still miss out on sales by having a downed website.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where should I post an RFP for tech project? - <AUTHOR>

I have a ~4 week tech project I am looking to staff with a developer. Any good ideas of where to post other than elance?
I would really like to hire someone local - NYC.
I am not looking to find cheapest but best - ~$75/hr.
Thx <comment><USER2> You can always try odesk.com or some other sites as well or you can check out www.confiz.com (Disclosure: I run this company and we consider ourselves to be pretty good)

<comment><USER3> I'm sure you're good, but the writing on your site is terrible. Just from scanning a random paragraph on this page <http://www.confiz.com/company/engagement-models>:

"We follow strict non-disclosure policies at Confiz which makes us credible." => that doesn't make any sense. How does a non-disclosure policy make you credible? Credible in what?

"Therefore we stand truly commited to delivering quality on time." Spelling mistake: "committed". Plus, _everyone_ says that. That doesn't mean anything if you just state it like that without proof or explanation.

"There are two ways in which we work with our clients" => and you go on to list three!

And that's just 1 random paragraph. In short, spend some time on the writing, or hire someone, or remove some of it. A native English speaker (which I'm guessing you're not? I'm not.) will be turned off by this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Craigslist is good for this kind of thing</comment>


Show HN: HostMyDocs, a light Angular 2 webapp  to centralize your documentations - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/TraceSoftwareInternational/HostMyDocs <comment><USER2> That interface is squeaky clean. I love it.

What was your idea behind this? Do you have a lot of personal documentation that you need to organize or is this for centralizing documentation from other projects?

<comment><AUTHOR> It is a need as an internal use to have all documentation from our libraries at the same place, it is also our sandbox to test Angular 2 and soon gRPC</comment></comment>


Buildpacks - Run Anything on Heroku - <AUTHOR> http://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/buildpacks <comment><USER2> How does this differentiate from Dotcloud's custom services? For example:

NodeJS service: <https://github.com/dotcloud/node-on-dotcloud> Ruby service: <https://github.com/dotcloud/ruby-on-dotcloud> ZNC service: <https://github.com/dotcloud/znc-on-dotcloud> Jenkins: <https://github.com/dotcloud/jenkins-on-dotcloud> Gitosis: <https://github.com/dotcloud/gitosis-on-dotcloud> Tilestream: <https://github.com/tilestream-on-dotcloud> Geodjango: <https://github.com/dotcloud/geodjango-on-dotcloud> Memcache: <https://github.com/dotcloud/memcached-on-dotcloud> Django+MongoDB: <https://github.com/dotcloud/django-and-mongodb-on-dotcloud> SOLR: <https://github.com/dotcloud/sold-on-dotcloud> Pyramid: <https://github.com/dotcloud/pyramid-on-dotcloud> -on-dotcloud

And if they are functionally similar, as I think they are, would it be interesting to make them compatible?

</comment><comment><USER3> I take the opportunity to say: thank you Heroku for being so open. You saved me 100's of hours of work when setting up my own private PaaS as I was able to piggy back on your buildpack idea and code.

Cf: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3521959>

<comment><USER4> Excellent! (Maintainer of the Python buildpack here).

I've been looking closely at your PaaS, actually. I love the general approach. Drop me a line sometime if you'd like to collaborate on Python-specific stuff: firstname.lastname@example.com

:)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I was actually looking at buildpacks a few weeks ago. I found a github repo that was using a custom buildpack, but there was no documentation at all about it then.

I wanted to create a buildpack to build a jekyll website and deploy, that should be a cinch to do with these custom buildpacks. No longer would I have to build the jekyll app locally (takes long time), I can just push and heroku builds it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Someone explain this to me. What do buildpacks allow me to do?

<comment><USER7> It looks like a buildpack describes how to detect and compile apps for a given language / framework. So you can use a custom buildpack if you want to use a framework that Heroku doesn't support by default.

<comment><USER8> Or, for example, for the node.js build pack to use a more up-to-date node version

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The mono build pack from Ben Hall (<https://github.com/BenHall/heroku- buildpack-mono>) looks interesting.

With AppHarbor's pricing announcements yesterday (which sucked) I've finally got around to looking at Mono and Heroku. It looks a good combination, although still referred to as unsupported/unstable. I plan to deploy a few test apps to Heroku using the mono build pack and NancyFX.

<comment><USER10> Thanks for linking to this. The only reason it's unsupported is because I don't work for Heroku so no idea what will happen in the future. I'll do my best to help :-)

There has been a number of successful deployments and it appears to work as expected. It would be great to hear your experiences. My twitter is @ben_hall

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm curious about what environment the buildpacks are run on. I see there is some uname=Darwin support so I guess it's pretty portable. Just POSIX / GNU userland and tarballs?

In other words, does Heroku separate its build machines and server machines? do they all have the same OS image?

<comment><USER10> They run on the same dyno environment as the web apps (Ubuntu 10.4). Basically Vulcan is a node.js app deployed onto a dyno which takes source code, starts the build command and then return you the file.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> The C build pack is awesome. I wonder what the raw performance (CPU and I/O) of Heroku dynos is.

<comment><USER13> What would one use this for? I don't know of many C-based web frameworks.

<comment><USER14> I could see it being useful to deploy a Thrift/Protobuf/Avro service. Not everything is a web server :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm slow. I hope they write more documentation on this. Is a Heroku runtime environment just Linux? Will anything that builds and runs on Linux runnable on Heroku?

</comment><comment><USER8> How easy would it be to replicate the Heroku deployment environment on your own dedicated server?

</comment><comment><USER16> Is this sort of like a proprietary Chef or Puppet, or like a Linode StackScript or something?</comment>


TwentySomething: How my generation works - <AUTHOR> http://rebekahmonson.com/2010/09/02/twentysomething-gen-y-work/

<comment><USER2> Generalize much?

Get over yourself. Seriously, the entire concept of a generation is false. Generations are a sliding window.

I don't think the things she's talking about are specific to her 'generation'. Environmental consciousness? The US EPA started operation in 1970. I was actively pushing in the UK for things like recycling in the 1980s. Corporate responsibility? How about student boycotts of companies involved in South Africa under apartheid? And the list goes on.

So you think your generation is special. My father's generation grew up with the challenge of rebuilding Europe after the Second World War and seeing Britain's world influence decline, his father's generation fought a war against their own neighbors, his father's generation did the same thing.

Oh, so you've got all this caring about others consciousness and are sad because corporate America can guarantee you a gold watch at 55? My heart bleeds for you.

"But, there's one really great thing about coming of age in America in an era when things are generally thought to be pretty bad: It forces an early decision about what's important in life"

Wow, you think you're the first generation to ask themselves what's important in life at a 'young' age. Excuse my while I go John McEnroe (you'll have to Google him youngster): "You cannot be serious"

<comment><USER3> Yes, the author did generalize. However, all the criticisms that I read about their generation are exactly that, generalizations. And the articles from both sides are always self-serving.

The unemployment rate for under 25s is stageringly high compared to the general population. The cost of education has gone up 300% while inflation has gone up a mere 30% since 1990, most paid with borrowed monies. The whole economy tanked due to our debt fueled ways while they had no voice, choice, or ability to influence the outcome.

If they want to be all "whiny," let them. My prospects were great coming out of college in the 1990's. The future was paved with gold. I wouldn't say much is paved with anything these days, let alone the road in front the driveway. The worlds an unjust place and they're finding it out. We told them it wasn't.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow, some twenty something's have no idea what life was like in past generations. Or in the present generation overseas.

You unthinkingly jumped through all the meaningless hoops put in front of you and still can't find a job you like? You (and by "you", I mean "someone else the same age as you") joined the military and had a much lower chance of being injured or killed than the person of your parent's generation who was forced to join the military whether they wanted to or not? Your job got outsourced to some other twenty something, who doesn't have to live in poverty anymore?

(I know, a guy named Gupta or Tolentino doesn't deserve a job as much as a precious flower like yourself.)

Attention, "Mass Communication" students of my generation: STFU. The only people had it better than you are people who are a few years older/younger than you who got lucky and timed the recession better.

<comment><USER5> _You joined the military and had a much lower chance of being injured or killed than the person of your parent's generation who was forced to join the military whether they wanted to or not?_

I have no idea what you're talking about here. 25-35 years ago there were virtually no wars, there was a near zero chance of getting killed in the military. Whereas now, there are very reasonable chances for soldiers to get shipped to fight "terror" and get injured.

<comment><USER6> Vietnam ring a bell?

<comment><USER5> Vietnam war ended 35 years ago.

<comment><USER7> And a twenty-something's father who was in his 30s when they were born (not at all uncommon) was draft-age back then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The angst expressed in this article is real. These are not just the emo writings of a depressed kid. This is the backlash of the children of the baby boomers against their parents, who grew up during the 60s, espoused free love, peace, and other hippy pop culture platitudes, and yet, became the worst generation, squandering all of the greatest generation's (grandparents) hard won treasure and resources, outsourcing their kids futures to Asia so they could have cheaper electronics. Squandering their national treasure and good standing in the world, that the grandparents fought so hard to win in WW2, so they could fight pointless wars and get enough cheap energy to drive unsustainable land yachts to their unsustainable McMansions in the burbclaves.

There are a lot of reasons that the current generation has to be angry with their parents. They've destroyed the economy, the jobs market, and are well on their way to destroying the planet. They'll retire in the next decade supported by a ponzi scheme (social security) on the backs of their children. The world is less safe, less secure, and more violent because of them.

I can't help but look at Japan in the 90s and think that we are in for a repeat of that. An aging workforce, being constantly downsized and outsourced. No new jobs for college graduates, so they must live with their parents until their 30s or 40s. Property deflation over decades because their parents refused to acknowledge the losses on their overpriced houses. The parallels between Japan in the 90s and US in the 2010s are eerily similar. Study their culture to see what is next.

I don't know what the answer is, but I can tell you that if the younger generations don't get involved in politics, the world will be destroyed by the older generations before we get a chance to truly participate.

<comment><USER9> "This is the backlash of the children of the baby boomers against their parents, who grew up during the 60s, espoused free love, peace, and other hippy pop culture platitudes, and yet, became the worst generation"

And built the internet. And kept social security afloat for years after it was supposed to become bankrupt (most of those people now using it also paid into it, remember). And did a thousand other things. What makes you think this generation will be any more responsible? Greed and ignorance are basic human conditions and are in no short supply in any generation.

<comment><USER8> Besides building the Internet, which arguably grew from funding started in the 50s under DARPA (making it more an achievement of their parents, the greatest generation, who funded it), what other legacy or accomplishments have the boomer generation made?

<comment><USER10> IIRC the funding of Internet research in DARPA is in 60s.

Thanks to boomers in USA. They enable all my fellow people in East Asia lives a better live than my grandparents due to free trade.

Thanks to boomers in USA, now Rock, Punk, Alternatives, Hiphop music styles influence the music styles around the world. I hope you have patience to sit through traditional Japanese style music performance.

Thanks to boomers in USA, now we can have all cool movies from 70s and 80s to watch. All the exploitation movies in 70s are awesome.

Thanks to boomers in USA, now a homosexual/bisexual person can live life with less stigma, I think that's pretty fair to 10% of the population.

Thanks to boomers in USA, they dream about cheap personal computer that we can type rubbish into. Now we can generate so many bits that we never thought that we can capture them before.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm a twenty something and this article embarrasses me. I'm a hard working financially independent person who busted my ass and am getting by just fine. Despite what your mommy and daddy told you, life's tough. I know more people like myself then I do sharing this authors whiny attitude.

<comment><USER12> _I know more people like myself then I do sharing this authors whiny attitude._

Of course you do--just like almost everyone I meet here in SF is a well-paid designer, manager/CEO, or engineer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This sounds like something anyone could have written when I was 20 without batting an eye. The illusion of a gold watch, retirement, a guaranteed job after college, were all known to be suspect or a complete myth by at least the 1980s. Raised to be aware of the plights of others? I remember "We are the world" and "adopting" impoverished African children with a monthly food stipend. Seriously, there's probably a lot of interesting stuff that could be said about current 20-somethings in general, none of them were presented here.

<comment><USER13> I agree. The rot in our society started with the Reagan Era. 2008 didn't make it suddenly appear; it just brought it back to the surface. The OP has a just grievance, but she's comparing the world she faces to the _Mad Men_ era of social mobility, when her parents were (probably) children.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> If this generation doesn't value or have any faith in the traditional employee/employer relationship, then are new YC companies (founded by people this age) finding ways to create a new employee relationship structure which represents this feeling?

<comment><USER15> I think that is already happening to a large extent. More and more people are founding their own little companies to fund side-projects and do consulting work. The workplace of the future may simply be a collection of loosely coupled people writing each other invoices.

<comment><USER14> Yep, but that's not what I'm asking. Listen to any Mixergy podcast, and what does every company do? Hire people. I want to know what companies founded by gen-Y folks are doing to acknowledge the new thinking about the employer/employee relationship.

<comment><USER16> Contracting.

It's like a job, but with fewer false promises and expectations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Working as I do on a very old mainframe/financial system, my youngest co- workers are in their 30's. For some reason, all of the under-50 mainframers I encounter are Hispanic or Indian or Asian while all us older guys (yes, 95% guys) are Caucasian. Could it be the tech schools that churn out mainframers only attract the poor, motivated guys who want the quickest path to a job (that was my own route, BTW). The younger immigrant guys are absolute workhorses and they don't bring their politics and environmental consciousness to work. They are worthy heirs to the code edifice we have built. The old guys don't mess around and worry too much either--we're too busy hacking COBOL and assembler and coveting muscle cars and other toys that we can finally afford. Oh, and we who started in IT in the 1970's and 1980's didn't start out with any guarantees, lifetime jobs, or easy rows to hoe. TwentySomething, keep plugging away on your own behalf and don't identify too strongly with the self-pitying ones in your generation.

</comment><comment><USER18> _"It forces an early decision about what's important in life. No matter how it appears while looking down from 25 years up the corporate ladder, we are decidedly chasing our own ideals, even when things seem hopeless."_

Here's my generalization:

From everything I see Generation-Y has been protected from having to make any such decisions. It's been the only generation where it's been OK to live at home with your parents until 30. So how are you making any tough decisions doing that?

When we graduated in the 90's droves of workers were being let go during the recession, only back then we were expected to deal with it an survive without. And we didn't live at home.

When we looked for work, we'd spend everyday going door to door with resumes, or phoning every business in our phone books, but generation-Y signs-up to a bunch of job feeds and rarely do they bother spending an entire day trying.

It maybe that I am in the wrong circles, but every generation-Y I've met, can stay home and video-game in the event things go wrong.

That said, I learned a valuable lesson about 10 years back, and that is no matter how much one likes to think they're not self-centered they are - it's human nature. No matter the generation. And the statements made through-out this article, my own posting, and others, have re-enforced this for me.

</comment><comment><USER19> There's a lot of macho posturing and 'get off my lawn; in my day, uphill both ways...' comments in this thread, but I'm actually in agreement with this article, I'm 24. It does come across a little whiny, but the point is there: my cohort (I like this word better, see jgrahamc's comment) takes a lot of abuse from people who say that we're lazy, entitled, and don't want to actually work.

What I see is the disparity between my grandparents' generation and my own, that the author alludes to: people used to actually work for companies for 30+ years. Their loyalty was actually repaid. My grandfather worked at a steel mill his entire adult life, never changed jobs, and was paid reasonably and offered a decent pension. Now, we know that model doesn't work anymore, but when employers treat employees as 'resources'... you can't be confused by some push back. This is the entire reason I'm an entrepreneur; I know for a fact that large corporations try to create the same feelings of loyalty in me that my grandfather had, because it's useful to them. But on the other side of the deal, I'll just be tossed aside when it looks like we might not hit quarterly projections.

Fuck that. I'm not going to be loyal to someone who doesn't also respect me; that's an abusive relationship.

I don't have any illusions that my generation will change the world; every generation has thought that, and they all end up selling out. But I do feel that we're defining success differently, our priorities have changed from our parents', and things will be slightly different, even if they're not better.

</comment><comment><USER20> The author really ought to replace "we" with "I".

</comment><comment><USER21> It's like reading a horoscope in the first person plural - i.e. flattering generalities that make the target feel good/virtuous/whatever.

</comment><comment><USER13> This could have just as easily been written by a Gen Xer or a Late Boomer. The problem is that people who are 25 now are comparing their economic fortune not to those of people born 10 years earlier, but to those of people born 30 to 50 years earlier, who entered the working world in the _Mad Men_ era.

If you were late Silent or early Boomer (b. 1930 to 1950) you faced an extraordinarily easy career game. Even in advertising, the era's analogue of banking, people left work at 6:00. Unlike those who are young now, you didn't have to bust your ass through college and internships. People dropping acid at Woodstock in '69 could walk into executive-track corporate jobs in '70 and be VPs by '72. They had it really fucking easy. Today you can't get a decent entry-level job with a 3.4 GPA and no internship.

The sunny era, however, didn't end in 2008 or 2001, but much earlier. If you were leaving college in the mid-1970s stagflation era, you'd missed it. There were small, blippy, "booms" localized to a few industries (banking, then oil/gas, then dot-coms, then oil/gas, then real estate, then banking) in the next three decades, but the general prosperity never came back.

</comment><comment><USER22> hey but we have iPad and not to mention the cool new iPod Nano [the touch one] , and plus iPhone 4G with FaceTime. Plus we are a better generation we don't buy cheap P.C. rather we have hypnosis inducing Apple Mac Book Pro's.

<comment><USER15> hey, but we have refrigeration and television (50s) ... hey, but we have VCRs and Walkmans (80s) ... hey, what was your point again?</comment></comment>


Kubernetes Security Tools Abound - <AUTHOR> https://searchitoperations.techtarget.com/news/252475750/New-Kubernetes-security-tools-abound-as-container-deployments-grow <comment><USER2> I find it interesting that companies can convince auditors that security sidecars that add auth and encryption actually meet compliance requirements... it's a nice architecture but I'd argue it renders the environment non- compliant.

</comment><comment><USER3> As a (perhaps overly cynical) outside observer it feels that "kubernetes X abound" for all X. There's just such a complex ecosystem of tooling evolving here.</comment>


Show HN: JSAutoTest - <AUTHOR> http://jsautotesting.herokuapp.com/app/launch.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Create scripts to test your website from web interface</comment>