Court affirms jail time for Pirate Bay founders - <AUTHOR> http://www.thelocal.se/30454/20101126/ <comment><USER2> "In two years, this type of piracy will be over. After a ruling like this and all the pioneers start to get older and have children and families, piracy won't occur to this extent."

The only way I can see this type of piracy being over in two years is if the media industries up and die so there's nothing left to steal.

I wonder how much this case actually cost the media industries to litigate. The actual fines involved are relatively small, so it would be interesting to know whether the record companies will be able to use the fines to cover their legal fees.

<comment><USER3> Copyright infringement is not stealing.

Stealing happens when I take resource from you in a way that denies you that resource, e.g. taking money or property, using your time without paying an agreed price.

Copyright infringement happens when I don't follow your artificial scarcity rules. You aren't denied any resource you had before my infringement.

Please stop calling copyright infringement stealing. It is not. Doing so is an oversimplification of the issue designed to induce unwarranted feelings of guilt in people (due to western notions of Stealing is Wrong).

<comment><USER4> Sorry, but no.

If you jump the fence at a concert, or sneak into a movie theater, you are guilty of "Theft of Services". Note that this type of theft does _not_ deprive the original owner that resource.

If you want to pretend you are not stealing something when you infringe on copyright, that's up to you; I'd suggest that this is _an oversimplification of the issue designed to induce unwarranted feelings of innocence_

One last thing: since when is "Stealing is Wrong" a "western" notion? The Buddhist prohibition on stealing is even more extreme in its condemnation of the type of behavior you are defending.

<comment><USER5> First of all, there is no such thing as a Buddhist 'prohibition' of anything. The precepts are trainings that describe skillful ways to live, and are much more like guidelines which can vary wildly from person to person and must be worked out individually

Secondly, while I can't know for sure, I think the 'Stealing is Wrong' mentality is not a statement about whether stealing is good or bad, but how strongly it is stigmatized in the west. So, likening some other unrelated activity (such as copyright infringement) to theft has a powerful mental effect.

Finally, if you sneak into a movie theater or jump the fence at a concert, you are actually taking up a seat or space that could have been used by a paying customer. This isn't the same thing as downloading digital goods, in which your use of these goods has no impact on the producer _unless_ it prevented you from purchasing something you otherwise might have.

Copyright infringement is not an innocent act, but all acts of infringement are not considered equal. Honestly, I feel like you're the one oversimplifying things.

<comment><USER4> _First of all, there is no such thing as a Buddhist 'prohibition' of anything. The precepts are trainings that describe skillful ways to live, and are much more like guidelines which can vary wildly from person to person and must be worked out individually_

Umm, no. Some modern Buddhist traditions may treat the precepts as "guidelines which can vary wildly from person to person", but that's a fairly recent innovation. The precepts (including the lay precepts) are described in painful detail in the Pali canon, the Agamas, and some Mahayana Sutras, and although the details of the prohibitions differ somewhat between various traditions, all of them go far beyond "guidelines". Trust me on this one.

Second: I ask again-- do you know a non-Western culture where theft is _not_ stigmatized?

Finally: taking up space or a seat is not a factor in the legal definition of "theft of services"-- theft of Cable TV holds as well. The salient characteristc (which coincidentally agrees with the Buddhist precept) is "taking that which is not given."

I understand that you'd like to divorce copyright infringement from the notion of theft, based on the physical deprivation of goods, but the legal notion of theft is (and as far as I know, has always been) a great deal broader than that, however inconvenient this happens to be to your conscience.

<comment><USER5> _Trust me on this one._

Okay, I trust you now. Congratulations, you've won an argument on the internet, and you didn't even need a citation.

<comment><USER4> My point was, I'd rather not provide the citations, but I could. I'm just finishing up an M.A. in Buddhist Studies, and as part of a Buddhist Ethics course I recently did some work on the scriptural bases of the precepts in five different canons, but I really didn't think anyone here would be interested in the details. I was hoping that you'd be willing to just take my word on the issue.

<comment><USER5> This is quite interesting and I think that rather than saying 'trust me', by providing a bit of background it makes it much more likely for us to have a productive conversation. But for what it's worth, while I don't have an academic background in it, I'm a Buddhist practitioner.

Every retreat I've been on, and every book I've read has presented the precepts as a set of mindfulness trainings, and specifically distinguishes the concept of precept from the concept of 'commandment' or law.

We talked past each other, but to say that Buddhist ethics are stronger about things like 'not taking anything which is not freely given' is indeed correct. But equating that with theft is still not meant to be taken literally.

If we were to go down that road, much of what I've read about the precept not to commit murder also applies to speaking harshly to someone. I've always understood this as figurative, and valuable. But I am not going to call someone who harms someone through their words a murderer.

I feel like you are emphasizing too much on the words you are reading and not the intent or meaning behind them. That was the point I wanted to make, and hopefully I've done that now.

<comment><USER4> _Every retreat I've been on, and every book I've read has presented the precepts as a set of mindfulness trainings, and specifically distinguishes the concept of precept from the concept of 'commandment' or law._

Let me guess: Thich Nhat Hanh?

Personally, I find the notion of "precepts as guidelines and not laws" to be attractive; I suppose a lot of Westerners do, too. Unfortunately, this is a very modern notion-- if you look at the (pre-20th-Century) literature, you'll find that the precepts _are_ treated as laws, and that they go into explicit detail, and leave very little to personal judgment.

 _We talked past each other, but to say that Buddhist ethics are stronger about things like 'not taking anything which is not freely given' is indeed correct. But equating that with theft is still not meant to be taken literally._

I disagree (as you might guess.) I'd argue that "taking that which is not given" is, literally, theft, and vice versa.

 _If we were to go down that road, much of what I've read about the precept not to commit murder also applies to speaking harshly to someone. I've always understood this as figurative, and valuable. But I am not going to call someone who harms someone through their words a murderer._

I've never come across that reading of the precepts; usually, the prohibition on lying is taken to include non-skillful speech. That is quite a figurative reading, indeed.

 _I feel like you are emphasizing too much on the words you are reading and not the intent or meaning behind them. That was the point I wanted to make, and hopefully I've done that now._

I'd suggest that in your attempt to separate the words and the intent, you run the risk of redefining words to mean what you wish them to mean.

You'd like to make a distinction between copyright infringement and theft, based on a physical analogy; but, as I've pointed out, the notion of theft has always been broader than that. The intent is clear: you're not permitted to take that which is not given-- whether it is a physical object, or a service, or a copyrighted work.

<comment><USER5> Please show some examples of pre-20th-century Buddhist literature that goes into very explicit detail about the precepts leaving little to personal judgment.

I've been reading from modern teachers, because Buddhism is a living religion, not something that was laid down in absolute terms centuries ago. But I have read a bit of the older texts through English translation and just have not seen the sort of strictness that you are implying.

Providing some specific excerpts would really help move this discussion forward.

<comment><USER4> I'll be happy to. I'm at home now, and my texts are at my office, but I can email some references to you tomorrow, if your contact details are on your HN profile.

In the mean-time, the Wikipedia page on the Patimokkha (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patimokkha>) lists the monastic precepts for the Theravada tradition; even in schematic form, you can see that they are quite detailed. When you add on Buddhaghosa's commentary in the Kankhavitarani, things get quite detailed indeed.

<comment><USER5> From everything I've read and heard from teachers, the practices for monastics are extremely finely detailed specifically because it forces those who go that route to be mindful of what they are doing each and every moment.

But this is a voluntary practice and has to do with amplifying some basic foundational ideas of non-harming and mindfulness so that you can see them in minute details. Nowhere have I ever seen Buddhist teachings that imply that it should be the goal of the laypeople to take on the monastic precepts. Even throughout history the vast majority of Buddhist practitioners were bound only by the 5 lay precepts.

Again, I think that if you're a non-practitioner, from the outside it might seem strange that such things are meant as 'trainings' and not 'rules'. That having been said, there are certainly cases where these rules are taken very seriously. You can read the book 'Turtle Feet' for a contemporary look into how political and bureaucratic the Tibetan monastics can be.

What I've been told is that the Buddha taught in many, many different ways depending on his intended audience. So when he was speaking to plain, common folks, he gave them simple instructions to follow. For some devotional types, he constructed elaborate and complex rituals to help with practice. I think that you may be studying the more complex end of things and missing some of the less academic teachings.

I think that there are two phenomena here that we should distinguish with modern Buddhism. One is the sort of new-age culture that has taken the words of Thich Nhat Hahn and the Dalai Lama and turned Buddhism into a sort of 'feel good' spirituality that isn't very deep. This isn't the fault of the teacher, but of a mass audience hungry for some good feelings.

But then there are also people like Jack Kornfield, Steve Armstrong, Larry Rosenberg, Henepola Gunaratana, Pema Chodron, and many others who have taken a more westernized, but still faithful way of representing Buddhism in the West. This is again speaking from the viewpoint of a non-academic, but I'm also not just a 'true believer', so I've done enough of my homework to feel like you're making too strong of a statement about what precepts are meant to express.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 30 million kronor is around 4.2 mil USD. I'm guessing that's not going to happen.

I lost track of the story shortly after they were found guilty. Did they get scooped up by the police or are they in refuge somewhere?

I applaud these gents for standing so tall against their attackers, even against the threat of a judgment like this.

It's just a shame that the music industry is still wasting time on issues like these. Thank god I wasn't arrested for sharing cassette tapes in my early teens.

<comment><USER7> In Sweden, I think the punishment isn't actually enforced until final verdict has been given.

There's still one more instance (and possibly EU court after that one) to appeal through.

<comment><USER8> True. For many cases, the dates of the jail-time to serve can even be negotiated to some extent.

<comment><USER9> That's also true for other European countries. And it also makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> And the RIAA lands another awesome strike of the sword into the ocean.

The more they fight piracy in this way, the further they push file trading into completely untrackable recesses of the internet.

It's actually a good thing in the long run, I suppose. Between this and the Homeland DNS grab, soon we'll have an alternative internet where everything is encrypted, routed through ZKS systems, untrackable, and completely outside of government control.

<comment><USER11> as long as its limited to the edges of the technical community and not 80% of high school kids, they're more or less "fine" with that

<comment><USER12> 'Cept it won't be for long - as soon as a program is written that works like freenet but allows you to download songs like napster did, any teen-age kid will get their hands on it, and it will replace napster as the worlds most used program.

<comment><USER13> Freenet has serious speed issues to resolve before anything like it would be viable.

<comment><USER10> I'm sure an influx of a few million well-connected nodes on college campuses (running on standard ports of other services and disguised to look like valid packets of those services) would help sort out the speed issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> As a citizen of neighbouring Denmark, I find this a truly grim day. How can something like copyright infringement result in a prison term ?

And don't even get me started with the whole "A torrent tracker is copyright infringement" argument. Jeez!

<comment><AUTHOR> Good question. The verdict actually states that you normally shouldn't be sentenced to prison for this type of crime. Instead the court motivates the prison sentences with upholding "law-abidingness" as file-sharing has become "a problem for society". Which is a bit scary if you ask me.

If you read Swedish, this conclusion is on the top of page 47 in the verdict @ <http://fildelning.se/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/TPB.pdf>

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Murdering bits (deleting them) will get you nothing, but copying bits (creating more of them) will get you a jail sentence. And in this case it's allowing access to bits that allow _other people_ to copy bits,

It's a bizarre world, and I think stuff like this is a direct consequence of subscribing to legal fictions.

</comment><comment><USER16> Between rulings like this and the pressure that these companies are exerting on small websites, it would be impossible for a Youtube to emerge today. What's more, this has a sort of chilling effect, with more and more companies shying away from potentially dangerous ideas and moving to safe, consumer internet applications like a million twitter clients that bore you to death. I fear for the future of the internet as I know it.

</comment><comment><USER17> TorrentFreak article: [http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-appeal- verdict-101126...](http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-appeal- verdict-101126/)</comment>


Linux Dash – Simple web-based server monitoring - <AUTHOR> http://linuxdash.com/

<comment><USER2> It looks like a cool project and the interface pretty well done too. Good job.

Is there something particular you want to specifically mention that has happened since you last shared the app five months ago? - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7125153](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7125153)

Anyways, as this is shared here on a developer oriented forum, it would be fitting to speak of the actual implementation too. Taking quick look at the source, it seems to have some security issues ranging from XSS to potential CE. These seem to arise from common bad practices.

I would advice going through the source code and making sure all values you echo as JSON are properly encoded and that you don't use anything as-is in a shell command.

Few examples:

\- [https://github.com/afaqurk/linux- dash/blob/7bd5dcb637f815702...](https://github.com/afaqurk/linux- dash/blob/7bd5dcb637f815702bcd40e9058fd6604d62df4c/sh/where.php#L15) \- [https://github.com/afaqurk/linux- dash/blob/7bd5dcb637f815702...](https://github.com/afaqurk/linux- dash/blob/7bd5dcb637f815702bcd40e9058fd6604d62df4c/sh/ip.php#L18) \- [https://github.com/afaqurk/linux- dash/blob/7bd5dcb637f815702...](https://github.com/afaqurk/linux- dash/blob/7bd5dcb637f815702bcd40e9058fd6604d62df4c/sh/ip.php#L31)

<comment><AUTHOR> You are absolutely on point. I am currently cleaning up the code base and trying to instill a better directory/file structure. Since the last post, it has added more widgets, changes to existing widgets, and been put up on a new domain. Seeking feedback to help it mature a bit.

<comment><USER3> I actually really like this, thank you!

Some feedback to the author,

I deployed it on apache with a .htaccess limited to my domain to limit security issues. Pretty trivial. Perhaps you could expand your documentation on this note. Just include a few lines on how to stick a file in the root folder with something like this

RewriteEngine on Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from IP or partial IP Allow from domain

Also make sure the overall apache config has a directory tag with allowoverride all. Debain defaults to allowing none.

The most important widgets for me are general info, load average, ram, disk usage (actually, I would mostly like a widget that highlights when a disk is below 90% free space, so maybe that is a new widget) and processes. I changed it so these are sorted at the top by default, also I changed the sorting when clicking on cpu/memory etc to display the highest values instead of the reverse which is the default. I dont know how much of this is something you would like to implement, and all of it is trivial, but if you want my changes reach out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This has really come a long way since I last used it however I wish it didn't have the php dependency (not so much php, but php+apache/nginx).

IMO something self contained like a static (go) binary or another language that could host its own servers (node, java, etc) would be much better

<comment><AUTHOR> There are actually quite a few github users who have ported the project to Go, Ruby, Python, etc. I believe there already exists a popular java based alternative.

Node would be awesome for a project like this. Especially with Gulp. If someone hasn't already built it, I would love to.

<comment><USER5> Node would be overkill for a project like this, though. It's a lot to install, manage, compile, etc. just for a simple, relatively static dashboard that just collects basic stats, especially if your package manager doesn't have v8 and node in its repos.

I feel as though the great thing about this project is its drop-in-ness (which is difficult to provide without PHP) and its flexibility; for example, I can put this on a server behind Apache, running PHP, and set up LDAP authentication to restrict access to it. With Node, that's a huge amount more work for little to no gain (since I would probably just put it behind Apache anyway).

Just my two cents, but as much as I find PHP distasteful, it really does feel like the best tool for the niche the tool currently serves.

A simple Python version that could serve out JSON data and a nice frontend that could collect and display it all (in groups) would be a nice way of having essentially a live munin graph. That would be cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Take a look at Amonone - [https://github.com/martinrusev/amonone](https://github.com/martinrusev/amonone) It is a lightweight monitoring tool written in Python with charts for all system(cpu,disk,network,etc) and process metrics(cpu/memory). Plus it has alerting with email/sms notifications.

</comment><comment><USER7> Redhat is pushing their new "cockpit"[1] project very hard for their new "Project Atomic"[2] initiative.

[1] [http://cockpit-project.org/](http://cockpit-project.org/) [2] [http://www.projectatomic.io/](http://www.projectatomic.io/)

<comment><USER8> I find it rather crazy that "cockpit", an almost brand new project has its entire backend written in C. Not your typical backend language by any means...

<comment><USER9> Well it does make deploymeny really simple, since it'll have such light dependencies. If it's statically linked it could even be as simple as unpacking a tar file.

<comment><USER10> Go can also compile to a static binary. Haskell almost (libgmp is the only hard dependency).

<comment><USER5> Go is less useful on older systems, since you have to go out and get the Go compiler/etc. and compile them yourself before you can compile anything else, whereas you can expect that all systems (not just recent ones) have a C compiler installed.

<comment><USER11> What's wrong with compiling elsewhere and transporting the binary there?

Also, there are builds of the compiler that one can use, you're not usually forced to compile the compiler.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Also check out Cockpit [0] for a similar, pre-dating project.

[0] [http://cockpit-project.org](http://cockpit-project.org)

</comment><comment><USER13> I been using this one -> [https://github.com/abimaelmartell/system_monitor](https://github.com/abimaelmartell/system_monitor)

I tried yours, but i was to buggy when i tried it, also insecure. I saw some exec($COOKIE).

Hope you improved it. I will give a second try!

</comment><comment><USER14> Do you have plans to break apart the monitoring and reporting, so that one monitoring node could monitor the statistics of multiple servers? Something like www.scoutapp.com (proprietary) or Cacti (open source). That would be really cool. I'm growing a network of 100's of servers, and not about to pay scoutapp $10 per server... so something equivalently nice looking, but open source, would be awesome.

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely. We recently created a multi-server branch for linux-dash. It just began but the goal is exactly what you stated: single, consolidated Linux-dash page for N servers with the same drop-in installation capability.

<comment><USER14> What's the progress like? Are you strapped for time? If you need help funding this specific aspect, I would be interested in fixed-rate contract work. Email in profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Awesome. Can you make it work on a mobile? I can only assume its the viewport meta tag with user-scalable=no.

The design isn't exactly setup for mobile so you may as well make it work like a real webpage.

<comment><AUTHOR> A recent commit messed up mobile. Sucks that it happened right before I posted.

Will address it soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Not a great idea to just leave your phpinfo() out there in the open.

</comment><comment><USER17> It reports 300KB/s upload and 5.9MB/s download speed for my server, but I'm pretty sure it's symmetrical...

</comment><comment><USER18> Is it possible to use this to send metrics to Graphite for example?

</comment><comment><USER19> what does this offer that command line tools and status line indicators do not?

<comment><USER20> A web GUI.

<comment><USER21> First time I giggled at a comment on here in a while (=</comment></comment></comment>


There's too many programming languages - <AUTHOR> http://pointersgonewild.com/2015/10/06/theres-too-many-programming-languages/ <comment><USER2> > I've never written a single line of Go, but I've used C, C++ and D. I'm sure > I could get started writing Go code within a few hours, and become > reasonably proficient within a week. Go doesn't scare me.

That's cute, right? I can only critique this because I'm a total hypocrite, and guilty of thinking and saying such things. And while it is true, you can learn a lot in a week, and be "reasonably proficient" under some definition of "reasonably proficient", you will probably never look back after your first year and feel like you knew enough to claim proficiency after week 1. Hell, I spent 20 years practicing C++ professionally, and never in all that time did I feel reasonably proficient. I suppose that's a known problem with C++, but I digress. I don't know any Erlang, but I've used Scheme, so look out next week!</comment>


Is your city getting ready for autonomous vehicles? - <AUTHOR> http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/ <comment><USER2> IMO, making it easier to drive will increase the number of people who commute. There isn't enough space to add extra lanes to facilitate the increase in traffic these vehicles will cause. I think we should be working on other transportation problems.

<comment><USER3> I don't agree. Self-driving cars can solve the "last-mile" problem and I am convinced that they are actually the most important tool for building the 21. century public-transportation.

At least in Europe, public transportation is usually pretty good already and there is a lot of capacity left unused because while trains are going relatively deep into the suburbs and countryside, they only serve those living next to it. Self-driving cars could unlock this potential.

Edit: If you look at for example Munich, I don't think self-driving cars will be a challenge to the public transportation inside the city. But they can help getting completely rid of your own car (or alleviate the desire to buy one).

<comment><USER4> Cheaper, more efficient and better "last mile" solutions: Bicycle share in protected bike lanes, a pleasant walk.

<comment><USER5> Generally yes, but you still need a solution for the cases not covered by those, like my 84-year-old neighbor who has kidney dialysis twice a week, and who can't really walk more than a few meters anymore.

The trick is to cover every case but nudge people to take the less demanding option if they can. Easier said than done, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Ottawa just became the first Canadian city to have a self-driving car actually on the road. It should be on the list.

[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/driverless-car-test- ott...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/driverless-car-test-ottawa- canadian-first-1.4351976)

</comment><comment><USER7> Can we fix polluting vehicles first?

<comment><USER8> Unfortunately, no, because all of the current owners of said vehicles are incredibly possessive and covetous of such objects, and prone to exerting their influence of similar attitudes over their peers.

Self driving cars, owned by faceless organizations can be silently converted after the fact, effectively subverting the psychological ploy of keeping-up- with-the-joneses style peer pressure, which has held a death grip on the lifestyles of puny materialistic mortals for decades now, as demonstrated by beer advertising, cigarette advertising, vacuous fashion trends and so on. In fact, apply this principle to pretty much every bad habit you can imagine.

<comment><USER9> > Unfortunately, no, because all of the current owners of said vehicles are > incredibly possessive and covetous of such objects

I think most of us can't afford to take out $10,000-$250,000 loans to replace working assets we already own that have 5-10 good years left on them.

<comment><USER8> Oh, but what about wealthy corporations rendering autonomous vehicle services, either as their primary offering, or as an ancillary side business?

You could own shares in such a company, purchase a subscription to summon vehicles at a rate, or buy a vehicle and resell its autonomy, offsetting the expense. One might view some of these options as a form of collective ownership, and so it might not just be _you_ owning one on your own, but maybe contributing to the partial ownership of one or more vehicles.

<comment><USER9> I don't live in a place where any of that stuff will be practical or is coming for the next 5 years.

<comment><USER8> I didn't speak to whether or not this applies to anything expected to happen within 5 years, or ever at all, or whether you should expect this to be practical information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I remember the transport minister of India claiming that he would ban self- driving cars to protect the jobs of drivers. No city in India is even close to ready for self driving vehicles.

<comment><USER11> I can appreciate the core of what he's trying to do.

Autonomous vehicles can bring about a lot of good. They can also bring about massive consolidation of work and wealth in the hands of the few fleet owners that will inevitably emerge.

A society in which driving, one of the principal means of employment, no longer exists, is going to suffer a long list of negative externalities that the proponents never take into account.

A better solution would be to encourage the growth of autonomous vehicles but create an environment in which the ownership of said vehicles is largely distributed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> That's not "getting ready for", it's "experimenting with".

Also, cities (mostly) shouldn't have to "get ready" for self-driving cars; self-driving cars should start self-driving in current cities.

<comment><USER13> But there are a lot of effects on the city as a result, which the city should prepare for. For example, parking lots will be less necessary in zoning rules, when people use Uber-like apps and self driving cars.

<comment><USER12> I'm far from convinced we can already draw that conclusion.

People currently are willing to spend quite a bit more than necessary to own an extension of their home (and, in some cases, their ego) that brings them to work.

If self-driving cars become affordable, I am not sure that will change. For example, people who can afford to will still want to store stuff (sports equipment, spare sets of clothing, and baby seats) in _their_ cars, just as they do now, so that they have to move it less often.

Also, for driving to work, I don't see self-driving cars make more than one trip a day, and cities would likely prefer most self-driving cars to park during the day, rather than circle around town.

So, given that we don't really know the effect self-driving cars will have, I don't think cities can start guessing at the required infrastructure, given that it will be expensive and take decades to build.

On the other hand, cities can do one thing that is known to be good, regardless whether self driving cars will need less parking: build more and better cycling infrastructure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Autonomous vehicles and the good city [https://youtu.be/2kBEvg8bftE](https://youtu.be/2kBEvg8bftE)

</comment><comment><USER15> Interesting lists. Sadly, at the moment all the city links seem to be broken so I'm not sure what's supposed to be there.

<comment><USER16> They worked for me:

[http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/global- atlas/americas/us/au...](http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/global- atlas/americas/us/austin-us)

[http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/global- atlas/americas/us/na...](http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/global- atlas/americas/us/nashville-us)

[http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/global- atlas/oceania/nz/auc...](http://avsincities.bloomberg.org/global- atlas/oceania/nz/auckland-nz)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Using Flask for the product - <AUTHOR>

I want to build MVP and I'm thinking about the tech stack that I should choose. The app will be basic CRUD application that gather data from 100 e-mail and show a report to the user. Later on there will be analytics, sharing etc. B2B, max 2000 Users.
My first choice is Flask + Heroku + PostgreSQL. Ideally I want something that is very easy to build MVP, but not totally to throw away later on. Hoodie is interesting, but I need backend.
Any Java, Scala, Python, js, Go suggestion? <comment><USER2> There is obviously no black or white answer for this but I would say go for it using Flask + heroku + PostgreSQL. Flask is excellent in terms of rapid prototyping and even though it does not come with batteries included like other bigger frameworks, it makes up for it through its excellent Extension Ecosystem. Check out Flask-SQLAlchemy, Flask-Login, Flask-WTForms, Flask- Scripts etc. Excellent documentation for everything. I have not used Heroku personally yet but they do offer free tier.

I am pretty sure that flask is not a throwaway framework. Lately on Stackoverflow careers, I see a few companies using flask in production if that's one way to measure it. See this [http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?searchTerm=flask](http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs?searchTerm=flask)

</comment><comment><USER3> Honestly, I would either choose Python or a JVM language.

The nice thing about Python is that the library support is amazing, and there is a fairly easy path to performance improvements using PyPy and/or wrapped C code.

Obviously a JVM language will have a huge ecosystem of libraries and good performance out of the box. I prefer Python as a language but that is entirely personal.

While Go is really popular around here, the language doesn't have a very ecosystem of libraries.

</comment><comment><USER4> We use Flask + MongoDB + Heroku at Spreadgit ([http://www.spreadgit.com](http://www.spreadgit.com)). Was meant to serve as an MVP initially but so far it's been awesome. as your project grows you can replace your module with packages etc. if you're going with PostgreSQL maybe it's worthwhile looking at Flask-SQLAlchemy?

</comment><comment><USER5> We use Flask in production at Mighty Spring ([https://www.mightyspring.com](https://www.mightyspring.com)). What started as a simple MVP has become a fully-featured web app and Flask has been great to work with along the way.

<comment><AUTHOR> awesome. you may want to add it here [http://flask.pocoo.org/community/poweredby/](http://flask.pocoo.org/community/poweredby/) :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You could also consider Google AppEngine [https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/python/](https://developers.google.com/appengine/docs/python/)</comment>


Buying a car using Python, RPI and Telegram - <AUTHOR> https://cwiok.pl/index.php/en/2020/07/04/buying-a-car-using-python-rpi-and-telegram/?hn <comment> Pick-A-Hill2019 A nice little bit of lateral thinking and easy enough to follow along, I mean sure there is always the " why not write it using _xyz_ " but I admire inventiveness. Couldn't see a contact email address on the site so hopefully his Telegram bot wasn't abused too badly by him accidentally posting the Auth token</comment>


Diet soda consumption linked to stroke and dementia - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/20/health/diet-sodas-stroke-dementia-study/ <comment><USER2> Abstract:

[http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/04/20/STROK...](http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/04/20/STROKEAHA.116.016027)

All source data precedes 2001, so I'm guessing that only aspartame and maybe Ace-K were included.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have had no success getting my father to give up his 'diet' beverages. There's something about the simplistic pseudo-science of 'no calories' that is seductive.

<comment><USER4> What's pseudo-science about it?

<comment><USER3> From wikipedia's article on pseudoscience:

>> Pseudoscience is often characterized by the following: contradictory, _exaggerated_ or unprovable claims; [...] and absence of systematic practices when developing theories.

Calling something 'diet' product is marketing. Replacing a product's sugar with fake-sugar and selling it for weight loss is a failure to consider the "systematic practices" of the body.

[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/systematic](https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/systematic)

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


The renegade future of Google's ATAP lab - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/a/sundars-google/atap-lab-regina-dugan-google-io-2015 <comment><USER2> Ok Google, stop diddling around and make her CEO already. She is redefining what a tech visionary is. Enjoy the love and work theme to all her talks.

</comment><comment><USER3> A friend is already doing some of this. [http://androidspin.com/2015/05/25/aria-for-smartwatches- brin...](http://androidspin.com/2015/05/25/aria-for-smartwatches-brings- gesture-controls-to-your-wrist-worn-wearables/)</comment>


The Big Picture (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/01/21.html

<comment><USER2> Needs a [2007] in the title.</comment>


Ask HN: How Do You Sleep? - <AUTHOR> For about two months I've been unable to get quality sleep. My productivity at work has hit an all time low and I'm even finding it difficult to stay awake while driving.<p>Does anyone else deal with these issues? Were you able to fix your sleep? <comment><USER2> Surprised nobody's mentioned it in this thread yet, but Matthew Walker's Why we Sleep [0] is a great in-depth look at sleep and how complex its interactions with our day-to-day routines/quality of life are. It has a lot of practical advice on improving it, most of which is summarized here [1].

I went from a varied sleep schedule, trying to catch up on the weekends, etc to a solid 7.5-8h routine every night and it's made a tremendous difference. Best of luck to you!

[0] [https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ1YGJ5/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_...](https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ1YGJ5/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_U.e5CbQ6BKQG9)

[1] [http://routineexcellence.com/why-we-sleep-book-review- summar...](http://routineexcellence.com/why-we-sleep-book-review-summary/)

<comment><USER3> Great book. He's also making the podcast rounds.

I enjoyed the term 8 hour sleep "opportunity", that he uses. Much more relatable for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Things that help me when I'm feeling tired or just struggling with keeping a normal sleeping pattern: 1\. try to cut coffee for a month. You'd be surprised how much it affects your sleep/eating habits. Or atleast it does for me.

2\. If you can find the time, work out

3\. Most people need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep. While it's also recommended to atleast get 1 block of 5 hours during sleeping.

4\. Water, get an healthy amount of water in a day (though don't start chugging like a mad men, I said an healthy amount)

5\. Having an balanced diet that is maintainable.

6\. Having a cold shower in the morning wakes me up, so does taking a dump

7\. Drop sweet drinks they're sugared water and hold more calories then you should drink

I'm not an doctor so take everything I say with an pinch of salt

<comment><USER4> Also if it's becoming bad you might just want to ask your local doctor.

Might also be worth to check if it's not due to too much stress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> A year ago I bought a memory foam pillow after reading positive reviews about it in Amazon.

At the beginning it felt hard, but I kept it, thinking that I'd get used to it. And I actually got used to it. Except that my sleep quality was deteriorating slowly without me noticing.

The pillow lead to a "hidden" neck pain that I was feeling all the time. During the last previous months my sleep was horrible, I'd randomly wake up a lot of times during the night.

Two weeks ago I thought about ditching the pillow. The results were magical : I've never felt having a better sleep during the past year, and my neck pain started disappearing.

I'm still surprised how a whole year has passed before I suspected that the pillow might be the cause.

<comment><USER6> I am living your past life. Suggestions on pillow for side / belly sleeper?

<comment><USER7> Latex foam pillows. Firm for side sleeping; soft for belly sleeping.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 1\. Cut caffeine (coffee, tea or energy drinks). The first 3 days suck. You should start sleeping better without stimulants.

2\. Avoid blue screens 1 or 2 hours before sleep. I used to read my books on a Kindle Fire. I started reading paper books at night.

3\. Exercise. The best time for exercising is when you have the time.

These three things should account for a significant improvement.

<comment><USER9> On top of 2: if you can't avoid screens, at least get a blue light filtering app like flux. It'll feel weird at first but you'll quickly get used to it.

<comment><USER10> I second this, I would even go as far as to say that now that I'm used to this filter on all my devices (desktop/laptop/mobile), I can't stand looking at a screen without a blue light filter in the evening. I get a headache pretty quickly after looking at a screen without the filter for over 5 minutes, in the evening.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I had that problem. Even 9 hours wouldn't rest me, as I wasn't getting quality sleep. Went to an ENT, who scheduled a sleep study. I have sleep apnea. Got a CPAP (on my third now, 14 years later). Since then, I'm fully charged with 6.5 hours of sleep. Consider a sleep study.

Caffeine after ~3pm is a no-go for me (other friends of mine have different cutoff times)

Also don't forget that alcohol can make sleep lower quality as well.

Working out regularly also helps, as well as avoiding screens for 1 hours before bed.

<comment><USER12> I have a cpap. How to you keep it on while you're asleep? I always end up taking mine off in my sleep an hour into the night

<comment><USER13> I tried maybe 5 different kinds of mask until I found what worked. Interestingly, according to the supplier I get stuff from, the masks are all pretty much compatible between manufacturers so there is a lot of scope if mask discomfort is the problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I am not a doctor but I want to tell you what really helped me. Magnesium Glycinate, Magnesium L-Threonate, L-Tryptophan. These are not sleeping pills. They are supplements to compensate for Magnesium and amino acid deficiencies which shouldn't exist in the first place. You don't need to take all three. For me L-Tryptophan works the best.

<comment><USER15> My sleep doctor recommended Magnesium Glycinate. I also take calcium and EPA fish oil. Takes about 6 weeks for me to notice any difference, but that combo solved my 5 years of insomnia. Good luck. Go see a sleep doctor, as you may have apnea and you need that diagnosed quickly. The sleep doctor will also likely have you try Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which did absolutely nothing for me.. might have made my insomnia worse, but the studies indicate it's effective for many. I also highly recommend not getting mixed up with any sleeping pills if you can avoid it. They're not a long term solution.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It might help to be more descriptive of your issue, so people can give better advice.

Is it that you're finding it difficult to decide to lay down and call it a day? Is it that you lay down, but can't fall sleep? Is it that you do fall sleep, but you don't feel rested on waking up? Is it that you're waking multiple times during the night and can't get into deep sleep? Do you feel physically or mentally tired? etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> My biggest issue is that I can't lie down in my bed and stop thinking. I'll be awake for hours with these random thoughts assaulting my head. Even if I do fall asleep, I'll then wake up 3 hours later and feel worse.

Another weird thing is that I feel sleepier during the day than I do at night.

<comment><USER17> What helped me immensely is simply writing it all down. By writing them down, I think my mind felt it could stop replaying them all because they were stored somewhere. I used to replay them in bed, when I was out walking, in the shower. It was exhausting and took up so much of my time. The same thoughts over and over. And on top of that, as I moved around my flat, I would see things that would remind me of unfinished projects, things I'd need to fix, and then I'd think about them.

So I made two lists. One for projects, one for worries.

The list of all the projects was for things I wanted to do. Things like learn piano, visit Moscow, floss more regularly, literally every project. I saved that on dropbox. It had over 60 or 70 projects on it. I added 50 on the first day, then as I thought of more things or saw the visual triggers (that cookbook I bought to learn to cook more meals, the light that doesn't work because it has a weird bulb), I would add them to the list immediately over the next few weeks.

And another list of all the things I was worried about. Might be things like the client is 3 days late on payment, does he have the money? Did I make a fool of myself at X's birthday? Why does Z keep shooting my ideas down so savagely. I put these all in a temporary tab in notepad++, mixed in with other tabs I tend to have open. It persists between turning the computer on and off, but if you close the tab without saving, it just gets deleted. As it was temporary, I felt I could put embarrassing or even mean thoughts on it. I think this had 7 or 8 things.

With the projects I soon realised I couldn't do 60 things at once and focused on 4. The list is there to find more projects to do as I finish stuff.

With the worries, next time I look at it, most of them are gone. And I just close it, gone forever. First time I closed it, it was so liberating. After doing that every now and again over a month or two, I only have to do it once every blue moon, it's a useful trick when I start feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Might not work for you, but worth a shot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Some tricks I like:

\- Magnesium bath (aka epsom salts)

\- Orally supplemented liquid magnesium (though I have heard folks say that absorbing magnesium through the skin is actually a better way than orally.)

\- Cold shower for 2-5 minutes, warm shower for 4-8 minutes, repeat and play with the times, ending on warm if your goal is sleep. Ending on cold if your goal is to be awake/get over a sickness.

Edit, also:

\- exercise, but not too late into the day

\- minimize late night screen time (duh. only mentioning it because I recently discovered the Accessibility-->Display Accommodations-->Color Filters on the Iphone. If you set it up to use a custom color tint and slide INTENSITY and HUE to max, then turn on the Accessibility Shortcut at the bottom of Accessibility, you can basically get your phone display set up to toggle a red light mode, which is much easier on the eyes at night)

\- somewhat controversially: cannabis

\- if you're dieting, save your carbs until the end of the day

\- meditation, yoga, foam rolling, stretching - immediately prior to bed

I also do random shit like wear a bite guard to prevent grinding and occasionally go through phases where I'll tape my mouth shut to promote nasal breathing

</comment><comment><USER18> \- Avoid all screens / blue light at least a half hour before bedtime

\- No phones in the bedroom

\- Eliminate light sources in the bedroom.. blackout curtains help a lot.

\- No coffee after 2pm

\- Lessen your daily stress as much as possible. (everyone is different so this is tough to generalize)

.. one thing that also really seems to help is listening to something while falling asleep. especially, and probably most importantly, something that you've already listened to many times before.

i'm a very light sleeper, and i thought this would never work for me, but it totally does.

I know friends that fall asleep with episodes of futurama or the office playing in the background. I usually choose foreign language audio books that I've listened to many times.

The listening takes your mind off whatever is keeping you awake, and the fact that you've listened to it many times before keeps you from needing to pay active attention.

These days I don't even set my audible sleep timer for more than 15 minutes.

\- Last tip is to make sure you have a routine. If you're not going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, it's difficult to develop a rhythm that your body will adjust to.

</comment><comment> rye-neat Black out curtains and block all other sources of light, sleep mask, ear plugs, and white noise (floor fan). It's silly but when I find my mind running I visualize myself putting that thought or idea on a shelf like it's a book.. this goes on maybe two or three more times and I'm OUT like a lightbulb on a switch.

</comment><comment><USER19> Currently, quite poorly.

I find that I don't get tired until 4-5am (pretty sure my sleep schedule is messed up). Since I work remote I can either work late, or I get up early with less sleep.

I previously tried to use melatonin at night, but I've been taking it less since I'm not sure if it's helping or not.

</comment><comment><USER20> I fixed my sleep by doing the following things:

#1: No before bed bad emotions or anxiety. Anything that'll get me anxious, angry or cause a fight mentally is stuff I try to avoid well before bed. (If you are married do not engage in conversation that can lead to an argument.)

#2: Make sure the room is cool and get a blanket. If the room is hot or the blanket too thick it'll make sleep uncomfortable at best.

#3: If you want to watch something before bed then it had better be boring. Boring stuff makes you want to stop watching something so you'll be less interested in that and more interested in sleeping. To make it easier, use an auto power-off mode for the device so you'll sleep without thinking about turning something off.

Those three helped me a lot.

</comment><comment><USER21> Very well thank you.

To be a little more serious, I sleep around 8 hours a night, usually from around 10 or 11 until 6 or 7. This fits well with sunset and sunrise times most of the year.

The biggest "hack" for me is getting up at the same time everyday. If you stay up an hour later or go to sleep a little earlier it's no big deal. Don't worry about waking up at night too, it's no big deal unless it's excessive.

Exercise helps. As does sleep hygiene. No screens in bed.

I don't think you need to buy a fancy pillow or mattress. I sleep on a cheap mat on the floor and it's fine.

<comment><USER22> If you stay up an hour later it's no big deal: so sometimes you go to sleep at midnight and wake up at 7?

<comment><USER21> Exactly. When you are well rested and in a good routine you can have late nights and be ok. Just watch out for the things that come with late nights: excessive alcohol, eating lots of food late etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Apart from the other excellent suggestions here:

\- check CO2 levels in your bedroom \- allergens(dust,pollen, etc) in your sleeping environment can cause breathing problems. \- Acid reflux can also cause sleep issues. I've had good results raising the head of the bed by 6 inches to reduce this. \- For daytime energy I've had very good results with supplemental potassium(500mg x 3). High daytime energy means more activity, which makes you tired, which makes falling asleep as night easier.

</comment><comment><USER24> Here's what I did:

\- Make your bedroom dark, quiet and cool

\- Get a memory foam pillow

\- Install blue-light filter on your phone, laptop or desktop (Twilight on Android, f.lux on Mac & Windows)

\- Have your Vitamin D levels checked, take supplements if necessary

\- Take 0.3 mg of Melatonin if you're having trouble sleeping

\- Read Say Good Night to Insomnia [0]

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Say-Good-Night-Insomnia-Drug- Free/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Say-Good-Night-Insomnia-Drug- Free/dp/0805089586/)

</comment><comment><USER25> I am currently working on it. Cutting caffeine didn't have much impact on my sleep. Meditating and taking a long walk kept anxiety levels in check that helped me sleep better. Further reflections here: [http://avichalp.me/2019/04/06/debugging- sleep.html](http://avichalp.me/2019/04/06/debugging-sleep.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> 1) no caffeine or stimulants afternoon 2) exercise 20m-1hr daily 3) smoke/vape a weed a couple hours before bed 4) rub one out

Out like a light.

<comment> frosted-flakes #1 and #3 give conflicting advice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> What does your caffeine/stimulant intake look like? Try cutting all stimulants if you use any.

What does your exercise schedule look like? Try (at least at the beginning) light exercise for an hour a day and at least several hours before you go to bed. This can be activities as simple as brisk walking.

Try going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm having trouble to wake up rested lately, no matter if I sleep 7 hours, 8 hours, 10 hours or if I take a nap during the day.

I actually have some sleeping suplements like tryptophan and melatonin in my shopping cart ready to buy them.

<comment><USER29> Do a sleep study. Any number of hours can be insufficient if you have sleep apnea, as the body is not getting the rest it needs.

I had the same problem. Using a CPAP since over 2 years now, and it has been life changing. The effect wasn't evident overnight for me and I think I am still recovering from decades of lack of proper sleep due to the apnea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I prefer to stay up until I'm dead tired. Unfortunately, you can only do this if you have flexible working time and can adjust your sleep pattern accordingly. For me this is working because of self-employment.

</comment><comment><USER31> [https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ftihdStck](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ftihdStck)

... according to the military also it works

</comment><comment><USER32> Buy the best bed, mattress, pillows, and sheets you can afford, because that makes a huge difference. Climbing into bed should feel refreshingly comfy.

</comment><comment><USER33> I have found if I sleep with the room lights on or being woken up by the sun I feel much more rested.

<comment><USER34> In my experience sleeping with lights on causes more shallow sleep. I confirm it is easier to wake up, but after several days in a row I felt more tired than usually.

I found that blocking all sources of light during sleep and using light to make it easier to wake up works best for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I definitely recommend reading Why we Sleep by Matthew Walker to better understand what's going on biologically with sleep and why it's so vitally important to make sure you are sleeping well (and not ruining your sleep with things like sleeping pills, alcohol or marijuana). The audiobook is quite good.

Here are a few suggestions in no particular order:

\- Light is very important in setting your circadian rhythm and making sure you are able to sleep. Try to maximize your sunlight / blue light exposure in the morning and then try your best to avoid sunlight and screens for as long as you can manage before bed (minimum half an hour). If you go outside in the late afternoon for a walk (strongly recommended!), wear sunglasses. If you have to use screens in the evening, install software to reduce blue light.

\- Caffeine has a 6 hour half life in your system. That means that if you drink 4 cups of coffee and try to go to bed twelve hours later, your caffeine levels are still like you just drank a whole cup of coffee right before bed.

\- Alcohol and Marijuana may seem to help you fall asleep but they're both detrimental to sleep quality and quantity. Alcohol is one of the strongest inhibitors of REM sleep we know of, even in very small quantities. If you're having sleep trouble, drop alcohol. If you really must drink, try to drink earlier so that less of it is in your system when you try to sleep. Marijuana also suppresses REM sleep, though it doesn't seem to cause you to wake up as much in the middle of the night as alcohol does so it may not be _as_ bad I'd still say you should stay far away from Marijuana if you're having sleep problems. REM is very very important to many mental faculties.

\- Sleeping pills like Ambien do not put you to sleep. They make you unconscious but it is not sleep. It's more comparable to being knocked out with a baseball bat. Avoid sleep drugs like the plague unless you're talking to a doctor with special training regarding sleep. Most doctors have almost no training on sleep and don't understand or respect its importance.

\- I find my exercise levels very important to my sleep quantity and quality and notice a definite decline when I stop exercising. Try to exercise every day, even if its just a long (half hour plus) walk outdoors. Try to vigorously exercise an absolute minimum of twice a week though if your regular exercise is rather relaxed.

\- Take up mindfulness meditation. Meditating will teach you the tools you need to recognize when you're unproductively lost in thought and break out of it. This is vital for me being able to fall asleep as thinking about work or other random mental rabbit holes is a big barrier to me personally falling asleep. Mindfulness helps you develop the mental superpower of saying "Oh, I don't actually want to think about that. Let's drop this train of thought." Also, it will help you manage your stress levels throughout the day which is very important for sleep.

\- Invest in earplugs. It can make a real difference. Though, I do worry that I'm becoming a bit dependant on mine.

\- Develop a strict sleep schedule and stick to it. Even on the weekends. Bounding around what time you fall asleep will destroy your ability to sleep reliably.

Hope some of that is helpful to someone.

</comment><comment><USER36> Any floor sleepers out there?

</comment><comment> Iwan-Zotow Badly...

</comment><comment><USER37> CPAP and naked

</comment><comment><USER38> Sex.</comment>


Ask HN: I got invited to a US math summer program; I'm in India and need help - <AUTHOR>

(I posted this on /r/math too.)
Hey, HN.
I'm a junior / 11th grade student in India. I just got an invite email from HCSSiM[1]. Now, barring the fact that it'll be difficult for me to even pay the airfare (for myself alone, let alone taking a parent with me, I might think about Indiegogo or something), there's a bigger problem staring me in the face: how do I get to the program location alone?
I have no relatives in the US, and I think it'll be very difficult indeed for me to travel alone within the US (not to mention extremely unsafe and worrying to my parents). The program's going to be held at Hampshire College, I think, and I don't think any flight to the US will get me to Boston directly.
Oh, in case it's not clear, I really, really want to go. They might (they have in the past) teach Galois theory, or knot theory, or projective geometry there, for heavens' sake.
What do I do? Any ideas, HN?
[1]: http://hcssim.org/ <comment><USER2> I live in Northampton, MA (< 10 miles from Hampshire College). Not sure of your exact dates, but if in town, I can pick you at Hartford (BDL) or Boston and take you to Hampshire. I'm sure they will have some kind of accommodations for you (or can get them).

I have contact info on my HN page.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, thanks. That's very kind of you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> What an absolutely amazing program! I have never heard of it until your post, and I have to thank you for pointing it out. I have to show my son!

Looking at the FAQ [1] it looks like they would really like to discuss both your financial and travel arrangements with you. They seem quite open to helping in all areas. I would reach out to them directly and maybe even suggest a skype call with one of their faculty and your parents. Go for it! This could be a life defining experience.

[1] [http://www.hcssim.org/faq.html](http://www.hcssim.org/faq.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Your son can still apply this year, I believe -- you might want to check. And good luck to him!

> This could be a life defining experience.

I strongly suspect you're right. This is a huge bargaining chip for me in convincing my parents to let me go. :)

<comment><USER3> My friend, I would gladly explain to your parents that these areas are actually exceptionally safe, even by US standards. I hope they will let you go. This is in a more rural area of Massachusetts. I am sure your parents have heard horror stories of incidents happening in the US lately, but Hampshire College is not in an unsafe area. Good luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> They're really more scared about me falling asleep in, say, London airport and missing a flight. :/

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> In many ways, the USA is a much safer place in which to solo-travel than India is. Don't be fearful, see this opportunity as an adventure. Be confident and brave! You'll learn so much from traveling alone.

I just hope you find a way to finance it.

</comment><comment><USER5> India to NYC (fly)

NYC to Northampton, MA (train) [http://www.amtrak.com/vermonter- train](http://www.amtrak.com/vermonter-train)

Northampton to Hampshire College (taxi)

<comment><USER6> if you're looking for public transportation options, this is probably the best bet. getting from NYC airports to penn station (where the Vermonter leaves from) depends on whether you fly into JFK/LGA or EWR (Newark, NJ). for JFK/LGA it's easiest to just take a cab to penn station (it's a flat rate of around 50 dollars i think, but be careful because some cabs are known to try and sucker people). if you fly into EWR you can just take the train from the airport right to penn station (NJ Transit) for much less. just be sure to build in extra time since google maps is notoriously optimistic with NYC transportation (imo)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Travel arrangements are an easy problem to solve. Any international travel agent in Mumbai/Delhi/Bangalore/Hyderabad etc will help you build a good travel plan.

There are plenty of flight options from India to the East coast. Newark, Boston and New York (JFK) are all major hubs and will easily connect you to your college town.

I'll be more than happy to help you if you need any specific information.

</comment><comment><USER8> Maybe you could talk with somebody at the HCSSiM of your concern...

Maybe they can fix everything, or maybe they cannot do anything, most likely they will be a lot more useful than us.

The best think that can happen is that they pay for your ticket and VISA and provide you with somebody that will take care of you when you are in the States...

Best of Luck...

</comment><comment><USER9> Amtrak runs to Northampton. If you flew to Boston - with or without a connection from New York, Atlanta or another regional airline hub - you could take the Amtrak train to get to the school. From the train station, there are probably taxi cabs, or you could arrange with a local to pick you up.

<comment><USER2> Amtrak from Boston to Northampton is not very direct (I bet NYC is faster). A bus would be better from Boston. If you are changing planes, the closest airport is BDL (Hartford, CT) -- Bus, Train, Taxi all possible from there (Valley Transporter is probably the best option for convenience/cost)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Why don't you contact someone at the program? It's their job to help you figure this out.

</comment><comment><USER11> Hi, There is a direct flight from Mumbai to EWR(Newark NJ). From there, you can take a bus to Boston. Check with the HCSSiM if they fund students. Best of luck for your efforts.

<comment><USER2> Hampshire College is in MA, but not near Boston. Take the bus to Amherst, MA (Peter Pan goes there -- there's even a MegaBus (cheap!) stop that is close enough to local bus the rest of the way).

They would probably pick you up from either stop.</comment></comment>


Nitrux – Powered by Linux, KDE Plasma 5, Qt and Nomad Desktop - open-source-ux https://nxos.org <comment><AUTHOR> See also, Fedora Silverblue: [https://silverblue.fedoraproject.org/](https://silverblue.fedoraproject.org/)

Uses rpm-ostree for atomic updates with desktop applications run in Flatpak containers and development done in VMs or Docker/OCI images.

</comment><comment><USER2> Cached version here [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zGnFLu...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zGnFLuq9qbEJ:https://nxos.org/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk)

</comment><comment><USER3> Hopefully it does not become a thing like how cryptocurrencies are + everyone wants their own coin. There are already enough distributions of Linux. What does this bring that KDE neon, Kubuntu, or even plain old Ubuntu ´KDE desktop not do already?

To be honest, I appreciate attempts like VoidLinux that tries something genuine and brings enough difference to warrant its existence and support, but this really feels like some consumer wanting their own named distribution of what already exists.

<comment><USER4> For someone who does not know Void Linux, what does it bring that is genuinely new? From the webpage's description, it looks like Arch with a different init system.

To me e.g. Fedora's Team Silverblue and NixOS seem genuinely different, since they completely rethink how installations and upgrades are done.

<comment><USER3> From what little I have played with Void Linux so far,

* Void Linux is minimal by default, and comes without Systemd

* It can be had with Musl instead of Glibc as a lighter weight alternative

* Option of binary packages or source pages that you can compile yourself with -native

* LibreSSL by default.

Not saying that all of the above are how all Linux distributions should be, but the lack of Systemd already hooked me in to try it out.

<comment><USER5> IIRC it is by some BSD-style people who took some of the design ideas from BSD. LibreSSL is a huge plus for me in terms of security, and the more I learn about systemd the happier I am to get away from it. Didn't know about Musl, but that's nice too [ [http://www.etalabs.net/compare_libcs.html](http://www.etalabs.net/compare_libcs.html) ]

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Error estableciendo una conexión con la base de datos

This is great. I guess they need a landing page that does not use SQL server to render.

<comment><USER7> Or just fix whatever query hog system they're using. Nothing wrong with an LP that hits the DB. Just don't f it up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > Error estableciendo una conexión con la base de datos

<comment><USER9> It's Ubuntu-based, with some modified KDE desktop.

<comment><USER10> Speaking of Ubuntu-based distros with KDE desktop, I recently found a distro called "KDE Neon".

[https://neon.kde.org/](https://neon.kde.org/)

Well, actually, they themselves describe KDE Neon as "not quite a distro".

> Is it a distro?

> Not quite, it's a package archive with the latest KDE software on top of a > stable base. While we have installable images, unlike full Linux > distributions we're only interested in KDE software.

[https://neon.kde.org/faq](https://neon.kde.org/faq)

Anyway, I recently switched my laptop over to KDE Neon after my faithful FreeBSD install broke.

I have previously used KDE-based desktops on Fedora and on openSUSE. (And a lot of other DEs and distros over the years but the point was to speak about KDE.)

For my laptop I have been very satisfied with KDE Neon. Still debating whether or not to run it on my desktop.

<comment><USER11> I also have been very happy with KDE Neon on my Dell Latitude 7370. The only downside is when I plug in a 4k and 1080p monitor, the system doesn't handle the multi-dpi setup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like the idea of a distribution where AppImages are the first class way of adding applications, but I was pretty disappointed in Nitrux. It's all the little things, like apparently not having a good way to display AppImage icons, and how hovering over the dock icons doesn't tell you what the hell they are. Why can't I point a widget at a directory of AppImages and get a custom menu? etc.

Christ, they might have even fixed some of this since I last used it, but I can't tell because they don't offer an ISO you can dump on a USB to try out

"...this means that the ONLY way to use Nitrux is deploying the ISO image using znx. We DO NOT recommend that you flash the ISO raw to a storage device AT ALL, please use znx." [0]

Once again, a fancy website and lots of ambitious words built around a shoddily implemented half-baked idea.

[0] [https://nxos.org/en/compendium/#deploying- nitrux](https://nxos.org/en/compendium/#deploying-nitrux)

<comment><USER13> Looks like database connection issues... Archived at [https://archive.is/olI6j](https://archive.is/olI6j)

<comment><USER12> Nothing at all to do with the database issues, the site works fine for me and I grabbed the ISO, it just doesn't actually work unless you use znx, as stated on the site.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> So it sounds like Ubuntu with different default GUI apps. I would almost consider recommending something like that for brand new users but it would have to be rather established. If you have the slightest experience installing packages and editing the occasional config file you can switch your experience to match this fairly easily.

Vanilla Ubuntu tends to include the mid range GUI, the one that performs OK and doesn't look too bad. Plasma should likely be the default unless you know you want a lighter weight GUI. Unity and GNOME just don't cut it for serious multiple monitor usage. I always find myself on Plasma or xfce4. One example is in Ubuntu 18.04 it is impossible to move the top taskbar off your 'primary' monitor. That is so ridiculous.

</comment><comment><USER15> I thought I'd seen that logo before. [https://www.bing.com](https://www.bing.com)

</comment><comment><USER16> This thing is getting panned hard right now on HN, but I think it looks cool. I don't really like AppImage too much, nor Snaps or Flatpak, though. It's a terrible workaround for open source OSes not being able to provide a stable ABI. The UX is a bit nicer, though.

Still, a distro with nice, modern UX is welcome. I also enjoyed Manjaro for a while.

<comment><USER17> > I don't really like AppImage too much, nor Snaps or Flatpak, though. It's a > terrible workaround for open source OSes not being able to provide a stable > ABI.

It's a lot more than that. The point is that applications should be self- contained and should not depend on the host operating system, and can be installed and run in isolation without affecting each other unless you want them to.

Hopefully it will one day mean that app developers can make just one package that can be installed on all Linux distributions.

<comment><USER16> That's a different issue imo.

Isolation is one thing. We can accomplish that with kernel primitives we have today. Yeah, a distribution mechanism like snaps would be needed.

But snaps are simply doing too much. Like, I should be able to download and run software like I can on Windows and to a lesser extent, Android. The deployment mechanism and the sandbox and the ABI issues all need to be solved separately. Boxing an entire distro per each app is Not necessary for isolation, Not good for security, and generally not a good solution to the ABI issue that prompted it.

If it weren't for ABI stability problems, there would be no issue with still having the isolation of snaps while being able to update components of the base system like libssl.

On a side note, I really dont like how these things clutter the shit out of mounts. Like, I appreciate that they are doing so for isolation, but the side effect is that merely having an app installed adds n mounts? That seems unsustainable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> A great looking KDE distribution, I'm very impressed. Great job!

</comment><comment><USER19> What's the catch? Why all the flashy marketing juju? Why would someone put so much time into making the site all..."designed"?

And this:

> "Nitrux is made with <3 by people like you"

What the fuck? This is some kenneth reitz-level pandering.

<comment><USER20> Could you explain the last line in your comment for someone who isn't familiar with Ken Reitz?

<comment><USER21> Kenneth Reitz is the author of Python library Requests. After Requests exploded in popularity, he developed a somewhat unique approach to marketing his libraries, to the point where anything he promotes nowadays becomes controversial (i.e. "is it good because it is good, or because Kenneth writes about it all-cute-y?").

<comment><USER22> What a strange sentiment. I've never once heard anyone call Reitz controversial.

I think the widespread usage of his libraries speaks for itself as to whether they are "good", especially considering they have standard library equivalents.

Am a big fan of Arrow, it's far better than DateTime.

<comment><USER21> Well, now you've seen two in a single thread.

Some of what Kenneth builds is very good, some less so. Sometimes he just pulls annoying stunts that are disrespectful of the community at large, like with pipenv. With all that "Human" marketing, he has burnt quite a bit of the goodwill accumulated with Requests, but he's also built a critical mass of developers who will basically adopt anything he makes regardless of actual merits; which in turn generates backlash. The two phenomenons tend to feed on each other.

<comment><USER23> I found most of his projects quite useful. Sure, it might involve a bit of overselling, but the API design is really good for the most part.

Also - I don't think you can really sustain an open source project that brings almost nothing, except a really good API (which some people really value) to the table without good marketing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Just what the world needs... Another Linux distribution.

Seriously though, you need a lot more to sell me on a new distribution than "Ubuntu, but with AppImages". That's actually a large part of the problem of FOSS in general: We focus on the technical underpinnings rather than on the problems that we intend to solve. If the creators of this distribution want to address specific issues of the Linux desktop experience, they should do a better job communicating that, not least to attract contributors.

<comment><USER25> I was just thinking about focussing on technical underpinnings like you said, while reading their copy. Do I care that Nomad Firewall uses Qt? That's almost the first thing they say about it, and then later about how it's written in C++ with a QML user interface. That's what I'd expect for a Qt application these days, and it's also almost entirely irrelevant.

I do tend to look askance at things written in JavaScript that aren't destined to run in a web browser, but ultimately what I care about is whether it works, and I suspect users who aren't developers (that would be most of them) really only do care if it works for what they need it to do.

We keep promoting stuff as "ooh look this is written in Rust!" or "it's in JavaScript!" but the important thing should be the effects of those things - i.e. you might choose to write something in Rust for performance and reliability reasons, and to write something in JavaScript for portability.

<comment><USER26> It would be really cool if all this tool fetishism-slash-cargo-culting turned into performance fetishism.

"Look at how awesome our rich desktop UI is at only 2% CPU usage on an average quad-core!"

versus all this "made with love" garbage

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> How interesting that their URL is nearly, but not quite, nixos.org.

<comment><USER28> They refer to themselves and some of their software as NX multiple times. Nitrux OS is the full name of NXOS, just like RedHat Enterprise Linux is for RHEL.

<comment><USER29> It's also confusingly the name of the OS for Cisco's Nexus line of switches. It's IOS/iOS all over again...</comment></comment></comment>


Government wants you to broadcast your driving data – eventually - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/government-wants-you-to-broadcast-your-driving-data-eventually/

<comment><USER2> For those who want to record your driving data for personal use, as opposed to real-time dissemination, it's amazingly inexpensive.

Last week, I bought an ODB2 Bluetooth adapter on eBay for about $12. You plug it into your car's diagnostics port, below the steering wheel. (It's the same port that the DMV plugs into to check emissions stuff, or that Progressive Insurance uses to give a safe-driver discount.)

With the adapter plugged in, I synced it with Torque Lite, a free Android app on my phone. (There's a $5 paid version that offers more features, but the Lite version offers enough for me.)

In the app, I could see (and record) my speed, estimated MPG, fuel level, acceleration, ambient air temperature, engine coolant temperature, engine load, engine RPMs, fuel pressure, throttle position, and more.

<comment><USER3> I picked up the same combo last year. It really is a nifty setup. My problem is that I rarely use it. My driving patterns are irregular enough that I can't safely leave the device plugged in, drawing power. The ODB2 port in my car is very inconvenient to get to, so most days the device just sits in the glove box gathering dust.

<comment><USER4> And you're sure that the ODB2 port is powered while the ignition is off? I was under the impression that mine isn't.

<comment><USER5> The lights on my OBD2 adaptor come on when I plug it in, no key in the ignition. I can only assume for how cheap and dumb the device is that it has the bluetooth on all the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Its not needed, its a technology already eclipsed by what manufacturers and even Google are doing. Self driving cars rely on various sensors; RADAR and laser to name two; to protect from collisions and the like. They do all this without communicating with the vehicles around them.

Simply put, smart cars don't need to input of other vehicles to know how to perform safely, in fact not relying on other cars makes them safer as they cannot be spoofed nor act on erroneous information.

Then of course there is that big privacy issue that this proposal tries to skip over.

<comment><USER7> Radar and lidar aren't foolproof. Radar's easy to jam and needs complicated processing to differentiate between clutter and things that might cause issues. Lidar breaks down in fog and dust and has fairly limited range.

There's a reason air traffic control have moved to active ADS-B transmitters rather than simply using ground based radar to track aircraft - reliability. There is definitely safety issues from spoofing of data, but if those issues can be dealt with (perhaps using the certificate based system that's discussed in the article), reliability compared to car-mounted radar or lidar is significantly greater.

The lidar mounted on Google's autonomous cars is a long way from being integrated into production vehicles. The V2V proposal draws on existing car sensors - all that's needed is the addition of a small chip. V2V _is_ a manufacturer proposal, and it's almost ready for production. It's a cheap and easy method of vastly increasing car safety. Road traffic accidents kill and injure a huge number of people. We should embrace anything that makes them significantly safer.

<comment><USER6> While I agree that they are not foolproof you do not use them separately. A combination of active and passive systems is used by the car to understand its surroundings.

I would never compare the electronics used in aviation to anything employed in cars, the level of trust in aviation and the regulations behind it are legion. I seriously doubt that manufacturers would want to be under similarly complex and expensive regulation

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm torn on the subject of car tracking. Firstly it's not like it doesn't happen already, it's just that the authorities don't have access to the data. Secondly, drivers in a lot of countries are simply morons (read: you meet several when driving for 30 minutes), though I can't say I've met a lot of them in US. On the other hand, there are the privacy and security (and possibly safety) issues...

But personally, I wouldn't buy any car that has any outside communication, possibly except for locks, heh.

</comment><comment><USER9> For those who's not familiar with V2V standard, or think this is useless, here's some more context.

The whole standard stack is called Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE) / Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC). Short range is as in being shorter than cellular networks, which is easily over hundreds of meters.

Physical Layer and Link Layer of WAVE/DSRC are defined in IEEE 802.11p. It's so much like other protocols in IEEE 802.11 suite that it's only an 802.11 amendment and is now integrated into IEEE 802.11 standard. In US regulatory domain, 802.11p uses 5.855 GHz - 5.925 GHz, which is slightly higher (and not overlapped with) other 5 GHz 802.11 protocols like 802.11 a/n/ac, so that V2V won't be interfered by WiFi devices. Above Link Layer is not conventional. It's designed to support TCP/IP on top of that, but just for non-safety messages. Safety messages are supposed to use WAVE Short Message Protocol (WSMP), which replaces IP Layer and Transport Layer in TCP/IP suite. WSMP is believed to be more efficient in V2V context.

A promising application of WAVE/DSRC is Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) and Emergency Braking. Consider following scenario:

      </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---
       A      B      C      D      E
      </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

where ABCDE are five vehicles on highway. In ACC, each vehicle uses radar, infrared, etc. to detect distance between the vehicle in front of it, and adjust speed. Theoretically this may reduce safety distance because machine reacts faster than human being and in case of emergency the vehicle can brake by itself. However, it still cost time to detect the change of distance, to calculate, and to brake. So if A encounters collision, B would brake, then C detects distance change, and brake, then D brakes. When it comes to E, accumulated time is much longer. This means you can't really reduce distance that much if you want to rely on automatic emergency brake. With V2V enabled, each of the vehicle keeps broadcasting vehicle broadcasting so they all know each other's condition. If A encounters a collision or brakes very hard, E would know almost at same time when B knows. This means E can react much faster, so vehicles can be much closer to each other. This is very useful for trucks considering the aerodynamics. Also, with vehicles closer to each other, you can put more vehicles in the same high way.

Other applications include interaction collision warning, travel time prediction, and integration with pedestrian safety system etc. The key thing is V2V is localized, distributed, and thus real-time and more responsive than cellular connection. It's definitely gonna enable more exciting technology advances in automotive industry.

<comment><USER10> I doubt vehicles are special enough to require their own replacement for TCP/IP. Last time I heard that kind of talk was with WAP/WML – anyone remember those?

TCP/IP is good enough, and making your own protocol on that level is never worth the huge hassle for everyone involved. Unless your aim is to obfuscate and erect barriers to entry.

<comment><USER9> Upvoted. I agree that it's annoying and confusing. I don't like it either. But that's the standard that IEEE, ITS and USDOT are supporting and car/truck companies are working on that. Unlike WiFi routers, vehicular networking requires everybody to use the same standard in order for it to work. I'm not sure how much space there is to make an effort to build an alternative.

They have their reasons for replacing TCP/IP, among which one is to reduce IP overhead in vehicular environment. Since most of time communication is temporary and doesn't require routing, IP layer is not necessary. They want to reduce the IP header overhead for each packet. I doubt how much it improves reliability though, given the fact that people have to implement another whole stack other than just using mature TCP/IP stack.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I can't wait for this to happen. I'll take the transmitter out of my car, tape it on my body, and walk on the streets downtown during the rush hour. No car will be able to hit me :)

<comment><USER12> You could do that, but then you'd be paying extra under the new driving tax that gets bundled with V2V devices. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> My money is on "slowly tightening the noose", but I guess we will wait and see, won't we?

<comment><USER14> the problem is, we've been waiting and seeing for a while now. It's starting to get kind of hard to breath.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Running away from the police > with a self-driving car

</comment><comment><USER16> Why do I get the impression the security for this will be treated very superficially, and they'll only try to fix it as an afterthought later after many reports of hacking into such systems, just like for everything else? This worries me quite a bit.

Also it's interesting that this comes out almost at the same time with EU's plan to let the police remotely stop cars' engines:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10605328...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10605328/EU- has-secret-plan-for-police-to-remote-stop-cars.html)

<comment><USER17> Isn't the key (technical) problem with that IDing the car in order to send the message to shut it down?

If it's based on reading the plate that's going to be way too easy to abuse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Supplementing unreliable warning systems - they will be unreliable given that you'd have to wait for older cars to be cycled out of service - for good driving habits seems like an obvious recipe for disaster.

Even among good drivers, I doubt many people really want another device competing for their attention when they're trying to make a decision.

#

So, I suspect somewhat more sinister motives. It would be a lot simpler for law enforcement if they could just stick up small stations to monitor everyone within an area, rather than having to put speed cameras and so on there, and it would allow other behaviours than speed to be automatically analysed.</comment>