Reboot PHP: keep the philosophy, improve the syntax (PHP on the JVM) - <AUTHOR> http://code.google.com/p/phpreboot/

<comment><USER2> As a long-time PHP developer (12+ years, yuck it up PHP haters) I look at this with a combination of awe and disappointment. Awe that someone would be willing to take on implementing a version of PHP that can run on the JVM much like Quercus. Disappointment because what they are doing is not PHP.

If the goal is to recreate the "let's build a better runtime" situation that exists in Ruby but in the PHP world, that is admirable. But if you really want the project to get any sort of traction, creating almost-PHP isn't the way to go.

If you can't run your existing PHP code in this thing, then what's the point?

<comment><USER3> I'm in your boat as a PHPer (11 years :)), but I like projects like this. I know you can't use your existing projects in it, but if it gains PHP some more respect from the general programming community, I'm all for it.

<comment><USER4> Considering one of the examples demonstrates running a SQL query in the middle of some HTML, I doubt much respect will be gained here.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, that's an epic fail of the 'awesome' things this implementation provides. Yeah! more horrible spaghetti code built in to the interpreter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think this shows a remarkable misunderstanding of what PHP users actually like about PHP:

* We like semicolons. The culture who thinks saving this one character is valuable tends toward a non-pragmatic purity that is completely missing the point of PHP. We like to know when the line ends and to break up lines easily.

* The $ before all variables is a feature, we like this too. It's jarring coming from other languages but we think it adds readability.

* Inline SQL with no special syntax to denote that it is special? This seems way too far off the deep end of preventing an extra character at all costs. Give me a key word or a syntax if you like but don't make it look just like a variable, please.

* No from/to string auto-conversion. We like this too. Having the sense to not overload "+" for strings goes a long way here.

1 . 1 == "1" . 1 == "1" . "1" == 11 == "11"

1 + 1 == "1" + 1 == "1" + "1" == 2 == "2"

Yes there are warts and some paradoxes but we deal with it, and we have to be very conscious of what data could be provided by users, but our web apps work fine provided we know the language. (Yes, there are very many PHP programmers who don't.)

<comment><USER7> Re: "The $ before all variables is a feature [...] but we think it adds readability."

The argument for the $ sign is _not_ readability. If it were you'd see JavaScripter's prefixing all of their variables with a dollar sign, too. var $foo = 'bar'; is completely valid JavaScript. (Aside: $ prefix is handy in JS when holding references to jQuery objects ie $container = $('#container');)

The argument is for simplified string manipulation with magic quotes and is an homage to unix shell scripting.

Without the $ prefix string manipulation would be reserved to concatenation/printf/replacement/etc. With the $prefix you can do things like:

       $base = __DIR__;
       $user = (object)array('name'=>'Foo','dir'=>"foo");
       $size = "lg";
       $image = "$base/users/$user->dir/images/$size.jpg";

vs:

       image = base + "/users/" + user.dir + "/images/" + size + ".jpg"

When doing a lot of string manipulation and scripting the $ is quite handy.

The dollar sign also enables variable variables and dynamic property access. i.e.

       $foo = 'Hello, world.';
       $bar = 'foo';
       echo ${$bar}; // 'Hello, world.'

\- and -

       $user = (object)array('name'=>'Foo','dir'=>"foo");
       $prop = 'name';
       echo $user->{$prop}; // 'Foo'

The dollar sign for variable variables is weak because variable variables is usually an indication of code gone awry. Dynamic property access, on the other hand, is much more useful in a dynamic language like PHP/JavaScript. That said, I believe JavaScript's solution is much more elegant. i.e.:

       var user = {name: "Foo", dir: "foo"};
       var prop = "name";
       alert(user[prop]); // 'Foo'

By overloading the index operator on objects to accept a string that dereferences to an object's property you get the same benefit in a much more elegant way.

Thus the $'s primary justification is magic strings and string manipulation.

<comment><USER6> Yes, all that, plus readability. I know when something is a variable. Prefixing variables in JS with $ doesn't do this because I still have to look out for things without a $ that are variables as well so it's the worst of all worlds.

> (Aside: $ prefix is handy in JS when holding references to jQuery objects ie > $container = $('#container');)

I really really don't want to see that in a project I'm in charge of. It looks terrible to me, and I really don't like $ as an ordinary alphanumeric character. I like $ in jQuery projects to only be used for jQuery calls. (If it doesn't have to co-exist with something else and use noConflict mode.)

> var user = {name: "Foo", dir: "foo"};

I hate that about Javascript, how in object literals the left side is a literal string and the right side is an expression. Except, I really should quote the left side _anyway_ \- I think Crockford recommends this - because I might want a hyphen in there, or I might want to use a keyword (like "interface" where it isn't even obvious that it actually is a keyword.)

Also, if I have var key, and var value, I want to be able to pass it into a function that takes a dictionary argument as {key: value}, and not have to do var dict={}; dict[key]=value;

I also think Javascript absolutely begs for a real dictionary type. Objects don't work so well because I have to worry about someone extending them and I have to use hasOwnProperty - never mind someone could override hasOwnProperty. Also the performance characteristics of JS objects are terrible - Did you know that in Firefox a switch statement is _one hundred_ times faster than an object lookup?

PHP's dual purpose variables are ugly as hell (with object -> syntax and array [] syntax) but I actually like being clear on whether I'm using it as an object or a simple array/dictionary.

<comment><USER8> > Did you know that in Firefox a switch statement is one hundred times faster > than an object lookup?

A switch statement in what language? I presume by "object lookup" you mean the "bar" in "foo.bar" in javascript.

With all respect, I think you are worrying too much :)

<comment><USER6> > A switch statement in what language?

Javascript.

> I presume by "object lookup" you mean the "bar" in "foo.bar" in javascript.

Yes, but more specifically what I tested was the foo[bar] form, where bar contains a string, versus switch(bar).

> With all respect, I think you are worrying too much :)

For a language that is supposed to be nearly ready for writing rich interactive applications including pixel-by-pixel manipulation, two orders of magnitude (and widely variable across browsers) is a huge deal. I'm guessing you haven't tried to do much canvas programming?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't think this project is properly leveraging PHP's advantages. PHP code's ability to be run on almost any server with Apache is a big plus, but this project requires a JVM. It's different enough from PHP that the plethora of PHP programmers will need to learn a new language, which is another hurdle. It's not backwards compatible so existing PHP code will need to be rewritten. In fact, it looks very different from PHP except for the intended use of the PHP library, which is one of PHP's weakest points.

The project has a lot of great ideas but I don't think branding it as a PHP derivative is one of them.

</comment><comment><USER10> >This is a reboot of PHP, like the reboot of Star Trek.

So it's going to be a cotton-candy superficial take on a language with a deep and active user base that basically ends up making it no different from every other language of the month that people promptly forget about?

<comment><USER11> I dunno—the Star Trek reboot reinvigorated the series after lackluster box office performance. If you're looking for things ignored by the active user base and promptly forgotten, I think a better comparison would be the Ewoks movie... :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wait, less ';'?

The semicolons are only optional in JavaScript if you are okay with being incompetent. Or, well, slowing down your programs a bit and risking errors through ambiguity.

The JSON style syntax is nice, PHP really needs that. I'd be pleased to never see or type => ever again.

I have no idea what to think about the rest. Inline SQL? Isn't some heinous mixture of PHP, SQL, JavaScript and XML all in the same file something that normal people would seek to avoid?

</comment><comment><USER13> It's definitely interesting, but I think they should develop this as a separate language - specialised for the web. Inline HTML, JSON and SQL look excellent but to me this should be developed as a "new" language, so it is not bound by restrictions of trying to look like PHP.

<comment><USER14> See also links (<http://groups.inf.ed.ac.uk/links/>) which has lots of these things, but hasn't gained any traction probably due to it's academic origin.

But, I agree with your statement. Saying it's similar to PHP, or PHP++, or PHPReboot is just hype.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> >> less ';' like in javascript

You should read the book by Douglas Crockford - JavaScript: The Good Parts, p102 (Appendix A: Awful Parts), this is not fun.

<comment><USER16> If only there was a programming language where you could write something like:

      do { foo; bar; baz }

or:

      do
        foo
        bar
        baz

and they would both be equivalent.

<comment><USER17> I'm not sure if your comment was intended as sarcasm, but you can pretty much do this in Ruby.

        myarray.each {|x| func_a(x); func_b(x); puts x }

is equivalent to

        myarray.each do |x|
            func_a(x)
            func_b(x)
            puts x
        end

<comment><USER16> Yes, I was being sarcastic. That's Haskell.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Whoa. I admire the chutzpah, and I definitely think aspects of PHP could use a Star Trek style reboot (albeit with less lens flare), but I also think the proposed syntax here actually makes PHP less clear.

My specific issues: As others have commented, fewer semicolons equals potential ambiguity. I'm totally not okay with the inline XML or SQL syntax presented here - clearly demarcated, storage-agnostic code makes me sleep soundly at night. That said, the duck typing and inline JSON structures are neat.

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't really like the SQL integration. I would prefer an object layer on top of it.

Making assumptions about an underlying database is a sure way to get burned when you switch to another. And assuming SQL to be the "official" persistence engine makes it hard to migrate to non-relational platforms in case you want to.

<comment><USER20> I was about to make the classic "but how often do you switch to another" comment when I realised that every single one of my active projects uses both (MySQL or PostgreSQL) and SQLite.

<comment><USER21> upvoted for sincerity

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It seems more like JavaScript changing more towards PHP than anything else. If that is the goal, then perhaps nodeJS is the solution.

I've been considering using nodeJS for more and more logic as time progresses, but truthfully PHP works 99.9% of the time.

</comment><comment><USER23> I like my ';' - Even in javascript

</comment><comment><USER16> If you really want inline XML and SQL, why not have some sort of quoting operator so that this is actually possible to implement sanely?

Programming languages designed by PHP programmers... the goggles do nothing.

</comment><comment><USER24> Awesome. If it had first-class functions I'd be downloading it now.

<comment><USER16> But it has first-class SQL statements! Rock on!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'd be curious to hear how PHP devs would contrast this with something like HipHop from Facebook (which requires a specific coding style and some restriction of PHP features).

<comment><USER16> This project has nothing to do with PHP, except that the letters P, H, and P are in the name and that it's a bad implementation of a bad idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I wonder if google will ever include PHP into Google App Engine ..

<comment><USER14> There's an implementation of PHP on the JVM Quercus: <http://www.caucho.com/resin-3.0/quercus/>

Presumably, you could run it now...

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> why?

<comment><USER28> PHP is a language a bunch of people are familiar with-- and a "first language" for a lot of people. This could mean a great deal to some of those kids who started out as "Drupal Developers" and never expanded their skills past the platform.

<comment><USER29> But it really has little to do with PHP at all. Besides the name, I guess.</comment></comment></comment>


Drag and drop wp plugin  - <AUTHOR>

Here is the upcoming new wp plugin MotoPress http://www.getmotopress.com/ Curious to know what  Web community thinks about it. What it would like to add or remove from plugin's functionality. We appreciate every thought! Thank you in advance! <comment><USER2> Can you outline what the use case this was designed for was?</comment>


Table saw senses your finger and stops so fast, it will only scratch you - <AUTHOR> http://www.sawstop.com/

<comment><USER2> I think I recall that Malcolm Gladwell has mentioned this; the inventor had to test it on himself live to get people to believe in it; who'd have believed it if he'd used a carrot to demo it?

<comment><USER3> Hot dog, not carrot. The saw detects the change in electrical capacitance and conductivity when a body touches the blade. Carrots have a much higher resistivity than nice salty, juicy hot dogs.</comment></comment>


ProCog – a new transparent search engine - <AUTHOR> http://procog.com/

<comment><USER2> My experience with this:

Think of a random word that comes to mind: let's try "animus". "No Matches Found. Please rephrase your query and try again.". Hm, okay. How about "theory"? "No Matches Found." What about "set"? Nope. "rank"? No. "war of 1812"? No. "barack obama": nope. The first term I got to return content was the biggest softball I could think of - "procog".

I'm all for a new search engine (especially one that really lets content providers know what they need to do to rank highly for queries) but I'd say this isn't ready yet; most of those queries are the sorts of queries I search for every few minutes.

<comment><USER3> Same here. After I got a successful search, results were of good quality but no better than DDG for example (lot of content farm, and Youtube/Wikipedia on top), I will stick to the later.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It is making connections to connect.facebook.net in almost all the pages I have visited. The page load times are very slow for me, I am sitting behind a proxy where facebook is blocked and connections to facebook timesout. This can be made faster and office friendlier with some changes. I will certainly find and, like or +1 ProCog page even if those links are buried a layer down if I really like it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Most of the search results are outdated, inaccurate or no longer existing. I'm always looking for alternatives, but this is not the one. Google is still so much better and/or faster than other search engines, including DuckDuckGo.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> For those that don't know this was jointly created by Matt Wells who also created Gigablast. It does not appear to be the same index although I suspect it shares much of Gigablasts code.

The results impressed me though. Much better then Gigablast, however this may be due to not being targeted by spammers which Gigablast is.

</comment><comment><USER6> I searched for "teaching chess children" and twitter came up as the 6th best match, which makes me wonder a bit at the search algorithm used.

</comment><comment><USER7> the reason that most search engines are opaque black boxes is that being transparent simply gives spammers the upper hand when they want to manipulate your index. it won't be a problem for this one yet, but if it gained significant market share they'd definitely have to change strategy.

</comment><comment><USER8> Potentially interesting, but the interface is too busy for day-to-day use. There's no reason you need to know this information for your typical search.

</comment><comment><USER9> The "sections" feature is interesting. You could grab a screen shot and colour the page based on its influence on search results.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is disappointing:

<http://procog.com/?q=text-indent+mdn>

</comment><comment><USER11> just like DDG, lack support for languages other than english, something you should start from when creating a search engine

<comment><USER12> It's got language support - big button near the top (says "English") :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> thanks for actually trying this!

I'll be watching to see how it turns out.

</comment><comment><USER14> _ProCog is a transparent search engine focused on content and search optimization. Get all the data used by a search engine for ranking and indexing so you can trust the results._

What does that mean? I can't make heads or tails of it.

<comment><USER15> How other search engines rank your site is a (mostly) a secret. ProCog seems to show exactly how they (ProCog) ranked your site and why. I liked the 'spammy words' score on the webpage breakdown - that would be really useful for SEO.

It also shows inbound links and how they effect your rank. Last time I worked in SEO (a couple of years ago) we either had to pay for that sort of report or build our own web spider to generate the report.

<comment><USER14> Oh heck, say that then. I understand what you just said there, and I am interested. The existing wording just doesn't make sense (to me) though.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to deal with someone ripping off your design? - <AUTHOR> We recently noticed that two websites have recently ripped off the design, code and copy of our site, gocardless.com.
How did we notice? We started getting Sentry errors as they had even gone so far as to rip our JS files!
Before we get in touch with them, we wondered if anyone had any tips on getting these guys to stop.
Sites in question:
http://secure-broker-online.eu/
http://resinternationalgroup.com/ <comment><USER2> It's actually quite easy: Find their host and, if they're in the US, issue a DMCA notification:

       $ dig resinternationalgroup.com

       ;; ANSWER SECTION:
       resinternationalgroup.com. 18788 IN	A 220.127.116.11

       $ dig -x 22.214.171.124

       ;; ANSWER SECTION:
       126.96.36.199.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN PTR cpanel.siteplot.com.

Send the email over to firstname.lastname@example.com. If that doesn't work, go up to their datacenter:

       $ whois 22.214.171.124

       ...
       OrgAbuseHandle: NETWO5887-ARIN
       OrgAbuseName:   Network Admin
       OrgAbusePhone:  +1-509-209-8000
       OrgAbuseEmail:  firstname.lastname@example.com
       OrgAbuseRef:    http://whois.arin.net/rest/poc/NETWO5887-ARIN
       ...

Email it over to firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com.

Here's a good template from Scribd: [http://support.scribd.com/entries/22980-DMCA-copyright- infri...](http://support.scribd.com/entries/22980-DMCA-copyright-infringement- takedown-notification-template)

<comment><USER3> That would be an abuse of the DMCA since its just a design (see Flat-Ui).

<comment><USER4> No.

This is directly using (even hotlinking some assets) the OPs copyrighted materials.

FlatUI had 3 icons that were "similar"[1] to icons in LayerVault. There wasn't any clear copying of assets.

[1] for some values of similar, including "not similar".

<comment><USER5> Oh, the hotlinking of assets is murder waiting to happen. Show him whatfor!

<comment><USER6> The hotlinking is caused by a straight-up copy of OP's JS files. This is a pretty clear cut case of copyright infringement - a DMCA takedown is not abusive here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm going to bet that this is a setup for the phishing scam. Random addresses and phone numbers, fake endorsements, blatant design rip-off - it all points rather unambiguously at a quick-and-dirty attempt at creating a believable online presence. It could've been just a designer's "sketch" or a proof of concept for a client if it weren't for _two_ clones. This indicates that this is a redundant setup, with possibly more clones floating around, but with the JS files fixed.

Your best bet would be to contact the hosting providers and say just that.

If this is indeed a part of the scam operation, you should also prepare yourselves for a website redesign, because if the scam gets on its way, then your visuals may end up being associated with the scammy websites rather than with your genuine business.

<comment><USER8> The secure broker website has already been flagged by my work firewall as a phishing site.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'd stop worrying about it and concentrated your energies elsewhere. By thinking about stuff like this you're focussing less on your own product, which is the important thing. If people are copying you, then you're most likely ahead of the competition anyway.

<comment><USER10> Given that they just did a big upgrade that has broken their API I would agree, and we're one of their biggest fans and customers!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> There is something fishy here.

The Secure Broker Online company is not registered with Companies House in the UK.

The Kensington Gardens Square street address is that of a hotel and the CA address looks fake too from StreetView.

I would guess somebody's nicked your design to create a fake portfolio for a CV, or it's being used for fraud.

<comment><USER12> Also the address of Tofman Energy Services ... ? <http://www.tofmannenergyservices.info/Contact%20Us.html>

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just add this to your JavaScript onload (and replace "yourdomain", of course):

        if(window.location.origin.indexOf("yourdomain.com")<0){
          window.location.href = "http://yourdomain.com";
        };

<comment><USER14> ...unless they copied the JS files instead of linking to them directly, of course. Note to self: add remote self-destruct function within any JS I ship.

<comment><USER15> Second note: Make it time delayed (set statically to something like 2 weeks from compile time). Then, when they use the script in development it works, but in 1-2 weeks it breaks in their production site. Otherwise, they will just find out why it isn't working and remove the self-destruct function.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> OT, but I'd like to suggest an improvement in your FAQ:

> Who is GoCardless for?

> Anyone can use GoCardless...

As far as I can tell from the rest of the website, you are a UK startup, and your service is useless to Taifusi in Samoa or Raj in Bangladesh.

</comment><comment><USER17> The classic counter-punch to resource linking is to make some of the resource grabs dynamic based on the referrer. I remember one site host who realized someone was using his images for avatars on various forums, and changed the contents to p0rn.

<comment><USER18> You've got to be _really_ careful when doing something like this. Basing the decision to display porn to users based on the value of the referrer (or any technical factor for that matter) is asking for trouble. Valid visitors' browsers _should_ send your site as the referrer, but what if your check fails and a legitimate users is shown porn instead? What if you introduce a bug that causes many, or all, of your users to see porn instead of the intended content?

Serving porn from a business oriented domain is never an option, IMO.

It sucks when someone rips off your content, but you have to carefully evaluate the _real_ impact it has on your business, not just the emotional impact that it has on your sense of ownership.

<comment><USER17> I agree, doesn't have to be p0rn; just the example I remember.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Add a check to the javascript files for those domains, then have it execute a while(1);.

This is semantically the same what Google does with their JSON responses [1]

[1] - [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2669690/why-does- google-p...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2669690/why-does-google- prepend-while1-to-their-json-responses)

<comment><USER20> Nope, it's not the same. Google doesn't check for the domain; Google does this to prevent cross site scripting. (Accessing the JSON as a JavaScript file).

The OP doesn't have a JSON, he has a JavaScript file.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The other comments already indicate it's a fake, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. I myself would have some fun with the Javascript files that they're hotlinking; have it break the website or do something funny (cornify). They have no reason to complain. And I'd ask them if they could stop copying my website (perhaps propose a reasonable time, like a month, but do nothing afterwards). Then I'd let it be.

</comment><comment><USER22> I actually set up a quick Heroku deploy to help identify when people are downloading our code and running it on a different domain than ours (just sends us an email). Most of the reckless folks stealing our stuff don't identify the little bit of JavaScript I've thrown in there, and we get a lot of these alerts. It also sends us the domain the code is running on. Of course, we aren't worried as much about localhost.

The JS also replaces the content on the page, and shows a "you shouldn't be doing this" kind of alert; we've had a TON of hits on this. It happens literally daily.

We have yet to file for DMCA takedown - good plan for those who are legit stealing.

However: I have a strong opinion on these things.

Specifically, if people are stealing your stuff, see what you can do to innovate past them. Ideas will always be stolen; edge and innovation can't be stolen.

Sometimes it's legit to call people out. Sometimes DMCA takedowns are needed. Sometimes, it's time to man up and beat the system. One step ahead, and all that jazz.

<comment><USER23> Any particular reason why you've been repeatedly targeted by such individuals? Some of them could be related and if targeted might cease abusing your code.

<comment><USER22> Well - it probably has to do with the fact that the site was featured on awwwards.com and a few other CSS-gallery type sites. Not 100% sure, though; the attention comes from all over the place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Send them a cease and desist letter - you can find free templates online ([http://www.free-legal-document.com/copyright-cease-and- desis...](http://www.free-legal-document.com/copyright-cease-and-desist.html) is one I just found).

The more professional you can make it look the better chance you won't have to resort to a solicitor.

<comment><USER25> You don't have to necessarily resort to a solicitor/lawyer in this scenario. If they are using your exact HTML/CSS/JavaScript and don't quickly respond and/or comply, you can always file a DMCA takedown notice:

[http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/12/18/my-website- design...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/12/18/my-website-design-was- stolen-now-what/)

Most hosts will quickly take down the website, giving you a cost-effective way to stop the issue. However I'd strongly encourage you to pursue a more friendly approach first, to give them a chance to do the right thing. (The site owner may not be the one who actually stole the design.)

<comment><USER26> I'll add that if they're a legitimate site they'll be mortified but if they're an illegitimate site, they'll quickly move to open up shop somewhere else.

That said, if they're costing you money because of your sentry issues or causing you support issues that you can document, you have just cause for a lot of actions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> You can prevent hotlinking of your JS and CSS files using your server config (for instance, in .htaccess on Apache). That will make it harder but it won't stop them copying the files locally. Lots of tutorials to prevent this are a quick Google away. You could even serve up an alternate CSS file for offenders that warns them from hotlinking your resources by prepending something to the body tag that is styled like a massive warning box and hiding everything else.

</comment><comment><USER28> The business problem isn't the ripoff, it's the fraud in your business space of easy online direct debit set ups. If lots of fraudsters set up in this area with convincing sites, your customers' customers will worry about providing their bank details. Suggest talking to your sponsoring direct debit bank about shutting the fraudulent sites down. Or you could report to actionfraud.police.uk but I suspect your bank has better connections.

</comment><comment><USER20> Here is my suggestion:

1\. Send a DMCA notice [<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5367936>].

2\. Blank their page with JavaScript. While it's legal to redirect the traffic to your site (it's YOUR JavaScript and there are no Terms for its use), you'll probably mislead people and make them think that you are the phishing site. Not worth it, in my opinion.

</comment><comment><USER29> Use the "is this my domain" javascript trick and then remove all elements from the DOM. Better yet, location.href them somewhere else.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm guessing that the traffic from this will alert them pretty soon so either way you'll want to take action quickly Hiroki.

Might be fun to hellban them, alter your JS to show visitors nothing when they visit their sites. Won't last for long but if you only do that for visitors with fewer than 3 visits then it'll take them a little while to figure it out.

<comment><USER31> I'm not sure about the legality of this option, nor the alternative I'd suggest. Instead of hellbanning their site, try redirecting their traffic to your own site.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I notice they're using eBay, AutoTrader and Gumtree logos. Don't know about the other two, but have known AutoTrader come down like a ton of bricks on muppets who abuse their brand - dob 'em in!

(Although if they are as shady as they look, there may not be an entity to come down like a ton of bricks on - this looks like fraud to me)

<comment><USER32> More brand abuse here: <http://secure-broker-online.eu/company>

The FSA, RBS and Wells Fargo might want to be aware of this, too.

<comment><USER33> CEO of Auto Trader might have something to say too <http://secure-broker- online.eu/escrow-process>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> As a side note, where are those gray icons at the bottom coming from? I needed a light bulb like that on my last project, and ended up having to slap together something on photoshop

</comment><comment><USER35> I would take comfort in knowing that the sign up form at <http://resinternationalgroup.com/> is impossible to finish :-)

</comment><comment><USER36> <http://resinternationalgroup.com/> \- Looks to have a live operator that you can talk to and ask questions as well?

</comment><comment><USER37> I wonder if Ebay, Autotrader and Gumtree might also be interested in throwing some weight behind this given how prominently their brands are featured on the landing page.

</comment><comment><USER38> <http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/> has all the information you need in notifying affiliates and filing a DMCA.

</comment><comment><USER39> Well they do have a live chat on those two pages. Might as well make use of it! Or you could contact their live chat provider and mention the copying. They might care.

</comment><comment><USER40> First time I've seen this use-case for Sentry :)

(I didn't actually see Sentry within the source code, was I missing something?)

</comment><comment><USER41> Secure Broker Online: 1-8 Kensington Gardens Square , London, W2 4BH

Knock on their door and ask them directly.

<comment><USER42> Seeing as the two rip-offs are seemingly the same 'service' and yet have very different addresses, I suspect the addresses are fake.

<comment><USER41> It appears you're right. The address above is actually the Phoenix Hotel.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> It's simple. Make money off your idea before they do. Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER44> submit a DMCA takedown notice. and blog about how mean people are when they complain about it.</comment>


Butt Stool – Invented? - <AUTHOR> Has anyone invented the "butt stool"? And if not then why not? Strap it on and sit any time anywhere! <comment><USER2> A.k.a. One legged "Milking stool".

[https://www.google.com/search?q=milking+stool&rlz=1C9BKJA_en...](https://www.google.com/search?q=milking+stool&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS690US693&oq=milking+stool&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.3227j1j7&hl=en- US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=VmYzW-ZkKJCqyM):</comment>


So when does academic publishing get disrupted? - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2011/08/30/so-when-does-academic-publishing-get-disrupted <comment><USER2> I wondered about this daily while in law school writing on the law review.

The status quo is both inefficient and contrary to their missions in nearly every example.</comment>


OS X notifications when long zsh command finishes and terminal not focussed - <AUTHOR> http://frantic.im/notify-on-completion <comment><AUTHOR> The actual description is here isn't 100% clear, but I didn't want to post my own article just for the sake of clarifying as it felt a bit like stealing!

The instructions you need are at the bottom of the post – "solution 4". Put the AppleScript into a new file, /usr/local/bin/notifyme (or wherever on your path) and then add the function to your .zshrc (changing "notifyme" if you named the AppleScript something different). This will then take effect for any new Terminal windows.</comment>


4Note: Simple, intuitive sticky note reminder for android - <AUTHOR> Hi folks,
I made this totally free app without adds called 4Note, which can be found on google play store and I thought it would be useful to someone.
Link to the store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smark.fornote&hl=en
The problem is I can't reach the people who would like it, so I decided to try with Hacker News. If you enjoy it, use it. If not delete it. Any feedback is welcome. <comment><USER2> I really like it. I would prefer a single full-screen widget with preset empty notes on it though. (maybe faint [+] signs to quickly add a new note)</comment>


Tales from the spam filter of an Android app developer - <AUTHOR> http://raccoon.onyxbits.de/blog/android-app-developer-spam-filter/ <comment><USER2> Site's being hugged to death, archive here: [http://archive.is/tx2oF](http://archive.is/tx2oF)

The gist is that spammers message the publishers of Play apps looking for willing developers to (a) integrate random tracking/advertising/analytics "SDKs", (b) integrate dubious/malicious software like cryptocurrency miners, P2P relays, or (c) sell their app outright.

The idea is that, at any given time, you don't know whether an app you've downloaded from the Play store has done any of these things, and the spammers probably know they can keep such "infected" apps on the Play store for long enough to turn a profit.

<comment><USER3> Too many good apps fall victim to the temptation. For example, ES File Explorer. It went from a great app to one with too many ads to outright malicious and now the developer is banned from the app store entirely. I still haven't found a file manager that let's you manage mtiple tabs of file folders with windows shared folders with the same level of elegance.

<comment><USER4> Wow, I was not aware of that. Should I delete the version I'm using?

<comment><USER5> I learnt a nice way to answer these kind of questions for myself lately. Ask yourself the following question: _One which side do you want to fail?_ (or on which side do you want to err?)

Do you rather have an app on your phone with access to your files that most probably runs dubious software alongside? Or, do you rather not miss out on the elegance and convenience it provides? I guess the answer depends largely on the content of your files and your personal preferences.

<comment><USER2> Interesting thought - a spammer can use the Play Store's visible metadata on an app to decide which ones to prioritize. For example, one criteria might be, apps with lots of interesting permissions, decent number of users, but no recent updates. For such an app a spammer could increase their incentives or try more hard-sell tactics.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not really that far fetched. It's the Raccoon blog. Raccoon, being an open source APK downloader partially reimplemens the play store app and app discovery is what that app is all about.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> it comes down to a criticism of:

1\. Google Play Store's requirement that app devs publicly post a contact email address

2\. Google's failure to invest more into eliminating bad apps from the App Store (somehow)

3\. Google's scorched earth policy with regards to sucking all of the money out of the ecosystem for itself and a very small number of app dev winners -- leaving most of the app devs in the poverty zone

Google could partially address #1 by creating a mail relay which filters out the bad library actors. App devs could use an address into the relay instead of publicly posting their own address and being left to fend for themselves. Of course, that would mean _even more of a developer 's customer communication would be routed through Google_. So that's not exactly optimal either.

</comment><comment><USER7> I don't see why this is specific to the Play Store? Surely the App Store has the same issues (point of contact, "free with ads" model, tracking SDKs)?

<comment><USER8> Does the App Store do a better job of policing truly malicious malware?

<comment><USER7> App Store apps in general have significantly fewer ways to be "truly malicious", and App Store review is somewhat more stringent than Google's process from what I've heard. However, run-of-the-mill tracking SDKs are commonplace on both stores.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The argument is the Play Store is unsafe/untrustworthy because developers get spam emails. Is that it? Is there anything to discuss here?

</comment><comment><USER10> Why does it need to be?

<comment><USER7> They're built on a model of providing curated, safe content, as opposed to the "wild west" of installing random software from the internet?

<comment><USER10> Are they though? Last I checked that describes Apple's App store not Android

<comment><USER11> You're not wrong, but it's one of the many reasons that the Play store has become a complete sewer in terms of quality, safety, and legality of the products offered.

Like Facebook, Twitter, etc. Google built the Play store (and Android at large, really) as a barn with all the doors open, and have been slowly closing them when users get too angry about a given (ridiculous for a multi-billion dollar corporation) problem.

Apple, on the other hand, built a walled garden and added doors to it as needed, and occasionally has taken some away too. You can use the cynical read and say this is to further their position in the market as the "pro privacy" alternative to Google, or you can say it's part of their core company ethos, but the result is the same either way: buying an app off the App Store carries little/no risk, and Apple strongly favors users during any issues that may arise. Play store on the other hand can be 100% safe or extremely risky, with little/no way to tell beforehand, and Google's end user support is notoriously terrible.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Windows Phone app that shows you "best tweets" of Your Twitter stream - <AUTHOR> http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=d727263c-3a2b-4996-b109-5a6bb572da2b

<comment><AUTHOR> Just a little more info: If You follow many users, sometimes You don't want to scroll through all unread tweets in your Twitter stream and just want a quick look at the most "relevant" stuff tailored just for You. So I created a little app for that</comment>


Ask HN: What are some good actor-model programming languages, besides Pony? - crypto-jeronimo <comment><AUTHOR> Erlang/Elixir, Scala if you use Akka

</comment><comment><USER2> See [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concurrent_and_paral...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concurrent_and_parallel_programming_languages)

The best besides Pony was Midori for Singularity, but it is not maintained anymore. I think this went into Maestro/Axum, which is now TPL Dataflow.</comment>


Advice from a 19 Year Old Girl and Software Developer - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@lydiahallie/advice-from-a-19-y-o-girl-software-developer-88737bcc6be5 <comment><USER3> It would be prudent to point out that not going to university when you are 19 isn't as much of a life-altering decision in Sweden as it is elsewhere; many choose to attend university later (when they've worked for a couple of years or when they have kids), and it's still possible to get into the top universities.

<comment><USER4> If you have a safety net (wealthy parents, personal wealth, strong social welfare), it's not really a life-altering decision anywhere.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, but I think the point is that in Sweden you don't need to have wealthy parents or personal wealth.

<comment><USER6> ... to go and live for a few months in a foreign holiday destination while taking an expensive private course?

I call shenanigans. You need to be rich for that anywhere.

<comment><USER3> There are actually foreign destination coding bootcamps that are free (for the attendee) organized by Swedish recruitment/consultancy firms. I'm not sure how they're financed, it may be the steep fees they charge companies for consultants.

That being said, the girl in question is probably rich given that ancient Greek and Latin aren't part of the regular curriculum at public schools in Sweden.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Just a word of caution.

I see people in FB advocating against college and academic knowledge in general. (E.g. Einstein flunk math(not true), Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish College, etc.)

Sure, If you are really, really smart like Gates, Zuckerberg, or Micheal Dell and you have a killer idea. Don't waste your time in college. But for most moderately smart people college is the best choice.

Also if high school was too hard for you, and you don't like school any way, don't waste your time in college and learn a trade.

This woman seems very mature and motivated. She is growing without going to college. So it may be the right choice for her. But it will not be the right choice for most people.

<comment><USER8> >But for most moderately smart people college is the best choice.

I just don't think this is true anymore, given the financial burden of modern academic education and the fact that they teach so little useful skills

programming is increasingly a trade, and can definitely be self taught better than any college will teach it.

the rest of the education may have other value but IMO not worth the time + money + opportunity cost

<comment><USER9> >given the financial burden of modern academic education

In many countries they have figured out that equal opportunities in access to higher education are a crucial thing to have. That's why my M.Sc. cost me grand total of 5000 EUR over 5 years.

>and the fact that they teach so little useful skills

I wonder why you feel this way. Can you elaborate on that? Do you think university is obsolete?

<comment><USER10> I'm not OP, but in my experience, university nowadays is less about learning how to think and more about memorizing for tests. The bar for passing tests is low too, and it selects more for persistence in study than competence in study. They don't even teach to be competitive anymore, because they don't want to hurt feelings.

<comment><USER9> That's not my experience in the slightest. I imagine your experience will vary a lot depending on location and area of study. I would be wary of making blanket statements from your own (limited) experiences, though.

<comment><USER10> I didn't make a blanket statement, that's why I said "In my experience." Even if just 10% of universities are like that nowadays, that would dilute the value of a degree pretty considerably.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> When deciding whether or not you should go to college, always look at the big picture and weigh your options. The kind of work you do in your early twenties probably doesn't require a college education or a strong network of college educated peers, so initially it will seem like you are getting by just fine. But what about your 30s, 40s, 50s and beyond?

No one needs to go to college for coding because coding is a blue collar job these days. In fact, when I went to university they didn't teach much coding beyond a programming 101 class and you were simply expected to learn various languages on your own time.

That class also certainly didn't teach you about the latest frameworks or trends either, just straight C and Java, which in hindsight I think were smart choices but at the time I didn't understand why they didn't teach more practical stuff.

<comment><USER4> Computer science programs don't teach the latest frameworks and trends because they're teaching concepts and theory. The implementation is a side effect. That's why so many CS grads have never used git.

In addition, it seems pretty obvious that with 20+ years of industry experience, a reasonably competent 40 year old candidate would be as employable as one with a degree. Who cares about university degrees that far removed from obtaining one anyway?

<comment><USER12> "Computer science programs don't teach the latest frameworks and trends because they're teaching concepts and theory. The implementation is a side effect. That's why so many CS grads have never used Git."

That is correct. End-user utilities like Git are left as an exercise for the student, something that a CS graduate should be able, not only to learn to use in a couple of hours, but understand its inner workings without reverse engineering, and write its own version after.

The reason why Git is not tough in CS classes is that it is considered so trivial that is will be a waste of time (and tuition) to do so.

"In addition, it seems pretty obvious that with 20+ years of industry experience, a reasonably competent 40 year old candidate would be as employable as one with a degree. Who cares about university degrees that far removed from obtaining one anyway?"

It depends on what it will be writing; if it is another website that is just a magazine on HTML sure, no difference. If it is optimizing a compiler in assembler, correcting performance problems on a multiplatform system, or evaluating code for security holes in a sizable institution, then you better have your degree.

<comment><USER13> > If it is optimizing a compiler in assembler

So if you have a CS degree, you're qualified to optimize compilers and perform security audits at large institutions? No way.

In practice these are two different and highly specialized jobs. Why would you _not_ consider someone who has a proven track record of optimizing compilers? Or finding security holes in code? I'd rather look at a portfolio than a certificate any day.

<comment><USER12> NDA

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I take a issue with her post. Let's break down her "daily life":

      * Streching 15m a day.
      * Watch online courses 2h a day.
      * Personal projects 4h a day.
      * Read 2 articles, let's go with small articles without too much techical detail, 30m in total a day.
      * 5 Code Wars Kata, for them to be of any value, 10m at least each, let's call it 1h a day.
      * Sleep is important, so we say 8 hours of sleep and at least 1 hour getting ready.

This totals to 16 hours and 45 minutes. Add a commute and a work day and you are past 24 hours. And I haven't even mentioned the healthy food she wants to make - getting groceries and cooking takes time. 1 hour every day is not unreasonable either. So far this workweek needs to be less than 30 hours for her schedule to work out, probably closer to 25 hours.

Lets put this into the context of a carpenter - do you expect them to spend nearly 8 hours a day of their free personal time, to improve on their trade? That is called personally funded education outside of work, and usually rewards you a title.

This post, indirectly leads to stupid requirements at interviews and burnout. Some of my best developers love to code, but they know not to spend every wake moment coding or something related to coding. All developers that have called in sick or left due to a burnout all worked on, and stressed over, big personal projects to show the world. Developers need to learn the difference between work life and personal life - the former cannot be allowed to consume all available time.

<comment><USER15> Agree except for the 'This post, indirectly leads to stupid requirements at interviews' part. She did not decribe anything a decent developer should not know

<comment><USER14> She is advocating spending an unreasonable amount of personal time learning and working on personal projects. There is a perverse focus on that part at some interviews, and it's wrong on so many levels unless you do not want any personal time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm shocked that there's an entire mini industry of sorts of pictures of younger woman posing in front of Javascript code. Not just a casual picture but with what looks like a carefully composed photograph.

<comment><USER17> What I'm shocked at is that she's got two displays there but chooses to write code on the tiny screen in front of her. I don't get people that work on laptops.

<comment><USER18> At work I have two external monitors attached to my 13" MBP, and I almost exclusively use the laptop screen. I also use the trackpad and keyboard attached to the laptop, which is probably the reason I use the laptop's screen so much more than the others. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I live in Australia where by default, you don't have to pay for university right away (you have to pay the government back slowly once you start earning above a certain salary). As a result it's common for people to do double degrees over a long time, and universities usually don't care how long it takes you to do them.

I went down the opposite path than that described in this post - <USER2> electrical engineering and math, and 5 years down the line I feel like have no practical skills (there's an emphasis on theory and the fundamentals), and feel that I'm wasting my twenties being stressed out, abusing caffeine, and pulling all nighters every week.

I've been working hard on academics since I was 16 (I'm 22 now) this blog post reads like a fantasy of mine.

<comment><USER20> It's a possibility, have you tried taking a few years off and testing the other methods you have in mind?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think an important thing your average non-cs grad developer can learn from her story is the importance of networking. Maybe networking isn't the quite the correct term. But she put herself out there starting at 15, wrote and shared what she did. I'm sure she made a lot of contacts, even if only through the internet. She created an image for herself. Without that there is nothing to set you apart from everyone else in your situation. So it's not surprising that she had multiple recruiters reaching out to her during bootcamp. Good for her.

</comment><comment><USER22> I followed pretty much an identical path 14 years ago. Here's what I've learned.

Yes, she's right that you don't need a lot of school to develop the trade skills of programming or other tech work, and people will hire you. However, it can easily replace the time when young people normally used to develop social skills and potentially critical future relationships (personal and professional).

It's also easy to fall down the rabbit hole of learning as much as you can about technology and abandon all other pursuits, because you no longer have the outside influences found in a traditional education system. This limits your exposure to alternative ways of thinking, which at the very least limits effectiveness in your career (a creative one) to say nothing of stunting personal growth.

My biggest regret is not learning more about the ancient Greeks and Romans, and Myceneans and Minoans, and Egyptians and Chinese, when their foundational achievements could have inspired me in both my personal and professional life. Learning languages is great too as it exposes new kinds of culture and different ways of thinking.

I'm not saying this is a bad path to take - it worked for me! - but I wish someone would have told me all the things I was missing, or provided some sort of path to experience the rewarding parts of it.

<comment><USER23> you can learn about greeks and romans quite easily in your spare time, they wrote a lot of books.

<comment><USER22> Yes, I've been aware of that for a long time, but thank you for the information.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> A great post and great discussion; how is this post already off of the front page despite having ~80 votes in 1 hour?

I was reading this post on my phone and missed the subhed "My daily life (outside of work)". When reading her habitual to-do list (read 2 tech articles, solve 5 CodeWars Kata) I had assumed it was her weekend list, or maybe week list. Maybe she has an extraordinary amount of energy, or maybe I've totally forgotten how much energy you could have as a teenager (or both).

Something she wrote reminded me of a fragment of a story I heard on NPR about women coding:

> _I started coding when I was 15 years old. I had a booming health & > lifestyle blog on Tumblr and gained tens of thousands of followers in no- > time. This is when I started creating my own responsive layouts with the > regular HTML, CSS and jQuery, as I didn't like the themes that I could buy, > so I decided to just try it myself! From there on, I kept on improving my > skills, gained more knowledge, and my interest in developing grew._

Here's the piece that I apparently caught a bit of on NPR: [http://latinousa.org/episode/tech-industrys-leaky- pipeline/](http://latinousa.org/episode/tech-industrys-leaky-pipeline/)

There's not a transcript unfortunately, but there's a bit where someone is talking about how, in the age of MySpace, kids had an opportunity to be exposed to coding because customizing MySpace profiles required writing raw HTML. Sure, it often looked ugly as hell, but we don't seem to have a similar mainstream entry point for the average Internet user to get sucked into coding -- that is, coding not for coding's sake, but just because coding was a way to improve your daily life (yes, even social media profiles count as "daily life").

IMO, the coding -- including the language that you have to figure out -- isn't important compared to the revelation that digital entities can be _hacked_ and changed to your liking. These days, I can still impress a classroom of people by seemingly defacing nytimes.com using the web inspector. It's not the sight of HTML being typed that's impressive, but the revelation that webpages somehow are _mutable_.

(not sure how many of those people realize that I didn't change anything on the actual nytimes.com server :p)

</comment><comment><USER25> A very level headed and motivating post. I hope she keeps the momentum going.

I think there is a bit of irony however, in that while she received inquiries from recruiters in the states, without a degree she wouldn't be able to work there, or anywhere outside the European Union that doesn't have a very comfy work permit. Not that it's necessarily restricting though. I'd love to live and work where she's from. Unfortunately for the same reason, I can't.

Personal Anecdote: I see a lot of myself 5 years in how she describes herself. In some ways I miss that time, in some ways not. Particularly in her attitude toward school, both secondary and post-secondary. Now though, having returned to University in Canada—for the reason I outlined above—I'm finding myself with an intense curiosity about everything unrelated to programming and love being at the University with a community of people just trying learn and do better for themselves.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is a very good article, and certainly has a lot to say about being self- taught.

I started developing like this but I went for the college degree after, and there is a lot to learn in academics that self-studies will not bring to your attention, so you cannot really say that you don't need to go to college if you don't know what you missed.

There is coding, and there is coding. There is a huge difference between javascript and websites and embedded programming or compiler building and optimization. There is a big difference between a program that runs, and a program that runs efficiently. There is a big difference between my portfolio website and a bank customer service website. And there are many more differences if we slice software development in many other contexts.

</comment><comment><USER26> There's plenty of "coding" work that's essentially gluing frameworks together, hacking around with CSS + JS, adding one more feature to CRM. You don't need CS degree for these the same way you don't need economics degree to do basic accounting. Also if you have a degree and are in a job like this, look around.

CS degree gets you open door to "real coding jobs" \- AI / ML / DL \- data science / BI \- multithreading, performance sensitive development etc \- Big Data

Can you learn everything yourself / from online material. Probably yes.

</comment><comment><USER27> The thing that's so odd to me here is that she's giving advice as someone currently in the situation she's advising on, in fact, just embarking on this path. This article might be totally different for her if she was a 25 yo dev who skipped school, or 30 yo, etc.

It's a well reasoned article, and I don't know how useful having a degree is for CS. It doesn't seem like she's in a position to have the self-awareness of her position, let alone to advise others on it.

</comment><comment><USER6> _After I decided to not go to university, but give my 110% to programming instead, I went to a coding bootcamp for 3 months in Tampa Bay, Florida_

Is this another success story where the secret is, be born to wealthy parents?

<comment><USER28> No, in Sweden you don't need to be rich to afford this. Perhaps the secret is, be born in Sweden.

<comment><USER9> Globally speaking yes, she is very rich.

<comment><USER6> I am English. Aged 18 could I or my parents have afforded for me to fly to America and drop $20k on an unaccredited course + more for living expenses? Not a chance. I don't want to come across as envious or anything (since I went to a good college here, before Bliar's government introduced tuition fees) but let's call a spade a spade shall we? This is someone who is highly privileged pretending that they earned it like a regular person.

<comment><USER9> But that's precisely what I'm saying.

<comment><USER6> I am agreeing with you :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Solid advice. I've been in this business 25 years (also didn't finish college!), and for folks just getting into software development, this is the article that will be recommended reading.

Sidenote: I was surprised by the absence of a Github reference in the article. I like to follow influential devs on Github.

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm 20 years old, and my story is pretty similar. I never wanted to go to college, because I didn't like the atmosphere and I never liked school anyways. Then I got interested in programming and basically obsessed over it and it was all I did. Then I got an internship at 17 for web development with some friends. Just recently I moved on to a larger company that I prefer more. I have enough money to support both my wife and I and more, no plans on going to college.

I know college is right for some people, and statistically and practically you'll get more money. But I didn't want to throw a ton of money and 4 years of my life down a hole when you can enjoy life just fine without college.

<comment><USER31> It's spelled college.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> The degree rule by me: Get one if its required to work on the field e.g. MD or if it's too hard for you to learn on your own e.g. math.

Spending money you don't have on a degree you don't probably never need is silly. You can learn history, women's studies and all that jazz on your own if you only put the time in.

</comment><comment><USER33> This is an impressively aware article. I do find myself wondering though, whether all this should be a requirement for entering the software industry. Why is it that software rarely seems to offer apprenticeships like other engineering disciplines?

</comment><comment><USER23> Being able to pick up languages and frameworks that are not garbage is a huge advantage.

Being young means you can undercut on salary and live with parents, while you gain experience.

Being female means you can cut out on garbage socialising sessions and be more picky.

</comment><comment><USER34> How does she find time for all that and having a job?

<comment><USER24> I don't find it particularly unusual when someone with a 9-5 job spends 5-6 hours at home working on their passion project. But I don't think I could have the discipline of the OP, to spend 4 hours daily on a personal project, and also completing coding exercises and reading tech articles, on a daily basis.

<comment><USER34> True, she does say that she _tries_ to do these things. At first I meant she does all that _plus_ her day job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> A lot going on here if I said anything I would get torn to shreds, so I'll just smile and nod and say "cool"

<comment><USER9> Yet you opted to say nothing of value. Might was well have not said anything, if you were not going to contribute positively to the discussion.

<comment><USER36> There are plenty of people on HN who know what the parent is referring to, but simply can't comment with sentiments that belong to the class of "things you're not allowed to say".

Dogwhistling is often less dangerous in terms of karma annihilation than actually expressing the thought.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Advice for a 19 year old girl and software developer, from a guy who's coming up on old coot status all too rapidly:

* Subjects like ancient Greek and Latin help you build your future by giving you a better view of the past. Seeing where we've been gives us better knowledge of where we're going.

* Consider university. I'm not going to tell you to go if you really don't want to, just consider it. You're in Sweden, not the USA, so higher education is free or reasonably priced and won't saddle you with crippling debt. Anything that broadens your mind and expands your horizons makes you a better developer. Science, math, philosophy, music, history, literature, art. It's worth it to learn them all, so if you decide not to go to university, set aside some time to read up on these.

* Follow the old-school, BASIC-ASM-Pascal curriculum. The first language a beginning coder learned in the 80s was BASIC. This taught them to write high-level instructions for the computer. The second language they learned was assembly -- how to code in the CPU's own language, meaning you had to worry about word widths, memory locations, pointers and the like. Finally they were ready to embrace Pascal and synthesize the knowledge they got from their previous experience. They could write high-level code while remaining cognizant of low-level concepts like pointers.

Modern programmers will learn JavaScript, Python, or Ruby instead of BASIC and C instead of Pascal but the principle is the same. Start high level, go really low level, and end up somewhere in the middle, able to think in terms of both abstraction _and_ machine-level details.

* Look out for your future self. Plan for her arrival; she's coming sooner than you think. When I was your age, I was chugging down Cokes and pulling all-nighters learning how to write X11 programs from the man pages. I can't keep up that lifestyle anymore. I need sleep and balance in my life otherwise I get cranky. There are lots of things I could've done then that would have given me a huge career boost now, like being more aggressive about networking and seeking out internships at major companies. Had I done that I could have been a manager or architect in my thirties. I'm still trying to make it as a developer, having to deal with an interview process and workplace environment that's tailored to people your age.

* Speaking of, the workplace is tailored to people your age because the system is rigged to exploit young, enthusiastic people like you. Do you read the Bible? Matthew 10:16. You're like a sheep among wolves out there, so be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove. Meaning always be honest and offer your talents in good faith, but be shrewd and know what you're up against so you don't get screwed over. Another thing I wish I'd known at your age.

<comment><USER4> > Look out for your future self. Plan for her arrival; she's coming sooner > than you think. When I was your age, I was chugging doen Cokes and pulling > all-nighters learning how to write X11 programs from the man pages. I can't > keep up that lifestyle anymore. I need sleep and balance in my life > otherwise I get cranky.

Did you read the post? She's discussing stretching, yoga, meditation because of their benefits for someone learning to code.

<comment><USER37> It also sounds like she's cramming a lot of coding-related stuff into each day. Her photo is even captioned to the effect of "Look, you can meditate while coding, too! ^_^" It's a fairly typical, 19-year-old enthusiastic coder attitude, but it's a fast path to burnout if you're not careful. Meditation helps but you have to seek balance in the large, too.

<comment><USER4> That photo caption was a joke.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Check out the open-source project I'm releasing at JsConf (warning: very beta) - <AUTHOR> http://hook.io Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Please be gentle, its been a one month death march or so to get v0.1.0 out.<p>There is a lot of room for improvement everywhere. <comment><AUTHOR> Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Please be gentle, its been a one month death march or so to get v0.1.0 out.

There is a lot of room for improvement everywhere.</comment>


The Emily Programming Language - <AUTHOR>

Emily (http://emilylang.org/) is a neat little programming language where every feature is a function. Written in OCaml. It uses prototypal OO and has a semi-functional style. Made by Andi McClure. Also, first post \o/ <comment><USER2> Posts without URLs get penalized, so you'd be better off submitting this as a story that points to that site. You could then post the above text as a first comment in the thread.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for informing me! I'll use that approach next time I want a comment along with a link

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> nice work op,

<comment><AUTHOR> Not my language, if that's what you're referring to :P If you're referring to the post, thank you very much</comment></comment>


Will bots replace developers in the future? - <AUTHOR> https://www.saas.do/b <comment><AUTHOR> The charts on [http://www.fastcoexist.com/3054842/visualizing/how-soon- befo...](http://www.fastcoexist.com/3054842/visualizing/how-soon-before-your- job-is-done-by-a-robot-this-graphic-will-tell-you) show that 45% of the time of a developer's job can be automated. Your thought?

<comment><USER2> ...but picking out _which_ 45%, now that's the trick. The site essentially reiterates the 1970s marketing pitch of COBOL, Now With Rounded Corners (TM) And A Cute Robot (batteries and lasers not included).

Statistically speaking, 100% of the inventions claiming "developers will be out of their jobs because This New Invention" has proven false so far, indeed creating _more_ SW development jobs instead. Does that have any sort of predictive power about _this_ product? Probably yes.</comment></comment>


"Do Not Track" for Chrome - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ihlkonljenliaphefgafjldhddjilhgm

<comment><USER2> I find this to be a very important extension....I would be surprised if Adblock didn't have this built in though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Glad to see this is available for Chrome. Thanks for posting it!</comment>


Show HN: Social Drop - <AUTHOR> http://www.socialdrop.net/

<comment><USER2> I would love to see the actual implementation, otherwise you're asking people for feedback on sentence fragments and a sign-up page. How far along are you?

<comment><AUTHOR> The system is being built with node.js, Amazon EC2 and S3, I've got accounts management in place, and file uploading and obviously chat. I'm still working on integrating everything. It is very early days indeed but if the overwhelming response here is negative then my views will be to just bin it and work on something better.

<comment><USER2> I believe most of the time, for any given idea, you'll get a number of negative reactions very fast - especially if there is no actual demo to see yet. If we take your landing page as an elevator pitch, the feedback you get will mostly consist of obvious concerns, such as:

Won't that devolve into piratebay with a chatroom? How will you pay for the huge bandwidth and storage required? Will people want to chat ad-hoc with strangers while they're downloading? Do people want others to know what they're downloading? How can you make this legal AND interesting?

But those concerns are largely shots in the dark. We don't know what you got planned. So I guess the question is more: Do you believe in the idea? Do you believe you can make this work? If so, you shouldn't give the reins to naysayers, show what you can do; go ahead and try it out, by all means! But if the concerns above are similar to your own doubts, move away from the keyboard and develop another idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Won't that devolve into piratebay with a chatroom?

Possibly, but this is why reporting and copyright infringment DCMA procedures ala youtube will be key.

> How will you pay for the huge bandwidth and storage required?

Self funded to start, everyone will get a limited amount of space to start off with. I don't want to go the premium account route to start off with so nonintrusive advertising will be used to help cover costs. I'm more interested in creating a community based on easy filesharing rather than making millions of dollars (pounds in my case).

> Do people want others to know what they're downloading?

If it's all legal then sure, why not? I'm trying to make it easy to create natural communites based on the type of file uploaded (Categorisation and tagging of files once uploaded will be important here)

I believe in the idea. I've been thinking about it for a long time and I'm certainly up for any ideas.

My own doubts are on the lines of "No one will want to use it". I'm not a huge idea man, and I'm not sure how to go about leading people to the project. If I can build this and only say, one group of artists ever use it, I will keep it running for the reason that at least someone is using it. It may not make me any money but if it makes people's lives easier in any way then I'm interested in making it happen.

<comment><USER2> > _My own doubts are on the lines of "No one will want to use it"_

Statistically, this is always a good bet, as it is with every other idea. That makes being a negative person so rewarding ;-)

> _I'm not sure how to go about leading people to the project._

Featuring on HN is a start. Seriously, if you believe this thing can work, finish your prototype and get it online. Personally, I believe in stripping the idea down to the simplest implementation that could possibly work. Build it quick and dirty, see how it goes. If you don't know any of the "movers and shakers", prepare for a lengthy take-off period. Distinguishing between a long runway and utter failure can be the hardest part. But other than that, go. Do it, now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Please let me know any feedback, I realise there is not much to go on as yet but I'm hoping to generate as much interest as I can :)

<comment><USER3> OK, I'll be that guy.

I don't get it. What's the use case? Can you give me an example of a typical user, and what they'd be doing?

<comment><AUTHOR> Upload a file, the download page is a chat room, where people who are downloading the file can chat, in the simplest terms.

Other people can then be selected to upload more files which can be shared with other users in the chat.

<comment><USER4> Very interesting concept, almost reminds me of a community -- sharing files and talking about them between users.

I think the biggest trouble you will run into is that unless a file is very popular, you may not have any people at all in most chatrooms, which would make it seem like the community was pretty empty. You also have to think about how people download files -- are they coming to your site to download files, or are they coming for the community? On forums, people will chat with other users, and then share files. But when people are looking to upload/download files, I don't know how often they are looking for a community.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Very interesting concept, almost reminds me of a community -- sharing files > and talking about them between users.

Exactly what I'm going for.

> I think the biggest trouble you will run into is that unless a file is very > popular, you may not have any people at all in most chatrooms, which would > make it seem like the community was pretty empty.

I think the way to solve this issue would to have notifications for anyone who has downloaded the file that there's been activity in the room. The system I've will save all activity forever, so it's not going to be an IRC type situation where all logs are lost unless a third party saves it.

> You also have to think about how people download files -- are they coming to > your site to download files, or are they coming for the community? On > forums, people will chat with other users, and then share files. But when > people are looking to upload/download files, I don't know how often they are > looking for a community.

I admit, when I'm downloading a file, I get annoyed by the "please wait 30 seconds to look at our advertising and whilst we pop up crap in the background", and I never want it to become the kind of situation here.

I'm thinking of people who are uploading a group of files, say a collection of pixel art, and want feedback on what they've done. I realise this can be easily achieved by a forum but I think this idea is novel enough to not replace the forum, but become an alternate method of communicating in-situ with the subject matter.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Do You Approve the Plain English? - <AUTHOR> Hi!
The Gerry Rzeppa is the co-creator of the Plain English programming language and the Grand Negus of the Osmosian Order of Plain English Programmers.
Do you approve the Plain English?
If not, why you does not approve the Plain English?
I realize it is a lot to ask, but if you could take a few minutes to skim this short, illustrated article...
https://osmosianplainenglishprogramming.blog/2018/05/15/plain-english-programming-teaching-kids/
...and then answer (off the top of your head) the questions above, I would be grateful.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Why not standard dialog box for loading and saving programs? I remember using GW-Basic that didn't have them, and it was painful. I recommend innovating in only one direction.

About the scrollbars: Weird decision, but I think I can live without them.

Do you have a GitHub repo and/or a playable demo?

The problem with English-like languages is that they are easy to read but difficult to write. You can write a lot of sentences, but when you hit a corner case it's very difficult to understand what failed. For example:

Draw a line at the top of the screen with the green pen.

Draw a green line at the top of the screen.

Using the green pen, draw a line at the top of the screen.

Since you allow spaces in procedure names, parsing mutually recursive procedures must be very difficult. Can the program do this?

Anyway. I read that you have a Spanish version of the Language. [Hi from Argentina!] Spanish has a few declinations. For example, you say "linea roja" and "cuadrado rojo". Is Spanish more difficult? Also, the adjetive usually go after the noun, so the parser for the nicknames (aka variables) must be different.

Do you plan to support German, they write Compositewords without a Spaceseparator. And they have a lot of declinations too.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sorry to be a naysayer, but I don't think plain English makes programming any easier. The program on that link is nothing like how you'd talk, because it still requires the logical breaking down a problem into steps of regular programming. Also with many ways of saying the same thing, reading the program becomes harder. Because now you need to map the different English phrases to "what the computer really does" underneath.</comment>


Ask HN: What is your advice to a new manager? - <AUTHOR> I would like to pick the brains of experienced managers here and se what they think are things a new manager should do, study, look for etc. <comment><USER2> Be kind and lead by context. Is surprising how many managers think that their job is being the dictator in charge, and how often they treat their teams as children.

Your job as a manager is to remove blockers, provide context and make sure your team is working effectively.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not a manager, but as someone who had a REALLY political manager who tried to undermine everyone around him, including (and especially) his subordinates, The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene taught me how to cover my ass and how to generally be effective in an org.

<comment><USER4> Nice book. Nice suggestion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> If you search HN for "new engineering manager", it will turn up some of the past discussions:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=new%20engineering%20manager&sort=byPopularity&type=story)

This one, for example, is an article called "How to fail as a new engineering manager", with lots of good advice in the comments:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18011381](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18011381) (106 comments)

Here's another one:

"Ask HN: How do I deal with my engineering team and motivate myself?"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10892288](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10892288) (46 comments)

I was an engineering manager for about a decade before I quit and went back to being a developer. I hesitate to give specific advice, since I don't think I was very good at it. But here are some things that, looking back, were sources of difficulty:

\- You can do some amount of development work, but don't put yourself on the critical path for your group's work, or you won't have time to do the important things that only a manager can do. (Or you'll try to do everything at once, and burn out.)

\- Don't be too friendly with the people who report to you. It's hard enough to lay off an employee, but having to decide which of your friends to lay off is much harder. You also don't want to be in the position of telling your friend that their work needs to improve, etc. (Similarly, don't be surprised if the people who report to you don't want to be your drinking buddies.)

</comment><comment><USER6> I am a startup founder managing a team of 3 developers and 2 sales persons, I can say from my personal experience that team building and culture are the most important points a new manager can focus on.

1\. Team building: you should ensure your team share a vision, are aligned around the same goals, and each one of them is a accountable for one specific subject she/he is good at.

2\. Team culture: try to naturally build a cult like culture for your team, by that I mean some kind of special rituals or habits that differentiate you from other teams or groups. This will strengthen the bonds between team members and improve productivity long term.

</comment><comment><USER7> 180 comments in "Ask HN: Going from Developer to Manager. What should I know or learn?" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18823616](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18823616)

200 comments in "Ask HN: What are the signs that you have a great manager?" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20230133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20230133)

17 comments in "Ask HN: How do I become a better team lead for a small, junior dev team?" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18687213](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18687213)

</comment><comment><USER8> 1, CYA it's sad that I have to say that, but yes, cover your ass, politics plays a big part in jobs and (good) managers generally shield you from the pressure so until you're in that position you've no idea how bad it can be

2, don't be too friendly with the people reporting to you, they won't take you seriously as a manager and will happily go over your head

3, encourage personal growth of your team and be there for them as a mentor and friend (which contradicts 2, there's a balance to get)

<comment><USER9> I have heard managers described as a "shit umbrella" for their team, I'm pretty sure now that that's true, especially for good managers. Know when to keep your team out of things they don't need to worry about or be involved in and in general I think they'll be happier for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Part of your reading list must include books on Psychology to better understand individuals and Social Psychology to better understand groups.

<comment><USER11> any recommendations?

<comment><USER10> The Little Book of Psychology will give you the lay of the land. Then build up your library over time as you deal with specific issues.

The key is awareness of the important concepts of the field.

Most managers have very little awareness of the field. And under time and resource pressure, come up with their own half baked theories and solutions which seed further issues and compound misunderstanding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> don't be a dick</comment>


Cloudflare CEO lashes at Anonymous claims - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/18/cloudflare_ceo_rubbishes_anonymous_claims_of_terrorist_support/?bypasscheck <comment><USER2> If you adopt a "we only take down content pursuant to a court order", then you need to adopt this policy all time even when it is uncomfortable to do so. Cloudflare has often been criticized for harboring DDoS sites, controversial content, and now ISIS, but I think cloudflare sees themselves more as a pipe or utility than a walled garden.</comment>


Making and Using Non-Standard Textures: Manipulating UVs Through Color Data [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2011/gdc_2011_grimes_nonstandard_textures.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Valve has a lot of interesting publications on their site: [http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/publications.html](http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/publications.html)</comment>


Higher Education cost - <AUTHOR>

With college rising and being over a trillion dollars in debt, how can we improve the student debt situation and make higher education affordable? Are scholarships a good resource? Are they being distributed enough? How can we make college affordable for everyone but also not risk the chances of them defaulting or accumulating so much debt? <comment><USER2> co-op? A good amount of Waterloo CS grads don't have debt.</comment>


Distributed cache and K/V store in Go. Embeddable or independent service - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/buraksezer/olric <comment><USER2> Didn't Discord have issues when they did caching in Go due to the garbage collector having to run over all objects ever 2 minutes? Was that resolved in a newer version of Go or does this project get around that problem in another way?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know the Discord case but Olric implements an append-only log file indexed with a built-in map(uint64 > uint64) to store data.

<comment><USER3> It was discussed here [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22238335](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22238335)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> What data structure does it use - LSM tree or hash table or something else?

Also if I'm using it as an embedded library does it do anything to help me to replicate the data?

</comment><comment><USER5> [https://github.com/boltdb/bolt](https://github.com/boltdb/bolt) seems very similar.

<comment><AUTHOR> Olric is an in-memory and distributed key/value store. Bolt is an b-tree based on-disk key/value store and it's not distributed. Olric can be compared with [https://github.com/golang/groupcache](https://github.com/golang/groupcache) and it's highly inspired by Amazon DynamoDB paper and Hazelcast.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why not patch/fork redis and include that as a cache that can be used in different languages and has ~all redis features ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Olric is not Redis. Redis implements different data structures and has different persistence options. Olric only provides a key/value store and it's suitable to be used as a distributed cache. README.md file contains enough information to compare those tools.</comment></comment>


Queue everything and delight everyone - <AUTHOR> http://decafbad.com/blog/2008/07/04/queue-everything-and-delight-everyone

<comment><AUTHOR> Just found this linked from the Celery docs. A very compelling argument for doing everything asynchronously in your next webapp.</comment>


OnePlus Hit by Data Breach - <AUTHOR> https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/security-notification.1144088/ <comment><USER2> When I opened the link, I was hit with a modal for a raffle. I understand that it's the site's normal behavior and there's no way to single out a single thread (probably), but readers of this thread probably don't want to hand over data for a raffle.

<comment><USER3> Ironic that a post about data breach asks for your data

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > But certain users' name, contact number, email and shipping address may have > been exposed. Impacted users may receive spam and phishing emails as a > result of this incident.

Those are personally identifiable information that has been breached. So the attackers can identify me with my shipping address, email and my name.

Minus One Hundred Thousand from me.

</comment><comment><USER5> My information got leaked by OnePlus last year and I got hit with some minor credit card fraud. At least I didn't get hit this time... One would think that companies would step up their security after a breach.

<comment><USER6> I bet security breaches for companies are more like heart complications for humans. Once you've been to the hospital once for one, you're statistically more likely to have another incident.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "We are deeply sorry about this" => we don't care much and we will try to hire not the cheapest dev around

<comment><USER8> Everyone hires the cheapest dev... even Silicon Valley giants!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > We took immediate steps to stop the intruder and reinforce security.

How did they get in? and why wasn't the security "reinforced" in the first place?

</comment><comment><USER10> I find it so funny that you have to pay a bank to hold your personal items safe in a safety deposit box, yet companies left right and center are doing their best to acquire and hoard giant amounts of sensitive information without understanding the liability they create for themselves.

My hope is that over the coming decade there is a mental shift, and personal information becomes seen as a risk rather than a resource.

<comment><USER11> The liability for banks for safety deposit items is very low.

[https://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2019/07/safe- deposits...](https://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2019/07/safe-deposits-not- so-safe4.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> i get that use of the passive voice makes things more PR friendly, but the cynic in me feels that these should really be in the active voice:

\- Intruders breached OnePlus systems

\- On X date, unauthorized intruders accessed data in our systems

etc.

<comment><USER13> I'm not sure I agree. The purpose of the passive voice is to promote or bring into focus the object or "patient" argument. In this case, the topic is really OnePlus' systems the fact that its security was compromized. The identity and nature intruders is not the focus and is probably not even known, so the passive voice makes sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> [https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/oneplus-oxygenos-data- an...](https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/oneplus-oxygenos-data-anonymity/)

[https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/11/16457954/...](https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/11/16457954/oneplus- phones-collecting-sensitive-data)

<comment><USER15> The great thing about OnePlus phones is that nearly all of them have LineageOS support. I just install this over OxygenOS. Also when I installed OxygenOS, I recall it asking if I wanted to provide analytics to them in the setup process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I get that data breaches are their own class of problem, but I do find it ironic that people gave their contact/sales info to a company headquartered in Shenzen and have any expectation of data protection/privacy.

<comment><USER17> Because American companies definitely don't sell your data.

<comment><USER18> Whataboutism

<comment><USER19> We need it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Ok, the breach shouldn't have been possible. But at least, when a breach does happen, this is a good example of how a company should communicate. First assessing who/what has been impacted, informing affected customers and a clear (could use some more detail) public statement. Of course, some laws like GDPR force them to do this, but in reality we still see enough big corporations handle this way worse on an almost daily basis.

<comment><USER21> As an example of an initial notification, maybe. However, that has to be followed up with a full post mortem. I see zero information about what happened or what steps are being taken.

<comment><USER8> They're still figuring that all out. The second post in the thread is about all they know probably. I only got my email about the breach an hour before the post was made.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Lessons:

1\. Use pseudo name (nickname) for shipping, instead of full name

2\. Use company address instead of home one whenever possible

Just think about how many people have to access your shipping data just to deliver an order to you, the online shop, the shipping company, the warehouse, the delivery guy.

It kind of hard to imagine all of them would have perfect bank-level security.

<comment><USER23> Most people don't treat their address as sensitive information.

Many publicly accessible government records have address information.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> "The name, contact number, email and shipping address within certain orders may have been exposed."

I really hate that most companies _force_ me to give a phone number when I buy something. Why do they need it? Why forcing? I usually end up giving a fake one.

<comment><USER25> I believe small vendors need it to verify that you really are the owner of the CC (it's a requirement of the processor).

<comment><USER26> Phone numbers are not required for credit card processing. Address, yes. Phone, no.

<comment><USER27> Address is also not a requirement.

<comment><USER28> But it can be if you require. Billing address verification can be important for higher value transactions. Some sites won't ship to an address other than the billing address.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> FAQ from the article has some good info if anyone missed it: [https://www.oneplus.com/support/faq22119102](https://www.oneplus.com/support/faq22119102)

</comment><comment><USER8> Well darn, I just bought a OnePlus 7 Pro, checked my email, it's shipped! And I'm part of the data breach. :(

<comment><USER8> Content of email: Security Notification

We are reaching out to you directly as we have discovered that part of your order information was accessed by an unauthorized party. We can confirm that your payment information, password and account are safe, but your name, contact number, email and shipping address may have been exposed.

We took immediate steps to stop the intruder and reinforce security. Right now, we are working with the relevant authorities to further investigate this incident and protect your data.

We wanted to notify you of this so that you can be alert to people pretending to be OnePlus to get further information from you, or people asking you to buy products or services from them. OnePlus will never ask you for your passwords, and any financial information should only be provided via a secure payment page on the OnePlus website or one of our partners if you are buying products from us.

We are deeply sorry about this, and are committed to doing everything in our power to prevent further such incidents. We will continue to investigate and update you as we learn more. In the meantime, please contact us with any questions or concerns at Customer Support.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Basically all of our stuff is already out there. Is lifelock of any help?

<comment><USER31> Nope. Never was any help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> This was released a day or two after T-Mobile. Hmm...</comment>


Unity Engine ToS change makes cloud-based SpatialOS games illegal - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/unity-engine-tos-change-makes-cloud-based-spatialos-games-illegal/ <comment><USER2> Why are people still using Unity? They've proven to be extremely hostile to their users over and over again.

Use free software, people! I recommend giving Godot a shot for your next project: [https://godotengine.org](https://godotengine.org)

<comment><USER3> IMO there are several reasons:

1: Its very easy to use and there are A LOT of C# developers out there.

2: I suspect that because so many successful games have been made with Unity, more people are attracted. If you ask a average gamer, many can identify at least 1 or 2 games made with Unity, but most have no idea what Godot even is.

<comment><USER4> Here's a big one: Unity is a full suite of tools for game dev, plus a marketplace, plus a community.

People generally only have time to learn one development platform well. So it makes sense to use Unity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm thinking of changing my game into a cloud-based game engine. My servers just treat the clients as "dumb terminals for showing objects moving around." So what if I made such a client out of the Godot engine, ran instances of those on cloud servers, then streamed the results to Unity clients?

</comment><comment><USER6> I hate the inflation of the word "illegal" \-- Unity's change bars cloud-based SpacialOS game.</comment>


$675,000 RIAA File Sharing Verdict Is 'Unreasonable' - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/01/riaa-verdict-is-unreasonable/ <comment><USER2> That is an insane amount for each song, it makes one wonder what punishment would come from stealing a dozen cds (a tangible item of similar nature).

<comment><USER3> The plaintiff in that case would be an actual physical shop, and the US government is not the tool of record stores (knock on wood). So very little, compared to this. Of course there would also be criminal charges but even they would be minor in comparison.

<comment><USER2> That's what my point was supposed to be, that the criminal charges for a first offense most likely would come out to community service and a fine of less than 50 thousand dollars unless the price of the cds put them into the next class of felony.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> We're doing pick your price music on <http://anjuno.com> and for some reason no one is paying $22,500 per song. I wish those RIAA lawyers would start using Anjuno, it would really help our bottom line.

</comment><comment><USER5> When special interest groups have the amount of lobbying power that they do today you get nonsense like this.

Why such a thing as a lobby even exists is beyond me, the government is supposed to be there for the people.

</comment><comment><USER6> Regardless, the RIAA and the major labels are all in big trouble. There's only so much litigation you can do before you realize that the world has changed. The RIAA suing customers is like manufacturers of horse drawn carts suing early car manufacturers back in the early 1900s. The new economy just happens whether you like it or not. Music file sharing makes perfect sense in a world where the cost of making a copy of a digital file is zero. Arguing against that is like arguing against gravity. It is what it is. The labels were all aware of the changes going on way back, but they chose not to take advantage of change because they thought they were that powerful. They deserve their cruel fate.

</comment><comment><USER7> Coming from the days of the cassette recorder when we all used to record from the radio and share tapes with friends, how is it that this is anything less than persecution? Is this sort of judgment making us warm towards the recording industry or artists? Assuming that people who download are the biggest buyers?(Forrester research) can they really make a case for any losses? [http://www.phrequency.com/blog/Study_shows_music_pirates_buy...](http://www.phrequency.com/blog/Study_shows_music_pirates_buy_more_music.html)</comment>