Ask HN: Advice on how to have quality, productive 1-1's with your manager? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> 1\. It's your meeting and you should write the agenda, not your manager. Usually this is 1-3 things you want to tell/discuss with him/her. It can help to keep note of important things that come up during work for you to discuss at the next 1-to-1.

2\. Make sure your manager schedules more than 30 mins, ideally an hour. Prefer longer meetings to more frequent meetings, if that's a trade-off. It's important you can get into long or difficult topics. Often you won't need all the time, in which case you can always end the meeting early.

3\. Focus on important topics, e.g. career development, rather than "updates", e.g. week done this week.

4\. Avoid cancelling meetings; they're primarily for your productivity/happiness. How regularly you have 1-to-1s should depend on how experienced you are at the job and can change over time - probably somewhere between weekly and monthly. At the end of each meeting, try to arrange/confirm the time for the next one.

The book "High-output management" by Andy Grove has a great section on this, and I've found the advice there very helpful over the last few years.

<comment><USER3> Try to make sure everyone knows the adjenda ahead of time too if possible so everyone is prepared.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Some good answers here. I'd recommend two books:

1\. This free O'Reilly book about good 1:1s: [https://www.oreilly.com/business/free/files/the-secrets- behi...](https://www.oreilly.com/business/free/files/the-secrets-behind-great- one-on-one-meetings.pdf)

2\. Rise, by Patty Azzarello, which is about career management in general, but also has important stuff about how to work with managers and peers.

</comment><comment><USER5> Not directly answering the question, but I just wanted to say that it's a healthy thing to encourage 1-on-1s between people in all sorts of different relationships, not just manager-report.

1-on-1s with your manager are critical because (in many cases) your manager has a big say in your career. But your manager isn't necessarily the best person to have as a mentor. Even if it's not a common occurrence at your company, I'd wager that if you approached the person you thought you could most learn from and asked if they wouldn't mind mentoring you via 1-on-1s, most people would be honored and happy to serve that role.

</comment><comment><USER6> What can I do to prepare me to get to X (whatever that is for you)? Do you see any areas for improvement? How am I performing against my performance goals?

One on one's are not time to shoot the sh^t. You can do that anytime. A one on one is used to get explicit feedback from your boss, so make it count. You want your boss to know what your goal is and how you are progressing toward the goal; which sets up the conversation for what's going to happen when you make the progress. This is a very transparent way of keeping everyone aligned. If you want a promotion, to hit your bonus target or whatever, there should be no surprises. Use your one on one to you know, a week or two at a time where you are at. It'll help you either get what you want or set the stage for taking your next job elsewhere; no surprises either way.

</comment><comment><USER7> Bring your own prioritized agenda and go through it. Recommend printed copy to minimize distractions from screens. Having a rapport and chatting about personal stuff is great for building a relationship and trust but keep bringing the conversation back to the agenda until everything has been addressed. You can generally copy/paste these from meeting to meeting and just make the necessary updates/changes so stuff doesn't fall through the cracks. Be sure to include accomplishments - having a history of your 1:1 agendas can be very useful when it comes to review time and needing to remember everything you did for the past year.

Flag problems early on and indicate if/how you need them to intercede/escalate. Green/yellow/red (or whatever scheme you like) indicators can be useful here for "all good", "advising of problem but I have action I'm taking on my own" and "I need your help" at a glance.

Make sure you ask for feedback and be open to both praise and criticism. Try to get some kind of action plan put together for growth/development and keep tabs on how you're addressing it.

</comment><comment><USER8> I like what I am doing with my current manager, we speak during stand ups and randomly in the office when chatting about life/work, if we see that something requires more attention we grab a room and spend as much time as we need or schedule a meeting asap.

There is no agenda, no planning, but active ongoing conversations. Meetings are about 1 topic and you usually don't need more than 1 thing ready (demo, pen & paper, specs, web browser with jira...). We work completely transparently too, so that helps as we can always check what's up without needing to interrupt each other.

If the company CEO asked to have 1-1 with my manager for 30 minutes randomly, I guess topics would vary, from personal life, career to probably aligning vision of the what we want to build. But most of these stuff is covered in detail in daily routine so no need for 1-1 really.

If he needs to speak about multiple topics he will tell me and if I need anything ready, but this is yet to happen.

</comment><comment><USER9> Both of you should have read High Output Management, at least the sections related to 1-1s.

</comment><comment><USER10> 1\. Understand the big picture.

2\. See yourself as a person in pyramid which is a point in the other pyramid's structure.

3\. Pay attention to what manager says, that's the interface he wants to see. Those are things he wants you to deliver. He isn't interested in low level hacks you use, those are the things you discuss with your coworkers.

4\. If you see some flaw with the interface he laid, point it out. If he is still OK with the flaw and don't want any changes, don't try too hard to change his mind. Simply note it down somewhere, the flaw you had observed and pointed out - in your personal notes.

5\. Understand that in the grand scheme of things, he is just a person who checks whether an interface is compliant with big picture, they are just another bishop just as you are.

About the technical stuff you and your colleagues know it best. Manager has to deliver what executives told him to. If the product isn't coming out as the perfection you wanted, that's OK.

Manager is very likely to forget the things you discussed with him so you should keep notes. Otherwise, you might get inquiries like, hey bob! Why you didn't tell this to me?.

And you need to tell him, we had discussed this and concluded that and yes, i did make you aware of this issue. That's it.</comment>


Turing Pi: Kubernetes Cluster on Your Desk - <AUTHOR> https://turingpi.com/ <comment><USER2> While Raspberry Pi's are awesome, and the power consumption is nothing to scoff at (when considering a cluster), you can accomplish this same thing for a lot less, and have quite a lot more compute power, by purchasing a used server or even something like an AMD 3600X...

A single 3600X will grossly outperform this cluster (and cost less) with less headaches (you don't have N physical machines) by using KVM to deploy a few virtual machines and using Kubernetes to orchestrate and allocate within those VMs. You'll also have a lot less latency between nodes running in VMs on the same physical host.

Another thing that unfortunately sucks about Raspberry Pis (less with Pi 4, but still mostly applies) is really shitty I/O performance...

I spent a large amount of time over the past summer and fall trying out various ideas to have a "cluster" at home that was both practical and useful. While, the PIs were nice, they never really amounted to much more than a demo. Latency and I/O become real problems for a lot of useful interconnected services and applications.

Honestly, if Ryzen 3000 hadn't come out, for cheaper cluster builds (~300-400) I still think Pis would be a solid choice but... Ryzen 3000 is just so fucking fast with a lot of cores, it's truly hard to beat.

Addendum: to touch on used servers, yes your power bill will go way up, no joke, but for some applications like large storage arrays-- it's hands down the cheapest/easiest route. Search by case, not by processor, it sounds weird but the case is likely the most valuable part of the old server (like ones with 20+ SAS2 slots for $500) or PCI-E slots that GPUs can fit into.

<comment><USER3> The other part of 'on your desk' is hearing damage.

Server hardware vendors have traditionally not given two shits about their servers being north of 90 decibels, and I'm pretty sure I've witnessed a few that were pushing 100.

That Raspberry Pi is probably going to absorb more noise than it makes.

<comment><USER4> Is there any reason you need a kubernetes cluster literally on your desk?

Isn't the whole point of using these layers of abstraction over hardware that you pay someone else to manage it?

The only times I can imagine needing hardware on my desk are when latency is super important or when I constantly need to manipulate the hardware (change hardware, play in bios, etc). In either case, I would not use k8s to run my software.

<comment><USER5> It's fun to play around with and learn on. If you can build a cluster from scratch with Pi hardware, you get a lot of knowledge of how things work under the hood for a real cluster.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's something amusingly cyclical about a blade server architecture for Kubernetes. The tech comes out of a whole movement towards combining commodity machines using clever software instead of buying specialist hardware, but then adds the specialist hardware back in.

Some deeper integration between Kubernetes and the hardware (acceleration/offload ASICs maybe), branding of k8s + this hardware as a unified product, and this would literally just be a mainframe. Which is not a terrible idea! Maybe Kubernetes is the mainframe operating system of the future.

<comment><USER3> Some mumblings have been heard accusing us all of trying to reimplement mainframes, badly.

For a long time I have been watching the ebb and flow between peer to peer and client server and it's gotten quite a bit fuzzy lately. I suppose if you treat cloud providers as a large amorphous server, it sort of still fits the mold.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is also the [https://www.pine64.org/clusterboard/](https://www.pine64.org/clusterboard/) for $99 which takes these modules [https://www.pine64.org/sopine/](https://www.pine64.org/sopine/) at $29 a piece, which are quad-core ARM Cortex A53 with 2GB LPDDR3. This is their wiki: [https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PINE_A64-LTS/SOPine](https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PINE_A64-LTS/SOPine)

<comment><USER8> 75W 5v bricks can't be that easy to come by were as 12 or even 19v we're usually tripping over.

<comment><USER7> I'd use either this [https://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80](https://www.mini- box.com/picoPSU-80) and repurpose a spare 12V brick for it, _or_ get something for powering LED strips. There are gazillions of them rated 5V 15A at about 30 bucks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Note the $189 price tag doesn't include the Raspberry Pi compute modules, which are about $30-40 each.

It's a neat form factor but you could just buy some regular Raspberry Pis and an Ethernet switch.

<comment><USER10> That's without eMMC though. Having a bunch if normal Pi's running SD cards would end up in tears at some point.

<comment><USER11> Isn't eMMC on each RPi board? No?

<comment><USER12> The compute modules come with onboard eMMC

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you're looking for a cheaper alternative then [https://clusterhat.com/](https://clusterhat.com/) is worth taking a look. I have one sitting on my desk (4 Pi Zero nodes and Raspberry Pi 2 controller).

<comment><USER14> Very cool, Thanks for the link. Are you also running k8s on it?

</comment></comment><comment> nsky-world Hey guys, I am a co-founder of Turing Pi. I see a lot of comments around Raspberry Pi, performance and VM. I just want to shed a light on some things here. Turing Pi is not about performance, it's about cluster architecture. If you look at Turing Pi as a homelab project, then yes, you can get more performance with some used cheap servers. Of course, if you get approval from your homies to occupy a closet. You can even run apps in containers with Kubernetes orchestration using VM and so on.

The main idea behind Turing Pi is to deliver compute to the edge. If we look at cases where some compute will run low latency, highly available and internet independent apps to automate processes, and often in a hard to reach places, then the classic servers, not a solution. Turing Pi is an early version of edge computers with cloud-native architecture. Why it's important? Because if you are a business with some services running in the cloud and you want your edge computing organically to coexist with your cloud stack, then edge clusters could be a great choice. The speed to innovate and deploy your code into production to both cloud and the edge environment could be a critical component.

The existing Turing Pi model more oriented at forward-thinking developers who want to learn and push cloud-native to the edge. Why Raspberry Pi computers? They are not the most powerful computers, but they definitely can lower the entry point for developers by offering a huge and well-documented software ecosystem.

</comment><comment><USER15> Looking at the specs, it seems almost dishonest to promote this for kubernetes.

> The nodes interconnected with the onboard 1 Gbps switch. However, each node > is limited with 100 Mbps USB speed.

Not only that but Compute Module 3+ are limited to 1GB RAM, is it really expected someone could run a realistic workload? How stable is the control plane node with such limited resources?

It seems like picking up 3 raspi4s (4GB RAM each) and powering via PoE would be a must better result.

<comment><USER16> I agree, using the USB bus for inter node communication seems like a poor design choice. Anyone got any insight on why they wouldnt use the much faster ethernet connection?

<comment><USER17> My understanding is that the ethernet module on the raspberry pi is a usb device, not a pci device.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Someone had one of these 'backplane' style boards a few years ago, but they only used it for flashing Pis for distribution. I don't think they ever made it commercially available.

This looks fairly similar.

And can we all just pause for a moment and look at that heat sink on the ethernet controller? Holy cats, what's goin' on there?

</comment><comment> kube-system This is neat, but I'm really more interested to hear about potential use cases. I'm guessing this is mostly useful for ARM workloads? Maybe some situations with low power requirements?

Personally, for my multi-node test clusters, I just run VMs on cheap x86 hardware.

<comment> nsky-world What's the practical point of running containers on VM?

<comment> kube-system To expand on my personal use-case, I don't want or need a whole stack of physical servers sitting around just for a test k8s environment. There are some things that you can only really test properly in a real multi-node environment rather than single-node solutions like minikube: failovers, shared storage, some networking particularities, etc.

But there are reasons to run containers on VMs in production too. Hypervisors and container orchestration tools solve very different problems. Depending on what problems you are trying to solve, it might be useful to leverage both.

<comment> nsky-world Can you please elaborate a little bit more on the reason to run containers on VMs in production?

<comment><USER15> Here's a reason if your production platform is Kubernetes:

\---

The default pod limit per node 110. This is by design and considered a reasonable upper limit for the kubelet to reliably monitor and manage everything without falling over into NotReady/PLEG status.

If your node has a ton of cpu and memory, then 110 pods will not come close to utilizing all the metal. You can go down the path of tuning and increasing the pod limit, but this is risky and often triggers other issues on components that are designed for more sane defaults.

It also means that if your node goes NotReady (not a hardware failure), it's now a much bigger deal because you have fewer total nodes and many more pods to re-schedule at once.

This is solved by splitting up these massive nodes into smaller nodes via virtualization.

It's also nice having an api-driven layer to manage and upgrade the vms versus shoehorning a bare-metal solution. I would argue it also encourages immutable infrastructure by making it much more accessible.

There are bare-metal solutions but it's often more complicated and slower than launching/destroying vms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> for this use case, i would rather use something like SimpleNUC[0] .

It's basically just NUC machines with rack mount. It's a lot more powerful than Rpi, quite power-efficient (when compare to actual server rack) and dead silent.

More importantly, this setup can handle some actual workload

[0]: [https://simplynuc.com/server-shelf- solution/](https://simplynuc.com/server-shelf-solution/)

<comment><USER19> That takes it from $300 to $3000.

<comment><USER18> this turing pi cost $189; 7x rasp pi 3 cost $210 and we need to buy SD card or eMMC, power plug or usb power hub. the total cost is not cheap either, when compare with used server rack.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Finding and running docker containers on ARM is unfortunately a pain.</comment>


The Bizarre, True Story of Metal Gear Solid's English Translation - <AUTHOR> https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein <comment><USER2> This explains Mamoru Oshii (of Ghost in the Shell anime) live action 2001 movie Avalon. Original Polish dialogues are pure nonsense, with characters introducing themselves in long monologues to their long time friends/associates, or explaining game basics to fellow pro players, every line feels google translated from Japanese script.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm surprised that Kojima didn't take the "localisations" well. MGS was fantastically well received in the West, in no small part due to the story/translation. Anyone who's read foreign literature knows that literal translations are always poor, and the strength of a novel in a different language relies almost as much on the translator as the original author.</comment>


Ask HN: How is automatic video tagging is done based on its content? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> If you're referring to the way, e.g. Youtube, automatically detects the author of the video or artist upon upload, then this article will give you an overview about tagging "audio":

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_fingerprint>

</comment><comment><USER3> One way might be to run the audio stream through a speech-to-text engine and parse the resulting transcript.

A video recognition system could also be used to identify faces, landmarks and common objects.

</comment><comment><USER4> Can you give an example of a website using automatic video tagging first?</comment>


How the government is killing Indian Startups - <AUTHOR> http://shashanknd.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/how-the-government-is-killing-indian-startups/

<comment><USER2> Here are some pain points you'll really feel if you're trying to do a micro- ISV.

I) Incorporation:

\- No way for _one_ individual to have limited liability. Sole Proprietorship only.

\- A 'Private Limited' will cost you INR 20K-40K (USD 400-800), requires at least 2 people and quarterly board meeting filings.

\- Private Limited minimum capital is INR 100K (USD 2K). Registration cost goes up if you invest more capital.

\- Bank account pain: minimum balance INR 40K (USD 800), set up can take months to be fully functional.

II) Taxes:

\- VAT registration & monthly filing.

\- Service tax registration & quarterly filing.

\- Import Export registration if you're exporting software.

\- It's not clear if software is a product or service. So you'll do what everyone does - charge users both VAT & service tax!

\- Since amazon, rackspace etc dont charge you Indian service tax, you'll have to pay it. Add _20%_ to your SaaS hosting costs.

\- If you hire contractors, _you_ have to withhold & submit their service tax.

BTW, from what I've read here and in other forums, stuff like this is a pain in many countries.</comment>


Firefox Startup issues have been fixed in 3.5.1  - <AUTHOR> http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5.1/releasenotes/ <comment><USER2> Someone try it and post back here. I'm too scared.</comment>


Moon Landing May Fuel China's Push to Other Galaxies - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-06/china-s-moon-landing-may-fuel-humanity-s-drive-to-other-galaxies <comment><USER2> The nearest galaxy, named Andromeda, is 2.5 million light-years from earth. Traveling at light speed, how long would Bloomberg estimate it might take possible Chinese galacto-nauts to reach such a destination?

</comment><comment><USER3> If Bloomberg is this ignorant about intergalactic distances, just imagine how accurate their financial advice is.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the piece was supposed to run as a companion to Bloomberg's other article on China's alleged discovery of some kind of "stargate" or faster than light drive that will allow them to bridge the distance with relative ease. Of course, that's just a rumour.</comment></comment>


The WebSocket protocol "Last Call" - <AUTHOR> http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-hybi-thewebsocketprotocol/

<comment><USER2> As people here seem to really like and actively use WebSockets already, let me ask a question: How well does this behave with various proxy servers on both ends (client and server)?

I have this nagging feeling that yet another cool technology will probably not be usable for the foreseeable future because it gets broken in unpredictable ways by either forced proxy servers or, my bane of existence, personal firewalls.

Are there numbers out there about percentages of successful connections (though considering browser support, those numbers are probably skewed because this is still limited to early adopters which either don't run personal firewalls or are able to fix them)?

If connections fail, how do they fail?

<comment><USER3> The version of websockets currently in the wild (-76) doesn't play well with proxies at all.

The handshake requires sending 8 bytes of body data, without a suitable content-length header. Without the content-length header, http proxies won't pass on those 8 bytes, so handshakes fail.

Hopefully this is addressed in the newest revision.

<comment><USER4> All 3 versions are reasonably successful, and in any event, it's not rocket science to try websocket and fallback on comet upon failure.

The latest version is probably the most robust if your ISP likes fiddling with your HTTP though.

<comment><USER3> It's not about ISPs fiddling with HTTP, it's about using existing reverse proxies / load balancers, such as nginx, haproxy, perlbal, pound, etc. None of them work in HTTP mode with the spec currently in the wild. If you use a non- layer7 balancer, you lose the ability to inject X-Forwarded-For. It's a real concern for sites that serve websocket traffic from more than one machine.

<comment><USER4> Firefox 6 uses the latest spec. So it's active in the wild already.

I don't think reverse proxies are that big a deal personally, as you as a website owner have control of that part of the system. If the reverse proxy can't deal with it, fix it so it can or use a different one or write your own.

There's certainly ISPs out there that proxy all HTTP through their own cache/proxies and fallover with previous spec websocket. Of course the alternative is just to use HTTPS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Is there a good 'diff', detailing what's changed between revisions?

I need to read up on the latest version - anyone know if it avoids breaking http, and will work with proxies out of the box? (ie no essential body data without a content-length header)

<comment><USER5> Yes, you can get a text diff from [http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf- hybi-thewebsocket...](http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-hybi- thewebsocketprotocol/history/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there a good overview of websockets? I just glanced at the spec and it looks quite complex. Especially the part about framing. Do websockets have any relation to TCP sockets? If over TCP, why do they use their own framing?

<comment><USER7> Because TCP doesn't provide any framing - it's just a stream of data. Text based protocols usually use newlines as delimiters, and binary protocols usually prefix each message with a size.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Finally! I'm sick of web hosts claiming the protocol is still changing constantly, so they won't support websockets on their servers.

<comment><USER2> in their defense though, that was (and is - until the final RFC is released) true. Depending on your infrastructure (reverse proxies, firewalls) supporting just one version can already be painful.

Supporting different versions, incompatible to each other is even more painful.

And as a generic host you can't make all your customers constantly update their application especially when you consider that various browsers out there support (or don't support) different revisions of the protocol.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Great resources for product management - <AUTHOR> Hey folks, I started a new job in product management and I am looking for the greatest resources online. Any recommendation for books, YouTube videos, blogs etc thanks! <comment><USER2> I think projectmanagement.com is an excellent resource with a big community of project managers, books, blogs, webinars and so on. You can also look for appropriate communities on Reddit for more useful resources, constant communication and sharing your questions. Some of them are r/projectmanagement, r/agile, r/softdevteam, r/scrum. I also enjoy cio.com website, though it is not just for project managers.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it depends on the product field you are facing.

Personally, I will recommend Donella's "Thinking In systems"</comment>


Apple removes all vape-related apps - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/nannytechnology-thanks-for-breaking-my-medical-marijuana-vape-apple/ <comment><USER2> It's unfortunate, and I don't fully agree with the policy. Regardless, building an iOS app in any of the "vice" trades has to be recognized as high risk at this point. Right or wrongly, Apple has been consistent about this since the earliest days of the App Store.</comment>


'House of Cards' canceled as fallout continues for Spacey - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/10/30/kevin-spacey-has-set-gay-rights-back-actor-blasted-for-response-to-sexual-misconduct-claim <comment><USER2> Thank you, Anthony Rapp</comment>


Show HN: Tracr – Email-like communication using usernames and #hashtags - <AUTHOR> http://www.tracr.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Lately there have been tons of new Email Apps. We believe Email is great and definitely has its use cases.

However, one of the things that we've discovered while building and using Tracr is that it's a much faster and lightweight approach to do Email-like communication.

Tracr basically is like Twitter and Email having a baby.

You wanna send someone a piece of information (file, taks, message) in a asynchronous and status based way (open, done) by simply using @usernames and #hashtags, well then definitely give Tracr a try. We know that Tracr is still rough on the edges, but wanted to collect early feedback.

Feel free to send me a Trac to @alexmarktl (that's what we call a message on Tracr) or an old school Email to alexander dot marktl at gmail dot com to give feedback or if you wanna find out more about our vision.

</comment><comment><USER2> I fail to understand it? Are messages one to one/many just like email? Or public like twitter? So far it sound like email with categorization and a task management. I think you need to describe what we can do with it that's fundamentally hard otherwise.</comment>


Ask HN: SICP (Scheme) – Which parts to skip if only interested in Chap 4 and 5 - <AUTHOR> Hi experts,
Background:
- Some non-professional experience with Python and C++;
- Completed all projects of the Python version MIT SICP course, EXCEPT for the last one (Interpreter) because I don't fully understand the implementation
For the Scheme version, I'm only interested in Chapter 4 and 5 (Interpreter and Compiler part).
My question are:
1. Which parts of Chapter 2-3 I can safely skip? I won't skip Chapter 1 because I need to get familiar with Scheme itself. I find its syntax awkward, comparing to the languages that I know. I heard there is some EE stuff so I'll definitely skip those.
2. I understand that all exercises are important, but what's your strategy if you are really stuck in some exercises? As self-taught, I'm very keen on a project-oriented path (really enjoyed the Python version course), but I don't want to skip all exercises.
Thank you! <comment><USER2> Try PAPL if already familiar with Python, last few chapters are on interpreting [https://papl.cs.brown.edu/2019/](https://papl.cs.brown.edu/2019/)

Pyret.org has an online interpreter, no local install needed if you don't want. Same author is also rewriting PLAI

[https://www.plai.org/](https://www.plai.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I never heard of this course, looks good~~</comment></comment>


Useful Markdown Editors and Tools - <AUTHOR> http://codegeekz.com/markdown-editors-and-tools/ <comment><USER2> this is very good summary of what's out there.

the categories seem to be a bit mixed up, but i don't see very much stuff that is missing -- considering the difficulty of being exhaustive \-- except for three large and notable exceptions.

the first one is "multimarkdown composer", which is found at [http://multimarkdown.com](http://multimarkdown.com).

next, "strapdown", at [http://strapdownjs.com](http://strapdownjs.com).

finally, "marky", at [http://markdownrules.com](http://markdownrules.com).

-bowerbird</comment>


Facebook's Zuckerberg accused of setting dangerous precedent over Trump - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52877801 <comment><USER2> If it is truly believed that Twitter's response to the tweet is going to forestall its influence, you're kidding yourself. It's a signal that Twitter is giving regarding itself more than it is an effective strategy for any purpose.

If it is desired that every social media company holds the exact same standards for its content, we may as well consolidate them all; who needs more than one social media site? Much easier to police or push around, too.

<comment><USER3> I don't think companies should all conform to one policy. But the issue here is that facebook had a policy, then refused to enforce it.[1]

[1] "If anyone, including a politician, is saying things that can cause, that is calling for violence or could risk imminent physical harm.... we will take that content down." [https://twitter.com/donie/status/1266416129448255489](https://twitter.com/donie/status/1266416129448255489)

<comment><USER2> And I expect different companies will hold different standards as to when content meets that line.

That's not to say I think Facebook or Twitter are consistent - they are far, far from consistent, and you are right to desire to hold them accountable to their own policies.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941 a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire." \-- Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941

If FDR posted that, should Twitter and Facebook filter it out? It is a clear call for violence. Or does it matter why violence is being called for?

It's hard to construct a curation rule so clear that it can't, easily, turn on political calculus.

<comment><USER5> If you don't think it's easy to construct rules that differentiate between clearly official pronouncements regarding major diplomatic shifts, and bloviating support for obviously racist state-sanctioned violence against individual citizens, then I would humbly submit this to be a failure of imagination.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hate FB but They're a private company, not the Supreme Court.

They can flip flop all they want.

<comment><USER7> I don't get why you get downvoted.

It IS a private company. And for that reason I do not prefer products of XYZ company, because I believe they are assholes. On the other hand I prefer products of ZYX company because of whatever reasons.

It would be fascistic of my to oblige XYZ company owners to change their opinions, because "I" think so (and trust me I do dislike that scum Zuckerberg).

For that I have taken the decision to ignore/sinkhole everything-FB (as I have stated many times in this forum)(hosts, firewall rules, blockers, etc) and I consider FB to be one of Humanity's cancers. Top-down, bottom-up assholery (my opinion - just like Clint Eastwood)(I don't value mine over anyone else's).

FB is not doing something alien to them. They know that tensions increase "engagement" and "engagement" increases ad-revenue.

Remember how Cambridge Analytica was (essentially) used to focus on certain people, divide and conquer?

I am surprised that people are surprised.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Just a friendly reminder that inciting violence is not protected speech. Thank you.

<comment><USER9> Depends. The current standard in the US is "imminent lawless action", which bans "kill that guy now", but allows for "he should be killed"

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

>Advocacy of force or criminal activity does not receive First Amendment protections if (1) the advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and (2) is likely to incite or produce such action

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> A dangerous president to not censor the President?

Yea ok.

<comment><USER11> A dangerous precedent is to censor a democratically elected President.

Edit: It's sad when we get afraid of commenting anything that can be understood as politically biased.

<comment><USER12> There's no reason why some selected politicians should be immune to the rules of the platform they have chosen to publish their speeches. Otherwise it would create a form of political censorship for their opponents which aren't allowed to post something similar. If you want to know what kind of regime the impunity will create, just look at modern Chechnya.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> After reading jwz's post calling everyone working at Facebook white supremacists and the tweet from TalkSpace it feels like I'm missing something. What is Facebook's role in this other than not censoring Trump's post?

By the way, I thought hackers were against censorship so I'm very puzzled by all of this. What would the right action for Facebook be in this case?

Not taking any stance here, just genuinely curious.

<comment><USER14> Facebook is not merely "not censoring" Trump's message, they are actively spreading it.

In a world with no social media, how do you spread your message? You can yell from the rooftops, pass out fliers, publish a book, go on TV, etc. In every case there's a human or organization involved helping spread your message. When that message is vile, the TV station or book publisher is rightly held accountable for helping to promote it.

Facebook gives people a platform to spread their messages. If those messages are vile, then Facebook is just as complicit as if it were a book publisher or person handing our fliers. The difference is that Facebook says "we operate at a scale which does not allow moderation", which is true, and it's the same reason that you can reach so many people so quickly with your messages.

Facebook is actively spreading hate by giving Trump a platform. They need to be accountable. Without Facebook, Twitter, etc, Trump would just be shouting hate to himself. With FB, trump shouts hate at everyone.

<comment><USER13> Thank you. What about decentralized platforms such as Mastodon? Don't they have the same problem?

<comment><USER14> I think any platform that lets people post things without sufficient moderation runs the risk of spreading hate. I'm not familiar with how Mastodon works though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I would like to see the real face of my elected representatives as much as possible. If I do not want him, I will just block him.

</comment><comment><USER16> I think when you read headlines you can work out if it has positive energy or negative energy. It would be pretty sweet if you could filter content based on if it has something positive to say or something negative.

</comment><comment><USER17> I don't agree with what Trump says. Nor do I condone violence...

Would you be ok with WeChat censoring "anti-China slogans" coming from HK? Think about it. Deeply. People in China think of HK citizens as against their country and what they stand for. And, just because we fall into one side of the barricade, we think that WeChat censoring stuff is NOT OK.

Are we asking Facebook to do the same as WeChat?

Here is another hypothetical situation. Imagine if all tech companies were pro-republican and there was no voice for democrats on social media. Just saying to make a point. Now reverse the situation, aren't Republicans in this nation feeling threatened by excessive control of information governed by a handful few? Think deeply and try putting yourself in their shoes.

When you fall into the abyss, the abyss falls into you. This is a dangerous situation to be taking sides and also a dangerous situation to stay neutral as our nation falls apart.

<comment><USER18> Sounds like the slippery slope fallacy. The argument isn't being made to remove all posts from all members of a certain political party or ideological background. It's not even to remove all posts by a single person. It's to address and, hopefully prevent, posts that incite violence and unrest.

Literally every platform, including HN, has guidelines around what should and should not be allowed when users contribute. Having those rules defined is great, but enforcement is what makes sure the rules are followed. For a long time, and perhaps still, Twitter was selectively enforcing those rules to users. Facebook seems to be doing the same. Twitter finally applied those rules, rather loosely, to Trump via a couple of minor footnotes to his posts (not censoring at all). Then Twitter put a soft censor, meaning it was still viewable though not through normal user behavior, on a post that very clearly incited violence. I think the fact that these platforms have gone so long without enforcing their policies to this particular person has given the impression that there are no policies and no enforcement and, by extension, that they're open platforms accepting all speech. They aren't, never were, and as private entities are not beholden to be.

<comment><USER17> I agree with your assessment of the situation. I also agree with getting rid of posts that incite violence.

I am just concerned about whether it grows over time into eroding away the ability to speak on the internet.

This is just one thing. We don't even have any visibility in the true special sauce - the algorithms that determine what to show to people. Do you see the problem with this or you think that people who are responsible for these algos are good samaritans and they don't need any public oversight?

<comment><USER18> > I am just concerned about whether it grows over time into eroding away the > ability to speak on the internet.

By this reasoning, we'd be crippled to make any decision for fear of what that may lead to. This leads back into the slippery slope fallacy. When something larger is at hand, then we can re-visit, but this is not large enough to merit that amount of mental and emotional effort to justify and discuss. Granted, that's entirely subjective, but I fail to see this as a very large issue. It's only making the news because these social media companies have gone _so long_ without enforcing these policies.

> This is just one thing. We don't even have any visibility in the true > special sauce - the algorithms that determine what to show to people. Do you > see the problem with this or you think that people who are responsible for > these algos are good samaritans and they don't need any public oversight?

This is extremely problematic and I agree. This isn't _really_ the topic of _this_ discussion, but it's definitely a problem. Social media companies are already censoring and filtering posts via their algorithms. That wouldn't be the case if feeds were purely based on a time-series (as they used to be).

<comment><USER17> Thanks for sharing your perspective. I guess it is a bit excessive to think about future repercussions, my conscience is only guided by past examples of slow erosion. I hope that silicon valley folks remain vigilant and self- critical.

Regarding the algos, I agree, it is an entirely separate problem.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> the eagerness of some to demand that a private company of dubious ethics be the censor of others is mindboggling

</comment><comment><USER20> Does anyone else feel like this motion to censor political figures on social media as a result of what they said seems to have suddenly become a big issue real quickly. Until last week President Trump would say whatever things he would say and the defense was basically as the President what he says should be a matter of national record and although it might <dumb,profound,ignorant,genius,etc> the idea was people should know what their President is saying.

Now suddenly twitter hides one tweet and Civil rights leaders are applying pressure to CEOs and employee's are staging "virtual walkouts"? (Personally I find a virtual walkout to be kind of ridiculous but whatever)

Ultimately my concern is that it seems that people keep wanting to expand the limits and boundaries on discussion and discourse, and not necessarily what someone says but rather their interpretation of what someone says. By that I mean, it doesn't matter what you say, what someone else thinks you said is what dictates whether it is okay to say it or not.

I mean does anyone else remember the whole cofeve fiasco where several news outlets spent day(s) focusing on what it could mean and how it was a secret racist dog whistle?

Don't get me wrong I don't like Trump I don't like how a lot of this situation is being handled, especially as it bodes for our rights as citizens, but it seems to me that rather than focusing on the problem many are instead trying to use this as a means to exert influence and control over what thoughts are acceptable to express and not.

</comment><comment><USER21> Ah, so I guess big US social media might be gradually segregating into broadly 'left-wing' and 'right-wing'. First in regard to the degree of curation, then to everything else as the users flock to their choice platform. Can everyone really have an account on FB when it's 'supporting' Trump's bullying? Or on Twitter when it 'censors' the president? Easy choice!

Only foreigners who don't give a damn will be free to use both FB and Twitter and any other platform as they see fit.

(Perhaps Google is somewhat happy right now that G+ flopped.)

</comment><comment><USER22> Why are people get so worked up over words rather than actions? Yes, Trump makes many stupid statements.

What has he _done_ however? Has he droned people like Clinton? Has he started wars? Has violence against black people increased compared to the previous presidencies?

If the answers to those are "no", then please look at actions and not at words.

<comment><USER23> > _Has he droned people like Clinton?_

Yes - he dramatically increased the use of drones:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/tr...](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/08/trump- war-terror-drones/567218/)

And he eliminated the restrictions designed to prevent civilian casualties:

[https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/22/obama-drones-trump- kill...](https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/22/obama-drones-trump-killings- count/)

> _Has violence against black people increased compared to the previous > presidencies?_

One of his first actions was to disband the Federal oversight of police departments set up explicitly to address this issue:

[https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/jeff- sessions-c...](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/jeff-sessions- consent-decree-review/)

His DOJ rescinded orders from the Obama era that prosecutors shouldn't charge low-level drug offenses that had mandatory minimums with the exact opposite tact:

[https://www.vox.com/policy-and- politics/2018/11/7/18073074/j...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and- politics/2018/11/7/18073074/jeff-sessions-resigns-war-on-drugs-crime)

He's famously said that protesters should be roughed up and he explicitly said that police should seek to hurt the people that they arrest:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post- nation/wp/2017/07/2...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post- nation/wp/2017/07/28/trump-tells-police-not-to-worry-about-injuring-suspects- during-arrests/)

His Attorney General said that he was okay with the KKK until he found out they smoked pot:

[https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/05/specter...](https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/05/specter_helped_defeat_sessions.html)

If you don't think his actions directly lead to this, you're not paying attention.

<comment><USER7> OP has the typical troll/seagull approach. And people like him/her are the bane of fora/democracy. They come in, write something stupid, and then it's up to others (thank you mikeyouse) to spend the time to educate them. The problem is that he/she will not learn, he just managed to waste 10 of your minutes with his/her stupid poison.

He/she will go around, writing the same crap, until people will be to tired to rebuke it, and then he/she wins. We don't need trolls here. +1 to mike, -100 to the troll.

<comment><USER23> Ironically giving a very concrete example of the benefits of deplatforming people..</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Change to Chinese university's charter dropping 'freedom of thought' - <AUTHOR> https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/12/19/asia-pacific/chinese-university-drops-freedom-of-thought/ <comment><USER2> The website linked is (currently) the Japan Times, but it's a Reuters story. Maybe it would be better to link to it directly: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china- university/change-t...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china- university/change-to-chinese-universitys-charter-dropping-freedom-of-thought- stirs-debate-idUSKBN1YM1A3)

</comment><comment><USER3> I would rather the drama of bickering with others and putting up with people who disgust me (as a result of freedom of thought and speech laws), than the terrifying tyranny that is China's system. It is also tyrannical what is happening in India right now, with the systematic marginalisation of Muslim people.

We need more decentralisation of power. That's the common problem here, right? Singular governments trying to rule too many people at once? The world has diversity - it's not _meant_ to be a monoculture.

</comment><comment><USER4> I spent two years in Tsinghua University doing my master's degree a couple of years ago. Even though Chinese universities never enjoyed the freedom of speech/research/though as in the west, putting it on paper is very sad.

<comment><USER5> Don't worry, Western universities are working hard on fixing that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> >"If I may dare to ask those who initiated the amendment of the Fudan University charter, how do you expect our generation of Fudan people to face our ancestors?" said one Weibo user.

Is this the equivalent of linking a tweet?

</comment><comment><USER7> The phrase was replaced with the wording, "If you think freely it will cost you."</comment>


Adobe abuses AdSense to force "We Love Apple" pop-ups for Mac, Opera users - <AUTHOR> http://theinnovationist.com/2010/05/adobe-pops-above-google-to-flash-apple-and-opera-users/

<comment><USER2> This is getting silly. If people are pissed about flash on the iPad + iPhone, then they won't buy these devices. But trying to employ the "taking away your freedom" argument is incorrect and seems like a last ditch flailing effort by Adobe.

It reminds me of the used car salesman in True Lies when he's posing as a spy and trying to get Jamie Lee Curtis to sleep with him. "If you won't do it for me, then how about doing it for your country".

<comment><USER3> The same argument could have been made about people buying Windows in the 90's. If everyone was so pissed about what MS did to Netscape they could have simply chosen another OS, but they didn't. Consumers don't realize the issues at hand, they just want a cool device, just like they wanted an OS that worked and couldn't care less about who got screwed along the way.

<comment><USER4> If consumers don't realise the issues then they are non-issues. That is the way of the 21st century.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love how they are making use of what is essentially a 'Flash hack' commonly used by shady types to get around popup blockers – load a Flash object and use that to launch a new window – to show a popup preaching the virtues of Flash.

</comment><comment><USER6> Bonus for users without Flash installed: the ad doesn't work.

<comment><USER7> So basically all Adobe is doing is irritating people who are already users of Flash and giving them a reason to disable it.

<comment><USER8> No, it's advertising the issue to the people who might care about devices not having flash - ie, the people who actually use it

<comment><USER9> "Imagine you would not see this ad! That's right, the iPad does not shows content like this."

I am flash-free for a year now and don't regret it the slightest.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I can't imagine this doing anything but backfiring.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is really strange. Adobe is highlighting the worst parts of their product in their attempt to appear the good guy in the fight. It's as if a politician were attempting to win votes by throwing bricks with political slogans attached through the windows of his constituents. It may have worked for the Nazis, but I don't think it will work for Adobe.

</comment><comment><USER12> The piece doesn't speculate much on how this is getting forced through Adsense. That's the interesting part for me, as either Google is aware of it, or it's an against-terms workaround. If I had to /guess/, it might be related to the "rich media" and video formats they offer, with some custom code getting pushed through in the embed.

<comment><USER13> I didn't find out about the pop-ups until about 2am, and was exhausted, before I finished writing the post I accidentally closed the tab, and lost the ad, because Google yanked it, presumably. I'm still not certain about how it was occurring but it was all javascript, about a dozen different script tags, with the exception of this one piece that called the flash.

My main focus was on the point that Adobe was targeting specific users, with the pop-up.

<comment><USER12> Oh, I wasn't criticising your piece! I just see a bigger story in how the ad was delivered rather than to whom. Anything that gets around my choice of not opening popups is evil to start, but I'm very intrigued if this really is coming through Adsense or some other mechanism. If Adobe can take advantage of it, perhaps more insidious agents could too..

<comment><USER13> It was definitely coming through Adsense, the code on my post was within the ad, which had multiple indicators that it was indeed from Google. The only proof that is left is the DoubleClick header, and the link within the "url" variable.

I'm also a bit perturbed that someone could emulate what Adobe has done, and use it as an attack vector, with widespread consequence.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This doesn't abuse AdSense to force anything, it's simply using doubleclick as a stats tracker to see who clicks. If you worship a brand please don't allow it to cause you to spread misinformation about its competitors on the internet.

I'm new to HN, is there no down-vote or report as inaccurate mechanism?

<comment><USER13> Ok, use as a "stats tracker" doesn't explain the UA manipulation.

Also I don't know what brand you think I'm worshiping. I am not an Apple Fanboy, I refuse to even use an iPod, not a Google Fanboy, I criticize them fairly often, and as for Adobe, I use their desktop tools, but on the web I don't think of them much. I despise brands, because they promote homogeneity. I prefer products that work the best, and go with what works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Are we sure Adobe is behind this? Anyone can make an ad saying they are anyone.

<comment><USER13> That's true, but why would someone advertise for Adobe? The linked content goes to Adobe's page, on the topic, <http://www.adobe.com/choice/?sdid=GXRVD>, as well as use the same ads as they used in the papers yesterday.

<comment><USER16> Good question, but this still seems fishy to me. Why would they do something that would so obviously backfire? And unless I misread something, the ad doesn't even work without Flash. If they're trying to target iPad / iPhone users deprived of Flash, why would you make an ad that doesn't work without Flash installed? This seems very amateur-ish.

<comment><USER13> They aren't targeting iPhone/iPad users by default, they are only going after "Mac" and "Opera" User-Agents, that also have Flash 8 or higher.

They're calling out Apple through it's other core base, that can use Flash. The Flash also isn't in the add on Linux or Windows, unless of course you are using Opera. If you are using one of these systems or those without, or disabled, Flash, you only see a hyperlinked .gif.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Adobe might have to pay a lot of $$$ not to be banned from goog

</comment><comment><USER18> We shouldn't jump to conclusions. Has anyone else actually confirmed this? His pop-up might have been from elsewhere..

<comment><USER13> Yes, it's been confirmed, someone else saw the same source, an ad in Google Reader on a Techcrunch article, that I hadn't shared when I was first working on the story. Here is the discussion we were having about it when I went to look into the issue. <http://ff.im/kjhfH>

<comment><USER18> Just checking.. +1 for you

Because it seems a lot of crap coming here these days, nobody double checks actually.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Good discovery by Jesse and great detective work by yourself Jimminy.

This would have been much more interesting had it shown flash on ipads/iPhones.

</comment><comment><USER20> Everyday I feel less sympathy for Adobe.</comment>


Trying To Make a Living At Etsy? Think Again. - <AUTHOR> http://www.doublex.com/section/work/etsycom-peddles-false-feminist-fantasy <comment><USER2> The thing is they're considering Etsy as their _only_ sales channel in this article. Anyone that does handmade goods knows that you sell a lot at fairs, conventions and events. And if you want to stick it out online, there's also Craigslist and Ebay. But it's not like Etsy is the only way to sell your goods.

If I sold cars, I'm not going to do it exclusively through autotrader.com (or one of my friends, easyautosales.com ;) ). It's as simple as not putting all your eggs in one basket.

</comment><comment><USER3> _This, I suspect, explains the absence of men. They are immune to the allure of this fantasy. They have evaluated the site on purely economic terms and found it wanting._

Yeah...men are so great at economic evaluation. Like my 2 startups that have netted be about $0.10 / hr for the hundreds of hours of my free time that I spent on them. I'd be waaaay richer if I had just been selling handmade beer coozies on Etsy.

<comment><USER4> You can't sell your beer cozy "company" like you can a successful startup.

<comment><USER5> You can't sell your startup like you can a successful startup.

(The odds of you having a successful startup are about that of you having a profitable beer cozy "company.")

<comment><USER6> No because the odds for selling a beer cozy for a million $ is 0, but it is > 0 for the startup.

<comment><USER5> Ok, so this may come as a surprise to you, but technology startups are not the only way that people make money. Weird, I know. But true.

These folks -- <http://www.sportscanholder.com/> \-- could sell their business for more than a million dollars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think there are likely more women on Etsy for the reason that 9 of the most common 10 first names among customers of Bingo Card Creator are female and the last one is ambiguous: women and men like different things.

This does not strike me as demonstrating men's superior skill in finding renumerative activities. It is highly likely that 95%+ of the startups here are started by men. Most, like I suspect most Etsy sellers, will never have a single customer.

Incidentally, by any quantitative measure selling software works better than selling handicrafts, but of people who start a sideline in either field the overwhelming majority will not see amazing things. I also think it is quite unlikely that most people are in it with a serious plan to replace their day job -- mostly true here and, e.g., the Business of Software boards as well.

<comment><USER6> "9 of the most common 10 first names among customers of Bingo Card Creator are female"

That would be because they are teachers, and most teachers are women?

<comment><USER8> Yes, and why do you think that is? Because men are better at doing math?

<comment><USER6> Actually to be honest, I think it might actually validate the point of the article: women are doing it as a hobby. My gf is a teacher and my impression is that it is very poorly paid compared to the effort that goes into it (in Germany, mind you). Men simply can not afford to strive for such a poorly paid career.

That is my opinion - I won't be surprised if it won't be very popular, but here it goes.

There might be some gender bias, too (women+children), but I wouldn't be surprised if the economic factors are the main aspect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This article is based far to much on supposition and has very little to substantiate it. One can hardly assume that the primary reason for selling on the site is to make money. I tend to be very artistic and I know a lot of artistic people and money is usually simply icing on the cake. Then again, I'm male and I own a sewing machine so obviously I'm a little bit odd.

</comment><comment><USER6> I find it difficult to imagine making a living with handmade things is possible in any way? Unless you can sell each item for $1000 upwards, how can it ever pay off enough?

Also I was surprised by this line: "It's become satisfying again to sew, cook, and garden." So far honestly I had a strong dislike of handmade things because they symbolize something like slavery to me. Maybe if women truly enjoy those tasks, I can change my mind.

<comment><USER10> I don't know what I find more disturbing about your response - that you think having a hobby that involves sewing/cooking/gardening is akin to slavery, or your assumption that only women are doing these things (not helped by the article, I guess).

<comment><USER6> The article is not talking about a hobby, but about making a living. Cooking and gardening are bad examples (not really "etsy" crafts like what the article was talking about), what I have in mind are those carpets from India. It just seems silly to me to work on a carpet for days, if a machine can produce the same thing in minutes. It just seemed to me that the only way such carpets can be produced is through slavery. To buy such carpets would encourage people to waste their time.

There are such painters who try to copy photographs, which I would find equally depressing - just a waste of time. Unless their artistic message is exactly that, to make people think about what is a waste of time... (like the other artist who was only drawing small numbers on walls for years and years on end).

The article said "Women, too, hunger for concrete, manual labor that has an element of individual agency and pleasure beyond the abstract, purely cerebral work found in the cubicle or corner office. It's become satisfying again to sew, cook, and garden."

So in that case I assumed the second sentence was referring to women. Also I do think the number of men who sew is very small (unless they are professional tailors).

As for making a living, OK, I know many people doing pottery, but I am still not sure how it works. How long does it take them to produce one cup? Can they do it in 5 minutes?

<comment><USER10> I know a lot of etsy sellers (some are men), and their passion for selling their produce is their hobby - what they make, what they craft, that is what they enjoy doing. They certainly don't see it as slavery.

> It just seems silly to me to work on a carpet for days, if a machine can > produce the same thing in minutes.

For the same reason that a HNer might work on a startup for days/months/years even though something similar might already exist. I don't see it as my place to judge whether or not they're wasting their time (nor do I see it as slavery).

<comment><USER6> "what they make, what they craft, that is what they enjoy doing."

OK, but they don't do it for a living? Also I think there is a misundertanding. I can understand art and creativity, and from the article I take it that etsy encourages individual items. What I don't like about the "handmade" label is the production of repetitive things that should better be left to machines.

Maybe some people enjoy creating 100 baskets that look the same, or 100 cups (do you know such people/men?). But how high can their pay realistically be? If it is not slavery, maybe it is extremely low paid work.

"For the same reason that a HNer might work on a startup for days/months/years even though something similar might already exist."

I would think a startup is by definition to try to create something new.

"I don't see it as my place to judge whether or not they're wasting their time (nor do I see it as slavery)."

But you do have a problem with me considering certain things to be a waste of time?

<comment><USER10> > OK, but they don't do it for a living?

At least one off the top of my head uses it as her sole income.

> Maybe some people enjoy creating 100 baskets that look the same, or 100 cups

I'm sorry, I didn't see in the article where it was saying that? Perhaps I misread somewhere. My experience with etsy, even with sellers who make and sell a lot of goods, is that each piece is different in some way.

> I would think a startup is by definition to try to create something new.

Really? I see plenty of "please review my startup" posts here that seem to offer a regurgitated version of someone else's idea.

> But you do have a problem with me considering certain things to be a waste > of time?

It's your prerogative to view whatever you like as a waste of time (I know that having this pointless debate is wasting my time, and yet I go on...) I just don't see the need to compare it to slavery.

<comment><USER6> "My experience with etsy, even with sellers who make and sell a lot of goods, is that each piece is different in some way."

Yeah as I said, it is a misunderstanding. I am not talking about the arty crafts such as the etsy stuff. So much for pointless discussion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This article seems to be written from the standpoint of a certain kind of feminism. Particularly it is the assumption that women need to make money and be financially successful to be valuable. The women I know who are interested in Etsy are very interested in what some would call being "traditionally" feminine. They want to be mothers and wives first, and they find joy in that, but they also want to make things. The men in these relationships are happy to be financial providers while the women fulfill other needs.

<comment><USER12> Why the downmods? It seems to me valid that some people prefer traditional roles. As long as they are happy with it.

<comment><USER11> I think we'll see that the "traditional roles" label will fade away with time. To the people that are labelled that way it's not so much "traditional" as it is "natural" (to them). Women who grow up wanting nothing more than to raise a family (without being indoctrinated) _do exist_ , and it's quite a value judgement to say that they are somehow less of a woman or wrong for following their desires.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The gender differences on Etsy are far too large to explain in terms of some kind of innate psychological difference, such as a difference in expertise at evaluating economic options; the only such large gender differences that have been found are in masturbation and physical strength. You have to go to network effects or explicit messaging about gender.

My hypothesis: women are on Etsy because women go where there are already women. Men mostly aren't because men go where there are already men.

<comment><USER14> _the only such large gender differences that have been found are in masturbation_

Citation Needed. !!! What I know empirically leads me not to believe you, not even a little.

<comment><USER15> If you do a search for "masturbation frequency gender", it quickly becomes apparent that your empirical data are based on a non-representative sample.

<comment><USER14> First google link is: <http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/1568.html>

The studies mentioned there give figures close to 2:1 when comparing men vs. women; quite believable, when considering my personal experience and accounting for what is undoubtedly a skewed sample.

The gender difference on Etsy being discussed is well in excess of 10:1. That's a 5x difference in the best case. I stand by my original statement.

<comment><USER15> Oh. I thought you were saying that you didn't believe that those gender differences existed in masturbation frequency.

<comment><USER13> Yes, that's what I thought too. The differences in strength aren't anywhere close to 10:1 either.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> "[Men] are immune to the allure of this fantasy. They have evaluated the site on purely economic terms and found it wanting."

Interesting that HN just had an article by Philip Greenspun saying women are too practical to enter the science field: <http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science>

</comment><comment><USER8> This is gender trolling.

This article would be no different if it said "Trying to make a living on a startup? Think again."

The quotes are all just as applicable. Can you do it? "Technically ... yes" and "I would be on welfare! LOL … I wish!" and "very few people ... make a full time income from [startups]."

Tell me how that's different?

In Etsy, as in any life beyond regular old boring ass employment, only some people have the combination of vision, understanding of their market, rage to master, ability to learn and improve, and dedication to the hard work to make it happen.

Most people just don't cut it. Here on HN, and on Etsy. And everywhere else in the world.

If anyone thinks that reading startup blogs, or selling crafts on Etsy, is going to be their winning lottery ticket, they are mistaken.</comment>


Obesity and Eating Fast - <AUTHOR> http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/obesity-and-the-fastness-of-food/

<comment><USER2> Researchers once did a study to understand why the French aren't as obese as Americans even though they eat food that have a relatively higher fat content. They based their study on an idea they had about internal and external cues.

Apparently, Americans are more likely to use external cues ("there is still food on my plate") and the French are more likely to use internal cues ("I don't feel hungry anymore") when it comes to deciding when to stop eating.

<http://vivo.cornell.edu/individual/vivo/individual20060>

<comment><USER3> I know for myself, the external cue of "there is still food on my plate" is a strong one, since I was raised to always finish my plate. I now do so religiously, but try to set myself up for success by getting smaller portions :).

<comment><USER4> I also do not like to waste as I have actually seen people in some parts of the world who are malnourished and always hungry... I can't leave food on my plate for that reason and I wish many restaurants would just server me less food. I'd still pay the same price.

<comment><USER5> 2 options: Specifically ask for a half-sized portion, or eat half and take the rest away for lunch tomorrow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Rapidly shoveling food in your mouth is a great way of gaining weight because you don't notice the point when you stop being hungry. Instead, you only stop when your stomach screams it can't take any more food.

When I was trying to lose weight, I made sure I was eating as slowly as I possibly could. And it worked - I ate less because I got tired of chewing.

</comment><comment><USER7> That's one of the weakest "correlation" graphs I've seen in a while.

<comment><USER8> I know. Did anyone see the r^2 for the correlation?

<comment><USER9> I was taught by an econometrician that r^2 values don't mean much, but I cannot remember his logic as to why. Maybe something about malleability?

<comment><USER10> That Anscombe example sheds light on the misuse of r^2. All of those examples have the same r^2 value.

<comment><USER11> Those are some very nice examples.

However, is there a better/more respected metric for comparing how two datasets are related? Mutual Information perhaps?

<comment><USER10> I'm not an expert -- more of a hobbyist who is actively trying to improve my statistical chops -- but I don't think there's ever a general metric for this sort of thing. For any statistic it's important to demonstrate that it's being used as intended so that its lay translation means what it seems to mean.

I mean, r^2 isn't all that misleading if your relation really is linear. R^2 plus a graph of the regression would be sufficient. Just taking a look at the residuals of the Anscombe sets easily shows that linear fitting (thus r^2) is inappropriate for sets 2-4.

(btw: if you fit the second Anscombe data set with a 2nd order polynomial, r^2 = 1. Of course, it's pretty clear that there's hardly any error in that set.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The results aren't really that surprising, given that it takes ~20 minutes between the time you put food in your mouth to the time the brain recognizes satiation. If you eat slower it'll give your brain time to adjust to keep up with how much you've consumed. If you don't you'll keep cramming food in until your REALLY full.

</comment><comment><USER13> There are many possible causal arrows:

* eat fast => no satiety signal => fat

* empty carb diet => fat, fast binge eating

* high density food => fast, fat

* quality of life focus => (enjoy food => slow, exercise lots => thin)

* workaholic => fast, (no exercise => fat)

Also, I think you could draw a plausible correlation the other way, along the Norway-New Zealand axis and consider the US, Turkey and France the outliers.

</comment><comment><USER14> It would be interesting to see whether the same correlation holds when you look at individuals. These numbers would make perfect sense if food prep time is included in the "time spent eating" measure (the page summarizing the study doesn't say).

</comment><comment><USER15> If there actually is any correlation, maybe it's because in countries where people 'spend longer eating' there is a better focus on eating good quality food (rather than any direct correlation e.g. wolfing down food means you are more likely to put it on as weight).

I lived in Geneva for a while and we would always take at least a one hour lunch. There is hardly anywhere to get 'fast food', even in the city centre. And I certainly notice less 'heffers' there than when I am back in the UK.

</comment><comment><USER16> There are two things which can be taken from that graph. Americans eat quickly and Americans have an obesity problem (certainly along with Mexico and the commonwealth). I'm sure that any correlation is a by product of a deeper difference in cultural relationship with food that results in eating slower. My point being making people eat slower in the US would only move their position on the graph horizontally.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'd also like to see a list of the diets and living habits of people in these countries. How is their work/life balance?

When I was in France (granted it was 1995), I saw that a lot of people smoked, which could explain how they stay thin despite a lot of fatty foods.

When I was in Tokyo last year, some people smoked, but their diet is rich in vegetables, fish, and rice.

</comment><comment><USER18> My wife's 35 year old brother-in-law eats so fast he resembles a vacumn cleaner, yet he is a skinny as a stick. I eat slow and in small quantities and have a bit of belly.

I suspect that the reasons for obesity are myriad and are complexly intertwined (though at the most basic level simply eating fewer calories and getting regular exercise can have a big impact).

<comment><USER3> Off topic, but wouldn't your spouse's in-laws be directly related to you? That would make your wife's brother-in-law your brother. Am I missing something?

<comment><USER19> He means his wife's sister's husband?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I was surprised by the difference in obesity rates between the US and Canada. Both have similar eating time values, and I generally consider them culturally and economically pretty similar. But still Canada's obesity rates are much lower than in the US.

<comment><USER21> Keeping your body warm requires energy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> For me it's true. I eat very slowly and I'm thin (some would even say that I'm a bit too thin). Also, all the fat people I know eat faster than me.

</comment><comment><USER23> That line doesn't appear to go there.

</comment><comment><USER24> Anyone notice how the ex-British Empire dominates the list? How about a correlation to angloindex?</comment>


Netflix to follow up its million-dollar contest - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-10307938-248.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

<comment><USER2> From a user's perspective, the suggestions have gotten much better over the last two years.

What I think Netflix needs to focus on now is its search. It really is horrid, especially when one considers that it has such a small corpus to index. For instance, a search for "biography scientist" has as its first result "Biography: Harry Potter Kids". On page 3 you get a result about "Biography: Earth" which is somewhat related, and almost to page four you get "Weird Science." There are plenty of biographical videos on Einstein, Netwon, Galileo but one just can't find them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Awesome news, not that surprising really, the prize amount is peanuts for Netflix compared to the benefit they gain.</comment>


Color matters - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/color-matters.html <comment><USER2> This is not unlike what I would normally call blog spam. Anyone have a reason to think otherwise?

<comment><USER3> What do you consider to be blog spam? The initial post just contained one link, so maybe he could have linked directly to the color selector. Since then, it has been updated with three more links, making the SG post more valuable than just the mediazeal.

Plus, lots of people trust Seth Godin and the fact that he recommends something carries more weight than just a random link.</comment></comment>


MazeBattles.com: Race against your friends to solve generated mazes (Node.js) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/HenryDavidZhu/MazeBattles.com <comment><USER2> Did you write this?

I want to use arrows instead of ASDW.

Put a link to the online version in the readme.

Add a random match option, so you get paired with an stranger if you can't find a friend now. (and perhaps a bot)

It would be nice to see the race after it has been finished, to see both players moving.

Looking at the maze generation gives some cues about how to solve the maze.

You have a typo in [https://github.com/HenryDavidZhu/MazeBattles.com/blob/11dd8e...](https://github.com/HenryDavidZhu/MazeBattles.com/blob/11dd8ef74f9733d3d68894f3f776f35ed13ad29c/public/js/game.js#L952)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I am the developer. Thank you for your feedback!</comment></comment>


What's Your Heart-Rate Variability? It May Be Time to Find Out - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-your-heart-rate-variability-it-may-be-time-to-find-out-1498442460 <comment><USER2> I wear a heart rate monitor when I stream videogames, and wrote a simple visualization sparkline/beating heart I could throw in as an overlay. I was surprised at the variability of my HR in various situations, from lows of around 60 to highs in the 140s.

Even in 'normal' parts of the gameplay when I wasn't under stress I'd see my heart rate shifting all over the place. One moment of calm I'd be at 65, then 80, then 70. I started playing with it, to see if I could swing the needle with breathing, and quickly found that gamifying it led to my heart rate increasing when I was successful at decreasing it. (I'd get excited that I had lowered the rate, which increased the rate.)

I was also surprised to learn that my heart rate spiked significantly _after_ tense moments in the game. In game combat usually didn't cause the rate to rise until 30 seconds or so after the combat started. I felt the intensity and the rush immediately, but the HR increased later.

I also found that games slowly lose their HR impact over time. A game like Player Unknown's Battlegrounds could get my HR into the 120s pretty easily, and now it only raises my HR into the 90s when it's tense.

It's fun to have access to all this data about ourselves, and I'm glad to see so many different ways of using it -- from dialing in a few extra % on your athletic goals to showing goofy SVGs over a videogame.

<comment><USER3> Care to share the strap you used?

I've been looking for a while and it seems straps are all over the place in terms of being easily accessed without proprietary adapters

<comment><USER4> I'd get something that supports ANT+ along with an ANT+ usb dongle.

<comment><USER2> That's what I am using, though finding a decent Ant+ library took a while.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This article does not explain HRV very well. Would I be correct in thinking of it as the volatility between beats? Or the erraticness between beats?

Let's say I have a heart rate of 60 bpm. And my beats are

      1 second -> .9 seconds -> 1.1 seconds

While another person also at 60bpm beats are

      2 seconds -> .5 seconds -> 1.5 seconds

then the second person has higher HRV and is stronger, more rested, more calm, has more energy? It's strange to think that having more erratic heart beats is better.

<comment><USER6> Here's the thing: the way HRV is measured reliably when used as a metric is with 'paced breathing'. You synchronize your inhalations and exhalations to a displayed pace (in for X seconds, out for X seconds, or whatever).

The primary source of variability under those conditions seems to be that HR increases when inhaling and decreases when exhaling. Seen in that light, it makes more sense.

Essentially, what HRV may measure is ability to actively and acutely lower HR (which is most naturally performed during exhalation). This is not so unlike how some exercise equipment will provide a fitness measure based on heart-rate recovery: how long does it take you to return to some percentage of your resting heart rate after having exercised?

At this point, I'll make an analogy, which is meant only to be that. If you have a high income, you can afford to spend a lot of money on a day-to-day- basis. Depending on how you set things up, you might see a wild flux in bank balance, and that's just fine -- because you can afford it.

Likewise, performance athletes experience highly-elevated heart rates regularly. Indeed, it's that stress which leads to fitness adaptations. Just as you need to spend money to make money, you need to stimulate the heart in order to strengthen it. High HRV (as far as I can tell), may largely correspond with the naturally-adapted ability to rapidly return to the calm, low-HR state characteristic of the well-trained athlete.

When you live check-to-check, you have to budget very carefully and avoid variability in spending. You can't afford to venture, and you don't gain. When you know huge cash infusions are around every corner, you don't worry about spending.

Likewise, the fit heart doesn't need to damp and suppress stimulus. Elevated heart rate is _good_ (think about the positive moments in life which can cause this), as long as it doesn't lead to chronic stress but instead evaporates in the space of a breath or two.

<comment><USER7> btw, I'm looking for ideas about breathing patterns. I've noticed blood flowing differently[1] if I pause with fresh air in my lungs before releasing it.

Some docs says that breathing influences arteries constriction (or the opposite).

I wonder if it helps increasing oxygenation ..

[1] palms and feets get a tiny heat wave, also a sensation of relaxation in my veins

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Polar heart rate monitors have measured heart-rate variability for decades and used it to set the HR limits.

Polar uses R-R intervals to adjust heart rate high and low limits for for exercise period (unless you set them manually). I think they are called ownindex and ownzone.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4751190/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4751190/)

[http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100...](http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-879X2008001000004)

</comment><comment><USER9> It seems like a huge jump is being made from a hypothesis to interpretation of data. Has the connection between HRV and the body's preparedness for exercise been tested in repeated experiments?

<comment><USER10> See here: [http://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-seal-team-six-by-don- man...](http://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-seal-team-six-by-don-mann-excerpt)

> Dr. Morgan also found that the metronomic [non variable] effect is often > associated with early heart disease and even sudden death. Apparently, the > body chemistry that allows young people to survive under high stress does > not translate into optimal heart health past the age of fifty.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is there an app for this yet? I wear an Apple Watch all day -- it'd be great if something were available. Poll every 10 minutes for 30s or something to conserve battery maybe.

<comment><USER12> Apple Watch already polls you every 5mins or so throughout the day. You can use an app like Cardiogram to hook into the Apple Watch data to visualize nice graphs and correlations.

<comment><USER13> HRV is defined as variability in the interval between individual heartbeats. Pulse data with a 5min-granularity won't help.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It looks like there isn't a good fitness tracker to measure HRV. They aren't precise enough. It would be necessary to use a chest strap. I don't believe I'll be able to do it with my cheap Mi Band 2.

Does anybody here know about a good fitness tracker to measure HRV?

</comment><comment><USER14> Do you recommend any Android app to measure HRV? I have an ANT+ band that I connect to my phone.

</comment><comment><USER15> Here's a non—paywall story that discusses HRV:

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/heart-rate- varia...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/heart-rate-variability- testing-can-use-get-healthier/)

"heart rate variability is essentially the gap between heartbeats when you are resting. A longer gap between heartbeats indicates you are well rested, whereas a shorter gap could mean you are stressed out and running the risk of overtraining"

<comment><USER16> Seems like that quote misses the 'variability' bit. Gaps might be longer or shorter, but it's how variable in length the gaps are that indicates HRV.</comment></comment>