macOS Sierra and Gatekeeper Path Randomization - <AUTHOR> http://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2016/06/29/sierra-and-gatekeeper-path-randomization/ <comment><USER2> This sounds strange; in order to refer to files outside your bundle with a _relative_ path, you would have to be using something like "../../../SomewhereElse/filename.xyz", which is utterly fragile to begin with.

I can only assume that this was used to find other applications. Still a fragile dependency; for example, sometimes I put things in "/Applications/Utilities" but sometimes I put them in "/Applications", which means there is no single parent directory that is guaranteed to hold everything. And even if that weren't the case, the OS has always let you run applications from anywhere you want.

Therefore, it has always been possible for apps to break when doing this, and they were just _lucky_ if they ran on a system where it worked. It sounds like in Sierra it will just be much more likely to break.

<comment><USER3> Thats pretty much exactly what people do. If you are feeling bored, you can check the post and pre flight installer package scripts of some of your most used software.

Regex system versions, string compare versions in Ruby (great for "10.9" -> "10.10"), check that their installer package (an OS X binary) is running on... OS X. Sometime developers do this out of ignorance, sometimes its done out of laziness (don't want to do anything platform specific), or business decisions (don't want to do anything platform specific!) or because there was no better way to do it (no supported API).

How about applications that have an installer, lay themselves down in /Applications/ then have a folder inside called "Plugins", from which they load relative arbitrary code? More common than you might think!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > _The problem with Gatekeeper Path Randomization is that copying applications > to a read-only disk image will break functionality in many, if not most, > existing applications._

This is extremely hyperbolic. I'd say it could break functionality in a small number of apps (that don't support running from read-only media, which is definitely a problem with the app and not a problem with the system). I doubt it's a lot, and it's sure as hell not "most".

</comment><comment><USER5> This just goes to show that Apple _really_ needs to solve their app installation problem.

I remember a time when "just move the app into the Applications folder" seemed really simple. Like Apple, I thought it was a fine idea.

We were wrong. Having to move the application in Applications turns out to be absolutely _baffling_ to most users. (Including many people I am fond of, e.g. my dad.)

A lot of apps now offer to move themselves when first launched from the Dowloads or Desktop folder; the OS should handle this.

GPR itself still seems janky, but this would help (since apps in Applications don't get GPR'd).

<comment><USER6> The Mac App Store should have solved that problem, but they have severely neglected it, both as a software component and a business service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The main concern is that software updaters will not be able to easily replace an app bundle if it is translocated to a readonly mount. The user will have to move the app somewhere else first.

Apple wants developers to use dmgs (and signed ones particularly) but updaters don't have an easy time with apps being launched from those either, and people don't think dmgs provide a good user experience as well.

<comment><USER4> Software updaters need to handle the case of the app being on read-only media _anyway_. If your app breaks because it was launched from read-only media, that's absolutely a problem with the app and not a problem with the system.

<comment><USER7> Perhaps, but it's unlikely that many do. Updating such an app would involve writing the new update to a different location, which could pose a challenge for not confusing the user. The Mac App Store doesn't have to deal with this.

Some developers that distribute their app in dmg's try to nudge the user to move the application for them into /Applications, but that's kind of hostile, and developers shouldn't have to go out of their way to do that.

Before 10.12 at least, developers were generally okay with the updater not running on read-only media - this is more intended behavior rather than being 'broken'.

Anyway, just pointing out the real concern from the article.

<comment><USER4> In the case of a software updater, I think "not updating" is probably correct behavior. Broken behavior would be the app crashing or misbehaving or throwing errors because it tries to update the app on read-only media.

<comment><USER7> Not updating is what most apps currently do in this case.

The author's concern is that they (and many other developers) ship apps in zips, have many users download them, and run them from ~/Downloads/ or wherever their browser downloaded the app to. Only in 10.12, this practice will prevent most 3rd party apps from being able to update themselves.

The author wants an info.plist key (plus perhaps app signing) to opt-out of translocation and say that they are competent enough. Before thinking that this "defeats" the point, people may miss that Apple is fine with opting out provided you code sign and package a dmg.

The author and many others also don't like dmgs, however, and find that they confuse many users. What the author is concerned about does indeed affect a lot of apps.

<comment><USER4> I would expect that people who run an app from ~/Downloads are doing so because they don't know if they want to actually keep it and are just testing it out. Similarly, many apps already check if they're launched from a DMG or from ~/Downloads and ask the user if they want to move the app to the Applications folder, so that's a pretty simple fix for any self-updating app to adopt.

<comment><USER7> I don't want to be asked about moving apps somewhere else especially for testing them. It is kind of hostile. And it's a burden for the dev to include yet more code for this. IMO, Apple should have a way to solve the issue for out-of-store apps.

(I really don't know if that many apps do this btw, I think most apps I download today are packaged in zip..)

Other users are just baffled and run apps from disk images or Downloads just because.

The authors point is that at least before 10.12 zip was a decent approach.

Too bad they aren't offering signed zip or something similar that takes same advantages that a signed dmg does..

<comment><USER4> A signed zip is still dangerous. If the attacker can convince the user to download two files instead of just one, the attacker controls the names of the folders that contains the extracted zip contents (i.e. the name of the zip), so any app that looks at ../foo/bar would still be vulnerable.

The Info.plist approach (where the app declares that it has no such relative path dependencies and so should skip gatekeeper path randomization) seems like the best approach for fixing this "issue".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> After reading this post, I still don't understand what the problem is. Are Mac developers writing apps that modify files stored inside the app bundle? If so, isn't this considered a dangerous practice?

<comment><USER9> I think the concern is stated here:

> However, many users run applications from the Downloads folder, never moving > them.

Basically, unsigned apps __might __not work when run from the Downloads folder without changing the Gatekeeper setting in Security & Privacy settings.

I don't view this as an issue because I already have to go there to launch an unsigned app for the first time to hit "Allow."

<comment><USER10> I'm still amazed Apple hasn't done anything to encourage people to move apps from Downloads into Applications (or from a disk image); which is a big part of this problem. I see Applications launched from Downloads or copied to the Desktop all the time. It's almost always out of ignorance and maybe laziness.

Almost every App has a custom background image on the disk image and shortcut instructing people to copy the application to Applications. I've also seen various apps check and pop up a dialog asking if they should move themselves to Applications for you.

Much like the first-run warning dialog, I'm surprised Apple doesn't have a similar dialog offering to "Leave App and Launch", "Move App to Applications and Launch", or "Move App, Create a Shortcut Here, and Launch". With a preference or flag to suppress the dialog.

<comment><USER11> I doubt it's laziness, I would think most users have no idea what the implications of running from a dmg / the desktop / ~/Applications or /Applications really are... It doesn't help that there are also .pkg installers that have a wizard-y interface (and which often are run from a mounted dmg, e.g. VirtualBox). Apple could impose some order on the mess, but I tend to find their solutions to problems like these heavy-handed, so though that would probably benefit most users, it might not be a win for the more technical ones.

<comment><USER10> I'm sure it's ignorance for most people, but I know it's laziness with some people I know.

I think the whole .app folder idea was a great idea that I'm surprised others (Windows/Linux) haven't copied. The /intention/ is that anything that would need to get installed/fixed happen when the app is first launched. This both removes the need for an installer and helps repair things (if the App was moved or preferences were deleted). Thankfully installers are pretty rare in my experience. Usually it's for pretty involved things (network monitor, VM environment) or lazy multi-platform devs (Microsoft Word, or Adobe).

I think the App Store is the most straightforward for the average user--I just wish they'd improve it so it was used more.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: 3 tips, 5 lessons and 1 grump - <AUTHOR> Is it just me or has slapping a number on blog titles been done to death? I'm at the stage now were I don't read articles with this type of lead. I guess the culprit somewhere down the line was, "12 tips on how to be a blogging Jedi".<p>I categorise these titles in the same group as phone calls which start, "Hi, how are you today?". <comment><USER2> My pet peeve is the list of inverted 'wrong' beliefs. Don't list a set of false negatives, because I never believe holding a guinea pig by its tail make its eye fall out. Tell me true things without clickbait false tags

<comment><AUTHOR> I had a guinae pig which did lose an eye. Never thought of selling the story ;-)

<comment><USER2> To misquote Oscar Wilde: _To lose one guinea pig eyeball may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness_</comment></comment></comment>


Text Editors in The Lord of the Rings - <AUTHOR> http://crookedtimber.org/2011/07/30/text-editors-in-the-lord-of-the-rings/#

<comment><USER2> Recent submissions of this item:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2826345> : 2 days ago - no comments

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2825759> : 3 days ago - no comments

That latter item has the exact same URL except for a "#" at the end - I wonder if it was added deliberately to thwart the HN duplicate detector.

<comment><USER3> I did not know there was a duplicate detector now.

<comment><USER2> There has always been a duplicate detector. If you submit an identical URL, instead of a submission, you upvote the original version and get shown that page.

<comment><USER4> It doesn't always work, though. Sometimes it will still create a new post, even with an identical URL.

<comment><USER2> I suspect it only works for items in the cache, and anything old enough and not recently referenced might only be on disk and not get checked.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


BlackBerry-Fairfax takeover dies; Thorsten Heins out - <AUTHOR> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/blackberry-fairfax-deal-dies-thorsten-heins-out/article15240310/?click=tglobe

<comment><USER2> I find it quite incredible that these days a company can go from a position of almost unassailable strength to total collapse in a few years. That too in a market that is booming rather than falling. Blackberry had over 50% market share back in the mid to late 2000's, and now is defunct. In India back in 2008 Nokia was king. Pretty much every phone was a Nokia phone, and now Nokia too is trying to claw back.

Now that the smartphone market seems to have matured, do we expect to see the current market situation to remain relatively stable over the next decade or so?

<comment><USER3> That depends on if there's any more massive paradigm shifts, and if those shifts are created by new players or not.

My guess is that, due to Apple and Google's expertise in touch screen and motion capture software, you won't see any new players coming out of the woodwork with a new phone everybody wants.

That said, the crowdsourcing of Firefox and Ubuntu phones could potentially disrupt things a little longer come 2014.

<comment><USER4> > My guess is that, due to Apple and Google's expertise in touch screen and > motion capture software, you won't see any new players coming out of the > woodwork with a new phone everybody wants.

What does that have to do with anything? Samsung is the largest smartphone maker and you didn't even mention them. Xiaomi is likely to be a huge force in the next couple years. I'm sure there will be more.

<comment><USER5> Samsung primarily make phones which run Google software, and unless Samsung want to do an Amazon and ditch the Google Play Services infrastructure for all intents and purposes they are Google phones.

Samsung sells lots of phones: how many of those phones are running Tizen (né Bada)?

I think the point the OP was trying to make is that it's highly unlikely we'll see a company collapse to the extent that RIM/BlackBerry did _unless_ there's a major paradigm shift in mobile technology. Are Xiaomi going to be driving that? I'm not sure.

<comment><USER3> Exactly. I don't see current companies (including Samsung and Xiaomi) making enough of an impact to dethrone Apple or Google from their places unless one of these smaller companies can literally rival the touchscreen shift in market disruption.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The situation is worse than it looks. Unmentioned in this article is that Fairfax already owns 10% of Blackberry and is the company's largest shareholder.

Canadian papers have circulated rumors the offer was intended to set a baseline price they hoped would be overbid. Which makes sense -- if Fairfax was serious about increasing its ownership it has an interest in reducing the price, or could look to purchase a controlling interest rather than the whole company.

<comment><USER7> _Canadian papers have circulated rumors_

Which papers? I've seen no such rumors. You don't flippantly make $5 billion dollar bids -- the problem Fairfax encountered was that in such a deal they need some banks to sidle up with them, and few (or no) banks wanted to.

Also, Fairfax wanted to take the company private. You can't do that secretly or incrementally. It is an all-out endeavor, exactly as they attempted.

I believe their bid was sincere.

<comment><USER8> To be fair, you don't make a $5B bid without having the capital lined up. It felt really scummy to have them bid up like that then include those egregious breakup fees if BB found a higher bidder.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Does anyone see a scenario where Blackberry survives? Apple was once 90 days from bankruptcy. Blackberry certainly has its fans. Their keyboard phone is somewhat unique.

<comment><USER10> It seems to me like they should switch to Android with their own launcher and compete on hardware. The big fat margins of the past are long gone but I think there is a healthy niche here that they could sit in for quite some time.

<comment><USER11> Switching to Android is just a death wish. They need to control the whole stack and cannot be beholden to someone who competes with them in messaging.

<comment><USER12> How has that strategy worked out for others in the same space?

<comment><USER11> How has switching to Android worked out for anyone but Samsung?

<comment><USER13> Samsung makes pretty hardware, BlackBerry doesn't. I'm not sure anyone buys a Samsung device because it's running Android OS.

<comment><USER14> What do you mean by that? I didn't buy a Samsung because of the hardware alone - first I decided that I wanted an Android phone and picked the one which I thought was the best at the time (based largely on hardware). But the OS came first for me... so Samsung won the competition with an iPhone with the software and other Android phones with the hardware.

Actually, I think that's how a lot of people make their decision. These people decide what OS/ecosystem they like, then whittle down their options from there. But a lot of people probably just walk into the store not knowing what they really want. I'm actually not sure which kind of person is more common.

<comment><USER13> That you're aware the forum exists tells me you're not an average user of technology. I'd be willing to bet a month's wage that most people reading this post decided on a device in the manner you describe. I submit we are not average users.

When Samsung began their marketing campaign, it wasn't directed at you and I. It had very little to do with the Operating System and more to do with cute features the company had added. See 'bump'. The campaign was directed at average users.

<comment><USER14> I was thinking more of my parents, girlfriend, and her family who have never heard of this website and are definitely not tech savvy. I think that it's hard to separate marketing/branding from software, though. Her family definitely just assumes that anything not Apple is cheap, while she decided to switch to an Android phone not too long ago - once she made that choice, she went with the phone that looked the coolest (HTC One).

It's hard to say who's average, though. At the end of the day, I think it's probably brand name recognition more than anything else which drives purchasing decisions. I'd like to see what the manufacturers know...

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it what I think drove my girlfriend to Android more than anything else is probably how poorly her macbook aged (although with any laptop you can only expect a couple of good years, so she might be being a bit unfair) - especially how awful iTunes is on that thing. Just opening iTunes completely grinds that thing to a halt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> just speculating but...

\- Microsoft is the natural buyer - for patents and to migrate users to Windows Phone with Blackberry Messenger and BES, don't really see anyone else who wants into this business v. Google and Apple, plus of course the enterprise users are all Exchange, rather keep in-house than cede to Apple and Google

\- Board decided to sell. Prem Watsa is a big investor, he put out a maybe- not-that-serious $9 per share bid as a stalking horse

\- Management did a road show to get a bidding war going (supposedly met with Facebook... you really think Zuck has time for this? probably just weak-ass psy ops v. Ballmer and Elop)

\- No bite at whatever they were asking, presumably $10+

\- For his trouble Watsa picks up some cheap $10 options on ~16% of the company

\- According to Yahoo, they have $4.50 in cash, last price $7, enterprise value < $2b at current share price

\- Gotta think at that price Microsoft could buy it in a sec

\- Sort of sounds like Watsa saying we got plenty of cash, you gotta pay me at least $10 to go away.

\- Not really sure what leverage Watsa and management have if someone decides to go hostile, proxy fight , but that's unusual in tech, nobody really wants that drama

<comment><USER8> Seems a pretty risky bargain for Prem to put $250m at risk with their cash pile dwindling day by day and likely costs of shutting down various parts of the business. If I were a buyer I'd be just sitting and waiting for them to get more and more desperate.

<comment><USER15> clearly, the buyer(s) is/are waiting for them to get more desperate.

but Watsa gets paid before stockholders, company has $2.3b in cash per Yahoo Finance.

Might have costs in laying off/shutting down, but also have assets and income streams. Not clear they are hemorrhaging cash, they lay off employees, stop investing, they stem the bleeding.

Google Finance has good cash flow charts - [https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ABBRY&fstype=ii&ei=...](https://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3ABBRY&fstype=ii&ei=WdZ3UuDaAYy0lwOa8QE)

Believe it or not... not all companies need to constantly raise funds or go out of business... legacy companies have positive cash flows. Prem's momma didn't raise no fool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> How long until Blackberry flames out completely? I used to think that they had technology that was worth saving, but this is pretty much Nortel 2.0 now.

<comment><USER17> QNX?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Good luck trying to raise "fresh financing"...

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the $1bn is coming from Fairfax, but the article isn't entirely clear on that.

<comment><USER19> This PR news release is a little less opaque: [http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/blackberry- receives...](http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/blackberry-receives- investment-us-1-billion-from-fairfax-financial-other-institutional-nasdaq- bbry-1847833.htm)

Summary: \- $1 billion of convertible debentures, $250 million of which is provided by Fairfax. \- 6% coupon rate, 7-year maturity. \- Convertible to BB shares at a price of $10.00. (If all the debt was converted, it would result in 16% of all common shares outstanding, so a significant potential dilution.)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Best site to find angel investors? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> From what I have heard [https://angel.co/](https://angel.co/).</comment>


React Ink v3 - <AUTHOR> https://vadimdemedes.com/posts/ink-3 <comment><USER2> Interesting, as someone who has implemented command line interfaces before. I am curious how this deals with user input interfering with the rendered output. For example if you're displaying a progress bar and the user starts typing or presses "enter".</comment>


How I Sold My Company to Twitter, Went to Facebook, and Screwed My Co-Founders - <AUTHOR> https://backchannel.com/tuesday-april-5-2011-6c783a5dce42 <comment><USER2> Some discussion from 4 days ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11994185](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11994185) (9 comments)

Other submissions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12001976](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12001976)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11996877](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11996877)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11993394](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11993394)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11993334](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11993334)</comment>


New feature in iOS 11 quickly and temporarily disables Touch ID - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2017/08/new-feature-in-ios-11-quickly-and-temporarily-disables-touch-id/ <comment><USER2> Discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15037499](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15037499)</comment>


Cancer cure "may be available in two years" - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/19/ncancer219.xml

<comment><USER2> "If this is half as effective in humans as it is in mice it could be that half of patients could be cured or at least given one to two years extra of high quality life." Um, Dr. Cui, there's a big difference between those two outcomes.

Research like this is wonderful, obviously, but it speaks to the general crappiness of science journalism that articles like this are the norm. It just strikes me as reckless when stories appear about how researchers are on the verge of curing cancer. Is it just me, or have they been two years away for about 40 years?

So few drugs make it to market, and the ones that do take so long, that it's high time for underpromising to become the norm. If by 2009 Dr. Cui accomplishes half of what this article says he will, I will very happily eat my shoe.

<comment><USER3> There has always been a disconnect of this sort between pop science journalism and actual scientific papers. Medical and biotech researchers, in particular, have to be ultra-cautious in their pronouncements. There are a hundred thousand variables that could render this discovery useless for humans. But that sort of caution doesn't sell newspapers. The real tragedy is the inevitable disappointment and backlash it causes among the public when the promising discovery is perceived to "fail."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is exciting news. Someone very close to me has had cancer for a long time. She has been surviving remarkably well. I always told her if she could just hold off long enough, a cure would be developed.

Let's hope this is the real deal.

</comment><comment><USER5> modern medicine technology could sooner or later cure all gene-related dieases, i am pretty sure of it,all we need is TIME

<comment><USER6> It's going to be much, much easier to cure gene-related diseases in our children. Eventually we'll get both, but it's much easier to genetically modify the unborn than to engineer the living.

<comment><USER7> True. However, given some sort of neural re-sequencing technology, the two processes will become one and the same (though the word "cloning" will fall into disuse as those engineered won't have exactly the same DNA....)</comment></comment></comment>


Using NLP to build a sarcasm classifier – Machine Learning - <AUTHOR> https://techplanet.today/post/machine-learning-foundations-part-10-using-nlp-to-build-a-sarcasm-classifier <comment><USER2> Oh, I'm sure that's going to work _great_</comment>


Python-Controlled Sprinkler System Wastes No Water - <AUTHOR> http://lifehacker.com/5861205/ <comment><USER2> Heh, imagine what this headline sounds like to somebody who isn't a programmer.

Jokes aside, this is actually a very cool project and a perfect example of how programming knowledge can improve everyday life.</comment>


Dotcom Bubble 2.0: Are we headed for another hangover? - <AUTHOR> http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/03/lyons-dotcom-bubble-the-sequel.html <comment><USER2> Oh please. Apparently our memories are very short. Foursquare raised $20 million with 27 employees? Big deal. Pets.com got $300 million. Webvan raised $1.2 _BILLION_ dollars. Remember when everyone was GOING PUBLIC without even making as much as a dime?

This was when the average web server was $25k and 1/25th as powerful as what we're buying for $4k now. This was back when you needed millions in Oracle licensing to run and scale an ecommerce business. Bandwidth costs were fifty times what they are now. This was when businesses spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lavish parties. Flooz spent $8 million (out of it's $35m) just on TV advertising. Pets.com spent $1.2 million on _ONE_ superbowl ad. Now that's the stuff!

<comment><USER3> Surely there would be many more unprofitable web companies going public today, were it not for laws like SOX passed after that last bubble popped.

<comment><USER4> Sarbanes Oxley had very little to do with the web bubble but everything with fraud.

A bubble is related to valuing stocks for more than they're worth due to irrational expectations by the buyers of stocks, not necessarily fraud at the companies invested in.

In other words, you can have fraud without a bubble and vice-versa, SOX is mostly about good accounting practices, and corporate oversight and should probably be seen in the light of reducing the chances of companies overstating their revenues by 'creative' accounting practices without being caught at an earlier stage.

The internet bubble would have happened regardless of these rules and regulations being implemented at an earlier date, it might have collapsed later or slower once the investors realized that the internet wasn't going to be some kind of magical solution to all the worlds problems. Typically in a bubble you'll see prices go up and up and investors with little or no idea of what they're doing are lining up to buy stocks that have very little intrinsic value at prices higher than seems reasonable / responsible.

If the companies that they invest in commit fraud then that's going to make matter worse but a bubble can happen without any action on the part of the companies invested in, it is mostly an investor issue, fraud is mostly a corporate issue.

<comment><USER5> SOX compliance is also really expensive for smaller businesses, though, and it makes IPO's seem like a bad idea unless the company can be really, really huge. Companies with more than $5B in revenue only spent 0.6% of their revenue on SOX compliance, while companies with less than $100M spent on average 2.55%. This doesn't really have anything to do either way with a bubble, but it does disincentivize a company from going public.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hey look at Web 2.0 and all that private money, almost none of it public, or with anyone's pension riding on it. Please don't look at Gold, NYSE, NASDAQ or 0% Prime. Those valuations are definitely not a bubble, and aren't at all based on the money the fed is handing the banks to prop the markets. Yes, it's all Web 2.0 THAT's where the bubble is.

All those accredited investors in PRIVATE companies should definitely take their money out and hand it to a large bank who will definitely not handle it as poorly as they previously did.

Even if there is a Web 2.0 bubble the size and scope of it is definitely not comparable to the first bubble, or the subsequent real estate / CDS / MBS fraud. If you're looking for a bubble look at the NYSE / NASDAQ or basically any investment a bank could possibly put their fed money into.

Honestly, the problem is that the USV VC model doesn't work well when you can put a company together for $15,000. That environment much more favors the YC model, the problem is that once startups reach USV from YC they've already established traction and generally have a money making funnel that is ready to be primed with a large amount of cash. Once a company has traction it changes the valuation formula greatly. The reason that a 3 person startup in 6 months has higher valuations than in previous years is because the risk / reward ratio is greatly changed from previous years. Valuations are higher because the new startup life cycle is much shorter. You no longer need $5 million just to see if your idea is viable. With the amount of cash that the big boys have on hand and the difficulty of a modern IPO I think the industry is headed towards more informal version of Japanese style Keiretsu model where startups are using resources of larger parent entities rather than the more formal VC/IPO.

YC has taken the bottom end of the market from USV, so USV sees higher valuations because YC has already taken the risk and weeded out a bunch of companies that didn't work out. So from an entreprenuer perspective you'll see both higher AND lower valuations. Once a startup reaches USV it's higher than in previous years but you'll find a lower valuation for your seed round because of YC (and the associated lower costs of startup).

<comment><USER7> I'd quibble with "anyone's pension riding on it." Much of the money that is invested in Venture Capital is from public employee pension funds like CALPERS.

<comment><USER8> I'm beginning to suspect that there is a good deal of quantitative easing money slithering into the valley.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sounds pretty reasonable to me. On the figures in the article, Facebook has an effective leading P/E worse than 20. That would be on the high side for a good investment in an established company in a vertical market, so presumably it is based on investors' assumptions about future growth and market directions.

Let's consider growth first. We're talking about _Facebook_. They _already_ dominate the social network space, with an amazingly high percentage of the potential user base in many countries. There isn't a lot of growing to be done in terms of product base (i.e., number of Facebook users) in those countries. Likewise, Facebook users already seem to spend a staggering amount of time on the site. There isn't a lot of growing to be done in terms of getting people to use the site more and therefore increase the value of ads. Growing into other geographic markets might help, but they have still failed to establish dominance in places like China, so that's far from a safe bet.

In terms of market direction, though, it seems like all the most likely routes are downward. There must be at least three obvious risks of a business- threatening scale:

1\. Advertisers could find a more efficient mechanism and desert Facebook _en masse_.

2\. An alternative social network, or simply other ways to entertain yourself and keep in touch with friends, could cause users to desert Facebook _en masse_. (Keeping in mind that most of Facebook's power comes from its viral, highly networked nature, this is a serious risk: you only have to lose enough users that people can't rely on sending out news/invitations/whatever via Facebook and assume friends who aren't on it are weird.)

3\. Privacy regulators could clamp down more than they already do as public awareness of the related issues continues to increase, underming the whole targeted advertising business model.

I suppose that's all relatively sane compared to Zynga, though, where the leading P/E isn't quite as bad but their entire business model is effectively based around the continued dominance of Facebook or a similar platform _and_ their ability to keep people's interest in the long term.

</comment><comment><USER10> This reminds me of <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I>

</comment><comment><USER11> I hope I don't lose my job. Maybe it's time to start saving so we can all ride it out and then save up during the next!

<comment><USER12> You're being sarcastic, but there's truth in your comment: the best time to have free cash is when everyone else is crapping their pants at the bottom of a market. You get that cash by being _conservative_ when everyone else is losing their mind at the peak.

Remember: this time, it's different. It's always different.

<comment><USER13> Hmm.. it's always cyclical in my experience - which is why we have a recession every 10 years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Crack.

That's what Fred Wilson and Dan Lyons are smoking. It has to be. No one could seriously be suggesting that we're in a bubble.</comment>


Best Programing Language - <AUTHOR> What is the best programing language this days? <comment><USER2> Sadly, there hasn't been too much progress in the last 20 years -- the best are still the Lisp variants (Common Lisp, Scheme, Racket, Clojure) and the ML variants (Standard ML, OCaml, F#, Haskell).

You get ultimate flexibility and malleability with the former and elegant correctness with the latter.

<comment><USER3> LMAO

<comment><USER4>
      (defun LMAO '())

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Eh, depends on what you want to build?

I'm pretty fond of scala and clojure (jvm duh) or elixir (erlang duh), but that's preference at best

<comment><USER6> I agree, don't limit yourself to a language since sometimes there are certain ones that fit the job. I started off with Java and love it, but haven't used it in a while since new job and project requires go.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> C.

Suitable all the way from embedded code in small devices to operating systems for huge servers.

<comment><USER8> Which all of above is the reason I like D Lang, as it is ABI compatible with C/C++. So all existing libraries and code written in C can just be used but also have the convenience of modern language design principles. Which unlike the other modern languages like Rust, Go, .Net, etc... it is not corporate owned and controlled. So being completely free and open source like C/C++, D is continuing build on top of what came before, but also bringing in modern languages safety for memory, types, as well as rtti (runtime type introspection), and being multi paradigm allowing procedural, OOP, and functional to all co-exist in the same code.

So that is why I think it is the best choice for my default language of choice.

<comment><USER9> Rust is not corporate controlled nor owned either.

<comment><USER10> It's owned by Firefox and controlled by the Mozilla Foundation! That's why I use C#. It's open.

<comment><USER9> This is just plainly not true. Mozilla is one part of Rust's governance, but is nowhere near a controlling stake. We deliberately designed it so that control by a singular organization is impossible.

<comment><USER10> First you say that it's not "corporate control" then you say that well, ok it is a "part" of it's governance. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

<comment><USER9> Participation is not control. Mozilla cannot make decisions about Rust's future. They can participate in the open process to make those decisions, but we operate on consensus, and they're a small minority of the stakeholders.

<comment><USER11> >Mozilla cannot make decisions about Rusts future.

Sure they can, just unofficially.

<comment><USER12> Rust is jesus and the holy spirit. A person who can't see this is an inferior programmer 100%.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> D Lang is my default language

But it all depends on what. You should always use the right tool for the job. Don't kill the fly with a bazooka when a fly swatter is all you need.

<comment> non-entity I remember looking at D some year ago, but don't remember much about it at all. Has it made its way into any jobs?

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I lean towards the one with the best distribution model, what can reach the largest audience without unnecessary layers, since the language particulars aren't all that important except in endless bike shedding.

and that would be JS.

Unless you need to do something more interesting than a browser will allow.

</comment><comment><USER14> I'm writing a backend in Rust right now, and its pretty nice. The ecosystem of packages was the most important factor for me (as well as the ease of spinning up a dev environment).

</comment><comment><USER15> Best for what? PostGreSQL is a great DB language, but you're probably not trying to write machine learning algorithms in it.

<comment><USER5> but.. _it 's all data!_ (check 'every clojure talk ever' if you don't get the ref, it's hilarious)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Elm

[https://elm-lang.org/](https://elm-lang.org/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Red.

</comment><comment><USER11> lisp or python obv

<comment><USER12> lisp and python isn't the greatest thing ever jesus I'm tired of inferior programmers proclaiming that it is.</comment></comment>


It's time to get rid of the Facebook "news feed," because it's not news - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/staff/2016/11/its-time-to-get-rid-of-the-facebook-news-feed-because-its-not-news/ <comment><USER2> What about the news feeds that aren't news feeds that tell us to get rid of the news feeds the aren't news like Huffington Post (a blog, no matter what css it has) or arstechnica?

</comment><comment><USER3> What about those silly ads on so many website pretending to be news too? This is a menace all over the place, I don't even use Facebook and it's hard to get away from this nonsense.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've been opposed to the News Feed ever since it was introduced. I'm glad to see the real media is finally taking it seriously. The original concerns were about how it led to stalking-like behavior, and to the incessant need to see something new or get approval from friends. But it's gotten much worse now that they've allowed people without a .edu email to join.</comment>


Show HN: Suitocracy – A website for rating and ranking corporate conduct - <AUTHOR> https://suitocracy.com <comment><AUTHOR> I couldn't find a place online where I could easily get an overview of how a corporation was conducting itself ethically. Instead I would find information and impressions from a mix of news websites, Reddit, HN, blogs, and try to piece things together from there. Suitocracy aims to be a single place where anyone can find and contribute information on a per company basis.

While there are a number of corporate reputation ranking systems and the like, they tend to use a lot of information provided by the companies themselves and often consider "reputation" as encompassing profitability, innovation, marketing prowess, and other factors which I don't think tell us all that much about good corporate citizenship. Some only list companies that sign up to be listed.

For the time being I've limited the scope to just big companies in the tech sector (with a few borderline cases such as Uber and Tesla, since they're of interest). The plan of course is to eventually list big companies from all industries.

So, I am hoping my friends have left enough content on there to demonstrate the idea sufficiently. It's that old chicken and egg scenario with user- generated content, I suppose. In any case, I would love some feedback, and am happy to answer any questions, technical or conceptual.

</comment><comment><USER2> Why can't we have something like this for individuals?

<comment><AUTHOR> Someone made something like that: [http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital- life-news/psychol...](http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life- news/psychologists-raise-concerns-over-clyde-rathbones-new-peoplerating- website-karma-20150506-ggvhir.html)

I'll note they seem to have pivoted a lot since then, which isn't a surprise. When I first read about it at the time, it sounded like an easy way to get yourself in all kinds of trouble with various issues. Defamation suits in particular. In Australia, the website is liable for what its users post, unlike in the US.

Legal issues aside though, the potential for harm seems overwhelming when there is an individual focus, as opposed to a corporate or institutional one.

<comment><USER2> It's bad that they had to pivot. I agree with all the visions they has for the product in the start, and I can't see why something like Karma is accused of being so dangerous.</comment></comment></comment>


tmux 1.8 Released - <AUTHOR> http://tmux.sourceforge.net/ <comment><USER2> I love web pages like this. The top of it reads:

"tmux is a terminal multiplexer"

"What is a terminal multiplexer? It lets you switch easily between several programs in one terminal, detach them (they keep running in the background) and reattach them to a different terminal. And do a lot more. See the manual."

That's awesome. So many times someone posts on HN "CaffBook.ly.errr 0.98 now released" and I have no idea what it is or why I would want it.

<comment><USER3> I appreciated it too. I've heard tmux mentioned plenty of times but never with a mention of what it is/does. That one line did it.

<comment><USER4> After years of using screen i switched to tmux.. i'm sure i'm not even using a 5th of the functionality but i love it.

<comment><USER5> What are the primary advantages that tmux has over GNU screen that you found ?

<comment><USER6> I'm also wondering about this. I've been using screen for almost 20 years, and wonder if there's a compelling reason to switch.

<comment><USER7> Take a look here: [http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/549/tmux-vs-gnu- scre...](http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/549/tmux-vs-gnu-screen)

Some of it is arguable, but for me one of the greatest benefits is how tmux will auto-resize to the smallest terminal connected, making it useful for screen sharing or when connecting to an existing session from a mobile device.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you like tmux, also check out teamocil (<https://github.com/remiprev/teamocil>) to really enhance your use. It enables you to define tmux sessions via YAML, which is great for programmatically setting up a complex dev session. Mine, for example, fires up six panes in my preferred layout, and starts up a particular part of our project in each pane.

<comment><USER9> I only glanced it over, but I'm having a hard time seeing the advantage of this over shell scripts calling tmux commands.

<comment><USER10> You could achieve the same thing with shell scripts, but one of teamocil's advantages is that it gives you the simplicity of YAML to build complex layouts.

<comment><USER11> "simplicity of YAML"

Spoken like someone who's never actually looked into how complex YAML can be.

<comment><USER9> I don't see how someone could possibly write a tool like this without being aware of YAMLs potential complexity.

Well, I suppose it's possible, but it seems extremely unlikely.

<comment><USER12> These days it's very easy to use a simple api without knowing about the dragons lurking beneath the surface. Flip side of our "reusable components" holy grail.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Tmux + Vim = Pure Awesome.

I use vim-slime[1] to send strings to other panes in tmux. I never type anything directly into a REPL. I just send my code from Vim to it. It's amazing with lisp or python. (A little less amazing with php, as the php repl IS AWEFUL)

[1] <https://github.com/jpalardy/vim-slime>

<comment><USER14> Ruby users may also be interested in adding pry to that setup: [http://www.alanmacdougall.com/blog/2012/03/27/using-vim- slim...](http://www.alanmacdougall.com/blog/2012/03/27/using-vim-slime-with- pry-for-repl-perfection/) (disclosure: my own blog)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I realise you can rebind them, but both screen and tmux do themselves a disservice by choosing binding keys which overlap with prominent keys in emacs and for users who use emacs mode in their shell.

First impressions count.

If you want to configure tmux to use just a backtick as the escape, create ~/.tmux.conf

        unbind C-b
        set -g prefix `
        bind-key ` send-prefix

When you need to type a backtick just press it twice.

For screen, I used to do this:

        escape ``

.. in ~/.screenrc, but I've just tried it and it seems that there's now no easy way to type a backtick when you need one.

Query: in screen I can switch between two buffers by doing ctrl+a, ctrl+a. This doesn't work in tmux. How do I configure this to work in tmux?

<comment><USER16> Emacs users should be using Emacs as their terminal multiplexer...

<comment><USER17> Could you elaborate? I'd love to try that.

<comment><USER18> ; Open a terminal

M-x ansi-term

; Rename the buffer (escaping shell mode first)

C-c C-j M-x rename-buffer

; Shell responds to keyboard again

C-c C-k

; Split window in half horizontally

C-x 2

\-----

I stole this (possibly from Steve Yegge or another source) long ago to somewhat automate the process of renaming terminal buffers:

      (global-set-key (kbd "<f2>") 'visit-ansi-term)

      ;; Terminal awesomeness
      (require 'term)
      (defun visit-ansi-term ()
        "If the current buffer is:
           1) a running ansi-term named *ansi-term*, rename it.
           2) a stopped ansi-term, kill it and create a new one.
           3) a non ansi-term, go to an already running ansi-term
              or start a new one while killing a defunt one"
        (interactive)
        (let ((is-term (string= "term-mode" major-mode))
              (is-running (term-check-proc (buffer-name)))
              (term-cmd "/usr/local/bin/zsh")
              (anon-term (get-buffer "*ansi-term*")))
          (if is-term
              (if is-running
                  (if (string= "*ansi-term*" (buffer-name))
                      (call-interactively 'rename-buffer)
                    (if anon-term
                        (switch-to-buffer "*ansi-term*")
                      (ansi-term term-cmd)))
                (kill-buffer (buffer-name))
                (ansi-term term-cmd))
            (if anon-term
                (if (term-check-proc "*ansi-term*")
                    (switch-to-buffer "*ansi-term*")
                  (kill-buffer "*ansi-term*")
                  (ansi-term term-cmd))
              (ansi-term term-cmd)))))

<comment><USER19> Hey, I found that code hard to follow, with the if-then-elses nested 4 deep. A refactor, pretty much untested since I don't use ansi-term:

        (defun visit-ansi-term ()
          "If the current buffer is:
             1) a running ansi-term named *ansi-term*, rename it.
             2) a stopped ansi-term, kill it and create a new one.
             3) a non ansi-term, go to an already running ansi-term
                or start a new one while killing a defunct one."
          (interactive)
          (let ((is-term      (string= "term-mode" major-mode))
                (is-ansi-term (string= "*ansi-term*" (buffer-name)))
                (is-running   (term-check-proc (buffer-name)))
                (anon-term    (get-buffer "*ansi-term*")))
            (cond
             ((and is-term is-running is-ansi-term)
              (call-interactively 'rename-buffer))
             ((and anon-term (if is-term
                                 (and is-running (not is-ansi-term))
                               (term-check-proc "*ansi-term*")))
              (switch-to-buffer "*ansi-term*"))
             (t
              (cond ((and is-term (not is-running))
                     (kill-buffer (buffer-name)))
                    ((and anon-term (not (term-check-proc "*ansi-term*")))
                     (kill-buffer "*ansi-term*")))
              (ansi-term "/usr/local/bin/zsh")))))

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Changelog: [http://sourceforge.net/p/tmux/tmux- code/ci/master/tree/CHANG...](http://sourceforge.net/p/tmux/tmux- code/ci/master/tree/CHANGES)

<comment><USER20> My favorite "resize-pane learnt '-Z' for zooming a pane temporarily."

<comment><AUTHOR> "ctrl-[prefix] z" toggles zooming in on a pane now, this is awesome!!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Changelog:

[http://sourceforge.net/p/tmux/tmux- code/ci/1b083aa0fd2d8ac00...](http://sourceforge.net/p/tmux/tmux- code/ci/1b083aa0fd2d8ac000504488135bf58e35c3361e/tree/CHANGES)

</comment><comment><USER22> I want to like tmux, I really do, but my main gripes are scrolling in panes with the scroll wheel and selecting / copy/pasting text. iTerm (osx) or Terminator (linux) handle that much better, although I admit they can't really be compared technology-wise.

Alternatively, I never figured out how to select / copy text just as fast in tmux / vim / etc as with the mouse.

<comment><USER23> Add these to your ~/.tmux.conf

        setw -g mode-mouse on
        setw -g mouse-select-window on
        setw -g mouse-select-pane on
        setw -g mouse-resize-pane on

Then you can scroll in panes, but also select like normal by holding alt/option.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Incompatible Changes </comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==

* layout redo/undo has been removed.

Normal Changes </comment><comment></comment><comment>==

* Add halfpage up/down bindings to copy mode.

* Session choosing fixed to work with unattached sessions.

* New window options window-status-last-{attr,bg,fg} to denote the last window which was active.

* Scrolling in copy-mode now scrolls the region without moving the mouse cursor.

* run-shell learnt '-t' to specify the pane to use when displaying output.

* Support for middle-click pasting.

* choose-tree learns '-u' to start uncollapsed.

* select-window learnt '-T' to toggle to the last window if it's already current.

* New session option 'assume-paste-time' for pasting text versus key-binding actions.

* choose-* commands now work outside of an attached client.

* Aliases are now shown for list-commands command.

* Status learns about formats.

* Free-form options can be set with set-option if prepended with an '@' sign.

* capture-pane learnt '-p' to send to stdout, and '-e' for capturing escape sequences, and '-a' to capture the alternate screen, and '-P' to dump pending output.

* Many new formats added (client_session, client_last_session, etc.)

* Control mode, which is a way for a client to send tmux commands. Currently more useful to users of iterm2.

* resize-pane learnt '-x' and '-y' for absolute pane sizing.

* Config file loading now reports errors from all files which are loaded via the 'source-file' command.

* 'copy-pipe' mode command to copy selection and pipe the selection to a command.

* Panes can now emit focus notifications for certain applications which use those.

* run-shell and if-shell now accept formats.

* resize-pane learnt '-Z' for zooming a pane temporarily.

* new-session learnt '-A' to make it behave like attach-session.

* set-option learnt '-o' to prevent setting an option which is already set.

* capture-pane and show-options learns '-q' to silence errors.

* New command 'wait-for' which blocks a client until woken up again.

* Resizing panes will now reflow the text inside them.

* Lots and lots of bug fixes, fixing memory-leaks, etc.

* Various manpage improvements.

<comment><USER25> > * Resizing panes will now reflow the text inside them.

This is all I needed to know to upgrade.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Here [0] is a nice introduction to the newly introduced _zoomed panes_ feature in tmux 1.8 by Tom Ryder.

[0] <http://blog.sanctum.geek.nz/zooming-tmux-panes/>

<comment><USER27> neat. this was the one feature i missed from xmonad!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Should i finally switch from screens to tmux?

<comment><USER29> I switched from screen to tmux to screen back again.

tmux _seemed_ slower while switching windows, plus I like the simplicity of screen.

<comment><USER30> I was a heavy screen user for years, and 'simple' is not what I would use to describe screen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Does anyone know where to find a good introduction to tmux?

I attempted to start using it a couple of weekends ago but wasn't able to find any good documentation with my google-fu.

<comment><USER32> It costs $ but I really liked this pragprog book:

<http://pragprog.com/book/bhtmux/tmux>

Really good introduction, and the included config file is a good start.

<comment><USER33> And the book is $7.20 on Amazon for the Kindle, FYI. I just bought it (versus $14something @ pragprog)

<comment><USER34> Author here. I know it's better for you to get the book cheaper, but PragProg gives authors 50% royalty on the sale of the book. If you buy it from pragprog, I get more in my pocket than if you buy from Amazon.

Either way, thanks for reading. I hope it's enjoyable. Some minor updates are coming to the book too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> <http://www.tenshu.net/p/terminator.html> kinda like this...

<comment><USER36> With terminator, you can have a windowing editor (vim) inside a windowing session manager (tmux) inside a windowing terminal (terminator).

Inception!

<comment><USER37> ... inside a window manager (compiz) inside a nested x session (Xnest) inside a virtual machine (VirtualBox) inside a chroot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Anybody know if it's possible to move between terminal windows (panes in tmux lingo) "clockwise" and "anti-clockwise"?

<comment><USER39> AFAIK there are tmux 'windows' which are like tabs and 'panes' which are vertical and horizontal splits in 1 tmux window

but assuming you mean 'panes', it seems you can:

Ctrl-b o

to move around the current window's panes clockwise. Although I prefer inputing a given direction like the other replier suggested with arrow keys.

For me moving between windows and panes is something that I do a lot. So much so that I removed the need to use the 'tmux prefix' to do so. In my ~/.tmux.conf I have for window and pane switching:

# set pane switching with <alt>{U, E, N, I} for up, down, left, right and respectively without needing prefix

bind -n M-N select-pane -L

bind -n M-I select-pane -R

bind -n M-U select-pane -U

bind -n M-E select-pane -D

# set window switching without needing prefix

bind -n M-a select-window -t :1

bind -n M-r select-window -t :2

bind -n M-s select-window -t :3

bind -n M-t select-window -t :4

bind -n M-d select-window -t :5

bind -n M-h select-window -t :6

You can just replace the keybindings I chose like M-a (alt-a) to something that works for you. If you want to keep using a prefix (incase you are worried the keybindings will clash with other program/system bindings), remove the '-n' flag. Hope that helps.

If it doesn't here is a tutorial I found from a google search: [http://blog.hawkhost.com/2010/06/28/tmux-the-terminal- multip...](http://blog.hawkhost.com/2010/06/28/tmux-the-terminal-multiplexer/)

and IMO a really good book on Tmux if you decide to dive in more: [http://www.amazon.com/tmux-Productive-Mouse-Free- Development...](http://www.amazon.com/tmux-Productive-Mouse-Free-Development- ebook/dp/B00A4I3ZVY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364581708&sr=8-1&keywords=tmux)

<comment><USER38> Thanks. Yes, I meant panes.

I also did the thing to get rid of the tmux prefix for pane switching. But since I don't use the function keys, I mapped keys F1 through F9 to various tmux functions. F1 = next pane, F2 = prev pane. One less key to press. :)

<comment><USER39> cool! Hehe, ya, one less key to press FTW! :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> For what it's worth, here is my carefully crafted ~/.tmux.conf file. I was used to screen, so I carried most of the keybindings along when I switched to tmux.

<https://github.com/ludwig/dotfiles/blob/master/tmux.conf>

</comment><comment><USER41> Two things I missed from screen last I tried tmux: an equivalent of 'screen -xRR' and an orthogonality between terminals and windows so that distinct terminals connected to one session can display different windows. Especially the latter of these is integral to my workflow.

</comment><comment><USER42> Is there any compelling reason to use tmux if you're already using a tiling window manager?

<comment><USER36> Detached sessions on remote systems.

<comment><USER43> If that is the only reason, one could just use dtach instead.

<http://dtach.sourceforge.net/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> tmux status bars are customizable(no surprises there I guess) and the powerline is one of the nicer status bar arrangements - <https://github.com/erikw/tmux-powerline>

</comment><comment><USER45> 'copy-pipe' mode command to copy selection and pipe the selection to a command.

This is exactly the functionality I was looking for back when it didn't exist. It wasn't immediately obvious how to use this, but here's how:

bind-key -t vi-copy 'y' copy-pipe "redis-cli -x set status"

set-option -g status-right '#(redis-cli --raw get status)'

And now I have a message I just copied to redis in my tmux status bar. I'm planning on doing this with clipboard text next.

</comment><comment><USER46> If you are moving from screen to tmux, it's very easy to configure tmux to behave like screen. Also, for split panes, I like vim bindings('C-a l' for left pane, 'C-a r' for right pane, 'C-a <' for resize pane...). I have bindings for copying tmux buffer to and from clipboard(needs xclip).

<https://gist.github.com/rahulkmr/5275679>

</comment><comment><USER47> Don't know if I'm the only one in this boat, but I often feel pretty conflicted about upgrading to a newer version of a tool where I have had a lot of configuration and shortcuts defined for ages. If any of them break, you'll have to go back and dig through the arcane tmux config file, figure out what changed.

</comment><comment><USER48> For the lulz I use neercs. It's the same as screen and tmux, except you get thumbnails of your panes in some kind of taskbar; and most importantly, you can switch between panes with a cube ascii animation, compiz style.

<http://caca.zoy.org/wiki/neercs>

</comment><comment><USER49> the new choose-tree commmand is superb, for anyone who regularly uses tmux and already understands how great it is, you should consider upgrading for this alone..

with several sessions running on most of my machines, i frequently found myself `detaching` and `reattaching` to a different session... as the `choose- session` command gives you a full list of all the windows, which tends to obfuscate exactly what's going on, particularly if you have a bunch of sessions and windows..

however, the `choose-tree` gives you a session tree, which you can expand and easily identify... meaning that instead of sending `^a d`, followed by tmux attach sessionname you can comfortably do a `^a s` and get where you want to be (presuming you've remapped ^b to ^a)

also, you should be using the tmux buffers, `^a =`!

</comment><comment><USER50> One thing that I really want is the ability to set different background colors for panes and windows. Sadly, it is a feature of a terminal app, not tmux. One can only imagine tmux would integrate tightly with various terminal applications to accomplish that.

</comment><comment><USER51> Does this release have better performance than previous releases? I enjoy using tmux, but for some applications (i.e. with large amounts of text spewing to the console) it just hasn't (historically) performed as well as GNU screen.

</comment><comment><USER52> i've switched from tmux to screen to byobu ( which is a wrapper for screen ) because of its simplicity. screen also has very little problems, with tmux i always had time costly issues.

</comment><comment><USER53> Anyone know if it is possible to do single combination keybindings? Currently all of the keybindings are things like 'Ctrl+W L', whereas I'd like to do things like 'Command+L'?

<comment><USER34> If you use bind-key -n C-f some-tmux-command it'll bind directly to Contrl-f. The -n means no prefix. I don't know how you'd make tmux recognize the Mac's command key though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> To install/update on a mac, install Homebrew[1] and run `brew install tmux`.

1\. <http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/>

</comment><comment><USER55> id love zmodem support... but I'm probably the only one that uses it

<comment><USER56> Yes, that† and the possibility to directly connect to a serial port (like screen does). Would be a huge time-saver for the embedded folks.

†) or rather not builtin zmodem-support but generic "run this program with stdin/stdout connected directly to the device" like cu's ~+ escape.

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> i suggest new commer give byobu a try, a wrapper of tmux.

<comment><USER52> its actually a wrapper for screen as also for tmux, the standard ubuntu package uses screen.

byobu is really recommended because its simple to use yet powerfull.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byobu_(software)>

</comment></comment><comment><USER58> tmux has been a great recent upgrade for me -- switched from a bunch of nested screens. really highly recommended.

</comment><comment><USER59> pracically - how is it different form screen ?

</comment><comment><USER36> What is the simplest way to install tmux 1.8 on Ubuntu 12.04?? Running `sudo apt-get install tmux` puts tmux 1.6 on my system...

<comment><USER60>
        pushd /tmp && \
        wget 'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/tmux/tmux/tmux-1.8/tmux-1.8.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Ftmux.sourceforge.net%2F&ts=1364579710&use_mirror=garr' && \
        gunzip < tmux-1.8.tar.gz | tar -vx && \
        cd tmux-1.8 && \
        ./configure --prefix=~/installs/tmux-1.8 && \
        mkdir ~/installs && \
        make && \
        make install && \
        popd

<comment><USER61> A simple `tar -xvf` can replace the separate `gunzip` and `tar` processes.

<comment><USER60> Do you mean `tar -xzvf`?

<comment><USER62> Yes, formally. You don't have to specify -z in GNU tar today, you can just say -x and it'll add -z or -j for you -- it figures out on the fly if the archive's been compressed and how. Very convenient.

<comment><USER63> You can also leave off the dash: `tar xvf`

<comment><USER64> And you may skip verbose too: `tar xf`</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Psychology of a VC and how to take advantage of it - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/28/psychology-of-a-vc-and-how-to-take-advantage-of-it/

<comment><USER2> _When you ask any VC how it is going you always get the same answer: amazing. Company XYZ is a home run!_

The writer is in the UK. Silicon Valley VCs don't say that. Startup entrepreneurs do, but not VCs. VCs expect about 1 in 10 to be a big success and pay for all the other losers.

</comment><comment><USER3> My thoughts on VCs in

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8640126](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8640126)

and

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8669232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8669232)

can be used to respond to this OP.

Mostly the posts are for entrepreneurs, but the second one tells VCs how to start getting decent ROI values.</comment>


Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Fai [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://libcom.org/files/Seeing%20Like%20a%20State%20-%20James%20C.%20Scott.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> ...led</comment>


Square buys 80/20 - <AUTHOR> http://8020.com

<comment><USER2> This will be interesting to see how they can use 8020 for the future of their products.

Would be interesting to see if 8020 gets to participate in the design ofhte new HQ for Square..</comment>


A slave in Scotland - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/may/28/slavery-human-trafficking-hotel-workers-bangladesh-scotland <comment><USER2> He was jailed, but how come the missing wages, overtime, and compensation weren't awarded at the same time? This should all have been dealt in a single sentencing. It would have been both fair for the victims and efficient for the justice system.

There was a similar case for a pizzeria employee in Finland. An Indian worker was tricked into country and forced to work extra long days with no holidays, for 16 months. The place owners got jail time and prohibition to run a business. The employee got 90k€ in missing wages plus 12k€ in compensation for the suffering.

<comment><USER3> That was my persistent thought as I was reading the article. How is it even remotely possible that the legal system did not see the trafficked men as victims here? It was prosecuted as if Arefin's sole crime was against the state, and the men he effectively enslaved were merely witnesses. (Which is also more or less how it was treated by the first few authorities it was reported to.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As a Scot I'm deeply embarrassed about how these men were treated. Unfortunately, although Scotland has a devolved parliament, immigration and border control isn't a devolved power. I'd like to think that if these powers were devolved, or in an independent Scotland, the Scottish equivalent of the UK Borders Agency/Home Office would have treated these folks far more sympathetically.

Whilst nowhere near as horrific as Azad and his colleagues experience, there's currently a high profile story in the press about an Australian couple and their son who've lived here since 2011. The UK government changed the visa rules and now want to kick them out:

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands- islands-3638...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands- islands-36387513)

One day I hope we can gain these powers and treat law abiding guests in our country with much better respect.

</comment><comment><USER5> I like the idea that "civilization is the process of setting man free from men". Unfortunately immigration law based on sponsorship is rather obviously pulling in the other direction...

</comment><comment><USER6> We have trouble with this in the US.

One big problem is employers holding passports. That's illegal in the US, but widespread. This would be easy to fix. Since the US takes biometrics on legal immigrants entering the country, anyone legally in the US should be able to go to any place with a TSA/ICE presence (any airport), get a fingerprint/retina/photo scan, and get an immediate temporary ID.

<comment><USER7> I would absolutely love to see this happen. I wish there was a govt user voice where people would vote for their ideas and those with the most votes in a department would have to be looked at.

We seem to have a democracy but the only decision we can make is which man/woman leads the country.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Horrible. One aspect of this story is that these men are still slaves, though their masters are now moneylenders and the whole thing seems kind of legal... Modern day slavery.</comment>


Show HN: Thorium Nova – Starship Bridge Simulator Game - <AUTHOR> https://nova.thoriumsim.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone,

I'm the developer of Thorium, a little-known bridge simulator that's primarily used for school field trips out in Utah. I think the time has come for something different though. I call it Thorium Nova.

It will be centered around the 3D star map and an internal ship map, and will have a focus on narrative rather than just action. Instead of just simulating what's going on outside of your ship, the crew that live on your ship will affect how ships systems operate. It will also feature prominent Flight Director (game master) controls to facilitate more engaged storytelling.

If you are at all interested in what's coming for Thorium Nova and want to learn more, follow this link and sign up for the newsletter. The number of newsletter signups will help me know how many people are interested in the project, so share it with your friends.

[https://nova.thoriumsim.com/](https://nova.thoriumsim.com/)

If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll get access to special Thorium Nova channels in Discord to discuss development progress, along with other exclusive material provided only to newsletter subscribers.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.</comment>