Common False Beliefs in Mathematics - <AUTHOR> http://mathoverflow.net/questions/23478/examples-of-common-false-beliefs-in-mathematics <comment><USER2> Math people seem a lot more interested in math than programmers are in programming. If you asked the same question on SO, the popular answers would be a list of things like "programmers don't deserve big monitors" or "the client is always right" or other such bullshit. (Nothing actually about _programming_ , only about "the profession").

Maybe this is why nobody ever calls mathematicians "number monkeys".

<comment><USER3> My humble opinion is that software is not science, but a creative solutions profession more akin to architecture or writing. It's a mystery to me why so many programmers seem to be ashamed of that.

I don't see architects spending their time being envious of mathematicians. "If only we could construct buildings out of closed functions on a plane of pure ideology, where no humans would interfere..."

<comment><USER4> brilliant comment. my new favorite quote -- right after "existence is stateful".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That site is crazy. Every time I open it I feel like a complete idiot. I took a decent amount of math in college but I don't know most of the words they use.

<comment><USER6> I wonder if this is how non-programmers feel reading Stack Overflow.

<comment><USER7> Non-programmers know that they're not _supposed_ to understand programming. People who've taken a reasonable number of math classes tend to feel like they should know more than a tiny fraction of the math that's out there, even if this expectation is unreasonable.

<comment><USER8> I know I found it pretty depressing the first time I realized that after taking fourteen or so years of math classes I'd never really made it past Advanced Arithmetic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What I like about the thread is that it's a window into another world of geek humor whose countours I'm familiar with (they look a lot like the countours for cs humor) but whose specifics are largely unintelligible to me.

Great read.

</comment><comment><USER10> I laughed (before I started to think that crying might be more appropriate) when I heard about the false belief that 1 plus the product of the first n primes is always a prime number. Ouch!

</comment><comment><USER11> I took 14 hours of calculus in my EE undergrad. Reading posts like this remind me that I really enjoy studying math outside of school. In school, I had to learn so much, so fast, that I couldn't appreciate the beauty, nor take time to ponder the wider implications of what I was learning.

Many times, I have thought about opening my Salas and Hille's Calculus book and just starting over from the beginning. Anyone ever done anything like this? Any opinions on a better starting book for someone in my shoes?

<comment><USER12> Apostol's Calculus would probably fit your needs. I do not remember its discussing applications at all, unlike the Salas and Hille book according to online descriptions of it. From what you wrote it does not look like you are concerned with that, though.

<comment><USER11> Thanks for the recommendation. $154 new from Amazon and it was written in 1966. Killer reviews though. Thanks again. [http://www.amazon.com/Calculus- Vol-One-Variable-Introduction...](http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Vol-One- Variable-Introduction- Algebra/dp/0471000051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275843399&sr=8-1#noop)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I liked this answer in particular:

"These are actually metamathematical (false) beliefs that many intelligent people have while they are learning mathematics, but usually abandon when their mistake is pointed out, and I am almost certain to draw fire for saying it from those who haven't, together with the reasons for them:

* The results must be stated in complete and utter generality.

* Easy examples are left as an exercise to the reader.

* It is more important to be correct than to be understood.

(Applicable to talks as well as papers.)"

</comment><comment><USER14> Can someone explain why this one (the top answer) is false:

For vector spaces, dim(U+V)=dimU+dimV−dim(UV), so dim(U+V+W)=dimU+dimV+dimW−dim(UV)−dim(UW)−dim(VW)+dim(UVW)

<comment><USER15> It is explained in the comments: take three different lines in the plane, and you'll get 2=3.

<comment><USER16> Perhaps more enlightening is where the proof fails:

dim(U+V) = dimU+dimV−dim(UV)

        dim(U+V+W)
        = dim(U+V)+dim(W) - dim((U+V)W)
        = dim(U)+dim(V)+dim(W) - dim(UV) - dim(UW+VW) <-- bzzt, wrong
        = dim(U)+dim(V)+dim(W) - dim(UV)-dim(UW)-dim(VW) + dim(UVW)

The reason this step fails is that (U+V)W != UW+VW for example UW and VW can both be empty, but (U+V)W is not empty:

        U = {multiples of (1,0)}
        V = {multiples of (0,1)}

Now U+V is the entire space R^2. If we take W={multiples of (1,1)} then VW={0} and UW={0}, but because U+V is the entire space we have (U+V)W = W = {multiples of (1,1)}.

<comment><USER17> I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain this to confused linear algebra students...

Oh, and A minor correction: you mean "zero" instead of "empty".

<comment><USER16> Yep, that's right. HN doesn't allow me to edit :(

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> About half of the ones that I understand what they mean seem perfectly plausible to me. We need a page that explains why they are false.

For example can someone explain "Every connected component of a topological space is open and closed."

Edit: found it on wikipedia: "The components in general need not be open: the components of the rational numbers, for instance, are the one-point sets."

</comment><comment><USER18> It never really took off so there isn't much there yet, but for anyone interested in math discussion on a less advanced plane, you might try here <http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Simple_math_of_everything>

</comment><comment><USER19> "The circle is the only figure which has the same width in all directions."

Can someone explain? What exactly do they mean by width and what else has this property?

<comment><USER20> If you think of the figure as lying in the x-y plane, then its projection onto one of the axes has the same length no matter the orientation of the figure. One nifty example of this is the Reuleaux triangle, which is related to the mechanics of rotary engines.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuleaux_triangle></comment></comment>


North Korea: surfing the net in the world's most isolated nation - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29877625

<comment><USER2> _And why would anyone learn computer coding in a country closed off from the world-wide-web?_ and _What 's the point of a computer in a hermit country sealed off from the internet?_

That's right folks, the only programming that exists is web programming, and the only use of a computer is to look at pictures of kittens on the internet.</comment>


Github hosts Passion Projects with Jessica Hische - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/blog/1549-passion-projects-with-jessica-hische

<comment><USER2> If you want to join the party:

[http://gildviewingparty.eventbrite.com/](http://gildviewingparty.eventbrite.com/)</comment>


Why Cards Are the Future of the Web - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@intercom/why-cards-are-the-future-of-the-web-d3f6ce8b843a

<comment><USER2> Future, meet past

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


Think Kubrick was obsessed with detail? Games design goes much further than film - <AUTHOR> http://iijiij.com/2015/07/30/think-kubrick-was-obsessed-with-detail-games-design-is-going-much-further-than-film-016247

<comment><USER2> The Kubrick analogy is a bit misplaced as film isn't an interactive medium, although a good film has a "replay-ability" factor.

But if you're looking at what's being done in games today one might find rewards looking at the work done on animated films which do involve world building and character design work. And keep in mind that those animators had to draw every frame that you see in a film (and then add to that all of the work that never made it to the final film).</comment>


Remove the search engine setting. Hard-code the search engine to Google - <AUTHOR> https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/GlobalSearch/+/592150ac00086400415afe936d96f04d3be3ba0c%5E!/ <comment><USER2> Can somebody with more familiarity with Android speak to whether this is as monopolistic as it appears?

<comment><AUTHOR> "E.U. Fines Google $5.1 Billion in Android Antitrust Case"

 _"Google has used Android as a vehicle to cement the dominance of its search engine," said Margrethe Vestager, Europe's antitrust chief. "These practices have denied rivals the chance to innovate and compete on the merits. They have denied European consumers the benefits of effective competition in the important mobile sphere."_

[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/technology/google-eu- andr...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/technology/google-eu-android- fine.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> gosh, Google likes to have another $5B fine.

<comment><USER4> This is from 2009.</comment></comment>


The Beginner's Guide to Intermittent Fasting - <AUTHOR> http://jamesclear.com/the-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting <comment><USER2> I have been using Intermittent Fasting for about 3 years. I typically eat between 11am and 6pm, usually eating a little later than 11am and finishing before 6pm. My weight has never been more steady and I am 20 pounds lighter than I was when I started.

Like the author I routinely will allow a day each week to enjoy friends and craft beers. Sometimes this is two days a week and then I just go right back to my schedule. My weight stays steady and I feel great.

The biggest benefit I noticed is no blood sugar spikes. I tried 3 meals, and 6 small meals throughout the day, I was always hungry and felt like I was always dieting. Not anymore.

I am 45 years old, I run and lift weights, but I did both these activities before Intermittent Fasting. I still move heavy weights and my running times keep improving and I weigh the same as I did in my 20s.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hmmm, delicious spam

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, a drive-by troll with his first comment.

Please leave HN.</comment></comment>


[FFmpeg-devel] Preliminary announcement about the current situation - <AUTHOR> http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2011-January/103536.html <comment><USER2> This is a better starting point for the politics of the situation:

[http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg- devel/2011-Januar...](http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg- devel/2011-January/103440.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Dr. Strangelove wasn't that far off, then. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Strangelove> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_hand_syndrome>

</comment><comment><USER4> Looks like they're just having some repo issues. Later in the thread: [http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg- devel/2011-Januar...](http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/ffmpeg- devel/2011-January/103571.html)

<comment><USER4> Whoops, nevermind!</comment></comment>


Show HN: Node-C, embed C functions in JavaScript comments - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mateogianolio/node-c

<comment><USER2> This looks very interesting. It's one of these things I wish Node had a native mechanism for.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a hire by "values match" site? - <AUTHOR> So here's the issue I have with hiring platforms, I often get paired with companies based on technical skills or industries I've worked within, but I really just want to work alongside people I share similar values with.
I'd love to find my next job through a platform that matches me with a company that aligns with my values.
For example:
- 12 month or more financial runway
- executives have strategic plan written out for profitability (ie, they're not just winging it)
- product decision makers say no to things, but also listen
- decisions made based on quantitative and qualitative analysis
- proactive communication culture
(PS - am I asking for too much in a 50-200 person company?) <comment><USER2> It may not be exactly what you want, but check out KeyValues. [https://www.keyvalues.com](https://www.keyvalues.com)

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks promising and definitely interested in using. thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> That would be awesome, but how could these things be measured-- decision makers saying no, proactive communication, etc?

Some of them, like financial runway, are also usually well-guarded information.

<comment><AUTHOR> some of my values are inherently qualitative, so I would expect ask for examples (which are not ancedotal).

For example,

\- Provide written plans for the last 2-5 features you pushed out.

\- What's the process for firing employees ... is any of it in writing?

\- What's the template for communicating ideas across the company quickly? Amazon has the 1-page tactical doc, the 6-page strategy doc, M$soft the 30 second CEO update, Google the 2 minute pitch. What communication norms/templates do you have within your company?</comment></comment>


Rise of Candida auris embodies a serious and growing public health threat - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-auris.html <comment><USER2> This seems like it ties into an article from The Atlantic last year [1] on the under appreciated threat of increasing antifungal resistance. In particular, there are lots of antifungal agents out there that are fit for use on plants, but only a very small number triazole agents that are safe for humans. It should be completely illegal worldwide to use triazoles in anything except prescription treatments. This isn't even like antibiotics where there is necessarily overlap between mammalian usage in agriculture vs humans, there are non-triazole non-human safe agents that won't hurt plants one bit.

An important takeaway from that article was that it's not too late: agricultural azole usage is actually a fairly recent thing in much of the world and hasn't been in the US for example long. Quoting:

> _" Until recently, the United States was exempt from concerns about azole- > resistant Aspergillus. Azole use here has historically been low, a small > percentage of what happens in Europe—though the numbers that record it, kept > by the U.S. Geological Survey, may be incorrect because submitting them is > voluntary. Nevertheless, tebuconazole use in the United States rose five > times over from 1995 to 2015; the crops that accounted for the most use were > wheat and corn. Meanwhile, a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) poll of state > health laboratories found no cases of resistance as recently as 2014. But > last month, the CDC disclosed that 10 patients treated in the United States > have been diagnosed with triazole-resistant Aspergillus bearing the > mutations associated with agriculture. In a report in its weekly bulletin, > the agency analyzed the records of seven of them. Four of them had never > received azoles before they were diagnosed with the resistant strain. Three > of the patients died."_

It's worth trying to stamp down on it legally ASAP. But it needs more public attention and political pressure, which makes this report that health authorities have been covering up the seriousness even worse.

\----

1: [https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/when- tul...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/11/when-tulips- kill/574489/)

<comment><USER3> Ok, let's say I decide to make this my cause. What can I do, concretely?

<comment><USER4> We have representatives at the national and state/providential level. Write each of them letters about how they can represent you in this regard, maybe seasonally. As @acct1771 suggested, share this concern with others in your community. Encourage them to write a letter as well.

I follow Hank Green's advice [0] about how to do so. Be specific, be respectful, demonstrate you checked hiso'er past, relevant votes.

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp4h-3vQafk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp4h-3vQafk)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Health officials say that disclosing outbreaks frightens patients about a > situation they can do nothing about, particularly when the risks are > unclear.

They could go to a hospital that isn't having an outbreak. Why isn't that an option for most patients?

> Even the C.D.C., under its agreement with states, is not allowed to make > public the location or name of hospitals involved in outbreaks.

This seems like an agreement against the interests of the populations that the C.D.C. is supposed to protect, even if (temporarily) in the interest of hospitals involved in outbreaks ... yet another example of regulatory capture.

On the one hand I can see that this policy would make hospitals more likely to report potential outbreaks and cooperate with the C.D.C. On the other hand the secrecy would result in dead patients who could have gone elsewhere and survived. Or people that need hospital treatment avoiding all hospitals.

Can anyone point to a good argument that such secrecy -- even after the infection has been verified -- is good policy?

<comment><USER6> You indirectly mentioned it in passing (through the corollary), but it's a very real issue: hospitals simply would not report anything. This would even encourage hospitals to do things such as ensuring that things such as this are _not_ detected. No need to report an outbreak if you don't/can't detect it! This is a particularly great example of unforeseen consequences. Though in this case (and many) these unforeseen consequences can actually be quite foreseen if you just consider practical reactions to things.

And as a consequence of the above, the current system is also likely more beneficial for patients as well because hospitals need not worry about anything other than doing as optimal a job as possible. Something like this sounds like it stands a good chance of eventually spreading everywhere. And so would you be safer at a place that has or has not detected it? Obviously you'd be better off in a place without it, but again once we introduce those unforeseen consequences a place not detecting it is absolutely not the same as a place not having it. By contrast the place that has it has indicated that they are actively screening for it and presumably doing all they can to try to manage it.

<comment><USER7> _> This would even encourage hospitals to do things such as ensuring that things such as this are not detected_

Trial lawyers in New York created an organization [0] that systematically maps sidewalks and streets to identify cracks and holes that cause slip-and-fall accidents.

They provide these maps and supporting data to the city for free, and in the process they can prove that the city had constructive knowledge of the risk.

That way the city can't avoid liability by claiming they didn't know.

It seems that a similar "service" could alert hospital managers to the risk of C. auris, and thereby neutralize intentional ignorance as a defense.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple_Pothole_and_Sidewalk...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Apple_Pothole_and_Sidewalk_Protection_Committee)

<comment><USER8> City streets and sidewalks are readily publicly viewable, though, while medical facilities go to great lengths to not let people see whether they've screwed up.

I agree it'd be extremely useful, but it's a harder problem to get visibility into.

<comment><USER9> Mandate the visibility and let's see how hard it is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It is so incredibly stupid on so many levels to be spraying antifungals into the environment. Not least because of the resistance problem. There are many ways that fungus interacts with plants and animals. Destabilizing the base of some critical food chain to get 10% better crop yields seems like a bad idea for us to do.

<comment><USER11> Don't worry too much, the spraying is imperfect and is creating an environment conducive to creating fungicide resistance. The fungi will bounce back.

We, on the other hand, will pay for our collective misdeeds.

<comment><USER12> That's what I think when I hear people say, "save the planet." The planet will be fine. It's humans that need saving.

<comment><USER13> Generally they're referring to the thin veneer of blue and green on the surface of the planet. Things would have to get pretty heinous for humans to go extinct, but many species are already threatened.

<comment><USER11> We're well past threatened. We're already in the midst of one of the major extinctions.

<comment><USER12> Hardly, our population is still growing at an exorbitant rate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Welcome to the beginning of the new dark age, with doctors scared to care for patients with certain diseases. Were higher crop yields really worth it? When do we finally start taxing (even retroactively) externalities?

<comment><USER14> So people think twice before doing stupid things for their own local gains?

<comment><USER15> That was supposed to be the "great engine" of capitalism dogma.

That self-interest, and doing things for one's local gains, ends up to the benefit of everybody.

It started with Adam Smith: ""It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages"."

and ended up in ever increased praises of self-interest (Ayn Rand, etc) over communal values and morality.

<comment><USER16> Some say Adam Smith was the last virtue ethicist.

I find it amusing that so many people read his "Wealth of Nations" and founded edifices on it, while conveniently ignoring his other book: "The Theory of Moral Sentiments"¹

1: Relevant quote: "How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > rampant use of fungicides on crops is contributing to the surge in drug- > resistant fungi infecting humans

Another looming side effect of mono-cropping — planting huge fields of a single, highly specialized cultivar with very low genetic diversity.

Many of these cultivars are reliant on huge amounts of fertilizer, insecticide and fungicide. They produce high yields when times are good, but come with massive vulnerabilities and large negative externalities.

There has been some movement in recent decades away from typical industrial agriculture toward more diverse planting and sustainable and scientific farming, which in the long run produce healthier soil, crops and environment. Sadly this is still fairly niche and not applied to the millions of acres of single crop areas around the globe, mostly because it's still super cheap to pump fields for all their worth with cash crops.

Unless we adopt a more difficult path, we'll be paying for our cheap calories in more ways than just algae blooms and drug-resistant fungus. But I guess the same could be said about everything, climate change et al.

<comment><USER18> I think a different term needs to be adopted by now, since climate change is perhaps only half the story.

Yes, the greenhouse gases from converted fossil fuels used for transportation and the release of energy to do work, all of which leads to global warming, is of great concern, and in terms of survival of our species, matters very much.

But there are a number of looming adjacent narratives that go hand-in-hand with climate change, but are not necessarily of climate change alone, while human activity beyond the use of fossil fuels is certainly at the heart of the matter.

Fish dying off, colony collapse disorder, birds disappearing, general insect volume depletion throughout zones of historically higher activity, radiological contamination of the ocean by at least one major nuclear incident, the pacific garbage patch and microplastics in general, chemical pollution of waterways, disruptive hydroelectric dams, fracking, slag lagoons (ruptured and unruptured), superfund sites like the gowanus canal as a particular expample of a failure to clean up even one hazardous zone in a major city, pesticides in general (even ignoring insect populations as keystone species and colony collapse). The list goes on.

Beyond just climate change, the grand scope of human activity has some serious detrimental side effects, with deep ramifications for the world around us. Yes it's getting hotter, and the weather patterns are strange, but taken together with other issues, the big picture is that The Anthropocene as a period of time represents itself a challenge of challenges.

That we now can safely call this The Anthropocene is enough to say we have a problem, as we become a force of nature unto itself. This being The Anthropocene is akin to us being the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Terrible lizards though they were, we are worse.

We are the asteroid. Don't call is merely climate change. Call it The Anthropocene, and understand that the full scope of human activity is the full scope of the problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Here's the Public Health England page for C. Auris. It's hit a few hospitals, and some really struggled to cope with it.

[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/candida-auris- eme...](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/candida-auris-emergence-in- england/candida-auris-within-the-united-kingdom-updated-guidance-published)

</comment><comment> maze-le Could also be related to the growing prevalence of chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal conditions.

[0]: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163673/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163673/)

</comment><comment><USER20> It's amazing to me how little (if ever) they bring up massive antibiotic overuse in agriculture. High density farms for pigs, cattle, chickens, etc. are goal directed evolution experiments for antibiotic resistance.

</comment><comment><USER21> Why are we still tolerating dousing intensive livestock farming with antibiotics?

This has to be outlawed.

<comment><USER22> 80% of the antibiotics consumed in the US are used in animal agriculture[1]. 2/3 of infectious diseases in humans have animal origins. Along with horizontal gene transfer, antibiotic misuse in agriculture is overwhelmingly responsible for antibiotic resistance in the US.

As someone who often gets secondary bacterial infections from initial viral infections, I often have to fight with well-intentioned prescribers in order to get adequate treatment so I don't end up in the hospital a few days later.

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4638249/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4638249/)

<comment><USER23> Not disbelief, but requesting your source for ⅔.

<comment><USER22> From the CDC[1]:

> _In fact, as many as 60% of all communicable diseases and 75% of emerging > infectious diseases of people originated with animals_.

60% and not 2/3, but that's memory for you.

[1] [https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/page/zoonoses-2018](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/page/zoonoses-2018)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I was wondering why they didn't just irradiate the infected room and did a preliminary online search. I'm not a specialists and the following are not specific to Candida Auris, but it seems some of these organisms actually thrive under radiation. Reminded me of The Andromeda Syndrome.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15907555](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15907555)

[https://mbio.asm.org/content/7/6/e01483-16](https://mbio.asm.org/content/7/6/e01483-16)

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/radiation- helps-f...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/radiation-helps-fungi- grow/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Interesting and scary how much of it is in the New York area. I wonder if its similar to the AIDS epidemic in that a combination of immigration and local social patterns make big cities much more susceptible to these things than elsewhere.

</comment><comment><USER26> It's not just antibiotics, but some types of vaccines are creating evolutionary pressure and new strains of the pathogen. E.g. for pertussis

> it is thought that B. pertussis is adapting under acellular vaccine mediated > immune selection pressure, towards vaccine escape [1]

> an increase in asymptomatic infection with concomitant increases in > transmission and increased selection pressure for Bordetellapertussis > variants that are better able to evade vaccine-mediated immunity than older > isolates [2]

[1] [https://academic.oup.com/femspd/article/73/8/ftv064/2467598](https://academic.oup.com/femspd/article/73/8/ftv064/2467598)

[2] [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S156713481...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567134816300636)

</comment><comment><USER27> What are the symptoms?

<comment><USER28> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidiasis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidiasis)

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> A non-trivial amount of what I work on is better diagnostics for C. auris. It's remarkably nasty stuff, especially the multi-drug resistant strains! One of those projects where I'm glad I'm on the analysis side of things, and not growing out collections of "interesting" isolates.

</comment><comment><USER30> This should spread fast as yeast cysts ride on the wind.

</comment><comment><USER31> Wow i have to pay article for health information.

</comment><comment><USER32> I read this earlier today and have been mulling it over and over in my head. Think of how many fungi we encounter on a daily basis. We know that breadmakers' sourdough will contain customized microbes based on the breadmaker. What if candida auris was on the skin of the breadmaker? Shit....

</comment><comment><USER33> For about 7 years, I've been battling undiagnosed Candidiasis. Cutting down wheat and sugar dramatically has mostly eliminated my symptoms, though when I get careless it comes back.

I've talked to three doctors about my symptoms, and done various tests, which don't show anything. None of them seemed to accept the idea that it could be caused by Candida. It's interesting to see it getting some media attention, though certainly this particular report makes me a bit nervous.

<comment><USER34> Data is missing. How can you know you've had an undiagnosed condition for 7 years?

<comment><USER35> Sounds like they have been convinced of it by their own symptoms but it has not had a proper diagnosis.

In my own life experience this is common. People bounce around the medical system with varying diagnoses for many ailments, at various levels of confirmation, and sometimes the doctors aren't sure either.

<comment><USER34> There is some distinction to be made between the verbs "convinced of" and "diagnosed with". Not to downplay anyone's medical conditions, but there's lots of FUD surrounding candida, too much money on the table, and we should all be careful with terms.

<comment><USER35> I take it that distinction is why they said "undiagnosed".</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


How to raise a genius - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/how-to-raise-a-genius-2008799.html

<comment><USER2> There is a lot of fluff in this article. It comes down to guiding a child rather than pushing (or making decisions for) them.

<comment><USER3> It's a pity that they did not interview the folks at JHU/CTY/SET , ( <http://cty.jhu.edu/set/jcs-apa.html> and <http://cty.jhu.edu/> ) which has done much more rigorous research in this area...

The headline doesn't really match the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Statistically speaking your child won't become a genius. Get over it.</comment>


The Neomonolith - <AUTHOR> https://inconshreveable.com/10-07-2015/the-neomonolith/ <comment><USER2> I've seen a variant of the "Neomonolith" where you run the same code base on every server, but use a proxy layer (Zuul/Apache/Nginx) to isolate specific parts of the code base on a set of servers for specific, high-traffic use cases. That way you're still only building one image, but you can still get some of the performance tuning / concurrency benefits of micro services without all the headache. Still doesn't come close to solving all the problems of the monolith, but it's another band-aid you can apply if a micro services architecture doesn't make sense...

<comment><USER3> Have you got any examples of this? I would like to see if you do.

<comment><USER2> Not very difficult to set up -- just use a reverse proxy on certain parts of the path (e.g. one set of reverse proxy entries for /api/foo and another for /api/bar). That way if the foo API gets hammered, the performance of bar is unaffected (assuming your proxy layer is adequately sized).

Note this doesn't help if your persistence layer gets overwhelmed (since in a monolith you'll still probably have a single persistence layer). Separating the persistence layer is by far the hardest part of moving from a monolithic to a micro services architecture.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This looks very similar to Paul Hammant's "cookie cutter scaling" pattern ([http://paulhammant.com/2011/11/29/cookie-cutter- scaling/](http://paulhammant.com/2011/11/29/cookie-cutter-scaling/)), which I find equally baffling. Perhaps I've just never encountered the conditions which are favorable to it, but what I like about microservices is how they decouple every services' rate of change, and going back to lock-step deploys throws that all away.

> In addition, with a monolith, the work of monitoring, alerting, > configuration, and a local development is paid once. But with a microservice > design, that cost must be paid for every service.

The second sentence is only true if _every service_ actually rolls its own monitoring, alerting, etc. I cannot imagine a situation like that in practice. The standardization of those things (and more, such as build and deployment pipelines) is necessary to enable microservices in the first place. It's true that plenty of organizations committed to their microservice framework will also run some things outside of it, but I've never seen the ratio of things in the framework closer to 0 than 1.

</comment><comment><USER5> Developing in erlang/elixir gives you a varient of this, in that your code is broken up into many small "processes" which are messaging each other even when you're only deploying a single app to a single server. Then if you need to distribute and scale, introducing networks between the components is relatively small change (sun's fallacies of distributed computing meaning it's never a 0 cost change however)

</comment><comment><USER6> This is the missing piece for a yoeman generator I've been working on: [https://github.com/zbyte64/generator- batteries](https://github.com/zbyte64/generator-batteries)

The issue I bumped into is getting /api to talk to /auth; OP recommends making them talk over RPC.

</comment><comment><USER7> This approach often works for third party services, too. For example, you can put a mongoconf/mongod/mongos triplet on every box. Your app would connect to the mongos on localhost which then forwards requests to whichever mongod happens to be master. The same approach works for redis & redis_sentinel.</comment>


Iquitos – city in middle of Amazon jungle - <AUTHOR> http://www.mymilez.com/iquitos-city-in-middle-of-amazon-jungle/ <comment><AUTHOR> From [http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/PlaneMad/diary/38453](http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/PlaneMad/diary/38453)</comment>


Pseudo science: Iraq spent over $48mn on American bomb detecting rods.  - <AUTHOR> http://news.discovery.com/tech/bomb-detecting-dowsing-rod-demonstrates-danger-of-pseudoscience.html

<comment><USER2> In what way are they American? They're from the U.K., which has stopped their export and charged the head of the company with fraud.</comment>


PIMP MY TWITTER. what would you add to Twitter? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> How would you PIMP twitter?

<comment><USER2> Install powertwitter [<http://tinyurl.com/2g5a7c]> or use jaiku instead?</comment></comment>


How we built News.me, a social news reader for iPad - <AUTHOR> http://www.borthwick.com/weblog/2011/02/21/news-me/

<comment><USER2> Just curious, how many are willing to pay in times of free apps and sites like Flipboard, Pulse, Taptu, Utopic.me, XYDO etc?

<comment><USER3> I'd pay to have an easy to ingest river of what my friends have in their stream. When i use flipboard, I see a few too many articles that I've already looked at on my other devices.

BTW - I'd like to see the idea of reading my friends river of stories implemented with instapaper.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting story for those of you on HN who have seen my startup (NewsCred) go through a bunch of pivots. We are now licensing and powering a lot of the premium content on the app!

</comment><comment><USER5> Nice idea, keen to see how this catches on. The idea of charging money for people's twitter feeds (which is free) is one that might throw people off though.

</comment><comment><USER6> Seems like a copy of Tweet Mag App <http://tweetmagapp.com/></comment>


Couchdb Hack Night in Boston 28 Oct - <AUTHOR> http://bocoup.eventwax.com/couchdb-hack-night

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm just passing this along as it came through my inbox. Unfortunately, I'm elsewhere that night.</comment>


Apple Arcade – Game subscription service - sahin-boydas https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/apple-introduces-apple-arcade-the-worlds-first-game-subscription-service-for-mobile-desktop-and-the-living-room/ <comment><USER2> I think a lot of folks looking at this from the point of view of an adult gamer are missing the point: the audience for this is parents.

For 10 bucks (or whatever) a month you can load the ipad up with games and not worry about microtransactions or scummy ads targeting your kids. "Curated" is a signal that can trust age recommendations and not worry about inappropriate content.

<comment><USER3> Curated like Youtube Kids?

<comment><USER4> YouTube kids is very much not curated. That's why I don't use it anymore. I stick with Netflix, PBS, Disney, Hulu, pretty much anyone other than YouTube, because YouTube is the only one I've found that's dumb enough to claim they have a kid safe area without actually curating it.

<comment><USER5> One can even say it is so egregious they could and should face legal challenges.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Let's just hope this "gaming as a service" stays on mobile devices where it belongs.

Personally I think it's a decent move by Apple to change the perception of the App Store in regards to gaming. I waited in line for the original iPhone and watched the App Store go from quality $2-10 games to the dumpster fire it is today. The F2P games are all clones of each other and no one will spend a dime on anything else. A premium service that collects the quality games, respects user privacy, doesn't run ads, or have IAP is a nice idea to be honest.

I'm a handheld gamer through and through and always have one or two handheld consoles on me, so this is isn't a service that interests me. But I hope it can make those paid games more accessible.

Also concerned that the (rumored?) $9.99/month price tag is even remotely close enough to get these developers paid. Nothing easier about releasing on a mobile device - the games they showed off look like massive titles.

<comment><USER7> _Let 's just hope this "gaming as a service" stays on mobile devices where it belongs._

Microsoft has Game Pass. EA has Origin. Subscribe to both and they're both fantastic.

<comment><USER6> I typed my response hastily - I'm not against them existing, what I meant was I hope they never replace consoles. I have no desire to pay a monthly fee to play hundreds of games.

The game list could be virtually unlimited, but there's always a real, tough limit - my free time. I can still only play 1-2 games per month and I'd rather own a copy of it.

Having access to hundreds, to me, means I'll essentially play a game for 5 minutes, then the next one, then the next one... until I've had an hour of no real experiences. In this backlog culture, it'll be a miracle if anyone ever finishes a game again.

<comment><USER8> > _The game list could be virtually unlimited, but there 's always a real, > tough limit - my free time. I can still only play 1-2 games per month and > I'd rather own a copy of it._

Didn't say the same thing for music? And yet how many buy CDs or download music anymore, compared to Spotify/Apple Music/YouTube/etc? An irrelevant (and aging) minority.

And at least for music it makes sense. One can and do listen to the same album 10 and 20 years on. And of course multiple times in the same year.

Whereas, after someone has finished a game, how often will they come back? And for what percentage of games? And how would a game subscription would hurt their occasional "lemme play this again for a couple of hours" trip down the memory lane?

<comment><USER9> It's that last part that keeps me buying exclusively DRM-free, Linux-friendly PC games. You can't even rely on a console working in the future anymore, or Windows not updating automatically into incompatibility. If it doesn't work, best you get is a not-quite-right recreation on a new platform. Worst case, old YouTube play-throughs are all you have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Apple's poor support for serious gaming in the past makes me doubt that they understand gamer's needs (casual and serious). They failed over and over to offer proper "gaming" 3D graphics in Mac OS, they failed to grow GameCenter into something useful, they failed offering good gaming support for Apple TV. Too many broken promises. It's the same thing with music: Apple claim for years they have "Music in their DNA", but neither understand anything about classical music nor are able to build a good version of iTunes. I bet that this Gaming service will fail, as did Ping and Apple Musics "Connect".

<comment><USER11> Casual gamers and kids.

My kids enjoy tremendously Minecraft, Roblox and the Lego franchise games.

None of those require top-end graphics, yet offer engaging gameplay for a large audience.

<comment><USER12> Parent commenter is likely referring to MacOS's trash fire opengl support and zero Vulcan support.

It's not about getting spectacular graphics on MacOS, it's about even getting your renderer to work.

<comment><USER13> This is really fighting the last war, though. Metal exists, and any game that is running on iOS (which it has to, to be in this) targets Metal. Who cares about anything else?

<comment><USER14> Android has much greater worldwide market share than iOS does (not to mention PCs, consoles, etc.) None of those support Metal.

So yes, we graphics programmers do care about "anything else".

<comment><USER15> If you're targeting multiple platforms you're likely using an engine rather than directly programming the GPU anyway. So you don't actually care about vulcan vs metal, you care about e.g. "Unity".

<comment><USER14> Some of us write the engines. :)

<comment><USER11> Even then the graphical fidelity of the above games is approachable with a pretty simple set of "standard" shaders and rendering tricks that allow to limit the graphics api specific code to a manageable chunk. It's not nice, but it's not like one needs to port the _entire_ engine. And then there are cross api interfaces like bgfx that allow more or less to share a common data interface with all of the API backends.

I'm not saying that I like the fragmentation, but on the other hand I'll happily use win32 system calls when programming windows and posix stuff if programming unixen. So it's not entirely cut and dried what is the expected amount of platform specific customization one is expected to be able to deal with.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> It's curious that they pitched this curated experience by openly admiting their app store experience is terrible and full of scammy games that are "free" w/ ads and egregious microtransactions. Of course they could fix the app store they control rather than silo-ing off the good games into a separate subscription.

<comment><USER17> Well, given the recent spat with Spotify I'm under the impression that they have more than enough curators to clean up the app store from scammy apps. I just think they make enough money from microtransaction "whales" not to care

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I worry a bit about the App Store screenshot with the arcade tab. Apple Music is a permanent part of the Music app UI even when you aren't a subscriber. It is a bit of an annoyance. Now it appears Arcade will be there to bug me for a subscription in the App Store. I'm realizing now the News and TV apps will do the same thing.

These are small annoyances, but it seems like a turn in the wrong direction overall. For years the Apple ecosystem gave me the feeling that I was paying a premium, but I got great hardware, great UX, and increasing more software for free. iOS, Pages, Numbers, iMovie, etc all became free over time. Yes, it all locked me into their world, but it was a great world largely free of ads an annoyances. Now that they are adding paid services to so many products they are eroding that feeling.

<comment><USER19> You can turn off the Apple Music tab in Music. Go to Settings > Music > Show Apple Music and turn it off :-)

<comment><USER20> With Show Apple Music Off. Play a song in iTunes, tap the name of the currently playing song, click go to artist, now you're back in Apple Music.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Man I hope most app games become part of this. I hate the amount of BS in the games my kids play on their iPads. Ads, in game purchases, etc.

</comment><comment><USER22> I hope they give the developers good terms. I hate not being able to find non- scam games for my phone. I don't mind paying for games but I have fewer and fewer options on iOS as time goes on.

I'll support this.

</comment><comment><USER23> I am pessimistic cause the only way Apple can pay game developers is by use (played time). This forces developer studios to produce games that one can't finish.

<comment><USER4> This is an interesting point if they are paying by play time, but why do you think that is the only way? Netflix doesn't pay based on play time -- they pay an upfront fee to license a title for set period of time, regardless of number of plays. Maybe they'll do the same here.

<comment><USER24> That's what a previous article from Bloomberg [1] claimed: "The company would collect these monthly fees, then divide up the revenue between developers based on how much time users spend playing their games, one of the people said. Apple is likely considering popular paid titles on the App Store and would exclude titles that are free to download but generate revenue via in-app purchases."

This seems like the definition of a perverse incentive, but if Apple is having a hand in making some of these games, maybe they can keep it under control. Or, maybe having users spend more time in Apple Arcade is their plan all along.

[1] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-23/apple- s-r...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-23/apple-s- reinvention-as-a-services-company-starts-for-real-monday)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This might be a good thing for my wife and her habit of playing the latest "grinding game of the month" (ie. CandyCrush, WordSoup, etc.) If we can pay $10/month so that she can play whatever she want's without having Ads shoved in her face, sign me up!

</comment><comment><USER26> A subscription service for iOS games. Is the market for polished phone games big enough to support a service like this?

Most people I know who still play phone games usually play either really basic puzzle games or the auto-play esque gacha games that don't require much user interaction.

</comment><comment><USER27> The part that worries the hell out of me is the "hand picked". Screw that: if the game exists anywhere on the store, and people want to play it, LET THEM and find a way to pay the developer (e.g. based on time played, or some other measure). [Edit: If they want to introduce new rules like "no ads", fine but any game _meeting the requirements_ should be allowed, not "hand picked".]

Otherwise, I can tell you right now what will happen: most developers will be (further) screwed by Apple's Latest Arbitrary Hidden Process. And of course, big important devs will continue to be quietly given special treatment.

I have no faith in their "curation" either. Half the time they feature games that people would easily find anyway, e.g. the latest Angry Birds or Candy Crush or Lego game.

</comment><comment><USER28> It would be interesting to know what % of their users play these 'premium experience' titles, in comparison to Candy Crush and Clash Royale where ads, microtransactions and data harvesting are incredibly popular

<comment><USER29> Those are the only evolutionary survivors of the App Store economy. Pay up front won't fly anymore, so we need a new model if we want to see games that are actually fun rather than just addictive. I'd like to see this succeed, fingers crossed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I don't have super high hopes but I do hope this leads to a better situation than we have now with "free" games chocked full of IAP.

</comment><comment><USER31> They didn't announce the price actually.

News+ was $9.99

<comment> sahin-boydas it leaked actually. but I removed for the title

<comment><USER31> It's not launching until Fall. Tech Crunch doesn't know what the pricing for a service launching 6 months from now will be.

Or do they?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> A lot of discussions are around the business side and not the technical. Having the game works across iOS and macOS is something I thought not going to happen before. That is like saying your Xbox Games works across on your PC.

How will the control works? Are they all based on some Middleware engine? Unity or Unreal? Are Apple having a hands in those development ( Finally! )? What kind of support are Apple giving to Game Developers where Apple has for the past 20 years completely neglect them. New Metal API?

</comment><comment><USER33> Apple went from supporting games on the Apple ][ line, to discouraging games on the Mac, to supporting games again with Pippin, to not really supporting them on the Mac but still claiming there were games on their platforms (idTech Rage demo, yaaaay?), to... supporting games again. Is anyone buying this? Is this thing on?

I realize companies shift, but Apple has done a _lot_ of shifting when it comes to gaming.

<comment><USER34> Steam has a lot of games for OSX. It certainly wasn't a priority of Apple, but Mac gaming is a "thing"

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> All that Apple is launching, honestly, seems like a desperate move for stockholders by upping more recurring price services. But honestly, I pay less than 10€ / 5 months through humble bundle and my game library contains 100's of games.

Apple is trying so hard to make up for the decline of iPhone sales on the back of other people. Only the big names will get a Payday at the beginning.

Sure, it can work on the beginning. But after a while, your gonna realize that you spent 120€/year on games. And it's the games you wanted to play on the PC where you would give > 50€/piece for.

Not some arcade gaming/TV you don't own.

You want to read the NY Times or something else, that hasn't partnered with apple.

For the TV, it's a good idea, but as the big names ( Netflix, Disney) didn't partner up. What are you going to pick? Netflix works everywhere ( Chromecast is nr 1, Android, Xbox, ...). I just think that it won't help them gain enough subscribers.

And in the end, if they want to keep their 15-30%, their partners will back out. Because they don't earn enough or you'll cancel your subscription because there is not enough content.

What they announced the last days, is all about upping a % here or there for revenue of "services". While I haven't seen anything spectacular about hardware in the last 5 years. Just look at the specs of the MacBook "pro". They forgot who made Apple big.

The top post of Apple today on HN is that they released a credit card in cooperation with Goldman Sachs... Seriously? What about your privacy there. It reminds me of iAd. We all know how that went.

Edit: ofc here come the downvotes. Please mention why you don't agree

</comment><comment><USER36> Apple is great at a lot of things, but qualified to "make gaming even better" they are not.

Most games, if they are even released on Mac, run worse on a Mac compared to Windows PC.

And a lot of gaming accessories, like Razer mice, don't even work properly on a Mac.

<comment><USER37> In 2006 would you have said they were qualified to make a cell phone?

<comment><USER38> Were they trying to make one for 40 years?

</comment></comment></comment><comment> sahin-boydas [https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/apple-introduces- appl...](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/03/apple-introduces-apple-arcade- the-worlds-first-game-subscription-service-for-mobile-desktop-and-the-living- room/)

<comment><USER39> Thanks, we've updated the link from [https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/25/apple- arcade-is-apples-new...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/25/apple-arcade-is- apples-new-cross-platform-gaming-subscription/).

<comment><USER40> Doesn't seem to have worked?

<comment><USER39> Let's see what happens if I actually do it...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Can't see the Apple emoji on any device that's not an Apple device

<comment> sahin-boydas Ahh. I added Apple in front of it. Thanks

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> oh great... a bunch of crappy games with touch UI. Finding quality games in the App Store is like needle in a haystack.

iOS games are mostly at the calibre of killing time on the bus. Never something you sit down, at home for a dedicated gaming session.

<comment><USER43> There are world-class games on iOS, but the critical problem - I think - <AUTHOR> that (i) the interface isn't subtle enough to handle fine movements (unlike the mouse or analog stick), (ii) the devices are cumbersome and tiring to use for extended periods of time, and (iii) critically, there is no tactical feedback for buttons which means that a portion of your brain is always dedicated to making sure that your thumb is 'over the A button', removing you subtly but importantly from the gaming immersion.

EDIT: I also want to say that to any lurking iOS game devs - the most critical thing that seems to separate viral games from standard ones is the leveraging of a single (or a handful) or _basic multitouch gestures_.

Angry Birds: drag and release

Flappy Bird: tap

Homescapes: swipe

Super Mario Run: tap

et cetra...

Artificial buttons and joysticks are a bad idea - they do not translate well to a touch-based platform.

<comment><USER44> With a few adjustments, things like Street Fighter CE work decently.

It's not as satisfying as physical but it isn't horrible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Yet another way in which Apple is undercutting developers and preventing them from profiting in a space where Apple wants to make money.

<comment><USER46> If you think about it, game studios and movie producers are two of the only art businesses where something remotely close to the artist is able to make any money off the actual art.

Musicians only make money off concerts, not selling music. Writers literally don't make money any more. And I'm not certain if there was ever a time actors or directors made money -- outside of the EXTREMELY successful.

With Netflix really commoditizing the movie business, I wouldn't be surprised if the margin on movie production steeply declines in the near future.

So, my point is, yes this sucks. At the same time, doesn't it seem like the natural order of things?

I hope we can change the natural order of things. But maybe the value really is in the distribution and not production. As a self-described maker, it sucks to think that. But maybe it's the truth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> This is it, folks. Apple's much-anticipated transition into becoming a serious player in the gaming space.

Nintendo had better watch its back.

<comment><USER48> I dunno, not until Apple releases a first party controller. Otherwise Nintendo will continue to keep its current market at least.

<comment><USER33> Apple would also need to release something near the Switch's price point. That's not happening anytime soon.

<comment><USER49> An "Apple TV Game Edition" that comes with a bundled controller would be right in that console price range.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Apple needs to put a hardware effort behind this to really make it worth anything... if Apple wants developers to push games to their platforms, the platforms need to have a stronger focus on games. A huge part of that, IMHO, would be making the Mac* not a pile of shit for games. That involves two things (and likely a third):

1\. Complete compatibility layer with DirectX12, fuck everything else. No one is gonna rewrite their games in Metal to start at this point.

2\. Writing drivers for a few hundred existing graphics cards.

(And the likely) 3. Partner with AMD or NVIDIA to create an intensely powerful per dollar line of proprietary graphics cards that obliterate the competition.

Apple seems to like an adaptive experience with certain tasks being best accomplished on certain devices, progressively upgrading features, as the devices support more complex user input. They generally execute this near perfectly everywhere _except_ gaming.

I think this is a neat announcement, but will likely fizzle. I really, really, wish Apple would take gaming seriously. At this point their platforms are primarily for content consumption, not creation, ignoring gaming comes off as sort of pompous (though maybe I'm the pompous one, ha).

Maybe with the upcoming modular Mac Pro this will be fixed, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

* Apple TV is currently garbage too because the standard outta the box input device (remote) is horrible gaming. They need to ship a system with a sanctioned controller, or make an enclosure for iOS devices.

<comment><USER51> Your two points only matter if game makers want to roll their own rendering engines. If you use Unreal or Unity, you've got first class Metal support out of the box.

<comment><USER52> That's the first thing I was thinking reading that comment.

Why, _on earth_ , would I want to write a game in Direct X? Is there really a compelling reason _not_ to use Unity or Unreal?

<comment><USER53> Tighter control over performance, no royalties / no unity logo at launch, unlimited flexibility, smaller more optimized binaries. It really boils down to control. I agree though, most people don't need to work with the graphics api directly.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Introducing the Bitcoin Hackathon v2 - <AUTHOR> https://blog.coinbase.com/2015/04/07/introducing-bitcoin-hackathon-v2/

<comment><USER2> > No 24h time limit. Participate from anywhere.

This is great! I'll have to try to make time for this.

> We're interested to see apps which highlight new use > cases for Bitcoin > [...]

We need some demonstrations of exciting, engaging, and unique uses for Bitcoin. Wallets, payments, attribution, etc, are all very important but are also pretty bland. Games that simply award bits for points are a small improvement, but it's still not that exciting.

I'm looking forward to seeing use cases that are unique to Bitcoin and compelling to the layperson.</comment>


Show HN: FUSE filesystem for Google Drive written in OCaml - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/astrada/google-drive-ocamlfuse <comment><USER2> I've never used OCaml so I started randomly clicking through your source. I was looking at this file:

[https://github.com/astrada/google-drive- ocamlfuse/blob/maste...](https://github.com/astrada/google-drive- ocamlfuse/blob/master/src/gaeProxy.ml)

It seems like it's using some GAE node (presumably owned by the author) for something to do with authentication. Would the author care to explain what's going on here?

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a proxy on GAE that makes it easier to complete the OAuth2 flow. The source code of the proxy is here: [https://github.com/astrada/gd-ocaml- auth](https://github.com/astrada/gd-ocaml-auth). More info about the authorization process: [https://github.com/astrada/google-drive- ocamlfuse/wiki/Autho...](https://github.com/astrada/google-drive- ocamlfuse/wiki/Authorization). Let me know if you need further info.

<comment><USER2> Fair enough. I can't imagine that most users will want to pass access tokens through your proxy, despite the hassle it saves. I would suggest making proxied auth /not/ the default or at least divulging the use of the proxy in a more prominent fashion in your documentation. Just a suggestion. People get sensitive when it comes to their personal cloud storage.

<comment><AUTHOR> I see your point. Thanks for your feedback.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> OCaml is pretty big in french universities, but could anyone from other countries say how popular this language is in their country (education and corporate sectors) ?

I'm quite surprised to see a news about this language on the front page of HN.

<comment><USER4> In Portugal I would say it doesn't exist...

But I have knowledge of its usage on some projects by big corporations.

It seems that janestreet [1] takes great pride in using OCaml. They have some interesting open source projects in github [2] and bitbucket [3].

And facebook has pfff [4], an "Ocaml API to write static analysis on source code" (such as PHP code, not only OCaml code).

(I'm not a facebook or janestreet employee)

[1]: [http://janestreet.com/](http://janestreet.com/)

[2]: [https://github.com/janestreet](https://github.com/janestreet)

[3]: [https://bitbucket.org/janestreet](https://bitbucket.org/janestreet)

[4]: [https://github.com/facebook/pfff](https://github.com/facebook/pfff)

<comment><USER5> We were taught OCaml in the Software Engineering undergraduate course at FCT- UNL, in Portugal, along with Prolog, C and Java.

<comment><USER4> My bad ... I wasn't aware. Do you know any Portuguese company that uses OCaml?

<comment><USER5> No, not really, it seems almost all use Java or .NET languages. Thankfully, I found a Python startup here in Lisbon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> That's seems like a neat app! How did you handle the concurrent remote-access on the files? Is there a way for the user applications to be warned when you receive an operational transformation? I'm implementing a fuse filesystem for a similar webapp and I thought it would be impossible for an editor that hasn't be designed for that to deal with the concurrent modifications, even if the filesystem can handle it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Conflict resolution is not very sofisticated. You can choose to always take server side version (the default) or client side version (see [https://github.com/astrada/google-drive- ocamlfuse/wiki/Confi...](https://github.com/astrada/google-drive- ocamlfuse/wiki/Configuration)). My main use case is a single user working on the client _or_ on the server. So the scenario is not of a collaborative app.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I am using the google drive app for Windows (in a shared folder that my Linux VM sees). When I save a file with Vim it creates a duplicate copy on the GDrive server.

I couldn't figure out how to turn off Vim's file saving behaviour, so I will give this a shot and see if it works better.

<comment><USER7> works fine with Vim</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Have you made any interesting observations due to recent events? - <AUTHOR> Something I noticed, more people are enjoying the outdoors in my neighborhood. The past 2 years, I take about an hour walk nearly everyday. I've gotten to recognize the "regulars" who jog, walk and fish in the neighborhood ponds. I rarely ever had to "make way" for people on the sidewalk in the past two years.
This past week, I don't want to say it's "packed". People are doing the whole social distancing thing. But families are out walking often. But there are multiple families in a field kicking or throwing a ball around, easily a dozen people fishing at any one time (use to only notice one person every few days) and a few dozen walkers/joggers.
I mean, that's at least one good thing that's come out of this craziness. Hopefully it'll last for a while.
Have you noticed anything interesting in people or your environment in general (positive or negative)? <comment><USER2> In Sydney, most of the suburbs south of the harbour are directly below flight paths. Most residents are used to hearing frequent loud aeroplane noises.

Thanks to the grounding of flights, this doesn't happen any more.

<comment><USER3> Hi from Marrickville - the plane silence has been glorious.

My 72 year old mother has noticed that her neighbours are starting to talk to her, people she's seen everyday for years but who have never engaged her are waving when she's out walking her dogs in the morning (while keeping her distance from others).

She's also had notes through the door from people letting her know that they can help if she needs errands ran or if she just wants someone to talk to. Amazing to hear.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been seeing this to different degrees too. It's nice to know that to some level, "society" doesn't absolutely collapse into chaos from "inconveniences". I just think it's messed up that the chaos is what makes the news (at least in America) and is what we imagine is constantly happening, when it's not the norm. There's more good going on than what we're led to believe.

While my faith in big media was already in the trash before covid19... at this point, if someone put forth that all news should be banned... yea sure. Obviously impractical and childish of a viewpoint. Maybe a limit to how big a news group can be? I don't know. I just know that the fear mongering practices of news sources has to come to an end fast and hard. Before, it was an eye- roll "whatever" response from me. Now, due to the covid19 reaction from the big news sources on both sides of their political leanings, I'm sick of their crap. None of them have done a good job of helping the general public and just want to focus on all the negative, spinning it to "See, the other political side made it worse!".

<comment><USER4> Good points. Any ideas how to fix it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know. I'm not qualified for that kind of decision making. What kind of impact would it have if you limit the size of a news agency? Would it actually be good or bad in the long run? If you put restrictions of language, topic and angle, where will the slippery slop end? How can all that be abused? What does that muzzle that shouldn't be muzzled?

Maybe, at the end of the day, it has to be people who fight back. Kind of like how you have the political fact checks. What if there were organizations that did the same about the journalistic integrity of news agencies and calls them out on it? I just think the calling out portion needs to be hardcore and not pussyfoot around it. A lot of the political fact checking always seems so quiet finger waving. If a plumber screws up the install job of a home's system and floods out the house, there's no light finger waving. A politician making bad policy due to bad logic and a news agency scaring the shit out of the public is further widespread and can cause lots of indirect havoc. Makes me better appreciate the Yakuza idea of collecting fingers for mistakes. People don't fuck off as much after they lose a finger.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm really noticing how unhelpful the mass media is and the corporate control is kind of showing. I feel really bad for everyone watching the nightly news. Seems like complete panic.

I notice them play up deaths of the young and ignoring the statistics to make sure everyone does their part.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm actually surprised that no country seem to have had any protocol in place for this kind of tragedy. It seem all is very disorgonized and not really thought through. You'd think with all budgets around the world put in the military and R&D, some kind of protocol should be in place to reduce impact. Things like:

\- Build hospitals in x Days by Army

\- Identify key equipment in case of Bio tragedy and either stock them or have them produced locally by at least two different companies in different location but same country

\- Supply chain impact

\- Distribution of aid, either medical or even monetary. Even with all advanced tech we have, we still can't figure out how to get things from A to B, when B really needs it.

The above would not need only to be put on paper, but also tested, evaluated and continously reviewd.

I'm also very surprised that a lot of companies I deal with do not have a Business Continuity Process that would deal with the above. A lot of customers want their staff to work from home now but are struggling with the HOW. Should the users use their own devices (BYOD) and connect to the VPN? what's the impact on security?. Should the company provide laptops?, if yes how fast can we buy them, configure them and send them out.

There are some companies who were prepared, because they took this seriously, they tested this frequently and were expecting a similar event.

<comment><AUTHOR> When was the last pandemic? Seems like the Spanish Flu back from 1918-1920 is the only thing "recently" that was at this scale. Then take the miracle of modern science eradicating heinous disease. Like smallpox... only for anti- vaxxers to bring it back...

Pandemics haven't really been a real threat for people to take seriously, and for good reason. Society and infrastructure is unrecognizable since Spanish Flu. Laws and procedures... well, no one really has real experience for this kind of problem. It's just a back of the mind kind of what if. More spy-novel fantasy than potential reality.

I relate this to 9/11\. It's a massive wake-up call and learning experience. If you're old enough to know of a pre-9/11 world, at least in America, it was totally different. I had to explain to my niece that before 9/11, no one thought twice of an unattended backpack. You leave your backpack somewhere for a few hours in a cafe, park or wherever, either it was stolen or it was still there. Post-9/11, bomb squad is called out to investigate. Hell, Crocodile Dundee 2, lighting dynamite to "fish" in the waters with NYC in the background. Then a NYD coasty rolling up on him having a laugh. Dude, you can't make that joke anymore! Straight up, it's not funny or practical. Dundee would have been lit up post 9/11.

I hope I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure, the world won't be the same after this. Maybe not as extreme as 9/11, but we will know of a pre-covid world and a post-covid world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Someone on reddit said that we don't really understand the seasonal changes in infectious diseases so it's possible we're actually making it worse by forcing people to stay indoors.

I'm not saying it's true. But for me it underscores the idea that we need evidence based policy making now more than ever.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm kinda impressed by the amount of cooperation I see in the US.

I know the folks not cooperating with the rules and new systems in place get a lot of press but all in all I'm impressed by how generally cooperative people have been.

</comment><comment><USER7> I heard birds chirping in Manhattan from my apartment near Midtown in Manhattan. I swear I haven't heard anything other than sirens, ambulances and cars in the last 12 months since moving here.

amazing.

</comment><comment><USER8> With much less traffic in San Francisco, I can hear a lot more wildlife.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm surprised everyone is still so politically divided. A potential medicine doesn't work because Trump mentioned it? I've heard this many times.

</comment><comment><USER9> markets are inefficient</comment>


Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies - <AUTHOR> http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1879169,00.html

<comment><USER2> This "essay" is NOT about Facebook. It's about old fogies (OFs). Lev Grossman must have been on-deadline and so chose the easy road of pander to the OFs/baby-boomers' diet for fluff news - OFs who too often see shallow FaceTwitting life as the sole domain of gen-X-Y-Z. The more things change...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> why is Time totally obsessed with facebook?

<comment><USER3> Everyone in the media is, due to the 5 year anniversary and the tendency for everyone and their mother to do a 'geewiz isn't Facebook cool' type story.

Read #10 from the article, sums it up pretty nicely.</comment></comment>


Lessons from the Top 5 SaaS Pricing Pages - <AUTHOR> http://blog.priceintelligently.com/the-five-best-saas-pricing-pages

<comment><USER2> I know the article says Salesforce.com has a great pricing strategy, but I hate their pricing. I feel nickeled and dimed constantly when trying to add a new feature or even a new user. I guess it is a good pricing strategy, because I keep paying. Hopefully new alternatives in the market will help them be a bit more aligned.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've definitely felt that pain, too, especially for getting API access, which is required for essentially any integration. We started out on the Group plan, then quickly had to move to the next one, and then with only 3 people we needed to jump to $125/user + API fees at a ridiculous price per month just to integrate with our marketing platform.

That being said, we were willing to pay the price.

Salesforce could make this a bit easier to swallow by a bit better onboarding. They're going to need to as folks like HubSpot and the plethora of other CRMs continue to jump into the market.</comment></comment>


Section 230 Is the Internet's First Amendment. Both Parties Want to Take It Away - <AUTHOR> https://reason.com/2019/07/29/section-230-is-the-internets-first-amendment-now-both-republicans-and-democrats-want-to-take-it-away/ <comment><USER2> Because big tech companies have become the arbiters of speech online, and they are disproportionately favoring one party in their actions. This was woefully apparent in Google's congressional hearings [1][2], where Google's _only_ defense was that seemingly partisan actions weren't company policy, but actions of a few individuals. That line of defense fails to hold muster when said actions repeat like clockwork.

[1]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX6LlEcJ4nw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX6LlEcJ4nw)

[2]: [https://youtu.be/zIniYSkAWo0?t=5074](https://youtu.be/zIniYSkAWo0?t=5074)</comment>


Yahoo Webscope: a reference library of interesting and useful datasets - <AUTHOR> http://webscope.sandbox.yahoo.com/ <comment><USER2> Large datasets - [https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-large-datasets- open-t...](https://www.quora.com/Where-can-I-find-large-datasets-open-to-the- public)

<comment><USER3> Obligatory awesome link: [https://github.com/caesar0301/awesome-public- datasets](https://github.com/caesar0301/awesome-public-datasets)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Archive Team will have their hands full if and when Yahoo finally shuts down. Their footprint on the web is still enormous and quite a bit of that stuff is valuable.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for pointing them out. Here's a link to the page where they track endangered datasets: [http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Alive..._OR_ARE_THEY](http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Alive..._OR_ARE_THEY)

<comment><USER6> Thanks for the link. Was a fun read

 _Google wants you to think they will be here forever_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'd like to contribute to dissemination of this stuff by turning it into nice public APIs.

Which ones should I start with? Where to look in the docs to get started?

<comment><USER8> These data are for academics only.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I applied a while ago (Jan 14) for their news feed dataset and have not heard back. Does anyone here know the average turn around time? Also does it make a difference if you are a professor/ phd student?

Thank you</comment>


There are no fucking Keys to Success - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/hi-my-name-is-jon/there-are-no-fucking-keys-to-success-b92abaccdd05#.y0nsx62hk <comment><USER2> Are a lot of people cursing in their Medium titles, or is it just me?

I don't disagree with the author's statement that the only reliable chance at success is to work hard.

However, I think he's taking down the "keys to success" phrase too easily because he's misinterpreting it. There's an awful lot of mindset chicanery involved in getting yourself into a place where "just do the work" actually rings true and you start living it. In the same way that "just do the work" is true and is the only controllable way to succeed, it's putting in the work on little things and groking that it actually works that's the only controllable way to the epiphany.

The "keys to success" advice is all aimed at getting someone those little successes that convince them they can get bigger successes if they work harder and longer. When a piece of advice works it just kind of clicks, like a key, but here's no telling which piece of advice will work for a person at this moment. So you kind of hand them a keyring and try one key at a time to see if the person is ready for any of them.

People searching through "keys to success" options are hoping they'll stumble into a key that clicks for them because they don't yet grok the hard work thing.</comment>


Bringing Transit to Nairobi's Streets - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@transitapp/hello-nairobi-cc27bb5a73b7

<comment><USER2> I lived in Nairobi for the summer of 2004 (in Buru Buru for half the time and then in Kibera on the map) and I would have loved to have this information at the time. Taking the matatu into town was always a fun experience. I came just after they implemented strict laws that limited passengers to the number of seatbelts. This opened up business for a lot more matatu operators but congested the roads. Before there may be double the number of people per matatu standing or hanging off the sides.

It was incredible to me how each matatu basically had its own personality. Some would be quiet like riding on a normal bus in North America. But then you would have the party matatus that would be fully painted and blasting out music at 9am in the morning and the tout would be lauging and joking with all the passengers or singing.

I was on an exchange program and stayed with host families. While waiting for matutus to take us into town, even though there were so many, they basically recognized all of them. I would say, "What about this one?" and they would say that it was going somewhere else or that you can't trust them.

At night, when coming home there was usually a 30-60 minute lineup just to get on one and then it could take another 60 minutes to get home when the normal time was just 20 minutes.

<comment><USER3> Matatus _always_ have route markers, in your case, 23 for Buru Buru. There's no magic to it.

<comment><USER4> Matatus going to Buru Buru have traditionally been marked as route # 58. Number 23 goes to Bahati and Jericho, Jerusalem up to utmost Buru Buru phase II, then take Outering road to "Civil Servants". I live in Nairobi :)

<comment><USER3> Buru Buru Ph. II in _Buru Buru_ ;-) The tone of the article rubbed me the wrong way, had a bit of that "White guy who discovered Mt. Kenya" vibe. I may have unfairly read some of that into the parent comment. Well aware of 58 as well.

<comment><USER5> That was my problem with it too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think saying that cars are limited to the citys elites is overstating the case a bit. There are quite a few middle class families with cars. The problem is twofold

1: The collapse of the public bus system (KBS or Kenya Bus Service) in the early 90s 2: The lack of any investment in infrastructure since at least the 70s. There are a bunch of reasons (IMF structural adjustment, corruption, poor planning etc)

I'm kenyan and remember that in the 80s it was relatively quick for me to get to downtown Nairobi, or to School (for anyone who knows Nairobi, I was commuting from South B to Nairobi Primary School). I could either have my parents drop me (they worekd in the CBD and drove there), take a bus to downtown Nairobi and walk to school from there or take another bus to school (I used to opt to walk the 2nd leg and buy these really terrible SciFi books 'Perry Rhodhan' that were translated to English from German, but thats another story...).

In 1980, the bus/matatu ride from South B to Downtown Nairobi (near Standard Chatered bank) took about 10-12 minutes. The last time I did this (in 2010, I needed to get from South B to the National Archives in the CBD so I hopped a #11 Matatu), it took 2 hours, and that was not in rush hour traffic. I could have gotten out and walked there faster (and regularly used to do so in the 80s, but everything is fenced off and over-built). The next day I drove with my mum and same thing (South B to Kariokor), there is literally no way of avoiding spending a large amount of your life sitting in traffic, and it boggles my mind that there are cities that are worse (i.e mexico City)

There are simply too many cars for the infrastructure. And in a really bone- headed move, some time ago the government decided to solve this problem by banning public service vehicles (buses and matatus) from the Central Business District, but private cars were allowed. Of course this was so the rich could travel un-impeded. The plan didn't last due to the outcry, but that shows you the priorities of the politicians.

But if it meets its promise, this app would be truly amazing and useful. And the name (Hakuna Matatu), you have to understand Swahili to appreciate the pure awesomeness of that pun.

</comment><comment><USER6> Human Transit had a great guest post on transit Lusaka, Zambia:

[http://www.humantransit.org/2013/08/guest-post-on-lusaka- tra...](http://www.humantransit.org/2013/08/guest-post-on-lusaka- transportation-for-human-transit.html)

<comment><USER7> I remember this post because it outlined the limitations of informal, privately operated systems: They tend to have physically centralized hubs that are overserved, because the operators can guarantee customers at those stops, while outlying regions are missing direct connections - all routes go downtown, is the rule.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It seems rather counter-intuitive that a city with no formal transit, and thus no actual schedules could be meaningfully integrated in a scheduling app. But I guess the matatu drivers have to follow pretty fixed routes because they have to follow the expectation of their users. That is, their pre-existing knowledge about where the buses go.</comment>


Show HN: Finance News Aggregator - <AUTHOR> https://finzine.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey guys, I've been a HN-er & r/finance-er for many years and have noticed that a lot of us are interested in a simple interface for tracking finance news. The lack of a user-friendly system (i.e. modern design) really frustrated me, so I built [https://finzine.com](https://finzine.com) — a site designed specifically for finance/trading enthusiasts. It mainly tracks the S&P 500 as well as a couple of business sections of various popular websites. There's a also an early option for customization in the menu. I'd love to hear what you guys think. I built it specifically for folks who track the news many times a day but it's obviously not designed as a replacement for something like a BB terminal. I'm definitely willing to tweak stuff and implement new features if you guys feel it's needed. Let me know via the email on the site or here. Thanks!

<comment><USER2> How do you find the related links for a news story?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very cool and I intend to use this more frequently.

I would recommend breaking out information into categories (e.g "commodities", "bonds", etc.) for easier reading

Keep up the great work!</comment>