A Wave of Fear in American Commerce - <AUTHOR> https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/the-wave-of-terror-in-american-commerce <comment><USER4> There's kinda a flip side of this in modern life too - which is the getting away with murder that goes on in commerce and other organisations. By this I mean an executive or engineer can do something exploitative and unprofessional - load a company with debt, release a tranche of necessary employees, increase a dividend... or for engineers, make false claims about business cases, delivery schedules or technical capabilities. There are no consequences (provided the timing is done cleverly), a bubble of sucess is created - <USER2> act is lorded or claimed on a CV and the person moves on and up the ladder. When the company gets into trouble or the project catastrophically failes the exited individual is rarely confronted with this, and if they are they simply say "it was great when I left - I don't know what went wrong but they really blew it!" There is no community of disapproval, and there is no genuine mechanism of reputataion management.

<comment><USER5> This seems like a place where you should apply Hanlon's Razor: don't assume malice when incompetence will suffice.

Executives and senior domain experts make a lot of stupid decisions borne out of overconfidence and attempts to do flashy things for bonuses or promotions.

It's extremely tenuous and would require huge evidence to argue this sort of thing is malicious or criminally negligent, as opposed to just someone sincerely doing their job in a way that leads to a mistake or is punished by market trends or competitor advancements or whatever.

<comment><USER6> Even if it's incompetence you can't get better if you never realize you made a mistake.

<comment><USER5> Sure, but a lot of the folks making these mistakes inside of companies also don't care about getting better, just getting paid.

If you wanted every such type of mistake to be susceptible to crimimal or civil litigation, boy, you'd be legislating morality for one (deciding exactly when someone can value money or believe a certain risk is worthwhile), and have almost no way to enforce it (how can you prove a sincere mistake I "learned from" vs negligence I never cared about, without something like smoking gun email admissions or something?), and further no competent people will agree to do these jobs if they feel they cannot have a perfectly healthy and normal process of making mistakes without great risk someone will try to turn it into a lawsuit or criminal charges?

You might say these are all matters of degree, and you just use targeted legislation to make it punishable according to specific guidelines, but it's just a giant slippery slope, and very susceptible to political subversion for people who have the same malicious intent only operating on the regulatory or legislative side rather than in private firms.

It's a huge moral hazard problem, but one that can really only be solved by rare, upstanding management, and hardly ever by litigation.

<comment><USER6> > making these mistakes inside of companies also don't care about getting > better, just getting paid.

I guess that's the problem, but at least for people who are competent today, they got there by failing and learning.

> If you wanted every such type of mistake to be susceptible to crimimal or > civil litigation

No I don't, that's bad for all the reasons you said.

Rather I'm all for letting people deal with the consequences of their decisions so that they learn over time. That's a structural change. Some examples:

* Engineers who write the code should also test/debug it

* UX designers should regularly see new users trying their products

I haven't thought too much of the case for CEOs but I imagine it's similar. At least in the startup world CEOs with a failed company under their belt are more valued than those with no experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is an interesting piece. The author tackles a few different kinds of fears, starting with fear of Libra destroying normal consumer transaction paths and then looks at fear of entire small and medium sized businesses getting straight up destroyed by moves from giant players like Amazon.

I think the author is pretty spot-on in the implicit conclusion that this is the natural result of increasingly centralized businesses running pseudo- monopolies in key industries.

<comment><USER8> Definitely thought provoking. I hadn't thought much about how the effects of the fear of retribution reverberate in how people and companies interact with governments, employers, and suppliers.

I feel like this is usually discussed on the micro-level (e.g. an employee's fear of whistleblowing on her boss), but not so much on the macro-level.

<comment><USER9> Like people saying bad things about the government in CN and then able to ride a train in said country?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I can't put a finger on it but something feels sort of dishonest about this article to me.

He seems to be applying the concept of fear in an inconsistent manner that ends up just reducing down to "things are happening I don't like" and then noting that people experienced the normal human emotion of fear relating to that list.

Like is manufacturers being worried about about being undercut by a competitor for a big contract a wave of terror? As unpleasant as I could imagine that is for the small supplier, that's a pretty healthy way for that transaction to work.

It just seems like fear is another way of saying, not everyone gets what they want and this article is simply a list of things this guy doesn't like. It's not even a bad list it just doesn't really say much of anything.

<comment><USER11> The author's point is about fear corroding democracy by limiting public action and information.

"I am not going to let you sell your widget through Tamazon" is unfortunate and potentially crippling for the supplier, but as you've pointed out that's business.

"I am not going to let you sell your widget through Tamazon... _in the event you make disparaging remarks about Tamazon in any public forum or divulge any information about our agreements_ " is very different.

In the later case, the last mile is threatening to retaliate in the event the supplier does anything they don't like.

Which, as a supplier, you rightly wonder "What can I do to avoid getting on Tamazon's naughty list?" To which Tamazon replies with a wink and a smile, "Just be careful what you say and to who, and I'm sure it won't come to that."

Absent legal protections and methods of redress, this dynamic is likely to exist in any market where the aggregator captures a sizable customer share. The size disparity is simply too great.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, for me I personally agreed with his points when they were relating to how much power some corporate giants have to instill fear.

But then the union bit and the anecdote about bidding the contract just seemed totally off topic except for the fact that someone felt scared at some point.

I honestly don't hate the article but it ended up feeling like he was fishing for some story where someone was scared.

<comment><USER12> Same class of interaction - and it highlights the extent to which monopolies are a distortion of _political_ power and freedom of action.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Interesting article. I wish he touched on another point, which is the political monoculture in tech and media. The left has a vice grip on the discourse in these industries. Many conservatives have a justified fear of speaking publicly, worried they'll be labeled a racist/nazi and have trouble getting jobs or making sales. I'm not sure what the downstream effects of this will be, but the culture of ostracizing wrongthink is real, and a worrying trend.

<comment><USER14> How does the left has a vice grip on discourse in media? The most watched cable news network is conservative. The largest operator of local tv is conservative.

<comment><USER11> I believe parent's point might be a bit more "tech / media on the US _west coast_ is a liberal monoculture." Which seems objectively supported.

Without wading into the weeds, one casualty of these American political times is the loss of _intellectual_ conservatism as a tenable public position.

We are all made greater having our convinctions tested with honest debate, and lesser for the lack of it.

<comment><USER15> Intellectual conservativism was destroyed from the right. Incoherent anger politics turned out to be far more effective at getting the voters.

Edit: meanwhile in Oregon the conservatives have fled to break a quorum rule and are issuing press releases with armed anti-government groups. As the Maoists discovered, who needs intellectuals when you have guns and slogans?

<comment><USER16> Intellectual conservatism - at least under certain definition - is tricky to defend. When there is a choice between "progress" \- moving forward - <USER3> "stability" \- avoiding changes - staying implies perceived perfection, which doesn't seem particularly intellectual. Progress doesn't just mean "change by all means", but conservation does mean "reject change", otherwise there would be no difference to talk about.

<comment><USER17> You can be conservative in some directions and progressive in others.

<comment><USER18> In some ways conservatism can mean "let's go, but not go too fast" but recently it's been more of an ideology of regression.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> If Libra can give people an option of a stable currency and chance against bad central bank (Zimbabwe, Venezuela etc) than may be it's not that bad of a thing. It's backed by basket of currencies and over a long period will face inflationary and bad monetary issues but it will still be a leg up over many many currencies.

Author has not lived into high inflation market or lack awareness of people who suffer under these everyday. If Libra can free a multitude from this menace, we should support it indeed.

<comment><USER20> >Libra can give people an option of a stable currency and chance against bad central bank

In the future we will have strong criticisms of the US Dollar. It historically has not been stable over long periods of time. However, the US government has nearly forced every country to doing business in USD.

This is great for ease of business, but given how low interest rates are, I expect a historic inflation of USD in my lifetime.

Given its impossible to hire someone at Minimum Wage(2019), I believe we have inflation that is not being recorded with the US federal reserve. 2%/yr seems... fake.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Facebook's Libra seems to have grabbed all the attention of regulators, legislators, and pundits, which could be seen an absolutely fabulous gift to wider cryptocurrency world as now it's Facebook's problem to deal with all of them, deflecting scrutiny away from real cryptocurrencies and to this corporate reserve/ETF currency something or other.

<comment><USER22> That's not their only problem. It's very likely that Apple will forbid in-app cryptocurrencies, and force users to use Apple Pay instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Hey Matt Stoller, you should be familiar with ISO 8601.

</comment><comment><USER24> I found irony in this:

"I've heard from venture capitalists frightened to talk for fear they can't sell portfolio companies to big tech"

So you want to profit from selling out to big tech, but you're afraid of them because they've become so big and powerful - in part by buying other companies...

<comment><USER25> VCs are basically suppliers to these guys.

<comment><USER26> In this analogy, are the founders and employees the hired workforce, the raw materials, or other? Just joking not really joking. ;)

<comment><USER4> Yeah - there are three exits :

\- IPO : good luck

\- Sale on revenue and clients : boring, competitive and comparably low return for founders. Invest 10-15 years at comparatively low compensation with high risk of total failure , and huge opportunity cost.

\- Sale on IP and team : quick, high return.

Founders often build category 2 opportunites without knowing, and are removed after a short time, with no compensation and several years of their lives missing!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Article sounds self-contradictory.

"...could threaten the ability of emerging market governments to control their monetary supply, the local means of exchange, and, in some cases, their ability to impose capital controls."

Read 'emerging' as 'failed centrally planned economy'. The self-described anti-monopolist is defending an failed state monopoly.

"After many mistakes, we have learnt that we want a central bank to act to increase or decrease the monetary supply in moments of contraction or expansion."

Yet he is railing against monopolies fueled by artificially cheap credit and stock buy backs.

</comment><comment><USER28> Why is no-one making the "free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences" argument in response to small(er) businesses being afraid to criticize oligopolies?

</comment><comment><USER29> Some issues with this article:

> The sponsors are right that a liquid, stable currency would be attractive to > many in emerging markets. So attractive, in fact, that if enough people > trade out of their local currencies, they could threaten the ability of > emerging market governments to control their monetary supply, the local > means of exchange, and, in some cases, their ability to impose capital > controls.

Easy to counter. The government can declare that Libra is illegal and stop its banks from converting Libra into Fiat. Sure you could probably get around it by a P2P marketplace.

Countries that have done this are: China, Russia, Vietnam and others [0].

> Unless regulators jump in quickly, these for-profit companies will set the > standards for identity verification, at least in the short run, as well as > defining the rules and enforcement around the privacy of transactions and > what to do in case of theft."

No there are already defined and in place rules for banks to adhere too. Companies cannot just set these standards. They'll be fined until they are told by the regulators to close shop.

> "That's sort of the most dangerous consequence of this kind of concentration > is the ability to exclude rivals, put them out of business, diminish > innovation, diminish entrepreneurship, diminish choices for consumers," he > said.

This is one thing that regulators will look at with regards to Libra. There's just one wallet. Who are the competitors. In the case of banking there are many competitors. If Chase closes your account, you can move over to TD Bank. But if say Stripe closes your account because they take umbrage with you, does your wallet also get closed down? What happens also with your Libra coins? These questions must be answered in precise detail for consumer protections and this right there, consumer protections determines the progress of Libra.

I do think Libra is a good idea. But a few things must be brought up to the fore.

\- FB must open source their tech. Have other companies [or even groups of people once they are certified] run other groups of nodes. If these conglomerates of Stripe, Paypal, etc which have a history of banning people just because. Have the built-in ability that someone can move over to another provider.

\- Have FB ensure that standards are met in terms of banking regulations and fine heavily if they don't. Make them feel the pain. Have some teeth when fining them.

[0]: [https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/041515/countries...](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/041515/countries- where-bitcoin-legal-illegal.asp)

</comment><comment><USER30> It makes one wonder if the Chinese government has a point. In the modern world, perhaps it's not the government that should be feared, but the conglomerate corporations. A centralised government could have more teeth to compete with. Just an opinion...let's keep it civil

<comment><USER31> Are you suggesting the Chinese market is more competitive due to the government being big enough that companies in the market have to exist in an impartial regime? This isn't the impression I get from many other sources.

<comment><USER32> I don't agree with respect to China - but perhaps the OP is suggesting that it's like having an impartial referee.

<comment><USER33> I don't think _any_ government is impartial, but you're right. That seems like it's the idea. In theory, it's much better to have the government be the big man on campus. You really don't want to live in a place where corporations are more powerful than the government.

<comment><USER34> This relates well with the gang model of politics, where the government is merely the biggest gang. It is an interesting way of looking at political systems because it encompasses such a range of scales.

<comment><USER18> Just make the biggest gang a democracy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Man! The cyberpunk dystopia is here; it just doesn't look as cool as I wanted it to.</comment>


Ask HN: Best way to get started with Web Development? - <AUTHOR> Howdy HN,
I'm a non-programmer, and would like to learn programming and build websites. What's the best online way to get started?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> im also a non-programmer who has been learning programming and building websites. ive spent just over a year learning programming part time, and even with uber basic knowledge you can build useful stuff

i did CS50 on edx (harvard's intro CS program) which starts with programming basics (in C language) then jumps into web dev with python and javascript. you build 2 or 3 basic web apps as part of the class. after the class you have the tools to really go off and running and make some "real", though basic, web apps. it is a lot of work but a really well taught course with useful and challenging problem sets. i really enjoyed the lectures and problem sets and spent time on them that i otherwise could have spent having fun, just bc i liked them

in parallel i also did a codeacademy tutorial on html / css and built some basic static websites for friends. html / css isnt really programming but you can make and deploy basic static websites that are actually useful, and it gives you some experience hosting / deploying stuff on the web

just based on these 2 resources im working on building a moderately complex (for a beginner) web app that hopefully will be open for testing this month, am adding a vue front end to my blog as my first experiment with a modern JS framework.

the next steps for me are 1) learning about deploying and maintaining small web apps (ive just deployed static sites / JS to date) on heroku or aws or something, really dont know whats best, 2) basics of security (sql injection, xss, xsrf etc) and then ill be comfortable getting users on my app

learning about programming has been a lot of fun and led to some interesting side projects

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.udemy.com/how-to-become-a-web-developer-from- scr...](https://www.udemy.com/how-to-become-a-web-developer-from-scratch/) $15, 25h of video. I admin that was one of the first websearch results for "how to become a web developer" but the best way IMHO is to take such a course/book/tutorial and jump in.

</comment><comment><USER4> just start... it doesnt matter with what you start...

(please be sure to learn Programming and not a framework (like jquery, angular etc) most people learned a framework and are really bad programmers)

<comment><USER5> Seconding this.

If you read this introduction to programming in Racket [1] and it clicks with you, then you'll probably have a good time learning programming and subsequently, Web programming. Otherwise, you should probably just sign up for a coding bootcamp for one-on-one mentoring.

[1] [http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/part_preface.htm...](http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/part_preface.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Please include the kind of websites you want to build.

</comment><comment><USER7> The basics of web programming for websites would be HTML, CSS. Then you need Javascript to do most of the fun stuff.

[https://www.w3schools.com](https://www.w3schools.com) is also a pretty good place to begin with for all of those and a great resource to refer to for quick answers for common questions. And I agree with "mtmail" that udemy.com is a great way to learn as well.

Once you understand the basics of how html/css work you'll want add some interactivity with Javascript. For example, create a couple buttons that call a "function" to "hide/show" an element on a web page. Typically your first attempt might be an alert box with a border and the message "Hello World!".

From there you're really "off to the races" and my advice is to start making something (start simple) and learn on a "want/need to know" basis.

Google searches, [https://stackoverflow.com](https://stackoverflow.com), and w3schools.com are all great resources for finding answers about how to do stuff so don't spend a lot of time banging your head on little syntax issues or "how to do something", do a search and find the answer, implement it, learn from it, and move on.

And I also agree that, especially to begin with, you should stay away from "Frameworks" like "Angular" and "React". But you can learn a lot by looking into them and a great place to do that is [https://ToDoMVC.com](https://ToDoMVC.com).

But I do believe it's worth while looking into what you can do with jQuery. jQuery is not really a "framework", it's more a "library" of functions that make it easy to do common things you'll want to do. Lots of them can be done with plain old javascript but jQuery is still widely used and offers a lot. And it's easy to find answers to almost any question you might have about how do to stuff at Stackoverflow.

The same can be said for "Bootstrap" ([http://getbootstrap.com](http://getbootstrap.com)). With this you can easily make a "Reactive" website that looks great on desktop PCs, tablets, and phones, and it has a ton of built-in features that you're going to want to use and top notch documentation.

After you get familiar with those you'll want to look into server side programming to handle things like forms and connecting to databases. FWIW, I never used PHP and MySQL. I just didn't like the way they worked. Nowadays you have some great alternatives like CouchDB/PouchDB for database chores and javascript templates engines like "Mustache.js" ([https://github.com/janl/mustache.js/](https://github.com/janl/mustache.js/)) to format and display data.

I made a fairly simple "Todo" app using this approach that you can take a look at and hack on.

You can play with it at:

[https://cherrypc.com/todo/](https://cherrypc.com/todo/)

There's a brief overview at:

[https://cherrypc.com/todo/readme.txt](https://cherrypc.com/todo/readme.txt)

And you can grab the code at:

[https://cherrypc.com/todo.zip](https://cherrypc.com/todo.zip).

You don't need a web server to use it, just open the index.html file in your web browser.

You can also play with a free suite of business apps I've made using those tools at [https://cherrypc.com/app/](https://cherrypc.com/app/)

Finally, learn by making stuff you want to make and have fun with it!

<comment><USER8> Please don't use w3schools. Its information is unreliable at best. The closest thing out there to a user's manual for the modern web is [https://developer.mozilla.org](https://developer.mozilla.org)

It's possibly the only reference you need for browser compatible JavaScript.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, I probably should've mentioned mozilla, I go there a lot too.

I don't think w3schools is "unreliable" per se. I don't use for learning as much as a reference though and move on fast if I don't like what I find there.</comment></comment></comment>


Windows 7 Window Size/Position Keyboard Shortcuts - <AUTHOR>

Just a quickie for one of those "Oh damn! Gotta remember that" moments.
In Windows 7, you can use the WINDOWS-KEY + UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT to manipulate the position and size of the focused window.
WIN+LEFT: Snap to left half of screen + resize. WIN+RIGHT: Snap to right half of screen + resize.
WIN+UP: Maximize WIN+DOWN: Minimize
Pressing WIN+LEFT/RIGHT multiple times will cycle the window between the primary anchor side (direction of arrow) then the opposite side then back to it's original position and size.
Enjoy! <comment><USER2> Windows key + digit (1-9) restores (or brings to front) the window corresponding to the respective application in the taskbar. If there are multiple windows belonging to the application, the combination will let you cycle through them all. Very useful in combination with pinning of programs to the taskbar.

Also, Windows key + l locks the screen (this one is old though).

</comment><comment><USER3> Also, a feature that I thought was useless and stupid when I heard about it, but that I've actually come to use upon occasion: Shake a window (grab its titlebar and move your mouse quickly left and right) and all _other_ windows (some exceptions, like dialogue boxes) will minimize. Handy if you have a bunch of stuff open, getting in the way.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm hooked on snap-to window edges; I'm always doing 2 or 3 things and being able to see both at the same time in an efficient manner is huge for me.

It also makes me want to get a 30" monitor, which is sort of a double edged sort :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love Windows 7 window snapping. Bettertouchtool emulates this on the mac: <http://blog.boastr.net/>

</comment><comment><USER5> Those keyboard shortcuts are what I miss the most in my Ubuntu.

I haven't even found any way to assign keys corresponding to those actions in Ubuntu.

<comment><USER6> The closest thing I know is:

CompizConfig settings manager

Choose the "Put" plugin, under Window Management.

"Bindings" -> "Put within viewport"

and bind the window movements to the keys you want.

Never used windows 7 but I guess it does something more, perhaps resize the window horizontally/vertically ?

<comment><USER5> Much appreciated bud, worked like a charm.

Yeah Win 7 does indeed do more in less keys but I can do that with two more commands using Keyboard Shortcuts.</comment></comment></comment>


Alex's News Picks: June 30th - <AUTHOR> http://www.markpeterdavis.com/getventure/2009/06/alexs-news-picks-june-30th.html

<comment><USER2> there appears to be no content here. it's just a post with some links.

probably shouldn't submit EVERY entry from your blog.</comment>


Show HN: I made a lightweight cryptocurrency price tracker - <AUTHOR> https://coinval.co <comment><AUTHOR> Hi Hacker News,

I'm Peter, founder of coinval.

So why coinval? There are hunderds of portfolio trackers out there. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a simple one that would be fast enough, had realtime prices and worked well on all devices. All I found seem to be extremely bloated.

It's been over a year since I use coinval both on mobile phone and PC. In Chrome (Windows) I always pin a tab with coinval and check current portfolio value regularly using a mouse cursor. During volatile trading days, I usually wait for my alerts to trigger. When there are big price movements, I just leave my phone on the table and watch relatime price movements. Thanks to sounds alerts I never missed any opportunity yet.

I've been tweaking coinval for over a year. Today, I finally decided to share this lightweight app with you, guys.

Please make sure you try all features, bookmark a customised URL (e.g. [https://coinval.co/1250xlm/eur](https://coinval.co/1250xlm/eur) or [https://coinval.co/eth](https://coinval.co/eth)) and share the app with your friends if you like it.

All the feedback is appreciated!

Cheers, Peter, founder

<comment><USER2> Great job Peter !

I really appreciate the dark mode and the fact that I don't need to use an account to sign in.

Only thing that I didn't like is that I get a scientific format of the DOGE price on DOGEBTC pair. Only happens if I try to see the price of 1 DOGE, so it's not a big deal at all.

Thank you !</comment></comment>


Show HN: Trackburnr – track data in GitHub-commit-style heatmaps - <AUTHOR> http://trackburnr.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Author here - just a simple tool to record stuff / track habits in a github- commit kind of heatmap.

I wanted to go through the process of developing a deploying a decent web application - all new subjects for me.

I picked Meteor as a framework, and after going through the excellent "discover meteor" book decided to dedicate roughly a month to a project that could be considered useful to other human beings. Feedback appreciated!

<comment><USER3> I was rather expecting to find a UI library at the other end of that link, rather than a SaaS offering.

Having found the latter, I was disappointed, although given what appears to be increasingly typical practice not surprised, to discover that there's no meaningful information on offer about what the service does or how to integrate with it. It should be possible to find out whether and how I can use your service before I decide whether to sign up for it; otherwise, how am I to know whether it's worth my time to sign up for it at all?

<comment><USER4> I was expecting the same thing, and was also disappointed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I really like the UI and the idea, but I don't see myself (maybe I'm not your market) using this daily. As an exercise I love it, good job.

The other thing that pops into my mind, note that I'm a programmer, is the "Single", "2 Values", etc descriptions. The "tracker" allows me to add two states on the "Single" layout, and 3 states in the "2 Values".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Yeah, technically the single is either a value, or no data at all - <USER2> can see why it could be seen as two values.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a awesome idea. Some of the cases I am thinking is: track the days you drink or exercise or eating out and thinks like that. Or tracking the mood.

This is something I would be willing to pay to use. Provide data export as well.

Instead of saying 'track data', use the real term like 'track drinking days' or something like that.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Data export is my next step on the feature list in case the interest was high enough. Your use case example makes total sense, very good suggestion. Cheers!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> the data entry is a pain in the ass.</comment>


Semantic Overflow - <AUTHOR> http://www.semanticoverflow.com/ <comment><USER2> I don't get why there are some many _overflow.com sites. It was already hard to figure out which_ overflow.com to post to, and now it's even harder. The only "solution" is to post to them all. Or aggregate them as overflowoverflow.com as someone else suggests so you only need to read & comment on one.

<comment><USER3> whichoverflowshouldIposttooverflow.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> someone should make overflowoverflow.com for all these sites</comment>


Rogers has reached a new low - <AUTHOR> http://antoniocangiano.com/2008/07/18/rogers-has-reached-a-new-low/ <comment><USER2> Most ISPs are slimey and anti-consumer. Rogers is no exception, but I don't know if I'd go so far as to say this is a new low. This is hardly worth complaining about compared to throttling, traffic shaping and rewriting pages. All they're doing is redirecting failed DNS lookups to search pages with ads.

I'm pretty sure quite a few ISPs do this and typical users may even like it. It would be nice if you could opt out, but this is easily solved by OpenDNS or some other service. I think it's mostly power users who would object to this practice and they're more than capable of switching to different DNS servers.

This guy could have switched to OpenDNS in less time than it took to write that blog.</comment>


Why the New York Times Replaced Its Twitter 'Cyborg' With Real People This Week - <AUTHOR> http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/media-lab/social-media/133431/new-york-times-tries-human-powered-tweeting-to-see-if-users-value-the-interaction/

<comment><USER2> Good description of how the LA Times staffs its social media effort: reader engagement editor Martin Beck "has one assistant to help him monitor social media, as well as an ombudsman and a customer service staffer who pitch in. But he also has a team of 20 to 25 copy editors who take care of posting news to Twitter throughout the day and evening.

These "Twitter eds," as they're called, are a "self-selected volunteer group," Beck said. It works out It works out to at least one or two people on duty to tweet at any given time."</comment>


Paul Lauterbur, MRI inventor (6/May/1929 - 27/Mar/2007) - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8954439 <comment><AUTHOR> The Economist on the April 4th, reported that Paul Lauterbur (6/May/1929 - 27/Mar/2007) passed away. Lauterbur discovered ...

 _'... how to get spatial information about atoms (showing the difference b/w heavy water & ordinary water) in a magnetic field, was scribbled on a paper napkin over dinner in a Big Boy restaurant in Pittsburgh, between two bites of a hamburger ...'_

Hands up those who have had an MRI? It fits into this site about startups because of the nature of his creativeness. Doing things that would by todays standards label him as A) a terrorist (can't go mucking about with dangerous chemistry sets) and B) dosed up on Ritalin (because of the low boredom threshold).

 _'... as a teenager he built his own lab in the basement of his house, entranced by the strange vials in his chemistry set and by the stink of burning sulphur. ...'_

Hmm I remember doing that, burning sulphur. Had a lab under the house. My dads vice held an old bent spoon where I could mix things up and burn them. It was the first time I found a noxious gas burning sulphur, looking at the small blue flame. Taking a small breath of the stuff gave me a bit of a fright as the gas (SO2 or sulphur dioxide) literally sucked my breath away.

Reference

[0] wikipedia, 'Paul Christian Lauterbur'

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


MIT students try to change the world with cellphones - <AUTHOR> http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/10/14/mit_program_looks_at_ways_to_change_the_world_using_cellphones/

<comment><USER2> Check out the Moca website at www.mocamobile.org

Or follow us on twitter.com/mocamobile

</comment><comment><USER3> /me envious of this idea

<comment><USER2> shoot me an email then to join the email@example.com

always looking for developers and innovators.

-Chris</comment></comment>


Does GoDaddy register domains you search? - <AUTHOR> Hi,
Some time ago, I did a few tests on GoDaddy on available domain names and after some creative options, I came up with one that I liked.
I then compared the name with some other options against my targeted market and it turned out really popular. During the survey period, I checked the name a couple of times on GoDaddy to make sure it's still available. So when I today go to purchase the domain, hear hear, it is already taken. And WHOIS it if not GoDaddy owned company Domain's By Proxy?
Is this just a coincindence? <comment><USER2> This is why I always use the command line 'whois' tool to look for domain names. I don't trust the registrars.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting, I actually posted this to someone 9 days ago: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2292453>

Here was my comment:

I'm not sure who doesn't do it. I just try to go to the domain and see if there is any server side activity (error page, holding page, etc).

From Wikipedia: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting>

"By February 2007, the CEO of Go Daddy reported that of 55.1 million domain names registered, 51.5 million were canceled and refunded just before the 5 day grace period expired and only 3.6 million domain names were actually kept."

"In January 2008, Network Solutions was publicly accused of this practice when the company began reserving all domain names searched on their website for five days,[7] a practice known as domain name front running."

<comment><USER4> As I just posted elsewhere in this thread -- the "go to the domain" idea is also flawed, in that ISPs sell that information to would-be domain squatters as well.

It's perhaps slower than losing it to a registrar, but it's no safer.

<comment><USER3> What is the safe way? I genuinely am interested so I know how to proceed in the future.

I've NEVER had a domain snagged from me by going directly to the domain (even when I wound up registering it a week or two later). I've had a domain taken from me multiple times by the domain registration sites... sometimes within a few hours.

<comment><USER5> If the domain is for sale, visiting the page will bump its value.

You should just query the WHOIS database. At least, that's what I do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The process of front running or domain tasting 'should' be a thing of the past. Last year or perhaps 2009 ICANN imposed strict fees on any registrar that pulled more than 10% of their monthly registrations in the first 5 days. Obviously this only counts for ICANN TLDs and not ccTLDs.

So... When you register a domain the registrar has to pay the registry com/net/org etc immediately. The registry will return the registration fees for any domains that are canceled. However if a registrar has >10% or their total monthly registrations cancelled within the 5 day grace, they do not get that money back.

This has essentially ended these practices.

HTH

Full Disclosure: I used to work for a registry.

</comment><comment><USER7> Yes, but it doesn't stop with registrars. Certain large ISPs front run on domains that don't exist by recording domain names that don't resolve or exist, then trial register them while sending you to their 404 link bait landing page. We only go to the registrar when we want to buy, otherwise its whois in the terminal.

For interesting results, whois google.com

</comment><comment><USER8> It is a coincidence. When I registered 1every.com, it was about 4 months between when I came up with the name and when I finally registered it. I looked the domain up at least a dozen times from several different computers and the domain was still available when I went to get it. There is a very important lesson here though. Now whenever I have an idea for a domain and it turns out to be available, I register it immediately. Worst case scenario is I lock up $10 until I can find a buyer for the domain and best case is I have the domain I want when I'm ready to use it. Also, domains by proxy is the company godaddy uses for private registration. My domain is registered under them if you who.is it.

</comment><comment><USER9> If I remember correctly, Network Solutions does this as well.

Edit: Apparently there's a name for this practice. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the link!

Since a huge chunk of the identity of businesses is their homepage, coming up with a great name (or several, so you can test them) that also has an available .com-address is probably the biggest headache in branding in my opinion.

Shouldn't this be controlled better? Shouldn't it even be illegal?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> alexjawad,

There's no way for me to tell if it is truly a coincidence or not (especially without knowing the domain name), but I do want to let you know that Go Daddy absolutely does not participate in what is known as "domain front running". We have reviewed the domain name search system we have in place and are confident it is extremely secure. In other words, though there are potential explanations for what you experienced (including plain old coincidence), it is not the result of Go Daddy monitoring a domain search and registering the name before you could.

We encourage you and any other user to search for domains using our domain name search and/or WHOIS search system, and we would recommend NOT "searching" for a domain by simply typing it into your browser to see if a site resolves. In addition, you should maintain up-to-date protection on your computer to prevent malware/spyware that may infect it. And finally, we concur with others in this thread - as soon as you know you want a domain, register it immediately to avoid the possibility of someone else grabbing it first.

If you have other questions about our services, please feel free to contact GoDaddy.com Customer Support. They are available 24/7/365; contact info is here: <http://x.co/Tz4q>

As always, thank you for choosing GoDaddy.com.

Alon GoDaddy.com Social Media

</comment><comment><USER11> A test along the lines of the one conducted by Google against Bing would reveal the correct situation. Essentially 'seed' the registrar with some crazy domains that no-one would want (google did this with unique searches) and wait. This would be particularly effective against less popular domains which gain less interest to begin with.

If you see any of these zero value domains get registered you have your answer, or at least a very high confidence in your initial assumption.

</comment><comment><USER12> I think this is a coincidence. It would be quite an unethical service to let users search for possible domains and then steal them before we have a chance to register them because they identified it as being valuable.

That's not to say they don't register and own their own, but using your entries as a gauge to see if they want to register something is pretty unethical for a registrar I'd think, even for godaddy :).

</comment><comment><USER13> I think it is not a coincidence. I have experienced this a few times with other providers.

<comment><USER14> On a related note, in addition to this domain name front running, who can I turn to, if I want to purchase a domain name anonymously (so my public info isn't obvious).

<comment><USER15> Something called a 'Private Registration' is offered by most domain registrars. It'll cost you a few extra $, but you _will_ get _total_ privacy in terms of Whois.

-HTH

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This actually happened to me, and the domain name was registered within the hour I searched it up. I definitely believe this happens, which is why I will immediately purchase a domain name I like. I won't take any chances.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> In that case, it's outrageous! What provider should one use to securely search for available domain names?

<comment><USER17> I use whois from a command prompt. Most of my registrations are done through enom. I avoid GoDaddy at all costs.

<comment><USER18> Whatever WHOIS server your network resolves is not necessarily on the up and up either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I had an experience with the same. In frustration, I even mailed the guy who purchased it.

</comment><comment><USER20> I've heard of that happening, and a quick Google search pulls up many reports of it.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is insane and a not widely known fact, this question should be upvoted.

</comment><comment><USER22> Whoa!! I had the same experience and I too felt that "what if some one is registering the domain we are searching for availability?" They are doing something like patent Trolling. when I wanted to register one with ".me" all names I was looking for are blocked for auction.why the hell they have to do auction, it should be FCFS.</comment>


It's weirdly hard to steal Mark Zuckerberg's trash - <AUTHOR> https://theoutline.com/post/3994/it-is-weirdly-hard-to-steal-mark-zuckerbergs-trash?zd=2&zi=uz46xzec <comment><USER2> Punk decides to tell almost everyone that he's going to go get Zuck's trash then unsurprisingly fails to do so. Ends with a rant that privacy is now only for the very wealthy. Nothing interesting at all.

<comment><USER3> I agree in the abstract that the story is pretty predictable, but some of the details are a bit unexpected and worth learning, and you don't _really_ know that this kind of security stuff is real until you see it for yourself.

Specific things that I thought were interesting:

\- Trash on the street is legally considered abandoned and fair game for anyone to take.

\- Zuckerberg's house managed to get its entrance blurred out on Street View.

<comment><USER4> Somewhat hilariously, half of Germany is blurred on Street View. People can just request it in some countries.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a fluffy story with no content. Basically the author visited two of Zuckerberg's residences, saw some security guys but no trash, and that was that.

<comment><USER6> That's basically the Outline in general. It's a boutique blog with animated decorators, funky colors, and a budget.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This was a pretty lame journalism reach and miss in totality but somehow the thought of actually retrieving Zuck's trash made me giggle with delight.

A garbage truck is pretty inexpensive at auction (i.e. Iron Planet). The op could be pulled off for a couple grand.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is non-news. Standard opsec is good for everyone, not just billionaires with creepy stalkers.

I'm not sure what the best guide to opsec is, but this covers the basics decently: [https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data- pro...](https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data- protection/opsec-everyone-not-just-people-something-hide/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Is it normal for a billionaire to have so much security?

<comment><USER10> Well, they have the apparatus of the entire state protecting them, so the guys directly on the payroll are mostly just for show.

<comment><USER7> The arrival time of PD is going to be minutes to tens of minutes in those cities depending on the severity gleaned by dispatch, and only from the time of _notification_ not the start of an incident.

I don't think it's unreasonable for someone of his wealth and fame to have 24/7 guards. Their primary duty would be to lessen that time of notification and dispatch of PD, and casually act as a deterrent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "I reached out to a representative at Facebook to confirm how Mark Zuckerberg disposes of his garbage, but as of press time, they did not respond."

Reminds me of the question in a Q&A "Mark are you a lizard?" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x61_mGQciJE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x61_mGQciJE)

</comment><comment><USER12> Gist of the story - "IF ONLY MARK ZUCKERBERG CARED ABOUT THE PRIVACY OF THE REST OF THE WORLD AS MUCH AS HE DID HIS OWN"

</comment><comment><USER13> This article has entertainment value only.</comment>


Larry Lessig's Long Walk - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/backchannel/larry-lessigs-long-walk-b96d80d34972 <comment><USER3> I'm wondering what his take on the French system is. Basically, there is a limit on how much candidates can spend, and the State refunds the candidate (on certified expense report) if a certain score is reached during the vote. Getting money from a corporation is an offense, spending too much is an offense, cooking the books is an offense, getting undeclared money is an offense.

<comment><USER4> Money is normally, needed by challengers - incumbents have a lot of advantageous including notoriety. If anything the US should make laws to enhance the challengers, not solidify incumbents.

<comment><USER5> just by the way, you get your funding refunded at about 5% of the vote, so it's not like the challengers have little access to the funding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I remember when I first heard about Lessig and his efforts regarding Copyleft at the university of technology here in Vienna, that was almost a decade ago - glad to read that he's still advancing even further, trying to change things for the better. A brilliant man and important role-model not only for people in computer science or law.

</comment><comment><USER4> Larry Lessig's approach is fundamentally misguided: 1\. It increases complexity and discourages participation in the election system - <USER2> finance regulations are anti-free speech.

2\. It treats the symptom, not the problem. The symptom is that people will spend a lot to get people important to them into office. The problem is that the government controls so much money and so many things, that it is in your best interest to try influence it so that 1. the money comes to you and 2. the laws and regulations favor you.

3\. The centralization of power at the Federal level exacerbates this problem, since there is one main body that you are trying to influence instead of lots of smaller ones.

<comment><USER7> 1\. Is money really speech? If so then there's a lot of laws that need to be overturned. Not to mention you can't hold 'free speech' up as a sword to swat away anything that affects speech (libel? slander? copyright violations?). The idea of a constitutionally protected right to free speech is to stop the government from silencing debate. But limiting people from handing money to members of congress isn't stopping your ability to voice your opinion at all, it's just limiting your ability to influence your member of congress by donating more money than the next guy. If anything it increases freedom of speech - it allows all people to voice their views in a marketplace of ideas where the amount of money in their bank accounts is irrelevant, and they are assessed on the merits of their arguments alone. The current situation allows every person to speak, but one person to hold a megaphone.

2\. The problem you've identified is the fact that there is a government, or that powerful people exist. There will always be powerful people, and hopefully there will always be government, and it will always be in your interests to influence those powerful people so that they can help you out. So in any system where there is a government, there needs to be a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that representatives act in the interests of the public (which is the idea behind representative democracy) rather than the interests of their private funders.

3\. Yes, of course it does, but again, that is just a symptom of checks and balances failing. In a system where there is a perfect representative democracy and a strong constitution, the people will never vote for a federal government larger than it needs to be. In the system we have now, the federal government swells in size no matter which party is in government (just depends whether it is the public service, or the military that grows). Private interests fuel this effect and governments wave their hands to make it look like cuts are being made, but they're not.

Lessig has nailed the arguments around why campaign finance reform is necessary - whether he's going to be successful is in question but I think most legal experts can see that the system is broken, with money being the core of the problem.

<comment><USER4> 1\. Can Oprah, or any famous person, support/campaign for a candidate? How is her cashing on her celebrity any different than a person funding an advertisement? And the current laws to a large extent support the idea money=speech. Lessig's group couldn't even follow the campaign laws that already exist ([http://www.campaignfreedom.org/2014/11/20/fec-complaint- mayd...](http://www.campaignfreedom.org/2014/11/20/fec-complaint-mayday-pac- violated-campaign-finance-laws/))

2\. The problem I've identified is that the federal government has grown too large and does too many things. This is the problem, powerful people will be powerful and have an influence on society - through fame, money, etc.

3\. Reducing the scope of the government could easily be accomplished if the commerce clause was read in a different way. If granting new power to the federal government required constitutional amendments then it would be better -- prohibition required an amendment, why don't modern drug laws? Additionally, returning the selection of senators to the state government instead of a popular vote would also be be an improvement.

I don't think he has nailed the arguments, I think he fundamentally simplifies and distorts the case. Money is a symptom, the problem is the size/scope/breadth of action.

<comment><USER8> > This is the problem, powerful people will be powerful and have an influence > on society - through fame, money, etc.

Absolutely, but that's exactly why the government needs to be large and do lots of things. Take minimum wage for example. Assume that tomorrow the government revoked the power to control wages. What happens next?

Fast food chains and big box stores would push their wages as low as the market will bear. Some employees will quit, but a lot will stay because working 80 hours a week and living in abject poverty is still better than literally starving. There's still a minimum wage, it's just now being set by corporate entities that don't (and shouldn't) have any motivations beyond their own company's self interest.

Or maybe the employees unionize. They get organized and set terms for as high a wage as they can extract from the employers. The employee's quality of life goes up, but the business owners now have no recourse but to pay the demanded wages or close. And the new employment contracts start including clauses about mandatory union membership (including dues). Again, a minimum wage is being set by someone, just not someone who has (or should have) any interest in the larger economic repercussions.

The power exists, and it's going to be wielded by somebody somewhere. The government, at least, is ostensibly motivated by the best interests of the populace at large. That interest is, of course, frustrated as often as its honored in the real world. Still, I don't see how taking power from an institution that only intermittently pursues my best interests and handing it to an institution that never does is in any way an improvement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is anyone planning to walk?

<comment><USER10> Seriously considering buying a ticket to NH right now for the walk</comment></comment>


Waze Attacked: Students Create Traffic Jam Cyber Attack On GPS App - <AUTHOR> http://nocamels.com/2014/03/technion-students-carry-out-successful-traffic-jam-cyber-attack-on-waze/

<comment><USER2> im curious -- what is the waze market share in Israel? does everyone use it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally, You can actually see other wazers with you in the traffic jam. And globally: "According to Yahoo! there were nearly 50 million Waze users as of June 2013"</comment></comment>


JinjaSQL – Templating Language to Generate SQL Statements - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/hashedin/jinjasql <comment><AUTHOR> While ORMs solve 80% of the needs, you still need the power and flexibility of SQL for those 20% of the needs. Anytime you need reporting, complex joins or aggregation - SQL is a natural choice.

But generating dynamic SQL by hand is error prone and has lot of repetition, especially when your query grows big.

JinjaSQL gives you the flexibility of a template language (Jinja), without having to manually track your bind parameters. It's not a replacement for an ORM, but is meant for those 10-20% use cases that require the power of SQL.</comment>


PayPal site outage - <AUTHOR> https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/10/paypal-site-outage/ <comment><USER2> Here:

[https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/10/paypal-site-is-back- up...](https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/10/paypal-site-is-back-up/)

They declare it was back up after 1:17, whereas "customers" are still complaining after four and a half hours.

Good old PayPal.</comment>


2012 Baccalaureate Service: "The updraft of inexplicable luck" - <AUTHOR> http://www.harvard.edu/president/2012-baccalaureate-service-updraft-inexplicable-luck <comment><USER2> 'According to recent evidence, however, believing in luck makes you luckier'

Does anyone know what evidence he's referring to?

<comment><USER3> maybe <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_optimism>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Love the ending haha:

"Dont forget to call me, maybe."</comment>


Year old racist toothpaste is finally getting a rebrand - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jjpryor/the-racist-bestselling-toothpaste-finally-gets-a-rebrand-after-87-years-f7d2268bd6e9 <comment><USER2> How will it be called in Chinese? They can change the name in English while keeping the original name in Chinese.

Not sure what the point of stopping the sale of whitening creams in Asia is, though.

And as a non-American can someone explain the issue with the Aunt Jemima brand?

<comment><USER3> _And as a non-American can someone explain the issue with the Aunt Jemima brand?_

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima#Controversy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima#Controversy)

(For more information on the origins of the character, you can scroll up the page to the start of the "Character" section or just click this: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima#Character](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Jemima#Character) )</comment></comment>


Hey Paydirt: Your Site Works Just Fine in IE - <AUTHOR> http://blog.reybango.com/2012/05/08/hey-paydirt-your-site-works-just-fine-in-ie/

<comment><USER2> This blog post is misleading. The non-support was specifically aimed at older versions of IE.

And besides, IE has not proven the most reliable of partners, I totally get their move. You never know when your phone's gonna be red hot with IE9 customers because Microsoft decided to update some obscure DLL which breaks CSS line-height in em's or something...

</comment><comment><USER3> There are a few replies here citing that the IE non-support was for older versions, which got me thinking about these questions:

* Why is it that IE is judged based on versions that are years old, yet every other browser is judged by the latest release?

* If non-support is aimed at older versions of IE, why wasn't the author of this post able to register with a recent version of IE?

I can kind of answer the first one myself: IE is judged on old versions because users persistently refuse to upgrade IE. The causes of this are widely discussed, but the fact remains that far too many people using IE are using an _old_ version.

That's a stereotype, which makes it pretty lazy thinking to reject IE categorically. If IE works, why not allow it?

<comment><USER4> 1\. You've heard the saying, "once bitten, twice shy?" Well, that has been the operative mechanism of developing for IE since, well, pretty much since it came out in the mid-90s. People are just sick of trying.

2\. I'm guessing user-agent blocking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think that you're all wrong. The PayDirt crew was just using lack of support for IE as a manufactured controversy designed to get publicity for their startup.

They succeeded on all counts, just used one of the chapters in the ol' PR playbook. Now all they have to do in a few weeks is remove the signup block (since their code was built to be IE ready) and say hey now due to overwhelming demand we now support IE. Which will get them another blast of publicity ;<).

</comment><comment><USER6> Our clients who use IE use IE7: saying that IE9 support is IE support is misleading.</comment>


Qi II - <AUTHOR> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/3110 <comment><USER2> Demanding money for the language manual/guide is not an inefficient way to increase adoption!

<comment><USER3> As is changing to a proprietary license and calling it open source.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone used this to build a serious system? I wonder if it is an undiscovered gem.

<comment><USER5> Can you give an example of an undiscovered gem?

<comment><USER4> No idea why someone would downmod that but I have neutralized them. :) "Undiscovered" is of course a relative term. I'd cite the languages of Arthur Whitney here: they're "discovered" enough to have made a lot of money, but are unknown to the vast majority of the computing world and widely misunderstood even by those who have heard of them. Qi isn't absolutely "undiscovered" - here we are talking about it - but it's largely unknown and unused.

Tarver strikes me as a smart guy doing serious work in an intelligent way. For example, building Qi on top of CL (in such a way that you can drop in to CL whenever you want, though this point is redundant) seems like an obvious win. I don't feel a need to use something that right now, but I'm also skeptical of the "I don't feel a need to use that" feeling... perhaps we are all Blub to Qi!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> <sarcastic> sounds like fun </sarcastic>

 _Unlike Qi I, Qi II allows you to embed sequent rules within functions, evaluating them to closures. These rule closures are type checked and are permeable to having their variables lexically bound from outside the scope of the rule itself. These devices enable the student of computational logic to effortlessly code complex logical systems of all descriptions. Thus the rule

let PTerm/X (replace-by X Term P)

PTerm/X, (all X P) >> Q;

____________________

(all X P) >> Q;

allows universally quantified assumptions to be instantiated to new premises. This rule can be embedded into a Qi II function called all-left which does precisely this job. The rule is turned into a closure by the rule function which is then applied to the problem (list of sequents).

(define all-left

{term --> [sequent] --> [sequent]}

Term S -> ((rule let PTerm/X (replace-by X Term P)

PTerm/X, (all X P) >> Q;

____________________

(all X P) >> Q;) S))_

</comment><comment><USER7> I've just spent the last hour of my Sunday afternoon reading through <http://www.lambdassociates.org/MinimalManual> So far I'm impressed.

<comment><USER8> Directory Listing Denied

This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is Go taking over the startup scene? - <AUTHOR> It seems more and more startups are switching to Go. Is Java already? Are enterprise also moving to Go, or it's just startups who are consuming the hype? <comment><USER2> I doubt it. I work in enterprise in a Danish municipality, but I'm in the digitization/business part so I'm also involved in the 350ish different systems that we've bought from tiny-enterprise corporations. I say ish because we've only catalogued 180 of our systems effectively and honestly don't know how many we have or where they are. But that's another story.

I don't think I've ever met someone who was using Go outside hobby projects. The enterprise stack is 70% JAVA and 25% .NET with the remaining 5% being node.js/PHP. Apps are rapidly moving to web-apps with java script frontends, mainly angular. In the operations part, almost everything in public enterprise is moving to powershell, and things are slowly moving to either azure or aws.

Our public sector is heavily tied to Microsoft, ie powershell, and I'm not sure what Linux heavy corporate enterprise is doing in ops.

On the startup/student side things are run in many different techs. I think PHP is easily the most widespread, but we're seeing more and more of node.js and .net core.

Honestly none of the new techs seem like good bets when you've got a stack tied to something else. Sure we could adopt Go, but retraining 25 people who've worked mainly with Microsoft tech for 5-25 years seems silly when we might as well adopt .Net core, and you'll see a similar story in JAVA or PHP.

<comment><USER3> You are getting downvoged because op was talking about startups not public sector or corps.

<comment><USER2> Well, he also asked abou enterprise, but I don't mind being downvoted. If people don't find my response useful, then so be it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Something to consider: you only hear from those startups that move to Go. You don't see startups making blog posts talking about how they're staying with Java or C# or C++ or Python (you sometimes do, but posts like that are pretty rare).

<comment><USER5> Go has a sweet spot and it's infrastructure and middleware. Do you need a custom dns server? Use go and write one in an afternoon. Need a custom caching solution? Same thing. That's where I've seen go really shine. YMMV

<comment><USER6> I agree with your comment, but:

> Do you need a custom dns server? Use go and write one in an afternoon.

You forgot the part where you shout at your code for a year until it finally implements _all_ of DNS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> There is no doubt that Go is a good language and it's getting popular more than ever. But NO it's not taking over startup scene yet!

Probably nothing even close to what JS is doing in term of numbers and grow if you want to compare languages by usage. (which doesn't mean anything)

Go is just new and shiny comparing to Java, Ruby, C/C++, PHP or Python.

Nobody is going to write much about why we're building our startup with Java or PHP or C++ cos it's just boring and repetitive! Not cool!!

But hell yeah, You will write when you do Go, Elixir, Rust, or Kotlin cos people are gonna read it.

Depend on what you're going to build and your resources, you will choose your stack and one or more programming languages to start.

<comment><USER8> Perhaps people using Go, Elixir, Rust, or Kotlin to build something in a startup are expecting to make money selling the skills they gained building it rather than expecting to make money from the software they build.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> No Go is not taking over. There are startups which are moving to Go and are vocal about the improvements. Lot of people/companies are happy with their current(Java/Python/Ruby) stack.

It is very difficult to change stack in Enterprise. There is still quite a lot Cobol in Finance domain. I don't think they will be moving from their current stack anytime soon.

</comment><comment><USER10> There are some larger interesting go projects - even in us government space - although I wouldn't say that go is taking over enterprise or java/.net somehow. Go is typically used in micro service environments and enterprises often use java/spring boot for such experiments.

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't expect people to implement a complete HRM, CRM or anything complex with business logic that is not performance hungry. If you look at usage closely you would see microservices that were bottle neck are being replaced, and it totally makes sense. People are writing a high performance PubSub, queues, or HTTP services that are generic enough to be used as part of their infra. I don't see stuff like Java, C#, Ruby, or Node.js etc. getting replaced by Go as defacto. One might ask same question for Rust over Go! Just because a language is getting more buzz or less buzz doesn't mean it's taking over or dead.

</comment><comment><USER12> It is not even close to taking over. It entrenched itself in an interesting niche - and that's it.

<comment><USER13> Could you elaborate on how you would describe that niche? Cloud services?

<comment><USER14> Ex Amazon here. Most cloud automation across various large companies is written in C, sometimes C++, with plenty of glue code in higher level languages like Python.

Hyped up stuff like Docker & co are the few written in Go and often not mature and stable enough for enterprise.

<comment><USER15> > Hyped up stuff like Docker & co are the few written in Go and often not > mature and stable enough for enterprise.

Haha, you're funny!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> flavor of the month Syntactic sugar Johnny come lately

</comment><comment><USER3> Not even close. It will slowly loose the momentum with .net core and java getting better. As much as i love Go the entire world needs and wants enterprise languages. It wants 1st class support for everything and it wants it now.

Startups will adopt whatever is hyped atm and will rewrite whatever the tech they are building as soon as the next hyped thing gets ready.</comment>


Appeals court rules ACA's individual mandate unconstitutional - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/appeals-court-rules-acas-individual-mandate-unconstitutional-lower-court-to-decide-whether-rest-of-law-can-stand-without-it/2019/12/18/3443fd3e-c03c-11e9-b873-63ace636af08_story.html <comment><USER2> The individual mandate doesn't exist anymore. In 2017 Congress removed it starting in 2019.

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

<comment><AUTHOR> But this ruling means it can't be done ever again (barring a Constitutional Amendment).

<comment><USER3> Both your comment and the parent comment are incorrect. First the individual mandate was not removed. The fine for not complying with the individual mandate was reduced to $0 but the mandate was not removed. This ruling states that since the fine is now $0 it can no longer be considered a tax and therefore is unconstitutional. Based upon this ruling a reimplementation of the individual mandate with a fine above $0 attached would be constitutional.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Full title: "Appeals court rules ACA's individual mandate unconstitutional; lower court to decide whether rest of law can stand without it"</comment>


What could be reason for today's bitcoin fall?  - <AUTHOR> http://bitcoincharts.com/markets/

<comment><USER2> China banking is now clearly anti-bitcoin, and new policy tries to kill bitcoin trading:

[http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2013-12-17/01139011174.shtml#4832...](http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2013-12-17/01139011174.shtml#483253-tsina-1-18627-1cf60a7c37a7bc296a2ba7aba0120190)

<comment><AUTHOR> looks like the next few hours will be interesting

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Is it due to the Norway backlash against Bitcoin?, are there any interesting developments underway for a wider adoption of bitcoin

<comment><USER3> I could see many governments taking the same route as Norway's call. Bankers will feel threatened by any new currency until they figure out how to control it.</comment></comment>


Why taxing carried interest may not generate revenues governments hope - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6161SX20100207

<comment><USER2> One of the perpetual problems of huge tax increases on "rich people", for any definition of "rich" (and hedge fund managers certainly qualify due to one of the most comprehensively borked incentive structures on the face of the earth -- "2 and 20"), is that when you start taxing people billions of dollars for having non-crafty accountants they find the money in their sofa to hire _very_ crafty accountants. Opportunities for tax avoidance increase substantially as your business gets more complicated and your resources for researching the tax law get bigger. And when you're talking about billions, you can profitably employ more lax lawyers than the IRS has looking for all the things the five beleaguered aides on Capitol Hill missed when drafting the legislation.

<comment><USER3> Why hire the accountant? Hire a lobbyist, and you squash the problem before it gets off the ground.

That's proactive thinking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> FTA: "Carried interest is typically the 20 percent that private equity executives take from the profit made on their funds"

Isn't that, you know, income? I pay taxes on my income. How about you?</comment>


GoldenEye: Source - <AUTHOR> https://www.geshl2.com/ <comment><USER2> It would be much appreciated a version for Linux and Mac</comment>


Ask HN: How many domain names do you own? - dub-io I'm a sucker for domain names - sigh. How many domain names do you own? How often do you buy them? What is the 'best' domain name that you own? <comment><AUTHOR> My favorite domain that I own was inspired by the macklemore song "Thrift Shop" [1]: [http://SwindledAndPimped.org/](http://SwindledAndPimped.org/). Originally someone had registered the .com, but they let it expire after Macklemore's song was no longer trending, so now my .com just redirects to the .org.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes&feature=youtu.be&t=150)

The lines go, "... They be like, 'oh that gucci is hella-tight'. I'm like, yo, that's $50 for a t-shirt. Limited edition, lets do some simple addition, $50 for a t-shirt that's just some ignorant bitch shit. I call _that_ getting _swindled and pimped_ , I call _that_ getting tricked by a business..."

I think the _Swindle_ is the food industry's substitution of bleached & deodorized seed oils for humanity's evolutionarily-approriate fats & oils. (Before the 1950's, soybean oil was used to make paint.)

The _pimping_ is putting women on fake hormones to suppress their menstrual cycles. My ex-wife didn't like birth control because it took her libido away. After we had gone our separate ways, she called to complain that she was still losing 1/2 her month to PMS, and did I have any ideas? I found something for her to try, which she has found remarkably effective.

All the women I've talked to dislike the status quo for women's health. Though some do think that anything is better than getting knocked up...

I try to not buy new domains. I've let a few expire, but there are others that I keep renewing, with the intention to get to them some day.

</comment><comment><USER2> Well, I own about 600 domain names. I'm trying to get into domaining because it can give you a lot of leverage for a future startup. Most of them are single-word domain names in Spanish.

About my best domain... It's a close call between strawball.com, ip.do or leslor.com.

<comment><USER3> Is the cost justified to just keep these around? What is it costing you per year?

<comment><USER2> about a couple thousand. thing is when you buy high-quality domain names the appreciation of the asset pays for its registration cost. you can learn to buy and sell domains at namepros.com for free just by reading the forums.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Probably around 20.

My best one: Legal18s.com

I totally want to create a portal for "young professionals who want to study the intricacies of law and legal issues that we face today as a nation" just as a joke. I have no real plans for the domain.

<comment> dub-io Cool! What have you done with the other 19 domain names? Do you use them? (I think I have around 20 too...)

<comment><USER4> I usually have them for other projects I am working on - rarely do I purchase a domain just to let it sit there, but that's just me.

Not in the market to domain squat... gotta put them to use somehow.

<comment> dub-io So you're running 20 sites? Nice!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Own about 10. Using half and sitting on the other half hoping I'll have time in the future to build something. My best would be scholars.io</comment>


Ask HN: Google Search String References a Local Business? - <AUTHOR> When I search google a domain of a small local business keeps showing in my search string - see example: http://prntscr.com/u1zetd
This happens from searching in the URL bar, not google.com and must have been happening for ~1year and its a site Ive been to a infrequently, 2 or 3 times
Anyone know why this stays in the search string? <comment> Lorenz-Kraft I think this was like this from the beginning on. Browsers send the search string you have entered via a GET Request to Google (= [https://google.com?s=YOUR+SEARCH+STRING](https://google.com?s=YOUR+SEARCH+STRING)). Google then sends you the results.</comment>


Show HN: Dronecheap – Compare Drone Prices and Features - <AUTHOR> https://dronecheap.net <comment><USER2> Link to post from yesterday: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10304240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10304240)</comment>


Ask HN: Git repositories to learn how to develop microservices on k8s - <AUTHOR> I am looking for git repositories to learn how to develop microservices on k8s. Java and Go are preferred on the backend side. <comment><USER2> On the Go side take a look at go-kit

[https://github.com/go-kit/kit](https://github.com/go-kit/kit)

You can get a lot of boilerplate out of the box, and it's not hard to extend it with more sophisticated features like custom server timeouts.

The New York Times has a nice set of Go microservice frameworks with simple server boilerplate also:

[https://github.com/NYTimes/gizmo](https://github.com/NYTimes/gizmo)

</comment><comment><USER3> Just FYI, microservices only make sense in an organizational context. They're a way to deal with scaling up very large number of developers working on one giant app.

If you're a sole developer you don't need to use microservices.</comment>


Matrox reveals M9188. 8 monitors, WDDM 1.1 support coming - <AUTHOR> http://icrontic.com/news/matrox-m9188-powers-eight-displays Matrox's new hydra of a video card will support 8 simultaneous displays, supports Aero in Vista and Win7, and will support WDDM 1.1 in the first half of 2010. <comment><USER2> Since this is using mini DisplayPort connectors, it will have the same problem that the RadeonHD 5000 series have for 3-way Eyefinity setups: if your monitors don't have DisplayPort connectors, you'll need an active adapter to convert to a DVI port, and those run about $100 each.

I really doubt that the market for this card will be very big, given that ATI's Eyefinity is capable of driving 6 displays with more advanced drivers, and at a much lower cost.

<comment><USER3> I have an MBP with miniDisplayPort and an Apple DVI adapter which cost more like $45. Why might you need an 'active' adapter for this card?

<comment><USER2> The $99 adapter is necessary for dual-link DVI, which is necessary to drive a monitor that is over 1920x1200. I don't really know whether people using 8 monitors are typically using high-resolution monitors, or indeed whether the card in question can actually drive several high-resolution monitors, but the necessity of a more expensive adapter has already pissed off many gamers trying for a 3-way eyefinity setup.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Excellent! Maybe I can use this to build my very own Situation Room.

</comment><comment><USER5> Linux support?

<comment><USER6> Yes, Matrox has beta Linux drivers for x86 and x64 distros. Here's a set of release notes: ftp://ftp.matrox.com/pub/mga/archive/linux/2009/readme-1.1.1.txt

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> $1995</comment>


Report: Al Gore's CurrentTV Offered $100 Million For Digg In 2006 - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/14/report-al-gores-currenttv-offered-100-million-for-digg-in-2006/

<comment><USER2> Sooo.. that's basically a third-hand report (since Sarah presumably wasn't at the meeting). Techcrunch really sucks lately.</comment>


Personal computers: does everyone need to learn programming? (1984) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/17/science/personal-computers-does-everyone-need-to-learn-programming.html <comment><USER3> Writing software is easier in 2020 than it was when I started in 2002. Coding education is more accessible, Coding platforms are more inviting, languages are more forgiving, IDEs are more helpful, we have millions of answers on stackoverflow, and there are open-source libraries that have probably implemented whatever irks you. That being said, for the professional, I have found no substitute for the academic rigor of a good CS curriculum to shape how we think about organizing and engineering code well.

<comment><USER4> So, maybe for a professional it's easier. I feel that way about making iOS apps — better time to start than ever!

But there's almost a 'choice paralysis' today. People have so many options they don't know where to start.

Not sure anything comes close to opening up BASIC or HyperCard and just making something, and seeing the results immediately.

Agreed on the fundamentals — as a mostly self taught programmer, it took me a long time to learn and understand the power of computer science concepts.

<comment><USER3> Definitely agree there is a choice paralysis, especially among web technologies. I'm thankful that Apple iOS usually only has one way to do most common things. I think that kind of leadership is helpful when the alternative is choice paralysis. The flipside is that it constrains those who have a legitimate reason to do it differently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I originally posted this (in 2013! reposted today prompted by HN's second chance pool) because it struck me how, with very few modifications, this exact article could be republished today. I find it fascinating that we can be having the same arguments that people a half century ago were having, with little to no awareness that we're repeating the exact same things. It makes me realize that perhaps software is not as young a field as we like to sometimes pretend (it's common to read on HN that e.g. software is so young and immature compared to civil or electrical engineering, etc)

It's also interesting to dig into the author's name - apparently a half century ago he had some reputation in tech circles, but as far as I can tell he's mostly forgotten today.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/what-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/what- happens-when-your-tech-predictions-tank/480990/)

He sadly seems to have passed a couple years ago:

[https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/erik-sandberg- diment-...](https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/erik-sandberg-diment- obituary?pid=189908085)

<comment><USER5> > I find it fascinating that we can be having the same arguments that people a > half century ago were having, with little to no awareness that we're > repeating the exact same things. It makes me realize that perhaps software > is not as young a field as we like to sometimes pretend (it's common to read > on HN that e.g. software is so young and immature compared to civil or > electrical engineering, etc)

True, a lot of these arguments have been beaten to death but times do change though. Every now and then some fundamental assumption on which arguments are underpinned changes. Often times these changes come from other industries. It's worth re-assessing the basics from time to time.

<comment><USER6> On the one hand, it's easy to dismiss any new proposal with the argument that "we've heard this 20 times before and it's never worked" and you'll usually be right.

But public clouds, for example, aren't _really_ like histrical timesharing. Because the underlying tech, capabilities, and demand are so different that things really are different this time.

<comment><USER7> One of the big differences between now and then is network capacity. Once we've gone past basic text and into 3D, Photo, Video, Timesharing could not work effectively over the internet at the time, the bandwidth wasn't there yet. The only way to continue was to bring the hardware home. Now that we have the network capacity to handle almost anything, we're seeing things go back..

<comment><USER8> I am not sure why networking and could computing is in this thread. This is certainly the last thing you want to try or use (except for Internet access and all its learning resources) when learning to program. And it won't let you become as familiar with common _computers logic_ as programming, say, a Tetris.

<comment><USER6> It depends on what your objective is and what you're trying to accomplish.

For a lot of people trying to just accomplish some specific goal, learning to program in C (as per the article) is probably not the best approach unless they're into OS kernels or embedded programming. Instead, they might well be better off stitching together some cloud services of various types. Not everyone has as an objective passing a leetcode whiteboarding interview at some ad tech company.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I like the bit at the end about studying the classics in Latin and Greek. It helps me see that "language" is not quite the right word for programming systems, and that this wrong word choice has led to writers falsely thinking that learning to program is like learning a second language.

But a language is tied to its execution context and semantics. This leads to either dividing up languages into "natlangs" and "conlangs" depending on usage patterns and style, or to studying programming solely from the systems perspective and ignoring linguistics altogether.

I wonder how things would have been different had we, as a community, rejected this terminology and stance. What if, even further, we had rejected the idea that computing can be made "simple" or "intuitive" or "mainstream", and instead forced folks to learn programming to APIs in order to even use computers.

<comment><USER10> This is the "I like tinkering with cars therefore everyone should be a mechanic" argument.

There's no justification for it. Maybe 20% of the population - at best - <USER2> even capable of that kind of programming. [1] Most people simply don't do symbolic abstraction at that level, and forcing them to try would create resentment, not literacy.

And "conlangs" are indeed different to "natlangs." There's definitely a case to be made for teaching everyone at least one extra language. But the kind of abstract thinking required for conlangs is adequately covered by basic STEM.

There might be a case for some very basic experience with programming in schools. But expecting the entire population to be able to do it at a professional level makes no more sense than expecting the entire population to have the same skills as qualified doctors, lawyers, architects, or pilots.

[1] There are fewer than 30 million developers _globally_ , out of a population of nearly 8 billion.

<comment><USER11> _This is the "I like tinkering with cars therefore everyone should be a mechanic" argument._

Everyone shouldn't feel intimidated by trying to change their headlights though. You don't need to program at a professional level or have professional tools to "program" an excel spreadsheet to handle your monthly budget or to write a shell script that searches your photos folder for new files to copy to a back up drive periodically.

If one wants to pay for convenience, OK, but I do think there's real value in equipping the average person with more than some very basic experience with programming.

<comment><USER9> Yes, and to expand upon the magic word you used: Excel claimed 30mil users in the mid-1990s [0] and various estimates I've read put the current usage at somewhere between 500-600mil users. I think Excel is the most popular domain- specific programming language on the planet.

[0] [https://news.microsoft.com/1996/05/20/more- than-30-million-u...](https://news.microsoft.com/1996/05/20/more- than-30-million-users-make-microsoft-excel-the-worlds-most-popular- spreadsheet-program/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Eloi don't need to learn programming: "[by] the time you became truly proficient at programming, chances are that whatever you set out to write would be available in some form from a software publisher."

Morlocks might want to learn programming, not because it's useful for eating Eloi, but because they're the sort of people for whom "purchasing an automobile for a cross-country trip [and] first [studying] cartography, then [proceeding] to obtain aerial and satellite photographs of the proposed route, and finally [drawing] a detailed map for the whole journey" sounds like a brilliant yak shave.

(Sandberg-Diment has left out the parts where obtaining the satellite photographs involves SDR hacking into downlink telemetry and drawing the detailed map first requires implementing a geometric-algebra based direct-to- framebuffer renderer)

</comment><comment><USER13> That was fascinating!

My mother purchased my first computer (an Apple ][e from the local Macy's) in 1983. We didn't have much money to purchase software. I didn't even understand there was a software industry, let alone where I might purchase it.

But that computer came furnished with some basic software that allowed one to write BASIC and, also, to use a mouse with a paint program (yes, before Macintosh debuted).

While his main point that not everyone need, nor should, learn to program computers, what Sandberg-Diment misses is the sheer size of the burgeoning home computer market and how the personal computer would revolutionize and fundamentally alter the world.

Reading "Personal computers: does everyone need to learn programming?" is slightly shocking for me me because having lived in that world, the difference between what Sandberg-Diment casually suggests and its real-world manifestation could have never been forecast.

Two examples:

> First, it allows you to develop software that is not available commercially, > and in some cases it lets you customize purchased software to serve your > specific needs better.

The ability to modify software "to serve your specific needs better" is a general gesture to client-side scripting, software consulting, and even FOSS. Linux did not exist in 1984 (Torvalds was 15 years old and his magnum opus was still 6 years away). Empires can (and did) fit in the gap between Sandberg- Diment's practical observation and the real-world consequences of software customizability.

Second:

> But does this mean that whoever wants to use a computer must also write the > software for it? Would someone purchasing an automobile for a cross-country > trip first study cartography, then proceed to obtain aerial and satellite > photographs of the proposed route, and finally draw a detailed map for the > whole journey? Hardly. It is far easier to go to the A.A.A. and get standard > maps or that organization's special trip sheets.

How could anyone have known that a scant 30 years later (2010s) that people could have a pocket-sized computer which (for the most part) would obviate the use of paper maps for navigating to unknown destinations? That entire industries supporting the production of paper maps would be dramatically scaled back because of a globally-connected infrastructure involving microprocessor manufacturing, interface design, wireless communication, and (literal) rocket science would be publicly available to nearly all comers?

Sandberg-Diment's practical answer to "does everyone need to learn programming?" is comforting, persuasive, and correct. But the impractical answer--everyone _should consider_ learning programming-- would be to catch a glimpse of the future and the massive transformations that widely available computing would bring inside a generation.</comment>