MyBrandNewLogo – A 3-step Logo Generator - <AUTHOR> https://mybrandnewlogo.com <comment><USER2> I don't get the hate this one's getting. I don't think Apple or Google are going to use a site like this for getting their logos made but there are millions of other blogs, social media handles who don't mind a decent looking logo or an idea they can customise further. I think this is an excellent effort and I can already see myself using it.

<comment><USER3> Agreed!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [Selfplug]

If you want to see how similar your logo is compared to stock icons from the noun project database or logos of the top million websites, you can try these services that I built as part of my research into shape similarity.

[http://compute.vision/nouns/index.html](http://compute.vision/nouns/index.html)

[http://compute.vision/brands/index.html](http://compute.vision/brands/index.html)

These aren't the latest iterations of the algorithm but they fare pretty well most of the times.

Here are the results for the logo of Mybrandnewlogo:

[http://compute.vision/nouns/index.html?barnacles=https://s3....](http://compute.vision/nouns/index.html?barnacles=https://s3.us- west-2.amazonaws.com/logoloads/OK5G9NBJCOYSDVQV)

[http://compute.vision/brands/logo- results.html?uhash=HTH0LBU...](http://compute.vision/brands/logo- results.html?uhash=HTH0LBUJJ4BEYYI7)

Edit: Formatting

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't really see any difference between this and the others such as Logojoy. What I don't like about these services is that some tout AI generated logos etc etc when really they just take some input and generate the same logos over and over. There is no real AI going on.

<comment><USER6> Back in the mid-00s there was a logo sweatshop called Arteis (later bought by HP) where people of widely disparate creative backgrounds pumped out logos for businesses, some as many as a few dozen a day. They, too, all looked pretty much cut from a template, because thinking requires time and the pay was about 1/10th you'd pay an equivalent Graphic Designer to do it over their lunch hour. It's just generating pretty cookie-cutter stuff whether by hand or by machine.

You definitely get what you pay for, either way.

<comment><USER7> Sounds like what 99designs.com does

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Before I clicked the link, I expecting this to be pretty useless, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'm sure lots of thought went into logos like Electron's or Angular, but at the end of the day, there just needs to be a catchy symbol people can visualize when they think of your project.

That said, I probably wouldn't use these logos for an app or anything that needs a strong brand, but they're perfect for little Github projects. They're kinda generic, which is what I expected, but there was more variation in the generated logos than I expected there to be. Even if the designs are pretty generic, I can see this being pretty useful for non-designers who wanna write a library that has a semblance of an attractive README.

</comment><comment><USER9> These logos are as good as those I've seen produced by "professional" graphic designers.

That isn't the ringing endorsement one might imagine it to be.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is about as valuable as a "3-Step Code Generator" that asks you for a few words that describe what your code should do, then takes a random code snippet and inserts your words as variable names. A small business may not be able to afford a programmer, but still have a use for decent code. Or, you could use it as inspiration for a programmer you hire later!

</comment><comment><USER11> That made some logos Im very interested in (and we happen to be looking for a new logo). Just wondering if the icons are internally created or from another collection?

Edit: Looks like they're not unique icons, damn.

Edit 2: Since they're using nounproject, I hope they're properly licensing the works and not just assuming they're creative commons so it's free. I'm not seeing any credits given on their site or anything about the logo including the royalty free license.

<comment><USER12> They have a paid API [1]. So I believe they're paid users and paid users don't have to attribute.

[1]: [https://thenounproject.com/developers/](https://thenounproject.com/developers/)

<comment><USER11> Their api guides say you can't resell so that's why I'm confused I guess.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I was hoping [https://mybrandnewlogo.com/how-it- works](https://mybrandnewlogo.com/how-it-works) was a little more in depth of how it actually works but I suppose if they gave away their secret they wouldn't make any money :)

I'm guessing they have a stock library of vector art somewhere. I'd love to know what library / libraries they have used.

Edit / added:

On a different topic. I routinely by logos from Fiverr for about slightly more than these (typically $80 - $100) and generally speaking the one's from fiver weren't using any stock art.

<comment><USER14> The way that a lot of these logo generators work is actually using Noun Project[0], which keeps very good tags for vector icons.

[0] [https://thenounproject.com/](https://thenounproject.com/)

<comment><USER15> That's an incredible resource. Thanks so much for posting. I'm wondering how the licenses apply if I modify an icon, or merge two together. Happy to attribute both authors but would that even be allowed?

Edit: it is.

> Yes, you can modify and build upon the symbol as long as you follow proper > attribution requirements. You can use the icon for free as long as you > attribute, or pay via a NounPro subscription

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is really cool, some great logo redesign inspiration.

A couple of thoughts: 1) If you make the logo designs page shareable (step 2, [https://mybrandnewlogo.com/logo-designs](https://mybrandnewlogo.com/logo- designs)), I would love to get feedback from a few people. If you don't want to store things persistently, even storing the input params (name, color, slogan, etc) in the URL would be great. 2) I love that the name can be read as _my "brand new" logo_, or as _my brand_ , _new logo_.

<comment><USER17> 1\. If you register and save your logo, you'll get a page that you can share, for example: [https://mybrandnewlogo.com/share/2P1qwAO85EtvRNgvkQGn](https://mybrandnewlogo.com/share/2P1qwAO85EtvRNgvkQGn)

You can share a couple of your logo pages on social, and gather feedback from your friends.

2\. That's the idea, glad you like it :)

<comment><USER16> Cool, thanks! That's a good enough value prop for me to register :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Step 1: Load a bunch free font families

Step 2: Load a bunch of icons with alt names.

Step 3: Randomize 1 and 2 as well as position and colors.

I wish good design was algorithmically that simple, but is not. These are good logos for maybe a placeholder or testing something out, but they will never have the quality of a real well thought design.

<comment><USER19> Was thinking much the same; we have a product[1] in the same space, but a much larger inventory, all created by hand. Not sure the "AI" space for design is quite good enough for this price point.

[1] [https://www.brandcrowd.com/maker](https://www.brandcrowd.com/maker)

<comment><USER5> I actually really like your service! However the pricing isn't obvious on the site.

<comment><USER19> Thanks! The core team working on this is super smart. I'll pass your feedback on pricing to our product manager.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This worked better than I expected.

For a quick project this is better than going to fiverr.

I made an ACME logo using mountain as a tag and got a nice mixture of logos with various mountains.

So obviously a nice royalty free(I hope) collection of vector art is indicated with proper tags.

EDIT: Pricing does seem a bit crazy for what is an auto-generated logo. (In Theory it shouldn't matter who made the logo but psychologically one feels more comfortable paying a live human being $50 instead of a bot).

</comment><comment><USER4> Quite impressed with the way this handled some edge cases I tried out. (Four word company name with the third word having 20 characters, twenty word string etc.) I'm sure a lot of thought went into algorithmizing how to best represent a string of unbroken text in a given space and make it look good at the same time.

Edit: Grammar

<comment><USER17> Thanks. There's lots of math going on to make sure the visual parts are positioned nicely. Not everything always works perfectly, but I think for most cases it's working well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I typed in "cocoon" and it gave me typewriters as my logos...Nice website, but deliverable, not great.

Silver-lining: There will "always" be work for designers who take their time to understand the depth behind a logo/company and create something unique.

</comment><comment><USER22> Really well done. I especially like that there's a "pricing" tab, although I missed that at first.

From the tab:

 _One low-resolution logo file as inspiration for your designer._

Some commenters didn't like the service b/c the results look too "generic." I see this as a different kind of service that fills a very particular need: people rarely know what they want in a logo if that's not their area of focus.

Being able to flip through some possibilities and make simple changes on the fly makes it a lot easier to figure out what you want.

</comment><comment><USER23> Mine came out pretty good. I'm impressed. [https://i.imgur.com/gogGNws.png](https://i.imgur.com/gogGNws.png)

</comment><comment><USER17> Author here. Happy to answer any questions.

<comment><USER24> Off-topic: Thank you for creating monokai!

<comment><USER17> Hah, glad you enjoy it! Never thought that something I created 13 years ago would still be so widely in use :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I used 99designs a few years back to get my company's logo. It was cheap, fast and good. You get to choose from several designs submitted by real designers and work with them to fine tune it. I am still very happy with the results.

This service has pretty generic results, IMO.

<comment><USER26> 99designs = 50% clip art + 50% blatant rips of existing logos + the StackOverflow logo.

That is, be sure to check you didn't end up with a stolen logo.

<comment><USER27> Should be like 99percentchanceofbeingstolen as those sites basically encourage logo theft. There's no other way to make money at those rates.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Ja not bad... I will give the usual props for getting a side project out and launched (That really is the hard part for me at least". It is a bit broken on mobile (at least for me - borked spacing). *Side rant: But I really want a decent-website-redesign service(just concept no css or anything).

My current site([https://www.fibretiger.co.za](https://www.fibretiger.co.za)) looks like a Christmas tree that took psychedelics.. :/ I've always been put off by the high cost of the "design-competitions" like 99Designs cause I could just see them recycling bootstrap themes with better colours:/

</comment><comment><USER29> This is, remarkably, not terrible. As others have pointed out, no unicorn is going to use something like this but, as someone who has been hired to design several logos for small projects, this would get the job done for many people.

</comment><comment><USER30> So the output pretty much looks like your average .io domain website then.

</comment><comment><USER31> Perhaps our view of the affordability of logo design is coloured by those $250,000 rebranding exercises we hear about from large corporations.

In the UK, a freelance designer's hourly is, in my experience, around £50. If you have an idea of what you want, a good designer would be able to give you some options and a full logo pack in a day's work.

Sure, that's unaffordable in a lot of circumstances but, if you're designing a logo for a business, it's not gonna be one of your largest expenses.

</comment><comment><USER32> It actually works pretty nicely. I put some more uncommon keywords such as 'enlightement' and it generated a happy face with an eye in the forehead. I'm impressed.

</comment><comment><USER33> Are there any of these logo design apps that are actually free? (e.g. to get the SVG file?)

I just need a quick placeholder logo for a blog so I don't want to spend $$

<comment><AUTHOR> You can try [https://logomakr.com/](https://logomakr.com/) \- they have an upsell, but you can get the basic version of the logo for free.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Careful, if the page refreshes then you'll lose all your options!

I did like quite a few of them too, even without giving a slogan or any keywords.

<comment><USER17> Maybe it's good to have an extra confirmation popup after 5 times clicking "make more logos" when the page refreshes, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> _shameless plug_

You can also try some custom shapes and patterns with [https://gridgenerator.com](https://gridgenerator.com) :)

Here are some examples: [https://www.instagram.com/gridgenerator/](https://www.instagram.com/gridgenerator/)

<comment><USER36> SSL Cert date error

<comment><USER35> Thankx! fixed :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> My trials yielded tons of company name + some variation of a star combination ... not very creative. The three descriptive words seemed to have little impact on the results whereas a quality designer would leverage the descriptive words to anchor ideas/concepts.

</comment><comment><USER38> I think I found a bug. If you put an emoji in the slogan the generated logos all come up empty!

<comment><USER17> The final logos are created with vector shapes from the font files. There are no fonts that include emojis, so that's why the system couldn't create any logo for you. I should display a better message explaining this, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Seems very nice, but it also appears like they have few stock images per keyword/topic and they would be overused after a relatively short time. Am I not getting something? Are they supposed to take out an image once the logo is sold?

<comment><USER40> Similiar to Vistaprint. I can tell who used them when they give me their business card.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> That's surprisingly good

</comment><comment><USER42> Awesome UX and the results were surprisingly great. Really love this tool.

</comment><comment><USER43> I do like that the front page examples are all of logos that remain recognizable when you render them in just 2 color black and white.

Too many logos out there are aren't really "logos".

<comment><USER17> When you purchase a logo package, you'll actually get multiple color variants: full color, black and white, white on transparent, black on transparent, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> So how does trademark work with a logo that is essentially made entirely out of CC artwork? Wouldn't another company be able to legally "steal" your logo in theory?

</comment><comment><USER45> Looks great especially for generating logo ideas

</comment><comment><USER46> After you get your logo done you might find you have an ongoing need for a bunch of day-to-day, maintenance graphic design. If that sounds like you then check out Design Butler™ --> [https://designbutler.co](https://designbutler.co). We provide Unlimited Graphic Design (flat rate, all-inclusive) - web, print, social, infographics, presentations and more.

</comment><comment><USER47> Register returns "something went wrong" (in a 200 response code :) ). Great site BTW!

</comment><comment><USER48> Input fields on register form cannot be selected on iOS (native browser and Firefox)

</comment><comment><USER49> Generated a logo that I could have actually used, and is contextual. Pretty good!

</comment><comment><USER50> Some nice alternatives:

* Logojoy * LogoPony * Logomaster.ai * brandmark.io

ref: [https://www.saashub.com/my-brand-new-logo- alternatives](https://www.saashub.com/my-brand-new-logo-alternatives)

</comment><comment><USER51> What, no kerning?

<comment><USER27> Proper keming is an extra 50€

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Someone could trivially put all sites like this out of business by creating a chrome extension that just extracts the SVGs it shows you from the page and downloads them.

</comment><comment><USER53> This is very well done, both in the results I got from using it and the UI experience while using it.

</comment><comment><USER54> Interesting, I like it.

</comment><comment><USER55> The most amusing thing about this website is that they obviously had an actual designer do some work on it at some point, yet it implies that designers can be easily automated out of the process.

All of the "logos" this thing generates are completely thoughtless: it simply searches the Noun project based on your inputs for a vector image, then sets it next to a random typeface. Anyone with a modicum of design experience can tell you that these "logos" that it generates are a complete joke. If you're honestly considering using one of these yourself, just head to the noun project and search for an icon to plop down next to your favorite typeface—you'll probably come up with a better result.

<comment><USER17> I don't believe that designers can be automated out of the process.

I made this service because after years of co-running a design agency, I saw an increase in the need for logos, but a decrease in the willingness to pay for it. For bigger companies, it's no problem to hire a design agency to do their branding process. And yes, you can do more thoughtful and tailored design. We still do this at our design agency.

On the other hand, there are lots of people who simple don't have the budget for a logo design process, don't have illustrator / photoshop skills, and just really want something nice for a good price. I tried my best to create an online, automated solution that's specifically made for these people, the freelancers, the side-hustlers, the startups.

<comment><USER56> Don't let the negativity get to you. Obviously no kind of automated logo service is going to displace high quality custom design work, but this service is great for small projects that just want a presentable logo today so they can focus on other things. Most of YouTube runs on affordable royalty-free music in the background too.</comment></comment></comment>


Senate Passes Amended Crowdfunding Bill, Emulating Kickstarter Model - <AUTHOR> http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/senate-passes-amended-crowdfunding-bill-emulating-kickstarter-model.php <comment><USER2> I went to a presentation about this Tuesday.

What became apparent is not just that crowdfunding will open up all sorts of revenue to startups, but that it will also create opportunities for new services dedicated to the crowdfunded startup industry.

Just as now we have startups whose market is startups and their needs, so too crowdfunded companies will need specific guidance and services in terms of how to structure offers, issue press releases and other information packets to deal with hundreds or thousands of small investors, respond to questions from these investors, and perform other duties different from those that are needed by startups who fund from far fewer and more sophisticated investors.

I think if I knew a few financial lawyer friends and had some capital, it might be a good place to be.

<comment><USER3> This is what ProFounder wanted to be. Sadly they were ahead of their time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I believe crowdfunding may become a very powerful trend for startups (even though criticism such as this in the SJ Mercury News is valid [http://www.mercurynews.com/chris- obrien/ci_20217467/obrien-i...](http://www.mercurynews.com/chris- obrien/ci_20217467/obrien-ipo-reform-spells-disaster-investors)).

That's the reason why there will be a panel dedicated to discussing crowdfunding at the upcoming startup conference in mountain view (<http://thestartupconference.com/>).

<comment><USER5> Actually, there is very little criticism in the mercurynews article you cited about the crowdfunding. Most of the criticism is focused on other portions of the bill.

Literally, all content from the article about crowdfunding is: "The crowd funding proposal has some merit. Companies could seek to raise up to $2 million through individual donations up to $10,000 each or 10 percent of a person's income..<snip>.. But in its current form, even the crowd funding piece is problematic because it provides little oversight of the process by letting just about anyone into the fundraising game."

I can understand why it is 'instinctively' bad to not have any oversight into the funding process, but how is letting just about anyone into the game bad? It could even have positive impacts to startups like mine who don't have valley/VC contacts but know individuals who could spare 10k.

Given that the costs of starting up have plummeted, it makes sense to allow crowdfunding while removing the auditing/legal requirements because crowdfunders would be taking lesser risk than investors of yore. Practically a certified investor (1m+) has the capability to invest in 100 startups before (s)he can invest in 1!

<comment><USER2> "but how is letting just about anyone into the game bad?"

Some params are good, some params are bad.

It's not that letting anyone into the game is bad per se, it's that some params are bad and will try to defraud small unsophisticated investors and it is probably easy to do so.

Congress and the SEC presumably would like to gain the advantages of crowdsourcing but also want to protect the small time $10, $50, $100, $1000, $10,000 investor.

<comment><USER5> not disagreeing with anything you said. I am merely pointing out that the parent posted a link that wasn't adding anything worthwhile into the crowdfunding part of the story

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can someone explain to me does "crowd funding" a startup mean I give $400 and get a piece of equity? And isnt that what I do on the stock market? Except in this case it lacks the financial oversight and disclosures of a pilublic company?

What's to prevent "pump and dumping" of startups?

I'm not being facetious. I've been wondering this for a few days now and feel im missing something obvious.

<comment><USER7> I'm right there with you.

I mean KickStarter is akin to donation. There is no expectation of getting your money back plus a return.

This seems ... I don't know ... kind of bush league. Who would do this? A team might have, I don't know, thousands of potential 'investors' who they would have to keep happy. What about follow on rounds? So many people are lawsuit happy now a days as well. Just seems... I MUST be missing something.

<comment><USER8> Kickstarter, properly done, is actually _not_ an investment but a product purchase. You are promised a "reward" priced for how much you donated; this is a tangible product in exchange for your money.

<comment><USER9> Except that is specifically against the kickstarter terms of service. There is no legal obligation to the seller to give you anything, whether or not it was promised as a reward. The Kickstarter FAQ tries to paste over this by talking about reputation but legally, it's simply not there. Legally speaking, a kickstarter contribution is a donation with no consideration included.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great. The idea is to reduce transparency and let mom and pop play the game. A missed opportunity to promote transparency.

For most of these little companies no advantage is lost by reporting cash flow, transactions and other relevant metrics. All easy to calculate. The new services around these little companies should be accounting support. Instead all we are going to get is "social proof" followed by an info blackout.

</comment><comment><USER11> So it's not that something previously illegal was legalized, nor that something previously burdensome become less burdensome. Instead more bureaucratic overhead was added, barriers to entry were raised, and all that with a nice helping of nanny-ism in the form of meagre limits to how much one shall be permitted to invest.

Perhaps this will help "create jobs", but not for those who want to participate in any aspect of providing capital, borrowing capital, or facilitating such an exchange. The only jobs created will be for those who have the skills to navigate bureaucracy in order to lessen the increased deadweight loss this bill will create.

Edit: apparently _something_ was illegal, but the article failed to mention it. Still not sure what that _something_ is.

<comment><USER12> Kickstarter is not crowdfunding, it's pre-orders and donations. No equity changes hands.

The new thing here is that soon it will be legal to do just what Kickstarter is doing today but also add the option for supporters to purchase equity in a venture. Think: micro-IPOs. So instead of just pre-ordering the Double Fine game or getting a sweet poster or lunch with the team you could also maybe invest in, say, 2% of a company set up for the project which might net you a fincancial return if they make a profit.

That sort of thing will now soon be legal. It's still limited due to the weight of excess regulation but it's a step in the right direction.

<comment><USER11> "The new thing here is that soon it will be legal..."

The article fails to make any mention of what precisely is currently _illegal_. I'm still not clear on that. What crime would I be committing today that will soon not be a crime?

<comment><USER13> Basically it's currently illegal for someone who's not a millionaire (an "accredited investor") to invest in startups.

<comment><USER14> It is illegal for the startup to take investments from non-accrdited investors under many circumstances. It's not illegal for the investor per se.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> So, who is working on a 'kickstarter for startups' company?</comment>


Constitutional Amendment Petition - Corporations are not people. - <AUTHOR> http://www.wolf-pac.com/petition

<comment><USER2> Which rights exactly are you wanting to take away from corporations?

The provision of making corporations people gives them the rights to not be subjected to searches without warrants, to not be spied on by the NSA, to not be punished for speech, to own private land. Are you really in favor of taking these away?

By the way, this would not only effect the big evil corporations that you despise but the mom-and-pop shops that you love and all non-profit organizations, PACs, charities, churches, etc.

Is their corruption in corporations? Yes. Does that mean we should take away their rights? No. Just as lots of people say really dumb things that we don't like, we don't take away everyone's freedom of speech.

This would have much bigger consequences than most people realize.

<comment><USER3> I agree that this amendment would be bad, it does generate needed discussion.

What I don't like about the current state of corporation rights right now is that they can't be punished if run by halfway competent people. Case in point: patent trolls use shell companies to carry out their shenanigans while it's convenient and vaporize them the moment they're no longer convenient. Real people can't do that, if they do something wrong they can't just disappear and reappear later as a different person.

Edit: I'm not saying that patent trolls are always legally wrong (perhaps morally), they are just good examples of how vapor corporations work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The problem is...they _are_ people because they are composed of people. The logic you use to defend the idea that groups of people shouldn't be able to participate in the electoral process extends just as easily to unions, non- profit political organizations like MADD, and even political parties. The fact that they exist for making money is irrelevant, unless you would like to argue that making money is not a legitimate human interest.

<comment><USER5> What rights should be given just because people work in a corporation? Flawed argument. Personhood is quite important in our Republic. Only living and breathing humans that are American citizens should be allowed to take part in our politics. Giving corporations a seat at the table is just reinforcing a class-based system like you have in Britain but without hereditary titles. Wealth is power in a market based society. The other is influence and military might. Corporatons have two inhierently because there first use was to concentrate capital (wealth) and limit liability.

<comment><USER4> No rights should be given _nor taken away_ by virtue of organizing in any way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Because people have freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, but FSM forbid they speak _while_ assembled!

</comment><comment><USER5> Corporations should be economic engines only. People can and should be forced to organize independently of a corporation. That preserves the balance in a democracy. I would also add that liability protection for the officers should be recinded. These two changes would have a profoundly postive effect on society.

LJ Miehe

</comment><comment><USER7> E-gads. Is this what HN has come to? Regurgitated political tripe of the week?

Flagged.

Kudos to the other commenters who are trying to un-fuck this. I just don't have the time or patience for it.</comment>


Java HashMap.HashCode() Not Unique With String Keys And Values - <AUTHOR> http://www.codercowboy.com/2018/10/17/java-hashmap-hashcode-not-unique-with-string-keys-and-values/ <comment><USER2> The HashMap docs say: "This class makes no guarantees as to the order of the map; in particular, it does not guarantee that the order will remain constant over time." This utility function depends on the order of the entries, so it can return different hashes even when the keys and values in the map are the same.

[https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/HashMap....](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/util/HashMap.html)</comment>


The Petabyte Age: Because More Isn't Just More — More Is Different - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_intro <comment><USER2> 'the scientific method is obsolete' ?? data can provide correlations and if you are just trying to match 2 things together to error<x difference then yeah, grab enough data and you can do it. that hardly makes the scientific method obsolete - a good piece of science indicates things that you don't know e.g. dirac's anti-electron, einstein's gravity waves. generally if you can't derive a correlation from first principles i don't think you can claim to 'understand' it (warning - metaphysics ahead). i'm also thinking correlations allow interpolation, theoretical basis allows extrapolation.</comment>


Safest Countries in the World for Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2020/06/05/the-100-safest-countries-in-the-world-for-covid-19/ <comment><USER2> Looking at the original report it doesn't give much detail. I'm perplexed to see Iceland ranked at #22, for instance they are #24 in quarantine efficiency, strange since they have traced every infection and 57% of those that tested positive did so while in isolation (which they were put in after being traced from an infected person).

Quarantine Efficiency is rated on:

-Scale of Quarantine: Iceland has put 6% of the population in isolation based on testing and tracing

-Quarantine Timeline: Started at first positive test, plan ready since end of January

-Criminal Penalties for Violating Quarantine: Heavy, never needed to impose

-Economic Support for Quarantined Citizens: Considerable for the whole population (not just quarantined) though some have been left out

-Economic Supply Chain Freezing: None

-Travel Restrictions: Same as EU</comment>


Corabbit - new file sharing and collaboration service (currently in beta) - <AUTHOR> https://corabbit.com

<comment><AUTHOR> DB for teams yes, you could say that. the service isn't even a month old yet but we're hoping to continuously improve and by this spring have something that could compete with DB or GDrive or whoever else is out there.

</comment><comment><USER2> KDDIs take on Dropbox?</comment>


Ask NickB: How did you get 19 thousands Karma Points? - <AUTHOR>

How did you get 19,000 Karma Points? <comment><USER2> Principally by making lots of interesting submissions. From <http://searchyc.com/user/nickb> :

941 comments, 2.97 points per comment

3514 submissions, 6.00 points per submission

<comment><AUTHOR> But how do you make 3514 submissions + 941 comments. That is as if you spend 8 hours a day on YC.

<comment><USER3> I think he automated a script to do interesting submissions and amazing comments ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I might be violating the first rule of Fight Club or something, but nickb is more than one person.

</comment><comment><USER5> He's Nicolas Bourbaki. Didn't you know?</comment>


That Old Master? It's at the Pawnshop - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/arts/design/24artloans.html <comment><USER2> >"It's very discreet," said Ian Peck, a co-owner of Art Capital.

I'm not sure how "very discreet" and NY Times go together.</comment>


Show HN: Clean Code JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ryanmcdermott/clean-code-javascript <comment><USER2> I'm a big fan of Robert C. Martin's Clean Code principles.

There should be some kind of ESLint preset that enforces these principles where possible?

</comment><comment><USER3> very impressive examples, which i can review my js code based on this list, thanks</comment>


Show HN: we open sourced our startup's help desk as django-knowledge. - <AUTHOR>

We had a lot of reasons we wanted to build our own help desk, the least of which (and easiest to mention) is that a three seat license to the top tier desk systems are well over $100/mo. Plus they were slowing us down quite a bit.
Right now its only dependency is Django, it supports email alert for updates, has bundled style, a permission like public/private/internal status, optional anonymous questions/responses, categories, searching, and a few more I've missed.
What I'd like to do is: extend tests, class based views, parse incoming emails as questions & response (this is important for help desks), better mod tools and internationalization.
Anyways, see the GitHub repo: https://github.com/zapier/django-knowledge, the docs: http://django-knowledge.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html or check out a live demo at Zapier: https://zapier.com/support/
We've also registered django-knowledge.org. If anyone has thoughts on a good, cheap lightweight host, let me know. <comment><AUTHOR> Some clickables. GitHub repo: <https://github.com/zapier/django-knowledge>, the docs: <http://django-knowledge.readthedocs.org/en/latest/index.html> or check out a live demo at Zapier: <https://zapier.com/support/>

</comment><comment><USER2> looks pretty nice, will test it out as soon as I need a new one.

Your premise begs the question though: how much time of how many people was spent developing this? what was the opportunity cost of working on this rather than your stuartup core product? if you divide that amount by $100 how many months of the top tier desk systems could you have bought? :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a valid question which is why I was kind of hesitant to mention the price... I knew someone would mention this. That said, we definitely talked it over and there were a lot of reasons for keeping it internal. Call it an investment.

1\. Mainly, our service has all kinds of crazy nooks and crannies for errors, and being able to tie straight into the underlying model and storage layer between questions, users and errors will be vital. We currently spend hours everyday trying to find out which this or that created the error because we're using Desk.com (formerly Assistly.com).

2\. We have a few strategies around marketing. Anyone familiar with patio11 will understand. This is a bit of a gamble.

3\. We'd like to create something awesome in the eyes of developers. They're gonna be a key piece in our plans going forward. It makes sense to help them where we can.

There are more, but they are smaller reasons, like the $100's of dollars a month for a similar service. Plus, its fun to OS stuff. ;-)

<comment><USER2> fair enough, thanks for clarifying. In fact you did write " the least of which" and I was curious to know the main ones.

ALl the best

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> A few comments over at my x-post on Reddit's Python subreddit: [http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/q13gs/show_rpython_w...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/q13gs/show_rpython_we_open_sourced_our_startups_help/)</comment>


Ad blocking with Raspberry Pi and Pi-hole - <AUTHOR> https://cri.dev/posts/2020-05-03-Ad-blocking-with-Raspberry-Pi-and-Pi-hole/ <comment><USER2> I actually have been doing some work with MaraDNS to have the ability to have a pi-hole sized blacklist. The main source of pi-hole's blacklist is this Git repo:

[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts)

That is about 60,000 hosts, so I added MaraDNS support to have up to 500,000 blacklisted names. Since it's a speed-optimized (not size-optimized) cache, each element takes about a kilobyte of memory, so a blacklist this size takes about 60 megabytes of memory for MaraDNS to store (on a modern Core i7 7600U processor, it only takes about two seconds to load all 60,000 elements in to memory), but it's very rapid to use.

The script to take that blacklist and convert it in to a MaraDNS compatible format is here:

[https://github.com/samboy/MaraDNS/blob/master/deadwood- githu...](https://github.com/samboy/MaraDNS/blob/master/deadwood- github/tools/make.blacklist.sh)

There are ways to make the memory footprint of the blacklist smaller, but this was a quick and simple way to implement a medium sized blacklist. Finding ways to have, say, 10 million blacklist elements with a small memory footprint is left as an exercise for the reader.

My current project is to make a proper Docker container for MaraDNS.

<comment><USER3> Will you test the efficiency of the block list.

For example, given a block list of 60,000 how many hosts on the list did your computer actually try to access. Have you ever read through one of those massive blocklists.

I use a whitelist rather than a blocklist. Similar to a firewall, I block everything by default. Then carefully choose what I allow.

This way I can see exactly what hosts I actually need to access. Makes it easy to see attempts to access ad servers, trackers, phone home, etc.

<comment><USER2> MaraDNS (OK, Deadwood) can handle white lists too:

        upstream_servers = {}
        upstream_servers["."] = "192.168.253.253" # Never answers
        upstream_servers["good-domain.example.com."] = "22.214.171.124"
        upstream_servers["whitelist-entry.foo."] = "220.127.116.11"
        # And so on

The downside is that the code currently only supports 20,000 elements added this way.

<comment><USER3> I am a djbdns user. I also use nsd and unbound. I do not use "upstream" third party DNS, such as 22.214.171.124. Surprised to hear that anyone still uses MaraDNS.

What I am curious about are these massive blocklists. Does anyone actually read through them. Does it make sense to block 60,000 hosts when only, say 100 or even 1000, ever stand a chance of being accessed by a user's computer -- due to the user's particular usage habits.

<comment><USER4> Well, why not? 60.000 isn't a huge amount for a modern computer. If they're known to contain ads/trackers you want to block, then why not include them?

It might make sense though to do a periodic run through them to see if they still exist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Pi-hole has been excellent. I was able to discover that my Samsung TV was reporting minute by minute updates on what I was watching to a local Australian company.

Unplugged it faster than I could swear.

<comment><USER6> Ever thought about just buying a TV that has no network connectivity capability at all i.e. "dumb" TVs?

Though rare to find a 4k/OLED TV that's "dumb", I managed to grab one.

If I do want certain smart features e.g. chromecast I can always just buy it individually for like $30.

<comment><USER7> I just don't configure wifi on the TV. I can't use the smart features but I don't need to, I have other devices for that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For my home desktop browser, I just use uBlock Origin to block ads.

But for my phone, I set up a PiHole running on an EC2 instance and VPN into it from my phone. Blocks ads in everything, not just my web browser. The VPN is configured to only tunnel DNS lookups, not traffic, so the EC2 bandwidth bill is minimal.

<comment><USER9> Interesting that DNS look ups go to the Pi-hole in EC2, but the subsequent web requests come from the phone. This effectively nullifies the performance benefit of CDNs. Your phone is where ever it is, but your browser is being instructed to connect to edge servers that are geographically close to the AWS region where Pi-hole instance is running.

That said, the massive performance gains of blocking ads and intrusive 3PC probably more than makes up for it, but something to consider.

<comment><USER8> Never actually thought of that, to be honest.

But for the most part, I imagine it won't make much of a difference. I live within 300 miles of the data center containing my EC2 instance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The move of applications such as Firefox to start using DNS-over-https to hardcoded DNS servers will render such user-modified DNS services useless.

Firefox can have this feature disabled, but more malicious applications will simply not give you the choice.

<comment><USER11> It's a tragic move. The DHCP/DNS ecosystem made managing devices dead simple. OTOH I suppose we were foolish to ever think our devices were playing nice. Is there a fix to DNS-over-HTTPS as a network operator? Can you MITM your "own" proprietary devices? What dragons live there?

<comment><USER12> I know this is a crazy idea, but maybe we should stop buying locked-down IOT devices?

<comment><USER11> Sure, I don't really have any right now. In the long run I think that will be impossible. When my TV dies I have to make a lot of compromises to get a dumb display with(out) all the other neat features.

Also, moving DNS to the application instead of the OS just makes managing my well behaved applications harder. It used to be possible to set this automatically through DHCP, now I have to audit every application and make sure it is using my preferred DNS and also manually configure those applications.

DNS-over-HTTPS in Firefox doesn't really benefit me. DNS-over-HTTPS with a DHCP configured server in my OS would be a beneficial _option_.

Really I would prefer something like DNS over TLS because that solves everything. DNS keeps working, intermediate parties can't read my DNS requests and I can reason about my network traffic, at least on devices I trust.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is anyone successfully using PiHole with non-technical users?

My main concern with putting PiHole on my home network is that for example my mother in law might not understand that she can't get to some web page because it's being ad-blocked, nor would she be able to go to the web admin page and temporarily unblock it.

Even as a technical person sometimes it takes a while to figure out that a page isn't working because of adblock or pi-hole.

How do people deal with this?

<comment><USER13> I've set it up for most of my close family and friends, added a physical button to the top of the Raspberry Pi case that disables it for x minutes (x changes depending who they are and their needs), so if they're having issues they go press the button to access the problematic website.

I keep reading about people having to disable the Pi-Hole so much that it becomes annoying, or constantly butting heads with websites that don't work with Pi-Holes, but I can honestly say that I, and the people I've set them up for, BARELY EVER need to use the Disable button. Not for online banking, not for online shopping, not for any regular content consumed. I can't personally think of the last time I needed to disable the Pi-Hole for anything at all. It just sits there blocking ads invisibly, plugged into the back of my modem/router, and is one of my absolute favourite parts of my tech stack.

What websites are people visiting that the Pi-Hole doesn't work with? I'm genuinely curious, because I've been running mine for a couple years now and can't think of anything off the top of my head, and no one in my family group have ever complained about it, with most telling me it's been flawless and they barely every touch the button.

<comment><USER14> > What websites are people visiting that the Pi-Hole doesn't work with?

Usually sites where the dev has based functionality on a JS module loaded from an advertise/tracker site, and that is being blocked, resulting in missing functionality.

Two prominent examples that I've personally had to deal with: CVS, and Taco Bell's iOS app.

Edit: Oh, and google's inserted redirects in shopping results lists are blocked by default.

<comment><USER15> Airline metasearch engines like Skyscanner & Kayak use all kinds of advertisement and tracking trickery.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Pi-Hole is a great project, and it's not limited to running on a Raspberry Pi either. I've got it running as a (x86-64 Ubuntu) VM in the same hypervisor that hosts my firewall. It's lightweight, super responsive, and provides great statistics on what it is doing.

</comment><comment><USER17> > Use it for ad-blocking in your home network and to finally browse the web, > watch videos etc. without annoying ads.

It doesn't really do this as well as a browser adblocker, YouTube ads for example can't effectively be blocked with pihole

<comment><USER18> it's not really fair to compare it to an in-browser adblocker that way, especially since using them isn't mutually exclusive. PiHole blocks ads whether you are in a browser or not, an instant benefit for everybody on your WiFi network.

<comment><USER19> In fact, one of the best things about Pi-hole network wide blocking is the removal of those 5 to 10 second otherwise unskippable ads in apps.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I find it amazing how often ad blocking is discussed here, and start to wonder how many peeps hanging out here on the other hand depend indirectly on ad revenue to pay bills? There are obviously the big corps Facebook and Google, but also my own small employer, which is in theory in a different biz, runs ads on the web shop as an additional income source (which I find not very clever, increases page load times and is simply not our core biz). Do we all pay our bills with money made from the pour souls who did not get around to install an ad blocker or advanced setups like a pi hole? I'm on the pro ad blocking camp personally, also worked in the past in a biz that was 100% ad financed for a short period of time. Also there the whole tech department was using ad blockers.

<comment><USER21> As always, it's not the ads most of us object to- it's the trackers. Google's original idea for monetizing the web, that you would be interested in something related to what you were searching for, apparently failed and now everybody's trying to follow you around to see what you might be interested in purchasing.

It needs to stop.

I know it's a lame solution but I use ff and containers and have a "shopping" container for sites that I don't block trackers on. I also have various other containers for other sites I don't mind knowing about each other. But mostly I block them.

<comment><USER22> >it's not the ads most of us object to

I would love to see real data on this! Most of my peers don't want to be marketed to, at least when it comes to internet advertising. Definitely when it comes to traditional advertising (ie billboards are an eyesore, TV ads are offensive or irrelevant or just plain annoying).

<comment><USER21> Depending on how old you are, it used to be the norm in magazines and newspapers. You have an educational product so you buy an ad on the educational feature, for example.

I understand that advertisers pay for the sites I use and I would turn off the ad-blocker if I was promised I wasn't being tracked. But we have no control over those decisions so we do what we can.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This is a great repo. Step by step easy configuration of a pihole on a gcp compute instance with openvpn. I had pihole running on my phone blocking ads in the NYTs app!

[https://github.com/rajannpatel/Pi-Hole-PiVPN-on-Google- Compu...](https://github.com/rajannpatel/Pi-Hole-PiVPN-on-Google-Compute- Engine-Free-Tier-with-Full-Tunnel-and-Split-Tunnel-OpenVPN-Configs)

</comment><comment><USER24> The combination of pihole and raspberry pi has impressed me. I just checked and the last reboot of my pi was 180 days ago, and since then things have just worked.

It's in stark contrast with my server, which admittedly has more demanding tasks. For $35 it's the most trustable computer I bought, I now have a lot of respect for the Pi foundation.

<comment><USER11> Is uptime really desirable in this situation? How do you get security updates for a device that lives near the edge of your network?

<comment><USER24> You're right that's a fair question. My comment was trying to highlight the robustness of the system more than uptime being a good metric for quality. By that I mean that I didn't _have_ to reboot to keep the system healthy enough to stay alive. That's unfortunately not the case of some other hardware I deal with.

For my Pi I regularly update without a reboot, but that might not be enough for kernel updates. I will look more into it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I use pi-hole, and it's great, but for browsers you still need something like uBlock Origin installed to properly block ads. The thing I like about pi-hole is it also blocks a long list of trackers that are bundled by various mobile SDKs. There's no way to block those with iOS or Android, except at the network level.

<comment><USER26> I've been using Pi-Hole for quite a while now too. I also have several in- browser ad blockers. In browser, I'm running Ghostery, uBlock Origin, and Privacy Badger, DuckDuck Go's privacy essentials, and whatever Firefox's does when you turn on all of the privacy respecting stuff. Honestly, I don't really know what does what any more. I recently turned off pi-hole and started to browse the web using Internet Explorer, just to see. _Holy Cow_... I'd forgotten what the incredible-edible internet was really like.

<comment><USER11> This is great and I'm glad it is working for you. I think you are about 6 months ahead of me as I now have two Firefox privacy addons and I'm shopping for hardware to build a firewall box.

As I read your comment all I could visualize was an IE6 browser with 8 toolbars. The network stack of the future.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Funny, I did the exact same thing 1 week ago

[https://oschvr.com/posts/blocking-ads-with- pihole/](https://oschvr.com/posts/blocking-ads-with-pihole/)

<comment><AUTHOR> interesting! nice site

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Another alternative is AdGuard Home. They've come a long way since they announced it. I switched to AdGuard Home some 6 months ago and it has been great.

<comment><USER13> I switched a section of my network over to it a few weeks ago, and I've been having constant random internet issues since, and when I swap back to the Pi- Hole the problems go away.

Is there some trickery to getting AdGuard to run stable? I have it running as an Add-On to Home Assitant, so I'm not sure if that's causing the issues, but I get lots of failed DNS queries, slowdowns, etc when going through AdGuard.

<comment><USER28> Not that I know of. I'm running on a pi3b and never had issues. I suggest raising a GitHub issue, they're usually pretty quick to respond and quick to fix bugs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I'm looking for a way to combine the adblocking with a VPN switcher that takes eg NordVPN and routes all my home traffic through a variety of tunnels (they provide a load of openVPN files). Is there a ready-made way to do this? The idea is for anyone in the house to be protected by both the adblock and the VPN.

<comment><USER30> I'm not aware of an "out of the box" solution, but maybe paying for NordVPN or similar will do this for you.

VPNs typically tunnel your packets thru an encrypted connection to a gateway somewhere else on the internet.

Ad blockers point your DNS to a resolver that blacklists ad domains. You can use a VPN and still set your DNS to whatever you'd like. What works best for you will depend on your threat model (or just privacy concern, as that other term sounds loaded).

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Thanks for the article to remember me of the existence of this project. I decided to do a setup in my home network using an old Raspberry Pi 1 that I had. Mainly because the router of my ISP screwed up really hard in its DHCP server, so I decided to disable it and use Pi-hole's one instead.

I tried to make this setup as robust as possible, using OverlayFS [1] so root is read-only unless I remount it (to change configuration or upgrades) and with a watchdog so it can auto-reboot in case my Raspberry Pi is unresponsive. Pretty happy with this setup and it my internet seems more responsible than ever.

[1]: [https://yagrebu.net/unix/rpi- overlay.md/wiki/Setting_up_over...](https://yagrebu.net/unix/rpi- overlay.md/wiki/Setting_up_overlayFS_on_Raspberry_Pi)

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome!

</comment></comment><comment> jacques-noris I'm surprised, that no one here has mentioned Eblocker yet. It works a bit like Pi-hole, but is much easier to install and use. Eblocker used to be a commercial product (with its own hardware), but since this didn't work out the company open-sourced it a few months ago. It's free now, has a good interface and great performance and the former developers are still working on it. You can install it on a raspberry, but also on other SBCs. I'm in no way affiliated with them, just a happy user. [https://eblocker.org/en/](https://eblocker.org/en/)

</comment><comment><USER32> I wish it were more effective in removing Youtube ads on my kids' iPads, but I understand it's a tall order. At least it gets rid of ads in most other apps.

<comment><USER33> I pay google the $10/mo. for no ads on youtubeso the kids don't get exposed.

The extra benefits are \- play video with the screen off to listen to lectures \- youtube music \- specifically good for letting the toddler hear the wiggles without having to watch a wiggles video on youtube

I also pay hulu for no ads. I'm happy for the opportunity to pay directly for entertainment instead of with my eyeballs. No way to opt out of tracking, though, hence the pihole.

<comment><USER34> > specifically good for letting the toddler hear the wiggles without having to > watch a wiggles video on youtube

I like how you phrased this as a solved engineering problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Does anyone have any good suggestions for blacklists? I've only been using the default and am wondering if I should add some more items to the list.

<comment><USER36> This is the only one I use:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/oisd_blocklist/comments/dwxgld/dblo...](https://www.reddit.com/r/oisd_blocklist/comments/dwxgld/dbloisdnl_internets_1_domain_blocklist/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I set this up a couple of months ago and have been really happy with the results. Ad blockers on our iPhones/iPads are fine, but not always completely effective. I can't install one on my corporate laptop so there's no way around ads there. Using Pi-Hole was a perfect fit. I've only had to whitelist a single site that had problems with it.

</comment><comment><USER38> I currently use a 3-layered solution: browser blockers -> custom host file on each machine (StevenBlack hosts for linux and windows, nebulo for android) -> nextdns

I'm actually satisfied, but I'm trying to setup pi-hole+unbound on a cloudatcost host I own to reduce the load on nextdns, so far without success.

<comment><USER39> Pi-hole is just a script wrapper around dnsmasq. On a host or server you might as well just do it straightforwardly:

[https://sfxpt.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/the-best-ad- blocking-...](https://sfxpt.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/the-best-ad-blocking- method/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> For OpenBSD users there is unbound-adblock[0]. It's a small shell script that uses only in-base utilities and can be run with minimal privileges.

[0] [https://www.geoghegan.ca/unbound- adblock.html](https://www.geoghegan.ca/unbound-adblock.html)

<comment><USER41> Similarly, there is also void-zone-tools[1] for FreeBSD.

[1]: [https://github.com/cyclaero/void-zones- tools](https://github.com/cyclaero/void-zones-tools)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> There are dockerised versions as well if you happen to have a docker stack somewhere in your home

<comment><AUTHOR> i like the pi-hole installer a lot, since it's a damn one-liner. i was amazed by its simplicity

<comment><USER42> Yeah definitely easier to deploy on a raspberry than docker but means an extra device

<comment><AUTHOR> True

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I already have a home server so I run the pihole container with Podman. Pretty slick. It started as a quick project and then permanently tied up my raspberry pi because the adblocking was so awesome I didn't want to shut it down.

</comment><comment><USER44> I actually use NextDNS now, it's been on HN before and got good comments.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22854209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22854209)

<comment><USER45> Very nice resolver: I've pi-hole at home, but NextDNS as DNS resolver on mobile and as alternative DNS provider on home router. The setup works well, the only real thing the browser's adblocker is still needed is YouTube ads ;) Sure will pay for NextDNS when they will be out of beta.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> I've tested pihole for months now, it's working really well.

Set up a VPN to an EC2 with pihole on it, no more ads on Spotify. Even family members wanted the VPN config, they really appreciate it.

</comment><comment><USER47>
      curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash

Sigh

<comment><AUTHOR> [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pi-hole/pi- hole/master/aut...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pi-hole/pi- hole/master/automated%20install/basic-install.sh)

<comment><USER47> Are you implying everybody is supposed to AUDIT a 2700 line bash script??

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Please do note that Android appears to be quite weird in regards to accepting network set DNS.

My observations so far have been that Android tends to ignore any DNS set by either the network via DHCP or statically set. Android instead probes the gateway for 184.108.40.206, and happily uses that instead.

The only way I have been able to solve this has been to setup a VPN (I prefer wireguard) on the pihole. Android seems to accept this.

The above in combination with say a DDNS hostname means that I now have a permanent adblocked VPN on my android phone which isn't too bad.

<comment><USER49> If you have a decent router, then you can just forcibly redirect any DNS requests from 184.108.40.206 to your PiHole.

<comment> kube-system I have had good luck simply blocking any outbound port 53 traffic that doesn't come from pihole.

Although with DoH these days, I'm not confident my firewall rule is still doing a good job :(

<comment><USER11> If someone was rude enough to bypass DHCP's suggested DNS is it reasonable to assume they were polite enough to use the standard port?

At this point every device on my network is hostile, default deny outbound is starting to feel like the reasonable starting point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> some note for those want to use pihole

\- in windows, if you use primary dns as pihole and secondary dns as another cloud option (cloudflare, google), some ads will go through. secondary dns is not failover dns. try it and you will see.

<comment><USER51> I don't think this is just Windows. I read the pihole documentation and came to the conclusion that primary/secondary DNS was more "a dns server" and "another dns server".

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> I mean this is a great project and all but don't most moderns routers already have this built into them and are able to add VPNs.

<comment><USER53> I haven't tried it, but I'd imagine the Pi performs a lot better. I wonder if anyone has benchmarked it against some common routers for this use case.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Sushi recognition with machine learning - <AUTHOR> http://sushi.victorleungtw.com/ <comment><USER2> I put hotdog picture, It was identified as Sake :)

<comment><USER3> I tried the same thing and got "Unagi (ウナギ / Freshwater eel / 海鰻)". I think he needs guard against adversarial in his model.</comment></comment>


Credit Card debt will tear us apart - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@essharmav/credit-card-debt-will-tear-us-apart-8d820aefe0bd <comment><USER2> I've been called multiple times by my bank and asked if I wanted their credit card. I always declined.

Last call I answered a bit more colorfully: "I already don't want to spend money I have, why would I want to spend money I don't have?"

They stopped calling.</comment>


28 mod_rails / Passenger Resources To Help You Deploy Rails Applications Faster - <AUTHOR> http://www.rubyinside.com/28_mod_rails_and_passenger_resources-899.html <comment><USER2> Yes, e.g. DreamHost shared hosting in his services and it works quite well.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Anyone using it?</comment>


Ask HN: Solid MIME parser library in C or C++? - <AUTHOR>

I'm looking for a solid MIME (email) parser for a C or C++ projects. Can anyone recommend a library that is not too intrusive and that is well maintained? <comment><USER2> Look into Evolution and Thunderbird; both are written in C and are being maintained.</comment>


Introducing Gruen Tenders - a simple way to induce an unbiased prognosis - <AUTHOR> http://kaggle.com/blog/2010/08/01/introducing-gruen-tenders-a-simple-way-to-induce-an-unbiased-prognosis/

<comment><AUTHOR> I wonder if there's a business model in this?</comment>


When a dev dies, their apps should live on - <AUTHOR> http://www.stuff.tv/features/when-dev-dies-their-apps-should-live <comment><USER2> There are huge issues with current tech and death. Basically. If you die:

1) Your family (might) need your bank info, passwords, insurance policy information, asset lists. They are all doing this, while, their favorite tech guy... is dead.

2) Where are your docs? Kids want these. Journals (evernote), writings (dropbox), stories (jira), just anything. Old iphone photos, strange 3.5 disks, etc. As time goes these are deleted, lost or most of the time: never known about.

3) What about all the things you _don 't_ want found? Old contracts, xgirlfriend notes, company transcripts, etc. Welp, I hope you remembered to encrypt your disks, well, that would mess up 1) & 2). Whatever.

<comment><USER3> Encrypting your disks will only keep people from reading them for a century or two. Technology from the future will be able to break today's encryption in a heartbeat, whether it's simple Moore's Law, quantum computing, cryptographic loopholes in today's algorithms, or something else entirely. So if historians from the future care about you, nothing you leave behind will be truly safe.

If you really want to mess with people from the future, do what Beale did, make up a bunch of bogus stuff, and throw it in with all your encrypted documents.

<comment><USER4> > Technology from the future will be able to break today's encryption in a > heartbeat

I don't believe that's necessarily true. IIRC, certain algorithms would require computations involving every particle in the universe, operating for billions of years, to brute-force, provided that they are not actually broken. _Will_ every current algorithm eventually be broken? Probably—but if not, they should be good.

<comment><USER5> Many of our current encryption algorithms can be broken by sufficiently powerful quantum computers [1]. We're still a while off from usable quantum computers, but they are coming, eventually.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post- quantum_cryptography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-quantum_cryptography)

<comment><USER6> Symmetric key encryption is resistant to quantum computing, you just need to double the key size

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > people often say similar things when it comes to art and literature, and > even film and music. But those mediums have the kind of longevity that just > isn't afforded to modern digital apps.

This line stood out to me the most. Along with payment issues, one of the larger issues is bitrot. What if Windows phones gets a 99% market share next year? That's 99% of users who will never be able to play Hogarth's game because it was never ported. Even if we put aside proactive adaption, there's also an issue of the code stagnating in relation to its environment. Entire architectures might change such as Apple's move from PowerPC to Intel, or requirements might get tighter like sandboxing in the app store or the recent SPI mechanism that protects system files. Sure you might have emulators but that mostly relegates the software for later generations with more powerful hardware; to be played with nostalgia rather than in the moment.

I don't know what the solution is, but we definitely need to do something to preserve these kinds of things for the future, like how the Internet Archive is breathing new life into MS-DOS games using in-browser emulation. [0] For one thing we need to preserve the binaries of games like these in case they do go down, and related to that, the specific software versions they ran on. (I'm contradicting myself here because these are the only non-radical approaches I see right now as opposed to something like a reserve for source code to be released when it enters the public domain).

[0]: [https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games](https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games)

<comment><USER8> We already had a lot of architectural transitions throughout the computer history (a very small part of which I witnessed) and we could emulate nearly all of the deprecated architectures quite well. I am optimistic that it can be repeated.

<comment><USER9> Not when you have companies forcing online registration, expiring software, cloud services/storage, DRM, ...

<comment><USER8> Yes, that is also a concern. One can only hope that when they turn into abandonware, those software will be "freed" ("cracked" but legally, although IANAL) by the community.

<comment><USER10> There's no legal concept of abandonware, and even redistributing it is illegal. It's just that, well, it's abandoned because nobody _wants_ to take legal responsibility _right now_. That situation can still change when a copyright holder sells it to a patent/copyright troll later.

<comment><USER8> Thanks for the clarification. I falsely assumed abandonware as public domain. I also found some explanation about the public domain here: [http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/72916](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/72916)

<comment><USER10> There's also the small problem that not all countries have a concept of a copyright in the first place. Quite a few EU nations have laws around the concept of Authors' Rights instead. Public domain does not even exist for those (because there is always an author, and authors always have rights to their work, even if they're publishing anonymously).

<comment><USER11> At least here in Portugal, while we do have Author's Rights (which include moral rights) instead of copyright, they still expire to Public Domain, and I believe the same is true for most EU nations: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_l...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries'_copyright_lengths)

<comment><USER10> Authors' Rights expire, but (at least in Germany and Austria) you cannot _voluntarily_ put a work into public domain before and give up your rights on it, like you can under the US concept of Public Domain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> On a more wider subject, I always wonder what happens to the developers just simply disappeared.

Phone apps, browser add-ons, you may only notice something happens when it stopped working.

Then you go to the forum, you go to the blog, there may be some rumors. There would be some people trying to pick up and carry on. But, sometimes, no one knows what really happens.

No emails has been responded from that weird email address ever since, no activities from that account.

Finally, you may go to tweak that apps you loved so much yourself. Or when you are lazy, you will try to find an alternative and accept it. But the question is still hanging in your head.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you want your stuff to live on, there is an easy fix. You can set up your will so some or all of your stuff will be uploaded to a public place, such as GitHub or whatever. Or you can ask a friend to go through your digital possessions and use their own judgement regarding what to do with it.

Simply doing nothing and expecting app stores to come up with something like memorialized accounts is not going to work. The "best" they can do is delete your apps faster when notice of your death comes in.

If you're writing a will anyway, why not just include a clause about the data on your hard drives? Arguably, including a "data will" is probably more important to your legacy than the boring minutiae of how to split up your bank account.

</comment><comment><USER14> This becomes so much more apparent when you work for an app startup (or downloadable console game publisher) that shuts down. The games I put hundreds of hours into while working for those companies have disappeared from their corresponding downloadable stores after only two years.

I still have copies of them on my devices and on my computer, and there's still a few copies floating around in torrent-land, and there's still a few videos and a couple reviews out there, but for the most part it's already difficult to see any evidence that those games ever existed.

In contrast, the Flash games I made on my own you can still access from about 2000 websites, including my own and Newgrounds, over a full decade later. Although even that is going to be a problem soon now that Flash is on its way out.

How the hell can a game developer keep up with this? I decided I can't, and coincidentally I got into board game design anyway, so now I spend more of my time working on board game designs. If those get published, then there will be many hard copies out there, and if they're popular enough, either myself or another company will develop a video game version of them, so they can exist in both mediums.

And you don't need to keep up with the latest tech to make sure your board games survive for decades, even hundreds of years. For me, this satisfies my preservation itch a lot more than the current state of digital preservation, which seems in terrible condition for modern games.

Hopefully the retro game emulation scene can keep up with the demands of it all. I'm thankful they allow me to play SNES games that would cost me $100+ to get a physical copy today, a physical copy that is not guaranteed to work on my machine (I bought a few SNES cartridges that didn't work recently).

</comment><comment><USER15> I remember being so sad when Dan died: [http://web.archive.org/web/20050814083139/http://www.danb.di...](http://web.archive.org/web/20050814083139/http://www.danb.dircon.co.uk/hg/hg.htm)

He wasn't a real world friend, but we'd spoken via email a few times and I was in love with the game he'd written. He had really big plans for it, but sadly it died with him, and doesn't seem to be playable now without digging out an old browser and versions of java.

This was the days before github - I can only imagine that today this project and his others could have lived on in some way.

</comment><comment><USER16> I would love to see a similar proposition with proprietary products run by companies.

If you run an infrastructure style product, there should be a living will involve where the product will become open source upon the bankruptcy or shutdown style sale of the company.

For example, FoundationDB was bought by apple and the product was shuttered. Under a living will, the product would become open source, as it is no longer developed by the company.

I realise this may lead to a lower selling price, all things being equal, however people/companies are also more likely to trust you when you are small, as they have a greater chance of survival should you fail.

My personal feeling is that most of these products should be open source from the get go, and it will probably have to be this way going forward, however this is a reasonable middle ground.

<comment><USER17> "For example, FoundationDB was bought by apple and the product was shuttered. Under a living will, the product would become open source, as it is no longer developed by the company."

Would it? I assume the tech is still being developed. It's just that the continuing development is not offered as a product.

Further, once someone buys the company, don't they gain control over that company's assets? So if they no longer want to offer a product for sale, why should they?

<comment><USER16> In theory there should be a trade off when offering such a solution. Companies are more likely to trust you, and use your product if they can be sure there is a fallback plan (open source) upon your product being shuttered. Yes, you may lose some potential fallback plans for your company if it is being bought for its technology, but hopefully the number of additional adopters who would trust you early on in your company's life would compensate for this.

I'm not saying there is a moral obligation to do so, merely that it might be a good decision for both sides. See, for example, how open source is increasingly becoming a requirement for infrastructure products that companies come to depend on. This may be a good middle ground. Personally think open sourcing from the start is a better choice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The idea expressed in the title is a kind of hell. Think how hard it would be for all of us if we were obligated to maintain every app past the lifetime of its creators.

Software dies. Maybe there will be some OS code that runs for a hundred years. But I think every application is going to die that doesn't have some cult like group of fans who maintain it, probably mostly for sentimental reasons.

</comment><comment><USER19> Perhaps it might be appropriate to link to these:

Get Your Shit Together[0], and related discussion[1]

[0] [http://getyourshittogether.org/](http://getyourshittogether.org/) [1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9569934](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9569934)

</comment><comment><USER20> well the article identified but failed to address both of the core issues: copyright and who pays for it.

but most importantly failed to mention or aknowledge this [https://archive.org/details/internetarcade](https://archive.org/details/internetarcade) which is doing exactly what he vouches for, preserving memory (especially relevant since he's talking about a game)</comment>


Initial Covid-19 infection rate may be 80 times greater than originally reported - <AUTHOR> https://news.psu.edu/story/623797/2020/06/22/research/initial-covid-19-infection-rate-may-be-80-times-greater-originally <comment><USER3> I became numb to news like this because it doesn't seem to have any reflection in the reality around me. The numbers are supposed to be huge yet hospitals are nearly empty and no one I asked knows anyone who was infected. The 80x number looks like science fiction to me.

<comment><USER4> People want this thing to be over, so there's a desire to find reasons to believe that we are further along than we thought. Combined with this being a novel disease that no one fully understands, there's a lot of room for those theories to develop. The current best science answer to how many people remain susceptible to infection is "nobody really knows but our best guess is not to assume the best case without better evidence so act like the worst case".

But one thing that is easy to explain is your point about not knowing anyone who was infected:

\- At the peak of this epidemic in hard-hit places like the UK, something like only 1 in 400 people are known to have been infected at a time.

\- Many younger people (as much as 70%) show absolutely no symptoms when they are infected.

\- The disease is astronomically worse for elderly people. One study said that for young person, getting COVID was as risky as going for a ~200 mile car drive but as a 90 year old it was as risky as flying a WWII bomber mission. Nearly everyone who is dying is 70+ and mostly 80+. Obviously some younger people do die, but the numbers are much, much lower. We are talking 10s of people total under 40 in most countries.

So unless you are hanging out with a social circle of 80-90 year olds, you actually aren't very likely know anyone directly affected! But that doesn't mean tons of people weren't dying. They just aren't the people you would know. It's a different social circle.

<comment><USER5> > \- The disease is astronomically worse for elderly people. One study said > that for young person, getting COVID was as risky as going for a ~200 mile > car drive but as a 90 year old it was as risky as flying a WWII bomber > mission

Interesting comparison. So here we're talking about the risk of dying from Covid-19. What about the risk of becoming seriously ill? What I'm curious is about is the percentage of people (younger or otherwise) who either develop no symptoms or develop symptoms so mild as to not be attributed to the virus. Do such people exist?

<comment><USER6> There's also not enough discussion about what happens _after_ recovery.

I was pretty ill in March (and, to a lesser extent, in April), which necessitated some time off work. Testing availability in my country was useless at the time, so I have no formal confirmation as to what it actually was. The govt also intervened, preventing my order of a private sector antibody test being fulfilled, so who knows.

The experience after recovery for me, though, was anything but straightforward and I really struggled with lasting fatigue, breathlessness and just general exhaustion. I was only able to work half-days for a decent chunk of time. I still don't feel 100% now. My GP thinks it was likely Covid-19 and offered a diagnosis of post-viral fatigue after some tests.

I'm 23. Statistically, this should have barely affected folks in my age group.

It's not an isolated case: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east- orkney-she...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney- shetland-53056785)

<comment><USER7> I've been reading lots of reports like this from young people. One person in their 20s ended up with lasting asthma when they'd never had it before. A couple have needed lung transplants.

This category of outcomes is honestly much scarier for me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> How does this reconcile with the actual data we have on total infection rate in e.g. Spain where a representative poll was done?

<comment><USER9> We now know a significant amount of people have no symptoms or very light symptoms and no antibody response. An anecdote. My friend and his wife got tested when giving birth. She was positive for antibodies he was not. It is quite possible that for ever person who had antibodies there is some unknown x of people who got it and never developed antibodies.

<comment><USER10> How would you end up without antibodies? The virus just failed to replicate in your system and died out of its own accord? Or are we suggesting the people with no symptoms are still asymptomic carriers?

<comment><USER11> You will only get detectable antibodies if the virus activated the adaptive immune system. This could be the case if the infection was successfully and quickly controlled by the innate immune system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is not new data, but a re-interpretation of previously available data. With lots of assumptions. Now, if they'd gone back and analyzed samples taken in February and March with the newer tests, they'd have new data.

Anyway, all of this is about reconstructing the early days of the epidemic. With good tests now available, it's not that useful at this point.

</comment><comment><USER13> Whats the non-COVID-19 pneumonia# for 2019-2020?

CDC Influenza and pneumonia deaths by influenza season and age: United States, 2008–2015: [https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/influenza-and- pn...](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/influenza-and-pneumonia- deaths-2008-2015.pdf)

<comment><USER14> Even early on we had reports of some states seeing 10k+ more deaths due to pneumonia or other seasonal illness compared to prior years. Maybe the figures aren't accurate given current data, but it is worrisome:

[https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > _"The findings suggest an alternative way of thinking about the COVID-19 > pandemic.

Our results suggest that the overwhelming effects of COVID-19 may have less to do with the virus' lethality and more to do with how quickly it was able to spread through communities initially," Silverman explained. "A lower fatality rate coupled with a higher prevalence of disease and rapid growth of regional epidemics provides an alternative explanation to the large number of deaths and overcrowding of hospitals we have seen in certain areas of the world."_

Isn't this exactly what the "flatten the curve" crowd has been saying?

<comment><USER16> yes, but the flatten the curve crowd assumes a higher lethality

<comment><USER17> Do they?

I think we have pretty ok lethality estimates somewhere in the ballpark of 0.2 to 0.5 percent.

<comment> crooked-v The lethality rate without care is much higher than the lethality rate with care, and said care often needs to be exhaustive and for an extended period, which can easily fill the entire capacity of hospitals if enough people get infected at once.

<comment><USER18> Weren't doctors beginning to question whether intubation had any effect on recovery?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> History books will not be kind to our past and present handling of covid-19.

Incurring incredible economic and social damage without fully understanding the threat. It's been very clear for some time that covid is not nearly as lethal as once feared AND even more clear that we over quarantined.

In the UK we have hospitals built specifically for covid that are completely unused. This isn't flattening the curve, it's choking it. A vaccine isn't happening anytime soon and the only way forward is herd immunity. This means we need new infections.

<comment><USER20> You are aware that despite the world very best efforts, almost 500.000 people have already died, and in many parts of the world, its actually not slowing down, but speeding up?

<comment><USER13> These numbers would be much more useful if they were in pairs; (#people, #avg_years_lost).

[https://abcnews.go.com/Health/swine-flu-h1n1-pandemic- deaths...](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/swine-flu-h1n1-pandemic- deaths-15-times-higher/story?id=16646281)

"Though the virus was deadly, the swine flu pandemic is still considered to have been a fairly mild one. The CDC calculates that up to 575,000 people may have died from H1N1 in 2009. The WHO estimates that the seasonal flu kills up to 500,000 people each year. Both pale in comparison to the flu pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide."

<comment> crooked-v Sure... and then consider that, unlike swine flu or seasonal flu, COVID-19 has already killed hundreds of thousands of people even with near-total lockdowns to the point of dystopic absurdity in many countries†, has done so over the course of only a few months, and due to lackluster government response in some countries is still increasing exponentially in some places.

† See China's brief use of 'only specific designated people per apartment building are allowed to leave the building for specific designated shopping trips, under the threat of military force' policies at the worst of the peak in its cities.

<comment><USER21> You can't deduce the gravity of a threat from the state's response to it. Just consider the ~0 killed by terrorism each year in western countries vs the security theater at airports.

<comment><USER22> Terrorism isn't an infectious disease.

<comment><USER21> Your point?

<comment><USER22> That your analogy doesn't hold. We do know that infectious diseases with a median R0 of 5.7 will spread exponentially, as was the case with covid-19 in the January-March timeframe.

[https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article)

<comment><USER21> And that means that you can deduce something about the danger of something from the reaction to it because...?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> At this point every scientist in the world is throwing any random theory out there in the hope one sticks and they will be showered in new funding. The track record of Neil Ferguson's Group at Imperial is representative of this industry, however.

[https://github.com/mrc-ide/covid-sim/issues/176](https://github.com/mrc- ide/covid-sim/issues/176)

<comment><USER24> Don't models assume a lack of action?

Given that an alarming model is going to alter our behaviour, it seems unrealistic to expect them to match what actually happens.

<comment><USER25> From infection date ~29.February till May the growthrate in Germany is behaving mathematically exact - following a Gompertz-Model.

It's not really clear if actions and visible behaviour changes did much - <USER2> of them came way too late - and there is no sign of a trendbreak that indicates any improvement.</comment></comment></comment>


Mark 2 FORTH Computer (2003) - <AUTHOR> http://www.aholme.co.uk/Mk2/Architecture.htm <comment><USER2> Here's a minimal Forth implementation built in Verilog to run on a Lattice iCE40 FPGA:

[https://github.com/jamesbowman/swapforth/tree/master/j1a](https://github.com/jamesbowman/swapforth/tree/master/j1a)

</comment><comment><USER3> I really love Forth. It's been a top 100 programming language [1] since before C existed[2]. Retro computing can be fun, but for some reason, Forth really clicked with me in a way that most other languages don't.

[1] This isn't saying much [2] Only by a few months</comment>


Hacker swipes Snapchat's source code, publishes it on GitHub - <AUTHOR> https://thenextweb.com/security/2018/08/07/hacker-swipes-snapchats-source-code-publishes-it-on-github/ <comment><USER2> Did anyone get a peek before it got taken down? Anything interesting on it?

<comment><USER3> He just uploaded another repo (SCCamera), round two.

<comment><USER4> This has some interesting-seeming camera related items but doesn't contain a .xcodeproj, making it hard to compile. ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >the source code remained online for a long period of time before it was removed. I5xx's commit history shows eighteen commits, all occurring between May 23 and 24, and pertaining to the same repository.

I wonder what those commits were. It brings me joy to think someone may have made some improvements to the code in the short time it was up.</comment>


Apple has worst quarter in over a decade - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/26/technology/apple-earnings/index.html <comment><AUTHOR> My prediction - AAPL stock will repeat performance in late 2012. Management just needs to be more aggressive like FB in M&A instead of sitting on the $100B+ cash pile which investors will punish them for. Apple should have bought Oculus. Not FB.</comment>


In Age of Globalism, Pardon My French - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/arts/25abroad.html

<comment><AUTHOR> "'The truth,' Mr. Diouf said the other morning, 'is that the future of the French language is now in Africa.'"</comment>