AMD EPYC processors come to Google, and to Google Cloud - <AUTHOR> https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/compute/amd-epyc-processors-come-to-google-and-to-google-cloud <comment><USER2> Wow, first photo is a 2000x1489px PNG (4.5MB) and it is scaled to just 451x335px. (not even clickable to view at full size, it's just for page decoration)

Nice web design, google!

<comment><USER3> There's also an animated GIF (Turn_it_to_11.gif) that weighs 6.7MB and is not even visible until you click "Show related articles" at the bottom. And even if you do that, it's only displayed in 164x82px instead of the original 2880x1200px.

Looks like Google's CDN works so well that creating resized versions to save bandwidth is not worth it. :)

<comment><USER4> Sounds like their automatic compression functionality on their CDN isn't exactly working the way its supposed to. I know AWS Cloudflare has something like this that I use in conjunction with saving website images on S3.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> With 200 CPU threads (128 CPU cores), I think most startups can run a complex microservice environment on a single machine.

Although Kubernetes requires 3 to start, but still, this greatly reduces the need to have a lot of separate machines.

256 threads per machine this year. 512 threads per machine 2 years from now? And then hopefully 1024 threads per machine 4-5 years from now? That would be really fun.

(I will take a laptop in 4 years with just a lowly 64 cores please, leaving the heavy iron for the cloud machines.)

I want Moore's law back but in parallel form. The years since 2004 with x85 machines have been quite boring from a CPU performance increase perspective.

<comment><USER6> > With 200 CPU threads (128 CPU cores), I think most startups can run a > complex microservice environment on a single machine.

Why would you want to? Your whole environment will be down when the machine, or some component thereof, fails or is rotated out for maintenance

I think this is more of a benefit for cloud providers in that they can pack more disparate customer workloads on to a single machine.

<comment><USER7> So have two of them with synchronous replication and fail over between them. You have to think about dying or suddenly slow machines even in a microservices architecture.

The advantage of such a machine is that if it starts to die, you fail over everything atomically and then repair/replace the backup. You don't need to think about what happens if one component is on a dead machine and the others aren't (does your load balancer handle that well, given machines often "die" in ways that just make them slow rather than totally failed?)

The big win though is if you get rid of the microservices and run the whole thing in one big process. No complex RPC failures, obscure HTTP/REST attacks like [https://portswigger.net/blog/http-desync-attacks-request- smu...](https://portswigger.net/blog/http-desync-attacks-request-smuggling- reborn) and so on.

That might sound mad but modern JVMs can run lots of languages fast, and have ultra-low-pause GCs that can use terabytes of heap. Like less than one msec low. Many, many businesses fit into these really high end machines with a giant JVM.

I've written about the possibility of a swing back to big iron design here:

[https://blog.plan99.net/vertical- architecture-734495f129c4](https://blog.plan99.net/vertical- architecture-734495f129c4)

And a look at modern Java GCs - GC being historically the bottleneck to really large single processes:

[https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection- part-2-1c8...](https://blog.plan99.net/modern-garbage-collection- part-2-1c88847abcfd)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not a hugely surprising development given what was discussed yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20640148](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20640148)

<comment><USER9> If they bring a 64 Core to the desktop, Intel will have no market for yrs.

<comment><USER10> This might sound like a silly question, but what would one use a 64-code CPU on a desktop machine for? Or more precisely, in what situations is a 32-core ThreadRipper2 insufficient?

<comment><USER11> I don't think even enthusiasts can fully engage a 64 core device with any meaningful uses that a 32 core wouldn't suffice.

This is a server chip that excels at virtualization.

<comment><USER12> Then you are not a target. There are many scientific workloads that actually can benefit from shared memory multi core processors like this. They do not scale properly in cluster. Data Science is very simple and obvious target. Developers also can benefit a lot. Have you worked on a very large project of mixed c++ and Fortran + for some reason python (Compiling or profiling)? This is god send. I am currently working on a single node with 2x28 core and I still need more cores. For licensing issues I cannot use more than one node for my task.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What is the pricing? It is cheaper per core-hour than Intel? It should be.

Also how many machines will they have? Will it be a token amount in a single data center or will there be a good chunk of these around in multiple data centers?

<comment><USER13> Why should it be cheaper than Intel? The performance is similar. The fact that it's cheaper for Google to run doesn't mean it's less valuable for the end user.

If anything, they should cut prices across the board. AMD just cut the price of an x86 core in half.

<comment><USER14> Because Intel has a better brand name / recognition. Many companies default to Intel, even when it's not the cheapest.

I'm glad AMD is making such progress that these companies can't ignore them anymore. Having one CPU maker would be horrible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'd love to see a comparison of new EPYC vs Intel on database workloads. Acc. to recent anandtech article, which quotes Intel, memory access can give large edge to Intel.

<comment><USER16> I would love to see benchmarks with Clickhouse which scales much better than regular SQL databases on a single machine.

<comment><USER17> ClickHouse is happy to use multiple cores if the query is heavy enough. We have tested it on AMD EPYC 7351 more than a year ago and get promising results. (I have not saved them but I'll try to reproduce and post them here.)

Another case of scalability: we have also tested ClickHouse on an Aarch64 server (Cavium ThunderX2) with 224 logical cores and despite the fact that each core is 3..7 times slower than Intel E5-2650 and the code is not optimized as much as for x86_64, it was on-par in throughput of heavy queries.

There are also tests of ClickHouse on Power9 if you mind...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I hope they'll also attach GPU's to those machines. We switched part of our operation to local hardware because wouldn't get both the fast GPU's and the fast CPU's in the same node.

A proper solution of course would be to have the CPU intensive algorithms run on different nodes, but it's an integrated solution we pay for so we don't control that.

<comment><USER19> You can already get 1-4 GPUs on VMS with 64-96 vCPUs in a number of regions: [https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/gpus/#gpus- list](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/gpus/#gpus-list)

Is the problem that the CPU max scales with the number of GPUs, so you can't get 1 GPU with 96 vCPUs?

<comment><USER18> No, we were looking for the high single thread performance machines, so the new compute optimized cascade lake ones, but those you can't get gpu's on.</comment></comment></comment>


Kill All Feeds - <AUTHOR> https://blog.dcpos.ch/no-feeds <comment><USER2> Those feeds are a chronological account of every place we've been and how we got there, every person we met and every conversation we shared. Our every breathing moment, recorded. But only the important parts, please.

A dossier in an authoritarian society, we call Facebook and the phone company.

By wanting— needing— the latter, we enable the former.

Of course, our societies aren't oppressive. Probably. Mostly. Assuming we're not a minority.

But the infrastructure has been laid. Willingly. For advertising. For keeping up with our friends and family. For convenience.

</comment><comment><USER3> Just posted this to a feed was just talking with a friend about how toxic fb and twitter are.

<comment><USER4> Yeah. I think many people have no idea how many hours they actually spend on those sites.</comment></comment>


Police pepper spray, tear gas hundreds of college students in Ohio - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDHuQ8pylmA

<comment><USER2> s/college students/rioters/

<comment><AUTHOR> Watch the video in the link...

I see no rioting, just peaceful congregation.

<comment><USER2> If they were black, they'd be called rioters.</comment></comment></comment>


Symptoms You're On The Verge Of A Burn Out - <AUTHOR> http://www.dragosroua.com/7-symptoms-youre-on-the-verge-of-a-burn-out/ <comment><USER2> 8\. You write a blog post about burnout.

<comment><AUTHOR> 9\. You comment on a link about a blog post about burnout :-)</comment></comment>


Silicon Valley wants to hack North Korea - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/4/5966185/silicon-valley-hacks-north-korea

<comment><USER2> Wouldn't it make more sense to stop the economic blockade of this country instead?</comment>


Show HN: FoundersKit – 40 new deals for startups at over $12k value - <AUTHOR> http://founderskit.co/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey Hacker News :waves:

Fred from FoundersKit here. We launched FoundersKit in August last year and it went down really well. Since then we've been working hard on v2 (new site, 40 new deals) and the total value now sits at over $12k, including deals for Intercom, Invision and Zendesk to name a few.

Obviously we know no startup will use all the deals on offer, but we're confident that you'll easily find more value than the $59 membership fee, making it a no brainer.

I'll be about all day, would love to hear your thoughts!</comment>


Tiny houses have a dark secret - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/90302556/tiny-houses-have-a-dark-secret <comment><USER2> I have often wondering about the allure of tiny houses. It seems as though the selling points are all smoke and mirrors. A small amount of space for living can compliment things. How will I live when I can't just throw my dirty clothes in a giant pile across the room because that is where my living room is?!? Who wants to buy my tiny house when I am done with it? The less consumptive image of tiny houses falls apart when you think that unwanted tiny houses will just be junked somewhere. All of that material could have been used for more permanent structures. I have lived in the country before and have seen landscapes with a ton of trash in the front yard. Hardly good for the environment.</comment>


Ask HN: What currently makes you optimistic? - <AUTHOR> We're currently surrounded by pessimistic news, from political and economical instability in the world, polarisation and the rise of extremism through climate change and raising inequality.<p>Despite all this, what are currently the things you experience, participate in or know of that keeps you feeling optimistic ? <comment><USER2> Pessimistic news is to keep your eyeballs glued to the screen. It's also an attempt to force a political outcome by manipulating you. Ignore it. Step away. Life is actually quite good now.

Instability isn't always bad. It's how we put aside feudalism.

Climate change could make the Northwest Passage viable and open up a lot of valuable land.

Inequality has been going down. This is generally true around the world, and has been for decades. More recently, it is true within the USA: [http://archive.is/lRxSi](http://archive.is/lRxSi)

<comment><USER3> You state inequality goes down then you show a link about wage increases the last two years. This doesn't address inequality and inequality is usually a wealth issue, not income, and not only over the last two years.

<comment><USER2> Usually we vaguely mean both wealth and income when we speak of inequality, but in any case they are convertible. The high-wealth people aren't living on income. They are living on investments, which have taken a hit from the increased wages.

I specifically said "More recently" regarding the USA, so why object to it being over two years? Two years is recent. Things have gotten dramatically better for the less-well-off people over the past two years. This is something to be optimistic about.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I recently read David Deutsch's book _Beginning of Infinity_ , and it drastically increased my level of optimism. Summarizing it wouldn't do it justice, but I highly recommend reading it.

</comment><comment><USER5> _We 're currently surrounded by pessimistic news_

There's your problem. It is a choice---to be a sucker for the fear endlessly pumped out by most of the news media, or to be tuned into better things.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm reminded of a couple of things.

"You don't hire people and motivate them, you hire motivated people" \-- Peter Drucker

"You choose to be happy" \-- a bunch of old people

The first quote applies to extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. And I think it also can relate to optimism and pessimism. If you are looking for extrinsic sources to make you optimistic, then it will be fleeting. Find the optimism and the belief that the future can be better than the now in yourself.

The second quote, I don't recall where I read it. But the tl;dr was that someone went around and asked a bunch of old folks the secret to being happy. The majority response? You choose it. It explains why you can find happy people in poverty or miserable people bathed in riches. I think the same applies to feeling optimistic: it is a choice.

Knowing that I can be happier than I am now (even though I consider myself doing pretty good in that department) gives me reason to be optimistic and to strive for that. There are things I want to see and experience. There is more to life than I have yet to experience. I also know that my world could come crashing down; but I've been low before, and I can do it again, and again, seek being better than I might find myself.

All the things that news that you find yourself surrounded by: One, know that it is _designed_ to rope you in and invoke a negative reaction. Two, can you do something about it? If so, and it is meaningful to you, then do your part to improve it. If not, then don't. No need to have the world pull you down. Besides, there is always political/economic instability, polarization, and extremism. Climate change might doom us all; it might not. World poverty is diminishing and standards of living are leaping higher every generation. I think Stephen Fry did a neat little video a while back (can't find it) that showed the different countries of the world and their economic condition over the last couple hundred years: it all got better.

There will always be negative things. Sadness, loss, disparity, suffering, and outright evil. People have endured it, survived, and continue to lead happy lives. I think that is amazing, and helps me be optimistic.

</comment><comment><USER7> How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan. I think it will be revealed to be one of the most important books of our time.

</comment><comment><USER8> Steven Pinker's book Enlightenment Now

</comment><comment><USER9> sadhguru on youtube

</comment><comment><USER10> Bernie!</comment>


Tell HN: Gumroad payment:Account suspended, money refunded without any notice - <AUTHOR> ~18 months back, when we are (www.webminal.org/flexi) launching our paid feature and looking for
payment gateways like Paypal,Stripe. Stripe is not supported in my country(India). Some users asked for Paypal alternatives. So we found Gumroad (gumroad.com). Their api are developer friendly, so we integrated it. Though many users use paypal, few users used Gumroad for  their payment.
Everything looked fine. Last week customer reported he can't use Gumroad payment. While checking their link, we found it gave 404 error message! We are little confused and asked the Gumroad support team about this broken link. Received below mail:
<snip> Our risk models detected behaviors in your Gumroad account that are considered, in the payment processing industry, to be fraudulent or correlated to fraud – to be sure, we apologize for the negative connotation that the word "fraud" has.
You can learn more about how we handle fraud here: https://help.gumroad.com/11169-Creator-FAQ/what-is-considered-fraud-on-gumroad
Due to the strict regulations by our business partners, we have suspended your account and will not be able to continue working with you. I would recommend contacting your clients to find a different means of payment.
All payments in your balance will be refunded to your customers.
We are constantly working on expanding the array of industries we can service. It is our hope that in the future we can help business such as yours.
For more context please look into our terms of service and list of prohibited items: www.gumroad.com/terms https://gumroad.com/terms/prohibited </snip>
Thats crazy. They suspended account without any notification to us. And also claimed to refunded the amount without telling us! Those customers are using our paid features until today for free without our knowledge!
Though we lost only less than 50$ its hard to believe their attitude. - If you are using Gumroad, please beware of their attitude.
UPDATE:
I wrote reply asking details like
</snip> Even though you apologize for negative connotation for the word 'fraud'.  Let me ask you, how do you feel if repeat the same word for your business.
-- I read the links I can't figure-out why my project suspended with out even notice. How you refund the money without discussing with me at-least? Great! Now I gave 'paid' features for free to users. Believing that they purchased for it.
Here are the questions:
1- When did you decide to suspend my account?
2- Why its not communicated to me?
3- What exactly the factor behind suspension?
4- How much money refunded to customers and when & to whom?
</snip>
Gumroad response:
<snip> Hi
In order for us to be committing "fraud" we would have to be taking other people's money, which we're not doing. So, while I appreciate the stretch of the imagination, it's incorrect.
1- When did you decide to suspend my account?
>>> Because your account was showing strong indicators of fraud.
2- Why its not communicated to me?
>>> This is policy. We don't send fraudulent accounts "a heads up" so they can create a new account.
3- What exactly the factor behind suspension?
>>> The majority of your purchases were suspicious. Your account was actually suspended in September.
4- How much money refunded to customers and when & to whom?
>>> All of it has been refunded, to all customers.
I hope that answers all of your questions, as I will be discontinuing communication henceforth. As it stands:
1) We've refunded all of your sales
2) You are not getting your account back </snip>
UPDATE2: (my reply)
<snip> >In order for us to be committing "fraud" we would have to be taking other people's money
Thats funny, you took money from us. User enjoyed our free service for paid account thanks to you. That's fraud in my context.
>So, while I appreciate the stretch of the imagination, it's incorrect.
So as your imagination.
>>> This is policy. We don't send fraudulent accounts "a heads up" so they can create a new account.
This happened on Sep. didn't sent notification at all. So you ack. that your system , so called 'fraud' detection flawed?
>>> The majority of your purchases were suspicious. Your account was actually suspended in September.
God's sake. Do you even know what you are talking about?  There is exactly 2 users are using your payment in last 6 months. Its funny you blame them.
>>> All of it has been refunded, to all customers.
That's not the answer to question,"How much money refunded to customers and when & to whom?"
1. When did you decide to suspend my account?
<Seems like Sep.>
2. Why its not communicated to me?
"a heads up"  excuse is a joke. Its been 3 months now.
3- What exactly the factor behind suspension?
"purchases were suspicious". What you mean by this. Its laughable  to put generic term like this.
4. How much money refunded to customers and when & to whom?
No answer, not even bothered to do some basic research & provide  the user mail-id and date of refund.
As it stands: I never need your useless service & I don't want the account back. Considering the fact, your are unwilling to appropriate/reasonable answer, there is no point to continuing discussion with you. </snip> <comment><USER2> Be thankful it was only $50. However, this is not uncommon and is the nature of the payments industry in general. When you sign-up you are agreeing to their terms of service. Those terms typically state, very clearly, that they can cancel your account at any time for almost any reason and without notice (see Section 8 in Gumroad terms). There are ways to help mitigate getting cut off but even then there is no guarantee.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes,Its less than $50. Thankful, we didn't push customer towards only 'gumroad'.

Thanks for pointing out Section 8 in Gumroad terms. I overlooked it, was hoping they will target only illegal business & I was wrong. Please see my update & their response. I interacted with lot of customer services, Gumroad is one of the worst.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: hybrid app framework for an app that runs on iOS and Mac - <AUTHOR> I'm looking to build an app that will work on both iOS and Mac. Android and Windows support isn't needed.
What hybrid app frameworks exist for this purpose? Most of the ones I've heard of are moblie + mobile (iOS + Android) or desktop + desktop (Mac + Windows), not mobile + desktop.
I prefer to code in Swift, since I need access to a few platform APIs, and since I'm very comfortable with it, and with iOS APIs as well, more than HTML/CSS/JS.
It's a simple utility app, with a few screens, not performance-sensitive. Thanks. <comment><USER2> I know you said no HTML, bit IMO it's the only way to do cross platform well.

I'm a big fan of Ionic, especially now that they released their Drag and Drop UI editor at [https://creator.ionic.io/](https://creator.ionic.io/).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Please see [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14526419](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14526419) for the problem with the web.

Maybe I'll just end up writing two separate apps in Swift.

<comment><USER2> In the case of Ionic it uses Cordova to give access to native APIs. Even better, it provides a JS wrapper so that there is a common interface for both systems and you only need to write your code once!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Look at UIKit clones for Mac. There was one called Blueprint a few years ago. I'm not sure of the state of the art now.

A Mac app starter kit (icon management, menu, upgrading, etc.) With the iOS app ported in with a UIKit clone should get you what you want with much better performance than a web/JS-based solutio ln that will compromise your iOS app.

</comment><comment><USER4> afaik you can use swift for both mac and iOS however they're different platforms so there won't be 100% overlap. have you considered building a web app? you can run it in the browser on both desktop and mobile. you can also use a cordova based framework to wrap it in an app for the app store.

<comment><USER5> I agree, phonegap might be the best best for cross platform hybrid apps but doesn't officially cover desktop, although it shouldn't be too difficult to port it to use electron instead [https://electron.atom.io](https://electron.atom.io)

<comment><AUTHOR> Electron is desktop-only, isn't it? I need to support iOS and Mac. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Check out Xamarin [https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/mac/getting_started/hel...](https://developer.xamarin.com/guides/mac/getting_started/hello,_mac/) .</comment>


Show HN:  How much can you tell about someone from their tweets?  - <AUTHOR> http://fingerprint.leadsift.com/

<comment><USER2> Things it got right:

Some interests (technology, science, politics (yes), business (kind of)), my gender (male), my relationship status (married), and my pet status (enabled). Plus, a gimmie: my location (Vancouver).

Things it got wrong: my parent status (I don't have kids, though we're trying), my employment (it thinks I'm a professor, due to my bio), and one interest (ugh sports).

Not bad, all in all, but pretty simplistic. I was hoping for some deeper insights.

<comment><USER3> _Things it got wrong: my parent status_

It got my parental status wrong as well (at least I'm not aware of any kids!). However several of my twitter friends are parents and we've discussed their kids on severe occasions, I wonder if the algorithm is misinterpreting those connections and conversations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why does this need access to my Twitter account to run? Can't it just get the publicly-facing information from the Twitter API?

<comment><USER5> All Twitter API methods require authentication now-a-days. [https://dev.twitter.com/blog/changes-coming-to-twitter- api](https://dev.twitter.com/blog/changes-coming-to-twitter-api)

<comment><USER6> Why don't they authenticate with their own Twitter account? I'm not sure why they would need mine.

<comment><USER7> Feels like click bait to me. They could use their own authentication token to use the Twitter API. Not mine.

<comment><USER8> Click bait in what sense? They are only requesting access to read (not post) tweets.

And the reason is because that's how Twitter sort of forces you to do it with their API rate limiting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Maybe it's obvious to others, but just a heads up that it is caching/saving information it collects from your API access and then making its assessment public. I ran it on my own Twitter handle and can access the results page[1] even in private browsing mode and with its API access revoked. Fairly annoying considering its "insights" are mostly wrong.

[1]: [http://fingerprint.leadsift.com/?username=itafroma](http://fingerprint.leadsift.com/?username=itafroma)

</comment><comment><USER10> It knows that I'm male and employed. Not particularly impressive.

</comment><comment><USER11> huh. so [https://twitter.com/ColorlessG](https://twitter.com/ColorlessG) is male, and interested in politics, tech, science, art and sports.

maybe you need to detect when there's nothing significant and say so? :o)

<comment><USER12> Or at least not assume that every male is interested in sports.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is an interesting idea and congrats on shipping. It got some things wrong about me though: [http://fingerprint.leadsift.com/?username=__rlp](http://fingerprint.leadsift.com/?username=__rlp)

Not interested in sports and I'm not employed as a writer. With a little more accuracy it would be pretty cool.

<comment><USER14> Yes, and I'm not a pet owner. And my college friend is not employed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> From the comments this sounds like an interesting tool, but I don't have a twitter so I guess I can't try it out?

</comment><comment><USER16> Sports? Literature? Such generic interests. Would be nice to know if someone was interested in say internet marketing, or big data. Something a bit more specific.

<comment><AUTHOR> My guess is that those things take time to learn/hone? I was impressed what it could do as a first attempt...

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's pretty close. With over 8k tweets (and a load of pictures) I was expecting a little more.

TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS SPORTS SCIENCE POLITICS

Would be neat to click on those broad categories and get the tweets that fall into those categories.

Also, the social fingerprint page is super sluggish when scrolling- anyone else experiencing this?

<comment><USER18> Do you know of any other services which offer greater insight into topics that are of interest to you?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Got my gender wrong - which seems strange as my interests were all typically male (science/tech/sports)... Not being sexist here, it would be interesting if it would list tweets for each category with a weight but maybe that would give away their algorithm

</comment><comment><USER20> Horse ebooks:

Female. Car owner. Pet owner. Married. Popular tweet: "Avoid situations" (5616 retweets)

Interested in: Business, Science, Technology, Sports, Travel

</comment><comment><USER21> Wow that loading bar at the top of the page is horrendous.

</comment><comment><USER22> This application does not guess much about me, but thinks I'm a teenager. That, I can't help to be proud of :)

</comment><comment><USER23> Things it got wrong: sports interest and employment

Otherwise, good job! :)

</comment><comment><USER24> Interesting concept, but it thought my male friend was female and married.

</comment><comment><USER25> How much? apparently not too much from the account I've tested

<comment><AUTHOR> It knew all the basics about me: Male, Married, Car Owner, Pet Owner, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Got three things wrong on mine =\

<comment><USER27> I tested it with my girlfriends twitter count and it said she was Male. Maybe I am missing something @_@

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I've no quibble with what it found out about [https://twitter.com/erbo](https://twitter.com/erbo) except that it labeled me as a "parent" when I'm not. What's it basing that assessment on? Or would that be telling?

<comment><USER29> Without going too much into the details: we analyze a user's public posts and the network structure to probabilistically infer the data.

<comment><USER28> I wonder what I tweeted or what it is about my network that would cause you to infer that I'm a parent when I'm not?

Of course, as you say, it's probabilistic, meaning it's not "wrong" that it incorrectly identifies _me_ in particular as a parent; it's only "wrong" if a large number of those parent/non-parent inferences are incorrect over all analyzed accounts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> this is really cool

</comment><comment><USER31> got my gender wrong</comment>


Ask HN: HIPAA Compliance? - <AUTHOR> I recently took the helm on a startup project that deals with PHI. I'm researching alot trying to understand everything I need to do for compliance. Do you have any books, articles, training courses, consultants, services, etc that you recommend for understanding and implenting HIPAA compliance? <comment><USER2> Approach compliance like security -- it'll never be 100%. Except with HIPAA compliance, your goal is both to prevent data leaks as well as document to cover yourself legally.

Ignorance is no excuse, so it's important to take the recommended precautions. I would suggest hiring a 3rd party auditor with some sort of certifications -- that'll be an important CYA.

In general, you want to have written protocols and documented auditing for the following (plus some general concepts):

* Encrypt at rest, in transit

* Who has access? What is the policy for granting/revoking access? Is there an audit trail to see who accessed what, in the event of a breach?

* What data / systems are considered PHI/PII?

* How do you train employees about HIPAA?

Most of this is documenting processes and then showing that you review the logs every 3/6/whatever timeframe.

A more complete list: [https://www.hipaajournal.com/what-is-a-hipaa- violation/](https://www.hipaajournal.com/what-is-a-hipaa-violation/)</comment>


That self-appendectomy - <AUTHOR> http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/appendix.html <comment><USER2> A list and description of the "top ten self-surgeries:"

[http://listverse.com/2008/12/09/top-10-incredible-self- surge...](http://listverse.com/2008/12/09/top-10-incredible-self-surgeries/)

Dr Rogozov's figures in at #4 by their accounting, but I would stick him at #1 as he's the only one to finish the job himself and make a complete recovery without outside medical intervention.

<comment><USER3> Well, the first one is a mother that did a C-section on herself saving the baby and not dying in the process. Pretty remarkable if you ask me.

<comment><USER4> Especially remarkable considering the >80% mortality rate for mothers until the 20th century.

"Unfortunately, surgical techniques of that day also contributed to the appallingly high maternal mortality rates. According to one estimate not a single woman survived cesarean section in Paris between 1787 and 1876."

[https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part2.html](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part2.html)

<comment><USER5> The problem with c-sections was figuring out how to successfully sew up the uterus afterwards. In 1876 doctors started just removing the uterus after c-section.

The woman who gave herself a c-section was able to get medical care soon afterwards. Otherwise she certainly would have died from the wound.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Related to this sort of thing, Jerri Nielsen - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerri_Nielsen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerri_Nielsen) \- was a doctor wintering over at the South Pole who had to operate on and treat her own cancer back in 1999. I listened to her associated book, _Ice Bound: A Doctor 's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole_, several months ago and it was an absolutely fascinating account not only of the medical work involved but also what it's really like to live at the South Pole for several months in close quarters with other people. I think a lot of people here would enjoy it.

<comment><USER7> I went to the same medical school as her and she gave an amazing speech to us a little before she died. Not to belittle her accomplishments, but she did a biopsy on herself (not really surgery) and gave herself chemotherapy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> _Deborah Sampson was actually mentioned in the "Top 10 Men Who Were Really Women" list as a notable omission. In 1782 Deborah Sampson was enlisted in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Army. Going by the name of Robert Shutleff she was strong and tall enough to look like a man and it was thought she didn't have to shave because she was a very young man. When her unit was sent to West Point, New York she was wounded in a battle nearby. She was taken to a hospital to be treated but snuck out so that she would not be discovered to be a woman. She operated on herself and removed one of the musket balls out of her thigh with a penknife and sewing needle. When she recovered from her wound she went back to her regiment. The next time Sampson was wounded her doctor found out she was a woman and in 1783 he arranged for her to be discharged from the Continental Army._

My youngest son keeps saying that we can't know how many women secretly served in the military as men because, by definition, if they succeeded in hiding their gender, we record them as men

</comment><comment><USER9> That guy operates on another level.

<comment><USER10> Or is his level undefined since it's self-referencing?

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> One of the reasons I love playing Space Station 13 - you can do this ingame.</comment>


America Isn't Ready for the Lanternfly Invasion - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-10-02/america-isn-t-ready-for-the-lanternfly-invasion <comment><USER2> I wonder if any of the genetic control strategies used with the Aedes aegypti mosquito [1] could be used in this case. The obvious difference would be that males would also be harmful to the environment in this case. The strategy could also be improved if actual non-viable offspring was produced, increasing opportunity cost of reproduction and spent energy.

[1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4001467/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4001467/)

[2] [https://www.popsci.com/mosquitoes-designed-self- destruct](https://www.popsci.com/mosquitoes-designed-self-destruct)

<comment><USER3> I would love to see this kind of thing done with the [0] pine beetle. It isn't an invasive species, but is killing off huge numbers of ponderosa and lodgepole pines in the rocky mountains due to the combination of forest fire surpression and unusually hot and dry summers.

The exploding number of pine beatles is commonly attributed to climate change giving the pine beattle a second generation of bugs every year[1]. A genetic control strategy that thinned the population I think would be really helpful at reducing their effect.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle) [1] [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/03/climate-change- sends...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/03/climate-change-sends- beetles-overdrive)

<comment><USER4> It saddens me to see how the pine beetles are killing off the pines, but won't they ultimately improve the pine populations by thinning out the weakest trees? And over the course of the next hundred years, give some more climate- resilient strains room to spread, or migrate?

<comment><USER3> I think part of the issue is that one of the consequences of killing tons of trees is creating a lot of dry, dead, flamable wood. So the weakest trees get killed off by the beatles, but then _all_ the nearby trees are killed in the resulting forest fire, which hurts the evolution argument a little.

On the other hand, part of the reason that this kind of thing is so bad is that we fight forest fires so aggressively. In the historic past, as trees are killed off en-masse by the beatles, a forest fire would ravage the area, decimating the beatles population. Because these fires aren't allowed to go unchecked anymore, the beetle population can continue to grow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ugh. We're dealing with the Emerald Ash Borer around here and it's really sad, and dangerous. There's acres and acres of dead tress that are going to start falling and taking down power lines in the next few years. It costs thousands to have them taken down if they're in your yard. Damn little things are just monsters. Now I'm not looking forward to when those Lanternflies get here.

<comment><USER6> The Emerald Ash Borer was officially detected in the US in 2002. Likely arrived to the US in the beginning of the 90s [0]. Probably with packing material. Relevant regulation of wooden packing material seem to have been passed in the end of the 90s [1][2].

If anything, this story supports the precautionary principle. Nice quote from Wikipedia: "Strong precaution holds that regulation is required whenever there is a possible risk to health, safety, or the environment, even if the supporting evidence is speculative and even if the economic costs of regulation are high" [3].

[0] [https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2006/nc_2006_Poland_003....](https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2006/nc_2006_Poland_003.pdf) [1] [https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/7/319.40-5](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/7/319.40-5) [2] [https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1998-12-17/pdf/98-33444.pdf...](https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-1998-12-17/pdf/98-33444.pdf#page=4) [3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precautionary_principle)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Gene Drive technology is needed for more than mosquitos/malaria.

It inserts a dominant gene that impairs reproduction in future generations and collapses populations.

Funding for this type of research for all kinds of invasives would be helpful, IMO. Certainly seems better and more specific than trying to import predators also, who may end up preferring the local species over the invasive pest species.

[https://www.nature.com/news/gene-drive-mosquitoes- engineered...](https://www.nature.com/news/gene-drive-mosquitoes-engineered- to-fight-malaria-1.18858)

<comment><USER8> This is the second comment on this thread suggesting that invasive species be driven to extinction through technology. We consider eradicating mosquitos because they are the cause of almost unimaginable human suffering. That is not a bar cleared by a hapless tropical bug that just happened to get shipped from Vietnam to a Pennsylvania vineyard.

<comment><USER9> So what if there were a third or fourth or tenth comment on this thread suggesting driving this species to extinction? Why is the comment count relevant? Is there something wrong with proposing this measure? It sounds like you think this idea is not only bad (which is fine) but that you think it should be unspeakable. Can you clarify? Thanks!

<comment><USER8> No, I just think it's a bad idea.

<comment><USER10> A bad idea to eradicate the invasive? A bad idea to use new technology instead of pesticides? Which part is the bad idea?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Just curious, what's the state of the art of global ecology modeling? How well, if at all, could we model, for example, what'd happen if the Laternfly landed in Italy? Or what'd happen, for example, if we CRISPR gene-drived these bugs out of existence as so many are suggesting?

I get that this is very computationally and scientifically hard, in so many ways. But how good are we at this, at this point? How much harder should we be trying?

Given how critical this is for us to sustain life and adapt to the changing environment, it seems like a no-brainer that we should be pouring vast resources into ecology modeling. Maybe instead of building rockets to "make life interesting" (Musk) or to "build solar panels in space because people can have a right to consume exponentially more energy every year" (Bezos).

<comment><USER12> Maybe instead of spending endless hours vacuously consuming entertainment of various kinds...or providing handouts for those unwilling to produce anything.

Musk and Bezos are doing worthwhile things. There are plenty of better potential funding sources for new projects.

<comment><USER11> But they have a disproportionate impact on mindshare -- on defining what the limited supply of professional scientists and engineers perceive as the most interesting and important problems to solve. This is a zero-sum game: every minute a bright college student spends talking about rockets is a minute that she's not talking about ecology.

<comment><USER12> > But they have a disproportionate impact on mindshare -- on defining what the > limited supply of professional scientists and engineers perceive as the most > interesting and important problems to solve.

The supply of talented (as opposed to just "professional") scientists and engineers is quite large and growing all the time. Space exploration, IMNSHO, is just as important as ecology, in the first place. However, there will still be plenty attracted to that discipline.

Believe it or not, the best and brightest are among the most motivated to seek their own interests.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> We weren't ready for the Chestnut Blight a century ago, Dutch Elm Disease, Japanese Beetles, Kudzu, etc. The Everglades are full of exotic snakes including Anaconda. Destructive, invasive species suck. There will be many more.

</comment><comment><USER14> We should get used to these massive movement of species. Local habitats are changing rapidly, faster than the inhabitants can adapt. They'll have to move. On the current course the average global temperature will be much >7f warmer by 2100, that's a estimate that is really on the low end, and factors no positive feedback, which we are already seeing. Plants, animals and bugs are going to be moving and trying to find new habitat. So are humans, also changing places where we may have not been before, and their local flora/fauna.

<comment><USER6> Please. Average global temperature raising is a thing, but peddling it in every single discussion about the environment does nothing but help the sceptics. This particular invasion has nothing to do with the temperature, and everything to do with US goods trade with China: [https://cdn.static- economist.com/sites/default/files/images/...](https://cdn.static- economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20170401_BBC263.png), and other Asian countries. In combination with insufficient pest control of imported goods.

<comment><USER15> A different climate may be beneficial to an invasive species, so climate change csn be relevant to the topic.

<comment><USER6> Sure, it is relevant to the broader topic of invasive species. But starting a comment with a call to action like above ("We should get used to these massive movement of species"), isn't exactly additive to the content of the article. Rather it sounds like the commenter wants to sell something. I believe that in the political environment we have that can be counterproductive.

By the way, looking up the specifics of the Lanternfly - apparently it is skilful in laying eggs so that those survive even cold winters, meaning climate change at most have a moderate effect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This reminds me of a documentary I watched last decade called "Strange days on planet Earth", narrated by Edward Norton. One of the episodes was about this unwanted migration. They suspended a rubber ring in the water in one of the ports and a few months later found that about 90% of the animals living on that ring were hitchhikers from a long way away.

</comment><comment><USER17> Perfect candidate for genetic control via CRISPR if viable.

Could you imagine what our ancestors would say if they knew we had the technology to successfully kill a pestilence? It would seem like complete madness. They would think us insane for not using it.

<comment><USER18> Replace your first sentence with "nuclear bomb" and the second paragraph (with a looser definition of "pestilence") would be almost as valid. Because our hypothetical ancestors have not been fully informed of the down-side.

Now, I don't know that there _is_ a downside to genetic modification, but history is littered with unintended consequences.

<comment><USER17> In my brain, the sterile mosquito did not spread and kill the entire world's mosquito population, so I'm unsure why that would happen with the Lanternfly population.

And I'm unconvinced the "kill 'em all!" approach to dousing everything in insecticide is that much better.

But, it's obviously a very dangerous and powerful tool that should be thoroughly considered. After watching the emerald ash borer devastate my home state I am a but bullish on killing off invasive species.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> What ever happened to stink bugs? A few years ago they were overrunning everything. Now I hardly see them?

Did animals adapt to eat them?

<comment><USER20> Southern Virginia here. Stinkbugs are EVERYWHERE right now (and have been for the past few years around the end of the summer and into fall).

As I read the headline for this post I saw one slowly meandering up my wall. I also began to think about the possibility of this being done intentionally...

You see, the brown marmorated stinkbugs we have are native to asia. They have no natural predators except for a tiny small wasp that parasticies their eggs (also native to asia).

When I was researching them, I thought "What if China intentionally introduced them to the USA as some sort of ecological attack?" That would be some next- level warfare. Or just a really mean prank.

And then this impending laternfly invasion re-piqued my interest in this theory. It turns out that a similar type of parasitic wasp is the natural predator for laternflys too...

Could this really be a coincidence? Could it be a response to the new tariffs? What if they offer to sell us some bio-engineered wasps (a la Monsanto ) to help control our infestations? But the wasps die after a generation, so we have to constantly buy then...

Of course it could still all be coincidence, but it's fun to think about.

<comment><USER21> Sounds like we just need to import some Chinese wasps to eat all of the stinkbugs, then needlesnakes to eat the wasps, then needlesnake-eating gorillas of course... and in the winter the gorillas will simply freeze to death! Easy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Wikipedia claims there are over 50,000 invasive species in the US. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_the_United...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species_in_the_United_States)

<comment><USER6> Nope, it says "50,000 non-native species". Invasive species are those non- native species that are thought to be harmful to the local ecosystem. Some non-native species can actually be beneficial. The Wikipedia article doesn't offer any number on how many of those 50,000 are invasive, but other sources suggest less than 10%.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why should spraying and biological control be our only options? HN has had a bunch of stories lately on using CRISPR and gene drive to render entire populations infertile. Let's do that here and make this species extinct.

<comment><USER8> Probably because we're not generally in the habit of rendering entire species extinct simply because they've been transported by humans out of their natural habitat?

<comment><USER23> If care is taken to ensure that none of the genetically altered species members make it back to their native region (Asia), then we wouldn't extinguish the entire species, just the ones over here, where they're not part of our natural ecosystem.

<comment><USER8> That's an almost tautological argument, since the premise under which we'd be exterminating them is that we _weren 't_ able to prevent that kind of migration from happening.

<comment><USER23> While any migration of an invasive species generally situates the species in its new region permanently until something kills it off (and as such you must continually guard against invasive species entering), we would only have to prevent re-migrations of the "tainted" species back to their native regions for the amount of time that it would take them to die out due to the sterilization. Much easier.

Edit: relaxed claims.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Invasive species are the worst - Parthenium is everywhere in India, and has ruined wildlife sanctuaries and land for grazing. There seems to be no way to eradicate it.

</comment><comment><USER25> I encountered these for the first time visiting family in PA this summer.

They are very large, oblivious to people, and were absolutely everywhere. Several of them landed on my since I probably looked like a small tree in my dark shirt and pants. I don't know if some predator will come along and balance out the equation, but in the meantime, it certainly did appear to be an invasion.

<comment><USER26> I live just outside of Philadelphia and found two of them this morning next to the bushes outside of my apartment building, they're definitely here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Wow... I just found one of these in my yard Saturday. (North SF Bay area.) I thought it was just a moth with a clever camouflage.

</comment><comment><USER28> Curious... I always read 'America' when people from USA talks about them. What about the people from the rest of the continent?

<comment><USER29> Canadian here.

It's simply because "The United States of America" is a mouthful so everyone either uses the last word "America" or shorten it to "USA".

"US" can sometimes be confusing because then you are not sure if people are saying "us" the object pronoun or "us" the country", so "USA" it is.

<comment><USER30> Also, there's more than one "United States" on the North American continent (check out the official name of Mexico).

<comment><USER29> Good point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Capitalism gets away with another crime. Pretty funny that importing cheap rocks from China could/will cost us tens of billions of dollars, yet there is still no questioning of whether we should continue to import cheap rocks from China. Can't live without those Chinese rocks!

Seems pretty logical to me to put a negative externality tax on these types of imports to cover our losses, but the idea isn't even floated. What am I missing?

</comment><comment><USER32> This is what happens when we've destroyed the habitats of birds and amphibians.

<comment><USER33> No, it's what happens when you ship shit from China and nasties hitch a ride.

BMSB, chestnut blight, camel crickets, asian ladybugs, dutch elm disease, the emerald ash borer, and this lantern fly are just some of the things we have to thank global trade for.

EDIT: Forgot to shout out to the ghetto palm mentioned in the article, which is another introduced species that the lanternfly is attracted to. (It earned its name for thriving on city pollution, it is also likely the fastest growing tree in North America now)

<comment><USER34> It's pretty unlikely that global trade is going to be rolled back.

Instead of tariffs, we should be protecting our industries by forcing pest removal on all shipments from overseas. This would be more effective use of the money and properly align the economics and risks of global trade.

The net outcome would be similar.

<comment><USER6> Doesn't the US have any quarantine requirements on imported products? I could find requirements for live animals, but for other goods? The EU [1], like Australia [2] has quarantine requirements on certain imported goods, including plants.

How well the ones in EU are enforced I don't know. For sure they are not well enforced for individuals arriving to airports - you can just walk straight in with your suitecases. Compared to Australia, which I understand has very strict controls also for individuals arriving.

[1][https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/plant_health_biosecurity/non...](https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/plant_health_biosecurity/non_eu_trade_en) [2][https://www.business.gov.au/products-and- services/importing-...](https://www.business.gov.au/products-and- services/importing-and-exporting/quarantine-requirements-for-imported-goods)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A hot new startup called "Google" (1999) - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/1999/10/04/feat.html <comment><USER2> I remember this like yesterday.

</comment><comment><USER3> The net loss for Google in 2000 does not seems to be that high: [http://web.archive.org/web/20110709150010/http://www.sec.gov...](http://web.archive.org/web/20110709150010/http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/000119312505065298/d10k.htm)

There was nothing wrong with AdWords in terms of privacy in 2001, but Larry/Sergey should have been considering alternatives to it if at all possible.

Getting rid of projects like the Google Toolbar would likely have helped a lot by reducing expenses: [http://web.archive.org/web/20010330065621/http://toolbar.goo...](http://web.archive.org/web/20010330065621/http://toolbar.google.com/whatsnew.php3)

Anyone remember the Google Search Appliance for example?

Google IPOed in 2004 with 99% of revenue being ads, which caused problems during the 2007-2008 recession [https://wiki.fuckoffgoogle.de/index.php?title=Google_Agonize...](https://wiki.fuckoffgoogle.de/index.php?title=Google_Agonizes_on_Privacy_as_Ad_World_Vaults_Ahead)</comment>


Ask David Cohen: When Is the Right Time to Apply to an Accelerator? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techstars.com/content/accelerators/ask-david-cohen-time-apply-accelerator/ <comment><USER2> Wonder if you get feedback about the "that's interesting"?

Too me the problem with accelerators(etc) the information flow is all one way. If you think I'm wasting my time great let me know and why. Maybe I should spend time proving that part wrong.</comment>


Merry Christmas everyone - <AUTHOR> :-) <comment><USER2> What I want for christmas on news.yc: Everybody fill out your profile! There are too many people here who say useful things, but there's no way to contact you (no, the email field in your profile isn't public).

I imagine few people here have grounds for staying completely anonymous. Not everybody is a rich bastard trying to kick unwashed beggars to the curb.

So click on your name in the upper right hand corner and write something about yourself with contact info. You'll be glad you did!

<comment><USER3> Or you might be sad when no one ever e-mails you, because then you'll know you only say useless things.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Everyone take this time while visiting family to upgrade their browser to something other than IE6. I did my part last night.

<comment><USER5> Even if they're on IE7, get them to go to IE8. Less buggy, and it has a js debugger.

<comment><USER6> Your family probably doesn't need a debugger. Get them onto Chrome.

They'll love the new UI, and it'll silently auto-update so you won't have to upgrade it again.

<comment><USER5> The people who develop for the browsers that your family is using do need a debugger.

<comment><USER7> my dad uses firefox, mum chrome

<comment><USER5> I'm certainly not saying don't use something other than IE. Just some people won't. IE8 is better than IE7.

<comment><USER8> Please don't. Please get them off the IE stack and onto a browser with a rendering engine developed by a company with an incentive to improve the web. Chrome, Firefox, Safari - all are good. Please dump IE.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> We don't have Christmas here, so, happy holiday everyone!

<comment><USER10> Happy holidays!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Heh I appreciate the intention and Merry Christmas to you too, but is this really needed on HN or worth karma?

<comment><USER12> Given the mysterious and timely conversion of the site's stylesheet to a Christmas theme, I'd say it's appropriate enough.

<comment><USER11> Yeah definitely, just like for karma to loosely match someone's contributions. Would have no problem if pg posted this. Oh well it's all good fun :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Dupe. ;). Already posted 10 hours prior, and for all holidays, too:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1014478>

</comment><comment><USER14> Happy Xmas (Browser War is Over)

<comment><USER15> Keep safe from Robot Santa, everyone.

<comment><USER16> I'm happy to note that I survived.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Happy non-denominational holiday, which I will spend celebrating family :)

<comment><USER18> Happy Festivus?

<comment><USER19> Underappreciated is the full definition:

"The holiday, as portrayed in the Seinfeld episode and now celebrated by many,[citation needed] includes practices such as the "Airing of Grievances", which occurs during the Festivus meal and in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. After the meal the "Feats of Strength" are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned."

(Wikipedia, obviously)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Merry Christmas to you!

</comment><comment><USER21> Merry Grav-mass!

</comment><comment><USER22> Merry Xmas and for Seinfeld fans: Happy Festivus (as Kramer says, "Festivus for the rest of us!"). May there be lot of festivus miracles. :)

</comment><comment><USER23> Merry Christmas!

</comment><comment><USER24> Happy Midwinter Celebrations to all of you!

</comment><comment><USER25> Have a very Blessed Christmas.

<comment><USER26> Felix dies Nativitatis

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Get off HN, turn off the computer, and enjoy the wonderful sin of gluttony.

Merry Christmas.

</comment><comment><USER28> Gesegnete Weihnachten!

<comment><USER29> Prettige kerstdagen, Hacker News.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Merry Christmas!</comment>


Show HN: Jackpocket launches iOS app to disrupt the $80B lottery industry - <AUTHOR> http://www.jackpocket.com <comment><USER2> Is there a way to verify whoever is buying lottery tickets is of legal age? I don't know. On the fence with this one. Why did you come up with this idea?

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, our position as a courier service purchasing tickets on the behalf of our users makes our service perfectly legal and as a result we have substantial legal backings and opinion letters confirming the legality of our business. We have been transparent about our status and operations with the State of NY and the NY Lottery throughout this process.

</comment><comment><USER4> It's nice seeing these popup. [http://autolotto.com/](http://autolotto.com/) is another.

</comment><comment><USER5> How is something like this scalable with a large amount of users? Will couriers be spending hours buying tickets at convenience stores?

<comment><USER3> We have developed a system where we can process thousands of tickets using proprietary mobile and web technologies our programmers created.

<comment><USER5> That's a pretty generic canned response. While I'm interested in your "proprietary technologies," I'm more interested in how you plan on physically buying the tickets. Are there APIs for purchasing lotto tickets? Good luck.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Has anyone refused to work in a typical 9-5 job? - <AUTHOR>

Or another way of asking, have you has a programmer been unemployed for a really long time?  Mostly because you couldn't find a good fit for the type of work that you are interested.<p>I always like the analogy of herding cats, sometimes programmers are just different and work environments can be rigid.  Have you held out for a really long time in the job market because you wanted that perfect development job? <comment><USER3> I'm in Japan and I've been unemployed for about 5 months. It's not that I'm holding for the "perfect" job. I just wanted a "decent" programming job.

I don't mind working overtime, I just don't want to work 70+ hours every week. I'm OK with working "under stress", but I don't want to work for xenophobic bullies like my last boss.

I don't even expect to do truly exciting work (for instance working at a company like Google or startup like RethinkDB, just to illustrate) anymore, I'd settle for any job that let me actually build software, as opposed to pure app support or pure DBA.

And getting a decent salary. And by decent salary I don't mean the exorbitant salaries that experienced programmers earn in the US (like over U$120k). I'd be happy with $70k or even less if the company was interesting. After many rejections at large foreign companies, I applied for a "senior programmer" position at a small company and after multiple tests and interviews I got an offer. The offer was about U$35k/year. FML.

<comment><USER4> I know many people on here are kinda libertarian...but have you looked at the government? It would still be possible to make >60k/year and work 40 hrs a week, although it might end up being boring work.

<comment><USER3> Well, I'm not Japanese so that's practically impossible (outside of universities).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Can never get up at 7am. Spent 2years looking. Found out that I can survive without a corporate job. Now I do work from 11am to midnight on my own Corp.

In a traditional Corp, my boss will probably think I am lazy. As I come in late(which they see) and leave late (which they don't see).I also tend to put my feet up on my table and close my eyes when thinking about a programming problem really deeply.

</comment><comment><USER6> Its not the 9-5 part about a job that I don't usually like. 9-5 jobs usually imply that you are working for a mid to large size company for which you have little say in the overall direction and decisions of the company. Additionally, you may not believe in the overall mission of the company. Those are the two aspects that make working a typical 9-5 not the place for me.

</comment><comment><USER7> _..sometimes programmers are just different and work environments can be rigid._

No. Just, no.

While I can totally relate to not wanting to have a 9-5 job (and even moreso when it comes to holding out for the right job) a dislike of working 9-5 jobs this is _not_ unique to some (but not all, remember that) programmers.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm not a programmer, but I quit a job because I hated the environment.

Of course, that sort of force me into entrepreneurship & I figured out how to survive.

Don't get me wrong - it was a great job for a lot of people - <USER2> unfortunately, I'm not a lot of people :).

</comment><comment><USER9> Work for yourself. Go into consulting. Flexible hours. More control on work schedule and scope.

</comment><comment><USER10> I've not been unemployed for a long time but I've turnt down quite a few offers that required 9-5 hours. I probably can't help you that much but if you want to talk about it, feel free to email me.

</comment><comment><USER11> Yes, any constraints not consistent with modern, 2010's workplace standards is totally unacceptable. If they want to work in the fuckin' 1980's I would walk.

</comment><comment><USER12> I started a consulting company with a partner. We make our own hours. Sometime we work very long hours, but there's almost never a day when I work 9 - 5.</comment>


Smellr: It's like Flickr, but for your nose - <AUTHOR> http://www.smellr.com/ <comment><USER2> Wasn't this an april fool's joke? I thought I saw it last week.</comment>


Show HN: ARAnalytics - Simplified iOS Analytics Library - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/orta/ARAnalytics

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey guys, I wrote this so we could experiment with trying out different iOS Analytics Providers at Art.sy.

It uses cocoapods to handle all the dependencies so all you have to do is just include which analytics you want in your app and you can use the same API for them all. It's been used in a few apps now and it was time to clean it up and get it out to the world. If anyone wants to know the raw details there's a document in the url for contributing that discusses how it works.</comment>


Introducing Visual Studio's Emulator for Android - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2014/11/12/introducing-visual-studio-s-emulator-for-android.aspx <comment><USER2> This is a great time to reiterate that startups receive Microsoft's software for _free_ , obviously including all versions of Visual Studio.

Check out BizSpark.com or get in touch with me if you happen to be a YC company (email@example.com).

<comment><USER3> You mean they receive Microsoft's software for free _for 3 years_ , after which they get a discounted price for 2 years as an "alumni", after which they have to pay full price now they are fully on your stack and have large switching costs.

I'm not buying that Trojan horse.

<comment><USER4> If you're starting a business, "what will our operating costs be in 3-5 years?" is just about the last thing you should be worried about. In fact, I'd guess that most new business owners would _love_ to end up facing that problem. I certainly would. Plus, it's not like they gouge you after 5 years; Microsoft has a strong incentive to keep its products/services competitively priced. I'm far from a Microsoft fan, but I fail to see how BizSpark is anything but a huge boon to the startup/small business community.

<comment><USER5> > I fail to see how BizSpark is anything but a huge boon to the startup/small > business community.

For starters, it encourages a bad habit: using the Microsoft stack and deploying on Windows.

Unless you are significantly more productive by using this toolset, I'd advise against it. Having said that, most startups fail, so, chances are using Windows will not be a problem 3-5 years down the road.

<comment><USER6> Aren't all three bad choices?

\- Windows: proprietary, hard(ish?) to scale. BizSpark.

\- Linux: Finicky, spend time & money getting it working right. Scales well.

\- Apple: Expensive. Nice.

I'm not a startup guy, but I can easily picture a world in which Apple is chosen by the _massively-funded_ , Linux is chosen by the _scaling-is-our- business-model_ , and Windows is chosen by the _get-off-the-ground-first lean_ (curiously enough) thanks to BizSpark.

FWIW my terminal is Windows, and my datacenter is *nix.

<comment><USER7> Windows isn't particularly more difficult to scale than Linux. A lot of tooling that you would use to scale in Linux is also available in Windows. The cost of such scaling either horizontally or vertically is another issue altogether.

I actually like a lot of things when it comes to windows, and dislike a lot with Linux. That said, I'm still targeting Linux for next-generation app development... When you need to have 3-5 servers for your data and application layers, the price of MS's stack is a bigger difference here.

It really depends on your situation though.. if you have a need for small LOB apps, or even a SaaS that can work in Azure deployments, using BizSpark and sticking to MS isn't a bad option.

Apple may be used by the developers, but depending on your business need, you really aren't deploying to apple servers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've only slightly dabbled in Android development: installing the SDK, IDE, build a "hello world", and run in an emulator. I've done a bit of old-school mobile development (Symbian, WinMobile) and I was very surprised how poor the emulation experience was for Android.

It looks like Microsoft might have a better Android emulation workflow than Google. What strange times!

<comment><USER9> Microsoft has, consistently, supported developers better than almost any other ecosystem. It's a walled garden, but it's well-kempt.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, you know, if they wanted to support developers better, they would have turned Windows into a Unix, they would have made Visual Studio cross-platform, or at the very least they would have fixed that goddamn cmd.exe, which is like the worst CLI ever and they would have cared about web standards. I also find Visual Studio to be worse than IntelliJ IDEA (at least without IntelliJ Resharper that is) and in the past every time I did anything with .NET I was baffled to find out that I do not have access to source with one click, or that .NET doesn't have anything like Maven.

At least now they are open-sourcing the CLR, the core library, ASP.NET, are making .NET cross-platform and made progress on the tooling, like with NuGet (still not close to what Maven does, but it's something). So I'm ready to forgive and forget, but lets not go overboard - only 2 years ago .NET and Windows felt like going back to 1998 ;-)

<comment><USER9> So, if you're still using cmd instead of PowerShell (which we are, sigh...), you deserve the misery.

Why would turning Windows into a Unix have helped anyone? Pike and Plan9 tried to save Unix better then ten years ago, and nobody gave a shit.

Also, why do you even _want_ something like Maven? That's like bitching that Windows doesn't have autotools--or was that next on your list of complaints?

Tell me about how the MSDN is less helpful than man pages. Tell me about how the Windows API is worse documented and more poorly designed than POSIX (lol). Tell me about how executables compiled on one Windows machine don't transport to other Windows machines easily.

I'll stand by my statement, thank you very much.

<comment><USER10> > _if you 're still using cmd instead of PowerShell_

PowerShell is a _shell_ , not a CLI, one starts PowerShell inside cmd.exe.

> _Why would turning Windows into a Unix have helped anyone?_

It helped OS X ;-)

> _Also, why do you even want something like Maven?_

Because you have to rely on Visual Studio for automating your build, testing and deployment process, it it's not doing a good job and again, is like going back to the nineties.

> _Tell me about how the MSDN is less helpful than man pages._

Well, MSDN isn't competing with man pages, but with readily available source- code at the click of a button and with libraries documented like this one is - [http://akka.io/](http://akka.io/)

> _Tell me about how executables compiled on one Windows machine don 't > transport to other Windows machines easily._

Never had a problem with OS X. And on Linux, people automate the shit out of the build process so it isn't much of a problem, hence the need for tools ;-)

<comment><USER9> One does not, in fact, start Powershell from inside cmd.

 _" It helped OS X ;-)"_

Have you seen what they were _coming from_? Apple is a fucking joke when it comes to systems and software engineering--it's their industrial design and UX that everyone loves.

 _" rely on Visual Studio for automating your build"_

msbuild.exe and PowerShell.

 _" It's not doing a good job"_ compared to what, exactly? It's super easy to set up compiler options in C/C++ on MSVC, pretty easy to add other things. You'd prefer makefiles?

 _" available source-code at the click of a button"_

because when we're hacking we want to stop and read somebody else's code instead of, you know, _just using a cleanly documented API_.

 _" And on Linux, people automate the shit out of the build process so it isn't much of a problem"_

bahahahahahha

hahahahaa

haha

(no)

~

It seems like you're trolling or you've never worked on a project outside of your bubble.

<comment><USER10> > _One does not, in fact, start Powershell from inside cmd_

I'm talking about the Command Prompt, that window with which you get access to a shell. I really don't know what you're talking about.

> _Apple is a fucking joke when it comes to systems and software engineering_

That's not an argument I can reply to.

> _msbuild.exe and PowerShell_

MsBuild.exe is Ant. PowerShell is, well, a shell language. This combination is not a substitute for Maven, hence my argument that it felt like going back to the nineties.

> _You 'd prefer makefiles?_

No, I'd prefer something like Maven.

> _Because when we 're hacking we want to stop and read somebody else's code_

Yes, precisely.

> _It seems like you 're trolling or you've never worked on a project outside > of your bubble._

Note that I never resorted to ad-hominems. That's very unprofessional and very unlike the HN attitude. Chill.

And if you do feel the need for personal attacks, I'm also public about my identity, it's not much, but here you have my resume and my GitHub profile, no need to guess - [https://www.bionicspirit.com/pages/about.html](https://www.bionicspirit.com/pages/about.html)

<comment><USER11> > I'm talking about the Command Prompt, that window with which you get access > to a shell.

You mean "a console window". Command Prompt is the name of the baked-in shortcut which starts cmd.exe in a console window.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Visual Studio had always been what I perceive to be the most polished work environment (IDE) i've used. Despite that I have moved away from Microsoft and into Linux based environments over the past couple years. The thought of working out of Visual Studio for all of my Android, Node.js and .NET projects is very tempting.

I however didn't see any mention for Maven / Gradle support, and my latest VS is 2012. Anyone here with some insight into dependency management outside of NuGet?

Sometimes I have nightmares of updating Newtonsoft.Json ([https://www.nuget.org/packages/Newtonsoft.Json/](https://www.nuget.org/packages/Newtonsoft.Json/)) and chasing down all of the version conflicts for the next several days.

<comment><USER13> Android and iOS development in VS will be done via Xamarin, Cordova, or C++. That's why you don't see Maven or Gradle support anywhere, there's no Java involved.

<comment><USER14> So no native android development? Or am I wrong thinking these options are not native.

<comment><USER15> It depends on your definition of native. Xamarin lets you use all the native Android APIs, but you're using them via bindings in C# or F# instead of Java.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> When we built the WP7 emulator (not really an emulator because that implies cpu emulation) we chose to make it x86 based, using virtual machine tech. We could do this and get great performance because all 3rd party apps used managed CLR code and thus were processor independent.

Later the WP8 emulator was actually fully based on Hyper-v and this is too...meaning it is "just" a vm running x86 android, which explains why it's so fast.

<comment><USER17> The Hyper-V requirement is kind of a pain - or rather, the requirements to run Hyper-V are a pain. On non-server versions of Windows, it's only available on Windows 8+ Pro / Enterprise. So anyone with Windows 7 or non-Pro Windows 8 can't run it.

I've been to a few Windows Phone developer camps and this is always an issue for attendees.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Does anyone know what kind of development for Android does VS offer? I guess it's not java, and I'm not familiar with options

<comment><USER19> From the article:

      With Visual Studio 2015 Preview you can target Android and edit-compile-debug regardless
      of your choice of programming models:

      JavaScript (or TypeScript) with Cordova, C++, or C# with Xamarin.

<comment><USER20> any famous apps done with cordova?

<comment><USER19> [http://phonegap.com/app/feature/](http://phonegap.com/app/feature/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Right now it is x86 Android only, not ARM, which is the vast majority of Android devices:

"You need to recompile your code for x86. If you have parts of your code that can only be compiled for ARM, or you depend on 3rd-party libraries for which you do not have an x86 version, your code will not run on our emulator at this point."

<comment><USER22> I believe those are the same limitations as on the x86 emulator provided by Google/Intel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> How does it compare to Genymotion? It would be much more interesting comparison than stock emulator.

<comment><USER15> One difference is that it probably doesn't include adware/malware.

<comment><USER24> I hadn't heard of Genymotion having adware/malware previously. Would you mind linking a source?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This looks fantastic - Google's emulator offering has always been so poor that I turned to Genymotion. The only shame is that we won't see the same for iOS, given that the simulator requires OS X.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is great, the main thing really keeping me from Android development is the Emulators. I'm going to try this out. I love Visual Studio, never thought I'd get to do Android development on it, I wish Visual Studio for Ubuntu / Mac would come next though, but this is good enough for me!

</comment><comment><USER27> So Microsoft is able to provide a better Android emulator than Google itself.

I really wonder who is developing Android at Google, when I look at the emulator, open bugs in the SDK or NDK support.

I guess spending resources moving from Eclipse to Android Studio and still not there, after one year is more important.

</comment><comment><USER28> Its great news, but I think it will take some time before the developers that grew up thinking of MSoft as a closed shop will slowly change their minds. A few "wow" open source releases will really help shift this mindset.

</comment><comment><USER29> Such amazingly convenient timing. I just picked up my droid app I paused on working on. Definitely going to give this a shot. Thanks for posting!

Microsoft is so hot right now!

</comment><comment><USER30> This is incredible, perfect for xamarin or phonegag. Cant wait to use it

</comment><comment> Dorian-Marie This is a great time to reiterate that startups receive Microsoft's software for _free_ , obviously it's a trap and you should not be hooked to Microsoft technology if you want to iterate quickly.

<comment><USER31> "hooked to Microsoft technology if you want to iterate quickly."

Why the hatchet comment? What basis do you have for saying this?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Foreign startup collecting payments from US companies? - <AUTHOR>

Hi hackers,
After years of lurking on HN I have my first serious startup idea, the big problem for me is that I am Australian. The target market is mobile and web game developers, most of whom are in the US, and I'm wondering how to set up payments. So there's really two questions:
1) If you're a US startup/developer, how would you prefer to pay a foreign partner - is PayPal appropriate for business-to-business transactions? Credit card? Bank transfer? Some other way?
2) If you're a foreign startup, how did you collect payments from US customers? Do I need to get an Australian merchant account to accept CC payments? Can I, as a non-US citizen, start an American company so that BrainTree can give me an American merchant account?
I'm not asking for legal advice here, just some indication of how others have solved this problem before me. <comment><USER2> I've used PayPal for over 10 years without any issues for payments between $12 and $5000. It's not the cheapest or least risky (we've all seen the horror stories) route but it's certainly the easiest and, in my experience, very few people _really_ give a crap about using it (I've lost perhaps a few hundred dollars of business in that time due to PayPal no-goers).

(I don't know about Australia but in the UK we can use a "Payments Pro" system with them that offers a more merchant account-like experience and it allows you to hide PayPal from the customer.)

</comment><comment><USER3> I am not sure if this is a direct answer, but I think it can be indicative of possibilities. I worked with a contractor on Odesk, he was based in India. This is what used to happen - I used to pay him through Odesk, he had a paypal and XOOM account, and a bank account in an Indian bank in India.

He used to transfer money from his Odesk account to his Indian bank account using Paypal and/or XOOM.

Btw, fyi, I am based in the US.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have used Paypal, but one foreign vendor was also able to take a US bank check. I was a bit surprised as I did not know this was possible. I'm sure it varies by country, but if it's possible in your country, larger companies, in particular, may prefer to pay by bank check.</comment>


GH Status: We are currently experiencing major service outages - joatmon-snoo https://twitter.com/githubstatus/status/819456675392475137 <comment><AUTHOR> For everyone that depends on GitHub to build production code, add a fallback on gitlab:

`git remote add fallback firstname.lastname@example.com:user/repo`

and then push/pull your code with:

`git push fallback whatever` `git pull fallback whatever`</comment>


Ask HN: Any Tips on Disputing Incorrect Credit Information? - <AUTHOR>

Hi there,
I figured if there would be a group of people who would know best how to handle this situation, it would be you.
I just got dinged on my credit report by a collections agency. Unfortunately for me, I have a common name. It looks like this agency just found me from somewhere and hit me with this.
I first got a letter from them a month ago. I made phone calls to both the agency and the original creditor to clarify with them the details of the delinquent person. (Apparently, he ran out on a utility bill up in the SF bay area. I've lived in southern California for the past twenty years.)
I was hoping that took care of it, but instead I got an email from my credit guard service today saying that they reported me anyway. Not sure how they did that, I can only assume they don't have my social security number, but I might be wrong.
I'm trying to line all my ducks up so that I can take care of this as efficiently and quickly as possible. I've heard horror stories and am hoping that I don't turn into one of them.
Anyway, if you have any advice at all, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Get free copies of your credit report from all 3 agencies (www.frecreditreport.com or your credit guard service). When you log in to each of the credit reports there will be a link to dispute entries. Following this link will take you to an online form that will allow you to submit your dispute online. You can include any supporting info (e.g. your home address vs the SF address). The dispute process usually takes a few weeks/months, but in my case the items were removed in a few business days. Keep watching your reports regularly in case it shows up on a different report a few months down the line.

</comment><comment><USER3> You may already know this, but if you're in the US (I assume you are since you mention your SS#), you're entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the major three agencies.

These are obtained through <https://www.annualcreditreport.com> (not freecreditreport.com)

</comment><comment><USER4> They only have 30 days to investigate any dispute. If it is for an adverse item more than a couple of years old they may never even try. I would urge everyone to go to annualcreditreport.com, get the report, then dispute every single item!</comment>


Twitter Aquires Whisper Systems - mike-cardwell http://www.whispersys.com/updates.html <comment><AUTHOR> Maybe Twitter is doing something involving payments? But if they were, I wonder if they'd telegraph it so blatantly.

The words "talent acquisition" are so cynical, so I'm embarrassed that they'd be my first reaction to this.

Maybe another interesting question is: why is it so hard to get a successful device security product off the ground for Android? Is the market need not there?

<comment><USER2> Another possibility is that they want Moxie to work on Convergence full-time.

This could represent Twitter and Google ganging up on the CAB Forum to clean up their act for the good of the internet. Alternatively, it may be that Twitter plans to match Google's scheme to be an end user identity provider by moving some of the publishing directly onto the handset, and for this they might want a more decentralized server authentication environment.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I had forgotten to put "Whisper" together with "Moxie". This makes a lot more sense now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> mike-cardwell I can understand the talent acquisition, but it's strange to see Whisper Systems products owned by Twitter, considering their purpose...

I could imagine Whisper Systems developing an app to encrypt tweets. I can't imagine Twitter doing that.

<comment><USER3> One of the things Whisper had was a method of encrypting SMS messages so they still fit in an SMS message, perhaps Twitter is hoping to take advantage of that?

<comment> mike-cardwell I can't imagine Twitter developing a product that prevents them from being able to look at Tweets going through their system.

This is why I think this is such a strange move on Whisper Systems part. Their products are all about privacy. Twitter wouldn't have a business model if they gave their users proper privacy.

<comment><USER4> Think Egypt, Syria, China: countries where large-scale keyword filtering and MITM attacks are common, and the infrastructure is owned by the opponent.

What's needed in those cases isn't peer-to-peer encryption, but peer-to- service (and service-to-peer) encryption: tweets encrypted on the device, sent, and decrypted on Twitter's servers; timelines sent encrypted, and decrypted client-side.

Twitter still gets plaintext, but intermediaries can't trace/target pseudonymous users (or filter content).

This could be a real edge for Twitter in countries (China) where they're losing ground to monitored/censored clones (Weibo).

tl;dr: They're probably building Tor, not Skype/BBM.

<comment><USER5> Twitter already has client-to-service encryption with their https APIs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't see this as a talent acquisition.

Waiting for someone to shed more light on this acquisition.

</comment><comment><USER7> Maybe they want to create an enterprise offering (like Yammer).

</comment><comment><USER8> This is in line with Square perhaps we will see "Pay-by-tweet" with a secure encrypted tweet coming along.

With wrapper apps around this.

</comment><comment><USER9> A hardened Android stack? Maybe Twitter are developing a phone?

<comment><USER10> Either that or someone knows someone and would like to have a "successful investment" _wink wink_.

Too early to say though.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Do you do most of your shopping online? Maybe we have the same problem. - <AUTHOR>

I buy at least one item a week online.  My fiancee may buy something every couple weeks as well.  How do you keep track all the things being shipped to you?  Any tools you use?  I tried packagetrackr.com, but for some reason it never worked for me. <comment><USER2> Simple, I don't. Most of my purchases are from amazon, and I order and forget. I get reminded once I see it at my doorsteps.

There are few services which you can forward tracking number, and they update you when the status has changed.

UPS shows you how many days till delivery now, and you can have them remind you but it does not work too well, always delayed, but never the else I don't see it being useful as something like tripit at all

</comment><comment><USER3> Mhh ... I move all confirmation emails from online purchases in a separate folder on my IMAP. So, I always have a list of all purchases I've made, ordered by date. I don't buy that much stuff online so keeping track using that list usually works fine. Except for xmas, I rarely have more than, say, 2 or 3 packages coming my way at the same time.

I simply keep checking that folder once in a while to see if I received what I ordered.

<comment><AUTHOR> So a tripit like product for shipping wouldn't interest you?

<comment><USER3> Mhh, not really but that's just me. The email folder works great for me. As I said: The effort of keeping track of my online purchases is not huge. So, another tool is really not necessary. Again, that's just me. ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It'd be fun to have a tripit.com system for shopping.

TripIt has an email address (firstname.lastname@example.com) that you forward any emailed itinerary to. They process the email, figure out where you're going, etc and then put that info into your account. Granted there's are many more formats of shopping confirmation emails than there are airlines, but hopefully you'd only have to teach it a new retailer once.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ethan, that's exactly what I'm going for! If you're interested in connecting about it let me know (vladik dot rikhter at gmail)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I put a note in my calendar that <package> should have arrived by <date>, then chase it up if it hasn't.

But then, I don't buy that much stuff, so having to keep track of it all on a dedicated site would be overkill.

<comment><AUTHOR> so a tripit like product wouldn't interest you? i'm less interested in going to a dedicated site, would much rather just get email/sms updates.

<comment><USER5> I don't want e-mail/sms updates. I'd want the information to show up on my calendar.

But also, I'd want the information to be accurate, and such package tracking information as is available where I live doesn't seem to be accurate.

<comment><AUTHOR> Where do you live?

<comment><USER5> London.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, actually quite surprised. I uploaded my most recent FedEx shipment and what it looked like. You don't get this level of detail: <http://img832.imageshack.us/i/fedexq.png/>

<comment><USER5> With some companies I'd get that level of detail, but it wouldn't be timely. E.g. the page not mentioning that the package had been put on the van until a few hours after the package had been delivered.

Then there's that knowing the package has been loaded on a van doesn't tell you anything helpful. Once I had a package that was loaded on a van three days in a row.

Maybe it's a question of market segments. FedEx does operate over here, but I imagine they're more expensive than the delivery companies commonly used by UK shopping sites. If I tell you that ParcelForce and CityLink are commonly referred to as ParcelFarce and ShittyLink, that should give you a clue as to the quality of their service.

<comment><AUTHOR> It may be something as easy as just telling you that package X will be arriving on day Y in your calendar. In this case it's helpful if you have roommates or significant others living with you so they know. It would also be quite helpful for small businesses, or at least the few that I've spoken with. I'll do a bit more customer dev and see what happens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Honestly, I don't. Over the years I've trimmed almost all my online shopping down to 6-8 sites that have basically never screwed me over. I order, I forget, stuff shows up without me doing anything.</comment>