Germany: Facebook must destroy its facial recognition database - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/germany-facebook-must-destroy-facial-recognition-database/ <comment><USER2> It's fascinating to watch how tech companies react to restrictive EU privacy laws. Many of the EU requirements (e.g. 'right to be forgotten', mandatory opt-in for cookies) could become a real hindrance for companies that want to build intelligent services and minimized user experiences.

Call me crazy, but it seems like when you get to use a free service or website that costs many millions of dollars to develop, giving the company access to your data is a fairly small price to pay.

I'm waiting for one of these legal actions to cause a company like Facebook to just shut down their service in the local area, and leave a landing page with the email addresses of all the politicians who provoked the outage.

<comment><USER3> _I'm waiting for one of these legal actions to cause a company like Facebook to just shut down their service in the local area, and leave a landing page with the email addresses of all the politicians who provoked the outage._

People in the EU (and Germany in particular) don't care for massive privately held databases that can be used to target individuals. They have had enough bad experiences with secret police forces, and that's why there are strict limits on data gathering and retention.

<comment><USER4> > People in the EU (and Germany in particular) ... have had enough bad > experiences with secret police forces,

How many of these secret police forces were private? How many were govt police forces?

Politicians grandstand about the evils of companies, but the actual killing and torturing people is done by semi-popular govts.

<comment><USER5> > but the actual killing and torturing people is done by semi-popular govts.

Like the Mafia and Church of Scientology. And Blackwater. The East India Trading Company, or Coca Cola assassinating Labor Leaders in Columbia. IBM helped the Nazi's build the accounting machinery used by the concentration camps, requiring IBM to be well aware what was going on.

In some cases Corporations pay governments to do their dirty work. Sometimes the Government pays the corporation. Other times the corporation becomes the government. Sometimes the corporation just doesn't care. Regardless, can we please put aside this fiction that all the serious evils of the world are perpetrated by governments despite the best efforts of angelic businessmen? Pretending that as long as we keep the government in check all will be fine is idiocy and ignorance of the highest order. Excess power in any concentrated location is potentially problematic, regardless if it's held by 'private' or 'public' sectors. Those are labels for groups of people, nothing more.

<comment><USER4> "A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic"

> Regardless, can we please put aside this fiction that all the serious evils > of the world are perpetrated by governments despite the best efforts of > angelic businessmen?

No one is suggesting that business is angelic.

However, whenever someone points out that govts kill lots of people, govt apologists leap up to say "corps have killed too", ignoring the differenc in orders of magnitude.

Mote, beam and all that.

> Those are labels for groups of people, nothing more.

Not so fast. Those groups have very different behaviors and motivations.

The worst that you can say about a company is that it will try to make money from you and might take some action to stop you from interfering with its attempts to make money.

Govts regularly commit mass murder for basically no reason.

<comment><USER6> > Govts regularly commit mass murder for basically no reason.

Govts have reasons, one of the most common is to protect or improve the status quo for the leaders. Not very different from companies.

<comment><USER4> > Not very different from companies.

You're ignoring the orders of magnitude.

Scale is a difference that you have to ignore to apologize for govts.

<comment><USER6> I agree and worse is that most a lot of them actually believe 'the people' actually have a say in this while they don't. Well, at least not with voting. That was not the point though; governments are not doing the stuff they do without reason; there is a reason. It's just not what you would expect and hope from something as massive as a government.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I wonder how the German data protection office might respond if they realized Google probably have the largest database of images in the world, is trying to put cameras in everyone's glasses, and already owns 2 face recognition companies (Neven Vision, Pittpatt)

<comment> mike-cardwell The tone of your comment implies that you think that Germany is targetting Facebook unfairly. Read up on what happened with Google Street View in Germany.

This is not a German issue anyway. It's an EU issue. And the problem is companies compiling data on users without their permission (opt out rather than opt in).

If users aren't willing to opt in to your data collection, then you're not offering something worth the trade. Facebook and Google rely on peoples ignorance to make money.

<comment><USER8> I can't talk for the rest of the EU but in Germany privacy issues tend to get blown out of proportion - the media coverage during the street view controversy was rather ridiculous. Average, non-technical people almost thought Google would drive through their backyards.

It's ok to disagree with Google's and Facebook's behaviour and it's ok to take measures but I wish the media would focus on balanced and objective coverage, educating people rather than calling for drama and hysteria.

<comment><USER9> "In Germany privacy issues tend to get blown out of proportion."

Gosh, I wonder why? I mean, what is it about German history - in particular - that would trigger such powerful negative reactions to the technical foundations of a surveillance state?

Hummm....

Nope, no idea.

<comment><USER10> I don't think this is necessarily related to the Third Reich, but more about common sense. How much should a private company with the reach of Facebook and Google should collect about their users?

<comment><USER11> Well how do you think common sense is formed? Seems like years of Nazi and Soviet control would push common sense in that direction.

<comment><USER10> Germany had a green party movement from the early 80s.

<comment><USER9> You mean West Germany. We're talking about East Germany.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germany>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If I remember correctly you ran the risk of having your Facebook account closed if you made a freedom of information request via it's Irish subsidiary for all that paper work linked to your account.

Therefore I'd imagine a similar response will be generated by FB if they are forced to comply with the latest complaint.

<comment><USER13> _if you made a freedom of information request_

Clarification, in Ireland "Freedom of Information" is for government bodies. It's "Data Protection" law (which is the personal data of you held by anyone, government & private companies)

<comment><USER12> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Why can't Germany just raid the Facebook HQ in the US for violating local law? Isn't that essentially the same that the US did at the dotcom mansion?

<comment><USER13> That's not what happened. Kim Dotcom was arrested by NZ police.

Just about all extradition treaties require "double criminality", where the person is extradited on a thing that's a crime in both countries. The USA does not have these data protection laws, so the USA is highly unlike to extradite to a country where that's illegal.

<comment><USER15> I'm pretty sure that Kim Dotcom hasn't broken any NZ laws. Only a law in the USA. That's why the whole case is really borked.

<comment><USER16> I am not sure. I agree that while copyright is governed by international agreements, this case probably falls outside of what is agreed. I don't think safe harbor provisions are harmonized across jurisdictions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Twas quite clever of Facebook to set up in Ireland (and not just for the 12½% corporation tax rate). It can be a large employer in a small fish, and the Irish government is desparate to be seen to be doing something about jobs (hence any job losses from a household name would be very embarassing).

As a result, I wouldn't be too suprised if some squeeze was placed on the Data Protection Office. "Oh you want more funding... Well..."

I wonder if this is one of the reasons the EU wants to overhaul the Data Protection law so that EU citizens can complain to their national data protection office, not just the one the company is in.

<comment><USER17> Not wrong, but Facebook is hardly the only big fish in Ireland. Most large US corporations locate their European HQs there.

<comment><USER16> Indeed. Google's European HQ is in Ireland too.

<comment><USER13> Many others have large offices and employ lots of people, like Oracle, and (what was) Sun, and IBM and Intel.

<comment><USER18> Don't forget MS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> «database of faces collected in Germany»

"Collected in Germany". It is nice to see how politics and law keep applying physical verbs to non-physical infrastructure. If you ask around you will see that there are almost as many definition of "done XXX in contry YYY" as the number of country out there: some national law see it as "the client is in YYY", other as "the server is in YYY", other as "the infrastructure is in YYY", other as "both the client and the server are in YYY" and so on.

It is very hard to be a law-abiding citizen or business on the Internet when there are heaps of contrasting laws.

</comment><comment><USER20> I just don't see how FB _currently_ gets that much value out of its facial recognition DB. As far as I can tell, as an end-user, it makes it easier to tag people because FB will suggest named tags (sometimes hilariously wrong).

But this is a minor convenience. If I really do want to tag a photo, then I'm already in a curation mindset and willing to put up with the precious second it takes to type in the first two-three characters of a friend's name.

At this point, FB, with those two characters, has enough information to make a 95% accurate guess...because it also has my entire history of interactions with friends, including all past tagging behavior. It obviously can derive a prediction that weights more recent tagging behavior (on the premise that I'm likely to have hung out with the same friends as I did last week)...and bingo, by the time I've typed the third character, Facebook has it narrowed down to the right person.

So why even bother keeping the facial recognition data?

...I'm not so naive to think that there aren't other applications of this facial-recognition data. I'm just pointing out that FB has nearly all the non- visual data needed to guess who is in a photo without applying any computer- vision techniques.

And that non-visual data (the history of a user's interactions) has way more predictive value on behavior than a facial-recognition DB... So given that the general public is more disturbed by things relating to physical appearance, if I were FB, I'd just give up this fight and carry on collecting all the non- visual data that they have so far.

 __* edit:

Along the same lines...this decision seems to be based on how FB collected this data without users explicit consent. Well, under this argument, doesn't FB collect interaction data without user consent?

Say my friend Bob continually posts on my wall, pokes me, sends me direct messages, etc. FB, without my consent, will have enough interaction data to peg me as Bob's special confidante...without any interaction on my part.

Isn't this the complaint with the face data? That my friends can tag my face and thus give FB a decent idea of my appearance? Well, my friends can also give FB a decent idea of my preferences in a variety of arenas by how they converse and interact with me...so if opt-in is the issue, isn't _all_ of FB data up for destruction?

<comment><USER21> > Along the same lines...this decision seems to be based on how FB collected > this data without users explicit consent. Well, under this argument, doesn't > FB collect interaction data without user consent?

Biometric data is usually a much more touchy subject than anything else. But yes there are also people who think that interaction data (logs) collection should be opt-in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Sometimes I wonder if the US Government will somehow use Facebook photos to track people, even if they themselves don't have a Facebook account. I find the idea of something like that creepy.

</comment><comment><USER23> Ive said it once, twice and many other times. I do believe Germany is probably by far one of the most advanced political governments there are.

I so welcome their input and applaud their effort!

</comment><comment><USER24> Every database out there can be used for evil. Whether if it's facial fingerprint or anything else. I never liked Face.com and facebook's decision to buy them. The ability of a photograph being used to track me anywhere there is a camera is not the future I want to be part of.

</comment><comment><USER25> Or else!

</comment><comment><USER26> I don't like the Facebook facial recognition thing either. Or when someone tags me on photos that they have uploaded. I think its creepy when someone else posts my photo, then I start getting comments on it. This should be opt- in, not opt-out.

<comment><USER27> I believe you can set permissions so that you have to approve any photo that is tagged with you in it.

<comment><USER28> They quietly removed that option and now only allow you to restrict it from your timeline (requires you to approve). You still need to manually _remove_ the tag. Annoying.

<comment><USER29> Of course it's annoying. Facebook wants you to feel pain whenever you try to manage your own social presence in a way they can't monetize.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Of course they realize that the NSA already has a full copy?

You might think: so what, I'm not a terrorist. But think twice, because people opposing US interests (and the interests of some of the most powerful lobbies, like MPAA & RIAA) are increasingly being afforded the treatment you'd expect for a terror suspect.

<comment><USER31> > But think twice, because people opposing US interests (and the interests of > some of the most powerful lobbies, like MPAA & RIAA) are increasingly being > afforded the treatment you'd expect for a terror suspect.

[citation needed]

<comment><USER32> kim dotcom raid?

<comment><USER31> Nope. Kim Dotcom was arrested by NZ police to face extradition hearings. He's been released on bail and hasn't even left New Zealand, much less been spirited away to CIA black sites or detained at Guantanamo Bay or declared an illegal enemy combatant or brought before a military tribunal or denied access to legal counsel. Whatever problems there are with his arrest and the searches and seizures that took place with it, they're following the exact same procedures they would for any extradition case, nothing like the procedures used for terror suspects.

<comment><USER32> Why do you need a SWAT team to arrest someone for copyright infringement?

Great great grandparent used the words _increasingly_ and _expect_ , not simply _are_.

<comment><USER31> 90% of the time a SWAT team is used, you don't need a SWAT team. Overzealous law enforcement is a problem, but it's a problem that predates, and is largely separate from, the even-more-exceptional counterterrorism measures. It's not useful to conflate the two issues. Kim Dotcom wasn't "treated as a terror suspect" any more than the "don't tase me bro" kid. Not to say that it isn't an issue, just not the same issue.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Reddit, Banned in China, Set to Land $150M from Tencent, a Censorship Powerhouse - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/reddit-banned-in-china-is-reportedly-set-to-land-150-1832375439 <comment><USER2> This article is a long stretch, Tencent hasn't censored Snapchat and Discord because it doesn't need to so why would it bother to censor Reddit?

It only does censorship in China or else the Chinese govt will heavily fine Tencent, otherwise censorship is actually an added cost for the company because of time and effort, so why would it make operations more costly when it doesn't need to.

</comment><comment><USER3> Dupe: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19087558](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19087558)

(Also, weird framing IMO in the hed)</comment>


Einstein's Chronology for 1905 - <AUTHOR> http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/chron-1905.htm

<comment><USER2> 1905 was an amazing year for Einstein and physics; Wikipedia puts it better than I can (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annus_Mirabilis_Papers>):

The Annus Mirabilis papers (from Latin annus mīrābilis, "extraordinary year") are the papers of Albert Einstein published in the Annalen der Physik scientific journal in 1905. These four articles contributed substantially to the foundation of modern physics and changed views on space, time, and matter. The Annus Mirabilis is often called the "Miracle Year" in English or Wunderjahr in German.</comment>


The Applied Machine Learning group at Facebook - <AUTHOR> https://backchannel.com/inside-facebooks-ai-machine-7a869b922ea7#.6462ygj0h <comment><USER2> Look, I get the investment in technology and desire to push the limits, but sometimes these kinds of articles reveal a type of hubris that doesn't sit well with me.

> _Facebook today cannot exist without AI. Every time you use Facebook or > Instagram or Messenger, you may not realize it, but your experiences are > being powered by AI._

It's not a "strong statement" as much as it is belligerently arrogant to the point of misguided. Facebook is its Users. No amount of AI can sell advertising the way Users can. And, last time I checked, it's still the User clicking around and having experiences.

AI is a servant and, for the foreseeable future, an extremely limited and immature one. Sure, in time it will help a lot of mundane things go more smoothly.

Like with this:

> _For images and video, the AML team has built a machine learning vision > platform called Lumos._

Great! Now Facebook can end the scourge of Freebooting and Copyright Infringement once and for all! I dearly look forward to the highly publicized ban-hammer drops! Because that's one of the main reasons those tools exist, right, to serve the actual creators and not the Facebook ecosystem at the end of the day? Oh. Right.

<comment><USER3> >... metrics on how well the company has managed to reduce fake news

Or an arrogance in how they believe it's fine (if not their duty) to censor news stories, as they deem fit, almost as if people of voting age can't think for themselves.

<comment><USER4> Was it already "censorship" when Facebook didn't present me, a card-carrying socialist, with far-right websites in my feed? Or is it "censorship" when they start taking USUncut out of my feed because, frankly, its journalistic quality is crap?

Which one of these was censorship? Does Fox News have a right to show up in my feed, given that I very much don't want to see it?

<comment><USER3> A small group of people doesn't get to say what is true, and then impose it on everyone else, without being called arrogant, infantilizing of their own users, or simply pushing politics (which is not farfetched given their execs had such strong ties to one party last election). You should have the ability to curate your own feed even if by managing your friends, but the buck stops there.

<comment><USER4> While I would never say the Facebook staff are intellectual authority figures, I think that "a small group of people doesn't get to say what is true" is just plain false. A small group of people tell the rest of us what's true all the time. They're called domain experts.

>You should have the ability to curate your own feed even if by managing your friends, but the buck stops there.

The feed is generated by an algorithm designed to maximize the chance I click links from my feed. It has never been a rote concatenation of my Facebook friends' walls/timelines/whatever-they're-called-today.

That kind of concatenation and interleaving of content from my friends would be an improvement. It's just not what we ever had at any point. Facebook has not suddenly acquired a bias or agenda. It's been filter-bubbling everyone since forever, and now people have objected that some of what it feeds them in their own personal bubble is _bullshit_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A lot of the people featured in this story came from Microsoft. Folks at Microsoft/Facebook - any ideas as to why that is? Is it just that Microsoft is a huge and dominant institution in computing so probability wise a lot of people naturally would have backgrounds which came from Microsoft? Is it because Microsoft is (or were??) leaders in ML/AI and it is has recently become a FB focus area, so lots of hiring of Microsoft talent?

<comment><USER6> MSR let go of one of their major AI/ML groups IIRC and they promptly joined FAIR, plus Kaiming He and his group (one of the best) left for FAIR.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> They're moving some of the work to the client. Faster response and save on servers?

"By running complex neural nets on the phone, you're putting AI in the hands of everybody,"

<comment><USER8> That's where we're going now then? My hardware is used to run your code for your benefit, the scraps of which I can only hope to see should I be so blessed by the gods at Facebook?

<comment><USER9> It's not like they're running Seti@home on your phone. Presumably you're on Facebook for your own value. The micro energy cost st the individual user will be a rounding error but for Facebook and it's infrastructure it could be a huge savings and should deliver better user experience. Seems smart to me.

<comment><USER10> > The micro energy cost at the individual level

The impact to people won't be the cost but rather the decreased battery life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> How topical -- it might even root out fake news!

To say nothing of all the other plans Facebook has for it...

<comment><USER11> I used to really enjoy coming to HN for some good tech/hacker/software news and to get away from the near ubiquitous political bullshit on th web, but over the last few months this site has changed for the worse.

I've had different accounts over the years since the beginning of HN, following pg, rtm, arc, etc. and I've never seen it like this. Differing opinions are what make discussions interesting, but this whole "fake news" horseshit Trump is pushing is just pure garbage.</comment></comment>


Why David Karp Started Tumblr: Blogs Don't Work For Most People - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/founder-stories-why-david-karp-started-tumblr-blogs-dont-work-for-most-people/

<comment><USER2> Tumblr is an amazing story, but there is still a lot of room to grow in this world. You just have to look at pg's "Request for Startups post to see how much opportunity is still available <http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

29\. Easy site builders for specific markets. Weebly is a good, general- purpose site builder. But there are a lot of markets that could use more specialized tools. What's the best way to make a web site if you're a real estate agent, or a restaurant, or a lawyer? There still don't seem to be canonical answers.

Along these lines I think there is a massive success for whoever comes up with a Tumblr-esqe site optimized for sharing recipes, crafting, and other "homey" activities. A few weeks ago I had 3 separate friends/coworkers coming to me for advice on which blog platform to use for a recipe site. Nothing really works great for this application and there seems to be a real desire for it. I'm sure there are dozens of other "verticals" like this that could grow to significant size. e.g. I could see a similar use case for guys who restore old cars. Go to an amateur car show and every guy will have a scrapbook showing off the restoration process. There is a lot of creativity that Tumblr isn't suited for or targeted at.

</comment><comment><USER3> When I first found Tumblr, I didn't really get it. I wondered why I'd use the service when other services like WordPress are out there. Then I saw the quick, small side of it and wondered why I'd replace Twitter with it. But there is a great point here... It's a very good "in between" for people who don't want something too simple (allows them more control over content), but don't want something overly complex to set up or maintain, either.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't really get the difference between Tumblr and a blog. Every major tumblr I've seen is just a blog with a blank interface. You can do that anywhere else...

<comment><USER5> You don't have to write a title. That's huge, I hate writing titles.</comment></comment>


Massive new aircraft the Airlander 10 is unveiled - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/21/airlander-10-hybrid-airship-unveiled-bedfordshire <comment><USER2> A bit OT but the hangars at Cardington are amazing.

You see them in the distance and you think "oh that's interesting", then you realise they're a lot further in the distance than you first thought, and you think "bloody hell! They're massive!"

<comment><USER3> if you like big hangars, the old CargoLifter Hangar[1] near Berlin, Germany is also amazing. Even more amazing since they went bankrupt and it was converted into a tropical island resort[2] where you can go to sun bathe in the icy Berlin winters.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CargoLifter) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Islands_Resort)

<comment><USER4> original purpose: building a giant airship

new purpose: pasty white germans eating barbecued sausage and drinking beer on a fake tropical beach

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very cool! I've always been fascinated by lighter-than-air vehicles, and I'm excited to see that the technology is still being developed. For anyone who's interested, the history of the field is littered with odd false starts, such as the US Navy's (now long defunct) LAV fleet circa 1920 [0].

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_%28ZR-1%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_%28ZR-1%29)

</comment><comment><USER6> Nice just down the road from me about 18 months ago I did a spec job application to them.

Might tale the day off work to see her fly for the first time.

</comment><comment><USER7> It should work, but what is it for? For "surveillance", a small drone is far more cost effective.

And how much helium does it leak per week? That's what killed Airship Ventures, Silicon Valley's airship. The price of helium doubled.

<comment><USER8> It has the same cost as ice-trucking in the arctic without the risks.

Edit: Okay, Transport is the purpose of the Lockheed craft. This craft, however, eludes me... they're pitching it for sensing/telecommunications purposes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This article has more details:

[http://www.blimpinfo.com/airships/hybrid-hopes-an-inside- loo...](http://www.blimpinfo.com/airships/hybrid-hopes-an-inside-look-at-the- airlander-10-airship/)

<comment><USER10> With the exception that it is from 2015, and the "news" is that its almost ready to fly (see [http://gizmodo.com/our-first-look-at-airlander-10-the- larges...](http://gizmodo.com/our-first-look-at-airlander-10-the-largest- aircraft-in-1766351092)). It was supposed to start air trials in "early" 2016 and it looks like it won't miss that mark by too much.

<comment><USER10> And on a related note, it would be unsettling to see this: [http://i.kinja- img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--FtZsEwdI...](http://i.kinja- img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--FtZsEwdI--/x94cpbjzzwgwrtzzeyek.jpg) coming down from the sky. Kudos to the photographer for getting the whole front of the aircraft in the shot though.

<comment> david-given Anyone who remembers a particularly ludicrous TV SF series from the late 1990s will immediately wonder if it can blow up planets:

[https://coubsecure-a.akamaihd.net/get/b89/p/coub/simple/cw_t...](https://coubsecure-a.akamaihd.net/get/b89/p/coub/simple/cw_timeline_pic/1956d8aa2ab/23fc32fad3b9da4b91e6b/big_1437132228_image.jpg)

<comment><USER11> Something... awful.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ten Years Later, Technology Catches Up with Go-L's Fictional Systems - <AUTHOR> http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/ten_years_later_technology_catches_go-ls_fictional_systems2013

<comment><USER2> cool retrospective!!</comment>


The Y Combinator explained with JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://kestas.kuliukas.com/YCombinatorExplained/ <comment><USER2> You can directly call lambdas since PHP-7, actually:

        $ php -r '(function($v){echo $v;})(phpversion());'
        7.0.11</comment>


First Money In - Platform for Uniting Angels and Startups - <AUTHOR> http://www.firstmoneyin.com Anyone raising money?  Looks like this soon-to-be-launched NYC company is building out a platform <comment><USER2> Their message is already confusing. The header says FALL 2008 - but the copy below says Q4 2007.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Has anyone heard of this site before?</comment>


Microsoft Throws Nokia Under the Bus? - <AUTHOR> http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/06/what-happens-now-to-nokia-lumia-and-windows-phone-after-microsoft-throws-nokia-under-the-bus.html

<comment><AUTHOR> The takeaway ...

"Nokia smartphone market share was collapsing. The speed of collapse is now increasing. Nokia's handset unit is generating a loss. Those losses will not get bigger. Nokia's market share was in freefall in smartphones and dumbphones. That was before Elop's emergency measures of 'increasing sales by reducing sales'. That means Nokia's market shares will shrink even faster. The Nokia brand is badly burned by the past year, this latest Lumia upgrade disaster burns Nokia's brand even worse and causes even more of traditionally loyal Nokia carrier partners to bail."</comment>


Mercury: Instant AMP Results. Zero Development - <AUTHOR> http://mercury.postlight.com/ <comment><USER2> Hey everyone, I'm Philip from Postlight / Mercury. I am the lead engineer on this project so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

<comment><USER3> Hi Philip --- congrats on the release! Do you have plans to make Mercury into a paying product?

<comment><USER2> Thanks Karim, at this time there's no plans to that effect.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Awesome stuff. On reflection, it makes you wonder why Google didn't offer this when they rolled out AMP.

<comment><USER2> The web, and markup therein, is very heterogeneous. We're using the Readability Content API (full disclosure, I am in charge of Readability as well) to do the initial cleanup in order to be able to turn arbitrary pages into the structured, validated data AMP requires.</comment></comment>


Request HN: Clickable URLs in User 'About' Text - <AUTHOR> To those who curate the mighty HN... Please can we have clickable URLs in the text that users write about themselves. I click on usernames quite a lot, and see that most people put links to their stuff in their About info.<p>Many thanks! <comment><USER2> Might make sense to contact the moderators using the |contact| link at the bottom of the page about this feature request.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have done in the past. They don't look at those either... :D</comment></comment>


The future of work looks like becoming a relentless rat race - <AUTHOR> http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/2015/12/the-future-of-work-relentless-rat-race-on-earth-to-me/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SimpleLivingInSuffolk+%28Simple+Living+in+Suffolk%29 <comment><USER2> I don't think FI (financially independent) is the right term to divide the world. Why not go with rich? Aren't all retired people FI by definition? I don't think that poor guy down the block will think he should rob grandma, especially if she's barely making it on US social security. I do agree with the concept that we'll have decreasing need for humans working, and wages should trend to drop because of that. We will almost certainly have to move to a guaranteed living income, as some Scandinavian are flirting with.

The other trend I struggle to understand is that there are sectors of the economy with persistent labor shortages, but little clear direction. Two areas: advanced and computer operated manufacturing, welding, and software engineers. The us has really poor educational opportunities to get people into the manufacturing jobs we have, and those that look good for the future in hi tech manu. seem to be the most in demand.

Secondly there is of course the global shortage of programmers. This not for "basic IT" really, where someone can "just" use packaged software to build an application - that seems to be only under a small amount of pressure to find people. I'm thinking that it's the people that write software from scratch, software engineers. Why isn't everyone who is technical/math/scientific and needs pursing this? In Seattle there are more than 10,000 open jobs in this area, all with great money, benefits.

Not everyone is really able to do these two kinds of jobs. But please consider getting training in one of these areas if you are trying to figure out the future.

</comment><comment><USER3> "How the hell have we come to this ugly pass where earning a living takes up so much nervous energy and angst, in what is a rich First World country? Now some of it is due to globalisation and the fact that two thirds of the world (the Communist countries and what used to be known as the Third World) were largely outside the capitalist system, and now this has changed the water is finding its own level. Living standards in the First World will have to fall until they meet rising living standards elsewhere."

1\. We are going backwards, at some point we will be back to the labour standards of the 18th and 19th centuries. All of the labour laws we won during the end of the Great Depression are gradually being taken away.

2\. The author states that FI people will be sitting on the drain plug as the Non-FI people circle the drain. If history rhymes with the French Revolution, the FI people may be in danger unless they are well armed, or in control of the army. As one of my old bosses once said: "I'll take your chest of Krugerands with my guns"

3\. As the song "We won't be fooled again" by The Who states: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss". It is human nature for Psychopaths to rise to the top. Until this is fixed, nothing will change.</comment>


How Apple Fumbled the Voice First Future - <AUTHOR> http://highscalability.com/blog/2018/1/22/how-apple-fumbled-the-voice-first-future.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HighScalability+%28High+Scalability%29 <comment><USER2> What voice first future?</comment>


Interesting new keyboard design by samsung - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/08/samsung_folding_keyboard/

<comment><USER2> Reminds me of the Thinkpad 701 from ~1995 that had the keyboard that sort of folded out when you opened the screen to give you a larger keyboard while maintaining a smaller device footprint for portability.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_ThinkPad_Butterfly_keyboard>

</comment><comment><USER3> I believe Sierra Wireless tried something like this in the 2nd gen Voq, which I don't think ever got released. Here's the 1st version. <http://www.windowsfordevices.com/articles/AT9343931131.html>

The problem with this layout is that it is unbalanced to have the weight of the phone in the center with the smaller and lighter wings splaying out to the sides. The difference in widths/weight, results in a rocking motion of the device and it gets uncomfortable trying to hang on to the thing (I built myself up a prototype once of a very similar design, and it didn't feel good at all).

</comment><comment><USER4> Wasn't there like a nokia phone with a similar k/b form factor with the screen in between?

That one sucked bad and was way to difficult to use!

<comment><USER4> Got it.. This one <http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_6800-pictures-369.php>

Not a very good picture and am too lazy to look for another one!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I see that and think _snap_

</comment><comment><USER6> Much less handy than the sliding keyboard approach in my opinion.</comment>


Virtualization and over-subscription: breaking the 100% utilization barrier - <AUTHOR> http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/08/virtualization-and-over-subscription.html

<comment><USER2> I can still remember the first time I put together a vmware virtualcenter server with a few servers running the hypervisor. It was the first time I encountered software that left me speechless since it felt like it was built with magic, at the time since I simply couldnt comprehend how this could be done.

I ended up quitting the company I built it at because they didnt see the point of virtualization and werent going to implement it.

<comment><USER3> Indeed. Generally speaking, virtualization adoption hasn't set any speed records. But slow and steady wins the race, as they say. :)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also of possible interest - things we've done with the current (1.1) version of our platform:

Howto: Build and scale a Cassandra cluster in five minutes - [http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/08/howto-build-and- scal...](http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/08/howto-build-and-scale- cassandra-cluster.html)

Howto: Build a Hadoop cluster in five minutes - [http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/07/howto-build- hadoop-c...](http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/07/howto-build-hadoop- cluster-in-five.html)

Howto: Build a ten node memcached cluster in five minutes - [http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/07/how-to- build-10-core...](http://blog.gridcentriclabs.com/2010/07/how-to- build-10-core-memcached-cluster.html)

You may notice an interesting trend :)

[edit: formatting]

</comment><comment><USER4> Actually OpenVZ already has a lot of the things mentioned, although only for Linux VMs running on top of an OpenVZ-ified Linux kernel.

Paging, ballooning, content-based sharing, CPU and RAM overcommit, all are there, provided you only use Linux VMs.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point - OpenVZ is quite good for userspace virtualization.

One thing Copper (what this demo is running on - <http://www.gridcentriclabs.com/copper>) can do that OpenVZ can't do is VM clone / page sharing across multiple physical servers. For example, if you wanted to clone thousands of desktops across a rack or two of servers.</comment></comment>


Finland Is the Happiest Country in the World, and Finns Aren't Happy about It - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/finland-is-the-happiest-country-in-the-world-and-finns-arent-happy-about-it/ <comment><USER2> Maybe we need different words for all these different meanings of happiness.

In addition to these 3 definitions of happiness in the article, here another one: miserable happiness. Examples: startups, babies, gym. You feel exhausted, miserable and helpless while feeling a different kind of, a more meaningful, happiness inside.

<comment><USER3> Here is another, Finnish word: sisu

<comment><USER4> 'Tis my favorite Finnish word. My grandfather was born in Finland and taught me this at a very young age. He always thought it was important to embody Sisu in every day life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm originally from Finland, and this article doesn't make me any happier than I was before.

<comment><USER6> That would appear to be expected - being Finnish and all!

<comment><USER5> I would compose a witty reply, were I not too busy drinking and brooding.

<comment><USER6> You Finns are too much!

Seriously speaking though, I love how well grounded you are as a nation. The world would be a better place with more of that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A good measure would be something that can withstand the ups and downs of life. What I mean is that if Finland would end up in a war and drastically changing the way people live. There wouldn't be anything left that would allow them to be happy, right? Therefore I think the best measure must be ones own experience of positive emotions and expression of gratitude.

</comment><comment><USER8> Too cold for me to be happy there. Now if Finland would move to the Caribbean, I'd move immediately.

<comment><USER9> Finland is cold but Finns most definitely are not -- 5.3 million people and two million saunas [1].

[1] [https://finland.fi/life-society/bare-facts-of-the- sauna/](https://finland.fi/life-society/bare-facts-of-the-sauna/)</comment></comment>


Americans, Everything You Do Is Monitored - <AUTHOR> http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/americans-everything-you-do-is-monitored_05052011

<comment><USER2> Title should be "EVERYONE, everything you do ONLINE is monitored." Also, webcams don't switch themselves on. This is ridiculous.

First off, the government doesn't give a rat's ass about you. You are not even a number on a list. You are a number in a number. You are incredibly obscure and tiny; you are the molecule to their galaxy. So are they monitoring you in the 1984 sense? No. You are not the type of person the government cares about monitoring. You are not a special and unique snowflake. Get it through your heads. Nobody cares that you have a realdoll or a foot fetish. Nobody cares that you actually like the Backstreet Boys. In fact, nobody cares that you are radically anti-government...but even if you are, use Tor!! It's that easy.

Secondly, what people don't seem to realize that the internet isn't some place where you get stuff for free. You ask for things and generally get them, but you exchange information in order to do so. People want to have their cake and eat it too. If you want complete privacy, unplug your computer and don't use a cell phone. You don't have to be a government agent to tap into a radio frequency or sniff TCP traffic. Anybody can do this! If you really cared about communicating anonymously, you'd use SSL and Tor for everything. Nobody can decrypt SSL, and if you use Tor, it's very difficult to tell where a specific piece of information came from.

I don't get why people have this idea in their heads that everything they do online is or should be private. This is a _public network_. Use at your own risk. Anyone who really wants to can look at anything they want. If you really have something you need to hide, then encrypt and obscure your communications. Problem solved.

Also, this is more of a problem for people in the middle-east than Americans, if you asked me.

(written by an American)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for posting the rebuttal to the article I wrote over at SHTFplan. While I won't disagree with your assessment that "nobody cares," it's become increasingly clear that all digitally processed data is being fused into complex 'social network' like databases. The Fusion centers mentioned in the article do just this. They aggregate data looking for flags. No, there isn't a person sitting around listening specifically to your phone calls, or specifically monitoring your internet traffic or emails... It's all plugged into digital monitoring systems. You really don't matter.... until you're flagged.

We can play this game all day long, but the fact of the matter is that systems like this do exist. Operation Echelon, as I pointed out in this article, is designed for this specific purpose and has been used extensively in over 15 countries in Europe in the 1990's, and has likely expanded by now. This is verifiable and confirmed by the US and British governments - just look it up - don't be scared. Computers ARE listening to your conversations utilizing speech recognition technology. And if you happen to say a keyword, or string of keywords, the conversation is flagged and dispatched for human analysis. This is FACT, not tin foil stuff.

With regards to cell phones and the comment from "fredu golon" here in your rebuttal, again, this is not science fiction. This is CONFIRMED by the FBI as early as 2006. It's called "Roving Bug" technology and it is active in most every cell phone that comes to market: <http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html> . While the 'camera' side of this is unconfirmed, it's obvious that the technology is possible and likely in use right now.

Likewise is the technology possible to monitor microphones and cameras on your home PC... It's as simple as accessing your network. While I certainly don't know how to do it. And you don't know how to do it. Are you really of the thought that top-level intelligence agencies do not have this capability? And if they do, how long before the technology is integrated with monitoring systems so that computers can, at the push of a button, listen to entire networks of users having conversations at home? My view is that the purpose Fusion networks and centers is exactly this over the long-term.

I have no paranoia or delusions about what's going on here, and I realize I am but a speck of dust on a beach of billions of digitally-connected internet and cell phone users. The point here was not to necessarily suggest the YOU, specifically, are being monitored, but that the system as a whole has the capabilities to do so and is actively doing it right now.

Call it tin foil, that's fine. But the evidence, some of which was cited above, simply cannot be denied.

Thanks.

Mac Slavo www.SHTFplan.com

<comment><USER2> Thanks for your reply. While I don't deny the existence of flagging of voice and text communications (this has been a well-known fact for years), my point was not "no, they aren't watching." My point was "yes, they are watching...but who cares??" If you have something you want to hide from the government (or other organization), encrypt it.

Also, even having access to my home network (which is firewalled once by my router, and again by my computer) there is still no way to just "flip the switch" and monitor my webcam. I would have to

a. have a port available PUBLICLY through both firewalls that allowed someone to connect and view a live stream of my cam (which would require streaming software running in the background, AKA I'd have to purposefully turn it on) or

b. have a trojan installed unbeknownst to me that somehow figures out, in every model of laptop, how to turn on the camera but disable the "camera is on" hardware light, connect to a remote server (without the operating system knowing about it (not bloody likely)) and send a stream of everything happening. There would have to be a standard API implemented by _all_ PC/camera manufacturers that allows this trojan to do this, which has also been kept entirely secret (impossible, if more than one organization is involved) and also the trojan would have to be installed on all computers and ignored by all virus scan software. The trojan would also have the ability to open a hidden connection that the operating system would allow but not report as an active connection.

Like I said previously, this is ridiculous. Perhaps this could MAYBE happen in Windows/Mac (good luck keeping this secret), but not an open-source OS like linux. So yes, maybe you don't know how to do it, but I do...and I'm telling you that I would have to purposefully allow it to happen. Please don't spread misinformation just because you think it may be possible or because you saw it in a movie.

Also, note that at no point did I call you paranoid or mention a tinfoil hat. I simply stated my disagreement to your main points, which you have still not argued against:

1\. You are on public networks here. Your computer is connected to the largest public network in the world...consider it a free for all. Your cell phone transmits information using radio waves...meaning anybody ( _anybody_ ) can listen in.

2\. Nobody cares what you are doing or saying. You'd have to actually be planning some sort of attack to become any sort of priority on a keyword monitoring system. Which brings us to

3\. If you really do want to hide something -- from the government, from corporations, from _anyone_ \-- you have to encrypt it if you are going to send it over public channels. Airwaves are public, the internet is public. Don't expect free privacy.

<comment><USER2> I'd like to point out that although I believe my arguments stand, it _is_ very important that people do realize that monitoring is there, so if they do have a problem they can take steps to prevent it.

Mac, I think it's a valiant cause to create awareness, and I admire that you're doing that. However, I feel that you are using scare tactics more than factual evidence. That's not to say you don't have factual evidence, but you are also writing to invoke a feeling of fear, which isn't necessary, and in most cases causes more harm than good.

This isn't a hopeless situation, we just need to be aware of how we communicate and who's listening...and also be aware of the fact that although some of us may be extremely privacy-conscious, most people (at least in America) just want to buy shit off Amazon and browse Facebook and they don't care who's watching.

It's like monitoring a fish tank ;).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Life could be better in another planet.</comment>


Ask HN: What back end scenarios you find yourself implementing again and again? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> OP here. Just to put more context here. My friend and I have been working on a drag-and-drop backend builder tool on top of cloud platforms - [https://codelines.dev](https://codelines.dev).

It's like Webflow for AWS.

We're trying to find out what are some common backend scenarios that are people implementing again and again so we implement the right features.</comment>


Ask HN: What is best 3rd party authentication for developers - <AUTHOR> I need to integrate 3rd party authentication to our API product where developers can sign up. Should I use google or github or own Oauth. Issue with google is developers from china can't sign up. For github, I don't know if I can always get email to reach out to developer later. With our own Oauth, we will need to manage passwords etc. What are your thoughts? <comment><USER2> Managing passwords isn't like handling nuclear waste.

I'd suggest that researching best practices and either implementing them or finding a library to do it for you is a worthwhile exercise, which you will be glad of next time <3rd party> is down, changes their services, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think big 3rd party services like google can be used reliably? Just that in the beginning, adding own authentication with password management, email verification, password reset would be too slow to implement and maybe less secure than 3rd party? And in the moment of crisis like a hack, it does feel like handling nuclear waste!!

<comment><USER2> Google is the poster boy for "fuck you we don't support this any more"

Also, you're then forcing users to sign up for an account with the provider you choose. Some people choose not to have a Google/etc account.

<comment><AUTHOR> Doubt it will happen with authenticator since many of their other services would be dependent on it unlike some of the services they have shut down?

<comment><USER2> Honestly I wouldn't rely on their own internal services using it being a great reason they'll keep it going.

Deviating from Open Standards in favour of their own google-specific services is pretty much step one in their playbook now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Auth0 seems really nice. Saw their pitch. Haven't had a chance to integrate it in anything yet. Plan to do that soon in an app I will write on my own time.

<comment><AUTHOR> I tried Auth0 and its really bad. Documentation is very inconsistant and really regret choosing it. Going to use some 3rd party library.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel like a salesman because I always am bringing up azure but... You might take a look at the azure active directory b2c service. You can use stand alone azure ad or integrate with other various providers (Google, Facebook,etc). Their posted child is the real Madrid website which uses it.

</comment><comment><USER5> If you want to avoid handling passwords but still have a traditional login form, you could try a managed directory like Auth0, Stormpath, or Amazon Cognito User Pools</comment>


Someone has launched the same niche website idea as me. Do I abandon the idea? - <AUTHOR>

Hi all, I'm a long time reader, but first time poster.
I have spent the last few months developing a website which fills a specific niche market. It isn't unique by any stretch of the imagination, and there are similar sites all through the US and Canada. It is an interesting concept as it focuses on your  local community, so I invested a lot of time developing the idea and am at a point where my site is almost finished and ready to "launch".
Last night I discovered that someone has had an almost identical idea and has already launched; my competitor has already had television and radio coverage. Our services and revenue model are almost identical.
I guess I am at a loss as to where to go next, and would like the suggestions from the HN community. Do I
* Ignore the other site and launch... Full steam ahead!
* Wait a month or so and see how the small niche market responds to the competitor to see if it's worth while me launching (essentially having him be my guinea pig)
* Abandon the idea. The sites are similar and the market is small.
Any comments, suggestions, or ideas welcome. <comment><USER2> I would ask yourself a few (perhaps obvious) questions:

1) Can you differentiate yourself easily? Better looking site, smoother UI, and better performance are potentially low-hanging fruit. Better customer service (if it applies) can also help set you apart.

2) Were you planning to add features, or just go with what you've got? Your Same Niche Idea can become niche plus X, Y, and Z, making it no longer Same Niche Idea. Harder than #1, but worth considering. Evaluate, and perhaps go through another iteration of features (or two.)

3) Final one: can you simply outmarket them? Perhaps they're just as good, but you have a larger marketing budget, have better SEO, a stronger professional network, whatever. They've had some coverage, but that's not the end, obviously.

HTH.

</comment><comment><USER3> LAUNCH IT! Because if you don't, you just don't know what might have happened. The same thing happened to me one week before I lauched my site. Had two days to get over it. I wish I can get those two days back! You spent all your time working on it and now let the world see it. There are always some people who will try out your product if you think you've built a good one!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. I know that my product is better than my competitors; both from an aesthetic and functional point of view. This is the first "real" website I've started that I've run like a proper business.

My primary concern is that the idea up until now has cost me only a few hundred dollars for registrations as my business partner and I have done the coding and UI ourselves. Obviously the next step is the big jump into marketing which isn't going to be cheap.

I'm happy to spend the money on marketing (paper based primarily), however having someone else enter the market in the same space has made me a little nervous about how this could impact me.

We're actually based in Australia, so our market is much smaller than the US market.

</comment><comment><USER4> For some reason, we tech geeks, give way too much importance to the uniqueness of the idea. If your idea is any good, there will certainly be competitors.

Imagine this - You launch first. This competitor of yours launches the next day. If they still kick your ass by having a better product or marketing, then it doesn't matter if you launched first.

If the thought of a competitor entering the market makes you want to run, then you need to toughen up.

It's better to focus on your users anyway. The only way to think about competitors is to learn how to serve your users better. Competitors exist to do free market research for you.

Sorry to invoke a cliche, but at the stage you are, execution is all that matters.

</comment><comment><USER5> What do you have to lose?

If you are close to finishing, you might as well launch.

Competition means other people see an opportunity in your market too.

Who knows what the results will be? Maybe customers will resonate with your product. Maybe your product can be differentiated by better performance, better usability, or better service. Maybe customer feedback will lead to a pivot. Or maybe your site will lead to other opportunities.

The point is you are almost there. Make the jump and don't look back. If you haven't launched products in the past, the experience alone will be worth it.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd say, launch it and keep close watch of your competitor. There almost certainly will be future opportunities where you can make a name for yourself, either by learning from your competitor's mistake or by generalizing and grabbing a bigger market share or perhaps by having better filtering and therefore more refined content or the like. And if you are planning to take away some of his market share make sure that switching will be a sweat less action.

</comment><comment><USER7> You should not abandon the idea. Keep working on it and do it better. Your goal should be 1% of US market and you'll be fine.

</comment><comment><USER8> Competition is good, it'll make you work harder to succeed and you'll have a better product as a result of it.

</comment><comment><USER9> Ignore the other site and launch... Full steam ahead! You never know what may happen, and two companies are never exactly the same. Maybe you'll appeal to a different set of customers. I think it's too early to give up especially since you haven't launched.

</comment><comment><USER10> I guess an "Idea" is much more than a website. If you are fully convinced with your idea, and have a in dpeth understanding what needed to be built, I don't think it can ever be replicated in exactly same form as you wished it to be. Just a thought. :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Was google or Facebook first?

If you're passionate about the concept then push ahead. The fact you have one competitor (or more) just validates you have a market.

</comment><comment><USER12> Surely the worst case is that you launch a product and learn some valuable lessons about competing with similar offerings?

</comment><comment><USER13> Ignore the other site and launch... Full steam ahead! Watch your competitor closely. Learn from what they are doing well, what they are doing bad.</comment>


Dropbox CEO: Why search advertising failed us - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2010/10/27/dropbox-drew-houston-adwords/

<comment><USER2> Similar story -

Kevin, one of the founders of Wufoo, does a great job of explaining how he grew the product by word of mouth. He built it from the trust of his users, most of which was from <http://particletree.com/>. It's fascinating how much emphasis he puts on interacting personally with the paid users and how they scaled that. Definitely a lot of hard work, but it paid off when they had some server trouble when Wufoo first launched - their old users trusted them and backed them up when some of the initial comments were negative.

Long story short, he didn't do any search advertising either.

Interview here: <http://mixergy.com/wufoo-kevin-hale/>

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't think it's a coincidence that Dropbox took off just as smartphones became popular. People use a service like Dropbox because they're juggling more than one device. Dropbox has the advantage of being available on every platform and integrated into a ton of apps. Even if they weren't awesome on their own, Dropbox is the only service that makes sense now because none of their competitors has anywhere near the same network effects. Apps are their best marketing now.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Who am I to question the Dropbox CEO, but... Even if the solution is new, if you're solving a real problem that people have (and if you're not, what's wrong?), can't you use the search terms around that? E.g., "how to recover lost files", or "increase disk space", or "share files", or whatnot... Just get people at the point at which they're experiencing the pain you're addressing... No?

<comment><USER4> _can't you use the search terms around that? E.g., "how to recover lost files", or "increase disk space", or "share files", or whatnot... Just get people at the point at which they're experiencing the pain you're addressing_

I think the problem is that those searchers are likely just looking for free online tutorials, not a paid solution. They got plenty of clicks, but few sales. I ran into the same problem with my outsourcing company. Small businesses with 5-10 employees aren't searching for outsourcing on Google, big multinational companies are. But I don't have a 1000 seat call center, just a dozen guys who can do web design, data entry, etc. It turns out my target market was best reached through word of mouth among small business owners, not through Adwords.</comment></comment>


"Google Drive" would like to receive keystrokes from any application - <AUTHOR> https://i.imgur.com/Gi60T9T.png <comment><USER2> Lastpass says: "The app needs this permission to provide a global, system-wide shortcut to bring up the search field, so that users can quickly locate a vault entry and copy passwords or launch sites. You can deny this permission request, as the Mac application will continue to work. It will just disable this function from working."

I bet it's similar here, they want a system-wide shortcut to get to google drive. Seems like an oddly named permission.

<comment><USER3> I like how they named it. If you can get permission for systemwide keystrokes it is also obviously able to see what you're typing in other apps. More straightforward for those who are not tech oriented.

<comment><USER4> Sounds like a bad API. There should be a way to register shortcuts and macros without giving keystroke information to the app.

<comment><USER5> Doesn't linux work like this? Where certain input starts at the top (kernel), and then goes to the first program that "listens" for a certain key/combo?

So you could have a program only listen/capture certain keys?

<comment><USER6> XWin app can listen to all keystrokes in system. This was fixed in Wayland.

<comment><USER7> How would you write an application that uses global shortcuts in Wayland?

<comment><USER8> Probably through a series of incompatible and as-yet-unimplemented APIs for each desktop environment and window manager you want to support.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So there's no Apple APIs for global shortcuts and apps like Lastpass and Google Drive have to request all keystrokes to implement one?

Has this problem been fixed on Wayland? Because I remember it having the same issue.

<comment><USER10> That's what I was wondering. I just came across this with the Google calendar API.

I was annoyed that the Facebook business appointments gcal sync wanted full access to read all my calendars and any calendars shared with me. All I want is for it to be able to add appts. But apparently, the gcal api doesn't have the granularity to even allow full access to a single calendar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I guess this is some security model on Catalina. I couldn't find any info on what features of Google drive specifically would not work if you deny but there are plenty of questions online for different applications. Here's one for last pass:

[https://forums.lastpass.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=349965](https://forums.lastpass.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=349965)

</comment><comment><USER12> This is really just an example of the impressive security policies of macOS, if I'm not mistaken as long as you have admin permissions you can trivially create a keylogger on Windows 10 without any such special permissions.

<comment><USER13> Well if you have admin permissions, you should be allowed to do anything.

<comment><USER14> That philosophy has been very helpful to malware authors over the years. The modern approach has been to make that less of a binary decision and make sure the user can see it happening and change their mind: e.g. allow you to write an app which does something privileged but require a prompt and prevent it from hiding its actions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> History catching up to today's security environment.

This is also how permissions and APIs evolve over time. Apple (and hopefully other OSes) is likely working on a global hotkey hook system, that has a less intrusive permission requirement. Unfortunately it will take YEARs before applications in general start using that.

And this is Absolutely the correct thing for the OS to do.

</comment><comment><USER16> Using dynamic overriding to intercept and NSLog calls to UIKeyCommand should be sufficient to find out precisely what key(s) they're setting listeners for, but I don't have the experience to finish this idea. Someone who's familiar with dylib injecting would know:

[https://stackoverflow.com/a/27608606](https://stackoverflow.com/a/27608606)

</comment><comment><USER17> I strongly suggest this alternative software for the desktop:

[https://www.insynchq.com/](https://www.insynchq.com/)

Worth every penny and is (for me) the better Desktop client.

</comment><comment><USER18> also happened to me on a random game downloaded from the App Store: [https://i.imgur.com/dr0YVVG.png](https://i.imgur.com/dr0YVVG.png)

<comment><USER19> You should let Apple know about that at email@example.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Intriguing! Can you please provide a bit more of context?

<comment><AUTHOR> I wish I could, I just had the dialog pop up out of nowhere while I was using my laptop. I have no idea why it wants this access.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Bad keyboard shortcut or bad drag and drop support maybe?

</comment><comment><USER22> Isn't it just badly implemented shortcut support?

</comment><comment><USER23> I don't understand, I use skhd [0] which uses global shortcuts for things like window switching and I've never seen such a request. Unless asking for accessibility permission is the same thing, which I doubt (but admittedly don't know for certain).

[0] [https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd](https://github.com/koekeishiya/skhd)

<comment><USER24> Accessibilty is even more powerful/general control than this.

[https://www.howtogeek.com/297083/why-do-some-mac-apps- need-t...](https://www.howtogeek.com/297083/why-do-some-mac-apps-need-to- control-this-computer-using-accessibility-features/)

<comment><USER23> Indeed it is. I clearly had it confused. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> So google drive is also a keylogger ? Not surprising.

I wonder - is there a way to look up app permissions without actually installing them ?

Which is to say, can I, using my web browser, browse either the apple app store, or google play store, and research, in advance, what a particular app is going to request (or demand) access to ?

<comment><USER26> I doubt Google Drive is a keylogger. Apps should be able to register global shortcuts and get notified when a shortcut is triggered.

There is an open source client app for Google Play called Aurora Store, it lists declared permissions and known trackers within the app.

The data is provided by Exodus Privacy: [https://reports.exodus- privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.google....](https://reports.exodus- privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.google.android.apps.docs/latest/)</comment></comment>


PyPI Just Hit 100k Packages - <AUTHOR> https://pypi.python.org/pypi <comment><USER2> I have been watching this development these last few hours. In a back-of-the- envelope calculation it is a very robust pace. It's nowhere near the CPAN modules, yet, but it is way more than any other repositories and it grows continuously.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Honestly, I thought there would be more by now</comment>


APIs now bigger than SOA - <AUTHOR> http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-11-2013/131112-risks-and-rewards-in-the-age-of-api-s.html?page=2

<comment><USER2> APIs bigger than SOA?

APIs enable SOA. So I imagine one will always be bigger than the other.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting editorializing on the title...</comment>


Ask HN: How can I be a recruiter and still have a soul? - <AUTHOR>

TL;WR: I'm a recruiter, but I used to be an engineer.  This industry is broken, specifically with the communication breakdown between recruiters and engineers (spam, cold calling, keyword matching, etc).  Help me fix it by making suggestions on how I (and others like me) can find you without compromising your privacy or flooding you with irrelevant content.
I'm a recruiter.  Now, before you do the digital equivalent of pelting me with rotting vegetables or show up at my doorstep with torches and pitchforks, know this: I hate the way the recruiting industry works as much as you do.  Before becoming a recruiter, I worked as a software engineer for almost 5 years, so I've been on the other end of the incessant spamming and the cold calls.  In fact, the reason I'm posting is that I am convinced that the tech recruiting industry, in its current incarnation, is completely broken.  The fact that I have to apologize for being a recruiter and skulk about in the shadows isn't right.  But, I get why you guys don't like us.  It's because a particularly loud faction of tech recruiters out there don't treat you or your privacy or your goals with any modicum of genuine interest or respect (some very good anecdotal evidence to that effect here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3301667).  Of course, there are some truly great recruiters out there, and maybe they have some thoughts on this, too.
In any event, as I see it, here's what's broken, in general:
1.Wanton cold calling/LinkedIn/email spamming and resulting communication breakdown between recruiters and candidates (In my engineering days of yore, I had nothing but a visceral disgust for LinkedIn and the contents of my LinkedIn inbox.  I didn't give 2 shits about which investors were backing which companies, or how I could get in on the ground floor, or listen to the empty praises mashed together from the 2 keywords available in my profile.  Now that I'm on the other side of things, I don't really feel too differently about it.  I still refuse to spam people (or cold call them on the phone, which is even worse) -- I think it makes me look bad (spamming is, to me, a tacit acknowledgement that you don't have the industry-specific knowledge to craft something more personal), has low response rates, and doesn't really engage the candidates that do respond.  A lot of people say that this industry is a pure numbers game, and maybe it is, but there still has to be a better way to engage with people than sending them spam.)
2.Keyword matching
(I can't harp on this one enough.  What programming languages you know or what IDEs you have worked with in the past ARE NOT THAT IMPORTANT.  If you're a good programmer and you're interested in the work the company is doing, for the love of god, you'll be able to learn the new languages/environments.  I hate when, during interviews, I ask candidates to describe some project they've worked on, and they start prattling off keyword after keyword.  Sometimes this prattling is an indication that the candidate sucks, but sometimes, they've been so conditioned by past HR calls to just list technologies that they can't help it.  I've had several conversations where I've told the candidate to back up, that I actually want to understand what you built and why you built it, and sometimes there's this palpable sigh of relief on the other end of the phone.  More good stuff on keywords in job posts/interviews in the comments for this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3689383  And for the trolls out there, yes, I realize that there are outliers -- if you are a pure Java programmer, there is probably no way you can easily work on a 3D game api team writing C++ and shaders. And if you are a C++ programmer with no front-end experience, you can't just walk on to the Sencha (nee ExtJS) team.  I'd hazard to say that these are the exceptions more than the rule, however.)
3. Communication breakdown between recruiter & hiring manager when it comes to candidate requirements (You get pulled in by a perfect-sounding job and ultimately realize that the company isn't doing what you were told and that the job description itself has nothing to do with what you were promised.)
I've been lucky enough to have enough of an eng background for (2) to not be an issue, and I have a great working relationship with the hiring manager at my company (I work in-house), so I'd like to ask you guys for help with the first one.  Without spamming, what am I left with?  I still have to find people.  There are some options out there that have been working for me (job boards, InterviewStreet/CodeEval etc, StackOverflow's active candidate pool, engineerapplication.com), but these options have not proven to be enough.  My favorite thing to do is to have enough info about someone to write them a personal and relevant message.  I like taking some time to craft these messages, and whenever I've been able to hit on a few personal subjects and match the tone to the recipient, I've always gotten a response.  Recently, I reached out to a guy who had his own startup but was starting to look around for a job.  I took the time to figure out what his startup did and thought it was really cool.  When I sent him an email, I asked him about some implementation specifics and made a suggestion about an existing, somewhat similar product that his product could integrate with.  It turned out that they were already doing what I suggested, which was cool because it means I'm not completely out of touch, yet, and also cool because he responded… and ended up being a really excellent candidate.
Anyway, I want more interactions like this -- interactions where you're not annoyed/full of rage/violated and where I get to help you.  Right now, as I mentioned, I'm an in-house recruiter, so my target audience is a bit more limited (if you're not interested in the kinds of stuff we're working on, that's pretty much that), but this is more of a general question and hopefully one I'll be able to revisit more comprehensively when I start my own agency.  What's the best way to reach you in a compelling way without pissing you off and without exposing you to the drooling masses who don't know big O from a big ass?  LinkedIn is so noisy that it's pretty much useless, GitHub (and its various scrapers) is better, but I still have no idea if you're even looking or have any good context about who you are (the last thing I want to do is accidentally email DHH about a Rails job, like so: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3108229).
So, what do you guys think?  How do we bridge this gap between (hopefully) good tech recruiters and engineers?  Is there a good way I (and others like me) can find you when you want to be found without compromising your privacy and our souls? <comment><USER2> I want an agent, not a recruiter. Yes, sort of like the ones hollywood actors have (but hopefully less sleazy).

Let me describe to you the what I'd like to see out this hypothetical agent, named "Sam":

* Sam knows me and my personality, not just my resume bullet points.

* Sam of course knows the technology more than just the buzzwords and has at least dabbled in writing code in the domain for which he recruits.

* Sam has a sensitivity to the fact that I would like to progress in my career. I don't want a gig for which I'm "well-qualified"; I want a gig for which I am barely qualified, and can grow+learn in.

* Sam will keep tabs on me even when he doesn't have anything for me, and I don't want to move, just to learn what I'm working on, what I'm excited about or would like to work on, and how I feel about my career at the moment.

* With the above knowledge, Sam can be my advocate and will not try to wedge me into jobs that are clearly dead-ends, either from technology or career perspective.

I readily admit that this might be too much to ask. However, both the demand and pay are quite high for good developers at the moment, so I think there is room for an ongoing relationship, and a more personal touch.

If you had this relationship with your developers, word of mouth might be a satisfactory means of getting more.

However, short of that, there might be some opportunity in promoting your developer's work (as much as is possible, at least) on a blog or somesuch, and become a brand that other developers would like to be part of.

Hope that helps.

<comment><USER3> I think having an agent would work if you're doing contracting, or consulting.

That's why we have agents for Hollywood---the deals are so big, but they're transient. No one expects to get signed onto a TV show, then still be there 10 years later.

Also, agents help renegotiate contracts year to year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> To me, the good hypothetical recruiter would be like a talent scout in the sports industry, and have the ability to find quality players. This is easier said than done because even many technical people cannot spot true talent. Further I don't think the market is completely there to incentives such a scout. A good deal of the large companies still view developers as a replaceable resource that can be shuffled in and out. As such even if you could identify quality, the demand is not their and the quality does not want to work in that environment. So you would have to specialize in the few companies that do want quality and build a reputation among them. When one evaluates the reality of that it becomes easy to see why it is just easier to sling questionable quality individuals into organizations that do not demand quality.

</comment><comment><USER5> i hire people.

the vast majority of people calling themselves recruiters are actually just sourcing. they do no filtering, vetting, etc and have been uniformly a waste of our time.

not sure how to change this.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm in a somewhat unique position, in that I can comfortably run the first technical phone interview, in addition to filtering resumes before candidates even get to that point. However, this is definitely part of the problem, overall, because most recruiters weren't engineers at some point or another. InterviewStreet et al address this issue to some extent, but I wish there were other, more universal solutions, too.

<comment><USER6> That's probably what sets you apart.

I think another problem is that I have met people with previous experience in engineering who aren't as "consultative" as they could be.

Most recruiters hide behind the infamous line of "well, it's what my client wants and they pay the bills." Just because they pay your salary doesn't mean they are always right. If your client has the hiring expertise and time themselves, why are they hiring you? I'm not saying to completely ignore their needs, though. I am saying that the recuriter has to be more than a paper pusher and just simply tick boxes.</comment></comment></comment>


How to Turn Off Smart TV Snooping Features - <AUTHOR> https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features/ <comment><USER2> Step 0: never connect a smart tv to the internet in the first place. Their software is inferior to dedicated media devices like Apple TV anyway.

</comment><comment><USER3> How about using Pi-hole? Most of the blocked requests come from my Samsung TV but not sure it is sufficient.

</comment><comment><USER4> Don't buy one? Seriously just get a good projector and hook it up to a pc. Lots of good extra content too if you know where to look...</comment>


Ask HN: Anybody know what type of hardware Vultr and DigitalOcean are using - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I'm trying to make sense of some benchmark numbers that I got while testing my indexing engine on $10/month DigitalOcean and Vultr VPS.  Vultr performed a lot better than DigitalOcean and I'm guessing it's because DigitalOcean has more saturated servers, due to being more popular.  If this is the case, one would expect performance numbers to equalize once/if Vultr becomes as popular as DigitalOcean.
If you have any information on their hardware specs, I would like to know.  And if you don't feel comfortable posting the information here, send me a private email, which is in my profile.
Cheers <comment><USER2> [http://serverbear.com/benchmarks/vps](http://serverbear.com/benchmarks/vps) shows graphs over time in case that helps you judge how the performance has changed over months.

<comment><USER3> Looks like they stopped updating the data in 2014.</comment></comment>