China Hits U.S. With Higher Tariffs on Soybeans, Cars, Oil - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-23/china-to-soon-unveil-tariffs-on-u-s-says-global-times-hu <comment><USER2> The strangest thing about this event is how nobody can agree on what has already happened. US consumers are being hurt, US consumers are doing fine, the US economy is teetering on the brink of recession and China is steady, China is teetering on the brink of total collapse and the US doesn't feel a thing... all of these contradictory claims have been made to me by internet commenters and media outlets. Shouldn't the effects of the trade war be objective and easy to measure with typical macroeconomic indicators? It beats me as to why there are so many contradictory claims.

<comment><USER3> From what I understand it's the following:

* Certain sectors of US industries are being disproportionately harmed by the trade war: steel, agriculture, and similar.

* Other sectors of US industries, such as service and retail, are less affected, and are posting strong numbers. This, along with a tight job market, point to a generally strong economy even if specific industries are suffering.

* China is difficult to understand due to the government being known for opacity in their finances. Therefore, we can generally only speculate on second or third order effects of trends, eg. what does the currency floating mean? It means China is shifting financial strategies for X or Y. But we have no idea the X or Y reasoning, only speculations of possible reasons.

* There are several indicators of a recession coming on, including significant day-to-day dips and yield curve inversions and slowdowns in other regions like Europe. However, recessions can't be known until the numbers come out and womp womp we're in one.

<comment><USER4> So it might actually be worse, since news of the indicators might already mean that cutbacks in payroll are taking place. We would see that with the August jobs number (due out in the first week of next month). Smart companies want to be ahead of the recession curve.

The good news is that the labor force is at record highs. IOW were as close to full employment as we have ever been.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/us-jobs-report- july-2019.htm...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/us-jobs-report- july-2019.html)

The bad news is there's no where to go but down.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hope this trade war finishes quicker. Everyone playing this game will lose. Global supply chains are much more complex and complete impact is difficult to understand. Hope sense prevail at the end.

<comment><USER6> Considering the huge understanding gap between regular Americans and Chinese, I unfortunately suspect the trade war will not be over soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is strategically released just before the G7, to make sure that this will be discussed, or maybe to put some pressure on the US before negotiating with its allies.

<comment><USER8> China is grasping at straws with this. They are really out on a limb.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Per _The Washington Post_ [0]:

> A 25 percent tariff on automobiles and a 5 percent levy on auto parts take > hold Dec. 15.

That means your car's transmission replacement goes from ~$3k to ~$3200 (due to the additional markup on parts for time, labor, insurance, etc). Not too _too_ bad for the end user, but actually bad for the parts companies, mechanics, tool and die makers, and others in the supply chain. This will be hurting your local repair shop very directly.

[0] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/23/china- hit...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/23/china-hits-us-with- tariffs-billion-worth-goods-reinstates-auto-levies-state-media-report/)

</comment><comment><USER10> Assuming the Chinese economy can hold up, Xi Jinping doesn't have an election coming up in 2020.

<comment><USER11> To everybody raising this question I answer this: "A dictator faces election every time he shows his back to anybody."

And being a head of a giant country, the man just can't avoid doing that from time to time, unlike the head of some tiny banana republic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why not apply a value added tariff instead of purely import tariffs? China actually buys more from the US from a value added perspective than the other way around: [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-12/the-1-4-t...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-12/the-1-4-trillion- u-s-surplus-that-trump-s-not-talking-about)

</comment><comment><USER13> Pretty sure both sides have a b-plan to avoid massive damage, but someone definitely going to lose.

<comment><USER14> Most likely, they're both going to lose.

<comment><USER15> As an Australian I'd say yay but our economy is going down with China.

<comment><USER16> If it reduces the export of Australian coal to China, not a bad thing.

<comment><USER15> True, though its clean coal were told.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Well, that escalated at an intermediate pace.

<comment><USER15> They're scared of whats coming next I guess.

<comment><USER18> Just Devil's Advocate, but if they're scared, why didn't they back down?

I sincerely hope someone is in the room on our side who has seriously considered the possibility here that we may have miscalculated. There needs to be some contingency in place so that we don't get stuck in round and round of barrier escalation.

<comment><USER19> They need to appear "tough" for their internal audience, even though they are miscalculating at every twist and turn.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> China should just start a carbon tax and apply tariffs on imports from countries that don't have an equivalent system in place.

<comment><USER21> China is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter. So its a cute idea, but countervailing tariffs would be swift and deserved.

<comment><USER22> per-capita China emits about half of what the US does.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita)

<comment><USER23> Is that also how the environment calculates the impact? As if per-capita has any bearing on the final outcome.

<comment><USER24> If you pee in the river once a month, but the municipality of the town upstream decides to release its entire sewage into it, does the river calculate the impact per-capita?

<comment><USER20> If you kill somebody once a month but a government near you decides to start a war, does it make your murder ethically acceptable?

<comment><USER24> Terrible analogy. Someone making a campfire, like humans did for thousands of years, isn't doing something remotely as bad as committing murder.

The analogy only works if what a single person is doing is inconsequential if they are the only ones doing it. Murder certainly does not belong there.

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

Murder isn't a good example of it.

<comment><USER20> I hardly think that the GHG emissions of countries other than China are inconsequential.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> USD shortage. Chinese tariffs and past import restrictions conveniently decrease pressure on their declining USD reserves (see link to article below).

[https://www.scmp.com/economy/china- economy/article/3012460/d...](https://www.scmp.com/economy/china- economy/article/3012460/does-china-have-enough-us-dollars-trade-war-escalates)

</comment><comment> lota-putty Big bucks Poker game played in public.

</comment><comment><USER25> tariffs or Tarrifs?

<comment><USER26> Bloomberg corrected the headline now. In my option commenting on typos doesn't add much value to a discussion.

<comment><USER27> Opinion*

(Sorry)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Trump's whole schtick is to come in with an incredibly aggressive posture (cancel NAFTA!), extract some concessions, then take a victory lap. When the concessions don't come he gives up quickly (see the government shutdown). He has no real plan or capacity for a protracted and painful trade war. He hasn't made the case to his people or his allies for what the goal even is, and whatever support he has will evaporate when the pain becomes serious, assuming he doesn't just fold first.

<comment><USER29> He already could have taken a victory lap and done effectively nothing with the first offer from China. He chose to double down.

I'd say there is no plan and it is just the randomness of a capricious old man.

That's a glib take I admit, but I really think that all indications are we're dealing with a very glib president.

<comment><USER30> I don't believe that you are considering that President Trump is a master negotiator. It's what he's known for in the business world.

His hard-nosed deals bring profits for his investors, and massive revenue streams.

Call him whatever you will, and demean him to the world, it still won't change facts; he's an extraordinarily profitable businessman, with extreme revenue returns.

::shrug:: The proof is in the pudding so to speak. Our President's actions will prove themselves, one way or another.

<comment><USER29> I don't see much to indicate what you're saying is accurate.

His own waffling and capriciousness have sunk even his own initiates in congress with his own party members. Leaks from the white house, members of his own party, even his own people who have publicly stated he is very impulsive (some are less generous of that).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> China's been conducting a trade war for several years. US finally woke up and now China's trying to nip any resistance in the bud. I guess they couldn't buy off the current president like they have others.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_fi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy)

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm still baffled why Beijing is still goes THAT easy on USA.

It is fully in its capacity to make Washington to capitulate.

If they were to go with embargoes and not tariffs, things would be dramatically different, especially if they can nuke holiday season sales.

Just a plain clothing embargo would send all and every American retailer scrambling. There will be not enough merchandise in all India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam combined. And it will be even worse if Chinese factories in those countries would also join the embargo.

For things like regular household goods will also be no real alternatives as even export oriented economies like Vietnam import god knows how much plasticware from China just because it is often cheaper than manufacturing locally.

Just thing of how many "dollar goods" you buy every month, and what would you do if there would simply be none.

I instantly remember my childhood in early nineties Russia. We were one of richest families in the city or likely the entire Russian Far East, with father's business and mom's salary making few hundred thousand bucks a years, but from time to time we had to subsist on millet for months in a row for a simple reason that there were physically no other food in the entire region.

<comment><USER32> the issue is it would also wreak serious havoc on china's economy

and while xi is president for life, he doesn't want to risk mass unrest in his own country.

<comment><USER11> Trade with USA is just 2% of China's GDP.

Were it to take a short, controlled dip into recession to teach US a lesson, it would not be really noticed domestically.

And it will be a much better alternative than to let China to slowly bleed as manufacturers leave the country just to be able to sell to US in long term.

<comment><USER33> Total Chinese export is still going up. You only need 35% local content to be labeled "made in country x". This trade war will reduce headline bilateral deficit with the US which China knows to be at an unhealthy level. There's additional cost compared to the past but US is sharing the burden.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Portable Web Documents – An Alternative to PDF Based on HTML5 and Web Standards - <AUTHOR> https://getpolarized.io/2019/05/11/portable-web-documents.html <comment><USER2> In the words of the great Caitlyn Johnstone:

" _No. No no no no no no no no no. No.

No no no no no no, no no no no no no no no no no. No no no no no no? No! No no no no no no no, no no no no. No no no no no, no no no no no no no no no no.

No no. No no no._"

<comment><AUTHOR> Why no? Curious about the negative reaction.

<comment><USER2> Web is such an overcomplicated exploit-riddled mess that only a handful of megacorps even have the resources to maintain a browser--and most have thrown in the towel on that front.

For documents, PDF seems far more sane.

For example, PDF is guaranteed to terminate. Document embedded JavaScript isn't.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which productivity service do you use for personal projects? - <AUTHOR> As a current student, I have many projects which I work on for classes, hackathons, and internships. For these projects, I'm often working with one or two other students, and in the case of the many personal projects that I also work on, just myself. I often just need a place to track my own work on a project without any need for collaboration.
I currently manage these with Trello to keep track of them. While I like Trello, creating a card for a new feature doesn't satisfy me because checklists don't allow any additional information to be attached to them other than a line of text. A new board for each feature doesn't make much sense either because its overkill and hard to track with the rest of the app. For those reasons I dislike Trello and want to move to something else for my various small group projects and personal projects. However, I find that services like Asana, Flow, ProofHub, etc. are all geared towards organizations and teams (which don't work at all for my use case) and the pricing makes it impossible to purchase as an individual.
Todo lists like Todoist and Wunderlist are too basic and don't support the features that I need for programming projects (markdown, ability to handle code, documentation ability for tasks, GitHub commits) and they generally don't cater well do an application development workflow.
So my question is, with all of the more appropriate services (like Asana, etc.) being impossible to use as an individual, what do you use to manage your personal projects which don't fit an organization structure? <comment><USER2> [https://wakatime.com](https://wakatime.com) and GitHub issues.

</comment><comment><USER3> If it's code - a github repo with issues to track TODOs is sufficient for me.</comment>


Pico: A simple and fast flat-file CMS - <AUTHOR> http://pico.dev7studios.com/

<comment><USER3> Isn't there already a Unix text editor of the same name? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_(text_editor)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_\(text_editor\))

Maybe this is deliberate, from "Picos [sic] makes creating and maintaining a website as simple as editing text files" but I don't think having the exact same name is a good thing. Maybe a variation?

</comment><comment><USER4> I love this concept, we could use more approachable static-file-cms solutions for non-technicals.

Without getting too far into a review/investigation, I do feel like a different name would be appropriate. It's already a language and a text- editor, doesn't that just add confusion?

</comment><comment><USER5> There is clearly a niche for these small "CMS" tools, but let's be real about what these CMSes are generally _not_ offering: User authentication, localization, custom field indexing, internal search...

Yes, it "manages content", thus is technically a "CMS". But at the level of many of these tools, so is my file system. At best, these tools are useful automated markdown renderers.

<comment><USER6> There are solutions to some of those things using other tools, e.g. use [http://searchpath.io](http://searchpath.io) to add indexing.

I haven't tried with this system but you can probably use dropbox, and a shared directory to manage multi-user content editing.

<comment><USER5> There are plenty of free and full yet simple CMSes that also fully integrate these features, for no monthly fee.

<comment><USER6> There are some advantages to a static-file CMS, that would make someone chose them over a regular CMS.

I'm not invalidating your criticisms, but search, multi-user support, and localization aren't important to everybody.

Also the sentence "there are plenty of CMSes" is also possibly the most true statement ever made in the history of software.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Are there any example sites up? I have LAMP on my Windows box but meh - <USER2> don't know that I want to go through the steps to get Pico up and running until I see it in action.

<comment><USER8> You do not have LAMP on your Windows box.

<comment><USER9> I think we all know what he means, but you are right. WAMP, not LAMP :-)</comment></comment></comment>


Private Equity Is Going to Ruin the .Org Domain System and Screw Nonprofits - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59nvjd/private-equity-is-going-to-ruin-the-org-domain-system-and-screw-nonprofits <comment><USER2> As difficult as it will be for Americans to accept, this whole scenario:

\- ICANN lifting price-caps on .org \- Connection between private equity firm and owners of .org \- Sale of the .org to private equity firm

Reeks of corruption.

It made me question my decision to purchase future .org domains. I considered it a stable alternative to .com with a larger option of available "premium" names.

<comment><USER3> Sadly, the corruption will only get worse from here on out. They no longer are under oversight of the US Government which while doesn't mean too much, it did at least add some intimidation to prevent doing funny business.

<comment><USER4> Because do-nothing is an acceptable outcome for a body like ICANN (whereas for example it's a huge problem for the US Senate) it would be fine IMNSHO if ICANN had been given to the relevant specialized agency of the United Nations, the ITU.

The ITU is a slow unwieldy bureaucracy, each member is a UN Member State, ie an entire country - which means nothing will get done, which is fine and I argue largely desirable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> [https://domainnamewire.com/2019/11/13/breaking-private- equit...](https://domainnamewire.com/2019/11/13/breaking-private-equity- company-acquires-org-registry/)

"Ethos Capital is a new private equity firm lead by Erik Brooks. Brooks was at Abry Partners until earlier this year. Abry Partners acquired Donuts and installed former ICANN President of Global Domains Akram Atallah in the top spot there.

Donuts co-founder Jon Nevett left to be CEO of Public Interest Registry.

The other person at Ethos is former ICANN Senior Vice President Abusitta-Ouri.

Ethos appears to have just been founded. It acquired the domain name EthosCapital.com at the end of October through Afternic.

[Update: The firm might be tied to former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé as well.]"

</comment><comment><USER6> Sounds like there should probably be multiple ICAAN organizations. They have been a relatively benevolent monopoly but that is unlikely to continue forever.

</comment><comment><USER7> Are there other top level domains that are at risk of this? What are the most stable ones?

<comment><USER4> The ccTLDs are ultimately controlled by the sovereign entity whose country code is represented. So you could make the usual rule-of-law arguments in favour of a variety of stable industrialised economies, the same way you would for where you'd house the legal entity for an international business.

But I don't see any indication that .org is likely to go away, they just intend to hike prices to make a nice profit, and that's totally inside the rule-of-law so there's no particular reason to think that, say, Canada, wouldn't do just the same if it saw the opportunity.

<comment><USER8> Maybe someone could explain this to me: aren't non-ccTLDs controlled by _consensus_? If some asshat decides to jack the prices of *.orgs, why can't the majors (Google, MSFT, ...) just point to another DNS?

<comment><USER9> > _If some asshat decides to jack the prices of .orgs, why can 't the majors > (Google, MSFT, ...) just point to another DNS?_

When you go to "www.example.org", you are really going to "www.example.org.". The extra period at the end is subtle, but important.

The path of a DNS query is "." -> "org" -> "example" -> "www". Before a DNS client can lookup "example.org", it has to know where the DNS servers for the "org" TLD are, and it gets those values from the root domain servers, ".".

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_root_zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNS_root_zone)

So how does a DNS client know how to find root domain servers? It's bootstrapped manually. Every DNS server has a static file that contains the values:

* [https://www.internic.net/domain/named.root](https://www.internic.net/domain/named.root)

Once it contacts the root servers, a DNS server can then fetch the pointers to all the TLD and ccTLD name servers:

* [https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone](https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone)

* [https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db](https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db)

There is no practical way for anyone to change the "." -> "org" pointers. You can do it on your own server, but you can't force anyone else to.

<comment><USER10> > You can do it on your own server, but you can't force anyone else to.

That's exactly what thechao meant by 'consensus'. If we all agree to configure our computers to fail to resolve all domains ending with `.org`, there's no longer really a .org TLD.

Google could probably pull it off. Imagine if .org domains failed to resolve in Chrome, or resolved but triggered an ad banner saying _This website is supporting an institution which is undermining the web, for profit._ Not the kind of activism we'd realistically expect from Google, but they have enormous power over the web. Throw in cooperation from the other browser vendors, and you can kill .org pretty dead.

Unsanctioned DNS shenanigans aren't just hypothetical. Alternative DNS universes have long been a thing: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Has .org always followed market prices? If so, this change shouldn't have much effect on the .org prices. If not, why hasn't the previous manager of .org been following market prices?

<comment><USER4> Historically .org had price caps. As the article explains, while PIR was sizing up to sell this they arranged for the price caps to be lifted by ICANN. They insisted at the time they had "No plans" to raise prices. And I'm sure if you were to dig into documents you'd find that's technically true, with "plan for selling to private equity firm" being the next topic on the agenda after "Announce we have no plans to raise prices".

<comment><USER12> Or we aren't raising them, they are.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> So happy I have zero .org domains.

</comment><comment><USER14> Can the title be any more exaggerated? Yes, it's bad but all the article is doing is making up assumptions.

</comment><comment><USER15> Sensationalism at its best. Any non profit that cannot shell a couple of bucks for domain will have hard time doing anything of value anyway. Now it costs 12$, even quadrupling it to 50$ won't change anything.

<comment><USER16> I've seen registrars selling certain desirable domains at a premium. What if a non-profit's domain is suddenly considered premium and they want to charge thousands of dollars to renew? It becomes a ransom that you must pay in order to keep access to your email inbox, and everything that comes along with that.</comment></comment>


Make sure to code my site in HTML5 - <AUTHOR> http://brolik.com/blog/make-sure-to-code-my-site-in-html5/ Everyone Knows It's All About HTML5, Right? The vast amount of information available on the Internet and the increasing tech-savvy of today's business owners is fostering a new understanding of web design, application development, social media, and more. At Brolik, we love an informed consumer and really love an informed client. Recently, though, we've been getting asked a very interesting question and may have a surprising answer. I've heard other developers complain about the question, and I've heard business development folks explain the answer incorrectly. Do you know what it means to ask: "Can you please code my new website in HTML5?" <comment><USER3> I'd have to agree. Our tiny startup is interested in adding some HTML5 structure using Modenizer etc but the main problem is the associated effort for not much return _yet_. It's really a balancing act for time - unfortunately IE7 and IE8 [and _gasp_ IE6] are still hugely prevelant - <USER2> it's still 'the same old same old' by having to detect browsers and support multiple scenarios for HTML4 or HTML5. At this stage, until IE7 and IE8 die out "more" - which we certainly hope is in Q4 by end of this year - we will seriously look at integrating HTML5.

It's a real - "improve existing server-side code / optimisation and feature bundle" vs. "add HTML5 support where needed". For us, and this is only IMHO, the former is currently winning. By Q4 or even Q1-Q2 2012 - we'll look at this.

Thoughts?

<comment><AUTHOR> You hit the nail on the head. It's a balancing act based on time. While there are some nice bells and whistles with HTML5, it is not yet widely supported enough to completely commit to the advancements that it brings to the table. While, we will be using HTML5 when launching our new site in the next few weeks, we will also be spending a bunch of time testing how the code degrades in the older browsers. For now, we patiently wait. And keep our fingers crossed for the ultimate demise of IE.

In your situation, the benefit of improving the back end certainly outweighs the small payoff that HTML5 would bring to the front end. So yes, store it in the back of your head and revisit it soon.</comment></comment>


Four Startup Engineering Killers - <AUTHOR> https://www.nemil.com/musings/four-startup-eng-killers.html <comment><USER2> This article is dead on the money. Some of the mistakes I made career wise were related to not fully understanding the differences between startup engineering and corporate engineering.

I can see now that in two cases I was the wrong person for the job. Simply because I didnt understand the type of engineering that was actually needed and neither did the management. Management wanted me simply because of the titles and I could pass their technical exam. However, if they had just been honest with me we couldve both saved time and stress.

On at least two occasions I believe I was not told the whole truth about the company. The Glassdoor reviews were useless because they would game those reviews. So I could not make a good decision. With that said I still blame myself for taking jobs I did not know enough about. I shouldve asked uncomfortable questions and believed in my gut.

<comment><AUTHOR> Totally agree, management most of the time has no clue what is actually required because in early stage they dont know what they want in reality!

Glassdoor and similar reviews are completely useless.</comment></comment>


A $7 PC: Keepod Launches Project To Give African Slums Computer Access - <AUTHOR> http://nocamels.com/2014/02/a-7-pc-keepod-launches-project-to-give-african-slums-computer-access/

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure if you're involved with the website, but it's unusable on Android.

Silly modal popups - just say no

[http://imgur.com/3JkwyT1](http://imgur.com/3JkwyT1)</comment>


Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft Jockey for Pentagon's Cloud Business - <AUTHOR> http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/cloud/amazon-oracle-microsoft-jockey-pentagons-cloud-business <comment><AUTHOR> "The Pentagon, which has pledged a fair and competitive selection process, will outline its plans for the procurement to IT vendors at an industry event that more than 100 companies are expected to attend in Northern Virginia on Wednesday. Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and Alphabet Inc.'s Google are just some of the companies planning to be there."

I'm actually kind of surprised that the DoD would use an outside cloud provider instead of working with other government agencies that have their own data center infrastructure already built and staffed (I'm thinking of the NSA's data center in Utah or something like that)...</comment>


Quora Details Their New Answer Ranking Scheme; Their "PageRank", Of Sorts - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/05/quora-ranking/ <comment><USER2> Blogspam-free link - [http://www.quora.com/Quora-product/On-Quora-what-is-the- algo...](http://www.quora.com/Quora-product/On-Quora-what-is-the-algorithm- formula-for-determining-the-ordering-ranking-of-answers-on-a-question)

Ta-da!

<comment><USER3> That's misleading. Generally "blogspam" refers to a blog entry that has just copied something from somewhere else, so nothing is gained by reading the blog copy instead of the original.

In this case, the link you give says nothing about the possible connection between these changes and the Scoble incident. The blog link gives us a lot more information, and is by far the more useful link to those of us who have not been closely following this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It seems like they put in a ton of work to prevent one person, Robert Scoble, from 'gaming' the system and having his sub-optimal answers go to the top. (As implied by original link and the SV drama-fest of the past couple weeks)

I think this is interesting for two reasons.

1) Based on the post by Adam D'Angelo, I don't think the changes will cause Robert Scoble's sub-optimal answers to be placed lower on the page. Scoble's past answers are interpreted to be 'high quality' by an algorithm because they get so many up votes. Every answer he posts from now on, will get a higher 'quality score' because of all the upvotes he has already included (See: "Answers written by users who have written good answers in the past will be ranked higher.")

2) This seems like a ton of work to battle the habits of one extremely unique user. It strikes me that Quora's resources could have been better used by controlling the spam caused by the social media crowd infestation (i.e astro- turfers). Or by encouraging more experts from fields other than SV start-ups to join and contribute at a high level.

Having been extremely harsh to Quora so far, I do really like that "A vote from a user who has written good answers in the past carries more weight (both upvotes and downvotes)" And this change will admittedly knock down Scoble's answers a bit.

</comment><comment><USER5> I knew the initial greatness of Quora was dead first on Twitter. I saw a few social media and PR people I follow on Twitter starting to write "pithy" tweets about how PR and social media people were missing the boat if they weren't at Quora promoting their product. Whenever the social media and PR professionals start flocking to a thing, its usefulness is gone for me, generally speaking.

<comment><USER6> Could you elaborate why having these people on Quora makes its usefulness go to zero for you?

<comment><USER5> Because they raise the signal:noise ratio to levels that I don't want to deal with.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Quora seems to think that scaling votes will allow it to preserve the status quo of "high quality" answers.

Is it just me or does that seem pretty naive?</comment>


Anyone can steal all of chrome saved passwords, form fields, bookmarks, history - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@liormarga/anyone-can-steal-all-of-chrome-saved-passwords-form-fields-bookmarks-history-ab2da3b4853e <comment><USER2> The bug response was laughable "yes with unrestricted acess to an account you can steal data from it".

This makes it sound like "with enough time and patience anything is possible"

But the steps described aren't even what i would call a hack. You could do them by accident if you were trying to log in to your own account under someone elses computer using chrome, in less than a minute if you're quick. It requires no technical knowledge and can be done with time to spare during someone's bathroom break.

Here's the process in a nutshell:

1) logout of their account in chrome.

2) login to you're account

3) lie and say you were the previous per person

This isn't a hack. There is no hack! This is a very small step above the "honor system" as your security!

</comment><comment><USER3> Given the number of people I've seen step away from their desks without locking their machines (in the tech industry, no less)...I don't think "hack relies on physical access to the machine wontfix" is an entirely reasonable response from the Chrome team.

Maybe they could make you enter the system password for this action too like they did with saved passwords (earlier, saved passwords were visible in plaintext but now you have to enter the system password to see them)

<comment><USER2> It's not at all a reasonable response. A small bit of malware could eliminate the need for physical intervention: programmatically logout, login with the thief's account to sync, then log that one out too.

The response smacks of an attitude that "once a machine is even a little compromised it's not our responsibility what happens. Physical access is a compromise, therefore we don't have to fix our own loop hole."

This is like a safe company saying, "Well, of course someone that breaks into your house can also open the safe by saying, _I 'm the owner_ out loud."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is not a new phenomenon, though the ease of the exploit might be new. I remember a while ago you could go in SQLite and look at the file Firefox stored all the saved passwords in, for any user. That exploit was fixed, and this one likely will be as well. I agree with other commenters, the most disturbing thing about this is the blase attitude of the response.

<comment><USER5> Mmm. You still can, if there's no master password enabled. But that's a distinct issue from this. Here, you're going from a state that should be entirely safe ("signed out"), to retrieving all of the secrets that are held.

Because Firefox doesn't have sign-in and sign-out like Chrome does, the principle of least surprise kicks in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> that's a walkthrough anyone can follow.

When the barrier to entry for "hacking" credentials and sensitive information is so low, the world's really in trouble...

<comment><USER7> It's the thats-not-my-problem response that worries me the most.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> When an attacker can gain access to your unlocked computer and have time to logout/login your browser, you should not expect anything on the desktop is safe. Personally I don't see this as a security bug.

<comment><USER7> They should at least have to go to an effort commensurate with installing a keylogger or something like that. Just navigating a few windows to get to see your passwords -- that's just wrong. Anything that has what's supposed to have a secure login shouldn't be exposing passwords like this.

<comment><USER9> You do not need any passwords to import all of it (Cookies/Passwords) if you are already logged in. Chrome uses Windows DPAPI to encrypt it on the disk, its automagically decrypted when logged in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Would be interesting to know whether this works when a passphrase is set up to encrypt the stored data.

</comment><comment><USER9> or you could just import all of it with one small command line program without even popping GUI on the screen? Doable in 3 seconds with a pendrive. This is a non story, autor somehow thinks his own computer should fight him.

</comment><comment><USER11> They should force users to retype their password for logging out

<comment><USER12> The thing is that even if you are logged out like most of the people every thing is saved in the default profile so when you logging in to chrome you just take all the passwords , think about college computers farm or public computers ....

<comment><USER2> Or a simple bit of malware that automates the process so the thief doesn't even need to be physically present!</comment></comment></comment>


Stuck between a rock and a hard place - <AUTHOR> http://macdaddy.io/apples-new-macbook-pros/ <comment><USER2> Current: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12841293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12841293)

</comment><comment><USER3> If you need a high-powered machine, don't get a laptop.

</comment><comment><USER4> Apple has shown its weakness. Microsoft should HAMMER the message of how powerful Windows machines are in comparison.

That's the only thing that will make Apple wake up.</comment>


Robot cracks open safe live on Def Con's stage - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40760648 <comment><USER2> Last month I had the disappointing surprise of finding a lock on my bike. I forgot I put it (it's been years since I last used it). And it's not a key lock.. so I'm screwed. Not willing to cut the cable.. I decided to brute force it. 999 space is fun. Luckily you quickly find similar tips than the alignment one to speed up the process. And since it's not a full rotary lock, I could also "DDR" the tests by testing when going from 0 to 9 then from 9 to 0. 5 minutes later and 800 attempts I was lifting my bike like a king. Until I realize the rear tire was dead. TL;DR; do not succomb to the seductive power of cryptanalysis.. check rubber first !

<comment><USER3> When I was 10, I found a rotary bicycle lock + connected chain, locked alone to a post in a park. Having read up on locks even then (god knows how), I tried the method of "pull on it and spin the dials".

About 30 seconds later, it was unlocked.

I used that lock for about 10 years, until I went to University, where the thieves were a bit smarter.

<comment><USER4> Just a note that the lock you found may have not been abandoned.

Many bike posts in my university's undercover bike shed often had several locks without a bike in sight. It turned out many people leaving bike locks on posts they often use (it doesn't take up much space or prevent someone from using the post).

It saves those cyclists the hassle of carrying the the lock with them (only the key), which is particularly an issue with those very heavy bike U-locks and D-locks.

<comment><USER5> Agreed. I have a lock on the work bike lockers I use. Everyone seems to do this. Means you can have a very hefty lock but not carry it. Speaking of we moved buildings I need to snag it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's a cool robot, but auto-dialers are a known tool in safecracking.

Additionally, the safe in question seems to be a SentrySafe SF082CS, which caries NO security rating from UL. The lowest test rating, RSC, only requires the safe survive a 5 minute attack with hand tools.

<comment><USER7> How do I find a UL-security-rated safe? Does it matter if I don't bolt it to the floor?

<comment><USER8> Depends on where you are. UL ratings are used in north america. There are similar EU ratings that I dont recall of hand. TL ratings are for theft/entry resistance. There are other modifiers for fire, water, chemical, etc resistance. Unrated "safes", and even some that are said to be rated, are junk. In NA you want to get in touch with a local safe dealer/specialist. Most of their business is commercial, and they are _not_ the same as a locks ith or "security" company. Moving and installing a safe is a specialist job by itself.

As a sibling commented RSCs are the lowest level and appropriate for home use of low level valuables. Expect $500-1000 and up. TL rated products are almoat always geared towards commercial use. When I was looking a local safe company had a korean made TL-15 with 1 hr fire resistance for about $2500. This was a very bare bones commercial demo/returned unit about 2'x3'x5' interior.

All safes and RSCs _must_ be anchored to the structure on 2 or more sides to be effective. RSCs or "gun safes" will simply be pulled/cut out of the structure if not anchored. TL safes will be knocked over and attacked at the door or floor.

Heres UL testing a safe that probably costs $10,000+ today. [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OtbGUbeM860](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OtbGUbeM860)

<comment><USER7> This leads me to believe that if I am renting an apartment, I am SOL.

<comment><USER9> > _if I am renting an apartment, I am SOL_

Not at all! If you're renting in a high-rise building, the floors will be concrete below the laminate or hardwood. A good safe will have either 4 holes or 1 center hole in the base to allow you to anchor it to the floor. Use a concrete drill bit to drill a hole in your apartment floor in a discreet area, like in a closet or laundry room. If you can borrow a hammer drill it'll be faster, but even an ordinary drill will work, though slower. Make sure you buy a _concrete_ drill bit.

Then attach the safe using concrete screws and anchors. You can use either a self-tapping concrete screw or, better, put the correct size expanding sleeve into the hole first[1]. Even with a single concrete anchor/screw, the safe will be 100 times more difficult to steal. I've seen expensive TL-15 safes ($5000+) with only one center hole in the base, so I assume the manufacturer thought that was sufficient (if properly anchored).

Before you place the safe, put down a sheet of plastic or a very thin patch of carpet to protect the laminate or hardwood floor. Cut holes in the plastic sheet or carpet for the concrete screws.

When you move out of your rented apartment, fill the holes with putty matching the color of the laminate or hardwood floor. If you make a small effort at patching up, the holes will be invisible.

One more piece of advice: The drilling won't take long, but it'll be very loud. If you have a nosy landlord or superintendent, do the drilling when he's not around. A superintendent, for example, is unlikely to work on a Saturday or Sunday.

Also, cover the safe with a sheet or blanket, so if someone casually looks in your closet or laundry room, the safe won't be noticed.

[http://howtospecialist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/How- to...](http://howtospecialist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/How-to-install- concrete-anchor-4.jpg)

<comment><USER10> You're advocating damaging someone's property without their permission. Don't do that.

<comment><USER11> Found the landlord!

<comment><USER12> Or the person who had their basement apartment flooded.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I love this frank response from the safe manufacturer:

'... speaking to Wired magazine earlier this month, when the team demonstrated its method on a smaller safe, a spokeswoman for the safe maker said: "In this environment, the product accomplished what it was designed to do."'

<comment><USER14> It is designed to trick people into building robots to open it? :-)

More seriously though, I consulted a friend and neighbor when buying a safe for my home. This person who owns a locksmith shop and is a registered locksmith (and has been for > 20 years) asked me to look up the median response time of the police to my address. Since I live near the police station it was fairly small. He said you only need a safe that can last 15 - 20 minutes and you will need to anchor it so that it can't be easily yanked out of your house. Any professional thief will skip it and it may keep an amateur working on it long enough for the police to arrive and arrest them in the act.

That made a lot of sense to me.

<comment><USER15> You bought a TL-15 safe for your home? Where did you place it? Even the smaller TL-15 safes weigh hundreds of pounds and require some logistics to place. They are very impractical for most apartment dweller types, or even some high-density, old-construction flats because of their weight.

<comment><USER14>
       > You bought a TL-15 safe for your home?

Yes I did. It did not weigh hundreds of pounds. Its location was constrained a bit by where it could be secured to the structure but not unreasonably so. And it wasn't like I've got paintings or something in it, just stuff that if the house burned down I'd want to have survive and a few things I'd rather other folks not have (like passports).

<comment><USER16> From this thread I've learned that a people-resistant safe might not be fire- resistant.

Please check if your safe can actually handle heat and water.

<comment><USER14> That is correct, and something to specify when buying a safe. In our case I was actually replacing a fire safe that my wife had bought at CostCo so fire resistance was a 'must have' feature. It has has our critical documents in it and a key to the safe deposit box where actually valuable but not something you might need to get out at home stuff is kept.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'm honestly a little disappointed it's "just" an automated safe cracker.

I wanted to see a hulking brute of a robot peel the safe like an apple with its powerful metal claws.

</comment><comment><USER18> Here's a commercial version. [1]

This seems to be an exhaustive-search combination lock solver. Someone else has built one that not only manipulates the lock, but uses a contact microphone to listen to it. But I can't find the reference.

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

<comment><USER19> A key element of this is it's ability to limit the amount of possible combinations from 1 million to about 1000 due to small flaws in the dials. A contact microphone might be able to even further reduce this search space in combination with the existing exploits.

<comment><USER18> There are Sergeant and Greenleaf locks with a half-digit tolerance, so you have to get the number exactly right. They're not popular, because they're such a pain to use.

<comment><USER20>
      >> half-digit tolerance

I assume you mean <0.5digit tolerance.

There is a big difference between 0.55digit tolerance (might be able to try two numbers at once with enough mechanical precision to the solver) and 0.45digit tolerance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > Some SentrySafe models come with an additional lock and key, but the team > was able to unlock it by using a Bic pen.

Um.. that also seems like an important problem?

<comment><USER6> It's a well-known attack on tubular locks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> SparkFun posted a full tutorial on their machine few months ago.

[https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/building-a-safe- crackin...](https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/building-a-safe-cracking- robot)

</comment><comment><USER23> Aren't there a whole bunch of videos on YouTube of kids opening these with not much more than a length of steel wire and primitive hand tools? You decidedly do not want a safe that's not UL listed.

<comment><USER24> Think of this as version 1.0 of the robot, though.

Unlike hand tools, the improvement curve of such robots will be interesting to watch over time. [Edit: especially to the extent that the improvement is partly in the innovative hands of the hacker / maker community as opposed to just a few commercial companies as with existing "speed dialers."]

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> So many people in SF leave their house keys in those 3 digit combination locks for Wag dog walkers. Something like this could crack that in seconds.

<comment><USER26> A typical front door lock is considerably easier to defeat than the mechanism on one of these safes. Many can be opened in seconds with a bump key or other pick tools.

<comment><USER27> No kidding! I recently picked up lock picking as a hobby, and it really makes me realize just how insecure most locks really are. I'm a total beginner and I'm able to pick some locks in seconds.

<comment><USER28> Most regular houses I've lived in (in Australia) could be trivially and discretely broken in to with a jemmy bar (crowbar).

My neighbour had his two jet skis stolen from his carport on a weekday, they were chained to a post.

The auto shop across from my work had their delivery ute stolen from inside the building while six staff were an open door way away.

I caught someone sitting in my car trying to start it with a screwdriver. I nearly asked him if he wanted me to show him how it's done.

I keep telling my partner not to leave her laptops and cashbox visible from the windows and to lock the front door when she's in the bathroom or backyard.

People I thought were my friends have stolen from me.

Unless you have something worth protecting and the budget to protect it... Security is a hopeless mess.

<comment><USER29> Is Tasmania that bad? This sounds like Detroit

<comment><USER28> That encouraged me to take a peek, turns out Launceston was the the worst place in Tasmania for home burglary in 2014/15[1], but still not as bad as other areas around the country.

1\. [https://www.canstar.com.au/home-insurance/state-hotspots- for...](https://www.canstar.com.au/home-insurance/state-hotspots-for-home- theft/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Those framing pieces of aluminum or steel look awesome. They look great for quick mechanical structural work.

Anyone have any idea where to buy them from ?

<comment><USER31> The people that presented this on stage are from SparkFun, you can likely buy all the bit from them. Most of the robot parts look like it is from the Acrobatics line that they cary:

[https://www.sparkfun.com/pages/Actobotics](https://www.sparkfun.com/pages/Actobotics)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Somebody dumb enough to leave a key to their house right next to their house in a city like SF deserves to get burglarized.

<comment><USER33> Gotta love this attitude, which is widely shared by Bay Area media and law enforcement.

\- "You shouldn't have parked there. "

\- "You shouldn't have left anything visible in your vehicle."

\- "You shouldn't have left anything _in_ visible in the trunk, either."

As for "key right next to house" how _else_ do you propose letting agents show your property to prospective buyers or tenants?

In SF, property crimes don't matter. I once had a road rager _shoot at me and blow a window out in my car_. SFPD response? "We can't find the round (bullet), so we'll just give you a case number (and no further investigation)."

Edit: typo

<comment><USER34> That's a serious pain. :/ Glad you weren't shot, though.

(Is "road eager" auto-correct for something?)

<comment><USER35> "road-rager", I'd guess.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


In Search of Lost Sounds (Why you've never really heard the "Moonlight" Sonata) - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2245891/

<comment><USER2> Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1161794></comment>


TrustEgg (YC W11) Launches, Lets Anyone Create Trust Accounts For Their Kids - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/20/yc-backed-trustegg-launches-lets-anyone-create-trust-accounts-for-their-kids/ <comment><USER2> My daughter turned 1 a few weeks ago, there are a _very_ short list of startups that I think _might_ still exist looking a bit like they do today when she is an adult...

I cannot imagine making a 17 year bet on a startup. I like that you're all parents (+ an uncle, close enough) and actually adults rather than a crop of 20 year olds about to be acquihired, but what happens if you just stop for any reason?

<comment><USER3> Founder/CEO TrustEgg - The deposits are held at an established Trust Co. (Summit Trust Co. of Nevada)and if something were to happen to Summit or TrustEgg, the accounts would be transferred to another Trust Co. under the supervision of the State Department of Financial Institutions.

<comment><USER4> If your startup is in California, where does Nevada comes from?

You see -- those kind of red flags to me would be a huge no-no. Like those Cayman accounts and other accounting practices.

Something is fishy here.

<comment><USER3> Founder/CEO - TrustEgg - Most financial institutions are based out of a few select states, Nevada being one. Similar to every company being formed in Delaware.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A trust needs to last a very long time. What happens if this startup fails/folds?

<comment><USER3> TrustEgg Founder - If TrustEgg were to fail, the accounts would be transferred to a different Trust Co in coordination with the State Division of Financial institutions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> FYI, you have a typo on one page. If you go here: [https://www.trustegg.com/Learn_more_about_TrustEgg_child_tru...](https://www.trustegg.com/Learn_more_about_TrustEgg_child_trust_fund) and then choose "Earn market rate of return", you say at one point "marketing rate of return". I assume you meant "market rate of return"

</comment><comment><USER7> The service is surprisingly decent for very simple trusts of their target market, but it costs 89 basis points (0.89%) for the assets under management, which is quite a lot for such simple trusts. Then again, given the modest sizes of the trusts that they will be managing, 0.89% is probably not much.

<comment><USER8> Over 17 years (example taken from elsewhere in the thread) that works out to 14.1% of the total amount assuming the total amount is paid out when the beneficiary of the trust reaches the age of majority.

<comment><USER3> Founder/CEO TrustEgg - For most families the only option they have, or are using right now, are savings accounts which over time will lose to inflation. We offer a way for accounts to receive a market rate of return. As for pricing, an adviser based 529 plan is going to add an additional 1% to the management fee, or ~6% load on deposits.

<comment><USER9> Your comment is very misleading. Families can invest in any of the same investments you do, directly via Fidelity or Vanguard, and save an enormous amount in fees. You may add value by being a nicer UI/wrapper around these existing services, but at least be honest about that and what your customers are paying for.

<comment><USER3> Founder/CEO - TrustEgg - We eliminate the minimums. To open a Vanguard 'Wellington Fund' account - you would need $3,000. Also when purchasing, or making a trade, you are usually going to pay a fee.

<comment><USER10> > Also when purchasing, or making a trade, you are usually going to pay a fee.

Obviously, when buying a Vanguard fund at a Vanguard account there is no fee

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> What a joke --

"Watch it grow",

"The money in the account will be invested in a mutual fund and will grow at the market rate of return!"

Then somewhere deep down in the FAQ they say they use Vanguard Wellington.

Is anyone that naive to fall for this?

What's wrong with regular UTMA, UGMA or 529 accounts?

(I have two kids, aged 5 and 1 -- both have 529s with Utah UESP, one of the best 529 plans out there)

<comment><USER3> TrustEgg Founder/CEO - You can set-up your own UTMA, but you would need to be the custodian. If you have a third party custodian (what we offer) then the price increases. We also have no minimums, which keeps many people from starting an account. TrustEgg also brings in friends and family to make contributions. TrustEgg makes everything easy. As for price, if you have an adivser based 529 plan, you will pay an extra 1% on top of the mangement fees, or a load of around 6%.

<comment><USER11> > You can set-up your own UTMA, but you would need to be the custodian.

Quoting wikipedia[1] on the difference this makes.

> The donor can serve as a custodian, rather than transferring the property to > someone else to hold for the minor. However, the value of custodianship > property is included in a donor's gross estate if the donor dies while > serving as the custodian.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Transfers_to_Minors_Ac...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Transfers_to_Minors_Act)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Apart from a nicer UI, and the somewhat orthogonal feature of keeping a journal to share with your kid later on, how much benefit does this really offer over just setting up a trust directly with Vanguard rather than indirectly through TrustEgg?

<comment><USER3> Founder/CEO TrustEgg - We allow families an easy way to bring in friends and family to make contributions. Social savings for the child's future.

<comment><USER12> Vanguard supports contributions to accounts you don't own, so that still falls under "nicer UI".

Not that you can't make a service around wrapping a nicer UI on top of something that many people legitimately find complicated. I just wondered if TrustEgg offers any services that Vanguard doesn't offer at all, or if they just provide a user-friendly face on a complicated but working process.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just an FYI: If you transfer more than $13k in a year to the account it will trigger gift taxes.

<comment><USER10> $14,000 for 2013.

Also note that lifetime tax-free limit is $5.12 million. So if you 'accidentally' gift more than $14k, you just fill form 709 and pay no taxes till $5.12M

<comment><USER14> Yeah, my parents were all scared about gift taxes when loaning us money short- term for our downpayment... then we read the fine print - and the loan was well south of the lifetime tax-free limit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The social gifting bit is nice, to save the hassle of accumulating attacks of $50 securities that cost more to track and redeem than they are worth.

</comment><comment><USER16> whoot whoot, more trust fund babies...

<comment><USER17> Helping your children pay for education doesn't make them a "trust fund baby", it just makes you a good parent.

<comment><USER16> money isn't everything. you don't need a trust fund to pay for an education. a 'good' parent spends time with their kids. that's all a kid really wants. i know plenty of friends making 6 digits and double income parents, so much money but no time for timmy. its so sad. conversely my hippy friend makes mostly nothing and spends every waking day with his kid.

<comment><USER15> I think your point is misdirected. It is virtuous to spend time with kids and save money as well. Your hippy friend may enjoy financial aid (not to mention social welfare) that the taxpaying middle class do not qualify for.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


So you think you know what a number is - <AUTHOR> http://chris.improbable.org/2014/8/25/adventures-in-unicode-digits/ <comment><USER2> Expecting to see some foundational mathematical logic content, was disappointed.

<comment><USER3> Too bad, it's your old friend Unicode.

<comment><USER4> No worries, I'm sure the next version of Unicode will have a single glyph that provides a complete introduction to the topic.

<comment><USER5> We need to extend Unicode to account for quantum computing and qubits. It needs to evolve into Qunicode. Text with this feature baked in could be called Quneiform. It should be stored on light-reflecting crystals that are manufactured using kilns.

<comment><USER6> You should join the Unicode Consortium; I'm pretty sure you'd fit right in. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Speaking of tools having trouble recognizing things, one of the more common "bug reports" I get is that the Tarsnap website is disclosing user email addresses -- specifically, "firstname.lastname@example.com" \-- and paths -- specifically, the paths /home/auser and /home/anotheruser.

</comment><comment><USER8>
      >>> int("۲۶۷۹")
      2679

Thats pretty cool.

<comment><USER9> Indeed. Seems to be a thing of python 3.

        $ ruby -v
        ruby 2.2.6p396 (2016-11-15 revision 56800) [x86_64-linux-gnu]
        $ ruby -e "puts \"۲۶۷۹\".to_i"
        0

        $ python2.7 -c "print(int(\"۲۶۷۹\"))"
        Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
        ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '\xdb\xb2\xdb\xb6\xdb\xb7\xdb\xb9'

        $ python3.5 -c "print(int(\"۲۶۷۹\"))"
        2679

        $ node -v
        v6.9.1
        $ node -p "parseInt(\"۲۶۷۹\")"
        NaN

<comment><USER10> It works in Python 2, you just have to ensure that your string is unicode. I can't get it to work directly from the command line for some reason, but if you open an interactive Python session it works:

      Python 2.7.12 (default, Dec 14 2016, 13:32:53)
      [GCC 4.9.3] on linux2
      Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
      >>> print(int(u'۲۶۷۹'))
      2679

<comment><USER9> Hmm, interesting. What's up with the terminal here? The shell is doing something to the text.

        $ python2.7 -c "print(int(u'۲۶۷۹'))"
        Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
        ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '\xdb\xb2\xdb\xb6\xdb\xb7\xdb\xb9'

        $ python2.7
        Python 2.7.13 (default, Jan 03 2017, 17:41:54) [GCC] on linux2
        Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
        >>> print(int(u'۲۶۷۹'))
        2679

Looking at what the string is:

        $ python2.7 -c "print(list(u'۲۶۷۹'))"
        [u'\xdb', u'\xb2', u'\xdb', u'\xb6', u'\xdb', u'\xb7', u'\xdb', u'\xb9']

        $ python2.7
        Python 2.7.13 (default, Jan 03 2017, 17:41:54) [GCC] on linux2
        Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
        >>> print(list(u'۲۶۷۹'))
        [u'\u06f2', u'\u06f6', u'\u06f7', u'\u06f9']

<comment><USER11> DB B2, etc. are the UTF-8 encodings of U+06F2, etc. So Python is seeing mojibake: U+00DB (Û), U+00B2 (²), etc. which are not digits. Well, one of them kinda is, but it's No ("Number, other"), not Nd ("Number, decimal digit").

<comment><USER9> Yeah I get that, but why is that happening?

<comment><USER11> I'd guess because CPython is assuming the input to -c is ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) when it decodes it using Py_DecodeLocale():

        main()
          …
          setlocale(LC_ALL, "")
          …
          argv_copy[i] = Py_DecodeLocale(argv[i], NULL)
            …
            mbstowcs() or mbrtowc()
            …
          setlocale(LC_ALL, oldloc)
          …
          Py_Main(argc, argv_copy)

While the REPL's encoding (sys.stdin.encoding) is set to UTF-8 due to LANG/LC_CTYPE settings. You can get the same error when invoking the REPL as:

        LANG="en_US.iso8859-1" python2.7

So the shell isn't doing anything to the text—it's providing UTF-8 bytes in both cases, it's just that Python is interpreting them differently.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Note that Python has str.isdecimal, str.isdigit _and_ str.isnumeric.

                    isdecimal    isdigit   isnumeric

        12345        True        True       True
        ១2߃໔5        True        True       True
        ①²³🄅₅       False       True       True
        ⑩⒓          False       False      True
        Five         False       False      False

Use isdecimal if you want to call `int` (though it's EAFTP).

<comment><USER13> Don't forget to special case negative numbers though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14>
           int("一万三千二百六十九")
        Traceback (most recent call last):
           File "python", line 1, in <module>
        ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '一万三千二百六十九'
           int("一三二六九")
        Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "python", line 1, in <module>
        ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: '一三二六九'

Well, that was disappointing. For the record, my site [http://ichi.moe/](http://ichi.moe/) can handle both (and Arabic numerals too).

<comment><USER15> That actually came up in the comments ([http://chris.improbable.org/2014/8/25/adventures-in- unicode-...](http://chris.improbable.org/2014/8/25/adventures-in-unicode- digits/#comment-3279339258))

Apparently the Unicode consortium chose to exclude those characters because they weren't encoded in a contiguous sequence so they're defined as Numeric_Type=Digit rather than Numeric_Type=Decimal. They've apparently realized that this is not helpful but chose to apply the updated policy only to new ranges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> At least AFAIK all the non-CJKV scripts (except perhaps Mongolian?) use right- to-left decimal characters with 0. So you should be able to "transliterate" (transnumerate) ۲۶۷۹ to 2979 with a simple look up table and no R-L confusion. In fact ۲9۷9 should be the same.

</comment><comment><USER17> It's neat how that link lets you run Python interactively in the browser, with [https://repl.it/site/languages/python3](https://repl.it/site/languages/python3) . Normally that is just a JavaScript thing.

</comment><comment><USER18> This applies in Java as well, for instance Integer.parseInt and Character.isDigit. Between Java and Python, you can get all sorts of numeric characters through a sizable percentage of web applications.

I haven't yet found a security vulnerability based in this, but I keep checking. :-)

<comment><USER15> Also .Net: [https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040309-00/?p=...](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040309-00/?p=40333)

… and, yes, that was definitely something I tried to find when I first noticed it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> A partition of the rationals into sets U and V such that every u in U is less than every v in V?</comment>


Wanna know the real reason why developers still prefer iOS over Android? - <AUTHOR> http://nclx.tumblr.com/post/78741259140/the-real-reason-why-developers-still-prefer-ios-over

<comment><USER2> You: Make me a sandwich. Apple: Do it yourself

You: Sudo, make me a sandwich. Google: OK

I'm referring to rooting a device and customizing the experience. That's why i prefer Android.

PS. Notice i didn't generalize it?

<comment><AUTHOR> I know, but I think that under Apple restriction is possible to deliver better experiences than a rooted Android.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The blame can be lain in several places, not least on developers for writing Android apps the way they write iOS apps.

In mentoring teams that are cross-training to make Android versions of their apps, I find that getting them into the right frame of mind about designing for a wide variety of screen geometries, ideally getting their designers to use Eclipse to load their work into the project and manage the directories for different geometry categories themselves, and getting the coders to accept that they can't subvert the Activity lifecycle, are good places to start to get them out of the "Why can't this be like iOS?" headspace.

Otherwise it's very likely they will choose to learn these lessons through experience.</comment>


Should big tech companies like Facebook be broken up? - <AUTHOR> https://www.recode.net/2018/5/18/17366868/scott-galloway-google-apple-facebook-amazon-regulation-privacy-power-dictators-kara-swisher-podcast <comment><USER2> Yes - it has worked in the past (read about breakup of US monopolies and the impact to economy). It is the circle of life, similar to nature when a whale dies its meat lets many different forms of life prosper.

</comment><comment><USER3> As quickly as possible</comment>


Cross-Laminated Timber and the Race for Wooden Skyscrapers - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/the-race-for-the-wood-skyscraper-starts-here <comment><USER2> "...there's a great deal of evidence to suggest mass timber is actually safer in a fire than steel.

For example, in a fire, a thick plank of wood will char on the outside, sealing the interior and protecting it from damage. Wood burns slowly at approximately 0.02 inches/minute and the char created on the wood surface as it burns helps protect and insulate the unburnt wood below and maintain the structure.

This is because the build-up of carbon on the surface will limit the oxygen supply to the wood below and act as insulator. Therefore, the wood below the charred level will be cool and retain 85 to 90 per cent of its structural integrity.

Metal, on the other hand, begins to melt when it reaches a critical temperature (around 1300 degrees C) so will fail catastrophically. B.J. Yeh, from APA described steel being "like spaghetti" at this stage."

From: [http://www.internationaltimber.com/news/timber/how-does- timb...](http://www.internationaltimber.com/news/timber/how-does-timber- handle-fire-compared-to-steel-and-concrete-)

This is an intriguing argument, but aspects of it bother me. For example, steel does not function well as fuel. Other things must burn in order for it to reach melting temperatures. With wood, even if the inner core remains cool and protected by a layer of char, the fire will be able to spread by using the outer layer of the structural wood as fuel. A building with steel supports may catastrophically fail when its supporting structure melts, but the fire may well expend all available fuel before reaching that point. With a wooden supporting structure, the fire could keep spreading and burning until it is put out. So while CLT may well be superior to Steel in how long it can bear weight in a fire, it may also sustain longer and more intense fires than a building with a steel support structure.

While I'm concerned that massive wooden buildings may be more prone to producing out-of-control fires, this is still a technology well worth pursuing. Wood provides a nearly optimal blend of being low-cost and environmentally friendly.

<comment><USER3> That argument is interesting. I follow the logic, but I am not sure it's correct. To put it simply, my experience tells me that wood burns. I have seen houses that have burned, and barns that have burned, and trees that have burned, and they don't look so good. Do they have a demonstration?

Build a small structure out of the stuff, and light it on fire. Build one out of metal, light it (its interior framing? Carpet? Gas leak? Wood floors?) on fire and compare the results.

<comment><USER2> It sounds like we have the same concern. A free-standing steel frame does not readily burn while a wooden frame will. This is obvious.

In a complex building things may not be so simple. Assuming that everything around the structure is great fuel, it's possible that a wooden frame won't significantly increase the speed at which the fire spreads and may actually remain structurally sound longer than a steel supporting structure would. In this case, you might have more time to put out the fire before the building collapses.

Of course, the obvious question is: why not reduce the amount of combustible building material so that fires don't spread so quickly and there's simply not enough fuel to heat a steel support structure to the point of failure? My intuition says that an ideal building shouldn't readily burn to the point that it's structure fails. If part of it catches fire, the fire should burn itself out before this point is reached. I am not an engineer though, and my intuition may very well be wrong. Obviously, fires do happen in glass and steel buildings.

We _can_ build steel-framed buildings that will readily burn to the ground. Can we build wood-framed buildings that won't? This is a complex question to which I don't know the answer.

<comment><USER4> I sincerely apologize for linking to a 9/11 denial site, but:

[http://www.serendipity.li/wot/other_fires/other_fires.htm](http://www.serendipity.li/wot/other_fires/other_fires.htm)

We have plenty of steel skyscrapers that have burned for a LONG time and have not collapsed. Huge fires. Towering infernos. This is a good thing, not only for the residents but also for the neighbors of said structures.

I simply do not believe that you can build a building with wood supports that is going to withstand the conditions in those photos without collapsing. Wood skyscrapers that burn are going to collapse with considerable collateral damage.

This whole debate is an example of not remembering the past and being doomed to repeat it. Corporate greed to save a few bucks during construction will eventually result in preventable tragedies.

<comment><USER5> Typical mix of everything under the sun... here's a better page on skyscraper fires: [http://911encyclopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Building_Fires](http://911encyclopedia.com/wiki/index.php/Building_Fires)

I made a 40min documentary on the WTC fires: [http://s3.amazonaws.com/nasathermalimages/public/video/Prete...](http://s3.amazonaws.com/nasathermalimages/public/video/Pretext.mov)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The article mentions proposed 100 and 40 story tall buildings made of wood. This would be a huge leap since it seems like the current tallest building is the 14 floor Treet in Bergen (and an 18 story building is under construction news.ubc.ca/2015/10/01/new-ubc-student-residence-to-be-among-worlds-tallest- wood-buildings/ )

and I found a paper that says that Cross Laminated Timber isn't part of the main load bearing system in Treet anyway: [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00107-016-1022-5](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00107-016-1022-5)

</comment><comment><USER7> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_scaffolding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo_scaffolding)

</comment><comment><USER8> Since this is HN and we're obligated to talk about the website over the article, can I just say that I literally can't read this article thanks to a 'you're using an ad blocker' message. No I'm on my phone and have no ad blocker and can't view this from my PC since my internet is out. Thanks, Bloomberg, great user experience.

<comment><USER9> I will follow your rabbit trail. I got the same message here with Chrome on the desktop without any ad blocking extensions installed. However, I was able to close that popup and keep going. Odd

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Glued laminated timber has been around for decades. It's sometimes used for roof arches.[1] I once saw a Safeway supermarket with a roof built that way. The arch elements were about a foot square in cross section.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glued_laminated_timber)

<comment><USER11> > Glued laminated timber has been around for decades.

It says that in the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> How exactly is this considered "greener"?

<comment><USER13> > Wood sequesters carbon from the environment, while producing concrete emits > carbon</comment></comment>


Ruby 2.1.0 preview1 released - <AUTHOR> https://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/4417257 <comment><USER2> I really wish that Ruby had an actual _language_ reference instead of just the core and stdlib docs. If those same docs were versioned and updated along with the code, then changes in the language would have docs changes that could be linked together into a "What's New" section. Decent basic tutorial material wouldn't hurt either.

This is an area where so many other languages like Python[1], Go[2], etc. get it right. The only semblance of an online language reference is a version of the Pickaxe book that was already out of date back when Rails was a screaming v1.0 newborn.

[1] Python language ref: [http://docs.python.org/3/reference/index.html](http://docs.python.org/3/reference/index.html)

[2] Go language ref: [http://golang.org/ref/spec](http://golang.org/ref/spec)

<comment><USER3> There is an ISO standard for 1.8.7 and RubySpec for all versions.

<comment><USER4> Though 1.8.7 was released more than 5 years ago (and the language has evolved a lot since then) and the RubySpec are usually not up to date, at least not documenting all the features as they come in (as Brian Ford and others have pointed out several times).

Not to be an ungrateful d*ck, I think the progress made is fantastic and supported by a bunch of extremely dedicated, talented and courageous people, but there is something of a void in terms of Ruby-as-formally-specified- language, hard to deny. But as usual, I guess it's hard to find the manpower, the time and the money to support such efforts.

<comment><USER3> Yup. I totally agree with you, a formal spec would be great. But it's not in the cards, so we do the best with what we've got.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So what happened to refinements? They were given a warning in 2.0 because the other implementations warned that implementing refinements would lead to worse performance. Has that been fixed?

<comment><USER5> @headius was so kind to answer my question on Twitter: [https://twitter.com/MSch/status/382065119515398144](https://twitter.com/MSch/status/382065119515398144)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm still waiting (4 years now) for method#to_source. _sigh_

[http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/2080](http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/2080)

<comment><USER7> Ha! I have you beat! I've been waiting 7 years for to be able override autoload's require.

[https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7716](https://bugs.ruby- lang.org/issues/7716)

In fact, after 10 years of dedication, b/c of this and a few other issues (and attitudes) I don't use Ruby any more.

<comment><USER8> Autoload is fundamentally broken because it makes your app state nondeterministic by making state loading and logic interdependent.

I work on a large Ruby software project and we've had to move away from any autoload except for very specific cases for this reason- troubleshooting autoload bugs are the WORST.

Maybe this is the reason it hasn't been looked at.

<comment><USER7> I wish. There was a window of time when Matz said autoload would be deprecated. But he took that back after Yahuda (I think) addressed some threading issue. I agree with your assessment, but too many big names project use it --RubyGems, Psych, Rails, etc.

I wrote my one load system but have never been able to use it 100% with other projects b/c I could not override autoload require. Though I've begged for years Matz just keeps blowing it off.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Time for some Benchmarks. Ruby 2.1, JRuby 1.7.5 and the Duke Nukeum Rubinius 2.0.

</comment><comment><USER10> Non-Blocking IO with out raising an exception is a notable new feature. The Improvements to Garbage Collection is also pretty huge.

The 128bit number support is cool, I mean if you want to work with Quadruple- precision floating-point numbers... I know I do.

<comment><USER11> Where do you find out about the non-blocking io?

<comment><USER12> I suppose he refers to this...

* IO

      * extended methods:

        * IO#seek supports SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE as whence.

        * IO#seek accepts symbols (:CUR, :END, :SET, :DATA, :HOLE) for 2nd argument.

        * IO#read_nonblock accepts optional `exception: false` to return symbols

        * IO#write_nonblock accepts optional `exception: false` to return symbols

see [https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/v2_1_0_preview1/NEWS](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/v2_1_0_preview1/NEWS)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Wasn't there an overwhelming _negative_ feedback for refinements? What was the rationale for still going ahead with them?

<comment><USER14> Matz has said we're getting them, so we're getting them.

<comment><USER13> Sure, he's the benevolent dictator (and the creator of language, itself), but he would've explained himself somewhere. About the benefits of refinements and how to deal with the downsides. Any links?

<comment><USER14> If you've got the patience, [https://bugs.ruby- lang.org/issues/4085#note-95](https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/4085#note-95) is the ruby-core discussion. It really does boil down to "Matz says so."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> List of new features: [http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/ruby- trunk/issues?set_fil...](http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/ruby- trunk/issues?set_filter=1&f%5B%5D=status_id&op%5Bstatus_id%5D=c&f%5B%5D=tracker_id&op%5Btracker_id%5D=%3D&v%5Btracker_id%5D%5B%5D=2&f%5B%5D=fixed_version_id&op%5Bfixed_version_id%5D=%3D&v%5Bfixed_version_id%5D%5B%5D=27&f%5B%5D=&c%5B%5D=tracker&c%5B%5D=status&c%5B%5D=priority&c%5B%5D=subject&c%5B%5D=assigned_to&c%5B%5D=updated_on&group_by=)

</comment><comment><USER16> Is there more detailed changes description?

<comment><USER16> Closed tickets in bugtracker:

[http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/ruby- trunk/issues?set_fil...](http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/projects/ruby- trunk/issues?set_filter=1&f%5B%5D=status_id&op%5Bstatus_id%5D=c&f%5B%5D=fixed_version_id&op%5Bfixed_version_id%5D=%3D&v%5Bfixed_version_id%5D%5B%5D=27&f%5B%5D=&c%5B%5D=tracker&c%5B%5D=status&c%5B%5D=priority&c%5B%5D=subject&c%5B%5D=assigned_to&c%5B%5D=updated_on&group_by=)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> A list of language and library changes in this release. It does not include some things like the GC and method cache changes.

[https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/v2_1_0_preview1/NEWS](https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/v2_1_0_preview1/NEWS)

</comment><comment><USER18> From the link:

The notable changes are:

* VM (method cache)

* RGenGC

* refinements

* syntax

* Decimal Literal

* Frozen String Literal

* def's return value

* Bignum

* 128bit

* GMP

* String#scrub

* Socket.getifaddrs

* new Rubygem

<comment><USER19> I think def's return value means returning symbol rather than nil? I've been waiting for it for ten years, I had almost forgotten why I wanted it in the first place :)

<comment><USER20> So, this would mean that

private def foo

end

will now work?

<comment><USER7> Yes. And it is somewhat surprising. Matz must have rejected this idea a dozen times. It was certainly one of the oldest feature requests around. Hard to imagine what must have changed his mind. I've rarely seem Matz change his mind.

<comment><USER19> I seem to recall the issue was more with returning UnboundMethod objects than with symbols, but possibly what's changed is the fact that now symbols can be GCed?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>