Ejection Seats - <AUTHOR> http://steveblank.com/2010/05/24/ejection-seats/

<comment><USER2> Fun practical joke, here's another.

<http://steveblank.com/2009/05/13/gravity-will-be-turned-off/>

<comment><USER3> _I typed 30 copies, and using the master key I went into every squadron building bulletin board, and posted these orders from the base commander on all 30._

Sounds like a good way to find out how a stockade works.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how many technicians were killed by accident by the ejection seats versus how many pilots' lives were saved. If there are more accidents than ejection saves, I wonder if it's calculated such that pilots are more willing to take risks if they think they'll be helped out by the seats.

<comment><USER5> No pilot "wants" to eject. There is a high possibility of being injured, usually to the head, neck & back, even with the modern Martin-Baker & BF Goodrich ejections seats.

During a high-risk flight, the possibility of ejecting outside parameters is quite high, such as the recent F-22 crash where the pilot got killed during a high-speed ejection.

There have been pilots who eject once and ended their career due to injuries.

<comment><USER6> Right. Even if the physical damage isn't that bad, injuries such as a concussion can end your career. The military has pretty strict rules about this stuff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7>
       "Yeah on these seats the ejection sequence automatically starts when it grabs your legs. The rocket fires in 10 seconds."

10 seconds to start the ejection? Ah, come on, that would just eject the dead body of the pilot from the plane wreck. You should have known better.

<comment><USER8> Actually a B-52 might normally fly in heights where even a 10-second straight vertical fall should not be a problem

<comment><USER9> I don't think it's the fall that matters. The problem would come when the airplane begins to tumble. Rip the tail off a B-52, and I would expect it to rapidly tumble and subsequently disintegrate with unpleasant consequences for those inside. Furthermore, ejecting is probably more likely to succeed in straight and level flight than from a tumbling aircraft. For both reasons, it is desirable to eject quickly once it becomes necessary.

Additionally, a 10 second wait is unnecessary. We see from fighter ejector seats that ejection can be done in just a few seconds. What can possibly be gained by remaining once the seat is ready to eject?

<comment><USER10> [http://www.boeing.com/defense- space/military/b52-strat/b52_5...](http://www.boeing.com/defense- space/military/b52-strat/b52_50th/story3.htm)

It's a story about a b52 that lost its vertical stabilizer. It flew to the nearest base and landed normally, six hours later at a different base because of wind problems at the first base.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It seems odd that there's no way to remove the rockets. You wouldn't do maintenance on a loaded gun.

<comment><USER12> You certainly can remove the rockets, it just takes a lot of time and effort so isn't done for routine maintenance. Also, removing the rockets would probably be at least as dangerous as working with them there.

<comment><USER11> That's a shame. Nuclear weapons can be quickly/safely loaded and removed but the ejection seat rockets can't...

<comment><USER2> Ejection rockets seats don't need to be removed frequently. Nuclear weapons need to drop the instant someone hits the trigger. So why would you complicate the design of an ejection seat that needs to work under a wide variety of conditions?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


TV, retail, advertising and cascading collapses - <AUTHOR> https://www.ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2018/1/15/tv-retail-advertising-and-cascading-collapses <comment><USER2> The thing that bothers me, about the retail space at least, is the increasing amount of waste and the increasing amount of consumerism.

Many people buy PC components from Newegg or household goods from Amazon when they might be an entire $5 more at a retail store. The retails store version you can actually see and touch (more important for a bathmat, less important for a video card) and they're shipping in packages of 100 or 500. Stores typically do recycle all their cardboard.

You buy it on-line, and it comes in a box. And those boxes add up, and many of them don't get reused or recycled depending on what part of the world you live in.

Amazon pushes people to buy more through their ecosystem. We're buying more stuff we don't need than ever, and generating more waste than ever. Their dash button felt like the ultimate consumption waste tool. Amazon is pushing us into a world where we are continually buying.

I'd rather we live in a world where we buy more are, fewer goods (with what we do buy being more expensive but durable). What a great world if our cellphones and devices lasted 8 years instead of 2. A world where we could buy independent games and media and know the creators got a full 85%~90% like with Bandcamp instead of the current bullshit 66% they get from Apple/Google/Amazon/Steam/Gog.

A world where we spend less on goods and the goods last longer; a world that lets us spend more on art, could greatly reduce our overall pollution (not just the symbolic and useless measure of carbon) and could help create a more Army of Davids type world where people can legitimately live off their art.

<comment><USER3> Even if the stores are more efficient with packaging/recycling, consumers still have to go to the store. What is the carbon footprint of 500 people driving to the store and back vs a UPS truck delivering 500 individual cardboard boxes? I don't know but I suspect that UPS is going to be smaller.

<comment><USER4> If you're walking to the store because you live in a walkable neighborhood, it's zero. If you're going to the mall and buying a dozen things from a dozen stores, the carbon footprint per purchase is probably lower than if you're buying a dozen things in a half dozen separate transactions online. Not to mention all the boxes and the energy and/or trees needed to produce/recycle them.

<comment><USER5> "As long as you live in an atypical situation where all your material needs are within 15min walking distance from your residence and you're affluent enough to not notice retail markup the issue you bring up isn't a problem."

<comment><USER6> I think that says more about the sad state of the living situation we Americans have engineered ourselves into over a few generations, with suburban sprawl and car culture, more than anything. If we think about it even just a tiny bit, it seems absurd that the majority of our society has little choice _but_ to live in a situation where most of our material needs _aren 't_ a 15 minute walking distance away.

<comment><USER7> Replace "engineered ourselves into" with "chosen to" and you will realize the actual problem facing anyone who dislikes cars.

If you want to get rid of personal point-to-point tranportation tech, you have to provide something more convenient or get more coercive than most of the country has the political will for. Walking in winter cold or summer heat simply isn't that for most people. People enjoy privacy, people enjoy personal space, people enjoy their own music and conversation, etc.

It's similar to how you won't roll back the clock on iPhones and Facebook simply by posting nostalgic articles for the way things used to be. You have to address the added utility that has caused the adoption.

<comment><USER8> iPhones and Facebook, for all their issues, were adopted by the masses by competing in an open market.

Mass motorization and suburbanization were driven by government policy and still are. For every consumer dollar spent on driving, the government spends ten (wish I could cite this, but I can't find it at the moment).

I'm not saying cars aren't appealing, or that they don't have utility, just that the situation most Americans find themselves in, where the built environment favors cars to the exclusion of all other modes of transportation, is the result of public policy interacting with (or distorting) markets rather than a pure expression of individual preference.

<comment><USER9> I totally disagree. I personally don't like cities, congestion and apartments. I would pay more to stay in my home with a yard. Most home owners aren't in homes because of lower costs - this meets our living style priorities best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Regarding what people spend money on, I notice that with clothes. I saw a 1980s Mr. Roger's show yesterday and noticed that a middle-aged man wore a full suit to take his kids to a museum. Today most men don't spend that kind of money on clothes, but we all buy phones and telecom services. Most days I wear cheap jeans and t-shirts, but in another era I'd spend a lot more money on my clothes.

I suspect that advertising will get stronger and stronger pushback. With so many options for entertainment and news delivery, I just don't consume anything that mandates ads. (IE, if the BBC or CNN force me to watch a 30 second ad I just ignore the video, if a website blocks my ad blocker I don't read the site.)

<comment><USER11> So you don't use broadcast tv, radio, most free apps, any road with signs/billboards, etc.? Advertising is in more places than you think.

<comment><USER12> Not OP, but I sold my TV, stopped listening to all radio (including NPR), deleted Facebook, and the city I live in banned billboards from the main highway. So it is possible, just takes being willing to really go against the grain. I send friends emails or text messages and connect with new people via Meetup, which I pay for.

A bad side effect of this is that when I do hear ads or see a TV it's really, really difficult to filter it out.

<comment><USER13> > A bad side effect of this is that when I do hear ads or see a TV it's > really, really difficult to filter it out.

That brings to the forefront a feeling that I have noticed in the back of my mind recently: I notice ads that many people don't since I've tried to de- advertise my content consumption. Hulu/Spotify ads breaking up episodes/songs annoy me more than ever, perhaps increasing this cascading failure that the article features.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's unsurprising that TV's being hit where it hurts. Even when I (rarely) watch things with ads I go out of my way to be able to fast-forward them.

The last thing I watched 'weekly' was Game of Thrones which in the UK is broadcast on Sky Atlantic. I just record the show when it's aired overnight (simultaneously with the US) and fast forward them at ×30.

If I decide ad hoc to watch a programme now on a commercial channel I just pause it while I make a cup of tea or whatever, giving me enough time to skip the ads. It's a no-brainer.

It was funny when Pru Leith suggested her viewers should do the same[0]

[0] [http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-08-22/worried-about- the-...](http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-08-22/worried-about-the-ads-in- the-great-british-bake-off-press-fast-forward-says-prue-leith/)

<comment><USER15> The radio times has an anti-adblocker modal over this article. The irony is palpable.

<comment><USER16> I'm not getting that, what are you using? I'm using uBlock Origin. I wonder how those work, if they detect extensions or what

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> With TV, I suspect we're seeing inertia or path dependence starting to break down in large numbers.

A lot of people did/do watch TV linearly out of habit. Plop themselves down on the couch and watch.

Would they have started doing that if they had a lot of other options? Maybe in some cases. (Don't underestimate the desire of some people to have something on in the background.) But probably a lot fewer.

Something similar applies to a cable bundle. I lot of people have it. It's probably the easiest way to watch live sports. It may also be bundled in with other services they use. Etc. Canceling probably means changing some habits and losing access to at least some content. But they wouldn't necessarily have called up Comcast or DirecTV and initiated a subscription if they didn't already have one.

<comment><USER18> > A lot of people did/do watch TV linearly out of habit. Plop themselves down > on the couch and watch.

I'm in this category. I've got a bunch of streaming subscriptions yet I usually end up channel surfing regular TV.

Maybe it's a generational thing. Maybe it's laziness (i.e. let them decide what I watch, I don't want to pick). Maybe it's the convenience of the interface (it just works, no connecting, changing channels is near instant, etc). Maybe a combo of all of those.

<comment><USER19> I've never found value in TV (cable or otherwise) because it seems to be mostly ads these days, but I do a very similar thing in the car. I subscribe to SiriusXM radio (because most channels are commercial-free while FM radio around me is loaded with more ads than music). I have a music streaming service and music on my phone I can pick from, but more often than not I don't want to pick my music. Especially while I'm driving. So I turn on a station I like and can listen ad-free. And if I flip to another station, it's highly likely I'm flipping to another song being played, not to another ad being played like FM radio or TV.

If cable TV could be commercial-free like satellite radio, I might be a subscriber. It's the same reason I cancelled my NYT.com subscription: I don't like paying for the privilege of watching advertisements. If I'm paying you money, I'd better get an ad-free experience. If my monthly fee doesn't cover the cost of replacing ads, then you're not charging me enough.

Maybe Netflix should set up channels where they just play shows back to back like cable TV does.

<comment><USER17> >Maybe Netflix should set up channels where they just play shows back to back like cable TV does.

Someone brought this up a few weeks ago but it's not really a good fit with Netflix' cost model. They really don't want to be paying content providers for an always on background stream when no one may even be watching. Of course, Spotify does but I suspect the numbers are a lot different. Perhaps there's enough really cheap content they could do this with.

<comment><USER19> That's a good point, but if it was limited to just Netflix's own content (depending on how they own/license their own content), it shouldn't be too much additional cost, right? Basically the cost of the bandwidth, but maybe lower the stream quality on their channel.

<comment><USER17> Yeah, if they had royalty free content. Though most of what's in their catalog doesn't really qualify as "play in the background" sort of stuff which was what was being discussed upthread.

The general concept would probably be interesting for a lot of people if the numbers worked.

<comment><USER18> Yes what I really want is something like Pluto TV but with a better content selection.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Amazon reviews allow consumer brands (e.g. Anker) to be built without Procter & Gamble's style of packaged goods advertising.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/technology/cheap- consumer...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/technology/cheap-consumer- devices-amazon.html)

</comment><comment><USER21> I hope this also means the end of shitty, wasteful blister/clamshell packaging. It's about time we use materials that decompose, occupy less volume, and don't damage my hands when opening them.

<comment><USER2> Now we get everything is a huge, wasteful, cardboard box. My flatmate recently ordered sponges from Amazon. A fucking cardboard box for something that you could buy at Wal-Greens for the same price, and where hundreds of them are shipped per box.

<comment><USER22> Waste is waste but at least cardboard is sourced from renewable tree farms and when it's dumped in a landfill it is sequestering carbon.

<comment><USER23> People worrying about paper waste has become a pet peeve of mine. Get your plastic use down first please.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Google reported that there is over 1.5 billion hours consumed on average per day on YouTube. That is about 10 minutes per person on the planet.

Now that is a crazy amount but what is more amazing is how fast it is growing as it is growing at over 50% per year. That is more hours than all of linear TV in the US combined. But then Google has the ability to target ads and therefore have less than linear TV. It is just hard to see how linear TV will be able to compete if they are going g to continue to have 14 minutes of ads per hour of TV.

My kids are growing up without ads or far less than I did and there is little chance they would except 1/4 of viewing time being ads.

</comment><comment><USER25> _Really, whenever you change the channel, buying patterns change - people do not buy the same in malls as in department stores, nor in department stores as in small shops, and so people do not buy exactly the same things online as they do in supermarkets or malls. The channel shapes what is bought._

Most shopping online still has an implicit power-law dynamic because of its two-dimensional layout, where being "above-the-fold" or "top of the list" garners the majority of customer attention (and therefore sales).

</comment><comment><USER11> So what is the author trying to say? This post seems pretty incoherent. I don't understand the point, and he just flip flops through topics without connecting the dots. Also not a fan of this writing style..

> This ought probably to mean

> Meanwhile, the same applies somewhat even

> accelerating and interlocking ... discontinuous and cascading</comment>


A First Encounter with Machine Learning (2011) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.ics.uci.edu/~welling/teaching/ICS273Afall11/IntroMLBook.pdf

<comment><USER2> All the figures in this book is missing (or at least up to the end of first chapter that I've read). Anyone knows where I can find the figures?

</comment><comment><USER3> Plenty of good topics in here, but it's interesting to see how things have changed since 2011. From the preface:

"Although there is currently no system which can recognize even in the order of 1000 object categories (the best system can get about 60% correct on 100 categories), the fact that we pull it off seemingly effortlessly serves as a "proof of concept" that it can be done."</comment>


TCP/UDP/ICMP traffic over UDP tunneling - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/astroza/udptunnel <comment><USER2> It turns out this is kind of already in the Linux Kernel. See here: [https://lwn.net/Articles/614348/](https://lwn.net/Articles/614348/)

You can tunnel TCP / IP / GRE, reasonably even Ethernet itself over UDP. This is actually really interesting for cases where you want layer 2 bridging over the internet without all the complexity and overhead of a VPN.

<comment><USER3> Wouldn't work directly here, as "ip fou add" reserves a local port, while in OP's case it's a reserved remote port. And reserving local port 53 in case of 53<->53 packets would kill dns resolution.

With an extra iptables rule should work though:

      iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -s my.server -p udp --sport 53 -d DNAT --to 127.0.0.1:5555
      ip fou add port 5555 ipproto 4

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Reminds me of Iodine (IP over DNS): [http://code.kryo.se/iodine/](http://code.kryo.se/iodine/)

Of course, it only works if DNS resolution is allowed without auth, which can vary a lot.

<comment><USER5> iodine is awesome, but is usually very slow, in real-life tests I've rarely gotten anywhere close to the benchmarks cited in the README.

Nonetheless, it's an awesome tool to help you get that beachhead and upgrade your connection from there.

<comment><USER6> iodine will detect if the server is directly reachable and in that case send full frames in both directions, just like this application or a normal vpn.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> How is this different from a VPN over UDP, like OpenVPN or Cisco Anyconnect?

<comment><USER8> Exactly, that was my first thought. I have an OpenVPN endpoint on different ports over UDP and TCP available.

My experience is, that UDP is also blocked like TCP. The only possible work around is then IP over DNS, which works but with very very limited bandwidth.

<comment><USER9> On cellular networks, my experience is that everything on port 53 is hijacked and shipped off to a telco DNS server though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Is this assumption true of _all_ mobile network providers? If yes, wouldn't the network provider notice the huge increase in UDP traffic from your phone and start blocking it?

"How it works

By default mobile provider blocks any packet but UDP packet, unless you pay for the service. My method consists in sending TCP/UDP/ICMP frames as payload of an UDP packet to a known host (your server). Your server reinjects these frames to Internet."

<comment><USER11> It definitely won't be true for all mobile operators. I'd be a bit surprised if it's even true of the original one at this time. The software seems to be from two years ago, and this would have been a stunningly generous policy by the standards of that time period -- the description says that they were only blocking TCP port 80! (Already 10 years ago the main hole open in captive terminals was properly formatted DNS requests/responses, so you'll find a lot of ip-over-dns tunneling projects from around that time).</comment></comment>


Researchers Use Game Theory to Identify Potential Problems for Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/525676/academics-spy-weaknesses-in-bitcoins-foundations/ <comment><USER2> I did not previously know that there was work suggesting that mining is naturally an oligopoly. People have suggested to me that mining may already be a monopoly and that this could have been going on for a long time, with a monopoly pool "laundering" its work through rented time on other pools. So there are definitely interesting questions to consider in this area, including questions about how a rational mining monopolist will want to behave.</comment>


Line drawing colorization using Chainer and neural networks - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/taizan/PaintsChainer <comment><AUTHOR> This repo was trending on [http://www.gitlogs.com/](http://www.gitlogs.com/) today, just thought I'd share it.</comment>


iOS App Store - Fake Microsoft Word 2012 Approved - <AUTHOR> http://itunes.apple.com/app/microsoft-word-2012/id534884750?mt=8 <comment><USER2> I love these guys. They have tons of other shitty/scammy apps:

\- Fruit Defense (ripoff of Fruit Ninja): [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fruit- defense/id527599882?mt=...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fruit- defense/id527599882?mt=8)

\- File Manager (a game!): <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/file- manager/id529097807?mt=8>

\- Orient Fight (icon is a ripoff of Temple Run's): [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oriental- fight/id527894964?mt...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oriental- fight/id527894964?mt=8)

\- F1 Birdie Driver (bird looks like an angry bird): [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/f1-birdie- driver/id529098374?...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/f1-birdie- driver/id529098374?mt=8)

\- Slider Customizer (obviously does nothing): [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slider- customizator/id5316330...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slider- customizator/id531633075?mt=8)

\- Videogram Pro (ripoff of Instagram, with almost the same icon): [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/videogram- pro/id529801444?mt=...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/videogram- pro/id529801444?mt=8)

\- Tapped (ripoff of Bejeweled): <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tapped-./id527589234?mt=8>

\- Real Robot Attack (I know it's a ripoff of some famous game, but I don't remember its name): [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-robot- attack/id529803195...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/real-robot- attack/id529803195?mt=8)

\- Two other shitty apps: Beauty Meter ([http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beauty- meter!/id527010584?mt=...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beauty- meter!/id527010584?mt=8)) and Oldity Meter (<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oldity-meter/id529098528?mt=8>)

\---

This is why I sometimes get mad at Apple. I _do_ believe they have the right to curate their store, but I think they should do it more vigorously and reject every single shitty app, and ban those developers. App Store is getting filled with these crap...

<comment><USER3> You feel that Apple should reject "every single shitty app"? Really? You do realize that such things are subjective, right?

<comment><USER2> I actually meant 'scammy'.

I just don't think they should be doing it so half-assedly... Either don't reject apps that fall short of some stupid 'guideline', or add 'don't produce scammy/confusing apps' to your 'rules' and reject such apps. There are hundreds of apps on the App Store, allegedly allowing you to record your phone calls. Only 1 of them works as far as I've heard (and that works by adding another remote listener to the conversation, in _conference_ mode), or thousands of scammy apps that are supposed to let you change wallpapers, screen savers, put notes in 'lock screen', warm up your hands (by emitting ultra-something rays out of screen!), put more than 4 icons in the dock, create password-protected folders, blacklist phone numbers, auto-response to SMS, you name it. I think every single one of these apps should be removed from the App Store.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's getting ridiculous - I'd heard of this happening a lot, and then last week one of my GPL'd Mac apps that's hosted on GitHub appeared on the Mac Store, being sold for €23.99 by some person (obviously Chinese with a really dodgy website). Surely the dodgy website should ring some alarm bells at Apple?

Despite going through the process on the store feedback to notify Apple of counterfeit apps, I've had no response...

I don't really care _that_ much that someone's profiting off my work (they didn't even bother to do their own screenshots), I'm more concerned that some people are going to pay that money for that clone of my app, when it's free (although not in the App Store), and the other developer is very unlikely to help them if there are any problems.

<comment><USER5> If they provide the source code on request or in the credits or something similar, isn't that perfectly legitimate?

<comment><USER6> My understanding was that the GPL and Apple's app store terms were fundamentally incompatible, but I suppose that might only be true of iOS (because of the development tool issues and such).

<comment><USER7> GPLv3 which requires handing over the keys, yes. GPL(v2), no.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Aren't we handing over all the flexibility of open app development so that Apple can protect us from crapware? What the hell are they doing with my $100 a year?

<comment><USER9> I don't know what they're doing. But I think it must be something really complex as my last application needed 13 days to get "in review" status and then 18 days more to get approved.

Feels good paying those $100 every year ...

<comment><USER10> You could just stop developing for Apple. I hear Android is an "open" platform.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, but Java no thanks :)

<comment><USER11> You're probably joking, but in case you're not aware, it's possible to develop Android apps in many languages other than Java. Other JVM languages like Scala [1,2] are perhaps the easiest. C and C++ (and feasibly other languages that can call C libraries) are supported through the NDK [3]; there's even a project to use Objective-C on Android using the NDK [4]. It's also possible to use scripting languages such as Python or Lua using the Scripting Layer for Android [5]. Some of these methods will require you to write a very minimal Java wrapper to properly package your app, but realistically Android is no more tied to Java than iOS is to Objective-C.

[1] - <https://code.google.com/p/scalaforandroid/>

[2] - [http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/5836463058/scala-a- better-...](http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/5836463058/scala-a-better-java- for-android)

[3] - <https://developer.android.com/sdk/ndk/index.html>

[4] - <https://code.google.com/p/android-gcc-objc2-0/>

[5] - <https://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/>

<comment><USER12> I can't comment on the other options because I haven't investigated enough yet, but people should definitely stop suggesting SL4A as a viable option to developing Android apps. It's not.

<comment><USER11> Due to the fact that you have to either assume users already have SL4A installed on their systems, or package it with your app, it's certainly not an ideal solution for developing a typical Android Market app. There are definitely a lot of specialized applications that it is well suited to address though, and it can also be useful to quickly prototype a tech-demo for an app that will later be fleshed out in Java or one of the NDK-supported languages.

<comment><USER12> Prototypes, sure, but people always mention it to say "You can write apps in Python on Android". That's simply not true.

SL4A is kinda like PhoneGap: you can use it, but you will not get a quality app out of it. That might be fine for your use case, but it's definitely not on par to using the canonical platform.

Other quick notes: The last commit on the Scala for Android project is from two years ago and says "add 2.2 support", the related blog post is from one year ago. Same deal with Android ObjC: last commit April 2010. I would never trust either of these for production development.

I'm sorry but languages other than Java and C++ for Android development are closer to vaporware than reality right now. The only good alternative is Mono <http://xamarin.com/monoforandroid> which is actually working and supported and not a forgotten weekend hack.

Please note: I'm perfectly fine with Java.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Their other apps: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/super-racing-real- games/id...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/super-racing-real- games/id527010587)

From the looks of it, they're a total scam developer. How does this stuff get into the store? At least two of their apps use the logos of other apps with some quick filtering to change the colors.

I guess Apple isn't doing much more than a cursory check against trademarks when approving apps. That seems really dangerous. Copyright infringement procedures are well defined by the DMCA. Trademark doesn't have an equivalent law.

<comment><USER14> I think Apple's position is "it's not our job to police your trademarks, since you don't tell us when you license them to developers".

<comment><USER15> Nope. When I first submitted SharePics the logo had a white space at the bottom. They rejected it because they said it looked like a Polaroid. Apple needs to be more consistent, either curate the hell out of it, or don't. Inconsistent application of the rules make it more confusing for naive users.

<comment><USER16> Not only naive users, it makes it pretty hard to get a feeling for what's acceptable even for seasoned developers with good intentions. (Volume button for camera, anyone?)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Apple, just a few days ago, also approved (and pulled once there was a lot of online press being caused by it) a fake Cydia. (Cydia is the alternative to the app store that distributes substrate extensions for jailbroken devices.) A bunch of people bought it and then left reviews saying that they had been ripped off.

<http://cache.saurik.com/tinyimg/cydiascam.png>

<comment><USER18> Maybe it's because it is in Apple's interest to get people pissed off at Cydia?

<comment><USER17> To take this question seriously fr a moment: the reaction is more to undermine the trust in the App Store's curation; this I one of those scams where the moment after you fall for it you know, in hindsight, that you've been had, so you don't seek retribution on the person being impersonated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I thought it was interesting that the seller's last name was Potemkin:

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

</comment><comment><USER20> This is so deceitful. If they weren't trying to swindle people they would have named it "Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Word" or "Microsoft Word 2012 Helper". This product is not "Microsoft Word 2012" and they should not get away with naming it as such. I rarely say this about small companies, but I hope they get sued into bankruptcy by the big M. Most importantly, I hope everyone who purchased it gets their money back without having to ask.

</comment><comment><USER21> Out of all of the reasons why this is crazy including a misleading title and screenshots, I just can't believe the app size is 121MB.

<comment><USER22> The price is pretty ridiculous too. I would have bought it simply for the novelty if it wasn't $10.

<comment><USER23> I believe that's part of their magic trick. I don't think as many people would rush to think it's the official MS Word if it cost only $1.

The price, app size, screenshots. Everything is misleading, except the one thing most people don't even look at, which is the text description.

<comment><USER7> Yeah, they deliberately made the in-app interface look like a mobile word processor. Which is really, really deceitful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> The app store is full of scams right now, and Apple doesn't seem to care, they just want their cut. Apple is more interested in banning whoever competes with their own offerings (BitTorrent clients, Music stores, etc.) than actually reviewing apps.

</comment><comment><USER25> Looks like the walled garden's walls are pretty easy to hop over these days.

</comment><comment><USER26> So when Microsoft wants to submit the "real" 'Microsoft Word 2012' to the app store, how does Apple handle the name conflict?

Can I go and submit an app under the name of every existing company name I can think of, just like domain parking?

<comment><USER27> Considering that Microsoft Word is a registered trademark of Microsoft that the author of this app is presumably not licensed to use, I would think that Apple should have no issue removing it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> "How quickly can you page numbering?"

A question for the ages, indeed.

</comment><comment><USER29> This is a "great" scam. I can't belive people is falling for it. But worst, I can't believe Apple "stantards" approved this one. It is incredible the amount of people that doesn't read at all. Not even the small description.

<comment><USER30> > "stantards"

Not sure if typo or insult.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> reminds me of The Asylum film studios - they do the same thing, except for movies. I've been tricked into renting their movies instead of the real ones before, when I had forgotten the correct title.

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

<comment><USER32> Yes! I went from very confused to very angry when I watched "Battle Of Los Angeles" on Netflix streaming thinking it was "Battle: Los Angeles". And that didn't cost me anything (other than the 20 minutes wasted before I realized I had been tricked).

<comment><USER33> To be true, this mockup movie was not much worse than the "original".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> The description sounds hilarious and man I am loving the grammar:

Description:

Every modern person some time or other is faced with Microsoft Office Word. However not everyone knows it to perfection! "How quickly can you page numbering?" How about adding and changing the page header? If takes more than a minute, this program is for you! Now you always have a list of tips which makes any Microsoft Office task easy and simple.

Seems like the developer tried to make this version of Word less sucky...

</comment><comment><USER35> Utter joke. Some app reviewers must be getting bribed - no way they can miss this scam app!

</comment><comment><USER36> Seems to be already removed, at least that's what I see from Europe with a U.S. account.

Remember that whatever amount of money is this publisher making, Apple is taking a 30%. Maybe they don't put too much effort on their side on purpose, just saying.

<comment><USER37> Apple breaks even on app sales, and has done so for years. The 30% of paid apps is used for developing the Xcode software and SDK, evaluating app submissions, advertising, affiliate programs, payment processing, storage and bandwidth.

Also remember, Apple pays the storage and bandwidth for all the free apps, which devs can submit for free.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Is there a link to this that _doesn't_ want me to install iTunes? For some reason, some iTunes links do not hit people with a paywall but some (such as this) do.

</comment><comment><USER39> Is this a case of the app getting approved as something else and then the developer turns around and changes something in the meta that doesn't require approval?

<comment><USER40> As I understand it, even if you don't change the actual binary, changing the meta info still requires another review.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Is it just me or has the app been removed? Saw it earlier on, and indeed, what a scam.. Can't believe it got approved!

</comment><comment><USER42> unless they changed it before now, the text specifically reads that its a tutorial app, and has tips, not pretending to be a full Word client... mind you, how many people bought it not reading the text fully? how many dident look at the screen shot? And if that was a lot of people, i am releasing a Microsoft Excel and Outlook app for the iPhone/iPad later on... free money from what i can only imagine are people with too much feeking money...

<comment><USER43> I'm willing to bet a fair number didn't read it. Given one of the reviews:

> _Very Stupid App!!!!

This is just a waste of money. Don't buy this app because you cannot even write a document!!!!!!_

But that's about par for the course. The dissatisfied ones are always the loudest. I do _highly_ doubt they had permission to use the Microsoft trademark in that way though.

<comment><USER5> > I'm willing to bet a fair number didn't read it.

Why would I? I'd personally have assumed that no Apple reviewer would ever permit a developer named "Super Racing Real Games" to use the Microsoft Word logo and name for an app. They're supposed to be there to protect against this sort of stuff, so I can't blame folks for not reading too closely.

<comment><USER44> Are developers able to change the name of their app after it is approved and published in the app store? Because, if so, there might be a reasonable explanation for this mistake:

1\. Developer submits app named "Tips for Microsoft Word". 2\. App is approved. 3\. Developer changes app name to "Microsoft Word 2012". 4\. Profit?

<comment><USER45> No, you cannot change the App name once the application is in the app store. On top of that, all app names must be unique.

<comment><USER2> Yes you can.

Just a few days ago, 'The EagleBook' changed its name to 'The CIA World Factbook', for example: [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eaglebook-cia-world- factbook/...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eaglebook-cia-world- factbook/id412637620?mt=8)

<comment><USER46> You can change the name, but to do so requires you to change the app metadata in XCode, rebuild a new binary, and upload it back to iTunes Connect like you would any other update.

That would trigger another round of reviewing, so in theory you shouldn't be able to "sneak" a name change past Apple.

<comment><USER45> Exactly, not sure why I got the down-vote above. You can't simply edit the app name and change it after the app has passed review.

<comment><USER2> Maybe because a lot of people thought you were implying App names can't be changes, period (I upvoted you btw!).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


A family tracking app was leaking real-time location data - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/23/family-tracking-location-leak/ <comment><USER2> >TechCrunch spent a week trying to contact the developer, React Apps, to no avail. The company's website had no contact information — nor did its bare- bones privacy policy. The website had a privacy-enabled hidden WHOIS record, masking the owner's email address. We even bought the company's business records from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, only to learn the company owner's name — Sandip Mann Singh — but no contact information. We sent several messages through the company's feedback form, but received no acknowledgement.

And people trust this with the real time location data of their children so they can keep them "safe". Absolutely ridiculous

</comment><comment><USER3> Not the first time someone left a MongoDB database exposed to the wild, and it won't be the last. It's an easy thing to do, especially since MongoDB is so popular for small single-server projects.

A few years ago, I discovered the open MongoDB database of an educational website called Kaizena, which we were using in my high school English class. When I reported the problem to them, they quickly fixed it (probably with some iptables hack). They even wrote a blog post [1] about fixing it, where they claimed they added "additional firewalls to the database". More like _one_ firewall.

As a side note, Kaizena also had another security bug where their API would return JSON payloads that had private information in it (e.g. the voice feedback for other students' work). I reported it years ago, but who knows if it's fixed.

[1] [https://blog.kaizena.com/post/68627783859/a-note-on- security](https://blog.kaizena.com/post/68627783859/a-note-on-security)

<comment><USER4> For many years Mongo would not allow you to use only Unix Domain sockets. It would always create a TCP socket as well, making it harder to secure, and nearly impossible to secure against other processes running on the server.

[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21421410/how-to- disable-...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21421410/how-to-disable- mongodb-tcp-port)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> As bad as it is, I can understand accidentally leaving a database accessible (they generally _need_ to be accessible and setting just the right amount of accessible can be complex).

But this:

> ...plaintext passwords...

Why, oh why, store plaintext passwords?!?

<comment><USER6> I can sort of see why and it's for the same reason databases are left wide open.

You start a project. You set up a DB with minimal security because you're just starting the project, and you figure that down the road before you release to the public, you will secure that DB.

A few weeks/months pass and you are ready to release your app into the wild. But by that time you are focused on other things and that unsecured DB is forgotten because it has "just worked" since that initial setup. You release and sometime later something like this happens because that DB never got the attention to security it needed because it "just worked" and was forgotten.

Don't get me wrong this is still very bad. But I can see how an unsecured server/plaintext passwords happen. It's not by design b but rather a shortcut you took way back when that you have since completely forgotten about.

<comment><USER5> The password still has to get into the database... something passes it to an insert query or request. It just needs to hash the password on its way through. Let's see:

* identify a hashing library * install/import it * call it (when storing the password and when comparing)

It's a matter of minutes really.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > We contacted one app user at random who, albeit surprised and startled by > the findings, confirmed to TechCrunch that the coordinates found under their > record were accurate.

So they accessed the database as well as personal information of users? Is this not a crime whether or not the database was unprotected?

<comment><USER8> In the eyes of the law (or at least the courts), journalists have broader latitude in the course of investigative reporting.

<comment><USER7> Yes but until that's decided in court, is this not confessing to a crime?

<comment><USER9> Until that's decided in court, there is no crime only actions that may or may not be legal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Are this kind of apps really a thing?

<comment><USER11> I'm curious about the demographics of someone that would ask such a question (in such a manner). I suspect you do not have children, or at least not teenage ones. I recall that I used to hold much stronger (and different) opinions about child-rearing _before_ I had children of my own.

I constantly struggle with balance between keeping my children safe and allowing them agency and the development of personal responsibility. Among other things, this ranges over such topics as location tracking, internet filtering, browser history, screen-time, etc.

I will absolutely admit that much of this sounds like the stuff that repressive governments engage in, but then again, my children are not full citizens. They are developing human beings that require a certain degree of protection.

Are you only opposed to location tracking? What level of "nanny-state" do think is acceptable in a household setting?

<comment><USER2> As someone with extremely overbearing helicopter parents that now has a lot of issues that I have been working through over time with a therapist, please don't surveil and micromanage your children. It ultimately led to a lot of distrust of authority, anxiety, depression, social isolation, making worse choices in attempts to circumvent security controls and attempt to have control over my life, and other long lasting negative effects. I can guarantee that anything you implement (gps tracking, cameras, filters, logs) will be easily identified and bypassed, causing distrust and potentially even less safe decisions/scenarios.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> We should let google do it and give us the details, they do it better as they have already invested a lot in it, doing it and keeping it as secret or FB do it. Basically an Android app asking other person to accept to track their location and send it to other person when they want it. It should be that simple.

</comment><comment><USER13> Shameless plug: I've built a family location sharing app that uses end-to-end encryption, so you don't have to worry about this sort of data leak (or any other). It's available for iOS and Android. (It's in beta, but quite functional).

[https://www.zood.xyz](https://www.zood.xyz)

<comment><USER14> Very Interested, but what markers are there for me to trust you/your company? Is it Open Source? Have you been around for long? Are you audited? Is there a sustainable business model?

The [https://www.zood.xyz/products/location#about-zood- location](https://www.zood.xyz/products/location#about-zood-location) page doesn't really say anything other than you promise you are doing what you say (and you probably are).

<comment><USER13> Fair question. As of this writing, there isn't anything to trust me short of sniffing all the packets coming out of the phone and/or decompiling the APK.

While in beta, I'm not charging, but in order to align my interests with those of users I will be charging for it once I'm done beta testing. So far I've only been testing with family and close friends.

The app isn't currently open source, but I want to find a license model that will let folks see the source code while still preventing someone from forking it and running their own instance of my company. As you noted, this needs to be a sustainable endeavor, and I think that would be unlikely if I just release it all under MIT or BSD-3

It's too early for an audit (and I don't have the money for one yet), but I'm using libsodium for the crypto so there's no need to worry about me writing my own bad crypto primitves.

The website is sparse, because the current audience for it is my family and friends who I've contacted about helping me with the beta testing. I intend to flesh out the site a lot more before I come out of beta.

<comment><USER15> You could do a reference source-type thing, where it isn't open source and using your source is prohibited, but people can browse it for specified purposes, such as auditing security issues: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_Source_Initiative#Restr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_Source_Initiative#Restricted_licenses)

Copyleft open source licenses only help you so much, people can still clone your company as long as their version is also open source. There's no way to prohibit corporate use of your code and still have an OSI-approved license.

The spot that kinda falls between those two classes is if you want people to be able to fork or self-host for personal/non-commercial use, and there's a few also not open source license examples out there for that too. There's a couple of that sort listed under [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source- available_software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source-available_software) (Commons Clause or Mega Limited Code Review sound fairly similar to what you might want.)

<comment><USER13> Despite being a big fan of copyleft, the "source available" license sounds like the right direction for Zood. Thanks for that link. I had not heard about Commons Clause or Mega Limited Code Review. I'll dig into it those.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Castup – On Demand Podcast Editing, Starting at 40¢/min - <AUTHOR> https://www.useCastup.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hackers,

We've all seen the rise (& rise) of Podcasts, with startups trying to get in on the action too - either by advertising on Podcasts, or launching their own.

Why only editing? Creating (good) content is hard. We believe there are a lot of Podcasts out there that try to publish good content, but struggle with this aspect of Podcast production. They either spend way too much time and effort editing each episode, or end up publishing un-edited versions.

We think Castup can help Podcasters attract more advertisers, reach a bigger audience, and (actually) save some money too, but our goal is to help creators well-published content.

Our Pricing starts at 40¢ per minute, and we think our plans would make a great fit for all kind of Podcasts.

Let me know if you have any questions? I'd love to answer them! - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER3> Where are you located? How can you afford these prices?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're all DNs, most are located in Asia, while a couple in Europe</comment></comment>


Overdoses Propel Rise in Mortality Rates of Young Whites - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/science/drug-overdoses-propel-rise-in-mortality-rates-of-young-whites.html?_r=0 <comment><USER2> As an European I found this very interesting:

> There is a reason that blacks appear to have been spared the worst of the > narcotic epidemic, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a drug abuse expert. Studies > have found that doctors are much more reluctant to prescribe painkillers to > minority patients, worrying that they might sell them or become addicted.

If I read this correctly the doctors' pervasive racism is keeping young black men alive.

<comment><USER3> Studies have also shown inter-group empathy gaps. Or, basically, white people don't believe black people's pain [to the same extent], similarly with men and women.

That's probably also a factor.

<comment><USER4> > Or, basically, white people don't believe black people's pain

If a guy is rushed into the ER, you, as a doctor or nurse, don't have to believe anything. Just run the patient through the proper protocols, regardless of race, age or gender.

Otherwise what's the Hippocratic Oath all about?

<comment><USER5> It's not like there is a machine or a blood test you can use to find out the person is experiencing "37.3 pain". The 'protocols' you refer to will necessarily require a subjective evaluation of the pain the patient is experiencing (as well as assessing other social factors that may point to a higher risk of abuse).

There are people who will call the ambulance or show up at the ER, claiming pain, when in fact they are 'simply' looking for drugs to meet their addiction.

The only person who knows how much pain the patient is actually experiencing is the patient themself. However, blindly relying on them to accurately report that level pain is simply not an option, given the potential for abuse.

<comment><USER3> I think the problem is not so much abuse as it is the vagueness of it. If someone says they're in a lot of pain, how much pain is that?

Your perception is at least partly emotional.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've come to the sad conclusion that ODing on heroin is a rite of passage with that drug and simply...you either survive it or you don't.

I was fortunate enough to survive 4 hospital-trip-inducing ODs in my life.

I know it may sound flippant or glib or obvious, but when you start down that path its always "oh, that will never happen to me" or "i'm too smart to make that mistake"

Sad truth is...it pretty much happens to everyone.

<comment><USER7> Were you ever administered Narcan, and were you pissed when at whoever gave you the Narcan? The times when I've administered it I've gotten yelled at for ruining people's highs when they came back. One guy even threw a punch at me in the back of the ambulance.

Glad you're still around.

<comment><USER5> If you want them to be happier, preoxygenate before administering the Narcan. They aren't pissed because you "ruined their high". They're pissed because they're hypoxic (and therefore confused, disoriented, etc), and surrounded by people in uniforms, and don't know how they got there.

Bag them up before you push the Narcan and you will have much happier patients.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I live in Rhode Island, and the heroin use is out of control. In the small town I grew up we lose someone to OD every month or so, and I have many acquaintances that are using. 5-10 years ago heroin use in the town was unheard of. All of the people I know that use started with Oxycontin, and then moved on to heroin when they became more desperate.

<comment><USER9> That's how it is all across Indiana as well. It is awful. I was back there this summer to see a friend, had to find a new place to crash at the last minute because he had to go pull his brother out of a shed and let him detox at his house.

People are broke and broken. Very few decent paying jobs even with a college degree, if you are broke you don't have access to decent medical/psych care either.

<comment><USER10> Same. Went home to Indiana for thanksgiving, and found out my 4th grade best friend had ODed a few months before. Sad thing was, is that I wasn't surpised.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> As european, may i ask from americans - what pains do you have so that doctors so easily prescribe hard painkillers? When taking into account that one can sue doctors easily in US, why they even dare?

<comment><USER12> > what pains do you have so that doctors so easily prescribe hard painkillers?

[http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13172/relieving-pain-in- america-a...](http://www.nap.edu/catalog/13172/relieving-pain-in-america-a- blueprint-for-transforming-prevention-care)

tl;dr - "Chronic pain conditions affect at least 116 million U.S. adults at a cost of $560-635 billion annually in direct medical treatment costs and lost productivity. [...] [It] is much more than a biological phenomenon and has profound emotional and cognitive effects. [It] contributes greatly to national rates of morbidity, mortality, and disability; and is rising in prevalence."

<comment><USER13> I wonder what would be the % of cases of chronic pain that would be solved with weight management and moderate exercise.

<comment><USER14> The bulk of disability (after mental illness) is musculo-skeletal. Very many of those people would benefit from exercise. Here's a programme from BBC Radio 4.

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vkg24](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vkg24)

> If you struggle to screw the top off a jar, or use your arms to push > yourself out of your chair, that's a sure fire sign, according to Dr Philip > Conaghan, consultant rheumatologist and Professor of Musculoskeletal > Medicine at the University of Leeds, that your muscles are weak. And the > good news is that building muscle strength will protect your joints, not > damage them. Dr Conaghan tells Mark that there's a worrying lack of > understanding about the impact of muscle weakness on arthritic joints.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> According to the CDC 40% of Medicaid patients prescribed an opiate are misusing or abusing the drug.

Almost half of prescription drug overdoses are by those on Medicaid.

Medicaid patients with an opiate drug prescription had about six prescriptions on average in 2010.

Compared to people with private insurance options, Medicaid patients were much more likely to be prescribed stronger painkillers and have more prescriptions.

[https://www.thefix.com/content/study-shows-40-medicaid- patie...](https://www.thefix.com/content/study-shows-40-medicaid-patients- opiate-prescriptions-abuse-painkillers)

</comment><comment><USER16> > of both illegal drugs like heroin and prescription painkillers

I was a teenager in the early 90's and i'm horrified with that heroin come- back. I don't understand how it can be, especially in western countries. What the f. is happening ? I thought we dealt with that sh. long ago ?

<comment><USER17> > I thought we dealt with that sh. long ago?

In what way do you think it was dealt with? As far as I know for actions like 'The War on Drugs' it's at least debatble whether they actually did reduce the amount of use of illigeal substances (let alone amount of related crime etc)?

<comment><USER16> I was thinking about pop culture + education more than "war on drugs", since I live in Europe. I mean since when taking heroin is cool again ? it destroyed or killed so many people i knew 20 years ago ...

<comment><USER14> The article is mostly talking about people who are wrongly prescribed opioid meds for long term pain.

They don't start taking those meds because it's cool. They start taking those meds because they don't have access to pain clinics; they don't understand that exercise is effective for many forms of pain (especially musculo- skeletal); that opioids should not be used for long term pain, etc. The meds become less effective if they're used for a long time, so people increase their dose. They become addicted to the meds, and need higher doses. A couple of things happen here.

1) Doctors restrict the meds. People then either buy illicit meds, which are stronger than they're expecting; or they buy heroin because it's easy enough to get.

2) People die from liver damage caused by the paracetamol that these pain meds are often mixed with. Partly we used to think that combining paracetamol and opioids meant we could use less of each (but that turns out to be untrue), and partly some people thought that mixing a poisonous substance in with the opioid would reduce abuse. (It sort of does, by killing the user.)

<comment><USER18> Paracetamol is may "favorite" medical substance. The damaging and helpful dose are absurdly close. And that stuff is sold over the counter.

<comment><USER19> My grandmother started drinking after my grandfather died. And died herself ten years later of liver failure. I remember emptying out the medicine cabinet and tossing a half empty 500 pill bottle of Tylenol in the trash. And then finding two more unopened in the cabinet under the sink. My thought then was, 'this and the booze is what killed her.' That was 35 years ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a complicated issue that is going to take time to solve. In the meantime, we need to 'stop the bleeding' by getting Narcan[1] into the hands of those most at risk of a Heroin overdose (or more importantly, into the hands of those who are likely to be around them when they do OD).

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

<comment><USER20> Thats certainly one thing we could do, if we value the druggies lives enough. Honestly I don't see why we, as a society, should help those who won't help themselves.

<comment><USER5> I assume you don't have any close personal experience with addiction?

<comment><USER21> Are you saying that people who nearly died from OD have a good change of becoming productive members of society?

<comment><USER5> Ignoring your implication that someone must be "productive" to be worth saving from death... You don't have to go any further than this comment page to find likely examples of that (there are personal accounts of opiate abuse, and it's probably a safe bet that someone who bothers to read Hacker News meets some definition of "productive member of society").

<comment><USER21> 1) Existence of individual examples is not a proof of good probability of recovering from drug overdose into productive member of society.

2) Our society already has mechanisms that help in case of OD: People usually try to call 911 if they see someone in a bad shape.

The question is whether we need to spend more resources on helping fixing OD cases or may be spend these resources on other good causes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> For what it's worth, almost everyone I know my age has a relationship with drugs that falls somewhere between open-to-the-idea, dabbling, or frequent- but-functional. Designer drugs are viewed as cool and a status badge in some ways. Concentration/ productivity drugs are popular, nootropics are trendy, almost normalized. The other day a perfectly normal, if rather nerdy social media manager I know brought up to me how he's looking to get into cocaine because he thinks it'll be fun (but maybe that's just a social media manager thing). Granted, the article said the rates were more associated with lower socio economic groups, but I think all this still points to there being something in the air.

<comment><USER23> Where do you live? My experience is the complete opposite.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Autopsied one yesterday. Tox is pending, but all the circumstantial evidence strongly points to heroin. Active duty, happened in his quarters on base.

</comment><comment><USER25> The thing about the gateway oxycontin to heroin is that when people get "clean" and then relapse, the idiots try to take their old dose and end up killing themselves because they do not have the tolerance anymore:

[http://www.sciencemag.org/news/1998/06/heroin-relapse-ups- ov...](http://www.sciencemag.org/news/1998/06/heroin-relapse-ups-overdose- threat)

Living in a low income area, I am grateful every day that I do not seem to have the attraction to drugs that so many people around here seem to have. I'm not even tempted. Not patting myself on the back for that because I suspect it is just fortunate genetics in that one regard. Now put a pizza or chocolate in front of me and I have an impossible time stopping but that won't kill me of course.

<comment><USER26> > Now put a pizza or chocolate in front of me and I have an impossible time > stopping but that won't kill me of course.

Obesity kills.

<comment><USER25> Well I run 5 miles every morning.

Plus I know better than to keep food like that around.

I assume it is exponentially harder for drug addiction though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Non-mobile: [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/science/drug-overdoses- pro...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/science/drug-overdoses-propel-rise- in-mortality-rates-of-young-whites.html)

</comment><comment><USER28> Bupenorpine. Made it free. It will help a lot of addicts. (Doctors shouldn't have to take a special course in order to prescribe it.)

I'm getting tired of this opoid problem. I'm tired of addicts overdosing. As to rehab--if you don't relapse--fine.

We have a drug for opioid dependenancy, and maybe even the a tool to combat depression, and anxiety that's very safe. Unless you are hell bent on overdosing, you don't need Suboxone, you could get by with Subutex--that is if you can find a doctor to prescribe it? Once you have just bupenorpine in your system; the physical cravings for opioids go away. Plus--you might give up a few other bad habits too--like drinking?

<comment><USER29> Subutex and suboxone are not the answer just like methadone is not the answer. I know people who I went to high school with take those for years and years. Instead if doing pain killers they are now addicted to the pill that was supposed to get rid of addiction.

Physical cravings aside its a mental game to get rid of an addiction. Every time one of those friends stopped taking subutex/suboxone they would relapse. Some people took them for 4-5 years and were on such a high dose they had withdraws.

<comment><USER30> The goal of suboxone therapy is not to free someone from physical dependence. It is to save lives and restore livelihoods by replacing a dangerous and debilitating drug whose use is associated with a whole set of unhealthy behaviors with another drug that permits nearly normal functioning in society.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Here in Canada it seems like there is a death each day caused by fentanyl.

Deaths seem to be a mix of direct use or not knowing it was mixed into another drug.

Fentanyl is frighteningly powerful so little of it can kill.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm sure the research is far less biased, But I couldn't escape the connotations of "there _should_ be more black and hispanic deaths than white" from the author of this piece. It seemed to decry of the actual issue of drug OD less than this particular disparity.

</comment><comment><USER33> This makes me wonder how making drugs legal would affect the overall mortality rate. The changes in Portugal are interesting but it's not the same culture as the US. Would it make it worse (easier to get drugs) or better (less stigma about treatment).

<comment><USER34> > Would it make it worse (easier to get drugs) or better (less stigma about > treatment).

That may not be as binary as it seems on idle reflection.

There certainly are drugs that used in extremes, and (occasionally) in moderation, put people in a position where day to day functioning is impossible, but equally there are drugs that cause very little harm for reasonable consumption patterns. All else being equal, who would you rather have living next door? A drunk or someone who smokes a fair bit of weed on the weekend?

There's this thing that people do - certainly that governments seem to do with respect to the issues surrounding decriminalisation and/or legalisation - where the ideal, the thing they measure success by, is getting people to stop doing something that they wouldn't choose for themselves. That metric doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> That's a lot of lives that medical marijuana might have saved.

<comment><USER36> That's awfully glib. There is medical marijuana in Michigan (a relatively restrictive regime, but still) and we still have pretty big problems with prescription drug abuse and heroin. Never mind that marijuana is at least as available as other illegal drugs. It's probably even easier and cheaper to get than a prescription for opiates.

<comment><USER35> A lot of these people got hooked on opiates through a prescription from their doctor. These doctors prescribing opiates before trying medical marijuana for pain management are endangering the wellbeing and lives of their patients.

<comment><USER24> I'm in California. The scene usually indicates poly-substance use. Source: the autopsies for OD I've done.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Objects designed to explore the universe are now challenges for spaceflight - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/21/thousands-of-tiny-satellites-are-about-to-go-into-space-and-possibly-ruin-it-forever/ <comment><USER2> IMO the article overstates the danger of cubesats. If deployed to a low orbit (~ISS height) they deorbit in months due to atmospheric drag. You don't really run into the problems described in the WaPo article until you start putting them into higher orbits where they will last longer.

Here is a more detailed article describing the cubesat problem and potential mitigations.

[https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/07/30/nasa-tracking- cubesats...](https://spaceflightnow.com/2015/07/30/nasa-tracking-cubesats-is- easy-but-many-stay-in-orbit-too-long/)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is an __extremely __disingenuous article. Not even the worst case models of the Kessler syndrome predict any real impact on beyond-Earth space flight- rather, they are concerned with higher probabilities of impact over months to years for satellites in specific overused low earth orbits. Nothing for comms satellites in geostationary to worry about, let alone a rocket just going past orbit to the moon or Mars. It 's definitely something for scientists to think about and track so specific useful orbits stay useful, but has _nothing_ to do with space flight. It's wild how much this idea has been misrepresented in the media!

[0] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome)

</comment><comment><USER4> I know this is a long shot but is it possible to detect life on other planets by the metal and trash sphere all modern societies must eventually accumulate around their planet? We have just begun, I can only imagine how crazy it is going to get around our own planet.

<comment><USER5> No. The total mass of metal up there is nothing in comparison to natural stuff like dust and atmosphere. And the metal is in very low orbits. Someone far away would see our cities, our atmospheric pollution, long before detecting a hint of orbital debris.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The satellite launch the article references was mostly nano stats from Planet Labs. These satellites are designed to deorbit and burn up on rented with a lifespan of about 2 years. Space debris is a problem, but they could have done a much better job motivating that problem with something more accurate.

</comment><comment><USER7> I thought satellites in orbit suffered decay and needed Station Keeping, or small periodic thrust to keep their orbits. Does anyone know how long it takes orbital decay to bring a satellite back into the atmosphere?

<comment><USER8> The lame answer is "it depends", but you might find this chart enlightening: [http://www.heavens-above.com/IssHeight.aspx](http://www.heavens- above.com/IssHeight.aspx)

<comment><USER9> Cool data. What happened in January 2017?

<comment><USER10> Measurement error

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> One Solar Powered Laser in High Orbit pressuring trash into lower orbits would be enough to clean stripes up. Activation of course only over naval territories and clouded waters. In Addition warn every vessel in the path about whats going down.

Solveable problem

<comment><USER12> I was wondering about the same thing. Would the forcing pressure of such a laser be great enough to deorbit heavy things? I know that a laser + sail has been suggested as one way of accelerating objects in space, so presumably so?

Maybe the US military would want to bankroll something like this. "Mostly used for peaceful space junk clean up... mostly"

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Sounds like we need to bring back Star Wars and laser them out of the air! Kidding/Not Kidding.

<comment><USER14> Actually an interesting idea. If the Starshot project [1] (which uses ground- based laser propulsion) gets off the ground, perhaps the system could be equally useful for de-orbiting space junk.

Firing at orbital objects as they approach from low on the horizon could produce an ablative thrust that could accelerate the natural de-orbiting process.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Initiatives#Break...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Initiatives#Breakthrough_Starshot)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> On a positive side, space polluted with micro-sateliets will deter an alien invasion. No generation ships parked in a near orbit.

<comment><USER16> I assure you, space debris of that nature would likely be a very solvable problem for a civilization capable of building and operating an interstellar generational starship.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> hmm...I wonder if all these new satellites could possibly be part of some new cheap, high-speed internet system? That would be great for consumers, I guess, but bad for the profits of comcast, et al. I would also be against this pollution of our pristine natural wonderland of outer space, especially if it cut into corporate profits.

<comment><USER18> High speed and really bad latency, maybe.

<comment><USER19> Current satellite internet has high latency, because it's going thorough geosynchronous satellites about 25,000 miles up.

The SpaceX ([https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2016/11/space...](https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2016/11/spacex-plans-worldwide-satellite-internet-with-low-latency- gigabit-speed/)) and other similar proposed satellite internet constellations would be made of lots of low-orbit satellites a couple hundred miles up. Latency wouldn't be much of a concern there.</comment></comment></comment>


Woops, Google's Street View cars collected email passwords, "sensitive data" - <AUTHOR> http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/06/21/woops-googles-street-view-cars-collected-email-passwords-and-more-sensitive-data/ <comment><USER2> Wait a minute...

"Our ultimate objective is to delete the data consistent with our legal obligations and in consultation with the appropriate authorities."

Delete the data that they are legally required to? If it was accidentally collected in the first place, why keep _any_ of it?

<comment><USER3> I suspect it's because various governments want it as evidence of some wrong doing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sometimes I wonder if Google does things that look bad by accident or if the really meant to do them. And I wonder too, if they realized of this before the French and if Google used this information.

</comment><comment><USER5> This was already superflous news on slashdot and it is just as useless here.

</comment><comment><USER6> Collecting sensitive data that were _broadcast in the clear_. I doubt it, but my sort of hope for a positive development from all this is a big de facto PSA (1) on data security.

EDIT: (1) Public Service Announcement, a U.S. broadcasting component/convention. In return for one's licensed use of the spectrum, one agrees to air a certain amount of "community service" type messages.</comment>


[PATCH] usb: serial: Perform verification for FTDI FT232R devices - <AUTHOR> https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/10/23/129

<comment><AUTHOR> To anyone having doubts, this is humor: [https://plus.google.com/107046448275336404830/posts/LCqHmAmb...](https://plus.google.com/107046448275336404830/posts/LCqHmAmbeqj)

And context: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8497179](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8497179)</comment>


Apple's iPad - horrible ergonomics - <AUTHOR> http://www.anandtech.com/show/3640/apples-ipad-the-anandtech-review/8 <comment><USER2> This review is obviously rushed. They are doing the ergonomics section without the case. That's a serious oversight. The case section has photo after photo of the case incorrectly configured. This makes me lose faith in Anandtech reviews. If they are this incompetent with a product I'm familiar with, how can I trust them on ibis I'm not familiar with?

<comment><USER2> ibis -- thanks iPad autocorrect! items</comment></comment>


Alright, Who Broke The Internet? Dell.com Also Knocked Out. - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/01/alright-who-broke-the-internet-dellcom-also-knocked-out/ <comment><USER2> Out for approx 40 minutes.

Last quarter Dell did $12.76 B in sales, which is $140.22 M/day, $5.84 M / Hr, or $3.89 million dollars for every 40 minute increment.

It's crazy to extrapolate math that far (it doesn't take into account the fact that 5-5.40pm might usually be the slowest time of day, or the busiest; or the fact that many customers will come back tomorrow and make the purchase anyway), but it's still a great example of how investing in resources to prevent this kind of thing is well worth it.

Your start-up may not be doing $12B in sales just yet, but are you investing in prevention?

<comment><USER3> It's not likely that people who went to Dell's web site to buy would permanently take their business elsewhere. This will have cost Dell almost nothing.</comment></comment>


LevelUp Conference Tickets on Sale - <AUTHOR> http://levelupcon.com

<comment><USER2> This isn't a Show HN, this is an advertisement.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed.</comment></comment>


Could Egypt Happen Here? Obama's Internet "Kill Switch" - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/1721753/egypt-internet-kill-switch <comment><USER2> 'Egypt' won't happen in the US because the US is not Egypt, does not have Egypts standard of life for a very large portion of the population, does not have Egypts unique elements of history and does not have a repressive dictatorship propped up by foreign funds.

Having the internet shut down for the local population? I don't see it happening though as I wrote in an earlier thread I think it would be trivial and I'm sure they have a playbook on exactly how to do it that gets kept up- to-date, 'just in case'. But I think even the government does not have a clue as to what circumstances would prompt them to trigger this based on the current state of affairs. I just think that they find it hard to live with the idea that if TSHTF that they have something that might potentially be hard to control. Think of it as a control issue, not something with immediate applicability. A kill switch is a pretty blunt instrument of control, I'm sure the powers that be can come up with more subtle ways of dealing with issues like that.

Americans are no longer capable of revolution, this goes for any country in the world where the standard of living is high enough and people are for the most part happy with their lives including Western Europe and Australia. There simply isn't enough reason to do it, not enough people with nothing left to lose. There are simply no issues important enough to people any more to get out of their comfy chairs and go on to the streets. Witness what happened in France with the civil unrest there a few years ago, it was the kids with nothing left to lose that vented their anger, but they were (and continue to be) only a small fraction of the total population.

If a dictator should come to power (which you can never really rule out, even in a democracy) then that may change but it won't change overnight. It took 30 years for Egypt to get to that stage, it took more than 40 years in the former East Block countries.

Revolutions happen when the pot boils over, it has to be on the fire for a long long time gathering pressure and heat before that happens.

Ironically, if a kill switch were implemented _and_ triggered the masses no longer having access to facebook and entertainment might be just enough reason for them to get out on the streets.

<comment><USER3> Not that I disagree with you, but I think its healthy to remember that you, and me live in a world that is somewhat isolated. I live in Boston, and travel to San Francisco quite often. Life is great here, its really difficult to see how the recession is actually having an impact. However when I fly home (I grew up in an industrial town in Wisconsin) I see a VERY different picture. There are many people in the US who are not comfortable with their standard of living. Just like France we also have a large portion of youth that has nothing to loose. We also have a large workforce that used to work in factories. These people didn't disappear when we transitioned their jobs. The standard point of view in capitalism is to say "well now they have the opportunity to move on to better jobs" which would be true if it was possible to take a person who pulled a lever all day, and teach him to program a computer... but that is very rarely true. Instead they end up getting "downgraded" instead of working in a factory making $20/hr they're now working in Walmart making $10/hr... or less. Why and how does not matter to this group of people, what does matter is that they used to live a middle class comfortable life, and now they don't.

Please don't confuse my statements with the idea that i'm saying there's going to be a 'revolution'. What i'm saying is the pot is already hot, and has been for a while.

Personally I think the big barrier stopping people from joining the momentum from Tunisia is that a clear end goal is not obvious the way it is in a country with a cruel dictator. However once Glenn Beck, or some other idiot gives them one (whether it is in their interests or not)... its hard to say nothing will happen.

<comment><USER4> I'm glad you pointed this out, as I was going to express something similar. I don't know that I would classify the pot as "hot", but at the same time I'm glad Jacques tempered his opinion with the following:

 _If a dictator should come to power (which you can never really rule out, even in a democracy) then that may change but it won't change overnight._

I completely agree with that, as did Thomas Jefferson apparently:

 _The price of freedom is eternal vigilance._

and

 _The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants._

Under the Bush administration we got the Patriot Act, warrant-less wiretaps, torture, and the repeal of habeas corpus (the right to due process which had to be reversed by the Supreme Court). There was a thread before on HN about some new Orwellian syle video from the DHS featuring Secretary Napolitano admonishing shoppers at checkouts in Walmarts to keep on the lookout for anything suspicious. At airports we are now forced to either be exposed to a radiation laden scan of our body, or intrusive physical pat down whenever we take a flight, no matter that we've done nothing wrong. Indeed, you risk being arrested [1] with this direct challenge to the Fourth Amendment which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures if you don't submit to it.

So while I agree with Jacques that Americans are much farther from any revolt than the people of Tunisia or Egypt, and I wouldn't say there is a pot which is boiling, or maybe even hot, I also think it's a mistake to imagine there is no pot at all.

[1] <http://noblasters.com/post/1650102322/my-tsa-encounter>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love how "A bill proposed in the Senate", introduced by Joe Lieberman who personally doesn't get along with Obama became "Obama's Internet 'Kill Switch'". Good job by that editor on the headline.

<comment><USER6> I came here to say the same thing.

Folks, we can do without hyperbole on HN. Please keep your BS biases out, and just lay out the facts. The readers are smart enough to decide for themselves.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I very much doubt the U.S. would turn off the internet, as doing so would cannibalize the economy.

It seems far more likely that the government would mandate an I.D. system to track everything we do online than simply turn everything off.

<comment><USER8> And IPv6 addresses could provide just that I.D. system.

Why aren't companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook lobbying against this? It seems they stand to lose the most is such a thing were used.

<comment><USER9> Is this true? Is it any different than IPv4?

Obviously a permanent static address would have tracking value, but proxies and networking would seem to have equal obfuscation capability...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Though there are doubts expressed that anything comparable to what happened in Egypt could also occur in the US, it would be wise for Americans to reject giving the president such powers. The idea that one person can block the communications of millions of citizens, for reasons of their own choosing, is fundamentally undemocratic.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think a lot of bills like this are designed to stretch our perception of what is appropriate action for our government to take. The bill might never pass, but now that we think it's possible lesser control measures won't feel so bad in comparison. Notice how our attention has already been shifted from the targeted shutting down of music sharing sites to this potential kill switch. I would argue that the targeted shutdowns are more dangerous because they can slip in largely unnoticed by the general population. The government isn't stupid enough to shut down our internet in America, but it provides a great distraction while they give themselves more targeted power to take out sites they don't like. I think we all suspect our government would kill Wikileaks if they could and they've already shown that they have no regard for "due process" in taking out RIAA's opponents.</comment>


Ask PG: Correlation between frugality and startup success? - <AUTHOR> Have you seen any relationship between the amount of money a YCombinator company spends over the summer/winter and their eventual success?<p>I would guess that it's bad for a startup to blow through their investment money, but how big of a factor is day to day frugality for a startup? <comment><USER2> Good question. There is a huge correlation. People who are cheap are much more likely to succeed. And not just because their money lasts longer; a frugal attitude seems to correlate with success.

<comment><USER3> Maybe this is because excessive spending is caused by not thinking carefully and precisely about all the factors relevant to the startup, whereas frugality comes from trying to maximize everything to one's benefit. So even if the actual money savings doesn't make a huge difference, it's a visible indicator of doing the right kinds of things.

<comment><USER2> That is definitely a large part of it. When Greg Mcadoo from Sequoia spoke at YC this winter, he said he'd also noticed that frugal startups did better. When I asked him why, he said probably because frugality was an instance of focus, and that focus is the key to success in a startup. Overspending = spending on inessential things, which in turn implies you don't understand what's essential.

For the same reason, it's bad when founders can't explain what they're doing concisely.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Frugality is useful, but so many people who are tight with money tend to underestimate the cost of time. Or the cost of friendship when you refuse to pay your share. Or the cost of a bad impression when your clothes look old.

Be careful with money, but be careful to also spend money.

</comment><comment><USER5> like anything else, it's a matter of balance. i used to be a hardcore bootstrapper and would pride myself on getting something to market on a $x,000 budget, or saving a few bucks on an SSL certificate, laptop, office space, tax deductions, etc. but the result is i'd waste a lot of time and emotional energy on shit that didn't really matter to our core business.

but there are two things to remember:

\- your time is a lot more valuable than you think (as others have pointed out)

\- often money, wisely allocated, (i.e. hiring a couple engineers or investing in a good work environment, not all-around extravagant spending) can help you get to market and achieve your goals faster

and since speed is a startup's only real advantage, this is often the difference between a 1 or 0 outcome.

</comment><comment><USER6> As a startup, the more you constrain your target audience, how feature-heavy your product is, and how much money you spend building it, the more likely you are to find a market you can succeed in -- or fail quickly. Both are positive outcomes.

But, you have to value your time properly. Otherwise your perception of being frugal is really just an accounting error.

Our competitors outspend us by orders of magnitude. But we've been frugal and focused. So while they're worried about raising their series X and lining up an exit, we're worried about serving our customers better and how to spend our profits. I wouldn't want to switch places.

</comment><comment><USER7> Yeah, they didn't once ask us where we spent the money. I think the assumption is "food, rent and hosting".

<comment><USER8> How does this work come tax time? From my understanding, you can only write off hosting, half of food (sometimes) and maybe a part of rent. How did you guys deal with this?

<comment><USER9> I don't know that we're representative, but, so far, I mostly just wave my hands around and go, "This sucks." And then leave it for later (meaning we haven't been doing much with write-offs or expenses on our tax filings). Pretty much all of my bookkeeping to date has been of the form "put it in a folder for when we hire a bookkeeper". Luckily, this will be the year in which we hire a bookkeeper, and I won't have to think about it too much any more, and I most likely won't end up in jail for not reporting things correctly or on time (fingers crossed).

<comment><USER10> on a failed startup of mine, i redid my taxes 3 years after i closed the company. i received $25k as a refund, and it cost me $4k for the accounting. good accounting is WORTH IT. had i used that firm in the first place i might have saved an additional $50k and spent $4k on fiscal advice. Since i self funded i did a lot of stupid things when it came to managing cash flow and spending personally for my company. also for being able to better leverage credit vs opportunity cost on selling stocks and paying employees, i could have much better used my available margin trading ability that had an interest cost of only 5%, and with some stocks, waiting till the fiscal reports would have been worth 20%, which would have kept me in the black personally, vs. having a burn rate.

oh the things i would do differently, and well, the things i am doing differently with social helix.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Frugality makes you creative. If you think you have abundant resources then you will always throw money at the problem. Whereas if you feel your resources are limited then it will force you to come up with creative solutions to make the most out of what you have.

</comment><comment><USER12> As long as you're not being "penny wise and dollar foolish", you're better off. If you loose time/friendships/customers/reputation (as others have mentioned) by saving money, you might be being dollar foolish.

</comment><comment><USER13> Definitely good to hear. I am very frugal too. One of my blog postings on the topic: [http://buzzpal.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/bootstrap-then- raise...](http://buzzpal.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/bootstrap-then-raise-funds- ifwhen-necessary/)

</comment><comment><USER14> YC is frugal with their investments - they give companies just enough to survive, which motivates the founders to be as frugal as possible.

</comment><comment><USER15> when the investment is micro (10-15k) I suspect (as said in their documents) that Ycombinator doesn't even keep track of where the money goes.

<comment><USER9> YC doesn't keep track of anything, except the people involved (and even that is optional).</comment></comment>


Fun with Emacs Calc - <AUTHOR> http://www.masteringemacs.org/articles/2012/04/25/fun-emacs-calc/

<comment><USER2> Emacs calc is one of my favorite computer algebra systems: it can derive and sum and integrate, numerically or symbolically. It can do unit conversions, graph equations, and do geometry. It's really very neat and useful.

</comment><comment><USER3> To use this code in any serious capacity, remember the sign conventions: North latitude and East longitude are both positive, South latitude and West longitude are both negative.

It's utterly arbitrary but fairly universal.

<comment><USER4> If you think about north as up and west as left, then it works out the same as a coordinate plane, so it makes sense.</comment></comment>


33C3 talk on dissecting cellular modems - <AUTHOR> http://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20161230-33c3-presentation/ <comment><USER2> Here's the recording:

[https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8151-dissecting_modern_3g_4g_cel...](https://media.ccc.de/v/33c3-8151-dissecting_modern_3g_4g_cellular_modems)

(I prefer media.ccc.de over YouTube because it lets you download the video in at least a couple of formats, and sometimes offers alternate streams/languages.)

<comment><USER3> Related: The YouTube and stream dump problem

[https://events.ccc.de/2015/01/03/the-youtube-and-stream- dump...](https://events.ccc.de/2015/01/03/the-youtube-and-stream-dump- problem/)

<comment><USER4> Wow, had been following a ccc account on YouTube for some years, had no idea it wasn't official. Now subbed to the real source - thanks. :)

<comment><USER5> Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings: the mediacccde account is official:

> To mitigate this we have decided to open an official media.ccc.de YouTube > channel to at least make sure users don't have to suffer advertisements, > incorrect licenses and incomplete metadata. This account can be found on > [https://www.youtube.com/mediacccde](https://www.youtube.com/mediacccde).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So can I really write AT+QLINUXCMD to my USB LTE Modem over tty-over-USB and execute arbitrary shell commands on the modem's internal linux installation as root?

<comment><USER7> It's still present even in the latest EC20E firmware EC20EQAR02A09E2G from 2016-09-24:

      ynezz@ntbk:/opt/devel/flexisbc/quectel_ec20/EC20EQAR02A09E2G$ grep QLINUXCMD
      Binary file 9615-cdp-recovery-image-9615-cdp.yaffs2 matches
      Binary file dsp2.mbn matches
      Binary file 9615-cdp-usr-image.usrfs.yaffs2 matches

Edit: formating

<comment><USER6> Would Sierra Wireless 313U be a good candidate?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> system() is one of the most abused function in that code.

</comment><comment><USER9> Video recording on yt [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq9chzNVoXg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq9chzNVoXg)</comment>


Emacs as a powerful Python IDE - <AUTHOR> http://www.enigmacurry.com/2008/05/09/emacs-as-a-powerful-python-ide/

<comment><AUTHOR> Also see his post on auto-completion: [http://www.enigmacurry.com/2009/01/21/autocompleteel- python-...](http://www.enigmacurry.com/2009/01/21/autocompleteel-python-code- completion-in-emacs/)

</comment><comment><USER2> Fatal error: Out of memory (allocated 8126464) (tried to allocate 311296 bytes) in /home/ryan/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/falbum/wordpress-falbum- plugin.php on line 433

Maybe an article about python should use it to present it on the web?

<comment><USER2> I get down voted because their php site leaks memory? Nice.</comment></comment>