Younited is available for download - <AUTHOR> http://www.younited.com/download.html

<comment><USER2> [http://www.younited.com/why.html](http://www.younited.com/why.html)

but I'm looking for

[http://www.younited.com/what.html](http://www.younited.com/what.html)

<comment><USER3> It's in [http://www.younited.com/support/](http://www.younited.com/support/)

"What is younited?"

But yeah, it should've been located somewhere more prominent.

<comment><USER4> On the home page perhaps?

"Younited ... so you can ..."

One sentence and we might not hit the back button.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Rubbish! Make me download an app, without much information. OK I was willing to give 2mins doing that. However, once it's downloaded and run I need to join a "wait" list of users so you cannot use the actual App. FAIL! Uninstalled.

</comment><comment> V-2 Kind of like Jolicloud, it seems, but I gave up on it because the integration with some APIs was unstable (not necessarily out of their fault of course).

The younited's website is lacking some info. How does it compare to Jolicloud? What does it do? Why is there no demo? You require quite a leap of faith for me to go on, download and install your app with only a vague idea of what it is.

</comment><comment><USER6> > "You have pictures in Facebook, Dropbox, Google Drive, Picasa. ... All kinds > of stuff in different places. We didn't want to build yet another cloud > product where you store away your stuff ..."

So what did you build then? A community for balloon dancing?

</comment><comment><USER7> Obligatory XKCD: [http://xkcd.com/927/](http://xkcd.com/927/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Is it so damned hard for companies to tell us _what their product actually is?_

I looked at the linked page and the About page and I still have no idea WTF this thing is supposed to be.

It drives me nuts. It's like people design these pages so they can pat themselves on the back, not to actually communicate any information.

</comment><comment><USER9> Why do I have to download the software to "reserve my spot"? If I downloaded, let me register from the app!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> The app looks like it's a syncing service that has the possibility to add "clouds" as source - only Google Picasa supported now. It won't transfer, which I guess means syncing to their servers, the one item I added to it.

</comment><comment><USER10> If Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Lavabit, etc can't guarantee privacy from the NSA and the government, I really doubt younited can claim that they can. Without being able to guarantee the privacy aspect of their product, what else exactly do they have?

</comment><comment><USER11> Doesn't the actual Picasa software handle most of these use cases?

Or something like this random google search result [https://apps.facebook.com/picasauploader/](https://apps.facebook.com/picasauploader/)

</comment><comment><USER12> How are you going to avoid your access from being pulled by the upstream providers?

I wouldn't be surprised if any of these services pull your access which wouldn't be a good thing for this kind of product. I guess it depends on the ToS.

</comment><comment><USER6> The commercial was about the most stupid thing I've watched in a long time.

</comment><comment><USER13> What is it?

<comment><USER14> You'd think the developers should have realised that they have a communications problems here when the _first question_ on their help page is 'What is younited?' Even the 'About' page sucks. It lists some problems and then just states that this app is going to solve them. Come on, tell us (and show us) _how_.

<comment><USER15> In the help section there's a _very_ helpful video with trendy music and people playing with balloons.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> As others have said; this does a terrible job at explaining what this product is about.

</comment><comment><USER6> Pricing?

<comment><USER17> > The options for file space are called Free, Medium and Premium. The free

> version will offer all younited's functionality along with 10 GB of safe

> cloud storage – but only for a limited time (starting 2014, the free

> version will offer 5 GB). Medium expands safe cloud storage to 200 GB

> and retails at € 74,99 a year. Premium provides users with 500 GB of

> safe cloud storage, retailing at € 120 a year.

From [http://www.younited.com/support](http://www.younited.com/support)</comment></comment>


What the current markets are and are not telling us - <AUTHOR> http://www.sethlevine.com/archives/2016/02/what-the-current-market-are-and-are-not-telling-us.html <comment><USER2> It's not sentiment that connects public to private markets, it's the literal capital pipes that allocate money across assets.

When people realize there is a risk they will not get liquidity for their investment, they try to sell to get cash.

That sale sucks liquidity out of the market, the dollars have to come from somewhere.

Which is why what's going on in energy markets, or China, or Europe, matter for startups.

Startups are by their nature consumers of liquidity, as founders sell equity to get cash to build stuff.

When other assets (public market stocks, energy bonds, CNY, European bank stocks) are being sold to get cash, this competes for those dollars.

When there is enough selling that asset prices fall, then assets that compete for the same capital/liquidity also have to reprice lower to attract capital. Not to mention investors realize they are literally less wealthy than they thought yesterday.

It's not something as ephemeral as sentiment , it literally works like a machine. I call it #theCapitalCycle

[https://medium.com/@alexanderbcampbell/a-turn-in- thecapitalc...](https://medium.com/@alexanderbcampbell/a-turn-in- thecapitalcycle-4fd0b6193579#.ce9oqj440)</comment>


Startups should be evil - <AUTHOR> http://byrne.io/154rBDw

<comment><USER2> This should be renamed; the punch of the article is _not_ that startups should be evil, but that "Don't Be Evil" is too simplistic.

Which, by the way, is kind of too bad. Everyone's so idealistic nowadays; I'd love to read a blog post to the effect that "the masses are stupid and incapable of making their own decisions, and we aim to save them from themselves, whether they like it or not."</comment>


Saudi Arabia Speeds Up Aramco IPO Timeline to Early 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Saudi-Arabia-Speeds-Up-Aramco-IPO-Timeline-To-Early-2020.html <comment><AUTHOR> So, my completely uninformed guess at what has happened: 1) Saudi Arabia wanted to do an Aramco IPO to raise cash, after $100+/barrel oil was no more 2) Saudi Arabia found out they needed to disclose a lot of the finances of Aramco in order to do that on major stock exchanges, and didn't like that 3) Instead, royal family tried pouring cash into Japanese Softbank, which poured it into tech startups like Uber and WeWork 4) The IPO's of these do not seem to be raising the big profits which were hoped for 5) Back to the idea of an Aramco IPO

Again, just my guess. If so, then we might expect American VC money to recede a bit in the next year, as foreign enthusiasm for funding it cools a bit.</comment>


How to Store User Passwords in 2017 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.rangle.io/how-to-store-user-passwords-and-overcome-security-threats-in-2017/ <comment><USER2> The article says:

> never store passwords in plaintext

It should say:

> never store passwords in any form; store a hash of the password instead

It's a common mistake to confuse "password hash" with "encrypted password".

<comment><USER3> For completeness, the point of this apt comment being that you don't want your employees or anyone else to be able to derive passwords en masse, so why leave that capability lying around; when a hash does everything that you require. (Some) hashes have also the advantage of masking the length of passwords.</comment></comment>


OS X El Capitan on the Mac App Store - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/app/os-x-el-capitan/id1018109117?mt=12 <comment><USER2> If time is an issue, consider doing a wipe and fresh install then upgrade instead of upgrade in place. Apparently if you have Homebrew it gets stuck at 2 minutes, potentially for several hours.

<comment><USER3> So, basically the same advice applies as with the upgrade to Yosemite: move /usr/local to somewhere like ~/local before upgrading, and move it back after.

It's worth mentioning that after the upgrade you might run into permissions problems: [https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/h...](https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/blob/master/share/doc/homebrew/El_Capitan_and_Homebrew.md)

You might want to run `brew update` before updating, so `brew doctor` can help you troubleshoot issues afterwards.

<comment><USER4> Does OS X place any of its own files in /usr/local?

<comment><USER5> I can't speak to El Capitan, but no Apple software has dropped anything in /usr/local that I've found in the last 3+ releases. I'm very confident El Capitan would continue that history.

A lot of other apps do put stuff there though (when I wish they'd keep it in their own bundle).

Even worse, a lot of other apps drop stuff into /usr/bin.

<comment><USER6> They can no longer drop stuff in /usr/bin as of El Capitan, though.

You can't even do it with root:

        [mason@IT-PC-MACPRO ~]$ sudo bash
        Password:
        [root@IT-PC-MACPRO ~]# touch /usr/bin/nope
        touch: /usr/bin/nope: Operation not permitted
        [root@IT-PC-MACPRO ~]# cat 'nope nope' >> /usr/bin/nope
        bash: /usr/bin/nope: Operation not permitted

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't know how anybody can look at the bugs and fixes that continually plague .0 versions of Apple's OS software across their devices and jump at the chance to try it out. It now feels like you need to wait a minimum of 3 months before even considering installing a .0 (or .1 or .2) version of their software. It's a shame, too. I'm old enough to remember when Apple's OS was mostly rock-solid.

<comment><USER8> > _I don 't know how anybody can look at the bugs and fixes that continually > plague .0 versions of Apple's OS software across their devices and jump at > the chance to try it out._

Quite simply because I've never once been bitten by them -- with the exception of some haxies not working.

> _I 'm old enough to remember when Apple's OS was mostly rock-solid._

When was that? Because I remember Mac OS (pre X) beeing anything but rock- solid. I also remember the first X release being a disaster, and people moaning about issues I've never encountered in my (heavy) Mac use for every new release.

(I also remember the hardware problems, from the overheating cube and the G3 logic boards that died by the ton to the G5 tower leaking cooling goo).

<comment><USER9> Then lets steelman this point of critique: Why doesn't Apple keep their OSes in beta for a couple of months more to release something that is really stable? Is the sample size of beta testers really too small? I doubt 6 months or so later would be a big disadvantage to the competition, quite the contrary, I think releasing more stable 1.0s could be a considerable advantage.

<comment><USER8> > _Why doesn 't Apple keep their OSes in beta for a couple of months more to > release something that is really stable?_

First, because a lot of those bugs you only find in real-life bizarro setups, and beta testers are not enough. Besides not all beta testers actually help with bug reports -- some programmers just test their own software, others just want to play with the latest OS, etc.

Second, because not all of those bugs will be fixed even if a beta tester finds them. There will be a cost-benefit (opportunity cost) analysis, and some might need extensive changes to some subsystems, and only get fixed with the X.2 or even X.4 or X.5 release, half a year or more later.

Third, because there will always be bugs, and at some point you need to release.

Fourth, because OS releases usually also enable or leverage several new hardware features in Macs and iOS devices. Delaying the OS would mean delaying those hardware units, or putting them out with the old OS and no way to use some new advanced hardware stuff they are advertised with (stuff like Bluetooth 4 back in the day, Retina support, or something similar).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Just upgraded. Can't delete apps. Anyone figured this out yet? Admin accound sudo rm -rf "game center.app" is returning operation not permitted. Appcleaner is not even able to find the packkages much less delete them. I have the GM though. What is this about?

Edit: upgrading to the appstore version. Not sure if this was GM specific, or they are locking the Os down even more.

Edit2: if you forget your password immeadiately and use the resetpassword feature in terminal, keychain breaks, can't find "login". Prob fix it with permissions. Note, NOT the case. Had to make an entire new user.

Also, with >30mbps connection, 850mb upgrade is taking ~4hrs. They must be getting slammed.

Edit : Boot args didnt fix. Trying carutul disable at recovery terminal.

Bash-3.2# csrutil diasable

Seems to work.

Edit n: seperate and unrelated, system does not seem to restart well. Eiter hangs or takes ages.

<comment><USER11> That's System Integrity Protection. Under it, system files cannot be deleted or modified, even with sudo. It protects down to the block level, so even if you try to bypass the file system and write to blocks composing system files directly you'll get an error.

This can be disabled but I wouldn't advise doing so unless you have a really good reason to.

<comment><USER10> Thanks. I will disable it. Not to be rude, as I appreciate the advice, but what would you consider:

> a really good reason?

I think access to my own filesystem is good enough. I admit when I looked at the reviews, I made sure there were no major issues before upgrade but missed this "sys integrity" thing.

<comment><USER12> It is your filesystem, but these are system files. Is it really important to you to be able to muck around the OS? If it is, then you go find a way to disable the protections.

Windows also has the System Integrity Protection equivalent.

<comment><USER10> Yes. I am disabling/removing shitty bloatware and removing apple phone home gor privacy.

<comment><USER13> I share your sentiment towards privacy, I guard mine fiercely as well.

If I may say so though, I think you're coming at this the wrong way.

Trying to disable every component in the OS that phones home simply doesn't scale, may I suggest you explore gateway firewall devices such as PFSense, or the free version of Sophos' UTM if you prefer a more polished UI?

I use a Sophos UTM at home and I can see (and block) every request that my Macs use to try to phone home, with HTTP, HTTPS or regular network traffic.

I also use the Always-On VPN on my phone to apply ad blocking at the firewall level which protects my phone as well.

Very much worth checking out. Gateway protections are the only way to go these days IMO.

Edit: Just to add, at first glance I find the SIP system to be rather anti- user, but people in this thread are right. It's valuable protection to have in place. If I used a Mac at home I would only disable this to make the changes I needed before turning it back on again.

Edit to clarify: I use a Mac, but only has a HTPC and not as a desktop or workstation, and all outbound traffic is blocked by default.

<comment><USER10> Thanks, this was a helpful response unlike the SOish answers which I found unneccesarily hostile. If you see my comment below I was fairly protected.

I will look into those suggestions. Do to the differences and additions in caputan little snitch does not work. I havent connected to internet yet whoch ice floor needs to be configured properly. Does SOPHOS UTM work well even as a free version. It is annoying when snitch lets traffic out after 3grs.

As sad as this will sound, I cant afford a VPN. I set one up myself using OpenDNS and tunnelblick, which I should probably spin back up. Any other security suggestions? I can only use free stuff ATM .

<comment><USER13> The only limitation on the free version of the utm that I found so far is that you can't have more than 10 IPs active, but nothing stops you from using nat to get around that.

The utm itself actually hosts and serves the VPN connection by the way. My phone connects directly to the VPN on my UTM. You'll see a speed hit because of the extra hop unless you put your utm in the cloud.

I hope that's helpful :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Weird, the public release is right there in app store, yet I am getting no option to upgrade the public beta version that I am on.

<comment><USER11> It's not uncommon for the App Store/Software Update to make no distinction between the final GM seed and the production version, making it say you're already up to date if you're running the GM seed. They're usually close enough to production that the GM seeds can update to x.x.1 type updates.

That said I'm downloading the official release now and installing it over my GM seed install simply to get beta releases of 10.11.1 to stop showing up in my updates tab.

<comment><USER15> There is a setting to opt out of the beta track. Check out System Preferences > App Store.

<comment><USER14> I found the guide for how to do it, but there's no such button there. Oh sh*t.

[https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/unenroll](https://beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/unenroll)

<comment><USER16> Are you on public beta or developer beta? Those instructions appear to be for the public beta program. If you were using the developer beta, I expect you have to reinstall the seed configuration utility (if you don't still have it) from [https://developer.apple.com/osx/download/](https://developer.apple.com/osx/download/) and use that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> That's two OS X upgrades in a row (Yosemite, and now El Capitan) that the upgrade has moved the contents of my home directory /home/users/alphastorm/ into /home-preserved/. Luckily moving/copying everything back seems to fix almost everything.

Anyone else had this happen to them or know why it happens?

<comment><USER18> Do you really mean /home or /Users? Only /Users is standard to OS X. I would put your home directory there.

They may create /home if it's required to exist for compatibility with other Unix standards. And since an OS upgrade probably has a checklist of things that must succeed (such as the ability to "create" /home), they feel forced to preserve whatever might have been there already before "creating" it again.

On my machine, /home exists but it is completely empty.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I'm eager to upgrade so is this a fairly safe upgrade or are there kinks that need to be worked out?

<comment><USER18> So far it seems OK. My /usr/local was preserved and restored automatically (mine was about 250 MB and the whole OS installation took about half an hour).

The split-screen view hasn't been fully-thought-through though. I would say almost everything I tried didn't do what I would have expected. There is a way for a window to end up on a space where the menu bar no longer has menus. There's even a mode where almost everything stops working: if the system decides only one of your windows supports splitting, it'll just sit there (even gestures won't work to reenter Mission Control) and you have to click to get out of it.

<comment><USER20> I wish they'd implemented a full tiled window manager. I'd really like to have at least 3 windows in the split view.

At the very least, an option to stack top and bottom instead of side by side would have been nice.

Seems like they want it to be congruent with how it works in iOS 9 on the iPad, so I don't hold out any hope. Maybe someone will figure out how to hack it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Damn it, the .DS_Store files are back without the help from Asepsis! Now I must run clean.sh everytime I pack up my project. :( The time has come...

<comment><USER22> One solution that I've adopted: never use Finder.

<comment><USER23> What do you use instead? You navigate exclusively from your terminal?

<comment><USER24> I've used Forklift for years, very stable: [http://www.binarynights.com/forklift/](http://www.binarynights.com/forklift/)

<comment><USER25> Actually, Forklift is broken in El Capitan, at least for me. It just freezes after few seconds upon launching and then fails to recognize user input, or lags terribly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Time to cautiously update my Mac mini before I update the computers that matter!

</comment><comment><USER27> Anybody know how to enable Photos extension in El Capitan?

</comment><comment><USER28> since i installed the .1 beta yesterday (which was actually released today) my load avg increased by .6 - even after several reboots.

</comment><comment><USER29> I wonder if there will be review on Arstechnica after Siracusa?!

<comment><USER30> [http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el- capitan-t...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/09/os-x-10-11-el-capitan-the- ars-technica-review/1/)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10296815](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10296815)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Having a working CDN still seems to be a challenge for apple, meh

</comment><comment><USER32> Did they announce about this new OS? I don't remember hearing about it at all.

<comment><USER33> Formal announcement was made on June 8. [https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/06/08Apple- Announces-O...](https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/06/08Apple-Announces-OS- X-El-Capitan-with-Refined-Experience-Improved-Performance.html)</comment></comment>


Redditor disputes recent emdrive paper conclusion in /r/physics - <AUTHOR> https://np.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/5ewj86/so_nasas_em_drive_paper_is_officially_published/dafqhw2/ <comment><USER2> The entire Reddit comment depends on the idea that such a "tailing-off" shape in the graph could only be caused by thermal contraction. This is just another way of saying that the experimental results don't seem to match existing theory, which is something we already knew.

When an experimental result doesn't make sense, you can't disprove it by pointing at part of it and saying "hey that doesn't make sense." Yeah, we know it doesn't.

In general I'm tired of people typing dismissive comments into social media and then high-fiving. Oh you're a physicist who thinks the error is obvious? Here's what I don't see: you risking your own grant money to prove it.

I'm not saying that the emdrive works--it almost certainly doesn't--I'm saying that science gets done in the lab, not web forums.

<comment><USER3> The redditor is not saying it can only be caused by thermal expansion, only that thermal expansion is a simpler explanation that doesn't require any new physics.

Sure, you can't thoroughly disprove it by saying it doesn't make sense, but what the redditor is doing is coming up with an explanation that fits the data that makes a lot _more_ sense.

<comment><USER2> Actually all he is saying is that the post-power tail-off matches what one would expect from thermal _contraction_. He does not address whether the onset of force matches what one would see from thermal expansion (because it does not--note how it is not a smooth curve like the tail-off).

<comment><USER4> It's still a good idea to add thermal sensors though to discard his explanation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> can I ask why this redditor in particular matters?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not a physicist, so my opinion matters even less, but from what I can tell, the explanation he gives fits known physics, while the explanation given in the paper requires a new understanding of physics. I found it really interesting, and thought folks here might, since there was a lot of conversation here when it was posted, but I don't remember _this_ particular angle being discussed.</comment></comment>


Ta'izz - <AUTHOR> http://www.idlewords.com/2015/05/ta_izz.htm

<comment><USER2> I hope to God, despite the date, this is post-dated. I know Yemenis where I live and they cannot even enter ... because the airport has a giant fucking whole in the runway and now and they might have been landing in a downtown neighborhood with a long drag, if I understood one of my co-workers correctly. Or maybe that was the Iranians and other people that inspired raid-runs. God bless United States of Arabia Air Force (this is my joke name for the KSA strike teams; I do not see this as a positive).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sana%27a_International_Airport](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sana%27a_International_Airport)

Shit there is terrifying. If you have money, please donate. You can say what you want, but there are so many people who were struggling before that privileged asshole friends who live in the GCC, and I like to tell "Yemen stories" I hear from these dudes to ground the shit out of them.

And imagine your tribe repelling the army, the Houthis, and Al Qaeda in Yemen at the same time. Most of these dudes run their own villages, and no outside influence is welcome. The Yemenis are the ultimate libertarians, so help em out.

(Watch me roast for that joke; oh well, I tried.)

<comment><USER3> The post is about a trip I took in June of 2014. Agreed that what's happening now is horrific. For starters, pretty much every place I describe has been bombed.

<comment><USER4> In 2007 I got to visit a lot of family in Syria. My cousin took me from province to province while he was making sales calls for my grandfather's welding shop in Damascus.

In 2012 my cousin was shot in the head at a roadblock and died a few months later. My grandfather has fallen into a deep depression and the rest of my family has experienced a diaspora the likes of which we haven't felt since the 50s.

I'm not a religious person, but I thank probability every day that my family has Canadian citizenship and green cards and that I have an amazing job as a programmer. Even if I can't do anything about the place of my heritage, I've been able to buy a house in the US for my grandparents and have been able to donate to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS Foundation) on a regular basis.

I have so many photos and journal entries from that time. I really need to get them online to show what Syria was like before all the shit hit the fan. Thank you so much for these writings. I hope they shed light on a humanity that gets robbed by conflict.

<comment><USER2> I can relate. My first Arabic teacher grew up in Syria in the 70's, and the last 40 years has been brutal emotionally. Both parents died as I grew up, and once her mother died (maybe after 2004?) and all the bureaucracy and bribes she was so disgusted she never went back. Years later, we were talking about Egypt and she said things like that would never happen in Syria, ever! And now look at the ironic state of things. Her sister still lives in Damascus. And when we talked recently, first time in years, and that came up, she almost cried. But it was out of sheer anger. People I meet do not even care about the emotional loss, but how they have watched their country implode so rapidly while everyone voluntarily fucks it up more.

Thanks, for the tip about SAMS. I assume this is them.

[http://sams-usa.net/foundation/](http://sams-usa.net/foundation/)

I am trying to pool people together with some people I know here and the MENA region to do fundraising for the Jesuit relief fund (I know, I know, but they are very cool and have no religious stake; I have met Iraqi Lebanese and Syrian employees from all backgrounds and their dedication to crisis assistance, religion is not even on the radar) and want to tap the Syrian- American community to help fundraise.

Email address is in my profile. I would love to get people like yourself involved.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> For anyone interested in what's going on in Yemen right now, I've found Twitter to be a much better source than news sites. A good starting point is @altoflacoblanco and @yemen_updates. @ionacraig is excellent too but seems to have stopped tweeting for now.

If after reading these streams you find the conflict incredibly confusing and complicated, that's a good sign! You have a better grasp on things than 99% of the Western media.

<comment><USER5> Among other things: it sure seems like "Al Qaeda" means something subtly different in Yemen than it does in Afghanistan.

<comment><USER3> Subtly!

<comment><USER5> Is it unsubtle? It seems like something more akin to a grassroots local political movement in Yemen than an international terrorist organization. A terrible political movement, but one nonetheless. Am I totally wrong there?

<comment><USER3> I really don't think there exists an international terrorist al-Qaeda at this point (at least not in the sense we imagine, with a Cobra Commander in some hollow island). It's more like a franchise, and regional groups use the name since it gives cachet and suggests a global, the-Caliphate-is-coming kind of power that makes these guys feel good.

It's also in the interests of the United States and other Western powers to sustain the impression of an international terrorist conspiracy potentially capable of harming people in the West. The branding has switched to Isis now that al-Qaeda has kind of fallen apart. I don't know to what extent this is a cynical ploy, and to what extent it's a natural dynamic where we kind of manufacture our own enemies by showing how scared we are of them.

All politics in Yemen is grassroots and local and foreign governments forget this at their peril. There's a tendency to assume the various Yemeni factions are puppets being controlled by Iran, the Saudis, the US and so on, but in practice the local factions are very adept at manipulating their various sponsors. The important divisions in Yemen are regional (north, south, and Aden) and tribal, and the tragedy of the country is that it is trying to stitch together very dissimilar regions while outside powers work hard to destabilize it.

With regard to al-Qaeda specifically, the Yemeni branch has always been quite distinct. Bin Laden has deep ties to Yemen, which ironically has made AQAP even more of a tribal, regional force, since unlike Afghanistan it's a bunch of locals.

I think it's good to remember that southern Yemen used to be a highly ideological, Marxist state(!). The fact that all these Marxists have vanished without a trace suggests how hard it is for any transnational ideology to gain a foothold in this deeply conservative, tenacious country.

<comment><USER5> This is pretty close to what I understood. (Thanks for truing me up).

So, not to put too fine a point on it: I have more of a problem with military attacks on 2015 Yemeni AQAP than I do with attacks in, say, Waziristan. It seems like attacking Yemeni AQAP implies attacking whole tribes.

<comment><USER3> I found this article gave a good sense of what drone attacks really mean for the people in the area, and what it means to be "a member of al-Qaeda" in Yemen, in the eyes of US policymakers: [http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america- tonight/ame...](http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america- tonight/america-tonight-blog/2014/1/17/what-really- happenedwhenausdronehitayemeniweddingconvoy.html)

In my mind, the worst thing about American military attacks in Yemen is that the government refuses to reveal what our policy even is. Everything about them is being kept secret, removing any hope of democratic accountability.

<comment><USER5> Frontline did something similar w/r/t/ the impact of US drone targeting for AQ in Yemen.

[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/frontline-fight- for-...](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/frontline-fight-for-yemen/)

The Frontline Yemen episode was one of the more depressing Frontlines I've ever seen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Maciej's travelogues never disappoint, but this one is especially poignant given the events currently unfolding in Yemen:

[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle- east-32776430](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32776430)

We've lost a lot of history over the last few months.

</comment><comment><USER7> Maciej is not the best photographer; and he should put legends next to his images.

But he's really a fantastic travel writer. Or writer. One of the best ever.

<comment><USER3> Come on, I put over four thousand words of legend!

Thanks for the kind words :-)

<comment><USER7> We actually met in Paris two years ago. At a Pinboard meeting.

I'd like to travel with you some time.

<comment><USER3> Oh yeah, hi! By all means, and bring your camera :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I really enjoyed reading this but it makes me a bit sad. I have a dream to someday traverse the Muslim world in my old Land Rover 110. I would start in Dakar and make my way clockwise through the Sahara all the way to Egypt. I want to see the Bekaa valleys of Lebanon where my ancestors came from; I want to float the Euphrates and cross into Pakistan via Iran. I want to drive the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan and I want to visit the Wakhan Corridor. 45 years ago, I could have done all of this and lived to tell the tale. Today, it's virtually impossible, especially for a pale-skinned American like me. Now, in 2015, it may be hundreds of years before it's safe for my kind to go there. It makes me sad.

<comment><USER9> If you didn't already, you should check out The Way of the World by Nicolas Bouvier. Excelent book about a roadtrip from Geneva via Khyber pass to India in the 1950s.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> _It was a dark day when Islam met the loudspeaker._

Tell me about it, bro!

It was a hellish day indeed and it went from bad to worse ever since.

I live in a predominantly Muslim country and Islam seems to have an insecurity & inferiority complex so large that it needs ear deafening audio signals broadcast at dawn time to notify the population of its suffocating and heavy presence in their daily lives.

</comment><comment><USER11> They don't have peace, or even reliable electricity, but they have free facebook sms, I really don't know how to feel about that.

<comment><USER12> You should feel good about it because they are able to communicate without reliable electricity or peace.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've never been to Yemen but somehow am in love with it (and so wish I could visit).This film started my obsession: [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478213/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478213/)

So sad and inexcusable what is happening there right now - everyone playing for their own shallow political interests, doing enormous harm and grossly disregarding international law while pretending to help.

As others mentioned, all mainstream media reporting of the current events in Yemen is horribly biased, misleading and just ignorant. Twitter is a much better place to get a more objective feel of events as they unfold. My favourite source is @omeisy

</comment><comment><USER14> "the owner bitterly congratulates me on striking a bargain he would never had agreed to in less desperate times. I am as crafty as a Bedouin, as wily as a serpent, and his only request is that I not tell anyone how good a deal I struck tonight lest he become the laughingstock of the city. Then he undermines his words by throwing in a couple of pieces for free."

One of the funniest things I've read this month :)

</comment><comment><USER15> > Ali is a virtuoso on the car horn; driving with him is like sitting in on a > session with Charlie Parker.

Goodness, you're gifted.

</comment><comment><USER16> > The accident rate is high (about fifty times the per-vehicle rate in > America) but nowhere what you'd expect given that everyone is driving at all > times like a maniac.

I feel like this is the theme in every Arab and Asian country. How stuff keeps getting done and how people get to their destinations safely is indeed a wonder. It is a surprise, and often a testament of God's care, that the world still turns in these regions.

</comment><comment><USER17> Hey, the first time I read the Hadith from Bukhari about Prophet (PBUH) had once overslept! Thanks. :D

</comment><comment><USER18> My only observation is that the breakfast looks a lot like a north-indian dinner.

</comment><comment><USER19> Typo:

> My hopes have riding on the jerry cans tied to our roof

<comment><USER3> That's not a typo, that's wabi-sabi.

<comment><USER20> Your writing (and insights) _are_ excellent. But you _really_ <strike>need to</strike> <replace>would improve the content</replace> go<add>ing</add> back and scan<add>ing</add> for both typos and tag glitches.

Still haven't fixed the missing inter-page in your "Internet with a Human Face" article. I really wish you would.

#ads and #conclusion, FWIW.

[http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm#ads](http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm#ads)

[http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm#conclusion](http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm#conclusion)

Also, put your name and datelines on stuff.

I also have it on good authority from a some-time NPR anchor that the spider image specifically turned them off the page. I know, but a point to consider.

<comment><USER3> Why do I _really_ need to any of that? I've written tens of thousands of words for you, for free, etc.

From my perspective, catching flak for picayune errors is a powerful motivation-sapping force. I realize nobody likes typos, but in revising these things for publication I generally go over them N-1 times, where N is the number that would make me delete everything and replace it with a 410 Gone page.

The fact that some NPR person is afraid of spiders makes me happy that I used that image.

Finally, you should have written "turned them off", not "turned them of". See? Not so easy.

<comment><USER20> Granted, "need" may overstate the case. I've revised my comment above on that point and the typo (keyboard issues are making those somewhat more frequent).

But: I consider writing as a communication done, generally, for the reader's benefit. Not a novel viewpoint. HN featured a bit from Vonnegut on that point yesterday. Among his points:

Pity the readers: They have to identify thousands of little marks on paper, and make sense of them immediately

[http://peterstekel.com/PDF- HTML/Kurt%20Vonnegut%20advice%20t...](http://peterstekel.com/PDF- HTML/Kurt%20Vonnegut%20advice%20to%20writers.htm)

I guess I belong to the school which says that a thing worth doing is worth doing well. I try to fix bugs in my code, I try to write clearly, I try to be accurate in what I say and acknowledge errors.

And yeah, sometimes I get really annoyed at nitpickers who seem to have lost the thread:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9567882](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9567882)

Does this mean you've got to do the same?

No.

But it's a _very_ small point frequently, one that can make the difference between a good (or even _really_ good) piece, and one that's truly epic. Which on a site such as HN which focuses in large part on executing both technical and conceptual brilliance, seems a good candidate for a general community value.

And yes, editing (especially for professional publication) is a sort of penny- ante death. I've been watching authors Charlie Stross and Ksenia Anske grouse about it lately on Ello. It's a bit of a pain for my own stuff. But obvious glaring shit? I'll fix it if possible.

Sure, there's the Zen ideal of imperfection as its own perfection. And there can be other reasons for errors and faults to creep in or be unfixable (HN locks comemnts from further editing, something that leaves me cringing frequently).

I find it just plain sloppy myself.

<comment><USER5> How about for starters: if you have boring notes to offer on someone's web page, send it to them privately, instead of posting it for the approval of the whole community.

Sometimes we have things to say about sites that are relevant to lots of people. But these notes not so much.

I'm probably not great about this either and would be happy if someone took the time to call me out for it.

<comment><USER20> I've actually done that, several times in this case - 2-3 attempts, about the maximum number I'll generally try. I prefer not to be a complete pest. Be careful in what you presume.

I thought I'd make one more attempt online now when the opportunity presented itself.

And while I try _not_ to flagrantly call out errors on people's stuff, if I see them I'll note them as quietly as possible. On platforms that support it (e.g., G+) that includes a "delete this comment" note, frequently.

I really like Maciej's work. I'd posted a link to "Human Face" just yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9574540](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9574540)

I find the self-defeating attitude discouraging. Thought really, that's his call.

I've tried. He's made his views clear. So it goes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Strange, I though HN de-duped submissions? I had submitted the same link earlier today: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9575829](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9575829)

Anyway, terrific writing, as always.

<comment><USER22> Using a slightly different URL bypasses the dupe detector, and we don't bury stories as dupes unless they've already had significant attention.</comment></comment>


Khan Academy Request for Donations - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjGERWYvzqk <comment><USER2> To donate directly use this site: [https://www.khanacademy.org/donate](https://www.khanacademy.org/donate)

</comment><comment><USER2> I will donate. It would be great it they would add a "Donate" button on the app and site.</comment>


When is an animated GIF better than a video? - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/video/when-is-an-animated-gif-better-than-a-video/

<comment><USER2> > _Internet content is constantly fighting for the attention of the reader, > and I think animated GIFs demand it_

And not in a good way. Most of the time these clips annoy the shit out of me. However I have to admit that I _do_ like the continuously firing cat, probably because it illustrates my feelings toward animated GIFs so well. And I find clips of pretentious people pronouncing a word over and over especially tiresome.</comment>


Animal protein-rich diets could be as harmful to health as smoking - <AUTHOR> http://theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/04/animal-protein-diets-smoking-meat-eggs-dairy <comment><USER2> I wonder what this means for those of us who are casual weightlifters. Our protein intake is much higher than 0.7g per kg, and in fact most come in around double that value.

The benefits of being at one's peak strength are innumerable, but a fourfold increase in cancer risk is startling.

I assume a healthy balance would be to obtain a greater percentage of our intake from vegetable sources. But most of us are wired by evolution to enjoy the taste of animal protein much more than other sources.

Perhaps a foray into endurance sports is in order.

<comment><USER3> Two Words: Grilled Veggies.

Get a George Foreman grill. Eat mor seafood. Shrimp and veggies go great together.

Also, veggies are just an excuse to eat garlic. Put garlic in your meat. Put garlic in your ice cream. Take garlic pills. And eat blueberries and broccoli if you're worried about cancer. Garlic is nature's formaldehyde.

<comment><USER4> Shrimp is high in protein and cholesterol.

<comment><USER5> And let's be clear, that the link between dietary cholesterol and blood serum cholesterol is not established. The idea of low cholesterol foods is therefore dubious, at best.

<comment><USER6> So one of those Egg Council creeps got to you too, huh?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Even if this article were 100% true (which I doubt), I wouldn't follow the advice.

Switching from a low-protein to high-protein diet has had the most dramatic positive effect on my health and fitness I've seen in my short 35 years on this earth.

For most of my life I basically got no real protein in my diet -- cereal for breakfast, pasta for dinner, etc. I was always just a bit out of shape, and no matter how much time I spent at the gym I saw minimal improvements.

A few years ago I was inspired by a weightloss thread on reddit and "rebooted" my eating and fitness. Started running, dumped my carb-heavy diet and moved to a high-protein diet -- Greek yogurt, lots of chicken, cheese, etc.

I've lost 30 lbs and am seriously in better shape than I've ever been. My exercise level went up, sure, but the dramatic change came from my diet reboot.

So frankly, even if this were true, I'd rather live the life I've got now than go back to the low-protein lethargy of my 20s.

<comment><USER8> You're talking about the difference in how you feel in the short term, in an uncontrolled "experiment", where you started exercising at the same time, versus an increase in long term disease. Of course you're going to feel better if you lose 30 pounds and start exercising. What's to say you wouldn't feel _even better than that_ if you dropped all of those carbs and started eating far more vegetables and other vitamin rich non-proteins instead of all that yogurt? No offense, but do a line of cocaine and you'll feel better for a short period of time, too. It doesn't mean you're healthier or increasing your life expectancy.

<comment><USER9> You are right. There are researches that show that fats like bacon are kind of nootropics.

[http://www.naturalmedicineconsultations.com/45-your-brain- ne...](http://www.naturalmedicineconsultations.com/45-your-brain-needs-good- fats)

The fats are so important and good to your body and brain, that when you eat a lots of healthy fats (and I mean lots) your body and your brain are "high", feeling well, thinking better and increasing your physical performance.

Eating lots of fats and vegetables, medium to high in proteins, and low on carbs (or zero if possible) its the best and healthiest way to live.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This article is ridiculous. It never mentions anything about the quality of the animal protein, yet points out that people that follow paleo are probably eating a high protein diet. People that are actually eating paleo aren't just eating any animal protein. And that makes a big difference.

<comment><USER11> > It never mentions anything about the quality of the animal protein

why do you think this matters. their study studies the relation between protein and longevity.

> People that are actually eating paleo aren't just eating any animal protein. > And that makes a big difference.

the article indicates that the causal link is related to IGF-1 levels. what does protein "quality" have to do with this, or longevity in general?

<comment><USER12> All protein types are not created equal, for one thing.

It's entirely possible that the negative association with protein has a lot more to do with the over-consumption of certain types of meat.

If you live off of nothing but bacon as your source of protein, I'd argue the sodium and cholesterol in your average variety processed bacon are likely to be very dangerous for your health long term. Versus getting your protein from high quality whey or salmon. Did this study control for the source of the protein?

<comment><USER5> > If you live off of nothing but bacon as your source of protein, I'd argue > the sodium and cholesterol in your average variety processed bacon are > likely to be very dangerous for your health long term.

Pork fat is among the healthiest of all animal fats (and better than pretty much everything except avocado and olive oil). You can see its chemistry here: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lard)

The link between dietary cholesterol and blood serum cholesterol is not well established. And sodium is typically not bad for you unless you have complicating issues.

Salmon is great for you, especially if it's wild and therefore not fed crap. The research (e.g. [http://www.jle.com/e-docs/00/04/61/1C/article.phtml](http://www.jle.com/e-docs/00/04/61/1C/article.phtml)) is beginning to show that our omega-6 to omega-3 ratio has gotten out of whack.

Simply put: we're eating too much crap with cheap, processed, plant oil derived omega-6 that blows away the amount of omega-3 we are eating.

Eat more pork fat, eat more butter, eat more salmon, eat more tuna. For plants, eat more olive oil, coconut oil, and avocados. Stop eating stuff that comes in shrink wrap.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Animal protein-rich diets are also bad for land, water, and energy conservation.

<comment><USER14> +1 - this is a point a lot of people don't get: it can take roughly 10 times the water and 10 times the energy to produce meat rather than vegetables and grains.

<comment><USER15> That's because it's a ridiculous statement. Sure, cattle convert grain calories into meat calories fairly inefficiently. But cattle evolved to eat grass, not grain. Grazing cattle on the prairies is far more environmentally friendly than ripping up that prairie to replace it with a wheat monoculture.

Animals that evolved to eat grains, such as chickens, convert calories much more efficiently.

<comment><USER16> It's true that grass-fed animals don't have the same environmental impact as grain-fed ones. But the problem is that there's no way to produce enough beef to meet worldwide demand other than concentrated feedlots. And certainly no way to produce it at the low cost that the market demands.

Unless the cost of beef can be adjusted to include all the negative externalities that its production entails (topsoil loss, water and air pollution from fertilizers, pesticides, manure, and diesel fuel, antibiotic resistant super-bugs, public health threats from unsanitary slaughterhouse practices, etc) then meat producers and consumers will benefit from cheaper prices while the environment suffers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This study has absolutely ZERO merit (observational... ppssh!). And it is beyond irresponsible and bombastic to say protein is worse or as bad as smoking!

This study from Europe in contrast is the real deal: [http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/03/eat-burger- wo...](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/03/eat-burger-wont-kill- you)

"In fact, the study shows that not eating red meat is a risk factor for an early demise."

Grass fed red meat is very healthy for humans. This is just pure scientific fact.

There's also this: [http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/06/25/jennifer-sygo-we- all...](http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/06/25/jennifer-sygo-we-all-need- more-protein-but-be-careful-where-and-when-you-get-it/)

</comment><comment><USER18> COULD BE, MAY, MIGHT, TEND TO, THROWS DOUBT. Where's the research?

<comment><USER11> probably this: [http://www.cell.com/cell- metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131(14)0...](http://www.cell.com/cell- metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131\(14\)00062-X), and [http://www.cell.com/cell- metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(14)0...](http://www.cell.com/cell- metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131\(14\)00065-5)

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Observational study with not even an attempt to control other variables = confirmed useless

<comment><USER11> well, there's also this [http://www.cell.com/cell- metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131(14)0...](http://www.cell.com/cell- metabolism/fulltext/S1550-4131\(14\)00065-5)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Robb Wolf's response to this ridiculous article is on his blog.

[http://robbwolf.com/2014/03/04/meat-bad- cigarettes/](http://robbwolf.com/2014/03/04/meat-bad-cigarettes/)

</comment><comment><USER21> At this point it's difficult for me to take seriously any study or article attempting to equate animal products with adverse health effects. There's a religious element to food selection now and it's hard to tell what's legitimate vs. lobbying or proselytization.

</comment><comment><USER22> Any study on meat that does not control carefully for processed meat is garbage and should be ignored.

</comment><comment><USER23> This is grossly irresponsible. I am pleased to see most of the comments here realize that.

-Muscle tone requires more protein.

-Protein consumption is one of the very best ways to sate hunger, thereby reducing consumption of fat and carbohydrates.

-It takes more work for the body to convert amino acids to glucose and ATP, so the by the time it finishes your 'net calorie' is less than actually consumed.

-Unused protein is often excreted rather than stored in adipose cells (fat).

In short, protein is good for you. Both animal and plant protein. And while your minimum functions don't require all that much, you should probably be eating more. Poor conducted correlation studies don't change that.

</comment><comment><USER24> No mention of what extras we get in meat courtesy of the feedstock for the animals.

"Most U. S. beef cattle are implanted with synthetic hormones in feedlots prior to slaughter. On January 1, 1989 the European Economic Community (EEC) placed a ban on hormone-treated U. S. meat, preventing U. S. meat products from being sold in any European nations. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has challenged the ban and accused the EEC of unfair trade practices, but the action of European governments raises some important questions about American meat."

</comment><comment><USER9> [http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1zk81g/low_protein_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/1zk81g/low_protein_intake_is_associated_with_a_major/\[1\])

Comments here do a good job pointing out the shortcomings of the study.

</comment><comment><USER25> As usual nothing about _what kind_ of animal protein... A bit like claiming 'intake of plant minerals presents severe and acute dangers to human health' after including in the study a variety of species rich in, respectively, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and arsenic.

Milk protein has known detrimental health effects, and probably dominates the effects described here. (But since they don't even make the distinction, how would we know?) I have yet to see convincing evidence that protein from e.g. muscle is problematic for cancer risk or cardiovascular health at reasonable levels of intake, and I won't be holding my breath waiting for that to show up.

</comment><comment><USER26> Hyperbolic title doesn't entirely match up with article:

 _But whereas middle-aged people who consumed a lot of animal protein tended to die younger from cancer, diabetes and other diseases, the same diet seemed to protect people 's health in old age._

</comment><comment><USER27> The key thing a lot of low carb, high protein diets tend to ignore is that it's hard on the kidneys:

[http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030317/high-protein- diets-c...](http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20030317/high-protein-diets-can- hurt-kidneys)

So you lost weight and feel better on a low carb high protein diet? Good for you! Some of us inherit high cholesterol, diabetes and kidney disease, along with other reasons to keep to a diet high in fiber and low in animal protein, especially beef.

</comment><comment><USER28> The study says that under 65 a protein-rich diet will basically kill you, while over 65 it's actually beneficial ?

Is explained in any way why it should be so ?

And I assume that this study is serious and other factors are accounted for, since it's likely that people with a lower animal protein intake have a more balanced diet overall, with an higher intake of fruits and vegetables and a lower intake of saturated fats...

<comment><USER8> It says that early on and for extended periods these things cause heart disease and cancer, which would be bad for somebody over the course of 65 years, and the amount of protein is unnecessary. But when you get older and your body starts to break down, the increased protein is better for you.

And, although it doesn't say it, by the time you're 65 and if you have been eating healthy all of that time, developing cancer from a proten-rich diet is mitigated by the fact that you only maintain that diet for your remaining 15-25 years, not for the 65 leading up to then.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Its incredible how the media pushes us to be as unhealthy as possible.

Eat more natural, thats the only real thing. It doesnt matter if its meat or fats or vegetables or whatever. If its processed its made with the only purpose to taste good so it would be easy to sell.

</comment><comment><USER29> Interestingly enough, IGF-1 (Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1) is the active ingredient in that deer antler velvet spray that Ray Lewis (NFL player) uses for performance enhancement.

</comment><comment><USER30> There is a big difference between processed meat products from feedlot animals and non-processed meat from 'naturally' raised animals.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I get more work (sales) for a s/w services comapny?  - <AUTHOR> I'm trying to help a small software services company get more clients (and more work).  This company is based in India but solely focuses on the US market.  They've been been making money through client projects - mostly magento, opencart, wordpress development and customization as well as making mobile apps for clients.
They never had a dedicated sales guy or BD team.  In the past, they got all their clients through SEO and targeted keywords.  Since a couple years, they haven't been getting much traction and revenues are down.  Cold calls, cold emails and reaching out to old clients isn't providing them any sizable leads.  They can't afford a full time sales rep in the US.  I thought of trying elasticsales.com but they seem to be booked.  Other option would be trying with salesinvaders.com and see if they get any results.
Given the scenario, what would be the best way to help them out? Are there any other cost effective ways of getting more clients? <comment><USER2> What were their SEO keywords? Since specialisation and niches are the key to knowing who to target I would suggest they start there.

Where they target "magento developers"? Then they were not specialising much - try targeting 500 digital agencies in the USA and offer to sub contract their maintenance work and updates (ie keep old clients happy)

Where they targeting industries? Such as ecommerce for hair products? So start by identifying all the hair websites out there, collate a report on the quality of ecommerce, security vulnerabilities, then cold call to sell that and then follow with your services.

Expand into products - magento addons, etc. if these guys are any good they will have three internally used anyway

Do not hire lead development companies - never heard anything good of them.

Do not hire a bizdev person till the CEO can do the job themselves so knows what to ask for.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the notes.

They've been using several keywords like "hire magento developers", "magento developers", "opencart developers" et al. Apparently, there were major changes in Google seo policy a few years back which hurt these guys a lot.

Targeting digital agencies and vertical specific companies sounds like a great idea. They've tried this in past but the only issue was most of the email ids they got were that of support or help desk. I'll ask them to try this again and oversee execution.

They're already into extensions for magento and opencart and have excellent rating there. They've also started developing other products for developers and agencies.

Thanks again for the excellent inputs.

<comment><USER2> Targeting agencies is easier than you think - I got the top uk 100 in an hour from an awards site and then just ran through twitter, companies house and LinkedIn till I got the names of the top people. I followed a couple and then made cold calls based on what I knew - worked ok but I stopped filling my pipeline because I was a fool

It's quite doable

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed - it sounds doable. Let me try it out and update you about the progress.

Many thanks for the suggestions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> You'll want to explore a number of potential Independent Sales Rep firms in order to find a good match.

Recommending reading >

[http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/09/how-to-work-with- independe...](http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/09/how-to-work-with-independent- sales-reps.html)

[http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-hire-your-first- sal...](http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/how-to-hire-your-first-sales- rep.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> Great resources - thanks for the links.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting question... would love to see some answers.</comment>


THE VOID - <AUTHOR> https://thevoid.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Concept video : [https://youtu.be/cML814JD09g](https://youtu.be/cML814JD09g)</comment>


Book Review: PiHKAL - <AUTHOR> http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/08/11/book-review-pihkal/ <comment><USER2> Erowid hosts the syntheses and experience reports from the book online [https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.sh...](https://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal.shtml)</comment>


Perl 6: Building and testing async socket code - <AUTHOR> https://6guts.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/not-guts-but-6-part-3/ <comment><AUTHOR> This is part of a sequence using TDD to refactor and extend a Stomp client. The earlier posts (not doing much with async code) are [https://6guts.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/not-guts- but-6-part-1...](https://6guts.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/not-guts- but-6-part-1/) and [https://6guts.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/not-guts- but-6-part-2...](https://6guts.wordpress.com/2016/01/05/not-guts- but-6-part-2/) . There will be more.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> In the writeups I've seen on Perl 6 features (including the tutorials) the async aspect of the language has mostly been left out. This post shows, rather than tells, but because of the interweaving of coding and testing, it seems very accessible to me, I hope even to people who don't know Perl 6.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> More generally this sequence of posts is a very smooth introduction to idiomatic TDD development in Perl 6.</comment>


Show HN: Branderizr – Social Network for products - <AUTHOR> https://assemblymade.com/branderizr <comment><AUTHOR> Looking for people interested on the project to contribute. Designers and developers, all welcome!</comment>


New Google+ #WhiteSpace is trending - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/u/0/s/%23whitespace/posts

<comment><AUTHOR> Also funny is the #usesforwhitespace tag

<https://plus.google.com/u/0/s/%23usesforwhitespace></comment>


Ecuador offers Wikileaks founder Assange residency - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11874911

<comment><USER2> This article is from 30 November 2010 and not new. Still, I wonder if they will honor their offer and grant him asylum from extradition (<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18514726>).

</comment><comment><USER3> This is current news: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/20/julian- assange-a...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/20/julian-assange- asylum-ecuador-embassy-live)

</comment><comment><USER4> 2 year old article, and it was the foreign minister who offered residency before the President rescinded it.</comment>


Sepp Blatter to resign as Fifa president - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/jun/02/fifa-calls-press-conference-amid-latest-corruption-claims-live

<comment><USER2> So the decisions about where a bunch of millioners will be kicking a ball will be made more fairly?</comment>


Ask HN: How Modern video conference software can lack push2talk esp. during WFH - <AUTHOR> I find it pretty strange
For last like 12 years I've been using various VoIP software almost __every__ day to talk with people - 1 on 1 or in groups of made of 5/10/30 and so on
I've used Ventrilo, Mumble, TeamSpeak and nowadays Discord
but it always blows my mind that when I have to use Skype or MS Teams that they lack of this so __core__ feature
It is especially weird during WFH/Covid era where people are working with their families in the background because push-to-talk is basically great feature to allow you work comfortably while being on call with somebody without having to switch windows (alt tab) in order to mute yourself.
Gaming oriented voice software figured this probably like 18 years ago
Skype allows you to mute yourself, but doesn't let you change hotkey, so this is also weird because it's been already figured that e.g "MOUSE3" (Scroll) or other buttons on modern gaming mouses are way more effective to control talking because those particular hotkeys rarely make problems when using other software (web browser, IDE, games and so on)
So, why is that a thing? why would any voice software lack of this option?
Do people who create this kind of software never actually use it?
Or maybe there's other reason - they have never been in theirs 10's and had to use this kind of software to know, that enabling talking by voice is very bad when you're 12 years old sitting with friends on chat and then your parents enter your room :D <comment><USER2> Videoconferencing never reached a mass appeal until recently. So there wasn't enough money in it to bother with advanced features for powerusers. Don't see why they don't add it now though... I guess they're probably inundated by feature requests though.

</comment><comment><USER3> Jitsi[0] has that and it works really well. I have my microphone muted, when I want to speak, I maintain the "Space" key pushed and speak. It mutes back when I release it. If I want permanent unmute/mute, I press "m" like on YouTube.

[0]: [https://meet.jit.si/](https://meet.jit.si/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also, I'm sorry for my snarky comment

>Do people who create this kind of software never actually use it?

I don't really believe that they dont use it, but I just feel weird that this particular feature hasn't been added because it is so good when you're using voice tool in place where you'd rather avoid switch often between mic being ON/OFF

</comment><comment><USER4> Zoom for desktop has push to talk. See [https://support.zoom.us/hc/en- us/articles/360000510003-Push-...](https://support.zoom.us/hc/en- us/articles/360000510003-Push-to-Talk)

</comment><comment><USER5> It's not an intuitive feature for people. With phones you just talk. Just talking is intuitive. People Don't use walkie talkies, they use phones.

<comment><USER6> Also the deactivate/activate microphone functionality is very close to a push- to-talk and for most "easier" to use since you have not to keep pushing a button while talking

<comment><AUTHOR> That's very interesting point

In gaming you're generally using short messages unlike 30min long talk during video conf.

But there's also a lot of less formal calls happening where people just talk about code or something and it works similarly to gaming, so a lot of relatively short messages</comment></comment></comment>


Burger King launches coffee subscription service to customers for $5 per month - <AUTHOR> https://www.marketwatch.com/story/guid/BF8D4BAA-475D-11E9-8CA4-081B808BDE2D <comment><USER2> I tried BK coffee a while ago and found it to be really bad, I'll have to try it again- especially at that price. Hope Dunkin Donuts follows this with an at least similar price-per-month.</comment>


Ask HN: DoNotPay siphoning from bank account, recourse? - <AUTHOR> I installed DoNotPay over a year ago and just now noticed they started taking 3$/mo since December despite having uninstalled a year ago and have no emails or notice or anything from them. Anyone else have this experience? There was nothing about this cost when I signed up so don't know how they can just start taking money. Contacting them they said it's their policy to only refund 3months, nice policy heh. Also interesting they are essentially doing a silent subscription around Apple and it doesn't show up anywhere since tied to your bank account. Yea 9$ isn't going to kill me but they are likely stealing from sooo many bank accounts because of silently starting to siphon funds and no way to stop it thru Apple or anything. <comment><USER2> +1

I specifically recall them saying they wouldn't charge me until I used their service (when I tried it like a year ago). But yep, same deal. I assume I agreed to any policy changes like this, but definitely won't be forgetting about this.

<comment><USER3> I think it's changed a lot since the last year

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The line item is called "Subscribe" and it is a $3 charge, as described. I've had my bank block the request, and issue a new card, and I'm still getting the charge.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not sure about this. It seems explicit in the signup flow that it costs $3 month and they are pretty transparent about it in media interviews.

App developers don't really know when you uninstall on Apple because of privacy protections.

If you forgot to cancel, that's on you, but saying you were "robbed" is a bit melodramatic

<comment><USER5> In my case I've been charged for months, like the poster I have never received any monthly statements or any correspondence at all. The charge description is "Subscribe [numbers] CA" and nothing shows up in Google. I wasn't sure what this was, who the merchant was, or how to contact them.

Now that I've figured out it was this app I installed, but hadn't found a specific use for (and forgot about) I'm poking around again. In the app when I click on "Edit My Profile" it literally says "STEP 2 OF 3" and "Hmm... It seems that you have no set any personal details yet."

I can't remember the original signup flow (I'm confident it wasn't very clear), but even if it was explicit the way ongoing charges work and the value it adds is very dubious.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Every time you file chargeback - merchant have to pay mandatory fee to CC to investigate that regardless of outcome.

This is best way to awaken otherwise ignorant merchant.

</comment><comment><USER7> You're not crazy -- this happened to me too even though I thought I never realized I had actually signed up for the subscription (I just went to the first page of one of their flows) and after I thought I had cancelled. I kept filing chargebacks with my credit card provider and was finally able to cancel my account through the app.

Good luck resolving your case!

</comment><comment><USER8> We invented chargebacks for these sorts of things. It's the only metric here that merchant account providers can see!

</comment><comment><USER9> If only there was an app that would help you not pay these stupid charges..</comment>


Tulip mania - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

<comment><USER2> That might be the link between : <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street:_Money_Never_Sleeps> and <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin></comment>


Show HN: OpenPortfolio – Verified Investors share their holdings and returns - <AUTHOR> https://openportfolio.pory.app/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! My friends and I are constantly sharing our stock portfolios, returns, and trades. Similar to Open Startups sharing revenue, we thought we would create a place where you can safely view verified returns from both strangers and more traditional famous investors. You can also follow investors you like to get regular updates from them.

Right now we verify manually through screenshots and email, but will be adding in a Robinhood integration to make it more seamless and continuous.

We built this using Airtable and Pory.io as a wrapper, and WhaleWisdom for data on more traditional investors #noCodeRules</comment>


How Flutter Hopes To Kill Gesture Control's Point-And-Click Crutch - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671123/how-flutter-hopes-to-kill-gesture-controls-point-and-click-crutch?utm_source=twitter

<comment><USER2> congrats Mehul and team!</comment>


I built a site that lets you watch synchronized YouTube, playlist, and chat - <AUTHOR> http://synchtube.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Please let me know what you think. I built a tech demo back in Dec. People liked it so I rebuilt over the summer and here we are now!</comment>


Vine-1-1: Call 911 while you vine - <AUTHOR> http://www.vine-one-one.com

<comment><USER2> I can't work out if I'm appalled, or reluctantly admitting that this will probably become popular.

A service to allow real time video calls direct to EMS would at least have a useful application. This is just rubber necking. Please don't expect me to like all your vines of mangled road traffic victims.</comment>


Bizarre things you can buy with Bitcoin - <AUTHOR> http://bitcoinwithpaypal.com/the-7-most-bizarre-things-people-bought-with-bitcoin/

<comment><USER2> Hopefully we will make that even crazier with [http://coinkite.com](http://coinkite.com) bitcoin terminals, as anyone will be able to operate in BTC.

We bought our office coffee in btc [http://blog.coinkite.com/post/63374862563/weve-just- ordered-...](http://blog.coinkite.com/post/63374862563/weve-just-ordered-some- coffee-beans-for-the)</comment>


Fallen drone found on streets of San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://www.suasnews.com/2014/04/28358/fallen-drone-found-on-streets-of-san-francisco/

<comment><USER2> Posting on Craigslist and some random websites is not an adequate defence against Theft By Finding charges. The person that removed this clearly valuable and not marked as abandoned item needs to immediately report it to the local authorities, and make arrangements to ultimately hand it in.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, it's kind of surprising how few people realize the police are also a lost-and-found. Just give it to the police and let it be their problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The insurance company knows your boyfriend smokes now. Expect higher rates soon.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'd be more scared of that damn ape loose in your house than a toy drone.

</comment><comment><USER6> The gentlemen from the NSA will be along shortly to collect their toy. Oh and you've been added to the no-fly list.

</comment><comment><USER7> Why is this news? It's a nicer drone, which isn't too ordinary, but nicer toys are more common in SF.

<comment><AUTHOR> To me the news is that she is creeped out by it. Oooh scary bot! I have a bunch in my living room, they make me smile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Plug in the camera and check out the footage!</comment>


New York taxi regulator tries to ban digital tablets in rideshare vehicles - <AUTHOR> https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/456008-new-york-taxi-regulator-tries-to-put-the-brakes-on-free-speech <comment><USER2> Summary:

New York taxi regulator put a stop to a new, intrusive, advertising mechanism.

The people responsible for the advertising - set to financially gain from it - are unhappy, trying to portray the issue as something else and get people on their side.

"Good luck with that." ;)

Personally, I'm glad there's one less advertising mechanism able to gain traction. Otherwise it would likely spread elsewhere.

<comment><USER3> You've missed the part where they already allow yellow taxis to have tablets with ads.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Trying to outlaw is such overkill. Let the rider simply turn off the device. The Taxi and Limousine Commission are grasping at straws and will do anything to fight rideshare programs.

</comment><comment><USER5> This opinion piece doesn't read like public interest advocacy.

It reads like a lawyer for a company trying to kill public interest regulation.

(Though the writer says their organization is not involved in this case, they are in the business of related cases.)

I suspect that an impartial scholarly article, written for the layperson, would be much more useful to HN.

<comment><USER6> It should be noted that the HN submitter here appears to be the founder of this particular bit of taxi-based spam, so the choice of an article with this slant is unsurprising (but disappointing).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Leaving ads aside - I respect New York taxis. I feel safe riding in yellow cab. The moment i step into yellow cab - I feel that this whole industry is so heavily regulated - there is very little chance to stumble upon some "random weirdo" driver or deviate from intended direction for some shady reason.

I tell my wife to take yellow cab in NYC airports, not Uber-X.

The problem with yellow cabs is that 90% of them look like run down shit. They're no cadillacs. The problem ends here. We get predictable pricing and predictable person and predictable drive. In airports they're just there. No disappointments with trusting Uber's misleading arrival times that typically grossly exaggerated, no shady callbacks from Uber mafia driver trying to figure out where you're going to find excuse not to take you there.

Try to take Uber Black in LA airport. You'll get immediate callback from armenian mafia driver with attitude pulling all kind of BS to judge whether take you or not. 75% of chance he'll insist that you need to cancel the ride (not him of course).

</comment><comment><USER8> Relevant quote:

> Under the First Amendment, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission > (TLC) cannot prohibit rideshare operators from installing tablets to display > truthful commercial advertisements. Commercial speech is protected by the > Constitution, and restrictions on commercial speech must serve a substantial > governmental interest and be no more extensive than necessary.

</comment><comment><USER9> I wish antitrust authorities were given the budget that is provided by taxi authorities worldwide... That would achieve much more.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm not convinced that this is a 'blatant violation of the First Amendment'. How is this any different from banning billboards, which is currently the case for Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine?

<comment><USER11> This is like banning posters inside buildings that are open to the public. It's invasive.</comment></comment>


Google ?= Exxon - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> This past week I was able to talk a partner of an oil and gas VC that specializes in small scale (less than 10M) projects. One of the things I asked her was if the 'small-fry' oil and gas industry was being smothered by the giants of Exxon, BP, and Shell much as some people claim is being done by Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo. She replied that the big three are only able to pursue and develop the projects which show a high margin due to their high operating costs thereby allowing small ventures to flourish in projects that aren't 'profitable enough'.

Certainly this argument has also been made for the internet market too, but the oil and gas market is heavily capital dependent with large 'retooling' costs whereas the internet industry is driven largely by a smart labor force (ie: a more agile industry). So is it a possibility that small time internet ventures are more vulnerable to attack than the equivalent oil and gas company (and other industries for that matter)?

<comment><USER2> Does anyone have experiences going to VCs for funding that dont specialize in internet technology startups? I am particularily interested if say an oil/gas VC would be willing to negotiate sweeter terms than many of the "cut-throat" tech VCs would...

<comment><USER3> Why would a VC firm specializing in oil/energy invest in an internet startup? VCs generally have specific areas they invest in.. if they don't "Specialize" in internet, they won't invest in you.

<comment><USER4> My point exactly</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple's self-inflicted naming dilemma - <AUTHOR> http://kensegall.com/2016/09/apples-self-inflicted-naming-dilemma/ <comment><USER2> Who cares?

If you name enough things any naming scheme will break down. Good thinking delays the inevitable but does not stop it.</comment>


Groovestats: A Google analytics tracking js clone - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/carlosbarbosamexico/groovestats

<comment><USER2> Great stuff!</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best web dev front end and back end framework? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I don't think there is such a thing as the best framework. One of the reasons being that there are so many to choose from and each of them does something better/worse than the other. I am mostly talking about PHP frameworks here, I don't know about the other languages, but assume it might be similar. At the end of the day, if the framework helps you get the job done, you have picked the right one :)</comment>


Unemployment is down. Gas prices are low. Why isn't America shopping? - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/unemployment-is-down-gas-prices-are-low-why-isnt-america-shopping/2016/05/12/0a2d8d16-1857-11e6-924d-838753295f9a_story.html <comment><USER2> > But, Gap, like many of its rivals, is also looking to streamline the parts > of the business customers don't see. The company has said it will announce > next week plans to "streamline its operating model to be more efficient and > flexible."

And there you go. Everyone knows that the fondest desire of their employer is to get rid of them, and do more with less people. Unless you're rich with years of runway, the only strategy that makes sense is to make do with less, because your employer sure wants to.

</comment><comment><USER3> Ray Dalio has an amazing video explaining the difference between this recession and the others [1]

TL;DW: People are slowly paying down debt/waiting for inflation to kick in

[1]: [http://youtu.be/PHe0bXAIuk0](http://youtu.be/PHe0bXAIuk0)

</comment><comment><USER4> A lot of people need to save and/or pay down debts more than they need more junk from Macy's.</comment>


When It Comes to Entrepreneurs, Youth Isn't Everything - <AUTHOR> http://www.nber.org/digest/jul18/w24489.shtml <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16794228](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16794228).

</comment><comment><USER3> Unsurprising that older founders are represented more strongly.

To create a _real_ business, you have to have some knowledge of how the business actually operates and how to do it _better_.

Software is the anomaly in being able to throw inexperienced people at tasks and hope to cough up something relevant.

<comment><USER4> Even in software, the primary "advantage" of youth seems to be able to work much longer hours.

But from my own experience, I wonder how much of those long hours are truly productive. At least in my own case, i often observe that the quality of the work I do early morning when I'm fresh is significantly better than what I do late at night, and that the late-night job is more liable to contain subtle bugs, thus often needing to be "polished" in the morning again. Additionally what I can finish in the last 4 hours at night (after a full days work) I can easily do in about 2 hours in the morning. So while there's an egocentric feeling of satisfaction of wrapping something up before going to bed, from a pure productivity perspective I find it better to call it quits at a decent hour and take a fresh look in the morning.

So recently, I've started to do things in a way that things that need to be created from scratch, or otherwise need more mental/intellectual involvement, I do them while I'm fresh, and reserve the more mundane things or interpersonal tasks (like meetings, etc.) for the later part of the day when I'm slightly tired. I wonder if any of this resonates with other peoples' experiences.

<comment><USER5> More than the longer hours it is the willingness to try things that failed before or are likely impossible.

<comment><USER6> Not at all. There are plenty of young chaps who only want to do stuff "by the book", and plenty of old folks who understand the value of trying something that used to be impossible but now is possible.

The main difference is endurance vs. experience, and it isn't until the 50s-60s that a lack of endurance can offset the extra experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I explored this subject in an essay: [https://medium.com/black-n-white/the- problem-with-problems-4...](https://medium.com/black-n-white/the-problem-with- problems-47ee63bb3511)

after I did the first: Ask HN: What problem in your industry is a potential startup. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9799007) 3 years ago

</comment><comment><USER8> This is good, because corporations actively try to jettison employees over 40.</comment>


Immunity to Covid-19 may wane just 2-3 months after infection, study suggests - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06/immunity-to-covid-19-may-wane-just-2-3-months-after-infection-study-suggests/ <comment><USER2> See the comments at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23578910](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23578910). tl;dr: the press doesn't understand how immunity works.

<comment><USER3> Ars tends to have good science reporting, and Beth Mole in particular always seems to know her stuff. I don't feel that this article jumps to any hasty conclusions:

> The finding does not necessarily mean that people will no longer be immune > to the novel coronavirus after a few months. The lower levels of the immune > responses measured in the study may still be enough to thwart the virus, and > there are other types of immune responses not examined in the study that > play a role in immunity. Overall, there are still many unknowns about > potential immunity to SAR-CoV-2 infections, including who is most protected > and how long that protection may last.

<comment><USER2> The fact is that immunological memory does not equate to having antibodies in the bloodstream all the time. The title of the article is pure clickbait, at the very least.</comment></comment></comment>


A $225 GPS spoofer can send sat-nav-guided vehicles into oncoming traffic - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/a-225-gps-spoofer-can-send-autonomous-vehicles-into-oncoming-traffic/ <comment><USER2> Duplicate: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17539465](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17539465)

</comment><comment><USER3> >A $225 GPS spoofer can send sat-nav-guided vehicles into oncoming traffic *

* by fooling the vehicle into driving the wrong way through a one-way street.

That's a serious asterisk. I think there are much more interesting worst-case applications for this, like kidnapping, randsom, misdirecting emergency responders etc. Some of those are mentioned by the article, but the headline just causes doubt and disappointment.

<comment><USER4> I agree

Google/Apple/whatever directions send delivery vehicles down roads with under- height structures all the time and they rarely get can-opened. GPS directions are inaccurate enough in urban environments that people have to pay enough attention for this attack to not work very well. People will generally defer to the local signage when it comes to which lane you need to be in for a turn and which way you can't drive down a street or how tall a bridge actually is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> A $10 steel bar can derail a train.

<comment><USER6> Really? $10 won't buy you much in terms of steel. You'd probably need a lot more than just a crowbar. I'm not saying trains are invulnerable to debris on the tracks, just that they are designed to handle small stuff on the tracks.

<comment><USER7> A crowbar is not "small stuff on the tracks". Have you ever seen a train?

<comment><USER6> Yes. They are designed for that stuff. Here's the biggest accident (in France) from having a large object on the tracks: 80 ton oversized load. Only the engine car derailled.

        Trainset involved: 70 (Sud-Est)
        Service: train 736, Grenoble to Paris
        Location: PN 74, Voiron
        Injuries: 2 dead, 60 injured
        [Edit: date: 23 September 1988]

        A special road transport with a weight of 80 tons became stranded on level
        crossing 74. Train 736, rounding a curve toward the crossing, ploughed into it
        at 110 km/h (68 mph). The large mass of the road vehicle made this crash much
        worse than it might otherwise have been; the engineer and one passenger died,
        and many more were injured when the first trailer was ripped open by debris.
        Only the leading power unit derailed. This wreck, the most violent to date,
        became a reference for the design and crash testing of safety features for the
        next generation of TGV, as embodied by today's Duplex trainsets. These newer
        trains have several deformable sections, at the front and rear of the power unit
        and at the front of the first trailer, to manage and absorb crash energy without
        damage to passenger compartments. Trainset 70 was never returned to service, and
        the trailing unit 23140 became a spare in the Sud-Est fleet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I remember reading the Kremlin has a high powered version of this mocking the airport co-ordinates so drones would not fly in its airspace.

<comment><USER9> >mocking the airport co-ordinates

Sounds very dangerous. If an aircraft was landing in poor visibility they could use that to make t crash.

<comment><USER10> does ILS use GPS?

<comment><USER11> No it's radio waves with directional antennas

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> While the whole thing is interesting (mostly because of the design of the spoofer rather than it being anything else that's new) this headline is deliberately misleading.

<comment><USER13> And the conclusion has been the same for a while. GPS-only NAV is very susceptible to degradation. Blended solutions are the only path forward with GPS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Obviously sat-nav guided systems should not rely on unprotected satellite navigation alone. You need complementary systems.

EU's GNSS has PRS (Public Regulated Service) is authenticated and can be used in sensitive applications for civilian uses. US has GPS modes that are protected but they seem to be only for military.

There is also Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). They augment GPS/Golnass and Galileo and provide integrity and more accuracy.

Typically new sat-nav systems have multi-constellation capability and they can receive from from GPS/GNSS/Golnass. Even new smartphones have that capability. Of course, if all of them are unprotected, you can spoof them all parallel.

</comment><comment><USER15> previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17539465](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17539465)

direct link to paper: [https://people.cs.vt.edu/gangwang/sec18-gps.pdf](https://people.cs.vt.edu/gangwang/sec18-gps.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, missed the previous post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Could be used on self-driving vehicles like the giant dump trucks in quarries, or harvesters in corn fields?

What about autonomous trains? Cause that would off the rails.

</comment><comment><USER17> considering that GPS has civilian and military parts of the signal, are the messages not signed by, i don't know, U.S. military or something? how come it is easy to spoof?

<comment><USER18> The military signal is encrypted and on a different band. Only the military has access to that signal.

<comment><USER17> right, but they could've went the extra meter and just sign all outgoing payloads?

<comment><USER19> I was going to say "GPS predates signing", but it turns out that the first GPS launch and the invention of RSA signing were in the same year: 1978. Of course the signing technology was also considered to be subject to US export control for decades ...

Besides, signing doesn't necessarily help - the easiest way to GPS spoof is simply to re-broadcast the signals received at a nearby point at higher power, so the victim receiver thinks it's at that point.

There is recent work on doing this: [https://web.stanford.edu/group/scpnt/gpslab/pubs/papers/Lo_I...](https://web.stanford.edu/group/scpnt/gpslab/pubs/papers/Lo_IEEEIONPLANS_2010_AuthenticatingAugmentationSystems.pdf)

<comment><USER17> 1978 RSA invention is when it happened in public domain, 5 years before that a guy at GCHQ invented a similar asymmetric scheme, which i'm sure was well in use by 1978.

replay attack does make sense, but isn't it identified uniquely by time? i mean the content of the payload is basically very accurate time. if a device notices the time doesn't change - it can detect spoofing.

<comment><USER20> You continually receive signals at point A, send them to point B and transmit them there at higher power.

<comment><USER17> yeah, you're right, it's sort of a brain in the jar problem, isn't it. but it does seem like it's not that hard to detect because of latency between A and B, though it would require a pretty accurate clock on GPS device.

<comment><USER19> No! Differential latency from the satellites is entirely how GPS works, and there is no way of having an accurate enough clock to be able to spot that without (a) it being an atomic clock and (b) synced to the satellite time at a known location.

<comment><USER17> But accuracy of GPS signal is in microseconds, so if you suddenly detect a change in level of milliseconds (latency between A and B) - that would totally imply spoofing shenanigans?

<comment><USER19> Yes, which would manifest as a sudden movement of place detected. What I'm not sure about is what this looks like as you approach the jammer and its signal gradually overwhelms some or all of the signals; does it just look like multipath error.

<comment><USER17> Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about, but it seems like such attack is only undetectable by cold gps device that has been offline for longer than some period of time, long enough to explain time shift by clock drift.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>