Three months of content moderation for Facebook in Berlin - <AUTHOR> http://sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/46820/Three-months-in-hell <comment><USER5> Okay the speech issue aside because it's frankly been debated to death, what I find really crazy about the situation is how much this is being treated by Facebook as a 'mechanical turk' like task.

The author describes having only a few seconds for a pretty complex task and is exposed to disturbing material for essentially their entire workday, without any adequate psychological training at all.

This is not how content moderation should be done at all, and I'm not even sure that this should be treated like a routine job.

<comment><USER6> At Facebook's scale, there is not a good way to do it. Even if they were able to scale it, it would not be good enough anyway.

You can automate it, but clearly that doesn't catch everything and automated systems can result in just as much bias as humans doing the job.

You can hire humans to do it and make them work fast, because the amount of posts per day is extremely high. You can use some automation to help them, but that will combine the problems of human moderation and automated moderation.

You can hire lots of humans to work at a normal pace and give them psychological counseling, and spend so much on their salaries that you'll go out of business, and even then they won't catch everything and will be frequently accused of bias.

It's a no-win situation for Facebook because even if they were able to objectively and fairly moderate every single post, they would be accused of bias by politically motivated people anyway.

This is not a technology problem, it's a social and political problem and Facebook will never be able to please everyone. Twitter is in the same boat.

<comment><USER7> > You can hire lots of humans to work at a normal pace and give them > psychological counseling, and spend so much on their salaries that you'll go > out of business, and even then they won't catch everything and will be > frequently accused of bias.

Then you should not fucking be in the business at all! What FB does is externalizing the cost onto societies and skimming the profit!

Cost here being two things: first the cost of mentally fucking up the moderators (so an extensive amount of psychological healthcare has to be shouldered by society) and second the cost to society that arises from letting Nazis and jihadists spread their propaganda (including the cost from real- world violence enabled by said propaganda).

<comment><USER6> Any online open forum would have the same problems no matter how hard they tried to prevent it. We can either accept that some level of hate speech is inevitably going to slip past the moderators, or we can give up on having open forums altogether. There is no perfect world with perfect moderation of online content.

I wish Facebook had the courage to say this themselves.

<comment><USER7> > Any online open forum would have the same problems no matter how hard they > tried to prevent it.

Facebook tries to get by with as few moderators as they can, with paying them as low as possible and generally trying to teflon away anything negative from their service (i.e. they negate being responsible for the fake news/hate speech on their platform).

I believe that there would certainly be a way to provide fair moderation - <USER2> example a ratio of 1 full time CSR (customer _services_ representative) per 1000 users, not the 1 per 20k or worse they are currently trying to do.

<comment><USER6> > a ratio of 1 full time CSR (customer services representative) per 1000 users

That would require 2 million full-time CSRs, because Facebook has a little over 2 billion active users per month.

<comment><USER7> If that is the price to avoid externalizing the cost of a lack of moderation to society, then it is 2 million CSRs.

I'm sick and tired of Silicon Valley companies thinking they can save money on customer support and have societies pick up the tab.

And it's not like Facebook (or Twitter) couldn't get the money: 3€ per user and month should be enough to cover the cost of a properly salaried CSR - <USER3> at the same time create a barrier for bots and Nazi trolls.

<comment><USER8> > And it's not like Facebook (or Twitter) couldn't get the money

What makes you say that ? Facebook barely makes $5/quarter (3 months) in _revenue_. They couldn't even afford $1/month/user. Meanwhile Twitter has never turned a profit ever.

<comment><USER9> If you can't make more than $5 per quarter per user, maybe you shouldn't be in business. If you have never, ever turned a profit, then what are you, a charity?

<comment><USER10> Nope, you're a venture backed startup!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This sounds very much like the kind of exposure we had moderating ww.com/camarades.com and files.ww.com. I've had a lot of contact with authorities over the years about some of the more disturbing things we came across on the service. Some of those images will haunt me for life. Nothing but good about the people that do this for a living from an official point of view, that's got to be a very hard job to keep up for an extended period. I ended up shutting down files.ww.com because there was no way to run that part of the business profitable with the amount of oversight it required, and it seemed to attract the worst kind of content, but I'm frankly also not too unhappy to be out of the webcam community business.

Content moderation is a pretty depressive activity to engage in for any amount of time. My biggest stroke of luck was to find a couple of community members that really enjoyed doing this and that kept a pretty fair hand or instead of a year ago I would have shut the whole thing down a decade ago.

<comment><USER12> >> My biggest stroke of luck was to find a couple of community members that really enjoyed doing this ...

That must be a rare type of person. Without casting aspersions on those two individuals in particular, I wonder whether part of a solution might be to invite the posters of objectionable comment to moderate others' content. Poacher turned game-keeper.

<comment><USER13> Not a bad idea. Pay psychopaths a good wage, keep them out of trouble and keep the web clean.

<comment><USER11> It's a terrible idea. It is putting the inmates in charge of the asylum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It makes me so sad that we are employing people (for very little money) to harm themselves psychologically. This isn't good for anyone, this is a case where machine learning is compulsory.

We as a society have decided to hide the terrible aspects of our culture instead of deal with it. It's why we have public and private schools, it's why we give homeless people bus tickets out of our cities. We want to take the easy road and push our problems out of sight and out of mind.

I'm not saying I have an answer but the problem of Hiding from things that disturb us can't be a long term solution.

<comment><USER15> As someone who used to run a news company, I'm not sure watching all the beheadings and burning that ISIS posts is healthy or necessary, and I would advise that anyone I love to avoid watching them. I can handle a lot, but that stuff messes you up mentally, at least temporarily.

<comment><USER16> I think watching videos where normal people die in some sudden unexpected way has taught me how to be more perceptive of potential danger, even when a situation seems perfectly normal. I would say it serves a purpose, and if people must watch a gruesome video, I'd say those are the ones to watch.

<comment><USER17> Check out "Active Self Protection", youtube channel. His channel serves exactly to this purpose. I also felt the same way as you described after watching a few of these.

But I don't think there is any pragmatic reason at all to watch torture videos that terrorists do. It is not a defense confrontation. It is the aftermath, it serves no purpose, nothing to learn there.

<comment><USER16> Active Self Protection is some good stuff, I've seen a few.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I am probably among the tiny minority of users who _strongly_ objects to any form of Content Moderation whatsoever.

Regulatory requirements notwithstanding, a policy that dictates what content gets filtered to users is analogous to a parent forbidding a child from watching an age restricted movie.

Although I could present a "this is a slippery slope" argument here, the more salient argument is that content moderation is essentially a form of social engineering. If you think I am exaggerating but have never seen video footage of what _real war_ does to real human beings I would encourage you do so; consider then whether you still experience the same apathy that you did whenever "Suicide bomber in <place_in_middle_east> kills x" appears in your feed.

IMHO, people should at least be presented with the option to see what is getting filtered rather than selectively suppressing objectionable material lest society remain indifferent..

<comment><USER19> While it would be nice to have online discussion without moderation, in practice it simply doesn't work. There are just too many trolls out there who wreck it for everyone else. (I've moderated online chat for > 20 years, so I have some experience of trolling).

The other issue, which is perhaps more relevant here, is illegal content. Are you saying, for example, that it shouldn't be illegal for someone to put posters up on every street corner in their town saying that Mexicans are all child molestors and should be shot? Where should the line be drawn?

<comment><USER20> Actually, in the US, hate speech is not illegal and the hypothetical posters you mention would be protected speech. "Should be shot" is protected, "should be shot at 11am today at the soccer field on Hicks Road" would not be protected. There's the concept of "true threat."

Here is an interesting article related to this: [https://www.heritage.org/the- constitution/report/true-threat...](https://www.heritage.org/the- constitution/report/true-threats-and-the-limits-first-amendment-protection)

There is a mistaken assumption that hate speech is illegal. In the US, it isn't illegal. Speech that contains a specific threat of violence would be illegal — but such threats have to be specific.

There is a song by the band Type O Negative called "Kill all the white people" and the first line of the song is "kill all the white people and then we'll be free."

That song is hate speech and promotes violence against white people — but it isn't illegal.

Even speech promoting overthrowing the government is also protected as is speech calling for killing police or raping people.

Disgusting stuff sure — but not illegal speech.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > The only power that the content moderator has, is to delete a post.

This surprises me, but it is consistent from Facebook's viewpoint where the user is the product. You can fire a customer, but you can't fire your product.

So maybe it is to be expected that Facebook implemented moderation as a QA process. It would probably be against their interests to implement policies that would police their community in a way that makes sense, with warnings, temporary and permanent bans etc.

<comment><USER22> > "You can fire a customer, but you can't fire your product."

On some level, money is morally neutral, but it's not like Facebook won't have enough "products" to sell if they dealt with those that violated their TOS more decisively.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> _I had to quit as I was particularly disturbed by what I saw as signs of professional deformation in me: a kind of hyper vigilance (especially about the risks for my family). I was dreaming about the job an my own perception of reality shifted in a most concerning way. The terrible Las Vegas Shooting suddenly seemed entirely normal to me._

I know we like to believe otherwise but an observation of human behavior en masse shows that we are preternaturally vicious. Extreme cruelty and violence is the default as much our need for connection and love. Those of us who've had the opportunity to observe or take part in humanity at it's most primal form, in the unsafe gaps between "civilization" and a well functioning state, often come away with our reality shattered. I know mine was.

Lastly, the author shows signs of PTSD, granted this is an armchair assessment.

<comment><USER24> I remember a similar case in 2015-16 where Microsoft employees also suffered PTSD after moderating content -

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13378346](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13378346)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> _"...At the end of the ramp-up process, a moderator should handle approximately 1300 reports every day which let him/her in average only a few seconds to reach a decision for each report..."_

If you are doing something 1300 times a day you are effectively not doing it. I don't know what you call it, "Monkey in a can" comes to mind, but you are not adding any sort of human oversight or judgment aside from simple image recognition -- and probably not doing that good of a job at recognition at that.

I suppose these jobs exists so that the social media giants have somebody to point to (and fire?) when things go wrong. That's fine. Sounds necessary to me. But not at that scale. To attribute any sort of meaningful behavior to clicking images at that rate is a joke. Most normal people would be burnt out before they got to their first 100.

<comment><USER26> A translator usually does 1000 words per day. Are they "not doing it"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> It's almost as if a better solution would be to leave mass media to a few distributors per city and a few national ones.

You know, like newspapers.

What do we really gain by having direct and immediate access to the uncensored thoughts of casual acquaintances and relatives and all their casual acquaintances?

<comment><USER28> What do we really gain by Hacker News comments?

What do we really gain by blog posts? I personally have learned a lot about technology from peoples' blog posts, and Stack Overflow posts. Maybe not as much from Hacker News posts, but I've still learned some. And by reading reddit posts such as stuff in /r/askreddit I've learned a lot about people with backgrounds quite different than mine, and I believe the ability to better empathize with them.

<comment><USER27> All of your examples involve moderate to high self selection for thoughtfulness and have a culture of self-critique. Reddit has it historically and HN has it in daily practice.

However, Facebook is nearly a wasteland of relatives and acquaintances yanked into the network, sometimes against their better judgement. Once their and fluent in the technical aspects they feel free to be themselves, not necessarily a thoughtful member of the network.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> 1\. I got the impression that there may be no long term safety net for the enduring impact of this. (Like PTSD support for policemen.) That's not good enough.

2\. Reading this piece I don't imagine the system can actually "work" in any reasonable way. This job should be done by the individual user. In FB you can "block" other people. I imagine that would sort out much of this issue.

3\. If FB and others are forced to police and censor like this maybe they should simply take themselves out of business lest they become inclined to exterminate our species for the actions of what, I hope, are a few.

<comment><USER29> 4\. Other people should not be viewing private posts anyway. (Assuming this is limited distribution posts (not public).)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Not yet in this thread has anyone discussed the design concept that the community at large could use to help moderate: a dislike button.

Hacker news comments is a pleasure to read (A) because of the community, which (B) is curated by the ability to down vote horrible posts.

Facebook places value on these horrors, inadvertently I guess, but they are not empowering the users to shut down bad stuff. Imagine the possibilities.

<comment><USER31> Isn't that what the 'Hide Post', 'Hide All Posts from X' and 'Report Post' options are for?

<comment><USER30> I dont think that action propagates information to other users though. The HN downvote button for instance removes visibility for everyone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Interestingly the original German title is "Drei Monate Hölle" (three month of hell). I wonder why the English title focuses on the learning while the German one focuses on the suffering.

Note that it was translated from English to German and not the other way around despite being about someone who works for a German company that does the "content moderation".

</comment><comment><USER33> I wish there are more transparency about these networks divisions that make these kinds of decisions. How do we contact a higher level management person at facebook and talk about something that was removed or deleted?

The person in this article mad themselves seem very objective and desiring to be fair, considering many angles... however I do not think someone can click to remove or not remove, thousands of posts / accounts a day and stay objective with all of them.

Projects I worked on have had facebook and tumblr accounts pulled, and I have found no way to speak with someone at either company about the issue. Given how similar the content looked to some standard spam, I can see how a moderator would quickly click to remove when they see hundreds of similar things a day that are indeed quickly made spam. However these particular projects were not affiliate spam, they were original works, however no amount of emails or @mentions on twitter ever brought anyone from these companies discuss the issue.

Had similar issues with google.

When it's just a fake account being used for trolling, the harm in removing an account is likely minimal. However there is little chance these low levels mods know if the poster was a troll of legitimate group trying to do right.

If presence on social networks affects search engine rankings, getting a low level overworked, over stressed person to delete your competitions accounts could reduce their sales by 80% easily.

As facebook seems to want to "be the internet" and monopolize what is okay to be discussed and seen, they certainly have poor customer service for righting mistakes that are made in removing things. This is also true of tumblr and others.

wasn't there something on hacker news a while back that pointed out many of these mod jobs or pushed to countries like the phillipines or something as well?

With the bias that can be created by culture, and the amount of content that people are forced to see, there should be better options for contacting these companies and getting things re-instated.

In some cases deleting an account hardly affects anyone. In other cases deleting an account creates a snowball of removing speech that may be important to many, not just on facebook, but affecting the other portals as well.

</comment><comment><USER34> This is fascinating, and disturbing. a few thoughts are that UK police when cataloging child pornography for courts were given regular breaks, counselling and, what stuck in my mind, watched BBC children programming on TV at the same time just to counter the overwhelming ness

this overwhelming is human - we extrapolate from our experience what the world is "really" like - so a flood of beheading videos teaches you the world is fucked up. We as society do urgently need to get a grip on this - it's not just the extreme end but how skewed away from BBC-normal is the viewing diet of the average youtube kid?

I think there are solutions to the scale problem. the facebook brute force approach is interesting - but at 6.5M per week unmanageable.

I think this needs to be something dealt with as social media deals with everything - farmed out to the community. what we have is a free to publish environment. but we as society have really no insight in what is published - whereas previously there were few enough newspapers one could read it all.

so why not have an approach like recaptcha - every day or so you get a suspicious post in your feed, and are asked to comment. Feedback can be something like "95 of your friends think that post was offensive enough you should be jailed" \- this would be valuable human level feedback that is not available in "likes". one can easily see it as a way to understand the different universes of people online - the fox-hunting lobby generally approved your post showing a bloodying but people who like superhero movies were revolted.

I can see the apple faceID thing here being an interesting measure of revulsion ...

Ultimately social media has been a consequence free zone for publishers (posters). By adding in feedback from friends and wider society we can get a much needed insight into what is happening around us, and the feedback will often be a useful control rod for people posting - as it is online.

Long unfocused rant but interesting thoughts.

One final thing - Berlin has sufficient immigrant population that it can recruit 1000 multi lingual multi cultural immigrants (plus churn - <USER4> lasted 3 months) with enough tech savvy to be moderators. Just want to mention that to the 52% of UK that think we can be a tech hub after telling all the immigrants to piss off.

</comment><comment><USER35> "I showed empathy only when I found something connecting me with the world of the living beings, these small details that I tried not to notice that would humanize the corpse and overcome my reflex of repulsion."

This part really stood out to me. It made me think about the difference in my own reaction between reading about some number of deaths and reading about how the victims ended up where they did.

</comment><comment><USER36> Reminds me of this article about censoring content at Google from 2012. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/reyhan/tech-confessional-the- google...](https://www.buzzfeed.com/reyhan/tech-confessional-the-googler-who- looks-at-the-wo?utm_term=.jdjgm3ymE#.wekWJ39JE)

</comment><comment><USER37> If you have JS disabled, disable also CSS to read the article.

<comment><USER38> If you use Firefox then you can just enter the "Reader View".

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> What are the job requirements and qualifications to obtain this position?

<comment><USER26> Arvato is a call center company. They probably require only a "lower german high school" diploma.

<comment><USER39> Thanks very much.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> And all of this human cost just so we can post about our avocado toast! :-(</comment>


Show HN: BestRuby – Ruby Tricks, Idioms, Refactorings and Best Practices - <AUTHOR> http://www.best-ruby.com <comment><USER2> awesome</comment>


The Doomsday Scam - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/magazine/the-doomsday-scam.html <comment><USER2> So here's an interesting question: if you sell fake weapons (or weapons materials) to a terrorist organization as part of a scam, is it illegal?

Normally, selling weapons to terrorists would be illegal. But these aren't _actually_ weapons.

And normally, scamming people would be illegal. But you're scamming terrorists trying to carry out an illegal transaction.

I'm sure the answer is, yes, it's illegal. But it's an odd situation and I'm not quite clear as to how it works out.

<comment><USER3> It would be fraud, unless the seller believed that it was actually a weapon because intent comes into play. But the victim would have to come forward to file a complaint with a legal authority. Which is possible because there are examples of people going to police after being scammed in a drug deal.

I wish it would happen, it would make for an entertaining case.

<comment> steve-howard The last thing I'd be afraid of after selling fake weapons to a brutal terrorist regime would be going to prison for fraud.

<comment><USER4> I can sort-of imagine the headline. "Man prevented bombings by scamming terrorists, went to jail for tax evasion."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Does Daesh really not have wikipedia? This story strikes me as being bullshitty seeing as this article exists: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_mercury](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_mercury)

<comment><USER6> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution) this article exists too.

I wonder what [https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/زئبق_أحمر](https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/زئبق_أحمر) says

<comment><USER7> Google translate helps see it says mostly the same as the English-language article, albeit with less detail.

The Google-translated Arabic language version of the Evolution article also seems reasonable (though I didn't read it in detail, so it may contain errors or oversimplifications). I wonder where do most Arabic language wiki editors come from.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> A homeopathic nuke. Clearly.

<comment><USER9> Funny! According to the Law of the Similars, a micro doze of some agent counters whatever ill that would result from a macro doze of the same agent. So a homeopathic nuke would be the cure for radiation poisoning!!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is almost as awesome as the fake bomb detector ... Which some states actually purchased! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651)

<comment><USER11> The reported poor performance of both red mercury nuclear devices and the ADE 651 are due to the integrators' failure to power them with the output of a properly-calibrated Turboencabulator.

Ref: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboencabulator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboencabulator) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w)

<comment><USER10> I wish I could upvote this! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I wonder if Western sources discrediting it doesn't actually just lend credence to it. From Daesh's POV it's like "Hah! Nice propaganda attempt America! But we know the true power of Red Mercury!"

<comment><USER3> But what to believe and what to ignore? Because that documentary called "Star Trek" showed us the true potential of red mercury. They clearly tried to disguise it's true nature by calling it "Red Matter", but we can see through such obvious lies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> It could be worse, according to the article: they could be going after "Blood of the Slaves", the type of mercury that lets you summon genies.

<comment><USER14> Yeah, as soon as I saw that I wondered how many poor slaves are being bled to death, or have had intravenous injections of mercury, or have been otherwise abused chasing after the 'Blood of the Slaves.'

<comment><USER13> I'm desperately hoping that, despite the name, "Blood of the Slaves" mercury isn't actually produced from slaves. ISIS injecting slaves with mercury to produce magic metal that summons genies would be a new low -- although I wouldn't put it past them to do it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Is this the inspiration for the planet-imploding "red matter" from Star Trek (2009 film)?

</comment><comment><USER16>
       The substance was so valuable that dishonest traders,
       al-Safi said, often trafficked in fake red mercury. ''In
       my village at least 15 people trade in it,'' he said.
       ''They buy normal mercury, and they color it. They use
       red lipstick and put a little on a spoon and heat the
       spoon...

I think I see the problem.

</comment><comment><USER17> I am not worried about a nuclear weapon, dirty bomb. The likely attack will be chemical if they deviate outside of guns and explosives. It was proven in Japan so that direction isn't unlikely.

</comment><comment><USER14> Sounds like the fan death[1] of the arms trade…

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death)</comment>


Carry in your pocket Google Android MID with Wifi, 3G and GPS - enso-now

This is a double post.
Here it is the previous discussion : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177080
On that discussion somebody asked for proofs that the device "advertised" existed for real. We realized that it was something needed to get credibility, so we updated our web site with new pictures shoot today. Please visit it at :
http://enso-now.com
Your feedback of any kind is greatly appreciated as always. Thanks a lot <comment><AUTHOR> Not to belittle you or anything, but this feels pretty scammy.

There are no specs on the site other than the memory capacity and a list of 'goodies', no information about which networks it works on and so on.

Maybe you should start by sending out some review units to the usual suspects before attempting to sign up customers ?

Elsewhere you admit to not even having a prototype (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177199>), so really what you are asking for is money in the hope that one day you'll be able to deliver.

Also it seems that overnight the memory capacity has changed fourfold.

<comment><USER2> Scammy and spammy.

Where are the specs? Sure, you can get different storage sizes, that's nice. What about the internals? Screen size, resolution, and technology? Battery life? 3G data bands? Weight? Dimensions?

Has anyone reputable reviewed these?

The name and logo both look to be ripped off from <http://humanized.com/enso/>

The OP's account is brand new, and has already spammed it up a few times: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1177080>

The Google cache for <http://www.onedollargold.com/> is <http://bit.ly/dALAt1> which is just a -wee- bit odd.

Spamalicious.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've found a specs page:

<http://enso-now.com/n/info.php>

It looks as though the phone portion of the functionality is a complete after thought, using a dongle, which makes the device pretty much useless as a phone for everyday use.

Funny how the email address for returns is 'firstname.lastname@example.com', I'm guessing they don't get a lot of returns :)

Their privacy policy is copied from here:

<http://www.freemanbeauty.com/page.asp?id=377>

<comment> admin-enso-now The device has phone functionality but only with GSM networks, and does not have support for video calls. Our privacy policy is just standard, does it add a lot of value rewriting from scratch like 3000 words ? i did not know that. What do you find funny about our email address ? please share a good laugh with me. Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> > The device has phone functionality but only with GSM networks,

It does eh ? From your own website, the specs page:

"GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) via external micro USB dongle"

So, no you don't have phone functionality.

> does it add a lot of value rewriting from scratch like 3000 words ?

Does it add value ? No, but it means that you are not above infringing on someone else's copyright which in turn means that you seem to take a cavalier attitude towards ethics, which in turn reflects badly on your corporate attitude.

And when you're asking people to trust you with their money your ethics are important.

So, your privacy policy is not just 'standard' it is a rip-off.

> What do you find funny about our email address ?

It's _RETURNS_ , not _RETUNS_.

Thanks!

edit:

And I just realized that your specs page is a rip-off of this apple.com page:

<http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/>

Trust me, mr. Legal Entity, that's one of the most stupid things you could have done.

Oh, and the rest of the website is a rip-off of:

[http://www.uptailor.com/Dress-shirts- comprehensive/Fabric/fa...](http://www.uptailor.com/Dress-shirts- comprehensive/Fabric/fabric-introduction.html)

I'm sure they're very happy about that too.

<comment> admin-enso-now I think you are just a frustrated mind, that does not have any better reason to spend time. Again, the phone has GSM functionality, if you want to bought it is there for you to try. I did not infringe any copyright, the English language is free and i can use it as i want, i have freedom of speech as you. Our company is not a "corporate" as you call it, it is a startup and we are young guys, and you are just making your self look ridiculous acting like this. I would have expected comments about how to improve. not rude rants like yours. And thanks for let me know about that typo, i will fix it now, English is not my mother tongue anyway. Our spec page is inspired from the apple one, our whole website is differenet. Our company is called Enso Co. Ltd, snf not Mr Legal Entity, so please note it. You really like to spy other people's lifes. Do you have one on your own ? Uptailor.com is my customer. I am a web developer also, so there is nothing wrong with it. All developers recycle their codebase, you did not know that ? It is a pity. Thanks anyway for all your comments. They are precious. Albertp

<comment><AUTHOR> So, after seeing you don't seem to care about ripping off bits and pieces of web design I figured there might be more to this, maybe you ripped off the design of your 'ensopad' too.

Look familiar ?

[http://www.smit.com.cn/English/proDetail.asp?InfoId=126&...](http://www.smit.com.cn/English/proDetail.asp?InfoId=126&js=)

<comment><USER2> To expound on that, [http://phandroid.com/2009/08/18/smit-android- mid-560-gets-le...](http://phandroid.com/2009/08/18/smit-android-mid-560-gets- leaked-confirmed/) has the OP commenting that he's ordering a lot of the SMiT devices, and is in a "trading" business. I think we're looking at a reseller here, not a manufacturer, which would explain a lot of the confusion regarding the specs and shippability of the device.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good find.

So much for 'prototypes' then, in that post he writes it is a sample. Bit of a difference there.

That also explains why he hasn't got a clue about the normal phases a piece of hardware goes through before you are in a position to ship product.

I still don't get where the discrepancy of "Anyway i am not pre-selling anything, the device is currently produced and i can ship you 500 hundreds of pieces to you in a week." to "I am just a couple of weeks away from being able to ship." comes from as well as the documentation stating clearly that the base unit definitely does not have phone capability (it's marketed as a media player) and yet 'Alberto' states clearly that it has, but on their specs page it says that GSM/EDGE/UMTS are through a dongle.

Maybe his minimum order volume is 500 pieces and he hopes that he can scrape together the money to get the order delivered.

That could lead to 'interesting' situations if not enough people order.

have a read here:

[http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general- discussions/291-tons-...](http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-general- discussions/291-tons-ipad-competitors-popping-up-2.html)

I guess selling fake brand watches wasn't enough of an income stream:

<http://watch-replicas.net/>

enso-now and admin-enso-now are sockpuppets for lostintech, who professes to have some idea of how to spot fake watches:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1116174>

No kidding...

<comment> enso-now I really don't know how to react to this comment. It is in normal in China to suffer delays when you order something from a factory. It is normal when doing business in China.

The unit does have phone functionality through the dongle, and a custom application.

Scrape together all the money ? you must be joking. Do you have access to my financial informations, or do you know me personally ?

If the answer is no, how can you tell this ?

Regarding "how to spot fake watches", that's a sick business idea that came out after dealing with watch copies here in China, i thought i could make up a service and help people on eBay.

Yes lostintech and admin-enso-now are other account on my own. Then ?

You have been smart to find <http://watch-replicas.net/>, but not smart to post it.

I am waiting for your real name and address on my email firstname.lastname@example.com

My name is

Alberto Armandi

Contact info in Italy

Address : Via pisacane snc, Carbonia, CI, 09013

Telephone : +390781674624

Contact info in China

Address : Xianhu Road, manor nature reserve, 11/4F

Telephone : +8615017602050

I am taking your action against me personally, because you clearly have the intent to make me look like a scammer. I will wait one week before contacting directly a lawyer to obtain your real name by legal means.

Thanks.

Alberto Armandi

<comment><AUTHOR> Alberto, you are really not helping yourself here.

You've had ample opportunity to correct any misconceptions, but with every bit you write you dig the hole a little deeper.

The first thing you need to do before you ask people for their $ is to get a pallet full of those thingies in to your warehouse, or alternatively as much of them as you can afford, send off a couple to hardware review sites (yes, that costs you some money), and _then_ you can start shipping based on how much stock you've got.

> I really don't know how to react to this comment. It is in normal in China > to suffer delays when you order something from a factory. It is normal when > doing business in China.

That may be. But it is _NOT_ normal to tell people that you can ship product and you ask them for their money when you've only received your first sample yesterday.

If delays in the delivery are normal then don't tell people you can deliver door-to-door in under 10 days.

Or are you now going to tell me that you have a few hundred of these babies in stock ?

> The unit does have phone functionality through the dongle, and a custom > application.

So, my netbook has the combined functionality of everything that I could stick in to the USB port ? No, it does _NOT_ have phone functionality, it is a media player with wifi, that you can graft phone functionality on to, but you'll be left with a dongle sticking out of your device, which is not the same as having that functionality built in.

> Scrape together all the money ? you must be joking. Do you have access to my > financial informations, or do you know me personally ?

No, but I've done a bit of research by now and I know that you are not currently in the posession of 500 shippable units or their financial equivalent. Not that long ago you were trying to raise a little bit of money for a startup that failed (how is wozad.com these days?), less than three weeks ago you were planning to earn $ by $ for reviewing items to be sold on ebay for their authenticity.

> Regarding "how to spot fake watches", that's a sick business idea that came > out after dealing with watch copies here in China, i thought i could make up > a service and help people on eBay.

Right. Because selling fake watches is legal in China. But it isn't elsewhere in the world, and that's where you're selling them in to. That's a shady business, one that can land you in plenty of hot water in the US and in Europe.

Basically your business model was on how to detect people that sell the stuff that you sold. Takes one to know one I guess.

> You have been smart to find <http://watch-replicas.net/>, but not smart to > post it.

Why ? Is it a secret ? Would you rather that you had not soiled your reputation by selling counterfeit stuff ?

> I am waiting for your real name and address on my email > firstname.lastname@example.com

If you haven't figured out who I am by now you are really not very clever.

> I am taking your action against me personally, because you clearly have the > intent to make me look like a scammer.

 _You_ make you look like a scammer.

The product has not been reviewed by any third party, you took deliver of _ONE_ sample yesterday and yet you claim that you can ship, and are willing to take peoples money today.

The only thing I've done is document that.

> I will wait one week before contacting directly a lawyer to obtain your real > name by legal means.

Why wait ? Do it today!

Don't bite of more than you can chew though.

And you'd be better of spending that money on getting some of 'your' product so that you can take peoples $ in the confidence that you can actually meet your self imposed shipping deadline.

FYI, your introduction to this post reads: "We realized that it was something needed to get credibility,", instead you've done just about everything that you could to blow your credibility to smithereens.

'borrowed' logos, website content 'inspired' (what a word) by the Apple.com ipad pages, a reseller / white label deal that you present as product development (prototype ??), and a history of selling fake brand name stuff on ebay.

Well done, really.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


GoogolPlex – Improved Siri for iOS - <AUTHOR> http://betterthansiri.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's the link to an Engadget article that explains a bit more about it:

[http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/16/googolplex- siri/](http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/16/googolplex-siri/)

Thought it was a cool idea, but if it always routes you through Safari I could see it getting quite annoying with the wait time. Siri is still slow enough that I'd rather just do things myself, it's usually faster than waiting. With GoogolPlex I might have the same issue. I'll definitely give it a try though and see.

edit: wording</comment>


eBay Is Portscanning When You Connect to It - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/iPullRank/status/1265264312215572487 <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23246170](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23246170)</comment>


CUDA Grep - <AUTHOR> https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15418-s12/www/competition/bkase.github.com/CUDA-grep/finalreport.html <comment><USER2> They ignored a key detail in their benchmark. They did not include the time it took to transfer the input file from memory to the GPU, (the GPU cores can only operate on graphics memory). This is easily going to be the most time consuming part. They also didn't include any IO operations in their timing, so instead of a 10x speedup, it is more likely to be a couple of percent faster as grep is going to be IO bound. This is a neat project, but there is a reason we are not using the GPU for regex matching.

<comment><USER3> One of the authors here:

Yes you are right, you should not replace grep for one off regexes due to the latency of the io operations. As far as I recall, memory throughput however is much higher on house than on CPUs (or at least this was true in 2012). Our intended use cases for this sort of a grep were cases where you are finding many needles in enormous haystacks such as: Looking for malicious machine code in executables that you download off of the internet (virus scanning), or searching for certain genetic sequences in DNA code. I believe we discussed this in our final presentation, but perhaps we left it out of the written report.

Yes we probably should have included the numbers to show why you wouldn't want to use this instead of grep for simple tasks. I am sorry we missed it.

<comment><USER4> I'm quite certain Windows Defender uses (or used, at some point) GPUs in the machine to accelerate malware pattern matching. I remember a coworker talking about a funny bug as a consequence when the graphics driver executable itself was infected.

<comment><USER5> There's an article on the announcement last year: [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/intel-microsoft- to-u...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/04/intel-microsoft-to-use-gpu- to-scan-memory-for-malware/)

<comment><USER6> That is for their enterprise "Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection" endpoint security product which scans live memory for any hidden malware not writing to disk. Which would otherwise be consuming far more CPU than the typical default windows security software. Which is why they needed GPU in the first place. But it's an interesting solution none-the-less.

[https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/microsoft-365/windows/micros...](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/microsoft-365/windows/microsoft-defender-atp?ocid=docs-wdatp-main- abovefoldlink)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> One of the authors here: Happy to answer any questions. Keep in mind this was a school project from 2012 (Kayvon's 15-418 at CMU, a wonderful class), so it's been a while.

<comment><USER7> Is the code available? The links are dead.

<comment><USER3> Hmm I'll take a look at that. Yes code is here: [https://github.com/bkase/CUDA-grep](https://github.com/bkase/CUDA-grep)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm surprised to see no comparison with ripgrep[0] or The Silver Searcher[1], both of which claim to be faster alternatives to grep.

[0] [https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep) [1] [https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher)

<comment><USER9> Perhaps more appropriate would be Hyperscan: [https://www.hyperscan.io/](https://www.hyperscan.io/)

Even though it's now an Intel project targeting CPUs, it grew out of a startup trying run regex matching on parallel hardware.

<comment><USER10> FWIW, I ported Hyperscan to ARM using SIMDe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> One reason that Perl regex is relatively slow is because it isn't actually regular: it can't be implemented using DFAs or NFAs.

<comment><USER12> Sure, but it must be relatively simple to identify, pre-compilation, if the regex is regular or not; there's only certain constructions that break regularity. Why couldn't Perl's engine fall back to a more optimized regular- language-only implementation for those cases, if it has such a big impact on performance?

<comment><USER13> Theoretically, a regular expression can be expressed in constant space, and that's profoundly limiting, so anything that requires so much as a stack is not a regex.

That includes basic things like capture groups. That doesn't mean you can't use automata in a regex-plus implementation, though.

I can't find the paper, but I think there is a hybrid engine that tries to get the best of both worlds; constant space where possible and using additional space to provide more features.

<comment><USER14> You can implement capture groups with no problem using automata (see re2).

You might have meant to say that you can't use backreferences.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Would be awesome if they use proper open source software stack, like OpenCL, not that NVIDIA proprietary crap. Using anything from NVIDIA harms open source, because until they bankrupt there won't be FOSS drivers and software for their GPUs.

<comment><USER16> CUDA is not crap. At the time this paper was written it had been out for a number of years, had good multi-platform support, and had good support for nvidia GPUs.

If they had used opencl they may have been using an immature product, that might really have been apple only at the time (or apple and IBM?). I don't know thie history but 8-9 years ago (when the research work may have started) nvidia was tpushing the cuda idea (almost entirely alone - AMD still playing catchup).

<comment><USER17> OCL was pretty mature then. CUDA is not crap but it is lock-in and IMO its best features were captured by OCL.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> UK-AL If anyone is slightly interested in a different approach. [https://github.com/vqd8a/iNFAnt2](https://github.com/vqd8a/iNFAnt2). I think its designed around executing incredibly large regex sets

</comment><comment><USER18> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5803943](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5803943)

</comment><comment><USER19> I remember several years ago I saw this IOCCC winning entry on regex and thought "maybe we should write a parallel version" And it's good to see someone has it implemented now! [https://www.ioccc.org/2012/hou/hint.html](https://www.ioccc.org/2012/hou/hint.html)

</comment><comment><USER20> Github link on this page is broken, otherwise this is looking awesome. I'm excited to try it out.

<comment><USER21> The correct link is [https://github.com/bkase/CUDA- grep](https://github.com/bkase/CUDA-grep) I think he's working on fixing the broken link.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> None of the links work. Any source and log on say github?</comment>


JugglerShu/XVim: Modal editing for Xcode 4 - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/JugglerShu/XVim

<comment><USER2> Unfortunately this probably would have gotten more attention with a different title("Vim editing mode for Xcode 4" maybe?). Interesting project but still fairly alpha. Shu is pretty good at fixing bugs when filled. (I am not quite sure he sleeps)

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a seriously great piece of software. It works really well and integrates perfectly, making it feel like it was a part of Xcode all along. Wonderful work.

</comment><comment><USER4> Just discovered this, amazing work.</comment>


Ask HN: A/B Testing? - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone have any suggestions for where to start with learning A/B testing? I'm hoping to start doing some tests on the landing page we just designed but would like to find the best literature on this subject. <comment><USER2> Are you using Rails? Try A/Bingo (<http://www.bingocardcreator.com/abingo>) and Vanity (<http://vanity.labnotes.org/>)

</comment><comment><USER3> Good Tutorial on [http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/one-line- split-...](http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/one-line-split-test- or-how-to-ab-all.html)</comment>


Who Invests in Hardware Startups? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/bolt-blog/who-invests-in-hardware-startups-d1612895a31a <comment><USER2> Given that it's nice to see posts like this (disclaimer: I'm in one of those HW startups listed) I'm reminded of an old ASIC joke:

How do you make a small fortune? Take a large fortune and build a chip.

<comment><USER3> And I'm a startup hoping to disprove that joke, especially since I don't have the large fortune to help ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very interesting, and I appreciate the inclusion of hardware discussion. I'm looking to compete in the Intel Curie challenge for an invention, but that is just one of my projects dreamt up over the past few years.

Unfortunately, for my most prized invention, I still feel the best avenue is to put my own capital at risk and secure the patent for myself. For all I know, this is the pragmatic path before seeking investment?

I've had a good consultation with a patent attorney specializing in such cases, and his fee appears reasonable, so unless I'm really off track here, I've always thought of that as Step 1...Step 2 being the Business Plan / Margins Caluclations...Step 3 being seeking partnerships / funding, and then Step 4 is getting to market and hopefully growing the business to the point of taking on a more limited role due to expansion requiring more company infrastructure.

Guidance very welcome, and thanks again for posting this for review.

<comment><USER5> I've started a hardware company before and went down the patent route. What we did, with success, was to file a provisional patent before raising money - which is far cheaper and less time consuming. That satisfied investor questions regarding IP protection and then we used investor money to file the actual patent itself.

Regarding your proposed step four - if you truly intend to have a limited role for yourself in the future, disclosing this to investors (as you should) might make fundraising more difficult. If you are the visionary behind the tech/company - they'll want to see your continued involvement.

<comment><USER4> Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts, I truly appreciate the individual contribution. My understanding of the patent system is still limited, but I definitely follow the logic of How and Why your venture went with Provisional. The goal of IP protection has, without question, been my #1 priority and testing of patience.

Also, I appreciate your commenting on Step 4, and can clarify: From a lot of articles / testimonials through HN and other places, I've seen a lot of caution regarding "Trying to do everything / be everything / resist giving up control" in a Start Up environment. I'd love for my venture to breed more ventures long-term. As in, if I could be successful once I'd like to use that success to cautiously expand my portfolio (get back to work inventing things) and participate in business management on a prudent level. I certainly don't want to project a flighty here-today-gone-tomorrow type of attitude, because I wouldn't want to invest in such an approach either. Thus, a big thank you for noting the expectation within the field regarding ongoing involvement.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As the founder of one of the hardware focused firms listed (ROOT/VENTURES -- [http://root.vc](http://root.vc)) I couldn't be happier that the crew at bolt.io wrote this article. I'm also a huge fan of HN, so if anyone has specific questions to ask about the VC approach to hardware, lets hear em.

<comment><USER4> Hi there, I've been active in my own thread asking a couple questions relating to a consumer device that I wish to pursue. It's one of several things I've worked on, so I'd like to use this opportunity to toss out a question of sorts:

For one project, an influence has been the Bloomberg Terminal. The concept relates to aggregating large amounts of publicly accessible data, using a proprietary system of sorting and arranging, and then present the customer with a batch (folder?) of useful information relating to their business pursuits. It's kind of like a business intelligence / lead generation platform, but that's simplistic and misses the value of the concept.

Now, how this relates to hardware! As a musician I'm very familiar with the iLok USB-key concept used for certain software suites (some of which have gone cloud-based). This also gets back to the Bloomberg Terminal. Would pursuing a "Subscription Service Requiring Desktop Box/Key" type design be an initial Negative or Positive?

I do feel like this isn't exactly a hardware question, but with the amount of data and investment that would be involved to build the system in mind, having a physical, subscription component seems practical. I suppose that's about the extent I can describe at this point without getting explicit about how it works, what it works with, and who the target audience is/will be. My apology if it came out as a bunch of jibberish. Please feel free to ask for clarification or point out examples similar or drastically different. Thank you for your time!

<comment><USER6> Ok. I think I understand. I'm gonna step right out there and show my bias. I absolutely HATE the iLok. I bought myself a laser cutter for my wedding (she got a ring, i got a 90watt), and it came with an iLok for the horrible software that the chinese company built. It just takes up a USB port i could otherwise use.

That being said, its a great tool for very big, old software companies that have to protect from pirating.

I think that you have an entirely different play at hand. Because you are building a platform, you dont care if people pirate. What you just want to be sure of is that people aren't sharing logins. Soooo....just make the logins tie to personal info. Back in the day, when I used to send sensitive PDFs, I would just make the password on the PDF the recipients last 4 of their SSN. I could basically guarantee they wouldnt send the PDF around. The equivalent in your situation is to use Oauth with something like LinkedIn or Google. For the users to share your account, they would need to create an fake LinkedIn or Google account...and if you system is all about lead generation, that becomes crippling.

Overall, i dont care about iLok vs another form of protection. For me, the most important thing you are thinking about is can you create an amazing amount of value for your customer. Can you get them hooked, and improve their (business) life. If you can, then you can put a dollar amount on that improvement. I used Bloomberg terminals many moons ago, and it was not the best software in the world, but the data was immensely valuable. So we paid.

Good luck!

<comment><USER4> Great response and thanks for your time and input. You're not stepping on my toes noting a dislike of the iLok - it actually finished off my interest in ProTools and sent me deep into Ableton Live years ago. I think you definitely grasp what I'm going for in concept, and parlayed that into useful guidance.

As you mentioned about Bloomberg, it's the data that's primarily of value, and from what I've experienced, the communications platform limited access via other terminals are two driving factors for why they're used.

Your point about value to the customer is good for me to keep in mind. The whole idea I have is an intersection of publicly available financial information, marketing, government business, and with a scope of service that would span over several months to possibly more than a year. It could be enhanced by arragements for data sharing with certain established industry players (ex: Thomson Reuters). I'm reluctant to call it an SaaS platform, but maybe I should just frame it as such for practical reasons.

On a different note, how interested would you be in a concept for a recreational personal flight device?

It's what I'm going to submit for the Intel Curie contest, but that's like a TV show thing and could go sideways on me. I'm pretty proud of my R&D thus far on the concept and would probably like the challenge of putting together a pitch for it (that I could also use in my contest entry). Just curious!

<comment><USER6> ill give you a great quote on building planes (or human carrier drones).

"When failure is not an option, success becomes very expensive" -chris lewicki

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> People who didn't already lose a ton of money doing it before... _rimshot_

<comment><USER8> Not all hardware start ups are failures. Its like most start ups. Most of them fail or manage to break even. A couple though blow up and that's what continues to drive people to invest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Quite a few hardware startups have gained a (sometimes large) portion of their series-A funding through Kickstarter or similar platforms.

<comment><USER10> Could you provide a single example of a successful hardware Kickstarter that has made it to production without a VC series-A?

<comment><USER11> Formlabs shipped their first printers before VC money I believe. Wikipedia tells me they've since taken $19M more via traditional channels.

<comment><USER12> Not exactly. We raised a seed round of $1.8m a little less than 1 year before the Kickstarter. We probably could have built and shipped the product off of the crowdfunding proceeds, but we couldn't have had such a successful crowdfunding campaign without spending some of that money to design the product and market it well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Er, what's the data source?</comment>


Genomics, genetics, and biology news (made using brett of News.YC's slinkset software) - <AUTHOR> http://news.thinkgene.com/ <comment><USER2> Nice job. I particularly like that the Church lab's Personal Genome project is currently topping the charts. They spurred (re)sequencing-by-synthesis with their own padlock sequencing method; if Lander hadn't got a wild hair up his ass to do the comparative genomics project with chimps, that probably would have been my PhD thesis. They're awesome, and Church 'gets it' as well as anyone in the field regarding the potential of open, collaborative collection of information.

I think Helicos' product will probably win, but the point is that this shift in methodology is going to change science. Again. And it allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the interplay between genetic, epigenetic, and environmental influences on, for lack of a better word, destiny. In addition to higher-resolution understanding of our history as a species and as carbon- based life.

I think I would like to subscribe to your newsletter ;-)

<comment><USER3> Apathy, this is a good comment, and I've just submitted a video about how Helico's sequencer works. Could you add this comment it to the news.thinkgene submission? :)

[http://news.thinkgene.com/links/The_Personal_Genome_Project_...](http://news.thinkgene.com/links/The_Personal_Genome_Project_aims_to_recruit_100_000_volunteer)

<comment><USER2> Done. With some edits to avoid the wrath of Lander, just in case. At least ESL isn't a vindictive bible thumper like _some people in the field_. Ahem.

Anyways, I wanted to say 2 things about your site.

1) the registration is painless and fast. Yay. 2) the font size in the textarea is too big. Boo.

Nonetheless, I find this educational and will use or reimplement-the-facade-of this slinknews package for my own use. It seems terrific. It feels like reddit but it sounds a lot easier to set up.

You need more traffic (data) so that you can start mining it :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I think the description is an interesting functionality on slinkset. It's much better implemented than description on digg and the like because it doesn't take up much space and it is optional.

[http://news.thinkgene.com/links/Al_Gore_Helps_Navigenics_Lau...](http://news.thinkgene.com/links/Al_Gore_Helps_Navigenics_Launch_Personal_Genomics_Service)

</comment><comment><USER3> We actually tried using other systems, here's what I thought and why I eventually chose Slinkset.com:

\- News.Arc [<http://arclanguage.org/install>]

I got this installed and running behind Apache but, long story short: this system is to be administered via an Arc Lisp prompt. No other tools exist. If you're Paul Graham, that's great, but most communities will have difficulty justifying Lisp and Unix expertise qualification to moderate a simple forum. Further, Slicehost started baulking about "suspicious memory use," suggesting that we had misconfigured MySQL. Finally, the system was simply not as stable as I would have needed it to be. Everytime a new directory or file? had to be created, the application would simply return a blank screen, for example.

Update: Also, sometimes while writing long comments (like this one), I'll get the "unknown link" error when submitting.

news.arc would have earned us a fist full of nerd dollars, but I understand that sometimes nerd dollars are simply not acceptable tender in all circumstances.

\- [<http://reddit.com/reddits/create>]

Has all the features we want, but is a part of Reddit: Reddit domain, Reddit users, Reddit ads, etc.

\- Create Your Reddit [<http://reddit.com/reddits/create>]

Has all the features we want, but is a part of Reddit: Reddit domain, Reddit users, Reddit ads, etc.

\- Drigg [<http://www.drigg-code.org/>]

Drigg is a collection of Drupal modules to recreate Drupal. The installation and configuration was such a hassle, the effort to strip all the unneeded features was too much, and worse of all, I got a Javascript error when trying to vote. I was not pleased by this precedent of needing to debug complex software to do a simple task.

\- Pligg [<http://pligg.com/>]

Pligg is a very close clone of Digg in PHP/MySQL. I installed this system without trouble, but the required configuration / feature stripping left me open to other suggestions.

\- Linkherd [<http://www.linkherd.com/>]

Kevin (rms) suggested both this and Slinkset three days ago. He showed me <http://www.linkherd.com/science/>, which I liked better than slinkset.com, but at the time, Linkherd.com was broken. Fail.

\- Slinkset [<http://www.slinkset.com>]

Had all the features I needed to get started, founders were responsive and obviously working on the site, killer auto-submit RSS feature, let us use our own domain, no configuration.

Brett Gibson of Slinkset has been very responsive, and he tells us that more features like CSS and HTML templates are coming soon.

<comment><AUTHOR> > killer auto-submit RSS feature

Definitely a killer feature, check out the new page on the site, it autosubmits things at zero points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The idea is good. I will add that to my favorities, but you realy ought to work on the layout. It is ugly, in my sincere opinion.

<comment><USER3> I agree. It's not our layout, this is Slicehost. They are working on it. They don't have a custom CSS feature yet.

<comment><USER3> oops, I mean slinkset, not slicehost.</comment></comment></comment>


Cryptography Quotes - <AUTHOR> https://mrxor.github.io/cryptoquotes.html <comment><USER2> Nice list! One I'd add: one of my all-time favorite cryptography-related quotes is from Bruce Schneier's Applied Cryptography, talking about key length:

> These numbers have nothing to do with the technology of the devices; they > are the maximums that thermodynamics will allow. And they strongly imply > that brute-force attacks against 256-bit keys will be infeasible until > computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something > other than space.

Full context: [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/09/the_doghouse_...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/09/the_doghouse_cr.html)

<comment><USER3> That argument only applies to irreversible computation. The errata for _Applied_ _Cryptography_ corrects this:

> The section on "Thermodynamic Limitations" is not quite correct. It requires > kT energy to set or clear a single bit because these are irreversible > operations. However, complementing a bit is reversible and hence has no > minimum required energy. It turns out that it is theoretically possible to > do any computation in a reversible manner except for copying out the answer. > At this theoretical level, energy requirements for exhaustive cryptanalysis > are therefore linear in the key length, not exponential.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> My two favorites aren't on the list, perhaps because they were never put in these exact words or they are mis-attributed:

"Cryptography is not magic pixie dust that you can sprinkle on a system to make it secure" -Bruce Schneier [? - couldn't find a good source]

"If you think cryptography will solve your problem, either you don't understand cryptography, or you don't understand your problem." -Roger Needham / Peter G. Neumann

<comment><USER5> I just dug around a bit to find the likely source of the "crypto magic pixie dust" quote, and I think it's Gary McGraw. He uses that phrase a lot, and a search of "crypto fairy dust" in Google Books brings up books by him dating as far back as 1999.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Can I add mine that still holds true in 2019:

Largest number factorized using quantum computers, if we only count algorithms that can theoretically scale into cryptographic levels, is 21.

<comment><AUTHOR> Please explain it.

<comment><USER6> Every day you hear doomsday predictions about end of the crypto as we know it because of the quantum computers. Reality is that largest factored integer using quantum computers to this day is 21. There are some larger numbers around 100k factored but those use algorithms that will never scale into crypto levels.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great list -- one more:

Cryptographers love tradition. If we were to use "Andy" and "Barbara" as the principals, no one would believe anything in this chapter. \-- Andrew S. Tanenbaum

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks,

But cryptographers only love math and "Andy" and "Barbara" are friends of "Alice" and "Bob"!

[1] [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/09/replacing_ali...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/09/replacing_alice.html)

[2] [http://cryptocouple.com/](http://cryptocouple.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My favourite quote is from cperciva:

"The purpose of cryptography is to force the US government to torture you."

</comment><comment><USER9> It's not strictly relevant but there's a quote my dad used to like, apparently from Mark Twain, but who knows. I'm paraphrasing: "two people can keep a secret as long as one of them is dead"

<comment><AUTHOR> Or maybe Benjamin Franklin?[1]

[1] [https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/benjamin_franklin_162078](https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/benjamin_franklin_162078)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "There are two kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, and cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files."

— Bruce Schneier

I respectfully disagree... <g>

"There are _three_ (3) kinds of cryptography in this world: cryptography that will stop your kid sister from reading your files, cryptography that will stop major governments from reading your files, and finally, the strongest cryptography -- cryptography that will stop _Bruce Schneier_ \-- from reading your files." <g>

(Bruce Schneier = Cryptography's Chuck Norris...<g>)

((And the third such cryptography, if it exists... will be found to have been created by -- you guessed it -- _Bruce Schneier_! <g>))

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, A Bruce Schneier Fact.

[1] [https://www.schneierfacts.com](https://www.schneierfacts.com)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Was surprised not to find "people are a poor source of entropy," on the list. I'm quite sure I didn't coin that, and it's practically an amendment to the Kirchoff priniciples, just don't know who said it.

<comment><USER12> [https://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25](https://dilbert.com/strip/2001-10-25)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks,

I will add this comic strip.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Excellent list - I immediately ctrl+f'd for Schneier's law as it's my favorite crypto axiom.

My only suggestion would be adding: "Crypto is like catnip for programmers."[1]

[1] [https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/04/the_matasano_crypto_challen...](https://blog.pinboard.in/2013/04/the_matasano_crypto_challenges/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Something about the effectiveness of rubber-hose cryptanalysis[1] would also be a good fit for this list.

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber- hose_cryptanalysis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-hose_cryptanalysis)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks,

I add XKCD Comic about rubber-hose and Black-bag cryptanalysis[1].

[1] [https://xkcd.com/538/](https://xkcd.com/538/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Security wins many battles but loses the security war. We are definitely > going backwards in computer security.

> — Adi Shamir

Source/context for this quote? I do find myself agreeing, but as this seems somewhat more atypical view I'd love to read more about it. Best source I found was this short article about RSA2007 conference, but I couldn't find the referenced panel discussion recorded or transcribed anywhere.

[https://www.zdnet.com/article/rsa-2007-keynotes-notable- quot...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/rsa-2007-keynotes-notable-quotes/)

Overall I think these sorts of quote collections would be massively more useful if they'd contain verifiable sources.

<comment><AUTHOR> The video of RSA's cryptographers' panel 2007 is unavailable. This quote was named "Shamir's Law": Every 18 months security gets half as good. Adi's quote (and fear) is about APT[1] and mass surveillance[2].

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

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I think this should take the cake: "We kill people based on metadata.", Gen Michael Hayden(Frmr NSA Director).

</comment><comment><USER17> There are some really good ones I haven't heard before:

>> You voice is always heard - NSA.

That made me chuckle.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your comment has been read. - NSA and other big brothers :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I belive I said the first quote many times during my college years.</comment>


YC will host its 30th Demo Day online - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/ycombinator/status/1235988777048453124 <comment><USER2> Seems like that disadvantages the batch because of a lack of IRL human interactive competition amongst investors. Somethings are best done in person, but I hope all goes well.</comment>


Facebook is making users wait twice as long to delete their accounts - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/3/17933264/facebook-account-deletion-grace-period-extension-30-days <comment><USER2> Facebook is taking its time regarding the recent data leak too. Potentially 90mil users affected and there's still no statement what happened to their information. I fully understand Facebook might not even have this information, but it's a poor excuse if you ask me.</comment>


Reddit's new design is inaccessible - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/beta/comments/89f5y1/how_many_people_with_disabilities_did_you_have/ <comment><USER2> It's fucking shameful.</comment>


The Power of Startup Simplicity - <AUTHOR> http://www.voodooanthology.com/2012/06/power-of-startup-simplicity.html

<comment><USER2> "Would people still buy your product even if it was rubbish?" If so, it means you are providing (something of) a solution to an important and unsolved problem.

(Most) people don't buy technology or products, they buy solutions to their problems.</comment>


An Implementation of Tempest in GNU Radio - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/git-artes/gr-tempest <comment><USER2> > TEMPEST [1] (or Van Eck Phreaking) is a technique to eavesdrop video > monitors by receiving the electromagnetic signal emitted by the VGA/HDMI > cable and connectors

> GNU Radio [2] is a Free & Open-Source Toolkit for Software Radio

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_(codename)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempest_\(codename\)) [2] [https://gnuradio.org](https://gnuradio.org)

<comment><USER3> >> TEMPEST [1] (or Van Eck Phreaking) is a technique to eavesdrop video monitors by receiving the electromagnetic signal emitted by the VGA/HDMI cable and connectors

IIRC, I think it originally used the analog signals generated by controlling the electron gun in a CRT.

<comment><USER4> Yes, but no.

[https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/pet2004-fpd.pdf](https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/pet2004-fpd.pdf)

tl;dr The signal from a DVI cable can be detected but at much more reduced ranges. See also; RAGEMASTER (Snowden leak) a range extending implant for video cables.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I always thought it was Transient ElectroMagnetic ProteEction STandard.

Wikipedia says: TEMPEST (Telecommunications Electronics Materials Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions)

This says it is "Telecommunications and Electrical Machinery Protected from Emanations Security"

[https://www.patton.com/solution/Tempest-EMI-RFI-Data- Securit...](https://www.patton.com/solution/Tempest-EMI-RFI-Data-Security/)

<comment><USER6> It is an intelligence community convention to write codewords in ALL CAPS to differentiate them from the normal use of the same word. This doesn't indicate that they are acronyms. The appearance, though, combined with the fact that they are often in mixed use with acronyms, leads to a tendency for people to make up expansions of codewords which aren't intended to have one. Codewords were intentionally selected to have little if any relationship to what they describe.

To further muddy the waters, the military is just as fond of writing things in all caps as the intelligence community is, but they usually actually are acronyms or abbreviations. In contrast to TEMPEST consider PAVE PAWS, which is an acronym, and USSPACOM, which is abbreviation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm reading Cryptonomicon of Neal Stephenson and I discovered this attack some days ago. It's mind blowing

</comment><comment><USER8> Fun fact: TEMPEST is the reason that asterisks are substituted for passwords onscreen.

<comment><USER9> Not simply because people can look over your shoulder?

<comment><USER10> Light is a TEMPEST emission :) It too is EM.

But yeah, you're right. Shoulder surfers are very much why * are used.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What's a common antenna setup for something like this? UHF Yagi?

<comment><USER12> Wide band antennas like this PCB Vivaldi slot are popular with the SDR crowd.

[http://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0069.JPG](http://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0069.JPG)

[https://www.amazon.com/RFSPACE-Wideband- Antenna-600-6000-Viv...](https://www.amazon.com/RFSPACE-Wideband- Antenna-600-6000-Vivaldi/dp/B0141KA6LM/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Obligatory recommendation: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon)

<comment><USER14> Agreed! Would recommend this book.

<comment><USER15> I would recommend it too. It's also one of few Neal Stephenson books in which the ending isn't completely missing or feels too phoned in (beware it IS somewhat unsatisfactory if you wanted more closure). The author unfortunately has a longstanding position where he "doesn't owe the reader a specific type of ending" and the real world doesn't provide textbooks ending either, if I remember correctly.

Such a shame because his books are on average excellent until the last 10-20%.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Does this work with HDCP?</comment>


Common Misconceptions About Inheritance in JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/javascript-scene/common-misconceptions-about-inheritance-in-javascript-d5d9bab29b0a

<comment><USER2> A few bits of misinformation.

> Is There a Big Performance Difference Between Classical and Prototypal > Inheritance?

Yes (but not the way the writer is trying to imply). Performance as a metric of code production per dollar spent. The amount of time and effort traded for prototypical models that are trying to mimic classical models, is a nontrivial penalty to this day.

> Isn't Classical Inheritance More Idiomatic than Prototypal Inheritance?

Saying that javascript prototypical inheritance is just as idiomatic (or more) than a classical inheritance that JS doesn't support natively, is disingenuous. Putting a gigantic NO... in the article, doesn't change the fact that classes are the idiomatic way to do inheritance (ie CLASSICAL) and javascript was not designed to use that.

> Prototypal OO is simpler, more flexible, and a lot less error prone.

Dropped without the slightest bit of proof.

At least he shills his products at the end for proper perspective.</comment>


The Evolution of the Hard Hat - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/business/hard-hat-history.html <comment><USER2> This article starts in 1919 but I would assume that wearing hats to protect one's head mechanically (opposed to thermally) has been a tradition since hats were invented. While the hat mentioned in the article is a definite milestone, I wouldn't say it's the starting point for protective hats.

Checking wikipedia I see bowler hats were first created in 1849, and from the article[0]:

[the manufacturers had] been commissioned by a customer to design a close- fitting, low-crowned hat to protect gamekeepers from low-hanging branches while on horseback at Holkham Hall

A traditional bowler is a very sturdy piece of equipment and I could believe the afforded good protection for their day and is very much in the spirit of a modern hard hat.

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

<comment><USER3> And firefighters definitely used helmets in 19th century

<comment> 52-6F-62 Probably more for defense against attacks from rival companies than dangerous environments haha

(off topic: [http://spacing.ca/toronto/2012/10/02/the-toronto-circus- riot...](http://spacing.ca/toronto/2012/10/02/the-toronto-circus-riot- of-1855-the-day-the-clowns-picked-the-wrong-toronto-brothel/))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I am just waiting for the day I can get my name painted on my hardhat at the shipyard. It certainly is a status symbol here. It's a telltale sign that someone isn't experienced when they're walking around with an undamaged hard hat. It's a telltale sign they might be too risky when they walk around looking like they went through a tornado!

Edit: Also every one always complains about the NYT paywall, but it's $5 a month for a digital only subscription. I can't help but think I read more than enough content to get value.

<comment><USER5> Aren't you supposed to replace a hardhat after any damage?

<comment><USER6> Sure, but no one is replacing their hard hat after having bonked their head lightly on a door frame. Scuffs and light marking shouldn't affect the functioning of the hard hat but still be a rough indicator of job-site experience -- until it gets replaced in a more serious and you start over of course, but thats not really a bad thing either in my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> One more part of this is the original British Police.

They had a requirement that any applicants be at least 5'9", and in order to cut an even more imposing figure, they wore tough Beaver Top Hats, which served a dual purpose: raising the height of any officer to at least 6 feet, and to protect their heads against blows from unhappy citizens. Police in the UK have worn some form of head protection ever since.

</comment><comment><USER8> The article neglects to mention that protection against head trauma was the whole original purpose of top hats. They were worn by coach drivers, and then fox hunters took them up (along with the split coat tails, thence to become formal wear, ultimately), for the same purpose. Being thrown from a horse or overturned wagon, or struck by a low-hanging branch, was a real hazard in both cases.

As noted elsewhere, London bobbies subsequently adopted them, too, but they had to exist first.

</comment><comment><USER9> Always fun to watch video footage of factories, construction sites, etc., and pick out who is who by hat color, whether suspension system has been adjusted or not, and what stickers may show up. In the US, yellow is often entry-level, white is usually supervisor or VIP visitor, but look for wear, scuffing, and dirt to be sure.

<comment><USER10> Where does this idea come from? A lifetime of construction work and I have never seen color coding of hard hats. You wear what was given to you. The company purchasing agent isn't picking multiple colors to differentiate people, they are buying a single color in bulk, or you wear a hat you buy and the shop you buy from has at most 2 choices.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Funny how simple things become status symbols in some place but not in others. Here in France, a hard hat is just a PPE for use in the construction industry, not any kind of status symbol. Perhaps those categories of workers and their members are perceived differently on the two side of the Atlantic?

<comment><USER12> When I wore hard hats on job sites stickers from suppliers were a big thing. So not sure status symbol but definitely personalization thing. Not much different from developer laptops today.

Though the idea is older. There was a maybe 99% invisible ep on this in the context of miners as I recall.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Related video showing why you should always wear a hard hat on a construction site:

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

</comment><comment><USER14> [http://archive.is/h6gha](http://archive.is/h6gha)

</comment><comment><USER15> I am absolutely sure people had hard hats for work prior to 1919. Pith hats, for example.

<comment><USER16> For fighting, certainly, but for labor? You may well be correct, I just don't know.

<comment><USER15> Putting out fires for example? They used rigid leather hats in the 1800s that sound like they have exactly the same construction.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've always wondered: is a motorcycle helmet always more protective than a hard hat, or are there cases where a hard hat protects better?

<comment><USER18> Motorcycle helmet is fixed to your head whereas a hard hat is not. In many situations an impact sends the hard hat flying with minimal kinetic energy imparted on the former occupant. In those cases a motorcycle helmet would be worse because the wearer's head would move around more making neck injury more likely.

For top of the head impacts they're likely close to equal since the strap system in a hard hat is pretty damn optimized for that use case.

For repeated impact (fairly rare on the job site vs the default in motorcycle crashes) the motorcycle helmet is obviously superior and it has superior coverage.

This is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. Wearing a motorcycle helmet (or any helmet that covers the ears) massively reduces situational awareness and wearing one 8+hr/day for the length of one's career would likely not be good for ones neck. It is not the right tool for the hard hat's job (and vise versa).

Disclaimer: Not a helmet engineer.

<comment><USER19> The best data we have on mtotocycle injuries shows that about one third of motorcycle head hits are in the chin area. It's a totally different hazard model.

See the Hurt Report for details.</comment></comment></comment>


Can Facts Slow the DNC Breach Runaway Train? - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jeffreycarr/can-facts-slow-the-dnc-breach-runaway-train-lets-try-14040ac68a55#.cnbunbocm <comment><USER2> Why should I trust this guy's conclusions over a joint report by the NSA, CIA, and FBI released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence?

I know that sounds facetious, but I'm being sincere: three major intelligence organizations from the US government said in _very_ strong terms that their concurring opinion is Russian intelligence hacked the DNC and conducted PSYOPs against the US election. My experience with US intelligence personnel is that they're competent, reasonable people who sincerely want to help the country, even if they're prone to being overzealous in their actions.

I have no idea who this guy is or why I should care what he has to say. To be honest, the post reads as considerably less professional and well reasoned than other discussion of the issue, and I'm skeptical of the sincerity -- the standards of proof are ridiculous, there's no direct refutation, and it reads like it's meant to sow doubt.

So why isn't this at best a contractor looking to cash in by going against the grain and at worst another PSYOP?

<comment><USER3> >Why should I trust this guy's conclusions over a joint report by the NSA, CIA, and FBI released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence?

The three intelligence agencies that issued their concurring opinion didn't actually do any investigating; they took the CrowdStrike report of the incident at face value.

Which, itself, means that the government's conclusions are only as good as CrowdStrike's conclusions. So the real question to ask is whether or not you should trust this guy over CrowdStrike.

<comment><USER2> Is there a source on that?

<comment><USER3> [http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/fbi-russia-hacking- dn...](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/fbi-russia-hacking-dnc- crowdstrike/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Eight month old political opinion.</comment>


Sourcetrail 0.12 – instantly generate call and inheritance graphs - <AUTHOR> https://www.sourcetrail.com/blog/release_0_12/ <comment><USER2> That looks pretty cool!

Will there be additional languages in the future ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, we plan on supporting more languages in the future. C#, Python, Go and Rust are probably the next ones. However, I can't give a time frame at the moment. We are still polishing and improving our current C/C++ and Java support as well as our user interface.</comment></comment>


Feedback: Learning How to Analyze Data via Code (Self-Directed Syllabus) - <AUTHOR> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dj8vpit1p9FgmZv9OQkCbxM_TJ0c1ZFYV0GlteAJ220/edit?usp=sharing <comment><AUTHOR> Really appreciate any feedback on this. I know there are a lot of choices, but I want to learn the basics / build a foundation</comment>


FDA-approved Drug Ivermectin inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166354220302011 <comment><USER2> The key here is "in vitro".

If there is virus growing in a Petri dish, we can inhibit the growth. But we have no idea what happens when we put this drug in a complex living being.

<comment><USER3> Well we have some idea, as it's already FDA approved for other uses

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Ivermectin is an anti-helmenthic (thanks House! [0]); it removes worms and is presumably harmful to biotic material. There's no particular reason why ivermectin should be especially effective against viruses, AFAIK. WP tells me that ivermectin acts by disrupting cell permeability and the osmotic balance, and that it is neurotoxic to mammals, which sounds about right for somethihng meant to kill parasites.

I'm glad that people are doing these experiments, but without a convincing "why" or mechanism of action, it's risky to imagine that an existing pill will neatly fit into this novel virus's way of life and death. It also makes me think of things like my emergency gout medication, colchicine, which is also a cellular toxin and cannot be taken for long periods of time. (Again, thanks House!)

[0] [https://house.fandom.com/wiki/97_Seconds](https://house.fandom.com/wiki/97_Seconds)

[0] [https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor](https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor)

<comment><USER5> > I'm glad that people are doing these experiments, but without a convincing > "why" or mechanism of action, it's risky to imagine that an existing pill > will neatly fit into this novel virus's way of life and death.

As a datum[0] we still don't understand how tylenol works. Quite a lot of drugs are developed without meaningful or correct understanding of the underlying mechanisms. If it is effective in a petri dish we should test it on people - if it works in people we should give it to the infected. Given a known safety profile there isn't a lot more logic needed here.

[0][https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00646906](https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00646906)

</comment></comment><comment> dis-sys in "vitro" is a magic word, surely enough salt can also inhibits the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in _vitro_.

<comment><USER6> Or bleach.</comment></comment>


Source to visualizations from last night's chiptune concert - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mustardhamsters/slime-girls-visualization

<comment><USER2> I'd really love to see the video, but it seems down.</comment>


Tinder Sues Startup, "Kills Modern Love" - <AUTHOR> http://www.thememo.com/2016/05/24/tinder-suing-3ndr-tinder-sues-3ndr-suck-my-socks/ <comment><USER2> "tinder doesn't own 'n', 'd', and 'r'"

Can the argument be made that a dating app which is pronounced "threender" or "thrinder" could potentially confuse customers who might confuse it with tinder? Or worse, think it's an officially sanctioned nonconformist tinder?

<comment><USER3> IANAL, but yes - from wikipedia trademark page

"The law in most jurisdictions also allows the owner of a registered trademark to prevent unauthorized use of the mark in relation to products or services which are identical or "colourfully" similar to the "registered" products or services, and in certain cases, prevent use in relation to entirely dissimilar products or services. The test is always whether a consumer of the goods or services will be confused as to the identity of the source or origin"

To me, a consumer could definitely be confused by a name like that

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I could see that argument flying if people tell their friends that 3ndr is tinder for threesomes, which I suspect is part of their word-of-mouth marketing effort.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> tinder didn't file for a trademark until 2015. and 3nder has filed or isn't registered yet. Not sure why both of them didn't file along time ago?

</comment><comment><USER4> looks like tinder was first used in 2012 and 3nder didn't come along until 2014.</comment>


Twitch is Closing its Communities - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/10/twitch-is-closing-its-communities/ <comment><AUTHOR> This is a very bad idea. Tags may sound like a good replacement on the surface but in practice work poorly.

I search for videos on some JS libraries on YouTube and filter on today. Someone wants more people watching their videos so they will add tags to pull in JS developers from other libraries.

When it's a community they can self police interlopers and it becomes a gathering place. I am not a gamer and this makes me lose all interest in Twitch.</comment>


Figurit, entity-based content discovery and media monitoring - <AUTHOR> https://figur.it <comment><USER2> If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Show HN guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> you can try a demo here: [https://figur.it/auth/login](https://figur.it/auth/login) user: firstname.lastname@example.com pass: demo3000</comment>


SaaS Customer Success: The secret to reducing churn and increasing MRR - <AUTHOR> https://www.chargify.com/blog/saas-customer-success/ <comment><USER2> "Customer success is not simply renaming your sales or tech support team." \- this seems to be a very misunderstood tactic</comment>