Ask HN: How to get a job at a Big Company? - <AUTHOR>

For the past 5 years I've been working primarily at startup companies. The one I'm at now is in the process of imploding. I am YET AGAIN having to go on the job hunt. I just turned 30 and am getting tired of this. I'm at the point where I just want to work at a place thats nice and stable where I can expect to have a job 12 months from now.
The problem is that stackoverflow and all the other job sites that litter the web seem to be 100% startup companies.
Where do these mega corporations advertise jobs?
Also, I am a self taught developer. I do have a degree, but it is not in anything computer related. I know Python and javascript really well, but have never touched any of the "enterprise" languages such as C# or Java. I have no doubt that I can learn these languages, but I'm afraid the MegaCorps aren't going to have the insight to realize that. Do I stand a chance? <comment><USER2> If you are smart and you can at least fake it that you are a "good guy"[1], then you stand a very good chance, assuming you are able to find out where these MegaCorps advertise. I work for one of them, and I found the ad on craigslist, which I think is unusual.

[1] - or girl, but "good girl" doesn't mean the same thing! If you are female, then I would guess you have to be able to fake that you are "cool", whatever that means.

[edit: When I say 'smart', I don't mean 'really smart', I just mean that you do in fact know javascript and python pretty well as you say]

[edit2: If you are applying for a job programming java, then you should probably at least learn to how to write a class, instantiate an object, match a regex, etc. before going in there. But that will be easy if necessary.]

</comment><comment><USER3> Try searching for python or javascript on [http://search.jobvite.com/web/modules/layout/home.htm](http://search.jobvite.com/web/modules/layout/home.htm)

You might also check out dropbox, I think they are a large python shop.

Also keep an eye on the "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" posts [1]. I checked the ones for August 2013, and there are lots of hits for python and javascript.

      Ask HN: Who is hiring? (August 2013)
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139927

      Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (August 2013)
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6139937

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring)

</comment><comment><USER4> * Try networking through LinkedIn. * Try going to meetups

It does not matter if your formal CV does not reflect your true skills. Once you start talking to people, eventually they will refer you to their colleagues and invite you over for interviews.

From what I am told it helps to be able to jump past the "HR filter" which unfortunately places a lot of weight on keywords in CVs.

The fact that you have been working in industry means that you now have a strong "experience" component, which many places really appreciate!

Best of luck and just keep at it.

</comment><comment><USER5> I am not sure which country you are based on but there are job portals where you can float their resume, you can also go directly to corporate site of a company and submit your resume. Before you apply look at the skill set required, I am sure you would need to work on your java/.Net/PHP skills before applying else you will not be short listed. You can start learning and can show(FAKE) you earlier projects in those languages. If you are based in US, send me a message, i would be happy to help you out.

</comment><comment><USER6> Almost every big company has a dedicated careers website.

</comment><comment><USER7> Find a company you want to work for and then find people on LinkedIn that work there. Some people might see it as stalking, but to me you took initiative so I will most likely respond and assist you on getting past the HR block.

</comment><comment><USER8> setonia.com get job listings geographically located near you.

<comment><USER9> This site is impressively non-functional (at least for me)</comment></comment>


You're Not Going to Be a Professional Blogger - <AUTHOR> http://blog.seliger.com/2009/06/17/youre-not-going-to-be-a-pro/ <comment><USER2> Interesting POV for a post from 2009.</comment>


The PocketCHIP Is an Excellent Introduction to Absurdly Cheap Computing - <AUTHOR> http://kotaku.com/the-pocketchip-is-an-excellent-introduction-to-absurdly-1783019474 <comment><USER2> This has a lot of potential - I've been waiting on mine since January. Will see if Retropie can be installed on it.

The only thing missing is a speaker, but you can add one for about $5-10 or so: [http://blog.nextthing.co/add-a-speaker-to-pocketc-h-i-p- in-l...](http://blog.nextthing.co/add-a-speaker-to-pocketc-h-i-p-in-less- than-20-minutes/)</comment>


Being Ridden by the Witch: Sleep Paralysis Is the Greatest Nightmare - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/being-ridden-by-the-witch-sleep-paralysis-is-the-human-species-greatest-nightmare

<comment><USER2> Having suffered from this before I can say this: sleep paralysis is absolutely terrifying. Whenever this occurs there is a small, rational part of your brain that tells you that nothing is wrong but this is drowned out by the absolute certainty that something or someone is just about get to you and you can't even move to defend yourself. It's a very primal fear unlike any other I've experienced and I find interesting is that it's a common theme across people who've also suffered from sleep paralysis.

I've experienced lucid dreaming as well and I can assuredly say that it is nothing like sleep paralysis. The physiological effects might be similar but there's a very big difference between consciously deciding to do something and waking up to a nightmare.

<comment><USER3> I've only had sleep paralysis a couple times and I agree that it is AWFUL. I felt like someone was standing in the room with me and was (irrationally) terrified.

I lucid dream far more often, probably once a week. I agree that it's nowhere near as frightening but I find it to be unpleasant as well. It's not very fun to stay dreaming when I know I'm awake.

It's funny but the movie Inception really helped me with my lucid dreams. Falling (in my dreams) will wake me up. I double-check that I'm actually dreaming by flying first (aw yeah, I can fly in my dreams - kind of like swimming in the air). So I'll often wake up by flying high into the sky and then falling to the ground.

<comment><USER4> >"...kind of like swimming in the air" OMG. That's exactly what I dreamt more than couple of times. In my dreams I would be walking on water. Like if I pump my legs up and down fast enough, that keeps me afloat on the surface of water in a swimming pool, or a pond etc. Kind of like that lizard that walks on water ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhsxo7vY8ac](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qhsxo7vY8ac)) . It feels so realistic and so normal an ability to have. Alas I tried it quite a few times at our local swimming pool, and it never worked :)

<comment><USER4> >"I felt like someone was standing in the room with me and was (irrationally) terrified."

This has happened to me couple of times as well.

Upon reflection I have noticed uncanny similarities to the below movies..

Lucid Dreams == Inception ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/))

Sleep Paralysis == The adjustment Bureau ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Unrelated, but interesting:

> That is to say there isn't pain in the conventional sense; as CO2 goes up > past critical levels, in the absence of fear or panic, the body will try > breathing harder or faster and, eventually, you'll pass out.

This is why most people drown. They panic and aspire water, long before they reach critical O2 levels and pass out.

It's possible to train and control the instinct to breath though. It's a great self-control exercise, and it's safe to try it outside the water. Try this:

Fill your lungs and hold your breath for as much as you can. You'll notice an irresistible urge to let go and breath (this is when most people panic, even though O2 levels are not anywhere critical yet). If you ignore your brain and keep holding, you'll notice involuntary movements in your diaphragm, forcing you to breath (this is when people drown). If you _still_ keep holding, you'll notice the diaphragm movements get more intense, up to a point when it's impossible to keep holding your breath, but it takes a while still.

With enough practice, you learn to stay relaxed and post-pone those reactions as much as possible. After a while, you start being capable to hold the breath many times longer than expected. If you couple this technique with exercises for increased lung capacity and cardio (for lowering your base BPM), you'll be free-diving like a champion.

<comment><USER6> _you 'll be free-diving like a champion_

Note that this can be dangerous while free-diving. You are essentially temporarily disabling your body's CO₂ buildup alarm thresholds, which is a proxy for too little O₂. So you need to take care to make sure that you don't run out of O₂ without noticing while under 30 feet of water, possibly while weights.

The Wikipedia page on shallow-water blackouts¹ has a nice little diagram illustrating the issue. I don't know enough about freediving and O₂ consumption to really have any clue about the margins of safety typically are, but it certainly seems like something worth understanding before messing around with too much.

¹ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_water_blackout](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_water_blackout)

<comment><USER5> This exercise shouldn't be done underwater. This is an exercise for being aware of the diaphragm reflex, to go thru the sensations without panicking, which helps you to stay relaxed and develop a proper routine while diving.

By relaxing and exhaling you post-pone CO2 saturation as much as possible, but it still happens before O2 deprivation (it's only a problem when you reach <85% O2, and it takes a while for that).

Here's some great footage of a native from Philippines spearfishing the old way, showing a lot of self-control:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDspP4BhlTw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDspP4BhlTw)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> To expand on the uniqueness of the experience of suffocation: Suffocation is apparently the only experience that can produce fear in patients without an intact amygdala. In a recent study ([http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n3/full/nn.3323.html](http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n3/full/nn.3323.html)), researchers administered a mixture 35% CO2 and oxygen to three patients with bilateral amygdala damage and who could not recall experiencing fear in any decades for decades prior. All three had panic attacks. While it's thought that the amygdala contains CO2-sensitve chemoreceptors as this article states in the first paragraph, this behavioral result shows that other brain areas do too, and activation of these chemoreceptors is sufficient to produce fear even without the brain's "fear center."

</comment><comment><USER8> I am reasonably sure that many of the people who believe they have been abducted by aliens (or seen them in their room with them) have probably just experienced sleep paralysis. I say this knowing that when I was younger I had a few episodes of it that still haunt me to this day.

I can remember at least one episode where I woke up into this state to a black tall figure essentially in my face.. giant eyes and the whole bit. I couldn't move and given that this was the first time sleep paralysis had happened to me, thought (and it truly felt) like the entire experience was real. If I remember correctly I broke out of the state by somehow getting my eyes to close in fear and then waking up what had to have been just a couple minutes later. Obviously there was no alien right in my face but it sure felt like it and bringing this story up now I can still 'feel' the experience all these years later. Odd how the brain works.

Edit: Ah, I'm not the only one who thinks most alien stories can be explained by this [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/06/science/alien-abduction- sc...](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/06/science/alien-abduction-science- calls-it-sleep-paralysis.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)

<comment><USER9> I agree and have thought the same thing. When I got sleep paralysis in my teens I had the terror feeling and had the feeling of a ghost in my room.

The only time I was able to relax during an episode, I had the experience of moving out of my body. If it is possible to think that with the brain in a state of sleep paralysis then it could be possible at other times too.

<comment><USER4> But have you ever wondered why its always the feeling of a ghost or (some form of human/human-like presence)? Why not a snake or a lion, tiger etc.

I have sleep apnea and used to wake up short of breath some times. Before I got a CPAP machine, there was a period when I experienced sleep paralysis episodes. In some cases I experienced the sounds of fast running steps approaching my bed sometimes that of a child, sometimes adult, which used to terrify me (of ghost presences. These episodes also coincided with my wife and kids away on vacation and I was alone at home, which added to the fear) and wake me up after breif sleep paralysis experience. After lot of post-self- analysis I figured out that my brain must have been replaying events from past to try to wake me up so I could recover from my short breath/sleep apnea situation and get more oxygen to my brain. .... my son used to run into our bedroom early in mornings after waking up from his bed (early days of his sleeping in separate bedroom), and we used to wake up to his running and jumping into our bed. Some times my wife walks up to my bed on weekends when I sleep late, to wake me up.

I believe my brain was using, what were familiar ways of me waking up to, and trying that on me to wake me up to protect me from my low oxygen situation brought upon by sleep apnea short breaths. Nevertheless, this was kind of a vicious cycle for a while even with me fairly certain of my analysis. The terror of waking up from partial sleep paralysis to such ominous 'other presence in room' irrational feeling caused a bad case of insomnia...it was not easy to fall asleep. And the insomnia in turn worsens sleep apnea and sleep paralysis episodes.

The CPAP machine helped a lot. Nevertheless is absolutely dreadful and irrationally terrifying.

<comment><USER4> Also it is during such episodes, there are high chances that you will also experience what I call as 'recursive wakeups', several levels (mostly 1 or 2 levels deep) of indirection out of which you are unrolling to wake up like in the movie 'Inception'. I would feel very certain that I am awake, and have come out of my sleep paralysis by doing what ever tricks others have also pointed out (rolling sideways, wiggling toes, sitting up on bed etc), only to suddenly realize that the 'presence' is still there and panicking and eventually realizing I am still not fully awake ! Absolute terror until then :)

In fact, I would not be surprised if the writers who came up with the concept of 'Inception' and 'The adjustment Bureau' movies are probably themselves sufferers of these conditions (lucid dreaming, sleep paralysis) or at the least have heard accounts/experiences from some one in their circle (family, friends) and did further research.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Err... sleep paralysis can be bad if you don't realize that its an instant gateway into a lucid dream. I had lucid dreams long before I realized this, but at some point in my life during a sleep paralysis event i realised it was a dream, and after that i could fly, have sex, and be magic for as long as i remembered i was dreaming. Have fun the next time you have sleep paralysis, its not awful, its awesome.

</comment><comment><USER11> Wow, there is a term for it! I get this all the time and didn't think enough of it to seek out understanding of it. It's it bit scary, but mostly annoying. If I'm sleeping I want to be sleeping, if I'm awake I want to be awake. Being somewhere in the middle isn't fun.

For me it's like a dream where I can see what I would be seeing if I were awake and I can make the decision to try to wake myself up, but moving is really difficult. In fact, I'm not sure that I'm actually moving myself at all or if I'm just dreaming that I am. So, I have to try to move my arms and shoulders, first very slowly and then I pick up momentum until I finally wake up. It's as if I'm trying to learn how to move again.

I never feel like there are demons in the room, but I do get a feeling of paranoia that someone could be messing with me and I couldn't do anything. Not really a rational thought since people could have been messing with me while I was totally asleep anyways.

<comment><USER12> I think I also experienced it several times. Basically, I was seeing what I would see if I was awake, but I could not move and if I tried, I felt I was moving "in my imagination" or in a dream, but not in "reality".

However, I never felt any terror while experiencing this, which makes me doubt it was sleep paralysis. It was just like dreaming I was lying on my bed, unable to move.

It only happened while attempting to nap in the afternoon. Now I try to always listen to music while napping (preventing me from going into deep sleep), so I don't have this kind of experience anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I experienced sleep paralysis for several years before finding out that it was a phenomenon that happened to other people.

Less than 5% of those occurrences were hallucinogenic with extremely vivid hallucinations. Often the hallucinations involved a frightening but oddly archetypal witch hissing in my face.

Later, when I learned of the phenomenon I was both relieved (to know I wasn't alone) but also terrified that others who experienced this also saw witches.

I still don't understand the connection, and it's frightening still.

Curious if anyone else saw similar visions or otherwise had potent hallucinations accompany their paralysis. I have few other notable images; would be interesting to see if anyone else had similar ones.

<comment><USER14> I've had a demonic child standing across the room, a calm and unfrightening peasant sitting next to me, a woman watching me, and the girl from the ring standing nearby. The most terrifying one by far was the demonic child. I don't remember seeing any witches.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I experience sleep paralysis often after starting study of lucid dreaming. For me, though, it is rarely the terrifying experience the OP describes. In fact, since it's such an easy situation to identify, I tend to become lucid immediately. Don't let this scare you if you're looking to start lucid dreaming.

There are also tricks you can use to escape. For me, scrunching my face and wiggling my toes always worked consistently.

<comment><USER16> Yeah, I've had it happen to me once or twice while waking up in the middle of a lucid dream. I knew what it was so it wasn't all that scary, though if I hadn't I think I would have freaked out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I used to experience sleep paralysis on an on and off basis. Sessions were spaced enough that I wouldn't remember them for long. I thought it was due to high-level general anxiety.

There comes one session when I can't and don't want to go back to sleep. I wake up, turn on the computer and get on that old Deftones board. And there, there is a user writing about that topic and how he just experienced it and how he found out an article about it !

That article did a good job of demystifying the whole experience. It does not come from anxiety but can induce it (quite obvious) _. One interviewee reported he found the experience quite pleasurable, like being held in someone 's arms. The article also stated that one you re-frame it in a pleasant way it wouldn't be a bad experience anymore: you could make it border on the erotic side of things.

And since then I have always been especially quiet and relaxed when having a sleep paralysis episode. YMMV.

Note: contrary to what I have seen in comments here you CAN´T force yourself to wake up from a dream.

_ which is how I decide to see it.

</comment><comment><USER18> Oddly enough, the last film I worked on is about this. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3033948/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3033948/?ref_=fn_al_tt_3) if you're curious, but it probably won't come out until mid-2014 so it's in stealth mode as far as marketing materials go.

</comment><comment><USER19> I hate when this happens and I have a stuffed up nose. The only thing I can control is my breathing and rolling, I can't even moan. So I breath in a noisy pattern to wake up my wife (I've told her that shaking me would 'wake up' my body), or roll onto the floor (ouch!) to regain muscle control.

<comment><USER19> To add to my experiences, I've noted that it usually happens to me with these circumstances: 1) Sleeping on my back (it always happens this way, has never happened on my side or stomach) 2) poor bedding, where you've worn a divit/canoe into too soft bedding. 3) After having foods with lots of salt/msg (chemical imbalance? dehydration?) 4) On stuffy nights with stagnant, humid air or a stuffy nose 5) Sleeping on my back with arms above my head. I'm not sure why this is, but it's almost repeatable.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for mentioning these. I sleep on my back, occasionally with my arms above my head. I'll see if I changing my sleep position helps!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Have had this experience periodically for most of my life, although more so during my teens and twenties (41 now, happens maybe 10 times per year).

Imagine waking up and not being able to move anything but the tip of your left pinky; furthermore, you're not in your bed but in some kind of nether twilight limbo that has nothing to do with time as we know it in waking life.

So, that's the starting point, basically awake in a coffin. Rarely I've been able to relax into the experience and fall back asleep, but more often it's been the herculean struggle to migrate the movement of that pinky to the hand, to the forearm, upper arm, and finally, somehow, roll over on my side and wake up.

As to its origins, not sure. Perhaps it's preparation for the final sleep, who knows; if so, still work to be done here ;-)

</comment><comment><USER21> I get sleep paralysis sometimes and have since I was like eleven, and honestly it isn't that big of a deal for me since it comes rarely. But as a kid? It's a religious experience, and not the good kind. If I'd known that this wad a thing, it probably would've been less terrifying.

</comment><comment><USER22> I had this for years and it comes back every now and then.

At first it was absolutely terrifying as I "heard" people walking next to my bed, "felt" my mattress being lifted, "seen" things floating around and other (now) pretty cool hallucinations. Now I'm able to get fully conscious during the process and realise what's going on, but I still have a hard time when I feel I'm suffocating :(

Just an advice, the trick is to focus your brain on your breath, don't panic and raise your awareness of everything that surrounds you. It will calm you down although you won't be able to move or call for help.

</comment><comment><USER23> It's interesting the article mentions "being ridden by the witch" as a phrase from southern Americana folklore. It dates back a bit further than that, and is literally where we get the term "hagridden" from.

</comment><comment><USER24> "Sleep paralysis is, crudely, your brain waking up before your body."

I experience this, or something very similar, every now and again, perhaps once every two months or so. I understand that I'm awake, I can hear, but can't move or even open my eyes. However, unlike what everyone else is reporting, I do not experience any fear, terror or have difficulty breathing.

In fact, I find it quite amusing. I typically try to fall back into sleep, which occasionally work, or try to stay in this state, but never managed to go beyond a minute or so...

Maybe it's not sleep paralysis then?...

<comment><USER25> I've experienced that as well a couple of times. My mind is awake but my body is still sleeping, completely paralyzed. It's a bit scary and definitely a very strange feeling but not terrifying.

</comment></comment><comment> k-mcgrady It happened to me a lot but fortunately I've discovered the 'trigger' that causes it for me. When I'm in bed I have to keep both arms above the duvet, if I don't there is a very high chance I will have sleep paralysis. I believe it's related to heat. If I get too warm it is triggered and keeping my arms above the duvet prevents this.

I've tested the theory quite a lot simply by trying to trigger sleep paralysis (I wanted to when I was experimenting with lucid dreaming) and simply covering my whole body (except my head) worked most of the time.

</comment><comment><USER26> I experienced sleep paralysis a long time ago in the form of too darker than black dog like creatures standing near my bed in my bedroom. They'd been hitting me with small bolts of electricity until I managed to overcome the paralysis then I just woke up in the same place.

I guess the condition and the visions had something to do with a therapy I was going through at that time.

</comment><comment><USER27> I've found that attempting to roll your tongue while this occurs tends to lift the sleep paralysis. No idea why this works though.

<comment><USER4> If Sleep apnea were the cause (see my comment elsewhere above), then it would explain why rolling of tongue would lift it. Since tongue falling back on your throat is one of the causes of obstructive sleep apnea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> So this is what it's called. I didn't even know it's a "thing". I'd say it feels uncomfortable, not terrifying. I usually just confirm that I can breathe, and once that fear is settled, I "haul" myself out of it.

</comment><comment><USER29> I used to suffer from this pretty consistently for years until I researched it on the web and understood what it actually was. From then on it reduced to maybe once a year.

Funny how the mind works.

</comment><comment><USER30> 4 out of 10 people have it. I do too. It is the most terrible experience you can have. And it actually feels like a person riding your chest.

</comment><comment><USER31> Given that I experienced sleep-paralysis just yesterday, it's opportune that I got to read this article now.

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER32> There are a lot of people who don't know what this is like; as someone who used to regularly experience this, I'd like to share some of my experience.

I have been in real situations that legitimately threatened my life and safety, and sleep paralysis consistently gave me comparable levels of stress and fear in each episode.

Imagine having a bad nightmare, so bad that you wake up from it. But when you wake up, your eyes are open and you cannot move. You see things that your mind logically knows cannot actually be there, but they are real for you. The REM dream state continues, overlapping reality.

In one case I woke up one my side to a large, dimly lit figure on the side of the bed, staring at me with red eyes. It just stared at me, while I physically felt something at the bottom of the bed dragging my body off. I couldn't move or even shift my head.

I was aware that I was awake, that this wasn't a dream anymore, but that this sort of paranormal situation should't be happening. I couldn't move, couldn't struggle - then the thing staring at me unhinged its jaws wider than should be humanly possible and screamed at me at the top of its lungs. It sounded like a human mixed with the shrill cry of a velociraptor from Jurassic Park.

I just remember trying to yell but not making noise, and feeling like I was drowning. I knew I was awake but the supernatural sense of _wrongness_ was almost more terrifying than the hallucination.

Then, after what felt like minutes of struggling to breath, and the figure almost eating me, it all vanished, and I shook my body so violently I threw myself off the bed (seriously). I think I actually ran to the lights, turned them on and sat shuddering on my bed in the blanket for a while.

It's no joke. I used to regularly have these, and I sympathize with anyone who has had them. They're primarily caused by stress and anxiety (and have a high incidence in people with PTSD). It's not like a nightmare where you can convince yourself it wasn't real, because the things I hallucinated were as real to me as the lamp and nightstand.

Obviously I should say I didn't consume anything the night before. It's almost debilitating, and caused me insomnia for quite a while.

It was hard to describe to people - they are not the same things as night terrors. I would talk to people about it and they would say it was a bad nightmare. But it felt so real, it was like that scene from the Matrix with Neo and the bug.

Afterwards, details were always fully lucid and clear, and never became fuzzy. I eventually realized that the level of obsession I would get into when trying to get people to understand that it wasn't _just_ a nightmare mirrored the hysterical reactions you would see from characters in Nightmare on Elm Street or the Exorcist. I never really believed in things like alien abduction, but I can fully understand why repeated exposure to sleep paralysis would cause someone to seriously question reality.

<comment><USER8> Ughh. Been there, done that. Thankfully I haven't experienced it since I was a young teenager. You are right about the whole thing being as real, or even more real than reality. It is almost a primal feeling of reality if you get what I mean.

I don't know about you, but for me even thinking about these episodes has me a bit on edge remembering them. Given that I think about 20 years have passed since the last time I had one, that just goes to show how significant they can be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> It's not always a nightmare. Sometimes it's quite enjoyable.

I remember going to sleep with a headache at one point and experiencing sleep paralysis. My headache was translated to black and white flashes of light. Or another time when I heard music.

Being unable to move isn't really that big of a deal as long as you are in a comfortable position. Eventually the paranoia and the sense of another presence sets in, but up until that point it can be fun.

If you try to go right back to sleep, you'll probably end up in the same state. Standing up clears sleep paralysis.

<comment><USER34> "Standing up clears sleep paralysis." There's a bit of a paradox there :)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Writing an os in React, good idea? - <AUTHOR> Hi!
I have this idea. I want to write an OS in React. Wouldn't that be so cool? I've done some back-of-the-envelope calculations and concluded that given the O(n) complexity of fiber.js in combination with declarative data fragments I should be able to get about 2X the performance of x86 assembly but with superior DX. Given that the future of all software engineering is eventually gonna catch up with the latest cutting-edge techniques that we have seen in the web development community the last couple of years I think it's probably best to get started ASAP. I know the undertaking is large, so I need some guidance about how I should fund it. Should I apply for a PHD? YC2018? Any help appreciated.
PS. I'm using a throwaway account because I don't want my boss to find out that I'm planning to leave my job. <comment><USER2> This looks a lot like a joke-question, but whatever.

Well, technically it's possible to write an OS in React, if you're basically just running a browser and do everything inside that.

Since a lot of desktop apps nowadays are just repackaged versions of chrome with a single website in them, you might actually have a better user experience for /some/ use-cases.

But if you actually plan on doing that, please just make an browser-based OS that is a wrapper for this site:

[http://www.windows93.net/](http://www.windows93.net/)

Edit: I'm only answering semi-seriously because sometimes it's the stupid and laughable questions that foster new, maybe even completely unrelated ideas.

</comment><comment><USER3> React is the view layer. Maybe you can write the UI in react, but everything else would just be JavaScript, no?

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a troll... can we just ban this account and delete this post?

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm sincerely confused, are you being serious?

</comment><comment><USER6> Apply for PhD? Have you completed your BSc?

</comment><comment><USER7> DX?</comment>


The Art of Fear Blogging - <AUTHOR> http://robdodson.me/blog/2013/09/16/the-art-of-fear-blogging/

<comment><USER2> Rob, great post. I especially liked the Ulysses anecdote.

Somewhat irrelevant, but when using Octopress as a blogging platform, do spend some time working on the CSS. Octopress has some great features, however, too many of the generated blogs look similar. By spending a weekend working on it, you can really differentiate your blog and add your own "character" to it.

Keep up the good work!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks :)

I haven't spent much time with the CSS, primarily because I wanted to make sure it was going to be worth the effort and that meant getting into the blogging habit. Now that I have a bunch of posts and am starting to get meaningful traffic I'm planning to overhaul the look and also optimize the heck out of it.</comment></comment>


Apple releases Safari 3.1 - <AUTHOR> http://www.macworld.com/article/132569/2008/03/safari.html <comment><USER3> I started using Safari 2 on XP a few weeks ago and have been thoroughly impressed with it - it is now my default browser mainly because of its speed and look. There is one problem though that makes no sense: it cannot open an image file link within the browser - it has to open another app. This is especially problematic as my webapp is loaded with images I need to quickly open. I just got 3.1, and wow!, it is fast - seriously (on windows xp). The install was fast. But _no_ opening image files within the browser - what are they thinking? (I'm still using it though)

<comment><USER4> I've never had that problem, did quicktime do something terrible to you? Point to this doll of your mime types, and show me where the bad man touched you.

<comment><USER3> Bingo: Our webapp was the culprit. We were using mime type "image/jpg" when we should have used "image/jpeg" for safari's benefit. Thanks! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have been really impressed with what webkit has been doing. They seem like they are really striving to be the best browser in the market. Their nightly builds have been extremely quick and bug free recently and i'm glad that apple decided to release a newer version out into the wild.

</comment><comment><USER6> Funny because just 2 days ago I switched to FF3b4 because Safari was crashing too often on flash-based ads (of all things!). Now I'm switching back to Safari, even though FF3 is pretty cool, because it just handles (scrolls, renders, feels) faster and smoother.

<comment><USER7> Heh, I'm going the other way.. Safari 3.1 -> FF3b4 and found the same (or the opposite, depending on how you look at it.)

Why the switch? Gmail doesn't work in Safari 3.1! ( <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6856943> ) At least, not the Gmail I have on Apps For Your Domain, and it won't let me use the fancy, new one I have on regular Gmail _sigh_

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone knows if it works with the latest Sogudi? (sogudi turns your location bar into a sort of command line). Alternatives to Sogudi are welcome too.

Opera has had this feature for many years - I didn't switch to Safari until I discovered this plug-in.

</comment><comment><USER9> Just downloaded it. Looks and feels pretty good so far. I'm curious - <USER2> anyone else having problems scrolling using the Thinkpad middle button?

</comment><comment><USER10> Yes, it's really faster, and I LOVE the font rendering on my LCD. Well, just personal preference. Some people prefer the Windows ClearType fonts.

</comment><comment><USER11> bah! A required restart to upgrade a web browser?!?! I switched to OS X to avoid handcuffs such as this!

Okay, I'm done venting now. Back to work sans 3.1...

<comment><USER12> I was shocked too. I didn't need to restart for the last iTunes update, but I did for Safari! What gives?

<comment><USER5> webkit is an underlying framework that the entire OS uses. The nightly webkit rebuilds don't require a restart because they are sandboxing the webkit, but when apple updates safari it has to reboot the machine to initiate the new build of webkit to be used for the entire OS (including dashboard and things like that)

edit: maybe 'entire OS' was a little vague. basically they don't want to run into issues where the webkit gets updated and things that rely on webkit don't get all messed up in the process because they are running too.

<comment><USER13> the browser infrastructure is at the OS level? uh oh, didn't that get MSFT in trouble (it wasn't the only thing, but it was a signficant part of the charges)?

<comment><USER5> from wikipedia: WebCore

WebCore is a layout, rendering, and DOM library for HTML and SVG developed by the WebKit project, originally developed by Apple as a fork of KHTML. It is licensed under the LGPL. The WebKit framework wraps WebCore and JavaScriptCore, providing an Objective-C application programming interface to the C++-based WebCore rendering engine and JavaScriptCore script engine, allowing it to easily be referenced by Cocoa-based applications; later versions also include a cross-platform C++ platform abstraction, and various ports provide additional APIs.

end quote

basically it has to update and restart so that all cocoa based apps can use the new version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Where's the middle click tab closing?</comment>


UK judge's ultimatum to Google in Foundem case - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/03/google_foundem_high_court_seo_expert/ <comment><AUTHOR> Actual headline reads: UK judge gives Google a choice: Either let SEO expert read your ranking algos or withdraw High Court evidence

Tough choice for adtech monolith in Foundem case

Lengthy El Reg headlines are a pain for posting.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, the court basically wants to have one of the biggest companies on the planet divulge a large part of their core IP (money maker) to a person who's interest align to game that IP.

I wouldn't be surprised if Google were to just flat out deny this and tell the country to pound sand at that point.

<comment><USER3> On the other hand, they disclosed those documents in the court proceeding (I'm assuming they didn't have to, if they can withdraw it now). So it seems the court is just asking them to follow normal discovery procedure, in allowing the other side to actually look at the facts. Google's barrister should've probably expected something like this.

This case is highly interesting though, and should give pause to any company operating off opaque algorithms it can't explain. Personally, I don't object to this, just like personal data, it isn't all upsides - if you're profiting of these things, you need to accept the downsides, too.

To be honest, I'm more surprised Google can't lay out why they were de-ranked in some other way. While it might give some insight, surely it's better than revealing the entire algo? (edit: I guess that might open the door to further, exploratory lawsuits)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm sure you can't just "read the algorithms", they're not all designed as a bunch of long human interpretable strings that get concatenated together like some massive regex.</comment>


A digital skeleton key to access any website - <AUTHOR> http://docs.higg.so/2015/03/10/a-digital-skeleton-key-for-accessing-any-website-proposal/ <comment><USER2> Don't waste your time solving this.

Your "ultimate solution" will just become another on top of the "ultimate solutions" listed as the services you indicated on your post.

Your idea seems too narrow to address a mass-market.

The tools that exist are already serving niches:

\- Bugmenot - to bypass signups where something important is needed behind the signup-wall but probably not an account you'd use for amazon.com

\- Quick signups = social login . Most people are content to connect to sites via Google/Facebook login, which avoids the entire signup process

\- Lastly, don't forget OpenID - it died recently and was an attempt to unify the login process. Probably exactly the use-case for you.

Truth be told, site-makers have signups because they can and do so because they want to capture data from users for "important" advertising, user-data- selling, etc.

So long as users are happy to sacrifice some data for a 'free' service, this is the model the internet will continue to thrive on and signups will continue.

If you want to go ahead and try to solve the problem for yourself, it may be worth it. For the average user though, this is another non-problem in their quest to use x-social-cool-new-app that requires me to just login via Facebook to so I can "share" stuff.

Good luck!

<comment><USER3> OpenID is still a thing (its hard to kill a protocol). While most OpenID providers have gone away, indieauth.com will allow you to delegate your domain name to it.

      <link rel="openid.server" href="https://indieauth.com/openid" />
      <link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://mynamedomain.com/" />

<comment><USER4> ...and you can easily be your own provider. The main issue is that pretty much nobody supports it now, I haven't seen a 'Login with OpenID' button for a while.

OpenID has gone the same way as XMPP, a good open and decentralised protocol lost to proprietary social networks.

<comment><USER3> I agree its mostly gone. Here are the sites I can think of that still support OpenID login:

[https://stackexchange.com/users/login](https://stackexchange.com/users/login) [https://bitbucket.org/account/signin/](https://bitbucket.org/account/signin/) [http://openid.yahoo.com/](http://openid.yahoo.com/) still responds, surprisingly. The wordpress openid plugin is still around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The #1 reason I prefer mobile apps to web apps is because even those that require sign in will remember my login permanently. The entire rest of the web (with rare exceptions) all seems to believe that it's acceptable to require re-login over and over and over. I've drastically reduced the number of sites I use just to end the madness, even with 1Password. How is this still not solved in 2015?

<comment><USER6> How long until someone learns to use replay attack to hijack sessions from a mobile app?

I'd say about half, probably more, of the web sites I log into are able to hold the session for an extended period of time. A few are very aggressive about expiring cookies and often it's because my IP address changes. Those sites are also ones that deal with frequent spamming or DDoS.

On the other hand, frequently having to login helps me remember my passwords. I can tell you right now I probably won't get into HN on the first try because I haven't had to type the password here for over a year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The author's indignation at registration systems that aren't easy to automate is confusing. I view that as a feature, not a bug.

Why the fuck would any service provider want to make it easy for spammers to automate mass registrations as the author seems to want?

It's literally the reason CAPTCHA was invented.

<comment><AUTHOR> Please refer to my comment on Dysprosium's post for my answer on this. Also I may add that it is not a system for spammers, but a system like bugmenot where we can bypass the often arduous process of registration. I happen to have RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury) on my wrist and registration forms are the final boss of the internet so although a system would be nice for myself, I can also see a huge need for others to use it.

<comment><USER7> Building an easily-automated registration system that's "not for spammers" is like building a back door into an encryption scheme that's "not for foreign state-sponsored hackers".

<comment><AUTHOR> Automation is a small part of the system and not the main concern. The main concern is making the experience of surfing the web less harrowing for surfers and to make it more smooth. There are many walled garden sites arbitrarily locking away information and that is counter intuitive to what the web is about, which is free access to information. In the true nature of the web, there would be mechanisms in place to unlock information, like a web browser is expected to unlock information. People's use of fake useragents that spoof a Googlebot to access Quora being a perfect example.

<comment><USER8> "Small parts" that are "not the main concern" are often very juicy targets for attackers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> As a sidenote: the mention of Ireland not having postal codes led me to the wiki article: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_addresses_in_the_Republi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_addresses_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland) which goes into detail:

>"The introduction of a National Postcode System, known as "Eircode", is planned to take place in Summer 2015."

>"An Post did not introduce automated sorting machines until the 1990s. By then, the optical character recognition (OCR) systems were advanced enough to read whole addresses, as opposed to just postcodes, thereby allowing An Post to skip a generation. Consequently, mail to addresses in the rest of the state does not require any digits after the address."

<comment><USER10> I find it really interesting that Eircode gives each building its own code! That's better than the UK's system.

<comment><USER11> And to look them up on your web site will only cost €4000 per year per site. Bargain!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I don't at all agree with the authors post.

Yes, sites have different flows for signup. This is not a "problem". Different sites want different things, or have different needs. Some with have Captcha, others will require CC, or what have you.

Yes, there are some sites that require login and are just being asshats for it. And for those, bugmenot is good.

But for others, there is a need for signup. And that shouldn't be swept under the rug.

I think a better approach could be to push for more usability and accessibility of the forms. Because thats something I am all for.

</comment><comment><USER13> Is the author proposing an open-source tool for registration automation/scraping, which would compete with LastPass, 1Password, etc? Or open-source infrastructure that could be used by all such services?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey. Author here. Yes the tool would be open source and automate the process of registration. Alongside registration, it will borrow ideas from bugmenot where logins are ranked according to whether they work or not. The only difference being that machine learning and other means are used to rank instead of an upvote system which is mostly unreliable.

Keep in mind, there are inherent problems like T.O.S breaching so the tool would have to deal with them the right way, and through the right channels. Perhaps a standard could be implemented and sites could 'opt in' to having the skeleton key used on their site. So yeah - like open source infrastructure too.

<comment><USER14> Would the proposed system use shared accounts, or automated new account registration for the user?

If the former, I think the opt-in is a dead end. If the websites thought that was good for them, they'd enable anonymous use, and it even might be illegal for them to cooperate (e.g. they would be breaking COPPA by offering a way for under-13 to use the site without following the proper steps).

<comment><AUTHOR> It would use both shared accounts, and auto registration, which depend on how complex the registration system is and what requirements it has. For example, on sites which have lots of traffic it is preferable to have a swarm of newly registered accounts arriving all the time because of unreliable users of the account deleting it, changing the password etc. On less traffic'd sites it would be preferable to have a few small accounts. I've observed this on bugmenot...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This seems like a solution for a problem that mostly doesn't exist anymore. I rarely encounter sites that require registration merely for reading. Many newspaper sites used to do that, but now they're mostly open, or paywalled.

On sites where I post or buy stuff, why would I want shared accounts? Maybe I can see it for software support sites. But even there, account reputation can be important.

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought of that too, and it would not be preferable to have shared logins, or an automated system in place for registering on e-commerce sites, or sites where money is moving in them. One could argue that a large portion of websites have money moving through them in one form or another, but I don't have the numbers / stats for that. This would be more for general purpose sites that have wall-gardened information, and also for sites that have arbitrary registration forms which exist for all the reasons (or lack of reasons) I outlined in my post.

<comment><USER15> Fair enough. Maybe some examples would help me understand.

I do get that registration can be a pain. But what I'd want wouldn't be a skeleton key, but rather a personal master key. Logins using Facebook and Google have become common.

But, being a privacy geek, I don't have accounts. And I definitely don't do cellphone authentication, because that is nontrivial to anonymize. However, I would want two-factor authentication. That's the tough problem, I think.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Aren't most website storing long-term cookies when the user check the "remember me" function? Also, I think that the most difficult part of an automatic signup system would be captchas.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is something I have thought about, but I've observed a great many websites that don't use a captcha because of whatever reason. All that's needed here is to bulk-solve captchas as they are needed. Not necessarily in a nefarious manner, but simply to isolate/silo the captcha solving process away to another system. There could a separate H.I.T (Human Intelligence Task) system similar to Amazon's Mechanical Turk program where the 'hard problem' of captchas scales down to a more manageable problem.

Depending on the size and scope of the skeleton key system, there could even be (very willing) people ready to solve them in exchange for a small fee. There's a startup if I saw one. Users of the skeleton key system could go premium if they want to bypass captcha systems and a portion of the money goes to the captcha-solver. Probably not a new idea, as I've seen many such nefarious systems in place for spam, except this would be legitimized!

<comment><USER12> you want to bulk solve captcha's, in a non nefarious manner? but do you realize that bulk solving is nefarious? captcha is to prove you are human, not a bot or script.

<comment><AUTHOR> Except for the fact that humans __are __solving them, only getting paid for solving them and rendering said captchas effectively redundant. The key term here is _isolation_ , where rather than captchas serving to hurt flow states, they are isolated away and offloaded more comfortably to the solvers who are happy to solve them in return for a reasonable fee. Google's new system is a bit more robust however and uses fingerprinting. One could argue that fingerprinting is more nefarious than letting people have a small income from captcha solving. On the subject of Google's fingerprinting [http://blog.higg.so/2015/02/24/googles-new-captcha- security-...](http://blog.higg.so/2015/02/24/googles-new-captcha-security- login-raises-no-concerns/)

<comment><USER12> you think the fact that humans solving them in an automated fashion, instead of a computer doing it, is what makes all the difference? Rendering the capthas redundant is the problem.

Maybe you just need an app that signs you up for sites.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


MMT Is Already Helping - <AUTHOR> https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/mmt-modern-monetary-theory-doug-henwood-overton-window <comment><USER3> This is a bad article.

I've actually been spending some time recently trying to get to know about MMT because it seems like it is emerging as important in the mainstream - <USER2> like Ezra Klein have bought on people to discuss its merits and things like that. I have found it unfathomably difficult to understand what is unique or interesting about MMT in its understanding of the world. There seems to be one core conclusion - that the US can choose not to care about tax revenue. That seems to be an incredibly convenient conclusion so we really need to understand the mechanisms of why that must be true. That's where I fall down, I have yet to follow the argument as to why.

This article in particular seems to take joy in focusing on the unimportant parts of the article to which it's responding. The focus is to attack the author for their perceived attacks on the backgrounds of the people they're talking about.

I think one key argument in the original article that this one is attacking is: "If you print money to fund government too much you will get inflation. How does MMT say you solve that problem?"

There's a lot of emotive language in the response, but no answers. Only ridiculous attacks. The original article reads to me like a serious person posing serious questions about what the implications and mechanics of MMT are, and this response just doesn't address them.

I'm really only just getting into this subject right now, but MMT looks incredibly weak to me.</comment>


Detecting Pulsars (Rotating Neutron Stars) with an RTL-SDR - <AUTHOR> http://www.rtl-sdr.com/detecting-pulsars-rotating-neutron-stars-with-an-rtl-sdr/ <comment><USER2> Interesting article. A pdf version of the East and Gancio paper referenced in the article at at [1].

Its also worth noting that they used a 30 meter dish, which is probably on the large side for amateur radio astronomy.

[1] [http://www.britastro.org/radio/projects/East_AmateurPulsarDe...](http://www.britastro.org/radio/projects/East_AmateurPulsarDetectionF-1.pdf)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not if you exploit the stars gravitational lensing:

[http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.188...](http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.188.1145&rep=rep1&type=pdf)

A mobile phone antenna (and power) might be well enough then.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Before realizing this was on a site for the RTL-SDR software, I found it very odd that the author felt the need to define "Pulsar" but not "RTL-SDR".

For those punching through without investigating, "RTL-SDR is a very cheap software defined radio that uses a DVB-T TV tuner dongle based on the RTL2832U chipset." So yea... this is pretty cool.</comment>


Mel's Diner - We need your help to bring Mel's Back - <AUTHOR> http://www.groupvestor.com/mels

<comment><USER2> Let me get this straight - people are being asked to donate to the rebuilding of a commercial franchise that was fully insured?

And rebuilding Mel's diner is the _only_ fundable project on this Groupvestor website, which is pretty much a straight clone of Kickstarter?

Astroturf alert.</comment>


Strike three for SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket (2008) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25990806/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/strike-three-spacexs-falcon-rocket/

<comment><AUTHOR> '"For my part, I will never give up and I mean never," Musk said.'

I found this to be a great article to re-read in retrospect. His determinism is truly applicable to everyone's lives.</comment>


Adults' obsession with science fiction causing society to become infantilised - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/simon-pegg-adults-obsession-with-science-fiction-causing-society-to-become-infantilised-10259337.html <comment><USER3> Seems to be less about _science fiction_ than about _comic books_ a.k.a. graphic novels, and in that more restricted context he might have a point. Generalizing wildly, that sub-genre really is a bit more escapist than SF (including fantasy) overall. Escapism is a fine thing in moderation - <USER2> entertainment has it as one element - but it can also be overdone. SF more generally has as much interpersonal drama and social commentary as any other genre. If you want to see some truly inane movies, "romantic comedy" is the genre to look at. I guess taking pot shots at geeks was a better/safer way for a second-rate actor to get some publicity, though.

<comment><USER4> Complaining about broad brush criticism of one genre then returning the favor to another genre is hardly fair.

<comment><USER3> Life's not fair, and I don't believe in giving everyone a trophy just for participating. There really are some genres that are - in fact if not of necessity - more or less devoid of intellectually stimulating content. That's not the same as saying they cause some sort of mind-rot, which is an important difference between my rejection of the OP's thesis and your rejection of mine. Another important difference is that I made an actual counterargument instead of just complaining. If you want to argue that (a) comics-based movies are no more escapist than SF generally, or (b) romantic comedies as they actually exist in theatres are something other than fluff, then you just go ahead. That's the way we learn from each other. Complaining about "fairness" instead of about the facts won't get anyone anywhere.

<comment><USER4> The main thing I disagreed with is that any one genre has a monopoly on stupidity. Your comment is like quoting "She loves you yeah yeah yeah" to dismiss the Beatles or pop music. A high premium placed on intellectualism rather than work that engages the heart, the soul, the hips, discusses social dynamics, and so forth.

Actually I mean romantic comedies in their entirety including all of film and literature. Your perspective evinces a strong familiarity with SF and a surface impression of recent romcoms but I could be wrong.

To me SF films are mainly about technology fetishism and the social commentary is incidental.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > _Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously!_

Wait, seriously how? Who? How many of them?

> _Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys._

Charlie Chaplin. Laurel and Hardy. Buster Keaton. John Wayne. Die Hard. Lethal Weapon. Airplane.

The World's End.

> _Now we're really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the > Hulk just had a fight with a robot."_

Yep. I took an afternoon off to treat a few people to Age of Ultron. It was awesome. Afterward, I went back to work.

I think this article can go sit right next to the nonsense about Clint Eastwood and the empty chair: "Person states opinions about society and ends up in the news because they're an actor, more at 11."

<comment><USER6> > _Wait, seriously how? Who? How many of them?_

Too many, all arounds us. You wouldn't catch many 20 and 30 years old dead in something like Comic-Con 30 years ago.

> _Charlie Chaplin. Laurel and Hardy. Buster Keaton. John Wayne._

Not sure how Chaplin, Keaton and John Wayne are in any way a counter-argument about films being "challenging, emotional journeys".

Something like "The Searchers" is an order of magnitude more poignant and challenging than Iron Man or Avengers. As for Chaplin, there's a reason he is taught in film school, and that is not because he was merely popular and funny.

> _Die Hard. Lethal Weapon. Airplane._

Only his point wasn't that there weren't slapstick or action movies back in the day, mostly for mindless fun. Just that those kind of movies (and even more naive "action" movies) are prevalent today with the 20-40 demographic, something which wasn't the case in decades past.

<comment><USER5> > _You wouldn 't catch many 20 and 30 years old dead in something like Comic- > Con 30 years ago._

BayCon has been around for 30 years. Before that, the niche interests just change -- my dad and his friends have been dressing up in 20s garb and driving 20s cars to period events since the 60s. There are Civil War re-enactments and sex clubs and costume parties and all sorts of things.

And anyway, making those things into an indictment of society at large is silly, especially when there are so many trivially easy indictments of society (like the way everyone always thinks this generation is worse than the ones before it).

> _Something like "The Searchers" is an order of magnitude more poignant and > challenging than Iron Man or Avengers._

Are you being disingenuous, or did you not realize you're cherry-picking here? Spaghetti Westerns and shoot-em-ups and grindhouse films and silent comedies have all occupied a place as entertainment alongside more serious films, and "serious" films, if that's what you're into, are still alive and well.

Try comparing Laurel and Hardy's "A Perfect Day" to The Avengers while comparing The Searchers to, I dunno, Gran Torino or Million Dollar Baby or Interstellar or whatever your poison.

> _Just that those kind of movies (and even more naive "action" movies) are > prevalent today with the 20-40 demographic, something which wasn't the case > in decades past._

And my point is that he's wrong, and history proves it.

This is just a classic rose-colored glasses problem, that's all. People are imagining history as they prefer to imagine it, not as it was.

This page has a picture of the nonexistent 20-40 year olds turning out to see Stan Laurel in 1947: [http://www.nwemail.co.uk/memories/stan-at-queen-s-first- roya...](http://www.nwemail.co.uk/memories/stan-at-queen-s-first-royal- variety-show-1.1015949)

"When one goes, as I did recently, to a city like Chicago and finds on the South Side, a district equivalent to New York's Harlem, a two-million-dollar building of a magnificence housing nothing but photoplays, and sees over four thousand people packed in, watching and listening and obviously amused and thrilled, he asks what all this means, and admits, unless he is a Dumbkopf, the coming in of a new order. Particularly is he amazed and bewildered when, in the same city, he witnesses a brilliant spoken farce-comedy, deftly played by distinguished actors, given before half-empty benches – yet in the very heart of the town. What is one to say in the light of such over-whelming evidence? Simply that something has entered the world, suddenly, which grips the people, appeals to them, rivets their attention, and drives them out of the old established theatres."

That was written in 1921.

Context at [https://nenaghsilentfilmfestival.wordpress.com/category/frid...](https://nenaghsilentfilmfestival.wordpress.com/category/friday- facts/)

<comment><USER6> > _BayCon has been around for 30 years._

Star Trek conventions and other stuff too. But all of those were a very fringe thing to what Comic-Con is today, and were not attended by late-20 or 30-somethings...

> _Before that, the niche interests just change -- my dad and his friends have > been dressing up in 20s garb and driving 20s cars to period events since the > 60s. There are Civil War re-enactments and sex clubs and costume parties and > all sorts of things._

A costume ball or a civil war re-enanactment (much less a "sex club") is not the same kind of thing as a comics/star wars/etc based pop culture that's mainstream with adults.

> _This page has a picture of the nonexistent 20-40 year olds turning out to > see Stan Laurel in 1947_

Not sure what the relevance is. Stan Laurel was a comedian and a famous actor. Nobody said comedy and movies weren't popular with adults.

We're talking about stuff like Batman and similar superhero stuff -- which was something few 20-40 year olds cared for even in the early 80s.

<comment><USER5> Oh. Even monster movies like 1931's Frankenstein don't count? (Which grossed $185 million in 2015 terms.)

Well, OK. I guess you can argue the "infantilisation" of society from the narrowest possible definition so that it represents just one particular modern fad. I guess that means you get to believe society is newly infantile up until the novelty of realistic superhero movies wears off?

My mistake, anyway. I thought there was a debate over "this fad means society is more infantile than it used to be", not, "superhero movies specifically mean that society is now infantile". The first argument is common but wrong and easily rebutted, the second one wouldn't've been worth the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sci-fi seems to mean 'anything that looks vaguely technical in a story'.

SF, especially, hard SF, has always tackled grown up questions.

Here are a few I have recently re-read:

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Saturn's Children by Charles Stross, Engines Of Light by Ken McLeod, 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke, Robots of Dawn, etc. by Isaac Asimov.

</comment><comment><USER8> I agree that society is becoming infantilized and this is a huge problem, but I'm going to call a complete miss on the attempt to identify the cause. For one thing, most adults are not fans of science fiction to any significant degree, which means it can't be a significant factor.

</comment><comment><USER9> The most extreme instance of this being the adults who watch (and take rather seriously) My Little Pony? Something I've always found unsettling.

</comment><comment><USER10> I think someone completely missed the point of Avengers 2. He claims that science fiction takes our focus away from real world issues (lets completely ignore for the moment, that is the sole point of entertainment) But science fiction in general typically tackles real world problems set in a different place or time. Avengers tackled issues such as AIs and robots taking over (While not an immediate issue, it is more important today than a few years ago) Or giving up our freedom for security (basically locking humanity up in a cage to protect them) Or the fact that someone who has altruistic intentions could still harm someone. Science Fiction tends to tackle more "real world" issues than many other forms of entertainment does.

</comment><comment><USER11> To be honest I'm glad to hear any celebrity come out in support of sophistication in entertainment or anything else. Of course, the irony is that it is the public dependance on celebrity judgement that infantilizes society. Precious few philosophers, writers, and thinkers every make any sort of impact at all on the mainstream, and the ones that do _always_ have a celebrity to thank for the exposure (and her name is usually "Oprah").

In any event, yeah, it's clear Pegg meant a certain sub-genre, comic-book science fiction. There have been plenty of extraordinary SF films over the years that are quite delicate and complex, Ex Machina not least among them.

</comment><comment><USER12> This doesn't come off as particularly convincing. Is the argument that Fast and Furious movies are "challenging, emotional journeys" while Iron Man isn't?

What I do find a bit concerning is the avalanche of super hero movies. While I've been raised on a diet of French and US comics, and like a good braindead super hero movie (or even less braindead, like Watchmen), monocultures are not a good thing. More variety would be nice. But thinking they are more silly than generic Hollywood blockbusters is a weird complaint.

</comment><comment><USER13> The comment that this page reiterates concerns the garish, collectible candy that Marvel and DC have made their stock-in-trade.

Folks who prefer their science fiction from the likes of Jack Womack, Cormack McCarthy or any of the masters of science fiction need not be concerned.

Move along please, there's nothing to see here.

<comment><USER12> I would like to mention that DC, under its Vertigo imprint, has published some terrific adult-oriented comics (including Sandman). Not all comics involve dimension-hoping shapeshifting vampires from outer space out to destroy NY (and even some "regular" comics, like Frank Miller's Daredevil, have had some good plotting, art and character development).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Good luck getting a lucid discussion about this on HN.

<comment><USER14> The only discussion to be had about the article is:

"Since when has comicbook superhero garbage counted as scifi?" "It still doesn't."

End of conversation.

<comment><USER6> I rest my case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Projection?

<comment><USER6> No, observation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Is there some browser extension to filter HN based on target domains?

</comment><comment><USER17> A bad case of rose tinted spectacles.</comment>


Monitor your site, and do it for free... - <AUTHOR> http://www.verelo.com/

<comment><USER3> the first thing I thought when I read the summary pricing page was that it does 2 checks for free and then stops. that obviously can't be the case - <USER2> that was what I thought.

<comment><USER4> Two checks means you can have two checks running at a 60 second interval for free, forever :-)</comment></comment>


Such a Little Thing: The Semicolon in Rust - <AUTHOR> http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2012/10/18/such-a-little-thing/ <comment><USER2> Is that really some "special behavior"? As far as i understand the semicolon is just an expression separator like in Erlang and Pascal. In contrast, the semicolon is a statement terminator in C. C uses the comma for expression separation. Practically everything is an expression in Rust, even blocks, so

      foo()       => evaluates to the return value of foo
      { foo() }   => evaluates to the return value of foo
      { foo(); }  => evaluates to nil

The last case is _not_ a special case. The last expression in the block determines the returned value. There is an expression separator in there, so there must be two expressions which are separated by it. The first one is foo() and second one is ... wait for it ... the empty expression. Which value should EmptyExpression have? Of course: nil, which would be called void in C-land.

<comment><USER3> There was some discussion about doing this in D, and there was some in C++11, too. I argued that the presence or absence of the ; did not visually stand out very well, and so would be a source of confusion and errors.

Hence, ; remained as a statement terminator, and the return keyword served to indicate returning an expression.

However, the D lambda syntax does not require a ; when the lambda body consists of only a single expression:

<http://dlang.org/expression.html#Lambda>

and in practice this has turned out to be well liked.

<comment><USER2> An understandable point of view.

Though I can think of an even more crazy variation. Declare the semicolon a binary operator and allow overloading it.

As funny as that sounds, Haskell provides something like this, as do-notation can behave differently depending on the monad it is in.

<comment><USER4> Your post made me check it, and you CAN overload "operator," in C++ apparently :)

[http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C%2B%2B_Programming/Operators/O...](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C%2B%2B_Programming/Operators/Operator_Overloading#Comma_operator)

My mind is blown. You can write bottom-up code in C++ :)

EDIT: no, you still can't the expressions are evaluated first, before calling "operator,"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I memorably referred to Rust's significant semicolons as "the worst thing in the language" after my very first read through the tutorial, last November.

Almost a year later, I'm just as in love with Rust's semicolon rules as Armin is. However, I bet new users will still be just as instinctively revolted as I initially was.

<comment><USER6> I guess it depends on what languages you're experienced with. I just read through the Rust tutorial for the first time 2 days ago, and I fell in love with the semicolon rule at first sight.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7>
        The downside is that you would have to put () (Rust's version of "nil") in a bunch of functions to fulfil the requirements of the callback's signature since otherwise the type inferred from the function would be the value of the last expression

Wouldn't co/contra-variance solve this entirely? It works just fine in Scala for example

        scala> def runTwice(f: () => Unit) = {
             |  f()
             |  f()
             | }
        runTwice: (f: () => Unit)Unit

        scala> runTwice{ () =>
             |  println("moo")
             |  1
             | }
        moo
        moo

Note how it expects a function that returns Unit, i'm passing in a function that returns an Int (1), but the compiler is perfectly happy.

<comment><USER8> I implemented basically this in Rust, and it was overwhelmingly rejected by the community at the time. People seem to like the strict typechecking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _Are semicolons annoying to type? Probably, I got used to them_

The semicolon is the least-annoying non-letter character to type. It's right there on your home row.

<comment><USER10> Hello American. I'm from one of those other pesky countries that make up most of the human population of earth, and which usually have other keyboard layouts. I have to type shift+, to get the semicolon.

<comment><USER11> Which keyboard layout is that?

<comment><USER12> Czech; German; Polish; French; Spanish; Italian; Portuguese; etc etc etc.

<comment><USER13> That being said, there are also programmer's layouts specific to single languages which among others have a semi-colon on the home row.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is it just me or is this kind of ugly in the first place?

We're trying to mix logic that executes on each element in a sequence, with logic that controls how to iterate over that sequence. That is, a "return 42" statement will tell .each to stop iterating, but its contained within a block that is supposed to do things to individual elements.

The mathematical concept just doesn't sit right with me.. I guess if all you have as an iterator is 'each' then that would necessitate finding an additional way to modify iteration in some way, but still.. I don't like the fact that a return statement can break out of something outside of its own scope

edit: even the low-level alternative seems nicer

        for(blah;blah;blah) {
            stuff;
        }

</comment><comment><USER15> I'd just like to express my appreciation for the depth of this article. I always learn something from Armin Ronacher.

</comment><comment><USER16> I still don't understand why they couldn't just introduce a new keyword that has the same meaning as a missing semicolon. Call it 'ret' or something as a 'lesser return'. Relying on ppl to be semicolon hunters is poor for readability.

It also means you can't put more expressions on the same line because doing so requires a semi-colon which then eliminates the special semicolon behavior. Having an explicit 'ret' keyword means you could accomplish that and have more expressions for a separate block on the same line if desired.

</comment><comment><USER17> Take a look at Haskell for a very clean and expressive syntax without (required) semicolons.

<comment><USER18> I'd rather have significant semi-colons than significant whitespace[1]. Don't mix presentation and semantics.

1: [http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SyntacticallySignificantWhitespaceCon...](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SyntacticallySignificantWhitespaceConsideredHarmful)

<comment><USER19> I'd rather have the ability to choose between and freely mix significant whitespace and significant semi-colons within a single source file.

<comment><USER20> No you wouldn't. See Javascript for all the pain that causes. Language syntax needs to be dictatorial so that the language is consistent for reading (which is more important than writing).

<comment><AUTHOR> JavaScript's problem isn't that you can choose whether or not to use semicolons, it's that they're automatically put in for you if you omit them.

[http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2011/2/6/automatic-semicolon- inserti...](http://lucumr.pocoo.org/2011/2/6/automatic-semicolon-insertion/)

Technically, Python is a much better example of optional semicolons since you can use them and they're not required. Of course, the real reason they exist is for compound statements.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8236380/why-is- semicolon-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8236380/why-is-semicolon- allowed-in-this-python-snippet)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Actually, that's a lot of words to say that ; is a binary operator, if i'm correct.

a ; b is the operator which returns the value of b. And, there is some syntactic sugar to make a ; equivalent to a ; nil which returns nil.

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm all with the author with the Ruby love and it looks like Rust managed to implement them in a cleaner syntactic way compared to Ruby.

However, that template code was utterly hideous.

<comment><USER5> Normally in Rust you'd never use a trait like that without bringing it into the local namespace, so you wouldn't need to qualify it with its module like Armin does. And in future versions of Rust, Num will inherit from both the Eq and Copy traits, so the signature would instead look like this:

      fn find_even<T: Num>(vec: &[T]) -> Option<T> {

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I haven't looked at Rust, but the semi colon looks like a decision to make some common verbose or "ugly" syntax to be less noisy. Admittedly most syntax has quirks, and this seems more like a quirk rather than an instance of "clever design". Ignoring the explanation of the differences between statements and expressions, the rest of the discussion is about the presence of a semicolon.

</comment><comment><USER24> "But the alternative to semicolons is making line endings significant."

Only sorta - consider Haskell's indent rule: code which is part of an expression should be indented further than the start of that expression. Generally, this is something you should be doing to make your code readable regardless of the statement termination.

</comment><comment><USER25> And with Rust's strong static typing, it's even easier to spot. While I love a preference for expressions, in CoffeeScript I've had to put a single null at the end of functions several times.

The presence/absence of the ; is both explicit and subtle enough to not annoy.

</comment><comment><USER26> As an aside, the "power_it" function in Python can also be written as:

        map(lambda t: t ** 2, [1,2,3,4])

or even:

        [(lambda t: t**2)(x) for x in [1,2,3,4]]

<comment><USER27> > [(lambda t: t __2)(x) for x in [1,2,3,4]]

Why would you have that lambda?

        [x**2 for x in range(1, 5)]

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> My kingdom for a TL;DR!

(As a prerequisite to making its point, the article teaches many intricate details regarding two dynamic languages which even most of their practitioners probably never think about, then dives into more intricate details regarding a language which most of us have probably never even used, let along grokked all the details of. I sense that there's something important here for me to learn, but from where I sit this article is a lot to bite off all at once.)

A tight summary by someone who understands all this would be appreciated by many readers, not just myself.

<comment><USER27> > A tight summary by someone who understands all this would be appreciated by > many readers, not just myself.

A tight summary of all of it would be as long as the article. However, the point about semicolons in Rust is:

1\. ; is a separator, not a terminator.

2\. a;b separates a and b.

3\. a; is a special case which means a;nil(or whatever is the equivalent in Rust)

4\. The last expression in a function will be the return value of the function.

5\. If the last line in a function is "a", it returns a. If it's "a;", it returns nil(from 3)

<comment><USER28> Perfect, thank you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Neat. I came up with this rule some time ago for my as-yet-unimplemented pet language, but I didn't realize Rust did the same thing.

</comment><comment><USER30> Some of this seems cool and some of it is soaring over my head. I'm kind of embarassed and newly motivated to learn Rust.</comment>


Making of Highway 4k - <AUTHOR> http://www.ylilammi.com/webgl/highway4k/Making%20of%20Highway%204k.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Pouet archive for it [http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61668](http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61668)</comment>


UK startup bank launches long-awaited Android app - <AUTHOR> https://monzo.com/blog/2016/09/29/android/ <comment><USER2> Available only from the Google Play Store. I have the same issue with number26.[1]

Also, plenty of "Mondo" references throughout that page, despite the front page proclaiming the name change to "Monzo" two months ago. It doesn't inspire confidence. If I hadn't known they were branded Mondo previously, I'd probably be suspicious of the intent of that Android App page.

[1] [https://n26.com/](https://n26.com/)</comment>


The Diary of an Ex-Tesla Intern - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/40430865/the-diary-of-an-ex-tesla-intern <comment><USER2> Wow, the Clickbait Enforcement Officer will surely win this years Golden Eleven award for the original title. The content reads like a Tesla PR piece all the while the title hints at yet Silicon Valley expose.

<comment><USER3> What's "Golden Eleven" in reference to?

<comment><USER2> [https://youtu.be/uMSV4OteqBE?t=1m16s](https://youtu.be/uMSV4OteqBE?t=1m16s) \+ golden as in golden globes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This bit is interesting :

"I remember distinctly my first day, a full-time software engineer asked me to finish coding something that was to be pushed out in a firmware update later in the day. He rattled off a few instructions, told me to be careful not to ruin all the cars, and promptly ran off to a meeting."

Is this for real? An intern on their first day writing production code to be pushed into a firmware update for same-day release?

<comment><USER5> FTA: "I focused specifically on technical documentation and diagnosis of issues with Model S components. _I also worked on the product development of internal widgets_ "

So, he didn't work on things like battery firmware or self-driving. That makes it _slightly_ more believable, but I think the probability is higher that this was either a prank, or they checked his work behind his back.

<comment><USER6> > or they checked his work behind his back

I'd be pretty sad if there was code being pushed out at Tesla which wasn't checked first. I don't think the implication is that it wouldn't be checked, just that they felt that they got to make a meaningful contribution on the first day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "ate a ton of Costco breakfast sausages. I must have eaten close to 15-25 sausages a day"

I knew it was a sausage fest, but I misunderstood what kind of sausage fest.

<comment><USER8> I wonder how he'd feel after 450mg of cholesterol each day, too!

[1] [http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/costco- breakfast-s...](http://www.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/costco-breakfast- sausage-links-breakfast-sausage-links-323243343)

<comment><USER9> Cholesterol is fine, the lack of vitamins is not. Too little potassium too. Also never mix this with much sugar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > Elon calls those working at Tesla the "special ops" of the industry. You're > expected to do more with less every single day

I hate it when leaders that probably never served in the military use metaphors they don't understand for pushing employees to the limit.

SpecOps are all about having the best tools for the job, preparation, training, in order to succeed on a mission.

<comment><USER11> Supply chain. Special ops are behind enemy lines without access to the supply chain, backup, or ongoing intelligence. And despite all this they must complete more difficult missions. That is doing more with less.

<comment><USER12> But to compensate for the less, they get more in other areas. The less they're saddled with is dictated by circumstances, not as some form of cost cutting. In fact, no expense is spared on the more they're given - the best training and best equipment. They don't have to do more with less, they have to do more with more, in harsher conditions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think the more interesting thing here is probably what he doesn't mention. Given the amount of sausages he appears to be eating daily I suspect he was spending most of his day there. However his previous history also indicates working all hours. I'm guessing if work dominates your life then Tesla is for you. Personally I need a good work/life balance.

[edit] As mentioned in the comment below, "good work/life balance" is subjective and "different work/life balance" is a better way of putting my point across.

<comment><USER14> Good is subjective. It resonates more with me, if you'd say: "I need a _different_ work/life balance". Just as a suggestion...

<comment><USER13> Have updated my original comment to reflect this. It's a very valid point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> You know, I think this is the first article I've seen on working for Tesla (or SpaceX, for that matter) that has been wholly positive. Most of the time its more "They work you like hell and I have no life outside of work, but damn is this going to look good on my resume when I move on in a year"

<comment><USER16> > _but damn is this going to look good on my resume when I move on in a year_

I'd guess those are exactly the people those companies want to avoid, so no surprise those are also the people who are complaining the most.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > As an intern [...] spent only 10% of my time on meetings

In my experience, interns spend maybe 2% of their time on meetings. Mostly they are left to do their thing, be it alone (if you have a project, common in higher levels of education) or with colleagues (more hands-on stuff; lower levels of education). Is that different in America?

</comment><comment><USER18> Honestly don't understand who has upvoted this, it's just a PR fluff piece.

</comment><comment><USER19> Why is the webpage 100x longer than the article?

</comment><comment><USER20> And he didn't get to drive one of the cars? I would be flippin' tables and causing all kinds of scenes!

</comment><comment><USER21> Site scrolling is horribly broken on mobile. I couldn't read beyond 1 paragraph.

<comment><USER22> [https://outline.com/entYNq](https://outline.com/entYNq)</comment></comment>


Do Acquisitions Always Kill Products? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.eladgil.com/2014/01/do-acquisitions-always-kill-products.html <comment><USER2> This is an interesting article and I like the author's characterizations of acquisitions, but I cannot imagine a worse way to present that data than this. Including a large spreadsheet via a tiny viewing portal in a narrow-format blog post.

I'm curious if there is a reason for including it this way as I don't see anything in the SS that could not presented in a simple list, like this:

      Acqui-hire
      Soft landing with small signing bonuses for the team. Usually the investors
        get nothing and the common stock may more or less get wiped.
      Product survival: 0%
      % of Tech Acquisitions: 20%
      Founder retention after 2 years: Mixed, depending on how well the team integration
        goes, and whether the founders are given real roles or sidelined. If founders
        are exhausted they may enjoy the slower pace of a larger company.
      Examples: Most people don't want their acqui-hire to be characterized as such

<comment><USER3> yeah, i am trying to clean up the formatting now :/ published too soon

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The embedded Google Spreadsheet is proof that not all products are killed by acquisitions: [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/its-nice-to- share.htm...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/its-nice-to-share.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> To view the spreadsheet full screen

Right click - this frame - show only this frame.

Or just go to [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoNag2KcCMGvdGR...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoNag2KcCMGvdGRtZVIyV2NWQlZQTWRLNmVScFRQZGc&chrome=false&gid=0)

</comment><comment><USER6> Most acquired products aren't dead if you use an specific definition of "alive": [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_theseus)

<comment><USER3> Well, if they are completely shut down (i.e. server is turned off) they are pretty dead :)</comment></comment>


Why Write? - <AUTHOR> http://www.varely.com/posts/48

<comment><USER2> I appreciate the sentiment, but I hope this is going to be followed with "Why Proofread?" and "Why Edit?".

<comment><AUTHOR> <http://www.varely.com/posts/50> your wish is my command</comment></comment>


On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs - <AUTHOR> http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ <comment><USER2> This is why people believe their currency has value - just ask the people in Venezuela. There is no reason for an income tax if governments can simply print currency, except that jobs and associated income taxes prop up belief in the currency. This is one reason the US government started to tax the American social security (pension) recipients rather than simply print more money, if you pay taxes on the income then the money has value.</comment>


Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tells WSJ that he was part of the problem - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579194150724298162 <comment><USER2> I just got slapped in the face by a register-wall, and honestly, I just don't think anything is worth signing up for spam (at best!).</comment>


You need a license to watch TV in the UK? - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom <comment><USER2> Yes. And in many other countries as well. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence) .</comment>


Write email to support Ukrainian Army Troops - a-b http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=uk&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mil.gov.ua%2Findex.php%3Flang%3Dua%26part%3Dnews%26sub%3Dread%26id%3D32800 better translation http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=uk&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mil.gov.ua%2Findex.php%3Flang%3Den%26part%3Dnews%26sub%3Dread%26id%3D32800&sandbox=1 <comment><AUTHOR> You mean support nazis? I am sure most of the people from europe and usa don't even know who are those who overthrown a government, they are nazis, they damage world war monuments and try to prohibit russian language, they are walking yelling nazi propoganda and I dont think they are people I want to support.

<comment><USER2> So you think a country is just going to have a nice peaceful revolution without fringe political movements making moves to be in the drivers seat when the country starts to stabilize again?

There are def. Nazi supporters in the mix, the pictures and such don't lie. To assume all Ukrainians that are actively participating in the overthrow of their own government are Nazis just because a fringe group exhibit Nazi propaganda sounds like a whole lot of throwing out the baby the bath water to me.

Every revolution we've seen in the past few years has been either partially orchestrated or fully hijacked by an opposed political party. Arab Spring was full of Al Qaida, Hezbollah, and Muslim Brotherhood influences to the point that in Egypt they had to basically have a revolution of their revolution to break the power structures that settled after the first one and out the leaders that ended up making power grabs during the chaos.

If you were to see a similar thing here in the US you'd better believe half of the people would be classified terrorists and there would be a power struggle between the two primary opposing parties and the fringe parties that would hope to capitalize on the chaos, they(KKK, BlackPanthers, "Don't Tread on Me" crowd, etc.) would all be trying to garner support/awareness and make a good name/image for a political role after things had calmed down.</comment></comment>