The Elite Newspaper of the Future - <AUTHOR> http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4605 <comment><USER3> To me it seems pretty obvious that newspapers should not compete on gossip and up to the minute news, but rather on commenting, in-depth analysis and investigative reporting. The latter is not easy to find on a consistent basis on the Internet, and there is a clear market for it.

The economist, for example, does exactly this - and their circulation has grown 95% in the last ten years.

<comment><USER4> What you and this post are talking about is transitioning toward being an intelligence service, not an all you can eat info buffet.

The Economist provides actionable intelligence on what's happening in the world. It truly is "news you can use."

Example: Back when I was applying to be a CIA agent (i pulled out after passing the first few steps) the interviewers routinely told me to read the Economist from cover to cover. The CIA considers it the definitive, authoritative consumer news product, full of information you can act on.

Same with the other example mentioned here, Consumer Reports.

That said, even if that's where newspapers go, they're still overstaffed. You don't need 1,000 reporters to break down what's happening in Chicago that week in a useful way.

The link economy that Jeff Jarvis blogs about so much (BuzzMachine.com - <USER2> must-read for people interested in the future of news) means you don't need as many people to re-report all the stuff your competitor reported.

Over at my humble Chicago news startup, I'm laying the groundwork for what I believe is the next sustainable metro news model.

Three pieces: 1\. A crowd-powered, local link aggregator. Digg for Chicago, to be succinct. Open-source your tip line. Let your readers vote up, discuss and share neat, weird and important local links.

2\. A blog network. Stick 2-3 local experts on every topic that newspapers typically assign beat reporters to. Have them aggregate, comment and contextualize 2-3 times a week. Create conversations around hot topics. We started a blog about Lollapalooza over the summer and posted to it just for 4-days. It was a big hit for us and was noticed by every news organization covering the festival.

3\. Hard-hitting, impactful reporting/features that draw on what's hot from the link aggregator and the blogs. Once a week we publish something that you absolutely have to know to stay ahead of the conversation. To use blogger lingo, this should be linkbait of the highest caliber.

Anyway, I agree with the assessment in this article. You can either go low- brow (The Chicago Tribune now has a CollegeHumor-style blog that their interns run...it's awful) or you can go high.

<comment><USER5> _... an intelligence service ..._

That was the exact phrase that popped into my head after reading the subhead.

Now for one of those nutty, wild-assed guesses: what do you think about _Anathem_?

<comment><USER4> Sorry, haven't read it! Or any Stephensen, actually.

 _forfeits in geek card_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a great read, and highlights a common thought circulating in the media industry: investigative journalism is dying because of cost cutting in newsrooms. But that is exactly the kind of journalism that can save newspapers. Rather than focusing on keeping the main thing the main thing, newspapers are effectively cutting off their oxygen supply.

On a note related to my startup (NewsCred), I found it very interesting that the author could empirically prove that trust in a newspaper directly leads to increased ad rates and circulation.

<comment><USER7> I think it's a good sign that there ARE sites like NewsCred. Anything that aims for credibility and quality above everything else is a trend in the right direction.

<comment><USER6> Thanks - there are certainly a lot of challenges, but so far things have gone great and we have hundreds of thousands of readers who have been supporting us. Thanks for the hat tip.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Eacy day it publishes the Wall St. Journal has three page one articles that to a large extent provide in-depth reporting. They spend the time and money to fully report and edit these stories. Reporters I know are jealous of the time WSJ reports can spend developing these stories.

The point I take from this is that the kind of deep reporting papers need to differentiate themselves is not cheap or easy.

</comment><comment><USER9> So basically what the Economist, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, etc have been doing?

<comment><USER10> don't forget the new yorker. the best $1 i spend a week. (for reference, the sunday NYT is $6 with home delivery.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> _[Craig Newmark of craigslist] is what business school people call a "bad competitor" because he appears more interested in serving society than making money._

 _He does make money by charging certain kinds of users, but the bulk of his service is free. He is like Henry Ford who, after introducing the Model T, lowered prices, increased wages and concentrated on market share rather than maximizing profit. When challenged by shareholders unhappy that their dividends weren't higher, he replied that they should view his company as "an instrument of service rather than as a machine for making money."_

startup relevance: I've seen growth at the expense of profit painted as megalomaniacal empire-building, and I felt the strain of the selfishness of it, but not recognized it intellectually. Growth can sometimes be justified economically, if it can improve future profitability, so it's not "growth vs. profit" but "future vs. now" (i.e. an investment). There's security in not maximizing immediate profits, too - craigslist isn't going out of business any time soon; and the goodwill generated by "leaving money on the table" is arguably worth something.

</comment><comment><USER12> Print news is thriving - it's merely the ink-and-paper medium that's in decline. The challenge is to monetize that audience. I believe we'll continue to see a bifurcation between those that specialize in analysis (The Economist, WSJ, NYT) and opinion. (Huffington Post, Town Hall, Politico) It's the local papers that provide little beyond repackaging the newswires with a bit of local content that may not have a future.

</comment><comment><USER13> There is a fairly successful business that was started in my part of the world (formerly my part of the world) - Nova Scotia, Canada - <http://www.novascotiabusinessjournal.com/> that's very similar to this.

You'll note there's nearly nothing available on their web site.</comment>


3D-printed Aerospike Rocket Engine - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1108292587/3d-printed-aerospike-rocket-engine <comment><USER2> I'm not sure this is really a good fit for a Kickstarter project. I love rockets/space/science/etc and fully support researching cheaper launch methods, but for most people to invest, they want to get something back. There are very few people who will/can donate to something on a purely altruistic basis. These guys aren't a charity and I can't even get a tax write-off. Pushing a button, while cool, is not really a return on investment and only rocketry enthusiasts with extra money (a rare combination) will be willing to pay for that. The cheaper reward tiers offer a "Master-Class on 3d printing and rocket science" which will have more backers due to the 3d printing information but probably not enough to clear their goal.

I think a better way to spur investment would be offering a reward tier that gives a portion of the company (i.e., a $x investment gets you a y% stake in the company). This is just selling stock in a company off of Wall Street and probably a better fit for a company that isn't offering services or a physical product to the general public. I'm not sure what kind of regulations you have to follow (or if kickstarter would even allow it) but it would certainly open up the field of potential backers to include the folks that know/care nothing about rockets but would like to make some money when the company is inevitably bought out by a larger space launch company like SpaceX.

<comment><USER3> How about sending your photo to space and recovering it?

What about sending any tiny object (with weight and size restrictions) into space and recovering it?

The higher levels could offer to send a small custom payload into space (if not orbit) e.g. a smartphone with sensors.

The first two would be more for the novelty (this ring was in space!), where the last might be for a university project or something.

<comment><USER4> And at the $50,000 tier, we'll put a 10" wrench with your name on it into the same orbit as your favorite NRO satellite.

<comment><USER3> There's a big difference between getting something "to 'space'" and getting something into orbit. More than 28,000 km/h difference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'd be enthusiastic about nano-satallites, if the space-fairing component of human civilization had established reliable processes for keeping low earth orbit clean and free of orbiting pollution, debris and junk.

The last thing we need is more high-velocity objects being randomly inserted into orbit by hobbyists, when there's no reliable means to clean up the objects left in orbit by predecessors.

[http://images.gizmag.com/inline/space-debris-kessler- syndrom...](http://images.gizmag.com/inline/space-debris-kessler-syndrome- nasa-debrisat-7.jpg)

How about a startup/kickstarter that harvests existing space junk, instead of one that encourages people to haphazardly produce more?

<comment><USER6> I am the creator of the project. We are not expecting to launch nanosats higher than 400 km. or 600km in case of Sun Synchronous Orbit. All these nanosat orbits will degrade in 1.5-3 years and reenter and burn up in atmosphere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is really cool.

I would love to see more details about how the engines are 3d printed, and the plans for the designs. Will these engine designs be open sourced?

Also, the rewards are a little difficult to parse. A list format would probably be easier to read, rather than one sentence with each reward concatenated to the rest with 'and'. I think having the 'all previous rewards plus ...' is a better format as well, but that is more personal preference.

[EDIT]

Further, there is no break down of how the money will be used. It seems like 'give us money and we'll do cool things with it' but without any clarification of how much money is really needed to do those cool things.

[EDIT2]

There is a pretty amazing blog over at Rocket Moonlighting [0] that contains a lot of details around 3d printed rocket engines. Well worth a look.

[0] [http://rocketmoonlighting.blogspot.co.nz/](http://rocketmoonlighting.blogspot.co.nz/)

<comment><USER6> I am the creator of the project. It is unlikely that plans and designs will ever become open sourced. Considering experience of DefDist and their issues with State Dept because of open plans of "Liberator" gun, we are being careful not to expose designs to outside of United States.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> After being on a team that was launching cube sats with old ICBMs this reusable launch platform for science excites me!

<comment><USER9> Yeah, this is obviously a _very_ highly ambitious project, but I think that it is the _right sort_ of ambitious. Even if their ultimate plans don't come to fruition, it should be very interesting to see what they accomplish. This is the sort of project where the journey is as exciting as the goal.

I'm a little surprised to see that they are going with pumped LOX instead of pressure-fed. With engines that small I would have expected the extra hardware to be a poor tradeoff.

<comment><USER6> I am the creator of this project. We are doing pump-feeding because we have to grow as designers and analysts. First stage engines are going to be 9 times more powerful and will definitely need pumps. It is way better to mitigate risks by designing small scale low-risk propulsion system early

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Pet peeve: this is a spike nozzle, not an aerospike.

The aerospike engine has a truncated physical spike that is extended by an "aerospike" that is formed by the pressurized turbine exhaust.

It's still crude and early, but it's very nice that people are actually building rocket stuff! Too bad ITAR is a problem...

<comment><USER11> I think you're wrong. Spike nozzle has the spike which extends the whole length until flow from different sides converges. Aerospike is truncated but the circulating gas doesn't need to come from turbine; neither X-33 nor Spiral projects dropped turbine exhaust through the spike.

<comment><USER10> NASA CR-1998-207923 The Control System for the X-33 Linear Aerospike Engine by Jerry E. Jackson, Erich Espenchied, Jeffrey Klop

"A secondary flow (turbine drive gases) is exhausthed throug the nozzle base and adds to the recirculating flow to increase the base pressure and the overall nozzle efficiency."

[http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/1998017...](http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19980174934_1998118014.pdf)

Had to curl it, since pdf.js always froze before loading it. For some reason the column layout is broken so quoting the text required quite a lot of hand editing.

<comment><USER11> Thank you. However, turbine exhaust can't provide much thrust - both flow and speed aren't large. So the spike nozzle doesn't get much thrust from turbine gases - yet it can get it from chamber gases.

<comment><USER10> Which was not my point. Low pressure turbine exhaust gas serves a purpose. Hence the whole name of the engine, "aerospike".

It's not very important, it's just names. This project is hardly the first one to not distinguish between spike nozzles and aerospikes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hey nadirkazan. With 3D printing, could it be possible and affordable to make really tiny rocket engines for other uses, like radio controlled flying things? I'm thinking something like a moon lander, but smaller (really small, quadrocopter size). I would buy that :)

<comment><USER11> The problem is not so much building as it is cooling small engines. Scaling works against you here. You can download a good simulating tool for liquid fuel rocket engines - [http://www.propulsion- analysis.com/](http://www.propulsion-analysis.com/) \- it will show how, when you're decreasing engine size and fuel flow it becomes not enough fuel to cool of the engine.

Spike nozzle is particularly problematic around the throat, which has bigger area than for a regular bell-shaped nozzle.

<comment><USER10> A heat sink engine could work in pulsed operation.

<comment><USER11> True. However this mode isn't very useful when you need to lift something from Earth - or just to keep it in the air.

<comment><USER10> You could have a glider. Or a boost-glide vehicle to be more precise.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> is it subject to ITAR?

<comment><USER9> Almost certainly, unless they are not operating from within the US: [http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/offdocs/itar/p121.htm#C-IV](http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/offdocs/itar/p121.htm#C-IV)

<comment><USER13> when in US the ITAR still applies AFAIK - getting any access to or knowledge transfer from ITAR project to non-US person, etc... Looks like starting from 1K plegde - invitation to test fire the engine - may run afoul of it.

<comment><USER9> Yes, that is my understanding. I believe that unless they are entirely non-US based, this would be subject to ITAR.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This timeline is not realistic. No discussion of a control system at all for guidance and (more difficult) stability.

<comment><USER6> This project is for engine only. We are separately raising 500k to build a rocket and develop our GNC software.</comment></comment>


German author Guenter Grass dies - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32285705?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

<comment><USER3> The _Günter-Grass-Haus_ published this poem from his work "Fundsachen für Nichtleser"

      Mit einem Sack Nüsse
      will ich begraben sein
      und mit neuesten Zähnen.
      Wenn es dann kracht,
      wo ich liege,
      kann vermutet werden:
      Er ist das,
      immer noch er.

I don't think it's available in English, and I'll add my own translation here. I hope that's not too presumptuous. I've done some translation, but translating poetry is difficult.

      With a bag of nuts
      I'd like to be buried
      and with the freshest of teeth.
      When there is gnashing
      where I lie,
      one can surmise:
      He's at it,
      still he.

<comment><USER4> I'd translate the last two lines slightly different:

      With a bag of nuts
      I'd like to be buried
      and with the freshest of teeth.
      When there is gnashing
      where I lie,
      one can surmise:
      It's him,
      still him.

<comment><USER5> "er ist das" also _sounds_ exactly like "he eats that".

<comment><USER4> Woah, completely missed that. Then, "he's at it" captures slightly more of that meaning as well. Still incredibly hard to translate while trying to stay succinct.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'd like to quote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's obituary [0]:

      Es gibt kein anderes Buch in unserer Sprache, das in der
      jüngsten Epoche der internationalen  Belletristik von
      vergleichbarer Präsenz war – und damit an die Seite
      der allerersten Hervorbringungen unserer Literaturgeschichte gehört,
      also an die Seite von Goethes "Werther", von Fontanes "Effi Briest",
      Thomas Manns "Buddenbrooks", Kafkas "Prozess", Döblins "Berlin
      Alexanderplatz" oder Musils "Mann ohne Eigenschaften".

Which says, that there was no other book [than The Tin Drum] in German language that had a comparable presence in the last epoch of international belletristic.

It then puts Grass alongside _Goethe_ , arguably the greatest honor a German (or really any) writer can ever get from the feuilleton.

[0]: [http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/autoren/ein- na...](http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/autoren/ein-nachruf-der- grosse-grass-13535516.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> His poem "What Must Be Said" is a wonderful commentary on Israel and the threat it poses to world peace. He talks about how the West has turned a blind eye to Israel's development of nuclear weapons because of its collective guilt. He argues that this must stop.

Here it is (translated): [https://kugelmass.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-legitimate- tran...](https://kugelmass.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-legitimate-translation- of-gunter-grasss-was-gesagt-werden-muss/)

<comment><USER8> The poem conveniently omits an important point - that Israel has never called for Iran's destruction whereas Iran has repeatedly called to "wipe Israel off the map." Anyone who equates Israel and Iran on this issue is either ignorant or biased, possibly both.

[http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/26/ahmadinejad/](http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/10/26/ahmadinejad/) [http://video.foxnews.com/v/3704646723001/irans-supreme- leade...](http://video.foxnews.com/v/3704646723001/irans-supreme-leader-calls- for-the-destruction-of-israel/)

<comment> dao- Yup, of course this is no coincidence. The "poem" is straight-out antisemitic. Old habits die hard, after all Grass had an SS history (that he forgot to mention over decades).

[Edit] It's kind of obvious, but I'll say it since this is often missed by those applauding Grass for his late poem: If Israel wanted to destroy Iran, it had already done so, given its nuclear power. Instead, Israel has (so far successfully) used that nuclear power defensively to keep its neighbor countries from trying to destroy it.

<comment><USER9> That is just profoundly wrong. In the 80s he stated that a country which was responsible for something like the Holocaust did not deserve to be re- unificated. It seemed that he had his fair share of issues with his past, that is we he himself decided to come out with it.

<comment> dao- What exactly is wrong? Sure, he decided to come out with the truth about his past, but it was kind of late. I'm not sure I see the connection between my post and your reply.

<comment><USER7> Either what he is saying is right, or it is wrong.

If it is right, he could eat babies for lunch and it would be right.

If he is wrong, he could be the creator of the universe and all within it and still be wrong.

Please stop with this ad-hominem nonsense.

<comment> dao- Let me translate what I said / meant, then: What Grass was saying is wrong, and by the way it didn't surprise me given his shady history.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I somehow completely missed an incredible cultural Icon. The NYT flashed this as "Breaking News", and it's sitting here at 62 points in less than an hour - and I had absolutely _no idea_ who Guenter Grass was, until I started reading the news.

Spooky - it's like I slipped in from an alternate plane of reality.

<comment><USER11> That's the beautiful thing about literature. One can catch up by simply reading!

<comment><USER12> No, I'm afraid one can never catch up. There's just too much to read. My stack of unread books gets higher every month. Sigh.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Read 'The tin drum' about 10 years ago. Didn't get a lot of it but I remember getting very fascinated with it. Kind of like Murakami but I found Murakami easier to read. Time to read 'The tin drum' again.

R.I.P Mr grass.

<comment><USER14> I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi.

Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

<comment><USER15> He didn't work for the STASI, he volunteered for the Waffen SS.

> Grass was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In May 1945, > after service as a soldier in the Waffen SS, he was taken prisoner by U.S. > forces and released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, he > began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction he frequently returned to the > Danzig of his childhood.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass)

<comment><USER16> The current official version is that he volunteered for submarine service, was rejected there, then drafted into Waffen SS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The Tin Drum is an amazing book and it influenced a lot of fiction - <USER2> Midnight's Children to A Prayer for Owen Meany. Some of his shorter books are a little more accessible (Cat and Mouse or Crabwalk, for instance). I found Grass' perspective on WWII and German history to be particularly valuable, since he was a young German (of Polish origin) who had to reconcile with his own participation in the Nazi regime.

</comment><comment><USER18> If you haven't heard of Günter Grass, this is a great movie based on his book 'Die Blechtrommel':

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tin_Drum_(film)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tin_Drum_\(film\))

<comment><USER19> Loved the film. Haven't read the book.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> The same day as Eduardo Galeano. It's a very sad day indeed.

<comment><USER21> Ah, very sad to hear that. I wrote my BA thesis about his use of metaphors in "Open Veins of Latin America". A very interesting read, and looking back, I quite enjoyed working with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I really enjoyed his book My Century, where each chapter covers one year of Germany, 1900-1999.

</comment><comment><USER23> His book the Tin foil drum is still warmly remembered in my heart.

</comment><comment><USER24> I never understood why he's considered noteworthy but apparently many people thought what he did was important. RIP.</comment>


HTTP DELETE: HTTP 200, 202 or 204 All the Time? - <AUTHOR> http://www.tugberkugurlu.com/archive/http-delete-http-200-202-or-204-all-the-time

<comment><USER2> > I received 404 because /api/cars/3 is not a URI which points to a resource > in my system.

I don't think returning 404 in this case is a good idea. If a client wants to know if a resource exists or not, they'll issue a HEAD or GET request.

However, for a DELETE request, they normally simply want to delete it and knows that it has been done. Whether the resource has been deleted now or was already deleted doesn't provide any useful information. So returning 200 in all cases (unless it really cannot be deleted) should do it and will keep the API simpler.

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, I think the same way. That was just an example.</comment></comment>


Make Google Your Default Firefox Search Engine - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/homepage/search/sp-firefox.html

<comment><USER2> why?</comment>


The brief history of Unix socket multiplexing – select(2) system call - <AUTHOR> https://idea.popcount.org/2016-11-01-a-brief-history-of-select2/ <comment><USER2> One of the biggest and widely overlooked/unknown problems with select(2) is the size of the fd_set. If the file descriptor number is higher than fd_set's size (often 1024) you have a problem. (If you don't change it)

<comment><USER3> On the other hand, file descriptor numbers that high are mainly encountered in programs that use plenty of descriptors, and this usually calls for poll(2) or even more OS-specific mechanisms (epoll/kqueue).

But poll() has interface superior to select(), anyway.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: My employer doesn't want to pay me - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,
I'm UK based dev. My employer is avoiding me. I'm sure he/she doesn't want to pay me. What can I do?
- I have signed contract but without a witness. Is it still valid to go to county court?
- I have the access to the server so I'm going to take down the website (I can do other suff as well)
- I'll use my SEO skill so the first result on Google will be "XXX is someone cannot be trusted"
- I have a evidence that he/she was acting in a conflict of interest. I'm gonna email board members and investor.
What would you do and in which order? <comment><USER2> _\- I have signed contract but without a witness. Is it still valid to go to county court?_

Yes.

 _\- I have the access to the server so I 'm going to take down the website (I can do other suff as well)_

No. Ask lawyer first.

 _\- I 'll use my SEO skill so the first result on Google will be "XXX is someone cannot be trusted"_

No.

 _\- I have a evidence that he /she was acting in a conflict of interest. I'm gonna email board members and investor._

No.

 _Later_

It seems to turn out that this:

 _\- I have the access to the server so I 'm going to take down the website (I can do other suff as well)_

... refers to the company's website. Thus stipulated, my "No, talk to a lawyer" is "No, that would be insane; you could end up criminally liable".

</comment><comment><USER3> Call a solicitor! If you don't know who to call then call your local bar association and explain that you have an employment problem. Typically a first consultation will be free.

 _\- I have the access to the server so I 'm going to take down the website (I can do other suff as well)_

...and stop posting nonsense stuff like this, even though you may be justifiably angry. That sort of thing is a good way to end up being the defendant in a lawsuit, instead of the plaintiff.

Stop with the revenge fantasies and call a professional. Right now you are angry because you have been shafted by this employer, who has basically put one over on you. If you start making angry threats you are likely to end up in even worse trouble and your employer will end up looking like the victim while you will look like the villain. I promise you that getting a letter from a solicitor will rattle your employer a hell of a lot more than any threatening behavior you could possibly engage in.

<comment><AUTHOR> I called them and they said it's too small amount and they cannot help me. They said I should go to employment tribunal or to small claim court, but first I should draft a letter and send them explaining that I'm serious.

Does anyone have an example of a well written letter?

[http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_taki...](http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/consumer_w/consumer_taking_action_e/consumer_legal_actions_e/consumer_going_to_court_e/consumer_taking_court_action_e/letter_before_action.htm)

[http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/letter- before-...](http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/action/letter-before-small- claims-court-claim)

<comment><USER4> Are they actually your employer or a client of yours?

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm salaried employee.

<comment><USER5> Why are you looking under the consumer section? Since you are an employee, you should be reading the work fact sheets, at [http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_factsheets...](http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_factsheets.htm) . The specific one is "Employer withholds your pay", at [http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/e_employer_withholds_y...](http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/e_employer_withholds_your_pay.pdf) .

They don't have a sample letter for that case, such a letter is straight- forward: "I have not yet received my salary for the period XXX to YYY. I trust this grievance will be fixed quickly and amicably now that I have brought it to your attention."

That's all - no threats of legal action (because they better know that already, and if they don't, that's their problem, not yours), no threats of personal retribution or revenge (because that's a VERY BAD IDEA).

Ah! See also [http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_problems_a...](http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_problems_at_work_e/letter_to_raise_a_grievance_at_work) for longer text, though not specifically for this case. It then has a fill-in- the-fields form to guide you through the letter making.

You still have plenty of options to pursue besides talking to a solicitor. Have you contacted your local CAB, or the other options I mentioned earlier?

That fact sheet mentions Acas. They say "Call our Helpline on 0300 123 1100 for free support and advice or to check your workplace policies and practices. The Acas Helpline provides free and impartial advice for employers, employees and representatives on a range of employment relations, employment rights, HR and management issues." [http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461](http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461)

See also [http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/h/b/Problems_at_work_- _empl...](http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/h/b/Problems_at_work_- _employees.pdf) for their description of how an employee can handle a grievance.

Another option is to visit your local library and talk with a librarian to see what resources they have.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You don't do anything that could jeopardise your position. Your first step is to get help.

      If you haven't been paid in full
      Speak to your employer first to try to sort the problem informally.

      If this doesn't work, talk to Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and
      Arbitration Service), Citizens Advice or your trade union
      representative.

      You have the right to go to an Employment Tribunal to get your money.

I was in a similar position a few years ago. We were told though that the company was in financial difficulty. We later found out that the company had been withholding pensions payments (and PPP employer payments). It is a illegal and your employer can be prosecuted. If you have similar concerns then you can report them:

[http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/individuals/reporting...](http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/individuals/reporting- a-concern.aspx)

The following links will help you:

\- ACAS: [http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461](http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461)

\- Citizen's Advice: [http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm#searchb...](http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm#searchbox)

\- Gov: [https://www.gov.uk/understanding-your-pay/deductions-from- yo...](https://www.gov.uk/understanding-your-pay/deductions-from-your-pay)

If your employer is refusing the talk to you, then you are left with little choice but to move on to arbitration. That's what ACAS are there for.

Approach the whole thing calmly. Do not get angry and make stupid mistakes (like deleting websites or code). Do not shout and scream at your employer. Remain calm and civil. I often like to pretend that I am acting as a consultant for myself when dealing with situations like this. It helps you to remain more impartial.

Your job is first to understand exactly what is owed. Then you need to extract £x.xx from your employer. You then would also like an explanation if they feel like keeping you in their employment. Then should you choose to leave, because their explanation was not to satisfaction, then you would like a letter of recommendation. However, do not quit until you speak to Citizen's advice first. There maybe implications if you quit before your resolve your greviances.

</comment><comment><USER7> [https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/going-to- court](https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/going-to-court) Do not break anything, or you'll be also liable. There are official ways of dealing with people not paying - use them.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you take any of these actions (specially the "other stuff") you'll open yourself to criminal and civil prosecution including damages, defamation and cyber crimes. You need legal assistance. Maybe you can start here: [http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_rights_at_...](http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_rights_at_work_e/basic_rights_at_work.htm), [http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/employment_law](http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/employment_law)

<comment><AUTHOR> The problem is the contract is not signed by the witness and before I'd go to court and burn the cash I'd like to threaten that my legal and "PR" actions will cause 10x damage.

<comment><USER5> Quoting from [https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=200810131547...](https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081013154733AApY1eo) :

> Few if any business contracts actually require witnesses in order to be > valid. In very general terms all you need is terms that are clear enough to > be enforced.

> The contract would be considered legally binding as both parties agreed to > it, put their signatures on it and had it in writing. Witnesses are not > always necessary. You could even have a contract by word of mouth.

> get some free legal advice from someone who can look over the contract. This > could be at a CAB. Or, if you're near to a University that has a law school, > the students there often hold free legal advice clinics - excellent quality > of advice (overseen by tutors)

The CAB home page for England, which facorreia already pointed out, is at [http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england.htm](http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england.htm) (or you can choose Wales, etc.). Search for "unpaid wages", for an additional list of helpful pages.

 _Do_ _not_ retaliate or threaten to retaliate. This could get you in 100x trouble.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Others have cautioned against taking down the site or similar, and I second those. I'd also like to point out that libel laws in the UK can bite you _even when you tell the truth_ so I'd be careful with the bad press approach as well.

As virtually everyone has said, the very first thing to do is get in touch with a solicitor. The next thing to do is follow their advice, which I would _expect_ would be first sending a "srsly, pay me" letter, and then going to court if that doesn't work.

</comment><comment><USER10> It's already been said, but take heed: do not do anything illegal or unethical yourself. Be professional.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm not a lawyer. AND I do recommend you consult with one. The following is a suggestion you might want to discuss.

Based on your contract, you should be able to get an enforceable demand for your employer to pay you. If you are not paid and the deadline for payment expires, you might be able to get a lien over the server and other property. At that stage you can shut things down, etc. If the employer is a company then there might be a case for flagging them as trading whilst insolvent. Under UK law that is a biggie.

As @issa suggests maintain your dignity and professionalism. Taking revenge could put a dark cloud above your reputation.

Unless you have political skillz be very careful with how and with what you contact board members. They might be in cahoots with your problem person. I'd suggest in person meeting so you can better assess the situation. Emails are often very unsuitable for such information.

</comment><comment><USER12> _What would you do and in which order?_

If I was your employer? I'd get a restraining order against you and use this post as cause to fire you, as well as keeping it for a _great_ defense against a lawsuit (since you've painted yourself as a malicious hacker).

</comment><comment><USER13> My advice, consider just walking away and finding another job. I'm not saying that that's what you should do, only something that is worth considering.

Collecting may take a lot of time and energy. That time and energy is on top of the time and energy spent actually showing up at the office and doing the work, and the time already spent is a sunk cost.

Finding other gainful work gives a person options. It gives a person time, and reduces financial pressure. It lets a person look forward.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER14> My advice: be more professional. What you posted makes you sound childish with how you might "get even" for them doing this to you.

Remove this post, walk away from the job, gain other employment and try and get paid from them for the work you have done.

Have you seen the movie "Office Space"? There is a scene where they just stop paying an employee in hopes they get the picture and just leave on their own. A non-confrontational way to part ways....

</comment><comment><USER15> Either: speak to a lawyer, or go to county court (if it's a small amount; it sounds like a county court is something like the small claims court where I live).

Don't do anything retaliatory or hostile until you've exhausted your legal options, because it will either leave you liable for damages, or harm your case, or both.</comment>


Centrifugo – real-time messaging server in Go, supports WebSockets and SockJS - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/centrifugal/centrifugo <comment><AUTHOR> Here is a link to Centrifugo – real-time messaging server in Go. This is a central part of Centrifugal stack ([http://fzambia.gitbooks.io/centrifugal/content/](http://fzambia.gitbooks.io/centrifugal/content/)). It supports Websocket and SockJS client connections. Originally server was written in Python ([https://github.com/centrifugal/centrifuge](https://github.com/centrifugal/centrifuge)), but recently the entire code base moved to Go language. This is a server that works as a service – can be used with web sites written in any language. Feedback is highly appreciated.

<comment><USER2> i've got mutliple questions :

\- are there any logging capabilities ? For exemple for feeding a cassandra cluster for later event analysis and processing.

\- are there any monitoring feature ? Inspecting server load or average latency ?

\- what about sharding in case of load ?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello!

\- at moment logging is quite unstructured - just text entries, written into stdout or file. In future I am planning to move to something like this ([https://github.com/Sirupsen/logrus](https://github.com/Sirupsen/logrus)) and improve log structure.

\- metrics exist in Centrifuge but the next step for Centrifugo (the only thing left to be fully compared with Python version). At moment external monitoring tools can be used for CPU and memory monitoring. I am planning to utilize this library for metrics - [https://github.com/rcrowley/go- metrics](https://github.com/rcrowley/go-metrics)

\- you can run several instances on different machines connected via Redis and load balance clients between them. But no sharding support out of the box.

What do you think about this? I highly appreciate any feedback</comment></comment></comment>


Get up to 50% OFF JetBrains Tools and Support a Good Cause - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2013/04/15/50-off-jetbrains-tools-and-help-to-plant-a-billion-trees/

<comment><USER2> Since this comes up every time there's a Jetbrains sale, here's the rundown on how the products relate to each other.

First, the easy ones. ReSharper, dotTrace and dotCover are all independent products that don't really overlap with the ones I'm about to talk about.

The "Core" doesn't exist as a product, but it's all the things that are product-independent and aren't provided by plugins like the editor, HTML/CSS/JS editing support, debugger, theming, etc. I'm mentioning it because each IDE ends up with a slightly different version of the Core based on when it was released, which means that using IntelliJ with the Python plugin might not have all the features of PyCharm if PyCharm got a major version update more recently than IntelliJ.

WebStorm (JS/HTML/CSS IDE) has the core functionality plus Node.js plugins. You can install other plugins, but only a limited subset.

AppCode (Obj-C IDE) has the core functionality plus product-specific Obj-C plugins that you can't install in any of the other IDEs. AppCode only shares a few plugins with other IDEs, like the Vim emulation.

RubyMine, PhpStorm and PyCharm have the core functionality plus language/platform-specific plugins for Ruby, PHP and Python respectively. You can install other plugins, but nothing that would turn one of these into the other, for example installing the PHP plugin in PyCharm.

IntelliJ IDEA has the core functionality plus a huge variety of Java plugins. It can also use the language-specific plugins from WebStorm, RubyMine, PhpStorm and PyCharm as well as others that are downloadable. It can install almost all of the plugins that are supported on the platform - the only exception I'm aware of is Obj-C support.

Hope that answers some questions.

<comment><USER3> Is there a point in buying WebStorm if I purchase IDEA?

I've been using WebStorm lately and have been considering purchasing it but I'm also learning Scala on the side and would also benefit from IDEA. If IDEA can handle NodeJS and TypeScript is there a point to purchasing WebStorm as well?

<comment><USER4> Please contact email@example.com. If you buy IntelliJ IDEA I hope sales can help you with getting WebStorm for free (or with a discount). Scala support is part of IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition (which is free), but IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate has additional nice features.

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately, the Play framework plugin is only for the Ultimate edition (last time I checked).

I'm currently working my way through the Functional Programming in Scala course on Coursera using Eclipse. I'm not sure if I would make use of IDEA for now which is why I'm unsure whether to buy it or save myself $70 and get WebStorm only. Plus I think WebStorm currently supports TypeScript better than IDEA but that could change with an update.

I'll definitely pay the $99 if they throw in WebStorm. Is that something you've heard JetBrains has done in the past?

<comment><USER2> Honestly, for that class it probably doesn't matter much as it's focusing more on functional programming theory than anything complex in terms of application structure or environment. I did it in Eclipse when I took the first iteration of the course, and I didn't really have much trouble. Unless they've added alternate project files, you'd probably have to convert the worksheets and projects to the IDEA format, and that'd be a bit of a hassle.

That said, for general use I really like the Scala support in IDEA. I'd suggest playing around with the free version a bit - as you mention, Play support is only in Ultimate, but the Scala plugin itself works fine in Community. You can get a feel for how IDEA manages projects, handles debugging, that kind of thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Before I started using Sublime Text Editor for everything, PHPStorm was my go- to GUI for not only PHP coding but everything else as well, an awesome company and a great cause. I highly recommend their tools, they also have pretty good support and offer free licences to educational institutes and open source projects.

<comment><USER6> Would you recommend Sublime Text 2 over PHPStorm/Webstorm for someone only coding in HTML/CSS/JS?

<comment><USER7> Why don't you try out their 30 day trial?

I wouldn't get PHPStorm if you're not using PHP (unless you want to be future proof in case you do end up using it.)

Check out the webstorm features here: <http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/features/index.html>

<comment><USER8> I have both. I really like the fact that the IDE's are so segregated. I find IDEA or Netbeans or Eclipse to have to much stuff.

I use webStorm for javascript only projects and phpStorm when I'm doing php development.

I configure each IDE to work how I like with the language of choice and all is good in the world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I really like JetBrain's stuff, I use it every day.

That said, one annoyance with it:

When you have a personal license, it does a network check to ensure that the license is only in use on one machine on the LAN and locks out other instances popping up a 'reactivation' dialog in them. The check is fine and reasonable, I just wish it worked a different way as it messes with my workflow on a regular basis.

I work primarily from home and like switching between my laptop and my desktop regularly. I may use my laptop outside when its nice or just sit on the couch for a change in position then sit my desktop for awhile or maybe I need more horsepower or screen space than a macbook air can provide. I generally just like to change things up periodically.

The fact that it completely locks out the other IDE almost instantly can get really annoying. I sync code through github but if I forget to sync something, I then play whack-a-mole with the dialogs to get back to work. Another annoying thing is when I close my laptop then move to my desktop but want to check on something on the laptop completely unrelated and as soon as I open the lid, boom desktop is locked out.

I really wish it had some sort of timeout, read only mode or just allowed 2 instances as I can't imagine my situation is all that unique.

<comment><USER10> I have the same issue. I reluctantly purchased two personal licenses to get around the issue.

Unfortunately their systems aren't set up to deal with multiple personal licenses and it requires a call to their sales department every time I renew.

Now I am bouncing among 3 machines and getting frustrated again but buying a third license just to get rid of the message is not an option.

I am not 'using' the instances simultaneously but it's incredibly inconvenient to keep opening and closing the IDE as I change from one machine to another.

I understand the need to protect their source of revenue but there really needs to be a better solution than this.

<comment><USER8> I use PhpStorm, pyCharm and WebStorm on a personal Computer and a Laptop. Laptop Goes to work with me every day, but I use both interchangeably at home all the time. A big part of my workflow is to use the laptop to run tests or manage another project while I'm coding on the desktop or the reverse.

Granted I did call them two years ago when I first wanted to do this and asked, so maybe they added something to my account, but I was simply told at the time that I could.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Has your online store had a little "refactoring" since the last promo? <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4947146>

<comment><USER12> Well, it was much better deal (50% off is quite common with jetbrains afaik) and most importantly lasted only 24 hours.

I bought a PyCharm license, just hoping I will use it. So far I've played with it for about 2 hours total. But there's still hope...

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I live in IntelliJ and AppCode. I'm quite certain that no other software has given me the same bang for the buck. My work would be significantly less pleasant if I had to use XCode and Eclipse instead.

<comment><USER14> Recently, I use AppCode to do version control stuff. Xcode always fails to cooperate with the SVN server at workplace.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> PHPStorm is great for php and javascript development, highly recommended! If their corporate licensing prices were more startup friendly, I'd get a copy for everyone on my team.

<comment><USER16> We have a program for start-ups. Contact firstname.lastname@example.com and they can inform you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I keep my personal IntelliJ license up to date. Mostly because I like choice and competition. I would be sad if jetbrains didn't exist.

I use work-provided IntelliJ for the day gig. It's okay.

I use Eclipse for my personal projects. Momentum mostly, been using it since the alphas. But I do greatly prefer the single problem(s) view. And the InstaSearch plugin rocks (Eclipse's stock search blows).

I use SublimeText for most non source code editing.

</comment><comment><USER18> I switched from Eclipse to PyCharm last year and I am very happy with it.

I was looking into IntelliJ to have a more polyglot environment. Could anyone tell me if I can get all the features found in PyCharm (.e.g wonderful Django support) if I switch to IntelliJ and then install the Python plugin?

<comment><USER4> the python plugin for intellij adds similar level of code assistance (including django support) as pycharm. the only difference is in releases dates. intellij idea gets all new features with a small delay (and vice versa pycharm gets some new features with a small delay after intellij release).

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> No discount on product upgrades for existing customers ;(

</comment><comment><USER20> You only gave 50% off ONE product so that you could mention it in the title. Not cool.

<comment><USER19> "Get up to 50% OFF" - this doesn't mean you get 50% on all products.

Anyway, not cool since only new customers get an discount.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wish they had a C# IDE. I'm 100% OSX with Unity3d and I have to use Monodevelop for C#. I would much prefer to use a JetBrains product.

<comment><USER20> Get Win + Visual Studio + ReSharper. You are seriously missing out. Good language choice though.

<comment><USER21> I like OSX =(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've been using intellij with the python plugin for a project (basically the same as pycharm).

Have always been a customized emacs user before now (using JEDI etc) but intellij does have some nice features - if not quite so snappy.

</comment><comment><USER23> I missed out on IntelliJ last time because of the downtime, but not this time!

<comment><USER24> Bought IDEA during the Doomsday Sale, first time I tried was the 'big' downtime and failed, and then waited several hours and tried again. One of the best purchases I've done!

<comment><USER25> I was two weeks anyway from buying it at full price when that sale happened.

I can't recommend IntelliJ enough, second only to Visual Studio. Nothing in the Java world beats it, plus all the framework and other language support it has is just great!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> hurt. Just got my full price license.

<comment><USER2> If you toss their sales department (firstname.lastname@example.com) an email, they'll probably help you out. I've never had to do it myself, but they have a reputation for being very accommodating regarding buying just before sales.

Edit: Just to be clear, I don't work for them, have no affiliation, etc.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which companies are working with/on the coolest technology? - <AUTHOR>

Also any thoughts on how I could capture this in a website? <comment><USER2> You have to start with a proper definition of "coolest technologies".</comment>


Arstechnica.com Banned me for speaking up about Paid Bots - <AUTHOR> i joined the website in 2015 was a loyal visitor, apparently as soon as i started speaking up about all the paid shills and the vote hacking that was going on the Director there did not like this at all.
I was muted from speaking any longer on the boards of my first post. As a few weeks went by i kept seeing more and more subscribers that were voting up all the paid news mainstream media comments that were defending corporate honor but silencing with downvotes all the actual relevant comments in the news sources.
ArsTechnica has a system where they hide a comment if it goes below a certain vote threshold. This is now being abused by paid shills to hide all the relevant comments.
Just like Stackexchange, reddit, and all the other major players adopted systems about votemanipulation i started speaking up about it with ARS and they wouldnt have none of it.
Instead of speaking with me about it, i logged on today to see a message: You were banned because "GoodBye".
If there are any websites like Toms and Gizmodo reading this please do an article on this. The website Arstechnica wants to play like big boys but now has lost any favor with us people who just want an unbiased news source.
They also leverage the paid subscribers to have more voting power, this shifts the comments to the most relevant section of the page. Thus eliminating "QUICKLY" all the most relevant comments that could help other people truly understand what is going on if the editor got it wrong.
Used to be about community. I was there before they switched out there new website theme, i was there when i heard about it through HackerNews. Yet being on there that long didn't matter to them, a voice speaking the truth is always the first to be silenced.
This is not the ArsTechnica i grew up around. <comment><USER2> Do you have any evidence to support this, or can you suggest steps that one might take to replicate your experience and so help to confirm your suspicions?

<comment><AUTHOR> Since i am banned i can no longer access any of my posts.

What you can do is this:

Look for the comments in areas where the articles talk about Apple, Microsoft etc..

Look for the vote tally's (Hidden comments will have the same downvotes) +/-(3-6votes) as the next comment. (next comment has similar votes that are upvoted).

You will notice the hidden comments in these type of articles are usually enough to warrant investigations themselves.

<comment><USER2> I did as you suggested but saw no trends that would suggest organised manipulation of comment votes. As for "paid shills", that is entirely supposition on your part. Be aware that there are genuine "fanbois" of Apple, of MS, of Android etc, who are often vociferous and even mob-handed in their devotion. This doesn't imply any orchestration or even complicity by Arstechnica.</comment></comment></comment>


AWS IQ – Get Help from AWS Certified Third Party Experts on Demand - <AUTHOR> https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-iq-get-help-from-aws-certified-third-party-experts-on-demand/ <comment><USER2> Consulting as a Service. For sure a lot of people are gonna pass those AWS certifications now.</comment>


Elon Musk announces plan to revolutionize factories - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-shareholders-20160531-snap-story.html <comment><USER2> What's interesting about Musk is that he doesn't at all seem to be doing any of this for the money. It doesn't seem like it's greed that motivates him, the way you might think of other top CEOs. He's all about vision. He's an idealist with competence and resources and for better or for worse, he will probably have an impact on all of our lives. I would hope for the better, but idealism and egocentrism can create a toxic mix. So far I love everything his companies have done. I love watching the spacex videos. But we should judge him and his companies based on their accomplishments and their actions and not on the PR and media spectacles that surround him.

<comment><USER3> To be fair I doubt any top CEO does it for the money, greed is a very poor motivator.

<comment><USER4> What about the financial CEOs who, after the US government rescued their firms with bailout, prompty paid themselves multimillion dollar bonuses with the bailout money?

I think people change during the course of their life. While greed will not probably motivate you enough to rise to the top (you need other drivers such as ambition), if you've already made it to the top (and there's nowhere else to go, you're already #1 by your own metrics), you can slowly morph into a greedy bastard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As a student ~ 7 years ago i had a summer job at an Audi assembly line. At the first place I worked there you had roughly one person every 10 or 15 meters or so appart, mainly restacking the supplies for welding robots. So there was really not that much left to automate. The other place I worked however was more manual. My job was to connect the fuel lines, which took me about 2 days to learn since it required some serious coordination effort with a weired tool. I can see that they didn't automate this, because the location was at that point hard to reach and they had about five different versions depending on engine type. Maybe in the case of Tesla things are also easier to automate since they are less customized then traditional cars (where you have a plentora of options just for the engine alone).

<comment><USER6> Maybe one of the factors is "automating the automation" in that automation is possible for many(most) of the processes, but there is a high cost to this automation. Streamlining this into better building blocks might make it easier to adapt than ever before. I have experience with car software and there are many, many, maany ways things that could be improved over here.

<comment><USER7> In terms of your comment about "automating the automation" being not done due to a high cost of the automation, in Economics we have something called competitive advantage which gives explanation as to why we may use humans rather than robots for tasks like these.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The question here is: does he want to revolutionize his factories, which makes a lot of sense? Or does he mean in general?

I mean, when I see his production, I see a lot of cars, which are moved around on a robot to get in position to be able to work on them. That takes time. That is not a series production. [https://youtu.be/TuC8drQmXjg?t=5m33s](https://youtu.be/TuC8drQmXjg?t=5m33s)

Versus a real series production: [https://youtu.be/dy3R4K5jHYc?t=7m59s](https://youtu.be/dy3R4K5jHYc?t=7m59s) or here: [https://youtu.be/tNQmXw_vX-g?t=3m4s](https://youtu.be/tNQmXw_vX-g?t=3m4s)

<comment><USER9> The "real series production" presented in the last video-clips seems to include a lot of intensive manual labor in those assembly lines. That in itself should let you assume room for improvement. In the first video (@8:25) there is a part involving two mechanical arms and a press, all moving pretty slowly, i.e. with a lot of waiting. Why is that if the only possible occurrences in there are known and controlled? I tend to assume that the machine-only chambers were set up because of hazardous factors (making human involvement risky) than from efficiency reasons. If that is what factories today are, and considering that Musk is time-pressed to swell the number of assembled cars, it's no wonder he has hard time tolerating it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> That was lackluster: Nothing specific, just generalities.

</comment><comment><USER11> TL;DR: "I'm convinced we can make factories better."

No shit.

<comment><USER12> From another comment here, and his own words to describe how he arrived at his vision, it sounds like he's walking around his own factory and realizing it's set up very inefficiently.

I mean, maybe he just figured this out, but it does sound a lot like "shoot first, ask questions later" being spun into a positive.

Or, in less polite terms, "Not everybody's factory processes are as messed up as Tesla's."

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm pretty curious as to what plans he has.

It must be something along the lines of: \- Figure out everything that is needed to be built for the product \- Think of an optimal factory for each component that doesn't waste any volume. Additionally, allow for things to change in size,etc using some type physics metadata. \- Connect all these together and use physics first metadata to continually optimize.</comment>


Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity - <AUTHOR> http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html

<comment><USER2> Try giving it a read first, then read this: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair>

<comment><USER2> oh yeah, I forgot there's more discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=564063>

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Someday some humanities major is going to get a convincing but bogus partial collapse of the polynomial hierarchy into a major CS journal, then you'll be sorry.</comment>


The 8chan story: Destroyer of worlds - <AUTHOR> https://members.tortoisemedia.com/2019/06/29/8chan/content.html <comment><USER3> It's a mistake to take Internet culture and compare it literally to real-world happenings because the two don't mean the same things. Here's a simple example of what I mean. In real life: if someone makes a racial slur they know that its offensive and if they continue to act this way we can say with confidence they're a racist. But the same actions on an image board can be done by anyone with little consequences.

If there's no consequences, then that means the words context on an image board is significantly different to the real world. As such, you end up getting kids and other people casually using racial slurs to seem 'edgy' or rebellious. The question I ask is are any of these people actually racist in real life? If they're not knowingly thwarting social norms, and there's no harsh consequences for doing so, then I argue the words don't have the same meaning as they do in real life. Since that's the case-- we cannot say 8chan is a "hate speech" website.

Most of the comparisons from mainstream media miss this point, and it only highlights how terribly out of touch these old-timers are with how the youth of today express themselves. To really bring this point home, one of the main benefits of using image boards like 8chan is they provide a safe place where you can freely express your ideas without the fear you've somehow upset some crazy person. Such discussions could never take place on a site like Facebook where behavior has to be hyper-mediated with respect to everyone else.

Now to directly address the point of the shooting: recall what happened with Columbine. Shortly after the shooting, these so-called experts started examining the interests of the shooters and they noticed one alarming peculiarity! Both shooters were fond of the video game series 'Doom.' How many of you have played Doom before? Killed anyone lately? These reductionist arguments always seem to have an agenda to express. In my opinion, the agenda is all about dismissing uncomfortable aspects of how people think and feel about the world, and how they've been treated.

I don't know why the Christ Church shooter did what they did. But I can tell you with absolute certainty no amount of examining how many times the N* word appears on /pol/ is going to give you any profound insights here. Most of what the shooter put out are actually red herrings designed to make politically correct people go around in circles exactly like we're seeing now, and the references to memes made throughout the shooters writings were made in the same way. So if you want to understand why the shooter did what they did, you're going to have to dig a lot deeper than blaming it all on a website.

>From the link: There's no room for argument about whether hate-filled internet message boards encourage real-world violence: they do, and none more so than 8chan.

Yeah, good reasoning. There's no room for arguing about whether this article is wrong: it is, and no more so than in this quote.

<comment><USER4> >If they're not knowingly thwarting social norms, and there's no harsh consequences for doing so, then I argue the words don't have the same meaning as they do in the real world.

You can't separate the two like that. The internet is ubiquitous enough now that if effects the real world to the same degree as any other form of mass media. People who spend time pretending to be Nazis on an imageboard _cannot_ simply turn that off and have it not affect them in real life, people don't work that way.

And I'll give you one consequence - pretending to be Nazis on an imageboard creates a welcoming atmosphere for actual Nazis, and a way for actual Nazis to propagate their ideas and culture. Because the thing about irony is, since no one can tell you aren't serious, no one can tell you _are_ serious.

>And since that's the case-- we cannot say 8chan is a "hate speech" website.

Being ironic doesn't somehow remove the effect of hateful speech, it just means the people speaking don't care about the effects.

>and it only highlights how terribly out of touch these old-timers are with how youth today express themselves.

...as if they're all sixty year old fuddy duddys who only use manual typewriters and can't work the remote for their newfangled color tvs?

The web and its culture have been around for decades at this point - <USER2> that only young people understand it and acting as if it hasn't subsumed every other aspect of modern society is like saying only young people understand how to use a telephone. It's a stereotype that isn't as true as you think.

>I don't know why the Christ Church shooter did what they did.

I mean, he literally published a manifesto and everything but OK.

>Most of what the shooter has put out are actually red herrings designed to make politically correct people go in circles exactly like we're doing now, and the references to memes made throughout they're writings were most likely more of the same.

You know this how?</comment></comment>


Faster hash joiner with vectorized execution - <AUTHOR> https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/vectorized-hash-joiner/ <comment><USER2> Hey everyone, I'm the intern who did this work, happy to answer any questions if you have them!

<comment><USER3> Incredible work! 40x speedup is ludicrously good.

<comment><USER2> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The "core" of the trick is nice : amortizing interpreter dispatch over many items. (ignoring the column layout/SIMD stuff which basically helps in any case)

Essentially it's turning :

      LOAD
        DISPATCH
        OP1
        DISPATCH
        OP2
        ... (once per operation in the expression)
      STORE
      ... (once per row)

into

      DISPATCH
        LOAD
        OP1
        STORE
        LOAD
        OP1
        STORE
        ... (once per row)
      DISPATCH
      ... (once per operation in the expression)

The nice trade-off here is that you don't require code generation to do that, but it's still not optimal.

If you can generate code it's even better to fuse the operations, to get something like :

      LOAD
        OP1
        OP2
        ...
      STORE
      LOAD
      ...

It helps because even though you can tune your batch size to get mostly cached loads and stores, it's still not free.

For example on Haswell you can only issue 1 store per cycle, so if OP is a single add you're leaving up to 3/4 of your theoretical ALU throughput on the table.

</comment><comment><USER5> Pretty impactful work for an intern! One thing I would have liked to see, both from a process and communication standpoint, is leading with some stats on how much faster the vectorized loops are in isolation from the surrounding engine.

It's always good practice to dig into a deep project like this with some napkin estimates of how much you stand to gain, and how much overhead you can afford to spend setting yourself up for the faster computation. (Not to mention how much of your own time is merited!)

<comment><USER6> Indeed! We spent some time running isolated benchmarks before deciding to dive into the project: [https://github.com/jordanlewis/exectoy](https://github.com/jordanlewis/exectoy)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Awesome work. Really cool!

I have a hobby project to write an analytics DB that uses ISPC for vectorized execution. Currently not much (sums are real easy) but I really wonder if it could reduce the effort to vectorize these sorts of things.

<comment><USER8> Is it open source / online?

<comment><USER7> Nope, and by toy I really mean toy. It can handle a single type of query and that's it. Maybe one day I'll polish it up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great write-up. Is the long-term vision to go completely to the vectorised query execution model, or are there cases where a row-oriented plan might be better, such as cases when there are complex computations involving multiple columns of a single row?

<comment><AUTHOR> We don't have any plans to remove the row-by-row execution engine. Likely, we'll have some analysis during planning that can inform whether to use the row-oriented or column-oriented engine. I think the use cases for the row- oriented engine are exactly what you mention - things like single-row computations or more OLTP queries like point scans, inserts, update etc - where the overhead of setting up the data structures required to use the column-oriented engine would dominate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I looked at the title and thought that the article is about rolling joints with hash by using some advanced robotic technology and software. Damn!

<comment><USER11> Pretty sure that they can use same tech as cigarettes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It was a pleasant surprise to see the code base written in Go!

</comment><comment><USER13> Column oriented dbs have been doing parallel (column per thread) joins for a while now, no? And I know they have been leaning heavily on vectorization for over a decade.

</comment><comment><USER14> Genetic specialization (List<int>) is coming. See [https://openjdk.java.net/projects/valhalla/](https://openjdk.java.net/projects/valhalla/). Not this year (value types will be first). But they're working in it really hard.</comment>