Ask HN: What is the highest trafficked website run by an individual? - <AUTHOR>

I run Twicsy (twitter picture search) in my spare time by myself and receive over 5.5 million monthly unique visitors (current trailing month according to Google Analytics).<p>I am curious about what other large sites there are out there run by a single person? Is 4chan the biggest site run by one person? <comment><USER2> Drudge Report

VISITS TO DRUDGE 11/27/12

033,621,596 PAST 24 HOURS 1,218,005,142 PAST 31 DAYS 11,345,750,362 PAST YEAR

<comment><USER3> I've heard of Drudge Report before, but never really understood it. Who / what does it cater to and what is its function, a sort of one-man curated news reddit?

<comment><USER4> I'd say his main demographic is your conservative / libertarian who has little to no faith in government. Socially drudge tends to be moderate; fiscally, very conservative. Sort of a "keep your government hands out of my pocket" type attitude.

He heavily influences a lot of conservative politics, as his reach is massive. Many people think he helped drum up Romney support with a specific narrative across his site in the 2012 Republican primary (whether or not he was paid is up to which conspiracy theorist you speak with).

A link on his site can result in millions of page views

<comment><USER5> During the Elian Gonzales affair, I sequenced some AP photos into an animation (giving a video effect to a series of photos of a kidnapping) and posted them on my website for a few friends to see. The link ended up on Drudge. AP called to object, and the traffic load was so high I couldn't log on to the server to remove the GIF. Had to call the ISP, told the receptionist "hi, I'm the reason your servers are melting down", and she cheerfully transferred me to the company president. He got a big chuckle out of it, the file was deleted, traffic subsided, and I learned what it meant to get linked to by Drudge.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Markus Frind, Plenty of Fish: [http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the- money-comes-rol...](http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes- rolling-in.html)

<comment><USER7> That came to my mind too, but it's no longer just Markus and hasn't been for some time. They currently have 66 employees.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Hacker News is (was?) mostly run by one person and, about a year ago, was getting over 2.4 million uniques per month and 26 million page views.

Source: <http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html>

</comment><comment><USER9> Twicsy is sort of NSFW for anybody who make check it out. Some naked breasts just popped up on my screen in public. Not exactly an ideal outcome, though not unexpected for a "trending" section on a Twitter picture search engine.

</comment><comment><USER10> Imgur until somewhat recently was run by an individual.

</comment><comment><USER11> How does Twicsy do revenue wise? I would love to hear the story behind it and how you got to that many users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Revenue is abysmal. No decent networks will advertise on Twicsy due to the adult content. Up until about 2 months ago I couldn't even cover server costs with the ad money.

As for the story:

I launched it back in 2009 as a last ditch effort to save my company (Searchles) and was featured on TechCrunch a few times that first week. But, since then, the coverage has been almost nonexistent. I have relied on organic growth, SEO, and old fashioned, bullheaded persistence since then. It has grown about 5x each of the past 3 years.

I have been running it in my spare time since March of 2010, and I am not the world's greatest web developer, so almost all improvements have been on the back end just trying to scale the site.

If you are interested in the tech: I run MySQL on a 2TB SSD RAID 5 array, but then I use data caching servers I developed myself to speed up serving the site (some data in memory, most on SSD). The near real time search was also developed by me. Only 4 total servers are used to run the site.

<comment><USER12> There must be a way around that. Imgur's advertising seems to be pretty standard, but they have gigabytes of nude and/or violent photos uploaded on a weekly basis.

Would it hurt your traffic too much to not have it displayed so prominently on the front page?

<comment><AUTHOR> I would display a big picture of a nun on the homepage if it made advertisers happy about the rest of the site. I have been talking to ad people for a while now and I can't seem to get around it. But I will continue to try.

I tried some searches on imgur and nothing nasty comes up. On Twicsy it is very easy to get nasty stuff to appear.

Looks like imgur uses Google Adsense, they have cut me off several times.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, imgur must have all the NSFW content hidden from their own search. Anyone who knows how to use Reddit will know where to find the NSFW stuff they've swept under the rug though, so I'm surprised that's enough for Adsense to give it the OK -- Reddit users are probably 90%+ of imgur's audience.

Maybe you need to do the same thing: set up an "un-affiliated" website that allows you find all the 18+ content on Twicsy, haha

<comment><AUTHOR> I have thought about it a lot, but the quantity makes it unmanageable. I have over 1.6 billion pics indexed, about 5 million added each day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think Matthew Inman from TheOatmeal.com does pretty well. According to Wiki (not the best source, I know) : "As of 2010, the website got an average of 4.6 million unique visitors and more than 20 million page views a month."

<comment><AUTHOR> That is a good one, does anyone have recent stats for them?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I run a site that generates 300m pvs on mobile web, 100m pvs on desktop with 2.7m uniques every month (I believe this is actually substantially higher but not fully tracked in Google Analytics for some reason).

<comment><AUTHOR> What is the site? Are those pageview numbers monthly?

<comment><USER14> The numbers are monthly and its based on twitter

<comment><AUTHOR> I am curious about your site, if you want to share via email you can reach me at chris at twicsy.youknowhat

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I block google analytics, and I think many others too do so(yay! for ghostery).

You probably are getting a little(lot?) more visitors than what ga says.

</comment><comment><USER16> I run W3Counter which tracks over 100 million page views a month. Every load involves both reading from and writing to a database, and about 50% of the time, dynamic image generation... so no CDNs or response caching.

</comment><comment><USER17> I started a message board service for a few years back. The service had 35-40M pv/mo, 10-12M unique/mo, and more than 1.2M users. Also, the site was in the Alexa 1000 for a few months before it was sold.

I was the only engineer on the project. We had 5-10 volunteers to help support our service (general help, technical support, etc). So, to say I ran the service myself would be a lie.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have built such a strong community that people are willing to help out for free I think that is much more impressive than being able to claim you did it all by yourself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Under what definition. Do they need to just run the content, does having [significant] UGC count as being self-run (I'd warrant not [+ what is significant]). Do they have to run it all down to the bare metal or is a managed server environment allowed. What about regular colo'? Does the site have to run it's own DNS.

No man['s website] is an island.

</comment><comment><USER19> Interesting post by Markus Frind on just that, "Digital 100, most valuable boot strapped company" - [http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/digital-100-mos...](http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/digital-100-most- valuable-boot-strapped-company/)

<comment><USER7> The post seems to be the exact opposite of "just that".

e.g. the 3rd sentence...

>I also dont see any that had just a single founder.

<comment><USER19> Right, most aren't, but his story shows how far a solo founder can go.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> They just posted this notice:

 _Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your patience._

There is hope yet

<comment><USER21> Important info but I think you have the wrong topic.

<comment><USER20> Shit, I did. No clue how that happened...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Drudge report?

</comment><comment><USER23> I have a site that get 1.5 million monthly uniques according to GA as well.

</comment><comment><USER24> okcupid.com was for a long time.

<comment><USER3>
        OkCupid's founders (Chris Coyne, Christian Rudder,
        Sam Yagan and Max Krohn)

From wikipedia, seems it was never just one person.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> 4chan

</comment><comment><USER21> My gut reaction was 4chan as well and I feel like that's probably true; well, for the English speaking world anyway.

<comment><USER26> While Poole may be the only one (or one of the few) people getting checks from 4chan.org, he doesn't have full responsibility for the operation of the site. The site is managed by many volunteer members; "janitors." I think there is something to be said here about the power of an authentic internet community whose participants are willing to work for no compensation, to further its dictator's interests. And that discussion probably involves entertainment value, as well as an apparent sense of equality.

<comment><USER27> The question is always to what degree others are contributing to a website so it is still run by a "single" person. In most cases there might be a person checking in on the servers on a regular basis that is paid through the hosting fee, etc.

Plus there are not dictatorships on the internet. People vote with their feet and are, especially on an anonymous site such as 4chan not locked in, like they are with Facebook profile/networks.

If there were something describable as dictatorships on the internet, I would argue that it is those sites that try to impose their own values and judgments on their members, and not 4chan (and to a minor degree reddit), which (in most parts) only rule is to avoid completely illegal themes.

<comment><USER26> I see your point, however, unlike a platform such as Reddit, the available categories under which you may post content are decided upon or terminated by Poole. There is an implicit democracy, where contributing content constitutes endorsement of the platform, but I think you will find that many decisions Poole has made on behalf of 4chan were unpopular. I'm not suggesting that truly democratic internet communities even exist, but 4chan is much farther from that ideal than Reddit. But what 4chan has is _privacy_.

<comment><USER21> > I'm not suggesting that truly democratic internet communities even exist, > but 4chan is much farther from that ideal than Reddit.

I disagree. 4chan is if anything _more_ democratic than most sites even if it is a sort of semi-anarchic mob rule version of democracy.

The first thing I'd like to counter is the idea that the available categories are determined by the 4chan admins and by moot in particular. It is true that he's the one who makes new boards to talk about specific subjects but that doesn't mean that if there isn't a board it doesn't get talked about, generally it'll happen in whatever board has the most users interested in that subject, and if it becomes a problem or starts taking over the board there will be a general purpose board spun off for that subject in particular. Examples of this (in the positive "lots of people are talking about this and need a space) are /tg/ which spun off from warhammer wednesday on /b/ and /lit/ and /toy/ were both spun off from recurring topics on /tg/. Less positive examples include /soc/ and /adv/ which were supposed to clean up /r9k/ and /mlp/ because pony threads were a _huge_ problem on /co/.

I think the problem here is that Reddit's (and HN's for that matter) "democracy" function is explicitly part of the site whilst 4chan's is hidden and based on the whims of the audience.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


What is the most elegant line of code you've seen? - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Elegant-Code/What-is-the-most-elegant-line-of-code-youve-seen

<comment><USER2> The link demanded a "sign up" so no way.

Probably the most elegant (and eloquent?) line would be in BASIC:

END

says it all.</comment>


8 Engineers Share Candid Feedback about 1:1 Meetings - <AUTHOR> https://soapboxhq.com/blog/management-skills/engineers-share-candid-feedback-one-on-ones <comment><AUTHOR> Author here! Happy to share more about what I learned in the interviews.

<comment><USER2> Thank you for writing this! One-on-one styles indeed vary heavily depending on who you're talking to and how they value their time. This sheet helps condense some of those styles down.

Thank you!</comment></comment>


FAA To Consider Relaxed Rules for Devices on Planes - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/f-a-a-set-to-relax-rules-for-devices-on-planes/

<comment><USER2> I had thought I heard at some point that one of the big objections (by airlines and/or the FAA) wasn't really interference, but that takeoff and landing are the most "risky" points of a flight, and if there's anytime passengers should be paying attention, it's then.

That being said, if there's an emergency, I'm sure people will perk up, iPhone or not :)</comment>


Ask HN: What is a HN-like site for Pharma and Lifesciences? - <AUTHOR>

Hello,<p>Avid HN reader and pharma student here. Can someone please help me by pointing out some HN-like news boards / websites for Pharma / Life-sciences.  Thanks. <comment><USER2> <http://pharmacy.reddit.com>

<http://biotech.reddit.com>

<http://medicine.reddit.com>

</comment><comment><USER3> scicombinator.com</comment>


After 24 years, Doom II's final secret has been found - <AUTHOR> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/08/31/after-24-years-doom-iis-final-secret-has-been-found/ <comment><USER2> This would be a good time to remind everyone to read the book Masters of Doom. Such a great story of how these games came to be.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the recommendation, I checked out the book (I had never heard of it) and it does sound interesting, by chance have you listened to the audiobook? It's read by Wesley and I haven't listened to any audiobooks read by him. ([https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Masters-of-Doom- Audiobook/B00F...](https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Masters-of-Doom- Audiobook/B00FGGUT5O))

<comment><USER4> Wil is a very good audiobook narrator and does a fine job reading this audiobook. I listened to it a year or so ago and it was extremely entertaining.

<comment><USER5> If we're talking about Wil Wheaton I'll also suggest giving Ready Player One a try. It's a short but very enjoyable book and Wil does a great job at bringing it to life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I had forgotten just how fast Doomguy ran. Compared to modern shooters its like he's playing on fast forward. Good thing too since that level is so massive.

I also remember how bullshit the par times were on each map.

<comment><USER7> I was thinking that too. It's bought up a lot if you watch retro gaming videos that talk about this era. Doom was an incredibly fast game. It's pretty technically amazing to think about how the game was constructed to run so smoothly on a 386.

The game can still be jump-scary after all these years with the way the levels and sound effects are designed.

<comment><USER8> Same here. I definitely missed zooming across maps like CS' surf, Q3's defrag or Tribe's skiing. Is there any good fast paced modern game with good movements? And is there any with a decent single player experience?

<comment><USER9> Titanfall 2 has one of the best single-player campaign in recent shooters. You are highly mobile and it's possible (and expected) to parkour your way across multiplayer maps.

Warframe is different, it's focused on PvE (although there's a PvP mode if that's your thing). The premise is simple, you are a space ninja with supernatural abilities and you kill hundreds on enemies on each mission. The game is complex and you'll need to read the community wiki to understand some things, but the experience can be very rewarding.

<comment><USER7> I did enjoy Titanfall 2's single player campaign. The cinematics were quite amazing, almost as good as the cinematic feel of Mass Effect 3.

The trouble with it was that it was waaay too short. There are only 9 single player levels. I realize the game is geared towards multiplayer, but I honestly couldn't even get into multiplayer. Everyone was so good it made multiplayer insanely difficult. You pretty much have to be able to beat the game on hard to even begin in the multiplayer space, or grind a shit ton to get powerups.

<comment><USER10> On the flipside, I really appreciate a short but sweet single player campaign. Titanfall 2 had some truly awesome levels (time travel!) and ended when it had said what it wanted to say. I really dislike games that feel drawn out like too little butter on too much toast (some JRPGs come to mind..).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This reminds me of a quick in Kings Quest, which let you walk across the water to the island by ducking while slipping down the embankment. Apparently you couldn't duck and drown at the same time.

<comment><USER12> Haha, I remember playing a rpg game where you had to kill this undead boss, it's kinda hard but it turns out if you cast heal on him it killed him in 1 hit.

<comment><USER13> (spoiler alert) there is an undead boss in Final Fantasy 8 who is incredibly hard but can be killed using a "Phoenix down" (which is an item that revives dead players). As a kid, I got a real kick out of it.

<comment><USER14> ___Spoiler alert_ __in FF2, IMO the single best RPG ever created in the history of history, there were a number of enemies that you could only kill by first casting a wall on one of your party then bouncing a spell off that wall onto the enemy. Great times...

<comment><USER12> Secrets of Mana, and Chronos Trigger, are my favourites.

As well as Shinning Force, Breath of Fire, Phantasy Star, and Illusion of Gaia.

<comment><USER15> Oh yes, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana! So good! By the way: Octopath Traveler came out for Nintendo Switch a few weeks ago and is awesome (a modern JRPG). Its stories are good but not as deep. Gameplay and music are really great.

<comment><USER12> Planning to get it at end of October. Can't wait. Everyone has nothing but good things to say.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm a grown man but Doom 2 still manages to scare me at times, I think that's a testament to the games level design, sounds and monsters.

The newest Doom was more like Quake and I didn't find many jump scares, still loved it though.

<comment><USER17> Just curious: what did you think of Doom 3, if you've played that? As I remember it, Doom 3 was far more influenced by horror as a genre than Doom (2016) was.

<comment><USER18> Cheap scare tactics, painfully slow cinematic gameplay, boring level design and repetitive fights.

I made it about two thirds in until I had to give up for sheer disappointment. Disclaimer: I still play Doom and Doom 2 occasionally. Those are really good instinctive games to play while you're thinking of a problem. You basically focus on the tactical gameplay and at the same time free your mind to think freely about the solution.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I assume with cheats like noclip and the source dumps people knew about the secret area since forever. But were just never able to figure out you had to be pushed by an enemy to activate the teleport to it.

<comment><USER20> second paragraph:

"Prepare to put your Doom Pedantry Hat on for this one, because the secret has been known, and considered a bug."

<comment><USER8> I was curious about that. Did they mean that they knew where the secret was but not how to trigger it, or that people already knew how to trigger it?

And to be fair, finding the secret is often only half the challenge, actually getting it is the hard part. And I'm assuming this "bug" was intended, I doubt they would design the game with an intentionally impossible level to 100%.

<comment><USER21> Ya, it's not clear if they intended for the workaround or not.

<comment><USER22> It was a mapping error. If the engine works completely correctly, it would be impossible to flag the secret sector as found.

However, Doom has bugs... so it actually turns out to be possible to trigger it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Wait, from what is implied by the creator's tweet, this was the intended method for getting the secret?

<comment><USER24> He says "Great trick getting to that secret!" \- which seems to imply that it wasn't intentional at all.

<comment><USER7> I wonder if during that level design the devs were like, "This will be a tricky once, because you have to be pushed by a monster," and then totally forgot about it, under the mess over hundreds of other tasks to complete.

Maybe it was intentional and it was just so long ago, no one remembered it?

<comment><USER25> More likely that the devs were like: "Hey, lets put a secret in that no one can get, so when they won't be able to find it, they'll lose their minds"

<comment><USER26> Or simply, a secret was placed there but the room was different, then it was modified to add an elevator, forgetting about the secret being therefore unreachable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Brings back memories. As a kid, my only chance to play Doom was on a computer in the electronics dept at Sears, at the mall. Good times.

</comment><comment> dis-sys the video linked in the article brings back a lot of good memory of the touch and feel of DOOM's shotgun, it is by far the best weapon in all FPS games. ;)

<comment><USER28> I kinda liked the double shotgun, it really packed a punch.

<comment><USER29> half rocket damage, if I remember correctly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Fun read.

Been a longtime DOOM fan. I can bet that there are secrets like this hidden in the most recent DOOM game, and expect the same for DOOM Eternal.

The attention to detail that game developers have is unreal.

</comment><comment><USER31> Wow! That is probably one of my favorite levels in Doom 2 as well. I love music too: a knock off version of Hangar 18

<comment><USER16> My favourite track

[https://youtu.be/TnzRBZd5_uA](https://youtu.be/TnzRBZd5_uA)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> PSU early to mid 90's, this is what we did. Doom, Doom 2, multiplayers, seeing this made my day!

</comment><comment><USER33> I find it funny that I feel Doom 2 is still more fearful than playing any far more realistic modern versions of Doom. Not sure why.

Also balance was awesome when even a shotgun guy at the wrong time can be critical to you.

</comment><comment><USER34> Romero's claim that this was intentional stretches credulity.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure he says it's intentional at all. He says "Great trick getting to that secret!" \- which seems to imply that it wasn't intentional at all.

<comment><USER8> Why would there be a secret (which would be a trigger area placed there on purpose) that cannot be accessed? Is the implication here that it was dropped into the map by accident due to someone misclicking?

<comment><USER35> Sounds to me like trolling. Pressumably they were using the map editor to make warp zones and trigger areas and discovered this impish creation by combining the two. I doubt Romero knew about this trick but I can imagine he left the question open whether ever a way could be found. Such things may not be obvious even to the programmer of the game.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> IDKFA - Fill up Ammo

IDDQD - Degreelessness Mode

Shall i get up voted or downvoted? :)

<comment><USER37> Doom is the only game where I still remember all of the cheats. I actually struggle to exactly remember the Contra code, but IDSPISPOPD sticks in my brain for a quarter of a century.

<comment><USER38> Same here, IDSPISPOPD will probably never leave my brain.

By the way, a few years back, I was considering writing a POP3 server implementation, just so that I could name it that. :)</comment></comment></comment>


Deposing the chairman of the Technical Committee - <AUTHOR> https://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte/2014/02/msg00344.html

<comment><USER2> This is childish bullshit and I'm disappointed that those in charge of (various aspects of) the Debian project are acting this way.

Everybody needs to grow up.

<comment><USER3> This is what happens when you make sausage in an open-air kitchen. No organization is immune to this behavior; the difference is that most of the time it happens behind closed doors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can someone eleborate as to what this is because of? has the chairman of the technical committee made some controversial decisions or something?

<comment><USER5> To be very specific it is about the "L" option in the init system debate.

Basically, Ian was pushing for coupling the question of "which init system" to the "requiring specific init allowed/not allowed " option for packages. This meant that though default would be systemd, a package could not depend on systemd explicitly.

Bdale called for votes by choosing to vote for "which init system" first. His justification is here - [https://lists.debian.org/debian- ctte/2014/02/msg00281.html](https://lists.debian.org/debian- ctte/2014/02/msg00281.html)

Fundamentally, since Gnome and KDE have already made the decision to depend explicitly on systemd (and since this was not blocked by the vote), this means that upstart will be almost completely eliminated from Debian.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you feel about news citing HN comments in stories? - <AUTHOR> Recently it has been noticed that more and more HN comments and threads have been cited within news publications. Does this trend change the way that you comment within HN? Does the anonymous nature of some members of the community affect the viability of HN as a news source? <comment><USER2> I think it's a mistake to consider HN a news _source_ , like Reddit and Twitter there is occasionally some primary-source quality material or discussions with FOSS developers or company representatives that can provide appropriate context or clarification to an article. It can also function as a springboard for discussion about different viewpoints that the article writer maybe didn't consider, and citing comments directly seems appropriate for this purpose. However, until there are 1st party articles written directly for this site I think think it's best to consider HN a curator rather than a source.</comment>


Is Amazon Down? - <AUTHOR> Currently when I click links to from outside of Amazon, or try to search from within it, I'm greated with a "Sorry, something went wrong on our end" message, along with an image of a cute dog.<p>https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=anything <comment><USER2> WFM</comment>


TorrentFreak: Don't bash Google for Net Neutrality, it never existed anyway - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/verizon-and-att-ban-bittorrent-on-wireless-networks-100813/ <comment><USER2> Anything that inspects packets past the transport layers should be illegal unless a warrant has been served.

Just like in the good old post days you should be able to rely on all your packets arriving without 'inspection' by any carriers.

The obvious solution to the whole net neutrality problem is to encrypt everything and to run the various protocols on every port imaginable after some form of handshaking.

I think that would work.

<comment><USER3> Yes, but that wouldn't be enough. The DNS system is also controlled by an oligopoly and ISPs. With DNS server data ISPs can easily deduce what is a packet doing. AFAIK, the DNSSEC system doesn't solve this, either.

The stakes are high, I'd love to see a change of paradigm. But it's very hard given the immense economic and political interests against anything fair.

<comment><USER4> I first thought of a solution, whereby we share distributed lists of hostnames, in the same way torrents are tracked.

I then remembered that you can switch to alternative DNS providers. Google's comes to mind, because its 18.104.22.168 address is easy to remember.

<comment><USER3> Google is the largest advertising and user-tracking system online. I would only use those DNS servers as last resource.

Also your DNS request travels unencrypted through your ISP and a likely drop- in solution to packet inspection would just be a passive listener (typical solution with 0 configuration). So in this case, alternative servers don't help.

<comment><USER5> While the Google argument is an easy argument to make, it happens to not have merit.

From: <http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/privacy.html>

_We don't correlate or combine your information from the temporary or permanent logs with any other data that Google might have about your use of other services, such as data from Web Search and data from advertising on the Google content network._

<comment><USER3> You are diverting the discussion. The main point of that comment is the ISP can inspect those packets just like if you use their servers (and probably by exactly the planned way to do it in the first place.)

With regards of privacy, Google's definition of what's identifying or not is very dodgy. From your own link, the permanent record includes the timestamp, domain, geolocation and ISP. That's a lot of information if you aggregate it.

<comment><USER5> Down-voted for posting a link to a privacy policy? Hmm. Ok.

My point had nothing to do with your ISP packet inspection argument (notice I didn't address it). I was providing a counter-point to the "Google is the largest advertising and user-tracking system online. I would only use those DNS servers as last resource." My comment was simply to refute your indication that Google might be associating DNS with advertising or user tracking. They don't.

Edit: Can someone explain why the down-votes? Do you just disagree?

<comment><USER3>
      > My point had nothing to do with your ISP packet inspection argument

That's why my comment said you were diverting the point of the discussion. We are discussing ways to hide content from ISPs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3>
      > Even the most troubling part of Google's proposal – that wireless networks
      > would be excluded for the time being – is not much different from
      > what the FCC suggested.

That doesn't make it right. I'm sure P2P voice providers like Skype are very upset about this agreement. And customers should be, too. If my 3G/4G provider selectively blocks my voice calls they should state it very clearly on the marketing material. Something like "X GB per month for everything but voice, peer-to-peer, and any other service that competes with our own services." Of course they will never say that because they don't want the public to be aware they are being _deceived_.

Even for the rest of the corporations the wireless situation is very bad. They won't be able to have inexpensive communications over IP if it goes through wireless, like conference calls. They'll be forced to use oligopolistic and overpriced services for something already paid for.

This isn't bad just for end users and I think Torrentfreak missed the point. This proposal initiates a terrible false dichotomy of wired vs. wireless. It helps current use of peer-to-peer (the bait) crippling wireless (the real deal in the very near future.) Google doesn't care, or even worse, is against P2P services (private or commercial) because their core business is at odds with it. In som ways Google CEO want it to be the new IBM, the new central mainframe.

[Don't get me wrong, I love the technical people behind Google including its founders, but their higher management is out of control, and IMHO, "evil".]

<comment><USER6> How can it _initiate_ that dichotomy when it's the basically the same as a) the FCC proposal and b) reality as we've lived it for the last few years?

TorrentFreak aren't saying it's great, they're saying it sucks just as much as the status quo, so piling onto Google is stupid because you're attacking the one person pushing for progress in one area because they aren't making progress in a more difficult area, double that stupid if you're acting like Google is dismantling something that doesn't exist, rather than just not fighting to have it created.

<comment><USER3> Perhaps I shouldn't have used "initiate." But the proposal by Google/Verizon states a position while the FCC document "seek[s] comment." It's new that Google, a content provider, answers that question jointly with the 2nd largest telecom. And both companies are partners in the mobile business.

[http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-93A...](http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-93A1.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's refreshing to read more of reality-based examination of last week's announcement.

<comment><USER3> I'm sorry, but who said the current situation is network neutral? There have been plenty of crazy situations related to throttling (like Comcast) and deep packet inspection and content modification (like the big case in UK.)

It's a legally grey area where different groups are asking different things. EFF, EPIC, and other civil rights related groups worldwide want content non- discrimination and permission of tethering for wireless devices. The telcos want carte blanche to block or throttle as they please. And I bet 3 letter agencies (and their counter-parties in other countries) are siding with the telcos for their own reasons.

Google changed their stance at least on content discrimination on wireless. A very meaningful example Skype calls or competing video distribution platforms. Google can't represent those competitors on this discussion. In particular if they are partners with telcos with their Android system. That's where the outrage comes from.

<comment><AUTHOR> "I'm sorry, but who said the current situation is network neutral?"

Err, that's exactly the point. Net neutrality already doesn't exist in a lot of ways, the Google proposal is seen by some (e.g. TorrentFreak) as an attempt to regulate something that can already be arbitrarily done in an unregulated way.

You can't take away a freedom or right that doesn't already exist.

<comment><USER3> As I said in another comment, if my 3G/4G service provider sold me the service as "X GB per month" without clarifying it can't carry voice or competing services currently it's unlawful and other companies affected could sue them. Or a class action for deceitful advertising.

Telcos want to have legal cover for that. That's new.

<comment><USER7> They do clarify in the fine print of their terms and conditions which customers agree to if they're using the service. So, it's not unlawful just because you don't agree with it, because you've already agreed to it.

There is nothing new here in the Google / Verizon proposal. They can't be both killing wireless net neutrality and seeking 'legal cover' for already doing it, especially when it didn't exist because the current status quo of 'packet discrimination' on those networks isn't illegal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I find it interesting to see how so many people try to sound "reasonable" and find value in "compromise". Which is a good thing, 99% of the time. Except when the issue falls into "you can't be a little bit pregnant" category. IMHO, that is the case where Net Neutrality concerned. You can debate how to enforce it, or even if you should enforce it, how important it is, if it should be law, the ethics of it, whatever, but there is no such thing as "a bit of" or "an improvement in" Net Neutrality.

Any law or proposal that leaves gaping holes to manipulate traffic at will is _against_ Net Neutrality. And so, apparently, is Google.

And btw, Net Neutrality did exist, for the longest time in the Internet's history. That's kind of the whole damn point, it brought us to where we are today. The fact that it wasn't enshrined in the law doesn't mean it didn't exist. All of which means that Google's proposal is a proposal to bury it, not defend it.

<comment><USER9> So your proposal to fight one of the biggest lobbying forces in the world [<http://www.freepress.net/node/62059>] is to demand that everything just be fixed all at once? You are out of your mind.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, who would ever do something that crazy? It would be like demanding automakers build safe cars or telling the tobacco industry not to market their product to children.

<comment><USER11> Both those examples had a nice emotional component to them: automobile deaths and cancer patients. Try showing someone the harm of non-neutral networks without resorting to hypothetical situations or abstracts. I don't mean someone on HN, I mean the "average Joe" voter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> And it's not just BitTorrent. Net neutrality hasn't existed in a broad sense for SMTP for years now. Anyone's who maintained a mail server will know of seemingly arbitrary IP filtering between data centers, network wide tarpitting and throttling, and all sorts of hoops you need to jump through to reliably deliver mail.

Further, many ISPs over the years have blocked port 80 in or transparently proxied port 25 (or even port 80) through their own servers. I'm not necessarily against this but I think it should be a legal requirement for ISPs to share information about _what_ they're doing so we can choose ISPs that fit in with our requirements.

</comment><comment><USER13> Hey, but don't you know it's chic to hate google right now?

People love complaining, but not so much helping. I see a lot of people saying why it's wrong but I dont' see fewer people making proposals. And I think the general message in the article is "hey, it's not perfect but at least google is doing something".

<comment><USER2> I don't think that's what's driving this. The major powers behind this are two-fold, the first google's apparent about face, the second that they seem to act against their self applied motto.

So they're being held to the standards that they themselves set in the past, hating google has nothing to do with it.

Net neutrality simply translates in to 'pipes are supposed to be dumb for regular traffic'. Anything other than that and the net is no longer neutral, and that's both what drove it to become what it is today and what will continue to drive that growth in the future. Turning it in to a series of ISP guarded walled gardens is not to anybodies benefit. Especially not the wireless portion, since that is where the future growth will be, so the current battle will draw the lines for one of the most important portions of the net in the near future.

And I think we all hoped that Google would stay on the right side in this, and feel disappointed that they didn't.

Hate doesn't enter in to it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Not inspecting packets is only the beginning.

I for one don't just want people to not snoop around my data, I want more or less unbiased service. Remember, Comcast would throttle users who were constantly uploading a lot of information, which by the way, actually is a pretty good indicator of torrenting.

This is the reason you can't just encrypt everything (edit: as other users here suggest). It goes deeper than that. It's not about people looking into your content, it's about ISPs having to provide the internet as it is, and not simply as they want you to see it.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is BS. Net neutrality has been the status quo for the last 30 years, if only because the network providers didn't have the ability to throttle traffic they didn't like, and weren't concerned about squeezing every cent out of their oligopoly position. Only in the last few years have the providers possessed the network hardware and the concern about becoming dumb pipes that they've actively attacked net neutrality.

Also, I think he's deluding himself if he thinks the Google/Verizon deal is going to protect Bittorrent on wired networks.

</comment><comment><USER14> Getting rid of terrenting is what net neutrality is about for a lot of players: it's a significant part of backbone traffic that can be eliminated (de-prioritized to the point of being useless) overnight, given the right legal setting. Frankly, the interests looking to get rid of peer-to-peer bandwidth are so powerful and around invested long-term, I don't think there's much anyone can do.

<comment><USER2> What goes on in _my_ packets is nobodies business but me and my 'peer', whether it's a web server, a phone, an internet connected appliance, an ftp site or a torrent server.

De-prioritizing (what a word anyway) is not what it is all about it is about limiting. Prioritizing all the traffic is like selecting a volunteer by having someone step backwards.

ISPs sell bandwidth, so bandwidth is what they should deliver. They don't sell quality of service, at least, I've yet to see an ISP that offered me 250K down for torrents, 32K for voice and 128K for web traffic as a single package. They'll sell me 1, 4, 8, 10 or even 20 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up for X credits per time unit. So that's what I expect to receive.

And once they start doing deep packet inspection where does it end? Some websites have a deal with the ISP to prioritize their traffic at the expense of others?

<comment><USER9> I'm for net neutrality, but the argument that they are "selling bandwidth" is ridiculous -- in fact that's the very argument ISPs have for disallowing it! [Pete Ashdown is the president of a Utah ISP called Xmission: <http://peteashdown.org/journal/2006/05/04/net-neutrality/>] As providers of a service, they argue that they should be able to "deprioritize" garbage traffic so that all their customers don't suffer, and you might argue that this is not the real reason they de-prioritize, but regardless, your argument is just as easily turned in the opposite direction.

Bottom line, is that net neutrality is about having an accurate picture of the internet, and not a picture that Comcast (or whoever) decides I get. THAT, as well as maintaining user privacy, is the goal here.

EDIT:

I should also add that ISPs have throttled upload-heavy traffic WITHOUT inspecting the packets for a long time, so even if you didn't inspect packets, the issue of net neutrality persists.

<comment><USER2> You are talking about bandwidth in the aggregate (to multiple users, aka overselling) I'm talking about bandwidth on an individual basis.

Different things.

<comment><USER9> I don't see your point at all. The fact that you want the bandwidth you were supposedly "sold" is the very justification ISPs give for throttling the traffic of, say, spammers, or torrenters. Why should those practices make for a worse experience for everyone else? (edit: particularly if they are illegal?)

Again, I'm for net neutrality, but you do it a disservice with that argument.

<comment><USER2> Yes, you entirely miss the point. They do it by throttling _my_ traffic in order to supply others the bandwidth that _they_ have bought.

Whereas I have just as much right to _my_ bandwidth (the bandwidth that I paid for) as they have for theirs, which protocol is being used is irrelevant.

And you can't compare spam to torrents, spam is illegal, torrents are - surprise - not.

So, ISPs will have to rely on statistical modeling to determine how much they can oversell, not on throttling.

<comment><USER9> Actually, that last part is not correct. Torrents are not always legal [[http://ask-leo.com/is_it_illegal_to_download_torrent_files.h...](http://ask- leo.com/is_it_illegal_to_download_torrent_files.html)], and spam is not always illegal [<http://spam.abuse.net/faq/>]. It's abusive to say otherwise. I torrent also all the time, but that doesn't change the facts.

But anyway, your argument hinges on the supposition that ISPs guarantee your bandwidth all the time. In fact, most of them do not. If you are buying a strict guaranteed bandwidth, do tell me why it is that the ISPs don't actually say that themselves?

Hence the argument that throttling your traffic betters other customers.

<comment><USER2> I don't know who 'Leo' is, but here is the way I understand it:

Copyright infringement is illegal. Torrent files are not (they don't contain copyrighted information, they contain hashes).

Downloading a copyrighted work using any mechanism, including bittorrent is illegal in many places, but not everywhere.

> But anyway, your argument hinges on the supposition that ISPs guarantee your > bandwidth all the time.

No, they have a best effort obligation to deliver what they'e sold. The fact that most of them don't make that effort does not mean they're in the clear.

> If you are buying a strict guaranteed bandwidth, do tell me why it is that > the ISPs don't actually say that themselves?

Because it is to their advantage.

<comment><USER9> > No, they have a best effort obligation to deliver what > they'e sold. The > fact that most of them don't make that > effort does not mean they're in the > clear.

Well, Jacques, once again, that's actually precisely their argument: that they are "making their best effort" to preserve the user experience. You say they're not providing what you pay for and tell them why, and then they spin around and tell you that they are providing exactly that, _because_ they are doing what you don't like.

And on top of that, they're not promising what you tell them you were sold: there is no bandwidth guarantee. It's like if you showed up to someone's house and bought a stereo, and then after you paid, loudly proclaimed that you actually bought their wife. Saying doesn't make it so, and since this is not a promise they have actually given you, it's a bit unfair to expect that they be held to it.

Remember, though before you head down that hole, that I'm not supporting them. I love net neutrality. It think it's great. I'm just saying that your buying bandwidth is _not_ a good basis for argument of the position you elected.

>> If you are buying a strict guaranteed bandwidth, do tell me why it is that the ISPs don't actually say that themselves? > Because it is to their advantage. You're right. It's to their advantage not to sell that guarantee. That would be insane.

<comment><USER2> I don't think we're going to agree on this.

<comment><USER9> No, I suppose not. It's been fun, though. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "We can't help but note that Google's proposal is in essence very similar to the (widely praised) Net Neutrality regulations that were suggested a few month ago by the FCC. On several points it's actually an improvement, as the EFF also noted."

I Wonder why none of the bigger news outlets tried to compare between the two proposals.

<comment><USER3> FCC didn't make a proposal on Wireless, at least on the document they sent on Oct 2009.

[http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-93A...](http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-93A1.pdf)

<comment><USER15> How about the more recent "third way" proposition?

<comment><USER3> Even less clear:

      > [...] will seek input on important questions such as whether wired
      > and wireless broadband access should be treated differently
      > in this context, and will invite new ideas.

[http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-297944...](http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-297944A1.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> People complain against google because: \- It has a "don't be evil" mantra, wich is deprecated right now \- A few years ago Google was promoting the net neutrality

Many people feel betrayed by the new Google behavior.

</comment><comment><USER17> Talk about throw the baby out with the bath water. "We weren't allowed to have our service sent mostly illegal data without being blocked, so net neutrality was obviously a myth!". Does the author think that Google's "courageous attempt at net neutrality" would be favorable to torrents on wired networks?

Google betrayed the trust of everyone who believed "Don't do evil". Full stop. How ISPs dealt with illegal traffic on their networks has nothing to do with any of this.

<comment><USER18> Nowhere does it say that torrents are blocked because of illegal content. The AT&T terms of service that are quoted in the article mention "certain uses that cause extreme network capacity issues" as a reason. Given that torrents are often huge, and that wireless networks usually are not as fast as wired ones yet, that does not seem completely unreasonable.

Of course, it does mean that I cannot download, say, a Linux ISO via torrent... now _that_ is throwing out the baby with the bath water.

(That said, AT&T did stop offering Usenet last year, supposedly because there was too much illegal content.)

<comment><USER19> >that wireless networks usually are not as fast as wired ones yet, that does not seem completely unreasonable.

But it is completely unreasonable. If they don't have enough bandwidth, they can sell me a plan with a limit - then _I_ will decide what to use that plan for (including, but not limited too, porn, terrorist activities and peer to peer filesharing).

What the providers wont admit is that they are selling a commodity, which (in the area of wireless communication) is completely fungible -- therefore they get to charge no more than commodity prices, while everybody else gets to get rich of their services.</comment></comment></comment>


U+F2D9 - <AUTHOR> http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/f2d9/index.htm <comment><USER2> Looks like a special use area of Unicode which is reserved for private use.

Font Awesome uses it for the Ravelry logo - [https://fontawesome.com/icons/ravelry?style=brands](https://fontawesome.com/icons/ravelry?style=brands) .

To the OP - why is this interesting?</comment>


Ask HN: Review my task management startup - <AUTHOR>

Rindle is a personal task management app that integrates with the tools you already use. Rindle will integrate with popular platforms like Gmail, Slack, Trello, Basecamp, and Github, allowing you to aggregate your tasks and move them through your own workflow.
We recently put up a landing page describing the product with a launch list signup.
I'm particularly looking for feedback on the product concept and the landing page UI/messaging. I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
https://rindle.io <comment><USER2> You need to show some actual screenshots or an example interface. Your graphics are sleek, but don't actually tell me how it works, especially how it integrates with other services. Right now my feeling is "could be interesting, but could also be useless, and I can't find out easily, so I'm not interested"

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the feedback. That is a strong point. We put up the graphics until we have actual screenshots, which will be soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Seems like a _very_ crowded space to be in.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, agreed. Thank you for the feedback. Our differentiator is in the fact that we will aggregate your todos into one app, not replace tools you are already using. It will also allow you to automatically generate tasks from other tools like email and slack without manually typing them out.

For example, I use Trello, Slack, Gmail, and Anylist now, all which have tasks embedded within.

Our hope is that will separate us from the crowd.

<comment><USER3> Are you going to charge money for it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it will be a low monthly fee. Not final but we're discussing around $12/mo.

<comment><USER3> That might be tough when people have other, free options.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Blokada – The best system-wide ad blocker for Android: free and open source - <AUTHOR> https://blokada.org/index.html <comment><USER2> Speaking of Blokada, has anyone blocked the update to v4 due to the new UI?</comment>


Zones – Robust error handling and flow control for Node.js - <AUTHOR> http://strongloop.com/strongblog/announcing-zones-for-node-js/

<comment><USER2> Looking through the Zone API documentation, this is a reimplementation of what most Promise libraries already provide (Zones even support "then" and "catch" methods, but don't follow the chaining standard). The only new feature is "Gates," which the documentation admits are awkward and need to be revisited — and many Promise libraries already provide simple mechanisms for sharing resources similar to what Gates allow, but with more-consistent APIs. Zones also don't work several important Node-core libraries (cluster, fs, zlib, and more), whereas Promise libraries solved interop long ago.

Promises/A+ is already standardized and is shipping in browsers. Yes, Promises/A+ is more complicated than it needs to be, and I wish a simpler, more monadic approach had won out. But this is an unnecessary flow-control fork, and it's not even a particularly good one by comparison. If Zones were built on top of the ES6 standard, all ES6-compatible promise libraries would immediately work with it (and there are many mature ones that already exist). No existing libraries work with Zones, and the existing ones will need to be amended to add Zone-specific interop.

God knows nobody needs a zone-to-promise converter; there are enough ways to do asynchronous flow control as it stands. This blog post seems to hope that Zones will some day make it into Node core; I sincerely hope they don't in their current state.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sorry if it wasn't clear enough from the blog, but the attempt here is not to write a flow control library that solves the callback hell problem like promises does.

You should think of it more as an asynchronous try-catch block, where resources created in the "try" block are automaticially cleaned up.

I believe that flow control in the future will be done with generators; check out [https://github.com/visionmedia/co](https://github.com/visionmedia/co) for example.

<comment><USER2> Okay. But Promises _already_ provide asynchronous try/catch blocks, and you could have used those as the basis of your API (and as first-class objects that get returned), rather than inventing a new API and set of objects.

> I believe that flow control in the future will be done with generators; > check out > [https://github.com/visionmedia/co](https://github.com/visionmedia/co) for > example.

Generators and promises are both types of flow control that will be used in the future: they're both in the ES6 standard. In fact, visionmedia/co already supports promises.

<comment><AUTHOR> A Zone object could be a "subclass" of a Promise. It's something I have considered but I didn't think it'd be necessary for the first release.

> But Promises already provide asynchronous try/catch blocks

They do, if all you use is modules that return promises, and the node ecosystem currently has many modules that don't. For example:

        zone.create(function MyZone() {
          // Within MyZone
          setTimeout(function() {
            // Within MyZone
            throw new Error("Oh noes!");
          });
        }).catch(function(err) {
          // Back in the parent zone.
          // Handle the error here.
        });

The above won't work with promises unless you use a promisified version of setTimeout _and_ return that promise from the constructor function.

Conversely, with zones, chaining callbacks is hard to define conceptually:

        zone.create(function MyZone() {
          // In MyZone
        }).then(function() {
          // Which zone are we in?
        }).then(function() {
          // Which zone are we in?
        });

But if you have a great idea here, bring it on.

<comment><USER2> From an admittedly brief look through the source, it looks like the zone module does two things:

1\. Creates the "Zone" and "Gate" abstractions, and, 2\. Monkeypatches Node to use Zones and Gates.

To make setTimeout work, the zone module monkeypatches global.setTimeout and replaces it with a version that uses Zones and Gates. Rather than do that, what you could do is not use Zones and Gates at all, and monkeypatch global.setTimeout and replace it with a version that uses Promises. And: there, Promises work with setTimeout. Just as easily as Zones and Gates do.

(Alternatively, what many Promise libraries do is offer ways to generate "promisified" versions of individual non-Promise functions and encourage you to call those instead, rather than monkeypatching globals.)

My objection to zone is just the new abstractions, Zones and Gates. They don't seem to offer much (anything?) over Promises, and they seem needlessly incompatible with them. Instead of the two-part module, where you introduce Zones and Gates and also monkeypatch everything to use them, you could just have a one-part module that monkeypatches everything to use Promises. It would be less code and it would interoperate with the existing JS ecosystem.

I don't have a particular love for the Promise abstraction: it's just that everyone is going to have to learn and work with Promises anyway (since they're in ES6, and already in V8), and there's no reason to invent a new abstraction for asynchronous try/catch when one already exists. There are lots of Promise-supporting libraries, and no Zone-and-Gate-supporting ones, save for zone itself. Why bother with the fork?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm having a really hard time seeing how this is an actual improvement on the status quo. It just seems to build up a lot of complexity and create new and more confusing corner cases. I have a hard time following the demos, even with copious comments, and one of them even has a null exception catch and calls it a good thing (the http long stack demo).

<comment><AUTHOR> > I'm having a really hard time seeing how this is an actual improvement on > the status quo

What we're doing is make it unnecessary to add error handlers everywhere and still get caught by surprising failure modes. If the zone catches an error it cleans up (closes resources, cancel operations when that makes sense) and then routes the error to the zone's result callback so you can handle it in once place.

The 'status quo' is that node has domains, but zones should be conceptually cleaner and thus have less corner cases.

> one of them even has a null exception catch

I'm not sure what you mean here. The http demo catches an exception and prints the stack trace. We can do that because the zone cleans up the socket so it's not necessary to exit and restart node.

<comment><USER4> The comparison page highlights that Zone.js is better than promises because of long stack traces [1], but most promise implementations already have that [2]. I'm confused, that seems to be the only comparison to promises.

Edit: Conceptually it seems the same as promises. The main difference seems to be that they've added hooks [3] into the pipeline, and they duck punch the core API to intercept errors. Bluebird has solved this without duck punching using `Promise.promisifyAll(require("fs"))` [4]. I would love to see a write up on Zone.js's forks, because the article could of trivially been rewriten to use promises.

[1] [http://strongloop.com/strongblog/comparing-node-js- promises-...](http://strongloop.com/strongblog/comparing-node-js-promises- trycatch-zone-js-angular/) [2] [https://github.com/kriskowal/q#long-stack- traces](https://github.com/kriskowal/q#long-stack-traces) [3] [https://github.com/btford/zone.js/#zonefork](https://github.com/btford/zone.js/#zonefork) [4] [https://github.com/petkaantonov/bluebird](https://github.com/petkaantonov/bluebird)

<comment><AUTHOR> Note that the comparison page doesn't have the "zone" library we just announced on it. Zone.js is conceptually a bit different and it targets browsers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I highly recommend listening to JavaScript Jabber's Zone.js interview [1] with Brian Ford that came out yesterday. He mentions collaborating with this NodeJS Zones project and the possibility of convergence.

I also recommend watching his ng-conf talk [2] on Zone.js to get a better understanding of what zones enable.

[1] [http://javascriptjabber.com/110-jsj-zones-with-brian- ford/](http://javascriptjabber.com/110-jsj-zones-with-brian-ford/)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IqtmUscE_U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IqtmUscE_U)

</comment><comment><USER6> > We're waiting eagerly for node v0.12 to be released. > Unfortunately, the > release may not happen soon since there are about 800 open bugs and about > 180 pull requests waiting to be reviewed.

Is it a real problem? Seems that other popular projects like Ruby on Rails have a similar number of opened issues and it's not stopping them from releasing new versions.

Does the Node core team have any plans how to prevent this situation in the future?

<comment><USER7> That quote and those numbers are incredibly misleading, I'm not sure why they use that to prove Node 0.12 isn't coming soon. If you actually look at the issues on Github, only around 30 of those are marked as 0.12, with the rest being various other milestones including 0.13 and 1.0. It has also already been stated that there is only one more 0.11 release before 0.12.

<comment><USER8> No one is trying to "prove" 0.12 isn't coming soon, we've put lots of work into it, and look forward to its release, and its got some great new features.

I'm not sure the tag states are always up to date, perhaps they are, but the fact remains that 0.12 has been "real soon now" for quite a while, so saying it might be a while still is a pretty safe statement.

The core team is working hard, but I think the PR queue is a good indication of how scarce a resource review time is.

<comment><USER7> The way it is stated assumes that 0.12 won't be coming until all issues and pull requests are closed, which clearly is not the case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Any error handling that forces me to add extra lines into my code is one I see as too obstructing. First and foremost, asynchronous exception handling and propagation, and "long" stacktraces that go with it, should be a core part of the JavaScript language, and I'm personally waiting for that to happen at some point. In the meantime, the best solution I was able to come up with is "LAEH2". See it here: [https://github.com/ypocat/laeh2](https://github.com/ypocat/laeh2)</comment>


Ask HN: What would you do in my situation? - <AUTHOR> I'm asking HN since I don't have a mentor or family member to seek advice from. Throwaway account for obvious reasons.
I'm a first generation immigration, still on H1-B waiting for my green card. Have been in the US for 16 years. I work in tech, at a fairly high middle management position in a public company of 2000 employees. Yearly income of roughly $450k depending on how the stock performs. Wife does not work due to a health situation with my child.
We have about $350k in cash and $200k in investments (401k, IRA and post-tax). I bought my house a few years back and was lucky enough to have a low mortgage payment.
Here's my situation. I'm extremely tired of waiting for my green card but due to a family situation, I cannot go back to my home country. I want to do something else (take a break from work or find a different type of role or work part-time) but my H1-B does not allow me to do that. I don't know how to invest my cash or what to do with it. We have thought about buying another property but everything seems very high where I live. I'd like to move closer to work but homes are very expensive there. What would you do in my situation? <comment><USER2> Here is suggestions why not pay $500k to US government and get a investment visa Eb5. You have $350k cash. Look for low interest loan on 401k for another 150.

I would advise you to hurry up since $500k might be raised soon. Read about EB5 investment center. With little bit of research you might also be able to turn decent profit too.

<comment><USER2> If you are okay to move to Europe look at Bulgaria permanent residency too.

You will be able to live anywhere in Europe once you get the permanent residence with 500k bond

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You seem to have a pretty small nest-egg considering the number of years you've worked and the amount that you make. I'd suggest that, given what I assume to be your spending habits (and it's just an assumption), that you really can't afford to not be working anyway. If I were you, I'd practice minimizing what I'm spending per month before I even thought about what else to do. Being independently wealthy is a continuum - many people could stop working if they were willing to minimize their spending dramatically.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been employed for 13 years and I started with a low-paying job ($35k). I had to pay off some loans in the early part of my career and didn't save much for the first 6 years. After that, I bought my house which ate into my savings. The house is currently worth $500k more than what I paid for it. Currently, I try to save at least $4k per month. I drive a cheap car (pay $134) per month and have no other debts other than my mortgage. The only thing we splurge on is food and even with that, we don't spend more than $15/person when we go out.

<comment><USER3> Ah ... so it wasn't an average of $450k over those years. Sorry I misread your situation. Unfortunately, I don't know of anything that can help you with your H1B problem in the US. There are exceptions in other countries that are more desperate for certain types of professionals.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Would your employer allow a sabbatical? Do they have offices in another country they could sponsor you where it's be easier to obtain citizenship (Canada)?

My suggestion would be to talk to an immigration attorney who could provide guidance on other avenues for you to remain in the country besides an H1B, perhaps through your own business you could invest your assets in.

</comment><comment><USER5> > I'm extremely tired of waiting for my green card but due to a family > situation, I cannot go back to my home country.

Could you move to a third country, say Canada, or perhaps somewhere in Europe?

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't know what to suggest but I think you've done well financially.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I made a mistake in my investment numbers. It's not $200k but more closer to $380k.</comment>


Laocoön - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/23/laocoon/

<comment><USER2> I know that I am reading WAY to much into this but here are the rules:

"For a space that is 'populated': Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by loneliness. Each cell with four or more neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation. Each cell with two or three neighbors survives.

For a space that is 'empty' or 'unpopulated' Each cell with three neighbors becomes populated." [1]

The classic glider is the hacker icon:

       OXO
       OOX
       XXX

Apple's icon:

       OXOOX
       OOXOO
       XXXOO

or

"Hacker"

       OXO
       OOX
       XXX

plus

"Death"

       OX
       OO
       OO

But, if we look at the rules and this icon, it is saying, "Hacker + Death", as if they are saying death to the hacker. They are using the first rule of fight club, "Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by loneliness" with the added populated space. As if they are pushing out hackers if by loneliness and through that loneliness they will die.

EDIT: Or they are trying to be like Gandalf and say, "You Shall Not Pass!"

To me this is sad, because the roots of apple were in the hacker culture when Woz build the blue box. I would love to get Woz's take on this...

[1] <http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/>

<comment><USER3> The point is not a concatenation of two symbols -- the point is that this one little point will kill the glider beside it, where by "kill" I mean it becomes the static sequence:

        . o o
        o . o
        . o .

So if they are saying "death to the hacker" they are saying it much more dramatically than you can hope to get by your analysis. The point is, "there is the symbol for a hacker, flying freely diagonally across the grid, but we've added a point which will get her stuck in one form."

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This symbol is not ominous; the glider doesn't die. It moves through four states, arriving at this steady state:

         XX
        X X
         X

I'm surprised that the author wrote such a lengthy article without making sure that the premise is true. I think he misread the engraving and transposed the stray dot to the left, like so:

         X X
          X
        XXX

That symbol does die.

<comment><USER5> "Technically the glider becomes a known static shape. But for this active and useful little craft with its wiggly diagonal propagation and useful character, it is as good as death." Though it is fairly easy to miss, it is stated in the article. The author is using "death" to mean that the shapes stop changing, not that the dots disappear- which is not the same meaning you and I thought of at first.

<comment><USER4> Mea culpa. I was confused because Conway's game of life has two states: life and death. Living things that don't move are still lifes [1].

[1]: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_life_(cellular_automaton)...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_life_\(cellular_automaton\)#Tubs.2C_barges.2C_boats_and_ships)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For those not familiar with Laocoon, he was a hero from greek and roman stories, most famously written about in Virgil's Aeneid. He recognized the Trojan Horse as a ruse (and is the source of the saying that has come down to us as "Beware the Greeks bearing gifts") but was not believed and was further punished by the gods who sent two serpents that dragged him and his twin sons into the sea. A statue depicting the event is one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity.

</comment><comment><USER7> Most comments are interpreting this as a 'death to hackers' message, but it seems more likely to me that it's a memorial to Steve Jobs.

I would think that apple employees designing something like this view themselves as a part of hacker culture.

</comment><comment><USER8> The picture in the article is cropped. In the original iFixit teardown you see that the pattern is right next to a laser-engraved data matrix code [1].

The indentations probably encode some quality-control type metadata from the CNC milling machine (like the version of the plan used to mill the part). iFixit just happend to get a glider in theirs.

[1] <http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/GGjmUQwXwlrFJAUy.huge>

</comment><comment><USER9> Next week Devin Coldewey discusses the numerology of Steve Jobs and traces Apples' hidden roots to Aleister Crowley and Thelema.

</comment><comment><USER10> It's hard to tell if the author's explanation is reasonable, because he doesn't explain what part the code was found on, who found it, what other markings might be on that or other parts, etc. I wonder why he doesn't tell us any of these things? Seems like basic journalism.

<comment><USER11> [http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Retina- Di...](http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Retina-Display- Teardown/9493/2)

It's on the Macbook Pro in the display assembly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Perhaps it's a "stop sign" for hackers—"go no further". The extra cell effectively stops the glider, since it ends up in a steady state.

</comment><comment><USER13> Pareidolia. It could also be a binary code where the rows (or columns) represent 1, 2 and 4, giving values of 15304 or 45601 depending on what way up you read.

</comment><comment><USER14> I always use the Glider (Hacker's Emblem) as my wallpaper (from this Deviantart artist), it makes a great minimalist dark background: [http://mientefuego.deviantart.com/art/Carbon- Glider-12926852...](http://mientefuego.deviantart.com/art/Carbon- Glider-129268523)

Minimal representation (using 2 Braille Unicode characters) is: ⠠⠵

But Apple's version contains a single cell in the top right that will interact with the Glider and will mutate and become a static structure 4 iterations later. I tested in this html5 Conway's Game of Life online simulator: <http://www.quesucede.com/public/gameoflife/game.html>

</comment><comment><USER15> The glider is also the universal hacker emblem. <http://www.catb.org/hacker- emblem/>

</comment><comment><USER16> It seems to me that if it is anything it is a memorial to Steve Jobs. His glider was stopped.

</comment><comment><USER17> In case anyone was wondering, Laocoon is pronounced Lay-Awk-Oh-Wan.

<comment><USER18> I've only ever seen it written, so I've always pronounced it like the Greek Λαοκόων, that is, [laokoɔːn].

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> After a couple of seconds in the iPad, in this case just after the annoying do I want to download the app had popped up after i started reading, techcrunch articles just go fuzzy and unreadable. The comments don't. I am guessing it is a webfonts issue. Maybe it is to force you to use the app. I havent been able to read a techcrunch article in months though.

<comment><USER20> I only get that when I zoom in any way. It is weird and obnoxious and makes me hit the "reader" button so I can have the text at a decent size.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Maybe they're celebrating how successful they've become. The dot eventually turns the glider into a boat, as if to cheer "I'm on a boat"

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Game_of_life_boat.svg></comment>


Ask HN: Why not keep a copy of your data? - <AUTHOR> Context: Using an on-line service to then provide services to others.
On another thread someone said:
"Do I need to regularly back up all my content in case it gets suddenly deleted?"
I replied[0]:
"You should always have a copy of your own data. Always. Without exception."
That was getting some upvotes, but I didn't think twice about it because it seems like such a no-brainer.  But then it got multiple down-votes, so that made me think:
Am I wrong?  Are there circumstances when you should not keep a copy of your own data?
I can't think of one, so I ask HN:
When should you not keep a copy of your own data?
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24167952 <comment><USER2> Potentially when it has incriminating evidence.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I make myself competitive for a master's in CS after college? - <AUTHOR>

I graduated in May with a B.S. in the computer sciences. I would like to apply to a competitive master's program in 2-3 years.
During undergraduate, most of the focus on graduate school admissions was for Ph.D. programs, for which there are fairly standard ways of making oneself competitive: get great grades, do a thesis with a well-known professor, get to know a couple of teachers to have good recommendations, and get an 800 on the quant portion of the GRE (with an emphasis on research and recs). During the time between undergrad and grad school, what can I do to make myself a competitive candidate? Furthermore, what do master's degrees admissions emphasize in contrast to Ph.D. programs?
I am particularly interested in a few "elite" programs--not because of their brand name, but because I constantly see "great" minds in the field come out of there. I feel being surrounded by such people would give me the greatest return. Specifically, I would like to apply to the MIT Media Lab and the Stanford Symbolic Systems program. So, for another point of discussion, should I work as hard as I can to make myself a great computer scientist, apply to 10 or so solid schools, and hope I am accepted by one or two of the best ones? Or should I focus my goals on what a specific program values?
EDIT: Related thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=422773 <comment><USER2> The Media Lab is totally different than the Symbolic Systems program and both are completely different than the CS programs at their respective schools (and any other school.)

The Media Lab does not require the GRE nor does it require that you even really have any formal training in computer science or engineering. It's more like an MFA program than an engineering degree. However, you do have the opportunity to take cool engineering courses if that is your bag.

The Media Lab is a joke academically but it is the easiest way to get a graduate degree from MIT. If you align yourself with the right projects and professors it can be a much better experience than a "real" master's program and you can parlay the experience into a cooler career than most. If you align yourself with the wrong projects it is a massive waste of time. It is unique in that it is a funded master's program so at least you won't waste any money.

The way to get into the Media Lab if you didn't go to MIT as an undergrad is to create a portfolio of cool projects that look like what the research groups you are interested are producing. For instance, if you want to get into the computational photography program you should start writing some photo manipulation programs and build a blog about them. It also helps to become friends with the professors there.

If you didn't get an undergraduate degree in Symbolic Systems at Stanford you are ineligible for the master's program. It is a "co-terminal" degree which means it is essentially just an extra year after undergrad.

<comment><USER3> You no longer need an undergraduate degree from Stanford to do a symsys masters:

<http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_static?page=msinfo.html>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. I thought this would be a (major) detail I wouldn't have overlooked. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Concentrate on what you love. Honestly, there is too much focus on getting into "great" or elite programs. Every school has advantages and disadvantages, and graduate programs function VERY differently than undergraduate programs.

The best thing you could possibly do for the next two years is hone in on a specific area of interest. Try to be as introspective as possible. Are you fascinated by the physics of gaming? Do you want to improve human-computer interaction? Are you an expert code-monkey who just wants to create a useful and intelligent program with new tools?

If you can establish yourself as an expert, more or less, graduate schools will take you on without question. They will evaluate you on your ability to be successful. Everyone knows that the GRE (and sometimes a GPA) are horrible metrics for success in graduate school, but sometimes they are the only pieces of information a school has to evaluate you. The worst thing that can happen is that they hire you (for a PhD program) or offer you a scholarship, and you end up flunking out, quitting, or never finish.

However, if you follow your heart and show your competency in one or two specific areas, you will be a gem. Then you will also get the most out of graduate school. You will have access to so many excellent resources like free journals, experts in the field, and open up doors for future careers.

Graduate school can be an incredible opportunity or somewhat depressing. What I've found is that those who are most ready, emotionally and academically, do amazing things, but those who are not tend to flounder.

You want to be ready, so do yourself that favor.

Please feel free to contact me if you want to chat a little bit more about the experience.

<comment><USER4> If I could respond to my own comment, I would also like to offer one other piece of advice:

If you're learning towards graduate school, research the GROUPS and not the schools. Even within departments you will have a variety of experiences, and knowing what you want well in advance is key. Here are some observations about advisers (if you change your mind and end up applying for a PhD program):

\- Young professors generally are trying to build their name in the community and will work you like no other. You will probably publish often. Stress is common.

\- Middle-aged professors at the height of their career will generally be not available to you. This is when they travel to conferences and meetings. Your _real_ adviser will probably be your Post-Doc.

\- Retirement-bound professors will be freely available and have a wealth of experience through which you can draw upon. They generally care less about department politics and more about your personal happiness and success. However, they probably won't pressure you as often to get things done (may be good or bad).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apply for a PhD. If you get in, you can bail after you get your master's, and they pay you if you are a PhD student. A professor at a top-25 CS grad school once told me they accept almost every American citizen who applies to the PhD program because it's so much cheaper - so worst case, you should be able to go to a well-known school that has merely a good CS program.

<comment><USER6> > _"because it's so much cheaper"_

... cheaper to pay Ph.D. students than full time staff you mean? Or am I reading this wrong?

As I wasn't exactly an all-star in undergrad (3.52), I'm trying the route of getting a masters at a second tier school (and attempting to be an all-star while I'm there) in the hopes of leveraging that to get into a top tier school.

Also gives me an easy way to bail if I find I don't like it as much as I hope I do.

Of course, if this plan is idiotic, someone should point that out. The CS school employs a lot of Masters students for TA/RA positions, so I'm not too worried on the money front.

<comment><USER7> No, he means its "so much cheaper" to pay for American Grad Students versus foreign ones who need Student Visas. I've been told by a professor who's brought in Chinese grad students (he himself is Chinese) that its really hit and miss. And you put up a bond for their visa -- they bail on your program or commit a felony, that's your grant/research/grad student funding money going out the window. It doesn't happen very frequently, but it does happen.

Another situation with foreign grad students is that they get here, and after a year or two of abuse in a lab, they go get a life, and get married or (iff female) get pregnant. Then, their work ethic trends "Average American" and they adopt the "take this job and shove it" attitude.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm not a student at the Media Lab, but I do go to MIT and have some friends there. From what I have seen, it helps to have some good artsy-techy projects under your belt.

I don't think they require the GRE to get in, and I'm not sure how important grades are if you've done some interesting projects. I think they want some form of "accomplishment" combined with decent coding skills.

Admission is to specific research groups, so I'd look at the site, find a group doing work that interests you and contact the professor or some of the researchers in the group. Can't hurt to ask them what makes a strong candidate.

</comment><comment><USER9> Do research. Read the journals where the professors you'd like to work with publish, and work on research in that area. If the program you're applying to is primarily focused on research, this is the most important thing they're looking for-- your ability to publish and do research.

</comment><comment><USER10> If it's the MIT media lab you really want, which always seemed like an amazing experience, then figure out a way to visit, meet the people, and understand what they are doing.

Doing your own projects/research and publishing them would help to get your name out there. I'm not an 'academic' by any stretch, but that's what I would do if there was a job/opportunity I really wanted.

Do something amazing and doors will open.

Apply through the 'machine' and there will always be hundreds of people competing in the GPA/undergrad arena, and chances are they all have a better GPA than you.

</comment><comment><USER11> I agree with the advice already given that the best way to be admitted to the programs you desire is to be ready to apply to a strong Ph.D. program.

But why do you desire the master's degree? Can't you meet great minds in private industry?

<comment><AUTHOR> > But why do you desire the master's degree? Can't you meet great minds in > private industry?

You absolutely can. However, I enjoy the academic environment as a platform for personal development and have made achieving a graduate degree a personal goal. I actually desire a Ph.D., but the 5+ year commitment doesn't exactly align with my other goals. I am also attracted to entrepreneurship and feel I would reach a point of diminishing returns at the 3-4 year mark. Hence, a master's degree (notably the programs I mentioned) are a good compromise.</comment></comment>


How we automate our family finances with Google Sheets - <AUTHOR> https://www.benlcollins.com/spreadsheets/tiller/?hello_ben <comment><AUTHOR> "We've found it challenging to find time to manage our family finances, so we've been in this position of flying blind without a financial tracking plan in place. We've had those frustrating conversations, knowing that if we had better insights into our financial habits we could do a much better job at financial planning. I want to show you how we created a system in Google Sheets that changed that.

It now only takes us about 10 or 15 minutes each week, so we can focus on understanding our financial situation better, and maximize our saving."</comment>


Continuous Cache Warming for Rails - <AUTHOR> http://stdout.heyzap.com/2012/03/21/continuous-cache-warming-for-rails/ <comment><USER2> This should never be an issue. A page load should trigger page generation code (I'm not a Rails guy, but the view in traditional MVC), not some massive 10+ second operation.

What you should be doing is caching that big time consuming job (I guarantee you aren't timing out someone's browser with template code) at the model level, and then generating pages off of that cached result. Feel free to further cache the HTML too, but the bulk of the win is from decoupling long running jobs from your display code.

If you want to ensure that the user sees the absolute latest, use an AJAX call to pull the more recent result after serving the previously cached result.

<comment><USER3> We had a similar conundrum at LayerVault a few months ago. It can be quite costly to rebuild file histories in a quick manner. We offloaded the tasks and denormalized the data a bit and now our pages scream.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel the need to point out that regardless of how you're "pre-warming" the cache, you're missing the primary benefit of page caching.

By default, Rails' page caching persists to disk. An immense advantage of this solution is that you can use your web server to serve these pages directly, without ever hitting the Rails stack.

You're saving the page generation time, but you're still hitting the Rails stack + Redis for every single page request, both of which are entirely unnecessary.

<comment><USER5> Page caching is only useful if your page looks the same for everybody, e.g. it has no 'Welcome $LOGGED_IN_USER' bar. Which already rules out 99% of all web apps.

<comment><USER6> The last big web app I worked on cached the page components. For example, the "Latest images" section is cached, but the "Logged in user (11 new mails)" section isn't. (Or as another poster suggests, use AJAX for that stuff).

You can still get away with caching large parts of your pages though.

<comment><USER7> In Rails that's called "Fragment Caching", which is different from "Page Caching".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things." -- Phil Karlton

(though in this case, I think it's safe to assume the second hard thing is solved - "kludge" seem to fit just fine)

</comment><comment><USER9> _It should never be used in production or for user-facing or critical client purposes"

script/console production < worker/cache_page.rb_

?

 _Our slow endpoint was on a back-end administrative page only; faking the session data in curl would have been annoying. Also, it was exceeding the timeout limits of our production server_

I think you have a bigger problem here.

You're right this is very hacky, it makes me itch, but I'm not sure I have better solution. Why not just use wget to load and cache the page (passing in a unique parameter that you use to expire the cache and skip the filters)?

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think that's a better solution, it's similar but less integrated with the app stack.

<comment><USER9> Good point ... how about just throwing in rufus-scheduler and using excon to make the request?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> As far as I know Varnish will let a single request through to generate a cache and hold subsequent requests in a queue then serve everyone from the same cached data.

If your page takes long than a second or two to load when uncached you should really be moving towards a batch processing model.

</comment><comment><USER11> I ran into a similar problem since some of my pages were taking upwards of 5 seconds to render. But rather than pre-warming the cache I opted for static generation. Here is a small library that does this for django:

<https://github.com/stucchio/Stiletto>

It's nearly always better for nginx to serve up pre-gzipped content than for nginx to ask django/rails to ask memcached for the same content. It reduces your CPU load as well, so you need fewer servers to scale up.

On EC2, make absolutely sure you are storing the pre-rendered files in ephemeral storage (/mnt, not /var) - instance storage is slow.

</comment><comment><USER12> We used to do this at Gilt. The problem we found was that eventually the warmer wouldn't be able to get through every page of the site before the cache expired, and users would start falling through to the rails instances. Despite there being hundreds of rails instances, this would kill the site in seconds.

We eventually moved to decoupled services, which were able to do much smarter caching.

</comment><comment><USER13> Unless I'm misunderstanding something, script/runner could be used instead of script/console. Then the whole Rails environment is properly loaded but in a manner that's actually meant to be used for prewritten scripts instead of in an interactive environment.

<comment><USER14> script/runner does not have the app.get facility. That's only available in script/console.

<comment><USER15> app.get is using the same facility as integration testing ([https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionpack/lib/ac...](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/actionpack/lib/action_dispatch/testing/integration.rb)).

Check out the code that instantiates it at [https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/railties/lib/rail...](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/master/railties/lib/rails/console/app.rb)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> incidentally the irb trick to prevent tons of output works just fine if you do ;0

saves you a few keystrokes...</comment>


Steve Jobs and the licence plate mystery - <AUTHOR> http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/10/05/steve-jobs-and-the-licence-plate-mystery/

<comment><USER2> ((1+1)=2) No one sees the plate, he parks in the handicap spot. Maybe he has a legitimate handicap plate for the car.

I don't think someone has to be totally physically depreciated to qualify to legitimately use one of the spots. I'm not sure if I was hurting to too much to walk a long way I would want to advertise it to everyone with a special plate, and I'm not even a world famous person--yet.

<comment><USER3> An old boss of mine had one of his physician friends (or brother?) help him get handicap plates for his minivan. His disability was being flat-footed.

It was a bit obnoxious as he walked his dog along the Charles for miles every day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Steve likes to keep things clean. Neither have Macs any "designed for" or "powered by" stickers on them.

</comment><comment><USER5> More to the point than buying his way out of a legal requirement, is that he parks in disabled bays as a matter of course. Could all the people who have ever told me that he's not a tosser please gather round? I have some bad news for you.</comment>