To Many Chinese, America Was Like 'Heaven.' Now They're Not So Sure - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/18/world/asia/china-america-trade.html <comment><USER2> Maybe it's a good thing. Moving away from seeing America as an economic goldrush where everyone can come and "get theirs", and more toward a place where people actually live in. This is my home, not an all you can eat buffet. If America cannot take care of its own poor and suffering, what are we doing trying to take care of the entire world?

<comment><USER3> Prosperity is not a zero-sum game whereby more Chinese success in America means less success for the native born. The is nativist/nationalist myopia.

A waning respect for America illustrates that America has failed to make the case for western values to the Chinese people — open democracy, religious and cultural tolerance, etc — and we risk losing ground in other areas of the world (The African continent, for example).

<comment><USER4> > Europeans, along with Canadians and Mexicans, are the most skeptical that > the U.S. government respects Americans' freedoms. Majorities in Spain, > Mexico, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, France and Canada all say that the > U.S. fails to respect the rights of its people.

[https://www.pewglobal.org/2018/10/01/americas- international-...](https://www.pewglobal.org/2018/10/01/americas- international-image-continues-to-suffer/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The officials and rich are always the smarter and informed ones, just look at where they put their families and wealth at, watch what they do rather than what they say.

<comment><USER6> Agreed, but having been to America - I think the assumptions made are slowly collapsing.

The main assumption being that USA will protect your wealth much more than then the Chinese state, but I think that is changing ( for the better ).

If suddenly Chinese HNWI are forced to redistribute their wealth among americans, they might realize its better to just have stayed in China.

<comment><USER5> >Chinese HNWI are forced to redistribute their wealth among americans

I don't see that happen, but I'm seeing average minds are controlled more and more thoroughly with the assistance of modern tech, while the "woke" ones are rushing to America to give birth even if border officers told them they can no longer obtain US citizenship coz Trump said this or that.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2hBtXdaYsQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2hBtXdaYsQ)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> As an individual in a society, I am no more than an ant who serves her queen. Yet, each ant has a purpose, however small, to maintain the health and well- being of the colony. An ant lost is a tragedy, a colony lost is another step towards extinction.

This is not the reality we live in. We are less than proverbial ants, we are grains of sand beat back ceaselessly into the past. We disintegrate, we stagnate; but for every tiny piece of sand extinguished, thousands more are borne out of the granite slabs of time.

I admire the Chinese for awaking to the artificial construction of American exceptionalism. I only wish each nation's citizenry could use that same looking glass to peer within.

</comment><comment><USER8> For most Chinese, as long as they have their needs met, probably their system of government is fine. Some may know no better (historically the world wasn't democratic) and others might rationalize with "just don't insult the leaders /state and you're fine. Small price to pay"

</comment><comment><USER9> Doesn't this boil down to China having developing country status, being allowed to block imports?

The issue being with China being so large, there are millions of people still quite, poor despite China being such a large industrial power, so there is some justification to it still being a developing country. I imagine the rules were written for smaller homogenous countries.

Things work best when trade goes both ways.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is great. America never was a heaven. Before, people had false belief. Now, they have true belief. That is to be celebrated.

<comment><USER11> The Chinese word for America is "Měiguó", or literally "the beautiful country".

To the common immigrant, it was sold as a country of opportunity and wealth.

<comment><USER12> Is that beautiful as in "the landscape is beautiful" or as in "your life there will be beautiful"?

<comment><USER13> It's just a phonetic loan (A-mei-rica) represented by a character with positive associations (they could also have chosen e.g. 没国 "without country", but that would've been impolite). Best not to read too much into it.

England is called the country of heroes, France the country of law, Germany the country of virtue... people rarely pay attention to the literal meaning.

<comment><USER14> Curiously, what is India called?

<comment><USER13> The word for India has been around for much longer, Wiktionary has an extensive section on the etymology: [https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8D%B0%E5%BA%A6#Chinese](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8D%B0%E5%BA%A6#Chinese)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The love-hate relationship illustrated in the article has been around since at least 1999, when the US bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.

<comment><USER16> Just to be clear for everyone, you mean the one in Serbia. The former Yugoslavia footprint has several Chinese embassies.

<comment><USER17> In 1999, there was only one Yugoslavia around: after the departure of the other republics, Serbia and Montenegro maintained the name "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" for their country. The OP was correct in saying that the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia was bombed. (Only later did they change the name to "Serbia and Montenegro", and it was only then that the name "Yugoslavia" disappeared.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It is a very interesting article to discuss, yet it sunk to page 3 so fast...

</comment><comment><USER19> Personally, I want to keep myself neutral as a Chinese. But I think I can provide some interesting perspective from China, according to the order of timeline. I'm by no mean historian so errors and non-seriousness are expected, you can think of this as an OverSimplified[0] cartoon on Youtube:

0\. China was a 3rd world communist country after WW2.

1\. The Korean war broke out, USSR ordered China to strike back to maintain the iron curtain. China also worried about the border so it joined the war. The result of the war is basically a draw, but the border and iron curtain was 'saved'.

2\. After the Korean war, China's self-confident increased, and sort of complaining USSR's control. Then these two countries start to hate each other.

3\. Vietnam war, China also joined because of the alliance relationship. This time the North won.

4\. Meanwhile, Nixon visited China. Since China was one of the promising countries could weaken the iron curtain.

5\. 'Reform and Opening' started in China.

6\. After the Vietnam war, Vietnam became very powerful. There was quite a risk Vietnam could unify the Indochina. China was in the middle of the USSR and Vietnam. This became embarrassing after China and USSR hated each other, and the USSR was keeping investing in Vietnam. Then there was another war broke out between China and Vietnam. Both of the countries claimed they were self-defending. There was also no winner, but Vietnam seems less dangerous in China's perspective.

7\. Japan grows really fast in the 80s. China was just started to grow after the opening policy and found the importance of the economy growing.

8\. After that, the US feels threatened, there were some economic sanctions going on. There was an essay 'The Japan That Can Say No' from Sony co-founder. But eventually, it seems Japan said yes for most of the time.

9\. The Gulf War. The US almost beat Iraq in no time, and Iraq was actually pretty powerful at that time. According to the rumor, this made the Chinese military pretty shocked. After the Korean and Vietnam war, China was kind of self-overrated and reduced a lot of military margin in order to grow the economy.

10\. According to 8 and 9, the US shaped a very powerful image to China, and China also realized it's not wise to like Japan which always be the 'yes man' or omitting the military advancement.

So the competing mindset was already formed pretty early. But there was also "闷声发大财" according to the president Jiang at that time, which basically means don't let other people notice you while you are growing fast.

Another interesting thing is about cultural defense. Korean TV series and K-pop was very popular in China, but the first Korean TV series was introduced by official TV Channel. There was some theory believe the US and Japan culture are very influential and hard to replace, so China tried to guide people to consume Korean (and also Thailand, etc, since Asian culture are easy to introduce) culture instead of from the US and Japan. And then in recent years, Korean TW series and K-pop is largely replaced by Chinese own products, which seems pretty similar.

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/user/Webzwithaz](https://www.youtube.com/user/Webzwithaz)

<comment><USER20> I recognize some missing pieces, which I believe you will find interesting.

1\. The Soviet union did not order China to attack UN troops. The Soviets were never powerful enough to order something like this, right after the conclusion of a civil war and brutal Japanese invasion. If they were, there would not have been a break-up shortly afterward.

2\. I don't think the Soviet being a control freak is the reason for Sino- Soviet rupture. Even after public denunciation, the Soviets still delivered prototypes and all the blueprints of Mig-21. Your impression of overbearing Soviets might come from Communist propaganda about "three-year natural disaster." That was purely to cover up Mao's catastrophic "Great leap forward," a complete man-made disaster that the Chinese Communist party refuses to allow a full investigation to this day.

6\. The Sino-Vietnam border war was China's admission ticket to Western block. Normalization of relation with US followed immediately and arms sales were permitted again. As for the military winner, Vietnam, I would say. Chinese army suffered heavy causalities with little to show for. Chinese officers were shown to be incompetent, and the Air force, despite deploying hundred of fighters, did not carry out one sortie against enemy forces. Another infamous incident is when China imported two sets of military radar for counter-battery targeting and one set sent to the front (the other was sent to Beijing for cloning), it was effective enough that Vietnamese sent in special forces and destroyed it. Afterward, only a lowly company commander was court marshaled.

I have found that Communist propaganda is most effective in willful neglect and ignorance rather than outright lies. Lies can be pierced more or less readily, but ignorance hardened into opinions are much harder to change.

<comment><USER19> Thank you for pointing out all of these.

> Lies can be pierced more or less readily, but ignorance hardened into > opinions are much harder to change.

This is gold. I found it's hard to not be biased in the environment.

I also found all of the Sino-Soviet and Sino-Vietnam stories I know were just too sketchy. And the 'three year natural disasters' you have pointed out is also fair enough, as Soviet always someone to blame in propaganda in those period. A popular saying is China needs to pay the debt during those three years, which also sounds sketchy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I respectfully disagree that waning respect for America in this context illustrates what you say it does. Chinese culture is fundamentally opposed to American culture, and those things you mention, open democracy, religious and cultural tolerance, etc. are expressions of American culture. What nations like China and various others respect about America is __money __, and how to make a lot of it even at the expense of American people and industry, all while laughing at how we live our lives and making a mockery of us. As a person of Asian descent and having lived amongst other non-American groups, I can say most do not want to live like Americans at all and often spit on "western values". They love our money but they don't give a damn about our democracy and cultural tolerance. Hate to say it, but it's for the most part accurate.

<comment><USER21> > Hate to say it, but it's for the most part accurate

I hate to say it too, but statements such as yours, filled with sweeping generalisations, oversimplifications and us-vs-them outgroup nonsense like they want to "spit on our values" usually turn out to be very very far from accurate, and indeed say more about the speaker than the subject at hand. Chip on your shoulder much?

I'd like to think - and have generally observed - that 99% of people from _anywhere_ are not in fact greedy sociopaths, but instead decent people trying to live good lives inside their own cultural and economic context.

<comment><USER2> For the good of the world, I hope you are right. I admit I did get a bit too passioniate in the earlier post.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Another Chinese Regime sponsored psyop article.</comment>


Don't Call Yourself a Developer If You Don't Code - <AUTHOR> https://mariopeshev.com/dont-call-yourself-a-developer-if-you-dont-code/ <comment><USER2> Call yourself whatever you want. There's no need to gatekeep a title which means so little in the first place.

<comment><USER3> Totally agreed. I regularly introduce myself as a doctor to new acquaintances, since I occasionally visit the pharmacy to fill some prescriptions. It totally pisses me off when they insist on asking me what medical school I went to, and elitist crap like that!

<comment><USER4> "licensed medical professional" != "developer"

<comment><USER5> What if you develop software for medical equipment?

As developers we're lucky enough to be able to find industries where our education/certications doesn't matter. On the other hand, some niches which could use an actual licensed training program.

You could in theory teach yourself enough about the medical field to know more than a doctor, still the doctor has a piece of paper saying that someone checked his or her qualifications. Even a CS degree doesn't tell you anything about a persons abilities to write software.

<comment><USER6> _What if you develop software for medical equipment?_

Then you're a programmer, not a doctor.

 _still the doctor has a piece of paper saying that some checked his or her qualifications_

Yes. That's how we keep the frauds and whackjobs from killing people.

"Gatekeeping" is a dirty word on HN, but it also has its usefulness. We don't let just anyone drive a car, even if they really really really think they know how. You have to have a license.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Perhaps, but this argument could be extended. Many "developers" do little more than glue together bits of framework boilerplate.

<comment> just-juan-post Yep - code monkeys gluing APIs and data flows together.

Feel free to gatekeep about what a "real" developer is but in the end you all just make someone else's APIs talk to each other. Oh and grind Leetcode for interviews.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Semi related but in the opposite direction:

I know a PE who worked for a local trash disposal service* many years in the past. He always put something like "waste disposal and processing engineer" on his resume and mads it sound like he was dancing around the fact that he was a garbage truck driver. His clients would always ask about it as if he was a truck driver since it looked like an oddball in the context of his resume and he loved saying "Well no, I actually designed the facilities."

*Turns out low margin industries employ a surprising number of PEs so they can rubber stamp all their facilities projects in-house without getting bent over by whatever PE firm(s) is buddy-buddy with the municipality(s) they're operating in

<comment><USER9> What's a "PE"?

<comment><USER10> Professional Engineer, e.g. Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Traffic, etc.

They are licensed by the state they do business in, and are required to pass exams and take continuing education credits.

<comment><USER9> Great thanks, never heard the term before so I'm guessing it's a US term. This is what I understand a Chartered Engineer as in the UK, but that would normally be abbreviated to CEng.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The title looks like gatekeeping and they probably did that intentionally, to get anger-readers, but they're actually describing a specific issue: WordPress users/admins that are calling themselves developers. The problem is that they keep interviewing these folks for developer positions. That seems like a reasonable complaint, at least from an outsider point of view. Although arguably either some better filtering should happen at an earlier stage in the process... or the author is that filtering.

</comment><comment><USER12> Just titles. They don't mean anything in this industry. Stop feeling so hurt about it.

I don't even know what my title _is_ at work. I'm sure there's an entry in a db someplace, but so what? If anyone calls me anything it's usually an SME. If I'm talking to someone new I usually just say I work with computers and leave it at that.

</comment><comment><USER13> Well, developing a solution can include zero coding. And there it is fair to call it developing (as in continuously enhancing something... Consider there are land developers long before software.

I think the author just had a very specific problem. SAP surely has a similar problem when searching core developers and tons of SAP consultants show up.

</comment><comment><USER14> "Only call yourself a developer if you are creating complex data structures and algorithms"

<comment><USER12> Define complex.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> A while back I saw someone who bestowed upon them self the term 'full stack' onto their HR related title. That admittedly hurt a little to read.

But in the end they're just silly word and job titles and etc are already in a very murky place as far as relevance goes.

<comment><USER16> 'full stack' seems to have devolved to mean 'generalist' in some circles.

<comment><USER15> I always thought it was that, kinda from the start ;)

You can only know so much in depth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> And if you do code, call yourself a programmer

</comment><comment><USER18> At my company, we have Technical Service Analysts and Developers. The distinction is that a developer has power to modify the application they manage, whereas a TSA only has the power to _use_ the application they manage. Both can write code, though it tends to be that the developers write code and TSAs don't.

For example, I have a TSA that manages our API gateway. They can't modify that application by updating it's codebase, but have the power to deploy stuff and write config scripts for it. As a developer, I manage a front end application, so I have the power to change the code for this application, but I don't have the power to deploy it and I don't really use it.

So I really think being a developer or not is based around what you have power over as an individual.

</comment><comment><USER19> Different (and niche) industries use words to describe what they do. Sometimes those words collide in meaning when applied to different specialties. I've worked in an industry where people use the word "programming" to describe using a GUI to configure software. No code is written. It's just data entry.

The word has changed meaning in that industry and it's not really my place to tell everyone they're wrong. I just need to be more descriptive when I talk about what I do.

Don't call yourself a developer unless you renovate or build properties.

</comment><comment><USER20> stop telling me to stop calling myself a Senior Comment Developer, besides I am a well known upvote hacker.

</comment><comment><USER21> I have read more code than I have written. What is a suitable title for me?

</comment><comment><USER22> I've been paid to create software in LabVIEW.

Checkmate, I guess?

</comment><comment><USER23> Who cares?

<comment><USER24> People who are trying to hire developers, for one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> literally who cares</comment>


YouTube can now terminate accounts that are "no longer commercially viable" - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/kizzume/status/1192762316158144512 <comment><USER2> This is a good time to remind yourself and friends about Google Takeout ([https://www.google.com/takeout](https://www.google.com/takeout))

Use it to backup all your Google data to your own computer, once a year at least.

</comment><comment><USER3> As was brought up by markiplier recently this is extra scary because a ban here would ban you from Gmail, analytics, and any other Google service.

Could I be locked out of Gmail tomorrow for blocking an ad on a music video? It's not clear to me that the answer is no.

<comment><USER4> The answer is yes. Yes, you can be locked out from your whole google account for violating the policies of any google service.

<comment><USER5> What happens to my access to other websites where I've used my Google account to login?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This commenter has it right; YT can't possibly be a money-maker: [https://twitter.com/AlalmeCreative/status/119360740533606809...](https://twitter.com/AlalmeCreative/status/1193607405336068096)

Think about it. You can't even _consider_ being a large video host without massive amounts of spare disk space, and you probably can't make enough on ads to pay just for bandwidth!

I bet that this is why the new terms of service clarify that YT is an offering of Google, and not of some wholly-owned subsidiary. Google's search ads make so much money that you can buy as many computers as you like in pursuit of ads, and then if you happen to use those computers for storing cat videos, well, that's just good use of idle disks!

</comment><comment><USER7> An interesting development, particularly if you take it in concert with the "Adpocalypse" (ad companies forcing YouTube to remove their ads from any potentially controversial content). For example, most violent (i.e. Call of Duty) video game videos are immediately and irrevocably demonitized, to the point where the creators are only able to continue thanks to external funding, either through Twitch or Patreon.

Now then, those videos can still get tens and hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube. They are the very definition of "not commercially viable" to YouTube, since they can't have ads on them, but they're extremely well viewed.

Makes you wonder what will happen next.

</comment><comment><USER8> Wonder if they're considering mostly the bandwidth cost or the storage cost too?

Lets say a channel with videos does not get a lot of views, so takes up storage costing X, vs. a channel that get a lot of unmonetizable videos which take up bandwidth cost Y in addition to storage. Maybe bandwidth costs Y are much higher, so the former channels are safe?

Hopefully they give a long notice for the user to back those videos up, or there would be a lot of lost content.

If it's a great purge, it's going to be a huge mess with even Internet Archive teams and volunteers not able to keep up with the immense storage and bandwidth needed.

</comment><comment><USER9> I am so happy I (mostly) stopped using Gmail a few years ago. I still have an email account there but it just forwards my old mail to my new fast mail address. I never log in.

<comment><USER10> I'm in a similar position, but I still use it for oauth on applications that only support e.g. it and facebook.</comment></comment>


Indian bank's meltdown takes out several popular services - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/06/indias-yes-bank-breakdown-disrupts-walmarts-phonepe-among-a-dozen-other-services/ <comment><USER2> Normally I'd sympathize but there were signs of this being inevitable for a very long time now.

My father and I are small business owners in two entirely different fields. Every now and then we talk about what we've been hearing - scuttlebutt etc. Both of us, in different cities multiple states away, heard that this was going to happen at least 7 months ago.

There has been a bunch of media coverage about the bank's financial woes as well.

I'd have moved off their infrastructure a long time ago. I know in some cases it's easier said than done, but I feel like you really had to know that this was coming, especially if you're a big corporation. There's really no excuse for being caught like this when even a small time guy like me could have told you this day would come.

Edit: For clarity - while there are ways to get infusions of funds to avoid this scenario, I was sure it would be inevitable because there is a well- founded reputation of corruption, fraud and a general culture of shady practices surrounding this bank. High profile folks at the bank were charged with some of these crimes in 2018 if I remember correctly.

<comment><USER3> Wouldn't moving money effectively make the crisis happen quickly and inevitably many, or maybe most people would simply be unable to move faster than others?

<comment><USER2> In this case the bank was offering technology solutions like point-of-sale machines and QR Code payments and Payment Gateways and accounts for the Unified Payments Interface system, all of which stopped working because the bank is now unable to carry out its normal operations.

<comment><USER3> Ah thank you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This meltdown also exposed a bunch of embarrassingly poor engineering / design practices with several fintech startups.

PhonePe, a payment app valued at $7 billion and a subsidiary of Walmart owned Flipkart has been down since this morning since Yes Bank was the only bank they had partnered with since 2016.

A $7 billion dollar company running without failover / redundancy is just crazy.

Google Pay, their competitor on the other hand has atleast 2 banks (HDFC and Axis) it has partnered with.

What's worse is Yes Bank/Phone pe handled around 40% of daily UPI transactions - so millions of folks have been affected by this screw up.

<comment><USER5> What is UPI transactions?

<comment><USER6> Its a mobile banking platform in India, which enable money transfers b/w Bank accounts as well as to various merchants on the platform.

PhonePe, the leading UPI-provider app was running it with Yes Bank as the partner, but the bank went down.

<comment><USER7> so NEFT?

<comment><USER8> No there's a separate system for NEFT. UPI is a central bank mandated payment gateway standard. It runs on top of an instant settlement system called IMPS. Implementations tend to be very low cost but there's a cap on transaction size.

It's very likely now that Visa and Master Card network will never penetrate in India beyond the wealthy class that travels abroad. This was kind of a pre- emptive strike to keep rent seeking companies at Bay.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> >Oct. 31 - Yes Bank gets binding investment offer of $1.2 billion from global investor, sends stock 39% higher. >Nov. 1 - Yes Bank reports bigger-than- expected loss for the second quarter, as bad loan ratio deteriorates to 7.39% and provisions swell to 13.36 billion rupees

This seems... odd to me. Almost like they got the money and said "thanks for that... erm, we forgot to mention this other thing here..."

On another note, what's with Techcrunch messing with the back button? It takes 4 clicks to get back out!

<comment><USER10> Same problem with the back button. Techcrunch seems to be deliberately attempting to disable the back button.

<comment><USER11> Presumably it's just tracking layers in between the link and the actual article?

With adblock on, my back button works just fine.

<comment><USER10> Yup you're right. On initial click it takes you through a bunch of tracking redirects. Subsequent visits don't show that behavior.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> As a person currently working in fin tech industry in India, I had the opportunity to closely watch the situation unfold at the ground level. There is a lot of disarray as Yes Bank powers a lot of innovative payment systems across India. Feel free to ask me questions if you have been affected by Yes Bank outage or have any general questions related to payments industry impact.

<comment><USER13> Yes Bank was handling more than 40% transactions in India. One would expect the bank to be very profitable. Why does the bank have financial woes that caused the central bank to take over the bank?

<comment><USER4> 40% of UPI transactions which are typically much lower value than say B2B transactions via RTGS etc. Also the per transaction fee is nil or negligible and not comparable to the percentage fee charged for card payments.

They are under because of a lot of shady practices like knowingly giving out bad loans, corruption and self dealing that enriched it's founder. He had been ordered by the regulator to step down 2 years ago, but that didn't prove to be enough to save the bank.

For example the founder and ex CEO was involved in a scheme where Yes Bank disbursed bad loans to a prominent business (Indiabulls) family, in exchange for which the family's business lent huge sums to Yes Bank's CEO and his children.

Beyond this Yes Bank loaned out several billions of dollars to companies that other banks were unwilling to lend. Most of that money never came back.

<comment><USER14> Self-dealing is a huge red flag.

The Bank of England used to let employees have mortgages with the bank. Random people couldn't get a mortgage from the Old Lady but their employees could. It's a huge National Bank, giving some middle manager a $0.5M mortgage on a nice house for his family at a slightly nicer rate than commercially available is a cheap perk and no real threat to stability of a trillion dollar GDP economy.

But while it's different in quantity and character it sends the wrong message. The newly created First Bank of Elbonia sees this and figures it's fine to lend $500M (a tenth of tiny Elbonia's GDP) to their chairman who is coincidentally also the brother-in-law of their newly elected Grand President. The money is never paid back, Elbonia sinks into a swamp of corruption. Oops.

So the Bank of England stopped offering such perks. It's a shame, but it's like when you're looking after young kids. Maybe you'd just run across this road, but with kids watching we should walk to the proper crossing and do it by the book. No self-dealing.

<comment><USER15> The BoE giving better rate on mortgage to employees as perks is perfectly fine because the mortgage has collateral priced at a market rate with market interest. Those so call perks are basically Bank not earning interest on its employees.

Lending $500M without collateral seems like a completely different thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Oh my, Yes Bank.

A relative, years ago, made me aware of a small deposit they'd made in my name there. After being rotated between half a dozen customer service reps, communicating over e-mail and WhatsApp and SMS, contradicting each other at every turn, I gave up trying to set up an account to manage and/or withdraw the funds.

Abysmal service culture. Not surprising to see that had knock-on effects.

<comment><USER17> How does one "make a deposit in your name" if you did not have an account already?

<comment><USER18> Most online fintech services allow this - you can send money via paypal to any email address, send a venmo to any phone number, etc regardless if an account exists or not. The services will let you take back the payment if no one claims it. (On ios open a new blank text, open the apps section, click venmo)

<comment><USER17> That's not "making a deposit" means, but I get your point. If that's what the OP meant, then I take issue with their wording. "Making a deposit" and "transferring money" are two different types of financial transactions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> @mods - could you please edit the headline to "India's Yes Bank's meltdown..."

There's actually a big bank in India called "Indian Bank" that is not affected here.

</comment><comment><USER19> Millions of users are affected by this meltdown since PhonePe, an Indian payments app has partnered only with Yes Bank while it's competitors partnered with multiple banks.

<comment><USER20> I was about to ask the same question. I use PhonePe a lot, will be nice if they come up with a solution soon.

PhonePe is a cool app, which a lot of people, especially small time vendors accept.

I pretty much use PhonePe for everything these days.

<comment><USER6> They are back up now.

<comment><USER19> Yes, as of now PhonePe temporarily shifted to ICICI Bank( An Indian Private Bank) as it's partner.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Uh, that's a pretty bad HN edit on the headline -- only one bank is "melting down". The headline should be "India's Yes Bank meltdown..."

</comment><comment><USER22> Already a revival plan in action: [https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/financ...](https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking/finance/banking/rbi- announces-draft-revival-plan-for-yes-bank-here-are- details/articleshow/74512979.cms)

</comment><comment><USER23> Are all deposits insured? It seems they have placed restrictions on withdrawing more than $600.

<comment><USER24> The deposit insurance is technically only about Rs. 1.00.000 (~ $1500)

<comment><USER25> It was raised to 5x of that in February, but doesn't help as that requires the bank to be declared as failed. The regulator (RBI) has refused to do that in multiple instances, most notably in the case of PMC Bank a few months ago.

<comment><USER26> Thank you for that information. It makes much more sense now why these zombie banks are allowed to remain around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I have mentioned this issue to multiple fintech entrepreneurs in India that they can launch a private fdic like insurance. They can charge different premiums for each bank effectively producing health ratings for those banks.

<comment><USER6> Any faults with the DICGC approach?

They do publish details about premiums in the annual reports (last report is still pending, sadly)

<comment><USER27> The amount insured by DICGC is only 5 lakh (500K) INR which is nothing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Looks like a bailout is going to happen and the State Bank Of India is involved.

</comment><comment><USER29> I think exposure to Jet Airway, DHFL and IL&FS screwed them. They were not able to recover from them till now.

I was still hoping turnaround considering lot of people are using "PhonePay", but you never know.

</comment><comment><USER30> How is Indias banking sector faring otherwise besides Yes?

<comment><USER6> The NIFTY Bank index is still at +4.6% for the last 1 year period.

But a lot of boats have been rocked across large and small banks. Lots of small-banks are getting merged, and NPAs are at peaks.

But RBI's refusal to let Yes Bank collapse means that it can only go upwards from here.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why do "Show HN" posts rarely make it to the front page? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Because they don't generate interest ?

<comment><AUTHOR> But they get a number of upvotes (which could be considered a proxy indicator of interest). In some instances the show page top submission has a higher up vote count than most of the front page but still does not show up.

<comment><USER3> It's not for us mere mortals to try understand the HN home page algorithms .. but there are a couple of lines here [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> two reasons:

1) top stories are usually very unique or a good debate

2) if it worked, people would work together to game the system.

<comment><USER5> > very unique

I once read a short article by a journal editor, on the theme of contributors describing their work as 'extremely unique'.

Something is either unique or it's not.

If anyone knows the article I'm referring to, I'd appreciate a link, I've been trying to find it again for a year or two.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Mainly because they are unique so they are not automatically upvoted when duplicates are submitted the way articles are.</comment>


Ask HN: Do historians' research findings influence modern societies? - <AUTHOR> Are there any examples of instances in which an aspect of modern society changed or evolved in response to new findings/research about previous societies' mistakes (that led to their decline)? Just curious! <comment><USER2> Definitely.

If you examine the history of the British you'll find their architecture e.g. Georgian, was inspired by archeological digs and ruin sites in Italy. A lot of it bears obvious elements from ancient Greek and Roman temples once you stop to examine them.

The Federal and Colonial styles in America are similarly inspired, obeying rules of symmetry last evident on a civilizational scale during the Roman Empire.

It is not just architecture. The education system in Britain and America was originally based on the methods used by the Romans e.g. logic, rhetoric. It is not a coincidence that we use words like curriculum, syllabus. I can tell you it is pure joy to read some Latin works, they are so interesting and clear to read in a way I don't get from a newspaper of 2016 A.D.

Our political systems are deeply informed by the thoughts of the Greeks and Romans. The founders of America were particularly concerned about the failure modes of democracy that concerned ancients such as Plato and Cato, which is why in three days the electoral college is about to vote in the next President.

The reactionaries and conservatives in the West have always held the downfall of Rome up as a warning to present society of various failure modes, some of which are moral decline (corruption), lack of moral fibre/spirit/courage, subversive religions and civil conflict from non-assimilating ethnic groups.

Recently I've seen papers saying there is good evidence that Roman literacy rates were much higher than we formerly imagined. That certainly influenced how I thought about stagnation and decline. I am certain that humanity periodically goes through 'Year Zero' Resets that cause them to forget almost everything. If you'd like to have the pants scared off you, read Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies.</comment>


The original "Getting Real" - <AUTHOR> http://tinyurl.com/y2vlzv <comment><AUTHOR> Sorry to "Hack" the site, but the other post's title wasn't very interesting (even though it is the title of the article!). I just read this and thought the readers of ynews would enjoy it.

<comment><USER2> Sorry, I think I was the one who submitted it previously. I was experimenting at the time to see how much difference a posts title makes to how many votes it gets. Turns out the title is far more important than the article as far as votes go, as you can see from this one.

Paul Graham + 37 Signals reference = instant karma ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Heh not looking for Karma. Just thought everyone would enjoy it.

Although my wife (mcollins027) apparently thought I wanted some Karma :S

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Cool. You can read about RTML here:

<http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/store/edit/advanced/advanced-22.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> Yeah, this is a really great one. Paul is a bit more succinct than 37Signals, though I loved their book too.

</comment><comment><USER4> I disagree with PG. Not everyone is connected to the internet all the time. My application (juwo) is meant to work offline. I can now see that PG may have been biased against my YC application.

</comment><comment><USER5> Well put. Thanks for posting.</comment>


Feet-smelling Robots - <AUTHOR> http://designtaxi.com/news/357456/In-Japan-Odor-Sniffing-Robots-Give-Snarky-Remarks-If-Your-Breath-Or-Feet-Stink/

<comment><AUTHOR> I finally don't have to bend my feet all the way to my nose to find out if they stink!

Definitely more important than, say, curing cancer.</comment>


Ask HN: Join a "unicorn" startup or a well established giant? - <AUTHOR> Hey there !
I have offers from a "unicorn" status startup and a well established giant (~ $6B - $8B in revenue). I'm 22 and have recently graduated and plan to do my masters in Computer Science sometime in the next year or two.
Considering such a short time horizon, and ignoring facts such as pay, city involved or closeness to home, which could be advised as better time spent working and learning ? What factors do I consider while making my decision ? Do I not ignore factors mentioned previously ?
Lastly, if I do end up joining the startup, I'm also worried that I'll end up staying at the place for too long, and not doing my Masters as planned.
Any advice and outcomes/experiences involved in both paths would be welcome.
Thanks ! <comment><USER2> Wealthfront CEO Andy Rachleff on this:

"Ignore Company Size

Great engineering mentors reside at companies of all sizes. Coding best practices are broadly similar between both large and small companies, provided both are on the leading edge. That should come as no surprise because engineers need to solve many of the same root problems, no matter what the size of the company.

Failure at a small company with a great engineering team is not as risky as you might think. Even if your employer fails, recruiters are quite knowledgeable about which companies have recruited great technical leaders and are desperate to hire their disciples. Perhaps even more surprising is engineers from failed companies with great technical reputations are far more vigorously pursued than engineers from successful companies that lack killer technical reputations.

Once again, the most important consideration is the quality of people from whom you can learn."

[http://eng.wealthfront.com/2014/02/career-planning-for- new-g...](http://eng.wealthfront.com/2014/02/career-planning-for-new-grad-and- young.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd throw my support behind Andy Rachleff's comment. With the added observations ...

You would be best served to interview your prospective employers. Try to ascertain where you would learn the most and have the most fun.

If you are serious about pursuing your masters, sooner rather than later, then you should bring that topic up in the interviews as well. You might find one of the companies more willing to support your on-going education. Doing a masters part-time might be a viable option.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you go the startup route, you will likely not do your Masters anytime soon. Not saying you couldn't but I've just seen it a number of times, and you'll likely get caught up doing the startup dance (its fun). Honestly, that isn't a bad thing. In a lot of ways going through the startup process is a better education. Not discounting an advanced education but frankly I'd rather get practical experience over a Masters.

The large company you can easily complete your Masters as the amount of work and the type of work you will be doing will be the entry level work. Not that it is bad, just that it is different than a startup where you could be tasked with a critical feature or bug fix that the company really is depending on. Another factor to consider, if you do really want your Masters now, the bigCo might wind up paying for a lot of it, if you agree to stick around for 1-2 years after they pay for it. Sometimes that is worth taking less fulfilling work so you can fulfill your education, just a thought.

For my 2 cents, I'd go the startup route. But if you are a risk adverse person, don't.

</comment><comment><USER5> Pick the unicorn.

* Your stock options should be worth a lot more down the road. * It's fun and a better learning experience to be part of a growing company. * The unicorn's name will also look good on your CV. So don't pick the giant for that reason.

Imagine joining Google or Facebook when they were small and considered a unicorn!

Of course there's the unlikely scenario that the unicorn will fail but even then the overall experience will teach you a lot more.

<comment><USER6> >The unlikely scenario that the unicorn will fail

Why is this the 'unlikely' scenario, and not the likely scenario?

I am really curious on what unicorn OP is talking about.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Choosing between two good options with unpredictable outcomes, my favourite rule of thumb is: choose the one that leaves you with the more options afterwards.

1\. With the startup you'll learn a lot in a short period of time. You'll meet entrepreneurs and others who can help down the startup road.

2\. The giant will look great in your CV and will lead to better positions, better salaries (and you'll still learn a lot if you want).

It all comes down to your preferences really.

</comment><comment><USER8> Was in your exact position a few weeks ago. Useful advice that I had was, pick the company that loves the same stuff as you.

If you love tech and want to learn and try new stuff, make sure the company feels the same way. If you're crazy about shipping cool stuff, does the company share that? This is irrespective of the size of the company.

Failing that, I'd go for the risky option.

</comment><comment><USER9> I have two friends in your position, who both picked the big giant (a multinational company). They both are in their early 20's. They both are fixing bugs. They both have regrets.

Not saying that fixing bugs is a bad thing, but in six months they hardly did anything else but this.

</comment><comment><USER10> take more risk while u r young and single: a unicorn is gonna be materially different experience than the giant. u can join a large corp at anytime.

a Master's degree is nearly useless in industry, unless ur resume needs help from a prestigious name-brand school. ppl usually pay more attention to where you get ur Bachelor's, or Ph.D. degrees from. a Master's only takes 1.5 or even 1 year to finish, too short for anybody to change/improve a lot.</comment>


Ask HN: Is this a bad sign? - <AUTHOR> I recently started working for this startup about 5 months ago, great team awesome pay. I work remotely from half way across the world, recently I was asked to take a pay cut because revenue was not much so they had to cut cost.<p>As a remote developer with no benefits or equity, what should I consider before accepting this, and also is this a bad sign for the company? <comment><USER2> Well... several possibilities.

Could be that they are lying about revenues being small and just trying to squeeze you. That would be a bad thing.

Or, could be they're telling the truth and revenues are struggling. That is a bad sign in terms of financial health.

Seeking to cut costs when times are hard can be a sign of responsible discipline or a sign of desperation.

It's usually a bad sign that a company offers "great pay" and then has to dial it back. Generally seems like a lack of discipline and financial forecasting savvy and controls.

It's hard to say what is going on here specifically. For most startups, you're dealing with inexperienced leadership and most often these measures are a very bad sign. But this may be an exception.

How much experience do the founders have running companies? What % of pay did they ask you to cut? Can you ask if any layoffs are happening? Can you ask how much cash the company has, what monthly cash burn is and/or how much runway is left?

You should ask for something in exchange for the reduction, if you take it. If you believe in the company, you could ask for equity. You could ask for an agreement that they give you at least, say, 8 weeks severance if they let you go (since accepting the pay cut will eat into your ability to save and leave you in a bad position if they need to lay you off).

I'd brush up the ol' resume and start putting feelers out there, just to be safe! Try to ask some of the questions above and also think of what you'd like to receive in exchange for taking less cash pay.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER3> My take is that it's a sign that the company is running low on cash and it is a sign that it has recognized the need to reduce its burn rate and it is a sign that the company is looking to reduce its expenses in regard to programming and it is a sign that your last invoice might not be paid and a sign that your invoices prior to the last invoice might not be paid. If you let them stack up.

Whether or not it's acceptable depends on which other options are available. If those options make the pay reduction acceptable, my advice is to require pre-payment in exchange for the reduction in rate.

The company has acknowledged pending cash flow problems. If the company balks at prepayment, it means that not paying you for work you have done is an option the company is considering as part of its survival plan.

There's no reason to trust the company to pay more than they trust you to do the work.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER4> Is the cut being applied across the board, or just to you as a remote worker?

How open are they being with you about the financial forecasts? Would someone in the leadership team walk you through how, if everyone takes a haircut, this is going to make the difference to whether the company succeeds or fails? If it were me, a big part of my decision would be based on how engaged the leadership team were in keeping me on board, and how they communicated their calculations.

The fact that you have no equity could (should?) be negotiable. You would be perfectly within your rights to say, look, if I take a haircut on salary because I believe in the company, I should get some options / equity to reward me for having that faith.

Of course if you don't want equity because, deep down, you're not a believer, then you may as well start looking at alternatives that will match or better your current deal.

<comment><USER5> The cut is across the board as I was meant to understand. Everyone is getting a pay cut.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm a remote worker in a start-up too and had a similar problem.

Last year in August they told me, they will get an investor in a few months and if I could wait for my money till then.

The discussions with the investor took a 2/3 year and I got paid last month.

They paid a bills sporadically in that time and in the end I had to wait for half a year of payment.

Most people would have already stopped working. I didn't because it's my first remote job and I wanted to tell future customers that I worked more than a year as remote worker.

Also, I knew they got some buying offers from bigger companies, so the discussions with the investors weren't about "if" they get money from them, but how to get as much as possible from them.

I think this is a special case, because most start-ups don't get any buying offers and really struggle with their finances. I wouldn't have done it, if I didn't know about this...

</comment><comment><USER7> IMHO you should only accept the cut if you answer absolutely yes to the following questions:

* are you 100% sure that, if revenue had been higher than expected, they would have given you a substantial raise? Or are you supposed to share the losses but not the gains?

* can you take the cut without blinking?

* is working for this startup really better than working for a comparative startup that doesn't try to pay less than agreed upon?

</comment><comment><USER8> Yes, you should accept. If you don't, you're not a "team player", and that's the kiss of death at any company.

Then, if the pay cut was significant, start thinking about other employment. If you have no benefits and no equity, it should make your decision easier.

 _is this a bad sign for the company?_

Not necessarily. Many startups go thru uneven growth.</comment>


Ask HN: Why aren't there more custom Slack clients? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I use Ripcord. They've been adding more and more features recently and it's pretty close to a daily driver at this point. If they fixed Ctrl-K to search all available channels and DMs I would never need to fire up regular Slack.

www.cancel.fm</comment>


Palantir Is Providing Coronavirus Monitoring to the CDC - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/03/31/palantir-the-20-billion-peter-thiel-backed-big-data-giant-is-providing-a-coronavirus-monitoring-tool-to-the-cdc/#7007d5cb1595 <comment><USER2> So... US, UK, and apparently they've been shopping their surveillance tech around Europe as well [0]?

I kind of get the US here but how on earth do the other governments think this is an even remotely sensible idea?

[0] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/palantir-...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-01/palantir- in-talks-with-germany-france-for-virus-fighting-tool)</comment>


The German Amateurs Who Discovered 'Insect Armageddon' - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/world/europe/krefeld-germany-insect-armageddon.html <comment><USER2> This study appears to be an alarmist rehash of what was previously discussed on HN:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14323533](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14323533)

Here's one of the original papers:

[https://www.farmlandbirds.net/sites/default/files/Orbrioch%2...](https://www.farmlandbirds.net/sites/default/files/Orbrioch%20Nature%20reserve.pdf)

The 75% decline number appears to be from two data points from a 220-acre plot. From that paper:

 _" What follows is a description of measured Insect-Biomasses from samples collected in the Orbroich Bruch Nature Reserve, near Krefeld, using Malaise Insect Traps. The results show that, in the same two areas, sampled in the years 1989 and 2013, there was a dramatic fall in the number of flying insects. Using the same traps, in the same areas, significant reductions of insect populations, of more than 75%, were found. Our data confirms, that in the areas studied, less than 25% of the original number of flying insects collected in 1989, were still present in 2013."_

 _" The Orboicher Bruch, to the Northwest of Krefeld, is a designated Nature Reserve of around 100 hectares (220 acres). Due to the reserve's relatively remote location and its rugged landscape, intensive farming came to the area only recently."_

So alarmists are extrapolating from two data points (years 1989 and 2013) for a 220-hectare plot of German farmland to the entire world. I think that is a bit of a stretch, even for statistics.

Since different bugs breed in different seasons, and numbers depend on the fruitfulness of previous generations, food supply, predation, disease, temperature and so on, this bug weight could vary considerably from year to year (or site to site) for any number of reasons. While one year cicadas thrive, the next year there may be none.

BTW they're measuring the weight of dead bugs - not how many bugs or what species of bugs - just the weight of bugs. Actually they're not even measuring that, they're measuring the weight of dead bugs' soaked in 70-80% alcohol.

I could go on and on about controls in statistical experiments but I think you get the idea.

See the original HN posting for discussions pointers to the earlier papers.

<comment><USER3> This study confirms empirical observation all around. Insects are disappearing. Birds are disappearing (populations are down 50 to 60% for many species). Large animals are disappearing. Soils are disappearing. Fish are disappearing. The situation _is_ quite obviously of imminent global catastrophe, but you can harp until the end about "alarmist predictions".

<comment><USER4> Here on HN we need to back such affirmations with data. The bolder the affirmations, the more solid the data-backed proof need to be.

If we were to exchange "philosophical" considerations here, I'd tell you that sunday fishermen have complained weekly that there was much more fish in the river before since the dawn of humanity. I'd also tell you that my own home in downtown Beijing has seen a slug invasion this year, and that these animals are not disappearing at all (at least in my courtyard).

<comment><USER5> That's a symptom of ecological upset too. One species flourishing when another dies off, and the resulting wild cycles. Not a good sign.

<comment><USER6> Here's a good article on that topic:

Planet of weeds Tallying the losses of Earth's animals and plants By David Quammen/Harpers Magazine

[http://courses.botany.wisc.edu/botany_422/readings/Quammen19...](http://courses.botany.wisc.edu/botany_422/readings/Quammen1998.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think it's interesting to look at these kind of things related to the "expected armageddons" of nuclear war, disease, gray goo, etc.

I suspect it's far more likely that, if humanity goes extinct, it's due to some other subtle cause, rather than one of the big headliners.

Pretty terrifying thinking about all the various pesticides in use today and wondering "Will one of these bioaccumulate and sever some critical link in an ecosystem humanity depends on?"

<comment><USER8> Climate change is a big contender (see [http://climate.btmx.fr](http://climate.btmx.fr)).

But what's most scary is that there are multiple credible slow or fast ways the whole of humanity is at risk, and that most are our own fault.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Don't worry about the insects, see the last quote: _As the scent of 82 proof alcohol that preserves the bugs wafted, just a little, through the room, a reporter asked if, at this rate, all the insects were going to disappear. "Oh, don't worry," said Mr. Sorg, the wasp expert. "All the vertebrates will die before that."_

However, agreeing that we are indeed hastening the next mass extinction, might be a good start to avoiding/postponing it.

<comment><USER10> The only way is population control, and how does that work outside of nightmares and cautionary tales from history?

Great Filter here we come.

<comment><USER11> its really hard to have a serious conversation about population control. It's just one of those topics that immediately label you as some kind of crazy murdering nut-job in the eyes of lots of people.

Honestly, it may not have been super effective for certain reasons, but China's child limit laws are about the least crazy solution I can think of.

<comment><USER12> Population control probably isn't necessary. No one (informed) thinks that the human population is going to grow out of control. It's likely to become stable at around 10-11 billion within 100 years. Birth rates are declining in developed countries and the undeveloped world is rapidly developing.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_grow...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projections_of_population_growth)

<comment><USER13> Honestly, evolution says that it won't. Long-term, breeders will "out-compete" those that limit their household size. Without external political forces or wholesale genetic engineering, we're in for a rough ride.

<comment><USER14> There are various examples where breeders did not outcompete, and instead a population settled on a low birth rate. Any animal that is not predator- dominated, really, but the best-known examples are New Zealands Kakapo [1] and Panda bears [2].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo#Breeding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo#Breeding) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda#Reproduction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_panda#Reproduction)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I used to notice a lot more bugs when I was a kid. Until recently I thought it was because I was closer to the ground back then :)

<comment><USER16> windshields filled with bugs

<comment><USER17> I remember my father cleaning the windshield and head lights at the gas station to remove dead insects every time he filled up the tank. That was in the sixties. I almost never do that.

<comment> semi-extrinsic Has anyone considered that "no more bugs on windscreen" is an expected effect of the vastly improved aerodynamics of cars since the 1960s? On a modern car (anything made in the past 15-20 years), the windshield is swept such that it's almost parallel to the airflow, so it would be very hard for bugs to hit it.

I'm not saying whether or not there are less insects, just that this is a huge confounding factor.

Perhaps someone who frequently takes classic cars for long trips at highway speeds can chime in?

<comment><USER18> About 5-10 years ago you could see the difference between a German highway or any other Eastern European highway. In my experience there was much less bug splatter in Germany than in Hungary. It was so well known in my family that this being a recent headliner surprised me a lot. I guess it's not that easy to count those pesky little insects :).

<comment><USER19> I actually notice a lot more bugs when I have driven a longish stretch of Autobahn in Germany. My guess is that it is due to the higher speeds. Driving elsewhere is 100-130 kmph, on the autobahn it regularly is 180-240 kmph. Catches the little buggers by surprise :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> We take insects for granted as they have always been there.

Sometimes science is not always about having all the answers but about thinking in the right questions.

Even if the data is not accurate, bringing attention into this matter seems a positive outcome.

<comment><USER21> I wrote up a root comment but this is actually a better place. I agree with this sentiment! The rest of this is additional commentary on the rest of the discussion on this article.

I don't know why but I'm seeing a lot of anecdotes to support or dispute the linked article. The world is much bigger than any one person's experience, and the data indicates that overall, there are fewer insects. We may have anecdotes that agree or disagree with that statement, but that doesn't disprove the statement or in fact provide any useful content to the discussion.

The real question here is 1. is this a bad sign (magic 8ball says yes) and 2. what can we do about it (this is a deeper question that can't be easily answered because we haven't done in-depth analysis of why these insects have started to disappear, but the suspicion would be that large-scale agricultural and suburban pesticide use is having a much larger and potentially disastrous effect on the earth's ecosystem).

The discussion I'd like to see here is about the ways we can verify this study (trust but verify), determine the source of the problem, and work torwards eliminating that source.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> My mother is a lover of birds and she installed several nesting booths in her garden. All but one are empty. I think it's not a problem with birds, it's just they don't have anything to eat.

<comment><USER23> Hm, so feeding them year-round (the right stuff of course) might be the ethical thing to do now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> There's a common anecdote among Polish drivers that drive through Europe. When you wash the front of you car just before entering Germany from Poland, you will have almost no bugs on the front of the car when you exit to France.

I also noticed almost no mosquitos in my several trips in the summer to and passing through Germany.

</comment><comment><USER25> Is there any millionaire here who can (secretly) hire a lawyer to shut the pesticide industry down?

The destruction of whole ecosystems and causing of many diseases (even cancer and death) is a capital a crime without any doubt. (Yes, lawyers still need to read the proof to put them on trial).

<comment><USER26> You do realize that "pesticide industry shutting down" will cause widespread famine, right? This attitude strikes me as incredibly privileged. Sure, the HN community (which is definitely in global top 1% by income) may be able to cope with x10 food prices. Too bad for the rest, it seems

<comment><USER25> If Monsanto kills all the insects (and some humans on its way) famine could follow too.</comment></comment></comment>


Runtime types in OCaml - <AUTHOR> http://www.lexifi.com/blog/runtime-types

<comment><USER2> There's a self-signed certificate over there, here is a direct link to the slides: <http://www.lexifi.com/files/resources/runtime_types.pdf>

</comment><comment><USER3> Did I misunderstand something or is this like Haskell type classes retrofitted to O'Caml?

At least the example application in the paper, a pretty printer, is pretty neatly solved with Haskell's show class and PrettyPrinter combinators.

<comment><AUTHOR> These ideas are also close to the "Scrap Your Boilerplate" approach (Data.Typeable & Data.Data typeclasses). ie, a generic pretty-printer can be derived from _any_ type, not only those having a user-defined Show instance.

[http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/people/simonpj/papers...](http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/people/simonpj/papers/hmap/)</comment></comment>


Show HN: A personal knowledge base optimized for online research and learning - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y46BSQxXUY&feature=youtu.be <comment><USER2> Not the ideal name for the project, hard to spell if you hear it for the first time. Otherwise, great combination of the Chrome plug-in and the website. Please nominate your project for "Project Of The Month" award at [https://www.gyrocode.com/articles/project-of-the- month-2019-...](https://www.gyrocode.com/articles/project-of-the- month-2019-04/) to get more exposure for your project.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback. I'll nominate.</comment></comment>


Tech companies have seen worker protests, but they are still far from democratic - <AUTHOR> http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-law-justice/brishen-rogers-solidarity-silicon-valley <comment><USER2> "including Facebook's sharing of data with the dark arts firm Cambridge Analytica—and ever-growing worries about the tech giants' monopoly powers."

We only care about this because it helped Trump win the election. Ask yourself this: If this helped Hillary win, would you care? I'm guessing we wouldn't even be hearing about it now and anyone that mentioned it would be laughed at/silenced.

Our privacy always matters, regardless of the politics of the day. When a Democrat becomes president, these discussions will most likely go away.

Zuckerberg certainly doesn't care about your privacy. He only wants to please the masses so he can go back to ruling the world.

"There is also a third option, which would be just as momentous: workplace democracy. By which I mean, we should ensure that tech workplaces are governed in accord with basic democratic norms and ideals"

Why do tech workers need to have a union? They are paid more than most jobs in the world and can pick/choose where they work.

Unions will only limit the good employee's pay and allow the lazy/mediocre to take over. Not to mention making it impossible for a small company to survive, because of the regulations that are involved with unionization.

It's great for changing the landscape to mostly large companies and the government..which is what happens in Countries like Sweden and Norway...but terrible for people that want to start their own company.

</comment><comment><USER3> "workplace democracy" is nothing new. The common name is 'socialism'...</comment>


Efficiently Rendering CSS - <AUTHOR> http://css-tricks.com/efficiently-rendering-css/

<comment><USER2> This is Premature Optimization: CSS Edition.

He buries the lede further down: "That Mozilla article I linked to at the top? Literally 10 years old. Fact: computers were way slower 10 years ago. I have a feeling this stuff was more important back then." and "I think the lesson here is not to sacrifice semantics or maintainability for efficient CSS."

<comment><USER3> Seriously...the bottleneck is NOT the CSS...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While true, you'll need a _whole lot of_ slow selectors before your CSS will be the speed bottleneck.

It's more noticeable if you use jQuery/other complex javascript DOM selectors, but the solution there is caching or using .find(). JS dom querying is also going native with QuerySelectorAll, so in time it will become less of an issue here, too.

Write your CSS for yourself, make it maintainable and easy to read. Let browsers figure out how to make it fast.

</comment><comment><USER5> The article is a bit meaningless since there are no benchmarks for these so called "best practices"

Are you going to spend hours optimizing your stylesheets to only save 50ms?

Does anyone have a link to a article with true benchmark numbers?

<comment><USER6> I don't have the tests on hand, but I did some benchmarks back in 2005 or 2006 and the difference was about 100ms for tens-of-thousands of nested tables and divs and what-not.

So, yeah, doing any of this stuff is just a giant waste of time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> > ID's are unique, so they don't need a tag name to go along with it. Doing so > makes the selector less efficient.

I do it (for example div#header) because it helps me knowing what is what in my CSS. I don't see anything wrong with it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Nitpick: selector matching is done before rendering, so it doesn't actually affect rendering speed (changes that affect opacity and clipping would).</comment>


Practice typing for Code - <AUTHOR> http://typing.lk/ <comment><USER2> This is quite well done, nice work!

One thing is I was constantly expecting that I could start typing the phrases instead of typing 'enter' first to begin. I think it seems more obvious to just let people hit the first key in the sequence to start the timer.

I don't think I'm unique in this but I'm actually a horrible typist 'by the book'.. that is I use my index fingers for probably 75% of my typing. It was interesting going through the 'learning' section and being so jarringly reminded that I don't touch type properly.

The weird thing is that on most typing tests I score over 100 WPM's, usually somewhere around 110 actually if it is mixed english. I also type code far faster than I can think. And though I've been coding as a profession for 15 years, I've never really succumbed to RSI in any way either. So I'm not sure what my incentive to relearn how to type properly is. I do wish I did in a way, I imagine it would be quicker, but part of me wonders whether my mutated typing is mutated in a way that just works for me physically, so why mess with something that works.

Anybody else the same? I've even toyed with learning Dvorak to force myself to learn from scratch again, this time the 'right way', but again it doesn't seem like I would necessarily get real gains over where I'm at now.

<comment><USER3> I've done exactly that: I was at ~100wpm with "advanced hunt and peck", and decided to learn touch-typing in Dvorak to "do it properly".

I type a little slower now, and my hands feel pretty much the same, but it makes my computer that much harder for other people to use so I'm calling it a win.

It's actually pretty fascinating, though— I can still type blind with speed in either layout, but the process is completely different. I know the location of an arbitrary key in QWERTY, but I'm not sure I could actually give you the Dvorak layout without putting my hands together. I don't use Dvorak keycaps, which might have something to do with it— on one of my laptops I actually rearranged the keys to be accurate to neither. I don't like it when other people use my computers, and I like that experience to be mutual :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Most of I time I run into the "Press Enter" mandatory "resume" option. I am starting to type in, but since I didn't hit enter first, the banner becomes red, and then a new exercise is selected. That's ok but a little bit annoying. It is just a feedback for the website author . :-)

</comment><comment><USER5> I found it hugely annoying that I couldn't just start, that I had to press "Enter" first. I don't know why that is necessary and I wish the author didn't force us to do this. Otherwise, very nice job.

<comment><USER6> We will be adding an Options panel soon, and we'll make it possible to opt for this. Thanks!

<comment><USER7> Another side effect is that sometimes I accidentally skip sentences that start with s because i invariably forget to press enter before starting.

<comment><USER8> I also did this several times initially.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The code typing sections is cool, but unfortunately not representative of the way anybody codes. I could probably code up any of these examples much faster in vim than having them dictated to me. Plus, code is not written linearly, it is modled / shaped into form.

<comment><USER6> We tried to make it like a code editor that only has auto indentation. Thanks for your suggestions, we'll look into how we could improve this.

<comment><USER10> A vi editor mode would be sweet!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I never understood the obsession with coding speed. There seems to be a lot of people who claim a modest change in input speed is a massive productivity change to them (and how they justify their dedication to their preferred editor/UI/keyboard/language/et al).

I might be an edge case, but when I "code" the minority of the work is actually writing source code. The majority is research/thinking/copy+pasta/et al.

When I do write source code I guess it doesn't hurt if it is fast, but considering how little time I spend actually doing it it doesn't seem as important as other things.

If I had to pick for example between choosing to improve my code entry speed or better understanding of design patterns I'd choose the latter in a heartbeat.

<comment><USER12> It's great to be able to type quickly all you have in mental cache, until that cache expires.

<comment><USER13> That seems strange to me. If we are talking about complex high level architectural concepts, that should be documented before the coding. If you are talking about local function implementation, putting a comment above it as a summary. That is all I have ever needed. What types of things would you forget? I don't consider my memory to be particularly sharp, but I have never faced an expired _mental cache_ while coding.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Well, beside this tool not supporting AZERTY or DVORAK or BEPO or whatever other layout than QWERTY, I find the focus on typing speed quite myopic. As a programer, I spend most of my time thinking, moving around, substituting names, changing this or that, reading documentation… Nowadays, with completion, snippet expantion and tools like Sparkup/Zen Coding/Emmet, typing speed is not that relevant anymore.

Switching to Vim from TextMate has been enough to make me save a good 50% of my time. At this point, shaving off another, asy, 10% doesn't sound that compelling to me.

</comment><comment><USER15> See also <http://typing.io/lessons>

<comment><USER16> That's Awesome! thanks for sharing this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I have been looking for apps that teaches keyboard training geared towards computer programming, and this looks like a good start. Congratulations!

Would be cool to have a few tests where you can train typical bash and vim commands and see the ideal finger placement. Extra credits for emulating things in e.g. bash like: ctrl+a and alt+u etc. For command shortcut inspiration see for example: [http://www.skorks.com/2009/09/bash-shortcuts- for-maximum-pro...](http://www.skorks.com/2009/09/bash-shortcuts-for-maximum- productivity/)

Anyway: Good job! :-)

</comment><comment><USER18> This is great, but I am horrible! I do not touch type at all but I am a fairly fast writer. My left hand uses a few more fingers but I mainly use my index finger, and my left hand is kind of permanently kept on wasd... which is a dead giveaway I suppose. Looking forward to using this to actually learn how to touch type.

It's kind of ridiculous I haven't already to be honest, even if I've never had any troubles with sore wrists or anything like that.

</comment><comment><USER8> [100% hunt-and-peck typist here]

I thought this was great! I really like it.

I think the asdf fdsa and jkl lkj ... lessons should mix the order up. I actually failed to learn jkl with the lessons provided (!) and had to switch to emacs and give myself a hand-created lesson with them mixed up.

Can we have a P for previous shortcut in addition to skip?

I got used to the enter-to-start thing eventually but I messed it up several times initially, accidentally skipping lessons.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There is also no unique URL for the particular exercise. If the author can create hashes for that. I will be really helpful and we can share them too.

<comment><USER6> Permalinks for lessons sounds good. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Many people learn peck-typing and then find it difficult to switch to touch typing since its initially slower. It would be cool if someone could create a program that tries to get people to learn typing as them type real things they would be typing anyways. It could also analyze their real typing and provide drills for weak keys and combos.

</comment><comment><USER20> This is really good as they let u move step by step through touch typing, initially the speed apparently looks to have reduced but once it becomes a habit to type with those fingers on the specific keys it will definitely have paid! Working on using this frequently and making it a habit.

</comment><comment><USER21> Looks great! One suggestion (maybe you're working on this now) would be to have lessons for some of the characters which coding requires frequently (angle brackets, parenthesis, curly braces, brackets, etc.) For me at least, that's what slows me down when coding the most.

<comment><USER6> Yes, we'll be adding lessons for these characters soon. In fact, we're going to re-structure all the lessons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Great app, what I liked most that it was very easy to use, practical (a great learning tool -- I think you could take this really far if you add some more lessons and stuff), and it was super-easy to start. I was typing away as soon as I went to the site.

Great idea, great job

</comment><comment><USER23> I just learned that I am such a sloppy coder since I hit semicolon with my index finger apparanlty, and my right hand only uses my thumb, index, and middle finger.

No wonder I can never hit the semicolon or parens/braces/brackets. I use my index finger...

<comment><USER24> I noticed I did something similar for parentheses - I move my entire hand right so that my pinky rests on right-shift and then I press 9 or 0 with my middle finger. I should of course instead by pressing shift with my left hand's little finger, but I often find that pressing shift with one hand for one half of the keyboard and with the other hand for the other half is a little bit awkward for me... Maybe I'll get a kinesis contoured with foot pedal for shift some day :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I just got a Maltron keyboard that has symbols in non-standard places. Was thinking on using clavaro with code fragments when I saw this. Great job! I'll probably use it till I get 40 wpm at 100% accuracy on colemak. I'm at 20 wpm 100%.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is great. As a programmer it lets you quickly understand what key sequences you are having problems with and then lets you practice them. The code feature is great too.

</comment><comment><USER27> The enter to start and s to skip is very poorly thought out. I find myself forgetting enter literally every time and I've been though 20 or so lessons, and when the lesson starts with s, I press it (forgetting the enter) and skip the lesson. I don't know how to go back to the last example (undo the skip), and now I have to fucking pick a different lesson in the drop down, then reselect the one I was doing, then skip over every example I did, then fucking press S again because I forgot enter, and have to do that shit again.

If you're going to design something, free or not, do it fucking right.

Your product made me mad enough to actually post this.

</comment><comment><USER28> In "Drills" mode it is impossible to tell the difference between lowercase L and capital I.

Doesn't seem like it should be that way.

</comment><comment><USER29> The key to restart is sometimes enter, sometimes r; this should be consistent.

</comment><comment><USER30> Great idea, but doesnt work properly with the German NEO 2 keyboard layout.

</comment><comment><USER31> looks quite interesting, but it appears that there is no way to switch the keyboard layout, that not easy to 'see' the key they highlight, and press it somewhere else!

<comment><USER32> non-us keyboard layouts missing, since that, no way to use a semicolon after "l" is that way in my kb.

<comment><USER33> I was coding in no-US keyboard for a while. But switching to US was very helpful for me. I think special characters in most languages are arranged to be efficient on US keyboards. So take your time to switch and relearn. It will help in long run.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I really love this. Just spent 20 minutes on it.

</comment><comment><USER35> Please add ruby

</comment><comment><USER36> _(I'm a self-taught touch-typist typing at 100 WPM+... Not anywhere near a world record but not too slow either)_

Not bad but I do prefer typeracer. Now this one seems to be better done than typeracer: I like the fact that you can see the keys (that said it should take into account ANSI / ISO physical layouts and at least QWERTY / AZERTY and maybe DVORAK logical layouts).

Note that touch-typing _is_ probably going to be faster than non touch-typing, so I'm advocating learning to touch-type (even if you're an old fart who never did and thinks he cannot switch anymore -- not true, I've done it after more than ten years and I don't regret it).

For a start lessons where you endlessly input "asdf" aren't that great. It's still an open discussion if this type of training as any value (included for musicians / pianists, even the ones who think it has value because they've brainwashed by doing it endlessly repeatedly -- Jimi Hendrix didn't ; )

Basically: what is the point in writing "asdf fdas sdaf fads" etc.? Are you going to write that in the Real-World [TM]? No. So why even spend time training doing it instead of doing the real thing?

It's like when Agassi changed and got a new trainer and told him that his old trainer would have him run for miles and miles and miles and his new trainer told him something like: "That's over. What you do during a match is start to run very fast then stop immediately, then run in the other direction. That's what you're going to be training to do now.".

These are two different conceptions of training. To me the first one doesn't make much sense but YMMV.

Then the other issue is that, as has been pointed out, nobody is coding like that anymore: editors do close matching parenthesis, brackets, etc. and you enter "fi" and then hit <TAB> and the skeleton of a "for (int i = 0; i < ...; i++) {" appears, you start to type the first three letters of any method, function, variable and use some expand functionality to get the auto- completion, etc.

The way I did taught myself to touch-type is simple: read about the very basics of touch-typing (or ask any secretary to teach you: it basically takes two minutes -- that's what I did), buy an "otaku" keyboard or set of keycaps (a keyboard on which the keys are "blank"), put your index fingers respectively on 'f' and 'j' and start... working!

To me doing what you're actually going to do, just like Agassi's trainer would advice, is the best way to learn.

Not some "technique" or "method" that people still don't know if it makes any sense or not.

Think outside the box.</comment>