Go 1.9 Beta 1 release notes - <AUTHOR> https://tip.golang.org/doc/go1.9 <comment><USER2> I hadn't looked at the planned changes for go1.9 until now and I have to say I'm really happy :)

\- net.Resolver.Dial allows doing all DNS resolution myself, right in the same process (via a localhost port). And nice it can do both UDP and TCP.

\- SyscallConn providing access to the underlying file descriptor is super useful too.

\- monotonic time is very useful in network protocols.

\- concurrent.Map is nice too.

<comment><USER3> Java has had concurrentMap forever

<comment><USER4> So did Python. What's your point?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Chuffed about math.bits. You can always implement these yourself, these are short (albeit a bit cryptic) snippets, but having these in the standard library means that they will be regularly updated for various architectures and CPUs.

Good stuff.

<comment><USER6> > You can always implement these yourself

Check the discussion, as usual things aren't as simple as they seem: [https://github.com/golang/go/issues/18616](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/18616)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Will need to double check some machines to make sure these two don't bite me:

On Unix systems the environment variables SSL_CERT_FILE and SSL_CERT_DIR can now be used to override the system default locations for the SSL certificate file and SSL certificate files directory, respectively.

The os/exec package now prevents child processes from being created with any duplicate environment variables. If Cmd.Env contains duplicate environment keys, only the last value in the slice for each duplicate key is used.

<comment><AUTHOR> I would be super interested if the os/exec change bites you. I've never seen any definition of how programs should handle duplicate environment variables, and there doesn't seem to be consistency in the wild either.

We went with the bash behavior (latest one wins), which also means all the code previously using:

cmd.Env = append(os.Environ(), "KEY=newvalue")

... now actually works reliably. Previously, if KEY=oldvalue was already defined, what you got depended on your luck with the child program. Either old, new, or random.

File a bug if you see a regression.

<comment><USER7> Yea, I'm thinking about cases similar to HTTP parameter pollution, and what the program expectations are. You'd be right to argue environment variables should not be user controlled. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Note that only the os/exec package has this new cleanup logic.

If you really want to do something nasty and intentionally confuse your child processes, the lower-level os.StartProcess and syscall packages are there for you. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Type aliasing!

      type T1 = T2

I'm currently writing a pretty large project in Haskell and am thoroughly enjoying it -- as everyone and their mother says, the type system is superb, and even simple aliases like:

      type UserID = Int

Make it so much easier to read and understand functions.

<comment><USER9> I'm not sure if type aliasing is for that use case. I think you're more thinking about things like

      type Celsius int

that in theory prevent you from passing a bare int and mixing up Celsius/Fahrenheit.

In go this almost works. If you define

      type Celsius int

      func isBoiling(t Celsius) bool {
          return t >= 100
      }

then You need to call it by doing something like

      t := Celsius(100)
      isBoiling(t)

and just

      t := 212
      isBoiling(t)

will not compile with

      cannot use t (type int) as type Celsius in argument to isBoiling

But unfortunately you can get away with

      isBoiling(212)

However, If you just used a type alias then you'd be able to do either.

<comment><USER10> Right. You could always define a _new_ type with an existing _underlying_ type, like Celsius with the underlying type int in your example. See the spec here: [https://golang.org/ref/spec#Types](https://golang.org/ref/spec#Types)

This would define a new, non-interchangeable type, even though it's just an int behind the scenes. The new type alias on the other hand define a new name for an existing type; you still have just one type. In the user ID example above that's not what you want, it would allow using an int where a UserID is required.

<comment><USER11> As I understand it, there have been a couple of compiler-blessed aliases for a long time (byte -> uint8 and rune -> int32), making this a similar thing but now at user level.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> > ...the environment variables SSL_CERT_FILE and SSL_CERT_DIR can now be used > to override...

I presume that those environment variables override the defaults at runtime, but it would be good to call that out explicitly since we are talking about a compiler release and there are compilers that can evaluate environment variables at compile time to allow for more flexible constant runtime values.

</comment><comment><USER13> It would be really nice if each change in the release notes linked to the GitHub issue and/or PR, so curious folks can see how each fix or improvement is implemented. For example, see the notes like "Contributed by Victor Stinner in bpo-26146" in the Python What's New documents: [https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.6.html](https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.6.html)

<comment><USER13> Interestingly, the CL (changelist?) numbers are in the HTML as comments, so if you do View Source you can see them. And then you can go to (for example) [https://golang.org/cl/42028](https://golang.org/cl/42028) to see the associated code changes. Not sure why these aren't user-visible links.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Is there anything being discussed about Go 2.x?

I haven't seen anything about it, which I absolutely love (based on fear of a Python 3 situation).

<comment><AUTHOR> We on the Go team team also muse about a Go 2.x occasionally (no concrete plans), but the number one rule would be not pulling a Python 3 or Perl 6 and fracturing the community in two.

If/when it happens, it won't be scary.

<comment><USER15> Maybe you guys could do like Java did and eventually drop the 1.x from the naming, leaving just the x, or do you see any issue with the perception of backwards compatibility?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Cool, DWARF improvements are definitely welcome. Even if these ones are just for Windows. ;)

Go's debugging story, for things using cgo, has been a bit of a rude shock (to me). As of yesterday's toolchain updates (Gogland, Delve), single stepping on Linux is now working reliably (eg not randomly hanging).

It still needs to be improved so instructions execute in the order they're written (eg more disabling of compiler optimisations when debugging), but that's less important than fixing the "ugh, it's just hung again!" bug was.

Hopefully OSX debugging gets to a similar (working ok) state soon too. :)

</comment><comment><USER17> When should one use sync.Map vs a plain old map with a RWMutex?

<comment><USER18> When one does not care about type safety ;)

Only sorta kidding... Personally, I think sync.Map is a dangerous addition to the standard library, and hope that the Go team does not encourage using the empty interface{}'s like this. I can only imagine how bad it'll feel when someone reads an int64 as an int.

<comment><USER15> Until they introduce some kind of type safe genericity language level support, _interface{}_ and _go generate_ are the only options available for generic data structures.

Personally I would already be happy with what CLU allowed for in 1975, no need for anything more expressive.

<comment><USER19> There is a third option which is to add specific data structures to the existing list of generic data structures with out making user defined generics.

<comment><USER15> Which leads to the question when would they stop adding special case structures?

<comment><USER19> (shrug) they clearly are ok with _some_ generics. In my mind if they argued that they'd rather support more widely used data structures at the language level instead of user defined generics thats a logically consistent position.

In fact, if I could get a) a type safe concurrent map b) a promise/future construct and c) a fast concurrent queue for single writer multi-reader, I'd probably be ok with the set of generic data structures provided in the language.

If they fixed their variance rules along the way as well, I'd probably lose any actual arguments against the type system when it comes to the systems I build.

The question is of course, are those the only ones that fall into that category? Who knows but those are the ones I run into the most pain for.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Seems like the monotonic time changes mean that some calls (e.g. time.Now()) are making two syscalls where they used to only make one? And storing two different clock values? Could make code that makes a lot of timing calls more expensive/slow...

<comment><AUTHOR> The size of the time.Time data structure is unchanged on 64-bit. There was space to pack it in.

As for time, on Linux it got 70 ns slower. Tolerable. (It went from 70 ns to 140 ns on my GCE VM)

On Windows, it actually got faster on 64-bit with the addition of:

[https://github.com/golang/go/commit/e4371fb179ad69cbd057f243...](https://github.com/golang/go/commit/e4371fb179ad69cbd057f2430120843948e09f2f)

And on macOS, where nobody runs servers, it's basically unchanged speed-wise.

<comment><USER20> Cool. I've just been instrumenting some fairly hot Go code with time.Now/Since all over the place trying to pinpoint some lost milliseconds ... I was planning to keep the instrumentation in there for monitoring... Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> still no generics :(

</comment><comment><USER22> What does sync.Mutex is now more fair really mean?

<comment><USER23> It probably means that it used to favour activating one waiter over others, but now is less likely to do so.</comment></comment>


Why not create new Open Web platform for the next generation? - <AUTHOR>

hi everyone
I hope I can make my point
so why not create new kind of community-driven Open Web platform for the next generation? I mean native WebApp browser :)
I was fan of HTML5 ( because of it's open nature and cross-platform thing ) and thought that it is going the right direction, until I finished watching 'Crockford on javascript' series and I said to myself what... ?!
I think browser are going the wrong way because:
1. the web is not static web pages anymore 2. the client devices are more powerful that can handle many computation
3. today the web is all about data
4. the whole idea of browsers apart from navigation is security and sandboxing (I think) 5. and at last I think the browsers are an extra layer on top of OS we have to use existing OS features
so why not going this way:
1. seprate Interface from data
2. no DOM stuff , use existing native UI 3. use web services like RESTful ... ( the whole Semantic web and Linked data concepts ) 4. use web as a CPU and Hard Disk nothing more ( the whole SOA and WOA concepts ) 5. create new language independent platform or at lease choose a robust language ( I vote for python, and I know that javascript has a good part but I don't want to teach my future kids javascript :D )
6. transfer plain text not compiled code ( like Google NaCl )
7. use google play and Appstore concept ( the new kind of search engine )
so what do you thing? am I missing something ? <comment><USER2> You are missing a robust language like Haskell.</comment>


Earth warming more quickly than thought - <AUTHOR> https://m.phys.org/news/2019-09-earth-quickly-climate.html <comment><USER2> I've seen this same headline every year at least once. I remember when we were just approaching 400ppm, now we are at 415ppm.

At what point do things change? I notice many people justify their lifestyle choices by saying 'China and India are the problem, America is one of the cleanest and most conscious', others say 'the climate is always changing. Science bitch.'

I'm not exaggerating. Intelligence is a bell curve and this is a very complex, layered problem with many variables. Most people I've met in my life do not accept nor comprehend the gravity of the situation unfolding. It used to bum me out a lot but now I find the only healthy response is to do what I can with the time and skills I have, to make choices that agree with my conscience, to accept that earth will go on with or without human beings.

<comment><USER3> The solution to the first justification (China is the problem) is [https://issues.org/climate-clubs-to-overcome-free- riding/](https://issues.org/climate-clubs-to-overcome-free-riding/)

The answer to the second concern (climate is always changing) is that 1) a much slower change at the permian-triassic boundary caused an extinction event larger than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs and that 2) the rate of change is probably more important than the magnitude, and the rate of this change is unprecedented. It's happening over decades rather than over millenia.

P.S. That first link is literally a Nobel Memorial Prize winning idea

<comment><USER4> Of course, the difference between the dinosaurs and humans is that humans can adapt very well.

<comment><USER3> Humans can adapt, the rest of the ecosystem can't. Especially since our roads, fields, fences et cetera make migration difficult.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> For 30 years I tried to teach people and tell people about the things that I see working outside on a day-to-day basis. Then I realized nobody cares capitalism has forced everyone into a small mindset of monetary gain. I don't care anymore I'm just going to get my slice of the pie and then watch the whole thing burn in comfort.

<comment><AUTHOR> Implicit in your statement is that "saving the environment" and "making money" are mutually exclusive. That may have been the case at some point in the past, but it is no longer true. We can definitely make money while doing the right thing for the environment. Regardless, thank you for your (past) efforts.</comment></comment>


Facebook Employee Suicide Cover-Up - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbEQriZEfoI <comment><USER2> Who's the manager?

</comment><comment><USER3> The video is about (internal) hearsay, the guy doing the video was fired recently and is still quite salty about it.

Still, it is a really interesting inside look and does reflect some of the issues I have heard friends and collegues talk about. These high stress environments are toxic, and it is ludicrous that some of the best in the field are working in such terrible conditions.</comment>


Ask HN: Upvote not working? - <AUTHOR>

Hello, I have just launched my startup here and some users reported me that they couldn't get upvoting my threat. Is this a bug or is there a limited time to upvote? <comment><USER2> Brand new accounts can't. You need a couple of karma points. Asking for upvotes or upvoting a certain person isn't really fair.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sometimes people aren't allowed to vote to prevent gaming the system. There's nothing you can do about it.</comment>


Ask HN: Is CoinBase Support Totally MIA? - <AUTHOR> I can't get them to reply to my ticket. It's been 1 month already. And when i phone them, it rings then hangs up instantly.<p>Anyone else experience this lack of support? <comment><USER2> I have been trying to add my bank account and haven't been successful in last 2 weeks. Now I am thinking I will just close my account and move to some place else.

</comment><comment><USER3> Second that.

From disappointing to suspicious.

I managed to do with mobile app what i couldn't do with their web interface and now wonder if Coinbase are of any use from now on.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yep. they took $400 from me and I couldn't get any help. I blocked them from withdrawing my bank account and closed the account.

<comment><AUTHOR> oh man. so what's a great easy-to-use alternative? just need want to make a 1x purchase of BTC & ETH.

<comment><USER5> I've had a solid experience with Gemini. Their support responds quickly.

<comment><AUTHOR> what about GDAX?

<comment><USER6> GDAX _is_ Coinbase - just the exchange end. Any GDAX support requests go to Coinbase.

I use a two-step approach. I use Gemini for banking, and GDAX for trading. Gemini has free instant transfers, great support, and is fast on the ACH side. They don't have as high of trade volume as GDAX though, so once my funds clear I move them over to GDAX to trade, and when I'm done there I send it back to Gemini to withdraw to my bank account.

Also one more benefit for trading on GDAX is that their maker/taker fee system is much more transparent than Gemini's, IMO. I literally trade for free on GDAX which is much harder (or impossible?) to do on Gemini.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Massacre Gmail Ads with These Two Sentences (and Some Tragic Words) - <AUTHOR> http://lifehacker.com/5330642/massacre-gmail-ads-with-these-two-sentences-and-some-tragic-words

<comment><USER2> The ads help pay for the service. If they are that intrusive choose something else.

<comment><USER3> I use Thunderbird to check my GMail. Am I freeloader now too?

<comment><USER4> Google makes using Thunderbird for your Gmail possible. If they had a check- off box that said "Show No Ads", there'd be nothing wrong with checking it. However, that's a wholly different thing than going to lengths to disable the very unobtrusive ads shown in exchange for using the web client.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I just don't understand this. I hardly ever see the ads and when I do, they don't bother me. Why take such extreme measures? If the ads bother someone that much, why not use a different service or pay for one? Seems to me the cure is worse than the disease.

<comment><USER6> It's still a clever hack. Some hacks are beautiful, even if not "profitable".

<comment><USER4> Google says they try to avoid serving ads beside tragic emails. So...they put tragic phrases in emails to avoid ads.

The threshold for the terms "clever" and "hack" must have dropped.

<comment><USER7> The thing that bothers me most is that Google's obviously trying to be sensitive in not displaying ads to people who might be in mourning and this "hack" exploits that. It's like hitting on women at a funeral.

<comment><USER8> "It's like hitting on women at a funeral."

Am I the only person who was reminded of Ryan O'Neil? (For those who don't know, he accidentally hit on his own daughter at his SO's funeral not long ago.)

But back to the point, I agree that exploiting Google's desire to be sensitive is tacky.

<comment><USER9> Actually, I thought of Wedding Crashers. But I digress.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I was asked a related question during an interview at Google. As an example, the interviewer told me of a time their ads drew an especially vile reaction: they had placed luggage ads on a news story about a serial killer who chopped up his victims bodies and stuffed them into suitcases.

The interviewer said they'd be happy to just not show any ads on such pages and asked me how I'd go about detecting them. Apparently they've (mostly) figured that out by now!

<comment><USER11> Mod parent up! (slashdot ref).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Embrace the ads people. They pay for all of Google's free services, which these ad-hating people obviously are using. Also, I find that whenever I glance at the GMail ads there's always something interesting or amusing there (more of the latter).

</comment><comment><USER13> Uhm....ever heard of Adblock Plus?

<comment><USER14> I had the same thought, but this strikes me as a pretty clever "hack" nevertheless: it exploits a functionality of the service to circumvent the service itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> On a related topic: what do people think about ad blocking technology from an ethical viewpoint?

For me, I think I use the same screwy morality that I use when I'm downloading music...I don't mind stealing from wildly successful artists/businesses, but I'll gladly pay full price for a CD or click on an ad for someone who's just trying to pay the bills.

<comment><USER16> _On a related topic: what do people think about ad blocking technology from an ethical viewpoint?_

I don't think I've clicked an ad since I was first introduced to the internet at around age ~5 (maybe with a few exceptions for accidental misclicks), and I don't intend to click on one in the future either. As a result, I am saving them bandwidth by blocking their ads.

Activating an ad-blocking device is equivalent to stating "I do not intend to click on your ads," and as a result it cannot possibly be losing the advertiser money.

(If the site charges per impression instead of per click, that's another thing, but those are rare these days.)

<comment><USER17> Cost-per-impression isn't that rare. We have a nice deal that does just that. In fact that whole network does only cost-per-impression.

But even for cost-per-click views matter. If you have more views, you can get into better programs.

But most of all, you deprive the site and the advertiser of the opportunity to make money of off you. If you don't click a specific advertisement: fine. Then it's the publisher's job or the advertiser's job to find ads that do get them value out of your visit. If you "opt-out" of ads, they don't have that opportunity and you've become worthless to them. A freeloader with no potential of ever being worth something. The site would be better of by blocking you...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Seems like a waste of time. Enough people do this, and Google will adjust. It's just cat and mouse from there.

</comment><comment><USER19> Good for lifehacker readers. I use Gmail for it's simplicity (even with ads). I won't ever block those non-intrusive text as an honor to the good service.

When I 'm satisfied of your service I won't to give back something. Maybe I don't have money, but _something_ I can contribute.

<comment><USER19> Oops s/won\'t/want

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> First we find out we've been living in a world where most people will give away their privacy freely because they don't think it's worth anything. Then a few large companies finding a way to capitalize on it are not just tolerated but admired. Now one guy treats one of them with the contempt it deserves and is criticized as unethical or ungenerous. WTF?

</comment><comment><USER11> I think most of us are missing the point. The author is not implying that he discovered a "hack" or "secret code", it's that Google consciously chooses to not match advertisements to text such as this. You can rephrase the sentences all you'd like, and Google will still not render ads.

</comment><comment><USER21> i agree, i don't find the sidebar ads to be obtrusive. i don't even notice them. i do notice the ad above the email contents on occasion and they've been pretty useful to me.

</comment><comment><USER22> A better hack might be to do the tragic words in a different language, like chinese.

</comment><comment><USER9> I upvoted this so I'd remember to take a look later. Now I kinda wish I hadn't.

</comment><comment><USER23> Google allows you to turn the ads off.. so why the need for this 'hack'?

Go to _Settings - > Web Clips_ and untick 'Show my web clips above the Inbox'.

</comment><comment><USER24> I ignore them, but the links to interesting stories from sites of my interest I click on them frequently.

Ads to a blog post I guess those are what you'd call them?!?</comment>


Rocking and Rolling Rounded Menu with jQuery - <AUTHOR> http://tympanus.net/codrops/2010/04/30/rocking-and-rolling-rounded-menu-with-jquery/ <comment><USER2> Looks cool, but that menu would get very annoying after the first 5 seconds.</comment>


Marine Speakers - <AUTHOR> https://www.rockfordfosgate.com/marine/ <comment><AUTHOR> Wake to waves, salt or fresh water. No matter the boat, submerge yourself in marine audio that's built to stand up for life on the water.</comment>


User's Kindle eBook collection revoked by Amazon (2012) - <AUTHOR> https://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/ <comment><USER2> Follow-up, account restored (2012) ([https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/amazon- linn-nygaard-deleted...](https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/amazon-linn-nygaard- deleted-account-restored/))

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the link. It's worth noting that it was restored without apology or any explanation whatsoever.

I truly wish the Kindle had more competition.

<comment><USER4> I use a Kobo reader. Its pretty nice actually. I can dump books on it via usb, or over the network via dropbox. Or use Indigo to buy books.

<comment><USER5> Another happy Kobo user, here. What surprised me most is it keeps getting updates—improving both the interface and speed—despite being a device from 2012.

But I am also surprised to learn that some software-only features are not included in updates to older devices. I have a Kobo Glo, and despite having finished an update less than fifteen minutes ago I don't have the Dropbox syncing feature.

<comment><USER6> The Dropbox syncing feature appears to only be a feature of the Forma model.

[https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033830114-Add- boo...](https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033830114-Add-books-to- your-Kobo-Forma-eReader-with-Dropbox)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I stongly encourage anyone who uses a kindle for reading ebooks to back up their library via Calibre. If Amazon tried this rediculousness theres still a way to get all your content back via plugins that can convert them to plain epub. Unethical? Not if they steal from you first.

<comment><USER8> Worth pointing out that Amazon is busy killing this route too.

The latest format is to my knowledge currently unbroken - even with suitable plugins. So only way around is to get an old kindle which doesn't support the new encryption and thus falls back on the old encryption

<comment><USER9> The old version of the Kindle app for PC works as long as you don't upgrade it.

<comment><USER10> Be aware that by default it will be very aggressive about updates; after installing you immediately need to disable automatic update in settings, and be wary thereafter of surprise upgrade request prompts at startup and during usage.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> And this is why I immediately strip the DRM protections of any kindle book I buy from the site, and can then use them on any device or app that handles the format (or an epub conversion). There's no good reason whatsoever to buy a digital good and leave it beholden to the sometimes shitty whims of whoever sold it to you. That's not a purchase or ownership at all. It's just a long term lease but without a defined expiration date.

<comment><USER12> >That's not a purchase or ownership at all.

Well no, it's not. You're purchasing a license to consume the content, conditional on the terms of the license. What gives you the impression you're buying the book?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's an easy mistake to make when the page for acquiring the license presents you with a picture of a book and requires you click a button labeled "add to cart".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> She could file a small claims case, which would get the matter resolved in two months or so. At the very least she would get a refund for all the books she purchased. There is probably an arbitration clause somewhere in the shrinkwrap which would be to her benefit because it would be easier to handle everything by mail and she doesn't need a lawyer. I am sure there are loads of attorneys in Seattle who would be happy to take a small claims case for $500.

<comment><USER14> I'm guessing that a consequence of a small claims case (maybe even a chargeback?) would be being permanently blacklisted by Amazon across name, address, and other identifiers — like what happened to the Kindle owner in the first place.

<comment><USER15> I don't see how they could blacklist her for enforcing her rights. I imagine this would be grounds for a lawsuit?

<comment><USER16> Taking a company like Amazon to small claims would absolutely result in you being blacklisted - your rights are null and void as far as they're concerned. And yes, it is grounds for a lawsuit but at that point you should be talking to whichever government body is responsible for enforcing consumer protections.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> We need a digital consumer rights law. Companies should not be able to revoke data or software. Software and hardware that depend on external servers should carry "expiration date" labels that define the minimum amount of time the vendor is required to maintain those servers. People should be allowed to run their own servers for abandonware.

<comment><USER18> We need a long think about digital survivorship: accounts/data should be able to be escrowed/put into Trusts for future generations. Most terms of service agreements are between you specifically and the company, and will not survive you. "Could I gift my account/purchases when I pass to my loved ones?" is currently "legally and/or technically no" on almost every digital goods service.

Even if we have mostly given up on the more general "right of first sale" and "first sale doctrine" on digital goods (that we can resell purchases as "used"), survivorship should not be forgotten.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Relevant related article: [https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/11/sharecropping- in-the-clou...](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/11/sharecropping-in-the- cloud/)

Maybe one day there'll be alternatives, you'll be able to buy and own books and read them on devices like the Open Book:

[https://itsfoss.com/open-book/](https://itsfoss.com/open-book/)

In the meantime I'll be sticking with old paper books.

On the downside they take up a lot of space (but I guess that's why we have public libraries, charity shops and second hand book shops.)

On the upside they have a great battery life.

<comment><USER19> Ooh color, shiny

[https://pocketbook.cz/cs-cz/catalog/color-screen- cz/pocketbo...](https://pocketbook.cz/cs-cz/catalog/color-screen- cz/pocketbook-color-cz)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I know this is really old, but I wonder if it has really been decided completely in all jurisdictions if this is legally ok or not, because on the German Amazon website the button for ebooks is very clearly labelled with the German word for "buy", and it is merely labelled as a different format like hardcover or paperback. There might be legalese buried elsewhere (while creating the account or activating the Kindle or whatever), but according to their own words you buy a book in the Kindle format, you do not rent access to it.

I buy Kindle books all the time, and would love to see this decided in court...

</comment><comment><USER21> The best way to use Kindle devices is in airplane mode with Calibre. There's an incredible KFX8 plugin that turns any old non-DRM epub/mobi into the special format that Kindles use to render the text.

Basically any book can be gotten from libgen. I usually buy books from living authors, then let those live in the cloud as a backup. I get the pirated version for personal use. If the author isn't living anymore then I don't buy it at all.

</comment><comment><USER22> I still use an old Sony eReader just to stay away from these insane restrictions. Too bad the Kindle is such a nice piece of hardware though.

</comment><comment><USER6> Anything with DRM is not sold, it is leased. My bugbear is that they still have "Buy Now!" buttons and such, which to my mind is fraud.

I wonder what the reaction would be if it said, "Lease Now!" instead?

</comment><comment><USER23> Massive thread from back then: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4682392](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4682392)

</comment><comment><USER24> It's exactly because of this kind of stuff I replaced my kindle with a Kobo when it wore out.

<comment><AUTHOR> Me too. Although it's worth noting that just buying a Kobo and using the associated store doesn't save you from this kind of thing in principle. While the books are formatted using epub, they're encrypted using Adobe's DRM system, meaning you need an account with Adobe which can be similarly revoked. Unless you're only ever reading books in the public domain, it's very hard to protect yourself from this nonsense without breaking the law in some way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Disturbing. Sounds like legal enforcement is once again required to spank these companies.

</comment><comment><USER26> As a user commented, this is a very old event and she did get her collection back.

It is an important point that you do not own the actual book file, but the right to read it, which is fragile.

I don't feel like investing my money without extracting the book files.

<comment><USER27> I strip DRM off all of my books. As long as the publisher gets paid I don't feel guilty.

<comment><USER28> > As long as the publisher gets paid I don't feel guilty.

no one should feel guilty about stripping DRM from things they rightfully paid for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Isn't this a case where the GDPR would come in handy? She could demand a transcript of all data Amazon has collected on her. Under the GDPR Amazon can not refuse. This data should contain the reason why her account was closed. If there is an error in the data, you can demand a correction. Under the GDPR Amazon can not refuse. If the data does not give a valid reason for closing an account, it must be incomplete. A GDPR violation! Punishment for GDPR violations are rather severe, I doubt any company would take the risk.

</comment><comment><USER30> I could replace her collection with torrented epubs in about a half a day.

<comment> m-p-3 This is simply a workaround to a deeper problem with DRMs, we're simply renting an unlimited access (that can be revoked at any time, sometime with a valid reason and sometime not) of purchases.

I'm still appreciative of all those folks working in the shadow to break those protections and provide a DRM-free version, even if it's illegitimate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> The lack of details make it tougher to side with the apparent victim here. I'd like to know whether she really did violate DRM in a meaningful way and the closure of her Kindle account was an appropriate response. I wouldn't go so far as the author and claim that DRM means you merely rent books from Amazon and they can be taken away at any time. This is likely something that affects a very small percentage of users and is like a freak accident when it happens, though according to radical skepticism, freak accidents may be much more likely than we intuit. However I agree that the response from the Amazon representative must have been very frustrating to receive and this would cause Amazon significant problems if the same thing happened to a large number of users. In the end I hope writing such articles about the problem helps resolve it before it does affect a large number of users.

<comment><USER32> > _The lack of details make it tougher to side with the apparent victim here._

What do you mean? The victim provided every detail (and in fact, she later got her account restored, no apologies or explanations given -- again). All details missing are by _Amazon_ , which is precisely the problem: the company can terminate your account and delete the items you bought while providing _absolutely no information whatsoever_.

It's as if a brick & mortar book store reserved the right to enter your house and take back a book you bought, without explaining everything besides "you broke a rule".

The glitch in their fraud detection system is not the biggest issue; glitches happen. Their total lack of transparency and explanations is the problem.</comment></comment>


Where Should Americans Live If They Live Abroad? - <AUTHOR> http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/where-should-americans-live-if-they.html <comment><USER2> Noah Smith is out of his mind for putting China at the top of the list. How much did the CCP pay him for his "Up and coming superpower" characterization of a dystopian corrupt, fascist, totalitarian police state?

By the way, Shenzhen is packed with Americans and other Westerners complaining that "democracy didn't work for me." Let's see how it goes when they eventually find themselves on the wrong side of an exercise of state power.</comment>


Building a constraint programming solver in Julia - <AUTHOR> http://opensourc.es/blog/constraint-solver-1 <comment><USER2> Could we use this for arbitrary constraints like for mechanical modeling, or 3d animation?

<comment><USER3> From a quick glance, this and most software doing "constraint programming" deal with discrete problems. Not saying those are useless for mechanical modeling or 3D animation, but those areas typically deal with continuous constraints which require different solvers. My experience in this is limited to a single class in CP 3 years ago so take this with a grain of salt!!

<comment><USER4> Using interval arithmetic and interval analysis, constraint solving can be extended to continuous problems. This seems first to have been done in the 80s by extending Prolog. As you say, most constraint software does not do this, but I vouch that it both exists and works!

I wrote a relational interval constraint solver for automated CAD design. It used constraints to eliminate infeasible regions of a design space before a nonlinear solver would generate the actual geometry. It was pretty fun puzzling out how to build this thing!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I tried to follow the instructions and it failed, as julia stuff always tend to fail (with unhelpful error messages).

        (ConstraintSolver) pkg> develop .
        [ Info: Assigning UUID 761e04fa-38db-5968-92db-bac8a6ce9725 to user_name
     Resolving package versions...
        ERROR: IOError: stat: unknown error (UNKNOWN)

<comment><AUTHOR> You probably want to develop on the Constraint solver instead of just installing, right? Then you can use `] dev [https://github.com/Wikunia/ConstraintSolver.jl`](https://github.com/Wikunia/ConstraintSolver.jl`) You currently try to develop a package which already exists and that doesn't work. Yes the error message is unhelpful.

<comment><AUTHOR> looks like you used `activate .` to get into `ConstraintSolver Pkg>` then it's already done and you don't need develop or dev anymore Hope it helps

<comment><USER5> I just copy and pasted the first terminal commands from the post on the julia REPL and on windows it errors at line `] develop .`.

On linux, it works.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah I see. Can't test it on Windows just assumed it should be the same and it probably should. Glad it works now for you in linux

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is very cool! How does it compare with the features offered by GLPK? It seems to solve a super-set of glpk's problems? What are the tradeoffs of this generalization?

<comment><AUTHOR> This is not able to solve linear problems as it's built only for discrete variables in mind. The approach is more removing values from the search space to find a feasible solution whereas LP focuses on optimization. There are problems were both approaches can be used. Currently my solver is quite limited. Stay tuned

<comment><USER7> not sure if you were aware, but you could have initialized the grid like this:

        grid =
          Int8[0 0 0 5 4 6 0 0 9
               0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
               0 0 3 9 0 0 0 0 4
               9 0 5 0 0 0 0 7 0
               7 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
               0 0 0 0 9 3 0 0 0
               0 5 6 0 0 8 0 0 0
               0 1 0 0 3 9 0 0 0
               0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 6]

<comment><USER8>
        Int8[0 0 0 5 4 6 0 0 9;
             0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 7;
             0 0 3 9 0 0 0 0 4;
             9 0 5 0 0 0 0 7 0;
             7 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0;
             0 0 0 0 9 3 0 0 0;
             0 5 6 0 0 8 0 0 0;
             0 1 0 0 3 9 0 0 0;
             0 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 6]</comment></comment></comment></comment>


From like buttons to message bubbles: The UX designs you can't use (2019) - <AUTHOR> https://onezero.medium.com/ui-ux-patterns-you-literally-cannot-design-design-patents-from-tech-companies-21ae9643dc9e <comment><USER2> I'd love to see some examples of when similar designs to these were deemed to infringe on the patent, and when they weren't. Just froom looking at it, it seems fairly ridiculous that stuff like this can be patented.

I kind of get that maybe you'd want to have some sort of protection for general flows / modi of interaction, e.g. the whole tinder social idea as such, but some of these layouts are just general UI patterns that don't really set a company apart IMO.

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://archive.is/vmSlT](http://archive.is/vmSlT)</comment>


Belarus president: "Until you kill me, there will be no other elections" - <AUTHOR> https://news.sky.com/story/belarus-uk-condemns-appalling-violence-against-protesters-and-does-not-accept-results-of-election-12050864 <comment><USER2> Well now it would be rude to not try.

In the spirit of "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable," and all.

<comment><USER3> It looks like he is looking for an excuse to invite non NATO troops into his country. That non-NATO entity has already signaled it's ready to send troops if asked.[1]

When your dictatorship is in trouble, who're you gonna call? Right now the answer lies west of the Ural Mountains.

[1] [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/belarus-president- put...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/belarus-president-putin-ready- ensure-security-200815183314584.html)

<comment><USER4> A total repeat of Syria. Russia backed Assad, just need this guy to start gassing his people too.

<comment><USER5> I lived in Belarus between 1989 and 1999, I still have the Belarusian passport and I vote.

Syria is different. The population of Belarus is fairly uniform, mostly urban and well educated.

They are unbelievably peaceful. Just look at the pictures of the protests. No car was burned, no window smashed in 8 days by the protesters.

The only people damaging property, beating and killing others were riot police and special forces, and they were bred in the spirit of violence for years.

I am still afraid that once peaceful crowds learn the true fate of those missing, they will storm the prisons with bare hands and die by hundreds.

<comment><USER6> You can only push a population so far before they rationally decide that it's now "do or die" and mean that literally.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can't help but take this opportunity to say just how amazing Belarus protesters are:

* They take off their shoes to stand on the bench [1] [2].

* They remove all the garbage after them [3]. Streets after protests are cleaner than before.

[1] - [https://t.me/nexta_live/8250](https://t.me/nexta_live/8250)

[2] - [https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1294022770771341312](https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1294022770771341312)

[3] - [https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1295014755850235904](https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1295014755850235904)

</comment><comment><USER6> That seems like a very unwise thing to say during mass protests.

Edit: he's also giving up all pretense of legitimate, democratic rule, which is interesting. I guess with the mass protests the "we won 80% of the vote" lie finally no longer held any water.

</comment><comment> 52-6F-62 Wording it like a challenge probably means he hopes there will be attempts. If we're to take any of this at near-face value, then it seems like he would love a reason to call in help from places he's claimed have offered.

I definitely feel for the people of Belarus right now.

<comment><USER8> You are correct, sir. Although it might also just be for using his own powers and not per se foreign ones.

In most systems like these, any form of violence (by citizens) is used as an excuse to respond with (disproportional) repressive violence. Many citizens know this, and many have learned it the hard way. So they try to disrupt and disable the system trough non-violent means, which is truly is terrifying for any totalitarian regime. Often such regimes will then resort to brazenly taunting the people and hoping at least someone will bite (given them the excuse they need). They may also just stage violence or an assassination attempt, just to get their way and use the only tool they know: control through (the threat of) violence.

In fact, ironically, that might also be a rather fitting approximation to characterize the (actual) way the USA conducts its foreign policy towards many countries, particularly China and above all Russia. But that's another story.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I feel like he is digging his own grave. After social media and the twitter revolution, it's not something I would say in where mass protests are already under way. Dude is way to divorced from reality. Just look how many revolutions and mass protests we had over the last 10 years. Lukashenko will need to go full on Assad if he wants to stay in place. Not going to happen.

</comment><comment><USER10> Sheer numbers are what overthrows regimes. This is why those in power try to kill protest before it can reach critical mass. Something happened here to tip it over.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm not sure that people will take what he's hoping from that...

</comment><comment><USER12> Is anyone surprised? It's a case for a psychiatrist. The recent speech of this jerk is complete demagoguery which also shows how scared he is.

And he is not a president anymore, even if he calls himself such.

<comment><USER13> Mind you the USA has a sitting president that didn't win the election by way of a popular vote. More so it's believed he cheated, though we know that everything that led to the elections was wrong from an ethical point of view. It's very hard to get rid of these people once they take control of a country's institutes and dismantle them one by one.

<comment><USER14> None of the US presidents every won the election "by way of popular vote", because popular vote is not the way US presidential election is won. It's like complaining that a team who made the most goals won the soccer match instead of the team that run the fastest and has the prettiest shirts, how unfair that is especially that scoring the goal is completely pointless anyway.

Those are the rules. Any rules have people that think they could win if only the rules were different - but they aren't, so every US president is elected according to the rules for US presidential elections, not some other imaginary rules. Time to stop whining about it. If you want to change the rules - there's constitutional amendment procedure, go after it, good luck. Until you're done and the rules are changed, don't whine about somebody winning by the rules that are in play at the time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Famous last words

<comment><USER16> "What are you gonna do, stab me?" \- Julius Ceasar

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The headline makes it seem like he's saying there will be no more elections ever.

But in context he's saying there will not be a do-over election.

<comment><USER18> When the dude has been in power for 26 years, that's somewhat of a distinction without a difference.

<comment><USER17> That's an absurd take. Lots of politicians have long tenures because they've won re-election. That is not the same as suspending elections.

<comment><USER18> > Lots of politicians have long tenures because they've won re-election.

Like Kim Jong-un? Who wins every re-election with 100% of the vote?

<comment><USER17> Why not Chuck Schumer, who has been winning elections for 40 years without a loss?

Clearly one should care about the fairness of the election process, not that someone wins lots of elections. To say that winning multiple elections is the same as ending democracy is, as I said, an absurd take.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Well, he's not wrong.

</comment><comment><USER20> Big words are easy when his puppet master "guaranteed" him total support..

<comment><USER5> Are you talking about Trump?

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> That's a boss

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm guessing the President of Belarus is backed by Putin?

<comment><USER23> Probably not the only one ....

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Given he's called in Putin to provide security I'm guessing he wants people to try?

<comment><USER11> It's not clear that Russia will want to get involved beyond some sort of symbolic effort. They gave a fairly non-answer answer to Lukashenko's request for aid.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I feel like the quote truncated the last part "I triple dog dare you"

</comment><comment><USER26> Seems pretty spot on how to history goes down. My history of US economics professor, used to love saying something akin to:

"The only thing that history tells us for sure, is if you leave people with nothing, _one_ day, the people will come and remove your head from your body."

I'm not quite sure why he'd so willfully encourage it unless he's burnt out or has a suicide wish.

</comment><comment><USER27> This headline highlights a huge problem with modern journalism. Their bias towards civility and appearing unbiased means they often refuse to call a spade a spade. When a guy says you have to kill him to get another election, he should lose the respect and legitimacy that comes with the title of "president". At the very least they should call him the head of state and not lend his "election" legitimacy by referring to him with a title defined by being an elective office.

</comment><comment><USER28> Contradictory quotes have been attributed:

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-election/im- not-a...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-election/im-not-a-saint- lukashenko-offers-to-hand-over-power-after-referendum-idUSKCN25D0IJ)

I don't know what language he originally spoke in. Either he has difficulty with English, or he was mistranslated.

> "We've held elections," he said. "Until you've killed me there won't be any > new elections."

> "We'll put the changes to a referendum, and I'll hand over my constitutional > powers. But not under pressure or because of the street," Lukashenko said, > in remarks quoted by the official Belta news agency.

> "Yes, I'm not a saint. You know my harsh side. I'm not eternal. But if you > drag down the first president you'll drag down neighbouring countries and > all the rest."

> He also said people could hold parliamentary and presidential elections > after the referendum if that was what they wanted.

<comment><USER29> He spoke Russian, here is the clip: [https://censor.net.ua/en/news/3214153/until_you_kill_me_ther...](https://censor.net.ua/en/news/3214153/until_you_kill_me_there_will_be_no_other_elections_lukashenko_video)

I'm a native Russian speaker. He said something like "We held the elections. Until you kill me, there will be no different elections.", meaning the elections will not be cancelled (this also follows from the previous context in the video).</comment></comment>


Distributed Personal Wiki - <AUTHOR> http://bugsplat.info/2013-05-10-git-backed-personal-markdown-wiki.html

<comment><USER2> I use Tomboy[1] (once very popular note-taking software for Linux) with Tomdroid[2] (a client for Android) and Rainy[3] to sync them. There are a few bugs, it requires mono, doesn't support file attachments, and you need to set everything up yourself but for actual notes/recipes/ideas/quotes it works very well.

And you own it, end to end. No one can close the service down, no one can take it away, no one snoops through your stuff.

[1] <http://projects.gnome.org/tomboy/>

[2] <https://launchpad.net/tomdroid> {the newer .apk, not the Google Play version)

[3] <http://www.notesync.org/>

<comment><USER3> Nice, I use Tomboy too and just sync the data directory to SpiderOak, but that doesn't help with Android. Will check this out, thanks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There's also Gitit (<https://github.com/jgm/gitit>), backed by Pandoc and Git, supports Markdown and anything you can throw at Pandoc.

<comment><USER5> I think he's rejecting DVCSes in general; note that he said he tried git and has rejected it for bad merging:

> so I naturally stuck them in a git repository and pushed to my personal git > server. But then, how do I deal with synching my work and home machines? I > guess I'll manually merge changes... Yeah, that lasted about 10 minutes.

(Now me personally, I read that and go 'how is git unable to handle the merges, isn't that the point of git', but presumably he has a good reason to waste all this time looking at alternatives.)

<comment><AUTHOR> I love Git, use it every day. In fact, SparkleShare uses git as it's transport mechanism. The thing that I wanted was _fully automatic merging_. I'm the only one modifying these files, always on one machine at a time. I don't want to have to manage push/pull/merge every time I make a change, I just want my changes to propagate everywhere automatically.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am using Zim Wiki (<http://zim-wiki.org>) where the notebook directory is shared with Dropbox. It has nice features and is cross platform. There is also a Git-backend plugin that should me more robust from what I use.

<comment><USER7> I tried out exactly this one and I considered the git (or hg?) plugin to be bad. I don't know if it's better, now, but when I used it the workflow was worse than just a text editor and git. That's what I'm using now. I'm still looking for something that is usable from a my android phone. I guess there is git from android but i haven't investigated yet. The plugin did nothing automatically.

Want to edit your notes? Better make sure to pull. Edit. Save. (I guess adding was automatically) Commit. Push. Have conflicts (for no real reason). Resolve them. Push again. I didn't like it. The best par was that some functions (I guess merging) where not available from the gui. You had to open a terminal, go to .zim and use git or hg by hand. And yeah, specify commit messages. This is not a software project. It's very unlikly I'm going to revert something. Adding a commit message is just dublicating my text, because my note was 4 words long.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've tried different things but ended up using snotes[1]. It is a simple bash script (depends on git and dmenu [2]). Small is beautiful, after all.

[1] <https://github.com/v4hn/snotes> [2] <http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/>

</comment><comment><USER9> Bitbucket works fine for this. Its wikis are just markdown/git. You can add stuff offline or you can use the web interface.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm a big fan of Fossil. It's dead simple to set up if your already running your own server and has an integrated wiki. Depending on your needs this could be a good option. [http://www.fossil- scm.org/index.html/doc/trunk/www/index.wik...](http://www.fossil- scm.org/index.html/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki)

</comment><comment><USER11> I've tried most of the alternatives mentioned (TiddlyWiki for the longest time I believe), but I find it's easy to just make things terribly complicated and I end up coming back to plain text files. I use this filenaming scheme [year][month][day]-adescription.txt (130512-just a test.txt) for the files and use [http://brettterpstra.com/2013/01/14/the-next- nvalt-2-dot-2-b...](http://brettterpstra.com/2013/01/14/the-next- nvalt-2-dot-2-beta-is-here/) to search, access and add notes.

As a mobile interface, I use a pencil and a notebook. I add the data from the notebook to my text files.

I currently sync the notes with Dropbox, but I will soon move towards using a USB memory stick. These notes tell just about everything about me, I want them to be in my own hands only.

</comment><comment><USER12> I've been looking into gollum for this. Backed by git, but the format works pretty well with various vim tools.

Also it's great for developer heavy organizations, like my local makerspace. It provides a fancy frontend for those who need, but doesn't really hinder us text based warriors.

</comment><comment><USER13> I have been using vimwiki[1] with vim + Dropbox. It has been fantastic. That might convince you to move from emacs :)

<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2226>

</comment><comment><USER14> If you think Gollum is good, then take a look at Jingo ("Jingo is not Gollum"). <http://github.com/claudioc/jingo> (Node.js based, with its own Git wrapper) (disclaimer: I'm the author)

</comment><comment><USER15> Hmm... I've been trying to keep a published "world bible" for a story setting I've been developing. This basically presents the same problem in the article, but with the added need to have a read-only version of the wiki available for access online. Anyone have a suggestion for managing something like that?

The default solution--running a whole public-facing wiki, with access- protection layered on top--seems a bit much; I'll be the only person editing it, so it'll be useless for anyone else to see anything about "revisions" or "markup." It should just appear to be (and can be) a static website.

<comment><AUTHOR> Since its just static markdown files and got you could set up a post-receive hook on your public facing server that renders the markdown to a www directory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I use Pendium ( <https://github.com/LuRsT/Pendium> ) it has everything that the OP has stated but it's more developer oriented.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm surprised no one mentioned Joey Hess's ikiwiki yet.

"Ikiwiki is a wiki compiler. It converts wiki pages into HTML pages suitable for publishing on a website. Ikiwiki stores pages and history in a revision control system such as Subversion or Git. There are many other features, including support for blogging, as well as a large array of plugins."

<http://ikiwiki.info/>

</comment><comment><USER18> I've tried a dozen different note taking tools, the only one I've stuck with is Workflowy[1]. I think it just suited my style of note taking/todo list making/hierarchical lifestyle right from the start. I would like to see better Android app support(3rd Part/Web only atm), but apart from that it's perfect for me.

[1] <https://workflowy.com/>

<comment><USER19> Self hosted workflowy would be something I'd pay for.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> OneNote + SkyDrive

<comment><AUTHOR> A perfectly valid alternative, sure. I happen to like emacs and self-hosting.

<comment><USER21> git-annex + OrgMode + mobile-org? Works for me :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I've never taken the time to really get into org-mode but from everything I've read it sounds great.

<comment><USER21> git-annex[1] might be able to solve the sync problem, no matter which file- based wiki software you are using, especially with its assistant[2]

[1] <http://git-annex.branchable.com> [2]: <http://git- annex.branchable.com/assistant/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I've been looking for a "Personal Knowledge Base" for a while. There are plenty of "Personal Information Managers" like evernote or devonthink; places where you can dump and tag your files. But it seems that not many have tried to create a piece of software that can act as your own davinci notebook.

</comment><comment><USER23> From the title I was imaging a system that uses something akin to FreeNet for datastore, making it truly distributed. While not exactly practical, it would have been neat.

But this is cool too.

<comment><AUTHOR> You should look into the Smallest Federated Wiki[1]. It's not quite FreeNet- style-distributed but it's interesting none-the-less.

[1]: <http://fed.wiki.org/view/welcome-visitors>

[2]: <https://github.com/WardCunningham/Smallest-Federated-Wiki>

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> fossil (<http://www.fossil-scm.org>) together with pagedown (<https://chiselapp.com/user/zot/repository/fossil-pagedown>) would seem to fit this use case rather well. You can manage wiki data either in .wiki files or using the browser-based bare bones editor.

</comment><comment><USER25> See also Notational Velocity in plain text file mode pointing to Dropbox.

When on mobile, sort the folder of text files by date modified.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is exactly why I love evernote. You can still set links between notes, and the search index across documents is amazing

<comment><USER27> If Evernote had markdown support, it'd become an interesting contender for code snippets and personal note taking. But I can't understand why they insist in yet-another rich text format.

<comment><USER28> Because 99% of their users want something like Word as their editor. Try as you might, but you can't get all of them—not even close—to use Markdown to format documents when they're used to highlight, Bold button, voila, it's bold. Evernote is designed for normals, and rightfully so.

<comment><USER29> How does markdown preclude WYSIWYG editing?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I just keep a folder of markdown files in Dropbox. It syncs to all my devices and I can use any text editor.

</comment><comment><USER31> Wouldn't the new bittorrent sync software be useful too in that case ?

<comment><USER32> Depends on how "distributed" it needs to be. If one node is offline and you edit on both, when it comes back online the one with the newest timestamp wins

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Could please explain the difference between Sparkleshare and unison to me? They seem to be pretty similar.

<comment><AUTHOR> As far as I can tell Unison doesn't provide history and is intended to sync two directories. SparkleShare uses git so it provides history. Also, it provides more of a hub-and-spoke model, where many computers can sync to one hub.</comment></comment>


Does Jeff Bezos Have a Legal Case Against the National Enquirer? - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/jeff-bezos-legal-case-national-enquirer/ <comment><USER2> I'm not American, and maybe I just don't know enough about your legal system or this Bezos thing, but I just can't wrap my head around it. How could he not?

How can attempted blackmail with someones private, and, stolen photos not be illegal?

<comment><USER3> Read the emails carefully, and remember they were written by lawyers. It didn't seem to reach the level of criminal blackmail to me. Experts quoted in the article agree.

If they do however publish the picture everyone talks about, I'm pretty sure they will be destroyed just like Gawker was in the Hulk Hogan case.

<comment><USER2> This is exactly what I don't get though, how can you get away with extortion by writing it in lawyer tongue?

<comment><USER4> Lawyers have a responsibility to act ethically. You aren't necessarily going to get into trouble for what they do, if you're only following their instructions. This is shaky legal ground and a rarely successful defense that came up with all the Tump stuff. Here it seems it might be appropriate though.

"Advice of counsel defense", a Quote from Jens David Ohlin, a vice dean at Cornell Law School (taken from business insider article)

> The advice-of-counsel defense "doesn't apply if both the lawyer and the > client are on the same page that what they are doing is illegal in some > way," Ohlin said. "According to Cohen, both he and Trump understood that > they were paying hush money to influence an election, and then covered it up > to hide the illegality."

However, in this case, did both parties know that something illegal was going on? That's more of a stretch here. If I met with a lawyer and said "lets illegally commit extortion", obviously that's illegal. If my attorney just does it, as a part of an ongoing legal dispute, it's far less clear (lots of legal disputes can seem like extortion; eg. settle with us now or you'll have to pay even more to defend, is a standard strategy). That lack of clarity could be plenty of motivation to dissuade prosecutors from bringing charges; especially if they're on good terms with the party and happily using them in an ongoing investigation.

<comment><USER5> Blackmail communicated through a lawyer is still blackmail, and moreover makes a lawyer a party to blackmail.

AMI's lawyers are on very shaky ground here and there's a realistic chance they end this decade disbarred.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The ace that Bezos has is that he can like, Thiel and the gawker case, Bezos can drown the National Enquirer in legal battles until they're bankrupt even if he gives half his fortune away to his soon-to-be ex-wife.

<comment><USER7> Maybe you're being downvoted because the comment doesn't address the quality of the legal case or maybe because people don't want to think of Bezos in this way. Aside from the possibility that a state actor was involved in intercepting his communication, I think what you're pointing out is the most interesting aspect of this whole mess.

If I were running the National Enquirer and wanted to make a list of the best ways to ruin my company and likely myself, going after Bezos in this fashion would be very near the top of the list.

<comment><USER6> Yeah I'm not a lawyer. Just if I was in his shoes my first thought would be "I'm rich. I'll squash them like a big."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In the end it doesn't matter that much if he has not a legal case, and it is a win as far as he has managed to de-weaponize this kind of public shaming threats over what is normal consensual behavior.

</comment><comment><USER9> Better question, is there a felony federal case for blackmail?

</comment><comment><USER10> > For one, the tabloid could argue it was merely trying in good faith to > resolve a dispute with Bezos—not attempting to blackmail or extort him. This > reasoning is why, for example, a lawyer can send someone a letter saying > their client will agree to settle a lawsuit if certain terms are met.

So IANAL, but my understanding after some research is that this is well-trod territory resolved by deciding whether there was a 'lack of nexus'. To quote State v. Pauling, which I have not read in full,

> Molotov Pauling was convicted of second degree extortion under former RCW > 9A.56.130 (1975) for threatening to disseminate and, in actuality, > disseminating nude photos of a former girl friend to collect a valid $5,000 > small claims court judgment he had against her. The Court of Appeals, > stating that the statute lacked a requirement that the threat be wrongful, > declared former RCW 9A.56.130 unconstitutionally overbroad because it > prohibited threats that constituted protected speech and reversed Pauling's > conviction. We hold that a limiting construction is available, requiring > that the evidence shows a "lack of nexus" between the threat made and the > claim of right. This construction confines the statute's application to only > extortionate threats that are inherently wrongful and are not protected > speech.

> [...]

> There are significant differences between, on the one hand, threatened > disclosures of such matters as consumer complaints and nonpayment of dues, > as to which the threatener has a plausible claim of right, and, on the other > hand, threatened disclosures of such matters as sexual indiscretions that > have no nexus with any plausible claim of right.

> Id. (emphasis added). The court held, "where a threat of harm to a person's > reputation seeks money or property to which the threatener does not have, > and cannot reasonably believe she has, a claim of right, or where the threat > has no nexus to a plausible claim of right, the threat is inherently > wrongful․" Id. at 71 (emphasis added). Although a person might have a legal > right to collect a judgment, there is no nexus between the exercise of that > right and the threat to post embarrassing nude photos on the Internet. On > the other hand, a person with a legal right to collect a judgment would have > a nexus to a threat to institute garnishment proceedings.

[https://caselaw.findlaw.com/wa-supreme- court/1260888.html](https://caselaw.findlaw.com/wa-supreme-court/1260888.html)

I found about about this through a good article by the Washington Post.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh- conspiracy/wp/201...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh- conspiracy/wp/2017/07/06/it-is-actually-difficult-to-define-blackmail)

Although I cannot confirm any of this—it's not my field—I can say for certain that I think this _should_ be textbook blackmail, and it's hard to imagine the case actually failing.

</comment><comment><USER11> The more interesting questions are (a) how did the National Enquirer get the text messages and if it was from the US government as Bezos' PI believed then (b) did Trump know about it.

I would expect House Committees and the DOJ to be all over this in the coming months.

<comment><USER12> Indeed however "government entity" could refer to Saudi or Russian states also. I haven't seen any indication they were referring to the US government.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> That a guy who is building the surveillance system for governments worldwide and who has serfdom-lite attitudes towards labor laws, is suddenly a sympathetic character on HN, is kind of surprising to me.

<comment><USER14> I share your sentiment of surprise.

Bezos' pretense that he's standing up for the powerless doesn't ring true to me ("If in my position I can't stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?") when contrasted against his attitudes towards his employees' working conditions.

This story to me is Bezos did something, that while increasingly common in modern America, remains viewed as a foolish thing to do. Nothings going to change that, not a criminal extortion attempt by AEI, not even a heartfelt medium post. I see no dominant strategy Bezos can choose that avoids the Pyrrhic conclusion of his private photo being shared widely across the Internet on services he helped create.</comment></comment>


Businessmen: don't outsource your code. - <AUTHOR> http://techwildcatters.com/2010/11/businessmen-dont-outsource-your-code/ <comment> a-priori This is a strawman. The real lesson here is not "don't outsource your code" but rather, "if you decide to outsource your code, don't skimp out". There are plenty of skilled and motivated software developers that do outsourced work. I'm one of them, and I've done projects for startups before. Successful projects, I might add.

But they don't come cheap.

<comment><USER2> Well then what would be the point of outsourcing your code? I thought the whole _point_ was that it was cheap.

<comment> a-priori There are a few advantages apart from straight up hourly rate:

1) The big one is that you get a ready-made team of project managers, UX designers, QA, developers that have either worked together before or at least share methodology and culture, and so have already gelled somewhat.

2) People in these various roles come in when you need them, and leave when you don't. You might not be able to afford to hire an experienced designer or QA full-time, but you could afford a couple weeks of their time, or two days a week, or whatever. This flexibility can make the end result higher quality and less expensive, even with a higher per-day rate.

3) It's hard (some say impossible, but I wouldn't go that far) for non- technical people to hire technical folk, because it's hard to know what to look for. A consulting firm has already done this for you, has a track record with these people, and is staking their reputation (and hopes of future business with you and your contacts) on them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's funny: Someone could write a blog post with the tables turned, but using the same sweeping generalizations and bigoted prejudices to argue that you should never hire programmers to work for you in house.

Software is hard, and often goes horribly wrong. Generalizing that fact into simple dos and don'ts is as ridiculous as blaming it's the color of the ball for not dribbling like Michael Jordan.

<comment><AUTHOR> Of course, there are always counterarguments. But it is the fact that you stack the odds against your success when you ship someone else the most critical part of a startup. You can do the same thing with a dev who lies to your face (rather than through a computer screen), but that is a completely different argument.

<comment><USER3> You've already got the odds stacked against you when you want to do a software-based startup and you're not a good developer yourself (or have a tech co-founder that is).

Once you've decided to go ahead and do it anyway, you've a number of options, and you're not doing yourself any favors by ruling out options the way this article advocates.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm probably asking for trouble with this question, since intellectually I think I know some of your answers, but most business decisions are made emotionally and that's where I am with this one.

I have put together a plan for a start-up. The key to success will be sales (and, to a lesser extent, marketing), but it needs a technical,web-based back end. Nothing that hasn't been done before; indeed, I imagine an experienced hacker could probably create the back end from various open source elements that are around. So there's little technical challenge, in a not-too-sexy B2B space.

Am I better off sitting on this idea, stagnating it, while I try to find the right technical co-founder? Or pay the ~$10,000 I've been quoted to build the first iteration, knowing that if it's successful I could employ (or otherwise structure and energise) that technical person to re-create (or revise, but I imagine they'd rather start again) the base code in an improved way, at some future point, possibly to time with a product or market expansion?

Edit: I appreciate me 'imagining' what an experienced hacker can or can't do may be akin to a blind man imagining colour; but that's also been the feedback from outsourcing companies I've met with.

<comment><USER5> _"The key to success will be sales..."_

 _"Nothing that hasn't been done before..."_

 _"I imagine an experienced hacker..."_

 _"So there's little technical challenge..."_

FWIW, these are exactly the kind of statements that would raise red flags for me as a developer. They practically scream, "I will undervalue your work." If these statements are true, you don't need a technical cofounder, you just need to do some homework to see how many of the pieces you can put in place yourself. If that's too hard, be prepared to admit that the task will be a technical challenge.

<comment><USER4> I think you make an excellent point - those were the same red flags that caused me to add the edit when I re-read my post earlier.

FWIW I am open to being proved wrong, and I think you've nailed the main issue that arises between 'businessmen' and 'technical' founders ... lack of awareness of the other side. It's clear which camp I'm in!

<comment><USER6> The sad part about that fact is that lack of awareness affects the business man far more than it affects the developer. They end up shooting themselves in the foot time and time again while they filter themselves out of the pool of prospective clients for the good developers.

No disrespect intended to you, but the onus is on you to understand why developers are so important (if you start thinking of them as your product, the picture becomes clearer) because the good developers don't have the time or the need to help you see the fallacy in your perception of roles.

As for your question, I would have it developed if you don't have a good lead on a tech co-founder. technical personnel get approached with "build my idea" all the time. When they do, they hear "hey do all the work and I'll take half". Which while not entirely a correct position to hold, one has to understand that a good deal of developers have their own ideas, if they are going to work for free they are going to do it on their interest and without cutting someone else in on the deal.

Having invested in a product, no matter the quality of the code, and getting the business off the ground will "put your money where your mouth is" with a technical partner. They will see that you are serious about your idea and that you are willing to put in what is needed to succeed.

If the code is sub par they will still see that you have a very good working prototype that has a lot of learning's rolled up into it. It gives them a head start on writing the next version that incorporated the learning of the "prototype".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If the application behaves as you want it, then what is bad software to the user?

The reason you do not want to outsource is not because the other does not care. DocStoc had its first version offshore outsourced and they quickly rebuilt it once they got traction.

The reason why outsourcing your startup product usually fails is Cost. You have to go through several versions of your application to reach product- market-fit. I think the Advaark team went through 9 months of iteration before launching. Kissmetrics went through a similar process. Startups continuously pivot, and most people do not have the money to fund this discovery process.

</comment><comment><USER8> The usual rule is to keep in-house anything that gives your business a real competitive advantage, often this will be your IP.

<comment><USER9> As far as outsourcing, I have some info on how to communicate with the developer, not get ripped off, etc. But what about IP? Should I assume that any code that is outsourced has come from other projects and/or the code that I'm paying to have developed will be used by others in the future? Is there any way to control this (especially when dealing with a dev thru a computer screen)?

<comment><USER8> If you are supplying the developer with algorithms that are specific (critical/unique) to your business, then for the avoidance of doubt you should make explicit in the contract that you own the IP for any work the developer does for you.

It's unlikely that anyone would use a developer that they didn't know personally, without a formal contract, for this type of work though.

On the other hand, if you're asking for a vanilla e-commerce site then it's less relevant, the code the developer uses may come from open source libraries, or it may be his that he his re-using, but it probably matters little to you as it's the content on the site not the code behind it that you really care about.

You will always own the copyright on the website, including the design artefacts, unless you are explicitly licensing them.

Ideally you would also somehow get the developer to verify that all the code they are using has a valid licence, as ultimately you're probably liable for infringement. Again, I guess this is trickier to do in a web based developer market, but probably not going to be an issue for a vanilla job like an e-commerce site or marketplace.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There are so many problems with this article, I don't even know where to start:

\- never say never

> he is doing exactly what you are doing by hiring him (being lazy).

Or maybe you are not a programmer or can't afford to set up an office etc.

> The people writing your code don't care about you

And how is this specific to outsourcing? if you set up an office, hire a group of programmers, it doesn't guaranty that those programmers will care about you.

> this will ultimately lead to sloppy, prefabricated, and overall apathetic > development

Not if you hire the right people.

> Most outsourced coders are used to standard applications

Correction: "Most coders are used to standard applications"

> 4\. Opportunity costs – If you are asking for specific and complex modules > then the programmer will most likely bail on your project because he/she is > looking to turn some quick money; not make you rich.

This is downright ridiculous freelancers love long projects, it gives economic stability.

> You have forever tainted your startup

This paragraph again is not specific to outsourcing.

Basically this article would be fine if it would say "don't hire idiots to do your code", the points mentioned have nothing to do with outsourcing.

<comment><AUTHOR> "don't hire idiots to do your code"

Exactly! However there are idots everywhere, and having relatively little connection with the developer breeds more "idiot" behavior than does having a in-house dev.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is just silly for all sorts of reasons.

One that is common for generalizations about outsourcing code is comparing apples to orange marmalade. Outsourcing to someone on elance for $3k vs having 2-3 higher value per hour programmers work on it full time for six months.

This is about as sensible as comparing an off-the-plan house to a plastic shed.

</comment><comment><USER12> Missing a market is as big a problem as blowing a software project.

Outsourcing can work.

Insourcing can work.

Both approaches can and have gone down in flames, too.

Screwing up the responsibilities for the oversight of code development or failing to account for maintenance, well, that's a problem; outsourced or in- house.

You must get the motivations and the goals aligned.

The problems here can parallel those of paving roads, building bridges or other chunks of civil engineering. If you cheap out on the specs or on the construction (eg: low bid; too good to be true) or if you entirely separate the construction from the requisite and ongoing maintenance (in software: what, no code reviews before acceptance?), you can receive different results and differing construction materials and techniques.

</comment><comment><USER13> I think it would probably work just fine if one outsources coding related work to a _good_ freelancer/team. Building the right team takes both time and money and needs much more effort than hiring a good freelancer when time is of essence.In other words you can hire a good programmer to build the MVP if you are just a guy with the idea with little or no programming skills. Once you have a working/validated product you can work on how to hire a good programmer. I would add to the above that I haven't had any experience with all of this, And would love to hear about experiences anyone may have had.

</comment><comment><USER14> To me the strongest argument for keeping development in house is that programming Is a very powerful way to learn about a domain, so if your business involves an innovative or differentiated product it's probably valuable to have this learning accumulate within your team.

If your innovation is only in your business model or marketing then it may be better to use a mature, proven partner for development because building a great development team carries its own risks and can add to the schedule.

Getting it done cheap is rarely a good idea in either case because either way you will have to satisfy customers and do maintenance.

</comment><comment><USER15> The problem I have with the arguments posted in the article is that every single one could also be applied to hiring coders full-time. You're not going to build rapprochement with your coders simply by signing their paychecks. There's no guarantee that the code your in-house people write will be better than code written by outsiders. Finally, I don't think any programmer, in house or outsourced, is looking to make _you_ , the business owner, rich. They're looking to make a living doing what they like to do. Making you rich is a not even a tertiary consideration.

</comment><comment><USER16> <http://mixergy.com/free-apps-interview/> \- these guys make $80K a month in app sales by outsourcing everything.

<comment><USER17> but they don't compete on quality. I've used their apps they are buggy and poorly designed.

<comment><USER16> well they are successful. they make close to $1Mil a year. If you arent a developer, I prefer the strategy of getting something out there as fast as you can, getting market validation and then bringing someone on board/improving wuality...isnt this what MVP teaches us?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm not buying it..the post lacks any real evidence. I've outsourced plenty and have found some really talented coders. Outsourcing has helped me, a non technical person, make shit happen!

Outsourcing is a great way to build a MVP and prove an idea in my opinion, but to each his own I guess.

</comment><comment><USER19> the problem with outsourcing your code, is that you are one of the dozen other projects the person is working on.

I went through 3 companies(2 companies, 1 freelancer), each promising to be done in 30 days, and each only getting about 10-20% finished after 6 months.

And this was for a project, where they weren't getting paid until they finished(well, one weaseled out a small deposit out of me), so they had every incentive to work quickly.

Better to pick up the stuff yourself. It's really not that hard...and when you learn the stuff, you'll be done much quicker, since you'll be able to work 100% on your project.

<comment><USER20> _"they weren't getting paid"_

There's often a direct correlation between getting paid and someone doing the work.

In my experience, someone who wants work to be done on speculation is not a client.

<comment><USER19> Doesn't apply, since the money was in escrow.

<comment><USER6> Which tells me that you where dealing with amateurs. Good developers don't take fixed bid contracts, they don't need to. Sounds like to me you got some guys who gave it a shot sunk 10% and saw that it was bigger than they could estimate given there level of expertise and abandoned the project. They may have not notified you that they abandoned it but the most likely did. You see a fixed bid contract basically says to a developer, I want all of the upside with none of the risk, and I want to limit your upside. Most good developers avoid such an argument due to the scope creep nature of software development. It instantly shackles them into a bad arraignment. The only other profession that does this is real estate, sales and lawyers and they get a % cut of the sale or settlement. The only way I would sign such a contract, as a professional, would be the same arrangement % of profit. You where assuredly dealing with amateurs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I could buy the argument if the post was a) convincing, and b) fleshed out, but as it stands, it's just a few words of opinion with very little evidence to back it up.</comment>


Statistical interpretation of Logistic Regression - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/a-year-of-artificial-intelligence/rohan-6-follow-up-statistical-interpretation-of-logistic-regression-e78de3b4d938#.mtnu9ky5b <comment><USER2> Our group's take on logistic regression: [http://www.win- vector.com/blog/2011/09/the-simpler-derivatio...](http://www.win- vector.com/blog/2011/09/the-simpler-derivation-of-logistic-regression/)

</comment><comment><USER3> A very nice explanation. It's reminds me of Andrew Ng's lectures. Very impressive that the author seems to be a high school student - I'm only learning about these concepts now in Masters.

<comment><USER4> indeed, it blew me away that the author is a high school student.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Still need that sigmoid assumption, and that's a lot to swallow.

<comment><USER6> Yes, Logistic regression applies when you're modeling a binary random variable and expect the log-odds to be linearly related to your regressors.</comment></comment>


Charge money for your work. Don't be a jerk to people. Repeat. - <AUTHOR> http://thedata.cc/post/10142529898/profit

<comment><USER2> Actually, plenty of Californian companies make money from day one, so I don't see two examples from Chicago overriding hundreds of examples from California. Why do people like writing something that sounds good, rather than something factual?

<<Because [Chicago-founded Groupon and Threadless] are companies that aren't founded on California principles … which I will define as, "Hey man, we'll make something really cool, and we'll eventually make money from it." Instead, [they're based on] very Chicago roots, which is, "Let's sell something people can buy, and let's do it really well." There's actually a business plan in effect. >></comment>


Bozeman City job requirement raises privacy concerns - <AUTHOR> http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/Global/story.asp?S=10551414&nav=menu227_3

<comment><AUTHOR> "'Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.,' the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords."

</comment><comment><USER2> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=665449> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=665094></comment>


Xperf Wait Analysis–Finding Idle Time - <AUTHOR> http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2012/05/06/xperf-wait-analysisfinding-idle-time/

<comment><USER2> Reminds me how I use HPROF for profiling the JVM. It is my next step after doing the simpler

(while sleep 1; do jstack PID; done) | grep -A 10 THREADNAMEPATTERN</comment>


Programmer recreates London subway map from pure web code - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/22/4354794/london-underground-map-css-john-galantini

<comment><USER2> Previous discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5736678></comment>


Ask HN: Will "In Person" become the new luxury item? - <AUTHOR> I've seen many blog posts about how work has permanently gone remote and it's for the better.  I have done both remote and in person, and believe hybrid is best.  Allow workers to work remotely from time to time by adding it on to their vacation trip or WFH on Monday or Fridays.  Human connection is very valuable and good for our health, as we have already seen remote can be negative for our health via zoom fatigue.  I've also had more physical injuries working remotely, because I didn't get up and move as often.  From a company perspective, costs savings are huge and they may only allow the most valuable employees to keep a physical desk on premises.  All that being said, will in person become the new organic and remote become the new Monsanto?  Extreme metaphor for comparison, but the comparison is meant to stir up some ideas/emotions. <comment><USER2> Good question. We have an interesting situation developing, for sure. In Person will be valuable for the foreseeable future. While it is the pipe dream of HN crowd to be able to work from anywhere / WFH, there is still value in face to face meeting. I manage a cross-country team and can attest to the value of meeting In Person and bonding. Our meetings online are less effective.

In Person will still be very important until technology (4k cameras, better audio, etc) improve significantly.

<comment><USER3> VR/AR would play a big role in moving to a more remote-friendly world as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > I've also had more physical injuries working remotely

That's surprising to me. Why not take half an hour after lunch and go for a walk? Your commute is 10 seconds now that the distance between your bed and office desk is much smaller. Why not leave your desk and use that saved commuting time to go for a run, or a walk or lift some weights or do 7 min HIIT or unroll a yoga mat and do some yoga? You can always hop back on your chair and work till you fall asleep.

<comment><AUTHOR> Instead of biking to work I walk 10 feet to my desk. Instead of walking to a meeting I stay at my desk and VC. Instead of walking to a co workers desk I stay at my desk and slack them instead. Surprisingly more movement is built in with office work.</comment></comment>


The World's Richest College Dropout Urges Colleges to Stop Dropouts - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/the-worlds-richest-college-dropout-urges-colleges-to-stop-dropouts/265251/

<comment><USER2> The article makes it sound as if taking more than 6 years for a degree is a bad thing. I've been taking a long time to finish my undergrad, but I don't intend on just quitting. I will finally be graduating soon, but I've been going the slow route by taking a part-time course load each semester and working jobs that are very relevant to my field of study. I will graduate nearly debt-free and will already have a lot of really good experience on my resume. I agree that more students should be finishing their degrees, but I don't think taking more time then normal is detrimental if the reason is due to field experience (and not partying around).</comment>


Scientists pinpoint neural activity's role in human longevity - <AUTHOR> https://sciencebeta.com/neural-activity-life-span/ <comment><USER2> So we are finally coming around to discovering at the molecular level what has been known since forever: that on average positive, non-stressed out people tend to be healthier and live longer than those depressed or otherwise psychologically afflicted. And honestly when the brain has a critical influence on almost all major organs so I don't see why scientists are excited to find that it might have an effect on the ageing process too. The molecular mechanism may be exciting, but the fact itself is entirely expected.

<comment><USER3> I don't care about stress. I personally want to stimulate my brain to the maximum as much as I can. I don't know whether this would lower my life span.

<comment><USER4> Frequent electric shocks seem to be the way to do it then.

<comment><USER5> AC or DC?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> there is a difference between chronic stress and stimulating your brain by learning constantly. I very much doubt anyone can prove the latter shortens lifespan</comment>


Get Started With GitHub Pages (Plus Bonus Jekyll) - <AUTHOR> http://24ways.org/2013/get-started-with-github-pages/

<comment><USER2> One warning with gh pages: sometimes they can't handle a flood of users and report "503 Backend is Unhealthy". This unfortunately happened to me last month when [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6722197](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6722197) was on the front page here ([http://oss.sheetjs.com](http://oss.sheetjs.com)).

Good news is that they at least check the status: [https://status.github.com/messages/2013-11-13](https://status.github.com/messages/2013-11-13)

<comment><USER3> Interesting- I wonder if that's just project pages. I keep my blog ([http://jordan-wright.github.com/blog](http://jordan-wright.github.com/blog)) on Pages, had a few things hit the front page but never reached a limit.

Thanks for the heads up, though.

<comment><USER2> It's an organization page: [https://github.com/SheetJS/SheetJS.github.io](https://github.com/SheetJS/SheetJS.github.io)

(configured with a custom domain as per [https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom- domain-...](https://help.github.com/articles/setting-up-a-custom-domain-with- pages) )

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love (and host my blog on) Pages, but really can't stand Jekyll. The template language, Liquid, is incredibly restrictive because GitHub wants to sandbox you. I would suggest using nanoc, Middleman, Stasis or similar and compiling it locally. I myself use a hacked Rails app that spits out static HTML.[1]

Keep in mind that you also don't control things like HTTP headers, which are very important for a static site. You want to cache assets forever, pages for a while; and you probably want to fine-tune your gzip settings or precompile gzip files as part of your compile process. These things are possible with your own server and AWS but not Pages. Its benefits are simplicity and cost, but they come at the cost of power and performance.

[1]: [https://github.com/devlinzed/devlinzed.com](https://github.com/devlinzed/devlinzed.com)

<comment><USER5> Check out my startup BitBalloon ([https://www.bitballoon.com](https://www.bitballoon.com)) - as simple (or simpler) as GH pages, but with all the right caching headers set out of the box and built-in gzipping and image compression.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Really great article for anyone just getting started with hosting something on Pages. Anna breaks everything down so it's very simple. I had just finished building my personal blog using Jekyll and Pages when this came out. Would have been a nice resource.

I did have a stupid issue with not understanding how Github compiles Jekyll that I totally didn't understand after reading the docs, so I posted a little thing about it for anyone else who might be stupid, like me: [http://davidgillhespy.com/2013/12/18/pushing-jekyll-to- githu...](http://davidgillhespy.com/2013/12/18/pushing-jekyll-to-github- pages.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> Personally, I prefer Harp[0] over Jekyll, simply because while it provides the metadata features of Jekyll, it also does all my asset pipelining and allows me to use a multitude of templating languages. It's also less opinionated in terms of file structure, and I host my blog with it on github pages for that reason as well.

[0] [http://HarpJS.com](http://HarpJS.com)

</comment><comment><USER8> I've been hosting my personal blog on GitHub pages for a year now and it's been great. One shortcut I took is starting with Jekyll Bootstrap ([http://jekyllbootstrap.com/](http://jekyllbootstrap.com/)) instead of starting from scratch.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm hoping GitHub will update their copy of Jekyll at some point.</comment>


Time Warner Cable Drops CBS Network From Lineup - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323681904578644410155884272.html

<comment><AUTHOR> The only winners here are Amazon Instant Video and iTunes.</comment>


The AppDynamics Story - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/appdynamics-story-journey-continues-jyoti-bansal <comment><AUTHOR> This iterative process of finding the best product-market fit, probably the most excruciating task ever. It's really not easy or there won't be 9-5 devs anymore.</comment>