Show HN: An Alternative Web Interface for YouTube - <AUTHOR> http://essentialyoutube.com <comment><USER2> Love that you can read the entire source in a few hundred lines of dead simple JS[1].

[1] [https://github.com/boramalper/Essential- YouTube/blob/master/...](https://github.com/boramalper/Essential- YouTube/blob/master/index.js)

<comment><USER3> Came here just to say this. Pleasantly surprised to see front-end project without a package.json, a bundler, a UI library. Even the templating is inline!

<comment><USER4> The template being inline is a bug, not a feature in my opinion. You can actually write arbitrary templates into HTML using <script type='text/template'> (or really any type other than 'javascript'), and with a simple function get ~90% of the power of template strings in languages such as ES6 or Python. Writing your templates into JS like that is plain ugly and unmaintainable.

<comment><USER5> I agree writing templates into JS like that is plain ugly. Using HTML5 template[1] tag is a better way to go. I used it in a fun project[2] and it works flawlessly in all modern browsers

[1]: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/templ...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/template)

[2]: [https://github.com/shashankgroovy/notif](https://github.com/shashankgroovy/notif)

<comment><USER6> [2] works better with the y at the end ;-)

[https://github.com/shashankgroovy/notify](https://github.com/shashankgroovy/notify)

<comment><USER7> Could just be the next iteration of Motif[1]... ;-)

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(software)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_\(software\))

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I want something like this on the youtube dashboard. I want to see at a glance the trends + subscriptions (and the subscriptions that are gaining momentum/are popular). I don't want "recommendations" from youtube mixed in with my regular feed. I cross them out and tell youtube that I'm not interested in them and it just ignores that and shows them up again anyway. Subscription list tends to "fade away". Older subscriptions are forgotten and don't show up and only the new ones do.

Better organization of the playlists and a feature to search across my account for playlist and the videos in them would be another amazingly important feature that I want.

Went on a rant there. But I love youtube, except the interface is such a huge turn off that it's quite annoying. I've been meaning to make an alternative UI for it. It's been on the back-burner in my ideas.txt for quite a while. So I just brain-dumped the most immediate complaints I had.

</comment><comment><USER9> Really dislike how titles are truncated after a fairly small number of words. (I did a search for "on cinema" which is a comedy web series, and almost none of the results showed a full title.) There seems to be no reason not to simply let the titles wrap. Who cares if some result boxes are bigger than others? Anyway, a potentially useful tool if this is corrected.

</comment><comment><USER10> I've deleted my YouTube account and started using RSS to subscribe to channels. If I could get it to open to this page instead I think I'd have just about the exact experience I'd like. The only change I'd like to see is to have the video fill the page (not full screen or "theater mode") and have absolutely nothing else on there.

<comment><AUTHOR> See @nip's comment there! (if you are using Chrome)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Allow me to go to your page just by entering a different domain, meaning having a URL schema similar to that of youtube, that would make things much simpler.

<comment><USER12> Yeah that's one of the reasons it is so simple and easy to use a service like [http://unreddit.com/](http://unreddit.com/). Great suggestion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Clean interface but it made me (re)discover that the related videos are really useful. When a video is over here is like "what now?" and I have to go back to the search page. It wastes times. However I understood the spirit of the experiment. It's just that YouTube with an adblocker and NoScript is not that bad.

<comment><USER14> I'm torn on this. On one hand it's useful to have related videos, on the other I find that it often leads to distractions. Maybe the latter is because recommended videos on youtube is both related videos and "videos you might like" (which means that researching a topic turns into watching standup comedy I like or similar)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> A Chrome plugin to redirect any youtube URLs to this would be great :-)

<comment><USER16> Switcheroo[1]: From '[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v='](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=') To '[http://essentialyoutube.com/#'](http://essentialyoutube.com/#') :)

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/switcheroo- redirec...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/switcheroo- redirector/cnmciclhnghalnpfhhleggldniplelbg?hl=en)

<comment><USER17> Can that be made into a greasymonkey user.js? That would be sweet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> these are the changes as per the about page:

Essential YouTube is an experiment to improve user experience by stripping the redundant away and focusing on the essentials.

Features: Disruption-free Search The video keeps playing even while you are searching. Instant Search See the results as you are typing. Queuing Queue videos as you like to watch them consecutively. Looping Loop a video forever. Hassle-free Video annotations are disabled by default. Also, no Autoplay, but the videos you want to play. Client-side There are no servers in-between you and YouTube; everything is done on your computer and it's open source. As private as it could be.

Obvious it might sound, but please keep in mind that Essential YouTube is an experiment, and as pleasing as it might be to use, it's not intended to be a replacement for everyday use. Missing functionality is not a bug, it's a feature.

</comment><comment><USER19> "Features: Disruption-free Search The video keeps playing even while you are searching"

When I do a search, the audio of the video keeps playing, and there is a working seek bar at the top, but the video itself vanishes. Not sure if this is intentional, but I assume not based on the description (Firefox 47 on OS X).

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah it is! Sorry if the description itself is misleading, but I thought it would be nice to be able to listen, while skimming over search results, so I decided to hid the video during searching.

Maybe I could do something like in YouTube's iOS wpp where video goes to down- right corner, but I thought I would keep it simple.

<comment><USER20> I think that is probably best solution.

Just having the audio I can easily do it right now by doing the search in another tab while having the video playing in the background.

Anyway, I like the idea and what you did, even if it is still an early project.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> In case any Google/YouTube people read this:

Please make a YouTube Red for kids. I love YouTube Kids, but it still has ads. I will gladly pay for you $/month for this.

I don't watch Youtube, buy my kids never stop.

<comment><USER22> Friend of mine made: [https://medium.com/@jhong/introducing- cakey-8b646cc1768b#.nr...](https://medium.com/@jhong/introducing- cakey-8b646cc1768b#.nr930wyd2)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Bookmarklet:

javascript:(function() { var url = '[http://essentialyoutube.com/#';](http://essentialyoutube.com/#';) var videoId = ''; var vars = window.location.search.substring(1).split("&"); for (var i=0;i<vars.length;i++) { var pair = vars[i].split("="); if(pair[0] == 'v') { videoId = pair[1]; break; }} if (!videoId) { return; } window.location = url + videoId; })();

</comment><comment><USER24> Nice. I built a very basic 'clean youtube' player a long time back for personal purposes, that enabled me to just have a floating window of the video playing.

If anyone is interested, it's here:

[http://www.jaruzel.com/projects/youtube/](http://www.jaruzel.com/projects/youtube/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Very nice - hover states (or just cursor:pointer) on the search results would be a good addition

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed! Thank you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Can you make playlists? I'm not even thinking of having an account and storing them there, but just to have a long URL that lists a bunch of videos to be played.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is a great idea, but we can take it further. How about absolutely minimal formatting for lightning fast pageloads, with a bare minimum of JS?

</comment><comment><USER28> When I used the back button, the video started again at the beginning, it would be good if it would remember the place, like bbc iplayer does.

</comment><comment><USER29> I wish someone would build an Android app for YouTube that doesn't absolutely suck like the official one.

Or, has someone already done this and I'm not aware?

<comment><USER30> Not sure what specifically you're looking for in such an app but I'm using [https://newpipe.schabi.org/](https://newpipe.schabi.org/).

<comment><USER27> Oh my god. Even in this app's broken, buggy, unfinished state, it is already better than the official youtube app in some respects. Given the fact that I tend to use subscriptions a lot, this doesn't really work for me yet though...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Thanks for this! Youtube is terribly slow on my computer but this loads instantly.

</comment><comment><USER32> I am unable to navigate back and see my search.

</comment><comment><USER33> Amazing!

Is this allowed by Google?

<comment><USER34> It leverages the official API so I don't see why not.

<comment><USER35> > It leverages the official API so I don't see why not.

There is something called Terms Of Service. Just because you use an API it doesn't mean you can do anything with it. It's important to read them, because they can get you into legal troubles if you don't comply with these terms.

You should be really careful with this "YOLO" mindset, especially if you are a professional developer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> reminds me of [http://ok-google.io](http://ok-google.io) 's interface

</comment><comment><USER37> Pretty cool and lean!

</comment><comment><USER38> Is this lighter than YouTube?</comment>


Ask YC: PHP Coding Standards? - <AUTHOR>

Do you guys follow any coding standards with PHP? I'm pushing my office to adopt some more than just the basic understood baseline of variables at the top of functions, etc.
PEAR? Or some other set?
Thanks guys! <comment><USER2> Here is the coding standard I've written for my open source project (<http://artisansystem.com>):

<http://docs.artisansystem.com/index.php/Coding_Standard>

They can be a little verbose at first, but they make for better readability.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I'll take a look at it. Any specific things you want to highlight as a strength for the system?

<comment><USER2> Its basically a list of things I've done over the years to make my code more readable as I go to great lengths to make it readable (to the point that people have accused me of being too verbose).

Before I moved to functionalized queries, I would always make my queries look as formatted as possible, especially when they contained a lot of joins.

Also, my biggest pet peeve is not having braces around large case statements as it makes it difficult to find the next case statement, I like using my editor to find the matching brace.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> 1\. I use the PEAR standard: Well defined, popular, and plenty of code written in it.

2\. Use php_CodeSniffer to check if yout code coonforms to the standard. <http://matrix.squiz.net/developer/tools/php_cs>

3\. Make CodeSniffer a pre-commit hook so that when you commit co to SVN it doesn't let you until, your code follows the standard.

and done.</comment>


Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/health/nutrition/16run.html <comment><USER2> After doing crossfit for a year, I think I knew this semi-consciously but it's interesting to read about it being backed by science. Short, highly intense training sessions lead to very large gains in fitness because most of your training is anaerobic.

<comment><USER3> Another crossfit hacker? Wow. (The first place I saw that article linked was from crossfit.com, around the time it first came out. )

I got good results with crossfit (dropped 40 pounds, now I'm "athletic" -- I'd never have imagined I could do 20 pullups before), but I'd do it even if it was only average, because it doesn't _bore_ me.

Running? Unpleasant and _boring_. Weight lifting? Boring disciplinarian bullcrap ...

Crossfit? I check the website, burst out laughing, grit my teeth, and then do something that seems almost impossible yet takes 30 minutes or less. Awesome.

<comment><USER2> It's good to hear from other CrossFiters outside the community. I spent the weekend at a level I cert and loved every minute of it. The highly intense workouts are both always interesting (and always painful) and highly results oriented.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow. This goes against everything I've ever been taught about how to manage your muscles during endurance activities (In my case hiking, cycling, and Nordic skiing), yet, jibes with my experience. And here I thought there was something seriously wrong with me.

<comment><USER5> What will you do differently after reading this?

<comment><USER4> Spend more time outside the aerobic zone without worrying that I'm damaging muscle tissue.

<comment><USER6> It's strange that you hasn't done this before. Ever done interval training? Maybe your training is recreational in which case the risk of getting injured probably overshadows(?) the gains of intense interval training.

<comment><USER7> I mostly do interval training (when not just doing weights) - I wonder if it is a bad thing - but I just find it so fun and non-boring...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> _Its origins lie in a study by a Nobel laureate, Otto Meyerhof, who in the early years of the 20th century cut a frog in half and put its bottom half in a jar._

R.D. Laing once said (paraphrased): "I would hope that if someone wanted to get to know me, they would not cut me in half and put me in a jar."

</comment><comment><USER9> This is pretty old -- 2006 -- and has been discussed here in the past: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=586114>

<comment><USER10> One comment does not a discussion make...

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> An excellent demonstration of how, sometimes, erroneous but entrenched beliefs take decades, generations, to overturn.

Next up in the list of stubborn myths people grew up with and find hard to set down: obesity is caused by excessive caloric intake.

<comment><USER12> So I can eat all the cheeseburgers I want now? Totally ready to start, just give me the thumbs up.

<comment><USER11> Sure you can. But you can't have the buns, fries, or non-diet drink ..

<comment><USER13> Atkins? Seriously? 5 years later?

In theory, sure, we're with you. But in practice, Atkins is a diet for fat people. If you're 250 pounds and you want to get down to 230 and stay there, Atkins is your huckleberry. We all know plenty of fat people who are noticeably less fat thanks to low-carb diets, but I can't think of anybody I know who used to be fat and is now thin because of one.

If you're 250 pounds and you want to get down to 170 and stay there, it seems that "eat less and exercise" is still your best bet.

<comment><USER14> See Jimmy Moore: <http://livinlavidalowcarb.com/blog/?page_id=2464> and there are a lot more examples. Myself, I have gone down from 290 pounds to 225 low- carbing, and I am still losing weight.

Also, Atkins is just one type of low-carb diet, and a rather strict one at that. It is because of how strict it is that people tend to fail a little ways in

<comment><USER15> Isn't low-carb just a mechnism for creating a low-calorie diet though?

<comment><USER16> No, it's not. Low calorie diets don't tend to create ketosis and if you start eating too _few_ calories on Atkins, you will stop losing weight. (I speak from experience. Had to make myself eat more. Funny, huh?)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Beyond Exception Handling: Conditions and Restarts - <AUTHOR> http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/beyond-exception-handling-conditions-and-restarts.html <comment><USER2> This is the one feature I wish I could steal from Common Lisp in almost every language I work with. It would be much easier to put in than almost any other big lisp feature, and damn would it make a lot of things easier.

<comment><USER3> This is something you can do in most languages if all the code that needs restarts follows a convention/protocol. Red Daly implemented CL condition handling for JavaScript for the Parenscript CL-to-JS compiler: [https://github.com/gonzojive/paren- psos/commit/6578ad223515d...](https://github.com/gonzojive/paren- psos/commit/6578ad223515dc2c1ddf49346f4baf7c3bee37c4)

The compiled CL code knows about the convention and follows it, but other JavaScript code doesn't and isn't affected by it.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, that's why I talk about stealing it at the language level. Although it's possible to use this based on conventions, the real power comes from being able to use it to cover weird conditions while gluing various libraries together. If your language already has a relatively similar tool (i.e. "traditional" exceptions) there's basically no chance that anything you pick up will support conditions.

That said, it's a wonderful model to know about/follow if you come into the rare case that makes reimplementing it where you can useful.

<comment><USER3> This is true for Common Lisp libraries as well - if they don't offer restarts and just throw exceptions, it looks like it does in any other language. Developing a good protocol for signalling and handling errors takes work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is there any other language that implements this? I'll freely admit that I'm no expert on Lisp, so I've tried digging through the code, and I sorta get what the concept is, but I don't really _understand_ it. Any other languages have the same idea?

<comment><USER5> Dylan does, and my language Slate (<http://www.slatelanguage.org>) does, as well as its related younger siblings, Atomo (<http://atomo-lang.org>) and Atomy (<http://atomy-lang.org>). And all of these implement them in the context of an object model, rather than carefully avoiding CLOS dependencies as in CL.

<comment><USER6> I just added conditions & restarts today to Fancy (<http://fancy-lang.org/>). It's currently in a branch but it works =).

<comment><USER5> Thanks for doing that. More implementations means there's a wider spectrum of places for developers to learn these tools and maybe even improve on them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Does this basically mean that CL provides a mechanism that's lower level than what is otherwise equivalent to exceptions/warnings, and that this in turn enables things like restarts? Is this analogous to the relationship between higher level control structures such as if/for/while/break/continue vs the lower-level goto? Lastly, can some of these features not be implemented with exceptions?:

      def parse_log_file(f):
          result = []
          for line in f.readlines(): # Fails for large files
            parsed_line = None
            retries = 0
            while retries < 5:
                try:
                    result.append(parse_log_entry(line))
                    break
                except MalformedLogEntry:
                    line = fix(line)
                    retries += 1
          return result

<comment><USER8> Your code is not equivalent. There is a separation of concerns that is possible with conditions/restarts that is not possible with exceptions.

The calling code can choose the appropriate restarts base on information that the callee code does not - and should not - have access to.

<comment><USER7> > The calling code can choose the appropriate restarts base on information > that the callee code does not - and should not - have access to.

In the common case, is that not equivalent to the caller catching specific errors by wrapping the callee in a try/except? Could you elaborate?

<comment><USER8> But this is assuming the caller has enough information to solve the problem, which is not always the case (the callee could have information on the structure of the disk that are not relevant to the caller for instance).

Conditions/restarts make a separation of concerns, particularly when the caller knows which of the restart is the more appropriate, if the callee has not enough information/context to choose, and if the callee has more information on how to solve the problem.

I guess the separation can be summarized by: difference between knowing WHAT and HOW to do something. A useful abstraction I guess.

<comment><USER7> I see. So this would be somewhat like saying

      except MalformedLogEntry, ex:
          line = fix(line, ex)

and having _ex_ encode the information that _fix()_ needs to do its job?

If that's the case, then I can see the value in having the ability to pass such information around baked into the language. The code I have is growing more and more ugly, and the only way to simplify it is to introduce some kind of a coding convention that is not common to Python.

<comment><USER8> How would you do, in your case, if the parse_log_file function does not know the best strategy if a log file is corrupted? Maybe this information is known only by the caller.

I don't know how to solve that in a language without restarts. The information of what to do could well be asked to the final user (with a dialog box) once an error is catched, the callee would then restart _at the point where the execution was interrupted_ applying the chosen strategy.

EDIT: rereading your Python code, I guess you're right and have the closest equivalent.

<comment><USER7> Ah. So the point is that the state of execution of parse_log_entry and everything up the stack from it is frozen, and then an out-of-band exception handler figures out what to do, fixes the condition that caused the error, and resumes from the exact spot where the error was first detected, restarting just the most low-level code block? Man, CL is pretty sweet.

This, by no coincidence I'm sure, reminds me a lot of how signals are handled in UNIX/POSIX. I guess you could simulate this very crudely with those by sending yourself a SIGUSR[1|2] :).</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Doodle Place - <AUTHOR> https://doodle-place.glitch.me <comment><USER2> For anyone wondering what this does: You can click on "create a doodle" to be presented with a blank canvas.

In there, you'll be able to freely draw something, which will then be rigged and animated automatically - there's even different skeletons available, but I've yet to see much of a difference, except for the type of animation.

If anyone has more time to play around with it, and finds out what the purpose of this is (there doesn't have to be one, it's neat honestly) then feel free to tell me :)

Edit: nevermind, this time, when opening I was placed into a queue, and submitted my doodle (which will probably be shown to other participants).

You are shown a wireframe-landscape populated with all kinds of doodles, made by other people (attention, due to the human nature, some of these might be slightly NSFW). I can't really investigate this any further, since it kills my Laptop performance-wise, but it's an interesting little thing.

</comment><comment><USER3> > This project has received too many requests, please try again later.

</comment><comment><USER4> This doesn't work at all for me in chrome OSX. I have no idea what it's meant to do either.

<comment><USER5> same for me. I see a black screen, seems like I can submit a doodle (i have no idea what it means) and that's all, I don't see anything else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> glitch.me is kind of intriguing, but I don't fully understand what kind of applications it's useful for.

<comment><USER7> I love glitch. I use it for lots of glue pieces in personal applications that I'm just playing around with. I'd say that every piece of code in the past 2 years that isn't related to work has been somehow connected to a glitch project/deployment.

I have no experience with using glitch professionally and actually assume that it's not their target user.</comment></comment>


Semicolon.js - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/madrobby/semicolon.js

<comment><USER2> If you made it this far, consider taking a look at palish's operational response ( <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3843339> ) to the @DouglasCrockford/JSMin vs @fat/Bootstrap brouhaha ( <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3842713> )

<comment><USER3> I checked it out; it's as broken as these childish acts from "reputable" javascript-library maintainers.

      cat foo.js; jsmin <foo.js
      "foo" &&
        !"foo"

      "foo"&&;!"foo"

<comment><USER4> I have a simple fix. Standby.

EDIT: Fixed. Thanks for pointing that out. Let me know if you find anything else.

<comment><USER3> Sure thing; still some edges -- not limited to the following.

      cat foo.js; jsmin <foo.js
      var foo = "foo",
      is_foo = foo?
        !!foo:
        "bar";

      var foo="foo",is_foo=foo?;!!foo:"bar";

<comment><USER4> Fixed. Thank you, keep 'em coming.

As of now, semicolon substitution isn't performed if the character before the newline is any of: & | + - * ? :

<comment><USER3> Like I said, not limited; surely you can see where these are going...

      cat foo.js; jsmin <foo.js
      foo = [
        !"foo",
        !"foo" %
          !!"bar",
        1 ==
          !"foo"
      ];

      foo=[;!"foo",;!"foo"%;!!"bar",1==;!"foo"];

<comment><USER4> Fixed. Thanks so much! I added % and = to the blacklist.

I'm searching for a fundamentally elegant solution. My current one is more of a kludge... though, if it fixes all cases and doesn't introduce problems, then maybe it's worth a few extra lines.

<comment><USER3> The last example demonstrated more than the % and = punctuators failing your lexer, and then it doesn't demonstrate still more that would remain, including but not limited to...

      cat foo.js; jsmin <foo.js
      while(
        !true){true;}

      while(;!true){true;}

You might look through the token(izing) section of the ECMA's spec, specifically puctuators. [http://www.ecma- international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST...](http://www.ecma- international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/Ecma-262.pdf)

<comment><USER4> The "prior character blacklist" is now:

      & | + - * ? : % = ( [ { ,

Currently hunting for more problems, and a more elegant solution...

Offtopic, the reason I did this JSMin fork was just to challenge myself, not to make a political statement or anything like that. My cat was just diagnosed with feline lukemia. I know this project is a little silly, but it's been fantastic for keeping my mind off of real-world stuff. You're awesome for providing all of these examples; thank you.

More usefully, this serves to prove that Mr. Crockford was likely correct in his assessment.

<comment><USER3> Also, consider non-punctuator issues; such as those with exposed reserved- keywords.

      cat foo.js; jsmin <foo.js
      do
        !!1 && 2
      while(0)

      do;!!1&&2
      while(0)

<comment><USER4> Heh heh. You may have just found a fatal flaw.

On the other hand, is "do" the only reserved keyword which matters? Then it might be okay to special case that _one_ instance as well.

There is no doubt that my approach is the wrong approach; I'm just curious whether it's easier to handle each of the ~dozen special cases than to fundamentally rewrite JSMin (as a full ECMAScript parser).

EDIT: Amusingly, I've special-cased the 'do' keyword in a fairly straightforward way, so now the code handles every example thus far. I wonder if these are the only special cases required, and whether they add any adverse side-effects. Also, you're extremely talented and creative.

<comment><USER3> Apart from some punctuators still missing, off the top of my head...

      ! ^ < >

A few keywords that could be left bare -- not limited to -- albeit unlikely outside of do and else...

      case else instanceof typeof

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> No semicolon-min.js ?

<comment><USER6> This one's getting milked for all it's worth: <https://github.com/madrobby/semicolon.js/pull/6>

<comment><USER7> While the joke itself (hihi, we minified a semicolon!) is only slightly funny at best, the accompanying text in the pull request makes it all worth it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Funny, but I came across the case when whil concatenating files the resulting script was broken, becaus of the missing semicolon at the end of some library. Dropping this script into the list would fix that ;)

</comment><comment><USER9> Uh wait, does that mean they GPL'd the semicolon?

</comment><comment><USER10> I looked at the code and..... ;

</comment><comment><USER11> what the fuck

</comment><comment><USER12> I see some hilarious animated GIF comments are removed from the issue. This is censorship Twitter, how dare!</comment>


New ResearchKit Studies for Autism, Epilepsy and Melanoma - <AUTHOR> http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/10/15Apple-Announces-New-ResearchKit-Studies-for-Autism-Epilepsy-Melanoma.html <comment><USER2> From age 7 to 21 I had Janz Syndrome and back in the day (at least where I live) epilepsy was a big social taboo. It was pretty common for people think you were "retarded" for just being affected by it -- even though mine was sort of okay for treatment, with only sporadic GTCs. News like that nearly make me cry a bit, for real, this is incredible stuff. Not because of Apple or some fancy API of course, but because ordinary technology can finally do something for people with these conditions. I bet my parents would have given anything, their whole world, to have a way to be alerted when their small kid was about to have a generalized tonic-clonic seizure so they could be prepared.

<comment><USER3> My understanding is it is often common for people to have seizures in their sleep so they wake up sore and tired but unsure if they actually had one. This will be awesome to have an "always on" sensor that can give the full picture.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> is it just me? I could not play the video at [http://www.apple.com/researchkit/](http://www.apple.com/researchkit/) , other video sites play well here, running FF under Linux.

<comment><USER5> worked for me w/chrome on linux.</comment></comment>


Is Angular version 5 ready yet? Here is the updated answer  - <AUTHOR> https://dormoshe.io/is-angular-v5-ready-yet <comment><AUTHOR> The initial tentative due date was 18.09.17. The new date of the Angular team at Google was 23.10.17. Is there something wrong with the version?

<comment><USER2> Nope, these kinds of things are (almost) never on time though. Angular is a complex project and will likely never hit a deadline again, nor will anything based on it :)

That said, I've got a lot of love for it right now, and am anxiously awaiting the updated forms functionality in v6 next spring-ish.</comment></comment>


Basho (creators of Riak, growing quickly) opens SF office - <AUTHOR> http://blog.basho.com/2010/07/19/basho-west-and-the-riak-one-year-anniversary/

<comment><USER2> Mozilla is using it for our Test Pilot back-end. Note that vector clocks are part of the original Amazon Dynamo paper.

It is pretty cool. One of the big wins was being able to submit MapReduce jobs written in JavaScript through a REST API. The other was the fact that there is no server middleware in this application. just the REST API of Riak.

We should have some benchmarking and field testing information up on our blog soon.

Biggest limitation we've hit so far is that it is very inefficient to try to run a MapReduce that scans over every key in a bucket when you have lots of buckets with billions of items. In the current versions of Riak, you really need to explicitly pass the M/R a list of bucket/keys that you want to work on.

[http://blog.mozilla.com/data/2010/05/18/riak-and- cassandra-a...](http://blog.mozilla.com/data/2010/05/18/riak-and-cassandra- and-hbase-oh-my/)

<comment><USER3> The key scanning is a major limitation but is offset if you keep separate key indices elsewhere or in specific known keys in riak. If you can deal with that and no ordering then riak is a great choice for a distributed platform.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Has anyone used Riak? The vector clock seems interesting, and I'm wondering how it works out in practice.

<comment><USER3> the vector clock is practically transparent unless you actually want to take advantage of it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I love their "drop by anytime" invitation.

I'll see you Wednesday afternoon, Basho West.

<comment><USER6> We look forward to it! We have Riak t-shirts too.

We've also just started the San Francisco Riak Meetup: <http://www.meetup.com/San-Francisco-Riak-Meetup/> .</comment></comment>


Learning iOS Development for Free - <AUTHOR> http://mahipal.org/post/3456857242/learning-ios-development-for-free

<comment><USER2> down already?

<comment><AUTHOR> It shouldn't be... it's hosted on Tumblr.

<http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/mahipal.org> seems to be fine.</comment></comment>


Switch back to the old Jira issue view - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/old-jira/llnacejmojgigdpafkhmgabpofchkigc <comment><AUTHOR> If you don't like JIRA's experimental new issue view, you can use this chrome extension to switch back to the old issue view.</comment>


What Do We Know about Software Development in Startups? - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoq.com/articles/what-do-we-know-about-software-development-in-startups

<comment><USER2> Another thing is that preference for getting results fast over the code being maintainable in future leads to preference of dynamic scripting languages over static safe languages.</comment>


"I am a feminist, but…" - <AUTHOR> http://jpetazzo.github.io/2015/09/15/i-am-a-feminist-but/ <comment><USER2> > _DDOS! Rootkits! Boot sequence! And the two guys are totally into the story, > but the girl doesn 't get it. I think that's sexist, and I'm not OK with it. > Why would that be sexist? It's conveying the stereotype that women are "not > technical," that they are not interested by computers, and when there is a > "geeky" TV show they won't "get it."_

Well, apart from a "stereotype" it's also a statistical reality. So what is an artist/writer/filmaker/etc who wants to depict the world AS IT IS to do?

We don't ask Tarantino or Michael Bay to show people being nice to each other and happy in their lives in their movies, in to change society to a more kind one.

<comment><USER3> Within context the comic in question was titled 'Mr. Robot, My Girlfriend and me'. In this case is this really a stereotype? I mean I watch a lot of geeky TV too and this sort of thing happens to me when I'm watching those shows with my girlfriend.

Also, this isn't done with the intention of malice. Shouldn't that be of some consideration?

If this is an issue then, Shouldn't we also talk about how the humor isn't just aimed at her but at the male characters in the story? Aren't the male characters (overused) stereotypical geeks? I mean on the edge of their seats over a DDOS attack? After all It's not like the Borg or weeping angels attacked.

I always thought that great art/comedy reflected real world experiences and that it was just fine for any artist express that. Is that not the case? Yes The artist can and should be critiqued but he and other creators are under no obligation to change their art or be guilted into changing their vision to suit others (subjective) tastes.</comment></comment>


The Web's Grain - <AUTHOR> http://frankchimero.com/talks/the-webs-grain/transcript/

<comment><USER2> Beautiful article about responsive design and technological impositions on designers and people in general. Loved how beautiful and to the point the web design and illustrations were. No scrolling hacks here.

</comment><comment><USER3> If nothing else, this talk should remind us that there is no fold[1]. Embracing the idea of screen edgelessness is a great thing.

[1] [https://storify.com/xiwcx/there-is-no- fold-1](https://storify.com/xiwcx/there-is-no-fold-1)</comment>


React-plx, React parallax component, lightweight and performant - <AUTHOR> https://stanko.github.io/react-plx/ <comment><USER2> If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Show HN guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> How does it work?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello amirouche,

that is already covered in documentation on github: [https://github.com/Stanko/react-plx](https://github.com/Stanko/react-plx)

Additionally I wrote a blog post as well: [https://stanko.github.io/plx-react- parallax-component/](https://stanko.github.io/plx-react-parallax-component/)

(Link to blog post is also included in the documentation.)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Startup-friendly web hosting companies - <AUTHOR>

Which web hosting companies are "startup-friendly"? By that, I mean which ones regularly provide startups with hosting, services, or add-ons that are free and/or discounted? <comment><AUTHOR> SoftLayer has their Catalyst Startup Program, which provides $1,000/mo of free hosting for 1 year.

[http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst](http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Rackspace runs their Rackspace Startup Program, which provides $1,000/mo of free services for 6 months.

[http://www.rackspacestartups.com](http://www.rackspacestartups.com)</comment>


Space recovery USB - <AUTHOR> http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2016/08/Space_recovery_USB <comment><USER2> I know RAM chips are, but is flash memory susceptible to bit-flipping errors caused by alpha radiation?</comment>


Ask HN: Where to sell my awesome domain? - <AUTHOR>

I bought Gifts.io for a project but never got around to using it.  What do you guys think is the best way  to sell it?  I tried contacting gifts.com but they never got back to me.  Thanks! <comment><USER2> Flippa.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sedo.</comment>


The Opium of the Intellectuals (2005) - <AUTHOR> https://www.newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/the-opium-of-the-intellectuals <comment><USER2> "Even the most practical man of affairs is usually in the thrall of the ideas of some long-dead economist" \- Keynes.

That's the trouble with looking backward to Marx or Smith for guidance. Both predate the Industrial Revolution reaching full speed. The basic problem of their era was making enough stuff, just as it had been for millenia. Today's basic problem is that we don't need that many people to make all the stuff. Neither Marx nor Smith addressed that problem. Keynes said it might be a problem for generations after his. Well, we're there.

We've also conquered scale. One of the assumptions of capitalism is that lots of people working for their own self-interest would outperform a central planning system. It looked that way in the days of the USSR. Big companies had trouble getting out of their own way. General Motors, once the biggest company, had to operate as a bunch of independent companies under one corporate umbrella just to make the thing manageable.

That's no longer true. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba, Apple, FedEx, UPS, AT&T, and WalMart are all very centralized. It doesn't seem to hurt their performance. They don't compete on price - they define markets and platforms, and dictate terms. They're able to change rapidly compared to monopolies of the past - each of those companies is quite different than a decade ago. Computers and networks have made this possible - deployment at scale works far better than it did even twenty years ago. Even for companies with physical products.

Economics for the 21st century needs to start dealing with these issues, not rehashing the 19th century.

<comment><USER3> Quote from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism)

> This class struggle that is commonly expressed as the revolt of a society's > productive forces against its relations of production, results in a period > of short-term crises as the bourgeoisie struggle to manage the intensifying > alienation of labor experienced by the proletariat, albeit with varying > degrees of class consciousness. This crisis culminates in a proletarian > revolution and eventually leads to the establishment of socialism—a > socioeconomic system based on social ownership of the means of production, > distribution based on one's contribution and production organized directly > for use. As the productive forces continued to advance, Marx hypothesized > that socialism would ultimately transform into a communist society; a > classless, stateless, humane society based on common ownership and the > underlying principle: "From each according to his ability, to each according > to his needs".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_abi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_each_according_to_his_ability,_to_each_according_to_his_needs)

Marx fantasized about what is called a democratic post-scarcity economy today.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post- scarcity_economy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-scarcity_economy)

Compare with classic socialism: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_each_according_to_his_contr...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_each_according_to_his_contribution)

I doubt that the author of the book tried to understand Marx because he wrote this:

> Why is it, he wondered, that certain intellectuals are "merciless toward the > failings of the democracies but ready to tolerate the worst crimes as long > as they are committed in the name of the proper doctrines"?

and

> He quotes the French writer Simone Weil's sly reversal of Marx: "Marxism is > undoubtedly a religion, in the lowest sense of the word. . . . [I]t has been > continually used . . . as an opiate for the people."

Marx wanted the opposite:

\- Marx wanted power for the people. I guess Marxism and Stalinism is the same for many people although they are opposites.

\- Marx wanted a revolution and not soothed tranquilized workers.

And your claim is wrong too:

> Today's basic problem is that we don't need that many people to make all the > stuff. Neither Marx nor Smith addressed that problem.

Regarding:

> Economics for the 21st century needs to start dealing with these issues, not > rehashing the 19th century.

IMO some of today's economic, social and political concerns and proposed solutions seem similar to those in the 19th century.

<comment><USER4> > _I doubt that the author of the book tried to understand Marx because he > wrote this: "Why is it, he wondered, that certain intellectuals are > "merciless toward the failings of the democracies but ready to tolerate the > worst crimes as long as they are committed in the name of the proper > doctrines"?_

He didn't write it about Marx, he wrote it about the Marxists of his day (mid-20-th century France) -- people who were justifying Stalinism crimes and so on.

> _Marx wanted the opposite_

What Marx wanted is not really relevant. As Marx himself said, you don't judge a man by what he thinks himself to be. Similarly, you don't just whether Marxism has been used as an opiate for the people by whether Marx wanted that to happen or not.

Ideas leave the hands of their creators. To see how they end up and what kind of influence they have, we must examine them in actual use, after they spread.

<comment><USER3> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism)

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

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism%E2%80%93Leninism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism%E2%80%93Leninism)

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

The words Communism and Marxism are quite meaningless without context after mid 20th century.

Granted, I am not a historian and most people who called themselves Marxists or Communists in the mid 20th century might have defended Stalinism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This set of observations has been made repeatedly throughout history, albeit usually in works that sink immediately into obscurity. That's a pity because the key insights are very important.

The same theme - why do so many intellectuals find themselves supporting dictatorships long after the rest of the world has understood their true nature - has been extensively explored by Sowell in books like Intellectuals & Society, and a Conflict of Visions. He finds similar explanations:

* Difficulty in accepting that individuals are inherently limited and corruptible, and that ideas are often worthless when tested in the forge of reality. After all, intellectuals are almost by definition people whose value to society comes from production of ideas and who see themselves as unchained from the normal moral and mental limits most people slave under.

* That reason, reflection and debate are limited tactics that can't yield that much insight about the world.

* That to believe in intellectuals as a concept is almost inherently to disbelieve in the notion of democracy, because if insight and wisdom were really so compressed into a few moralistic bookworms and if most people really had none to share, then voting itself is pointless or even harmful. Instead the best outcomes would be yielded by a dictatorship of intellectuals (which is what communism is, in effect).

So you end up with academics, writers, some kinds of politician ... the people who would these days be called the 'elite' or 'globalists' ... having a distinctly lukewarm relationship with markets and votes throughout history.

Yet because they are fundamentally wrong about human nature, where their ideas are put into practice things inevitably go wrong. The intellectuals who end up in charge don't create a utopia. Their 5 year plans turn out to be not that well planned, their price-fixing turns out to create other problems elsewhere, and their profound belief that most people are too stupid or immoral to rule turns into an oppressive dystopia. And so the wheel turns.

If you're interested in these ideas or philosophies, this video interview with Sowell is a good place to start:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERj3QeGw9Ok](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERj3QeGw9Ok)

</comment><comment><USER6> "The primary target of Aron's polemic was fanaticism."

I believe this is as relevant to our current social/political divisiveness as it ever has been. I'd like to read more of what he wrote about that.

</comment><comment><USER7> Might be a little off topic, but I'd really appreciate it if someone could explain why highly educated people describe themselves as Marxists.

I'm quite left-leaning in my views, and I agree with many of the criticisms levelled at capitalism, but I don't see why people support Marxism.

Two main arguments:

1\. Hasn't Marxism had its chance? Yes, it wasn't "real Marxism" in a sense, but why would you think it'd turn out different if tried again? We have to consider the reality of the world we live in.

2\. How many precedents are there for a complete upheaval of the economic system on that scale that have worked? I'm aware of some of the history, but I can't think of a change _that_ large which worked.

How do modern Marxists answer those concerns? From the outside it looks like they're ignoring history or the reality of human behaviour.

<comment><USER8> > Hasn't Marxism had its chance?

No, the two closest things to Marxism that have been tried as alternatives to 19th century capitalism are modern mixed economies (fairly successful in practical terms) and Leninism and it's derivatives (mostly horrible in both practical and moral terms).

Both are pretty different than Marxism on fairly fundamental levels. (The first incorporates many elements of the Marxist program, including it's fundamental prerequisites, but abandons — or at least delays, as the long term arc of the modern mixed economies might be interpreted as a kind of "evolutionary Marxism" with periodic setbacks — key others; the second likewise cherry picks from Marxism, but also abandons the fundamental prerequisites.)

> but why would you think it'd turn out different if tried again?

Well, because it wouldn't be "again", Marxism is fundamentally different than anything that has been tried before, and the nearest approximations to Marxism that have been tried have widely divergent results.

> How many precedents are there for a complete upheaval of the economic system > on that scale that have worked?

The displacement of the dominant feudal economic system with capitalism and the displacement of the original system named capitalism with modern mixed economies (often called "capitalism" and retaining some key features, but distinctly different) are at or, in the former case, beyond the scale of the replacement of modern mixed economies with Marxist ones, and both were reasonably successful.

<comment><USER9> Why are you saying that "capitalism with modern mixed economies" doesn't qualify as capitalism? To my knowledge, it's capitalism through and through, and I say this going from the ways in which Marx described the capitalist mode of production.

I also think there's some issue with using "Marxism" to refer to some kind of programme rather than the critique of political economy from the writings of Marx and Engels. This kind of usage lets you get away with saying that a "mixed economy" is something even close to Marxism.

Marx described Communism, with a lower and upper stage. There's not much more to it than that, unless like the Leninists you call the lower stage as "Socialism". Either way, Badiou has a pretty good overview of historical Communist societies (well, as close as one could get) such as the Paris and Shanghai communes. But I wholly disagree with GP's idea that Marx has had his chance. He most certainly hasn't, and it's becoming clearer every passing day.

<comment><USER8> > Why are you saying that "capitalism with modern mixed economies" doesn't > qualify as capitalism?

I'm saying the 19th century system for which the name "capitalism" was coined was replaced basically everywhere with modern mixed economies which are a different but related system; the two share some features just as 19th Century capitalism and feudalism share some features, but they aren't the same system.

> To my knowledge, it's capitalism through and through

It's not; as many people, not least advocates of reversion to (or at least toward) the 19th Century system for which "capitalism" was coined, have noted, modern mixed economies compromise in fairly significant ways the property relations which both defenders of capitalism and it's opponents (including the ones that coined the term "capitalism" for that which they opposed) define as central to capitalism.

> I also think there's some issue with using "Marxism" to refer to some kind > of programme rather than the critique of political economy from the writings > of Marx and Engels.

That may be valid on some level, but even if so it's purely semantic pedantry that has no bearing on the substance of the discussion; Marx and Engels laid out a program as well as a critique of capitalism, and when we are talking about concrete economic systems that can be tried out, the program is relevant, the critique is not (it is merely the oriel motivating rationale for the concrete program.) A critique can be believed, but not instantiated.

So, if you want to mentally replace "Marxism" with "the concrete program Marx and Engels proposed to address the Marxist critique of capitalism" throughout the discussion, feel free. But don't expect the usage to catch on when the distinction between the Marxist critique and the Marxist program is generally clear from context such that no additional clarity of meaning would be succeed from making the restriction you propose to the use of "Marxism" even if I've were to agree that their is on done level a basis for that restriction.

> This kind of usage lets you get away with saying that a "mixed economy" is > something even close to Marxism.

I didn't say it was close to Marxism, I said it was one of the two closest things to Marxism that had been tried (both of which are directly attributable to Marxist influence mitigated by other forces); in fact, my point was expressly that neither of those two things was close enough to Marxism to draw substantive conclusions about Marxism from either, or even both considered together.

<comment><USER9> I'd say that capitalism shares the features of wage labour being the predominant way of making a living, mostly private ownership of means of production, the production of things with value (exchange value to be prioritised over use-value) , as in generalised commodity production, and accumulation of capital affording greater amounts of power. These seem to apply (more or less) to the world today; sure, you can point at finance capitalism, the shrinking of manual labour industries, the general ownership of more than one's labour-time, the price of oil being "incongruent" with labour theories of value, whatever. But if you don't want to call it capitalism, then you don't have to - though the experts on both sides of the coin seem to want to do so (and those I'm most sympathetic to in the Frankfurt School) - it doesn't change the reality of what's being faced.

At best, I think the only reformulation required would be to put an adjective on the front of "capitalism". Or we could talk in terms of the Spectacle, the culture industry, "the economy", ideological state apparatuses etc. But no matter what, it is economy, and thus in fundamental contradiction to Communism, the end of economy.

I was trying to get at using "Communism" or "Socialism" for their program, rather than "Marxism", which to me is the critique of political economy _and out of which_ necessarily flows Communism.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> An excellent book on this subject is "The Fall-Out: How a Guilty Liberal Lost His Innocence" by Andrew Anthony [1]. From the book:

 _All but the most obsessively hard-line anti-communist grew up in post-war Europe accepting that the political witch-hunts conducted by Senator McCarthy and his acolytes in the 1950s were a severe assault on freedom – which indeed they were. Yet if you took McCarthyism at its most demented and placed it against the Soviet model at its most liberal – say, for instance, the Khrushchev era – the repression in the East was incomparably more ruthless and extensive than in the West. Almost no one now, except for the most zealous Stalinist, would dispute this fact. Nonetheless the litany of human rights abuses committed by the Soviet state from Prague to Vladivostok never elicited the same invective of intellectuals or protesters in the West. Two books were kept with two totally different methods of accounting. Why?_

[1] [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fallout-guilty-liberal-lost- innocen...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fallout-guilty-liberal-lost- innocence/dp/0099507854)

</comment><comment><USER11> "The ideals in question prominently featured faith in the power of reason. Aron's discrimination showed itself in his recognition that reason's power is always limited."

That's the key point. There have been two competing traditions in Western philosophy, going back to the Greeks. They have to do with the various finitudes that humans experience, such as ignorance, death, and suffering.

According to one view, these are illusions and not only is human understanding potential infinite, but so are all the other types of finitude that interconnect with it. Perhaps the most famous proponent of this view is Plato.

The other view, perhaps first made clear by Aristotle, is that human beings and human existence, while they can be improved in important ways, can never be made perfect because our ability to understand the world and act in it are always limited.

In the modern era, Marx thought we could abolish most or all finitudes, and have a utopia. Some liberals also think something like this, but the Anglo- American political tradition is more on the Aristotelian side, as was Aron.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is a distillation of Roger Kimball's (and many others') accusations that Marx was an intellectual's intellectual. He mentions Raymond Aron publishing the same idea in a 1955 book.

I'm not sure anyone would argue with the drier thesis. It's what _isn't_ mentioned which guides the dishonesty. Marx's commitments and adorations were always to the working class, and his proper legacy was won exclusively through the working class. He was a strictly anti-authoritarian democracy absolutist, for the record.

The article is a strategic smear for a target who knows literal nothing about the history of Karl Marx, because all the facts _will_ check out true.

But is this _only_ a cheap framing of Marx's work as hype? I get a sense there is an additional mythical context I'm missing out on. Can anybody explain why this is compelling to it's audience?

<comment><USER13> I can't comment much about Marx as I don't know the details of his claims or how they relate to implemented politics.

What I enjoyed very much was the claimed position of Raymond Aron's w.r.t. intellectualism:

"Aron's generosity of spirit was a coefficient of his recognition that reality was complex, knowledge limited, and action essential. The leitmotif of Aron's career was responsibility. He understood that political wisdom rests in the ability to choose the better course of action even when the best course is unavailable--which is always.

The subject of politics, Aristotle noted, is "the good life for man." What constitutes the good life? Aron cannily reminds us that the more extravagant answers to this question are often the most malevolent. They promise everything. They tend to deliver misery and impoverishment."

I think this is a great thing to be reminded of, constantly -- in particular for intellectuals and scientists. It is almost too easy to be fooled in thinking the scientific principles or intellectual ideals will apply nicely to humans, the complexities of the real world; that we can be certain about what is truly good or the true nature of reality.

It's not that we shouldn't investigate political systems, moral systems, economic theory, metaphysics, etc; it's that we should be specially skeptic about grandiose claims that go against common sense or personal freedom.

And quoting the recent Aaronson AMA:

"(...) partly it's because I take it as almost an axiom of rationality that, if a metaphysical belief leads you to do "obviously insane" things with your life, then it's probably time to look for a better metaphysical belief. :-) (I wouldn't say the same about scientific or mathematical beliefs.)"

<comment><USER14> Is a cult of "personal freedom" that creates its own extinction event and alters the climate of its own planet to make it less habitable more or less insane than Marxism?

<comment><USER15> in a large part the excessive consumerism and concommitant environmental destruction that is characteristic of the 20th century comes from deliberate, centralized attempts to encourage consumerism (e.g. lowering interest rates, inflating currencies) on the part of governments, on "behalf" of the common people, to prop up "figures of merit" such as employment, which is hardly an expression of personal freedom.

The fact that capitalism is able to channel and bring to productive efficiency greener solutions out of collective individual preferences for a better world in spite of the artificial rolling economic treadmill, is a testament to capitalism.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google Groups hacked; spammers are moving your posts and adding SEO keywords - <AUTHOR> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/google-appengine/-wZXS27YtyY <comment><USER2> On Usenet, "Google groups" - which provides easy Usenet access to the clueless, and violates netiquette by default - is only one notch above "AOL". Search "eternal september" for more information.

(By the way, aioe.net provides a good free newsserver, as does eternal- september.org. Of course, you'll have to go elsewhere for binaries.)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for those references, though it's aioe.org, not .net.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Somehow I don't find this too surprising, Google Groups was promising many years ago, but this days it is in a rather depressing state:

\- Search works much worse than either inside Gmail or googling a different web archive of a mailinglist (I think this has improved a bit recently, but before it was so broken as to be unusable) \- The UI was clunky, and the new (half finished, there are still parts of the site with the old one) is even clunkier (why can't people at Google even give pages proper URLs?) \- It is a spam cesspool, the only way to keep spam out of a group is to make every first email moderated, this again is strange given how well spam filtering works in Gmail.

I still tend to use it because the hassle of running a mailing list server is just not worth it, and for some reason I trusted Google wouldn't take it down any time soon (but given their track record with other products, I guess I was being naive), but is sad that Google is doing such a poor job with a product that easily could be much better.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is google still investing resources in Google Groups? It doesn't look that way.

<comment><USER6> Google abandoned "Google" Groups (Usenet belongs to Google?) years ago and gave in to spammers.

<comment><USER7> I think the 'Google Groups' name refers more to being a Google search engine that searches groups (similar to 'Google Photos' or 'Google Videos').

Google Groups isn't just Usenet either -- they also allow creating private and public groups similar to Yahoo Groups.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wonder if it's just bug abuse? Does anyone remember when you could remove random websites from Google's index by simply logging into your account and then inserting another website address? I wouldn't be surprised if this was a similar exploit.

</comment><comment><USER9> Sad state of affairs. I agree its ok for Apps folks but it isn't even as good as Yahoo Groups in terms of implementation. Sad really because its a useful service.

That being said, looking at all the ways folks try to infiltrate PHP based forum groups using search engines to identify weak implementations I think its just part of the environment one has to live in.

</comment><comment><USER10> What am I supposed to see? I just see the new version of Google Groups.

<comment><USER11> Read the thread.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Google has a serious quality problem. Check out the link to the Google Groups page...

1.) Does not scroll with the mouse wheel unless you are in 'certain areas' of the page (aka broken). 2.) They are using Frames, like this is 1999 3.) Instead of easy-to-read button names, they are icons of unknown purpose. 4.) Why all the wasted white space?

Google is a bunch of college smart alecs... you see that in the tone of their posts. But sites like Google Groups are garbage.

<comment><USER13> Not that I use Google Groups / Usenet from a browser often, but here it goes...

#1 and #2 Google should consider the scroll from any UI component; however, I have to wonder where you have drawn such a conclusion to 1999 UI/UX. You are seriously against fixed-position controls?

#3 You must have an axe to grind with Google and/or Gmail. At Gmail, the label-less buttons were daunting for all of one minute. In the case of Google Groups, the buttons are quite obvious and ubiquitous with their other properties. Again, if you at all use Google Apps, the buttons are a non-issue; are we going to complain about the obvious purpose of the "home" button on an iPhone?

<comment><USER12> #1 and #2 are annoying. They need to stop it.

#3 I do not want to mouse over everything to find out what button to click. I'd prefer it if they labeled the buttons.

I prefer interface design that isn't stupid.

<comment><USER14> The buttons should have labels. Google shouldn't assume every person who log's onto any Google app will know what they mean.Even though I'm a power user and I still prefer labels to icons.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Termbin - <AUTHOR> http://termbin.com/

<comment><USER2> Just wondering, is the owner related to the manager of the server software behind it? [https://github.com/solusipse/fiche](https://github.com/solusipse/fiche)

Is there a size limit of pastes? I actually prefer hard limits for some web services since it shows that the project is sustainable in the long term.

I also like the trend of using low level TCP tools like netcat to interact with web services, since it forces them to use the "trivial protocol" over TCP and avoids installing random API-specific software on your machine.

<comment><AUTHOR> > Just wondering, is the owner related to the manager of the server software > behind it? > [https://github.com/solusipse/fiche](https://github.com/solusipse/fiche)

I have no affiliation with Termbin/Fiche, but yes I believe it's the same person.

> Is there a size limit of pastes?

I don't know, but it says that pastes are deleted after a month.</comment></comment>


Microsoft not paying bounties to security researcher for finding vulnerabilities - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/jonasLyk/status/1282945750746509313 <comment><USER2> Here we go again, same story as SandboxEscaper. MS ignored until 0days started dropping in public.</comment>


MLB.com is using my Google Analytics code - <AUTHOR> http://www.websanova.com/blog/articles/websanova-is-tracking-mlb-com <comment><AUTHOR> Well mystery solved. I did a bit of sleuthing and noticed they have a scratch card at the bottom of the page. I had written a scratchpad plugin so I did a quick search for "wScratchPad" and sure enough it's there. They copied my sample code from [http://wscratchpad.websanova.com](http://wscratchpad.websanova.com), div's css and all and, you can even see the same `id` and `class` names.

I guess they copied a little too much.

<comment><USER3> > Kind of feel like a bit of a jackass now

Wait, why do /you/ feel like a jackass?

<comment><USER4> Because he included his google analytics code in the plugin that he made available to the world.

<comment><USER5> He did not. It was only placed on his demo site and the guys at MLB just copied that site's code instead of using the released plugin.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> There is a comment on my blog from a developer from MLB.com for anyone who is interested:

"Hi -

Engineer from mlb.com here. It appears this goes a bit deeper down the rabbit hole than meets the eye. Apparently there's some code laying around in our tests run by a CI setup that randomly generates a tracking code to mock third party scripts (Google analytics, ad tracking, etc) instead of using our actual IDs as to not mess with our marketing guys' numbers (we run a LOT of tests on CI).

The strange thing is that your IDs aren't being pulled from your site, but have randomly been generated the same way many, many times and then been shipped out to our production server by mistake.

We can't figure out why this is happening, but are looking into the build system and how it caches data. Luckily I read HN or we might have never caught this!"

<comment><USER6> _cough_ bullshit _cough_ , The statically probability that you would generate an actual AND proper tracking code that also just happens to be used by a site that shares all you code is less than can be described. Your team got caught outsourcing jobs to code copy/paste firms.

<comment><USER7> I don't see any reason for the guy to lie. He could just have not responded, or quietly changed the code, but he came to the blog and posted a publicly viewable comment about it ... maybe his diagnosis is wrong and something different is happening, but I'm very willing to believe it was an honest mistake given the circumstances.

<comment><USER8> This is exactly the reason they responded. By changing the code quietly, they would implicate themselves. An official PR statement like this is obligatory.

What is more probable, that they a lying, or that the random generator generated not a single code that matched, which is very(!) improbable by itself, but two codes that belong to the same account, _generated at the same iteration_.

<comment><USER9> This is not an official PR statement, it's an engineer responding at 11 PM (MLB is based on the east coast) with the information he/she had available. I don't think there's an intent to decieve here, just a mistaken guess of the probabilities involved. Hanlon's razor applies.

<comment><USER6> He has no idea that his team is a bunch of lazy outsourcers. He knows, he is just confused.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> One day Microsoft (msn.com) to be exact hotlinked a small gif from one of my servers. Support did not respond at all to my inquiries to _please_ have it removed (the msn.com homepage had a lot more traffic than I was used to dealing with) so I replaced the gif on my server with the "netscape now" button.

This was at the height of the browser wars.

<comment><USER11> Epic stuff, did you finally get an answer from Microsoft?

<comment><USER10> No, but they removed it lickety split :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I once hired an offshore developer on ODesk who stole my code and resold it. I discovered he was doing this because he left my analytics code in. Same deal; I woke up one day to analytics showing traffic on a domain I didn't own, so I went to look and it was basically a mirror of my site.

<comment><USER13> did you get it taken down?

<comment><USER12> I contacted ODesk explaining what happened with all the evidence. By the next day the guy I had hired was contacting me saying that ODesk suspended his account indefinitely.

He continued contacting me for about a year saying that he could no longer feed his family after "what I did". It was kind of a nightmare, but I think ODesk had pretty swift judgement because that's the kind of press they don't want. I also talked to the company that was using my code. They explained that they had hired him on ODesk and had no idea. They wanted nothing to do with the stolen code, and were very apologetic for their accidental involvement.

<comment><USER14> I'm not convinced the greater good was served in this case.

edit as I'm being downvoted rapidly. All I'm saying is that oDesk typically connect a westerner with a developer in somewhere like India who thinks that being paid $3/hour is fantastic, and who's other options for a job are basically hard manual labour.

Obviously I don't know the details of this situation which is why I just said I wasn't convinced.

It seems very plausible to me that the worker really was unable to feed his family after having his account terminated, and it seems like a bit more lenience on the part of oDesk would be more reasonable.

In the western world, if you steal code you expect to get fired. I totally understand that and that's why I just said it wasn't clear-cut to me that the right thing happened here. It might be, but I'm not sure. In the western world if you get fired you have a lot more options.

Maybe situations that involve basically exploiting workers in other countries need a bit more sensitivity. I don't know. Maybe not.

I'd appreciate a discussion instead of just downvoting.

<comment> k-mcgrady I was going to down vote but decided to reply instead. The problem is that although it's possible he couldn't feed his family after having his account terminated there is no way to know. I've worked with and for a lot of people on sites like oDesk and unfortunately discovered there are a lot of assholes in the world. I've had 'westerners' rip me off just as much as low paid workers. So although it's possible this guy was now broke it's also possible he was just an asshole.

>> Maybe situations that involve basically exploiting workers in other countries need a bit more sensitivity.

I disagree that he was being exploited. Yes, he was being paid a lot less than someone in the US but the cost of living where he is is probably much, much lower. And like you say he has a nice job as a computer programmer. He's obviously a smart guy. He can create another account, or use a different site.

<comment><USER15> >I disagree that he was being exploited.

LOL, keep telling yourself that. Having a 'lower cost of living' doesn't excuse paying a software developer a much lower rate than the rest of the world.

<comment> k-mcgrady Why? It's like that with all jobs, it's how the market works. Not to mention the fact that he works online and can accept jobs all over the world - <USER2> other words he can charge what he wants.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Good thing the author didn't ask for "express written permission" to use his code. The irony would have been too much for me to handle.

<comment><USER17> Any rebroadcast, reproduction, or other use of the code and ids of this site without the express written consent of rduchnik is prohibited.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> @MLB.com

But why are you generating those random IDs at all? That means you guys are sending false tracking data to so many websites using those IDs.

Stop doing this! Create a different tracking ID for testing or something!!

<comment><USER19> right. more importantly, a testing ID allows them to you know, test their tracking mechanisms.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> For anyone else experiencing this problem what you can do is simply setup a filter in Google Analytics to only allow your domain to add traffic to your google analytics profile.

Inside google analytics goto filter, create new filter, select custom filter, select include filter, Enter hostname in the filter field, enter your websitename\\.com in the filter pattern box,

Apply this filter to your profiles for websitename.com and you should be good to go

<comment><USER21> That's most of the way there, but if there's sufficient amount of combined traffic, ad hoc reports will start populating from sampled data instead of showing exact results. This might prevent getting any meaningful data about e.g. how A/B test is performing when filtered to a specific segment.

<comment><USER20> oniTony not sure what you mean exactly since this would just filter traffic to your own domain. This only works moving forward and usually is setup when a profile is created. Filters will not work retroactively with Google Analytics.

Would be happy to discuss if you could clarify your statement regarding A/B testing.

<comment><USER21> I went back to the Analytics Admin panel to double check, and it indeed looks like filters are applied to specific views. The tracking code collects data at the property level.

From [https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2637192?hl=en](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2637192?hl=en)

> If the number of visits/sessions to the property in the given date range > exceeds 250K visits/sessions, GA will employ a sampling algorithm...

> It is important to note that session sampling occurs at the property level, > not the view level.

So it sounds like reports will sample 250K from total traffic first, and apply the view filter after. This has the potential to be left with reports generated on too small of a sample.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I wrote an example for graduate students in the US to create a webpage and directed them to look at my webpage for an example template. Now they all copy my analytics tracking code, and I have like tens of student websites that I'm tracking me. It annoys me. I think we should have some sort of two-way authentication or atleast a way to "mute" certain domains or only whitelist certain domains in the reporting side of GA. Perhaps it exists?

<comment><USER23> Seriously Google, unless the domain == example.com , don't show it by default.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually it's so you can track multiple domain with one code. I do this with subdomains so that I can see all my traffic as well as by individual subdomain.

<comment><USER23> Hello User #1122111, we see you are trying to track potatoes.example.com , would you like to show this?

Y/N

<comment><USER24> It probably doesn't come up all that often.

<comment><USER23> Great, which means most users will never see the message when someone adds their tracking code.

<comment><USER24> It doesn't happen that much, so "most users" is going to not be very many users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Back in 2003 Sony Pictures hotlinked some javascript code I had created for handling Flash->javascript communication. Back then all I could think of was using it to float a dancing robot over their content. These days I guess you can get away with a lot more.

</comment><comment><USER15> So you share this hilarious bit and leave out the juicy details!?

How large of a spike are we talking about here? Share your digits bro!

<comment><AUTHOR> Well it's not THAT much of a spike, at least not so far. Although the number has increased significantly since the screen shot. Right now I'm just curious to see how long it will take them to notice.

<comment><USER26> This is why OP gets such bad raps! Screenshot the digits!

<comment><AUTHOR> I will when the dust settles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> One morning, we woke up to see Google Analytics sending us data from an external site. When we opened that link, it turned out to be a clone of our website.

They had crawled the entire site (which was designed by our partners) and replaced the logos and text. The GA code was still there.

<comment><USER28> What next? Would love to hear more details.

<comment><USER27> Coincidentally, our site redesign was internally being worked on, and we updated the site in a day or two.

We decided it is not worth going through the hassle of chasing someone who claims their expertise to be cloning a website.

That's the product they were selling. Clone websites. And I daresay they proved their competence by cloning ours.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I think it would have been cool to ping one of the MLB.com developers, not write a blog post and laugh at them publicly/without warning. Just sayin'.

</comment><comment><USER30> On a side note, when I visited the blog, it triggered a Web of Trust warning because it got flagged as spam: [https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/websanova.com](https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/websanova.com).

It looks like a legit programmer's blog to me, so I gave it a full positive review.

</comment><comment><USER31> Hilarious. You probably aren't seeing a huge traffic spike because it's a microsite that hasn't been launched yet. It also appears to be outsourced or in some sort of BETA since the script management is atrocious. Run a Chrome audit - it's only a landing page and still makes 37 different JS file requests & 13 different CSS file requests, none of which are minified. Granted many "professional" sites ignore client-side asset performance but regardless, 120+ HTTP requests for a landing page is laughable.

Edit: Might be same shop as mlb.com, they don't appear to care about asset performance either.

</comment><comment><USER32> Doesn't Google Analytics cost money after a certain amount of hits per day/month? If that is the case and the gap was hit, would MLB.com be liable to pay the fees?

<comment><USER33> They don't just start charging you, they warn you that you're at the paid level and need to pay or stop using so much.

<comment><USER32> That's good to know, thanks. I've seen too many companies starting to charge you instead of giving you a fair warning.

<comment><USER34> The Paid version is called Google Analytics Premium and requires a contract in place between the client and Google or a reseller. You won't get a bill out of the blue just for being over limit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> People usually steals my designs. Well, I stole better but that's another story.

I once had my site's design stolen complete with my CSS, Javascript errors, the Analytic and the Adsense Code. I think I have the screenshots somewhere on Flickr.

The irony was that, mine was powered by a WordPress theme that I designed and was available as a free download.

</comment><comment><USER36> Meta comment: This thread has seemed to attract more nonsense comments -- many are almost entirely whited-out -- than usual. Why? Whatever happened to the endorsement idea?

</comment><comment><USER37> I've had this issue too with some of my old, Open Source jQuery plugins and even keeping the scripts separated (into the document head and at the end of the body) and commented didn't seem to work. Developers looking for the cheap and easy copy and paste I guess don't recognize the difference. Fortunately GA supports simple filtering to mitigate it.

</comment><comment><USER38> I've created an open source project and forgot to remove my tracking code too. The only thing was, I was hosting my own analytics with piwik, so the tracking code came from my domain. Although I marked the code with comments lots of people still left it there.

If I was a bad guy this would be an easy and subtle XSS attack vector

</comment><comment><USER39> I have seen something similar, when three companies stolen award-winning design of digital agency I used to work for. They just copied whole code (including comments in javascript) and changed logos/texts but they haven't change our ga code.

</comment><comment><USER40> Reviewing the comments made regarding this and other "Stackoverflow is down" kinda threads I start to wonder... are there so many so-called developers that just copy-paste 9-5?

</comment><comment><USER41> What if I steal your GA code for my app, which has such routes as:

/I-know-one-weird-trick-to-save-money-on-car-insurance

/buy-coke

<comment><USER42> This is a common marketing strategy for people with products that target webmasters and/or general spammers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> FYI (the author, if they're here), your site doesn't load in Firefox for Android. Not sure why.

<comment><USER44> It loaded in FF for me. V28 Linux.

Have you tried turning off your machine and turning it back on after 5 seconds?

<comment><USER43> I suspect V28 Linux is different to the mobile Android version.

<comment><USER45> FWIW: Linux V27 - working.

<comment><USER45> Just realized that I read the initial post as, "Firefox OR Android".

Verified it's working on Firefox for Android now. (Nexus 5)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> I thought GA was tied to specific domains; wouldn't GA not track MLB.com traffic?

<comment><USER47> Nope. GA is based on UA numbers (UA-12345 etc). You can reuse a number across multiple domains, so that you can (for example) aggregate a network of sites.

GA allows you to then break down stats by domain.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> mlb://mlb:email@example.com/mlb.mlb?mlb=mlb#mlb

</comment><comment><USER49> Now if you can get them to steal your AdSenseForContent code you are golden!

<comment><USER50> The author already made that joke in the article...

</comment></comment><comment><USER51> LMAO

</comment><comment><USER52> Nice unintentionally linkbait.

But does their code looks similar to yours?

<comment><USER8> Look at the code as the author suggests; you will notice that a part of the code( ~40 lines ) is identical, including the comments.

<comment><USER53> That's because google gives it to you that way.

Much more likely this is a typo in the ID number.

<comment><USER54> If it is a typo in the ID number, thats understandable. But the social tracking id seems to be wrong too and that also points to the authors id. Can't be wrong twice and have both mistakes point to the same person

<comment><USER55> It could be, but it's exceedingly unlikely to be.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> Someone done goofed. Google Analytics and other KPI chew-toys and gadgets are what keeps executives busy while people get work done.

This will not go unnoticed.

<comment><USER43> Oh please. A good developer cares a great deal about analytics. To do otherwise is to arrogantly presume you know your user when you likely don't.

<comment><USER56> Oh agreed, analytics is _everybody 's_ business, but even more so for higher- ups. Specially for an organization like MLB, with a tall org-chart.

<comment><USER57> Depends on the developers. Marketing developers crave the analytics but IT/Engineering devs are more concerned with site speed.

<comment><USER58> Everyone should want analytics. Better numbers can mean less work, or more focused work. You can prioritize improvement of features people use the most, drop ones that nobody cares about, or decide you're in a good place to spend less time on features and more time working off technical debt.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Vodka Was Made Using Contaminated Grain from Chernobyl - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/ne8wb7/this-vodka-was-made-using-contaminated-grain-from-chernobyl <comment><USER2> I drank some unidentified vodka and experienced an increase in chattiness and confidence, delayed reaction time, decreased inhibition, a loss of judgement and memory, vision problems, loss of balance, and confusion. It must have been radioactive or how could you explain this?

</comment><comment><USER3> Need to be marketed with a small battery powered light in the bottle to make it look "radioactive".

</comment><comment><USER4> So there was an element of truth to Frank Cross's allegation after all. "No, no, you're not a ghost, you're a HALLUCINATION, brought on by alcohol! Russian vodka poisoned by Chernobyl!"

</comment><comment><USER5> Original article: [https://www.bbc.com/news/science- environment-49251471](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49251471) Vice didn't even use a real picture of Atomik Vodka.

</comment><comment><USER5> I thought they had already reduced the size of the exclusion zone, but I guess they're just talking about it so far. [https://www.bbc.com/news/science- environment-47227767](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47227767)

</comment><comment><USER6> If Fallout were to have a vodka here in the real world...this should be it.

Bethesda and Professor Smith are missing the golden opportunity here.

</comment><comment> andy-x They should have distilled it inside the Dome too, using "natural core heat" to reduce carbon footprint.

</comment><comment><USER7> It's not great, not terrible.

<comment><USER8> I was thinking the same thing

Source: Chernobyl on HBO</comment></comment>