Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation Course - <AUTHOR> https://www.edx.org/course/quantum-mechanics-quantum-computation-uc-berkeleyx-cs-191x

<comment><USER2> I have a math background, no physics. Whenever I try educating myself about this stuff I get hung up on the contradictions and can't/don't want to just take certain concepts as given in order to understand more advanced concepts.

For example (from the pdf of the intro to this course, [https://courses.edx.org/c4x/BerkeleyX/CS-191x/asset/chap1.pd...](https://courses.edx.org/c4x/BerkeleyX/CS-191x/asset/chap1.pdf)):

"Logically, we can ask which slit the photon went through, and try to measure it. Thus, we might construct a double slit experiment where we put a photodetector at each slit, so that each time a photon comes through the experiment we see which slit it went through and where it hits on the screen. But when such an experiment is performed, the interference pattern gets completely washed out! The very fact that we know which slit the photon goes through makes the interference pattern go away."

I read that and say, really? The fact that we _know_ about it? How does the photon know that we know about it? I always feel like this is just a layman's way of describing what happens, but there is actually a more rigorous understanding among physicists. Is that the case? Because after reading that sentence I want to stop right there and redo that experiment until we figure out what's really going on.

<comment><USER3> > How does the photon know that we know about it?

The next sentence after the part you quoted is the key: "This is the first example we see of how measuring a quantum system alters the system".

To measure the system in order to know which slit it went through, we had to physically interact with it, and that changes its behavior. The experiment is no longer "send photons through these double slits and then count them over there". It's "send photons through these double slits, make them interact with our measuring doohickey right behind the slits, and then count them over there".

Take a look at Feynman's coverage of this in Chapter 1 of Volume III of "The Feynman Lectures on Physics". You can find them online in a beautiful HTML version here: [http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu](http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu)

<comment><USER2> I will check out the Feynman lectures, thanks for the reference. But my initial reaction is, isn't the measuring thing somewhere past the slit? So how could its presence there influence which slit the photon goes through?

<comment><USER3> You kind of have to give up the notion that the photon goes through _a_ slit.

A striking illustration of this is given by the setup diagrammed in this image: [http://imgur.com/UlFU7oi](http://imgur.com/UlFU7oi)

You have a source of photons at the bottom. It fires them them at a half- silvered mirror. When a photon hits a half-silvered mirror, it randomly either reflects or passes through. The first half-silvered mirror splits the photon beam into two beams, labeled 1 and 3. Beam 1 hits a regular mirror, which sends it down path 2 toward another half-silvered mirror. Beam 3 hits a regular mirror which sends it down path 4 to that second half-silvered mirror.

At the second half-silvered mirror, photons coming in on path 2 can either pass through and be registered at detector B, or reflect and be registered at detector A.

Photons on path 4 can reflect into detector B, or pass through into detector A.

Start out with the source at high intensity, so we have a lot of photons, and can treat the light like a wave. The distances of the paths can be adjusted so that light on path 2 that passes through to B is out of phase with light on path 4 that reflects into B, and so we get destructive interference and B detects nothing. We get constructive interference on path 5, so all the light ends up at detector A.

Now, keeping the light at high intensity, block path 4 at the point labeled "test point". Now half the light leaving the source takes path 3 and gets blocked at the test point. The other half of the light takes 1 and 2, splits at the second half-silvered mirror, and since there is no light on path 4 there to interfere, half of the light from path 2 goes to A and half to B. Net result: 1/2 the light lost at the test point, 1/4 detected at A, and 1/4 detected at B.

Now, leaving the block in place at the test point, turn the light source down so that it is emitting single photons, say a photon a second. What we will now find is that 1/2 the photons get lost (the ones that took path 3 and 4, and hit the block), 1/4 end up at A (the ones that took 1 and 2, then reflected at the half-silvered mirror), and 1/4 end up at B (the ones that took 1 and 2 and then passed through the half-silvered mirror).

So far, everything makes intuitive sense.

Now remove the block. Intuition says that we should have 1/2 the photons take 1 and 2, and 1/2 take 3 and 4. The photons, when they arrive at the second half-silvered mirror, should end up distributed equally to A and B. So we should see 1/2 the emitted photons at A and 1/2 at B.

What actually happens is that they all end up at A.

How can this be? We are somehow getting interference even though we are only sending single photons through!

This lets us do something remarkable. Suppose I have been playing with the equipment, and left it in an unknown state. You don't know if I have the block at the test point or not, and it is inconvenient to reach the test point to check.

So you send a single photon through, and it happens to register at B. You can infer that I left the block in, because if I had taken it out, there would have been interference and the photon would have come out at A.

Think about that...the photon came out at B, meaning it did not hit the block, meaning it had to have taken that 1/2/6 path...but then how did it "know" that the block was in place so that it was "allowed" to randomly take 5 or 6 (and ended up taking 6)?

If you remove the block and then send one photon, and it takes 1/2, and then has to "decide" whether to take 5 or 6, how does it know that the block is gone and so that it is required to take 5?

It just doesn't work to say that the photon takes a path, in the sense that it starts out at one place on that path, and as time goes forward it moves along the path.

If you want more information on this particular setup, Google for "quantum bomb tester" (the name comes from a hypothetical where you have a bunch of light sensitive bombs, but some of them have defective light sensors, and you want to find a way to figure that out without destroying all the working bombs, and this kind of split path setup provides a solution--letting you answer the question "would this bomb explode if I hit it with a photon?" without actually hitting it with a photon).

<comment><USER2> Thanks for this detailed write-up. I guess I struggle more with the particle aspect than the wave aspect. Meaning, if light were exclusively a wave, then the half-silvered mirror doesn't 'randomly' either reflect or pass through, it just splits the beam in two. And all the events described above would make sense - the beam splits at each half-silvered mirror, so if the block is in place you get hits at B, and if not, you don't. (Correct?)

Except that we are somehow convinced that we are sending single, indivisible photons. Why is that?

And in general - I assume these experiments have actually been done, i.e. at some point long ago someone tried this and was surprised to see that the interference happened with individual photons. Is there a write up of one of these experiments somewhere?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Building High-Quality Front-End Modules - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ponyfoo.com/2014/08/05/building-high-quality-front-end-modules

<comment><USER2> I like how the author has a demo module / "put his money where his mouth is". I'll read this at home. Thanks for posting.</comment>


ConvertKit raises $1.8m from large group of angel investors - <AUTHOR> http://nathanbarry.com/investment/ <comment><USER2> I admit I clicked the link.</comment>


Ask HN: What resources exist for a first-timer starting a "start-up" in Canada? - <AUTHOR>

Good morning Hackers. First time caller; long time listener.
I lost my job a while back and during my involuntary downtime I came up with two website ideas that I would like to build. The first is a bit of a joke and I'd hope that I could get it to a point where it could support itself via advertising (e.g. AdSense). I'm planning to build this one out first in order to convince myself that I've properly learned web skills to an adequate degree before moving on to the second project.
The second project falls into the category of "building a better mousetrap." I was recently searching for something (tangible, for purchase) online, and found that the resources for this were rather inadequate compared to my expectations. I came up with a list of things I would prefer existed on other sites, and came up with something else which seems new and innovative (to me, at least, though nobody I've explained it to has told me it was a dumb idea).
This site would be selling listings (i.e. advertising for a thing, as in "car listings," "rental listings," "job listings" etc.) to interested parties.
What I'm interested in acquiring from this community is resources relating to such endeavours in Canada. It seems a lot of information I see online relating to startups or business in general is geared toward American audiences.
I should note that money is something of an object to me at the moment (unemployed, savings getting low, living with girlfriend who likely wouldn't want me to push us into debt), so I'm hoping to imitate patio11's original "$60 budget."
Key topics to get the discussion moving:
- Liability: Do I need to start an LLC/Corporation for this? I've heard you don't even need to register as a business (you can operate under your own name) until you reach $30k or more per annum, though I assume if you're selling to businesses it would be preferably to have a proper company name to use.
- Taxes: Do I need to collect GST? What are the mechanics of that? What about tax reporting (personal and business)?
- Collecting payment: What are the catches to accepting payment online in Canada? What is my liability when using a provider for this in terms of data security?
- What else am I just completely missing right now?
I realize I'm asking a lot of the community here, but I'm rather afraid of missing something dumb and getting into legal trouble. I'm slightly paranoid that way.
Thanks for any help you can provide. <comment><USER2> I am not a lawyer, but I am a Canadian running a business, so I'm at least partly qualified to answer these questions.

Company formation: You can operate a sole proprietorship under your own name by saying "hi, I'm in business". There is no dollar limit on this. Depending on your local laws, you might need to get a municipal business license. You can register a business name for ~$50 with your provincial government -- this is distinct from incorporating.

Incorporating: This has two major effects. 1. It creates a new "corporate person" which can go bankrupt, thereby shielding you (usually) from liability. 2. The new corporate person is taxed independently of you, which will affect the net tax rate (maybe higher, maybe lower) you pay and will give you considerably more flexibility in tax planning (since you can move personal income from one year to another).

Income taxes: If you're incorporated, you file an income tax return for the company. If you're not incorporated, you file a "statement of business activities" as part of your personal income tax return.

GST: You will probably need to collect GST, but only for customers who are (a) canadian residents, or (b) registered for GST. As an exception to this, if you're taking in less than $30k/year you probably qualify under the 'small supplier' rule which gives you a choice of whether to register for (and collect) GST or to pretend that it doesn't exist.

Payment processing: Canadian banks are almost completely clueless when it comes to transacting with the rest of the world. Credit card processing sucks. I just use PayPal.

Payment processing data security: If you're handling credit card numbers (i.e., not going through paypal) the rules are exactly the same in Canada as they are in the US -- they are set by mastercard and visa.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for all the information. This is really helpful.

 _You can operate a sole proprietorship under your own name_

Wouldn't this make some businesses uncomfortable, preferring to give money to "MyProfessionalWebsite.com" rather than "Jesse Hartwick"? Is the ~$50 business name act essentially like just an alias, telling the government/taxman "money paid to MyProfessionalWebsite.com should be treated the same as if money were paid directly to Jesse Hartwick"?

You also mention that this is paid to the provincial government. This is most likely out of the scope of your expertise, but how would this work if I moved? I currently live in Halifax, but might possibly be moving to Edmonton for work in the near future. I'm also from Kingston, Ontario and would one day like to move back home (to Ontario anyway, not necessarily Kingston specifically).

 _There is no dollar limit on this._

I wonder where I got the $30k number from then. Thinking back I think this might have actually been "after $30k you're paying taxes you don't need to" or something. Less of a rule, and more of a best practice.

 _Incorporating: This has two major effects._

I looked it up, and apparently the minimum cost for incorporation in Canada is $200 (plus lawyers fees, if applicable). I'm almost hesitant to go this far at first, since it feels like the risk is relatively low (a moderately well written terms of service/use, a well written disclaimer, and a policy of providing full refunds for even minor disputes - though I'm planning on providing this for free for a few months to get the ball rolling anyway - should hopefully take care of things until I get a job and can pay to incorporate. Who knows, my new boss might take issue with the concept in general and the business will die before it starts.

 _you file a "statement of business activities" as part of your personal income tax return._

Sounds easy enough.

 _probably need to collect GST_

Is there a guide to such things that you know of?

 _only for customers who are (a) canadian residents, or (b) registered for GST_

If this is targeted to Canadians, I'd assume this becomes a blanket "yes, collect GST" statement. I'd need a GST number for this, I believe. How hard/expensive is such an acquisition?

 _gives you a choice of whether to register for (and collect) GST or to pretend that it doesn't exist_

Given the option, I'd just as soon collect it always, and from the beginning, so I don't need to worry about it later.

 _Credit card processing sucks. I just use PayPal._

Duly noted, though the same "would businesses take me seriously" caveat applies. My site would attract largely different clients than something like tarsnap would.

 _If you're handling credit card numbers (i.e., not going through paypal)_

Given what you just said, it definitely seems like I'll just deal with PayPal and be done with it. Have you had any problems with them, by chance? There seem to be a lot of complaints about PayPal suspending accounts and generally being unsuitable in a lot of cases. I've heard of other alternatives (e.g. transaction.net, google checkout, etc.) but wasn't sure how things worked in Canada and I haven't had the chance to really dig into the issue yet.

Again, thanks for all the information. You've been extremely helpful and you've put my mind very much at ease about starting this. I couldn't imagine the government really making it difficult for people to start businesses, but you never know.

<comment><USER2> The business name registration is just an alias, yes. It means that you can do things like enter into a contract using your business name rather than your personal name. If you move, I'd assume that you would need to register the name in your new jurisdiction.

The $30k number probably comes from either GST (at that point you need to register) or as a rule of thumb for when income taxes start to work out better.

As long as you're not doing weird stuff like charging people in picoUSD, GST is quite straightforward. If you go to the CRA website you'll find lots of documentation. The registration process is simple too -- fill out a form, send it in, and wait for a number to arrive in the mail. (I think it's free; if not, it's only a nominal fee.)

The worst problem I've had with paypal has been a few customers being blocked from making direct credit card payments -- but after they created paypal accounts everything worked fine. (I'm guessing that they were borderline on paypal's fraud-detection systems, and providing information as part of the process of creating paypal accounts was enough to push them into the 'safe' category).

If you're taking payments mostly from Canadians, mostly from businesses, or mostly in >$100 amounts, you might want to skip credit card processing in favour of cheques.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Fellow Canadian here.

Incorporating a federal corporation is easy and can be done online. If you want to have a named corporation you need to do a NUANS search first. As far as I'm aware, the cheapest NUANS searches are from here:

<http://www.corporationcentre.ca/docen/pns/home.asp>

No affiliation, just a satisfied customer. Note that even if it finds a 'hit', it doesn't mean that your choice of name will be disallowed.

Online incorporation is cheaper than filling out paper forms, and the online wizard includes a bunch of boilerplate options that make life super-simple. If you live in certain jurisdictions, the wizard will even do the provincial registration for you.

As for collecting payments, this is a "problem". If you have good credit, you may be able to use Beanstream to provide merchant services (they provide merchant accounts through TD). If you don't have good credit, then PayPal is probably the option to go for. Depending on what you're doing, this may or may not be a positioning issue. If you're doing merchant stuff, you _definitely_ want to have some kind of corporation in place. BTW Beanstream is one of the few Canadian merchant service providers supported by ActiveMerchant (if you're doing the Rails thing).

I have no experience with Moneris. My experience with Global Payments is that you can't just talk to a person - they have a (probably commission-based) outside salesforce. If you don't have an existing business, they want to see personal asset and liability information. All seems far too annoying.

Finally, regarding data security: if you do _anything_ with credit cards, outsource that liability by using tokenization or PayPal. You don't want to have to deal with PCI compliance directly. I recently completed a project for a very large electricity retailer who needed to get to PCI compliance and took the outsource option, so it's not like that's just a choice for "the little guys".

Yes, you'll probably want to collect GST or HST, and remitting that back to the government is pretty simple; make sure you don't spend "their" money! The mechanics are: take customers' money, keep track of the amount that belongs to the CRA, give them that money according to a schedule you must meet. As a startup, you can remit GST annually (the mandated minimum frequency is based on your sales, if you expect to have very low sales, you can choose annual - but you can even file monthly if you like paperwork).

Hope that helps a bit!

</comment><comment><USER4> \- Liability: registering an Incorporation costs $300 if you buy a prepackaged company documentation package. I suspect it is even less if you do it yourself.

\- Taxes: yes, you have to collect GST from the residents of Canada, and applicable provincial taxes (e.g. PST in BC). Talk to a CGA of your choice, that will cost you $50 for an hour (if that much)

\- Collecting payments: nothing Canada-specific compared, say, to the US. But being in Canada limits your choice of payment processors. Keep in mind that you basically have two options - hosted payment page whereby you forward your customers to an external page and pay the processor up to 10-12% of the transaction. In this case you don't need to have a merchant account, which can be pricey to set up and maintain, esp. if your $ volume is low. Second option is to obtain aforementioned merchant account, sign up with a payment processor (e.g. Moneris or Global Payments Tech <\- both are highly not recommended, just an example) and this way you will be able accept payments directly on your website. In your case I would strongly recommend the option #1.

\- What you are missing: build the product first, once you get the famous "traction" with a free/beta version, _then_ think about the company and the payment setup. In other words - validate an idea first.

<comment><AUTHOR> _What you are missing: build the product first_

I wasn't missing that, though I definitely gave the impression that I had.

My intention had always been to just sort of throw them both online, the ad- supported idea going first to prove to myself that I could make a website that a) didn't look absolutely god-awful, and b) wouldn't get hacked to pieces by every idiot script kiddie that came across it. I only have very limited experience with web anything, and really with programming in general (after college - community college - I ended up stuck in a COBOL job for three years, and it burned me out so badly that most days I just didn't want to code anything on my own time, so I've definitely rusted over in a lot of places), so I'm validating my skills first on a trial site before moving to the more "business-y" site.

The second site was always intended to start free first, with money being a secondary concern to gaining an audience. If you're selling someone on advertising with you, they're going to want an audience before they really pay anything. Likewise, nobody wants to come to such a site if nobody is advertising anything. The solution, fairly clearly, was to give it away free to the advertisers at first saying all it would cost them was a bit of time to get things loaded into the system, then if the site became popular it would become a pay site as it came out of Beta.

My purpose for this question wasn't so much to get everything in order _right now_ , but rather to try to collect information so that if the time ever came I would be prepared to quickly transition to a proper business. I was rather hoping for external sources (books, Canadian-oriented guides/blogs/whatever), but anecdotes are definitely beneficial and appreciated as well.

Another, though by no means less important, reason was to determine my liability. E.g. if someone writes a terrible set of directions on the first site, and some moron follows these instructions and dies, how liable would I be if I wasn't a proper business, let alone an incorporated one.</comment></comment>


Free Github accounts for students and teachers - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/edu

<comment><USER2> This is a great idea for students, I'm heading over there now to apply.

</comment><comment><USER3> Taking a leaf out of Bitbucket's book.</comment>


Open Source Charts Library Based on D3.js - <AUTHOR> http://pykcharts.com/

<comment><USER2> intuitive charts and very useful for corporate data reporting

</comment><comment><USER3> It is great help!

</comment><comment><USER4> Chart it up!

</comment><comment><USER5> Superb!</comment>


Buoyant's Conduit Officially Becomes Linkerd 2 - <AUTHOR> https://www.infoq.com/news/2018/07/conduit-merges-linkerd2 <comment><AUTHOR> Totally understand why they did it but couldn't help chuckling since 6 months ago in this blogpost: [https://blog.buoyant.io/2017/12/05/introducing- conduit/](https://blog.buoyant.io/2017/12/05/introducing-conduit/) they literally said: "Conduit is not Linkerd 2.0." ;-)</comment>


A 1973 IBM Selectric typeball recorded dancers' body movements - <AUTHOR> https://www.ibm.com/blogs/industries/selectric-typewriter-dancers/ <comment><USER2> Very interesting article, and not just about the dance notation typeball.

The 1962 print ad says "Potential speed becomes practical speed, thanks to a stroke storage system that releases type characters in sequence no matter how fast the typing."

I got curious about the "stroke storage system" \- was it mechanical, electronic, or what?

The Wikipedia page has an explanation of this mechanical storage:

> The machine had a feature called "Stroke Storage" that prevented two keys > from being depressed simultaneously. When a key was depressed, an > interposer, beneath the keylever, was pushed down into a slotted tube full > of small metal balls (called the "compensator tube") and spring latched. > These balls were adjusted to have enough horizontal space for only one > interposer to enter at a time. (Mechanisms much like this were used in > keyboards for teleprinters before World War II.) If a typist pressed two > keys simultaneously both interposers were blocked from entering the tube. > Pressing two keys several milliseconds apart allows the first interposer to > enter the tube, tripping a clutch which rotated a fluted shaft driving the > interposer horizontally and out of the tube. The powered horizontal motion > of the interposer selected the appropriate rotate and tilt of the printhead > for character selection, but also made way for the second interposer to > enter the tube some milliseconds later, well before the first character had > been printed. While a full print cycle was 65 milliseconds this filtering > and storage feature allowed the typist to depress keys in a more random > fashion and still print the characters in the sequence entered.

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

</comment><comment><USER3> The sad thing is that I actually vaguely remember them in the office and that earlier, as a kid, few things were cooler than the TV UFO series:

SHADO

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ......

ALIEN DEFENCE ORGANIZATION ...

SECRET LOCATION .... BENEATH FILM STUDIO

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya_9fUNstvc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya_9fUNstvc)

<comment><USER4> The distant future of 1980...

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> An entire article about dance notation and not a single example of what the notation looks like. Disappointing.

<comment><USER2> There is an example in the corner of the picture of the dancer leaping over a typeball. But yeah, it is just a small example and there is no explanation of what the symbols mean.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I typed my first article on a Selectric using a normal and a math type ball. There was a lot of switching involved.

<comment><USER7> Amusingly, there was an early "scientific" word processor for the IBM PC, that simulated the Selectric math ball. You pressed one of the extra keys (maybe "alt" but I don't remember) and got the alternative ball. You could also move up and down by half lines. It was very quick to type math.

I used it for my dissertation. The page numbering feature could not be adapted to my university's requirements, so I printed out my manuscript without page numbers, and pasted them in by hand, then had the whole thing photocopied.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Labanotation is very interesting as a tech-savvy choreographer. I am looking at taking it to the next level with Unreal. :)

For those interested in dance transcription, there is a formerly commercial but now freeware Windows product called Danceforms. [http://www.charactermotion.com/df- download.html](http://www.charactermotion.com/df-download.html)

</comment><comment><USER9> That is interesting.

I have an IBM Selectric that I purchased at a thrift store. It is a marvel engineering. It was too much to resist. I have not used it, but I tried it out. It works. It really is a fine machine. I think I will spin it up and exercise it.

I wonder if one of those dance type balls is available any where. I suppose not, but it would be fun to try it out.

<comment><USER10> One of the interesting things about the Selectric is that it contains a mechanical digital-to-analog converter .. a Whiffletree mechanism.

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

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I am surprised that Labanotation and other dance notations still are not in Unicode.

<comment><USER12> It's not a good match to a font model. It's putting stretchable symbols on tracks, like musical notation. There's no simple string equivalent.

Labanotation to animation has been done.[1]

[1] [http://www.sfu.ca/~tom/Papers/LabanDancer1.pdf](http://www.sfu.ca/~tom/Papers/LabanDancer1.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'd love to know if labanotation has actually been effective in dance. It might work for choreographed works, but I feel like it might fail for a newer person relying on it over practice.

Any social dancers on HN?

<comment><USER8> Yes, it works great and not difficult to read. There are limitations, mostly because of symbol overload when expressing more complex movement. Ballet is simple to read because ballet consists of mostly well-defined upright movement. Modern dance, of which ballet is a subset, has a lot of floor work. That becomes difficult to express.

There's one source of truth, Ann Guest, and some people are frustrated at not getting the most precise answers.

The system encompasses the entire body up to fingertips.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Amazing mechanics, there is a lot to learn by just examining the mechanism of these. As a kid I had access to one, my mom had one at home. I distinctly remember how fast the ball moved because I got a nice 'J' imprint on my pinkie trying to see what would happen. That hurt (predictable). That taught me not to mess with live machinery and to have respect for things that move faster than you can follow with your eyes.

</comment><comment><USER15> Some libraries seem to have copies of the instruction manual (not online, though):

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/instruction-manual-for-use- wi...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/instruction-manual-for-use-with-the- labanotation-ibm-selectric-typewriter-element/oclc/6230205)

</comment><comment><USER16> It's still amazing that a printing element with this radius could achieve accurate character registration.

I remember the type all's being such a part of pop culture that a televised game show, involving contestants identifying objects in a black bag by touch alone, were expected to identify a typeball as a _common, everyday object_.

</comment><comment><USER17> I think these are the typewriters in the loud open office scene(s) at the Daily Planet in the movie "Superman (1978)"</comment>


The Handled Ancient American Watermelon - <AUTHOR> https://www.rareseeds.com/art-combes-amazing-ancient-watermelon/ <comment><USER2> This beautiful watermelon story makes an odd-turn midway through. It starts with a tale of watermelon seeds found in Southwestern US cave, and then smoothly segues into a prison interview with Cliven Bundy, who turns out have been instrumental in preserving the variety:

"Bundy is better known for his involvement in a nationally publicized dispute over paying to graze cattle on public land. He had passed these seeds along with his other precious heirloom melon varieties to our Southwest gardener friend, just a few hours before Bundy's fellow protester Levoy Finicum was shot at the infamous Oregon wildlife refuge occupation. Shortly after the shooting, he was taken into custody and has been held without bail since. The last known steward of the ancient watermelon, Bundy, is federally incarcerated at a prison outside of Las Vegas, Nevada."

This is a side of Bundy that I haven't seen covered elsewhere, although Bundy's son Ryan touched on some similar topics in his recent opening statement: [https://thewashingtonstandard.com/ryan-bundys-opening- statem...](https://thewashingtonstandard.com/ryan-bundys-opening-statement- something-every-red-blooded-american-hear/).

<comment><USER3> He was the nicest malcontent...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This 'article' is an advert. The story about the origin of the seeds is most likely a fabrication invented to sell melons (and now seeds). The watermelon is native to Africa. It is possible that the seeds were in fact old, but not that they predate the arrival of Europeans and Africans in the New World. If anyone is seriously interested, a genetic analysis of the plant would clear things up.

<comment><USER5> While I am also skeptical, there are watermelon-like species native to the southwest, for example calabazilla (Cucurbita foetidissima) that could have been the starting point for selective breeding. Native Americans selectively bred other cucurbits, so it's not entirely unreasonable to think they could have created a watermelon-like fruit. Comparing DNA would give you the answer, but you could also look at morphological characteristics. For example, true watermelon (Citrullus lantanus) has highly lobed leaves, while based on one of the pictures in the article, this "watermelon" species does not. Potential wild relatives in the southwest also don't tend to have lobed leaves, for what it is worth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was not expecting Cliven Bundy to be a part of this story. Too bad he wasn't content to just be a famed ancient melon farmer.

</comment><comment><USER7> How the hell did you manage to get an heirloom sees catalog on the front page!? That's great! I have been getting this catalog for the last few years and have big plans about starting from seed this winter indoors. I finally have garden space but little time to enjoy it.

<comment><USER8> I was literally looking at this catalog last night, and I was intrigued by this watermelon seed in particular. Afterwards, I went to a Beatles/Circus show featuring some contortionist acrobats, and today on hacker news is an article about this weird watermelon seed, and also a link to the contortionists handbook. I know its all just strange coincidence, but its uncanny just how _strange_ the coincidences are.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is there supposed to be any content here? All I see is a giant image of some watermelons and links to other images of fruits and vegetables. The links are under "read our other stories" so I assume there is supposed to be text.

<comment><USER10> At first it only loads a bit of the article, but if I scroll down it shows all the rest. It also works if I click the down arrow on the big picture.

<comment><USER9> When I click the down arrow, I am brought to the bottom of the page with the links to other articles but there is no article between the big picture and the links, just the "Read Our Other Stories" header.

EDIT: Resizing my browser to a smaller vertical size made it load. Strange UX.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Where can one get these seeds?

<comment><USER12> It appears they only sell the handle-less variety at the moment. [https://www.rareseeds.com/art-combe-s-ancient- watermelon/](https://www.rareseeds.com/art-combe-s-ancient-watermelon/)</comment></comment>


IBM to face trial for lowering sales commissions after deals are closed - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/10/ibm_practice_of_capping_sales/ <comment><USER2> they did the same thing with patents now too.

guaranteed first filer bonus if you follow the patent through. emails and asks for reviews after you quit, update your address to for automated payment..

once it passes they screw you over saying they wont pay since the patent was filed after you left. ibm wont even tell you the patent was filed even though your names on it and they have all your info and came asking for help before

still trying to figure out how to get paid for my patent, will probably just open it up

<comment><USER3> > still trying to figure out how to get paid for my patent, will probably just > open it up

I don't fully understand the situation you are in, but from what you describe that would be impossible. just because you are the inventor on a patent doesn't mean that you are the owner of the patent. Only the owner, not the inventor, can authorize other people to use the patented invention.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This happened to me at a startup. It was too hard to fight so I left and they were gone within a year.

I'd like to think they died because they couldn't survive without me, but the reason is more prosaic: the kinds of people who think that way can't build team that can succeed.

They even screwed me on my final expense report.

A few months after they ceased operation I got a letter from the CEO saying he needed my signature on some paperwork so they could secure some funding or assign some IP or something like that. I tossed it.

</comment><comment><USER5> I thought their conversion to self-funded pension over their previous 100-year company-funded generous pension, was some kind of singular lapse in morals. I guess not.

(They pocketed billions in the process, as they carved down the benefit inch by inch to almost nothing, once accounting figured out "every dollar screwed out of the employees, I get a 1% bonus").

<comment><USER6> That must be the richest accountant in the world.

<comment><USER5> Well, the money folks have taken over corporations. They're more likely to be run by an accountant than a business person today. That happened in the 80's. After that, big business has been all about squeezing cash for executives and stockholders at any cost.

<comment><USER5> Really? There are still people who don't know this? How can this topic be controversial?

The executive suite in most large companies is a brutal sociopathic rush to quarterly bonus, which they give themselves for meeting arbitrary 'goals' that don't relate to real company performance. The employees be damned; the customer be damned; the company future be damned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yeah typical ibm behaviour. They always play dirty. Best thing I did was leave IBM years ago.

<comment><USER8> I actually left IBM to become an IBM subcontractor. I was treated better, paid better, and had better benefits.

<comment><USER9> Outsource yourself and get better treatment -- that's too hysterical to laugh!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It sometimes feels like Alsup is the only federal judge that is actually doing his job rather than rubber stamping whatever the bigger company wants to do.

</comment><comment><USER11> I know a guy who got hired to lead a major startup's enterprise sales team that had been floundering. They had a couple guys running it for a year and they hadn't had any success, and they agreed to give him uncapped commissions.

My friend is an animal and came right in with a plan and process, making 80 calls a day, working all of his contacts, grew the pipeline, and over a year made nearly $1 million in commissions.

 _Then they CFO backed out on the agreement!_ "You can't make this much money, you would be the highest paid employee." Even though he made them far, far more than he took in. He stayed and got a decent chunk of cash but had to settle mostly for stock options (recent update: massive covid layoffs!). If you are paying a sales commission it's because they made you more money. It's called incentive alignment.

<comment><USER12> That doesn't sound like a true story. If they had a legal agreement to pay him unbound commissions the CFO can't just change it after the fact whether or not the salesperson would be the highest paid employee. (Fun fact: at most B2B companies, the sales teams are the highest paid employees outside of the C-suite executives.)

<comment><USER13> Yes, the CFO can. Even more outrageous, if the CFO did then then the person seibelj knows would be forced to litigate the matter in civil court and ask to have the legal agreement enforced. There is a chance his state employment office would help, but likely the law is more complex than they are equipped to deal with.

<comment><USER12> No, the CFO can't. This is not just a civil matter, it's a Dept of Labor matter.

The law is relatively simple on this matter: if the company entered into a contract to pay commissions, and the agent satisfied the terms of those commissions, then the company is required to pay the commissions absent a bankruptcy that eliminates or reorganizes the debt.

On top of that, based on the facts provided, the CFO has committed an intentional tort--interference with contract, meaning that punitive damages are available, i.e., up to 3x actual damages.

Yes, it would require the individual to go to court. The likely outcome is that he would receive a very large sum of money, and the CFO would likely get blacklisted from CFO and finance positions at any reputable company.

<comment><USER11> It's all upper management stuff, he got paid but took it in equity more than cash. He still works there, didn't want to burn bridges. Dispute resolution like this is not uncommon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The I.T. department for the U.S. government that wins every no-bid contract it applies for

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm on the sales side of my org and I have to say if I hear of this stuff going on at a company, I immediately start looking elsewhere. Why do people still work for IBM? There's no reason except "it's a steady paycheck", which honestly at this stage probably isn't good enough for quality sales people or quality engineers.

</comment><comment><USER16> Not a surprise given what's written elsewhere about them.</comment>


Sand-slithering snakes behave like light waves - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2019-02-sand-slithering-snakes.html <comment><USER2> I can't wait to see the double-slit quantum eraser version of this experiment.

<comment><USER3> Oddly, snake interference patterns are actually exhibited in horses and hikers...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Tldr

"""

"We think the snake is essentially operating in a model that control engineers would consider 'open loop,'" said Goldman. "It is setting a particular motor program on its body, which generates the characteristic wave pattern, and when it collides with the obstacle, its body mechanics allow it to deform and move the posts without degrading its speed."

"""

Edit-I feel like this is essentially 99%/"a vast majority" of my routine but otherwise complex behaviors like walking, breathing, sleeping, etc.

<comment><USER5> Try doing a mundane task like grabbing a can of beer from the fridge and, as best you can, passively observe the minutiae of your body's orchestration. There's so much precision and style happening autonomously that it feels like something else is driving you body.

<comment><USER6> Or try being in an elaborate sitting or laying position (like fetal pose) and without moving a muscle, ask your cognitive brain "what muscle will I move now in order to Stand Up". Then just tell your motor brain to Stand Up. You'll be surprised how often "you" would get it wrong...

<comment><USER5> Exactly. It's like we're the captain of the ship calling orders from the bridge.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Aether confirmed.</comment>


Show HN: A simple crypto asset explorer using GitHub data - <AUTHOR> http://www.monedas.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone!

Monedas is my first web app. Although still very bare bones, the idea is to use different data points to explore crypto assets.

Like I say in the about page: "I think crypto assets are a different animal. Instead of looking at projects solely by traditional standards (like we look at equities), there should be more information on the code itself. Being that the important projects are protocols vs businesses that use blockchain, I believe data points on the code base should be considered.

With that said, I don't think commits, repo age or any one data point is a good determinant for the quality of the project. I do believe that, at the very least, it can signal something interesting. For example, a $X00M project with little to no activity on the repository should raise some flags."

You can find more on how I went from nothing to now here: [https://twitter.com/espitia7/status/918260378777407488](https://twitter.com/espitia7/status/918260378777407488)

Feedback is welcome :) !

<comment><USER2> Not sure why this post isn't upvoted to high heavens (HN is generally very anti crypto lately) but what you've made is absolute gold and something I will consider looking at for my future crypto investments.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the kind comment! Yeah, no love from HN but I'll be back with more :)</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Beagle, our app for students - <AUTHOR> http://getbeagle.com

<comment><USER2> Am I missing something or is this just a <http://www.taskrabbit.com/> copycat?

<comment><USER3> Did you take a minute to actually read into it? It is for the college demographic only - targeted towards users on college campuses.

<comment><USER4> So you're saying it's taskrabbit, but for college students? I'm curious as to why you picked this demographic to target. From my own personal experience, college students seem to have less money but more time than your average person. They could be a good fit for this ecosystem as those who complete tasks, but it seems like it would be much more difficult to get them to post.

<comment><USER5> I'm a cofounder, my name is Julian. I definitely understand your point and it has been a topic of debate with us for quite some time. However, we think that college campuses are perfect for something like this because of the pre- existing communities, and the security (albeit mild) that they provide. There are obviously a lot of students scrounging for cash, but we think that with professors (anyone with a .edu email) there will be a good amount of people posting as well. Beagle is also ideal for quick and easy tasks, so they probably won't be very expensive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This seems like a really nifty idea. I'm one of the laziest people around so I'll try it out since it's on my campus. I really like the website too, but it's a little ambiguous. I wish it was a bit more explicit on the service.

Also, I can imagine location services being useful when tied with Beagle. For instance, say I'm at my room working on a project with some people and the deadline is in a few hours. We're really craving food from a place on campus that's far but doesn't deliver. I can attach the location where my task would need to get done (the restaurant/store), and someone with Beagle location services on would be notified that there's a task nearby when they go close to that store. So if someone was already there buying something, they could grab something else and help someone out.

<comment><USER5> Thanks! That's exactly what we're thinking and hoping.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Cool app, I think this will do well with the college scene. I just recently graduated and I know this would have come in use many times. Quick question, how are the payments handled so that the user who completes the task definitely gets paid? I could easily toss a task up there saying get me lunch and I'll pay you $50, but when they show up with my lunch I could say sorry I only have $5 to offer.

</comment><comment><USER7> Great idea! As a fellow Cambridge HN'er, I'll be watching closely. With local app launches, it's a good idea to go old school around campus and hang flyers.

<comment><USER5> Thanks! We'll be in town soon and certainly get to it. Can we have your email to get in touch with you when we're in Boston?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> How do you guys differ from Zaarly?

<comment><USER9> I'm Philippe, CEO of Beagle. We are more focused on tasks than items. We think that requiring student emails improves security and quality of service, and that college students have more obvious uses for a service like this service than the general population, at least for now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Will this eventually run on Android, or will it always support Darwin exclusively?

<comment><USER9> Yep, we're working on an Android version as we speak.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The activation link isn't working for me. It takes me to a beagle page with header and footer but the body is blank and I haven't been verified yet.

<comment><AUTHOR> Okay, it should be working now. Thanks again.

<comment><USER6> All working, thanks. You guys should think about asking students on campuses to post flyers for you on Beagle (or some other promotion). Verifications could be sent by photo. This could be a cheap way to seed some tasks and get people to use the service.

<comment><USER5> Smart, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why target students? I don't see anything about students on the site -- only in the link above.

<comment><USER5> We think that college students are more motivated to run around doing tasks for each other, a little more desperate for quick cash, and there's already an existing community at every campus. Eventually we'll spread beyond colleges, but for now it should be a good way to spread.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> How are joke tasks ("Need a full body massage, pronto") filtered out? Is there a cost-upfront to posting a task?

<comment><USER5> There's no cost to post or download, but we are currently building a system to filter out inappropriate tasks. For now, we're monitoring manually.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Seems like a fantastic platform for finding prostitutes.

<comment><USER5> Let's hope not.</comment></comment>


Self-Managing People Are Smart about Asking for Help - <AUTHOR> https://spin.atomicobject.com/2017/07/05/asking-for-help/ <comment> FLUX-YOU You should think about the cost of asking for help before you actually do it. Or ask it in a medium that allows for an async conversation. Take a measure of how others ask questions or ask where most of the discussions take place (I have only been in face-to-face driven places but it's not hard to imagine Slack-driven places).

On most days, this will be fine, but getting tunnel vision and not being aware of what's happening and asking silly javascript questions during important deployments or production work will rub people the wrong way.

Your colleagues are not there to simply serve the "smartest and most talented people that just know how to ask questions".

</comment><comment><USER2> "Every Olympian has a coach"

I like to do things by myself, but the quote above I heard a few years ago and really changed the way I think about asking for help.

</comment><comment><USER3> I could have used this advice 10 years ago. This is a great article to pass on to folks new to the working world. I don't know what other working environments are like, but I appreciate people that keep the venting to a minimum. You can easily frame yourself as the complainer, deserved or not, if you use this one too much.

<comment><USER4> Venting to your manager seems mostly counterproductive to me. I'd argue rather than vent you should at the very least identify the problem and potential solutions.

Even in scrum, when doing a retro, they don't call them "negatives" but "deltas", implying don't just complain, look for a solution.

<comment> arti-fact Exactly. If venting can be converted into identifying a problem and looking for a solution, then it can a good thing. Venting often? There may be a larger issue to tackle here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Definitely need to remind myself to ask more questions, but not lazy ones, thanks.

But "ask" is a verb, not a noun, sheesh.

<comment><USER6> It's also a noun, both in common usage and in dictionaries.

<comment><USER5> I see it's a British commonwealth thing: [http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ask](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ask)

Still it sounds like business executive jargon such "spend," also a turnoff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is great advice for both managers and employees alike! I was told this a long time ago, "good employees come to managers with solutions, not problems." It has propelled me to be a self-managed person and it really puts me in a place of making quality contributions to the good of the company. I think this is especially important in development because if you ask for help whenever you get blocked, your coworkers have to solve all of your hard problems! This means that you don't relieve any pain from your team. However, if you instead say, "I have 3 possible solutions, what do you think about them?" , or "can you tell me the way you'd do this?" , then you can deal with the hard problems without taking up too much of your coworkers time.</comment>


Ask HN: Is the GMail April-Fools prank intended to launch a permanent feature? - <AUTHOR> Gmail April 1st easter-egg: http://time.com/4278950/april-fools-gmail-mic-drop/
Obviously the minion icon is a April-1 joke, but the rest of the feature actually sounds like a pretty cool one. Imagine the last time you were on a long email chain. One where you gave your 2 cents, and there's no need for you to be in the email chain any longer. Someone else can remove you from the email chain by moving you to BCC, but there's no way for you to do it yourself. You basically have to beg for someone to remove you from the chain, which is too annoying so no one really does it.
Alternatively, you could create some sort of a filter, or just consciously delete all emails from the chain as they come, without reading them. This is manually tiresome, and it also introduces a new problem: If someone references you in the email chain, and you don't see it, they will get offended by you not replying.
This new gmail easter-egg addresses both of the problems above.
1. It tells your email client that you no longer wish to receive any emails in this chain.
2. It tells all participants in the email chain that you're leaving the conversation.
The 1st part above is purely technical, and can be easily done. But the 2nd part requires some UX development. Which might be why GMail launched this April-1 easter-egg. They are experimenting with the ideal UX for telling all participants in the email chain that someone has chosen to leave the conversation.
Obviously the presentation needs to be a lot more polished and professional. But easter egg might be a precursor for a real GMail feature that's planned to launch in the next year or so.
For anyone doubtful that Google would announce a permanent product/feature on April-1: Check out the very original gmail announcement: http://googlepress.blogspot.com/2004/04/google-gets-message-launches-gmail.html <comment><USER2> I would be surprised if that's intended, given the negative experiences with this one: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11404115](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11404115)

That said, you can already mute (or "murder" any email thread by selecting it and hitting the 'm' button: [https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47787?hl=en](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/47787?hl=en)</comment>


Silk (Haskell-based semantic web startup) raises seed funding - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/18/silk-scores-seed-funding-from-atomico-others-for-content-crunching-platform/

<comment> tomh- Nice to see a Haskell/dutch startup getting funding, but I'm still not sure what exactly this app does. Is there a tl;dr explaination why I might need this, how does it make it easier? The alpha version didn't really make anything easier for me.

<comment><USER3> It appears they started out trying to be a sort of knowledge aggregator (that probably used NLP and some semantic resources like DBPedia or Freebase to glean the knowledge) but they seem to be emphasizing structured knowledge _creation_ now.

Which is cool. Because the "Semantic Web" has a chicken and egg problem - <USER2> standards, knowledge, &c... all exist; but no one is producing "semantic" content. Primarily because it's a pain in the ass to do so. Some people have a tried a mix of NLP processing with automated annotation of recognized keywords, triples, &c... but it never seems to catch on. So it really looks like Silk is trying to produce an attractive and easy to use semantic editor.

Once you have people producing semantic content, then other services like semantic search can make use of it - Silk also appears to be providing analytics and analysis software for the content you do create.

What I don't like about this is (I'm guessing here) it remains on _their_ servers; so instead of using Google Docs you would use Silk. I guess.

<comment><USER4> You're right: content is on our servers so we can build up all the indexes to allow for fast searching and querying.

Not sure why that would be a problem though. We don't intend to lock-in peoples content and we'll provide a REST based read/write API – so you can get the content in and out whenever you want.

<comment><USER3> I think what you're doing is super cool and as long as you do indeed provide an easy route to getting the data off the servers then I don't see a problem at all. Is this meant to be a freemium model? Or is it going to be a paid service?

How do you go and use this in a website though? That's another facet of the semantic web that I think needs to be addressed too - content is great but if I have to export it from your servers then stick it into my website, that could get to be a pain.

Is Silk maybe going after a Semantic Cloud sort of model? I think that would not only be tenable but _a really smart move_. I would use a Semantic Cloud service.

<comment><USER4> Yes, it's going to be freemium like. We'll be announcing various stuff around the actual product really soon, but the idea is that Silk could become your website, in the same way that Tumblr works as a website for a lot of people.

I love the idea of a "semantic cloud", it's exactly what we're going for actually. I'm going to use that if you don't mind :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> About a year ago, they claimed they were developing a web-based editor. That is some significant focus shift.

Does anyone have information on what triggered it?

<comment><USER4> (Silk co-founder here)

We haven't changed course. As Ixiaus mentions, there are several chicken and egg problems involved around the 'semantic web'.

We're starting with specific content publishers right now that use a combination of our web-based editor (which looks like a normal editor, but allows structured content creation) and APIs to get information in to Silk. This allows them to create sites where people can play around with the structured data, create visualizations, etc.

Longer-term, we'll open up the editor to the general public. Our goal is to do to structured content what Blogger and Wordpress did to weblogs.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How much would you pay for a solid presentation template? - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
We are trying to figure out the right pricing strategy for our presentation templates for sale. Currently we charge $19 for a set of 65 unique slides (PowerPoint and Keynote version included in the price). You can check it out here to get an idea: http://pitchdeck.improvepresentation.com
Do you guys think it's too expensive or even too cheap? Maybe you'd never buy a template in the first place?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Honestly - nothing... I think having a template (beyond perhaps styling and branding which most companies have already defined) for a presentation of any kind seems wrong. Any presentation, whether it is a pitch or a technical seminar, should reflect the person giving the presentation. Their vision, personality and expertise should be projected and to do that you need the presentation to be truly unique. A good presentation isn't defined by a bunch of slides or a specific format. Sorry to be so negative, but I am the sort of person that would happily pay a few dollars for some things I felt had good value and saved me some time, but a presentation slide deck isn't one of them.

A personal presentation / slide critique and suggestions for improvements I would maybe pay for if I felt it was a really important presentation, but I don't know if that is a viable business either.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for you input ses. It is a little harsh but this is what we wanted - real opinions from real people. I agree with you that a presentation should reflect the person giving the presentation but in terms of content & story to be told, the design itself can be tricky and time consuming.

<comment><USER2> No worries, I am just one person who doesn't fall into the target market for your product - there may well be many valid scenarios where a having template, particularly with a good design could be useful. There are all kinds of different presentations requiring slide decks so maybe you just need to find the right niche?</comment></comment></comment>


Podcast: What is something you changed your mind about in 2018? - <AUTHOR> https://innovationforallcast.com/2019/01/30/what-did-you-change-your-mind-about-in-2018-answers-on-ai-data-work-and-more/ <comment><USER2> Unions for software engineers... Interesting</comment>


When do you ignore your users? - <AUTHOR>

Quoted in Getting Real is a passage by Jef Raskin about avoiding "feature blight" (http://jef.raskincenter.org/unpublished/widgets_of_the_week....). The passage suggests too many features is a bad thing and that the best way to avoid that pitfall is a very real and constricting deadline. My question is that once you've launched and you're able to afford a more liberal deadline, how do you keep feature blight from creeping in?
37 Signals was noted here recently for refusing to implement suggestions until there's a critical mass of users looking for them, but is that the "best" way to combat this issue? <comment><USER2> I forget who said this (Paul Buchheit, maybe?), but it made a lot of sense to me: don't listen to your users, _watch_ your users. Figure out what they're trying to accomplish -- via usability testing and analytics -- and use that to inform product development.

Feature blight is a separate issue. It's good to try out lots of stuff, but you can't just vomit out feature after feature -- you have to iterate. After you release a feature, watch how people use it. If they're not using it, tweak it or axe it. Features need to earn a permanent place in your app.

<comment><USER3> It was Jakob Nielsen, but Paul Buchheit says things that apply the same principle.

<http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010805.html></comment></comment>


Lesbians tend to earn more than heterosexual women - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21692938-lesbians-tend-earn-more-heterosexual-women-girl-power <comment><USER2> "LABOUR markets are hotbeds of inequality. For every dollar a white American man in full-time work earns, the average white woman earns 78 cents and the average Latina only 56 cents."

Study after study has proven this statement false when accounting for the type of work done.

<comment><USER3> If you only look within a given occupation, sure, the disparity isn't as wide, but that fails to answer some important questions: why do the choices that women (or any given group) make result in them being paid less overall? Should they essentially be punished for those choices, particularly when you consider the power that money buys? Are some of the occupations that are dominated by women undervalued and underpaid, such as teaching and nursing? Consider watching: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV9zBAotFeo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV9zBAotFeo)

<comment><USER4> > why do the choices that women (or any given group) make result in them being > paid less overall?

If you pick a low-valued career, you will probably be paid less. No need to bring in gender here... movers are mostly men, and they're also low-value.

> Should they essentially be punished for those choices, particularly when you > consider the power that money buys?

It's not punishment. They willingly give up the power of money by picking a career that earns less. If someone wants the power of money, pick a different career. Again, gender doesn't matter.

> Are some of the occupations that are dominated by women undervalued and > underpaid, such as teaching and nursing?

Yes, but it has nothing to do with the dominating gender. Those fields are just under appreciated... it's a societal problem if we under value those professions, but (again) gender doesn't matter. Male nurses suffer the same problem.

It seem what you should be asking is: Are women inherently biased to pick these nurturing roles, and is this because of societal or biological pressures? If it's biological, is society responsible for correcting the economic imbalance by effectively subsidizing those roles? Should we accept that some careers are valued less, make this very obvious during formative years (highschool/college), encourage rational decision making, and accept any natural gender imbalances that result?

<comment> nommm-nommm >It has nothing to do with the dominating gender.

If ${group} is valued less in society then it isn't a stretch that ${activities group does} becomes less valued in society.

Many here are quick to point out that weed was outlawed because it was an activity that minorities enjoyed.

I'm not saying that this is the case (idk) but its not an outlandish idea.

<comment><USER5> >If ${group} is valued less in society then it isn't a stretch that ${activities group does} becomes less valued in society.

We don't pay people based on how we "value" them. Labor is a market like any other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > motherhood drags female earnings down. .... Yet one minority appears immune > to this scourge: lesbians.

> if employers promote them on the assumption that they will not have children > and so devote more time to work than straight colleagues...

(Edited Some Spelling Issues SRY)

This seems to be the correct empirical evidence for me. I greatly admire people with a strong work ethic BUT it usually comes down to how many priorities you have above your priority to work. I feel like I have a strong work ethic but I can not compete with single, no children workers who put work above everything else or Frank Sinatra / Jimmy Johnson (Football Coach) who placed their work above their families.

<comment><USER7> If lesbians make more because wage setters are less concerned about them having children, what is the hypothesis for why gay men make less?

<comment><USER8> > _what is the hypothesis for why gay men make less_

Source? Want to check if adjustments are made for occupation type.

<comment><USER6> Now that I think we can find some interesting findings. Homophobic males are usually more tolerate of gay women.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> We have to close the hetero pay gap.

</comment><comment><USER10> Somewhat related, the highest-paid female CEO is transgender.

<comment> nommm-nommm Who is this?

<comment><USER10> [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martine_Rothblatt](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martine_Rothblatt)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder if making it less of a taboo to talk about your wages would help.

</comment><comment><USER12> Aha! So it is liking women that, in fact, explains the salary difference between genders, not being a man.

</comment><comment><USER13> Who do you think lobbied the Supreme Court to override Congressional law?

Poor people?

[ What ??? You guys don't like it when you get called out on class war ???? ]

</comment><comment><USER14> It's also interesting to consider that the way Social Security is structured - all our children will end up paying for those who don't have children.

<comment><USER15> And those who both did and didn't have children are paying for the previous generation. The only ones to have unearned social security are the original recipients and it is too late to do much of anything about that.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Should HN have a /politics page to discuss on political items? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I come here for hacker-news, and I go elsewhere for not-hacker-news.

When I see a funny joke comment here I downvote it, whereas if I saw the exact same joke comment on Reddit, I'd be upvoting it.

Likewise political posts & comments.

</comment><comment><USER3> Go to reddit if you want to do that shit.

</comment><comment><USER4> Absolutely not.</comment>


Lawyer Websites - How Having A better Design Can Convert Visitors into clients - <AUTHOR> http://www.ilegalmarketing.com/1/post/2013/05/lawyer-websites-how-having-a-better-design-can-convert-visitors-in-clients.html

<comment><USER2> "Having your website design with Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal , will give your site a better look and feel."

Sorry, what? How on earth does an open source CMS give you a better look and feel?</comment>


Neko.io adds a splash of real privacy to Facebook and elsewhere around the web - <AUTHOR>

Neko.io puts the genie back in the bottle - adds a splash of real privacy to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and elsewhere around the web
If you want to stay in touch with your friends, there's no escape from Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks. But sometimes it's good to share things on these networks in a truly private way. That's what https://neko.io/ is for.
Neko.io lets you write and post secret messages to social networks and other online services. You control who of your friends can actually read the posted messages. If the true friendship ends, you can also revoke their right to read the messages. All this without setting up or managing any circles, lists, groups or flocks in the various social networks.
To protect your privacy Neko.io does not ask your name, e-mail or any other personal information - not even a username and password. Neko.io is neither saving nor storing your messages in itself. Instead, the messages are stored at whichever service or system you post them to. For keeping you and your friends safe and your messages secure, Neko.io uses the Mepin secure sign in service - https://www.mepin.com/. Mepin doesn't collect any of your personal information and it lets you use your smartphone, tablet or a special Mepin USB key to sign in.
Share your sensitive thoughts, moments, info or blunders publicly but privately with Neko.io <comment><AUTHOR> Clickable links;

<https://neko.io/> <https://www.mepin.com/>

</comment><comment><USER2> Looks like I can't use this without an iOS device.

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately this is true for now. Obviously we are going to launch other device support and means to sign in. I hope you left a vote at the site about your preferred device platform.</comment></comment>


Halluxwater: NSA Exploit of the Day - <AUTHOR> https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/01/halluxwater_nsa.html <comment><USER2> This article states the NSA developed an exploit for a product made by a Chinese networking and telecommunications firm. Honest question for HN readers inside the US: does anyone seriously have a problem with this? In my mind it falls squarely within the NSA's mission, i.e. this is we pay them to do! Question for HN readers outside the US: can you credibly claim your intelligence agencies aren't trying to do the same thing?

For those thinking about whether such things could be used inside the United States. Of course they can. So can all the equipment and weapons the military buys. And it's happened before! The gun in the Fort Hood shootings was bought and paid for by US tax dollars and it was used to kill a civilian. So this raises the question, is the military to be trusted with weaponry it needs for its defense mission even though they could be used in the US? Similarly, is the NSA to be trusted with exploits it needs for its SIGINT mission? Interesting question. An infantryman could go rogue at any time and use his service weapon against US citizens and someone at the NSA could use an exploit for personal gain, but on the whole I believe the system accounts for these possibilities in a reasonable and controlled way.

If this information is true, it seems a little crazy to me to be propagating it since there isn't really a domestic/whistleblower angle. At least, no more of a domestic angle than the military developing a new missile. Some of Snowden's disclosures are responsible for starting a productive civil liberties debate in the United States, there's no denying that. But these disclosures are ones of a different color in my opinion.

<comment><USER3> Are you serious when making this comment ? "does anyone seriously have a problem with this? In my mind it falls squarely within the NSA's mission, i.e. this is we pay them to do!"

So, I guess you are fine the US Military keeping and maintaining ready-to- fire, nuclear weapons, at pointed targets all around the world, just because "they are paid to do so" ? With this kind of logic we will never get rid of the nuclear deterrence theory, and we'll keep that shadow over our heads until someone actually pulls the trigger one day. But it's ok, because "they are paid to do so" ?

<comment><USER2> In the US "what we pay them to do" is vernacular for "it's their assigned job" or "it's what we asked them to do". I admit it's a bit of a weird phrase but its not actually referring to money. To your point: if the claim is that we're asking our military or our intelligence agencies to do things that aren't effective, then let's have that debate. Nuclear force reduction and end illegal surveillance? Sure. Nuclear disarmament and shutting down our SIGINT mission? Not so much.

<comment><USER4> "I was just following orders" is a discredited defense in war crime trials.

<comment><USER5> This is why the people responsible (i.e. commanding officers, if the war crime was under orders) are tried, and the people committing them have to deal with processing it.

<comment><USER6> Several thousand Japanese soldiers, the vast majority of which were not command staff, were tried for war crimes. About 1000 were sentenced to hang, and many more were sentenced to life in prison or long prison terms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Well the US govt has been saying that Huawei kit could not be trusted... I guess they were right...

</comment><comment><USER8> Does anyone know the process that took this leak from the Snowden dumps to Schneier's site? Did Schneier seek consensus from the the other recipients that he should release this particular information? Did Schneier unilaterally decide to release this?

Regarding the article, I think it is fascinating proof of the lengths that state-level actors will go through to backdoor their targets.

<comment><USER9> [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/12/more_about_th...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/12/more_about_the.html)

He's been linking to the leaked catalog entries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> So you need access to the router first with enough power to force a firmware update. What would surprise me is if there are vendors immune from this kind of APT. Given the money and talent invested in those hacks, bricking a whole cargo container of router doesn't seem out of reach, dissolving it in acid or other potentially destructive reverse engineering.

If they own the vendor source code then it is even easier, but the mere fact that it is a router/firewall and not an off the shelf Dell pc is of little importance.

</comment><comment><USER11> Sounds like typical NSA/US gov modus operandi: accuse others of stuff they're already doing.

<comment><USER12> Or perhaps the NSA _know_ China's doing in it, on account of how effectively they have infiltrated huawei?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> The picture:

[http://leaksource.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/nsa-ant- hallux...](http://leaksource.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/nsa-ant- halluxwater.jpg)

<comment><USER8> That is a somewhat confusing picture. It seems to imply that the CPU loads the OS and the OS loads the BIOS!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Worth browsing the whole "catalog":

[http://leaksource.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/nsas-ant- division...](http://leaksource.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/nsas-ant-division- catalog-of-exploits-for-nearly-every-major-software-hardware-firmware/)

</comment><comment><USER14> So if you are a company in need of some security, you'd better of with some open source alternative (i.e. Linux/*BSD?

</comment><comment><USER15> NSA logos are horrible.</comment>


All-New Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 Ppi) - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OQVZDJM

<comment><USER2> Interesting international pricing...

In the UK it's 109.99 GBP which is ~173 USD</comment>


Citizenship Amendment Act Protests - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_Amendment_Act_protests <comment><USER2> A little more detail in a TL;DR way (summarized, but still long):

1\. There are border states in India where many people don't want illegal immigrants to get citizenship or any other benefits. This Act, by giving citizenship to illegal immigrants, doesn't respect those people's needs and so there have been protests from this angle by many people (mostly in those states).

2\. This Act also arbitrarily discriminates on the basis of religion and location, and in the guise of helping minorities, it allows non-Muslims in certain countries who entered India before end of 2014 to get fast tracked for citizenship. Muslim minorities in those countries (like Ahmadiyas) as well as linguistic and ethnic minitories in neighboring countries are ignored. There have been protests from this angle by many people.

3\. The "chronology", as repeated by the home minister, is that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) would be prepared across the entire country and those without evidence of citizenship would be thrown in detention centers. Consider that there are hundreds of millions of people in India who don't have a birth certificate (not issued or issued as one original and lost) and the fact that even an Indian passport is not a true proof of citizenship (there's precedence with legal doubts cast on this). No government issued document is a proof of citizenship since all of those could be obtained by dubious means by anyone. This is ripe for bureaucratic abuse and corruption. Mix in the fact that the rules of the CAA could be changed by the executive to include certain non-Muslims even when the NRC declares them as not citizens, you have a huge self created problem where hundreds of millions could be declared stateless while many others are running from pillar to post with bribes in hand to be recognized as citizens.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the insight, very interesting. Do you think that verifiable citizenship could ever be a solved problem at such a scale? Is the cat out of the bag, so-to-speak? I've never known that it could be so difficult to pin down genuine citizenship.

<comment><USER2> I personally don't believe it's ever possible to solve verifiable citizenship even in larger developed countries, leave alone in a diverse and populous country like India. Corruption at the long and porous borders and local levels is one big issue. There are many other factors with the populace, education levels, digital literacy, etc.</comment></comment></comment>


What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us? - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/6679546/What-did-Life-of-Brian-ever-do-for-us.html <comment><USER2> The difference is in 1979 it wasn only illegal to blaspheme against the church of England.

Today in more enlightened times it's illegal to make jokes about any religion, [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowan- atkinso...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowan-atkinson- attacks-proposed-terrorism-law-631693.html)

<comment><USER3> Did that law get passed?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _The script was then rejected by every major movie studio before Idle and producer John Goldstone turned to former Beatle George Harrison, who quickly secured the required $4 million._

Right, but besides _Sgt. Pepper_ , _Life of Brian_ , and the invention of the CT scanner [1], what have the Beatles ever done for us?

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scanner#History>

<comment><USER5> I used to work for EMI and I'd never heard of that before. I think that just goes to show part of the problem with the big record companies now, they don't seem to like getting their name out there attached to good things anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today"

It seems from the article that it was highly unlikely that a comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian in 1979.

I highly recommend Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) - it's a great documentary about Python. The author of the article appears several times.

</comment><comment><USER7> > However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a > comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today.

 _Dogma_?

<comment><USER8> _South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut_?

<comment><USER4> Actually, any of a long list of _South Park_ episodes. Although, for the most part, _SP_ tends to be far more blunt and direct with its message.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "Vidi, vici, veni"

Classical brilliance.

<comment><USER10> My favorite is Reg's easily missed summary of the Sermon on the Mount:

"As far as I can tell, blessed is just about everyone with a vested interest in the status quo"

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Until pretty recently, the top google result on my name for years was this 1997 haiku contest: <http://orangecow.org/pythonet/haiku.html>

It's interesting to me that this showed up on HN, as I remember Monty Python being a huge part of my first experiences with the internet. Before searching was so easy, I would spend hours looking up quotes, scripts, clips, and so on.

I might be tempted to say something else that 'Life of Brian' did for us was give people like me reasons to become more familiar with the internet, leading to careers in programming, etc.

</comment><comment><USER12> I saw the movie second time while smoking pot. Almost suicidal because I had trouble breathing from so much laugh. I suggest you try it.

</comment><comment><USER13> _However, 30 years on, that same film is regularly touted as the funniest British comedy of all time_

I love everything that Monty Python ever did, but I would hardly call Life of Brian the funniest British comedy of all time.

Respectfully, I disagree. I think the author overstates his case. LOB could easily be made today.

<comment><USER14> If you don't mind, could you list some of the films that you regard as funnier than the Life of Brian?

<comment><USER13> Off the top of my head? The top two are definitely Python.

Holy Grail reached a cult status that LOB never reached, for instance.

Meaning of Life is an odd duck -- most people didn't like it as much overall but love all the scenes in it. I'd still rank it (a bit) over LOB.

<comment><USER14> Well fwiw Grail is rated higher on IMDB than LoB. And I can agree that some (a lot?) of the skits in Meaning of Life are pure gold, but overall it lacks the narrative that ties both Brian and Grail together.

Life of Brian being rated as one of the best British comedies I can understand if only because it had more of a broader appeal (at least more widespread coverage thanks to the religious hullaballoo).

Grail on the other hand, may appeal to the cult market more and be more popular on that front (being the type of people who might vote on IMDB).

I'm grasping at straws here, but at least in my books the religious aspect of Brian (combined with the overall quality of the film) would lead me to say that it's more important than the other two Python films.

It's also telling that the two films you regard as better than Life of Brian are both by the Pythons :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>