One Page Dungeon Generator - <AUTHOR> https://watabou.itch.io/one-page-dungeon <comment><USER2> Looks amazing!

Note that the author also has a fantasy city generator:

[https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city- generator](https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator)

And mansion generator:

[https://watabou.itch.io/procgen-mansion](https://watabou.itch.io/procgen- mansion)

If you're into that kind of stuff, there's a world map generator(by different author):

[https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map- Generator/](https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/)

and this amazing tutorial on generating maps:

[https://mewo2.com/notes/terrain/](https://mewo2.com/notes/terrain/)

\----

Also, kinda relevant - awesome talks about modern procedural generation techniques(with AI, Houdini, etc):

How AI will change 3D industry

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

Procedural world generation for Far Cry

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=NfizT369g60](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NfizT369g60)

Procedurally generating Manhattan for Spider Man

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=4aw9uyj9MAE](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4aw9uyj9MAE)

Mindblowing talks by Anastasia Opara (using cool math, deep learning, and a lot of creativity to create crazy cool stuff)

[https://www.anastasiaopara.com/talks](https://www.anastasiaopara.com/talks)

She is the author of the most impressive procedural generation project I've ever seen:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7J_9Xf_h_U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7J_9Xf_h_U)

\----

Also, I myself have made a little tutorial about procedurally generating a 3D landscape in Houdini:

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=o3mbIRZhv20](https://youtube.com/watch?v=o3mbIRZhv20)

<comment><USER3> Isn't watabou the guy that made the original Pixel Dungeon?

edit: yes, it is, it's in his page

I've used the code of Pixel Dungeon to teach programming - particularly the vision and path finding algorithms.

Of course the code was not built for that but what it lacks in didactic qualities it makes up for in _interest of the students in the domain_

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Fantastic job!

I liked it so much that I went to look at the author Patreon[1]. His main thing is creating medieval fantasy city generator[2], which looks even better.

[1] [https://www.patreon.com/watawatabou](https://www.patreon.com/watawatabou) [2] [https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city- generator](https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is awesome. The creator is Oleg Dolya[1], who created wonderful roguelike mobile game Pixel Dungeon[2][3], which I spent months on playing on my tube commute until I managed to finish it with all characters.

It's just wonderful how a single person (I assume) can get the balance of all details and difficulty so right to produce something so rich and enjoyable. Highly recommended.

[1] [https://twitter.com/watawatabou](https://twitter.com/watawatabou) [2] [http://pixeldungeon.watabou.ru/](http://pixeldungeon.watabou.ru/) [3] [https://github.com/watabou/pixel-dungeon](https://github.com/watabou/pixel- dungeon)

</comment><comment><USER6> That is really cool! The quality on these is amazing!

I would love to read more about how it was made!

Also, it's a shame it's not open source. It would be cool to be able to add features that are specific to your game (for example, replace the fantasy things that can appear in rooms with Lovecraft themed things).

</comment><comment><USER7> He is also an author of the Procgen Mansion [0][1][2] - procedural generator of buildings with a floor plans, which includes stairs, doors and windows.

[0]: [https://watabou.itch.io/procgen- mansion](https://watabou.itch.io/procgen-mansion)

[1]: The demo on that site utilizes keyboard not fancy buttons as in Fantasy City Generator, I recommend to quickly read information about key bindings.

[2]: [https://itch.io/jam/procjam2018/rate/321647](https://itch.io/jam/procjam2018/rate/321647)

</comment><comment><USER8> I really enjoy all of the generative art watabou creates. I've started learning Haxe just to understand their code.

<comment><USER9> Did they release the sourcecode? On reddit he says he does not want to yet?

<comment><USER10> Made with Haxe + OpenFL, the source code is available here: [https://github.com/watabou/TownGeneratorOS](https://github.com/watabou/TownGeneratorOS)

<comment><USER9> That's another project though isn't it? Great to see people using Haxe. Much underrated.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "6\. An intricate puzzle, swears when solved"

Brilliant!

<comment><USER12> Neat! A slightly less pleasing description I saw was "A trunk holds a lamp and a lamp", which has a definite smell of being machine-generated.

<comment><USER13> I dunno, that reminded me of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRva7z8pvwc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRva7z8pvwc)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> 0-_-0 The dungeons look great. One of the reasons is that they contain a lot of symmetry, which makes them more artificial looking than a typical random maze. Wonder how the code generates that symmetry...

<comment><USER14> I don't know how this code base does it, but I've seen another random dungeon generator that did a first pass generating symmetrical features and a second pass adding asymmetries to get a symmetrical-but-not-too-symmetrical look.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Another one that's nice is a generator from Donjon. Source code only partially available though. His site offers many different types of generators: [https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/](https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Is there the source code of this available somewhere?

</comment><comment><USER17> Awesome. How easy would it be to generate a corresponding interactive 3d environment?

</comment><comment><USER18> It seems to be scrolling off the lower right edge on mobile safari, even on a tablet.

</comment><comment><USER19> Nice generator. But sometimes it makes a dungeon with alot of dying elves

</comment><comment><USER20> Nice crisp graphics.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there any browser-based animation authoring tool or app out there? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking for a full feature browser-based animation authoring tool or app with an interface similar to the retired Adobe Flash software.<p>Of course, it should output a movie or HTML canvas file format instead of SWF. <comment><USER2> [https://www.codeandweb.com/free-sprite-sheet- packer](https://www.codeandweb.com/free-sprite-sheet-packer)

I've enjoyed this tool. Edit, I see you've elaborated and this isn't what you're looking for.</comment>


Wanna learn JavaScript? Here are 15 video lectures (with key ideas written out) - <AUTHOR> http://www.catonmat.net/blog/learning-javascript-programming-language-through-video-lectures

<comment><USER2> Nice job Peteris. Takes time to be that detailed. Thank you.

You're right tho'. Good video tutorials for programming related topics are not easy to come by. Takes a lot of pre and post production to do them right. I've never liked the 'speaker as feature' approach either with fuzzy ppt slides inserted. It seems I'm always trying to look at the screen in the background while the speaker is front-center walking back and forth next to the lecturn.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your comment!

We are quite lucky that so many high quality video lectures are being posted online for free! I love them all!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> <http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/></comment>


Show HN: I built a simple incident alerting system with flat pricing - <AUTHOR> https://spike.sh <comment><AUTHOR> Creator here. As a developer, I use a number of tools to monitor our applications and setup alerts. When incidents happen, it affects small and medium companies the same as enterprises in terms of customer loss and reliability issues. The current solutions just seem dated and not built for startups.

So, I built one myself. Spike.sh is a minimalist alternative ([https://spike.sh/features](https://spike.sh/features)) focused more towards simplicity, ease of use and un-complicated pricing catered for non- enterprises.

I built all of the backend and frontend myself. I took some help from friends with regards to design and integrations. Also, took full use of Fiverr in terms of building integrations as a plug-n-play.

Previously, I worked with Wingify which was born here 10 years ago ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23466470](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23466470)). I have been seeking inspiration from them and couldn't wait to show what I have been working on full-time for the past year.

</comment><comment><USER2> Love the simplicity of spike! I've used other products like PagerDuty and OpsGenie and was overwhelmed by the complicated interface.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting. One of the things about PD or the likes is the fact that no matter what I always get alerts.

That's one thing I definitely feel very strongly about.

Also for $7, how would it work

<comment><AUTHOR> We have spent a lot of time making sure the fall back for alerts via multiple vendors come true.

I think $7 works fine with just alerting. A consistent pricing is important - makes it easily affordable to get started</comment></comment>


Spanner: Becoming a SQL System [SIGMOD'17 PDF] - <AUTHOR> https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/46103.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> "While these systems provided some of the benefits of a database system, they lacked many traditional database features that application developers often rely on. A key example is a robust query language, meaning that developers had to write complex code to process and aggregate the data in their applications. As a result, we decided to turn Spanner into a full featured SQL system, with query execution tightly integrated with the other architectural features of Spanner (such as strong consistency and global replication)."</comment>


Ask YC: Road trip. Which audio books would you recommend? - <AUTHOR> I've got to go on a road trip for a few days. Which are your favourite and most inspirational audio books? <comment><USER2> Radiolab. It is a podcast, not an audio book, but I would recommend downloading the entire set at <http://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab> and listening to all of them.

Listen to them in order, oldest to newest. I would not recommend starting with the most recent "Jad and Robert: The Early Years" which is mainly about the hosts.

And if you want to cherrypick one show to start with try: Musical Language.

<comment><USER3> Can't second this one enough. This is by far the best show on air.

As it relates to business: the show is a veritable collection of case studies revolving around people, culture, and science. Myself: I'd recommend the Space episode.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This brings up a good point. What would it take to put "Hackers and Painters" and "Founders at Work" onto CD? I can't imagine anything I'd rather listen to. And both are perfect for short trips because each chapter is stand-alone.

</comment><comment><USER5> Podcasts from www.venturevoice.com.

Great interviews with entrepreneurs, and they're each about an hour long -- perfect for road trips.

Complete list here: <http://www.venturevoice.com/library.html>

<comment><USER6> Wow, these are great!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. It's not a technically a business book, but it's incredibly interesting for anyone who enjoys science. It does have one good business-related concept - it reinforces the idea that just having the best idea doesn't always make you successful or rich - it's the execution that counts.

</comment><comment><USER8> Okay, if you enjoy history try The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire (Volume 1) - each volume is around 48hrs each, it might sound like a lot of hours listening but it's a great book and taught me a lot about Roman history.

If you're into sci-fi try the old BBC radio series Journey into Space, Operation Luna (the first in the series).

<comment><AUTHOR> Interesting. I was thinking more of 'business' stuff, but there's always a correlation between business and topics such as rise and falls of empires. Thanks for that!

<comment><USER8> If you're talking business books try The Rebel Sell "How the counter culture became the consumer culture". and I book I love for it's story telling is Boo Hoo "$135 million. 18 months... a dot.com story from concept to catastrophe".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> 1\. "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki

2\. "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely

3\. "The Search" by John Battelle

4\. "Made to Stick" by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

5\. "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell

That should cover your trip. I've listened to all of them and really liked all of them. "Blink" by Gladwell is also good, but not as business related.

I would love to hear any other suggestions people have in this category.

<comment><USER10> I found _The Wisdom of Crowds_ hard to get through. Interesting subject matter, but the text just didn't flow for me.

"The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz was a great read.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Fredric Bastiat - "The Law" - <http://www.freeaudio.org/fbastiat/thelaw.html> (audio book) <http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederick-Bastiat/dp/1933550147/> (5 stars with 83 reviews so it's not just me)

It'll only take about forty minutes to finish.

If you go with a Teaching Company course I highly recommend their "Great Minds" series (though without a library it is a bit spendy): [http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=470&](http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=470&);

</comment><comment><USER12> Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast is a good one. Each is about an hour long, so it helps that you have lots of time:

<http://edcorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html>

</comment><comment><USER13> Feynman: "Los Alamos from Bellow" speech, "You Must Be Joking Mr Feynman".

The Teaching Company has "The Great Ideas of Philosophy/Psychology" series and courses in economics I'd recommend.

</comment><comment><USER14> 1."The Long Tail" by Chris Anderson 2."Super Crunchers" by Ian Ayres 3."Six Great Scientists" by J.G Crowther 4."The Meaning of It All" by Richard Feynman 5."Dealers of Lightning"(The story of XEROX Parc) by Michael Hiltzik 6."What I Believe" by Betrand Russell

The above titles can all be found at audible.com, and probably through itunes too.

</comment><comment><USER15> Check out <http://www.librivox.org>. They have a HUGE catalogue of audio recordings of public-domain works. Grab a list of the 100 classic books of all time and download them. Don Quixote, The Prince, Picture of Dorian Grey, Pride and Prejudice...

</comment><comment><USER16> Check out courses from The Teaching Company. I find that to be more productive to listen to while driving.

</comment><comment><USER17> Most people have the basics covered. Here is one I haven't seen and is worth a huge amount -- not business, but it will definitely help you in life.

Will and Ariel Durant: The Lessons of History A great synthesis by two lifelong historians on what can be learned from a study of history. Covers human nature, society, culture/morals and many other important topics and takes as objective a view as possible.

You can listen to it over and over and get some great insights. Dense, but easy to listen to. There is one small section that is slightly dated and shows that they were writers in their own time but most of it is timeless.

I highly recommend this. It will really give you insight into our world.

</comment><comment><USER18> 1) [http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=529&...](http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=529&pc=Business%20and%20Economics)

2) Close behind: [http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=561&...](http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=561&pc=Business%20and%20Economics) and [http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=562&...](http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=562&pc=Business%20and%20Economics)

</comment><comment><USER19> I like to dig up classic speeches and listen to them in such situations. It's pretty easy to dig them up from online archives, and they're more natural to listen to for me than audio books. Given the top thread at the moment, I can recommend Huxley's The Ultimate Revolution. :-)

</comment><comment><USER20> Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die [http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive- Others/dp/073...](http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive- Others/dp/0739341340/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210944933&sr=8-1)

</comment><comment><USER21> I really enjoyed "The Goal" as an audiobook. It makes a good audiobook because it's structured as a novel. Definitely one of my favorite business books.

(it's nominally about running a manufacturing plant, but I think a lot of the takeaways apply just as well to startups)

</comment><comment><USER22> The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Much of what makes an audiobook great is the reader's grasp of the material. Both of these books are great works of literature, but the skill of the reader makes them even better as audiobooks.

</comment><comment><USER23> I found a torrent with all of Steinbeck's audio books. There's a great Of Mice and Men read by Gary Sinise. On the off chance you haven't read that yet or are a Gary Sinise fan, it's pretty great.

I really liked Cannery Row too.

</comment><comment><USER24> I recommend: Podiobooks.com <serialized free ebooks of many genres>, escapepod.org <scifi short stories> and podcastle.org <fantasy short stories>

Look for Parsec award winners or Hugo award winners.

</comment><comment><USER25> Amazon has a wide selection of books on CD. "Good To Great", "Getting Things Done", etc.

<http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/69726/>

</comment><comment><USER26> 1\. People's History of the United States: Highlights from the 20th century - Howard Zinn 2\. Snow Crash - Neil Stephenson 3\. jPod - Douglas Coupland 4\. the world is flat 2.0

</comment><comment><USER27> I am listening to Alan Watts, Out of your Mind, thanks to the link I saw on defmacro, not sure if it's the best thing for a road trip though?

</comment><comment><USER28> I read an article a few days ago about how distracting listening to audiobooks or talking is when driving.

<comment><USER8> that's probably true, but heck you've got to do something to quench the boredom.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "The story of google". Quite entertaining and I have more respect for them after listening to it

</comment><comment><USER29> Assault on Reason by Al Gore. Bourne Trilogy by Robert Ludlum (the movie retains only the name and a basic profile of Jason Bourne, almost none of the plot)

</comment><comment><USER30> Jane Austen novels are pretty good.

</comment><comment><USER31> This American Life shows/podcasts.

</comment><comment><USER32> audio books on a road trip? how about greatest hits by queen.

</comment><comment><USER33> I would get a Pimsleur CD course on a language you've always wanted to learn. The complete box set, 14 CDs or whatever, $250. You'll be conversational a few days later, and it requires you to listen actively rather than passively, so you're more likely to stay awake while you drive.

<comment><USER34> I have to second that recommendation. I've been studying Pimsleur's excellent Mandarin Chinese I, II and III in my daily commute and road trips for some time, and I highly recommend it. It requires reasonably active listening and sentence production, so it helps you avoid drowsiness on long trips.

Coincidentally, I'm leaving soon on a car trip to Morocco and was just preparing to sync the free Michigan Modern Standard Arabic and the Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic audio courses to my iPod.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Dreams of my father by Barack Obama</comment>


Hacker News London meetup, Thursday 16th May - <AUTHOR> http://www.meetup.com/HNLondon/events/117523952/

<comment><USER2> Is it my imagination, or has the number of sign-ups dropped dramatically since introducing the £6 fee?

I don't think the amount being asked for is unreasonable, considering the speakers, the beer and pizza, and I agree with why it was introduced, but is the new system still filing up the venue in the end? Before the sign-up fee, a week before a meetup, it wouldn't be uncommon to see most/all of the 4-500 slots already filled up.

Sanderson is hilarious though. A great addition! Something to look forward to, since sometimes some of the talks can get a little... less interesting.

<comment><AUTHOR> The first two events of the year were probably some of the busiest ones we had, judging by the number of people in the hall. Last event was only announced a week in advance which led to lower numbers. The dropout rate for free events is fairly high so I'd say you get the same attendance at a 500 person free event and 300 a person paid event.

Having said that the attendance does seem to be declining. I suspect one factor is that there are so many great events happening in London these days and busy folks only have so much time to spare.

If anyone has suggestions on where the event may be falling short and could do with some improvement, I'd love to hear it.

<comment><USER2> I don't know if it's related to the larger trend, but I do find myself frustrated when the speaker lineup is finalized late. No doubt, there's logistical reasons for this, but for me, the quality of the talks is often very hit and miss, even when I do know who is attending. The Hacker News brand alone isn't enough to draw me and I'm not much of a mingler, so I rely on the speaker lineup to see if I'll go.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I had a great time at the previous meetup -- interesting conversations, accompanied by food and drink. What's not to like?

Now one of my primary reasons for attending was to check out possible job openings, and as expected, there were a few I was interested in.

I had what I thought were useful conversations with the people that had advertised said jobs, and came away with a couple of email addresses.

Unfortunately, despite repeated emails, I didn't hear back even once. Not even with a "thanks, but no thanks" sort of response. This strikes me as quite unprofessional, especially from a community that supposedly looks down on this sort of behaviour.[1] Given that I also experienced this for most of the approaches I made to organisations at previous Silicon Milkroundabout events, I have to conclude one of either two things about the "hacker community":

1) My abilities/skills are really quite ordinary at best, and not a good fit for pretty much any technocrat organisation. See also <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5664839>

2) Most people are simply paying lip-service to transparency and "the right way to do things".

FWIW, in my job search efforts, Big Companies have been far more transparent and forthcoming with their communication than absolutely any startup I've applied to. And that is depressing as hell.

/end self-flagellation.

[1] It's quite possible that I just got unlucky and stumbled onto precisely the few orgs that do, in fact, follow these practices amidst the remaining shining paragons of virtue.

<comment><USER4> The worst time I ever had dealing with a candidate was one that had been referred by a friend to our medium sized organisation. Normally that firm either hired people via a recommendation from someone who worked in that field (ie "they are perfect for what you need") or via an agency. Never "they might be what you're looking for".

What was hard for me, was simply trying to say no. It took me about 1.5 hours of research and help from some of the more experienced people around me, I felt like I was writing a dear John letter. I wanted to explain why it wasn't just a no, that it was due to the fact we needed someone who had more experience in the kind of thing we were doing, as sadly we didn't have time to train within (our normal method at that place).

When going the conventional route, I can simply email something along the lines of "failed all questions, got nothing correct simple SQL, couldn't write a for loop." even tell the agency not to waste my time, or large HR firm that we need to have better screening.

If they are a small startup, it might be as simple as you didn't gel with them. A friend of mine puts the success of his team down to the fact they all meet up in person, every friday at 11am, at their favourite bar, if people are really stressed with each other about work they drink and play table football until they are friends again. He commented how he couldn't work with a mutual friend because they don't drink and refuse to go to pubs. Obviously you can't say that to the person.

So if you've got someone who is busy or who hasn't got very good reasons for saying no to you, then they might simply ignore you. Don't let it get you down, try to understand its not an easy situation for them either and try to be much more detached about applying for roles, it is as they say, just business.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks like a great lineup of speakers! Great job, Dmitri!

</comment><comment><USER6> Aw, I am visiting London this week from the US, but booked my train for the 15th. Oh well!

</comment><comment><USER7> Lineup looks awesome, wish I could go but can't take the time off work.

</comment><comment><USER8> Looking forward to it!</comment>


A shorthand for designing UI flows by Ryan of 37signals - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1926-a-shorthand-for-designing-ui-flows <comment><AUTHOR> Heh. I do exactly this already, except with the top and bottom switched around (action at the top).</comment>


Suspension of Cogent Access to ARIN Whois - <AUTHOR> https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2020-January/105156.html <comment><USER2> Cogent salespeople are the worst in the industry. If your contact information lands in their database, they'll never stop soliciting. At least once a year for the past 6 years Cogent calls my personal cell phone. This continues despite my repeated requests for them to stop calling and to remove me from their list.

<comment><USER3> I had DataDog do this to me as well.

For many of these sales orgs "remove me from your list" just means "flag my entry so that they'll endeavor to find the flimsiest excuse to call you again." DataDog's justification for "call me again after I told them to never call me again" was that an employee had made the mistake of giving them his information at a conference and was interested in using them for a personal project. So that justified them contacting me even after I told them to remove me from their list.

<comment><USER4> +1 for this, almost as bad as ZeroTurnaround several years ago.

<comment><USER5> And New Relic, while we're at it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> FYSA Curran clarifies scope of the 6-month suspension a bit later[1]:

> _ARIN has suspended service for all Cogent-registered IP address blocks. > Customers with their own IP blocks that are simply being announced by Cogent > are not affected._

[1] [https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2020-January/10523...](https://mailman.nanog.org/pipermail/nanog/2020-January/105231.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> I appreciate the gesture, but what's to keep them from moving their scraper to a third-party cloud provider, or sales folks using a VPN?

<comment><USER8> Removing "We didn't know better" as a plausible excuse is sometimes sufficient to stop abuse. Nothing prevents Cogent from circumventing, but if they do so, that will likely be interpreted as willful violation if they are taken to court by ARIN, who is prepared to do so.

<comment><USER9> How does this square with the recent court ruling that linkedin scraping is legal? After all, it's all public data, and I have no doubt that linkedin tried to IP block the scrapers.

<comment><USER8> Unknown, since no court has ruled one way or the other in the ARIN matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Registrars like Namecheap now offer free WHOIS guard and I see why it is essential.

<comment><USER11> This is for ASN/IP whois, there is not sanctioned way of privacy/guard there, other then having a generic NOC line/email

<comment> blaser-waffle email@example.com.

then let the email filters do their thing.

Cogent's behavior is obnoxious but, really, if you have a direct allocation from ARIN you should probably have a mailbox / phone number set up to handle lots of spam -- you're gonna get way more than just Cogent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If only some GDPR-type legislation existed which made it more difficult for companies like Cogent to misuse contact info in this way.

<comment><USER13> your phrasing suggests sarcasm, however no such law exists.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> i feel the outrage, however the whois is public data. enforcing some usage restriction is beyond silly. if you actually want to restrict it, require a login to make a query. make those logins cost money so that you have a valid contract.

<comment><USER14> Correct. Or have the whois state tie to a channel that can be filtered (such as a voicemail service that transcribes incoming calls).

If you can afford to host an Internet service, you can afford transcribing voicemail service in 2020.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Cool. Now I'll just go around signing up random ARIN addresses to Oracle, IBM and Google sales mailing lists.

Cogent can die in a fire but this is stupid.

</comment><comment><USER16> Has anyone seen the network map of Cogent's? [https://www.cogentco.com/en/network/network- map](https://www.cogentco.com/en/network/network-map)

This thing is enormous. This just looks...like the whole internet. Do they fully own those undersea lines too like Google does now with theirs? Or are they leased?

I sure hope they don't turn out to be a front company for a foreign nation's military lol like I am always on here saying.

<comment><USER17> Their map is a bit misleading - they only cover North America and Europe well, which is not really "the whole internet". Their coverage in Asia, Oceania, South America, the Middle East and Africa is poor or non-existent.

Level3 (now CenturyLink) have better coverage - [http://www.centurylink- business.com/demos/network-maps.html](http://www.centurylink- business.com/demos/network-maps.html) \- but even they have poor coverage in some areas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I think this is the wrong approach. The data is public.

The place to filter unwanted mail is at the SMTP/MTA level, in my view; not at the distribution of already-public data.

As pointed out by others, this will absolutely not prevent Cogent from spidering this public data. It will, however, negatively affect legitimate users of the data within Cogent's IP space.

This is the wrong place for a spam filter.

<comment><USER12> > "I think this is the wrong approach. The data is public."

But why should the registration data be in the public domain?

I don't publish my name/address/phone number in a phone book (remember those?) for obvious reasons. My domain registration info shouldn't be any different.

'No privacy' shouldn't be the default setting, with the customer having to pay extra for 'private' registration.

<comment><USER18> The reason that the RIRs operate whois databases for IP address assignments is so that in the event of a network misconfiguration or error, responsible parties can be emailed or even called on the phone quickly to resolve problems.

This is how the system has worked for a long time, and the data has always been public. It doesn't get abused much, despite and including Cogent's recent spam to the emails that appear there.

Regardless of how you think it _should_ work in the future, this is how it works today. The data is 100% public now. It has been published. The cat is out of the bag.

Blocking Cogent from accessing their WHOIS service will not un-publish the data, and will not prevent those same humans from retrieving the (again, entirely public) information from a different IP range.

<comment><USER19> > This is how the system has worked for a long time, and the data has always > been public. It doesn't get abused much, despite and including Cogent's > recent spam to the emails that appear there.

It gets abused plenty (I get tonnes of spam to an email address that is published nowhere and is used for nothing except the RIPE whois db), and Cogent's spam is anything but recent. Cogent has been doing this for over a decade.

I expect spammers to be spammy. I expect reputable companies to behave in a reputable way.

Cogent sales people do their best to ensure that nobody confuses Cogent for a reputable company.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Issue with GitHub Forks: Private repos can be accessed after being removed - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/sarazasasa/9450d63f96e7ff799824fc98fc7f3b43 <comment><USER2> This makes sense, I had read in a blog that "forks" on GitHub are essentially just another reference in the same repo w/ a little extra decoration. It is a strategy to save disk space.</comment>


Google's self-drive cars had to be stopped from crashing - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35301279 <comment><USER2> The data can still support not having driver wheels. So the California Consumer Watchdog group, in my opinion, isn't thinking as strongly as they should about the problem.

Humans trying to auto-correct autopilot often end up over-correcting or not being aware enough. We know this because airplanes. It's not like people are pulling that info out of thin air. We know, with evidence, that humans overcorrecting AI leads to fatal errors.

So long as AI produces _less_ fatalities than humans - they should be favored.

</comment><comment><USER3> 13 cases would have been accidents, including two with PARKING CONES. yeah, give me google driving cars all day every day.

<comment><USER4> To be fair, neither cone was given a field sobriety test.</comment></comment>


I/O Error 2011: A Conference for the Rest of Us - <AUTHOR>

A lot of people got really pissed by the fact that the Google I/O Conference tickets sold out in 56 minutes, filled mostly, I think, by swag-seeking hoards. So, we thought: why not have a parallel gathering in SF at the same time, to return to the innocent, tech-driven Google I/O days of yore.
davepeck has stared a signup sheet at http://bit.ly/h9KQrR. If there's adequate interest, e.g. > 20 people coming for sure, we'll find us a space and sponsor(s).
What do you say? What talks would you want to see at a such a gathering? <comment><USER2> I am. Post when where, and I'll be there.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a good remote alternative to inviting someone for a coffee? - <AUTHOR>

As many of you probably know a tried and true standby for networking is to offer to buy a coffee or lunch for the party you wish to meet so that you can pick their brain, break the ice, and get to know them a little better before you blithely proposition them for career help or advice while offering nothing in return.  In my opinion, a little appreciation for peoples' time can go a long way.<p>However, this is just not feasible if you're not in the same city as them.  I was curious if anyone had ideas or strategies for remote alternatives.  I'd like to get some recruiters for companies I'm interested on the horn, for instance, and see what they are looking for as well as warm up the lead a little bit.  Just wondering if there's anything I can do while cold e-mailing to make it a bit more friendly.  Thanks! <comment><USER2> Sure, try to finds twitter/facebook/blog/video/presentation activities. And do some research about discussed topic. Then your "cold" email will be much more "worm". foe example : "Hey Jeff, I read you latest blog about BART strike and I agree that we need to increase number on car-pool lines when something like that happens in Bay Area I made a simulation that it will decrease bla bla bla... " If "Jeff" answers, you will have an amazing chance for a personal conversation.

<comment><AUTHOR> I like this idea... I may not make it the exclusive purpose of my e-mail, since ultimately I'm asking for an interview, but mentioning an interesting shared topic of conversation from a tweet or blog post seems like a good idea.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I would recommend trying to reach out to them on Twitter (if they use it). Also take a look at Noah's email - [https://gist.github.com/johnmurch/7090007](https://gist.github.com/johnmurch/7090007) and see if you can do some background/pitch for the cold email.

Also helps if you find someone in common and have them do the intro :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah yes, I'm familiar! That guy setting the bar so high is partially why I'm interested in crafting the best e-mail possible :)

Thanks for the reply. I am trying to leverage my existing network as best I can but trying to apply to jobs in different cities (I want to move to a major one and I'm in a small college town) is making it harder to find direct connections.

<comment><USER3> :) - If you are looking for jobs - (Self Plug) but a simple/useful tool for applying to jobs - [http://bucketjobs.com/](http://bucketjobs.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Pretty cool! Does it do Stack Overflow Careers? And is it open source?

<comment><USER3> It's not open sourced as I am debating how to either a) charge for it or b) provide more value with tools/sites to help with interview process and bank on affiliate money

It should work on any URL so as long as the job post is public, it should work :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why not offer to make a $25 donation in their name? Seems non-committal yet interesting.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't know, seems a little like bribery to me. A coffee is maybe $3-$4 tops usually (generally a trivial cost to white collar professionals considering how much it could pay off. A donation is an interesting idea though, if they end up doing a favor worth repaying.</comment></comment>


Reasons to Use Yarn in 2020 (and Beyond) - <AUTHOR> https://spin.atomicobject.com/2020/03/15/why-yarn-2020/#.Xm4qPHW4ahg.hackernews <comment><USER2> I'm intrigued as well as a bit wary/cautious of Yarn 2, in particular the move away from node_modules and npm.

"This is a major overhaul.. [T]he intention is to shift Yarn from a Node- specific CLI package manager to a platform and API for multiple languages."

It does seem timely to rethink the design and architecture of package management in the JavaScript ecosystem. Clearly a ton of thought and work has been put into it, so I'm looking forward to learning how to ride the changes.

Introducing Yarn 2 - [https://dev.to/arcanis/introducing- yarn-2-4eh1](https://dev.to/arcanis/introducing-yarn-2-4eh1)</comment>


Ask HN: What Are Hard Things? - <AUTHOR> There's a post at the op of the first page called "How to do hard things." It made me wonder, "What do HN folks consider hard?" Any answers are viable based on your fame of reference in the space-time continuum. <comment><USER2> Getting enough sleep while raising two toddlers. I'm not being cute here. Everything else in my life has suffered because my sleep is worse. At this point I'm considering lowering my personal expectations until one of them is in school, rather than struggle and fight only to feel like I'm not consistently doing the things I need to do.

<comment><USER3> > lowering my personal expectations

Yes. raising one toddler was harder than I expected, two is not simple addition. Like kittens. It's an exponent. Figure when the youngest hits 10 you may be able to have a life of your own. By that time your goals may have changed. The sleep thing does get better eventually but then everything else happens.

There's other opinions and I say nothing against them; but i will repeat what others have said: It's worth the time. Raising another human being truly is one of the most rewarding things one can do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Not easy things.</comment>


Simple Responsive Design Test Page - bookmarklet - <AUTHOR> http://www.benjaminkeen.com/misc/bricss/

<comment><USER2> There's a good chrome extension I use called "Resolution Test" that does something similar:

[http://www.benbeckford.com/wordpress/2009/11/29/chrome- exten...](http://www.benbeckford.com/wordpress/2009/11/29/chrome-extension- resolution-test/)

</comment><comment><USER3> It seems the website is having trouble loading, so here's the bookmarklet for those who can't load the page:

<https://gist.github.com/1701741>

</comment><comment><USER4> Seems like a useful tool, but it looks like JavaScript on the site being tested is disabled?

Means it's not useful for testing sites that depend on mobile js frameworks such as jquerymobile

</comment><comment><USER5> Apart from tons of other features, Web developer toolbar[1] has this functionality built-in. It allows us to save our own dimensions too.

Of course, if one wants just the 're-sizing' capability, then this bookmarklet will sure help.

[1] - [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web- developer...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web- developer/?src=search)

</comment><comment><USER6> What a coincidence, just drafting my first design with Skeleton. Definitely saves a lot of hassle.

It's a pity that currently most broken thing on mobile browsers are touch- based frameworks and custom font rendering.

</comment><comment><USER7> Some responsive sites to test it with: <http://hicksdesign.co.uk>, <http://happycog.com>

<comment><USER8> Happy Cog for me is nonfunctional -- it seems that the site has some code to break out of iframes, or some such.

<comment><AUTHOR> both work fine for me. what browser are you using?

<comment><USER8> Firefox 9.0.1.

(Just to clarify, the _site_ works perfectly fine for me; and the _bookmarklet_ does appear on upon the site; but when the _iframes_ start loading HappyCog, they refresh the page, which sends it back to its original state.)

<comment><USER9> Try adding void(0) to the end of the bookmarklet.

<comment><USER8> Doesn't help.

I'm surprised that I'm the only one who seems to have this problem, but I have found at least one possible cause: there is a linked script file /j/functions.js?2011030 which contains, among other things:

        if (top != self) {
            top.location.replace(self.location.href);
        }

So it really does seem to have a break-out-of-iframes script, unless I am misreading what this code is meant to do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I made the script open new windows

<https://github.com/emehrkay/Responsamania>

</comment><comment><USER11> How accurate is it though? I ask because it shows HN on iPhone render differently than how it actually renders.

<comment><AUTHOR> this isn't a way to render sites on various platforms, its a way to quickly test media queries based on device width, ala <http://mediaqueri.es/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Very cool, we'll definitely be using this when we work on making our site responsive.

</comment><comment><USER13> My god this is amazing. I try to make all my sites responsive so this is fantastic.

</comment><comment><USER14> Amazing. Plan on using this often. Thank you

</comment><comment><USER15> Wow. Perfect.

</comment><comment><USER8> Very pretty.

</comment><comment><USER16> Our new website hasn't launched yet but you can check the responsiveness out using the bookmarklet: <http://bigbangtechnology.herokuapp.com/></comment>


Microsoft says it would love to work with Apple to bring iMessage support to Win - <AUTHOR> https://9to5mac.com/2018/05/10/imessage-on-windows/ <comment><USER2> I'm sure Microsoft would also love to work with Nintendo to bring Mario and Zelda to Windows as well.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am surprised Apple have not extended iMessage to a web interface that relies on the iPhone iMessage app to do all the work in the same way that WhatsApp Web works.

You don't lose E2EE, you keep the requirement of having an iPhone, etc.

Sure they have the macOS desktop iMessage app but a web interface would be great for iPhone owners who don't use macOS of which there are _many_.

They could easily wrap such a web service up in Electron just like WhatsApp does for their Windows Store desktop app.

I guess Apple relying on Electron isn't likely to happen but there is no reason they couldn't over-engineer it with their own embedded browser solution.

They already have the technology as it is used for iTunes on Windows (which, interestingly, is now available in the Windows Store via Desktop Bridge).

<comment><USER4> Apple using Electron is _extremely_ unlikely. They're more likely to port iMessage to Windows with the Windows port of the Objective-C runtime + Cocoa + Foundation (a sort of modernized YellowBox[1]) they used to port iTunes and previously Safari to Windows.

The browser used in the Windows version of iTunes is WebKit, not Chromium.

1: [http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/apple/os_pictures/ybn...](http://www.shawcomputing.net/resources/apple/os_pictures/ybnt4/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It will never happen, iMessage is one of the network effects of Apple/iPhone ecosystem.

<comment><USER6> This would still encourage people to buy iPhones though, it's just a bridge between Your Phone (the app on Windows in question) and your iPhone so you can reply to (i)Messages on windows as you do a Mac.

Don't really see why they would be vehemently against this.

<comment><USER7> Apple makes a lot more money from Macs than iPhones.

And along with Continuity is a key pillar of the "Apple products work better together" marketing message.

<comment><USER8> [https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share- re...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/382260/segments-share-revenue-of- apple/)

Apple makes way more money from iPhones than Macs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yeah I see no reason why Apple would want to do that. Which is probably why Microsoft said they would like to do it.

</comment><comment><USER10> Personally I find WhatsApp having a better UX than iMessage. now the worry is about data being siphoned by Zucker zucker. I can hardly search for an old text on iMessage on mac or iPhone. have stopped using it entirely.

<comment><USER11> What are you talking about? It has search _built in_ \- I can and do regularly search for stuff from years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> However much I'd like this to happen, it'll never ever happen.

</comment><comment><USER13> Do yourself a favor and skip the comment section or you'll see where the "technologically illiterate yet happy to pontificate apple fanboy" stereotype comes.

<comment><USER14> except this is more about politics than technology

<comment><USER13> When I made this comment the top comments on the article were about how opening up the iMessage protocol would cause it to become riddled with security vulnerabilities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I know it won't ever happen, but releasing it would really help reframe Apple's increasingly more obvious unfair shake it gives its customers.

</comment><comment><USER16> Never happen.

<comment><USER17> Didn't stop them from bringing itunes or icloud. I've just found it weird apple hasn't had a web version at least.

<comment><USER18> How could you do a web version of iMessages without losing end-to-end encryption?

<comment><USER19> WebCrypto?

<comment><USER20> No way Apple is going to rely on outside technology stack for something which could damage its entire _secure_ branding.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Well, Apple has a port of all of OS X above the Unix layer to NT lying around somewhere. iMessage should be a relative doddle to bring to Windows.

<comment><USER22> Are you referring to Yellow Box and Rhapsody?

[http://roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4B800F78-0F75-45...](http://roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/4B800F78-0F75-455A-9681-F186A4365805.html)

<comment><USER21> I'm referring to the updated version of this Apple is sure to have lying around. Apple has deployed apps (Safari, iTunes?) based on a Win32 Cocoa port before. You'd be crazy to think they don't keep Cocoa/Nextstep for Win32 kicking around, even if they never release it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> This isn't a big deal really. However Microsoft wants the real secret sauce. They either want A: Apple to build a client in Windows with C#. Or possibly B: wants to able to allow swift compilation on Windows thus opening the door wide open for app ecosystem. You think probably not but then again WSL.

<comment><USER24> Microsoft has literally tens of thousands of engineers capable of building the client for Windows if Apple will let them. I am certain that no one on this integration project cares whether Apple actually does the work, only whether they allow it.

Disclosure: Microsoft employee, but nowhere near this group.

<comment><USER23> That's essentially what I'm saying. There is a longer game at play. I only state they probably want Apple to do it because they helped Apple port iTunes to the Windows Store. It's not a play for iMessage but a longer play.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure what the longer play is or how it ties into Apple building in C# or Swift on Windows, neither of which are a prerequisite to iMessage on Windows.

<comment><USER23> Well, if Apple builds an app in C# then they would probably want to use their OS to do so. In order to do that they would need Visual Studio for Mac which would allow them to work with Apple to improve those tools and open doors for developing C# applications on MacOS as well as compiling those Applications for MacOS. If Apple were to write a client in Swift or ObjC then it would do the reverse and potentially open up applications to be compiled for and run on Windows. This allowing easier porting of apps from MacOS to Windows and helping eliminate their "lack of apps in the Windows store" problem. Cross functionality is Microsoft's current game. How many different ways they can achieve it is up to your imagination.

<comment><USER24> There's pretty much zero chance that any of those build scenarios would happen. This is a hypothetical app for Windows, so it would be built on Windows, and it would use Windows tooling. No Swift, no Objective-C, no macOS. There is no reason that Apple would drag their entire ecosystem along to build this app, if they even built it themselves.

<comment><USER23> _eye roll_</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


English perception of color vs. Chinese perception of color - <AUTHOR> http://muyueh.com/greenhoney/

<comment><USER2> I failed to understand his conclusion, at all. What is he trying to say? Something about how English and Chinese perceive colors differently? Or how they favor colors differently?

It seems like a lot of the Wikipedia colors are commercial names or technical names and therefore don't really represent the understanding of color that normal people have when they view or talk about color.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very interesting. I think 青 is my favorite color!

[http://google.com/search?q=%E9%9D%92&tbm=isch&tbs=isz:l](http://google.com/search?q=%E9%9D%92&tbm=isch&tbs=isz:l)

<comment><USER4> Let me translate that for you ;)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+blue&tbm=isch](https://www.google.com/search?q=electric+blue&tbm=isch)

<comment><USER3> Beautiful!

[http://www.kittywigs.com/img/blue1.jpg](http://www.kittywigs.com/img/blue1.jpg)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Busted link?

<comment><USER6> sorry, I am getting x1000 traffic, and I am still working on it. I made a video version of the interactive piece: [http://youtu.be/IJZX5XaK0Xc](http://youtu.be/IJZX5XaK0Xc)</comment></comment>


How Imperfections Could Bring Down Michelangelo's David - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/magazine/davids-ankles-how-imperfections-could-bring-down-the-worlds-most-perfect-statue.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0 <comment><USER2> The author's description of first encountering the statue is carelessly grandiose. Do people actually have these kinds of reactions to things that are so static and overt? In order to find nuance in something like that, you either need to have extensive background context and deep insight into the mind of the artist or else your pontifications at some point say more about you than the art. Once that happens, you run the risk of sounding some combination of pretentious and disingenuous.

<comment><USER3> Have you seen David in real life?

I'm not artistic at all nor do I understand artistic nuance.

I can say there was something striking about going into that museum in Florence, seeing other massive blocks of started-on marble in the corridor, and finally arriving at David.

No, I didn't get the nuance then nor do I get it now, but I remember the awestruck feeling I got seeing the statue for the first time.

It's probably a personal perspective I'd guess.

<comment><USER2> Awestruck is one thing, but I think you need to actually read the author's recounting of his own experience (which from sounds of it is furthermore many years in retrospective) to understand why I'm calling him out on it.

<comment><USER4> There's a reason that so much Enlightenment-era philosophy is devoted to trying to understand aesthetics/artistic genius, and it's that the human response to art can be truly profound. His description is no more hyperbolic than thousands of others, and the fact that you haven't experienced these reactions doesn't have any bearing on how others experience art.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A nice reflection of modern Europe at the end. The German Super-manager of an Italian institution...

[Edit: Some people do not approve of the inconvenient truth, but are all too happy taking advantage of it.]

<comment><USER6> Europe is also full of Italian Super-managers working in other countries. Actually, I wished there were more highly skilled people coming to work in Italy (currently there are many more highly skilled Italians going abroad).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Someone should take laser precision measurements in case we need to 3D print another David. Can you 3D print marble?

<comment><USER8> One of my professors was involved in the first real attempt at this back in 2000! [http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/dmich- sig00/](http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/dmich-sig00/)

<comment><USER7> That is awesome!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Well, just after I read this, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake hits very close to Florence. Fortunately, David survived. "Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto. Three towns north of Rome reduced to rubble by an earthquake today. People dead. Lives ruined" ([https://oilandmarble.com/2016/08/25/earthquake- in-italy-why-...](https://oilandmarble.com/2016/08/25/earthquake-in-italy-why- you-must-travel-now/))</comment>


Unprofessionalism - <AUTHOR> http://www.allenpike.com/2013/unprofessionalism/ <comment><USER4> Unprofessionalism is an opinion. I'm a contractor and so its common for me to work in 3-6 different offices a year, depending on the amount of engagements i take. I've been doing this for around 10 years now. So as you can work out i've worked in a lot of different offices, in ALL of them, i've never once worn a suit, i've never worn a suit to an interview and i have the luxuary of never having to wear a suit because its just not the norm in this industry. Then i went to an interview at a bank, the first financial sector client i've interviewed at. The feedback was that while they thought i'd was absolutely qualified for the role, they viewed me as unprofessional because i didnt wear a suit.

At first i was kinda pissed off, because to me, wearing a suit has no bearing on whether i can do a coders job or not. But afterwards i came to the realisation that if a company judges my suitability on whether or not i'm wearing a suit, its not a place i want to work in.

Dont be professional, be authentic. - <USER2>

<comment><USER5> I just dropped out of business school because I realized that if I went through with it, I'd be paying an additional 6 figures to get into a job where I'd have to put on my corporate persona again. I've done this in the past, and it was just unnecessarily draining and stressful.

After weeks of internal debate, I decided that I'd rather have a significantly lower pay but be able to the same self both in and out of the office.

(Helps to have almost died earlier this year. Makes decision making a bit more straightforward than otherwise)

<comment><USER6> Funny; the article has me thinking about being more open with our humanity on the web, then you reference an apparent brush with death as a sort of backstory—something many, myself included, would be uncomfortable sharing. Thanks for being candid!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This was a fun read but I think the author is overthinking. How about: there are people in the world, quite a few of them, who like Nickelback. A "Refuse to play Nickelback" feature mocks and insults them. It's a little weird to feign surprise over that.

<comment><USER8> For me, it's not that the joke is offensive, it's that it's offensively lazy. Nickelback is a band that gets regularly shit on and putting that option in your app just says you wanted to make a joke but weren't creative enough to think of one. I'm surprised they didn't throw a mother-in-law joke in there for good measure.

Relevantly lazy xkcd: [http://xkcd.com/528/](http://xkcd.com/528/)

<comment><USER9> I don't believe that there is such a thing as _" offensively lazy"_. The sets _" lazy jokes"_ and _" lazy jokes that have the power to cause offense"_ are not equivalent.

Have you ever seen somebody appear offended by _" Why did the chicken cross the road?"_ _" So how about that airline food?"_ _" 'Knock knock.', 'Who's there?', 'Banana.'"_ _" Can I has cheeseburger?"_

Those are all lazy jokes. As lazy is as is possible. Yet their laziness lacks the power to offend. No sane person is going to become _offended_ by somebody dredging up some lame 10 year old joke about cats that like to eat cheeseburgers. Wherever you find an example of a _" joke that is so lazy, it is offensively lazy"_, there is without fail a more plausible explanation for the offense the joke elicits.

For example, _" Australians are upside-down"_. Lazy, and makes many people upset. Are they upset because it is lazy? No, they are upset because it is picking on other people (themselves or others).

<comment><USER8> >For example, "Australians are upside-down". Lazy, and makes many people upset. Are they upset because it is lazy?

Are you saying there is no joke so bland, overused, and by the books that it would make people groan and say "that joke is so bad I feel offended you would think I would find that funny"

People don't dislike fart jokes because they're offended by farts. They dislike fart jokes because they're usually bad.

<comment><USER9> > _Are you saying there is no joke so bland, overused, and by the books that > it would make people groan and say "that joke is so bad I feel offended you > would think I would find that funny"_

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. A joke cannot become so lazy that it actually _offends_ people with how lazy it is. In the most extreme case realistically imaginable, a series of sufficiently lazy jokes may _anger_ people if they shelled out a lot of money on tickets to hear jokes, but even then they would not be _offended_ unless there is something besides just lazy jokes at play.

Disliking fart jokes and being _offended_ by fart jokes are two different things. If you are actually _offended_ by fart jokes, chances are it has something to do with the scatological nature of fart jokes and your puritanical mentality towards such things. If you merely dislike fart jokes, chances are it is because you are not twelve.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Every time you go out in public or post something online, you're going to offend someone, somewhere. You'll wear the wrong clothes, have the wrong haircut, have a beard or not have a beard, have different beliefs, eat the wrong food or have the wrong opinions.

So don't sweat it when people get offended. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you and you'll have no regrets, but you'll still offend people. Just accept it and move on.

Also, I did not think your stunt unprofessional, I thought it was cute and funny. That band offends me ;)

<comment><USER11> Of course, sometimes people actually are arseholes.

<comment><USER10> There are those who seek to intentionally offend others. Those people are indeed arseholes.

<comment><USER11> Y'know, I don't like the word "offend" or "offence". It puts the blame on the victim for "getting offended", it means the perpatrator didn't do anything wrong, it means the victim should just "grow a thicker skin".

I prefer "being an arsehole". Rather person A saying something that "caused offence", person A acted like an arsehole.

<comment><USER12> You could use _offensive_ , as is commonly done. Some ban offensive speech etc.

I incidentally disagree with you completely. The blame is rightly on the victim. What offends is usually personal, vague and often illogical. It's not reasonable to hold anyone responsible for doing perceived offensive things (provided they don't actually do anything otherwise illegal; I shouldn't have to point this out but I'll hedge).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> In the next release, "due to popular demand", he should remove the feature and add in an "only play nickleback" feature.

<comment><USER14> That would be OK with me if I used his app, I like Nickelback.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Put yourselves in the user's shoes. I don't think this is about offence at all, or even about how funny or not the joke is.

Not everybody goes through the settings on their apps before use. They will notice the "feature" when it manifests itself. That's annoying in a generic setting. If it happens at that special moment crafted to cue for a song in a wedding, it's much more than annoying.

Even after the first manifestation, how clear and persistent is the in-app explanation? Because I wouldn't guess it's a feature at all.

</comment><comment><USER16> I think professionalism bores down to basic communication skills, be punctual, responsive and considerate.

I've recently hired 2 "developers" from the freelancer HN thread to find them utterly unprofessional, requiring constant chasing and inconsiderate of the projects needs.

Thankfully I didn't spend a significant financial amount on them, but, for anyone looking at using that thread I would seriously consider oDesk or something similar with professional validations as a valid alternative. It really is a crapshoot with little or no comeback, and the quality certainly isn't top end from my experience.

</comment><comment><USER17> There isn't a human alive who is immune to internet blow back due to a creation of any kind. And if there was no internet, you'd get it in the mail.

Lesson: Grow a bullet proof hide. It's a totally unavoidable consequence of living with 6+ billion people.

<comment><USER18> Develop a hater radar and keep your grind in the dark.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is not unprofessionalism; it is poor UX. The sensible backlash to the Nickelback feature is that is was set "by default," not that ripping on Nickelback is a humorous, widely accepted activity. This app could have retained that "cleverness" and "easter egg" vibe by keeping the setting but not having it be active by default. With proper UX considered, the backlash in this case could have been avoided.

<comment><USER9> Having it not set by default may have decreased the amount of hate they received but it would also have likely decreased its effectiveness at getting people to talk positively about the app.

<comment><USER20> isn't being a douchebag for PR purposes the problem?

<comment><USER9> That is what I am inclined to identify as the problem. Not poor UX.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Thinking your tastes and opinions are shared is one of the easiest ways to take your logical, thoughtful argument or product and turn it into a visceral hateful experience by your users or the person(s) you are trying to convince.

If being true to yourself involves "attacking" someone's loves and interests then you might want to evaluate your own character and definition of self. Going to effort to show a lack of respect will result in people rewarding that in kind.

Nickleback sells a lot of music and, by accounts, does a pretty good concert. The option in the preferences[1] was stupid, and having it on by default was asking for trouble.

1) most folks don't look at the preferences on iOS apps unless there is a problem

</comment><comment><USER22> This paragraph really resonates with me:

"Resistance: Developing a thick skin. A better way of describing it is learning how to filter feedback in a way that helps you grow, but discards trolling and lashing out. Usually this involves only paying attention to criticism when it comes from somebody you know and trust. If a celebrity comes off like a jerk, this is often what's happening."

I've always been taught that the first option of developing a thick skin and filtering out trolls would be the best way to deal with trolls and such but never heard of the 2nd and 3rd way described in the article.

The 2nd option of split personalities sounds interesting to me as this allows a channel to release vent. Will have to try it out.

</comment><comment><USER23> I'm a little unnerved by someone who lists honesty as "unprofessional". Perhaps he meant tactlessness or lack of a filter?

<comment><USER24> Or perhaps their experience with the dishonest suits (redundant, I know) who whine about professionalism matches my own. "Professional" and "pathological liar" have been synonyms for me since my first job.

<comment><USER25> In my experience, "unprofessional" is synonimous with "honest", but "professional" has several different meanings, "pathological liar" is just one of them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Actively hating a band/musician is faintly embarrassing in anyone old enough to vote. I mean, when you're 15 everything is either the shining heart of the universe or the worst thing ever, sure, but there comes a time when you have to realize that Justin Bieber is completely harmless and anyway nobody is forcing you to listen.

<comment><USER27> > nobody is forcing you to listen

Not entirely true.

I grew up in the Abba years. I loath Abba's brand of (imho, of course) bubblicious pseudo-music. _" Dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen. Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yeah."_

Nauseating.

But there's no denying they were very popular. Particularly, it seems, the adults around me who wanted to appear hip and happening. Abba were clean, and nice. White. Blonde. No swearing, no harsh guitar riffs, no screaming feedback, no weird waily Moog solos.

And you can tell me I didn't have to listen to them, but you'd be wrong. Everywhere I went, every party, every shopping mall,... anywhere a radio played, there was Abba. There was no escape.

Do remember that the bliss and privacy of a Sony Walkman was a thing yet to be invented. It was, I admit, the 1970's, and there's no known cure. So no way to remove yourself by virtual means when your space got invaded by _" You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life; See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the dancing queen,"_ except by actually running far, far away. Even then chances were pretty good that all you'd achieve would be _" Hasta mañana 'til we meet again, Don't know where, don't know when"_. No, there really was no escape.

The worst was getting stuck in a car with some people I was staying with (as an exchange student) for several months, getting taken to on some rare treat expedition. Need I say they were huge Abba fans. The sheer torture of sitting in a metal box, hour after hour, locked in with, _" Do you hear the drums, Fernando?"_ They'd even sing along! Now, I've been stuck on long car journeys with other people whose musical taste I fail to share. I've endured Slim Whitman, Diana Ross and the Supremes and even Tom Jones (second incarnation), and though I never did get persuaded round to their view, I nevertheless came away from each of those trips a richer person. I'd learn to appreciate something, no matter how small, in the music I didn't really like much. Once I was taken, at, I assume, considerable expense, to a live concert of Harry Belafonte. I'd never heard of him. The ticket was wasted on me, but my generous and gracious host clearly thought that Harry's brand of music and entertainment was the best thing since Astroturf. And though, aged 16, I lacked the context, the cultural background to truly love the music, I came away forced to confess that I had actually quite enjoyed it. Not something I'd run out to do again, necessarily, but as a one-time thing, I had a good time. _" Day-O. Day-ay-ay-O. Daylight come and me wanna go home."_

But Abba, I fear, no matter how harmless, no matter how sweet and innocuous just made me want to bite the heads off kittens.

      Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
      Waterloo - promise to love you for ever more
      Waterloo - couldn't escape if I wanted to
      Waterloo - knowing my fate is to be with you

Time is the great healer. All things pass, and so did the 70's. Abba, along with covers of their songs too numerous to mention by artists too talentless to remember, endured astonishingly longer than deserved. It must have been well into the era of Ian Drury and Sid Vicious before Abba finally - <USER3> - began to fade from the public mind.

Just when I though it was safe to once again listen to music in random public places, some idiot decided to cash in on the nostalgia of an older generation. Yes, they made an Abba musical. Dear gods. How do I escape this madness. This sickness. My life has been subjected to an on-going cruel and unusual punishment from which, it seems, I am unable to flee. What devil's work is this, this Abba Life?

Finally I can return to the present. We'd survived the all too enduring Madness, some of us by chewing limbs off to escape. Thankfully by the time of the Return of the Madness we had some better options. We stuck earbuds in our ears and cranked the volume on our iPods to deafness inducing levels, drowning out _" Chiquitita, you and I know How the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving"_ with the symphonic grandeur of Iron Maiden. Oh yes, at least we had an Abba block plugin.

At last Abba fades. Some of us who passed through the Uncanny Valley live on in fear and terror that the Vikings may yet raid again. After all, how many time did Tom Jones managed to get himself resuscitated?

      Mamma mia, here I go again
      My my, how can I resist you?
      Mamma mia, does it show again?
      My my, just how much I've missed you

No. Sometimes they really _are_ forcing you to listen.

<comment><USER28> Upvoted for sympathy. You just defined a new meaning of Stockholm Syndrome:

Post-traumatic stress disorder caused by being forced to listen to Swedish pop music for a prolonged period of time. Symptoms include being able to recite silly, meaningless lyrics even decades after exposure.

<comment><USER27> Just to reassure you, I really have nothing against the Swedes or Swedish music. I listen to lots and lots of Swedish musicians. Just so long as it's Metal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I have done things like this, like adding "get your war on" to the svn repo navigator page, [http://www.mnftiu.cc/category/gywo/war81/](http://www.mnftiu.cc/category/gywo/war81/) I thought it was hilarious, they paid some dude to "work the weekend" to figure out how to remove it. In retrospect, I should have DONE EXACTLY WHAT I DID, but also add a button to hide the artwork. We need to be human and express ourselves. Nothing of interest happens by consensus.

The nickelback feature should have popped up a dialog, the problem would have solved itself. I see you are playing nickelback 0_o ...

I put this right here, [http://funkatron.com/posts/empathy-is-our-most- important-att...](http://funkatron.com/posts/empathy-is-our-most-important- attribute.html)

</comment><comment><USER30> I think there's a difference between being whimsical, and being a d-bag, or disingenuous. I don't find the ban feature bad it's obviously meant as an in joke. However, I don't think the realization that someone will always be offended by something you do lets you off the hook from being an honest, authentic, reasonable person.

There are many pundits who read an article like this and think "yeah, I resonate with this. All of my snark filled, douche-baggy, disingenuous blog posts are equivalent to a Nickelback setting, and so I don't need to worry or adjust my behavior. I'm OK, it's my detractors and haters that are the issue."

I think being professional boils down to being honest and fair.

</comment><comment><USER31> TL;DR: haters gonna hate

</comment><comment><USER32> There's no such thing as "offensive", and I'm offended any adult could come to any other sane conclusion.</comment>


Privacy experts urge the Senate Committee for a federal privacy bill yesterday - <AUTHOR> https://hub.packtpub.com/privacy-experts-urge-the-senate-commerce-committee-for-a-strong-federal-privacy-bill-that-sets-a-floor-not-a-ceiling/ <comment><AUTHOR> The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing yesterday on consumer data privacy. The hearing focused on the perspective of privacy advocates and other experts.The major focus was on implementing a strong common federal consumer privacy bill "that sets a floor, not a ceiling.

What is your take on this privacy bill? Comment below with your thoughts.</comment>


Ask HN: How to learn fast? - <AUTHOR> Learning by reading or learning through school or learning by doing <comment><USER2> Learning is a skill that can be practiced, like any other skill. You get better at piano too, if you do it for years.

The difference is that most people don't think about learning or try to get better at it, because it's a "meta-skill". If you learn the piano, you think about piano. If you learn React, you think about that. Most people don't think about the process of learning itself that went into both of those, so they don't particularly get better at that learning process.

If you do, you'll get better at it as you practice. You'll ask yourself questions like, "What sorts of materials made it really easy for me to grasp the last topic?" If you know the answer, you'll search those materials out.

You'll ask questions like, "What's the best order to introduce concepts in, when picking up a new topic?" If you know the answer, you'll learn the next topic in that conceptual order.

You'll also make the process of learning a habit, just like you would piano practice. The goal isn't to just be awesome at it, the goal is to do it all the time. Being good at it is in the practicing.

Above all, if you inspect your own knowledge you'll find that human knowledge is somewhat tree like. You get a base in primary school. You grow major branches off of that (chemistry, physics). You then grow tiny twigs off of that. And some of us have richly developed and finely wrought tiny branches off of other branches. But the point of "knowledge as a tree" is that to learn something you have to have something to hang it off of. There is no branch without a trunk, so don't try to learn calculus before you can add. There is no tiny branch without a big fat heavy one holding it (so don't try to learn organic chemistry before you know what a covalent reaction is).

If you know the structure of the tree, then you have a map of how to proceed.

To the final question: by reading or by doing? Depends on what you're learning, and depends on who you are, so you need to know a little bit about yourself. Some topics can only be learned by doing (playing the piano). Strangely, some cannot be done without extensive reading! (How to craft poetry, or do research).

School vs. learning by yourself is just a personal choice, dealing with your motivations, having nothing to do with "what's best". It's like rice vs. pasta -- which should you eat for lunch? Bogus question.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am learning coding python. What is the fastest way to learn it?

<comment><USER2> This question is not "how to learn fast" it's "how to learn python fast". Those are different issues. In my post, if you consider it then you'll know that the answer depends on you, and depends on what programming languages you already know.

I could give you something simple like, "learn python fast by equating it to other things you know" but I can't say anything specific since I don't know you or what you know.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.</comment>


All about 64-bit programming in one place - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/viva64/comments/gp16i/all_about_64bit_programming_in_one_place/

<comment><USER2> Single file: <https://www.readability.com/articles/bjccjm5f></comment>


Don't give money [that's restricted] to Haiti - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/01/15/dont-give-money-to-haiti/

<comment><USER2> It's unfortunate that he had to use such a link-bait headline on an otherwise very insightful essay. A more accurate title would have been "Don't give money to only Haiti".

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree. I was reluctant to change the author's headline, but I've just edited it to include [restricted to]. It does seem like an important story to anyone looking at donating.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I've been doing aid/development work for several years. The process of disaster giving right now is unfortunately deeply flawed.

Most aid workers are already on Facebook, and there are a lot of them. A guided social-giving application which allowed people to find personal connections to development workers within degrees of their actual social network would be more efficient. Money would flow based on degrees of trust, not hearsay or marketing.

An app allowing people direct access to professionals their friends trust would increase accountability and help people personally engage with and fund projects over time, regardless of the size of the organization.

<comment><USER4> Isn't that what Causes is for?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I agree with the unrestricted donation part. My money went MSF primarily because they had a staff of more than 700 people before the earth quake struck and knew how to help the country.

<comment><USER6> For me, MSF's draw has always been their great accountability, much lower overhead and coverage that extends beyond those 50/100/200-year natural disasters.

<comment><USER7> Agreed. MSF is the only large charity I would consider donating too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Alternatively, if you'd like to help Haiti specifically don't give money to large international charities. They are the McDonald's of humanitarian assistance: big, generic, and predictable, but not necessarily the best available.

My family has friends who lived in Haiti for many years, and they are holding back on donating to the large charities on the basis that the real need for funds will be at native Haitian organizations, which will take a few months to get back on their feet and be able to accept donations.

If you'd like to help Haiti specifically, that's still an admirable impulse, but your money will be better spent if you give it to actual Haitians (and it will require some effort to work out which ones).

</comment><comment><USER9> Charity isn't always about being as "effective" as possible. People there are literally dying from not having food, water, and medical care. I hate to say this on hacker news, but not _everything_ is a numbers game. Haiti is in a humanitarian crisis right now. Yes, you could logically say to yourself that X dollars would be more "effective" elsewhere and that Haiti will never become a flourishing country, but that largely misses the point. It also presumes that you have the balls to say who should live and who should die. People there need help. Now.

A good charity I donated to is Partners in Health which was founded in Haiti (by an American) and has always been in Haiti. You can read more about them in "Mountains Beyond Mountains" which coincidentally and topically was written by Tracy Kidder who also wrote "Soul of a new Machine".

<comment><USER10> _"""People there are literally dying from not having food, water, and medical care."""_

Like tens of thousands of people around the world every day. This is different in the media attention it has, and possibly in the geographic concentration of suffering but not in the numbers of suffering people or the type of suffering. People in Haiti were so poor they were _eating mud_ to prolong their lives not long ago.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/food.internation...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/29/food.internationalaidanddevelopment)

People need help _now_ , but they also needed help _then_ when nobody was listening. It's not horrible and callous to point this out, it doesn't mean I think helping in Haiti now is a bad thing and it doesn't mean I don't feel unhappy at the level of suffering in Haiti, but ->

 _"""I hate to say this on hacker news, but not everything is a numbers game [..] but that largely misses the point."""_

If the point is not "help as many people as possible" then what _is_ it? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it can't be "help the most talked about issue of the moment", or "help whatever makes you feel most guilty", can it?

It's not a game, but it is a numbers thing - if what the article says is accurate then a considered response where you give to MSF instead of Yele might be helping more people. If you want to ignore things like this in your hurry then who is helped?. But if you want to help Haiti 'now now now' then giving to MSF who 'have enough for their Haiti operations for a decade' will not have any immediate effect. If more money isn't going to help, that's an incredibly important thing to consider if all you can do is give money from a long way away.

A considered action is not inherently worse than an ill considered action and the conflicts you present between thinking vs acting, wanting to help vs choosing who lives and who dies and being human vs considering are false, unhelpful.

 _"""It also presumes that you have the balls to say who should live and who should die."""_

Humans make the live/die decision a _lot_ , medical treatments have it implicitly, all changes to building codes to make buildings safer, all policies on water cleanliness, all women and children first habits. By choosing to help Haiti you are making the live/die decision for all the others you don't help.

Ignoring it doesn't make it go away, and thinking about it does not make a horrible callous person who is trying to play God.

<comment><USER11> Your over-analyzing makes your post seem very cold and callous. Yes it's getting a lot of media attention and people are pouring in money...so what..the alternative would be to simply ignore everything like the rest of the world suffering year-round.

<comment><USER10> _"""Your over-analyzing makes your post seem very cold and callous."""_

It does, but it shouldn't (or maybe it should and I am?). The parent post was exhorting me to act without thinking, and that sets off my skeptical spidey sense and makes me ask what's in it for them? It's a pressure tactic that people selling things use to get me to make a worse decision than I would otherwise make. In the case of helping people, making a worse decision is, well, worse.

A read of the article suggests that donating to some cause would be of no particular help, donating elsewhere might go to a celebrity's recording studio fees, and doing it one way might lead to it sitting in a bank account for five years being unable to help anyone. How far is over-analyzing and how far merely analyzing?

"""Yes it's getting a lot of media attention and people are pouring in money...so what"""

So the need for me to act immediately is less. So it's presenting a distorted and unbalanced view of problems in the world with the potential of over assigning to one cause and at the same time increasing suffering elsewhere because resources are reduced. So the media has a habit of turning everything into extremely opposed black and white views and a huge media fuss makes it more difficult to sift out accurate and detailed information on a topic. So a huge media fuss increases social pressure to 'donate now' without thinking and without regard for whether lack of cash is a main bottleneck or not.

 _"""the alternative would be to simply ignore everything like the rest of the world suffering year-round"""_

That's another issue. Why is it that we happily go about our lives every day doing just that, but it's not OK to do that now? Isn't that part of the media fuss generating social pressure so that people act to be seen to be donating rather than for any other reason? Very much an 'ends justify the means' approach?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The GiveWell organization gave similar sentiments: [http://blog.givewell.net/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake- donatio...](http://blog.givewell.net/2010/01/13/haiti-earthquake-donations/)

</comment><comment><USER13> I donated to Direct Relief, and I hope it helps.

</comment><comment><USER14> the CNN reporters driving around in an empty pickup truck talking about no medical suppies .why don,t they go and get some this is making me sick...

</comment><comment><USER14> Obama should get off his ass and get things moving</comment>