Controversial New Milk Shakes Up Big Dairy - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/controversial-new-milk-shakes-up-big-dairy-1524571203 <comment><USER2> non-wsj article about a2 milk: [http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/03/30/a2-milk/](http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/03/30/a2-milk/)

</comment><comment><USER3> There is something significant and interesting here to consider around the foods we eat. How does history/social norms dictate food choice?

With milk specifically therE was new research talking about how it is _unusual_ that we can drink milk at all [0]. Most of the world has trouble with Milk, but interestingly Europeans had developed the ability to digest milk.

Fast forward to today, milk primarily comes from "European" cows. However this "new" A2 milk comes from a different kind of cow and at least in theory doesn't have the issues that typical (European) cows have.

When my first son was born, and now with our second, they both had issues when my wife would eat dairy. At the time I researched this extensively, and went as far as tried to acquire this "Jersey Cow milk". Unfortunately, at the time I just couldn't get it where I live. If this is now a true "thing" I would be really excited to see if it would allow my wife to drink milk while producing milk herself.

[0] [http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story?id=8450036](http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WellnessNews/story?id=8450036)

<comment><USER4> We should probably clarify that it's _cow_ milk that Europeans seem unusually well-equipped to digest. Mongols have drank horse milk for a very long time, ever since they were horse nomads.

<comment><USER5> I notice a large amount of cultural bias in my own opinions around milk... Objectively, drinking cow excretions is kinda odd. And milk from a horse is highly comparable.

And, yet, my first reaction to this interesting historical info is "ewwwww, _horse_ milk, gross".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The article can be read at [http://archive.is/o239C](http://archive.is/o239C).

</comment><comment> King-Aaron Just as an aside note, in Australia this "new" A2 milk has been around for at least the last five years: [http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cattle/dairy/b...](http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/cattle/dairy/brownes- signs-deal-with-a2-corporation/2671862.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER7> I highly recommend those that have trouble with milk to try Oatly... especially their (now sold out) Barista Blend. It's the closest thing to milk that isn't. The mouthfeel of the barista blend is amazingly the same.

Don't buy the Pacific brand, it's crap in comparison.

<comment><USER8> Oatlys packages are funny. Their packages say "It's Swedish!" but when you read the fine-print on some packages, it's produced in Germany. I always preferred oat-drink istead of milk so have been using that since 1997 somewhere. My daughter had milk protein allergy when she was small and still loves Oatly and don't want milk at all. Luckily there are many other ways to get enough calcium if you just get away from the dairy industry propaganda...

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> US run-of-the-mill milk isn't even what most people would think it is.

Typical "non-industrial" way of getting "milk" is to milk a cow into some bucket/pan to hold the liquid. It will start separating and cream will float to the top. It gets skimmed and used for other products. What's below is normal milk.

In US (no clue where else), the milk is separated to get ALL fats out first. The the right amounts of fats are recombined with the liquid left over, often fortified with some vitamins and sold as "milk". This is where you get the exact, perfectly non-separating, homogeneous product, with predictable fat contents.

EDIT: there is also mechanical homogenization process as noted in comment below that does not use chemicals, but instead mechanically breaks down clumps of fats to make them more dissolvable.

Problem is, once you separate the fats and then mix them back in, they don't exactly want to stay mixed. For this you use stabilizers and other chemicals.

EU apparently is pretty strict on what these "stabilizers" can be, by specific dairy product. US appears to be in an arms race with itself to make these more intricate. These also can be allergens.

Don't know how wide-spread this is, but I know over a dozen people that are "lactose-intolerant" in US, but can consume dairy quite safely in EU.

A2 could be hitting on something similar, but for some people even non- homogenized milk from the Holsteins (supposedly containing the evil A1) could be the answer.

<comment><USER10> I can't comment on what the US allows, but the normal process of standardising and homogenising doesn't involve any additives. The fats and a liquid known as permeate are separated from the milk via centrifuges and filters. Then the parts are tested and recombined to produce a given level of fat, protein and lactose. After this the milk is homogenised by forcing through a screen which breaks up the fats and then pasteurised. There's no need for additives in this process as milk is naturally an emulsion.

One reason for homogenisation is the pasteurisation process causes the fats to clump together and rise. This is exploited when making clotted cream.

Personally I buy non-homogenised milk as I prefer the taste, but that's just me,

<comment><USER9> Good call, I'll edit to clarify that.

In milk you still get natural separation: [https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/10654-stabilizer-o...](https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/10654-stabilizer- options-for-dairy-formulations)

It's far more pronounced in milk products mixed with something else - chocolate milk, ice cream, etc.

<comment><USER11> Your edit does not clarify the fact that you are incorrect - what is sold as 'milk' in the US has no stabilizers or chemicals in it. Those are only present in milk-based products and milk-based drinks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "There is no current scientific evidence that A2 milk has nutrition and health benefits beyond regular milk"

\- Greg Miller, chief science officer at the National Dairy Council in the U.S.

<comment><USER13> It's not like he has a vested interest or anything.

It doesn't take much google time to get a more informed answer. The numbers in the studies aren't large but it's presumably hard to get ethics for feeding people with a severe stroke intolerance something that is closely related to the allergen. Starting small would seem logical.

<comment><USER14> Nutrition research is famously bad, worse than social science research. I would want to see a lot of replication before I took it with even a grain of delicious salt. The history of such research is a disappointing one after all. Humans are incredibly diverse, and it's hard to do good research with controls on us when it comes to diet, but that still means weak prelim studies are often not worth the time of day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Although the science behind so-called A2 milk remains disputed, the entry of > big companies into the market shows how changing consumer preferences create > new opportunities that dairy giants can't afford to ignore—especially as > profits have been eroded in recent years by everything from almond milk to > dairy-free ice cream.

Some days I want them to stop all AI research and get to work on an extension that removes all weasel words from articles.

<comment><USER16> You should remove all the non-weasel words, since the weasel words are the only true ones in these cases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've been waiting for this to go mainstream for a long time. Unfortunately, my experience of mainstream milk is it's generally pretty crappy, mostly because of how it's produced. In New Zealand, the average "milk" is pretty disappointing.

I've enjoyed A2 milk in the past but it's always been from boutique farms and most of the time they don't scale up (e.g. Ridge A2 Milk was a company which produced a great product but failed ~2010 I guess due to lack of traction).

I'm not sure whether it's better milk because of the chemical structure, or because it's not reconstituted in a factory. I'm personally enjoying Naturalea milk, it's one of the few I can actually enjoy ([http://goodmanfielder.com/portfolio/naturalea/](http://goodmanfielder.com/portfolio/naturalea/)). I think that their entire production process yields a better product, something that Fonterra will unlikely be able to achieve because they scale their production while minimising cost.

I'd rather pay a bit more and get milk I enjoy. Boutique A2 milk is some of the best I've had.

<comment><USER18> > In New Zealand, the average "milk" is pretty disappointing.

Genuinely surprised. One of the things I hate about living in the US is the terrible milk. I have a hard time drinking it. I don't know what they do to it here but it comes with a gross, almost off aftertaste. (It also seems to have a surprisingly long shelf life.) New Zealand milk is amazing by comparison. It's one of the things I love about going home. :-)

<comment><USER19> If available to you, I can recommend trying the following brands:

* [http://www.kalonasupernatural.com/](http://www.kalonasupernatural.com/) \- non-homogenized, available at Natural Grocers

* [http://www.promisedlanddairy.com/our-story/](http://www.promisedlanddairy.com/our-story/) \- seems to be from Jersey cows, if the color of the milk is any indication

Another thing to watch out for if you are buying Horizon Organic is the UHT (ultra high temperature) processing it and some other brands use. It makes the milk shelf-stable (i.e. a sealed container needs no refrigeration) but adds a burnt taste that can be offputting.

<comment><USER8> This is very common in Germany, it has some similar taste as the aromas they use for margarine to taste creamy. It's really horrible, I have never managed more than a sip of milk in Germany. Shelf life is three months, room temperature. If you want fresh milk you can find it in some bigger supermarkets but only a few bottles and I seldom seen anyone buy it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Paywalled but some background for readers outside Australia:

The supermarket duopoly Coles/Woolworths have had a pricing war by selling substandard 'milk' at a loss to encourage customers through their stores. The result has been many farmers and smaller dairies struggling financially, e.g the Murray Goulburn cooperative forced to sell its operations to Canadian Saputo recently. FWIW, I normally buy Jonesy's and the local deli has recently started selling St David's - processed in suburban Melbourne.

A2 is thus one smaller brand seeking market differentiation through improved product - it all tastes just like milk to me but I then don't have the protein intolerance.

</comment><comment><USER21> Made 4x on their stock since I added them to my portfolio. Ironically doing better than most tech companies.

<comment><USER22> How is that ironic?

<comment><USER23> Dairy doesn't seem super profitable.

<comment><USER24> It is, just (for a variety of reasons) not super profitable in the US.

But there's also scale, etc involved - Fonterra is cumulatively a huge dairy producer so has significant pricing power.

Also as far as I can make out (moved from nz to the us many many years ago) farming in the US seems to be much less efficient - the mere existence of subsidies speaks to that.

(Minor edit: I did a quick google to make sure I was still right about the above statements, and per Wikipedia - so 100% accurate - NZ is the only developed nation with no subsidies or price rules on agriculture, and Fonterra alone is responsible for 30% of global dairy exports)

<comment><USER25> yes nz has made headlines by reforming their agricultural business many years ago and its been working great for them.

<comment><USER26> > and its been working great for them.

If money is all that you count. Switching from low-impact sheep farming (especially in the South Island) to dairy has basically ruined the environment. It's NZ's worst kept secret. I guess it will take something like Japan's "四大公害病" to make everyone wake up

<comment><USER24> The "low impact" sheep farming clearing millions of acres of forest.

But yeah it does seem like the Canterbury authorities especially have been terrible at actually enforcing environmental laws (based on stuff.co.nz -- the best reporting and editing in the world :) ).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> For those considering cow milk alternatives, I've been drinking pea 'milk' from Ripple foods and it is pretty great.

I also really enjoy Califia Farms' Coconut Almond Milk.

And for ice cream, Coconut Bliss I find to be even better than the real stuff.

Your mileage may vary of course.

<comment><USER28> I've found that milk alternatives have more than 20 ingredients in them. I don't understand what half of them are, and I don't know what long term effects such milks have. I'd love to switch to an alternative, but haven't found one without several additives in them.

<comment><USER29> Many nut and seed "milks" are an easy DIY. Just soak the, for example, almonds overnight then put them through a sturdy cold press juicer. Soy milk is more work, as it must be heated.

It should be consumed with in a couple days, since there are no preservatives.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I think that some EU court ruled that only actual milk can be called milk so no more Soy Milk, Almond Milk etc. Don't think that it is enforced anywhere yet.

</comment><comment><USER31> Been hearing from people IRL that have tried this and swear by it. Definitely time to give it a shot.

<comment><USER32> Any of them blind it?

<comment><USER31> Not scientifically. All of them had regular milk previously and gave it up for some amount of time before trying out the "new milk."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> What's the tech behind this? Are these GMO dairy cows that do not produce the protein?

<comment><USER34> Jersey, Guernsey cows produce milk that only has the A2 protein naturally. No screening required. [http://www.honeymoonbrands.com/milk](http://www.honeymoonbrands.com/milk) and [https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/a1-milk-a2-m...](https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/03/a1-milk-a2-milk- america/)

<comment><USER35> Your first link doesn't mention A1/A2 at all, and the second says "The A1 protein is much less prevalent in milk from Jersey, Guernsey, and most Asian and African cow breeds, where, instead, the A2 protein predominates." which doesn't support your claim that they _only_ produce A2.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> We exclusively use Koko coconut milk in my family.

</comment><comment><USER37> Paywall removed: [https://outline.com/eVph3y](https://outline.com/eVph3y)

As a lactard, I can attest—I tried this and didn't have any indigestion problems. Maybe lactose intolerance is a hoax.

<comment><USER38> I think alot of it is generalized without enough scientific analysis/limited by current technology.

"Lactose intolerance" could be many different reactions that could be not lactose specifically with many individuals. Could be a byproduct commonly found with lactose(and maybe the a2 milk process removes that)

(similar to how recent, debated, studies for gluten intolerance may not be specifically gluten for many people, could be a similar by product/chemical/reaction to something commonly produced with gluten).

<comment><USER39> > "Lactose intolerance" could be many different reactions

It's not, it's pretty well understood.

OTOH, lots of allergies to milk proteins are misidentified by sufferers of them as lactose intolerance, as they have vaguely similar superficial symptoms and are both negated by avoiding milk.

<comment><USER13> Exactly. But this is poorly understood by the general population and who is going to understand or know if a particular milk protein is present?

<comment><USER8> It's going to be heavily advertised if it hasn't started already, and then everyone will be lactose intollerant. Because someone that feels better using a more expensive product will keep buying the more expensive product as long as they feel better from it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Shaking up big dairy would make big butter, no?

<comment><USER41> *yuge

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I don't understand why we can't blacklist domains on HN.

<comment><USER43> Why would we blacklist one of the most important American newspapers?

<comment><USER44> I should be able to blacklist it from showing up when I look at hacker news, either by the grace of the ycombinator site or via a custom client. Does this exist?

<comment><USER39> No, because web discussion boards are still behind where NNTP news readers were 20 years ago.

EDIT: Or, 30 years, for that matter.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> I don't want to see another good cheap source of protein be demonized, the way gluten (seitan) and peanuts have been. Most people can tolerate milk well.

</comment><comment><USER46> @dang: Can somebody _please_ tag WSJ articles as paywalled? I am getting deeply bored of seeing the domain name and clicking through anyway thinking this would be something I could actually read.

<comment><USER47> Please see [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989). As long as the paywalls have workarounds, they're ok here. They suck and are annoying to everyone, but HN would be worse without WSJ, NYT, the New Yorker, the Economist, etc., so this is a lesser-evil solution. Hopefully someone will eventually fix publishing on the web, and then we won't have either the paywall problem or the paywall complaint problem.

The situation is made less annoying by users posting workarounds in the threads, which they usually do, and have done in this one.

<comment><USER46> I'm apparently for whatever reason in the category of "gets insta-paywalled, no quota, incognito mode doesn't help" but the comments elsethread making clear that many others aren't suggests to me that I was overestimating the actual annoyance level caused across the userbase, so the current policy now makes much more sense to me.

Thanks for the explanation.

<comment><USER47> Incognito mode often doesn't help for me either, but if you look for workarounds posted in the threads, you'll usually find one. It's also ok to ask for one.

<comment><USER46> Thanks! All things considered, I have only one thing to say: Please excuse my being a miserable bastard.

<comment><USER47> We are all miserable bastards.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> Milk is produced by forcing cows into pregnancy and then taking their babies away (on the first 72h). No matter if the milk is A1 or A2, it's made of cruelty by exploiting mothers and orphan children. Enjoy your next breakfast on mothers day.

<comment><USER49> I will, it's still pleasant.

<comment><USER50> All it takes is picking up a different product in the dairy aisle to stop it from happening, why not choose compassion?

Pleasantness doesn't make up for what the calf loses or their mother had to go through.

<comment><USER50> Revealing when you get downvotes but no replies to a comment written with nothing but kidness and good intentions.

People really don't want to think about the morality of their choices.

<comment><USER51> Haha I got downvoted for a harmless joke. This thread is a dumpster fire.

<comment><USER41> Same!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Wow, they're literally creating demand for a product that serves no purpose by "glutenizing" some harmless milk protein and selling "gluten-free" milk. Shameful.

And the irony is that milk has a component, lactose, that is legitimately indigestible for large numbers of people. It was gluten before gluten was gluten, except not BS! But products already exist for that, so they're glutenizing milk because, let's face it, a sucker is born every second and it ain't cheap sending kids to college these days.

Godspeed A2 milk, may the impoverishment of your customers reduce their propensity to procreate!

Preemptive edit: the stealth marketing is so so thick in this thread! Yuck!

<comment><USER52> Are you saying that gluten is healthy? That it has no negative impact on the human body? That's contrary to the current science, is it not?

<comment><USER53> > _That 's contrary to the current science, is it not?_

No, for people without Celiac's, NCGS, gluten ataxia or a wheat allergy gluten-free eating is a fad diet [1].

[1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten- free_diet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free_diet)

<comment><USER54> Isn't the idea that these people have NCGS?

<comment><USER55> I have no opinion on the gluten-free diet trend.

I believe that the popular opinion by many is that they do not have NCGS. TV personalities like Bourdain drive this heavily by discussing how gf used to not really be a thing in restaurants, but now is quite popular.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> Big Dairy is being upped by controversial new milk shakes.

<comment><USER57> you're making a pretty low-quality joke but this headline really shouldn't have made it past the editors' desk in its current form because it's simply too confusing. (Because the term "milk shakes" makes it a garden path sentence.[1])

It's obviously "deliberate" but simply too hard to parse. Personally if I really insisted on the pun I would have put an extraneous comma that disambiguates:

>Controversial New Milk, Shakes Up Big Dairy

That still has the pun in it but at least would be readable. If people wonder why there's an unnecessary comma there they might realize the pun.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence) \- which includes "When read, the sentence seems ungrammatical, makes almost no sense, and often requires rereading so that its meaning may be fully understood after careful parsing." Certainly true for me.

<comment><USER56> It was a low-quality joke, I agree (most of my jokes are). But I actually was trying to point out that it's a garden path sentence.

<comment><USER57> Sorry, I was unnecessarily harsh :)

<comment><USER56> No problem at all. Have a good day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> Does anybody get constipated drinking regular milk? If yes, why not consider A2 milk?

<comment><USER59> Nice stealth marketing post.

<comment><USER47> This breaks the site guidelines. Please read [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16928460](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16928460).

The parent comment may be unsubstantive, but accusing other users without evidence is poisonous, and that's worse.

<comment><USER59> You just accused the grandparent comment of being unsubstantive. That sounds like a politically correct insult to me. All I did was applaud them for doing something well.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Hacker Experience – Online hacking simulation game - <AUTHOR> https://hackerexperience.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hello HN,

I'd like to share my work for the last couple years with you. I just released this web-based game called Hacker Experience, where you play the role of a hacker working for an evil corporation.

You can install viruses, hack servers, develop new softwares, DDoS players, mine bitcoins, and much more!

Love to hear any feedback/thoughts you may have.

Thanks!

<comment><USER2> Only feedback I have from the landing page:

Please please please don't hijack the scroll.

<comment> andrey-p Seconded. I'm on a netbook and actually can't read one of the paragraphs in the about section.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> No comment on the game as I haven't tried it yet, but the scroll hijacking on the homepage makes it kind of annoying to read the text, expand/collapse FAQ questions etc., especially in a smaller window. I suggest disabling it once you scroll the top section out of the viewport. This looks like fun though - I'll definitely be trying it out.

</comment><comment><USER4> One of the better scrollbar hijacking pages I've seen but it's still pretty jerky and it's really hard for me to get it to land on the sign up part.

Im using Chrome Canary on a Macbook Pro, scrolling with the two finger gesture on the trackpad.

</comment><comment><USER5> The site is broken. First I was getting 404 when I tried to log in. Then, after clicking the link in the email, I got to the tutorial. But whatever I click I always get back to the animation at the start. Using Safari on Yosemite PB2.

<comment><USER6> I'm running into the same issue. I'm actually really excited to give this a try too - Uplink and Slavehack were incredible games.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Requires too much watching of progress bars, for example if I click to download the software from the web just run it in background and once it's done let it show in software tab, going to process then clicking "complete" for each individual file is just too boring and the primary reason why I stopped playing it after few hours.

Some of them seem like they're running only when being watched.

A way to earn money, such as missions, should be available at all times - maybe based on some sort of rank.

Gathering money at the start is very very slow.

Users should be able to "bookmark" IPs both hacked and unhacked and organize them.

Upgrades are too simple and too similar so the whole gameplay is just repeated set of actions, you need to integrate the "multiplayer" aspect more into it.

</comment><comment><USER8> Clicking the Start Tutorial button on the welcome page does some things ("creating virtual machine..." etc) but then just brings me back to the welcome page.

<comment><USER9> I get the same error. But hey, please send me a message when you get it to work. I can't wait to try this out. I've been waiting for something like this for a while.

<comment><USER10> verifying your email should fix the issue

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> looks like fun! I've been holding out for a modern retake on the uplink series or some other fun hacking game.

one UI thing that came up for me - going through the university pages, it wasn't totally clear that the green buttons were actually a "next" button. After I read the software page, I saw the green button said "what if I need help?", thought it was a help button and decided that since I couldn't find a next button, I was free to start playing. Confusion set in when the homepage sent me back to the tutorial.

[edit] in terms of a fix, a simple » or other arrow-icon might fix this

also a few little suggestions that I hope you'll like (as I like this type of game, a lot!):

\- Maybe represent the user's balance purely in BTC? the idea of paying hackers in bank transfers seems a little insecure for a security game :)

\- You might run into race conditions when editing logs, depending on how it's implemented on the backend - maybe just a checkbox next to each line to quickly delete lines relevant to you? this might ruin some of the fun possibilities re. dropping other people's IPs into logs though.

<comment><USER12> As long as it can be implemented well I think it's good to have full text edit power on the log file, I can just change my own IP to someone else ;)

<comment><USER11> I agree, but the race condition kind of kills it - 2 people editing the same file at the same time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Overall, neat idea. As a nontechnical but tech savvy person, I like how you provided the information in a succinct way although the format could have been more digestible. Downloading software is not efficient.

I think this platform could be a great way for teaching people about the Internet. I highly doubt people will learn about servers, IPs, and different forms of hacking software in school.

</comment><comment><USER14> @napsterbr, just finished my first mission and got some BTC. Yay! I really liked how the on-boarding and the learning of how the game played was so smooth. For example, I was about to go back to the missions tab to see the IP address I needed, when the popup on the right showed it. This is a simple example, but this happened numerous times just in the first mission. By the end, I knew how to play. On-boarding was spot on

</comment><comment><USER15> Not sure if I'm missing some part of the concept here, but after logging in all I see is "Start Tutorial", which goes through some "loading" things, then back to the same page. No other options for any other way to navigate...

Edit: you have to not be logged in (delete cookies if you did), then click the link to verify. There's no where to paste the code that's sent in the email.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

After the animation, you are redirected to a page with some text, right?

Make sure you click the green button.

[edit] Sorry, I broke the header while fixing the AWS SES issue. Should work now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Once you click on "Start Tutorial", looks like it does an animation thing, but then just takes you back to the screen to where you can click "Start Tutorial" again... I just realized that this keeps on going in a circle until you verify your email... So if you think it's not working for because it is buggy, make sure you check your email and verify your account :)

<comment><USER15> Verified account, still happens... =/

Edit: you have to not be logged in (delete cookies if you did), then click the link to verify. There's no where to paste the code that's sent in the email.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, I removed the verification but forgot to change the game header.

It should work fine now, no need for verification.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Getting a scrollbar for the content under "cracker" in Ubuntu firefox 30.0 The scroll hijacking of course breaks the scrollbar there :D

</comment><comment><USER17> It's fun but I can't seem to re-visit a "certification" I thought I understood how to steal money but I don't and can't go back. I also can't seem to get any missions so I'm just aimlessly hacking into personal accounts. Don't mean to turn this into a support thread, just letting you know what's going on :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey,

Revisiting a certification is still todo, but I probably should've done this before releasing. Anyway, the wiki (wiki.hackerexperience.com) has some information.

To receive mission offers, make sure you hack companies. There are some on the Whois. Pineapple, elgooG and MuderKing, for example.

Feel free to ask any questions here or on the game forums

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Arg, I think I found a dead-end on mission 1. I had the heartbleed virus v1.2 and the mission called for v1.0 and so after installing v1.2, it no longer allows installation of an additional one or deleting the first one so now I am still stuck with $0 because the wrong version is installed. Any advice?

</comment><comment><USER19> I'd like to be able to try the game, or at least see a video before giving this my email address.

<comment><USER20> This so much. Saw I had to sign up to see anything and just closed out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Doesn't work for me. I logged in, got redirected to [https://hackerexperience.com/welcome](https://hackerexperience.com/welcome), clicked on the button, and it "loaded" and then reloaded the page. Repeat.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just fixed it. Please try again.

Let me know if you have any problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I love the part where it says, "Don't worry. Your computer is safe." This is the same thing they say right before you get a blow dart to your neck, a black bag on your head, and driven to an "undisclosed location." Cool game!

</comment><comment><USER23> Maybe missions should give some money up front in some cases, sucks when you don't have any money and you need to upgrade for a mission. Either that or maybe I just suck at hacking others lol.

</comment><comment><USER24> This is a very fun game so far. Are there other hacking games people would recommend? The more educational the better.

<comment><USER11> uplink is fun, and considered a classic of the genre.

In terms of education, the real thing is more interesting - check out places like hackthissite.org or smashthestack.org for some real life (ish) hacking in a contained environment. Hold your breath though as the smell of teen angst may overpower you on some of these sites.

<comment><USER25> Similar idea [https://hack.me/](https://hack.me/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It failed to send an email verification code, and now I can't resend it, so I'm stuck. :(

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm using AWS SES and many emails are returning. I don't know if it's my rate (5 mails/sec), but I'll try to send again the codes

<comment><USER26> Got it now, thanks! I'll play around with it in a while but it looks great! :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Super addictive! The missions are a little wonky though, they're not getting unlocked.

</comment><comment><USER27> Where did it go???</comment>


What if Wikipedia monetized their 16B monthly page views - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/Yuval_Halevi/status/1132019375685423106 <comment><USER2> Wikimedia's thorough discussion on the pro and cons [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Funding_Wikipedia_th...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Funding_Wikipedia_through_advertisements#Arguments_against_adverts)

</comment><comment><USER3> They could add an option to let people enable ads for themselves if they want. I wouldn't, but hey if anyone does that's their decision.

</comment><comment><USER4> Maybe they would go down to 16M page views per month and somebody would jump in the void they leave.

Wikipedia was successful because it was (and is) free. I remember competitors with a paywall failing one after the other. Remember Microsoft Encarta? CD ROM first then the web. Retired in 2009 when Wikipedia was much smaller than now [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta)</comment>


Microsoft Pulls Fake Google Apps from Windows Phone Store - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/03/28/microsoft-pulls-fake-google-apps-windows-phone-store-doesnt-fix-larger-approval-process-problem/

<comment><AUTHOR> Microsoft pulled six fake Google apps from the Windows Phone Store: "Hangouts," "Google Voice," "Google Search," "Google+," "Google Maps," and "Gmail – email from Google."

These apps were published by "Google, Inc" (instead of "Google Inc.") at $1.99 each. The only app that the _real_ Google ("Google Inc.") offers for Windows Phone is its search app.

</comment><comment><USER2> Well it's about time, they should really clean up the rest of the imitators while they're at it.

Obviously they won't because they need to boost their numbers, still it would be nice to us users, if only to make browsing for real apps easier.

<comment><USER3> They do need to boost their numbers, but I also think it is probably very difficult to verify who the publishers are. How does Apple and Google do it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> the most funny part is "comments" part

<comment><USER5> That legitimately gave me a headache to read. Just... ugh.</comment></comment>


Not-GraphQL library that solve the same problems that GraphQL solves - <AUTHOR> A few weeks ago I read about an alternative design to API that is not GraphQL but it solves the problems that GraphQL solves.
For example, it provided pagination, filtering, etc. out of the box. The author wrote a very long blog post on the issues of the GraphQL and proposed her solution. The blog was purple.
I am dying here and spend a couple of hours to find it with no luck. Please help a brother out if you know what I am talking about? <comment><USER2> Was it [https://www.graphiti.dev](https://www.graphiti.dev)?

<comment><AUTHOR> YOU ARE AWESOME! Thank you very very very much!</comment></comment>


The Rich Are Living Longer and Taking More From Taxpayers - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-24/the-rich-are-living-longer-and-taking-more-from-taxpayers <comment><USER2> So here's the thing. Social Security (SSDI) is a system you pay into. When you retire or become disabled, the amount of benefits you are eligible for is related to the amount you pay in, which is a percentage of your income. Naturally, if one earns more money over their lifetime they would have paid more into the system, and thus are getting more Social Security benefits in return.

For those who have earned very little income over their lifetime, they are eligible for benefits through the SSI program, which one does not have to pay for. However, you may not be eligible for SSI if you have too many assets (e.g. saved money, a 2nd car). The problem is that the cutoff of SSI based upon assets has not been raised since 1989. You're only allowed to have no more than $2,000 in savings, basically requiring the applicant to be completely destitute before becoming eligible. In my personal opinion, this amount needs to be drastically updated to match modern cost-of-living standards. This program is far too out-of-reach for those merely dipping their feet in poverty.

<comment><USER3> What you're describing would be the rich consuming proportionately more SS. The article is specifically describing how they consume _dis_ proportionately more SS.

<comment><USER4> The main problem I have with the article is that it is phrasing it as a "handout" and the payouts coming as "courtesy of the American taxpayer." In reality, they are collecting money that they put in, so the article is making sensationalist claims that aren't factual.

<comment><USER5> [http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/article/2013/feb/01/...](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o- meter/article/2013/feb/01/medicare-and-social-security-what-you-paid-what-yo/)

 _According to the institute's data, a two-earner couple receiving an average wage — $44,600 per spouse in 2012 dollars — and turning 65 in 2010 would have paid $722,000 into Social Security and Medicare and can be expected to take out $966,000 in benefits. So, this couple will be paid about one-third more in benefits than they paid in taxes._

 _Some types of families did much better than average. A couple with only one spouse working (and receiving the same average wage) would have paid in $361,000 if they turned 65 in 2010, but can expect to get back $854,000 — more than double what they paid in. In 1980, this same 65-year-old couple would have received five times more than what they paid in, while in 1960, such a couple would have ended up with 14 times what they put in._

 _Such findings suggest that, even allowing for inflation and investment gains, many seniors will receive much more in benefits than what they paid in._

<comment><USER6> Its also compulsory. I can't opt out and as you noted, the returns are shrinking drastically. It also passed as a savings program regardless of the horrible bookkeeping that the government is doing to keep an crappy system afloat. In fact, they have told us for 50+ years that its perfectly sustainable while plundering the institution to live beyond our means in other areas.

As for how its used by retirees today and in the past, would anyone sell stock that is paying insane an unsustainable dividends? Would you blame the investor or the company? Even if its compulsory to buy?

<comment><USER7> > I can't opt out

You absolutely can opt out by choosing to exclude employers that are either mandated, or who have chosen despite not being mandated, to participate in SS. Or by choosing to live by some means other than wage-labor (if you make all your income from capital investments, you have successfully opted out of SS.) No one is coercing you to the contrary (well, except the coercion to wage- labor that affects most of the population under capitalism and which has not generally been eliminated in modern mixed economies; but even there there are some wage-labor options outside of the Social Security mandate.)

<comment><USER8> Opting out and not participating in a wage-base economy are absolutely NOT the same thing. Opting out implies a simple choice. This is not a choice, this is either effectively be fantastically wealthy (and live off capital investments) or be fantastically poor (and live off welfare). Since the former isn't really a choice, you get to either opt-out of FICA, or opt-in to being destitute.

<comment><USER7> > Opting out and not participating in a wage-base economy are absolutely NOT > the same thing.

To the extent capitalism _isn 't_ slavery they absolutely are.

We can, of course, debate the extent to which capitalism is or isn't slavery.

Of course, again, you can still opt-out of Social Security _within_ the wage- labor economy, it just narrows your choices of acceptable employment opportunities. [0]

[0] [http://finance.zacks.com/groups-not-pay-social-security- syst...](http://finance.zacks.com/groups-not-pay-social-security- system-8212.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The article ignores the fact that while the wealthy may be living longer, they also disproportionately _fund_ social security. They may be receiving benefits for more years, but while I don't know the numbers, I would guess their ROI is much much smaller than the bottom 20% of earners.

There is certainly a very valid separate point to be made about how in the US wealth leads to longer/healthier lives and we definitely need to think about how to fix that, but putting it in terms of receiving more social security feels disingenuous to me.

<comment><USER10> No, they really don't disproportionately fund Social Security. Quite the opposite, in fact. You only pay Social Security payroll taxes on the first $127,200 of your annual income. So if you make $250k, your payroll tax rate is effectively _half_ that of someone making 125k (numbers rounded off here, don't nitpick).

Details here: [http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy- budget/204996...](http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy- budget/204996-scrapping-the-social-security-payroll-tax-cap) and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Wage_Base](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Wage_Base)

<comment><USER11> The benefits received compared to income taxed slopes downward pretty dramatically within the range of income that is subject to FICA taxation. The Primary Insurance Amount is currently 90% of the first $885/mo, 32% of the next $4451/mo, and 15% of the amount above that. So Social Security will replace most of a low-income person's income during retirement (and it's also tax free for those people) but will replace a much smaller proportion of a higher income person's income despite the latter having paid more taxes to fund SSI.

<comment><USER12> This is what people don't understand. Though the contributions may happen at a flat rate, the payouts are highly progressive. While the rich may get out more in absolute terms, on a per month basis it isn't much more and they still will have a worse ROI on SS than the poor will.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > The U.S. retirement system looks more even-handed if you include in the > analysis all government benefits received and all taxes paid by Americans > after age 50.

This graph shows a roughly flat benefits-less-revenue per quintile, but is still disingenuous because it ignores revenue from under age 50. Social security payouts start as early as 62 — so this only factors in 12-20 working years and ignores the first 28-32 working years. I would guess the higher quintiles at 50 also paid more in Social Security taxes during their younger working years.

I suspect a lifetime graph of benefits less revenue would show the system is still progressive, if not as progressive as it was 30 years ago.

Either way — the headline statement, "Wealthy Americans Consumer Disproportionately More Social Security," is false.

<comment><USER14> I am confused by the wording of that graph. Does it include a lifetime of contributions and a lifetime of benefits? Or 12-15 years of contributions and a lifetime of benefits?

<comment><USER15> I think it's the (less interesting) average benefit minus tax per year, not in aggregate. The latter is presumably much harder to measure. I'd be shocked if high earners with average life expectancies could expect to recoup (inflation- adjusted) their lifetime contributions, given the "bend points" of the benefits formula.

<comment><USER16> Correct. Given average life expectancies, the IRR of contributions vs. benefits of Upper-Middle and Top 20% are 2.9% and 1.7%, respectively. Given a 3.22% inflation rate, both are negative (meaning the returns don't even keep up with inflation).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I dunno, "living longer" is one of the least offensive ways someone can get disproportionately more money from taxpayers. I think the focus should be on the opioid epidemic that is shortening middle-aged people's lives.

<comment><USER10> Well, it's concerning that in the US, wealthier people live longer. Generally, when you hear someone trying to justify the extreme wealth inequality of the US (compared to most of the developed world), the response is along the lines of, "well, there's huge inequality in relative terms, but that's not important, because in absolute terms, the poor in the US are pretty well off". But if being poor in the US means you _die young_ , then wealth inequality is pretty important in terms of quality of life!

<comment><USER18> _> if being poor in the US means you die young_

That's not what the article is saying. According to the table it gives, the life expectancy of the bottom 20% is still 76.1 years. That's not "young". It _is_ significantly younger than the top 20%.

 _> wealth inequality is pretty important in terms of quality of life_

I think it's hard to make this case just based on life expectancy; what we really need is some way of quantifying how healthy the bottom 20% are from, say, age 60 on (or even earlier), compared to the top 20%. I suspect that this would show a much larger disparity than just the life expectancy data.

<comment><USER19> > The life expectancy of the bottom 20% is still 76.1 years. That's not > "young".

It's also worth considering that the lowest 20% is much more likely to encounter violent crime, and also more likely to enlist in the military. I'm sure those things play into lower life expectancy as well.

<comment><USER18> The key thing to look at here would be the variability: what is the standard deviation of life expectancy for the bottom 20%, vs. the top 20%? The factors you bring up would suggest that the SD should be significantly higher for the bottom 20%.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The rich pay everyone's share. [1]

SS benefits are a really bad deal for those who would otherwise save. [2]

Ergo, forcing the wealthy to participate in Social Security benefits the rest of us at their expense.

[1] [https://www.aei.org/publication/cbo-study-shows-that-the- ric...](https://www.aei.org/publication/cbo-study-shows-that-the-rich-dont- just-pay-a-fair-share-of-federal-taxes-they-pay-almost-everybodys-share/)

[2] [http://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller- socialsecuri...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller- socialsecurity-idUSBRE89H0YG20121018)

<comment><USER16> I built a quick model to compare IRR of contributions vs. benefits using the numbers in the Bloomberg article and income distribution reports[1].

With some massive assumptions (that I can enumerate if anyone is interested), the Bottom 20% quintile gets a 6.5% IRR on lifetime benefits vs. contributions. The Top 20%, by comparison, gets a 1.7% IRR. So _despite "the rich taking more"_, the system is still very progressive. Just, perhaps, not _quite_ as progressive as it used to be—but certainly not "proportionate" or "disproportionate" in favor of the wealth.

To give you a sense, had a Top 20%-er turning 65 in 2016 invested his or her SS contributions over the years in a Dow Jones Index Fund, the value of their investment would be $1.1M... versus the $290k lifetime benefit they would receive from the government. (It's pretty much a wash for a Bottom 20%-er: their DJI investment would be worth $136k vs. $130k in SS Lifetime Benefits).

[1] [https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/113th- congress-2013-...](https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/113th- congress-2013-2014/reports/49440-Distribution-of-Income-and-Taxes-2.pdf)

<comment><USER16> Oh, and for those who are thinking, "Huh, 6.5% return is pretty good", remember that's based on _individual contributions alone_. Your employer contributes the same amount on your behalf. Meaning that for a Top 20%-er, you and your employer are contributing more than you will see back in absolute dollars (ignoring inflation, which makes it worse—you and your employer give me $1 in 1970s dollars and I give you $0.90 in 2017 dollars).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Rich white women seem to benefit substantially at the expense of middle-income black men, specifically, too.

The racial disparity in life expectancy is bad on its own, but has a financial impact here.

(And women live longer, plus often end up with a superior amount of SS to what they've earned themselves due to spousal benefit, including survivor benefit. That is one of the overt goals of the system, though, and probably broadly supported.)

</comment><comment><USER22> OTOH, I wonder whether the opportunity costs of paying social security taxes are disproportionately higher for the rich than for the non-rich. What I mean is if the rich, instead of paying social security taxes, were able to invest that money, are they likely to generate much greater returns than the amount of social security benefits that they end up receiving in the current system?

</comment><comment><USER23> Was it Howard Zinn or Noam Chomsky who described these types of arguments as: "fighting over the scraps".

The point being that we are missing the bigger picture - the massive bulk of the money is going to the rich and we need to fix that problem. Then there will be plenty of money for Social Security - and it will be possible to fix it.

<comment><USER24> "the massive bulk of the money"

What "the money?" Are you talking income, earnings, government payout, overall wealth?

Your argument goes to crap really quickly unless you're specifying where the problem is originating from...

<comment><USER23> Guess you haven't heard about the 1% with most of the wealth? If so, then I don't think I can offer you any advice.

<comment><USER24> You're being argumentative without being useful.

You're not offering any advice at all.

"THE MONEY" ≠ Wealth ≠ Income. They are separate, unique things. You need to acknowledge the differences before you can have a useful discussion.

Unless, of course, you're just mad that some people have a lot of money. In which case, you can just yell about some people having "ALL THE MONEY" and not actually work towards a solution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Complete mis-representation of the truth. The rich pay more into the system than they cost [1] , and the non-rich cost more than they pay - which is OK as the system is designed to be that way.

This article is sensationalist click-baity crap that wants to paint a picture where the rich somehow feed off the poor.

[1]: [http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/13/high- income-...](http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/13/high-income- americans-pay-most-income-taxes-but-enough-to-be-fair/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Here's an idea- give people with a certain income the option to not pay into SS with the obvious consequence of not being able to collect. Make this option available to people at a certain age or less (maybe 40), so that those closer to retirement don't get hosed after having paid in for most of their working lives.

</comment><comment><USER26> I would be interested in seeing how much it costs the top quintiles to stay alive that much longer than the lower quintiles. I suspect their SSDI payments aren't enough to cover the costs on average.

</comment><comment><USER27> Let me opt then.

</comment><comment><USER28> Does anyone actually like social security?

<comment><USER29> It's very popular, since most Americans don't have anything significant in savings for retirement.

"Eight in 10 Americans think Social Security has been good for the country, with 70 percent of young adults agreeing and almost nine in 10 senior citizens saying the same."

[http://www.politico.com/story/2011/09/poll-social- security-s...](http://www.politico.com/story/2011/09/poll-social-security- still-popular-064766)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I have a modest proposal that is a kind of earned basic income. Would love comments and feedback.

Http://skilesare.github.com/immortality

Its a long term solution and doesn't fix the immediate problems.

</comment><comment><USER31> I've never seen so much poor reading comprehension and economic illiteracy concentrated in 1 thread.

The TL;DR point of the article is that the rich live longer, thus collecting far more SS benefits than the less wealthy percentiles.

Yes, accounting for the fact that they pay more into it.</comment>


Show HN: A Tool to Improve Your Marketing Skills - <AUTHOR> https://10questions.reifyworks.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I run a marketing consultancy for software companies called Reify (www.reifyworks.com) -- we've worked with several YC companies in the past.

New companies often ask us what we can do to help them get better at marketing, what direction they should go in, etc. They also want us to give them a sense of how mature their understanding of marketing is, or how well they're executing.

In response, we've put together a simple 10 question diagnostic that does the following:

\- "Grades" your marketing maturity based on the answers to your questions \- Gives advice based on the answers to your questions \- Provides links to more reading material about a number of the topics covered

We designed, wrote, coded, and shipped the whole project in a month or two, and deployed it on Netlify. It's written in Elm.

Would love to hear your thoughts!</comment>


Just hit enter to get a shell of the rooty sort - <AUTHOR> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Cryptsetup-Security-Fail <comment><USER2> If someone is in a position to do this, the chances are they already have physical access, and there are much more worrying things that can be done with that (hardware keyloggers, etc).

The only obvious thing that can be done with this (beyond tampering with firmware) is to backdoor the bootloader/kernel/initramfs/etc, but that can be mitigated with TPM/TXT/tboot (just store your LUKS key in the TPM – any tampering will render it, and therefore your data inaccessible).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm rather worried that this isn't getting the upvotes it needs.

<comment><USER3> I have cryptsetup, so I am probably vulnerable, but I do really care -- I do not have BIOS password, nor do I physically disable my USB ports. If I wanted to get a root shell with the disk still encrypted, it would be much more convenient to just boot from the USB stick.

And in the case of "libraries, ATMs, airport machines" it is likely there will be no boot-time passwords at all -- regular login process will likely be more convenient for many reasons.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, if an attacker has the ability to access your computer several times, you only need to screw with your init filesystem once to transfer your password over tcp at boot time, or just safely store it on the disk if you don't get a usable connection at boot time.

<comment><USER3> yes, but the same could be done by simply booting from USB stick. How does this vulnerability makes it worse? (unless one has BIOS password and strong physical security)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Pyrasite: Tools for injecting code into running Python processes - <AUTHOR> http://pyrasite.com/ <comment><USER2> I had some "memory leak" issues a few months ago with the api hosts of the service I'm working on. As the code changes made during the days before didn't seem to have affected anything that could be related to this leak I realized it was something about the requests we were receiving but I wasn't able to replicate the same issues in my dev host nor in staging. Eventually I dumped the memory of a running process using Pyrasite and after hacking a little bit with meliae ([https://launchpad.net/meliae](https://launchpad.net/meliae)) I was able to find the issue and solve it.

Very useful.

By the way is worth noticing that you won't probably be able to attach the interactive console to a running web server as the output is usually handled by the supervisor process, at least I wasn't able to do that in my first tentative and the memory dump was good enough for me.

Check this sample to dump the memory out of a running process: [http://pyrasite.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Payloads.html#dump...](http://pyrasite.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Payloads.html#dumping- out-object-memory-usage-statistics)

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, live inspection of running code without prior instrumentation is a great feature of Erlang which I always missed in Python. I used `rconsole` from rfoo package ([https://code.google.com/p/rfoo/](https://code.google.com/p/rfoo/)) before, but this looks like a cleaner solution because you don't have to include server spawning code in the code you want to inspect. Very nice.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've used this a few times to debug running processes that were having small issues that weren't bad enough to restart the system to put in a proper manhole, but bad enough to be affecting users. Worked perfectly to figure out what was going on, and to patch the naughty method.

It's one of those tools that you'll be glad exists when the need arises, but you'll feel a little dirty using it.

<comment><USER5> Why "dirty"? Attaching and inspecting a live process without cooperation is something that should be _expected_.

pdb is quite limited in what it can debug if you have a stuck process which is very hard to reproduce. I've resorted to gdb + python extensions too many times to count (which basically allows you do what pyrasite does, though at a lower level).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Would be nice to know how this actually works; docs dont say much about how the tool injects the code into the running process.

<comment><USER7> It basically uses GDB to call eval inside a running Python VM. Pretty simple, but quite useful from time to time.

<comment><USER8> But how does it get into that running Python VM?

<comment><USER9> GDB uses a system call(s) to attach to the running process[1], and python exposes an API that lets you evaluate code in the current VM context[2]. Specifically, [https://github.com/lmacken/pyrasite/blob/develop/pyrasite/in...](https://github.com/lmacken/pyrasite/blob/develop/pyrasite/injector.py#L22-42)

[1] [http://aosabook.org/en/gdb.html](http://aosabook.org/en/gdb.html) [2] [https://docs.python.org/2/c-api/veryhigh.html](https://docs.python.org/2/c-api/veryhigh.html)

<comment><USER8> Excellent answer to my question. Thanks!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Un-spoken complexity of NoSQL - <AUTHOR> http://pjuu.github.io/pjuu/nosql/mongo/choices/2016/04/08/unspoken-complexity-nosql.html <comment><USER2> I'm not sure NoSQL is any more complex than SQL. It all depends on how well the database matches your needs.

In my experience, NoSQL is great if you cannot know your schema beforehand, such as where the user can effectively drive the database schema. It also makes for a good place to store random UI state across user sessions.

SQL is good if you need to slice, dice and mix your data for making fancy charts and any analytics you need to do.

There is no reason why you cannot use both. The application I currently work on uses both. For the part where the user can drive the DB schema or a persistent scratch pad is needed, NoSQL is used. For the reporting and analytic side of the application, SQL is used. The downside is that the application needs two DB engines to work, but with the upside that one doesn't have to force one DB engine to behave like the other.</comment>


IT Departments Have Become Completely Useless - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/it-departments-have-become-completely-useless-2013-3 <comment><USER2> This was actually a surprisingly worthwhile article. Thanks.

I find the headline contradicts the conclusion though. Really the IT department is useless on its own these days; however, the new digital divisions the article praises will rely heavily on IT doing the grunt work in bringing their visions to life.

IT departments are just getting knocked down a notch, which makes sense given the knew omnipresence of tech.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interestingly, when the author described the CIO position I immediately had to think of bits from the DevOps movement - trying to bridge gaps and bring people together.</comment>


Ghost fleet of the recession anchored just east of Singapore - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1212013/Revealed-The-ghost-fleet-recession-anchored-just-east-Singapore.html

<comment><USER2> Hadn't seen this before, but it's not surprising. Prices for international shipping have plummeted by 80% since early 2008 (check out the Baltic Dry Index, <http://tr.im/yUGQ> ). Faced with these kinds of cuts, companies have no choice but to park portions of their fleets and consolidate cargo. Boats like this are designed to be at sea, not in port -- the only real option is to anchor somewhere safe, keep a skeleton crew aboard, and hope that business picks up.</comment>


'Mike's Candyshop': Behind the Overdose Death of Colin Kroll - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/03/nyregion/colin-kroll-hq-trivia-overdose.html <comment><USER2> The narrative being pushed here is "its bad that techbros can order drugs with the same convenience as they order pizza".

I say narrative being pushed because this is taken as a given. Would it have been better if Mr. Kroll was doing things the old fashion way, face to face in a back alley with potentially violent rabble? Would it make the news? Would the DA be bragging about it? I think not.

<comment><USER3> In every market in human history, increased convenience has led to increased transaction volumes.

<comment><USER4> I think you are wrong. But an all encompassing statement like that is probably easy to disprove. However I will limit my response to drug use specifically.

[https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/12/21.html](https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/12/21.html)

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSL5730185)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Test your drugs folks!

This service seemed to be missing the rating system that is default behavior on darknet drug bazaars. Operating instead under the lure of exclusivity. The ratings systems tend to call out impure or mis-advertised substances.

Consumers have to keep testing kits in this unregulated environment, and especially decriminalized environments where the state is totally hands off. Consumers can mistake this as tacit consent where peddlers can distribute their snake oil with no regard for their supply chain or their customers.

<comment><USER6> Testing only tells you whether a certain drug is in something. It doesn't tell you if it contains something else as well.

<comment><USER7> Also testing a powder / pill shaving doesn't necessarily mean that a speck sized grain of fent didn't make it into the bag somewhere. But hey at least there's mushies still. Stay safe kids.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> And what was his 100 hour work weeks fueling a drug addiction leading to an early death all for? A flash in the pan Trivia fad which is all but completely forgotten.

</comment><comment><USER8> This culture of drugs being cool and acceptable needs to stop. We don't need drug testing. We need education that taking drugs is wrong. The drug taker is as much as a criminal as the drug provider. I work around these tech-bros who talk about equality and solving world problems but then would go and do drugs. I feel it's a bit hypocritical. No?

<comment><USER9> Taking drugs isn't wrong, any more than drinking coffee or beer is wrong, or going rock-climbing or any other leisure activity. What's wrong is the 'war on drugs' which kills people by forcing drug sales underground, so that people have no idea what they're getting.

We should be allowing our scientific companies to research safer compounds, rather than just moralistically banning the whole area - and condemning people to death, black markets, gangs and cartels.</comment></comment>


Model 3 unofficial road trip ends in crash, driver blames Autopilot - <AUTHOR> https://electrek.co/2018/05/25/tesla-model-3-unofficial-road-trip-crash-driver-blames-autopilot/ <comment><USER2> If you are driving a Tesla and it is on "autopilot" and it gets into an accident, it is summarily your fault for trusting it. How many accidents have to happen before the public realizes this "autopilot" feature has caused fatalities for those that trusted its ability be an actucal "autopilot"

</comment><comment><USER3> > Tesla does not yet have a presence in Eastern Europe

The accident happened in Greece which, while it is geographically located east of Brussels, one would not refer to as "Eastern Europe" unless one is rather unaware of the connotation of the phrase from recent history. But, then, this is Tesla.

> Model 3 hasn't yet been homologated in Europe

Now, was a GRE word really called for here?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> You You Xue, an early Tesla Model 3 owner, created the project to tour North America and Europe and show the new electric vehicle to the many reservation holders.

Electrek's Take

When he says that it hits the median at an "exit fork", the accident sounds reminiscent of the fatal Model X accident on Autopilot in Mountain View where it confused the median for a lane.</comment>


Flecks of Extraterrestrial Dust, All Over the Roof - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/science/space-dust-on-earth.html <comment><USER2> Really awesome find. As a microscopist, I suspect I'm going to find myself trawling my gutters pretty soon...

Key information from the paper: 0.3 to 0.4 mm, metallic, round-ish.</comment>


Ask HN: A 31yr old's dilemma - process-exit Hi HN, First, some background. I'm 31, technical, and working at a Prestigious Tech Company (PTC). Live in NYC. An engineer most of my career, and in the last few years, some BD too. I've started companies before : once when I was 24 (solo) and once when I was 27 (cofounder). Both profitable, and the latter growing fast w/ a recently closed series B. I left that company very early because of a life tragedy, but have regretted it ever since.
Last ~4 years at Prestigious Tech Company (PTC) have been mixed. Great to have stability, to travel and to work with smart people. But near impossible to get truly motivated.
For much of the past year I've been quietly building, and have a new MVP that I have very strong conviction in. Felt motivated again. Believe the business is decently validated via talking to and onboarding some early users.
I'd like to raise some funding and run with this, BUT:
a) PTC may IPO in ~2020 which makes staying almost certainly the safer financial decision.
b) The 'society' at PTC is awesome. Having a place to go / big group of smart and ethical people to hang out with. I recall some of the loneliness/unhappiness of my first solo business.
c) Most importantly: I don't have a non-technical cofounder. I'm under-networked. Used to see that as a positive attribute (ha) - now it's just frustrating. Despite being mildly tech-twitter-famous I don't have many real connections w/ cofounder types in my life. Worried that when it comes to raise my inability to have attracted a cofounder will be a negative signal. Founding with a relative stranger may also be a relatively negative signal / bad idea.
HN: What would you do in my shoes? Is my failure to have built this network over the years a sign that I shouldn't pursue this? At 31, am I past-the-post to some extent?
PS: Since I'm seeking a cofounder - if you'd like to learn more, please reach me at firstname.lastname@example.com <comment><AUTHOR> 31 is still very young. We started at 36 and that was still young. Plenty of time.

That said, if it's truly 2020, then i'd say wait for the IPO. Some financial security will make it much easier to jump and do your thing later. If money isn't a concern now, then go for it.

Counter point, the market is looking to become more unstable and there is a good chance 2020 IPO won't happen, so raising funding now might be your best and get after your own thing.

Hopefully you've vested something at PTC so you have something to gain in the IPO.

<comment> process-exit Thanks and I appreciate the balanced view there. Congrats on launching something at 36 as well!

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> _At 31, am I past-the-post to some extent?_

ROFLMFAO. No, you have barely even made it to the starting line. Do whatever you think best, but don't use age as an excuse one way or the other. You're not too old, you're not too young, you're just you.

Wherever you are, start there.

Regarding the PTC and the IPO... ask yourself how confident you are that they are _really_ going to IPO. It's not unheard of for companies to use the carrot of a pending IPO - that somehow, mysteriously, is always "just a few more months" away - to keep employees from jumping ship. This works right up to the point that they admit they're broke and lay everybody off...

And even if the IPO happens in 2020, make sure you understand just how much you stand to benefit. Of course you can't predict exactly what price the stock would open at, but you can probably use historical data to get a ballpark idea. Figure out how much stock you own, or have options on, how much purchasing any options would cost, etc., and see if there are weird provisions around vesting / selling your stock, that would lock you in there for X more years, etc., etc. All of that should factor in to deciding if staying at PTC is really in your best interest or not.

<comment> process-exit Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Only on HN...

Can I be honest with you? This reads like a humble brag. You're already very successful.

No one here can make this decision for you. You sound like a capable person that is over thinking things. Assess your risk tolerance and trust your gut.

<comment> process-exit I can see how I've given you that impression, but why would I create an anonymous throw-away account to humbly brag?

If there's any ulterior motive here, it's cofounder sourcing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Go to NYTM and maybe other meetups in your "space"…there's always people looking to get in on the ground floor on something. See if you can found a company while working for PTC without compromising your job/equity in PTC (hire one or more kids to do the day to day grunt work operating your MVP).

<comment> process-exit That's a great idea.</comment></comment>


Who is using Yii framework? - antonio-R

Who is using the php Yii framework? It's been my main focus in php terms since 2010, does anyone uses it? Or you prefer other php framework or some other server-side language? <comment><AUTHOR> I also used it for a couple of projects and I found it extremely useful when I was a beginner at PHP and web development in general.

Yii shows the patterns used every day in web development now and therefore it is extremely useful for people who want to start web development with PHP. Also it has some disadvantages (or it had at least, I am not aware of the framework's state now) - e.g. testing (tdd?) is not so straightforward like it is in other, let's say "newer" technologies.

And my advice lastly: I do not know how good you are in PHP or web development but if you plan to use PHP in further developments then Yii is a good choice - I have not used it in the last 2 years but it was good 2 years ago as well. Maybe there are some other good frameworks now but give it a try at least on a smaller project.

</comment><comment><USER2> I used it for a couple of years (2009 - 2010) after getting frustrated with Zend Framework's Java-envy and enjoyed it; it was the last straw that pushed me over to Ruby and Rails, though, given Yii's attempt at bizarro-Rails with CActiveRecord, and the problems with getting testing working properly.

I really wish they would stop using statics so much, though (eg. CHtml::activeTextField()); it's really inflexible, particularly when statics call other private statics with self::... making subclassing really tough.

</comment><comment><USER3> Had to work on a project based on Yii, found it clean and pretty similar to CodeIgniter. Seems to be popular in Russia

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm studying it, Yii is very powerfull and easy to learn and the community is really active!</comment>


Food consumption and the actual statistics of cardiovascular diseases - <AUTHOR> http://www.foodandnutritionresearch.net/index.php/fnr/article/view/31694 <comment><USER2> Goes well with this morning's eggs and bacon.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Original title (originally in caps ) :FOOD CONSUMPTION AND THE ACTUAL STATISTICS OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES: AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF 42 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES</comment>


John Deere Plans to Feed the World with Robotics - <AUTHOR> https://beth.technology/john-deere-world-robotics-podcast/ <comment><USER2> Pretty tone-deaf in an 'analysis' piece not to mention the rights they are taking from farmers, and the struggle to regain them.

(Edit: If not for the sake of telling the whole story, then at least as a commercial / competitive factor.)

<comment><USER3> Which rights do you mean?

<comment><USER2> Right to repair. Sorry, it's such a talked-about thing on HN I didn't say. Previous discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9414211](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9414211)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13925994](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13925994)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13802969](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13802969)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14176195](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14176195)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17479629](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17479629)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13990266](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13990266)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=889355](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=889355)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm sorry, but if I'm going to rely on a robot, I'd want the ability to open it up and perform my own maintenance.

John Deere is actively hostile to people like us.

The only trustworthy robotics software is open source robotics software.

<comment><USER5> John Deere wants to move 50 year lifespan and secondary markets into guaranteed MRR. Just like everything in my industry as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sure, we could move humans even further away from the means of production and deploy robots to do mega-scale monoculture using closed-source hardware / software, while continuing to further the monopolies held by Monsanto, John Deere, etc..

Or, we could try to shift agriculture back to a local scale, use open source hardware/software, and community-owned infrastructure to build more sustainable, polyculture food systems.

In particular, I am excited about the rooftop farming work being done in the Brooklyn Navy Yard here in NYC(1). Our Public Advocate has even discussed building-code mandated "green roof" legislation(2). CNC/Robotics & IoT are the key to unlocking urban micro-agriculture that can begin to offset some of our dependency on dirty food, and I applaud those(3) who are working on these very important problems.

(1) [https://www.brooklyngrangefarm.com/navyyard](https://www.brooklyngrangefarm.com/navyyard)

(2) [https://www.bkreader.com/2018/07/18/brooklyn- councilmember-i...](https://www.bkreader.com/2018/07/18/brooklyn- councilmember-introduces-bill-transform-nycs-concrete-jungle-oasis-green- rooftops/)

(3) [https://farm.bot/](https://farm.bot/)

</comment><comment><USER7> In our race to the cities and suburbs, Americans have given up an incredible amount of food sovereignty, both in terms of zoning laws and our own skills. Our grid in the US is quite vulnerable and even brief interruptions could have catastrophic effects. Re-focusing on growing some portion of our food and sourcing locally as much as possible can alleviate many of these risks.

<comment><USER8> The abundance of modern farming is hard to fathom. Local food is more expensive specifically because it's less efficient and therefore less capable of dealing with significant shocks.

<comment><USER7> Efficiency is a loaded word in this context. Agricultural monoculture is destructive in many ways and yet is easily portrayed as "efficient."

<comment><USER8> Local does not mean 4 fold crop rotation, it just means close to the consumer. You have all of the same issues as regular agriculture, and add growing plants less suited for local conditions. It's a pure net loss with zero benifit.

More water use, more fertilizer use, more greenhouses, more pesticides, more machines, more labor, more of frankly everything.

<comment><USER7> I've noticed that efficiencies and the idea of net loss appears quite frequently in your comment history.

<comment><USER8> Efficiency is something I consider really important.

The difference between say subsidized green energy and a carbon tax seems minimal to most people. But, a difference in efficiency means one simply works better.

It's really easy to end up with sub optimal choices, like US efficiency regulations subsidizing SUV's. Individual choices that seem reasonable rarely result in optimal results. Add in a little corruption or propaganda and people get down right stupid.

<comment><USER7> There are serious costs to consider when you submit everything to the ideal (idol?) of efficiency. Regardless, the type of local I'm most interested in is people growing food in their own backyards. Dependence on food supply chains is a single point of failure that is completely unnecessary.

<comment><USER8> As an ideal it seems like a good idea. However, you need to grow a lot of food to avoid that dependence.

In terms of disaster preparedness having actual food stored is also much more valuable than growing plants that can't be moved.

Thus, you're either talking about a meaningless token, or a huge life commitment for minimal gain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> People who remain underfed today arent so because of lack of food/grains.

US and India combined have historically dumped mountains of wheat into the (metaphoric) sea.</comment>


Young people capitalize on cheap coronavirus flights: 'If I die, I die' - <AUTHOR> https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/young-people-capitalize-cheap-coronavirus-flights-if-i-die-i-n1154326 <comment><USER2> What about if elderly people, relatives for instance, they come in contact with die?

<comment><USER3> Yep -- was going to say the tagline should be, 'If grandma dies, grandma dies.'</comment></comment>


Conditional Python Coverage - <AUTHOR> https://sobolevn.me/2020/02/conditional-coverage <comment><USER2> I use the normal 'coverage' tool for the different environments then combine the results for total coverage. See [https://coverage.readthedocs.io/en/coverage-5.0.3/cmd.html#c...](https://coverage.readthedocs.io/en/coverage-5.0.3/cmd.html#cmd- combining) .</comment>


Airbnb Offering Free Rooms in Florida, South Carolina for Hurricane Matthew - <AUTHOR> http://www.tampabay.com/news/weather/hurricanes/airbnb-offering-free-rooms-in-florida-south-carolina-for-hurricane-matthew/2296770 <comment><USER2> People are offering their house for free and bnb is managing those transactions for free. title should credit homeowners morebthan airbnb, IMO</comment>


"Dear Microsoft" – Your Friends at Slack - <AUTHOR> https://slackhq.com/dear-microsoft-8d20965d2849#.abb8mff6k <comment><USER2> "an open platform is essential"

I don't consider Slack to be an open platform...

</comment><comment><USER3> Dear @slackhq,

Please fix your push notification systems as people have to use Skype when Slack cannot get things done! Video/Screensharing should have a checkbox on your product map. Oh but you don't have them. Damn!

Best,

Your Paying Customer

</comment><comment><USER4> Is there a solution to this slack flaw?:

addressing a single person regarding a project that has a channel: should I write in a PM or in the channel?

In the PM I have to explain the context, it's hard to find it again because you will be looking for it in the channel and slack artificially blocks easily sharing the information to a third.

In the channel I force the whole team to read my things that are quite irrelevant to them, in the worst case a small 1 on 1 debate will ring notifications for 10 minutes. If the rest of the team ignores them they also ignore any other notification that might jump in between.

Or turn channel notifications off and only work with mentions? But than it would need some education to keep mentioning, even in huge IRC channels you sometimes forget...

</comment><comment><USER4> what a weird tone

<comment><USER5> I'm not saying I think it's a good thing for companies to openly be at each other's throats, but it sure beats passive-aggressive insinuation.

<comment><USER6> I found the post pretty patronizing, but maybe that's just me.

<comment><USER7> This was not addressed at M$ at all it was passive-aggressively addressed to Slack's users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Duplicate of this discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12855291](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12855291)</comment>


Exception That Proves the Rule - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_that_proves_the_rule <comment><USER2> I figured out the proper meaning of the expression only a few years back. Before then, I was incredibly frustrated at it, not understanding how anyone could come up with such a ridiculous expression.

Now I know it's just people repeating a saying without understanding what it means. I'm not sure if I feel any better about its use.

<comment><USER3> I think a better (and more charitable) way to put that is that the meaning of the phrase has changed over time. Just because a certain sequence of works has one meaning in the context of ancient Roman jurisprudence doesn't mean that it can't have another meaning in modern slang.

Incidentally, that's why I think the common usage of the phrase "begging the question" isn't the "mistake" that a lot of people love to pounce on. It's a phrase that makes perfect sense on its own, outside the context of formal logical debate. And I say that as someone who's usually a prescriptivist pedant about grammatical rules.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Good ressources for getting started on modern Java development+Spring? - EZ-E I'm working in a company and we're making the switch to Java (using Spring framework) for our backend code (mostly API). There are a lot of ressources for Java tutorials and I'm not sure where to start. I have a PHP/C/C++ background<p>Any recommendations? <comment><AUTHOR> [https://www.manning.com/books/spring-in-action-fifth- edition](https://www.manning.com/books/spring-in-action-fifth-edition)

Is a good book, they also have a 4th edition book that covers Spring 4.

</comment><comment><USER2> Documentation for Java EE and spring is a good starting point</comment>