The truth about Goobuntu: Google's in-house desktop Ubuntu Linux - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/the-truth-about-goobuntu-googles-in-house-desktop-ubuntu-linux-7000003462/ <comment><USER2> _"Google is a paying customer for Canonical's Ubuntu Advantage support program."_

Good news for desktop Ubuntu users.

 _'Chris Kenyon, who is Canonical's VP of Sales and Business Development, and was present for Bushnell's talk confirmed this and added that "Google is not our largest business desktop customer."'_

Better yet.

</comment><comment><USER3> ""We chose Debian because packages and apt [Debian's basic software package programs] are light-years of RPM (Red Had and SUSE's default package management system.]""

Would someone mind giving a brief overview of why apt is better than rpm (or why someone might think this?)?

<comment><USER4> I'm a Debian fanboy, but in all honesty, the RPM-based distros have long since caught up with apt in terms of sophistication.

I did find yum (the apt equivalent used by Red Hat and friends) a bit slow (it's written in Python) and slightly rough on the usability front in some cases, but perfectly serviceable.

Mandriva and its derivatives (Mageia is worth looking at) use urpmi to provide the equivalent of apt. I really, really like urpmi, but none of the distros that use it have satisfied me (for unrelated reasons).

SuSE and friends have advanced package management baked into YaST, which handles other configuration and setup tasks as well. I haven't used SuSE in ages, but it the package management seems pretty robust.

<comment><USER5> It's a bit sad that many people attribute yum's slowness to Python. Most of that is because it builds an XML db every single time it runs.

<comment><USER6> Absolutely. Package managers are mostly IO-bound so there is no reason why a Python-based PM should be substantially slower than a C implementation.

<comment><USER7> Except when they are calculating dependencies

But I agree with the yum sentiment, it really looks bad when compared to other solutions that existed: urpmi, apt-rpm, etc

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Here is a talk from May 2012 by Thomas Bushnell (the same guy) about Linux on the desktop and Google. Link: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3pT_9nb8o>

<comment><USER9> See 3:25 "a reboot costs a million dollars" (x-thousand engineers & workstations idle for 15min quickly adds up)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> As always, another link bait zdnet article with a flashy title and zero content. Normally I don't bite but I guess I have been taken in and got exactly what I expected. How come zdnet articles still get posted? I have yet to see one that actually brings content to the table that is new or informative.

<comment><USER11> "That said, desktop problems , even on Linux, will happen"

Sounds like something written by someone who's spent almost no time using any of the Linux desktop environments (let alone trying to connect to a projector). And sure, Mac lovers might move to Unity rather than Gnome, Xfce or whatever, but presumably only if someone forced them to use Linux in the first place.

Also hilarious is the suggestion that Google's graphic designers are running Ubuntu, considering Creative Suite is Windows and Mac only. I've received seen plenty of creative out of Google, and none of it was done with the GIMP.

<comment><USER12> I've been using Ubuntu for years on my laptop, both for work and for home entertainment.

I've had no problem connecting to a projector, whenever I needed to do that. Of course, I was careful when buying my hardware. Also, problems do happen, that's why I'm staying on LTS and personally I consider the intermediate versions as being beta-quality. And the Unity stuff is not stable and is too rigid, so I switched to Xubuntu (Xfce), which is more stable and stays out of my way.

Ubuntu may not be ready for normal users that would want it at home, but a company like Google has people ensuring that these workstations are compatible and that upgrades work properly. They also afford to pay for support from Canonical. So the employees choosing Ubuntu can benefit from its advantages with less downsides.

         considering Creative Suite is Windows and Mac only

If I were a designer I would definitely pick OS X over Ubuntu, but on the other hand you can run Creative Suite in a virtual machine like VMWare. And you can even install an X Windows server on your Windows VM and make that Photoshop window work on your desktop as if it was a native app, only styled differently.

Also, designing stuff in Photoshop is not the only thing a good designer does. A good designer also writes HTML, CSS and preferably also do a little programming for proofs of concept, amongst others. Those changes may involve running a complex app on your localhost. And it's definitely easier to have access to the same tools that the developers use. And it's preferable to use the same operating system Google uses in production for its servers (at least a virtual machine).

         none of it was done with the GIMP

True, designers don't use GIMP, but GIMP is a perfectly capable app for doing design work. Along with Inkscape. The only thing truly keeping designers on Adobe's Creative Suite is that Photoshop is a de-facto standard, so it's easier to get training and support for it and it's also easier to send the raw files (PSDs) to other people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I don't doubt that Google is a very public and very popular target for those looking to breach insecure systems. Having said that, I've heard this "we are the ones that need this the most" sort of argument that they use to justify their in house network authentication by many other companies in many different scenarios. However, most of the time, the problem they are having applies to just about everyone else in the field they are a part of. Which is why open source development has been so successful. Many with the same problem, helping to implement a common solution, instead of a custom one for each of them. So I wonder, what are the deficiencies of other existing 'network authentication' solutions out there? Why couldn't they help improve those? Why not contribute whatever improvements they've mode to this area?

<comment><USER14> Because they don't wanna fall prey of a 0-day in the wild?

BTW, a company like Google enforcing software choices for employees... Meh.

<comment><USER15> I don't think they do. As far as I understand it, employees can choose Mac, Goobuntu or Windows (though windows has to be justified b/c of the higher overheard of support). Sounds reasonable to me.

From talking with Thomas before, if I have this correctly, is that Google doesn't allow offsite development. So it seems most Googlers have a desktop for development and an laptop for other things with NO code on it. I may have that wrong, but I'm sure some Googlers here can verify that or not.

<comment><USER16> It's not "offsite development" that's prohibited so much as not allowing source code to be stored locally on laptop HDD's (even with full-disk encryption). You can develop remotely over SSH, NX, NFS, SSHfs, etc., you just can't have the source (or compilation artifacts) on an easily-stolen device.

<comment><USER17> So thick client development with tools that can't or aren't setup for remote use — eg. coding an iOS app — is usually done on site?

<comment><USER16> Java developers that use Eclipse or IntelliJ seem to work remotely pretty well using NX or VNC to get a remote Linux desktop, and Googlers who work on open- source projects obviously have different rules for that code.

I'm actually not sure what the IOS devs do. They might have different rules since their projects are more standalone and not tied into the rest of the main Google source tree, but it might also be that they just develop on-site. You could probably be fairly successful with XCode using something like SSHfs if you're on a fast enough connection, but I don't know if anyone actually does that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Here's a video from Puppet Conf 2011 on how Google uses Puppet to manage Linux workstations:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8mbMjlr_b0>

<comment><USER16> Puppet is also used to manage the large fleet of Mac laptops (and desktops): [http://redmonk.com/cote/2008/06/11/puppet-at-google- redmonk-...](http://redmonk.com/cote/2008/06/11/puppet-at-google-redmonk- radio-episode-48/)

<comment><USER18> The link to the mp3 is broken, anyone have a working link?

<comment><USER16> Oops, I didn't notice the broken link. The article has a transcript at the bottom, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Interesting to see this and the "Death of the Linux Desktop" posts both on the front page. Are there heated opinions on the issue here?

<comment><USER20> Only that both the success and death of Linux on the desktop is vastly overstated.

<comment><USER21> That's what I was thinking. I've seen this headline on a few sites in the last few days and the commenters all seem to be talking about Linux in the past tense. Apparently I didn't get the memo because my laptop with Ubuntu on it is still working fine and the projects that I make use of haven't missed a beat. That's some kind of "dead".

<comment><USER19> Indeed. I've also become converted (finally) to Unity on a single screen. Still have a hard time with multiple moniters, but whatever.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Ubuntu works for me and my wife and has for years. I pine for the days of Gnome 2 but that's not coming back. If Unity could be made into Gnome 2 but keep Unity people happy then that would be cool.

<comment><USER23> > I pine for the days of Gnome 2 but that's not coming back.

Check out Xubuntu, it's not too different.

<comment><USER24> Linux Mint also has a desktop, Cinnamon, that resembles Gnome 2: <http://cinnamon.linuxmint.com/>. I haven't tried Cinnamon, but I've used Linux Mint before and will most likely be switching to Mint next time I reinstall Linux.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Interesting comments about using Windows.

When it's difficult to use Windows at one of the world's biggest Tech giants, you have to wonder how long windows can stay relevant in the tech/dev space.

<comment><USER26> Actually, having worked at Google and used Goobuntu (which was great) and then tried to use Ubuntu LTS outside the constant vigilance of a large support team, it isn't a threat to Windows (or OSX).

The challenge in an Enterprise that doesn't have a stock to penguinistas to keep it on the straight and true, it goes pear shaped at odd times for unpredictable amounts of time. That and the fact that there is no "real" third party software for it makes a lot of folks sad. (see the other conversation on HN on why that is)

<comment><USER4> True, I've had my share of bad updates, but Windows goes "pear-shaped at odd times" at least as often as Linux, IME. Care to elaborate further?

(I do agree that it is harder to get support people for Linux.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I have come to love Arch Linux. Pacman and AUR are much simpler and efficient than APT and DPKG.

<comment><USER28> How are they simpler and more efficient?

<comment><USER29> The Arch Build System is utterly wonderful. All you do is define a PKGBUILD and it will handle downloading sources, compiling them, and creating a package. It's so simple that once you've done it a couple times it's basically fuck-all effort to create them for whatever you want.

So say I wanted to have dmenu on my systems with a custom colour scheme. I make the colour scheme changes as a patch and then create a package on the AUR like so: <https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dm/dmenu-dogs/PKGBUILD>

Then all I need to do is run pacaur -y dmenu-dogs (pacaur is an AUR helper, which automates the process of downloading the PKGBUILD + any patches/local sources, running makepkg, and installing it) on my other boxes and it sorts everything out for me.

Pacman itself is also very lightweight and fast, and has a very simple and clearly separated API. Want to know what package owns a file? pacman -Qo /usr/lib/blah. Want to check a package has all it's files? pacman -Qk mypackage. Anything removing is -R, anything querying is -Q, anything installing (syncing) is -S.

The last thing I love about Arch is the wiki. It is fucking AMAZING. There are well explained and thought out posts detailing how to install and configure a vast, vast range of software. I even refer to it when I'm not using Arch.

<comment><USER30> And installing yaourt[1] makes using PKGBUILDs from AUR and ABS, and binary packages from the repos amazingly transparent and fast. I've never heard of such a level of flexibility on package management.

For instance, you can install the precompiled chromium from the repos with yaourt -S chromium; if you need to recompile it from ABS, throw a yaourt -Sb chromium and you are done. To install the binary build from AUR, yaourt -S chromium-browser-bin will do it.

[1] <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Yaourt>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Not related to the content of the post (which, it seems, is mostly a rehash of already-available data), but I must say, the comments over at zdnet must really be going downhill-- there are some truly horrific examples at the end of the article.

<comment><USER32> It event seems the author mangled a direct quote. If you're not sure you can type a quote correctly, copy and paste. And call your editor.

 _"Google is a target Everyone wants to hack us."_

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> A lot of people I know at Google use a Mac.

<comment><USER34> The typical engineering setup is Mac laptop + Goobuntu workstation.

<comment><USER35> _A_ typical engineering setup. There are quite a few of us using Goobuntu Thinkpads or Chromebooks. (Since you can't have code checked out on your laptop, a Chromebook is not as disadvantageous as one would imagine.)

<comment><USER36> Does the chrome secure shell support keyfiles now?

<comment><USER37> In the dev release it does. Info here [1]

[1][https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/?fromgroups#!...](https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/chromium- hterm/4P21C89X6w4)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> There is an entire talk about this at some Ubuntu conference a few months back.

Basically exact information, this article is just a rehash

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3pT_9nb8o&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu3pT_9nb8o&feature=player_embedded)

</comment><comment><USER39> > Bushnell explained that "Goobuntu is simply a light skin over standard > Ubuntu."

Given the headline, I was hoping for a bit more.

</comment><comment><USER29> "But Linux on desktop is dead guys!!!" -- An OSX User

</comment><comment><USER40> This is probably spam. Poster is likely the author.

<comment> mh- well, that's an odd definition of spam.

also, while writing this I happened to recognize you from reddit..

<http://reddit.com/user/joshu/submitted/>

<comment><USER40> Shrug. And people promote their own projects here, too. I am also not using a voting ring to get crap to the front page.

But this is generic blog spam. Abuser of the commons etc etc.

Not sure I get your point re reddit?</comment></comment></comment>


Cases of Open-Source License Violations in Mobile Apps [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.cc.gatech.edu/~rduan9/publications/osspolice.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> tool released [https://github.com/osssanitizer/osspolice](https://github.com/osssanitizer/osspolice)</comment>


HackerClient: An small web application for my daily tech and sports news - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vendettacoder/HackerClient <comment><AUTHOR> Currently supports HackerNews front page, Reddit world news, Latest Cricket match scores and Latest football scores for the teams specified. Help me make it better. :D

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sure! This was my first HN post. Will keep that in mind next time. Thanks :D

</comment><comment><USER2> Projects like this often make good "Show HN"...when they meet the guidelines.

Guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you go about picking a new language to learn? - <AUTHOR> Aside from on-the-job reasons, how are you deciding which new programming language(s) to learn? <comment><USER2> I'll outline an approach of mine:

Step 1: Offload the initial selection task to the hype machine. This gives me a smaller set of candidates to work with.

Step 2: Go through the language guides/documentation to understand the core ideas and USP of the languages in the above set.

Step 3: Try to guage the long term viability. This is usually based on some data points but mostly intuition and experience.

Step 4: How does it feel to work with. Is it suitable for the kind of problems you want to solve? Does it provide some technological leverage for the business problem you want to solve, if you are looking for such leverage.

Step 5: Start tinkering with the language(s) that made it past step 4, and be open to update your evaluation during some probation period.

If you want to know my reasoning behind those steps, feel free to ask. :)

</comment><comment><USER3> I usually ask myself if the language can do things that I can't do with a language I already know. For example, I learned a bit of Go because it shines at concurrency in a way that other languages I know didn't. My first language was C++ and I wanted to learn a scripting language so I took up Python. Etc., etc.

Beyond that, I prefer to learn languages that are well documented and have strong communities for support. In my opinion, these not only make it easier to learn the language, but are also good proxies for whether the language will continue to thrive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Exactly why I wanted to learn some Go myself. Been doing years of Ruby development and I really wanted to learn something that shined in concurrency.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I want to learn Rust. Partly because its talked about nonstop here on HN. But I have doubts: \- Will this language continue to grow and be relevant in the near future? \- Will people continue to expand available libraries? \- Is there an existing and active community out there that can help answer questions?

<comment><USER5> Right now, the answer to all those Qs seems to be "yes."

Whether that will still be true five years from now is always harder to say.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I look at capabilities my current language set doesn't cover well, and/or ecosystems that are exploiting rapidly growing niches. I also have an aversion to vendor-owned rather than community/foundation owned languages.

I've forgotten all the BASIC, FORTH, ColdFusion, etc.that I ever knew, and C/C++/Java never stuck in the first place, so my current language set is Python, Javascript, and SQL (not counting server-side HTML templating languages, CSS preprocessors, etc.).

Ruby's strength is in the webdev ecosystem, but overlaps too much with Python there.

Go looks interesting but is owned by Google. Same with Dart. Swift is owned by Apple, etc.

So right now, Rust is next on my list.

</comment><comment><USER6> First, find a problem or something you'd like to learn about. Me one day decides mp3 players are cool and should be hacked, searches around finds rockbox, learned some C. Or me got assigned the task of interfacing off the shelf barcode scanner with orangehrm and OpenERP, mmmm definitely python there. Or when I was interested in cross platform compatibility and delved into java.

Point is that languages are often specialized or different to themselves for different reasons, and you should keep that in mind when choosing.

</comment><comment><USER7> To be honest, I listen to what the new shiny is from places like Reddit and HN and take a look into it. If it seems interesting and has features or does things well that my go to language (C#) doesn't have then I dive deeper. For instance, I heard about Elixir from HN and Reddit and thought it was interesting. I started looking into it and now I'm learning it and writing a few projects and love it.</comment>


Ask HN:Is fixing real complex bugs worth less than shipping shiny new features? - <AUTHOR>

	I joined my company at a stage where they just had a major release, so I was tasked with fixing bugs in the existing system. I was pretty good at tackling complex bugs that nobody else could, so the more bugs I fixed the more bugs I got assigned. I also worked with real customers who reported those bugs, and made sure the fixes got to them
After a while, new people joined the team, and some got to work on some new projects with some cool new features.
A couple years later, those working on new stuff got promoted faster and supposedly bigger raises.
They worked very little on the legacy code, if at all. They just implement new stuff, and ship, and get rewarded, even if nobody is really using what they implemented. Because nobody uses it, very little bugs are reported, so they can easily go on to the next cool new stuff. They have more visibility even though their work might not be that hard or valuable.
It seems this is the way things are, at least in my company. I wonder how things are in other places in the software industry? Is support/maintenance and keeping customers satisfied deemed less worthy and less valuable than shipping new features? <comment><USER2> It really depends on who you r company is setup. It is really a question of out of sight out of mind. If bugs bubble up from QA without causing your manger heartburn then you aren't in his view | on his mind. When new features go out the door he has some sort of involvement in their release so those devs are in his office | in his head. When new stuff comes up it goes to the guys he can remember.

If your boss was more involved with defects then defect fixers would get more respect.

</comment><comment><USER3> Depends, I would say fixing bugs is equally important from a business perspective.

But it sounds like you need to talk to your boss if this your company's stance on support vs new features. As everyone knows fixing bugs is harder than green-field development, however people might be getting promoted above you for other reasons or they might just be asking for a promotion.

</comment><comment><USER4> The only way I can think of for comparing positions is to allow people change roles.

My personal feeling is that new features require smart people. Keeping customers satisfied is following the old path (old good work). I think there is a mental bias, a preference for new features. You should find a way of showing that fixing bugs require smart thinking.

If you collaborate in the development of new features, making Unit Test, or a good framework for testing, people can see you in a new light.</comment>


Making Basecamp even better… using Basecamp - <AUTHOR> http://www.revisu.com/2012/01/10/making-basecamp-even-better-with-basecamp/ <comment><USER2> Awesome lesson, and I appreciate that you explained the implementation.

We already have too many apps shoved down our throats. Make it as seamless as possible for your app to work with the tools people are already using (i.e., don't send emails that say "You have a new message at NewApp - click on this link to see it" - actually SHOW the message) and you'll have much better adoption.

<comment><USER3> In the same vein, add an option to reply to the email to add a reply or comment to the message.

<comment><USER4> I'm pretty sure Brad already implemented that. At least you can do that with the Basecamp part of Revisu. But it's on the list.

<comment><USER3> Sorry, I meant for web apps in general, not Revisu specifically.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is a message that more of us could stand to hear.</comment>


Tablo: A new tool for teachers to create and share lessons - <AUTHOR> http://teachontablo.com

<comment><USER2> I've been creating videos for my mathematics students for a long time. I've used Camtasia and Captivate. The problem is that I exported all these videos to Flash and didn't worry about the dimensions of the videos.

Now it appears that Flash is dying. I'm now using Youtube. Youtube will make sure that its videos will be playable on every device. My hesitation in using your site is what happens if the site gets shutdown? Do I lose the videos? Will they be in a format that can be exported to another service? Is there a self hosting option? I couldn't tell from the main page and didn't sign up for an account.

<comment><USER3> Export to video will be released soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very cool.

Feature idea: The Stanford ML class videos ( <http://www.ml- class.org/course/video/preview_list> ) had a really cool feature -- superspeed viewing, which allows you to watch the video lesson at 1.2x or 1.5x speed. This is great if you want to quickly skim through the content.

<comment><USER5> I second this. Video time dilation is a very important and underused feature. Students can make it work themselves if they can download the videos to play in VLC player, but it'd be better if it was built in. I had a hard time staying engaged with Khan Academy at 1x - he goes too slowly for me - but 1.8x was perfect. High speeds are also good for review and for checking over videos after they're made. Depending on the speaker, the student and the subject, the ideal speed can be anywhere from 0.5x-2.5x, so allowing continuous adjustment is important.

<comment><USER6> Same here. One of the core reasons that I still download the Daily Show with BitTorrent, even though the episodes are freely available on the Daily Show's web site, is that I've gotten used to getting Jon Stewart's jokes at 1.25x speed, and the web site doesn't let me speed it up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Congrats Nick and David, I'm thoroughly amazed by how much progress you guys have made. For those who didn't realize, this is the Thiel-funded team behind OPEN (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2582803>), who have done a huge amount of work since their initial splash page launched on HN.

</comment><comment><USER8> Looks great. One comment on your marketing copy:

"Students can watch Tablo lessons at home. No need to lecture in the classroom."

I'm not a teacher, but I imagine some portion of them would be offended by the "no need to lecture" bit. I know exactly what you mean, having watched the Khan Academy TED talk, but it might not come off the way you meant it to.

<comment><USER3> You're right. Do you have any other suggestions?

Unilateral information exchange doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

<comment><USER5> Teachers don't want to hear that their classroom teaching time is or could be made unnecessary. Instead, emphasize good things they can do with classroom time that's freed up: More time for discussion, activities, and individual attention.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Hi guys, Congrats!

I co-founded Academy123 (2003). We licensed our product to AOL and we were acquired by Discovery Education (2006).

We did the very same thing: an online education platform for the rapid development and delivery of multimedia content.

In about 18 months, we enabled hundreds of math teachers to work from home and record 50,000 mini-videos (2-3 minutes in length) aligned with the most commonly-used textbooks in the U.S.

See demo content and screenshots, here: [http://home.nutshellmath.com/en- us/applications_homework_hel...](http://home.nutshellmath.com/en- us/applications_homework_help.htm)

I've got a lot of ideas in the space - would love to chat if you're interested.

</comment><comment><USER10> Lessons are defined as one object. Lessons are often bite size bits of customized content to meet the needs of your audience. These are not really lessons, they are preached pieces of content with a static audience in mind..

There are various video creating, editing and sharing websites already available for teachers. Most content of much value ends up on youtube exclusively.

Disclaimer: I work in this field (tech in edu)

Wish them the best though :) Integrate Etherpad for more real time collabo ;) Would be great to have a time slider running along side the video to give more context / detail =)

</comment><comment><USER11> Tablo is the bulgarian word for panel, board or plate, desk

[http://search.dir.bg/search.php?textfield=%F2%E0%E1%EB%EE+&#...</a>

<comment><USER12> It also has the same pronunciation as 'tableau' in French which means blackboard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The audio quality on the video could be better. I'd also lazy load the video after all the other assets have loaded. Just give it an image of the video before it loads.

<comment><USER3> We're working on finding an appropriate level of compression for the audio.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Before even digging in to the site, love the name.

Looks like a fantastic idea, would love to see how educators take advantage of it. A word of advice: I have FlashBlock on, and I had no idea how to use the interactive lesson. Plus, a giant Flash element appeared at the bottom of the page. Might want to add some kind of info for users without Flash so they understand what they need to use the site.

<comment><USER3> Good idea. Until HTML5 Device steps up it's game, Flash is the only way to record audio, leading to some very strange bugs and that annoying dialog box.

Nick, Cofounder

<comment><AUTHOR> [http://www.webrtc.org/blog/webrtcnowavailableinthechromedevc...](http://www.webrtc.org/blog/webrtcnowavailableinthechromedevchannel)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I actually had trouble watching the terminal velocity video on the front page. On an OSX 10.7.2. The video won't start. Could be something on the video though.

<comment><USER16> It's also loud as hell. Bad idea to post a video with out a way to adjust the volume. Nearly blew my head off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'm wondering why they didn't try and buy tablo.com?

</comment><comment><USER18> This is an outstanding product. I can easily see it letting non-technical teachers have their own Kahn Academy.

Any plans to let teachers share or sell lessons/lectures with one another?

I experienced some bugginess submitting forms with the unit name clearing my entry.

Is it possible to embed videos on external sites?

Only thing I dislike is how dull and drab the sample lesson is. I'd actually use it to teach (or re-teach) some concept that the audience is likely to remember.

Fantastic job.

<comment><USER3> We're working on both public(Youtube-esque) and embeddable(for blogs) lessons. Should be pushed later this week.

<comment><USER19> What's the best way to find out when you do that? Twitter?

<comment><USER20> Follow Tablo on Twitter here:

<http://twitter.com/teachontablo></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Goodbye, Twitter - <AUTHOR> https://ramblingspace.com/posts/goodbye-twitter/ <comment><USER2> I too am done with Twitter. Not only have I decided to stop normalizing their dystopian world, but the S/N ratio has continually dropped over the years and bots abound. None of it is very useful or productive anymore, if it ever was.</comment>


9 Succesful Companies You Would Never Expect to Be Using DevOps - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@XebiaLabs/9-companies-you-wouldn-t-expect-to-be-using-devops-306b19341d7b#.e5k4wqhyg <comment><USER2> Without a doubt, DevOps is the next big thing. Infact, it's not only about the collaboration between the Developers and other IT guys, it's about bridging the gap between all the departments within your company.</comment>


More Common Than You Think: An In-Depth Study of Casual Contributors [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://gustavopinto.org/lost+found/saner2016.pdf <comment><USER2> Interesting study!

As a primary maintainer on some libraries and a casual contributer on others, I'm not surprised at all to see that 48% of all contributions are from the non-principle developers.

I was surprised to see that C and C++ are so low in terms of outside contributions compared to many other languages. I don't believe this is due to the number of programmers using the language, so it begs the question as to why these languages are arguably less accessible.

I don't believe C/cpp are more syntactically difficult.

If I had to hazard a guess, it would be that C/C++ code are more often specialized libraries that require system level access, and so don't attract as much of a broad interest.

<comment><USER3> Your 48% is very wrong. From the abstract:

"Our results showed that although casual contributors are rather common (48.98% of the whole population of contributors in the projects analyzed), they are responsible for only 1.73% of the total number of commits."

<comment><USER4> It's worth noting that the 1.73%, are also the overlooked or edge case issues that directly effected that developers use case.

It might be a low percentage, but maybe it's the areas where portability and conformance with other libraries are important. The stuff that a core maintainer is less interested in identifying and fixing, because they are already using the library for their particular use case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting paper. Casual contributor is very narrowly defined: made 1 (one) commit only. Would be interesting how some slightly less limited definition would change results, or not.

The analysis also excludes all contributions not in the form of commits. Of course including non-commit contributions is hard.

One minor nit: C is characterized as "strongly typed".</comment>


Google announces deeper integration between gmail and Google+ - <AUTHOR> http://gmailblog.blogspot.ca/2014/01/reach-people-you-know-more-easily.html?m=1

<comment><USER2> The idea seems weird. Google is trying to mix emails and social networking, which never worked as history suggests.

Also, does this mean my mail can appear in the 'social' tab of celebrities?</comment>


Startups: Live longer, don't burnout - <AUTHOR> http://ontechies.com/2011/08/31/live-longer-dont-burnout/

<comment><USER2> Balance in your life is a cool thing, still, there is a question where is balance? Is it 1 hour of "decompression" every day? 2 hours? a weekend? what if you're still more effective with ALMOST no decompression at all? How long can you endure?

Where is the point of "balance" for you?

<comment><USER3> I can't speak for him, but there's no single point for me. I can tell when I've spent a week being 'too productive'. Mainly because the next week will be killer on me. Energy levels will be down, I'll be on edge about everything, etc.

<comment><USER2> isnt't it all about glucose levels?

<http://finalmile.in/show_article.php?aid=6>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I originally read the headline (and the first few paragraphs) as "[keep your startup] live longer, don't burnout [and shut it down prematurely]"

Which is an article I'd like to read.

</comment><comment><USER5> Good advice that I need to heed.

But what about if first-to-market is the difference between success and failure? What if you really really need to put in 60 hour weeks for the next 1/2 year or else your startup is going to die?

<comment><USER3> Then there's a good chance you will burn out. You have to balance the risk of burnout with the risk of failure. It comes down to how much you value your daily happiness vs future happiness.

Personally, my father valued his future happiness more and worked himself half to death until retirement. At which point, he had money, but all the rest of his plans fell apart. Now, I can't say he's happier than when he was working.

I've gone the other direction. My work is fun, my rest is fun, my fun is fun. I make decent money, but I'll never be as important to a company as my dad was. And he was that important to quite a few companies. Literally saving them from bankruptcy.

A part of me wants those kind of tales to tell when I'm old, and the money that goes along with it... But I know better than to give up my short and medium term happiness to do it.

<comment><USER5> But that's different. He's waiting until retirement. I'm not planning to wait that long - that's just silly. I'm saying 2 years of delayed gratification at most.</comment></comment></comment>


Don't shoot the messenger for telling the truth - <AUTHOR> http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/dont-shoot-messenger-for-revealing-uncomfortable-truths/story-fn775xjq-1225967241332 <comment><USER2> Ah, so he's a Queenslander. That adds context - we're a special breed north of the Tweed.

To add some other context to non-Australian readers:

* Gallipoli, remembered as Australia's 'coming of age', was a disasterous battle in the First World War. While hardly more pointless than most of that War's assaults, it was more or less the first time we had fought as a sovereign nation and Murdoch's efforts helped shock our young country to that war in general, and the results of our troops still being commanded by our former colonial masters. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign>

* The Fitzgerald Inquiry in the state of Queensland revealed corruption that ran through the police force and (via the Police Commissioner) into Cabinet and the Premier. Joh Bjelke-Petersen had been running Queensland for 19 years, supported by the gerrymander in state politics. We Queenslanders have a chip on our shoulder about being overlooked by the officials 'down south' - Joh worked this masterfully (in one election campaign he called Queensland the greatest 'Country' on earth) and while he is still remembered fondly for 'sticking it up them', the corruption of that era is a blight on the nation. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzgerald_Inquiry> Incidentally, Chris Masters' famous piece of journalism 'The Moonlight State' was seen as instrumental in propelling public support towards an Inquiry and a change of government.

Assange seems to be positioning himself as another in the long line of Australian journalists (and Australians generally) who believe the 'powers' want to hide the truth. His belief can be neither true nor false; I'm not yet convinced his methodology is supporting the outcomes he seeks BUT, if nothing else, he has certainly revealed by provoking the actions of our PM and other political leaders around the world that there remain powers whose opposition to truth is far stronger than their respect of law and principles like a fair trial.

<comment><USER3> Apropos Gallipoli: And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda. The best anti-war song ever.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY>

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_The_Band_Played_Waltzing_Ma...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_The_Band_Played_Waltzing_Matilda)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not Assange's biggest fan (r.e. how he controls Wikileaks) but some of the nonsense coming from the US establishment (and elsehwere) is appalling.

It probably even vindicates what Wikileaks stands for.

This is one of those cases where damage limitation is the sane and sensible response; they've lost those cables, we are going to see them. Deal with it. They need perspective; in the grand scheme of things it is highly unlikely to be "the end of the world". And if it uncovers corruption and naughtiness then all the better.

Hounding Assange and Wikileaks only ends up making them look guilty. Which is stupid, especially as there is nothing (so far) hugely corrupt or terrible in the leaks!

<comment><USER5> Which makes me wonder what is in the leaks that we haven't seen yet. After all if highly placed officials are getting their panties in a twist based on what we've seen so far then they are over-reacting to put it mildly.

Time will tell. Some of the responses from politicians are beyond the pale and what bugs me more is that nobody even thinks of calling them to account over this, or so much as distancing themselves from these remarks.

<comment><USER6> It honestly wouldn't shock me that the restarted attacks on North and South Korea weren't because of Wikileaks. Or for that matter, I'd be surprised that the US isn't having setbacks on many diplomatic processes.

<comment><USER7> You think Kim Jong-Il was shocked to discover that he wasn't a towering international statesman and decided to attack S Korea because of it?

<comment><USER8> No, but he may have been surprised to find out that China supports unification.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Quote - "In its landmark ruling in the Pentagon Papers case, the US Supreme Court said "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government". The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth."

<comment><USER9> And no coincidence that Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers case is a huge supporter both of Bradley Manning and Julian Assange.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "In a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act" G. Orwell

I find the calls to get him assassinated or kidnap his son simply appalling.

<comment><USER11> Who's been calling to kidnap his son? I did a quick (1 minute) google search, but couldn't find a source.

<comment><USER12> According to TFA:

* Sarah Palin says I should be "hunted down like Osama bin Laden", a Republican bill sits before the US Senate seeking to have me declared a "transnational threat" and disposed of accordingly. An adviser to the Canadian Prime Minister's office has called on national television for me to be assassinated. An American blogger has called for my 20-year-old son, here in Australia, to be kidnapped and harmed for no other reason than to get at me. _

<comment><USER13> This doesn't really answer your parent's question, does it?

If you use TFA or RTFA make sure you do it properly, it's rude.

<comment><USER14> Yes, it does. Explicitly and clearly. With a direct quotation.

What more could you ask for?

<comment><USER13> For instance jacquesm answer? It's way more informative, it contains the actual answer to the question, is not arrogantly witty. Enough?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you." --Oscar Wilde

<comment><USER16> They killed him anyway.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> 2.07pm: More financial problems for WikiLeaks: Visa says it has suspended all payments to WikiLeaks "pending further investigation".

Earlier MasterCard said: "MasterCard is taking action to ensure that WikiLeaks can no longer accept MasterCard-branded products."

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/07/wikileaks- us...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-us-embassy- cables-live-updates)

<comment><USER5> Visa has since followed suit. :

[http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jzXb7...](http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jzXb7MZek0YvS8v58dKHhPw_E8NA?docId=N0013301291732122501A)

The only corporate entity so far that does not have egg all over its face on this one is the French OVH which went to a judge to establish whether or not wikileaks was illegal according to French law, the judge rejected the first request and asked for more info on the second, pending a ruling OVH says they've done what they should do and will continue to have wikileaks as a customer until the court tells them otherwise.

<comment><USER18> And twitter. They haven't shut down the wikileaks account, and my wild guess is that it's not because nobody is pressuring them too.

<comment><USER5> Good point, sorry, I'd forgotten about them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> "Truth comes as conqueror only to those who have lost the art of receiving it as friend." \- Rabindranath Tagore

</comment><comment><USER20> If there is treason, it is with the person leaking the documents -- not the media vehicle which publishes them.

<comment><USER21> Apart from crazy people like Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich --- who claimed that Assange is an "active enemy of the American people", thus implying that everyone who donated money to Wikileaks has given material support to our enemies --- who is seriously claiming that Assange is a "traitor"? From my perspective, the theme that unites all the "formal" claims against Wikileaks is that they are all ludicrous. What crime could he have commited?

Manning is a different story. Someone upthread compared him to Ellsberg (it doesn't help that Ellsberg did, too). But Ellsburg's act was deliberate and carefully planned. Manning, on the other hand, is accused of scooping up vast buckets of documents off SIPRnet servers and then handing them off to complete strangers. Amnesty, the Soros Open Society Institute (to which WL applied for a grant), and the ICG all criticized _Wikileaks_ \--- the whole organization --- for not being careful enough in redacting documents. Yet we're to believe that a single private in the military could possibly have judged the impact of what he was handing to Wikileaks?

Adrian Lamo --- who I don't know from Adam, and whose story I've never followed --- took a vast helping of shit for exposing Manning. I don't know what his motives were and I don't care. But I will say that if Manning was even modestly competent with technology, Lamo may have saved his life by stopping him.

<comment><USER20> "Apart from crazy people like..."

Hmm, I didn't realize Newt Gingrich was crazy. I wonder if your list of crazy people includes virtually everyone not in your preferred political party.

"Yet we're to believe that a single private in the military could possibly have judged the impact of what he was handing to Wikileaks"

Err, you take thousands of documents labeled "private" or "secret" and release them to the media and think what? That it is no big deal?

<comment><USER21> Yes, when you imply that thousands of Americans are guilty of giving material aid to an active enemy of the United States (a federal crime) because they've donated money to someone who posted documents that were handed to him --- when you, in effect, suggest that the New York Times is an accessory to an act of war on the United States ("act of war", by the way, being Newt's own words) --- yeah, I get to call you a crazy person. You are of course free to disagree.

No, suggesting that Julian Assange might not in fact be an active enemy of the United States and that his supporters might not be stepping close to the line of committing treason _does not_ mean that I think Wikileaks is no big deal.

My favorite part about WL --- a subject I would happily support banning from Hacker News --- is how aggressively it tries to co-opt people into one of two factions. On this side, you have people who believe consent-based sexual assault legal frameworks are an tool of US hegemony, and on the other side you have people who believe that patriotism requires supporting the notion of guy with a bunch of leaked documents being assassinated. It's just a catalyst for drama.

The irony to this subthread? I was agreeing with you.

<comment><USER20> I also agree with your rejoinder and upvoted it :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Bail was refused:

"Let down by the UK justice system's bizarre decision to refuse bail to Julian Assange. But #cablegate releases continue as planned."

<http://twitter.com/wikileaks>

<comment><USER22> Is it bizarre to refuse bail to someone who has been constantly on the move and _clearly_ knows how to evade detection to a fair degree?

He seems to be a _perfect_ example of a fleeing risk.

<comment><USER5> That must be why he turned himself in.

<comment><USER22> Just because he turned himself in doesn't mean that he wouldn't flee afterwards.

Wikileaks is in a very large part about influencing perception. Everything has a purpose. Again, someone who has been trekking around the globe because many government are after him is _hardly_ not an escape risk.

<comment><USER5> The 'risk' would be that he would flee abroad, and last I checked England was an island.

Also, fleeing would make him look pretty bad in the eyes of many and I personally don't think he would be stupid enough to do so (that's not much of a guarantee, I'll give you that), since capture (see 'island') is almost inevitable.

I wonder if anybody has access to what those maximum penalties of the charges brought are (under Swedish law), and how they relate to being jailed pending an extradition hearing. That would be interesting because I read in one uncorroborated source that the punishment for the circumstances described is actually a fine, rather than jail time and it would seem that if that is really the case that any jail time at all (such as pending this hearing) would be excessive. If Assange fights extradition do they plan to hold him in custody during the whole time ? And if so how is that different from using this as a ploy to simply lock him up because he's a 'risk' ?

<comment><USER23> An island with boats, international airports, and a Chunnel.

I wouldn't be willing to bet much money that he couldn't get out of the country if he were free and of a mind to flee.

<comment><USER5> As European countries come England is the hardest to get in and out of and it's not like Julian Assange is not going to be recognized on sight by half a million people at least by now.

The boats all leave from ports where there are customs inspections, crew and captains who would all not be too happy giving shelter to a fugitive, international airports need a pass by immigration and the chunnel does too.

Lots of illegals make it in and out of Britain but they don't start off as high profile fugitives.

I think you're giving him too much credit. The best he could probably do is go to ground inside England but even that is not that simple.

<comment><USER24> You can quite literally get into a yacht anywhere on the coast and sail away. Nobody will stop you. I've done it many times.

<comment><USER23> Or a fishing boat. Or Hell, a small motorboat or even a rowboat.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> "For freedom of speech, there's Wikileaks. For everything else, there's Mastercard. And Visa. And, um, Paypal. And Amazon." -- James Ball, on twitter.

</comment><comment><USER26> If all wikileaks was doing was publishing information about illegal or highly suspect acts by the government it'd be one thing. But that isn't all they're doing, and it is these other releases that has really pissed me off. For instance, what legitimate purpose does it serve to release a list of infrastructure that are critical to national security? ([http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jWvPaI6hI...](http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jWvPaI6hITHo0rNy- iYGp5jV0RLQ?docId=CNG.8549d9b93537814e90de0a33a00a6b06.151))

If diplomacy is so important to the people of the world, why are so many people cheering on the fact that wikileaks has made it almost impossible for diplomats to give frank and honest assessments of the countries in which they work? When wikileaks makes everything "transparent", everything becomes opaque, because no diplomat will write any memos or share information with one another. Wikileaks is a tremendous blow to anyone who wants to see international problems come to a peaceful and diplomatic resolution.

<comment><USER27> I agree. I don't get it. Are we this desperate for a hero that we'll romanticize the average in order to have one?

<comment><USER27> And so it seems that the surest way to get downvoted on Hacker News is to say something bad about Julian Assange. Boringly predictable.

<comment><USER28> And so it seems that trolls get their just deserts.

<comment><USER27> How is representing an opinion being a troll? Fact is, I don't like the guy, I don't trust his intentions, and I think Wikileaks is a worldwide disaster.

I just don't understand why reasonable objections are so quickly criticized here.

<comment><USER29> OK, look at the comment you originally replied to. It's a "reasonable objection" about Wikileaks. It also has actual content and a point that it makes, as opposed to, say, being a one-line opinion with no support. Now look at your comment.

<comment><USER27> I replied to a comment in the thread, re-enforcing that commenters opinion. I'm sure people don't like it, and that's fine, but to consistently be downvoted every time I post a negative reaction to Assange is absurd. I wish we, as a community, could elevate ourselves above the infighting reminiscent of an MSNBC or FOXNews.

<comment><USER28> Please consider the possibility that you haven't learned to post your negative reactions in a thoughtful way, rather than that the community is simply downvoting opinions they don't like.

<comment><USER27> It's thoughtful to me. I believe in being clear and concise. We're dealing in subjectivity here, it's as simple as that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Guardian coverage with the actual charges: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/07/assange-bail- req...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/07/assange-bail-request- refused-wikileaks)

</comment><comment><USER30> He talks about Murdoch's actions in "1958" but then says that his actions are happening nearly a century later. Was that date inaccurate? Because 52 years doesn't strike me as a full nearly-a-century.

<comment><USER31> No.

He's talking about Rupert Murdoch's writings, in 1958, reflecting on Keith Murdoch's revelations about Gallipoli.

Keith Murdoch was Rupert's father. The Gallipoli campaign happened during WWI, in 1915-1916, _nearly a century_ ago.

<comment><USER30> Aha! That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for clearing up!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Actions speak louder than words:

<http://readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition>

<comment><USER33> When was the last time a petition actually achieved anything?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I was with him in releasing information about war crimes. He lost me in this one though.

</comment><comment><USER35> The "truth" has limits on publication: privacy, confidentiality, privilege, security, etc. Just because something is the truth, does not mean it is right to publish it. Assange is not a whistle blower. He is not exposing any misrepresentations or cover-up. He is simply exposing America's secrets in order to hurt America. That is criminal.

<comment><USER5> Oversimplification does not benefit anybody.

> He is simply exposing America's secrets in order to hurt America. That is > criminal.

Assuming he is - which I really think misses the point - by what law is this criminal ?

He's not an American citizen, nor is he in America. Why do you feel this is criminal ?

Do you think it would it be criminal if an American did it ?

<comment><USER27> In doing business with criminals, you become one IMO. Sure, technically he's not violating any laws, but I think that points to flaws in the justice system (worldwide, not just the US) more than it does to his nobility.

If someone illegally sells/steals/shares confidential information, then where does the chain of responsibility/legality stop?

<comment><USER5> Excellent question. Please google the Pentagon Papers and educate yourself some more on the subject. If we followed your conclusion pretty much all the newspapers in the world that actually did their jobs would be in the docket tomorrow.

There has always been a tug-of-war between the press and the government about what is and what is not permitted and it is universally recognized that a free press is essential to the functioning of democracies.

The issue at stake here is a complicated one, whether or not wikileaks is part of the press, and even if it isn't whether it should be counted as such.

Governments the world over, from the worst to the best have figured out a loophole in the whole 'free press' business, which is to use 'access' as a coin with which to control the press. In a world where eyeballs govern the budgets of newspapers not having access directly affects a newspapers bottom line. WikiLeaks circumvents the access trick by simply not being susceptible to that kind of leverage and it is exactly because of that that I suspect that they are seen as 'dangerous' by those in power.

<comment><USER27> I don't see the issue as free press. I don't believe that our press has ever been more free than it is today.

The issue I'm concerned with is that this turns people like Manning into heroes.

Freedom of the press was not created to protect classified documents. They didn't exist at the time. It was created to protect the press' right to contradict and/or point out the flaw in the government system, and the people that manage it.

It's meant to prevent government censorship.

And legal or not, I'm just not comfortable with this level of freedom with national secrets. We'll see how it plays out over the long-term, but I don't think it's a fear of Assange you see, but fear of what these documents will do to strengthen our enemies.

<comment><USER27> I'm referring to enemies of the West. If you live in the US, UK, or Eastern Europe and don't believe we have common enemies, then you are sadly mistaken.

I've met them. They don't like us.

<comment><USER5> > I'm referring to enemies of the West.

Oh my!

> If you live in the US, UK, or Eastern Europe and don't believe we have > common enemies, then you are sadly mistaken.

I guess I will have to take your word for it.

> I've met them.

In what capacity did you meet the enemies of the West ?

> They don't like us.

Did they specify any reasons ?

<comment><USER27> When I was in Afghanistan in 2008. I could name countless reasons, but you know them already.

<comment><USER27> I was there as a US Army NCO. I'm not afraid, I'm simply pointing out that there are people that despise the West, and it's bad enough that we have to take it from them...we shouldn't have to take it from our own people too.

I didn't say Wikileaks is or should be illegal...I asked where we draw the line. I don't think Wikileaks is a benefit, that's all. I think it has the potential to do good, but the way he's released documents has been more reckless than intentionally beneficial.

Can't we push for an open government without extremes? I'd say that our electoral process still functions well, as does the legislative one.

<comment><USER36> _I'm simply pointing out that there are people that despise the West, and it's bad enough that we have to take it from them...we shouldn't have to take it from our own people too._

Despise is perhaps too strong a word, particularly in regards to "our own people". But regardless, what if there are very good reasons to despise the West? Everything the West does is not ok simply because you and I live in it. A good portion of the enemies you're referring to have very valid grievances with the West. That their tactics for dealing with those grievances are not my tactics (or Wikileaks tactics) does not in any way deter from the validity of their grievances (or mine).

<comment><USER27> I disagree. I think this quote puts it in perspective:

"Hatred is self-punishment. Hatred it the coward's revenge for being intimidated."

I didn't say we were perfect, but let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The truth is always somewhere in the middle.

<comment><USER36> _I disagree._

With what? That there can be valid grievances with Western policies? That anyone could have a valid reason for hatred?

If you killed my brother, I'd have a significant feeling of hatred towards you. You can call me a coward all you want, but my feeling would be 100% valid. Now apply that principle to the tens and hundreds of thousands of families that have had Western gov'ts kill their civilian family members (as collateral damage). Those Western gov'ts may have reasons they consider good for having killed those civilians (or causing the deaths, however you want to think about it), but you cannot expect the surviving families are going to nod their heads and say "OK, I guess it had to be that way".

 _I think this quote puts it in perspective: "Hatred is self-punishment. Hatred it the coward's revenge for being intimidated."_

It doesn't, really.

 _let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. The truth is always somewhere in the middle._

... and an apple a day keeps the doctor away? "Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love." The truth is staring you in the face.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Multi-Cloud Is Relevant - <AUTHOR> https://www.zenko.io/blog/bright-future-multi-cloud/ <comment><USER2> I'm with the team working on the Zenko deployment side of things here at Scality. We decided to run Zenko (which was designed to be container-based from the start) on Kubernetes, and even launched a project, MetalK8s, to deploy K8s on-prem. For more information, AMA and check [https://www.zenko.io/blog/scality-investing- kubernetes/](https://www.zenko.io/blog/scality-investing-kubernetes/)

</comment><comment><USER3> all these mentions of multi-cloud are confusing: is this about moving VMs from Google to AWS? or is it data from Backblaze to DO? or what is this exactly? This post seems to be about cloud storage, edging bets between different object storage providers. Someone should come up with a more precise term.

<comment><USER4> The idea is that you can store and move your data around on any of the mentioned clouds. So yeah, you could migrate data from Google to AWS or BB to DO. Or you could put your data on AWS and have it automatically replicated (backed up) to Azure and Google. It's a "multi-cloud data controller" cos you're controlling data on multiple clouds :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Pretty cool!!

</comment><comment><USER6> Super cool!

</comment><comment><USER7> Very cool!</comment>


Why Salespeople Quit - <AUTHOR> http://www.eonetwork.org/knowledgebase/specialfeatures/Pages/HowtoMakeTopSalespersonQuit.aspx

<comment><USER2> " _Top producers inevitably knock the ball out of the park, and management says, "Oh no! These guys are making too much money," so they change the comp plan._ "

Oh, yes. I've seen this happen too many times, and it's a company killer.</comment>


Ask HN: To developers, what makes an effective manager? - <AUTHOR>

Wondering what developers look for in a manager, preferably experiences from your own work life. <comment><USER2> A good manager is one who:

      - makes sure we know what it is that needs to be done
      - makes sure we have what we need to do it
      - runs interference so we're not bothered by outsiders
      - gets the hell out of the way
      - is not a methodology maniac

<comment><USER3> An excellent list, to which I'd add:

\- gives their team members honest, ongoing feedback about how they're performing their jobs (there should be no surprises at the annual review)

\- fights to get their team members the recognition they deserve, e.g., promotions, raises, bonuses, etc.

\- hires good people for their team

\- is not afraid to deal with thorny "HR" type issues, like stopping bullying, harassment, etc. (and, if necessary, firing repeat offenders)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In my experience, a manager who treats their job as if they're accountable to _both_ the client (or business interest) and _their team_ is best.</comment>


Apple blocking ads that follow users around web is 'sabotage', says industry - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/18/apple-stopping-ads-follow-you-around-internet-sabotage-advertising-industry-ios-11-and-macos-high-sierra-safari-internet <comment><USER2> Just below the title in the article: "New iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra will stop ads following Safari users, prompting open letter claiming Apple is destroying internet's economic model"

I would love to blow up the ad-revenue economic model of the internet. Sure some of the services it funds are convenient but the cost is pretty high. Just a few of these "costs" in my mind:

\- Keeping people in a constantly mentally distracted state with various app notifications in order to serve them more ads

\- Degredation of political discourse in a race to the rhetorical bottom because that approach appears to generate the most views and thus ad revenue

\- More efficient sorting of people into tribal camps of group think. All as a consequence of content which agrees with their worldview because this content generates more ad revenue.

\- Fundamental lack of control by users of their personal information as collected by these ad services

I don't know what would replace the ad model, but I'd be happy to find out.

<comment><USER3> Also when looking for information these days I usually only find annoying "these N things are the best" sites where you have to browse through N+1 pages of ads. The ad industry has seriously damaged the information content of the web.

<comment><USER4> I've found the formula for "news" slideshows is N+int(N/5) as ads seem to be inserted in after every 5 X that are X.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good for Apple.

Marketing in the 2000s/'10s has really turned disgusting. Whereas many moons ago marketing was just about giving your brand an image, and making people aware of it - it has now turned into an all out psychological assault.

Additionally, we seem to be seeking out every way possible to bombard each other with it. Remember when someone figured out that you're stuck standing near the pump when you purchase gas for your vehicle, so they put tv screens with sound blaring at us there where we can't escape it? I mean, you're in the middle of making a reasonable transaction (money, for gas) - but you still have to be turned into the product for marketers to assault now, just because you can. In the same vein, I've heard there's a CO based startup working on bringing similar advertising to ski lifts - another venue where you can't escape.

We really need to take a stand on this (as Apple is), as the internet is just one of many spaces where marketing can and will massively infringe on your privacy. Google Maps seems to track your physical location constantly (so you can "see where you parked"!) - how long, if not already, until they notice that I've visited a dry cleaner, or gone to Home Depot, so they can use that info to continue the onslaught?

<comment><USER6> Google requires you to turn on all web, search, app and location history just to set your home address in maps. Then it continues to siphon all your private data 24x7 out of every device that Google touches.

<comment> X-Istence I have location history turned off on Google and I have my home address set in Google Maps...

<comment><USER6> I had my home address set since couple years without turning history on.

This week I wanted to change address, but Google wouldn't let me unless I give access to all location, web and app activity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> In other news, parasite complains about sabotage by host's immune system.

</comment><comment><USER8> Apple seems to be the only tech giant adhering to "do no evil." I've been a developer for a long time, even though development workflows are typically more compatible running on Macs, I've resisted going all in working on a Mac. I also have an Android phone. That is going to change. I trust apple a whole lot more than Google or Microsoft. My next phone will be an iPhone and luckily my Mac book pro is already on its way.

<comment><USER9> the "no headphone jack" thing seemed pretty evil to me. also, all of the monopolistic app store practices really aren't awesome.

the new specs for the Mac Book pro are also a joke for the price, and wtf is that touch bar crap.

also, paying 800-1000$ for a phone is ridiculous

<comment><USER10> So while Google is invading every single aspect of your private life, following you on every site you visit, and mining your data for engagement and advertising, Apple is... charging too much?

\- Also the Google Pixel is $749.

<comment><USER11> > So while Google is invading every single aspect of your private life, > following you on every site you visit, and mining your data for engagement > and advertising, Apple is... charging too much?

Yes, of course. These two statements are not mutually exclusive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Discussion on AdWeek article of the same topic 5 days ago (159 comments):

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15250463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15250463)

</comment><comment><USER13> Many HN users have probably been blocking ads and tracking for years. I'm barely aware that the Internet has ads.

<comment><USER14> That's me. I have most of my browser settings turned up to "paranoid" (no history, no sync, no 3rd party cookies, all cookies purged upon exit, separate profiles for web and gmail, etc.). I use uBlock Origin, and have a 15,000 line /etc/hosts file. I only see ads if they are served inline directly from the site I'm visiting (thankfully that's very few).

<comment> blubb-fish OMG ... take it easy, buddy - install uBlock Origin and have a nice day ... :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I really don't understand why people hate ads so much. They are every where in life and really don't ruin things. I don't have an adblocker and I find very little disruption in my browsing. I just ignore the ads. It is interesting to me sociologically that so many expect Internet content to just be provided for free like manna. Is it wrong for people (e.g. Newspapers, other content creators) to make money of their work? A subscription or a hybrid model might generate better content but it would restrict access.

</comment><comment><USER16> Beautiful. Thank you, Apple. Let's hope this toxic industry ends in a miserable death soon.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is almost certainly a pro on the consumer end of things but ultimately how much of a win is this really? Facebook and Google will still be fine so if anything this further consolidates the information monopoly. I'm happy Apple did it, and I don't think the "Six major advertising consortia" are going to do themselves any favors by coming out guns blazing against them for this, but the problem is much deeper rooted than this.

</comment><comment><USER18> On the desktop side, worried sites could just block Safari since it's only 3.87% of users and those users can use other browsers. On the mobile side, Safari is more popular but also forced on iOS users since all browsers use Safari underneath. I'd wager Apple is doing this at the app level and not the renderer level on iOS.

</comment><comment><USER19> If this is 'sabotage', it's got a thumpin' Beastie Boys beat.

I'm curious to see what develops from Apple's stated intention to keep more user data on-device and the company's attempts at 'differential privacy', and if these stances disadvantage Apple against its competitors.

</comment><comment><USER20> Does anyone know if tracking via localStorage still works? Also to be fair if you interact with the iframe cookies can be set. I just wish it was sticky per domain.

</comment><comment><USER21> Internet advertising has always been a race to the bottom. Apple hasn't changed anything about that, just slightly accelerated it's velocity.

</comment><comment><USER22> To whomever inside the ad industry that keeps making remarks such as this, I'd suggest that this is equivalent to free advertising for Apple.

</comment><comment><USER23> I would pay for this as a feature/plug-in for Chrome, although I'd prefer they just did it (or made it an option).

</comment><comment><USER24> Is like pirat s asyi g copy's are destroying their incomes because they are getting shut down

</comment><comment><USER25> It's stuff like this that keeps me on iPhone instead of defecting to Android.

</comment><comment><USER26> Wah wah wah.

</comment><comment><USER27> My phone company offered me free data usage on spotify.

Sounds great right!

Except this is bordering against net neutrality.

You see, like with net neutrality, Apple could offer services in the future to companies to get a "free pass" on their cute filter. This means people who want to advertise their innocent little game, have no chance against companies with a lot of money who can afford to do so.

If you are in favor off this update, but against for example net neutrality, then you might want to check up again on how well you understand these concepts, and how they _could_ play out in unfavorable division of power.

tldr; Monopoly is inherently unfavorable, not just theoretically but has proven so time and time again in many different sectors.

<comment><USER28> Net neutrality is about ISPs. Apple is giving the end user control over how their own device behaves here. This is not a violation of net neutrality any more than me throwing away junk mail is a violation of the neutrality of the postal service.

<comment><USER29> > Apple is giving the end user control over how their own device behaves here.

Are they? That's not really their approach to many things. It seems to me they are making decisions for users. I have nothing of note to say on this specific change, but we should be careful about where we want "neutrality" applied in our network go-betweens (be them ISPs, devices, whatever).

<comment><USER28> It's an option you can turn off, so, yes, they are.

<comment><USER29> Surely we can acknowledge that control is not binary? There was no control that said "don't turn this on by default" or a control that lets me set the specific parameters of cookie sharing.

The essence of neutrality concerns is the absence of control. Whether an ISP allows you to turn off the on-by-default traffic shaping or whether a device lets you turn off the on-by-default cookie restrictions is not the concern. It's whether these go-betweens make decisions for us, such as cookie sharing parameters, video downsampling, etc.

<comment><USER28> The essence of neutrality concerns is the absence of control. Apple gives the user control over this, and many other aspects of the browsing experience. So... what's the problem here?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why are you using Functional Programming? - <AUTHOR> I know it looks the same, but the above question acts like two different questions depending on whether you are a programmer or you hire people.
If you are a programmer, do you feel that FP makes your life easier? Is it more fun? What are the advantages of this paradigm compared to others? Do you feel advantaged/disadvantaged when looking for a job?
If you are in a position to hire people, why did you feel the need to deviate from the corporate "norm"? Do you think FP gives you a competitive advantage in your field? How has this choice affected your hiring practices? Is it harder to hire due to the smaller number of candidates, or is it somehow easier? <comment><USER2> I use functional programming as I've done my fair share of fixing stupid bugs at silly times in the morning and the resulting firefighting.

In my experience, I/teams I've worked on produce fewer bugs, FP, referential transparency, everything being an expression also helps for easier automated testing.

It took me a lot of persistence, effort and time to get comfortable with FP after years of imperative and oop programming, I might of even be heard to say "that's too academic, you can't use that in real life" only a few years later to realize how wrong I was!

For the most part as an employee, it's limited me as few employers care about such standards/quality and just want easy to hire/most popular, it's good enough let's move fast and break things. At one time I'd happily write idiomatic Java, Javascript, PHP, etc as done so for 10 years+, now I sit poking fingers in my eyes when I have to touch them.

As an employer or when I've been on the recruiting side for my employer, generally, the talent pool has been a lot smaller, extremely smaller however people that have applied have generally been at a higher skill level.

</comment><comment><USER3> The question deserves more attention.

Personally, I am just getting started in the FP world and I haven't yet had the chance to make money with FP.

The toy projects I have worked on have literally made me into a total CS nerd and now I love programming. Why does that mean anything? Well I got through undergrad in Comp Eng., several internships, and my first job questioning whether or not I picked the right career. I have been using Python, Java, Javascript, and C# for a few years, yet 2 months into Clojure, I'm convinced it's my calling.

I finally see a future with me programming in it, and so far I have only really touched Clojure and emacs.

I can see on an application level that the code I write in Clojure vs the code I write in C# does a lot more with a lot less lines and characters.

I don't really care about the numbers of lines or whatever, but the expressivity and syntax is amazing compared to Java, for instance.

I have yet to discover how hard it is to get hired for FP, but I would imagine being young and inexperienced compared to many professional FPers, would make the job search quite difficult.

I actually just started a list of companies to help myself and others find work in the future:-) [https://github.com/elamje/FunctionalProgrammingCompanyList](https://github.com/elamje/FunctionalProgrammingCompanyList)

</comment><comment><USER4> I feel it's definitely more fun. There are few new things to say about the advantages. Clearly isolating state management from side-effectless code just enables a lot of very nice things. FP gets you thoughtful and openminded coworkers.

There is definitely a hiring advantage in our case, attracting good programmers who came to us mainly because they wanted to learn FP or were already using FP, but probably depends on what your local job market is like.</comment>


A Better Approach to A/B Test Analysis - <AUTHOR> http://blog.sendwithus.com/a-better-approach-to-ab-test-analysis/ <comment><USER2> Hey! I'm the author of Confidence.js. Emily Malcolm and I have been working hard on this new approach for the past few weeks and we're super excited to share it!

We're both here to answer any questions :)

<comment><USER3> >First, we use Chi Squared Tests to determine if differences in the A/B test data are meaningful or not.

Could you explain why you've chosen to take a binary approach to determining whether differences are meaningful or not?

To me it seems like a continuous approach would be both more useful and more realistic. Creating an artificial threshold for significance seems a bit silly (and it also makes the model harder for users to use, because different applications might need different significance levels to justify an action).

From my perspective, every data point contains information and if you wait for significance you're essentially ignoring early information.

Edit: Also, when switching costs are small, significance levels become mostly pointless and you just want to switch to the best A/B option immediately. As evidence swings the other way, you just switch back.

<comment><USER4> Hi! This is Emily, the stats brains behind this. My research indicated that 80% significance was commonly used for A/B Testing (and of course any significance level >80% would be even more conservative). I definitely see your point of the advantage of a continuous test and I think for the expert being able to see the exact significance level for the test would be very useful. However, our thoughts were that the average user might not necessarily have the expertise to know what a "good enough" level of significance would be for any test. Rather than having to educate every user on what significance means and how to interpret it we decided that a "yes, significant" or "no, not significant" would be more easily interpreted by all, regardless of their statistical background. If there is demand for a more continuous approach, it certainly could easily be implemented.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the reply. I guess it's a good reminder for everyone building statistical products (or even non-statistical products) that the goal is not an optimal formula, but a result that makes users comfortable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Worth pointing out that our (sendwithus) js library for calculating all of this is open source: github.com/sendwithus/confidence

</comment><comment><USER6> The statistical methods we use now were created in the context of long-running experiments that had to be set up in advance and run in parallel. In that situation, you have to decide up-front how many subjects to test on, and the methods reflect this.

I'd like to see someone takle creating a method aimed at our situations where results steadily trickle in. There ought to be a way to come up with adaptive thresholds such that at any given time we can ask, "Do we have statistically significant results yet, or do we keep the test running?"

<comment><USER3> I totally agree. And I think Bayesian methods (which compute the likelihood of the model given the data) tend to work much better for these rolling data applications than frequentist methods (which compute the likelihood of the data given the model). The problem for frequentist methods here is that when data is constantly rolling in it's hard to specify the space of all possible data collected (because traditional bounds like the number of data points no longer work).

Here's a link to a paper on a Bayesian approach to the multi-armed bandit problem: [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asmb.874/abstract...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asmb.874/abstract;jsessionid=364E386ABCD27DA0D592DC7810CA558A.f01t03)

<comment><USER4> Hi! This is Emily, the stats brains behind this. I will definitely look into this and other Bayesian methods. Thanks!

<comment><USER7> I would also suggest switching from chi-square to the g-test.

If you look at the history, I believe that you'll find that Pearson originally came up with the g-test as an approximation to an exact test, and then found the chi-square as an easier to compute alternative. This mattered back in the days of pencil and paper, but there is no excuse today to use the worse technique.

I'm going to avoid long discussions about the advisability of taking multiple looks at results with a classical statistical test. But see my incomplete series at [http://elem.com/~btilly/ab-testing-multiple- looks/index.html](http://elem.com/~btilly/ab-testing-multiple- looks/index.html) for some of the considerations.

I never got into Bayesian statistics in there. In general they depend on the existence of a prior distribution. Careful treatments will talk about this. Sloppy ones assume one, don't talk about the one that they assume, and then quote results without letting you know about this important assumption. As long as you accept that assumption, they work well. But sometimes can be confusing to explain. (Until people "get" it. Then it can become irritating getting them to STOP explaining it!)

If you want to discuss these issues more, my email is my name at gmail.com.

<comment><USER4> "Upgrading" to the g-test is certainly something we could implement in the future - Pearson's Chi Square was simply a starting place. I will definitely have a look over the link you provided. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Here's another paper that's relevant to this topic: [http://www.qubitproducts.com/sites/default/files/pdf/most_wi...](http://www.qubitproducts.com/sites/default/files/pdf/most_winning_ab_test_results_are_illusory.pdf). And discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7287665](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7287665)

</comment><comment><USER9> There are a number of testing tools relying on this methodology. This is useful: Evan's Awesome A/B Tools ([http://www.evanmiller.org/ab- testing/](http://www.evanmiller.org/ab-testing/)). It includes a Chi-Squared test, sample size calculator, two sample T-test, and Poisson Means test.

</comment><comment><USER10> At my company we've implemented a Bayesian A/B test in order to minimize the amount of time a test has to run.

[http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2013/02/tech-bayesian- instant-...](http://visualrevenue.com/blog/2013/02/tech-bayesian-instant- headline-testing.html)

<comment><USER4> I will definitely have a look through this. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Nice to see someone questioning old statistical methods and then bringing new methods to the masses.</comment>


Show HN startups: the ultimate customer service cheatsheet - <AUTHOR> http://mybema.com/the-ultimate-customer-service-cheatsheet

<comment><USER2> This is one of those tiny off-topic feedbacks that might just be me, but the colour choice on the inactive tick boxes means that when I'm scanning through the text and the ticks are in my peripheral vision they 'strobe' in a really distracting mildly off-putting way, like a subtle version of the dots in this illusion [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_illusion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_illusion)

</comment><comment><USER3> "500 Internal Server Error If you are the administrator of this website, then please read this web application's log file and/or the web server's log file to find out what went wrong."

startup failed

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, had to up my pool up from 25 concurrents.</comment></comment>


Octopuses Are Building Underwater 'Cities' - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/09/19/octlantis-australia-octopus-city/ <comment><USER2> Fortunately this ridiculous Discovery Magazine article also links to the published paper, which is is not paywalled.

[http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SuKqGmXPA8zJdrkjkSRE/full](http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SuKqGmXPA8zJdrkjkSRE/full)</comment>


Connected Choices: How the Internet Is Challenging Sovereign Decisions [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/uafp_a_969178_hathaway.pdf

<comment><USER2> Url changed from [https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/11/how_the_inter...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/11/how_the_interne.html), which points to this.</comment>


____ will ____ you - <AUTHOR> http://littlegreatideas.com/willyou/

<comment><USER2> I like this. It's a chance to be creative in an easy, shared way.

An observation: Many of the posts are very poor, but some are wonderful. It would be nice if there was a way so the good ones would get more prominence. They seem to be drowning in the lame ones.

<comment><USER3> Agreed. I only watched it for a minute or two, but I did see a couple that made me think, "Whoa, maybe everyone on the Internet isn't _that_ stupid..." ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Interesting. My submission: Where there's a will, there's a way... but not for you.

Other notable posts:

\- hacker news _will_ downmod _you_ \- anonymous

\- _will_ '\ drop table _you_ \- anonymous

\- lisp is worth learning for the profound enlightenment experience you _will_ have when _you_ \- finally get it

 _Note that the author space is used to complete the sentence._

Note: If you want to help the better posts a bkovitz says, go to <http://littlegreatideas.com/willyou/index.php?action=history> and mark the junk ones. I'm not positive, but I think it will remove them from the cycle.

<comment><USER2> Thanks. How did you find that URL?

<comment><USER4> At the bottom of the page, click "past messages".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> On a similar note, there's <http://theyfightcrime.org/> I use that a lot when I feel like writing something quick and stupid and just need a plot bunny.

</comment><comment><USER6> Damn you, will wheaton, I can't stop loving you.

</comment><comment><USER7> I read that as an inbuilt in Python. _facepalm_

</comment><comment><USER8> Couldn't resist thinking about this. Maybe it's just me and HTML forms.

1=1 will pwn you

</comment><comment><USER9> I've watched this for 5 minutes and almost all of it were nonsensical or pointless.

Edit--at minute 6 it's pretty clear 4chan, or some lesser forum, got their hands on it.

<comment><USER10> Sad. This is a pretty cool idea, but it its already spammed.

<comment><AUTHOR> It was created in October, 2005.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I like it. A lot of buzz is going on with being able to share answers to common questions. (twitter: what are you doing? facebook: who are you? Loopt: Where are you?) This also goes along with stuff like the epic fail blog, or fml blog.

Maybe this could be used to stream epic fail blog as a screen saver?

Anyways, cool post</comment>


Hold Your Own Feet to the Fire - <AUTHOR> http://zenhabits.net/fire/

<comment><USER2> good approach to have some results but it implies that you need to be guided constantly.. ofcouse its good to have a guide/couch in everything for your first steps. to show you the basics so you dont "waste" your time and too much effort reinventing the weel. Now if you have failed having results eventhough you have read many self improvent articles/guieds propably this article wont solve your problem or you wont have lasting results.. the problem in my opinion is deeper.. is that you have this need to show you from someone wich step to make.. what to do next. to put you in a framework so you dont slack and loose your way to success. you are waiting from someone else to do the hard work for you! in essence you dont step on your own feet. you want someone else to take your hand and put it in a big jar of honey. you dont grab the bull by its "things". my suggestion is not to stop doing personal develomnt since it can help you bring facts to awareness.. so the problem is not that all those articles faild to make you to change.. the role of a guide (in that case all those articles) is not to take you by the hand or even better carry you and take you to the land of success. that's what you expect from these articles/guides/coaches and that why you fail. nobody owes you that so difficult task.. the guide or the coach are there to show which path not to take.. how to take steps not to take the steps for you.. so now stop bitching and keep moviing towards your mission.. put that framework of habits on your own and start having results.</comment>


YC Feature Request: Comments/Submissions Count - <AUTHOR>

Could our profile include the total numbers of comments and submissions we've ever posted? <comment><USER2> I'd also like to see the ranking of each with respect to the whole community and also for just the last 30 days.

It would also be interesting if there were a way to see the amount of karma gained or lost in a period relative to the total of all karma gained or lost in that period.

<comment><USER3> Why not just ask for an open data base to see what analyses any of us can come up with.

<comment><USER2> I'd settle for the transaction logs.</comment></comment></comment>