Japan found hundreds of years' worth of the minerals used in batteries and EVs - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-hopes-rare-earth-find-will-give-it-an-edge-against-china-1523446948 <comment><USER2> "The mining of rare-earth minerals was at one time dominated by the United States. The People's Republic of China has since come to dominate the market."

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare- earth_mineral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare-earth_mineral)

Presumably because China doesn't mind the cost to its miners or the environment (for now).

If that should change then it might start to be viable to mine this deposit.

<comment><USER3> Fun fact most, of the production came from the Mountain Pass rare earth mine, it's on the right side of the highway when you drive from Vegas to LA

<comment><USER4> There was a recent article talking about the history of that mine, how rights were sold to a Chinese-led Consortium during the free-market 90s.

[http://theweek.com/articles/765276/how-china-win-trade- war-1...](http://theweek.com/articles/765276/how-china-win-trade-war-1-move)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> paywall bypass: [http://archive.is/dVqGI](http://archive.is/dVqGI)

</comment><comment><USER6> Rare earth metals aren't actually that rare. They're just very polluting to mine, and thus mines outside China were closed.

<comment><USER7> > _They 're just very polluting to mine_

Why exactly is that? I can't see why some polluting process would be common to all of them, and unavoidable.

<comment><USER8> You do not find them individually, which means you have to separate elements with close chemical properties.

More often than not, the deposits contains relatively low concentrations of the stuff along with other minerals.

To quote Wikipedia¹

> (...) during the extraction of the ores from rocks, a significant amount of > water usage and wastewater production. Also, acidic substances are used > during the extraction process, which can leach in to the soil and > surrounding environment. In addition, due to the low abundance and varying > spatial distribution of REEs, the mining process uses a significant amount > of energy(...)

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare- earth_element#Environment...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare- earth_element#Environmental_Pollution)

<comment><USER9> So why aren't they stripping materials from disposed electronics? I've heard it's done, but it doesn't seem highly common.

<comment><USER10> I believe this has been propose as the more economically sound solution : [https://wasteadvantagemag.com/old-electronics-could-be- more-...](https://wasteadvantagemag.com/old-electronics-could-be-more- profitable-than-literal-gold-mines/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If these are underwater and the mining process on land is already extremely toxic. Does this mean that mining them underwater will release large amounts of toxins into the ocean?

<comment><USER12> My limited understanding is the toxic part is less the mining and more the refining — the acid baths that raw material goes into to extract the metals. I'd assume that'd need to be on land.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is it me or does the title make it sound like the minerals were found in the batteries and EVs?

</comment><comment><USER14> China has controlled the market on these for some time, using this control to its geopolitical advantage many a time. If Japan wants the right to merely compete in the market, they're in for a fight.

</comment><comment><USER15> It is interesting that the newest Pacific Rim mentions that the alien's objective is the "rare-earth" minerals in Japan. Was this just a coincidence or did the writers do some actual research?

</comment><comment><USER16> For national security purposes alone the Chinese monopoly on rare earths must end.

</comment><comment><USER17> That dude is fed up</comment>


Smalltalk and Pharo: Unknown rockstars - <AUTHOR> http://cookingcode.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/smalltalk-and-pharo-unknown-rockstars/

<comment><USER2> One of my all-time favorite programming books, about Smalltalk, is Smalltalk-80. [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201113716/](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0201113716/)

That may be interest to those who want to investigate more.

<comment><USER3> Now freely available online, among tons of other Smalltalk books:

[http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/](http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr/FreeBooks/)

[Edit: removed direct link to PDF]

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel like Objective-C is so close in spirit to Smalltalk, and with each syntax revision gets closer and closer, yet the utter simplicity of replacing "[foo: bar];" with "foo bar." I suspect will never happen. Too shocking for strict C programmers. I'd be totally happy to restrict traditional C-derived syntax to @ugly{ } blocks if it made more bold syntax changes possible.

</comment><comment><USER5> "It never had a big company behind it or a good marketing strategy."

Wasn't IBM a backer of Smalltalk before it moved onto Java? I believe Eclipse started its life as IBM's Smalltalk IDE...</comment>


Gates bids adieu to CES, sense of humor intact - <AUTHOR> http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/07/Gates-bids-adieu-to-CES_1.html

<comment><USER2> That was actually quite funny.

Good for you Willy...spending a billion+/year should be an enjoyable experience.</comment>


Skeumorphism the root of Scott Forstall's departure? - <AUTHOR> http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/09/28/a-really-big-word-on-apples-future.aspx

<comment><USER2> Mmmm, I'd say Apple Maps is :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Scott Forstall, not Steve.</comment>


I have a php developer interview? Any advice? - <AUTHOR>

I'm still learning PHP, for almost 2 months. I have a good understanding of the basics. I've created some projects using laravel.the interview is a first round interview , any advice on what I should watch out for? Thanks. <comment><USER3> As a recruiter, I would check the following:

\- Do you know the magic methods? [http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php](http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.magic.php)

\- Do you understand MVP and its value added? The fact that you use laravel may be an hint for a yes. Have you tried to do a bare PHP/MySQL application? You should, just to see how dirty it can be.

\- Do you know and use var_dump?

\- Are you able to write a Fizz Buzz?

\- What's your knowledge about security stuff? XRSF / SQL injection / XSS

\- Maybe some basic array manipulation involving array_keys, array_key_exists, array_shuffle.

\- How would your test if a string is included in another one? The answer is of course using strpos but extra care has to be given to handle a FALSE return

\- How to test for NULL, empty and FALSE?

\- How would you do a key value iteration?

Tests vary a lot among employers and, in my case, I do not expect 100% good answers but it gives me a quick overview of your level.

<comment><USER4> I think the suggestions above are good. I've Interviewed several candidates for PHP dev positions.

Here what I usually check for in a candidate: \- know your OOP (when to extend a class when to use composition, dependency injection, single responsibility principle) \- Usually ask at explaining MVC \- Ask about frameworks you've worked with (Symphony, Zend, Laravel, etc.) \- Your ability to solve problems.

But mostly I look at your ability to solve problems and learn on your own. So if you dont know the answer to something, just let them know that Google and Stackoverflow are your best friends.

<comment><AUTHOR> I was doing a laravel project from tuts+ and you don't know how many times I had to check for stackoverflow for answers to problems. I was discouraged that I wouldn't fix some of my issues with the project but I was able to complete the project after a week, which made me happy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> As an interviewer I would be checking first for competence over most other things. The reason is that PHP itself is a landmine language that has grown up organically. I'm not hating on PHP, just stating current state of the language. (Python is full of it's own gotcha's for example)

Knowing the gotcha's of the language is important, but a competent developer also understands patterns and disciplines.

For example, it's often times that DRY is perverted into a framework that obfuscates that actual work being done and makes not only the code untestable but also debugging a nightmare. It'd okay to repeat yourself as long as it provides clarity over obfuscation. But when is too much repeating too much? How would you fix it? Refactor? Rewrite? This perversion isn't exclusive to PHP at all.

On the PHP front, in addition to frantzmiccoli's great questions I would add the following: \- have you installed and used xdebug? \- you ever done code profiling with xhprof ?

</comment><comment><USER6> I know another PHP developer that is well-known in the PHP community in DC - he told me a story about how he was a guest interviewer for another company as a courtesy once. Out of all of the candidates he interviewed, only one gave him straightforward, honest answers to the hard questions he asked - <USER2> answer was the same each time, "I don't know, I would google it". That was the candidate he selected, and supposedly it worked out great for that company.

Do not lie during an interview - if you don't know something, be honest and mention that you would do your research to figure it out.

<comment><USER7> > I don't know, I would google it

That's exactly what I would answer and that would exactly be the reason why most companies won't hire me.

<comment><USER8> If you'd answer that for everything than it might be a red flag, but i think as long as you can demonstrate actual competence, at least enough to be able to judge the quality and merit of what you're googling, then it shouldn't be a problem.

Google and SO are too valuable not to use sometimes, and for PHP, php.net is almost unavoidable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Well, depending on the job you should learn basics HTML and CSS. Even if you are not going to use them, showing the interviewers you expanded your view to the front end can only be a good thing. And since you have such few experience, you should compensate with a friendly personality.

</comment><comment><USER10> As someone who bombed their first developer interview, do not get discouraged if you don't know the answer to a question. Make it clear you're willing to learn and what your current skill level is.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER7> What kind of position is it? Even for a junior developer position two months of experience is very little.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's junior developer position and its going to be a phone interview which should make things a bit easier.</comment></comment>


Portland's New Pipes Harvest Power from Drinking Water - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcoexist.com/3041300/portlands-new-pipes-harvest-power-from-drinking-water <comment><USER2> Extracts from the Lucid Energy FAQ [0] ....

How does the system work?

The LucidPipe™ Power System uses the flow of water inside the PWB pipeline to spin four 42" turbines that produce electricity for PGE [Portland General Electric]. PGE purchases the electricity from Conduit 3 as part of their strong commitment to both renewables and local sources of energy.

How much energy will the project generate?

This is a 200 kW nameplate capacity project. The system is expected to generate an average of 1,100 megawatt hours of energy per year, enough electricity to power up to 150 homes.

...

DOE Grant – The U.S. Department of Energy awarded Lucid Energy a phase 1 SBIR grant to field test the LucidPipe technology.

Investors – Lucid Energy has secured private funding from a very active syndicate of investors including Northwest Pipe Company, the Israeli hybrid venture capital/crowdsourcing platform OurCrowd, Star Energy and the Harbourton Fund as well as more than $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding is being used to accelerate commercialization of the LucidPipe Power System worldwide

\-----

Notably absent is what percentage of the power revenue Portland gets from the energy generated.

[0] [http://www.lucidenergy.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/01/Lucid-...](http://www.lucidenergy.com/wp- content/uploads/2015/01/Lucid-Energy-PDX-Fact-Sheet_20-Jan-2015.pdf)

<comment><USER3> > 1,100 megawatt hours of energy per year, enough electricity to power up to > 150 homes.

That doesn't quite add up, that comes to only 837 watts (average use) per home. For perspective, a microwave oven uses 1500 watts while it's on. A rough estimate for a central AC system is 3500 watts. [http://www.senicaair.com/blog/how-many-watts-does-an-air- con...](http://www.senicaair.com/blog/how-many-watts-does-an-air-conditioner- use)

Maybe they don't tend to have central AC in Portland, but electric heating can use even more.

<comment><USER4> 837W all day long is 20kWh, almost exactly so I guess that's the figure used. That's roughly double my usage in the UK, and I work from home.

It's ~7300kWh/year, which is a bit lower than the US average of almost 11000kWh ([https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3](https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3)). In the UK it's an overestimate as we average closer to 4000kWh (chart 3: [https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/449134/ECUK_Chapter_3_-_Domestic_factsheet.pdf))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> For those interested in more details on this project, PBS Newshour had a good report on it in April [https://youtu.be/vlbp0VxZG28](https://youtu.be/vlbp0VxZG28)

</comment><comment><USER6> I've never understood the concept of something like this. Isn't the energy generated canceled out with power expended to pump it through? I feel like friction would never make something like this useful.

Can someone explain how this kind of generation is beneficial?

<comment><USER7> The energy is input by the sun which turns sea water (at sea level) into water vapor, which then moves to higher elevation due to weather patterns (also caused by sun's energy input) and falls as rain into a reservoir at higher elevation than the locations it serves.

<comment><USER8> All energy on earth is solar energy.

<comment><USER9> Apart from nuclear power. Even that is technically 'solar' in the sense that the elements necessary were made in a star, but not our sun.

<comment><USER10> You're right about nuclear (though, if we can get hydrogen fusion to be profitable, that won't even be stellar in the way that fission is).

Tidal energy isn't solar in any sense. It's harvesting momentum which in turn is generated by some combination of gravity and the Big Bang.

Geothermal energy isn't solar. It's harvesting heat, which apparently comes from three sources: heat from the planet's formation, caused by gravity, heat from friction from deep-interior motion, and heat from radioactive decay. Only the last of these is even stellar, and none are solar.

<comment><USER8> Moon (and Earth) were given their momentum during the formation of the solar system. I'd say that's solar.

And if you want to make a distinction about which star forged the heavy elements required for radioactive decay, then I'll agree it's 'stellar' energy not so much 'solar'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Salt Lake City is planning a similar project to harness energy from municipal water pipes. From 6 months ago:

[https://www.ksl.com/?sid=35603966&nid=148](https://www.ksl.com/?sid=35603966&nid=148)

</comment><comment><USER12> Previous post: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9835650](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9835650) (different source)

</comment><comment><USER13> I've often wondered why someone couldn't invent a home irrigation system that was recharged by the flow/pressure of water passing through.

</comment><comment><USER14> I hope that this will help lower the insanely high utility bills that Portland residents have to pay.

<comment><USER15> More likely it's going to raise your utility bill, Portland has to pay for our fancy new pipes somehow.</comment></comment>


Developing on WP7 vs Android vs iPhone - <AUTHOR> http://blog.edwinevans.me/?p=77

<comment><USER2> Summary: The author is a long-time Windows developer and extremely familiar with Visual Studio. He likes the WP7 development environment best. He can deal with Eclipse for Android, but he finds iOS development with Xcode counterintuitive.

I'm not sure the author is really distinguishing between his personal tastes and the actual characteristics of each platform. But his personal tastes are shared by an enormous number of Windows developers, so based on his blog post, I imagine that WP7 will succeed with in-house corporate developers. Interesting.

<comment><USER3> _Summary: The author is a long-time Windows developer and extremely familiar with Visual Studio._

I don't understand where you got your summary. Looking at his CV - <http://home.pacbell.net/eevans2/resume.html> \- it seems he has a range of experience.

<comment><USER2> _I don't understand where you got your summary._

From this part of the article: _I admit that I've spent many more years developing in Visual Studio than Eclipse or Xcode..._

Based on my own years in Visual Studio, I assumed that this meant Windows development of one flavor or another.

<comment><USER4> Could be an IntelliJ user like myself (when I'm not using VS, that is).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is total shallow flaimbait.

As a C#/Ruby developer I embarked on the somewhat painful journey of learning Objective-C a few weeks ago. I got my first personal app written to control my Denon 3808 remote.

Admittedly it would have taken me a fraction of the time in either C# or Java ... square bracket central is something that is hard to get used to.

However, I find the whole experience of developing on iOS very well documented ... this is not COM development with MFC, it is much more approachable. It is a pleasure to have a language that has its roots in Smalltalk and having a fairly comprehensive yet-not-gigantic set of support classes is great. Objective C delegates are nice, the evented style it offers is nice. Auto release pools take away a lot of the pain of memory management. I am sure that after a few months of development in Objective C I would be quite productive. However I still prefer C#. Also, I prefer Ruby over C#.

When I first learned WPF a few years ago I could not believe the bloat of the base library, it took weeks to really understand how all the XAML stuff works, building custom controls was tricky business.

Today, Silverlight (which has its roots in WPF) is much more polished. As far as I can see if you use the toolkit and controls that ship with WP7 development is quite seamless. However, my understanding is that the iOS set of APIs are more comprehensive due to the huge first to market advantage they have.

There are lots of very subtle advantages to each of these platforms that only and expert in all 3 could point out. That is an article I would love to read.

</comment><comment><USER6> "Objective-C sucks" is just silly. If you know and like C#, of course you'll like developing for WP7 more. Weird that he talks about null references in Objective-C but you can send all kinds of messages to nil and you'll be fine. Not so in C#/Java.

<comment><USER7> I actually was just wishing c# had as terse of a null check syntax as ObjC. I love the fact that I can type

if(!object)

      [[Do something]about it]

vs

if(object == null)

      DoSomething.Aboutit

I know its a small thing, but my typenames are usually lengthy so in practice C# statements can get character heavy.

<comment><USER8> This is actually really easy to do in c#:

      public static bool operator true(Class c)
      {
          return c != null;
      }

      public static bool operator false(Class c)
      {
          return c == null;
      }

To avoid redoing this for each class you can just derive from a base class that implements these.

<comment><USER7> well I know that it is possible, I was thinking of trying to write a similar type function with an extension method, but I just like how its included out of the box in ObjC. Really I think for a general purpose language C# is more flexible and while leveraging .NET you have more tools available to develop rapidly.

Part of me feels that Im not "really programming" when I write managed code though. I like writing C and ObjC because I feel like Im actually flipping switches on the CPU. It is silly I know(and all in my head), but being lower level seems to excite me more.

In reality I think its all about the right tool for the job, and choice is good.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Complaining that Apple's docs say it's easy is unreasonable. I'm sure microsoft's docs say so too. The problem isn't that Apple says it's easy, the problem is tha it's not easy. It's not even hard. It's stupid.

I speak as an iOS developer and long time Apple devotee. The way Apple manages signing and submission is a cruel joke. It was ok as a "get it out the door NOW" beta in, what, 2008, but it's barely improved. I spend more time figuring out wh signing failed than finding actual bugs.

I don't think arguing obj-c is useless to learn is fair, but he you're a windows guy. IMHO learn new languages is seldom useless, and I'd rather learn obj-c than c# for the exact sam reasons you'd rather learn c#, and I'd argue the intellectual benefit from learning obj-c exceeds that of adding c# to java or vice versa.

</comment><comment><USER10> I have developed for Android, and recently started developing WP7. So far, I prefer the development environment and tools for WP7. Silverlight + Blend studio allows for quick and beautiful apps, and XNA studio does much of the work necessary to get the frame updating and rendering working. So far I am impressed with WP7.

<comment><USER11> I don't think enough people bring up the advantage Expression Blend brings to the table. It's like being able to design your UI in Photoshop

(Say what you will about Microsoft the one thing you have to give them credit for is the amount of money they spend to create developer tools)

Things might change once Adobe gets Flash up to speed on Android but until then Blend is by far the most powerful UI environment available for any mobile device.

<comment><USER10> Yes, most people don't even know that Expression Blend exists. The first time I used it to customize my UI in Silverlight, I was blown away how quick and painless it was. To simply change the look of a button in Android, I had to spend far too long creating .9png files or w/e they are called.

<comment><USER12> _To simply change the look of a button in Android, I had to spend far too long creating .9png files or w/e they are called._

Yes, so please don't do that. No user wants an app that looks different from every other app on the platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The author says Marketplace approval is usually quick at about 2 days.

Except when you are one of the many developers whose apps get stuck in the marketplace, that never get approved or rejected because of lousy infrastructure on Microsofts side.

A developer I highly respect wrote about his ongoing struggle getting his Google Voice client out for WP7. If he wasn't already known from his MVP work, it's unlikely he would even have got those [extremely unhelpful] responses from Microsoft.

[http://www.koushikdutta.com/2010/12/windows-phone- marketplac...](http://www.koushikdutta.com/2010/12/windows-phone-marketplace- woes.html)

<comment><USER14> I started reading your comment and was getting ready to find Koush's frustrated tweets. Looks like a really nice product but it's been in holding for 26 days now for his latest big huge update. A damn shame when the WP7 marketplace is so far behind (relatively).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> So my takeaway is that he prefers using Visual Studio and C# to write mobile applications, followed by java/eclipse/emacs for the android and Xcode/ObjC bringing up the rear.

I think its a fair assessment, as someone who spends his daytime hours in VS2010 writing C#, the tools are first rate. I personally like objective C as a language(I think C# and .NET is growing at a rate that will tire of keeping up with before too long where objective C is lean and easy to learn), and feel that things could be better if XCode were better. That said, the iPhone simulator is at least 100 fold better than the WP7 emulator.

</comment><comment><USER15> My experiences with Android and iOS dev has been pretty bad. Android has unbelievably crappy tools. Mac iOS dev tools are beautiful and extremely slick, however I couldn't figure them out. Objective-C is a huge blocking issue for me.

Recently been using Titanium Mobile which I'm starting to really like. It makes iPhone dev really nice. With Android dev though you still have to deal with the crappy tools provided by Google (compiler, emulator, packager).

I don't doubt Visual Studio has a much easier development process for apps. C# is a decent language for that kind of thing. But I don't think I could bring myself back to ever using Windows again for development (even in a VM).

<comment><USER16> What's so hard about objective-c? If you stay mostly-in-objc, it's not much different than ruby/python -- it's just method calls with named parameters. If you use any framework in ruby, you're probably already doing something similar since many method calls take in a hash where you pass in options.

Everything else after learning the syntax is just learning the api.

<comment><USER17> I think because kids nowadays never learned C/C++ like us old timers. Manual memory management trips them up. Obj-C's "weird" object oriented syntax becomes a non-issue in 2 hrs of coding, so it has to be the manual memory management and API design that are the issue.

UIKit and Cocoa are, admittedly, pretty unorthodox compared to pretty much a lot of UI frameworks out there. That and Interface Builder being a separate app were the biggest obstacles for me learning iOS programming.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> >Android is better for being able to develop on your platform of choice (though I suspect developing on Mac is best supported)...

Quickly like to point out that Eclipse on OS X is atrocious.

<comment><USER19> When did you last try Eclipse on OS X?

I personally prefer Netbeans over Eclipse and Ubuntu or even Windows over Mac OS X, but Eclipse on Mac has become very usable since about two years ago. (I think there are still some problems with keyboard shortcuts, but I'll blame them mostly on OS X, not Eclipse.)

<comment><USER18> I've been using Eclipse for the last three years, more heavily in the last year (Android development). I find it to be incredibly slow, to the point where it becomes unusable. After a couple hours, switching files takes 2-3 seconds, code hints take 4-5 seconds, etc. Very painful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> My main concern with WP7 is that it can run only managed code (see [http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en- US/windowsphone7s...](http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en- US/windowsphone7series/thread/096b66ee-23c1-47b7-a768-bc2ae9e94c7c) for example).

This means that existing non-.NET code has to be rewritten from scratch to be ported to WP7, while on iPhone and Android it is possible to link native code.

If a developer wants to write the same application on iPhone or Android and WP7, basically no code can be shared. Is it worth it?

<comment><USER21> Native code can be shared on all platforms except for WP7 if written properly.

<comment><USER20> Yes that was my point, Android and iPhone can share code, WP7 can't

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> IMO the comparison between these platforms is only interesting when you take alternate languages into account. We know Java, C#, and Objective C are all way behind, so how do more advanced languages fare on these platforms?

<comment><USER23> > _We know Java, C#, and Objective C are all way behind (...)_

Behind what?

<comment><USER24> While I side with his statement, I neither like the condescending tone of his phrasing. But i believe he means advanced, 'esoteric', fancy smarty pants stuff like functional languages. One can spend aeons frivolously debating why pragmatism is (not) better than pure expressive power. And which language is what and then devolve to what is definable. mere mortals have better things to do with their finite lives.

Anyways... I can attest to F# being a breeze to get on WP7 and Scala can be wedged into android with some effort. Thats about it I think of in terms of no extra runtime required solutions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> So, square brackets are the new parenthesis for language arguments.</comment>


Statsd-Vis – Standalone StatsD Server with Built-In Visualization - <AUTHOR> https://statsd-vis.info/?hn2 <comment><USER2> if it meets the guidelines, this might make a good Show HN. [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)</comment>


WeWork's Bobby Ghoshal and Roee Adler: Scaling Design to Meet Rapid Growth - <AUTHOR> http://blog.invisionapp.com/inside-design-wework <comment><USER2> Those clocks are all wrong.</comment>


Beyond Hybrid War: How China Exploits Social Media to Sway American Opinion - <AUTHOR> https://www.recordedfuture.com/china-social-media-operations/ <comment><AUTHOR> Quote of the "Key Judgments" section from the article:

Key Judgments

Chinese English-language social media influence operations are seeded by state-run media, which overwhelmingly present a positive, benign, and cooperative image of China.

Chinese influence accounts used paid advertisements to target American users with political or nationally important messages and distorted general news about China.

It is likely that weekly guidance issued by state propaganda authorities drives accounts to propagate positive messages in concert regarding special events once or twice a month.

We assess that these Chinese state-run influence accounts did not attempt a large-scale campaign to influence American voters in the run-up to the November 6, 2018, midterm elections. However, on a small scale, we observed all of our researched state-run influence accounts disseminating breaking news and biased content surrounding President Trump and China-related issues.

We believe that Russian social media influence operations are disruptive and destabilizing because those techniques support Russia's primary strategic goal. Conversely, China's state-run social media operations are largely positive and coordinated because those techniques support Chinese strategic goals.</comment>


Reminder: Pittsburgh Hacker News meetup tonight at 9PM at Church Brew Works - <AUTHOR> http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=3525+Liberty+Avenue++Pittsburgh,+PA++15201&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.424342,79.101563&ie=UTF8&z=16&g=3525+Liberty+Avenue++Pittsburgh,+PA++15201

<comment><USER2> I'll be there. I invited some other companies from AlphaLab (a local seed- stage investment organization), but the invite went out a little late, so we'll see how many actually make it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hmm good place. Fond memories of CMU and Shadyside Inn. But CMU hasn't succeeded in producing great startups like Stanford ! May be u guys can change that.

<comment><USER4> Yes, it's kind of counterintuitive when you consider how gloomy Pittsburgh winters are. What is there to do on CMU campus besides hack?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Damn, I miss the CBW. Great food, great beer, great space. Have fun!

</comment><comment><USER6> Yo I'm here where is everyone</comment>


New Hack: Tired of getting kicked off News.YC? - <AUTHOR>

Is noprocrast dragging you down? Or the maxvisit clock staring you in the face? Well, then I've got the solution for you.
1. Wait minaway minutes after your maxvisit has timed out.
2. Reload the front page
3. In new tabs, open each and every link on the homepage
4. Read til you become exhausted and forget about those silly arrows. By now, your maxvisit has expired, and you'll have to wait minaway in order to press the arrows, so you'll do it when you loop back to step 1.
Luckily news.yc isn't high volume enough that you have to do this more than once or twice a day.
Enjoy!
(oh, and I really do like this new feature... so does my employer) <comment><USER2> I applaud. Now if only redhotpawn.com/blitz/blitzchess.php would add that feature.

</comment><comment><USER3> Your employer force you to set noprocast on?

<comment><AUTHOR> No. But theoretically my employer is happier that I'm not distracted by random posts.</comment></comment>


Show HN: glipho.com, newborn approach to social content publishing - <AUTHOR> http://glipho.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi all, we have been holding off doing a Show HN as we wanted the platform to be as good as possible, but we finally realised that will never happen. Feedback more than welcomed guys!</comment>


Ask HN: What hackernews clones are out there? - <AUTHOR> I wonder what opensource scripts exist out there that provide more or less similar functionality to hackernews? <comment><USER2> A lot of the various online link/news-posting communities provide their back- end code as open source. Here are some:

kuro5hin: [https://github.com/BlastarIndia/scoop](https://github.com/BlastarIndia/scoop)

slasdot: [https://sourceforge.net/p/slashcode/git/ci/live/tree/](https://sourceforge.net/p/slashcode/git/ci/live/tree/)

reddit: [https://github.com/reddit](https://github.com/reddit)

</comment><comment><USER3> I run HelloBox

[https://www.hellobox.co](https://www.hellobox.co)

It was started as "Create your own HackerNews clone" tool. It lets you create a HN-type community. Please check it out.

</comment><comment><USER4> The code for HN is available at [http://www.arclanguage.org/arc3.1.tar](http://www.arclanguage.org/arc3.1.tar).

</comment><comment><USER5> I created one for myselve, tagly.azurewebsites.net :)</comment>


Mount Vesuvius eruption: Extreme heat 'turned man's brain to glass' - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51221334 <comment><USER2> There's a CG video of the last 24 hours of Pompeii[0] which shows how the city was completely wiped off the map. It's probably one of the best ways to visualize the disaster and aftermath.

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY_3ggKg0Bc)

<comment><USER3> I'm by no means an expert on any of this, but the visualization seems way too slow. When you see how the bodies of people were found, I think it went a lot faster than this video implies.

<comment><USER4> Pyroclastic flows have been directly measured at up to 90-130 m/s (200-290 mph), though even more typical speeds of 10-100 m/s (22 - 220 mph) exceed the pace of a walking human in good shape, let alone the elderly, young, or infirm. I'm not aware of specific indicated speeds of the 79 CE Vesuvius flows.

Escape on foot would have been at ~5 kph (3 mph). The safest destination from Pompeii, we can say in 2020 with hindsight, would have been _perpendicular_ to the wind flow, to the north-east, at least 10 km (3+ hours continuous walking), up-hill.

Keep in mind that modern vulcanology, meterology, risk analysis, and disaster mitigation were also in their infancies, as well as wide-area information broadcasting, making such information largely unavailable at the time. In particular, the likely "obvious" safety of water (south-west) lead not only toward the centre of the kill zone, but a dead end as well. Walking strictly away from Vesuvius would reduce risk, but involved a longer path to safety than the NE route.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruption_of_Mount_Vesuvius_in_79#/media/File%3AMt_Vesuvius_79_AD_eruption.svg)

Few people at the time had access to SUVs, high-speed watercraft, helicopters, motorcycles, or bicycles, to aid in escape.

The wind was blowing onshore, a factor substantially credited to the death of Pliny the Elder, who, with the words "Fortune favours the brave" had attempted a sea rescue with his naval fleet, but found itself trapped at the beach. Pliny died there.

Temperatures within the cloud were a _minimum_ of 100C (212F), and reached as much as 360C (500F) or more, all deadly. Wood and human remains at Herculaneum show carbonisation -- effectively having been turned into charcoal. Temperatures were extreme.

The surges themselves occurred well into the eruption, after substantial damage to the city by both earthquakes and bombardment, lasting overnight.

Total volcanic deposits on Herculaneum, which was spared windblown ash and hence resulted _only_ from pyroclastic flows, were _23 meters_ (75 feet). Digging your way out of 7 storeys of searing-hot rock is a challenge for many people.

Any remaining survivors at the time of the surge would likely have been in terror, sleep deprived, utterly confused by the transformation to their surroundings, and probably not most able to have escaped in the first place. The eruption occurred during a festival in which the local population would have been increased by tourists and visitors. In Pompeii, though the initial pyroclastic surge saw lower temperatures close to the ground, later surgers (by surviving evidence) saw consistent temperatures throughout the vertical column, even at or below ground level. Surviving in a basement or cellar was not an option.

Total population of Pompeii and Herculaneum is estimated at ~16-20k, with about 1,500 bodies having been identified to date. Total victims clearly lie somewhere between these two numbers, and there's little agreement as to the precise number, though a fair argument can be made that mortality was a minimum of 10-20%.

At some point, if you were within the kill zone of Vesuvious, regardless of your mental state or fitness, you were walking dead. You might not have been dead yet, but there was simply no way out or to survivable shelter. There _was_ no survivable shelter within the zone.

Again: by midnight August 28, if you were anywhere but heading north-east of Pompeii, or north-west of Herculaneum, you were already dead.

<comment><USER5> > _Few people at the time had access to SUVs, high-speed watercraft, > helicopters, motorcycles, or bicycles, to aid in escape._

This is potentially one of the biggest Pompeii-related understatements of the day, even.

<comment><USER4> Oh, I sprinkled a few of those in there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To others who were curious of the definition as I was:

 _vitrified_ \- To change or make into glass or a glassy substance, especially through heat fusion.

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

<comment><USER7> The definition follows in the next sentence of the article.

<comment><USER6> Yes, I see that now thanks. I saw the term used earlier in the article and jumped the gun!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> And we thought brain freeze was bad...

Shame that the vitrified brain matter melted into a puddle. The title momentarily got my hopes up that we might see the structure of a 2k year-old brain.

</comment><comment><USER9> Sitting here reading this in pleasant A/C its hard to imagine your brain glassifying at 560°C in a fraction of a second.</comment>


Show HN: GitHub Trending Repos - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vitalets/github-trending-repos <comment><USER2> Using GitHub issues to power notifications in this way is absolutely inspired!

You get single-sign-in for anyone with a GitHub account.

You get both email AND push-based notifications without needing to run ANY of the infrastructure yourself.

Your scrapers get to run in their own time and publish via a very well- documented and easy to use API.

I'm totally sticking this idea in my back-pocket. It's brilliant.

<comment><USER3> I'm imagining the Github infrastructure folks cringing at this. The second- order effects of people reusing the infrastructure for a different purpose than initially intended.

Like how they caved and provided github.io because people were using Raw (or some other feature of the repos) as a ad-hoc CDN anyhow.

In fact, I'm curious how much of their traffic is traditional git/repo view and how much is any of these "second-order" services.

<comment><USER2> I bet they're fine with it. They have invested a great deal of engineering effort in building a notification system that scales - there are plenty of legitimate uses for that system that dwarf this clever hack in terms of traffic (issues with hundreds or even thousands of subscribers).

If I were them I would be delighted at someone using my work in an unexpected and creative way like this - having users surprise you like this (provided it's not for abuse or spam) is one of the joys of software design.

You could figure out the actual impact by counting the number of individual subscribers to all of the issues in this repo. My guess it's not even a hundred yet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Couldn't this be done a lot more simply with a mailing list or RSS feed? Using GitHub issues seems a bit convoluted, although I'm guessing it's probably because it's easier to set up and free to use. It seems like somebody should build a service which makes use cases like this 0 config.

<comment><USER5> the never satisfied freeloaders

<comment><USER6> Pointing out existing technologies that might be more appropriate to use is valid feedback. I don't think that detracts from how neat the project is.

Some of the big questions I always ask myself before I set about writing code for something are: Can this be done with older and more mature tech? Is this already more or less solved by another project and what value am I adding?

<comment><USER7> But Github issues are free. And they have a tweeting bot, also free.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Seems kinda cool - works by updating a GH issue per language and you subscribe to updates on the issue. But seems that the issues have been locked and not updated since November without explanation as to why.

Hence cool idea but not actually what it says on the tin for the moment.

[edit]: isn't true the GH UI just wasn't rendering the most recent updates for me. Viewing the issue pages themselves not so useful but subscribing to the issue is really the intended usage anyhow.

<comment><USER9> It might be that you've stumbled upon _some_ issue that didn't get updated?

I've checked a few weekly issues and they all seem to be regularly updated. The comments seem to be locked to avoid anyone posting one in order to avoid anyone spamming everyone who subscribed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Github really should hire this guy and incorporate this as a feature.

</comment><comment><USER11> I think its a nice idea, especially regarding signal to noise. I mean, for sure I could watch [https://github.com/trending](https://github.com/trending) but in fact I don't care about a lot of languages which might be essential for others (e.g. C#, C++).

Yes, RSS feeds and mailing lists would be nice too, but in the end I don't care much how I receive the information as long as I can receive it automatically somehow.

So far I have seen a lot of projects I know already, but I will try it for a few weeks and see if there will be any new treasures :-)

</comment><comment><USER12> I picked one Python repo at random to start and got an empty repo that says "Removed according to regulations":

[https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks](https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks)

According to google, it is something "widely used in mainland China to circumvent Internet censorship". Does Github not allow this type of project, or are they talking about a different form of "regulations"?

<comment><USER13> See master branch: [https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks/tree/master](https://github.com/shadowsocks/shadowsocks/tree/master)

<comment><USER14> Wait... Did they hide the master branch from view on purpose?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have my own way of tracking trending repos.

I use this url:

[https://github.com/trending/javascript?since=monthly](https://github.com/trending/javascript?since=monthly)

Then I use tabsnooze, [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab- snooze/pdiebia...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tab- snooze/pdiebiamhaleloakpcgmpnenggpjbcbm?hl=en)

to go to that page once a month

works for me

</comment><comment><USER16> Thanks for posting this and for the comments!

Before creating this repo I've researched existing solutions and described the comparison here: [https://medium.freecodecamp.org/five-ways-of-tracking- trends...](https://medium.freecodecamp.org/five-ways-of-tracking-trends-on- github-63940fca63b)

</comment><comment><USER17> I use changelog nightly for similar purpose. It shows you hottest and most starred repos within the day.

[http://nightly.changelog.com/2018/02/22/](http://nightly.changelog.com/2018/02/22/)

</comment><comment><USER18> Not long ago i made a small website for that: [https://madnight.github.io/grendy/](https://madnight.github.io/grendy/) By the way, it's written in purescript and haskell : )

</comment><comment><USER19> Why am I only seeing changes for Swift from November?

<comment><USER16> It seems you've looked at the issue open date. The updates to Swift are coming daily: [https://github.com/vitalets/github-trending- repos/issues/36#...](https://github.com/vitalets/github-trending- repos/issues/36#issuecomment-368174053)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Why is this needed when I can go on gihub.com and check trending repos? I see no point in this.

<comment><USER21> [https://github.com/trending](https://github.com/trending) does but if you look at his repo he says "None of alternatives __can send notifications per programming language __. That 's why I've created this project."

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Doesn't GitHub provides exact this functionality by itself?

<comment><USER16> Unfortunately not. GitHub official newsletter only contains trending repositories across all programming languages. So you can't focus on particular language.</comment></comment>


9 VCs You're Gonna Want to Avoid - <AUTHOR> http://foundread.com/2008/01/08/9-vcs-youre-gonna-want-to-avoid/ <comment><USER2> I wish VCs were so varied...

Actually Mr. IRR doesn't sound like someone to avoid. If I were a founder I'd be pretty excited about getting funding from someone whose previous investments had yielded 30 IPOs.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wouldnt want to avoid Mr Blue Blood. He sounds like someone good to have on the team and his kids.

<comment><USER4> Agreed. Perhaps his children would be interested in internships and could be a valuable addition to the team.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Some sentence constructs you're "gonna want to avoid!"

</comment><comment><USER6> You can find a reason to discount anyone... chemistry matters too

</comment><comment><USER7> I would really like to see a real name in each category ;)</comment>


The A-10 is a plane built around a gun, also stuff about python and big data - <AUTHOR> http://blog.developer.bazaarvoice.com/2013/10/03/bv-io-peter-wang-architecting-for-data/

<comment><AUTHOR> The A-10 section starts at about 15:50.

There's also a very interesting section on SAGE the US military super computer from the 50s.</comment>


Ask HN: List of tech companies that hires Visually Impaired candidates - <AUTHOR> Hi HN,<p>I'm looking for a list of tech companies that can hire visually impaired candidates. <comment><USER2> I'm not sure what you mean. No company can legally discriminate against you for a disability assuming you are qualified to do the job.

</comment><comment><USER3> Not every company feels a blind person is good culture fit, legal or illegal it may be. Not like you can hide in an interview either...

My blind programmer friend works at Morgan Stanley, EU.

</comment><comment><USER4> Let's see, why would a tech company blindly hire a visually impaired person?</comment>


Do Tags Work? - <AUTHOR> http://www.tekka.net/10/tags.html <comment><USER2> This is an awful analysis.

Flickr tags are by people categorizing their own photos (that is, publisher- generated categorization.) Not people categorizing things they've found or aren't theirs. This leads to radically different behavior. Given this is a librarian, the second case is much more relevant and interesting.

One analysis without understanding the space or how the subject differs from the desired outcome (that is, categorization) seems very embarassingly shallow.

(Yes, this annoyed me the first time I read it, a while ago.)

</comment><comment><USER3> Les Orchard (who used to work for delicious.com) has a good response to this article. Part of his argument is that Flickr is a really bad place to start a tag analysis, since people generally only tag their own stuff (the big win for tags comes when lots of people provide their personal tags for a single entity, meaning you can look at the data in aggregate). [http://decafbad.com/blog/2009/01/18/tags-do-work-for-me- at-l...](http://decafbad.com/blog/2009/01/18/tags-do-work-for-me-at-least)

</comment><comment><USER4> The findings basically show that people generally don't use verbs when tagging and that the titles and descriptions they write are almost always a more useful definition of the thing being tagged (especially when searching across large datasets).

</comment><comment><USER5> Summary: Tags aren't really all that useful because people who write good tags write good descriptions.

</comment><comment><USER6> holy hell, get an editor.

</comment><comment><USER7> my tag just sits at home watching tv all day...stupid, lazy tag!</comment>


Ask HN: Which game has an impressive AI? - <AUTHOR>

Games like SimCity, FIFA, Galactic Civilizations, etc boast an outstanding AI play. Which game(s) do you think has an impressive AI ?<p>Any of them Open Source? <comment><USER2> F.E.A.R. The AI engineer is an MIT graduate and employed AI planning research into the game rather than a typical state machine approach.

See [http://web.media.mit.edu/~jorkin/gdc2006_orkin_jeff_fear.pdf](http://web.media.mit.edu/~jorkin/gdc2006_orkin_jeff_fear.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> Left for Dead has robust AI. It is made so that a scenario can be played over and over again with different layouts of computer players. The design of the zombies requires teamwork. I believe the key to the fun of that game is in the single player is the AI. Without good AI it would be no fun at all.

It is not open source but I did see a presentation about its pathing on the internet.

</comment><comment><USER4> Well, i think it´s important to note that games must not only have AI that can play well, but rather programmers must make them "fail" sometimes, in order to seem more human, or make them "hesitate".

I guess what you´re trying to find out is which games have AI which correctly portray how a "great player" would act in such a game, and not which games have overkill bots that 360 scope you all the time.

Not sure this can count, but the AI of Pandemic, the game where you are a virus and have to destroy humanity is very well done. It is an accurate portray of a real world scenario under such circumstances.

Ps. Sorry for typos. English is second language over here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Haven't played the game myself, but I have heard about it! Have to give it a go one day.

<comment><USER5> The mobile port Plague Inc is fantastic as well, great time killer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've never played myself, but AI War: Fleet Command is said to have an extremely interesting AI opponent that is the focus of the game. The AI is actually meant to be an AI in the context of the game. The player must manipulate the AI's learning to be successful - not pursuing successful strategies too far and saving "tricks" for when they are most impactful.

</comment><comment><USER7> I only play two games most of the time: DotA2 and NBA2K14. I can say they have pretty impressive AI. For both games, I rarely beat the AI with the hardest difficulty. Unfortunately, the lack of intelligence of the team mates for both games gives me a disadvantage that also adds to its difficulty.

</comment><comment><USER8> The Unreal Tournament series has some of the best AI. They react and behave very human. In UT 2003 (or 2004 can't remember) they even respond to voice commands.

There was even a programmed Unreal Tournament bot that passed the turing test.

</comment><comment><USER9> Black and White. The Creature AI was a work of art, considering the age of the game.

<comment><USER10> I loved Black & White, loved Black & White 2 more. The creature AI was fantastic, you could teach it right from wrong (from your own perspective) and it would do what you taught it. Wish there would be another entry in the series.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Check out Three Body Problem, not really AI but... awesome</comment>


Show HN: Get your health records from any doctor - <AUTHOR> http://stayinyourprime.com <comment><USER3> I would strongly encourage my patients to stay a mile away from this enterprise. Any outfit that can say "Health is inherently social" does not have the right attitude towards PHI, in my opinion. Any association with Facebook only enhances this opinion, due to their history of "privacy creep." To be clear, I think patients should be informed and access their records if they choose. But be very careful about any social media exposure. Once it's out there, it's out there.

</comment><comment><USER4> Don't have a Facebook account. Don't want a Facebook account.

Even if I did, I wouldn't want it anywhere _near_ anything related to my healthcare. Requiring a Facebook account to sign up was a huge mistake.

<comment><AUTHOR> We don't get posting rights to your Facebook account. We can't nor will we ever share anything to Facebook.

We use FB to verify identity and help make it easier for you to invite friends and family, the people with whom you're already sharing your health info. Everything stays private within Prime.

<comment><USER5> Yeah, but many people, especially in the developer community, have a knee-jerk reaction to sharing private data on FB even if that isn't what you are doing. You could easily alleviate the fear by supporting other OAuth providers and allowing people to use their email address to sign up.

I really like the concept BTW!

<comment><AUTHOR> Email is something we're currently considering.

Thanks!

<comment><USER6> Don't just consider it--given this summer's events and disclosures, _email is the only thing even remotely reasonable_.

EDIT: Seriously, I appreciate the desire to get your viral coefficients up and everything, but this is something that is actually important and can ruin people's lives; don't take it lightly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Health records is a great space. 2 quick things that jumped out at me, the first is the iPhone feed that showed one user saying they just got a colonoscopy (my thought is that patients typically do not and would not share that type of info), then second down below it says health is inherently social, I do not know that this is true, I believe health is very private and often for good reason (insurance companies used to use such info to reject claims and insured for preexisting conditions, maybe not the case anymore with the reforms. But employers or potential employers can use this info to make hiring decisions). My concerns might sound far fetched and creepy but they are legit concerns on how people can use this info.

In truth I hope my initial concerns are all wrong and you find a huge market. Best of luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think your concerns sound far-fetched. I'd say so far our results are "different strokes for different folks" with folks in our target market of having daily/weekly health habits (visiting doctors, getting sonograms, getting treatments, tightening braces) leaning towards the more social end. This is simply because they need to share that data with multiple people/caregivers already (caregivers are often friends and family) and we make it 100x easier for them by 1) surfacing the data, and 2) bringing everyone together in one place.

I will also say that I think it would be great if our culture was a bit more open about our health on a personal level, rather than being so secretive. But I also understand the current need for that sometimes (like you point out in the job market) and so that's more so a personal hope than a product goal.

Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > "Get your health records from any doctor"

Awesome! Sign me up!

> Health is inherently social > Provide context for your friends and family by > sharing real health information seamlessly. Focus on communicating about > your health rather than communicating the technical details.

Yeah. No. Goodbye.

I would love to have all my records all in one place.

But why in the world would I want to share my high blood pressure/high cholesterol/chicken pox/herpes/aids etc. checkups with my friends and family?

<comment><USER9> There are no social requirements in the app—you can use it to get your record from multiple doctors and never add any friends in Prime.

The target market of the app is people who have close friends and family members that they want to keep in the know about their health. This might not be you, which is totally okay.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> > Health is inherently social

Maybe wellness is inherently social. I am a huge fan of Strava.

But there is no way I would give three guys in Oakland access to my medical records.

<comment><AUTHOR> Point taken. Not sure what Oakland has to do with it — we're located across the street from Kaiser Permanente's headquarters of 11,000 people in Oakland — but I think I see where you're coming from. You don't know us. And you deserve the best level of security.

Some more background on us: I worked at Disqus for 3 years. I spent time on the Product team and helped engineer some of their tools too. Owen is a fantastic engineer who spent 4 years at Intel and Oracle before that. We know security, we know scale. We're fully HIPAA-compliant; we even worked with Amazon directly to ensure this. Everything is encrypted and no data is stored on the device.

What could we do differently to put your mind at ease about this? Are there specific technical points you have in mind?

This is a problem that desperately needs to be solved and we're solving it for the people who need it solved most: people who really need their real health records with them right now, whether to show at their next doctor appointment or to family at home or friends on the other side of the country.

Thanks for your thoughts.

<comment><USER11> Did Amazon sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA)? I know in the past that prevented clients of mine from using AWS in the healthcare space.

<comment><USER12> Yes, AWS started signing BAAs on June 18th, 2013. FireHost and Rackspace will also sign a BAA.

"AWS enables covered entities and their business associates subject to the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to leverage the secure AWS environment to process, maintain, and store protected health information and AWS will be signing business associate agreements with such customers."

[http://aws.amazon.com/compliance/](http://aws.amazon.com/compliance/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I work in medical informatics, so my opinion may be biased.

Yes, people need access to their data. No, heath data is not inherently social. Sharing specific pieces of data with specific people does not mean health data is inherently social. I would seriously consider rebranding your efforts as a personal health data access mechanism that can also be specifically shared in the finest ways with specific people. And for the love of all that is holy, disassociate yourself from Facebook. Add your own sign up with email. Do not oauth with any other provider. As soon as you add FB/Google/Twitter/etc. you open the door to your customer having to ask the question about whether or not they want those companies having access to their data. Even if you say they will not, your customer will have to make a judgement call as to whether or not that is true.

<comment><USER14> As a developer, my opinion might be biased, but I agree with this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Amanda Huggankiss

> You tested positive for Herpes, Hepatitis, Chlamidia and HPV

Health and wellness has never been more social.

<comment><USER16> wives , get an free alert right in your mail box when your husband get aids or syphilis !!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Good idea, horrible messaging. I doubt anyone thinks that health is "inherently social"

</comment><comment><USER18> homepage error: link for "Not a member of a current Prime provider?" is [http://stayinyourprime.com/%10#providers](http://stayinyourprime.com/%10#providers)

Also, higher-level: how should potential customers check if their provider is already on Prime?

Finally, my first question when I see a service that will help me with sensitive, private data _for free_ is: who is paying for this? Maybe the providers are paying; maybe the plan is to sell "non-personally-identifiable" data; maybe there will be ads and/or targeted 3rd party offers; but if the site is secretive about its business model, I assume the worst. In this case the privacy policy seems to suggest the latter two options, which are bad enough for email hosting, but really quite dangerous for medical data. The process of pseudonymizing medical data is difficult and necessarily imperfect; so the consumers of any pseudonymized data need to be responsible parties.

<comment><USER19> Thanks for the note about the error, should be fixed soon.

Good point about letting people check the full list of providers!

To the question about business model, all three of us agree wholeheartedly that free services rightfully bring a certain level of skepticism. All things considered we don't think it would be possible to charge for the app, but do feel there are not enough truly consumer-focused offerings in the health space. So we are thinking hard about what the revenue model will be. We don't have any plans to sell info in any regard and are under the impression that would require a direct opt-in from consumers if that offers any solace.

<comment><USER14> "We don't have any plans to sell info in any regard and are under the impression that would require a direct opt-in from consumers if that offers any solace."

This is interesting. Are you then not considering exposing APIs to anonymous data or such like?

<comment><USER19> Like you say, anonymizing data is nigh impossible, so I'd rather just avoid it entirely. _Maybe_ local processing?

We are thinking a user driven OAuth style service would be valuable.

<comment><USER14> Makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I work in the healthcare space. This seems like a HIPAA nightmare, but I;m sure they've thought of this and I would be interested in their strategy for dealing with HIPAA.

<comment><USER9> We're fully HIPAA-compliant, as Tyler mentioned in another comment. Data is encrypted, and isn't stored on the device. HIPAA (and specifically MU Stage 2) is actually more helpful for what we are doing than anything else; letting patients get access to their records electronically is a hugely important step towards solving major problems in the health industry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> "Get your health records from any doctor"

We must have a different definition of "any," since this will not get them from my primary care physician. His records are not computerized. (If I don't pay my copay at the time of my visit, my bill is typed on a typewriter.) He started practicing medicine in the late 1960s, joining his father's practice. I'm sure that some older doctors, in smaller towns (I'm in a D.C. suburb), are the same way.

<comment><AUTHOR> Your point that smaller practices are more likely to not have an EHR is generally correct, but it's changing very quickly.

Some quick facts:

* More than 50% of clinics and hospitals in the U.S. have an EHR (electronic health record system) of some kind: [http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/05/20130522a.html](http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2013pres/05/20130522a.html). That means they can give you an electronic copy of your record.

* Meaningful Use says providers have to offer records electronically.

* Meaningful Use Stage 2 (goes into effect in 2014) says doctors also have to offer the record in whatever format you as a patient choose.

* The whole main point of HIPAA, the reason why it came to be, is that it gives every U.S. citizen a right to their health record, and to the ability to take it with them wherever they go.

The bottom line is: if your doctor isn't giving you an electronic copy of your record — and in 2014, in the format of your choice — they're breaking the law. It's your right to have your health record, and not just in paper form.

<comment><USER3> "The bottom line is: if your doctor isn't giving you an electronic copy of your record — and in 2014, in the format of your choice — they're breaking the law." This is demonstrably false. Meaningful use is not at this time a mandate. It is an incentive program. The incentive will likely turn from a carrot to a stick in the future, but as of 2014 there is no mandate on US physicians to comply with meaningful use stage anything. [http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and- Guidance/Legislation/EHRI...](http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and- Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Meaningful_Use.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right, I mistyped that. Meaningful Use is an incentive. The right to getting an electronic copy of your record is part of HIPAA.

So the overall point of what I wrote is still true — you have a legal right to your health record in the electronic format of your choosing:

> (ii) Notwithstanding paragraph (c)(2)(i) of this section, if the protected > health information that is the subject of a request for access is maintained > in one or more designated record sets electronically and if the individual > requests an electronic copy of such information, the covered entity must > provide the individual with access to the protected health information in > the electronic form and format requested by the individual, if it is readily > producible in such form and format; or, if not, in a readable electronic > form and format as agreed to by the covered entity and the individual.

That's from HIPAA § 164.524 Access of individuals to protected health information. (c)(2)(ii). Direct link: [http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text- idx?c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/...](http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text- idx?c=ecfr&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title45/45cfr164_main_02.tpl)

And that was also the point of OP's comment. OP was saying small practices might not always be able to provide a health record to their patients. Your health record is your legal right and so is an electronic copy (provided the data is stored electronically) as of the latest revision to HIPAA which has been in effect since September 2013.

<comment><USER21> But if the records are not maintained electronically, then there is no requirement to provide them electronically. The paragraph before the one you quoted, ends with:

>if not, in a readable hard copy form or such other form and format as agreed to by the covered entity and the individual.

If the records are only hard copy, then there is no requirement to convert them into an electronic format just to provide them to an individual. I know this is the case with my primary care physician and I think it may be the case with other smaller practices. Many of these may be small practices run by older doctors, so they may simply retire. If you've been practicing since say 1970 or so and haven't converted everything to electronic format by now, why bother?

<comment><AUTHOR> > If the records are only hard copy, then there is no requirement to convert > them into an electronic format just to provide them to an individual.

Correct. Yet over 50% of providers have an EHR. And that number is growing every month.

> If you've been practicing since say 1970 or so and haven't converted > everything to electronic format by now, why bother?

Because Meaningful Use incentivizes you to do so. The government gives you money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I think there has to be some more stronger reasons to justify sharing medical / health information with friends. Sharing that with my health providers may be a good idea but definitely not with friends.

</comment><comment><USER23> Why would providers partner with you? I work in healthcare and I'm having a hard time imagining how you sell this to them.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can't speak for every provider but one example is that of improved outcomes, improving the lives of patients and increasing the efficiency of physicians' daily workflow: [http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57610765-76/digital- health...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57610765-76/digital-health-tools- likely-to-decrease-visits-to-the-doctor/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> What efforts are you doing in the medical community to get them using your service?

<comment><AUTHOR> Prime is still only for consumers (patients). We don't sell the app to the medical community.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> No android? Meh.

</comment><comment><USER26> "Health is inherently social."

No. It's not.

<comment><USER27> There is a lot of negative commentary on this thread (thanks HN for always providing such valuable feedback), but I'd like to point out what I think is useful and positive with Prime.

First, health _is_ inherently social. When you're sick, do you tell your loved one (boy/girlfriend, spouse, parent, close friends, etc?). Of course you do. You want them to know that you might need their care for a few days, that you might have to miss some events that you'd planned together, that you might need help going to the pharmacy to pick up some meds, etc. More serious health issues are even more social. Name one person you know who has suffered from a severe medical condition who has _not_ told their loved ones. When my close family and friends are ill or going in for checkups that are potentially not routine, I want to know immediately what happened. If my loved one were to be drastically ill, I would want to know everything about their condition, the test results, the doctors' reports, the latest research, etc. Surely the HN community understands the desire to geek out over knowledge (health knowledge) and Prime aids that.

Furthermore, I recently suffered some major personal health issues. When I was in the midst of a flurry of doctors visits and medical procedures, my family and friends were all very curious to know what was happening and if they could help out, etc. I was already exhausted by the doctors' visits, and sharing the result of every test and exam with dozens of people was really straining for me. I was extremely lucky to have people near me who could assist me in spreading the word to the people who cared, but this whole "sharing information" problem would have been perfectly solved with Prime. I intentionally did not share any of my health information on Facebook, because I didn't trust Facebook's data privacy and sharing policies. While health is social, it's still private. But Prime may solve this.

For more routine procedures, I can see Prime being very useful. Did my elderly grandmother get her flu shot yet? Check. What was the result of my father's latest checkup about his cholesterol level? Easy to know.

Beyond "social", Prime provides centralized repo for all your medical data. Remember Mint? Remember how everyone gave up their bank passwords to a web- based service so they could see pretty charts and better budget and manage their finances? Remember how Mint took that information and sold ads and upsells against it? Yeah. Right. That's what is happening with medical data, too. Someone (Prime, perhaps) is going to be the one to collect all this information in one place, make it easy to read and understand, and become "the Mint of health data". I would bet on this. The world of health data is too fragmented to not be consolidated sometime soon.

The issues Prime faces are not small: first, ingesting data, and second, earning their users' trust.

I wish them the best of luck.

<comment><USER14> "When you're sick, do you tell your loved one (boy/girlfriend, spouse, parent, close friends, etc?). Of course you do."

This is __highly__ subjective. I don't do this. But neither your comment nor mine proves anything.

I have a feeling they're coming from the premise that pre-Facebook no one wanted to share what they're doing, filtered pictures of what they're eating, etc. The world evolves. As someone else has mentioned, maybe they're ahead of their time. Then again, maybe not. The only thing they're getting flak on here is the social part of the product. I'm unwilling to believe they just did that for a "Web 2.0" badge. However, it'll be interesting to know how they figured health is inherently social.

Psychological illnesses, cancer, etc may be too sensitive to share. Even pregnancy for that matter. Fever, stomach aches, head aches may be noise - <USER2> know people who just trudge along their day without a second thought. But this is anecdotal.

I do think they're building something cool here and wish them the best of luck!

<comment><USER19> Thanks, right on! (Regarding our viewpoint on timing.)

You're also right that it's subjective but it seems that at some point everyone comes to share or hear about health info and we are working to improve the communication difficulties in that realm.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> The copy on that page brings this to the brink of Poe's Law. Maybe they're just ahead of their time.</comment>


Why India Will Displace China as Global Growth Engine  - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-16/why-india-will-displace-china-as-global-growth-engine.html

<comment><USER2> interesting, but it seems to me these aren't any new arguments. People have been pretty much saying the same things for the past decade, and still india isn't showing the growth people have expected. I found this article interesting as well on the same subject [http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/10/23/why-isnt- india-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2012/10/23/why-isnt-india-a- superpower-or-global-leader/)

looking at most indicators though, it does look like the upcoming 20+ years will show india coming up much stronger, however, they did start late (1991) and haven't been able to obtain as much global political/military power and resources as China and the US have which may or may not have a big impact on their internal economic structure.</comment>


"A startup company is like a bicycle", said one VC to me. "The two wheels are marketing and engineering and you don't get very far without both" - <AUTHOR> http://tuxdeluxe.org/node/97 <comment><USER2> The first think I thought when I saw this quote was that there's a wall full of unicycles at the YCombinator/AnyBots office, and lots of people that ride them effectively.

<comment><USER3> From <http://tlb.org/eunicycle.html:> _"Some time ago I built a self-balancing two-wheeled scooter. Since then I realized that two wheels are redundant, and only a single wheel is needed to make a ridable vehicle."_

<comment><USER2> sometimes an analogy works just way too well.

<comment><USER4> Darn it, Ya'll beat me to the unicycles :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "A startup is like a bicycle." I think only a business person would come up with such an analogy. Remember, it implies there is somebody else sitting in the seat.

And the VC is riding you? Certainly not your customers, in the early stage, since you may not have any. And each of the founders we know is already a bicycle wheel, not the rider. Must be the VC, right? Remember, business people and large software companies see programmers as cogs or wheels, important only as part of a system. If you play along with their analogies, you are just asking for trouble.

How about a different analogy, which favors us, the software guys? A startup is like... Fill in your own reply.

<comment><USER5> I found some by Paul Graham, of all people, when I typed in "a startup is like" into Google:

"A startup is like walking on your hands. A startup is like a pass/fail course. A startup is like a small boat in the open sea. A startup is like a mosquito. A startup is like a hang-glider launch.

No.

A startup is like being a mosquito trying to fly a hanglider-boat while waking on your hands and not failing school."

Can somebody top that (and throw in a marketing aspect?)

<comment><USER6> vlad-

in keeping with the theme:

A startup is like being a mosquito trying to fly a hanglider-boat while waking on your hands... simultaneously trying to negotiate the wind to keep you up in the air and convince your teachers to get in your boat rather than fail you.

;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"Marketing and innovation are the two chief functions of business. You get paid for creating a customer, which is marketing. And you get paid for creating a new dimension of performance, which is innovation. Everything else is a cost center." - Peter Drucker

</comment><comment><USER8> Google?</comment>


UK issues first-ever GDPR notice in connection to Facebook data scandal - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-issues-first-ever-gdpr-notice-in-connection-to-facebook-data-scandal/ <comment><AUTHOR> PDF of the notice: [https://ico.org.uk/media/2259362/r-letter-ico-to- aiq-060718....](https://ico.org.uk/media/2259362/r-letter-ico-to- aiq-060718.pdf)</comment>


The risk psychology of the anti-vaccine movement - <AUTHOR> http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/no-vaccine-a-different-risk/

<comment><USER2> People who don't vaccinate their children do so as a luxury provided by the vast majority who do vaccinate.

<comment><USER3> How are you supposed to make an educated decision about the safety of these vaccines, when there's a good chance that the CDC is lying to you about the data?

Just read RFK's article on the vaccine autism link:

[http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/7395411/deadly_im...](http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/7395411/deadly_immunity/)

I've seen a ton of evidence since this article saying that the vaccine-autism link is false. However I've seen zero evidence that the alleged CDC cover up of the safety information didn't actually occur. How are you supposed to make an educated decision about the safety of these products when the head of the CDC vaccine division goes on record saying they are hiding information about their safety.

<comment><USER4> Well, honestly, even if you broke it down in terms of one disease versus another, I think vaccines still take the cake:

Don't vaccinate: Might get polio, whooping cough, meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus or superflu. All of which are either deadly or crippling diseases, in some cases even when treated.

Vaccinate: Might become autistic. Which is a serious behavioral disorder.

<comment><USER5> There is no such thing as superflu and you will not get polio.

And you won't become autistic if you do vaccinate.

<comment><USER6> Stop vaccinating on a massive scale, and polio will be back. It's not gone yet and can still be found in Africa, India, and the Middle East.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> and the very first post in response to the NYT blog:

 _I will never get another vaccine, just another way for the goverment to poison us off. Vaccines are the biggest scam ever created._

sigh.

<comment><USER8> It's a self-correcting problem. Those who don't vaccinate will eventually dwindle in numbers and their offspring won't reach reproductive maturity.

<comment><USER9> I wish. Aside from the ethical problem that adults are compromising the survivability of their children, who are not in a position to make the decision for themselves, this view depends on the idea that illogical thinking and paranoia are heritable traits.

To be sure, growing up in an ignorant family may well offset the benefits of education, but many otherwise intelligent people can fall into error. Consider deniers of evolution or moon landings, who often know enough science to put up superficially persuasive arguments for their conspiracy theories (a favorite being 'van Allen belt radiation would have killed the astronauts') but seem unable to deal with questions of probability.

These beliefs are more common in the US than in Europe; I wonder if this is due to some basic weakness in the design of US school curriculum. Maybe if basic programming were included as part of the math curriculum people would b better equipped to deal with these issues.

<comment><USER7> Precisely. This is an education issue which we should try to address, not just say "well, they'll all be dead soon enough anyway"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The other problem with all this foolishness is that the resistance provided by these groups changes the research direction of the big drug companies. It is unwise to walk into a never-ending set of lawsuits. So, they make stuff that is less essential, but still makes them money (e.g. 'enhancers').

Even if you spent all the money and the FDA approves the drug for a specific use, the company will still get sued and it could be devastating. Look at the actual stats for asbestos and how many companies are out of business and how many NEW ones are being sued.

Hysteria and foolish courts are going to wrack up a heck of a death toll.

<comment><USER6> This is exactly why Congress has given the flu vaccine manufacturers a pass on lawsuits. Without such immunity, who would take on the risk of manufacturing a low profit item like swine flu vaccine?

But to the conspiracy theorists, this is just "proof" that the vaccines are dangerous and that "big pharma" and the government are conspiring together.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> As a teacher, I've been fortunate over the years not to get most of the stuff students 'graciously' share. I don't know why, lucky I guess.

I've taken every precaution in the computer lab to slow the spread -- sanitizers, keyboard/screen cleanings, constant reminders how to cough, etc. Some years, we've gone through 2 large pump bottles of sanitizer.

One year I decided to get a flu shot just 'to be sure." Within 45 days I came down with one of the worst bouts of flu I had ever experienced and got into serious dehydration problems (almost hospitalized) before turning the corner. The strain I had actually induced 'projectile vomit.' I remember thinking "wow, I didn't know my body could do that." It was horrible, scary, and impressive all at the same time.

I'm keeping a very close eye on this H1N1 business and like the other posters here, will read all I can to know more. But there's no way I'm marching down to get a flu shot just because the CDC says so. I've done that already. I'm not a conspiracy guy, nor am I herd-stupid. I'm just cautious by direct experience.

<comment><USER12> You got a flu shot, got another strain of flu a whole 45 days later, and you think that there's a connection? I'm sorry, but this isn't evidence; it's the exact same cognitive failure mode that convinced people that dances and sacrifices could control the weather. You were in a high-risk environment, with lots of flu strains circulating around, and you probably just got unlucky that year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> While I do think it's important to get the tried, tested, and true vaccines, I am not sure about some of the newer ones. There have been many stories in the past of people getting worse off from brand new vaccines. For new vaccines I use at my own discretion.

<comment><USER14> Perhaps instead of reading stories, you should look for evidence. Then you would see that such stories are incredibly rare among the population at large.

<comment><USER13> Just so we stay on point here, I am only talking about NEW vaccines here. I support ones that have been established.

Well, evidence to one particular story comes to mind:

"Still, as observed by a participant in the immunization program, the vaccine killed more Americans than the disease did."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swine_flu#1976_U.S._outbreak>

<comment><USER14> Yes, in the 1976 outbreak, out of the 48 million people who were vaccinated, 500 got Guillane-Barré Syndrome (0.00001%) and 25 died (0.00000052%). In that case, the virus miraculously did not spread beyond Fort Dix. Today, however, the virus is quite clearly everywhere, and 4700 people have already died of it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've only had the flu one time in my entire life and it was the same as the only year I got vaccinated. I haven't had a flu vaccine since and I haven't gotten the flu since.

Edit: Not saying I don't believe in vaccines in general. But I'm not sure I believe in the flu vaccine. I can't explain my flu infection, nor can others who experienced the same circumstance: getting the flu the only year they were vaccinated.

I have been vaccinated against other diseases since then though.

<comment><USER16> I tried to re-upmod your post back to 1 point.

You state an observation. And while that anecdote flys in the face of what many here (including myself) believe about vaccination, there's nothing wrong with your comment.

For what its worth, I had have lots of flus, but was never vaccinated against influenza (as far as I can remember).

<comment><USER12> The observation isn't inconsistent with the facts about vaccination. Flu vaccines can't protect against every strain you might encounter, and it's a simple matter of probability that there are going to be a lot of people who get vaccinated for the first time, get a flu that year, and stop getting vaccinated from then on.

This is why anecdotal evidence on this issue is worthless. Worse than worthless, actually, since it distracts from the proper statistical approach to thinking about vaccines.

<comment><USER16> Perhaps. And a proper comment like this is a good reply. Downvoting doesn't seem right to me in this case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I hadn't had a flu shot in years. But with the added risk swine flu has brought, I plan on getting on this season.

<comment><USER5> What added risk?

The swine flu is not worse than regular flu, it's simply that more people than usual will get it. That's troubling to governments, but should not matter to you.

<comment><USER6> Not worse now. But the probability of the virus mutating goes up with the size of the population it has to play around in. We all have a vested interest in making sure that doesn't happen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Some key quotes in there to think about:

      RotaTeq costs a little under $4 a dose to make.
      Merck has sold a total of more than 24 million doses
      in the US, most for $69.59 a pop (a 17-fold markup)

      In 19th-century England, Jenner's smallpox vaccine was
      known to be effective. But despite the Compulsory
      Vaccination Act of 1853, many people still refused
      to take it, and thousands died unnecessarily.

      All you have to do to get the measles is to inhabit
      the airspace of a contagious person within two hours
      of them being there.

There are going to be parts of this country in several years that are going to be darn dangerous to travel to as herd-immunity will be gone for several major diseases. I personally think the anti-vaccine people are way overboard.

<comment><USER19> Does that take into account R&D?

<comment><USER7> It's really frustrating that we can't get honest numbers on how much it takes to bring a drug to market.

In the anti-pharma camp you see people quote the manufacturing price, and then you get the pharma companies quoting their entire operating budgets.

<comment><USER10> I used to work in clinical trials, and while I cannot comment on exact figures, the drug companies pay a lot of money over a very long period to release a drug. The big problem is that they only have 3 to 5 years to make all the money back and get enough of a profit to develop more drugs. Not every clinical trial actually works out, and the courts will be a constant problem for every drug.

Do some research on the financial documents of the companies that do the clinical trials.</comment></comment></comment></comment>