The Math Inside the US Highway System - <AUTHOR> https://betterexplained.com/articles/highway-math/ <comment><USER2> "However, the numbers follow a grid, with rules nobody told me."

I learned it from reading a state map about forty years ago. The legend succinctly explained the system. Without digging through a pile of paper maps, that might still be the case. Regardless, these rules are probably clearly documented from a simple web search, despite that no one has felt the need to "tell" the author what the rules are.

EDIT: "interstate numbering system" on DDG brings up the Wikipedia page as the first link, and that link explains it. There's no mystery here, though my query string does assume that one assumes a "system" to be explained.

And while I'm editing, state routes and U. S. Routes kind of follow the same pattern, especially the N/S and E/W designations. Would have to go search to verify other commonalities.

<comment><USER3> I have some sympathy for people who were never told this or who are too young to have had a reason to encounter it. I work in a university and the number of times I've been asked, "What floor is room 302 on?" by new students is greater than zero.

<comment><USER4> I think I've been in buildings where two-digit rooms were on the ground floor, and so 302 would have been on the "fourth".

Although one would expect university students not to need help with this...

<comment><USER5> I live in an apartment where the numbering system varies depending on the building, one of them has 11-- for the first floor, 12-- for the second, 13-- for the 3rd, and I think 10-- is "Terrace" level.

> Although one would expect university students not to need help with this...

Rather curious why you felt the need to make a comment of this nature.

<comment><USER4> To satisfy your curiosity, I meant only that one would assume admission to university would require a modicum of intelligence or perhaps even awareness, which intelligence and awareness would amply suffice for the task of reading basic hallway signs.

<comment><USER5> I always found the it interesting that when somebody tries to find something to feel better than someone else about, and they pick the most basic, mundane thing. Tying shoes, adding small numbers, reading hallway signs.

<comment><USER4> The scales have fallen from my eyes!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was aware of most of this, but it segues nicely with my latest interest in Adam Adamatzky's research using the slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, in a form of bio-computing [1].

The demos where oatmeal flakes are placed on a highway map of major cities in various countries, and the Physarum optimize the paths in ways that closely resemble some of the existing major roads is compelling. I am holding out on how correlated it actually is given highways have developed not only from old horse paths and such, but from civic planning.

My daughter is a Chemistry/Bio major, and I have told her about this, and asked her advice on how I might go about doing this at home. It seems easy enough under controlled circumstances, and it it just seems fun checking in hours later for a 'result'! So much so, I ordered his book "Physarum Machines: Computers from Slime Mould".

[1] [http://uncomp.uwe.ac.uk/adamatzky/research.html](http://uncomp.uwe.ac.uk/adamatzky/research.html)

<comment><USER7> I did some work on Physarum. It is indeed fairly easy to do simple experiments with the slime mold. You just need some petri dishes and a dark, moist environment. Just don't expect nice results every time, sometimes the slime mold just growths in a completely unexpected way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> There's another rule this one doesn't touch. Route numbers that are divisible by 5 are considered major routes, and with a few exceptions go from one geographical extreme to the other -- Interstate 5 goes from Canada to Mexico, Interstate 80 goes from San Francisco to New York.

<comment><USER9> > Route numbers that are divisible by 5 are considered major routes, and with > a few exceptions go from one geographical extreme to the other

They tend to be major, but only 11 of 19 (11 of 17 that exist) go from one geo extreme to the other. Sorry highway numbers are a hobby of mine (yes I know strange hobby).

5 ^: Mexico to Canada

10 ^: Pacific to Atlantic

15 ^: Mexico to Canada

20: Mid-Texas to Mid-South Carolina

25: Southern Texas to Wyoming

30: Texas to Arkansas

35 ^: Mexico to almost Canada

40 ^: Eastern California, to Eastern North Carolina

45: Entirely in Texas

50: N/A

55 ^: Gulf of Mexico to Great Lakes

60: N/A

65 ^: Gulf of Mexico to Great Lakes

70: Utah to Maryland

75 ^: Southern Florida to northern Michigan

80 ^: San Francisco to New York

85: Mid-Alabama to Mid-Virginia

90 ^: Seattle to Boston (longest in the country)

95 ^: Maine to Florida

<comment><USER10> I-40 is an interesting case. It hits the ocean in Wilmington NC, but doesn't make it to the coast in California, ending in Barstow. The completionist in me says that it ought to continue through Palmdale to Ventura.

Until a few years ago, it wasn't contiguous. There was a gap in Memphis where the locals objected to its completion because the traffic noise would have disturbed the animals at the zoo. So the northern part of I-240 was signed to include I-40, finally linking the two halves together.

<comment><USER11> > There was a gap in Memphis where the locals objected to its completion > because the traffic noise would have disturbed the animals at the zoo.

A bigger reason is that the road would have run straight through Overton Park and required that the entire park be destroyed. People like Overton Park, and the protests over that got the project cancelled. In fact, they actually built the road east of Overton Park, but they stopped there when the protests started. What was intended to be I-40 is now called Sam Cooper Blvd. If you look at Google Maps, you'll see that the gap between the end of I-40 on the west side and the beginning of Sam Cooper basically just consists of Overton Park and a few blocks in each direction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'll agree with @Mikestew that this is pretty familiar territory. But it did get me looking to see how well the original Interstate planners did, in terms of leaving unallocated numbers available for future expansion.

Surprise, surprise: regional economies expand at different rates, which forecasters don't always get right. It's not as messy as Social Security numbers or area codes, but there are definite pockets of congestion.

For example, the East-West corridors between I-80 and I-90 have been graced with more highways than expected. We've had to come up with two versions apiece of I-84, I-86 and I-88 in different parts of the country, along with one I-82. By contrast, there's been no East-West build-out whatsoever between I-30 and I-40.

More details are here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Interstate_Highways](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Interstate_Highways)

<comment><USER13> As to how we're planning to use up the numbers for future expansion, there's this Wikipedia page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Interstate_Highways](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Interstate_Highways)

Of course if you want to take the I-7 to Fresno, the future is now because it's called 99 but not yet built to interstate standards.

<comment><USER11> Which is funny because once that's done, that road will have been a US Route, a State Route, and an Interstate _in that order_.

SR 99 was originally part of US Route 99, but when I-5 was built AASHTO decided to decommission Route 99 since the whole thing paralleled I-5 so closely that it was considered redundant. The states, however, decided to continue to maintain (most of) the road, and it was assigned a number of state highway designations, including SR 99 in the Central Valley (the states, particularly Washington, did give up on a few portions of it, which are now maintained as local roads in various cities).

And now they want to make it an Interstate.

(Also, speaking of future Interstates, I'm kinda shocked that I-66 was cancelled. They upgraded a bunch of roads to Interstate standards, and they even signed the Cumberland Pkwy. in Kentucky as "Future I-66 Corridor" (you can even see it on Google Street View), only to give up on it.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's always interesting to see what gets posted and upvoted. Growing up before people generally had access to the internet, (when you had to use a physical map to find places), I'd heard these particular tidbits repeated ad nauseum every time our family took a road trip.

I wonder:

a) is this new to anybody?

b) if so, what other tidbits of "everybody knows that" are fading into obscurity because of technology? (Surely you all remember how to reshoe a horse in a pinch at least?)

<comment><USER15> a) yes, it is new to me because I was not raised in your country, not because the web came after I was born.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The fun part is when you're traveling westbound on I-580 in Berkeley, CA... _and_ you're simultaneously going _eastbound_ on I-80... on the _same stretch of road._

<comment><USER17> Or the place near Trenton, NJ where I-295 North becomes I-95 South, and vice versa.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> The UK's roads have a numbering scheme: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_road_numbering_s...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_road_numbering_scheme)

</comment><comment><USER19> They encoded real information into their primary key. They're going to run into trouble when they need to change one of these roads later.

(Like maybe rotate one of these North-South roads to run East-West.)

<comment><USER20> Road direction can be ambiguous. Fairly obvious with a loop like I-270 around Columbus, Ohio. I've thought they should have designated the direction as clockwise and counterclockwise, going around the loop for a significant portion gets confusing re: "North" which may be actually east or west.

Also I-84 in western Idaho is more north-south even though it's even-numbered and nominally and east-west highway. Probably not too confusing because roads are much more sparse in that part of the country, people navigate on the basis of destinations, the exact direction is kind of hypothetical.

No surprises in it though, real-world roads won't follow the abstract grid very closely, there are going to be quite a few exceptions.

<comment><USER21> Louisville, KY has a definite hub and spoke layout with both I-264 (East/West) and I-265 (North/South) as increasingly outward rings (and several state routes and major parkways are additional "rings" in between). Many natives don't know the cardinal directions of the interstates or state routes and there's a lot of landmark-based navigation (towards the Fairgrounds/Airport, away from Downtown, et al). I like using clockwise/counter-clockwise directions myself and after an initial bit of confusion it's fun when fellow natives blink a bit and recognize it's not a bad system. (Thus far haven't made any converts to it, though.)

Further aside, given the the similarity in numbers of I-264 and I-265 they are more commonly referred to by their expressway names, the Watterson and the (Gene) Snyder, respectively. Louisville is one of the few cities I know of where you'll meet natives that don't actually know the interstate numbers they drive on sometimes every day, you have to mention it by name to get the right directions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Why do the Boston and Washington Beltways have the same number (495)?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_(Massachusetts)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_\(Massachusetts\))

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_(Capital_Beltwa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_495_\(Capital_Beltway\))

<comment><USER23> I-495 used to be the name of the Maine Turnpike, as well, before 2004. Now it that route is included in I-95, while the previous I-95 is now labeled I-295, while a yet third section of highway connecting the two above Portland is now technically 495.

<comment><USER24> But I-495 is not signed as such; it is simply called the 'Falmouth Spur' ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Some states (e.g., Indiana) have grids similar to the Interstate and US routes. Others have different systems: in Florida the first digit tells you roughly where in the state it is, from 1xx routes in the Panhandle to 9xx routes around Miami. And still others just assigned numbers in order of construction, so on a map it makes no sense at all.

</comment><comment><USER26> I wouldn't call it very math-y, I'd call it a systematic numbering scheme.

</comment><comment><USER27> I-82 in Washington State is a glaring exception to the numbering convention, being located north of I-84. Are there other exceptions?

<comment><USER8> Another glaring exception is Interstate 238 in California. It's an important, if short, route in the Bay Area, but at the time it was redesignated an Interstate, every x80 number had been taken, either by other local freeways, or by unrelated highways. So, when it was updated to interstate standards, they just decided to let it keep its old number, even though interstate 38 doesn't even exist.

Since then, Highway 480 (it was never formally adopted as an Interstate) has been removed, but renumbering would be more trouble than it's worth, so it's remained I-238.

<comment><USER28> There's also I-595 between DC and Annapolis, which is signed as US-50 instead because there are too many x95s in the area.

<comment><USER8> There's a simpler explanation. It's a pre-existing route that was adopted by the federal highway system. US 50 is well known enough that resigning it would be more trouble than it was worth.

<comment><USER28> Interstates don't usually spring out of thin air, they're often existing US Highways or state roads that get relabeled or upgraded to interstate standards and relabeled.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Except where the numbering is magical such as the renaming of hwy666 when some groups suddenly decided the number was satanic[1]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_491](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_491)

<comment><USER11> Route 666 was renamed because people kept stealing the signs for novelty value, and it was costing the state too much money to keep replacing the signs again and again and again. IIRC, they even rolled out signs that were supposedly "theftproof"; they got stolen _anyway_ , and it cost the state a lot of money to develop them.

<comment><USER29> And vandalism btw. Particularly the preparation needed to remove a 'theft proof' sign is not done by an idle souvenir collector on a road with essential no tourists that no one form outside the area has ever heard of. Those things are just as likely done by the few who have a moral objection to the number. Ironically, the road could have been turned into a minor tourist attraction for Gallup if not Shiprock. Likewise, copies of the sign could have been pedaled in Gallup to feed any souvenir collectors as is done with rte 66 signs.

But most interesting to me is the way the attitudes of evangelicals concerning the spiritual status of the valley (albeit newly acquired and negative) spilled over into the Navajo beliefs as the area become known on the reservation to have a high number of Skinwalkers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Metro Boston is a fantastic region with which to illustrate the flawless order of the highway system's numbering!

</comment><comment><USER31> more an encoding than "math"

</comment><comment><USER32> The US interstate numbering system is fairly common knowledge. Does it by itself really deserve a post here?

<comment><USER33> Perhaps this is interesting to folks outside of the US. It's common knowledge to US people only.</comment></comment>


The Antidote to Burnout is Progress - <AUTHOR> http://tomtunguz.com/burnout <comment><USER2> I think you are spot on about this. I used to evaluate a day based on my ability to sell my services, but I have come to realize that this can kill good work. I just heard a very interesting quote this morning that is applicable to entrepreneurs "The planting phase lasts a lot longer than the harvesting phase, and if you think you are in the harvesting phase before you really are- you will not see the growth you think you deserve- which will kill your motivation." This is the same thing that your article was saying- find ways to progress.</comment>


SpaceX skipping Red Dragon for "vastly bigger ships" on Mars, Musk confirms - <AUTHOR> http://www.teslarati.com/spacex-skipping-red-dragon-vastly-bigger-ships-mars-confirms-musk/ <comment><USER2> So, 'money talks' or 'bullshit walks'?</comment>


Automating Tinder Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Face Classification - <AUTHOR> https://www.oscaralsing.com/automated-tinder-using-artificial-intelligence/ <comment><USER2> wow man, it's amazing tech!</comment>


Developing a Process for Visualizing the Insanity - <AUTHOR> http://30dayflight.com/day1.html

<comment><USER2> I think Dustin is a supremely talented designer, and I find his writing generally engaging, but remain perplexed by how everything he posts, no matter how mundane, flies to the top of HN.

<comment><USER3> yes, he's got good PR here ;-D from comments on some of my previous comments, I'd suggest flagging any posts that you do not like :)

Pasting here for convenience - (by robg) Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

<comment><USER2> Duly noted, thanks. I don't think this is flag-worthy; I mildly enjoyed it. I'm just curious why his posts do so extraordinarily well here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm actually quite looking forward to reading this thing, great design btw.

</comment><comment><USER5> Um, OK, but that first timeline doesn't tell me where they started from. A map would be nice, too. Maybe some charts indicating how much time is spent on the ground vs. in the air.

</comment><comment><USER6> I don't remember if you guys already did this, but would you mind posting your itinerary with exact dates and cities? Preferably in this thread or with a link.

Dinner and drinks on me, maybe even a place to crash if we're in the same place at the same time. I imagine other hackers would do the same if they knew.

<comment><USER7> We only settled on the final itinerary this morning, and we'll post it soon.

I think we have overnight stays in Ft Lauderdale, Denver, Chicago, Long Beach, San Francisco, and Burlington, VT (tonight). Most of the flights leave the early the next day at 6:00am though, so they're not much of "stays".

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Did JetBlue's CEO meet with you today?

</comment><comment><USER9> It would be nice if the author applied his design and writing skills to something more interesting than destroying as much of the ozone layer as possible in a month (or is there some valuable aspect of his project that I'm missing?).

<comment><USER10> As I said the last time this came up, if a seat isn't filled on an outbound flight, it just makes more room for cargo.

<comment><USER9> Less total weight carried, across the system as a whole, would result in less fuel consumption.

<comment><USER10> I refer you to my previous post on this topic:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=801001>

<comment><USER9> I read your post and, while it makes some good points, nothing in it contradicts my statement.

<comment><USER10> You didn't read it. I'm arguing for a more complex model, rather than an idealistic one.

"Less total weight carried, across the system as a whole, would result in less fuel consumption."

While this is correct from very simple standpoint, what are you really saying?

"The system carries n amount of weight." Okay, I can accept that.

"The system carries less weight if one person does not fly." True, but that one person's weight is offset on the specific flight in question by cargo.

For a very large value of n, n-200 = n. An airplane takes a massive amount of fuel to accelerate to rotation speed (it's not just pushing you and cargo, it's also shoving vast quantities of aluminum, steel, plastic and fuel.) The empty weight of a 747-400 (the industry standard) is 400,000 lbs., of which 200 is no factor.

If that empty plane takes off, it will use 100 times the body weight of a human being in fuel _during takeoff operations alone and continue to burn as much during each hour of cruise flight_. Adding humans decreases range. Adding cargo decreases range. Fuel will be burned.

Your statement assumes a very simple model of "if I don't get on that plane, I'm saving the environment." The actual model is "if at least 200 people don't get on that plane, a seasonally-appropriate ~15 minute delay will happen until cargo can be loaded."

I feel, therefore, that I have contradicted your statement quite soundly. I assure you that I have no interest in representing myself as an environment- hating industry apologist.

<comment><USER9> I actually did read your post, thanks. Your post didn't seem to argue for a more complex model as much as attempt to make the case that if people weren't flying they'd be doing other equally destructive things.

>While this is correct from very simple standpoint, what are you really saying?

What I'm saying is quite simple. Carelessly wasting resources, as unnecessarily flying nonstop for a month does, wastes resources and we shouldn't condone it.

>that one person's weight is offset on the specific flight in question by cargo.

If someone doesn't fly and cargo is substituted for them, that amount of cargo doesn't need to be flown on a separate flight. The less flights the less fuel consumed and the less environmental damage, no?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Tracking Bluetooth Skimmers in Mexico, Part II - <AUTHOR> http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/09/tracking-bluetooth-skimmers-in-mexico-part-ii/ <comment><USER3> To the guy with the throwaway account who seems on a mission to discredit Krebs and this story (with as little evidence as you would expect), please stop. Your comments are ridiculous.

As for the series, it's fantastic. I've always enjoyed Kreb's writing but never shared his fascination with skimmers, I always thought it was kind of niche and not really much of a big deal. Seems it's a lot more widespread than people think.

<comment><USER4> Here is my take on it - I'm skeptical. Sure I'll believe that a number of ATMs are compromised. But it seems like every ATM he walked up to was broadcasting this. To me this seems like an, arguably exploitable, maintenance tool than a ring of ATM thieves. Free2Move appears to be a standard tool for serial over bluetooth [1].

He can't possibly be the first and only person to find this - so I attempted to google "free2move atm" and only his article shows up (about skimming).

I'm not saying this is a fake article - but to me seems amateuristic for someone of his stature. I would have expected he would work with at least one authority figure to show that without a doubt an ATM is compromised - <USER2> with a tear down of the device.

Also I'm not sure how I feel about him convincing people not to use an ATM that may or may not be compromised. If he did believe 100% it was compromised he should have talked to someone in management to have the ATM unplugged and serviced (that would make for an interesting article to see if they actually take him seriously and not just plug it back in when he leaves).

My two cents...

[1] [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cablematic-Free2Move-Bluetooth- Seria...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cablematic-Free2Move-Bluetooth- Serial-F2M01SXA/dp/B008451VYW)

<comment><USER5> read the article. He did talk to people "in management" at a couple of places and only one took the suspect ATM offline.

demanding that he "work with at least one authority figure" is a bit naive in Mexico.

<comment><USER4> > read the article. He did talk to people "in management" at a couple of > places and only one took the suspect ATM offline.

I don't think we read the same article. Maybe in the first one he did - but in the linked article all I see is him walking up and down streets looking for the bluetooth broadcast. I won't blindly believe that each of the ATMs he found broadcasting was exploited. I'm not saying I would use them nor would I recommend using one in Mexico - but just seeing a bluetooth signal isn't enough for me to assume that it's exploited. With all the sensational articles floating on the web - I'm just skeptical that's all.

> demanding that he "work with at least one authority figure" is a bit naive > in Mexico.

I didn't demand it - I just expected it. Even though I'm sure there are a lot of bribes happening in Mexico - there has to be someone he can contact and work with that may or may not care.

<comment><USER6> It was in the first one, although the second article alludes to the fact that the hotel took the ATM offline, eventually. The first part also goes into some detail regarding the hardware and the fact that he was approached by an ATM firm. They'd probably know if the BT beacon was a maintenance tool.

Having an openly visible BT signal emanate from your illicit snooping device seems amateurish on the face of it, but it does make connecting to it easier for technically challenged criminals, who I assume don't have a bachelor in CS or EE. They'll be happy to escalate to a harder to detect wireless signal if it becomes necessary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My advice to people visiting Mexico regarding ATMs is to try to use one at an actual bank location, or at least operated by a major bank. Even in the US I'm skeptical of third party ATMs.

</comment><comment><USER8> Brian Krebs either has a death wish or balls the size of the moon. Never in a million years would I go and actually try to track down the ATMs compromised by well-funded, sophisticated organized crime gangs. In Latin America, no less, where killing random people only improves your rep and buying police protection is cheap.

<comment><USER9> He does mention in the comments that he only published the story once he was out of the country. Certainly publishing it while in Mexico would be courting disaster.

<comment><USER10> I'd still be concerned for his safety right now. Hope he can get some protection stateside, just in case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's still crazy to me that they left the BLE devices transmitting (and all the same name!) rather than one of:

a) Don't set the name.

b) Trigger advertising when you type in a specific pin.

c) Use a custom radio protocol (much easier than you'd think - you could even use a pre-written one like Nordic's Gazell).

<comment><USER12> Its most likely a massive operation spanning few cities (if not countries), you dont want to provide IT support for random lowlifes employed by the gangs, this forces you to standardize on something every smartphone is capable of doing, and simplifying the process to the point of click for bacon.

<comment><USER13> I wonder what other protocols you could use. Perhaps a WiFi system that looks for a WiFi hotspot with a specific name (easy to do on most smartphones) which then connects automatically? Or just instruct your goons to set their phone's bluetooth name to a particular value and then initiate a bluetooth send to any phones with that name.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Oh wow! This happened to me just recently; I was in Akumal and Tulum and only used a couple of different cash machines. My card info was stolen and then used in Mexico and Florida for withdrawals.

</comment><comment><USER13> It would be nice to know what proportion of ATMs he found were compromised. It sounds like it was almost all of them!

<comment><USER15> In his comments section he estimated it was a percentage in the single digits...

[http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/09/tracking-bluetooth- skimme...](http://krebsonsecurity.com/2015/09/tracking-bluetooth-skimmers-in- mexico-part-ii/comment-page-1/#comment-392856)</comment></comment>


Cryptocurrencies Aren't 'Crypto' - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43nk9b/cryptocurrency-are-not-crypto-bitcoin <comment><USER2> "Cryptos" is short for cryptocurrencies. It's because of the currency part of cryptos that articles like this one get published in media like vice.com.

</comment><comment><USER3> I can only hope it will blow over soon, like all the "nano-" bullshit from a few years back.</comment>


How Silicon Valley Came to Be a Land of 'Bros' - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/technology/silicon-valley-brotopia-emily-chang.html <comment><USER2> An inspiring article.

"The same people who want to change the world — who are exploring the limits of outer space and building floating ocean communities and building self- driving cars — can do this."

Even in an ocean of hostility and indifference, it is possible to make progress in your immediate community.</comment>


GitHub to replace "master" with alternative term to avoid slavery references - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53050955 <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23518123](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23518123)

Previous discussion.

This one won't be any different.

<comment><USER3> Also:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23500093](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23500093) (138 points/224 comments)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23519813](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23519813) (44 points/84 comments)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23522859](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23522859) (15 points/5 comments)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When I first learned about MySQL replication in 2000, the terminology of Master/Slave seemed really odd and a bit shocking.

20 years later the terminology is still peculiar to me. Even though it's an accurate representation of what slavery is, it is a poignant reminder of a human condition that has sadly not disappeared.

The slave database, as a read-only data store, has no agency and can only follow the master database. Yet it's the workhorse for all heavy queries, especially those part of reporting for various execs. It has no value except as a means to reduce load of the master and to save it's rear end in case of corruption... yes there are many parallels.

But still, after 2 decades, I'm not sure that this terminology is essential to the world of relational databases. "Leader/Follower" or "Primary/Replica" could convey the same data concepts without resorting to a comparison with slavery. Perhaps a wording update might be in order here.

</comment><comment><USER5> People of color of HN: is this something you care about, or is this just white people virtue signalling? I'm not trying to start a debate here, I'm genuinely asking because I don't know the answer.

</comment><comment><USER6> Goofy idea, I work with black developers who told me this had never even crossed their mind.

<comment><USER7> Kick it out is easy. Get it back it hard.

<comment><USER6> I don't follow, would you mind elaborating?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I can tell, it never crossed my mind. Never saw anything related to slavery/race in this and still don't see anything now. In German the word Meister is also used, for example "Meisterberuf", "Lehrmeister", "Bäckermeister", "Weltmeister" \- it has nothing to do with slavery, in most of the cases it just means a person who has mastered something. You have this to, e.g. "Master of Arts". So now what, should this also be renamed? "Skillful Person of Arts" maybe? This word bastardization reminds me really of 1984 and I fear it dumbs us all down.

</comment><comment><USER9> When building my first computer (with help) in the 90s, setting up hard drives in master or slave was the first time I learned the definition of slave. I was 6-7 years old and I'm not American

<comment><USER10> Would you agree from personal experience that calling them something like "primary" and "secondary" or "1" and "2" would be less confusing to 6-7 year olds?

<comment><USER11> Except there were 2 IDE buses, a primary and a secondary, each possibly receiving a master and a slave. So at the very least primary/secondary wouldn't have worked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Really? Git doesn't have any actual references to slavery. Even if it did, is everyone now disallowed from using such terminology in a benign manner? I'm not sure calling it "main" makes sense, in any case; anyone who uses git flow knows it's not the "main" branch where most of the day-to-day development takes place. As the article points out, this is a reference to "master" as in a master copy, which is why _there 's no corresponding reference to slave_. If you download the official git book from the website and control-F for "slave", do you know what you'll find? _Zero results_!

<comment><USER13> "root" might be more appropriate than either "main" or "master".

<comment><USER14> I suppose that makes more sense than main, but it still begs the question: given that there is no actual slave reference to remove, and discounting the questionable necessity of removing such a reference were one to exist, what's the problem here?

<comment><USER13> Do you work with people who are experts in things you are not? When one of them raises a concern from the field they're an expert in, you generally must take it as a given that the issue is real and must be addressed, as the expert raised it and wouldn't have otherwise. Your role might be to point out how the presented fixes to the issue might/will cause issues in your field of expertise, but it'd be pretty unprofessional to question the validity of the other expert's designated problem.

<comment><USER14> Sorry, who exactly is the expert here that shouldn't be questioned? While I generally respect experts' opinions, I also find it reasonable to question them when they don't pass the smell test.

<comment><USER13> I can respect your smell test if you can respect that it's highly susceptible to Dunning-Kruger and the various mishaps of not knowing what you don't know.

<comment><USER12> You still didn't tell me who these "experts" are, though it seemed you were referencing several in a prior comment, so I'm unsure how to address that point. I'd of course respect the opinion of an expert, and I'd recognize that I have a very good chance of being wrong, but that makes it even more important to question things. If I'm right, we come to a better conclusion; if I'm wrong, I learn something.

<comment><USER13> I didn't answer your question because it's rather obvious. Thanks for the downvote though!

<comment><USER12> HN doesn't permit users to downvote replies to their comments, so you can be sure that wasn't me. Maybe it's obvious to you, but I'm not sure how one qualifies as an expert in the necessity (or not) of removing the word "master" from github branches. Would you please elaborate?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think we should actually remove the word slave from the english language to prevent all the needless suffering that it creates /s

<comment><USER15> But in all seriousness, if seeing it on github is damaging to the mental health of descendants of slavery in america, why do we allow the word to exist at all and where is it acceptable to use? Should words like this be put in something akin to a biohazard lab?</comment></comment>


Advice for a computer science sophomore in college? - <AUTHOR>

Hi Everyone!
I'm a sophomore in college majoring in Computer Science and Math. I have always loved programming. I started programming in C when I was nine years old and over the years I've picked up Visual Basic, C#, Java, C++, JavaScript, Objective-C, Python, Ruby, elementary Haskell and elementary Erlang, and I learned Perl back in the day which I've mostly forgotten.
I have not done much network programming. I have done CGI programming, but that was about six/seven years ago. I've done some socket programming and written (school) programs to do interprocess communication, which I understood and liked. I'm taking a course on client/server programming and another one on network security next semester, which I am really looking forward to.
I'm seeking advice on how to proceed with future learning. I've mostly done application (mobile and desktop) development, not much of web development. I'd like to pick up some web development this coming semester. Since I know Ruby and Python, should I start by learning Django and/or Rails? Any other suggestions on starting web development? I have a good understanding of HTML and CSS.
Also, I'd also like to know how hard it is to pick up and be good (read: productive) in functional programming languages coming from a purely structured/object oriented background? I've been reading up on Erlang and Haskell, and I'd like to know your opinions on whether it's worth my time trying to learn them. What about Lisp, Scheme and other functional languages?
Any help/ideas would be really appreciated. <comment><USER2> Hi there! You seem to know your stuff, or at least _like_ it (in a computer scientific sense), so I have only a couple of things to say: first, if you've already written socket and networking software, you could be better off starting with "raw" web development frameworks (or no framework at all, writing a tiny web server could be a really cool challenge: <http://docs.racket-lang.org/more/> ), to get the knack of how a web-app works, without all those layers of specialization interfering: try to write something in flask or sinatra, or even in ruby's "rack" or it's python equivalent, to be familiar with the http request-response cycle and how the different moving parts (building html with css and javascript, interacting with file systems and databases and network operations) really work and why is it that frameworks exist (which boilerplate code they do for you). Since you know javascript, you could also check out node.js, which is raw enough. And _then_ , when you've got how is it that web development works in its guts, you can move on to more easy going stuff, like rails, pylons, django or whatever.

The second thing is, although someone else might say that scheme sucks for not having lots of libraries, I've found it very eye opening, specially by watching -and reading- the lectures in MIT's "structure and science of computer programs" (here it is in ocw: [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical- engineering-and-comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering- and-computer-science/6-001-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs- spring-2005/) , videos and book are free), if you go through them and thrive to get it, you'll be doing yourself a great service, learning funtional programming, no matter what language it is, will make you a good programmer, because it will force you to think not in terms or how to make stuff easy for the computer, but in how to make stuff "elegant" and easy for yourself, the programmer (kinda like when you do math and it "feels just right"). I personally have found myself to be a better -more productive- python programmer by learning scheme with the SICP course and how to write javascript in the functional style.

Godspeed in your studies, CS is a great thing to study :)

<comment><USER3> Thanks. That was very helpful. I will try and follow the course. I have read parts of the wizard book, and I must say I have liked what little I have read.</comment></comment>


Innovate Like Google. - <AUTHOR> http://conversationstarter.hbsp.com/2008/05/innovate_like_google.html

<comment><USER2> This video is aimed at mature organizations. Pretty much everything he says should be obvious by now to anyone seriously involved in internet startups. It may be worth watching if you are a middle manager at a large company, especially one outside the field of software.</comment>


Ask HN: What is a healthy delicious breakfast that is easy? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Because you need the fat and amino acid content to get you through the day, two eggs and a few strips of bacon is the best thing ever.

If thats not your thing, consider making coconut milk smoothies. Some coconut milk, a banana, a cup of frozen berry mix (or whatever you want) and a tablespoon of coconut oil. Vary coconut milk until you get the consistency you want, don't use canned.

<comment><USER3> It's a really good breakfast. Last summer I tried a keto/low-carb diet and only ate eggs w/ bacon in the morning.. after 3-4 months it was too much and now I can't eat it anymore. So go with something different everyday!

<comment><USER2> Yeah, you can easily wear out food.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Oatmeal is by far the best for breakfast if you ask me - i tend to eat it with some protein powder, so it contains everything for a good start and pretty fast and easy to make it. If you do not want the protein powder then a yoghurt or similar is good after.

</comment><comment><USER5> A whole can of of a tasty variety[1] of tuna fish, seasoned to taste with cracked pepper, lemon juice, etc.

I like to have a couple of pieces of toast with it as well, drizzled with olive oil.

Since it's not recommended to eat tuna every day (owing to concerns about mercury) try substituting with salmon and trout[2] several times per week, which are both low in mercury (relative to tuna).

[1] e.g. [http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless- flyer/article/1655](http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article/1655)

[2] [http://www.amazon.com/Bumble-Bee-Smoked-Salmon- Fillets/dp/B0...](http://www.amazon.com/Bumble-Bee-Smoked-Salmon- Fillets/dp/B00BUZKJ9G)

[&] [http://www.amazon.com/Bumble-Bee-Smoked-Skinless- Canola/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/Bumble-Bee-Smoked-Skinless- Canola/dp/B00EX9CVB0)

</comment><comment><USER6> 2 hard boiled eggs + some almonds. Grab it on the way out the door, can eat it anywhere.

Fast, healthy, and keeps you full till lunch (and beyond!)

</comment><comment><USER7> Oatmeal with frozen blueberries or raisins with a little brown sugar.

<comment><USER8> \+ Banana, pecans & cinnamon if you're feeling fancy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Greek yogurt and granola.</comment>


The Psychology of OmniFocus - <AUTHOR> http://norbauer.com/notebooks/ideas/notes/the-psychology-of-omnifocus

<comment><AUTHOR> "The main point of OmniFocus is to hide things from you that you can't possibly be doing right now while still letting you track them"

"[Without understanding this,] OmniFocus is just a weird-looking and pointlessly complicated list-maker."</comment>


Letsencrypt support in propellor - <AUTHOR> http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/letsencrypt_support_in_propellor/ <comment><USER2> For clarification:

That's, propellor, the property-based host configuration manager (in haskell). By coding superstar Joey Hess: [https://github.com/joeyh/propellor](https://github.com/joeyh/propellor)

Not propellor, the parallel microprocessor by Parallax: [https://www.parallax.com/catalog/microcontrollers/propeller](https://www.parallax.com/catalog/microcontrollers/propeller)</comment>


The worst possible Hello World program - <AUTHOR> http://boredzo.org/helloworld/

<comment><USER2> This is actually quite a laugh. Compiling the author's recommended "best" hello world on Mac OS 10.6 (gcc 4.2.1) yields this:

        % a.out
        Hello World!
        ERROR: fputs did not succeed in writing our message string (error returned: Unknown error: 0)!

A look at the man page for puts shows that the author bungled the test for error:

fputs() now returns a non-negative number (as opposed to 0) on successful completion. As a result, many tests (e.g., "fputs() == 0", "fputs() != 0") do not give the desired result. Use "fputs() != EOF" or "fputs() == EOF" to determine success or failure.

That's the price for over-engineering.

<comment><USER3> Ouch. Now the article isn't just advocating overengineering, it's just plain wrong - have you contacted the author to let him know? Probably best for him to fix this up asap.

<comment><USER4> mturmon hasn't (so far), but a friend just passed me the link to this thread. Thanks nonetheless.

I'll fix it in a few minutes.

<comment><USER3> And I hope all this criticism isn't too down-heartening... at least from my part (though I strongly believe it is the same for others too) it's intended as friendly and genuine _constructive_ criticism.

<comment><USER4> Not at all. I always welcome constructive criticism; any opportunity to improve myself, I much appreciate. For my part, any criticism I offer, including the linked article itself, I likewise intend to be constructive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The "best" is way overengineered. I doubt this error-handling will even work. If the program fails to print "hello world" using puts then it is very likely to fail on fprintf to stderr.

<comment><USER4> Only if both stdout and stderr are unwritable. If stdout is unwritable but stderr is writable, then writing to stderr should work.

If they're both not writable, or stderr is writable but writing fails anyway, there's nothing we can do about it anyway, but that does not make it any less proper to try.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I get the point, and it's important to point out to beginners the various subtleties of error checking, etc. - but to me the 'best possible' hello world is rather overengineered, I mean 4 includes to begin with... :-)

And dude, don't go using the word 'worst' as lightly as that. It's dangerous - I am sure we could make it ohhh really quite worse... how about relying on some known compiler/os bugs to flip some bits somewhere, obfuscating it right up then generate some code by repeating various pointless operations (but all slightly subtly randomly different so not obvious enough to remove) to get it to say ~ 5 million lines of code? :-D

<comment><USER4> If we tried to pour the collective total of human stupidity (artificial or otherwise) into a single program, it would exceed the capacities of all the storage devices ever made, past, present, and future. :-)

Honestly, if I were writing this today, I'd make the "worst" example _less_ bad. What you see here is way too fantastic. 2011 Me would make it realistically bad—the sort of thing a new or just plain apathetic programmer might write. I wonder, though, how much it would differ from the canonical one-liner.

<comment><USER3> I think the best kind of example would be one where the problems weren't at all obvious, yet were rather fatal.

<comment><USER4> Maybe so. Perhaps one example fault would be testing the result of fputs against 0 rather than EOF…

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've updated the page to version 0.3, with a fixed and improved "Best" example and some improvements to the text, based mostly on the feedback from comments here. To all who've commented so far: Thank you.

In a few days, if I don't forget, I'll appoint whatever the page and samples look like by then as 1.0. Leaving things pre-1.0 bugs me more now than it did back when I originally published this.

</comment><comment><USER4> The weirdest part, looking at it five years later, is that the page shows usage of and talks about puts, while the "Best Possible" code in the zip archive uses fputs. Unless anyone can think of a reason not to use puts, I'll change the zipped "Best" example over to use it after I get it both working and failing properly.

<comment><USER6> I find keeping the semantics of puts in my working memory to be harmful. The problem is that whereas (for instance) printf(...) is essentially an abbreviation for fprintf(stdout, ...), puts adds a newline whereas fputs does _not_. This is a headache to keep track of.

The result of this is that I always use fputs to write a plain C string to a stdio handle, specifying stdout explicitly and adding newlines if needed, and I ignore puts entirely, much like I ignore gets. The convenience is not worth the subtle error-causing asymmetry and associated mnemonic pain, especially if that code may ever have to write somewhere other than stdout.

<comment><USER4> An inconvenient convenience. An excellent point, and just the sort of feedback I'd been waiting for; thank you. I'll publish the revised "Best" example shortly with fputs in place, and update the page accordingly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _We now use puts instead of printf. puts does not try to insert any values into the string, and it supplies the terminating newline (the \n you saw before) for us._

I don't see how "does not try to insert any values into the string" and "supplies the terminating newline" are not contradictory.

<comment><USER4> It writes the whole string as passed, without inserting anything into it, and then writes the newline.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you liked this, you'll love the International Obfuscated C Code Contest. I'm amazed nobody mentioned it.

<http://www0.us.ioccc.org/main.html></comment>


Smoking and caffeine consumption: a genetic analysis of their association - <AUTHOR> https://meta.science/paper/27027469_smoking_and_caffeine_consumption_a_genetic_analysis_of_their_association <comment><USER2> Genetically, people predisposed to stimulant addiction tend to like coffee and cigarettes.

Also, the collection of vignettes by Jim Jarmusch, my favorite being the one with the RZA, the GZA and Bill Murray: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H6EZkIaJcCI](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H6EZkIaJcCI)</comment>


Ask HN: What do your users think about Facebook Connect (or Twitter oAuth, etc)? - <AUTHOR>

I've been working on actually releasing some of the many throwaway apps that I write, and started playing around with Facebook Connect recently. However, a few of the people I sent to my alpha test were confused by it (they are not technically savvy at all).
I like the idea of not having to manage user registrations, but I'm concerned that it will cause confusion.
Does anyone have any sharable experiences with this sort of login scheme? <comment><USER2> I posted our own usage data for these services: [http://blog.crowdvine.com/2009/10/16/twitter-auth-vs- faceboo...](http://blog.crowdvine.com/2009/10/16/twitter-auth-vs-facebook- connect-vs-openid-for-conference-attendees/)

The feeling I'm getting via my own anecdotal research of users behavior on our sites and from talking to people is that these are not major conveniences or site differentiators. The people I've talked to who seem most optimistic are looking for ways to make the experience more compelling than just saving the user from typing a password, for instance by auto-importing their contacts.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's really interesting, thank you!

Open ID is straight out for me, it's too foreign a concept for most non- technical people that I've talked to (and even some technical ones).</comment></comment>


Ethanol: A Lethal Injection for Tumors - <AUTHOR> https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/09/02/ethanol-lethal-injection-tumors-11779 <comment><USER2> This is a really neat and elegant study. All they're missing is a long-term survival curve.

You're probably wondering what the catch is if you haven't spotted it yet.

Ethanol ablation is usually used for carcinomas of the liver, although it sometimes sees use in some very rare cancers. So, this falls under the "extremely effective but with limited application" category. That doesn't mean it doesn't have great value, but you also don't want folk to think it's a "lethal injection for _all_ tumours".

<comment><USER3> The unique thing about this approach was that is is a gel- not being limited to encapsulated tumors?

<comment><USER2> This article is just a proof-of-concept, and unfortunately we can't make the claim that this means we can effectively use EtOH+Gel to treat tumours that are not encapsulated; particularly because it isn't clear to me whether the cancer model used is a good model of those "hard-to-treat-w/-EtOH-ablation" cancers.

There is also a very honest list of caveats in the discussion,

"Although we have demonstrated the efficacy of enhanced ethanol ablation in the treatment of squamous cell carcinomas in the hamster cheek pouch, there are several limitations to this study. First, the use of a chemically-induced tumor model (in which spontaneous tumors arising in sites adjacent to a treated site would be indistinguishable from the original tumor) precluded the possibility of any long-term monitoring of tumor recurrence. Second, a single animal tumor model was utilized. Further study in other tumor models is needed to investigate such recurrence, and demonstrate therapeutic efficacy more broadly. Since this study was a proof-of-concept, sample sizes were relatively low. Although other studies have shown systemic safety of ethanol ablation in a variety of applications, more research is needed to investigate the possibility of damage to surrounding tissue. Leakage of ethanol and nearby necrosis should be minimized, and details may be specific to tumor types. Although ethyl cellulose-ethanol has been used in the treatment of venous malformations, further safety evaluations of injections to tumors are clearly necessary. The ethanol-ethyl cellulose-water system has shown promise; but its more complete characterization will inform optimization. For example, better understand- ing of physicochemical details of the sol-gel transition, e.g. involving pressure and temperature, will benefit from improved discrimination between the sol and gel phases. The mechanical phantoms proved helpful in this initial study. Follow up use of them can improve details of their poroelastic structures and properties, and thus improve their role in the design process for enhanced ethanol ablation."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> The article is available here[0] and is open-access.

[0] [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09371-2](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09371-2)

</comment><comment><USER4> "Alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems." \-- Homer Simpson

</comment><comment><USER5> If this cancer therapy ever makes it into US healthcare I will be amazed. There's too little profit to fund clinical trials and FDA approval.

US residents could perhaps travel abroad for the treatment. Maybe it will be offered in Mexico some day.

<comment><USER6> > _There 's too little profit to fund clinical trials and FDA approval._

People think they can have their cake and eat it too with the FDA. The administration likely kills many people through opportunity cost. People really need to ask themselves if the FDA are the ones who should be making the decision whether something is risky enough that you shouldn't have access to it. In my eyes, if drug companies had standard product liability, then drugs would be safer _and_ cheaper.

<comment><USER7> Just remember: the FDA is also the organization that keeps homeopathy from marketing itself as legitimate cure to every disease out there.

For every potentially legitimate treatment held back, a hundred illegitimate - if not harmful - treatments are also stopped. I won't claim this excuses the costs and time associated with getting FDA approval, but it's one more thing to consider when judging them.

<comment><USER6> > _Just remember: the FDA is also the organization that keeps homeopathy from > marketing itself as legitimate cure to every disease out there._

Who cares? Homeopathy is largely harmless, the vast majority of people who practice it are not actually treating anything. Unless something goes seriously wrong, an extreme dilution is not going to have the same devastating effect as an untreated serious condition, unless the patient sticks it out like a fool, in which case can anyone except the charlatan who convinced them really be blamed?

<comment><USER8> >> Homeopathy is largely harmless

Steve Jobs had a curable form of cancer. He chose homeopathy instead.

Let's not pretend this is an isolated case.

<comment><USER5> Jobs used homeopathy for cancer?

i was able to find this Scientific American article about Jobs, which mentions dietary changes and acupuncture, but it doesn't mention that he used homeopathy.

[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alternative- medic...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alternative-medicine- extend-abbreviate-steve-jobs-life/)

is that documented somewhere else?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I can already smell the breath of the alternative (read: fake) medicine version of this as I type. Is the liquortarian diet more effective than the fruitatarian diet? You betcha! Just look at this study!

<comment><USER10> It's simple enough that I worry a bit about unqualified people offering it as a service.</comment></comment>


5 things that make your social network monetize like crap - <AUTHOR> http://andrewchen.typepad.com/andrew_chens_blog/2007/09/why-your-social.html

<comment><USER2> Either I misunderstand something (which is unlikely in this case), or his formula for CPM is wrong.

Correct: CPM = Clickthrough Rate x Price Per Click x 1000

Example: If you have CTR or 2% and each click generates $0.40, you have CPM of 0.40 x 0.02 x 1000 = $8.

</comment><comment><USER3> > Engagement is inversely correlated with CTRs

Which is exactly why more CPA ad systems are needed. That's the best way I see to allow everyone to get their interests in line.

<comment><USER4> Or at least CPC.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> dude i am rich now!</comment>


Patrick Stewart stuns fans with 'Star Trek' return - <AUTHOR> https://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_c20618fab47258f48fd751bd1412df23 <comment><USER2> I must say I'm excited. I hope the series does not devolve into modern theatrics seen in typical film these days - explosions and little plot or character development. These were the characteristics I enjoyed in TNG, as we got to learn about who the characters were, their aspirations, and how they lived their lives in this futuristic version of our space-time continuum.

<comment><USER3> I really miss the TNG era - I miss watching principles characters who were driven by strong moral principles and the urge to explore, who were willing to discuss and change their opinion if they were wrong, who were ready to stand up for what they thought was right, and who didn't solve every problem via violence backed by Beastie Boy.

<comment><USER4> TNG had no stakes. You knew after every episode, things were going to return to the status quo.

<comment><USER5> I don't know about you but I _enjoy_ that immensely. I'm often not in the mood for high-stakes anything. I watch tv to relax, not to get amped up.

<comment><USER4> Only a few episodes were compelling. It's hard to tell a compelling story with long term arcs where the effects of decisions have consequences in 50 minutes. All of the Trek shows after TNG had story arcs that didn't get resolved at the end. Voyager was kind of a mixed bag admittedly.

<comment><USER3> Did you watch it at the time or in retrospect? That was largely the style of TV at the time, so I'm wondering if you experienced it while the expectations were still there, or if you were already in the world of Heroes and Lost when you watched it.

<comment><USER4> Good point. I did watch it when it originally aired. Even then I remember preferring the episodes that connected back to a slightly deeper story.

TNG characters also seemed to "perfect". I didn't watch too much of the the original trek but I did watch the movies.

<comment><USER6> The too-perfectness was a Gene Roddenberry thing. It was literally a part of the show's "bible" that characters didn't have any interpersonal conflicts with each other, because this was Gene's utopian future.

It made it very difficult to write a good show. In season 3 they threw that out (somewhat) and focussed on character development.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Mark Zuckerberg Reveals He Is Open To A Radical Change In Facebook Strategy - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-reveals-he-is-open-to-a-radical-change-in-facebook-strategy-2012-7?op=1

<comment><USER2> He's made his $1 billion, he doesn't care now what happens, nor do the initial investors.

I think people should be going to jail for how much everyone was taken advantage of - though they won't because laws don't reflect businesses hurting society or individuals in such cases. 100x profits as a valuation is pure insanity - no matter what the company is; If someone can cite even a theoretical example where 100x profits might make sense, please do enlighten us - I'd be curious.

The discussion usually boils down to that investing has inherent risks, and that's that - people can make their own decisions, though clearly most people didn't know better. So then the question comes to mind of how much do we value gambling in our society? I suppose it's one of those debates up there with gun ownership - where you should be able to own automatic rifles / mass killing machines (weapon of mass destruction?) as a right, and therefore you should be allowed to throw your money away at others, simply for excitement purposes --- even with many other better options for entertainment existing in the world.

</comment><comment><USER3> yeah, right. Copy dumb games from Zynga, and you'll be fine ;-)

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting.

There are products like Spotify, Youtube, iTunes, Dropbox, Evernote, Flipboard, Skype, Flickr that could definitely be vulnerable to Facebook. The cash, the user base and most importantly the massive amount of user submitted data could make them a formidable competitor from day one.

<comment><USER3> How many of these companies is making profits that could justify FB's valuation? None, imho.

<comment><AUTHOR> But they could pull a better microsoft than microsoft[1] and compete on multiple fronts. Than we'd have to take the profit in all of those industries combined.

[1] meaning, better quality output</comment></comment></comment>


The Impact of Seattle's Minimum Wage Increase – UW Minimum Wage Study [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://evans.uw.edu/sites/default/files/webform/w25812_summary_final.pdf <comment><USER2> That's interesting.

I'm not sure the cause and effect they show in the graphs and stats are directly relatable though, at least not entirely. There are other issues to be considered.

By 2014 the cost of living in Seattle was already driving people to look elsewhere to start a business and live and work, and we see a very similar downturn in both Seattle and the State beginning in 2017.</comment>