Petition for Smarter Infrastructure - <AUTHOR> http://unitedslate.samaltman.com/smarter-infrastructure.html <comment><USER3> > If we make it easier to quickly travel longer distances in/out of work hubs, > the intense demand for housing can be diffused to communities that can > handle it.

Wow, just wow. Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, Cupertino et al can all "handle it" they just don't want to. There is plenty of space for transit oriented housing and office space along the cal-train corridor. If Cupertino can "handle" an office space for 14k workers, they can "handle" building housing for 14k workers too.

There is absolutely no reason the peninsula and south bay should remain majority single family home cities, especially wiht the crazy jobs/housing imbalance they have willingly created for themselves.

<comment><USER4> I live in Mountain View, and I've lived here for 20 years and followed local politics all this time. I'm also, unlike most of my fellow residents, pro development and think that increasing density is the only way out of this housing debacle, but maybe I'm biased by having lived in NYC and seen that high density can work.

Where we are today is that your basic crappy 2/1 or 3/1 starter home is over a million dollars here. They're $2 million in a better neighborhood. The majority of higher density housing is rentals, not owner condos. We're losing everyone except families with dual high income workers due to housing costs here.

One big part of the problems is that residents who already own property resist change and want Mountain View to remain as it was when they moved in. It's a selfish mindset, commonly likened to pulling up the ladder behind you when you get on a ship to keep others out. Whenever there's a development proposal, a vocal group of generally older and retired folks show up to try shouting it down. The anti-development people constantly say that the character of the city will be ruined by more housing, but are blind to the character of the city being homogenized on high income tech workers.

Another big part of the problem is ridiculous zoning. It's basically illegal to build anything anymore given the land that's left and the density limits. Every development requires variances from the city council, so even though zoning code isn't meant to give the council the power to meddle in individual developments, it's become so overbearing that the city council effectively dictates what can be built and where, down to the type of food a restaurant will serve. This is no different than communist central planning. These code variances are attained by renovating parks, or contributing to schools, or whatever else the council wants to extort. Permit fees are well into six figures for new housing developments, per unit. Most of these are impact fees for infrastructure and parks. With the high cost of housing here, permit costs, and extortion costs, it's simply impossible to build affordable housing. This is fine, since expensive housing takes the load off the older, affordable stock, but the pace of housing growth isn't keeping up with population growth.

The local cities here belong to a larger organization called the Association Of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). ABAG sets minimum building quotas on towns, and they have to approve that many units, but where they approve the units is up to them. Here in Mountain View, the downtown area is mostly owner occupied single family homes, and these people are against increasing density at all, and probably the most vocal anti-development neighborhood. The downtown area is also the one closest to transit, which is where high density makes sense. Due to this NIMBY attitude, the new developments happen mostly along the El Camino and 101 corridors, which don't have good public transit.

It's a giant mess, basically. The same people who resist density will also resist and kind of better local transit if it means building more tracks near their house, or digging tunnels under their house.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> > We can fund this by stopping the high-speed rail, and spend the $68+ billion > we are planning to spend on that on better local rapid transit systems, > improved bus lines, and new roads instead

This proposal would replace a real and coming solution (HSR) with vague proposals ("improved bus line") and tech that may not pan out for years if ever ("electric airplanes"). I'm skeptical.

The HSR will provide a significant improvement for the Bay Area->LA route, and provide rail service to places that currently don't have it at all (eg. Fresno->San Jose). If we kill HSR, it's entirely likely that we'll end up with both no HSR, no hyperloop, and no super-speedy self driving cars. I'd rather keep chugging along on HSR, and build the hyperloop (or whatever comes next) when it's ready.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, there's some magical thinking that it'll take several decades to fully roll out "yesterday's technology", but somehow, by the time hyperloop technology is production ready, it won't take several more decades to actually get one built.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The reason that there is a housing crisis in the Bay Area is that there is a lack of housing in the Bay Area. We don't need to make it so you don't need to live in SF to work in SF, we need to make it so that there are enough homes for the people that want to live there. And this means one thing, ZONING. The reason that more housing isn't built in the Bay is that the people living there don't want developers to build it, not that it can't be built. This is much easier and cheaper to change than public transit infrastructure (or maybe, the fact that it isn't is a sign that SF is screwed?).

<comment><USER8> I agree that we need to build in the city as well, but many major cities have good transportation inside and outside of the city too.

Currently it's almost an hour to get to downtown from Ocean Beach to Financial district with a bus, and its only 7 miles away. That is 7mph, almost a walking speed.

For example, back in Helsinki (where I'm from) you could easily get to the downtown anywhere in the 12mile radius in 10-20mins with a bus, light rail or train. I know the numbers are similar in many European cities.

Generally in Europe public transport is usually the easier and faster option than driving or at least the same time. If driving in a city is multitudes faster then you're not doing to public or other transportation systems very well.

<comment><USER7> You walk really fast! But seriously, revitalizing existing public transit and making it function properly should be a priority. No disagreements there. But we don't need to build new trains and bus lines that go further out.

<comment><USER9> Urbanists will continue to think we don't need more sprawl, and NIMBYs will continue to think we don't need more density, and nothing will change.

The only politically realistic way we're going to get large-scale high-density environments is through greenfield projects. Having a long but tolerable public transit journey between your greenfield high-density development and the existing job centers is one of very few plausible paths to getting there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> >We should double our annual infrastructure budget. We can fund this by stopping the high-speed rail, and spend the $68+ billion we are planning to spend on that on better local rapid transit systems, improved bus lines, and new roads instead. This will allow people to live in more affordable housing and have a better quality of life.

Bad idea. More roads does not mean less traffic, More roads = more cars. And more infrastructure begets more infrastructure - You build more roads and buses and light rail lines, now you need all the staff to maintain these things, now you need somewhere for these staff to live, now you need more infrastructure to get the staff to work to maintain the infrastructure...

Stop the madness! The answer is not to transit at all. Live near your job, walk or bike to work. Build more housing dammit! Why the fuck does a software company need to be in the middle of big city? All you need is electricity and internet, move out to the country!

<comment><USER11> Okay. And _without_ boiling the ocean, what have you got that's better?

<comment><USER10> Short term - more buses, alternate day driving, increase incentives for no car ownership (tax rebate), increase penalties for car ownership (increase parking fees/fines, increase number of no-parking tow-away zones).

Medium term - Build bike lanes, convert streets to promenades, build light rail, build traffic calmers (narrow streets, speed bumps, lane bollards)

Long term - Marketing programs to encourage different business lifestyles (city vs. country, remote vs in-person). Tax incentives for moving out of the city.

<comment><USER12> It must be cool to have no desire for stability in your life or the life of your spouse and offspring.

Certainly I'd find that lifestyle less difficult to plan moves around. Of course, I'd also find it fulfilling and depressing.

<comment><USER13> What are you talking about?

<comment><USER9> In a world with effectively zero transportation possible beyond a range of a few miles, you need to move every time you change jobs (or never see your family because you're walking/biking/riding a bus for a huge chunk of each day).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Alternate proposal that would not destroy more of the earth, make a big impact on lessening climate change, and improve people's health: ban personal vehicles from urban and suburban areas. Then reallocate the resources from maintaining roads and sprawling infrastructure to mass transit, biking, walking, and new housing. Roads and suburban infrastructure take up an absurd amount of space that could be reallocated to housing or even more open space. It would also help tremendously if property owners were not allowed to have any vacancy. A ridiculous number of housing units are sitting empty that could be used.

<comment><USER15> Sorry, but your ideas seems extremely narrow minded. Yes, there are areas designed from the ground or evolved over time to be used without personal vehicles, but that is by no means the general case.

Firstly, if doing without personal vehicle works for you, it is great. I do see many situations where it could work. But remember that Uber drivers use personal vehicles, they are by no means part of public transit. Hourly car rent services are not public too.

Secondly, we do not live in corporate owned factory-cities, layout with well defined living quarter areas and workshops. I see no way to arrange efficient public transport system for everyone in organically grown areas, though we can probably make it work for majority. We have much more job varieties than factories - large concentrations of workforce. Take kindergartens and primary schools for example. As a parent, you want them to be as close to home as possible. You want the best educators there. Unless you assume that the best educator-children fit will be with educators from your district (for which you must assume that there _are_ educators in your district in the first place), you need transportation for them. There are travelling salesmen, home deliveries, non-peak (home-work, work-home) traffic to theatres, eating out, hospitals, friends. Unless you want army of robots, I see no way to do without personal transportation altogether. Without personal vehicles altogether, places several kilometres away from public transport stops will be out of reach for less mobile: disabled, elderly, families with babies, etc..

\</comment></comment><comment>-

As for vacant properties... I do not even know where to begin. This idea has already been tried in Soviet Union, except they took it even further - <USER2> was per person space quota and space exceeding that quota would be taken away. Like one room in a flat would be given to someone else. Your children moved away? Say bye-bye to half of your property. Your family member passed away and you inherited their property? Better do something with it quick or risk losing it. Residents moved from you rental property? Better find anyone to rent it for any sum or risk losing it. I just don't think these are the values of democratic republic. It may be me, though.

</comment><comment><USER16> Dashed-off in a hurry without thinking it through, just like most of the supposed high achievers and visionaries I know.

 _If we make it easier to quickly travel longer distances in /out of work hubs..._

...the demand for quickly traveling longer distances in/out of work hubs, increases accordingly. Which leads to the same congestion problems spreading outward. You don't want to plan your land use based on what types and kinds of transportation are possible. But if you open up a transportation corridor hoping for the best, that is exactly what you're doing. Based on the fact that there is now transportation available, you get mile after mile of hastily- constructed bland, dystopian nowhere suburbs that breed ennui, conformism and fascism. Meanwhile all those people shoulder extra "friction" in their lives in the form of traveling around pointlessly.

Instead you should plan land use deliberatively. Build the destination. And then connect destinations. The answer is the exact opposite - have a strong urban growth boundary that keeps growth compact, and remove barriers to high- density housing construction in the city. Because this leads to less demand for travel, everyone saves on transportation costs - not only the costs of infrastructure but of using it. And they get to live in a dense, interesting city where their genitals can be located near the genitals of many others of their preferred gender for mating. Which is great for software companies that hire young people.

<comment><USER17> >Based on the fact that there is now transportation available, you get mile after mile of hastily-constructed bland, dystopian nowhere suburbs that breed ennui, conformism and fascism.

The level of condescension here is overwhelming. I would love to live in a "bland, dystopian" suburb where I can afford a yard, more space for my family, access to necessities and a reasonable commute. If you'd prefer to live in a crowded city, do it, but don't think it makes you superior to anyone else.

<comment><USER16> I grew up in the suburbs and I live there now, that's how I know.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Imagine thinking that "high-speed self-driving cars, electric airplanes, and maybe even Hyperloops" are viable solutions for transit problems of today when none of them exist in any real viable form and have major obstacles to overcome in order to exist. Reminds me of the craze with pneumatic transport in the past. It too was the way of the future and NYC even had a model pneumatic subway line [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_Pneumatic_Transit). Lost out to the normal train by a long way.

</comment><comment><USER19> I'd be happy just to see traffic lights that actually factor traffic congestion. One of my peeves is when a traffic light makes me and a whole line of cars waste brakes to stop then waste gas to sit at a red light just to let one car go when the efficient option would have been to let the line of cars travelling 50mph go first, THEN let the loner who's already stopped go afterwards. It's a problem I've wanted to solve for a loooong time. Imagine the savings in time, gasoline, and environment if every intersection actively tried to maximize efficiency.

<comment><USER20> Not to mention the amount of CO2 emissions that would be reduced from drivers having to stop and re-accelerate fewer times. While I don't know if it would make much of a change during heavy traffic, I think it would make a huge difference during medium to light traffic.

I like the idea of opening up light timings for public review, however figuring out how to optimize everything would probably take a great deal of computational power, and likely out of the scope of local governments that actually make those decisions. It's also not profitable, so I don't see too many companies going after this problem. If only there was a company that had detailed maps, good traffic statistics, insane computational power, and ambitions to do stuff that may or may not be profitable. Maybe they create tools for municipalities to help time their lights.

<comment><USER19> I agree with most of your points. However, I think it would be easier to use machine learning and computer vision to solve this problem. The profit would come in the form of reduced traffic which would mean more throughput to local businesses. FedEx would profit, trucking would profit, mom-and-pop shops with prime retail locations would profit. Hence, the municipalities would profit from surge in tax revenue. As far as processing goes, the red-light cameras get recorded somewhere, right? Why not double up those servers, put an RPI with a camera on each traffic light, and then beam the data back to the server room for processing. With machine learning and a lot of patience the system would be able to improve itself over time.

I have always believed that this problem could be solved with about $200 worth of hardware at the traffic light, a cheap mobile plan, and a central server location (wherever they host the red-light footage from cameras that already exist).

Now, if anyone has a million bucks laying around I can get to work right away. ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The deeply ironic thing about California HSR is that it's basically going to be most useful for business travelers. Who the hell else needs to go from SF to LA on any regular basis? If you spent that money on regional rail instead, you might actually help out working class people.

In cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, tons of middle class people ride the train to/from what used to be streetcar suburbs. Caltrain/BART is a joke in comparison, and $68 billion would go a long way towards making that not the case.

<comment><USER10> The stupid thing is that those business travelers won't use the rail line, they'll happily chug along in their self-driving Teslas and ultra comfy Audis/Mercedes/BMWs.

Toronto just dealt with this. We built a rail line that goes from our international airport right into the heart of the downtown. The plan was that business travelers could get off the plane, get on the train, and go right into the city without a car. Nobody uses it. They forgot about the comfort of the taxi and limo - you don't have to carry your luggage and you don't have to share the car and listen to screaming children.

<comment><USER22> > Nobody uses it

The few times I've used it, the train was pretty full (with people standing). Maybe I got seriously lucky.

<comment><USER23> I think they meant the only people that use it are the screaming children.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > We should double our annual infrastructure budget...new roads

No mention of maintenance.

[https://www.strongtowns.org/nonewroads/](https://www.strongtowns.org/nonewroads/)

[https://www.strongtowns.org/infrastructure/](https://www.strongtowns.org/infrastructure/)

</comment><comment><USER25> Somehow hyperloops are better than high speed rail. In actuality they are the same thing except a hyperloop has a pointless tube protecting it. The original hyperloop concept and the 'hyperloops' being worked on are completely different.

Hyperloop is a rebrand. This is a terrible idea, instead of opting for urban sprawl and more roadways, increase density, increase public transit facilities, and actually PLAN development projects.

</comment><comment><USER26> Longer travel is inherently less efficient. It's much better to build denser close to existing transportation hubs.

Proposal: Pass a law that cities can't prevent permitting of mixed developments up to 8 stories within 1500 feet of existing trail r stations or freeway exits, and see where that takes us!

(Also, doubling down on BART, Caltrain, SMART and the boats would be quite helpful.)

</comment><comment><USER27> How do you plan on dealing with all the induced demand that building more roads brings? Would the roads _only_ be for buses?

<comment><USER28> If you were going to go the suggested route of building more roads, the only sane thing to do would be to make them bus only lanes and then to invest into that category heavily in regards to efficiency / automation / capacity. I can't see any other scenario that makes sense in terms of building more roads, unless this is premised on autonomous driving 20 years out improving the traffic patterns & congestion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> The solution is to spread out more?

There is lots of developable land here on the peninsula. We just aren't developing it.

</comment><comment><USER30> Totally agree 100% and wrote about this in 2015 but on a different tack. [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/americas-disastrous-mass- tran...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/americas-disastrous-mass-transit- policy-look-smart-sam-sperling)

Reality is California is terrible at the mega projects - look at LA metro as an example. We are out of practice and the graft level is through the roof. Any public funds are likely far better spent on smaller projects that are chosen for the outsize benefit.

SF to LA is already solved by airlines and the freeway. The benefit of a rail will be marginal and temporary when cars become good at driving the freeway autonomously.

</comment><comment><USER31> Ummmmm, where is the data to support either argument? How will and how much buses need to be added to support just the current population in the current cities? How does that follow up on expanding population? How does that match with new construction and available land close by. What is the distance and driving time for buses between work hubs and housing. While housing can be built relatively fast, work hubs take a lot more time for various reasons.

</comment><comment><USER32> On the surface, this sounds like a great idea. The problem is that, once you look at the details, you realize there are none.

How is this going to work? Where does that $68bn get re-allocated? Who will benefit from this? What is the economic advantage of investing in transit infrastructure in dollars and cents?

I've seen a few of these proposals that sell hopes and dreams with no discussion of how it's going to work. Until I see that, I can't support this.

</comment><comment><USER33> So build more roads because we will use more cars? Not sure i get it.

Instead of a high speed rail between 2 cities how about a higher speed rail running in all directions around the major hubs and suburbs. I'm not in SF or CA by that matter, but trains work good if the rails are designed with specifics in mind. SF to LA high speed doesn't solve much of a problem, nor is more car lanes/highways.

</comment><comment><USER34> I recently moved to San Diego from the east coast and I really agree with petition. The Trolley here seemed idealistic to be at first, "I can take the train downtown from my apartment in 40 minutes!" I thought. I love driving as much as most people but parking downtown is not fun to find. So I took the train twice, but after being on the train, I won't do it again. There are several people shouting odd things and no police in sight addressing that. Along with an recent armed robbery of 16 year old on the train, I'm thinking that this well designed system totally flopped its daily execution. If California could invest some one time resources (make the platforms gated and require paid fares to ride, maybe some tech to know if people are riding the train with no destination) and recurring resources (heavier police presence on trains) towards the Trolley in San Diego they could pull some cars off the highway.

Public transit options are most beneficial if people feel safe and confident riding them.

<comment><USER7> Or maybe we could invest more in mental health care and public education and the like instead of shunting off the poors somewhere else so you don't have to see them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> The big housing problem in Bay Area is partially because there are ridiculously large empty houses in areas such as Los Altos Hills, Atherton etc.

</comment><comment><USER36> As a VC he would be in a good position to push for spreading out companies over the country instead if everyone sitting in SV.

The solution can't be more commuting

</comment><comment><USER37> I personally think all of these problems could be dealt with if the large tech companies would just allow remote work.

</comment><comment><USER38> Since this is a topic I'm studying/researching heavily at the moment (it's at the heart of my new startup), I'd like to comment on some of Sam's passages:

> If we unclog our infrastructure we can spread out to more of the state and > increase the supply of developable land. There is lots of land in this > state, but only a small amount is close to jobs.

I disagree. The trick is not to simply increase the supply of "buildable" land. That way, the main effect would be to increase sprawl. Jobs are usually in already-dense areas, in which most land has already been developed.

A different, perhaps smarter plan could be to do what some small companies are doing in Barcelona: allow buildings to add 1-2 floors at the top. It increases density, and housing supply.

> If we make it easier to quickly travel longer distances in/out of work hubs, > the intense demand for housing can be diffused to communities that can > handle it.

I don't see how this passage is related to the previous one. Alleviating traffic? Good luck. Until we have 90% or more driverless cars, traffic is not going to change.

> We should double our annual infrastructure budget. We can fund this by > stopping the high-speed rail, and spend the $68+ billion we are planning to > spend on that on better local rapid transit systems, improved bus lines, and > new roads instead. This will allow people to live in more affordable housing > and have a better quality of life.

Yes, $68 Billion can be spent much better, I agree. But investing them in a generic "infrastructure" is not going to solve the problem at all.

I'll give you one of many possible examples: when you build an additional highway lane, traffic temporarily goes down. On average, after 6.5 years, traffic is back to the original level (everything else being equal). You can actually reduce traffic by REDUCING the amount of roads available, as long as the resulting roadmap is "simpler" to navigate for human drivers. Sometimes, you get less traffic accidents by REMOVING road signs. Etc. Etc.

> A lot more people need this more than they need a train from LA to SF. In > any case, the train is yesterday's technology. By the time it's completed, > we will have new and much better technology, like high-speed self-driving > cars, electric airplanes, and maybe even Hyperloops.

We already have one of the best transportation systems that could be invented, in terms of price-performance: bicycles. We don't need to trouble HyperLoops and the like.

But I agree that investing in trains is not the right thing to do.

In essence, what Sam is suggesting is to divert that $68B to something smarter: on this, I wholeheartedly agree.

</comment><comment><USER39> >If we unclog our infrastructure we can spread out to more of the state and increase the supply of developable land.

Really amazing to read that people that live in low density clusterfuck think that the solution is to expand the low density clusterfuck.

Also, being against high speed rail but being for a hyper loop is an indication that you have a technology boner that is lasting longer than 4 hours and you should see a doctor.

<comment><USER40> > _you have a technology boner that is lasting longer than 4 hours and you > should see a doctor_

Please don't.</comment></comment>


Backpage.com Seizure and What Happens to Seized Domains - <AUTHOR> https://securitytrails.com/blog/backpage-seize <comment><AUTHOR> Here is the related discussion fro the Reuters.com story: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16776932](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16776932)</comment>


Digg is Deadd - <AUTHOR> http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/06/01/digg-is-deadd.aspx

<comment><USER2> There is no intellectual conversation on Digg. The commenting design is too one dimensional and the users don't contribute. Yes, even on reddit there are 'stupid' comments but within specific subreddit there is definitely some good conversation.

</comment><comment><USER3> If I had read this a year ago (which I think I did, but not going to waste time looking it up) it might have been interesting, but now this is really a non-story since Digg has been pretty much stagnant for a while now.

</comment><comment><USER4> Mentally translate all the comments about women on Digg into comments about black or hispanic people, and then imagine how you would feel about participating. I don't go to Digg because the "conversation" there makes my skin crawl. I am not the only woman I know who feels that way. Hopefully the rest of the world has begun to notice, too, but maybe that's wishful thinking.

</comment><comment><USER5> Funny how they don't mention Reddit. I got tired of Reddit during the Ron Paul days and other than some nutty basement libertarian flare-ups, it's been quite good lately. I've never seen a community like that actually recover.

</comment><comment><USER6> I went to my profile yesterday and the list of friends is completely broken. It's like there's no actual programmers left there.

</comment><comment><USER7> terrible title

<comment><USER8> It's cleaver. The last line about how Digg has dugg their own grave also made me chuckle a bit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> The problem with Digg is that the community is terrible and that it's a miracle whenever something remotely intellectual makes it to the front page.

I found HN through StackOverflow about a year ago and haven't looked back.

</comment><comment><USER10> _The fact is, people -- real people -- are beginning to tire._

Maybe. But that doesn't automatically mean that everyone is going to give up on all social sites, or that people will stop going to Digg just because it wants your actions. It means we, the tired, will focus on sites that are useful and comfortable.

I used to love Digg, and could love it again. It's the inane community that made me tire of it, not the clicking.</comment>


Researchers have identified how the 'wall' around cancer tumours functions - <AUTHOR> http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/breaking-down-cancers-defence-mechanisms

<comment><USER2> The abstract of the published findings[1] says, "We show that despite the presence of antitumor T cells, immunotherapeutic antibodies are ineffective in a murine pancreatic cancer model recapitulating the human disease." And the word "murine" here means "mouse," as the journal article makes more clear than the press release kindly submitted here. The press release uses neither the word "murine" nor the word "mouse," and mentions "animal models" in passing just once, so when I first read the press release, I wasn't completely sure whether or not the findings were from a study of human patients. It will be important to check whether or not these findings translate into a safe and effective treatment for human patients after many more follow-up studies. As the authors note, pancreatic cancer is commonplace enough that an effective treatment for it would have a substantial good effect on human health.

Many, many submissions to HN are based at bottom on press releases, and press releases are well known for spinning preliminary research findings beyond all recognition. This has been commented on in the PhD comic "The Science News Cycle,"[2] which only exaggerates the process a very little. More serious commentary in the edited group blog post "Related by coincidence only? University and medical journal press releases versus journal articles"[3] points to the same danger of taking press releases (and news aggregator website articles based solely on press releases) too seriously. Press releases are usually misleading, promising more than the research result can be sure to deliver.

The most sure and certain finding of any preliminary study will be that more research is needed. All too often, preliminary findings don't lead to further useful discoveries in science, because the preliminary findings are flawed. The obligatory link for any discussion of a report on a research result like the one kindly submitted here is the article "Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation"[4] by Peter Norvig, director of research at Google, on how to interpret scientific research. Check each news story you read for how many of the important issues in interpreting research are NOT discussed in the story.

[1] [http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full](http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full)

[2] [http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174](http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174)

[3] [http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/related-by- coi...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/related-by-coincidence- only-journal-press-releases-versus-journal-articles/)

[4] [http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html](http://norvig.com/experiment- design.html)

<comment><USER3> I call this "science by press release". I don't blame universities for using these publication opportunities to call attention to their work, but it would be nice if there was a mechanism to ensure scientific accuracy in them. I can't see how to incentivize it, and regulation seems heavy handed.

<comment><USER4> _ensure scientific accuracy in them_

That phrase strikes me as almost redundant. Since ensuring accuracy is what "science" is supposed to be about.

<comment><USER5> He is talking about ensuring scientific accuracy in the _press release_. Press releases are not about accuracy and have never been. They are about rallying support for a particular business decision, and there is nothing wrong or immoral about that.

<comment><USER4> You're addressing a point I didn't make. I was talking about language, not morality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> My father was just recently diagnosed with melanoma which is also a solid state cancer. It is in its very advanced stages so his prognosis is poor but if this would of happened just a few years ago he would have no choices for treatments. But now with these new immunotherapies we are starting to uncover new ways to treat these very advance cancers and they are becoming more effective with each new uncovering.

<comment><USER7> Sorry to hear about your dad.

I have already have one melanoma but luckily they found it very early on. I have more than a thousand moles though so I am constantly being checked.

Lets hope your dad will survive. It is possible even at stage 4.

<comment><USER6> Thank you for your support, I'm glad you were able to catch yours very early as that is truly the key. Surprisingly we have yet to find the primary location where it started. Which most likely means his body fought that location off already, this gives him a bit of a better chance but it also means we weren't able to find it early enough.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The press release unfortunately omits the fact that the treatment was only tested on mice [0]. I'm not from the medical field, but my understanding is that you shouldn't get too excited about therapies that are this early in their development. Still, it looks like a nice finding and is worth keeping an eye on!

[0] [http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full](http://www.pnas.org/content/110/50/20212.full)

</comment><comment><USER9> Here's a rather more balanced report on the research and the implications of it - [http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/01/07/can- pancr...](http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2014/01/07/can-pancreatic- cancer-really-be-wiped-out-in-less-than-a-week-not-yet/)

</comment><comment><USER10> As someone who was lost family members to cancer, any news of advances in the fight against cancer is very exciting.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is an interesting find. And unlike new weapons in the war on virii and bacteria, there's no way for evolution to "win" this: a cancer cell that evolved a better defense would almost surely wind up killing its host before it could reproduce.

</comment><comment><USER12> Steve Jobs?

<comment><USER13> Yes [http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/05/the-pancreatic- cancer-...](http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/05/the-pancreatic-cancer-that- killed-steve-jobs/)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: OSS to manage categorised and tagged links and search - <AUTHOR> I have an OPML file of RSS feeds and want to create a website that will categorize and tag the pages in the RSS feeds. The idea is to create a searchable & explorable minisite for a topic that others will find helpful. Anyone know anything out there like this that's open source? <comment><USER2> You can use a combination of open source projects. For example, you can use an OPML parser library like Listparser[0] to get the contents of the pages.

Then, you can index them into a search engine of sorts. You can use Elasticsearch[1] for that, or if you want to try something that's much simpler that I have been working on, try Typesense[2].

Finally, you can use Flask[3] to create a simple website/frontend for integrating with the search engine.

[0]: [https://github.com/kurtmckee/listparser](https://github.com/kurtmckee/listparser) [1]: [https://www.elastic.co/](https://www.elastic.co/) [2]: [https://typesense.org/](https://typesense.org/) [3]: [http://flask.pocoo.org/](http://flask.pocoo.org/)</comment>


The rise – and shocking fall – of Indiana's caviar king - <AUTHOR> https://www.indystar.com/story/news/investigations/2019/03/21/amazing-rise-and-shocking-fall-indianas-caviar-king/2859237002/ <comment><USER2> A much more interesting story on the same topic:

[https://longreads.com/2019/02/12/the-caviar- con/](https://longreads.com/2019/02/12/the-caviar-con/)

HN discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19153474](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19153474)</comment>


Ask HN : Competitive programming or learning programming languages - <AUTHOR>
 Which is better doing Competitive programming or learning programming languages? <comment><USER2> Scuba Diving

<comment><AUTHOR> lol ok agreed more interesting then the two.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You can do competitive programming in a new language, that way you get both.

<comment><AUTHOR> A good idea but according to me competitive programming makes you fast but not a good programmer who can write good code.

<comment><USER3> There is nothing stopping you from writing good code when doing competitive programming.

<comment><AUTHOR> but I feel when we do competitive programming we mostly look for shortcuts to do it fast and not always the good approach to do it though I myself I have little experience in competitive programming.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> we need to get full details about programming language not a summary of it anyway thanks for keeping update us.</comment>


Show HN: Terraform Provider for Azure DevOps - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/microsoft/terraform-provider-azuredevops <comment><AUTHOR> Hi All,

I've been working on Terraform provider for Azure DevOps. This tool allows you to model Azure DevOps projects, security groups, Builds and more as Infrastructure as Code (IAC).

I wanted to get the word out and solicit any early feedback. Thanks!</comment>


Create the Ultimate Interactive Presentation - <AUTHOR> http://sendgrid.com/blog/ultimate-interactive-presentation/

<comment><USER2> I love using reveal.js, having a cross-platform, browser-based presentation system is really great. I would never thought about using Google Glass in concert though, brilliant idea!</comment>


Introducing Boutiques: a new way to shop for fashion online - <AUTHOR> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/introducing-boutiques-new-way-to-shop.html

<comment><USER2> Would guess it's based on their acquisition of <http://www.like.com/>

Edit: Yes, [http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/81927/20101115/google- fashio...](http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/81927/20101115/google-fashion- website-boutiques-com-like-com-acquisition-froogle-look-book-ebay-amazon- fashion-in-f.htm) [http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/15/google-to-enter-fashion- sho...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/15/google-to-enter-fashion-shopping- territory-with-launch-of-boutiques-com/) [http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/17/googles-boutiques- com...](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/11/17/googles-boutiques-com-opens- for-business-today/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Too bad there's no section for males. Clothes shopping is so hit-or-miss in department stores, especially if you know exactly what you want.

<comment><USER4> I was really hoping they had men's suits. I wear a somewhat difficult to find suit size and would love for Google to provide me one place for OTR suits in my size.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is this the first Google property not to have their characteristic design?

</comment><comment><USER6> I am really starting to believe that Google does not have any designers working for them. What is with the search engine like feel for a website that has to do with fashion?

I understand if you are just selling regular goods online, but for something that speaks to peoples eyes should there not be some decent aesthetics involved.

<comment><USER7> Have you actually clicked through to boutiques.com? It looks just like many other online fashion shops do.

<comment><USER8> I would disagree ... Look at: <http://jackthreads.com/> <http://www.gilt.com/> or <http://seshday.com/> I'd say that the majority of online fashion shops -- actual shops, not just a designer's site -- often have well designed, well thought out sites. Boutiques.com looks just like a very sterile, google site. No "fashion" at all.

(Disclosure: I work for Thrillist, the parent company of JackThreads. But I'm speaking for me and only me, in the comment above.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Interestingly, the whole site is blocked from Search Engines with NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW tags.

I can imagine why they would block product pages, given that its basically an affiliate site, but even the homepage? Google sure is playing it safe.

</comment><comment><USER10> Has Google lost their focus?

Are they trying to be everything to everyone? It seems everything in the last two years has been unfocused, and consequently, ineffective. (Go is an exception.)

Do you agree?

<comment><USER11> At its heart, a corporation is just a pile of money that hires people to make itself bigger somehow. The expectation that it confine itself to a few related lines of business is a reaction to the fad in the 1960s of making leveraged buyouts of arbitrary companies to game the share price of the resulting conglomerate.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Just so people understand, Google is not happy that sites like Sugar, Inc.'s <http://www.shopstyle.com/> are taking a chunk of commerce search away from them.

I'm sure it's all the more frustrating when they're building ad networks on top of their vertical search engines, too: <http://shopsense.shopstyle.com/>

</comment><comment><USER13> This reminds me of Polyvore(<http://polyvore.com/>) - which has a few ex- googlers among their ranks. Most notably, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, their CEO (via Accel) was the president of Asian-Pacific and Latin American Markets.

</comment><comment><USER14> If you have a vagina.

<comment><USER15> Sadly that seems to be the case. Unless I'm missing something there doesn't seem to be too much there for those of us with a penis. Seems like a bit of missed opportunity if you ask me.

<comment><USER16> _At this time, Boutiques is only available in the U.S. and only for women's fashion, but we plan to expand in the future_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Are the product features 100% curated by humans/brands or is it pulling data feeds from Froogle (or whatever it's called now) and building outfits that way? Can't figure out the data?

</comment><comment><USER18> this just shines light that anything in the string _Google_ gets rushed to HN front page.

ill revisit when theres mens clothing</comment>


The US Military Is Genetically Engineering New Life Forms to Detect Enemy Subs - <AUTHOR> https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2018/12/us-military-genetically-engineering-new-life-forms-detect-enemy-subs/153200/?oref=d-river <comment><USER2> People with extremely large ears who can hold their breath underwater for a long time? CRISPR-cas9.</comment>


Elm 0.19.1 - <AUTHOR> https://elm-lang.org/news/the-syntax-cliff <comment><USER2> I built a project using Elm last summer. Here is my quick feedback:

\+ The language syntax is very nice and refreshing.

\+ It's a joy to work with the compiler.

\+ If it's compiling, it's working! No runtime exceptions.

\+ Static typing!

\+ Functional programming!

\- The language doesn't have component composition (like in React or Vue) and you end up having huge chunks of spaghetti code (but to be fair, it kind of works because of the compiler).

\- It's complicated to implement routing and to build a Single Page Application.

\- Only pure functions in Elm, so doing API calls and generating random numbers are unnecessary hard.

\- It's a pain to parse JSON.

\- There is no variable shadowing, so naming your stuff is harder than it should be.

\- Vue embraces HTML, Elm avoids HTML, and it's really a pain to build HTML view in Elm.
world
 becomes div [] [ a [ href "hello" ] [ text 'world" ] ]

\- There is a lack of leadership and community building in this project. We don't know what's going on and where the project is going. It's like a black box. No roadmap. All issues on Github, all posts on Elm Discourse get no response.

So in the end, Elm is an interesting beast, but I think it's too academical and not really practical for serious projects.

<comment><USER3> HAML and Pug/Jade got popular precisely because HTML/XML is harder to read and easy to make mistakes with all the closing delimiters you need. Making HTML a function with two arguments for virtual DOM is simpler than needing to make an XML parser with special rules ala JSX where people constantly get hung up on className, etc., which compiles to this same binary functions you use in Elm is API.

Pure functions are definitely a selling point. Random number generation needs to be in an isolated part of your app unless it's a toy. Because it deals with IO much like reading from disk, it should have a "hard"-ness to it.

<comment><USER2> Ok let's see. Please can you convert this Vue code into Elm code?

[https://pastebin.com/trFAuJ7T](https://pastebin.com/trFAuJ7T)

Good luck!

<comment><USER4> The fact that you think this is some sort of puzzle makes me question how far you actually got with Elm at all.

What's even the "good luck!" part for? Good luck knowing about List.map?

<comment><USER5> It was presented to him as a puzzle and he solved the puzzle.

How far do you think he got in Elm?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Gave it a whirl online, tried to change WebGL import to Webgl, thinking it wouldn't do anything helpful.

It told me the lib import was prob a typo, with suggestions, and WebGL at the top:

      You are trying to import a `Webgl` module:

      11| import Webgl

                 ^^^^^
      I checked the "dependencies" and "source-directories" listed in your elm.json,
      but I cannot find it! Maybe it is a typo for one of these names?

          WebGL
          Set
          Svg
          Array

      Hint: If it is not a typo, check the "dependencies" and "source-directories" of
      your elm.json to make sure all the packages you need are listed there!

</comment><comment><USER7> Elm already was the gold standard when it comes to helpful error messages and it's amazing to see that they're still working to make it even better. I hope other languages follow suit.

<comment><USER8> > Elm already was the gold standard when it comes to helpful error messages

I read this all the time about Elm, but did you actually try Elm for a real world project?

I did, and Elm error messages were one of the most painful point of the compiler: they're beautiful but very often completely unrelated to what's actually going wrong. They actually drove me _away_ from the actual errors more than once.

<comment><USER7> > did you actually try Elm for a real world project?

I'm actually writing Elm at work and we have two separate Elm apps in production.

YMMV but Elm with elm-graphql has been the most productive and confident I've ever been writing frontend code.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I hate using ^ to indicate an offending position on a line. For those unfamiliar, the idea is that you display two lines, the erroneous one, and one full of spaces, with a single ^ in it, where the ^ is directly underneath the offending character. This is bad for accessibility and screen readers. They read that the ^ is here, but actually finding out what the wrong character is is problematic. Python does this, I think Rust too, and now Elm. Just provide a column number next to the line number, just like Golang does. Any decent editor will let me check what column I'm on. The ^ can, of course, be kept for the rest, but the column number would be a welcome addition.

<comment><USER10> I can't speak for the others, but at least in Rust the column number is at the end of the first line of the error, in format file.rs:line:column, eg main.rs:5:10

There are a few example errors here: [https://github.com/rust- lang/rust/issues/36611](https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/36611)

Are the annotated code snippets after the first line useless with screen readers? I wonder if there's a flag to hide just the snippets.

<comment><USER11> There is a flag to hide the snippets and give a more compact output; you can also get it in JSON, I believe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I remember meeting Evan back in 2013 when we both rented rooms in the same apartment. I didn't see him much but the first time he introduced himself, I got to see an early version of the Mario demo.

I can still remember how I didn't understand a thing ( was just starting my internship) but still knew that he would achieve great things with Elm.

So happy to see him succeed and being able build such an amazing community just by being himself.

Finally, I love how his personality has become a part of the language, most obvious when reading error messages.

</comment><comment> dorian-graph As much as I really like Elm (and use it professionally), the speak of making it developer/learner-friendly is humorous considering how the --debug flag was broken for ~ 1 year [1].

fyi compilation speed has had a noticeable improvement as well with this release, but is not mentioned in this blog post.

[1] [https://github.com/elm/compiler/issues/1851](https://github.com/elm/compiler/issues/1851)

<comment><USER13> RE: compilation speed, given that it appeals to an entirely different demographic than the one being reached out to in this blog post I suspect it was not mentioned because it would only be distracting. Nice though!

<comment><USER14> Mentioning compilation speed needs solid data to back the claim. This would have delayed the release. To my understanding, there is some work being done on a script that would produce this kind of reliable data and a later post will be made to cover this detail.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Our application is mostly Ruby, but any interactive front end is now written in Elm.

The one problem, for us, is when there is an Elm project the developers _not_ working on it are jealous of the developers who are.

It is fun to work with.

I think it because the compiler is freeing your brain from trivial issues and allowing the brain to focus more on creative problem solving.

</comment><comment><USER16> I've been using Elm for about a year now. It's my go to for most UI work these days. However, my main concerns have been around:

1\. How community contribution is handled. I've been following the compiler repo for a year now, and the number of bug reports (and PRs) that remain open is concerning. I get it - they want to move slow and be deliberate in the way it is developed. But fixing well known compiler bugs shouldn't take a year. Makes it harder to sell to dev teams.

2\. Using private packages. I know there have been workarounds (including multiple src directories tracked via git), but they feel hackish.

I'll continue using Elm for personal projects, but it is still a hard sell.

<comment><USER17> What is your approach to UI? Elm Css, Elm UI or separated css files?

<comment><USER16> I've used elm-css-modules-loader[1], although haven't tried it with Webpack 4 yet. Since my CSS is usually small (< 300 lines), I prefer a standalone stylesheet.

[1] [https://github.com/cultureamp/elm-css-modules- loader](https://github.com/cultureamp/elm-css-modules-loader)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> We here at Pacific Health Dynamics, Sydney, Down Under want to give a big thanks to Evan and the core team for all your hard, free, work!

We've recently hit 100k loc for our main frontend written all in Elm. The journey from inception 2.5 yrs ago has been amazing and now we're in full production mode, reaping the rewards of purity and the type system.

</comment><comment><USER19> I love Elm. I'm brand new to it but can't get enough.

The compiler is so friendly. It feels like Evan Czaplicki is talking to me directly. :)

</comment><comment><USER20> Take a look at how the prior 0.19 release makes elm projects smaller than is possible with normal JS [1].

[1] [https://elm-lang.org/news/small-assets-without-the-headache](https://elm- lang.org/news/small-assets-without-the-headache)

</comment><comment><USER21> I think Elm too much underestimates people who learn a programming language.

I really like the Browser module recently.., it enables people to build more things easier, that solves serious problems people trying to use Elm seriously.

I am not sure how Elm evaluates feedback from language users. Elm is too much focus on new comers, make it so new people are excited about it first week, and then get stuck on things they want to actually build, and move on.

<comment><USER22> As someone who's a recent convert to the language, I have started making several webapps with Elm lately. The biggest thing the language lacks right now IMO is solid tutorials for some concepts. I was able to make my way through but due to the young age in the language tutorials are sparse and widely varied in their effectiveness. In terms of learning the language, the error messages were a godsend. Now that I am more comfortable with the language overall (which only took a few weeks of intermittent learning), I have joined the Elm slack channel.

I can say now that the Elm community is VERY responsive to current devs, and Elm's development is not just focused on new people, but that is where the blog posts and updates focus because, frankly, it's a new concept that Elm is focusing on that many languages do not currently, so it bears mentioning and makes for better updates than normal esoteric patch notes would (which any power user CAN still find).

<comment><USER23> The community is overwhelmingly wonderful.

<comment><USER24> I actually read this as: "overwhELMingly"...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> That's really cool and I hope Elm keeps getting better. I like the opinionated approach it takes and I will probably build my next web UI in Elm.

I just have to figure out what's the best way to wrap JS libraries, but I am sure there is a way.

<comment><USER26> Yeah, there's elm ports. You can send messages between JS code and Elm

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Aah! I just saw this on my terminal after a routine install of elm-live on a different machine:

Your elm.json says this application needs a different version of Elm.

It requires 0.19.0, but you are using 0.19.1 right now.

Smile to my face! So I came here. Awesome :-).

</comment><comment><USER28> We used Elm for our web client and loved it. None of us in our company are "web people" \-- we're low-level C++/CUDA folks (and Erlang for network code) -- but we needed to have a public facing web interface.

Elm worked great, and we had no problem having several developers contribute to the same project without stepping on each other, with everyone able to read each other's code.

It's been 100% stable, predictable, and reliable. And, yes, we're calling JavaScript via ports. Works well.

</comment><comment><USER29> Update the title, this is more than just a release; the new messaging is worth reading about.

</comment><comment><USER30> I really appreciate the focus on helpful messages in Elm. When working with it I'm recurringly surprised at how the computer seems so considerate for once. Time well spent!

</comment><comment><USER31> Any examples of large-ish real world apps?

<comment><USER31> EDIT: I've originally meant example sources to look at. Thanks for the replies though - also interesting :)

<comment><USER32> My biggest project, it's about 6k loc. So maybe that's not what you meant by 'big', but many of the others here have listed a lot of closed source apps.

[https://github.com/Libbum/Odyssey/tree/master/src](https://github.com/Libbum/Odyssey/tree/master/src)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I'm not sure who the intended audience for this post is, but I've never known any serious or productive developer who quit learning a language just because they got hung up on a few of the trivial syntax examples in this article.

<comment><USER34> Did you read the part about survivorship bias?

And on top of that, it's a blog post. Evan gave examples of really helpful error messages.

I don't use elm, as I don't do webdev and I don't agree with Evan's tendancy to minimalism, but I really wish other languages had the "pair programming" aspect of the elm compiler.

<comment><USER35> That and iirc Evan concieved Elm with the aim of making it an accessible language, and used (uses?) it to introduce teenagers to webdev.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> >Say you are learning Elm and do not know how to import modules yet. Maybe you just try the JavaScript way to see if it works.

Or maybe you read the documentation section "Importing modules" which takes you 5 f*ggin minutes? That's a lot less to ask than "implement very verbose error messages that talk to you like you're a baby".

My opinion at least.

<comment><USER4> Well, this kind of RTFM bravado mindset is one of the reasons every compiler has garbage errors and why manpages are more hassle than just googling "how to unzip with tar" and why so many projects can't even be fucked to flesh out a README. ("Just read the tests!")

So, if that's what you want, you already have every other programming language to pick from. Let the rest of us have our fun. I've been programming for 20 years and appreciate Elm's errors every time.

Why should I need to do any more work than read a compiler error when I accidentally write "import Webgl" instead of "import WebGL"?

<comment><USER36> I'm giving my opinion. Please understand some people think differently than you and that's fine.

>why so many projects can't even be fucked to flesh out a README

Not relevant.

>manpages are more hassle than just googling "how to unzip with tar"

Not relevant.

>Why should I need to do any more work than read a compiler error when I accidentally write "import Webgl" instead of "import WebGL"?

Still not relevant, since that wasn't the example given (correcting typos like this is indeed a very helpful compiler error; gcc does it for like a year or two now).

>RTFM bravado mindset

I really don't think telling people to learn a language instead of typing random things in hope that the compiler corrects them is being a hacker- neckbeard who tells you to rtfm. The example given in TFA is literally: "if you don't know how to import things yet, instead of reading the introduction, googling "elm import", or literally just taking 2 minutes to figure it out, just type what you would do in some other language, and the compiler will gently tell you how to import a module in Elm", or in other words "type random stuff until it works". Should the compiler also correct the user if they write `#import <set.h>`? Or `open Set`? Or `from Set import _`? Again,_ in my opinion* this is neither relevant nor desirable.

<comment><USER37> > I'm giving my opinion. Please understand some people think differently than > you and that's fine.

What does that mean? Should he have NOT responded to your comment? Does that then mean that you should have not responded to his comment? Does that mean I should have not responded to your comment? Does that also mean that you shouldn't have made a comment, since Evan directly expressed his thoughts and opinions in his post? Should we stop communicating at all and become Loopless One-Directional Communication Graphs? Who shall be the original Opinion Holder? Adam or Eve?

Anyway.

> Should the compiler also correct the user if they write `#import <set.h>`? > Or `open Set`? Or `from Set import `? Again, in my opinion* this is neither > relevant nor desirable.

If it can, why not? Why not tell the user: Hey, you've got `xyz`, but you can only do `zyx` with those literals. Having detailed Errors is not a detriment. I remember my first Segmentation Fault in C. Man, I cried.

Programming languages have users, and caring about the User Experience of a language (i.e. Developer Experience, I supposed) is commonly desirable. There is no downside to a good error message, neither for something as trivial as imports, nor for common things like using the wrong key names in a Record.

I make heavy use of types in TypeScript, but the error messages when something is out of order (ever so slightly) is just so brutal at times, with error messages being 20+ lines long, where only the last line might be relevant. I, for one, welcome our helpful error message overlords.

<comment><USER38> > I make heavy use of types in TypeScript, but the error messages when > something is out of order (ever so slightly) is just so brutal at times, > with error messages being 20+ lines long, where only the last line might be > relevant. I, for one, welcome our helpful error message overlords.

If you've got examples of cases where we can do better, feel free to file an issue! We want to do better.

<comment><USER37> Saw that you tweeted an example of error log improvements, which is exactly what I meant with the 20+ lines of error messages with only the last one being relevant.

Now I just need to wait until Typescript 3.7 trickles down to all my dependencies so I can get that goodness. Sigh.

Sigh.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Buffett's Berkshire Has Worst First Half Since 1990  - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGO0z0CHui9I&refer=worldwide <comment><USER2> Bloomberg is really obsessed with this best/worst since X thing:

<http://bloomberg.com/news/breakingnews/>

And I don't see how a stock dropping 5% more than the S&P is that big a story. I own a B share, but I've checked the price maybe twice in the last six years.</comment>


Why I'm ditching my Amazon account - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2014/05/27/why-im-ditching-my-amazon-account/ <comment><USER2> Ridiculous article that boils down to "I can't buy everything through Amazon and I believe that I'm entitled to an explanation of an inter-corporate dispute."

>I take it personally that the company doesn't think it owes me even a half- baked explanation for why I can't buy some books from it."

Corporations make decisions based almost entirely on monetary factors. The article's author is not a shareholder or Amazon employee and is not entitled to the minutes of meetings or corporate strategy documents. Some bars don't serve Guinness. If I want a Guinness and the bar doesn't serve it, I'll order something else or go to a different bar. The bartender doesn't owe me a handwritten rationalization as to why they're not in a relationship with a distributor.

edit: Unless Guinness paid me. Then I would complain and blog about it. Maybe Reuters works the same way.

<comment><USER3> Yup. Some airlines serve only Coke, and others server only Pepsi. The nerve!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Talk about ridiculous. Let me get this straight:

1\. I want to buy all books on Amazon.

2\. Amazon won't sell all books, therefore:

3\. I won't buy any books on Amazon.

I've honestly never before read a serious article that (a) raised such a trivial, entitled complaint about a company, and (b) responded to the complain in such a self-destructive way.

<comment><USER5> Amazon is a state-supported monopoly (through a strange tax regime for internet business) that is quickly driving brick-and-mortar stores out of business. The fact that it uses this position to pressure publishers is anything but trivial.

<comment><USER6> "Amazon is a state-supported monopoly (through a strange tax regime for internet business)"

They're using the same tax regime that's been in effect since the heyday of Sears, Roebuck (and yes, retailers whined about it then, too -- it even went to the Supreme Court).

Amazon pays sales taxes in every state where it has a physical presence. Just like every other business.

Do you think Random Penguin, Hachette, etc. pay taxes in your state? Unless you live in New York, no, they do not.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _" I take it personally that the company doesn't think it owes me even a half- baked explanation for why I can't buy some books from it. "_

Uh - what? What if Amazon had never stocked books by Hachette in the first place, would he still have had a tantrum?

There are a lot of items I can't buy on Amazon. There are many more items that I choose not to buy from Amazon, in order to support other retailers.

But I don't take it personally and neither do they. They don't tell me why they don't stock certain items and I don't ask. It's business.

 _" You won't hold it against me if I still stream free programs until my account comes up for renewal later this year and I bail, will you?"_

Yes, yes I will. If you're going to trumpet your principles you'd better stick to them.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm curious whether the Department of Justice would get involved in something like this at some point? I am very unfamiliar with the legal world, but this seems borderline illegal for Amazon to do. Are they close enough to being a monopoly in the books world for this to be anti-competitive?

<comment><USER9> To me, anti-competitive means Amazon colluding with or sabotaging a " _competitor_ " such as Barnes&Noble[1] or Apple iBooks[2].

The dispute between Amazon and Hatchette is a fight between _a retailer and a supplier_. Same as Costco/Walmart and a manufacturer, or a broadcast network NBC with NFL football, or TV series production and an actor's contract renewal. All negotiating parties use whatever market leverage they have to get the most favorable terms possible.

Hatchette can still sell via B&N, iBooks, ebay, open their own e-commerce site, etc. Amazon's hardball tactics are not barring any of those options for the book publisher.

[1][http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/j-k- rowling?store=allproduct...](http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/j-k- rowling?store=allproducts&keyword=j+k+rowling) [2][http://www.apple.com/ibooks/](http://www.apple.com/ibooks/)

<comment><AUTHOR> _> Same as Costco/Walmart and a manufacturer_

Walmart, of course, being notorious for using its huge market position to force costs onto suppliers. That's part of how it gets the low prices: because if you sell at retail, and you don't agree your product should costs what Walmart thinks it should cost, you find yourself locked out of a giant part of the economy.

<comment><USER6> Walmart and Amazon sell products at the lowest price possible.

That's what they do. If you aren't willing to sell at the lowest price possible, you need to be in a different market.

Neither they nor their customers owe you a certain profit margin.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > If Amazon prevails in this clash, will it put me and my material needs last > whenever a supplier resists its will?

Let's try reframing that statement:

If Hatchette prevails in this clash, will it put me and my material needs last whenever Amazon resists a publisher's demands?

</comment><comment><USER10> You have to get a kick out of internet comments. Despite the fact that Amazon was founded in 1994 and did not go live until 1995. One of the comments confesses that "I've been an Amazon power shopper since around '92 or '93..."

</comment><comment><USER11> Here is the Amazon discussion from a few days ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7789753](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7789753)

</comment><comment><USER12> Playing devils advocate here -

Okay I understand abuse of position AGENCY MODEL!!!

Remember when Steve Jobs got with the big 5 publishers? We got the, "They wanted $15+ for an ebook" price fixing job!!! I am sorry that the fight for price is still on BUT the HIGH cost of ebooks is a problem and don't even start to think about the high price of text books and text ebooks!

The issue with cost is big for customers. If the price is decided solely by publishers readers lose.

<comment><USER13> ebooks don't have a high cost, and their current prices aren't a problem, except maybe for publishers, editors, and authors. The cost of a book isn't even remotely based on the cost of paper. Books don't cost very much to print. They cost a lot to produce. Just because you know that bits are free to copy, doesn't mean the book was free to produce.

<comment><USER14> When an ebook is priced higher than a physical book then the ebook has a high cost. Maybe the high cost is justified because people are willing to pay for the convenience. But I'm not, I'll purchase whichever is cheaper, or not purchase at all.

<comment><USER13> i'm not sure publishers are ever pricing ebooks higher than the physical books, and certainly not often. I'd like to see that if they are. Yes you can buy used for almost nothing, but that's not really a fair comparison. It's already been sold once and is in used condition.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Amazon is a retailer that has used the fact that it doesn't have to pay taxes, and was first, to dominate the book distribution business, driving brick-and- mortar business to close all over the country. To dismiss the fact that it is openly abusing that position to pressure major publishers to conform to its business needs as trivial is, at the least, short-sighted.

<comment><USER6> Sorry, that's not true, unless you're talking about behemoths like Barnes & Noble and Borders. Indy bookstores have been on the rise for several years now, after decades of decline.

[http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/05/27/membership- ri...](http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/05/27/membership-rises-again- for-indie-bookstores/6eH0OS76lxQNeEVSMFUTGM/story.html)

It is widely believed that Amazon's curb-stomping of Borders and B&N is what's opened up the opportunity for the indies to come back. Yes, they compete with Amazon, but not nearly as head-to-head as they were competing with Borders and B&N.

"To dismiss the fact that it is openly abusing that position to pressure major publishers to conform to its business needs"

How are they "abusing" the publisher and why should we care if they are? Publishers have been abusing authors for a couple of centuries now, so they get little sympathy from me. They're not quite as scummy as record companies and movie studios, but just barely.

Edit for typo: "studies" -> "studios".

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's difficult for me to empathize with publishers in the same way that the author has done. Wasn't this entire situation created by book publisher's love for walled gardens and DRM?

Concentrated power seems to me to be the logical result of that kind of strategy.

<comment><USER6> That is exactly what created the situation.

They could start up their own stores right now (and even get their stuff delivered to Kindles) if they abandoned their child-like faith in DRM.

Baen has been delivering straight to Kindle for years now. Of course, Baen has never been clueless enough to use DRM.</comment></comment>


Luxury Hotel Goes Analog to Fight Ransomware Attacks - happy-go-lucky http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/luxury-hotel-goes-analog-to-fight-ransomware-attacks <comment><AUTHOR> This says to me that the digital world has fundamentally failed the ordinary person who is not a computer wizard.

Even Fairly competent people can't safely do security.

What is the solution?</comment>


I Accidentally Spent over £1500 Using Google's Map API - <AUTHOR> https://profitview.net/general/google-api <comment><USER2> That's a new wrinkle on the old formula.</comment>