Facebook Messenger: Unlike SMS and Chat - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Sudhir-Shivakumar/Facebook-Messenger-Unlike-SMS-and-Chat

<comment><USER2> What I don't get about the new Messenger application is that it doesn't seem to me that it's worth it's own application. Why would you split the functionality of your application in two and leave the crippled one still working in the main FB app instead of making it better ? Should the messenger application be viewed as FB trying to get into the market of replacing SMS ?</comment>


This Is the Trader Behind Some of Deutsche Bank's Most Embarrassing Messages - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-23/deutsche-bank-trader-bittar-s-libor-messages-revealed-by-u-s-

<comment><AUTHOR> It doesn't take a rocket scientist or conspiracy theorist to surmise that Anshu Jain (then head of rates at DB, now co-CEO) was complicit or protecting Christian Bittar in his crimes.

Stephanie Ruhle goes almost this far in the video.</comment>


Sweden's Tictail is now powering 10,000 online stores, after only 10 months - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/03/14/swedens-tictail-is-now-powering-10000-online-stores-after-only-10-months/

<comment><USER2> 10,000 customers is very impressive. By comparison, Shopify has been running since 2006 and has just broken the 50,000 customer barrier.

That said, Tictail is currently a free service. From what I can tell, no-one's paid them a penny. The real test will be how many of their merchants stick around once the add-on pricing is (a) announced and (b) goes into effect in May.

EDIT: From their help section ([http://help.tictail.com/customer/portal/articles/531368-how-...](http://help.tictail.com/customer/portal/articles/531368-how- can-tictail-be-free)):

> Our ambition is to offer these add-ons at between 1€ - 5€ / month.

(full disclosure: I'm a Shopify employee.)

<comment><USER3> Just today I was going through the shopify pricing page to figure out if there was any option that didn't have a fixed fee in return for a higher per- transaction fee. Why have you guys decided not to scale down more than 14$ a month? That's not a lot for any "real" stores but I've considering setting up an online store for some very low volume stuff and paying 168$ a year just to be online has always put me off. Tictail may very well be the answer to this.

<comment><USER2> There are a number of factors, but I think you answered your own question. I don't claim to speak for the company officially, but as I understand it personally our target market are the 'real' stores you mention who don't have a problem with $15/month.

I'm curious though, how high a transaction fee would you pay if you were on a free plan? Most merchants HATE percentage fees and want them gone completely. With that in mind we do our best to minimize them.

Maybe TicTail will be a huge success. My point is that even though they have 10,000 customers we should hold our judgement until they get their business model up and running properly. When the dust settles, we'll have a better idea of how they're doing.

<comment><USER3> Sure, I assumed that's what you were doing, not wasting your time on my marginal business. I just thought this wasn't your typical freemium business as even your free users would be generating revenue from the transactions and as soon as any of them start selling a bit more it would be very easy to upsell them. To answer your question I'd easily take a free version of your 14$ plan with a 5% fee instead of 2%. I assume most people would be fine taking that deal just to launch a store to validate a concept. If it works you get an upsell, if not they go try something else.

I was just annoyed as the only other option I knew about was self-hosting something like oscommerce. I can do the self-hosting just fine but I've heard bad things about it and it looks so bad... Then along comes TicTail and I'm excited again. Even though their easy payment option seems to be paypal...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Very nice design. Easy to start a shop. I just launched one myself: <http://water.tictail.com/>

I just wonder if there is a market for my products ;)

<comment><USER5> I think there is :) this Norwegian brand is essentially bottleing tap water.

(That said, I'm sure their tap water is just as good as any bottled water. For some reader (e.g. people in the US who buy bottled water) this may sound alien, but 100% of the Swedish and Norwegian populations drink their water from the tap.)

<http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voss_(water)>

<comment><USER4> I think the water is perfectly fine. :) It's just that shipping costs make this kind of business absurd.

I'll try to set up a shop selling virtual goods instead (<http://askme.tictail.com>)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Can this be used for selling virtual goods? Is it convenient enough when shipping address is not required? And are people willing to pay?

To experiment with that, I set up a new store at <http://askme.tictail.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm a strong believer in TicTail. They have a great team and seem to be building a userbase rapidly. It will be quite interesting to see what happens once they launch their paid add-ons.

</comment><comment><USER7> Way to go Tictail!</comment>


White House petition to end support for ACTA - <AUTHOR> https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/end-acta-and-protect-our-right-privacy-internet/MwfSVNBK <comment><USER2> The people who wrote the petition don't seem to actually have a clear understanding of how treaties like ACTA work. They should read this fantastic summary: [http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/or8ag/ive_read_the...](http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/or8ag/ive_read_the_final_version_of_acta_heres_what_you/)</comment>


Show HN: Learn to Design and Build Web Apps Without Code - <AUTHOR> https://nocodify.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi guys,

A couple years ago, I was non-technical, struggling to find a technical cofounder. I ended up raising a hefty amount of investment just so that I could hire a developer. Fast forward to today and now I am well versed in all things no code, having built multiple businesses.

Nocodify is a program that builds your business from the ground up (all using no code). It starts from ideation to execution, with no stone left unturned. We had our first cohort of members last year undergo the program, with 4 being huge successes.

We're now open for Cohort 2 registration. Please feel free to check out the site!

</comment><comment><USER2> Thanks for the article!</comment>


Help with Android app - <AUTHOR>

Hi all,
Today I read that Ministry for Information Society and Telecommunications of my country (Montenegro) is holding a competition for best Android app.The main goal of this project is to promote our country via Android app (for tourists)
I want to take part in this project but i never been in 'developing Android apps' business. Deadline is 10. june 2012. I want to write simple android app, nothing complicated.It would have popular tourist locations of my country, some info and pictures of them, and maybe have the option for pointing those locations on google maps.
1.How do I start? I googled a lot of tutorials, but I want to ask you if you can  recommend me some tutorial(video tutorial would be the best) which describes simple android app development from scratch.
2.What is the best IDE for beginners in Android apps business?I downloaded IntelliJ IDEA, is it ok?
3.I want to start learning today and I am willing to work on developing this app every day for about 2 hours.Will it be enough?
Thanks to anyone reading this and willing to help ;) <comment><USER2> Hi,

I'm not an expert in the field ( yet ), but from my own point of view and experience,

1- To start developing in android, if you don't know Java, you should first learn Java (it's not obligatory but highly recommended), if you are willing to learn Java and if you can understand French, I recommend SiteDuZero.com, it's really helpful as they start from scratch, and by the way there are lot of courses about almost everything.

2- I've always used Eclipse, I don't know if it's the best, but I've never had the need to look for something else.

3- No one can answer this question, it's up to you to know your strengths and weaknesses, but I think that for example: 4 hours in a row is better than 2 hours in 2 days.

And good luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> Check out Marakana Tech, they have quite a lot of lectures on developing Android apps.

<http://marakana.com/>

I'm Android developer from Croatia, so feel free to contact me if you need some pointers or help.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you have experience with HTML/Javascript you could take a look at Phonegap Build <https://build.phonegap.com/> .</comment>


The Reality of the OSX App Store - <AUTHOR> http://blog.reybango.com/2013/02/27/the-reality-of-the-osx-app-store/

<comment><USER2> The reality is if Panic wanted to save some support calls they would synchronize posting direct download binaries to their site with app store approval. You usually don't need to budget anymore than two weeks on the outside these days for Apple to get around to approving an update or release and you can pull the trigger and release it anytime after it's approved.</comment>


Look at This Modern (C++) Sausage - <AUTHOR> http://www.vitorian.com/x1/archives/393 <comment><USER2> _> Surprise! It is calling clock_gettime(), which has been in the libc since SUSv2, POSIX.1-2001. On clang 3.9.0/src/chrono.cpp it looks like a straight copy of it:_

So what? That is the preffered unix way to get time, along with gettimeofday() as the code indicates? That is the only way to get the time on unix, unless you have specialist hardware.

I think this guy has a massive failure in understanding how computers work, to be quite frank.

 _> Here we see gcc is shamelessly opening /dev/urandom, a Linux kernel facility_

OK, now you are surely trolling us... you want them to implement their own entropy sources?

 _> std::threads is in fact, a gift-wrapped pthreads which was defined in POSIX.1c, Threads extensions (IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995)._

Because that is the native API for lightweight threads in Linux... the windows impl will use the same native facilities. What giberish is this?

 _> Again std::thread is pthreads, wrapped. Oh you C++, can't you do anything by yourself?_

I don't even know how to express how much of a joke this article is, at the very best questionable misinformation.

<comment><USER3> Exactly my thoughts. These are not meant as better new implementations but as high-level abstractions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't get why the author is surprised that the c++ stdlib calls into the libc to get the current time, or opens /dev/urandom to seed the PRNG on unix, or uses pthreads. It seems that the author doesn't understand the relationship between language libraries/runtimes and operating systems.

<comment><USER5> Exactly! the stdlib is just doing the _least surprising thing_ , which is exactly what it should be doing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Iostreams? A mere wrapper around the POSIX functionality of read(2) and write(2). Get it together, C++!

<comment><USER7> Not quite, it handles locales too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> So basically, the standard library is implemented.. exactly as youd expect it to be.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm not sure what the author is complaining about to be honest. Does he not understand the difference between a language and its implementation?

That std::thread uses pthreads on posix platforms is somehow bad? The fact that I can use std::thread on both windows and linux without having to write platform specific code is great.

</comment><comment><USER10> > I want to show the new standards are all wrappers. Some lazy wrappers, some > better implemented.

Old standards are all wrappers to syscalls! Eh. I think I missed a "/s" somewhere in the article.

</comment><comment><USER11> By my reading, the author is not making the point that all of the commenters here think that xe is making. They think that xe is making some point about how surprising these implementations are.

Reading the article, it appears however that the author's _actual_ point is that the new library features don't give programs anything more than they already had, because pretty much everything is a fairly thin wrapper over an already standard API, like clock_getttime(), that conformant programs can just call.

In other words: it's not about surprising implementation; it's not about portability; it's about gain and optimization. Are the new APIs providing any useful gain to programs beyond calling the already-standard library functions that they wrap? Do compilers truly optimize the extra layers entirely out? Is the need for generics that handle all cases preventing the ability to have optimal implementations for common cases?

Consider the std::to_string(int) called out there. It marshals everything through the API for snprintf(), parameterizing the as_string() template on the snprintf() format string, running in that loop, and calling all of that code in snprintf() that decodes the string "%d" and constructs and then processes a varargs just to get a single int at the end. None of that gets optimized out.

But _this is standard library implementation code_. One _could_ write std::to_string(int) in terms of the internal magic of the C part of the standard library, which "knows" the maximum possible decimal representation of an int and has internal functions to convert an int to a decimal string that snprintf() ends up calling, once it has done all of the format string parsing and finally worked out that the task at hand is converting one int X using base 10 into buffer B. In the BSD library, for example, one _could_ cut out the middle man and just call straight into __ultoa() with a std::string resized (just once) to size BUF (as defined in libc/stdio/xprintf_int.c).

By my reading, the author is making the point that the implementations _are poor quality in practice_ , introducing a whole load of extra layering inside _a single standard library_ , and asking as a consequence what then is the gain of these new layers over just using the already standard APIs that they are in practice simply layered on top of.

</comment><comment><USER12> All these things are exactly what's I'd do 99% of the time with the underlying calls, and I'm glad c++11 does them for me. It's like... Well duh, this is exactly the concept of abstraction.

</comment><comment><USER13> wow. that's incredible.

I worry what else is lurking in libc++ implementations that implies dependencies on things that aren't exactly portable...

the dependence on /dev/urandom as an absolute path is the most jarring to me.

<comment><USER14> > I worry what else is lurking in libc++ implementations that implies > dependencies on things that aren't exactly portable...

You _do_ realize that the C++ runtime library is always a system or compiler supplied non-portable library?

Just like the C library is also highly non-portable. It uses system-specific syscalls _all over the place_.</comment></comment>


Adobe Wants to Kill Your Desktop - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/3044388/adobe-wants-to-kill-your-desktop

<comment><USER2> > This year, Adobe will launch multitasking tools on mobile that might enable > you to work faster than you would on a desktop

No offence to Adobe because they are obviously more than capable of producing great tools, but I seriously doubt they'll be able to achieve near native desktop performance with a mobile version of Photoshop, Illustrator or any other tool for a very very long time.

The headline is a bit sensationalist (well, a lot). Adobe didn't say they were killing or want to kill their desktop variants, but it makes sense they are going down the web path in their thinking.

I think what this comes down to is the fact that even with Creative Cloud, Adobe struggle in the face of piracy. Look on The Pirate Bay or Kickass Torrents, Adobe software is some of the most pirated software around even the CC variants. Moving to a web application would mean it would be impossible for people to pirate your software because they would need an account to use it, etc. Not being downloadable means bypassing any anti-piracy implementation would be next to impossible.

A move to web only might happen one day, but I don't agree that the performance is quite there for an application on the scale of Photoshop to achieve desktop-like performance. Not to mention the questions about how and if this would work offline, etc. Adobe Comp is a great tool for simple needs, but for the power user and professional not-so-much.

These days I find myself using Bohemian Coding's Sketch than I do Photoshop. I think killing off Fireworks without a viable replacement was a big mistake on Adobe's part. I still use Fireworks CS6 on my PC and Sketch when I am on my Mac.

</comment><comment><USER3> > This year, Adobe will launch multitasking tools on mobile that might enable > you to work faster than you would on a desktop.

bullshit.

nothing more to say.</comment>


Discovered How to Check If Your Reddit Post Was Removed - <AUTHOR> Use archive.is and it will show if the post was removed.  I found out purely by accident on Friday last week.<p>https://archive.is/mEw4d <comment><USER2> I think you want something like this instead: [https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/read-reddit-deleted- comments/](https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/read-reddit-deleted-comments/)

There are services that track deleted comments.</comment>


The rape of men: a dark secret of war (2011) - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/17/the-rape-of-men <comment><USER2> As additional info: The same is going on in some of the CIA's secret prisons, according to whistleblowers and images. And many other kinds of torture. Also stuff going on in Saudi Arabia. Of course the CIA used "national security" to forbid any publicity on it. But you can find it on wikileaks or similar uncensored sites. The only way to bring this into the open, is by revoking the "national security" in cases of crimes and war-crimes.

I have also seen problems for women (and some men) in the US military. But that is a whole different chapter.

<comment><USER3> The CIA did a lot of "rectal rehydration" and "rectal feeding", and you can find reports of it in the mainstream media. For example, [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia- torture-...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture- report-worst-findings-waterboard-rectal)

While you aren't wrong that the Saudi Arabian government tortures prisoners, you're phrasing implies that they are unique when in fact most authoritarian governments around the world torture people in their prisons.

<comment><USER4> >While you aren't wrong that the Saudi Arabian government tortures prisoners, you're phrasing implies that they are unique when in fact most authoritarian governments around the world torture people in their prisons.

Could you expand a bit on the significance of this? This seems like the kind of response that would be met with scorn if Saudi Arabia were substituted for certain other authoritarian governments in this sentence.

I've been grappling with it a bit myself, lately. When we are thinking about the human rights violations of a particular government or organization, is it important to consider them in context (similar to your statement, if I'm reading it correctly--i.e. such violations are not unique)? But then such attempts to place things in context are often met with accusations of whataboutism (which is sometimes the case in that "provision of context" is actually "attempt to deflect the conversation"). In other cases I'm not so sure.

<comment><USER3> I didn't at all intend to justify or excuse anything the Saudi Arabian government has done. Not uniquely despicable isn't a good look. I did worry that people not familiar with the issues who read the comment I replied to would come away with the impression that for a totalitarian country to torture is unusual.

It's completely valid to say "lots of countries torture, and let's focus on Saudi Arabia because they get a lot of US support so we as US citizens have more leverage over them than most countries". It's also completely valid to say "let's focus on Saudia Arabia because they're on the worse end and we need to start somewhere".

I wouldn't have left my comment there was a large discussion about Saudi abuses; I thought the comment was useful because it was in reply to a single offhand looking comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I gather that it's much worse than TFA reports.

In that these are just the men who survived.

<comment><USER6> Newspapers routinely skip mentioning e.g. 5,000 young adult males massacred by Boko Haram but ring alarm bells when 100 young women are kidnapped. I guess it sells better?

<comment><USER7> We, as a society, have decided that men are largely disposable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This was perpetually going on within the Shia-Sunni turf war that happened during the US occupation of Iraq. We as a species are capable of some pretty horrible things.

<comment><USER9> I'm sorry, but are you saying the US sodomized local nationals or something?

<comment><USER10> They may not be saying that, but the US absolutely has sodomized people during the so-called "War on Terror". [https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-...](https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2014/dec/09/cia-torture-report-worst-findings-waterboard-rectal)

Here's one about the army that's more graphic: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisone...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_torture_and_prisoner_abuse)

No one has been prosecuted for the war crimes the CIA commited. Although some low-level army personnel were court martialed for the Abu-Gharib torture, none of the clearly complicit higher-ups were even indicted. In the case of the CIA's torture program, it is clear that those at the highest levels of government sanctioned these war crimes. Bush, and those around him, should be in prison for their disgusting, shameful actions.

<comment><USER11> The funny thing that Lynndie England is free now in US.

<comment><USER9> That's what the US is all about. Freedom

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This article made me sick. Terrible.

</comment><comment><USER13> Just reading of this is brutal..can't imagine someone going through this and have a will to live

</comment><comment><USER14> > "There's a fear among them that this is a zero-sum game; that there's a pre- > defined cake and if you start talking about men, you're going to somehow eat > a chunk of this cake that's taken them a long time to bake [for women]. I > know for a fact that the people behind the report insisted the definition of > rape be restricted to women," he says

That seems to be as much the source of the problem as the stigma itself. The relief agencies don't want to acknowledge male rape because it goes against the narrative they have created.

<comment><USER15> > _That seems to be as much the source of the problem as the sigma itself._

No.

The original rape is worse than anything the relief agency does.

<comment><USER16> For the individual victim, the rape is certainly a lot worse than what those agencies do.

However, at scale, agencies that try to censor information and reports about rape/violence other than male-on-female rape/violence might do a lot of harm regardless, be it through stigma, or be it through denying victims and future victims (preventative) information and help, or by getting government to marginalize these problems.

I remember some (women) associations campaigning/lobbying against "men's shelters", trying to get their funding cut or not allocated in the first place, or trying to get local governments to deny permits to operate such shelters. WTF.

<comment><USER15> > _I remember some (women) associations campaigning /lobbying against "men's > shelters"_

Citation needed.

<comment><USER16> I'd have to google, as I didn't read about it recently. So you could google yourself. Or just dismiss me as a crackpot who makes stuff up.

But you might be interested to read about this lady: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Pizzey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Pizzey)

>She is known for having started the first domestic violence shelter in the modern world, Chiswick Women's Aid, in 1971 [...] Pizzey has been the subject of death threats and boycotts because of her research into the claim that most domestic violence is reciprocal, and that women are equally capable of violence as men.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It's considered part of the punishment of being jailed.

</comment><comment><USER18> Is it true that Bush Jr. can't leave the U.S. because he'd be arrested and tried for war crimes?

<comment><USER19> I'd assume not considering he has left the US multiple times since his presidency and does not seem to be under arrest. There was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_War_Crimes_Commis...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuala_Lumpur_War_Crimes_Commission) but if you read about that the connection to the questioned claim (and the claims of the linked commission) have dubious basis at best.

When you hear something that makes you ask whether or not it's true it's best to try to validate or invalidate it quickly rather than hold onto it. In this case a simple Google search saves a lot of assumption.

<comment><USER18> Has he gone to europe before or since he cancelled that trip to switzerland in 2011, when those lawyers were threatening to have him arrested and tried?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Maybe this is as good a place as any to mention a weird and confused use of the term 'homophobic'. I don't understand its use in certain places, so that's why I'm bringing it up.

It will often be used to describe aspects of a culture or belief system. Half the time it makes sense (i.e. throwing gays off roof tops) and the other half the time it doesn't make sense but still comports with the accepted definition (i.e. non-bigoted traditional gender role value systems).

If I google "phobic define", I get something about an extreme aversion or irrational fear. If I google "homophobic define", I get something about a mere dislike OR a prejudice.

To have a dislike for something is not sufficient for having an irrational fear or extreme aversion to something.

<comment><USER21> The word "homophobia" was derived, it's not a true phobia in the psychiatric sense.

If it were, then there would be people who become irrationally terrified when presented with groupings of things that are all the same.

It's more akin to a portmanteau. But that doesn't mean the phenomena it describes are not very real ones.

I would argue that homophobia and transphobia are both describing the same underlying phenomenon. But I also respect that there is fierce debate around that question.

<comment><USER22> I'd say that the underlying phenomenon is classic xenophobia. These are just specific cases of it, where the "foreign/different/alien" thing is someone's sexual or gender preference, or even opinion on the validity of those things. (EG it's possible for a homosexual to be anti-homosexuality: their tribal affiliation's homophobia is stronger than their personal sexual orientation. Then you get headlines about a "Wide Stance".)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What hours would you work on a side business? - <AUTHOR>

Assume you have a "normal" full-time job, and you are trying to get a startup together in your spare time. How would you structure your time to avoid burnout?<p>Would you spend several hours every week night, then have weekends all free? Or would you rather keep your nights free, and treat weekends like more two weekdays, only you work on your project rather than your normal day job? <comment><USER2> If you're serious about your side-business, either quit your "normal" full- time job and ask family/friends/partner to support during the time you need to do what you're trying to do in order to have the best chance at success. Otherwise you risk wasting time, money, under-performing at your "normal" job, only performing mediocre at your side-business and putting strain on relationships with your loved ones because you are trying to do too much... If you don't want to risk it to take the biscuit, then question whether you believe in your idea as much as you think you do.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have an idea that I suspect has a low probability of making any money (basically Chatroulette The Way it Should Have Been). I'm considering pursuing it anyway because it would give me the chance to get some hands-on experience with running a high-bandwidth web app (that probably will need clustering support) and it's interesting enough to look cool on my resume.

Unless some VC lands on my doorstep, I don't see any way to cover the server costs without holding on to my day job. (I hope advertising will offset some of the costs, but I won't count on that completely covering the costs, let alone keeping me fed.)

Does that answer your concern?

<comment><USER2> To me, it sounds like you're pitching a hobby rather than a start-up? If that's the case, I wouldn't recommend that you quit your day job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I work almost every "free" hour I can, on my startup project, excepting the occassional "night off" to go to the movies or something, and the rare social outing with friends. I typically leave my day job by 6:00pm, head home, possibly stopping at Barnes & Noble for a coffee and to browse / unwind for a little while, and am home by 7:00pm. If needed, I walk across the street to Food Lion, get groceries, come home, and cook, and eat. Typically by 8pm I'm back working... on a night where I don't stop at B&N or need groceries, I'm working by 7:00 or so. I usually go until near midnight, except Friday night when I work until the wee hours of the morning. Weekend schedule is more chaotic, but I treat both days as full-fledged work-days, committed to the startup.

When I start feeling to stressed, I allow myself a night off and walk across the street to the movie theater, take in a movie, or go out to eat or something, then come home and read some light fiction or something.

<comment><USER4> I'm just curious. This structure is pretty easy to follow if you are really passionate about what you do.. but just asking if you happen to be in a relationship like being engaged would you have any idea how to give time to everything? Or is that where the line gets drawn? (No not applicable to me... yet..)

<comment><USER5> I followed the structure outlined by mindcrime for almost 2 months with a supportive wife. It really depends on how ready your partner is for you to get serious about a new company. Even once you transition to full time on the new company you should expect the hours to stay the same for a while. We have a standing agreement that I take 1 full day off a month with no laptop access and occasionally I'll take a movie in the evening.

<comment><USER4> Well a supportive wife is a little different. But a relationship where your communication is mostly after work hours since you aren't living together yet could get strained if not managed correctly. I'm quite serious about this question because there is a very strong possibility of it happening to not just me but a few others as well soon. So any suggestions? Because if it is a road of no compromise, one or the other, I'd have to take the relationship I guess. But I would honestly prefer both.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It gets complicated the more things you want to be involved in. If you have no girlfriend/wife, no responsibilities, don't care what your few friends think of you and have no ambitions to add value to the world (other than through your startup) you can go hard, day or night.

For those of us who are married, have kids, do community work, go to Church (Sundays and weeknights) etc... we have a lot more to juggle and finding quality time is very difficult. You really need to put in at least 20 hours a week to have traction so it's a case of making time (and learning to live with less sleep). There's little to no room for procrastination for people in this boat.

Of course I'm not complaining - having a wife, family, helping the community and participating in a local church are great ways to add value with your life. It's all about priorities I guess...

I guess that's one of the reasons why successful startups are an anomaly.</comment>


Machine learning at the energy and intensity frontiers of particle physics - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0361-2 <comment><AUTHOR> [https://sci-hub.mu/http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018...](https://sci- hub.mu/http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0361-2)</comment>


Gladwell: "Aspiring journalists should stop going to journalism programs..." - <AUTHOR> http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1931100,00.html?xid=rss-arts

<comment><USER2> By far the most interesting two paragraphs in the article for me were these:

"There's precious little experimentation in education. Instead there seems to be a desire for greater regimentation, which I think is nonsense. I think we need to try 100 different things. If I were Arne Duncan, I'd think of myself as a venture capitalist, fund as many wacky and inventive ideas as I could, and closely monitor them to see how they worked.

I've always been fascinated by the idea that in inner-city schools, the thing they do best is sports. They do really, really well in sports. It's not correct to say these schools are dysfunctional; they're highly functional in certain areas. So I've always wondered about using the principles of sports in the classroom. Go same sex; do everything in teams; have teams compete with each other. I'd like to try that. I don't know whether it will work, but it's certainly worth a shot, and we could learn something really useful."

<comment><USER3> Having spent three summers as a counselor at a military sports camp, I would imagine this approach would work really, really well.

If you can put them in a structure with incentives, accountability, clear lines of authority, and very tangible goals, most young men will flourish.

<comment><USER4> The teams thing might be an interesting idea.

But doesn't "structure with incentives, accountability, clear lines of authority, and very tangible goals" pretty much describe a typical classroom, and doesn't a typical classroom suck?

<comment><USER5> If you by structure and incentives you mean do this work or you fail, and by clear lines of authority you mean the teacher is right and if by very tangible goals you mean telling the student that getting an A on this test will mean you have the chance of getting a job after getting about 1000 more As on these tests.

Then yes, but making school into a game where people work together(ie not just alone) you drive accountability, incentives to work, and a very tangible result when the team pulls it together.

<comment><USER3> I worked there for three summers. During my first two summers for the most part all the campers were on one level of authority, then they'd answer to the assistant counselors who would answer to me. It was a very flat organization.

My third summer I created a structure where every 5 "first summer" campers would report to 1 "second summer" camper and form a "squad." Every 3 squads then reported to a "third summer" camper and formed a "platoon." The two platoons formed a company and reported to the best third summer camper that week, who reported to the counselors.

Then we pitted the squads against eachother in room inspections, sports, percentage of members who had dates to the weekly dance, shower frequency, all sorts of weird stuff. We collected a crapload of data on the squads and posted it up publicly where they could all track it.

The winning squad each week got a big rock that I painted green. The counselors and I sold it to the campers as an old camp award that had been unfairly forgotten by previous counselors. The squad leader could keep it in his room for the week after his squad won it.

Results:

1\. The kids worked a lot harder at the things we were grading them on.

2\. They spent a lot more time talking to each other and less time talking to the counselors.

3\. They generally became more proficient at all of these tasks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I went to J-School for a graduate degree. I went because I had no contacts in the industry and no experience either and because I wanted to meet people handling the technology side of things. I got my money's worth and came out with a host of interesting people I could reach out to with questions or for advice.

For many who want go in thinking it will help their prospects as reporters, however, they are disappointed. Several friends went right back into their old newspaper jobs with just a $2-3k raise and a new title. Others spent 6 months to a year writing for free or stringing until they could land a full-time job. Many went into marketing and PR where there are real jobs that pay decently.

It's getting harder and harder to find work as a reporter. meanwhile these schools keep churning out newly minted grads who think having a bunch of clips will be enough. It's worrisome.

<comment><USER6> This came up today on a journalism blog I follow. [http://fleetstreetblues.blogspot.com/2009/10/triumph-of- hope...](http://fleetstreetblues.blogspot.com/2009/10/triumph-of-hope-over- experience.html)

<comment><USER3> Those guys should interview the iCanHazCheeseburgers CEO. He's got to be one of the best examples of a journalist who created his own success in a new direction.

<comment><USER7> I hate to be a wet blanket, but the iCanHazCheeseburgers CEO won the lottery. His LOL Cats blog's success was (self-admittedly) not "created" by him. He doesn't even know why it's successful.

<comment><USER3> I disagree with this.

How many journalists do you know who would look at a successful blog like iCanHazCheeseburger and say: "I should raise some money from friends and family, buy that blog, and then build a media empire out of similar blogs that I buy up."

If he says he doesn't know why his blogs are successful, it'd because he knows his former colleagues eat that stuff up during interviews and it makes for a funny story.

While luck undoubtedly played a part in his success so far, he was thinking about things entrepreneurially unlike most journalists who are just looking for the next paycheck.

Also, the fact that traffic across his sites has grown since he bought them shows he's a smart manager of his properties.

<comment><USER8> It may be a successful blog, but it has nothing to do with journalism. It's hardly a path you can recommend to someone who wants to make a living as a journalist.

<comment><USER3> That's the problem though. We have a very narrow definition of what a journalist is, and that definition describes someone who does something that doesn't contribute a whole lot of value more often than not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "...and go to some other kind of grad school."

The second half of that sentence is important. He's saying learn a subject that most people don't know, and write about that. That's a different message than the implications from just saying "Don't go to journalism programs."

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree, just that darn character limit. You got a way to combine the two thoughts into 80 characters or less?

The difference between a lede (from a quote) and a shortened tweet, I guess.

<comment><USER9> In this case, I think it changed the tenor the the statement completely. How about:

Gladwell to aspiring journalists: Become an expert first, then write

<comment><USER10> It'd be nice if he did that himself...

<comment><USER11> He's a brilliant writer and a terrible journalist. I agree with you.

I can tolerate him, because he's not obnoxious about his writings (versus somebody like Cory Doctorow, who has a similar ratio of popularity-to- understanding), but at the same time a lot of what he says has got to be taken with a grain of salt.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Compare to engineers becoming marketers: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=890110>

</comment><comment><USER13> Every journalist I have put this question to agrees. I, however, took the idea a step further than not going to journalism school and decided against being a journalist altogether.

I submit that is the best solution.

<comment><USER11> That works unless you really want to be a journalist.</comment></comment>


Juce C++ framework reaches v4 with live-coding environment - <AUTHOR> http://www.juce.com/releases/projucer-juce-4 <comment><USER2> JUCE is a very, very well-designed cross platform framework that was used very successfully in the development of Tracktion, a competitor with programs like ProTools and Garageband. The API is C++ based but carefully designed to shield you from the weirdness of C++; if you needed to create a cross platform app and learn C++ at the same time this would be the gentlest possible introduction.

Jules, the creator and prime maintainer of JUCE, is indefatigable. I think maybe he's triplets, but nice triplets. He answers questions on the forum ([http://www.juce.com/forum](http://www.juce.com/forum)) at all hours and with extreme patience. There seems to be absolutely no difference between the way he treats casual users vs. enterprise customers on the forum.

JUCE can be used to develop audio plugins, synthesizer programs, etc., but is also a complete framework for GUI apps that have nothing to do with audio. It has canvas drawing, 3D support, and forms support.

There's a ton of documentation on the site and the source code is a dream to read. If you were creating an API for something you would be well served to see how Jules did it.

I rank JUCE with web2py as one of the two most comprehensive, ridiculously underrated open source products I've encountered.

<comment><USER3> Max/MSP, one of the more popular visual programming languages out there, is also written using JUCE.

[https://cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=11656](https://cycling74.com/forums/topic.php?id=11656)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm interested in writing a fairly bare-bones, standalone application for note sequencing, patch selection, and controlling the master clock of external MIDI synths and drum machines. Is this a suitable framework, or is there something else that might be more appropriate? I feel like the current DAW offerings are A) too complex/big for my needs, and B) focus a lot on MIDI in and not very much on MIDI out. That said, I'm really new to this so I'd appreciate any suggestions on existing software I might have missed.

Edit: As far as existing software is concerned, I'm on Linux and I'm not interested in moving to Windows or OS X. I realize software for Linux in this domain is somewhat limited.

<comment><USER2> JUCE is perfectly aligned with your requirements.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's great to see that the OSC module is being added to JUCE! In our lab we are working on adding OSC support to OpenEphys (an electrophysiology software that uses JUCE). Currently we need to bundle or statically link oscpack on Mac and Windows, but with OSC support built into JUCE we won't have to deal with that anymore.

By the way, does anyone know of a good comparison of OSC and ØMQ (ZMQ)? I'm curious about when to use which of the two in terms of latency and ease of use, apart from that OSC is built for audio while ØMQ appears to be more general purpose.

</comment><comment><USER6> This looks interesting but I'm having a hard time figuring out which problem it solves, specifically. It seems to do lots of things: GUI, Audio, Project Management - but I already know of tons of ways to do these things. Can somebody explain who would need this and for what? Maybe I'm just not the target audience, I don't mean to be disrespectful.

<comment><USER7> (Author here)

There's a set of problems that tend to go together when you're doing audio tech development: We have to build apps/plugins that run on many platforms and plugin APIs (so managing many different compiler projects for the same codebase is really helpful). We always tend to have complicated and custom GUIs (hence all the GUI framework stuff). And there's a whole set of other commonly needed library code that we provide.

Re: the live-coding stuff, initially we've found it really useful for GUI design - isolating individual GUI classes and nudging their code around to get the behaviour right, rather than having to repeat the tedious edit->compile->run->navigate cycle. But it has a lot more potential uses that we're just starting to explore, and hopefully as it becomes more solid, our users will think of even more things it can do.

<comment><USER8> julesrms, Interested in the live coding, but can't seem to find any detailed info on your site. How does your live coding compare to, say, Cling ( [https://root.cern.ch/cling](https://root.cern.ch/cling) ) ?

<comment><USER7> Cling is more of a REPL, whereas ours is more of an IDE-like environment. And rather than just calling a function or expression, the Projucer invokes code by instantiating one of your GUI component classes

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I just downloaded this and tried it out. Does it not compile at all on windows?

The interface is so clean and fast I really want to start using it. It really seems like a great way to try out ideas quickly but still end up with native executable. There isn't even an install to go through which I actually really like.

<comment><USER7> We're actually waiting for a few gremlins in Clang/LLVM's Windows support to get straightened out before it can successfully compile on Windows. Fingers crossed we should be able to release a working version in the next couple of weeks..</comment></comment>


Opinion: America's cities are unlivable. Blame wealthy liberals - <AUTHOR> https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/America-s-Cities-Are-Unlivable-Blame-Wealthy-13877486.php <comment><USER2> I think this is the key passage:

> Reading opposition to SB 50 and other efforts at increasing density, I'm > struck by an unsettling thought: What Republicans want to do with ICE and > border walls, wealthy progressive Democrats are doing with zoning and > NIMBYism. Preserving "local character," maintaining "local control," keeping > housing scarce and inaccessible — the goals of both sides are really the > same: to keep people out.

California's failure to address the housing crisis isn't an economic failure; it's a moral one. Moving to a high-productivity city has long been the best way for Americans to better their prospects and their childrens' future. That opportunity is still available to the handful of engineers who can move to SF and pull down $150k-200k right out of college, but it's increasingly a thing of the past. It's been dismantled by wealthy homeowners who don't want to share their cities with the wrong sort of people. The fact that many of them are self-described progressives and theoretically in favor of greater equality doesn't make this worse, but it certainly is ironic.

</comment><comment><USER3> this story was just discussed on airtalk [0], including a segment with gov. newsom, where the thrust was whether the striking down of sb50 is compatible with the progressivism espoused by many californians.

it's not. opposition to building housing is squarely conservative—an impulse to keep things the same for selfish advantage rather than sharing prosperity with others.

with that said, these labels are merely that—they don't have to define us in the ways that they seem to do. let's throw off the labels and work on welcoming people into our neighborhoods. let's build housing for them and let them enrich our lives.

but it's hard. i have a neighbor who complains about being priced out of our neighborhood while at the same time complaining about the people coming in. *sigh~

[0] [https://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/](https://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/)

</comment><comment><USER4> I really wish people would stop equating democrat with liberal.

And this issue is less about liberal/left versus conservative/right and more about simple human greed which respects no political label (and which in America is amplified by our culture of wealth and authority worship).

<comment> amw-zero Democrats are liberal. They're synonyms right

<comment><USER4> No, they aren't in general liberal (some are, most aren't) and the words are not synonyms.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't think this problem can be cast as a liberal vs conservative thing.

Greed and maintaining privilege are not confined to, or excluded from, any particular spot in the political landscape.

<comment><USER2> That's mentioned in the piece:

> Not-in-my-backyardism is a bipartisan sentiment, but because the largest > American cities are populated and run by Democrats — many in states under > complete Democratic control — this sort of nakedly exclusionary urban > restrictionism is a particular shame of the left.

<comment><USER5> > this sort of nakedly exclusionary urban restrictionism is a particular shame > of the left.

But that doesn't really address my point. Also, I disagree with that statement on two counts. First, "Democrat" and "liberal" are not synonyms, and second, it's not a "particular shame of the left". It's a shame of the wealthy and privileged.

(Just to be clear, I'm not a Democrat)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sure, but since Republicans are usually casted as party of greed, this is a good counterpoint how much Democrats really care about the less fortunate than themselves.</comment>


Bad diets are the leading cause for most deaths worldwide - <AUTHOR> https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)30041-8/fulltext <comment><AUTHOR> The CNN has a summary: [https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/03/health/diet-global- deaths...](https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/03/health/diet-global-deaths- study/index.html)</comment>


Craig Venter creates synthetic life form - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/20/craig-venter-synthetic-life-form

<comment><USER2> These should all say "biological life form". I've played Conway's Game of Life for years.</comment>


Is There A Peak Age for Entrepreneurship? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/28/peak-age-entrepreneurship/

<comment><USER2> Side note: those pie charts are a rather poor choice for visualizing the data.

</comment><comment><USER3> hear hear! if there is a tried and true formula for successful entrepreneurship, then VC returns would not be as miserable as they are. it is not youth per se, it is not even naivete that is required for successful entrepreneurs, but unremitting and relentless optimism. people with optimistic outlooks can be found at every age cohort, but will not be found in every Stanford engineering grad. as winston churchill said, success is measured by our ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures. some young people haven't learned that yet because they haven't really failed enough times. some old people have that in spades. thanks for posting.

</comment><comment><USER4> It does become more difficult to risk it all when you have a family/are married, so this probably plays into it.

<comment><USER5> I read a different article than you possibly. I read it as 61% were over 30 years old.

<comment><USER4> but if you have a family (which most people do after 30), you do need to take a much higher risk, which many people aren't willing to take.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Instead of peak age, ask about peak condition.

      Manageable distractions / rest of life.

        No kids yet.
        Kids out of nest.
        No debt.
        Debt (e.g. school) deferred.
        Etc.

      Health

        In good shape, endurance.
        Youth means good blood flow to, plasticity of brain.
        Exercise, training means good blood flow to, plasticity of brain.
        Etc.

      Experience
        Academic environment places you at "leading edge", seeing and undeveloped opportunity.
        Cultural currency... [ditto]
        Extensive experience gives you insight into an undeveloped market, niche, opportunity.

      Motivation
        Whatever it is, whenever it is, you *really* want to do it.

      Toolset(s)

        School/training has you current.
        Work experience has you current.

      Network
        School buddies (and staff)
        Colleagues and business contacts</comment>


Shell, Awk, and Make Should Be Combined - <AUTHOR> https://www.oilshell.org/blog/2016/11/13.html <comment><USER2> pipes...?</comment>


Qualcomm lays off 15% of its workforce, succumbs to cult of shareholder value - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/210758-qualcomm-will-lay-off-15-of-its-workforce-succumbs-to-cult-of-shareholder-value <comment><USER2> But shareholders are people who actually own the place. And if you own something, you are in charge: even if you own something collectively, and hire a manager to make immediate decisions, you have the power to [collectively] tell that manager what do you want him to do.

Abstract "business inetersts" only serve to earn money to business's owners in the end. Being a market leader is only a means to an end of making money for the owners. If the people who own the place decide, for whatever reason, that they don't need long-term development and want quick money now instead, let them be: it's their decision to make.

Now, it is possible that shareholders don't act in their true interests, and they should be thinking about long-term value instead, because that way they'll earn more money in the end. But it's them who you need to convince of that, and the argument should be structured completely differently. Blaming CEO of the company forthe fact that he does exactly what his collective bosses tell him to do, instead of thinking of abstract "business interests" (that exist just to earn money to his bosses) and employees (to whom his company is responsible only in the extents of their employment agreements) is ridiculous.

<comment><USER3> Except in practice shareholders are not a cohesive organisation capable of effectively directing the strategy of the company. That's why companies have managers. Nobody is saying that improving shareholder value is a bad thing, just that it should be sustainable and be based on genuine business fundamentals and not short termism. Think of it as consumer protection. If share values are driven up by short term financial tricks, new shareholders are being ripped off. The role of regulation here is to make sure that apropriate controls and disclosure is in place to make sure that those prospective new shareholders have the information they need to apropriately value what they are buying. Yes the onus on them is to research and understand their investment decisions, but equaly the onus is on the business and regulators to make sure it's possible for them to do obtain that information in clear and transparent way and that management incentives and corporate governanace rules are fit for purpose.

<comment><USER2> > are not a cohesive organisation capable of effectively directing the > strategy of the company

They don't need to be: they just need to communicate their priorities to that manager. In this case, they communicated that they value short-term goals over long-term.

> it should be sustainable and be based on genuine business fundamentals and > not short termism

Probably. I actually agree on that. My point is, that's shareholder's decision. And if you want to argue about that, you should talk to shareholders and explain that they decision hurt themselves. Don't talk to the manager and say that he's in the wrong, because that's not his level of responsibility.

> If share values are driven up by short term financial tricks, new > shareholders are being ripped off.

Shareholders, by buying and selling the share values, dictate them. So, they are ripping off themselves. Again, I agree with that: but you should talk to them, not CEOs.

> The role of regulation here is to make sure that apropriate controls and > disclosure is in place to make sure that those prospective new shareholders > have the information they need to apropriately value what they are buying. > Yes the onus on them is to research and understand their investment > decisions, but equaly the onus is on the business and regulators to make > sure it's possible for them to do obtain that information in clear and > transparent way and that management incentives and corporate governanace > rules are fit for purpose.

I must admit, I read the article on my phone, so I may have missed it, but did this discussion involve regulations?

<comment><USER4> Public shareholders value "short term goals" over everything else including ethics, legality, fairness, product quality, long-term viability, R&D, worker compensation, work-life balance, etc.

<comment><USER2> OK, that's their fair right to do so. It's not their responsibility to worry about these things, thank g-d. If you think that they don't serve their own self-interest, plead to them. If you think that they right to manage their property should be limited for public good, develop straight and clear guidelines about that.

<comment><USER5> It's possible that not all shareholders are aligned. As with employees with stock: people who want to cash out quickly will want short-term gains, screw the future. People who want to keep their stock for a while will want long- term gains, even at the expense of the short-term gains.

<comment><USER6> Those folks who want long term gains are free to sell their shares at inflated prices (remember, share buybacks are happening) and spend the money on a position in a semiconductor company focused on the long haul.

<comment><USER5> Of course they are free to leave, my point addresses the case in which they want to stay in _this_ company and direct _this_ company for the long haul.

<comment><USER6> It's very true that in any group of multiple people with multiple goals, some folks won't be able to get their way. Similarly, if Qualcomm decided to make long term investments, the short termers couldn't get what they wanted.

That's one of the beautiful things about shareholder democracy in liquid, public markets - exit is always an easy option. (Compare and contrast to, e.g., political democracy, where exit is highly costly and sometimes impossible.)

<comment><USER5> Well, shareholder exits can be costly too. But this discussion and the one with golergka inspired the following idea (probably because the idea of political democracy came up in both threads).

Stay with me here. It's not fully fleshed out- just kind of a spark: What if, in some fair way I don't know yet, the employees of a public company had some (40%? 51%? I don't know but significant) power to force a shareholder to sell his or her share of the company in a short time frame (30 days?).

This would bring the analogy to political democracy a little closer because the "subjects" would have the direct power to throw out their "governors." We could argue that they have the indirect power now (especially in small companies), but this would make it explicit.

Batshit crazy?

<comment><USER6> That is pretty crazy. Similarly, imagine if X% of your SAAS vendors could vote to buy your shares - if Google and Amazon like your business, and if you use gmail + AWS, they can vote to buy you out and you've got no say in the matter.

Employees aren't "subjects" and their boss isn't their governor. Shareholders are owners, that's why they get a vote. Employees, SAAS vendors, janitorial service companies, etc, are just people selling stuff.

<comment><USER5> I would argue that employees have a larger stake than contractors and vendors. They would also want to do the right thing by the company. The whole idea is to broaden the idea of governance to more stakeholders than just the owners. It would certainly give guys like Carl Icahn pause. On the other hand, perhaps sometimes what he does needs to be done, and this would make it harder. That's why the employees should only have a partial say, but enough of one so that they are a legitimate threat if an activist investor can't muster very much support on the board.

<comment><USER6> Employees have no reason to do the right thing by the company - the best thing an employee can do for himself is get paid all the money. It's hard to see why their stake is higher than a vendor. In both cases, they have rendered a service in return for money and have no further stake in the company.

Overall, employee involvement in decisionmaking creates significant principal/agent problems. Consider this article, which suggests many employees care so little about shareholder value that they will sacrifice the latter for petty revenge against third parties (their boss): [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/is-your- bos...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/is-your-boss- mean.html)

<comment><USER5> You're right about the vendor thing. I have a hunch that changing a job under duress is more stressful than finding a new customer (vendor), and thus employees would be somewhat more inclined to have long term stability, but I certainly can't prove it and I'm not entirely convinced of it.

As to the idea that employees will sacrifice shareholder value (of which they have, roughly, zero) in order to feel better about working (revenge feels good, after all), perhaps that is not unexpected. In my scenario, the employees would have another outlet: they could make it clear to the board that they won't tolerate toxic managers. As things stand, a smart board (I would argue) understands this today, but things get awfully muddy in the real world.

What the proposal does is broaden the conversation from just considering shareholders to another group of stakeholders.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Teeth gnashing about short termism among investors aside, there may be a practical reason for this move. Apple and Samsung are both moving to their own micro-architectures. Apple has been using an in-house design since the A6, and Samsung's 64-bit ARM core will likely drop in the next year or two (the M1).

Doing your own CPU architectures is a phenomenally capital intensive business, and Qualcomm may not feel positioned to keep up. Even ARM is getting left behind. The A57 is a power-hungry design that has faced major problems with thermal throttling in many designs. The amount of cash Apple and now Samaung can throw at their custom designs may be overwhelming.

<comment><USER8> That's nonsense. First off, ARM is able to "keep up" with only tens of millions in profit a year. Second, Qualcomm is one of the richest chip makers. Third, Samsung hasn't been using custom CPUs and GPUS - at all.

<comment><USER9> Exynos isn't a custom chip?

<comment><USER7> Qualcomm's Krait and Apple's Swift/Cyclone are ARM compatible cores designed in-house from the ground-up. Exynos uses IP cores designed licensed from ARM.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So they're going to cut their CPU R&D and become a generic ARM IP integrator, plus their GPU and radio-frequency circuits (Adreno GPU, GSM, WiFi, GPS). Next moves could be discarding their own GPU for the ARM generic ones (Mali) and using 3rd party IP for the radio. Scary.

<comment><USER8> Which is funny because the reason Qualcomm screwed up recently (besides all the anti-competitive/antitrust issues) is because it didn't come out with its own next-generation custom CPU core sooner, and had to use stock ARM IP which I guess it didn't have much experience in handling.

The shareholders' "solution" is what will destroy the company. Qualcomm would've been fine in the next 2 quarters, once it passed the Snapdragon 810 generation.

I don't know why they freaked out so badly after just one bad quarter (and after Qualcomm has constantly grown for the past 5 years) to the point where they want to split the company. That seems rather crazy. I wonder if there's something else besides next-quarter-profit thinking behind this motivation.

<comment><USER11> If you believe the article (I'm not sure whether or not I do), the shareholders didn't freak out because of the bad quarter - it was just an opportunity to push their pre-existing agenda of prioritizing returning capital to shareholders instead of investing in the business. If that happens to destroy the company in the long run, these shareholders might not care - nothing stops them from selling their shares well before the long run arrives.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> You may complain about quarterly capitalism, but studies show that investors with a short time horizon do better than investors with a longer one.

[http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/07/how...](http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/07/how- bad-a-problem-is-quarterly-capitalism.html)

</comment><comment><USER13> This is actually about Qualcomm not being g a provider of CPUs to either apple and Samsung who basically is. The cellphone market if you are not in those phones you are fighting for scraps. This was a necessary move.

</comment><comment><USER14> I hate the term "activist investor", "robber baron" or "corperate raider" is more apt in so many cases.

<comment><USER15> Or perhaps "owner" would do. It might not be what you would like but they own the place so it's their right to do what they like with it. Of course when they ruin it, it just opens up competition for more enlightened compaies so it's not all bad,

<comment><USER11> "Owner" is usually an overstatement. Yes, an activist investor has to own some chunk of the company (and it has to be a big enough chunk that management will pay attention to them), but they don't own the whole thing - or even a controlling interest. If they did, they wouldn't need to be activist, they'd just fire the existing board and management and hire people that would do what they want.

Instead, activist investors own a small, but large enough chunk, advocate for what they want and rely on other investors being passive (e.g. because a lot of the company is owned by tiny slivers of much larger portfolios) even if what they're advocating isn't in other investors' interests.

<comment><USER2> If you're passive, it means that you don't have any opinions that you want to fight for and you are OK with other people making the decision.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A few short years from now Qualcomm won't actually produce anything. Instead it'll just license their patents.

Yet another company that won't actually "make" stuff. Eventually it is all going to come crumbling down.

</comment><comment><USER16> Do you have a 401K or IRA? Do you pick your funds based on long term company fundamentals or how much the fund is returning year after year? Does your HR department hear from employees that the companies they picked to run their accounts are not performing each year?

</comment><comment><USER17> come on Qualcomm is a US company, just doing what everybody else does the best: layoff when the diaper is wet.</comment>


The destruction of Sappho's works - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/12/the-destruction-of-sapphos-works.html <comment><USER2> Worth reading this one again about Sappho.

[http://clivethompson.net/2016/05/16/astronomers-crack-the- se...](http://clivethompson.net/2016/05/16/astronomers-crack-the-secret-of- this-gorgeous-poem-by-sappho/)

</comment><comment><USER3> The line that has always stuck with me:

μνάσασθαί τινά φαιμι †καὶ ἕτερον† ἀμμέων

"I think men will remember us even hereafter."

There are other translations, but the core idea, that this woman writing ~2600 years ago grokked that she and her words we be known to humans across so many years, really seems powerful to me.

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting read, but rather sad that we've lost this poetic artwork.

Religion and emotion are the two most destructive forces on our planet.

<comment><USER5> You'd think it was indifference that was most destructive. Papyrus and parchment last hundreds of years, so many works, including Sappho's became lost because the public did not care any longer and did not maintain the contents. Nowadays you'd call this "bit rot".

Incidentally, the Church would consider indifference or _acedia_ the worst of sins, many pieces of spiritual literature are witness to that fact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Thank you for sharing this. It was interesting and a bit sad.

</comment><comment><USER7> Now that's some epic if accidental trolling, lost in time like tears on scrolls.

Burning the greatest Greek poetry (including that of the 10th muse) and replacing it with works by Gregory of Nazianzus. Then getting everyone to believe it was a pope who ordered it... a different Gregory. Not all heals are wounded, but knowledge is lost, if we believe the traced and misquoted documentation.

<comment><USER8> Isn't it just an error in transmission about "who done it"? They had no Google then. And we have it and still the original souces of today are so often wrongly transmitted in a lot of texts, for various reasons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> One of the great things about the modern world is that it is very easy to create copies of a work all over the world. But that doesn't mean it will necessarily happen, it requires forethought and a willingness to hold onto those copies. I fear the book-burnings to come.

<comment><USER8> Correct. And on the internet, the whole big sites with valuable content disappear overnight. That is why I actively support the Internet Archive and would like to motivate others to do the same:

[https://archive.org/donate/](https://archive.org/donate/)

Also:

"Right now, a generous supporter will match your donations 3-to-1—so you can triple your impact. That means for every dollar you donate right now, the Internet Archive will receive $4 in all."

I really believe what they are doing is very important even relatively short- term, that is, even measured in years.

<comment><USER9> …well, I just donated $50, thank you for reminding me I should.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus...

</comment><comment><USER11> >> Did the Byzantine church leaders really burn Sappho's poetry?

Given that the outlook of the Greek Orthodox church has not changed much since Byzantine times and from my experience of its members, having been brought up Greek Orthodox myself, I would like to venture a guess that yeah, probably.

<comment><USER12> Does the Greek Orthodox church burn books? Do you have personal experience of that?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > Was it the flames of Sappho's burning love that ultimately put her own work > on the bonfire?

No, but it was still simple and pure religious fundamentalism that preferred her work disappearing (or at least not being saved), in charge once the Christianity started to dominate the Empire.

<comment><USER13> Haven't we had to ask you before to keep religious flames out of Hacker News?

Please keep religious flames out of Hacker News.

<comment><USER14> The comment (copied below in case it has been edited away from some earlier more inflammatory version) is not inflammatory, it is a factual assertion supported by the content of the article. Hiding this subthread is inappropriate, as the comment does not attack the beliefs or adherents of a religion. Rather, it asserts that cultural change resulting from the spread of one religious made the works of this historical writer institutionally unwelcome.

Labeling this as a flame and shaming the poster for it is _extremely_ inappropriate.

 _No, but it was still simple and pure religious fundamentalism that preferred her work disappearing (or at least not being saved), in charge once the Christianity started to dominate the Empire._

<comment><USER15> > The comment is not inflammatory, it is a factual assertion supported by the > content of the article.

It can be both.

<comment><USER8> Read again exactly what I commented to, the last line of the article, specifically: "Was it the flames of Sappho's burning love that ultimately put her own work on the bonfire?"

Could you believe that that line to me sounded just like "was it the beautiful color of the skirt she wore that ultimately had her raped and killed"? Yes, I do feel I belong to the "oppressed" group in this very case, being an atheist. Try to consider this from my point of view.

Also note that here we talk about the poet whose place of birth gave the name to the "lesbians" and who was highly acclaimed for the quality of her poems. But the poems disappeared once a religion which gave us

[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A26-2...](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+1%3A26-27)

started to spread. Note that the scholarly consensus is that Paul authored that Epistle to the Romans, that is, it is considered one of the very earliest Christian writings, predating all the gospels! Think about it: the lines against the lesbians were written down before the accounts of the deeds of "the savior."

Nevertheless, to that "maybe she deserved it" line I've just responded with what is the common knowledge among those who are familiar with the history of these periods, and even supported by the research of the article writer, locating the source for the claim much more specific than what I've claimed. There are also effectively no other causes that are presented as responsible for disappearance of Sapho's work, or which wouldn't match my claim. You can read my longer comment here for more details.

<comment><USER12> The use of "Lesbian" to refer to female homosexuality is a 19th century construction. And lots of text from antiquity have been preserved even though they represent values counter to Christian morals.

<comment><USER8> Oh, so you do agree with me now that her songs "represented values counter to Christian morals"?

And that before Christians ruled, for centuries her works were copied and known and weren't considered as problematic as later?

And that she was so widely known not only in antiquity but even 25 centuries later as the most famous female homosexual ever, even to influence the much more modern languages?

What's the dispute then? My claim that started this all is, in full:

"it was still simple and pure religious fundamentalism that preferred her work disappearing (or at least not being saved), in charge once the Christianity started to dominate the Empire."

Do you really claim the Christians were so "tolerant" then to not preferring her work disappearing, or at least not being saved? I think you'd have to provide some extraordinary evidence, as there are even less controversial writings that haven't survived. Remember, for some work to survive, somebody had to copy every letter by hand, or to take some other very special measures, like hiding the scrolls in the cave or in the desert sand (and that it doesn't deteriorate and that it eventually is found only by us moderns and not by somebody before who'd use the old paper simply to start the fire or something).

And as I've shown, the Christian writing against lesbians is older than the Gospels writing about what Jesus did.

Moreover and once again, we also have the claim from the article about the narration which is already certainly at least 5 centuries old:

"the 16th-century scholar Pietro Alcionio" (c. 1487 – 1527, op. accq) describes "a Greek class by a Constantinople refugee, Demetrios Calkokondylas. He remembers his teacher describing how the Greek Church authorities, supported by the Byzantine emperors, burnt eminent classical Greek poetry, including Sappho's works, and replaced the burnt poems with those of Gregory of Nazianzus."

It was obviously a long tradition, not something Calkokondylas would invent after taking refuge from Constantinople. Note, until the "Fall of Constantinople" in 1453 ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople) ) Constantinople was the capital of the Christian Roman empire (only in the West called the Byzantine). The city was named after Constantine the Great, the Emperor who enabled Christianity becoming official religion in the Empire. So the people there had their stories about their own Emperors, and there was surely some basis for these stories.

What's "not coherent" then (as you claim in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15897264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15897264) )?

<comment><USER12> > Oh, so you do agree with me now...

Please lay off the strawmen and just argue your point. Thank you.

We don't know the content of the lost texts, but the few poems we have does not indicate anything heretical or immoral to Christian sensibilities. Calling her "a homosexual" is grossly anachronistic since this is 19th century concept. On the other hand, many texts which clearly _are_ counter to Christian morality _have_ been preserved. A _vast_ array of texts from antiquity is lost, even something as highly valued as works by Aristotle. So that texts are lost does _not_ in itself indicate a deliberate act of destruction.

<comment><USER14> You can't complain about things like that when your previous post was itself fallacious (red herring).

<comment><USER12> What is the red herring?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> So book burning is something humans have always done.

Hopefully we don't pass on our primitive traits to refuse reality to our AI.

History shouldnt be written by the winners. History should be the truth.

<comment><USER17> Doubt that these were "books" but yes, ideas often threaten people's beliefs and consequently destroyed by those people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Bitrot, Byzantine style.</comment>


Show HN: Push Browser: Chrome to Phone + android2cloud for iOS - <AUTHOR>

I have just launched Push Browser, a combination of Google Chrome extension and iOS apps that enables sharing links between devices easily. It is like Chrome to Phone <http://lifehacker.com/#!5581392/chrome-to-phone-sends-web-and-map-links-to-android-almost-instantly> and android2cloud <http://lifehacker.com/#!5604248/android2cloud-opens-urls-from-your-phone-in-chrome> but for iOS devices, and it works both ways!
Please check out http://pushbrowserapp.com
The Next Web has posted a review of Push Browser here http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/02/27/push-browser-brings-googles-chrome-to-phone-to-ios/ <comment><USER2> Not to steal zin's comment thunder, but here's the concise guide to click-able urls:

[http://lifehacker.com/#!5581392/chrome-to-phone-sends-web- an...](http://lifehacker.com/#!5581392/chrome-to-phone-sends-web-and-map- links-to-android-almost-instantly)

[http://lifehacker.com/#!5604248/android2cloud-opens-urls- fro...](http://lifehacker.com/#!5604248/android2cloud-opens-urls-from-your- phone-in-chrome)

<http://pushbrowserapp.com>

[http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/02/27/push-browser-brings- go...](http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/02/27/push-browser-brings-googles- chrome-to-phone-to-ios/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://pushbrowserapp.com></comment>


U.S. Unleashes Military to Fight Fake News, Disinformation - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-31/u-s-unleashes-military-to-fight-fake-news-disinformation <comment><USER2> The title is absurdly misleading. It sounds like this project is an effort to detect deep faked content, by DARPA. The article does a ton of editorializing around that.

Ironic, considering the topic of the article.

<comment><USER3> The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a part of the military. If it is launching a project to fight dis/mis-information then isn't that an accurate title?

<comment><USER4> It's a research arm handing out grants. That's very different from what the title implies, which is as if it were like any other war/operation with top active command and a ton of resources. The use of the word unleash implies there's some strong existing momentum just being held back by an arbitrary gate.

DARPA funded the internet. Did the US unleash military to network computers? I think we could all agree that's hyperbolic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This a a grant program running by DARPA called Semantic Forensics. [1]

> _The Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) program will develop technologies to > automatically detect, attribute, and characterize falsified multi-modal > media assets (text, audio, image, video) to defend against large-scale, > automated disinformation attacks._

The primary use case for this is election security, but more generally being able to detect and defend against an adversary trying to seed political discord with fake accounts, or fake news, so-called "deep fakes", etc.

[1] - [https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view- opportunity.html?oppI...](https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view- opportunity.html?oppId=319894)

<comment><USER6> Tangentially related: what's the name for the approach where you analyze word choices and sentence structure in order to fingerprint a person?

<comment><USER7> Stylometry?

<comment><USER6> That's the one, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I am interested in the technical aspect of implementing such a system.

I know the founder of [https://www.fakeskiller.com](https://www.fakeskiller.com) which is a browser extension for highlighting fake news (they also released a mobile app not so long ago).

They use fact checking organizations to classify news as fake news and highlight posts in social media, which contain links to fake news. They also provide link to rebuttal.

But since there is always a lag between producing clickbait fake news and working on proving it's a fake, I assume those who fight disinformation and propaganda will be on the losing side.

That's why the founder of Fakeskiller always invites everyone on educating those "useful idiots", who are sharing those fakes and sharing truth with them.

But can the propaganda be effectively fought technically? I assume, no.

</comment><comment><USER9> Non-clickbait title: US DARPA finances a project that aims to detect disinformation campaigns.

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm a bit confused on what sort of authorities anyone's got here or what the actual intent of the program is. Ultimately, does DOD have any sort of authorities to do anything about potential US person speech and how would that be constitutional? They have a need to understand who's doing what in various theaters, but I'm not sure why anyone would want DOD messing with content in the US.

<comment><USER11> They aren't necessarily going to (try to) defend against misinformation. You'll also want to study defense if your objective is offense - knowing how the other side will defend will hopefully lead to finding ways around that defense.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Emphasis on "fake news" and fact checking is so misguided.

The core problem is unsourced, unattributed information. The difference between gossip and journalism.

What is the provenance of every statement?

The Correct Answer is adding signatures to every thing, so we can independently verify that someone said something.

Once we have traceability, people can figure out what is more true (less wrong), over time. Just like with academic publishing.

</comment><comment><USER13> Relevant video by Smarter Every Day[0]. Basically interviewing military people talk about the information part of war in the modern era.

> I just made a weapon?!

-Dustin @21:35

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

</comment><comment><USER14> There should be a clear distinction between news that are factually false and those that share viewpoints that are counter to the mainstream. Labeling the latter "disinformation" is a mere act of political speech.

<comment><USER12> I respectfully disagree.

I just want two things.

1/ Show your work. Data, code, citations, attributed quotes, whatever.

2/ Sign your work.

Then everyone so inclined can determine truthiness at their leisure. Just like with academic publishing.

Omitting 1 means it's just opinion, 2 means gossip, both means propaganda.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> What could go wrong?

</comment><comment><USER16> >to defend against large-scale, automated disinformation attacks.

I realize cable news has become entertainment without even trying to correct themselves the next day, but if it was really viable to automatically generate a quasi-ARG experience, wouldn't Hollywood have developed it first?

I for one welcome the coming onslaught of fake news, at least I won't have to question the motive of the news source.

</comment><comment><USER17> Will they give the actual civilian toll after drone attacks on Yemen?</comment>


Ask HN: Free Web Based Project Management - <AUTHOR>

Can anyone make any recommendations? Thanks! <comment><USER2> I've heard many positive reviews of Pivotal Tracker: <http://www.pivotaltracker.com/>

If you're hosting it on your own I've also heard that Redmine is great: <http://www.redmine.org/>

<comment><USER3> I just started using Pivotal Tracker for a small project this week after reading about it here on HN. So far, so good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What specifically are you looking for?

Github has a free plan for open source projects: <https://github.com/plans>

bitbucket is also fairly popular these days: <https://bitbucket.org/plans>

</comment><comment><USER5> Project Pier is pretty good, it's the open source branch of ActiveCollab <http://www.projectpier.org/>

</comment><comment> e-epsilon If you don't mind hosting it yourself there is open atrium.

<http://openatrium.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> I run a little app called Reverb (<http://reverbapp.com>) if you're interested.

<comment><USER5> Is it free because it's in beta?

<comment><USER6> There will always be a free version. There will at some point be a paid version with more upload space etc. (more info here: <http://reverbapp.com/help/#how-much-does-it-cost>).</comment></comment></comment>


Fast Exact Search in Hamming Space with Multi-Index Hashing (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~norouzi/research/mih/

<comment><USER2> I used this paper and associated code in my undergraduate thesis. After decoupling the C++ code from MATLAB I was able to make it into a library and use it to search binary features instead of the floating point features hashed with Locality Sensitive Hashing, giving an exact k-NN instead of approximate. The code was fast but the benefits really manifest with large numbers of codes (pretty much what we want). Contact me if you would like to see the performance of this code for various m and image corpuses, or the rest of my paper.

EDIT: also it's probably best to link to the homepage for the paper: [http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~norouzi/research/mih/](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~norouzi/research/mih/) and the code: [https://github.com/norouzi/mih/](https://github.com/norouzi/mih/)

<comment><USER3> Ok, url changed from [http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~norouzi/research/papers/multi_ind...](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~norouzi/research/papers/multi_index_hashing.pdf). Also, cool work!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I found this paper while reading an article about Curalate, they used this paper as a basis for their internal image de-duplication service.

[http://blog.underdog.io/post/120612462747/curalate- helping-t...](http://blog.underdog.io/post/120612462747/curalate-helping-the- worlds-greatest-brands)

</comment><comment><USER4> Out of curiosity, what sort of problem would you apply this to?

<comment><USER2> Well this datastructure lets us find the k nearest neighbors in Hamming space (think binary vectors in binary vector space) quickly. If we can map features (for simplicity lets think of images) to points in hamming space such that similar features have a small hamming distance then we have a fast way of finding similar images. That is the problem that this paper proposes to help with, but I could easily see this also applying to sound clips or other media, though my imagination is not that great. When I used this code I applied it to the problem of image matching using binary codes generated by a feature detector [1]. The benefit of using binary codes over traditional floating point vectors is they are much faster to compare. [1] [http://docs.opencv.org/modules/features2d/doc/feature_detect...](http://docs.opencv.org/modules/features2d/doc/feature_detection_and_description.html#orb))

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the info. I've been digging around the opencv docs a bit after some googlefu. Interesting to see other potential uses though.</comment></comment></comment>


What would be the best payload for the Falcon Heavy Rocket? A 2nd-hand car? - <AUTHOR> If it is not just a publicity stunt, I find it a pity that SpaceX sends a car on its maiden flight..
There are not _that_ many rides to space still, and I would expect there are more useful payloads than sending a car flying around the sun :)
For instance having a competition of Makers Labs around the world to provide micro sattelites (I know, its a bit late for that now, but imho it could have led to much more positive publicity and stimulate many people to get involved with space tech).
Or are the risks of the whole thing exploding too high to have _anything_ of real value on board? <comment><USER2> There is a high chance that it will explode, let's say 10%, (This number is based in a back of the envelope statistic of the first few flight if several rockets. It's probably close to the correct value, but don't take it too seriously.) (A well tested rocket for manned mission has a 1% chance of failure.)

If it explodes and they have a car, they will just tweet some joke like "I guess my insurance will not cover it." and begin the investigation.

If it carries someone else satellites, they will get for weeks press coverage of each of the groups that build a satellite, and how they ruined the master thesis of someone, how other group worked in the satellite for a year, how it was the only opportunity of other group to cure cancer, ...

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, good points.. 10% is quite high.

i was not thinking about people's master thesis going up imto the sky, but more amateurish, hobby projects.. but that might put the rocket itself in danger.

so my idea is off :)</comment></comment>