Trump administration establishes $75M quantum computing centers - <AUTHOR> https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/508305-trump-administration-establishes-75-million-quantum-computing-centers <comment><USER2> This appears to be a surprisingly level-headed government initiative. The amount is enough to do something but not so much as to be a colossal boondoggle. It's the sort of fundamental research which private industry tends to under-produce because it's hard for any given company to recoup the full value of the R&D, but the target area is something with potential downstream practical implications.

> bipartisan

Also by coincidence (?) the first time I've seen that word used recently in a context that wasn't preceded by the words _lack of_ or similar.

<comment><USER3> >preceded by the words lack of or similar.

Eh, bipartisan stuff still happens. Look at the military industrial complex. Expanding executive power, expanding the surveillance state. Pro wall street regulation repeal.

Usually its to screw us

<comment><USER4> Viewed through that lens perhaps this initiative is to help push quantum computing to a place where it can break modern encryption.

<comment><USER5> Cynical me figured there wasn't much other purpose for those approving funding.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can't tell if this number is large or small.

However, all research institutions take a cut of grant money in what is usually called "Facilities and Administration" cost. My undergrad rate was 50% of the proposed sum. Obviously the exact rate varies, but the fee remains.

Ex. If a professor is writes a proposal for 1M. When the funding agency awards it they tack on another 1M for the institution.

This is why "expensive" research is favored in universities, over theoretical work. A big part of tenure review is how much money you have brought in in funding, because that's a direct measure of how much money you made the institution.

So 75M is more like 30M-40M of directly funded research, with the rest going to the institutions.

EDIT: Berkeley's F&A goes at high as 60%. [https://spo.berkeley.edu/policy/fa.html#rates](https://spo.berkeley.edu/policy/fa.html#rates)

<comment><USER7> That seems like a perverse incentive.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. This is what you get when you measure performance in terms of profits.

To quote Major General Smedley Butler: "A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

Higher education is a rachet.

Students pay ever-higher tuition, which at some level is backstopped by the government. If you don't go to college and pursue prestigious degrees the job market will be inaccessible, beyond basic skill entry level.

Graduate students are exploited laborers for the promise of a PhD and a letter of recommendation for a postdoc. Drawing from a global pool of talent for cheap research labor. If you don't do everything your advisor says you will lose your visa, or not get a publication and your academic career is dead-on- arrival.

Professors are in an environment that encourages pursuing expensive application-based research and high impact publications to pad their resumes for tenure. If you don't rake in the money and publish in "prestigious" journal (usually the walled off ones) you will not be considered for tenure, a raise, etc.

Tax dollars fund research institutions that take their generous "administration" fees and then hand over findings to walled garden journals. If you don't fund research we will not make the breakthroughs that gave us out "comfortable" way of life.

In the US, student athletes (until recently) could not profit off their likeness and all the money went to the school.

At the end of the day, the team of MBAs and administrators make fat salaries. This wouldn't be so bad if institutions used the revenue to improve education and dissemination of knowledge. Instead, they build fancy stadiums and raise tuition.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This initiative is launched quicker than I expected, considering the pressure on federal budget due to the pandemic. It's part of National Quantum Initiative Act, signed into law in December, 2018. [https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house- bill/6227](https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/6227)

<comment><USER9> $75M is rounding error compared to anything being discussed in the vicinity of the pandemic; I wouldn't really expect it to enter into the conversation.

<comment><USER10> Every line item in the budget is a rounding error until you add them all up.

<comment><USER9> The package they passed in March was $2 trillion. That's _five orders of magnitude_ difference.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Someone needs to invest in developing improved mental models for quantum computers. Much of the development of classical computing (particular from a user perspective) was driven by metaphors: memory, stacks, pipes, files, folders, etc.

What are useful metaphors in the application or use of quantum computers?

<comment><USER12> Quantum computers are modeled with extremely basic linear algebra. Quantum states are vectors and gates are matrices which multiply those vectors to get new vectors. How much simpler do you want? You can explain most of it as rotations around the unit circle which we all learn in high school or earlier.

The problem is pop science crap that tries to explain superposition and entanglement with complete word salad instead of "linear combination" and "product vector cannot be factored into tensor product of single-qbit states", respectively.

Anyway it is extremely doubtful that more programmers will need to learn how to program a quantum computer than, say, will need to learn how to program a GPU. They're both useful co-processors for very specific workloads. Programming will remain a fundamentally classical endeavor.

<comment><USER11> I'm not necessarily asking for better metaphors of quantum phenomena. But the opportunities or affordances of quantum computers is extremely unclear, even to experts. It's like explaining the physics of a transistor to someone and waiting for them to come up with an app design.

Taking the analogy of a GPU, how would you describe what a quantum coprocessor could do for a specialist (in, say, neuroscience or material science)? What kind of datasets would be appropriate? How should they think about what can be done with quantum processing? That's where I think there is room for metaphor development.

<comment><USER12> The short answer is that all of this info is out there, but it doesn't live in pop science articles.

For materials scientists the value proposition is clear: quantum computers will enable efficient quantum chemistry simulations. Here is an overview paper: [https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.10402](https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.10402)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Title of the post is misleading: The newly-funded centers will address three different topics in the field of Quantum Information Science (QIS).

Quantum computing (the integer-factoring kind) is the focus of only the UC Berkeley-led consortium. This effort accounts for 1/3 of the announced funding.

The other two centers will work on Quantum networking (UIUC) and Quantum sensing (U Colorado).

Original NSF announcement:

[https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/announcements/07212...](https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/announcements/072120.jsp)

<comment> non-entity > Quantum networking

Any recommended reading materials on this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Surely this amount pales in comparison to the likely level of investment in this field by the intelligence community, considering the implications for cryptography. This is like announcing $75m for nuclear technology research during the Manhattan Project.

<comment><USER12> NIST is already well into a post-quantum crypto competition. Any serious user of cryptography will have switched to the new protocols by the time quantum computers become powerful enough to crack production RSA. Cloudflare has already prototyped protocols in TLS [0]. Scott Aaronson has gone on record saying he would be "astonished" if this happened within a decade.

This isn't like the cold war days. The quantum computing research community is close-knit and people would notice researchers being hoovered up by the NSA; this hasn't happened.

Shor's algorithm is undeniably a groundbreaking result but is not the killer app of quantum computers. It's more of an unfortunate side-effect.

[0] [https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-tls-post-quantum- experiment/](https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-tls-post-quantum-experiment/)

<comment><USER15> > Any serious user of cryptography will have switched to the new protocols by > the time quantum computers become powerful enough to crack production RSA

Yes, but the NSA could still decrypt messages from the past if they recorded and stored them.

<comment><USER12> Well, anyone could yes. That's why if you want messages you're sending today to remain secret for longer than a decade, you use a cipher that isn't fully broken by quantum computers like AES. It's really just the key distribution methods that will be broken by quantum computers, they only get a sqrt(n) speedup against symmetric-key cryptography: double the key size and you're golden.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> For those curious about Quantum computing, an excellent starting point: [https://quantum.country/qcvc](https://quantum.country/qcvc)

</comment><comment><USER17> Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin Dismisses Quantum Computing> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQSbV_BlI8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYQSbV_BlI8)

<comment><USER18> Haters gonna hate. John Martinis at Google did a very good job for silencing those deniers.

<comment><USER17> So anyone who questions quantum computing is a hater? Your argument reminds me of one interview where Elizabeth Holmes said everyone was a hater for doubting her. John Martinis didn't silence anyone, after decades, still there's no verifiable proof of quantum computing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think Australia has invested at least that over the past 12 years. Last year UNSW's Quantum Computer lab got a $25 million grant extension.

<comment><USER10> This isn't the US's _only_ quantum computing project or gov't funding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> >...along with helping to develop curriculum for students in the quantum computing field to help expand the workforce in this area.

How do you develop a curriculum for something that has not been invented yet and might not even be possible to expand to a useful level? How can you have a workforce?

Sounds like someone was just cutting and pasting from a general policy...

<comment> non-entity Doesnt "the workforce" in quantum computing consist of physics PhDs anyways.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> ...and by not letting anyone not descending in a straight line from the Mayflower work at it, they make sure it's second-rate, at best.

Of course if he also succeeds in abolishing universities' non-profit status as he's recently started adding to his culture war talking point reservoir, not even Americans will be there to run this thing.

</comment><comment><USER22> Hmm, I thought quantum computing is not happening. See

[https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/quantum- comput...](https://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/quantum-computing-as- a-field-is-obvious-bullshit/)

Can somebody dispute this claim?

<comment><USER13> It's tempting to dismiss that write-up due to its incendiary style, but I find that many of its "factory floor" level insights ring true to me.

As an experimentalist, I would agree with the sentiment that the potential future applications of Quantum computing probably receive too much media attention, given the maturity level of existing technology.

The technical arguments as to why building a useful QC will be impossible are a bit more shaky.

First, the post seems to imply that the calibration effort scales with the number of gates in the algorithm. This is false. In reality, the number of interactions that need individual calibration is basically the number of qubit-qubit pairs exposed by the gate library. The most mainstream approach to error-corrected QC only uses nearest-neighbor interactions, and hence the scaling is linear.

Second, it is not clear to me why the number of computational basis states (2^N) is relevant to the engineering at all. Following this line of thinking, the recent Quantum supremacy result by Google already amounted to a mastery of 2^53 ~ 10^16 degrees of freedom.

Third, an argument is made that large-scale error correction will not work because of correlated errors, of unspecified nature. I think a claim like this should come with a mention of at least one concrete source of such errors, so that we could estimate its magnitude and potential severity. Note that such calculations are almost the essence of day-to-day work of a physicist.

In the absence of more detail, I can make a generic counterargument: Any phenomenon causing such correlated errors by definition affects multiple physical qubits at once, and will tend to be more macroscopic in nature. This is in contrast with the processes that limit the fidelity of one- and two- qubit operations, which is what the error-correcting code will take care of. Macroscopic disturbances are exactly the ones that we can attempt to shield against with clever engineering.

<comment><USER18> John Martinis emphasized in his talks that they didn't observe any correlations between local errors in the Sycamore and the total error can be computed through the "high school probability theory" from the local errors. This pretty much silences deniers who used this totally made-up argument against quantum computing.

<comment><USER13> Continuing:

Google (or anyone else) hasn't shown an implementation of an error correcting code, so we do not have data points for a model-free "ruler extrapolation" of logical error rate vs. lattice size.

In fact, I think the Sycamore qubits were "pre-threshold", i.e. no error correction gain possible even in theory. I wonder if someone will correct/confirm me. I remember the readout fidelity was particularly poor.

Furthermore, I would argue that the large readout errors make the observed scaling of total error slightly less impactful.

But don't get me wrong, it's still a monumental achievement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Since we're throwing trillions around these days (needed, absolutely,) I'd quietly sneak a few billion is vital things that are harder to fund in normal times.

OK, here are $x Billion, make us #1 in this field.

</comment><comment><USER24> The CU site is likely tied quantum gyros and axial sensors. Think super precise positional sensors.

Quantum technology is more than just computers.

Anyone know of any good quantum tech based companies in Boulder?

</comment><comment><USER25> "We're making supercomputers, the best computers!" In all seriousness this is great news.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm really happy to hear this, but this problem is expensive and that better be a B next time.

</comment><comment><USER27> Hmm. No MIT.

</comment><comment><USER28> Why does the title have to be political ans not "The US gov..."? Sounds like there is an agenda

<comment><USER29> If the administration deserves the blame when it does something bad, it deserves the credit when it does something good.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> This is sublime. If you're reading this, Trump, please do more of this.</comment>


Div Turakhia has sold his seventh business, Media.net, for $900M - <AUTHOR> https://backchannel.com/two-decades-ago-he-borrowed-500-from-his-dad-ef20be70f8f9#.3cruvxn7l <comment><USER2> This sounds like a plug piece about this person's life. Great, he sold a company for a large sum of money, he's stood on the top of a moving plane, he's played some video games. This article very flagrantly displays his wealth, and goes into so little detail on the business. And the staged photos alongside this are equally ridiculous.

unfortunately, this is more a "rich kids of Silicon Valley" than anything else.

<comment><USER3> Maybe he is looking for a girlfriend and this is a paid dating ad.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> There are 2 kinds of startups. Those that are constantly in the news with their founders giving quotes, talking about funding rounds, and sharing their success mantras. Then there are others that work quietly in the background, without any hype or hoopla, but then burst onto the scene with news that leaves the ecosystem stunned. Media.net belongs very firmly to the latter category.

\- See more at: [https://officechai.com/stories/media-net- acquired/#sthash.OR...](https://officechai.com/stories/media-net- acquired/#sthash.ORGVjwUH.dpuf)

<comment><USER4> I agree and I respect more the "strong silent" type. Although this guy is not in that category. Seems pretty flashy to me.

<comment><USER5> He is flashy for sure, but Div is probably the only guy in the ads business, who runs a company this size and can still talk 'code' as good as the best engineers you know. They have a huge engineering setup in India and are one of the best paymasters. Though they do fly under the radar even in India.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Wonder why instead of appreciating the success, most comments here are disapproving of it.

I did not hear of these guys till news of this acquisition broke out. I can't help but admire them. These guys have earned their Ferraris and Houses much like the Google Guys have earned their Private Jets.

Maybe we can't appreciate someone who became a billionaire without outside funding and on their own terms. I smell jealousy. This has lots to tell about us than these guys.

And somehow the moderators of this forum took it upon themselves to banish the article from the front page.

</comment><comment><USER7> All that money but <div> yearns to have semantic meaning.

<comment><USER8> I LOL'd when I read this...sometimes HN takes itself too seriously.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can somebody explain what the business actually does?

<comment><USER10> They serve contextual display advertisements.

The reason that their ads are effective is because they are frequently disguised as navigation.

I still made more money with AdSense though, and it feels a little less dirty...

<comment><USER3> LOL, the business model seems to fit pretty well to the douchiness of this guy.

<comment><USER11> How did you decide that the guy was douchy? Having money and spending it shouldn't be the criteria for it.

By most accounts, his company is a great place to work in.

Let's not forget that before it got on its high horse (after making billions upon billions), Google was pretty okay with letting people advertise scammy stuff on AdWords too, as was Facebook (just ask people about the glory days of the "Rich Jerk" or dating offers on Facebook)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I believe they are from the DirectI group. DirectI started very early in India when no one had any idea what the hell a domain was. They did (and still do I think) domain registration, web hosting, etc.

Pretty simple stuff, but they started it all quite a while back and captured a good percentage of the Indian market.

<comment><USER13> Be first, be the best or cheat.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: S3/Self-hosted/Eucalyptus? Help us optimize bandwidth for big app launch - <AUTHOR>

HNers, here's hoping we can get some advice on what to do with a looming bandwidth bill...
We are about to roll out an app that will have 1 million people using it in a matter of days. We're sure of this because of the nature of the application and the previous experiences of our client.
So, our app must download 7-10MB of data to 'boot'. 10MB x 1MM users = 10TB of data. An equivalent amount of data will need to be downloaded about once/month.
Using S3, we're going to have a pretty big bandwidth bill, around $2500/month.
Hosting our own, we could get to $50/TB using Ripple Web and we could use Eucalyptus to remain S3-compatible - $500 + server = $800?
Anyone else moving away from S3 because they're trying to optimize for bandwidth? Anyone else optimizing for bandwidth costs in creative ways? Are there really cheap CDNs out there that we should consider? <comment><USER2> For one project we leased a server from ThePlanet.com that included 10tb of bandwidth for about $399 or so. Our Amazon S3 bill was about $1,200 at the time. If something else in our network fails we can use this box in a pinch as an emergency web server, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> oh cool. that could be a good option.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Could you make the app have P2P functionality?</comment>


Ask HN: Looking to purchase a software-defined radio, any advice? - <AUTHOR> I'd like to use it to experiment with and explore interesting parts of the spectrum. For example: decoding digital television signals, seeing what my cellphone sends/receives and how it encodes it, downloading weather satellite images, and so on.<p>I've no experience whatsoever in radio, only in software. Where should I start? What should I buy to begin with? Any general technical advice? <comment><USER2> The RTL-SDR is the default starting choice, because it's about $12. If you find you don't like it, hey, you only spent $12.

I've used the FunCube Pro+ dongle for amateur radio stuff. It's very narrow- band (it's based on a sound card as the ADC) but it does cover most of the important amateur radio bands (HF) which most SDRs you find on the Internet do not without additional hardware. It also has special filters around the 2m and 70cm amateur bands, the filters on 2m are especially nice because strong FM radio stations tend to desense the cheap receivers here (RTL-SDR, HackRF IIRC).

At work we use the USRP (B200) for WiFi-related testing, requiring the ability to receive and transmit above 5GHz over 80MHz of bandwidth. The RTL-SDR is not going to do that. (Actually the B200 doesn't quite cover 80MHz, but it's good enough.)

For actual amateur radio work I use an Elecraft KX3 with the 2m module. You can't beat the sensitivity of an entire system engineered to be sensitive. With off-the-shelf SDRs (the KX3 is SDR-based) there are going to be a lot of issues to debug to get the full system performing well. Fortunately, most of the hard parts have to do with transmitting at higher powers, so you might not care if you just want to listen.

A few friends have tried either the BladeRF or HackRF (I don't remember which) and find that it uses an IF near the FM broadcast band, and hence they couldn't get it to work reliably in Manhattan where they live because the IF stages are desensed by the super-strong FM stations nearby. Of course, debugging this is going to require already-working radios and test equipment (oscilloscope/spectrum analyzer). So these cheaper SDRs are not off-the-shelf instantly-working solutions. They're more of another thing that's helpful to have in your lab. You probably don't want to tie up your $10,000 FTDX9000MP to be a WSPR beacon, so you find a good-enough SDR instead and use that.

Finally, the good news is that most of the people writing software for the radio experimentation community know radio and not software, so there is plenty of room for improvement if you care to work on the software.

</comment><comment><USER3> I bought a "NooElec NESDR Mini 2 USB RTL-SDR & ADS-B Receiver Set" [0] from Amazon a few months ago. It worked without any issues with both Linux and OS X.

I've had a ham radio license for a little over 21 years so I've always been interested in radio but the whole SDR thing is new to me. I still really haven't done a whole lot with it but it's fun to play with.

The neatest thing I did was set it up on the balcony of our 23rd floor condo on Panama City Beach (facing the Gulf of Mexico) and used _dump1090_ [1] to plot aircraft locations (using ADS-B) on a map. I was able to "see" planes a few hundred miles away (thanks to the height and facing out over the water) but was also able to see them at pretty much ground level.

I have access to a bunch of buildings (mostly on top of big hills) across the southern portion of Indiana thanks to my job and have been thinking about building a bunch of "ADS-B receivers" (using Raspberry Pi's or similar) and putting them out in these buildings so that I can cover a wide area. (I really only probably need about three as long as I put them in the right locations, geographically speaking.)

 _Edit: I do need to find a good external /outside antenna designed for 1090 MHz, if anyone has any firsthand recommendations._

In addition, at one of these locations there's a communications tower used by a pager company to transmit pages so I've thought about building a POCSAG receiver with one of these devices as well.

Unrelated to SDR, but I'm also planning on putting together a bunch of stratum 0 NTP servers (using GPS) and deploying them at these same locations as well. They will primarily be for my own use at work (ISP) but I expect to make publicly available a few stratum 1 servers as well.

[0]: [http://amzn.com/B00P2UOU72](http://amzn.com/B00P2UOU72)

[1]: [https://github.com/antirez/dump1090](https://github.com/antirez/dump1090)

<comment><USER4> Tracking aircraft with a passive radio receiver? You just sold me on SDR.

<comment><USER5> It's ADS-B-[1], which has some limitations (don't imagine you're getting every target, etc), but it is damned cool nonetheless.

[1] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillan...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance_%E2%80%93_broadcast)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Definitely the first step is to get a cheap USB dongle. There is a RTL-SDR compatibility list[0] that you may find useful. Once you play with a cheap one you'll have a better idea of the parameters you can improve by upgrading to more sophisticated/expensive hardware.

0: [https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/wiki/compatibility](https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/wiki/compatibility)

</comment><comment><USER7> There is a SDR subreddit that has a wiki with some info. I had it bookmarked from a while back when I was looking into purchasing one, however that's something I've put on the back-burner for now.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/wiki/index](https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/wiki/index)

</comment><comment><USER8> If you went to the CCC camp this summer in Germany you could have gotten a SDR with your badge.

The badge [0] (called rad1o) is a hackrf-compatible SDR for frequencys between 50 and 4000 mhz.

Maybe somebody at a local hackerspace went and is willing to trade you his?

[0]: [https://rad1o.badge.events.ccc.de/](https://rad1o.badge.events.ccc.de/)

<comment><USER9> +1 for the rad1o/hackrf. Most of the other SDRs people are recommending here are only receivers, so they can't transmit.

When I was at CCC camp I made node.js bindings for the hackrf, so it's pretty easy to work with: [https://github.com/mappum/node- hackrf](https://github.com/mappum/node-hackrf), [https://github.com/mappum/hackrf-stream](https://github.com/mappum/hackrf- stream)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Whether you get a USRP or not, the Ettus Research bootable image has GNU Radio already installed and configured, as well as a bunch of other useful radio tools: [http://files.ettus.com/liveusb/latest/](http://files.ettus.com/liveusb/latest/)

They've also got some good tutorials on using GNU Radio Companion.

I'd recommend an RTLSDR, USRP, or HackRF. All good, all different price range, and all have a good community and support around them. If you're interested in a particular band, you may want to get an antenna for that band as well. Ettus Research sells some antennas, or you can buy one from an amateur radio store, or build one for very cheap from the dozens of plans out there by ham radio operators.

</comment><comment><USER11> I bought a cheap SDR off of Amazon that I've been happy with: [http://amzn.com/B00D3GRU24](http://amzn.com/B00D3GRU24)

I started with listening to NOAA weather stations[1], and now I'm tracking aircraft with PiAware[2]

[1]: [https://jaredharley.com/2015/08/25/software-defined-radio- sd...](https://jaredharley.com/2015/08/25/software-defined-radio-sdr)

[2]: [https://jaredharley.com/2015/08/31/tracking-aircraft-with- pi...](https://jaredharley.com/2015/08/31/tracking-aircraft-with-piaware)

</comment><comment><USER12> If you care I live in Berchtesgaden, which provides the unique feature of testing the Galileo System upfront [http://www.gate-testbed.com/en/gate- overview.html](http://www.gate-testbed.com/en/gate-overview.html) . Anyway after learning the ESA even has a StartupIncubator here. Because of this,I decided to give it try. My first goal is to build a receiver based on the Raspberry Pi,no idea if i have a chance of doing this, I downloaded the specs and will give it a shoot and see where I get from there.

</comment><comment><USER13> So you can start small and grow, or start large and be overwhelmed :-) The "low end" are the various DTV tuner sticks and NooElec is a good source for them. The middle of the road is the HackRF One ($300). The high end would be something from Ettus Research like the USRP.

I have one of the USB DTV receivers and it was fun for exposure but hard to do really interesting stuff with. I got the HackRF One and it has been a lot of fun, I added the Ham-it-Up so that I could easily play around in the HF and AM bands. For my bluetooth work I ended up getting an UberTooth even though the HackRF One should be able to do what I need, the Ubertooth was more compact and simpler to set up and take down.

In my case I'm interested in mesh network wireless systems for robotics and room / house localization for those robots. I also have one of the newer Crazie Fly quad copters and want to get to the point where I can manage it using software.

The important thing is to pick a unit that can operate in the frequencies you are interested in (the HackRF One goes 1Mhz to 6Ghz so its pretty wide open) and be ready to revisit a lot of math you might have considered less than useful back in school (complex numbers).

Really though maximum value per $ is probably though starting with one of the USB DTV receivers. If you find you hate it, or its too steep a learning curve, then you won't be out all that much.

</comment><comment><USER14> In general Ettus is the best around unless you have a really large budget and want to get something with a backplane (which I highly recommend you avoid unless you have really specific requirements). Ettus is about to come out with a low cost B200 mini which could be a good option. I think it's so they can compete with the BladeRFs and HackRFs of the world. Ettus boards aren't perfect but they've really come a long way since the USRP2 days when I started using them. The UHD is also a really nice library to work with.

The RTLSDRs are definitely the best value (get one with a metal box around it). Also look for the HackRF Blue.

Finally, think hard about what you want to do. You mention decoding TV signals but the RTLSDRs can't do that (in America at least) since they can only do about 3 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth and TV signals are 6 MHz wide. You could try using 2 or 3 RTLSDRs for that but then you'd have put them all on the same clock, which can be difficult.

If you can spend around $1500 I'd go for a B200 with a GPSDO. GPSDOs let you accurately timestamp signals and time evens (i.e. start transmitting at some specific time). In my eyes the 210 isn't worth the bigger FPGA and dual transceivers. The isolation between the transceivers probably isn't great (but I could be wrong) and a bigger FPGA isn't worth anything to me.

</comment><comment><USER15> A lot of people are recommending Nooelec but I'd recommend starting out with the RTL-SDR blog SDR. It'll have a low PPM receiver and an SMA connector. A lot of the cheaper RTL-SDRs you get (including Nooelec) can have high PPM, non TXCO oscillators. If you're working with weak signals it can kill. There's software to allow you to tune the SDR and eliminate the PPM error but most of the oscillators with high PPM vary by temperature so if you have the SDR in different or changing environments, your calibration can cease being accurate. The SMA connector is a huge help with antennas because the built in MCX connector on many of the SDRs can be pretty fragile (I've broken a couple by accident so far). If you do get a Nooelec anyway, get one of the 0.5PPM models (I think they call them "Mini 2+" with the "+" on the end).

If you like the RTL-SDR after playing with it a while and have a bit of money ($300) I'd strongly recommend the HackRF One. I only started with SDR a few weeks ago and the RTL-SDR was great (especially for the price) but the HackRF One is a whole other level. The amount of bandwidth you can get out of it is amazing.

If you're hoping to handle weather satellites and such, you'll need to build your own antennas. They can be kinda big and you'll need line of sight to the sky most of the time so it'll work best if you have a large open area you can frequently visit. If you own a house your back yard might be good. If you're in an apartment building the roof or parking lot is probably best.

Something else that's fun to play with is ADS-B. It allows you to pick up air traffic position/altitude/speed/heading broadcasts.

</comment><comment><USER16> I just started playing with the HackRF ([https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/](https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/)). The inventor has a bunch of great video tutorials to walk you through all the tools and how they work, starting with analog and then focusing on digital. You can use OSX, Linux, etc. with the tutorials.

</comment><comment><USER17> As an introduction to signals, The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing is pretty good([http://dspguide.com/](http://dspguide.com/)) you should also read this woman's blog [http://www.windytan.com/](http://www.windytan.com/)

</comment><comment><USER18> Start with an rtl sdr dongle. Upgrade to USRP when you get more serious.

</comment><comment><USER19> Saw this - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2k6TMPMRo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2k6TMPMRo) \- a while back from a Finnish hacker, partly concerned with hacking bus-stop signals. IIRC it gave good details on her process and some info on the tech used.

</comment><comment><USER20> You can buy an RTL-SDR key, un upconverter to receive also the shortwave, a notch filter to cut off radio broadcasting that may saturate your receiver and a good multiband antenna. The whole kit will cost around 100€.

</comment><comment><USER21> Get an RTL-SDR stick. There is such a community around this hardware that you can be up and running in a few minutes after it arrives.

I purchased a "RTL-SDR Blog R820T2 RTL2832U" a month ago. It has an upgraded oscillator (less setup hassle) and comes with a usable antenna. In the Bay Area I've been able to listen to FM radio, NOAA weather, SJC Airport tower, Police - both NFM and digital, and ADS-B.

I'm quite happy with the purchase, and excited about the possibilities of what I can do next.

</comment><comment><USER22> You should check out the Whitebox Software Defined Radio Project. It is a hacker friendly software defined radio started by my friend Chris, a former lead engineer from Google/YouTube and the former VP of technology at Adly. [http://radio.testa.co](http://radio.testa.co)

</comment><comment><USER23> I got a USB dongle that seems to work under 1GhZ. I was really interested in analyzing zigbee. I think that's in the 2.4GhZ ISM. Any suggestions?

I'm also curious ... are these cheap USB dongles just receivers? Or do they have ones that can transmit as well (i.e. transceivers).

<comment><USER24> You definitely can get SDR transceivers but 1) they are more expensive and not (to my knowledge) 'dongle' sized, and 2) in most jurisdictions there are understandably licensing conditions required in order to be permitted to transmit on the amateur frequencies.

If anyone with experience on SDR transceivers has some input here, that would be great!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I've been looking at this one: [http://www.wimo.com/dx-patrol-sdr-wide-band- receiver_e.html](http://www.wimo.com/dx-patrol-sdr-wide-band-receiver_e.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> Whatever you get, make sure you have an antenna lined up for it. It's completely useless if it does not have an antenna. And many of these dongles use weird antennas that you can only get online. So mind that.

</comment><comment><USER27> rtl-sdr for the win, i can talk about this stuff all day long. now for the software part, with windows systems, options are plenty. linux, hit and miss. gnu-radio is a lofty suite, but here for me, its gqrx. building your own antennas can be quite fun. i typically craft something every month or so, depending on my obsession at any given time, aircraft, satellite, amateur.

i also buy commercial grade hardware., as rtl-sdrs can be a little dodgy due to low tolerace components, so weak signals are hard to digout of a sound floor with cheapo dongles.

</comment><comment><USER28> Hackaday ([http://hackaday.com/](http://hackaday.com/)) often has new articles on DIY SDRs. Good way to learn.

</comment><comment><USER29> SDRPlay [http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-014408](http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-014408)

</comment><comment><USER30> Lots of interesting ideas and hardware advice on [http://www.rtl- sdr.com/](http://www.rtl-sdr.com/)</comment>


COBOL Is Everywhere. Who Will Maintain It? - <AUTHOR> https://thenewstack.io/cobol-everywhere-will-maintain/ <comment><USER2> I worked in a big financial corporation (not a bank- but a network) and I can tell you "who": thousands of contractors from SE Asia. That's "who" did most of the work on COBOL-based mainframes when I was in that corp and that's who will do it when the old generation finally gives up the ghost.

There's also a few younger 'uns that take up the mantle from within such corporations and banks, like I did when I was there, but they're few and far between. Like the article says, young, hip programmers are not interested in mainframes.

That's their loss. There's a lot to like: big, powerful computers with millions of users and text-based interfaces.

Working for banks and the like is a bit of a bummer but you can always do what I did: do a stint there of a couple of years, then go do what you like and keep the job on your CV for when you're ready to retire.</comment>


Web page readability: Green text on yellow works the best - <AUTHOR> http://hubel.sfasu.edu/research/AHNCUR.html <comment><USER2> I wanted to try to submit some links to this site, but decided to pass on this one because of FOUR major problems with their study:

1) although the study excluded color-blind people from participating (???), they mislead people into thinking it's a great color scheme for the general population

2) they said the color combinations differ for common fonts besides Arial, so it's not a good rule of thumb

3) computer LCD monitors could very well make green text on a yellow background very hard to read even for people with normal vision

4) The effects of reading very long pieces of text were not tested

Reasons #1 or #3 alone means I would not use that color combination without further testing with color-blind people as well as on older LCD screens. (Note, the study is down at the moment so I can't double-check what I said.)

</comment><comment><USER3> Unfortunately, usability is as much about practical use as anything else and so if green text on yellow increases readability but bores most users to leave the site it's bad usability:)

-Zaid

</comment><comment><USER4> It just looks horrible. Usability is not plan readability. There's an esthetic component to it as well.</comment>


No wonder rockets blow up - <AUTHOR> https://procedural.github.io/post/No-wonder-rockets-blow-up/ <comment><USER2> This is a low-quality article, IMHO, and the title is click-bait-ish. Yes, _if_ you don't check your array sizes for overflow, and your pointers for NULL, your C code can crash. But Klokwork (for one) has been able to detect that stuff for several years.

Does the article give any concrete examples of failures in rockets from this? No, just "If I create a ridiculously large array index, and use it to access an array that isn't that big, the program crashes. No wonder rockets crash!" That's... not very impressive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for pointing out Klocwork, I haven't heard of it until you mentioned it!

Sorry for the title, I was aware of its clickbaitiness but thought any way of drawing attention to a problem is necessary.

The example is there just to show the most minimal and obvious case where automatic tools were unable to predict the mistake. Of course, in real world things are way more complicated than that and if tools fail on simple examples like this they definitely won't be able to find anything in real codebases.</comment></comment>


Linaro: Using Linux in embedded systems - <AUTHOR> http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/article/31992/Simplifying-open-source-with-Linux.aspx

<comment><USER2> I'd love to see this succeed. Vendors are shipping their custom (and expensive) toolchains with a variety of kernels and that makes it hard to escape lock in.

I'd also love to see some of the very good debug tools from Keil, GreenHills, IAR, etc. integrated with Eclipse with standard support for Cortex-based SoCs. That would go a long way toward standardisation and we could finally get rid of the awful IDEs from those vendors.</comment>


Video Game Preservation – An archive of commercial video game source code - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/videogamepreservation <comment><USER2> As every time this comes up, and in the hopes of someone reading HN knows someone who knows someone... I'd love to get my hands on the source code of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands and Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager (SSI Gold Box RPGs), and to a lesser extent Twilight: 2000 (Paragon Software), and Little Big Adventure / Twinsen's Adventure and Twinsen's Oddysey. I'd love to port them to modern systems and/or remaster the art to the extent that is possible. These are games with incredible gameplay but whose art hasn't aged that well.

Also periodic beg to Splash Damage / whoever owns the rights to the content for Enemy Territory to release them, so they can be modded (not the source, but the maps and models). Again, perfect gameplay, would love to see it with modern 3D capabilities.

<comment><USER3> There's few things I wouldn't give for the source code to the old Westwood games. Particularly Tiberian Sun/Red Alert 2

Word around the internet though is that EA lost the source code to all the pre-Generals (2004) C&C games

<comment><USER4> I can't comment for sure if they still have the source, but I know that EA made changes to those games when they released The First Decade [0] to make their CD-checks accept the new DVD. Most of the games were recompiled (so source was available) for that.

\---

But the RA2: Yuri's Revenge binary was just patched where needed. This distinction was made because at the time YR already had some hardcore fans decompiling it and enhancing it, EA's community manager heard about this and made sure that community effort was not destroyed. I was one of those fans, and taking it apart was one hell of an adventure. We didn't decompile all of it, but we figured out many details, and added a lot of bugfixes and enhancements. It's not the same thing as the real source code, but you can see what we got in [1]/[2]/[3] (unfortunately those haven't been updated in a while).

[0]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_The_First...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_%26_Conquer:_The_First_Decade)

[1]: [https://github.com/Ares-Developers/YRpp](https://github.com/Ares- Developers/YRpp)

[2]: [https://github.com/Ares-Developers/Ares](https://github.com/Ares- Developers/Ares)

[3]: [https://www.modenc.renegadeprojects.com/Contributing_to_Ares](https://www.modenc.renegadeprojects.com/Contributing_to_Ares)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Descent readme was interesting:

Mike: ... At first all I cared about was writing technically good code.

Matt: Then we ran out of money and all we cared about was finishing our game.

Mike: Right. Our code got ugly, but our game got done.

[1] [https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent)

<comment><USER6> Looking at the source for Descent would be rather fascinating - it was certainly one of the earliest examples of a 'true' 3D engine, with 3DoF, where DOOM was still locked to flat surfaces.

(ZDoom, and the beyond-incredible Sonic fan game SRB2, based on the DOOM II source, both support slopes in their engine, at this point).

I'm not gonna lie, Descent blew my mind when I was like 11 and fiddling with the DOOM II source.

<comment><USER7> The code for Descent has been available for a long time and if you're going to look, you should probably check out some of the links and info here: [http://icculus.org/d2x/](http://icculus.org/d2x/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Tangentially related, I have a dozen or so of my favorite games from the mid 90's through early 00's on CD-ROM that I would like to preserve. Unfortunately they seem to almost all have some DRM that prevents me ripping an image from them, but I'd much rather keep a few hundred meg ISOs on my media server than a stack of jewel cases in my closet.

Has anyone else solved this issue?

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess, if all else fails, mail them to the Internet Archive Physical Archive in Richmond California:

[https://help.archive.org/hc/en- us/articles/360017876312-How-...](https://help.archive.org/hc/en- us/articles/360017876312-How-do-I-make-a-physical-donation-to-the-Internet- Archive-)

It should be a matter of time until someone figures out the DRM, and this is the right place for these historical artefacts to be.

(And if you do manage to rip them yourself, please upload the images to their cdrom collection ([https://archive.org/details/cd- roms](https://archive.org/details/cd-roms))!)

<comment><USER9> Scrolling through the CD-ROM collection is such a hit of nostalgia.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> git-pull Commercial games are shipped on a quick schedule, so this doesn't always apply unless its a project that's maintained/cleaned up.

What I'd like to see (2D games): Permissively licensed, widget / sprite tooling, handling of rotation, blitter, canvas resizing, scaling.

Anecdote: I made a request for a Zelda clone to make their code available via a commercial-friendly license here: [https://github.com/solarus- games/solarus/issues/826](https://github.com/solarus-games/solarus/issues/826)

Look at this, well-maintained C++ bits and pieces wrapping around SDL2, that could easily apply _to more than just this game_ :

[https://github.com/solarus- games/solarus/tree/dev/src/core](https://github.com/solarus- games/solarus/tree/dev/src/core)

[https://github.com/solarus- games/solarus/tree/dev/src/graphi...](https://github.com/solarus- games/solarus/tree/dev/src/graphics)

If something is open sourced, I highly prefer it if generic parts are available for everyone to use on their own projects. Keep the creative work proprietary / GPL / etc.

One reason we do open source is we don't want to perpetually reinvent the wheel. Projects last longer when they have users. And in this case of a library, your stuff is directly used by developers, further increasing the likelihood of reciprocal contributions / sharing the burden of maintenance.

<comment><USER10> The GPL is a commercial-friendly license, and in fact, that's one of the freedoms it explicitly protects.

<comment><USER11> Its disingenuous to call it commercially-friendly. The vast majority of commercial users don't want to be subject to the terms of sharing their own code or modified versions of the GPL'd code, regardless of how 'fair' one thinks such an agreement is. Permissively licensed code allows commercial usage without the restrictions that commercial users actively avoid.

<comment><USER10> The GPL is no less commercially friendly than the MIT, given it allows commercial usage, and explicitly protects commercial usage.

<comment><USER12> Funny that every company I've worked at is ok with MIT and won't touch GPL with a 10 foot pole.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There's a fascinating write-up by John Carmack in there about porting the original Wolfenstein 3D to the iPhone. Crazy to think that was over 10 years ago.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/wolf3dios/blob/mast...](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/wolf3dios/blob/master/Carmack_iPhone_development.doc)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Note: This collection is the work of Simon Morgan, [https://sjm.io/](https://sjm.io/).

<comment><USER14> That's me. Thanks for the credit. I've had some help with people pointing me to some things that I don't already have archived so if anybody's aware of anything that I'm not, please tell.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the work, dude. It's an awesome collection.

Edit: a suggestion: you should have an index somewhere with a year-by-year list of the games. Maybe create an index github repo with some static HTML/markdown?

<comment><USER14> Good idea. I should probably knock up some kind of website for that kind of thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just did some busywork picking out what I think were the impact-wise most important games out of these (roughly half of them - super subjective :)), and then sorted them by release year, for your browsing pleasure!:

Robotron: 2084 (1986) by Vid Kidz for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/robotron-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/robotron-7800)

Galaga (1987) by Namco Limited for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/galaga-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/galaga-7800)

Dig Dug (1987) by Namco Limited for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/digdug-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/digdug-7800)

Centipede (1987) by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/centipede-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/centipede-7800)

Asteroids (1987) by Atari, Inc. for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/asteroids-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/asteroids-7800)

Ms. Pac-Man (1987) by General Computer Corporation for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/mspacman-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/mspacman-7800)

Commando (1989) by Capcom Co., Ltd. for the Atari 7800

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/commando-7800](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/commando-7800)

Prince of Persia (1989) by Jordan Mechner for the Apple II

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/princeofpersia](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/princeofpersia)

Hovertank One (1991) by id Software, Inc.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/hovertank3d](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/hovertank3d)

Wolfenstein 3D (1992) by id Software, Inc. for DOS

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/wolf3d](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/wolf3d)

DOOM (1993) by id Software, Inc.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/doom](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/doom)

Rise of the Triad: Dark War (1994) by Apogee Software, Ltd.:

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/rott](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/rott)

Beneath a Steel Sky (1994) by Revolution Software.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/bass](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/bass)

Heretic (1994) by Raven Software

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/heretic](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/heretic)

Gravity Force 2 (1994) by Bits Productions

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/gravityforce2](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/gravityforce2)

Descent (1995) by Parallax Software Corp.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent)

Hexen: Beyond Heretic (1995) by Raven Software

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/hexen](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/hexen)

Abuse (1995) by Crack dot Com

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/abuse](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/abuse)

Duke Nukem 3D (1996) by 3D Realms Entertainment, Inc.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/dukenukem3d](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/dukenukem3d)

Descent II (1996) by Parallax Software Corp.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent2](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/descent2)

Quake (1996) by id Software, Inc

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/quake](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/quake)

Quake II (1997) by id Software, Inc.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/quake2](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/quake2)

Postal (1997) by Running With Scissors

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/postal](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/postal)

FreeSpace 2 (1999) by Volition, Inc.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/freespace2](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/freespace2)

Homeworld (1999) by Relic Entertainment

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/homeworld](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/homeworld)

Aliens versus Predator (1999) by Rebellion Developments Ltd.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/avp](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/avp)

MechCommander 2 (2001) by FASA Studio

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/mechcommander2](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/mechcommander2)

DOOM³ (2004) by id Software, Inc.

[https://github.com/videogamepreservation/doom3](https://github.com/videogamepreservation/doom3)

<comment><USER15> Wow - this is an amazing list.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is really cool! Video game preservation has been something on my mind recently, but I was interested in preserving the game play experience for some older and more esoteric games that haven't been recorded on youtube or twitch, along with some notes on the core mechanics so information about them isn't lost.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm going to drop this on HN hoping that the internet works its magic...

If you worked on microprose and for some reason still have the source code for Mtg Shandalar, please do us all a favor and leak it!

</comment><comment><USER18> Can any one recommend an old engine to go through? I'm working on learning graphics programming, and would appreciate a few examples. I've poked through godot a little, but modern graphics engines are seriously complex beasts and I figure an old one will be a bit simpler. I'd appreciate advice here; thank you.

<comment><USER19> check out fabian sanglad's blog:

[http://fabiensanglard.net/quakeSource/index.php](http://fabiensanglard.net/quakeSource/index.php)

<comment><USER18> That looks like a great resource; much appreciated!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This totally awesome! Installing dosbox to play them!</comment>


An email I received from Jimmy Wales regarding SOPA - <AUTHOR> http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/comments/nw1oi/an_email_i_received_from_jimmy_wales_regarding/

<comment><USER2> The thing is that it's not about DMCA, Protect IP, or SOPA, or $whatever per se. It's the big stinking pile of cash that is the force which continuously tries to leak through a dam and overflow down to congress. Patching individual holes does work but paradoxically, the better we do it the bigger is the force that accumulates behind our dam. If the dam holds, the force might just rise above the river banks and bypass the opposition totally.

Don't think of this as a gloomy doomsday post. I believe that in the end the freedom of people will win. However, it won't happen until that monetary force is first made to behave itself, though. Continuing the analogy, the force should be redirected to another, more constructive riverbed instead of letting it suppress the freedoms of people.

What interests me is the dynamics of these forces globally. If we happen to invent something as liberating and nurturing as the internet, why does this destructive force sooner or later appear and try to shut it down?

Or is it just that we people not completely ready for these new freedoms offered by the Net and that very extent to which we aren't then shows up in the form of commercial and governmental resistance against it?

<comment><USER3> I think you'll enjoy Lawrence Lessig's talk about the exact issue you brought up. It's call _Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It_ [Link] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ik1AK56FtVc)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's pretty good to tackle SOPA, but the bigger picture is that there had been and currently are other SOPA-related bills. So it's seems likely that there will be more future attempts until it gives way to more Internet control.

Demand Internet Freedom bills to replace SOPA.

</comment><comment><USER5> Wales has in the past asked on Twitter for any tipps on geo ip matching visitors with local representatives/districts. Something like this would be "THE" golden tool for any grassroots campaign. I truly hope they/EFF are working on something like that.

<comment><USER6> The EFF has a tool right now that's awfully close to what you describe: [https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KE...](https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173)

It requires you to enter your zipcode manually, but it seems like a trivial issue to use ip address instead.

The complication comes from the fact that IP addresses aren't necessarily accurate enough to get a person located down to the exact address, which is what you sometimes need to identify your congresscritter.

That, plus the fact that visitors might be at work or otherwise away from home, making IP matching irrelevant.

Otherwise, the EFF tool is superb. I used it to enter my address, and was given a form letter that I could simply sign, along with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all my representatives.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The original article has been removed from Reddit, and only the comment thread remains. Apparently there is some doubt as to whether Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia actually wrote the e-mail in question. Here is the full text of the article, taken from <http://smagula.org/?q=aggregator/sources/7> :

30 December 2011 - 9:27pm

First my email to Jimmy

Hi Jimmy,

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Reddit is capable of doing giant things, GoDaddy for example. But it seems as if the internet is only boycotting GoDaddy because they (godaddy) actually rely on the internet that they are ruining for profits. There are a great number of posts on reddit calling for action and a larger boycott of all the companies backing SOPA, but they are getting lost in the static. So I ask you to write one more personal appeal calling for action. As a internet celebrity of sorts, and a figurehead for free speech I feel as if your words would be taken less lightly and people across the globe might get on the same page so to speak.

Thanks for everything you do, a concerned internet addict.

And his reply:

I think it's worth taking a step back and thinking about what we can accomplish and how we can win this thing. The boycott and back down of Go Daddy was important - it got the Internet community organized to start doing something. But the support of one company doesn't make or break SOPA - indeed, the support of whatever companies doesn't make or break SOPA - what does is awakening the general public and activating them to call, write, or visit their Congressperson.

Many of the companies on the list of supporters do, in fact, have legitimate beefs with the current situation. Particularly for companies like Chanel, Coach, Juicy Couture, etc. - they face a daily problem with counterfeit merchandise sold via foreign websites. Boycotting them would be counter- productive because they are rightly considered by the public to be victims here.

My issue is not with working to crack down on counterfeit goods, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, etc. My issue is that the bill attempts to do so in a way that is inconsistent with the First Amendment and that the bill is technologically incompetent.

A boycott against companies who are not tech companies (and who therefore, unlike Go Daddy, can't be expected to understand the technical issues) in this context runs the risk of the entire anti-SOPA movement being branded unfairly as not caring about the real problems.

So Go Daddy backed down - and Congress watched that play out. The next thing is not to hammer on other companies, but to hammer on Congress directly. I've been told that if I can get 30,000-40,000 people to call or write their Congressional representative, it will have an impact. My view is that 30,000-40,000 is easy. We should be aiming much higher.

But to do that we have to get people off their butts to do the right thing. A lot of people! I think we can!

\--Jimbo

Wise words.

I can submit a screenshot for proof if need be.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm wondering if running the phones off isn't a little too routine to get attention.

How would one go about aggregating mail so as to pull a "Miracle on 34th Street" stunt? Several hundred thousand letters ought to do it.</comment>


Ask HN: Someone has just released a VERY similar app, but has never seen ours? - <AUTHOR>

Me and a friend have been working on a web app idea for a few months now. We live in NJ. We have been keeping written and online notes on the ideas and plan. Recently, someone with far more experience and funding has released an uncannily similar application, but they are based in California and have never seen us or seen our idea (because it hasn't been developed yet.
This puts us in a very bad position to release our own idea because we are about 6 months behind and our funding is far lower. What should we do other than giving up and finding a new idea
Edit: The reason we have been working on the idea for a few months is because we were analyzing every aspect of the business to see what we can do better. We do have a few key things we can do better.
The reason we haven't started building yet is because we did not know how to code. We started going to Hacker news and learning to code. We simply don't have the knowledge or the money to start yet. In 6 months we will. <comment><USER2> You should always assume that someone else is building whatever you've come up with. Ideas are always less original than you thought. It sounds like this is an opportunity, rather than a bad thing. Here's why:

1\. Someone with more funding than you is a competitor. This should serve as some validation for your idea, because someone else spent money to build it.

2\. Now you have someone to compare yourselves to. If you want to win, you need to solve whatever problem you're looking to solve better than they have.

3\. This should be a wakeup call that you need to get your asses in gear and ship something!

What have you been doing for 6 months that you haven't even started developing the app? Are you really that committed to the idea? If so, this should be your encouragement to get started. If not, move on.

<comment><USER3> I agree with this on every point. You don't share your fantastic idea because it's original and unique - but if you go to any startup event you'll probably hear your idea, or some variation thereof, discussed. Most certainly, a VC has heard your idea a time or two (or more). ORIGINAL ideas are really not that original. If people are speaking of your idea in such an exclusive forum, imagine how many people have had your idea that never talk about it? Do a patent search sometime with your keywords and it will depress you.

But while being depressed, recognize that it really does boil down to execution - a phrase I absolutely hate, but have had to surrender to. It's true.

Competition is good! If this got you down, consider it a favor - they saved you time and money. You don't have what it takes (harsh, perhaps - but the truth in a literal sense. I suspect you'll get past this). Having a competitor is the most favorable of obstacles you'll encounter.

Don't give up. Keep at it and do it better than anyone else can do it. If you love it, you'll do it.

Best wishes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You have been "working" on an idea for several months?

I don't want to sound rude, but have you ever heard the saying "ideas are worth nothing" ?

On the subject of giving up, depends how worthy your project is. If you're a good competitor, you can still beat them or sell your company a few years later. Otherwise, you can still... pivot: [http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/06/pivot-dont- jump...](http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/06/pivot-dont-jump-to-new- vision.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> I was in a very similar situation. My site had launched at the same time as a competitor. There were already others in the field, but there was room for improvement, which both groups clearly recognized.

The competitors had amazing backgrounds, had raised funding, had a team of developers, etc. etc. etc. For the first two years there visits weren't 1/4 of what mine was. There execution wasn't as focused. Somehow nobody had ever heard of them even though they were well connected in the Valley and NYC.

In the end, neither of us were commercially successful, but just because somebody is ahead of you, has funding, etc. etc. doesn't mean that it is a done deal. I was too far along to 'give up', but had I only been starting the project, I probably would have given up when I saw the 'firepower' these guys were supposedly packing.

A bit of a different perspective. Mull it over for a few days, and you may see a better opportunity.

</comment><comment><USER6> I went through a similar thing a couple months ago. I had actually started building something had about 3 weeks of personal time into it. Then I discovered someone with money from big name angels, the founders were people with a lot of connections, and the site already had good traction. I was heartbroken. Not only because I'd spent time coding but because I thought I had a great idea and apparently I did. On one hand, your idea is now validated. One the other hand you have major catching up to do and need to find something they are doing wrong and solve it along with the original problem. If you are really committed and can do better than your new competitor you should start building and build fast.

</comment><comment><USER7> Your idea sounds really ambitious. I'd recommend doing something smaller as your first coding project.

</comment><comment><USER8> I think you are in a great position.

1- You will see if there is a market. 2- You will evaluate their execution and learn. now, do it better than them.

Execute better than them and you will win.

Dont plan too much, and ship! It is taking too long.

</comment><comment><USER9> Ideas are cheap. Don't give up. There's always room to compete. It's all about execution. Remember both Friendster and MySpace were riding high long before Facebook. Look at where things stand now.

</comment><comment><USER10> don't suppose you want to show us their app?

</comment><comment><USER11> This has already happened to me. Right down to the infographic image on a homepage! Basically, bright people see the same problems and draw similar conclusions.</comment>


Denmark [intends] to reopen day care centres, schools on April 15 - <AUTHOR> https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-denmark/denmark-to-reopen-day-care-centres-schools-on-april-15-idUKKBN21O2LD <comment><AUTHOR> Caveat - "if the numbers of cases and deaths from the new coronavirus remain stable."</comment>


The more data you save on a flash drive, the lighter it gets? - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencefocus.com/future-technology/does-a-usb-drive-get-heavier-as-you-store-more-files-on-it/ <comment><USER2> Isn't that complete nonsense? Although the gate gets more charge, that's going to be balanced out by less charge elsewhere. The USB drive as a whole isn't gaining electrons, or else it would have a negative static charge, which would be dissipated as soon as it is connected to ground.

<comment><USER3> Yeah actually from my understanding, even in the transistor, state (location) of electrons should change only, not the number of electrons.

<comment><USER4> Isn't the concept that the location difference causes a potential/energy difference, which has mass?

<comment><USER5> It's all changing within the system (USB drive), so to an outside observer there is no change in mass.

<comment><USER4> A system with more potential energy will have more mass [1]. For example, a compressed spring has more mass than a spring at rest, and will take more energy, from an external force, to get to the same velocity. Same with a spinning disk. So unless there's a nice balancing act, with no potential energy change from moving electrons around within the drive, the mass of the drive will change, negligibly, from the potential energy change of the gates. So, the real mass loss of a USB drive is electrons out in addition to potential energy loss from the floating gates. So it's, the world smallest double whammy!

[1] [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274329/does- pote...](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274329/does-potential- energy-of-an-object-increases-its-relativistic-mass/274680)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The question can be simplified to: does a charged capacitor weight more?

As a first approximation, the answer is No: each electron on the negative plate is balanced by a missing electron on the positive plate.

<comment><USER4> The mass comes from the potential energy. Same as a spinning disk has more mass than a disk at rest.

It's absolutely negligible, but it's real.

<comment><USER7> Potential energy has mass? Is that true? It means a rock at the top of a mountain has more mass than it does at the bottom of the mountain. And a stretched rubber band has more mass than a relaxed rubber band. It's been a looong time but I don't recall learning this in physics.

<comment><USER4> You surely did, but the literal reality of the mass-energy equivalence maybe wasn't apparent: E = mc^2

A system with more potential energy will have more mass.

See: [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274329/does- pote...](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/274329/does-potential- energy-of-an-object-increases-its-relativistic-mass/274680)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's not clear what the default erase state is. It could be all 1s or some other pattern used during testing.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, as shipped they tend to have random looking patterns from procedures in the factory searching for bad blocks.

Edit: it might be hard to see in a dd of the disk, because all ones or all zeros for blocks tend to be special cases in the FTL to not even have blocks associated and just mark that it was all zeros/ones to avoid wear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> "This means that an empty USB drive (which mostly holds zeros)"

...maybe?

<comment><USER11> Default erase state for NAND memory is ones.

<comment><USER12> It's also true for most NOR memory and most earlier EEPROM and EPROM chips. This convention came from the original OTP memory - a "0" is created by burning the fuse to physically destroy an electrical link [0] on the chip, you can only change "1" to "0", not vice versa.

[0] In physical implementation details, however, an antifuse is actually more common than a fuse, i.e. breaking the link (e.g. by a high voltage pulse) creates a short, not an open.</comment></comment></comment>


startup matchmaker: build a service to recommend and facilitate startup mergers to make it more likely they would succeed - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> I did come across such a site but can't remember where - didn't bookmark it as it hadn't been executed very well.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Does such a thing exist?</comment>


AI's Biggest Danger Is So Subtle You Might Not Even Notice It - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/3055867/ais-biggest-danger-is-so-subtle-you-might-not-even-notice-it <comment><USER2> To me the biggest issue is lack of empathy. but, that applies to people and companies as well.</comment>