Dilbert on intentionally confusing pricing - <AUTHOR> http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/00000000/0000000/100000/00000/5000/800/105826/105826.strip.sunday.gif <comment><USER3> What a relief to see a dilbert.com link here that goes to an actual Dilbert comic, rather than Scott Adams blog.

(For my money, these few panels are more insightful and entertaining than any of the long dilbert.com posts that have been posted here in the past few weeks.)

</comment><comment><USER4> One of Scott Adams' great insights, but I'm surprised more people don't notice it. Any time you have a professional seller and an amateur buyer, confusion is the persuasion technique of choice.

Car dealerships institutionalized the practice decades ago in the form of the 'four-square worksheet', where they try to introduce as many variables as possible so that they have plenty of places to hide their margin. This is why car salesmen hate it when you don't bring in a trade-in or use in-house financing. It's hard to baffle someone when you're only negotiating a single number.

<comment><USER5> Funny story:

My wife is really smart, particularly with finance and the like (she's an academic accountant). So buying a car mostly involves me sitting around and playing on my phone while she works out the details.

So my wife goes in knowing to the dollar what she's going to pay. The car guy (certified used) attempts to obfuscate things by talking about the monthly payment. She must have told him 10 times that the monthly payment was irrelevant as far as she was concerned. The guy was desperate to introduce that monthly payment variable...it obfuscates things and anchors you on what you can afford as opposed to what your spending overall.

We ended up buying the car for exactly what she was going to pay (about 10% off the ask) using our own financing... that guy was clearly not real happy with how that turned out.

<comment><USER4> Yep, you'd think that an easy cash sale would be attractive to car salesmen, but it screws with their compensation system to a degree that they'd just as soon tell you to suck a lemon. I suspect the reason a lot of dealerships created 'Internet desks' to sell cars at invoice was to keep their salesmen focused on the deals where they could still bamboozle someone.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Would be funnier if it wasn't so true in a lot of areas (mobile phone operators spring to mind. I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but in the places I've lived in Europe, most operators have different pricing depending on time of day, day of week and the operator of the person you're calling(!))

<comment><USER7> That's actually motivated by various mechanisms. Phone usage peaks during the day and during the workweek, falls at night and the weekend. So they try to encourage usage during the off-periods by lowering price. Classic pricing for fixed capacity infrastructure. Similar to hotels, airlines, theaters.

Network operators have different transit deals with other operators, at varying prices, so that's why calls to different operators may have varying prices.

<comment><USER8> _Network operators have different transit deals with other operators, at varying prices, so that's why calls to different operators may have varying prices._

Disclaimer: I work in the carrier/service-provider facing side of the VoIP industry and have done a lot with inter-carrier reciprocal and access settlement in the US.

Be that as it may, passing the vicissitudes of such cost structures to the end-customer is a form of intentional obfuscation. It reflects a desire to bamboozle the customer, and also shift more risk onto them. For some reason, it works elsewhere in the world, but doesn't work in the US from a marketing perspective; your cell phone air time costs the same irrespectively of the jurisdiction you are calling, which can range from standard NECA tariff metro RBOCs to ultra-expensive rural ILECs wielding huge access charge forebearances (e.g. ye olde Iowa free conference calling scandal), and therefore, regardless of what the IXC hauler charges the mobile operator to get the call out of the Bell tandem and to the terminating LEC.

My point is, the variable cost structure of any non-trivial business has thousands of variables that can change on a monthly, daily, hourly or even per-minute basis. It is the job of any reasonable business to digest that through a risk management formula, statistical forecasts, etc. and arrive at a set of assumptions that can be presented into a standardised pricing structure accessible to the customer. The price can fluctuate based on market segmentation and salesmanship (airline tickets, enterprise software, etc.) but it cannot possibly involve a set of thousands of simultaneous equations that are up to the customer to (very improbably) mentally solve in an (improbably) adroit fashion. That is something only healthcare gets away with, as well as inter-business settlement regimes that have well-oiled processes for dealing with complex assessments.

Can you imagine if the bus fare changed hourly based on the precise availability of routes, drivers, who is out sick that day, how much overtime was owed last night (if applicable), etc?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> On a smaller scale:

A strange one I've noticed only in the last year or so is non-monotonic pricing on fountain soft drinks at places like gas station convenience stores. I'm not talking about the marginal ounce, but the total price: they'll have a 16oz cup for $1.29, 22oz for $1.49, and then 32oz for $0.99! The latter is featured with a big yellow sticker on the soda fountain, and maybe an outdoor poster. Of course, all of these are probably an order of magnitude higher than the input costs, but it's (intentionally?) confusing and disorienting. I've got to pay more for less, and more if I want the one that will fit properly in my cupholder.

<comment><USER10> my calculator here tells me that 32 fluid ounces (US) == 0.94l. Surely you don't have cups that hold almost a litre!?

<comment><USER11> Allow me to introduce you to the wonders of the Double Gulp. It's 1.9 liters of your favorite colored sugar juice, or Slurpee

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7-Eleven#The_Big_Gulp>

<comment><USER10> well, um... er... wow. I'm not sure how to respond to that at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Every store charges $199.99. The intention is to affect you differently than $200.

What would happen if a retailer said "We want a straight forward relationship, and not to manipulate you, so unlike the bad guys we are providing straight forward pricing"?

<comment><USER13> Not every store does ".99". The companies that charge ".99" or similar are trying to hook you in on a good deal, while the others that round it naturally are trying to hook you in on a good quality product. Since most consumer products are just pointless (shiny!) crap I think we see more of the ".99" used. :)

<comment><USER14> Some stores use the cent portion to encode extra information: 0.87 indicates a clearance item, 0.55 indicates a refurbished item, 0.20 indicates a damaged item, and so on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What on earth is going on in that URL?

<comment><USER16> Much better one: <http://dilbert.com/fast/2010-11-21/>

P.S. Dilbert's "fast" interface is as nice as any comic site on the web. Simple is the name of the game.

P.P.S. I love how the link to it is hidden in the page footer under the title "Linux/Unix"

<comment><USER17> Two years ago, when dilbert.com was redesigned, Adams talked about the Linux/Unix fast page in a blog post: [http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/04/dilb...](http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/04/dilbertcom- rede.html)

He doesn't explicitly say this, but I think the only way he could convince the owners of the site to have a stripped-down page was to say that the normal design was not usable on Linux. Certainly they want to push people to use the other features and spend money; neither of these things are pushed on the fast page.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm negotiating car insurance at the moment and see this pattern all over the industry. Policies are so elaborate and multi-faceted that they're almost impossible to compare. Intangibles like quality of customer service are also difficult to measure.

If someone's looking for an idea for a startup - Yelp for insurance companies would be a lifesaver for me right now.

</comment><comment><USER19> I noticed this at the grocery stores. They introduced odd fractions. One week something would 5 for $4 or 3 for $3.50 etc. Also they put the sale signs in black letters on red cardboard so they were very hard to read. And of course they placed expensive things at eye level and cheaper things less accessibly.

<comment><USER20> Just about every price label (near me, at least, in all grocery stores) will also include a price-per-quantity. Easy comparison, as long as one isn't measuring containers while another measures ounces.

<comment><USER21> The problem is that some grocery stores (or products, it could be either) use different quantities. For example, one product might be price per quart and another is price per gallon. I've even seen volume and weight being used for similar products.

<comment><USER22> I frequently shop by looking at the price per amount comparisons and it drives me crazy when you're looking at two different toothpastes and can't make an effective comparison.

It is my understanding that this meets the legal requirement, but also satisfies the business desire to confuse the customers trying to make a decision based on the greatest value for money.

<comment><USER23> Well then stop buying toothpaste by volume.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Nokia has pretty confusing numbering for it's phone ranges - <USER2> numbering hasn't usually coincided with a more feature-rich (better) phone. Another example of segmentation?

</comment><comment><USER25> The worse culprit of this I have seen is DSW.

They have color coded stickers that correspond to 30-70% off each item. So if you want to figure out how much it actually costs you have to do the calculation in your head.

What makes this so obscene is that they actually individually print the original price on that colored sticker; it's not like it would be any less convenient for them to put down the actual new price.

<comment><USER5> They do have giant charts at the end of every aisle that spells out basically every permutation possible. I don't think it's intentionally confusing as in the comic, however. They're trying to anchor you on "30% off!" rather than 30% off of $145 ($101.50). I've definitely seen people spend who are looking at two pairs of shoes who end up buying the more expensive pair just because it's some percentage off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I like how the web makes this kind of thing harder...

</comment><comment><USER27> reminds me of this whole AMD/Intel TDP/ACP/Max power/Sustained power. Making sure you are comparing apples to oranges...

</comment><comment><USER28> I noticed this at Target while wandering the aisles today - 3 for $8 of X? How many people do that math in their head?

<comment><USER29> I've become so used to this practice in grocery stores that I "do that math" rather compulsively when I see such labels.

I'll admit that the average consumer won't bother, but it's really not hard:

8\3 is 2, that's pretty obvious. So you're buying three items for $2.xx each, so $6 is allocated, leaving $2 unaccounted for. Again, three things, so you're adding 1/3 of each remaining dollar to the individual price - 2x1/3 is 2/3 or .66.

$2.66 per item. It's really simple math, but again, the average consumer probably just can't be bothered to do it. Part of the problem is people who have just convinced themselves that math is "too hard."

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I can't believe no one has mentioned payment gateways yet. First example that came to mind for me.</comment>


41 Hacks in 24 Hours, Results from Music Hack Day Boston - <AUTHOR> http://musichackdayboston.pbworks.com/Projects2010

<comment><USER2> are any of these completed?

<comment><USER3> Yes its over, many are 'done', but they're not all web apps, so some were just in person demos and performances.

Mine is online here: <http://labs.brianstoner.com/paintsamples>

It only works in new Firefox 4 beta cause it uses the new audio API.</comment></comment>


Running Lisp in Production (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://tech.grammarly.com/blog/running-lisp-in-production <comment><USER2> I like lisp as a programming language.

But, this article gives one of the reasons for avoiding its use in a high performance production environment. Provisioning a VM with over 25GB RAM for an application which requires about 4GB of it is a huge waste of resources.

While the common wisdom on HN is that for most applications, developer costs more than physical resources. Physical resources still cost money.

Initially list might be a good option for development velocity. But, over time as the application matures, adding features becomes more complicated and the velocity goes down anyway. Shifting to something which reduces costs by upto 6x might be worth it.

<comment><USER3> I wrote some high-performance lisp applications in production. My main was was a threaded queue worker, driven off beanstalkd, that processed large volumes of data. This was highly successful and didn't require overly-provisioned servers (was using CCL/linux x64/linode VPS).

That said, I don't think I'll ever use lisp for front-facing web stuff again. I wrote cl-async, and afterwards and used it in production in a few places, then a bit later started using node heavily. The tooling for CL is just not there. Quicklisp is great, but not being able to pick and choose package versions is limiting, and having to rewrite every single thing for async was a pain (since CL doesn't have continuations, any sort of async that avoids CPS is impossible). I was hoping I would get more community support on cl-async, and I did get many hands helping, but eventually it just became too much to maintain. So if you're doing network stuff on CL, it's probably best to just use threaded, which IMO just doesn't handle the same amount of load evented does, at least when dealing with web APIs.

One thing I used lisp for briefly which I want to do again soon is game dev. Being able to redefine/fix portions of your program while it's running is fantastic, especially when you have huge amounts of state to deal with like you do in games. I wouldn't exactly call that running CL in production, though.

<comment><USER4> FWIW, Qlot solves the version pinning problem. Not to discredit your experience, just wanted to say that there are solutions today for the same issue.

I'm interested exactly what the pain points are with CPS. Do you mean manually rewriting in continuations is tedious or is there a more insidious issue. I haven't tried writing async code in Lisp but macros would appear to eliminate continuation-writing-by-hand.

<comment><USER3> > macros would appear to eliminate continuation-writing-by-hand

They don't =]. There's cl-cont, but it's like building a house on a foundation of toothpicks. Not to discount the work the author put in, but you can only do very specific things with it, and last time I looked, error/exception handling was pretty much completely missing.

> I'm interested exactly what the pain points are with CPS

Basically, for example, if I'm going to convert cl-postgres to use async, I have to rip out the protocol parsing from the networking (they are often globbed together) then I have to replace the networking with async and tie it back into the protocol parsing. This in itself isn't too bad, but then anything that calls the new async cl-postgres has to be converted to expect async...all the way up. This can be somewhat alleviated by promises ([https://orthecreedence.github.io/blackbird/](https://orthecreedence.github.io/blackbird/)) but they still don't change the fact that _the entire stack is unwound once you call into async_.

Continuations would allow building green threads/coroutines which would eliminate CPS and allow you to preserve your stack while calling into async, but CL is pretty much written in stone to not have continuations (or coroutines et al) at this point.

Qlot looks handy, thanks for the tip.

<comment><USER5> > _then I have to replace the networking with async and tie it back into the > protocol parsing. This in itself isn 't too bad, but then anything that > calls the new async cl-postgres has to be converted to expect async...all > the way up._

Isn't this the very consequence of going async? I'm reminded of the article on this recently featured here[1]. Once you introduce async, you poison everything up to the event loop (which, with usual async implementations, you don't even see or control).

[0] - [http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2015/02/01/what-color- is-y...](http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2015/02/01/what-color-is-your- function/) \+ [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16732948](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16732948)

<comment><USER3> > Isn't this the very consequence of going async?

Like I mentioned, depends on the language features. If it has coroutines/green threads/continuations, you can use async without unwinding the entire stack. CL will probably always have this problem, unless the bigger implementations independently decide to implement the necessary building blocks (which they probably won't).

Try explaining that to me 5 years ago, though.

<comment><USER5> If it's about avoiding stack unwinding, then maybe you could hack an implementation with the condition/restart system? This is the one stack- preserving feature in CL.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > While the industry waits for LightTable and similar tools to mature, Lisp > programmers have been silently and haughtily enjoying such capabilities with > SLIME for many years.

Were a significant number of Lispers really waiting for LightTable to be usable for them?

<comment><USER7> Clojure guy here, FWIW

The big deal with tools like LightTable is it's much easier for newcomers to start working on projects. I understand why a user wouldn't want to learn both a language and an editor. One huge issue we struggle with emacs/slime as the editor of choice. Personally I'm a VIM guy, so I got it working there, but that's after I spent some time deep in Vimscript and fiddling with plugins. It's a lot to ask for people that are new, or those that have an editor of choice that isn't supported.

<comment> cup-of-tea Did you know emacs has several vi implementations? Many people think they are the best versions of vi.

<comment><USER8> Except for lisp -- emacs vi implementations don't usually play as well with parenthesis as native emacs, which is superb for lisp coding.

<comment><USER9> you're wrong - Spacemacs offers very nice tools for structural editing out of the box and including clever-parens layer. You can also use Parinfer or Lispy. You can customize things to your liking using combination of Paredit and Smartparens.

<comment><USER8> Only tried evil (which I think is the Spacemacs default?) with paredit and while paredit is a truly stellar, evil mode does not play well with it. Perhaps the other paren tools you've mentioned work better with evil? With paredit, evil editing can delete only part of a paren leaving unmatched problems.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > Fortunately, this obscure Stack overflow question helped > [[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/442556/spec-for-junit- > xm...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/442556/spec-for-junit-xml- > output)] — we ended up having to build this into our own testing library > should-test.

> closed as off-topic by kleopatra, Martijn Pieters Jun 19 '15 at 19:55

All the best SO questions get closed.

<comment><USER11> Seems completely justified to be closed. Although this does seem to fall in scope as it would be very difficult to locate without knowing exactly what you are after.

<comment><USER12> Which is why it's probably fair that they're closed but not deleted.

<comment><USER11> There really does need to be a tag for that kind of question.

Something along the lines of I'm looking for a spec about X, but I haven't had any luck finding it.

<comment><USER13> It's a bit of a tricky one as it may get downvoted / closed, but another approach is to try and avoid asking for the resource and ask something like

What is the specification for X?

or

What is the name of the specification for X?

or

Is there a specification that defines the output of X?

While most of the answers will likely link to a resource, technically you didn't ask for an offsite resource, however it may be seen as too broad , or still may get closed for asking for offsite resources.

<comment><USER14> To avoid making it too broad, don't ask "what is the specification of X" where X is the whole darn can of beans. Ask about some small example instance which falls under the X definition: what is the exact meaning of this Y object/syntax/whatever, that can be input to system X?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


CEOs Don't Answer Job Ads - <AUTHOR> https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ceos-dont-answer-job-ads-why-do-you-liz-ryan

<comment><USER2> What a horribly short, vague, woo-woo and hand-wavy bit of fluff-nothing.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you've read her other stuff, as I have, it hangs together a bit more, but I agree, this isn't as strong as it should be. Whoops.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here's a better example: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2015/04/05/recruiting- is...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2015/04/05/recruiting-isnt-hard-we- make-it-hard/)

submitted by me a few months ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9340358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9340358)</comment></comment></comment>


First Ever Sub-1min [Human] Super Mario World Speedrun - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-spFoon7klA <comment><USER2> There does not exist a world where this is still playing the game for me. This sport should be called "hack run" and be considered different from traditional playing the game.

When I play the game with friends and family the skill is in using to the best of our ability the naturally perceived rules of the game.

Using your controller to input bits of data directly into the memory using a bug in the software is completely different sport.

<comment><USER3> There are different categories for speedruns. This is any%.

There's usually a "no major glitches" category, which shows more of the main game. In SMW this is called either 96 exits or 11 exits. Those are actually the default categories that are most heavily run from what it looks like.

See [http://speedrun.com/smw](http://speedrun.com/smw)

<comment><USER3> Or phrased differently: There are different kinds of art. You might not like each and every single type of art, but they're still part of art.

<comment><USER4> is art defined by intent or interpretation?

<comment><USER5> You can never really know another persons intent, you can only guess at it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To clarify, the description says "Using a new route I created, I executed the first ever sub-1min Super Mario World credits warp speedrun" \- where "credits warp" is the critical piece missing from the HN title.</comment>


Bezos: A CEO Who Can Write (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://mondaynote.com/bezos-a-ceo-who-can-write-2f368ee36599 <comment><USER2> "The diversity of products demands that we employ modern regression techniques like trained random forests of decision trees to flexibly incorporate thousands of product attributes at rank time….Now, if the eyes of some shareowners dutifully reading this letter are by this point glazing over, I will awaken you by pointing out that, in my opinion, these techniques are not idly pursued — they lead directly to free cash flow."

I often myself hating Amazon for what I see as a potentially cancerous machine of economic consolidation. Still, can't help but appreciate this mans vision. Very prescient of him. I find stepping back to get a systematic view of things extremely difficult. The box really does trap you. Bezos should be praised for his ability to do this with a company and product as large and deep as Amazon. His attention to detail and his ability to synthesize has clearly paid off big for Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER3> It always shocked me how bad most people were at writing having completed a university degree. Just a simple ability to state a claim and then explain why it is true is often out of reach.

<comment><USER4> Writing was never part of my physics/CS degree, and I wouldn't have expected it to be.

I did learn to write later by participating in internet forums like this one.

<comment><USER5> Was there no labs / project component that you needed to do lab reports or academic paper-style writeups for? I did joint Maths-Physics which was mostly theoretical and still had a fair amount of (technical) writing to do as part of my degree.

<comment><USER4> There was the occasional one. I stumbled through them. There was very little focus on that side.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wish one of Amazon's "Principles" were openness/transparency, because I think it'd be great to see some of the _internal_ memos Bezos writes to colleagues and how they debate their thinking in writing. Amazon has always been a "skate where the puck is going" kind of company, unrivaled for customer obsession, and I think it'd be great to see their thinking on things like the Whole Foods acquisition, the Fire flop, the surprising growth of AWS, the future of UPS/FedEx, Kindles in a multi-device world, last mile drone delivery, surprising stickiness of Prime, entry into display ad server market, among any number of other topics. I imagine internal Amazon mailing lists for execs are like a rich archive of Stratechery posts but written by hundreds of smart thinkers/writers (and perhaps moderated by Bezos himself!)

<comment><USER7> I'm told that Amazon meetings are focused around a prepared white paper on the subject at hand with 10 minutes of document reading at the start of the meeting. I find this idea fairly provocative and I'd love to see some of the documents in question.

<comment><USER8> Works good :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> >There was no centralized repository of all the letters, so I decided to collect all of them here. I'll keep updating this list every year. Let me know your feedback/ideas regarding this collection.

This is bullshit, there are many sites hosting the letters. Literally the first google hit [1].

[1] [https://www.cbinsights.com/research/bezos-amazon- shareholder...](https://www.cbinsights.com/research/bezos-amazon-shareholder- letters/)

<comment><USER10> There's also a Kindle book compilation of many of them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> One thing Tim Ferriss likes to talk about is how a difficult writing class he took lead to improved grades in all of his other classes, and he think it's attributed to the clarity in which he cultivated, and evaluated thoughts.

<comment><USER12> Did he ever mention the name of the class?

<comment><USER11> I don't remember the name, but the teacher for the class was a famous nonfiction author John McPhee[0], and I believe you needed to apply, or win a lottery to get in the class.

John McPhee wrote "Levels of the Game"

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> ...clear directives to upper management that workers' attempts to secure living wages and humane workplaces will not be tolerated, and that Rule of Acquisition number 211 must be rigorously adhered to at all times.

<comment><USER14> Thanks. I had not heard of these before. For anyone else interested: [https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition](https://memory- alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rules_of_Acquisition)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Amazon Prime subscriptions have topped 100M

I'm not surprised. I had trouble stopping them giving me free subscriptions for a week or a month at a time. The kicker is it automatically rolls over into a paid subscription so I need to keep my wits about me in case I've been signed up.

I wrote to them many times saying I don't want to be signed up to Prime. They always apologise and cancel my subscription but then it happens again. The only thing that seems to have worked is removing my credit card.

<comment><USER16> > The kicker is it automatically rolls over into a paid subscription

This is how I wound up an Audible subscriber for two years without knowing. I only found out when the card I had on file with Audible (& Amazon) expired and they charged my sister's card that she had used _once_ on my Amazon Prime account and had since been deleted as a payment method.

I happened to be in the middle of a year-long backpacking trip at the time otherwise I'm sure I would have needed to update my card info with Amazon for one reason or another and then I wonder if I ever would have noticed the Audible charges at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Links to all letters: [https://medium.com/@hooda/every-jeff-bezos-letter-to- shareho...](https://medium.com/@hooda/every-jeff-bezos-letter-to-shareholders- since-1997-b3cb57914cab)

</comment><comment><USER18> Discussed at the time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16955035](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16955035)

</comment><comment><USER19> Wish I hadn't read that Prime is going to $119 from $99. Maybe I'll start doing the free shipping thing instead.

<comment><USER20> It already has. This article came out last August.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> How can you make sure its not ghostwriting

<comment><USER22> In 1997? when he was still riding his old battered Toyota?

<comment><USER23> Yeah, don't believe the hype. He studied at Princeton, worked for years at fintech, became Project Manager at a bank, and then V.P of a hedge fund, and he also got $300,000 from his parents to invest in his new company.

This wasn't a rags to riches story...

<comment><USER24> 300k -> 125b is still staggering growth. All though, Andrew Carnegie still has him beat (in terms of inflation-adkusted wealth and starting position).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> The article was written by the founder of BeBOX and BeOS

</comment><comment><USER26> It may seem surprising that a corporate executive is able to read and write, but research shows that literacy among CEOs is rapidly increasing. According to the IMF, executive literacy rates are on target to pass 50% by as early as 2022. Of course, there are still many challenges to overcome, but I think we can agree that Jeff's story here is an inspiration to many around the world.

<comment><USER27> Just £5 can provide a Fortune 500 CEO with a months' supply of writing materials. Text WORD to 089343 to donate today.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> i think it is best not to idolise anyone, especially a figurehead like the subject of this article. This company's behaviour towards its employees is notorious, how did the style of writing help those people?</comment>


Hack of U.S. government compromised millions of security files - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/chinese-hack-of-government-network-compromises-security-clearance-files/2015/06/12/9f91f146-1135-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html <comment><USER2> So this means the NSA will be dismantled as a complete failure and total waste of monies spent, right?

<comment><USER3> DHS is responsible for securing dot-gov, including their databases. It's considered a "federal civilian network".

USCYBERCOM is responsible for dot-mil, with the help of the NSA.

<comment><AUTHOR> Documents related to security clearances fall on which side of the hacked fence?

<comment><USER3> It's the Department of Homeland Security's responsibility, but that doesn't mean that anyone necessarily failed at their job. Just that it's a very difficult job.

The NSA will certainly contribute tools and expertise when needed to any US government agency/department.

The DHS tool "Einstein" is an intrusion detection system that detected the breach.

CIA records are assumed to not be held by the OPM, for the reason that they are the ones that are most sensitive if stolen.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple Rejected My App for Using Google Sign-In - <AUTHOR> I created an app named Sightings https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sightings-for-pokemon-go/id1153442744?ls=1&mt=8 which is a companion app for Pokemon go where users can report sightings of monsters and those nearby would be able to see them or get notifications if the app is running in the background.
I submitted an update which was rejected by Apple because I used Google Sign-In. I thought it was the obvious choice for authentication methods since all Pokemon GO users will have one and it didn't violate an app guidelines so I responded using the resolution center.
I got a call today from Apple and try as I might I could not convince them that my using Google Sign-In does not link to Niantic or the Pokemon Company and you don't need to use the same account you use for Pokemon GO or even have a Pokemon GO account to use my app. They said if I switch to Facebook login or created my own that would fix the problem.
The token I get from Google when a user signs-in does not allow me to connect to Niantic's API even if I wanted to but this was lost on the app reviewer.
I submitted an appeal to the review board and will post an update once its complete. <comment><USER2> > I submitted an update which was rejected by Apple because I used Google > Sign-In

Friendly reminder you are at the whim of Apple Store admins who like to play the role of gatekeeper. I got tired of developing apps for them only to have them rejected for pithy reasons. I stress the word 'for', because it really felt like I was trying to please the Apple Store, and not my users.

<comment><USER3> I had better experience. Yes, the first app i've tried to publish was rejected after 7 days, but after adjustig to the quality standarst, I had no problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "try as I might I could not convince them that my using Google Sign-In does not link to Niantic or the Pokemon Company"

Seems they're getting stick on this point not that you're trying to use Google sign-in

<comment><AUTHOR> They specifically said if I removed Google Sign-in and replaced it with Facebook sign-in or something of my own I'd be OK.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I got a reply to my appeal today.

"While we understand your app is using a Google login, it still provides access to Pokemon services without the necessary permission. It would be appropriate to ensure that your app does not include the Google/Pokemon login."

My response was this. "Somehow the reviewers seem to think that because I use Google Sign-In I can access all the data from any other app that uses Google Sign-In which I can't. I can no more get Pokemon data than I can access the users Gmail. My app only asks for basic information which is just the username (i.e. Ronald A. Dowty)."

</comment><comment><USER5> Please do post what happens now that you've raised the issue with the resolution centre. I look forward to seeing how they justify this.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just got another call from Apple. This was the same person as last time and I'm still being told I cannot use Google Sign-In with my app because Pokemon GO uses it and they somehow think it related. They repeatedly said this is final and there are no further appeals an I will have to replace Google Sign- In with something of my own. I asked why Pokemon Go could use Google Sign-In and they said "because it's related". I asked them to explain that and all they would do is repeat "because it's related"...

</comment><comment><USER6> Welcome to the walled garden of love. At least this walled garden "just works".

<comment><USER7> I'll take this walled garden any day over Android's open community garden where the neighborhood stray cats have turned it into their personal litter box.

<comment><USER8> Are you referring to app quality? probability of malware? OEM clutter?

Some of these are overblown so it would be useful to clarify.

<comment><USER7> The amount of garbage and malware on the android app store. This includes fake apps trying to trick people makes the entire ecosystem toxic for any non- technical person (ie, someone who is also likely to click ads that fake UI elements like "download" buttons)

The Apple "app review process" is worth it for the results.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A beginners guide to using Python for performance computing - <AUTHOR> http://www.scipy.org/PerformancePython How fast we get with python.  By the way i m a perl geek:) <comment><USER2> I once tried taking one of my C++ simulation codes (dealing with diagonalization of big memory-hogging matrices) and rewriting it using scipy. It was a _lot_ slower.

I don't have a good idea of exactly what situations you'll find scipy being significantly slower than C++. Maybe it was the fact I was playing with thousands-by-thousands arrays. But I do worry that there are folks out there burning millions of CPU hours running scipy without realizing that they really ought to be burning mere 10^5s of CPU hours.

<comment><USER3> I often wonder why there is so little interest in a high level language that would compile to pure C++, with a syntax that makes code more succinct and friendlier, just like CoffeeScript compiles to JavaScript. We have a clear problem: higher level languages make programmers more productive, but they have performance issues. Because of those, developers that need performance fall back to C++ (look at videogame development, C++ is there to stay).

So why not make a language that is high level, but compiles to pure, cross platform, C++? Think of the productivity win: a higher level language that rarely needs optimizations. Obviously it would have to come with some lower level semantics, like memory management (although it could maybe be solved somehow like Apple did with Automatic Reference Counting, which is basically a preprocessor) or static typing (although the compiler can sometimes be instructed to guess the type, see the := operator in ooc [1]), but even if some lower level semantics are unavoidable, it still seems like a huge win. Yet every time I saw the idea mentioned online it's been either mostly ignored or treated as stupid idea, and the very few projects that attempted to go in that direction never took off. Maybe I'm missing something? If so I'd love to know what it is.

No matter how fancy and awesome higher level languages are, we keep going back to C++ for performance, and that's probably never going to change (at least until processors are stupidly fast). So why not make it easier? The CoffeeScript approach has largely been proven to work.

[1] <http://docs.ooc-lang.org/language/syntax.html#declarations> (note that ooc is a good step in this direction, it compiles to C99, but then takes step back: it depends on a garbage collector)

<comment><USER4> The weave bits, and Pyrex bits, found in this article are actually snippets of C/C++ written inline in the Python code (or very simplified Python), and able to access variables and such defined in the Python earlier (with caveats and when used with care), and later Python code is able to use the resulting compiled functions.

So, it's high level Python code, except when you need to write low level, super fast code.

The reality of making a very high level language compile down to high performance C/C++ is a much harder problem than "compiling" CoffeeScript to JavaScript. Both are quite high level, and CoffeeScript is merely very concise syntactic sugar for a number of common patterns in JavaScript, and maybe a few higher level constructs tacked on for good measure. But, JavaScript is effectively Scheme with C-like syntax; it was designed to be built up in this way, just like Lisp and Scheme (and it's only the lack of control over the parser and syntax that forces it to be a compiler at all; all the capabilities are there in JavaScript: closures, first class functions, code as data, etc.). Building DSLs is what this kind of language is _for_. C and C++ is not for building DSLs, and you don't magically get C performance by converting high level code to low level code.

One example is B::C, a Perl to C compiler: <http://www- rohan.sdsu.edu/doc/perldoc-html/B/C.html>

In short, the CoffeeScript approach is not at all comparable to a high-level to low-level compiler. It is comparable to a, say, Lua to Perl compiler, perhaps. From one very high level language to another very high level language.

It's not lack of interest. Weave and Pyrex, which are discussed in this article, are proof positive that people want the speed of low level and the convenience of high level languages. It's just not possible to get it via the means you've described. JITs seem to be the currently fashionable way to get closer to that goal, though it's still miles away.

Oh, and there _are_ Lisp compilers that compile to lower level languages like C or compile very fast Lisp. Lisp is quite high level. So, when it goes fast, it is impressive. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know whether they could be used in the same contexts of SciPy, Weave, Pyrex, etc. I imagine there are big math libraries for Lisp, though...and they're probably pretty fast.

As for ooc and garbage collection: How would you write a compiler for a high level garbage collected language without including a garbage collector? And, do you believe that garbage collection is the primary reason dynamic languages are slower than compiled non-GC languages? (Hint: It is not. GC is very far down the list of resource users in every garbage collected language I'm aware of.)

<comment><USER3> _It's just not possible to get it via the means you've described._

Why not? it might harder to implement than coffeescript, but ooc is proof that it's possible. Remove GC and dependent libs, and you still have a substancially higher level language than C (or C++).

 _As for ooc and garbage collection: How would you write a compiler for a high level garbage collected language without including a garbage collector?_

I didn't say it should be garbage collected: _Obviously it would have to come with some lower level semantics, like memory management_. The coffeescript approach is it shouldn't have dependencies. By high level, I meant higher level than c++. it will always be lower level than a language like python, without dependencies we can't escape all the semantics underlying in the target language. That said like I mentioned before, memory management could possibly be handled by something similar to Apple's ARC (and to answer your last question, I don't think it's that black and white, look at how Apple is investing on ARC instead of GC; also GC's unpredictability make it a no-go for low level routines in videogames).

<comment><USER4> "Obviously it would have to come with some lower level semantics, like memory management."

Why? Garbage collection is nowhere near the top reason high level languages are slow, and there are GC languages that are fast.

"By high level, I meant higher level than c++. it will always be lower level than a language like python"

So, Java or C#, then? JIT languages that can be as fast as C/C++ in some circumstances, and faster in others (and slower in still others). And you don't even have to manage your own memory, so it's seemingly higher level than you're asking for.

I think GC is fine for high performance computing. Might not be fine for real time systems or games, but that's not what this article is about. It's about high performance scientific computing in Python. Having a GC sweep every now and then, even at unpredictable times, isn't going to cause things to come to a crashing halt or ruin the performance of a batch run.

PyPy might be something you'd enjoy reading about. It is an alternative implementation of Python (mostly written in Python, and using a JIT), with the goal of being fast like C. This may be the closest thing to a CoffeeScript like tool where the goal is to make a very high level language faster through translation or "compilation" or whatever.

<comment><USER3> _"Obviously it would have to come with some lower level semantics, like memory management."

Why?_

Once again: this approach means zero dependencies. And in a way, you answered it yourself:

 _Might not be fine for real time systems or games_

And there are more examples where it might not be fine, here's a major one: building a C++ library. It's true, this article is not about real time systems (I do apologize for diverging...), but this language could be one solution to problems approached in this article (it would replace the C++ example).

I am interested in projects like shedskin or pypy, but they have dependencies. The bottom line to me is: a higher level language that compiles to C++ code with zero dependencies. Think about it: this language could be used for any application, deployed in virtually any codebase and any system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Finally, for comparison we implemented this in simple C++ (nothing fancy) > without any Python. One would expect that the C++ code would be faster but > surprisingly, not by much! Given the fact that it's so easy to develop with > Python, this speed reduction is not very significant.

This is the problem I have with Python+Scipy v. MATLAB/C++/YourFavoritePlatform comparisons. I agree that Python code can be clean and clear, but once you start to worry about vectorizing, inlining, manual loop optimizations, or a C or Fortran FFI, then you end up with the same solution that say MATLAB users have to deal with by writing mex functions in C.

Granted there are differences between Language A v. Language B, one may be more concise or their functions are _even higher-order_ than the other's. Point is, once you go down the road of "let's optimize this dynamic language script," your choices are not that different. You lose the "ease" of developing with Python, and if you really performance then it's ultimately inferior to just writing it in C++ or even Fortran.

<comment><USER6> I think you're forgetting the scenario where you have a lot of Python code and only a small part is performance critical. You can speed that part up with something like Cython, and directly integrate it with the rest of the code. If you would have to rewrite it all in C++ it would be a tedious and buggy process, the same goes for ad-hoc interfacing with text files.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cython is pretty excellent for this sort of thing. The article contains a link to a Cython solution written by Travis Oliphant showing how concise (and fast) it is.

I just used Cython to speed up a non-vectorisable bit of code in a Gibbs sampling algorithm and I was impressed by the performance increase and ease of use.

</comment><comment><USER8> I wrote an implementation of this using Python's array module, and doing manual index calculations for PyPy: [http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/hh8uj/a_beginne...](http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/hh8uj/a_beginners_guide_to_using_python_for_performance/c1vgqdo) . We'll soon have NumPy multi-dimensional arrays and thus can just run that code, but for now... we're doing OK I think.

</comment><comment><USER9> One of the advantages to implementing these types of problems in C++ is you can use compile-time optimizations, often resulting in 2-3x speed-up.

The results may be a lot different when compiling with just -O2 -ffast-math.</comment>


LibreOffice 4.0: The big changes will be under the hood - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/libreoffice-4-0-the-big-changes-will-be-under-the-hood-7000010383/ <comment><USER2> The (in-progress) 4.0 changelog is at <https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/4.0>

It's nice to see a software project keeping with a sane version number system (major.minor.release; major number change = architectural changes), and it's nice to see them working on fixing a pile of bugs and trying some new approaches in their architecture, instead of just introducing a meaningless UI change.

<comment><USER3> Major version number = architectural change doesn't make a whole heap of sense from a consumer perspective.

<comment><USER4> Sure it does.

I signals major change that could cause breakage and new bugs.

<comment><USER5> That only makes sense for users who are programmers. Non-technical users have got no idea what you're talking about. All they see is the UI and the presented feature sets.

<comment><USER2> What kind of version numbering would make more sense for non-technical users?

<comment><USER6> Year-Index.

LibreOffice 2012-1 is the first release in 2012, 2012-2 is the second release, 2013-1 is the first in 2013, etc.

Depending on release schedule, the second number can be the month (like Ubuntu) or dropped altogether.

<comment><USER7> Microsoft was doing that with their consumer software for a while. The biggest issue is that people think the software is out of date as soon as the next year comes along.

<comment><USER8> With an actively developed and rapidly changing piece of free software, version 2012 actually would be outdated (and possibly insecure) by mid-2013. If the perception of outdatedness causes more users to upgrade in a timely fashion, I think it might be a good thing. Especially since you don't need to pay anybody $300+ for the new version.

Having said that, LibreOffice seriously needs a more seamless update experience for consumers. Re-downloading a 100MB installer and re-installing every time a minor update is published gets tired rather quickly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I would've really liked them to introduce a new more modern UI with this release. I like these UI mock-ups here, with the left sidebar. I think that's a good idea (the symbols above should be in white, too, though):

<http://pauloup.deviantart.com/gallery/28216273#/d37dx4a>

The light one looks good, too:

[http://pauloup.deviantart.com/art/LibreOffice-UI-Mock-up- lig...](http://pauloup.deviantart.com/art/LibreOffice-UI-Mock-up- light-1-193805631)

If I were them I'd try to release the new UI in the same time with the release for mobile, and try to make it a bit more unified, at least in style, since tablets and PC's might need their UI's optimized for each.

<comment><USER10> I think that they are being very smart, fixing the plumbing so they can then make fundamental UI changes.

However, I don't agree with the UI mockups. They look very, very confusing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The screenshots at <https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Development/WidgetLayout> show pretty poor results with the new layout. Hopefully things will get better before it ships.

Also: they use GTK tools for designing the UI, but are they actually using GTK to implement it? Is its Mac support good enough now?

<comment><USER12> I have no real knowledge of this situation, but I guarantee they are not using GTK everywhere. Cross platform support (especially with GTK3) is not nearly good enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> My understanding of LibreOffice was that it existed as a fork purely as a response to Oracle exerting excessive control over the project. Now that Oracle has relinquished OpenOffice.org, can anyone shed some light on what the stated goals of LibreOffice actually are? How are they distinct from OpenOffice.org?

<comment><USER14> I guess you stopped after the first four paragraphs. The fifth reads:

"In other words, LibreOffice is becoming more than just an OpenOffice fork, but an independent office suite in its own right. At the same time, OpenOffice has been struggling. OpenOffice makes no bones that "Volunteers [are] needed in all areas"."

<comment><USER15> Veering off the question of LibreOffice's motivation, that paragraph struck me as bizarre. I've yet to see an open source project that _didn't_ want volunteers in all areas.

So I clicked through to check the citation for "OpenOffice has been struggling" is even more bizarre, as it's a link back to Zdnet with info supposedly about IBM withdrawing support...whose only support is _another_ link back into Zdnet, and it's rebutted below by OpenOffice's Rob Weir, whose comments were then incorporated into the article.

It does seem like Zdnet are trying really hard to manufacture controversy here.

<comment><USER14> The giant red plea for volunteers on openoffioce.org is a little odd.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> We'll see. If revision tracking finally works properly (ie. interchange of Word 97 .doc files with revision tracking doesn't just end up corrupting horribly) then it might be useful. Until then, it's not a usable substitute for Word. I've ended up bringing work home to edit on Windows, because LibreOffice trashed my document.

Of course it would be nice if we didn't use Word format (and obsolete Word format at that), in this way, but that's life in corporateville. Engineering shall toe the party line.

<comment><USER17> I just wish they would spend a release _just_ on the import / export filter for Microsoft Word. It is still pretty horrible overall.

<comment><USER18> It's impossible (without an AGI :) ) to reproduce all the features and bugs in something as complex as MS Word, so import/export will never be perfect. Just have a look at the "standard" docx format specification.

<comment><USER8> Well, nobody's expecting 100% perfection anyway. Even if they just squashed a dozen well-known bugs such as revision tracking, that would be a major accomplishment.

<comment><USER19> How to switch on revision tracking in LO: <http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/3961/track-changes/>

Now if you're saying it's buggy as hell, that's a different matter :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This doesn't bode well for the new release.

New releases after a redesign always have bugs, and since there are no user visible changes, it's all negative and no positive for the users.

I'll be skipping this release for at least half a year.

<comment><USER19> This is the thing the project actually recommends: use the shiny new version if you want new and shiny, use the previous version if you want stability.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> My prediction: The Apache OpenOffice project will die. Seriously, if you had to pick between the two, which would you choose?

<comment><USER20> Thought it's dead already. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> >they'll be using a dual licensed approach with LGPL 3.0 and the Mozilla Public License (MPL) Version 2.0.

>On Linux, however, LibreOffice will continue to be under the LPGLv3.

I am confused, are the licenses (LGPL & MPL) for source code? the small part of linux specific code is LGPL-licensed (not MPL)?

</comment><comment><USER10> I love the feature list at <https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/4.0>

Seriously, LibreOffice is starting to feel very advanced! I'm wondering how long it will take before it will surpass Microsoft Office!

<comment><USER22> This aint gonna happen.

<comment><USER10> Why is that?

<comment><USER18> IMHO there are two reasons this is unlikely:

1\. MS has always been the king of "on paper" features. That was an important reason back in the 80s and 90s for Word, Excel, PP to win the market.

2\. MS Office is by far the most profitable software product in the world, while Libre Office is not the coolest open source project. Which means a lot more developers on the MS side.

<comment><USER10> I didn't say "the most popular" Office product, I said "the most advanced".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> The logo (i.e. turtle graphics) integration seems really cool (in a geeky way):

<http://libreoffice.hu/2012/11/29/logo/>

[http://libreoffice.hu/2012/12/12/logo-for-desktop- publishing...](http://libreoffice.hu/2012/12/12/logo-for-desktop-publishing/)

</comment><comment><USER24> LibreOffice: Going to be very a very good desktop office-suite _real soon now_ , just need to sort out these technical issues. Call back in a year, will you?

Ofcourse, in a year, you'll all be using web-based office suites anyway.

<comment><USER25> I switched from MS Office to LibreOffice for lightweight document work and I'm very satisfied with it.

I see no advantage in web-based office suites. LibreOffice + Dropbox is all our small office needs.

<comment><USER24> Good for you. I see more people moving from on-premise Office solutions to the cloud than the other way around though.

If you are doing any sort of collaboration across offices, Google docs documents just seems to spring up by themselves, because _nobody_ is able to manage an email-stream of documents in various states of updates.

Personally I've moved most (not all) my stuff to Google docs, and apart from Excel, which still rules the spreadsheets, I find it making me much more productive.

I can access _and update_ my documents on all my computers _and_ on all my mobile devices on the go.

No desktop office + dropbox solution makes that painless enough to be viable.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Website name containing 'shit'. Bad idea? - <AUTHOR>

Specifically shitlist.domain. Should I go for something less... conspicuous? <comment><USER2> Anecdote: when I tried to buy AdWords for my "No BULLSHIT guide to math and physics" google said I needed a special permission.

Then I talked to someone on the phone and they said they cannot have shit in the advert, not on the page the user would go to after clicking --- the person on the phone said I should change the book title or use SH*T.

So yeah... prolly a bad ideas ...

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Unless its a parody site, yeah, prolly not a great idea.

<comment><AUTHOR> More like an "offenders" list.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like a lawsuit magnet then, so I'd suggest something a bit more neutral.</comment></comment></comment>


Terrorist plots, helped along by the F.B.I. - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html

<comment><AUTHOR> TLDR: FBI infiltrates would-be terrorist cells and networks, helps them plan and execute attacks, substitutes duds for live explosives, and arrests them when they've demonstrated willingness and ability to go through with it.</comment>


Disney stops making video games in house – insiders reveal what went wrong - <AUTHOR> http://www.techinsider.io/inside-disneys-messy-video-game-business-2016-5 <comment><USER2> Acquiring and trashing companies is seriously annoying. Disney did this to about a half dozen game companies. Google is doing it to about a half dozen robotics companies. In both cases, the acquisitions were initially seen as positive. In both cases, the parent company had no clue what to do with what they bought.

I have a friend who works at a company recently acquired by Microsoft, a company whose product was not Microsoft-oriented. I wrote to her "You've been acquired by the Borg - now what?" She hopes the company doesn't get trashed.

Another case that irks me is QNX, the microkernel OS. They were bought by Harmon, which is mostly a car stereo company. That didn't work out, and Harmon sold them to Blackberry. Blackberry has a clue technically, but is stuck with a business model in decline. Meanwhile, a really good OS is in limbo. Not dead; many important embedded systems use QNX. The reliability is much better than either Windows or Linux, partly because the kernel is small. As a result, it's actually been debugged.

<comment><USER3> Disney: this isn't surprising. I don't think people realize how bureaucratically corporate Disney is, almost a parody at the level of "Brazil". They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with excellent benefits.

QNX: a lovely embedded and even service OS. I used it for encryption and stream management in a game-cartridge-over cable-TV headend. They also included a bag of chocolate chip cookies in the box. :)

Microsoft: I remember the agonizing (and multiply failed) Hotmail transition from Unix to Windows after the acquisition. I was working for a vendor called in to assist and the status meetings were a slow motion car wreck.

<comment><USER4> > They are a good employer though if one finds a happy place there with > excellent benefits.

As long as you don't work in IT.

<comment><USER3> Not disagreeing - I interviewed for a position there and asked about the outsourcing effort and results. The senior manager was awfully defensive about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > One of the most common refrains among ex-Disney staffers was that Disney had > a strong aversion to risk.

Now why does that not surprise me. Disney stopped making art somewhere in the 1940's (fantasia) and started shipping product. I didn't share people's relief that the force awakens at least didn't suck like the prequels. The writing was so derivative as to almost make it a remake. Instead of Jar Jar Binks, the comic relief was Emo-Vader, but the comic relief shouldn't be the best part of the movie, and I'm not even sure if he was meant to be funny.

<comment><USER6> I was very confused by the good reviews too, it was literally the exact same story as A New Hope.

I don't hold much hope for the next films.

<comment><USER7> The film had the impossible task of pleasing both old and new viewers of the franchise. It succeeded immensely in that regard, old viewers could recognize the nods to the old trilogy, while new viewers were presented with a very well made film that (in my opinion) surpasses the original trilogy in literally every way. If I had to rate it I would definitely rate it higher than new hope.

<comment><USER5> I didn't say it wasn't well made, I didn't like the writing. There were so many nods to the old trilogy that my neck started to hurt.

Spoiler alert!

Young adventurer on a desert planet unaware of their Jedi powers?

Resourceful, commanding, brutally competent as well as sexy young princess?

Help from a reluctant rogue with his hairy side kick, on the run from crime lord that he tried to swindle?

A tall masked dark side antagonist, apprentice of a mysterious emperor type guy?

An evil empire vs a rebel alliance?

Secret plans hidden in robot?

Quest to find hermit Jedi master?

Quest to destroy a planet killing Death Star?

The most original part of the writing was merging the adventurer and the princess into one character and making the Vader part an annoying teenager.

<comment><USER7> I agree with all of the above, but I don't see any of that as a problem. I would not hold "too similar to new hope" as an issue with this film. If anything, it was a good thing in my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> And there you have Ron Gilbert asking Disney to sell him Monkey Island IP back, to proceed with a sequel:

>Dear @Disney, now that you're not making games, please sell me my Monkey Island and Mansion Mansion IP. I'll pay real actual money for them.

src: [https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/734843964709175297](https://twitter.com/grumpygamer/status/734843964709175297)

<comment><USER9> They may give him a license, but Disney is an IP black hole, they wont sell it back. And considering its very close to Pirates of the Caribbean, there's even less chance of that happening any time soon.

In my opinion, what Disney should be doing, is contact Ron, and make Guybrush and LeChuck appear in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie, to introduce them to a new generation who does not have any idea of who they are (Guybrush being a young naive boy again would fit pretty well for this job). After all, PotC and MI universes are pretty compatible, it should be easy to make it look like they are both in the same universe/time.

Then, they could either make MI a spin-off (preferably), or make Guybrush be a new sidekick to Sparrow (but please, dont make him a silly Robin).

And then, give Ron full freedom to work with that IP as he wishes... (and pay him accordingly, or better, give him a nice % of royalties).

If they don't want to sell the IP, at least, this way they could make some money with it (instead of letting it rot in a drawer), without risking their PotC franchise, letting Ron continue the story, and making us fans happy in the process!!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Saddest part of the Disney Infinity debacle is the fans. DI was marketed strongly to kids based on the success of Star Wars and MCU franchises. Although game play was lackluster, the target audience (kids 4-8) didn't care. And the figurines were really very cool.

When they pulled the plug on Disney Infinity, they really sent a pretty clear "we don't care" to any kid that loved those DI figurines.

You don't want to send a FU to that market segment, because little boys don't forget.

<comment><USER11> Sadly, it won't matter. Here's another example of Disney neglecting successful markets they created. I just re-read this DuckTales 25th Anniversary Retrospective from a few years ago because Alan Young/Scrooge died the other day.

Excerpt:

      But what media company has almost 4 times the market
      capitalization of CBS and is among the largest media
      conglomerates in the world? That would be Disney of course.
      And what is Disney doing to celebrate the 25th Anniversary
      of DuckTales, the most successful syndicated cartoon series
      in history? Absolutely nothing.
      I'm always quite amazed at Disney's inability to capitalize
      on their own successful products.

[http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/ducktales-25th- ann...](http://playcontrol.net/ewing/jibberjabber/ducktales-25th- anniversary.html)

<comment><USER12> The wiki[1] page says: On February 25, 2015, Disney XD announced it would be reviving the series for a 2017 premiere.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Out of all the titles listed on there. Split/Second suffered the worst fate. One of the best arcade racers when it released with an excellent MP (on PC at least).

If managed properly, it could've ended up as popular as CoD4 or CS. Every person I know who played it loved it. It could've been the one franchise that would've unseated NFS as the undisputed champion for arcade racers and put them on the map for a new multiplayer experience. Instead, it suffered the worst possible fate for a product of its quality.

</comment><comment><USER14> Disney should just let Square Enix handle their gamibg ventures. Somehow they could turn a 14-year-old girl's crossover fanfic into a phenomenal series and franchise in its own right (I of course am referring to Kingdom Hearts).

<comment><USER15> While Square Enix may tend to make great series, their financial situation isn't all roses either. The huge production delays on their games out of Japan have made those projects huge risks. Take a look at the amazing amount of money they seem to be putting into the launch of the new Final Fantasy game to try and recoup costs.

Their subsidiaries (eg IO Interactive and, Edios Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal) seem to be doing better overall.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> While I think it is a good idea for a company to stick to their knitting (making movies and such, not video games) I'm not sure what studio will want to work with them when Disney holds all the IP to the characters.

Say a game is a hit and makes the game studio a lot of money. Disney's going to see that and demand more for licensing fees. What is the studio going to say? No? It isn't like the studio can start releasing games with those characters without Disney's blessing.

Or maybe it will work, who knows. It will be interesting to watch.

<comment><USER17> I'd be curious to see what deals Disney had worked out for its NES era games made by Capcom. While I remember them fondly, I guess I don't really know if they were commercially successful at the time or not.

If it was successful, then it just seems natural that they'd continue to license the IP out to let those who do know games do their thing with franchises, and honestly the in-house production of games for Disney always seemed off.

<comment><USER11> They were commercially successful.

[http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/05/23/capcom-releases- lifet...](http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/05/23/capcom-releases-lifetime- sales-numbers)

(NES) DuckTales outsold all their (NES) Mega Man's. It's an interesting comparison because DuckTales shares a lot of similarities with Mega Man.

Disney franchise sales for them ranks 4 in total which is high, but still misleading because Resident Evil is ranks 1 and they weren't making Disney games in that era where more people bought video games. I speculate the Disney number would be much bigger if they did.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The interactive division has burned through billions and billions of dollars since it was founded in the late 90s. It's not a big surprise that they would eventually go with a strategy of 'figure out what you're bad at, and stop doing that.' I was there from 2006 to 2015 and the layoffs were constant. Their IP is valuable but they can't execute efficiently.

</comment><comment><USER19> The same company that fired all their IT people, after forcing them to train their offshore replacements, has a hard time turning a profit on quality software? Color me flabbergasted.

</comment><comment><USER20> I interviewed at Wideload in downtown Chicago when they were owned by Disney and working on that Marvel mobile game. They were located in a floor of a building that kind of looked like a huge studio apartment. The people there were nice and it looked like a fun place to work. I only went with another company because they gave me an offer first.

But even though the company I went with instead proceeded to have a super rough year of losing multiple clients that ultimately resulted in my getting laid off, Disney had shuttered Wideload several months before that. It didn't make any sense to me, since these people were clearly talented (check out Guilty Party on the Wii, it's excellent).

And then I saw them shut down studio after studio, and it just makes them look inept in the game space, to me. Then another Disney company contacted me last year asking me to move across the country so I could work on their mobile park app. Couldn't really trust them anymore, so I passed.</comment>


Facebook and Google Face Emboldened Antagonists: Big Advertisers - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-and-google-face-emboldened-antagonists-big-advertisers-1521998394 <comment><USER2> It's paywalled. Care to summarize</comment>


Loie Fuller and the Serpentine - <AUTHOR> https://publicdomainreview.org/2019/11/06/loie-fuller-and-the-serpentine/ <comment><USER2> Reminds me of that W. B. Yeats poem that also seems relevant for the world we're heading towards:

\---

When Loie Fuller's Chinese dancers enwound

A shining web, a floating ribbon of cloth,

It seemed that a dragon of air

Had fallen among dancers, had whirled them round

Or hurried them off on its own furious path;

So the platonic Year

Whirls out new right and wrong,

Whirls in the old instead;

All men are dancers and their tread

Goes to the barbarous clangour of a gong.</comment>


Ask HN: What Are Some Good DART Tutorials To Get Started? - <AUTHOR>

I want to get started with DART, but I am not sure where to even begin. I have 3+ years experience with Java and about 3+ months playing around with JavaScript. I have not fully gotten a grasp of Javascript which is why I want to learn DART, and perhaps my knowledge of Java will help! <comment><USER2> My friend Kevin recently did a hangout describing how to do an HTML5 game in DART. It's probably worth a quick look. <https://plus.google.com/+dartlang/posts/7pbKH7bZxkL></comment>


RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.1 Released - <AUTHOR> http://www.securityweek.com/red-hat-linux-61-improves-reliability-scalability-and-performance

<comment><USER2> To the comments in the posting re: CentOS release cycle. Might I suggest looking at Scientific Linux (SL) <http://www.scientificlinux.org/>. This is also a derivative of RHEL sponsored by Fermilab & CERN for the scientific community.

<comment><USER3> That's really cool. And their site runs on Plone, which is even more cool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> And still no CentOS 6. With dag weers leaving too, it's time to make the change to Scientific Linux for me

<comment><USER5> If you boot from the Scientific Linux cd with the "upgradeany" kernel boot option, you can upgrade CentOS to SL in-place.

Afterwards, check for CentOS specific packages with rpm -qa|grep -i centos, then check for problems with package-cleanup --problems, then merge changes with updatedb; locate rpmnew; locate rpmsave.

If you yum upgrade shows you any problems exclude the problem package then run yum upgrade again. yum upgrade --exclude " _nss_ " -y

It's been pretty problem free for me so far.

<comment><USER4> Thanks, very helpful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope CentOS 6 (and 6.1) will also be available very soonish. :-\

<comment><USER5> The CentOS team, particularly Karanbir Singh is doing a _disastrous_ job of keeping people informed. Check the official Twitter stream: <http://twitter.com/#!/CentOS>

Lots of promises, nothing delivered. CentOS 6.0 is already six months late. The project will either die very soon or be given someone else to lead it. Dag would have been perfect.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Despite this being about RHEL, everyone is talking about CentOS. From what I've followed on the mailing list it seems as though they're focusing more on deploying a better QA toolkit which will speed up releases. If that's the case then it may be wise to continue waiting on CentOS to get its act together. But, then again, I could be misreading.

</comment><comment><USER8> The comments here do not seem too promising for CentOS. Too bad...

Whats the replacement then? Debian and FreeBSD spring to mind, but both are rather different beasts.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, a few threads on the centos mailing list, in addition to their lag time for updates and releases, finally pushed me away from them. It seems to an outsider (me) that the Centos project has become pretty dysfunctional.

I have actually moved a few servers from centos to debian and freebsd. :)

I am going to look at scientificlinux and see if it would work in places where a RHEL clone is still required (compatibility or support).</comment></comment>


Anthem Blue Cross hacked, SSN, medical IDs taken - <AUTHOR> http://anthemfacts.com

<comment><USER2> Dupe of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9001713](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9001713)

</comment><comment><USER3> I thought that page explicitly says medical records weren't taken? Only medical ID #.

<comment><USER4> You're correct. The page says: "Based on what we know now, there is no evidence that credit card or medical information, such as claims, test results or diagnostic codes were targeted or compromised."

OP's title ("Anthem Blue Cross hacked, SSN, medical records taken") should be changed by the mods.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I like the low-res pixelated photo of the CEO. Classy.</comment>


Dashboards by Keen IO - <AUTHOR> http://keen.github.io/dashboards/

<comment><USER2> errm.. Anyone can help me understand whats this? Bootstrap for dashboard projects?</comment>


How to Steal a Botnet and What Can Happen When You Do - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GdqoQJa6r4

<comment> rm-rf I suspect that most people don't know how botnets work. This lecture gives a pretty decent description.</comment>


Germany: Low Crime, Clean Prisons, Lessons for America (2017) - ur-whale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtV5ev6813I <comment> lota-putty Can't believe they had a wall running through their country 30yrs back.</comment>


Google Assistant iOS update lets you say 'Hey Siri, OK Google' - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/21/google-assistant-ios-update-lets-you-say-hey-siri-ok-google/ <comment><USER2> The same dark pattern they document here trying to persuade you to enable "Web and App Activity" tracking is even worse in Google Maps for iOS, as I found when I disabled the feature after the press it received. No matter how many times you dismiss it, you'll again get a huge prompt on the homescreen urging you to turn it on in a few days. And they _hold your home and work address hostage_ if you don't enable it, despite having nothing to do with the anti- feature in question. I hate this shite company.

<comment><USER3> Whats worse is that if you own a google home mini and turn off the web and app activity it essentially becomes a useless brick.

For most commands literally everything is on the lines of "Sorry I don't have enough access to perform that command. You can change this in the Google Home app". Simple stuff like "Play some music" and "Whats the weather like?" is blocked.

I just wish there was more fine grained control over exactly what I give access to.

<comment><USER4> They will never give you fine grained control because this is part of the quid-pro-quo. You want convenience, they want data about you. They withhold convenience until you give them the data. Every single Google product is built around this core principle and it drives many if not all of their UI decisions.

<comment><USER5> > You want convenience, they want data about you. They withhold convenience > until you give them the data.

I already directly paid them a tidy sum for my phone. It's gauche for them to try weasel more out of me.

<comment><USER4> Indeed. And how much more did you pay for your car? Living in the future is usually pretty cool but there are some things, like this, that I just don't like about it.

[https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/19/ford-reorganization- cust...](https://www.autoblog.com/2018/11/19/ford-reorganization-customer- data-mining/)

[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150211/10134429988/cars-...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150211/10134429988/cars- are-delivering-tons-driving-data-to-manufacturers-with-minimal-security-even- less-transparency.shtml)

[https://www.businessinsider.com.au/otonomo-selling-car- data-...](https://www.businessinsider.com.au/otonomo-selling-car- data-2017-4?r=UK&IR=T)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wish I could choose my default assistant like I can choose my default browser in iOS. AFAIK this is already possible in Android. Too bad we'll probably need some angry European politician to convince Apple.

<comment><USER7> You can choose your default browser in iOS? Since when?

<comment><USER8> You can't, the OP most likely meant you can change the search engine for the default browser

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great, now I need to speak with all this extra `require English; English::structure` isn't that kinda against the spirit of these things?

I mean I personally never use Siri or others because I find it easier to get what I want without trying to guess how a computer will interpret. I have the same problem with people, and frankly computers are a nice reprive. Granted I'm not the general user.

<comment><USER10> Haha. I agree with this sentiment. An additional problem is that the user may not always know which voice assistant(library) can fulfill their request. So now one request has to be forked by the user into multiple ones or chained together to send the same data to all data mining companies. Hey Siri, ask Google to tell Alexa to add this to my shopping cart.

<comment><USER11> Sounds like they've correctly virtualized certain kinds of dysfunctional corporate environments.

<comment><USER12> My people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I would love it if they had an "Alexa, OK Google." I have a pretty extensive Hue+Echo IoT setup, but it def feels like the Echo is training me to speak the "magical incantations", instead of me using it to ask semantic queries. Siri is almost as bad too...

<comment><USER14> So we seem to be on our way to a typical magical society.. once we hid all the infrastructure and our descendants cannot remember..

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I am curios why google and others don't let us change the wake up command. Technically I don't see an issue as the phrase can be setup to only work with your voice already. Is it because of the bad press that could be caused by people abusing this and posting about it?

<comment><USER16> At least on iOS, the first pass of wakeup phrase recognition is handled by a pre-trained ML model, based on data from a wide variety of speakers. Training a model for a user-chosen phrase would take a lot more samples, and a lot more time, than most users would be willing to put up with.

There's some details on Apple's approach at: [https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey- siri.html](https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/10/01/hey-siri.html)

<comment><USER17> Ohhhh, interesting. They only use your additional training for speaker identification, so that someone else can't say "Hey Siri" to your device.

<comment><USER18> As far as I know that disambiguation is pretty naive, just your general voice register; i.e., you could fool it pretty easily if you were trying to. That's why it still requires you to unlock a device for personal requests.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I went with "Hey Siri, Hey Google"

<comment><USER20> Superstar DJs. Here we go!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> And still won't let me access my own Gsuite data, like my calendar or contacts. That's some pretty shit priorities right there.

Google, the king of half-assed solutions.

<comment><USER22> Sounds more like half-assed research. GSuite is a service for businesses and, as such, Google is obligated to implement certain rules on what can and cannot be done with GSuite business accounts

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I was hoping for this, it's the first thing I thought to try after Shortcuts was released. Now we just need to get Alexa and Cortana onboard too. Hello, Amazon and Microsoft?

"Hey Siri, ask (Google|Alexa|Cortana)..."

Put them all behind the same interface, on the same device. Let us figure out which one actually works best -- though I'd rather have a "team" of digital assistants.

<comment><USER24> Cortana already has an app on iOS, and Alexa has full response capability when used via Amazon Music, so it's only a matter of support. What I would like to see is specific "voice assistant" integration, where asking Siri something will bring up results from all of the voice assistants you've enabled/installed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'm much more a fan of anthropomorphised voice assistants. Maybe it's because I identify as a socialist, but saying "OK [big brand], everytime is very grating. And "OK" is very awkward, "Alexa" for me is far easier.

<comment><USER26> Yeah, it would feel more personal. Not sure why Google hasn't created some virtual persona like Siri and Cortana...

<comment><USER27> Because it's nerds building products at Google. Not even trying to be overly negative or critical here, just an observation. It can actually be seen as something positive in many ways (Android being super flexible vs iOS being more limited) YET (Android being less intuitive vs iOS being a lot more user- friendly).

<comment><USER28> >Android being less intuitive vs iOS being a lot more user-friendly

This is a piece of received knowledge that in my current experience of both is no longer true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> "Hey Siri, Ok Google, Alexa, Hey Cortana"

</comment><comment><USER30> Aaand its not available outside of US for how many years now?

</comment><comment><USER31> Anybody have clear instructions on how to enable this?

</comment><comment><USER32> Wow, awkward

</comment><comment><USER33> I think we should genericise it to "oi! Phone!"

<comment><USER34> "Computer" - is there a reason someone hasn't done this? Is it too non- specific? Would this upset the owners of Star Trek?

<comment><USER35> Amazon's Echo lets you use "Computer" as the hot word.</comment></comment></comment>


20 Tesla P100Ds with Slicks and Wings? Meet Electric GT - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/03/a-new-race-series-for-tesla-electric-cars-yes-please/ <comment><USER2> > Its cars are blindingly fast, but as a company, Tesla appears to be utterly > indifferent to racing.

because the cars aren't really that fast. They are geared to do 0-60 in insane times. That's great but it's not fast in the racing sense. They are still heavy, and the acceleration beyond 60 isn't nearly as good.

> The cars get some aerodynamic add-ons and have been on a diet, shedding > 1,100lb (500kg) despite the addition of a roll cage

That should help.

> Perhaps the biggest problem the racing Teslas are going to have to deal with > is overheating. Keeping the battery cool enough was a real challenge for > Blake Fuller's Tesla at Pikes Peak last year, and overheating issues are > usually the fly in the ointment that prevents Tesla owners from having fun > at track days.

Yeah, that too. Has the model S been able to get around the nurburgring without going into low power mode?</comment>


Odd Comments and Strange Doings in Unix - <AUTHOR> https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/odd.html <comment><USER2> The first one is a delightful story.</comment>


OpenCV Face Detection For Cropping Faces - <AUTHOR> http://seatgeek.com/blog/dev/opencv-face-detection-for-cropping-faces <comment><USER2> At Facebook, we are using a similar technique to crop images. The part that is different is that instead of using the center of all the faces, we find the viewport that maximizes the number of faces to be displayed. [http://blog.vjeux.com/2012/image/best-cropping- position.html](http://blog.vjeux.com/2012/image/best-cropping-position.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> That's going to be the next step for these as requests come in for images of low aspect ratio which generally just become resized smaller instead of cropped around a face.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Thumbor ([https://github.com/globocom/thumbor](https://github.com/globocom/thumbor)) is a great Python library for helping cropping which uses openCV for facial detection (as well as other algorithms for finding "interesting" parts of photos)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for posting that. I haven't seen that one in a while but built a few. I'd recommend if anyone uses it to not expose it directly to the internet, once someone malicious sees all the sizes in the URL they may try hitting 1..n X 1..M which is a big hard on the servers.

We used specifically named sizes to avoid that problem although whitelisting in the edge servers would also work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I implemented something like this with OpenCV late last year using a node.js wrapper. We were looking to do something similar for image cropping. What I found was that OCV was kind of unreliable. A major percent of the time, it would mark knees as faces or even wrinkles in pictures of women's handbags. It was a side project and we didn't pursue it, so I was unclear if there was a way to train it over time. If so, did you do this to improve your accuracy?

I also used PIL a few years back to do image generation from text. I kept running into memory fragmentation bugs, weird artifacts creeping into images, etc. I haven't been able to recommend PIL for any serious work since then. Has this gotten better?

<comment><AUTHOR> We haven't trained our model at all and just use the include XML file. We have adjusted the default neighbors threshold which helps mitigate the knee factor. Faces tend to be in the 40+ neighbors range from my trials and the default is 3.

We use ImageMagick for cropping and resizing, PIL was just easier for the example. I haven't noticed any issue with PIL but I also haven't used it for any serious image processing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I built something like this to automate cropping headshots for players in major sports. I figured it would work flawlessly after I ran a few test images through, but it turns out that it failed detecting a face or gave the wrong coordinates about 20% of the time.

I'm curious to know what the success rate of SeatGeek's process is.

<comment><AUTHOR> Were you using your own test data or a provided XML file?

Sports shots in our case don't get a great hit rate. Adjusting the `minNeighbors` parameter can help out with that depending on how many false positives you can accept. Musical artist misses are in the single digit percentages although shadows and strange backgrounds can give some additional faces that we don't really care for.

When collecting images we are now searching for those with more direct faces visible to make the detection easier. After that though we just try to get the face in the direct center and fall back to hoping the face is in that spot if we can't detect any.

At some point I want to try checking for partial face matches as well which should help in major sports since we tend not to use headshots.

<comment><USER5> I used a provided XML file. The library I used: [https://github.com/peterbraden/node- opencv](https://github.com/peterbraden/node-opencv)

I haven't touched the app in about a month, updated the library to the most recent version, and I'm now getting a 100% hit rate. I guess the library was a bit buggy.

Also, these headshots are the ones the players take before the season starts, not action shots. In theory there should be a high hit rate.</comment></comment></comment>


Anonymity in Name Only - Tracking Technology on the Web - [x+1]'s tech - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703294904575385532109190198.html <comment><USER2> Can someone explain how they _actually_ collect the data?

<comment><USER3> Which data? These companies track your movement across the internet with cookies. It used to be that a visit to dictionary.com would set over 40 different tracking cookies. I guess with your browsing history and some fancy statistics they can make some pretty good guesses about you.

The WSJ actually has a whole bunch of articles about this stuff. Not sure if I still have the links.</comment></comment>


A Pragmatic Approach to Thorny People Problems - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/dvte09/a_pragmatic_approach_to_thorny_people_problems/ <comment><USER2> I enjoyed your moderation ideas. You've plainly thought this through a lot, and have some interesting experiences and perspectives to offer. It's funny that one of your focuses was on preventing commenters from ganging up on others, and yet it could be construed that this is what the commenters have been doing to you so far.

<comment><AUTHOR> Tough crowd. ;)

R/German was worse today. I deleted my comment when it hit -11 points. 0_o

Then I unsubbed. Good grief.</comment></comment>


Meta search engine for Tours? What do you think? - <AUTHOR> Hello guys,
I am currently working for a startup company in South East Asia that is developing a search engine for Tours (vacation tours). Initially, it seemed like a very cool idea but then I started to wonder why no company has ever done this (or maybe companies HAVE done this but failed and we don't know about). I'm interested in what you guys think of this business idea. Your feedback would be very helpful. So the company started this idea based on the premise that:
1. The Tour industry, while only accounts for roughly 10% of the entire tourism industry in SEA, lacks a search engine that allows customers to filter available tours based on their specific needs and wants such as: price, locations, itinerary, conveniences, etc...
2. There are many tour providers both foreign and local that cater to customers' specific needs and demands but the shear number of tour providers along with the enormous amount of tour options can overwhelm customers.
-> Opportunity to build a platform that allows customers to search for Tours just as they would when search for hotels or flights on websites such as Booking.com, Trivago, etc...
-> Idea: A search engine that crawls tour data from the Internet in a specific region -> Categorize this data to provide customers an overview of that tour available are like based on 16 different tour characteristics (number of days, transportation mode, activities,...) -> Redirect customers to Tour providers websites -> Collect commission based on prior agreements with tour providers
Personally, I think it's a pretty solid concept because there are numbers to back it up but somehow I still can't shake off the feeling that there is something inherently flawed about this idea. But idk what? Maybe you guys can help me.
Thank you <comment><USER2> Who is the customer?

What value does the service offer those customers?

Why will customers love it?

Is there a prototype?

Good luck.

<comment><AUTHOR> In brief,

The customers are SEA people from 24-35 who travel 1-2 times/year.

The service offers a solution that allows customers to search for Tour packages, which isn't available yet in SEA. This model is available on US website Kayak, which is quite successful.

They will love it because it will save them time and effort when they are looking for Tours because instead of having to go through multiple websites to find information and compare, they will only have to go this one website of ours in order to do all that task.

Currently, the website is in alpha version. So I'm not allowed to show it yet. But hopefully you guys can still give me feedback on the idea.</comment></comment>


Apple silently tweaking iPhone 5 body? - <AUTHOR> http://noplay.org/post/33971939158/

<comment><USER2> Apple explained this already. They have high resolution / high speed cameras analyzing each phone as it goes down the assembly line and automatically selecting the 'best' bezel out of something like 64 possible bins.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you are talking about this: <http://www.apple.com/iphone/#video> (05'40") then I understand they are picking the best plastic inlays to fit one particular chassis (as the video also shows). But that is unrelated to the outer edge CNC milling. What I believe has happened there is that the CNC tool adjusts its path to compensate for mounting misalignments by using a feeler. If the feeler is worn out or there's any other issue then the tool may re- adjust wrongly. I'm speculating, but I'm starting to believe it's not a design change; just a little f-up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> the one on the left is much nicer, but seeing as the device has been out for such a short period of time, can we tell which device was actually manufactured first?

Or is this a case of different suppliers having slightly different parts? which seems unlikely for a new Apple product, but the one with the gap between the aluminium and glass seems all kinds of wrong anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure. But I am getting curious about why. It's a hell of a tooling tolerance or it's a Jony Ive last-minute caprice? Considering the overall packaging accuracy I'd be inclined to file it as the latter.</comment></comment>


Hey, Turn Bluetooth Off When You're Not Using It - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/turn-off-bluetooth-security/ <comment><USER2> Better yet let's kill it and replace it with a near field protocol that isn't so overengineered, fragile, and failure prone. Bluetooth has always been junk.</comment>