Clothing Manufacturing May Be Moving Back to West from Asia - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-10-19/clothing-manufacturing-may-be-moving-back-to-west-from-asia <comment><USER2> Living in Vietnam, I don't believe this article for a second. Clothing manufacturing is unbelievably massive here. It isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

Clothing is a commodity item, even if it takes a week or a month to ship to the US, it does not matter. If you need it faster, raise the prices (or take a hit on the massive retail markup) and ship it faster (air vs. boat).

Having also built a successful print on demand business, we did all our printing in the US because the customers were in the US and the shipping times would have been too great because of the on-demand nature.

The garments themselves come from other countries. Notably, the people creating the designs and buying the FB ads, which target US consumers, are in SE Asia (mostly in Vietnam). Only people in the US will pay $25+ for a t-shirt that costs $1 to $4 to produce.

<comment><USER3> _> Only people in the US will pay $25+ for a t-shirt that costs $1 to $4 to produce._

As a Westerner this drives me nuts about about buying clothes. Every time I buy any article of clothing I feel it right in the sphincter, getting ripped off 10x - 100x. Is there any way for folks in NA/Europe/etc to get clothes at or near cost?

<comment><USER4> Why don't you buy clothes from a thrift store? Maybe you (or maybe not...) don't want to look like a hobo.

Why does wearing clothes from a thrift store make you look like a hobo? Because they are so cheap, people with very little money can buy them.

That is why clothes are so expensive. They, to a certain degree, flaunt your wealth, or at least show that you probably aren't a hobo. This is pretty important to people, or no one would pay so much for clothes.

<comment><USER5> I have a dozen black t-shirts from Primark for about 2.50£ per t-shirt.

> Why don't you buy clothes from a thrift store?

It will drive the price up and hurt people with very little money.

<comment><USER6> Not really, donation clothing is skyrocketing (because people consume more and more clothing from cheap brands like H&M) and stores like Value Village or Good Will can't actually accept every piece of clothing donated to them. Lots of it end up on cargos back to Africa or Asia. Buy from thrift stores, this is a good thing and good for environment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I get the vibe that Bloomberg (the news) is very supportive of the trade war in the sense that all the related headlines I've seen seem to emphasize the positives to America and the negatives to China. Too lazy to dig up references right now. By comparison, the NYTimes seems more balanced. Am I wrong?

<comment><USER8> In the contrary, being a business journal, BBL must remain accurate in reporting and analysis of business. Biased business reporting will directly impact reader trust, this revenues.

<comment><USER9> I've heard this argument before, though with respect to the WSJ.

I don't really believe it. There is still a bias because "reader trust" depends on what the readers want to read, yes?

That is, most of the readers of Bloomberg, and of the WSJ, are - to use Marxian terms - aligned with the interests of capital owners, and not workers.

Labor is an important part of business, yes?

Yet a look at the Bloomberg home page shows no mention of union or worker rights issues. The word "worker" exists in the headline link "Jaguar's New Evoque Rides to Rescue of UK Workers" but the actual article is titled "Jaguar Land Rover's New Evoque SUV Rides to Rescue of U.K. Plant Amid Brexit Pinch", with no mention of workers.

Why would Bloomberg cover more about the labor aspect of business if its readers don't want to know more about it, or are actively against it?

<comment><USER10> I've seen many stories in Bloomberg about Marxism through the proxy of Venezuaela's marxist policies.

So far, it doesn't seem like marxist ideologies are good for the common workers in that country either.

<comment><USER9> Ummm, 'Marxian' as the term for the critique of capitalism is not the same as 'Marxism' the political philosophy. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxian_economics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxian_economics)

Do you not find the terms "capital owners" and "workers"/"labor" to be relevant?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Clothes manufacturing may move back to the US.

But it will be automated.

[http://softwearautomation.com/](http://softwearautomation.com/)

<comment><USER12> As will manufacturing in Asia.

<comment><USER13> In this case logistics cost will be more important, so factories closer to customers will win business

<comment><USER14> I don't think logistics or even storage were ever a large percentage in cost / unit. The highest two is rent, staff in retail, and marketing.

Although the idea of Online Retailing were suppose to save on this, in reality it is merely moving the Rental cost to last mile delivery.... which is also expensive.

<comment><USER15> A huge source of inefficiency is time to market. Fashion moves quickly and boats are not quick. Air freight is expensive, diving up unit prices.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> So in summary, manufacturing is coming back but the jobs aren't?

This trend was entirely predictable. Cheap human labor becomes expensive and unreliable at scale so it's only a stopgap until automation becomes affordable enough. Cutting delivery times and transportation costs helps shift the balance. Scandals and improving quality of life (i.e. workers become more expensive as labor laws improve, production becoming more expensive as environmental laws improve) also helped.

It's the end goal for Uber, so why should labor-intensive factory jobs be any different? As soon as automation becomes more profitable than human labor the jobs will be gone.

<comment><USER17> For many industries automation is possible and affordable, but it's held back by the fact that you still can find places where manual labor is cheaper than dirt. As the quality of life rises worldwide and decent workers have better options than working for a handful of rice, we'll get mass automation.

Not because of automation getting cheaper (though that's happening as well) but because of labor costs rising closer to living wages.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> One of the most positive things to come out of advanced automation in manufacturing will be the decentralization of manufacturing and countries being able to make most of the products themselves again, instead of buying them all from China.

Hopefully this will be just as true for chip and device making in the future, as then it should become much more difficult even for China to force companies to implement backdoors in the products they sell abroad. Because once those companies are discovered it would be game over for them.

<comment><USER14> I think that is only possible for Clothes, Plants / Vegetables. Chip Fab are highly specialised, and only leading edge are from Intel, Samsung and TSMC.

<comment><USER19> As the benefit to each next generation of chips becomes lower and lower though, that might not matter as much to some countries as independence. For example, I've read that Russia manufactures some of its own computer chips for military purposes where it doesn't trust imported chips.

If any country wanted to, I'm guessing they could manufacture CPUs that would've been top of the line 10 years ago, and honestly, for most applications that would be good enough.

It also might be that individual countries would manufacture chips for certain applications, and then they could buy the "world's top of the line" from Intel, Samsung, and TSMC just for high end business or gaming machines, which is a smaller market than the total market for all tablets, phones, IOT devices, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> TLDR;

This mainly affects luxury clothing items for which "Made in ..." label matters more. The fashion is becoming ultra fast as trends are set by items on Instagram and 30 day bulk shipping from China doesn't cut it. The term is "nearshoreing" because it is cheaper to produce in Mexico for US market and in Turkey for German market. Still, US and Germany themselves not an option because they are 17% and 144% more expensive respectively. China is responding by opening factories in places like Ethiopia.

<comment><USER21> Would China opening businesses outside of China due much to help the Chinese economy? I would assume most of the gain will flow to the local economy and the 1% Chinese elite

<comment><USER22> Perhaps in the form of whatever that 1% manages to spend at home rather than abroad, and whatever they can't hide from the local taxes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I can see nations such as India and Bangladesh getting into trade agreements with Western Governments to ensure them of continued quota in order to keep their masses employed and their economy intact. China is going to get screwed over severely for sure.

India, being darling of free World will get this 'special status' definitely so reality would be, clothes made in West + India and Bangladesh.

<comment><USER24> > India, being darling of free World...

Please explain how exactly is India "darling of the free world"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I'm curious about logistics in general. If the US rebuild its train system, by expanding it, would it make more economic sense to have production centered here? Could the US transport clothing from say, Indianapolis, to EU member states more efficiently, cleanly than China's proposed rail/road system?

<comment><USER26> The US freight rail system is already excellent. This fact is often missed in the periodic "American trains suck so hard" pieces because it's not visible to the average person the way passenger service is.

<comment><USER25> Thank you for replying. Do we have the infrastructure to compete with large shipping vessels? Part of my curiosity is the switch over that supposed to happen soon in diesel fuel. If the price of fuel increases, will it make manufacturing in a central continent preferable?

<comment><USER26> I'm far from an expert, but it seems that ships win on price pretty strongly:

[https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/comparing- mari...](https://www.maritime-executive.com/editorials/comparing-maritime- versus-railway-transportation-costs)

Apparently it's considerably cheaper to ship coast to coast by sea even though it's a lot farther. Rail's big advantage there is speed.

Fuel costs would hit both, but I don't know which one would suffer more. In theory, rail could become independent of fuel costs by using electricity, but I don't think electric trains are cost effective over such distances.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> > Delivery to big Western markets takes about 30 days by sea

Or 12 days by Sino-Europe rail.

It's expensive though.

<comment><USER28> There where an article a few month back, from Norway I believe, where someone claimed that by raising shipping cost just slightly the saving by having certain products manufactured in China would be completely negated. The cost increase could be emission taxes on container ships.

The take away seemed to be that right now China is very depended on keeping shipping costs low for a large number of goods. Otherwise they are no longer able to compete on price.

<comment><USER27> That's the whole point of globalization.

Back in Medieval period, the Ottoman empires taxed the hell out of silk road, so Europe countries had to find alternative sea routes to India and China.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Doesn't really help much if most of it is coming back to the west to be automated.

<comment><USER30> Why would you say that? Automation is a good thing for humanity and it's a lot more efficient than shipping from China.

What doesn't it help? Is this a "jobs" argument?

<comment><USER31> Under capitalism automation is not really a good thing for humanity. Loads of middle class jobs disappeared due to it, leaving millions with lower wages and a more insecure life.

But automation is good for the average HN reader I guess, for now. One day it will come for them too.

<comment><USER32> A thought experiment: What would happen if we remove all "automated" things like factories, robots, cars.

We'd have lots of things to do, labor shortages everywhere. But would you think the median worker would be better off?

And wouldn't you think that in the 18th century the automation of manual work through factories should have resulted in huge unemployment today?

You need to reconcile these thoughts with your claims before you dismiss automation.

My own take is: "Automation" leads to lower prices for everyone. In a sense, automation is the thing that increases your purchasing power by letting you buy more (of the automated good) for the same money. It's not a wage increase but its effect is the same for the good/service automated.

And yes, a manual worker might lose his job, but all others + all coming generations and there included his personal offspring will benefit from that. Now what's better in the long run?

<comment><USER33> The great thing about automation is that it allows us to make so much more with each unit of labour, so we can afford so much stuff. The downside of automation is that we have to keep on buying more stuff so that everyone has a job, and to keep the wheels turning.

Automation of all those jobs in the 18th century did lead to everyone getting better off and that was good because most people didn't have enough. Today (in the west at least) most people have enough. There's a limit to how much stuff you can buy, money is increasingly directed into property etc. And the jobs are becoming increasing less useful (service jobs growth, marketing job growth v traditional blue collar, white collar job stagnation / shrinkage).

To continue your thought experiment. What is everything were automated? No one would have a job to buy anything. I guess that's where the basic income crowd is coming from. Its unclear how you get from here to there though.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The most overlooked Apache performance tweak. Stop using .htaccess - <AUTHOR> http://haydenjames.io/disable-htaccess-wordpress-performance/

<comment><USER2> Serious question: if you're removing .htaccess for performance reasons, why not just use Nginx instead? I've set up a few WordPress sites on Apache that I later switched to Nginx for performance reasons, and the only reason I can think of for sticking with Apache would be for the (slight) convenience of the .htaccess file.</comment>


Lessons learned after 3 months of Y Combinator - <AUTHOR> http://pioneerit.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-innoview-with-wayne-crosby.html <comment><USER2> Hey, Wayne, thanks for the insight. I met you and Robby a month ago when I visited YC the day after demo night -- you guys had just settled on the name "Zenter." I'll admit my skepticism regarding the usefulness of current web- based productivity apps, yet all it took to convince me was your demo, especially the Google Images and "webcasting" features.

Very excited to see what the future holds for you guys!

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks sharing, Wayne. Every YC founder I've spoken to shared the same sentiments about the entire experience. You're right on about the startup path being a rollercoaster of emotions. There are days when I feel calm, collected, and focused, and there are days when I'm nervous and frazzled out of mind. But I always wake up pumped about what we're doing and that's a great feeling.

</comment><comment><USER4> _Paul Graham is ALWAYS right_

Sounds like the start of a series of Chuck Norris style PG references

<comment><USER5> "Paul Graham makes people want something he's made."

Ugh. Gonna have to work on this.

<comment><USER4> Try here:

<http://geekz.co.uk/schneierfacts/fact/129>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can't wait to see Zentor, as someone who worked on the next version of Keynote I admit I'm skeptical of online presentation apps but it seems like an exciting space to be in.</comment>


THIS IS WATER - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmpYnxlEh0c

<comment><USER2> Life is a bitch like that... Take what you want and run with it.</comment>


Netflix creates $100M Coronavirus Relief Fund - <AUTHOR> https://variety.com/2020/film/news/netflix-coronavirus-relief-fund-100-million-dollars-1203540530/ <comment><USER2> Url changed from [https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/03/20/netflix-100m-co...](https://daringfireball.net/linked/2020/03/20/netflix-100m-coronavirus- fund), which points to this.

The site guidelines ask: " _Please submit the original source. If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter._ "

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)</comment>


AMD's Ryzen Gang Is Currently Clobbering Intel on Salea - <AUTHOR> https://hothardware.com/news/intel-ryzen-sales-domination-amazon-intel-zen <comment><USER2> It seems like this would not be broadly representative of actual sales. If someone is buying a stand alone CPU, they are planning on building their own machine. Most people buy prebuilt machines or laptops, and the majority of those still seem to be intel.

</comment><comment><USER3> s/Salea/Sales/

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thankful for informative and civil discourse.

<comment><USER2> I was thinking "is salea some sort of benchmark?"

<comment><USER4> Its an expensive amateur Logic Analyzer.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Disabilities and employment - <AUTHOR>

I know there are a few here on hn that have disabilities, so I'm hoping for some advice.
I have a few serious health problems that make me virtually housebound. I have been receiving treatment for a while now, but the situation I am in will be for the foreseeable future.
I have been working through codeacademy, and learning as much as I can with he hopes of making programming my work. As my options are limited (and I'm in the UK) I have been reading about the bidding sites. Would it be realistic to think (with time and experience) that I could make a living (£25k+) from them? Anything that could help me would be much appreciated.<p>Thank you. <comment><AUTHOR> I think I may have posted this in the wrong section... My post isn't showing in ask hn. Can a mod edit this please?

</comment><comment><USER2> I have been disabled since 2002. When you are disabled it is hard to find work. I am in the USA. I have spent most of my time getting healthier so I can do some work from home stuff.

I run a blog and thought I might post some advice for people who are disabled and working at home, but I haven't found much that works yet to earn a good amount of money.

I am trying to write ebooks, and do some side-projects. I haven't gotten any VC funding and nobody wants to meet with me because I am stuck at home most of the time.

I think this would make a great hacker news topic, but every time I submit something about being disabled or mentally ill and trying to do a startup or work from home, someone flags it and it gets downvoted.

The Software Consulting market in the USA is really bad: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLV7jydPJ8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLV7jydPJ8)

Joe Stack flew a plane into a building and my friend Mike Crawford went to talk on CNN why the Software Consulting field is so bad. I assume it is the same in the UK where you do the work and don't get paid and then get hit with a heavy tax on income you earned but didn't get paid on.

My only advice is don't low-ball or put out a low wage, because people in third world nations do that, and you will get junk clients who do rubbish like not pay you or pay a fraction of what they owe you. Make sure your wage is high enough to support your rent of your flat or whatever and you use a proxy service or something to make sure the money is paid to you. Don't be afraid to turn down stuff when clients have a bad rating. There are a lot of scammers out there.

Learn anything: [http://noexcuselist.com/](http://noexcuselist.com/)

Get a Github account: [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)

Make a website: [http://www.greatdox.com/howto/shittywebsite.html](http://www.greatdox.com/howto/shittywebsite.html)

That is my howto article where I show you how to use FOSS tools to find a low- rent web host and make a 'shitty website' to get started out, so you can make a better one later as you improve.

If you learn Linux: [http://greatdox.com/wordpress1/2013/10/03/6-web- frameworks-t...](http://greatdox.com/wordpress1/2013/10/03/6-web-frameworks- that-can-help-you-develop-web-page-apps-quickly/)

There are 6 web frameworks that can help you make your websites if you can learn how they work.

Good luck!

<comment><USER2> Anyway if you want to contact me my websites are:

[http://www.blastar.org/](http://www.blastar.org/)

[http://blastar.in/](http://blastar.in/)

I am working with others to do some projects, not sure how well it will go. Got a husband and wife in China helping me named Dell and Sye, very smart. Dell is from India and went to Canada and then went to China. I am trying to recruit more people.</comment></comment>


Erlang/OTP R16B01 has been released - <AUTHOR> http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R16B01.readme

<comment><USER2> This happened more than a month ago, it would appear.

<comment><USER3> Yup, been running it in prod for at least 2 weeks. Old news.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> ages ago?

</comment><comment><USER5> I saw this article, and my knee-jerk reaction was to look for whatever popular fad's proliferation on HN spawned it, but there isn't any, and there's only _one_ erlang article on the home page at the moment, so I guess this is just an actual erlang article.

Seeing that it's actually a month old, perhaps somebody can explain this?

        -- When enabled on the fix_alloc allocator, a strategy
        for management of fix blocks will be used.

What is the different strategy?

<comment><USER6> > I saw this article, and my knee-jerk reaction was to look for whatever > popular fad's proliferation on HN spawned it,

I dunno. Reliable backend technology should always be popular if you ask me ;-)

> What is the different strategy?

No strategy or it wasn't configurable. fix_alloc could just dole out fixed sized block and then never return them to the OS. It could be use for say storing atoms. So maybe it went from not having a strategy to having one.

Erlang has a set of allocators. Each one of them has a set of strategies and implementation of those strategies see from erts_alloc docs for more info.

<comment><USER5> > I dunno. Reliable backend technology should always be popular if you ask me > ;-)

Just looking at your 'days registered', I dunno if you were around at the time or not. I don't know if I had actually even registered at the time, but whenever HN would get too popular, or get press from sources that didn't quite fit within the HN ethos, the core community would band together and upvote the entire front page to just being erlang articles, presumably as a self- filtering mechanism.

If you had just come here from Digg, you probably weren't the sort of chap to hang around for a bunch of erlang news. If you were in the minority of those who actually _would_ stay around for a bunch of erlang news, then you'd probably fit right in.

The community is far more diluted nowadays, and I don't even know if we could erlang-bomb the homepage the way it used to be done.

<comment><USER6> > the core community would band together and upvote the entire front page to > just being erlang articles, presumably as a self-filtering mechanism.

Hey, maybe, that's what brought me here maybe to begin with. Sometimes the strategy backfires ;-)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Rate my Startup:  Uzvy.com (grouping reloaded) - <AUTHOR>

Hi Everyone.
The goal of Uzvy is to be an integrated, super-easy way to create groups (micro-communities) and manage all of them in a single page.  Uzvy is essentially a tool for making private and public groups.  We pitch Uzvy as being about interest networking--connecting with your specific interests.
We've found that the initial impression of our UI throws a lot of users off and is intimidating, but after about 10 minutes of using Uzvy many users "clicked" with it and enjoyed Uzvy'ing.  (let us know what your experience/feelings are)
We'd love to hear all thoughts particularly how useful you find the service, how you'd use it, thoughts on the UI as it is, and any suggestions.
Thanks!! The Uzvy team!! <comment><USER2> No comment on the site itself, but this has to be the worst name for a startup I've seen this year. It's completely un-pronounceable, un-spellable, and un- rememberable.

I actually opened a new browser window, and attempted to type in your domain name immediately after reading it, and I still got it wrong.

Find a new name today.

<comment><USER3> How many startups are frantically typing random 4 and five letter combinations into a domain name search box trying to come up with a name for their company? Without wishing to sound critical, that's exactly how this name looks, but I understand the problem.

Sometimes it works, but this one doesn't really. it's hard to pronounce, spell from memory and to even remember. I just looked on godaddy, and you can buy plenty of 4 and 5 letter domains, some of which are pretty cool for under $1000.

Your domain name is essentially your brand, no amount of cool features and nifty programming are get you around people not engaging with your brand. It's worth the investment to get something that works.

One other little thing is this - the red and yellow logo you have bottom right. I thought this was a Mac D logo at first glance and that immediately put me off, they own that colour combination and even without looking properly at the image, their brand is what's in my head. That's the power of branding for you. Obviously this is just a glance, but that's often all a visitor will give your site.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The design quality is poor. Aspects like the logo, compression artifacts in images, and alignment of main screens indicate work needs to be done.

The Uzvy groups did not seem to have information I am interested in.

The site stalled as I attempted to activate from email. (Following the <http://www.uzvy.com/activate/XXXXXX> link embedded in the email Uzvy sent.)

Given this experience, I don't find the service useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry about the stalling...thanks for your comments.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> First page is actually good. It gives idea of what is your site about

What I didn't like is the name of site. Uzvy, uzvies, it just doesn't make sense.

Good thing is test console. Hate registering just to test out what site is about. Console really solves this.

Learning the user interface takes lots of time. You should take a look at usability.

Discussion board could have bigger font/spacing between lines, so it is easier to read on 30" monitor

When I read discussion board, I usually select the text I am reading. On your case it opens reply dialog.

Just my $0.02

</comment><comment><USER6> I bet you will find your bounce rate considerably high. For me, if I can't find out the purpose of the website in the first 30 seconds, I am gone. I must admit I am not the most patient person I know, though I don't consider myself to be the most impatient person - somewhere around average.

My main concern would be the fact I don't see any viable uses?

</comment><comment><USER7> Design quality is pathetic !!! Although, I guess lot of hard-work must have gone in this, the end-result shows an amateurish attempt to try-and-do- something new. It takes a good 15/20 minutes to understand why I need a uzvy. Instant Gratification should be the key word while designing and developing sites like these. Plus, who has time to 'figure' out websites like Uvzy when I can get my needed service or information done seamlessly from other networking sites ?!!

I still wonder why the Uzvy team thinks its cool to write - "initial impression of our UI throws a lot of users off and is intimidating, but after about 10 minutes of using Uzvy many users "click" with it..."

When they should be treating this as a PROBLEM AREA !!!

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice to see someone getting emotional outside of us.

We didn't think it was cool (actually mostly uncool) but were just relaying our observation to date. At this point, everything is up for potential change and thus a problem area to be honest until we get lots of users and activity so do share any thoughts, etc. on all aspects of the service. Thanks again!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Clickable - <http://www.uzvy.com/>

</comment><comment><USER9> Looked decent. Although a little confusing, I think once you get used to it, one should be able to make most use of the website. UI probably could change. I somehow liked the name. Short and simple. Although not sure what it means. Atleast this website if far different than most of the other grouping website.

</comment><comment><USER10> Hmm.

Looks like a lot of hard work went into this. But all you've really done is put a web interface on a BBS, or implemented a poor version of USENET without the benefits and a few social thingies.

The design needs a do over.

The name is hard to pronounce, this hard to remember. The thing about names like vimeo, flickr, twitter is that they at least invoke a sense of what they are about. How did u get the name Uzvy? Oh ... Usenet.

Did you build this on top of NNTP?

<comment><AUTHOR> No...we actually didn't...but interesting thought...does anyone still use NNTP??

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I do like the name, but agree that the design could be a little better.</comment>


New Jersey Lawmakers Are Trying to Tax the Rain - <AUTHOR> https://fee.org/articles/new-jersey-lawmakers-are-trying-to-tax-the-rain/ <comment><USER2> The title is bogus, as the article eagerly admits: "To be perfectly clear, while the new tax is being referred to as the "rain tax," it doesn't actually tax the rain itself ..."

In a perfect world, storm sewers would fund themselves.</comment>


We own ɡooɡle.com now and we don't know what to do with it - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/elblzv/we_own_%C9%A1oo%C9%A1lecom_now_and_we_dont_know_what_to_do/ <comment><USER2> It is really disappointing to see possible misuse of unicode, I believe browsers should team up and decide single measure like highliting unicode in address bar with bold red color or something like that with little tool tip which describe the case with caution.

</comment><comment><USER3> A/K/A Unicode considered harmful.</comment>


Defeat facial recognition - <AUTHOR> http://www.cvdazzle.com/

<comment><USER2> One problem with this approach is that it would be relatively easy to train classifiers that are looking for people who are attempting to avoid detection.

<comment><USER3> The site seems to advocate that people use this as a opportunity for self- expression, which would hopefully cause there to be such diverse designs that the best you could do is train classifiers for specific high-profile individual people. Even then, those targeted individuals could just use a new, randomly generated dazzle every day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wear highly reflective object like a diamond on the face, preferably on the forehead. It will project light to the camera and create random pattern on the face. What do you think?

<comment><USER5> A reflective eye-patch would be a nice idea. Are the materials which interfere with cameras but are not too annoying to other people?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Seems like they not only defeat computer facial recognition, but human facial recognition as well.

<comment><USER7> How else would it work? What would make thing A be able to recognize a face and thing B inherently not? Computers can (and probably will) become as good (or better) as people at recognizing faces.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It might be worthwhile to consider that detecting a face and finding the identity of a face are not the same. From the "Eigenface" article on wikipedia,

"The pictures constituting the training set should have been taken under the same lighting conditions, and must be normalized to have the eyes and mouths aligned across all images."

I would be curious to see how well face identification works with various milder forms of camouflage.

</comment><comment><USER9> While this can evade detection using full-facial classifiers, it's not difficult to detect individual facial features. If you can detect the eyes, nose, and mouth, and have them in a region in an orientation matching a face, you could assume that it's probably a face. While it is less efficient it's still a possibility.

<comment><USER10> >If you can detect the eyes, nose, and mouth, and have them in a region in an orientation matching a face, you could assume that it's probably a face.

Or a car.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Wouldn't a surgical mask and sunglasses do the same with less work? They have designer masks and sunglasses.

<comment><AUTHOR> They would, but you'd be a bit more obvious: walking around with a surgical mask isn't really discreet.

<comment><USER12> And random black triangles on your face is discreet?

<comment><USER13> Maybe you could start a fashion trend.

<comment><USER14> That's what I was thinking and if it does I bet it will start in London due to all the security cameras.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> this is like captcha with faces though.. good idea.</comment>


Random Google email saying they're to charge me for using their free service now - <AUTHOR> http://pastebin.com/zDZ9VX1b

<comment><USER2> +1, received the same email this morning.

</comment><comment><USER3> Obviously they've just decided to start charging for it, unless I'm missing something?

<comment><AUTHOR> It was a free service, and now it's not.</comment></comment>


A tectonic plate may have peeled apart - <AUTHOR> https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/05/tectonic-plate-peeled-apart-could-shrink-atlantic-ocean-geology/ <comment><USER2> Wow.

See [https://sci- hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.07.02...](https://sci- hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.07.024) for Civiero et al. (2018) A common deep source for upper-mantle upwellings below the Ibero-western Maghreb region from teleseismic P-wave travel-time tomography. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 499, 157–172. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2018.07.024

</comment><comment><USER3> I think that the article implies something rare, but subduction zones are quite common throughout the world. It's only that they discovered that this area is a subduction zone.

<comment><USER4> Well, sure, it's not rare, but if they are right, this is catching the process in its earliest stages, which would be a rare occurance.

>"If confirmed, the new work would be the first time an oceanic plate has been caught in the act of peeling—and it may mark one of the earliest stages of the Atlantic Ocean shrinking…"

<comment><USER2> Right. And conversely, there are many examples of early mid-ocean ridges.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So if I read this correctly, the bottom slice of the plate will be subducting, but the top part won't. Therefore when more of it subducts the top part will get pushed up? So there's potential for a new landmass off the coast of Iberia in the next geological tick?

</comment><comment><USER6> NatGeo's writers don't understand what it is they are writing about.

The significant fact here isn't that "the ocean will shrink," but that this discovery is potentially useful for understanding how subduction zones form.

</comment><comment><USER7> This is an interesting subject but I didn't find the piece to be well written. Perhaps it's just me.

<comment><USER8> Maybe the entire purpose of the piece is to serve as a vehicle for this pun.

> scientists have now proposed a groundbreaking explanation.

<comment><USER9> I think they still could have served that pun with a better written article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So, Earth algorithm is already compensating for rising ocean levels? Nice</comment>


The Incredible Bread Machine Film (1975, features Milton Friedman) - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycGRERrGsMo

<comment><AUTHOR> The actual depiction of the "Incredible Bread Machine" starts at about 30:30 into the film. But really, don't miss the rest (Milton Friedman is featured, along with Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon). Watching media from over 30 years ago is a fascinating reminder about how little some things actually change.

</comment><comment><USER2> At about 29:00 in, they ask if there is an example of a "true free market monopoly". _If_ microsoft was a monopoly, would it satisfy the criteria? It wasn't around when this film was made, but sounds like it may be a contender.</comment>


Linux Networking from the Ground Up, Part 4 - <AUTHOR> https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/01/linux-networking-stack-from-the-ground-up-part-4/ <comment><USER2> I've been following this series. Some good information, the author has a pretty good writing style. Well worth the time to read through it.</comment>


A comparison of JavaScript IDE's - <AUTHOR> http://www.nilzorblog.com/2013/12/a-comparison-of-javascript-ides.html

<comment><USER2> Great post. I've been in the same boat. I've seen Sublime used but felt it was a file editor, and not an IDE. I've used Sublimie, vim, cloud9, Eclipse. Cloud9 is definitely the easiest of those, but I don't like always having a cloud based ide. I'm looking into webstorm based on your review.</comment>


Derp Pirate Roberts - <AUTHOR> http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/derp-pirate-roberts/

<comment><USER2> He called American Hustle heavy-handed at times; I find his parallel between the DPR case and that movie _very_ heavy-handed, the whole time. Talk about a stretch.

It seems he's happy to have found a criminal proceeding involving "libertarian derp". Besides this implied negativity (not familiar with Krugman, but his language reveals his standings) and a poignant "amazing stuff" reaction at the bottom, Krugman actually offers no analysis, opinion, reaction, or addition to anything at all on the DPR proceedings. His quoting of this[0] story was entirely framed as an example of why being in the FBI "these days is a lot more fun" than in the setting portrayed in American Hustle.

Judging by the title, I was really hoping for a disection of bad opsec decisions. Guess I'll conflate 'krugman' with 'rhetoric' from here on out.

[0] - [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/business/eagle-scout- ideal...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/business/eagle-scout-idealist- drug-trafficker.html?hpw&rref=business)

tl;dr - Krugman watched American Hustle, then drew a half-hearted parallel between the movie and the criminal activity in the DPR and Silk Road case. He did this without saying much of anything about either subject while insulting libertarian belief systems with the use of the word 'derp'.

</comment><comment><USER3> If Krugman can use that kind of language in an article, I can use this kind:

 _Old_

<comment><USER4> It's a blog post...he's allowed a more casual tone.

<comment><USER5> You must be too young to realize that Krugman is too old to use the word derp.

<comment><USER4> I think everyone is too old for the word "derp". I think I missed the target of the parent comment. I thought the focus was on the casual nature, not the specific word "derp". On rereading, I believe I was wrong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm not a libertarian, but if I were, I would find this horribly offensive.

> What you also get from the report is just how connected all this stuff is > with libertarian derp

Much of prominent libertarian philosophy is derived from principles of nonviolence. Of course, it is infer thaf this statement to apply to all libertarians, but simply dismissing them as 'libertarian derp' based on one violent individual is deliberately misleading.

Also, talking about Amy Adams and her cleavage? This is the New York Times, not Maxim.

I expect better from Krugman.

<comment><USER7> DPR espoused and was embraced by Libertarians.

Turned out to be a contract-killing, drug-dealing, law breaking psychopath.

Seems to me there's a couple of avenues to turn onto here. One is to defend Libertarianism against its critics by badmouthing those who point out that Ulbricht really wasn't a particularly nice guy or a close adherent to the nonviolent principles screed on his LinkedIn page.

The other would be to disavow Ulbricht and make clear that his views have no place within the Libertarian camp, and that he's a false representative of the goals of the philosophy. Not that I'm any defender of Libertarianism (it's an infantile philosophy based on fabricated principles coopted by psychopathic timocrats, but that's a longer rant).

Which, in a slightly different context, is pretty much exactly the same sort of point that's been made with regards to extremest violence carried out in the name of Christian or Muslim traditions. Or corporate violence against individuals or groups. Or nationalist violence carried out by the any of a number of countries: Argentina, Syria, Egypt, the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, the USSR, South Africa, .... I'm not singling anyone out here, there's plenty of outrage to go around.

Yours, however, is misplaced.

<comment><USER8> > Turned out to be a contract-killing, drug-dealing, law breaking psychopath.

Libertarians like myself generally don't have a problem with the drug-dealing and law-breaking part. The contract-killing is unfortunate, I agree.

<comment><USER7> If you're going to go around getting people hooked on highly _physically_ addictive (and quite possibly deadly) substances (cocaine, heroin, meth), not just ganja, My book of business ethics says you're around to pick up the pieces afterwards.

Criminalizing drug usage is the wrong way to go. Making sure the market is very, very, very highly regulated, _including_ producer and retailer liabilities for consequences, is required if you're going to address the tremendous negative externalities of drug use. And yes, I hold tobacco, alcohol, and (lawful) pharmaceutical industries to the same standard, noting that they largely fail to meet it.

Ulbricht's utter hypocrisy regards nonviolence is particularly telling.

<comment><USER8> What about sugar? Caffeine? Computer games?

If you legalize drug usage and still criminalize distribution, there will be black markets and the associated externalities of militarized gangs.

But fundamentally, I think we have different assumptions about free will and personal responsibility.

<comment><USER7> _What about sugar ..._

Your tu quoque fallacy doesn't make the negative consequences of addictive and life-threatening drug abuse any less severe. I was actually hoping to head off such a response with my observation that I'd include other harmful but legal substances among my list of those for which producers and merchants would be considered liable for consequences.

Naturally, I'd include other harmful substances, and there's ample evidence that sugar is one (diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other consequences) among them. The jury's largely out on caffeine, but should it come in I'd add it. Though I'm not a gamer, I've actually got a bit of respect for the extent to which both gaming and CGI have advanced the state of information technology.

I've written before on the general problem of the dopamine-industrial complex:

[https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/8doc5ZPu...](https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/8doc5ZPuGgg)

[https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/TfoQaboP...](https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/TfoQaboPBpx)

[https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/L6rNWuFo...](https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/L6rNWuFojQf)

 _criminalize distribution_

You are intentionally misrepresenting my explicit statement: "Criminalizing drug usage is the wrong way to go. Making sure the market is very, very, very highly regulated, including producer and retailer liabilities for consequences, is required". I appreciate honest representation of views, though sadly, it seems to be a persistently lacking trait in conversations I've had with Libertarians, as a simple observation of fact.

My own views of free will and responsibility are informed by considerable research and investigation on the matter. It's a complex phenomenon not particularly amenable to a priori assumptions "not subject to verification or falsification on the ground of experience and facts"

[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Austrian_school#Even_they_admit...](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Austrian_school#Even_they_admit_they_just_pulled_this_stuff_out_of_their_asses)

<comment><USER8> > You are intentionally misrepresenting my explicit statement

I don't think I am -- in a very (very, very) regulated environment, the cost of substances which have perceived high externalities and are available on the regulated market will be much higher than the cost of the same substances on the black market. Or people will shift to alternatives and start sniffing glue.

Another difficulty is measuring the harm of drugs against the benefits -- how much do you factor in the subjective pleasure of the individual? What about the art, music and literature that was created by people under the influence of drugs?

> My own views of free will and responsibility are informed by considerable > research and investigation on the matter.

I infer that you reject the notion of free will in certain circumstances, for example when the individual is under the influence of mind-altering substances. Does this also shape your opinion on free speech? (This is purely out of curiosity and completely tangential to other issues)

<comment><USER7> Re: costs on regulated markets are higher than on black market.

Decriminalization of pot has _decreased_ marijuana prices. One of the reasons it's been opposed. To the extent of causing concerns among producers, if I recall stories correctly.

Re: glue sniffing.

Who's producing that glue? Yes, under dire and bleak circumstances people will resort to all sorts of destructive distractions. Wood alcohol and Krokodil are other examples. For cases in which there isn't a commercial provider, clearly, the manufacturer / merchant responsibility approach wouldn't apply. You'd _still_ treat the _addiction_ element as a health issue, not a criminal one. Parents drugging their kids might be another matter.

Re: creatives and drugs

I'm specifically talking about negative effects. If it turns out someone's _not_ incurring a negative consequence, then fine. But the alcoholic author who rots their liver while gilding their prose should have a significant portion of health costs covered by the alcohol industry. You can spin your angels on pinheads and generate hypotheticals all you want, but at root what I'm talking about is a clearly articulable net social cost and a responsibility for that cost. You soil your social nest, you pay to clean it up. You know: accepting persona responsibility.

I infer that you ask vaguely leading questions without taking a clear stand on your own position. State yours.

<comment><USER8> Re: regulated markets

Pot prices are low because they aren't taxed according to your suggested system. Once you start factoring in all the perceived negative effects the drug has on it's users (ignoring the positive effects, as you said), the price shoots up. Silk Roads will continue to exist.

Re: glue sniffing

So under your system, substances that can be abused as drugs while not marketed as drugs (also "bath salts") will be much cheaper than the regulated, taxed alternatives.

Let my clarify my position: regulation and heavy taxation of drugs is ineffective, unjustified and will have bad outcomes. Society fares better if individuals are made responsible for their choices.

<comment><USER7> _regulation and heavy taxation of drugs is ineffective, unjustified and will have bad outcomes._

Alcohol is regulated and taxed. Tobacco is regulated and taxed. Decongestants, cough syrup, and spray paint (not a drug, but a problematic retail good) are regulated, if not uniformly taxed.

There are limits to effective regulation, yes, but that's no reason to throw your hands in the air and abandon all of it, which is what you seem to advise. You're continuing to misrepresent my statement (I'm not "ignoring" positive effects, I _am_ capturing negative externalities). And you've dodged and avoided the matter of personal responsibility as I've iterated it several times in accruing those negative externalities to those on whom the responsibility for them lies.

Why in your scheme of things should the cost of social ills be allocated to all while the benefits accrue only to a select few? That's precisely the same situation as exists in much of the present global financial markets where financial gains are privatized while losses are socialized. This generates marked adverse incentive and moral hazard problems. In some circumstances (but not all) the mechanism of that has been government action, but the point is that regulation and action can have the effect of capturing or socializing externalities.

My argument is that the capitalist market system works best when both profits _and_ costs can be appropriately allocated to those on whom they are attributable. There are many cases where this requires significant intervention in market mechanisms, usually where boundaries of property (e.g., public health, pollution, broadcast of authored works) cannot be otherwise readily determined or enforced.

There's a reason Libertarianism remains a largely prepubescent pipe dream. It's a fantasy world.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> much substance

<comment><USER10> Normally I'd downvote the doge on HN, but this is particularly apt.

The article abuses the word "derp" to sound hip, makes weak shots at people and ideas left and right (without ever arriving at an argument), and generally rambles on for a whole page.

What a waste, how did this make HN top 20?

<comment><USER11> > krugman.nyt</comment></comment></comment>


Why Justine Sacco wasn't the biggest problem during her Twitter storm - <AUTHOR> http://bigthink.com/against-the-new-taboo/why-justine-sacco-wasnt-the-biggest-problem-during-her-twitter-storm <comment><USER2> i dont think anyone would have cared if she was just a normal person, but she literally WORKS AS A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER. she bloody tweets for a living and does public relations, ffs.</comment>


Gmail and Hotmail Captchas Cracked - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081002-right-back-at-ya-captcha-bad-guys-crack-gmail-hotmail.html <comment><USER2> I like how the turing test is reversed.... It isn't so much a concern whether human's can recognize a computer (these days anyway), but rather, can a computer recognize a human.

<comment><USER3> Hmm actually no, its a concern whether a computer can recognize another computer, because captchas just prove that the end user isn't a computer.

then again, I guess its the same thing...its the "glass half full/empty" scenario.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe it's time to beat the captcha-cracking guys at their own game: use mechanical turk to "interview" people signing up for a new email account.

If you signed up via an IM session rather than a web form it would leave a lot more context in the communication, which might be useful for making a determination. You could also give the Turker additional money for an account that hasn't been flagged for spam in 30 days.

I don't know if this idea has any merit at all, but it seems like a natural response to the arms race at hand.

<comment><USER5> So two turkers will end up talking to each other during signups?

I would rather a technical solution .

<comment><USER6> I swear, the first program to pass the turing test will have been programmed to break captchas.

Now there's a way to bring about the Singularity.

<comment><USER7> Yes, matching distorted shapes w/ noise attached to a set of 26 to 62 unique shapes will bring self-aware AI.

<comment><USER8> With the history of unusual ways things have been discovered in science, I'm not sure if that is sarcasm.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> There is a solution to this, but it's one that won't be implemented for some time because it is properly a government function.

Verified Identity.

The swiss have something like this, and are offering it to users in other countries see <http://www.incamail.ch/english/home.html?language=english>

But to really work, it needs the force of law (not that it wouldn't be gamed, but it's a lot easier to throw someone in jail for crossing the post office than some random companies TOS).

<comment><USER10> you don't think a person should be able to sign up for a gmail or hotmail account anonymously without tying it to their real identity?

<comment><USER9> I'm not suggesting doing away with internet anonymity.

But I do think I would be a lot more comfortable transacting business remotely with people I knew had gone in to the post office or DMV and engaged in a legally binding act of self-identification.

This is completely orthogonal to free speech.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Does anyone know technical details about how to crack Gmail's captcha system? I've no interest (or reason) to actually implement this, but it is very interesting.

<comment><USER12> It seems captcha is being "broken" by people tirelessly entering captcha text by hand. For money of course. See:

<http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Blogs/2919.aspx>

<http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1835>

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> > ... the list of CAPTCHA's it now understands and can bypass is reportedly > fully up-to-date, and includes newer designs that ask the user to identify a > cute cat or other distinct animal.

Basically, they've discovered a way to automate cuteoverload.com. And they're using this power to break captchas. _Bastards._

</comment><comment><USER14> why not extend the "click the kitten" with a huge database of pictures?

noone can do image recognition that well yet right?

<comment><USER15> Isn't that what the article says?

 _There's no further information on how the program has accomplished this feat, but the list of CAPTCHA's it now understands and can bypass is reportedly fully up-to-date, and includes newer designs that ask the user to identify a cute cat or other distinct animal._

I assume the cute cat picture is displayed among other pictures.

<comment><USER14> Yes but have a lage database of tagged pics and choose randomly what should be identified.

Well I guess the programs could learn a huge database too eventually.

Only solution is give these people a chance to make money in an honest way...

<comment><USER16> I wonder if one couldn't use the large tagged database of images from the ESP Game for this:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP_Game>

To get a database that large, the spammers would have to set up their own ESP Game and tag a big chunk of the web.

Even better, show _two_ images, one with known tags and one unknown, so that you can build the database further, like RECAPTCHA does.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.businessofsoftware.org/2010/05/kathy-sierra-at-business-of-software-2009.html

<comment><USER2> Losing her to the crazies was a huge blow to the IT community.

<comment><USER3> Apparently they haven't quit:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathy_Sierra#Decline>

Edit: The section was removed.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good (that it was removed)

<comment><USER4> I'm totally lost - what is the vendetta against her about? Any idea what caused it?

<comment><USER5> My theory: Men (full disclosure: I am one) are so apoplectically opposed to women in positions of prominence or authority that they consider any thought or word from them as a form of unconscionable condescension and/or confrontation.

Probable reality: People are trolls[1], especially to women on the Internet

[1] <http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/>

<comment><USER6> Well ok, but there are other prominent women who (presumably) don't get the kind of appalling treatment that she did. Is there a reason she was specifically targeted, or was it just a random cluster of assholes?

<comment><USER7> (My interpretation of events.)

Philosophically she's one of the least divisive thought leaders I've come across. (She would hate the term "thought leader," and never claim it. I just use it as a shortcut to describe somebody who has a specific philosophy/advice, above their own persona.)

In fact, I've yet to meet anybody who actually knows her ideas, that even disagrees with them, let alone doesn't like her. Maybe this is because her work is not "against" anything, and generally positive/enthusiastic.

(Unlike say, somebody who is a startup bootstrapping evangelist. That person would probably talk about how evil venture capital is, and end up being very divisive. Kathy Sierra's work involve no such equation, though funnily enough, she says that divisive work is usually a good sign. DHH loves and quotes this of course :D.)

Back to the incident: There was a forum of some people who thought they were performing a public service by calling out some semi-famous thought leaders. This wasn't limited to female people, but there were a few objects of their ire that were female, and the trash talk was definitely gender specific. This forum, not unlike 4chan, was more caught up in its own dynamic and emotion than having a specific ideology. Nobody could really say what they were _for._ They talked trash constantly.

It also probably attracted new members who were 10x more sketchy/scary/clueless than the OG crowd. This is a common community dynamic.

Some people took the Kathy Sierra trashing way too far, including some too- elaborate-for-comfort graphic depictions.

Was it just a harmless troll? Was it somebody new and insane and serious? Was it really about Kathy Sierra, or was it just bad luck to be chosen as the object of attention, a la 4chan?

The threats spread outside of the site, got more specific/direct/ violent, and Kathy Sierra cancelled a major appearance (the reason I know this story kinda of well is only because I was attending that event, etech, and it was very special occasion/big deal for me, and I paid extra to attend a tutorial by her :D)

People who never specifically admitted to being involved in the initial trash- talking, jumped in to pish-posh the fear/concern over the events, and defend free speech.

As far as I know, they never figured out who sent out the death threats, but did figure out some of the horrible trollers. Possible, but unproven that they were the same folks. Possible, and hopefully not true, that the initial stuff was garden-variety trolling, and later stuff was a seriously dangerous crazy person.

Some people have dismissed the incident as overblown, blending the off-site death threats, with the initial forum trolling.

I personally think they're two separate conversations. I think the initial trolling was horrible and depressing, but somewhat normal. But that the later threats were too disturbing and rare of an occurrence to be dismissed.

sidebar: Though the death threats did lead to a talk cancellation, and curtailing of her blog, it did not make her retire. She's given many talks since (duh, the top of this thread is about a recent great one). And her recent departure from Twitter is not the result of anything gnarly happening.

sidebar ps: Almost any post about a Kathy Sierra talk/essay/quote ends up being about missing her/ the unfortunate death threat incident. This is totally understandable. That said, I hope nobody misses the opportunities to learn from and benefit her transformational philosophies. Elsewhere in this thread I discuss the actual video, and how her ideas are as important as Lean, in terms of how they should influence what we do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a great talk. Though unrelated to Lean, Kathy Sierra's philosophy is similar in that it describes a "simple" mindset that has the potential to change the way you think about your product and business process for the rest of your days.

My only complaint is that there isn't a pithy catchphrase to describe it, or a larger cult evangelizing/writing about it, like Lean has.

When attempting to encapsulate Kathy Sierra's ideas, I often use the phrase "customer-centric," but I think people misinterpret it. (That said, "Lean" has a similar problem, people often think it means "budget" or simple.)

People often take Customer-Centric as a value judgement, that it means _be nice to people_ or something like that. (By all means, we should be nice to people, but Customer-Centric is not about something so subjective.)

Just as Lean is a _How_ , so is Customer-Centric. It's basically about focusing on how your business transforms your _customer,_ not your product/brand (these things get worked on of course, but in the name of results for the customer).

I also think that Lean and Customer-Centric are greatly compatible, and focus each other. Anybody into Lean should check this talk out.</comment>


Did the SEC Bait Goldman into Compounding Its Legal Problems? - <AUTHOR> http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2010/04/did-clever-sec-bait-goldman-sachs-into.html

<comment><USER2> _Usually, corporate lawyers are unavailable on short notice to work weekends. When a company or individual receives a subpoena or lawsuit on a Friday, they are left to stew in anxiety over the weekend until Monday, before their lawyers can appropriately advice them on how to respond to the SEC._

Wow, so not true at major law firms! Partners and associates at such firms are ready to drop everything, anytime and anywhere, to accommodate their premier clients, and especially over something so important as this SEC complaint.

In essence, the author contends that Goldman has exacerbated its problems by issuing a press release defending its general legal position in the case. I am not as SEC expert, though I used to do "Wells submissions" back in the day at a big firm, but I am dubious that this constitutes 10b-5 violations of any sort.

The author is a former CPA who was himself convicted of a felony in this area.

Very strange item, to say the least.

<comment><USER3> associates working weekends? all the time.

partners? not so much.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm pretty sure it ruined the weekends for the partners at Sullivan & Cromwell too :)

<comment><USER4> Yeah, it's hard to imagine that with one of the highest profile firms in the country with one of the top firms in the world representing them facing what could be an existential threat that the partners wouldn't be working weekends.

GS has slightly better resources than Crazy Eddies.

<comment><USER5> I bet partners in major law firms have planned agendas maximizing weekend trips like most people earning >.5Mill/yr.

Instead, I'd object the argument that they can't do most of it remotely with teleconferencing an keyboard-PDAs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> To be honest, I didn't know what to think of SEC suing Goldman Sachs, and if it really would matter.

But his analysis gives some hope^:

* Goldman Sachs has entrenched their position and tied their fate to Mr. Tourre's. If Tourre goes down this will have (major) implications for Goldman Sachs. They could have put Mr. Tourre on leave till the issue was settled in court.

* SEC put one of their "top dogs" on this case

* Cover up of a crime is more dangerous than the crime it self. Goldman Sachs's statement denies the accusation and says SEC's filing is 'unfounded in law and fact'. This statement could be seen as continuing to try to cover up the crime.

^hope for us plebs who would like to see banksters be brought to justice

<comment><USER7>
      ...his analysis gives some hope...

Exactly what I came over here to say. I have become very cynical about how this appears to be working out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'd be happier with a system that got to the bottom of the original crime, rather than trying to entrap them into new crimes trying to defend their public image.

<comment><USER9> But pragmatically, I'd be happy with any system that doesn't let them walk.

<comment><USER8> Getting to the bottom of what went wrong is important to the future of the US economy, far more important than jailing a few alleged swindlers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Has anyone read the bio on the author? The guy was the CFO of Crazy Eddie back in the day and got seriously worked over by the SEC. This is seriously interesting stuff.</comment>


Star Trek-style force-field armour being developed by military scientists - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/7487740/Star-Trek-style-force-field-armour-being-developed-by-military-scientists.html <comment><AUTHOR> I also like the part at the end, which is much simpler but also sounds pretty effective:

> _Scientists found they could double the ballistic performance of the armour > by introducing the holes to the steel, while halving its weight. [It works] > because when a bullet hits, it 's always near to the edge of a hole. This > causes the bullet to topple over, turning it from a sharp projectile to a > blunt fragment which is easier to stop."_

</comment><comment><USER2> Interesting, although that strange expression "incorporate material known as supercapacitors into armour" could be a warning of the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. Whoever wrote that didn't understand what they were talking about, so what else did they misunderstand?</comment>


Shrimp Trap - <AUTHOR> https://primitivetechnology.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/shrimp-trap/ <comment><USER2> The PrimitiveTechnology videos are such an incredible example of the wonders the internet provides. Here you have a guy making such interesting, engrossing videos, uploaded for free and accessible to all. The series is worthy of being on the BBC.

I wonder if there are any companies who spot this sort of content with the aim of getting in on tv screens.

<comment><USER3> > The series is worthy of being on the BBC

I think much youtube content is _better_ than the output of the BBC, which shows an unfortunate tendency to "jazz up" its shows to make them more "accessible" and "fun". If Primitive Technology were on the BBC, he wouldn't be allowed to do everything without talking (he rarely makes eye-contact with the camera, even). There would probably be a "panel of experts" to discuss or direct the course of events, and they would introduce some competitive element, so several people would be working against each other to produce the best shrimp trap.

The same thing goes for other channels like Matthias Wandel, Paul Sellers, Alain Vaillancourt, Marius Hornberger, Louis Sauzedde and Chris on Clickspring. These are excellent channels, I would recommend all of them if you are into making things with your hands. But they could never exist on mainstream TV, and if they did, they would be stripped of their charm and value to make them more commercial. So youtube > regular TV, imo.

<comment><USER4> I am pretty sure if you like primitive tech you would love the historical documentaries BBC did on this subject.

Primitive tech's presentation and focus on one technique per video is nice. But for comprehensiveness, you can't beat reenacting the 15th-16th century by living on a farm for a year like what BBC did in "Tales from the Green Valley", "Tudor Monastery Farms", and related series.

A lot of the exact techniques primitive tech covered is also covered by those series:

Fish traps: [https://youtu.be/ZIbhoR1GBuI?t=302](https://youtu.be/ZIbhoR1GBuI?t=302)

Wattle and daub wall: [https://youtu.be/Qn1h8DOQGEQ?t=589](https://youtu.be/Qn1h8DOQGEQ?t=589)

Building roofs: [https://youtu.be/jgjFsR-c0-Q?t=558](https://youtu.be/jgjFsR-c0-Q?t=558)

Smelting lead ores: [https://youtu.be/ZIbhoR1GBuI?t=837](https://youtu.be/ZIbhoR1GBuI?t=837)

etc etc

<comment><USER5> It's a neat subject, but I think you may have missed m0nty's point, a perspective which I share, about "jazzing up" with unnecessary dialog.

I just clicked on "Fish traps" and my ears are full of idle banter between the two people making traps and whenever they're quiet for more than a moment the narrator breaks in. Someone is speaking at all time and it's obnoxious. This complaint is entirely distinct from how comprehensively they cover subject matter.

BBC historical documentaries are far from the worst offender in this area (American TV is far, far worse), but primitive tech does a much better job than the BBC of permitting the audience to simply observe and absorb.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> For anyone curious about this who didn't want to watch the video, the trap consists of:

1\. A large woven cone

2\. A smaller woven cone without a tip

The smaller cone is placed in the larger one; shrimp swim into the small cone to explore, but then get caught in the space between the two cones when they try to get out (presumably because it's difficult to find the single entrance).

He mentions that the only skill necessary is basketweaving -- I wonder if it would be possible to carve something similar (two interlocking geometric shapes) or if the trap being woven is essential to its function, for example, for allowing flowing water in to entice shrimp.

One of the parts that stood out for me was

> In practice, a long stretch of creek might have several traps collecting > food each day without any effort on the part of the fisherman.

If he were to go whole hog long-term, shrimp traps would free up his time for doing other crafts in ways that spear fishing or actively hunting wouldn't, though I suppose the local yield of shrimp would factor into that (whether he could collect enough calories consistently to fund his other efforts).

<comment><USER7> 100 grams of shrimp are roughly 100 calories. Let's generously assume that one shrimp from the video yields 200 grams of meat. So he would need to continuously catch 10 shrimp a day to satisfy a 2000 calorie diet. Seems to me that the shrimp population of this stream in the video would be exhausted pretty quickly and he would need to move elsewhere to continue hitting his calorie goals.

Given that we are surrounded by an incredible amount of high-calorie food (100g of a Snicker's bar provide 488 calories), it is easy to forget how difficult it is to source calories in the wild.

<comment><USER8> You're off by a factor of over 20. A reasonable ballpark estimate for the total mass of a shrimp is 10g. The amount of usable meat is less (though in a survival scenario you would eat the whole thing, head included). Hell, the average meat yield from a standard size blue crab is only around 60g.

You would need to eat netfulls of shrimp per day to meet caloric requirements, not just ten! Anecdotally, I can toss back dozens of appetizer shrimp and still be hungry for a main course.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This guy is seriously amazing. I've spent hours watching every one of his videos and I think I ran out of, "WTF?"s by the time I was done.

</comment><comment><USER10> > I humanely killed the shrimp using the splitting method which destroys the > central nervous system (boiling alive is more painful).

How do we know this?

<comment><USER11> The best way to kill seafood in general would be to use an anesthetic then gut/puncture its nervous system. Clove oil would be the best example of this, check dave arnold's post out [http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=5731.html](http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=5731.html) and a good method for fish would be killing it using the ikejime method [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikejime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikejime) .

<comment><USER12> Yeah I would rather not drug my food.

<comment><USER13> If you read the linked article, you'll find they use clove oil.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Can anyone actually start a fire that easily without chemicals?

<comment><USER15> It is not that easy, but yes. The fluffy dry mass (the tinder) is very important - it is the thing that catches fire at low temperature. See his pump drill video for some of the pain points.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This guy is a perfect hacker of primitive technologies. I'm a big fan of his videos, all of them! I wish I could find more of those.

</comment><comment><USER17> Yes, yes, yes! I didn't know he had a blog. I've only seen his Youtube channel. Time to take a deep dive into his written material.

</comment><comment><USER18> On reddit overnight there were tens of posts on this from separate users, now I see this on here.

Is this common / natural or is there some PR at work?

<comment><USER19> It's natural. Many people on HN enjoy the videos and blogs, so it's natural that they post links.</comment></comment>


For crying out loud, Apple, just build a touchscreen Mac already - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-macbook-pro-touch-bar-makes-no-sense-2016-10 <comment><USER2> No, hell no. Desktop UIs — whether macOS, Windows, or any of the Linux environments — are not suitable for touch. They have to be gimped or uglified in some way to be touch-friendly; just look at the Windows 8 "Metro" disaster.

They are certainly not comfortable to use for long periods; just try using the Windows Classic Desktop with only touch for an entire day, without reaching for a mouse or trackpad whatsoever.

There is also the notion of active/focused windows in desktop OSes; on an iPad you can simultaneously interact with and truly control two apps at the same time, using multitouch in side-by-side split-view, but on Windows/macOS/Linux this creates some hard problems:

If your fingers are each on different window, over a different control of different apps, which apps receives keyboard input? Which app should get to display its menu? Which window is foreground and which are in the background?

If you need to draw in desktop apps, you're going to need a dedicated drawing tablet anyway, or you could use an iPad Pro + Apple Pencil with AstroPad [1] or Duet Pro [2].

[1] [http://astropad.com](http://astropad.com)

[2] [http://www.duetdisplay.com/pro/](http://www.duetdisplay.com/pro/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Omg please don't, I can't stand touch screen computers, keep concentrating on privacy avocation and OS X stability and performance.</comment>


Show HN: Just Refs – The Naked Wikipedia - <AUTHOR> https://getitdaily.com/justrefs/ <comment><AUTHOR> The goal of the Just Refs project is to help students and researchers by extracting lists of references and related topics from any page on the English Wikipedia. This removes the distraction of the prose written by others, and allows concentrating exclusively on judging the quality of the references.

Live Demo: [https://getitdaily.com/justrefs/](https://getitdaily.com/justrefs/)

Github Repository: [https://github.com/attogram/justrefs](https://github.com/attogram/justrefs)

Example page: [https://getitdaily.com/justrefs/r/Y_Combinator](https://getitdaily.com/justrefs/r/Y_Combinator)</comment>


This is the Github Issue that Geeklist deleted today. - <AUTHOR> http://knowtheory.net/img/geeklist_jennifer.png <comment><USER2> On the other hand, in Sweden, they forbade using objectifying images to advertise everything except underwear. This inevitably led to a woman not being allowed to appear (fully dressed) in ads for her own laptop company. They said her smile was too sexual.</comment>


Ask HN: Trouble With Tinnitus? - <AUTHOR>

Hey All,
I've suffered from tinnitus in my right ear for about 4 years now.
I've been fortunate in that it's a mild case--mostly unnoticeable during the workday, but it's definitely had a deleterious effect on my life. I'm constantly worried about begin stuck in loud situations that could worsen the tinnitus, which has had an effect on my social life, since many bars are loud places.
Does anybody else here have a similar problem?  Have you found a way to cope with it? <comment><USER2> I've had issues with tinnitus, yes. Mine kinda comes and goes, and I've largely learned to just ignore it. But I did some reading a while back that suggests that Melatonin may help. I sometimes use melatonin to help me fall asleep anyway, so it's hard for me to really isolate things and say if it helps my tinnitus or not. But you may find this interesting:

[http://brainposts.blogspot.com/2011/09/melatonin-for- tinnitu...](http://brainposts.blogspot.com/2011/09/melatonin-for-tinnitus- clinical-trial.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've read somewhere that playing high frequencies (at a reasonable volume) which resonate with the tinnitus frequency can re-align the misfiring of the eardrum hairs causing the problem. Worth a shot. An app I made where you can generate a sine wave and set the frequency: <http://sourceforge.net/projects/originalsynth/>

If it's any consolation, almost all professional musicians and myself included suffer from this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Are you still able to go to converts? If so, do the loud noises bother you, or are you able to use earplugs or anything else to cope with the sound?

<comment><USER3> I still go to concerts occasionally. The loud noise does not bother me. However, in the short term it can exacerbate the tinnitus. And it the long term concert-level noise is known to cause hearing loss (and maybe worsen tinnitus). Good venues usually play the volume at a safe and enjoyable level.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Do you take a lot of aspirin or something that's aspirin-like, like Pepto Bismol? That's what caused tinnitus for me. When I quit the Pepto, it slowly disappeared over a few months.</comment>


Ask HN: Are there any disadvantages to being niche? - <AUTHOR>

It seems everyone is preaching the niche way in terms of doing a startup. Its hard to believe that being niche has no cons to its pros. So what are some of the disadvantages of going niche? <comment><USER2> That you will have to be too many things to too many people at the same time. By going 'niche' you can concentrate on a subset of the problems, while at the same time validating the method. Once you've done that expanding from your niche will allow you to capture the larger market much easier than if you were to try to start that way.

It also limits the exposure of your 'gaffes' to the audience in the niche.

Also, you ask opposite questions in your title and the text.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, edited my poor subtext. :) thanks for answering.</comment></comment>


Are we going backwards using a library like Backbone.js - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14821599/are-we-going-backwards-using-a-library-like-backbone-js

<comment><USER2> I'm going to throw my opinion/view in here: Basically back in the mid 2000's there were 2 things that spurred the all-js apps: Google docs and the mobile phone biz. Google showed everyone what a full-on js framework could do in a browser, but there was no available API for people use to build their own tools. Then when phone apps became all the rage, people started developing js/app APIs starting with sproutcore way back when (now called ember.js). Then there's sencha touch, etc. Backbone, etc is sort of an evolution on these themes of having a front end API but for the web.

In terms of going backward, I think that there are some advantages and drawbacks. There clearly a polling/ajax problem when alot of people need to be pinging the server for tiny updates. If all of this can be pushed onto the client (especially requests for html blobs) you reduce server traffic and make things more snappy (no more preloaders). The downside is having all your code on the client. I wonder if there are unsolved security implications to having so much logic on the client. All-in-all for a standard web app, theres nothing wrong with the old school 'keep it on the server' approach. But if you need alot of dynamic "app"-like behavior, then having a front end API will benefit you more in the end.</comment>