KIA Dealership in Canada remotely disables car over $200 fee - <AUTHOR> http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-man-fights-back-after-dealer-remotely-disables-car-over-200-fee-1.4265588 <comment><USER2> I was highly confused until I read the article. Here is a summary:

1\. Guy's mom pays off his car loan

2\. Dealer says we installed a remote immobilizer to protect our loan

3\. Dealer demands $200 to remove the device since the loan is paid off now

4\. Guy understandably refuses

5\. Dealer immobilizes car

I think this sort of behavior should mean the end of your dealership. I cannot quantify/identify the actual wrongdoing here but I'm pretty sure there is something illegal.

<comment><USER3> I'm no lawyer, but I think the wrongdoing was when they remotely disabled a car that was owned by someone else. If I think my neighbor owes me $200, I can't just lock him out of his house.

A lawyer might or might not use fancier words like "coercion" or "extortion," couldn't say.

<comment><USER4> Funny about all this is that they are charging $200 to remove the immobilizer, and by immobilizing the vehicle it's clear it's not been removed... so why are they immobilizing his vehicle for the $200 charge for removal of a product that they didn't remove? My brain, it hurts.

They are asserting that it's their property, but they want to charge to get it back, and will punish you if you don't pay. Man, I love car dealerships.

<comment><USER5> Also if it's their item and not part of the car that he paid for, he should assess a storage fee and a power usage fee for the device.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The article says it well. The GPS only benefits the dealers, and they demand that the customers pay the fees to install, maintain, and remove the devices. 60 years ago this kind of hostile, predatory bullshit would have been met with torches and pitchforks. Today people just have to eat it.

<comment><USER7> What's the alternative? Don't lend money to people with a bad credit history, even if they need a car to get a job to pay their debt, like this guy seems to? What would have happened 60 years ago in that situation? You can't just keep trusting people to pay their debts when they didn't before. I made that mistake and the guy still owes me thousands of dollars which I might never see.

<comment><USER8> The alternative is that you build the cost of installing, maintaining, and removing the GPS into your loan terms and/or purchase price.

Breaking stuff out into fees can make sense when you want to discourage certain behaviors and therefore charge a fee for them. But everyone with a loan will have the device installed, maintained during the term, and removed at the end of the term or on default. There is not a behavior to modify, so these fees are stupid nonsense.

<comment><USER9> The original comment was objecting to GPS tracking/disabling on high-risk loans altogether.

You're talking about the issue of the GPS removal being a separate fee, which is a different issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If it can be done remotely, it can be hacked. So just waiting for shady dealers paying hackers to disable cars their competitors sold to drive them out of business.

<comment><USER11> Your larger point is very correct, but far more likely would be organized crime disabling a fleet of commercial vehicles to secure a ransom.

<comment><USER7> I doubt these are the factory immobilizers built into the ECU. You can probably just connect two wires together to bypass it. So the ransom would have to be less than the cost of an urgent callout of a mechanic.

<comment><USER12> I would really doubt that with most cars made in this century. The On Board Computer (OBC) likely has a satellite hook-up via OnStar or some similar system. You'd likely have to replace the entire OBC, which is many thousands of dollars. I guess you could push-start a manual and get that working, but good luck with that.

<comment><USER13> These are separate machines from the OBC that wire into the ignition system. As best I can tell, they are simple timers that reset when they receive a text message over the cellular networks. A friend of mine was warned not to go camping in the boonies near their payment date.

<comment><USER12> > A friend of mine was warned not to go camping in the boonies near their > payment date.

Your friend needs to find a new car, I think. That's insane. Why would you pay someone to do that to you?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Note that every canadian pundit is rightly calling this illegal. Disabling a car they no longer had any title over was a mistake and everyone knows it. That said, cars are disabled every day for non-payment of even smaller amounts. These lockouts are vicious tools.

<comment><USER15> It's part of an entire industry that re-labels auto "rentals" as "sales":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s)

<comment><USER16> At some point, you have to assign at least _some_ of the responsibility to the folks getting loans they cannot afford. It doesn't make predatory lending right, but lets not dehumanize or patronize the victims by implying they lack agency or responsibility.

Stinks that the woman's commute is an hour and a half, but come on there are a LOT of people who do that commute. Reducing the commute to 10 minutes is not necessity, and does not excuse throwing judgement out of the window.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What's interesting is that with such system in place, you could easily kill people. For example, disable the car when you're in a deserted region that hardly sees a traveler every 2 weeks. And while the example is kind of unlikely, the possibility of that happening is frightening. Especially that the protocol behind is MOST LIKELY un-authenticated and could probabaly be spoofed easily by expert researchers.

<comment><USER18> If the place is that infrequently traveled they could just shoot you with a gun. Even if they disabled my car somewhere where there wasn't cell service and literally no one drives my family would still send people out to look for me before I starved to death. A car on the side of a road is pretty easy to find so it's unlikely you would actually die from something like that

<comment><USER19> > _If the place is that infrequently traveled they could just shoot you with a > gun._

Not from the comfort of their couch in Moscow.

<comment><USER20> Isn't the UN considering that issue right now?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Glad this made me remember Cory Doctrow riffing on similar scenarios in 2012 with his talk "The Coming Civil War over General-purpose Computing" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbYXBJOFgeI)

</comment><comment><USER22> > "Immobilizers are most often seen in cases of sub-prime borrowers with > questionable credit," he said. "The devices are very effective at keeping > people on time with their payments."

John Oliver did a whole segment on these scummy dealerships, unloading shitty cars at massive markups deliberately (and not even hiding that they are) targeting borrowers who will probably default, so they can repo the car and resell it to some other poor person.

None of this is illegal (except in this case obviously) but it still feels like something that should be illegal, amazes me we're so poor at going after what's obviously a predatory business practice.

<comment><USER23> While i sympathize, with a high risk of default you need to charge very high interest rates and markups. You cannot get around the economics with a Care Bear stare.

<comment><USER24> Being poor is fucking expensive.

<comment><USER25> No, having a bad reputation and poor credit history is expensive.

<comment><USER26> Creditors do not care a bit about your reputation.

And no credit history is almost as bad as poor credit. If you have no credit history, you should expect to overpay when financing anything.

<comment><USER27> > _no credit history is almost as bad as poor credit_

Seconding this. It took me a long time to get over my German Swiss aversion to consumer debt. You are certainly penalised for doing that in America--from getting an apartment to factoring invoices at my business, many things became harder.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Aftermarket alarms, installing stereos and removing unwanted 3rd party electronics on newish cars are all cake compared to mechanical work for the most part.

I find it hard to believe that there isn't a car stereo/alarm/electronics shop in Sherbrooke that isn't known to other shops for removing these sort of things. You'd probably have pretty good luck going to the U-pull on a Saturday AM and asking the girl at the desk to point out someone who's a regular then offer them $50 to remove the system.

Obviously those sorts of actions are slightly outside of the box for most people but if dealerships want to act scummy then the workarounds become more widely known.

Edit: Please do some googling, window shop a few models, read a few installation instruction pdfs for trackers and aftermarket alarm systems before saying they're impossible to remove.

If you can install a stereo or aftermarket alarm then you can install/remove on of these. They are not designed to be Ft. Knox. They are designed to be a deterrent for the layman.

<comment><USER29> From what I've read, modern immobilisers are usually far more integrated with the main ECU than other peripheral systems, since their main purpose means they should be difficult to disable. Bypassing one isn't going to be anywhere near as simple as "hot wiring". I can see this being even more true if/when self-driving cars become common, which actually seems somewhat creepy.

<comment><USER30> I don't think this is the case for these devices. They have to be installed on a wide variety of cheap low end used cars. That's the model...mark up shitty used cars to lease to those with lousy credit. To work across that wide variety of makes and models, you need a cheap generic device.

There's also probably little overlap between people skilled enough to remove one and people that would buy a car this way.

Edit: here's one of them: [http://www.calamp.com/products/fleet-tracking- units/lmu-200](http://www.calamp.com/products/fleet-tracking-units/lmu-200). It does have a way to inline the obdii port, but that is likely read only for various data collection. These devices are sold to fleet owners as well. I doubt the sleazy lease operators bother hooking up that part...just the gps and ignition lockout.

You may be thinking of the factory immobilizers integrated with the key fobs. Those used to be hackable if you didn't want to pay the high dealer price for replacement keys, but they mostly aren't anymore.

<comment> gm-conspiracy So, I found a place that sells those LMU-200's:

[https://shop.dcsbusiness.com/product/calamp- lmu-200-series/](https://shop.dcsbusiness.com/product/calamp-lmu-200-series/)

Looks like around $100, has 4 I/O ports (which I assume you use 1 w/ a relay to prevent the starter motor from working, and not kill the vehicle while in use).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> There's going to be future battles, effectively DRM for automobiles. Epson has chipped their ink tanks, so you can only use their inks in their printers. Apple does this with their own iPhone spare parts. You have no right to a 3rd party repair, or authorization to hack and replace the software with something else (hence the right to repair laws in the works).

So why can't car companies chip all OEM spare parts, and disallow the car from operating if it's had any unauthorized repairs? Just put it into the sales contract. No more 3rd party repairs. Reduced competition. More profit for the car companies and dealers.

<comment><USER32> Enough customers would care that no car OEM would try. The type of person who replaces their car every 3 years wouldn't care (most work is warranty, and even basic maintenance probably goes to the dealer as that is the best way to ensure if there is a warranty issue, there is not question that the maintenance was done correctly) but when they go to trade the car in the used car buyers will care because they don't always go to the dealer. Any manufacture trying this will discover that trade in value of their cars is the scrap price. (the manufacture is probably the one who owns the lease so it is their dollar so it will hit them hard)

That is just practical reasons. There are a lot of laws about car repairs: car manufactures are required by law to make repair information available to third party repair shops. Independent car mechanics are a large enough group as well that any attempt to work around the law will result in more laws.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> How are these GPS trackers installed? I'm assuming they're somehow plugged in through the OBDII port under the dash. If that is the case, can't he just pull out the tracker and continue driving?

<comment><USER34> They are not plugged into the OBD-II port. They are hardwired. Example: [http://i.imgur.com/G2HVLGI.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/G2HVLGI.jpg)

<comment> gm-conspiracy So, splice the green wires and we are good?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I wonder why his grandmother bought the car instead of giving him 13.000. then he could pay a car in installments and have the rest for any emergencies. I never understood why people prefer cancelling credits in an economic crisis instead of keeping them.

<comment><USER36> Maybe she does not trust him much with the money. In which case she would pay for the car and let him drive it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I wonder if this is something insurance should handle.

</comment><comment><USER38> The real crime is the $14,000 pricetag for a lease on a KIA.

What the fuck.

<comment><USER33> If it helps, $14,000 CAD is roughly $11,000 USD

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> If we confult Experience and the credible Relati- ons of others, we fiiall find it probable enough that many things receive Nourilhment from meet Elements.

<comment><USER40> Are you a bot with a glitch? :)

<comment><USER41> Looks more like drunk posting to me, a bot would spell better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Good news: blockchain of the future will prevent disabling a car for the debt of a person outside the chain of title.

Bad news: This is the kind of smart contract I see blockchain handling well: locking people out of cars, houses, hotel rooms, over non-payment.

ed: heh. I have touched a sore spot, apparently.

<comment><USER33> What would have blockchain solved in this case? IMO, nothing.

If people don't read contracts written in English, how do you expect them to read and understand a smart contract that would contain the same clauses as the original contract but coded in a language they don't understand?

<comment><USER42> In this case, it appears the title had already passed to Grandma. A blockchain title could/should prevent Dealer from shutting down Grandma's car over Grandson's debt.

If Grandson is right about the clause not appearing in the contract, of course, he'd be doubly good.

To say it less flippantly, the low-hanging fruit in blockchain-assisted contracting seems to be these automatic self-help remedies and simplifying title disputes -- which, right now require judges and police for even simple disagreements. You'll have fewer _wrong_ denials of access, but perhaps more denials overall.</comment></comment></comment>


Issues with time travel - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/world-domination/time-travel/issues

<comment><USER2> What does the raven paradox have to do with time travel?

Also, the barber paradox.</comment>


Agent - Go-like concurrency in Ruby - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/igrigorik/agent

<comment><AUTHOR> <http://vimeo.com/49718712> Concurrency is not parallelism by Rob Pike

<comment><USER2> It's true that concurrency is not parallelism... but why did you bring it up. This project is about concurrency. Nobody has confused it with parallelism. The linked pages doesn't even mention parallelism.

So why did you bring it up?</comment></comment>


The Best Alternative Playlist on Spotify - <AUTHOR>

A 2140(for now) tracks playlist made mostly of post-rock + post-hardcore + post-metal + emo-jazz
...and this is not algebra :)
https://open.spotify.com/user/sun2rise/playlist/6QDMOiNTKZF6hGzj3L13aO
or
spotify:user:sun2rise:playlist:6QDMOiNTKZF6hGzj3L13aO
Have Fun! @sunrising <comment><USER2> Post should be called Hacker Alternative Playlist. Then its appropriate.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this really the place for this?

<comment><AUTHOR> what? your comment?</comment></comment>


Top Android Apps (or "why is there so much garbage on the Android Market?") - <AUTHOR> http://www.stevenwei.com/2010/05/18/top-10-android-apps-or-why-is-there-so-much-garbage-on-the-android-market/

<comment><USER2> I'm not really familiar with Android, but one look at that site suggests that it's not an official Google property. So looking at the most viewed apps on a single day for this obscure(?) site might just be skewing things somewhat.

The apps listed here seem a bit more "respectable": <http://www.android.com/market/>

<comment><USER3> agreed, and where does androlib get it's numbers?

I went to <http://androlib.com>, and their 'currently viewed' shows a much better group of apps (caller id, task manager, flight status, inclinometer, podcast).

If you're looking at non-official sources, it appears [http://www.androidapps.com/?__utma=1.956696379.1274210202.12...](http://www.androidapps.com/?__utma=1.956696379.1274210202.1274210202.1274210202.1&__utmb=121418522.214.171.1244210202&__utmc=121418584&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1274210202.1.1.utmcsr=\(direct\)|utmccn=\(direct\)|utmcmd=\(none\)&__utmv=-&__utmk=88162075)

is a better result (top 10 on the right hand side)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Last night I was browsing the/an android marketplace and I have to say that from the screenshots most apps looked pretty horrible on the surface. And yes, aesthetics matter to me.</comment>


Look4Sat – satellite tracker for Android inspired by Gpredict - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/rt-bishop/Look4Sat <comment><AUTHOR> Here is its page in _IzzyOnDroid Repository_.[0]

[0] [https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.rtbishop.look4s...](https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.rtbishop.look4sat)

<comment><USER2> Izzy is wonderful for maintaining so many apps in his F-Droid repositories, definitively worth adding to your F-Droid.</comment></comment>


How to get inspiration for a cool/enjoyable programming project. - <AUTHOR>

Hey HN!<p>I'v been lurking ycombinator for some time just reading posts and checking out others projects that they have submitted to the site. All of these projects have been really cool, and seems like while sometimes it may be frustrating developing them overall the experience can be pretty enjoyable. I am a college developer with experience in C++,php,ruby,python,coldfusion, and dabbling in some other things. Which leads me to my question, how do the majority of you get inspired for a personal project / startup idea? I have been looking for something to do in my spare time to enhance my skills and enjoy working with technology. I really don't want to do anything to make money, just enjoy creating something myself. Sorry if the question seems vague or out of place. <comment><USER2> I personally open a (yellow) phone book to a random page and brainstorm ways to make that particular industry more efficient. But then again I'm an efficiency consultant.

I'd peruse idea/complaint websites and see if one idea tickles your fancy:

<http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html> <http://www.whynot.net/> <http://www.quirky.com/> <http://logolalia.com/ideafactory/> <http://mybiggestcomplaint.com/> <http://www.ilovetocomplain.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> I actually get ideas like this: do something -be it work, browse the internerd, learn music, etc- and if the little developer voice in my head says "oh man, this sucks, we can do it better" or "oh, this could be automated!" or "oh man, THIS. IS. RAD. I wanna do it too!" then there I have my idea. I think everybody, at least people that are accustomed to creative work, like coding, get tons of those moments everyday; listen to them, write them down, your own everyday life is the inspiration :)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for those suggestions :) I'm sure I'll find something I enjoy</comment>


Ditching Google for Bing - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5875571/google-just-made-bing-the-best-search-engine

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought this was a pretty interesting article, until I went to bing.com and tried a search. The interface is not "super clean". In fact, it looks just like Google's (with all the silly previews and panels on the left/right) and as soon as my search results came up it asked me if I wanted to integrate my results with my Facebook friends or something... they're just copying all of Google's new crappy features....

</comment><comment><USER2> Ill try bing for a bit, though the first search gave me a glimpse and it was not much different... classic add on top of search results. And it still looks like google a bit, but who can't look like google? If you don't look a bit like google you are too different and you are doomed right away.

</comment><comment><USER3> Microsoft does the same with their Facebook integration and even a "cluttered" Google is still superior: <http://marketingland.com/twitter-google-wwe- bing-3206>

The fact that search engines can be swapped on a whim nullifies antitrust concerns, and as for the features in question they can be toggled over and even turned off completely if you don't find value in them, thus I fail to understand the brouhaha involving this feature and certain bloggers pretending to be lawyers.</comment>


Unprecedented even mould even occurring in Queensland - <AUTHOR> https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-09/health-impacts-of-townsville-floods-mould/11390952 <comment><AUTHOR> I've editorialised the title to a snipped I hear on the radio from a scientist working in the area</comment>


The UX of Pokémon GO: A Case Study - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@pedro_ux/pok%C3%A9mon-go-a-case-for-ux-and-psychology-8b6377db573a#.fplaxdk81 <comment><USER2> Thanks for the share. Appreciate it.</comment>


The Robin Hood Group and Ethereum Classic - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jackfru1t/the-robin-hood-group-and-etc-bdc6a0c111c3#.yvk83b86j <comment><USER2> For those not following along at home, ETC (Ethereum Classic) is the original, pre-fork block chain. It was "supposed" to die, but one exchange kept it open, and miners found they could make good money (BTC) on it.

So it didn't die, and although it isn't worth as much as (new) Ethereum it appears to be viable. Ethereum Classic is where the DAO attacker's money ended up.

<comment><USER3> Everyone expected it to die and most hash power switched over, but not all. Enough was left that the anti-fork people started calling it classic and poloniex started trading it, probably to let people who now had ETC liquidate. But the trading wasn't a straight line to zero as most expected, the "movement" became s but real and now it is still a very large crypto currency by market cap - and hash rate- despite being the "loser".

Given how dynamic Ethereum is code wise there may well be a market for an Ethereum alternative for ETC to fill. Lisk and Expanse seem to indicate this is possible.

<comment><USER4> It'll be interesting to see if, in the event of (inevitable?) future forks to Ethereum, if this branch becomes a long-running "just leave it as it is and let the market sort it out" experiment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is it possible for someone without knowledge of the sending private key to replay a transaction from one side of the hard fork to the other?

<comment><USER6> As the transaction is already signed on one chain you don't need the private key to issue the same transaction on the other.

<comment><USER7> But isn't this a sign that the Ethereum protocol might be susceptible to replay attacks?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> the members of the RHG that justified this to themselves have really bad judgment. It just makes the ETH community appear even more hypocritical than they did after the hard fork.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hey wait.. I have a large stack of eth I bought during the pre-sale, is this etc, or is this eth?

I haven't been following ethereum too closely

<comment><USER10> You have coins on both block chains now</comment></comment>


Get help building your company: questions and projects with top experts - <AUTHOR>

Check out http://slinghelp.com
and let me know your thoughts please
We help companies with getting help from top experts from every field in areas outside of their core expertise.
SlingHelp connects you to an expert who can answer your question or collaborate with your team on a small or a large project.
SlingHelp also allows each team member to follow the areas of interest they need help with and provides them custom tailored data in the form of articles, strategies, top experts, answers... <comment><USER2> Great idea. It compliments many of the things that Clarity.fm is doing, and they have a great product. Keep up the great work!

</comment><comment><USER3> Is this like the Mark Cuban company clarity?

</comment><comment><USER4> Is this a freelancing site?

<comment><AUTHOR> No it's a site that provides companies and their teams the following resources to build and grow the company:

\- access to articles, advice, expert contacts according to their areas of interest

\- questions and answers with top experts in any field

\- paid projects with top experts done on the site leveraging Basecamp for getting the job done (this part is like a freelancing site... in which you know how good the person you hire is).

<comment><USER4> COOL! Signed up...

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks</comment></comment></comment></comment>


You Should Probably Study Rationality - <AUTHOR> http://www.sebastianmarshall.com/?p=209

<comment><USER2> Rationality is over priced. Some experiments indicate that people use rationality to explain things they did, for example under hypnosis they suggest you should open your umbrella at a party, then you do it and try to explain why.

In this case rationality is a false distortion of what is going on. Living and thinking is at a higher level that rationality. We can use computers, logic, maths and rules to improve our rational mind, but thinking is much more that rational thinking. Creativity and emotions play a vital role. Destroy emotions and you loose your memory (citation required), because memorizing is linked to attention and attention is linked to emotions and feeling.

As a mathematician I can prove a theorem and give a prove, but there is something creative in finding a proof. Sometimes our mind is a wonderful mind.

<comment><USER3> That's rationalization which is not the same as rationality. If you were interested in being rational you would learn as much as you could about rationalization and try to detect or avoid it.

Rationality is also not the opposite of emotionality. You don't have to be Spock to be rational.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for commenting the difference, but what would happen when people use rational thinking only to construct excuses, that is rationalization of what they do.

An example: I am a rational people, I will pick certain portion of reality that allow me to construct a good model of myself, with blind eyes for the part I don't want to see.

You can use "rational thinking" to construct rationalization of your behaviour.

Since there is no logical notion of justice, rational thinking and rationalization are not far away.

<comment><USER4> Non sequitur; you can't call your actions driven by being a rational person, yet choose to exclude data points because run counter to your desired conclusion.

If you're excluding data points because they lead you away from your desired conclusion, then you're not thinking rationally, you're rationalizing.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Instantly stream movies for free in any browser - <AUTHOR> http://betterpopcorn.imilan.me/?ref=hackernews

<comment><AUTHOR> Why so little upvotes? Is the application bad? Are the two advertisements really annoying? Are you having issues? Is it just not interesting? Comment so next time I do better. I'm new in all of this.

</comment><comment><USER2> What's the legality of this service?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's somewhat illegal but you're only downloading content so it's less illegal than a torrent where you're also uploading the content.</comment></comment>


Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover Review - <AUTHOR> http://aaron.vegh.ca/2012/07/logitech-ultrathin-smart-cover-review/

<comment><USER2> Actually, on the iPad 3, speech recognition is really, really good. My wife uses this keyboard for typing the few misspellings left over from speech recognition. And for small edits.

An iPad 3 with this keyboard cover makes a great laptop substitute.</comment>


Google Stadia requires $130 upfront, $10 per month at November launch - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/06/google-stadia-requires-130-upfront-10-per-month-at-november-launch/ <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20116089](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20116089), except for the ones about this title.

</comment><comment><USER3> This headline is misleading.

The $130 is for the "Founders Edition", which is an early access with additional hardware (controller + 4k chromecast).

The $10 a month is for 4k access (instead of the default 1080p) and free games (ala Xbox live gold).

You may use an existing controller (or keyboard/mouse) connected to a PC if you want.

Without the subscription, games access is by-purchase (like steam).

<comment><USER4> Without the $10 subscription you have to buy each game and it runs on 1080p?

<comment><USER3> I think that's the implication.

Earlier they had demos of YouTube integration, so i imagine they would have demo's or some way to play before buying (?)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The title is sort of misleading. Stadia Founder's Edition is $129 for 2 three month subscriptions (one for a friend I guess?), a Stadia controller, and a Chromecast Ultra.

Stadia Pro, what they're calling their subscription model, is $10/month which is independent of everything else and all you technically need to play games on Stadia using your Chrome browser, phone, etc.

</comment><comment><USER6> First reaction to headline was WTF, but given that it includes hardware that seems reasonable.

Not particularly pleased about monthly fee AND a la carte per game though. Imagine if netflix did that...there would be a riot.

<comment><USER7> Amazon does this. There are many shows and movies that are included with Amazon Prime but there are others that you need to purchase.

<comment><USER6> Fair point, but I think scale of the problem matters. That info sounds like the monthly fee will include ONE game - Destiny 2.

That's tangibly different from Amazon's mixed models. Especially since I get Amazon prime for the shipping...the movies are just nice to haves.

Which means the 10 USD is effectively a hardware rental fee only. And Google becomes a game distrib platform and eats Steam's lunch.

<comment><USER8> Considering Steam is full of people who will notice the latency of something like this, I doubt Steam is worried at all.

I'm no MLG tryhard, but I notice the latency when playing my Xbox One X across my local 1Gb network. I wouldn't want to have that be my daily experience.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A brief history of the fireball spell - <AUTHOR> http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/271708/A_brief_history_of_the_Fireball_in_fantasy_games.php <comment><USER2> A pretty decent game I tried recently with this staple spell was _Stronghold: D &D Kingdom Simulator_. (super protip: if you decide to play this game, then one thing you want to do for sure is e.g. have Dwarves build Armories for the other classes that can't build them but _can_ use them, then turn over control as described in the manual—same goes for Thieves and their Glassworks if you run up against Medusae)

Oh and by the way:

[https://www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon- Peterson/dp/0615...](https://www.amazon.com/Playing-at-World-Jon- Peterson/dp/0615642047)</comment>


Removing duplicates from lists quickly - <AUTHOR> http://lemire.me/blog/2017/04/10/removing-duplicates-from-lists-quickly/ <comment><USER2> Note: this is only removing _adjacent_ duplicate values.

<comment><AUTHOR> from the article:

> To set a reference, suppose I generate 1024 random numbers in the range > [0,1024) and I sort them. This will generate a few repeated values. I want > to remove them.

so, this removes all the duplicates.

<comment><USER2> The code, as given, removes only adjacent repeated values. If the data you feed it is sorted then yes, all repeats will be removed, but that's not part of the code he's writing and analysing, that's just how he generates his sample data.

And I can see why the sample data would be generated like that. If you simply generate random values then it's unlikely there will be many adjacent repeats. Sorting it ensures that there will, and by adjusting the size of array/vector and the range from which the random numbers are chosen you can control the expected number of repeats.

I also observe that his opening example - 1,1,2,3,3,3,4,0,0 - is _not_ sorted, so the sorting really is just to give examples that are worth analysing.

So to repeat, the code only removes adjacent duplicate values.

<comment><AUTHOR> > So to repeat, the code only removes adjacent duplicate values.

yup. author wants to see how far can things be taken, and with simd in play, you can do approx. 1 cycle / array-op, which is an order of magnitude better than c++ std::unique.

<comment><USER3> The speedup is interesting.

I specially like to read other example where killing an `if` increase the performance easily. `if`s are bad!

The SIMD operations get much more speed, but here we can start a discussion about portability and maintainability. It's a trick to use only in a very special case.

Anyway, removing the consecutive duplicates of a vector is an O(N) operation, but sorting the vector is an O(N log(N)) operation. So in any real example the sorting part will be slower than the removing part. To make the whole operation quicker it's better to improve the sorting part.

It's a nice article, but hiding the slowest part of the operation under the rug is a bit misleading.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


GraphQL deep dive: When fragments and React components join forces - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/conduit-analytics/graphql-fragments-components-30021a83fc12 <comment><USER2> GraphQL will eventually I believe overtake the REST Api world.</comment>


Can we stop misusing the word "fanboy"? - <AUTHOR> http://geeqer.com/2011/12/fanboy-vs-blind-belief/

<comment><USER2> Pointing to an old definition of a word printed on a dead tree doesn't make that definition correct.

Language is alive. The dictionaries will catch up soon.

</comment><comment><USER3> sorry. that blog post is just wrong. a "fanboy" is someone who's identity is wrapped up in the products/brands they consume. they are intertwined to the point where an insult to the brand is interpreted as an insult to the self.

it's not an apple specific syndrome. apple fans have just probably been one of the most prominent examples of this coupling of brand to identity.</comment>


GoDaddy is down - <AUTHOR> http://www.just-ping.com/index.php?vh=www.godaddy.com&c=&s=ping%21&vtt=1347299560&vhost=_&c=

<comment><USER2> Oh happy day, oh happy daaaaay!

On a side note, do we really need a post every time some website goes down? It's hardly notable or intellectually stimulating.

</comment><comment><USER3> Wouldn't it be funny if they forgot to renew their domain name and it got snatched? ;-)

<comment><USER3> Turns out it's Anonymous:

<https://twitter.com/AnonOpsLegion/status/245218636187443200>

<comment><AUTHOR> Too bad, I really wished it was a DNS renewal thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bonus points for showing me just-ping.com -- that rocks

<comment><AUTHOR> You welcome!</comment></comment>


How to learn new things fast - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@thebizmarcus/how-to-learn-new-things-fast-16f39211507e <comment><USER2> I consider myself quite a quick learner, having undergone a total career switch only after a year and a half while having a full-time work, and being successful ever since. What helped me was:

1\. Consistency. Do it. Schedule it.

2\. Be comfortable with 'I don't know yet'.

3\. Learn to use your emotions. For example, fear is a huge driver for me. The thought of 'what happens if I can't figure this out?!' has been probably the number 1 driver for me, and has gotten me through a number of tough times.

4\. It helps if you're surrounded by bright people. Switching to an engineering field even as a person who's never done any programming will be much easier from within Google than from within your grocery local store. If you can get this privilege, i.e. get into the company that is predominantly focused on the type of a career you'd like to get into, use the people. Ask questions. Ask for resources. They'll help you.

I found the article extremely simplified. I don't think it's a clear progression path, when it comes to learning. I feel like learning wrong things and then having to re-learn it is a huge part of mastering a subject.

<comment><AUTHOR> The progression path may not be clear, but I think learning is a snowball affect once you've gotten started. Thanks for the comment! I learned design after getting a finance degree, so I can relate to that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> tl;dr

avoid "analysis paralysis" and have a "bias for action"

just get started

<comment><USER4> Yup, and keep making progress. You sometimes have to force the time to happen if you're starting to lose enthusiasm.</comment></comment>


Apple Operations SVP details supply chain safety changes due to Covid-19 - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/14/apple-operations-svp-details-supply-chain-safety-changes-due-to-covid-19/ <comment><AUTHOR> 'A few actions it has taken at its supplier facilities:

Health screenings

Limiting density and enforcing strict social distancing

Requiring the use of PPE both during work and in common areas

Implementing enhanced deep cleaning protocols

Deploying masks and sanitizers to employees

'Apple has also redesigned and reconfigured factory floorpans at its suppliers where needed. It has also introduced flexible work hours like staggered work shifts to ensure social distancing measures can be maintained.

'In addition to executing protections at its own suppliers, Apple is sharing its plans with NGOs and other organizations to help establish standards across the industry.'

The Apple Supplier Responsibility subsite:

[https://www.apple.com/supplier- responsibility/](https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/)

Apple Supplier Responsibility 2020 Progress Report:

[https://www.apple.com/supplier- responsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2...](https://www.apple.com/supplier- responsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2020_Progress_Report.pdf)</comment>


A-Cloud PR/FAQ - <AUTHOR> https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2020/06/21/A-Cloud-PR-FAQ <comment><USER2> Why single out Amazon? Why not ask the same thing of Google and Microsoft as well?

<comment><USER3> Tim worked for Amazon up until last month, so it's front of mind for him. The gag is that this is a proposal in a hyperspecific internal format being written in the public domain by someone who is now an outsider.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> PR/FAQ might be the only thing I'd love to borrow from Amazon process wise

</comment><comment><USER5> If I had quit for the reasons that he quit Amazon, _I_ wouldn't have the stomach to continue worrying about it.

</comment><comment><USER6> I dont like this. He wrote it like its already been decided:

> Today, at AWS re:Invent, Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy jointly announced > A-Cloud, a new Delaware corporation which will assume ownership of Amazon > Web Services' assets and become the employer of existing AWS employees.

Granted, this is on the same page:

> SEATTLE--(Business Wire)--December 1, 2020

but it just reads to me like some fanfiction, rather than a serious proposal.

<comment><USER7> That is the format of Amazon PR/FAQs. They are written "from the future" usually including a made-up release date.

<comment><USER8> This is the format, but the content is unrecognizable as an Amazon PR/FAQ. The PR doesn't tell the story of what customer pain is being addressed, and what customers say about the newly released feature aside from "Customers won't be able to tell the difference" and, later "We're confident that A-Cloud will continue to support [us]."

I'm a leaf-node engineer, and I'd send this PR/FAQ back for significant rework.</comment></comment></comment>


Amy Webb: How I hacked online dating - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wG_sAdP0U

<comment><USER2> Maybe she should start with losing weight?

<comment><AUTHOR> Would you have commented the same if she was a man, coming up with clever ways on how to find his dream wife - and - _spoiler alert_ being successful at it?

<comment><USER3> I'm not OP, but trust me when I say this: people hate fat men too.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, but apparently highly intelligent hacker types with a geeky humor? That plus I wouldn't call her 'fat' \- I'd say she's at the upper limit of what's healthy for a woman her age. Do we give Wozniak or Newell this treatment, both having a way unhealthier weight than her?

<comment><USER3> I was speaking of women looking to date men.

In Silicon Valley, the guy they usually want is a hunky fireman of an appropriate age who possesses the build of a 20-something who works out constantly and has a portfolio that would give an East German Olympic weight- lifter a hernia. The woman who wants this man is in her fifties, but claims that she's in her forties, is using photos from her thirties, and really should be on multiple forms of psychiatric medication. She hates her job, wishes to get married as soon as possible, and rejects all the men she meets.

<comment><AUTHOR> Idiotic people exist. What does that have to do with the presenter? Just because she's a woman doing what has been genetically programmed into every mammal on this planet?

<comment><USER3> Nothing to do with the presenter, as I indicated up front.

To the presenter - I thought I'd seen/heard this talk before, and I was right - she gave this talk as a TedX talk about a year ago and has since published a successful book about her search.

I'm glad that she figured out what was actually important to her. I hope that she has chosen her parameters wisely and will have a lasting marriage because of it. (I also sincerely hope that her husband had gone through a similar exercise.) However, being the cynic that I am, I suspect that what she thinks is important now will not be what she finds important three to fifteen years down the road. One of the things I noticed that she was looking for was a mid-30s (I assume) male who had never been married. She probably failed to take into account that there's probably a reason for that.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


A Python implementation for Racket - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/pedropramos/PyonR <comment><AUTHOR> Previous discussion about the paper: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11358471](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11358471)</comment>


Ask HN: What you think of the domain name I choose? - <AUTHOR>

[rabiscaria.org]
I'm launching a SaaS oriented for writers. What you think of the domain name I choose for it?
I'm asking it here on HN because, in Brazil, it makes total sense and is a pretty cool name but, as my target market is the world, I'm not sure how it will do.
So, what are your thoughts? Would you use a service wich the name you don't understand. Should I really use [.org]? Any constructive advise? <comment><USER2> It doesnt feel right, get a different name that ends in .com if not .co that people can work out how to say

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't think it means anything in English. But maybe writers (your target market) find names with non-obvious or hidden meanings appealing? Ask them, not us.

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow, that was rude =p... I'm pretty sure there are lots of writers (technical, fiction, etc) here on HN. I already bought some books of writers I've met here. But thanks anyway.

<comment><USER3> Sorry, I don't mean to be rude. But I think you will get more useful feedback if you ask your question in a forum that is primarily for writers, rather than in a forum that is primarily for IT/business people. (Unless your site is aimed at IT/business writers?)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> .org is for organizations. Try to get .com rabiscaria seems ok to me, I can not make any relation between the word "rabiscaria" and what u planning to do.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Rabiscaria is a derivative of the verb "rabiscar" wich is something like "to scribble" in english.</comment></comment>


Programmable Materials - <AUTHOR> http://www.selfassemblylab.net/ProgrammableMaterials.php

<comment><USER2> Related is this mesmerizing video by designer Dana Zelig that employs 3D printed Shrinky Wrap and light to produce a demo of the "sinuous flatland ballet" that could be possible with programmable matter:

[http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048940/the-magical-beauty-of- pr...](http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048940/the-magical-beauty-of-programmable- materials)

Can't help thinking that there is some golden ratio of piezo-electric crystals and carbon epoxy composites that would make a material that is not just programmable but also able to self-generate its own power supply ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> I was surprised to see no mention of electroactive polymers[1].

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

</comment><comment><USER4> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetal)</comment>


How HotelTonight Scaled Their Stack [audio] - <AUTHOR> http://stackshare.io/posts/how-hoteltonight-scaled-their-stack-from-mvp-to-ipo <comment><USER2> Curious, What are all these companies building that makes scale an issue? I see only CRUD products. At what point does scale become an issue? 1000 concurrent users, 10,000, 100,000?

<comment><USER3> State? Keeping a single source of truth which changes every 1/100th second while millions of users are doing something to change that state?

<comment><USER4> Right, but companies like Sabre [1] solved this in the 60s. If its gotten progressively easier over ~55 years, why should we be wowed now that anyone can spin up a travel aggregator that scales (just as I'm not impressed that Simple/BankSimple exists when they ride on top of a real bank, Bancorp; I'm actually deeply disappointed as one of the first Simple customers that ended up leaving because it took _5 years_ for them to implement joint checking accounts. At a bank). Amazon, airlines, Ticketmaster, all online companies that have to maintain "truth" about shared inventory and its pricing up to the second.

If you're breaking ground, awesome, you're doing something truly revolutionary. Would you be wowed if I built a Shopify clone off of Stripe and Squarespace? Or an app and site that performed ridesharing while simply talking to Uber or Tesla's backend? Probably not.

Ahh! There! Perfect example. I eagerly await the video, with baited breath, of a presentation from the team at Tesla rolling out autonomous driving using Nvidia's deep learning chipset. But if you build another Kayak, Hipmunk, etc, I _do give you credit for grinding away on it if its a successful business_. Grinding away on a business day after day for years is _fucking hard_. I'd just argue its not revolutionary or breaking new ground.

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

Disclaimer: Satisfied HotelTonight app user.

<comment><USER5> > I'd just argue its not revolutionary or breaking new ground

Which is totally fine and not a prerequisite for a business or tech business

<comment><USER4> My reply was directed at the comment I replied to that maintaining state at the level and complexity described is a solved problem. Sorry I wasn't less ambiguous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sometimes when I read articles like this, I wonder if I have stumbled into an alternate universe. I am always having to google every Nth term that pops up, and the terms are indeed surreal. I think everything is going fine until I see "Varnish".

<comment><USER7> You are definitely not alone in that feeling...

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Has anyone used HotelTonight in the last two years? Curious as I thought they were leaps ahead with their app early in the iOS native development cycle but I've heard crickets about them since

<comment><USER9> I've happily used it a few times this year - I almost always check their prices against bigger sites like hotels.com and they can usually provide a lower price if I'm booking after 6PM (before then and it's often the same price you can find directly from the hotel). More importantly, I very much value their curated set of "advice" about the hotel, and find it significantly easier to filter than sites like booking.com or otherwise.

Their mobile app is nice, and the flow is extremely smooth. I did once have to wait 45 minutes at a Best Western for their customer support to fax something across before I was able to get my room.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a frustratingly misleading title. They haven't had an IPO yet and it's unclear if they ever will.

One article in Bloomberg about trying to turn the company around and prepare for an IPO isn't the same thing. There is undoubtedly an order of magnitude (or greater) between the companies who have actually gone through an IPO and the number who have claimed they (or the press has claimed) will.</comment>


The Complete List of Everything Banned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/the-complete-list-of-everything-banned-by-mayor-michael-1490476691/

<comment><USER2> The elite know better than you.</comment>


Argentine Submarine San Juan Found - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/argentine-submarine-san-juan-found-1542433424 <comment><USER2> The sub was found by Ocean Infinity (oceaninfinity.com) using a swarm of undersea drones.

<comment><USER3> 5 vehicles is a swarm now? Also, I'm pretty sure the drones only communicated with the mothership, not each other. (If it actually was a swarm, I'd love to hear more about how that works - underwater communication in particular! Sound perhaps?)

<comment><USER4> It's like "deep learning". That used to mean 1 (one) hidden layer (as opposed to a single output layer).

Now: [https://cdn- images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*S3TlG0XpQZSIpoDIU...](https://cdn- images-1.medium.com/max/1600/1*S3TlG0XpQZSIpoDIUCQ0RQ.jpeg)

Even that is in danger of slipping into the medium category.</comment></comment></comment>


As recently as 1999, we thought babies couldn't feel pain till they were 1yo - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_in_babies <comment><USER2> I find the constant use of "we" in these types of headlines rather off- putting. Who is this "we" you speak of?

It may be true that "As recently as 1999, it was commonly stated that babies could not feel pain until they were a year old ..." In fact, that is the actual statement in the Wikipedia article. It says nothing about "we" believing it.

It wouldn't be the first time I disagreed with a "commonly stated" belief, but I must admit I never heard this statement and a moment's reflection will show that this is a bold claim that would need some substantial proof before it could be believed.

In fact, if you go to the work cited in Wikipedia[1], you see:

> _As late as 1999, it was stated that "[p]ain experience is placed at > approximately 12 months of age" (66)._

Checking that reference[2], we see in the abstract the statement

> _Pain experience is placed at approximately 12 months of age, though this is > within the context of a continuum of awareness rather than a straight > 'on‐off' switch. The major moral implication of this stance is to place the > burden of proof for analgesic use onto clinical measures, rather than > relying upon the, so far, poorly supported assumption of pain awareness._

That last sentence indicates that the whole paper is written to argue against the _assumption of pain awareness_. On the basis of that snippet (I can't access the full paper), it looks like the assertion in Wikipedia is not valid, and your headline is even more misleading.

[1]: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3385812/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3385812/)

[2]: [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8519.00...](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-8519.00129)

<comment><AUTHOR> Apologies. I was unthinkingly trying to condense the sentence from the article into the character limit for HN titles

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Anyone who's ever seen an infant get a shot or be circumcised should know that this is complete bunk. Babies don't cry for no reason.

<comment><USER4> I reportedly slept through my own circumcision and never seemed to even notice getting shots. My own son never reacted to shots as a baby. I'm not saying it didn't hurt, but I do think very young babies may feel pain differently and/or that "feeling pain" also includes anticipation and other factors.

This is all MHO and anecdotal, so please don't think I'm trying to state anything as fact or an educated opinion.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the addition to the discussion. Just wondering - was a family member in the room when you were circumcised? I'm just trying to figure out if the report of you sleeping through the circumcision was initially given by a doctor/nurse and then repeated by family, or if a family member witnessed it firsthand. (Simply because, anecdotally, even when the baby has screamed their head off, the doctor/nurse will tell the parents that they slept through it, so as not to distress the parents)

I've also heard the hypothesis that babies will go into shock much earlier than adults and will therefore be silent, or start choking / having a seizure silently, during traumatic surgery.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Part of the origin of this "belief" was to justify things like neonatal surgery (e.g. heart valve repair for "blue babies") when there were no good anesthesia protocols for newborns. Hard to do the job that you feel is saving the kids life if you are making them suffer.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've seen several videos where babies (most of them less than 20 weeks) feel pain in-utero . The reaction is not coincidental but in direct response to the stimulation.</comment>


10 minute Twilio hack to highlight O2 header issue - <AUTHOR> http://edlea.net/

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not pretty, but the code is here:

<http://edlea.net/o2.js>

</comment><comment> Tim-Boss (Un)Fortunately this issue has been fixed as of 1400GMT today, cool hack though!</comment>


Can I take dumb money if I have smart advisors? - <AUTHOR>

Taking the 'dumb' money now is a lot easier, quicker and more certain than going out to raise 'smart' money.  Is it worth the time, effort and uncertainty to go for smart money if I already have enough smart advisors?  Anyone who has done this (dumb money, smart advisors)? <comment><USER2> Certainly, as long as you can avoid giving board seats and heavy veto privileges to people you consider dumb. You can also bring in more relevant investors in future rounds.</comment>


Building my first mobile app – Part 1: Calm before the storm and tragedy - <AUTHOR> http://captaindanko.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-my-first-mobile-app-journey-so.html <comment><USER2> Part 2: [https://captaindanko.blogspot.com/2015/06/building-my- first-...](https://captaindanko.blogspot.com/2015/06/building-my-first-mobile- app-journey-so.html)

Part 3: [https://captaindanko.blogspot.com/2015/12/building-my- first-...](https://captaindanko.blogspot.com/2015/12/building-my-first-mobile- app-journey-so.html)</comment>


Apple's Profit vs. Amazon's Promise - <AUTHOR> http://go.bloomberg.com/market-now/2013/01/23/apples-profit-vs-amazons-promise/ <comment><USER2> Blows my mind. Apple is very innovative when it comes to personal computers and mobile devices. Amazon cleans the floor with them on scaling infrastructure and making services huge. I wonder what would happen if apple bought amazon, hmm.. muhahahahahaha.

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting comparison: Apple is currently valued about 2X sales, and so is Amazon. The stock market is sometimes quite irrational.</comment>


Would the blockchain had such an adoption without ICOs or gambling? - <AUTHOR> Imagine the blockchain tech (which wasn't even named like that at first).
Now remove ICOs, remoe the vast amount of money that are gambled daily (I do it also).
Would companies/startups/fanatics still use it? <comment><USER2> Blockchains provide solutions to problems that require one (or more) of the following- 1)an immutable, transparent record of transactions 2) trust between parties that don't trust each other 3) optional anonymity 4) decentralization. Any one of these use cases could be a reason to use blockchain beyond the ICO use case.

</comment><comment><USER3> It has a variety of use cases and so yes it would still be around. ICO's are a relatively new use for blockchains and it did fine before they appeared. It's usefulness for darknetmarkets was a primary feature in its initial adoption and gambling, well where you have money you will find gamblers.

</comment><comment><USER4> Here's an interesting use of blockchain, supply chain tracking from origin to Point of Sale: [https://www.provenance.org/tracking-tuna-on-the- blockchain](https://www.provenance.org/tracking-tuna-on-the-blockchain)

<comment><USER5> Very nice, thank you

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Companies already use blockchains.</comment>


New York Post blocks iPad. Not a new Strategy. Here is how to Avoid the Block - <AUTHOR> http://www.i4u.com/46966/new-york-post-web-site-blocks-ipad-not-new-strategy-here-how-avoid-block

<comment><USER2> Here's how to avoid the block: Read a different newspaper.

It's not like New York Post has a monopoly on news, if they don't want your pageviews, give them to someone else, don't bother trying to trick them into showing you the article anyway.

<comment><USER3> Even truer in regard to the Bild Zeitung. Not exactly the kind of newspaper that would make one dumber for not reading it, kinda like the German version of The Sun.

<comment><USER4> When I was a kid, I really was afraid the Bild Zeitung could infect me with stupidity.

I often think about it, though. In Germany we have some newspapers that apparently are internationally famous for their quality. But I think they sell much less copies than the Bild Zeitung.

Now in terms of startups, when would you aim for the smaller audience for the sake of quality? I don't often hear about these aspects when discussing new business models.

<comment><USER5> People who like quality often don't mind paying for quality. That's how to match up the audience with those types of producers.

For example, a high end fashion blog would do well advertising high end fashion products. A mass market fashion blog would probably not do as well advertising high end fashion products.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'd like to see their numbers after this - how many readers are they going to lose? And what will their advertisers think?

</comment><comment><USER7> They banned their device from the web--Apple could ban their app from the device. (not that they should)

</comment><comment><USER8> I'd be surprised if the kind of people who use iPads also desire to read the New York Post.

<comment><USER9> Probably policy imposed by Murdoch as part of the News Corp paywall. Whether it makes sense or not.

They did have one of the best headlines ever though <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NYPost.jpg></comment></comment>


BTC bubbles - <AUTHOR> http://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/btc-bubbles/ <comment><USER2> When a worthwhile Futures market hits, then BTC will really stabilize.

He's right. Without shorting, options, and future contracts... it becomes impossible for BTC to stabilize in the wake of media exposure. Add on to the fact that the majority of BTC users seem to be idiots (ie: they look at the price as some sort of indicator of BTC penetration, as opposed to more useful statistics), and you've definitely got a situation where bubbles will continuously form.

Anyway, I don't necessarily think he's right. There will always be some function that fits some data... and he may have gotten lucky this time that data fits his model. Either way, it is certainly an interesting piece to read. And his model seems to have solid theory behind it.

<comment><USER3> > When a worthwhile Futures market hits, then BTC will really stabilize.

I agree that a futures market would be a stabilizing force, but other volatile commodities are still highly volatile even with futures markets.

The reason most currencies aren't volatile is that they have a central bank behind them actively manipulating their supply to make sure they are stable relative to some other asset or basket of goods. In the case of the USD, the dollar is roughly pegged to CPI. Unbacked commodities that aren't pegged by a central authority tend to be on a highly volatile random walk, with or without futures markets.

EDIT: Looks like I mistyped, maybe it looked like I was saying the opposite.

<comment><USER4> Other commodities are volatile for different reasons. Natural gas is volatile because it's literally volatile, so storing and shipping it is expensive. Grains are volatile because of variable growing seasons. Onions are volatile because US Congress banned futures markets for onions. Even so, none of these are nearly as volatile as BTC has been.

<comment><USER3> Right, my point is just that futures markets will of course reduce BTC volatility, but they're not going to make it nearly as stable as TIPS or something. Parent was saying it was going to "really stabilize."

Speculating, I think an optimistic outcome is that it will end up with volatility similar to an equity index (which themselves effectively have futures markets).

<comment><USER4> In a perfect world, you're right. But it's inconceivable that there would be a BTC futures market with enough liquidity to make this happen, since a) the BTC supply is relatively small and b) no CFTC-regulated exchange is going to touch BTC as long as it exists its current quasi-legal state.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _What can we learn from this? You can see a "fair value" of around $20/BTC due to be hit in a few weeks, with perhaps a full mean reversion to $10/BTC._

We now have a testable prediction. Let see if bitcoin actually falls to to 20 and 10 dollars per bitcoin within 4 weeks.

<comment><USER6> I'd almost be surprised if it doesn't hit that within a few weeks.

Not necessarily as a stable value, but in the last few days it's bounced around madly between about 50 and 100 dollars. I think at this point it's fair to say that nobody has any idea of the real 'value' of a bitcoin, and mad speculation is still the order of the day.

<comment><USER7> > I think at this point it's fair to say that nobody has any idea of the real > 'value' of a bitcoin.

Nonsense. They have no use, not even as a status symbol or as a practical unit of exchange. The "real value of a bitcoin" is zero, and the fact that this isn't obvious to everyone is, frankly, astonishing.

<comment><USER8> But bitcoins _do_ have a use. There's at least a few million dollars a month of value moving through Silk Road.

However, it's not in the interest of users of BTC to use a wildly unstable currency. My prediction is that bitcoin will be replaced at some point by another crypto currency which fixes some of its major flaws - particularly its deflationary nature.

<comment><USER9> > particularly its deflationary nature.

As far as I can tell, there's no real reason it has to stay deflationary.

At some point there could be a consensus that inflation would be good for bitcoin and they could patch the client to start increasing the new bitcoins per block.

tbh I don't know why it isn't inflationary, if it was you could remove/reduce transaction fees as miners would always have an incentive

<comment><USER10> _At some point there could be a consensus_

In theory there could.

In practice, the vast majority of the bitcoin users are speculators, and will fight tooth-and-nail against changing away from being deflationary.

<comment><USER11> Bitcoin users don't call the shots; they have no say whatsoever. Bitcoin miners control the network. What matters for them is their return on mining in BTC, and the exchange rate to their local currency to pay their capital expenses and electricity bills.

If the miners think that they'll get more value out of the system by creating new coins forever, they'll make the change. They have to be careful not to destroy confidence in the system; this will be part of their value assessment.

<comment><USER12> Confidence in the system is more or less exactly the say of the users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Having not heard of this model before, I'm very surprised how tightly the curve fits, to the point of being sceptical (it's even got the "little" ups and downs" it seems).

Traditionally, the idea with a bubble is that everyone (well, almost everyone) knows it's a bubble, but no one seems to know when it will pop or how far it will fall.

Would this same model have fit the 2008 stock market collapse? Would it have accurately showed when and where the bottom was?

Would this same model have fit the BTC curve as well if the dataset had started 100 or 200 days earlier or later?

Just some curiousity about a model I'm hearing of for the first time.

<comment><USER2> The issue with the 2008 bubble is that it was in Mortgaged Backed securities (and related derivatives). The Stock Market crashed because when the MBSes crashed, big banks were unable to give loans out to businesses. Without loans, many businesses were unable to pay their employees, etc. etc.

The bubble was specifically in Credit Default Swaps, a derivative of the bond market. The problem here is that CDSes were untracked and unregulated. No one knew there was a bubble because there was no way to see the "fair price" of a CDS. Companies were making deals on CDSes in their backrooms, away from exchanges.

When all of the companies involved in CDSes failed (because people failed to pay their subprime mortgage loans), it killed the banking industry... even those unrelated to the bubble. When your business partner goes bankrupt, you're also in danger. Again: there were lots of factories who couldn't get a loan to pay their workers... because the bank they relied on died in the whole crisis.

This leads to factory closings, lots of people losing their job, and then a general Stock market crash.

But again, Stocks weren't the bubble in 2008. The Credit Default Swaps in the bond market was the problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Are prices only well described by log periodic power laws if market participants don't know they are well described by log periodic power laws, or does that make things more complicated?

<comment><USER15> I don't think that a bubble feels like a bubble to the participants driving it. I remember seeing this same phenomenon with gold prices a couple of years ago. So many people were adamant that "this time its different" even though we have seen gold spike and crash many dozens of times throughout history. Now that some of these people are losing lots of money in gold maybe their views change but it won't matter, next time will be same for the people driving it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Technical Analysis is the Homeopathy of the financial world, just an "advanced" kind of scam using some basic maths...

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_walk_hypothesis>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_equilibrium>

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis>

I though you guys were more smart than this.

</comment><comment><USER17> There has been lately some legitimate-looking companies starting options- markets: [http://forexmagnates.com/ig-groups-launches-bitcoin- binary-o...](http://forexmagnates.com/ig-groups-launches-bitcoin-binary- option/)

And also a new funded startup coming: [http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/04/11/coinsetter-the- newes...](http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/04/11/coinsetter-the-newest- bitcoin-forex-seeks-a-niche-in-the-wild-market/)

<comment><USER18> Yeah. Coninsetter looks promising and the beta is around the corner.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This is awesome. Hide it from the fanatics on Bitcoin talk, or post it for them to strengthen the feed-back loops?</comment>


Ask HN: How can we give positive feedback to open-source projects? - <AUTHOR> I keep running across quite rude and self-entitled individuals creating or commenting on tickets of open-source (OS) projects. On GitHub and Gitlab I simply add a thumbs-down to the relevant item and move on, lest the pertinent comments or tickets get side-tracked by offtopic discussions.
However, I do wonder if there's more that happy users could do to support OS developers and projects. Besides the obvious donation, I think it would be kind of disruptive to create a ticket to thank the author(s) for their time and work. Tickets are there, after all, to report issues or request improvements of some sort, not for cheer-leading. And often times the emails used in git commits either don't exist or aren't active.
IMO, it is important to find a way to provide positive feedback since the systems we have setup are there for constructive or negative feedback. The later has already driven good developers away from the community and only when they left did the community realise how far the bad elements had gone. Suddenly there were outpours of positive feedback with blog posts, forum posts, comments, tickets, etc. but by then, it's too late.
How can we drown out rude, self-entitled and demanding elements of our community that post things "if you don't implement this, you obviously don't care about your product" with nice things? <comment><USER2> In my experience/opinion, there's a project size / ticket volume at which an "off topic" ticket that provides positive feedback is problematic. For example, the Homebrew repos are definitely active enough that I'd feel like I was worsening signal/noise by opening an issue to say Thanks. But once projects reach that size, it's much more likely that they have a well-defined internet presence, which makes it possible to provide the feedback elsewhere (Twitter, IRC, etc).

For smaller projects: I can't speak for other people, obviously, but I'd happily accept the occasional GitHub issue saying "I used your project and it helped me do $thing, thanks!"

Days when I wake up to an email notification saying that somebody found my project useful are the best. And that's true whether it was a direct email or a GitHub issue notification.

</comment><comment> Pick-A-Hill2019 This is such an insightful post/question. I hope it gains traction and discussion here on HN, Thanks for posting it.

As an open source lurker/consumer I sometimes take a dive in to a projects' bug tracker if something glitches at a reproducible level and some of the tickets I've seen have been appalling.

The sense of entitlement in those has left me slack jawed on more than one occasion.

I've pondered on this a few times when debating whether or not to open source some of the stuff I work on from time to time and the conclusion has been a massive 'Nope'.

Not because I don't want to share for the good of humanity but because of this exact issue.

Criticism I can take (). The open tickets that either DEMAND that something be changed, those that have hit a valid bug (but failed to check the repo for open issues before raising a ticket) and then say that it is costing them $$$$ in downtime and (again) DEMANDING that it be fixed make me weep for the maintainers.

As to what the solution is – I've heard (via the grapevine & IRC chats) that receiving an email saying 'Hi, thanks for making this.' with a subject line like 'Thanks dude' makes a world of difference when having a bad day™.

Yet this is not enough to properly thank those that do Open Source.

Somehow I think that browsing an open source repo and searching for the 'Help Wanted' tags is something that all should do if they use an open source program regularly. Not all of it is CODING stuff. Sometimes it is a translation request (no coding skills needed), A request for 'Does anyone else see this happening? If not will mark as 'Closed' etc. Also most will have a metric that maintainers can monitor about how many viewed which pages. Seeing a 'help wanted' bug be unviewed for months on end while being confronted with 'WHY UR PROJECT NOT DO THIS?' level of tickets is ….. depressing.

Hopefully others here on HN can chip in with what would make them feel valued and appreciated.

<comment><USER3> In general I do nothing pro bono or on spec anymore even if it seems promising or fun because people who are not paying feel an unlimited entitlement to waste your time.

I find people who can do math are usually victimized in situations like that. The business bullshitters can say what they want and get away from it but for me the business value of something that is 95% right is zero. I'll do the hard work to get to 100% and in a fit of mindlessness they wreck it and then deny that they did.

Business folks use this phrase 'get your hands dirty' when it comes to fleshing out ideas in a framework where contradictions will be exposed. The underlying mindset is how people thought about blacks in pre civil war america, how they thought about Chinese people in the 1890s us or how they think about dailies in India today. You can intimidate people to say 2 + 2 = 3 cause the party says so, but aspies and computers can't do it.

I remember a person on hacker news that thought open source software wasn't well documented enough who went ballistic when I told him he could fix passages he wanted to improve (e.g. you are going to research it to solve your immediate problem, maybe even write private notes about it. Why not put your notes where you can find them later?)</comment></comment>


Which investors will invest in your startup? - <AUTHOR> http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2013/03/which-investors-will-invest-in-your-startup.html <comment><USER2> This post is great. Having been through YC and TechStars (separate companies) and founding a crowdinvesting platform, it seems to me that early stage investing is very much about who you are and the relationships you've built. You can raise money and survive without significant traction a priori.

What's interesting to me is how the barrier for investing is being lowered (e.g. JOBS act) and how that's going to impact the dynamic of raising money. Startups are going to be able to find people in their industry who grok what they're doing (e.g. their customers) and raise small amounts of money from many people. It's going to be easier for investors to make more small bets ($1k instead of $50k), so I think the need for obvious traction early on (graphs going "up and to the right") is going to keep decreasing and it's going to be more about speaking to a niche of investors in your space and being great with product and communication.

</comment><comment><USER3> Does "Investing in You", "Investing in your idea/team", and "Investing in traction" correspond to Angel, Seed and VC funding? If yes, this might mean the answer to "Investing in ..." should help you decide what round of funding to raise. If you already have traction, you might be in a good position to approach a VC. If you just have an idea or a team, then you must approach an incubator/seed fund...

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't know how much I agree with this - at the seed stage, in many cases, the ONLY thing you're betting on is the team. Ie, that they have a coherent idea is a good thing, but you're really betting on them figuring something out. Of course, there's seed (like YC thinks of it) and seed (literally, the first $20k).

</comment><comment><USER5> The third pie-chart is categorically wrong. I get the key point Gabriel is trying to make (that it's all about the team), but that green should at least be over 1/3rd of the pie.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if "Investing in You" should be included somewhere before "Investing in Your Team" -- in some sense, that separates the "friends and family" from the "incubators"

</comment><comment><USER7> Great post and it certainly brings up a valid point, which is traction trumps all.</comment>


Qrawd is Snapchat for events - <AUTHOR> Hello, I've been working on an event discovery app that gives you live feed on local events. Need some feedback before we launch. Visit www.qrawd.com and signup for beta to try out the app. <comment><USER2> clicky: [http://qrawd.com/](http://qrawd.com/)

What are the phonetics of this? CROWD or CRAWD?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's Crowd</comment></comment>


The world's oldest computer is still revealing its secrets - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/14/the-worlds-oldest-computer-is-still-revealing-its-secrets/?tid=sm_fb <comment><USER2> Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11902342](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11902342)

</comment><comment><USER3> "To keep reading, please enter your email address".

How about I hit the 'back' button instead.

<comment><USER2> Interesting, I didn't get that message, I just got the entire article. Do you have AdBlock enabled?</comment></comment>


Startup Technical Debt - <AUTHOR> http://measuringmeasures.com/blog/2010/9/21/startup-technical-debt.html

<comment><USER2> This is an interesting article but even more interesting is the series of articles that the author links to. I've been involved in several high profile products with different locations on the too much or too little debt axis. It always felt like economics could bring a more level headed viewpoint to the discussion instead of just relying on cargo cult mantras. I've skimmed and read the articles and they look like a good intro to the discussion.

As an example, I've found that most successful project have an extremely uneven distribution of debt with most of the code being glued together with bubblegum but a few critical regions having the polish of a high quality gem. Problematic projects tend to have an even quality with all parts having an equal level of 'cleanliness'. This article has some good discussion on why maintaining a similar level of quality across the system might not be a good idea: [http://www.alphaitjournal.com/2009/06/cross-discovering- asse...](http://www.alphaitjournal.com/2009/06/cross-discovering-assets-and- valuing.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Technical Debt at a startup will be always be present at a large scale as long as your main mission statement is getting to market as soon as possible. Their first question is 'does the market want this' instead of 'will it scale when it reaches mass numbers'?

I always consider Facebook as a prime example. The first version may very possibly have been something hacked together in PHP, with the intent of releasing something asap that had a good chance of flourishing. Now that it has flourished, and the proof of concept is validated (with VC money), you can afford engineers who will rewrite the system the way it was meant to be, complete with a PHP compilers and custom flat file databases. The risk paid off.

Digg's technical debt served them well too. They got into the market fast, and the performance issues of the previous site wasn't nearly as big as a factor as the business domain problems they introduced. Submitters didn't mind the occasional 'invalid token' error messages nearly as much as the revolt caused by the publish of a certain encryption code.

Joel says don't rewrite from scratch. We talk about big design up front, when the design doesn't even appeal to the market. But when your product has reached a critical mass, and you have an army of talented engineers salivating to rewrite the system, all that debt is forgiven when the system is redesigned from scratch.

<comment><USER4> What about Netscape? They did a re-write after their product reached a critical mass no? Or maybe I'm wrong (hence, Netscape is not THE most sought after product)?

<comment><USER3> Netscape was certainly what Joel Spolsky was referring to in terms of never rewriting software (<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html>). They dominated the browser wars in the early days since they released their browser much earlier than IE, with the added cost of technical debt. I'm not sure what ultimately caused their downfall, but I suspect it wasn't due to their codebase, but rather an inability to figure out how to properly monetize their large userbase.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In my opinion, having a reasonably clean _architecture_ is all that matters.

Not that bad: the implementation of an individual function is counterintuitive and undocumented--as long as an intuitive implementation of the function would interface with the rest of your software just the same way.

Actually pretty bad: the function has side effects that would be better off somewhere else. If this is the case, fixing this function is likely to break something, which may break something else, and so-on.

The ideal case is one where even though your code base is messy, you can easily see how you could achieve a clean code base through a series of short, discrete steps, where each step begins and ends with working code.

Kind of like how if you've got a string attached to something at the entrance of a cave, it doesn't matter much how deep in to the cave you get--all you have to do is follow your string back.

Of course I'm just a 19-year-old kid. Someone who's worked on a large software project should tell me if they like my theory or not.

<comment><USER6> _Of course I'm just a 19-year-old kid. Someone who's worked on a large software project should tell me if they like my theory or not._

Your post would be just fine if you left that line off. It was well-stated, agrees reasonably with my experience, and provides concrete points that can easily be addressed by anyone who disagrees.

My next suggestion would be to try it yourself: join a large software project.</comment></comment>


A Response to 37Signals "We don't do Employment Contracts" - <AUTHOR> http://startuplawyer.com/startup-issues/the-contract-roi-trap

<comment><USER2> The "lawsuit as car crash" analogy is a pretty good analogy. You pay a lawyer now as insurance against getting crushed by the legal system later.

If you step back, it is reasonable to ask _why_ we have a legal system where driving without a seatbelt is actually a pretty good analogy for hiring without a lawyer.

And I think that we ought to acknowledge that the system remains this way, at least in part, because it leads to many lucrative billable hours for lawyers.

<comment><USER3> The car crash in this case would be getting sued by an (ex)employee for lots of money - not paying your lawyer for lots of billable hours. It's the litigation-happy culture that you live in which causes the pain.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Contracts are a form of communication. Poor contract, poor communication; no contract, no communication.

When I first started at Microsoft (many years ago) I was the only one of my peers[1] to read the entire Employee Handbook. I believe this enhanced my relationship with the company during my time there.

[1]Based on many hallway conversations. I'm sure someone else somewhere actually read it.

</comment><comment><USER5> I agree completely with this article - "Trust in God but tie your camels" as a friend of mine says.

<comment><USER6> Why does God need a camel?</comment></comment>


Obama's Chief Speechwriter, 27, Works on Inaugural Address While Making His Own Transition - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/17/AR2008121703903.html <comment><USER2> Good article (though a tad gushy). I've been waiting to find out more about Favreau for a while. It's an extraordinary story, and I agree with the other commenters that it says a lot about Obama too.

One thing leapt out at me that has nothing to do with speechwriting. A lot of research has been done in the past decade or so on the prolongation of adolescence. It's a category of life that didn't use to exist (people went from childhood straight to adulthood), arose in the form of "teenager" and has been extending ever since. The last thing I read on this said it now extends to the late 20s.

Well, this article is a striking example of that phenomenon. The author takes it for granted that a 27 year old would naturally live an adolescent life. It's not just that Favreau became a presidential speechwriter at 27 (though of course that's an amazing achievement by any standard) - it's remarkable that he's doing _anything_ other than goofing around with friends and playing video games. Yet not so long ago, the opposite was the case: it would have been remarkable if a 27 year old were not well along the path of job, marriage, and kids.

I'm not commenting on whether this is good or bad, but it's a major social phenomenon.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Obama edits and rewrites portions himself -- he is the better writer, Favreau insists -- and they usually work through final revisions together."

I wonder if the same can be said of other presidents. Some of the classical speeches from the early 20th century are really incredible. I wonder who really wrote them.

Obama's acceptance speech was very powerful, too. One of the most powerful speeches I have seen in a while. Comparatively, McCain's speeches seemed to lack a varying style. They felt stale, and even his concession speech was kind of boring.

If anything, this article really solidifies my feeling that Obama is a smart guy.

<comment><USER4> No Presidents in recent memory at least. From what I gather, the last one that was noted as such was Grant. Let's hope for the sake of our nation that Obama's similarities to him end with the pen.

<comment><USER5> Didn't Lincoln write the Gettysburg Address himself? Legend has it he wrote it on the train ride to the Battlefield, though I'm not sure if that's true.

<comment><USER6> Lincoln was before Grant, obviously, but yes, that is the story. I'm not sure if it's apocryphal or what, but I believe it to be true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I hate to relate it to startups, really, but I couldn't help but think it sounds so much like a startup that just got acquired. I hope the Whitehouse doesn't do what big companies do to little startups so often. Hopefully the fact that they're not being taken in so much as taking over means it won't be so demotivating. Obama can sign an executive order allowing jeans in the Oval Office, right?

<comment><USER8> There's a difference. When a small company gets acquired by IBM, the IBM people stay in charge. The little fish gets swallowed.

Here, the startup is suddenly in charge of the behemoth. So there's no real reason to assume everything is going to change for the worse.

<comment><USER9> You underestimate institutional momentum. Try watching 'Yes, Minister', which is a far-too-believable take on how the bureaucrats keep politicians in line.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> Just ran across this blog entry from the marvelous James Fallows: Jon Favreau is not the youngest chief presidential speechwriter!

[http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/12/i_am_sh...](http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/12/i_am_shocked_to_see_a_factual.php)

(I almost submitted this to HN but it's not really worth a post of its own, so I'll put it here.)

</comment><comment><USER10> You know its amazing this guy is where he is at such an early age - he is certainly talented. It also speaks volumes about Obama that he recognized talent and obviously knows how to nurture it. I am looking forward to the inaugural address.

<comment><USER11> To be fair, Favreau has also likened the job to being Ted Williams' hitting coach. That's not to say he isn't talented. Just that he's already working with someone so gifted it may not matter who his coaches are so long as they know when to get out of the way.

<comment><USER12> You raise a good point. Obama probably likes having someone so young and inexperienced writing his speeches. There's no ego to deal with. If Obama's speechwriter thought he was a better writer than Obama, there'd be problems.

Makes a lot more sense now, actually.

<comment><USER13> Jon was a friend of a friend when I was in college. Very sharp guy. He was working in Washington for another senator a couple years ago. That is where he met Obama.

Jon also worked on the Deval Patrick campaign for governor in Massachusetts, too. Jon wrote his speeches, too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Didn't he also write Swingers? Barack is so money, and he doesn't even know it.

<comment><USER14> Different Jon Favreau

<comment><USER4> Glad someone at least caught the reference. Why am I not surprised it was you?

How long do you wait to call your babies?

must... resist... urge... to... quote...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> But, doesn't he know that Saccharine in large quantities causes cancer?

Seriously, though, nothing that Obama's said during the campaign has been remotely memorable to me, though I did stop listening to all his speeches as their numbers accumulated. Were any as memorable as, say, Reagan's "A Time to Choose"? Were any quotable? I'm sure they're on youtube, and I would be willing to turn off the old analytical mind for a moment to listen to a nice piece of performance art from the man, if any exists.

And not the "new day in America/ a time for change/ things haven't been going well for a lot of folks/ problems on main street" kind of pablum that I remember from the campaign.

<comment><USER15> I don't know why you're being downvoted. It's cool for the guy, but I found the speeches of Obama completely dull as well. Maybe the talent resides in writing speeches that will offend absoluetly nobody while masking the fact that they tell nothing at all, just like anything that aims to gain universal consensus. I, for one, was definitly not sensible to this tone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I just wanted to remark that I am thrilled to have a writer in the White House, and someone who thinks of himself as a writer, as a craftsman, as someone who creates things for other people.

<comment><USER16> I'm thrilled to know that Obama can place so much trust and responsibility in young people's hands. Glad to see a president that can recognize true talent regardless of age.

<comment><USER9> Nothing new - Bush had very young speechwriters too: [http://184.108.40.206/search?q=cache:-EuLK3eajXIJ:americasfu...](http://220.127.116.11/search?q=cache:-EuLK3eajXIJ:americasfuture.org/doublethink/2008/02/dcs- kid-speechwriters/)

Now, I'd be fascinated to hear _why_ speechwriters tend to be young. Because, unlike other political roles, it doesn't require decades' work building up contacts? Because younger writers are somehow fresher or more energetic?

It's certainly an odd, interesting phenomenon. But it's Washington as a whole, not just Obama.

<comment><USER17> It's my understanding that the bulk of the internal White House staffers are fairly young. Likely because of hellish working hours/conditions there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The despicable whitewashing of the BHO campaign goes on. Maybe when the newspapers are threatened with looming bankruptcy will they treat that corrupt Chicago gangster with equity (for the sake of sales). Until then, we're stuck with hagiography and cocksuckism writ on a grand strategic scale. The neocons are in firm, firm control. Expect hard-rightism in foreign policy, hard-lefism in domestic policy. Same as Bush. Nothing more disgusting than a sucker repeatedly warned.

[http://timepassonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/jon-favreau- hilla...](http://timepassonline.blogspot.com/2008/12/jon-favreau-hillary- clinton-photo.html)

Yes, the drunk 19-year-olds define public thought. You voted for it, bitches.

<comment><USER4> Perhaps you mistook this site for Reddit?

<comment><USER7>
        -3 points by mattmaroon 35 minutes ago | link
        Didn't he also write Swingers? Barack is so money, and he doesn't even know it.
        reply

Looks like you both did tonight :-)

<comment><USER19> Well, for that matter so did kalvin and the 10 people who voted for this article about politics.

<comment><USER4> The article was chiefly about writing. It's fairly apolitical really. It just happens to be about a guy who writes for the President.

<comment><USER19> There would be zero story there without Obama.

<comment><USER4> That doesn't make it political.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Instagram asking users to verify their ID if suspected of inauthentic behavior - <AUTHOR> https://www.engadget.com/instagram-require-identity-verification-inauthentic-behavior-182639243.html <comment><AUTHOR> Title was way too long for HN, so I had to truncate. Original: Instagram says it will start asking some users to verify their identities by submitting government IDs, if it suspects "potential inauthentic behavior"</comment>