More evidence emerges for 'transmissible Alzheimer's' theory - <AUTHOR> http://www.nature.com/news/more-evidence-emerges-for-transmissible-alzheimer-s-theory-1.19229 <comment><USER2> Somewhat misleading headline; critical quote from the article: "Neither study implies that Alzheimer's disease could ever be transmitted through normal contact with caretakers or family members, the scientists emphasize."

This study purely covered transmission via a specific kind of transplant. Still important for understanding the disease, though.

<comment><USER3> But another critical part is that this might be transmitted by surgical instruments, which apparently can not be cleaned well enough.

That would be huge if true.

<comment><USER4> This isn't true, many surgical instruments are disposed after use. Here is a picture of a needle: [http://forums.steroid.com/attachments/anabolic-steroids- ques...](http://forums.steroid.com/attachments/anabolic-steroids-questions- answers/35557d1088522377-rubbing-alcohol-clean-1-time-used-needle-needle2.jpg)

<comment><USER3> > many surgical instruments are disposed after use

What do you mean "isn't true", what about the ones that aren't disposed of?

Since some are disposed of, that means I should somehow not worry about that ones that aren't?

And that picture is misleading.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Both this result and the preceding paper are also entirely consistent with the hypotheses that:

1) People who are susceptible to vCJD are more susceptible to AD

2) The (cellular) stress caused by vCJD increases susceptibility for AD

3) People who have had brain surgery (a traumatic and stressful experience in terms of brain swelling) are more susceptible to AD

All three of which would be entirely inline with the fields' current way of thinking about AD, proteostasis, CBI etc. Which is not to say I actually don't think that there is a transmissible element, but I think we should avoid jumping to conclusions...

<comment><USER6> But what about the CJD controls that didn't receive transplants derived from cadaver tissue? Those didn't show the same rate of Alzheimers-like plaques, if I understood the report correctly.

<comment><USER5> The CJD controls had sporadic (sCJD), not variant CJD (vCJD) (whether or not these are distinct diseases is certainly an open question - I'm more trying to make the point that there are a lot of variables up in the air, and while it's a striking relationship there are other equally striking relationships one could draw).

<comment><USER6> A good note of caution for any study.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Does this improve the likelihood that it is treatable?

Some previous theories had been that Alzheimer's was essentially genetic. But never fully genetic, instead of guaranteeing your chance of getting it, it just increases the likelihood.

So my question is: Could this hint at Alzheimer's being the result of some yet undetected infection in the brain that some people are more prone to due to genetics, and that is transmitted due to brain tissue sharing?

PS - What I am asking about isn't that far from the latest research, see: [http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/574944_4](http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/574944_4)

<comment><USER8> There is some ongoing research as well to establish whether or not AZ is a form a brain diabetes. But at this stage the amyloid hypothesis is still considered the most probable.

<comment><USER9> My understanding was that they weren't separate hypotheses but one. I thought amyloid beta interrupted insulin signalling which then lead to all of the downstream effects of neuroinflammation, cell death, oxidative stress, glutamate toxicity, etc etc.

But I've never been super clear on the type 3 diabetes explanation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Anecdotally, I am aware that many in my family who developed alzheimer's (it runs on both side of my family) has surgery a few years before the disease started to present itself. Though the likelihood of there being much of a connection seems far fetched, even with this latest evidence, I have suddenly become much more concerned about going under the knife until this is all worked out. The grafts I get, but that proteins lingering on equipment, which isn't ordinarily removed through standard sterilization, could be a means of transmission... scary.

<comment><USER11> The long term effects of surgery are just coming to light. While, obviously, it is better to have an operation than die, it seems that you don't recover as quickly as your meat heals.

Anecdotal I know but I believe it took me 10 years to get over my bowel resection.

And then there's the anesthesia : [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-dangers- of-...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-dangers-of-going- under/)

<comment> nommm-nommm The anesthesia is scary - my grandpa-in-law was never the same after he had surgery. He went in totally lucid and came out of surgury totally out of it with dementia-like symptoms. It was permanent and it made him have to go into a home. He didn't even know who I was anymore. The surgery itself was routine and very uneventful but the difference in mental function pre and post op were as dramatic as night and day - and permanent.

I mentioned it to my doctor in casual conversation and she says she has seen that happen before when older people have surgery, especially those in not so great health. The article says "researchers hit on two other factors that increased the chances a patient would become dramatically confused after an operation: being older than about 70." He was about 80.

<comment><USER12> The same thing happened to my grandmother. She went in for a minor hernia operation, and came out a different person. She never recovered. It was very dramatic and very sad.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Could it be that Alzheimer's plaque is the ultimate expression of an attempt by the body to deal with CJD?

<comment><USER8> No, CJD has a clear culprit, the prion protein, that does not appear in "normal" AZ disease.</comment></comment>


Feature-flipping with node.js and MongoDB - <AUTHOR> http://blog.beyondfog.com/feature-flipping-with-node-js-and-mongodb/

<comment><USER2> and what exactly mongodb has to do with it?

<comment><USER3> The sample code (presumably) uses mongoose.js, a mongodb library for Node.js. As for functionality specific to mongo? Not really.</comment></comment>


Using Redis Pub/Sub and IRC for Error Logging with Python - alexis-d http://charlesleifer.com/blog/using-redis-pub-sub-and-irc-for-error-logging-with-python/

<comment><AUTHOR> Why not leverage logstash: <http://logstash.net/docs/1.1.0/> ? It doesn't have an irc output at the moment, but would be easy to add one. Very flexible tool!

</comment><comment><USER2> Is there any worry about user information being in the exception and being indexable?</comment>


Generating 3d text with CSS (incl source code) - <AUTHOR> http://pastebin.me/fe1561dc1fba4493d4982c6c81090e32

<comment><USER2> I think that my interactive roguelike version of the same thing is spiffier!

<http://eiman.tv/misc/3d_ascii.html>

(No, it's not a roguelike -game-, just a proof of concept thingie for the display variant - but don't forget to scroll around the map to see how it'd look)

</comment><comment><USER3> Hey Dale, have you seen the footer on this guy's site? (in particular the "Desandro made this")

<http://desandro.com/>

<comment><AUTHOR> hey, yeh his site is pretty awesome, particularly the opera logo in css3 and the css fonts.

I coded this thing quickly because someone asked how <http://sxsw.beercamp.com/> worked, another pretty cool css3 example, it didnt take particularly long time although im sure the maths is a bit off.

Ill try and turn it into a generator at some point so you can pick styles / angles etc and just copy the html / css.</comment></comment>


How Will States Tax Internet Downloads? Congress May Decide - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/states-tax-internet-downloads/

<comment><USER2> so, it _never_ happened before with seller/buyer using telephone or mail?</comment>


HTTPie: A cURL-like tool for humans - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jkbr/httpie/ <comment><USER2> This is a nice curl and wget replacement that handles a bunch of modern use- cases without a lot of hard-to-remember command-line flags.

That said, there is a broader problem of "hard-to-remember command-line flags" which I have personally solved using snippet management (I use notational velocity or command history, whichever is handiest).

There is no doubt httpie's interface is a lot better, but it creates another problem (again, which is somewhat universal) of installing, learning and remembering to use a new tool. This is a non-trivial problem that is a key concern for anyone evaluating a new tool, and it's a problem that only really gets solved with ubiquity.

Finally, an observation that so many of our "traditional" command line tools pay no attention to usability because, at least back in the day, the problem they solved was hard. People had a choice: either put up with an (admittedly) bad interface or write their own version in C. The individual cost of learning a bad interface outweighed the cost of rewriting the tool, and so standard tools were born.

And now, decades later, new generations are stuck having to learn needlessly obtuse interfaces to standard tools. We have a situation where newcomers pay the cost of developer UI laziness _in perpetuity_. This is, of course, a terrible outcome and it's projects like this one that are trying to change it.

So I applaud the effort and hope it catches on, become ubiquitous, and I can take the curl and wget snippets out of NV.

<comment><USER3> DELETED

This was a warning of a hazard to navigation, when a more diligent effort to remove the hazard is called for.

<comment><USER2> _> on at least some occasions the Python client gets non-standard results, while curl and (Guido, forgive me) PHP do fine_

Ok, young one, here's the thing. If you see a problem like this then file a bug. Ideally write a test case. And if you're an overachiever, dig into the code and fix it. Any bug in an http client that reposts data is incredibly serious, and needs to be fixed.

The other value in doing this is that you don't spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt - or FUD as it is often referred to. FUD is usually ascribed to big companies trying to discourage using a competitors product, but it can also be spread by the ignorant or misinformed inadvertantly. No offense, but I think that's the case in this case, because Python is not a niche language, it's used (and it's http libraries are used) by a lot of people, and the error mode you describe is very, very serious.

<comment><USER3> No offense taken.

I did report this to the API maintainers, who couldn't make heads or tails of it. I didn't file a Python bug because I honestly don't think Python is the problem.

But you are right, it is more responsible to pursue this until fixed rather than raise warnings.

<comment><USER4> Do you have a link to the report? I'd be interested to read the discussion.

<comment><USER3> No. I will be following up on this, if you send me an email (in my profile) I'll try to let you know when an analysis is available.

<comment><USER5> FYI, the `email` field in your profile is not publicly visible. If you want other people to be able to email you, you need to put it in your `about` text.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Everything on HN is just "hey, learn to use this complicated complex thing - in just 30 minutes! You'll be so productive with all your creative startups!"

"Learn VIM essentials in this blog post!" "Never bother reading 'man curl'!" "Learn the basics of C in three easy steps!"

Sometimes HN feels like a lifestyle magazine for people who dream of being PG.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I too dream of having the same succes as PG. Why else would I be writing here?

<comment><USER7> Also not sure what your complaint is. Working at the right level of abstraction is fundamental to being a good engineer.

<comment><USER6> There is no criticism really, I agree with you. But was just feeling uneasy and vented it. I welcome downvotes to my GP comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> "for humans" seems to have no better meaning than "for the OS X sensibility".

In other words: this is a style change rather than a productivity gain. And the superiority of the style is not obvious - unless you just HATE the style of existing tools and need to be set apart.

Most humans don't operate the command line or write scripts to begin with. Those who do, usually can handle wget "<http://foo/bar>. It took me all of a few seconds to start using wget and all of 10 minutes to have access to fancier features. (But the truth is that a certain level of complexity really just wants a script rather than ad hoc commands).

So here is a new tool, and it looks nice. But it doesn't at all relieve me from having to learn syntax and conventions - I still have to go to a doc/manpage and read that same kind of technical prose. So the only effective difference is that now I am using different punctuation, like @filename and -b. But the use of this "@" character is not really consistent with anything else.

So the tool is fine and I am sure people will use it but the competitive advantage is incredibly thin and the project smacks of NIH.

If curl and wget are not for humans then what are they for? People who do not have that magical design sensibility. Lame code-monkeys without vision, who are not creative and different. Soulless agents of the man.

This emphasis on branding over substance irks me quite a bit.

<comment><USER2> Gosh, what a horrible comment! The simple fact is that curl and wget's interfaces are bad, and _everyone_ who learns to use them spends that 10 minutes. And then, if you're like me, respends that 10 minutes when I need to do something fancy again. If a new tool were to save 5 minutes (which this one does), that's 5 minutes saved on every use, which is probably a total of a few hours for me personally, and spread over the population of future users, is a few lifetimes.

Rather than admit that even incremental usability improvements are not only useful, but continue to pay dividends long after the tool is produced, you lambast the author and the effort.

Not cool.

P.S. You should watch Bret Victor again, talking about how much easier it is to crush an idea than to support it and nurture it. <http://vimeo.com/36579366>

<comment><USER9> Your comment is an ad hominem attack where you falsely accuse someone of making an ad hominem attack.

<comment><USER2> You know, I was about to defend myself, but you may be right. My tone of outrage at the slurgfest being _wrong_ was itself rather wrong. If he didn't see the long term incremental improvements this tool offers, that's nothing to be outraged over. People make mistakes.

That said, I think it's a stretch to call this mistake of mine an _ad hominem attack_. It doesn't fit my normal understanding of such an attack - there was no name calling, etc. And certainly I didn't accuse _him_ of an ad hominem.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for pointing that out. I made slurgfest's comment a proxy for slurgfest when I interpreted your comment, and that is indeed a stretch. I agree that neither of you were all that harsh.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If by "for humans" you mean "for programmers who mostly use JSON". I have to say I'm not sending JSON with cURL too often, compared to any other payload. And when I do send JSON it's more complex than a flat set of keys and values.

<comment><AUTHOR> There is more to it than that. It provides an expressive syntax to construct all sorts of requests. You can submit forms, upload files and set headers without having to use flags. You also get syntax highlighting, ability to pipe in request data, etc.

If you are sending complex JSON, it's probably stored in a file or it's the output of another program:

        http PUT httpbin.org/put @/data/test.json

        http -b localhost:8888/couchdb/ | http PUT httpbin.org/put

<comment><USER11> I don't really think curl is much harder, e.g.

curl -X PUT -d @data/test.json httpbin.org/put

It also has the advantage that it supports all the options you might ever need, for example http authentication and proxies are often useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> HTTPie also supports proxies and HTTP auth (see --proxy and -a/--auth).

<comment><USER12> Doesn't support socks 4/5 proxies. :)

Requests and urllib3 have a long way to go to be complete competitors with cURL.

P.S. Good job nonetheless. Seems like a good idea to make a specialized HTTP CLI client for JSON/RESTful services.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The UI for curl is awful (--request to change the method??) and wget's is only slightly better, but they do have the advantage of ubiquity, and it's often useful to email/Skype complete curl or wget command lines about the place to explain how to use an API, or demonstrate problems.

(e.g. Stripe and others document their API in terms of curl commands: <https://stripe.com/docs/api.>)

I do wish the curl UI was better, but I can't see it being trivially replaced. (It's a similar issue with git: bad UI, but every git question and answer is described in terms of the CLI, so even if you prefer a GUI client, say, you still need to be able to formulate your problem in CLI terms for anyone on stackoverflow to understand you.)

<comment><USER14> It is possible to have another tool become ubiquitous (and in this case, it really would be for the best to have another tool become ubiquitous). In order to do that, though, you have to have a better tool, so this is a great start to making that happen.

<comment><USER15> Curl after all mostly replaced the earlier wget.

<comment><USER16> Except wget -r, which is still widely used and has no equivalent functionality in curl.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'd also recommend Curlish (<http://packages.python.org/curlish/>). It performs nice JSON highlighting and also handles OAuth 2.0 token authentication.

It simply wraps curl(1), so all of the familiar arguments and recipes continue to work just fine, as well.

</comment><comment><USER9> It looks great! I see no reason to slight cURL, though. Its CLI was intended for humans.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's not meant to be an insult on cURL. cURL is a great library/tool and supports way more than HTTP, but the command line interface simply isn't as convenient for common HTTP as it could be. The "for humans" slogan is borrowed from the underlying python-requests library and is meant to communicate that good UX is one of the top priorities of the project. Glad you like it!

<comment><USER9> I don't think it's the most obvious kind of good UX, but rather good UX for people who value expressiveness, like ruby programmers. The items that change meaning based on symbols are quick to type, but it comes at the cost of clarity. curl's paramters aren't very clear either, and since it supports more than just HTTP, it's harder to go through the man page with all that it supports. I think there's still room for one that uses option names/letters to differentiate between headers and body properties rather than symbols.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback!

I tried to come up with syntax that would make the most common tasks (i.e., sending JSON objects, submitting forms, setting headers, etc) as easy as possible and also feel "natural". The reason for the chosen style is that it quite corresponds to the actual HTTP request being sent. For example, if you want to send a PATCH request with a custom header and a form field data:

        PATCH /patch HTTP/1.1
        X-API-Token: 123
        Host: httpbin.org
        Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=utf-8

        foo=bar

You can simply copy the header (X-API-Token: 123) and the data (foo=bar) and paste it to the terminal:

        http --form PATCH httpbin.org/post X-API-Token:123 foo=bar

It's not as obvious as '--request PATCH --header X-API-Token:123 --form foo=bar', but on the other hand, the command doesn't include almost anything that wouldn't become part of the actual request, which makes it short and easy to focus on what's important.

<comment><USER9> Hmm, that makes more sense. If it isn't already in the README or man page, it might be a worthy addition.

I suggest you add an option where you can start off with a bare request.

Is there a way to have it construct the query string when you are doing a GET request? Also is there a way to have it construct a query string when you have a JSON or form body? Might be something to add below the description of items, as something that doesn't fit into that list but is related. Perhaps -q page=2 -q rpp=20 would be a good way of saying it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Another alternative, in Ruby, is HTTY - <https://github.com/htty/htty>

<comment><USER19> One difference to note is that HTTY puts you in a REPL-like environment instead of being a one-shot command like curl.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is a great idea. Sometimes when something is not working the last thing I want to do is poor through the curl man page before I can even get started figuring it out.

</comment><comment><USER21> I was looking for something like this a while back and found a useful firefox plugin called Poster (<https://addons.mozilla.org/en- us/firefox/addon/poster/>). It's useful for testing a RESTful api without creating any front-end code to handle the requests. Or anything you can do with cURL just simpler.

<comment><USER22> I wrote a similar one for chrome [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cdjfedloinmbppobah...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cdjfedloinmbppobahmonnjigpmlajcd)

<comment><USER23> A coworker recently pointed us to yet another one of these, Dev HTTP Client, which has worked really well for us.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aejoelaoggembcahag...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aejoelaoggembcahagimdiliamlcdmfm)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> My main difficulties in using wget are in organizing output location (things like -nH, --cut-dirs, -P), choosing between -nc / -c / default (rename), error / retry policy (-T / -t), logging (-a vs -o), etc.

This tool doesn't really solve any of my actual problems. YMMV. It's less a cURL replacement than a web API invocation tool.

</comment><comment><USER25> I like it, though I got around curl's painful syntax by wrapping it in a few shell script. For example, here's my api_post script (meant to be used like "api_post users/123 first_name=Foo last_name=Bar") (pardon my incompetent shell scripting and redaction of company internals):

      #!/bin/sh

      resource="$1"
      shift

      declare -a post
      while [ "$1" ]; do
          post=("${post[@]}" "-F" "$1")
          shift
      done

      if [ -z "${API_BASE:=}" ]; then
          API_BASE=http://localhost:3000/api/v1/
          echo "No API_BASE set.  Using $API_BASE."
      fi

      verbose=""
      [ -n "$API_VERBOSE" ] && verbose="-v"

      if [ -z "${API_COOKIES:=}" ]; then
          cookies=~/.api.cookies
      else
          cookies="$API_COOKIES"
      fi

      curl -0 -k -s -S $verbose -b "$cookies" -c "$cookies" -X POST "${post[@]}" "${API_BASE}${resource}"

</comment><comment><USER26> I was prepared to not be impressed, but this looks nice to use. Installed.

</comment><comment><USER27> This is a good tool. I wish there's an editor-integrated interactive http tool.

OT: Is there an Emacs package that can do interactive invocation of http? Like having a text buffer to hold all the urls. Hitting Ctrl-E on a url to invoke it, and display the http response headers and result on separate buffers.

<comment><USER28> OT: You just pretty much summed up _restclient.el_ \- <https://github.com/pashky/restclient.el>

<comment><USER27> That's fantastic. Thanks for the find. Emacs once again delivers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> See Resty <https://github.com/micha/resty>

</comment><comment><USER30> For website scraping, something like casperjs/phantomjs or selenium are more suitable, since they emulate a browser and evaluate javascript, which curl cannot, and it is not clear if this tool can.

What are the use cases where curl is more suitable than phantomjs or selenium?

<comment><USER31> APIs. Lots of HTTP usage is not browser-related.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> If you are doing cURL calls as a part of testing functionality, you may want to consider using a tool like Frisby.js ( <http://frisbyjs.com/> ) to create a suite of automated tests that involve HTTP calls.

</comment><comment><USER33> <http://xkcd.com/927/>

<comment><USER34> Not applicable. This is not a new standard; merely a new tool.

<comment><USER35> Replace standard with tool. Still applicable.

<comment><USER34> So by that rationale, we should have stuck with Mosaic, and Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Konqueror are all bad things?

How about the various mail clients, office products, ftp clients, torrent clients & servers, programming languages, power drills, clothing lines, gasoline engines, kitchen knives and so on?

Tools are about innovation. Standards are about locking down feature sets so that tools can interact in a common way. The whole point of the xkcd comic is that too many standards makes it difficult to make tools, and adding yet another one-standard-to-rule-them-all usually backfires.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I really like how writing little tools like this in Node is so simple:

        node -e require('request')('http://www.asdf.com/').pipe(process.stdout)

</comment><comment><USER37> A similar project is htty, which presents an interactive console UI to make and inspect http requests.

</comment><comment><USER38> This is fantastic! Thank you!

</comment><comment><USER39> I find the implication that people who know how to use curl are inhuman to be insulting and arrogant.</comment>


PBS Frontline: Growing Up Online -- Excellent Documentary - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

<comment><USER2> This was actually fairly interesting to watch. Even if there wasn't much new information, all of the kids and parents interviewed were really well-spoken.

Personally I've always felt like I was raised more by the Internet than by family or friends, at least in terms of where I've gotten most of my values and beliefs and a good chunk of my knowledge. And yet somehow I didn't really identify with the kids in the video.</comment>


Boiling timer - <AUTHOR> https://www.quirky.com/invent/1645987/action/vote/query/view=newest&categories=all

<comment><AUTHOR> (disclaimer: I'm the one who proposed this) Do you find this useful? I think the main challenge will be to design a "boiling sensor". But I think that a combination of temperature + pressure sensors should do the trick.</comment>


Ask HN: How do your organize your knowledge base? - <AUTHOR>

Each day I discover, learn and enjoy some new information/aspect about the world while reading books, articles, comments, newspapers or discussion boards such as HN or Metafilter. Sometimes parts of it are good - say comments or sections in a HN thread/article or certain paragraphs in a book. Other times the whole is good - say a beautiful article in NYT that I like to capture along with my thoughts that will help me recall and enjoy the whole article later. Yet other times, I could find useful tips, any kind - technical, financial, spiritual, career or related to aspects of life.
All this information is certainly disjoint, covers multiple topics and very little of it is immediately useful. Unfortunately I can't seem to figure out a way to organize it. I have tried a number of techniques/tools - evernote, delicio.us, pocket.com, clipboard.com, keeeb, bookmarks, sending mails to myself, mindmaps, highlighting, tagging, text files stored on github, writing mails to myself and so on.  But as time passes the notes/boards/links keep on increasing or I lose discipline/interest to maintain it and so I forgot what I have read, learned or collected. When I need something, I get the feeling that I know about it or have done it before but can't seem to recall the details - so i have to start search again. It's embarassing, frustrating and disappointing at times.  I often wonder when people posts old links or recall wonderful information on HN threads that they read years ago - how do they do it?
How do you effectively summarize, organize and recall your knowledge base - the information/experiences that you collected over years, processed and digested? <comment><USER2> Give Zimilate a try: www.zimilate.com. Evernote functionality without the clutter, plus it saves the entire webpage when you email a link.</comment>


A typing animation for your React Native app based on simple trigonometry - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/watadarkstar/react-native-typing-animation <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone, I just open sourced one of my react native animations, can you star my repo on Github, please :)

There is a tweet button in the README if you are feeling extra generous</comment>


Scoble interview with FathomDB Founder (W08) - <AUTHOR> http://www.building43.com/videos/2010/02/02/the-database-for-the-cloud-age-fathomdb

<comment><USER2> For sure he does not want people to buy into the noSQL movement, because it would mean less work for FathomDB.

Good service, but disingenuous remark about the nascent noSQL movement.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think I was pretty open about the fact that it's obviously going to be our viewpoint that we don't think people should do NoSQL. However, it's also because I genuinely believe SQL is the right decision. There may be use-cases out there where NoSQL is a good fit, but there are also use-cases where Windows is a good fit, but I'm still going to recommend Unix systems in general. As with all things, if you don't know why the general advice doesn't apply to you, then the advice probably holds!</comment></comment>


Analyse Asia 66: How will you measure your life with James Allworth - <AUTHOR> http://analyse.asia/2015/10/12/episode-66-how-will-you-measure-your-life-with-james-allworth/ <comment><AUTHOR> Synopsis: James Allworth, co-author of "How will you measure your life" with Clay Christensen and Karen Dillon, joined us in an interesting discussion on the book and his reflections on disruption theory. From discussing motivational factors to why you should not outsource your childcare, James offered his thoughts and perspectives to how we can draw valuable ideas from businesses to apply to our lives. Finally, we have a short chat on James' current podcast "Exponent" with Ben Thompson and also his thoughts on disruption theory and "jobs to be done" framework applying to not just Asian but global companies as a whole.</comment>


Amiga 500 Emulator in Chrome - <AUTHOR> http://pnacl-amiga-emulator.appspot.com/ <comment><USER2> Well that was a nostalgia-fest.

And incredibly impressive to me seeing something run in a browser tab that once took some expensive hardware (bespoke harward which took years to emulate at that!). It brings home in an easy-to-grasp way the advances in the web and processing power in general

<comment><USER3> Not quite. This is using Google NACL to run.

Thus it is basically taking an existing emulator and recompiling it for the NACL environment.

Now if it was using Mozilla Webassembly, it would really be an achievement.

<comment><USER4> Isn't this Google's version of ActiveX?

<comment><USER5> I think it's an unfair comparison to ActiveX, but it's similar enough I suppose. NaCL is a much more heavily sandboxed environment, and is at least cross platform.

<comment><USER4> Still, it allows to run proprietary code that you won't know what it does.

<comment><USER6> That's just as true of minified JavaScript.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> >in your browser

My browser is Firefox, this works only in Chrome. :-/

<comment><USER8> ...and, since it's not working on mobile devices neither, instead of "in your browser" it should basically say "in Chrome on desktop" since you can't actually run it in any other scenario.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Anybody managed to induce a guru meditation error yet?

EDIT: Delivered on demand, [http://i.imgur.com/Fo2CRTW.png](http://i.imgur.com/Fo2CRTW.png)</comment>


Captain Zilog No. 1: The Origin of Captain Zilog (1979) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Zilog/Zilog.Z8000.1979.102646293.pdf

<comment><USER2> They still make these! I have one lying around somewhere, I'll see if I can find it and share an image.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am sooooo old.

I had a copy of this back in the day, which I must have picked up for free at a Radio Shack.

</comment><comment><USER4> Oh my 8-bit God. That was atrocious... ... ... but I also liked it</comment>


Python code makes any song swing - <AUTHOR> http://musicmachinery.com/2010/05/21/the-swinger/

<comment><USER2> The player seems broken for me in all my browsers. Would it kill anyone to post actual music files?

Edit: This is because I had changed my personal settings for Flash in an attempt to disable "Flash cookies" which do not respect private browsing mode and work across all system browsers, and the the SoundCloud player needed my permission to increase its storage. Because the Flash runtime absolutely sucks, it was "rendering" the permissions window "in" the SoundCloud player, but not within its bounding box -- essentially off-screen.

Anybody still want to argue Flash is … anything positive?

</comment><comment><USER3> The same library has done some other cool stuff.. including "remixing" a James Brown to be 60 minutes long: [http://soundcloud.com/teejay/james-brown- forever-60-min-vers...](http://soundcloud.com/teejay/james-brown- forever-60-min-version)

And mixing between four distinct songs over about 45 seconds: [http://soundcloud.com/teejay/capsule-of-the-paliament-to- the...](http://soundcloud.com/teejay/capsule-of-the-paliament-to-the-gotan- project-to-michael-jackson-to-rihanna)

<comment><USER4> I cannot overstate how awesome I find the infinite James Brown song.

<comment><USER3> I want to dig out the code for it - if I can find it - and see if I can make hour long versions of other songs to see how long it takes the Mrs to notice ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Could have some interesting uses for Rhythm games.

</comment><comment><USER6> I can't resist the urge to click my fingers along to these ;) Great combination of beat detection and timestretching.</comment>


Vista SP1 won't install on dual-boot systems (Trusted computing veers its ugly head) - <AUTHOR> http://apcmag.com/vista_sp1_wont_install_on_dualboot_systems_microsoft.htm <comment><USER2> Damnit, can we _please_ stop this "TPM = Trusted Computing" FUD that's been floating around. The TPM is a hardware-secured cryptographic assist that anyone can use. It is extremely useful in security applications, and if you read the article what Microsoft is trying to do is both correct and secure.

Trusted Computing is part of a larger effort of which the TPM chips were only one small part, and a part which is arguably one of the most beneficial-to- the-consumer parts of the system.

<comment><USER3> How is it "correct and secure" to make dual boot more difficult? How is it "correct and secure" to make dual boot unavailable when bitlocker is used?

<comment><USER2> They can't verify what every executable in the bootloading chain will do, so they simply refuse to boot vista in the event that they can't verify it is being booted by known code. This is "secure", because they do a best-effort guarantee to prevent foreign code from entering the boot process. Refusing to boot is "correct" because it is the only course of action the Vista bootloader has to avoid loading tainted code. A far worse decision would be to modify the system to remove that bootloader and then reboot.

This is not a MS vs. the world thing, and I am certainly not a microsoft apologist. Whole-disk encryption for Linux should do something similar, and hopefully will make use of TPM chips if they are available.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> OK, this is lame.

The original article explains fairly clearly that.

          a. this only applies when the vista volume is protected

          b. that it stops installing the vista upgrade so it wont step on your bootloader.

So now we're kicking microsoft for doing the right thing?

I mean personally I'd rather experiment with recreational cholera infections than run any version of Windows, but come on, this headline is some quality flamebait.

</comment><comment><USER5> The article is from March. Not news.</comment>


I'm pretty sure these guys pitched me on an angel investment last year - <AUTHOR> http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/01/im-pretty-sure.html <comment><USER2> Don't trust them. I ordered and never got my bonus free emails.

Terrible scam :(</comment>


Ask HN: Why is search at the bottom? - <AUTHOR> Seems to be a common enough action to warrant putting it at the top. <comment><USER2> Why is the milk at the back of the shop?

<comment><USER3> Yes. the [more] button could be at the top too, but then you wouldn't have walked past the chip and chocolate aisles finding the Milk.

I think you have it. But, is this not possibly a mild-grey dark design pattern?

<comment><USER2> I come from a place where sarcasm is the usual tone of conversation, so my original reply could or could not have been taken seriously.

I was really drawing a very loose parallel because it was just enough to hold the context and also almost be plausible.

<comment><USER3> I have pondered why its bottom only for [more] and [search] for some time. Because of how I use the site I flit back and forth in the list/page view. To me, being at the "top" doesn't mean I am here for the first time, and so I'd want more/search both top and bottom because I think the steerage would be useful to me to avoid a page-down moment to use them.

I'd actually prefer keyboard accellerators and other things but I think I then get to this other place: the more HN did markup changes, the more likely it is that it would die, turning slowly into eye-candy rather than content.

I'd rather they left the UI alone than it died.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Gravity.</comment>


Breast MRI in cancer survivors results in more unneeded biopsies - <AUTHOR> https://www.healthimaging.com/topics/oncology-imaging/breast-mri-cancer-more-unneeded-biopsies-rsna <comment><USER2> I strongly believe that more data is always better. (But more testing is not always better if it's an invasive biopsy.)

If more data results in more unneeded biopsies, then just stop taking biopsies! It seems very obvious that the answer is to perform a series of MRI scans over a period of weeks or months, and track the size of the lump. If it's growing rapidly (or more lumps appear), then you would perform a biopsy. I don't even think you need machine learning for this. It just seems obvious that a quickly growing lump is cancer (almost by definition), so you need multiple scans over time to detect the rate of growth.

Is this a controversial opinion? Why is better to wear a metaphorical blindfold instead of just being smarter about what you do with the data?

Is this because MRIs are expensive and are in high demand, so it's just not practical to do this?

EDIT: I updated my comment to remove "more testing is always better".

<comment><USER3> Last time I asked this question, the reasoning was that there are non-rational (i.e. emotional, legal) reasons why an apparent lump on an MRI has to get addressed, so the only acceptable point to say "don't operate" lies at the point where the doctor decides whether or not to test. Apparently, doctors get exactly one chance to say no.

<comment><USER2> That makes a lot of sense. It also feels like a very solvable problem.

If I had the option to get annual MRI scans, but I had to sign a waiver that prevents me from suing the doctor or the hospital, then I would gladly take that deal. I'd rather have the data and an expert opinion, instead of no data and no opinion. If they miss something and I die, then no problem (mainly because I'm dead, but also because I would have died anyway). If they do a biopsy and it turns out that it was nothing, then that's also no problem. It's what I signed up for, and I understand that false positives can happen. Hopefully I could find a level-headed doctor (or a black-box machine learning algorithm), and just trust them to make the right call.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> A related issue is thyroid cancer. Diagnosis rates started increasing dramatically almost everywhere in the world in the mid 80's. Diagnosis rates in the US for example have tripled since 1980, in South Korea they have gone up 13x since 1993. Meanwhile the mortality rate has been completely flat. The most likely cause of this is increase in both screening and the sensitivity of testing [1]. There is also a current debate about if we should be screening / treating thyroid cancer the way we are, i.e. it seems like we're detecting a lot of innocuous thyroid cancers and then operating without need resulting in unnecessary life long complications for the person.

[1] [https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5745](https://www.bmj.com/content/355/bmj.i5745)

</comment><comment><USER5> From the article it sounds like most of the harm of false positives from the MRI is the extra stress of the biopsy and/or waiting for biopsy results. As such it feels rational to try to treat the stress/anxiety with well know methods like talk therapy. Prescheduling an appointment for after the MRI/Biopsy might greatly reduce the stress of patients. Of course this runs into the cost "problem".

The rest is pure speculation based on how it appears these procedures are portrayed.

Patients think of the MRI as yes/no for cancer and when comes back as yes they get understandably upset. If instead the MRI biopsy are presented as a single procedure (ideally done together, but money) the MRI is just getting targeting information needed for the biopsy not providing a yes/no decision. If it turns out there is nothing to biopsy the patient gets a happy surprise no-one is ever upset about this. (Again problem of money)

</comment><comment><USER6> It's the same results for starting mammograms at 40 vs 50. They're now recommending to start at 50, unless you have a family history, because they found a lot of false positives in women who started getting mammograms at 40 who didn't have high risk.

<comment><USER7> I have two questions:

1) From the POV of the patient, how bad / invasive is getting a biopsy? Wouldn't you always want the low-risk biopsy over having discovered a problem too late? From a public health / insurance perspective, I get that you're trying to lower costs and time wasted, which are sadly conflicting goals :-(

2) It's always been so shocking to me that the reaction to "we get false positives" is not "we need to pour money for research into much better diagnostic techniques yesterday" and instead it's "well I guess we'll just not look then".

<comment><USER8> > how bad / invasive is getting a biopsy?

About the same as getting a prostate biopsy, except you can lie on your back instead of on your side while they shove several large hollow needles into your flesh to cut out pieces of a very sensitive gland.

<comment><USER5> I don't think comparing it to prostate biopsy helps most people. I assume they anesthetize you so you don't actually feel pain just really weird, possibly upsetting tugging right? Afterwards you take some regular pain killers for a few days. This doesn't feel like a big deal to me but I'm likely wrong. Maybe it is only a big deal for some people like how how people who are claustrophobic freak out in the MRI.

<comment><USER8> Prostate biopsies are usually done without any anaethesia, just a bug gun up the bung that fires multiple needles and retracts.

Breast biopsies maybe use sedation and maybe a local bit of lidocaine, maybe not, depending.

It doesn't make a lot of sense to stick a needle in so you don't feel a needle sticking in, but they're different gauge needles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> > Breast MRI had a cancer detection rate (CDR) of 10.8 per 1,000 exams > compared to mammography's CDR of 8.2 per 1,000 examinations. However, breast > MRI had a biopsy rate of 10.1%, _double that of mammography's 4% rate._ > [emphasis added]

What's going on with the biopsy rate? Is it something as simple/nefarious as recouping the cost of the equipment?

<comment><USER9> I have not read the article but I believe that usually routine exams are done with X Ray, because it is quicker and cheaper. However if something is a bit worrying, doctor may ask for a different type of exam, MRI or Ultrasound, to have some confirmation.

But since this is rarer people who have MRI are already people at risk, so it makes sense to have a higher rate of biopsy in the end.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Countdown to "but more data is always better."

<comment><USER11> Is it not the saddest thing that our outcomes are so poor that deliberately starving ourselves of data is the safest course of action?

Sure, people will die of cancer we could have caught, but at least we wouldn't kill a yet-larger group of false positives through mistreatment??

A system with this-perverse of an outcome is broken.

<comment><USER10> It's not a broken system. It's a limitation of the current state of human knowledge. Perfect information about X without the state of knowledge to interpret that information prompts flawed action.

You are not living at the end of time, at the peak of human knowledge. There are things we know enough about to interpret; there are things we don't. The former we test; the latter prompts scientific research.</comment></comment></comment>


Ireland's largest bank locks users out during botched PSD2 update - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@brian_edwards/aib-irelands-largest-bank-locks-thousands-of-users-out-of-their-accounts-during-botched-c6febc189d5c <comment><AUTHOR> > AIB have positioned themselves above scrutiny. Twitter is not a substitute > for public discourse or regulatory oversight. In our brave new world, it is > possible for a company to completely disrupt the lives of thousands of its > customers in a fully automated way, yet we humans, (consumers) find > ourselves holding the bag at the end, with no ability to communicate > problems upstream. The disruption to our lives in this process is merely a > technical support issue.</comment>


Terror chief tries to board plane with banned liquids - <AUTHOR> http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/11/07/terror-chief-tries-to-board-plane-with-banned-liquids-115875-22697823/

<comment><USER2> Two questions from a parochial, isolated US citizen:

1\. The newspaper article uses the phrase "know to be haughty". My intuition tells me that phrase informs the British public about aspects of Baroness Neville-Jones' personality, but it means almost nothing to someone not steeped in British newspaper cultural references. Can someone explain that phrase?

2\. Where does the "Mirror" fall on the British newspaper spectrum: "reliable" or "less reliable" or "out and out tissue of lies"?

<comment><USER3> 1\. being haughty would be something like "unafraid to complain and taking a superior air when doing so". The sort that would say "My bags, boy" to a bellhop. A pretty traditional attitude for a Baroness to take on.

2\. Mirror is a tabloid, generally considered somewhere between less reliable and a "tissue". Certainly prone to revel in the slip-ups of snobby government officials.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm not getting the point here - we all get pissed when they launch into a lecture about how important security is, and start treating us like criminals due to common mistakes. I imagine if I had some kind of ranking above said security employees in the grand scheme of things I might be letting out a bit of an outburst as well!

<comment><USER3> >I'm not getting the point here - we all get pissed when they launch into a lecture about how important security is

I think their point is that she is the figurehead of the group setting the minor rules that govern the security protocols that she is complaining about. I think it's irony, but it seems irony is like Lupus ...

<comment><USER4> The article was thin - it seems more that she was complaining about being spoken down to and mini-lectured on why "security is important" rather than the simple fact that the spray bottle was against regulations.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Post-Mortem for "Who wants to be hired" - <AUTHOR>

I wanted to get some feedback form those of you that saw the "Who wants to be hired" thread [1] posted last Friday.
While dang mentioned [2] that he didn't feel this should be set up as a recurring whoishiring sponsored thread, I wanted to see if there would be some value in someone setting this up on a semi-recurring basis (every few months, once a year, etc.), and to discuss some of the concerns he and others had on that thread.
Some thoughts I think would be valuable to gather:
- For those posting their resume: How many people reached out, and were they relevant, or even great fits?
- For those looking for candidates: Did you find it valuable, and were you even able to find good fits for your organization?
- For others in the HN community: Did you find it interesting, or did you use it to find fits for opportunities you were aware of?
- For everyone: Outside of the above benefits, what concerns or issues do you see with a thread like this, and would you support some sort of recurrence?
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7685170
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7682938 <comment><AUTHOR> As someone posting my resume, I actually found it very valuable -- at least for me. I had five different companies reach out to me, and all of them were relevant. Three of them sound very interesting and I am optimistic about those.

I don't think I would have connected with these companies outside of a thread like this. I don't think they have their jobs posted on any of the sites I use (except for one of the opportunities).

As far as concerns, I can see how this thread would have a lot of noise, though it seems most of the postings were of decent quality. But I could see it growing in size, and the noise may overcome the signal at some point.

As far a recurrence goes, I think this should be based on the feedback. I can see how it would be valuable, and it certainly has already been for me, though I hope (thanks to this thread) that I won't be needing it next occurrence if it were to happen, or even for a long time to come.

</comment><comment><USER2> \- For others in the HN community: Did you find it interesting, or did you use it to find fits for opportunities you were aware of? I didn't directly participate in any way, but I did find it interesting. Particularly in opening up the thread and doing a search for "Austin" or "C++" or "Ninja" to get a general feel of how the job-seeking hn community is represented in various vectors. I could see myself actually using it in the future (both to find candidates or potentially find work in the future)

\- For everyone: Outside of the above benefits, what concerns or issues do you see with a thread like this, and would you support some sort of recurrence? I think it's worth some sort of recurrence. The biggest issue I saw with it was that it seems like it will unfairly generate more interest in the 'top comments', which in a thread like this would ideally not be ranked by anything more meaningful than who responded first. I would like to hear feedback from those who were listed far down in the thread as to how their experience was, compared to say 'jader201' who says he had a great experience with it (but was within the top 5 most of the time)

I also noticed there were essentially 3 kinds of posts. Purely "mini resume" posts, posts with "this is who I am", and posts with "this is what I'm looking for". I'd be curious as to how different tone resulted in different responses.

Interesting experiment!

</comment><comment><USER3> The existing "employees choose which companies to respond to" approach is probably most in line with the realities of the tech labor market, and it gives companies a smaller pool of respondents to look at which have (nominally) read and been interested by their most recent job post. And for applicants, you get more leverage if you judge which positions are potentially relevant, then tailor a response for each company. The thread was fairly popular - but I don't think it really improves on the status quo, for either player.

But, I can see it helping for people who are less experienced or confident or whatever and likely to take job posts at face value instead of as a signal of the problems the company is trying to solve through hiring. It would be better to get past that obstacle, but pragmatically it may have its uses.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree with you for the most part. However, I don't think any of the companies that reached out to me ever post on the "Who is hiring" thread.

Maybe my situation was an edge case -- I'm a C# developer, and I think my post stayed within the top 5 most of the time. So others may not have had the same experience, which is why I wanted to gather more feedback. If many others had a similar experience, then I think the "Who is hiring" thread may not be enough, or may need some tweaking.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I think that's most of how it could generate benefit, i.e. companies often don't want to post in much the same way that applicants often don't want to pitch. It's easy to find plausible excuses.

Highly-sorted posts are almost certainly an edge case, but convolved against other factors (e.g. relative popularity of C#, how well post resonated with the subset of hiring viewers who ended up seeing it). Whoever ended up with post #70 likely got far fewer views relative to post quality & desirability factors, and thus fewer responses.

But at the same time, "uncommon yet high-demand" keywords probably got a Ctrl+F bonus. It's an SEO problem as much as a pitching problem, and more so if you're not favored by HN's comment sorting.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I feel like this thread _shouldn 't_ be useful, but because the state of tech recruiting is so generally loathsome, it does create value. I saw a couple candidates in the DC area on there that I will probably reach out to soon.

I think it's also better for developers, because it puts you in the position of having them (the hiring party) come to _you_ , versus the monthly whoishiring thread where it works the other way around... a subtle but nevertheless important difference.

I wish this thread had existed when I was looking for work a few months back - hopefully it will still be around when I come on the market again.

</comment><comment><USER5> I posted my resume, but I was 2 days late (at work when it was posted, and remembered until the next morning). I had no replies, but I find it invaluable to be able to put myself out there without LinkedIn/DICE. I got my current job through DICE and I got calls incessantly for a week, mostly from _really_ clueless recruiters who would call me and ask me to tell them what "OOP" meant. I'm only on my first job, so my "Network" isn't impressive, most of them are in a city I don't have an interest living in for various reasons.

As for recurrence, I thought there was enough interest (over 300 comments!) that it would add value as a monthly thread.

</comment><comment><USER6> As someone who is currently looking for a job, I'm slightly annoyed (with myself) that I missed it. There are several salient points already made about its merits and drawbacks, but please consider this a vote for some kind of periodic recurrence. Being that I'm looking for a relatively junior position, I did appreciate @glimcat's comment re: taking job posts at face value, and I think that the possibility of having companies approach a candidate that has previously had no idea where s/he is shooting in the dark is refreshing, affirming, and motivating.

</comment><comment><USER7> The thing nobody has mentioned is how this "Who wants to be hired" is different to the "Seeking freelancer? ..." post where freelancer say they're "seeking work" and provide their skills.

Obviously there are differences between a freelancer and a full-time employee, but it could be possible that many of those freelancers wouldn't mind taking on 9-5 contract jobs over many months.

Any opinions?

<comment><AUTHOR> I never thought to post there because I'm not looking for freelance work, period. Sure some still post there, but how many companies looking for full- time developers are looking there?

I would think the success rate in that thread for full-timers is pretty low.

<comment><USER7> Good point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The fact that it is working for at least some people is interesting to me. I believe it's a function of the community in part, and also an indicator of product opportunity in the job search market.

I'd love to see something a little more evergreen and structured.

</comment><comment><USER9> I was very pleasantly surprised by the results! I had 7-8 companies reach out to me, all of which were very interesting and strong companies that I'd like I'd potentially like to work for. I believe my post hovered around the middle as well.

</comment><comment><USER10> "post-mortem", from the Latin

</comment><comment><USER11> As someone posting my resume: I believe about three companies reached out and I got one new connection on LinkedIn otherwise. One of them is relevant to my skillset, and one of them is interesting to me. I think the third is lost in my inbox somewhere.

It wasn't a very serious or desperate posting, so I'd call this a good result. It certainly tells me which firms want candidates so much they're willing to respond to some jerk's self-serving self-advertisement ;-).</comment>


ISPs take legal action against GCHQ - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28106815

<comment><AUTHOR> Some more information on the legal action here [1]

The action makes repeated reference to the European Convention of Human Rights, and UK lawyers have already questioned [2] the legality of revelations around GCHQ's activities in relation to ECHR.

The current legislation [3] covering GCHQ's activities is from 1994.

1: [https://www.privacyinternational.org/blog/stop-breaking- the-...](https://www.privacyinternational.org/blog/stop-breaking-the-internet- internet-and-communications-service-providers-take-legal-action)

2: [http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/gchq-mass- sur...](http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/28/gchq-mass-surveillance- spying-law-lawyer)

3: [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/13/crossheading/the...](http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/13/crossheading/the- secret-intelligence-service)

</comment><comment><USER3> "While the ISPs taking the action were not directly named in the leaked Snowden documents..."

Does the UK have the same legal concept of "standing" as the US does?

"In the United States, the current doctrine is that a person cannot bring a suit challenging the constitutionality of a law unless the plaintiff can demonstrate that he/she/it is or will "imminently" be harmed by the law." [1]

The US government often uses the absence of (or the secrecy of) proof of _direct_ harm to a person or agency to have the complaint quashed before it can ever really be argued.

[1] [http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_(law)](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_\(law\))

<comment><USER4> Some of the ISPs in question have been directly targeted by GCHQ operations; pervasive GCHQ operations like TEMPORA and QUANTUM affect every internet user that transits through an affected point. That is no longer in dispute after Snowden.

I think they have locus to bring these actions for judicial review, yes.

<comment><USER5> Kennedy v UK [1] is of relevance here. In that case, the European Court of Human Rights held that an individual did not necessarily need to prove that his communications had been intercepted in order to complain that a law that permitted such interception was in contravention of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (i.e. the right to privacy).

However, the Court went on to deny Kennedy's complaint that the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) violates Article 8 because it was proportionate and fell under the exclusion for "national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, [and] for the prevention of disorder or crime". [2]

Also, if you read Theresa May's recent speech on the topic [3], you'll notice that she spends a lot of time talking about warrant approvals, oversight and so on. That is all about safeguards and proportionality, and is taken into account by the Court when they are considering whether a particular law contravenes Article 8.

1: [http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-...](http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/sites/eng/pages/search.aspx?i=001-98473)

2: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_8_of_the_European_Conve...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_8_of_the_European_Convention_on_Human_Rights)

3: [https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys- defen...](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys-defence-and- security-lecture)

<comment><USER4> I'm indeed familiar with her speech of last week. I can't say I find it particularly helpful to any debate. It is intentionally confusing and obfuscatory, as you might expect from a senior politician with a lot to lose on a sensitive topic she hopes she can bury with an election coming up.

I don't know about you, but despite having (unknowingly at the time) walked past a live IRA bomb in my childhood which detonated a few hours later, I feel far more threatened by mass surveillance than by _any_ other state or non- state actor by any means. Mass surveillance has a truly chilling effect upon democracy, upon speech, upon the way we think. It is actively poisonous to freedom. And it _is_ happening - her denials aside, these are not mere _assertions_ : thanks largely to Snowden (and the other, not-so-publicised leakers), they are strongly and undeniably _evidenced_. Other evidence is available and can be obtained. This action - and Snowden's leaks - _is_ the external oversight intended, and needed, to stop mass surveillance - <USER2> system of "oversight" in place has clearly failed.

Thing is, GCHQ have operated for over two decades now under the understanding that they _have_ authority to actually conduct SIGINT _operations_ at large - but that it's the responsibility of _analysts_ internal, external (TSS/SIS/NCA/MoD/etc) and extraterritorial (NSA and the rest of the Five Eyes, etc) that _query_ GCHQ about the _results_ of those operations with specific targeted selectors (search queries; email addresses, names, IP addresses, website names, et al) to obtain sufficient clearance and authority to do so. (Broadly the same doctrine NSA have: that the interception itself isn't spying, the search/analysis of the intercepts is. Convenient for them, but questionable at best.)

The operations themselves, however, are frequently in much murkier territory; sometimes without any oversight or accountability at all, and a good number are conveniently obscured; from internal and external oversight, and even from Government Cabinet ministers such as Ms May, because it's too sensitive! Doesn't matter if you're TOP SECRET//STRAP1 or how many orange and purple forms you wave around, unless you're actively part of the individual SCI compartment in question, you're probably not even aware it exists, except maybe by a vague probably-two-word cover name (which is _supposed_ to be arbitrary, but the newer guard loves their cute buzzwords too much). This is long-standing, if low-key, practice, spanning multiple governments - infrastructure and inertia outlasts governments which come and go, after all. Indeed, that was the entire basis under which the "Mastering The Internet" initiative was able to be set up in the first place; to my own knowledge this broad, general doctrine actually dates back a longer way in GCHQ than NSA, at least to the early 80s and the SystemX exchange intercept circuits. (It stands in stark contrast to their search policies, which they're obviously much happier to parade around before oversight.)

Can she honestly say that she knew of the actual _modus operandi_ of, for example, the infamous OPTIC NERVE database - a very large collected archived corpus of images (quite a number of them explicit, as you'd expect from a huge recorded cache of intimate conversations the participants believed private) collected via mass passive interception of Yahoo! webcam chats of _all_ user streams transiting the interception points - and believed _that_ was a lawful, necessary and proportionate infringement of human rights justifying a warrant?! (If she could, I doubt she'd want to.) Who did? Probably no-one. Sir Anthony May: Did you see that? No, I thought not. It seems plainly wrong to me, as obvious an unjustifiable operation as one could be, to no actual useful intelligence purpose, and a clear sign that the boys from Cheltenham had indeed gone rogue - and one entirely unreported, until Snowden.

Thanks, Snowden, Greenwald, the Guardian, Jacob, et al. Your work is incredibly valuable and you deserve those awards. Now maybe we can have a conversation about all of this - but such a conversation obviously can't be effective when we're still being so profoundly, patronisingly whitewashed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> UVB-76 Great work by all involved.

Shameful that larger ISPs are not taking similar action.</comment>


How you can land a 6-figure job in tech with no connections  - <AUTHOR> https://medium.freecodecamp.com/how-you-can-land-a-6-figure-job-in-tech-with-no-connections-6eed0de26ea4#.kl69ly90a <comment><USER2> Get a job in the federal government or for a federal government contractor, preferably in DoD. In a few years, leave for a small contracting firm.

</comment><comment><USER3> You can land it by making something cool and getting known for it.</comment>


Ask HN: What are the good channels on YouTube to learn? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER3> EEVBlog has some great videos on electronics for a decently broad range of skillsets: [https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog](https://www.youtube.com/user/EEVblog)

Francesc Campoy of Google has a channel called JustForFunc where he teaches idiomatic golang--this one has helped me on several pet projects: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_BzFbxG2za3bp5NRRRXJSw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_BzFbxG2za3bp5NRRRXJSw)

</comment><comment><USER4> 1) styropyro

An amazingly enthusiastic guy who demonstrates his custom built laser cannons and other fun physics experiments. Really recommended and inspiring to watch.

[https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro](https://www.youtube.com/user/styropyro)

2) VoidRealms

Click on Playlists to see all his tutorial series. I've only gone through his C++ Qt series but it's really great quality.

[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYP0nk48grsMwO3iL8YaAKA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYP0nk48grsMwO3iL8YaAKA)

</comment><comment><USER5> What are you planning to learn?

For Python (mostly) along with Web Dev & Machine learning related stuff, you can check out `sentdex`[0]. Have went through some of his tutorials.

For tools, you can check Leveluptuts[1]

Those are the only two programming channels I follow :)

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/user/sentdex](https://www.youtube.com/user/sentdex) [1] [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyU5wkjgQYGRB0hIHMwm2Sg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyU5wkjgQYGRB0hIHMwm2Sg)

</comment><comment><USER6> This was posted on here a while back. Most of the links go to YouTube videos:

Computer Science courses with video lectures [https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video- courses/blob/master/...](https://github.com/Developer-Y/cs-video- courses/blob/master/README.md)

</comment><comment><USER7> I often watch video's from this channel: [https://www.youtube.com/user/jsonmez](https://www.youtube.com/user/jsonmez) It focusses on all the non-technical stuff like finding clients as a freelancer, how to learn a new programming language, become more productive etc.

<comment><USER8> I literally could not keep a straight face watching the first video. Is this guy for real?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> category theory for programmers lecture series - bartosz milewski, 67 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8BtBl8PNgd3vWKtm2yJ7aA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8BtBl8PNgd3vWKtm2yJ7aA)

philosophy and (existentialist) psychoanalysis lectures - corey anton, 610 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKVncWM_TniOhlwwQHyu1ug](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKVncWM_TniOhlwwQHyu1ug)

deep learning series - deep learning.tv, 31 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OeZkIwhzfv- _Cb7fCikLQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9OeZkIwhzfv-_Cb7fCikLQ)

Democracy@Work: capitalism/economic/democracy news - dr. richard wolff, 183 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-6FjMu9OI8i0Fo6bkW0VA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-6FjMu9OI8i0Fo6bkW0VA)

European Graduate School Video Lectures - art/theory/philosophy/media/communications, 1796 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1NpRGow8m-yrWo0Mqp6DOg](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1NpRGow8m-yrWo0Mqp6DOg)

GraduatePhysics, 1175 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1jsSfjt8MPRqK254HV1i9Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1jsSfjt8MPRqK254HV1i9Q)

classical philosophy - Gregory Sadler, 1187 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEtxsMx4qsoitFwjBdLU_gA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEtxsMx4qsoitFwjBdLU_gA)

probability theory lectures - harry crane, 14 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaHFzlaKt_NRa14ljrah35Q](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaHFzlaKt_NRa14ljrah35Q)

rationality, philosophy, and science - julia galef, 42 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz- RZblnhjXK_krP1jDybeQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz- RZblnhjXK_krP1jDybeQ)

applied signal processing and applied topology - michael robinson, 82 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF_N2LmIT3x75ppQGUiPrKw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF_N2LmIT3x75ppQGUiPrKw)

probability and statistics technical mini-MOOC - nassim taleb, 17 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uY6yLP9BS4BUc9BSc0Jww](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uY6yLP9BS4BUc9BSc0Jww)

neuroscience explained in animations - neuro transmissions, 64 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYLrBefhyp8YyI9VGPbghvw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYLrBefhyp8YyI9VGPbghvw)

applied hacking - samy kamkar, 13 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4m2G6T18_JcjwxwtwKJijw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4m2G6T18_JcjwxwtwKJijw)

ai and technology podcast + lectures - singularity weblog, 393 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjt0No0sOsJPBZE_2gdjug](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvjt0No0sOsJPBZE_2gdjug)

programming languages conference (strange loop) talks and lectures - <USER2> loop conference, 284 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_QIfHvN9auy2CoOdSfMWDw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_QIfHvN9auy2CoOdSfMWDw)

many reviews of philosophy books from a hobbyist yet critical perspective - the black ponderer, 74 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB6S7aqYqUvCJSIIZ9T837w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB6S7aqYqUvCJSIIZ9T837w)

category theory lectures - thecatsters, 82 videos - [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Y9H2KDRHZZTWZJtlH4VbA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Y9H2KDRHZZTWZJtlH4VbA)</comment>


AWS open sources FireCracker: Secure and fast microVMs for serverless computing - <AUTHOR> https://firecracker-microvm.github.io/ <comment><AUTHOR> This post has further updates: [https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/firecracker-open- sou...](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/opensource/firecracker-open-source- secure-fast-microvm-serverless/)</comment>


Systemd and predictable SSH host keys on raspbian - <AUTHOR> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=126892 <comment><USER2> Systemd referenced in link to flame war about how to submit patches.

Hint: use text patches not zip-blobs

</comment><comment><USER3> "Systemd and"..?

That is not the original title, and I don't see how this issue relates to systemd in particular (/etc/init.d/urandom performs the same job under sysvinit).

<comment><USER4> I am speculating that with systemd's parallel booting, the key generation unit gets started before the random seeding unit has gotten done. End result is that what was to be random is ends up being deterministic (because systemd boot is inherently non-deterministic, natch).</comment></comment>


An Operating System For Surgery - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@mjoseph/an-operating-system-for-surgery-3852721eeaf <comment><USER2> I don't get it. Why do you need a separate OS altogether just manage surgery equipments and staff?!</comment>


Tiny satellites ushering in a new space revolution - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-06-29/the-tiny-satellites-ushering-in-the-new-space-revolution <comment><USER2> That is a pretty cool engineering feet. Never knew a shoe box sized telescope can give such detailed pictures.

They have sent about 200 satellites, cost "six figures" each, so an estimate of 200,000 a piece, they have spent about 40 million dollars, excluding the price of launches.

The data collected is definitely worth the price IMO. Imagine the ability to monitor storms and hurricanes, analyze their data and update our climate models.

They have about 80 million in funding alone, which is incredible.

I wonder what else is possible with so many eyes in the sky.

<comment><USER3> Global surveillance networks.

<comment><USER4> "Google/Facebook: Please step outside and look up for 10 seconds to verify your identity"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That sounds very scary to me. If they don't care whether a single satellite is working or not, they are basically asking Kessler syndrom to start within years. Multiple start-ups (etc.) and the article covers not even have a tiny bit about what happens at the end of life of the satellites, what could go wrong ...

<comment><USER6> The other comments that are replying to you have it fairly accurate. It's not widely known but it isn't a secret either: the point of the doves is to be deployed en masse and with more capability with every subsequent build. A quick refresh in the constellation means there is fresh hardware in space every so often.

This means the intention is indeed for re-entry into the atmosphere after the operational lifespan of the dove has lapsed. (They physically stay in space only a few years depending on altitude, orbit, exposed atmospheric drag and a couple of other things)

The last two flocks alone have put close to 130 sats in space so the debris issue is something that is taken quite seriously at the company.

Source: I work at planet. I generally lurk on HN but I created an account just now to reply to this :)

EDIT: Relevant blog post from a couple years ago - [https://www.planet.com/pulse/keeping-space-clean- responsible...](https://www.planet.com/pulse/keeping-space-clean-responsible- satellite-fleet-operations/)

<comment><USER7> Unrelated and probably a stupid question -- but I am curious. What would these satellites see if they looked the other way - i.e. Outwards towards space. Would they see just darkness? Some stars? Lots of stars? Would you know?

<comment><USER8> I'd hazard a guess at probably not a lot. The onboard telescopes and cameras are likely calibrated to look at and focus on specific sized patches (say 15km by 15km) of the earth between certain altitudes (say LEO distance + -450m to 9000m).

Turning them to look outwards might just capture something if it happened to be inside the size of patch and whatever the telescope/camera combo can focus on (which would be the LEO distance plus or minute a bit). But space is big, even at 500km above the earth, so the likelihood of finding something in your field of view such as another satellite is probably quite low. Stars and other astronomical objects might be too dim/out of focus.

[Disclaimer: not a rocket scientist]

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I took a tour of their SF office last year. It's a pretty impressive operation. The satellites are indeed quite small; I always compare them to a loaf of bread with some wings. The people that work there are pretty sharp and seem to be very excited about what they do.

I was one of the first people to consume their v0 and v1 APIs to get their analytic imagery dataset. It was more challenging than it should have been to transfer ~100TB into our compute cluster. I haven't touched their API in about 7 or 8 months, but from my last meeting with them they said they have eliminated my top pain point. Looking forward to seeing more great things from them.

<comment><USER10> There's a lot more to do in remote sensing, but I think your comment that there's an API for looking at the world is perhaps the more accurate way to describe the power of this moment in technology history. It is a great feat Planet has accomplished.

<comment><USER11> Agree a lot more is possible with remote sensing. I worked with it in ag in 80's and 90's, the biggest problems were:

1\. Price was to high for the value we could offer

2\. 40% chance we wouldn't get a usable image of the field due to cloud cover

3\. Its one data point, you can see a problem but can't always figure out what's wrong.

I'm really hopeful for drones that can operate below the cloud cover and AI that can take bare soil images, tile maps, soil tests and provide a more intelligent answer for fixing the problems.

What the farmer wants is a prescription with a shot at a decent ROI.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is a good Embedded.fm podcast episode interviewing one of the professors that was key in starting the trend of small satellites.

[http://embedded.fm/episodes/195](http://embedded.fm/episodes/195)

</comment><comment><USER13> What's the best way for someone to get involved in space hardware?

<comment><USER6> Materials Science. Tinkering with off the shelf hardware (even start with RaspberryPis). Systems Integration (legit systems integration, not the shitty title Accenture/Deloitte/Generic Consulting Company gives you for working at an Enterprise client). FPGAs. Electrical Engineering. Thermal Engineering is huge. or the usual: Software Engineering. (because satellites need software too)

Any of the above to name a few

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> [https://spaceknow.com/](https://spaceknow.com/)

</comment><comment><USER15> Kindly can someone tell me how these snall satellites are able to remain in orbit. Don't we need jet propulsion to have them stay in orbit and not fall into earth? I don't much about satellites.

<comment><USER16> Not really. Once something is in orbit, it's just going to naturally stay in orbit unless acted on by an outside force. That's just basic inertia.

There is some amount of atmospheric drag in low earth orbit which will eventually cause satellites at that altitude to lose speed and fall back to earth, but that drag is small enough that the satellites should be able to remain in orbit for years without needing any additional thrust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This article is in desperate need of a r/spacex-style bullet point summary.

<comment><USER18> Yes, a tl;dr would be very much appreciated if anyone were to have the time and inclination.</comment></comment>


PHP 7.0.0 Alpha 2 Released - <AUTHOR> https://secure.php.net/

<comment><USER2> "Improved performance: PHP 7 is up to twice as fast as PHP 5.6". As a Ruby developer there are two ways I could go about this if I wanted to be a living cliché:

1) Meh, it's still PHP

2) Easy to go twice as fast when the language is so slow to begin with

But really I'm not kidding myself, I'm envious. I don't know if the work on PHP-related tools by Facebook somehow helped, but I'm glad for all PHP developers to see their language maturing and getting more consistency and speed, good on them.

<comment><USER3> Well PHP is pretty fast, at least compare to Ruby. So making PHP twice as fast without JIT is an huge achivement.

I too wish Ruby get some performance love as well. But Ruby is a compartively small commuities, and without the backing of Giants like Facebook and Zend, it will be a long while before we see RubyJIT arrives.

<comment><USER2> May I ask you where I can find the numbers for PHP being faster than Ruby? (because Internet, this is not bait or snark, it's a real question).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> PHP is an utter failure. Why on earth would one use "secure" as a subdomain? I can tell it's secure because it uses HTTPS. Also get a grip on reality and stop using SHA-1.

</comment><comment><USER5> Is PHP used anywhere except Zend and facebook? All this time I have heard of x web framework for Go, Python, Rust, Racket what not, I rarely have heard about PHP apart from the what's going to be new in PHP 7 few months back.

<comment><USER6> Obvious it is being used. It would have died out long ago otherwise.

Many MANY sites run PHP underneath.

I'm assuming this was a troll?

Here are some stats in any case: [http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl- php/all/all](http://w3techs.com/technologies/details/pl-php/all/all)

That was the first result when I searched "PHP market share"

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Two more releases after this and PHP will be an OK language.

<comment><USER8> Plausible, but man, that's not a development velocity that matches the modern world.</comment></comment>


The MGR window system (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://hack.org/mc/mgr/ <comment><USER2> At some point I became slightly obsessed with Xenix, and spent months trying to compile X11R4 from sources, all in vain [1]

Then I stumbled upon MGR, and soon I had a working windowing system. Quite impressive.

The only quirk being, since I was using a virtual machine instead of a 486 or so, I had to connect a serial mouse to my MacBook using a serial to USB adaptor, and then forward the mouse to the VM, as MGR did not have drivers for PS/2...

[1] If you wanna give it a shot, get in touch with me... :)

</comment><comment> yjftsjthsd-h Curious that this doesn't sound compatible with X, but in the screenshot there's certainly something that looks like xeyes and xclock running.

<comment><USER3> Xeyes and xclock were probably ports or variants of programs that had existed on Unix window systems since forever ago.

<comment><USER4> I think Windows 3.1 also had something like xeyes. It might have been part of an add-on pack, but I remember it existing. Maybe putting eyes on screen to follow a mouse was an early Hello World for GUIs.</comment></comment></comment>


What profitable side projects are you currently working on? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> eBay/Craigslist is full of laptops without hard drives, batteries, and in some cases, RAM. Get an OS volume license key, provision with missing hardware and resell for profit.</comment>


My Thoughts about AWS API Gateway Working with AWS Lambda - <AUTHOR> http://nickmchardy.com/blog/2015/09/my-thoughts-about-aws-api-gateway-working-with-aws-lambda

<comment><USER2> From only having played aruond with this combination for a day:

It made me really appreciate how Google AppEngine is both simple to use and powerful.</comment>


Show HN: Rondevoo – Your next trip, simplified - <AUTHOR> http://www.rondevoo.net <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I am one of the founders of Rondevoo and would like to introduce our tiny startup. We are a group of software engineers trying to solve the problems people face planning and coordinating trips and vacations with friends and family. We plan to launch our android and iOS later this year but before that we wanted to introduce our product and get some feedback and to see if any one faces similar issues and would like to use a product like this. We would also love to get feedback on our website and any other features you would like to see. If you like what you see please do sign up and we will keep you posted on our progress. Looking forward to all the feedback!

<comment><USER2> Hi there, Quickly gone through your webpage. First impression it looks nice and slick. And I get what you are about. Heads you left some console.log around (could see them on the chrome dev console)

good luck

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it. We will cleanup the logs as well!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looks like a great product! I like that you are making group travel easier and helping people hash out the details and vote.

One bit of feedback. I found it very challenging to scroll down you landing page (Chrome on Macbook). The page doesn't scroll at first and then quickly jumps to the next section, but then it kept going and was really sensitive. Then it was challenging to scroll back up to the next section.

<comment><AUTHOR> Glad you liked it! We are making a few tweaks and hope to deploy an improved version in the coming days!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The page scrolls way too fast on mobile (chrome on android) to the point that it is unusable.

<comment><AUTHOR> I can reproduce the issue if keep the screen holding while scrolling. We will deploy a fix soon. Thanks for reporting!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> FYI: website renders strangely (and unusably) for me in mobile Safari (iOS 10.3).

<comment><AUTHOR> We pushed out an update. Please let us know if you see anything else. Thanks!

<comment><USER5> Yup, I can use it now, though the text is teensy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for checking again. We are working on it!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> great first impression. your content is very engaging and helped illustrate :) the concept. signed up. Are you funded?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback and signing up! I am glad we were able to pass on the message well. We are not funded at the moment.</comment></comment>


Symantec's Norton AntiVirus source code exposed by hackers - <AUTHOR> http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/06/symantec-norton-antivirus-source-code-hackers/ <comment><USER2> That's all well and good, but will we see a "Sophail" style tell-all analysis of Norton AV? See: <http://packetstormsecurity.org/files/103727/Sophail.pdf> for Tavis Ormandy's revelations.</comment>


Jeff Atwood has nothing to say yet posts anyway (satire) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wekeroad.com/blog/nothing-to-say/

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd been thinking about writing an Atwood slam for a while, but this guy has crafted the definitive one. There's nothing quite as satisfying as slamming a guy's shitty writing style using his own form.

It'll be hilarious/horrifying to see how Jeff Atwood will link to it.</comment>


New Line Of German Stuffed Animals With Mental Illnesses - <AUTHOR> http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/09/new-line-of-german-stuffed-animals-with-mental-illnesses/?hpt=C2

<comment><USER2> [http://www.parapluesch.com//catalog/product_info.php?product...](http://www.parapluesch.com//catalog/product_info.php?products_id=30)

Looks like they have been around a while. Kroko was added in 2004!</comment>


Ask HN: How do you protect your wood floor from your rolling chair - <AUTHOR> I telecommute from home, and my house has wood floors. Gorgeous soft pine, to be exact.
The problem is a standard desk chair will kill these floors.
I used to use an office-store standard sheet of thick plastic to protect my floor, but it's too small. I'm constantly rolling off of it.
Now I'm trying some foam rubber floor times I picked up at home depot, but the chair slowly flattens them, which makes the one that I sit on ever so slowly too big to fit.
Anyone use any kind of large floor protector? What works well? <comment><USER2> I used rubbered wheels in my chair. It worked for me. If you want extra protection you can get plastic mats from Ikea, but even if you accidentaly roll out your floor will be fine if you have rubbered wheels.

\--- Edit

Wow, I just noticed somebody advised rubbered wheels and was heavily downvoted, I wonder why? I used that in the past and it was good solution to prevent floor damage.

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-4525/Chair- Mats/Hard-...](https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-4525/Chair-Mats/Hard- Surface-Chair-Mat-No-Lip-72-x-72)

This is a fairly big mat. 6 ft x 6 ft

</comment><comment><USER4> There are also large roll-up hardwood floor protectors you can get. The one we have comes with felt backing to protect the underlying floor, and the hardwood top surface itself is sturdy enough to withstand whatever your office chair is likely to do to it.

It's just another option.

</comment><comment><USER5> What size is the plastic sheet you're using? Plastic chair mats are available on Amazon up to 46"x60" which ought to be plenty large enough.

</comment><comment><USER6> Some companies (Steelcase comes to mind, but it must be quite common) offer the option of rubber wheels, especially suited to wood floorings.

</comment><comment><USER7> stop sitting on your ass. sell the chair.</comment>


What killed Pontiac? - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/27/autos/pontiac_obit/index.htm?postversion=2009042711

<comment><USER2> How can you have an article titled "What Killed Pontiac?" and not mention the Aztek. Easily the ugliest car ever built.

<comment><USER3> I thought so too when my dad purchased one for my college commute. However, its ride quality, comfort, and utility quickly won me over. After a few months, I actually began to like how it looked, too.

If they hadn't discontinued it a few years ago, I would happily purchase one for myself.</comment></comment>