Ask HN: How would you describe yourself/your achievements in two sentences? - <AUTHOR>

I'm working on my online resume and having trouble with the personal statement.
There's a part where you have to sum yourself up in two sentences.
I guess this is supposed to be where you show your creativity but I can't help feeling that any two-sentence summary of myself is going to fall short in some way.
I'm wondering if anyone here could suggest an approach. <comment><USER2> What have you done? What are you going to do?

</comment><comment><USER3> Write a big paragraph, then reduce it.</comment>


What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like - <AUTHOR> http://css-tricks.com/what-beautiful-html-code-looks-like/ <comment><USER2> Interested that he's using explicit closed tags on eg  which in html is not required. Perhaps "/" are pretty?

 _This is the same as in HTML4. However, due to the widespread attempts to use XHTML1, there are a significant number of pages using the trailing slash. Because of this, the trailing slash syntax has been permitted on void elements in HTML in order to ease migration from XHTML1 to HTML5._ ( [http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#Should_I_close_empty_element...](http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/FAQ#Should_I_close_empty_elements_with_.2F.3E_or_.3E.3F) )

<comment><USER3> Perhaps having well-formed XML is handy for, say, checking the markup.

<comment><USER2> I anticipated that remark but didn't want to over comment, from that same link - to save me typing:

 _If I'm careful with the syntax I use in my HTML document, can I process it with an XML parser?

No, HTML and XML have many significant differences, particularly parsing requirements, and you cannot process one using tools designed for the other. However, since HTML5 is defined in terms of the DOM, in most cases there are both HTML and XHTML serializations available that can represent the same document. There are, however, a few differences explained later that make it impossible to represent some HTML documents accurately as XHTML and vice versa._

<comment><USER3> Right; it's hard to be both HTML and XML, so you need to use the XHTML serialization of HTML5 if you want use XML (which is what the example document appears to be).

<comment><USER2> I'd heard of the idea of using XML forms (explicit self closing tags) in HTML5 to allow it to be parsed as XML, but only at the start of the week began writing my first HTML5 DTD pages. I'd put my weight behind XHTML2 winning but that sadly seems to look ever less likely. I'd assumed that if I kept my  and <meta />, etc., void tags as is things would work fine .. it looks like they should.

But, the whatwg who have many more people and spend many more hours on this tell me "it's not that simple, it won't work" I tend to have to take that on face value - I can't afford to write 40 pages using XHTML style void tags and then have an FF upgrade baulk because some nuance of HTML5 parsing spews at my tags.

FWIW.

<comment><USER3> As far as I can tell you have a choice of using HTML or XHTML syntax. The "it won't work" thing refers to trying to create what is ostensibly an HTML document but using XML syntax.

The kicker with going the XHTML path, though, is the expectation that the document will be served with a particular content-type header meant for XHTML/XML documents. This is no different than what's (supposedly) required for XHTML documents right now, yet very few people use the correct header (even people who chide others for not using XHTML).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wouldn't call
 very semantic. At all.

 maybe.</comment>


Things I Won't Work With [Chemistry] - <AUTHOR> http://www.corante.com/pipeline/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/

<comment><USER2> No reason to think it's malicious rather than just corrupted, but trying to open the PDF linked there in anything that uses the OSX PDF renderer is taking down my machine by triggering the error:

        [0x0-0x29029].net.sourceforge.skim-app.skim[528]: Error (11225): Bad two dim code in JBIG2 MMR stream

many thousands of times per second, even after the application is force- killed.

Be Warned! (also, if anyone has a clue how to go about debugging why this happens, I'd love to know. It seems like a fairly major stability issue)</comment>


Ask HN: What are good sources of information concerning new E.U tax laws? - <AUTHOR>

Hey everyone,
Kindly share resources that you have found important in making you understand the new E.U tax laws.
Thanks <comment><USER2> I've been collecting resources over at [http://rachelandrew.github.io/eu- vat/](http://rachelandrew.github.io/eu-vat/)

If you have others please submit a pull request. I've been writing about the issue since October [http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/tag/vat](http://rachelandrew.co.uk/archives/tag/vat)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.gov.uk/register-and-use-the-vat-mini-one-stop- sh...](https://www.gov.uk/register-and-use-the-vat-mini-one-stop-shop)

<comment><USER4> This is only useful if you're based in the UK. Also want to look at this. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8680033](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8680033)

<comment><USER3> OP Didn't mention where they were from. Also I believe that many EU states have similar schemes.

If you're outside the Eurozone, that's another matter!</comment></comment></comment>


Charting the Great Twitter Bot Purge of 2018 - <AUTHOR> https://beta.observablehq.com/@jashkenas/charting-the-great-twitter-purge-of-2018 <comment><USER2> I love how there's a fork of the stats placing Donald Trump dead last with 0 loss.

I guarantee that fork is being used as a talking point somewhere, as if it were the real deal.</comment>


NYT.com: 'incredibly surprising' growth in unique users despite paywall - <AUTHOR> http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/nyt-com--incredibly-surprising-growth-in-unique-users/s2/a546362/

<comment><USER2> So about 2% of users are getting around the paywall by making themselves appear as multiple users. Great job increasing unique users, NYT!</comment>


I Was Asked for a Tip From a Flight Attendant - <AUTHOR> https://thepointsguy.com/news/airline-with-happy-hours-and-tips/ <comment><USER2> Well, I wasn't going to fly Frontier anyway, but now I'm putting them with United in the "actively avoid" bucket.

What bullshit. We need less tipping, not more.

Employers: it is YOUR job to pay your employees an acceptable wage, not mine. If you need to provide some monetary incentive for employees to do their job (beyond their salary), then use commissions, not tips.

<comment><USER3> It is Frontier after all. I'm pretty surprised they haven't installed coin operated toilets yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Over the years there has been a push to make the public realize the importance of the flight attendant role, that they aren't there to serve drinks but to ensure your safety. "Here to save your ass, not kiss it" is one way I've heard it put by a FA.

Frontier is a doing a bang up job of reversing that trend with this.

<comment><USER5> I don't feel my safety is assured when I'm asked to stow my laptop during takeoff. I mostly feel annoyed. Likewise when I have to find a place to stow the bag at my feet simply because I'm in a row without any seats in front of me.

In my opinion, the "safety" provided by flight attendants is rather dramatically overstated. But I'm happy to be told differently; please educate me if you believe the attendants meaningfully increase the safety of the modal passenger's flight.

In any case, I'm absolutely never going to tip a flight attendant. What a regressive policy.

<comment><USER6> The laptop has enough mass to be a seriously harmful object when unplanned motion happens. This is most likely to happen during take off and or landing.

Same thing goes for your bag.

Technically, in the seats where there are no rows in front, your bag should be in the overhead bin, right along with your laptop, until the aircraft leaves the take off part of it's flight plan. Prior to entering the landing part of the flight plan, both items need to be in the bin, and for the same reasons.

I'm kind of surprised it can just be at your feet in those seats. I never pick them for these reasons. Having to get up, deal with the bin, etc... isn't something I feel like doing personally.

A lot of this basic stuff is the result of simulations and other accumulated flight / empirical data, and the intent is to maximize everyone's safety during high risk flight times.

This is also why trays up, seats not reclined are also required during those two known high risk flight times.

[https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/cabin_safety/media/Cab...](https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/cabin_safety/media/CabinSafetyIndex.pdf)

There is the long form word on all this. Links to the appropriate Federal law are just a click away.

Frankly, the flight attendants are required to do what they do, and you as a passenger are required by Federal law to comply with their directives.

I'm not entirely sure you are presenting as a model passenger, however your perception of increased safety and it's overall value, like everyone's, can and will vary considerably. No worries on any of that.

The authority on those things has already made the calls, and in general, those are made to maximize safety as much as can be done.

<comment><USER4> Well put. The flight attendants are there to enforce FAA rules and assist in times of emergency.

We are always free to lobby the FAA to relax flight rules, allowing small devices during takeoff is the largest change I can remember.

<comment><USER6> Exactly. Imho, it is all quite conservative. I do not blame them.

Pretty heavy and visible responsibility.

I am happy to play along, safe as can be managed given current tech and our understanding. That gets better over time.

Once, I got caught with no seat belt in my car. Had kids, and one of then was a mess. I unclicked to reach and deal. Small town cop was on buckle up campaign and I took the seat belt school option. Was only a minute too. Bad timing, but it turned out to be good fortune.

Best class ever! No joke. I, like many, expected a dull, threatening lecture. That did not happen.

They brought a trauma nurse in who talked safety from their point of view. A laptop is a pretty dangerous thing when accellerated. And that guy was just great!

Most people do not properly constrain objects in cars. I had no idea why and how.

That nurse told us the facts, showed us the gore and blood. (Of course, this was diversion after all), but then went through the physics and some math. (Didn't have to, but I am glad they did)

They also went through trauma stats and trauma is the big killer. People are just fragile to a degree we often forget, or are just not aware of.

All in all, I learned a lot! And the FAA rules make perfect sense, given the rough scenario they must manage.

A flying laptop was one of the scenarios the trauma nurse did physics on in a 60 mph crash. It was not pretty. Meat and bone are gonna be impacted.

Oh, and I get it. I too am bothered. I just happend to have gotten that great education. It is an understandable bother, and we all do have options.

If it were me, I would have those trauma people do sessions in every high school. A lot of those kids would be moved. There were a ton in my session. I was one of the older adult minority...

I thanked the nurse afterwards. He said, "first, you should know better, and then thanks. Glad it helped." He went on to say doing those was one of his favorite things to do. Trauma people do not get to share much, and what they can share is powerful. Life saving.

I really did benefit and think about all this very differently.

Let me say being bothered is a very nice problem to have.

<comment><USER5> Everything you've just talked about is in the context of cars. Unbuckling your seatbelt in a car is very different from unbuckling it in an airplane.

The reason why I am so skeptical is because the rules are applied inconsistently and seem to have questionable benefit. Why am I not required to stow items when the plane experiences significant turbulence? All that's required of me then is to buckle my seatbelt. But the laptop could fly out of my hands, right?

Likewise, the most prevalent danger for which we actually have statistics is people not wearing their seatbelts during takeoff or during turbulence. But flight attendants don't (in my experience) enforce the seatbelt rule. Instead, they enforce the rule which seems far more arbitrary. If turbulence is really significant, I am much more likely to hit my own head on the ceiling of the airplane than I am to inadvertently launch the laptop in the air to hit someone else.

But wait, if a laptop is not allowed while we're taking off then why am I allowed to use a large tablet of approximately the same size? A large textbook? If the issue is the tray, why can't I use the laptop on my lap? The rules are arbitrary and inconsistently applied.

I don't agree with "being bothered is a nice problem to have." That construes the problem as being diminutive because we're prioritizing safety; wearing a seatbelt is not bothersome, but they don't even enforce that on planes. What _is_ bothersome is not being able to use any personal entertainment because of vague "safety" considerations.

<comment><USER6> So you regularly do not use your airplane seat belt, haven't experienced any real pressure to comply, so the other rules are a bother too?

Seriously? :D (Plz laugh in good spirits. I am. That is good entertainment)

Take off and landing portions of the flight plan are not large amounts of time. Surely you can manage to entertain yourself with one or more of the many options during those times?

The car related info, regarding the potential for trauma is valid. Have you been on a flight where something major has happened? (You may be asked to stow things, for one)

I do not believe you have, by the nature of your questions.

Also, given the nature of your questions, your perception of risk is well below actuals. That does make your position on all this perfectly understandable. I get it. No worries. I think you need answers and should take in the information the FAA and others gladly provide.

Like cars, seat belts are law because of the metrics and analysis done over years of travel. I do think some of those laws could be improved. Many will over time.

Unfortunately for you, other far more qualified people than us have assessed those risks and have come to diffetent conclusions.

Let me just say a model passenger would comply and be ready to assist others, should the need arise.

Fly safe!

Edit: doing that, by the way, is it clear priority over entertainment and other minor things we are talking about here. Let's keep that in mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think some of situations like that are simply caused by standardized POS systems being used.

Some greed was probably involved as well, but I've a few similar situations, where tip was asked in non-tippy scenarios after business adapted new POS system.

<comment><USER4> Frontier confirmed it's a policy change, it's intentional.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wait till they start asking for tips for pilots as a percentage of your airfare. And charge them up front. No tips? An extra turbulent, puke-your- guts-out flight for you!

</comment><comment><USER9> Umm, I usually give my flight attendants a $20 tip each. These people have been paying attention to my health, safety, and comfort needs for the last 6 hours. They are always pleasant and friendly. My tip will buy them dinner. I used bring them candy but someone pointed out that they could not eat it during flight because it might be tainted. Sigh.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is comparable to when you go to a place where you pay before you eat and there is a tip field on the receipt. You simply do not fill it out if you don't want to tip. This is a non-issue. You are perfectly capable of declining to tip someone.

</comment><comment><USER11> If you are willing to spend $2.99 on a can of soda do you really need to complain about a $0.50 tip which you don't even need to give?

</comment><comment><USER6> They can ask. I'm in the "you don't get, unless you ask" camp, and am fine with asking.

Doesn't mean they will get it.

</comment><comment><USER12> Flight attendants should totally have a tip jar on the way out. I try my hardest to message the company and state why any particular flight attendant was particularly exceptional but it would be nice to have an easier way to say thank you.

<comment><USER13> BA has "golden tickets" they give to the top tier rewards customers, which you can then hand to any member of BA staff that has made a positive impact for you.

They don't get cash for it, but I understand it goes in their file.

Ironically, I had my golden tickets go unused as most BA staff I've flown with have been average at best for the past few years, even when sitting in business / first.</comment></comment>


How the Rise of Amazon Has Destroyed Retail Chains, in One Chart (2017) - <AUTHOR> http://digg.com/2017/amazon-vs-walmart-size <comment><USER2> I worked next door to a Sears. Literally 15 seconds from my office to their door. I had a free 30 minutes one afternoon and popped in to buy a jacket. I found one after 10 minutes of searching and got into the checkout line with about 8 people in front of me. Almost 20 minutes later, there were still 2 people in front of me. I abandoned my jacket and hustled back to a meeting.

Amazon is winning for a number of reasons, but for me, the big stores really fail at the most critical part of the transaction, which is where they take my money. That part should be fast and frictionless, and it's not.

</comment><comment><USER3> Digg just links to the original article at [http://www.visualcapitalist.com/extraordinary-size-amazon- on...](http://www.visualcapitalist.com/extraordinary-size-amazon-one-chart/)</comment>


How to make an unprofitable Groupon campaign successful - <AUTHOR> http://blog.eatmetrics.com/2010/10/5-tips-to-make-groupon-work/

<comment><USER2> " _Although I am skeptical the Groupon user base is a highly desirable group of customers, few people have actually made a convincing argument that shows they don't return in significant numbers._ "

It's probably better to use that as a starting point: i.e., assume Groupon customers are _not_ the best demographic, and design the Groupon discount accordingly (only a modest discount on a higher-priced good or service, e.g.).

<comment><AUTHOR> In most markets, the waitlist to run a Groupon promotion is so long that it's tough for a business to dictate terms.

That is a good reason to run a promotion with a groupon-clone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great post guys. I have used Groupon many times and the places I revisit are the ones that have excellent customer service.

I think an important factor to note is Deal Expiration date. Many businesses only give customers 1-2 months to redeem a certificate, if you span this out across a year you will save yourselves a lot of energy when the Groupon is about to expire.

</comment><comment><USER4> There has been plenty of commentary and feedback about how businesses view Groupon, but less about users. What is the prototypical Groupon user? A coupon chasing cheapo or someone who is looking to try new places in their city?

</comment><comment><USER5> Wow - "Groupon consultant" would be a pretty lucrative gig. Be the go between between the small biz and Groupon, negotiate better terms, educate on best practices, etc.</comment>


USB Mass Storage Device - <AUTHOR> http://dev.emcelettronica.com/usb-mass-storage-device <comment><AUTHOR> We use the USB mass storage devices everyday, such as USB hard disk, USB stick, USB flash card reader, CD/DVD, mobile devices. Those devices are commonly found in our life, until I got the STM32 evaluation board from a local supplier.</comment>


Show HN: Marq – Save page location alongside bookmarks - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/willlma/marq <comment><AUTHOR> There are countless solutions to the _read later_ problem, but none that I've used deal with an issue that I often encounter: I partially read an article, then add it to Pocket/Instapaper to finish later. The ritual of figuring out days/weeks later where I had left off was getting tiresome, so I threw this Chrome extension together. I'd love to hear thoughts.</comment>


Ask HN: How much you increase your salary for a new job? - <AUTHOR> Hi all,
I am being interviewed for few jobs. That's a good thing however I am struggling every time to give a number when asked as I don't know how much I can ask mainly because I am not earning too much at my current job and also to be fair I am afraid to give my willing number.
I have already learned once you gave your current salary you cannot expect much increase.
So would be appreciated if you could give me some insights how you have dealt with kind of this situation. <comment><USER2> Don't give your current salary, it's irrelevant, and you're right, it will be used to cap the offer.

You should not feel uncomfortable communicating your expectations. Ideally, add a little padding to your expectations to account for the company's counter-offer.

As an example, if you want to make $100k, I would say "I'm looking for something in the 110k to 120k range". It leaves room for negotiation.

When asked how much I'm expecting in my new position, I usually give a ballpark estimate and immediately ask "what kind of budget are you working with?". And they better give me an answer, because I just gave them a range, I expect the same willingness to share information.</comment>


Show HN: GitHub README.md Previewer - <AUTHOR> https://gima.github.io/ghprew/

<comment><AUTHOR> Preview your Github project front page README.md without pushing to some sandbox repo just to see what it looks like.

Works offline (doesn't use Github API). Needs wide viewport, because preview equals Github's width.</comment>


Lockdowns lower personal grooming standards, says Unilever - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/0a6c8c14-ca31-47f4-87cd-0c8b841baeb4 <comment><USER2> I only shave if I'm going down to the shops.</comment>


Pokedex - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Atishay96/pokedex <comment><USER2> I was wondering why there were three copies of Mewtwo in the database until I realized they were references to Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y. Since the names and images were the same, it was actually quite hard to tell them apart, until I looked at the details carefully.</comment>


Show HN: Hind-cite.com – Hacker News Charts and Data - <AUTHOR> http://www.hind-cite.com/

<comment><USER2> In our spare time, we're researching this dataset in detail. Here are some questions that we're interested in. Would love to hear other ideas and to have folks dig into the data. I think this dataset may be of interest to hackers, researchers and marketers.

1\. Are the trajectories (e.g. rank vs time) for all popular posts of the same shape? They look ~logarithmic.

2\. Are there identifiable clusters when you look in 4d space for rank vs points vs comments?

3\. How does the impact of a post depend quantitatively on its respective cohort. I.e., what's a good model to normalize performance based on what else was happening that day?

4\. What fraction of posts have comment threads that are "hijacked" by the first comment? Is their a quantitative way to find this, perhaps by looking at (2) above?

5\. What are more detailed metrics to collapse "performance" of a post onto a single number?

6\. How does performance on HN compare to reddit, etc?

7\. How is the HN community different than other communities, if at all?

8\. Given the time-dependent data, can we create a good estimator for the number of active HN users per day? Or can we at least create a relative ranking of the number of unique users between different days?

<comment><USER3> 9\. Sentiment of comments, via comment downvotes and/or contextual analysis.

Also, frequent violators of 'hijacking' the most popular comment by commenting on _it_. :)

<comment><USER2> Good thought. I've been trying to think of how to do that without crawling the comments, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> That's pretty sweet! Shameless plug: I built something just for your personal points a while ago using the Agolia API. It's not that sophisticated and detailed but it's good enough for my personal usage.

[https://hn.notmyhostna.me/](https://hn.notmyhostna.me/)

<comment><USER2> Hey, that's a million times prettier. Maybe you could drop some of that UI goodness onto the public hind-cite dataset?

<comment><USER4> Thank you! Credit goes to Chart.js [0] and FlatUI [1], they are doing the heavy lifting ;)

[0] [http://www.chartjs.org/](http://www.chartjs.org/)

[1] [http://designmodo.github.io/Flat-UI/](http://designmodo.github.io/Flat- UI/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think you missed a big opportunity not calling this hndcite.com

</comment><comment><USER6> Some things that might be nice to see are:

i) how many different people post URLs from a particular domain?

ii) how many different domains does a particular person post?

There's also iii but I'm not sure how to word it. It's something like "given a particular domain, what's the average[1] number of different domains posted by people who've posted this domain at some point?"

<comment><AUTHOR> All of these questions, I believe, can be easily answered with the existing, Algolia-based, HN API. (Though good questions all.) What hind-cite adds is a time-based component. (The existing api shows the end result - number of points, comments, etc. etc.) Just an FYI.

I think marrying the two datasets (probably at a client level with two separate calls) would give a pretty complete picture.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very cool tool! Regarding the rank graph: I would also like an alternative display, where you show a time line on the x-axis.

</comment><comment><USER8> very cool. I've been thinking of building a distributed analytics service like this -- can you talk about what the architecture of something like this is? If I had to build a custom chart, I would have to go get my own data?

It would be awesome to have a service that provides hosted data, allows anyone to make charts / random transformations / add extra data and then add that to the main dashboard.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll leave the architecture of the cloudant db to the Cloudant guys. Being able to add data, though, is interesting. If people want to add different views (which basically trasform the data using map/reduce), we can add those to the db so they are available to all.

For charts, you just create a new chart and assuming it works and all, we'll host it on the site. It will pull the data directly from the db via the REST interface.

So, basically, yeah - we are hoping to do exactly what you are asking.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I could be way off here, but why are you still using jquery for the ajax if you're using angular?

<comment><AUTHOR> Just a bit more generic. Cloudant sponsored this, so I wanted the db calls to be simple templates anyone could learn from (and everyone uses jquery, while angular is less common).

<comment><USER10> This is likely the first cloudant hosted app I've come across. Can you comment on your exeperience using it vs heroku or any of the other platforms?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'll probably be down-voted to hell, but whats with all the redirects that make "back"ing out of the site back to HN so painful, I counted three redirects before I landed on the final page, and had to long-click my back button to avoid the obnoxious redirect trap. Looks like your tracking (I assume) might drive people away.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed. I had to remove my cool embedded, recursive chart showing how the post itself was doing. But yeah, that redirect back loop was maddening. So now to see the chart, you have to click on the Post History page or this [http://www.hind-cite.com/multiPost?postIds=8075216](http://www.hind- cite.com/multiPost?postIds=8075216)</comment></comment>


With coronavirus antibodies fading fast, vaccine hopes fade, too - <AUTHOR> https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/With-coronavirus-antibodies-fading-fast-focus-15414533.php <comment><USER2> [https://outline.com/Kyqa58](https://outline.com/Kyqa58)

EDIT: FT article may be more informative/balanced, go via a google search to avoid the paywall:

[https://www.ft.com/content/2aec0597-1de3-4181-93a0-1da9483d8...](https://www.ft.com/content/2aec0597-1de3-4181-93a0-1da9483d8b26)</comment>


Read your code - <AUTHOR> http://blog.tetrack.com/2009/01/read-your-code/

<comment><USER2> _Always code as if the future maintainer is a maniac serial killer who knows where you live._

With the current fuss over the spit in the face (reprehensible act) perhaps this advice is more apposite than usual.</comment>


The 1982 Debate Between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman - <AUTHOR> http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm

<comment><USER2> Was the event ever filmed? Would love to watch a live recording.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not that I know of and a google search doesn't turn up anything. It would be interesting. I've always been curious about the atmosphere - the transcript hints at some tense moments as the crowd gradually turns against Peter Eisenman.</comment></comment>


Stop Catastrophizing Relief Efforts in the Philippines - <AUTHOR> http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/14/stop-catastrophizing-relief-efforts-in-the-philippines/

<comment><USER2> Ridiculous article. In essence they are saying "The press overreacts. The relief work is fine. If the press wouldn't report the problems then the relief effort would be better".

The press needs to shine the spotlight on the problems. Security is part of the relief process. That's typically provided by the state forces. The relief effort is broken if they can't reach the people who need help. We are talking human lives being lost. Every minute counts.</comment>


Show HN: Intuitive Guide to Light, and Life - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/photonlines/Intuitive-Guide-to-Maxwells-Equations <comment><USER2> These posts look nice but please don't put "Show HN" on reading material. If we allowed that, every submission would be a Show HN. The rules are here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).

<comment><AUTHOR> Point noted. I didn't realize that 'Show HN' posts weren't meant to tailor guides / reading material. I won't tag the guides as 'Show HN' going forward then - thanks.</comment></comment>


Harley-Davidson Needs a New Generation of Riders - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-08-23/harley-davidson-needs-a-new-generation-of-riders <comment><USER2> Yeah, I'll bet they do. Good riddance.

Aside from the image problem of being toys for salarymen Boomers who strap on some straight pipes and terrorize the neighborhood LARPing as a Hell's Angel on the weekend, their engineering has always been subpar for the price-- the one-size-fits-all solution of "just stick a V-Twin in it" for $30K only gets you so far, and led to some anemic sportbikes under the now-defunct Buell brand. You can buy a Lotus for that price.

Most of their business comes from the cachet of being part of a lifestyle or image; kids who grew up in the 70s saw how badass motorcycle gangs were and wanting to recapture a part of that during their adult midlife crises. Millennials can't relate to that. With Harleys being among the most expensive motorcycles on the market despite not being the most comfortable, the most performant, the most versatile, or the most reliable, there's literally no practical reason to buy one.</comment>


Electric buses are avoiding hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/04/electric-buses-are-avoiding-hundreds-of-thousands-of-barrels-of-oil-per-day/ <comment><USER2> Doesn't really mean much if the barrels of oil are being replaced by tonnes of coal..

Eg No analysis if any solar power is being used</comment>


How To Tell A Software Developer What You Want -- a checklist for users - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/development/122237/how-to-tell-a-software-developer-what-you-want <comment><USER2> Very nice article. I must say -- I think the "Describe the Problem, NOT the solution" and "document your existing workflows" are EXCELLENT tips.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very pragmatic and realistic. With this advice you might even make first release.</comment>


Ask HN: How does Google Analytics, a client-side script, get referring URLs? - <AUTHOR> Shower thought: given that Google Analytics is installed by dropping a JavaScript snippet onto the page, how does Google get the referring page when visitors land on the page via link or search result, etc.? <comment><USER2> The script should be able to read `Document.referrer` and post the result to wherever it wants.

<comment><AUTHOR> There it is. Thank you!</comment></comment>


MacBook Pro 2016 first look: One week later - <AUTHOR> http://www.imore.com/macbook-pro <comment><USER2> Meh, another heavily search engine optimized article from an affiliate. I skimmed throught it, but one particular thing caught my attention:

> Initially, for pulling photos from my Canon 5D Mark III, I went running back > to my old MacBook Pro. Over time, I've had to do that less and less. Now > that I have an iPhone 7 Plus, I haven't gone back to my Canon once.

This is just ridiculous. How you can compare a high grade professional DSLR to an iphone? He's either lying about owning 5Dm3 or just spent heaps of money on something he doesn't need.

<comment><USER3> Good catch. Well, we know he's certainly not a wedding photographer or a pro photographer of any kind. Not because I'm defining "pro" arbitrarily, but because it's extremely unlikely people would pay thousands of dollars for photos to a guy taking snaps with his iPhone. Not to mention that iPhones don't trigger strobe lights. Nor telephoto effects, not a bazillion other things that MKIII's have. The only thing in common with someone who selects between an iPhone 7 and a MKIII and two MacBooks to sync them to is the fact that they can afford these.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I always wonder when someone is glorifying a display (whether in a laptop or in a phone, IPS or OLED) - are the differences that visible? Or is just oversaturated profile? Shouldn't color calibration ensure _exactly_ the same look'n'feel?

I am working on calibrated displays, I am assuming that "Once you see it, you can't go back. The reds are so red. The magentas so deep. The oranges so bright." is not really applicable – once you calibrate the display, it should be "reds are as usual, magentas are as usual, oranges are as usual" (maybe sometimes "oh cool a new shade of red/magenta/orange" because of wider gamut).

<comment><USER5> The new displays are capable of showing colors that old displays were physically incapable of showing.

<comment><USER4> I am sure they are, still it is not a "wow effect", it is just incremental update – "wow" is just oversaturated default profile.

Edit: most of recent Apple products are capable of displaying at least full sRGB, since 99.9% (obviously this is a random figure, but almost every content is srgb, until it isn't) available content is sRGB it does not really matter and difference should not be observable (assuming displays are calibrated). Sure, when using a space that is bigger than sRGB (in PS or LR) – you may see some difference, but for most of the time it is not mindblowing.

<comment><USER5> The new MacBook Pro display can supposedly cover the full DCI-P3 space. If the default system elements like icons and desktop photos are provided in DCI-P3, which I bet they are, then the difference would be noticeable compared to an old screen at sRGB or less.

As for whether it's mindblowing, well, that depends on the person I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Even with all the niceties, I feel like it'll be years before apple recovers from all this "no old-school USB ports" BS.

</comment><comment><USER7> That keyboard looks insanely unusable.

Can we please just go back to the PowerBook G4 keyboards?

<comment><USER8> I don't mind the keyboard on my 2015 for shortish stretches, but do a lot of devs use their laptops directly, like actually in their laps, for most of the day?

My laptop spends 99% of the week on a stand, with the lid closed, and hooked up to dual monitors and a real keyboard (and other various peripherals).

That's really the biggest meh for me about the latest MBPs. The touch bar doesn't do much for me because my lid is mostly always closed. The keyboard doesn't really matter as long as it's useable for a couple of hours at a time.

But the lack of ports is kind of a big loss for me. When I travel and need to show a slide deck or share my screen in general on a projector, having the built in HDMI port generally means I'm safe and dongle free. Inevitably whenever I need a dongle that I own, it's somewhere else- especially my damn Ethernet dongle.

I also dabble, mostly at the hobby level, in micro electronics and I'm wondering what kind of random issues I'm going to have connecting to those over USB. I'm assuming a hub will prevent most issues, but I'm positive I'll spend a number of hours at some point because the C-A/B conversion goes awry in some way.

<comment><USER9> I also work in same manner as you do, but I think you should keep your computer's lid open to keep it cool.

<comment><USER8> It's on an mRain Stand [0], so all ports and vents are exposed fully and I've never detected any extra warmth from having the lid closed.

I prefer the lid closed so OSX doesn't try to treat it like a third screen- my laptop gets docked to the left and pretty much behind my left hand side monitor, making it un-viewable.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Rain-Design-mStand-Laptop- Patented/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Rain-Design-mStand-Laptop- Patented/dp/B000OOYECC)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Is entrepreneurship more common today because rejection of authority is more common now? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Is rejection of authority more common now? The stereotypical Millennial (according to marketers and social scientists who do lots of polling) has more respect for authority than either "Gen Xers" or baby boomers.

The same people will argue that todays 20-somethings are more collaborative and also less patient. One could argue that these latter characteristics might foster entrepreneurship.

What I think is most important is: 1\. Demographics. There are a lot of "young adults" these days, and typically the young have a greater tolerance for risk. They typically don't have mortgages or kids.

2\. Expectations. ~15 years ago we saw the first wave of "downsizing." Previously, people had reasonable expectation that if they were loyal to their employer, their employer would be loyal to them. Todays young adults have no such expectation, and many of them have witnessed the aftermath of putting too much faith in an employer both through their parents and grandparents.

3\. Declining needs for capital. It's been said repeatedly, but it's just so much cheaper to start up a company.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> One could argue that children are less likely to obey their parents and when they grow older less likely to want a boss of any sort.

This might even explain the sorts of places where you find startup hubs in the US.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's more common because less capital is needed to start a business.</comment>


U.S. Government vs. Hackers - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2014/10/us-government-vs-hackers/

<comment><USER2> > While in jail, weev spent much of his time in prison in administrative > segregation – a brutal form of incarceration that is considered torture by > many psychologists. After the director of prisons in Colorado spent 24 hours > in a solitary cell, he set out to eliminate all solitary confinement in the > state. In weev's case, he spent most of his time in a roughly 6×9 cell with > one other prisoner.

Weev has admitted that he spent much of his prison time prominently doing things associated with white supremacism. It would not be surprising for someone doing that to end up in administrative segregation for protection from black and hispanic prisoners.

Whether or not a white supremacist with weev's personality would face a serious risk from non-white prisoners would probably depend on how many other white supremacists are at his prison. If one of the white supremacist groups that operates in prisons (Aryan Brotherhood, Nazi Lowriders, DMI for example) had a strong gang at his prison [1], then being in the general population could be safe.

I want to know what the poor bastard who was in the cell with weev did to deserve that cruel fate.

[1] and assuming he could stop being an ass long enough to get on the good side of the local white supremacist gang...

</comment><comment><USER3> The US prison system is completely insane whether you are a hacker or not. It is baffling to me why you would want to send non-violent criminals to prison with hardened criminals in the first place, the rehabilitation is likely to be higher (and cheaper) with something like an ankle bracelet. Also an interesting idea to have hackers teaching hardcore criminials about OPSEC. Although you could make the argument that the hackers who get caught aren't usually very good at OPSEC to begin with - I suspect that they are learning though, even the Grugq has a video about it [1].

[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaYdCdwiWU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaYdCdwiWU)]</comment>


Ask YC: DB Scaling question - <AUTHOR>

My site is divided into sections based on the school where users are located. For each school I have an entry in an mySQL database which stores some information about that school. Users access their particular schools website through URL GET varaibles:
www.mysite.com?school=someuniversity
My question is this: In terms of scalability is it better to query the db for the specific school info each time a page is loaded or should I query only the first time a user visits a particular school and cache the info in session variables? Or is there a third alternative that is preferred? Any advice would be greatly appreciated or just a point in the right direction to finding this info myself. Thanks! <comment><USER2> <http://www.danga.com/memcached/>

It's like magic, but real.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I'll check it out!</comment></comment>


Malicious Python libraries found and removed from PyPI - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/twelve-malicious-python-libraries-found-and-removed-from-pypi/ <comment><USER2> Ah, wild west package repositories...

Only yesterday the developers of Itsdangerous went and _deleted_ their recently-released 1.0.0 version. That's right. Deleted. Gone. Anyone who made the upgrade and for some insane reason were using pip in their release pipeline suddenly had an un-deployable app.

And people complain that they don't want maintainers "getting in the way" between them and developers.

<comment><USER3> [https://github.com/pallets/itsdangerous/issues/112](https://github.com/pallets/itsdangerous/issues/112)

> _I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused but I missed that there was a > signature change that made it into 1.0. I yanked the release now because > this change had some very bad consequences and yanking the release is less > risky in comparison._

Ugh, why not release 1.0.1 with the change reverted? That would be the right thing to do whether 1.0 were yanked or not.

<comment><USER4> I sounds like mitsuhiko was between a rock and a hard place and had to do damage control to mitigate the situation. Without looking into the details, reverting wasn't a straightforward option.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Another pypi issue I've been wondering about recently is binary wheels. We saw an issue a few weeks back where pipenv hashes stopped matching because binary wheels were added for a package years after the last release, and it wasn't immediately obvious how to check if they were legitimate. It would be nice if there was some automated scan to check that binary builds match the source.

I think there have been some python package reproducible build efforts at Debian, and there's a standard image for building wheels, so maybe that's somewhat possible?

<comment><USER2> Nix manages this. [https://nixos.org/](https://nixos.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Is there an official policy on what kind of code a package can have? I assumed it is the responsibilty of the end-user to determine if the package has code they are willing to run. I mean the system worked just as intended: the user asked for a piece of code and PyPI delivered it.

<comment><USER7> [https://pypi.org/help/#admin-intervention](https://pypi.org/help/#admin- intervention)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've been trying to make some kind of smarter approach to prevent typesquatting in my GUI for package managers called pips[1], by means of fast BK-tree[2] package name comparison with the offline index.

There's some different approach I'm still working on to roll into pips, hope I won't be too lazy to make it happen, eventually.

[1] [https://github.com/ptytb/pips](https://github.com/ptytb/pips) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BK-tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BK-tree)

</comment><comment><USER9> Were the research / data leakage packages from the student who did their thesis on the security of pypi etc..?

[https://incolumitas.com/2016/06/08/typosquatting-package- man...](https://incolumitas.com/2016/06/08/typosquatting-package-managers/)

</comment><comment><USER10> What was wrong with the library timeit? Isn't this a legitimate one?

<comment><USER11> The real timeit doesn't need to be installed off pypi, it comes with python. Which makes this example the sneakier one, the rest is mostly typo-squatting with diango dajngo etc

<comment><USER10> Oh wow.. I didn't know that. I will be more cautious from now on.. Thanks for the info :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Maybe PyPi should require uploaders to verify their real identities, or at least flag packages where users haven't done so.

<comment><USER13> Whoa whoa whoa! Revolutionary idea - signed packages?! /s

In all seriousness though, Python's community is so communally fractured, I don't see one standard winning out. When the community revolts against it's own 'benevolent dictator for life' for wanting to better the language specification... It's most likely headed for doom.

Python and PyPi are in a precarious state. They are getting a lot of attention from a lot of people, who may or may not have it's best interest in mind. Previous Python users were using the language out of love for the language and it's facilities...

This issue is the tip of a much deeper iceberg lingering in the Python ecosystem: how is Python being intelligibly managed, if at all?

<comment><USER12> > When the community revolts against it's own 'benevolent dictator for life' > for wanting to better the language specification... It's most likely headed > for doom.

That's Python's biggest strength. If you want a bug fixed or feature added to javascript, you need to pay $20M to join ECMA or whatever. If you want the same in Python you just post on the mailing list and argue your case. You might not win, but you're at least guaranteed your day in court. That's the most valuable 'feature' of the Python ecosystem, even if it gets a little heated at times.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> red-tea Things like diango don't really seem like they would target typos as much as malicious copy and paste targets.

<comment><USER14> The whole world of package maintenance is subject to this, from pip to c# packages, npm, everything. I'm sure we all (developers) have some of these on our systems, because you rely on downloading packages to use that depend on other things.

It makes me want to do development in a dummy account, and my 'personal account' with my passwords and ssh credentials is somehow a separate account. I never do that in practice because it would be too much pain. That's why these kinds of package attacks are valuable.

So what can we do to address this? This story exactly lines up with my long time worry. I could be careful or lucky and avoid things like this, but the packages I use might not be so careful or lucky.

<comment><USER2> > The whole world of package maintenance is subject to this

Wrong.

There are two types of package repository, "maintained" and what I call "wild west". The latter include pypi, npm, homebrew, dockerhub, and any other repos where any old joe can sign up and start uploading packages under some name they choose. Uploaded packages are controlled by the single entity in charge of the account, except in rare circumstances like this when the site owners were alerted to specific mischief.

"Maintained" repositories have a layer of "maintainers" between the developers and the users. Their responsibility is to shield the user from irresponsible, user-hostile or potentially malicious decisions the developers may (and surprisingly often do) make. These include most Linux distribution repositories but also others like Nix and Guix. They tend to have fewer packages because of the added work of performing the maintenance and tend to lag behind release versions for the same reason but also because of an inherent conservatism of the maintainers. In return users get greatly improved stability. In the best cases (e.g. debian) the maintainers even do backports of security fixes to older stable releases. The maintainers also make decisions in a more public consensus basis and are better able to coordinate releases between different packages to ensure compatibility.

Given the choice, I run a mile from the former style of repository.

<comment><USER15> Honestly, this is kind of FUDish and assumes the worst case scenario for upstream developers, and the best case scenario for the distro maintainers.

Another way of phrasing what this extra layer of maintainers provides, is a second group of people who can introduce their own irresponsible, user- hostile, and potentially malicious (or at the very least, negligent) decisions. Worse, often times these developers have less (in some cases, far less) knowledge of how the code itself works, and are applying their own patches, often with minimal testing, without fully understanding the scope or impact of the changes they're making. For every poor decision you can find in a package that is popular enough to even appear in one of these downstream repositories, one could just as easily find a case where this extra layer is introducing their own problems.

The non FUD-ish answer is that whether you get your software directly from the upstream developers through an uncurated repository like PyPI, or through a curated repository like a Linux repository neither one is inherently better than the other. Each of them has a variety of pros and cons and part modern day engineering is looking at these tradeoffs and choosing the right set for your particular situation. Sometimes that will even mean that you're choosing different tradeoffs for different packages on the same system.

<comment><USER2> > one could just as easily find a case where this extra layer is introducing > their own problems.

In many years of using both, I have found examples of the latter being much rarer. The example that everyone likes to pull up is debian and openssl, and that's an example from 2006 when attitudes to security were very different.

The major difference between maintainer decisions and developer decisions is that maintained repositories tend to be consensus based where as wild-west repositories are my-way-or-the-highway based. If there's a poor decision made by a maintainer, there's the opportunity to engage with the community and make your case. You don't tend to get rogue maintainers that ignore the rest of the maintainers - such people will get removed.

I've never seen a user-hostile decision made by a package maintainer.

As for testing, we're actually getting to the point where maintained distributions are better tested than the vanilla packages. Nix, for instance, makes efforts to enable tests during the build process of most packages, meaning that when you get an installed package, it is known to pass its tests _with its actual set of installed dependencies_ (which themselves should have all passed their tests). This is moving towards having "integration tested" packages.

With pip, the best you'll get these days is a warning message that it might be installing the wrong versions of things because of a version conflict (and that's a recent addition). No tests run, best of luck...

<comment><USER16> Another example would be how pip, and venv have some edge case failures on Debian or Ubuntu. Repackaging is a constant struggle, especially when the software adds new features that are not thoroughly tested by the packager.

Another caveat to consider is that people tend to blame the first party (Python developers) when this happens, while the problem is really caused by packagers. Bad things may happen less often with a packager in the middle, but when they do, it's generally a lot more difficult to deal with exactly because of the added layer and complexity.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ignore Y Combinator at Your Own Risk - <AUTHOR> http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/04/28/ignore-y-combinator-at-your-own-risk.aspx

<comment><USER2> Couple of thoughts:

1\. Maybe a bit fluffy, but since most mainstream readers don't know about Y Combinator, the first cycle of articles are going to trend positive.

2\. I think the Y Combinator ecosystem (the program, demo days, Hacker News) itself is going to prove as disruptive (if not more) as the companies they fund. A disruptive "Ivy League of Startup Schools" is starting to form that I believe will have huge ripple effects on our economy.

3\. I agree, mainstream media doesn't understand how much hackers are our era's Robber Barons (or Industrial Statesmen, take your pick). Expect a handful of IPO's and at least one billionaire graduate within the next ten years. I expect Y Combinator graduates and their related companies will have billions of dollars of impact on our economy over this period of time.

4\. The traditional University model of education is probably as much at risk by ignoring YC as is big Fortune 500 companies. "The average debt for graduating college seniors who borrow to finance their undergraduate degree is just under $20,000." vs. the avg. YC funded company probably gets funded to the order of $15k - $20k.

"In 2003, workers with bachelor's degrees earned a median of $49,900. Those who'd completed several years of college with no degree had median earnings of $35,700, while those with a high school diploma averaged $30,800."

Don't get me wrong, I understand that not every high school graduate can attend YC or some similar program. But I think our educational system needs to create some alternative tracks for education that are shorter in time frame, more entrepreneurial in nature, and more technically inclined. If we simply diverted 1% of college freshman into such programs, this would translated into over 20,000 individuals. Can you imagine the impact on society of 20k freshman attending some Y Combinator-esque hacker / entrepreneurial program every year?

[http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/17/pf/college/college_costs/ind...](http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/17/pf/college/college_costs/index.htm)

<comment><USER3> >"I agree, mainstream media doesn't understand how much hackers are our era's Robber Barons (or Industrial Statesmen, take your pick). Expect a handful of IPO's and at least one billionaire graduate within the next ten years. I expect Y Combinator graduates and their related companies will have billions of dollars of impact on our economy over this period of time."

I don't think that applies to the guys at the Fool, especially the Rule Breakers. David Gardner got the following he has by investing in AOL in '95, Yahoo! in '96, Amazon.com in '97, Ebay in '98 _and telling the world about his picks before he bought them_. He's been far ahead of the curve for a long, long time. More recently he's had a number of 5-bagger plus investments in a variety of tech fields.

He's utterly crushed the market over a long haul, done it publicly, and done it almost exclusively in technology.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Amusingly, the first comment on the story is by some guy confused by the author's use of the word "hacker".

<comment><USER5> i dont think a lot of regular people realize how hackers control the internet

<comment><USER6> Our Gibsons will never be safe!

<comment><USER7> Angelina Jolie is too busy adopting kids these days to hack out Gibsons.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8>
      "Graham clearly wants to drink some big-cap milkshakes."

His own words, I'm sure.

</comment><comment><USER9> You know you've made the big leagues when people write fluff pieces like this about you. Congrats guys!

<comment><USER10> Not a fluff piece so much as a layman's introduction to YC.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is some solid press for YC, but I don't really understand the title...who is putting themselves at risk by ignoring YC?

<comment><USER12> I think the author might be referring to the "big companies [who] are cutting back and letting talent go". There seem to be repeated suggestions that YC alumni will nibble away or topple the Fortune 500's, uh, fortunes. With a lot of these startups creating new markets of their own I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that zero-sumesque view, but I wouldn't be surprised if they cause some interesting disruptions.</comment></comment>


Do We Need Recessions? - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2c_7dU8shQ <comment><AUTHOR> Key takeaways (for me at least):

1) GDP = Measure of Consumption

2) We've produced more than we can consume since about 1900.

3) _Consumer Confidence_ has a very important role in the Economy -- because it is intricately, intricately intertwined with _credit_ AKA _borrowing_ \-- which is in turn, intricately, intricately intertwined -- with _spending_ , which of course, is the backbone of the Economy...</comment>


Change the transparency of your windows with your smartphone - <AUTHOR> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/843725167/sonte-iphone-ipad-android-diy-wifi-digital-shades

<comment><AUTHOR> I will buy it as soon as it is available in bigger quantities...</comment>