Is TED Elite? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.nilofermerchant.com/is-ted-elite <comment><USER3> I spoke at TED this last week. While it was one of the most inspiring things I've ever attended, I was somewhat underwhelmed with the age demographics represented. There were maybe 10 people under the age of 25 (I'm 22). On one hand it kind of exposed the inherent agism expressed in the valley that I was/am accustomed to, on another hand it was frustrating that it seemed as if I was somehow a young'n hanging out with the adults, and on yet another other hand it was inspiring to see people who have worked on one thing their entire lives and stuck with it until they've changed the world (whereas in the Valley so many people want to make their FU money and sit on a boat for forever).

It's definitely elitest in the strictest sense, but you have to realize that a lot of the people (at least the speakers) have passions that they have pursued not so that they could one day speak at or attend TED but because those ideas actually matter a lot. The opportunity to attend TED is a byproduct of pursing your passion, which is infinitely more important than infinite snacks, gift bags full of stuff or even getting to meet your heroes (I met Jeff Bezos).

Unrelenting passion will get you farther than any ticket to a conference will. The lucky ones are not the ones who get what they want (like a ticket to TED), the lucky ones are those who get to do what they are meant to do (who change the world for the better).

<comment><USER4> The fact that young people don't have thousands of dollars to spend on an annual conference isn't "ageism". Older people simply have more discretionary income.

<comment><USER3> Yeah - I didn't pay since I was a speaker but that's a good point. Since it goes to a non-profit it is tax deductible so in real dollars it is somewhat cheaper than the actual $7.5k it costs, Jessica Mah understands the finances a lot better (she's who explained this to me), I don't know how they would expect anyone else to know this sort of thing though...

<comment><USER5> So for most professionals, the tax-deductibility at most is 30% of the purchase price. And that is assuming that you can deduct the complete cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "conversations are truly the only way in the world is changed, not technology"

No. Action is the only way things get done. Ask anyone waiting for the Army Corp of Engineers to get a plan done to relieve flooding. Lots of conversations, but no action.

Right now it is TED, later it will be the opposite complaints about SXSW (why are these people here?). I seem to remember a quote by one of the owners of Studio 54 about the only way they got in was to own the club.

It still seems, online at least, there are a lot of experiments in social networking in this area that could be the basis for someones software.

</comment><comment><USER7> Great stuff comes to TED, but to be honest, I don't know if I've seen great stuff _come out_ of it, other than videos of talks that could have been recorded at a local community college.

Oh, and of course it's elitist, charging $10000 for an invite-only conference is the very definition of elitist. If it was populist, I think you'd see a very different approach to organizing.

There are versions of TED that are more ad hoc and grassroots that happen every day, and it seems like those are the places where the cool things happen.

<comment> mkr-hn Do any of them post videos up online? I've been looking for something like that.

<comment><USER7> Conferences along these lines often don't, and that seems to be the biggest disconnect, and the one thing TED has done superbly over anything else. It really needs to become a trend that, no matter how narrow the subject, posting a video of a talk online should be standard operating procedure.

It's the worst in academia, but due to lack of resource or even due to a preconception that people outside of the conference aren't interested, it's something that gets overlooked _way_ too often.

<comment><USER8> If it's a big conference where you're already talking to a big auditorium, I could see that. If it's a small conference or workshop, though, it completely changes the dynamics of a talk if you're doing it to be recorded for permanent archival on the internet, vs. talking to 20 colleagues in a room. TED is explicitly a very public platform for charismatic public speakers, which is a good thing to exist, but not what _every_ conference should be like imo.

I personally am not too great at public speaking and don't relish the idea of something I was talking about slightly awkwardly being on the internet forever, so if talks were regularly being recorded at some conferences, I would probably just not submit to give talks at those conferences. Not all of us are TED speakers! I do try to make my stuff freely available and accessible in the medium I'm more comfortable in, though (written text), by writing accessible blog-style expositions, in addition to putting up PDFs of full papers.

Keynote talks are a bit different, since they're invited specifically to be big public talks. So for those, yeah, maybe it should become routine for them to be recorded/archived. Fortunately, those are also the ones that often have the broadest interest.

<comment> mkr-hn It might be a good idea for conferences to let people opt out of recording and provide a transcript instead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Reading this awful, pompous, self congratulating prose and imagining a thousand people like her gathered at the same place exchanging ideas gives me the willies.

I was not one of the lucky ones allowed the privilege to pay 10 k to attend, but I will have to drive by long beach today, so I must be careful to fill up my tank so as to avoid any possibility of accidentally getting stuck in Long Beach and having one of those geniuses curate at me.

But we have not thought of the real victims of TED. What of actual curators. You know the people in museums. They get a quiet harmless job, and then that blabbering pack of idiots pick up the word that describes their profession, and soon anybody that has anything to do with "curating" will be universally hated and ridiculed.

<comment><USER4> Sour grapes?

In reality, I suspect that the truth about TED lies somewhere between "pretentious circle-jerk" and "conference of the world's most inspired thinkers".

<comment><USER10> I know what you mean, but doesn't there seem to be something vulgar and the amount of money ($6000) to attend?

You can read plenty of things in the press about the extremes of celebrity, and no doubt if someone opened a Nightclub which cost $6000 to enter many 'normal' people would be offended.

Just because someone might try to justify the TED fee in terms of 'for a good cause' doesn't help - it still gives me a feeling these people are living in a slightly different world.

<comment><USER11> That's because poor people have nothing to contribute (in the eyes of TED).

At least that's the only logical conclusion I can come to. If they didn't think that, and are not in it for the money, then why else would they exclude them?

Someone tell me where I've gone wrong here, because the underlying attitude is sickening.

<comment><USER12> The audience isn't the contributors; they're the audience. The speakers don't pay; if some homeless guy had the credibility and charisma to speak at TED, there'd be nothing stopping him.

Let's be very clear, here: TED does not exclude poor people, they exclude non- extraordinarily-rich people. If Bill Gates had released mosquitos all over a crowd of poor, or middle-class people, he'd have been an asshole. Because he did it over a crowd of the uber-rich, he was awesome and promoting awareness of important problems to people who can do something about them.

The fact that TED charges so much for a seat makes them elitist and generates buzz and social proof; the fact that they share the content for free makes them egalitarian. But they focus on getting the eyeballs that are equipped to actually do something about the cool new ideas presented there.

<comment><USER11> Interesting take. Makes sense. Still rubs me the wrong way, but I can at least see a method to the madness with your reasoning.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Technology does not change the world, are you serious? To believe that you must think that everything from irrigation techniques that allowed agriculture and formation of cities to improved forms of transportation and communication that allowed cultures to meet did not have impact.

She also says that the people criticizing TED have not been, when the first link she uses is the story of someone that has been to TED. The articles she talks about could use more 'journalism' and 'a simple google search' to improve them, but no mention of anything that is actually wrong with them.

<comment><USER14> > To believe that you must think that everything from irrigation techniques > that allowed agriculture and formation of cities to improved forms of > transportation and communication that allowed cultures to meet did not have > impact.

In my experience, for many people the word "technology" is synonymous with "new technology". Extant technology is just part of the way the world works for them. The author probably wouldn't consider a screwdriver to be technology, for example.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> TED has some really good talks. Have I ever been invited? No. But I've also never been invited over to the people who live down the street. And what's even worse, when I requested a podcast of their interior they called the police.

There are so many things that I don't get invited to, its the things that I do get invited to I look at with suspicion. And the fact that TED gives me free access to their talks, makes them OK in my book.

</comment><comment><USER16> Anyone can apply to become a TED fellow (<http://www.ted.com/pages/view/id/247>). A couple of people I know personally have been past fellows. Going by what I've seen, it may be easier to become a TED fellow than to be selected for Y Combinator, but that's another argument.

On the contrary, the registration fee for the TED INK conference held in Lonavala, India recently was $2200 a pop for residents (<http://theinkconference.com/Register>), which no middle class Indian can afford. Even that didn't guarantee that one would actually get a seat, 'cause surprise! They will "..review each application form in detail to find the right match of attendees". Amazing.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'd say that TED's weakness isn't that it's elite, but that it's become more and more overtly PC. In 2006, I absolutely loved TED. At that time, almost every talk was eye-opening. Now, some of them still are and others are random feminist/environmentalist/save Africa themes that don't really have anything to do with technology, entertainment or design.

<comment><USER14> O'Sullivan's First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.

<comment><USER18> For me, the more interesting question is the natural response - Why?

<comment><USER14> That's the $64,000 question. I don't know the answer, and I doubt it can be answered in a forum comment or blog post. The best I can do is throw out some ideas.

Michels' Iron Law of Oligarchy[1] - a sufficiently large bureaucracy will come to be dominated by an oligarchy, which will act to defend its own interests rather than to achieve the stated goals of the organization.

A corollary of this observation: A bureaucracy whose existence is not externally influenced by its ability to achieve its goals will work against those goals. To achieve its goals would be to negate the reason for its existence, which would have negative consequences for the oligarchy. A key point here is "externally influenced by its ability to achieve its goals" - <USER2> business which does not achieve its goals will lose to its competitors, whereas a government agency or NGO designed to reduce poverty will only become stronger if poverty actually increases.

This leads to Conquest's Second Law of Politics[2] - every organisation appears to be headed by secret agents of its opponents. The question then, - Why is the movement always leftward? In his original article[3] O'Sullivan says "the people who staff such bodies tend to be the sort who don't like private profit, business, making money, the current organization of society, and, by extension, the Western world. At which point Michels's Iron Law of Oligarchy takes over — and the rest follows."

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Conquest>

[3] [http://old.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback- jos062603....](http://old.nationalreview.com/flashback/flashback- jos062603.asp)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Regardless of whether it's elitist[1] or not -- isn't the fact that the videos are available to the world wonderful? To me it seems like they want the world to be informed and hence inspired by all the great things people are doing in the world. They aren't necessarily fully shutting you out. If TED was available to anyone, even to go to in person, I think it would lose some of the intimacy that it has -- it would be much more difficult, if you attended, to spend time with those who inspire you.

[1] By Wikipedia's definition it sure sounds elitist: "Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight or those who view their own views as so; whose views and/or actions are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern."

</comment><comment><USER20> Sure it is. And that's a good thing.

Anything that's worth participating to is elitist. It brings together interesting, fascinating and smart people. Most admirably, TED succeeded at keeping the audience eclectic. Nobody learns from homogeneity and confirming their thoughts with people who think the same.

As a TED attendee and TEDx organizer, I can definitely confirm on this. Whether for my event or for TED, I see the talks as just an excuse to get amazing _people_ together. Everything — from the high cost to the application process — is about ensuring that every person in the audience genuinely wants to participate and contributes to the experience.

Case in point: the talks are posted for free online to weed out those who attend for the information in the talks. The Internet trivializes pure knowledge and makes human interaction so much more valuable.

When you bank your event on people (which is pretty much the only thing you can bank on in the age of the Internet), you have no choice but to make it elitist. In a good way.

</comment><comment><USER21> I would make a distinction here. They are _Elite_ , which is good. They are the top echelon of their profession. They are also _Elitist_ , which is the real problem here.

tl;dr... in my personal experience, TED is snobby, and pretentious.

I share space with a few TED fellows on a daily basis. They seemed like nice guys but after a short period of time I got the message that they were an exclusive club and I wasn't allowed in.

I realize these people are ridiculously smart and sometimes that is correlated with being socially awkward, but a times they were simply rude.

I really wanted to like these people but they made it very hard. Eventually, I stopped trying to be nice and stopped acknowledging them all together. They seemed quite fine with that.

(They began to seem like divas to me.)

</comment><comment><USER22> Yes. Is that a problem? I don't know. I am not elite so I am excluded. I do not like being excluded, I do not like feeling that I am less than someone else so I do not like TED's elitism. I like the videos though.

</comment><comment><USER23> I don't care if it's elite. Elite is not a bad thing.

(Speaking of elite, don't get me started on "elite" being a bad label for politicians -- I WANT the elite, the best of the bet, running our country.)

<comment><USER7> Elitism doesn't always lead to the elite, though. Sometimes (often times) it just leads to the entrenched.

<comment><USER24> I would go so far as always. Power tries to hold onto power.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> "Laura Stein has set the TEDx licensee policy so that one __cannot __charge for attendance"

This is incorrect, when we organized TEDxCMU in 2010, Laura Stein told us that some other events had sold tickets to cover costs.

Here is an extract from the TED rules: " (TED will allow certain TEDx events to charge a small admission fee -- always under $100 -- to help cover the event's production costs. In order to charge an admission fee, you must obtain permission from TED first.)"

\- <http://www.ted.com/pages/tedx_general_rules>

<comment><USER20> To clarify: TEDx events can charge up to 100$ for their regular conference. TEDx _can't_ charge admission to a livestream of TED/TEDGlobal/TEDIndia.

<comment><USER25> I'm a bit confused - how could a TEDx event charge admission for a livestream of an official TED event, to which they are not affiliated? Afaik TED/TEDGlobal/TEDIndia are not TEDx events.

Did you mean that TEDx events could not charge for a livestrem of their own event? That is probably true.

<comment><USER20> No, TEDx event (and anyone for that matter) can't charge for admission to event who's purpose is to watch a livestream of a TED (non-x) event.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> maybe it isnt "elitist" but it is most definitely attended by the ELITE. Sayings that $10,000 attend a conference is anything but expensive is being elite.

Just deal with it and roll on already. Let's face it, only the BEST speakers doing all sorts of things are invited to speak at TED.

<comment><USER27> This, and it bears saying that _being_ elite is going to change your outlook.

TED is great for what it is - trying to gather the "best of the best" and get their messages out. Worthy ideas can come from far more humble and marginal groups of people, too. But those groups get less backing, so of course there's going to be a division.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> HN has jumped the shark / nuked the fridge. "Is TED elitist?". Seriously? $6k for an invite-only conference? Not elitist? _facepalm_

</comment><comment><USER11> Elite? not so much. Elitist? Definitely.

</comment><comment><USER29> Does the Pope shit in the woods?

<comment><USER15> This current Pope in particular, or Pope's in general?

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> For better or for worse... I doubt Jeff Bezos, Meg Ryan, Larry Page, or even Jacqueline Novogratz would be attending and interacting at a conference that wasn't at least some bit elitist. To know that the fellow attendees are "peers" who have some comparable "level of achievement" puts them in a different mindset than being surrounded by people who are extremely passionate about something but may not have as much of a track record. The former scenario is networking for them, the latter is putting in face time/public relations. I think that if you make the TED conference itself more open, then you'll lose some of the big name people. The big name people who do attend will be in that "lecture to the audience" mode and likely leave right after the speeches.

TEDx is the non-elitist version of the TED. I think these are just as inspiring and motivating, but without the distraction of the big names. The character of the event is different(less money, prestige, and social posturing in the room) but the spirit of sharing ideas and doing what we can is the same. I think there is a place for both TED and TEDx in the world. Whichever you most want to attend depends on your own personal goals and circumstances.

</comment><comment><USER31> TED is elitist but it shares its videos with everyone which makes it great.

</comment><comment><USER32> I have a question, who decides who gets invited to TED? Is it just the organizers? Do they just sort through the entire applicant list and determine who is getting in based on what they've done'?

</comment><comment><USER33> Two myth 3's?</comment>


Ask HN: How Much Would You Pay To Be Resurrected?  - <AUTHOR>

How Much Would You Pay To Be Resurrected?
Undoubtedly their will come a day when people can purchase resurrection insurance where in the event of one's death a clone of theirs will be raised and given whatever contractually agreed upon care/resources the provider is bound to.  Or perhaps simply the eccentric ultra-rich will have an interest in such things as this and set everything up by hand before they die, entrusting the future of their clone(s) to personal butlers, lawyers, handlers, etc.
So how do we provide this service?  Ought it be provided.  Would you  take it if it were free?  Say for soldiers going to war, or people with genetic diseases, with a clause to wait until a cure is found?  Boba Fett may be a fictional character, but the idea of raising one's own clone as one's son or daughter is appealing to me personally.  As a transgender woman, I can't procreate.  I waited to transition until I was 24 in order to avoid my mother's ire.  How would a being with my genes raised in a different environment turn out, one where I was their mother and thus could insure that their best interest, rather than my personal beliefs, played the most important role in their nurturing?  Of course, no human life should be brought into existence simply to satisfy a curiosity, but my whole reason for bringing this up is to start a discussion about the morals and ethics involved.  My mirror neurons tell me just bringing it up will make people think I'm a sociopath.  What does that say about us?  We exclude people from the tribe when they bring up things that make us question our humanity in ways we don't already have set answers to; that which we shall not speak of, and only monster's can fathom. <comment><USER2> As you describe it, it would not be resurrection. Resurrection to me implies that the new being would have my memories and personality, but your propose something more like a delayed identical twin: identical in genes only.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point, memories and personality are a little more difficult. I suppose a sufficiently advanced 3D printer could print the state of a beings atoms, though getting this state data might involve paying for future life at the cost of the current one: 1) Get data of original, vaporizing them. 2) Make copy right away. 3) In event of death of copy, make new copy. For the sake of discussion I tried to limit the concept to the state of technology as we know it today, but you are absolutely correct, further advances are needed.</comment></comment>


My Dockercon 2016 Speaker Notes - <AUTHOR> http://blog.alexellis.io/dockercon-2016-speaker-notes/ <comment><AUTHOR> My Speaker notes from Dockercon, Seattle. Get my experiences as a speaker - meeting the team, captains and demoing IoT on stage in the capital of coffee.</comment>


Donate Your Tab - <AUTHOR> https://donateyourtab.to/ <comment><USER2> BEWARE: this is a cryptomining-on-your-device racket, and it has a clicktrap so you can't back-navigate.</comment>


Show HN: Trackalacka, Cheaper Daily E-Mail Scrums - <AUTHOR> https://www.trackalacka.com/

<comment><USER2> As a fan of daily emails - I built thebirdy.com and just launched whatwedid.today - I love this concept. However, I find the pricing really confusing. Could it be a simple seat license? And have a look at your site on mobile. It was pretty broken on my iphone. Good luck!</comment>


Your images are a virus. They are everywhere on the Internet - <AUTHOR> http://www.hanselman.com/blog/YourImagesAreAVirusTheyAreEVERYWHEREOnTheInternet.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScottHanselman+%28Scott+Hanselman+-+ComputerZen.com%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

<comment><USER2> I've had a similarly surreal experience. I took a photo of a cup of coffee in Zeitgeist Cafe in Seattle early in 2005. I was new to Wikipedia so I uploaded it and put it on the page for Coffee, where it has stayed since.

I see it _everywhere_. The most surreal experience was when I was waiting for my luggage at SeaTac last year, and on the TV in front of me was an ad for a national hotel chain -- and they used my photo (violating the CC license by the way) when touting their continental breakfast. You can see the way this photo "virus" has spread on the new Google Image search as well: [http://images.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cup...](http://images.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cup+of+coffee&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSZRpjCxCo1NgEGgIIAAwLELCMpwgaPAo6CAESFLoHtwebBPcGtQekA70HoAOZB5gHGiCTpVNXr0ZfppAicZWlpcNj15Qjemi4kJuVCV3PzOJIJQwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBBjkEcsM&biw=1200&bih=964)

<comment><USER3> It would have been awesome if you had put a secret message in the image, just for kicks.

<comment><USER4> A little off-topic, but maybe it would be possible to 'unwrap' the cup and construct a little panorama of it's reflection.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just wanted to highlight this bit:

""" I can't see how to reliably hotlink to Google Image Search results, so go to <http://images.google.com/>, click the little camera icon and paste in the URL to the image, like [http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWrit...](http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/2dc61d7e4a66_13443/image.png) """

For a company that built its original USP on analysing hyperlinks, Google have a remarkable cultural tendency to screw up their URLs.

</comment><comment><USER6> [http://www.marc.cn/2011/10/elaines-picture-removed-from- hall...](http://www.marc.cn/2011/10/elaines-picture-removed-from-halloween- products-the-chinese-way.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> Don't worry about credits. Give something back to the amazing online community. If someone claims it is his image? So what? He probably is a very sad man and you probably can prove that it is indeed your picture. Stop worrying about these petty things.

</comment><comment><USER8> 208 results? Meh :)

Some time ago I created a theme for my WordPress site, which I released publicly later. I included a (cheesy?) line in it (plus a grammatical error) and it is frightening to see it in 500K+ pages now:

[http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%22What+I+say+is+immensely+...](http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%22What+I+say+is+immensely+important+than+who+I+am.+Let+the+search+be+for+the+meaning+and+substance+in+my+words+rather+than+the+intricacies+of+my+existence%22)

</comment><comment><USER9> That image is missing a fourth circle: stuff you can do that's better than the current stuff (with the resources you have available to you.)

If whatever you want to do is not better than existing options then there's no point in doing it since your customers will just continue using the old thing.

<comment><USER10> In this case Microsoft represents the thing that can do stuff better than everyone else:

Scott had just gotten a job with Microsoft. I recall thinking that the point of his picture wasn't just to convey how happy and lucky he felt about the new opportunity, but to also explain why he was leaving his old employer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I never saw this picture before, nor do I think it's any special. Try googling for me_gusta.jpg, if u look for "virus like" spreading of one picture.

</comment><comment><USER12> Somehow he made his site unzoomable on the iPad. Now I won't read it, however interesting his story might be. Shame!

</comment><comment><USER13> This is where I start to have all kinds of issues about copyright. If someone is making money off my work, without permission and/or without some sort of recompense, then I start to get a little bit edgy about it.

</comment><comment><USER14> You should try the magical image finder: tineye.com

</comment><comment><USER15> 'Meme' is the correct term, not 'virus'

<comment><USER16> I read an article, though I cant remember where that refers to memes as a new kind of hard-to-kill virus, even the wikipedia article has references to it <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme></comment></comment>


Thousands Indian farmer commited suicide after failure of GM crop.. - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082559/The-GM-genocide-Thousands-Indian-farmers-committing-suicide-using-genetically-modified-crops.html

<comment><USER2> This is a very serious issue, in a place like India where the soil is fertile, the farmers can raise decent profit from traditional crop with a little assistance from technology (like bore/well water when monsoon fails)

It is sad that GM crops are pushed to farmers with huge promises on returns, most of which are not true. The companies selling them have researchers/personnel from prominent agricultural colleges to support their claims and recommend their products to innocent farmers as a cure to their current issues.

There is another aspect concerning the people who consume such products, the companies claim that they are safe, but I doubt those claims, the long term effects are yet to be seen.

There are so many ways to make profit why do such companies risk the life of innocent people? they could have studied the effect of GM crops for a longer duration before giving it a go.</comment>


Tmux Tutorial - <AUTHOR> https://leimao.github.io/blog/Tmux-Tutorial/ <comment><USER2> One tip I didn't see mentioned (though it's pretty common in tmux) is to use the default window layouts for organizing multiple panes. You do this with Ctrl + b followed by esc + <num>.

esc + 1: All windows take up equal space horizontally, and stretch the full vertical width

esc + 2: All windows take up equal space vertically, and stretch the full vertical width

esc + 3: The first window takes up half of the screen vertically, and all remaining windows divide up the space equally

esc + 4: The first window takes up half of the screen horizontally, and all remaining windows divide up the space equally

esc + 5: Windows are divided into two equal columns horizontally, and split remaining space vertically.

Even if I have to alter the sizes a bit usually, the pre-defined layouts are super useful for positioning different windows.

<comment><USER3> Just to nitpick a tiny bit, but you mean "panes" and not "windows". Tmux's terms can be slightly confusing and the difference is important in usage!

<comment><USER2> Good point, thanks for that. Fixing now!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you're on a Mac, try tmux -CC with iTerm2. You get tmux goodness like multiple panes, persistent sessions, etc. But you also get native scrolling, native copy and paste, etc. It's what makes tmux usable for me.

<comment><USER5> Absolutely! TMux is pretty great by itself, but it doing its own internal scrolling and copy-pasting, though essential, is a usability frustration.

Tmux + iTerm2 is a fantastic combo that takes all of Tmux's pwer and removes all the downsides.

I searched if anything else used Tmux's Control Channel on Linux to replicate iTerm2's features, and I'm sad that I found nothing.

(Frankly, it's kind of stunning to me that one terminal app on macOS has more useful features than the plethora of me-too terminals on Linux)

<comment><USER6> > Frankly, it's kind of stunning to me that one terminal app on macOS has more > useful features than the plethora of me-too terminals on Linux

If by "useful features" you mean intercepting tmux output and having it integrate with the terminal, then no. But more generally, I think the closest thing to iTerm2 on Linux is Tilix [1].

[1] [https://gnunn1.github.io/tilix-web/](https://gnunn1.github.io/tilix-web/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The combo of mosh+tmux (and earlier, screen) really is something powerful that most non-command-line people can't ever begin to fathom. I've been mostly working through a terminal multiplexer for a couple of decades for work and pleasure and the benefits are enormous.

I of course use graphical applications for browsing, image editing, etc. but nearly everything else I do is from the command line and almost all of that happens over tmux, either locally or remotely. I prefer using a new Tmux window instead of a new graphical window for a temporary shell so I usually just end up having one terminal emulator running on my screen.

The value here is state: tmux keeps my state forever which gives me one less thing to worry about or remember. If I can't finish something right away, I know I'll just go back to the tmux window when I have time. Laptop running out of battery? No problems, I'll just reconnect when I find a charger and reboot my laptop.

For example, I have the exact cursor-to-cursor same view for what I do at work whether I'm at my desktop workstation in the office or using my laptop from the home couch. I can literally leave my cursor on a certain line, leave the office, go home, and continue exactly from where I was when I left, the same exact line. Especially using mosh makes it even more transparent: I just open my laptop at home and my work tmux session is already waiting there on my screen, and will update as soon as I reconnect the work vpn.

I'd much prefer to have something like this for browsing too. I'd like to run a browser muxer server that keeps all my tabs online with all the runtime state, making it available to me wherever I happen to connect from. Browsing something interesting on the train but then I had to hop off? No problem, I'd return to that session on the big screen as soon as I get home and open my laptop. Tab and bookmark syncing doesn't go far enough: I'd like to share one live browser process and access that from everywhere.

I could imagine I could rig up something like that using VNC and Xnest/Xephyr but a custom, hand-designed protocol for remote rendering natively in the browser might just work more seamlessly. I would like the browser in my phone to look like a mobile browser even if the content and state came from the browser server. And I definitely would not want to operate a desktop browser over VNC using my phone.

</comment><comment><USER8> I have been using screen for almost 10 years now, is it worth switching? I know it's not much learning but why switching when screen is not broken? It feels like there's more important stuff I can learn.

<comment><USER9> Tried tmux, then went back to screen. Tmux is for hipsters.

<comment><USER10> Meaning what? It's different?

<comment><USER9> I feel like tmux is styled more towards Mac users, with rich UI and verbose options.

screen is more akin to a unix program that borrows the styling of options from getopts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Oh man, I love tmux.

I guess I am not a very advanced user but some of its features really appeal to me.

We use Macbooks at work and initially I used iTerm2. I've always been a heavy user of the terminal and split views. (Neo)Vim is my main editor. However, I experienced difficulties switching back and forth between my work laptop and my personal Ubuntu system at home. I switched to tmux to be able to have the exact same set up on both OS's.

Although that was my initial reason for switching; I have come to love tmux. Just the fact that I can quickly SSH into my home machine, attach to my tmux instance and continue working from anywhere is amazing.

</comment><comment><USER12> I tried to use tmux as a terminal multiplexer on sway just so I could make it remember a setup of terminals for specific projects. That way I could simply do `tmux-command start project-name` and have it automatically open a setup of windows and panes. Though I found it unfortunate that I had to learn new shortcuts that are different for shortcuts elsewhere. A simple example but which was a deal breaker was in order to work with its clipboard system, you had to use different commands. Does someone with more knowledge of tmux know whether it's possible to get rid of the prefix command somehow? I know about the i3 version of tmuxinator, but it doesn't support sway unfortunately. I might make something to automatically open a list of windows on a specific workspace for sway.

<comment><USER13> Just use `bind-key -n` for a no-prefix bind

See e.g. [https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/450184/in-tmux- how-...](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/450184/in-tmux-how-to-set- shortcut-for-copy-mode)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> We use tmux for remote peer programming in a pinch.

If Alice has a session on a remote machine you have access to. You can run `tmux new-session -s bob -t Alice`

With this both share he same view but can move cursors independently.

<comment><USER15> > With this both share he same view but can move cursors independently.

Does this mean they have 2 separate cursors, or that that can control the same cursor? Your can sort of do the same thing in screen by using a nested screen session and sharing the outer session with the other user.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> For those who customize their configs and, like me, SSH into all kinds of different short- and long-lived servers regularly: How do you stay sane?

I don't want to have to scp over my tmux conf to every single server I jump on, but OTOH difference in pretty much anything but the prefix gets really frustrating with habits. Particularly remembering all the emacs mode-keys when I really want the vi ones.

<comment><USER17> I have a Github dotfiles repo so I can set it up on any server in a couple of minutes, just by cloning the repo and running a script within it. If you're jumping between different servers, I would highly recommend having a quick way to setup config like this. It's a short investment that pays dividends for many years - not just for tmux config, but setup for bash, vim, and any other utils you rely on.

I use one tmux prefix for the local machine and another one for ssh sessions (setup in bash_profile using something like `if [[ -n "$SSH_CLIENT" ]] ; then tmux set-prefix ... etc`. You need different prefixes when using tmux recursively like this, so you can navigate both the inner and outer session.

I also use a different color theme for ssh sessions, whch helps to know which prefix to use until it becomes somewhat subconscious.

<comment><USER16> Used to have that actually, it's just too much of a hassle in today's cloud environment (I can easily SSH into dozens of fresh instances over a day and there's no way I'm baking my personal config into an image). I was considering to revisit and streamline that, but I imagine the cognitive overhead of different remote hosts having different configs is worse than what I have now (local=my config, remote=vanilla).

I just bind a different prefix and moved the bar to the top locally (I use urxvt+tmux with Ctrl+arrow keys etc to navigate tmux tabs instead of a tabbed terminal client) to get around the nesting issue.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I used PM2[1] as process manager for Node.js, Python services in the cloud servers. It did its job well, apart from ensuring that process is always up, it provided monitoring capabilities(incl. emails), capturing logs from the stdout among other things.

Recently I wanted to manage a Golang service, found that PM2 is not stable for it yet and I didn't want to install Node.js just for managing the Golang service; so used Tmux for it. It keeps the process up, we can get the basic process stats as in any terminal and I use external monitoring service for alerts when the service is down[2].

[1]:[http://pm2.keymetrics.io/](http://pm2.keymetrics.io/)

[2]:[https://uptimerobot.com/](https://uptimerobot.com/)

<comment><USER19> Tmux won't restart the service when it fails. It won't start the service when the machine reboots (or even if someone deliberately reboots the machine and forgets about the service).

Assuming you're on a modern Linux distribution, it's pretty easy creating a systemd service file which will make it easier to manage the service.

<comment><USER18> You're correct, I should have mentioned the purpose. I'm currently testing the service, want it stop when it fails and just not when I exit the SSH; hence the tmux.

For restarting the service, systemd is the way to go.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I use tmux in conjunction with tmuxp and highly recommend the pairing (or alternately use tmuxinator). a bash shortcut I use every day to attach/create/restore dozens of sessions is.

      pc:bt2$ cat ~/bin/t
      #!/bin/bash
      if [[ $# == 0 ]]; then
          echo tmux list-sessions
          echo
          tmux list-sessions
          echo
          echo tmuxp sessions
          echo
          ls ~/.tmuxp

      else
          tmuxp load $1 || tmux attach -t $1 || tmux new-session -s $1
      fi

usage "t session_name"

</comment><comment><USER21> One of the downsides listed when you don't use tmux is that you have to type your password for each terminal you open to the remote machine. Does no one use ssh-agent?

<comment><USER22> This somewhat painfully breaks when reattaching as the socket from the shells environment could be defunct. Whereas the shell session outside has a different, totally fine agent in its environment. This was somewhat painful to explain to some engineers and I suck at explaining so I'll gladly receive a good explanation for it (or a nice workaround?) :D

<comment><USER23> Are you talking about running ssh-agent on the server side? To further connect to some other machine?

For that I use a file to save the name of the socket and PID, and restore this in my .profile.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I love tmux and use it extensively in my workflow. One thing that I found very useful was binding "synchronize panes" to ctrl+b+e combination, this allows me to quickly modify the configurations.

tmuxp is also a great tool for creating predefined layouts. Personally I store a config for every client and by typing "tmuxp load client_config" my session is immediatelly available and I can get productive within seconds.

</comment><comment><USER25> Pro-Tip: Use it with autossh for automatically reconnecting during computer standby / internet drops. Use iTerm for a 'native' feel to tmux (ex. copy/paste, tabs, history, etc). I used to use Mosh + TMux for super durable connections and that worked beautifully. Unfortunately Mosh doesn't play well with ITerm's native integration so you can achieve a poor man's Mosh by using [http://www.harding.motd.ca/autossh/](http://www.harding.motd.ca/autossh/).

All-together it looks something like this: Open iTerm. autossh -t myRemoteHost "tmux -CC -A"

</comment><comment><USER26> Cool, a coworker showed me tmux yesterday.

One question we had was about scrolling in the tmux window and keeping the terminal output (as in Linux where I can scroll back with Shift+PageUp). Does anybody knows how that works with tmux?

<comment><USER27> You can enter scroll mode with ctrl+b+[ then you can mouse wheel, PageUp, etc.

To exit just press q or ctrl+c

<comment><USER20> ctrl+b, pageup is enough to start scroll back so you can skip [

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Looks like some of the shortcuts are really RSI prone, i.e. ctrl + b + & (where & is shift + 7). Are there any possibilities to have more wrist- friendly shortcuts?

<comment><USER29> A very common change is to change the prefix to ctrl + a, like this in your tmux.conf:

      # remap prefix from 'C-b' to 'C-a
      unbind C-b
      set-option -g prefix C-a
      bind-key C-a send-prefix

I've heard that he reason for ctrl + b is because screen uses ctrl + a, which just doesn't make any sense to me. You can nest both tmux and screen and to get to an inner layer you press (if ctrl + a has been mapped) ctrl + a + a - and now your command is sent to the inner tmux/screen.

Defaults matter. It is not feasible to configure this on every machine you touch so one have to remember both the default one and the sane one...

<comment><USER30> I think another reason is because some people use Ctrl+a in bash for jumping to the start of the line.

<comment><USER29> Thanks, that is a good point!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> One of the biggest improvements in my tmux productivity came when I changed my prefix (default Ctrl + b) to backtick (i.e. to `) I am a heavy user of tmux and spend a lot of time switching panes, switching windows, entering visual mode, detatching etc. so this really feels faster.

        # change prefix to backtick
        unbind-key C-b
        set-option -g prefix `
        bind-key   ` send-prefix

<comment><USER7> Backtick is a bit far away, isn't it? I literally have to stretch my left ring finger to hit it, so doing this for each tmux key command does add up I suppose?

I've been using C-z for the prefix for ages. It's conveniently nearly under the default position where my fingers lay and it also masks the mostly useless suspend signal which I seemed to accidentally hit every now and then. (If I _really_ want to suspend my program 'C-z z' will do just fine.)

Switching around using, for example, C-z C-n/C-p is pretty fast to key in. You can keep ctrl down for support and then it reduces down to typing 'zn' / 'zp'. YMMV.

<comment><USER31> Ah you're right, I forgot that the keyboard I use isn't common/standard. Backtick is right above Q for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> OT:

How can I use my Mac's mouse to switch the active window in tmux? I have tried Googling this and the .conf setting everyone says to use doesn't work.

<comment><USER3> Depends on your version so check your docs and man pages, but this ought to work:

        set-option -g mouse on

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Pro-tip: if you are using iTerm2, you can set this as your "Send text as start" and always be in a tmux session:

        tmux attach || tmux new -s main

I also recommend remapping ctrl-b to ctrl-space (set -g prefix C-Space). Easier to hit and as a bonus, ctrl-b will work as expected when connected to a remote tmux session.

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h If you ever use more than one session, I think you'll probably need to change that to `tmux attach -t main`

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Paging mileac: the tmux cockpit (*) is down and my productivity is suffering

[http://cockpit.27ae60.com/](http://cockpit.27ae60.com/) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15432986](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15432986)

</comment><comment><USER35> Another useful source for learning Tmux that helped me a lot is the free videos from Upcase[1]

They even show how to use Tmux with Vim which is my favourite setup

[1] [https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/tmux](https://thoughtbot.com/upcase/tmux)

</comment><comment><USER36> Another alternative is emacs server.

<comment><USER37> I run both.

Emacs's terminal emulator is almost correct but last few times I tried to use it I had trouble with certain curses-based programs.

Also, disconnecting tmux UI (and even restarting X) does not affect the session, and you can reconnect. Unfortunately, I was not able to reproduce it with Emacs for some reason, though it should be possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> What's a good way to handle ssh and tmux, if I'm already in a tmux session in my desktop?

I'm in a tmux session in my desktop. Then I ssh into a server from within tmux. I want to start tmux to be able multiplex and detach from some tasks. What do?

<comment><USER39> Use ctrl+b once to send commands to local Tmux server, twice to send commands to Tmux running on remote machine you SSH'ed in to. I think this can go on, in theory, but I did not test.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> This one is a gem of a thing.

</comment><comment><USER41> What about byobu built on top of tmux? Isn't it more straightforward?

<comment><USER42> I've not used byobu in about a decade, but it has crashed on me in the past. I've never had tmux crash.

The other thing I didn't care w/byobu was that it had a clock in the bottom row. Once a minute my terminal window would light up telling me that something on that tab had changed.

<comment><USER43> Author/maintainer of Byobu here... Tell me more about your "byobu crash". Can you point me to any bug reports in either bugs.launchpad.net/byobu or github.com/dustinkirkland/byobu ? Thanks! @DustinKirkland

<comment><USER42> Hi Dustin, thanks for the response. Unfortunately this was nearly a decade ago on Ubuntu server 10.04, and I'm sure that a lot has changed since then.

If I have the time, though, I'll fire up byobu and see if I can make it happen again. I tend to leave sessions open for many months and it wasn't something which happened on a regular basis, and I never experienced it with bare tmux.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> This is an acceptable tutorial but it could use a bit of editing to make the English more idiomatic. Also, except for the bit on plugins, I don't think it adds to or simplifies the man page.

</comment><comment><USER45> Does anyone have a good setup for debugging? There is voltron, but without tmux it won't work well, and I'd love to see a good layout that I could easily use.

</comment><comment><USER46> What's the fastest way to scroll back through terminal history? Native scrolling doesn't appear to work and you have to annoyingly enter copy mode first?

<comment><USER47> With `set -g mouse on` in ~/.tmux.conf, scrolling via mouse/touchpad works, at least in my setup.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Never understood why tmux had to be different and use ctrl+b when ctrl+a is already standard and much, much better.

<comment><USER49> isn't ctrl+a the BASH default for 'go to the beginning of the line'?

<comment><USER15> It is. If you're using screen, you can press ctrl-a a to send ctrl-a to readline to go to the beginning of the line. ctrl-b will actually move back a single character. Presumably, you could do something like ctrl-b b in tmux to move back one character, but I haven't tried it, so I don't know if that would work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Am I the only one using screen? Couldn't switch to tmux since most of what i need is in screen.

<comment><USER51> Can we do vertical splits in screen without having to install additional plugins? How?

<comment><USER52> Yes. [https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Split](https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Split)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> I happiky use about 1% of Tmuz and and only truly understand half of that. Still super useful.

</comment><comment><USER54> For someone using i3 WM does Tmux offer any benefits?

<comment><USER55> Yes, leaving a session running in the background/remotely though you might get disconnected or what ever. Same as screen.</comment></comment>


Bioengineers turn mouse brains almost completely transparent - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-04/11/clear-brain

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a perfect example of taking a simple idea and making it big:) We always clear our brain sections prior to imaging, it's a common practice, but doing this throughout the whole brain is...well...f'in awesome:) Looking forward to seeing how people use these tools.</comment>


The 5-Minute Linkedin Growth Hack - <AUTHOR> http://www.growhack.com/2014/06/26/the-5-minute-linkedin-growth-hack

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm from GrowHack and submitted this post. As an add on, and even perhaps even disclaimer, I do hope folks use this tactic for good. Email responsibly and send all hate mail to Ankur.

</comment><comment><USER2> You seem to have lost 3 friends between step 1 and step 2.</comment>


Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation (2007) - <AUTHOR> http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html <comment><USER2> > Lack of Double-Blind Studies

"We know there is a placebo effect wherein patients do better when they are told they are receiving a treatment: the patients' expectations play a role in their recovery. To make sure we are studying the effect of the treatment itself and not the patients' expectations, it is better to give all patients the same expectation. So we tell them, for example, "take this pill, it might be experimental drug X or it might be a sugar pill." The double-blind part is important because we don't want the experimenters to subconsciously tip off the subjects as to what group they are in, nor to treat one group differently than the other, nor to analyze the results differently."

one thing that always strikes me about double-blind placebo based studies is that they are often testing a substance with a detectable physiological effect against an inert substance with no detectable physiological effect.

this methodology seems fundamentally flawed. if you want a true test you would need to compare against a placebo that has a similar (or at least detectable) physiological effect but is not expected to produce any efficacious outcome. otherwise the person getting the real drug feels the physiological effect and gets a placebo effect while the person getting the placebo does not.

<comment><USER3> It seems that it would be unethical, for example, to make someone intentionally sick to mimic the side effects of the drug with none of the expected positive results.

<comment><USER4> Yes. Yes it would. But comparing against baby aspirin might be worthwhile. There is some (safe?) effect beyond sugar pills.

Remember, the patients don't know each other, and don't compare symptoms. Hopefully.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> (2007)

Most successful prior posting; [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7598581](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7598581)

</comment><comment><USER6> This is all good info; I'll add that a confidence interval on the effect size[0] is more informative than a p-value. (This is subtly different than a confidence interval on the response in each group, which is discussed in the article: Warning Sign I5: taking p too seriously.)

[0] "It's the effect size, stupid" [https://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002182.htm](https://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00002182.htm)

<comment><USER7> I like this. But...

"As a further example he states that the difference in IQ between holders of the Ph.D. degree and 'typical college freshmen' is comparable to an effect size of 0.8."

Boy, there is a lot to unpack there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I slightly dislike that his opening paragraphs are wrong. The statement "The group with treatment X had significantly less disease (p = 1%)" does not mean "treatment X it will prevent disease." It only means that there were less disease with a significant probability of being true. IOW, the study might be 99% sure it reduces the disease by 5%.

<comment><USER9> I'm guessing English is not your first language. No where does the author make the implication you state, in fact it asserts the contrary.</comment></comment>


A16Z Leads $15.3m Round in Newsletter Publishing Platform Substack (YC W18) - <AUTHOR> https://fortune.com/2019/07/16/andreessen-horowitz-substack/ <comment><USER2> This is still pretty good for new content creators, considering their newsletter does not have to be paid and they pay no fees.

Hopefully there is no minimum charge so that smaller newsletters can charge something like a dollar a month and build a following.</comment>


A Taxonomy of PRISM Possibilities  - <AUTHOR> http://unhandled.com/2013/06/07/a-taxonomy-of-prism-possibilities/

<comment><USER2> "This would allow the companies involved to make narrow claims about not turning over data directly to the government."

Well there you have it. Even claims such as "we don't have any backdoors", if found to be false, they could later say:

"Oh, we didn't think you meant it like _that_ \- but yes, we do provide the government with any information they want from our servers. Why do you ask?"

PR people are very good at spinning stuff like this, and so are the lawyers.</comment>


The World is Socialist - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/c8f0a6dfffab

<comment><USER2> What a skew prospective! I am not considering myself converted to objectivism philosophy (I only saw "Atlas Shrugged" movies), but this "snowpocalypse" is not much of an example against the Ayn Rand's point. The fact that there are people (with equipment) ready to be deployed to plow the streets if needed is an example that there is at least one capable person that thought about such future problematic scenario, developed a strategy, and designed a system to deal with that problem. I challenge one to contemplate about another very real, present world's scenario - Indian cities. Omnipresent garbage and misery (even crap on the streets) and it seems that nobody do much about it, even if all live and "enjoy" the same public environment. That state of affairs may literally exist EVERYWHERE unless out there wouldn't be capable people among us that yes, deserve appreciation. Deserve appreciation starting from just having potential they happen to have (this is a tough one, rarely happens even if people are glad that problem solvers exist), then for their effort of developing that potential, for applying their hard-earned capability on solving problems (including the social ones) and in the end - for helping others to grow and further develop/maintain systems in our world. We happen to see from the Rand's view point the same things very differently.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Not only do we have socialist problems (e.g., snowstorms) and socialist systems (e.g., roads), but we also have socialist opportunities (e.g., [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_KLGw_b...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_KLGw_b2nrUJ:www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/07/1184668/-Future- Politics-The-Automated-Workforce-and-the-Universal-Living- Wage+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us))

</comment><comment><USER3> Which type of socialism? While I agree that Atlas Shrugged is young adult fiction, I think labeling the world as socialist swings the pendulum too far in the other direction. There are balances, minimums, maximums, and extenuating circumstances. The world is too messy for any single ideology.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is just the typical socialist "who will build the roads?" argument.

"snow storms are socialist". Ummm, no.

Socialism (n) "any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods"

What does that have to do with snow?

Ok, let me use that same defunct logic. Making food is capitalism. Without food we would all die. Therefore socialism is evil and capitalism is good.

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes, bad things happen to everyone, what point does it really prove? Her philosophy was nothing about building a paradise for "good" people where nothing bad will ever happen.

</comment><comment><USER6> Rather embarrassingly, Winer clearly didn't bother to read any of Rand's non- fiction. She more than covers the issue of 'who will plow the snow,' as do other Objectivist (free market, and libertarian) books and writings since.

It's amusing that Winer thinks we'd have a problem with snow plowing, meanwhile he uses the private Internet, which is approximately a million times more complex and difficult to maintain than plowing snow. And this isn't even an optimal private Internet, as the government is currently shielding the telecom monopoly system from competition, and it still works extraordinarily well.

We can have a private Internet and Web, that took hundreds of billions worth of private investment, supports a billion users, IP telephony, streaming video, radically advanced massive scale search systems, and it can run at maximum uptime as a system, meanwhile its speeds increase by a factor of 25 to 50 fold every decade..... but the roads! Oh the roads! Such a complex system to solve. The free market could never solve the issue of roads. Oh geez.

Who plows my driveway? I pay someone to do it. The notion that the free market wouldn't solve snow plowing is pure comedy gold. It'll lead to the iPhone, but snow plowing is tricky!

Who would feed the people if the government didn't do it? Oh. Who would build the cars if the government didn't do it? Oh. Who would fly the planes and build the planes if the government didn't do it? Oh. Who would write the software behind Android or iOS if the government didn't do it? Oh. But plowing snow, yeah, that's a really complex problem to solve in a free market. Truly hilarious.

<comment><USER7> It seems to me that opponents of 'Free Market' stuff their fingers into their ears and begin to hum very loudly when they are told that people can organize and contribute to a common goal without being forced to do it.

<comment><USER8> Those opponents of free markets often believe that intentions are the most important factor in achieving results. They reach the conclusion that people who sound kind and articulate will make the world better than well- incentivized, intelligent people would.

<comment><USER7> I have noticed that as well. If you say you are going to help people and make some cursory gesture towards that ends then you are lauded as some sort of selfless hero. Whether or not people are actually better off is seemingly irrelevant. Its just the act of 'wanting to help' that matters.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> tldr: The default state of the world is not to respect meritocracy, irrespective of government.

Creating a true meritocracy requires first cancelling out the anti- meritocratic inclinations of the Universe, with basic healthcare and disaster recovery and such.

(There are also a bunch of collective action problems whose obvious answer is some form of the dread "collectivism").

</comment><comment><USER10> I doubt you'll find many libertarians/objectivists who actually think that there is zero role for government. Of course we need roads serviced and a legal infrastructure to protect people from coercion. Those are things that can only really be done at a government level. Just because she doesn't focus on that in a book of fiction doesn't mean you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

the new internet sales tax is called the "Marketplace Fairness Act", for fucks sake, was that name lifted straight out of Atlas Shrugged? Governments are on the hook for outrageously expensive union pension funds that will cause economic collapse, but Ayn didn't mention snow plows in her book, so we should ignore everything she says about collectivism, unions and government cronyism?!?

what a load of horseshit.

</comment><comment><USER11> Maybe sickness is socialist, but medicine is not...</comment>


Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Facebook - <AUTHOR> http://worldofsu.com/philipsu/goodbye-microsoft-hello-facebook/

<comment><USER2> I had a similar experience to the "Don't take home the sodas" anecdote here. I worked at a place that wasn't profitable and had just had layoffs but one day the normal paper coffee cups were replaced with ones with our logo and some text on them. The first thing I thought about was how somebody spent at least a few hours getting the art together, finding a vendor, ordering and dealing with that, etc. So customized coffee cups were the most important thing that person had to do for probably half a day overall. Not a good sign I think.</comment>


Show HN: Get todos in your code in GitHub Issues - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/izqui/todos

<comment><USER2> Neat little tool.

I've seen some tools in the past that have translated of TODO/FIXME/XXX style comments into issues (or at least some reduced viewing of them), but this is the first project that I've seen integrate itself with git hooks to push out the issues.

One issue that you should fix is removing the .DS_Store from the repo.</comment>


Write a Compiler in Python - The Experiment Begins - <AUTHOR> http://dabeaz.blogspot.com/2012/01/compiler-experiment-begins.html <comment><USER2> PLY is a wonderful toolkit. I used it to write a compiler for ice9 (some made up language used for teaching) that compiled down to JVM bytecode (using Jasmin) for my compilers class.

See the code here: <https://github.com/mdwrigh2/pyice>

<comment><USER3> Different class of thing altogether, but a BASIC compiler targeting the ZX Spectrum implemented with Python/PLY:

[http://www.boriel.com/software/the-zx-basic- compiler/?lang=e...](http://www.boriel.com/software/the-zx-basic- compiler/?lang=en)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As reference, Vidar Hokstad has been writing a series about writing a compiled in Ruby for the past couple of years: <http://www.hokstad.com/compiler>

</comment><comment><USER5> Coincidentally, preparing for my compilers class this semester, I was just wondering if it would be easier to write in Python instead of SML, which the class uses. I was just looking into PLY while googling around. Really cool that Beazley would do this, although for purely selfish reasons I wish he would release the material sooner :p

<comment><USER6> Is he going to release the material? The class (which includes the course notes) cost each student $1000.

I hope he does!

<comment><USER5> The page mentions "This is an experimental course that will probably have some bugs and kinks. It may or may not be related to the plenary talk I'm giving at PyCon'2012 (wink ;-)". So there are hopefully going to be slides at some point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Too bad the schedule for awesome chances like this to almost never seem to fit with the spare time I have. I'm way past the only-kiddy projects phase, yet haven't found anything big (as in a project shared with others) to hack on.</comment>


Why we can't watch live TV online - <AUTHOR> http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-16/tech/live.tv.online_1_online-piracy-online-broadcasts-sports-leagues?_s=PM:TECH

<comment><USER2> For the same reason CNN take three "pages" for their story: They don't understand that the world has changed. Scrub that: They don't understand the world. They really don't.

Here in the UK we have the wonderful BBC. I can watch everything the BBC produces online in real-time and for the following two weeks (or something like that). All radio stations are also available (and retained for weeks). It's brilliant, and I love it.

I don't own a tv -- well, I technically have one, hooked up to a PS3 in the playroom -- but it has no tv abilities. Actually, that's not true either as I can access the BBC's iPlayer via the PS3, but that's not the tv's fault.

The only reason folk can't watch tv online -- presumably in the USA -- is because the "transmitting" stations don't provide the service. That's idiotic.

This is clueless, narrow-minded marketing. But I'm used to that now. I place marketing one below estate agents in the imagination stakes. And they've earned that place due to utter incompetence over the past decade or two.

In the real world, there is no reason why this can't happen. In the real world, it's happening all the time, 24/7. It's happening right now.

<comment><USER3> "Here in the UK we have the wonderful BBC. I can watch everything the BBC produces online in real-time and for the following two weeks"

If I was forced to pay for a television station out of my taxes, like the BBC. It better damn well be available online.

"The only reason folk can't watch tv online -- presumably in the USA -- is because the "transmitting" stations don't provide the service. That's idiotic."

It is getting better. We have things like hulu, which allows you to stream most shows that you would watch on TV.

<comment><USER2> "If I was forced to pay for a television station out of my taxes, like the BBC."

If you don't watch live, then no licence is required.

Minor point, but the licence isn't a tax. It's optional.

<comment><USER3> good point. However, I would say a vast majority of people in the UK have at least one TV in their home.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Heroku Down - Internal server error - Up again - <AUTHOR>

It's a great idea to let people develop Rails apps in the cloud, but Heroku is down at the moment and I can't access my code.
Please let us know when you are back up and running.
UPDATE: It's back up and running. <comment><USER2> Heroku is also still an invite only beta service.</comment>


Silicon Valley Should Join the War on Terrorism by John McCain - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-02-05/silicon-valley-should-join-the-war-on-terrorism <comment><USER2> Legislation making companies force themselves to have backdoors doesn't stop terrorists from using encryption.

</comment><comment><USER3> Congress should join the war on poverty.

<comment><USER4> Every time congress starts a war these days it ends up backfiring.

War in Iraq to stamp out terrorism? More terrorists.

War on drugs? More drugs.

Given that Congress is so good at failing to win a war it's about time we try something new. Congress should start a war on the wealthy.

I bet they succeed only in creating more wealthy people in the process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Government should fix all the braindead policy that guarantees contracts are only awarded to the 'old boy crowd' or new entrants that don't have the skill/talent to do the work.

The DOD outsources nearly everything that requires specialized skill and/or knowledge. Which is fine but the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations) are completely screwed.

18F and the USDS are showing a lot of promise in this domain. But, 'fixing the government' shouldn't be limited only to teams that have been blessed by presidental decree.

\-----

Is this so-called encrypted messaging app that doesn't exist really the issue here.

ISIS doesn't have the talent to build such a thing. What they have is a lot of money and a lot of young guys to run a mass propaganda campaign.

When they're not doing that they're playing video games and communicating over team chat.

Want to hit them where it hurts, block Syria's access to the XBox and PS4 online gaming platforms. Better yet, block FB and Twitter.

<comment><USER6> > ISIS doesn't have the talent to build such a thing.

not sure why you think that. Money would give them access I would think, if direct recruiting fails.

<comment><USER5> Hypothetically, lets say money does solve the problem of developing a secure, encrypted communication.

How would ISIS go about distributing and training hundreds and thousands of grunts to use said app. Assuming most of their force is technically illiterate and/or literally illiterate. And, manages to do so without leaking the information to opposition intel.

For every developer willing to create such a tool for financial incentives there are likely an order of magnitude more grunts who would be willing to leak the information for a cash payout.

Make no mistake. For as much as ISIS loves to preach that their cause is purely ideologically driven, their existence depends on the ability to pay their troops a living wage.

You know what form of communication suffers from none of those issues? What their grunts likely already use? Gaming systems and voice chat. Considering the demographic of their fighting force, that's the first place I'd look.

Don't get me wrong. I respect John McCain for his service. I just think his motivations lately are focused more on policy and less on the war effort. The end goal being, to once again outlaw the non-government sanctioned use of encryption.

<comment><USER7> While you make some good points, I find implausible the argument that the average grunt is too technically/literally illiterate to use a chat app, yet competent enough to use "gaming systems and voice chat".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is one guy I wish would just go away. He seems to be perpetually advocating for war.

<comment><USER9> In addition for wishing that, what actions can regular citizens take to prevent more of them from propagating and mongering for war?

\- Vote for peaceful / isolationism candidates (and talk about this with your friends)

\- Vote for penalties for conflict of interest/corruption related to war (owning stock in weapons companies that sell weapons to wars you legislated for)

\- Eliminate the need for war by making it obsolete, e.g. providing all would- be war-joiners with better options (spend money on libraries, positive media, startups..?)

<comment><USER10> Don't hire anyone with a security-state background.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Spoken like a true autocrat.

</comment><comment><USER6> > This position is ideologically motivated and profit-driven, though not > without merit

They also have a clue what the hell they are talking about.

Politicians should shut the fuck up in the face of experts.

I also don't understand why they think that ISIS and the like would have trouble accessing encryption because the US government says they get to control things now. The technology is freely available.</comment>


Show HN: A profile to automagically extend your network with the right people. - <AUTHOR> https://clusmate.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi everyone. Any feedback is welcome :)</comment>


Rdio and Spotify side-by-side interface comparison - <AUTHOR> http://mortenjust.com/2011/02/20/side-by-side-spotify-and-rdio-for-iphone/

<comment><USER2> That last category is really telling. Successfully integrating your tastes into the user experience seems to elude pretty much all music players that make a go at it (excluding Pandora, which does exclusively that.) I think this is largely because, not only do your tastes not necessarily match those of your friends, but they frequently don't match your own tastes from last week.

So Rdio shows a page of what's in heavy rotation amongst my friends - but it's not accompanied by any sort of indication that I'm likely to enjoy any of these. My suggestion would be to use some of that $17M to buy up like.fm and push _hard_ on recommendations.

</comment><comment><USER3> The thing that bothered me about Spotify is that it seems to want me to type in my entire music collection, and then select individual songs to listen to. It just seems like work.

What I expected before installing was that it would work something like Genius in iTunes, where you give it a starting point and it just starts playing music based on a relatively smart algorithm.

Once one of these music-as-a-service things gets that bit right, I'll be back.

<comment><USER4> MOG does what you're looking for rather nicely - just switch on "MOG Radio" and it provides a Pandora-like station with similar artists.

I liked that but have gravitated to Rdio, which doesn't have that option in its mobile app yet - it's much, much faster (at both search and playback) than any of the other services I used. They recently implemented a Genius function in their (excellent) browser client, so I expect it in their apps soon enough...

<comment><USER2> The mobile app does have the "artist radio" function, but there's still some kinks that need to be worked out of it (goes for desktop and mobile)

There's also "recommendations" which I assume uses the same data to provide 1:1 recommendations for new artists based on your recent listening history.</comment></comment></comment>


Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard Group and creator of the index fund, dies age 89 - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/jack-bogle-founder-of-vanguard-group-and-creator-of-the-index-fund-xxxxxes-at-age-89.html <comment><USER2> RIP! It is a bit weird that cnbc link [1] shows 2018/12/14 in the URL even though he died on 2019-01-16.

[1] - [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/jack-bogle-founder-of- vangua...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/jack-bogle-founder-of-vanguard- group-and-creator-of-the-index-fund-dies-at-age-89.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> That is weird. (And well-spotted.)

I wonder if it's maybe an artifact of a pre-written obituary being in their CMS and someone not pushing the right buttons to change the URL before publishing. (A lot of notable obits are pre-written.)</comment></comment>


Show HN: Nozomi Video Streamer - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/L1AN0/nozomi-video-streamer <comment><AUTHOR> A dead simple personal on demand video streaming service written in Rust.

This project originates from my personal need on playing videos in torrents. I often download videos on my laptop, but my bandwidth is limited. Before I can actually watch the video (and sometimes start from a given start time) I have to wait a long time until the download is finished. I've tried many existing solutions such as torrent streaming, but never satisfied.

I eventually start implementing my own solution: download videos on my VPS with much better network, then view the video through a web server, which can also transcode the video to smaller bitrate when my connection is bad.

I decide to open source this project to see if this can help others, and more importantly, to find other people's suggestions on how to improve.</comment>


Introducing the Tink cryptographic software library - <AUTHOR> https://security.googleblog.com/2018/08/introducing-tink-cryptographic-software.html <comment><USER2> Tink competes with Nacl/libsodium.

Tink is really great and more people should look at it. It's (I think?) the successor to Keyczar, which was one of the first misuse-resistant crypto libraries.

Some ways in which Tink differs from Nacl:

* Its interfaces are in some ways better; for instance, it doesn't punt nonces to the developer (a source of security issues with Nacl software).

* It has a coherent design based on security objectives, so that extensions to it make sense. For instance, instead of exposing random block cipher modes in a low-level interface, Tink maintains a notion of AEAD, streaming AEAD, and deterministic AEAD, and then has interfaces to add primitives that fulfill those objectives.

* Tink is natively (rather than through bindings) portable to Java, C++, and ObjC.

* Tink has a team of cryptographers maintaining it; that team includes Daniel Bleichenbacher, which is crazy and awesome.

Nacl is great, but more people should look at Tink.

<comment><USER3> Notably (and unlike NaCl/libsodium), Tink is _not_ portable to plain C.

<comment><USER4> I hope that stops being a cons someday.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ouch, my employer is named Tink ([https://business.tink.se](https://business.tink.se)). We're a Swedish/European based fintech company offering data-driven banking APIs. This is bad for our SEO... :-)

</comment><comment><USER6> Could/should this be cross-compiled to JS? I've been looking for something recently that lets me encrypt from a command-line tool and decrypt in the browser, preferably in a way that's not too likely I'll f- it up as a non- crypto-expert.

And, yes, I am aware of the common issues with doing crypto in the browser with JS libraries. And I'm aware of SubtleCrypto.

<comment><USER7> If you want to make a JS version, WebAssembly might be a great way to package the code up. WASM is fully supported in nodejs now, and its available in all modern browsers[1]. You'd need to write bindings for the C++ API methods, but once you do that you could throw the result up on npm and it should work in both node and web projects, with no compilation step.

To your library's users the end result will be indistinguishable from a native JS library.

 _Edit:_ I just had a play to see how feasible this would be. Even a stripped, optimized build of tink compiles into a 2.5MB binary. This would be fine from nodejs, but its way too big for a web library. It would need to be heavily cut down to be useful in a browser. It might be easier to simply wrap the modern browser crypto API.

[1] [https://caniuse.com/#feat=wasm](https://caniuse.com/#feat=wasm)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This looks interesting. I like that it doesn't expose nonces when reuse is a vulnerability. That seems like a smart idea. Unfortunately, the C++ implementation doesn't appear to support Windows yet. I'd be interested in using this for a cross-platform app I've been working on but that rules it out.

</comment><comment><USER9> As a non-crypto guy, I find it bit curious that "Hybrid encryption" primitive does not offer authentication. With the talk of being misuse resistant, that seems like bit of a sharp edge still.

<comment><USER2> Different notions of authenticity! Their hybrid encryption still uses an AEAD for the bulk encryption.

<comment><USER10> Also, this limitation is easily worked around.

1\. Use a digital signature.

2\. Encrypt your signed message using Hybrid Encryption.

After your recipient decrypts your message (which, as Thomas notes, has AEAD), they can then verify your signature.

<comment><USER9> I would think you'd generally want to do it the other way around and sign the ciphertext instead.

<comment><USER10> "Just sign this opaque blob"?

Digital signatures aren't in the scope of the cryptographic doom principle. Generally, if you're signing a document, you want it to be really clear that you signed what it says.

<comment><USER9> Crypto is confusing.

<comment><USER10> It is, indeed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> For those who didn't know what AEAD is, it stands for Authenticated Encryption with Associated Data.

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

</comment><comment><USER12> So... another crypto library with way too many choices for the average developer.

How about standardizing (RFC I guess) a single primitive of each type, and a strongly versioned set of serialization formats (including key storage).

That's something a developer can't misuse. Standardizing serialization formats and parsers are critical for developers to use this stuff correctly.

We can't get rid of PKCS, X.509, and PGP and all their "algorithm agility" nonsense and insecurity until _somebody_ with industry clout replaces them with something secure and much simpler.

Google could do this... but instead we get Tink, a "choose your own adventure" just like the monthly alphabet soup produced by the IETF.

If GOOG/MSFT/Mozilla/etc can build and standardize AV1 together they could do the same for crypto. It's way easier.

<comment><USER13> If you don't bend like a willow, you'll break like an oak.

<comment><USER12> No, you simply version the format if required, picking a new (disjoint) primitive set. Algorithm agility has _caused_ many of the security defects in TLS, PGP, and SSH. It has remedied exactly zero flaws that a simpler versioned scheme would not also have addressed.

<comment><USER13> Disjoint versions would be good. Has it ever been tried?

Also - would it have prevented, say, heartbleed?

<comment><USER12> > Disjoint versions would be good. Has it ever been tried?

I believe Signal does this based on the papers I've read; I'm sure many private or lesser-known protocols do as well.

>would it have prevented, say, heart bleed?

Probably, because in a strictly versioned scheme with no options, the buggy DTLS keepalive mechanism _would not even have been in the same library_. OpenSSL's position of "we've got nine of everything including the kitchen sink" was the true cause of Heartbleed. Simpler code is easier to get right, debug, and perhaps formally verify as correct.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Australian draft law requires tech companies to hand over encrypted messages - <AUTHOR> https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/consultations/assistance-and-access-bill-2018 <comment><USER2> In terms of communications provision, it's not that much different to CALEA in the US or equivalents in other countries. The troubling section is in section 317C that defines what a "designated communications provider" and "eligible activities" are.

The worrying items are 3-6 that basically say anyone who provides software/hardware or _develops_ that software/hardware is part of either used for providing communications or "an electronic service" are subject to the notices.

So, are you a software house developing an app? You're providing an electronic service by running the app and its servers? You're liable under this law to assist as is "feasible".

Same if you develop software used by another "electronic service". So, writing some open source software? The library used by another app? You have to assist under one of these notices.

The only get out clause is 317ZG which says that a provider is not required to develop anything that introduces a "systemic" vulnerability. But I'm sure lawyers will have a fun time defining "systemic".

<comment><USER3> > The worrying items are 3-6 that basically say anyone who provides > software/hardware or develops that software/hardware is part of either used > for providing communications or "an electronic service" are subject to the > notices.

This sounds like it would apply to Tor.

I can't imagine Tor is actually the biggest problem though, certainly compared to simple encrypted messaging services with hundreds of millions of users.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe they need to go back to 'old fashioned' law enforcement - i.e. haul in the suspects for questioning, put out media adverts to urge victims to come forward, etc?

The example provided is pretty poor: "Enquiries showed that he was contacting these females and offering them drugs in return for sexual favours." \- so their enquiries showed that and yet the _only_ evidence that could secure a conviction is supposedly on the phone that law enforcement can't unlock? I call BS.

</comment><comment><USER5> _" The Government welcomes your feedback. Submit any comments to email@example.com by 10 September 2018."_

<comment><USER6> I doubt much would come from that. The Department of Home Affairs is run by some pretty dodgy characters (i.e Peter Dutton)...

I plan to send letters to key opposition members and crossbench senators, might have a bit more chance of something coming out of that.

Unfortunately Labor has been in lockstep with the LNP in voting for these kind of acts so far (our slow descent into authoritarianism) but we can always hope...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> It looks like they want to be able to selectively install backdoored software for individual targets. [1] I.e. they could force apple to deliver a patched whatsapp that disables encryption on the device or sends information to a third party.

[1] [https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/consultations/Documents/expla...](https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/consultations/Documents/explanatory- document.pdf) p. 8 and 9

<comment><USER2> They're not allowed to ask for a "systemic" change, which I think is how they're trying to get around the impossibility of an app providing stuff it doesn't have. They can ask/demand that whatsapp delivers an app update that only targets a particular person or persons, with some sort of backdoor, but not one that is a backdoor for _all_ users.

Of course, there's a whole cost thing there as well as whether an overseas corporation is required to co-operate with AU law enforcement.

So theoretically, they could say "Whatsapp, give us a backdoored app. Telstra, push this app to these phones."

Or course, Whatsapp could argue that releasing a backdoored app is creating a "systemic vulnerability" which is specifically carved out of the requirements to co-operate.

<comment><USER8> Explained like that, it does just seem like a really hard to implement wiretap. Not necessarily the worst thing if it's per user with the right warrants etc.

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I'm being nice to them. They'll carefully under-interpret "systemic" to allow for back doors if they can.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Provide your feedback to firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER10> Email is a convenient way to ignore feedback. Handwrite and mail them instead.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder what this means for Atlassian's international clients.

Does the Australian government have unfretted access to any code hosted with Atlassian ?

Maybe if you are a small business in Australia you would not care about it - but big European, Chinese or American clients would definitely not be convinced by any assurances.

The most important thing is that kind of question should not be raised in the first place, the biggest threat is not the Australian govt or Australian rival companies, the biggest threat are rival companies in their own soil that can take advantage of such a backdoor - it could just be as easy as a cash transfer to a low level employee in the Australian govt.

All of these factors just means Australia is not a good place to invest when it comes to cloud infrastructure, data warehousing or intellectual property, that if is leaked could literally destroy your livelihood.

<comment><USER2> While the idea that the laws of math can be revoked in Australia is silly, any company that trades with or sells services to Australians is liable under this proposed law if they are a designated provider.

So Atlassian is no less or more likely to be covered here than any other software house that sells to Australians.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Some of the provisions are rather bizarre in how badly they seem to be drafted, eg:

> What can be done undera computer access warrant?

.... long list, then:

> any other thing reasonably incidental to the above things

So "thing" is now a legal concept and any "thing" that can be done if it happens to go along with the other "things" ...

<comment><USER2> Yes, "thing" is effectively the word they're using to mean "task", "activity", "modification", etc etc. What word would you use instead?

A judge would interpret the word according to standard English usage. The judge would also interpret the words "reasonably incidental" in a... reasonable way.

Law is not code, it gets interpreted by lawyers and judges.

<comment><USER12> Yes, when it comes to the law, if they mean things they should say them. It seems like they have used these generic terms in order to ensure there is zero weight on individual rights and maximum weight on the side of those exercising the power. That is, they really can't be bothered thinking through what powers they actually need and under what circumestances those are warranted, so let's just write "the government can do anything to accomplish the things" and put a story about a child rapist on the front of the legislation. It's lazy, imprecise and offensive to the idea of civil liberties.

<comment><USER2> Of course... this is the government led by an ex-merchant banker that said "Well, the laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that. The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Good luck trying to decrypt them.

<comment><USER14> This is probably a 2 part law. The second part forces them to provide a feasible decryption mechanism.

<comment><USER15> Fortunately, in Australia, mathematical laws are trumped by Australian law, so there will be no pesky mathematical laws about the impossibility of decryption getting in the way!

<comment><USER16> For those who do not know, the above is a quote by our current Prime Minister, who said "The laws of Math are very commendable, but they are not higher than the laws of Australia"

This is the same muppet who claimed that nobody needs more than 25 Mbps of network bandwidth.

<comment><USER17> This is law, so:

[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/security.png](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/security.png)

Except the guy beating you with the wrench (more likely bankrupting and imprisoning you) is doing it with full legal authority, and zero recourse to you (though the Australian police certainly isn't shy about getting in a few shots while they're doing the bankrupting and imprisoning stuff [1], and I seriously doubt that in prisons, where you're totally at their mercy, they behave better).

Parliaments think they're omnipotent, and any company that doesn't want to run the above risk (Just ask Kim Dotcom), has to comply.

Oh and no worries, if the company itself is safe, are you sure all it's employees and family members of those employees are safe from that government too ? [2] "But it can't happen here, our police is better". [3] (is a link to police officers threatening entire families of immigrants, for years, and when they are finally found out, the government protected them from prosecution, instead simply asking them to resign ...)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJWeSh_aKLw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJWeSh_aKLw)

[2] [https://www.meydan.tv/en/site/news/21238/](https://www.meydan.tv/en/site/news/21238/)

[3] [https://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-crime-arrests-the- ins...](https://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-crime-arrests-the-inside-story- of-corruption-in-australian-border-force-20170809-gxsuka.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Added to [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_Australia)

</comment><comment><USER19> This would obviously only work if the encrypted messages can also be decrypted.

And that's the worrying part. As soon as that mechanism exists, all assumption of data safety goes out the window.

<comment><USER2> Which is why the section on systemic vulnerabilities (317GZ) is (IMHO) the most important to get clarified and expanded.

The other area that needs to get clarified is the definition of "designated communications provider" in 317C, particularly those related to software/hardware development and manufacture.

The fact is, this legislation will pass, because both the Liberals and Labor march in lock step on "national security".

So the fight becomes how to limit the scope to ensure that the requirement to "implement or build a systemic weakness or systemic vulnerability" is expanded out to exclude:

a) common security libraries that are shared across operating systems and applications b) secure hardware (HSMs, SEPs, etc) c) protections and procedures required under PCI/DSS, banking, medical, GPDR and equivalent laws d) requests that make it likely that a provider's business will suffer due to loss of trust of the security of the information that a user/customer provides.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> "despite legislative requirements he refused to provide his passcode"

Isn't that disobeying conditions of parole? Why not start there?

</comment><comment><USER21> If you are wondering - The detail of this drafting legislation is found in a PDF that this article links to. It's a long read!

</comment><comment><USER22> This title is editorialized. The actual title of the page is "The Assistance and Access Bill 2018".</comment>


I set up an available-anywhere development environment, and so can you - <AUTHOR> https://briangordon.github.io/2019/12/docker-dev-env.html <comment><USER2> systemd-nspawn is mentioned as a Docker alternative for running an OS... but what about LXD/LXC?

<comment><AUTHOR> LXD looks really neat. The reason I didn't mention it is because I didn't know about it! What's the consensus on how mature/stable it is for real-world use?</comment></comment>


Bring Your Own IP addresses: the secret to Bitly's shortened cloud migration - <AUTHOR> https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/bring-your-own-ip-addresses-the-secret-to-bitlys-shortened-cloud-migration <comment><USER2> Great, so now everybody's BGP tables are going to be littered with /28 CIDR routes into Google cloud. And we wonder why random traffic gets routed through China... I'm not an expert, but this seems like a potential disaster.

</comment><comment><USER3> "started migrating an year ago" hmmm. May be thats why goog.gl was shut down.</comment>