Taplytics (YC W14) Run A/B Tests On iOS Without Waiting For App Store Updates - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/04/yc-backed-taplytics-lets-you-run-ab-tests-on-ios-without-waiting-for-app-store-updates/

<comment><USER2> OK, so now I'm really confused. Previous times Taplytics has come up, it has been asked (the first time by me, the second time by someone else) how this company differs from Apptimize. The second time, the answer came back that the focus was on "ease of use", requiring only a single line of code for setup. This is even mentioned in this TechCrunch article as their key differentiator. However, Apptimize also only requires an almost identical single line of code for setup.

Now, Apptimize additionally documents using a line of code to define a test, but that seems to be only if you choose to use their programmatic API: they also have their own similar visual editor that lets you make these changes, and it even works for Android as well. The one difference on this front seems to be that Taplytics also lets you define goals from the visual editor (Apptimize currently requires a line of code for each goal). This is an important difference to the user (primarily because it means the goals can be defined "on the fly"), yet is frankly a pretty minor difference to the implementation.

To be clear: I mean to say that from the perspective of the people who implement these two products, if you already have the complex visual interface setup to make arbitrary changes to the view hierarchy, detecting a button click is a no-brainer: it isn't a massively different "focus". (Also, I always want to underscore that if you have a different "focus", it needs to be something your competitor wouldn't also claim: I doubt anyone would claim not to focus on "ease of use" ;P).

So, part of the reason that I was curious about these differences is that multiple of my friends either do currently or have in the near past worked for Apptimize (and they have some options or equity or something in that company). When I first saw Taplytics show up on HN, I pasted a link to them, and they seemed to have not heard about this company before: they, like me, learned about it from these recent couple "Show HN" posts that were made.

Today, however, I see that Taplytics is a company backed by Y Combinator, apparently W14. Apptimize is also a company backed by Y Combinator, but S13. Taplytics has a much better website (sorry Apptimize ;P), and has the aforementioned "define goals from visual editor" feature. Apptimize supports Android in addition to iOS. Their pricing is described differently, but actually seems to be based on similar fundamentals (Apptimize is trying to get more money out of larger companies, being a key difference).

My confusion is thereby: if Y Combinator is backing both of these, why are they competitors (I'd almost even argue to the point of being slightly deceptive about benefits), and seemingly somewhat unknown to each other? While there is some overlap, there is probably a lot of stuff that doesn't overlap (if nothing else, Android support and the website): why does Y Combinator have them separate? If Y Combinator were "just" an investor, then I could see it as "hedging bets", but I've been under the impression that Y Combinator is more "hands on" with its companies, which to me makes this seem more awkward.

Of course, I know that in the past, Y Combinator has backed multiple companies in the same overall space. A great example of this is "travel search". However, the tools provided by these companies actually were very different: Hipmunk had a gantt chart and agony calculations, Flightfox was about crowd- optimized pricing optimization, Adioso was about flexible destinations and only really supported leisure travel... these were all very different companies with very different markets and very different interfaces. That is not the case here.

I can see a couple reasons, but I don't really like either of them. 1) Y Combinator wants to aim for multiple buyouts (which seems like a potential conflict of interest with its founders, who might have hoped to be more unique in their space to command a larger end sum). 2) In an uncharted market, it is more important to educate the user that they want this kind of product at all than to want a specific offering, and brand diversity is valuable (but you can simulate that with multiple brands over the same product, the same way that real product companies have always done).

Clearly, however, I don't know much about Y Combinator's internals, while I've invested in a couple companies I don't understand the details of being a VC or an incubator, and I only sort of know what is going on even at Apptimize as I've kind of purposely avoided knowing too much (maybe my read on everything going on there is poor, for example). I thereby would be fascinated if someone who knew more about these kinds of issues, or how this kind of situation plays out at Y Combinator, would be willing to provide some insight into these kinds of competitive incubations.

<comment><USER3> _if Y Combinator is backing both of these, why are they competitors?_

We talk about this in the YC FAQ: [http://ycombinator.com/faq.html](http://ycombinator.com/faq.html)

Companies we fund often end up competing. It's inevitable when you fund companies as early as we do, because even if they had different ideas coming in, they might both pivot onto the same spot. (That happened with Homejoy and Exec for example.) Our policy is simply not to tell the companies in question what the others are doing. So far we haven't had a problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7039509](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7039509)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7134354](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7134354)

</comment><comment><USER4> It will be interesting to see how Apple reacts to this, if at all. I don't believe what they've done is strictly against App Store guidelines, but a change in the functionality of an app after it is reviewed could be cause to pull it from the store. I'm sure this is something Taplytics has considered, I'd be interested to hear their thoughts on this.

<comment><USER5> Apple has been authorizing apps that do this from the beginning. Anything with a Web View can be changed to show content that would not pass the review.

They will continue to do what they have done, if they discover something that they do not approve of, it will get shutdown.

<comment><USER4> Your conclusion is probably correct, but it's misleading to suggest Taplytics is doing the same thing we've always been able to do with web views. They go further than that by allowing teams to change (aspects of) the native code.

<comment><USER5> Changing the logic and UI of an app after it passed review has always been possible, and has been done in the past. Web views was just the simplest way to do it in the past.

Taplytics just turns that into a hosted model that you pay for monthly instead of rolling your own version.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Important to highlight that Taplytics is just 1 (ish) line of code to implement, which makes it incredibly easy to get setup.

I chatted with Cobi about this before, but being able to segment your A/B test based on the install source (paid vs organic) would be seriously cool.

</comment><comment><USER7> Capping the price at $150/mo isn't really a wise decision. If a big customer like MLB wants to use Tapalytics for their iOS app which i assume has millions of MAUs, you will still be forced to charge them $150/month because that is your top most tier and it comes with unlimited MAUs.

In the long run, there is a good chance that a significant portion of your revenue might come from enterprise customers who would be willing to pay you multiples of the $1800 ARR. Adding an enterprise/custom quote as the top most tier is a vey common practice. Looking at the pricing page of similar companies (Kissmetrics, VWO, Optimizely, Mixpanel) might help.

<comment><USER8> A classic case of underpricing your SAAS product. Maybe their pricing is up for revision just like Apptimize did a while back!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't do native development but doesn't this already exist?

<comment><USER10> Yes, there are other similar products that have been around for a few years like Artisan

<comment><USER8> Appiterate (appiterate.com) was around even before Artisan!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Congrats on the press guys! Big fan of the product.</comment>


Ask HN: If banks hash passwords, how can they ask for separate letters? - <AUTHOR> I've been hunting on the interwebs for an answer to this, but my Google-fu is failing me.  I will continue to search, but if someone can point me in the right direction, or let me know the magic words to search for, I'd be grateful.
Banks have your password, but when they verify you online or over the phone they ask for, say, characters 2 and 5.  If the password is one-way hashed, how can they do that?  If the hash is reversible, isn't that dangerous?  And if it's not hashed, move banks.
So assuming they use a one-way hash, how do they do that?
Thanks. <comment><USER2> This a guess, I have no inside information: Generate N random subsets of the password and hash those in addition to the password. Then each time they'll pick a random subset and ask for that. N can be made fairly large and still be trivial to calculate and store

<comment><AUTHOR> That still feels comparatively trivial to extract passwords from that scheme. The subsets are small (otherwise users wouldn't be able to respond) so it's simple to try all combinations of size, say, 3, until you get the right hash. If the database is compromised, the passwords are then easy to reconstruct.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Secret sharing? [https://smartarchitects.co.uk/news/22/67/Update-to- Partial-P...](https://smartarchitects.co.uk/news/22/67/Update-to-Partial- Passwords.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> I've searched through _lots_ of things on secret sharing, and can't find any way to shoe-horn the "name letters 3, 6, and 8" idea into one of them.

Oh. Maybe I can.

Hmm.

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

<comment><AUTHOR> Quoting:

        As the user doesn't supply the whole
        password it cannot be verified against
        a stored digest of the whole password.

It points out that this (partially) protects one from eavesdropping, but it doesn't say how the password can be verified unless the service stores the password in clear, which it admits is inadvisable.

So that doesn't explain how it works, unless you accept that the bank is storing the password in plaintext.

Question still open.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hash each letter?

<comment><USER6> If you hash each letter separately, then for the fist letter you have something like $2a$06$54k.unrkdM4PInCBA9Kx9uTQEa8GZR76dO7xx4puT9m2rhtFioFbm . Can you guess which letter it is?

(spoiler alert)

It's very easy to recover each letter separately using brute force. If your password has 8 letters and for the sake of simplicity let's assume the they are only uppercase normal letter, then the difficulty to guess it is reducer from 26^8=2E11 to 26*8=2E2. (The difference is bigger with a longer password or a bigger alphabet.)</comment></comment>


Artificial Ignorance - <AUTHOR> http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2017/04/29/artificial-ignorance-2/ <comment><USER2> It's nice to say that the jobs where machines are replacing people are jobs people don't want to do anyway, but he doesn't address the worry that the people that get replaced won't be able to find any other job.

It's plausible new jobs will be created due to all the AI, or everyone will get some sort of basic income, but neither outcome is guaranteed, so just dismissing those worries seems very unwise.

<comment><USER3> It doesn't really make sense to talk about jobs being created or destroyed, it makes more sense to talk about labor being made more or less valuable.

While the combination of AI and increasingly efficient mechanical automation certainly makes some labor more valuable, it's hard to see that as labor that is (or can be) as common, in terms of people able to supply it, as is the labor it makes less valuable.</comment></comment>


Launcher wipes entire SSD when uninstalling - <AUTHOR> https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCL-14107 <comment><USER2> OMG they reimplemented the infamous Myth 2 bug.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_II:_Soulblighter#Uninstal...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_II:_Soulblighter#Uninstall_bug)

<comment><USER3> Two other users mentioned that this also happened with Half Life and Phantasy Start.

Makes me wonder if a lot of software has this bug and we only hear about it with the popular products. Also I wonder if something makes games especially prone to this sort of issue.

<comment><USER2> The Myth one was particularly infamous because it'd wipe your entire C or D drive if you installed to root, and because Bungie (doing the right thing) spent nearly a million because they found it literally a day or two after shipping final copies to stores and did a recall. I don't think it actually had any significant field impact.

As far as especially prone, custom installers were popular in the 90s (not even sure the windows MSI framework was there yet for the classic examples) and games get installed in weird places.

Weird stuff gets overlooked in testing. Nobody ever tried installing it somewhere than Program Files is a reasonable guess, saying this as an expert in software quality. Totally plausible an entire org would have that blind spot.

...in the 90s. But anyone involved in old school PC gaming knows these examples and should be planning for them in test. This was a noob mistake at a business level, no lie.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I see this as a failure of what a HN described elsewhere of securing the OS against a user and not apps as well. Ideally all apps would be security principals and appear in ACLs. Then say each file created couldn't be deleted by another app unless it was present in the file ACL. I believe APPX packages on Windows now do this, a new user is created for them.

<comment> em-bee this is what linux package managers do. the package itself doesn't handle deleting files at all, because the package manager, which tracks the files created at install time takes care of it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The original half life release did this too back in the day. It would lead to the entirely of program files being deleted based on a default install.

</comment><comment><USER6> > _If you have installed Minecraft Dungeons in a custom directory, there is a > chance uninstalling Minecraft Dungeons Launcher and /or the game will remove > the entire parent directory and everything in it._

It doesn't erase the entire disk when uninstalling (just the parent directory), however, the bug is still extremely troubling.

<comment><USER7> It would if you installed it right in C: without subfolder. It would definitely was all your games if you installed in your games directory without a subfolder of it's own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A similar thing happened with Phantasy Star Online 2 a while ago [https://kotaku.com/my-feelings-on-pso2-issues-right-now- at-l...](https://kotaku.com/my-feelings-on-pso2-issues-right-now-at-least- they-hav-1250340374)

</comment><comment><USER9> Please use the original title: Launcher wipes entire install location when uninstalling

<comment><AUTHOR> The title was "Launcher wipes entire SSD when uninstalling" when this was posted.

They updated it since then: [https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCL-14107#changehistorydetail...](https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCL-14107#changehistorydetails_1603985)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> While annoying, this doesn't delete system restore info, so you can just rollback the system to 5 minutes before the installation and get back all your stuff.

</comment><comment><USER11> They probably should check those wildcards a bit more thoroughly.

<comment> tim-- This is not a wildcard issue. If you installed Minecraft Launcher in "C:\Program Files", it would delete "C:\Program Files". It would not delete the files the installer created.

<comment><USER12> This kind of issue isnt that uncommon. I accidentally installed a program to my desktop folder one time. And the uninstall just deleted it and all my existing files. Windows didnt like that at all.

<comment><USER13> > Windows had not seen such bullshit before</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Product Hunt Helped Me Grow a List of 12,989,483,288+ Valuable Subscribers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@mattsydeworks/how-product-hunt-helped-me-grow-a-list-of-12-989-483-288-valuable-subscribers-and-generated-220k-4406c175add0

<comment><USER2> This should be required reading for all who buy Zero To One.</comment>


Google Quantumcomputing Breakthrough Brings Blockchain Resistance into Spotlight - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrynpollock/2019/09/24/googles-quantum-computing-breakthrough-brings-blockchain-resistance-into-the-spotlight-again/#645751424504 <comment><USER2> Not a threat in any near future and if it was the global banking system would also be vulnerable. Almost as bad as the SDK article on Bloomberg.</comment>


Here's what I've learned so far dogfighting in the F-35 - <AUTHOR> http://theaviationist.com/2016/03/01/heres-what-ive-learned-so-far-dogfighting-in-the-f-35-a-jsf-pilot-first-hand-account/ <comment><USER2> Is there a website that tracks the rise and fall of headline cliches?

This one was been heavily deployed in 2016:

[https://www.google.com/?#q=Here%E2%80%99s+what+I%E2%80%99ve+...](https://www.google.com/?#q=Here%E2%80%99s+what+I%E2%80%99ve+learned+so+far)</comment>


Iminlikewithyou present their new developers platform - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/1925542?pg=embed&sec=1925542 <comment><USER2> Why did he (and the audience) think the profanity was so funny, were they serving drinks?

Also, he shouldn't sound so surprised when explaining how hard multiplayer network code is - it certainly makes it sound like they are in over their heads as programmers.

Very slick presentation video though, and I'll be checking out the site.

<comment><USER3> I think drinking + charisma.

There was at least one person who didn't think it was funny: <http://is.gd/4dMK> (vw link)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This was done really well. It kind of reminds me of the presentation done with the PS3 game Little Big Planet. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uToBarLr_U>

Charles timing was a bit better than the Sony presentation.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hey that sounds really good, open source gaming platform! Even though I don't play games much, sounds like a lot of people will like it...but....

How are they going to make money???

o.0

<comment><USER6> Who wouldn't want to make money for their great games? Online "casual" web- based games have been extremely hard to monetize, historically. The standard route has been to monetize with a preloader advertisement. Unfortunately, these advertisements have extremely low click-through, and ultimately, do not generate much revenue unless multiple millions of people are playing your game everyday.

We think game developers should make money based around things people actually want. Items.

People love your games. People would love to buy upgrades to your games. We will make it possible for people to buy items that you create for your games - and you make the money.

[http://developers.iminlikewithyou.com/articles/view/advantag...](http://developers.iminlikewithyou.com/articles/view/advantages)

SO it is sketchy and maybe untested but its interesting.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for that!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I love stuff like this. People presenting cool new things but keeping fun about it: we need humor at times like these. (And most other times too, for that matter.)

</comment><comment><USER8> Anyone know how the API compares to Kongregate's?</comment>


Rolls-Royce and Google Cloud attempt to make autonomous ships a reality - <AUTHOR> https://www.rolls-royce.com/media/press-releases/yr-2017/03-10-2017-rr-joins-forces-with-google-cloud-to-help-make-autonomous-ships-a-reality.aspx <comment><USER2> They will fail not because it cannot be done, but no union member will load these ships nor unload them. The real problem is not going to be technical, it will be political.

The only way it could be done now is create non union ports on both ends of the route and never have your ships dock at unionised ports, where they would be blacklisted for ever going to a non unionised port and might even suffer sabotage.

Stevedore unions around the world cooperate with each other and are all corrupt, have rampart theft and use violence to bully members and non members into submission. You seen The Wire?

I worked in the shipping industry. Never again.

<comment><USER3> Isn't the union for loading and unloading different from union for shipping crews? Why'd these two unions cooperate?

<comment><USER2> "Workers of the world, unite!"

You are correct that the stevedore unions are different from the seafarers unions.

The issue is that they cooperate legally or illegally. They also cooperate internationally.

Its the brotherhood above all else.

(and I use the gendered language intentionally because I have never come across a more misogynistic group of people in my life)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Will robot ships be more attractive to pirates? Or can the ships autonomously use lethal force to repel pirates?

What about if they encounter another ship in distress?

Or people in the water in distress?

Who then turn out to be a pirate ruse?

<comment><USER5> > Will robot ships be more attractive to pirates?

I'd guess not. They typically attack ships to ransom the crew. No crew, no ransom. No crew to _threaten_ either, and no user-accessible controls.

> What about if they encounter another ship in distress?

Relay the call. They could potentially carry deployable life rafts, retractable ladders, stocked rescue shelters too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone have an idea of how much the cost of staff is for a container ship?

With crews of ~15-25 per ship and most of the staff coming from low wage countries is it significant?

<comment><USER2> Crews are unionised and paid a lot of money. This would not replace all crew members. You would still need ship engineers to maintain the ship and electrical engineers to monitor and repair refrigeration containers (they will attempt to fix them at sea if they mulfunction). So you would still need a cook to feed them.

So maybe you cut the crew in half, and significantly reduce risk of accidents, piracy, etc.

<comment><USER7> That's probably not possible to cut in half if there are already as little as 15 people.

There should be a requirement for a big ship to have a few people awake and ready at all time. It's gonna take about that much people just to have a 24/7 rotation.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to interpret this coding take home interview reject - <AUTHOR> I recently submitted a take home coding test and got the following reject. Question was to build a simplified tetris game.
" The code works and it's fine as adequate Python, although it doesn't follow Python's style guideline of using underscores in function and variable names. But there's nothing particularly impressive or that stands out as unusually well done, and a long list of things that are messy, awkward, or should be refactored. And there is very little documentation and no high-level explanation of the approach. "
for the first line, This is not a python position(clojure programmer), i used camelcase instead of snakecase.
Wondering if there is anything I can learn from the rest of the feedback.
Trying to see where i am falling short. I double checked my code ( ~ 150 lines) and I don't see anything blatantly wrong/ugly with it. <comment><USER2> The thing about take home interviews is that the code can always be better. No matter how experienced you are, a sufficiently anal retentive person will nitpick it apart.

If you want to play their game, your only choice is to dedicate more and more hours to the project until it is damn near perfect.

Tips:

1-) Always run the code against a linter on strict settings before submitting. PyLint would have helped you.

2-) Always make sure everything is tested, even if it is trivial.

3-) Better to err in the side of too many comments than too few.

4-) Always include a README file with in depth explanation on how to build it, run it and what it does and how to use it.

5-) Set your project up for distribution, this means if you are doing python, include a requirements.txt if you are using external dependencies (Protip: avoid using external dependencies whenever possible)

6-) Use design patterns, whenever possible. Call attention to it in the comments: "Using decorator pattern to blalbalblas"

7-) Include a TODO file with a wishlist of features you would have done but didn't have time to implement (heh).

8-) If possible, get one of your mates to do a code review for you. Make sure your mate is an expert on the language of the project and also make sure you tell him to be as anal retentive as possible.

Does this sound insane to you? Good. Alternatively, you could do what I started doing. Just refuse these kind of interviews. The state of interviewing is partly our fault for putting up with stuff like this.

</comment><comment><USER3> For the last line, it probably means "write more comments".

Python code has usually """docstrings""" at the beginning of each function, that have some special format and support from the IDE. (I'm not sure if they are common in Clojure.)

Perhaps the takeaway is that if they assign you a Python project for a Clojure position, it will be evaluated as a Python project by a Python expert.

(Another takeaway is that a Python project for a Clojure position is a red flag.)

(Another possibility is that your code really need more comments.)

(It is weird that they expect more refactoring. I expect Clojure code to be more refactored than Python code, but perhaps the problem is that my Python code is too bad.)</comment>


Minecraft boss is now in charge of all Xbox game efforts - <AUTHOR> https://venturebeat.com/2018/01/17/microsoft-appoints-minecraft-leader-matt-booty-to-no-2-job-in-games/ <comment><USER2> Minecraft has really grown over the years.</comment>


Ask HN: What would you say to a coworker on their last day at work - <AUTHOR> Given that you hate them to the core. <comment><USER2> You keep it business professional.

3? 4? years down the line - you run into him / her and they've changed (in whatever way) - maybe you have to work together again or choose to work together again.

Ie: never burn a bridge. Unless they killed your cat or dog or sued you - it's not worth it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure but I wouldn't work with them again. Would nope the f*ck out of there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Being civil to people you hate is one of the core competencies of living in society.

<comment><AUTHOR> Profound. Thanks for this. It really helps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bye.

</comment><comment><USER5> see ya around!</comment>


Ask HN: More Censoring Please? - <AUTHOR>

I applaud your removal of all controversial Dropbox threads. It's great to know I have a big brother looking out for me. By the way, could you also please remove any other content that I wish not to see, including YC startup scandals (airbnb, rapgenius, and now dropbox), racism, sexism, income inequality, NSA exploits, and depressed programmers in the top 10% income bracket.
Please just give me the standard topics of YC rhetoric, including "crappy YC startup looking to hire young, exploitable programmer", "why you should quit school to join an accelerator", and "why SV is clearly a meritocracy".
This includes killing, reviving, and then pushing down the rankings of these specific threads which were on the front page, and now not even in the first 3 pages:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7568302
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7568330 <comment><USER2> We didn't touch either of the two posts you linked to—they were flagged to death by users. I actually unkilled them to respond.

As for controversial stories about YC startups, we bend over backwards _not_ to apply the standard HN penalties to them. That was the first thing PG told me about moderating HN and as well as the thing he emphasized most often. (Though I admit that today, I completely forgot that Dropbox was funded by YC.)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's not censorship when a large percentage of the members of a community express that they aren't interested in a particular conversation, and don't think it's appropriate for the community in question.

</comment><comment><USER4> If you don't like it, stop contributing and start your own forum.

<comment><AUTHOR> Or Option #2. Call them out on it and if enough people care, things will change.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Making a bike route of every road in Atlanta - <AUTHOR> http://www.highcube.org/a-single-route-for-every-atlanta-road <comment><USER2> This is really great. I biked every street in the city of St. Louis, but I definitely didn't optimize. For anybody interested, there is a Strava group for people who have done this or who are doing this in their own cities:

[https://www.strava.com/clubs/ride-every- road](https://www.strava.com/clubs/ride-every-road)

We also have a fledgling subreddit:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/rideeveryroad/](https://www.reddit.com/r/rideeveryroad/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Only tangentially related, but I've been living in different parts of the metro Atlanta area for over 20 years and had never heard of most of the areas of town that the article references. I guess people who were born here may be more familiar with those areas.

<comment><USER4> Funny. My grandparents moved into one of those neighborhoods (Peoplestown) ~1920. I remember eating figs and pecans from the trees they planted and nurtured.

It's amazing when you walk those streets — abandoned train tracks, memorials to Black churches burned during the Jim Crow era, artwork long abandoned. For all it's lack of design at least the city still has immense green space.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wrote a Chinese-Postman solver, if anyone is interested: [https://github.com/supermitch/Chinese- Postman](https://github.com/supermitch/Chinese-Postman)

It "absolutely" solve the network, so at the moment couldn't solve a network even remotely that big, but it's a fun little project.

</comment><comment><USER6> Sorry for the self-promotion but my recent related project: [http://bbischof.com/articles/the-route-to-the- top-100/](http://bbischof.com/articles/the-route-to-the-top-100/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey Brian! It's all good...graphing bikers unite!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Really cool. You should check out [https://www.westsidefuturefund.org/](https://www.westsidefuturefund.org/) for and share your story at a meeting.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh cool! Thanks for the tip -- will do!

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> @durkie, do you know of any organizations similar to concrete jungle in other areas? I'd love to participate in something similar. But I live in New England.

</comment><comment><USER9> Did I understood it correclty that nobody drove this 4300 miles but instead it's just a proposal? I'm somewhat disappointed ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet! I just made the route in December

<comment><USER10> Hey durkie, it was pretty cool to open the link and see the route was entered into our site :) I appreciated the photos, hopefully I see a logged ride uploaded for this one day!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Mind if I send you a few suggestions/feature requests? Doing these weird routes has brought up some small things...

<comment><USER10> Absolutely - email@example.com. Perfect timing, we are planning route planner and route show page improvements right now.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Was HN down just mins ago? If yes, why?  - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> For a million reasons. Why would you care? Sites go down all the time.

</comment><comment><USER3> It just went down for a moment for me just now.

</comment><comment><USER4> I experienced that too.</comment>


Tips to display syntax highlighted code in presentations - <AUTHOR> http://david.padilla.cc/posts/10-tips-to-display-syntax-highlighted-code-in-your-presentations

<comment><USER2> If you don't have those tools available, I usually use a graphical text editor and take a screenshot or print to a pdf file.

</comment><comment><USER3> ... if you use Mac.

(article seems reasonable, my comment is on writing like the audience all use macs.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Correct, my bad. I updated it with a couple of tips for non-Mac users.</comment></comment>


NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/TheUpshot/Military-Surplus-Gear <comment><USER2> I was surprised to see a number of mine-resistant vehicles associated with very rural counties in Washington State. Not being completely sure whether a mine-resistant vehicle was a tank or not, I googled the term and came across this article:

[http://news.yahoo.com/as-wars-wind-down--small-town-cops- inh...](http://news.yahoo.com/as-wars-wind-down--small-town-cops-inherit- armored-vehicles-233505138.html)

Choice quote from the article:

"Here's the thing," Shellmyer says. "Washington, Iowa, has 8,000 people. We have an MRAP now. We have a SWAT team. We have [police] dogs, and we have a SWAT team transportation vehicle that's not armored.

The city councilman began to think: "Goodness, this is overkill."

<comment><USER3> I live in Puyallup, Washington and we've received (what I believe to be) an MRAP. (It looks like one, but I've yet to see it outside of the building so I haven't gotten a very good look at it.) It's housed in the police/fire station downtown.

Puyallup is a "city" of just under 40,000. Our crime isn't even too horrible ([http://www.piercecountycrimedata.org/NeighborhoodCrime/index...](http://www.piercecountycrimedata.org/NeighborhoodCrime/index.cfm?fuseaction=CityQuery&SubAction=QueryCityID&ObjectID=16&RequestTimeout=600))

But we have an MRAP. It _might_ be Pierce County's MRAP, housed in our building, but even then compared to the rest of Washington state, Pierce County is pretty tame.

Although, we do rank #9 in the U.S. for meth labs. So there's that. [http://www.kplu.org/post/pierce-county-among-top-10-us- numbe...](http://www.kplu.org/post/pierce-county-among-top-10-us-number-meth- sites)

<comment><USER4> I live in Walla Walla and I don't see our MRAP in the NYT spreadsheet, but here's the article: [http://union-bulletin.com/news/2014/apr/16/walla-walla- swat-...](http://union-bulletin.com/news/2014/apr/16/walla-walla-swat-team- armors/). Absolute madness.

<comment><USER5> Hey, I'm a reporter at the U-B and I was actually talking to the NYT reporter who got that data yesterday. The NYT's request was granted in May 2014, and we got our MRAP in April, so he said it's most likely we were just after the cutoff for the Pentagon's dataset when the request was filled. The mine- resistant vehicles are separate things, as far as I know, because other MRAPs were listed as such on the spreadsheet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Quick question, is the apache license really the most relevant for a dataset? Does that license apply?

I ask only because I'm planning on doing something similar.

<comment><USER7> IANAL, but I'm not actually sure datasets like these CAN be copyrighted. Copyright rewards "original creative expression", (Feist v. Rural Telephone Service) not just effort, and I know things like phone books and other databases aren't protected by copyright. Generally, compilation protection is limited to things like charts and graphs, were the author has actually shown _creative_ input into how the data is presented or displayed.

EDIT: But just to be sure, I would recommend something is well understood and is aimed towards a general usage, such as a Creative Commons license of your choice [http://creativecommons.org/choose/](http://creativecommons.org/choose/)

<comment><USER8> The leading case on this is Feist, a telephone book case. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/499_US_340.htm](http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/499_US_340.htm) As an interesting note, the phone company had been introducing fake listings: "Four of these were fictitious listings that Rural had inserted into its directory to detect copying." For copyright, originality is a constitutional requirement and copyright cannot attach to a bare compilation of known facts. However, "if the compilation author clothes facts with an original collocation of words, he or she may be able to claim a copyright in this written expression."

The court held that "the names, towns, and telephone numbers copied by Feist were not original to Rural and therefore were not protected by the copyright in Rural's combined white and yellow pages directory. As a constitutional matter, copyright protects only those constituent elements of a work that possess more than a de minimis quantum of creativity."

<comment><USER6> I wonder where the de minimis line gets drawn. I suppose it's like pornography, "I know it when I see it" kind of thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Couple of random observations after looking at the data:

1) Looks like a contest where the winners are folks who are able to pull the biggest political strings in DC. It has nothing to do with forces needing anything. This was a free-for-all giveaway. It's all political.

2) In defense of DoD, once you build this crap, it's gotta go somewhere. Maybe some of these MRAPs could only be used for local parades. Local PDs do not need this junk, but the rest of the country doesn't need it either. Better dumping it on Deputy Joe than letting it rot. As long as Joe doesn't start getting delusions of terrorism.

3) A lot of the local rural counties where I live got M16s. I guess that seems useful. The M16 is a fine rifle, and if you could get every one of your cops a proven rifle it sure beats trying to get the poor local governments to pay for them. The cities are a different story: much better connected and with more resources (and ambition?) to screw as much out of the system as possible. The nearest city to me is getting all kinds of idiotic stuff. Do we really need 20 $4k night vision sniper scopes? Perhaps if the city were attacked by protesting vampires such a purchase would be useful. But I guess guys gotta play with their toys.

The distribution alone is not worth ranting about. The problem is what happens once all this junk is distributed. If you own a bear gun, you have a tendency to go out into the woods hunting bears. You also see evidence of bears where others do not. That's the real problem.

<comment><USER10> > Better dumping it on Deputy Joe than letting it rot.

This is a central assumption the DoD/Government has been making, that is turning out to be misguided if not flat-out wrong. The police in this country are not properly trained as to when to deploy this equipment, and when it's deployed, how to use it.

Just as spreading weapons of war to all parts of the middle east hasn't exactly lead to peace there, spreading weapons of war all across America will hardly lead to an orderly society. It seems like if you give men weapons, they itch to use them, or the power it gives them.

<comment><USER11> Yeah,

> As long as Joe doesn't start getting delusions of terrorism.

...seems to be the real problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I can only imagine this is an error, but apparently Brevard County, FL has received at least 61 helicopters... 8 of them worth $18m a piece.

Someone tell me this is misreported? There is no way a county of ~500k people could need 61 helicopters, rght?

<comment><USER13> You don't think they 'actually spend $20k on a hammer, $30k on a toilet seat, do you'[1]? If this is not an error, I think we just found the best justification I've seen for making all budgets/purchases etc. in government publicly available via API, as this and the ones below are amazing finds.

[1] [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/quotes?item=qt1534129](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/quotes?item=qt1534129)

<comment><USER14> Not to excuse it all, because I'm sure there's plenty of waste and fraud, but sometimes militaries/governments need things that are more robust than the seemingly just-as-good civilian alternatives.

Why doesn't Curiosity run on a Dell Inspiron? Why can't the President drive a used Honda Civic? Why can't the drone programs just retrofit toy helicopters?

(Hint: there are good answers to all of these questions.)

I've always found this West Wing clip interesting: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM)

<comment><USER15> As another point, the book Burning Money from the Chairman of Reagan's Committee on Cost Control, J. Peter Grace:

"The Federal government is Burning Money and it is your money. An actual case. One day the US Navy decided to buy a hammer, the kind you buy for $7 at the corner hardware store. To the $7 cost of the hammer, add: $41 to order the hammer and figure out how to use it. $93 to make sure the hammer worked. $102 for "manufacturing overhead. " $37 to make sure there were spare parts for the hammer. $3 for packing the hammer for shipment. $90 for the contractor's general administrative costs. $56 for the finder's fee. $7 for the capital cost of money. The U.S. Navy ended up buying a $7 hammer for $436, and who paid for it? You."

[http://www.paperbackswap.com/Burning-Money-Waste-J-Peter- Gra...](http://www.paperbackswap.com/Burning-Money-Waste-J-Peter- Grace/book/0025449303/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The DOD gives this shit away (to our rural towns and cities) so they can consider it in use and order more from contractors, which gives more cash to the lobbyists and contractors. Rinse and repeat. It's very straightforward.

<comment><USER17> On MRAP front the military is getting rid of them for a good reason. They ordered the initial batch very quickly and ended up several different platforms [0]. None of them fit the bill perfectly and having several variants made logistics and vehicle operations difficult. They then did a real procurement program and ended up purchasing several thousand M-ATVs. The surplus MRAPs went into this law enforcement give away system [1].

0 - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP#MRAP_deployment](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP#MRAP_deployment)

1 - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP#Post- war_reductions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRAP#Post-war_reductions)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's lucky crime rates have dropped so low. You wouldn't want this kind of hardware lying around if there was any chance the wrong king of person could get their hands on it.

It would make a great movie or game premise though.

<comment><USER19> It's called saints row. (Although more of a comical than a dystopian twist, but the latter is certainly hinted at.) One of their primary plotlines is taking down an overmilitarized police force with their own gear.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Yikes:

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

AL,MONTGOMERY,1010-00-691-1382,"LAUNCHER,GRENADE",1,Each,720,2006-04-12

<comment><USER21> There's 84 total grenade launchers in the data set, if you are curious. Florida took twice as many as CA (36 to 18) and the rest of the states with them are under 10. Why Florida needs so many is another question...

Also interestingly, Montgomery got all 9 of AL's grenade launchers, more than Sacramento or LA took.

edit: actually, this data is wrong because I only used the first page, didn't even see the other 3....

<comment><USER22> Why does any police force need a grenade launcher? Unless these are used for tear gas or something.

<comment><USER23> The grenade launchers are M79's, and can be used for tear gas and other non- lethal rounds. See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M79_grenade_launcher#Ammunition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M79_grenade_launcher#Ammunition)

Now about the quantity some PD's ordered... that's a different story.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> One county on the map has ~16k population and 640 military surplus assault rifles. If they're equipped with 30 round magazines, they can shoot everyone in the county without reloading once.

<comment><USER25> No, they couldn't shoot more than a few people before thousands of armed citizens made them stop.

To help clarify things: the city of LA has 10,000 police officers and 1,000,000+ armed citizens.

<comment><USER2> Disorganized pseudo-infantry (i.e. pissed off individuals with guns) will always be inferior to organized paramilitary forces with armor.

<comment><USER25> Not with popular support it's not. For proof that the opposite is actually true see Vietnam/Iraq/Syria/Gaza/Egypt, etc.

<comment><USER26> No, please stop spreading this ignorant nonsense.

Most countries in the Middle East have mandatory military service. If they get invaded by a foreign force, they can raise local militias very quickly from people who not only already own guns, but also have received significant training in their usage _and_ can get organized quickly due to the time they spent in military.

In contrast, most Americans don't know how to hold a gun, much less fire one. And even those who are serious about guns have not actually been part of any military, or even a militia. Frankly, they would get mowed down by any sort of organized force in very quick order.

<comment><USER25> How ignorant can you be not to know that there are 21+ million U.S. military veterans? More (better trained) soldiers than there are males in Iraq.

The claim that Americans don't know how to use guns is in the laughable category.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_co...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country)

<comment><USER27> There are 11.6 million veterans below the age of 65, which is a fair amount of trained soldiers, though that doesn't say anything about sides.

Also, merely counting guns per capita tells you very little as some people have lots of guns. You have ~ 40% of households with a gun and ~ 70% of people between the ages of 15 and 64.

This translates to ~ 80 million people of military age with access to firearms, and assuming that most veterans are in the households that have guns, up to an eighth of them trained to a high standard.

Now this, if it rose up and could be commanded as a single force, would be the largest military in the world, in terms of forces. However the only circumstance that I could see that even partially happening would be in response to an external military invasion.

What is far more likely a scenario if the US becomes unstable is a complicated civil war started by a state attempting to secede, the federal government reacting, then more states getting involved. In that case you never get one big force, just lots of smaller state forces with the military not wanting to get involved at all, but at most trying to act in a peacekeeping role and making sure that the big guns stay locked up.

One thing to keep an eye out for, as I have said elsewhere, is that the military equipment given out is partly going to pro-secessionists in local and state police forces and it may be worth considering that the police in Missouri may not be merely incompetent in the way they are currently reacting to events.

<comment><USER28> I am from the UK, and the fact that lines like, "You have ~ 40% of households with a gun and ~ 70% of people between the ages of 15 and 64" are bandied round so readily is completely terrifying.

<comment><USER29> the Atlantic Ocean is our friend.

<comment><USER25> Sure is. It conveyed many brave Americans over to fight and die rescuing the UK from enslavement. They did it with guns.

<comment><USER27> To be fair, you also helped fund the other side first. - [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworld...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar)

<comment><USER25> Some individual Americans supported Hitler early on. The men that fought and died never did.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Sorted from most greedy to least, wow, look at Florida:

State Amount FL $252,801,365.49 AL $117,321,970.75 TX $93,960,116.66 CA $92,199,594.55 TN $88,036,810.05 GA $74,258,127.54 IL $63,856,929.46 SC $49,446,894.25 MI $43,557,552.29 IN $43,153,872.84 OH $41,066,993.83 KY $38,672,666.63 PR $37,712,132.94 AZ $37,173,754.35 OK $26,113,459.50 NM $25,077,905.94 NY $24,920,353.44 VA $24,257,646.82 NJ $24,075,459.47 WA $23,543,976.61 AR $21,806,380.46 DC $21,741,478.09 LA $20,327,539.50 CO $17,701,285.74 MO $17,481,149.80 NC $17,296,016.90 DE $12,483,178.35 ME $12,048,389.87 MA $11,878,711.88 WI $10,122,693.61 WV $8,970,650.95 MT $8,943,135.43 NH $8,806,115.87 MN $8,580,400.72 CT $7,920,540.33 IA $7,493,026.26 ID $7,491,468.74 MD $7,049,130.61 OR $6,891,336.22 PA $5,942,289.17 NV $5,836,317.88 GU $5,466,524.59 NE $5,430,787.55 RI $4,812,144.16 WY $4,575,149.39 KS $4,009,658.36 ND $3,871,164.59 UT $2,264,747.07 MS $1,791,294.53 SD $1,771,105.98 VT $1,609,630.11 AK $706,554.76 HI $521,054.41 VI $228,504.00

<comment><USER31> That's a meaningless comparison unless you account for population differences. Per capita would be useful to show.

<comment><USER30> Do you really think per capita works in this situation? It's not like your average citizen can pick up a surplus grenade launcher. Breaking down geo- politically would be more useful.

But grabbing per capita values from bjterry and going by party...

Senator Avg per Capita

Democrat $4.14 External (VI, PR, ..) $33.19 Independent $9.07 Republican $7.21

</comment></comment></comment><comment> sr-ix A contributor just uploaded the data in CSV format as well.

</comment><comment><USER32> NPR covered this military surplus program. The most frightening fact was the typical local law enforcement agencies must agree to "use it or lose it" with the acceptance of the gear. This sets up a perverse incentive and encourages local PD to misuse military hardware or forfeit it back to the federal government.

</comment><comment><USER33> This is awesome. Not really sure why they chose to release it as an XLSX document on GitHub, but it'll work!

<comment><USER34> I'd assume it's an XLSX simply because that's the format they received it in from the Defense Department.

<comment><USER35> Looking further at the metadata, the author is "Williams, John A DLA CIV DISPOSITION SERVICES" and the company is "Defense Logistics Agency"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> How long before state police start pointing these back upward? I mean, in some areas it is basically handing military gear to secessionists, which does not seem all that bright. I certainly wouldn't like to be the federal official charged with the job of asking for any of them back.

</comment><comment><USER36> Imported it into Google docs: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AXPtmdbZ6zJph9Nly6_3...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AXPtmdbZ6zJph9Nly6_3TioVKqvaVi39rRCwemkiE88)

(throwaway account)

</comment><comment><USER21> Might just be the parts I looked at, but some of the data is bad. e.g. Repeated orders, orders with 0 cost, but then the cost is calculated into another line, etc.

Also why does the Florida Police (or anyone) need a 800k Mine Resistant Vehicle??

<comment><USER37> From the Article[1]: "The Times is now posting the raw data to GitHub here. With this data, which is being posted as it was received,"

The data they got was bad in general. Their original article[2] also discusses the lack of information out there.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/upshot/data-on-transfer- of...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/upshot/data-on-transfer-of-military- gear-to-police-departments.html?abt=0002&abg=0)

[2] [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to- polic...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/us/war-gear-flows-to-police- departments.html)

<comment><USER21> Ah, I didn't really read the articles, just dove straight into a python interpreter to start checking out the data. I figured it wasn't the Times' fault, but just a warning.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Note that Washington, DC seems to have received 17 military cargo planes despite not having an airport (also shows up on nytimes.com piece). Is it possible that this is a mistake?

</comment><comment><USER39> No matter who was doing the acquiring, the "acquisition costs" of firearms are impressively low. Who buys a military-grade .45 pistol for $60?

<comment><USER40> Those are probably not the actual acquisition costs the government paid. The way the surplussing process works is the people doing the surplussing just make a random guess at the acquisition value if the exact information isn't available. For most things that number isn't readily available to the person filling out the surplus paperwork.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> What's an "extreme mitten" ?

<comment><USER42> Mittens intended for extremely cold weather, like San Francisco in the summer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> I presume this is an obvious leap, but in Ferguson the BBC reporter just commented on the tensions between the Black population and "the security forces".

I used to scoff at the "militarisation of the police" stories on HN. I assume this is the same mental leap everyone else is having?

</comment><comment><USER44> Disappointed but I guess not surprised to see the small number of helicopters, armored vehicles and assault rifles provided to southern border states. Federal government appears happy to distribute heavy weapons anywhere except where they are needed most as evidenced by actual incidents.

<comment><USER45> You realize the Mexican War is over?

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> What in the world do police need parachutes for?

<comment><USER46> Monroe, Kentucky's refrigerator was a steal for only $2,394,800.0

<comment><USER22> Morgue?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Their Github has some other repos w/ data, and a few w/ code (to process the data etc)

</comment><comment><USER48> I see 205 of "Launcher, Grenade" followed by only 1 of "Laundry, Cleaner"

<comment><USER49> As a European which don't follow the subject of US police, my TV habits are not crime dramas, I just have to ask:

WTF are police going to do with grenade launchers?! (Do they have 155 mm artillery too? :-) )

Are those for tear gas? I just don't believe even US gangs are doing Taliban style insurrections or Intifadas?

(Being Swedish with our really open borders for refugees from the Middle East, I should just wait a few years and find out why police need heavy weaponry? :-) :-( )

Edit: Other commenters seem to say (a) These really aren't needed by police, (b) there are lots of surplus weapons from Iraq/Afghanistan. Why aren't those extra weapons just sold/donated to countries which need them? Like most neighbors of Russia, they ought to be starting with big defense investments right now (except for the complete crazies, see Swedish politicians.)

<comment><USER50> >Are those for tear gas?

Almost definitely. There are a variety of less than lethal projectiles that can be fired from a 40mm grenade launcher. Everything from tear gas canisters to rubber projectiles.

Even the most overzealous SWAT team wouldn't use a grenade launcher with real fragmentation grenades in a populated area. Fragmentation grenades kill by producing shrapnel, which is just too indiscriminate for police use.

That being said, I do remember a story about a SWAT team attempting to drop a homemade bomb out of a helicopter, so you can't be 100% sure.

Edit: Found a link to the police helicopter bombing story. The improvised bomb caused a fire that spread to 50 or 60 other houses. [http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/14/us/police-drop-bomb-on- rad...](http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/14/us/police-drop-bomb-on-radicals- home-in-philadelphia.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> AL,CHEROKEE,4930-01-442-9106,"DRUM,HOSE REEL",1,Each,1630.97,2013-06-20

AL,CHEROKEE,5120-00-222-2220,"MALLET,RAWHIDE ",3,Each,50.31,20120518

CA,LOS ANGELES,3530-DS-SEW-ING0,"INDUSTRIAL SEWING MACH, MOBILE TEXTILE",2,Each,0,2014-02-19

Stop this madness.

<comment><USER52> Really? The dataset contains a record of tiny towns receiving MRAPs, but for some reason your biggest concern is LA getting a sewing machine? Why is this a problem?

<comment><USER51> It was sarcastic, I thought that was pretty obvious?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> In .xlsx format.

<comment><USER54> [https://github.com/DataGarage/node-xlsx- json](https://github.com/DataGarage/node-xlsx-json)

Node module to convert xlsx to JSON.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> Where's the D3 vis of it? :D or iPython notebook on it? ;)</comment>


Why You Have to Work for a Startup - <AUTHOR> http://evang.eli.st/blog/2007/4/1/why-you-have-to-work-for-a-startup <comment><USER2> Those who want to work for a startup (that has a great idea), has the aspiration to either make headlines or create history.</comment>


Ask HN: Should I Do an Employee Stock Ownership Plan for My 60 Employees? - <AUTHOR> I would love to help my committed, long term employees become owners in my company. I run a digital agency - with www.coalitiontechnologies.com.<p>What are the pros and cons from my perspective? How about from my employees perspective? <comment><USER2> Don't. If you have managed to get to 60 employees without having a share plan then you don't need one. If you want to share the wealth then just give out cash bonuses.</comment>


Adobe flash's official blog on ipad - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.adobe.com/flashplatform/2010/01/building_ipad_apps.html

<comment><USER2> So in short, Adobe have capitulated trying to push the Flash plugin on the iPhone platform, and instead have decided to at least take a sliver of the application authoring tools market. Surprisingly smart move for them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Am I the only one that's happy with no flash on the iPhone or iPad? After seeing what flash does to the CPU of both Macs and PCs, I definitely don't want flash running on any mobile device. Also, my AT&T "3G" connection is slow enough that loading extra flash would make page loading times even worse.

<comment><USER4> I am not a Flash developer. But with the exception of this past year, I've gone to Flash in the Can conferences and loved viewing what the Flash community has developed. There are some really beautiful works of art, proofs of concept, games, and even user interfaces developed in Flash.

That said, the only true mass market commercial successes involving Flash are solutions for which equivalent alternatives exist or are very very close to existing. HTML5 solves the video dilemma that Flash was a nice, elegant solution for. In 2004 we were stuck in the quagmire of "Click here for QuickTime, here for Windows Media, or here for RealPlayer". It had a nice 5 year run but now an alternative exists.

IMHO, Flex is Adobe's last stand. Until recently AJAX user interfaces have been a complete pain to deal with. For the record, I prefer the HTML/CSS/JS approach, but implementing an interface using any of the existing frameworks save for SproutCore or Cappucino is a completely different experience to what Flash/Flex developers are used to. Once frameworks like SproutCore and Cappucino truly get mass market acceptance in the developer community (e.g., probably in 5 years time when MS comes full circle with ASP.NET implementing a sane implementation of web forms only using the MVC approach) I think Flash will die.

Apple is correct in the same way they were correct about the death of the floppy disk. They're about 5-7 years ahead of the competition and until then you'll have people complaining about the lack of Flash just the same way you had folks complaining that an iMac didn't ship with a floppy drive in the year 2001 (long after Apple ditched it and long after they were appropriate for sharing files).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's beautifully ironic that the biggest push against a proprietary de facto Web standard is coming from a system so proprietary that it can't be forced to support said web standard.

That said, I'm firmly in the camp of those who'd like to watch Flash wither at the vine.

</comment><comment><USER6> Personally I'm fairly certain not having flash on the iPad will hurt flash usage far more then it hurts iPad sales, and I'm very happy about that.

</comment><comment><USER7> I posted a comment to the blog this morning, suggesting that many users don't want Flash because of its poor performance on non-Windows platforms, and mediocre performance on Windows. Unsurprisingly, the comment wasn't approved.

Still, I stand by what I said: show us a Mac Flash plugin that doesn't use ridiculous amounts of CPU, that doesn't drain my laptop's battery or peg a core at 100% just to show a few ads on the page. Show me something that doesn't require browser vendors to work around just to prevent browser crashes, and then maybe, MAYBE, I'll consider Flash on the iPad a good idea.

How Adobe can continue to do such a half-assed job with the Flash player on Mac and Linux, and then act all surprised and indignant when Apple shuts them down, I'll never understand.

Oh, and as for their native app generation – they can compile Flash apps to native code that doesn't run well except on the iPhone 3GS. If they can't make native iPhone apps that are fast enough to use, what makes anyone think they can make a flash plugin that is?

</comment><comment><USER8> I would love to put out a "ipad" like device that is completely flash based. The flash haters would hate it, but the many dev's can easily bring their apps to the device, as well as offer the ability to play thousands of already created games for free, watch millions of videos, and work with the hundreds of flash based web apps.

I'd buy it!

<comment><USER9> The only way such a device could profit in the market would be if it's version of Flash fixed all the performance and battery life problems that are keeping Flash off Apple's mobile devices. If the performance still sucked, then the device could only remain on the market if it was being sold at a loss, which could lead to anti-trust problems for Adobe (forcing their way into the mobile space the same way Microsoft forced their way into the video game console market). If the performance was fixed, then it seems to me that it would be in Adobe's best interest to try to get it on to Apple's mobile devices ASAP lest more open alternatives like HTML5 actually start to catch on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I guess as these applications won't be run embedded in a browser that the Flex code won't be able to interactive with JavaScript - which is a shame. It looks like I will have to use HTML 5 Canvas to get OpenShapes (<http://shap.es/docs>) to work on this platform.

<comment><USER7> If the iPad makes developers stop using Flash, I'll pay any price Steve Jobs asks.</comment></comment>


Everyone Should Set Their Own Salary - <AUTHOR> http://lincolnloop.com/blog/2012/may/31/lincoln-loop-everyone-sets-their-own-salary/#disqus_thread <comment><USER2> _The current standard deviation between our salaries is less than $5 and we've improved our profitablity since implementing this over a year ago._

It sounds more like this policy is to guilt their employees to accept less money (thereby improving profitability) and less about keeping employees happy...

</comment><comment><USER3> This isn't something I'm so nuts about. It's hard to look your coworkers in the eye and say 'I should make more money than you'. Seems like that's a problem there.

OTOH I could see myself saying, "I'm sure I could get $X elsewhere, so I would like to be paid that here. If I'm not paid that here I will likely leave." However, that makes you seem like a bit of a jerk.

<comment><USER4> I agree that it's hard, but I don't think that's the end of the conversation.

Why is it hard? Keep in mind that the results are filtered through a discussion with the boss, so once salaries are public, you're saying " _The boss and I agree that_ I should make more money than you", so there's a shared accountability.

<comment><USER5> so there are two bad guys now

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I figure it'd be easier just to hire everyone at my startup with the same salary. Standard package, same as everyone else: $X/yr, Y options. Need a raise? Whole company gets a raise. Of course, the primary differences between earlier hires and later hires are 1) current company valuation affects the amount you pay for options and 2) vesting dates.

I am not an expert in theses things, but from my perspective this looks fair.

</comment><comment><USER4> _The current standard deviation between our salaries is less than $5_ suggests that everyone is paid about the same, but that would seem unlikely.

I'd be interested in the salary distribution, and what sorts of things are discussed during the reviews- relative ranking (am I more/less productive than Joe?), improvement from last review (am I 10% more productive than six months ago?), company profitability?

</comment><comment><USER7> Standard deviation is only 5 dollars? Sounds like everyone make the same amount of money.</comment>


Amazon will stop selling Nest smart home devices, escalating its war with Google - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-wont-sell-nest-products-from-google-2018-3 <comment><USER2> Dupe: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16506979](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16506979)

<comment><USER3> Thanks! We moved comments there.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to Fight against censorship of Internet? - <AUTHOR> There are large protests in my country currently (Algeria) against presidential elections. However most people's means of contact and sharing is Facebook which is currently blocked nation wide. What are the best tools to bypass this that could easily work for non-tech savy people? <comment><USER2> Secure Scuttlebutt may be useful.

[https://www.scuttlebutt.nz](https://www.scuttlebutt.nz) [https://boingboing.net/2017/04/07/bug-in-tech-for- antipreppe...](https://boingboing.net/2017/04/07/bug-in-tech-for- antipreppers.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Facebook is reachable through the official Onion Service at: [http://facebookcorewwwi.onion/](http://facebookcorewwwi.onion/)

Look into bridges and pluggable transports if vanilla Tor is blocked.</comment>


Ask HN: What do you think will the future of education look like? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Some combination of:

1\. A tinkering mentality a la DIY as educational institutions fail to keep up with accelerating progress; as developing world grows more important on the world stage; and as kids in the affluent world get bored.

2\. Machine learning turning into machine teaching, like Google Now but for retention and discovery, with aspects of Duolingo, Khan Academy, probably with social gamification and sharing ("Billy just learned these basic facts about accounting!")

3\. Digital economy acceleration, probably with blockchain tokens, leading to a huge incentivization of people to produce their own educational material, mentor others, etc. Imagine a bunch of creative people making videos and stuff, in global efficient competition, and being directly rewarded for upvotes/views with tokens, maybe even community-specific tokens with different exchange rates to other communities (see Steemit for a glimpse of this).

</comment><comment><USER3> Pretty much the same as it is right now except more competitive. A degree will be even less valuable but even more necessary as a requirement.

MOOCs will grow more popular but they won't replace traditional education.

</comment><comment><USER4> 1\. No colleges 2\. Videos like Khan Academy 3\. Teachers help students solve problems, not waste their time doing the job of a repeating the same thing over and over. 4\. Teachers will (hopefully) be compensated on their ability to engage with and motivate and connect with their students.

</comment><comment><USER5> This video answers to your question and it is pretty cool:

[https://youtu.be/7vsCAM17O-M](https://youtu.be/7vsCAM17O-M)

</comment><comment><USER6> First question to ask: What will be cheap enough to scale to billions of users? This question is important because the future of education will look like what most people use to get educated, and most people will be in India/China/Africa.

The biggest education providers today are Google/YouTube/Quora/Reddit/Stack Exchange.

I don't think this will change. These things scale, people want to use them, and they seem to work.

[This question is subjective depending on your definition of what education is and what goals it serves]

</comment><comment><USER7> Hands on instruction with good student-teacher ratios for the elite, MOOCs for the poor.

Also, the MOOCs will sell user data and serve ads.

</comment><comment><USER8> students can choose what topic they want to learn and lecturers

</comment><comment><USER9> How far in the future we are talking about?

</comment><comment><USER10> Like Youtube right now + some ways to assess your skills.

</comment><comment><USER11> It will have distributed and virtual aspects.</comment>


Why are entrepreneurs so happy? (infographic) - <AUTHOR> http://contactme-blog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/happy-entrepreneurs_3.png

<comment><AUTHOR> Source: [http://www.contactme.com/blog/trends/why-are- entrepreneurs-h...](http://www.contactme.com/blog/trends/why-are- entrepreneurs-happy/)</comment>


Ask HN: How do you stay motivated when working on a side project - <AUTHOR> This is my constant struggle.
I start building something, I invest myself heavily in it for about one week but after that something breaks and my brain starts telling me that it's not such a great idea anyway, that there's something already on the market that solves this problem and that I should probably move to the next idea. How do you keep yourself motivated and deliver? <comment><USER2> 1\. Base your idea on research. [https://stackingthebricks.com](https://stackingthebricks.com) has lots on this. But basically if instead of "I HAD AN IDEA" your process is "read read read read read WOAH these people have a PROBLEM", you have evidence that your idea is useful to someone. (My audience for my product is programmers. Research led to blog post, which ended up on front page of HN, created another blog post which again made it to front page, and _then_ I started work on product. Made a big difference to long term motivation.)

2\. Have more than one motivation. Sometimes motivations can be contradictory: "learn new technology" is bad motivation to pair with "build a business" because it slows you down with irrelevant details. But "learn how to do content marketing", say, is great paired motivation because it both helps you with feedback loop and means when you're stuck on building you can switch to something else, keep going, and still feel you're getting value out of your work. Longer version, with slightly different focus but same basic idea, here: [https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay- focused/](https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/08/03/stay-focused/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think to stay motivated it's important to validate your believe that it's worth building. Otherwise you'll find doubt creeping in. If you're making something for other people, then you should show other people what you're making, and get them using it early on. I find there's nothing more motivating than other people being interested in what I'm doing, asking for XYZ features, and telling me what they're trying to do with it.

Also, try to work quickly towards a minimum viable product. It helps to have something to show for your effort as early as possible. Until then, all you have is your imagination, which is much easier to be sceptical of.</comment>


As Families Change, Korea's Elderly Are Turning to Suicide  - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/world/asia/in-korea-changes-in-society-and-family-dynamics-drive-rise-in-elderly-suicides.html?pagewanted=all

<comment><USER3> This is a severe abuse of statistics.

 _They are succeeding at alarming rates; the suicides among people 65 or older ballooned to 4,378 in 2010, from 1,161 in 2000._

The are _absolute counts, not rates_. The male 65+ population went up 70% in the same period, and the 75+ subgroup doubled [1]. This explains away much of the increase (c.f. generic statistics in [2]). And at the same time:

 _The number of suicides among other adults and teenagers also surged..._ (no numbers)

Is it even clear the age-normalized suicide rate increased _at all_ among the elderly, relative to the general population? I don't think the journalist checked.

edit: BBC says Korea's general-population suicide "more than doubled" over the same period [3]. So the 65+ suicide rate is almost completely explained by the null hypothesis. The count of 65+ suicides went up by 3.77x; the male 65+ population increased by 1.68x, and the general population suicide rate by >2.0x, which together is a factor of 3.36x. That leaves a <12% increase in [65+ suicide rate]/[general population suicide rate] (I'm still ignoring (rare [2]) female suicides). In a better analysis this might completely disappear. E.g. the 75+ subgroup outgrew the 65+ subgroup and they are much more suicidal [2], but I don't know how much more.

[1] [http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/regi...](http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/region.php?N=%20Results%20&T=10&A=separate&RT=0&Y=2000,2010&R=-1&C=KS)

[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5236508>

[3] <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14784776>

<comment><USER4> Totally correct.

Also, it seemed odd not to compare to suicide rates in other countries - <USER2> it low before and typical now? Or typical before and high now? We can't tell from the article.

There might be substance in the topic, but the numbers presented don't support it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This, by the way, is one of the reasons that the aggregate national suicide rate in Korea (and also in Japan) exceeds the aggregate national suicide rate in the United States. The elderly (persons born before the end of the Korean War, and especially before the end of World War II) in those countries kill themselves at a much higher rate than the same birth cohort in the United States. On the other hand, rates of YOUTH suicide in recent decades have been much more comparable among those countries, and once when I checked in the 1990s, looking up World Health Organisation statistics, the youth suicide rate in the United States was actually higher than that in Japan. So some of the international comparisons in suicide rates have to take a careful look at cohort effects (rates specific to a particular era of birth) to better tease out hypotheses for the causes of differing rates of suicide.

This is an old issue all over the world, including in east Asia, the issue of children growing up and taking care of themselves and their children rather than their elderly parents. A comment on Hacker News (as I recall) recently mentioned the 1953 Japanese movie Tokyo Story (東京物語), which I began watching on a DVD from the public library last night. Yes, even in 1953 in early postwar Japan, families had to adjust to children not necessarily being by the side of their parents as the parents grew old.

<comment><USER6> Seconding Ozu's _Tokyo Story_. You can watch it for free on Hulu today – I assume only in the US – along with the rest of the Criterion Collection: <[http://www.hulu.com/watch/215840>](http://www.hulu.com/watch/215840>).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Certainly, when individuals vote to turn over personal responsibilities to the the government, things will turn out badly in the end. However, the break down of personal responsibilities within families is not the result of economic success. Has the article's author considered their implied message - that if only Koreans had experienced economic failure, then everybody would just happy as pigs in slop? That's absurd, of course, as their northern neighbors provide the perfect example for the comparison. If there is a breakdown in familial responsibilities, it is not likely to be the result of economic success. Many people around the world work not just in a distant city, but in a distant country in order to send the fruits of higher earnings home to family - so it is not reasonable to assume that moving to a different city somehow forces a person to lose their sense of familial responsibility. If such a breakdown is occurring, the explanation for its cause lies somewhere other than economic success.

<comment><USER8> So why don't EU countries have a very high suicide rate, since they have even more pervasive welfare states? [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3134928/pdf/jivr...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3134928/pdf/jivr-03-80.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Your paper shows that some of them do. In all four tables (age/sex subgroups), the top quartile includes France, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland, as well as South Korea. Germany is in the top quartile for females.

<comment><USER8> It's the ones that don't which disprove the hypothesis. Ireland and the UK both have pervasive public health systems, with nursing homes being a more common destination for the aged than living with children, but are only in the second quartile.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Maybe a few centuries from now our major societies will no longer rely on population growth. The consequences of this unsustainable approach won't be pretty. My kid will be expected to financially support at least two retirees via Social Security contributions _and_ pay back a chunk of those borrowed $trillions.

<comment><USER10> Your kid will have to support retirees through the output of his labor; the labor required to support a person is dropping , and soon it can be completely automated. The financial economy is a heuristic to explain the underlying economic conditions, not vice-versa.

<comment><USER9> As labor is automated there will be increasing downward pressure on my kid's wages and job prospects. Harder work will be required to pay the taxes that are increased to make up for the falling wages.

<comment><USER10> As labor is automated, labor share of profits will fall under current arrangements; and the political pressure to change those arrangements will increase.

<comment><USER9> But the political pressure from the wealthy overrides the pressure from the average person. Hence taxes go up as wages fall in response to labor automation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is something I've been thinking about in the good old USA too. Throughout most of history elderly relied on family to take care of them, but modern society often has families spread out over great distances and children not prepared or expecting to have to care for their parents, and with people living longer than ever it becomes much more of a job to care for your parents. Combine that with the fact that pensions are becoming increasingly rare and social security benefits are likely to be cut at some point in the future, and you have the potential for a massive increase in elderly living below the poverty line with no one to care for them.

Even if you prepare and save, that's no guarantee as the recent economic troubles demonstrated, with many people nearing retirement seeing massive decreases in their investments. Not to mention, with the skyrocketing costs of college tuition and wages that have not kept up with inflation, adequately saving for retirement has become increasingly difficult as well.

I'm not sure what's going to happen but I don't see the future as being that promising as we age and quite frankly, I can see a lot of seniors turning to suicide when whatever meager savings they have run out. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks quite bleak...

<comment><USER12> "adequately saving for retirement has become increasingly difficult"

Is that true or is it just a shift in culture where people blow all their money on crap they don't need, disposable convenience, and live a more "up- scale" life style instead of saving for retirement?

I was reading a few blogs about early retirement the other day such as,

[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/06/meet-mr-money- must...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/06/meet-mr-money-mustache/)

The financial situations vary widely but the common theme is they save a lot more of their income % wise than a typical person. The guy that writes the above blog retired at 30. Those are extreme examples but surely if that is possible then retiring after working until 60+ isn't particularly out of reach.

<comment><USER13> Suppose you're going to live until 90. That's 60 years of retirement. Suppose you're given up on the whole materialism treadmill and are willing to live close to the poverty line, say $25000 per year. That still works out to $1.5M. How many people even make $1.5M by the time they're 30, even before taxes? And that's to live more or less in poverty.

<comment><USER14> > ... That still works out to $1.5M. How many people even make $1.5M by the > time they're 30, even before taxes? And that's to live more or less in > poverty.

The above analysis misses something important -- compound interest.

Without compound interest, yes, if you need $1.5 million to retire, then you need $1.5 million in advance. But if you create and then invest your nest egg, the math changes completely.

Consider an average return on investment of 12% per annum. That means if you only need $12,000 per year to live in decent poverty, you only need a nest egg of $100,000. In this scenario, to account for inflation, you must withdraw less than $12K per year and let the nest egg grow faster than inflation can erode it.

But let's say that stock market won't deliver 12% per year -- it hasn't been doing that for a while. Let's say a more realistic return is 8% from various investments. Let's also say we want an income of $50K per year for life. So we need a nest egg of:

        50 / 0.08 = $625K

That doesn't seem too bad, or unrealistic. It requires discipline and a lot of advance planning. But it's entirely practical.

Now back to your original example:

> ... That still works out to $1.5M. How many people even make $1.5M by the > time they're 30, even before taxes? And that's to live more or less in > poverty.

Let's say we have that nest egg -- $1.5M. Assuming an 8% return, what does that give us per year?

1.5M * 0.08 = $120K

And guess what? You aren't under any responsibility to die when your money runs out, because _it isn't going to run out_ \-- at the end of your life, you still have $1.5M in the bank to give to your children.

<comment><USER11> > The above analysis misses something important -- compound interest.

You are making the assumption that getting an 8% return is something that is easy and safe to do. What happens to the people who retire in a year like, say, 2007. Their first year of retirement, expecting to withdrawal $50k to live on and instead watch their $625k dwindle down to $460,000. The next year maybe they get lucky and only lose 2%, minus the $50k they withdrew. Now they're down to around $400k. Ok the market picks up and they get a 3% average the next year but took out another $50k. Now they've got $360k. After a mere 3 years of retirement they've used up half their savings. Even if they manage to get 8% a year for the next 30 years, they now only have $28,000 a year to live on. Whoops.

The assumption that your money won't run out is not a given. This is the reason it's important to have a LARGE nest egg. While $625k might do it if you could invest it at 8%, you can't count on that and the market could quickly leave you living with your children. To really be safe you're going to need significantly more money than you think you will. You also aren't accounting for inflation, which means as you age either you're going to have to cut your expenses ~3% a year or you're going to have to increase your withdrawls ~3% a year.

I don't know what the story is with these retired by 30 people, but I would be willing to bet a fair number of them will find themselves broke and returning to work at some point in their lives.

<comment><USER14> > You are making the assumption that getting an 8% return is something that is > easy and safe to do.

But it is. It's as safe as anything you can name. Or would you prefer a bank savings account, insured against loss, that produces a return of less than 1%?

A bank savings account is safe by one definition, but since it's an example of sanctioned corporate theft, it's not safe at all.

> The assumption that your money won't run out is not a given.

That assumption depends on the wisdom of those who run the accounts. There are any number of ways to prevent eroding the principal, primarily by paying attention to investment growth and inflation.

> I don't know what the story is with these retired by 30 people, but I would > be willing to bet a fair number of them will find themselves broke and > returning to work at some point in their lives.

Well, I happen to be one who successfully retired young. I wrote a best- selling program (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Writer>) in 1980 (wen I was 35), made a bundle, and retired. I sailed solo around the world for four years, had a lot of adventures, and every year I travel to Alaska in my latest boat to photograph grizzly bears. And in constant dollars, I have approximately the same nest egg that I did when I started.

It's simple -- all you need to do is pay attention to your investments and to inflation.

> You also aren't accounting for inflation, which means as you age either > you're going to have to cut your expenses ~3% a year or you're going to have > to increase your withdrawls ~3% a year.

What? No, all you need to do is adjust your withdrawals to account for inflation. That's simple -- it's as simple as multiplying two or three numbers together as in my prior post.

Required nest egg = desired annual income * inflation factor / investment return

Nest egg = $50K * 1.03 / 0.08 = $644K

This could obviously be rearranged to change the expected annual income instead of the size of the nest egg.

And if the rate of inflation changes, you change the inflation factor and recompute _before_ going to the bank.

<comment><USER11> > But it is. It's as safe as anything you can name.

Having $625,000 and hoping for an 8% return to sustain your retirement is not nearly as safe as, say, having $2 million dollars to sustain your retirement.

If you've only got so much money, sure, trying to live off the interest is not a terrible strategy. If we're talking retirement planning (which I thought we were), then planning to live off 8% interest of a minimal amount of savings is NOT a good strategy to shoot for. It is far better to be conservative, plan to have a larger amount of savings and invest in safer options (such as bonds) and plan to have enough money to sustain you for 30 years.

Now of course if it comes time to retire and you only have $500k to make last, you're obviously going to want to take some greater risks with your investments and live as minimally as possible and hope for the best.

This is why I made my initial point, that I can see elderly suicides rising in the future. What's going to happen when the market doesn't go your way and at 80 years old you're out of money and your kids have their own problems? At that point you don't have a lot to look forward to other than living on welfare and watching your health decline...

<comment><USER14> > If you've only got so much money, sure, trying to live off the interest is > not a terrible strategy. If we're talking retirement planning (which I > thought we were), then planning to live off 8% interest of a minimal amount > of savings is NOT a good strategy to shoot for.

Of course it is. It's the most obvious and most reliable strategy to plan for, regardless of how much money you have. Do you suppose Warren Buffett has a cash slush fund stashed away in his mattress for his retirement?

> This is why I made my initial point, that I can see elderly suicides rising > in the future.

That might happen. It might happen because people can't plan their lives very well.

> Now of course if it comes time to retire and you only have $500k to make > last, you're obviously going to want to take some greater risks with your > investments and live as minimally as possible and hope for the best.

How is that a problem, and how does it contradict the idea that one should plan a retirement based on investments?

I think your objection is not to prudent investments but to the unfairness of life. If so, go ahead -- complain about how unfair life is, but in the meantime, save some money for your retirement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> reminds me of a TV ad for Chinese New Year from Petronas, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3NDaZ2p6ug> (see the poster's comment for English translation).

</comment><comment><USER16> Been to Korea 4 times. To work(read slave off by choice), while my visa was business. On whichever weekend I was left alone by my firm I spent it in travelling around, trying things out, meeting people and trying to strike a conversation. Elderly people were extremely polite and courteous and extremely reserved too. Maybe because of the huge language barrier(any language other than Korean has very limited reception in Korea) which is IMHO, though very difficult for me, something South Koreans should be proud of - being self sufficient without English(the colonial hangover) which has crept into social DNA everywhere else.

Yes, the 'family' seems to be non-existent in Korea now, following the western tracks. This assumption is based upon external observation and talking to my Korean guest-house people, some staff who are from India/Pakistan/Nepal(either Korean citizens now or having lived their long), colleagues(friends let's say) who ever opened up on such matters(usually after a few drinks). I can confirm that after a few drinks every society becomes one and social taboos are duly f __ __d off. Most open were(once they are open) Korean females friends I have known their, whether met in office or outside - they talked very animatedly about their parents and how they don't find time for each other and most likely will never find it. They also are worried whether their own state is going to be worse than this. Here's the last line of the article, _"When I see these old people, I see how my own generation will die."_.

One answer was common. Your parents bring you up till you get your job and are on your feet, after that you are on your own. And they(parents) are on their own too!

They usually spend their time in shops alone and sitting alone in those park benches with those stoic faces. A very healthy life style/food makes the matters worse(as in loneliness) as the life expectancy is quite high in SK. Maybe that's a saving grace in India(my country) as families are slowly disappearing here too, and/or turning into dysfunctional arrangements which is not even a distant resemblance of glorious old Indian family.

As for social care - politicians are very corrupt and do surpass even US standards. In US at least even heavyweights get long imprisonments. In Korea they get parliamentary pardon. Nobody cares about national elderly population(besides, just paying bills is hardly they want/need). So, while everyone is busy taking share prices higher and higher and building new things, the last generation - which is no longer a workforce - is left behind in the race; mercilessly abandoned.

<comment><USER17> "without English(the colonial hangover)"

Korea was never colonized by English-speakers, as far as I know.

Japanese, yes.

<comment><USER16> I referred to the main reason behind spread of English. Yes, Korea was never colonized by the English and they don't speak Japanese either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Hmm... welcome to life as an American.</comment>


Massive high school texting scandal results in… sanity - <AUTHOR> https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2015/12/15/massive-high-school-texting-scandal-results-in-sanity/ <comment><USER2> "The fact that sexting is consensual on all sides"

No, it _isn 't_. The whole purpose for laws protecting kids from sexual abuse is that kids can be _too young to formulate consent_ because they don't understand the risks and implications.

<comment><USER3> Consensual in casual sense. Not legal sense. Legally they can't consent (under age of 16) but there are a bunch of caveats and "as long as both are under 18" or "age difference is no greater than 2 years" etc. That muddy the water.

The case is centered around a boyfriend and girlfriend of similar age sending each other nudes. "Sane" people see no issue with children (teens, whichever your preferred term for minors is) exploring their sexuality so long as neither is feeling pressured to do so (read: consent. In the _casual_ sense, not the legal one.)

The very fact that it is legal for them to _fuck each other_ but not legal to _share nude photos_ is the "sanity" approach to the law. Why should A be legal but B be illegal? This is where "intent of the law" is brought into play.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do you wish someone else would build since you don't have the time? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> A way to operate a Discord server and a Discourse instance for a paying membership community - that isn't owned by Patreon. Patreon acquired Memberful, which does this ([https://memberful.com/integrations/](https://memberful.com/integrations/)).

Competing services seem to either be chat-specific (like LaunchPass) or using their own chat and forum web apps.

</comment><comment><USER3> A molecular structure viewer/browser/search plugin for JupyterLab for SDF and SMILES files. It should work as filetype viewer and inline in the notenook. Preferably using RDKit.

I've been wanting that for several years. Never had the time to do it, as it requires a lot more Javascript skills than I have time to learn.

</comment><comment><USER4> I really like the game Slay the Spire and would love people to make online / web version of it (please no mobile).

</comment><comment><USER5> a dwm clone for wayland</comment>