Sequel: A Database Toolkit for Ruby [GitHub] - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/trafficbroker/sequel <comment><USER2> I've used sequel and activerecord extensively--most recently at <http://vodpod.com>, which has, er, non-trivial database requirements.

Hands down, Sequel is the superior library. Arbitrary many-through-many- through-many-... relationships, totally customizable callbacks for association building/caching, trivially easy master/slave and multi-master sharding, infinitely chainable and extensible subsets, powerful grouping and joining support... the list goes on and on. Plus it's bloody _fast_. let's put it this way: it is almost _never_ necessary to drop to raw SQL with Sequel. The only cases in which I've done so have been implemented as Sequel features or plugins within three months. In ActiveRecord, we have to drop to SQL all the time.

Plus, the code is _clean_. Extremely modular, readily extensible; anyone who's poked around in the AR source can tell you what a nightmare it is to figure out what's going on.

Also, Jeremy Evans (the author), and the rest of the community around it, are awesome--check out #sequel on Freenode sometime.

<comment><USER3> I started with AR for Jotbot (my desktop JRuby app), but it had assorted funkiness that made using outside of a gem environment too annoying, so I gave up. (Gem code should not have 'require "rubygems"' littered about. )

I had been using Sequel with Web apps already, and when I needed to add adapter code for the Java H2 DB it was pretty straightforward, plus Jeremy was quite helpful.

Besides, Sequel always felt more like Ruby than AR.

Big props to Jeremy and team for a sweet library.

(Just wish it had a different name. :) )

<comment><USER4> The name is ever so slightly problematic. Google still often thinks that Sequel is mySQL or SQL.

<comment><USER5> Search for _ruby +sequel <your-keywords>_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Official version is here: <http://github.com/jeremyevans/sequel>

Lots of good docs here: <http://sequel.rubyforge.org/>

For anything SQL, Sequel is to me the best of breed library. Blows ActiveRecord away at anything.

I used to like DataMapper when I'm building apps from scratch. But since then I've replaced that with MongoMapper to target MongoDB.

Sequel is still always going to be in my tool box as its great for working with any existing SQL database.

<comment><USER7> yeah that fork is way behind with the original, follow this baby.

<http://github.com/jeremyevans/sequel>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've been using Sequel quite a bit with Sinatra and just Ruby by itself in scripts. The documentation could be a little better (isn't that always true) to keep up with the rapid development, but overall its rather amazing.

I wish there was a good page on the main site about why/how it is different than ActiveRecord. My other friends are always wondering, "Why do you want to use that instead of AR?" and I can't honestly give them a perfectly clear answer. Mainly because it works well for me.

The absolute best part is that Jeremy Evans is amazing in IRC at helping out anyone with issues. I've pasted him huge sections of code that he's helped me out with before. He never treats me like a n00b, or flames someone for asking a question that they themselves may have even asked before. He's really a nice guy and a strong model for how a primary project maintainer/lead can help bring others in.

</comment><comment><USER8> Why is this a link to a fork rather than the original?

<comment><USER9> Original: <http://github.com/jeremyevans/sequel>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Another Sequel user here, very happy.

The only thing I'd like to see would be a more flexible object mapping layer on top of the relational core. Something along the lines of Python's SQLAlchemy.

Sequel::Model is a simple ActiveRecord-style ORM layer (in the sense of Fowler's ActiveRecord pattern) and in a way is very flexible, if you don't mind implementing a bunch of lower-level hooks for certain things.

But sometimes you do want a more heavyweight session-based approach where you have an object model with a bunch of associations, a flexibly-configured mapping of that object model to the database, and an ORM which knows how to take a batch of changes to the object graph and commit them to the database in one transaction.

Still yet to see a tool like this for ruby, but I think sequel could be a good foundation for it.

</comment><comment><USER11> I would like to find some good support for sequel in rails3, as it's happening with datamapper: datamapper's crew seems to be very "active" in the domain of "marketing", taking the rails3 occasion to low (near to zero) the barriers to jump on the boat... is there anything like that for sequel? I would like to try, and that would be a great encouragement... Thanks a lot!

</comment><comment><USER12> Thanks for posting this. I was trying to get through ActiveRecord and DataMapper on non-Rails/Merb/Sinatra ruby programs when I arbitrarily went to HackerNews and saw this: a much simpler solution to what I needed (without using straight up SQL which I find is frustrating to work with and debug).

</comment><comment><USER13> So is "database toolkit" the trendy way to say "object-relational mapper" these days?

I guess what I'm getting at is why should I as a random HN reader care about Sequel as opposed to other ORMs like Hibernate, nHibernate, SQLAlchemy, Storm, Subsonic, or any other ORM in any language? What makes it neat?

</comment><comment><USER14> I've used both Sequel and Active Record. I like Active Record when working with a brand new Rails-ish database, but for working with anything else, Sequel is great. It's much more of a general purpose database library than AR is, which makes it perfect for non-greenfield work.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm liking the syntax but I don't think it has all the goodies that ActiveRecord offers. Though all this SQL stuff doesn't really matter because the future of web-apps are all going to be driven by non-relational databases such as MongoDB. I really do like the Sequel effort,the code is clean.

<comment><USER3> "Though all this SQL stuff doesn't really matter because the future of web- apps are all going to be driven by non-relational databases such as MongoDB"

On what do you base this? While "NoSQL" storage suits some class of applications, where's the evidence that it suits _all_ applications?</comment></comment>


Editor of new tech watchdog site, The Markup, fired - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/business/media/julia-angwin-markup.html <comment><USER2> Apparently she has the "complete confidence and support" of her editorial team:

[https://twitter.com/MarkupReal/status/1120675763374776320](https://twitter.com/MarkupReal/status/1120675763374776320)

> _The editorial team of @team_markup has signed a statement of unequivocal > support for our Editor in Chief, @JuliaAngwin:_

They also tweeted out her letter to Craig Newmark:

[https://twitter.com/MarkupReal/status/1120696439515033601](https://twitter.com/MarkupReal/status/1120696439515033601)</comment>


Warren Buffett's advice 'doesn't work anymore,' robo-advisor CEO says - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/05/warren-buffetts-advice-doesnt-work-anymore-robo-advisor-ceo-says.html <comment><AUTHOR> I just don't get it, if you go the passive investing route to be at par with the market and to save on commissions from "traditional" investments and advisors, why give it back to the so called "robo" advisors and add more risk on top???</comment>


Nokia possibly revealing the successor to N900 on June 21st - <AUTHOR> http://thenokiablog.com/2011/06/14/nokia-market-disrupting-device/

<comment><USER2> N900 is the best phone I've had, great keyboard and camera, full Linux. I have even made Git commits from it. But it is starting to get a bit old. A refresh would be welcome.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> 'Confirmed' by Eldar: <http://twitter.com/#!/eldarmurtazin/status/80949300753989632></comment>


Bug in Facebook login system - <AUTHOR> http://m.indiatimes.com/news/india/bengaluru-teen-gets-10-lakh-rupees-for-finding-a-bug-in-facebook-login-system-251724.html <comment><USER2> I love how global the large company's bug bounty programs are. The reason Facebook is more secure today than it was yesterday is thanks to people from Egypt, Nepal, India, Tunisia, Pakistan, and all over the rest of the world. I feel it really levels the playing field for security researchers.

[https://www.facebook.com/whitehat/thanks/](https://www.facebook.com/whitehat/thanks/)</comment>


"I Sleep Two Hours Per Day" - <AUTHOR> http://www.danceproof.com/2009/12/28/dymaxion-sleep-intro/

<comment><USER2> I've known 3 people who gave this a serious shot. All tried different variations, and all are very bright individuals who recorded their sleep to the hour. One has a family and a business, the other two are extremely bright engineers.

2 eventually gave up on their own, as it was too intense.

1 almost killed themselves when they blacked out driving, then gave up immediately.

<comment><USER3> Interesting point about driving.. Since I'm a driver, I wonder how many 'polyphasic' zombies I encounter out on the road? My dad has always told me that sleep deprivation is a significant cause of car wrecks. I'm sure there's research to support this if you google around.

So basically I hate these people. They should do something else with their free time, instead of endangering others with their zombie-driving.

<comment><USER4> Not many, I'm sure, as it's EXTREMELY hard to maintain polyphasic sleep if your life is anything close to what people call "normal." You can barely go to a movie theater. That said, driving does seem a little reckless, at least until you're absolutely sure you're safe to do so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> When I was younger (college), I really wanted to sleep less. I thought that if I could get by on 6 hours, 4 hours, or 3 hours of sleep, I'd live a better life, and would have more time to get things done.

No more. First, there is a lot of research that most people need 8+ hours of sleep, and that this is determined genetically. As in, not everyone can move to a 4 hour sleep night without side effects.[1]

Second, I'm happier and more productive when I'm well rested. Better 16 good hours a day than 20 bad hours.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/health/research/14sleep.ht...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/health/research/14sleep.html?_r=1) (registration req'd)

<comment><USER6> There's lots of data supporting this, sleep research has gotten big in the last 50 years. I haven't studied the rationale behind the polyphasic sleep system but it sounds like a couple slip-ups and you're hosed, whereas if most people go without much sleep for a few nights they'll be tired but able to rebound with a regular night's sleep. It sounds dangerous to leave yourself constantly on the verge of sleep deprivation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've tried the Uberman three times, failing each time. I don't recommend the Uberman to anyone. In a population where almost everyone does it, it'd be great, but for most people now it's just not possible. The world is run by monophasic sleepers. I'll be interested if this guy succeeds.

I've done the 3-hour core sleep with three 20-minute naps variant of the Everyman, and that lasted (fairly well) for a little over a month. But even as flexible as that was, between school and other activities I just couldn't manage to do all my naps on time, and I had to give it up.

I started the 4.5-hour core sleep with two 20-minute naps variant of the Everyman a couple days ago, since this coming semester I can actually accommodate the naps. I sleep from 2am to 6:30am, with naps at 12:30pm and 6:30pm. I think it's fairly hard to fail this one, and the adjustment period isn't so bad. My monophasic schedule (when school's in) is 4-8 hour sleeps (average 6) with 12+ hour recharges on the weekends, and I'm sick of that.

</comment><comment><USER8> He just started yesterday. Someone repost this in a month. From what I've heard, most people don't make it very far.

</comment><comment><USER9> <http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/10/polyphasic-sleep/>

<comment><USER10> Note that he quit the next year:

[http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/polyphasic-sleep- th...](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/04/polyphasic-sleep-the-return- to-monophasic/)

I thought it might have affected him mentally, but from his writing he already believed reality is subjective when he started.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> HN is not here for you to post your blogspam. Please stop.

(this and also <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1019785> which has even less relevance to HN readers).

edit: I'm not objecting to self-linking at all, or indeed to the meaninglessness of the article being based on intentions rather than results.

I'm objecting to the simultaneous posting of this with 'The real meaning of Christmas: seeing through the bullshit' (at the link mentioned above) from the same author, who has 0 comments to their credit. Posting multiple stories at once is spammy, and happens a lot on the new page.

<comment><USER12> It's pretty well established that it's fine to submit your own articles to HN, provided they meet the standard HN criteria for story submission. The fact that this is less than an hour old and nearly at the top of the front page would seem to indicate that people find it interesting.

EDIT: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=129291>

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I heard Buckminister Fuller tried something similar. He recounted he had gained more energy out of his reduced sleep cycles. But I wondered why he didn't keep the practice to his death, if that was indeed the case.

<comment><USER14> What I read Fuller did was simply catnap whenever he felt the urge. I also heard he never slept regularly again after starting this. I worked for an architect who spent a summer at Black Mountain, he said Fuller would just lie down and take a nap anywhere, even in the middle of giving a lecture (which I think was an exaggeration, being active, even just lecturing, is the best way I know of to stay awake and alert).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm a pretty light sleeper. I can usually only get one decent night of sleep a week. Might as well spend it being up and doing stuff.

</comment><comment><USER16> I wonder if something like WakeMate would be beneficial in polyphasic sleep, or are you not asleep long enough?</comment>


Art.sy, a collection of the world's greatest art - <AUTHOR> http://art.sy/

<comment><USER2> (really) nice site + curation, but what's the target audience? it seems like it's going to be too high priced / limited numbers for mass market sales? do you display prices to registered users? if not, how do you expect to filter large amounts of queries (i'm confused about the balance between wide audience and price / quality)? is the best way to see this as a portal to established (commercial) galleries (with a few "big" exhibits thrown in to keep it looking good)? if so, how do you plan to attract return visitors?

i know i asked similar questions here before, so apologies if this is to the same team. also, from that discussion, are you worried about people's reluctance to buy before seeing "for real"? maybe location filtering would be useful?

(finally, maybe just me, but i was (am?) confused by your use of "collection" and whether that meant creating on-line "favourites" or actually owning a piece of art).

oh, and this seems to be aimed at the us market, but op is italian

EDIT - the nyt link from cvursache answers much of this (i hadn't realise this was related to the art genome project)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the feedback. Our goal is to make all the world's art freely accessible and so in the short-term we are more focused on building our database and the Art Genome Project than a particular audience. In the long- term we intend Art.sy to be a tool for collectors to more easily discover new artists and galleries, and more easily purchase art. This commercial activity will ensure that Art.sy remains free for the 99.9% of people out there who will never buy art, but don't currently have access to it, particularly lower income and rural demographics who live outside of major city centers.

The collection feature is just for saving your favorites. Although expect some major upgrades to that soon.

Also, I wouldn't be a good founder if I didn't mention that we are looking for interaction + visual designers (we believe in bringing both together), software engineers, and art world professionals:

art.sy/jobs

We're also really into open-source. You can check out our projects here: <http://artsy.github.com/open-source/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm a huge fan of art.sy. Even though I'll never be able to afford most of the art on the site, it is a great way to discover new artists. I also adore the design, they did a fantastic job of making it minimal but still modern (it's tiny stuff like the transition that happens when you click Browse). I like how this flat design aesthetic is evolving. Art.sy's design could be called "Metro", I suppose, but it looks nothing like Microsoft's designs.

If you're looking for JavaScript or Clojure engineers, I'm interested.

<comment><USER5> We are: <http://art.sy/job/developer>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting site, but I found it hard to get in to a groove of stuff I found interesting.

The introduction to the site might work better if it followed a model like netflix where they always show new users some very popular stuff in different genres at the start so they can see the value of it.

That holds true for any content website, lead with your best foot to get engagement, and then lead people down the garden paths to see the obscura.

</comment><comment><USER7> I love these guys. @dblockdotorg was nice enough to let me, my wife, and my CTO come check out General Assembly and their space while I was in New York earlier this year. Their code seems solid, I've happened upon stuff @dblock wrote when looking for solutions to something (grape-on-rack, some mongoid bits), and in general can't say enough nice things about this company. Congrats to them.

<comment><USER8> Thanks so much for the kind words :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Congrats, you have a great site. Do you intend to add social features like a follow button not only for artists but also for collectors?

I believe it helped a lot <http://theartstack.com/> getting users.

</comment><comment><USER10> How are the Artists/pieces chosen?

<comment><USER11> The Art Genome Project blog explains how the artists/pieces are chosen <http://theartgenomeproject.tumblr.com> .

There's also a nice article on the NYTimes about how art.sy works: [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/arts/design/artsy-is- mappi...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/arts/design/artsy-is-mapping-the- world-of-art-on-the-web.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Great execution. I love how the site pops up from the bottom on the landing page and you can use it right away, that's an awesome idea for any kind of demo. I might just steal it for my own projects!

<comment><USER8> There's a blog post on 3d transforms here: [http://artsy.github.com/blog/2012/10/18/so-you-want-to- do-a-...](http://artsy.github.com/blog/2012/10/18/so-you-want-to-do-a- css3-3d-transform/)

There's also an awesome open-source project by a fellow NY dev here: <https://github.com/hakimel/meny> that accomplishes the same thing (we didn't use it because it's frame-based).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Urgh, that's the most gratuitous and ugly use of openGL I've seen so far.

</comment><comment><USER14> Nice talk From Art'sy Director, Matt Israel, at DataGotham: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9X3_8te4hs>

</comment><comment><USER15> The "take me to artsy anyway" on the unsupported browser screen doesn't work. Just goes to the same unsupported browser page.

<comment><USER8> We set a cookie when you click that and don't redirect to the error when that happens. So two questions: 1) do you have cookies enabled 2) what's your browser?

Feel free to e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com with this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Invitations available here <http://art.sy/fp5i3l>

</comment><comment><USER17> Seems to be completely broken on FF 16

<comment><USER8> Can you please drop a note to support[at]art.sy with what you see?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> But it supports Syrian dictator. See

[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/foreigners/2012/08/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/foreigners/2012/08/art_sy_s_syrian_domain_name_could_the_company_be_violating_u_s_sanctions_.html)</comment>


Are We Kingmakers Or Prognosticators? - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/24/are-we-kingmakers-or-prognosticators/

<comment><USER2> Navel gazers? or egomaniacs? pretentious arseholes? or gormless twats?

Or all of the above?

For god's sake, what is this site and why the hell does it get articles posted to HN so often? Technology isn't interesting unless you're interested in technology - trying to stir up interest in the industry by constantly waffling on about the peripheral bullshit that is part of any business as if it's some kind of unique experience for the 'tech sphere' is just utter bullshit.

It's embarassing to our industry that development is turning into a geek verion of E! or some bullshit.</comment>


AWS Training and Certification Portal - happy-go-lucky https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-aws-training-and-certification-portal/ <comment><AUTHOR> The AWS solutions architects legit and well-respected. Also among the highest paying. Can't really fake your way throug either, plus the test is cheap to take.

<comment><USER2> Are the exams all online? How do they know it's "me"?

If they can successfully do this it's interesting because Amazon must have a great interest in ensuring there are enough competent people to make best use of AWS to avoid a choke-point where AWS wants to expand but the shortage of talent raises costs.

<comment><USER3> You have to go to a testing center and show two forms of ID before you are allowed to take the test. You are also monitored during the test and cannot bring anything into the room. They even require you to turn in the scratch paper and pencils they give you after the test is over.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would like to add that almost all jobs related to AWS cert require some knowledge of coding/scripting, or rather programming. If you think you can break into a lucrative career simply by getting AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate, you will probably be disappointed.

It is definitely a good path but you need a tech related degree or proof that you can code in python/golang/etc etc before someone will off you a position.

<comment><USER5> You'd be suprised to find how many people become architect just having some certifications and I have worked with a few they are horrible.

When I interview people for DevOps job I don't weigh in whether the candidate has a cert or not. I have worked with people with and without cert. Getting a cert is like graduting from school. Many people don't remember 90% of the things they learned by going to lecture, they only learn 10% of the totoal knwoledge and those 10% are the practical skills they gained from working on a project.

Bottom line is: if you have a cert I respecr it but I expect expert answers. What I care about for the most part is the candidate's ability to brainstorm and explain his or her thought. as far as software engineering skill it is nonetheless crucial (know testing etc) but a collague who can't explain system design thoroughly is harder to work with.

I am not self-flattering but I don't have any certs yet I am capable of what an AWS architect can do. I just need more challenging projects (do things at bigger scale).

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> [https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions- arc...](https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-solutions-architect- associate/)

Quote from Forbes - Tech FEB 21, 2016 @ 01:02 PM 163,469 15 Top Paying IT Certifications In 2016: AWS Certified Solutions Architect Leads At $125K

</comment><comment><USER6> How useful are these certifications anyway? I am an Electrical Engineer and have a deep interest and passion for computing. I work on various domains (desktop apps, web apps, etc)

I am planning to shift to a career in application development. Will such a certification allow me to get a leg in the industry?

<comment><USER7> It's a signal. One of, hopefully, many. Personally, and I speak as someone who interviews many people each year, I tend to care more about projects you developed than your certifications. That said, it all adds up. So I'm not saying don't obtain such certifications. I'm saying, obtain demonstratable experience (e.g., through projects in your spare time) and don't count on certifications alone. The key should be gaining experience and adding several positive signals to your resume. For example, an active github account, open source contributions, cutting edge languages or technologies mentioned on the resume, interesting projects, a blog on the subject of programming, and yes AWS certifications, are all good signals.

<comment><USER4> I definitely don't mean to put you on the spot but have you seen much applicants over 30, or 40 year mark?

<comment><USER7> These days, I tend to interview candidates for two type of positions:

\- interns/early career developers;

\- data scientists.

Due to the junior nature of the developer positions, we rarely see anyone apply who is not fresh out of college or still enrolled.

For the data scientist positions, however, the average applicant is older and I have both interviewed and hired people in their 30s and 40s.

I believe that ageism is one of the most prominent "isms" in tech, so I try to do my part to prevent its continuation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'd prefer someone who has implemented and supported apps that use AWS daily to actually do work than someone who passed a cert test. That said, a candidate having both that experience and the cert might be a little better.

</comment><comment><USER9> Is this the modern CCNA/CCNP/CCIE Cisco Certs? Anyone have those? How did it help/impact you?

<comment><USER10> I had a CCNA, it helped me zero (maybe hurt me in the long run).

In my experience interviewers for software engineering positions at large companies view certifications as a negative signal.

<comment><USER11> >view certifications as a negative signal

I wonder why that is; maybe because they associate certs with IT-specialists vs developers?

Although now that many companies are going "devops", maybe IT certs in addition to a development background could be a positive signal.

<comment><USER12> It's not just that they are associated with people that can't code. Though that is definitely part of it.

It's mostly that they are associated with a style of building systems that is considered antiquated, expensive and closed minded.

This stems from a few things but I imagine the VC* (VMWare) and CISSP are probably the 2 that have contributed most to this mindset. CCN* (Cisco) could also be considered a problem but less so.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: EmberScript - Ember.js Infused JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://emberscript.com

<comment><USER2> The idea is intriguing. What if we think about tying a language to a library rather than the other way around? Lisp and Forth both had the idea that you should be able to build your language around the needs of your application, rather than the other way around, and this kind of source compilation feels like the extension of the idea.

(Yes, we could always do the same thing, and often have, but not in web- world.)

<comment><USER3> The web is a really weird platform for this though: There are SO many places the lower level language (the one you're translating to) has to properly handle, that DSLs feel like a big risk to many people

I'm personally looking forward to stuff like "CoffeScript, a 5 year retrospective" etc, to show how safe all that stuff ended up being long term

<comment><AUTHOR> Can you elaborate on some places where "low-level" javascript is needed?

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately, no I can't. I don't know where the frameworks break in 2013. Been off the web for too long.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is interesting, but tying a language to a particular (version of) a specific framework strikes me as a bad idea.

If the aim is to bake in syntactic sugar for different constructs within Ember that are awkward in plain CoffeeScript (and there are a few), wouldn't creating a CoffeeScript version of sweet.js[1] not be a better idea (I have no idea if such a thing exists already)?

[1] <http://sweetjs.org/>

<comment><USER5> I have been contributing to the strange cousin of the macro which is the notion of inline DSL fragment. <https://github.com/ngn/coffee-subscript> In essence you get latex looking (\dsl) syntax to enter what ever DSL (which is just a standard node module). So this could be something as simple as an annotation style approach in which you consume the next chunk of coffee-script and simply wrap it - or something more involved like an entirely different language (this originally stemmed from the desire to have inline APL ala <https://github.com/ngn/apl> \- which provides \apl and \apl.fn respectively).

<http://github.com/shaunxcode/jsedn> and <http://github.com/shaunxcode/swedn> also work currently. Right now they are naive e.g they just emit a call to parse at runtime, when I get the time they will actually be more clever and, well, actually compile at compile time hah.

Recently I have been toying with adding type annotations so I can easily port a code base to typescript but have them be entirely ignored by coffee.

One side note is that we have discussed adding support for sweetjs as right now these are definitely DSL hooks and not hygenic macros. In fact I would go so far as to call these toothless macros e.g. it is up to you to chew the food (parse) and swallow it (emit valid js).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I love the CoffeeScriptRedux project and this is a perfect little application of it. It's very easy to pick up once you know CoffeeScript and I love the idea of stylizing your developer tools to fit a framework as rightfully opinionated as Ember.</comment>


Show HN: FaaStRuby 0.2 released – feedback appreciated - <AUTHOR> Hey all,
I just put out a new release. Would you spare a couple minutes to try and give some feedback?
If you already have the gem installed, you will have to update it: gem update faastruby
Tutorial => https://faastruby.io/tutorial.html
Top 3 Highlights
- No more fiddling with git. - Functions are packaged, deployed and managed individually. - TESTS! Functions can have tests and they can be configured to run before each deploy, aborting if it fails.
Thanks in advance! <comment><USER2> ...but what on earth is it?

The post says nothing about what it is.

The linked page says nothing about what it is.

I work full time in the Ruby ecosystem and I have no idea what your project is.

How can people forget to say _what their project is_ at all?

<comment><USER3> Sounds like I'm in the minority that saw the name and assumed right away it was FaaS (Functions as a Service) for Ruby? (Though to be sure, a project will live or die based on the quality of the documentation)

<comment><USER2> What does the 't' stand for, though? I thought it was fast-ruby to start with [https://github.com/JuanitoFatas/fast- ruby](https://github.com/JuanitoFatas/fast-ruby).

<comment><USER3> I assumed it was just put in there to be clever :-)

<comment><USER3> Looking at the website it almost looks like FaaS + Ruby

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Sorry guys, my bad!

FaaStRuby is a fast, lightweight and scalable serverless platform built for Ruby developers.

I will add that to the tutorial page as well.

</comment><comment><USER4> Is this some kind of serverless host for ruby?

I agree you need a single line that express what this is. "Zeit Now, but for ruby / rails!" or something like that

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, this is a serverless platform for Ruby. I will work on that pitch!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> For those wondering what this is, it's Ruby Functions as a service. Setup is Heroku-esque in ease of setup. This is a great service!</comment>


Installable home screen web apps in Chrome Beta for Android - <AUTHOR> https://developers.google.com/chrome/mobile/docs/installtohomescreen

<comment><USER2> It works pretty good. You can test it with my app : [http://hn.premii.com/](http://hn.premii.com/) \- HN Web client for mobile.

* Compare to Safari Add to homescreen, chrome remembers where you were last when you reopen the app. On ios, it will start the app again. Also, chrome opens _blank target links in a browser instead of opening in the web app.

Warning: Don't uninstall the web app using tap+hold - uninstall. It will uninstall chrome beta. Just do tap+hold - remove.

<comment><USER3> Uninstalling chrome beta is a bug. I'll get that raised.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This just completely removed the need for the GitHub native app, as the responsiveness of the mobile site is way better than the native app anyways.

</comment><comment><USER5> this is terrific. i'm baffled as to why google, msft, amzn, samsung and other device makers are not pushing harder to advance html5 and web apps as a way to attract more devs and eventually loosen apple's stranglehold on the app economy.

why not offer direct access to mobile hardware and user information (e.g., mic, photos, contacts) through the device's native browser? they could mimic security restrictions of native apps and only permit access upon explicit approval (e.g., tap here to let site X access your camera and contacts). obviously, they can't wait for html5 standards, and would need to act on their own. but at least this would attract devs who want a web stack instead of forcing them to use the device's native language and the slower app approval process.

i'm not suggesting this will end apple's hegemony; it won't. devs will always build first for the platform where they can earn the highest ROI, which is usually the one with the most (profitable) users. yet minimizing barriers for devs to build, release, and test on a new platform would attract more devs and at least force apple's hand at maintaining web parity on ios devices.

are these companies afraid of undermining their own app stores? are mobile devices too slow still?

smart people run these companies. html5 is making some inroads, but there must be a reason why apple competitors are not pursuing this route more aggressively.

<comment><USER6>
      - "this is terrific. i'm baffled as to why google, msft, amzn, samsung and other device makers are not pushing harder to advance html5 and web apps as a way to attract more devs and eventually loosen apple's stranglehold on the app economy."

Which is kind of a stupid thing to say since the Iphone does exactly that since its first version ,you can install webapps on your home screen and run them fullscreen, even before allowing developpers to build native apps.

Developpers ASKED for native apps on the iphone.

Anyway , do you really think that all the brands you cited dont want to be exactly where Apple is ? they are not interested in "sharing" the app economy. They want all of it and destroy the competition,just like Apple.

      - "yet minimizing barriers for devs to build, release, and test on a new platform would attract more devs and at least force apple's hand at maintaining web parity on ios devices."

It's like the TESSEL stuff all over again.

phone / embedded apps must have an higher engineering standard than desktop apps , because they run on limited hardware,with limited processing power and battery. if your iphone app takes to much memory the system will kill it , and rightfully so.

And mobile OS dont work the same way.

You want to program for the least common denominator ? that's what webapps are for, but I dont want a webapp to access my contacts.

<comment><USER7> Once they launched the App Store they started doing things like not allowing new performance features (javascript JITing) into webapps. ( they've since fixed it: [http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/06/ios-5-brings-nitro- spee...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/06/ios-5-brings-nitro-speed-to- home-screen-web-apps/) )

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> So, what's a good list of webapps that work well from the homescreen? I know about things like Facebook and forecast.io, but I'd love to know about more. The less apps (that rely on a network connection to be useful) that I have to download and keep updated the better!

 _Edit_ : Oh, reading the doc more closely, it looks like webapps have to manually support this with a head tag. That's a bit unfortunate.

<comment><USER9> they also support the apple tags, but that's going to be deprecated

\----

Chrome will also allow Web Apps to launch in "App mode" if they embed a meta tag using the "apple-mobile-web-app-capable" name. Chrome will stop supporting this usage in an upcoming release. Chrome currently shows a deprecation warning in the Developer Tools' console log when it detects a page with only the "apple-mobile-web-app-capable" meta tag. The warning appears as follows:

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> There are a lot of web sites that are far better than any native-app. I've never found an app better for sports scores than ESPN.com, for example. Facebook is another great candidate. I'd love to sandbox that puppy in a Chrome frame. This is great to hear.

<comment><USER11> "Facebook"

Didn't Mark Zuckerberg make news when he admitted that going HTML5 was a mistake...& promptly reversed course by opting for native on both iOS and Android ? As far I can remember, HTML5 Webview facebook on iOS was horrible.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's not exactly what pkulak is referring to. I think they mean simply using facebook.com in browser on mobile is a better experience compared to the native app. I agree with that, especially with the "give us access to everything" permissions the Facebook android app has.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> FINALLY

I use web apps on my smartphones pretty much entirely. It's why I can use my BlackBerry, my Android 4.3 phone, and my Nokia N9 -- swapping between them is perfectly fine as I don't rely on any apps that need native code for the most part.

Android had the worst experience. Add a home screen icon with Chrome and get a tiny bookmark icon (a step back from the original Browser which used apple- touch-icon). Finally it is on par with iOS and I can't wait to see what they do with OS integration :D

</comment><comment><USER13> I'm wondering what the benefit is of opening these apps in full screen, without any browser capabilities? Why not just allow users the option to run any browser tab in full-screen, and separately allow adding web shortcuts in the home screen that open in browser.

These 'home screen web apps' will just complicate things for the average user, since now users will get a different UI depending on whether they are visiting the site from a browser, or using the same site from the home screen.

</comment><comment><USER14> That's cool, but what about PNaCl? If somehow I could run native code on Chrome/Android - all nicely within a secure sandbox without having to deal with Java/IDE/Emulator/SDK/Versioning hell wouldn't that be great?!

</comment><comment><USER15> > How can I detect if the app is running as an installed app? >> You can't, > directly.

Couldn't you compare the window size to the screen size using JS?

</comment><comment><USER9> Can't wait for chrome packaged apps on Android

\----

any good example sites of the OP?

</comment><comment><USER16> How does this work with intents?

<comment><USER6> It doesnt , it's basically a fullscreen browser tab.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Hope Apple will change it's policy and allow this for chrome on iOS (i guess not :-/)

<comment><USER18> Don't really see the need when this exact functionality down to the last detail has been a part of iOS Safari since iPhone OS 1.0.</comment></comment>


Excerpts From the Diary of an [iTunes] App Store Reviewer - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2009/05/diary_of_an_app_store_reviewer

<comment><USER2> Daring Fireball is one of those sweet little gems on the internet. Six months of pain was turned into tears of laughter, hilarious post.

I stopped whining about the review process a few months ago once it was very clear how broken things are. I was loosing hair on stuff we just couldn't control, now we just accept it and set an expectation for our clients. Speaking of, there's certainly an opportunity to be found where issues like this cause problems. Big companies looking for a quick in to leverage the store will pay a premium for expertise and publishing knowledge. :)

</comment><comment><USER3> I thought the part about the iPhone image in the app was hilarious, but the scary thing is that apple actually has a patent on a rectangle with a rectangle and two circles inside it...

"[T]he design of a portable and handheld digital electronic media device comprised of a rectangular casing displaying circular and rectangular shapes therein arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner."

<http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2008/05/apple-trademark/>

<comment><USER4> trademark != patent

<comment><USER5> Indeed, and there is further difference between "trade mark" and "trade dress" even though you can technically call the latter the former.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Who are the _actual_ App Store reviewers, and why haven't they leaked anything? They must be reading all these complaints!

<comment><USER7> The reviewers are probably outsourced in India: they just follow a flowchart procedure using Apple's automatic testing tools, and have absolutely no idea that someone on the Internet cares so much about the results that they report back to Cupertino.

<comment><USER8> Don't be so arrogant as to think that Indians don't follow what is going on around the Internet.

<comment><USER9> Well, avinashv, have you every actually _met_ an Indian? No? I thought not.

<comment><USER10> I know people named Avi that are assuredly Indian. Goodjob being presumptuous.

<comment><USER11> To be fair, Avi is a Jewish name, and I haven't met many Indian Jews... Assumptions, even when assuming something about someones assumption are bad :P

<comment><USER12> "Avi is a Jewish name, and I haven't met many Indian Jews."

there _is_ a small Indian jew community. Over the years, most of them have emigrated to Israel but I think there are a few left.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_India>

<comment><USER11> I'd like to repeat my comment in replying to @madair:

 _I never said there weren't Indian Jews. Just that I haven't met many of them. There's is a difference in the two statements._

<comment><USER12> "like to repeat my comment in replying to @madair:"

Oh I was just adding an interesting link, not disputing/challenging your positon.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> What a riot! I love the ending about rejecting the app because the rectangle is not recognizable as an iphone. I'm reading this while at work and can hardly keep my laughter in!

</comment><comment><USER5> Beautiful. Perfect. Almost Machievellian. I laughed, I snorted, I won't tell you what else.</comment>


Ask HN: Getting into Node.js - <AUTHOR>

Hey Guys,
I'm really trying to get into node.js.
Right now I'm predominantly a rails dev and using JQuery for front end fun.
I've taken classes in javascript/java/c++ etc. but I'm pretty rusty with languages I havent used in forever.
I'm really trying to use node.js with rails apps I'll be creating - any suggestions where I should start?
Thanks! <comment><USER2> Like anything, I'd suggest thinking of something that is a bit past "trivial" but working on something you need. For a lot of Node.JS projects, that typically means doing something realtime-comminicatively, that typically wouldn't scale in times gone by.

NowJS is a good starting point too. <http://nowjs.com/>

I started by creating a "server" for quartz composer, wherein I'd connect a TCP socket to Node, then I'd tell the composition when an XML file had updated, which would trigger the composition to reload the xml.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have done the same. I got started by installing it on my VPS and writing code.

</comment><comment><USER4> try this here: <http://mongly.com></comment>


Want the best latte? Ask a real ghost in New York. - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/fa325881321b

<comment><USER2> I can already get this experience as I walk through Little Italy, when restaurateurs try to lure me in with "specials". Unfortunately, the loudest most assertive people are the ones usually offering the worst meal for my money. Yelp's use of crowd sourcing and aggregation was the solution, not the problem.

There will have to be an algorithm that decides whose voice should be heard, in which case, maybe they can use a reputation system to make sure I'm not being gamed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sorry but if you're standing in the middle of a bustling city filled with cars, bikes and pedestrians moving with determination, the last thing you should do is transport yourself somewhere else with different sounds that mask the current ones. Not to mention how annoying it would be to have some guy standing in the middle of the sidewalk so he can hear about the magical time a 'ghost' saw Wallace Stevens carry a pair of socks out of Macy's.

</comment><comment><USER4> Almost 100% OT:

I will visit NYC with my wife next month. It's my 12th or so time, but her FIRST!

I would love to give her an experience like this, with a real person walking us through Brooklyn, East Village, etc. What should I do to make it happen?

</comment><comment><USER5> Seems ripe for geurilla advertisement.</comment>


A new mechatronic system Tactile Display to recognize patterns - <AUTHOR> A pdf in Arabic and English (at the bottom) <comment><AUTHOR> Photos: [https://imgur.com/a/9L9dRol](https://imgur.com/a/9L9dRol) Here is the text of the PDF:

This research aims to study and design a mechatronic system capable of rendering images through a touchable surface to help the blind to read and understand these images. This system uses mechanical and electronic techniques and integrated software to convert the gray image to a three \- dimensional surface. The mechanical mechanisms used with the control systems have been studied to reach the design that is capable of transferring the fixed images to the mechanical system with the possibility of forming surfaces with suitable accuracy . The gray levels in the stationary images were represented as a mathematical variable that changes on the Z axis in terms of Cartesian coordinates where zero is considered black, and the maximum value expresses th e white and gray levels within the linear area of these two points The " Afr o ge " image processing library was used w ith the C # programming language to build an interface for analysis and communication with the Arduino controllers, which acted as an intermed iary to link the image data and the mechanical device (tactile display ) to display images for the blind. Finally all designed systems (mechanical, electronic and software) have been tested after they have been successfully designed . Training of a group of blind people was conducted to test the system on several samples of images of different forms and the system has demonstrated its ability to transmit multiple types of information. Key Words : Tactile Display , A ctive touch , Blind , S alient graphics , Linear actuator Tishreen University Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department of Mechatronics Design and study of mechatronic system for assisting blind people to recognize patterns "This project submitted to the department of Mechatronics engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirement of the msc degree in Mechatronics engineering" Prepared By: Eng. Tareq Khalas Supervised By: Dr. Iyad Hatem 2018

</comment><comment><USER2> That's very cool. Could you upload a video of it in action?</comment>


Principality of Hutt River - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River

<comment><USER2> Interesting hack: _" Casley styled himself His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt to take advantage of the British Treason Act 1495; that a self-proclaimed monarch could not be guilty of any offence against the rightful ruler, and that anyone who interfered with that monarch's duties could be charged with treason"_

<comment><USER3> The _Treason Act_ of 1495 was extensively modified before 1788 (when Australian law forked from British law). Furthermore, every State and Territory has extensive legislation repealing ancient laws such as these. Sometimes you find Acts that just repeal old laws (usually Imperial Repeal or similar), or the old laws are repealed as part of the some other Act (eg various criminal codes, property legislation etc).

Reading a history book doesn't make you a lawyer.

<comment><USER3> Replying to self because I'm past the edit deadline.

Calling this a "hack" is silly.

If I said I'd defeated Microsoft by discovering a backdoor into MULTICS I'd be correctly laughed off HN. The claim above is analogous.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> See also: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Whangamomona](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Whangamomona)

</comment><comment><USER5> I've been to Hutt River Province. No one is going to invade that country any time soon. There are no spoils to be had.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's not an independent nation within Australia's borders. It's a bit of showmanship to turn a few bucks on merchandising.

<comment><USER6> The story of the bureaucratic cat-and-mouse, legal escalation and especially the part where PHR _declares war on Australia_ cracks me up every time.

The PHR doesn't pay taxes to the ATO; that seems like quite an achievement for a micronation. I think it genuinely qualifies as more than just "a bit of showmanship".

I'd like to believe that the reason they're left alone is not just because of the legal hassle, but because someone in the Australian government had a sense of humour.

<comment><USER3> > _The PHR doesn 't pay taxes to the ATO_

I can't find a source for this other than claims made by the promoters. The ATO clearly consider Hutt River to be a scam[1].

Sending income tax returns of the form "I earned $0" doesn't mean you've "won". It just means you've committed a Commonwealth crime by lying on your tax form.

Plus they pay GST anyhow.

[1] [http://www.ato.gov.au/atp/content.aspx?doc=/content/62019.ht...](http://www.ato.gov.au/atp/content.aspx?doc=/content/62019.htm)

<comment><USER6> You're right, the the references to PHR residents being classed as "non residents of Australia for tax purposes" are derived from assertions made by... the PHR.

On the other hand, it really does seem like the government are happy to leave them alone as long as people don't try to "take the piss" and turn it into wide-scale tax avoidance scheme.

<comment><USER3> If it ever spread, I imagine the ATO would crush it like the fist of an angry god. They have enormous powers of investigation, assessment and judgement.

Plus it's passed into folk legend. It'd be bad politics to stamp on it. I imagine that they're waiting for the owners to die or sell up and they'll collect their pound of flesh from the estate.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Photo of plane crashing in NY.  - <AUTHOR> http://scobleizer.com/2009/01/15/plane-crash-in-nyc-captured-on-real-time-web/#comment-2004872 Sorry. I fixed it. <comment><USER2> Why have you called this "Video of plane crashing" when there appears to be no video of a plane crashing?

</comment><comment><USER3> where is the video of the plane landing in the river?</comment>


Ask HN: Looking to start freelancing - <AUTHOR> So unfortunately the web development company I was working for downsized and laid me off. It had nothing to do with my performance, I'm a competent developer and hard-worker. Currently, I think freelancing may be a good route to try.
My questions regarding this are pretty straight forward.
1) I know I'm lacking a portfolio. This seems to be a chicken before the egg situation. How should I build a portfolio? Should I just make websites with no business behind them? How can I monetize an SAAS in a short time? I even struggle to think of an idea of a service to offer and get slightly discouraged to look out there and see almost every service covered.
2) How to market. I know freelancing is mostly about the hustle. But all the sites I look into either have people willing to work for $3-$8/hour or require a "professional" certification process requiring a portfolio as well as an interview and selection process. How can I compete and win the gig?
3) Time. I have a severance but it will run out eventually. I have savings but in all actuality how long would it take to build a service that brings in say, $100,000 yearly? That seems like a lot to ask for, but self-employment taxes are insane and living in America isn't cheap.
Any help you guys can offer would be great. I love the discussions here and am a regular reader. I also love software development and I never have had a day where I woke up and didn't want to do my job. I have a true drive and passion for this and I would regret every day if I was forced to leave it behind.
Thanks for your answers in advance. <comment><USER2> I'm in the same situation. I have started on a SaaS that will be profitable next year, but as it's education based, I won't be able to monitize until July. My job is ending in June... so I have to figure something out in the meantime. I'd love to start building a portfolio, but don't know where to start.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've read a couple answers on here regarding the situation, but they were all from ~3-5 years ago. The landscape has probably changed quite a bit since then. I feel the market is over-saturated and clients outsourcing to ultra-low bids is a real hurdle. Every freelance site has thousands of these bids. Can be discouraging at the least. Fingers crossed!</comment></comment>


Obama Administration shutting down all California Medical Marijuana - <AUTHOR> http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/10/feds-order-all-calif-medical-marijuana-outlets-to-close/1

<comment><USER2> Video From 2008 below: He makes a distinction between medical marijuana usage and mum and pops shops selling marijuana. It all sounds consistent with this action right up until the end where he said he would leave this to the states and they should be concentrating on violent crimes! then it becomes contradictory.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvUziSfMwAw&feature=relmf...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvUziSfMwAw&feature=relmfu)

</comment><comment><USER3> Title is misleading; only 16 dispensaries are thus far targeted, and many of them were operating illegally to begin with. Also, according to one lawyer, this sort of thing happened before, and mostly is the government trying to solve problems for the cost of a stamp.</comment>


How much innate knowledge can the genome encode? - <AUTHOR> http://www.wiringthebrain.com/2020/01/how-much-innate-knowledge-can-genome.html <comment><USER2> I think the article sort of misses the real effect of genome on "innate" knowledge.

There's a new soon to be hot (I predict) topic in AI/ML called inductive bias. It turns out that the way your neural net is structured, i.e. the overall shape and the way the neurons are connected, can strongly bias which information the neural net tends to learn, and how quickly. To the point that there was a paper (can't find it now) where IIRC the authors were able to develop an algorithm which creates neural nets which can solve basic problems with little to no training. Point being, you don't need to encode, say, the image of a nipple and the action of suckling in DNA to create innate suckling knowledge - you simply need to structure the brain such that it is biased to perform and learn certain sequences of behaviors.

I think this may be the origin of much if not all innate knowledge and I believe that research in AI/ML will lead to better understanding of human (and animal) cognition.

<comment><USER3> eh... Information theory wise, at best you can say you've compressed the knowledge to the action to the steps required to construct the geometry. But you've still encoded it on some level. So there is an information-theoretical limit that is still worth thinking about. I think they kind of miss the boat on their discussion of Shannon. You've encoded the structure, and the actual behavior then arises from actually running the network. I think they got a little confused to be honest.

And indeed, what people will find is exactly as you say: The DNA encodes how to grow the network such that it will respond with the evolutionary advantageous instinct.

I don't know if I'd quite say that no one is looking into that. Obviously we know that there are NN that use deep networks. But also we can see that we can increase the computation power by removing nodes and edges that don't contribute to the correct answer. In evolution, this is a literal cost savings in that you need to feed less neurons.

<comment><USER2> I understand your point, and I'm having trouble articulating this thought, but I think with inductive bias you can structure your net such that it is primed to naturally learn certain behaviors that are more complex than the Shannon entropy required in the encoding DNA. The minimal structural information combined with environmental interaction can produce far richer information content, past the limit of the original DNA, but from a design perspective your actual code is very compact because you gain the rest of the knowledge required for innate behaviors naturally from the environment.

<comment><USER4> It's interesting to think about all this. Everything DNA encodes is responses to the environment.

On the molecular level, proteins are only functional at certain temperatures, pressures, and pH levels.

On the cell level, certain proteins might only be found in specific areas, and essential amino acids might be harvested from the environment rather than produced by the cell itself.

On the organism level, we are predisposed to shiver if it's too cold or sweat if it's too hot, an uncomfortable feeling, so innately we go to where the climate is milder and won't kill us. We clothe ourselves and that range is expanded, suddenly there is a selective advantage for being able to clothe yourself, just like there is to be a white beetle on a white sand beach instead of a green one visible to predators, or a cell that's able to just mooch someone elses amino acids rather than expend energy making their own.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's a great article, loaded with information, and very insightful.

But I'm left disappointed that there's no actual estimate of maximum information content. Just this:

> *[Note from Tony Zador: The length of the genome, which in humans is around > 3 billion letters, represents an upper bound on the Kolmogorov complexity. > Only a fraction of that carries functional information, however, so the > upper KC value may be quite a bit lower than that].

That must be 3 x 10^9 base pairs, in the haploid genome. Wikipedia tells me that's 800MB.[0] However, only 1%-2% of that codes for proteins.[1] Which is basically what Zador's note says.

So what's possible for the rest? While 800MB doesn't seem that much, maybe it's enough for basic "firmware" and "software". Including instinctual behaviors.

But even all that is clearly not enough for a full blueprint and assembly instructions. That, as TFA explains, must flow from interactions during development.

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

1) [http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2012/issue127a/](http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2012/issue127a/)

<comment><USER6> An important thing to remember/ consider about DNA, is that in its somatic state it is 3 dimensional, so while its informational content may be ~3 billion letters, those letters can and are part of a dynamical system when encoded in DNA. I'm not sure if what this means in regards to its total informational content.

<comment><USER7> thinking of DNA as some kind of abstract turing tape is wildly misleading, here's a graphic that summarizes some of the ways DNA is conformed/stored/managed in the cell.

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Chromati...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Chromatin_Structures.png)

each of these have huge implications for what can be done with the DNA

there's tons more information that's attached to the strands of DNA, too, like methylation or promoters, etc. that the simple ATGC doesn't cover at all

if we want to stretch the turing tape metaphor, it's more like marking the symbols as various kinds of magnets on a string, then putting a bunch of them in a sack and shaking them up. does that change the amount of information?

if you're interested, you really can just pick up an intro bio textbook, skim it, then do an intro genetics text (and skip the classical genetics crap).

<comment><USER5> OK, so how much could that increase the 800MB estimate?

How many orders of magnitude?

<comment><USER7> looking at the first step in that graphic, for example, a histone is made of 4 distinct types of parts, and in humans each of those has a dozen variants, and the final assembled histone can additionally be tagged with other pieces. and the physical interaction between the histone and the DNA is influenced by the local sequence.

I don't know how I would quantify that, but there's a lot going on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> For me the most enlightening summary regarding information encoding in genomes is the following quote from the article:

 _Being amazed that you can make a human with only 20,000 genes is thus like being amazed that Shakespeare could write all those plays with only 26 letters. It's totally missing where the actual, meaningful information is and how it is decoded._

<comment><USER9> I can do a lot better than that with just 1's and 0's.

The sentence makes exactly the error that it accuses others of making, the '20,000 genes' is not the encoding, that's the codons of which there are 64 some of which encode the same amino acid. The 20,000 really is like a single play of Shakespeare.

<comment><USER8> Genes are regions on the genome, now whether or not are translated by 3 (as codons) does not seem to be relevant.

The quote is a criticism of a common way of thinking in biology, where many (if not most) practitioners think in terms "one gene does one thing" (or perhaps few things at most).

When one follows that mentality it becomes hard to explain how just 20K genes could make a living organism.

<comment><USER10> The analogy I often use is houses. Think of all the components used to build a complete house. One can use the same bricks, wood, tile, etc, to build many different houses. But the location of these components in the house is not enough, the order in which they are added is critical.

The genome must encode all the components used to make an organism, as well as the instructions on how and when to use these components.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I agree with the author re: the relative importance of coding vs. non-coding regions, but disagree with the section on Shannon information.

Shannon information provides a trivial _upper_ bound on Kolmogorov complexity: imagine a tiny program with a huge data segment, which just copies the contents of the data segment to standard output. In the case of the human genome, this value is on the order of 6 billion bits. The key takeaway is that a much larger fraction of these bits than one might expect from the phrase "20000 genes" are potentially relevant, not that Shannon information somehow underestimates complexity.

<comment><USER12> Perhaps along these lines, when considering compression, there is a tradeoff of sorts between the size of the compressed result and the size of the decompressor. If I get to choose the decompressor for a file, the answer to the question of how small I can make the compressed file is "all the way" (i.e. zero bits).

It seems likely that the amount of information in the DNA "decompressor" (in mammals, the mother and her environment) dwarfs the amount actually present in the DNA itself.

<comment><USER13> except that the decompressor is encoded in the genome, just like actual compressor comparisons compare the sizes of competing compressor + data

<comment><USER12> It is indeed proper to use that sum as a metric. It's not necessarily the case that the decompressor is encoded in the genome, though. It may very well be that crucial biological information is passed from mother to child in other ways, and it could turn out to be a _lot_ of information.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> _a purely random sequence of letters has greater Shannon information than a string of words that make up a sentence, because the words and the sentence have some higher-order patterns in them (like statistics of letters that typically follow each other, such as a "u" following a "q"), which can be used to compress the message. A random sequence has no such patterns and thus cannot be compressed.

Thinking in those terms naturally leads to the kind of "counting arguments" that Bengio makes. These seem to take each gene as a bit of information, and ask whether there are enough such bits to specify all the bits in the brain, usually taken as the number of connections. Obviously the answer is there are not enough such bits. (There aren't even enough bits if you take individual bases of the genome as your units of information)._

</comment><comment><USER15> How much confidence do we have that the literal base pair encoding of DNA encodes the entirety (or even the majority) of the information needed to construct an individual, anyway? As the author mentions, you have things like histone dynamics as well as other potentially relevant variations in the many organelles that make up the cell. Eggs in particular are chock full of proteins that are directly passed down from the parent that could have important implications for gene expression frequency. These effects would either have to be self-propagating in some way via further protein synthesis or their effect would be primarily early-developmental, but they could still have large effects on grown individual.

As evidence for this we know there are all sorts of heritable epigenetic effects. It would also partially explain the partial failure of GWAS to pinpoint all an individual's features as was previously hoped before the human genome project completed.

It seems like there's a process called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer that might make possible to evaluate aspects of this, but it doesn't appear to have been performed sufficiently many times with different individuals to draw major conclusions.

</comment><comment><USER16> Interesting article, but I think the "information" metaphor sort of misses the point. DNA is not a store of information but rather the result of computation to solve a hard problem (survival/reproduction in a given environment). Think about it this way: it is really hard to crack a SHA256 hash -- but the information contained in the solution is very small. DNA is the same thing. Using information is not really the appropriate metaphor to describe DNA. Geneticists and biologists have a concept called conservation [1] that sort of gets at this point. If we think of an environment as an encryption algorithm, then certain bits in the hashes ("genomes") that provide suitable solutions tend to be stable over time.

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

</comment><comment><USER17> Given two genes, A and B, you could list out the information encoded by them as "A","B" and "AB". Which is basically the Shannon estimate on complexity, right?

However in reality, the gene dose makes a difference - so it's more like the genome (+genome architecture) encodes for capacity to produce different amounts of A and B. So, with high A expression you will see things like "AAAAB","AAAAAA" etc.

The point is that rather than encoding for different functions, the genome encodes for the diversity of different message queues - and it is the length of these queues and rate of message firing that encodes (as much as you can in a probabilistic sense) for our cell programming. The messages could be "build a transcription factor" or "put a receptor on the surface", or "make a crank that increases the capacity of these queues".

</comment><comment><USER18> The brain is the computer, not the genome, no doubt about that. But the genome was not designed but evolved, as a consequence it contains many strange and overly complex mechanisms that just settled somewhere in a minimum in some highly complex landscape. It would be better to ask what it would take to store everything we learn and act upon it, in the most simple way.

If we are looking for the innate information, we should be asking the question: In how much information can we store the computer, and all machinery that builds it from basic components (molecules basically). It does become easy then to imagine that there is some kind of suckling response, a computer also starts doing things when it is powered up.

</comment><comment><USER19> very interesting article, and intriguing conclusion towards the end, make me feel like knowing more

> You don't need to specify where every synapse is to get the machine to work > right. You just need to specify roughly the numbers of different cell types, > their relative positions, the other types of neurons they tend to connect > to, etc. The job of building the brain is accomplished statistically, and, > crucially, probabilistically. This is why there is lots of variation in > brain structure and function even between monozygotic twins and why > intrinsic developmental variation is such a crucial (and overlooked) source > of differences in people's psychology and behaviour (the subject of my book > Innate).

</comment><comment><USER20> the scientific community has discussed this for some time. A lot of discussions I see on HN about this start from "let's understand this from de- novo first order principles". But to make rapid progress, scientists in these fields use evidence from many different sources rather than first order principles.

One of the interesting things that we've learned over the years, painfully and repeatedly, is that fairly simple encodings of fairly simple data can repeatedly generate extremely complex visible outcomes. A great example of this is patterning in animal fur- there isn't a section that encodes a pixel map of the resulting spots or their X/Y locations. INstead a collection of genes operate in a feedback loop to generate the patterns. Turing's theory of morphogenesis has turned out to be highly prescient application of very simply theories that does a good job of explaining observed patterning.

What I've seen repeatedly over the years is that the proteins themselves aren't that interesting- all the interesting complex repeatable phenotypes come from careful regulation of the expression of proteins with feedback loops and spatial gradients. The best work on this has been done in evo-devo field on model organisms (not humans). C Elegans was an exceptionally good choice for a model organism for many reasons, not the least of which is that every instead of the organism has exactly the same cells in exactly the same location, and that appears to be completely genetically encoded (again, not like a pixel map, but as generative rules).

</comment><comment><USER21> Thinking of the encoded genetic information developing over time as simply "training" the neural network of the brain doesn't quite capture development; proteins are manufactured and move in space as the brain is growing in space over time.

It sort of feels like training a neural network is like rewiring an adult brain which has already fully grown. Are there neural architectures which grow over time, or "age", emulating the early development of the brain?

</comment><comment><USER22> I've wondered in the past if humans have traded off hard-coded instincts for more cerberal cortex or more connectivity between brain regions. Culture and communication is now part of our environment and so our genes don't have to carry as much information about the environment itself; our parents/society can add it later.

</comment><comment><USER23> Trivial sci-fi comment here - would love to see the 10,000 year endgame of this reseaech: near death, all your memories are encoded into a new genome, which becomes cloned into a new person that is you and also retains all of your life experiences. You die, and a new one of you regenerates, then picks up where you left off.

<comment><USER24> To piggyback on the sci-fi theme, some of the best sci-fi from the past few years has been Adrian Tchaikovsky's novel Children of Time and its follow-up Children of Ruin, which explore the idea of an artificial virus that interacts with genomes and allows for a sort of genetic memory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The information stored in DNA is important, but so is the state/information given by extant proteins. Reading up on epigenetics may prove interesting:

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

</comment><comment><USER3> I personally had not seen the eyeless gene information. While I don't find the outcome surprising, I do find the images breathtaking. It's also very interesting that including the similar (but not identical) gene from the mouse has the same effect of inducing eye growth.

</comment><comment><USER26> This is likely akin to the question of how many individual songs you can write with the chromatic scale ([https://youtu.be/DAcjV60RnRw](https://youtu.be/DAcjV60RnRw)).

</comment><comment><USER27> The genome gets Gene expression cues from the environment, so that means it externalized some of its information implicitly outside of its structure.

One form of this is culture and species taught behaviors.

</comment><comment> awinter-py is there any science on how reflexes / behaviors are encoded in the genome?

have labs successfully changed these? I'm familiar with a prenatal brain surgery that made chickens behave like ducks, but it wasn't genetic

<comment><USER28> (Not a biologist by any stretch, so the following is speculation)

As for reflexes, don't we kow how they work on an anatomical/neural level in a grown adult? From my high school biology lessions, I remember that for certain reflexes, there are nerves that directly connect "sensors" to motor neurons in the spinal cord, bypassing the brain altogether.

If you stick to the "genes as a program" metaphor, "encoding" this reflex in the genome would mean that the genome contains the correct triggers and "subroutines" (i.e. as cascades of gene expression) so that a particular group of cells will form that nerve and connect it to the correct other neurons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I kept expecting references to Steven Pinker or at the very least Fractals. Was disappointed.

Otherwise excellent, if short, article.</comment>


China proposes controversial Hong Kong security law - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52759578 <comment><USER2> It seems liberty needs a new playbook when going against authoritarianism. I am by no means proposing violence. The civil disobedience of rioting and flash crowds is obviously not working.</comment>


Show HN: Get your wind-wave-tide forecasts by clicking on worlwide map - <AUTHOR> https://igetwind.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

I've been working on this web app for some time now. Basically you can compare forecasts of different locations and different weather model rapidly.

On the technical side it's a react/golang/mongo/bash stack on a docker-swarm cluster.

Thanks for your feedback

Greg</comment>


YouTube is still restricting and demonetizing LGBT videos - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/4/17424472/youtube-lgbt-demonetization-ads-algorithm <comment><USER2> > We use machine learning to evaluate content against our advertiser > guidelines. Sometimes our systems get it wrong, which is why we've > encouraged creators to appeal. Successful appeals ensure that our systems > get better and better

There's been bad press about this for months now. People with conservative viewpoints claimed to be facing similar issues

The cost of a false positive seems extremely high. Why would they depend on ML for high influencers?

<comment><USER3> That same quote jumped out at me too. In another sentence they say they don't have a list of words that trigger demonetization.

Well, YT, you do.

It's just in your ML model. You let a pattern recognition algorithm create the list for you.

(Yes it's not quite just a list, but still.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > We use machine learning to evaluate content against our advertiser > guidelines.

This means Google violates civil rights law by maintaining a list of phrenological behavior based on racial, sexual, and demographic data.

Advertisers choosing videos to show up in also means selecting which videos to filter out. This means Google has a list of acceptable behavior for blacks, gays, and women to perform such filtering.

<comment><USER5> >This means Google violates civil rights law

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe sexual orientation is a protected class. Are there other statuses which would make this behavior illegal? Obviously IANAL and don't really know what I'm talking about here.

<comment><USER6> I think OPs jump in logic means if you can filter ads on sexual orientation then the same tooling can be use to attack protected classes.

<comment><USER5> Perhaps, though they are lumping in "sexual [orientation]" with race and gender. I also unaware of any cases of potential violations against a protected class.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Our machine learning algorithm got it wrong" is the corporate version of when a kid blames their own bad behavior on an imaginary friend.

Sorry but you're the one running the ML algo. And if it fucks up, you're responsible.

</comment><comment><USER8> The ones that stay monetized are getting targeted by anti-lgbt group advertisements. Which of course spawns "let's react" videos, which are hilarious in a life gives you lemons kind of way.

</comment><comment><USER9> Obviously there needs to be more evidence but it seems quite possible the word transgender triggers demonetization, at least in these cases.

<comment><USER10> I agree there's a good chance that's true, but probably not because somebody at YouTube flagged the word 'transgender'. But instead by some convoluted second-order effects of whatever algorithm they're using to automatically flag stuff.

<comment><USER11> IMHO, that doesn't matter much. Algorithms shouldn't be above the law. If a company creates an algorithm, it needs to make sure it follows the law. Companies use this excuse on ML _we don 't know why it is doing what it is doing_ is BS. Machine Learning, despite what the popular media might like to say, is not sentient AI. It does not have free will. It does what it is trained to do. It is predictable. It is testable. I understand that AI allows companies to chew through quantities of data that would cost thousands of human operators' salaries otherwise. But if the company gets to reap the profits of the AI, then it needs to take responsibility for it too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The only reasonable thing would be to only restrict things that are actively breaking the law. Of course, that runs into breaking _whose_ law, but I don't want to digress.

Maybe filter your advertising platform better, if your advertisors have oppinions. That's not maybe the easiest thing, but YouTube has hundreds of people to throw at forced requirements, and I'm a single person at a small company that gets these requests daily, and my give-a-damn is busted

</comment><comment><USER13> To be honest it's a business move lots of the LGBT Pro or Contra videos have a lot of say the least "controversial" comments on youtube.

<comment><USER7> You can justify any shitty thing by saying "It's just business."

I think we all know it's a business move. Doesn't make it right. When Milton Friedman said "the business of business is business" or something to that effect, he was wrong.

<comment><USER13> You can. It is their business to satisfy their customers (advertisers) and the advertisers don't want to be seen in a political light or near hateful comments and trolls. It is totally understandable why they would do it.

<comment><USER7> Totally understandable. If you have no sense of social responsibility.

Edit: On second thought, you may have a point, and this is more nuanced than I thought. There are a lot of topics advertisers don't want to be associated with (violence or terrorism) and we expect youtube to filter these out. We don't expect the advertiser to filter these on their own.

If you ask me, transgenderism is not anything like violence or terrorism, in terms of its controversy. But I realize some people disagree.

I think it's impossible for youtube to accomplish this without having some kind of political stance. That would piss people off. But considering Google has already stated they are pro LGBT, you'd think they would avoid penalizing the transgender videos this way. Let advertisers filter out transgender videos on their own.

There is no substitute for judgement, however. Youtube can't be impartial.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, it's so sad that an important topic like that is overrun by trolls.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


7 out of 10 most influential people on GitHub writing in JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://githubstats.lip.is/people/?limit=10&order=followers <comment><AUTHOR> The God on number one spot is obviously prefers C :)</comment>


Beautiful photos of insides of old libraries - <AUTHOR> http://www.thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/

<comment><USER2> I'm been meaning to build my own library under pretentious motivation; however, I've had a hard time to justify the performance, time, and money of an archaic medium. A simple ebook reader will do.

</comment><comment><USER3> Cute kitten photos next. Ugh.

<comment><USER4> I don't think cute kittens and this are the same thing. W

hile I often rail against the cool picture of the day, this is only cool if you have a thirst for knowledge.

I bet the intersection of people who want to look at this and also like kitten photos is tiny.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The internet filters at work LOVED the fact that SMUT is in the URL. Thanks.

Other than that, fairly cool photos.</comment>


Where can I find 128GB RAM cloud Server? - <AUTHOR> It is very hard and expensive to find a cloud service which can provide 128GB ram.
I am not looking for a dedicated server as they don't provide proper resize and backup functionality in the cloud.
A public cloud service is more preferable. <comment><USER2> [http://www.ec2instances.info/?min_memory=128&region=us- east-...](http://www.ec2instances.info/?min_memory=128&region=us-east-1) are your AWS options.

<comment><AUTHOR> AWS is too expensive. Any other options for this big size RAM?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Google Cloud could offer.

Search across cloud here: [https://magic.cloudureka.com/#!/search](https://magic.cloudureka.com/#!/search)

Thanks.</comment>


Last and First Men - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_and_First_Men <comment><USER2> _Maynard Smith has said "A man called Olaf Stapledon was a marvellous predictor who wrote science fiction books that I read when I was 16 and that completely blew my mind; and Arthur C. Clarke put his finger on quite a number of bright thoughts. He and I have something in common: we both took out of the public library the same science fiction book when we were boys of about 15 or 16, which was Stapledon's Last and First Men. We took it out of the same country library in Porlock in Somerset. Whoever put that book on the shelves had a lot to answer for!"_

Libraries have their uses.

</comment><comment><USER3> Full text online:

[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101h.html](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101h.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> It's not a novel in any sort of modern sense. The different sections are barely even stories themselves, just dry descriptions of imagined worlds.

It's an interesting book for sure.

<comment><USER5> Honestly, that sounds great to me. I often feel as though a lot of SF forces some sort of human-interest piece into what the author really wants to do, which is world building. Skipping the love story sounds appealing, like skipping the opening vinette that every journalist thinks is necessary before daring to mention a statistic.

<comment><USER6> I collect role-playing campaign settings for this very reason. I love just reading through long geographies of made up worlds. Pouring over the maps. Imagining the geopolitical landscapes or how the alternative histories or technologies might function in that world.

I don't actually play role-playing games at all anymore. But it's an entire genre of work (made up geographies, bestiaries, etc.) that isn't really served outside of games very much.

<comment><USER7> There's a niche for a completely new type of fiction on the Internet. Creating a world through a wiki style website. Readers explore by searching for phrases or following hyperlinks instead of going linearly from start to beginning. I've spent hours at a time reading things like the star wars wiki, Depp diving to solve my own questions like "where did the sith originally come from?" or "can you have a black lightsaber?"

<comment><USER8> For me, the SCP Foundation ([http://www.scp-wiki.net](http://www.scp- wiki.net)) gives that kind of feel, with different cases linking to one another. (SCP Foundation is a collective storytelling wiki about an organization that deals with the strange, mysterious, and horrifying.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> _Sirius_ I found deeply moving and quite different from his more cosmic novels: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirius_\(novel\))

</comment><comment><USER10> I tried reading Stapledon's _Last and First Men_ and _Starmaker_ multiple times. Super, super, super boring. Reading _about_ them is much more interesting, though.

He really had a wide-ranging vision that is evocative of the sort of thinking that the _Long Now Foundation_ is interested in today. Pity he was such an abysmally poor writer.

<comment><USER11> I suggest approaching those books the way one should approach the _Silmarillion_.

Pretend you're reading a history book. There's a lot of detail, many stories, which don't have to follow the novelist's imperative to make sense and have narrative resolution.

It's still quite possible you won't enjoy yourself, there are no guarantees in life. But this approach gives you your best chance.

<comment><USER12> Even the _Silmarillion_ appeals to readers' emotions in conventional ways with e.g. the love story of Beren and Lúthien. Not quite as dry as Stapledon.

<comment><USER13> I'm reading The Silmarillion now (coincidentally, just yesterday finished Beren and Lúthien, indeed moving) but found Starmaker much more "fun" than The S, at least so far.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> In a 2003 interview, Vernor Vinge points to what may be a reason for the overall reaction to the book.

 _I also like grand sweep stories such as Olaf Stapledon wrote. I find a collision there, since many of the things I like to talk about -- interstellar empires or even interplanetary empires -- now appear likely to be post-human- era events. That 's sad, since the present-day audience and I are not post- human. It's very hard to write stories that realistically talk about such futures._

[https://web.archive.org/web/20131203143751/http://www.strang...](https://web.archive.org/web/20131203143751/http://www.strangehorizons.com/2003/20030915/vinge.shtml)

</comment><comment><USER15> This is a book well worth reading even if it isn't one of your 'easy to translate into a blockbuster movie with special effects and tailor made cliffhangers'. It's more of a documentary on how a future historian might describe his own history starting with us.

</comment><comment><USER16> Stapledon is the grandfather of science fiction writing and is quite unjustly overlooked!

</comment><comment><USER17> I agree with other comments in that it's not a usual novel. If you take a step back and look at it then it could be a novel with the main character being the human race and the story the growth arc of the human race from us to its final incarnation of 1000 year lifespan superbeings.

</comment><comment><USER18> Related from 2016: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11093781](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11093781)</comment>