Product Hunt (Tech) – Setmine - <AUTHOR> http://www.producthunt.com/tech/setmine <comment><AUTHOR> Proud to be an engineer on this product! Setmine uses incredibly exciting beacon technology to revolutionize how we pay artists for their music. If you're a fan of music and/or unlocking stuff, you'll love Setmine!</comment>


Wikileaks:Hashes match the files after decryption (obviously) - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/798997378552299521 <comment><AUTHOR> If this doesn't convince people wl is compromised, what will? Not only is this out of ordinary-- for WL & anyone using checksums; but it is asinine:

Here, our leaders internet was cut and twitter here are some checksums. Smidst the chaos, just dl these huge 2-60GB files. We'll send you some decryption keys and once you decrypt these massive unverified files, you can use the checksums to verify.

 _raises hand_

...couldn't we verify files before decryption?

What is happening rn. Are people buying into this?

<comment><USER2> the people are scared.</comment></comment>


Q&A With Pax Dickinson on Tweets, Regrets - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/09/pax-dickinson-twitter-business-insider-interview.html <comment><USER2> Why exactly would I assume that cryptography stewarded by this particular person would be "state of the art"? If he's got someone else designing the crypto, why isn't their name part of the marketing of the product?

</comment><comment><USER3> This discussion pops up a lot, and it's referenced here so:

Is there a FAQ or something that succinctly explains why "jokes" are misogyny, because it's pretty obvious that there's a lot of confusion between the dictionary definition of this word and how people are using it.

<comment><USER4> Constructing a sexist joke is generally seen as a misogynistic thing to do.

There are FAQs perhaps the most relevant is: [http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Misogyny](http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Misogyny)

But you can find examples everywhere. In Australia, the first female Prime Minister had terms like "ditch the witch" used against her, which is obviously beyond sexism and is hatred see: [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/17/differe...](http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/17/difference- between-sexism-and-misogyny)</comment></comment>


Google may kill Chrome ad blockers - <AUTHOR> https://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-killing-chrome-ad-blockers,38498.html <comment><AUTHOR> If this happens it will be the straw that breaks the camel's back and makes me switch to Firefox. There is no way I'm giving up uBlock Origin.

</comment><comment><USER2> Been on the homepage multiple times this week.</comment>


Any suggestions on single sign-on (SSO) with WordPress + Wiki + Discourse? - <AUTHOR>

Cannot ask on StackOverflow as it would be too broad / too generic.
There is an organisation that does really well and now is in the process of revamping their IT... New forum engine (move to Discourse), wiki (quite likely MediaWiki) and CMS (quite likely WordPress).
What would be the way for single login to work across all the systems? (Wordpress + wiki + Discourse)
My guesses: * http://openid.net/ * https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/persona/
Any feedback / suggestions / recommendations welcome :) Thank you <comment><USER2> At an organisation I worked we used SimpleSAMLphp as an SAML 2.0 Identity Provider in combination with the Shibboleth Apache Module for Access Control when we realised SSO for their WordPress and MediaWiki in 2011.

I bet nowadays there are authentication plugins for all kind of web applications so this could be done even more comfortable and also with other web server software.

</comment><comment><USER3> You probably could tie something like openID together, but you'd need to do the work yourself.

If you're looking for a really commonly-used SSO system you might want to consider LDAP.</comment>


Ask HN: PebbleTime epaper refresh rate improved? Or illusion due to animation? - <AUTHOR>

So, I have an OCD itch of a question I could not get out of my head. Does the transition animation for Pebble Time looks smooth to you? Has the refresh rate of the colour epaper improved (I could not find any recently published specs on the colour epaper), or is it just an illusion from the cutesy transition animation? Either way, my curiosity is piqued to the max. <comment><USER2> E-ink/e-paper displays can actually handle much higher refresh rates than what you traditionally see on things like e-readers. They're usually just programmed not to because it's not necessary to their function and it saves battery even more.

There's been quite a few advances in the field which would probably allow for higher refresh rates with less impact on the battery that would make things like the platforms they show in the video's work just fine. I doubt you could watch a movie or play a FPS on it though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Owh, this is revelation! :) Is there any white paper on the epaper FPS?</comment></comment>


China's economy grows 11.2 percent - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8UC2N0O0.htm

<comment><USER2> This link is dead. Story is also found on Yahoo News: [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080124/ap_on_bi_ge/china_econom...](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080124/ap_on_bi_ge/china_economy)</comment>


Indoor positioning without WIFI mapping - <AUTHOR> http://www.indooratlas.com/

<comment><USER2> Two issues:

1\. I have to question the effectiveness of using 'magnetic anomalies' to determine absolute position. Isn't the sensor just reading one value (magnetic field strength)? Couldn't that be anywhere on the map with that value? Do people have to turn it on at a specific starting point?

2\. It says 'communicates with the API' while tracking. Most large buildings that I've been in like a conference center have marginal data reception.

<comment><USER3> Regarding 1., my phone reads strength and inclination of the field. I suppose that these two, coupled with a compass, could in theory give enough information to collapse the belief state to a single position. Moving a bit should give you enough data to further ensure precision.

Either that, or WiFi. :)

<comment><USER2> (no expertise here)

How do you get 'inclination' of the field? Is it based on phone orientation? If so then you just opened up a lot more possibilities for position. Also, in this solution the phone doesn't know you're moving. It just sees: magnetic field is changing...

You must have to start it at a specific place, or tell it where you are when you start it (eliminating the 'where am I' use case).

<comment><USER4> I have some experience with indoor location tech, but not magnetic fields. If I had to guess (and I do) I'd suspect that the algorithm depends on consensus based on traffic/usage. The map's gonna change regularly, but if enough people use the technology you can take the algorithm's guesses for everyone and start to build a confidence weight for your prediction, weed out anomalies, and update your understanding of the magnetic fingerprint of the space over time. I'd also assume it uses GPS to get your bootstrapped whenever possible, ie: sort out what entrance you came through, use pathfinding over time to get some limit the possible locations you might be in currently.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> How well does this work? I've never even had much luck getting my phone to detect "north" as accurately as a $3 compass.

</comment><comment><USER6> What happens when you move large metal objects around? Say a large file cabinet or a safe? The local 'anomalies' are going to change.

</comment><comment><USER7> Given that mobile phones have wires and electricity then they are creating small magnetic waves which will impact others.

That all said this technolody is very suitable for underwater GPS were a GPS signal does not penetrate the water due to weakness and how bad radio travels thru water in general.

So given that I would have to questions if the military don't already use something very similiar in submarines. Lets say I'd be very supprised if this was not being already utilised in some form or another in that feild.

</comment><comment><USER8> There's already a front-page discussion of this:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4217329>

</comment><comment><USER9> I find it hard to believe that they have legit Trademarks on the phrases "Floor plans" and "Map Creator".

<http://www.indooratlas.com/technology.html>

<comment><USER5> I did a US trademark search and did not see anything of theirs for "floor plans".

<comment><USER10> There wouldn't be, its a (TM) not an (R).

A (TM) is for an unregistered trademark, you own the IP of it though your use of it in the marketplace. This is what they have, and in fact anyone could have. In reality the (TM) is there to indicate you intention to protect it.

An (R) is for the registered trademark, as the name suggests you register it with your local trademark authority. It provides grater protection and is easer to take people to court over the misuse of.

<comment><USER11> (TM) also means that you've submitted a trade-mark application.

<comment><USER12> Not necessarily: "In the United States, neither federal nor state registration is required to obtain rights in a trademark. An unregistered mark may still receive common law trademark rights. Those rights, for example, may extend to its area of influence—usually delineated by geography. As such, multiple parties may simultaneously use a mark throughout the country or even state. An unregistered mark may also be protected under the federal "Lanham Act" (15 USC § 1125) prohibition against commercial misrepresentation of source or origins of goods. Unregistered marks are also protectable in the United States under Lanham Act §43(a)."

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unregistered_trade_mark></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Review my product idea and my landing page - <AUTHOR> APISquid is a tool to combine multiple APIs into one definitive API. It supports piping responses as parameters, API Caching and much more. I've created a simple landing page to gather email list. What do you think of the Idea? Critiques welcome!<p>url - http://www.apisquid.com <comment><USER2> I like the design of the landing page.

Perhaps you could add a concrete example of a use-case? I've had many projects where I've used multiple different APIs, but I don't really see when this would be useful.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. An example use case would be, say given a movie name you want a movie's ratings in IMDB, TMDB, RT and other online reviewing site. I would create a container and add the tmdb search endpoint with the movie name which will give the list of results sorted by relevance, from that response I'll pick the movie name and TMDB rating to the final response and pipe the IMDB_ID from the response to a parameter of IMDB which will then give it's results from which I'll send the rating to the final response and so on..

The final response would be the Movie name, TMDB Rating, IMDB Rating, etc.. You can customize the key names in the final response too.

The APIs would be called sequential so a response from one API can be passed in as a parameter to the next.

As for the other parameters to be passed to these URLs, you can either send it as a parameter while calling the root URL or can be stored static in the app while configuring the container.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Looks cool! I see the landing page doesn't express all things the tool can do. Might want to add bullets about the same features you've written here?</comment>


Oracle sues its own star sales rep after she wins back $200k in pay fight - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/26/oracle_sues_employee_undo_arbitration_loss/ <comment><USER2> hi everyone,

i'm a sales guy at oracle. feel free to AMA, i'm here for a bit (5:45 NY time)

i wanted to add that a yearly commissions earning of +800k would put you in the top 50 of all 80,000 global sales people (we have 139k employees)

so when the article says that her contribution is minor in the eyes of oracle, it really shouldn't be seen that way, because they are screwing one of the company's best sales people 10x harder than they screw the rest of us

also, they screw us in the following ways: withhold payments, late payments for months, improperly calculated profit margins (we are paid on profit not rev), changing our rates mid year, data entry errors that assign commissions to wrong sales reps...

you name it, they do it. all about cost cutting. no desire to retain employees or customers.

EDIT: i appear to be rate limited so i will will either comment with edits or just wait until it expires :)

<comment><USER3> _i appear to be rate limited so i will will either comment with edits or just wait until it expires_

This "you are posting too fast. Please slow down" BS is a real mistake on HN's part.

<comment><USER4> It's likely put in place to prevent abuse by using new accounts to spam. I think it's a reasonable measure. I believe I've seen at least one case where the mods have exempted a new account used for legitimate purposes from this restriction. 'salesguy222 may want to contact them to request such an exemption. See the Contact link in the footer.

<comment><USER2> it was a bit frustrating to deal with because it was actually rate limited by IP, and after only what, maybe 5-6 posts in a 30 min period

but i guess it isn't really a big deal because i am able to post now and at least i have a throwaway

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the clarification. The IP rate-limiting makes sense from a spam prevention perspective. If spammers can get around the limiter just by creating additional accounts, it would defeat the purpose of rate-limiting.

<comment><USER2> i agree with you on this, surprisingly posts on this site are a bit durable (a few days at the top pages?), so the urgency of commenting with a new account isn't as severe as something like 4chan

I think if my opinion was truly valued urgently and anonymously, I should just make a paste bin or github post and let my writing stand as its own topic

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So, sold $10,456,055 and Oracle is mad about $257,335.79. I seem to remember stories of other companies screwing their sales people (e.g. Perot).

Seems incredibly short sighted and carries a valuable lesson to the other sales people.

<comment><USER2> yes, you absolutely nailed it. oracle actually does it on purpose, since cost cutting will always be more important than employee retention in the eyes of the company

oracle wants all of its best people to quit, especially if they are walkin away from a high spending account. they will put a younger employee to service the account at 50% cost, and whether the relationship gets better or worse they don't care, because they've realized the cost savings...

... and any revenue growth the company needs comes from acquiring other companies, not from happy customers

<comment><USER6> Is this to say they acquire other companies for their customers?

<comment><USER2> yes i would say that is correct. oracle (we) make most of our money from the fortune 500, and specifically oracle database SUPPORT CONTRACTS from those companies

since then we have not been too good at innovating, so we buy companies technology + customersfor the explicit purpose of soaking up as much of their existing revenue as we can, to pad the falling sales of our databases, hw etc

then, inevitably, after we have abused our relationship with those customers and the sales reps on those accounts, we... buy more companies and start the process all over again (see netsuite), rather than fixing the abuse (see hyperion, peoplesoft, jdedwards)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is binding arbitration not binding? Why would a court take this case when Oracle is the one that brought the arbitration clause

<comment><USER8> See the end of the article:

> Oracle doesn't want to pursue the case in open court. Rather it's asking to > have the case re-arbitrated, with a different arbitrator.

<comment><USER9> I had a laugh at that. Apparently binding arbitration is binding only when the company wins.

<comment><USER10> Exactly, and it is not a laughing matter. Have you noticed how common arbitration 'agreements' (that you cannot in any practical sense avoid) are becoming?

<comment><USER9> To be fair, Oracle is suing but they haven't actually won. The courts may decide to let things stand as they are. We shall see.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Could someone familiar with these kinds of arrangements please explain why the commission rate would drop so precipitously when quota is exceeded above 250% for a given customer?

<comment><USER2> made an account just to comment. i'm a sales guy at oracle and this case is absolutely common at the company.

i am not surprised that oracle used our sales contract (which is stuffed full of every self serving rule under the sun and changes almost every quarter actually) to screw a hard working sales employee arbitrarily

it really is as bad as it seems. they want to lower cost of sales in every way possible, including illegally. if you sue, they sue back. if you quit, they hire a younger person at 50% pay to service the relationship

EDIT: sorry about that, was rate limited for a bit

i took this job because oracle hired me and 200 of my colleagues at the tender young age of 23 straight out of college with no experience selling technology or to enterprises. for many of us, this was our best and only offer, so it made complete sense in 2013

75% of my colleagues quit for other sales jobs/grad school within the first 14 months (!)

those of us who stayed have done so because this job is a relatively palatable way to make 80-120k per year with very little skill/experience that would make us attractive to more discerning companies

i myself will last 1 more year and then be laid off most likely, and i hope to be a technical account manager at a smaller place that values my specific sales and technical abilities that i've honed from all of the bullshit i've slogged through in this, my first "real job" :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> How many of Oracles competitors have sent an offer letter to this sales person? This is the easiest resume advertisement ever and doubles as a stab at Oracle's profits.

<comment><USER12> She might have a non-compete agreement. In fact this thread makes it sound likely.

<comment><USER2> I don't know this sales rep and I haven't looked up her online presence, but I would say it's unlikely oracle made her sign an NDA or non compete, even at her position (field sales on a key account i think? which is as high as you can get at the company)

oracle would definitely never hire her back considering the legal history between them, because oracls is relentless and ruthless in replacing "outspoken" employees with cheap obedient ones on a systematic basis

I do think some other competitor that sells old world enterprise tech to enterprises would have some reservations about her background as a "litigator" (that stigma wrongly exists in sales)

but clearly she is excellent at her job and i would be surprised if she was having a hard time finding another sales job</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online. What are some good programs? - <AUTHOR> Hi! I'm trying to find a good online program to get Bachelor's degree in CS, my goal is to switch careers and get into AI and Machine Learning. I will also likely need the degree to apply for the AI/ML Master's program(OMSCS).
I'm a self-taught programmer(web developer), I have a bachelor's degree in a field unrelated to tech.
I want to master the fundamentals of Computer Science, and all the Math I need to be ready for an AI/ML Master's program (and for studying ML on my own). Getting a degree is also important to me - so I need both the knowledge and the credentials.
Can you recommend some good options? What criteria should I use to pick the best one? What should I keep in mind?
I would really appreciate any help! <comment><USER3> Something you might not have considered is to forego the time and expense of the degree altogether. Particularly in IT most employers don't care if you have a degree or not - the ones that do can always use your existing degree to check the box. If you can pass the interview questions for development or systems engineering then more than likely you'll get hired. You might have to do temp to hire if you don't have a buddy to vouch for you, but you'll get in the door. There are a number of times I've been the most senior person ever hired without a degree, one Fortune 100 even changed their rules specifically so that they could hire me without a degree. The key phrase to remember is "equivalent experience" and you can usually imply that will be accepted. You will run across the occasional HR robot or insecure manager that thinks otherwise, but they are a slim minority. All of that money you spend on college is more or less a waste unless you are planning to be a doctor, lawyer, or something else heavily regulated where state or federal laws don't even allow you to take certification tests without a degree. (For example, in my state you can't take the bar exam without a J.D. degree and a number of hours as an unpaid intern)

Remember also, particularly in IT, that educating yourself is going to be an ongoing task for you. It doesn't have to be formal but you have to keep up. Read Hacker News and High Scalability, when you see things discussed that you don't understand then take it upon yourself to go understand. I probably spend sixteen hours a week on my own research.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for your reply, I completely agree that self-education can work great for most purposes.

But some Master's programs may require academic credentials. Degrees are also important for gaining work visas in many countries.

Finally, I feel like structured and more "formal" education would be very helpful to me when it comes to understanding math and more theoretical concepts of CS. I had no problem learning webdev on my own, but for more academic-type things, it would just be easier to attend a program that will make sure I have no gaps in my knowledge.

<comment><USER4> "that will make sure I have no gaps in my knowledge" \- You will _always_ have gaps in your knowledge. It's only a matter of _what_ gaps you'll have - <USER2> gaps there _will always be_.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Funny you should ask, I'm actually in the process of applying to the online CS degree completion program at CSU Monterrey Bay at this very moment. To my knowledge it's the only online CS bachelors offered in either the CSU/UC system. [0]

If you're a resident of California qualifying should not be an issue. See "State-based admission limitations" on the admissions requirements page if you're a resident of another state as you may not qualify. [1]

I recommend reaching out to Kayla Rolicheck, the program advisor, to see how you qualify or if you have questions about the program. She's been with the program since its inception and is very knowledgeable. [2]

Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have other questions about the process. I'm by no means an expert but if I can be helpful I'm happy to answer any questions. I'll leave a link to my email in my profile.

[0] [https://csumb.edu/scd/cs-online-degree-completion- bs](https://csumb.edu/scd/cs-online-degree-completion-bs) [1] [https://csumb.edu/scd/admissions- requirements](https://csumb.edu/scd/admissions-requirements) [2] tel: +1(831)582-3621; press 3 for the program

</comment><comment><USER6> You _might_ be able to get into a Master's program without a Bachelor's in CS, provided you can demonstrate understanding of the material. OSSU has a great curriculum for replicating that: [https://github.com/ossu/computer- science](https://github.com/ossu/computer-science)

A Master's or Ph.D. will help you get into more research-oriented programs where you're working at the cutting edge. If you don't care too much about reading papers and that sort of thing, you can also get good mileage out of Udacity's AI nanodegrees: [https://www.udacity.com/school-of- ai](https://www.udacity.com/school-of-ai)

I did the AI nanodegree a couple years ago and was able to get hired in an AI- focused role through their referral program, however I had a decade of software engineering experience to complement it so it was easier for me. If you want to focus on modern machine learning, the AI one might be a bit too general and you'd be more interested in the machine learning program.

<comment><USER7> I have an associate's in CS and think this might be the best route for me since transferring for a BS/BA might be too much time commitment. You think this is possible without a bachelor's in hand? Any recommendations?

<comment><USER8> GA Tech will not entertain applications for their OMSCS if you do not have a BS. They don't require that it be in CS, but they are quite clear that you have to have a BS to get in.

You may find other programs that have other requirements, but I'm not aware of any.

<comment><USER9> Is the OMSCS reputable? I'm actually local to GA Tech but the competition is pretty fierce for the in person programs. The online program is tempting but so is an MBA.

<comment><USER10> You can always do both. That's what I'm doing, and it has served me well so far (just graduated from MBA with solid job placement and I have a few courses to go for OMSCS).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This hits none of your criteria, but may be useful. Oxford University offer a part-time MSc in Software Engineering. You will need to spend 10 weeks in Oxford, England, over 4 years. People can and do undertake it while living in the USA (and other European countries). It costs £25,000ish. You do not need an undergraduate degree to apply for it. You can take each module by itself for a one-off fee if you're interested in trying before you buy, and there are no entry requirements at all on doing one-off modules. If you do sufficiently well at it, you can use that to "earn your way in". You end up with a real MSc from the real Oxford. More details:

[https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/softeng/](https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/softeng/)

<comment><USER12> This is indeed helpful for me. Have you done this program?

<comment><USER11> Yes

<comment><USER12> Do you recommend doing it? I'm applying to other part-time MSc CS programs right now and this looks interesting.

<comment><USER11> I learned a reasonable amount, although I suspect the course materials could be improved. Hard to improve on the prestige of a degree from Oxford though unless your backups are Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, Cambridge and MIT.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> A Bachelor's in CS is not a requirement for OMSCS, just a recommendation [1]. You can still apply and maybe get with a strong application--things like good recommendations, strong past academic history, a good understanding of core material.

[1] [https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/admission- criteria](https://www.omscs.gatech.edu/program-info/admission-criteria)

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately I do not have the strong understanding of theoretical fundamentals of CS, or math. I have practical programming experience, but that's about it.

I'm looking to take the program not just for the credentials, but also to cover all of the math/CS knowledge I will need for OMSCS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Not saying this is the best course for you, just something to consider--

If your endgoal is simply "get into AI/ML" for the fun of it (as opposed to strictly for the money), you might be better served pursuing a BS in Data Science itself. There are some online schools that offer it and they dump you straight into the fun bits you're interested in. Depending on your career ambitions that may be good enough.

You've already committed 4 years to a Bachelor's. I see you planning on another 2 for a generic CS and another 2 for a MS. You'll have wasted a lot of time and money if you only find out in year 7 that AI/ML isn't for you after all.

Regardless of what you intend to do, be wary of cost balloons with all online courses. A lot of online courses tell you it's $x for the course, but after the fact they require you to purchase subscriptions to third-party online services or new-only textbooks with software license keys. Sometimes financial aid covers that, other times not.

Best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER15> Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but Penn actually has a master's degree program for computer science specifically geared towards students who didn't study CS in their undergrad. Students in it take a mix of classes covering parts of the undergrad curriculum (but only with other MCIT students, not undergrads) and classes from the core CS master's program.

(Disclaimer: I didn't attend this program, but while an undergrad at Penn, I TA'd for a couple of professors heavily involved in the program, and some of the other TA's were MCIT students. Everyone I talked to had great experiences with the program, and the students I interacted definitely demonstrated considerable skill in computer science despite not having studied it before)

[https://onlinelearning.seas.upenn.edu/mcit/](https://onlinelearning.seas.upenn.edu/mcit/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Check out Oregon State's Postbaccalaureate Computer Science Degree. [https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online- degrees/undergraduate...](https://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/online- degrees/undergraduate/computer-science/)

Its basically exactly what you want, an online degree geared only for Computer Science classes because you've already completed a Bachelor's.

I graduated with my Bachelor's in CS in 2012. Of the curriculum at that time I would say this: The degree gave me a very good foundational understanding of CS. The courses were mainly in C, besides the intro Java courses Freshman year. There was a course offered that gave an introduction to other languages, but didn't go too deep. There were also two Software Engineering courses that just happened to be taught by new faculty at the time and I didn't feel like they did a great job of truly capturing what it means to be a professional Software Engineer. But given all that, I still got a job at a startup in SF after graduation and I believe am a competent Software Engineer.

Also I've gone back and recruited more than a handful of graduates who are all doing very well at my current company.

However, that span of 2008-2012 was quite awhile ago. Looking at the full courses offered ([https://catalog.oregonstate.edu/courses/cs/](https://catalog.oregonstate.edu/courses/cs/)) I now see courses on Web Development, Introduction To Security, Machine Learning and Data Mining, Parallel Programming, etc.

There is also an internship program called MECOP ([https://www.mecopinc.org/universities/osu](https://www.mecopinc.org/universities/osu)) which helps place you into two 6 month internships. Not sure if this is offered through this degree path, but it is something to look into.

Hope that helps!

<comment><USER17> One big thing that's changed since you graduated is that the program is going to Python as its language of choice starting this fall. C will only be taught in one or two classes. IMO this is a mistake but one rationale coming down from the director is that a lot of programs are shifting this way and that it'll be a softer intro to CS for the newbies so there will be less washing out.

I graduated from the OSU Post Bacc program last week.

<comment><USER16> Yeah I didn't mind learning C and the two operating systems courses were both heavy into Unix and C, which really gave me an idea of what was going on under the hood.

But I would have liked that to have been complimented with more Python or Ruby or something. I ended up learning iOS for my capstone project and went to the startup to build them an app, but also was thrown into needing to understand Ruby and APIs and everything that modern web development depends on. If I had even been slightly exposed to Rails or Django in school that would have been super helpful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Although ML and AÍ sound very exciting the reality is that a lot of the quick wins have been largely automated today.

If you want to be ahead of the pack from a ML/AI point of view you need PhD level education. Even to get a good job, PhDs are often a requirement.

Leveraging your experience I'd focus on demonstrable, practical solutions where you tie together multiple different technologies to achieve an outcome.

Show me how you started with a hypothesis then pulled data from multiple disparate sources, combined it and washed it, created synthetic columns and applied a cutting edge technique to get to your outcome.

Be the guy that can use the tool really well. To be the guy that _invents_ the tools you're looking at 8 years of study.

</comment><comment><USER19> Check out the program through University of London, Goldsmiths on Coursera. I'm currently halfway through the first term. It was a little buggy at first but it is getting better. The teaching style is pretty engaging. It is about 3k USD per term and there are 2 terms per year and the program is 3 years total.

UK CS programs are a little bit lighter on math than US programs but they still try to cover quite a bit. The first term courses are:

\- an introductory programming course taught using P5.js. I was initially skeptical of that approach but it turned out being a lot of fun.

\- a numerical mathematics that attempts to cover pretty much everything

\- web development course

\- how computers work course (similar to a computer architecture course)

<comment><USER20> 3K in what currency?

<comment><USER21> According to Coursera, Total cost "10,088 - 15,132" pound sterling, depending upon geographic location of student.

<comment><USER19> this is the total cost of the entire program just for clarification, not the cost of a term or a year. It was ambiguous for me since American Universities always do by term or annual cost.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I understand why a college degree may seem attractive and you surely learn _something_ while studying for it. But I _personally_ have never seen a need for it. I dropped out of highschool myself, studied programming on my own, got jobs; learned on the job (and studied at the same time). Never got a degree. Never had a problem getting a job. Have seen lot's of people green out of university who couldn't code their way out of a cardboard box, and lots of self-taught people who could... I wouldn't put too much value on that whole "college degree" thing. In the end it all comes down to "can you do the job" and "do you know your subject matter"? _How_ you learned it doesn't really matter. All that matters is whether you _know it_ or _don 't know it_. If someone is getting hung up on diplomas; find somewhere else to work. Formal education is _seriously_ overrated for someone who is capable on learning on their own. In my humble opinion.

</comment><comment><USER8> You don't absolutely have to have a BSCS to get into the OMSCS. However, without it (or something like it, or equivalent experience) you will be at a major disadvantage and will probably not be successful. So your desire is the correct one.

-Regis University has a good BSCS online program. 8 week semesters, relatively inexpensive, ABET accredited.

-Regional accreditation and ABET accreditation are the standard for a BSCS program. Don't go to any program that doesn't meet that criteria.

You don't need a degree to get into AI/ML, you can study and learn it on your own. Udacity has courses to cover the basics of CS, edX has course from MIT and Harvard, etc.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much for your advice!

Some people recommend WGU. From what I see, WGU "is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), a regional accreditation". Is having NWCCU instead of ABET accreditation an issue?

Between Regis University and WGU, which one would you choose?

<comment><USER8> Regis, though I don't know much about WGU.

ABET is an engineering accreditation -- it is not the same as regional accreditation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> > I want to get a Bachelor's in CS online.

You probably don't. There is much added value in an actual university experience - in a reasonable CS department at a reasonable university at least.

> My goal is to switch careers and get into AI and Machine Learning.

In that case, getting a B.Sc. may not be the best expenditure of your time. Typically, a B.Sc. in Computer Science is more general and less focused on one subject, and also not caught up to the latest technological fashion (for better and for worse). Also, a B.Sc. is designed to help you reach a basic maturity in the field of science or engineering your studying, which you likely no longer need help with.

<comment><USER23> > You probably don't. There is much added value in an actual university > experience

OP already has a bachelor's degree, so they may have already gone through the "university experience". I agree it's a valuable experience to have at least once in life, but OP may be older and not have the patience or desire to go through that part again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> WGU

<comment><USER25> Currently at WGU. These people actually give a damn about what they are teaching.

<comment><USER26> Depends on which mentors you get. My current one, I am not pleased with at all. Very glad I am on the last term.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> There are a lot of free on-line materials today related to CS, or AI/ML. You can check out "Crash Course for Machine learning" by Google - they released all the materials that they use to train googlers about machine learning.

</comment><comment><USER28> UBC has a 2 year BCS (Bachelor in CS) programme for people who already have a prior Bachelor's degree. It's not online but pretty much equivalent to a normal CS degree.

</comment><comment><USER29> [https://scoalainformala.ro/](https://scoalainformala.ro/)

</comment><comment><USER30> I have a bachelors in CS from a regular state 4-year college, and never had a problem getting hired. There's not enough good developers.

Obviously, there are better CS programs out there. If you can get into MIT, that will be the best experience of your life.

<comment><USER31> I have a degree in something entirely unrelated. Always wondering if I should bother getting a Masters in CS if I plan to stay in the field long term. Seems to only be worth it if I get into a top 5 school, and even then, it seems like a year of study might be worth more than a degree.

<comment><USER32> I disagree. Degrees matter in terms of credential signalling. I wish the world were a different way, but degrees are a signal that employers do NOT ignore no matter what the HN crowd says about autodidactic CS learning (even though I agree with them on that). Georgia Tech has a great online Master's program which many of my peers took which I think is more readily accessible.

<comment><USER33> On the anecdote train I studied fine arts and work as a dev in a FAANG. 5 years practical experience and a few months optimizing for leetcode. Nobody seemed to care about my degree and getting final rounds was easy enough.

<comment><USER27> Good fore you. Agree that practice is the key to success in programming!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> What is your budget

</comment><comment><USER35> You don't need another bachelor's. That would involve ~4 years full-time work including general education requirements. Just take the math/CS prereqs you need and apply to whatever master's program you want. Lots of state schools allow adults to take undergrad classes for relatively cheaply. There are also online courses at Harvard Extension School and other universities that you could take remotely.

<comment><USER36> This is not necessarily true. Oregon State's CS postbac only requires in-major classes. I did mine in three years, mostly part-time, including eleven months off for internships (so more like two). My first bachelor's was completely unrelated to tech.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: My elder brother has died 2 weeks ago.I loved him so much.What to do? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Mine died several years ago.

I saught professional grief counseling, DBSA groups, CoDA groups, and self help audiobooks.

My initial awful state took 3-6 months before I started seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Realizing another chapter in life after such a passing is exceedingly difficult, yet can be amazingly rewarding.

</comment><comment><USER3> Do something he would have been proud of.</comment>


Google Maps removes Uber integration - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/06/google-maps-removes-uber-integration/ <comment><USER2> Google could create an open API for app developers, with which all companies(Uber, Ola, Lyft) can integrate and provide great user experience. Maps(Show available rentals) -> App(Book rental) - > Maps( Track the rental).</comment>


Information Security Mental Models - <AUTHOR> https://chrissanders.org/2019/05/infosec-mental-models/ <comment><USER2> This is a good blog post and I agree we need better models for reasoning about security.

However, feeling cynical this morning, and arguably technologists need to understand "the business," is more than a black box, and product owners need to understand that "the infrastructure," is an economic factor with risks that affect the viability of their business model.

The basic problem I've encountered in large organizations is that most security tools exist to keep devops technologists entertained playing spy v. spy games while the real business instrumentalizes them as a black box of uncertainty to sandbag estimates and commitments, obstruct competing projects, obfuscate catastrophic risk exposure to investors, and externalize reckless project risk to something "nobody understands."

It's the "aw, shucks, security surprise!" game that project managers the world over use to deflect accountability for poor decisions.

I remember about 10 years ago security people discovered economics as a shallow set of metaphors for describing what they did. Today we're all about machine learning and threat hunting, technologies which I think are just more sophisticated versions of the same nonsense that keeps security people focused on externalities instead of getting real traction to effect the design and production of better products and systems.

We should ask whether the data that post-production security systems collect gives us real leverage against business risk, or if it's mainly entertainment for a tech governance group who are played as marks by the rest of their organization.

I love this field, but that also means taking a very hard look at it and asking whether it creates value beyond its hype cycle. Internet security is a disaster, and we should ask whether a new set of metaphors to help us ignore the fact we are still just doing the same thing is the right approach.

<comment><USER3> >keeps security people focused on externalities instead of getting real traction to effect the design and production of better products and systems.

A lot of the times the security people have their hands tied behind their back _because_ a lot of these businesses don't consider security as an integral goal from the get go. All they want to do is fail fast and fail often and just get something out the door without considering security which then leads us to all sorts of ridiculous situations. This is what leads to a lot of these security professionals playing the game of "externalities" and doing the next best thing of mitigating the already poorly secured business instead of actually fixing it because it's already too late and it would "cost too much" to redo everything properly.

<comment><USER4> So long as the status quo is in place, these security people are going to be fighting a losing battle. They're evangelizing security in a marketplace where customers don't know enough to demand it and the amount the inevitable breaches take out of the bottom line is small enough to just be written off as the cost of doing business.

Why would any rational manager prioritize security when those are the facts on the ground? It just represents money spent and agility lost, without a corresponding upside big enough to justify it. (Except for your ability to sleep at night.) The only way forward is for something to change that shifts the balance of incentives for all players towards security, rather than away from it.

My pet proposal to accomplish this is to create something along the lines of Underwriters Laboratories ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UL_(safety_organization)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UL_\(safety_organization\))). Have an independent third party that promulgates standards for security, and can certify products that comply with those standards as secure. Give that certification a fancy logo that the products can use in their marketing, to give customers a way to look for products that comply with the standards. Work with insurers so that companies that follow the standards are understood to be lower-risk than those that do not. Etc.

<comment><USER5> Another idea is to make companies liable for data breaches. These may be unintentional, but we have similar laws for unintentional safety problems. If I sell you a hairdryer that explodes, I will be on the hook for that, even if I didn't intend for it to explode. Why shouldn't it be the same for security issues?

If I recall correctly, Bruce Schneier is a proponent of this idea.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > What about a taco? That's one culture's form of a sandwich. How does that > apply?

Technically, the torta[0] is the sandwich of Mexican culture, not the taco[0], so it doesn't really apply, I guess.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torta#Sandwiches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torta#Sandwiches)

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

</comment><comment><USER7> The Cyber Defense Matrix slides [0] linked to in a comment on the site provided some interesting use cases.

[0] [https://www.slideshare.net/sounilyu/understanding-the- securi...](https://www.slideshare.net/sounilyu/understanding-the-security- vendor-landscape-using-the-cyber-defense-matrix-60562115)

</comment><comment><USER3> Overall good article, but I disagree with this point: >Large systemic issues persist with no ability to tackle them in a large, mobilized, or strategic manner.

Federated systems have existed for a while and are only getting more practical and popular every day. It's a mistake to discount these systems and say that we do not possess the ability to do something like this in a "large, mobilized, strategic manner".</comment>


Motivation Not to Leave a Startup - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Wayne

<comment><USER2> Sure, he could have become a billionaire, but that's not good rationale as a reason "not to leave a startup." For every "Ronald Wayne" there are many many more people who will never become billionaires (or even millionaires) no matter what investment or employment decisions they make. Using this guy as a reason to not leave a startup is like pointing to the last person who won the jackpot in a lottery and saying "that's why you should always buy lottery tickets."

<comment><USER3> Yeah, it's ridiculous. Same thing as pointing to Pete Best and saying "see, had he been a bit better, he would've been the fourth Beatle instead of Ringo". People should start realizing that hindsight is always 20/20. Maybe reading "The Black Swan"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> it should be motivation to structure your company in such a way so as to reduce risk to personal assets:

from the wiki page: " Legally, all members of a partnership are personally responsible for any debts incurred by any partner; unlike Jobs and Wozniak, then 21 and 25, Wayne had personal assets that potential creditors could seize "

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> _"Had he kept his 10% stock it would have been worth over 35 billion dollars in August 2012.

After leaving Apple, Wayne resisted Jobs's attempts to recruit him back to Apple, remaining at Atari until 1978 when he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and later an electronics company in Salinas, California. He is retired and now lives a quiet lifestyle in a Pahrump Nevada Mobile Home Park selling stamps and rare coins in Pahrump, Nevada"_</comment>


PuTTY 0.65 released - <AUTHOR> http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/changes.html

<comment><USER2> Putty is a fine piece of work. All respect to Simon Tatham for his efforts.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you set up your Mac? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Ansible handles applying configuration and settings. Configuration and settings are stored in a git repo and symlinked wherever necessary. I wrote a zsh function (that I'm reminded to invoke once daily) that handles any updates, including pulling repo changes and anything else Ansible thinks it needs to do. Has been working well for me for quite some time.

[https://github.com/joshgummersall/dotfiles](https://github.com/joshgummersall/dotfiles)

</comment><comment><USER3> It's a bit of a mess and incomplete but I start out running this script. [https://github.com/charlieegan3/dotfiles/blob/master/bootstr...](https://github.com/charlieegan3/dotfiles/blob/master/bootstrap.sh)

</comment><comment><USER4> What are you looking to know? Since I need to use subversion, I use PathFinder instead of Finder, for file management. Also have SnagIt and Jing for screenshots. Otherwise mostly defaults. Unfortunately I'm using my Mac laptop at work so I have a Windows keyboard connected, which makes things a bit more difficult.

</comment><comment><USER5> Can you elaborate with more detail about what you're wanting to know?

Are you asking about general settings? Are you asking about a developer's box?

More detail would help.</comment>


Student debt protests planned after armed marshals arrest man for old loans - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/16/student-debt-protest-armed-marshals-arrest-man-loans <comment><USER2> Random thought... Sending in a team of marshals to fetch a guy that owes $1,500- aren't you spending more than that to pay for all these people's time?

If the aim isn't just to collect debts, but to send a message- what message are they trying to send?

Who's sending the US Marshalls in? You'd think it'd be the federal government, but is it possible that they're collecting debt that's been privatized?

Not a lot of details in the article- but it sure seems like doing this would be a good way to get the villagers to start sharpening the pitchforks.

<comment><USER3> Marshalls were dispatched to collect a man who refused to appear before a federal judge. That was the crime, not the debt.

<comment><USER2> Was that in the story? Did I miss that part somehow? This makes way more sense and is certainly less inflammatory than just sending out debt collectors with military gear. Thanks for the clarification.

<comment><USER4> It's not in that article, but a number of later articles have been published, here's one - [http://finance.yahoo.com/news/paul-aker-us-marshal- student-l...](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/paul-aker-us-marshal-student-loan- debt-arrest-212047386.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Y Combinator Library for Startups - <AUTHOR> http://ycombinator.com/lib.html

<comment><USER2> The book recommendation "Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People" truly is amazing book. I recommend everyone to read it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Most of the advice is applicable only to startups in and around valley. The scene outside is pretty much different. But then it still is useful.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is a great resource. Thanks for posting it.

I tried to fill this same void with my micro-site hn-books.com

The problem is -- and I still struggle with this -- on one end you have this huge list of resources: books, blogs, news articles, personal advice, essays, etc. On the other end you have a person with a specific question, like "How do I find an idea?" or "Where's the best place to find a cofounder?", or "How do I get started?"

Very rarely does the person's question match up with the title of the resource. And there are multiple answers to many questions found in multiple types of resources. Many, many times, I'd much rather read multiple answers to a single question than somebody's essay on it. When I read multiple answers, it gives me context that reading a single author does not.

I have thought for a long time that HN should be automatically mined into some kind of startup wiki-like format. I know there is already a wiki out there, but the problem is that it can't be a regular wiki -- too many folks continue to provide answers to questions in various formats and venues. Nobody is going to exclusively use it. Somehow it needs to autogen.

Sorry for the thinking aloud, just hoping to provide impetus for somebody else to take a stab at this. We have a tremendous amount of talent and knowledge here on HN, but I think we could do a better job of connecting it to folks. Not sure how exactly, though.

Thanks for the link.

<comment><USER5> It sounds like the Ask YC Archive at <http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive>, or Search YC at <http://searchyc.com/> could be helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Does it make me a total nerd that I clicked on this link expecting to find code libraries, and not books?</comment>


Toro Data Labs raises $4M to tackle data quality - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/27/toro-snags-4m-seed-investment-to-monitor-data-quality/ <comment><USER2> "Despite its importance, data quality has remained a challenge for many enterprise companies"

Great quote there</comment>


Did a Big Bet Help Trigger 'Black Swan' Stock Swoon?  - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704879704575236771699461084.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews

<comment><USER2> "Instead, the picture is one of a highly rare confluence of events, some linked, some unrelated, that exposed weaknesses in the stock market large and small." Please can we stop calling these "highly rare"? When market crises happen every few years - they aren't rare.

Here is a list off the top of my head:

\- Nixon Wage and Price Controls of 1971 (coupled to floating the dollar see: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_freeze>)

\- Oil Crisis of 1973 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis>)

\- Third World Default (hit major US banking hard in the mid 70's. I remember Walter Wriston then head of Citibank [then First National City Bank], lobbying a great deal in the press on this subject at the time, see: ).

\- The Sterling Crisis of 1976 ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#The_1976_sterlin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#The_1976_sterling_crisis))

\- Stagflation Crisis last 70's(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagflation>)

\- Farm Debt Crisis of late 70's (tied to Carter Grain Embargo in 1980: <http://www.socialistaction.org/news/199910/farmcrisis.html>)

\- Reagan/Volker Recession of 1981-1982 ([http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/03/volcker_...](http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/03/volcker_recession))

\- Latin American Debt Crisis of 1982: (triggered by too much lending by major 1st-world banks to 3rd-world nations see: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_American_debt_crisis>)

\- Japanese Asset Price Bubble of 1986-1991 (mostly property producing the lost generation: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_asset_price_bubble>)

\- Black Monday in 1987 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987)>)

\- US Savings and Loan Crisis of late 80's (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_Loan_Crisis>)

\- Black Wednesday (Sterling leaving the ERM with Soro's help in 1992, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Following_the_Eu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling#Following_the_European_Currency_Unit))

\- Swedish Banking Crisis and Run on Swedish Currency of 1992([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Sweden#Crisis_of_the...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Sweden#Crisis_of_the_1990s))

\- Mexican Peso Collapse of 1994 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_economic_crisis_in_Mexico>)

\- Euro collapse (late 90's)

\- Asian Financial Crisis of 1997(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian_Financial_Crisis>)

\- Russian Financial Crisis of 1998 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Russian_financial_crisis>)

\- LTCM in 1998 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management>)

\- Peregrine Fund Collapse in 1998 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_Investments_Holdings)>)

\- Argentine Economic Crisis of 1999-2002(there are so many Wikipedia finds it necessary to put a date on this one see: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_(1999...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_economic_crisis_\(1999%E2%80%932002\)))

\- Dot Com Crash starting in 2001 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_com_crash>)

\- South Korean Crash of mid-2000's (reading the Buffett bio _Snowball_ he enjoys learning about and finding good buys in the Korean market, see: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowball> I cannot find a more specific reference to the South Korean Crash at this time)

\- Argentina devaluation of 2002 (<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/arg-j08.shtml>)

\- US Real Estate Collapse of 2006 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_housing_bubble>)

\- Flash-Crash in 2010 (tied to potential Greek Debt Default and possibly some financial hacking: see: [http://theweek.com/article/index/202769/The_Dow_Jones_flash_...](http://theweek.com/article/index/202769/The_Dow_Jones_flash_crash_5_theories) and [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870487970457523...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704879704575236771699461084.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews))

Order is likely off and I am missing a few. I am finding a lot more but welcome your suggestions and reorderings (email me, see profile, of you don't want to post).

This Flash-Crash sounds just like a 0 day exploit to me. The solutions and vulerability just like trying to keep an OS stable while running untrusted code. As long as it is more profitable to destabilize our economic "OS" rather than support it we'll see even more such snatch-and-grabs.

One solution: put all profits in interest-earning escrow for a week or so. That will slow down the rate of an attack allowing it to be identified and for an exploit to be closed.

P.S. Black Tuesday and Black Thursday commonly refer to events leading to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929>). And Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year i the U.S. falling after Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and the Weekend - so another important financial day.

<comment><USER3> judging by your list, late 2000s were the most stable market we had in decades...

<comment><USER2> The Real Estate Collapse has taken a lot of players to the sidelines along with their empty pockets. Note that Buffett has been very busy lately.

NOTE:

\- I could not find specific dates for the California Real Estate Crash (coupled to DoD funding cutbacks, maybe early 90's?). I remember finding entire high-end strip malls empty in La Jolla, CA.

\- Also forgot to mention the Texas Oil and Real Estate Bust - mid 80's (I met a realor from TX who was doing foreclosures back then that told me in 2005 that it wasn't going to happen again: [http://books.google.com/books?id=http://books.google.com/boo...](http://books.google.com/books?id=http://books.google.com/books?id=DaIEl3w5EbMC&lpg=PA29&ots=L2ATVbIx3G&dq=texas%20real%20estate%20and%20oil%20crash&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q=texas%20real%20estate%20and%20oil%20crash&f=false))

\- Enron Scandal of 2001 (tied to Dot Com collapse, see: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal>)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> brown9-2 I have an issue with the description of such a fast and swift decline in stock prices as pointing out "that there is a structural flaw" or that this was something that was devestating.

The article closes with:

 _Around 3 p.m., the selling pressure abated. Just as swiftly as the market fell, it recovered ground. One factor behind the swift recovery, traders say, were funds that use computers and formulas to sniff out bargains in the market. These funds swooped in on hundreds of cheap stocks, helping push the market higher._

So at the end of the day, the market (investors, algorithms, traders, etc.) saw bargains in under-priced assets and took advantage, making prices rise back to something near the original level (but a few percentage points off).

In the end, the market still worked.

<comment><USER4> Sort of.

If you were cognizant enough to "sniff out bargains," and you placed an order to buy, odds are you didn't get filled. In fact, I call BS on anyone that said they "bought on the dip" because it happened so quickly even if you put a market order in on your Etrade platform (nearly all retail brokerages locked up BTW) you wouldn't get the price you wanted. The structural flaw existed on both sides of the market.

Everyone's focusing on the lack of bids on the way down, but there were lack of offers on the way up as well. I would've expected more volume on a capitulative move like that.

<comment> brown9-2 Well I think if the rise was too fast too take advantage of, the opposite must be true of the way down, no?

I remain very doubtful that very many people were hurt by this action in the market.

<comment><USER5> Many retail investors stupidly placed stop loss orders which hurt them on the way down.

Very few people placed "don't miss out on a gain" order.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I don't know much about trading but would there really be any real harm in artifically slowing down trade, like only executing trades once per day?

These events all seem like mass psychosis to me, it's not like anyone can objectively evaluate the condition of the economy in the two minutes that is "a lifetime of trading". I thought for a market economy to work well, the actors need to rationally evaluate the consequences of their actions given all possible information. That's going to take some time for everyone, if trades happen faster then it's just basal instincts like fear that will govern the action.

The market is supposed to reflect the state of the economy, but somehow it's all backwards and more like the economy reflects the state of the market.

<comment><USER7> People experiment with things like that often. Search JStor for market structure or market mircostructure (especially O'Hare).

Even in conventional markets there are periods of auctioning and alternative pricing structures. I studied it a while back, but the gist is that single day trading does not nullify panic or mania. At best, it is identical to continuous trading but it is most likely worse. Continuous trading works very well. The problem that is increasingly causing damage is the strong interdependence. Isolated manias and panics may actually be a good thing; when it represents a global tide however...

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> When I first heard of this I thought "well, bugs in software are like asymptotes, you can always close the distance by half but never get there".

I read that a few of the gray haired market geniuses were blasting the exchanges for failure to correct "basic electronic errors" and had to chuckle. No one can understand even the basic functions of everything!

Now its been days and no specific mechanical/process culprit has been identified. As trades are interconnected, it seems impossible to cover something like this up. Everyone wants to point a finger and be done.

Perhaps the answer isn't a "Black Swan" but that confidence is really that low and things are really looking that bad.

Buy Gold?

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm disappointed that the exchanges have decided to nullify the trades conducted during this period. If hedge funds and quants are going to put semi- autonomous trading programs into the market, they need to have accountability for their actions. Eliminating the consequences for this kind of out-of- control trading creates moral hazard, in the same way as bailing out housing speculators who now can't pay their mortgage. If we declare a re-do every time the computer trading systems create an automated melt-down, then there's no real incentive to put buffers in place to prevent recurrence.

<comment><USER5> People engaging in program trading generally want the exchange not to nullify trades. Trade nullification is unpredictable, and program traders want the markets to obey a set of predictable rules.

The main beneficiaries of the broken trades are retail investors who placed stop loss orders. Many high frequency firms are actually hurt by this, namely the ones who bought at the bottom and sold near the top. Their buys were broken, but their sells were not.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Another theory of why the Yo-Yo effect happened on the Stock Market , the reality though is no-one really seems to know.

These are all conjectures, there is no proof.

</comment><comment><USER11> This feels a little like trying to figure out which butterfly caused the hurricane.

</comment><comment><USER12> Finally, a decent, well research piece of what might of happened.

</comment><comment><USER13> What do people think of the Black Swan theory?

<comment><USER14> I think it's a good concept. Taleb has built a career off of this one idea, and although I find him generally conceited and quite smug, he is definitely on to something with this. Just look at recent events: BP oil spill, the meteoric rise of twitter from nowhere, Iceland volcano etc. The trouble is, of course, that you never know when/where the spike event will occur. He made a lot of money by holding far out-of-the-money options. You bleed a small amount of cash in time-decay, but when the event happens, you make a lot back. You could do a lot worse than putting 5 - 10% of your portfolio into such a strategy.

Edit: I believe taleb lost money several years running doing this. He made it all back and more when the market crashed in 87.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> QOTD: '"Black Swan"-linked fund may have contributed to "Black Swan" moment'

talk about self-fulfilling prophecy...</comment>


Why Is Quora Mass Creating Twitter Accounts On Mechanical Turk? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/09/why-is-quora-mass-creating-twitter-accounts-on-mechanical-turk/

<comment><USER2> They're likely to fall foul of the Twitter TOS rule that you will have your accounts deleted...

 _"If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates;"_

Which if they're doing an RSS>Twitter spool then this would be the case.

I'm guessing rather than just banning all their accounts, Twitter will probably reach out to them and do a biz dev deal or something... If there is a value to Quora in having these setup then there is a value they're prepared to pay Twitter for.

<comment><USER3> I am not sure how strongly that ToS rule is enforced. For example, the News.YC account (<http://twitter.com/hackernews>) consists entirely of FP links

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Manually churning out Twitter accounts instead of using dynamic RSS/Atom feeds makes me sad. It's not even "worse is better", maybe it should rather be "worse is cooler"?

</comment><comment><USER5> ah yes, more post title traffic bait my Michael Arrington. I guess that's what you have to do when the thing you're posting about isn't really all that interesting.

</comment><comment><USER6> This just feels like the next generation of SEO tag-spam if they need so many twitter accounts they have to farm out the creation.

Twitter should nip it in the bud before we see stuff like Engadget's monster tag lists becoming twitter accounts spewing out 80 different tweets about the same story.

</comment><comment><USER7> This makes sense and seems like a perfect use case of mturk

</comment><comment><USER8> I"d guess it's to get around the follow limit.</comment>


A chrome extension to track all of your mutual funds with just one click - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sunilkumarc/mutual-fund-tracker <comment><USER2> This is my extension :)</comment>


Atom 1.28 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.atom.io/2018/06/21/atom-1-28.html <comment><USER2> I used atom for so long and at work we were kind of forced in a way to use vscode which opened my eyes that vscode really is better in terms of speed and auto formating etc, meaning you have plugins but it doesn't seem to add weight to it where atom just chugged. I have a 3 year old macbook pro, a spanking new macbook pro and a 2 year old mac pro. It was severely noticeable on the 3 year old one for sure and always noticeable although considerably less on the spanking new one.

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been enjoying VS Code for a while after really trying to find a text- editor on Mac that fits my personal preferences (tab navigation, open new files in tabs in existing window, fast launch time, css syntax highlighting _inside_ of an HTML file).

I've tried so many and like very few of them. MS seems to have done some good work on performance. It's still faster than this new version of Atom for startup, especially cold starts (with it not open at all, going into FTP client > open file).

Though, I revisited Sublime Text today, and I have to say, I know it's just a few seconds saved here and there, but the difference between Sublime and ANY other editor as far as launch/file ready time is a huge gap. While the measured time doesn't seem significant- the "feel" of using it does. It's hard to put into words how much better it feels to use, like the difference between using applications on a HDD vs an SSD.

I'm still debating (as a hobbyist that doesn't make much money on what I use text editors for) whether the license is worth it for Sublime or if I should just stick to VS Code. $80 is reasonable for most use cases (developers, etc) but it's a bit steep for mine. It really feels like it might be worth it, even just for the speed difference.

<comment><USER4> Sublime has always been king of the hill for opening giant files (like CSVs if you need to troubleshoot data imports) but unix tools and software like head and vim can take you pretty far if budget is a concern.

<comment><USER5> Is subl really that much faster at big CSV's for you? I made a quick 10 million line, ~1GB CSV in Python, opened it in both sublime text and code. code opened in 20seconds, subl took over a minute.

<comment><USER4> (copying comment to your other reply for benefits of thread)

Honestly, it's been a while since I tried. Perhaps I'll take another stab at it and see how VS Code has improved. Out of curiosity, how wide is the file? Some of the files I open are 250+ field invoices, so each line is easily 1k characters each.

<comment><USER5> Ah didn't realize it was the same account. I tried with two 1GB files, one with many lines but each short, another with long lines but not as many:

1.1GB, 10M lines.

Code: ~10s, smooth scrolling, instant jumping.

Sublime: ~50s, smooth scrolling, instant jumping.

Atom: ~10s, smooth scrolling, very choppy jumping: ~5s loads per jump (also got some error messages about text too large for buffer)

1.0GB, 40k lines.

Code: ~15s, scrolling somewhat choppy, quick jumping

Sublime: Application not responding after ~60s, waitied another 60s, no change. Same behavior each of the two times I attempted.

Atom: ~8s, smooth scroll, ~30s per jump, occasional "Editor is taking too long to load" messages.

Note: Atom enforces a maximum line length of ~500 chars before it wraps regardless of word wrap setting. This means the 8s load was only showing a couple lines worth of content. I find this restriction not acceptible for the long-line test case, but including anyways for completeness)

Full "report": [https://pastebin.com/wUv8PSgp](https://pastebin.com/wUv8PSgp)

<comment><USER6> Vscode invested in a lot of lazy loading both for modules at startup time and opening large files.

Their text buffers and internal datastructures are optimized for perf and save space on RAM.

It amazes me sometimes that all this is built on standard web technology and it's mostly blink (chromium) and v8 under the hood.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was a loyal Atom user until I tried and fell in love with VS Code. Although there's a richer set of add-ons for Atom, some of the VS Code are of a much higher quality - especially the ones backed by Microsoft. Anyway, GitLens [0] is one of the non-Microsoft ones.

[0]: [https://gitlens.amod.io/](https://gitlens.amod.io/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Between Sublime and VS Code I just don't see Atom's value proposition. I'd like to be proven wrong though.

<comment><USER9> Pretty sure Atom will just go away soon. VS Code is better at the same thing and now that they're under the same roof it makes no sense to keep Atom around.

<comment><USER10> I haven't looked into it in about a month, but there are people on the atom team working on an experimental text editor engine written in rust rather than electron.

<comment><USER11> Maybe it's Xray? [https://github.com/atom/xray](https://github.com/atom/xray) (I'm personally super-excited to see how Xray turns out!)

<comment><USER10> That's it! I'm on mobile, so I didn't take the time to post a link. I'm excited to see how it turns out as well

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What's the main argument for using Atom over say Sublime Text? (argument other than price—-I'm willing to pay $ for good software)

<comment><USER13> For me the biggest argument in favor of atom is that because it's based on chromium it displays emojis properly, in colors. As someone who makes use of emojis extensively as variable and function names, this is very important.

<comment><USER14> I think you're being sarcastic but others seem to think you're serious. Care to clarify? I'm leaning towards you're being sarcastic. I'd flip a table if I opened up code full of emojis.

<comment><USER13> Emojis make your code a little more like math formulas. In math formulas you use single letters. This makes the syntax easy to parse, but has the drawback that the letters are mostly meaningless and so not very suggestive. Names in programming language tend to be words. This makes it easier to remember what they are supposed to stand for but also make the syntax hard to parse and other occurrences hard to spot

Emojis combine the best of both worlds. Like the letters used in math they are easy to parse and it's really easy to find other occurrences of the same var when the name is an apple . But like the more verbose names in programming languages they can carry meaning. Eg I use the dango emoji for arrays and the monitor emoji for window instances.

<comment><USER15> So... just to be clear... you're serious...? I smell a clever troll.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I love Atom and use it as my default text editor. There are all these people talking about IDE wars in the comments. I feel like Atom is an enhanced text editor at best. But the comparisons to VSCode and then eventually IntelliJ...not even the same ballpark.

<comment><USER4> > But the comparisons to VSCode and then eventually IntelliJ...not even the > same ballpark.

VSCode is pretty close to Atom in many ways (though some of its plugins and things like the integrated terminal get it closer to IDE territory)

Are you sure you're not thinking of Visual Studio rather than Visual Studio Code? (2 entirely different projects; Code isn't a subset or a "lite" version)

<comment><USER16> I am talking about VSCode, but you make a good callout about the two products because many people may not realize the differences. I agree that VSCode and Atom are similar, but you are right, and I feel like many people, end up using plugins to the point that push VSCode to IDE levels.

<comment><USER17> I must admit that I assumed it was a web version of Visual Studio until reading this thread.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Tried VS Code several times, and failed to set it up correctly, so that I would be able to edit files over SSH and see a tree of files (without syncing, downloading entire projects, etc...). I just want to connect, browse to the needed file, double click on it, edit, save and close it. May be someone who has similar needs can point me to the right plugin/tutorial, I would try VS Code again?

But for now, using Atom as my primary editor, and was able to set it up the way I described above. Plugin which I use to edit files over SSH is Remote FTP ([https://github.com/icetee/remote-ftp](https://github.com/icetee/remote- ftp)), if someone is interested.

<comment><USER19> Would something like sshfs work for you?

[https://github.com/libfuse/sshfs](https://github.com/libfuse/sshfs)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I like Atom because I can keep it a relatively dumb editor. I hate autocomplete, I hate automated code formatting usually (I do occasionally use Prettier to get legacy code cleaner) and I don't want to see my linter until I go to make a commit.

I do wish Atom was faster, especially on Windows. I do appreciate the support for ligatures in font though, and how easy it is to change editor behavior as I go.

<comment><USER21> Why not use gedit or notepad++ or geany then? Those are all more performant.

<comment><USER22> Many versions of notepad++ phone home, so be careful what you type.

<comment><USER23> I've never heard of this - can you provide more information?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I was a Atom user until I found BBedit. I like the hackable proposal around Atom, but being fast is the most important feature for me.

<comment><USER25> It's nice to see some love for BBEdit. I confess that I use VS Code for programming more often, but I'm a technical writer, and I almost always use BBEdit for my work. The other day I had to do a task that boiled down to "recursively search for all files in this directory that do NOT contain the following text, then in the result set, run the following regex-based search and replace." In BBEdit, this is essentially a two-step operation (the first search, then a "text factory" with the regex search-and-replace that used the search result window as the input). I'm sure there are other editors that could do that same operation, but I have doubts how many could do it as easily.

Really, if I could bring a couple of the more "IDE-esque" bits over from Code (most notably language-sensitive smart indent, something I'm boggled Bare Bones hasn't broken down and added yet), I'd probably just stick with BBEdit full time still.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Sounds like everyone has had similar experiences with trying VS code then falling in love with it

</comment><comment><USER27> There is no reason for Microsoft keeping two Electron-based code editor.

Would be nice to see how both communities from VSCode and Atom can work together and drive an even better coding experience with an unlimited extensions ecosystem.

Both Atom and VSCode are great!

<comment><USER28> Expect Atom to be killed, or just have security updates very soon. Microsoft has teams right now looking at what they can bring in from Atom before shelving it. No sense in having two "electron" based editors.

<comment><USER29> That is a substantial claim which runs counter to all public communication from Microsoft and GitHub on the matter so far.

Can you provide anything to substantiate your claim?

<comment><USER5> I am quite sure that if they had the information to substantiate that claim, they would not be publicly making the claim in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I hope vscode copies the text search interface from atom - after using atom for awhile I switched to and love vscode but the more functional/information rich search result navigator is the buggest thing I miss from atom ...

</comment><comment><USER31> Long time Emacs user here. I'm enjoying Atom more and more on each new release. It's not slow anymore and the UI is really minimalistic and clean. Highly recommend it.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm surprised that no one asking this - but what's the future for Atom in VSCode in light that they are pretty much direct competitors AND developed by same company now. Any plans to merge teams / unify development? ( Or opposite, close one of the projects ? ) Competition was definitely beneficial to both of them, but is it common to have healthy "intra-company" competing products?

<comment><USER33> Nat Friedman, who will be the new CEO of GitHub, answered this. He said that both would be maintained as long as there were dedicated users, and that he expected it to be for a very long time.

I expect it could be used to promote Microsoft.

Surprisingly, Atom doesn't even say GitHub above the fold on [https://atom.io/](https://atom.io/) There's an octocat above the fold, but it doesn't mention GitHub until further down the page.

<comment><USER5> Does it not have "GitHub Integration" link in the main set of buttons for you?

<comment><USER33> Below the fold. On a 13" laptop and a phone though. Might show up higher on the page on a bigger screen.

<comment><USER5> Ah. My 15" puts it all above

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Since Microsoft has taken over, perhaps my take might hurt people's confidence in Github in light of that news...but they really should just kill off Atom and focus on VS Code. I'd rather they focus energy on building other tools.

</comment><comment><USER5> How is Atom with a11y? I tried using VoiceOver with Atom but I couldn't quite get it to work. Is accessibility something the Atom team is committed to?

</comment><comment><USER35> Cool, 1.28 now fails to strat on OSX 10.10.5 Yosemite. Maybe this is a warning sign that I need to go back to Sublime?</comment>


Forget Phoning a Business, New App Sends a Text Instead - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/11/19/technology/19reuters-apps-texting.html?ref=reuters

<comment><AUTHOR> Has anyone tried this? What do you think?</comment>


iTunes Expected to Be Retired After over 18 Years - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/31/goodbye-itunes/ <comment><USER2> more comments here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065153](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20065153)</comment>


Men rescued from Pacific island after writing SOS in sand - <AUTHOR> https://apnews.com/1566b3c6a377ee907a0f2e143a5b26c9 <comment><USER2> What is interesting is that they set out from Puluwat[0], which was the site at which one of the pacific's last master navigators was interviewed by modern anthropologists in _We: The Navigators_ [1]. See the _Wa_ [2] local vessel page I co-authored to front page featured article status on Wikipedia for more details, including the amazing expanse of traditional voyaging.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poluwat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poluwat) [1] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/758833.We_the_Navigators](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/758833.We_the_Navigators) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_(watercraft)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_\(watercraft\))

</comment><comment><USER3> Reminds me of the Farside comic: [https://imgur.com/r/TheFarSide/hQAT2Go](https://imgur.com/r/TheFarSide/hQAT2Go)

<comment><USER4> I feel like I remember a Gilligan's Island episode where they try to write SOS on the beach and it ends up messed up somehow and ignored, though I can't find anything with a quick search and it's possible that my memory from childhood is faulty.

<comment><USER5> [https://gilligan.fandom.com/wiki/Splashdown](https://gilligan.fandom.com/wiki/Splashdown)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> How often is the best earth-facing satellite imagery updated?

It'd be really cool to sic handwriting recognition on it to continuously look for "SOS".

<comment><USER7> Planet are looking to offer multiple times per day. Although I think that requires the camera to be slewed and a site targeted rather than being able to cover the whole earth every single orbit.

Remember that cloud cover is really common in a lot of places. The UK in January averages less than 2 hours per day of sunlight. You need enough satellites to image everywhere several times per day to allow for that. And even then you may have overcast weather for several days at a time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interestingly the international ground air code for requiring help is normally an X or a V.

But I would still write SOS or HELP.

You can imagine the scenario: "Hey Jane check out that - looks like a V in the sand" "Heh yeah". "Weird".

or

"Hey Jane does that say HELP?" "Heh yeah. Wanna check it out?" "Yeah let's take a look".

<comment><USER9> How cross culture are HELP or SOS? We're talking about being on a tiny remote island here. There's no guarantee that the people who see your message speak English, or have much exposure to western culture at all. Is SOS known to all cultures?

<comment><USER10> "No, I can't read what it says. Let's fly ahead." :)

<comment><USER9> Well, yeah. But then any message would work. The person I was responding to said you should write SOS or HELP instead of the international air codes for help (X or V), which any pilot is almost certain to know.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is it me, or does it rather instead look like they arranged tree branches + leaves to make the word, not dug in sand?

And on another note, when you see things from an island scale, you can see that even at the size they drew those letters, it might've been missed. The world is big...

<comment><USER12> I imagine those tree branches are "in" the sand though...

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Call this a freely given and viable but hard to monetize idea - this is a very tractable area for software and drones. Same with locating people in lost wilderness areas. You have a programmatic way to organize coverage areas, you have access to above-human audio and video capabilities, and it reduces the resources/time ratio that is critical in rescues.

This was the tragic and avoidable story that convinced me this was possible - [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/us/missing-hiker- geraldin...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/27/us/missing-hiker-geraldine- largay-appalachian-trail-maine.html)

There was a limited geographical footprint and coordinated, modestly sized fleet of quadcopters with mics and/or thermal imaging could probably cover 20 square miles/day. Same couple be applied with optical/higher altitude drones for people lost at sea. You could supplement sensors with basic face/voice recognition in less remote settings. You could supplement with something like Planet in more remote/ocean settings.

Does something like that exist already?

<comment><USER14> Well, there are just personal locator beacons which you can rent and tell rescue personnel exactly where you are if you need a rescue.

<comment><USER15> They're not even expensive to buy. I picked one up for a few hundred dollars for hiking. I believe it's good for 10 years, until the battery needs replacing.

I don't even do particularly intense hikes, usually not even overnight, but I read a few stories and realised how easy it is to end up in a situation where you need one. You just have to slip over and land badly, that's all it takes.

Or maybe it won't be me, but someone else on the trail who needs help.

<comment><USER16> A few hundred dollars seems fastastically expensive to me. What is possibly inside it that justifies that price?

<comment><USER17> It's a satellite commS device. You also need a service for it to be useful.

I do find it somewhat amusing to read a comment that a device that locates me anywhere on the planet and can communicate that information via satellite costs a few hundred dollars! to be vaguely amusing.

<comment><USER18> There are really two different options here. Some devices, variously called EPIRBs, PLBs, and ELTs depending on the exact device and application, report to a system called COSPAS-SARSAT which is a free service operated by an international collaboration. You do not need to pay any service fee for these, although you are required to register them with a local authority (the Coast Guard in the US) so that they have contact info for you.

These devices tend to be expensive because most of them are manufactured to either FAA or Coast Guard standards that are pretty strict and require things like a multi-year permanent battery, water intrusion and impact tests, etc.

On the other hand you can get a couple of different consumer-pointing satellite communicators that rely on commercial networks, mostly GlobalStar. Spot X and Garmin InReach are the two big ones. Both are cheaper up front but require a monthly service plan. They do tend to have fancy features that PLBs can't offer like two-way text messaging, but they're not generally built to any particular standard for durability, so you wouldn't want to use them, say, at sea or in an airplane.

The COSPAS-SARSAT system also generally has better coverage than GlobalStar but there are tradeoffs, esp. depending on the different capability levels.

The thought that they're pricey seems like a reasonable thing when you compare e.g. a $400 EPIRB to the $200 Spot X, but the EPIRB is tested to work in water whereas the Spot X has janky firmware that doesn't always work great anywhere (I love mine but... it has rough edges).

<comment><USER19> > ...mostly GlobalStar. Spot X and Garmin InReach are the two big ones

These are different though. SPOT works on globalstar which has gaps in coverage, particularly large parts of the Pacific. A coverage map is here: [https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/products- services/coverage-...](https://www.findmespot.com/en-us/products- services/coverage-maps)

The inReach works on iridum and claims 100% world-wide coverage.

Personally I carry an EPIRB for the boat, a PLB on the lifejacket and an inReach for texting. Cheap insurance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I am happy they were found, but I often wonder if I would live out my "Castaway on the Moon" fantasy or make a giant SOS if I found myself in this predicament.

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

<comment><USER21> Write SOS, then begin Castaway fantasy. If help arrives before you've had enough, ask if they could please come back and rescue you in a couple of weeks because you're trying to build a treehouse or setup irrigation channels for basic farming and you haven't even managed to spear your first fish yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I think the days of being stranded on islands are over. But what about oceans and being lost at sea? Would the film "Cast Away" make sense with today's satellite and object detection technology?

<comment><USER23> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_370)

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> > The men were found about 190 kilometers (118 miles) from where they had set > out.

Wow, that's quite a detour. Pretty lucky to get spotted so far off course.

</comment><comment><USER25> Lucky guys. Surprising they didn't have an EPIRB (emergency beacon). Most seagoing vessels have one as a standard safety feature.

</comment><comment><USER26> Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

</comment><comment><USER27> Good news. Thanks for that!

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm just glad Gilligan didn't run through the markings and mess it up!</comment>


My Previous Bosses Are Now My Customers - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/business/smallbusiness/my-previous-bosses-are-now-my-customers.html

<comment><USER2> In other words, they are still your bosses.</comment>


Deadsimple.me – Low Noise Single Page Websites - <AUTHOR> http://deadsimple.me

<comment><USER2> Howdy. I think this is vulnerable to cross-site scripting. For example: <http://deadsimple.me/foobar/>

<comment><USER3> Yup, the cookie isn't limited to your path. What's even worse, when logged in you can edit any page:

<http://deadsimple.me/foobar/?edit>

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, you can edit pages which are NOT password protected from the owner. That's fine.

<comment><USER2> I tried to password-protect the page in question. It may not be working properly.

<comment><AUTHOR> Alright, issue should be solved now. Try yourself! Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> How is this different from Jottit?

<comment><AUTHOR> Jottit is overfeatured.</comment></comment>


Usabilla Discover launches and is much more than "Pinterest for designers" - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/02/23/usabilla-discover-launches-and-is-much-more-than-pinterest-for-designers-invites/

<comment><USER2> Pretty awesome collection. One thing I dislike is the fact, that the same stories are repeated over and over. Is there a reason for this?

</comment><comment><USER3> Great work, guys.</comment>


Apple Sells 3 Million New iPads, Including Mini, in One Weekend - <AUTHOR> http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/apple-sells-3-million-new-ipads/

<comment><AUTHOR> For the record, I think the iPad mini is overpriced. Apparently, a lot of consumers see it as an inexpensive iPad.</comment>


The Real-Time Volumetric Cloudscapes of Horizon Zero Dawn [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://killzone.dl.playstation.net/killzone/horizonzerodawn/presentations/Siggraph15_Schneider_Real-Time_Volumetric_Cloudscapes_of_Horizon_Zero_Dawn.pdf

<comment><AUTHOR> Accompanying video presentation and powerpoint slides can be found at: [http://www.guerrilla-games.com/publications.html](http://www.guerrilla- games.com/publications.html)</comment>


Is That iPad 2 Really Worth $2,000? - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703696704576223242020954846.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read <comment><USER2> The author might be right about toys like the iPad that aren't really necessary, but the trip to Bali for 5000$ feels way different at the age of 35 than 65 (that's at least what I assume). Saving for retirement is one thing, but using the money to actually improve your life is an entirely different story.

I experienced, whenever I spend money on things like vacation, travel etc., I never regret the money I spent. It might feel like big spendings in the very moment, but after the trip, it was totally worth it.

So, if this way of thinking works for the author, great for him. Personally, I would evaluate the things I spend money on in different terms (do they give me skills, experience or memories? or is it a really useful tool?) rather than the money it could bring me in in 30 years.</comment>