Why the snow forecast for New York City was so bad - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/01/27/why-the-snow-forecast-for-new-york-city-was-so-bad-and-what-should-be-done/ <comment><USER2> More to the point, who cares? The storm was still pretty bad: this isn't a case of a "bust" forecast. Long Island got hit, as well as much of New England.

So the line on the map of where the heaviest snow would be was a bit off: the only reason this is "news" at all is because that line happened to affect New York City, and there are a lot of journalists who live there whose view of the world matches that New Yorker cover[1]. If the line had been anywhere else we wouldn't have heard about it at all.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Ave...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_the_World_from_9th_Avenue)

<comment><USER3> > More to the point, who cares?

Did you forget about the entire city of Philadelphia? 14 inches predicted, < 1 inch actual snowfall.

The city is practically a ghost town today thanks to a botched weather forecast. Tons of businesses and schools closed preemptively because they were predicting massive snowfall totals with what seemed like absolute certainty. According to meteorologists here, it wasn't about whether or not we were getting snow, it was about whether we were getting 1 foot or 2 feet.

<comment><USER4> _Did you forget about the entire city of Philadelphia? 14 inches predicted, < 1 inch actual snowfall._

OK, but so what? This is about unpredictability, not over-estimation. If the unpredictability was better conveyed the best case scenario is still everyone preparing like they did for a storm that didn't hit. Worst case is suffering hardships due to underestimating the storm.

I'm a bit further northeast and it's coming down pretty hard outside my window right now. The preemptive cancellations really did avoid a lot of unsafe travel here. We have a bit more familiarity with the unpredictability of snowfall predictions, but it usually manifests as people saying: "It won't be _that_ bad" and getting into trouble the few times it really is that bad.

It didn't hit the cities that aren't used to big snowfall. But those cities house a lot of national media, so now we get to listen their scorn for the next week.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> While this article mentions that the GFS model was more accurate than the others (ECMWF & NAM), it neglects to give the backstory as to why it was more accurate and less trusted. For years the GFS has been made fun of because of its poor performance when compared to the Euro - and it just got the major upgrades it needed this month! New supercomputers, new high-res models, all went online just before the storm arrived. So, very few trusted the model even though it was in the best spot to get everything right.

In an unexpected move, The Weather Channel was much more accurate than the US NWS / AccuWeather / etc because of their use of the GFS as a trusted model. More info in this article: [http://www.alternet.org/environment/why-almost- everyone-got-...](http://www.alternet.org/environment/why-almost-everyone-got- snowpocalypse-wrong)

Edit: And of course, it's my opinion that all the models are currently suffering from a lack of input data. The "...and what should be done" part of the headline, in my opinion, should be answered with, "everyone download PressureNet and contribute your phone's sensor data to weather models", so that we can better predict difficult quantities like heavy snowfall and severe thunderstorms: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbu...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.cumulonimbus.barometernetwork) ;)

<comment><USER5> Do you know of any research about the accuracy of forecasts as a function of sensor data input? I.e. what kind of an improvement will we see if some number of Android users install PressureNet?

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is a recently published paper by Cliff Mass that is the first attempt at forecast experiments with smartphone pressure data: [http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00188...](http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/full/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00188.1)

The early results are good. There will be an improvement [1]. How much of an improvement? We don't know yet. Cliff thinks it could be a revolution for some types of forecasts, but we don't have the density of sensors yet to know for sure.

For some comparisons, we sent cliff about 20,000 measurements per hour for his experiment in that paper. We're now delivering about 200,000 per hour to researchers, and that's not nearly enough. Our aim is for 2M per hour and I hope to reach that in the next 2-3 months. Around 1-2M per hour is probably sufficient to provide the "revolution" in accuracy that Cliff predicting.

I should also note that 1-2M per hour is small. We should be able to get closer to 1B per hour, but it'll take a while to ramp up to that kind of scale (that'll be like, every smartphone + watch + car that has a barometer).

The improvements will be slow and steady until we get massive scale and are able to run our models in real time. Until then, it's tough to guess how good the improvements will be.

[1] In the linked paper above, I believe the results were a reduction in root mean square error of about 1deg C for a 3-hour temperature forecast in the Pacific Northwest.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Alternative hypothesis that also fits the evidence: You look bad if reality turns out worse than your forecast. You look less bad if reality turns out better than your forecast, thus there is a built in incentive to make forecasts more pessimistic than is justified.

Imagine if 10in were forecast and then NYC actually got 2 feet. Then everyone would be complaining that the city wasn't adequately prepared for the 14 extra inches they received and would blame the forecasters for all the economic consequences of not being prepared.

<comment><USER7> If I'm understanding the article correctly, this seems correct. Of the many models almost everyone chose to emphasized the models with the more extreme output. Different parties had different motivations: selling news, avoiding political blame...

Interesting things happen when science meets human nature. Science rarely wins especially if there is uncertainty.

<comment><USER6> > Science rarely wins especially if there is uncertainty.

I agree 100%. One of the most interesting books I've read lately has been The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb, which deals with this at length (ostensibly it is about unpredictability in financial markets, but the implications are far broader than that).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> After watching the same ridiculous news reporting touting "historic", "storm of the century", "unprecedented", etc., year after year, the more cynical side of me suggests that there's a small supplemental reason besides flawed models: there's probably good money to be made from overhyping storms. At the very least news stations must get great ratings the day or two beforehand. Note that this doesn't preclude accurate estimating...you just have to pull a bunch of cheap psychological tricks to get people to focus on the worst case scenario. The end result of people freaking out is still largely the same.

One reason this comes to mind is that I can't ever remember a storm reaching its worst-case snowfall predictions, and usually they barely make the minimums. A rule of thumb I use is to treat the minimum prediction as the actual maximum and zero as the actual minimum. Anecdotal, but seems to work well.

<comment><USER9> The "play up the fear" stuff around weather reporting in recent years is why I've given up even attempting to use weather forecasts from anywhere but weather.gov which is sourced directly from The National Weather Service and NOAA. It's just a straight up information dump, no annoying ads or fear mongering for clicks. When I heard they were naming blizzards last year, and this year now, I was only momentarily shocked because it was the next logical step.

This has far more severe consequences then just clickbaiting though. When Hurricane Irene was moving up the coast a few years ago they did the typical "storm of the century, omg a billion people might die!!!" routine and we got light wind and rain. The following year they did it again with Hurricane Sandy (I really hate when people call it Superstorm Sandy ... it was a small hurricane! We were just ill-prepared for it) and a whole lot of people didn't buy into it and paid the price. I'm only 27 but I have trouble remembering a time where every thunderstorm we got wasn't played up to be an extinction level event. At this point I have my small cache of supplies and otherwise completely ignore storm predictions for the most part.

<comment><USER10> It _was_ the NWS in this case who was playing up the fear. The useual suspect, The Weather Channel, is the only one who got it right.

<comment><USER9> I didn't realize that. My only exposure to weather reports at this point is actually just going to weather.gov and saying "ok, might get snow, I'll go the store tonight instead of tomorrow". And stuff like this is precisely why.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Several years ago in Australia, a blogger called Possum Comitatus, aka Scott Steel, used to mock journalists for breathlessly reporting every twitch of the polls, even though most such movements were within the margin of error.

So successful was this mockery that the way polls are reported actually _changed_. It become normal to report a change in polls with a remark about whether the change was within the margin. Political race-calling has moved onto less abuses of statistics.

Better reporting can be done, and done with surprising ease, using a simple tool.

Mockery of journalists.

To gain status and prestige over their peers, some will adopt the better method. In a few months they'll all do it.

</comment><comment><USER12> Three problems:

1\. Uncertainty isn't actionable. A statement like, "There's an 85% chance of snow with accumulation of 1–24" with peak probabilities of 28% and 17% at 2" and 18", respectively" is nonsense to most people. And moreover, it doesn't mean anything to me. Are we going to get snow that will affect my morning commute? Are we going to get so much snow that I need to take emergency action? A probability distribution doesn't answer those questions, even if that's the best that exists.

2\. Weather is news. The cable news channels were dominated by snow predictions yesterday, and the Weather Channel exists as an "entertainment" venue, not a source of scientific information. If it doesn't fit into a soundbite, the public can't absorb it. And "Weather is hard to predict" doesn't garner viewership.

3\. Prepare for the worst. While small changes in the environment can lead to large variability in snow accumulation, the fact of the matter is that there was a not-unlikely chance (according to the models) that NYC, Boston, and other cities could have seen crippling snowfall. They were able to prepare for that eventuality. That it didn't come to pass is almost a non-issue. Can you imagine the outcry—not to mention the impact—if the situation was reversed (i.e., surprise 3' of snow)? Fairfax County Public Schools outside of DC got _slammed_ in the media for not closing a few weeks back.

The real question is: at what point of probability do you prepare for a potential outcome, and are you prepared to back that up (either way)? Do we prepare for record snowfall on 80% likelihood? 50%? 10%? (And as a broader point of discussion, this same calculation applies to other areas: TSA spend vs. terrorism; flood insurance cost vs. coverage; etc.)

<comment><USER13> _the fact of the matter is that there was a not-unlikely chance (according to the models) that NYC, Boston, and other cities could have seen crippling snowfall. They were able to prepare for that eventuality. That it didn 't come to pass is almost a non-issue._

The thing is, for the Boston area at least, the crippling snowfall totals came true. Areas west of Boston were reporting well over two feet of snow earlier in the day.

<comment><USER14> Yeah, southwest of Boston we are getting wrecked. Still coming down hard, hoping it finishes up soon. I'm glad we had the warnings, and I'll be particularly glad if we lose power, which seems pretty likely at this point, since the warning gave me the chance to stock up, charge battery backups, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> People don't like it when 14 inches is forecast and the actual snowfall is 2 inches, but they aren't going to like hearing forecasts of 2-16 inches.

That sort of wide confidence interval is more accurate, but it's also basically useless. How does a 2-16 inch forecast help a parent or school district or mayor plan for anything?

<comment><USER16> A single 9x% confidence interval like 2-16 inches gives the impression of a continuous bell-curve distribution, when you might have a multiple peaks based on a couple of simple factors. I wonder if it would be useful to give out a couple of probability buckets. If people heard "20% chance of 10 or more inches, 60% chance of less than 2 inches", would then know to be ready for a lot of snow, but not be surprised if it doesn't happen, or would they ignore the considerable chance of a heavy snowfall?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> We should always strive to improve our predictions, but I see a fundamental dichotomy: do you prefer false-positives, or false-negatives? We don't get to pick no wrong results.

When it comes to predictions like snow storms, hurricanes and tornadoes, you obviously want to favor false-positives. It's better to predict something bad will happen, pay the preparation costs and have nothing happen, than to have something bad happen when you're unprepared.

So, yes, we should try to improve our predictions. And perhaps we should be better at communicating our uncertainty. But I don't blame the meteorologists, or the people in government who shut things down and told everyone to prepare.

</comment><comment><USER18> I was delighted to notice a while ago that the Finnish Meteorological Institute had added 50% and 80% confidence intervals to their 10-day online forecasts, for instance: [http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/weather/turku?forecast=long](http://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/weather/turku?forecast=long)

</comment><comment><USER19> Note that this article is written by the Capital Weather Gang, a group of DC- area meteorologists who consistently put out accurate and nuanced short-range forecasts of upcoming weather in the area. They give out great info and they aren't afraid to state their uncertainties up front, nor are they afraid to admit it when they're wrong (which is not too frequent).

They give an implicit answer to the question of "how could everybody do better?" which is "be more like us." And I think that would be great.

</comment><comment><USER20> I was curious about what kind of bump weather sites get in ad revenue as a result of storm hype.

That's an interesting angle when wondering where the hype is driven from ... if you find the mental image of Murdoch twirling his mustache (this is my imagination, so why not add a mustache?) while making quiet phone calls from a back room a correct version of reality.

</comment><comment><USER21> How is it possible that millions of New Yorkers accurately discounted the probability of it being a 500-year storm and yet the mayor didn't? The responsibility must lie with either the Mayor or the meteorologists. And there is something to own up to -- shutting down the city is not without real cost to real people. The mayor and governor will stay it was for our own good and better safe than sorry. But put a few million people under house arrest (no using roads -- under threat of arrest, no public transport) for basically no reason.

But a few things to consider: 1) The meteorologists with the most dire predictions are the one who are going to be picked up by the media -- the media needs to sell ads. 2) The bulk of the population accurately discounted the most dire predictions, because of well-calibrated but subconscious Bayesian calculation. 3) Bureaucrats, and to some extent politicians of both parties, have a well-intentioned, but costly and wrong, need to subvert the judgement of millions and replace it with that of a handful of experts. When the judgement proves wrong, they rest on their good intentions without assuming responsibility. 4) In subverting these judgements bureaucrats and politicians can and do rely on the states monopoly on force.

</comment><comment><USER22> It seems like the costs are asymmetric on misses. If a bunch of people die, the mayor gets voted out of office. If they prematurely close the city for a day, the mayor just apologizes afterwards.

</comment><comment><USER23> We are in the year of 2015, and yet we still cannot accurately predict the weather...</comment>


ASK HN: What Coding Language Should I Learn? - <AUTHOR> I know 0 about coding, web design - any of it. But I know it's something I should learn. What language(s) should I focus on? And what/where would be some good (ideally free) resources? <comment><USER3> Since you said web design, I am assuming you want to build a website.

So, Ruby on Rails.

Rails is a stack that has:

Ruby - a very simple developer friendly language. This is responsible for putting together

JavaScript - this lang is responsible for all the fancy stuff you see on websites. The animations and all.

HTML, CSS - this is the stuff that websites are made of. Ruby and JavaScript are used to generate this the way you want.

I used to be an accountant and started coding in Nov 2014. I have many rails apps ever since as prototypes and maintain one app that is in production (meaning people use it).

I used this Rails Tutorial by Michael Hart ([https://www.railstutorial.org/book](https://www.railstutorial.org/book)) significantly. You will end up with a cool website at no cost at the end of the book.

I also highly recommend Codecademy courses on HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Ruby.

If you are really serious about this stuff, which is great news, you might want to read more about making software. Start with the Pragmatic Programmer. It is a great book to read in your formative years.

And finally (this is important), try to solve a problem (like building a website for yourself or a friend etc) with programming. Learning just to know doesn't stick for long in my experience and probably is true for others.

</comment><comment><USER4> Start with Python because it's relatively easy and makes sense. [Learn Python the Hard Way]([http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/](http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/)) is a good resource.

After you've got a Python project under your belt, learn JavaScript because pretty much every programmer will need to use JS at some point. [MDN]([https://developer.mozilla.org/](https://developer.mozilla.org/)) is a good reference for JS, CSS, and HTML. W3Schools is a terrible resource and should be avoided.

Finally, learn a LISP (like Clojure/ClojureScript) because it will expand the way you think about programming and learn at least one lower-level language (like Rust or C / C++).

You should also learn Bash or Zsh as you go. I wouldn't recommend shell- scripting languages for large projects, but they are immensely useful for tasks like file manipulation, and you will need to know how to work with a terminal for system administration tasks.

<comment><USER5> lisp or Haskell, which one expands the mind more. I mostly only have time to learn one

<comment><USER6> C, Lisp, OCaml, and Haskell were all revelatory experiences as I learned them in roughly that order. I'm not sure Lisp would have been, post Haskell - <USER2> I'm not at all sure it wouldn't have been. OCaml probably wouldn't have been, post Haskell (except probably for the module system).

I'm not sure where that leaves you, but one anecdote richer in perspective...

At this point I do find myself caring quite substantially more about expressive types than about code generation, which would argue for Haskell being more important.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Initially you'll want to learn

HTML->CSS->javascript

Track down a copy of Head First HTML & CSS to get started.

I recommend installing MAMP or WAMP for a local web host and using sublime text as your editor.

Starting from scratch, use the book Head First HTML and CSS (you can probably get through your library or a digital version)

Once you have a few local websites setup, get a hosting account (hostgator is ok for learning) FTP up your site using filezilla, buy a domain, learn to point it to your hosting.

Next get the book head first PHP & MySQL.

You'll learn PHP and MySQL building on top of what you've learned in the first book.

After you have completed that book. Pick a project to create for your self. A todo list maybe. Code it from scratch using what you've learned.

Next I would look at jQuery and learn how to improve the front end of your todo list.

Next step up would be learning a framework if you want to continue learning backend coding.

I recommend Laravel(PHP) or Rails(Ruby).

I'd recommend developing on a mac for both. Windows tends to have issues doing even the basic tutorials where you'll spend half a day troubleshooting only to find out it's a windows problem that needs a work around.

There are lots of tutorials for both.

Railscasts.com and Laracasts.com are good places to start.

You don't need to dive in to these till you have a solid foundation of HTML->CSS->javascript->jQuery->PHP->MySQL.

There is lots of learn so move at your own pace, see what you like.

Photoshop is a nice skill for editing creating images for your sites.

TeamTreehouse.com is a good paid site for learning.

Good luck, have fun.

</comment><comment><USER8> Not knowing what/where you want to apply this new knowledge, I'd recommend learning Python. It's a very good beginning language and it can be applied to many different areas (web, science, research, etc...). You can also easily apply the general programming knowledge you learn in Python to many different languages.

Some free Python resources: \- Dive into Python - [http://www.diveintopython.net/toc/index.html](http://www.diveintopython.net/toc/index.html) \- Dive into Python (v3) - [http://getpython3.com/diveintopython3/whats- new.html](http://getpython3.com/diveintopython3/whats-new.html) \- Official Python Tutorial - [https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/index.html](https://docs.python.org/2/tutorial/index.html) \- Learn Python the Hard Way - [http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/](http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/) \- The New Boston Python (videos) - [https://thenewboston.com/videos.php?cat=36](https://thenewboston.com/videos.php?cat=36)

HTH

</comment><comment><USER9> Depends on) 1) Who you ask, their opinions etc (and there are many) 2) What you want to do. Coding is too big of a field to say "you should learn this language." Javascript is ubiquitous and you can do most anything with it (especially work with browsers) but it's also not the loveliest language.

You mention web design so then CSS, Javascript and HTML would be the logical choices.

If you want to learn to code, though, then I would personally suggest learning a functional language - maybe Clojure or Scala? That's a highly opinionated recommendation because my own experience has shown me that learning functional programming makes you more capable with other more imperative languages. This might be of interest. [http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/OtherDocs/To%20the%20Budg...](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/OtherDocs/To%20the%20Budget%20Council%20concerning%20Haskell.pdf)

Most people would likely recommend something like python or ruby or even Java. There are many opinions. I would look at what you want to do first, and then choose the technologies that are used in that problem domain.

Coursera has courses that you can take for free. It would be a good place to start.

</comment><comment><USER10> I second the recommendation for Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails tutorial, [https://www.railstutorial.org/book](https://www.railstutorial.org/book)

You can learn enough on Michael's website [http://www.learnenough.com/](http://www.learnenough.com/)

</comment><comment><USER11> You should ask yourself what do you want to build? If you just want to build a static website then HTML, CSS and basic javascript with a sprinkling of photoshop/gimp. If you want to build a web app then learn HTML, CSS, Javascript and then ruby, and then ruby on rails or Node.js. In terms of free resources get your feet wet with codeacademy then move on to freecodecamp. Oh and join codenewbie for support as learning to code could be frustrating at times.

</comment><comment><USER12> I like to think a good programming book will teach you theory along with showing you what an implementation in a language is going to look like.

While you still find it's hard to decide which language is superior to learn, maybe do some comparisons? You could look at some samples of different languages very easily, e.g. get on github and browse around! Then perhaps you gravitate naturally towards how one looks?

It could be nice, just starting out and all, to enjoy the natural elegance of languages: consider solving some project euler problems...then you can look at solutions in all sorts of languages! What fun.

</comment><comment><USER13> It is almost funny that almost everyone are recommending a different language for the OP to learn :)

I would say choose those who are similar in each post, HTML / CSS and Javascript. Javascript actually would be the first one to learn imho, because it is easy, it is used in both client and server side (via node.js); it is very easy to learn.

</comment><comment><USER14> Either Python, Java, C#, or Ruby. If you are a Windows guy I'd go with C# over Java. None of these are what I prefer to code in, but my career options are extremely limited if I chose the language that I think is the "best".

</comment><comment><USER15> What is your goal? What type of projects are you looking to code?

</comment><comment><USER16> I think Java would not be a bad choice as a general first language. And Javascript if web is your thing.

<comment><USER17> Agree with this. My first language was C# and because of it I learned a lot about correct patterns and code readability/refactoring that I can use in PHP or JS now.</comment></comment>


Had They Bet Nuclear Not Renewables,Germany&California Would Have 100% Clean Pwr - <AUTHOR> https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/09/11/had-they-bet-on-nuclear-not-renewables-germany-california-would-already-have-100-clean-power/ <comment><USER2> That's fairly of high level of smug certainty in the headline considering that many US gen 3 nuclear plants that did start are unfinished and struggling to contain their overruns to 2-3x their initial budget. Even China which arguably did make the that big bet is cutting back on the number of nuclear plant projects in their large push (though we are seeing the first few plants of their big investment wave come online today - perhaps we will seem them resume, but I wonder about their safety practices in that wave). But the pullback in China suggests some of their internal data said to them that there was reason to pull back the goalposts a bit.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nuclear power isn't carbon neutral, and it's hard to describe how it can be possibly be described as "clean".

An honest discussion of lifecycle emissions of nuclear power vs renewable energy would be good to see, but this isn't it.

</comment><comment><USER4> aren't Fukushima & Chernobyl good examples of why not to go nuclear?</comment>


Are tears a turnoff to guys? - <AUTHOR> http://sbms.blogspot.com/2011/01/are-tears-turnoff-for-guys.html

<comment><USER2> The experiment only tried tears from sad movies.

They should have used:

* tears from onions ( no emotion )

* tears from joy ( laughter )

* saline solution ( control )

Until that happens, I am not convinced. The current study should me measuring how men when forced to concentrate loose testosterone, what about other oders? Did they test pumpkin pie and vanilla that are otherwise known as male erogenous oders?

<comment><USER3> They should have tried tears from persons who don't cry easily.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> More than anything, tears frighten guys.</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone know a RSVP SaaS offering, ideally working offline? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Give a try to Orgzit. They can help you in that matter.</comment>


Reddit, account security, and YOU - <AUTHOR> https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4l60nc/reddit_account_security_and_you/ <comment><USER2> So what sites have had their passwords dumped? If I'm not on any of those businesses/domains then I am not too worried about this but I'd like to see a list.

<comment><USER3> [https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites](https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites) has quite a list.

<comment><USER2> Perfect. Thanks!</comment></comment></comment>


2014 Cloud Scale Challenge [AWS + Azure] - <AUTHOR> http://robertgreiner.com/2014/08/pariveda-solutions-2014-cloud-scale-challenge/

<comment><USER2> I really like this idea. I'd love to see this at a larger scale as well (i.e. hundreds of teams) as part of a conference or something.</comment>


Ask HN: How often do you code when you're high? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> If you are referring specifically to marijuana, never. However, I do code frequently when I take amphetamines. I get in the zone much easier and am able to focus longer.

</comment><comment><USER3> Almost never, getting high is for hiking, chilling with friends, and playing video games

</comment><comment><USER4> LOL. Silence is an answer.

</comment><comment><USER5> quite regularly, it seems to help the flow of my work</comment>


High-speed Twitter replay of World Cup matches - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/world-cup-match-replay

<comment><AUTHOR> Eg: Click on the yellow circle for South Africa - Mexico. Skip to the second half and watch the cloud explode for the goals at 1:17 and 1:41. You can also roll over the small circle-tag things to bring up the text in the center. This will probably be more interesting later in the tournament :)</comment>


Small aviation pilot shortage could drive industry into the ground - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/small-aviation-businesses-say-pilot-shortage-could-drive-industry-into-the-ground/2014/02/08/2422cadc-8f5c-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

<comment><USER2> There are 2 things mentioned in the article:

1\. A shortage of private pilots i.e. customers for airport and airplane related services.

2\. A coming shortage of commercial pilots.

As far a the commercial pilot shortage goes; haven't we been seeing article on how pilots coming into the industry are paid very poorly? If there really is a coming shortage it might be because piloting pays poorly and rational actors are picking another line of work.

[http://skift.com/2013/08/28/the-u-s-airline-pilots-who- barel...](http://skift.com/2013/08/28/the-u-s-airline-pilots-who-barely-make- minimum-wage/)

[http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/06/16/pilot-pay-want- to...](http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/06/16/pilot-pay-want-to-know-how- much-your-captain-earns/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Something that came up as a side-topic in Korean aviation is how the complete lack of a hobby flying industry has been very harmful in terms of feeding the commercial pilot requirements. Pilots learning to fly large airliners have a fraction of the total airtime on far fewer aircraft than the typical pilot from a country with hobby flying.</comment></comment>


Thousands of People Live in These Ancient Spanish Caves - <AUTHOR> https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture-exploration/2018/08/cave-underground-dwellers-ancient-modern-granada-spain/ <comment><USER2> Wow. This is awesome!

<comment><USER3> I got a chance to visit these when I went to alhambra. Definitely worth it.</comment></comment>


Apple Watch Prelude - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2015/03/apple_watch_prelude

<comment><USER2> I hadn't heard of the modularity idea before. Thats actually really interesting. Upgrading to the latest model could mean just swapping the internals (battery included, maybe even display). That would be quite the differentiating factor for Apple's wearable lineup compared to Android Wear or Microsoft's thing. Apple could actually pull it of since since they have such a huge retail presence.</comment>


The war for the soul of open source - <AUTHOR> https://changelog.com/news/the-war-for-the-soul-of-open-source-mn7P <comment><AUTHOR> In the podcast Adam Jacob (co-founder and board member of Chef) explains why he thinks license change by OSS companies like MongoDB, Cockroach DB were wrong.

He thinks that if AWS indeed decides to offer your OSS software as service, it gives a huge boost to the community around your project which can benefit the bottom line of your company if your execution was good.

It would be interesting to know rest of the Hacker News community's opinion about it.</comment>


Rupert Murdoch: Let's Charge for Online Content Again - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rupert_murdoch_lets_charge_for_online_content_again.php <comment><USER2> Good luck with that. His version of the news has become largely irrelevant.

For the last decade people have been testing their voices and discovering how good it feels to write and report and participate in the media.

We don't need what we had, we just need net neutrality so we can have something better.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it will be important for journalists (and their companies) to really think about who their audiences are.

I think it will be important to simplify. And once that's done, I think the majority of people will eventually (I don't know when) pay for content because it will be of higher quality and relevance. (Some do this moderately well now.)

Frankly, I think all parties (i.e. Journalism as a whole) will probably benefit in the long-run. You may see smaller organizations, but that should enable them to adapt more efficiently as things evolve.

The key here, in my opinion, is to not get caught up in fast and excessive growth. You may even extend that to "pull-back/slow down" if you're growing too fast.

</comment><comment><USER4> Since there are a lot of people on this site thinking about this issue and I'm just a lowly FW programmer I'd like to ask: does anyone think we're benefitting from NYT, AP, Reuters, etc. providing their content on line while their revenue stream is rapidly drying up? There's plenty of good community produced free content available but I for one would be willing to pay for the equivalent of old-style journalism at some point. I think Murdoch might just be looking ahead to that day, he's not stupid.

There's an excellent magazine called "Cook's Illustrated". It's printed in two colors, no advertisements, no celebrities and it's pretty thin but people are willing to pay for it. I'd love to see a Cook's Illustrated model emerge as a small subset of the web. It won't need much bandwidth and it'll have lower latency because it won't have dancing teeth whiteners all over the place.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'd prefer this model to a tiered internet. Not that either are desirable for the average consumer.

<comment><USER6> Really? I've always had the impression that tiered internet is desirable for the "average consumer," but not for me. And how is tiered internet related to the cost of the content you receive over the internet?

<comment><USER5> I'm of the opinion that the average consumer prefers free content.

I'm also looking at it from my perspective - I'd have to pay for certain content in each case, and I'm referring to the idea in general, not just as it relates to journalism. In Murdoch's model the money would go to the content producer rather than the ISP.</comment></comment></comment>


Mint.com users are feeling the hurt, pinching pennies - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2008/10/06/mintcom-users-are-feeling-the-hurt-pinching-pennies/

<comment><USER2> 1) Not seasonally adjusted.

2) Alternative headline "Mint's users now include not only affluent early- adopters, but people with very slightly lower incomes, too!"

</comment><comment><USER3> If a drop of 6% is $300 (according to the article), the average mint.com user is spending $5,000 a month. That seems way too high to begin with, and secondly, a suspicously round number. Perhaps all the numbers were rounded off when told to the reporter ?

</comment><comment><USER4> This is scary. I would never store my finances in a random small start-up already doing data mining.

It is already too much to have banks and credit card corporations doing it.

</comment><comment><USER5> January is a heavy vacation month...?</comment>


Why isn't Canonical using Android? - <AUTHOR>

Now that Canonical is talking to OEMs and supporting other devices there's talk of Ubuntu for phones, but wouldn't it be better to create their own Android fork and keep compatibility with that OS' apps?
One of the first problems with a new OS is the ecosystem (see webOS) and Android already has more apps than you can shake a stick at, why not use that instead of trying to port Ubuntu apps to ARM?
Amazon has been very successful by forking Android for the Fire, why not do the same? <comment><USER2> It's not "Ubuntu for phones", i.e. a replacement OS. It's "Ubuntu for Android", an addition to Android.[1] Canonical enables Android phone users to have the benefit of a full desktop, but also keep Android and its apps. If you ask me it's a smart move. [1] <http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android>

</comment><comment><USER3> Because Android's UI framework is quite behind that of iOS and even that of Windows Phone's. Forking and fixing the UI framework is not doable.

Besides Ubuntu is in OS business, they would rather offer an alternative to Android.

<comment><USER4> All due respect, that seems like a knee-jerk answer to a knee-jerk question.

The mobile Ubuntu for Phones is actually entitled "Ubuntu for Android", and is billed as "The full PC desktop for multi-core Android phones".

That seems to stand in stark contrast to literally everything you said.

<comment><USER3> I was thinking more of tablets actually. It's not a secret that Ubuntu has aspirations in this segment. Jumping from tablets to phones is much almost trivial.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> because Android is slow and We need c++/Qt.</comment>


The awkward copyright collision of Fair Use and Creative Commons - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/compound-eye/2014/01/19/the-awkward-copyright-collision-of-fair-use-and-creative-commons/

<comment><USER2>
      > Based on Journal X's practices, my photographs would be
      > isolated from the paper, uploaded to Wikimedia Commons,
      > and available for corporations who normally pay for my
      > images to get them as freebies.

As noted in the article, the journal doesn't have the right to change the license on someone else's work. This is an ongoing problem with liberal copyright licenses in general; I often receive emails from people who ask me to release my software under MIT or BSD3 rather than GPL so they can "relicense" it, and sometimes even several back-and-forth emails are insufficient to convince them that copyright licenses aren't mutable by anyone but the owner.

For the author of this piece, I think the solution is relatively straightforward:

1\. Point out to the journal that having a photo in one of their articles does not grant automatic permission to put that photo on Wikimedia. If the journal's software is unable to handle these cases separately, then the software should be corrected.

2\. Ask Wikimedia kindly to remove the author's photos from their collection, or at least correct the license metadata. I'm sure the Wikimedia editors would be willing to do this, though they might become unhappy with the journal editor who uploaded photos without permission.

3\. If someone uses the author's photos for commercial purposes, contact them and let them know that such use require a commercial license. They will likely be uncooperative (c.f. the various newspapers who like to source uncredited photos from Twitter), but some gentle reminders about copyright infringement's RIAA-engorged penalties should bring them around. If nothing else, they will likely become much stricter about validating ownership before using a photo.

<comment><USER3> > I often receive emails from people who ask me to release my software under > MIT or BSD3 rather than GPL so they can "relicense" it,

That makes no sense. People are asking GPL software to be relicensed under BSD/MIT to make them usable in situations where the GPL is a legal hassle or impossible to use. I doubt that people even consider relicensing BSD as something else (besides people practically downgrading BSD to GPL).

<comment><USER2> Example:

1\. User wants to use my GPL'd library in their application. Their application is released as source code under the 3-clause BSD license.

2\. User sends me an email asking me to change my library's license to MIT or 3-clause BSD so their open-source app can use it.

3\. I reply with the longform equivalent of "u wot m8?"

4\. They reply that if I change my license to MIT, they will be able to "relicense" it to 3-clause BSD and use it as a dependency in their application's build script.

5\. I explain that they don't need permission to just depend on a library, since they're not distributing any of it. And besides, if they did include some of my code in their tarballs, they still can't change the license because they don't own the copyright.

I suspect this stems from the same sort of pseudo-religious copyright knowledge that leads to "no copyright intended" disclaimers on YouTube. Lots of people grew up in the era of Napster and copy-pasted MySpace javascript, and never really gave much thought to how copyright actually works.

<comment><USER4> Presumably, User wants to include your library in their open-source BSD release. If that is the case, what they're asking is correct since a work extending / modifying a GPL licensed code needs to be released as GPL as well. That is the main difference between GPL and non-copyleft licenses.

They could distribute their code without your library, as you say, but that would require more hassle from the end-user, especially if there's some configuration / integration process that is required to make both work together.

<comment><USER2> My libraries are mostly in Haskell, so depending on them is a matter of adding a line to a standardized build file. I have not yet received mail from a user asking me to change a license because they wanted to actually include code in their works -- it's almost always a misunderstanding of copyright.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Let me see if I've got this right.

The journal wants to ensure that anyone can read the articles _and all supporting information_ so they insist the author of the piece allow them to publish it under a Creative Commons license. The author would like to use one of this photographer's pictures and requests the permission. The photographer doesn't want to allow that. He (the photographer) suggests "I'd be happy to let you could use it in the article as long as you won't let anyone _else_ copy it", but that's not OK with the journal. So the picture doesn't get used.

All sounds right to me. That's how it's supposed to work.

</comment><comment><USER6> This doesn't seem like a collision of fair use and creative commons so much as a simple refusal to use fair use in the first place. The publications have decided that fair use is not sufficient for their needs, requiring instead a more explicit licensing agreement that fits their needs better.

<comment><USER7> The author even brings this up "This is not a problem with Creative Commons per se, but a structural issue with publishers that are inflexible in how they handle content." Then IMMEDIATELY continues with "I thought I'd share it here, though, as a counter-intuitive example of how Creative Commons can suppress the distribution of information." EXCEPT this is NOT an example (counter intuitive, or otherwise) of how CC can suppress distribution. Rather this is an example of publishers STEALING images. As the author pointed out, if the paper uses copyrighted photos with permission, or by fair use, the publisher of the paper CAN NOT just apply CC licensing to those photos. This is not a problem with CC this is a problem with the publisher.

<comment><USER8> From what I read in the post I don't think the publisher is stealing the images so much as rejecting them if they don't meet the license requirements.

While this paper illustrates an unfortunate side-effect, it's really no different to the Linux kernel rejecting code that isn't under a GPL2-compatible license.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is almost identical to the issue of open-source license conflicts, where everyone is OK with their code being freely downloaded / compiled / modified by users, but not necessarily with the terms under which it can then be redistributed by those users.

</comment><comment><USER10> The author says this is for logistical reasons, but I can imagine some principled arguments for the journals having such a policy too. The journal _is_ more useful for everyone if it can also serve as a source of reusable scientific images. In the ideal case, the authors would notice that they could not use a copyrighted photo of an ant, so they would go out and take their own photo, or pay a photographer to do so. If they just used ant photos under fair use, then nobody would have an incentive to create new CC-licensed ones.

</comment><comment><USER11> There is no awkward collision.

This is working exactly as it is supposed to.

</comment><comment><USER12> author wants to "have his cake and eat it too", and argues from a position of untenable entitlement. _As a private photographer, I cannot afford it._ But you, sir, are not _entitled_ to have someone distribute your work on your behalf.

Perhaps the photographer should consider changing his or her business model wherein he or she gets paid upfront on a commissioned basis to take interesting photographs, and release everything freely (with the concomitant distribution benefits).

</comment><comment><USER13> For me, I'd like people were compensated fairly for their time and investment, but only once. Then, we will not have to think about this stupid dilemmas. I wish copyright did not exist, or for it to be really short. I prefer the former, as in selling a service.

Greetings. \-- Carlos

</comment><comment><USER14> > Printing images as natural history data in a scholarly publication should be > considered Fair Use.

The author's entire argument rests on this single sentence. And, so far as I know, it is incorrect.

[I _think_ that by "should be" the author is really saying "is" in a flowery way: otherwise his entire article is a nonsense hypothetical rather than, as he says, something which happened in reality.]

<comment><USER15> > And, so far as I know, it is incorrect.

Why do you think it is incorrect? See [1]:

> […] the fair use of a copyrighted work […] for purposes such as […] teaching > […], scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.

[1]: [http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107)

<comment><USER14> Publication is not straightforward. For example, if I publish an article in a Springer journal, Springer owns the copyright on it. They, not I (the scholar), have published it and are making money off of it. It is my experience in _publishing_ scholarly work that inclusion of other figures is often considered to be copyright violation and not fair use.

And let's say that he's self-published, or used some service where he owns the copyright. Even then, he can't change the license on something just because of "fair use". He is free to publish his article under Creative Commons, or license the figure, but he can't do both.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This phenomenon of a "permissions mismatch" is common enough with various open-source software licenses that it has its own name: _license incompatibility_ [1].

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_compatibility](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/License_compatibility)

</comment><comment><USER17> the op must clearly state fair use and forbid re-licensing to the magazine and the magazine should not relicense (scenario 1). But i suspect, op doesn't do it because of the fear the magazine will simply skip media with such restrictions (scenario 2). So op allows fair use, and the magazine re-licenses wrongly (scenario 3) [edit, or the op may license her work in cc- scenario 4)].

imho, it makes more sense for OP to use this fair use permission as a tool for generating potential interest for his work, and watch the magazines re-license them wrongly (scenario 3). if sufficient interest shows up, at least some new users may accept to pay for this media at the end. it all boils down to a conversion funnel analysis to decide which scenario makes more sense. ranting about it in a blog may also increase conversions.

<comment><USER18> Should scientific articles start shipping with header comments like software, stipulating the license of each file?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> There is no "collision" here whatsoever. Some people might like to distribute a photographers work under a Creative Commons licence. The photographer does not want to permit this. That's the whole thing. The fact that fair use exists has nothing to do with this.

</comment><comment><USER20> Do not mix non-libre assets with libre ones, do not mix proprietary code with GPL code, etc.

</comment><comment><USER21> Anybody else close that to conserve battery power and save the planet from global warming? Cause i did. Fuck thats a lot of vommit on the screen.</comment>


Indico: Machine Learning without the PhD - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/rough-draft-ventures/4886925d94db

<comment><USER2> How does a product like this look in with regards to the trend of very reliable, well packaged open source projects, eg scikit learn?

In my experience, the challenge with many ML problems is not taking an algorithm off the shelf, but rather encoding features and making raw data sets useful.

<comment><USER3> This product is meant for a very different user base than a library like sklearn. In fact, much of our functionality leverages projects like sklearn, skimage, etc...

Basically what we're trying to do is extend a series of pre-trained models on common problems that don't require any training data from the user.

The drawback of this is that these api endpoints are less flexible than a true library, but the plus is that the user never has to deal with encoding features, or even finding, let alone cleaning raw data sets.</comment></comment>


Sex, shopping and thinking pink (Men's and women's brains are different) - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682588

<comment> daniel-cussen So male-oriend websites should be blue to help the 10% that is colorblind, and female websites should be pink to attract women. I guess mothers are fundamentally right when they dress up baby boys in blue and baby girls in pink.

</comment><comment><USER2> these evolutionary explanations aren't falsifiable and therefore belief in them is as rational as belief in any explanatory heuristic you can dream up, always salvageable by postulating whatever new ad-hoc assumptions can help the theory. besides, if men are hunters, and hunters want meat, and meat is reddish-pink, then men should go for that color too, right?

</comment><comment><USER3> No, they aren't.

</comment><comment><USER4> This isn't very good science. There are plenty of alternative conclusions the data supports just as well as the one they chose. So saying they did science to support their conclusion is false.

For example, they didn't even bother to try a control: do the same thing but fill the booths with non-food. Maybe the food was irrelevant.

Or maybe the men were just more bored while doing the experiment, perhaps for cultural reasons. They didn't test for that either.

etc</comment>


Ask HN: I have no design skills. Please help me. - <AUTHOR>

Hello HN. I am trying to put together an about.me page so i can take advantage of its numerous benefits and ease. However I have no design skills or knowledge and therefore don't really no how to make it look good. Any advice or suggestions on colors, fonts, layout, etc. from people who have used about.me would be amazing.<p>here is the link to my page for reference: http://about.me/adamorshan <comment><USER2> If you're going to make your webpage a photo of yourself, make sure it's a good photo. Neither the red-eye nor the dusky kitchenette with vertical blinds are really helping you out.

Those 37 signals pages that everyone raves about or really any other website that uses full-bleed photography use _really good photography._

The photo doesn't have to be of you, but if it is, i'd seriously consider having a friend take a photo of you during golden hour (or at least during the day) with a sharp lens. Expect to do a bit of touching up anyway and make sure everything feels decadent.

If you've got a good photo, it's pretty hard to muck it up with type. Case in point: look at almost all album art (or fashion magazines) for proof of this.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable: <http://about.me/adamorshan></comment>


The Nine Principles of Policing by Consent - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_Principles#The_Nine_Principles_of_Policing

<comment><USER2> I should say that here practically speaking "the public" mean public opinion, and public opinion mean the middle classes. The poor did not regard the police as benign:

'As regards the police, the hatred of a costermonger to a "peeler" is intense, and with their opinion of the police, all the more ignorant unite that of the governing power. "Can you wonder at it, sir," said a costermonger to me, "that I hate the police? They drive us about, we must move on, we can't stand here, and we can't pitch there. But if we're cracked up, that is if we're forced to go into the Union (I've known it both at Clerkenwell and the City of London workhouses,) why the parish gives us money to buy a barrow, or a shallow, or to hire them, and leave the house and start for ourselves: and what's the use of that, if the police won't let us sell our goods?—Which is right, the parish or the police?"'

Henry Mayhew, _London Labor and the London Poor_ ([http://dl.tufts.edu/catalog/tei/tufts:MS004.002.052.001.0000...](http://dl.tufts.edu/catalog/tei/tufts:MS004.002.052.001.00001/chapter/c4s12))

[edit: added "here" to first sentence.]</comment>


Reddit is ready for advertisers, but are advertisers ready for Reddit? - <AUTHOR> https://martechtoday.com/reddit-ready-advertisers-advertisers-ready-reddit-207382 <comment><USER2> Why pay for ads when you can pay for vote manipulation and viral marketing through organic posts? The cost / user engagement ratio has to be much better, right?

<comment><USER3> This is by far the best way to stretch your marketing dollar on reddit, but (aside from AMAs) seems difficult for reddit themselves to monetize.

<comment><USER4> Reddit as a monolith is pretty good at catching that. Sure it'll miss one or two every now and then, but I don't see it being inundated by organic marketing anytime soon.

Also, as I understand it, they have been working on catching this stuff behind the scenes and they seem to be doing okay.

<comment><USER5> > but I don't see it being inundated by organic marketing anytime soon.

Because it already is

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is the end of Reddit. They can't monetize the web version of their site because their users are sophisticated enough to use ad blockers. If they load up their mobile app with ads, people will just use a 3rd party Reddit app. So they'll have to ban 3rd party apps which will betray all the users who got into Reddit because it was an open platform.

<comment><USER7> I spend a lot of money advertising on Reddit. It does great. I'm extremely happy.

<comment><USER8> What are you advertising? I'm thinking of running ads there for my Bitbucket add-on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > take the most critical, bullying group of individuals on the internet and > throw them into one community; that is Reddit," said Tuff.

Hah! This guy must not use the web often. Also, for a guy who eventually hopes to sell ads on the Reddit platform, he's not doing a great job of putting lipstick on the pig.

<comment><USER10> I would say HN is far more critical and bullying than reddit, but then again we aren't trying to lure advertisers

<comment><USER11> HN is more critical but less bullying. It rarely tolerates open crude abuse, but has a huge blind spot around "intellectual" bullying such as ""scientific"" racism.

<comment><USER12> HN has a problem with the libertarian hellscape ideology of laws being an impediment to wealth. I would argue this oppressive ideology is far more violent than the dross that's skimmed off Reddit.

Additionally, HN is far, far less intelligent than its users would have you believe, but that circles back to the edgelord libertarianism again.

<comment><USER13> Ok so I get that you disagree but how is it violence?

<comment><USER12> Oppression is violence [1]. The willful disregard of laws enacted by a democratically elected legislature (from Uber's disregard of Taxi Medallions, airbnb's disregard of occupancy laws, to 2008-era banking scandals) of the upper class (successful entrepreneurs) is oppression against the lower classes.

Usually, this is taken care of through the courts, wherein the judicial system punishes people for crimes -- again, an act of violence. However, in the absence of punishment or a judiciary aligned with the interests of oppressors, the oppressed are morally justified in enacting punishment and responding to violence in kind.

[1] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1967.

<comment><USER14> Being against socialism is not violence. The idea that the taxi medallion system was anything but a cartel is very crude. I'm not even sure what kind of person writes these comments that are in stark disagreement to the founding principles of the USA. Authoritarian governments are the exact violence the USA was founded to get away from.

<comment><USER11> > Authoritarian governments are the exact violence the USA was founded to get > away from

You might want to ask a black person or an Indian for their perspective on this.

<comment><USER14> I don't have to "ask an Indian" because my grandfather is on the Dawes Rolls.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Advertisers haven't been ready for reddit for awhile.

Who wants their content associated with hate groups ? Trolls ? Adult content ? Moderators who are mistreated by staff. Staff that modifies other peoples comments ? And once they are ready maybe reddit won't be what people want anymore .

Also, the fact that social media advertisers can do the ads cheaper . Why pay for something you can do for much less?

I guess reddit has a PR agency trying to push them so that advertisers will take the bait.

<comment><USER16> > Who wants their content associated with hate groups ? Trolls ? Adult content > ? Moderators who are mistreated by staff. Staff that modifies other peoples > comments ?

That's like the typical advertising experience with a print newspaper.

(This is somewhat satirical, I'm not suggesting that it's a sustainable long term situation.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I've been saying for a couple of years now that Reddit is on a clear downward spiral. Do you believe me yet?

The right approach is federation with small, user-operated instances that all talk to each other GNUSocial/Mastodon style. That's the _only_ way to make sustainable social networks that work in the interests of their users. Capitalism-driven social networks _do not work_.

<comment><USER18> > I've been saying for a couple of years now that Reddit is on a clear > downward spiral. Do you believe me yet?

People have been saying that for years, and yet Reddit is still here. (With that said, I do agree with the rest of your comment)

<comment><USER17> Digg's still here, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> > Those concerns range from worries that ads will appear on controversial > "subreddits," or topic-based message forums, to fears of campaigns being > flayed alive by Redditors on anti-advertising subreddits like HailCorporate.

Let's be honest, the problem is that the vast majority of marketers are really dumb and terrible at their jobs — they only want to do things that have already been "proven to work", even though by far the highest ROI goes to those who go first.

That's not to say there isn't a lot of fucked up stuff happening on Reddit, but that isn't the real issue here.

<comment><USER20> How many marketers do you know? I'm glad to see you edited "99% of marketers" to "vast majority of marketers," but that still reeks of a generalization based on personal opinion and not fact.

<comment><USER19> > How many marketers do you know?

I've talked with hundreds or thousands. But the underlying idea comes from Seth Godin, who I'm sure has talked with at least an order of magnitude more. He has lots of posts on this theme, e.g.:

[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/07/the- importan...](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/07/the-importance- of-going-first.html)

It's trivially easy to test the idea, just going on Bumble Networking (most people are marketers) and offer some new product or service that is obviously a no brainer. It doesn't matter if the thing you're selling doesn't actually exist, as long as it would be clearly beneficial. And just keep track of how much interest you actually get, versus people who just want to "make an instagram" or whatever.

<comment><USER20> I don't see what first-mover advantage has to do with Reddit as a marketing channel. Plenty of companies are already advertising there, and there are plenty of reasons why others aren't doing the same besides being "really dumb and terrible at their jobs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Any brand that only sells things that work as advertised and isn't backed by a tone-deaf marketing department should be able to hold up against any "brand- safety concerns". If they could also accept that no one wants to be tracked and that they should trust the people they're working with to report semi- accurate impression numbers instead of trying to use user machines as arbiters, maybe they could pull off some in-line advertising. While I've never seen a unicorn, I can't prove they don't exist. Good luck Reddit.

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm a huge fan of Reddit, it's basically where I got my info about everything in my life. It's like an up to date, curated version of the mess that some news site are. Plus conversations is highly interesting most of the time. Of course, you have to follow the good one, and read what you want to read.

</comment><comment><USER23> I tried advertising on Reddit earlier this year. I picked a few subreddits, whipped out my credit card, picked a few key phrases, and figured I was ready to go.

The advertising UI left a lot to be desired. I was hoping to run multiple versions of the same ad to test CTR, no dice. I could set up multiple ads, wait for them each to be approved, then manually make changes through molasses, possibly with additional approvals after each one.

I've used Google Ads, Bing, and some of those "curated" networks before. All of them felt like they wanted to help me succeed (so I'd give them more money). Using the Reddit system felt like a fight I was losing the whole time.

(at the time they were segregating advertisers into the like 10K+ spenders, and others. we were in the others category)

<comment><USER24> This feels like an impossible game. Reddit's advertising UI will never have as many features as Google's. Just compare how many engineers each company has.

<comment><USER23> Absolutely google can throw more people at the problem.

I'd settle for:

\- Let me run multiple versions of an ad, run more of the one that has the best CTR.

\- Once you've got my money, and have seen a few of my ads, never require approval again unless I've been bad.

\- Label all graphs clearly.

\- Give me an estimate of how many ads will show at various bids.

<comment><USER25> Once you've got my money, and have seen a few of my ads, never require approval again unless I've been bad.

That will never fly, for the sole reason that reddit is small enough and young enough that they could be run over by somebody willing to drop 10 grand. Googles spam filter is probably the best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Reddit tries way too hard to funnel people into their app, which I assume gives them more options for uncontrollable ad spam.

Dark patterns that constantly advertise apps really need to go.

On mobile I prefer the desktop Reddit site due to high link density and the fact that, frankly, browsers are BETTER because of trivial pinch/zoom/scroll, opening in new tabs, etc.

Instead, Every Single Time I visit Reddit I have to deal with a stupid loading animation, then a _massive_ message covering half my phone screen giving me only two options (App or Mobile Site), just so the page will load to the point where I can use the Request Desktop Site command. The experience sucks now, and if they make it worse I will simply _stop_ using Reddit instead of hopping on board.

<comment><USER27> There are countless 3rd party mobile apps for Reddit. Very odd that you don't mention them at all.

<comment><USER28> And all of them are vast improvements over both the official app and the new "mobile" site.

The day reddit starts shutting out 3rd party apps is the day I stop using reddit.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't mind the promoted Triplebyte ad I see at the top of my reddit landing page. I'm subscribed to r/git and r/programming; I suspect it's coming from my r/programming subscription. My ad-blocker is enabled for reddit, but the Triplebyte promoted ad still gets through. I guess it's not really an ad but a promoted topic. It even has the upvote/downvote buttons. It's been there for probably the last month.

<comment><USER29> (I work at Triplebyte.) Thanks, that's great to hear! It works for us too -- we can easily measure that we've created a lot of great career opportunities for engineers who came to us via the r/programming promoted post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> It's much better for advertisers to astroturf on reddit.

</comment><comment><USER31> I don't think mainstream advertising that appeals to the general public will ever be successful on Reddit. Niche advertising, such as recruiting and product placement in subs like /r/sysadmin, or fanduel in /r/nfl, will have mild success - but not enough to make Reddit profitable. Ironically I think imgur will have more success then Reddit in the long run.

<comment><USER32> >I don't think mainstream advertising that appeals to the general public will ever be successful on Reddit.

Mainstream advertising doesn't appeal to the general public. People tolerate it because they don't know they can turn it off.

If web browsers shipped with ad-blocking turned on by default then most people would never turn it off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> > To ensure those whitelisted subreddits stay safe, Reddit monitors the posts > published to them using language analysis technology. If it finds posts that > violate its quality standards, it turns off ads for that subreddit.

That's surprisingly honorable. I worry that, if Reddit is faced with more financial struggles in the future, this would be among the first things to change. Imagine if, instead of programmatically terminating advertisements and having a human check the content for moderation, they programmatically removed the _content_ instead of the ads.

</comment><comment><USER34> If advertisers are edgy about something as locked down as YouTube, they're going to be positively terrified of Reddit.

</comment><comment><USER35> The 500lb gorilla in the room that no one is talking about when it comes to Reddit ads is this. Go to Reddit right now and hit the "All" button and just see how much hardcore pornography pops up immediately. I'm not making some sort of moral judgement here at all, but that can and does scare off tons of big brands.

<comment><USER36> I don't think NSFW content is shown by default - it needs to be enabled in your account preferences.

<comment><USER37> It is absolutely shown by default for /r/all, however the default ("popular") view and default subs for a login exclude NSFW.

<comment><USER38> I just opened up an incognito window and hit /r/all. In the first two pages, I saw nothing NSFW except a joke about a hotel survey which mentions a hooker that would certainly pass on network television.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> As a moderator for a large branded subreddit, get ready for user revolt.

</comment><comment><USER40> ... And are users ready for ads?

<comment><USER41> The site already has ads. Sidebar ads, banner ads, ads that look like regular submissions to the site. Not to mention the more natural advertising that /r/hailcorporate likes to freak out about a lot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> > yes

</comment><comment><USER43> "... take the most critical, bullying group of individuals on the internet and throw them into one community; that is Reddit," said Tuff.

Lol.

<comment><USER44> Would you mind following the guidelines by only posting civilly and substantively?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

<comment><USER43> Sorry. It's such an awesome description though.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Wrapping Varnish Cache with mitmproxy - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/chair6/varnish-wrapper <comment><AUTHOR> I've been doing some experimentation with Varnish Cache and wanted the ability see/modify/compare HTTP & HTTPS requests pre- and post-cache. Turned into a Vagrant environment and set of scripts that might be helpful to others with similar use cases...

<comment><USER2> This looks great. Happy to see people building so much useful stuff with mitmproxy. :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice!</comment>


We can: politics for the Facebook generation - <AUTHOR> http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/ministers/speeches/david-miliband/dm070521.htm <comment><AUTHOR> Amazingly this politician truly gets the potential of the web and is the Secretary of Rural Affairs for the UK!</comment>


Why aren't we password free yet? - <AUTHOR> http://qnoid.com/2014/02/22/Why-arent-we-password-free-yet%3F.html

<comment><USER2> Hi there,

I'm Markos Charatzas, the author of the post.

This is actually a series of posts written ([http://qnoid.com/2012/11/10/A-post-about-user-identity- that-...](http://qnoid.com/2012/11/10/A-post-about-user-identity-that-is- thought-provoking-on-user-authorisation-and-security%2C-or-just-utter- bullshit..html), [http://qnoid.com/2012/11/10/Mockups-on-user- identity.html](http://qnoid.com/2012/11/10/Mockups-on-user-identity.html), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Zu- AHhXyo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Zu-AHhXyo)), talks given ([https://speakerdeck.com/qnoid/user-identity- nsconference-201...](https://speakerdeck.com/qnoid/user-identity- nsconference-2013) [https://speakerdeck.com/qnoid/user- identity](https://speakerdeck.com/qnoid/user-identity)) and open source code released ([https://github.com/verylargebox/VLBUserIdentity](https://github.com/verylargebox/VLBUserIdentity)) on how we should think of user authentication based on existing user behaviour (never signing out) and trends (long lived sessions, email verification).

When talking about mobile, people don't log out of every app before locking their device.

If you have any further questions after reading all the above happy to address them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Personally, I'd rather not have to go log in to my email because a site decided it would go passwordless. From a usability perspective, you've greatly extended the amount of time it takes a user to log in and do what they wanted to do.

<comment><USER4> This is only needed once on the same browser. Once you do this, it will store it as a session or something. The text is not very clear on how he imagines this to work but that is what I can think of would work.

<comment><USER5> 1\. People have more than one device.

2\. People use different computer.

3\. People who likes to sign off.

4\. People who likes to use private browsing.

5\. People who create new profile.

If you are Facebook, try that. Passwordless will not scale. Of course, passwordless scheme only works for very limited, selected websites.

<comment><USER4> Yes I know this. I do use steam and every time I change something, I have to activate the new device with a mail. I personally hate this but some could actually have use for it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


How Daydreaming Could Lead to Your Next Big Idea - <AUTHOR> http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/lifestyle/article/how-daydreaming-could-lead-to-your-next-big-idea-ben-popper <comment><USER2> Interesting how the brain is "much more active than during reasoning with a complex problem." I think we have found de-focusing etc can help anyway. For instance, often when working on a problem, such as a piece of code it helps to stop if you're not making progress and just chill for a while. Take a walk. I wonder if gaming/watching IT Crowd counts? ;)</comment>


Ask HN: What was the first side/hobby project you completed? - <AUTHOR> I'm having a lot of trouble lately learning the technology stacks I want to. I get overwhelmed with what functionality my projects should have or what new technology I should be using that I just give up. I imagine it's some kind of impostor syndrome, since eventually I'd like to use side projects as a way into the dev career I want, but I feel like I can't learn fast enough to keep up with job reqs ("nothing I make is good enough!")<p>So anyways, I'd feel some relief hearing stories about how you finished your first project (that wasn't directly tied to your job). ETA: "finished" in your own view, of course! <comment><USER2> It's never finished. 1) Some people invest time almost a single code bases 2) others start and stop numerous projetcs 3) others do nothing. And everything in between.

Myself, I am in the second category. I start but not maintain project.

Here is a list of feature complete repositories:

\- [https://github.com/amirouche/scheme- todomvc](https://github.com/amirouche/scheme-todomvc) \- [https://github.com/amirouche/deuspy](https://github.com/amirouche/deuspy) \- [http://quicoeur.fr/](http://quicoeur.fr/) \- [http://sensimark.com](http://sensimark.com)

I have other projects like:

\- [https://framagit.org/a-guile- mind/culturia.next/](https://framagit.org/a-guile-mind/culturia.next/)

\- [https://framagit.org/a-guile- mind/culturia.one/](https://framagit.org/a-guile-mind/culturia.one/)

\- [https://github.com/amirouche/zehefyu93](https://github.com/amirouche/zehefyu93)

\- [https://github.com/amirouche/socialite](https://github.com/amirouche/socialite)

They are not done because they are more research work on various topics like UI/UX that is more like CLI in the browser this lead to the development of a chatbot like experience in the spirit of ipython. In the database side, I think I will recode culturia.next. Even if I don't know what the future will bring.

Worse, I have two go to stack:

1) Guile + BiwaScheme or simple SXML

2) aiohttp + reactjs like socialite maybe i will move to [https://github.com/amirouche/beyondjs/](https://github.com/amirouche/beyondjs/) with [https://github.com/amirouche/found](https://github.com/amirouche/found)

</comment><comment><USER3> My first major project was setting up a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) accessible from the Internet.

I knew how to write basic HTML in Notepad and view it in a browser, but the process of installing Linux on an old laptop, setting up the stack, and learning how to port forward through double-NAT was a tremendous accomplishment for myself. I even setup dynamic DNS and had a free domain name.

Today a LAMP stack isn't too impressive, but starting _somewhere_ is important, even if it's small.

<comment><AUTHOR> This seems to be the thing I have trouble _getting_ the most. I've started a lot, but also have stopped a lot.</comment></comment>


Report: Hulu Prepping To File For $2 Billion IPO - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/08/report-hulu-prepping-to-file-for-2-billion-ipo/

<comment><USER2> I'm curious what an index consisting of stock whose IPO was mentioned on the front page of HN would look like?

<comment><USER3> There have been many IPOs announced here which aren't trading yet (or the IPO fell through), but here's a list of currently trading stocks which had an IPO mention here (I've probably missed some):

Tesla, Green Dot, Orbitz, NetSuite, Alibaba.com, OpenTable, Rackspace, COMSCORE, LogMeIn, Qlik Technologies, Blinkx, SolarWinds

<comment><USER2> One should only count the IPOs that actually happen, I should think. One could base an index on buying a set amount of IPO stock at market a set time interval after the IPO. (3 business days?) I'm not sure how one should calculate the index in the even of a purchase. Should one "sell" a hypothetical amount of stock already in the index and use it to "buy" new stock?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm considering buying in.

Anyone else?

<comment><USER5> Why are you considering buying in?

Are you familiar with their financial situation? Do you know how much money they make? I can't find any reliable numbers. This is the best I could find:

[http://www.businessinsider.com/hulu-ceo-talks-ipo--here- are-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/hulu-ceo-talks-ipo--here-are-the- financials-2010-7)

So their net profits are estimated $70M this year (before tax, I assume).

Their growth rate is the only thing that justifies 2B valuation.

So my main point is - we don't know enough to decide whether they are worth that much.

<comment><USER6> Following the numbers in that article here:

Say they're break-even on $70mm of annual revenue.

35% of annual revenue is gross profit - so of $70mm they keep $24.5mm - so say that's their operating expense number.

I think you'd have to expect a 3-5x bump in revenue (assuming gross margin stays the same and no significant growth in that operating expense number of $25mm) to justify buying at a $2bn valuation.

4x revenue growth from $250mm expected this year = $1bn revenue

$1bn revenue * 35% gross profit margin = $350mm gross profit. $350mm - $25mm operating expenses = $325mm pre-tax income. $325mm less 35% taxes = $210mm net income.

Assuming they can keep up a steady growth rate at this point and you can value Hulu at 15x their net income number, this implies a value of $3,150. Which is about a 15% annualized return number over 3 years off a valuation of $2bn today.

So some of the questions are - how much do you expect online TV to grow, what percent of that market do you think Hulu will have, and successful do you think Hulu Plus and any other initiatives will be, and do you think Hulu can keep their operating expenses relatively flat?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It will be interesting if CBS decides to buy a big chunk of Hulu on the public markets :)

</comment><comment><USER8> Nice to see TechCrunch got the memo about how to write like engadget ... summarize someone else's article, link to 10 of your own.

Wonder when they'll tuck the source link away somewhere discrete.

</comment><comment><USER9> Hulu IPO would be good sign for the markets. Amazing that they got this shareholders together in the first place. But I wouldn't invest. Definitely not for the long run. They will still be controlled by the large media companies and if Hulu's profits rise they will just charge Hulu more for the license. So Hulu's earning potential is limited.

</comment><comment><USER10> As is with the networks owning hulu, I can understand their incentive to make hulu a destination site, so atleast they get a chunk of the revenue and not a third part... as a separate public company they don't have this advantage so it's dependent on Hulu's ability to lock up long-term contracts, which I'm not sure they can do. This is a lot like Orbitz... originally started by a consortium of TV companies/air carriers then went public</comment>


What The New Microsoft Office Gets Wrong - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670308/what-the-new-microsoft-office-gets-wrong

<comment><USER2> Although the author of the post cribs about the same underneath UI with dropdowns and ribbons etc., isn't that's what the users have liked about it all the way long?</comment>


About Us - <AUTHOR> http://www.signmountain.info/2011/08/01/hello-world/

<comment><USER2> must you contribute garbage?</comment>


The 1% doesn't stay the 1% for long - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/#!/articles/2014/03/26/pf/taxes/high-income-taxpayers.json?category=Latest News

<comment><USER2> Economist Thomas Sowell talks about this at length in his book economic facts as fallacies. He points out its foolish to make policy decisions based on what % of the national income each economic quintile made, because the people within those quintiles are constantly moving from one to another. A person who made 500k/year for 40 years drops down into the lowest quintile when retired, though that person is by no means poor.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, this is not news to anyone who looks beyond the surface level income figures. Unfortunately, journalists fail us comprehensively in this regard. It's a shame because there are some very interesting things to talk about once you look at lifetime gross income and the trajectory people take through life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is anyone else just getting sent to CNN Money's Home Page? I can't seem to reach the article.

<comment><USER5> Yep. But I also use Ghostery and ABP, so I figured it was just me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> >They may have a bad year on their investments and claim losses, which can offset their capital gains.

They hired an account and learned how to hide the majority of their income?

</comment><comment><USER7> "Indeed, the federal tax return offers no clue to a person's net worth."

Kind of takes the wind out of what the title is getting at

</comment><comment><USER6> This link works. [http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/26/pf/taxes/high-income- taxpaye...](http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/26/pf/taxes/high-income- taxpayers/index.html?iid=HP_LN)

</comment><comment><USER8> Closing remarks:

 _...there 's a lot less fluctuation in the top ranks of the wealthy than there is among the highest income households.

Bill Gates' income in any given year may be topped by that of a hedge fund manager, Williams noted. But his wealth remains vast enough to keep him among the world's richest for a very long time._</comment>


An online game based on the novel 'Providence' - <AUTHOR> https://providence.training/ <comment><AUTHOR> Explanation: [https://maxbarry.com/2020/03/29/news.html](https://maxbarry.com/2020/03/29/news.html) "If you can, offer something of interest to a wider circle. Like, if you can drop everything and work 16-hour days for two weeks to build an online game based on your novel, then your followers might enjoy that and pass it along to others. The game, that is."</comment>


Ask HN: How much should I work as a first hire? - <AUTHOR> Should one clock in regular hours, are weekends and overtime expected? <comment><USER2> All depends on the team. Biggest thing to do is discuss expectations up front and clearly. Communication is key.

</comment><comment><USER3> How much are they going to pay you?

Are they going to pay for something like the market rate for 40hs/week or are they going to pay you the double?</comment>


Bitcoin hits new record high as warnings grow louder - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-bitcoin/bitcoin-hits-new-record-high-as-warnings-grow-louder-idUSKBN1E919T?il=0 <comment><AUTHOR> This is, rather intentionally or not, right now a classic "Pyramid Scheme" that must, as they all do, implode.

What's truly sad is all the "little guys" who are going to lose on this. I really couldn't care any less about the "Winklevoss Twins" losing out, but I have friends who buying into this at $200-$1000+ a pop right now and they don't have a clue about what they're actually purchasing and they're paying high fees to purchase it.

I've tried to tell them about "Pyramid Schemes" and it's a deja vu experience for me because just like back in the early `80s when all my friends were pestering the hell out of me to "join my pyramid" they refuse to listen to the fact that there is nothing but hot air holding this up.

This is not a critique about blockchain technology. It's a realization of witnessing "irrational exuberance" once again.</comment>


Andy Gross has died - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/justinsheehy/status/963618478874943488 <comment><USER2> Andy was a very close friend and the best coworker that I've ever had. I recently did a personal reference for him and he was looking to work out here on the east coast. I'm crushed that I just found this out on HN through a friend. Andy was like a magnet. One of those people that you generally wanted to be around. In my eyes he was the perfect mixture of skill, hilarity, and crudeness. I tell stories almost every day of things we've done at work and out of work. We drank a lot of beer, did a lot of engineering, and pulled a lot of stunts. At the end of the day he proved to a lot of people you can engineer, sell, and be an insane rebel when it comes to the work environment. This is a life taken way too soon. I'll miss you andy. -sean

<comment><USER3> Hi Sean, Thank you for these kind words. I'm Andy's youngest cousin, and I stumbled across this page while doing research for his memorial service this weekend. I was in my early teens when he moved to California, and I hadn't seen him for several years till this past Christmas. All you said and reading about all his accomplishments has shed some light on the person he was. Its nice to hear from one of his friends, and I will share it with the rest of the family. Thank you again. \- Frances Gross

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> "CTO and Co-founder at Opsee, NoSQL pioneer. Author of the Riak NoSQL DB, Riak Cloud Storage, Webmachine REST toolkit, 20 years distributed systems experience."

source: [https://angel.co/argv0](https://angel.co/argv0)

</comment><comment><USER5> More info for those who don't know who he is.

[https://angel.co/argv0](https://angel.co/argv0)

</comment><comment><USER6> Pardon my Ignorance, but who is Andy Gross?

<comment><USER7> An actual article, blog post, or something would be better than a tweet, even if I knew who he was -- the tweet itself has no more substance than the title of this post... and probably shouldn't be shared on HN because there's no extra context.

I'd like to know who he was, what he worked on, etc... The tweet is too vague.

<comment><USER8> Tweets have a long established history of being empty yet valid content here.

And this is not to be consisted a full bio by any means, but here are the highlights. Andy Gross was Co-creator of Riak and Webmachine, Chief Architect @ Basho. Formerly @ Mochi, Apple, Akamai, a noted speaker, and lover of cats.

<comment><USER7> Thanks for giving some context. I appreciate it. Again sorry if I offended anyone by me message/tone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Linkedin profile -- [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andygross/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andygross/)

<comment><USER6> Thank you. Bizarrely, according to Linkedin, Andy and I both have a friend in common!

<comment><USER6> That wasn't a joke btw. I was merely observing the over-connectedness of Linkedin.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Andy Gross had amazing accomplishments, traveled the world, but suffered from depression as do most with crazy high IQ's. He passed away from an accidental overdose.

</comment><comment><USER11> Andy was warm, generous, authentic, hilarious as fuck, and an absolute killer engineer. He will be badly missed.

</comment><comment><USER12> How did he die?

<comment><USER13> When a 40ish hacker and high-pressure startup founder dies unexpectedly with no announced cause of death, the chance is about 80% that they committed suicide.

<comment><USER14> This comment is a bit insensitive given the context, but man that hits close to home.

<comment><USER13> Sending hugs. I hope you're okay.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Well fuck that.</comment>


AirPod volume control by Siri only - <AUTHOR> https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/13/airpods-review-roundup/ <comment><USER2> The 5-minute AirPods review from TechCrunch is pretty thorough (video).

[https://techcrunch.com/video/apple-airpods-wireless- headphon...](https://techcrunch.com/video/apple-airpods-wireless-headphones- review/57d7a6f750954971dcf4f50c/)

Features like change volume up / down, go to prev / next track, and rewind / fast forward, can only be done with Siri (for now).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> i.e. only if you have an internet connection</comment>


I was bored and made a Conway's Game of Life app in Elixir - <AUTHOR> https://game-of-life.isaacbfsanders.com/ <comment><USER2> > I was bored and

Be proud of your experimentation! We're all fellow geeks here. You don't have to hedge like this with us about spending your time hacking. Thanks for sharing!

<comment><USER3> I don't think of this as a hedge; rather, it's saying "look what I was able to do in my spare time!"

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe half hedge and half humble-brag. I am having fun figuring out what I need to do to handle the server load. :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm also one of umpteen developers who have played with writing a Conway's Game of Life app. All the ones I've built have used the HashLife algorithm:

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

Here's one of my attempts, you can play with it in a browser. There's infinite scrolling, and you can do ridiculous things like start up a glider gun and watch it run out to billions of generations.

[http://raganwald.com/hashlife/](http://raganwald.com/hashlife/)

The source code is on Github:

[https://github.com/raganwald/hashlife](https://github.com/raganwald/hashlife)

</comment><comment><USER5> Link to code for those of us on a phone?

Edit: found it [https://github.com/isaacsanders/game_of_life- elixir](https://github.com/isaacsanders/game_of_life-elixir)

</comment><comment><USER6> I think every dev should have a go at Conway's life, I made one a while ago too [http://www.markysoft.com/es6life/](http://www.markysoft.com/es6life/)

<comment><USER7> Seems to be something traditional. I made one over a decade ago to learn C# and many more for learning other languages since then.

It's good fun to try it with different languages because the base problem is simple enough to learn how to solve it rather quickly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Great work! However, one pedantic comment: it doesn't look like Life to me -- it looks like In-Place-Life-Without-Double-Buffering.

I can't follow the code, but the NEXT state of a cell should depend strictly on the PREVIOUS state of the cell and its neighbors, not the NEXT state of any of the neighbors.

So if you don't double buffer the cells, and execute the rule in-place instead (and presumably scan in row major left->right, top->bottom order) by immediately storing the NEXT cell back in the PREVIOUS buffer instead of having a separate NEXT buffer, then the cells from the NORTHWEST, NORTH, NORTHEAST, and WEST are in the PREVIOUS instead of the NEXT state, resulting in the non-Life-like asymmetrical effect you seems to be getting there, with gliders going in different directions behaving differently, disintegrating when they shouldn't, and other weird asymmetrical behavior, instead of the gliders gliding the same in all directions like they're supposed to.

The most obvious artifact is the stable symmetrical configuration in the upper left corner corner that flickers asymmetrically:

        0110    0010    0110
        1001 => 1001 => 1001
        0110    0110    0110

[https://www.fourmilab.ch/cellab/manual/chap4.html](https://www.fourmilab.ch/cellab/manual/chap4.html)

>In a symmetric CA rule (and all semitotalistic rules are symmetric under flips and 90 degree rotations) a given CA pattern will have no reason to move in one direction rather than another unless the pattern itself is asymmetric. Setting one live cell next to another creates an asymmetry between north-south and east-west. The remaining symmetry is broken by gluing a pair of ghost cells to one side or the other of the live block. [...]

>There are of course many rules that stay alive in the trivial sense of turning the screen into what William Gosper calls "seething dog barf." What makes Brain so remarkable is that it is drawn to a chaotic attractor that is a stochastically stable equilibrium between dead black and milky jitter.

Life is a rotationally symmetrical counting rule ("semitotalistic"), so there are no special directions, unless the in-place scanning process is introducing asymmetrical "temporal shearing" along the scanning directions, which causes bizarre mutations, like some hypothetical Doctor Who episode where you can see the future to your North and West, and the past to your South and East.

You just need to use more temporal jewel matrix crystals ( _ahem_ I mean memory), to buffer the cells!

[https://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=14049](https://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=14049)

>"We seem to have hit a patch of temporal shearing. Dimensions are all mixed up…the TARDIS should protect us but…" his voice rose a full octave, "Rose? You're not near anything, are you? You need to move to the middle of…"

>Rose watched as the book began to dissolve into purple smoke. Then the grass, the flowers, the sun…she felt the ground give beneath her feet. The walls twisted sickeningly, but there was no air to help her scream… [...]

>"Oh no no no you don't, Miss Tyler." He put a firm hand on her shoulders and shook his head. "You managed to step right into the middle of a shearing bubble. You should have listened to me! It's scrambled all your electrical impulses — your heart, your brain — your whole nervous system." [...]

>The Doctor swallowed and started to speak faster. "The time rotor got damaged from that shearing bubble. Not enough to ground us but we can only travel in space, not time." He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Lucky for us Tau Tauri Alpha isn't far and it's the best source of temporal jewel matrix crystals I know. That'll repair the damage to the rotor. It's interesting stuff; elementally identically to the matter in the shearing storm. Mining it isn't a one-person job, though. So, if you're feeling better when we arrive…?"

<comment><USER8> Also, Zbigniew Rybczynski did some classic studies of life with temporal shearing:

[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjbiop](https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjbiop)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> After ITS was resurrected and running Ken Harrenstien's PDP-10 emulator, I wrote a version of Life in MIDAS for it: [http://www.fmjlang.co.uk/its/life.txt](http://www.fmjlang.co.uk/its/life.txt)

</comment><comment><USER10> Some years ago, I was bored and made this javascript version:

[http://www.gibney.org/conway_s_game_of_life](http://www.gibney.org/conway_s_game_of_life)

When you click 'Start' and then 'BigBang', it will start from a single cell in the center. I find the resulting evolution pretty fascinating.

<comment><USER11> Same here, but I ended up adding support for arbitrary world rules which is kind of nice to play around with.

[https://github.com/holmberd/js-gameoflife](https://github.com/holmberd/js- gameoflife)

I also have a Haskell version laying around somewhere.</comment></comment>


Bacterium that extracts gold from its environment - <AUTHOR> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17915-theres-gold-in-them-there-modified-bacteria.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

<comment><USER2> back in the day I ran the numbers on this - there's about a dime of gold in a ton of seawater - the salt is way more valuable....</comment>


Single App for Multiple Chat Apps - <AUTHOR> Is it technically possible to build a single App that interfaces between multiple chat apps such as WhatsApp, weChat, LINE etc all on a single App and messages between apps can be sent and received. <comment><USER2> Good</comment>