Show HN: Don't Name the Shooter - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dont-name-the-shooter/ldipcbiihbfjonainibmoiggbolhgodo <comment><USER2> I get the "sexinesss" of denying the person the attention they wanted, but it doesn't help society. We need to delve into the "whys" and "hows" of the shooter whenever stuff like this happens.

If we don't know the person's name, or the context of the person it makes us objectify the person, and as much as we would like to do so... it actually doesn't help us strengthen the collective wisdom of society to prevent this from happening again.

Say the person's name.

Get to know his family.

Get to know the years before they became radicalized.

Understand why they believed this was right as perverse as their rationale is. This is the only potent defense we have against terrorists and their ilk: Grow your mindfulness about the human condition.

<comment><USER3> Why would you need any of this? These kinds of events are sad for the people involved, but probably not worth spending time trying to figure out, as they are exceedingly rare and not particularly dangerous compared to other more mundane ways to die and become injured.

<comment><USER4> "These kinds of events are sad for the people involved, but probably not worth spending time trying to figure out, as they are exceedingly rare."

These events aren't exceedingly rare. Quite the opposite. In fact, the San Bernadino shooting wasn't even the only mass shooting in the US on December 3rd. IIRC, there has been one mass shooting, on average, every day since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.

More info: [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2015/12/03/458321777/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2015/12/03/458321777/a-tally-of-mass-shootings-in-the-u-s)

<comment><USER3> Number of people killed this year by mass shootings, according to that article this year: 462

Car accident fatalities per year according to this article[1]: 30000 (500+ per week) .

Low end estimates of flu deaths per season [2]: 3000

These latter two are not anything you would worry about significantly (they are not particularly likely to kill you). Why should I care about being killed in a mass shooting?

[1] [http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general- statistics/fatalit...](http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general- statistics/fatalityfacts/state-by-state-overview)

[2] [http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu- related_deaths.h...](http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/us_flu- related_deaths.htm)

<comment><USER5> Yes, if the people and governments were less emotional, we could probably avoid lots of deaths. However, let's not forget this isn't a matter where you can have only one thing. Researchers can improve cancer tratament while mechanic, civil and traffic engineers can reduce accidents. I'm not sure who's more qualified to reduce shootings, but we should also look into that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The reason streaking at sports spectacles is not a thing anymore is because sports broadcasters refuse to show the streakers on TV or even talk about it when it happens. It's a form of censorship but it has worked, streaking is very rare at sports events nowadays.

I think the same effect could work for mass shootings, If all the media organizations refused to broadcast any info about mass shootings it would probably reduce the number of incidents. Unfortunately it seems unlikely that the news industry as a whole would collaborate and agree to censor themselves in this way, especially since there is a legitimate public danger while the incident is ongoing. Government is prohibited by the constitution from getting involved in media censorship so it would have to be done by the media companies themselves. And of course nowadays we have social media so it's even harder to enforce any kind of censorship.

<comment><USER7> Streaking in general has become less popular than at its height, even when not done in contexts that would involve medias attention. I suspect that the drop in popularity in all contexts is because it was a passing cultural fad that burned itself out, and that the degree of media attention specifically in public events with a media presence (which also tends to have large audiences that aren't viewing through a media filter) had minimal, of any, impact.

<comment><USER8> It didn't help streaking to take it from a harmless prank to something that can easily put you on the sex offender list and ruin your whole life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't really agree with the value gained from not naming alleged criminals, it seems like a trivialization of a complex issue.

<comment><USER10> While I understand and partly agree, some (many?) spree shooters are looking to live on in infamy, and this is some small form of taking that from them.

<comment><USER11> ...and removing an incentive for prospective shooters.

<comment><USER9> This is obviously something you care about; probably more so than my dissent. I think that prescribing generalized explanations to human behavior (see Economics) is a dangerous gamble.

I also believe that the media has the onus to report things correctly, in full. As a national or international spectator, it may not be important whom commits these crimes. I was recently living in Seattle when a shooting happened at Seattle Pacific University. My girlfriend at the time was on campus when the shooting started and the media frenzy was actually beneficial for the community.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I like that you're trying to do some social good with your coding skills, and I respect that. I do have to agree that it seems a little immature. Maybe think about other ways you could use this same idea. For example, redacting the names, rather than replacing them, could show how much attention the media gives to these people.

<comment><USER13> Agreed. Like the idea, but the execution seems poor. Redacting the names seems like a simple, comparable and better option.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Interesting to see the amount of disagreement with ajiang's post here on HN. "Giant douche"? Probably unneeded, it could just be blacked out with the option to reveal.

With that said, I too believe there's a certain level of infamy that comes with having your name spread across the nation. I'm sure there's a certain level of motivation that this gives to potential shooters, and if we can prevent that then I believe it's the right thing to do. Is it effective to block yourself? Probably not, but just the same I'd like to be able to say that I'm doing my part, however small it may be.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Replaces known mass shooting gunmen names with '[Name Redacted]'.

EDIT: Updating to replace gunmen names with something more neutral / accessible. Japhyr and others make great points on the issue.

EDIT 2: Updated.

<comment><USER15> You might try a more neutral term like "violent person".

This was an interesting incident to introduce this around, because this is a rare female shooter. You probably picked that term without thinking about gender. But now you've got a derogatory name that refers to female anatomy, being applied to a female shooter in the screenshot I saw.

<comment><AUTHOR> You make a great point. I'll make an update to change the term to something more neutral.

<comment><USER16> Not too neutral. Insulting to the Giant Douche but avoiding NSFW.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> cat-dev-null Probably store the shooter list in a cacheable json-p url, say hosted in a github gist, so that changing shooters doesn't require publishing a new extension. [0]

Right now, it's embedded in a .js file as a variable here (OS X + Chrome):

        ~'/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Extensions/ldipcbiihbfjonainibmoiggbolhgodo/0.4_0/content.js'

0: example json-p [https://gist.githubusercontent.com/csanz/2862350/raw/hey.js](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/csanz/2862350/raw/hey.js)

</comment><comment><USER17> Unfortunately I don't believe that the costs are worth it. I'm afraid we're very myopic about these things, and that we don't think about the processes or structures in place that censor things. The fact that processes are sticky and stay past their original purpose.

And like the fact that we want to only discuss, in a vacuum, whether revealing the names of murderers might cause more murder, and if the answer is yes, then that's good enough for us. How much more murder are we talking about for the price of censoring all media? Should anonymous volunteers go on Wikipedia to erase names of murderers?

</comment><comment><USER18> How does name-calling violent, usually mentally ill people improve things?

</comment><comment><USER19> Related: [http://pixelambacht.nl/2015/sans-bullshit- sans/](http://pixelambacht.nl/2015/sans-bullshit-sans/)

</comment><comment><USER20> Any plans to open-source this on github?

</comment><comment><USER21> Safe place?

</comment><comment><USER22> Makes a statement at least.

</comment><comment><USER23> The shooters in the San Bernadino massacre were Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik. IMHO it's important to understand their background and motivations. Know your enemy.

<comment><USER24> I don't understand why it's so bad to name the shooter or their background?</comment></comment>


Tackling congestion as an economic, not engineering, problem - <AUTHOR> http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2015/09/tackling-congestion-as-economic-not.html?m=1 <comment><USER2> I rather like this line of thought:

 _On a tangent, many cities currently limit population and job densities in areas to keep vehicle traffic at a manageable levels. Except that is based on the supposition that, no matter what. people are going to travel by cars, or maybe that being able to own a car and to use it is a basic right. In fact, people have different ways of getting around, and those without cars are even forced to find other ways of getting around. So if you want to limit vehicle trips to avoid congesting the road network, instead of restricting population /job density, why not restrict vehicle density by restricting the number of parking spots available? That way, you can restrict vehicle trips without actually restricting development unduly._

At one time, I was pursuing an Environmental Resource Management degree with intent to later get a Master's in Urban Planning. I gave up my car some years ago. I think we do need to start questioning our autocentric assumptions in the U.S. in order to make other options more viable for people who don't want to be joined at the hip to car culture.

<comment><USER3> How about instead we start to question our city-centric culture?

It's no problem getting around by car in a town of ten thousand, or even sixty thousand. But in a city of six million, transport is inevitably going to be a huge issue.

There's no really good reason, especially in the internet age, why we should be trying to cram into ever-larger cities rather than trying to spread people out a bit more into medium-sized cities which don't suffer from so many problems.

<comment><USER4> In a city of ten thousand, there is no reason why 20 to 40% of trips shouldn't be done on foot or on a bike. A bus network can easily provide mobility in a city of 50 to 100 thousand. In Sweden, some mid-sized cities have lower car use per capita than Stockholm, the capital.

Anyway, I think you've got it all wrong. There's no good reason NOT to cram into large cities. In the past, people had one job and they did it till the day they died. Most small towns of the size you describe were built around one employer.

In the modern economy, having one job only during one's life is next to unheard of, at least, in the private sector. What replaces job security is the ability to find another employer in close proximity, so you don't need to uproot yourself and your family when you change job. It also means that you can have a few big companies working the same sector, then have a lot of small companies specializing in providing professional services for these big companies, which creates a very dynamic industry where the contractors acquire expertise working with the big companies and can share that expertise with startups and smaller companies. That's why Silicon Valley exists and why even IT companies, the most liable to transfer to telecommuting, tend to gather around a few hubs rather than spreading far apart.

Telecommuting is also not applicable for a lot of industries, even when it is, being physically present in one office can be quite beneficial for expertise sharing through casual contacts rather than relying on formal internet communication.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 10 years ago I never paid a toll except when travelling interstate over long distances. Voyaging through the DC-NY Megalopolis would cost about $15.

It now costs about $70.

What's worse, most intra-city travel is or will eventually be pay-per-use. This is already happening in DC and other large US cities, as major throughways are first converted to HOA lanes (2 or three users/auto), and then fully transitioned to completely tolled. Pay up or sit in traffic.

For example, within about a 15 mile radius of DC's Beltway, I get charged about $35 / week for my basic commute and one or two trips into the District. This is using only about 8 gallons of gas. Coworkers that must take certain costly routes (on privatized tolls no less) pay easily triple that.

Essentially, this is just another 'tax' or wealth transfer between young and old, IMO, that governments have added to cover up the collapsing local financial pyramids.

<comment><USER6> It's not a wealth transfer, it's just internalizing some externalities. The decisions of millions of people to live far away from where they work has created this situation where they all have to spend hours sitting in traffic. Maybe individually it's worthwhile to each person, but collectively it's wasting billions of hours and countless gallons of gas. The tolls are merely trying to align the financial incentives with reality. In other words, move so you don't have to sit in traffic or pay the toll.

<comment><USER7> I think the problem is that such tolls are hitting the lower income class hard. Unless you make a lot of money, you can't live in a city center where you work. You have no choice but to live in the 'burbs where a car is your only option.

Think about it this way: raise the tolls to something really high, say $50/day. The very rich won't stop driving, they don't care. So now we convert all of our roads from public to only for the very wealthy.

<comment><USER6> People say nobody can afford to live in a city, and yet "inner city" is synonymous with poverty. There are plenty of places to live in most cities that are within the reach of middle class folks, but they might entail living next to some people with a different skin color, and that frightens people.

Other alleged problems like crime, bad schools, etc would clear up easily if some people who cared about making a community moved in and took some responsibility, but nobody seems to want to do that.

<comment><USER7> _There are plenty of places to live in most cities that are within the reach of middle class folks, but they might entail living next to some people with a different skin color, and that frightens people._

Or living in a neighborhood with gun violence and rampant drug abuse.

I don't blame them for not wanting to live there.

<comment><USER6> Yes, that is an impression that is held by people who don't live in such places. In reality, it's not the wild west with daily gunfights in the streets and junkies passed out on the sidewalk. Like the vast majority of human beings, even poor people mostly just want to go about their business and not be hassled.

<comment><USER8> Changing your location can also change your (car) insurance rates. Mine _doubled_ just to to changing my address to where I currently live (from a more gentrified area).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't think this post accurately represents traffic engineering or the nature of congestion. As far as I know, traffic engineers have been doing sophisticated dynamic simulations for decades. Likewise congestion is naturally more _likely_ when a road is heavily utilized, but it's primarily a coordination problem rather than a capacity problem (cf. ALOHA vs. slotted ALOHA).

<comment><USER4> I'm the author of that piece. Just pointing out that I am a traffic engineer, I have seen, analyzed and criticized traffic studies. Believe me, your faith in traffic engineering is quite misplaced.

Most cities do not have the resources to do complex dynamic simulations. In Québec, the Transport Ministry has a model (EMME) supposed to take into account trip choices and modal choices, but I haven't heard any confirmation of its prediction capabilities. The big issue with such simulations is the amount of input data you would need to adequately model reality. A metropolitan area has hundreds of thousands of workers, or even millions, to have a reliable model, you would need to know where everyone lives, where they work, what is their work schedule, their income level, etc... Obviously, collecting that data is essentially impossible, after you add up the uncertainty of the inputs, you often realize that the uncertainty makes the results completely unreliable, almost no better than an educated guess.

<comment><USER9> Fair enough. My thinking was that you'd use probabilistic methods and run many trials to see where the failures are, but I guess that's likely to fail if the real-world patterns are too cross-correlated, which they undoubtedly are (rush hour, etc.).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In what way is rationing transportation a valid way to solve congestion problems?

Here in the Seattle area they're converting lanes on already heavily congested roads like I-405 into toll lanes with a maximum fee of over ten dollars a trip, effectively reducing it from three lanes each way to two lanes each way. Traffic has only become more congested since then.

<comment><USER11> What about the traffic in the toll lanes? Surely the traffic is much better there.

In Southern California, a similar thing happened to CA-91. Immediately after construction, traffic in the toll lanes moved at the speed limit or faster, while traffic in the non-toll lanes appears stopped during the heaviest commute periods.

It seems like requiring an economic solution almost guarantees congestion problems (and is perhaps, arguably, the point -- to extract a toll (ie. easy profit) from a carefully designed scarcity).

Why not try solutions that directly address the causes of the congestion (lots of vehicles trying to move through the same small area at the same time)?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> For a brief moment there I thought this was going to say "make the poor walk. "

<comment><USER13> It's more "make the poor use public transportation."

<comment><USER6> The poor already use public transportation. The ones clogging up the highways are the middle class.

<comment><USER13> To the rich, the middle class is poor; they just haven't finished making them quite as destitute yet.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The worker loves the company. power is control - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/theodbert/laborday/blob/master/text.txt

<comment><USER2> This is not a valid Show HN. Please read the rules: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).</comment>


Show HN: Golang Cafe a Golang-only job board /w no recruiters and clear salaries - <AUTHOR> https://golang.cafe <comment><USER2> Hi - I had a similar idea (for a different industry) but was concerned about spam and how to verify if the jobs are even real. Are you checking each submission manually? Looks good, nice job!

<comment><AUTHOR> I manually review them at the moment

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm getting "Internal Server Error" when visiting the site.

<comment><AUTHOR> probably a short/unlucky downtime at that time</comment></comment>


Nation's Largest Destroyer Sets Sail to Join US Navy - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-07/stealthy-destroyer-ready-to-set-sail-to-join-us-navy <comment><AUTHOR> And it is captained by...James Kirk.</comment>


Google disables "domain fronting" capability used to evade censors - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/04/google-disables-domain-fronting-capability-used-to-evade-censors/ <comment><USER2> Previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16868564](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16868564)

As was brought up in the previous thread, though only briefly mentioned in the linked article, domain fronting is used by malware as well. It was allegedly exploited by Russian state-sponsored hacking group APT29.[0][1]

It's unfortunate that it can't be used to help avoid censorship either now, but it was never an intended feature. As the article quotes, other CDNs such as Cloudfront also do not support domain fronting.

[0]: [https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2017/03/apt29_d...](https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat- research/2017/03/apt29_domain_frontin.html)

[1]: [https://www.cyberark.com/threat-research-blog/red-team- insig...](https://www.cyberark.com/threat-research-blog/red-team-insights- https-domain-fronting-google-hosts-using-cobalt-strike/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Another reason why Google/Amazon is too centralized to be a single point of failure.

We need more decentralized Internet. Not more clever hacks.

<comment><USER4> > Another reason why Google/Amazon is too centralized to be a single point of > failure.

> We need more decentralized Internet. Not more clever hacks.

IIRC, didn't domain fronting only work because Google/Amazon were thought to be too big to block?

IMHO, what we need is a stronger consensus that Western companies shouldn't let themselves be bullied by censorious regimes dangling the promise of profits or access. They shouldn't be allowed to defend such decisions as profit-seeking amorality.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> awful news, but not the end just yet - hopefully amazon and azure stay viable for meek.

</comment><comment><USER6> What fortunate timing.

<comment><USER7> What fortunate timing indeed. That's just a kind reminder about what the interests of Google and Amazon are. Not those of their consumers for sure.

Also, especially Google have all the interest to let the Russians destroy Telegram. At this point I would be very suspicious of all other messengers that still work in Russia.

Edit: also Amnesty International is on it: [https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/986955700550144002](https://twitter.com/amnesty/status/986955700550144002)

<comment><USER8> >At this point I would be very suspicious of all other messengers that still work in Russia.

That's a conjecture is rational, but I think you already have to be very suspicious of anything that worked there for last 5 years, Telegram inclusively.

It is unbelievable for me that they maintained legal presence in the country up until now, while all others were indiscriminately blocked years ago, and incompliant software authors were raided by 3 letter agencies and raped with assault rifles.

<comment><USER9> >while all others were indiscriminately blocked years ago

As far as I am concerned Telegram was blocked for 1) being used by terrorists and 2) the Telegram staff refusing to turn in data to aid the investigation. This has not happened to other messengers like WhatsApp and they are not blocked. Am I wrong?

<comment><USER10> Actually there are interesting legal details in the story.

Telegram should be blocked under the Russian court order for not providing decryption keys, but that order doesn't contain ruling to block entire Amazon or Google network - only IP addresses used by Telegram. Whole networks are being blocked under the order by Prosecutor General from 2015 (yes, from 2015, and recently they started to use new order from 2018). But the problem is that Prosecutor's Office doesn't have authority to block messengers, so the order is about discovering illegal content (extremist content or appeals for organizing unapproved rally - not sure if I translated correctly) located on all of those IP addresses which obviously is a lie.

So this is dubious even under russian laws.

Why are they blocking entire networks? Well, the problem is that there are limits in ACL size so if Telegram starts using thousands of IP addresses the tables can become too big. So they chose to block entire networks instead. Also, finding out which IP addresses they are using takes time, distributing and updating blocking rules by ISP takes time (on order of hours, up to a day), so without this Telegram could change IPs faster than they are blocked.

There already are russian businesses that were using IP addresses from those networks, that are suffering damages because of blocking. They are moving to other datacenters in a rush. It is unlikely that they will try to recover damages from the government.

<comment><USER9> That's bad, especially that last paragraph, but I would lay the blame directly on Amazon and Google. They should kick Telegram out if having them affects other customers. That's standard practice in hosts, for example when a specific website is receiving a DoS, the website is blackholed so other customers don't see their service interrupted.

<comment><USER10> No, they should not. They are not under russian jurisdiction and are not obliged to comply with russian laws. Or should they comply with laws of Thailand, Iran, China and North Korea too? Kick out sites that criticise communist party?

<comment><USER9> I did not say that. I said that Telegram moved to their clouds to evade the sentence of a judge, which means Russian ISPs resorted to banning entire IP ranges, which means law-abiding customers are now affected by it. This is, because of the malicious actions of Telegram, now Russian citizens can't access law-abiding websites hosted in Google and Amazon. That should bother Google and Amazon, who should guarantee the connectivity of their law-abiding customers by kicking out Telegram so the IP range bans are lifted.

In the end Google and Amazon will kick out Telegram, it's probably a matter of days, so I don't understand what this fuss is about.

<comment><USER10> Telegram has no authority to ban anything so it cannot be at fault. Trying to make your service work cannot be called "malicious activity".

> That should bother Google and Amazon, who should guarantee the connectivity > of their law-abiding customers by kicking out Telegram so the IP range bans > are lifted.

This might increase an influx of complaints from other governments. If they kicked out Telegram, why not kick out someone else?

<comment><USER11> > Telegram has no authority to ban anything so it cannot be at fault. Trying > to make your service work cannot be called "malicious activity".

Telegram knew the Russian government was trying to censor them. So they disguised their traffic as Google traffic. Now, because Telegram did this and Russia called their bluff, some Google clients who have nothing to do with Telegram can no longer reach the Russian market.

Why isn't this just as malicious as any other denial of service attack? It sucks for Telegram, but it's not reasonable or sustainable to let anyone who needs to evade censorship impersonate Google.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This seems like something you could do yourself on a VM instance, no?

<comment><USER13> It helps a lot more to masquerade as google.com than it does to masquarade as etaioinshrdlu.com. The censors would need to think more about blocking something as big a google than a single use-domain.

<comment><USER12> That explains it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Would someone be able to block packets more easily or less easily if TLS didn't have the domain name in the packet in plaintext? Presumably someone couldn't tell where the packet was going, but that might mean you have to send it to the right server in the first place.

<comment><USER15> SNI is used to allow the frontend gateway to select the correct certificate; it should be harder to block if the frontend gateway instead had a single certificate with all the domains it proxied (obviating the need for SNI).

Of course, that means the gateway must terminate the TLS connection for every site (and therefore be able to read its contents), whereas with SNI it could redirect the TLS connection itself to the appropriate server, while being unable to spy on it.

In practice what happened before SNI is that every SSL/TLS site used a dedicated IP, which makes it quite easy to block.

<comment><USER14> I meant something more like encrypted SNI in TLS 1.3[1], but that has covering as an explicit design goal, so I guess that answers my question.

Still, it's a matter of politics, and not of technology. Google here chooses to stop covering for Telegram/Signal, even if the technology allows it.

[1]: [https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/94/slides/slides-94-tls-8.p...](https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/94/slides/slides-94-tls-8.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> You can still use ELB's to hide behind amazon.com, right?</comment>


GitLab 6.0 Released - <AUTHOR> http://blog.gitlab.org/gitlab-6-dot-0-released <comment><USER2> I wish they would spend a bit more time streamlining the installation procedure and/or streamlining dependencies. It looks like a great product, but attempting to get it set up left me with the feeling that it's extremely bloated. And 2-4Gb recommended RAM is... a lot. I know, I'm bitching about something that they are giving away for free, but oh well.

<comment><USER3> We're working hard on streamlining the installation but for now the focus is on a reliable installation method for most situations. The recommended RAM is 1GB, see [https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/install...](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlabhq/blob/master/doc/install/requirements.md) (I'm a GitLab.com co-founder)

<comment><USER4> Thanks for creating Gitlab. It helped us a lot internally. We were using plain Gitosis before. Now nobody gives a hoot about that anymore :)

My only request would be to focus more on stability. We run it for 1 year now and there were many problems with upgrades _and_ various changing issues with the different versions.

So for us less new features but a better tested Gitlab would be great. Maybe some kind of "stable" release? Not sure...

<comment><USER3> Hi binderbizingdos, GitLab.com co-founder here. I'm glad to hear GitLab meets your needs. We know some upgrades have been painful, especially to 5.0 where Gitolite was removed. Since then we try to have smoother upgrades with complete documentation. Of course we can't avoid deprecation in major releases to move things forward. Each release is stable but if you want to be extra careful upgrade two weeks after release. But please let us know if there is anything specific we should focus on.

<comment><USER4> Thanks. Yes the upgrades are much better now.

I think Gitlab kind of suffers from the Ubuntu syndrome when they were still pushing the non-LTS release as default. Many things were not tested long enough and would cause issues for many people while they were using it.

For example after one upgrade browsing the repos didn't work because apparently the Git version hat to be a specific version. I think this was neither tested nor is the Git version mentioned anywhere as a requisite.

Or with v5.3 the Git satellites would get into an unclean state sometimes and had to be cleaned out manually.

I took quite some time to find this out too.

So my suggestion: more polish and testing and less new features.

<comment><USER3> Suggestion noted, thanks. By the way, both issues you mention (git version and satellite state) are now in the gitlab:check rake task so at least they are easier to detect. I'll make sure that the git version is added to the readme.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's always annoyed and confused me that GitHub Enterprise exists. GitHub is founded on the premise that open source is a good idea...yet for self-hosted git management the freedom-friendly solution is...GitLab.

So good for GitLab for existing at all, and congratulations to the team for releasing v. 6.0! May there be many more!

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually... This is a quote from the article:

"GitLab 6.0 will be the first release that will also be available in an Enterprise Edition, for more information please see the GitLab.com Blog [1]"

[1] - [http://www.gitlab.com/2013/08/22/introducing- gitlab-6-0-ente...](http://www.gitlab.com/2013/08/22/introducing- gitlab-6-0-enterprise-edition/)

<comment><USER6> The cost breakdown:

        * GitHub Enterprise: $5000 per 20 users per year, effectively $416.67
          per 20 users per month. (You have to pay yearly though)
        * GitLab Enterprise: $39.80 per 20 users per month, or $398 per
          20 users per year
        * GitLab Community: Free

Basically, GL Enterprise is roughly 1/12 the cost of GitHub when purchased yearly, and 1/10 the cost if paying month-to-month (which GitHub doesn't offer).

Interestingly, GitLab is taking a page from GitHub's book and requiring customers to purchase user packs in groups of 20.

<comment><USER7> Also, it's worth mentioning that GitLab Enterprise is open source. It'll be interesting to see how well that model works out for them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Every time I see a new GitLab release I get excited to install it. Then I see the install instructions and immediately give up. The number one thing GitLab needs is an easier way to get it setup.

<comment> X-Istence The install instructions are incredibly simple. As long as you follow the instructions it is set up in less than 30 minutes...

<comment><USER9> I would not call them "incredibly simple", but I have also gotten gitlab going in about half an hour, twice.

<comment> X-Istence It is as simple as copy and paste, make some small modifications to the configuration file and you go from a stock Ubuntu server install to having Gitlab up and running.

I would call that simple.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> X-Istence We run this at work, switching from Gitorious actually, and so far everyone on the development teams has been really impressed. It is fast, works well, and the web interface provides everything we need, and more.

</comment><comment><USER10> We use Atlassian Stash at work after having tried a bunch of different git review & merge tools, including Phabricator, GitLab, Gerrit and more. Atlassian's Stash provides the best code review tools like per file diff + commenting. GitLab was our second choice but unfortunately it doesn't handle bigger diffs (feature braches etc) well. Maybe if a GitLab-dev is reading this, we need per file reviews! (And better notification settings!)

<comment><USER3> GitLab.com co-founder / GitLab core team member here. Thanks for detailing your needs. Many people use GitLab merge requests to do large code reviews for feature branches. These can be up to 100 commits and include per file diffs with line commenting. How many commits are your feature branches? We now have notification settings per project and mentions in issues and merge requests, would you want anythings else regarding notifications?

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I coaxed the team at uni over to git by installing Gitlab. The ease of a web interface to view the repositories impressed even those academics who version control by copy and pasting folders of their code and adding a '_works' suffix. It also allows the SVN users to start using git as it was based on a client-server model.

The gem dependencies are incredibly large, but I found the install process well documented.

<comment><USER12> And generally the upgrade blog posts are dead on (cut & paste to do your upgrades).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Tried a few Gitlab versions, stick with Redmine for now, though I do hope Ubuntu to support newer Redmine versions, which should not be too hard, but most plugins are not catching up with newer core releases.

</comment><comment><USER14> "Today we present a new major GitLab version. There are a lot of improvements to make GitLab even more awesome."

I think the first sentence of every new release should at least explain what GitLab is. A new version of GitLab the tool for X,Y,Z. Some people will see a link to it in their tech news source of choice and think "oh that's interesting, let's check what it is"

Keep up the good work :D

<comment><USER3> Thank you for the suggestion, will try to remember during the next release.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Um... I dont get it.

So they release a GitLab Enterprise Version. And Killed off GitLab Cloud? Well not actually killing it but offering it for free.

Why?

What's the business case behind it? Or GitLab simply dont want to run a Commercial, High quality Code Hosting Services?

Without some sort of payment, I think any business will be hesitant to use GitLab Cloud.

<comment><USER3> GitLab Cloud gets our full attention. We just discovered that the majority of our income is from on-premises installations and generate revenue from that. Many of our now subscribers started with Cloud so we'll make sure to provide a great service.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Ironic is gitlab using github for development, reminds early days of GNU running their infrastructure on UNIX.

<comment><USER17> They do use their own Gitlab installation for internal development. But they serve different purposes. Gitlab is used by developers accustomed to the project and Github to get new developers in.

<comment><USER3> GitLab.com co-founder here. Thanks for explaining Rovanion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> It's silly but the thing I miss in Gitlab is that you can't use tables in Gitlab flavored Markdown.

<comment><USER19> Have you tried using `<table>` tags? Standard Markdown allows you to write arbitrary HTML tags in your text. I used it recently to write a table in a GitHub issue comment.

If GitLab doesn't even allow you to use `<table>` tags, that's probably not a problem with their Markdown flavor, but a problem with the sanitization step that runs after the Markdown compilation. Unless GitLab is using a broken implementation of Markdown that doesn't allow _any_ inline tags.

<comment><USER18> It is the case, Gitlab flavored Markdown strips inline html.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> do you think a vagrant or docker image can make it popular?

<comment><USER21> actually there appear to be vagrant and docker images already: [https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-vagrant- vm](https://github.com/gitlabhq/gitlab-vagrant-vm) [https://github.com/crashsystems/gitlab- docker](https://github.com/crashsystems/gitlab-docker)

<comment><USER22> The Vagrant image appears to be using Vagrant 1.0.X, as it requires password for NFS shares on OSX, something not required in 1.1+

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Sorry, but why would I want gitlab? And what are the alternatives?

<comment><USER3> GitLab is used to collaborate on software. It uses git repositories and has an issue tracker. (GitLab.com co-founder)</comment></comment>


Three to become first European network to block ads - <AUTHOR> http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/three-to-become-first-european-network-to-block-ads-1.2541160 <comment><USER2> This is not true, the french mobile operation Free Mobile already started doing since early 2013

[http://www.numerama.com/magazine/24803-free-propose-aussi- le...](http://www.numerama.com/magazine/24803-free-propose-aussi-le-blocage- de-la-publicite-sur-free-mobile.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm all for ad blocking. But I'm even more for net neutrality. ISP blocking ads is tiny step away from "blocking all ads expect the ones ISP is paid to let through" and selectively blocking any other kind of content.

ISPs are utilities, not censors, nor cops.

Someone else mentioned "opt-in" which would not violate net-neutrality and I support.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm shocked at some of the answers in this thread: [http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/denis-o- brien-...](http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/denis-o-brien-s- digicel-takes-on-google-and-facebook-1.2373553)

People think this is some sort of fancy "Ad Block Plus" \-- it's not.

Basically the ISPs want Google and Facebook to give them revenue because they "transport" their packets that are ads. This is an affront to net neutrality.

Three will block ads and then charge Google/FB to let them through.

<comment><USER4> "People think this is some sort of fancy "Ad Block Plus" \-- it's not."

Uh...

[http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/over-300-businesses-...](http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/02/over-300-businesses- now-whitelisted-on-adblock-plus-10-pay-to-play/)

<comment><AUTHOR> A browser plug-in modifying/controlling traffic. Acceptable.

An ISP modifying/controlling traffic. Dangerous precedent.

What makes it different in my view is that in one scenario the end user is in control in the other the ISP is in control.

<comment><USER5> > An ISP modifying/controlling traffic. Dangerous precedent.

Some ISPs have already been _adding_ ads. The only precedent here is that those guys are _removing_ them instead.

Maybe we will live to see times when ads injected by ISP1 end up filtered by ISP2 and replaced with others by ISP3, all within a single TCP stream :)

<comment><USER6> This is why we need to switch to https.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Right now there is a free rider problem with internet content. If this becomes more prevalent the market will have to adjust to deal with free riders.

If you believe that content creators have a right to earn money there are two ways that can happen: 1) directly - you pay directly for the content that you want to consume or 2) indirectly - you see ads or sell your data in some way.

I wonder what people will choose if these are the choices. Right now you can ignore paywalls because relatively few sites employ them and they aren't robust.

<comment><USER8> There's only a "free rider problem" if you view the internet as a tool to generate income, as opposed to a tool you can use to offer something to the world. If all ads were gone tomorrow I wouldn't see a single website I regularly use drop off the internet. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the quality of web content on average would skyrocket if you couldn't make a dime off of ads.

<comment><USER9> How does ads affect this hypothetical world where quality of web content skyrocket?

The web isn't a closed platform for a limited number of service. Multiple website are trying to survive without ads, Wikipedia is one of them. Nothing stop them.

Ads allow for content creator that still need to pay rent, to actually produce content while still paying rent. You know like any job.

The one that still can produce without anything, are still free to do it currently and plenty are actually doing it.

<comment><USER10> Everyone ends up contributing to the ad-focused world, instead. How many people post on reddit/twitter/facebook, vs their own blog?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I guess I'm fine with it as long as it's opt-in - by that I mean, so long as the customer has to actively look for the option.

If all ISPs did this by default then a lot of content on the web would disappear several months down the line.

<comment><USER12> "If all ISPs did this by default then a lot of content on the web would disappear several months down the line."

Good. I don't think most of that would be missed much.

<comment><USER7> What depends on ads?

Top sites and apps: Facebook, Google, New York Times, Gmail, Podcasts (that are increasingly ad supported), Google Maps, etc. Most of the content that trends on hn. Long tail of content that lets you get an answer to just about anything on Google.

I think some of these would be missed.

<comment><USER11> There's also services like Blogger, which I don't think have advertising, but since Google is probably the biggest player in the ad industry then I guess its existence relies on ads. Even web browsers like Firefox indirectly rely on ad money.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is illegal under EU law:[https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/despite-the-hype- isp-adblocki...](https://blog.pagefair.com/2015/despite-the-hype-isp- adblocking-is-a-no-go-in-europe/)

What makes it illegal is Deep Packet Inspection.

<comment><USER13> Almost certainly done by host blacklisting. Even ad blockers on computers usually do this. It's just easier.

<comment><USER14> Browser-integrated adblockers can do better, because they have access to the page content. Host-based blacklists don't work as well; they can only handle hosts that serve ads and nothing else, not hosts that serve both ads and non- ads.

But yeah, host-based blacklisting is the only approach with a hope of working outside the browser. Transparently proxying web traffic wouldn't (and shouldn't) work with HTTPS, and is an incredibly bad idea even with HTTP.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> > But although the company said it plans to roll out the technology > internationally, it is not yet clear when Irish customers will _feel the > benefit_. [emphasis added]

Interesting wording on an ad-supported site.

</comment><comment><USER16> the next thing you know, your political opinion became filtered like ads.</comment>


Ask HN: How do you read HN on your mobile device? - <AUTHOR>

On iPhone, safari is painful, ihackernews constantly has problems with comments. I've tried most of the free apps but the threading isn't great. What do you guys recommend? <comment><USER2> I just hope HN can place a apple-touch-icon.png at its root folder so that shortcuts on iPhone and iPad can look not the ugly blank it is. Why the reluctant?

</comment><comment><USER3> Opera on the iPhone works for me.

</comment><comment><USER4> ihackernews has recently gotten better on comments, and is currently the best solution. Can't a mobile style sheet solve this? Or does HN's script assembled html format bollocks it up?</comment>


Show HN: Create, Edit & Play Cross-platform Multiplayer Games - <AUTHOR>

Just made our multiplayer games editor beta public.
If you're interested in making multiplayer games, it would be great to hear your feedback.
WebGL Editor: http://multiplay.io/edit
WebGL Player: http://multiplay.io/play
Android Player: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softpoetry.androids
Demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2nwNeKRXSo
Full newsletter release: http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8c8235b00430c5fe69d6da100&id=459513cb80 <comment><USER2> For the lazy ones :

WebGL Editor: <http://multiplay.io/edit>

WebGL Player: <http://multiplay.io/play>

Android Player: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softpoetry...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softpoetry.androids)

Demo video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2nwNeKRXSo>

Full newsletter release: [http://us6.campaign- archive2.com/?u=8c8235b00430c5fe69d6da10...](http://us6.campaign- archive2.com/?u=8c8235b00430c5fe69d6da100&id=459513cb80)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!</comment></comment>


Dirty dealing in the $175B Amazon Marketplace - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18140799/amazon-marketplace-scams-seller-court-appeal-reinstatement <comment><USER2> This is just depressing. Here on HN and elsewhere, I often see people wondering why Amazon isn't cracking down on obviously fake reviews, and it seems like at least part of the problem is a lot of those fake reviews are false flags to get a competitor shut down. So Amazon can't just nuke them from orbit. I understand the motivation... but I'm still stuck unable to find any useful reviews.

Are we ever going to have a review system on the internet that isn't gamed to the point of uselessness? I'm beginning to seriously doubt it.

<comment><USER3> Couldn't Amazon just require all reviews to be Verified? That would at least cost a competitor a little bit of money in buying their competitors product...

<comment><USER4> They already found a way around that one: [https://www.businessinsider.com/people-receiving-amazon- pack...](https://www.businessinsider.com/people-receiving-amazon-packages- they-didnt-order-2018-2)

tl;dr: They pick an address, order their own products, ship junk in its place (cheap goods or even just bricks), and leave a verified review.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _The Performance workers' incentives favor rejection. They must process approximately one claim every four minutes, and reinstating someone who later gets suspended again counts against them, according to McCabe and others._

So the system is set up in an extremely rigid way that prevents much thought on the part of the human cogs, and if something goes wrong in the future with that seller it hurts their metrics. Seems like everyone's incentivized towards punishment here. It's not that surprising, most call center type jobs seem to have stringent to the point of absurd metrics, but this seems like a poorly balanced system.

</comment><comment><USER6> Wow! These stories sound like nightmares. My company manufactures and sells one product on Amazon, and we've thankfully never run into these sorts of issues. Some of the dirty tricks described sound like outright fraud to me.

<comment><USER7> Having run into some of these issues I can confirm that Amazon's appeal process is very accurately described as Kafkaesque

Sampling of situations that either happened to me or I have direct knowledge of:

Suspension for listing an authentic product, because the brand was listed slightly differently (think "acme products" vs "acme"). Took a week and two appeals to get reinstated

Suspension for changing bank account information (have heard many such cases - they flag it as fraud but instead of just putting payments on hold, they block all listings until resolved)

Suspensions claiming account is related to another account that's blocked. No information is given and seller is unaware of any other accounts it might be linked to

Suspension for inauthentic product. Even after invoices showing all products in question were provided, Amazon decides to ignore everything, steals the inventory valued in the 7 digits and keeps the money as well

Suspension for selling expired product. Turns out Amazon had found the product in their warehouse and decided to add it to sellers inventory, sell it, get complaints and then blame it on the seller. (Seriously. Ask anybody selling volume groceries on Amazon. Amazon is shockingly incompetent at tracking dates).

Product blocked due to false complaint by brand owner. Reinstated after sending an invoice proving authenticity. Repeat a few dozen times (sending the same exact invoice each time).

Plus one not directly related to performance but scummy behavior anyway: Amazon starts selling a product and all of a sudden blocks third party sellers from selling it. Sometimes I've had 5-6 figures of inventory get blocked this way. Makes it really difficult to run a business when they act capriciously.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Hacker News iOS client: HACK built using feedback from HN - <AUTHOR> https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/hack-for-hacker-news-developer/id1464477788 <comment><AUTHOR> Developer here! Feel free to provide me any feedback!

I posted it months ago when the app was new and got a ton of feedback. I spent last few months incorporating the feedback and think the app is pretty much complete now:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19984513](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19984513)

The app has No ads and No subscriptions. Dark mode is free on a per session basis so you can try it out if you like (resets when app is killed and restarted). If you would like to make it permanent, then there is a small one time only IAP.

Fully feature packed app. You can sign in with HN account and submit new posts, comments, swipe to upvote/downvote and favorite.

<comment><USER2> Any plans to add reply notifications? Forever ago I used a chrome extension that had both karma and reply tracking and I quite enjoyed it. I've written code to do this personally and I also use HNReplies to get them in my email but It'd be nice to get at least reply notifications in the app. That said, especially since I've done it before, I know this is no small ask and adding push notifications to an app can greatly increase the complexity.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think notifications would be possible easily without me having a backend server making tons of requests every second polling for new comments on a per user basis.

With that said, maybe I am uneducated because I had never heard of HNReplies. I am going to look into it now and see how they handle this problem!

<comment><USER2> Sorry, I missed this reply (b/c I didn't check my email lol). Yes it would require backend servers and polling of the HN API. I'm not sure if HNReplies uses the Firebase API or the Algolia API (or just basic scraping).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I really like it and would consider switching. The only thing holding me back is the typography of link titles. In my current app (MiniHack), titles are accented and the primary thing my eyes are drawn to. In yours, there's too much high contrast text and it's really hard to skim. If you updated the font weights / color intensities to make titles more prominent, I would switch.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm can you expand a bit by what you mean by "titles are accented"?

In my app's settings, you can scroll down to fonts, padding and compactness and completely change them to your liking. Would this help?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm using the app since the initial release. The experience is really good

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Convince me to move from MiniHack

<comment><AUTHOR> First would be that my app is completely free. Even the dark mode is free on a per session basis.

I also prefer my way of swiping to upvote/downvote/favorite content. There's also a ton of customizations in my app - from accent color to fonts, compactness, padding, font size etc!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is a super nice-looking app. I like Minihack's simplicity though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the kind words! That's fair, Minihack is a good app too! Personally I wanted more customizations in my experience and that's why I built HACK.</comment></comment>


Implementing Neural Networks from Scratch in Python - <AUTHOR> https://victorzhou.com/series/neural-networks-from-scratch/ <comment><AUTHOR> Past HN discussions of posts in this series:

\- Neural Networks: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19320217](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19320217)

\- RNNs: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20524543](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20524543)

\- CNNs: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19981736](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19981736) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064900](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20064900)</comment>


Ask HN: Is tech support becoming a bad long-term career choice? - <AUTHOR> So I'm looking for a job and I've had a new idea today. I live in a peripheral area and I have been doing maintenance on Windows machines for quite a while to make some side money. Ideally, I'd like to not leave the area I live in to get a job. So, what if despite having a developer diploma, I extended my activity to include tech support and marketed myself as "the all-around IT tech guy" from said area? This place is quite touristic and I speak English so I'm confident I could achieve such a position.<p>But then I thought to myself: with the desktop declining and being replaced by smartphones or tablets, isn't tech support becoming a dying skill? What can you tweak on an iPad? Besides setting up email accounts – which people won't be doing while on vacation here. The younger generations are more tech-savvy, too; the two-click "repairs" I could do in 2004 are not going to make me look like a "genius" anymore. So I'm thinking I should forget about this idea but perhaps somebody has something I haven't thought of to add? <comment><USER2> No.

I started in tech support in '98\. I worked my way from a trainee associate in Sophos's UK support team to managing a department of 30 in 5 years. I left Sophos in '06 to start my own business.

I am in a similar position to you in some respects. I started my own locally- focussed business as the tech guy. I placed an ad in the local parish newsletter for 25GBP (~40USD) for the year. That ad has paid for itself 400+ times over since then.

B2C support is tough. My demographic is adults, typically 40+. People are sometimes reticent to ask for help, especially with cheap laptops. Be approachable. Be a nice guy. Be professional. Be honest.

You'll learn about your area pretty quickly. I started out with an external hard drive and a screwdriver set. It's 90% laptops and tablets, and the repair side of my business is slow to catch on. The low purchase cost of laptops and tablets makes people less ready to commit to fixing things, instead choosing brand new. Sad, really. Apple device users tend to be more keen to get things fixed up.

Poke around on /r/computertechs[1] and start thinking about a software toolkit. Get a basic website and sign up with iFixit Pro[2]. Familiarise yourself with their store; they do good parts at fair prices. My website[3] isn't anything special (and isn't finished, either), but gives you an idea for what works around where I live.

[1] [http://www.reddit.com/r/computertechs](http://www.reddit.com/r/computertechs)

[2] [https://www.ifixit.com/Pro](https://www.ifixit.com/Pro)

[3] [http://ex23.com](http://ex23.com)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your feedback and some good links! Hope I get rejected by the companies I'm in touch with so that I have a few months to get into this freelance repair thing. I do feel like a freelancer and it sounds like I would be much happier if I were able to become one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I wouldn't bank so much on younger generations being more tech-savvy. They might interact with it a lot, but they're also more used to it working as expected.

I find younger people I interact with to be more comfortable with technology, but on the whole more disinterested and frustrated with troubleshooting. Getting paid by them might be another story, but you'll see plenty of < 25 year olds waiting for hours at the Apple store to get their phone restored.

<comment><USER4> Good point. Furthermore, the devices that are becoming more and more popular recently (tablets, phones, etc.) do a really good job of insulating you from the nitty-gritty of your computer. Even if something DOES goes wrong, how are you supposed to even start figuring out what it is? I have no idea how to pop open the Terminal on my iPhone. I assume there's a UNIX way down there, but how to see it...?

Related example: We've had electric lights for years and use them constantly, but how many people actually understand electricity either? It's because electricity, like the iPhone, is set up in a really "opaque" way to outsiders. Not only are we used to it "just working", like the parent said, we have no idea how we'd even BEGIN to address a problem if one came up. Go inside the wall? Do something with wires? I don't know.

I'm really good at figuring out why my computer is broken, I program for a living, but when my "smart phone" doesn't work right I'm helpless. So even if there's a will, there sometimes doesn't seem to be a way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> _younger generations are more tech-savvy, too_

Then they aren't your target market, but perhaps older people are.

As the world gets more technologically advanced, the result is that fewer people know what to do when their devices don't work. If anything, the number of people who need your services might be increasing, not going away.

</comment><comment><USER6> Users are getting more tech savvy and usage for tech gadgets is growing but it doesn't mean that using it you know how the machine works. Example, one might have problem in getting to switch on the smartphone but might not know what is the cause.

So, i believed tech support is still an important role. :)

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm 25 and a sysadmin myself and I feel like a sometimes old timer, most of the kids growing up today have never seen a command prompt, let alone ssh. They are used to consumer devices that you plug in and they just work. Those two click repairs are 80 percent of my day.

</comment><comment><USER8> I see a lot of people making money fixing phones and tablets. Many (but not all) mobile devices are easy to repair (enough that I don't mind it if I wear out the left stick on my PS vita every eight months or so)

With less than $50 of tools you can be in business.

</comment><comment><USER9> Younger generations are more text-adapted but they still have no idea how the machines they use work.

<comment><AUTHOR> You're right. Can't believe I already forgot I helped a 20-something girl get rid of Windows software ads about a week ago.</comment></comment>


PyPy 1.4.1 released - <AUTHOR> http://morepypy.blogspot.com/2010/12/pypy-141.html

<comment><USER2> Has anyone tried to use PyPy to speedup Django?

<comment><USER3> Yes, though only on a single app -- a reasonably high-traffic content site. In this case, PyPy is roughly 10% faster (measured by comparing total view rendering time) but consumes about 2-3x as much RAM.

Edit: I should clarify: this site doesn't use a DB engine but instead is pulling and rending content from an XML DB over a REST API. See Alex's note below about DB performance for why this is an important point.

<comment><USER4> I'm sure PyPY folks would love to know everything you can comfortably disclose about this use case :)</comment></comment></comment>


Tell HN: Political advocacy tool in need of programmer volunteers - <AUTHOR> I'm a user of https://resistbot.io/ which helps people contact their officials.
I think they've sent >100,000 faxes? (Based on https://www.recode.net/2017/4/27/15440440/voters-text-pages-fax-political-views-protest-resistbot-trump-health-care from April, presumably substantially more since then).
Tech stach is Python, Flask, RapidPro, AWS.
email@example.com
Info: https://resistbot.io/about.html <comment><AUTHOR> Also, if anyone from resistbot sees this, I'd like to request more "guidance." I found that a few of my friends tried to use it, but when it asked them what they wanted to say, they didn't know -- because in their words, "I didn't know what important votes were coming up that I could potentially sway, so I didn't know what was worth talking about."

</comment><comment><USER2> I'd be interested, I'm no expert in said technologies, but learning is no problem. If that's ok where could I start?

<comment><AUTHOR> Email email@example.com</comment></comment>


Jony Ive: 8 hits and 8 misses from 20 years at Apple - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2019/jun/28/jony-ive-8-hits-and-8-misses-from-20-years-at-apple <comment><USER2> The one thing I noticed missing that should have been included was the unibody MacBook design. That was a huge innovation that led to massive improvements in build quality industry-wide. If I recall correctly, he played a much larger role in that design than the iPod, which is largely credited to Tony Fadell (although Ive definitely had a large influence on later iterations).

<comment><USER3> Doesn't this make it unrepairable though? (Honest question - I don't own a MacBook)

<comment><USER4> MacBook Unibody from 2009 was very serviceable[1]. You only need to remove 10 screws, no glued parts, no soldered RAM or storage.

[1]: [https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+...](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Unibody+Mid+2009+Teardown/814)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think what bothers me about all these Jony Ive articles is that they rarely differentiate between Ive the designer, Ive the art director, and Ive the product manager. Similarly, they fail to differentiate between whether something was good or bad based on its aesthetics, functionality, or market reception. In these articles, Ive is just functioning as a stand-in for Apple, as Jobs did before him. It betrays a lack of understanding of how companies (and design) actually work on the part of pundits and journalists.

<comment><USER6> I was going to say the same. They call out a few products that I doubt were misses _because_ of Jony Ive. He may have been involved with them but to say that they were misses because of the work he did on them is a little...misleading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Can't really agree with the Magic Mouse 2 being a "miss". I understand the controversy with the charging port being under the mouse, but it's done on purpose: Apple wants to prevent users from leaving the mouse connected with a USB cable all the time. Maybe there was a better solution to this issue, but the truth is that it's not actually an issue and not a blunder either. I've had this mouse for years and simply recharge it every few months overnight.

Scrolling without a wheel took a bit of learning, but in the end, being able to seamlessly move vertically and horizontally with a single finger is highly useful in design or music software. I haven't seen a mouse that could handle it as well as the Magic Mouse.

<comment><USER8> > I understand the controversy with the charging port being under the mouse, > but it's done on purpose: Apple wants to prevent users from leaving the > mouse connected with a USB cable all the time.

Here's a better solution: good old rechargeable AA batteries. Keep a spare set sitting in a charger, and you'll never need to wait for your device to recharge.

If you're concerned about users falling back on disposables, bundle two sets of rechargeable AA's and a charger. Apple used to sell branded versions of these items.

I hate built-in rechargeable batteries for peripherals like mice, keyboards, and game controllers.

<comment><USER9> Any even better solution, use a wired mouse and keyboard. Why do I need to deal with batteries for something that doesn't move more than a few inches from its destination? We've banned wireless peripherabls in our organization, because they cause more issues then they are worth. "My mouse is jumping all over the screen", "my mouse no longer works", "my keyboard is typing things I'm not typing!". 9/10 it's low battery, the other 1/10 is someone has paired accidentally with your machine.

<comment><USER10> As an engineer who works with smaller parts, my desk and work areas have a constant influx of parts and pieces- and the keyboard and mouse I use take up a _lot_ of space- like two square feet- and being able to move them, rest them on top of stuff, and use the mouse on my leg as necessary is _really_ useful, and I really don't want to go back to wired peripherals.

Similarly, I really like Thunderbolt docks and the like because it helps me cut down on the semi-permanent wire clutter on my desk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Hits" and "misses" should be thought of differently. Hits sell zillions and make people happy. Misses like the Apple Hi-Fi sell poorly because nobody wants them. So in the aggregate, there's far more good done when you have a hit, than bad done when you have a miss[0].

[0] Huge disclaimer: The category "miss" is higher dimensioned than "hit." Misses like the butterfly keyboard are different than the Hi-Fi, because it's a given that millions of people are going to buy a Mac laptop, and they suffer because they're forced to cope with an unreliable keyboard. By contrast, almost nobody is forced to use an Apple Hi-Fi.

<comment><USER12> Also: I've noticed anecdotally that a lot of people, myself included, make decisions to reduce their misses, where it's usually better to maximize your hits.

<comment><USER13> You might be referring to loss aversion:

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The last paragraph for Magic Mouse 2 seems a bit forced. This mouse has not garnered the same level of controversy as the other products in this article.

I've personally found it more enjoyable and ergonomic than my Logitech M705 and Microsoft Sculpt. It's not inherently more ergonomic but the additional functionality enabled by multitouch means I don't have to move the mouse as much (on macOS at lease), which vastly improves usability.

The charging port is not in the most functional location, but it's a worthwhile tradeoff IMHO. If we assume Apple doesn't want to change the shape of the mouse, the only alternative location is on the side of the mouse, which makes the mouse asymmetrical and would probably give Jony Ive a fit.

<comment><USER15> Actually it is so bad and non ergonomic that there is a video from a keynote where Craig Federighi is struggling to use it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The G4 Cube had issues but I honestly liked it as an experimental design from a well-known computer brand. It was a breath of fresh air among the monotonous beige or gray towers of the time. And it wasn't the only G4 computer you could get, as you could've bought the tower (which I ended up doing at the time).

For me, the biggest miss is the touch bar and butterfly keyboards. Those single-handily prevented me from upgrading from my 2012 Retina MBP.

<comment><USER17> The G4 Cube was a good idea but was overpriced. Yes it was smaller and prettier than the G4 tower, but it was also far less expandable. It was priced to be a 2000's-era executive desk ornament, and I suspect they simply misjudged the market for the Cube.

But the idea was solid and a few years later a substantially similar product was released to massive success—the Mac mini.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I feel the need to say this every time the 'puck mouse' comes up: I loved mine. If you use your fingers to move a mouse, rather than your hand (like I do) then it was totally fine (and I found I could move it very exactly for fine control when using a design package). I never got it the wrong way around, never had any other problems people complain about and I loved the weight of it and used to chuck it around my desktop with real accuracy.

My only conclusion is that y'all must be a bunch of clumsy fools. :D

<comment><USER19> I feel the same way. I loved that mouse, I was sad the day mine finally gave out.

<comment> 52-6F-62 Oh buddy...

[https://www.ebay.com/b/Apple-Puck- Mouse/23160/bn_7023277587](https://www.ebay.com/b/Apple-Puck- Mouse/23160/bn_7023277587)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I really like 3D touch for moving the cursor in text input fields.

<comment><USER21> Yeah, that has to be my favorite use-case for the force-touch on iOS. The way text selection works on iOS has never felt that smooth, but force touch takes away some of the worst pain.

Shame it's got zero discoverability. Most people I know are surprised when I show them that. It also has quite a steep learning curve for some. Plus, some of the more advanced useful stuff is pretty hard to use - for example, did you know you can switch to text selection by "pulsing" your finger twice while pressing the keyboard?

<comment><USER22> Yes, the pulse selection is the most useful part of the implementation, and makes me not want to upgrade to iOS 13 on my iPhone X based on feature degradation alone. I use 3D Touch all the time and have for years now. I don't understand the "zero discoverability" claim. It is natural to try and push harder on the screen, and it's extremely fast. Ive often thought they should leverage the Taptic Engine to offer (at least in accessibility settings) an option for haptic feedback for all deep touches system wide, with like a double knock telling you that nothing happened. And honestly, peeking/popping links is the single greatest innovation in mobile web UX in a decade, deprivation of the tech stack is a travesty for a premium gadget brand like Apple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> There is an obvious power law visible here.

His big wins are orders of magnitude larger than his misses.

</comment><comment><USER24> Didn't the aluminum solid body originate with Mac? Thats been a huge cross product design decision that I personally love.

</comment><comment><USER19> if those are his misses then I'd say he did a fantastic job. half of those I'd say weren't even misses. Loved the G4 cube, the hockey puck mouse, 3D Touch, and my Magic Mouse 2. But nothing gives me more anxiety than my AirPods, they always feel like they are falling out and occasionally do.

<comment><USER17> Apple should build a system to scan the three-dimensional shape of its customers ears using the iPhone Face ID sensor. They could collate that data and feed it into a machine learning algorithm that could come up with two or three alternative AirPod shapes that would suit the widest array of ears.

(Then use the same "Ear ID" feature on your iPhone to tell you which model best suits your ears.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The biggest miss that I remember that isn't on this list is the iPhone 4 antenna that wrapped around the device. If the user's hand got between the two sides, it would lose connectivity. Then Apple started selling those "bumpers" to keep the antenna working.

<comment><USER17> Antennagate was 90% myth. Bridging the two steel pieces with normal skin contact wasn't a significant factor in signal degradation. If it was, the problem would have persisted with the iPhone 4S, but it didn't. In fact the 4S was notable for having exceptionally good reception despite using the same exposed steel band arrangement—albeit with two cellular antenna segments instead of one.

(Major Australian telco Telstra assigned the iPhone 4S their "blue tick" mark for phones suitable for regional/rural Australian customers. This rating was only given small number of phones.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> > [The MacBook Air] drew audible gasps from the crowd, instantly redefining > how thin, light and portable a laptop could be.

I was quite surprised at the time: the MacBook crowd seemed almost entirely disjoint from the ThinkPad crowd. The X61 predated the Air by months, was considerably faster, and only weighed 0.11 lbs more. The X220 was released just slightly after the Air IIRC, was even more powerful, and was _lighter_ than the Air.

Admittedly, both ThinkPads were a good deal thicker and we're nowhere near as shiny. But they totally rocked the ports, and they had enough ventilation to run at full speed continuously.

<comment><USER27> Back then Lenovo made a really good parody of the original MacBook Air ad ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHXgIH9eaHg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHXgIH9eaHg)), showing the advantages of their ThinkPad X300: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnOCUkbix0)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Missing miss: every single power adapter since the clamshell yoyo.

(Of course it's not clear in any of these cases how to apportion blame for Apple's form-over-function designs between Jobs and Ive.)

</comment><comment><USER29> surprised they omitted the shittiest thing ever made: TouchBar

<comment><USER30> At least they hit the Butterfly keyboard, which I'd argue is worse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I know some people hate on the 'Dustbin' Mac Pro but I really liked mine, it was more powerful and 1/5th the size of those big Dell T7500 towers.

<comment><USER32> They were also super-quiet, given their size and power requirements.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I can't believe they _still_ haven't fixed that charging port on the mouse. It has to be the single most hated Apple design choice ever...

<comment><USER34> Finally used one. It was totally fine. And kept me from using it plugged in 100% of the time, which is what I'd have probably done otherwise. Not like the touchbar which I have to all-but disable to make a Macbook Pro usable at all.

<comment><USER33> It's totally fine until you show up in front of your computer one day and find that you can't use it because the mouse has run out of battery.

<comment><USER34> Yeah, then you're out of luck for a few minutes, if you somehow manage to let that happen.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The whale internet: communication over hundreds of miles - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/11/SP781EBM1P.DTL&type=living "What's really incredible is how all these whales showed up overnight," Black noted in an e-mail. "We do know that blue whales have long-range communication. Their low-range frequency calls can travel hundreds of miles through the oceans. So it seems likely that the whales communicated to others about the food source here." <comment><AUTHOR> Quote: "What's really incredible is how all these whales showed up overnight," Black noted in an e-mail. "We do know that blue whales have long-range communication. Their low-range frequency calls can travel hundreds of miles through the oceans. So it seems likely that the whales communicated to others about the food source here."</comment>


Mapping Types to Values (in C++) - <AUTHOR> http://gpfault.net/posts/mapping-types-to-values.txt.html <comment><USER2> I only skimmed the article but it seems this requires "registration" for each type and does not support template types.

What I would love to see it a completely generic type-to-value map ToValue<T> for ANY T, possibly template types, and without any sort of registration required. If the results are integers or otherwise ordered, they could then be used for compile-time ordered data structures like RB trees or heaps, for the implementation of some metaprogramming concepts.

Granted I believe that is impossible in plain C++.

<comment><AUTHOR> No registration required: [http://cpp.sh/4zlbc](http://cpp.sh/4zlbc)

<comment><USER2> I was implying a compile-time solution, i.e. where the result of the mapping is constexpr.

On second though, maybe it can be done at compile time, with this: [http://b.atch.se/posts/constexpr-counter/](http://b.atch.se/posts/constexpr- counter/)</comment></comment></comment>


Man surprised to learn that he'd been using a hand grenade to smash walnuts - <AUTHOR> http://shanghaiist.com/2016/12/23/not_a_nutcracker.php <comment><USER2> I want to buy this man a real walnut smasher now.</comment>


Y combinator type of mentoring in the uk - <AUTHOR>

Are their any y combinator types of funding and mentoring in the uk that are known espcially in london <comment><USER2> <http://seedcamp.com/>

<http://www.thedifferenceengine.eu/>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=518097>

</comment><comment><USER3> Mike Butcher posted on twitter a couple of days ago that he was compiling a list of European seed accelerators funds, so I imagine they'll be a list posted on Techcrunch shortly.</comment>