Is Cultural Appropriation Always Wrong? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/magazine/is-cultural-appropriation-always-wrong.html?_r=1 <comment><USER5> The concept of "Cultural Appropriation" (and the desire to avoid it) strikes me as something created out of benevolent racism that promotes cultural segregation.

I understand not wanting to step on toes and put salt in old wounds, but telling me I can't (metaphorically) walk around other neighborhoods out of respect seems a bit much. Something has gone awfully wrong to get to this point and playing along instead of unwinding the stack is misguided.

<comment><USER6> I think I might be mis-reading your comment but, to me, "cultural appropriation" sounds like a re-branding of integration. If would follow from this view that arguing against cultural appropriation is arguing for segregation.

<comment><USER5> I made a poor choice of words, as realize I could be conveying the the opposite of what I meant. I've re-written the line to better present that my thought that the drive to avoid cultural appropriation can look a lot like cultural segregation.

<comment><USER7> This is a false dichotomy.

<comment><USER8> I was disappointed that the article seemed to enforce this dichotomy as well, by bringing up the possibility of _asking_ the people in question:

> _But it has never been easier to proceed with good faith and Google, to seek > out and respect context[...]_

and then seemingly striking it down with the Shamsie essay:

> _The moment you say, a male American writer can't write about a female > Pakistani, you are saying, Don't tell those stories._

but leaving out the part immediately preceding the quote:

> _But it should be clear that the response to this is for writers to write > differently, to write better, to critique the power structures rather than > propping them up, to move beyond stereotype—which you need to do for purely > technical reasons, because the novel doesn't much like stereotypes._

which doesn't at _all_ preclude discussion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Cultural appropriation is a bunch of SJW & white-guilt bullshit. It's not wrong or an act of an oppressor, it's just how cultures collide. And there's nothing wrong with that.

<comment><USER7> Totally bro

<comment><USER9> I'm open to having a real conversation about this. Persuade me otherwise!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think the difference between true appropriation and cultural borrowing is the level of inherent abuse - whether purposeful or not. And then it's more a matter of degree than black/white.

So, wearing a native american headdress as a fashion accessory is more probably wrong; wearing cornrows as a fashion choice is not really all that wrong (at least, I haven't heard of cornrows being an actual cultural symbol, I just always thought it was a hairstyle); and a more recent example, yuppies drinking out of mason jars is very probably not a "wrong" appropriation of "poor" culture.

The level of abuse can definitely be ignorant rather than purposeful - <USER2> instance, there might be good points about why a white person wearing cornrows might actually be wrong.

The baldest examples of wrong appropriation have been the attempts to take meaningful cultural symbols and then deliberately pervert their meaning as a weapon. Possible examples are the pagan symbols of christmas, or the swastika - although it's unclear to me whether the nazi appropriation of that was a direct purposeful attack on the meaning of the eastern symbol.

<comment><USER9> Rich people drinking out of mason jars isn't cultural appropriation of poor class! IDK about your family, but my family is wealthier because we have a long habit of being frugal. There's no need to buy something new if you can use goo-be-gone on the leftover salsa jars. Fuck!

<comment><USER7> It's an absurd statement: "My family is wealthier because we have a habit of being frugal". How do you know poor people aren't frugal, let alone that they are _historically_ not frugal?

<comment><USER9> Right, I meant it as clarification for how my family got wealth, not as a reason why poor families are poor. "Civilian's family became wealthy because we had good jobs and were frugal with our money. As oppose to other families, who started a massively successful business."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The idea of cultural appropriation inevitably leads to racism by those who try to enforce some sort of moral code against it. If you don't _look_ like most people of your culture - you're suddenly a racist. Even when you're just practicing _your own culture_.

Anyone remember the story of the half-white, half-Japanese woman who was derided for culturally appropriating the Japanese because she, ethnically, looked closer to Caucasian/white than Japanese? I especially loved the part where the overly aggressive PC hate mob apologized to her. Except the apology never happened. Instead, they doubled down on her being in the wrong...

Increasingly, _learning_ about a culture is becoming "cultural appropriation" to the PC extremists. Identity politics, of all forms, is a disease - <USER3> what I have seen it has only ever lead to negativity and conflict.

</comment><comment><USER12> To co-opt and mimic is completely normal human behavior that cuts across all cultures, nations, sub-groups, etc. The article even acknowledges this right up front, "It's a truth only selectively acknowledged that all cultures are mongrel". The premise smells like just another manifestation of outrage- culture to drive clicks. Don't let your humanity be redirected into anger, downvotes, etc.

<comment><USER7> Violent overthrow of other people can also be described as "normal human behavior" as is polyamory, and hunting and gathering. Is it ideal behavior? Is it civil?

Your sense of smell smells like another manifestation of privilege. Don't allow yourself to believe you do not operate from a position of extreme privilege. Be human, but not delusional.

<comment><USER13> The fact that GP operates from a position of extreme privilege, doesn't mean that what he says is not true or invalid.

<comment><USER7> To the question of whether something is wrong, it being "normal human behavior" is not an argument for or against.

Normal doesn't mean fair or right or harmless or good. That's what the article is about.

So why did he say it?

<comment><USER13> Fair is meaningless in context of culture exchange. So is right. Harmless - <USER4> the majority of the cases it is. So is with good.

A person whining against somebody using "his" culture, blindly ignores the fact that "his" culture is crossbreed that is constantly changing and evolving.

<comment><USER7> Should we all pretend that "fair is meaningless in context of culture exchange" is a reasonable thing to say now?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> There's no such thing as cultural appropriation.It's a nazi leftist concept.

</comment><comment><USER13> I prefer the opposite approach - culture appropriation is fine and should be proven otherwise on case by case basis. Makes life more simple.

<comment><USER7> More simple for whom? Those who'd rather not think about it?

This perspective likely varies widely based on the culture with which you identify. Some cultures have been explicitly exploited, generally along the same axes of privilege in modern life.

<comment><USER13> > More simple for whom? Those who'd rather not think about it?

For the people that know that you cannot own a culture and there is no central authority which to determine how it can be used.

<comment><USER7> Your position requires exactly zero definable instances of negative cultural appropriation. Can you really defend that position? Can you defend the Nazi's co-opting the swastika, for instance? Can you explain why cultural appropriation tends to be directed along privilege vectors? Male-female / gay- straight / white-black / rich-poor / etc.

No. Simpler (for you) not to consider these things :)

Cultural interchange is inevitable yes, but is its effect on the human condition negligible? No. So why not talk about it.

<comment><USER13> Of course I can defend the Nazi swastika - it looked badass and it was easily recognized. When you go to war having a badass easily identified symbol on your flags is efficient and boost morale.

Also they didn't appropriate it because it was fucking Germanic to begin with.

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

<comment><USER7> badass, easily recognized. These are subjective terms. YOU think the swastika is badass. YOU find it to be an "easily-recognizable" symbol (at the time of it's introduction).

You can't prove things like that, so why do you believe this stuff? Why do you present it as fact?

<comment><USER11> _> These are subjective terms._

So? All culture is subjective. What is offensive in one culture can have a completely different meaning in other cultures [0]. Cultures are the result of human opinions and by definition that makes them subjective.

Human interpretation of actions, symbols, words, or what have you that defines is a culture is the direct result of a group of peoples' collective _opinions_ given to those actions, symbols, words, or what have you. Cultural appropriation is taking something away from a culture and trying to give it a new meaning, particularly with a meaning that the original group dislikes.

Which is little more than "Our opinion on this thing came before your opinion. You're being rude by ignoring our opinion on this thing and we don't like that."

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#As_an_insult](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#As_an_insult)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Unicorn Contributor: Complete the GitHub contribution graph in few seconds - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/carlosbaraza/unicorn-contributor <comment><AUTHOR> Do you feel pressed to complete your GitHub profile green bar?

Complete the GitHub contribution graph in few seconds!

[https://github.com/carlosbaraza/unicorn- contributor](https://github.com/carlosbaraza/unicorn-contributor)

Most of the metrics provided by GitHub are misleading, and this is the reason why I started this project. The actual value an Engineer could provide is not reflected at all by these metrics. I do not think they benefit in any way Open Source.

Do you think the GitHub profile contributions bar is useful? Feel free to comment on this. I would like to know what people think about my reasoning.

</comment><comment><USER2> Personally I haven't met any recruiters who really care about only this.

Don't get me wrong. People appreciate open-source contributions but they'll look at repos etc and not just blindly look at the contributions bar.

Also I think github is not really good at surfacing PRs opened and merged into open source projects. It keeps getting it wrong for me under the 'repositories contributed to' section. Pinned repositories help with that a bit but still there's no way to showcase PRs and actual contributions rather than just list of repos.

<comment><AUTHOR> I totally agree. PRs should get more relevance. It seems like Open Source for GitHub is creating new repositories, writing a lot of commits and getting stars to your own repositories.

I think GitHub should work on the profile page. And the green bar should be removed, in my opinion.</comment></comment>


YouTube Helps Retailers Embrace Shoppable Video  - <AUTHOR> http://adage.com/article/digital/youtube-helps-retailers-embrace-shoppable-video/238282/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter <comment><USER2> Cool move, youtube has been creating such cool value adds, the concert tickets and mp3 purchasing comes immediately to mind. I think this could easily extend to a compelling second screen experience, where users would be able to buy the furniture in some scene of a show they're watching.</comment>


Tesla loses three vice presidents in a week - <AUTHOR> https://electrek.co/2019/07/02/tesla-loses-three-vice-presidents/ <comment><USER2> Now that Tesla have broken ground there are a lot of electric car startups. So these people are in demand.

<comment><USER3> That's good!

I'm routing for Mr. Elon Musk. There's plenty for everyone. It's not a zero sum game.

<comment><USER4> One good thing about Tesla is they always said their goal is to kickstart the ev transition, and Musk even specifically said it's okay if tesla loses out as long as society moves that way. So that's a noble thing. They actually have a goal. In the mean time they've made a fantastic vehicle that should improve the world.

Separately from that, by all apparent news Tesla is a gosh dang hard working place, and people can't take it forever.

<comment><USER5> I will believe that Tesla has society's interests in mind when they sell vehicles with standard J1772 connectors, and deploy CCS connectors at their supercharger sites.

Until then, they're just emulating Apple's vendor lock-in.

<comment><USER6> They already do exactly this in Europe. Model 3 ships with CCS, and the super chargers have now 2 cables, one of them is CCS.

<comment><USER7> Can non-tesla cars use their superchargers (I thought payment was done through the car, so I wasn't sure how that would work)?

<comment><USER8> Only if the non-Tesla car manufacture accepts Tesla's offer to enable it, which means just making their cars capable by following Tesla's specs, and paying a fair share of supporting the supercharger network, proportional to usage. So far no manufacturer has accepted this offer.

<comment><USER9> Somehow dozens of other EV charging networks don't need to talk to the car manufacturers.

Can that supercharger myth finally die?

<comment><USER10> Superchargers are DC and match the car battery voltage.

Pretty much all other chargers are AC. Even if they were DC, they would need to match the battery voltage or you're going to get wierd things like "this charger can charge your car up to 70 percent, but no higher because the charger can't go to a high enough voltage"

<comment><USER9> The CCS chargers here are DC.

<comment><USER8> It's easy to make claims about them now, but the the CCS chargers were just a vaporware proposal back when the Supercharger network was started. I find the Supercharger connector to be pretty nice compared to the CCS connector fwiw, but whatever works for you is fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> >All three execs that left this week seem to be significant losses for Tesla, but it might be for the best if Tesla's fast-paced, startup-like business environment wasn't for them.

But is a fast-paced, startup-like business environment the best environment for producing thousands of expensive, multi-ton, high speed vehicles that can seriously maim or kill their occupants or bystanders if something goes wrong?

<comment><USER12> As much as I love my Model 3, it has quite a few quirks that a car from a traditional automaker wouldn't have: (nonstandard charging connector, snow falls off the rear windshield into the trunk, no power shades over the sunroof, no place to store sunglasses, ect.)

And, as much as I want Tesla to succeed, they really need to figure out how to get some know-how from standard automakers. I never had a pile of snow fall into the back of my Leaf when I opened its trunk! It also had a sunglasses holder, and I didn't need to use a dongle to plug it into a standard charger.

<comment><USER13> 2005 Honda Civic: Water drains from the trunk lid into the trunk when you open it in the rain. If you open the trunk when there's snow on the rear window, it gets jammed up between the trunk lid and the window.

The traditional automakers aren't immune from this sort of thing.

<comment><USER14> Turns out making a car is really complicated and full of tradeoffs. A car with no compromises is going to cost 6 figures at least.

<comment><USER15> Turns out even cars that are over 6 figures are still totally full of trade offs and compromises. This is a particularly insane example, but luxury cars are still in no way perfect.

Doug DeMuro Reviewing a $200000 hummer: [https://youtu.be/UqKUExgryXo](https://youtu.be/UqKUExgryXo)

<comment><USER16> Exotic cars usually have a lot more quirks and compromises than normal cars. They're also not known for being terribly reliable; the ones that are are made by divisions of much larger automakers, so they can raid the parts bin of their cheaper siblings. Jaguar used to be infamous for how unreliable their cars were, until Ford took them over.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > I would assume that Tesla's pace clashes with what people are used to in the > auto industry, and it might be hard for them to adapt.

Or that Tesla is playing fast and loose with the rules and compromising safety, and they felt ethically compelled to leave.

It's sort of hard to make either assumption from the outside. But it definitely says _something_ about Tesla.

Edit: My point here is that three VP departures implies nothing in particular, only that something is changing, and it's quite a logical leap the author is making assuming it is their "fast paced environment".

<comment><USER18> One of the VPs had left after 4-5 years like clockwork after every position with 5 different automakers. Guess how long he'd been at Tesla? 4+ years. Sometimes, it's not about Tesla magic/curse, sometimes it's just a regular company experiencing regular phenomena.

<comment><USER19> exactly. like, first question should be something along the line of "how long does Tesla exec shares take to vest?" \- Occam razor and all that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm trying to remain relatively unbiased in my assessment of Telsa, but can anyone come up with a reason for all these executives leaving other than poor business prospects?

Maybe Elon's management style? Maybe I answered my own question.

<comment><USER21> The few folks I knew who worked at Tesla told me it's basically 60 hours a week at a minimum. It's not uncommon to find someone sleeping in the office or folks going out to dinner and coming right back to work.

The last person I talked to was looking for a new job. He loved what he was working on and felt proud of his work but was also feeling extremely burned out and wanted to stop working every weekend and evening. He also told me they use _literally every_ technical stack. He had worked on a Ruby app, a Python app, a .Net app, a .Net Core app, and many of them are supposed to work together they were just written that way because whoever started it was more familiar with a specific language.

It doesn't sound like a great place to work for to me. I talked to someone at SpaceX who told me similar things but it sounded like their usage of random tech stacks was at least lower than Tesla's.

<comment><USER22> For a young person 60 hours should not be a big deal. If it is don't work for a hard charging company. Go do something easier. Or don't work for a company 'like that'. Believe it or not some people are not impacted by that kind of lifestyle (of working so much)

<comment><USER23> I disagree, no one should be expected to, week in week out, work for more than 40 hours a week. Of course there is regrettable crunch from time to time.

Anything over that, is just unproductive in the long run. People will burn themselves out, which isn't good for a company, and certainly isn't good for the employee.

<comment><USER22> Nobody is 'expected to' it's what you sign up for. It's like saying you decide to be a policeman or firefighter (not something I would do) and then that they shouldn't be 'expected' to do what the job requires.

Nobody is required to take a job at a company that thinks people should work long hours. And actually new college graduates in some professions (law, medicine, finance) work longer than 60 hours. And if they don't want to work those hours there is someone who would in many cases be glad to take their place.

Simply saying that 'nobody should be required' implies that everyone thinks it's bad.

When I was out of school I was involved in a situation where I worked much longer than 60 hours and did so for at least 5 or 6 years. No vacation nothing. And guess what? It didn't bother me to do that. At all. Just like it doesn't bother some people to be hanging off a rock cliff (not me that is not something I would do).

Bottom line: You are free to choose whatever job you want. If you don't want to work what is required then pick another job. And if enough people don't want to work long hours the company can decide then to change their practices.

The law does not even prevent long hours for most salary workers either by the way (there are labor practices that cover some situations of course.)

<comment><USER24> Firefighters and policemen get paid very generous overtime for working more than 40 hours a week. And their are caps to how much overtime they can work.

Attorneys get paid lots of money to sacrifice their social lives. Especially at the "biglaw" firms, they get paid well into the six figures and generally 2 years in will make more than a programmer with the same experience. Doctors eventually make far more than programmers after their residency. Finance guys (and gals) nearly 7 figures a year or two into the job...

 _The law does not even prevent long hours for most salary workers either by the way (there are labor practices that cover some situations of course.)_

Again, why should a salaried worker work long hours so that their company can make money if the company isn't going to pay them for the extra work?

<comment><USER25> > Firefighters and policemen get paid very generous overtime for working more > than 40 hours a week. And their are caps to how much overtime they can work.

I do not know any firefighters or policemen who make even what a mid level developer makes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> The average tenure for an executive in the USA is around 2 years. So, it's alright

<comment><USER27> Citation needed?

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Time to revive [http://fuckedcompany.com/](http://fuckedcompany.com/)

<comment><USER29> This site is blocked for "pornography" on my corporate network

<comment><USER30> To be fair, it has the word 'fucked' in the url, so that's not an unreasonable result from a simple spam filter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I think the biggest worry looming is the financials. Everybody is freaking out on their burn rate.

<comment><USER18> Who is freaking out about their burn rate? Do you know their burn rate for Q2? Q1 had logistical problems which reduced deliveries made, Q2 is going to look good in comparison.

<comment><USER32> Everyone. Their stock price plummeted last month.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-tesla/tesla- st...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-tesla/tesla-stock-and- bonds-tumble-as-investors-fret-about-costs-and-safety-idUSKCN1SQ1WY)

<comment><USER33> It did? Google is reporting a 26.93% gain. $178.97 on Jun 3 to $227.17 on July 1. That's not much of a "plummet".

<comment><USER34> Cherry pick.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Have they checked behind the couch cushions?

</comment><comment><USER36> I don't know if all smoke indicates a fire, but there has been a lot of smoke coming out of Tesla.

</comment><comment><USER37> I'll gladly do whatever their job was for half the salary. Unless there is some kind of illegal activity involved that I could be implicated for later.

<comment><USER16> Watch out with statements like this; a lot of corporate executives don't make as much salary as you're thinking. You might be better off with whatever you're doing now than getting half of some executive job that only pays $200-250k.

<comment><USER38> I've seen structures where they pay ~$50k in cash and then you get ~$150k in stock. But the stock is restricted such that you only can sell it in ~3 years time. Good incentive to keep the stock price up, as you 'bought' it at ~150k but could sell it in 3 years for much more than 150k.

<comment><USER16> Yeah, but the OP only offered to work for half their salary; he didn't say anything about the golden handcuffs.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


We Love and Sponsor Benthos – Corporate Sponsorship of Open Source - <AUTHOR> https://underthehood.meltwater.com/blog/2020/01/30/why-we-love-and-sponsor-benthos/ <comment><AUTHOR> We have used the GitHub Sponsors program here, to support this open source project: [https://help.github.com/en/github/supporting-the-open- source...](https://help.github.com/en/github/supporting-the-open-source- community-with-github-sponsors/about-github-sponsors)

GitHub is also working on what they call "Corporate Sponsorship", which should make this even easier in the future: [https://github.blog/2019-06-12-faq-with- the-github-sponsors-...](https://github.blog/2019-06-12-faq-with-the-github- sponsors-team/#do-you-plan-to-support-corporate-sponsors-and-sponsored-teams- why-did-you-start-with-individual-sponsors-and-sponsored-developers)</comment>


Perl and Linguistics (1995) - <AUTHOR> http://world.std.com/~swmcd/steven/perl/linguistics.html <comment><USER2> This text is useful to understand how Perl _is_ a natural language and how you can enjoy to use it in one of the possible ways that you are free to choose.</comment>


No/reduced alcohol leads to increased productivity - <AUTHOR> http://davidbatey.com/productivity-hack/2013/09/20/no-alcohol-leads-to-healthier-more-productive-lifestyle.html

<comment><USER2> _Now more importantly let's look at the time saved. No code shipped on the evenings where drinking occurs (loss of 4 hours each night) and 1 day hangover on the Saturday feeling sorry for myself._

You're not gaining four hours each night because you're not drinking; you're gaining four hours each night because you're not going out.

</comment><comment><USER3> When we launched our startup we took a vow of sobriety - no drinking booze until we get profitable. It took us 9 months, one of the most productive periods of my life to date.

<comment><AUTHOR> Awesome

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's often said that the age of enlightenment started when Europe switched from drinking beer during the day to coffee.

(Beer was often drunk because it was safer than the untreated water supplies in cities)

</comment><comment><USER5> To be fair, this guy drinks a lot. It seems like he's out drinking 3 out of 5 nights a week and 1 out of 2 nights a weekend which to me seems quite excessive.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've been teetotal for 12 years - I'd say I'm getting steadily less productive as I get older (now 33) - so I'm wondering whether to try the opposite test.. As I get older, will drinking booze make me more productive?

</comment><comment><USER7> This just in, no pot leads to less munchies. Here's Jim with the weather.

<comment><USER8> Let's not turn this place into Reddit.

<comment><USER9> No need to attack other websites…

<comment><USER8> There absolutely is a need to "attack" other websites, when you see one community that was once flourishing with great degrade into every other regular old internet comment board.

HN is a fantastic place with lots of very smart people. I would hate to see this place run down with stupid nonsensical comments, memes, and image replies.

I come here for the quality discussion, that's it. If that leaves, there's no point to HN.

Have you seen Reddit "discussions"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Really? Not getting trashed is more productive? There's millions of people out there who drink a few glasses of wine on the weekends and don't have any productivity problems.

</comment><comment><USER11> There's weak evidence that light drinking (fewer than 3 beers/day) is good for you, or at least not bad (though if you're like me you'll probably notice that you can't manage top-level coding while drunk). I wrote about this a few times in past years: [http://graehl.org/tag/alcohol/](http://graehl.org/tag/alcohol/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Completely agree what said in the post, it is also addiction and tiresome day makes one look for little bit chill in the mind. Beer definetly does it. Anyone has any thoughts on "rewarding yourself" other than one mentioned in the post are welcome

</comment><comment><USER13> This is referred to by some as "going past the Ballmer peak."

Remember Windows ME? Yeah.

[http://xkcd.com/323/](http://xkcd.com/323/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Everything in moderation including moderation.</comment>


WikiLeaks: The Spy Files - <AUTHOR> http://wikileaks.org/the-spyfiles.html

<comment><USER2> Wow they really need to redesign the layout on that page. It took me about a minute and a half to realize that this was more than just a blog post about echelon.

The actual files are on the left, in that ~100px wide container.

Here are some brochures from companies that do this stuff:

[http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/list/document- type/brochure.ht...](http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/list/document- type/brochure.html)

(The 3G thing is the only part of this that is really surprising. Intercepting wifi isn't really that impressive)

Here is a pricelist of some tech that is, I guess, being sold in Europe:

[http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/files/0/204_GRIFFCOMM-200802-P...](http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/files/0/204_GRIFFCOMM-200802-PRICELIST.pdf)

(Honestly none of this seems very...leaky. Isn't most of this fairly common knowledge to anybody who even reads about hacker conferences?)

<comment><USER3> this is more about thin-thread than it is about echelon. echelon and 'echelon II' haven't been used since before 9.11.2001.

<comment><USER4> Source?

<comment><USER3> you're joking right?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wikileaks should not be editorializing.

Feeding us a party line about a "mass surveillance industry" and "Orwell's World" and "Selling Surveillance to Dictators" is not going to bring people to their cause. All it does is make them look like someone with an agenda to push, and I'm not in the habit of going to people with an obvious agenda for a primary source about someone they don't like.

What I want is the old Wikileaks back. Anyone else remember the days when they were actually a wiki? Whistleblowers would approach them with documents from all manner of sources from governments to corporations to religious institutions, they would be subjected to source verification, and then they would be published and indexed for the world to see with minimum fanfare. Back then, I at least got the sense that they were devoted to _aiding whistleblowers_ , not some silly and ineffectual crusade against the US government, no matter how right that cause may be. Can anyone really say that that's gotten us anywhere useful?

Let us see the documents and judge for ourselves what they mean.

<comment><USER6> So sad to see this as the top comment. This has been dealth with at length - it's just not the way the modern (media) world works anymore.

Honestly, no one would even care if there were the greatest intel of all time, the most incriminating information, published on a free-for-all wiki without any editorializing. This is the model Wikileaks had at the beginning - and no one cared and things didn't change.

Many reasons, just the most important one: No media organization is going to cover your whistleblowing (and researching and verifying and spending hundreds of manhours before publishing it) if they cannot be sure they have an exclusive. If there is a slight chance they'll get beat to it, they won't touch it (with serious effort).

So: Either you editorialize and embargo stuff and work together with media organizations. Or you don't - and no whistleblower will ever give you stuff anymore, because it's just not going to change anything.

Actually, IMHO, Wikileaks has an obligation to whisteblowers to get the most bang for the buck and that's just not going to happen in the old ways.

There's a reason no one in the real world knows what cryptome even is.

<comment><USER5> So if that is the way the world works, what of note have they accomplished, aside from drawing the ire of the US government and getting a leader martyred, their finances blockaded, and a barrage of at-best ambivalent media attention?

The nail that sticks up gets hammered down. Change doesn't happen because a few activists angrily demand it; it happens because of huge cultural shifts in the minds of millions.

 _This is the model Wikileaks had at the beginning - and no one cared and things didn't change._

That just isn't true. Read through this list, up to 2010.[0] WL _can_ get things done more subtly. It may not attract huge mainstream headlines that way, but _that's fine_. It should be amassing influence over years or decades, because that's the way real successful institutions start out. Not everyone is on Internet time--certainly not governments.

 _So: Either you editorialize and embargo stuff and work together with media organizations. Or you don't - and no whistleblower will ever give you stuff anymore, because it's just not going to change anything._

I believe there's a happy medium here, but if WL is your model of media cooperation, you may want to look elsewhere, since WL has not exactly been a good citizen from their perspectives.[1]

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_published_by_WikiLe...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_published_by_WikiLeaks)

[1] [http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/12/wikileaks- stil...](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/12/wikileaks-still- squabbling-guardian/45592/#)

<comment><USER7> One of the contributing factors behind the US withdrawal from Iraq are some of the disclosures from Wikileaks. See [http://www.salon.com/2011/10/23/wikileaks_cables_and_the_ira...](http://www.salon.com/2011/10/23/wikileaks_cables_and_the_iraq_war/singleton/)

<comment><USER8> OT, but Salon. Man. Putting "/singleton" on the end of the URL for a 1-page is truly the most widely-distributed codesmell I have ever seen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can anyone point us to a torrent for these files?

If not, why not? Every time the Wikileaks site(s) get taken offline for one reason or another, we lose access to valuable data.

The bottom of the page states "courage is contagious". I'd submit that torrents are even more contagious. Get this stuff on torrents, so it never leaves the Internet for pete's sake!

<comment><USER10> It's easy to find the IP of anyone who downloads such a torrent which may or may not be important, but would prevent many people from downloading that information.

<comment><USER9> There's a wealth of people in countries all over the world who fail to give a damn about this fact, myself included.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's somewhat disconcerting that clicking through to some of these files, I worry there's probably some government agency somewhere along the round trip recording the fact that I've read Wikileaks documents, and that could be held against me any time in the future.

<comment><USER12> "recording the fact that I've read Wikileaks documents, and that could be held against me any time in the future."

Do you want to live in a world like this?

There are things in the world like free speech that are not free. People had to fight for it, and in some case they died for it.

Read "The Gulag Archipelago". Solzhenitsyn talks about communism as a minority, that knew they were a minority. So when Stalin was going to incarcerate people, they used night, and police will take off their shoes so nobody hear them detain their neighbors. Stalin only killed people with very gradual steps.

People have a lot of power by their selves. Never underestimate your own power. The power that the courage of millions of people that admits openly that they read wikileaks and are not afraid about it.

They(the government) are the ones that should fear us, because they work for us.

<comment><USER13> > People have a lot of power by their selves. Never underestimate your own > power. The power that the courage of millions of people that admits openly > that they read wikileaks and are not afraid about it.

Thank you for stating this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The introduction appears to mix fact, speculation, and editorializing.

For instance, under the subheading "Weaponizing Data Kills Innocent People", it talks about "Intelligence Integration Systems, Inc" (IISi) and "Netezza", neither of which appear in the files. In fact, the story described was covered in the press last year[1]. The implication is that civilian deaths from drone strikes is somehow related to this release...but it isn't.

[1]:<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/24/cia_netezza/>

</comment><comment><USER15> Is it not well known that these companies do what they do? I dunno, a lot of the files are just brochures. It doesn't seem very leaky to me. I guess I'm not terribly surprised. Now if they had files that point to concrete instances of the adverse affects of these companies, that'd be more leaky.

</comment><comment><USER16> It seems like every other day one more of those "conspiracy theories" is confirmed and proven true.

<comment><USER14> That statement is rather difficult to evaluate without knowing what such theories you're referring to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Well, I don't see Carrier IQ in the list ;)

</comment><comment><USER18> Look at this file:

[http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/files/0/110_CELLEBRITE- UFED.pd...](http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/files/0/110_CELLEBRITE-UFED.pdf)

Was it intended that a typical shady lawyer/congressman secret deal appears on the left?

</comment><comment><USER19> Not to minimize the seriousness of the potential for this to invade a sovereign citizen's privacy, but this really counts as a leak?

I didn't read through all the sources but here are the problems with the slant wiki leaks is spinning:

1\. First off, this reads like an editorial. We want facts, not spin and their extremely biased writing takes their credibility from wherever it is to far lower now. Orwell's World? Maybe. But let me decide that and don't try to plant the idea. I think an organization that would spin this as anti- government propaganda is just as bad as the some of the things they're opposed to. Give me facts and let me decided - don't throw in opinions to guide me to the "correct" view.

2\. I couldn't read every brochure nor do I want to but the brochures and videos I saw weren't all that evil. At least not as evil as they want me to believe. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to be spied on and I do see the potential for abuse but the brochures here are things I can get by myself. The HP brochure, the Hacker Team video, and others aren't hiding in some dark government lab. They're out there trying to sell this stuff to the right people! I don't come across it because I have no need for it nor am I interested in it. But anyway, they're pretty quiet about selling this stuff but they do know how to get heard by the right people. That doesn't mean it's a secret. They don't make secret brochures for spy products if their products and services are supposed to be considered sensitive information like wiki leaks wants us to believe.

3\. Don't we all know about this? It really isn't a secret anymore that there are companies creating software and hardware specifically meant to take over devices and spy on people. We hope it doesn't happen to us but we know it sometimes does. That sucks. We should know. We should make a fuss and we do. But wiki leaks isn't sharing anything groundbreaking here. We all know about Carrier IQ, right? Maybe CarrierIQ is a little more benign but then we also know about the cyber attack on Iranian nuclear program via Stuxnet so we all know it goes on, already know the abuse potential, and already know about some but not all abuses. Nothing earth shattering again.

4\. This could have come off as a jumping off point for discussing the seriousness of the problem in terms of how we can spot and stop the general public from being spied on but instead they just created tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist fodder. I know it did spark some constructive discussion but I'll be damned if it didn't sound like the stuff you can find on anti GWB sites or "Obama is a member of the Skull and Bones, hey look at the secret symbols on a dollar bill" type sites.

Also, I want to see The sources for where they got the information on these spy products being used in Egypt and Lybia. If its there then it's hard to find. And the site needs a better layout. Nothing fancy, just make it easier to navigate and read.

I think WikiLeaks took what could have been a great jumping off point for debate and made it into a joke with their very generous helping of spin and what seems to be an antiestablishment agenda just for the sake of having an antiestablishment agenda.

<comment><USER20> > _how we can spot and stop the general public from being spied on_

You can't spot when a well-funded government secret service, with access to communications infrastructure, is spying on the population.

> _Also, I want to see The sources for where they got the information on these > spy products being used in Egypt and Lybia._

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying. You think a site for whistleblowers should release information about those whistleblowers?

<comment><USER19> No, I don't think they should call out whistleblowers but they don't really say where they got the info on the secret spy rooms where all the devices were hidden in these countries. They don't say it was whistleblowers. They just say they know. Well let me tell you what I know:

My neighbor murdered his wife and had our other neighbor, a police officer, cover up the crime. We now know this. How do we know thus? We just do, I'm fucking credible, don't ask questions.

See what I mean? At least give us _something_ to go on. Even a link to a previous article where they cover this source less information would do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This discussion has gone south the more people that joined in. There's a lot of people expressing sentiments along the lines of being fearful that they're being tracked and that government agencies are spying on them personally.

Let's get something straight. The real issue here isn't that you're being personally spied on. If the government is tracking you specifically and is willing to hold the data they collect on you against you then you should play the lottery too because you're one lucky person.

If and when data is collected it is used most often to analyze groups of people, not individuals. It's very rare that an individual would be tracked and that would only happen if you were influential or a true danger to them (at least a perceived danger).

For example, let's say the government was tracking Occupy Wall Street protesters. If they were targeting individuals then they'd be targeting the very few "leaders" if there are any. Otherwise they'd just like to know about you as a group. What you think, like, listen to, and read. Even so, they're not going to come after you. They're going to use that information in a way that allows them to spin a narrative or in some other subtle way. They just aren't going to bust into your living room.

Also, in the rare case they collect data on an individual and actually try to do something to you personally, they sure as hell aren't going to bring it up in a court. You'll be black bagged or something but you're not going to go to trial with the prosecutor coming out saying "well, we surreptitiously collected this data from John's phone and home computer which proves he's a terrorist". They'd be shooting themselves in the foot! They'd much rather have you know they collect data while still retaining plausible deniability.

You can look up anything you want all day long including how to make bombs and no one will bust in your living room until the day you somehow are in a position to influence a large group of people.

So please everyone, let's take off our tinfoil hats, quit thinking we're important enough to track individually, and just generally stop sounding like conspiracy theorists. I mean, this stuff can really do damage and it isn't right but this discussion is heading in the wrong direction with that kind of rhetoric.

Edit: Seems everyone doesn't like what I've got to say yet only one person is willing to say why. There's way too much group think and karma policing going on around here.

<comment><USER21> You're getting downvoted because you get it wrong. The problem isn't individual tracking of criminals/spies. This is not about fear of individual tracking, if "they" want to do that they could just as well post a stake-out van in front of your house.

 _If and when data is collected it is used most often to analyze groups of people, not individuals_

And that's _exactly_ the problem with the mass surveillance industry. The more advanced the technology becomes, the easier it will be to track everyone "individually" (recent examples CarrierIQ, malls tracking phones). It also lowers the threshold to invading individuals privacy.

Also, Assange is concerned with companies that sell this equipment to foreign governments with a dismal human rights record. In those countries, a wrong word in a message can cost your life. Mass surveillance makes it possible to easily pick out potential "enemies of the state".

<comment><USER8> What this does is legitimize the use of stereotypes in law enforcement. They might say it's just for "hints" or something, but at the end of the day you have not only racial profiling being enabled through this mechanism, but anything-profiling if the "anything" achieves a certain statistical significance. An abstract profiler.

<comment><USER22> Indeed, it dehumanizes us and treats us as statistics.

<comment><USER8> The thing is, it doesn't affect anybody specific...until it does, in which case it self-validates.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Pinebook – A $100 14" ARM laptop - <AUTHOR> https://www.pine64.org/?product=pinebook <comment><USER2> I am an early adopter of a Pine product. I purchased the Pine64, a case, and some accessories. When I had problems with the product, the folks at Pine64 were completely silent and refused to communicate with me. It is possible that their customer service has improved since I last made a purchase. I will not test it and cannot recommend the Pine products. However, the idea of a $100 computer is tantalizing and I really hope they get their act together.

<comment><USER3> It sounds like they actually spent significant time helping which IMO is above and beyond on a 100$ product. If you want significant support, don't buy cheapest in it's category things as support is one of the things that must be cut to dramatically reduce prices.

<comment><USER4> I've gotten reasonable support on $100 2-in-1s, $100 appliances, and <$100 pieces of software.

It being cheap isn't an excuse to ship a defective product.

<comment><USER3> A 100$ toaster is not a cheap in the way a 100$ laptop is. Basically, if your buying a 1,000$ laptop and they reserve 5% of the price for support that's 50$. If your buying a 100$ laptop don't expect the same 50$ be set aside unless your actually willing to spend 150$ on 100$ of components and 50$ of support.

<comment><USER5> That is a reasonable analysis. I kinda agree that a computer cannot be treated the same way as a home appliance (well not right now anyways, this made me wonder how support for some of the smart appliances will pan out in the future). There are exponentially more things that can go wrong, whereas with, e.g. a Washer, there are a reasonably finite number of problems which can be fixed by a mechanic.

That being said though, radio silence is _NOT_ the way you treat your customers. If they don't offer support, then simply state that in an email, or better yet, state that explicitly on the website. But if you have a customer support email and don't honor it, it feels pretty scummy IMO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Here's a review of it by Hackaday: [http://hackaday.com/2017/04/28/hands-on- with-the-pinebook/](http://hackaday.com/2017/04/28/hands-on-with-the- pinebook/)

<comment><USER7> _You can't give this to your kid that's heading off to college — or even high school — and expect them to manage. It's also not really a replacement for a low-end Chromebook, the desktop is sufficiently sluggish that I'd be wary of recommending it as a cheap web browsing laptop for the sofa._

Okay, well, that's not great. I guess...

 _On the other hand, I must admit, I rather like it. It's a lot better put together than a $89 laptop has any right to be, and despite the battery there's a lot of space inside for adding things. Quite what things I'm not entirely clear on, in the same way I'm just not sure what I'm going to do with it quite yet. But I'll figure something out._

Okay, now I'm confused... he likes it, but doesn't know why, and doesn't know what he'd do with it because it's unsuitable for the things he'd normally use a laptop for.

<comment><USER8> _Okay, now I 'm confused_

If you're the sort of person who needs a laptop to do the sort of things most normal people use a laptop for then this probably isn't for you. If you're the sort of person who might consider taking a laptop apart and trying to make it do weird and wonderful things the creators had never thought of and realize there is a good chance you'll end up bricking it in the process (and thus don't want to spend too much money on it) then this might just be the laptop you've been looking for

<comment><USER9> Exactly. For instance at work (robotics) we tend to use little netbooks as data loggers. This would be awesome for that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> HN hug of death... For now, here's the cached version (text only): [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:M-Pti8N...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:M-Pti8NHnJ0J:https://www.pine64.org/%3Fproduct%3Dpinebook&num=1&strip=1&vwsrc=0)

        $99.99
        CPU: 1.2GHz 64-Bit Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53
        RAM: 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM Memory
        Flash: 16 GB eMMC 5.0 (upgradable up to 64GB)
        Wireless: WiFi 802.11bgn + Bluetooth 4.0
        USB 2.0 Port: 2
        MicroSD Card Slot: 1
        Mini HDMI: 1
        Headphone Jack: 1
        Microphone: Built-in
        Keyboard: Full Size Keyboard
        Touch-pad: Large Multi-Touch Touchpad
        Power: Input: 100~240V, Output: 5V3A
        Battery: Lithium Polymer Battery (10000mAH)
        Display: 14″ TN LCD (1366 x 768)
        Front Camera: 0.3 Megapixels
        Dimension: 329mm x 220mm x 12mm (WxDxH)
        Weight: 1.26 kg (2.78 lbs)
        Warranty: 30 days

<comment><USER11> Slightly better archive [https://web.archive.org/web/20170516135311/https://www.pine6...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170516135311/https://www.pine64.org/?product=pinebook)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've been using Pine products since their Kickstarter, and received my 11'' Pinebook about two weeks ago. I currently use it for quick, on-the-go dev work.

Mine is set so that it boots from the internal 16gb eMMC into Ubuntu Xenial w/ i3wm. Then, I can either extend the storage or have it boot into Android, or any other distro, if I have an SD card inserted.

The Android build is well-refined with very few issues; just like the Pine64 SoC, Android is best for media-related use. The linux builds were rough at first, but most of the major issues have been fixed already by the community devs. They're also working on getting Linux on the mainline kernel, and to get 3D acceleration working.

It'll be a huge step for ARM if this device works out.

<comment><USER13> > They're also working on getting Linux on the mainline kernel...

This was my first question, and there's no answer in their FAQ. Thank you for answering it.

I used a Samsung ARM Chromebook as my main laptop for many years, running Ubuntu. I only stopped two weeks ago when the keyboard finally broke (it did very well for how much it cost).

The biggest problem I had was that driver support didn't appear in the mainline kernel for years. When it finally did all work, it regressed regularly. I gave up bisecting the regressions to keep my own laptop running; I seemed to be the only one doing it.

Now I won't touch any ARM hardware (or any hardware, for that matter) that apparently supports Linux unless everything I need is _already in mainline_. Otherwise, by the time it lands (if it lands), it seems to be that there won't be enough of a user community left to keep it from regressing.

<comment><USER12> Yeah, that's the biggest issue with ARM. It doesn't matter what the specs are if the driver's don't work. The reason Raspberry Pi is so great is because of its huge community support to iron out all of its issues. There are plenty of SoC's out there with a lot of wasted potential because of their lack of support, and the fact that vendors only give you binary blobs for critical system drivers...

Thankfully, Pine64 has had a decent community these past two years so I'm not terribly afraid of the Pinebook getting left in the dust. But it's still a gamble.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> ah- And the pine64 is one of the arm64 boards supported by OpenBSD: [https://www.openbsd.org/arm64.html](https://www.openbsd.org/arm64.html)

<comment><USER14> Whoa, that page lists Raspberry Pi 3 as supported also.

Every time I've searched for OpenBSD for Raspberry Pi in the past, all I got was people saying that it would never happen due to the reliance on proprietary blobs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I was an early adopter of the pine64s. I was going to use them for ARM builds at work. I had the most difficult time trying to install a Linux distro that I could trust. Everything came in the form of binary blobs or pre-installed SD cards.

In the end, a farm of 12 of them lay to waste. I hope I can find a reliable way to install an OS with some semblance of trustworthiness. But the odds don't seem so good after a year of their existence.

</comment><comment><USER16> ALMOST awesome.

I'd like this but:

1) Keep it thin, _however_

2) cram all that extra space full of battery, damn the weight, and

3) make the case solid metal. Steel if you must. I want it to feel like a contiguous block of metal with no give (doesn't necessarily mean you have to make it impossible to open, but if that's what it takes, go for it), plus

4) some fast wired interface. Gigabit ethernet or (better) USB3.

Oh, and a screen that isn't awful (approaching MacBook territory, if not matching it) would be nice.

And yeah, I'm aware that _exact_ thing probably can't be delivered for $100. $200-300, though (I know, the nice screen bumps the price up)?

I'd love an absolute _brick_ of a thin, battery-filled laptop driven by something just a bit heftier (mostly on I/O) than the Rpi3. Tech old/open enough that there are no wrinkles to iron out, solid enough case to defend yourself with it then flip it open and deploy to production, small enough to pack well, old-school IBM tank-like longevity. Perfect for a lightweight tiling WM and some terminals, and the occasional light open-source or emulated game.

<comment><USER8> _I know, the nice screen bumps the price up_

Making the case out of solid metal rather than plastic is what will bump the price up. Making custom plastic cases is really cheap. Doing basically anything custom of of metal is much more expensive, doing a single pieces of metal with a complex shape doubly so.

<comment><USER16> It's just got to _feel_ like one solid piece of metal, not actually _be_ solid. Like how iPhones give that glass-and-metal-slab vibe, or (to a lesser extent) MacBook Pros before they thinned the body out (back when they could fit an optical drive), not flexing like the newer ones do when you press lightly on them. I want it to feel like something that could sit in an auto garage seeing daily use and still work after 10 years, but not be giant (possible because the mainboard would be tiny and power-sipping). Sturdy in feel and in fact, though not giant and bulky, and with all-day-plus battery life is what I'm looking for, and I'd trade raw computing power for it. A shopworn socket set of a laptop.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Since the number of pixels is the same, I think the 11" is a nicer deal - smaller, lighter and probably with a better battery life

<comment><USER18> Seems like the different screen size doesn't totally translate into a proportionally smaller device: the 11 inch is 30mm smaller in width and 20mm in depth, that's 36mm diagonal, when the screen is 2.4 inches, or about 61mm smaller. So around 1.4 inches of additional bezel with the smaller form factor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Can I please have a $1000 ARM laptop? Or at least something that feels like a $1000 ARM laptop. Make it good enough and I'm not actually too fussed if it costs 500 or 1500.

<comment><USER20> Try a chromebook -- I'm typing this on a Acer Chromebook R13. Has a nice, bright, Full HD IPS touch screen, 4 GB of memory, and a 4-core ARM64 cpu (2 A72, 2 A53). I'm got a terminal window open running rust builds locally in an Ubuntu installation via crouton. I picked this one up refurb for $320.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> why not something like this [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd- pocket-7-0-umpc-lapto...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gpd- pocket-7-0-umpc-laptop-ubuntu-or-win-10-os-laptop--2)

those 14" would be better served with a better cpu

<comment><USER22> Wow, I've been pondering gutting a Toshiba Libretto and putting a Raspberry Pi inside so I can have a modern(ish) hardware in that form factor. I am so the target market for this!

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of faith in crowdfunded hardware projects.. :/

<comment><USER6> I have the same misgivings with crowdfunding hardware, but I ended up backing this project. The same group has shipped two other similar portables in the past, and have some working prototypes. Seems like they know what they're doing.

Edit: I think a big part of it is that they've had prototypes since the campaign launched, but filled the promo page with mostly renders for some reason. If you look at the Updates section, you can see some photos and videos of it in action.

<comment><USER21> It's an established manufacturer, but they seem to use indiegogo for some reason as a launch platform.

they are in china so maybe that the best way they do it, create a few prototypes and then have the assembly lines to allocate later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> And what exactly is wrong with a second-hand ThinkPad for the same money?

<comment><USER24> Nothing wrong, but some people prefer buying new stuff. I'd buy a used thinkpad over a cheap ARM laptop any day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I could see something like this being an everyday machine if it had a decent display (even at a few times the cost). Am I the only one who wants a super cheap SOC with a nice screen, keyboard and trackpad (and long battery life with no fans, since the SOC draws << 10W...)

</comment><comment><USER26> Page doesn't load for me...

<comment><USER27> Hugged to death or just poorly managed. Doesn't bode well for a company trying to peddle its wares.

<comment><USER27> It really, really doesn't, but thanks for the downvotes folks.

<comment><USER28> The performance of a website during high-stress load really, really does not have much to do with anything else a company does.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> awinter-py Can anyone find the option to add intel AMT to the bios? I can't see it anywhere on the page and I also searched with ctrl+F.

<comment><USER29> It has an ARM CPU. Intel AMT is an x86(-64) technology. ARM and x86 are two different CPU architectures with incompatible instruction sets. AMT isn't available on an ARM chip.

<comment><USER30> The comment you are responding to is a joke. It is referring to recently discovered AMT security vulnerabilities in Intel CPUs. The joke is that it is asking how AMT can be added to an ARM CPU, when in reality nobody would actually want to do that.

 _This has been another episode of the Hacker News Joke Explainer™_

<comment><USER4> Tell that to the guys who developed TrustZone technology.

<comment><USER9> Trustzone isn't AMT; it's borderline orthogonal. Trustzone is just an extra address bit that's only set in higher privileged modes (the "secure" modes in ARM). Most boards like this boot into end user controlled code while in system monitor mode, or a mode that allows you access to it trivially.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> At least this one appears real, compared to the noteslate many moons ago!</comment>


Ask HN: How to deal with burning through capital? - <AUTHOR> I've saved up for a while working at a big tech company and now I'm burning through my savings working on my own startup. Any time I have expenditures I feel awful, especially spending large amounts of money, but I also know these are necessary.<p>I think fundamentally I don't have a good perspective about money. How should I wrap my mind around this financial situation so that I can stop hesitating on spending? <comment><USER2> It sounds like you don't have a total budget for your startup, broken down into target spending per month and a deadline when you expect to either get even, raise an investment or quit. Maybe start with that? By having a plan you prevent constantly questioning what to do and leave more energy for creative work.</comment>


Could this be the most realistic Synthetic voice? - <AUTHOR> https://play.ht/blog/could-this-be-the-most-realistic-synthetic-voice/ <comment><USER2> The pause between words still sounds artificial but the actual voice itself seems very friendly and natural.

I also almost wrote 'his voice...' when writing this comment. That's always a good sign for synthetic speech.</comment>


Predicting the Next Bubble - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=2969&tag=homeCar

<comment><AUTHOR> We live in a country that has been inflicted with events coined as crises from the birth of time. Some of these 'catastrophes' include various financial crises, the technology bust, Cuban Missile Crisis, flu epidemics, wars, healthcare crisis, global warming, pollution, terrorism, and unfortunately, the list does not come to an end. But with all of this being said, the one crisis that happens to be the root to all of these epidemics in our nation's history is the identity crisis that almost everyone faces at some point in time. This crisis has the ability to plague our existence and put an end to our personal well-being. Theorist Erik Erikson created this term and believes that this is one of the most important conflicts people face in development. This type of crisis actually commences during our youth as we are forced to conform to the standards set by our surrounding environment. This uncertainty becomes ingrained in who we are, and situates itself in all of us, as we evolve in the world. We battle identity issues when it comes to our physical image, career, relationships, spirituality, emotions, finances, and many other areas as well. As we continue to conform, we begin spiralling out of control, which results in a lack of self worth, an inability to express ourselves, and the underlying concern that we cannot be, do, and have the life of our dreams simply because we are unsure of what that looks like.

<comment><AUTHOR> In addition, I believe that the next bubble will be the Contribution Bubble, because the events of the past year were humbling for the world and I firmly believe that people will begin giving for the sake of giving!</comment></comment>


Make a Factory Quality 9mm Rifled Barrel Using Salt Water and Electricity - <AUTHOR> http://thefirearmblog.com/blog/2019/08/13/make-a-factory-quality-9mm-rifled-barrel-in-your-kitchen-using-salt-water-and-electricity-ecm <comment><AUTHOR> I share this to underline that focusing on tighter gun legislation is reactive to a fault, missing the greater picture. It is ultimately misguided, treating the symptom (terrorism) rather than the cause (frustration, mental health, financial inequality, poverty) of much homegrown violence.

I wonder what's going to happen when any average Joe can build a bomb and a drone to carry it in his/her basement? Because we all know that's coming too, it's just a matter of time. This steady march of technological progress needs to be matched by economical and societal progress otherwise we're in for a very bumpy ride.

<comment><USER2> Last week I was tempted to post this article, but since you brought it up...

[https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/killer- narratives-...](https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/killer-narratives- real-culprit-mass-shootings-190813105024726.html)

<comment><AUTHOR> That was really neat, thank you for sharing this. Summary: the right blames religion/extremism, the left psychological/social issues. The author claims a third option, "narratives of insecurity", that spread kind of like Dawkins' idea of cultural memes [0,1]. I agree with him but I would categorize this as a psychosocial issue though, similar to "mass hysteria" [2].

[0] [https://www.wsj.com/video/richard-dawkins-on-the-cultural- me...](https://www.wsj.com/video/richard-dawkins-on-the-cultural- meme/5C1154F8-36EB-4797-AFE9-C60226055FB1.html)

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

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_psychogenic_illness)</comment></comment></comment>


Why I'm breaking up with Slack - <AUTHOR> http://qz.com/632016/why-im-breaking-up-with-slack/ <comment><USER2> The proliferation of communication tools definitely slows me down sometimes -- two cases in particular have been driving me crazy:

1) My morning "catch up with what happened overnight" routine now involves replying to urgent emails, urgent slack messages, and urgent google hangout messages, compared to the old days when at least it was all in one place.

2) I find it harder to look up an old conversation, because I can never remember whether we were talking through email or slack.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sometimes I feel like I'm in a Whatsapp group that I'd just love to mute. Great article.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yay! —yet another 'Dear John' letter to a piece of software. The originality is strong in this one!

<comment><USER5> Not to mention that the same article (originally published on Medium) was already discussed here twice:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11195337)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11204726](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11204726)</comment></comment>


An Interactive HashiCorp Vault Shell - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/fishi0x01/vsh <comment> dennis-tra Nice work, I once built a terminal UI for Vault. Did not get any attention at all. Works wonders for me:

[https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/pull/6108](https://github.com/hashicorp/vault/pull/6108)

<comment><USER2> I feel bad for you, they didn't even leave a comment on the PR :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I already wrote FUSE clients for all of Hashicorp's products actually.

[https://github.com/jboero/hashifuse](https://github.com/jboero/hashifuse)

<comment><USER3> Also K8s (experimental)

<comment><USER4> That's really cool. Will try it out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very cool! I have a very similar (non-interactive) project for copy/move/search on folders. It's something I think should be added to the vault core but there doesn't seem to be much interest there.

[https://github.com/lingrino/vaku](https://github.com/lingrino/vaku)

<comment><AUTHOR> This looks amazing! Nice parallel worker approach :)

Thank you for sharing

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> It seems, to me, like a normal command line tool that has the operations you want would integrate better with workflows. Here you can use "-c" but then you'd have to deal with quoting and such. Seems like a big impedance mismatch to pay for "working directory" functionality.

... I don't have a super tree of Vault secrets though (it's one level, actually).

<comment><AUTHOR> You are right, it is nothing fancy indeed.

The "-c" is mainly intended for automation if needed.

Main motivation behind this project is that I am currently working with rather large secret trees and will have to move them around for upcoming refactors. I could also write scripts for that with the vault client of course .. but it felt to me easier and more flexible on the long-run to have a shell-like approach to work with. In my case, the refactor will include a shift from KV1 to KV2, which is also covered by that tool.

Further, I saw this as an opportunity to do some coding :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Cool, but why not FUSE?

<comment><USER8> Isn't FUSE mostly *nix specific? At first glance this seems to be platform agnostic.

<comment><USER9> [https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp](https://github.com/billziss-gh/winfsp)

[https://dokan-dev.github.io/](https://dokan-dev.github.io/)

A few options exist for Windows already, allowing FUSE filesytem code an easy path to run on Windows. I've recently used winfsp + it's sshfs port, and it works pretty well.</comment></comment></comment>


Dell shares secret staff instructions with SEC - <AUTHOR> https://www.itnews.com.au/news/dell-shares-secret-staff-instructions-with-sec-512490 <comment><USER3> "And it makes for some good reading too, shedding further light on the reasons for the transaction than some previous pronouncements from the company - <USER2> didn't really reveal why Dell was making the change given that founder Michael Dell often said that being a private company meant it was better able to serve customers."

 _Blinks_

...what?

I'm pretty tired, but that paragraph is one run-on sentence fraught with bad grammar. I actually can't parse this article.</comment>


JuliaCon 2020 was awesome The virtual experience is better than physical - <AUTHOR> https://ahsmart.com/pub/juliacon2020/ <comment><USER2> Conferences lend themselves very well to remote attendance. Especially big conferences, which are mostly too noisy, too distracting.</comment>


Enjoying Parenscript (Mostly) - <AUTHOR> http://laheadle.github.io/hat-tippin/#/posts/0?_k=q40gtw <comment><USER2> > _I think I need something more emacs-based_

Numen [1] is an Emacs REPL we wrote for Parenscript + Node.js a few years ago. The version that's up on Github works with a different Lisp called Lumen [2] that compiles to JS and Lua, which we created partly as a Parenscript successor (it's self-hosted) but mostly as an experiment in a table-oriented Lisp [3,4]. But the differences between that REPL and the Parenscript one are trivial, and I can put the PS REPL up if anyone's interested. We still have plenty of code in Parenscript—including a Chrome extension we wrote to support HN moderation—so I use it every day.

1\. [https://github.com/gruseom/numen](https://github.com/gruseom/numen)

2\. [https://github.com/sctb/lumen](https://github.com/sctb/lumen)

3\. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3291065](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3291065)

4\. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6544926](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6544926)

<comment><USER3> Totally did not see that one coming. Great to know Lisp is still strong within HN infrastructure! Thanks for the links and please put ParenScript REPL on- line :).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I didn't find the react example on the list (in big part because you need to be on the list to view it!), so I wrote my own. It's about 40 lines total [1].

I do not like react router nor flux. They are way too frameworky for me. As long as you have state moving in one direction managing it is quite simple without any additional frameworks.

1: [https://github.com/jasom/parenscriptx](https://github.com/jasom/parenscriptx)

</comment><comment><USER5> Parenscript is indeed pretty amazing: Well documented and extensible.

I am not a fan of "write javascript in language X", but for code generation (say: generate js-equivalents of existing DAO class definitions in cl) parenscript is a real gem.</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone want to go to tonight's Giants game? I have 1 extra ticket - <AUTHOR>

I know this isn't news but I don't want to waste this extra ticket. It's a really good seat (Sec 121, row B). I'll be there with my wife and daughter.<p>Email in my profile. I can meet you before the game (I'm staying at a hotel in Union Square area) or even email you a PDF of the ticket. <comment><AUTHOR> Taken!</comment>


Rep. Susan Brooks Response on why she voted for S.J. Res. 34 - <AUTHOR> http://document.share.s3.amazonaws.com/Responding%20to%20your%20message.htm <comment><USER2> Tom Wheeler overreached with opt-in privacy regulations. The telecom industry and Republicans seized the opportunity and swiftly moved forward with their policy narrative before a protracted dispute could arise.

But make no mistake, this is all about net neutrality. The new FCC chair already effectively killed the new privacy regulations. The real issue is that Republicans would have both political and legal difficulty, within the context of the net neutrality dispute, shifting regulation of ISPs back to the FTC. However, from the privacy regulation angle, the FCC's classification of ISPs as common carriers seem more like an unlawful power grab.

The optics are better for Democrats on the privacy issue, but nobody is going to vote in the 2018 or 2020 cycle based on that issue. Nor will any candidate's election turn on net neutrality, for that matter. But net neutrality has many, very well-heeled corporate supporters. There's plenty of muscle to defend net neutrality at the national level. Whereas nobody is going to expend much capital (monetary or political) defending opt-in privacy regulations.

Remember, all Republicans need is an excuse to give Google, Netflix, etc, corporate lobbyists for why they returned regulation back to the status quo. The privacy regulation issue is that excuse. It's just an unfortunate coincidence that by returning to the status quo ante (that is, before Wheeler's common carrier classification), there's no significant authority to enforce net neutrality.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> key phrase:

"[FTC] provides consumers with stable privacy expectations across all aspects of online activity" Really?</comment>


Ask YC: What editor/ide do you use to hack javascript? - <AUTHOR>

I've used emacs so far, though it's good at syntax highlighting. I would like something that can show glaring mistakes, like calling a function with the wrong number of arguments, or referring to a variable which hasn't been defined. Thanks. <comment><USER2> Steve Yegge wrote a new js mode for emacs: [http://steve- yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/js2-mode-new-javascr...](http://steve- yegge.blogspot.com/2008/03/js2-mode-new-javascript-mode-for-emacs.html)

<comment><USER3> I've been using this for the past few days. It works well for me, though I should add the caveat that I would normally use emacs anyway so the learning curve wasn't exactly steep:)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> For finding those kinds of mistakes use jslint (<http://jslint.com>), though it doesnt catch calling a function with the wrong number of arguments (which may be what you intended anyways). If you download the source you can easily write a custom command in vim or emacs to run the current buffer through jslint.

<comment><AUTHOR> there is flymake with Javascript configuration for emacs. I'll give that a try. <http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/FlymakeJavaScript>

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use textmate which has some nice macros for js, jquery, YUI (all of which I use), plus most of the other toolkits. I round it out with jslint and firebug. If you're on a mac it's a pretty compelling package.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. Textmate also has bundles for jslint (every time you save your JS file, a little tooltip will tell you is there are errors and/or warnings).

<comment><USER7> Textmate also makes it easy to pipe your text through _any_ command line program... want to sort a few lines? Select the lines, Command-Option-R and enter "sort". It's quite handy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I could use some suggestions as well. I'm using VIM and doing most of the AJAX work manually (with JQuery). js is a pain though -- anyone know a better way to get this stuff done?

<comment><USER4> I use VIM too. What exactly do you find is a pain?

<comment><USER9> vim here with jquery too. working phenomenally well for me, though I understand there's no kind of js debugging built into vim. The matching braces highlight function is my debugging tool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If I can be forgiven the self-link: [http://www.danhulton.com/blog/2008/01/16/integrate-js- lint-i...](http://www.danhulton.com/blog/2008/01/16/integrate-js-lint-into- komodo-edit/)

I use Komodo Edit, the free IDE from Activestate. (I'm not associated with them, I just love their editor. Okay, well, they quote me, but once again, because I love their editor.)

It supports javascript out-of-the-box, will read into your source files and update it's code hints based on YOUR functions, and can be told to parse the libraries you use and provide coe hints for THOSE functions, too.

The only thing I wish they had built-in was the ability to lint it, but I go over how to add that in my article above.

And in fact, you can go one step further and use Douglas Crockford's actual (much better) jslint, provided you have rhino installed. I'll have instructions on how to do that up on my blog eventually.

</comment><comment><USER11> Have you tried Aptana (<http://www.aptana.com/>)?. It's a full-fledged Web Development IDE. The JS Editor is especially good and allows for referenced js code lookups from inside html files. It's also available as a regular eclipse add-on.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've just tried this, and it looks good. The code-completion feature is pretty good. Turns out it's good enough that I can ignore the need for a debugger.

Probably will need to buy pro as the sftp feature is disabled in the community version.

<comment><USER12> You should try using a combination of firebug (js debugger) and good editor rather finding a complete IDE package. Thats wht i do and it quite works for me.

<comment><USER13> I love firebug for DOM inspection and CSS prototyping. But I want to do debugging inside same enviroment where I write code. The main reason why I use Aptana is their remote debugger which connects IDE to firebug and allows you do debugging inside the IDE.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Any of you know of good JS debugging plugins for gEdit ? Its also good for JS editing with automatic indention and syntax highlighting. Only thing I wish I had a built-in debugger. Yet I could cross over to Firefox to check with Firebug.

<comment><USER15> JSLint plugin for gEdit: <http://caolanmcmahon.com/blog/jslint_plugin_for_gedit>

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> BTW Javascript functions accept a variable number of arguments so hopefully none of them will tell you when you've called a function with the wrong number of args.

</comment><comment><USER17> Jetbrains' IDEA 7.0 has SUPER support for Javascript. With features like error highlighting, refactoring, code completion, code formatting, etc.

More info a [http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/javascript_editor.htm...](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/features/javascript_editor.html)

</comment><comment><USER18> *ix = emacs. win = syn text editor :: <http://syn.sourceforge.net/> I know you can use emacs in windows but somehow using emacs/cygwin etc. in that environment just feels wrong. Like spinning punk records at your upper class cousins wedding or something.

</comment><comment><USER19> It seems Netbeans now has very good JS support [<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=155670>]

</comment><comment><USER20> Jedit usually, but an editor is an editor. As long as it looks nice and has line numbering, it's fine IMHO

</comment><comment><USER21> Notepad++ is good for Windows; alternatively, there's a good Eclipse Javascript plug-in.

</comment><comment><USER22> vim and firebug

How do you write your js?

I write a few lines and then test the functionality, reduces the scope of where I have to hunt down bugs.

<comment><USER23> That should be standard operating procedure in any language - makes it much easier to track down bugs and much harder to get into a state where you have to throw away lots of code because you broke everything.

I usually write a few lines, refresh & test manually, write a JSUnit test case to cover what I just checked out, run tests & hope for a green bar, check-in, then repeat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> vim

</comment><comment><USER25> Notepad.

Nah, just kidding; gvim

</comment><comment><USER26> Textpad</comment>


Ask HN: Concurrent Programming Projects for beginners? - <AUTHOR> I have spent a lot of time writing web applications from backend-to-front end (I am sure there is lot more to learn there), but I got bored and wanted to learn something I never learned(and wanted to).
I am talking about Concurrent Programming. I mostly work with Java but in order to learn Concurrency, I picked Erlang and I want to invest my time learning this language and do some projects to further strengthen my understanding.
I admit, that I love Erlang for the parts I read so far. I like syntax(its not verbose) and a very different approach to programming.
I want to ask what projects a beginner can work on related to Concurrent Programming Model. I am blank headed right now and need guidance.
Please enlighten me with your advices and experience. Books, resources, videos, etc all are very much welcomed here.
Thanks a lot in advance <comment><USER2> Huh, I can't believe there haven't been _any_ replies on this. Sorry about that.

Here are a few ideas:

* Improve/extend the shoutcast server in Joe's book "Programming Erlang" (1st edition; I haven't read the 2nd edition)

* Make a simple dropbox tool to sync folders across machines

* Make a simple map/reduce tool to learn about that paradigm

* Build a chat server with web interface (this one is fairly common)

* Interested in VOIP? Try making something that can allow you to make VOIP calls between computers in your house

* Build a web server (also common enough to find lots of examples and tutorials)

* Twitter clone

* Log aggregator

* BitTorrent client

* Distributed hash table or NoSQL database

* Something to stream data (logs, newsfeeds, analytics) to or from multiple clients

* ....

I hope this helps :)

[ Edit: formatting is really hard on HN... :( ]

<comment><AUTHOR> colefichter, Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate it. I would try to build one of the projects</comment></comment>