Learning Machine Learning: A beginner's journey - <AUTHOR> http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2016/12/learning-machine-learning-beginners.html <comment><USER2> I think this "machine learning for hackers" approach is just not enough. Oftentimes, you do need a solid theoretical/mathematical background. Most people seems to approach ML like they approach programming tools or libraries - learn just enough to get job done and move on.

I was studying machine learning from Andrew Ng's CS229 (the class videos are online. I think they date from 2008 or hereabout). There is no way you can progress beyond lecture 2 (out of 20) without a solid probability background. A solid background in probability/statistics probably means a good first course in Probability or maybe the first five chapters of "Statistical Inference" by Cassias and Berger. Similarly, for SVM, you need a solid background in Linear Algebra and so on. You probably also need a background Linear Optimization. Here are the recommendations by Prof. Michael Jordan [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1055389](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1055389)

Not a lot of people want to dive in this much. They have got things to do and who cares about proofs anyway. The thinking goes like "Most of the mathematics is abstracted away by libraries like scikit-learn. Let's get shit done.". Well, I think a lot of competitive advantage of Google/Facebook in ML is because they have staffed their engineering with people who have studied these things for years (by PhD). Compare that to flipkart's recommendations.

However, I don't think this problem is unique to ML/Data Science. It is equally bad in "Distributed systems". Let's use Docker, that's the future!

<comment><USER3> Everytime there is a paradigm shift there is always that voice: If you don't understand the paint at a chemical compound level you can't make a beautiful painting. Wait what?

<comment><USER4> Eh, let's revise that analogy. More like not understanding the bricks means you can't make a good building. You can by good intuition, but it won't be spot-on perfect (as by calculating all the physics) and you'll need more luck the higher you get.

<comment><USER3> I do take your point. I guess i'm just trying to say i've had good success just diving in head first and working backwards :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for sharing. Here's a set of deep learning resources I've found useful to give you a good theoretical background as well as start applying techniques to real world problems:

1\. Intro deep learning, bit of theory and intuition building while applying it to a toy problem:

[http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/index.html](http://neuralnetworksanddeeplearning.com/index.html)

2\. A video series walkthrough on how to replicate some of the recent advances:

[http://course.fast.ai/lessons/lessons.html](http://course.fast.ai/lessons/lessons.html)

3\. More theoretical background:

[http://www.deeplearningbook.org/](http://www.deeplearningbook.org/)

4\. Tensorflow tutorials with practical applications:

[https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/](https://www.tensorflow.org/tutorials/)

Specific applications:

Deep Learning for Vision:

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkt2uSq6rBVctENoVBg1T...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkt2uSq6rBVctENoVBg1TpCC7OQi31AlC)

Deep Learning for NLP:

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIiVRB6G_w0i-uOoS6cDh...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIiVRB6G_w0i-uOoS6cDh_5nkUyxy_hxe)

</comment><comment><USER6> > So I am doubling down on ML/DL.

The amount of free resources now available for learning machine learning/deep learning nowadays is robust and easy to comprehend. (indeed, Andrew Ng's Coursera class is very good). And running running ML code is even easier, with libraries like Tensorflow/Theano to abstract the ML gruntwork (and Keras to abstract the abstraction!)

I suspect that there may be machine learning knowledge _crash_ , where the basics are repeated endlessly, but there is less _unique, real world application_ of the knowledge learned. I've seen many Internet testimonials saying how "I followed an online tutorial and now I can classify handwritten digits, AI is the future!" The meme that Kaggle competitions are a metric of practical ML skill encourages budding ML enthusiasts to look at minimizing log-loss or maximizing accuracy _without considering time /cost tradeoffs_, which doesn't reflect real-world constraints.

Unfortunately, many successful real world applications of ML/DL are the ones _not_ being instructed in tutorials as they are trade secrets (this is the case with "big data" literature, to my frustration). OpenAI is a good step toward transparency in the field, but that won't stop the ML-trivializing "this program can play Pong, AI is the future!" thought pieces ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13256962](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13256962)).

<comment><USER7> Pretty much this. In the real world you have to deal with

\- Too few labeled / garbage labeled data (70000 digits? How about only 1000 complex class objects?)

\- Obscure bugs in custom implementation (yeah my custom layer works and gradient is correct... or wait why it diverges after 10k iteration? hmm).

\- Timing/RAM constraints (it should segment an image under 10ms on Jetson TX1, well, good luck with GoogLeNet)

<comment><USER8> Nailed it. Neural net execution speed is so critical for may production systems and it's very difficult to hit the sweet spot on trade offs but I never hear about these issues in wild.

<comment><USER9> > Nailed it. Neural net execution speed is so critical for may production > systems and it's very difficult to hit the sweet spot on trade offs but I > never hear about these issues in wild.

That's probably because you're not listening. There's plenty of literature on scaling down neural nets to smaller devices because everyone knows it's an issue and can trivially get a smaller device, see techniques such as Quantization , Distillation, Pruning or architectures specifically designed for the task such as YOLO.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Distributed Systems and ML are probably two most interesting things that I have on the radar, that got me really scared to the point where I do not know from where to start, and most importantly for what?! Most of my free time (time I spent on personal projects) was writing physics simulation in Java, playing with Lisp and doing some backend development. Nothing amazing. Year and a half ago I got really interested into Operating systems (tried FreeBSD and blew my mind) and played with Docker. And at the end of this year, I am like: "Ok Philip what shall I focus on for year to come?" And the thing is If I choose to go Ai route, I do not know from where to start (I consider my math background to be pretty good, I was studying EE before I dropped out after 2 years, and enrolled to CS, done all of the math courses which were pretty rough), Ai/ML looks interesting but it looks so high level to program and so abstract to understand. It's really looking like arcane magic to me. With Dist. Systems is that I have a feeling that is more "engineering" and "industrial" thing, where you can't do much by yourself at home, besides reading and writing some code in relevant languages about backend, sometimes lower level, and learning about systems and computer innards. And the third option was to go and play with Erlang/Elixir, which is most attractive since results will come pretty soon, and may be relevant form my interest in Distributed systems.

<comment><USER11> > If I choose to go Ai route, I do not know from where to start ...

This type of comment is often made in machine learning (ML) related submissions.

The pre-req list is long: calculus, linear algebra, stats, probability, numerical methods (for optimization, linear algebra, maybe interpolation), etc. BUT, you don't really need to go through the _entirety_ of each subject for ML. For example, in calculus, you probably only need to focus on the aspects necessary for optimization, rather than integral techniques, convergence of sequences, etc. The trouble is that it is difficult to know _which_ subtopics of each subject are worth spending time on unless you _already know_ machine learning (or you have the luxury of someone with experience guiding you).

The latter difficulty is compounded by the fact that there seems to be many more resources (at least posted as popular submission on the web) for learning neural nets or learning some specific framework to implement neural networks, than to learn the mathematical and statistical foundations of ML. This is fine -- neural nets are a popular and powerful model, and people like to work on something tangible to get acquainted with a topic.

I wonder if people might enjoy a well-written textbook covering the basic math for ML -- something like, "All the math you missed (but need to know for machine learning)" [1]. I might enjoy working on such an ebook if there was desire for one, but my time is pretty limited (like most).

[1]: [https://www.amazon.com/All-Mathematics-You-Missed- Graduate/d...](https://www.amazon.com/All-Mathematics-You-Missed- Graduate/dp/0521797071)

<comment><USER12> Here's what I've found along the lines of "mathematics for machine learning":

* _DS-GA 1002: Statistical and Mathematical Methods_ ([http://www.cims.nyu.edu/~cfgranda/pages/DSGA1002_fall15/inde...](http://www.cims.nyu.edu/~cfgranda/pages/DSGA1002_fall15/index.html)) by Carlos Fernandez-Granda of NYU

(There is a 2016 version of the course with different lectures notes as well.)

* _Numerical Algorithms_ ([http://people.csail.mit.edu/jsolomon/share/book/numerical_bo...](http://people.csail.mit.edu/jsolomon/share/book/numerical_book.pdf)) by Justin Solomon

* _Math for Intelligent Systems, 2016_ ([https://ipvs.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/mlr/teaching/maths-...](https://ipvs.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/mlr/teaching/maths-ws1516/)) by Marc Toussaint & Hung Ngo of University Stuttgart

* _Math for Intelligent Systems, 2015_ ([https://ipvs.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/mlr/teaching/mathem...](https://ipvs.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/mlr/teaching/mathematics-for-intelligent-systems/)) by Nathan Ratliff of University Stuttgart

* _Mathematics for Inference and Machine Learning_ ([http://wp.doc.ic.ac.uk/sml/teaching/mathematics-for-machine-...](http://wp.doc.ic.ac.uk/sml/teaching/mathematics-for-machine-learning-autumn-2016/)) by Stefanos Zafeiriou and Marc Deisenroth of Imperial College London

Most of these are lectures notes. Some are very detailed, but I think there is still space for a completely fleshed out book on the subject.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> A counterpoint: Deep learning is currently hyped, making you not consider other techniques that might work better, or are simpler and work just as good. Deep learning might have a limited scope and turn out to be a dead end for areas other than the ones already examined.

<comment><USER14> > making you not consider other techniques that might work better

Currently, DL is the most powerful technique for many problem types. I think for a beginner, learning that is a safe bet, the "next thing" is likely to be an elaboration on DL. It's good if some people ignore the hype, they may come up with the next paradigm going in a completely different direction from DL. But the people doing that won't be beginners. They'll be people with similar levels of experience as Yann LeCun, Geoffrey Hinton, etc. Those well rounded people with deep theoretical knowledge will make the big breakthroughs. Beginners should start with what we know works well now, and expand out.

> [Other techniques may be] simpler and work just as good

This is a much better reason to learn other things than DL. Efficiency and lower complexity if you know the problem domain is amenable to the technique.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have an almost opposite problem. I spent years learning alot of ML stuff and worked at a job doing this kind of work for a couple years or so. I think the issue was that the data we had at the organization and the internal politics seemed to make it difficult to use for ML in a way that mattered to the business. I grew frustrated with having spent alot of time learning things that were exciting then realizing it didn't really matter if some manager can just say "we're doing it this other way that makes sense to me." (Not based on data, but gut feelings)

I'm not sure what to do with that. Probably ML works best in organizations and situations that are on board for using ML to make decisions for the business. Here's the other thing -- finding a business where ML is core to its decision making that will hire a person with no formal ML related education may be difficult. Perhaps I'm wrong about that and have just given up on ML after my frustrating experience.

Now I'm building data systems that the business uses on a daily basis to get things done. I feel alot better doing that than ML stuff, even though I loved playing with data and ML. I guess I've given up on ML for now, maybe I'll find my way back to it again.

<comment><USER16> I agree. Most of what I've seen suggests that everyone _thinks_ they need and want machine learning specialists. But mostly they need people who are flexible in how they combine business acumen with statistics, a little ML, analysis, and programming. Business owners usually insist they need the ML soooo much, but they're rarely willing to go all the way and actually deploy ML. Plus, often they don't really need it...Or even modeling of any sort. They may need automated dashboards (for keeping an eye on important KPIs), decision support platforms, etc... Lots of things which require something more than analysts, statisticians, programmers, and the like. In essence they need highly capable jack-of-all-trades who can, on occasion, bring to bear advanced algorithms and stats. But that's a lot more rare than you'd be led to believe given job postings and all the news articles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Any ML tutorial should start with: Its not about machines and not about learning.

<comment><USER18> It is about both. Machines AND learning.

<comment><USER17> It is about data and algorithms and if calling them machines and learning or cognition or intution or thinking or whatever makes you happy then no body can stop you from doing so.

<comment><USER18> You might want to look up the definition of 'learning' from Arthur Samuel / Tom Mitchell. That might help you in your confusion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Even I recently started with ML/DL but my approach is more theoretical way. I started with Andrew's course, but alongside doing Python Machine Learning textbook,while testing my self on Kaggle. I hope to build some interesting system soon. The only thing I am worried about is getting a full time job, which I think always require someone with 2+ year experience.

</comment><comment><USER20> Admirable intentions by the author but I hope (s)he changes his font/formatting style.

The current font with dense paragraphs makes it hard for me to read without a headache, sparser sentences (either via bullet pointed lists or illustrative images) are much easier for me to parse.

</comment><comment><USER21> The main question is: what for?

</comment><comment><USER22> @muratbuffalo Your graph has left the building. [http://imgur.com/a/kKkjC](http://imgur.com/a/kKkjC)

</comment><comment><USER23> Machine learning.. is the new avenue mankind can boast of.

</comment><comment><USER24> Unfortunately the author begins by citing the fraud Taleb. After that I have to doubly examine everything he writes for signs of subtle nonsense, and its just necessary to close the tab.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the best ad blocker currently? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> For Mac/iOS users, I love 1Blocker. Works great with Safari.

</comment><comment><USER3> uBlock Origin combined with uMatrix, is a great solution for the paranoid :)

<comment><USER4> do you know a umatrix equivalent for chrome?

<comment><USER3> I thought it existed for Chrome, the github page has a link to the chrome store where you can download it

github: [https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix](https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix)

chromestore: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/umatrix/ogfcmafjal...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/umatrix/ogfcmafjalglgifnmanfmnieipoejdcf)

<comment><USER4> thanks</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Facebook launches Zoom competitor, with built-in special effects - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/24/facebook-video-zoom-competitor/ <comment><USER2> Hmm, I can't say I really want more Facebook up in my business. Or novelty special effects.

Especially for work, but also for connecting with friends and family, I strongly prefer a straightforward "indie" platform like [https://whereby.com](https://whereby.com) or [https://team.video](https://team.video)</comment>


Live coverage of the last Shuttle launch (STS-135, Atlantis) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv <comment><USER2> It's sad to see the Shuttle go without a replacement. And to jog my own memory of the day I saw the shuttle in the UK, here's a set of pictures from the day Enterprise visited Stansted Airport in the UK: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_ward/sets/7215760339467228...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_ward/sets/72157603394672289/)

I was there as a boy standing against the wire fence with my father to see this amazing machine. Bloody marvellous!

<comment><USER3> The Shuttle program is coming to a hard stop because the program was a failure. The Shuttle is monstrously complex, killed astronauts on routine low orbit missions, and its runaway costs enveloped NASA's budget, crowding out any alternative manned platforms. There is no next-generation Shuttle or iteration of the Shuttle because simply running the current version of the Shuttle consumed NASA.

After this last mission, the U.S. manned space program's capabilities will be back in the 1950s.

<comment><USER4> While I have to agree with your overall point, I'm not ready to cede that the shuttle hurt manned space exploration more than it helped. Despite its' shortcomings, the Space Shuttle has been a point of national (and I would imagine international) pride, it's an incredible machine that has inspired the dreams of millions.

Perhaps it _did_ hurt more than it helped, in that it made the phrase you use, "routine low orbit missions" _not_ sound ludicrous. Perhaps it was all just a massively expensive house of cards one gentle breeze away from failure, and on the occasions it did fail, people were surprised. We've only been sending people to space for fifty years, there's still nothing "routine" about low earth orbit, and every astronaut that has died in a shuttle knew exactly the risks they were taking.

My greatest hope is that the retirement of the remaining shuttles won't be seen by Americans (and the world in general) as a failure or a "sign of the times", but will be a rallying point. It's time to move on to bigger and better things.

<comment><USER5> _We've only been sending people to space for fifty years, there's still nothing "routine" about low earth orbit..._

That is the damaging legacy of STS. It's established the expectation that going to orbit can never be done at a reasonable price, that there will never be anything people can do in space worth the staggering cost of getting them there.

Getting to orbit _could_ be routine, but we been marinating in expensive failure for so long the engineering that needs to be done to make it happen will never get public support in the US.

<comment><USER6> Well, that's arguably one of the defining features of capitalism; the engineering doesn't _need_ public support in the US. It just needs some investors with vision and eventual profitability. The way other socioeconomic systems tend to destroy that feature in passing (on their way to some other goal) is one of the major reasons they have been such overwhelming failures in practice.

The last flight of the shuttle is a huge step in the right direction, historically so, not a regression. I respect it for what it did, but the best thing it could do now is retire with honor and dignity.

<comment><USER5> _...the engineering doesn't need public support in the US. It just needs some investors with vision and eventual profitability._

Where is that profit going to come from? Space tourism? I will be very surprised if there will be a big ongoing demand for spending a few days vomiting in an orbiting can.

<comment><USER6> "Where is that profit going to come from?"

From providing services that are already being paid for, only for lower costs? Which generally has the effect of growing the economy in question?

You _are_ aware that there _already is_ a space industry, right? Private companies paying real money to put real satellites up for various reasons? It doesn't take much Microeconomics 101 to think that dropping the cost to launch by a factor of four will tend to grow the already-existing economy. Skepticism about whether a viable space economy can exist at all is too late, that ship has sailed.

Cheaper space access will enable more economic activity in existing domains, will enable new types of activities that aren't currently viable, and historically speaking, it's pretty safe to say that trying to guess in advance what will ultimately be the "killer app" is actually pretty hard, but given the existence of an already-viable economy it's more a matter of waiting and seeing than hoping.

<comment><USER5> Oh, there's definitely money in launching satellites. But that market is already served by commercial companies. What we're talking about here is _manned_ flights to orbit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> 4 among us today, in an aging vessel slipped the surly bonds of earth, and with outstretched hands touched the face of God.

\- Borrowing from Peggy Noonan, Aaron Sorkin & John Magee

</comment><comment><USER8> It's strange to think that in fifty years of manned spaceflight, NASA has only ever built four types of spaceship: Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Shuttle. The Shuttle had a good run. It was both technically awesome and in many ways ridiculous and pointless. Anyway, time for the future now.

<comment><USER9> It was a horrible failure. It was projected for 75 launches a year at about 25M$ (thats million dollars, not a software company in Seattle) per lauch from 1977 until the late eighties when it was scheduled to be replaced by something better. Instead it was 135 launches in 30 years at 1.6G$ per lauch, and it totally crippled NASA's capabilities to develop a replacement.

<comment><USER10> you may want to change G to B. In the United States, where dollars are used, G is more likely to mean "Grand", or 1k. B would be billion. Or, when all else fails, just type it out.

<comment><USER11> He probably meant "giga".

Things like kUSD or M$ appear to have come from science - it's putting an SI prefix to a unit. Personally, when I write M$, I mean one megadollar, not 1 milion dollars.

<comment><USER10> That's fantastic; however, that's not how the general public writes it

<comment><USER11> You don't write M$ or G$ to general public at all.

<comment><USER10> Agreed. Though we do sometimes write $5M, which is functionally equivalent. I've noticed in internet communication, it's common to say a numeral before the dollar sign. For example, "You're going to end up spending 100$ on that".

<comment><USER11> In this case it is, but it isn't in others (like kUSD or G$).

Oh, I always thought that you write a numeral before the dollar sign... Thanks for pointing that out. It differs between currencies - for example, british pounds are written before numeral (£42), but polish złoty are written after (42zł).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> They did it! Congratulations to Atlantis crew, NASA, and everyone involved. Maybe the Space Shuttle program wasn't exactly cost-effective and had it failures, but it sure sparked imagination of many, me included.

</comment><comment><USER12> Being able to watch a live video feed of the launch is pretty amazing. Previously, TV coverage (if it existed at all) was terrible. This makes me wonder what the fate of NASA would have been if the past few generations had grown up with access to this kind of coverage. I'd like to think that NASA would have had a lot more support than they currently do.

<comment><USER13> Nearly 10% of the earth watched the lunar landing. But IMO the problem is that the "space race" was initiated & presented -- well, as a race! The goal was to beat the Russians, and once we did, interest waned.

The most depressing realization comes from comparing our actions between the Apollo days & now. As a response to Sputnik, this country managed to go from an insignificant investment in space to putting a man on the moon, and we did it in just over a decade.

Today? We don't seem to pay attention to these challenges.

<comment><USER14> You can still present the space race as a race. Landing on the Moon is the first lap. If a goal for the second lap existed - like a permanent moonbase or something like it, it could have continued.

As marvelous as the shuttles are, they are just an expensive way to go knee deep in space. LEO is boring because we already went much further. Let's set foot on the Moon once again, and launch from there (using local materials is a good excuse) to Mars and the outer planets.

Imagine how big a telescope could be with the lower gravity and how crisp its image with no atmosphere to disturb it or absorb parts of the spectrum. Or a radio telescope shielded (by the Moon) from Earth's radio emissions. And, if something broke, someone would dress up and drive there to take a look instead of taking a year of planning and a billion-dollar mission to, maybe, fix it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> View it in VLC Media > Open Network Stream > Address <http://playlist.yahoo.com/makeplaylist.dll?id=1368163>

<comment><USER16> just fyi, at least for me, Yahoo stream is about 20 seconds behind.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> In 1979, I watched the Enterprise+transporter fly in to Kennedy for the first time from the Indian River - that was a long time ago. Hell, it's even been 25 years since I turned on the TV to see Dan Rather using a model to explain the various external tanks and knew something bad had happened.

So while it is the passing of an era, with the ISS at the sharp point of manned space flight, I'm not about to let nostalgia cloud the objective fact that it doesn't matter whose hardware gets us off the ground and out toward the stars.

[edit] But that's not to imply that shuttle launches aren't really cool.

<comment><USER18> > it doesn't matter whose hardware gets us off the ground and out toward the > stars.

On this, I disagree. Flying in an even older device (Soyuz) provided at a ridiculous rate from a "business partner" (calling Russia an ally is not quite accurate) is not the way we should be letting ourselves get into space.

I know the shuttle is far from perfect, but we should have had the Dragon or Orion capsule ready before shuttle retirement.

Turn off some air conditioners and get out of a few wars, and we could have easily kept going strong.

<comment><USER19> At least Soyuz is more reliable than the Space Shuttle.

<comment><USER20> As far as we know. The Russians weren't always that honest about who they blew up by accident.

<comment><USER19> Aha, and what's your evidence for that?

Soyuz 1 (1967) and Soyuz 11 (1971) both ended with fatalities. Four cosmonauts died. The Soviet Union did not hide those fatalities. Here is what best illustrates that: All their names are on the Fallen Astronaut memorial on the Moon, put there during Apollo 15, only a month after Soyuz 11 ended in disaster.

There have been no fatalities on Soyuz flights since Soyuz 11, all fatalities occurred early on. That's forty years without fatalities, and that's mostly why Soyuz is so safe and reliable.

Sure, more astronauts died during Space Shuttle missions but the Space Shuttle also brought many more astronauts into space than Soyuz. If you look at the percentage of fatalities Soyuz is only doing marginally better – one more dead cosmonaut and the percentages would be about the same. It's not so much the raw numbers, it's the forty years. Soyuz is a mature spacecraft, all the kinks have been worked out, the Space Shuttle was always too complicated to ever really work out the kinks, to ever really be considered safe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> There's no timer on the feed, but at the moment they appear to be vacuuming. I'll take that as a sign that it's not going to launch in the next hour.

Anybody have an actual time when that's supposed to happen?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's due to be around 4:30pm GMT

(edited to correct the time, I was out by an hour)

<comment><USER22> No, it's 3:30pm GMT. It's 4:30pm BST aka. London time. GMT _is not_ whatever the time is in London.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm an idiot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> It's sad to see that we are retiring the US Shuttle program. In a recent article in the Economist about how the space race is now dead, the US is now are reliant on other countries to send folks up into space or the ISS ... even though they are planning on retiring the ISS in 2020.

I'm hoping that the privatization of the space programs (like SpaceX or Virgin Galatic) gets enough interest to fuel more funding and research into space travel though only a handful of rich folks could ever pay for a ride in one of those programs ...

<comment><USER14> SpaceX can, sort of, already deliver people and cargo to the ISS. And the Dragon looks more spacious than a Soyuz.

The shuttle, cool as it is, is a money drain. All but one of its mission profiles can be fulfilled by cheaper vehicles.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Just saw it from Cape Canaveral. Quite an extraordinary feeling to watch and feel the very last shuttle take off. What makes it even better is that there was only a 30% chance that the shuttle would take off due to the weather. In my mind I'd written it off, being an entrepreneur, I should've known better than to do that :-P

</comment><comment><USER25> This was an amazing, historical moment of our time. I even ran outside to grab my two-year-old son so he could watch it on TV with me. (Although he doesn't understand the significance, he keep saying "Space ship, daddy! Space ship!")

Hopefully, mankind will continue the exploration of space...

</comment><comment><USER26> Thank goodness for HN, wouldn't have wanted to miss that.

</comment><comment><USER27> Congratulations to NASA for the successful launch.

Time to focus on our next space endeavors.

</comment><comment><USER28> There is a bigger version of the video here:

<http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/135_splash/index.html>

<comment><USER29> Alternative: <http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv> (parent's link doesn't work for me).

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Anyone else see that plain text ASCII character randomly appear on the in- cockpit views?

</comment><comment><USER31> It's somewhat sad to see the shuttles go, especially without a replacement immediately to hand. Though hopefully the end up the shuttle program will pave the way for a manned launch vehicle that can get us out of LEO.

</comment><comment><USER32> I find the Nasa stream is timing out. The UStream one is more stable for me:

<http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ustream.html>

</comment><comment><USER33> <http://twitter.com/#!/NASA/status/89341036589101059>

"The countdown has entered a 45-minute hold at T-9 minutes."

</comment><comment><USER34> This is so sad. Are we betting on SpaceX to get us back into space now?

<comment><USER4> There's no betting going on at all. We're using the Russians (Soyuz) for now, and for the foreseeable future. Private firms like SpaceX or another NASA vehicle are a possibility, but neither of those options has been proven out at all, and certainly will not be ready for at least several years.

<comment><USER35> Not exactly correct. Spacex hopes to do the first resupply mission to the station before the end of the year.

<http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php>

<comment><USER4> You're absolutely right. I probably should have qualified my statement as referring to manned exploration. (Sung1's comment did say "get us back into space"... I assumed the "us" referred to humans).

<comment><USER36> Elon Musk (SpaceX) has stated that he will not be satisfied until they get a fully reusable launch vehicle, and that he aims to go for a Mars mission.

Given SpaceX's record, it might happen sooner than you think.

<http://www.spacex.com/updates.php> [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/01/elon- musk-s...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/01/elon-musk-spacex- rocket-mars)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Is there a stream which doesn't require Flash?

<comment><USER19> <http://livestream.com/> has a stream that works on my iPad (I don't know about other devices or computers).

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Thanks for letting me watch this NASA. Wow.

</comment><comment><USER33> just verified the time:

+/- 2 mins

EASTERN: 10:40 am CENTRAL: 9:40 am PACIFIC: 7:40 am

<comment><USER39> 11:26am Eastern should be the correct time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> What will happen to the International Space Station?

<comment><USER19> The supply situation of the ISS is quite interesting.

Soyuz[1], the Russian spacecraft, will continue bringing and returning people to and from the ISS (three each – seven is a typical Space Shuttle crew). Two Soyuz will continue to be permanently docked to the ISS (they will, of course, be regularly switched out whenever a new Soyuz flies to the ISS) and serve as lifeboats for the ISS's crew of six. They are actually the limiting factor for the crew size – an evacuation of everyone on the ISS has to be possible at all times.

Soyuz will be the only spacecraft that can return something to Earth after the Shuttle retires. Since it's designed to fly people and not cargo it's certainly easy to imagine that Soyuz is far from ideal for this job – forget bringing back any big experiments.

Progress[2] is the unmanned cargo version of Soyuz. It will continue bringing cargo to the ISS. (Two to three tons per flight. The shuttle could bring about 25 tons to low earth orbit.) It's, just like Soyuz, a very capable and reliable work horse. (It was the only spacecraft bringing cargo to the ISS when the Shuttles were grounded between 2003 and 2005.)

There are two other and newer cargo spacecraft: The European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV[3]) and the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV[4]). The ATV automatically (like its name indicates) docks to the Russian part of the ISS and can bring up more than seven tons of cargo. It can also boost the station into a higher orbit (as is regularly necessary). The second ATV Johannes Kepler only recently successfully finished its mission, was filled with trash, undocked and burned up in the atmosphere.

The HTV can bring about six tons of cargo to the ISS. It has a pressurized and an unpressurized cargo section (meaning anything that's supposed to be attached somewhere outside the ISS doesn't have to go through and fit through the airlock, it can be brought to the ISS in the unpressurized cargo section). It has no complicated automated approach system like the ATV, it is simply grappled by the Canadian "robot" arm (well, it's more a crane than a robot, really[5]) and attached to the American part of the ISS. Since it's docking to the American part of the station, the docking hatch is large enough to accommodate International Standard Payload Racks[6] which are used everywhere in the non-Russian part of the ISS. The ATV can't bring those racks to the ISS since it docks to the Russian part of the station (and their hatches are too small). The HTV also only recently successfully finished its second mission and burned up in the atmosphere.

That's the current situation, I will leave it to someone else to explain what the future might hold (SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, for example). Bringing cargo back from the ISS is the only real problem, there will only be Soyuz after the Shuttle retires.

The ISS can currently also not be extended, well, at least not the non-Russion part. Bringing up all the modules was a job the Shuttle was perfectly suited for. That's no problem since the ISS is done. They actually managed to pretty much complete it, even looking at the original plans. Heck, even the Cupola[7] made it.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_(spacecraft)>

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_spacecraft>

[3] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Transfer_Vehicle>

[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-II_Transfer_Vehicle>

[5] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadarm2>

[6] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Payload_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Payload_Rack)

[7] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupola_(ISS_module)></comment></comment>


Go debugger using delve for Atom - <AUTHOR> https://atom.io/packages/go-debug <comment><USER2> I'd very much like to use a debugger with my Go code but the two initiatives I've seen both require installing delve locally and it's a big pain in the ass. The official instructions for OSX begin with "Make a self signed certificate", which they then break down into 14 separate steps.

I wonder how hard it would be to make a delve _server_ and install it on a Docker instance that could talk back to Atom/Sublime/VSCode.

<comment><USER3> You can use homebrew with this command:

brew install steeve/delve/delve [--HEAD]

<comment><USER4> Just tried this on a new setup and it works fantastically. It did all the cert mucking for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This looks nice. Is there something similar for Python?

<comment><USER6> I found this [https://atom.io/packages/python- debugger](https://atom.io/packages/python-debugger)

Cool, last time I checked (~5 months ago) there was no python debugger for Atom. I'll try it right now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting, how Go users struggle with basic things nowadays, whereas it was considered as granted e.g. in QBasic in early 90s...

<comment><USER8> No need to troll. GDB has worked (to a limited degree) on Go binaries for years, but has never really understood some of its features; Delve is a newer debugger that's specifically targeted to Go.

<comment><USER7> Do you realize, after the first sentence, you're basically saying the same thing which I've pointed out as an interesting fact?

<comment><USER8> Nobody is "struggling" with debugging Go programs in the way you were implying. You seemed to be deliberately trying to antagonise, disguising it behind "Interesting, ...".

<comment><USER7> You're overthinking it. Also, "interesting" is most neutral I believe. Alternatives: "fun" \- too sarcastic; "sadly" \- too dramatic.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: React-Instantsearch, HOC Oriented UI Library in React - <AUTHOR> https://community.algolia.com/instantsearch.js/react/ <comment><USER2> We would love to get some feedback on the API we went with and the choices we made. Have a look at the guide: [https://community.algolia.com/instantsearch.js/react/guide/](https://community.algolia.com/instantsearch.js/react/guide/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There is also a blog post about the motivation for generalizing HOC's for UI behavior [https://blog.algolia.com/harnassing-apis-with-react-a- differ...](https://blog.algolia.com/harnassing-apis-with-react-a-different- approach/) :)</comment>


Approval Extraction Advertised as Production - <AUTHOR> http://benjaminrosshoffman.com/approval-extraction-advertised-as-production/ <comment><USER2> Very insightful, much more productive than another article describing "how I developed learned-helplessness and FOMO by reading Hacker News every day".</comment>


Irish tax flashmob floods Apple flagship London store - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/05/mark_thomas_apple_flashmob/

<comment><USER2> (Duch person here, commenting on the "Double Irish With A Dutch Sandwich" Tax). I'm always amazed how easily people select the wrong target for their "anger". Apple is not breaking any laws. Apple did not create these laws. They were (and are) made by Irish and Dutch politicians. And certainly not for the benefit of their own citizens. If you wish to really change these laws, look at your/our own parlement.

</comment><comment><USER3> This entire thing is a publicity stunt for a comedians new show. This isn't newsworthy.

The tax avoidance issues plaguing Apple & Google are categorically news, but this stunt is PR for a show, nothing more.

<comment><USER4> Characters like Mark Thomas and Michael Moore build their protest messages around PR stunts, it's their modus operandi and I believe it's a valid usage of media.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which blogging platform do you use? - <AUTHOR> Currently, I use wordpress but it is very slow, I was looking for alternative, one is ghost. I don't want to use dynamic blogging platforms, Is there a way to produce static site from wordpress or Ghost or any other better solution? <comment><USER2> > Is there a way to produce static site from wordpress or Ghost or any other > better solution?

Ghost supports a wide range of static site generators out of the box. Check out "Frontend Frameworks" \- [https://ghost.org/docs/api/v3/](https://ghost.org/docs/api/v3/) where you can select from Next.js, Gatsby and many more ;)

<comment><USER3> There are a number of ways you can create static from wordPress. You can check out [https://www.strattic.com](https://www.strattic.com) as one example. Strattic hosts your original WP site in a container that shuts down when you are not editing your site, and publishes a completely static version of your site in one click. [disclosure: I'm the co-founder and CEO]

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks awesome, can i get a beta invite?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Is there a way to produce static site from wordpress or Ghost or any other > better solution?

For Wordpress there is the Simply Static plugin, and I think similar others.

There is also a productized version of the "Wordpress to a static site" idea - [https://hardypress.com/](https://hardypress.com/) I'm using it and no complaints.</comment>


Why you still don't have a technical co-founder - <AUTHOR> http://startupbeat.com/sub/2012/08/guest_column_why_you_still_dont_have_a_technical_co-founder_id2960.html

<comment><USER2> "You Are Really Just Looking for Someone to Build Your App" --I totally agree with this sentiment. Looking for a co-founder should be almost as serious if not just as serious as looking for a spouse. A lot of "non-technical" people could benefit from having this mindset.

</comment><comment><USER3> This actually makes a lot of sense. It hadn't dawned on me that I was looking in the wrong places.

It's funny, but I've been to programmer user group meetings where all I met was idea guys looking for programmers.

It's like a bunch of teenage boys thinking they are going to meet hot girls at a party, only to find out it's all boys at the party.

Thanks for making me think about my methods.

</comment><comment><USER4> Your article is spot-on! For the non-technical people - how about figuring out how to bring value to technical people's products they are ALREADY building. From that mindset, you'll have millions of projects to work on, and have the chance to forge true friendships that may last a lifetime - if not, a career.</comment>


Show HN: A configurable gauge directive in Angular - ashish-chopra I have developed a angular 1.x directive for gauge component. It is inspired by one of the Gauge that i used in jQuery, but not available in Angular open source projects natively. Try this out in your projects and share the feedback/suggestions and bugs. I will keep adding more improvements and feature into it in coming releases. If you like it, star it or fork it. <comment><AUTHOR> There's no link to the project.

To submit a link using the |submit| page, put it in the |url| box and leave the |text| box empty. It is ok to add a comment after the link shows up on the HN |new| page.

</comment><comment><USER2> [https://github.com/ashish-chopra/angular-gauge](https://github.com/ashish- chopra/angular-gauge)</comment>


Ask HN: Should I Keep Going? - <AUTHOR>

I'm 20 years old and I've learned a lot on HN while reading it for the better part of the past year.  In the past couple months I have been working on my second startup with a few other friends/developers.  The nature of our business requires either capital to contract out graphics work or have a graphic designer on board.  Since we have no capital we have been looking for a graphic designer.  Ideally it would be another student, but we have been unable to find anyone.  The other option is contracting out, but since we are college students thats not really an option.  I am just beginning to feel like its not possible for this startup to happen without raising some amount of capital.<p>What do you think I should do? <comment><USER2> I was thinking this would be a post about how some startup was facing terrible obstacles. If the only problem is that you can't find someone with design ability, the answer is easy: try harder. They're all over, especially at colleges.

Incidentally, as other posters have pointed out, you may be in danger of confusing graphic design with UI design. They overlap but they're not identical.

<comment><USER3> Mistaking UI/UX design for graphic design is very highly correlated with not paying enough attention to user experience. I'm amazed to still meet developers who talk about getting a designer to skin the app after they do more development. That's entirely backwards.

The great news is that you don't need to know photoshop to do UX design. Thinking harder about the tasks for a user's perspective is most of the process.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I originally wrote an incredibly snarky reply (it even had a link to a simple Google search) but I'm reconsidering now...

In any collegiate environment you should be able to find plenty of art students looking for opportunities to build a portfolio. Find them. Use them. Pay them if they insist but I guarantee you can get away with offering very little.

Whatever it is you do, don't offer them stake or equity. Just get what you need done and move on.

Right now freelance graphic design is as cutthroat and savage as ever. People will do anything for insanely cheap prices. If you can scrape together a little money I think you'd be surprised to find out how far it can go if you look in the right places. Try freelance message boards and even somewhat seedier places like Digital Point (<http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=104>).

</comment><comment><USER5> Your business is doomed to fail without a graphic designer? Unless you're selling graphic design, I'm not sure how that's possible.

But if it really is that crucial, maybe you should revisit the business idea you're pursuing. If your team doesn't have one of the core competencies you need to succeed, there seems to be a disconnect somewhere in your planning.

<comment><AUTHOR> Anyone trying to sell a SaaS is essentially selling graphic design. The interface is what makes or breaks many applications.

<comment><USER5> So to your mind, interaction/graphic design is the major differentiating factor, and you're looking at outsourcing that work? That seems roughly analogous to a bunch of business students failing to find a CS major who will do their coding, and wondering whether they should pay someone to develop their idea for them.

I honestly think you're psyching yourself out with respect to the design. But if you really think it's that important, and you really don't think you can do it, why did you pursue this idea in the first place?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> You can always do the graphics yourself. Grab a copy of Gimp if you don't have photoshop and start designing. What exactly is holding you back from doing it yourself?

<comment><USER7> That would be like telling a designer that he could just grab a copy of python and start coding. Sure it might work, but it'll be a steaming pile of shit.

Graphic design is hard if you want to do it right.

<comment><USER8> Said steaming pile should be used as fertilizer for the next iteration.

<comment><USER9> I wish I could mod you up twice; once because you're right, and once for your exceptional use of the English language.

(I agree with the sentiment. It's better to do some sub-task badly than to not do it at all and give up on your _whole project_!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I would suggest the following:

Spend $25 or whatever it costs in your target region to post an ad on craigslist. This ad should say that you're a small startup, etc. Telecommuting should be ok.

Describe the kind of designer you're looking for as well as the work that they'll be doing.

You can say that it's an unpaid internship, assuming you're incorporated in some way, and have them work up to the maximum number of months allowed by your state's laws. If you're not incorporated in any way and prefer a designer for a longer period of time consider offering them equity in return for their work.

If you post the above ad properly you should receive hundred of applications many from talented designers, many of whom are recent graduates, or traditional designers seeking to switch to the web. Most of all they're looking for real world experience and this opportunity should provide them with that.

The only drawback is that it will require a bit of effort on your part to let them know what they're doing right, and what they're doing wrong. When they're doing something wrong try to point them to examples or resources that can help them learn. You'll be getting a designer, while they'll be getting invaluable experience.

</comment><comment><USER11> Do this.

1\. Read the countless photoshop tutorials on the net and learn it. (if you can't the startup aint going nowhere anyways).

2\. Read the book 'Dont make me think.'.

3\. Read it once again.

4\. Do the ui/graphic design yourself.

5\. Get a good designer to critique your site and spend about an hour on it. (shouldnt cost much)

6\. Redo your site based on feedback. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

</comment><comment><USER12> There are many places where you can grab very liberally-licensed graphics. If those don't do whatever unspecified thing you need them to do, they can probably still serve as a base since it's easier to modify than to start from scratch, especially if you find SVG/Inkscape/whatever source too. A bajillion web designs can be found too with liberal licensing. The combinations of liberally-licensed graphics and liberally-licensed web designs opens up yet another easily-accessible vista of design combinations.

Someday when I get around to it, that's what I plan to do with my site. (Once upon a time, I decided to do the design from scratch myself. What have I learned since then? I'm absolutely, utterly terrible. Oh well, lesson learned.)

Look around, search for things with Creative Commons commercial licenses on them. You'll probably be able to come up with what you need.

</comment><comment><USER13> If you are specifically looking for a college student, You should try at college fests or such events where web design competitions are held. Just participate in some of these (even if you are bad at design, just participate to meet people and also try your luck. You might be good at design yourself) and you'll see some guys recurring at many competitions. Find out if they are winning atleast a few times in those competitions.

That's just one way of doing it.

Why not a HN job post about your requirement? :P

</comment><comment><USER14> getting a freelancer is cheaper than you might think. $200-300 bucks can probably get you what you need.

</comment><comment><USER15> Don't let this be your roadblock! Start working on tutorials for gimp and you'll be surprised how good you can make things look (my 'goto' in graphics has always been to add a gradient and/or a shadow).

When you have something working you might be able to attract more interest from graphic designers. In the meantime, try art schools or high school students looking for a project.

</comment><comment><USER16> Others have done it. Remember - be "relentlessly resourceful".

Find a designer - offer a code for design trade.

Find a few designs you like, then "borrow" their best elements for your own design.

Look at freely available creative commons designs on sites like <http://www.freecsstemplates.org/>

</comment><comment><USER17> Once you raise capital, it may not be possible to do the startup because you can't find the right marketing guy at this budget. There will always be obstacles. Just release something people can start using and then invest resources in whatever brings most returns. Thats the way to go for bootstrapped businesses. You are not alone.

</comment><comment><USER18> I've had wonderful success with 99designs.com. Great work that is crowd- sourced for amazing prices. If you use them my one recommendation is to guarantee the action (you'll see what that means when you create it). You'll get a lot more submissions that way.

</comment><comment><USER19> so, what is it- graphic design or interface design?

</comment><comment><USER20> You're in college. Go down to your art department and see if they have an art class you can take. Or at the very least, will let you put up fliers somewhere in the building.

<comment><USER21> or go to the class and ask someone to do it for you, tell them it would give them experience

<comment><USER20> Or you could not be completely cheap and pay someone for their time. The whole "do it because its a good experience and you're a college student so what other opportunities do you have?" thing doesn't really cut it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> This is YN. He wants to know how to raise capital. Does no one understand that?

Rick Harrison: what is your business model?

</comment><comment><USER23> Hi, I'm a UI designer -- and my girlfriend is a graphic designer.

Drop me an email [in my profile] and we'll sort this out.</comment>


Ask HN: Why are all these companies going public all of the sudden? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> They sense peak market conditions and fear down cycle.

</comment><comment><USER3> The sentiment is the market is overvalued and at the top of the cycle.</comment>


IM2CAD – Reconstruct a scene that is as similar as possible to a photograph - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.05137 <comment><USER2> Besides being a technological improvement this paper is really well written and readable.

[https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.05137v1.pdf](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.05137v1.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow.

(I don't have any idea of what I'm talking about but) it occurs to me that if a robot does this for the frames of its video input with a regular camera, then on static environments the output of SLAM would be great.

Also, just predict what you will see after you move from the CAD scene, move, compare the actual new image with the predicted one, and dedicate most computing resources to what differs the most - now you have a robot with attention to unrecognized objects!

</comment><comment><USER4> I wonder how it could be used to efficiently generate maps for Counter-Strike (and other similar games) ;) Like pictures of high school...

<comment><USER5> This! I rememebr back in 00' we were always talking with friends about creating such map (school, neighbourhood, etc.) because it seemed funny to play on such map. Unfortunately nobody was skilled enough to make such map...

<comment><USER6> I did this when I was young! Except I did it for Quake 1.

I had great fun re-constructing various parts of my high school. I learnt about the importance of scale, how to make levels "interesting" by making some desks fall over, and had great fun reconstructing the swimming pool, gym, and metalworking facilities.

When I showed people they were always concerned because there was a gun on the screen and I was walking around my high school. I lacked the ability to get rid of the gun, so I had to explain it every time. Some of the more stupid teachers couldn't get past the gun and see it for what it was (a student interested in programming - not a cry for help) but I ended up just not telling them anything and taking it to people with brains.

Later on I started re-constructing the Titanic from the original schematics, though I never got very far with this, because my machine only had 64MB of ram, and I used it up pretty quickly making complicated geometry.

Good fun.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The development hopefully goes further to replace moving objects: humans, cars etc. for rebuilding 3D scenes from video for VR.</comment>


AVG, Goodbye and take your opurtunity with you - <AUTHOR> http://www.keithdonegan.com/avg-goodbye-and-take-your-opurtunity-with-you/

<comment><USER2> Thats literally 3 "logical" steps from - antivirus 2009 :) I wonder what marketing genius thought of this bait and switch.</comment>


Probable Roman shipwrecks unearthed at a Serbian coal mine - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/probable-roman-shipwrecks-unearthed-at-a-serbian-coal-mine/ <comment><USER2> NUMA scientist Dirk Pitt is quoted as saying, "I wasn't sure what to do next, it seemed like all hope was lost. then this old man showed up, he seemed real familiar to me but I couldn't pinpoint why. He helped me find the ships that I then used to escape from some unreasonable situation."

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

<comment><USER3> Are the Dirk Pitt books any good? I need a new thriller/action series to binge read.

<comment><USER4> Some are, largely the older ones. The newest books have lost something to me, and the related series feel like they're ghostwritten (they are ghostwritten -- but importantly, they feel like it.)

From the books here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Cussler#Bibliography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Cussler#Bibliography), 'Dirk Pitt Adventures', which he wrote himself:

* The very old ones, Pacific Vortex, Mediterranean Caper, and Iceberg, are definitely dated. They also include some distasteful treatment of women and transexuals. The harsh (physically) behaviour to women seems to be Cussler's attempt to channel a Bond-like feeling. I don't like it at all.

* Dragon (if it's the one I remember) has an unpleasant rather racist feel. Like Crichton's Rising Sun, it's anti-Japanese.

* Raise the Titanic is what made him famous. Worth reading.

* The books Treasure, Sahara, Inca Gold are his absolute best. Big, thick, crazy adventure novels.

* Shock Wave I didn't like when I read it: something about the tone. I heard he had a personal tragedy before he wrote it, and maybe that affected the book.

* The books after feel increasingly ghostwritten, or at least churned out.

I enjoyed them as a teenager, and I was too young so some of the sexist or racist elements in the older ones passed me by. I read the Bond books at a similar age, and didn't understand everything I read. As an adult, re-reading, I disliked those elements strongly.

Yet, some of the stories are fantastic thrillers.

So: I'd recommend you avoid the ones that are distasteful, and the newer ones. But Titanic and those three others are worth reading. 'Big, thick, crazy adventure novels'. When you read them, you'll see why they keep periodically trying to make movies of his books.

<comment><USER3> Cheers. I'll give those ones a look.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ah, the good old days. Newspapers were a primary news source, humor was an art form, and a particular news provider could be enjoyed by everyone of every political persuasion.

Aside from the dead trees aspect, I wish those days could return.</comment>


The Machine Stops - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/the-machine-stops <comment><USER2> _> immersed us in a virtual reality far denser, more absorbing, and even more dehumanizing. I am confronted every day with the complete disappearance of the old civilities. Social life, street life, and attention to people_

Why is there this prejudice that virtual life is dehumanizing? Talking through the social network apps _is_ social life.

Whether it is quality talk or not, dehumanizing or not, I don't see much difference with the good old analogical talking - namely it depends on what are you talking about and with whom.

<comment><USER3> The big difference is the loss of non verbal communication such as body language, pauses, etc. I agree with the author that there's an important element of presence in your current surroundings that is lost with the proliferation of smartphones.

<comment><USER2> Yes, but there's also an important element of presence in environments you wouldn't have had access in your life without the technology.

The loss of non verbal communication was also a thing in epistolary communication, a common practice for all social classes (even those who couldn't read or write would manage to get letters or postcards written for them); and that was considered a cultivated social activity, not at all dehumanizing either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I read the original "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster way back in 1909, a few weeks back, following a link from this very website. It's worth a read!

[http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html](http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html)

EDIT: Looks like that link is a little overloaded right now... This one works: [https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The- Machi...](https://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Machine- Stops.pdf)

<comment><USER5> There's a good free audiobook version on librivox.org

<comment><USER6> I for one am slightly underwhelmed by the irony of seeing "audiobook" in this particular context.

<comment><USER7> Audiobooks are useful for people who are blind, people who are severely dyslexic, or people with NVD (non-verbal learning disorder), who are capable of processing sound fine, but might have difficulty processing text.

I fail to see how it's ironic, given that the original story was about a button-pressing utopia. The utopia wasn't so simplistic and purile as people having things read to them, or watching movies instead of reading, but instead, people refused to do proper research, trusting written accounts from people several times removed from the original texts, like some obscene all- encompassing version of 'telephone'. People who were, ultimately, afraid of curiosity.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Alluded to in the article is the importance of spending some time in silence.

For those that agree with the idea that long stretches of silence can be important for meaningful internal dialogue and mental health:

One amazing life hack that I have found to work almost anywhere in the world (e.g. when travelling - or not): search 'adoration times <city/town/location>' and find some welcoming empty space to sit in silence ... and no one will question you.

<comment><USER9> > and no one will question you.

Nobody questions going for a run. GReat way to find some alone quiet time no matter where you are, what you're doing, or who you're with.

<comment><USER8> One of my runs ended with me slowly backing up from two loose rottweilers that thought I was tresspassing their sidewalk. Amazing how fast the mind starts racing on how to kill in near-death situations.

After that, I realized running can be a privledge in many neighboorhoods (women runners take on a whole different level of risk as well unfortunately...)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you have not read the 1909 story The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster referenced here, it's worth doing so. It's in the public domain.

<comment><USER11> It's more than worth it. It's a story that should be required reading for the modern age.

</comment></comment><comment> m-i-l _" A few years ago [early 2010s?], I was invited to join a panel discussion about information and communication in the twenty-first century. One of the panelists, an Internet pioneer, said proudly that his young daughter surfed the Web twelve hours a day..."_

Contrast with "A Dark Consensus About Screens and Kids Begins to Emerge in Silicon Valley"[0], admittedly written several years later and about phones specifically rather than the internet in general, which opens "The people who are closest to a thing are often the most wary of it. Technologists know how phones really work, and many have decided they don't want their own children anywhere near them."

[0] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18309305](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18309305)

</comment><comment><USER12> Huh, odd. The date is February 11, 2019, but if I'm not mistaken, the author (Oliver Sacks) died in 2015

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

<comment><USER13> It's mentioned at the end of the article.

> Oliver Sacks, who died in 2015, was the author of many books, including > "Musicophilia," "Gratitude," and "The River of Consciousness." A final > collection of his essays, "Everything in Its Place," will be published in > April.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> To me, the author's response is mostly to change of scale. Social intimacy and human connection still exist, just in less populated areas. It's unrealistic to expect a busy city to stay the same over the course of a lifetime.

Also relevant: [https://xkcd.com/1601/](https://xkcd.com/1601/).

</comment><comment><USER15> Very strange, I posted this link three hours ago, both are listed, this one an hour later on page one.

<comment><USER15> [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=machine%20stops&sort=byPopular...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=machine%20stops&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)

<comment><USER15> Now strangely amused. This search shows the original time diff, but this thread shows the article posted 2 hours earlier.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Mljar-Supervised: AutoML Package with Explanations and Markdown Reports - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mljar/mljar-supervised <comment><AUTHOR> The mljar-supervised is an AutoML tool that works with tabular data. It can handle binary classification, multiclass classification, and regression problems. What's good in it:

\- it can produce markdown reports which you can commit to repository, example: [https://github.com/mljar/mljar- examples/tree/master/House_pr...](https://github.com/mljar/mljar- examples/tree/master/House_pr..).

\- it computes the Baseline, so you can check if you need ML or not

\- this package is training simple Decision Trees with max_depth <= 5, so you can easily visualize them with amazing dtreeviz to better understand your data.

\- it is using simple linear regression and include its coefficients in the summary report,

\- it has a vast set of algorithms: Random Forest, Extra Trees, LightGBM, Xgboost, CatBoost (Neural Networks will be added soon).

\- it can do features preprocessing, like: missing values imputation and converting categoricals. What is more, it can also handle target values preprocessing (You won't believe how often it is needed!). For example, converting categorical target into numeric.

\- it tunes hyper-parameters with not-so-random-search algorithm (random- search over a defined set of values) and hill-climbing to fine-tune final models.

\- it cares about the explainability of models: for every algorithm, the feature importance is computed based on permutation. Additionally, for every algorithm, the SHAP explanations are computed: feature importance, dependence plots, and decision plots (explanations can be switched off with explain_level parameter).</comment>


Slightly More Advanced Git techniques - <AUTHOR> http://cmurphycode.posterous.com/git-201-slightly-more-advanced <comment><USER2>
        $ git bisect start
        $ git bisect good <sha>
        $ git bisect bad master
        git will do all the hard work for you. You just have to run your tests at each point that git prompts you, and tell it whether it passed or not:
        $ git bisect bad (or good)

Props to the author for describing 'git bisect', which is a big time saver; but I'm always surprised that articles like this don't go on to mention the even more amazing 'git bisect run', which _automates_ the "run your tests at each point and tell it whether it passed" part:

        $ git bisect start
        $ git bisect good <sha>
        $ git bisect bad master
        $ git bisect run rspec spec/path/to/failing_spec.rb
        ... wait a bit ...
        5243cafebabe is the last bad commit

You can give it any shell command, and it'll automatically bisect, run the command, mark the current commit as good or bad depending on the shell return code of the command, then bisect again, etc.

It's right there in the man page, but for some reason seems to be little known (or at least talked about).

<comment><USER3> I suppose automating this is not too difficult. Something like:

        $ git bisect start --good <sha> --run rspec spec/path/to/failing_spec.rb
        ... wait longer ...
        5243cafebabe is the last bad commit

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love git grep:

        $ git grep foo

It's often faster than running regular grep and does nice things like not inspecting ignored files.

I also find myself using git shortlog when preparing releases. e.g.:

        $ git shortlog v1.6.2..

...and it shows me a nice summary of changes since the "v1.6.2" tag.

"git diff --color-words" and "git difftool" are pretty awesome too.

I wouldn't consider these advanced but they are lesser-known.

</comment><comment><USER5> Latest awesome git feature I found: [http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git- notes.ht...](http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-notes.html)

I'm using git notes to annotate my commits with metadata about what bugs they fix, how stable they've proven to be in practice, and the dependencies between commits: [https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/half-baked-ideas- class...](https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/half-baked-ideas-classify-git- commits-and-rule-based-branch-building/)

<comment><USER6> Last time I looked into 'git notes' it wouldn't preserve the notes attached to a commit when you amend / rebase / cherry-pick the commit. It seems that git now supports this! From the git-notes manpage:

      notes.rewrite.<command>
        When rewriting commits with <command> (currently amend or rebase),
        if this variable is false, git will not copy notes from the original
        to the rewritten commit. Defaults to true.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> The "Filter-Branch" tip was the most helpful tip for me, since I've been there and deleted my whole repo as quickly as possible not knowing other solutions existed.

<http://help.github.com/removing-sensitive-data/></comment>


South Korea's education system: The great decompression - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588373-there-are-perils-country-having-all-your-children-working-too-hard-one-big-exam <comment><USER2> This is an example of policy devoid of cultural context. East Asian societies, and Korean societies specifically have a history of examination as the main way to move up in class. During many dynasties of the past, if you could do well enough on various exams, you could potentially go from being low-born to serving in the court of a king. It is in this context that the current system developed. Thus, a simple policy change will very likely not work. It's a cultural shift that needs to take place.

</comment><comment><USER3> An informative article, which is worth reading, but the conclusions seem bizarre and lacking in logic.

Why should perhaps the best education system in the world pull back into a period of decompression? South Korea have created a generation of talent which is internationally competitive and fuelling a strong economy. Human capital is now one of the country's best assets. Even if you could identify an obvious cause, you certainly shouldn't seek to mess that up.

Why should the chaebol, who monopolise industry talent, be required to do the same in other industries?

<comment><USER4> My reading of the article suggested to me that "perhaps the best education system in the world" is focussing on the wrong things.

The pressures of an ageing workforce and the demands for recognition elsewhere in the economy will force a correction at some point I suppose.

<comment><USER3> Measurably the first or second best education system in the world ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world- europe-11939566](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11939566) ; [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20498356](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-20498356)).

You are apparently describing a correction in the sense that the quality of education will be reduced. I would be happy for you to clarify otherwise, but why should any country seek that out? Education is perhaps the primary reason for the continuing strength of South Korea's economy. What reason is there for South Korea to go in a different educational direction than it has, consistently and successfully, since its formation?

As you note, the article indicates that there's an ageing population due to low birth rate due to the expense of education. I find that an extremely long stretch and I've never heard this link made regarding a Western country. Why does this logic apply to South Korea if it doesn't apply in the UK?

<comment><USER5> The benchmarks you cited measure scholastic ability. It is measured by such metrics as test results and graduation rates, as the second link says. The benchmarks have little implication for the general quality of life for students, graduates, and educators. Especially since getting into a top college doesn't guarantee success anymore.

Meanwhile, South Korea has the hightest suicide rate among OECD countries [1], and suicide is also the leading cause of death among people aged 15-29 [2]. Teenagers killing themselves to escape from academic pressure are so common they don't even make the news anymore. South Korean students might have the highest grades, but neither students nor educators seem to be even remotely happy about what they've got at the moment.

We're talking about a country where competition for standardized tests is so great that people pay thousands of dollars for leaked SAT tests [3]. I'm talking about the American SAT, not the Korean equivalent. Competition for the Korean SAT (suneung) gets even more serious.

In the past, when some foreign leader cited Korea's academic achievements in a public speech, Koreans felt immensely proud. Nowadays, Obama mentions Korea all the time when he talks about education policy and we're like "Err, whatever."

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

[2] [http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/rising-suicide- rates-i...](http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/rising-suicide-rates-in- south-korea)

[3] [http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/05/28/group-of- south...](http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/05/28/group-of-south- koreans-barred-from-sat/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Sounds like an opportunity for someone with a different perspective to hire all the late blossomers...

<comment><USER7> That's what I always think when I read about these sorts of problems in Japan and Korea. There's a tremendous amount of pressure generated by the overwhelming influence of the big companies, and the shame felt by those who aren't given validation in this system must be acute (or at least it sounds like that for Korea, I don't know as much about Japan.)

Anyway the most common reaction may be to accept the judgement that you feel has been passed on you - that you are worthless - but at some point someone has to come along who refuses to accept that, and realises that the whole system is founded on narrow-minded bullshit. Then that person can build a challenger to the chaebol - one fueled by fresh thinking and real inspiration.

I mean look at LG and Samsung. Where's the passion and love in their products? Raw technical competence and business acumen might lead to limited success, but these companies seem completely soulless. At the end of the day, the world will never love a Samsung like they do an Apple. No matter how big they get, they'll never be able to make it to the next stage, where they actually inspire people and have devoted, passionate fans. So the space for alternative approaches within Korean culture seems (from an outside perspective) huge, even if the first steps are going to be very hard.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is this what Japan was like before their youth burn out?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori#Japanese_education_s...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori#Japanese_education_system)

<comment><USER9> There's still a lot of societal pressure to pass exams to enter a "good" university in Japan (here "good" is an in-country measure - only a worldwide basis there are a lot of universities measured as better than almost all of the "good" Japanese universities).

Your university degree has usually been the measure of your worth to enter a big Japanese company, but there are presumably a few more foreign companies in Japan, and conditions there are better (not as much overtime). Companies like Rakuten have made English the company language, so there are changes afoot in Japan.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Did anyone else think about how we kind of have the equivalent for athletes here in the US?</comment>


Fireball over Texas - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/fireball-over-texas/ <comment><AUTHOR> Followup post: [http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/te...](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/texas- fireball-whats-known-so-far/)

</comment><comment><USER2> Video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QIdmzL_Miw>

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow. That's excellent. Did you see how bright it got just before it went behind the trees?

The sad thing is, the poster on YouTube is so interested in it being a UFO and part of the Obama-induced Space War, that she misses how awesome the event is without all that.

"Big bright thing burns up in the sky" is a really neat story. No UFOs needed.

Although a Space War would be a great story too, if you had that.</comment></comment>


Bloomberg Risk Takers: Elon Musk Documentary - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/video/73460184/ <comment><USER2> That was absolutely stunning. I can't even imagine someone pinning their entire hard-earned fortune on a wing and a prayer, but that's exactly what he did. Talk about balls.

Better still his start-ups are actually changing the world for the better. They're not just a bunch of smartphone apps. Today I toast the man who believed in solar power, space exploration and electric cars so much that he put he was willing to put his entire 8 figure fortune of 2 decades on the line! Elon, you're a tribute to the human spirit!

<comment><USER3> WEll said. I (very) briefly met Elon in Detroit about a year ago and only had a chance to make a joke about SpaceX's Falcon 9. He's quite the entrepreneur. I only wish more were like him and tried their hands at hard world-changing problems rather than financial 'innovations' or iPhone Apps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It boggles the imagination to see one person leading three companies, each of which has to solve enormous problems that no one else has been able to overcome in the past several decades. I find it quite inspirational to see Elon doing this.

</comment><comment><USER5> Actually, I'd like to see a documentary on the 1000s of people who took risks and failed. It's easy to "ooh and ahh" at success. How about all the ones that didn't make it and still get up each morning and try again. Many people have good ideas and try hard, they just didn't get lucky at the right time.

<comment><USER6> Startup.com is a good one. It's about a dot com that failed back in the 2000 internet bubble.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/>

Also, "We Live In Public" is a good one too.

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329/>

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the suggestions - "we live in public" is on netflix instant so will watch it sometime this week:

<http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/We_Live_in_Public/70112751>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not only were all those start-ups of his extremely difficult technically wise, and also difficult to succeed in those markets, but he was basically running them in the same time! That's incredible. And he's just 40, and I think there's a lot more we'll see from him. His wife said at the end that he's also thinking about making electric jets, fusion reactors, and colonizing the Moon and Mars. After what he's done so far, I wouldn't bet against him.

</comment><comment><USER8> These videos are also amazing from Bloomberg. <http://www.bloomberg.com/tv/shows/game-changers/>

</comment><comment><USER9> I've been very impressed lately with the quality of Bloomberg's television productions.

Things like this combined with the upcoming TechStars show are just wonderful.

<comment><USER10> Bloomberg is an incredible company obsessed with quality. The TV channel is great; their terminal is downright mind-numbing.

<comment><USER11> How would you fix the Bloomberg terminal? I'm simply curious as trying to figure out how to develop the same type of tools for retail customers has been something I've been looking at for quite a while.

Note: I use a Bloomberg terminal at work.

<comment><USER10> Oh I have no idea. I have had the privilege to see a little behind the scenes there and I'm not aware of any weaknesses, really.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Simply amazing, all of the companies are doing something tangible and real.

I tend to compare myself to others... makes me feel pretty useless...lol

</comment><comment><USER13> I found this piece both inspiring and a little disappointing. Inspiring because of guy's vision and sheer determination. Disappointing because all three of his recent ventures sought soft bailouts to stay afloat (subsidies of some form or another).

</comment><comment><USER14> I watched this over the weekend, great story.</comment>


A side project helped my resume stand out by 10x - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/rohitsahay18/how-a-side-project-helped-my-resume-stand-out-by-10x-51i2 <comment><USER2> If someone else would be interested in writing a great resume, these tips helped me: [https://nategibson.net/how-to-write-a-great-cv-a- checklist-f...](https://nategibson.net/how-to-write-a-great-cv-a-checklist- for-a-cv-that-will-get-your-employers-attention/)</comment>


Computer algorithm to decipher ancient texts - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE58141O20090902

<comment><USER2> Also submitted here, but no discussion yet.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=800441></comment>


Ask HN: Why isn't jQuery included in the browser? - <AUTHOR> Honestly, why don't Google, MS, Mozilla just include that damn jQuery in the browser? <comment><USER2> There is no such thing as _" the browser"_ \- there are lots of browsers, each of which has many versions in current use (not everyone can auto-update to today's version of Chrome, especially in big companies). Since you have no control over which browser your users are running, what do you do if your web site is dependent on the latest version of jQuery but half your users have a browser that's several months older than that?

On the other hand, if your web pages load a known version of jQuery, you have control over the dependencies and can update to a new version of jQuery when it's convenient for you to do so (and after you've tested it to make sure it doesn't break your site).

And jQuery is just one of dozens of popular JavaScript frameworks...

</comment><comment><USER3> In practice, it kind of is. Because of the caching. This mechanism also adapts to possible future changes. Today jQuery is popular, tomorrow it might be something else.</comment>


Infinit Joins Docker - <AUTHOR> http://blog.infinit.sh/infinit-joins-docker/ <comment><USER2> Hi, member of the Infinit team here.

We're very excited to be joining Docker! Their technology is great and the momentum behind them is really impressive. Feel free to ask questions, I'll be around a little this evening (based in Paris).

Their post: [https://blog.docker.com/2016/12/docker-acquires- infinit/](https://blog.docker.com/2016/12/docker-acquires-infinit/)

<comment><USER3> How will the Infinit team and product benefit from Docker's acquisition? What sort of products and services do you plan to introduce that would have been more difficult to achieve prior? Thanks!

<comment><USER4> We've been focusing more and more on containers lately, and we quickly discovered our technology was a great fit in the docker ecosytsem (see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0m-XwCoxo0&list=PLkA60AVN3h...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0m-XwCoxo0&list=PLkA60AVN3hh8oPas3cq2VA9xB7WazcIgs)). For us it means being able to focus on our preferred use case (Linux/backend) with more horsepower and less financial pressure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Achilles heel of Docker is not caching all artifacts.

There needs to be a --cache-only option where it pulls packages to the host then copies them into the container. Right now you have to do a two container build where the first pulls packages, you copy them out for archival/caching, then copy them into a second container for the build.

I guess another solution would be to have the base container pull the packages but not install anything. The child container would actually do the build then clean up.

</comment><comment><USER6> Congratulations Infinit. Definitely a surprise until I read the background on your container work.

</comment><comment><USER7> Congratulation guys! Good luck Akim :)

</comment><comment><USER8> This looks like a very exciting project, maybe if this is refined it could be used for prosumer/homeusers to scale their NAS storage?

<comment><USER2> It would be suited to that, you can join us on our Slack channel if you have any questions: [https://infinit.sh/#slack](https://infinit.sh/#slack)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _" With stateful applications being the next natural step in this evolution..."_

So ephemeral applications are not hip?

</comment><comment><USER10> Congrats Julien & Baptiste and the cat from the Camping! Dan

</comment><comment><USER11> How does the performance of this compare to efs?

<comment><USER2> The performance is very dependent on how you plan to use the FS. I would recommend joining us on Slack so we can chat directly and see how you'd like to use it: [https://infinit.sh/#slack](https://infinit.sh/#slack)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> "... quite an incredible journey."

Reads almost as satire, given [https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/](https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/)

<comment><USER13> it's true, you can't use the phrase incredible journey anymore! unless you seek to make a knowing reference to your userbase.

<comment><USER14> I wonder if there have been any cases of consciously using the phrase "incredible journey" as a form of hidden message. When you want to consciously communicate to your users "realistically, everything's gonna be shut down 6 months or a year from now, with little notice", but are prohibited from doing anything but put on a smiling face.</comment></comment></comment>


1% Of Nothing Launches To Get Startups Donating Equity - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/10/1-percent-nothing/ <comment><USER2> Nice idea and initiative. I admire the effort.

Some feedback on the name: while it succinctly denotes how it works, I feel it has some negative connotations.

For a founding team and investors to commit 1% of equity to charity, it is a big deal. "1% is nothing" sound patronizing. Moreover, I don't know any single founder that wants to be associated with someone that characterizes the value of his/her startup as 'nothing' - as in 1% of nothing - i.e., your company is worth nothing.

Of course I understand the spirit of where you are trying to go, but as a byproduct you are generating this negative (unconscious?) connotations that I would try to avoid.

Perhaps '1% means a lot' or something along those lines would be more appealing.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the comment, and I appreciate your honesty. When we say "1% of Nothing", it means (and generally has been assumed by most) that it refers to when the company starts. Clearly once the company has traction, it's not worth "nothing".

But the thing is - the name is to provoke an emotion. First it's to make you realize that you still keep 99% of your company, or even just 99% of the shares that you've been granted. Second it's to point out that at the early stages, it really is worth basically nothing on paper. Obviously there's far more value in it than that, but we're trying to stir up a reaction - good or bad - that can prompt a thought.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If it takes off, I predict that there'll be news of how a company will try to avoid the pledge after the "idealistic founder" pledged it. And it'll blow up in mainstream media how startup owners screwed the charity, putting off more other workers.

</comment><comment><USER5> Given the Zynga fiasco, is this a good or bad time to launch a startup about donating early-stage equity?

<comment><USER6> Doesn't really matter, before Zynga there was Skype, and so on. Doesn't reach the public eye nearly enough to cause a huge scare in venture investing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Brilliant move to latch onto the 1%/99% rhetoric flying around right now.

Also, a pretty neat idea. I wonder how VCs, etc... would look at a company with that odd percent-chunk missing in funding rounds.

<comment><USER3> I'd love to take credit for that "brilliant move", but it was totally accidental. Michael Birch came up with the name back in April!

As an aside, there's nothing missing in the funding rounds. In the current iteration, this is a pledge given by the founders, which means they don't actually give up their 1% until the very end (an acquisition).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great idea. Although, I'd have to say, I think part of the reason early-stage startups don't pledge equity already ("nonexistent", as he said) is because they're so busy and it's just not on their minds. This might change that, though, which is arguably a good thing.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is one amazing 'how did no one think of that before' ideas!

Really hope it goes well, and no one tries to back out of the deal once their start-up hits the big time (I'm looking at you Zynga)

</comment><comment><USER9> I love this idea.</comment>


The Non-Tuition Costs of College - <AUTHOR> http://www.coursehero.com/blog/2011/03/15/the-non-tuition-cost-of-college/ <comment><USER2> "the average student spends $2,600/year on beer" Are you kidding me? What are these average students drinking? Cheap cases are at most $20 which is 130 cases or 3900 beers a year. Thats beside the $4,000 on entertainment. Absurd calculations.

<comment><USER3> I agree entirely. I'm a recent grad and I know I spent more than $2,600 in a year across all types of alcohol, but I was purchasing for parties, not for myself, and insisted on quality booze. Your average student is most definitely not purchasing top-shelf alcohol in party quantities. And $1700 for a computer? I paid that for the three computers I had, even including all of the upgrades on the desktop. Never paid more than $500/year on books. I'm willing to bet most people are not paying all three of lab fees, music room fees, and Greek dues. And a number of other costs here are simply ridiculous, representing upper bounds more than averages in many cases.

<comment><AUTHOR> bar spending? $50/weekend * 52 weeks in a year = $2600/year. I did much worse than that I have to admit. And don't start with 'most college students are under 21' because most people I knew were resourceful when it came to age modification, not to mention our proximity to Mexico :)</comment></comment></comment>


Card vs. Card: The world's first competitive multiplayer bank account - <AUTHOR> https://cardvcard.com/ <comment><USER2> It seems like it would be very easy to exploit this. Either get your own card terminal or if you know a small business with wireless terminals (Square, PayPal, etc) ask them to borrow one and split the money. Then just keep both the card and terminal around and do a transaction as soon as the notification arrives.

<comment><USER3> Good point. The terms[0] say that "The cards must be used in person at a physical point of sale. They will not transact eCommerce purchases." but a square terminal might/should work (you could setup a Square account on your own + use the app virtual terminal sans hardware)

[0] [https://cardvcard.com/terms-and- conditions.pdf](https://cardvcard.com/terms-and-conditions.pdf)</comment></comment>