Ask HN: Has your hacking skill given you a competitive edge elsewhere? - <AUTHOR>

Does anyone have any stories about applying programming skills in a new way, or at a previously low tech place to kick your competition's asses?<p>One example that's made it into the legends would be that of Ed Thorp wrt blackjack. <comment><USER2> One example from the book SuperCrunchers involves Vintage Wines. A guy took soil and climate data and ran the it against the most expensive wines. Then he deduced rules about which years would be best for wine purchasing.

<http://www.randomhouse.com/bantamdell/supercrunchers/></comment>


X1 Carbon CPU frequency update - <AUTHOR> https://200ok.ch/posts/2018-09-27_X1_carbon_cpu_frequency_update.html <comment><USER2> I have always seen Lenovo as being quite good with Linux, but these sort of things make me wonder if I should be placing more interest in Dell once again..

Was just about to purchase a new Lenovo to run Linux on.. Can anyone recommend what they think would be a good route to take at the moment?

Any new good Lenovos or other coming out later this year?

<comment><USER3> I've used one of their lower end thinkpads (s540) and have gotten 4 years of use out of it doing Java work with vms and running a ton of things without issues on Ubuntu.

I've had next to no problems the whole time, second monitors,webcams,printers,sleeping have all worked straight out of the box.

I've flown upwards of 50 times with it during this period, dropped it, spilt water on it and it has survived it all (almost!). The only reason I'm even looking at replacements is I spilt a full litre of water on the keyboard and a few keys have died forever.

If you're looking for a good development machine I'd recommend the following ThinkPad lines:

* X range: Smallest and lightest, maxes out at 16gb ram (new X1 extreme doesn't but it is $$$$).

* P range: Most power in terms of CPU/Ram/GPU whilst being fairly portable.

* T range: IMO the sweet-spot between X and P. Portable but still with enough grunt, the T480 takes up to 32gb ram.

<comment><USER4> Another ancedote: I used a thinkpad X220 throughout grad school and absolutely loved it (except the screen resolution). This year I decided it was finally time to move on... but to what? I heard all the new thinkpads have bad keyboards, and I'm not going to buy a dell since I generally despise Dell keyboards and trackpoints.

I bought a refurb T460. Love it. The thoughts that it has a "bad" keyboard are totally overblown. This thing has a great keyboard, screen, trackpoint. The whole package is good IMO. Opting for the T460 instead of the T460s, I'm able to enjoy keys that are slightly taller, and I can use my laptop without listening to the fans spinning on very much.

I run Debian Stable and this machine is fast as hell and problem free.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Mooman called it, only took a day tho: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18080209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18080209)

</comment><comment><USER6> You could try undervolting the CPU with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) - lowering the voltage by ~0.1V decreases the amount of heat produced, which leads to less CPU throttling.

<comment><USER7> Any potential drawbacks?

<comment><USER8> Drop it too low and the machine may crash under heavy load, it won't (with a high degree of probability) cause any permanent issues (it's somewhat safer than over volting).

<comment><USER9> at the offchance that someone knows the answer to my problem: when undervolting everything works fine for me until I lock my PC(Windows). It then proceeds to restart itself. Am I undervolting too much or is this something else?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So does that mean that Linux is obeying the TDP specs more closely than Windows [which allowed die temp to reach 97C]?

<comment><USER11> According to the Intel link in the article the max Tjunction is 100C so Windows is pushing it closer to the max.

I'm not too sure about now (especially in this age of forced obolescence), but it used to be that Intel CPUs would automatically throttle down if they started overheating, with no software required, and AMDs would just let it burn:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSGcnRanYMM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSGcnRanYMM)

<comment><USER12> That was a very long time ago in the early 2000's before the AMD K8 and up were introduced.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is this only applicable for the 6th generation?

</comment><comment><USER14> The 90s are over, surely the OS can't force the CPU into overheating.

<comment><USER10> Yeah, I think there is a lot going on with TDP, the OS, the workload, die temp, cooling, voltage rails and power profile.

Can anyone explain how CPU throttling works in real life?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm glad I'm not fussing with Linux on the desktop. Far too expensive.</comment>


I'm 15 and use social media WAY less than you - <AUTHOR> https://joshternyak.com/how-i-maximize-my-productivity/index.html <comment><USER2> May I suggest OP replaces the "greater than" symbol with the "less than" symbol in the title of the article, to avoid confusing old people like me? :)</comment>


AMA: Self-Employment, Remote Work – Gregory Brown (Programming Beyond Practices) - <AUTHOR> https://mobile.twitter.com/practicingdev/status/771065320228421632 <comment><USER2> Oh hi!

I wasn't expected this to be posted on HN, but I'm happy to discuss in the comments rather than having folks head over to Twitter.

I assume many people here already are self-employed or work remotely, but I can throw in my two cents on any questions you might have if you aren't... or if you are but just want to hear from someone else's perspective.</comment>


Original bulletin board thread in which ':-)' was proposed - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/Orig-Smiley.htm <comment><USER2> Nabokov's interview. The New York Times [1969]

         -- How  do you rank yourself among writers
         (living) and of the immediate past?

         -- I often think there should exist a  special  typographical
         sign  for  a  smile -- some sort of concave mark,
         a supine round bracket, which I would now like to
         trace in reply to your question.

<comment><USER3> Which had already been used in the days of the telegraph.

The first use of OMG (oh my god) and other such initialisms was 19th. C.

I would imagine that includes :)

<comment><USER4> Also interesting, there is a set of telegraphic codes used to decrease the size of messages due to cost:

[http://people.eku.edu/styere/Encrypt/ABC4/](http://people.eku.edu/styere/Encrypt/ABC4/)

Definitely has to be one of the earliest examples of electronic signal compression.

<comment><USER5> Even beyond explicit codebooks, telegraph operators extensively used standardized abbreviations, meaning what they actually sent/received was remarkably similar to SMS text-speak, for obvious reasons! "Wr r ty gg r 9" => "Where are they going for No. 9?": [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/05/11/history_of_t...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/05/11/history_of_telegraph_operators_abbreviations_used_by_telegraphers.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It makes me a bit of a luddite (and a heck of a curmudgeon), but it always makes me a little sad when good ol' ASCII smileys are rendered all fancy-like. There's something charming and hackerish about showing it as a 7-bit glyph.

I think the Internet fundamentally changed when that happened.

Tangentially-related, I can't fathom why someone would post YouTube videos of `telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl`.

<comment><USER7> Emojis are stunningly ugly to me, though I did appreciate throwing out the custom doge and Doom space marine ones at random when my team used Slack.

<comment><USER8> I think it's a cultural thing - or more precisely, a non-culture-specific thing, which should be as unoffensive as possible.

Honestly, I don't envy those that design and publish emojis, it's a cultural minefield. :-) has no color, gender, outfit or what-have-you. There's been a lot of debate about the skin tone of e.g. the thumbs up emoji (which now comes in half a dozen colors if the relatively ambiguous / non-human yellow isn't to your needs), the gender of emojis depicting jobs, and the color of outfits of emojis depicting jobs.

<comment><USER9> The smiley is an efficient general-purpose abstraction of reality; the emoji is a million instances of copy-pasted overly-specific code.

<comment><USER10> Emojis are in Unicode. They aren't parsed or converted to multiple glyphs anymore, the text editor will provide them directly.

[http://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji- list.html](http://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html)

I was doubtful of emojis at first, but now I'm loving the concept. They really help me communicate emotions that I wouldn't put into actual words. Smileys can't really do that.

Culturally I see it as a the first universal (limited) language, using standardized ideograms. Maybe in a few decades we can express full sentences and we will have a written language for all Humans to use. 21st century hieroglyphs.

<comment><USER11> As a college student, I use emoji constantly to communicate all sorts of abstract sentiments, but in my experience they can also be irritatingly ambiguous and highly dependent on cultural norms and interpretation.

Take the thumbs up emoji - within my social circles, the exact same emoji can be interpreted both as a enthusiastic agreement ("Sure!") and also as a sarcastic affirmation ("Good for you.").

It's often difficult to infer the intended meaning, even with context, and in some circumstances I've found emojis have actually added significantly to the ambiguity and cognitive burden in parsing a text. That's not a problem I have often faced with simple smileys.

<comment><USER10> We need an emoji to represent sarcasm that we would put at the end of the message, like the use of "/s". And I think this would count as grammar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Apropos is this debate about whether an intentional :) shows up in a 1648 poem:

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/04/15/emotico...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/04/15/emoticon_robert_herrick_s_17th_century_poem_to_fortune_does_not_contain.html)

Here's the verse:

Tumble me down, and I will sit

Upon my ruines (smiling yet :)

I think that the article does a fairly convincing job of showing that this is just weird 17th century typography, but then again, there was enough experimentation with printing at the time that it also wouldn't surprise me if it was intentional, at least at some point in the typesetting process.

<comment><USER13> Huh. That helps explain one I found from the 19th C.: [https://www.flickr.com/photos/abecedarius/3054204291/](https://www.flickr.com/photos/abecedarius/3054204291/) a little below middle: "... philosophy in small :)"

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Like most of the cultural inventions of virtual communities there was prior art on PLATO.

[http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2012/09/plato-emoticons- rev...](http://www.platohistory.org/blog/2012/09/plato-emoticons- revisited.html)

<comment><USER15> Those emoticons seem to have been in many ways _better_ than :-) and its relatives, but it sounds like they 1) relied on details of the platform, and (related) 2) never caught on more broadly. So I think it's still reasonable to celebrate the invention of :-) (while maybe imagining how much richer text conversations might have been if the PLATO text-display system had become ubiquitous).

<comment><USER16> I was definitely using :-) on Plato in 1979. I'd be surprised if Plato was the first use, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Interesting thing to note is that before Fahlman suggested ":-)" symbol, Leonard Hamey suggested "{#}" (see 17-Sep-82 17:42 post). After that, someone suggested "\\__/" (see 20-Sep-82 17:56 post). But only ":-)" gained popularity.

It is funny to imagine how emoticons ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emoticons)) would look today if one of alternative symbols was accepted?

<comment><USER17> I don't understand "{#}" and "\\__/". Are they supposed to be arbitrary markers, or interpreted in some way?

<comment><USER18> "{#}" was proposed because it looks like teeth showing. "\\_/" was proposed because it looks like a smile.

<comment> david-given I'm trying to visualise the first one, but the only thing which comes to mind is Jaws from the old James Bond films.

[http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/jamesbond/images/8/86/Ja...](http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/jamesbond/images/8/86/Jaws_- _Profile_\(2\).jpg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I vividly remember having the following conversation with a fellow CMU undergrad around this time:

Me: _What 's with all the :-) in the posts?_

Friend: _It indicates joking._

Me: _Why?_

Friend: _What 's it look like?_

Me: _A pinball plunger._

Friend: _Rotate 90 degrees._

Me: _Ohhhhhh._

:-)

<comment><USER20> I think this is one of those things that once you see you can never unsee. :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Ah bulletin boards :)

For years I have been searching for a copy of Blue Board ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Board_(software)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Board_\(software\))), a popular BBS program in the Vancouver, BC, Canada area written by the late Martin Sikes [http://www.penmachine.com/martinsikes/](http://www.penmachine.com/martinsikes/)

I even talked with the owner of Sota Software, the publisher, but I never heard anything back.

If anyone has a copy, PLEASE let me know! I've been wanting to setup a memorial telnet Blue Board site for decades now.

</comment><comment><USER22> This is gold:

"Since Scott's original proposal, many further symbols have been proposed here:

(:-) for messages dealing with bicycle helmets @= for messages dealing with nuclear war"

</comment><comment><USER23> "o>-<|= for messages of interest to women"

I'm glad we are past that.

<comment><USER24> I don't see it, anybody care to explain?

<comment><USER25> It's a woman in a dress, like you might see on a bathroom door

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm sure :-) has been independently invented a million times.

<comment><USER27> Indeed, there is evidence of the kind of typographic play behind the 'smiley' from as early as the 19th century:

[http://theday.co.uk/arts/internet-celebrates-thirty-years- of...](http://theday.co.uk/arts/internet-celebrates-thirty-years-of-emoticons)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I see one Guy Steele in that thread. Is he _the_ Guy Steele? Glancing wikipedia suggests he was asst prof at CMU around that time. Just curious.

<comment><USER6> Indeed it is - Fahlman worked with Steel et. al. on Common Lisp.

Other notable folks I recognized in the thread:

* Dave Touretzky - author of a well-regarded Lisp textbook in its day

* Masaru Tomita - the guy who invented the GLR parser

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> | I have a picture of ET holding a chainsaw in .press file format. The file exists in /usr/wah/public/etchainsaw.press on the IUS.

:-)

<comment><USER29> I don't get it

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I love how different the conversations were on the internet then.

Now adays, if a thread came about to propose the ':-)', people would devolve into a debate about the proper use of the parenthesis, and at least one user would claim that '(-:' was a better choice, though it is the darkhorse option for the community.

</comment><comment><USER31> I wonder how many times the initial turn head, grok, smile -- mirroring back to the pareidolia itself, has happened.

</comment><comment><USER32> Interesting that there are both left-handed and right-handed smileys in the thread. :-) (-:

</comment><comment><USER33> Interestingly, before I read this post and the comments, I have always thought that :-) means a smiling face. Ie, to convey a sense of a smile after writing a message. Not a "I am joking" message.

Well, I learned something today.

<comment><USER34> At some point between 1982 and the late nineties ;) replaced :-) as the joke indicator. But with modern WhatsApp rendering ;) as a suggestive grin instead of a simple wink I imagine the current generation of teenagers has found a new innocent joke marker.

<comment><USER35> At least anecdotally, I've always seen/used :P much more that ;) for funny. ;) has always been more flirty/suggestive, but that may be having spent more of the 90s in MUDs/MUSHes with a greater sense of roleplay.

Definitely in modern emoji sets the tongue out emojis seem to be better indicators of an intended sense of humor more than flirty/suggestive ones (plus the combo ;P for intending flirty and funny).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> And the proposal to have a separate channel to jokes is as old as the smiley. There is always that guy.

Have anyone thought about creating a separate HN for jokes?

<comment><USER37> Well, there is /r/hackernews...

<comment><USER38> It's just a mirror of submissions... Actually kind of useful if you want to search for a submission that you saw on HN a while ago.

<comment><USER39> There's a pretty decent search field at the bottom of the page if you hadn't noticed. Not sure how it compares to the reddit search mechanism though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> I wonder at what point the nose was removed :)

<comment><USER41> Mid- to late nineties, to the best of my recollection.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Monday Sept 19th would've been the 34th "smilaversary".

</comment><comment><USER43> love birds

      (@> <@)
     ( _) (_ )
     /\     /\

<comment><USER44>
      $ apt moo
                       (__)
                       (oo)
                 /</comment></comment><comment>\/
                / |    ||
               *  /\---/\
                  ~~   ~~
      ..."Have you mooed today?"...

</comment><comment><USER45> 19-Sep-82 11:44, Scott E Fahlman invents the ':-)'.

Nice. :-)

<comment><USER46> did you mean that as a joke? or do you really think it's nice? <:-)

<comment><USER45> I think it's cool to see this more or less live in action, and in the original context, yes (not sure what the emoji is for that). With many terms/ expressions, it's very unclear where they originated, so if this is indeed the first usage, it is nice to see.

<comment><USER47> Probably the first time online. There are print antecedents to online emoticons.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> "Read it sideways. " hahaha love this!

</comment><comment><USER49> Reading these BBS always makes me think how much nerdier computer people were back then than they are now. Or am I off base?

<comment><USER41> There was a strong selection effect at the time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> (。◕‿◕。)

I see you

</comment><comment> david-given I... now find myself morbidly curious as to whether you could use Unicode diacritic abuse to draw actual pictures.

Pasted in example stolen from Glitchr, mainly to see how well HN renders them:

̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍ ̎̏̐̑̒̚ ̕̚҉ ̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔ ̿̿̿̚̕̕̚̕̚͡ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎ ̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̚̕̚҉ ̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔ ̿̿̿̚̕̕̚̕̚͡ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎ ̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̚̕̚҉ ̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔ ̠̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓ٴٴٴٴٴٴٴٴ -ٴٴٴٴٴٴه ٴٴٴٴٴٴٴٴٴ ٴٴ...

</comment><comment><USER51> Wow that's interesting

(:

</comment><comment><USER52> Here is a list of popular emoticons: [https://textfac.es/](https://textfac.es/)

</comment><comment><USER53> Usenet archives are also a treasure trove for this kind of things. Searching old posts on Usenet feels like modern day archaeology

<comment><USER54> See in particular something like alt.fan.warlord

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> This is creepy. I just opened a PR on GitHub and set the description to ":-)". Then I opened HN and saw this.</comment>


The 2017 Top Programming Languages - <AUTHOR> http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-2017-top-programming-languages <comment><USER2> Never read anything in R.</comment>


Will Donald Trump Win? - <AUTHOR> http://willdonaldtrump.win <comment><USER2> Though interesting, because there is nothing for people to try out or play with, the site doesn't really meet the spirit of "Show HN" guidelines.

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

<comment><AUTHOR> Whoops, sorry, will remember this for future Show HN posts

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> So what's going on here? Something interesting or just copying and pasting poll results from somewhere?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's taking the odds from several sports books and converting the odds to what the probability is. [http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics/us- president...](http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics/us-presidential- election-2016/winner)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Any questions you have will be really useful for me to create an "about" page that explains what it's doing. The main purpose of this site is to give people an easy way of seeing who is actually expected to win the election. The site uses betting markets as it's source because that's a better indication of who is actually winning. Even though some polls show Trump has tied or even ahead of Clinton, Clinton is still a favorite over Trump.

</comment><comment><USER4> You might want to consider willhillaryclinton.win, as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> I just picked it up. Started with Trump because I figured people would be googling some form of "Is Donald Trump really going to become president?"</comment></comment>


Reddit is tearing itself apart - <AUTHOR> https://gizmodo.com/reddit-is-tearing-itself-apart-1789406294 <comment><USER2> I thought /r/the_donald and /r/enoughtrumpspam were going to have a proxy war in /r/the_meltdown but it just turned into a gloating ring for TD folks.

Then TD freaked out over /u/spez plus pizzagate getting shut down... man that whole area is just a giant shit-show these days.</comment>


Face detection with OS X and python - <AUTHOR> http://recursive-design.com/blog/2010/12/14/face-detection-with-osx-and-python/

<comment><USER2> For those developing on Debian based Linux, these are the steps:

1\. Install python-opencv package with apt-get/aptitude

2\. You can get the Haar cascades here - <http://alereimondo.no- ip.org/OpenCV/34>

3\. Run the same code, just make sure to use one of the cascades downloaded from step 2

Line 60: parser.add_option("-c", "--cascade", action="store", dest="cascade", type="str", help="Haar cascade file, default %default", default = "/usr/local/Cellar/opencv/2.2/share/opencv/haarcascades/haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml") Change default to the haar cascade file path, or use --cascade option to specify it.

4\. Execute

 __Edit: For non-Deb based distros __, use your package manager to download/install opencv for python (or compile it) and continue from step 2.

</comment><comment><USER3> FYI, there are OpenCV-based face detection nodes in ROS (Robot Operating System by Willow Garage) that publish the detected face positions using a stereo pair (which prunes false positives based on face depth/size estimates). Slightly modified to use one camera or a Kinect, and you would have a python consumer node that requires a mere 5 lines of Python code. ;-)

<http://www.ros.org/wiki/face_detector>

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks for the link, very interesting - stereo cameras would never have occurred to me, but obvious in hindsight. If i can get my hands on another camera I'll give it a shot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> does it call any other services? or is it all in the JS?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's a demo of python/opencv via the command line - it doesn't use JS or the web.</comment></comment>


Geoffrey Hill, 'one of the greatest English poets', dies aged 84 - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/01/geoffrey-hill-one-of-the-greatest-english-poets-dies-aged-84 <comment><USER2> Many of his wonderful poems are available here: [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and- poets/poems/detail...](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and- poets/poems/detail/48462)

<comment><USER3> Thanks for this. I had never read any of his poems, I'll have to do that now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I could have swore Varys would appear in later episodes...</comment>


The True Cost of Your Uber Ride Is Much Higher Than You Think - happy-go-lucky http://motherboard.vice.com/read/uber-true-cost-uh-oh <comment><AUTHOR> I haven't read through this latest, but I've been speculating that they are practicing some combination of eliminating competition and bridging to driverless vehicles.

Will the cash make it? Will regulation (or, lack thereof) remain favorable?

That's the gamble.

Personally, I view these "sharing" companies that work by making an end-run around under-funded regulation enforcement -- regulations built up more of than not (and there is also "not") for good reasons -- as parasites. No benefits, no ADA, apparently no policing the practice of discrimination, ...

We'll see.

</comment><comment><USER2> Wow, that's not good news for Uber. What's ironic is that where I live (Jordan) Uber is twice the price of normal taxis. It's more convenient obviously, especially if you don't speak Arabic well enough to explain where you're going, but it's damn expensive.

</comment><comment><USER3> See also:

[http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/11/can-uber-ever- deliver...](http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/11/can-uber-ever-deliver-part- one-understanding-ubers-bleak-operating-economics.html)

<comment><USER4> AND:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13079023](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13079023)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13076089](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13076089)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How many non-technical people want to learn how to code? - <AUTHOR>

I've had a bunch of people reach out to me on my blog about learning to code. Some come from different backgrounds like law enforcement or accounting. Others are non-technical founders.<p>So I'm curious how many people here want to learn how to code and why? What motivates (or demotivates) you? <comment><USER2> I do code. However, I will draw a parallel with Salsa dancing.

For anyone who has ever watched "Dancing With The Stars", actually dancing on a floor in a club, leading a woman is an incomparable experience. Especially if the woman likes your lead.

There in lies the rub.

If you're not a good dancer, the woman will not have a good experience. Talk about real-time feedback.

When you first start Salsa dancing, you suck. The only way to get better is to either a) go to a lot of lessons (ranging from the free lesson at a club to group lessons to $$ private lessons) b) practice at home c) go dancing.

And there will always be people who are better dancers than you because a) naturally talented b) dancing since they learned to walk c) extremely hard and dedicated d) athletes (good muscle memory). But the point here is - even if you're not the best dancer, just earning the right to be on the dance floor (always make the woman look good, always protect the woman (other woman can step on feet with their high heels), dance to the music) makes you part of a community.

Dancing is basically skills + confidence. And confidence goes a long long long way.

To anyone who wants to code, go for it! Don't let yourself stop you.

Start taking lessons (CodeAcademy, books), practice at home (e.g. build your own stuff), get on the floor (a.k.a. build stuff with other people, dive into hackathons). Eventually you will get the skills and confidence you need.

You might not be compensated at market rates for it (at first) but if you keep and going, you will eventually be paid for the value you produce.

<comment><AUTHOR> When you first start you'll get compensated market rates for the value you provide. You're a junior programmer so the quality of code is lower and you will take more time to deliver.

In the long run however, you won't be paid for the business value you provide. Many experienced developers who work on projects that increase sales by 10% get paid dirt compared to the amount of money the business makes from it.

<comment><USER2> Agreed. However at some point, the best programmers I know have all tried to build their own product - ownership (with varying degrees of success and failure).

Obligatory patio11 articles:

[http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a- pro...](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/)

<http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/>

<comment><AUTHOR> I hate to say it, but really good programmer doesn't make you a good business man. The best coders I know all have different results too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm currently finishing my last year in university and will be graduating next month with an economics major. It was only recently after thinking up a project that I thought would be awesome to build, did I even begin to get interested in coding but I can safely say I've found something that I truly enjoy and want to invest my time into learning.

My major sources of motivation are the hopes of making myself more marketable in terms of getting a job after university and the motivation of having a project that I want to see built

<comment><AUTHOR> For making yourself more marketable are you talking in terms of getting a job as a developer? It may take up to a year of learning how to code before you can answer useless programming interview questions. If you start as a freelance developer you only need to convince the client that you're able to deliver the project. They won't ask you any programming questions.

What's preventing you from learning how to code right now and building your project?

<comment><USER3> I suppose there's nothing really stopping me other than thinking the project might just be too big to even attempt right now.

I've been working through a few books as well as the standard online exercises and am now looking at a program like dev bootcamp or app academy to really accelerate the leraning process

<comment><AUTHOR> I have friends that have gone through some of the programs. Feel free to contact me if you want to get into the details - <http://blog.goodsense.io/contact/>

<comment><USER3> great thanks, messaged

<comment><USER3> Wouldn't that be a good place to start learning then? Without a community of people now to push me and work through problems with me, wouldn't a school of sorts be the perfect place to get those things?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'll be starting a business/startup soon, I'd like to know coding to deal with any website/app design needed.</comment>


Ask HN: Stream of News Headlines? - <AUTHOR> I'd like a daily feed of all the major global newspapers prominent headlines.  Does anyone know of any good sources to start compiling this data?  Besides independently scraping hundreds of sites ? <comment><USER2> Have a look at newsapi.org ;)

</comment><comment><USER3> many still have RSS feeds. or email newsletters.

<comment><USER4> I'm still using RSS live bookmarks as its my favorite form of feed reader - luckily, after switching from Firefox to Vivaldi Foxish live RSS extension provided the necessary feature.</comment></comment>


My GF and I just opened the Digital Nomad House in Malta on a tiny rocky island - <AUTHOR> https://digitalnomads-malta.com/ <comment><USER2> lol, what a ripoff. They claim they are "just covering costs" and the fee is more like a donation.. I just did 5 minutes of research and you can rent a nice 45 sq. m. 1-bedroom apartment on a daily basis, in a more central location of Malta, for 1/2 the price they are charging for a "single private bedroom". What a joke. Should call it what it is, a "hipster trust-fund kid house".

<comment><USER3> At 50% occupation, alleged 8 beds, and 28/bed=224/day (underestimating, as the single private beds are more expensive). 15days/month is €3360 per month, double that at full occupation. Those numbers might sound reasonable in the US, but in southern Spain that's about 3x the average income.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> ===> TL;DR: My Girlfriend and I opened the first "Digital Nomad House" in Malta, a tiny exotic island belonging to the EU, 150km north of Africa.

We can host up to 8 digital nomads, who can work, live, sleep and enjoy their "workation" in our Coworking-Coliving-Community-House in Malta. We are the perfect place for bloggers, coders, hippies or all other remote workers who just fast internet and a comfy desk to get into their zone. Plus the sun. Plus the beaches. Plus the peace of one of the smallest countries in the world.

Merħba? What's that? Maltese! It is the officially language, next to English, of Malta - one of the most exotic islands in Europe. Just 2 hours away from all major European airports via RyanAir, most people never ever heard of this country before, where everyone speaks English, living costs are low, internet is ultra-fast (fiber everywhere!). 8 month of Summer a year, average yearly temperature of 18°C. But what makes the Digital Nomad House unique is clearly the sense of family and friendship - this should be not another fancy soulless coworking space. #NoLatte #NoBikesOnTheWalls

So what's the idea: Coworking + Coliving + Community!

You will live in a charming Maltese house with spacious rooftops overlooking the whole island, where we are having BBQ's in the evening and enjoy the sun during the day! Whether you want to have your own private room (+ desk) or prefer to sleep in our dorm, we'll have you covered. If your brain shuts down after 8 hours of hacking / writing, just dive into the clear blue water and you feel refreshed for the next day.

Nevertheless, while spending more than one year on the island we couldn't find a place of retreat for digital workers. That's why we created the "Digital Nomad House" in Malta in order to establish it as a long term hotspot for digital nomads in Europe. Prices are fairly low, as we just try to cover our costs as a non-profit.

Insellimlek (this is Maltese, too!)! Paula and Daniel

<comment><USER4> Merħba? What's that?

Arabic loanword

<comment><USER5> I thought there was a gnat on my monitor. What is that thing on the "h"?

<comment><USER6> It's how Maltese represents the Arabic ح in the Latin alphabet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> [http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2017/03/08/519273713/...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo- way/2017/03/08/519273713/maltas-landmark-azure-window-rock-formation- collapses)

</comment><comment><USER8> IF I weren't already married and firmly attached to my current location, I would _love_ to be a Digital Nomad.

I think the idea is wonderful, and I'm sad that it came along too late for me to enjoy. Maybe after the kids are grown I'll try extended world tour vacations that include work and play...

</comment><comment><USER9> I moved to San Diego the day working from home could pay the rent. Haven't regretted it at all.

<comment><USER10> I've lived all over the world, including San Diego.

San Diego is what I miss the most. Yes, it is crazy-expensive to live there. Dollars well spent as far as I'm concerned. Some day I will return.

<comment><USER11> The traffic is at least twice as bad as you remember it. In other words, the San Diego you remember living in no longer exists. I'm talking hour long commutes to traverse 6 miles.

<comment><USER12> Is San Diego cyclist friendly? A ride would be about 1/2 that commute time!

<comment><USER10> The problem with bicycling in San Diego is geographic more than infrastructure. If you live and work in the same area, usually bicycling is fine. But the entire city and surrounding areas are segmented off by large mesas, hills, and mountains, with the connections between the areas mostly done by freeway or 50+ mph access roads. So if you live and work in Mira Mesa, fine. If you live and work in Clairemont, fine. But if you live in Clairemont and work in Mira Mesa, forget it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> When I was doing my 10 year work through Europe thing with my young family I think our favourite time was the 2 lots of 3 months I worked at Bank of Valletta. We lived in an apartment opposite the beach in Sliema.

The island was quiet, the people fantastic and the lifestyle amazing. Even the massive storms smashing the water over the road and ground floor apartments were incredible. We were also there when Etna went up, and had mounds of ash banked against our balcony door.

Although looking at that photo, it looks like there has been more than a little bit of development since were were there in the early 2000s. We left just as they agreed to join the Euro zone, so I suspect the lovely old buses and quaint roads may be gone.

Still, A+++, would live there again.

<comment><USER14> 2/3 of Malta's east coast is pretty much a continuous sprawl of villages that have evolved into your typical tourist traps, exactly like what you find everywhere else in the world, with main strips lined with junk stores that sell the exact same mass-produced souvenirs, and sports bars and McDonald's and clubs and big, loud hotel complexes. (Meanwhile, a lot of shady stuff going on in the background. Crackdowns on Italian mafia have seen a lot of organized crime set up their base of operations on Malta.)

If you venture outside of these areas, Malta is beautiful. For me, Gozo (the northern island) is where it's at. Quiet, authentic-feeling, adult, not a lot of tourism. All the best diving spots are there, too. I hope it stays that way and the big developments are constrained to the main island.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I don't get this. Is this a hostel/guest-house? What's with the "Digital Nomad" thing, what's special about it?

<comment><USER16> > I don't get this. Is this a hostel/guest-house? What's with the "Digital > Nomad" thing, what's special about it?

Hostels are for the poor students who want to see Europe. Digital Nomads are the traveling full stack developers building microservices out of the latest cool frameworks you read about on HN :P

It's the same as saying "here is a restaurant, lunch will be $7" or "here is a bistro, lunch will be $40".

<comment><USER4> But aren't digital nomads on the whole cheapskates, trying to arbitrage their big paychecks against low cost of living?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wish I could start something like this in Nicaragua, Panama or El Salvador (countries I know very well) but people are too concerned about safety.

<comment><USER18> Only in El Salvador! That's the one country, I will not go to. (I've been living in Mexico and Guatemala the last 2 years)

Panama City, is basically the US. Very modern, safe, and hell they even use the US dollar.

Nicaragua is ok and similar to Guatamala.

<comment><USER19> > Panama City, is basically the US. Very modern, safe, and hell they even use > the US dollar.

I've spent time in the US, Colombia and Panama City. 'safe' would not be the first word that springs to mind, neither would be very modern. Definitely doable but 'basically the US' is sugarcoating it to a degree that does not match my experience there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> My friends launched a similar thing in Sagres Portugal a while back with an emphasis on surfing if that's your thing!

[http://www.coworksurf.com](http://www.coworksurf.com) [shameless plug :-|]

<comment><USER21> Spent 3 winters in the Algarve, near Sagres, waves vary between epic and chop/slop depending on where you go.

Great thing about living on the tip of southern Portugal is that when it's onshore on the west coast, hop in the car and you get cross/offshore on the south coast and vice versa ;-)

Weather's of course great in the winter, tons of sun, dry and 16-20 degree daytime temps. Internet's decent enough, and housing can be quite cheap if you manage to avoid Airbnb (may it go down in flames). Rented a beautiful, modern apartment with 15 foot high ceilings for 500 euros per month.

<comment><USER20> Gah, makes me wonder why on Earth I'm escaping to rainy super expensive Japan...

<comment><USER21> Looking to do a far east trip starting later this spring. Have heard Japan is indeed expensive, but don't want to skip it -- life is short.

As for cheap, have been in Mexico this winter staying at a boat-only accessible village near Puerto Vallarta, $275 per month. Of course, since I've been here the power has gone out (for hours at a time), and the 4G connection is more like 3G+, which is better than the village internet that can't stay connected for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

Price of paradise I guess (dry, has rained once, no mosquitos here in a mountain river fed jungle on the Pacific).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Looks fantastic, I read it all so you'd have me sold if my current situation allowed me to nip down there!

But the reason I chime in is because I could not find an email address to just say that there's a typo here: "Finding a save haven with a fast and<snip>", save should probably be safe.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, just fixed the type and added the email address.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> The most important question is, of course, what's your Internet connection like? :-)

I think this is awesome. If this were one year ago (when I was newly single), I would've been on the first flight out to come visit for a month or so!

<comment><USER24> > 100 / 10 Mbit/s fiber internet

<comment><USER25> That doesn't answer jitter, reliability, packet loss... There's lots of less than stellar ISPs doing 100Mbps fiber with 1+0 everything and no UPS on any of their nodes.

I did a brief search for the top ten Maltese ASNs, and there are not a lot of routes in and out of there, and not much submarine fiber. This is to be expected with any small island nation, however.

<comment><USER26> > That doesn't answer jitter, reliability, packet loss...

But what answer does?

My question is sincere.

When I ask someone -- friend, coworker, ISP -- about internet quality, what's the answer I should be looking for? Always seems like a crapshoot to me.

<comment><USER25> It is indeed a crapshoot. I'm lucky enough to work in network engineering in an area where I can contact the tier-3 support for most of the local last mile ISPs if something has gone seriously wrong. But there is immense variation in residential internet quality even within the same company and AS. Some parts of the Comcast network are rock solid, others are shit. Same for many adsl2+, vdsl2 and docsis3 operators.

The other problem is that one person's perception of shit internet is very different from another's. Less than 0.1% of ordinary internet customers know how to use tools like smokeping and test to their own wholly controlled iperf server on a 10GbE connection.

<comment><USER27> > test to their own wholly controlled iperf server on a 10GbE connection.

Well, bouygues.testdebit.info, ping.online.net and speedtest.serverius.net are on 10 Gbps, and only test one peer at a time.

[https://iperf.fr/iperf-servers.php](https://iperf.fr/iperf-servers.php)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Talked to some Spanish girls two weeks ago that moved their office from Malta to Lisbon, because Malta was not exciting enough. Maybe it was because they were single ;-)

So on the positive side, Malta is a good place to get some real work done :-)

</comment><comment><USER29> Malta is beautiful. Best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER30> I'm seriously considering doing something like this in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

</comment><comment><USER31> typo here: "Daniel, kind of a coder for more than a decadem but dreams to be the next Elon Musk, wannabe"

<comment><USER32> Why is this downvoted? There is, indeed, a typo there.

EDIT: Alrighty then.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Seriously using the term GF? What are you 5 years old? Hey guys, I can't spell out the word girlfriend, and like to use GF instead.

<comment><USER34> HN titles have a limit of 80 characters.</comment></comment>


UCLA introductory programming classes should focus more on Python, not C++ - <AUTHOR> https://dailybruin.com/2018/02/28/mariah-furtek-ucla-introductory-programming-classes-should-focus-more-on-python-not-c/ <comment><USER2> I would like to point out before this discussion moves too far along that UCLA does in fact have an introductory programming course which is taught using Python: [http://web.cs.ucla.edu/classes/enroll/97/](http://web.cs.ucla.edu/classes/enroll/97/)

Students that are unfamiliar with programming are encouraged to take this course before the C++ course.

<comment><USER3> CS 97 is even mentioned in the article, but perhaps the C++ course is required for graduation, while 97 might not satisfy that requirement?

Unclear from afar...

<comment><USER4> piemonkey said that they're encourage to take the Python one first, meaning they still have to take the C++ course as well. The Python one is optional and intended for those who are having trouble jumping straight into C++.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I really like Lisp-based and multi-paradigm languages for teaching because you both want to span as much of CS as possible in a single language, and you eventually want to implement languages and compilers as part of the curriculum. The former requires multi-paradigm, the latter requires good metaprogramming and homoiconicity. You also want the ability to get low-level to talk about the assembly code (or LLVM IR), function pointers, and handling of memory allocations.

Python is good in the multi-paradigm sense but it abstracts too much away. C++ gets in the way of learning the higher level concepts. Scheme is great for teaching but not really used. I think Julia sits comfy in the middle and can be a great teaching language once its tooling evolves more. It's the only language I know of where some people are writing lazy functional code with metaprogramming, others are writing high-level scripting language vectorized code, while others are writing inline LLVM and controlling stack vs heap allocations, and it all makes sense. I wouldn't use it in a first programmer's course quite yet because the books and tooling need a little bit more, but in a few years I see it as a great option for a university to choose than can span multiple courses, from beginning programming all the way to the algorithms courses and HPC.

<comment><USER6> >you both want to span as much of CS as possible in a single language

Why? Teaching different languages for different kind of requirements make much more sense.

<comment><USER7> That would end up being too much to cover during the course.

Time spent getting a class to learn new syntax is unnecessary and takes a long time.

<comment><USER6> Learning syntax is not really that difficult.

On the other hand, a new language (ideally) teaches you a new way to think about problems. If you have a concrete problem to focus on, that part becomes much easier and intuitive.

<comment><USER7> No, it's not.

Keeping an entire class on the same page is.

Introducing a new side-topic would be detrimental to traditional lecture-based courses.

...not that they are a particularly good method in the first place.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> UCLA is one of the biggest users of CoCalc.com. They use CoCalc extensively to teach a course called "LS30: Mathematics for Life Sciences". Well over 1000 students a year in this course program in Python for hours every week (via SageMath Worksheets) in a lab and at home. The content is really beautiful, and teaches ideas from Calculus in a much more hands on and motivated way. Expanding Python education at UCLA would definitely help support the LS30 sequence.

(Disclaimer: I started SageMath and CoCalc.)

</comment><comment><USER9> It makes a lot of sense for non-CS students to be able to learn CS using Python.

For CS students, there's a good argument for starting with the fundamentals and adding abstractions later. It's not the only way to learn it, but if the CS department wants to start there for CS students, that's reasonable.

<comment><USER10> +1, back when I was considering attending the UC system the fact that Java was taught almost exclusively pretty much removed them from my list. We had UCSD students coming to my local community college to take the C course I was in since it wasn't being taught at UDSD. It always shocked me considering they had a pretty awesome super-computer lab.

Ironically I spend about 90% of my time in Java code. That said understanding the fundamentals is super-valuable when root-causing JNI issues or trying to speed up the VM in cases where normal Java approaches don't cut it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Who is the author that makes them an authority on this? I couldn't find much, but it looks like they are just a student or journalist that writes opinion pieces. Shouldn't the professors designing the courses have much more say than someone that does not appear to be an expert?

<comment><USER12> It's an opinion piece in the student newspaper. So it's just a student saying "this is how I feel".

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> In my opinion C++ and C are rather good choices for a first language. There is significantly less 'magic' going on behind the scenes and the language design choices generally have sane explanations.

For example, the standard library does not have access to language features hidden from users.

</comment><comment><USER13> A CS education, for better or worse (in my opinion - for the better), is grounded in theory and foundational knowledge. Introductory CS classes are designed to ease people into programming, yes, but also to give a taste for concepts that they'll eventually have to become very comfortable with later on.

I don't think Python is a bad first language to learn, but I think that it's important to consider the audience of these introductory CS classes. These classes aren't really designed JUST to teach you programming (I say this as a person who never coded before CS31). This is why the UCLA Computer Science faculty recently introduced CS97, which is actually an introductory programming course taught in Python for absolute beginners. That way those who are already comfortable with coding can ease themselves into learning about lower-level implementation they may not have been exposed to before, and absolute beginners can supplement their introductory _Computer Science_ class with an introductory programing class as well.

</comment><comment><USER14> What UCLA is doing, as well as most universities is the difference between a university and a trade school. these courses do, and should focus on the fundamentals. University is teaching the theory, and having a fundamental understanding. Otherwise there are ample trade schools and code camps, that will skip the fundamentals, and teach you the basics of programming tailored to the current job markets needs.

As for the argument that C++ isn't good learning language, I beg to differ, it gets you very close to the meat of how programming works, without the layers of abstraction that higher languages offer. C++ requires that you understand memory, its allocation, and allows you easily to see how it interacts.

</comment><comment><USER15> CS50, the intro CS course at Harvard, which is notably a large and successful MOOC in addition, is taught in C. It's a really bizarre choice, and only serves to add complexity to a topic that already has a fairly high cognitive barrier to entry.

<comment><USER16> As opposed to jumping into C++ in all its OO glory?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think fundamentals of programming should be more emphasized not the language itself.

<comment><USER18> This is all that CS has ever been, and is the reason they're teaching in C++ in the first place (it's a low-level language good for learning fundamentals), which is fine. But a huge part of CS students graduate without knowing how to code in languages that are reflected in the jobs they are trying to get, which are mostly python, javascript, and java. If you think the industry is fine, great, but if you agree with those that think CS degrees should emphasize job skills a little bit, then teaching courses in Python is a good move.

<comment><USER16> well that is not a Universities Job is it

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I hate python. It's an awful language and should be burned with fire. And yet its my go-to language when I just need to handle some small problem. It's so bad, and I use it anyway because it gets the job done. I never use C++ any more. (well, I used C once last year to create a brute force DNA search algorithm that was 30x faster than our previous implementation, but that kinda proves my point). fuck, i learned to program in BASIC.

I was gonna say "maybe Node", but there are a lot of python libraries that benefit academics.

But it sounds like the course we're talking about here is for actual CS majors, in which case, UCLA, are you fucking mental? Python?

I think the issue here, though, is that C++ is fucking garbage now. It's utterly horrible to use, bloated in all the wrong places while utterly non- existent in places that would make day-to-day use of the language viable. Last year I used C (not C++) to get the job done. You'd have to be insane to build a large scale product in C++, and in the places you really need performance, C or assembly is better.

I think UCLA is correct to drop C++. But teach C instead, not python.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm quite surprised they are still using c++. I thought most schools switched to java by or in the first half of the oughts.

<comment><USER21> What does it even mean for a school to 'switch' languages? When I did my bachelors it was straight up a new language in each class, at the discretion of the prof in charge. Intro class homework was in Java, data structures was in C++, operating systems was in C, digital logic design was in Verilog, bioinformatics was in Python, ...

<comment><USER22> I'm not sure if it was an official policy or not, but at my school, all of the core classes were in Java. Other classes used other languages where appropriate, and "core classes" is not synonymous with "degree requirements"; you had to take classes that used not-Java. But Java was considered the default.

Professors don't like having to waste time in their classes teaching a language, so there's a strong pull to unify as much as possible, so you can be 100% sure that your students have some form of knowledge before they get into your class.

So, the "switch" would be changing that big block of core, required classes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> When I was in high school C++ was taught as an intermediate language to sophomores. Most everyone in the class had no issues learning the language. We were all making our own versions of frogger in the terminal.

There was plenty of focus on problem solving and developing interesting programs. The language didn't get in the way at all.

One thing we had that seems lost today is the nice, simple programming environment with Borland Turbo C++. These days I suppose people use Visual Studio but can kids really go home and get up and running quickly? Embarcadero exists but the license is prohibitive. Perhaps if there was some way to get them working in a unix environment--which is what they'll end up in anyway-- but teachers would be right to balk at the idea of teaching a new OS...

<comment><USER24> C++ was a much simpler language back in the Turbo C++ days (early 1990s). If I recall, there were no namespaces, exceptions, or templates (and no STL). It was much easier to get started with back then.

<comment><USER25> I graduated recently and we were taught C first and then C++ of OO concepts. I don't think anybody had issues learning OO concepts this way though most of what we learnt went out of the window when we started learning Data Structures and Algorithms in Java. It seemed a lot easier and a lot more could get done in the same amount of time spent on C/C++.

But I still had a fascination with C. I tried to do a few networking projects using C which turned out to be more tiring than expected thus abandoning the whole project. I think if we would have stuck with C/C++ all the way through the Algorithm's class it would have been much more helpful. Java/Python is way too easy to pickup later on your own and reproduce the same results that one would in C/C++.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I don't know if I should feel good about this. I graduated from UMich back in 2015, and we tend to do a lot of the core CS courses in C++. After working full time for ~2 years, learning to code on a lower level helped me understand computers better and write better code.

There are kids around my age group who don't do as much C/C++ and dislike it because of the "pointer" concepts. They find them hard, but these guys also don't know other CS concepts like how a GC works or pass by value vs. pass by reference.

Our professors have good reasoning for why the school does this: "By teaching you everything in C++ first, you'll find it much easier to pick up any other programming language".

<comment><USER27> Python is probably as effective as C++ for preparing students for more challenging CS classes in other languages [0]

[0] [https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1734437](https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1734437)

<comment><USER28> Thanks a lot for this reference. Do you happen to know of any other research in this area? I'm looking for academic work on the topic myself and not finding as much as I'd hoped for.

<comment><USER27> Any other research about languages in CS1 or about CS1 generally?

An easy way to find a bunch: [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C48&q=lan...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C48&q=languages+in+CS1) ;)

On another note, SIGCSE just ended so you can find all the latest and greatest here: [https://sigcse2018.sigcse.org/index.html](https://sigcse2018.sigcse.org/index.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> _on lower-level implementation details related to how machines interpret code – knowledge that non-computer science students are unlikely to use after they graduate._

Yeah, the world really needs a load more developers with no idea how computers work. We don't see any of those in interviews already.

<comment><USER30> We definitely need more developers who can't leverage more than 10% of the CPU's actual power.</sarcasm>

Its literally impossible to have any clue about performance without understanding the hardware. Sure you can profile and gain 5-10% after micro- optimizing what the profiler tells you.

But you will never, ever get the 200-1000% performance gains you can only get by accounting for the hardware at the very architecture level, something you can't fix by just profiling later on.

What even is the point of having programming classes if alls they do is teach what you can learn yourself with an online tutorial?

<comment><USER31> I don't see what any of this has to do with C++, especially modern C++.

The _only_ "low-level" detail from lower level systems course I find that is still relevant on a daily basis is cache-alignment - which I doubt they would cover in a 101 course anyways. Almost everything else either 1. the compiler does better or 2. you'd have to know how to fight the compiler to achieve.

Anything that would let you achieve 200-1000% performance gains in Python vs C++ (besides, again cache alignment) is likely not something you would cover in a intro level course. (I know C++ is faster Python, but that has nothing to do with "accounting for the hardware at the very architecture level")

<comment><USER32> SIMD. As you say, "you have to fight (or escape to assembly) the compiler to achieve" SIMD, even in C++. But in C++, you can correctly align the memory in preparation. In Python? Not so much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Whoa... (UCLA c/o 2010, Bioengineering) UCLA used to use C# in the PIC10A series. I didn't take too many classes in these series, but did audit some while I was deciding as a non-CS major how technical to become. Personally, I think it's fine for the Math Department to use Python - there's plenty of opportunities to do the lower level stuff or unmanaged stuff in other classes at UCLA.

For CS/CSE and engineering majors we take the CS31 (intro to CS)/32 (data structures and algorithms)/33 (operating systems) series - these primarily use C++ (if not C, assembly, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER34> Here's a 2014 study of top 39 US CS programs on what language they user for their intro courses. More than half use Python, followed by Java.

[https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/176450-python-is-now- th...](https://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/176450-python-is-now-the-most- popular-introductory-teaching-language-at-top-u-s-universities/fulltext)

</comment><comment><USER35> I think I agree with this article (even if some of its argument is bogus). The other thing that all programming classes should teach, regardless of whether they're for CS majors or not is how to debug using a modern (i.e. not command- line-based) debugger. It's insane that programming is being taught anywhere without teaching debugging at all, or teaching only very hard-to-use debuggers.

</comment><comment><USER36> I majored in EE at UT Austin around 2000, and our intro programming class was C++. I doubt there was a good rationale for it other than to cause rapid attrition of EE majors. I never again used C++ in my studies or professionally. Learning C would have been much more helpful for my later embedded systems classes.

</comment><comment><USER37> UCLA is teaching computer science, not programming. To fully understand and appreciate the intricacies of modern computers you cant just ignore the fundamentals because they are too rudimentary. Just ask Tim Duncan about the importance of fundamentals.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Guido van Rossum's tweet: [https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/969443110735331328](https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/969443110735331328)

<comment><USER38> Maybe it's "enough" for Guido...

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Give students a choice. Let them do their own research and figure out what is best for them and offer more than one option for an intro to programming class.

</comment><comment><USER40> Computer courses are no different than any other course. What's the first semester requirement for math? You can graduate high school without taking advanced mathematics, it doesn't mean you're prepared for college-level math in the CS field.

Similarly, most high schools offer introductory programming courses. I would expect almost every CS major to have taken these classes prior to being admitted to the major.

If you didn't take those courses in high school, there are avenues to acquire that knowledge before taking the CS required courses.

</comment><comment><USER41> I beleive UCI switched to using Python for most CS courses. Previously they were using Java and I'm sure C++ prior to that.

</comment><comment><USER37> You can build anything with C++ and Javascript. And now with web assembly, C++ can literally do it all.

</comment><comment><USER42> Can't wait for the driving lessons in a self-driving car

</comment><comment><USER43> I think pascal gets you the best of both worlds.

</comment><comment><USER44> There is a lot that is factually wrong with this article. Python is not easier because it is an interpreted language. C++ is interpreted too. In fact, python does compile, hence the pyc files. I could go on like this for a while but the point is, the author doesn't know what he or she is talking about. That doesn't mean python shouldn't be used, but that this article fails to make the argument.

<comment><USER45> C++ is interpreted?</comment></comment>


MyKickback – Fedex and UPS automated refunds - <AUTHOR> https://mykickback.com/

<comment><USER2> About 10 years ago, I dated a woman who worked at a distillery, and they were looking for some software to automate the labeling and shipping process for their bottle and label samples. FedEx just released their API, so, I wrote them a little web based program that generated the label, and then automatically identified which packages were delivered outside of the delivery window so that they could be submitted for refund.

While FedEx had no problem refunding the shipping for the packages that were delivered outside of the window, they raised the distillery's rates dramatically (over 100%) over the next few months. At the time, UPS nor USPS would accept packages from a distillery (regardless of if they were shipping spirits or not), so, I turned off the functionality that sent the 'out of window' reports, and a few months later, the distillery's rates went back down to normal.

Would I use this today? Not at all -- FedEx is really on top of areas where they're going to be delivering late and if you have a package or packages going to that area, they're preemptively sending you "Service Alerts" letting you know that they're using the weather or other clauses from their terms of service to not honor the guarantee. I haven't shipped UPS in years due to them not wanting to pay on a warranty claim, but my guess is that UPS is probably also doing the similar type of things to their customers as well.

<comment><USER3> > but my guess is that UPS is probably also doing the similar type of things > to their customers as well.

This isn't possible with UPS. They publish their regular rates. If you're a large enough shipper, you'll have a contract that explicitly defines your rates and discount.

This kind of thing is mostly useless for UPS. First, they notify you when they screw up. Second, they screw up maybe 1 out of a 1000 packages in my experience. That's a small enough number that it's absolutely worthless for a business to pursue. You're better off aggressively negotiating your rates.

<comment><USER4> _Second, they screw up maybe 1 out of a 1000 packages in my experience._

I have years of data at my disposal. It's more like 2-5 packages out of 100. :-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 100% is an extraordinarily misleading claim for you to make (and isn't in the title, so the title here should be edited, probably.)

From the FAQ: > Q. How much does it cost? A. It's FREE! The service has no cost to join or monthly fees. We don't get paid unless you do! The percentage we take is agreed upon at the time of registration and will never exceed 50%.

"We take 50% of your refund" =/= "It's FREE!" either. Sorry, the current messaging leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. There's nothing wrong with saying "We just take some of the found money".

<comment><AUTHOR> Noted and corrected (also not my site but I did sign up).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Really helpful time-saver. Not sure if the company name fits. I saw the same idea for plane tickets and trains.

<comment><USER7> Have to agree - the name isn't great. When I hear 'kickback', I think corruption, not a legit business revenue stream.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I wonder how they compare to existing services, like Veriship, which has pretty much the same messaging, and payment model? That is, how does MyKickback differentiate its self from existing audit services?

<comment><USER9> Do customer need to hand over their UPS/FedEx authentication and account details to the audit service, i.e. is the audit service acting as an agent? Why don't the shipping companies block such services from their API, e.g. eBay blocked many 3rd-party companies when the auction industry was starting.

<comment><USER4> _Do customer need to hand over their UPS /FedEx authentication and account details to the audit service..?_

Yes. It's not cost effective if you can't scale with automation.

 _Why don 't the shipping companies block such services from their API_

UPS and Fedex depend on the guarantees. I believe the negative backlash to block companies enforcing those guarantees would cost more than the money they'd save.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> My dad has used [https://www.71lbs.com/](https://www.71lbs.com/) and it's worked out great. Literally free money for his wholesale shipping business.

<comment><USER4> 71lbs has received a lot of press, and have some real experience in their leadership. However, they're relatively new, and their reporting is lacking. (Full disclosure: I'm the Director of Technology with Refund Retriever)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> That fonttype is a pain to read, esp. with those background colours.

</comment><comment><USER4> Keep in mind that there are much older companies in this space. I'm the Director of Technology at Refund Retriever: we've been doing this since 2006.

</comment><comment><USER12> this is a billion dollar industry

<comment><USER13> I'm doubtful that it's a billion dollar industry. As a prior commenter noted, shippers will likely raise rates to compensate (particularly when you're a large shipper, rates tend to be negotiated anyway), or adjust policies to make refunds scarcer.

It may be a clever hack for a few early adopters, but is likely to be somewhat self-defeating if/as it grows. (Though in fairness, "shipment auditing" is a much bigger and more interesting play than refund harvesting specifically).

<comment><USER4> _It may be a clever hack for a few early adopters_

There's a number of companies like Refund Retriever (disclosure: I'm the Director of Technology) that have been doing this since 2006.</comment></comment></comment>


Competition - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/05/competition.html <comment><USER2> He raises a good point. I think there is a lot of internal friction that keeps bloggers form posting about competitors sometimes, but there really shouldn't be any fear of it.</comment>


Western internet censorship: The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? - <AUTHOR> http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Western_internet_censorship:_The_beginning_of_the_end_or_the_end_of_the_beginning%3F <comment><USER3> I'm not sure if blocking a specific URL is the solution... it seems trivial to mirror content on the internet, and so any attempt to block specific content can't be accomplished via black-listing specific URL's... but even if real filtering of data were technologically feasible, it's completely defeated by end-to-end encryption like SSL, which could easily become standard if ISP's start inspecting your packets for "black-listed material".

So moral issues aside, this is a huge waste of effort no matter which way you turn it.

<comment><USER4> Good luck mirroring youtube, or all of the thousands of pages on the list. And you're out of luck if mirroring defeats the purpose of your site (eg gambling sites & that dentist site).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This just sounds to me like the next step in a game of cat-and-mouse. What innovative technology can we geeks develop to circumvent these censorship systems?

<comment><USER6> We don't have to innovate anything, we already have VPNs. As long as the content exists on the Internet, one can asume that you will be able to access it from somewhere so the only action you need to take is route your traffic to that place before accessing the content.

With Tor it is so easy to go around these things that you install a program and push a button to have your trafic bypass any and all national filters, if only more people dared to put up servers so Tor wasn't so extremely slow.

<comment><USER7> > You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem

\- Edward's law

The problem, I think, is precisely the one you highlight:

> If only more people dared to put up servers

"Society" can make it so that it's "dangerous" (for given values) and, more importantly, uninteresting (for the masses) to use the new tech, and thus it remains a non-solved problem, which could herald a bleaker future.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> To the best of my knowledge I am not behind some censoring scheme, here in the UK my ISP is very liberal (did not block Wikipedia in the child pornography scandal) however I am unable to access wikileaks.org or mirrors they all time- out. I am slightly worried by this... please tell me wikileaks.org is down?

<comment><USER9> <http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/wikileaks.org>

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Well, without wanting to throw myself into sarcasm, because my english skills won't be good enough, i found that really scary to say the least. Maybe someone can provide us some historical background about censorship ?

One side of me feels like, it seems OBVIOUS that this kind of things (censorship) have been going on since a very long time, and that we may not be living the worse moment of human history concerning that matter.

But on the other hand, i can't help but feel like the power to punish people trying to circumvent censorship has never been so great and ubiquitous.

</comment><comment><USER11> It's really ironic that Wikileaks.org is down...

<comment><USER12> It wasn't down for me. You are sure you aren't behind some censorship system.

<comment><USER13> It's a sickening feeling that we ever have to consider this possibility.

I'm in Australia. I tried to look at wikileaks last night, it was "down" - <USER2> first thing that came to mind was being blocked. It was only after I asked some overseas friends on IM that I knew it was actually _down_ down.

It's just like a free trip to China! I loved playing the "will this web site load" game there too - now I can play it at home!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> More like the beginning of the beginning.</comment>


20 Tips you need to learn to become a better PHP Programmer - <AUTHOR> http://www.webgeekly.com/tutorials/php/20-tips-you-need-to-learn-to-become-a-better-php-programmer/ <comment><USER2> Hokay...

1) "Use <?php and ?>"

This is silly advice. You can modify short_open_tag in the .htaccess for your site, and failing that, you can modify it at the head of your script with ini_set(). Sticking steadfastly to this advice leads to monstrosities like:

        Some <?php echo $variable ?> here.

Instead of the more svelte and readable:

        Some <?=$variable?> here.

2) That semi-hungarian system he recommends is pure nonsense, especially considering that PHP is dynamically typed. If you're going to use variable prefixes for hints, they should provide information about the MEANING of the variables, not the types. Things like:

\- $idx_dogs // An index into the $dogs array \- $cnt_dogs // A count of dogs \- $conn_testing // A connection to the testing database

3) Start your boolean as whatever value makes your code cleaner. If starting your boolean as false means you have to add dozens of extra lines of code, _don't do it_. Never just slavishly follow "good advice" when it makes for bad code.

4) ACK! In that same booleans rule, he commits the cardinal sin of an if with out {}s. NEVER DO THIS. Some joker will come by after you and turn:

        if ($i == 2)
            $result = true;

Into:

        if ($i == 2)
    	    $cnt_dogs = 2;
    		$result = true;

And totally screw things up. Even if it's on one line, you are asking for trouble. Be explicit with your {}s.

5) In development, run PHP with explicit warnings on. Then things like:

        $name = $names[marc];

Won't ever "magically" work - you'll get a big warning that PHP is converting marc to "marc" on you, and you can go in and clean that up.

6) Commas vs. periods? Test it yourself. Under different circumstances, different ones are faster. See here: <http://www.phpbench.com/>

7) Ternary operators ARE pretty sweet, yeah.

8) Why create a variable dump function when you can use FirePHP? <http://www.firephp.org/HQ/Use.html>

9) If your function has over 20 parameters, you are probably doing something WRONG. The solution is not just to move to objects, the solution is to take the time and figure out why your functions are so freaking unweildy.

10) Method chaining - like ternary operators - are awesome and should be used more oftion.

Apologies for the book, but so many PHP "tips" are so very misguided.

</comment><comment><USER3> Although a good article, this is mostly from being a amateur PHP programmer (less then a year) to a middle weight.

<comment><USER4> if you find an article on becoming an advanced PHP programmer, please let me know.

<comment><USER2> That is actually an idea worth pursuing. Hm. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Give your variables meaningful names" is good. But attaching a remedial Hungarian notation-style type indicating letter to the front of the variable name is not. Especially in a dynamically typed language!

</comment><comment><USER6> Holy. Shit.

I hope I never work with someone that _needs_ this article.

</comment><comment><USER7> 1\. Forget PHP</comment>


Why Every Startup Should Pair Program - <AUTHOR> http://firstround.com/article/Why-Every-Startup-Should-Pair-Program <comment><USER2> "Software development is really about people and is a social activity." That's news to me. I thought software development was long periods of quiet concentration while attempting to keep a program in one's head.

</comment><comment><USER3> _> Machines should be communal_

How do I configure things sufficiently? Color schemes, hotkeys, layouts, UI configurations, etc. I have about 40 hotkeys via an AutoHotkey script and innumerable changes to my OS that make me more productive. When I sit at somebody else's computer I feel like I'm swimming through molasses. How is this resolved?

Also, what if you have a few coworkers with severe attitude and/or competency issues? I can't imagine pair programming would be an improvement from simply avoiding them.

<comment><USER4> To the first, these things tend to spread throughout the team over time, so by the end everybody will be using those 40 hotkeys if they're indeed helpful. If some people like them and others don't, they'll figure out how to resolve the difference with the least possible amount of fuss. With regard to color schemes, I've never seen a dispute over those, personally. People may come to the table with different preferences, but over time those also resolve one way or another.

In my experience, severe competency issues are actually /better/ dealt with via pair programming than the alternative: pairing forces their competency issues to the surface, and can be dealt with more easily. Personality conflicts can be worked through, or the team can be changed up. When things like that don't work out, the worst thing you can do is make too big a deal out of it...reconfigure the team one way or another and move on.

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the honest reply. I really appreciate it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just that picture of their office alone would put me off from ever working there. The level of distractions must be horrible.

<comment><USER6> I've worked there for 5 years. The office does seem loud when walking through it, but not once have I felt that the noise interrupted me.

Now, that may not be true for everyone, but we hire new people all the time, and I've never heard anyone raise it as a complaint (although I have seen many comments like yours over the years from people who have seen pictures of our office).

A big reason why I think people don't get distracted is the pairing. Pairs do a good job of keeping each other focused.

<comment><USER2> From your site "As developers, we generally like to work across Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, iOS & Android" Pair programming probably works when you are hooking things up with glue code for the most part, that's my best guess. That's the only case where I could see it working for me and it would probably be kind of fun and interesting. I can't imagine doing anything that required a lot of sustained concentration however, unless your engineers are doing that when they get home from work and find some quiet time (probably.)</comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft epic fails and own goals 2013 - <AUTHOR> http://greatdox.com/wordpress1/2013/09/14/microsoft-epic-fails-and-own-goals-2013/

<comment><USER2> The tone of the article is a pretty negative. Perhaps you could end with some suggestions of your own for Microsoft's way forward.

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought I did, fix the bugs and improve the quality control process. Sorry for the negativness, I am new to blogging.

Most Microsoft products have no visual clues in the Metro UI, and it puts off the users. Microsoft needs to add visual clues to the Metro UI so people can find that 'Charms Bar' and other stuff.</comment></comment>


Effects of a glyphosate-based herbicide on soil ecosystem - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-44988-5 <comment><USER2> So the only way they evaluated Roundup was when they also used a hoe? Which they also proved was just as detrimental of a process to the underlying micro- organisms? Why not use roundup alone? I feel like this was written solely to argue "roundup is no more detrimental to soil health than conventional hoeing practices."

<comment><USER3> Is there anything wrong with arguing that, with evidence?

I don't know why the study was done the way it was, and a follow up should certainly look at roundup alone, I don't think that invalidates this study though.

<comment><USER2> Not at all. We should all be free to pursue whatever interests us. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > In our study, we focused on the trophic groups of soil micro and mesofauna > rather than on their taxonomy.

hum, mumble, mumble... You need some taxonomy to be able to find trophic groups. Nematoda taxonomy in particular can be hard but similar species can be in different trophic levels.

No data available about species of animals or species of weeds in the area when this is basical to understand allelopathy (and allelopathy is basical to explain why some animals could be fleeing the area or be atracted to it).

Strange numbers of predators in some months with relatively low numbers of preys...

I couldn't find also a clear explanation of what is in each trophic group

This elicit more questions than answers to me...

</comment><comment><USER5> An interesting outcome.

Kudos to the authors for publishing a (kind of) null result, especially one that goes against the grain of popular thinking.

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure if those goes against popular thinking. It only looked at one small part of the ecosystem (i.e., what's in the soil). In that one small part they may have found a null result, as you call it.

I would be curious to see something that aggregated the research of the different parts of the ecosystem to look at a more holistic impact.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Glyphosate is not just used for weeding. It is used in much larger quantities to dry plant stems before harvest.

<comment><USER8> For those interested in this topic, it's called desiccation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> _" We found that killing plants by hoeing had drastic effects on soil fauna and functioning, and apparently, distinguishing these effects from direct glyphosate effects is profoundly important when evaluating glyphosate risks in soils. In contrast, the effects of Roundup on soil fauna and functioning were minor and transient and no glyphosate remains were found in the soil at the end of the experiment. These results suggest that side-effects can be minor and glyphosate degradation effective also in soil under northern climatic conditions."_

This is over a 2 year period. I'm curious if this continues to occur after 5 or 10.

<comment><USER10> Surely the scientists have something better[0] to do than spend a few man0-decades chasing a null result. Research resources, like anything, are limited. From a Bayes' POV, the prior of finding glycophosphate in soil after 5-10 years is now much lower after the initial results.

[0] Like research the effects of a pesticide that they haven't just found to 'effectively degrade in soil'

<comment><USER11> The Bayes prior was already low since Glyphosate was already well known to degrade quickly in soil.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> If only it wasn't a likely human carcinogen ([https://www.iarc.fr/featured- news/media-centre-iarc-news-gly...](https://www.iarc.fr/featured-news/media- centre-iarc-news-glyphosate/))

<comment><USER13> Speaking as a biologist, the IARC made a huge bungle here deciding policy on incredibly limited data.

<comment><USER12> I'm also a biologist and I believe IARC was right based upon the available evidence.

<comment><USER13> based on the sprague-dewaley "cancer rats" experiments? Those aren't sufficient evidence.

Why they are called "cancer rats":

[https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/33/11/2768...](https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/canres/33/11/2768.full.pdf)

<comment><USER12> There were 269 cited studies, they reviewed literally all the relevant literature on glyphosate in the public domain. So your attempt to dismiss IARC's work seems to be less motivated by the evidence and likely more motivated by ideology.

<comment><USER14> If you care for an in-depth back and forth between the IARC and the ESFA, I can recommend this[1] collection of letters between the head of the ESFA and the head of the IARC at the time. If you are interested in the particular scientific criticisms of the IARC Monograph by the ESFA you can read this amazing letter[2], which is also in the collection mentioned above.

It's in the annex of that document. It's a very good read.

\</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment>

[1]: [http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/160113](http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/160113)

[2]: [http://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EFSA_response_...](http://www.efsa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/EFSA_response_Prof_Portier.pdf)

<comment><USER12> Great exchange, thanks for the link. Doesn't necessarily shine the best light on ESFA eh?

Any idea if that bilateral meeting between IARC and ESFA ever happened? Doesn't look like they put up the minutes like they suggested they would, which leads me to believe it never happened. Maybe IARC felt like ESFA never did the corrections requested and the meeting fell through. Either way, that exchange is a beautiful illustration of scientists respectfully getting frosty with eachother.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> They used glyphosate based herbicide, but report only detection of glyphosate and AMPA, and not other ingredients that some people claim are the main problem with Roundup.

</comment><comment><USER16> > killing plants by hoeing had drastic effects on soil fauna and > functioning...In contrast, the effects of Roundup on soil fauna and > functioning were minor and transient

Not 100% sure what this "hoeing" is, but we need to ban it now before it destroys the planet.

<comment><USER4> Chopping roots and undigging plants with a hoe: AKA agriculture

<comment><USER17> More generally, mechanical manipulation of the soil. I learned at a recent Rutgers University seminar that overworking of soil is surprisingly hazardous to its health.

<comment><USER18> Soil is more akin to a living tissue than a mineral substrate.

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

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

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

[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/wood-wide- web.html](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/wood-wide-web.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Fixing the Fibonacci sequence inside Pascal's triangle in a couniverse - <AUTHOR> https://siddhanathan.github.io/blog/posts/2017-01-28-fibonacci-pascal.html <comment><USER2> This concept is fascinating to me, but I've never used Haskell and was lost about halfway through. Would love to see a simpler approach to explaining the mechanics of how this works.</comment>


A $10 USB charger that steals MS keyboard strokes - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/meet-keysweeper-the-10-usb-charger-that-steals-ms-keyboard-strokes/

<comment><USER2> A previous discussion regarding samy.pl/keysweeper/ can be found here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8874620](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8874620)

</comment><comment><USER3> _" The keyboard Kamkar tested for his research was a brand new model purchased two weeks ago from a Best Buy store"_

Also, Microsoft's statement:

 _" In addition, users of our 2.4GHz wireless keyboard designs from July 2011 onwards are also protected"_

If both are true, that gives an interesting insight into Best Buy's inventory management. I bet those keyboards have a lot of margin, but tying up your capital in a keyboard for over 3 years? They should be able to do better (at least, I would expect they do better for smartphones and the like)

Of course, this is one data point. Does anybody know whether this is normal in electronics stores for this kind of hardware?</comment>


Show HN: Detect when VIPs (investors, journalists, etc) sign up for your product - <AUTHOR> https://www.viphawk.com/ <comment><USER2> Congratulations on your launch.

Would love to see screenshots and a more to the point technical description of the methodology used.

What's your edge? If you have some database of notable domains, aliases used by investors and celebrities when testing, etc - highlight that competitive advantage.

My traditional approach for recognizing new customers is a live websocket dashboard of signups that everyone sees in the office: email, free or paid, minutes on site.

Goal: finding first 100 people who love the product, celebrity or not.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback!

 _If you have some database of notable domains, aliases used by investors and celebrities when testing, etc - highlight that competitive advantage._

That's exactly what we have - if that isn't coming through via the landing page, we should probably focus more on it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Congrats on launching.

The front page feels pretty cluttered with stuff like the code snippet acting as a link to the payment page(?).

I think a monthly billing strategy is not beneficial. If I'm an early startup, I'm probably struggling to get signups in the first place, let alone VIPs.

What about one-shot mass uploads? I only need you to check the data once and (unless your VIP db updates) the data I get back is settled once and for all. Could easily lead companies to pay you $19 to upload 10'000 emails and then cancel their account.

Your market seems to be businesses who do many low-touch sales.

Other than that, it's an interesting idea and I'm curious about seeing it in action.

</comment><comment><USER4> If I'm a true journalist, would I use my true primary email when signing up for a product I'm reviewing?

      Ready to get started? Upload your existing email list

Well, it's a good way to harvest emails, anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great point. Our DB actually does include quite a few of these "hidden" gmails that some VIPs use - we're getting better at that - but FWIW the vast majority of VIPs aren't using those.

Re your harvesting comment, we don't even keep a _temporary_ copy of the CSV you upload, for privacy reasons - it's all handled on the frontend. Clearly, customer trust is paramount for a business like ours :)</comment></comment>


Bitcoins featured in Forbes - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0509/technology-psilocybin-bitcoins-gavin-andresen-crypto-currency.html

<comment><USER2> Bitcoin is a fascinating model of how to run a distributed, internet based boiler room. Unregulated + ultra thin market + appeals to inexperienced investors == pump and dump dream.

<http://www.bitcoincharts.com/charts/bcLRUSD#permalinkbox>

April 7th: 0.60 BTC/LRUSD

April 22nd: 1.37 BTC/LRUSD

Goooood luck getting out on the right side of this trade...

<comment><USER3> Can we also consider the possibility that Bitcoins are precisely what they claim to be - A decentralized crypto currency?

I think the real story become more clear as the Vendor Infrastructure continues to grow.

<comment><USER2> If the touts actually wanted the currency to be used for commerce your focus would be on stability - clearly you won't have any kind of substantial trade in BTC (for actual objects or other items that aren't just currency pair trades) until the value can be predicted over short/medium time frames. The amount of hype, hype, hype that goes on by submitting these endless articles to places like HN, slashdot and I'm sure plenty of other places and soliciting articles like this one in forbes makes it very clear what the community intentions are: speculation.

You may personally not be involved in that, or not understand that's what you're doing. But it's very clear that the market is being run by those that are.

<comment><USER4> I think you are wrong, thinking that exchanges are unimportant part of attracting traders. To attract sellers, bitcoin market needs high volume trades on exchanges (because currently most costs for sellers are in USD and they need to hedge that costs on exchange).

Spreading awareness is the most right thing to achieve this.

<comment><USER2> In one post you're predicting/hyping $5-$10 BTC/USD and in another you're discussing what should happen to encourage commerce? Is it a case of you not realizing how diametrically opposed those two goals are, or simply one where you assume readers won't note the contradiction?

<comment><USER4> I don't see the contradiction.

Let's say you are selling some good, 95% of which you are buying with USD, 5% is your profit. When someone purchase this good from you in bitcoins, you need to instantly convert 95% of the cost to USD. For this to happen you need to have a liquid exchange.

And because the number of bitcoins is limited, and the number of traders are going up, we see a steep increase of exchange rate.

<comment><USER2> Well, what you're describing is merely a difficult to use stand-in for the USD with fees on both ends.

Reasons you need stable value in a currency for it to be good for commerce:

Pricing hell: If you're a merchant you probably need to be changing your prices in BTC several times a day at this point. In such a thin market, what trades do you believe for quoted value?

No buyers: People holding a currency that is deflating are unlikely to buy - why spend your money now when it could be worth twice as much in two weeks? Those alpaca socks won't be worth twice as much.

Inability to hedge: With no instruments available to hedge BTC trades a merchant's exposure to wild currency swings is almost infinite.

Thin markets + no safety in holding BTC means that merchants who feel the need to setlle out of BTC several times a day or after every transaction will 100% be at the mercy of the markets. Last trade was 1.37 LRUSD/BTC - what you based your sale price on? Sorry, our buyers have thinned, if you want to settle 150BTC you're going to have to take an average of 1.10 LRUSD/BTC.

I could go on of course. But you'd do yourself better by picking up an econ 101 textbook.

<comment><USER4> I don't see another way to bootstrap a new currency. BTW currently the whole bitcoin economy is 1/30 the size of e-gold reserves in 2007. So to be at least like e-gold it has to rise 30 times current price.

If people hold the currency to get twice next week, than this logic apply to dollars too. Why spend dollars today, if you can convert them to bitcoins and spend twice the amount next week? Either this logic works both for bitcoins and dollars, or don't work at all.

You can hedge BTC value on exchange instantly via exchanges API, i think i explained that in the previous post. That is the reason we need a high volume exchanges (currently mtgox have around $10000-$50000 volume per day). Merchants do it automatically, not by hand. I think we'll see a bitcoin billing soon, that will help to do this without programming knowledge.

Of course there are a lot of difficulties now, but how will you explain, that amount of traders is rising despite all this difficulties? Compare this page <https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade> from the February and now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The whole drugs thing is just hype. Bitcoins are surely much harder to launder than shiny metal, because they're so unusual. You can't just wash $10,000,000 of bitcoins through a casino or whatever without someone asking questions.

If they become widely accepted this will obviously change.

<comment><USER6> How can you define it as "hype" when there already exist people selling controlled substances for bitcoins through a Tor secret service? (n.b. it could have been fake and I certainly did not order any to try and find out given I have no interest in either drugs or bitcoins)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> USA government will crack down on anonymous money schemes [0], especially 'conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business'[1].

<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/e-gold/> [0]

<https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Egold> [1]

<comment><USER8> Against whom?

It is anonymous, is it not?

<comment><USER9> Presumably against anyone who runs a service that exchanges bitcoins for regular currency.

<comment><USER8> That isn't going to matter, those laws are only good inside the US.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Anyone recommend an exchange for buying and selling bitcoins with Paypal? Thinness of the market doesn't particularly matter - I'm not interested in speculation or arbitrage but rather adding bitcoin support to my site.

<comment><USER4> There is a <http://coinpal.ndrix.com/> for buying but they have a very low limits due to paypal fraud, and <http://coincard.ndrix.com/> for converting to paypal.

<comment><USER10> thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> <fun> Is it just me or the guy in the photo looks like Mr. Spock :-)? </fun>

<comment><USER11> OK, guys & gals, I got it - no jokes on HN (even specifically marked with a <fun> tag...) - you can stop downvoting now - I wish I could delete my own comments, but HN doesn't let me do that.</comment></comment>