Google sends reporter a GIF instead of a 'no comment' - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/03/google-sends-reporter-gif-instead-no-comment/ <comment><USER2> My favorite Google "No comment" response is still their response to Randall Munroe about his analysis of how big their data centers are:

[https://youtu.be/I64CQp6z0Pk?t=2m59s](https://youtu.be/I64CQp6z0Pk?t=2m59s)

<comment><USER3> Those that already read the "What If?" section might want to jump to 7:10, which is when he explains what happens _after_ he publishes the article about punchcards[1]. I mean, it's a nice talk, and if you haven't read the article then totally watch it, but as I already read it...

[1] [http://what-if.xkcd.com/63/](http://what-if.xkcd.com/63/)

<comment><USER4> why are google the largest user of tape drives?

<comment><USER5> They have a lot of data, which means they have a lot of data to back up. Tape drives are still the go-to method for backing up huge amounts of data.

<comment><USER4> for paranoia reasons i thought they were using it for permanent storage.

maybe they are using it for some sort of rolling backup.

<comment><USER6> Rolling backup is at least one use case. This is why they only guarantee data destruction after 180 days (at least per the last document I read about it) for Apps customers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Gifs and memes are how we will get to "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" and "Shokath, his eyes uncovered"

<comment><USER8> For anyone who, like me, was unfamiliar with this reference: [http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Darmok_%28episode%29](http://en.memory- alpha.org/wiki/Darmok_%28episode%29)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm sort of confused by this gif. I wouldn't look at it and say "that girl turning her head in one direction repeatedly means no comment". If it were funny, and actually had some sort of "denied" slant to it, then fine, but this particular gif makes no sense to me as a response to a request for comment. I guess when you have as much money as Google does you can be as disrespectful to reporters as you like, but at least try to be entertaining.

<comment><USER10> I guess the gif could be read as "nuh uh! No telling!"

<comment><USER11> I read it as "I dunno", I can't see it meaning "no comment" at all. It's more a shrug if anything.

<comment><USER12> I think this meme usually comes with the phrase 'dafuq?'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Reminds me of the GIF Detectify got from Google after getting into their production servers because of a vulnerability in the "Google Toolbar" portal [1] :

[https://s3-eu- west-1.amazonaws.com/blog.images/google/niceme...](https://s3-eu- west-1.amazonaws.com/blog.images/google/nicememe.gif)

[1] [http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got- read-a...](http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got-read-access- on-googles-production)

<comment><USER9> So the security team thought it was worth such a crazy amount that they made a gif to describe it...and then they sent him $10K? That isn't very much for a major bug like that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Well, whats good for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary should be ok for Google.

[http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/2015/3/at-the-flick- of-...](http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/2015/3/at-the-flick-of-a-switch)

<comment><USER15> How can an officiel website say "even when a president tries to unlawfully refuse to enforce our laws" ? It doesn't seem very neutral, I wouldn't except such an article to challenge the decision taken by the president of a country.

<comment><USER16> It's the website of the House Judiciary Committee, which is controlled by Republicans, and hence can and does challenge the President. In turn, the White House website, which is controlled by Democrats, can and does challenge Congress.

Both sites could, of course, adopt a stance of editorial neutrality. I would prefer they not, though -- both are fundamentally political organizations, so to do so would be eliding their true nature.

<comment><USER17> Not to mention that the whole purpose for the three branches of government is so that each branch will "check and balance" the other branches. The fundamental structure of the system is based on the premise that each branch _should not_ be neutral with regards to the other branches.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Doesn't surprise me. I released a couple easter eggs when I was at Google (notably [festivus] and [let it snow]), and the official response PR prepared for one of them was a poem. It's part of Google's quirky culture.

<comment><USER19> That's cute, but this instance is unlicensed commercial use of Disney's copyright material.

Where I worked _nothing_ went to the press before legal review. It seemed burdensome but I'm sure it saved the company's hide on numerous occasions.

<comment><USER20> How do you know it's unlicensed?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Google also did this when they had the Google Toolbar remote exploit vulnerability reported and the guy asked about the reward, a good read on its own:

[http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got- read-a...](http://blog.detectify.com/post/82370846588/how-we-got-read-access- on-googles-production)

</comment><comment><USER22> Google. Such an adorably hip, cool underdog.

</comment><comment><USER23> Am I alone in thinking this is utterly infantile behaviour?

It makes me rather sad that the art of correspondence (the beautiful letters of bygone times) is now gradually being replaced with Facebook Messenger and animated GIFs.

<comment><USER24> If it's an exception - no. It's fun and it gives a new fresh look to big, evil corporations (but Google is _not_ evil anyway [1]). If it were a rule - yes, definitely infantile and weird.

[1] [http://www.cnbc.com/id/101923422](http://www.cnbc.com/id/101923422)

<comment><USER25> If you're looking for meaningful answers about propriety, I strongly doubt you'll find them on CNBC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> As somebody who has a SO who works at Google, thus giving me a bit of insight into the culture, I can factually say that gifs and lolcat-like memes have already started replacing the English language there.

</comment><comment><USER27> With all those broken email readers, how can one even assume that a gif will animate when the recipient opens the email?

<comment><USER28> I'm sure Google would have been devastated to find out their joke answer wasn't properly animated in their recipient's inbox.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I, for one, fully support our gif-replying internet overlords.

[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31250/gifs/thumbs_up.gif](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31250/gifs/thumbs_up.gif)

</comment><comment><USER30> Didn't wired.com just overhaul their site? Very slow and clunky on my end...

</comment><comment><USER31> I dont understand how that GIF represents "no comment". To me it looks more like an "I don't know" or "I've no idea" statement.

Also, I don't see why this is news. GIFs have been used like this for several years now. Reddit is replete with such usage.

<comment><USER32> It's just that the official answer from a giant multinational to a journalist is a funny gif. The typical answer is a LOT more formal.

It's like the President inviting me to dinner and I answer him with a "thumb's up" gif.

<comment><USER33> No, it's like you inviting the President to dinner and he sends you a gif.

Or do you consider yourself more important than the president?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I usually get memes from Google official responses.

</comment><comment><USER35> I think this response is connected maybe to yesterday's facebook (f8) event...

</comment><comment><USER36> Google PR are such a bunch of fucking clowns.

<comment><USER37> Well, not that I get to deal with PR departments very often, but I much prefer one that has a sense of humor over one that hasn't.</comment></comment>


The Last Question -- Isaac Asimov - <AUTHOR> http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html? <comment><USER2> Is there anyone here who hasn't read this?

Mind you, it's a fun two minute read to remind me of Asimov. Occasionally brilliant ideas, generally awful writing.

Sadly missed genius.

<comment><USER3> I concur with all of your particulars (everyone has read this, fun two minute read, occasionally brilliant ideas, generally awful writing, sadly missed) and was completely in agreement up until your very last word.

If Isaac Asimov's a genius, what was Isaac Newton?

 _"...all little sisters like to try on big sister's clothes..."_

<comment><USER2> > _If Isaac Asimov's a genius, what was Isaac Newton?_

A genius of a different type. Can you compare Nelson Mandela with Leonhard Euler? Can you compare Benjamin Franklin with William Shakespeare? Genius, like intelligence, comes in different flavors.

In short, it's silly and ultimately pointless trying to quantify terms such as "genius". One person's "genius" is abother person's "skilled". Let's agree that it's not worth worrying about.

<comment><USER3> Sorry, but I think there's orders of magnitude of difference involved here. Sure, you can compare Nelson Mandela, Leonhard Euler, Benjamin Franklin and William Shakespeare-- all were (are) truly exceptional men of the first order.

Asimov was a somewhat talented and extremely prolific science fiction writer. He wrote a few great short stories, a few great novels, and a lot of standard (and sub-standard) fare. To call him a "genius" devalues the term beyond recognition.

<comment><USER2> Then we'll agree to differ. I think simple, direct and engaging writing is difficult, and coming up with such a range of ideas to exploit is equally difficult. I think in this field Asimov has very, very few peers. I'm not upset that you don't think he was a genius.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "The Last Answer" is actually my favorite of his shorts: [http://destructionoverdrive.blogspot.com/2005/06/last- answer...](http://destructionoverdrive.blogspot.com/2005/06/last-answer-by- isaac-asimov.html)

<comment><USER5> I had read 'The Last Question' but not this one. Thank you

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> What I find fascinating in this short story is the concept of THE computer. That was the vision of the computer back only two or three decades ago (and I'm old enough to remember). Everyone has a terminal into the main computer, instead of the myriad of personal computers (handhelds, laptops, etc) that we actually have.

The concept of a major computer site taking up a huge amount of space might be superficially coming true with all the data centers we're building, and terminals are superficially like accessing the cloud instead of doing the computation locally, the concept of a single, massive entity is not really being pursued. We understand the limitations. We don't have the technology or even a theory behind how we would program one massive program, utilizing the zillions of little processors, as a single entity. We can't get multi- threading right even for comparatively trivial programs (compared to a Multivac, I mean) that do no AI.

<comment><USER7> Perspective change for you: It's the Internet.

It takes up a huge amount of space, utilizing zillions of processors, and is insanely parallel.

<comment><USER8> I find it surprising that no OS yet comes with a distributed processing framework (i.e. a pluggable system to support things like Folding@Home) installed and running by default. I predict that it might be the norm in ten years or so; then we'll actually get the effect you mention, where anyone can rent processor time on "the InterVAC" (or at least "the MicrosoftVAC" and "the GNUVAC", if it doesn't get standardized.)

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

The BSG finale reminded me somewhat of this.

</comment><comment><USER10> This is the second time I have read this, and it is a brilliant short story pondering on the future of humanity and it's place in the universe.</comment>


GMail not Loading – GMail Problems and Possible Solutions - <AUTHOR> http://techpp.com/2010/07/08/gmail-not-loading-gmail-problems-and-possible-solutions/

<comment><USER2> Step #1 should be clearing cookies and cache. It's solved most of my Gmail problems when I have them.</comment>


Ask HN: Your choices for a modern self-hosted CI/CD software stack today - <AUTHOR> If you could design a CI/CD solution from the ground up today, which tools would you use today? Would you still consider Jenkins? <comment><USER2> Jenkins is pretty good, by which I mean that it's ancient software and deals in XML and is hateful, but there's nothing better I've found. If your needs are:

* self-hosted

* cross-platform (Mac, Win, Linux)

* tasks run on an agent and get communicated back to the leader

* plugins for managing an AWS fleet or running tasks inside Docker

.. then I think there's nothing else that has the full featureset. GitLab CI seems close. I liked the look of drone.io a lot, but _requiring_ Docker for tasks means that I can't test on Windows machines.</comment>


Startup tips from Steve Poland - <AUTHOR> http://www.centernetworks.com/startup-tips-month-steve-poland-from-web2-0forsale <comment><USER2> Honestly, these tips are not very good. One advises you to work on the startup in your spare time. Something tells me that is not the secret to success.</comment>


The outdoor community made water filtration a must for a reason - <AUTHOR> https://www.outsideonline.com/2279401/actually-slate-you-really-should-filter-your-water <comment> vhost- Years ago my friends and I took a trip to the Wallowas in Oregon near the Idaho border. We were mostly camping backcountry with a few nights at campgrounds. I filtered my water at the campgrounds, but when we went backcountry, I was about to just put my bottle in the stream and one of my friends stopped me and told me to filter it and to never just drink out of a stream regardless of where you are in the US.

He was from that area and told me that ranchers will let their cattle graze where ever they want, even on protected federal land, polluting pretty much every water source and everything downstream. They were very right. We saw cattle feces everywhere. It was very unsettling.

Edit: I also got giardia at Smith Rock one time and it wasn't fucking pleasant.

<comment><USER3> Many ranchers have (scandalously low-priced, but that is another story) leases to run their cattle on specific federal lands. Cattle drop poop pretty much everywhere they go. (Weirdly, donkeys apparently collect theirs into big piles. Oddest thing I've ever seen.) If cow manure is unsettling, you may want to be careful what parts of the outdoors you visit.

<comment><USER4> That's BLM and National Forest lands. Anything beyond that is illegal but you should still protect yourself from unscrupulous ranchers just as you should look both ways on a one-way street.

<comment><USER5> Which is the vast majority of public recreation land in the U.S.

<comment><USER4> Yep, and always filter your water there.

I filter or boil my water even at 11,000 feet in altitude where the cattle do not roam.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I missed seeing the mentioned article, but I wonder if this is an inevitable result of the natural fallacy that has taken over Western culture.

Let's all get back to the Earth and live the way many of our ancestors did: dying off in our youth or dealing with either preventable and crippling diseases or even just wandering around with weird diseases that just make life far less enjoyable.

On the one hand, if we were to take this approach, it would speed up natural selection for us and whatever germs develop to kill us. But for chemicals and things we do for purification of water supplies, we can at least control the chemicals and how often we use them, and I have yet heard of a any really serious bugs that can survive chlorine or just pure heat.

I guess I just can't grok the way people claim to wish to live in the past, but what they're really describing often is similar to how we would describe living in a third world. Unless you really believe our feces is cleaner than most, that unfiltered water your drinking could very well contain the feces of someone ignorant enough (or a pranking trollish person) to drop a deuce into the local stream.

And I have a great appreciation for just how blunder headed we can be, so it wouldn't shock me if and when that'd happen.

And ultimately, what's the real goal of the original article? Is it to make sure people increase their risk? Or to provide some confirmation bias to those who will do it either way?

<comment><USER7> > I have yet heard of a any really serious bugs that can survive chlorine or > just pure heat.

prions. not sure if you consider them "bugs" though.

<comment><USER8> Their ability to resist heat has been greatly exaggerated. The kernel of truth is that some sterilization procedures are insufficient to eliminate them and that definitive guidelines have not been fully agreed on. Common folklore translates this into "they are impervious to heat."

<comment><USER9> Please describe the process by which a prion is rendered harmless at a mere 100C. Denaturing a protein generally requires a lot more.

<comment><USER10> > Denaturing a protein generally requires a lot more .. than 100C

Nope. Protein generally denatures at lower than 100C / boiling point.

That's the principle of Sous Vide, not that you should use Sous Vide to sterilise anything, but the protein in egg white denatures at 60-80C.

[http://www.scienceofcooking.com/eggs/eggs_sous_vide.htm](http://www.scienceofcooking.com/eggs/eggs_sous_vide.htm)

And in meat it's similar, 50-70C [http://www.mpip- mainz.mpg.de/Sous_vide_cooking](http://www.mpip- mainz.mpg.de/Sous_vide_cooking)

If you doubt it, stick your hand in water at 80C and see what happens.

<comment><USER7> Prions don't degrade at the boiling point: [http://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/jgv/8...](http://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/jgv/82/2/0820465a.pdf?expires=1518047129&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=5B41A4F4F072CF1011FBADABD6ED4C6E)

<comment><USER10> Sure, though that's entirely different from the grandparent post's statement about "Denaturing a protein generally", which happens well below boiling point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I hiked over 600 miles of the Appalachian Trail last year, and just about everyone filtered their water. Bacteria and protozoa[1] in the water can make you very ill, and even cause longer term health problems if you're unlucky.

Filtering water in the backcountry is extremely easy with products like the Sawyer Mini ($25), which you just screw to the top of a standard water bottle and drink through. It's stupid to take the risk when the precautions are so easy and so cheap. And it's unbelievable that people in civilization, with abundant access to clean water, would actually pay a premium for dirty water.

Yes, primitive people drank water straight from streams. They built up resistance to a lot of the pathogens, but they also had lots of parasites and diseases, and didn't regularly live into their 80s, so I'm not sure why you'd model your food and water safety on theirs.

[1] Viruses are a problem in much of the world too. Thankfully, streams in the US don't generally have viruses in them, and the most popular filters for hikers don't filter out all viruses. But for the extra careful, chlorine dioxide drops and some pump filters do.

<comment><USER12> There's a bit of a trope about how in history everyone died in their 30s from war or disease.

[http://www.hormones.gr/211/article/article.html](http://www.hormones.gr/211/article/article.html) concerns Ancient Greece, so not primitive. But, I think you should be cautious about declaring primitive people as having their lives markedly shortened by waterborn pathogens; at least cautious enough to be able to cite some strong evidence?

<comment><USER11> The Ancient Greeks filtered their water and sought out purer water sources.

I didn't claim that people died in their 30s or that waterborne pathogens were a major cause of shortened life. The latter certainly seems plausible though. My point there was only that basing your water sanitation on the habits of primitive people is obviously misguided.

<comment><USER13> And they also added wine to it, which would kill _some_ bacteria and protozoa.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Lifestraw is a decent emergency filter to have around. You can also use a SteriPen UV light - which is great. It's light, fast and you can use it on the go. Scoop up a full Nalgene bottle of untreated water, then treat with SteriPen. Used both many times camping and on long portages with great success.

<comment><USER15> I use the Sawyer Mini. Had the SteriPen for one trip but didn't like the reliance on batteries, worrying about getting them recharged, etc. Had one hike where our batteries went dead in the cold overnight and we had to rely on meeting someone on the trail and borrowing their filter.

<comment><USER16> I use a SteriPen but spend the extra money on non-rechargable Lithium batteries. They are way lighter, pack more power and hold their charge for years. I bring two sets in case one runs out which has yet to happen on my week long backpacking trips.

<comment><USER15> Do they suffer in the cold though? At this point, in cold weather I already have in my sleeping bag: phone, iPad (drone controller), Anker battery packs, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The thing I found hilarious: "You'd need to drink more than 7 liters of it to get sick"

That is a completely reasonable amount of water to drink on a camping trip...

<comment><USER18> My issue with this, is not so much the number, but if I can get sick from 7L, I can get sick from a single sip as well, it's just not very probable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> There's a reason that "You have died of dysentery" is a thing.

<comment><USER20> Because heroes travel the Trail at a grueling pace instead of steady which runs down the party and increases the chances of illness.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I caught giardia and who knows what else while I was in India for a year. I had diarrhea 10+ times a day for over a month, vomited a few times, bloated and lactose intolerant for over a year, and two years on I'm still not feeling 100% even after taking over 100 pills to nuke everything.

You might be lucky and not be too affected by this stuff but it's not something to mess around with.

</comment><comment><USER22> HN discussion on the Slate article:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16285322](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16285322)

</comment><comment><USER23> Not to mention the alarming levels of antibiotics in animal feed such that you get in contact with resistant bacteria by merely swimming in lakes. In fact, even Colistin and Colistin-resistant mutants were recently found (Colistin being put on the RESERVE level by WHO, to be used for humans only, and as last resort).

</comment><comment><USER24> Between the effectiveness of chlorine and the simplicity of a pump, there's just no way I'm going to save ~8oz for the risk of explosive diarrhea. Having both diarrhea and having to walk back t the trail head to get help would be an awful combination.

<comment><USER25> Pumps may be simple but I've heard experts in outdoor gear question whether filters are reliable. They can develop micro cracks and therefore invisible failure modes. Now, low failure rate plus low incidence of ineffective in the water multiply to low risk. But they're not perfect. It's also very easy to get a degree of cross-contamination.

Personally I mostly use iodine and boiling though I do have a pump. I'd consider getting a steripen though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I feel like drinking unpurified water out of desperation is a tale you'll eventually hear from people that've been outdoors a lot. It will either end unpleasantly or with extreme emphasis on how lucky they were that it didn't end unpleasantly.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think i heard this on "Survivorman", but also from many thru-hiker friends.

Dying of dehydration is a whole lot faster than giardiasis. If you're in a survival situation and are reasonably sure of a rescue in less than 14 days, go ahead and drink that water! Otherwise, don't.

<comment><USER27> Yep. If you're dehydrated because you didn't bring adequate water or a filter, and drinking unfiltered water will get you to civilization (trailhead, car, etc), it is better to have giardia (in a few hours) than to be dead.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> From my pithy mentor: "There are no randomized controlled trials demonstrating the efficacy of parachutes." Similar logic here.

</comment><comment><USER29> I've heard too many giardia testimonials to risk drinking unfiltered/unpurified water while hiking in the US west.

<comment><USER30> Growing up in western Canada we were warned against an awful illness Beaver Fever, which is a catchy name for it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> A Sawyer filter is quite small and costs $20, there's no reason not to filter.

<comment><USER32> Yeah I'm not really getting the reason for caring whether it is likely to get sick from unfiltered water or not. Why not just always filter? (Assuming cost is low)

<comment><USER27> The main reason people don't like filtering is because it takes time.

<comment><USER11> Which isn't a problem with a Sawyer filter, because you can just screw it to the top of the water bottle and drink through it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Anecdote, we drank unfiltered water from a melt pool on a glacier and were fine. Glacial melt pools are probably some of the only places on earth anymore where you can do that. Two days later, only 2000 feet below the glacier, a girl with us drank unfiltered water from a river and got sick

<comment><USER34> Yeah, melting snow is basically pure rainwater.

<comment><USER16> Have you ever seen that pink bacteria that grows on snow at elevation? Snow melt is likely safe but definitely not bacteria free.

<comment><USER16> [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful- amoeba/wonderful...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful- amoeba/wonderful-things-dont-eat-the-pink-snow/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> In my experience, it all depends on location.

I know people who have been drinking unfiltered stream water for 20 years with no ill effects. The key is to make sure that the water doesn't pass through any human inhabited areas.

<comment><USER36> There may not be humans or cattle around, but all sorts of wild animals defecate, urinate, procreate, etc. in water. Treat the water (boil, filter, pills, etc.) before using it and you'll be OK.

<comment><USER35> It's a case of balancing risk I guess.

If I'm in an area where there aren't poison drops and where there is no human interference, I'll take the risk. Outdoor activities are inherently risky.

<comment><USER37> Just because there is an inherent level of risk involved in an activity doesn't imply you shouldn't mitigate some risk if you can.

Driving is inherently risky - but I still wear a seatbelt.

<comment><USER35> I've come close enough to dying in the outdoors in other ways that I'm not concerned about getting the small chance of getting the shits from drinking from a stream that I'm 99.9% sure is safe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Does this have anything to do with that "raw water" nonsense from 2 weeks ago? The idea that you wouldn't want to clean your water is absolutely insane to me.

<comment><USER35> What gets to me with the "raw water" thing is that people are willing to pay so much money for untreated water, literally thousands of times what it would cost public water, and there's millions of people all over the world who are suffering and dying because all they can afford to drink is "raw water".

There's something so perverse, so fucked up, about the elitism of the people drinking this (literally) shitty water.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> The original article suggesting to never filter water is just plain idiotic. Decisions about safety can come down to a risk vs. reward analysis.

Risk: Horrible diarrhea for possibly months (worse consequences for children)

Reward: Save 5 minutes of time and $1-$30 not filtering water and you get to act superior to people who filter

Seriously? Not filtering is just stupid.

</comment><comment><USER40> My cabin was on a very clean lake, but one year my friend canoed to the far end of the lake to find a dead deer in the water.

The deer was not there the year before but anyone drink the water that year better treat the water first.

<comment><USER41> One dead deer in a large body of water is not enough to worry about - <USER2> the biomass of dead fish in the lake by way of comparison...

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> I still drink out of some of our creeks and springs in our NF areas when backpacking and hiking in the Ozarks. You have to know the terrain and what's on and around it to do that though. I've never gotten sick from that here.

I did the same back in the `70-80s in the Sequoia NF. I was taught by old timers there when I was a kid to take your water where it was running clear over rock and sand, not from still pools, and take a good look upstream and around you for carcasses or other contaminants.

I've still never seen a carcass near where I decided to take a drink, but I always look.

</comment><comment><USER43> A few months ago I spent a week hiking through the Cordillera Blanca mountain range with 6 other people. We ALL got diarrhea at some point, it was absolutely brutal.

I'm going to continue filtering my water.

</comment><comment><USER44> Not necessarily "filtration" but rather "treatment". There are a number of various chemical treatments that can be used. For clear water I use MSR water treatment tablets (chlorine dioxide?), for seriously muddy and dirty water I rely on my partner's filter. We walked over 500 miles of desert in Utah and Arizona, the water tends to be very hard to come by and what's available is often contaminated by cattle, etc. Water treatment is a must.

</comment><comment><USER45> So, it seems to me that Slate's contrariness might be an opening to a big lawsuit if someone acts on it and gets a debillitating infection.

</comment><comment><USER46> I go hiking in Conundrum in Aspen, and never filter water once I'm above a certain elevation. As long as there are no beaver dams above, I feel safe to do so.

<comment><USER47> Hopefully above the hot spring that everyone bathes in? Still that trail has way too much human traffic for me to consider drinking unfiltered.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Similarly: wear your seatbelt. Almost every single car ride I have been on didn't need it, but you don't know you needed it till it's too late.

<comment><USER49> 2 stories:

A friend's grandfather never wore his seatbelt. He was in fine health. One day, they rear ended someone. He was in the back seat and died because he was essentially thrown underneath the driver's seat. Had he been wearing a seatbelt he may have been injured, and given his age it may have been severe, but he would have lived. No one else in the car was seriously hurt (all wearing seatbelts).

Two weeks ago a driver decided to do a U-turn from the right lane. I was in the left lane. I was spun around from the impact. While I am injured, because of the seatbelt it's just whiplash and other soft tissue injuries. If I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt I know I would've been tossed around inside the cabin, or I would have had to tense up more to maintain my position in the seat. Either would have resulted in more severe injuries.

These are relatively uncommon events. You cannot control the driver of your vehicle screwing up and hitting someone. And as a driver you cannot prevent others from hitting you in every case. Seatbelts may be uncomfortable (though after 35+ years I don't notice anymore), but 20 minutes or a few hours of discomfort are worth it to prevent life changing or life ending injuries.

<comment><USER50> I can tell you firsthand that seatbelts prevent injury. I was recently in a wreck where the driver overcooked a turn in the wet on the off-ramp from the Mass Pike to 128 We hit the guard rail on the inside of the turn once or twice, and the concrete barrier on the outside of the turn twice, including head-on at the end of our spin-out. Either the driver or I or some object hurled forward between the seats folded my phone in half, which was sitting in a narrow pocket in the center console. I sprained a finger on the door handle. I would surely have hit my head more than once on the windshield and side glass had I not been belted in.

Once out of the car we could tell it was quite a wreck: the engine was pushed in and the whole front end crumpled. The front wheels were destroyed. Both sides of the back were rounded off. The doors opened with some difficulty. The smell of airbag propellant makes me think it must be similar to model rocket propellant.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> Always boil the water.

Source: Binge watching 7 seasons of Naked and Afraid.

</comment><comment><USER52> Air too..

Cheaply: Indoor water feature and ultrasonic fogging with electrochemically activated "acid" cleaning water.

</comment><comment><USER53> > ..... caught chronic giardiasis ..... weightloss....

Wait, so you're telling me I can loose weight by drinking unfiltered water?

<comment><USER54> Yep! All your body weight will simply leave through your anus!

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> I don't drink unfiltered water, but I am a little skeptical of all the stories about unfiltered water making people sick: What percentage of them actually got sick from improper personal hygiene? How many tainted water cases are actually self-inflicted E. coli cases?

</comment><comment><USER56> Anecdote is not data, but ok, here is an anecdote: When I was a boy scout growing up in the Bay Area we would camp in the mountains for a weekend or even as long as a week. We filled our canteens in any clean looking fast running stream. Everybody did that and they were fine. Sure it is possible this has gotten more dangerous but I am inclined to believe the paranoia has increased faster than the danger.

<comment><USER57> I think the issue is that it's hard to know which sources are actually safe and part of the reason people are so serious about disinfecting water is that it's generally just so easy

<comment><USER58> Easy, inexpensive, lightweight and effective. With many things, you'd have to choose only between two or three of these attributes, but with water filtration, there are — practically speaking — no drawbacks.

Given this, it's a total no-brainer to err reasonably on the safe side when it comes to natural water sources, in my opinion.</comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft is reportedly replacing Edge with a Chromium-based browser - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/04/microsoft-is-reportedly-replacing-edge-with-a-chromium-based-browser/ <comment><USER2> 700 comments in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18595069](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18595069)</comment>


Shopify partners with Uber for local shipping - <AUTHOR> https://www.shopify.com/blog/57839493-shopify-and-uber-reinvent-local-shipping <comment><USER2> This could significantly help local businesses stay competitive in the face of services like single-merchant delivery services such as Amazon Prime and Spoon Rocket.

It's worth noting Uber Rush is also integrating with a few other services such as delivery.com and ChowNow [0].

[0] [https://rush.uber.com/how-it-works](https://rush.uber.com/how-it-works)

</comment><comment><USER3> It makes sense for a lot of restaraunts and stores to use something like this as a shared delivery service.</comment>


The Learning Behind Gmail Priority Inbox [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://static.googleusercontent.com/external_content/untrusted_dlcp/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/36955.pdf <comment><USER2> It's interesting to see that the main reason for the complexity of this task seems to lie, according to the authors, in the fact that the processing has to be done on Google's servers and thus needs to scale to a 100+ million users.

Would gmail be a desktop client, instead of a webmail, the problem would be much easier. But of course it would probably never get millions of users in the first place.

Yet, I'm pointing this out because while everyone can see the benefits of moving into the cloud, it's quite easy to forget that that in doing so we also give up on the processing power of the clients, and that their cumulative total is far from insignificant.

disclaimer: I'm working on a desktop client for gmail.

<comment><USER3> Conversely, it'd also be an impossible problem for a lot of users, as for users that don't have that much activity a good global model is crucial to the proper functioning of the system, and you can't have that with completely local processing.

<comment><USER4> right, a key point of this method is that they are doing transfer learning from the general gmail population to each individual user. the reason for this is that the data from each user is small and sparse, and has relatively little statistical power.

you simply cannot do this on a desktop system unless you pull in data from other users. you might be able to do that but: bandwidth, privacy concerns, and you might find you have to do just as much work to get the same performance.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> this work was presented as a mini-talk at the NIPS conference workshop on "Learning Cores, Clusters and Clouds":

<http://lccc.eecs.berkeley.edu/papers.html#mini_talks_i></comment>


6 alternative (and better) uses for blockchain - <AUTHOR> http://www.dtcollective.org.au/resources/6-alternative-and-better-uses-for-blockchain?_lrsc=a6cfc609-e795-418a-a0f9-4f2417834815 <comment><USER2> For many of them you only need an append only ledger not a full blockchain. And you still have to deal with the oracle problem.

Is my Picasso real? - If I trust the entity that put it into the blockchain, then I believe so. Wait, why did I need a blockchain for that?

<comment><USER3> Trust isn't neccesarily the only solution that blockchains solve. Lets consider a simple example, login credentials.

Your login credentials exist on many different centralized databases, which a service provider is responsible for managing. This leads to increased possibility that one of the providers messes up (identity breach) and leads to an unnecessary amount of data replication across databases.

Why do I need credentials for every single different service? Instead why don't we store these login credentials in a blockchain so that many providers can access these IF you let them, in a cryptographically secure way.

You PROVE your identity on the blockchain without actually letting them store identity information on their database.

A blockchain is basically a shared resource pool where a user chooses who can access the data that belongs to them whether it be assets, identity, or other important data.

Service providers no longer have to be responsible for it and the user is put back in control.

This is a much saner way of storing important things on the web

<comment><USER4> Couldn't then a bad actor from obtaining >50% of computing power behind it and manipulate it?

It always seems like you have to trust someone which still begs the question - what's the point?

<comment><USER3> Im all in on dBFT, so I believe in the elected delegates maintaining said distributed database. Similarly to how governments maintain roads, I trust the elected parties to not corrupt the database.

I think complete trustlessness is a false dichotomy. Im ok with trusting certain parties in maintaining distributed "value databases" as one might call them}

Edit: false dichotomy is bad phrase, idk "chasing the wrong goal?"

<comment><USER5> The problem is that a blockchain which does not allow third party miners gains nothing from being a blockchain, because it can be a traditional database without losing anything at all. A blockchain which does allow third party miners is open to attack without obscene resource investment.

<comment><USER3> In dBFT the attack vector is a collusion attack between elected delegates. In practice I do not see this being any more likely than a 51% hashpower attack.

However most delegated systems are still young. The only reason people believe that 51% attacks are impossible is because it has worked for 10 years. If delegated systems work for the same amount of time, I don't see why they wont get the same reputation.

I think Dan Larimer gives a good argument on the situation.

[https://steemit.com/eos/@dan/response-to-vitalik-buterin- on-...](https://steemit.com/eos/@dan/response-to-vitalik-buterin-on-eos)

Edit: His Conclusion is something many people should consider, when outright rejecting delegated consensus.

"EOS is designed around far more realistic assumptions and logic and achieves scalability by avoiding the dogmatic fallacies promoted by Bitcoin and Ethereum maximalists."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> One thing I struggle with understanding for all these blockchain based solutions is the fact that the "trust" aspect fails in the face of an adversarial counterparty. For example, how do you know that the fish with id XYZ was _really_ ethically sourced? You only know that the counterparty asserts that fish XYZ was. The only advantage that I can see to the current system is that you can trace that assertion back to the originator.

<comment><USER7> What bothers me with this blockchain is, who will actually run the nodes? If only the merchants do so, then they can also counterfeit everything just as they want. In the end you rely as much on your trust to the merchant than with the classical method (i.e., a tag that reads "Product of [country]", which is way more eco[nom/log]ical.

<comment><USER8> Why not to use already running platforms like Ethereum where all those incentive issues are already solved?

<comment><USER9> How will you use your supermarket to use Ethereum instead of their own blockchain where they can mine as much coins as they need without wasting huge amounts of energy?

<comment><USER8> If a supplier is running its own blockchain, then it really makes little sense. But to gain real trust of its clients, supplier will actually put it on a public blockchain. Only then external experts will say: "yeah, this supplier is really trustworthy". In other words, the incentive to use a public blockchain instead of their own, private one, is to gain real trust.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > US company Follow My Vote hopes to employ cryptography to protect each > ballot against tampering from end to end, keeping votes anonymous and > immutable on a Blockchain ledger.

Or, you know, you could just vote with papers and pens. An observer can then watch the counting at each polling station, record the result, and verify it against the published results (which, at least in my country, is published for each polling station individually).

The major problem with all computer-based voting schemes is that a voting procedure cannot be considered democratic when the vast majority of constituents does not understand what the fuck is going on.

<comment><USER10> _> the vast majority of constituents does not understand what the fuck is going on_

Lol, this is the problem with voting in general, nothing to do with computers!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > US company Follow My Vote hopes to employ cryptography to protect each > ballot against tampering from end to end, keeping votes anonymous and > immutable on a Blockchain ledger.

> The idea is that each voter has a private key and a unique voter ID, which > allows them to monitor and verify that their vote is correctly recorded and > has been tallied.

How would this ensure anonymous voting and presented in a way an everyday person can use it, would it be any more secure over pencil and paper?

<comment><USER12> I agree it wouldn't be helpful.

It is similar to the problem of DNA evidence tests. The technique can be extremely certain, but the entire process chain must be evaluated in order to gauge trust.

How likely is it that the evidence was correctly sampled, collected, was actually on the victim etc.

For votes there is great benefit in having a paper process which can not be mass forged as easily as computer votes or tallies etc. It might take longer but it is of high importance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> bullshit</comment>


Should we fear AI, or just the people who write about it? - <AUTHOR> http://educationoutrage.blogspot.com/2016/05/should-we-fear-ai-or-just-fear-people.html <comment><USER2> An AI is a made creature, under rules, which it follows. If Hitler had made an AI, I am sure it would have loved the so called aryan race and killed other. That reminds me of the Wiley Coyote cartoon when Wiley makes a smart missile. Written on the side are a few animal names with a dial indicator. Roadrunner, Fox, Turtle etc, So Wiley dials it to roadrunner, turns it on and presses the big red button = whoosh (cue chase of RR running from a rocket - which goes to slow motion and the road runner writes coyote next to the dial and dials the dial to the written coyote). Off it goes after the hapless coyote and the inevitable boom and the tattered coyote muttering away...

By this, we do not need to fear research AI, what we do need to fear are the rule changers. Those who add Arab, Jew, whitey etc to the dial and push the button.

Can we make race selective viruses after an AI screens and analyzes a data base of manking and finds a few hit points to dial the virus to??</comment>


VLC 3.0 Media Player release - <AUTHOR> https://www.ghacks.net/2018/02/07/vlc-3-0-media-player-release/ <comment><USER2> It's not released yet - and the article in question links to our development server.

I've disabled all access to nightlies for win32/win64/mac for now since those binaries will not get update checks/will not be updated in a sane fashion. You should not be using them.

We're still working on a VLC 3.0 release, and will announce it when it's ready and our mirrors pick up all the binaries. Please have patience.

</comment><comment><USER3> (VLC dev here)

VLC 3.0 is not released, no. The core code is tagged, but the release will not happen before a couple of days.

</comment><comment><USER4> Great! VLC is one of the few desktop codes I use for decades now and it replaced Foobar2000 and Winamp, which were my previous favourites. So glad they also have a great mobile user interface (which is great on both Android and iOS). They can take the liberty to do that because VLC has a clean architecture with frontend-backend seperation. There are VLC frontends for the terminal (ncurses, asciiart), there used to be the wxWidgets one which is now Qt, there is a web server frontend, and all this is built into regular VLC binaries (as downloadable from the website or from your package manager) so it works out of the box.

<comment><USER5> It's also pretty great on Windows 10 Phone, here's hoping that version gets the 3.0 upgrade too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The official page ([https://www.videolan.org/](https://www.videolan.org/)) doesn't list it as released yet ("VLC 3.0.0 is tagged. Expect a release in the next 3 days... (if no big issue arise)") - so it seems to be in a "final final release candidate" state.

I'll be waiting at least the day or few and upgrading when it is fully released.

<comment><USER7> The title should include an 'upcoming' or so to make it less confusing. The changelog is impressive though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Does it let me open multiple windows on MacOS yet? For whatever reason, the latest update of the os, forces all MP4 files to "convert" in quicktime. So I had to switch up to VLC. One window at a time is horrible though.

<comment><USER9> Not sure about Mac but there's an option for that in the windows version at least.

Tools -> Preferences -> Playlist and Instances

"Allow only one instance" and "Use only one instance when started from file manager", uncheck both to allow more than one window at a time all the time.

<comment><USER8> Yeh that doesn't exist under MacOS.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've been using mpv on linux and windows for the past year, mostly because I can launch it with an url and it will use youtube-dl behind the scenes to open it.

I'll take a look, see what this new version of vlc is capable of.

<comment><USER3> VLC supports Youtube URL since a long time.

<comment><USER10> As said xori, VLC works beautifully with a lot of things/streams, but has quirks I've not encountered with youtube-dl (which works with a number of sites other than youtube)</comment></comment></comment>


We could see an increase in server and networking sales - <AUTHOR> https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd--intel-cpu-supply-updates-amid-coronavirus-pandemic <comment><AUTHOR> "... Remote working and schooling requires increased bandwidth for video (good luck finding a webcam) "</comment>


Supercomputer will perform a quintillion operations per second - <AUTHOR> https://www.popsci.com/aurora-supercomputer-quintillion-operations?con=TrueAnthem&dom=fb&lnk=TA&src=SOC&utm_campaign=&utm_content=5cccdd20df42390001118063&utm_medium=&utm_source= <comment><USER2> I had no idea what number the title was referring to, so if there is anyone else in my boat...

-1B,000M = 1 Quintillion (10^18)

In other words, this is slated to be the first "Exascale" supercomputer. The current record [1] is petascale (~200PFLOPS), putting this at roughly 5x speed.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_(supercomputer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_\(supercomputer\))

<comment><AUTHOR> I actually had the full number typed out (and you can see it when you link to the article), but either someone edited it or it's a feature of the site to format numbers automatically.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> AKA a billion billion.

Or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000</comment>


Criminalizing journalism? CNN interviews Glenn Greenwald [video] - <AUTHOR> http://reliablesources.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/09/criminalizing-journalism/

<comment><USER2> Will Greenwald profit financially from Snowden data in his new venture? I have not heard many details.

BTW, at least in the US, journalists have never been allowed to operate extra- legally. Were they allowed to, every mobster would also be a journalist.

<comment><AUTHOR> Greenwald will be/is a journalist at a company which pays him for his work (i.e. writing, researching) which is also a journalistic entity that publishes material that he (and others) happens to own.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do I expedite Apple App Store review? - <AUTHOR> I've created an app for a client, which is going to be presented at a big event next week.
Unfortunately, when I requested an expedited review, we got rejected because of the high volume (iOS9).
Is there anyone who can help me out here?
Thanks a bunch.
PS: yes, I know we should have submitted way earlier, but there are quite some reasons why it didn't go that way. <comment><USER2> sorry to say, but if you are not someone that has alreay a reputation at Apple, your chances are pretty low.

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought so. That's why I was reaching out :-)

There's a chance it'll be reviewed in time, but I'd rather be sure.

In return, I can do something like a code/architecture/usability review on someones project.</comment></comment>


Raiden Network – High Speed Asset Transfers for Ethereum - <AUTHOR> http://raiden.network/ <comment><USER2> "lighting network clone" .... "to be released in Q3/2016"

Lol, its almost as if Ethereum is the alpha stage test environment for Bitcoin.

It even has its own bug bounty program called "The DAO" that pays up to 150 million dollars!

</comment><comment><USER3> So a Lightning Network clone for Ethereum.

Anyway bad time to enter Ethereum, they have much bigger problems than scaling (see: hard fork for DAO).

<comment><USER4> Could you explain why you think that the hard fork release means that this is a bad time to build services on the Ethereum network?

<comment><USER5> not sure what OPs reason is, but I agree. I am really disappointed by the Ethereum team considering the option of providing a revision in their chain's history in order to prevent a loss caused by an independent application. There is a conflict of interest since very prominent Ethereum devs have vested interests in the DAO and revising this history goes against many of the ideas that they stated Ethereum was built around.

Watching some of the talks from the first Ethereum Dev convention highlights this hypocrisy as they specifically advocate for "the code is law".

I still have a vested interest in Ethereum as an Ether holder, but the last few weeks have not really impressed me about it's communities adherence to their stated values.

<comment><USER6> Completely agree with this sentiment... I'm extremely disappointed by even the consideration of this idea by the core team. This could be a very hard but valuable lesson for both the community at large and the core team, but instead it is turning into a political drama fest in complete violation of the principles this entire idea was founded on.

<comment><USER7> I am curious - what principal(s) do you or gp think Etherium was founded on that which a hard fork decision will go against?

I think you can tell by the way I phrased the question I disagree. I own < $10 in DAO so I don't think I'm too biased here, and I believe in a pow system if you can get a majority the miners to agree than nearly any decision is justified.

<comment><USER8> I am pretty sure they are referring to "the code is law" as quoted above. That is apparently changing to "the code is law unless we think that is unfair".

I am not as worried about it in the longer term, but it's a big setback in the immediate term. Ethereum will have to convince the world that it has truly returned to "the code is law" at some point in the future.

<comment><USER7> That was either edited in or I missed it - but in either case I see it as "The code is law and the participants use a work-based consensus system to decide which code is run"

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I still don't get how you can have any kind of verification of state if you make transfers off of the blockchain. After all, that's the whole freaking point of the blockchain: verifying the integrity of the transferred item, verifying the entire network state, and ensuring that fradulent coin cannot enter the network. But then, I suppose that's why I'm on XT's side.

As for Raiden itself, I think that the forthcoming return of the Snake network will largely bring cheer to those who dislike it, and largely overshadow it. [JOKE]

<comment><USER10> Basically, you give the counter party a transaction that they _could_ write to the blockchain and trust that they won't because you're going to give them a better option shortly.

It's kind of like giving someone a signed check for $1 and telling them "I'll give you another check for $2 tomorrow if you don't actually cash that one." The party doesn't have to trust you for the $1 you've already given them.

<comment><USER9> ...That makes forcing verification possible, but that's more like saying "I'll give you a check for one dollar that's definitely real, or you can come back tomorrow for two dollars, which might be fake." Nobody carrying out a serious financial transaction would take the ladder option.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is the name a reference to the Mortal Kombat character, whose special weapon was lightning?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiden_(Mortal_Kombat)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiden_\(Mortal_Kombat\))

<comment><USER12> Exactly! Always nice when someone gets the reference.

<comment><USER9> ...Really? Because I was thinking MGS2.</comment></comment></comment>


WebCL – Heterogeneous parallel computing in HTML5 web browsers - <AUTHOR> https://www.khronos.org/webcl/ <comment><USER2> Relevant Bugzilla bug for Gecko: [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664147#c30](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664147#c30)

An interesting spec, certainly, but no traction so far. A bit unfortunate. It sounds like on desktops the ARB_compute_shader GL extension provides a lot of the functionality you'd get through OpenCL with less new feature surface (it can piggy-back on WebGL), while on mobile there is currently not common access to OpenCL. Interested to see whether either of those situations change.

<comment><USER3> Close, but it looks like the pipeline for WebGL extensions will get feature- wise, in 5 years, where OpenCL was upon release ~6 years ago.. if even. Basing webgl standards on already obsoleted mobile opengl standards is bad for the web.

(Our startup is deep in this space, and after using both WebCL and WebGL, are going a third way.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> One one hand I'm happy to see the web able to do more and more. On the other hand, I worry that as we turn the browser into a platform with all these client side capabilities, browsers will become big complicated messes.

<comment> vezzy-fnord They already are, to one extent or another. Browsers are rivaling monolithic kernels and entire operating systems with userspace applications in size.

<comment><USER5> I wish we would see more browser features (cross-browser standards, app deployment style, ability to run random 3rd party code relatively securely, app interoperability) moved into the OS, rather than more OS features moved into the browser.

<comment><USER6> We already have them, it is just web devs tend to blindly ignore them.

<comment><USER5> I can't quite yet make a native, cross-OS app I can deploy by clicking a link and that anyone will trust not to eat their computer just by running it. It's also a lot more work to implement things like networking.

<comment><USER6> JNLP deployment of Java applications.

Click once deployment for .NET applications as another example.

<comment><USER7> Only nobody likes Java desktop applications. Including me, and I've programmed professionally in the language since 1998.

And they are non starters for demanding multimedia work, which is some of the most interesting stuff you want to do in the desktop as opposed as a web app.

.NET feels better (because MS didn't screw up as much, as Java did with the overengineered uncanny valley mess that is Swing), but it's not cross platform.

So, still, not comparable to deploying in the browser sandbox.

<comment><USER6> > So, still, not comparable to deploying in the browser sandbox.

That much is true, I haven't yet used so brain damaged set of programming tools as the HTML/JavaScript/CSS gimmick required to make the so called web applications in all browser versions required by our customers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Why was this posted now? It's been around since 2011, and since then hasn't seen any significant browser penetration as far as I know.

Have there been new developments?

<comment><USER9> Last I see on the Blink front is [https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink...](https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink- dev/xy_ExyPCN1I), essentially: 'No'.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Embedding computationally hard problems into users' browsers and leeching users' computing hardware to solve these problems for you? I can't think of an actual application's use case for this that's not nefarious.

Reminds me of the MIT Jersey kids who were about to try doing in-browser Bitcoin mining using WebGL.

<comment><USER11> folding@home? hardly nefarious

<comment><USER12> Why would you want F@H in a browser instead of as an app?

<comment><USER13> atwoods law

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> WebCL is already running on Tizen: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TurCVdaUTMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TurCVdaUTMY) So that is going to be my next cellphone ;)

<comment><USER6> If you can _ever_ get one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Imagine Facebook/Google renting out capacity on its users computers for companies and giving money to people for being able to do so.</comment>


Create you own log drain with systemd, rsyslog and golang - <AUTHOR> https://indevwith.streamroot.io/centralized-logs-with-rsyslog-systemd-and-golang/ <comment><USER2> what's the point of

> sh -c /path/to/program

<comment><USER3> Indeed. No point to it. I will correct that.</comment></comment>


Sentry 9.1 and Upcoming Changes - <AUTHOR> https://blog.sentry.io/2019/05/14/sentry-9-1-and-upcoming-changes <comment><USER2> As a rule, my dev environments are decoupled and have no non-local dependencies, 'cause I don't always work with an internet connection. So while I've liked Sentry at prior jobs and have consistently recommended it, I have not been using it personally on my own stuff. But recently, a number of projects I'm now working on require more elaboration on errors I've used I was just saying the other day "huh, I forgot about self-hosted Sentry, I can use that for development and I can pay them in production". But I guess I should track down another alternative that isn't going to add gigs and gigs of memory to a _dev stack_ ; I like Kafka and Zookeeper and all that as much as the next nerd but if my product doesn't need it I'm certainly not running it for an exception catcher.

The marketing spiel in this is pretty shitty, too. "You can evaluate whether you want us to handle this with the cloud!" I think I'd rather evaluate whether or not I want to use you.

As I said, my automatic recommendation has always been Sentry; I now need to reevaluate this. Any locally-hostable-for-dev,-SaaS-for-prod options I should be looking at?

<comment><USER3> This looks like a big enough change that someone could fork Sentry. Disconnecting the the fancy search and reenabling sqlite shouldn't be lots of work for the next few releases. I bet there are companies that will do it in private - would be interesting to see if any of them go public though.

<comment><USER2> It could be, and I might also just sit on the current version in a dev environment (as I assume they won't break their public API anytime soon). But the first time I hit jank I'm going to be going "man, why did I take the path of least resistance?".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It must be hard to maintain their open source product. I can imagine it's difficult to have 2 different backends that scale from self hosted to the thousands and thousands per second of the cloud. Along with the searching, HA, etc

<comment><USER5> Absolutely is - sqlite had been valuable for a long time as it made testing/local dev fast, but MySQL has always been a burden. Its made it hard for us to build optimal solutions in many cases as we had to cater to multiple different approaches to a solution. With our newer stuff we're actually able to remove a lot of the infrastructure cost/complexity by using a better solution (Clickhouse). Obviously has its costs, but its a net win.

<comment><USER6> > sqlite had been valuable for a long time as it made testing/local dev fast

FWIW, in my current project, I've deviated from my usual pattern of using SQLite for testing and Postgres for production and went all-in with Postgres in order to use some Postgres features that SQLite does not have (enum types, row-level locking). I have a very small shell script [1] for starting an isolated Postgres instance during test suite runs, and that works fine for me. The speed difference is about 100-200 ms per test suite run for the `pg_ctl start` and `pg_ctl stop`.

[1] [https://github.com/sapcc/castellum/blob/master/testing/with-...](https://github.com/sapcc/castellum/blob/master/testing/with- postgres-db.sh)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Kind of off-topic, but with the direction GitHub is going with features and 'embrace, extend, (and to be determined with pkg repo) extinguish', I wouldn't be surprised if GH comes out with a Sentry competitor by 2021.

<comment><USER3> It could be reasonable for them to buy Rollbar instead of creating their own.</comment></comment>


What if C.E.O. Pay Is Fair? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/business/13nocera.html?ex=1349928000&en=64c141849fc323a6&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss <comment><USER2> Ah, what it must feel like to be in a position where they have to bring in a consulting firm just to figure out how to pay you.

</comment><comment><USER3> Playing the devil's advocate, I think large severance packages can be good for the company. A phenomena you see in the military, and I would expect any other place with large responsibilities, are leaders unwilling to make the tough calls. Why? Because a bad decision can cost them their career, their family's livelihood, and may even mean a court martial.

So, in the corporate world, a large severance package can encourage the CEOs to make those tough calls. Of course, the other side is that taking away repercussions can lessen the gravity of a decision, and a leader may not exercise due diligence. Hence, large severance packages are more a balancing act than something we should direct our moral outrage against. In my opinion, it is often better to make a tough decision, even if it is wrong, than to wait in paralysis.</comment>


Davies V British Transport Police [2018] UKIPTrib - <AUTHOR> http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIPTrib/2018/IPT_17_93_H.html <comment><AUTHOR> People on HN have spoken about the English RIPA law, but they often miss that RIPA is used to prevent unlawful surveillance.

This case is a nice example of the law being used to protect rights against a police force.

To compare the rates of compensation: If you're the victim of crime and you lose one non-dominant arm you'll get £33,000.</comment>


Ask HN: I quit my job. Need advice - <AUTHOR> Dear HN'ers,
I have quit my job last week. I work in a typical MNC and the corporate culture just took the soul out of me and i decided i got to take a decision to take back control of my life. There was simply no plan B for me. I decided its now or never.
What 8 years of IT experience has shown me is that you are constantly thrown at the hottest problem / issue and asked to resolve them. Rarely did i feel the sense of accomplishment and i didn't feel that under such pressure to deliver there was any scope for mastery of a subject. Everyone has just 24 hours in a day, and all the time was taken up by the job + commute + daily grind. Not complaining as such, but i had to face the truth.
Shallow work was prevalent everywhere, and no scope for solid work. It left a void in me, and i crave fulfillment.
What i wish to do is instead search for work instead of a job (i deliberately differentiate here). Currently i can manage to stay afloat for 3 months with the savings i have. So any guidance on how i could make this time fruitful would be highly appreciated and i would be thankful. I would also appreciate any guidance on how to design my career and work life so i wouldn't find myself facing this again.
i have worked on linux (have basic sysadmin skills) + shell + perl + python ( actively learning currently ).
PS : I have self-taught all i know about  development. <comment><USER4> My advice (which I'm sure some others will disagree with) is this:

Don't look to your job for any kind of fulfillment or satisfaction, unless your job is your own company and you're doing something you're passionate about. Otherwise, be a complete mercenary and treat your job as nothing more than a way to keep the rent paid, the lights on, and food on the table. Then find ways to achieve fulfillment or whatever it is you're looking for, outside of work.

Maybe that means volunteering at a soup kitchen, maybe it means working on a startup as a side project, or maybe it means playing video games every hour you're not at work. Whatever, it's up to you. The point is, take control of finding whatever meaning it is you want to find in life, and don't let it be all commingled with your job.

Ultimately you may decide you don't even want a "normal job" at all. Maybe you will decide to freelance. Maybe you're meant to be an entrepreneur and run some kind of business, or possibly multiple businesses. Maybe you want to go all Tim Ferris "four hour work week" and move to Thailand or something. One thing that will help you maintain maximum flexibility is to avoid things like a mortgage payment, car payment, etc. If you already have those things then you'll have to deal with them, but if you don't, consider _not_ buying a new car, or a house, etc. until you have things figured out. It'll be easier to up and move, or make other dramatic changes without those encumbrances.

Some people will say to choose startups over a big MNC, but I find that startups can be worse in many ways (again, unless it's _your own_ startup). Work hours may be more demanding, there may be more stress, etc... OTOH, if you accept my position about being very mercenary towards work, you can often find a boring position at a stodgy large company, where you can "punch the clock" for pretty much exactly 40 hours a week, do relatively boring / undemanding work, get paid a decent salary, and - most importantly - <USER2> as much of your energy (mental, psychic, spiritual, or whatever you want to call it) for your own initiatives outside of work.

<comment><USER5> I think you're right, but I also think it's a shame. Large companies produce most of the things making up our modern world. I'd rather these things be built with passion than as a side-effect of people trying to make money.

<comment><USER6> I think it's a pure fantasy that most people can be passionate about their jobs.

<comment><AUTHOR> True, passion may not be everything - there are aspects of work which are the boring and mundane. But mastery is another goal. In our tech industry, before you hit mastery the next big thing catches on..and before you know it everyone is running after it.

I really like the approach of some companies which evaluate their tech stack and only transition to other technologies in a phased manner.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I agree about your assesment of programming jobs. We are mostly replaceable cogs and means to an end. We're only getting paid so much because this job is so unpleasant and most people would rather make 2-3x less than learn to program and spend most of their life sitting in front of a screen going through code bases.

My personal answer to that was to start learning to draw. Getting from zero art skills to professional artist is a super-long journey (at least 5-10 years from what I'm reading), but at least it gives me hope.

<comment><AUTHOR> Very true - we are treated like a replaceable cog. We all have a craving to feel important. But i think i personally dislike the language in the industry - resource. I am a human being for god's sake not a 'resource'. I have feelings and emotions and i wanna feel like a human,not a number. Also, i noticed non-tech people seem to be into management - they simply dont understand software. This causes part of the frustration. They seem to think, you can replace one person with another and the machinery would work fine - <USER3> wont. on top of it, they are the one planning unreasonable timelines too.

<comment><USER7> Resource/resourcing seems to be verbiage employed in corporate circles in general, and yeah, it makes me wince.

Practically every non-technologist that I know is baffled that I don't want to go into management. There are exceptions - as I work in finance, I get to talk to many analysts and portfolio managers. Everyone else though...it seems like if you view being a technologist as anything other than a means to an end - the end being some form of management - you lack ambition or are content to be a grunt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> About 7 years ago, I had a technology job that was sucking the life out of me. I started to push back and they fired me. This was good because I could get unemployment.

I spent 6 months on unemployment looking for jobs that I would care about and something that would let me lead a less stressful life.

After the unemployment ran out I started working at a Starbucks.

This was a life saver.

It was fast paced. They were always changing some process. It taught me to be flexible and roll with whatever. I got to talk with customers everyday. I could be making coffee and look down the whole line of people, out the door, and know each and every drink to make. I worked hard, but it was fun.

A customer that I would see daily offered me a job after a year at Starbucks. I still have this job. It has allowed me to move to a happier state where I live on a lake and life isn't so faced paced.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice to know :) At the end of the day you should feel happy. Only then you will be a happy dad / happy son / happy neighbour / a happy member of the society. which is very important in the larger scheme of things. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Do something completely different, and start immediately. Maybe it's working in a coffee shop, maybe it's laboring on a farm, maybe it's teaching a pottery class or bagging groceries. But it's something that provides some amount of income, and it provides you a needed break from development.

I promise you'll think more clearly about it once you've done this. Don't plan your next step after this second one (the first being, y'know, quitting). After step two, step three will come to you.

<comment><AUTHOR> well said, i too wanna take it one step at a time.Hope the universe takes care of me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Hey great job and congratulations on making the leap! Sometimes it can be hard and scary to know what the right path is, but usually the first step is making a change to get off of the wrong path. Step 1 complete!

I'd consider taking a short break from programming if I were you. Why not get a temporary job as a river guide or something outdoors? Maybe go on a long backpacking trip or do some other kind of adventure. After getting crushed by years of corporate culture, I'm sure your soul could use a little fun and adventure to reinvigorate and recharge itself! In my experience, (I'm a software engineer engineer) the perspective gained from taking a temporary break and trying something completely different (that maybe puts you a little out of your comfort zone) can drastically improve overall confidence/happiness/wellbeing much more than any minor resume addition. Take a moment to emotionally regroup before you charge back into career life!

Seek adventure!

<comment><AUTHOR> Very well said and thank you. Yes, i am thinking on those lines too. need some breather time. Cant keep running all life. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > any guidance on how to design my career and work life...

You might find of interest this recent book on Designing Your Life by two Stanford professors-

Here's a podcast interview with the authors, to give you a flavor of what it's about > [http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design- th...](http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2016-10-03/using-design-theory-to- build-a-better-life)

Also, NY Times review > [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design- thinking-s...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/fashion/design-thinking- stanford-silicon-valley.html?_r=0)

And - Goodreads reviews here > [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26046333-designing- your-l...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26046333-designing-your-life)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for sharing the book.. Looks interesting.. shall check it out..:)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Job and other tips I learned the hard way (still making some mistakes):

Rule #1: Negotiate from a position of strength.

Fact #1: We tend to negotiate badly when we are desperate. Human nature.

Fact #2: Desperation is a state of mind. You can really be in dire circumstances but keep a calm mind. This can be learned. I know stoic folks who are cool as ice when negotiating at the precipice of existence! Super men! (This is where I fail many times.)

Fact #3: (Certainly my experience) When we quit one job summarily without alternative options already lined up, we are likely to create a desperate mindset. It creeps into our attitude and plants the seeds for exploitation. Avoid this as a rule no matter how shitty things get. Plan B first, then quit.

My advice to you is find another job but don't expect it to be better. Plan your Plan B while there.

Best of luck, bro/sis. Employers can be ruthless sometimes.

I would take some time during the next job seeking stage to do stuff I like. Travel? Perspective comes with distance.

<comment><AUTHOR> Woah Bro! :) That was awesome advice. I am aware of the desperation that sets in when we don't have a plan B. But I am resisting such a state of mind. I believe sometimes when you let go, your mind calms down and starts facing the facts.

Same here, would love to travel and take a break. :) For now as you have said, would take up another job and start planning my exit from the rat race. :) Hope I will get my ticket soon :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Won't you be serving notice period for 2 months? For the satisfaction you are looking for, it will come from deep knowledge of a specific topic. If you are say interested in Data Analytics look for companies in data analytics, read their job description and skill set they require. Approach them (works best if you know someone to refer you) demonstrate the skills you have through some project. The project need not be perfect but should reflect the maturity of its age.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes I have notice period but i might leave earlier (still unsure). Exactly, interview screening is broken and the best way currently seems to be through referrals.

Indeed I would like to have deep knowledge on a subject. I am learning and working on some topics of interest. As u have suggested will try to build and showcase some projects. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> get into some online class now that you have the time.

start putting your resume out as soon as you can. start finding a away to cut expenses and build more runway next time.

maybe look into something closer and/or a startup which is more fires and chaos at 75% of the pay but has an easier line of sight to "changing the world"

<comment><AUTHOR> > start putting your resume out as soon as you can

i feel the interview process is broken too. this causes me pain just to think about it. but then we all face the same situation so i ll put up with it and as you suggested gotta take classes and make myself more relevant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Python is a great language, but three months isn't much time to become proficient and find work. You'll need to hit it hard. One way to build your resume would be to find a Python-based project on github, and submit a bug fix. Good luck!

<comment><USER16> A good way to prove yourself are hackatons and programming contests. Why? because you have a clear deadline not set by you.

Hope this helps

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks to all of you for taking your time off to advice. I really appreciate it. I hope things would turn out to be ok.

Please keep in touch.</comment>


World first atomic pocket watch: Hoptroff No 10 - <AUTHOR> http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/hoptroff-no-10-is-worlds-first-atomic-pocket-watch-movement-50011107/

<comment><USER2> The comments on that article are priceless. Ripping into the author with great accuracy. No pun intended.</comment>


Replacing Google with microG - <AUTHOR> https://lwn.net/Articles/681758/ <comment><USER2> I have started to use this for the Nominatim (OSM) and Mozilla backends on the rare occassion I travel and need geolocation when checking out maps.

[https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.google.andro...](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.google.android.gms)

Do not let the reverse domain notation fool you. This is the stripped no Gapps version. I find it interesting but cannot pass judgement yet as I used it once in the last 3 months and it kind of helped ... I guess.

Anyone else have deeper knowledge/experience?

</comment><comment><USER3> direct link to the the project homepage of 'microG': [https://microg.org/](https://microg.org/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Sound like microg is to GooglePlayServices what wine is to windows.

Great effort! As of today, we don't really have any truly functional 100% FLOSS mobile ecosystem. To make things worse, even if we have, people have moved very strongly to proprietary IM networks and alike, regrettably.

<comment><USER5> Most things in tech come in waves (thin clients, h/w vs s/w speeds) and this is nothing FLOSS hasn't overcome before. A few more stories about abuses with NSA/Apple/FB/Google/whatever and OSS will be back on power user's primary devices and not just servers.

That's not to say it won't take effort. No need to get complacent :).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> title.replace("Google", "Google Play Services for Android")

</comment><comment><USER7> Google has not done anything yet to deserve my not using them. In fact I almost want to root for them considering the shit other governments and industry throw at them just for being successful.

<comment><USER8> Unless they shutdown all your accounts and you are stuck with no customer support because customer support for consumers just doesn't exist.

I know of cases where startups were shuttered because google linked their employees to corporate account and if any employee has a banned account then all related accounts are banned too.

All it takes is one multiple sign-in and google ties up all accounts.

I have been stuck with a banned android account because of three strikes rules. Their own emails was in my junk folder (Thunderbird junk)

Remember that if you are banned from Google for whatever ridiculous reason, ALL your accounts (gmail, drive, adsense, google search, google plus, android) are terminated & their data deleted permanently. It's a LIFETIME ban

<comment><USER9> Three strikes of what? Copyright of YouTube? I thought they only closed your YouTube account in that case. Or is it something else?

<comment><USER8> Depends on what. With youtube it's just youtube account. But with Android Dev or Google Drive it's pretty much everything.

My colleague had all his accounts terminated because he was using paypal and not wallet (back when Google was aggressively pushing wallet). It's a lifetime ban and he cannot access any of the google's walled garden either personally or even with his official business accounts

<comment><USER9> Using paypal and not wallet where?

<comment><USER8> On App store. Check this: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7169712](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7169712)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Looks like another aproach of OnePF: [http://onepf.org](http://onepf.org)

<comment><AUTHOR> interesting. I see they have an open-source Push Notification called "opfpush" which supports Google Cloud Messaging:

[https://github.com/onepf/OPFPush](https://github.com/onepf/OPFPush)

But it is not clear to me if sending messages over GCM with OPFPush still requires the proprietary Google Play Services to be installed on the user's phone...

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It's really good!

I have using it for over 6 month and have very few problems.

Google Play Store works normally. Push Notifications in WhatsApp/Telegram etc. work normally. Cell/wifi coarse location works well.

The install procedure is a bit involved, but quick if you got it.

The Google Maps API / Widget replacement is not fully featured or compatible with all Apps.</comment>


Wired Magazine Blacks Out - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/

<comment><USER2> Very well done, I wish google would have done something creative like this. Don't remove all the content, but make sure people have to take extra action to see it. Make them feel what it may be like to live in a world where information is censored.

It makes you know that their are things here that you can't see, but you only have to take a small action to see them.

</comment><comment><USER3> These pseudo-blackouts help raise a point, but the truth is that unless the site goes down, information blocked, people don't realize just how bad censorship really is.

<comment><USER4> That's why I believe Wiki has made a very good move to really go dark. I knew it was about to happen, yet got stopped trying to check some facts on Labrador Retrievers. It's 'no-jokes' compared to 'navigating in black...? interesting.'

<comment><USER5> I agree with both of your points.

I do agree that the solution wired used is really creative and cool and will raise the point. Also I think that what wikipedia did on the english pages proves a stronger point since they don't give you a mechanism to uncensore the page.

<comment><USER6> Except they do. Hit esc and you can hang on the page and read the material. One guess, what MSNBC is reporting today. I confess it is really frustrating to see how major networks are covering these protests.

[http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/18/10177219-wik...](http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/18/10177219-wikipedia- goes-dark-on-piracy-bill-protest-day)

It makes me wonder what is a legitimate protest in the eyes of the media/elite anymore. They disapprove of the OWS style. They mock blackouts on the web. What does it take for our government and mainstream reporters to respect public dissent.

<comment><USER4> Well... they do, indeed. Esc on load / no JS is all you need. Real black out would have been much better.

<comment><USER7> As somebody pointed out in another thread, the number of people that are able to circumvent the wikipedia blackout but _don't_ already know about SOPA can probably be counted on one hand.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is it too much to hope that OnSwipe will follow suit and protest SOPA by permanently disabling its functionality on all sites?

</comment><comment><USER9> Brave of them to black-out even the ads...</comment>


Ask PG: Can you release info on how foreign founders can get setup in the US? - <AUTHOR>

Hey Paul or Jessica,
    You don't require YC applicants to be residents or citizens of the US, just have a visa that allows us to travel to the US for at least 3 months. You have invested in many international startups. You released 'standard' series AA documents for everybody to use in angel rounds - http://ycombinator.com/seriesaa.html. Thank you for that.
Knowing how you guys operate, there is a high probability that you have it down to a science - the exact legal steps to make once the foreign founders are ready to start the company in the US. E.g. make sure to register a C corp, not LLC. Register in Delaware, etc. You probably have service providers (possibly even automated) that do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. I know you have said many times that Jessica handles a lot of the legalese, so maybe between you and her you guys could publish exactly what you do to allow a foreign founder to setup a company in the US and conduct business in the US - while living in their home country. Assume the founder is creating a web app, and would like to setup a bank account, merchant account, payment processor, etc.
These little things are important to the company, and can be a major distraction on those trying to build an MVP.
Thanks very much in advance.
- Marc <comment><USER2> I don't think there is anything special you have to do to incorporate in the US if you're not a US citizen. Founders who aren't US citizens just fill out the same forms as the other founders.

Getting a merchant account would probably be more of a pain if you lived abroad. Dealing with merchant accounts seems to be a pain even if you are US citizens, frankly. We don't get involved with that, though; the YC alumni network give one another advice about the best options.

<comment><AUTHOR> Would you recommend, based on your experience, that foreign founders follow this post written by startuplawyer to register a company - [http://thestartuplawyer.com/startup-issues/if-i-launched- a-s...](http://thestartuplawyer.com/startup-issues/if-i-launched-a-startup) ?

Do you have links to the forms that your founders fill out, online? It sometimes can be difficult to wade through all the third-party service providers that want you to use their service instead of going directly to the state.

Forgive me if I am asking so many questions, but I know it might seem trivial to you guys, because you do it so much, but when I was investigating it for myself I was confronted with the question of having an agent based in Delaware. Do I want a local agent? If so, who do I use? Why do I want an agent? Does everybody that registers in Delaware require an agent? Am I better off contacting an attorney in Delaware that can act like an agent for me? What will an agent do? Do I need them to do anything specific, like file yearly returns for me (or is that just an 'upsell')?

I know it might be asking much, but perhaps if you could just spell it out (as dumb as it may sound to you) exactly how your founders setup their companies (and the reasoning behind it), it would help clear up a lot of questions I (and am sure many others) have.

I understand about the merchant account and anything you don't handle. Just curious about what you guys do handle.

Thanks for even responding.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Your best approach might be to survey the YC founders who did it and find out what route they used.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good suggestion.</comment></comment>


Hands on preview of Nvidia's new handheld system that can stream Steam games - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/7/3846624/nvidia-project-shield-hands-on-video-preview

<comment><USER2> A "hands on preview" of a games console where "I didn't get a chance to personally try out gaming with the console"?</comment>


Facebook now 'worth $33 billion' - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7963608/Facebook-now-worth-33-billion.html

<comment><USER2> It's still a much hyped valuation - while facebook's technology, brand and information of its millions of users certainly worth a lot, it's not generating real returns for its investors. Funny how a company can survive solely relying on external funding.</comment>


WorkFlowy – A notebook for lists - <AUTHOR> https://workflowy.com/ <comment><USER2> The best part about this website, is the structurure. Everything is one big tree list - love it.

This article about the bullet journal (with workflowy) is a great inspiration [https://medium.com/@amirmasoudabdol/workflowy- journal-d33405...](https://medium.com/@amirmasoudabdol/workflowy- journal-d33405065d64#.hhrktsmw7)

</comment><comment><USER3> I wrote this article about workflowy and a theme hack a couple of years ago just for fun: [https://domenicoluciani.com/2013/03/20/how-to-change- theme-w...](https://domenicoluciani.com/2013/03/20/how-to-change-theme- workflowy.html)</comment>


Show HN: Chrome extension to view your StackOverflow starred questions - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stackoverflow-starred-vie/cnamfgnggohmnbilcjdnjjahlgkndhmp?hl=en <comment><AUTHOR> I build this about two years ago to solve my own itch. Hopefully you'd find it useful as well.

There are some bugs and missing features. I plan to make some time to work on it more.</comment>


Google responds to Microsoft FUD regarding privacy policy - <AUTHOR> http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2012/02/busting-myths-about-our-approach-to.html

<comment><USER2> FUD? No.

This ain't the Halloween documents, and Google ain't Linux at the turn of the millennium. This is MS trying to take advantage of the (real or perceived) missteps of the incumbent market leader. This is two very large companies fighting it out in public.

The term FUD is intended to prompt an emotional response in geeks that detracts from the conversation; it's unhelpful editorializing. Let's just deprecate the term entirely and move on with discussing the relative merits of these two tech giants claims.

Edit:spelling

</comment><comment><USER3> Why bother though? I mean "fairsearch" and Microsoft? why not just shrug it off like the obvious propaganda it is, nothing good can come out of referencing them.

<comment><AUTHOR> i agree with not feeding the troll, but its a good opportunity to make other clear statement regarding the privacy policy and the tools available to control your data on Google. The latter is really helpful to the consumer so they understand what is available to them, so the more they say it, the better (even if it is as a response to a troll).</comment></comment>


Hybrid Database (TiDB) Capturing Perishable Insights at Yiguo - <AUTHOR> https://www.datanami.com/2018/02/22/hybrid-database-capturing-perishable-insights-yiguo/ <comment><USER2> In this use case, TiDB is used as a real-time data warehouse. This could eliminate the latency in analytics and simply the information management infrastructure.</comment>


The labia minora in soft porn and its social impact on Australia's women [NSFW] - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/9924049

<comment><USER2> When I saw this on hnfirehose, I thought.. great, spam. But after having a look at the video, my eyes have been opened to a whole array of concepts I hadn't thought about before. I doubt this will be good HN front page fare but still, it was intriguing.

<comment><USER3> Care to summarize, or at least provide an outline of the concepts? A lot of us are at work...

<comment><USER4> Because of soft porn censorship in magazines or TV, where the female genitals have to look "nice and tidy" and not too "offensive" (they photoshop them), now a lot of women in Australia are surgically removing the labia minora, and many more feel ashamed with their bodies if they don't do that.</comment></comment></comment>


Win a Tektronix 5 Series MSO Oscilloscope - <AUTHOR> https://info.tek.com/www-5-series-mso-contest-wc.html <comment><USER2> Entries must be received by June 29, 2018 if you read the terms.</comment>


Alpine Linux Docker Image Vulnerability (CVE-2019-5021) - <AUTHOR> https://www.alpinelinux.org/posts/Docker-image-vulnerability-CVE-2019-5021.html <comment><USER2> This is much better source than the TALOS website[0]. Clearly spells down the impact.

Somewhat related, the Alpine Linux security mailing list is currently marked as "inactive". For a distro that calls itself:

"Alpine Linux is a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and busybox."

I find it very weird that there is no way to subscribe to security notifications.

[0]: [https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-20...](https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2019-0782)

</comment><comment><USER3> Same CVE discussed yesterday in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19861725](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19861725)</comment>