Hermes – package manager and deployment tool for Linux - <AUTHOR> https://acha.ninja/blog/introducing_hermes/ <comment><USER2> Looks interesting. My use case for systems like this is a little different. I am often on a work machine with a 10+-year-old Linux distribution and I have to rebuild a totally separate userland in order to be able to use modern tools. This works but it is tedious.

But several of the attempt to use things like NIX for this failed because they require modern kernel APIs for things like namespaces.

<comment><USER3> Yep, I've been there. Tooling around building up these legacy userlands would be nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would generally not see the need, except I spent an hour helping a friend set up a Python dev environment, and it was terrible. The problem wasn't that the env itself was hard to set up, the problem was that it was very hard to figure out which Python it would use, where the packages would go, how to prevent the other four Python versions installed from interfering with it, etc.

This looks pretty great, so I'm probably going to give it a shot. Then again, a script would use a specific/known Python version and create a virtualenv with would also work.

EDIT: Maybe I should write a script that downloads all the necessary files somewhere and creates a virtualenv with a given Python version, a la `curl [https://www.whatever.com/setupvenv.py](https://www.whatever.com/setupvenv.py) | bash`.

<comment><USER5> For the specific problem of easily setting up Python environments, you may wish to look into pipenv: [https://pipenv.pypa.io/en/latest/](https://pipenv.pypa.io/en/latest/)

<comment><USER4> Pipenv is a bit deprecated, Poetry is the current recommendation (and what I use).

<comment><USER6> Pipenv and poetry seems ok, but before those two (and wheel) we use conda and it covers our need.

And this is my top concern when introducing python to new team.

There still no 'single' way to do this.

<comment><USER4> The problem with conda is that it's what broke the machine I was talking about. Apparently it doesn't very much like when you use a package manager other than conda, and things break in subtle ways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I get the comparison to nix and all, but docker does a heck of a lot more than reproducible builds and dependency management. It's also a way to formalize network and other resource access, Perform local dns, automatically control the lifecycle of apps, control logging, etc. the dependencies is just one part.

I appreciate the design goals of the developer as presented here, since simpler programs also tend to perform better and have fewer bugs. The whole dependency management issue is fascinating to read about. I just run everything in docker on Linux and use yum or apt for native bootstrapping of the device (os level firewall, docker, git, Fail2ban, and a couple others). Do people who mostly use containers thru docker or kubernetes find themselves in need of more sophisticated package managers than those built in to the OS?

<comment><USER8> In my experience, most Docker builds are _not_ reproducible, for the generally accepted definition of "produces a build artifact with the same hash".

<comment><USER9> Right, they're not exactly reproducible (and real reproducibility is much cooler), but images solve the main use case (having a clearly defined state) almost as well, at a generally much lower cost.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is very interesting. Does it run as non-root? And out of curiosity, why Janet specifically?

<comment><USER11> I like Janet, and the internals matched well with what I had in mind.

It doesn't require root, though the root mode works a bit better at the moment due to it having better sandboxing, but not fundamentally so.

<comment><USER10> Excellent. Running as non-root is a really nice feature. Depending on how this works, it could potentially be a Homebrew and possibly even Conda alternative. I'm definitely going to try this out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Name kind of overlaps with Hermes the literal packet manager.

<comment><USER13> There is also a JavaScript engine called Hermes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I wonder if Hermes for a digital packet manager will be OK because Hermes is also a company offering packet and parcel delivery and related online services.

<comment><USER15> And since they're often late, tend to lose, misdirect or damage packages ... I'm not sure it's a good choice even if there's no legal issue or the company okays it.

<comment><USER16> Hermes is also far more (?) obviously the Greek messenger of the gods, so any negative associations with an existing company (that AFAICT doesn't even deal with digital products) shouldn't be relevant.

<comment><USER12> But both are package managers.

<comment><USER17> But only one in a literal sense and the other one is just a metaphor. They are very different things. Sure, they have in common the logistics of bundling things together in units and bringing them on track. But the same applies for kindergartens.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> > Build everything from source.

Sigh

<comment><USER19> While i kinda wish mac users would stop trying to give us homebrew, im open minded.

Im curious how this works with linux package managers that already exist, does this work like how the aur and aur helpers layer over pacman but maintain compatibility with the community repos?

<comment><USER20> If it's like Nix and Guix in that regard, it is completely separate from them.</comment></comment></comment>


Eudyptula, or can I turn a question into a statement - <AUTHOR> I'd just like to say the Eudyptula challenge is great fun, for people that wanted to get into custom Linux kernels. I always found FreeBSD a pleasure to compile kernels for, but even the couple of steps I've done so far have given me that 'ah, that's how it fits together' feeling, at least a bit. Highly recommended if you like hacking of kernels etc.
By the end of this I hope to have converted whoever is on the other end to Rust. Once I've converted myself.
http://eudyptula-challenge.org/ (I'm not affiliated) <comment><USER2> This might get more attention if you submitted the URL as a story. You can always add your thoughts as a comment.</comment>


BitBar: put the output from any script/program in your Mac OS X Menu Bar - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/matryer/bitbar <comment><USER2> As my way of playing around with what BitBar can do, I created a Spotify script. Until it's merged you can check out the pull request: [https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/pull/34](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/pull/34)

Shows current track name and artist in menu bar. Shows track/artist/album in dropdown along with play/pause/next/previous buttons.

Raw script here: [https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jtokoph/bitbar/jtokoph- spo...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jtokoph/bitbar/jtokoph- spotify/Plugins/Media/spotify.10s.sh)

<comment><USER3> Very nice, but none of the multiline bits after the pipe works for me (might be Bitbar rather than your script though).

EDIT: The reason for this is the version installed by brew is 1.2, and that bug was fixed in 1.3.1.

<comment><USER4> Can someone help on this? [https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/issues/64](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/issues/64)

<comment><USER3> That's fixed it ... just needed to update brew and do a "brew cask install --force bitbar" to update. Now it's working. Cheers!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Awesome tool! I've always wanted to make menubar apps but never wanted to learn Xcode+ObjectiveC.

Related:

Is there no simple way to get the current temperature for location based off of GeoIP using `curl`?

I had to use this monstrosity to get the current temperature:

        #!/bin/bash

        export PATH='/usr/local/bin:$PATH'

        ansiweather -a off -l 'San Francisco' \
          | cut -d '>' -f 2 \
          | cut -d '-' -f1 \
          | awk '{ print $1 $2 }' \
          | tr -d 'C'

<comment><USER6> You could use OpenWeatherMap's API. Something like this is pure (remove the `&units=imperial` if you prefer Celsius):

        curl -s "http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?zip=$(curl -s ipinfo.io/postal),us&appid=2de143494c0b295cca9337e1e96b00e0&units=imperial" \
          | sed -e 's/\(.*\)temp":\([0-9.]*\),\(.*\)/\2/'

or you could replace the `sed` pipe with a call to `jq`:

        curl really_long_url | jq '.main.temp'

<comment><USER7> > remove the `&units=imperial` if you prefer Celsius

That would get you Kelvin, use `&units=metric` for Celsius

<comment><USER6> Good call! I completely forgot the default units were in Kelvin, and not Celsius.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks very similar to: [http://sveinbjorn.org/platypus/](http://sveinbjorn.org/platypus/) ([http://sveinbjorn.org/files/manpages/PlatypusDocumentation.h...](http://sveinbjorn.org/files/manpages/PlatypusDocumentation.html#235))

BitBar focuses on just the Menu Bar use case though, and does a more polished job than Platypus.

<comment><USER9> Also AnyBar, which displays a coloured dot in the menu bar: [https://github.com/tonsky/AnyBar](https://github.com/tonsky/AnyBar)

Or TextBar, which is a $3 utility: [http://www.richsomerfield.com/apps/](http://www.richsomerfield.com/apps/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I've been using [https://github.com/jaredks/rumps](https://github.com/jaredks/rumps) for this sort of thing.

<comment><USER11> Another vote for rumps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I just wrote a plugin to allow me to set my Network location (we sit behind a corporate proxy at work) AND my bash proxy settings at the same time.

So when I'm not in the office switching to my "home" profile is just a menu click away.

This has been a long standing dream of mine to automate - so thanks!

EDIT: also it works with emojis, which is handy, here's a screenshot [http://imgur.com/CVxchnI](http://imgur.com/CVxchnI)

<comment><USER13> I hope you submitted a pull request!

<comment><USER12> Sadly it's too bespoke to release, I had all the profile switching scripts written already and have been using them for a few years now. On top of updating environment variables with proxy settings etc, they also update a bunch of configuration files for maven, ssh, stunnel etc via symlinks

All this bitbar thing does is call those existing scripts, very simple, but saves me

a) wondering what profile I have enabled (now in the menubar) b) opening a terminal and typing "update-env (work|home)" (one click switch)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Could also use Hammerspoon ([http://www.hammerspoon.org/](http://www.hammerspoon.org/)) for this. It uses Lua but you can invoke processes and modify the toolbar. In addition you can hook into keystrokes, do window management, and all kinds of stuff.

<comment><USER15> and the upcoming 0.9.44 release will be even more flexible for this sort of use, because the process invoking stuff ([http://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.task.html](http://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.task.html) ) will support processes that run indefinitely, so you could do crazy stuff like have a menubar item that shows the most recent line of a log file, or whatever you want :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> In case you made the mistake of choosing a directory with thousands of files as the plugin directory and BitBar getting stuck forever, do this from terminal to reset it:

defaults delete com.matryer.BitBar

<comment><USER17> This should be somewhere in the documentation if it's not already.

<comment><USER16> Done [https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/pull/33/files](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/pull/33/files)

<comment><USER18> It would be good to sumbit a ticket for the original hanging bug as well, if one doesn't already exist.

<comment><USER4> Would this involve a timeout or maximum plugin count? Something like that? Please do open a ticket.

<comment><USER19> Ideally, the scanning process would be asynchronous so that the program would remain responsive and you could retarget it within the app.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is a great idea; looks really practical and easy to extend. Is there a list of more plugins anywhere? There's only a few in the repo: [https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/tree/master/Plugins](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/tree/master/Plugins)

</comment><comment><USER21> This reminds me of geektool [http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/](http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/) which seems like it may have been abandoned? It was one of my favorite tools.

<comment><USER22> A bit more modern and customizable alternative is Übersicht. Widgets are created in HTML5 and CoffeScript.

[http://tracesof.net/uebersicht/](http://tracesof.net/uebersicht/)

<comment><USER23> Last time I checked this tool they didn't support multiple monitors. Is that fixed now?

Also big minus was menu bar icon, such tools don't need one.

<comment><USER22> I only use one though, so I can't say for sure but judging by their blog posts they offer to choose which monitor Ubersicht runs on, but I believe it can't be displayed on multiple monitors at the same time. That's true about the menubar icon, but it doesn't bother me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> For i3, i3blocks does the same job:

[https://github.com/vivien/i3blocks](https://github.com/vivien/i3blocks)

<comment><USER25> Why thank you, I use i3 (i love it) and this will be very useful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> And nobody is restricted to shell scripts. Any program that writes to STDOUT will work.

</comment><comment><USER27> The issue i can see in gnome-shell (on linux) implementations is that long running script can block the UI. Async script execution, on the other hand, exhaust open file resources due to non closed file descriptors. Do OSX tools like this suffer the same problem?

</comment><comment><USER28> I won't be able to get to tinkering with this for a couple weeks, but if it does what it says it does, I've been wanting almost exactly this for a very long time. Thanks for getting it out there.

</comment><comment><USER29> I made something quite similar a while ago for Linux (Cinnamon).

[https://github.com/abgoyal/ShellToolsApplet](https://github.com/abgoyal/ShellToolsApplet) [http://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/136](http://cinnamon- spices.linuxmint.com/applets/view/136)

</comment><comment><USER30> Sweet. Does anyone happen to know if there is something similar for gnome- based environments on Linux ?

<comment><USER31> Conky is great for this sort of thing.

<comment><USER32> I haven't used conky in a while, but can you interact with it now?

I was checking the plugins and some of them allow clicking on items in the dropdown and having an action execute.

The clipboard history now has code for this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> This is fantastic, I wanted to donate - but do not have a Bitcoin wallet. Any other options?

<comment><USER4> You're too kind - these words are enough. But if you insist, I do need some socks :) [http://amzn.to/1Pd9yOt](http://amzn.to/1Pd9yOt)

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I made a Node.js module with a nice API for it to ease plugin creation: [https://github.com/sindresorhus/bitbar](https://github.com/sindresorhus/bitbar)

</comment><comment><USER35> I'm missing something. I have it installed. My plugins are executable. I've Reset. I've changed the folder. But BitBar says "No Plugins Found"

<comment><USER35> Must be a Mac thing. I downloaded the .zip file and the plugins work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Nice. There are already a couple of programs that do this I think, but maybe use AWS CLI to write a plugin for monitoring ec2 instances' status.

</comment><comment><USER37> I almost bought TextBar (www.richsomerfield.com). You for saved me $2.99 and 5 minutes of time. I'm disproportionately grateful for this.

</comment><comment> luke-stanley Anyone know how to do similar for Xfce or LXDE?

<comment><USER38> XFCE has an applet called "generic monitor" that can be used for this.

<comment><USER39> There's also a lightweight menu bar for X11 systems called bar. [https://github.com/LemonBoy/bar](https://github.com/LemonBoy/bar)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Amazing!!!!! Thanks for this :)

</comment><comment><USER41> Very nice. Does anyone have entry points to do the same with gnome 3 ?

<comment><USER27> See this two comments of mine. Perhaps time to study these and make a nice universal, working extension.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10843704](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10843704) [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10841525](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10841525)

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Anyway I can hook up custom keyboard shortcuts to BitBar scripts?

<comment><USER4> Nice idea - you should raise an issue: [https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/issues](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar/issues)

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Very clever approach, I like the simple text-based format.

</comment><comment><USER13> This is awesome. Can't wait to see more plugins.

<comment><USER4> Me too :) We didn't have to wait long - check these out: [https://github.com/matryer/bitbar-plugins](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar- plugins)

Some of them are like full apps in their own right.

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> Anyone know of a solution like this for KDE Plasma?</comment>


Why I love knowing I have high-functioning autism - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11999072/Why-I-love-knowing-I-have-high-functioning-autism.html <comment><USER2> I have such mixed feelings about this sort of diagnosis. I don't for an instant deny that she may well fit the criteria and that autism and aspergers are both very real, but I find the seemingly increasing need for people to have a label, a category, a diagnosis, a reason... disturbing.

ADHD is the classic example of this. Were I school age today I would almost certainly have been given the dual badges of ADHD and aspergers - my brother, who is seven years my junior, is labelled as both. Me, I'm just eccentric.

Why this bothers me is the outcome it can lead to. Having a "reason" for you being as you are leads to self-justification, to complacency at one's station in life. In his case he's medicated and in the eighth year of an undergraduate degree. I finished my masters in two years and founded a startup two years later as I am incapable of sitting still. I _like_ being an undiagnosed creature, as I've ended up finding something that suits those traits in me, rather than suffering from them.

I know this is anecdotal, and this really isn't done diatribe against mental healthcare - plenty genuinely need it - but I worry that too many engage in that funnel out of some misdirected need to conform, and end up losing part of what and who they are.

<comment><USER3> This sure sounds like an argument that the truth can be bad for you.

Maybe having a reason can lead to complacency, but is a person like that going to be a huge success otherwise? With the right attitude, having a reason can lead to better understanding, greater drive, more success.

I don't think it's about having a label. It's about understanding what's going on so you can better accommodate it. Once you have a diagnosis, you automatically have access to a vast wealth of knowledge which can help you to cope.

Think of breaking your leg. Is getting it diagnosed as "broken leg" just a search for a label which will lead to complacency? Are you better off thinking your broken leg is an eccentricity which is some unique part of who you are? Of course not, you want to get it diagnosed as "broken leg" so you can bring all modern medical science to bear on it and get it fixed up so you can heal, and cope with it in the meantime.

Mental disorders are not the same as a broken leg, but they aren't so different, either. I think we'd be better off if we'd stop drawing this fairly arbitrary line between "physical" and "mental" problems.

<comment><USER4> Is it really "truth"? Some call it mental disorder, but really, it's just another position on the bell curve and could just as well be labelled as another aspect of personality. When 11 percent of population have ADHD I can't say it's a disorder with a straight face.

<comment><USER5> Something like 8% of men (~5% of population overall) are colorblind, do you object to calling that a disorder? If not, what's the cutoff: anything over 10%? Myopia is up to 30%, does that make it not a disorder?

<comment><USER6> Clearly defining a psychological disorder is far more nuanced than colorblindness and myopia, and there is good reason to believe certain of them are diagnosed too frequently. We can acknowledge this without denying the existence of psychological disorders.

<comment><USER7> It becomes a disorder when it's detrimental to regular life. Many who have ADHD are incredibly frustrated at their apparently lack of willpower. It's not the rest of society pressuring them to come closer to the norm, they want to get themselves to the norm too. Perhaps it is overdiagnosed and overmedicated in some settings, (I realize you're trying to get conversation away from the more black and white physical conditions... myopia has always seemed a good analogy though, so I'm going to continue using it temporarily) but you wouldn't tell a shortsighted person that they're not that far off of the bell curve, just squint your eyes once in a while to make up for missing detail.

<comment><USER6> I was aware of this definition, and I have sympathy for those who are frustrated with some of their personality traits. Nevertheless, I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that this frustration could arise because of circumstance, rather than as the result of some "organic" problem with the person. The idea is that it's more of a mismatch between the person and his or her environment, rather than a problem with one or the other.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I used to teach in special education environments. Specifically I've had experience with high to mid functioning kids on the autism spectrum in science and mathematics.

While I can appreciate the sentiments of folks that may find this sort of thing recognizable because of those who are self-diagnosing across the Internet (which is not a new trend BTW), I'm inclined to believe this isn't the appropriate forum for that.

I too thought this may have been something of less note or of the aforementioned tone until I got the opportunity to read the post in its entirety.

> _The me that felt an overwhelming terror at the idea of travelling on the > tube or getting into a lift. The me that didn't claim child benefit for any > one of my four children simply because the idea of filling in a form was too > much._

> _No one saw the me that would spend 14 hours straight, focused on a project, > forgetting to dress. The me that felt an overwhelming terror at the idea of > travelling on the tube or getting into a lift._

> _I was told I have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a rare genetic connective > tissue disorder, which affects pretty much every part of my body, causing > gastroparesis – where the digestive system simply shuts down – knees that > dislocate and autonomic issues, including difficulty in regulating > temperature and heart rate._

Having sat in on meetings where parents, and their children, are given the opportunity to identify with a particular condition, I can tell you that this is a profound experience, not to be taken lightly.

Being able to have a direction to go towards in identifying IEPs that may lead their child towards a different and more successful path in their lives doesn't involved "mixed feelings." This isn't limited to education.

I have no doubt this is _profoundly_ true for adults who have the capacity to discover and explore their own route toward their feelings of betterment and belonging in this world.

</comment><comment><USER9> As a certified psychologist with the authority to diagnose autism in one of my practicing states, I'd be highly interested in meeting with this woman. I find it very unlikely that she could make it through 46 years, marrying, having children, working jobs, generally getting by with high functioning autism.

Having worked with countless children and adults who have / had Aspergers (no longer exists as of DSM-V) and other degrees of autism, stories like hers don't add up. There's a good chance that her psychologist did what many psychologists do today: misdiagnose. Her story does not include one piece of solid evidence that something is seriously abnormal.

That's not to say she does not have autism, but there would have to be a glaring issue with her social, behavioral, or mental functioning, which likely would've prevented her from living a relatively normal life for so many years.

Just because we fit criteria or because we have problems in our lives, it does not mean that we have to give our issues a name. If there's a particular problem, then seek help to alleviate it and stop boxing ourselves into these qualifications and descriptors that essentially mark as fixedly abnormal.

<comment><USER10> I probably shouldn't argue with a certified psychologist, but I think you need to broaden your horizons, or at least open your mind to the possibilities.

Except for a few nuances, this article could've been written about a woman friend of mine. She was diagnosed with Asperger's 2 years ago (by a west coast expert), at the age of 46, but she'd known her whole life she was different, without being able to adapt. She could go to regular school, but was made to read books by herself because she was ahead of the class and responded inappropriately when called. She had definite stimming behaviors when anxious or excited, on top of being physically clumsy and socially awkward. She was bullied in school, ostracized, even verbally abused by her parents ("can't you just behave normally like other kids?"). All of these left lasting trauma that could've been prevented by an earlier diagnosis, but there was no awareness of high-functioning autism when and where she grew up.

After smoking a lot of pot to cope in her teens, in her 20s she found work with animals and then computers, both of which she understands better than she understands humans. She took speech classes to be more confident and understand how others could talk in public. Over time, she was able to minimize her outwardly visible traits, such as the stimming. With financial success she was able to live independently and seemingly normally. But then a bad marriage sent her into a depression, and her psychologists gave her many diagnoses (including bi-polar) and prescribed many different drugs. None of them worked long term because the root of her depression was the Asperger's, not a traditional depression (for lack of a better term). Again, not being diagnosed with Asperger's led to many needless pharmaceuticals and suffering.

Once out of the bad marriage, she got better though she attributes it to the dozen or so supplements she takes (research on the Internet and self- medication). She met and married someone else that was good for her, and had a child. She herself now says that was a mistake, because she cannot cope with the constant attention and neediness--and she's lucky because her child has less Asperger's traits than she does. With aging and stress of family life, she says her Asperger's traits are coming back. She feels more anxious, she's claustrophobic again, she has trouble with people again, for example meeting with her child's teachers, and I've seen her have a regular tantrum when something went wrong.

Noise such as beeping machinery bothers her, and so do fluorescent lights because she can see the flicker in them. When she's having a bad day, all of her senses are heightened and over-sensitive to the point of pain (her description). She tried homeschooling, but she got in horrible fights with her child. That's when she finally got diagnosed (just when Asperger's was dropped from the DSM-V), and now she mentions her diagnosis to the people she interacts with regularly, to explain why for example she can't talk to a teacher in a classroom with fluorescent lights and lots of noise. So even though the diagnosis doesn't change anything and there is no medicine that can make her better, it has really helped her explain to herself and others how and why she is the way she is. It might also prevent misdiagnosis in the future.

Sorry for the long anecdote, but I really wanted to give you another example of high functioning autistic person that seems totally normal and issue-free from the outside (or at least used to be--she's losing friends now that she has more outbursts again). Yet knowing her story and her diagnosis, I can see how Asperger's has colored her life and often not in a beneficial way. And often it was the lack of diagnosis in those times 40 and 20 years ago that led to situations that hurt her (ostracized by her parents with resulting trauma, mistreated and mis-medicated for depression).

And just because the lady in the article doesn't talk about the negative side of her Asperger's, doesn't mean there isn't one. Like my friend, the negative aspects are private and sometimes traumatic. One more thing: the person pictured in that article looks strikingly similar to my friend: thin lips with an unnatural smile, bad hair, poor makeup and slightly off-style clothes (all poorly imitated social graces). I know it's totally unscientific, but I often notice that people with Asperger's (those I know diagnosed, and others I suspect undiagnosed) have trouble smiling artificially for a camera. My friend said she noticed her awkward smiles in pictures and learned how to consciously smile for the camera.

So especially as a professional in your field, I wish you wouldn't be so dismissive of Asperger's individuals, it doesn't help them in any way. Asperger's, or high functioning on the autism spectrum as we should say now, is a strange thing. It's a collection of many possible deviations from normal, and not every person diagnosed has all of them, yet there is a certain unmistakable blend of behaviors and reactions, sensory sensitivities, social inability, and mind-blindness (lack of theory of mind). Yet the high- functioning individual can mimic or even learn coping behavior that hides some of these (usually not all at once). It doesn't mean they enjoy doing so, or don't have the underlying issue anymore. In fact, my friend says she is physically exhausted at the end of a successful parent-teacher conference just from needing to think so much about how to behave and fit in--and stressing about it.

<comment><USER9> While I appreciate your story, have you considered that you misread my post? It's the only way I can explain the myriad straw-men in yours.</comment></comment></comment>


Robots.txt is a suicide note - <AUTHOR> http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Robots.txt "Archive Team interprets ROBOTS.TXT as damage and temporary madness, and works around it. Everyone should. If you don't want people to have your data, don't put it online." <comment><USER2> This is composed from equals parts of insight and daftness, though not entirely for the right reason.

The daftness: maybe the claim is true that robots.txt was only a stop-gap measure back when web servers sucked, however the _de facto_ modern use for it goes far beyond that, and ignoring that standard is likely to piss off lots of people.

The insight: for crawlers, relying on robots.txt to prevent getting stuck indexing infinite hierarchies of data is a bad idea. It should be able to figure that much out for itself, so it doesn't explode when faced with sites that don't exclude such hierarchies using robots.txt.

For servers, relying on a client hint to ensure reliability is daft. It should have some form of rate limiting built in, as that's the only sensible design. This seems the only marginally sensible use of robots.txt from a server standpoint. Using it for any form of security (e.g. preventing DB scraping) is daft, and a more robust mechanism should be employed there too.

<comment><USER3> Archiveteam member here. Robots.txt is useful for a site to avoid having search-engine spiders to blindly wander down an infinite hallway.

Archiveteam projects are different because we run closely-monitored, highly targeted crawls. If a site has an infinite hallway in it, we'll notice that and exclude it while taking steps to replicate enough of it to retain its valuable attributes. We also do our best to avoid retrieving content more times than necessary. If you operate a database, we try to get enough pages to replicate a good portion of the underlying data.

<comment><USER4> You do try to contact the "targets" sometimes though?

<comment><USER5> Sure. We ask them to give us database dumps, when they refuse, for some crazy reason, we just download their website.

<comment><USER6> I can't say I approve of the "if the crazy fools won't give us what we want, we'll just take it some other way" attitude.

As the "some crazy reason" might be that the database contains data that is not publicly addressable for a reason and sanitising the data-set could be non-zero effort operation, letting you crawl the public pages and do some work at your side would be the sensible route from most points of view. Heck, even if there is definitely not anything not already displayed to the public in the DB, letting you go ahead and get the information the hard way is likely to be preferable to lifting a finger to send you a DB dump.

Sort of like a cat's attitude to playing fetch: You want it? You go get it. I've got more important things to do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The great things about 'robots.txt' are (1) it's the simplest thing that could possibly work; and (2) the default assumption in the absence of webmaster effort is 'allow'.

(2) is immensely valuable. Without it, search engines and the largest archive of web content, the Internet Archive (where I work on web archiving), could not exist at their current scales, as a practical matter.

There's a place for ArchiveTeam's style of in-your-face, adversarial archiving... but if it were the dominant approach, the backlash from publishers and the law could result in prevailing conventions that are much worse than robots.txt, such as a default-deny/always-ask-permission-first regime. Search and archiving activities would have to be surreptitious, or limited to those with much deeper pockets for obscuring their actions, requesting/buying permission, or legal defenses.

So, Jason, be careful what you wish for.

</comment><comment><USER8> I disagree with this post almost as strongly as I agree with it.

Robots.txt _is_ a suicide note. It's utter short-sighted hubris to say "this is MY information and I don't want you spidering it". Are you volunteering to maintain that information forever? Are you promising to never go out of business? Never be ordered to remove it by the government? Never be bought out by Oracle?

Right now there seems to be a lot of confusion over the morality of information. People are possessed by the strange idea that you, mister content provider, own that content and have an inalienable right to control it any way you can get away with. But someday you will die, and your company will die, just like Geocities, Google Video, and the Library of Alexandria. Society should have a right to keep that information after you're gone.

Of course, the law disagrees. And without the efforts of criminals like geohot, the iPhone DevTeam, The Nomad, Muslix64 and, yes, The Archive Team, people of the future will have no way to access the information we've locked up through our own paranoia. You don't have to cast your mind to a thousand years in the future - it's happening right now. Vast swathes of data are disappearing as DRM servers go dark only a few years after they appear (thanks, MSN Music, Yahoo Music Store).

I believe that we owe it to our descendants to give them access to their history. I believe it's not our decision whether the things we make are too valuable or too uncomfortable to be preserved. And I believe that robots.txt is a suicide note, a product of the diseased minds that think our short-term desire for control outweighs our legacy.

But I don't know what the fuck the article's talking about. It seems to be making a bunch of points that don't matter. Use robots.txt to prevent technical problems if you like, I don't care. Just don't use it to stop people from crawling your content or you're shitting on the future.

<comment><USER9> While I'm sure the "content provider" would disagree, in many cases it's perfectly legal to make a copy of their content - the laws in place only prevent redistribution for a certain time period.

Personally, I'd be ecstatic if there was some organization set up that is manufacturing high-quality archive copies of books, music, film and the like, and storing them with the date of initial publication, as well as the date they will enter public domain (where it is known - not the case for living authors) in various locales. Then have a site live-tracking the release of that content.

There's a site that keeps getting linked every year that posts things that would be public domain this year were it not for US copyright extensions, and something like that with accurate PD status and archive copies would be marvelous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The rationale is weak. Some data is simply not worth indexing, and not worth serving up to bots. The flipside is: your crawler doesn't need to fetch everything on my site, and I'd be happy to ban all non-conforming bots site- wide.

It's not _just_ about the functionality, but also a show of good faith and basic respect. If you're a bot author who knowingly violates my site policy I'd rather you didn't communicate with my web server at all.

robots.txt isn't perfect. Ideally a web server would be configured to deny bots access to restricted content via some sort of dnsbl mechanism (or CPAN/whatever module.) Or do both and ban the non-conforming site-wide.

The above notwithstanding, I'm voting for this article. It doesn't betray the usual cowardice by hiding the assertion behind the presumptuous _Why_.

<comment><AUTHOR> "Some data is simply not worth indexing, and not worth serving up to bots."

The broader points being made in the article are that the value of information is determined by the visitor, and that the burden of keeping the site up and running should fall on the host.

By that reasoning, the presence of a ROBOTS.TXT signifies "damage" or "temporary madness", and should therefore be ignored.

Also, keep in mind where this article came from - the Archive Team are bloody- minded about preserving information.

<comment><USER11> OK, wait.

If the data has value to the user, shouldn't the user be paying the host for the cost of making that data available (or perhaps considerably more, if it has a lot of value to the user)?

<comment><USER5> Excellent. How much are you paying ycombinator for your account?

If the answer is "nothing", then I guess you've just told me that all your comments are useless, and I should ignore them.

<comment><USER5> I'm committing the classic mistake of talking about the karma system here, but what, precisely, is wrong with my statement?

Drivingmenuts says the user should pay for hosting data. HN is hosting his data, but he doesn't pay for it. Is there some error in my logic, here, some flaw in my conclusion?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This may be a dumb move from a legal perspective. Court cases have alluded that robots.txt files may count as technological measures in DMCA cases[1]. Granted, that's far from guaranteed. But I certainly wouldn't want to be the one to go to court over it.

[1] [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070819090725314&#...</a>

<comment><USER10> While I think the AT stance amounts to arrogance more than anything, enforcing compliance with robots.txt with law is absurd and unjust. To the best of my knowledge it's not a part of the HTTP standards or codified in any law.

<comment><USER13> Think of the potential alternatives. One is everything can be crawled with no way for the site owner to say "no, please don't crawl this."

The other major one is to legally bar all crawling without express permission.

The current de facto world - crawling is OK unless robots.txt says otherwise - is pretty nice. If we want that to be a legal defense in court ("You didn't put up a robots.txt, so my indexing was legal, so you can't sue me."), which seems useful, then the necessary flipside of that is that violating robots.txt exposes the crawler to liability. That's a tradeoff I'm perfectly willing to accept to allow the web, and necessary services such as indexers and crawlers, to work while still allowing publishers to have some reasonable control over their content distribution.

I seem to remember one of the writers at Search Engine Land presenting a nice description of the robots.txt request in contract negotiation terms. Something like this:

 _Archiver:_ "Are there any limits on what I can archive or index from your site?" (translation: GET /robots.txt)

 _Site:_ "Nope." (translation: 404 Not Found)

or

 _Site:_ "Yep, here they are." (translation: 200 OK followed by restrictions in robots.txt format)

So, by asking for /robots.txt, the crawler can be construed as asking permission to index, and the response setting up the terms of indexing. That seems like a _really_ useful defense and sane compromise in this age of "indexing so you can drive search users to our content is copyright infringement."

[EDIT: fix formatting]

<comment><USER14> I guess the first alternative seems like the more sane one to me, as far as legality goes. Website-crawling policies don't seem like the kind of thing that rises to the level where it's worth involving courts and laws, so I'd leave it to technological mechanisms plus voluntary compliance with non- technological mechanisms. But I suppose I have a pretty high bar for what problems are severe enough to require a government solution.

And pragmatically, the vast majority of the non-robots.txt-respecting crawls I see are coming from countries that won't enforce such laws anyway, so enforcing them in western countries seems like a downside (more entanglement between the internet and various countries' national laws) with little upside (won't stop many crawls).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This is a childish argument based upon an attitude "don't use robots.txt because it interferes with what we do and what we do is aw3s0m3 l337". This attitude is also prevailing in the archiveteam's comments here. I doubt their actions can be taken seriously.

I wonder how this made into 88 votes here on HN..

</comment><comment><USER16> The Archiveteam.org favicon is a hand making a rude gesture. I think that sums up many peoples opinion to this story.

It certainly is an indicator of how seriously you should take this organisation.

<comment><USER17> Am I missing something? It looks to me like it's making a 'stop', with the hand held up and flat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Their attitude can be summed up as "it's on the internet, it's ours to take". Ok, oversimplified, but that's the essence, no?

So, dear archiveteam, please remember that when I put a server on the internet, it's a voluntary and public service, and putting 'Disallow:' lines in the robots.txt means that I set some rules. It's just rude to ignore those rules, whatever you motivations are.

You have no right to access my content, just as you have no right to walk into my house. If I invite you, please behave.

<comment><USER14> The analogies here always end up all over the map, but the walking-into-a- house one seems pretty off. The service is set up for anonymous public access, run by an automated process designed to service requests, and faces a public thoroughfare. If we have to make IRL analogies, that sounds closer to a vending machine or other kiosk on the side of a road. In _that_ case, you probably wouldn't have much faith in whether people will follow any instructions you tape to the machine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sorry, but this is terrible advice. Yes, you should make sure your site won't break if it's slammed by a large crawl. Yes you should hide destructive actions behind posts, not gets. But, robots.txt is insanely useful. If I didn't have a robots.txt file, google/bing/yahoo would index countless repetitive non-important files and my site would suffer in search engine ranking. In our case, we host GPX/KML files and textual cuesheets for driving and biking. If that stuff is indexed, our sites' relevant keywords are "left", "right" and GPS timestamp fragments like "0z01".

So, use it wisely, but don't abandon its usage altogether.

</comment><comment><USER20> robots.txt is simple and effective.

I do not want certain bots, especially so-called "archives" to automatically download all my content. And that's what robots.txt is for and works well.

The article is just stupid, sorry. There is not one real knowledgable argument.

<comment><USER21> _that's what robots.txt is for and works well_

Robots.txt doesn't stop anyone doing anything, it is simply a policy. Bots either respect it or they do not. Archiveteam.org have indicated that they wish to join the side of the spammers and incompetent spider authors.

<comment><USER22> are you confusing archive.org and archiveteam?

<comment><USER21> Thanks, fixed. Actually I was not, that was a typo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Wow. What arrogance.

A Good reason to honeypot if you aren't already.

It's expected. It's polite. Respect the site owner's published policy or expect to get IP banned like any other script kiddie because when a site admin see you ripping content, he isn't thinking "yay! archive team is here to do a free backup!" he thinks you are stealing his shit.

</comment><comment><USER24> I love the tone of this article, I was smiling the whole time. Especially here-

 _the onslaught of some social media hoo-hah_

edit: just clicked through a few pages- whoever does the writing at Archiveteam is fantastic!

<comment><USER25> Jason Scott, very distinctive voice. Maker of the BBS Documentary, etc. Engaging public speaker too; lots of good examples on his wikipedia page: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Scott_Sadofsky>

<comment><USER5> Point of order: A bunch of us[1] maintain the wiki. Jason just does the big, visible things, and is thus big and visible.

<http://ascii.textfiles.com/> is his personal blog, and is as profanity-ridden as you would expect.

1: <http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=IRC_Channel>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I wonder if honeypots that auto-block rogue crawlers have occurred to these yoyos.

<comment><USER5> We typically use wget running on consumer machines. This isn't like the spider farm of a typical search engine, with hundreds of machines consuming gigabytes/second of bandwidth. AT hits are specific and targeted.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> BTW, robots.txt disables access to versions of pages already archived on the Wayback Machine. I encountered this when looking for old technotes on developer.apple.com.

<comment><USER28> The wayback machine is the only reason I use robots.txt:

        User-agent: ia_archiver
        Disallow: /

There is no good reason to let old (and possibly embarrassing) website designs distract from the current version of your website.

<comment><USER7> Few users prefer the archived versions; only when they need information that has disappeared (or is temporarily unavailable) do they try the Wayback Machine.

Many, many web designers are delighted to be able to see their old creations – or even recover past work from the Archive when all other copies are lost to organizational upheaval and system problems.

Finally, note that by blocking archiving, you're opting out of history. Those who look back to see the web of today won't see your contributions. Alternatives, competitors, and other projects that are open to archiving will be seen and vividly remembered. Being invisible to the future may be OK for your projects, but many others prefer to part of the shared memory.

(FYI: I work on web archiving at the Internet Archive.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I feel like creating a honey pot for bad bots now. Put an exclude line in ROBOTS.TXT and then include that URL in my pages and when a bot hits it anyways, ban the IP.

<comment><USER30> How would you know if the robot is autonomous or not? They could just use a typical browser user-agent and you wouldn't know...

<comment><USER31> Hide the link from users?

<comment><USER32> I seem to remember there being a thread on HN about spam bot scraping for email addresses, and some of them are sophisticated enough that they can even determine if an element has been hidden through rules applied via an external CSS file.

<comment><USER33> Link a 1 pixel image and stick it in the bottle left hand corner? While someone could click on it, it is extremely unlikely.

IIRC, technically you can have a 0 pixel image in some formats (gif) though I imagine some browsers won't like that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I don't really understand why they compare the Robots.txt file to a suicide note. Could anyone explain this?

<comment><USER4> ArchiveTeam mostly flashmob archives sites that are going to die an rm -rf / death, or atleast kill their users content.

Like Geocities, Yahoo! Video, Google Video, Friendster

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> No, it is about not being willing to waste bandwidth and server capacity on unworthy projects (no person will ever search for my site through baidu but it still being indexed).

Google and archive.org is one thing, I will be happy to support them.

</comment><comment><USER36> So a little while ago we had a story which was essentially: "promote your startup / website by causing maximum outrage! Outrage is good! YAY PISSING PEOPLE OFF!"

Now we get a non-story which is essentially designed to piss off the people of HN. Looking forward to more of the same given it works.

</comment><comment><USER37> Well, sure, robots.txt is not the best solution, but it works and helps a lot when you got msnbot or yandexbot that takes more than half of the requests of your mediawiki (differences between revisions), your gitweb (commitdiffs) or your phpBB installation and kills the performance...

Bored of having our machine killed by those bots, we use some robots.txt.

Sure, there are other solutions (proper blocking), but this one works perfectly fine and avoids having to modify 3rd party applications that we are running for an open-source development team.

</comment><comment><USER38> The only thing I have ever used robots.txt for is to stop from leaking pagerank. I have a folder called /redirect/ and i exclude that folder in my robots.txt. I then link to sites like this /redirect/?l=www.mysite.com

Anything I don't want archived, I put behind a login wall.

</comment><comment><USER39> Some parameter are useful, but they are not part of the standard.

e.g. Crawl-Delay, prevent DDOS from YAHOO! Slurp

<comment><USER40> Is Yahoo! Slurp still active? I thought they turned it off when they switched to using Bing search results on Yahoo!

<comment><USER39> I don't think so. I still receive a lot of requests from Yahoo! Slurp / Yahoo! Slurp China this month.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Dear "archiveteam", I pay by the MB. How do I opt out of your shit? KTHXBYE

<comment><USER5> Don't accept user-generated content. Failing that, never go down, and never announce that you're shutting down.

<comment><USER42> Or, if you do, hand over the data in a nicely archivable form, and prevent the need for crawlers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> _shrug_

Things like /search?q= are in my robots.txt because crawling those pages is just a waste of everyone's time and resources.

</comment><comment><USER44> Then you should block their crawler :)</comment>


There's a startup that's building the AI from 'Her' - <AUTHOR> http://futurism.com/theres-a-startup-thats-building-the-ai-from-her/ <comment><USER2> What made you decide to go to a standalone device? A high-end phone would have the capability to get MVP</comment>


Sprint and T-Mobile Aiming to Reach Merger Deal Next Week - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2018/04/26/sprint-tmobile-merger-deal-next-week/ <comment><USER2> oh for fucks sake. Can we not?</comment>


Show HN: I made an Android app that makes picking photos easier - <AUTHOR> https://www.dropbox.com/s/x4uwdrz16hesx2z/photo%20picker.rar?dl=0 <comment><AUTHOR> Have you ever taken a bunch of photos and had to go through them to see which one is the best? Well this app will help you do just that!</comment>


Time-resolved 2M-year-old supernova activity found in Earth's microfossil record - <AUTHOR> http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9232.abstract <comment><USER2> For those curious, this supernova is unfortunately too old to find the supernova remnant that was left behind. The most famous SNRs are Cas A [1] and M1/the Crab Nebula [2].

When the core of a massive star collapses, the resulting explosion launches the rest of the star surrounding the core outwards. Near to the star, this explosion proceeds as an unimpeded free expansion for a few hundred years, but the ejecta eventually impacts the gas between the stars, the interstellar medium. The ejecta then goes through two phases, an adiabatic phase (ie can't efficiently radiate away the heat) and radiative phase (ie can efficiently radiate away the heat). The adiabatic phase ends after around a couple ten thousand years, and the radiative phase ends after a few hundred thousand. As the remnant evolves, the gas becomes cooler and less dense, until eventually it's indistinguishable from the rest of the interstellar medium. So, if this supernova occurred around 2 million years ago, we shouldn't be able to observe the remnant. A shame!

[1] [https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050615.html](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050615.html) [2] [https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150816.html](https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150816.html)

<comment><USER3> I understand it is possible to observe reflections of large supernova level events. A possibility?

<comment><USER4> I didn't know about this. Googled and found the Wikipedia about light echoes. Very neat.

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

<comment><USER5> Seems like black holes could have this same effect on light from supernovas due to gravitational lensing. In fact, there should be some part of the area around a black hole in which the lensing effect bends light 180 degrees. With a big enough telescope we could observe our own solar system as it was thousands of years ago.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> FYI: Supernova link to ancient extinction [2002] [http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2002/feb/13/superno...](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2002/feb/13/supernova- link-to-ancient-extinction)

<comment><USER7> So that article also mentions this Fe60, and the same time window. What did the recent article add? Is it "just" a confirmation of the hypothesis?

<comment><USER8> The 2002 article mentions that the radioisotope was found in the crust. The new article mentions that the radioisotope was found in a biologically- produced magnetite crystal. I think that the general thesis is that -- yes, we are made of star stuff (that the supernova material deposited on Earth has seen verified biological uptake).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Here is a link to the full html article [1] and the pdf [2] The links are a bit hard to find from the abstract page. The html version has some messed up formatting but the pdf is fine. The DOI is: 10.1073/pnas.1601040113

[1] [http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9232.full](http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9232.full) [2] [http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9232.full.pdf](http://www.pnas.org/content/113/33/9232.full.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER10> What does time resolved mean here?

<comment><USER11> I believe it means dated, meaning they were able to determine roughly how old those atoms are, presumably based on the age of the sediment in which it was found.

<comment><USER12> Here time resolved means not just dated, but having a definitive "shape" through time (the temporal analog to "resolving" an astronomical object to more than just a single pixel). As others have pointed out, supernova derived Fe-60 merely 'dating' to 2 million years ago was already known.[1]

Supporting quote from the abstract:

>Our results show that the (60)Fe signal onset occurs around 2.6 Ma to 2.8 Ma, near the lower Pleistocene boundary, terminates around 1.7 Ma, and peaks at about 2.2 Ma.

[1] [http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2002/feb/13/superno...](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2002/feb/13/supernova- link-to-ancient-extinction)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Could someone describe what it's like to live on earth during a (close) supernova ? Why can this event trigger an extinction ?

<comment><USER14> Related what-if: [https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/73/)

<comment><USER15> But it wouldn't help answering the question, because a supernova doesn't just eject the neutrinos, it's the intentionally "illogical" question for what-if that is answered there.

For the answer to the question "what it's like to live on earth during a (close) supernova" the starting point is here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near- Earth_supernova](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_supernova)

If it's "roughly less than 10 to 300 parsecs (30 to 1000 light-years) away" it will "have noticeable effects on its biosphere."

"It is estimated that a Type II supernova closer than eight parsecs (26 light- years) would destroy more than half of the Earth's ozone layer."

"Type Ia supernovae are thought to be potentially the most dangerous if they occur close enough to the Earth. Because Type Ia supernovae arise from dim, common white dwarf stars, it is likely that a supernova that could affect the Earth will occur unpredictably and take place in a star system that is not well studied."

<comment><USER15> And, for an idea of how many such stars we see, the list of visible stars not farther than 50 light years:

[http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/50lys.html](http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/50lys.html)

"This is a map of every star within 50 light years visible with the naked eye from Earth. There are 133 stars marked on this map." "There are roughly 1400 star systems within this volume of space containing 2000 stars, so this map only shows the brightest 10% of all the star systems, but most of the fainter stars are red dwarfs."

<comment><USER16> Is there a comprehensive list of ALL stars within 50/100/200/etc light years?

<comment><USER15> [http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star- catalog/cns3.html](http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/star- catalog/cns3.html)

"Gliese Catalog of Nearby Stars, 3rd Edition, contains all known stars as of 1991 that are within 25 parsecs of the Sun."

(25 pc == 81 ly) Only 213 KB gzipped, I count less than 4000 lines total.

Since then there were new satellites which collected much more total stars, and the coming will collect even more, but I don't know how the near stars are affected (probably less).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Just like in classic sci-fi Dragon's Egg. Supernova happens at the same time hominims begin to become human.

</comment><comment><USER10> If this is what killed the dinosaurs this seems like really bad news. Being on Mars won't really be putting our eggs in multiple baskets then.

<comment><USER18> The signal is about 800 Million Years Long, it shows a slow seeding of Earth with Fe60. It has nothing to do with dinosaurs.</comment></comment>


Nuke'em Till They Glow – Quitting My First Job - <AUTHOR> http://steveblank.com/2010/07/12/nukeem-till-they-glow-%e2%80%93-quitting-my-first-job/ <comment><USER2> Very interesting. I remember hearing a story from someone that worked on a nuclear reactor on an aircraft carrier. They did the same radiation checks on the carrier, and it turned out that people out in the sun received more radiation than the people working inside on the reactor.

<comment><USER3> The OP received about 5 rems - equivalent to eating about 500 bananas (a BED of 500) - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_equivalent_dose>

<comment><USER4> Why are you being upvoted?

From your link: "The equivalent dose for 365 bananas (one per day for a year) is 3.6 millirems (36 μSv)."

500 bananas is 5 millirems. Try 500k.

<comment><USER3> My guess is that my recollection, connection, and linking to the concept of the BED is being upvoted more than my math abilities.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think navy nuclear culture has changed quite a bit for the better since then. All of the officers and petty officers I have talked to are at least as conscious of rad safety as the civilian techs.

On the radiology and nuclear medicine side, air force and navy techs seem a lot more rad safety conscious than the army people I have met.

<comment><USER6> I read that in the exact opposite way.

Having whoever screwed up worst buy everyone else beer each week strikes me as a very good way to shame that person, and encourage people to try to avoid being that guy.

Yes, it is done in a joking manner, and it is accepted that everyone will be that guy some time. But I know how I'd react.

<comment><USER7> Sounds like something that I have seen/heard at a couple of dev shops. Break the build, buy doughnuts for your team. Not too expensive so as to ruin the person, but enough of a token that you think about what you're doing.

<comment><USER6> Another variation from <http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html>, item 3, break the build, it is now your job to shepherd the daily build until someone else breaks it.

<comment><USER8> That actually seems a lot more severe a form of punishment than buying donuts. Release management can be a full-time gig.

(Aside: how many articles was Joel planning on writing when he came up with that URL scheme? Crikey.)

<comment><USER6> _That actually seems a lot more severe a form of punishment than buying donuts. Release management can be a full-time gig._

Some teams want everyone to be familiar with how they do it. If that is your goal, you have to pick the unlucky person in some way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Knew a professor long ago who had worked for the AEC out on Long Island when a student. Some of the scientists would tune a cyclotron by putting an eye behind the target and waiting for the retina to light up, she said. She also said that a number had developed cataracts at an early age.

</comment><comment><USER10> I worked at a nuclear plant during a college internship and can vouch for the strange attitude toward radiation exposure. There were guys who would work outages every year, receive their annual rad dose in a few months, and make enough money to take the rest of the year off. Then back next year to do it again. The max dose of 5 rem is about 20x the cosmic background - so 20 yrs of radiation in a year! I chose a different career soon after figuring that out.

<comment><USER11> It is all relative to where you are. People in Ramsar, Iran get a daily does of about 5 rems. See this paper <http://www.jpands.org/vol13no2/luckey.pdf>

Radiation can widely vary and very little is known about low dose radiation. The nuclear industry follows a rule called ALARA As Low As Reasonaobly Achievable which really just allows for these strict minimums. There is little proof that 5 rems will actually cause a higher probability of cancer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> _you try fixing a sodium-iodide scintillation detector without a manual_

More like, you try finding a sodium-iodide scintillation detector that HAS a manual!

Another great story, thanks for posting.

<comment><USER13> After having spent quite a few years around not so well funded labs I can assure you that any piece of equipment older than a decade that still posesses a manual is a rare sight indeed.

<comment><USER14> I always thought there must be some black market somewhere where someone is buying all these old manuals..... (visions of a wannabe Bond villain)

<comment><USER15> It's run by PHBs that get angry because your office is "messy" and "has too many things in it", I swear.

/bitter

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The '5 Rem per year' allowance was set on faulty logic. It is all based on the linear no-threshold theory which took the acute radiation exposures from the Nagasaki and Hiroshima detonations and linearly projected them down to such small amounts as 5 rem. This is in essence saying that if 100% of people would die from jumping of a 100 ft building then 1% of people would die from jumping off a 1 ft ledge.

Professor Emeritus Bernard L. Cohen of Pittsburgh University has a lot to say on the matter: <http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/>

<comment><USER4> Consider if we'd only ever seen one person jump from a building, but it was from 10,000 feet.

(Consider, also, that some might not find 'fall distance' a reasonable analog to radiation relative to other options like 'head trauma induced by soccer ball'.)

<comment><USER11> There have been extensive studies into radiation exposure. From Navy nukes to Japan's survivors (which are numerous), there's a ton of data but we are dealing with a hypothesis that cannot be proved one way or the other. Low dose radiation's effects appear to be negligible, but just in case we adhere to the linear no threshold theory. This is fine, except for when it is abused and cited to stop progress.

<comment><USER4> > This is fine, except for when it is abused and cited to stop progress.

This is a more reasonable stance than the blanket 'radiation regulation is silly', but I hesitate to award it too many points - it's hardly a big step to say you're against abuse and for progress. You can have progress and prevent abuse while adhering to (potentially overly) strict safety regulations.

(I may also balk at your stark claim of unverifiability - radiation damage is pretty demonstrable.)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Telescopic – A virtual reality telescope simulator - <AUTHOR> https://unimersiv.com/course.php?id=20

<comment><AUTHOR> It looks amazing... "When you look into the telescope, you'll potentially see far more than any real backyard telescope can reveal."</comment>


Mobile Hotspot Data Limits and How to "Avoid" Them - <AUTHOR> https://blog.c-mart.in/posts/mobile-hotspot-data-limits-and-how-to-avoid-them <comment><AUTHOR> If y'all hug my web server to death then read it on the Wayback Machine:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200401142803/https://blog.c-ma...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200401142803/https://blog.c-mart.in/posts/mobile- hotspot-data-limits-and-how-to-avoid-them)</comment>


GITenberg is an open source community for publishing ebooks in the public domain - <AUTHOR> https://www.gitenberg.org/ <comment><USER2> The [https://standardebooks.org/](https://standardebooks.org/) project has been rebuilding ebooks (open ePUB format) with an eye on quality and readability on mobiles/tablets (fonts, copyedit, etc.) which might be of interest, all books and the website revision are tracked in git.

<comment><USER3> I'm a big fan of standardebooks! They're doing fantastic work producing better ebooks from Project Gutenberg sources.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here, I found this website when I was looking for a way to get the updated version (with correction) of a PG (Project Gutenberg) book and all changes/diffs from the point that I scrape the book from PG website for my language learning side project: [https://www.bilinual.com](https://www.bilinual.com)

The bilinual Project also rebuild ebooks (modern HTML, PDF and open ePUB format) with better quality and readability( while it is not its prime goal). Take a look at one example here:

[https://www.bilinual.com/book/18043sven/sv/en#line=68&lpp=23](https://www.bilinual.com/book/18043sven/sv/en#line=68&lpp=23) [https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv- en.pdf](https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.pdf) [https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv- en.epub](https://www.bilinual.com/download/18043sven-sv-en.epub)

<comment><USER4> I tried to pull up a couple of books on the front page to check out what you had, and

* One of them 404ed: [https://www.bilinual.com/download/30117fren-fr-en.pdf](https://www.bilinual.com/download/30117fren-fr-en.pdf)

* The other was full of problems: [https://www.bilinual.com/download/16210fren-fr-en.pdf](https://www.bilinual.com/download/16210fren-fr-en.pdf)

For example, many words don't have translations at all, and those that do are often incorrect. This feels like a _very_ rough machine translation? For example:

> et c'est surtout dans les paroisses riveraines du Saint-Laurent

You translate this

> and Ce east primarily in the · · some saint Laurence

While Google Translate gives

> and it is especially in the parishes bordering the St.Lawrence

If you're using machine translation, why not use a Google API that might give usable results at least? If that's not plausible, maybe you should try to get together a team of volunteers to manually translate these ebooks for language learners?

(I hope these suggestions are helpful, I'm not trying to be dismissive of your project.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, Thanks for checking the website.

1- 404 issue: I implemented the PDF generation recently and I noticed that WeasyPrint has issue with html files that have too many tags (our books have around 2*number_of_words tags in them). This is not a big issue and it will be fixed soon in the next iteration.

2- Using Google API: Google APIs and other translation tools are great for translating sentences. However, the problem with use of parallel texts for language learning is our brain laziness. After few pages, our brain looses its patient to solve the translation problems (critical thinking!?) and actually learn words and structure of sentences. The focus immediately goes toward translated sentences in your native language rather than the original text.

Personally, I learn a word for a life when I slow down and think about similar words, its root, and at the end looking it up in a dictionary. The process is valuable.

3- Team of volunteers: It is easier said than done. The functionality is present but I prefer to improve the suggestion engine as much as possible before I involve volunteers. Are you interested to join?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wrote a technical comparison between various public domain eBook projects:

[https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project- gutenberg-p...](https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/11/project-gutenberg- projects/)

</comment><comment><USER6> They're probably going to have to change their name to something that does not have "git" in it: [https://public- inbox.org/git/20170202022655.2jwvudhvo4hmueaw...](https://public- firstname.lastname@example.com/)

<comment><USER3> Gitenberg was one of the alternate spellings of Gutenberg in the 1400s.

<comment><USER7> I propose Gytenberg

<comment><USER8> or, widely accepted standard [in german and slavic-languages] way back then, 'v' instead of 'u', and vice versa

<comment><USER7> ah well for some reason the visual asthetics of gytenberg vs gvtenberg made me chose the former (even though at first I typed gvtenberg)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This looks like a subset of Project Gutenberg?

The Girl from Alsace in Gitenberg: [https://www.gitenberg.org/book/35926](https://www.gitenberg.org/book/35926)

The Girl from Alsace in Gutenberg: [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35926](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35926)

The numbers are even the same which seems suspicious. Hmmm.

<comment><USER3> Yes, absolutely. Apologies if that's not clear from the website. GITenberg started as an experimental fork of PG, but due to the work of Eric Hellman at the Free Ebook Foundation, much of the infrastructure such as metadata formats, CI/CD for building books, and DVCS backend are being ported upstream to the Project Gutenberg infrastructure.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for the clarification!

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here, I doubt that the website is "a SUBSET of Project Gutenberg". This is not mentioned anywhere in the website. As mentioned in PG website, while you can use the book freely, "The name 'Project Gutenberg' is a registered trademark.". I guess this is the reason they didn't mention PG.

<comment><USER3> Now I remember, that was the reason I wasn't more clear about the connection to PG when I wrote the website [https://github.com/gitenberg- dev/giten_site/](https://github.com/gitenberg-dev/giten_site/). Since then my co-founder Eric Hellman has been doing engineering work for Project Gutenberg, as well as running the rest of the Free Ebook Foundation, which is the parent org of GITenberg, free-programing-ebooks, and Unglue.it.

I think that the GITenberg collection contains all of the books in PG. At this point, the creation of new repos is automatically done when Distributed Proofreaders creates a new book in PG. Originally, I didn't include around 400 PG books due to their creators claiming copyright, and didn't include Bruce Sterling's book because he wouldn't let me re-license it creative commons rather than his pseudo-public-domain license.

Not much has been happening with GITenberg itself in the past few years. But luckily, a lot of the concepts and code are getting upstreamed into PG. Which in my opinion, is way way better.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for clarification.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't know why, but I expected some amazing typography in their PDFs. :(

<comment><USER3> [Standard Ebooks]([https://standardebooks.org/](https://standardebooks.org/)) has accomplished a lot in producing better ebooks of public domain texts.

<comment><AUTHOR> OP here, it seems standardebooks doesn't provide the books in PDF format. My side project, [https://www.bilinual.com](https://www.bilinual.com) rebuild the ebooks in PDF format with translation hints, if you don't mind about learning a new language while reading your favourite books ;)

<comment><USER3> There are about 400 GITenberg books that have CC-by licensed covers provided by Recovering the Classics. If you're interested in using that art for your PDFs I can find you the index!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, it would be great. I am curious to know why do they have CC license and not public domain?

<comment><USER11> We have this problem with Standard Ebooks. The number of people that say things are public domain without actually checking it is very high. A CC0 licence is an _explicit grant_ of public domain status by the licensor, and hence the legal issues rest with them in the event of any problem.

Public domain obviously can be ascertained, but if CC0 hasn't been granted we rely on dated reproductions: basically a photograph of the artwork in question in a book or journal with a copyright date of 1924 or earlier.

(that's obviously specifically a US legal reading, but SE from a legal point of view is a US project)

<comment><USER12> CC0 isn't an indemnity.

The difference between falsely claiming something is public domain and falsely claiming to grant a license to it under CC0 is going to be pretty minimal (and is likely result in little more than "please stop", blood and turnips and so on).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> You might be more familiar with another project the Free Ebook Foundation maintains: [https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming- books/](https://github.com/EbookFoundation/free-programming-books/) Which is one of the top-10 repos on github by number of stars.

</comment><comment><USER13> I like how they're able to accurately tag translators vs original authors, e.g. [https://github.com/GITenberg/The-History-of-the- Peloponnesia...](https://github.com/GITenberg/The-History-of-the- Peloponnesian-War_7142/blob/master/metadata.yaml)

</comment><comment><USER14> What is improved by adding Git to PG?

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, for my side project, [https://www.bilinual.com](https://www.bilinual.com) I needed version controlling for changes that are made on a book (fixed typos, ...) and I found GITenberg project. There are several interesting tools developed during the project accessible here: [https://github.com/gitenberg- dev](https://github.com/gitenberg-dev)</comment></comment>


SSH Tunneling with Tomato - <AUTHOR> http://www.hirahim.com/blog/2010/10/25/ssh-tunneling-with-tomato/

<comment><USER2> It's interesting, but I'd be surprised if anyone with the know-how to overwrite their router's firmware with Tomato (or DD-WRT, which would work too) didn't know how to SSH-tunnel their traffic.

As a side note, I'd personally recommend using a Linode (or another equivalent external hosting service) for this. A lot of ISPs get grumpy about reverse connections, assuming they don't use VPNs for their users in the first place, and beyond that, you have to deal with a dynamic IP most of the time. But that's just my personal experience.

<comment><AUTHOR> Like rfugger, I also had Tomato installed, but had never known about its SSH daemon. After Firesheep was released, I went looking for a cheap way to secure my computers' traffic. Originally, I intended to use EC2, since Amazon is giving it away for free for a year, but this solution seemed like a better route for me. If the ISP (Cox Communications) does get grumpy, I'll probably go the EC2 route.

As for the dynamic IP issue, Tomato can also be setup to work with a DynDNS account.</comment></comment>


Apple Needs to Pivot in 2019 to Services and Software - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/utopiapress/apple-needs-to-pivot-in-2019-to-services-and-software-66e5832517df <comment><USER2> They could make a more affordable phone, which will especially be important for emerging markets.

For example, a replacement for the iPhone SE that removes the home button to allow for a bigger screen...

I hope Apple doesn't let the market share decrease like they did with the Mac in the 1980's.</comment>


Synchronized oscillators may allow for computing that works like the brain - <AUTHOR> http://www.kurzweilai.net/synchronized-oscillators-may-allow-for-computing-that-works-like-the-brain

<comment><USER2> There were Japanese computers from the 50s that used phase between waveforms for computation, can't find an immediate reference.

Found it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parametron)

This also might be of interest [http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/dudley-bucks- for...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/dudley-bucks-forgotten- cryotron-computer) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryotron](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryotron)

For completeness there was a great talk the UW EE department a couple days ago, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwl6fORHNqs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwl6fORHNqs) on using electron spin to store information.

[https://www.ee.washington.edu/cgi- bin/research/colloquium/di...](https://www.ee.washington.edu/cgi- bin/research/colloquium/display.pl?id=203)

</comment><comment><USER3> The very first computer memories worked like this, standing waves in tubes filled with mercury.

<comment><USER4> I don't think it was standing waves. If memory serves (i.e. I may well have got this wrong) they stored data as a pattern of pulses travelling down a mercury tube.

They borrowed this trick from radar engineers. The engineers needed a way to compare what the radar is seeing now to what the radar saw on its last rotation, so that they could detect moving objects. They did this by sending the information down a mercury delay tube of suitable length.

<comment><USER3> You're absolutely right, standing waves was the wrong term, it should have been travelling pulses. Apologies!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay_line_memory)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> So given that developers have a lot of trouble programming normal simple binary computers even using languages as high-level as python (not to mention their trouble at grasping advanced languages like Haskell), why do we think they will do better with fuzzy logic for which we don't even have high-level languages?</comment>


Exascale Is Not Your Grandfather's HPC - <AUTHOR> https://www.nextplatform.com/2019/10/22/exascale-is-not-your-grandfathers-hpc/ <comment><USER2> I worked four years in the academic "Exascale HPC" code developing community (if there even is). There is a lot of bullshit bingo happening there. The term "Exascale" is commonly abused for getting the next grant for doing - yes - "your grandfather's HPC", such as very traditional fluid dynamics. Of course the methods are novel, they are more compute intense, scale much better to millions of processors, are communication avoiding. But all this is still very traditional. I think in the nonlinear PDE regime, people are still very conservative of even trusting their (analytically) deterministic results. Applying machine learning is something where people would probably not trust the results. Read about Kolmogarov microscales and turbulence if you are interested in phenomena which are still studied decades after being found.</comment>


Map: The Most Common Job in Every State - <AUTHOR> http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-the-most-common-job-in-every-state

<comment><USER2> Is anyone else scared by the prospect of self driving cars considering how prominent 'truck driver' is on that map?

<comment><USER3> This has been happening for 200 years. The tractor must have been a scary thing to farmers of a hundred years ago. It was easily the biggest job killer in history. People have to learn and adapt to technology.

<comment><USER4> Counter argument, beautifully illustrated.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I did not expect _any_ state to have /software developer/ as the most common job.

<comment><USER6> Right? Me too. Then it dawned on me: "Software Developer" is just the new "Secretary". Instead of guarding filing cabinets, you are managing a db. Instead of manning the front desk, you maintain the website.

<comment><USER7> As a Software Developer...this kind of scared me.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN : hackers,what are doing to keep your self fitt &healthy?  - <AUTHOR>

I know, we work extremely hard and keep ourself going, we slog 12-15 hours per day with all night coding. But what you guys are doing to  remain fit & healthy. <comment><USER2> Combined P90X and Tim Ferris's body hacking program into an awesome system. I've been putting on about 1/2 lbs of muscle a week, with nearly no fat gain. Due to my height I have a take in a ridiculous about of food, but its well worth it.

The best exercise I'd recommend to anyone starting: the kettle bell. Do 50 reps (you'll need to break them up at the beginning) with 40-50lbs. If you don't see a change with those you never will.

<comment><USER3> second p90x

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> StrongLifts 5x5.

<http://stronglifts.com/>

I'm 8 weeks in to the 12 week programme. It's just 45 minutes three times a week and I'm stronger and healthier than I've ever been.

<comment><USER5> Nice one camperman. Can't go wrong here. Been on Stronglift's for over a year and it got my squat up from 40Kg to 145Kg. Aiming for 180 -200Kg by the end of this year!! Great program for discipline too which really carries through into your other work and area of life.

<comment><USER4> Cool stuff - I'm still a beginner of course but it won't be long before I'm deadlifting and squatting my own bodyweight (105 kgs).

I don't know about the discipline so much - it's so addictive I can't wait to get in the gym! But it's definitely helped me cope with a very trying two months personally and professionally.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm smoking Lights instead of Reds.

</comment><comment><USER7> Unless you are trying to train for something hardcore like a marathon or a lifting competition, the pareto principle applies here. Do something. Anything. Whatever you like or can hack yourself to do.

As for me: \- stronglift 5x5, slightly moded: lift twice instead of thrice a week.

\- a running program that i made up (run ~4 times a week, 200m x 8, 400m x 4, 5k trial, 1mi hill climb + 2mi run)

\- bikram yoga once a week or every two weeks

\- some crossfit workouts that i can do

I try to workout most days, resting completely only once or twice a week.

</comment><comment><USER8> Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It's the chess of the martial arts world. Practicing it keeps you fit, but more often than not, in competitions and live sparring practice, it's superior strategy that overcomes physical prowess.

I hated lifting weights and running for my whole life, so it's quite enjoyable to spend four or five hours a week getting a great workout where my mind is constantly being challenged also.

The founder of the art called it "the triumph of intellect over brawn". But you will get fit practicing it...

<comment><USER9> Just be careful that you are choosing the right place to train and the correct training partners. In my (bad) experience it is hard to find a BJJ partner who has the same goals as you mentioned above. This I attribute not to the sport but the sudden popularity of UFC. Broken ribs and fingers tend to slow down productivity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Everyone talks about having to do something actively [like working out] but the simple things are overlooked:

1) get a good night's sleep [I actually lost about 20 lbs just by getting more than 1.5 hours a night of sleep]

2) eat a large breakfast [the best pattern is large breakfast, large lunch, light dinner]

3) take breaks whenever there's a respite in the work [just stand up and walk around a little bit before getting back to keyboard]

</comment><comment><USER11> 1) Using a standing desk so I don't die of sitting 2) Run at least 4 miles twice a week 3) lift weights 3x a week (different sets) 4) Yoga at least once a week 5) Meditation when I need it 6) Eating low-carb or carb free 1-2 weeks each month 7) Getting good sleep (no screens an hour before bed, no electronics in bedroom, no reading/tv in bed, cold dark room) 8) Not coding past point of diminished capacity

<comment><AUTHOR> Seriously I am trying to avoid screen before sleep

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Ok, to be a little more helpful... H.I.T. is great for folks who don't have time, but it doesn't achieve the same calorie burn as long term endurance training. This link kinda summarizes: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_intensity_training>

</comment><comment><USER13> I ride my bike to the office and back, ~20 miles each way, ~1800 feet of climbing, keeps me relatively fit.

<comment><USER14> I've read this kind of response several times, and I can't understand how it works.. don't you sweat a lot after 20 miles? Do you have a shower at work? Don't you ever see clients?

I've discarded even walking 3 miles due to breaking a sweat (I wear a suit to work).

Don't get me wrong, cycling is great exercise, I used to do 10 miles each way to English classes and I was healthier than I am now, but I can't see myself cycling to work.

<comment><USER13> My ride for last 6 years has been up 1000 feet, then down. I don't wear any deodorant or any "products" and I hypothesize that has a lot to do with my body normalizing into a state where I just don't smell even though I do sweat. By the time I get to work I am all dried off due to the downhill, and I towel off in the bathroom before I change into loose fitting civilian (not bike) clothing.

My coworkers that I trust confirm that I just don't smell so its not a problem. I trust some of them to tell me if it _is_ a problem and I will adjust accordingly.

Most of the time I don't see clients (I'm a software guy) and I'm wearing shorts and t-shirts (it is California).

When I did work in a slacks, dress shirt only position (for a very short time), I threw my beater bike in the trunk of my car and went out for rides at 5 (watched the clock).

Personally the less product I use, the less smelly and more natural feeling my skin and hair are. YMMV.

And I found that carrying a very lightweight backpack is my preferred way of carrying other clothes. I don't carry a laptop, just clothes for how cold it is in the morning and clean socks and such for the office. I leave a lot of clothes at work so I don't have to carry too much stuff.

<comment><USER14> Thanks for the answer :)

Changing clothing and toweling (plus wearing shorts and t-shirts) should do the trick then, but I can't do that right now :) .

Also, California weather helps, I guess that wearing some heavier clothes you'd sweat a lot more, and thus possibly smell.

<comment><USER13> All winter I've been wearing wool and layers. Id argue that the hot sun makes you sweat more. At least with layers you can peel them off.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Bike to work. Walk to errands.

Also, I don't slog 12-15 hours per day with all night coding.

</comment><comment><USER16> I trick (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricking>). It's an incredibly fun sport and also a very, very effective way of staying in shape.

</comment><comment><USER17> I run 3 times a week at lunch break. Only 15 minute runs. And try to eat healthy foods whenever I can... avoid pizza for a fresh sandwich. Small things make a difference.

</comment><comment><USER18> I practice a martial art called Wing-Chun 2-3 times a week and I run 2-3 times a week for 30-45 min. That's about it...

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Any specific food habits, we need to follow?

I avoid coffee and drink Lipton herbal tea.

</comment><comment><USER19> rotate between hockey and ultimate frisbee at least 3 times/week. When the wind allows I windsurf and/or kitesurf

</comment><comment><USER20> Weightlifting six days a week.

</comment><comment><USER12> Umm, excercising instead of geeking out :)

</comment><comment><USER21> I go up and down a step - 50 times twice every hour. Unlikely stairs - you get little help from momentum and so burn more calories. Plus I raise my arms up and down at the same time. Looks silly but - it works.

easy to remember, easy to do, quick burst of energy; but don't get sweaty

Also - do wall pushups (25 at a shot) for 300 a day. As well as squat: hold for 1 min, every hour. Can do in bathroom or stairwell for privacy.</comment>


Ask HN: What's a good way for my startup to accept credit card payments? - <AUTHOR>

Anyone have any experience here? Purpose is for services subscription (no site live.)<p>We're fine doing a front end UI if we have to, I'd just prefer not to redirect to something like paypal for the payment. <comment><USER2> Get a merchant account if you can. Shop around. Although I haven't tried Fee Fighters, seems like it would be a good place to start for looking up a merchant account: <http://feefighters.com/>

Also merchant accounts often have a separate gateway but some banks own their own gateways which saves you money on top of the rates you negotiates. Factor this into the equation when you're shopping around.

</comment><comment><USER3> depends. if you have low volume, paypal is really going to be your best option. i was rejected from merchant accounts for low estimated volumes. if you have higher volume, any merchant account will do, really.

consider using something like chargify, spreedly, cheddargetter, etc. to manage subscriptions and such. most also provide a nice professional interface for things like paypal.

HN superhero patio11 suggests spreedly+paypal.

</comment><comment><USER4> I'd say get a merchant account so you can take direct payments from CC's.</comment>


What's the best source for City names? - <AUTHOR>

Where do most startups get the city names from? We use Facebook for user registration and management.
Facebook has its own id for locations. Some of the locations come in City/State format and some in City/Country format. I downloaded a dump from Geonames, but it is difficult to map these to Facebook city names. Also, GeoNames has London, UK and City of London, UK. It will be difficult for users to distinguish between the two. Same with Delhi, India and New Delhi, India.
Users come from various sites and mention where they are going. This will come through a post string and user will not be able to select from a drop down list. It will be very important for us to get the city right. I wonder if anyone has a suggestion. Thanks Manas <comment><USER2> Maxmind GeoLite City - <http://www.maxmind.com/app/geolitecity></comment>