IRS delays tax-filing date to july 15, matching payment deadline - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-20/tax-filings-payment-due-date-extended-to-july-15-mnuchin-says <comment><USER2> Heads up to small business entrepreneurs, SBA and other emergency financing options may be more readily available to you with 2019 tax returns completed so you may want to get them done ASAP if you haven't already.

<comment><USER3> Where are you getting this info from ?

<comment><USER4> It's common-enough knowledge that the first thing any lender asks for will be copies of your 1040 or other forms for the most recent tax year.

You don't have to _pay_ until July, but it's not bad advice to go ahead and file, if you think you may need documentation for 2019 personal or business income.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > _Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announces decision in tweet_

Crazy how these announcements are done via tweet. It would be nice to have something formal listed on their website.

Looking at their home page [https://www.irs.gov](https://www.irs.gov) it still says "File Your Tax Return - Tax deadline is April 15,2020".

Edit: Am I going crazy? The article used to say it was published on the 17th.

<comment><USER6> I'm sure it will be updated. He probably just wanted to get the word out as soon as possible.

<comment><USER5> It's been 3 days...

Edit: I could've sworn the article said it was published on the 17th. Now it says the 20th.

<comment><USER7> The payment deadline was moved 3 days ago, the filing deadline was moved this morning

<comment><USER5> I could've sworn the article said it was PUBLISHED and UPDATED on the 17th. Now it says it was published and updated on the 20th.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Thank god. My parents have a smallish accounting firm, and were so worried about still having to file. Things need to hold for that as well. The worry about employees coming in to the office and clients as well. They want to just close the office for two weeks and hold up with this all, as is the case everywhere.

Still though, they're both very worried about clients calling in and still expecting their taxes to be filed which cases like this have happened in the past. For example, one didn't want to come to their office, and said they should FedEx the filing already, which means someone is going to have to stand in line with others at a FedEx store, which is absolutely not something to be doing now, no matter how spaced out the line is.

This leaves the question of what they're supposed to do, because I'm sure there are clients with the attitude of this virus being overblown. And won't be happy if my parents come off as weak for not working. Obviously they should, but how much the client comes first is constantly an issue, especially now.

<comment><USER9> 2 weeks is too short a time to expect the lockdown for.

It'll last certainly months, maybe a year (until vaccine found).

Accountants would be well advised to shift to all digital means, taking scans of documents etc.

<comment><USER10> Italy expects infections to peak in 2 weeks.

If that is true, the lockdown is probably unnecessary in May, as the other nations aren't that far behind

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder about the Roth IRA deadline, since some people aren't sure whether they're above the cutoff until they do at least some of the calculations.

<comment><USER12> A nice benefit of Roth IRAs is that you can remove your contributions (not profits) without penalty. You can always contribute it now, leave it in cash so it is liquid, and then withdraw it if necessary at a later date.

<comment><USER13> It will be liquid, but it will still have attributable gains if the account value increases. That amount will also need to be removed, which will come from previous contributions, before your actual tax deadline, which may be extended to October. Just a heads up.

<comment><USER14> This is incorrect. Withdrawals from Roth IRAs follow particular ordering rules and one can withdraw direct contributions without a 10% penalty or tax.

In general, direct contributions are taken out first, followed by conversions, followed by earnings. (For the exact rules, including more details on withdrawal ordering of conversions I'd recommend researching Roth IRA withdrawal ordering. Note that the rules for accounts like Roth 401k are different.)

Direct contributions are not subject to tax or penalty when withdrawn, so if one can always withdraw their total direct contributions without tax or penalty from a Roth IRA, while leaving earnings in the account. Withdrawing taxable portions of conversions or earnings may result in tax and/or a 10% penalty, depending on ones circumstances.

<comment><USER15> Doesn't your last sentence contradict the rest of your post? You get taxed any time you withdraw something from a Roth, since you invested it pre-tax.

<comment><USER16> No, a Roth IRA is funded with post-tax money. A traditional IRA is funded with pre-tax money.

Once you reach the correct age, money coming out of a Roth IRA is not taxed. Money coming out of a traditional IRA is taxed.

As GP noted, contributions to a Roth IRA may be withdrawn at any time without penalty or taxes. The gains from those contributions follow different rules however.

E.g. Suppose you put in $1000 to a new Roth IRA account with no other contributions. Suppose the account is worth $1500 today. You may withdraw the $1000 you put in with no penalties or taxes leaving $500 in the account.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I was really counting on launching a startup this year. It's R&D heavy, and the timing is (was) just right for product/market fit.

I bought a lot of equipment last year and started writing the software. I want to hire folks and do fundraising, but this seems like a really bad time for VC investment.

Could I get a small business loan in this environment? Are there any subsidies?

<comment><USER18> A small business loan is usually for traditional businesses with physical equipment that can be repossessed, or something like a doctor's office where the risks are fairly well understood. Is you physical equipment something that could be re-sold for some notable percentage of the purchase price?

<comment><USER17> The equipment has a very small market, per the nature of the field. I don't think I can sell a bank on it, unfortunately.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The announcement from the IRS can be found here:

[https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/payment-deadline-extended-to- ju...](https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/payment-deadline-extended-to-july-15-2020)

<comment><USER20> This is a separate announcement from two days ago about the payment extension (not the filing extension that was separately tweeted this morning).

<comment><USER19> You're right. My mistake. I intermixed the two as delayed income tax payment also applied to filing, which didn't, until today.

<comment><USER20> Don't blame you ... it's super confusing

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> This is good news for independent contractors who are struggling to make ends meet.

<comment><USER22> You should _always_ keep a running estimated tax amount as an independent contractor and then keep that amount as either a buffer in your cash account or in a separate dedicated account.

<comment><USER23> Even if they have that amount and more set aside, extreme circumstances might wipe out all cash reserves

<comment><USER22> I guess what I'm saying is that cash shouldn't exist for you to use for anything else - the folks that that are expecting it have guns and their own courts and judges.

<comment><USER24> The penalties and interest for underpaying are quite reasonable and proportional, IMO (and the penalties are often waivable, making for only interest charges, which are _very_ reasonable.)

If it's a choice between eating and keeping your car/house and paying your taxes on time, choose the former every time!

<comment><USER25> This exactly. The IRS is not the Mafia.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Wonder how this will impact accountants. Usually they are looking forward to the pressure relenting as the tax season comes to an end.

<comment><USER27> It probably won't affect them nearly as much as widespread shutdowns, social distancing, and mass COVID-19 casualties due to hospital shortages will.

I think it's useful to keep things in perspective - life in the United States is changing, and will be significantly altered for the next several months at least. My net worth on paper has fallen 30% this year, but right now there's exceedingly few places for me to spend money, so, there's that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> The deadlines for state taxes still remain.

<comment><USER11> Don't state tax forms take federal taxes as some of the inputs?

<comment><USER29> Many do and state tax policies often are intertwined with federal tax policies but each state has its own set of laws and policies, some of which will need to be changed if they want to match those of the IRS. The difficulty for some states is going to be that they're already tapping into their rainy day funds pretty heavily and unlike the federal government can't run deficits, so they could run into cash flow issues when delaying tax payments. Of course that's bound to happen eventually anyway as sales tax revenue plummets and the number of people who can't pay other taxes rises.

<comment><USER30> Fortunately the vast majority of folks who didn't fuck with their withholdings will usually have a refund. So the state would actually get to hold onto your money for longer.

It does, however, kind of neutralize the point of the stimulus bill to some extent because this encourages you to hold off getting your refund if you are in the phase-out region (75k to 99k) and your income went up in 2019. If you don't file before they send the checks, they use your 2018 number, so it's potentially better to not file until the last minute. Which means a couple hundred bucks per person that isn't out there stimulating the economy. Again, assuming an average person that didn't fuck with their withholdings.

The threshold is outright bad policy but god forbid congressional republicans just pass a stimulus without trying to own the libs in the high-cost-of-living blue states.

<comment><USER11> > So the state would actually get to hold onto your money for longer.

What if they file on April 15th? Do the refunds also come 3 months later? Would be bad PR given the circumstances if nothing else.

<comment><USER30> The refunds usually come within a couple days of submitting, if it's electronic. Longer if it's paper. State is usually within a week or two for my state, but may be different for yours.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> Does this apply to quarterly tax payments for 2020 that are due April 15th as well?

<comment><USER32> Yes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Does anyone know if this also pushes the 401(k) contribution deadline?

<comment><USER34> 401(k) deadlines are calendar year. Are you thinking of something like the Roth IRA, where the deadline for the earmarking of contributions for the previous year is April 15?

<comment><USER33> "solo" / self-employed 401(k), which normally has a contribution deadline of April 15. I'm curious if that is getting pushed back as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Many small businesses already had to file by March 16. And even if they filed for "extensions", payments of all taxes was due then.

Secretary Mnuchin wasn't telling the truth when he said "All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties."

I had to take a risk to visit CPA and prepare taxes by the March 16th deadline, and so did nearly every other small business in America.

(California has a payment deadline of December 31st for businesses!)

<comment><USER32> Only partnerships and S-Corps have tax return due dates on March 16. Those entities don't pay taxes.

<comment><USER36> S-Corps do pay taxes. Quarterly.

<comment><USER32> The shareholders pay taxes. First quarterly due date is (was) April 15.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Everyone here should be extremely nervous about the future of our country. Congress and the President are seriously considering helicopter money, which will ruin the dollar and send us into hyperinflation. It's not rooted in reality. Who are we borrowing from? The surplus nations of the world will divert their surpluses domestically due to COVID-19, not by buying US treasuries and holding onto dollars. The only reason the dollar is going up is due to people trying to get out of dollar denominated assets.

If anyone here wants to get ahead of this, please at least consider buying silver. The dollar will become worthless.

<comment><USER38> Not sure why you're being downvoted. We have massive debt and our Federal Reserve is now resorting to buying treasuries again but in spite of that yields are rising! This should disturb everyone. Helicopter money won't necessarily cause hyperinflation but it will cause some inflation along with massive new debt.

Here's a reality check: MMT and related ideas are nonsensical. They cannot work. They will destroy economies where they are implemented.

<comment><USER39> Treasury Yield 10 Years (^TNX) NYBOT - NYBOT Real Time Price. Currency in USD 0.9380 -0.1810 (-16.18%) As of 2:59PM EDT.

      Yields are rising ? 10 year notes under 1%. They're talking about negative rates.</comment></comment></comment>


Squarespace Booked a Super Bowl TV Ad Really? - <AUTHOR> http://www.squarespace.com/press/2014/1/28/squarespace-super-bowl-2014-ad-released-in-full <comment><AUTHOR> I mean, really? Are we in a bubble? After doing ads in credible podcasts and blogs all over the web now a Super Bowl TV ad? Haven't we learned anything about the crazyness of the big bubble anno 2000...?</comment>


Ask HN: How to decide between 2 startup ideas? - <AUTHOR> Let's say you are interested in 2 startup ideas, both roughly equivalent in opportunity size and personal fit, but in different markets. There isn't a factor that that makes either stand out. How would you decide which to pursue and break analysis paralysis? <comment><USER2> Build a simple landing page for each idea. Put a sign-up button on each page. Have it open a form that accepts email addresses as a way to register interest/receive updates. See which idea is more popular.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'd make a video about how each one works, put it on their own landing page and market it like crazy. Email / signup is too high a commitment to ask from potential customers but people seem more receptive about giving anonymous feedback</comment>


Indian Startup Lifeblob accuses Facebook of copying its feature - <AUTHOR> http://www.pluggd.in/indian-startup-lifeblob-accuses-facebook-of-copying-its-feature-297/

<comment><USER2> I copy features from other sites all the time. If you have a good idea, don't be surprised if others replicate it, especially if it's technically easy.

What do you expect? Facebook will see it, say "That's cool!" and then offer you a 20M buyout? Hell no, they'll just take a week, build it in-house, and move on to the next feature.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lifeblob is an Indian company, even if they had a patent on this, it won't work against Facebook, which is a US company (until they have a US patent and Facebook is using same technique). Also, copyright infringement won't work until Facebook uses the same code.

Moreover, Lifeblob has shot in their foot with this. Lifeblob's content is hosted in US (Softlayer as host). If Facebook gets a patent on the recommendation engine they and Lifeblob is using, they can issue a takedown notice to Lifeblob from american servers.

Actions like Lifeblob's only end up destroying the web ecosystem.

<comment><USER4> Re patents: If FB really did essentially 'copy' LB's feature (as opposed to independently inventing it without having first known about it), then they wouldn't be able to get a US patent. See 35 USC 102(f) at <http://goo.gl/36yy>.

Even if FB did independently invent the feature, LB's US-hosted and US- available feature might count as "prior art" that knocked out FB's ability to get a patent.

Of course, much depends on just what FB would try to claim.

<comment><USER3> LB is an Indian company. If a US company and Indian company invent the same thing regardless of chronological order and if each company takes patents in their respective country, this can prohibit each company to operate in other's country.

But you may be right. LB being hosted in US might well be qualified as 'operating in US', which might prevent FB getting patent in US.

In any case, if LB was so paranoid about someone stealing their 'photo recommendation engine', they must have at the very least filed patent pending applications in India and US.

LB's outburst suggest they are thinking of this as an infringement of some sort, but these things won't work in web startups. How many countries will anyone run around getting patents to make sure nobody else does it? Maybe, in future we have better governing stuff for the web,

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Business is _NOT_ an exam. You can't call out people for "copying". Where did Lifeblob get it's "photo sharing" idea from? Nah, can't be Flickr.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wrote similar code for my photo sharing startup at least 5 years ago. Showing a photo's detail page and related photos based on tag and dates from that photo is a fairly trivial task. I really don't see the big deal; surely others have done something similar. They just weren't Facebook!

Now if someone had taken their name, changed a letter, then their logo and made it 3D, and them built a big brand around it, then I'd say go sue their asses off. But this? Seriously?

</comment><comment><USER7> I find it unlikely that fb copied this feature. FB is in the content discovery game (amongst other things). Once users are sharing photos, a likely next step would be to help them discover photos from their friends and friends of friends.

It's not just fb either. The idea of finding and presenting users with associated content they would find interesting is a staple feature of most social sites

</comment><comment><USER8> It's unreasonable for Lifeblob to say anything remotely negative about Facebook copying their feature, when it's obvious from Lifeblob's UI that most of their ideas have come from your typical social networking site. They even use Facebook Connect!

</comment><comment><USER9> Good; I hope Facebook copies more useful features.

</comment><comment><USER10> <downvote me>Facebook in it's entirety was copied from ConnectU.</downvote me>.

But back to the point of copying it's feature of associating related photos. Everyone copies from everyone else, or putting it politely as "getting inspiration from". This is the reality, no point whining about it. Take it as a compliment and move on.</comment>


Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-30/vodafone-found-hidden-backdoors-in-huawei-equipment <comment><USER2> As Jon Gruber says: "Bloomberg, of course, is the publication that published "The Big Hack" in October — a sensational story alleging that data centers of Apple, Amazon, and dozens of other companies were compromised by China's intelligence services."

"The story presented no confirmable evidence at all, was vehemently denied by all companies involved, has not been confirmed by a single other publication (despite much effort to do so), and has been largely discredited by one of Bloomberg's own sources."

"By all appearances "The Big Hack" was complete bullshit. Yet Bloomberg has issued no correction or retraction, and seemingly hopes we'll all just forget about it. I say we do not just forget about it. Bloomberg's institutional credibility is severely damaged, and everything they publish should be treated with skepticism until they retract the story or provide evidence that it was true."

<comment><USER3> How do you know for sure that the story is false? As you've mentioned Bloomberg hasn't corrected or retracted the story. Governments and companies have in the past denied things that have been true.

Do you seriously think Huawei vehemently denying that it has backdoors in its technology makes it true all of a sudden?

<comment><USER4> > How do you know for sure that the story is false?

That's not how journalism works, at least until fairly recently

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hard to know from the article, and Bloomberg does not have a good track record, if the 'backdoor' was a vulnerability , an unwanted feature or an actual backdoor.

I might imagine a Chinese headline with "US firm Intel backdoors every CPU", which may or may not be true depending on your feelings on Intel ME

<comment> VvR-Ox Intel ME _is_ a backdoor.

The funny thing is that there are many more. Interesting how the EU is dealing with this - most media seems to focus on how badly china could be spying while the US proved they aren't trustworthy long before.

<comment><USER6> You haven't worked for large companies have you? Intel ME is NOT a backdoor. It may have vulnerabilities, sure. But none explicitly put in there.

It was designed for a specific purpose- troubleshooting enterprise computers. And it does that job amazingly well. No more IT guy guiding me when he can just do all the clicks himself.

<comment><USER7> It doesn't matter if it's a deliberate backdoor or not. It's a door, and I want to be able to close that door if I'm not using it, and Intel won't let me. Reducing attack surface is a security best practice exactly because any software can have bugs.

An allegory: imagine if an OS ran an SSH server and there was no way to turn it off or to control the keys it accepts. Maybe it has no bugs (you can't see the source code). Maybe it has no malicious intent or backdoors. As a security conscious computer owner, I still view its existence as a negative. I would like to be able to provably turn it off or control the keys it accepts.

<comment> VvR-Ox And that's exactly what matters and why I among many others call it a backdoor.

Telnet on the other hand is a service that I can switch off or block with far less work involved in normal circumstances.

To get rid of Intel ME I'd need to use Core-/LibreBoot and install it in a ritual that for a novice has something of a "black magic rite".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I was skeptical about "boycotting" China and Huawei for a long time; just thought that they make cheap phones, and innovative tech, so why not.

I changed 180 degrees when I started learning about the growing Chinese influence, how politically corrupt they are, and the excessive violence and human rights violations exercised against minorities.

China is growing its economic dominance very quickly. They are gaining many growing Asian and African countries under their belts (pun intended with the belt & road initiative [1])

These poor counties don't really have a say when offered china's generous offers, but we do.

It is going to be expensive, just like trying to fix climate change is: We have to be willing to pay to fix our mistakes (or other people in our society, if we want better future for our [grand]kids. But we will only be paying the price of our mistakes: depending that much on sweatshops, factory workers who are paid next to nothing, and collaborating with an authoritarian regime that clearly opposed our values for the longest time.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative) Concentration camps and race-based terrorism in Xinjiang: [https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-life-like-in- xinjian...](https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-life-like-in-xinjiang- reeducation-camps-china-2018-5) Belt and road effect on nature: [https://www.businessinsider.com/china-belt-road- encourages-i...](https://www.businessinsider.com/china-belt-road-encourages- invasive-species-2019-1)

PS: I agree with the stance on bloomberg, but that doesn't really defy my point. I just had to get something off my chest.

<comment><USER9> "Chinese influence, how politically corrupt they are, and the excessive violence and human rights violations exercised against minorities."

I know your heart is in the right place, but you could replace China with "The US" or "Russia" or "North Korea" or "colonial Britain" or almost any other country and it would be true. Those who wouldn't be worthy of the list are those who've never had the resources or opportunity to make the list.

It's sad, but I believe it's pretty close to the truth.

In relation to China, "The West" gifted it the power it now wields by outsourcing manufacturing there because cheap labor meant much higher percentage profits for all the savvy business owners who didn't want to pay local rates. And didn't they do well over the last 40-odd years! Can't deny it being smart business back then. Also can't deny that China's current world power status wasn't predictable 40-odd years ago if businesses everywhere decided to follow suit. And they did, and here we are, and all the countries that host companies that contributed to this are now having a cry about the actions of the monster they profited from creating.

<comment><USER10> > you could replace China with "The US" or "Russia" or "North Korea" or > "colonial Britain" or almost any other country and it would be true. Those > who wouldn't be worthy of the list are those who've never had the resources > or opportunity to make the list.

Many Western countries have a checkered past, but it's not exactly as though present citizens of the West were directly involved in the atrocities committed in the past by the West. Every sufficiently long lived state has had its dishonorable days, but it's not like we can't criticize both the past and current behavior of these nations and the /current/ behavior of China.

On the other hand, it is to the current Western climate's benefit that many dare make such criticism openly on the record and without fear of persecution (e.g. Gitmo). The same cannot be said of China.

> And didn't they do well over the last 40-odd years!

While your paragraph has the tone that the West is simply getting its just desserts, I find it unwarranted. This criticism, at its best, is criticism of past bad realpolitik policy by the West. People like the parent comment are only just learning of how woeful it is that Chinese influence is spreading, when Chinese influence is that unjust. It is useful to know that the West may have fed the beast. But the parent comment you are replying to was likely ignorant of the situation then and likely had no decision-making power then anyway. Thus adopting such a tone is in quite bad taste, since the parent comment is likely a victim of someone else's poor decisions and not their own.

<comment><USER9> "the tone that the West is simply getting its just desserts"

That wasn't my intention, although it can easily be read like that. My intention is for the potentially "ignorant of some history" parent-poster to be provided with some context around the current situation, ie. it does not exist in a vacuum, and has been strongly influenced by the actions and policies of the leadership of non-Chinese countries and companies.

The citizens of all countries are the victims in this. The significant majority (99+%) of the world population are caught in situations created or influenced by a very small minority of people (some of which were democratically voted for, but then that turns into a much more complex debate).

I intentionally started my comment with "I know your heart is in the right place" to make it (hopefully) clear that I wasn't directing any accusations toward the parent poster.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> >Vodafone said in the report that Huawei would need to remove or inhibit a so- called telnet service—a protocol used to control devices remotely—that the carrier said was a backdoor giving Huawei access to sensitive data.

This seems like a diagnostic telnet port left open by accident. I'm very sceptical at this point at any American government or media finding a 'backdoor' in Huawei.

A backdoor implies this is intentionally left open to later get unauthorized access.

Why would anyone build a 'backdoor' on an open telnet port?

This seems intentionally blown out of proportion to fit a narrative.

<comment><USER12> I have been playing VikingMUD for more than a decade. I have been 'backdoor/hacking' it when I was using telnet to connect?

I have been audit in IT/IT Audit/IT Security for quite a while. Having ability to telnet in is not a crime. We got firewalls for stuff like that. Even if it is not documented in whatever paperwork have been provided, it takes 5 seconds on a scan to pick this up. There also a bunch of IDS/IPS out there that would spot and kill such a connection attempt in a millisecond.

Also, telnet is unencrypted. Who attacks something when everything is readable? It beats the purpose.

This story has so many holes that a junior net-admin could prevent in their first week. I will assume that Vodafone has 'an army' of highly skilled network and security administrators that have "block telnet" in the first page of their checklists.

I am not taking sides. I am just thinking of ways I have reacted in the past when I found on firewall logs blocked connect attempts.

I also think Bloomberg should stick to what they do best, money. Let the IT Sec to far more qualified outlets. Or if they really want to do this right, and not just aim for clickbaits, get a team of experts to go through their material before they post.

<comment><USER13> I don't think you have an idea of how a telco works.

There isn't some giant firewall that every request goes through so you can say "block port 21" and your problem is fixed. Most of the equipment is talking directly to each other on many different private networks some of which may be managed by third parties. And as companies shift towards virtualised, container based architectures it can become harder as there is more complexity as companies transition.

And not sure if you've worked at a large company before but the idea that they have this army of highly skilled people who just make sure everything works perfectly isn't what happens.

<comment><USER12> Actually I have, most of my employers and clients the past few decades have 80k++ employees. I understand that there are PLENTY of interfaces on a company on the size of Vodafone (let's call them that) that have live access to networks, infrastructure, and what have you (e.g. Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson to name the big whales) and myriad other smaller ones monitoring, fixing, live, a million moving parts.

The responsibility and accountability remains though. I do not accept the 'we are big and busy so we drop the ball'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> As opposed to backdoors in:

\- The SIM card for remote operator app provisioning.

\- The baseband processor (that supports over-the-air fireware updates, "typhoon boxes", and other horrible crap)

\- The GSM spec, lulz (that allows for binary SMS app pushes signed by certain keys, "silent" SMS to track location, and so on by protocol standard.)

\- Obsolete, broken, and purposefully weakened crypto that remains in use for backwards compatibility (and spying.) Not that it would matter anyway because traffic is unencrypted over core links.

Vodafones entire business model depends on backdoors for controlling customer equipment and tracking subscribers. Also, China numba wun!

<comment><USER15> Not be mention being fined in multiple countries for shady marketing practices!

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> One could replace 'Huawei' with 'Cisco' in this article and everyone would just nod and sigh. The political spin on it is concerning.

</comment><comment><USER17> This article dances back and forth between saying "vulnerability" and "backdoor", which while they may have the same end result wildly differ in intent.

I can't tell the seriousness of this except for the telnet one.

<comment><USER18> How anyone trusts Bloomberg after the Seamicro chip story is beyond my understanding. (and specially the way it was handled and not retracted — anyone can make mistakes, but owning them is most important).

Even the title could have been something else. Like this excerpt from the article:

> "Vodafone has defended Huawei against the U.S. onslaught"

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The article takes a lot of words to explain they left a telnet server open. It wasn't some super secret hidden thing.

<comment><USER20> Ah, but the article said that the telnet server "could still be launched," not that it was necessarily open. It could be one of those "magic knock" packets that 'launches' telnet, like the backdoor found in some Cisco routers a while back.

Also weird is that Huawei insisted on keeping it open until they'd completed testing... does that mean it's phoning home? Or that they have their own technicians coming around to service it?

Such a crappy article. Bloomberg should have learned from the Supermicro fiasco to include more details and not parrot a single source. At this point if IC is serious about Huawei posing a national security risk they should arrange a leak of their actual intel to force real public discussion..

<comment><USER21> "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

Some lazy engineer probably added the feature as a remote monitoring/debugging tool with no regard for security because it needed to work before the next big release. Disabling the feature before the next release would probably break all kinds of support and monitoring, potentially leading to instability or them being unable to service failing equipment.

<comment><USER13> Thankfully not all of us take your approach.

Because you should always assume malicious intent when it comes to IT security.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I can't tell if this is true or an organized smear campaign against Huawei for monetary reasons.

<comment><USER7> Why not both? Many routers have had remote access vulnerabilities, but there's a clear reason to write about 2012-era vulns about Huawei and not some other manufacturer.

<comment><USER16> What would be that reason?

<comment><USER23> The smear campaign part of negamax's comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Has anyone else noticed the increased "scrutiny" the US has been putting on Chinese companies recently?

Huawei seems to be the biggest example and its worrying me because they are starting to strong arm EU allies to follow in their footsteps. Both Germany and the UK have cleared Huawei to take put in 5g rollouts against the USA's wishes.

I'm not sure who to side with here, the company with multiple allegations against it or the country which is known to do exactly the same thing except maybe worse...?

Try not to dismiss this because its not dripping in pro-usa sentiment, i'm interested to hear what people inside the bubble think.

<comment><USER16> Absolutely, I find the increase of our politics _and_ media attacking 'The Russians' and 'The Chinese' in recent years very concerning. Especially with the lack of reflection on our own actions both nationally and internationally. Like pervasive surveillance, hacking, military aggression and influencing elections, just to name a few.

<comment><USER25> > Absolutely, I find the increase of our politics and media attacking 'The > Russians' and 'The Chinese' in recent years very concerning.

I rather find it concerning that Russia has been financing the far-right, nationalist and anti-European parties that have risen over entire Europe, and that China is using debt as political leverage to gain power over poor African countries.

Add to this that many Western companies and politicians only look for the next quarter/election results and not 10, 20 or heaven forbid 50 years in the future... while this is precisely what Russia and China are doing. A splintered EU won't do a thing when Russia once again screws over human rights, and no one in deep debts to China (or with all manufacturing outsourced to China...) will dare criticize them when they start executing the Uyghur Muslims.

<comment><USER16> Thanks for this fine example of proving my point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> "While the carrier says the issues found in 2011 and 2012 were resolved at the time, the revelation may further damage the reputation of a Chinese powerhouse."

</comment><comment><USER27> It would be nice if they compare Huaweii to other vendors. I am quite sure Erricson and Nokia had some backdoors/critical vulnerabilities as well. It is quite common if the policies are poor and they skip some penetration tests. I don't think anyone would make such silly backdoors on purpose (like unsecured telnet connection).

</comment><comment><USER28> > Abandoning Huawei for 5G, with Europe already lagging behind China and the > U.S., could force them to rip out the supplier's 4G gear

Does anyone know what this is about? Both the need to rip out 4G gear if they don't want to use the new 5G stuff, and also the statement about Europe being behind China and the USA?

<comment><USER21> I think the idea is that Europe would rip out all Huawei components after the scandal, requiring a revamp of both 4G and 5G networks.

I doubt the US is that much ahead of Europe. It's true 5G networks are yet to really roll out, but with the higher population density the 4G coverage and residential internet is better in most of Europe, making the current 4G network suffice for now for many people.

<comment><USER29> Supposedly higher density makes 5G more important, not less, since it supports way more devices in the same area, while it doesn't really improve on the coverage distance, which is more important for more rural areas.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Backdoors are always hidden. Else it is a "frontdoor".

</comment><comment><USER31> Can't Huawei just license their technology to a US firm, so this hardware can be implemented and produced under US supervision?

<comment><USER32> >Chinese company licensing their technology to a US company that would be a remarkable plot-twist

On the other hand given how sophisticated these things are , even if all the source code is available you can't be 100% sure to spot all the bugs/vulnerabilities/backdoors. I guess this applies to hardware equally well.

<comment><USER31> I mean at a higher level: their algorithms and analog designs licensed to the US, not the source code.

<comment><USER33> That'd take ages to implement and billions of dollars. Doesn't seem realistic

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> It's one of these debug interfaces they find all the time in network equipment, either Chinese or by Cisco.

</comment><comment><USER35> Alternate headline:

Chinese intelligence joins US and Five Eyes coalition in public-private partnership global surveillance program, information sharing agreement to be discussed in upcoming trade talks.

Whataboutisms only work when the accuser is assuming something un-ordinary is happening, after knowingly or unknowingly exempting themselves from the behavior they already practice.

</comment><comment><USER36> leaving un secure stuff open is not the same as a damn backdoor

BUT, being lax in rigour concerning what ports, etc are left open and the security reasons why is just at some point a question of are they an unknowing asset of China Gov...

Both are equally important

</comment><comment><USER8> Clean, no paywall, no ads: [https://outline.com/VVdLhT](https://outline.com/VVdLhT)

</comment><comment><USER37> I'm sure that they're going to find out that some people at Huawei do not wash their hands after going to the toilet.

Do you really want your data in those hands?

<comment><USER38> Please don't do this here.

<comment><USER37> What is 'this'? Sarcasm or not following groupthink?

<comment><USER38> Post unsubstantive comments, especially snarky or indignant ones.

There's obviously no 'groupthink' on HN about Huawei.

<comment><USER37> My comment was 'substantive', as you put it. Sarcastic, but substantive.

It's funny how you felt you had to use the word 'obviously'...

<comment><USER38> I just mean that people argue about Huawei and other China-related stories quite fiercely whenever they come up (often too fiercely: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)). 'Groupthink' is refuted by a quick glance into any such thread.

Actually though, the word 'groupthink' usually isn't about anything other than oneself. It's a form of internet preening: I the freethinker am nobler than the deluded masses in whose midst I glide. In other words, a middlebrow 'sheeple'. (Sorry if that feels like I'm picking on you personally; I don't mean to.)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Simon Peyton-Jones on computer science in school curriculums [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=X-AIbtus9gs&feature=emb_logo <comment><USER2> Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown University already accomplished this and gave a great talk about the problems of creating a new course, when you can just shove it into the existing math classes without needing to hire thousands of specialist teachers or worry about yet another mandatory class where schools reduce the rigor, or worry about students not even being able to take the class because they are in remedial classes and never even make it to a computational elective [https://youtu.be/5c0BvOlR5gs](https://youtu.be/5c0BvOlR5gs)

<comment><USER3> > when you can just shove it into the existing math classes

This is how it's already done in the UK, and has been for decades. When I was in high-school (or rather the UK equivalent) about twenty years ago we did discrete maths, algorithms, and data structures in the regular maths classes. I don't think computers were even mentioned - it was all described as maths topics.

And this was a bog-standard state school.

So when I want to university interviews I was already able to describe for example how to implement a hash table.

<comment><USER4> I'm thankful every day for getting into programming early enough to know that the adults saying "programming is like math" were full of shit. No career could be less appealing than cranking arithmetic, polynomials, integrals, and derivatives for 8 hours day in and day out, which is of course what "math" means when you're in K12. If it were introduced to me in that context and by teachers with that mindset, I wouldn't be here.

<comment><USER3> > which is of course what "math" means when you're in K12

But you have it backwards. When programming is introduced as maths people see how maths is more than ' arithmetic, polynomials, integrals, and derivatives'.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I work for the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and we are very involved with the NCCE which SPJ talked about.

If any of your are even slightly inspired by what was talked about in this video, and would like to get involved with teaching the next generation of hackers, then I'd like to suggest that you think about starting or supporting one of the clubs SPJ mentioned.

CodeClubs are school based clubs that you can run in a local school. We provide all the resources and guidance you need, and you can get involved here.

[https://codeclub.org/en/](https://codeclub.org/en/)

Coder Dojos are clubs that are run at weekends, in libraries, offices and community centers. Again, we provide educational resources to help you out.

[https://coderdojo.com/](https://coderdojo.com/)

Both of these clubs are international. So it doesn't matter which country you are based in.

Also happy to answer any questions people have.

Oh, and if you have kids and want to get them started, checkout some of our projects. These are the Scratch ones.

[https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects?software%5B%5D=...](https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects?software%5B%5D=scratch)

</comment><comment><USER6> I really enjoy listening to SPJ on almost any topic. He seems so friendly as well as knowledgeable. And humble! I already like Haskell, but I bet he could convince me to like almost anything else.

<comment><USER7> Here is another one which I've really liked over the years: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRrUvqQlnY&t](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NRrUvqQlnY&t)

He is so warm and spontaneous, yet smart and obviously can invent exact and concrete things!

<comment><USER6> Yes, I love that talk too! Thanks for posting it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I work in a similar organisation to SPJ in Australia, the Australian Computing Academy ([https://aca.edu.au](https://aca.edu.au)). Everything he said mirrors quite closely what has been happening in Australia for the past decade. We also have a national curriculum ([https://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/Digital_Technologies_- _S...](https://docs.acara.edu.au/resources/Digital_Technologies_- _Sequence_of_content.pdf)) which we're rolling out across the country.

The main take away I've received from doing this job for the past two years is the same one that SPJ reiterates in his talk. Teaching is a very distributed discipline. There's no top down solution to implementing a new curriculum. If you work in the industry and volunteer to help a school you can make a huge difference!

</comment><comment><USER9> I unknowingly met him once in 2002 or 2003, and I've just this second realised who he was.

I was visiting Microsoft Research in Cambridge writing an article for PC Format magazine, a British computer mag. They took me to see a few people to show off Microsoft Research.

There was this one guy who talked to me in his office. He got very excited about Haskell (which I didn't know what it was) and he was also working on some Excel feature he was convinced of the brilliance of, but hasn't persuaded the product team of.

His theory was that the only thing you know about an Excel spreadsheet is that most of your predications are wrong. My interpretation was that he was proposing a way of indicating a probabilistic range rather than a hard number.

I don't know if this ever made it into Excel, or if indeed this was what he was talking about.

But it's amazing to see this odd fellow I met was actually quite famous.

<comment><USER10> That work might have been [https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/research/publication/a-user-...](https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/research/publication/a-user-centred-approach-to-functions-in-excel/)

Perhaps it's significant in context that a writer for a UK computing mag wouldn't know of SPJ. Would they know of any UK CS luminaries, like Hoare?

<comment><USER9> Yes, that's it. Good find. I'm the first to admit I was an IT dilettante, despite covering it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Great video, listening to it now. His accent is fun. He sounds like he could play Caesar in Life Of Brian.

</comment><comment><USER12> SPJ is an absolute beast, though whenever I hear a talk of his all I can think of is the Impressive Clergyman.

</comment><comment><USER13> What a fantastic call to arms! I'm tempted to get involved myself after watching this talk. I couldn't agree more with everything SPJ said.

<comment><USER5> Want a quick start - start a CodeClub or Coder Dojo.

[https://codeclub.org/en/](https://codeclub.org/en/)

[https://coderdojo.com/](https://coderdojo.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Thanks for sharing. A great reminder of the beauty of the field.

</comment><comment><USER15> Next : sicm in physics class

</comment><comment><USER16> Thanks for sharing this!

</comment><comment><USER17> Just my 2c but this is one of the worst ideas.

First, this was designed by politicians who I am sure everyone on this sub would hate (basically, the Brexit boys). The stated aim was to be more elitist: make subjects much harder, encourage smart children...and dumb children...well...sorry, if you are dumb when we test you at 11 then you will be digging ditches.

Second, the logic for this came from people who had never taught in schools. Again, the people above declared war on teachers. And then took advice on how to educate children from people who had only worked in tertiary education (I actually support a lot of the principles but the implementation has been beyond dire, and loaded with corruption).

Third, try explaining programming without computers to a child. There are so many abstract concepts...it is just insane. I understand why an academic thinks this is a good idea. More jobs for the boys. But it still makes no sense.

Fourth, this feeds into the aspect of British culture that reveres irrelevant knowledge (and despises practice). Nowhere is this more evident that in CS departments. Example: the UK has great CS depts but no innovation within business. The university local to me has a top ML department, they have been doing speech recognition since the 60s...all the PHds leave, there is only one speech recognition startup in the city...and that is govt-funded afaik. Taking advice from people like the OP is suicidal.

<comment><USER18> > I understand why an academic thinks this is a good idea. More jobs for the > boys.

This isn't fair. Academics usually have a true love of their subject and desire to teach that to the next generation.

>Third, try explaining programming without computers to a child. There are so many abstract concepts...it is just insane.

They teach many abstract concepts. The current curricula for many subjects are already full of abstract ideas that we expect children to learn. Programming is basically functions, logic and basic algebra. It's not remotely difficult to teach these to children.

>Fourth, this feeds into the aspect of British culture that reveres irrelevant knowledge (and despises practice). Nowhere is this more evident that in CS departments. Example: the UK has great CS depts but no innovation within business. The university local to me has a top ML department, they have been doing speech recognition since the 60s...all the PHds leave, there is only one speech recognition startup in the city...and that is govt-funded afaik. Taking advice from people like the OP is suicidal.

I think this is wrong. Developing strong theoretical understanding is not pointless. You can't have innovation without theory. I agree that maybe the country needs to apply that academic kowledge better to money making endeavours, but I don't believe that keeping the education system as it is now is going to help. We need more numerate people with detailed knowledge of scientific disciplines in order to drive innovation.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. Besides, SPJ is not advocating teaching without computers at all. He just discusses de-emphasizing the "cool tech" aspect of CS, but also says that completely excluding computers wouldn't be much fun.

The relevant slide states about programming (and computers and tech):

        - Crucial, motivating, and "ground truth".
        - But also seductive, distracting, and risks excessive focus on technology details

It's hard for me to disagree with either claim.

SPJ is also not talking about "irrelevant knowledge without practice". I won't reiterate all his points, because that's what the lecture is for, but he stresses the practical parts as well as the theoretical parts, and he never claims CS should be taught "without practice".

<comment><USER17> Whether he is advocating it or not, this is essentially how things have turned out. In the UK, they are examining on DS&A for 16 year olds. Yes, there is a "programming" module but there is no actual content...the questions are: "how do you declare a variable", "what is the difference between for/while", and about different paradigms (these aren't taught in themselves, you just need to know what they are).

Btw, to be totally clear: the reason why this doesn't work is because we have been here before. The majority of the UK's leaders grow up doing whatever they think is valuable, and can totally disregard what other people need/want. The idea of practical knowledge makes no sense. You see this in CS courses that have no programming (again, my city has a very good CS dept...turns out grads who have only written a few hundred lines in their life). And it happens in a ton of other courses.

I get the idea of knowledge for it's own sake is very important for some people. But, again, look at the practice...this is how it is has turned out.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Functional constructs shared by Groovy, Scala, and Clojure and their benefits - <AUTHOR> http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jn10/index.html

<comment><USER2> So Scala...

        employees
          .filter(_.length() > 1)
          .map(_.capitalize)
          .reduce(_ + "," + _)

...Groovy...

        listOfNames
          .findAll {it.length() > 1}
          .collect {it.capitalize()}
          .join(',')

...and Clojure...

        (->> list-of-emps
          (filter #(< 1 (count %)))
          (map clojure.string/capitalize)
          (interpose ",")
          (reduce str))

They all look similar, but Clojure's syntax is harder to read for the uninitiated at first sight, one of the downsides of enabling syntactic macros and the homoiconocity it requires.

I do think there's room for a Scala/Groovy-looking syntax to sit atop Clojure, though, not to replace Clojure but to complement it. As it stands, the comparison code is easily misread and should be infix. I'm working on a tool to read this...

        listOfEmps
          ->> filter(count(_) > 1)
          ->> map(clojure.string.capitalize)
          ->> interpose(",")
          ->> reduce(str)

...and convert it to the Clojure sample above. There's been no real technical blockers (besides parsing performance of course). The bottleneck has been designing the syntax to cover all possible holes.</comment>


Magical initialization in a C for loop - <AUTHOR> http://oshogbo.vexillium.org/blog/41/ <comment><USER2> I love C and macros in general. This hack is interesting..</comment>


Why is the DropBox logo wrong? - <AUTHOR> http://obiwanchinobi.tumblr.com/post/18465607631/why-are-the-base-lines-of-the-dropbox-logo-off

<comment><USER2> adjust your perspective, it is a box with the top flaps 'open'. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> That's how I have always seen it though - top flaps open...

I still can't see how the base of the box is aligned :(</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are your AdWords Ratios? - <AUTHOR>

I'm launching an adwords campaign, and having very little success.  Only two clicks to my site in three days.  Obviously I need to change things, but it occurred to me that I have no idea where to focus my efforts.
Should I focus on more ad impressions (raise my CPC and add keywords), or should I focus on changing my ad text, to make better use of the page impressions I am getting?
How to decide?  Ask HN.  What is considered an acceptable ratio of ad impressions to clicks?  The answer to that will tell me where I'm going wrong. <comment><USER2> In general, you want to maintain a CTR above 1% or you'll find Google gives your spots to someone who actually generates revenue. This of course depends on the competition in your particular niche.

You don't make bingo card software, so it is likely irrelevant, but I get about 3.83% CTR on ads on the search network. (That excludes my holiday campaigns, which -- when Google actually approves them on time -- are so effective they should be illegal. 10%+) Things that have helped me: Conversion Optimizer, writing copy until it "clicks" with the users, and a few years of work.

By way of comparison, I only get about 2% or so on the content network.

After you've got a better CTR (and, not incidentally, are spending more money) you'll see Google offer you more impressions, and then you should start working on your CPA, because if that is doing poorly all the clicks in the world won't help you.

AdWords gets fractally complex if you're new to it, since you have to balance your business requirements against Google's interests and policies (which are not disclosed in a thorough fashion, change frequently, and are capricious and arbitrary). Best of luck to you.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sounds like I need to work on my ad copy. My CTR is less than 0.3%.

One of the things I am doing that I thought was clever, but perhaps, not so much, is including my price in the ad copy, on the premise that I don't want to pay for clicks from people who aren't willing to buy. Perhaps that's optimization that's better left for another day, however.

<comment><USER2> That works for some people and has a negative effect for other people. I'm in group #2. Test test test.

You may already know this, but on the off chance you don't: if you match words in the query in your title or text, Google will bold them for you, which tends to increase CTR something fierce. You can do this with dynamic insertion ("Google it") or by organizing your ad groups in a thematic fashion, which is something you should be doing anyhow.

Pretend you're a pet store. If you dump everything into one ad group and write generic copy, it will typically not get bolded. If you segment your ad groups well, words about dogs in group Dogs match ads about dogs (thus bolding the ads), words about cats in group Cats match ads about cats (thus bolding the ads), etc. Plus since folks are in a searching mood you should make it _abundantly_ clear that you have exactly what they are looking for. (Goes for the landing page, as well.)

<comment><USER3> I've seen that advice about maintaining several ad groups before, but I'm still a bit skeptical. I've assumed ad groups are just an internal convenience tool for advertisers and that all the ads get dumped into the same auction in the same way in the end. Has it been shown somewhere that Google really uses information about your groupings when it displays the ads?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The only thing that matters is CPC and LTV (lifetime value of your customer). If you know your LTV is $50, you can afford $50/click.

You get NO value from raising your bid except better placement and more clicks. I'd first try going long tail and bidding on MORE keywords (with low bids). Exhaust that option before you raise your bids.

Work on your copy, too. Adwords makes it easy to test different ads. Test a lot. Steal shamelessly from the #1 ad slot in terms of style.

<comment><USER5> _If you know your LTV is $50, you can afford $50/click._

Only if your conversion rate is 100% - which it never will be :-) You need to go a bit further and multiply by your conversion rate. So 10% conversion rate == $5/click. (Not accounting for making a profit, of course.)

<comment><USER6> And consider the time value of money - if the LTV is $50 over 2 years, you need to calculate the net _present_ value of that cashflow to you in today's dollars (which will always be less than $50).

<comment><USER7> By definition LTV includes a discount rate, I'd bet he's using one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Has anyone tried advertising on Facebook? Is the CTR and conversions better there compared to Google? I lose money on Google adwords.

<comment><USER9> I tried Facebook for a while. My CTR was lower than Google. I suspect this is because you're targeting impressions in a totally different manner. That being said, clicks are usually cheaper and conversions off my landing page were decent.

Another thing that bugged me about Facebook was that my Google Analytics numbers for visitors from FB never matched what FB was charging me. FB always showed roughly 1-5% more clicks than GA showed visitors.

<comment><USER10> _FB always showed roughly 1-5% more clicks than GA showed visitors._

People without javascript enabled, or people actively blocking GA?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> CTR: 1.5% including content network (2.5% search only) I'm being a bit cheap recently and staying around 3rd or 4th position (avg CPC $0.30-$0.60).

With adwords I focus on ad quality and click through rate over all else, the better you perform the more you are rewarded. Make sure you have enough impressions with well targeted keywords first and then over time adjust ads and phase out keywords based on performance.

Avoid tossing in the kitchen sink of keywords, do your research and make your list of keywords, focus a bit on the top and bit on the long tail (oh so much cheaper).

</comment><comment><USER12> There is not a single answer in my opinion. I like to focus on cost per conversion since I know what a conversion is worth to me. Another metric I like to watch is total conversions.

It's a balance between optimizing for ROI and optimizing for total revenue. If I can get 50 signups/month at $3.50/conv and can get 75 signups a month for $3.85/conv, I'll increase my bid so long as it increases my total revenue.

CPC on the content network is useful for branding as you receive exposure every time your ad is displayed, even though you only pay when someone clicks.

Are your keywords highly searched according to the <https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox>? If so, you may have to increase your bid until you build an account history and quality score.

</comment><comment><USER13> You should be able get to 3.00% plus CTR on Search network without a lot of work. If you have limited budget, turn off Content ads. It will gooble your budget, giving you little in return.

Concentrate on writing better ads. Keywords your bidding on should be in the ad. Create adgroups for like search terms. Have at least two or three different ads for each adgroup.

The landing page is just, if not more, important than the ad copy. Keywords should be in the Title, and meta description tags (Google ignore meta keywords), in a H1 headin, in the first sentence of the first paragraph, and another time or two on the page. If you want a good CTR, the landing page is your friend.

</comment><comment><USER14> You're not getting a statistically significant volume of clicks to make any decisions. Don't raise CPC too much until you know your exact CPA/conversion rate for that traffic source, you'll be burning money.

It seems that your campaign is poorly organized- you need to start with broader keywords to get more volume and then zero in on the profitable/high CTR keyphrases.

Be sure to try the content network as well, way more volume there.

</comment><comment><USER15> Maybe you're already doing this, but you generally want to optimize the funnels from impression -> click -> landing-page -> some conversion event. Focus on one at a time. To get better click-through rates, ensure that you have tight integration in your ad groups between the keywords and the ad copy. If you're not using keywords people are searching for in the ad, it is much less likely to be clicked. Also try dynamic keyword insertion in the ad copy if you don't feel like breaking up your ad groups. It's a bit of work, but once you find a combination that is effective, it's a matter of continuing to test new keyword permutations and dropping the stinkers to laser-target your adwords campaigns for high ROI.

It is also generally a bad idea to include price in the ad copy. You want to give enough honest information about what you're selling to make an interested user click; it is the job of your landing page/web site to build value and sell, but test to see what works for you. Hope that helps, good luck.

</comment><comment><USER10> It's worth it to buy a good book on Adwords. I found the Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords to be pretty good:

[http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Google-AdWords- ebook/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Google-AdWords- ebook/dp/B000SEK634/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Try both? Wait a few days, see which works better. It's better to have actual evidence for what works for your market

</comment><comment><USER17> I've separated my campaigns into CPM on the content network, and CPC on the search network.

My CTRs range from 0.5%-2.5% on Search, and 0.03%-0.3% on Content.

(Avg Pos is 2.6 on Search, 1.2 on Content)

</comment><comment><USER18> Don't raise your bids to try to get more clicks - work on your ad copy first. You can get over 1% CTR even in the 9-12 slots, so don't throw money at an ad until its working.

</comment><comment><USER19> It might help is you tell us what you're trying to sell..

</comment><comment><USER20> Be patient and keep at it. Sometimes a campaign will run for weeks before it will find a good spot and come alive.

My CTR's are between 0.5% and 1% on the content network (which is a totally different market from search).

In my case the CTR is directly proportionate to the number of times I can use the word "free" in the ad. Sometimes changing just a single word can double the CTR.</comment>


Future of Payments - <AUTHOR> http://progressreport.co/post/63653998776/future-of-payments

<comment><USER2> Interesting perspective. I like the look back to the beginning juxtaposed with the look to the future.

I think the current state of payments is seeing a "payments 2.0" renaissance, if you will, akin to the "web 2.0" movement that started in the early 2000's. Now, obviously the web is going the way of mobile, and it will be interesting to see where payments goes next. There will only be more volume for more players to take advantage of, and the only way to "lose" is to fail to grow, "miss the mark", or lack of innovation because the (online) world is evolving faster than ever.</comment>


Yelp Tried to Remove Bugs on App, Artificial Intelligence Deleted Everything - <AUTHOR> https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/yelp-tried-to-remove-bugs-on-app-artificial-intelligence-deleted-everything-2003957.html <comment><USER2> It's obviously a joke. Sad (and terrifying?) that an actual news site decided a joke app update description was worthy of a story without even attempting to contact the subject to confirm.

<comment><USER3> Anyone who's looked at the app could tell you that there is no intelligence, artificial or otherwise, within.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> No it just became sentient and realized the plague on this Earth that is the Yelp app and thought it would help humanity out by deleting it.</comment>


Cracking the BBC's GCHQ Puzzlebook Challenge with Python - <AUTHOR> https://stiobhart.net/2016-12-03-gchqpuzzlebook <comment><AUTHOR> Cracking The BBC'S GCHQ Puzzlebook Challenge With Python ...and a wee bit of logical deduction!

As the title suggest, a walkthrough on using some basic Python to aid solving the GCHQ Puzzlebook challenge, as recently published by the BBC.

WARNING: If you fancy attempting the challenge yourself, there are spoilers towards the end of the post.

</comment><comment><USER2> Pah! I solved it in my head.</comment>


The idea of what a human is, biologically speaking, is being turned inside out - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/node/21560559?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/microbesmaketh

<comment><USER2> Very interesting. The idea of human a human superorganism as a host to a variety of specialized and essential symbiotic bacteria should appeal to the Unixers in the audience.

The following quote is unrelated, but talk about counter-intuitive:

 _"This bacterium, which causes life-threatening distension of the gut in some people who have been treated with antibiotics and thus had their microbiomes disrupted, is a bane of hospitals. It kills 14,000 people a year in America alone. But recent experiments have shown it can be eliminated by introducing, as an enema, the faeces of a healthy individual."_

<comment><USER3> Thanks for the quote, here's bitcookie #8635 for you

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Are these microbes limited to the stomach or to be found over the entire body and brain?

<comment><USER5> Almost every part of the human body directly exposed to the environment is covered with microbes: the skin, the gut lining, your mouth, your nasal passage, etc. Only a small part isn't (as I recall your eyes are sterile). I don't have proper citation for this, but AFAIK if you disrupt the microbial balance on these surfaces it might result in health-related problems. So in a way, yes, we need them to live healthy.

Other parts have to be kept sterile. Your brain, your heart, your lymph nodes, are some examples. When these parts gets infected, you get sick.

On another note, microbes are fantastic creatures. The earth is covered in them and they've been around much longer than us. They can live off a myriad of different substances and even without the sun.

Yay microbes :p!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> This idea is almost always expressed in terms of number of cells: some 90% of "our" cells are not human. But what about mass? What fraction of "our" mass consists of human cells vs. nonhuman cells?</comment>


How America is Dumbing Down the Next Generation (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2012/01/18/How-America-is-Dumbing-Down-the-Next-Generation.aspx#page1

<comment><USER2> Yeah and when cars replaced horses, the next generation got dumber because they no longer learned the skills they would have acquired by learning how to ride a horse?

If anything, based on what I have seen, the next generation will be shockingly smarter, more adept at fact-checking, much better at focusing and multi- tasking, much more disillusioned about institutionalized education and much more interested in self-directed learning (with much more options to do so)

<comment><USER3> > _Yeah and when cars replaced horses, the next generation got dumber because > they no longer learned the skills they would have acquired by learning how > to ride a horse?_

Well, at the time they merely replaced those skills with learning how to drive a car.

But, in a future where you won't have to replace previous skills with anything (e.g self driving cars, calculator vs having to know basic math in your head etc) it can be argued that it can lead into a general dumbness.

Some people will say that it will "free resources for higher level learning" etc, but in all probabillity it will just infantilize most people, a la "Brave New World". We already have huge resources for higher level learning and most people just spend their time watching 3 hours TV and day and learning celebrity gossip on the internet.

> _If anything, based on what I have seen, the next generation will be > shockingly smarter, more adept at fact-checking, much better at focusing and > multi-tasking, much more disillusioned about institutionalized education and > much more interested in self-directed learning_

A few perhaps. For the majority it will be the same ever increasing dumbness that has been going on for decades.

<comment><USER4> > ever increasing dumbness that has been going on for decades.

Do you have evidence that it's _increasing_? Maybe there have just always been dumb people. Of course you can point to amazing discoveries or great literature from the past, but that only represents a tiny slice of the population. And we're still doing science, still writing books, etc.

<comment><USER3> > _Do you have evidence that it 's increasing? (...) And we're still doing > science, still writing books, etc._

For those kind of things they is no hard evidence. One either sees that happening through historical changes, or does not. But there are lot of secondary indications.

For example the books we're writing don't compare at all favorably to past works.

Including the most cherished books of our era. Whereas literature, poerty, etc was constantly replenishing it's stock for centuries, there has been nothing like what we had even 50 years ago.

Same for the fine arts -- there have been no great new art movements since pop art (which even that was a lame immitation of older ideas). Same (and worse) for philosophy.

As for science, after the low hanging fruit (which demanded huge breakthroughs, like Newton's, Darwin's, Maxwell's, Einstein's, Cantor's, Turing's etc) have been picked, there's mostly boring incremental work -- we might as well have had stopped doing science. It's mostly engineering these days.

<comment><USER4> Literature and art are very subjective things. I don't think you can really judge them against other periods until you've got a century or so of hindsight. So I'm afraid that your assertion that they're not like they used to be sounds like it's prejudiced by your belief that people are getting stupider. I bet in a hundred years, there will be classics from our time as much as any other.

Science is an interesting one. Perhaps we have already made most of the big leaps in understanding the natural world. But that doesn't imply that scientists now are less intelligent than scientists 'back then'. I'd argue that it takes more knowledge and work to make even seemingly 'minor' discoveries. Besides anything else, we have to understand all that past work before we can build on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The kids are OK. They'll be messed up a lot more by college loans and Social Security for baby boomers than by tire sensors.

</comment><comment><USER6> The Greek philosopher Socrates objected to writing because he believed that it would negatively impact memory.

The next generation will be just fine.

<comment><USER3> It's extremely naive (and, oh so, contemporary) to treat the philosophical arguments put forward in that text (which was written by Plato, btw, who attributes it to the Egyptian King Thamus), as some kind of failed prophecy.

Writing DID have a negative impact on the directness and vividness of memory of pre-writing civilizations, and the role that memory played there.

To use a somewhat crude analogue, Plato was speaking of a phenomenon akin to what we have today, where any idiot with an internet connection can play the know-it-all in conversation, not by having studied a subject and absorbed it, but by just looking it up on Wikipedia to get a shallow quote.

This, which we have all witnessed on online forums, also holds for written books. Yes, they can help solidify memory and pass it over to the next generations. But they also served as an easy shortcut to information, compared to memory (which takes years and experience to create). While everybody can aknowledge what was gained, few (like Plato) could see what was lost in the process.

<comment><USER2> Can we agree that writing did have negative impacts, but given the trajectory of human civilization since then, that the benefits have outweighed the costs?

<comment><USER3> > _Can we agree that writing did have negative impacts, but given the > trajectory of human civilization since then, that the benefits have > outweighed the costs?_

Sounds reasonable, but then again, the work of philosophy (or thought in general) is to question what sounds reasonable.

For example, why should we have to be that proud of the "trajectory of human civilization since then"?

Sure, we since had computers and brain surgery.

We also had nazi concentration camps, 2 wolrd wars, colonialism, Stalinism, the nuclear arms race, and global warming. Oh, and Justin Bieber.

If a WW III thing was to happen in the next 50 years, taking most of the population with it, I'm sure more than a few people will think "Damn, we were better off before all that technological shit -- perhaps even writing enabled us for more that we were good to handle".

<comment><USER2> A (partial) end to slavery. Significantly improved lives for women as far as being raped and domestic violence goes. A significant number of people moving from the working class to the middle class Democracy vs having a violent war frequently when there is a question of succession. A significantly reduced fear of violent death, or violence in general really. Unless you don't think slaves are people, I really think people are much better off nowadays compared to pre-writing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> [http://xkcd.com/603/](http://xkcd.com/603/)

<comment><USER8> Just because XKCD says it doesn't make it true. The idea that there because societal decline claims of the past might be interpreted in ways that leave them open to debate doesn't mean that there is no possibility of societal decline.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I know this is tongue-in-cheek, but none of the "skills" mentioned are very valuable.

People one hundred years ago also took every convenience available. Maybe your average turn of the century citizen could _use_ a radio, but few could build or repair one.

Information access and understanding is WAY higher in general than ever before. Anyone who can use a google map can use a regular map, they'll just be frustrated by the lack of information that was never there. People rely on these new sources of information that augment the old, limited information. It's not replacing anything.

</comment><comment><USER10> I read things like this so often I can't help but assume that a lot of people think this but I find the thought so incomprehensibly alien that I can't really understand why. To me it makes no sense at any level.

<comment><USER3> To give an example I think you'll understand better.

Let's say tomorrow the stable life you have collapses. A war, a meteor strikes, riots -- whatever. You have no electricity anymore, no super-markets, no gas, and everybody is trying to survive.

What exactly survival skills do you have in a situation like this? If you are a fat, lazy-ass programmer, are you any worth at all top people trying to survive there?

Your ancestor from 5-6 generations ago, living in some log cabin, could probably be ten times as useful and knowledgable about what had to be done.

Something was lost in the process from man surviving using several skills to couch potato programmer that has everything served to him on a silver platter.

Now, you might find those kind of things unlikely to ever be needed again, but you can see how it makes sense at ONE level at least.

(What I described, btw, is a quite common theme in literature and movies).

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Not dumbing down, more like freeing up resources for higher level thinking...

<comment><USER12> Exactly. You see the same trend in programming by way of abstraction.

<comment><USER13> It's like kids these days don't even know how to use the XOR trick for linked lists. >:(

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Lot of comments dismissing this, as their always are when we see kids are getting dumber articles. Yet in my life I think it's been pretty much factually accurate that graduating class after graduating class has emerged from education with slightly lower levels of knowledge in key areas.

I wonder if a lot of folks live in too much of a bubble of people like them to really understand this. I don't know what other explanation there can be because I see this around me all the time.

</comment><comment><USER14> I was really sad when my wife made me take out the jump starter, battery recharger, and electric air pump out from the car trunk to make more room. She says the car always warns her when the air is low far ahead of time, has run flat tires anyway, and the one time in its entire existence it didn't start she just had to push the on star button on the dash and someone came immediately. Damn I like my tools, though. :(

</comment><comment><USER15> I don't know what this article has to do with America as a country. Do people in other countries not embrace technological innovations? </sarcasm>

</comment><comment><USER16> Flagged.</comment>


EBay Inc. Agrees to Acquire Magento - <AUTHOR> http://www.ebayinc.com/content/press_release/20110606006390 <comment><USER2> Magento is horrible. Has anyone here ever used it? It is bad. Makes sense that eBay would acquire it, I guess. My hopes are not high for the platform.

<comment><USER3> It's incredibly over-engineered. Just look at the templating system and see how far down you have to go in a directory tree just to make a simple edit on the page. The code itself is too fragmented to follow. A lot of the mental overhead from working on it comes from just having to remember where functions are in the code base.

<comment><USER4> it made me think of Joomla (you need a beefy server for what seems to be a simple site)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting. Magento is the WordPress of commerce software: feature rich and popular, but not particularly well written, and tied to PHP/MySQL. Like WP, it is based upon a questionable custom framework.

I'd love to see a well done, customizable, open source ecommerce system for a language that I'd actually want to use. For best hope of popularity, Django or Rails makes sense. Last time I checked around for Django ecommerce projects, I didn't see anything grand.

I'm going to be working on stuff like this over the summer; anyone have a suggestion for a Django or Rails project to improve or adopt?

<comment><USER6> Don't know much about rails but for Django there

\- Satchmo(<http://satchmoproject.com/>)

\- Lightening Fast Shop (<http://www.getlfs.com/>)

More info

\- <http://djangopackages.com/grids/g/ecommerce/>

\- <http://readncode.com/blog/the-state-of-ecommerce-in-django/>

I used Satchmo sometime back and it's a very good but low level solution. You can do a lot with it.

I did not use LFS but it seems something which can help you setup a cart very quickly, like pinax does for social sites.

EDIT: Fully agree about Magento/WP. From a cursory look into Magento internals seemed of questionable design and unnecessarily complicated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Magento's Blog Post: <http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog>

They've also prepared a PDF containing an FAQ covering details of the acquisition. Congrats to the Magento team! I remember them launching Magento a few years ago on the then, still young, Zend Framework. Glad to see things turn out so well for them.

</comment><comment><USER8> Now would be a great time to build a new FOSS e-commerce platform that runs on commodity hosting.

<comment><USER4> <http://spreecommerce.com>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I have several clients using Magento and it's definitely the best e-commerce solution available right now. In the beginning there were a lot of performance issues, but most of those problems have been addressed now. I'm wondering what's going to happen with the free version of Magento. They don't mention anything about it.

<comment><USER10> The performance issues have just been masked with caching. The template layer makes hundreds of useless classes each request. Could speed it up 40% or so with flyweight pattern on the template classes. Could reduce memory usage each request by not using XML config files and not included configs for modules that are turned off.

<comment><USER11> What CMS would you recommend in it's stead? Free would of course be best.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think this is a really strategic move for e-bay. They are now catering to the whole eco-system by providing a e-commerce platform (magento), payment integration (via paypal) and complete fulfillment back end via GSI commerce. If executed well they have a good chance at attracting a lot of customers. The biggest advantage is they have huge auction based commerce platform ebay itself to provide cross channel capabilities.

</comment><comment><USER13> Should of picked up shopify instead.

<comment><USER14> I'm glad they didn't, it's nearing finished product status (from my perspective) and I haven't seen a lot of innovation from them since inception... I'd like to love them more, but I just cant.

[note: I've developed multiple Shopify themes and Magento, admined a Magento store for 3 years, and developed some pretty custom things for both platforms. i am in both communities, or I like to think so...]

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Magento can't even do a shopping cart properly. The default is a really messy shopping cart, and it is a pain to customize it. You gotta hack everything just to make a one page checkout.

</comment><comment><USER16> This finally makes sense why Paypal has had their documentation on x.com for so long. x.com == x.commerce

And here, I thought they'd been wasting a perfectly good domain name for a long time...

<comment><USER17> I'm surprised they don't do something nifty with the x.com domain. I had some ideas when I was still there. Housing developer content seems pretty lame.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Magento CrunchBase page: <http://www.crunchbase.com/company/magento>

</comment><comment><USER19> Wow, that was fast. Does anybody know how big the deal was?

<comment><USER20> Not sure how big, but I would actually say it hasn't been fast. Magento has been in existence in some form for almost 10 years, starting as a product they used with consulting clients. This has been a loooong road for the Varien team.

<comment><USER10> So, they've been using Zend Framework for 10 years?

<comment><USER21> No, Zend Framework dates from ~2006.

<comment><USER22> I think that was the point of the 'ZF' comment. Whatever varien had as an ecommerce package before their ZF uptake was likely different enough from what Magento was that it's not terribly accurate or useful to say "magento's been around for 10 years".

Magento in its current form has been around for ~4 years.

Wikipedia even indicates that Varien was using osCommerce before Magento was developed, so they likely didn't have a full commerce stack of their own for the last 10 years.

<comment><USER20> Agreed - would have been more accurate to say Varien rather than Magento.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Just out of curiosity - does anyone plan on migrating from Magento to another platform as a result of this acquisition?

<comment><USER14> I've been considering a migration to something else for over a year, but have yet to find any product meeting our needs other than the latest version of Magento... that being said, I have yet to be able to upgrade to that version... something is severely wrong with our DB and we're pretty much stuck in an old version!

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'd be willing to bet eBay is preparing to use Magento to roll their own turn- key hosted storefront service.

<comment><USER17> They've had prostores.com for quite some time and while it does have a good number of merchants using it, it's far from best-in-class. I would expect much of that to migrate over to Magento (and Magento Go) which is slightly better and more modern. But I don't think my expectations are that high.</comment></comment>


Intel Acquires Artificial Intelligence Chipmaker Habana Labs - <AUTHOR> https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191216005167/en/Intel-Acquires-Artificial-Intelligence-Chipmaker-Habana-Labs <comment><AUTHOR> Dupe of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21803574](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21803574).</comment>


Show HN: search engine through new freelance and remote jobs - <AUTHOR>

Would like to ask for your feedback and suggestions for my web project: http://www.guruka.com/
What is it: free search engine through new remote projects and jobs from 10+ sites and boards (like Freelancer.com, oDesk, eLance, Stackoverflow Jobs and others)
Who needs it: pro freelancers looking for new projects or occasional freelancer who are looking for interesting projects (to practice new skills). Or even software market researchers to see what kind of projects are in demand.
Thanks again for your attention <comment><AUTHOR> and the question I have is if there are any freelance and job site you want to be included?

Currently the service is fetching these sites:

Freelancer (International) oDesk (International) Elance (International) Guru (International) Stackoverflow Jobs (International) Free-lance (Russia) Freelancehunt.com (Russia) Weblancer (Russia) Dream-starts (India) 99designs (International) Freelancer-uk (UK) Freelance-switch (International) Techno- jobs (UK)

</comment><comment><USER2> \- Clickable link ~> [http://www.guruka.com/](http://www.guruka.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you! I am quite new to HC News so have not found how to make a link and the description all together

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> \- Thank you for this. I will definitely be using it.

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you, please do not hesitate to send your suggestions or comments about the site here or via forum</comment></comment>


What It's Like To Be A Startup CEO - The Backstory - <AUTHOR> http://founderdating.com/pauldejoebackstory/ The sequel to Paul DeJoe's epic @quora post. He talks of the lowest points he's experienced as an entrepreneur that shaped that post and what keeps him going. <comment><USER2> I remember all this. The highlight for me was working past hours in our first customer's warehouse (yeah, enterprise) room and being locked in because the guards forgot about us.

Or not getting back to the hotel until 4 AM and realizing you had to wake up at 6 to finish a feature to present to the customer at 9AM, and not sleeping anyway because of it.

Or the months when you couldn't pay yourself, barely scraped by on rent. The miracle of becoming "ramen profitable" and being able to eat again. Disagreements with the business partner about bootstrapping or funding and heated arguments... been there.

And all the friends who were there for you, even the ones you lost in the turmoil.

Guys: I know this, I've been through this, and I just want to say: it gets better. And not necessarily when you're magically successful (because that always happens, right?)—it just gets better in time. You can't stay unbalanced forever, and at some point your project will pull itself together, or it won't, and that's okay. You'll move on to another project, or maybe a decent living somewhere, and then you'll get an idea for a second new thing to create.

And you'll do it better the second time. You will. I will. Because it doesn't have to be like this. It might be a true story, but it's still not right.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER3> _The most challenging thing is that the people you'd normally share your challenges or fears with don't understand the concept of "I'm gonna create something huge with nothing and I don't care if I die trying."_

This strikes me as the saddest part of this article, but also a bit of a failure on the part of the author. Part of being a founder is surely inspiring others to believe that you're on to something; that you're adding value and ultimately making the world better. If you believe in something, strongly enough to make you sleep in a truck, but can't communicate that to the people closest to you (who should be predisposed to listening to your point of view) then surely there's a problem.

When I say 'communicate' I don't even mean getting them to sign up to your service, I just mean making it clear to them why you are sleeping in a truck and why that's a rational behaviour from your point of view.

If, for example, you were sleeping in your truck to raise awareness of homelessness or as some kind of performance art; your friends and family might not agree that that was the best way forward, but they'd probably still be bringing you hot food at night. Why is your proposition so hard to explain that you're lying about where you sleep? Is it actually quite a shallow mission (e.g. I just want to make lots of money and haven't really got a vision of how to make the world better) or is it that you're not able to communicate your vision well, even to those close to you? Either way, alarm bells are ringing in my head.

<comment><USER4> Life at the "top" is lonely. Explaining to people what you're doing would probably have most people put you in a mental asylum. One of the things about this that he is trying to explain is that when youre the CEO of a start up you're doing things that a VERY small percentage of people would ever do, and very few people would understand why anyone would ever choose to do that.

<comment><USER3> Lonely? I agree. Impossible to explain your motivation to those closest to you? Hmmmmm. If you want customers or investors surely you need to learn how to explain your vision and be confident doing so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> While there are no kids that ask their mom "where's daddy?" - meaning you - there is little to worry about.

I totally wasted several years of my youth and that was the best time ever. And this guy was creating something, so +1 for that.

<comment><USER6> "where's daddy" problem is rarely an issue for entrepreneurs.

kids are very good at adapting to their environment as long as their environment is stable and predictable. for example if you spend with your kids whole their life only 5 minutes a day, they perceive it as normal and wouldn't expect it any other way because "that's how daddy always used to be"

the key for entrepreneur with kids is to deliver consistency no matter what that consistency is. follow my advice and you will be happy entrepreneur.

<comment><USER7> It's very true that kids adapt. It's same reason why kids who are abused keep their mental faculties about them. Being beaten every other day is "normal" to them.

There are two problems with this "adaption". It creates adults with warped sense of what's normal. If they are lucky enough to gain a healthy disposition, they end up hating their parents for the upbringing they got.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Very insightful. Best quote from the article: "There's people that will read this and find it completely ridiculous. "</comment>


Segregated by Design - <AUTHOR> https://www.segregatedbydesign.com/ <comment><USER2> Thanks fo sharing this! Will take a look later today!</comment>


Ask HN: Does artificial intelligence algorithms forget? - <AUTHOR>

Humans forget things things and skills that we do not use for a while, maybe it's because we do not have infinite storage capacity in our brains and such a brain would use a lot of energy. Does artificial intelligence algorithms forget things they have learned but not used for a while? Does artificial intelligence algorithms have artificial dreams or the equivalent to redistribute their learnt memories? <comment><USER2> They could. However, it's not always wise.

I heard the tale of an expert system that managed its rules itself. One of its rules was that whatever rule that wasn't used be deemed useless, and therefore to be deleted.

The first rule it deleted was that rule.

</comment><comment><USER3> It depends how they are programmed, but in general AI(machine learning) algorithms do not forget as they are basically some calculated statistics. They don't have dreams :)</comment>


iXsystems Starts De-Emphasizing FreeBSD for TrueNAS Scale Out Project - <AUTHOR> https://www.servethehome.com/ixsystems-starts-de-emphasizing-freebsd-for-truenas-scale-out-project/ <comment><AUTHOR> Whatsapp, Juniper Network, Netgate and now iXsystems. While FreeBSD won't die anytime soon. Its usage and resources is definitely shrinking.</comment>


The Avengers Movie Infringes Wikipedia's Copyright - <AUTHOR> http://slashdot.org/submission/2237639/the-avengers-movie-infringes-wikipedias-copyright

<comment><USER2> ...and not a single fuck was given.

Because this meets three of the four areas of fair use.

<comment><USER3> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > _The bottom of the screen contains a small window clearly displaying the > text "image compression works in part by "rounding off" less-important > visual information. There is corresponding". That text is copied verbatim > from the Wikipedia page on data compression. The movie's credits make no > mention of Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation, or the Creative Commons > license. As a result, the movie is in violation of Federal copyright law."_

Because, as we all know, because Wikipedia articles never copy other sources verbatim and often illegally without giving credit..</comment>


Bootup Labs - <AUTHOR> http://bootuplabs.com/about

<comment><USER2> "We've blogged about Four things to have a hope of being funded, but the most important two at an earlier stage are having a co-founder and a starter executive summary." um ... ya this is going to be a problem.

</comment><comment><USER3> Also, this is a 100k convertible line of credit. I don't know they're conditions, but Bootup Labs could easily use a convertible note to their strategic advantage... For example, bankrupt the business, take more ownership, or strong-arm a board position by offering not to covert the note.

<comment><USER4> Is this true? Can someone with more knowledge of convertible line of credit, comment on this?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you can legally work in Canada, you're _insane_ if you don't try to get into this program. $150K - 10x what YC does, but still with buy-in from top- tier US VCs? Eight months to just get to ramen profitable (not paying back the $150K)? This is awesome.

<comment><USER5> It's not quite as good as it sounds. You get $50-150k in exchange for 5-15% equity, which sounds like a post-money valuation of $1M, far higher than what YC provides; but then you have to pay bootuplabs $50k out of that. In effect, bootuplabs puts a dollar value on the assistance which YC provides to startups for free.

If you're doing a startup which only needs $20k in order to reach the point where you can find other funding, bootuplabs will take 7% of your company, exactly in line with YC's typical 6-7% for $20k... but I'd much rather have the YC team advising me than the bootuplabs team.</comment></comment>