Massachusetts gas fires: Another technological tragedy - <AUTHOR> http://bit-player.org/2018/another-technological-tragedy <comment><USER2> "All of these events feel like unnecessary disasters—if we were just a little smarter, we could have avoided them—but the fires in Lawrence are particularly tormenting in this respect. With an aircraft 35,000 feet over the ocean, you can't simply press Pause when things don't go right. Likewise a nuclear reactor has no safe-harbor state; even after you shut down the fission chain reaction, the core of the reactor generates enough heat to destroy itself. But Columbia Gas faced no such constraints in Lawrence. "

Pretty interesting comparison. Arguably airplanes can coast down and nuclear reactors (especially Gen-IV low-pressure ones like sodium metal or molten salt) can passively cool their nuclear decay heat post shutdown without external power. But it is true that TMI and Fukushima were not chain reacting, they were both decay heat cooling problems. For those unfamiliar with this, a chain reactor immediately drops to about 7% of full power after shutdown and then exponentially decays to 1% after a day and half a percent after weeks. Turns out 1% of a gigawatt is still a lot.

On the nuclear topic, I'm annoyed that natural gas accidents that cause deaths get way lighter media treatment than nuclear accidents like TMI that cause no deaths.

<comment><USER3> Airplanes coast down fine after a (double) engine failure, but they don't coast nicely when your primary instruments aren't working. The Air France flight didn't just loose airspeed indication, they got invalid readings and all associated warnings. Unfortunately that is the common failure mode for flight instruments, they don't just show nothing, they show wrong values. Fortunately pilots are trained to know how instruments work on the inside and what the most likely wrong indications and their causes are.

The problem the author points out is that you cannot "pause" to think about what information may be correct and which instruments to follow. You have to react immediately, which is much harder than considering the same decisions sitting at a desk reading the NTSB report.

If the low speed indication/alert is correct you need to push the nose forward immediately to keep the aircraft out of a stall, if the high speed indication/alert is correct you need to pull power to flight-idle and nose up carefully but immediately to avoid overspeeding the aircraft and risk structural failure.

<comment><USER4> AFAIK the Air France flight would have been ok if they had not even touched the controls. They had a lot of altitude. Of course easy to say from the arm chair.

I'm not sure how easily a regular airline overspeeds or stalls if the controls are close to a middle position. They should be aerodynamically stable (if loaded correctly).

For a fighter jet it's a different situation.

<comment><USER5> They were initially close to a high altitude stall, the margins are not that large at that altitude, so just dropping everything isn't really an option.

The report highlighted training, which I guess is always possible to point out, but looking at the event I think they could have made more conclusions regarding how the control system performed counterintuitive by emitting stall warnings at the time they actually did the right thing, and provides little feedback when it drops into alternate law making a standard full pullback into a potentially dangerous move.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There are modern controllers which will detect this situation:

 _" When Open Loop Detection is enabled L.dE, the controller will look for the power output to be at 100%. Once there, the control will then begin to monitor the Open Loop Detect Deviation L.dd as it relates to the value entered for the Open Loop Detect Time L.dt. If the specified time period expires and the deviation does not occur, an Open Loop Error will be triggered. Once the Open Loop Error condition exists the control mode will go off and an Open Loop message will be display. If the process value goes in the opposite direction, a Reversed Loop message is display. The sensor is likely wired in reverse polarity."_

If this crew was replacing an old cast iron gas main, it probably predated such controllers. That's not necessarily a bad thing. A mechanical controller can work for many decades. It's hard to get that level of uptime from microprocessors.

The real problem here is "maintenance induced failure". Especially on a system which is not fully shut down.

[1] [https://www.watlow.com/-/media/documents/user-manuals/pm- pid...](https://www.watlow.com/-/media/documents/user-manuals/pm-pid-1.ashx)

</comment><comment><USER7> The Chemical Safety Board produces some pretty fascinating videos that reconstruct the chains of events that led to large industrial accidents in chemical plants. The videos normally conclude with recommendations for voluntary actions industry can take to prevent similar incidents in future. They basically summarize the results of detailed investigations by CSB agents.

The videos are well produced and, apart from those accidents that involve injury or death, they are quite entertaining if you happen to be in a forensic frame of mind.

Here's an example of one of their videos: [https://youtu.be/_icf-5uoZbc](https://youtu.be/_icf-5uoZbc)

<comment><USER8> I like their videos. Unfortunately, this incident will be investigated by the Transportation Safety Board.

The report will be thorough, but we may not get a great video out of it :(

<comment><USER9> The TSB does do videos, but you're right that they're not as polished as the CSB's.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Oh man. My PhD work is focused on helping people communicate clearly about the measurements they are making and how to interpret them and where the pitfalls are in a research setting. Every time I read about something like this I wonder if I can use what I am working on to help people automatically detect when the assumptions of their measurement model could be violated. For example, if you can explicitly model the fact that the measurement is not the actual value and that they can become decoupled (and can thus brainstorm and model potential reasons), then you can start to help people realize that the map (measurements) are not the territory (reality), in ways that aren't just cute phrases without guidance for practical implementation.

<comment><USER11> I'm curious: within which field are you doing this PhD? I could see you as a computer scientist, systems designer, political theorist, perhaps an economist or philosopher.

Is any of your work available to read online?

<comment><USER10> I'm technically in neuroscience, neuroinformatics more specifically, but was raised by a political theorist. Unfortunately I have a bad habit of writing code rather than prose, and don't keep a blog or similar, so the first thing that I could point you to would be my thesis, which is still months away.

<comment><USER12> Well, hurry up then :)

Seriously, this sounds like a very interesting subject. Best of luck with your thesis writing and submission (mine's still a couple of years away).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> While they were replacing an old system with a new system, they had inadvertently created an interim (hybrid?) system that wasn't as safe as either the old or new:

> The cause of the accident was not a leak or an equipment failure or a design > flaw or a worker turning the wrong valve. The pressure didn't just creep up > beyond safe limits while no one was paying attention; the pressure was > driven up by the automatic control system meant to keep it in bounds. The > pressure regulators were "trying" to do the right thing. Sensor readings > told them the pressure was falling, and so the controllers took corrective > action to keep the gas flowing to customers. But the feedback loop the > regulators relied on was not in fact a loop. They were measuring pressure in > one pipe and pumping gas into another.

</comment><comment><USER14> "I admit to a morbid fascination with stories of technological disaster. I read NTSB accident reports the way some people consume murder mysteries. The narratives belong to the genre of tragedy."

The author is not alone. Over a decade ago, there was a theater piece called "Charlie Victor Romeo" that consisted solely of actors re-enacting cockpit voice recordings of aircraft that crashed. [http://charlievictorromeo.com/](http://charlievictorromeo.com/)

</comment><comment><USER15> What I still don't understand is why the pressure regulators and over pressure valves on the house gas meters didn't kick in? Were the homes involved so old that the meter protections failed or weren't there in the first place? It seems that ultimately you've got to have failsafes at the homes themselves. Without such failsafes, what would stop a bad actor from purposely over pressurizing a residential branch?

<comment><USER16> Those regulators work within a set range of input pressures, and need a certain delta to work properly. Over-pressure them severely and they will simply fail, and most such failures will lead to gas escaping from the regulator body. That is why you will usually find them outside of the premises they protect so they vent into the outdoors rather than into some enclosed space.

As for your bad actor: what would he pressurize your lines with? An air compressor? He'd have to dig up the lines or disconnect them first and gas from the line would likely escape in quantities large enough to discourage such tricks.

Just like in theory you could disconnect the mains from a house and then send a high voltage pulse down the feed lines, in practice pranksters and miscreants tend to avoid doing stuff that might get them killed instead.

<comment><USER15> >What would he pressurize your lines with? An air compressor? He'd have to dig up the lines or disconnect them first and gas from the line would likely escape in quantities large enough to discourage such tricks.

On the gas meter on my house anyway, the underground pipe mates at a valve. It doesn't seem hard or particularly dangerous to shut that valve off, disconnect the meter, connect whatever, then open the valve again.

<comment><USER16> If you leave the valve attached to the mains line then you can access the house lines, usually there is even a special port for this that you could use without disconnecting the mains line that is used for leak inspection (they evacuate the lines and measure the rate of seepage). Once you connect something in the line and you open the valve again all pilot lights will have been extinguished and won't re-light due to safeties.

Anyway, if you want to destroy someone's house there are much quicker, less obvious and easier ways to do so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> _I had believed such a catastrophe was all but impossible. The natural gas industry has many troubles, including chronic leaks that release millions of tons of methane into the atmosphere, but I had thought that pressure regulation was a solved problem._

Yeah, natural gas tech is old and over time has been worked into a multi-layer system that is close to "inherently safe". I remember years ago trying to light an old heater the most stupid way possible and only singeing my eyebrows in the resulting explosion.

But these events just show that if a company _skimps enough_ on needed maintenance, ignoring constant smaller leaks and the similar despicable maneuvers done by this gas company, then the overall potential of piping an explosive gas into a city can be realized and people die and are injured, building are destroyed and so-forth.

In this context, it seems pretty obvious this isn't a "technological tragedy" but a "people doing bad things tragedy" and I hope it's obvious people deserve to go to jail for this and if they don't then other problematic aspect of this society are then to blame.

<comment><USER18> The gas company leaks may be insignificant compared to the way natural gas is obtained. In particular, the way it isn't. Dakota fracking just burned off the natural gas, because in the USA its politically incorrect to build pipelines. Result: terawatts of natural gas burned off at the source or released into the atmosphere. More damage to the environment than a century of leaks. The burning flumes could be seen from space, appears as a megacity of light for years.

I think our political process has completely lost touch with science and pragmatism.

<comment><USER17> Your argument connecting blowing-off natural gas and the current antipathy to pipelines today is false and disingenuous.

Essentially, it follows the logic that the only way to keep corporations from devastating the environment is giving them some positive market incentive to not do so. But of course, given zero regulations or morality, there's always going to be an economic incentive to toss some poisons in lakes and some pollutants in the atmosphere - because some things just aren't useful and if you have zero-cost disposal, that the (amoral) path of least resistance.

I'd go the opposite rout. Polluting in whatever form should be illegal. Polluters should be fined or go to jail, whatever is appropriate. "I could make money with my stuff so I tossed it/burned it/whatever" should never an acceptable explanation or excuse.

<comment><USER18> Uh, its true and the direct cause.

Billions of cubic feet of gas is not a reasonable disposal problem - there's no place to put it, that isn't worse than burning it. Except a pipeline, where it would be ultimately burned anyway, but now yielding energy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I suspect the remote-sensing aspect of their regulation system was not well known, and thus the consequences of possibly opening the control loop weren't taken into consideration. It's a subtle but important point --- and I remember a friend telling me a story of destroying some very expensive electronics because the sense line of the power supply came loose.

</comment><comment><USER20> What I see in those incidents is severe lack of backup sensors.

Why after switching to new pipe nobody checked/could check the pressure in it?

Why there were no other kind of speed sensors on a plane, simpler, less accurate, slower but not that vulnerable to icing?

Why in Three Miles Island incident why people couldn't double check if reactor has water in it or not?

</comment><comment><USER21> Properly installed residential gas piping should be able to handle triple digit pressures. Appliances should be able to handle double digit pressures because almost all appliances that can run on NG also can be equipped to run on propane which outputs at up to 30psi depending on the regulator. Manufacturers slap a safety factor on top because it's a consumer product and you don't want someone to blow up their house and sue you because they used the wrong regulator.

There's a reason some houses went bang and some houses didn't.

I know it's fashionable to blame the megacorp (and it sure looks like they have plenty of blame in this case) but there's plenty of blame to go around here. There's a reason some houses went bang and others didn't. I've worked residential construction in MA and plumbers as a group have a pretty bad reputation (well earned, at least based on my experience, you should see some of the corners these guys will cut). I would wager that the houses that went bang weren't the ones that had their gas pipes done by the apprentice who still does everything by the book but the "seasoned professional" who knows exactly what you can get away with when your work only needs to hold 1/2psi.

Like any large accident there are many dominoes that need to be lined up before they can all be knocked down at once. I think it's foolish to act like some contractor dutifully carrying out Colombia Gas's faulty work order is the only cause of this.

</comment><comment><USER22> Even my air compressors have blow off valves, did something get lost in the advancement of technology from the boiler days ???? it seems to be a pretty stupid design that doesn't have relief valves.

<comment><USER23> I don't know much about the specifics of gas distribution, but I came across a comment on an entirely different discussion recently which I think is apropos:

> you should be very suspicious of any conclusion that requires you to assume > that all the world's experts have missed something extremely basic.

It seems to me most likely that the answer is simply that releasing natural gas into the air is an even more dangerous failure mode than overpressure - natgas is not air in a compressor. But regardless I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts that, for one reason or another, blow-off valves are a bad idea in the context.

<comment><USER24> I'm not sure I agree with the statement—humans overlook basic details all the time. Most computer bugs are "extremely basic". Multiply times possible failure points and it's easy to see how basic flaws can easily cause systemic failure. Experts DO miss extremely basic things daily. You have to actively build proccesses to avoid this. Expertise is not enough!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25>
      Next year we may see the first models without a
      steering wheel or a brake pedal—there goes the
      option of asking the driver (passenger?) to take
      over.

This is bad news for everyone. This is the network effect exploitatively writ large, such that, surely you can prevent yourself from being inside such a thing, but as a lone individual, without laws in place to ban such a thing, you, your children, your family, your friends are all endangered by a blameless force that everyone can simply shrug at, and point to statistics claiming that there is even just an incremental improvement over ordinary human performance.

You can stop yourself from posting selfies on social media, under your real name. You cannot stop other people from taking pictures, which your acquaintances discover and tag with your real name.

This is kind of horrific. At least as horrific, or moreso than, current traffic statistics, because the moral hazard in play is abysmally worse.

There was an effective arms race that took shape with SUVs and road rage in the late 1990's. I think something similar will take shape, as self driving cars ramp up. It may surprise some, to find that a self driving incident won't be accepted as blameless, glitchy software errors. Owners may see themselves villified directly, for things a car they chose to own, had subsequently carried out.

I think there are three turns of consequence to a botched self driving car deployment.

 _One:_ some will choose harm the legal owner as an individual, lawfully or lawlessly.

 _Two:_ others will harm dealerships, mostly through sabotage.

 _Three:_ overt action against the manufacturers. At all levels, and not limited to ordinary civil disobedience.

These consequences are nothing to be sniffed at. Aviation shows us that spotty disasters don't result in civil unrest, but with a human in the loop survival was incentivized. Automotive deployments like this will be a fire and forget scenario, and the corporations loosing the reigns, have a demostrable history of neglect. I wonder if they anticipate, in the rush to market, just how severely the general public might react to finding their roads on the receiving end of software glitches that kill their firends and relatives like deer?

</comment><comment><USER26> This is fascinating. For anyone interested in a slightly odd but unique and in-depth view of Systems design and failure, would like to recommend "The Systems Bible: The Beginner's Guide to Systems Large and Small" by John Gall.

[https://www.amazon.com/Systems-Bible-Beginners-Guide- Large/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Systems-Bible-Beginners-Guide- Large/dp/0961825170)

</comment><comment><USER27> I realise this is beside the point of the article, but gas distribution seems like an obsolete and dangerous technology to me.

For cooking, induction, for heating, heat pumps.

<comment><USER28> Induction stoves are unpleasant and ineffective to cook on, not to mention inefficient. And if you want to use a wok, well, you can't.

They are definitely better in appealing to first time buyers who may not know or care about their shortcomings. They look great and are easy to clean. But if you are into cooking, gas wins.

<comment><USER29> > Induction stoves are unpleasant and ineffective to cook on, not to mention > inefficient. And if you want to use a wok, well, you can't.

With induction, ~90% of the energy from the electricity is used for cooking while only 40% of energy is used using a gas cooktop. Induction is more efficient, and you can use a wok if one is purchased that is designed for use with induction. Induction units can also regulate themselves based on feedback from the cooking device on the receiving end.

Induction is arguably superior to cooking with gas.

[https://www.consumerreports.org/electric-induction- ranges/pr...](https://www.consumerreports.org/electric-induction-ranges/pros- and-cons-of-induction-cooktops-and-ranges/)

[https://www.reviewed.com/ovens/features/induction-101-better...](https://www.reviewed.com/ovens/features/induction-101-better- cooking-through-science)

> On almost all counts, induction is faster, safer, cleaner, and more > efficient than either gas or electric. And yes, we've done exhaustive oven > testing in our labs to support that claim.

<comment><USER28> What about the 45% efficiency of a natural gas power plant?

Yes induction is efficient if you only look at the part inside your house. But most of the losses are outside your house.

If you live in a place with advanced wind or solar power like South Korea then electric probably is more efficient.

<comment><USER29> The electric grid tilts cleaner every year. Your stove will burn natural gas forever. A combined cycle natural gas generator is upwards of 50% efficient, already more efficient than your gas stove.

It's wasteful to spend money on gas infrastructure when it's clear electrical distribution is the future of home energy use. Infrastructure dollars are already in short supply. Just my two cents.

EDIT: You can stockpile energy with batteries, which is the likely outcome based on how much battery manufacturing capacity is coming online to build hundreds of thousands of EVs a year (which are also a great buffer for renewables and electricity in general).

<comment><USER30> _It 's wasteful to spend money on gas infrastructure when it's clear electrical distribution is the future of home energy use._

Maybe for cooking with a wok. But around here most homes are heated with natural gas. And that takes a lot more energy then heating chicken and vegetables.

New natural gas furnaces are up to 97% efficient. They're no longer allowed to sell furnaces that are less than 78% efficient.

[https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/gas-furnaces/buying- guid...](https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/gas-furnaces/buying- guide/index.htm)

<comment><USER29> You're only going to need a gas furnace (vs an efficient electric heat pump) in climates where it dips below 10F and an air or ground source heat pump would need to call on auxiliary heat to keep a dwelling warm (unless you live in a newer home with a very tight envelope and little unassisted air exchange occurs).

To your point, you can purchase very efficient gas furnaces, but they're more expensive and require a retrofit of the flue pipe to PVC due to corrosive properties of high efficiency furnace exhaust (not a concern in new construction).

[https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/heat-pumps/buying- guide/...](https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/heat-pumps/buying- guide/index.htm)

Air source only heat with a heat pump is a slam dunk anywhere south of the 36°30′ parallel, and all of California.

[https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/average-state- temp...](https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/average-state-temperatures- in-winter.php)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I find it bizarre that it's not required by code for a pressure regulation station to have a sensor in that station.

I also wonder if the utiliy's connection between the sensor and controller is on the internet.</comment>


Who Is Watching the Watch Lists? - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/sunday-review/who-is-watching-the-watch-lists.html

<comment><USER2> The article mentions the State Secrets Privilege as a reason the government can get away without judicial oversight by claiming national security interests.

It is worth noting that the case which established the judicial concept of the state secrets privilege after a ruling by the SCOTUS turned out to be 100% corrupt. When the documents were declassified 40 years later it was discovered that they did contain evidence of wrong-doing by the military but had only the most tenuous claim to national security ("an aircraft capable of dropping bombs").

So the entire doctrine in use here has been one big fraud from the very start.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Reynolds#Subs...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Reynolds#Subsequent_declassification_of_documents)</comment>


El Chapo and the History of the Heroin Crisis - <AUTHOR> http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a46918/heroin-mexico-el-chapo-cartels-don-winslow/ <comment><USER2> It worked for marijuana, so do it for the other things too (but with more regulation for the harder drugs).

Instead of reacting to the symptoms we need to look in the other direction.

* Cartels are a symptom of opportunity for profit that isn't being serviced in a legal way.

* Drug addiction is a symptom of a sick society.

* People chemically (or psychologically) addicted to the affects of drug treatment are a symptom of incomplete medical treatment.

Maybe if everyone had a place to be and a job they could do, a sense of security in work and health, as well as the opportunity to have a life worth living we could actually win the 'war on drugs'.

</comment><comment><USER3> Of the people I've known who died due to heroin, _all_ of them got started off on narcotic pain killers prescribed by unscrupulous doctors.

One of my friends in university got hooked on pills his doctor prescribed for his back pain. The guy was 300+lbs, _maybe_ that had something to do with the pain? Who cares, pump him full of pills! A year later he was on heroin. Three years later he was dead.

Nobody but a _complete_ degenerate wakes up one day and says _" You know what, I think I'm going to mainline some heroin."_ Opioid addiction starts with pills. If you take heroin out of the equation, they're going to start making krokodil or some other shit. You can't solve the drug problem until you solve the doctor problem.

<comment><USER4> Why did he move to Heroin? Was it because it was cheaper/easier due to artificial restriction on regulated, proper, opiates?

Why didn't he move to OxyContin, morphine, methadone, oxymorphone, etc.?

"Krokodil" is also an alright medication on its own. Just another morphine- related molecule. The big complaint with it is, once again, unregulated producers making incredibly unsanity products. Which, if you shove it into your arm, will cause all sorts of infections.

If we had to buy vaccines from some guy making them in a barn, we'd probably see a huge incidence in infections from vaccinations.

I'd also disagree that no one wants to inject heroin. I've been on IV morphine once, due to an injury, and it was _fantastic_. Unbelievably great. I fail to see why someone wouldn't want that, if they could afford it, have proper healthcare and equipment, etc. It's just a weak form of wireheading.

Doctors aren't _the_ problem. The legal penalties for seeking medication are. The social views that addicts are inherently a problem -- that's a problem. The high cost of medications due to gatekeeping is a problem.

Allow people to buy the medications they want (if only on personal liberty grounds!). Then engage in adverts, education, sell help, etc. if it's really a problem. Opiates are so cheap that even a part time job can easily afford to be high all the time -- if they were in a proper competitive market.

<comment> saiya-jin well, you have elections, and bunch of people that don't want to live/raise kids next to people like you describe. or at least the image of junkies they have in their head. it's easier and beneficial for politicians to have hard line stance against drugs in many places.

don't expect much beyond +-weed legalization anytime soon, and even that might be rolled back at one point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> If anyone wants to read a really great book about this topic i suggest "Chasing the Scream"[1]. This book made me think about drug addiction in a completely different way and also change my mind about legalization -- of all drugs, including heroin.

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-First-Last- Drugs/dp/16...](https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-First-Last- Drugs/dp/1620408902)

<comment><USER6> I'm curious if there are any other analogies in history of societal problems that was so widely misunderstood yet spent ungodly amounts of human time, money, and jail time was spent trying to stop in all the wrong ways.

The war on drugs really are the crowning achievement of anti-scientific public policy. Decades of ignoring the results and continuing to try the same thing.

The west isn't the only one with this problem. The DEA has been exporting this failed strategy to other countries for decades. The Philippines has taken the American style war to the extreme: [http://www.wsj.com/articles/in- philippines-war-on-drugs-deal...](http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-philippines- war-on-drugs-dealers-choose-retirement-over-death-1468509951)

They've demonstrated that the only way to actually win it like a war is via death squads and the total destruction of human rights. Otherwise governments have to face reality and accept it doesn't work.

<comment><USER7> Marijuana has been consumed in India forever. It was smoked just like tobacco is today. By a lot of people in society (including high and low status women).

Never was a problem. Probably led to some of the spirituality and mathematics of ancient India.

However, it was the natural variety. Not the genetically optimized powder keg stuff available today.

<comment><USER8> True, though they made some pretty strong stuff like charas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > If you wonder why America is in the grips of a heroin epidemic that kills > two hundred people a week, take a hard look at the legalization of pot, > which destroyed the profits of the Mexican cartels. How did they respond to > a major loss in revenue? Like any company, they created an irresistible new > product and flooded the market.

That seems like an unfair potshot. Why not emphasize: "An increasing number of Americans were addicted to prescription opioids such as Oxycontin."

<comment><USER10> Agreed, the cartels are just reacting to an increase in demand for heroin.

<comment><USER4> And it's the strict scheduling, the intimation tactics with doctors, that causes people to resort to buying street opiates instead of certified, regulated, opiates like OxyContin (or cheaper alternatives).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you haven't, I highly suggest you read Don Winslow's two books about this: The Power of the Dog and The Cartel. Both are fantastic.

<comment><USER12> Agreed! It is also interesting to try to match the characters to the real life drug lords that inspired them by the crimes and strategies detailed in the book, though it can get confusing since Winslow often merges two real drug lords into a single character or branches out a single drug lord into two or more characters.

For example, Adán Barrera—the main antagonist in The Cartel—is based on one of the Arellano Felix brothers in The Power of the Dog, but then takes on Chapo Guzman's persona in The Cartel.

But when you realize that a lot of what Winslow describes actually happened in real life it puts a lot of things into perspective—especially the US's involvement on both sides of the coin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Heroin is cheap. Really, really cheap. It's really, really addicting. It's easy to overdose on. And people mix it with shit like fentanyl which makes it even easier to kill yourself with.

It's a really terrible drug.

<comment><USER4> Heroin can be a useful medication. Street opiates are bad because there's no regulation. It's not inherent in the medication. Take _anything_ and vary the strength/purity by 50x and see how many people die. A 50x dose of Tylenol will kill you just as well (more painful, actually).

<comment><USER14> You don't really need regulation to get consistent strength/purity, branding (Buy Mack's Heroin - guaranteed 99.99% pure with no adulterants!) and tort law (you said this contained 20mg of heroin, it contained, dangerously, twice that amount, you are liable for my consequent overdose) should be enough to handle that, if producers were competing on quality and not "ability to operate in a black market".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> So with people here talking about opioids from docs leading to heroin, a question came to mind:

If you have been given opioids for pain, did they work? I ask because for me they don't. I get buzzed, euphoric, but they don't do squat for pain for me. Same with marijuana. No effect on my pain at all.

In fact, for me, marijuana makes me even more accutely aware of physical discomfort. Am I just an oddball?

<comment> k-mcgrady >> "In fact, for me, marijuana makes me even more accutely aware of physical discomfort. Am I just an oddball?"

Nope. It's the same for me. What I eventually worked out (I'm not 100% sure of this but I'm pretty certain) is that the strain of marijuana is important. Unfortunately I don't get to choose in my country :) But if it's a strain that gives a body high I become more aware of the pain, if it's not I become less aware.

Edit: If someone with knowledge on this matter can confirm (or refute) my assumption I'd appreciate it.

<comment><USER16> Here is another reason for the decriminalization of Marijuana: I'm pretty sure there would be a lot more research into genuine medical benefits of marijuana if it wasn't dissociated with breaking the law.

I'm curios if Federal research grants can be allowed to study the medical benefits of Marijuana? I know states have made medical marijuana legal but most funding in research comes from Federal agencies.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Firstly what has happened with the quality of journalism in Esquire, you can not call this serious journalism when the author writes:

"You can't make this shit up ...",

"The story's goes ..."

"The Mexican authorities had a line on the little bastard."

This is like listening to a person in a bar recounting a story.

Second, the increasing legalization marijuana in the US and the current flow of heroin into the US are orthogonal. Legalization of marijuana is not the cause of an influx of heroin. Mexican marijuana has always been considered cheap and inferior quality. The fact is that US has developed a taste for highly cultivated quality weed, the same as the US has with coffee and craft beer. Its "conspicuous consumption", quality weed, is a status symbol - a sign of discerning taste. The people that were hurt by the legalization of marijuana were the small time neighborhood dealers not the Mexican cartels. Mexican cartels most significant revenues have always been Cocaine which needs to transit Mexico to get to the US. While Cocaine production is still centered in South American the trafficking and logistics were taken over from the Colombian Cartels by the Mexican Cartels after the demise of the Medellín Cartel in Colombia.

The real reason the US is seeing an uptick in Mexican heroin is because there has been a market created for it by those who have become hooked on prescription opioids. When they run out or can no longer obtain their Oxycodone or Hydrocodone they satisfy their withdrawal with street dope.

<comment><USER18> I think that's what they were going for... They're following the "Vice" model (which I actually like). News the averge modern person can relate to. Walter Cronkite is dead and gone man.

<comment><USER17> That would be the Vice of 15 years ago then. Vice the news channel(HBO) is respectable journalism. Shane Smith had the good foresight to see that they could grow with their audience. It doesn't have to Cronkite but it doesn't have to be "brah" either.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The opener really frustrates me. It's basically saying that if these folks have no choice but to engage in illegal activity. If their product somehow becomes legal, well.... we shouldn't have done that... because now they have to sell something worse.

OR, OR, they could stop manufacturing poison and perhaps get a legitimate job and stop making money off of people with serious problems.

Weed doesn't kill.... heroin does nothing but kill. I guess I can't lay the blame totally on the manufacturers, but my god.... quit acting like their careers somehow deserve to exist one way or another and it's the USA's fault.

<comment> tmp-20150107 > Weed doesn't kill.... heroin does nothing but kill

Not at all. There are plenty of people using heroin that are not your typical junkie, just like there are many recreatioal weed users that aren't unemployed stoners. Take me - I've been working in IT for twenty years, and have been a heroin addict for just about the same length of time. My career is going pretty well, I'm in charge of a team of engineers, I speak about my particular subject at conferences around the world regularly, I have plenty of work up on GitHub that people use.

What _does_ kill people is stigmatizing addicts, and preventing them from getting the help they need to allow them to live a normal life and become usefully employed. Instead, attitudes like yours mean they are forced to become criminals and marginalized.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Okay, here's a warning if you haven't read this article yet. Up near the beginning, there's a really, really unfortunate line about pot legalization being the cause of this and that. I'm sure it's tongue in cheek, but that doesn't come across in text, and people are tripping over it. Just skip over that line and keep reading. The rest of the article is excellent.

<comment><USER21> It's not tounge in cheek. Pot sales dropped by 40% so they pivoted to heroin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I stopped reading after the lead:

> If you wonder why America is in the grips of a heroin epidemic that kills > two hundred people a week

About 3,000 people died today and about 60,000 got seriously injured in car accidents TODAY, according to ASIRT. I think the word "grips" is a bit of stretch here, no?

> take a hard look at the legalization of pot, which destroyed the profits of > the Mexican cartels.

How is that legalizing sales of Apples will somehow made Oranges' lovers to switch? Hard to believe. Any proof of that??

<comment><USER23> > I think the word "grips" is a bit of stretch here, no?

No, because there isn't a $50bn domestic and >$10bn international market in car deaths. There isn't a massive machine that perpetuates car deaths; indeed, quite the opposite.

> Hard to believe. Any proof of that??

Yes: a 40% drop in profits from marijuana, and a corresponding spike in the rate of production (and because supply/demand, a drop in the price) of heroin in (and from) Mexico.

You really should have kept reading.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Deleted.

<comment><USER25> You're using a browser version from January 2015 (it's currently at 48.0 as of 8/2/16), and your OS has not had support from Microsoft since 4/8/14\. Your system is in desperate need of an upgrade, which could help prevent viruses. The longer you operate an outdated system, the likelier you are to encounter a virus.

<comment><USER24> Deleted.

<comment><USER26> While I agree with you on Windows versions later than XP being markedly worse from a technical guy's usability perspective (actually Windows Server 2003 + nlite/ xplite was the best client OS setup I ever used ), you are denying yourself a very significant amount of security patches and I would define this behaviour as a bit irresponsible of your PC only contains your own data, and possibly illegal if you have any customer personal data or payment information. I hate the newer Microsoft OSes as much as you but run Windows 10 (plus a healthy amount of Non-Microsoft OSes). At least upgrade your browser because that's the main entry vector for malware nowadays, you will find that recent versions of Firefox are quite enjoyable - latest one even started running some tasks in dedicated processes (just experimentally for now) resulting in a more responsive interface.

<comment><USER24> I have no solid information at all that indicates that any Microsoft operating system is more secure than Windows XP SP3 with the latest Microsoft patches. None. No such information at all.

For all I know, all Microsoft patches for later Microsoft operating systems are only for bugs in those operating systems and not for bugs in the XP version I am running.

I have no even reasonable information that there are any security bugs in the XP installation I have.

I have no reason to believe that Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 is more secure than XP; as far as I know, XP is more secure than those operating systems.

And similarly for Windows Server.

How the heck Flash could give malware to my XP system is beyond me, and I've seen no explanation.

XP should be able to run any user mode software at all safely. I have heard no claims that it can. It it cannot, then I very much want to know why not. For decades several time sharing systems apparently could run any software at all, including operating systems, safely.

These systems are essentially all multiple virtual memory systems built on the Intel x86 architecture with hierarchical file systems with capabilities and access control lists. If there are security holes, I sure as heck want to know why; but apparently there have been security holes, and I never got even reasonably good information on why.

A few years ago, I saw that Microsoft had patched a security hole caused by a buffer overflow bug. Outrageous that Microsoft should still have buffer overflow bugs.

I intend to bring up an instance of a recent version of Windows Server, but I have no solid information or even an idea, none, not even zip, zilch, or zero, what the situation is on bugs or security.

I would have no idea at all on how to run a _secure_ Windows system attached to the Internet.

Looking around at my XP system, I was just outraged to the point of screaming to discover that Microsoft had started some _message service_ that was later seen to be a security risk. I didn't ask for that message service. I wasn't informed that it was running. I wasn't using that message service. I had no intention of using that message service. What the heck other obscure, hidden, secret software is Microsoft starting, not telling me about, and that could infect my system? I'm torqued. But there isn't much I can do about it.

To me, that moving to Windows 10, that apparently keeps _phoning home_ , would solve security problems instead of causing them is a really bad joke. Windows 10 apparently has a lot of new software that likely has bugs. That new Microsoft software, I want nothing to do with it.

Also I have long been totally torqued off, even screaming, as I clicked and clicked and clicked and said over and over and over, for years, to NOT, under any circumstances at all, NEVER but NEVER, ever, read any removable media unless and until so instructed. Don't look at it. Don't check it. Don't permit even a single bit to be read at all. Of course, if you automatically read and execute software from removable media, you should be dragged by two horses in opposite directions. But such screaming didn't work.

Yup, USB thumb drives are a special case.

Instead, of course, I want IP port by port, program by program, each DLL one at a time, and anything and everything else, what the heck is running on my system, why, and what the heck the risks are. But I have no reasonable way to get such information.

For my startup and its Web server, for now it will store nothing or next to nothing on users -- no cookies, user IDs, user passwords, etc. My site makes no use of cookies. Users don't login or give passwords. Users don't give e-mail addresses. Yes, the Web site log file likely has the user's IP address, but actually that does not much identify a user.

Maybe at a high end site, are supposed to put outside of a computer running Windows some special boxes. All IP, maybe even all Ethernet, traffic flows through these boxes, and they check, track, and analyze the heck out of every packet, every bit, that flows through. That data plus some more such tracking on Windows may be enough. But I have no idea what such boxes or associated Windows programs might be.

Of course, the server should make no use of wireless. That a server could get malware from a USB drive is outrageous.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> We need a stronger border to prevent heroin from entering our country.

<comment><USER28> There is no evidence to suggest that would be successful.

A "stronger border" and "higher walls" are nothing but campaign slogans.

<comment><USER29> Bullshit: [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5323928](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5323928)

<comment><USER25> OP's comment was about the smuggling of drugs, specifically heroin, into the country. You said "bullshit" and then cited that NPR article as your source. The article discusses a decrease in apprehensions, but it clearly states the following:

> This is still an active smuggling route, especially for drugs.

I'm a little confused as to how this article supports the argument that building a wall helps limit drug smuggling. Care to explain?

<comment><USER21> Not the op, but it seems to me that stopping huge numbers of bodies crossing the borders illegally would free up resources to focus on the smaller amount getting through and the drugs in particular.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


InPulse (YC W11) Adds A Smartphone-Like Experience To Your Wrist Watch - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/10/inpulse-adds-a-smartphone-like-experience-to-your-wrist-watch/

<comment><USER2> In response to some of the comments from our post in Feb (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2221579>), we've updated our Terms and released local build instructions: <http://www.getinpulse.com/guide/local/>.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I've met these founders. They seem cool. InPulse is hosting a hackathon at Hacker Dojo next Saturday. See you there! <http://hackinpulse.eventbrite.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> Man, the day these get a sunlight-readable always-on display and capacitive touch I'm buying one immediately.

</comment><comment><USER4> Obvious question: How are they going to market these to women (if at all)? Women's watches have to be much smaller than men's watches, and that will mean less pixels.

<comment><AUTHOR> I really like your marketing question. Women do seem to enjoy accessorizing. They also like to shop and spend money. I think the size of the watch itself isn't important. What's important is whether the watch uses a standard size band. Unless they're goth or emo, most women aren't going to want a black watchband. They're going to want something that's pink with sparkles.

The ability to use a different band is important. The GetInpulse FAQ ( <http://www.getinpulse.com/faq/> )should answer whether the watch uses a standard size band and, if so, what size.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting-looking product. But a hardware product, already in beta, sounds like an unusual match for a YC session that hasn't even started yet.

<comment><USER6> They were in the YC session that just ended.

<comment><USER5> Oh yeah. Sorry, I've been switching hemispheres too many times recently, and got confused by the seasons.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? - <AUTHOR>

Dear HN,
My lab is looking for ideas, particularly in relation to developing countries. What sort of problems have you seen that we might be able to solve through technology?
About us: We are the Sustainable Engineering Lab at Columbia University (http://sel.columbia.edu/). We are a team of students, engineers, programmers and experts in renewable energy.
We've done work in Nigeria, Indonesia, Myanmar, India and a whole bunch of other places (http://sel.columbia.edu/projects/). <comment><USER3> "experts in renewable energy."

In a country like India, there is a huge problem to solve when it comes to basic necessity like Electricity for everyone. Specially in smaller towns and villages. Since you mentioned renewable energy, I am sure there is a huge potential there.

The problem is that the electricity grids (or transformers) are just not enough for everyone. So in many small towns/villages, they do something called "load shedding" and power cuts are frequent even if there is electricity available. Hardly there are areas where there are no transformers or grid but most of the times, they are not functional or just badly managed.

Find a way to create enough energy AND then channel it efficiently as well. You have a winner right there.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a huge problem that we're chipping away at.

I'm only starting to get involved in the energy group, but I know that we've had a project focused on providing off-grid solar energy ([http://sharedsolar.org/](http://sharedsolar.org/)), as well as some software to model the costs of grid rollout across countries such as Myanmar ([http://networkplanner.modilabs.org/](http://networkplanner.modilabs.org/)). The idea is that this research would later be used to back funding proposals from entities such as the World Bank.

<comment><USER4> This is an idea that I've been thinking about for a while now. One of the issues I couldn't figure out how to overcome was the need for more electricity as people get a taste of how electricity can change their lives. Since installation of the solar station is subsidized and the villagers are essentially only paying for electricity they use, unless what is being paid is more than the maintenance cost of the solar station there is no more money to expand the capacity unless you get grants from World Bank or other entities.

How do you make this a completely self sustaining model where expansion is built in to the model without charging the users more money than they can afford? Can you charge the power users more money than the basic user? e.g. if basic user is paying $10 to use X kilowatts and makes $15 in income from that electricity, then the power user who uses 10X kilowatts can be charged $140 under the presumption that the power user uses that extra electricity to generate an income > $150 for themselves. The profits can then be put back into expanding the solar station capacity.

<comment><USER5> Hi, I'm also from SEL. In addition to some of our work (which is generally about _shared_ solar), some interesting companies that are thinking about (and providing their own solutions to) the financing question are [http://www.selco-india.com/](http://www.selco-india.com/) and [http://simpanetworks.com/](http://simpanetworks.com/) Not endorsing their work necessarily, but worth a look at, for someone interested in this stuff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1) A version of Wikipedia / Appropedia (Mediawikis in general) which can be installed as an app (won't need further net access) on Firefox OS phones.

(2 gig on an SD card at point of manufacture vs. download costs.)

2) Sawyer filters: 170 litres a day, for a million litres of virus-purified water, for $120. But those straw filters... those are industrial-generic, aren't they? Cheaper ways? (see Safe Water Trust for an example)

3) Craigslist for refugee camps / crisis areas.

4) My own project, [http://hexayurt.com](http://hexayurt.com) can _always_ use bright sparks!

Enjoy!

<comment><USER7> Checkout [http://www.kiwix.org/](http://www.kiwix.org/)

This started off as an offline wikipedia project at Geekcorps Mali and now has been adopted as an official Wikimedia project.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> An idea of mine that I would like to work on in the future when I have the time and resources is a "Swiss Army knife" style tool to provide some essentials to a small group. The objective is to provide electricity, rainwater collection, potable water, and food preparation/preservation using a system whose parts are not valuable enough individually to be a target of theft. Feel free to use any part of the idea you find interesting or useful. It's an interconnected system, but I'll explain some features separately:

Wind Turbine Structure: Two vertical axis turbines whose blades are hollow (containers) are connected to a circular belt. A tower structure holds the belt in a position such that when the weight ratio of the top turbine vs. the bottom passes a certain threshold, gravity will rotate the belt until the heavier turbine rests at the bottom. The belt will turn a dynamo style generator. While at the bottom, the turbine container will have a plug pressed open and any water inside will drain wherever directed. So on dry and windy days, the turbines will generate electricity. On rainy days, the dynamo will generate electricity while the rainwater is harvested. A great way to store the electricity without an expensive lead-battery is to charge personal electronics or lighting systems (for use at night), and use the rest for refrigeration and ice creation.

Solar Radiation Collection: A semi-spherical lens on top of the wind turbine tower will direct solar radiation inside the hollow tower structure toward a system of lenses and mirrors that focus and collimate light onto the heating element of the Water Distillation structure. The focused ray will be contained within an enclosed structure along its entire path to avoid injury. When the solar radiation is not necessary for water distillation or food preparation, it should be utilized to generate electricity. I don't know the best way to do it without using PV cells or a heat engine with parts that may be too valuable for thieves to resist.

Water Distillation/Food Preparation Structure: The water distillation process will work similar to this image: [http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/solaqua/stilldiag.gif](http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/solaqua/stilldiag.gif) However, the solar radiation will not enter from above. Instead the focused ray from the wind turbine tower will heat a metal heating element positioned underneath, but in contact with the dirty water container. The dirty water container will be a u-shaped tower such that a rectangular metal box can be inserted into the the center. At least three sides of the box will be in direct contact with the dirty water container, and the bottom will be near the heating element. The metal box will work like an oven to cook food when the heating element brings the dirty water to boil. Because the structure does not need solar radiation to enter from above, the top of the structure will be a solar food dehydration chamber.

</comment><comment><USER9> Infant mortality is definitely one. There's a team from Stanford who developed a baby warmer for areas where electricity is an issue [http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/09/fellows_friday_4/](http://blog.ted.com/2010/07/09/fellows_friday_4/) [http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_chen_a_warm_embrace_that_saves...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_chen_a_warm_embrace_that_saves_lives/transcript) Even if you go for a different problem, it's an interesting case to look into method-wise - I read somewhere else about how they iterated based on feedback from local community but I can't find it...

</comment><comment><USER10> A cheap Bluetooth enabled Braille display would be a good option although would only serve a small segment of the population in developing countries. For more info see

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

All current models I have seen are over $1000, over $2000 for anything of a decent size. Something that could use Bluetooth to connect to old iPhones, low end Android devices, and windows computers running the open source screen reader NVDA could be very useful in countries where government does not subsidize the purchase of expensive assistive technology.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's interesting that you mention that. Yesterday I was visiting the neighboring teaching lab and a student was working on making a cheap braille reader. They were using a series of parallel rods that can slide up and down.

Here's a (poor) rendition of how it works: [http://mondrian.io/?p=NlAQ8x](http://mondrian.io/?p=NlAQ8x)

<comment><USER9> India would be a good place to test it: "Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are from India."([http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-has- largest-b...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-has-largest- blind-population/articleshow/2447603.cms))

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Much of Colombia is mountainous, and (in my experience) most towns in the mountains are situated by high-volume rivers and streams.

I'm told that 50 years ago or so it was quite common for small towns to have hydro-power, but then the government strung up wires from far away coal- powered electricity plants, and that was the end of that.

Perhaps such towns could be incentivized to install/reinstall hydro power, and achieve some degree of energy self-sufficiency. I have no idea whether the incentive could reasonably be price-based, as coal seems cheap.

Additionally, the sun is almost always shining in the Colombian Andes, and I've never seen a solar panel.

<comment><USER12> (I'm from Colombia).

Not only have potential for solar panel, but also wind turbines (in the north, mainly).

One problem? The electricity is cheap.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Better public transport. I have kind of an idea in my head, that might be useful to you.

How technology can help?

\- Most of people who do not have their own drive, rely on public transport which is 'generally' overcrowded to reach to their destination.

\- Now there are people who have vehicle (mostly car) for going to office (downtown like area) which has space for other 3-4 guys?

\- I always see those empty seats and people on the other side of road waiting for a bus/train (which might be going to same place as that car).

\- So if we can provide some way of communication between these two, wouldn't that be awesome? As they do travel on approximate same time (like morning 9-10) to same places.

\- I do think people having vehicle don't have any problem giving ride to others who are sharing same or nearby offices. If they don't have to stop at too many places and wait.

How can we implement this? (just a suggestion)

\- We can divide the whole city in some kind of hexagonal area <cellular towers?>, and then a simple mobile app can connect people travelling to same 'hexagon' maybe?

\- Each hexagon should cover only 'walkable' area. So if I drop someone anywhere in that hexagon, his/her destination is at max 8-10 mins walk from there. Otherwise he/she might have to use other ways of transport which is not convenient.

I think it might change the way people travel in big cities.

It would be true People Powered Public Transport then! :)

Let me know your views on this.

<comment><USER14> This is kind of the idea behind shared taxis, which are sometimes called colectivos or jitneys or a hundred other names. They have a semi-fixed route and will drop you near where you want to be. They don't leave their stop until they have enough people to fill the taxi. I think they're usually independently operated. They're already quite popular in some countries, South America and Africa mostly. I used them in Chile and it was a really nice system, fitting the niche between taxis and buses quite well. However, you had to know the name of the neighborhood you wanted to go to, and there was no automation.

I honestly think they could be useful in the US for commuting purposes. Everyone going to the same office park from the same neighborhood could charter a shared taxi and relax instead of drive. Cost would have to be low. I'd use it. Hell, I even had idle thoughts about trying to create it. However, I have neither the capital nor the expertise to make this happen.

Edit: also see Demand Responsive Transit (DRT). It's the western name for this, and it's been tried before for various uses. Getting disabled people to the doctor is a common use in the US. Various European cities have tried this for getting people to train stations. In my opinion, it's never been marketed the right way. Also, the big bus/taxi companies that have tried DRT didn't have the vision or will to make it happen. Nor do the municipal governments that have tried.

<comment><USER13> Great! Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Road fatality rates! Here in Costa Rica about 500 people per year are killed (pop. 4 - 5 mil, and that's not even high for developing countries) and the majority of it stems from a cultural and complete disregard for road rules which is pretty common in all of these countries down here. In _bad_ countries the rates are significantly worse.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic- re...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic- related_death_rate)

</comment><comment><USER16> Internet speed and unreliability make it tricky for webapps to do much good. Distributed web servers that work on local area networks and sync data asynchronously with something like AWS could be HUGE. I've been working on a side project that uses this model. Stick a raspberry pi in an office or clinic. Have users hit that server. Page loads instantly. Resin.io & Docker could make it easier to deploy code to these servers. I'd be happy to chat about this or other ideas more. Very important and neglected area!

<comment><USER17> I absolutely agree with this. Having spent time working in Kenya, frameworks for locally hosted apps which refresh their data during rare spates of internet connectivity would be helpful for a wide range of applications.... Along with easy out-of-the-box servers for LANs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> A mechanical turk vending machine. A walk up terminal that allows the user to complete mechanical turk type tasks to earn a small sum that is paid out in cash immediately.

<comment><USER19> I like the idea a lot. It's like a digital service version of the reverse vending machines for recycling bottles and cans.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Former SEL team member here, SEL also produces a lot of open source code, for background and inspiration checkout their github projects, [https://github.com/SEL-columbia](https://github.com/SEL-columbia)

</comment><comment><USER21> I have a meta-proposal. Random westerners are a terrible source of ideas - <USER2> should talk to people from developing countries and if possible go there. The local knowledge will be 100x more useful than anything we can come up with.

<comment><USER22> Its would be kind of like rich politicians from privileged background deciding how the rest of the unwashed masses should live their lives. Oh, wait...

<comment><USER22> Guessing the down voters don't live in the UK.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> A big problem is keeping people in school instead of letting them go work to support their families. Can technology solve this? Maybe. Perhaps when an ed- tech company wants to test the effectiveness of their product, maybe they could pay students in developing countries to test their products instead of dropping out of school. This might be cheaper than doing similar research in developed countries.

Education research could happen in developing nations instead of developed countries. If the alternative is no education or jobs that are dangerous, this approach might make a lot of sense.

<comment><USER24> I wonder if the most efficient way to do this is to simply subsidize the child's earnings for the family on the promise that the child will be sent to school.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Perhaps something to do with food? My fellow African brothers seem to lack that, even though a ton of crops the Europeans (and other parts of the world) eat are grown here.

Food and water is where I would start. You give the people that and one of humanities biggest problems is solved (of course, not "giving it" in that sense, as that would be the same as any other charity just giving stuff away with no sustainability in mind).

</comment><comment><USER26> Pay as you go solar. Payment done through mobile SMS banking networks like mPesa. Each unit has a SIM card to receive commands.

Considering solar panel costs are < $500 kW and Chinese lithium iron phosphate batteries are < $400/kWh, a financially sustainable business model is entirely possible.

Mobile operators are the ideal vendors but lack imagination. That's where you come in.

<comment><AUTHOR> We're doing that with the Shared Solar project ([http://sharedsolar.org/](http://sharedsolar.org/)). Some parts of the project were spun off into a for-profit business by former lab members. Interestingly, although SMS payments were built into the system, no one used them as it was easier to just walk down the street and buy credits with cash.

<comment><USER26> Wow! Is this only on a community level or do you have household units as well?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Check out [http://extreme.stanford.edu/](http://extreme.stanford.edu/) for some amazing examples developed at Stanford. I really like the story behind a recent YC graduate, Noora Health ([http://www.noorahealth.org/](http://www.noorahealth.org/)).

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a great collection of projects. Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Hi Columbia!

We are building a free opensource app to manage the security of people mostly present or operating in the developing world. It's called Umbrella. Would would love to speak some more with you guys and see how we might cooperate with you. Check us out at www.secfirst.org and reach out!

All the best, -SF

</comment><comment><USER29> A little-bit off topic: The hard problem in developing countries is getting the idea implemented in a feasible and simple way.

Advances in logistics, transportation and information flow which can be used by the local population in the most simplistic way without compromising on equality

</comment><comment><USER30> We at Digital Green need an SMS based data collection tool as well as mobile solutions for low cost devices. Any tech which is user friendly and seemlessly work in online and offline would be awesome to have too. Please contact firstname.lastname@example.com for further communication

<comment><USER31> i don't see any link on your pages to them, so just saying.. i wonder if kobo toolkit, open data kit, and related projects are of any use to you..

<comment><USER30> We tried using open data kit but because of lack of expertise we could not roll out the product.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> a low bandwidth version of a video learning website (such as kahn academy) would be very valuable. a poor education system is a big problem in most developing countries. unfortunately this problem is difficult to address with an education alternative (eg. kahn acdmy) due to lack of quality internet infrustructure.

</comment><comment><USER33> free wireless craigslist like system for local people rpi computers for everyone

</comment><comment><USER34> Is it possible to build a cheap, distributable kit to test the quality of a newly-laid road? Let me elaborate: in rural economies, the quality of roads has a direct impact on prosperity. Within India, richer states almost always have very good rural roads - helps get produce to market on time, people to hospitals, etc. Unfortunately, road construction is often a corrupt business, and contractors lay poor-quality roads and skim government funds. If we can empower rural communities to effectively do a quality check on the roads laid in their area, it would really help them. They could then file applications under the Right to Information Act to understand why the road was not constructed to mandated quality requirements.</comment>


Netflix's new terms allows the termination of accounts using a VPN - <AUTHOR> https://www.netflix.com/TermsOfUse

<comment><USER2> Well that sucks. I regularly use a VPN for legitimate purposes because my internet provider refuses to buy enough bandwidth to Netflix servers. There are many times where I'll have a shitty stream, then I turn on a VPN and suddenly I'm getting crystal clear HD video, because my VPN provider has more spare bandwidth capacity between their servers and Netflix servers than my ISP. I don't know why Verizon FIOS lets their connection to Netflix become clogged up but for me sometimes using a VPN is the only reliable way I have around the congestion.

I'd hate to be caught up in a ban for using a VPN legitimately without violating regional restrictions.

</comment><comment><USER3> There's a discussion on reddit with quotes from several support level employees saying VPNs are not actively looked for, they are just frowned upon. An executive announced their plans to do away with geolocking.

</comment><comment><USER4> Seems as though this is something to appease the content providers, and not something they are going to actively pursue enforcing.

</comment><comment><USER5> What specific language in the ToS do you believe supports this headline?</comment>


Inside Verizon's Innovation Center: Home Health, Virtual Retail, & More - <AUTHOR> http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2012/11/14/inside-verizons-innovation-center-home-health-virtual-retail-more/

<comment><USER2> I wish they and other telecom giants would just focus on being "the pipes". It might sound cool to have an innovation center, but the outcome of that will likely be more crapware, phones messed up with verizon's sketchy ideas about end-to-end multimedia experiences, and tomorrow's equivalent of $4.99 ringtones.</comment>


Flow, a static type checker, designed to find type errors in JavaScript programs - <AUTHOR> http://www.flowtype.org/ <comment><USER2> > Flow requires that you add type annotations for functions that are exported > from a module (defined in one file and used in another).

Darn. I had hoped to try this out but a high percentage of my vars go between modules. I try to write modules as small as possible.</comment>


Show HN: Texture Packer for Game Development Using MaxRects Algorithm - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/huxingyi/squeezer <comment><AUTHOR> Anyone have time and interested to drop a pull request to support windows nmake and appveyor ci?</comment>


My Reality Moment. Why did I ever agree to do this? - <AUTHOR> https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2015/09/18/my-reality-moment-why-did-i-ever-agree-to-do-this <comment><USER2> Interesting article though it feels a bit incomplete. The writer very briefly introduces this concept of a "reality moment" , gives an example and that's that. The example is interesting and the concept rings true; I'd like to see more time spent discussing the concept in and of itself.

The only time I remember seeing this addressed outside of a "programmers are bad at estimating tasks so do x to get better estimates" context was a post by Jeff Atwood about the tendency of programmers to look at something like StackOverflow and see, basically, two CREATE TABLE statements[1]. The reality moment, then, sounds like the moment one sees past that "weekend worth of coding". A bit more fleshing out, maybe with an examination of why we think this way would be a great read.

[1]: [http://blog.codinghorror.com/code-its- trivial/](http://blog.codinghorror.com/code-its-trivial/)

<comment><USER3> Reality moment usually sets in a bit late for me. When I used to get a new job or contract I used to have incredible initial enthusiasm. Even three months in dealing with spaghetti code and inexperienced programmers I think to myself improvement in my working environment is around the corner and I'm going to be able to fix things myself. And then the reality moment sets in. Why did I agree to this In the first place - I'm working in a terribly unorganised company, being underpaid working with inexperienced programmers who never has a chance to improve properly because the company was too stingy to hire enough good and experienced programmers. But then I look at the state of things - they _have_ been improving because I kept thinking I could fix it, the only issue is I should have been paid more as I've done a lot for the company. Stressed and frustrated I go looking for a new job. The process grants me a big boost of enthusiasm. I interview at a company that really likes me. I see some red flags with the way they produce software, but I ignore them and bury them in the back of my mind. "Do I stay at my place where my effort is having an effect or do I go to this new company?" This new company sounds so exciting!

This time I'm thinking I might be happier taking this job offer back to my current company and get a good pay rise, but I'm not 100% decided yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _We need creativity mixed with discipline to make a difference here._

Or we could pick a non-insane language to standardize on.

Even better, we could pick a non-insane _bytecode_ to standardize on.

<comment><USER5> Like WebAssembly (technically not a bytecode).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> As a compiler developer I honestly shudder reading this. From the last example:

> $ node

> "5" \+ "1"

> '51'

> "5" \- "1"

> 4

How is this in anyway reasonable behavior? '+' is string concatenation but '-' is interpret these strings as numbers and perform arithmetic?

Does the principle of least surprise apply here?

<comment><USER7> _> '+' is string concatenation but '-' is interpret these strings as numbers and perform arithmetic?_

That's precisely it.

You cannot subtract a string so it coerces "5" and "4" to integers instead of treating them as strings. So it results in 5 - 4.

The first concatenates two strings, "5" and "1" and results in "51".

It's perfectly reasonable behavior. If you want to add numbers you should give it integers - namely 5 and 1 instead of two strings "5" and "1".

The unreasonable behavior is giving _integers_ as _strings_.

<comment><USER8> _You cannot subtract a string_

Maybe in Javascript you can't, but you sure could design a language where you could subtract strings, if you wanted to. You could treat the strings as two arrays of characters and subtract them. The result would be the characters that are in the first string but not in the second string. "Hello" \- "o" would be "Hell".

I'm sure you could do this in Ruby by monkeypatching the string class to overload the minus method.

<comment><USER7> How would your method subtract "lo" from "Hello" and leave "Hel" instead of "He"? It gets complicated enough that I think you'd be re-implementing a more limited version of regex.

Also I was speaking in context of Javascript so I fail to see how this applies.

<comment><USER8> More of a general observation about how arbitrary the type juggling rules and operator overloadings in programming languages are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> And those kinds of issues are why Perl has ==/!=/\+ for numbers and eq/ne/. for strings.

<comment><USER10> Those are great. I wish PHP had borrowed eq and ne. It does have . for strings, which makes things a little easier.

Since JS doesn't have any of those string operators, you end up with the fun example that was posted in the article. It will default to using + to concatenate the strings, but - is not defined to strings, so it converts them to numbers first and then applies the operator. Easy to remember once you know what's going on, but still irrational.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > But the usage of "===" is fairly uncommon in most PHP programs.

I don't code PHP anymore, but the use of "===" has been standard practice for ages, and checking for it fully automated.

It's one of the many areas in which uninformed people like to criticize PHP for bad practices that in reality have been left behind a long time ago and are only still supported by the language for backward compatibility reasons.

</comment><comment><USER12> I only have experience in dynamic languages. I don't get the point of the article? Is the article implying type coercion is bad because its inefficient in terms of CPU cycles? In a decade of programming in dynamic languages, I've never had string comparison be a bottleneck. It is usually IO that is the bottleneck, and the trade off is that by using dynamic languages like JS it becomes easy to make your IO non blocking. If you really have some logic that needs to compare millions of strings, you could always write that algorithm in a static compiled language, and shell out to it from your dynamic language.

<comment><USER13> > I don't get the point of the article?

The point -- as is often the case -- is precisely stated at the end of the article: "What this boils down to is that when we approach any of these server dynamic languages to optimize, we can't employ the same tried-and-true techniques we have used for decades (literally) in C, C++ and Java. We need creativity mixed with discipline to make a difference here."

Its not making a point of bad or good. Its discussing the features of the languages that make optimizing them challenging.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> 12 years ago, I was working on a PHP library to parse XMLRPC requests, and I ran into it's numeric type slipperiness in a painful way. I was (naively) using PHP's eval to parse a decimal numeric string.

I noticed what seemed like random numeric errors in a random subset of RPCs. It turned out, after what seemed like eons of investigation, that some clients were stringifying decimal integers with leading zeros, which made PHP interpret them as octal numbers, and hence the random seeming errors.

Having come from a strongly-typed-language background (C/C++/Java), that was a major learning experience about the caveats of weakly typed languages.

<comment><USER15> What does typing have anything to do with this 'feature' in the number parser? If atoi in C also parsed octal numbers, you would have had the same problem.

Your issue is with the too liberal number parser.

<comment><USER14> It was a tangentially related personal anecdote from 12 years ago. You are welcome to ignore it if you find it irksome.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Yes, dynamic languages are... dynamic...

[http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-812.p...](http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-812.pdf)

<comment><USER17> It wasn't dynamic (vs static) typing that was horrifying the author, it was weak (vs strong) typing.

The unsurprising strongly typed Python example was still dynamically typed.</comment></comment>


Someone Has Domain for Carly Fiorina's Name and Is Pretty Upset with Her Layoffs - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/04/someone-has-a-domain-for-carly-fiorinas-name-and-is-pretty-upset-with-her-layoffs-while-at-hp/

<comment><USER2> It is probably the unpopular position but I'd like to point out that it is sometimes needed to lay off employees because otherwise a company wont survive.

Sometimes this must be done rather quick.

I don't know the exact reasons why she had to lay off 30.000 employees but it would look less like a public smearing if the creator of this page gave us some insight into the details and nature of her decision.

I just doubt that she is plain evil and laughing at the pain she has caused with this decision.

<comment><USER3> Fiorina is known for leading the acquisition of Compaq Corp. in 2001 in the largest tech merger in history. In doing so, she would show cost savings by layoffs of a certain chunk of employees. "Cost synergies" was the label. I think the expected number at the time was around 10k. [http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press- release.html?id=23061...](http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-news/press- release.html?id=230610)

In the next 4 years, Fiorina would sell off the printing business (which had higher margins) and double-down on the PC business (with lower margins.) Timing as it was, the dot-com bubble burst which affected every hardware maker (since tech companies needed to buy hardware to operate.)

She basically made the absolute wrong bets, and as a result many jobs were destroyed. Between HP and Compaq, the collective companies lost more than $13 Billion in shareholder value. Other companies did at that time as well, but HP was by far the worst.

When tracing the history of HP performance during Fiorina's tenure as CEO, she is arguably one of the worst who has ever guided a publicly-traded US company. A simple before-and-after of the company's position from the day she took leadership until the day she left is not a pretty picture.

<comment><USER4> I don't think you can put someone in the "worst ever" category without bankruptcy. There has been a lot of very shitty CEOs over the years, some of them criminal.

<comment><USER5> Bankruptcy and criminality? Enron[1] comes to mind.

Kenneth Lay[2], the founder and final CEO of Enron, was convicted of multiple counts of conspiracy and fraud, and would have been one of the few CEOs to have actually been sent to prison. However, he died before the judge had the chance to sentence him. Enron, of course, suffered bankruptcy.

Jeffrey Skilling[3], who stepped down as CEO of Enron (to be replaced by Lay), is currently serving a lengthy prison term.

HP may have suffered under Fiorina, but at least they're still alive.

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

[2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lay#Indictment_and_tri...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lay#Indictment_and_trial)

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "bonus page" -> [http://carlyfiorina.org/bonus- page.html](http://carlyfiorina.org/bonus-page.html)

Some pretty clean and concise static markup for your typical internet smear site.

<comment><USER7> I noticed that too, I wanted to see if he had marked-uped 30k unsmiles or if it was a script that printed them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Well done ! A simple and efective landing page: [http://carlyfiorina.org](http://carlyfiorina.org)

Still scrolling...

<comment><USER9> I can't wrap my head around the fact that I actually believe this is a reasonable way to visualize the data.

<comment><USER10> I've been pondering this for a little while -- I agree with you, and I think it's because the point being conveyed isn't the data, but the scale.

<comment><USER11> [http://xkcd.com/1162/](http://xkcd.com/1162/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> One possibility that hasn't been mentioned is that this could be a political smear attempt as well.

<comment><USER13> That is all it is. His twitter feed consists nearly entirely of retweets promoting Democrats and smearing republicans.

<comment><USER14> How scandalous it is to like one political party and hate another.

<comment><USER13> Personally, I think it is stupid to become attached to one party. You get the current state of US politics when people become so entrenched and invested in one party. People would rather vote in a bad candidate from their chosen party rather than vote for the better candidate.

<comment><USER15> That's only relevant if your political beliefs lie roughly in the middle of the American spectrum. If not, it should be clear that no matter how shit one candidate is, the other one will certainly be worse.

Unless you're talking about voting Green or something, which is fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> (lacklustre) Easter Egg: [http://carlyfiorina.org/bonus- page.html](http://carlyfiorina.org/bonus-page.html)

</comment><comment><USER17> So someone bought a sign with the name "carlyfiorina" on it and is trying to gather opinion against that person. This is apparently a failure.

The root domain contains 810 top-level domains, which in theory means 810 possible places where one could register a carlyfiorina.sometld. no mater how aggressive a person is trying to own that specific 12 letter word, its a futile attempt, especially if we also include the 1-2 letter sub domains of tld's. As such, not registering this name is as big failure as not buying up all the signs that exist in stores.

<comment><USER18> .org is a pretty big sign, though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Funny. Though whether you like her or not Carly Fiornia has no chance at becoming president or being nominated as the Republican nominee.

</comment><comment><USER20> One could create a similar page to represent people who have purchased HP multifunction inkjet printers.</comment>


Welcome to my sit-stand desk nightmare - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/welcome-to-my-sit-stand-desk-nightmare/ <comment><USER2> Instead of raising and lowering a giant heavy desk, why not just get a standing desk and a tall _chair_ that raises and lowers? Eh? No?</comment>


21 Bitcoin Community Holds First Hackathon; Develops Bounty Project Git Money - <AUTHOR> https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-community-holds-first-hackathon-develops-bounty-project-git-money-1453152761 <comment><USER2> One of the best global hackathons I've been for a while --- best minds and cool people came together</comment>


How to think about errors in your [C++] code - <AUTHOR> https://abbyssoul.github.io/engineering/2019/10/01/thinking-about-error.html <comment><USER2> Return error like C and Go is best practice for C++ Exceptions is good only for hi level languages like Java</comment>


You can't turn off Cortana in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/article/3100358/windows/you-cant-turn-off-cortana-in-the-windows-10-anniversary-update.html <comment><USER2> Well played, Microsoft. You had me so excited about Bash on Windows and the Linux subsystem that I was almost willing to trust you again. Then you sneak this in _so close_ to the launch date of that update that you might have gotten away with it.</comment>