Show HN: Simple express-like routing for front-end - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/franciscop/pagex <comment><USER2> One powerful feature of the Express router (but missing here) is that it's just a middleware, making composition trivial, e.g.:

        const userRouter = router()
          .get('/', showUser)

        const usersRouter = router()
          .get('/', listUsers)
          .use('/:username', userRouter)

        const mainRouter = router()
          .use('/users', usersRouter)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah that is really cool, recently a user requested a feature[1] that is basically this but I solved it in a different way [undocumented]:

        pagex.base = '/users';
        pagex('/', listUsers);
        pagex('/:username', showUser);
        pagex.base = '';

I am still considering extend it in this way:

        pagex.namespace('/users', function(pagex){
          pagex('/', listUsers);
          pagex('/:username', showUser);
        });

[1] [https://github.com/franciscop/pagex/issues/1](https://github.com/franciscop/pagex/issues/1)

<comment><USER3> Why .namespace and not .use like express?

<comment><AUTHOR> Because it is completely unrelated to express, and even with express that is not really how it works so it'd only cause confusion

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm watching a movie so I haven't looked too deeply at this, but your regexes aren't safe from ReDoS according to substack's safe-regex [1]. It might be worth finding a non-regex-based way to parse regular expressions in case of some weird routes that could cause exponential-time parsing.

[1] [https://github.com/substack/safe-regex](https://github.com/substack/safe- regex)

<comment><AUTHOR> The path is preferred to the Regex, and I _hope_ that no developer is using user input to create a route here. As specified in substack's safe-regex:

> WARNING: This module merely seems to work given all the catastrophic regular > expressions I could find scouring the internet, but I don't have enough of a > background in automata to be absolutely sure that this module will catch all > exponential-time cases.

I also don't have it and I think the case for this error is so contrieved that it doesn't make sense to add a check in pagex. So adding a couple of warnings, one for not trusting user input and another for this specific error, should be fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks good, but isn't it the as existing [https://visionmedia.github.io/page.js/](https://visionmedia.github.io/page.js/) ?

<comment><USER6> Yeah looks exactly like page.js

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hmm not sure what problem this was trying to solve since client side router has been a solved one for a long time. And this is not looking close to express w/o middleware, which page.js does.

</comment><comment><USER7> I don't understand the "express-like" in the title. What's similar to express in your router?

<comment><USER8> It uses the same path-to-regex package. Other than that I can't tell how it's similar.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Do you plan to support middlewares?

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you explain further, please? I plan on changing it a bit internally but not on growing it past its purpose as I like it to do only one thing (and hopefully do it well)

<comment><USER10> I think page.js supports middleware if you're looking for something to emulate. Basically chainring callbacks.

<comment><AUTHOR> Only reference I could find in [https://visionmedia.github.io/page.js/](https://visionmedia.github.io/page.js/) was:

        page(callback)

        This is equivalent to page('*', callback) for generic "middleware".

Which is... pointless? If you are going to call a function everywhere in front-end why don't you use an IIFE for scope or just nothing at all? Unless you wanted to put it on the <head> and make it load when the page is ready.

<comment><USER11> A callback is middleware, you can

        page('/some/path', middleware, callback);

<comment><AUTHOR> I see, but I don't really like this extra functionality for pagex. I am not looking to copy express with middleware for front-end, just wanted some easy and straight way to load a script if we are in the correct part of the website.

<comment><USER12> Uh, then you and I have very different definitions of "express-like". When I think of express I think of middleware.

<comment><AUTHOR> In the simple way, express accepts a path (url-like fragment) and executes a callback when it matches the url. THAT is what I meant from express-like, but from this and other comments I can see it wasn't clear at all.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> How is this different from page.js?

<comment><AUTHOR> It was initially a Regex-only project so it was quite different. Then I added path-to-regex and forgot to check if there was some library out there similar so now they are quite similar.

However I can see a couple of important differences:

1\. The parameters are passed to the callback in pagex which makes it cleaner:

        pagex('/users/:id/:frag?', function(id, frag = 'profile'){ ... });

While with page.js you have to retrieve them manually:

        pagex('users/:id/:frag?', function(ctx){ var id = ctx[0], frag = ctx[1] });

2\. You can negate the url. For instance, if you want something to run in all pages except in the users page:

        pagex('/users', true, function(){ ... });

3\. [undocumented, not-official] There is a before and after catch-all which can be useful for debugging, analytics or similar

<comment><USER13> Quick tip, instead of passing true here, having an options object improves readability. As somebody who's never seen it before, the following does the opposite of what I expect:

      pagex('/users', true, function(){ ... });

But _this_ is more readable—communicates exactly what I need to know, and requires no previous knowledge of the library:

      pagex('/users', { negate: true }, function(){ ... });

Thanks for sharing your library, I love how you've put the ergonomics of use first. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I am totally going to do that, but haven't got around to do it yet. This will also add a bit of flexibility (much needed) about how to pass options.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Honestly one of the worst ShowHN submissions I've ever seen.

<comment><AUTHOR> Could you elaborate further, please? What you don't like and what could be improved? It is a small project and I didn't think it'd make it to the front page but yet here it is, so some people must like it and see something positive.</comment></comment>


Why is Spotify chugging upload bandwidth when it is not streaming? - <AUTHOR> http://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Why-is-Spotify-chugging-upload-bandwidth-when-it-is-not/td-p/70367 <comment><USER2> I have never liked this about Spotify...

So the solutions outlined by Spotify are...

1) Suck it up. Its how the system works.

2) Use the web player. (Seems to be invite-only beta - US Only)

3) Use offline mode. Unlimited members pay for the service and cannot download tracks so not much use to those. Somewhat kills music discovery. Means you cannot use the radio option. Do social options work in offline mode? Not much point if they do as you would need to go online to play any new tracks.

4) Set cache size really small. (someone reported this doesn't work) Wouldn't this mean a big spike in downloads as none of your songs are cached?

Its crappy. I remember when I used to play counter-strike and I would have to shut down Spotify as it would kill my ping and make the game lag terribly. Launching in game radio though would be fine...

Asking free members to suck it up is fine. They are using the service for free and get a few ad's. Another cost to service is fine.

For paid members though there needs to be an option to drastically tune down the upload rate and even disable it if you are not listening to music yourself.

Spotify have been inactive on this issue to date. My hopes are fairly low that they will resolve it any time soon.

<comment><USER3> I'm mostly shocked at how I simply was uninformed that spotify was using my connection so. I know over the past few months I've had occasional and even sometimes frequent spikes of latency while gaming.

I'm often left confuddled at these spikes as I won't have anything open I would consider requires much bandwith. Also, even though I would have high latency, opening a browser and navigating through sites would work as smoothly as ever.

Now I know to look at spotify specifically and I would not be very surprised if my spikes of bad internet activity are a result of spotify leeching my upload.

While I think it makes sense for spotify to use p2p in their system, I would have thought there would have been an indication of it in the options with an option to disable such services.

<comment><USER4> I agree. I've been promoting spotify in word of mouth to my Friends. My co- workers all use it, which means a good chunk of our upstream bandwidth is swallowed by spotify? In any case they're being completely shady about it. I.e. not making any effort to define Spotify as a P2P service. Understandable in a marketing sense. Ethically questionable and actually upset since well. I pay a monthly fee and all..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't use Spotify anymore, but when I did I was completely aware that this was happening, and ultimately I'm not too bothered by it using my connection to support other clients, because that's partly how it starts playing __so __fast. I would be very upset if it was using my entire connection.

Spotify should cap the speed at like 128KB/s, because that should be plenty for what they are doing. If they were using my full connection, I would be furious, because I'm not a data center for them, and I know how much data centers charge for bandwidth, and they would be getting an insane deal (my home connection is 100/100Mb).

It should probably have a cap for how long they are using your connection also. Once you've shared as much as you've downloaded, your connection should either stop sharing or go to an even lower speed.

<comment><USER6> Even at a 128KB/s fixed upload, that is still ~2x as much as my upload speed limit on UK ADSL.

<comment><USER7> Is that a typical speed limit in the UK?

<comment><USER8> Not a typical _limit_ but can often be a limitation in certain areas. My parents have ~220kb/s down, 70kb/s up due to poor quality wiring and being far from the exchange. Most UK cities are reasonable, but go out to the smaller areas with only ADSL and it goes to all hell.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I commonly stream Spotify on my MacBook while tethering via my iPhone at coffee shops.

Little did I know I was paying $10/GB to let others listen to music.

Thanks, Spotify, thanks.

<comment><USER10> Internet is peer to peer. If you are a victim of packet beancounters, the onus is on you to filter your traffic and apps to conform.

<comment><USER9> I take responsibility for making my software behave the way users expect.

I would expect other developers to do the same.

This "well you should have known about obscure UNIX command X" stuff is both why software still sucks, and why business people make mega bucks while technical people are capped at $120K salaries.

<comment><AUTHOR> This. Under no impression from the Spotify website (although Im sure its buried in the T&C somewhere), or from what people say about it via word of mouth etc etc..what the application is MARKETED as; that it streams music to you for your listening expereince.

All "well p2p saves them server cost, reduces latency etc" bullshit aside. No- one EXPECTS that of the application. Its deception. Plain and simple. A vast amount of users don't expect this of the application and that could lead to plenty of consequences unbeknownst to them. Plenty of good reasons have popped up in this thread (data plans being eaten, people with limits imposed by their ISP, work environment concerns)

TL;DR Its negligent of spotify to market for one thing, and then include something like this in such a hidden and unmodifiable sort of way in their program. You want it in there? Fine. Tell me about it up front and give me some control over the upload speed

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> May I just say, as someone who's often been critical of them in the past, thank you to the mods for setting a far more constructive title than the original submission.

<comment><AUTHOR> Apologies for that, this is my first submission to HN

<comment><USER12> What was the original title?

<comment><AUTHOR> "Oh hey Spotify, sure use ALL my upload bandwidth" Hah.. c:

<comment><USER13> Yeah let's not do that again. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I had to ban Spotify on our office network as the clients don't take into account how many users are on the local net and scale back accordingly. It only took a handful of users to soak up a noticeable amount of upload bandwidth.

That and there is an operational security issue with a program that uploads files from the local disk to untrusted peers and encrypts everything such that one cannot tell what it is uploading.

<comment><USER15> What sucks is that here at work (I work in corporate information security), we have developers who love to listen to music when they're programming. I support it. I like listening to music too. The problem is, some of them like Spotify. And since Spotify is peer-to-peer (and p2p applications are against the policy), it gets flagged in our security monitoring tool. And when it gets flagged, I have to make that action stop. And if it's flagged as a high priority, I have to report them to HR. Some people don't know it's p2p, some don't care. They've paid for it and they want to listen to it. But there's no way to turn off the p2p nature of the program.

We run into this issue with Skype constantly too. People want to use these programs, and have valid reasons to use them. But our business cannot accept the risk of peer to peer traffic on our protected network, so away they go. If there was even the slightest bit of obscure and dangerous and unsupported configuration options that left a backdoor to being able to turn off the p2p, I would love it. But there's not.

<comment><USER16> > it gets flagged in our security monitoring tool. And when it gets flagged, I > have to make that action stop

Or... get your security monitoring tool to stop reporting legitimate P2P protocols as a security threat.

<comment><USER15> "Legitimate" p2p protocols depends completely on your risk appetite and how you define your security. For us, our risk appetite is quite low, and there is no such thing as a legitimate p2p protocol.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This kind of thing is key to getting mainstream acceptance for p2p. Eg some ISPs try to forbid use of p2p apps, it's important you can bring up Skype and Spotify and WoW as mainstream apps that use p2p and aren't reasonable to ban.

</comment><comment><USER18> Now to gamify it!

Add statistics and allow users to control how much they upload. For every TB uploaded, one month free premium!

</comment><comment><USER19> If their excuse is that their servers can't handle it then they are jokers. Plenty of services without paying customers handle more bandwidth than Spotify. Why don't they do what Netflix does and use AWS? Forcing paying customers to participate in a p2p network doesn't make any sort of sense.

<comment><USER20> None of them are as fast as Spotify.

<comment><USER21> I've seen this argument a couple of times in this thread. I used to use Spotify and now I use Rdio and I do not see a difference in speed at all. What kind of speed are we talking about? How quickly a song starts playing? I've noticed no difference, and obviously the songs can't _play_ faster.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Would be decent of Spotify to tell you / ask you nicely. But if you're gaming, why not just quit Spotify and other programs you're not using?

<comment><USER23> It does actually say in the T&Cs that it's going to use you as a p2p node if I remember rightly, it's been a while since I've seen the header but it was listed as 'Computational resources'.

<comment><USER24> Yeah, and everyone reads those.

<comment><USER23> Well, you are kinda meant to read them. If you say you've read and agreed to something you don't have much scope for whinging.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> What is the best way, under OSX or Windows, to selectively limit upload (or download) speeds _per-application_?

Is there a way? It would be so nice if something like this were built into the OS, but is there any kind of third-party software which will do that?

<comment><USER26> [http://superuser.com/questions/135719/windows-program-to- lim...](http://superuser.com/questions/135719/windows-program-to-limit- bandwidth-of-other-programs)

NetLimiter (free) and NetBalancer (paid, free for 5 processes) have been the go-to solutions for Windows for a little while.

IceFloor (<http://www.hanynet.com/icefloor/index.html>) is the OSX (10.7+) analog.

<comment><USER27> Sadly IceFloor doesn't seem to have an option to quickly filter out in a per- program basis. And Little Snitch, well…maybe a bit overpriced if it's just to block Spotify (hell, they should be the ones providing a setting for that).

<comment><USER28> Found this on its page, though I don't have the chance to check it out:

      > monitor applications connections , block outbound connections
      > to unwanted services (block chat, p2p...)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> It always was P2P, that is the way they (I see now, USED TO) describe their technology (I remember reading about this in their homepage some years ago, now it has turned into a strange content hub).

So, if it is not streaming, then you are streaming.

</comment><comment><USER30> Does anybody know if Rdio does the same thing?

<comment><USER31> No.

[http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/32743-does- rd...](http://help.rdio.com/customer/portal/questions/32743-does-rdio-use- outgoing-bandwidth-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Didn't know Spotify ran a p2p rig. Just wish they would give me some extra free minutes for having the damn thing up and running all the time back home...

Anyway, quite entertaining to monitor its port traffic on my Mac:

       perl -e'while(1){%x=map{$_=>$x{$_}+1}grep/spotify/i,`lsof -i -P`;print for grep{$x{$_}<2}keys%x;sleep 1}'

It seems to target peers geographically, which makes sense.

</comment><comment><USER33> Blizzard's abhorrent P2P torrent client does the same, unless you uncheck some default settings in it. Just ridiculous.

<comment><USER13> At least you can turn it off in Blizzard's client.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I think Spotify is an amazing product, and there are research papers on how their system is implemented to give the fastest playback possible. It's incredibly snappy compared to the other alternatives. I remember trying Pandora when it was available here and it wasn't as fast as Spotify was (and still is).

</comment><comment><USER34> I didn't know this. Although as a tech reporter I should have, I would argue that typical people are unaware of these kinds of architectural implications and that without obvious disclosure this design decision sort of takes advantage of users.

Customers are paying twice, for the service and for other people's data, and it shouldn't take a Hacker News-level understanding of technology for them to be aware of this fact. It feels icky and reminds me of when I found out that Dropbox was "sharing" my files with other users: [http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2011/04/how-dropbox- sacrifices-u...](http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2011/04/how-dropbox-sacrifices- user-privacy-for.html)

</comment><comment><USER35> I run the little snitch firewall application on OS X and noticed this literally the first time Spotify ran (tip, EVERYONE running on mac should use this app, it's incredibly interesting to have a window into exactly what every application on your system is connecting to).

It's almost laughable the amount of connections it attempts to make to outside clients.

Anyways, the solution for me is simply to block all outgoing traffic to spotify that isn't directly to its streaming servers. Problem solved, no more outside peers eating up my upstream bandwidth.

</comment><comment> thomas-st My main problem with this is that Spotify utilizes the full upstream bandwidth, causing the latency to go up dramatically on connections where the upstream is limited. If they were just a little bit intelligent and limited the streaming to 90% of the available bandwidth I'd be okay with it since that wouldn't affect the latency.

Question: What is the best way to traffic shape all upstream connections on OS X? I've tried ipfw but I can't figure out a good way to e.g. limit the upload on all apps _except_ for e.g. SSH.

<comment><USER36> If you have a recent (>=10.7) version, pf [0] is installed. pf is a more capable firewall than ipfw, and can shape upstream connections in a number of ways. As an example of what it can do, the Network Link Conditioner [1] is built using pf. The version in OS X is not the most recent version in OpenBSD, but that FAQ is a good start, and the man page [2] can fill in the details.

0: <http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/>

1: [http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/25/network-link- conditioner-i...](http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/25/network-link-conditioner- in-lion/)

2: [http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin...](http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man5/pf.conf.5.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Do the mobile clients also use P2P?

<comment><USER38> mobile clients have their own set of bandwidth issues. I play 1 playlist on my phone, it is available locally (all downloaded long ago), and yet spotify has used over 2gb of bandwidth in the last 20 days. There's a huge thread about it on the spotify forums somewhere.

<comment><USER13> If your phone is low on space to cache your entire Spotify offline library, it will continuously stream/thash for cache space as you play it all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> The Android app is horrendous for this issue as well. I have a Nexus 4 with the latest Android OS and the latest version of Spotify. I have yet to use the app even once this month. (I use Google Music.)

The Spotify Android app has consumed almost 250 MB of data on WiFi and about another 100 MB on 3G/4G this month alone. Does anyone else have this issue?

(For anyone that doesn't know, Android provides the data usage of each app in the settings panel.)

<comment><USER40> The android client doesn't use p2p.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Surely people here know how to shape their bandwidth...?

<comment><USER42> At least one person (me) who doesn't! Sadly there isn't time to become knowledgable about everything, and I never found network administration very interesting anyway.

<comment><USER41> Which OS are you running?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Is there anyway to block the traffic that anyone knows of? I hate having to use 'offline mode' because my songs aren't scrobbled. Also as a paying user it's a kick in the teeth to have the client taking my bandwidth AND cpu while I'm not even using it. As a side note, Spotify has some of the worst community relations I've ever seen.

</comment><comment><USER44> I agree that rdio is the better service, but unfortunately since they dropped their free tier, I think most people will just grin and bear it with Spotify. Let's be honest - probably the majority of Spotify's users don't even know what upload bandwidth is, let alone why they should be concerned about it.

</comment><comment><USER45> I didn't know about this either. I just canceled my unlimited subscription because of it.

(another reason was them updating their TOS, and showing the whole thing instead of showing only what has been updated; thus encouraging people to agree without reading — Not ethical at all)

</comment><comment><USER46> In terms of this being HackerNews: It is actually a pretty smart and economic idea to use P2P in music streaming clients. When I first heard about this, I was excited. Thumbs up, Spotify!

Apart form that, that's really no news, you could read about that for years.

<comment><USER13> I don't pay a subscription fee to download my music torrent style (without being able to access the files) only to be forced to seed it.

It should be optional. (Not everyone has a very good upstream and unlimited bandwidth.)

<comment><USER47> Your subscription fee would have to be a bit higher in order for that to happen.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> I just use my operating systems firewall to block Spotify from connecting to any IP address that isn't theirs. It results in you streaming music from only Spotify's servers and it prevents any uploads from your computer.

I've found this to be the best solution.

</comment><comment><USER49> [http://pansentient.com/2011/04/spotify-technology-some- stats...](http://pansentient.com/2011/04/spotify-technology-some-stats-and- how-spotify-works/)

</comment><comment><USER50> The two issues I have with this is:

\- They don't effectively communicate this with users. They do let people know, but you have to dig to find it.

\- There should be a paid tier where this can be opt out of.

</comment><comment><USER51> I ditched this service when they paused ads while I muted.

<comment><USER52> Seriously? You're given an entire library of music for free, all you have to do is put up with the occasional ad between songs.

<comment><USER53> The ads on spotify really are unacceptably annoying imo.

And it's not like spotify is the only way of getting music for free

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> It's annoying enough that I shut Spotify down when I'm not using it.

Then they get 0% of my bandwidth. I suppose there's enough lazy/unaware people that it doesn't matter.

<comment><USER55> Trickle could be useful for you: <http://monkey.org/~marius/pages/?page=trickle>

<comment><USER54> You know, that's a good idea. Thanks for bringing that up!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> Not sure how true this is currently; I've got spotify premium up at the moment and according to ActivityMonitor I've got no data outgoing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Go to page 4 of the thread, I posted on it recently with my spiel and Ive included a screenshot of my whatpulse client showing network usage

<http://i45.tinypic.com/2vc8f0j.jpg%5B/IMG%5D>

Thats from this morning

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> I use Spotify on Ubuntu Linux.

Looking into how it behaves there.

<comment><USER58> It might be worth trying to run it through trickle to limit the allowed upload bandwidth.

<http://monkey.org/~marius/pages/?page=trickle>

[Edit] I see someone else has linked to trickle above.

<comment><USER57> Awesome. Ubuntu even has packages for this. Thanks for the tip!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> If you're using premium, why not just download the albums / playlists you want and set Spotify into 'Offline Mode'?

<comment><USER60> That's a labor intensive solution to a problem which should not exist in the first place.

Speaking as a premium subscriber, I really value simple music discovery. I would be downloading or purchasing my own music if I felt strongly about micro managing my collection.

If I feel like coding to someone else's 2000 track psychedelic trance playlist which I just happened across - I would like to do so without mucking around with some monstrous download (or, even worse, having to spend time cherry picking tracks I want). Likewise, perhaps I want to use classify (classical music discovery) and select a playlist based on mood. Again, creating my own playlist is at this point a simple inconvenience.

This problem shouldn't exist, and Spotify certainly owes its users some form of solution.

<comment><USER59> Sure - I'm not saying it's the solution, just an option if it really bothers you.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER61> Does anyone know which ports this uses so I can apply QoS filters to it at a router level?

</comment><comment><USER62> Does anyone know if the Android app uses p2p?

<comment><USER40> It doesn't

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> aha! so this is why spotify is not allowed at my work place.

<comment><USER64> Does anyone know if the spotify Sonos app uses P2P?</comment></comment>


Building boom in Brazilian Amazon could accelerate its deforestation - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/28/how-building-boom-brazilian-amazon-could-accelerate-its-deforestation/ <comment><USER2> right from the people who consider the rights of a company well above the rights of people. schizophrenic.</comment>


Chess grandmaster accused of using iPhone to cheat - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/14/chess-grandmaster-caught-using-iphone-to-cheat-during-international-tournament/?tid=hp_mm

<comment><USER2> Sadly, it's human nature to try to be the best at any cost.

As the article suggests, the penalties should be high as it's very hard to police. So offenders should be scared straight. Plus, who cares what the penalty is if you are playing clean?

<comment><USER3> >Plus, who cares what the penalty is if you are playing clean?

Guilt is determined by the opinion of the officials, and not whether or not you did anything wrong.</comment></comment>


'Brightest girls' among physics A-level dropouts - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/education-27596247

<comment><USER2> _" "There is a clear advantage to being female to study physics: a greater chance of top grades and a lower chance of failure and lower grades. This holds at both AS and A2", says their preliminary paper."_

I'd consider dropping out if my science teacher couldn't distinguish correlation and causation in their paper.

More seriously, I found the idea that high-performing students are dropping physics to optimise their overall average as an interesting thing. It's a shame when students sacrificing knowledge and skills that may have long term benefits in favour of a short term grade boost.

On another note: wouldn't the majority of students who drop out of physics be among the 'brightest students' at their school?

<comment><USER3> > short term grade boost

Except to them it isn't. Their entire life they have been playing the grade game and have learned how to optimize it. Like any group of people given a metric they will try to game it. Not to mention it isn't like everyone is telling them that to get a good job they need good grades in college too. Not one is telling them that the game is about to end.

<comment><USER4> [http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/what-maths-a-level- do...](http://gowers.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/what-maths-a-level-doesnt- necessarily-give-you/)

Above a Field's medal winning mathematician having a conversation with a 17 year old A level student.

Actually, my perception is that the grade gaming started fairly recently in the UK, around 10 to 15 years ago. The rhetoric of 'raising standards' came to mean 'more passing and higher grades'.

As regards the parent post's last sentence ('Not one is telling them that the game is about to end.') _some_ of my brighter Further Education students (vocational training) seem to have guessed. They are _not_ going to University directly or at all but via placements in company training programmes or services training.

<comment><USER5> This is really sad because I clearly remember all the way back to high school calculus class and again in college that we spent a lot of time with the definition of the derivative, deriving the rules before applying them, and having that whole business be on the test along with the regular plug-and-chug problems. It was at a liberal arts college. Roughly half of the math majors were headed into high school teaching, the other half were double majors with some other STEM discipline.

<comment><USER4> Well good for you and your teachers.

I'll bet you were not taking nationally defined exams which do not stress derivation from first principles however...

<comment><USER5> That's definitely the case. It was the early 80's. Calculus in high school was still not widespread. We took it at 7 in the morning, before the regular school day, from the physics teacher who was delighted to finally teach calculus for the first time ever. He basically followed a mainstream college curriculum in class.

But the subsequent college course followed the same pattern, and I don't think it was atypical for the time. It took a couple tries to drive it into my skull, but I did end up majoring in math.

Turning math into a series of multiple choice questions that are answered by cranking through memorized algorithms... don't get me started.

<comment><USER4> UK does not use MCQ, but the emphasis on age 16 and age 18 exams in Maths is definitely cranking out the working. Some problem solving, but not so much proof.

Your experience is a really good illustration of the first phase of what I think is a common 'pattern' or 'process' in education reform.

Phase 1: An exceptional teacher decides to _do_ something and a group of highly motivated students (also _self-selected_ students) responds well. Results are good.

Phase 2: This activity is highlighted as 'good practice' and showcased in conferences by head teacher/managers

Phase 3: Managers in other institutions say 'we must do this' and impose the outer form of the activity on staff who are not perhaps thinking of that and students who are not self-selecting.

Phase 4: Results not so good in copying institutions. Staff blamed. Much mumbling.

Knowledge is situated and good teachers will modify things to suit _their_ students in _their_ particular institution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > some girls might find a very male-oriented physics A-level class "off- > putting"

Seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. The result of girls not taking advanced physics because it is male-dominated is that it continues to be male- dominated.

Reminds me of my AP Physics C class in high school which had a total of 3 female students in a class of 25.

</comment><comment><USER7> _There were 20 or 25 of us. It 's hard to say you don't understand when it's a really large group.

In A2 it was so much easier when there were only five of us._

What the best way to tackle this asymmetry? Teacher asks the class if they understand, students who need help stay quiet.

On a side note, I dropped advanced physics at highschool because it was incredibly boring. Spent ages drawing error bars on graphs, instead of learning about the laws of nature. It had always been my favourite subject up to that point.

<comment><USER8> One thing that people are trying is to just pick people to answer questions. They don't ask a question and let some one who wants to answer to answer it, they ask the question and them pick someone to answer it. This means you learn from the people who don't normally answer whether they understand or not and you understand where they don't understand.

It needs some shift of expectations. Not knowing the answer to a question is fine and being allowed to say, in fromt of a bunch of people, that you don't understand is a good thing.

<comment><USER9> > One thing that people are trying is to just pick people to answer questions.

Had a professor for my analysis class that stated he'd never seen regular class attendance drop as quick as when he tried doing this.

As a slower student, I definitely had a tendency to skip these sort of classes and just go to office hours.

Just an amusing anecdote!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Physics at A-level in the UK suffers greatly from the efforts to keep each A-level independent, despite the huge overlap between physics and mathematics (particularly the "further mathematics" A-level). The resulting course is simultaneously very easy for students who are doing double mathematics, and very difficult for students who aren't. I wonder how much of the gender difference in the article is simply due to more girls taking physics without mathematics (the article mentions those intending to apply for medicine, who IME usually wouldn't take the mathematics A-level).

</comment><comment><USER11> The Denver chapter of the Colorado Mountain Club used to (and may still) have "practice climbs": all climbers were belayed from the top of the pitch. A fellow I met at one of these said that he considered that he hadn't learned anything if he didn't fall three times in the course of the day. I would probably never have been a good rock climber in any case; but had I understood and embraced that approach, I might have been a better bad one.

</comment><comment><USER12> Whats the employment outlook for the brightest girls who stay in physics vs drop out of physics? Just trying to broaden the discussion beyond whats good for just the people who benefit by physics enrollment (perhaps specifically of girls).

<comment><USER13> When I was at school physics A level was done by most people who wanted to do Medicine.</comment></comment>


Stop, Collaborate, and Listen/Notify - <AUTHOR> https://omniti.com/seeds/stop-collaborate-and-listen-notify <comment><USER2> I had no idea. Why isn't this well more well known? Is there some known quirks/limitations why this isn't more widely used for very simple needs?

 _Passing basic messages around like this is a perfect job for LISTEN /NOTIFY because we can solve the job of message passing without the operational overhead of setting up an additional queuing system._

I am a big fan of using as little pieces of tech as possible for a project to keep the overall complexity down and this could be very useful for simple needs.

<comment><USER3> If there's no receiver/listener running, or if there's some error while processing the message, the message is forgotten. That's the biggest drawback.

<comment><USER4> That's what the queue table is for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> the way in which notify/listen interacts with transactions is interesting; from the docs:

[http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/sql- notify.html](http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.5/static/sql-notify.html)

"... if a NOTIFY is executed inside a transaction, the notify events are not delivered until and unless the transaction is committed. This is appropriate, since if the transaction is aborted, all the commands within it have had no effect, including NOTIFY.... Secondly, if a listening session receives a notification signal while it is within a transaction, the notification event will not be delivered to its connected client until just after the transaction is completed (either committed or aborted). Again, the reasoning is that if a notification were delivered within a transaction that was later aborted, one would want the notification to be undone somehow — but the server cannot "take back" a notification once it has sent it to the client. So notification events are only delivered between transactions."

</comment><comment><USER6> There is also PgQ from the [https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/SkyTools](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/SkyTools) package, which is fantastic and mature. It's like Kafka inside your PostgreSQL. When I was at Instagram, we implemented a multi-region cache invalidation system using PgQ that took advantage of atomicity between PgQ and writes to the source-of-truth data table. [http://engineering.instagram.com/posts/548723638608102/](http://engineering.instagram.com/posts/548723638608102/)

</comment><comment><USER7> On the off chance that someone reading wasn't subjected to 1990's song "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, that's where the title of the article comes from :)

</comment><comment><USER8> Redis also has these operations. See [http://redis.io/topics/pubsub](http://redis.io/topics/pubsub)

Note that these simplistic operations (both in Redis and Postgres) don't handle many important parts of message passing (e.g. handling retransmission of failed messages, ensuring the application has processed the messages after receiving it, and so on).

</comment><comment><USER9> People really need to know more about LISTEN/NOTIFY. It's the primary reason that PG has ruined me for other databases.

</comment><comment><USER10> It's great, unless you are using JDBC.

<comment><USER11> Maybe this would help you: [https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PgNotificationHelper](https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PgNotificationHelper)

<comment><USER10> That's still not as great as a second async connection on a notification thread. still lot's of work to make it useful.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> How do you clean the queue table?

Do you use SKIP LOCKED introduced in PostgreSQL 9.5?</comment>


Ask HN: Python community for beginner? - <AUTHOR>

I am a none programmer and wanted to learn Python. I've been picking up some random book to practice and also did the codeacademy. I'm looking for python community where I can post the code/questions when things doesn't go right as the book say. Any advice will be greatly appreciated!<p>Thank you :) <comment><USER2> Stack overflow is great for that type of thing.. I started using python about 2 years ago and there seemed to be loads of python programmers on it. There may be some bitchiness about the question being a dupe, or in the wrong section but nevertheless you will get really helpful answers usually in a matter of minutes.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I'll give it a try!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I strongly suggest you stay away from the "dive into python" series and look at Zed Shaw's excellent "Learn Python the Hard Way" series. To read it online, it is free[1]. I've got a random collection of links I send to some of my coworkers when they ask about newbie python devs that might be of use to you[2].

[1] [http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/](http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/)

[2] [https://gist.github.com/SEJeff/7103604](https://gist.github.com/SEJeff/7103604)

</comment><comment><USER4> The r/learnpython subreddit has always seemed pretty helpful. There's a decent IRC channel associated with that subreddit.

[http://reddit.com/r/learnpython](http://reddit.com/r/learnpython)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! looks awesome!</comment></comment>


7 Reasons Every Developer Should Freelance Full Time - <AUTHOR> http://codefury.net/2014/01/7-reasons-every-developer-should-freelance-full-time/

<comment><USER2> _What I love about freelancing is how unpredictable it is. Clients can (and will) call you whenever they want. You'll be forced to realize that you underestimated a project and you are personally eating the cost. One day you'll have 1 project to work on, the next day you'll have 5. Sometimes a client "forgets" to pay on time. When you need to crush it and work 8am to 10pm for days on end to keep your clients happy, you do what you gotta do._

While there are plenty of good reasons to freelance, I hardly see the above as something to _love_. The post reads like a bit of a sales pitch (and perhaps that is the intent) that makes freelancing seem wholly superior to conventional full-time employment.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point — I think the sales-feel came more from the emotion behind it when I first wrote it.

I didn't intend to say everyone should do it for an entire career, but that it's something important to try at least once because of how much you learn in a short period of time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> 1 & 2 seem like top reasons NOT to freelance -- stress & worrying about where your money is going to come from. But I guess it depends on how much money you'd like and how many clients you're getting.

My main gripe about freelancing is that it seems like the only reliable way to get a livable wage (or at least a wage on par with full-time devs) is by convincing some sort of startup or other tech company to hire you for a few months. Meaning that it's very difficult to multiple revenue streams that pay out similarly, and you end up being more or less a full-time dev who happens to change jobs more often than a longer term hire. This is just my experience though, I'm curious to see if others have similar impressions.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think there are some good points made in this post that apply to business- related activities that developers often remain woefully ignorant about. Freelancing definitely makes you reset your expectations a bit more, whether you work as a full time employee or not.

However, there are a couple of important aspects of professional growth that freelancers can miss out on:

1) Long term ownership of a product/service. Your approach and outlook to writing code changes if you know you have to own/maintain it for a long time. You'll be more thoughtful in your decisions, more mindful of system/customer/team impact, and be critical of the latest, hot technology on HN. All good things, I believe.

2) Team dynamics and leadership, especially within larger teams. Freelancers often work solo, and there's something to be said about learning to work in the scope of a team, both as a contributor and as a leader. While plenty of freelancers can assemble teams and tackle large problems, they often acquire these skills working for a firm at some point in their careers. If you go too early into freelancing before learning these skills, you may never break out of being a one-man band.

</comment><comment><USER5> 5\. Freelancing Forces You to Keep Up to Date "By contrast, I know some design shops in my area that are still using Photoshop and Dreamweaver to build HTML- based websites on GoDaddy. Know when they opened their shop? When Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and GoDaddy were still cool. That's not acceptable, and young whippersnappers in the area are on the creeping in with their fancy new WordPress installations, scripting skills, and jQuery, and grabbing new business. The moral? Learn or die.

And some of those whippersnappers are going to be rolling on the same technology stack 10 years from now."

I couldn't disagree with that sentiment more. I'm a developer who works full time at an agency and freelances on the side when I feel like it. I know a lot of developers my age (mid-late twenties) that have only really ever freelanced full time and never worked in a company 9-5 and I can say the one noticeable difference between us is the skill set.

being surrounded by better developers than I has forced me to learn new things in a way that striking out on my own would never do. Sure, necessity is the mother of invention, and if you're running your own business, you'll have to learn things to keep the lights on, but you miss out on all the mentorship and guidance working with a team of more experienced people gives you.

I've worked at around 4 agencies in my career thus far, and have never seen or heard of an agency that fits the description in your hyperbolic example. In fact, I tend to think it more closely resembles a one-man freelance dev shop.

Just my thoughts.

<comment><AUTHOR> Would it be cowardly for me to go ahead and say agencies are an exception?

I worked at an agency (HUGE in Brooklyn), and was very close to what freelancing is in regard to learning.

It's a steady paycheck, but you're always working on different project, and they're usually fairly cutting edge.

Being surrounded by awesome developers is important too, but you can get that in a co-working space, attending meetups, being part of and contributing to some open-source community, or just hanging out with your developer friends.

<comment><USER5> I agree that meetups, open source and friends can help with mentorship, but being forced to solve problems in a group is a lot more effective than casual encounters and meetups.

That said, it probably depends on the type of person you are. If you're super outgoing and involved, freelancing full-time is probably similar to working at an agency in that regard, but if that's true it sort works against the point of your post.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1 Major reason that most developers shouldn't freelance full time.

It isn't a business that you are willing to commit to. Why should anyone put the time and effort into starting a business with the intention of later dumping it? Save yourself that step and don't freelance at all. Sure, some may love it and stick with it, but not every developer should freelance.

All you would likely accomplish is jack up your income for X months. Take client work off the market from someone else who will end up inheriting your project anyways because you quit freelancing after you check it off your bucket-list.

There are cases when it's easy to jump in and out of freelancing and it makes a good stop-gap for your employment. You have contacts in the industry who need a quick hand. You acquired deep knowledge in something that fits well with short consulting stints. Generally this person is probably in the position that your bullet points don't really apply.

</comment><comment><USER7> Google Cache version: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?output=search&s...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?output=search&sclient=psy- ab&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fcodefury.net%2F2014%2F01%2F7-reasons-every- developer-should-freelance-full- time%2F&oq=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fcodefury.net%2F2014%2F01%2F7-reasons-every- developer-should-freelance-full-time%2F)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Fixed

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is ridiculous click bait and flame bait.

Freelancing fits certain people's (like the author's apparently) personality perfectly.

Others, like myself, have had enough years of dealing with customers directly and prefer internal positions where I mainly just deal with the CEO and my own team.</comment>


Ask HN: How do I stop YouTube from randomly subscribing me to channels? - <AUTHOR>

This has happened at least 3 times that I can recall. I know for sure that I am not the one subscribing to them because I categorize all of my subscriptions into Managed Collections. I also have a few friends that claim this happens to them as well and a quick web search confirms that this is not an isolated phenomenon. <comment><USER2> I've used Youtube since it came out in 2007 and never seen this. It could be that either someone has your password, or you're visiting some site whose malicious Javascript is cross-site-diddling into your Youtube session. (However, search as I may, I can't find anything that would validate this latter hypothesis by hinting at the existence of such a malware.)

In this thread:

[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/YRoOv...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/YRoOvyAKVGE)

a user persistently claimed that YT was subscribing him to channels just due to him viewing a sufficient number of random videos. At the end (scroll down) it turned out not to be the case: all the channels he was being subscribed to belonged to users that he thought he unsubbed, but just didn't unsub properly. The user accepted the answer about unsubscribing correctly.</comment>


The end of Haiti?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2010/01/end_haiti_0 <comment><USER2> I am from Somalia, and I have witnessed its decay right to its downfall, including the three days during which the government dispersed and the central bank threw out its stash of local currency in large garbage bins.

Haiti will not die. For one, the suffering has been universally afflicted on all Haitians. This will strengthen their bond more than anything. Even if warlords and gangs form their own fiefdoms throughout the country, the humanitarian efforts, whenever they're ready a year or ten from now, can always tap into that shared Haitian identity, forged through an equally- endured hardship.

An earthquake has no one to blame. Probably as many Somalis died as in Haiti (though not in one day) but we only have ourselves to blame, and each victim left a blood debt on his killer, which "must" be avenged (or it has been avenged, and now the victim's family are awaiting reprisals)

<comment><USER3> _An earthquake has no one to blame._

The event itself does not, it's true. But there certainly is someone to blame for the shoddy construction standards and grievous lack of preparation. The government is entirely accountable for these things.

<comment><USER4> Easy to say if you're coming from the vantage point of someone living in a rich country.

<comment><USER5> How many deaths have you heard about in the Dominican Republic?

Its not exactly Luxembourg over there but they survived.

<comment><USER6> The earthquake epicenter was in Haiti. It wasn't felt as strongly in the Dom. Rep.

About 6 years ago, an earthquake centered in the northern part of the island destroyed the nearby towns.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Did anyone else hear the NPR special on Haiti the day before the earthquake? They were saying how even though the country was extremely poor, investors were lining up to put in money to train workers and start companies, in part because of Clinton. They were saying how this was probably Haiti's last chance, and if anything else went wrong it would probably be the end of the country. Then this.

<comment><USER8> I can't find that anywhere on NPR's site. Got a link?

<comment><USER9> The story of hope for Haiti prior to the earthquake was on PBS NewsHour:

[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan- june10/hait...](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan- june10/haiti_01-11.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The concluding remark about 'climate refugees' is out of place in this otherwise very important discussion about failed states.

Climate change and its perceived influence on the mankind is a very controversial subject, and today most of people's suffering from poverty and misgovernment has nothing to do with it. Advancing your own pet theories using a real-life tragedy as a prop is a bad taste.

<comment><USER11> Agreed, and I quarreled with that statement briefly. What I think the author is trying to say is that soon, there will be climate refugees, and when that happens, we'll need to know what to do with them, and we can use this event as an example on how the world should handle it.

It wasn't necessary in the argument, and yes, he was pushing his theories, but it may not have been so completely insulting as: "climate changed caused an earthquake!"

<comment><USER12> _Climate change and its perceived influence on the mankind is a very controversial subject, and today most of people's suffering from poverty and misgovernment has nothing to do with it._

The fact that a lot of people today suffer from poverty and misgovernment is indeed not entirely due to climate change (although there is dutch disease/resource curse: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse>)

However it is not hard to realize that those suffering right now will suffer even more were climate change effects as severe as some scientist predict, is it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> He just had to bring up climate change at the end. Great way to get everyone to miss the point of your post.

<comment><USER14> Isn't climate change (as a consequence of man-made deforestation) a large part of the problems that face Haiti today?

<http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002600/a002640/>

<comment><USER3> The deforestation depicted in those photos is not the result of climate change, but of ill-advised logging activity.

<comment><USER15> There's no need to be snide about it.

<comment><USER3> Sorry, that was not my intent. I'll edit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Does the Dominican Republic want Haiti? I don't think so considering how hard they are on Haitians who try to go to the DR part of the island.

Will the USA take on Haiti and make it a second Puerto Rico? I don't think so; for one, it would be expensive; two, all the Haitians would move to the USA as soon as they could; and there are probably other reasons as well.

So my analysis shows that Haiti will remain a barely functioning country as it was before and it will not "end". After all, Bangladesh has it bad every year due to the extensive flooding and naturally occurring arsenic in the groundwater; but they still exist.

<comment><USER17> Puerto Rico was invaded by the United States. Haiti has great sadness in it's history. A large portion of their population is > 19 yrs old. There's a well known problem of child sex slaves in Haiti.

<comment><USER18> I think you mean <.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Historically disasters (and wars) have the opposite effect.

In the short term it's terrible, but long term a disaster usually spurs rebuilding and economic activity that results in a better situation than what was there before.

<comment><USER12> Pretty ridiculous statement in my opinion.

Life goes on, disaster or not.

There's supposedly always better situation in the future, it is pretty dubious to claim that wars and cataclysms accelerate long term development.

<comment><USER20> _There's supposedly always better situation in the future, it is pretty dubious to claim that wars and cataclysms accelerate long term development._

It depends on what you mean. Wars have historically accelerated technology development, at least in the short term.

If you mean development more generally, then no probably not. The civilian technology would eventually get developped, if more slowly without the major push of a war. In the process, people and resources are destroyed.

<comment><USER21> Perhaps it's like accelerating your car. You gain more speed faster at the expense of efficiency.

<comment><USER20> I think that's a pretty good analogy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> The end of conflating failed states, earthquakes, and AGW?

</comment><comment><USER23> As far as failed states go, this could push Haiti from Haiti level to maybe even Somalia level. So I have to wonder what the repercussions of this could be. Somalia is a "safe" distance away from most of the rich and powerful countries--it's kind of a distant problem that Somalia has no government and even the piracy is kept to a sustainable level. Haiti's a lot closer to home. The US was pushed to action in Haiti in the 1990's, and chances are we'll have to do so again.

<comment><USER24> The Somali have customary laws which allow them to operate and grow their economy despite political chaos.

However, it would seem to me that that Haitians have no common law system or a customary kind which would permit the growth of an informal economy.

<comment><USER2> That's just offensive to Haitians and downright wrong. Somali traditions are the #1 cause of our strife; tribalism. We don't have any "laws", neither written nor verbal. It's all tribal handshakes and the whims of whoever is in charge.

If you're referring to Islam, well, that hasn't saved us, or the Iraqis, or Afghanis .. come to think of it, maybe they're better off without a prominent political religious establishment there. Where there is a will for violence and anarchy, the dominant or pre-existing "laws" only become pretexts, never deterrents, or they become marginalized by "circumstances". You have never seen evil until you have seen religion under the Marshall law of the religious, curbed to the side temporarily, until the faithful reach a given objective, promising to resume their piety later when it's more convenient. (a bit meta here, but I am thinking more of Communism than Abrahimic faiths.)

Haiti is from the exact same Moor embryo that gave birth to the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Suriname, and the two Guyanas. Sure, they might not become a world-class economy any time soon, but nationhood is within their collective conscious. Never underestimate the will of a regional minority to rise up: francophone Haitians are in the middle of Spanish and English Caribbean. Give them sometime, they will be back up better and stronger.

<comment><USER24> I have no interests in "nationhood" and "collective consciousness", or "political will".

I am an individualist anarchist, and is naturally drawn to non-statist paradigm of organization and especially evidence for or against possible non- statist systems.

In any case, your opinion is highly valuable. I now have more information regarding what Somalian think of the situation and society in Somalia, which is often mentioned as a case of real world anarchy.

If there is no law system, then there's no anarchy, and thus only chaos. I found that hard to believe when I hear reports of rising standard of living in Somalia, as well capital investment, among other things.

I was only expressing my belief that there seem to be no alternative system of organization in Haiti would be comparable to Somalia's, thus no hope.

EDIT: this is not to say that there are no civil strides. It would seem to me that foreign interferences from other countries destroy possibilities of peace in the region.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Potentially relevant TED talk:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_s_new_rules_for_rebuil...](http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_collier_s_new_rules_for_rebuilding_a_broken_nation.html)

</comment><comment><USER26> Given the fact that even before the quake, Haiti was a hotbed of gang activity, and now that many more of its criminals have escaped from prison, I can't help but worry that all of this aid money being handed over is going to ultimately fall into the wrong hands.

</comment><comment><USER27> What I haven't seen explained is what exactly needs to be rebuilt? If someone has nothing, and there is an earthquake, exactly how does billions of dollars restore nothing?

Or because of this earthquake the world should build their infrastructure for free?

<comment><USER28> Hospitals, prisons, drinking water distribution, sewage, housing, electricity, police stations, firefighting capability. Is this a trick question?

Haiti didn't have _nothing_ ; it had a very crappy version of most things.

Charge Haiti whatever you'd like to build a basic survivable level of civilization. They'll never pay, but that doesn't matter. The alternative is Somalia in the Carribean.

<comment><USER29> I think it is a reasonable question. There are plenty of places without drinking water and sewage infrastructure of any real note. Why then does this earthquake mean that we should fix Haiti's water/sewage. Why not fix Somalia's instead?

Given the comments about Haiti's resources it seems it should be quite rich monetarily, certainly enough to pay for the rapid construction of Hospitals and the like. Yes, we'd want to help with skilled workers if sufficient don't exist locally for the timescales sought.

I don't think (hope) that the parent is saying we shouldn't help Haiti, just asking why only help them or help them in preference to others that are suffering as much.

<comment><USER23> The quick answer to "why not fix Somalia" is "we tried, and they ended up shooting at us, so we left".

Oddly enough, we tried fixing Haiti a few times, too. It's not very successful, but they don't seem to shoot at us quite so much.

<comment><USER28> Haiti is not yet Somalia. By the '90s, purely humanitarian intervention in Somalia was untenable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Perhaps it's (finally) time to see the OPEC and other resource-rich countries step up and rebuild Haiti?

<comment><USER31> Why OPEC countries? These are oil producing countries, but very few of them belong to the rich countries in the world. I think that perhaps the richest countries in the world should help rebuild the devastation of one of the poorest countries in the world.

<comment><USER32> I think he meant OECD countries.

<comment><USER3> _OPEC and other resource-rich countries_

I think he meant what he typed. There's plenty of OECD countries without significant natural resources.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> This earthquake can be noting but good for Haiti. People saw and heard there were problems and poverty here, but did nothing. Now due to the earthquake, people see and and millions of dollars are pouring and and will continue too. It is going to spur growth and economic activity. like ars said, bad initially, but great in the long run.

<comment><USER34> Broken window fallacy

<comment><USER20> This does not apply in this case because it is bringing in resources from outside of the country. The broken window fallacy only applies in a relatively closed system.

Of course, even if this DOES improve the economy (and I am not saying it will, just that it does not violate the broken window fallacy if it does) this was a horrible tragedy with an enormous deathtoll.

<comment><USER34> Agreed..it does not seem to be broken window fallacy....sloppy on my part.

<comment><USER35> I don't even understand the broken window fallacy. The broken window repair does seem to increase GDP, as long as G means Gross (Gross Domestic Product).

Of course the net gain is zero, but that's not what GDP mean, I think.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Some countries should be disbanded. Their citizens should be given a passport to the country of their choice along with a 1-way ticket and a small stipend.

<comment><USER12> All countries should be disbanded.

Thank you very much for your exceptionalism.</comment></comment>


Technology Predictions (Cisco) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/Top_25_Predictions_121409rev.pdf

<comment><USER2> Prediction #21 is more of a statement than a prediction. Just saying..</comment>


Show HN: Command line todo app / shell with tab completion (Linux / Mac OS) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/abhijat/ya2d2 <comment><AUTHOR> This is a small todo management application to be used from the shell written in rust.

It is a small shell which has a persistent db which stores tasks with their md5 sum as the key, as well as some shell features like tab completion of commands and task ids.

Any suggestions or feature requests are most welcome.</comment>


Oracle Linux - Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel - <AUTHOR> http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/173453 <comment><USER2> I predict this thing lasts no more than 2 weeks before someone finds a way to break the "unbreakable"

<comment><USER3> Even so, this would sell like butter. Can't you hear CEOs masturbating over this?

<comment><USER2> Unfortunately, yes.

PHB: "We need to get this in here! It's UNBREAKABLE!" IT Guy: "Sir, I assure you, it's breakable." PHB: "That's not what the shiny pamphlet says." IT Guy: _Facepalm_

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Basically, it's a more-current version of the Linux kernel added to their distro (which is a clone of RHEL5).

Surprise surprise... the newer kernel has more performance optimizations and is somewhat faster/featureful.

There are a few new features - see here for more on one of the data integrity ones:

[http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/6919-About-this-data- integr...](http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/6919-About-this-data-integrity- thing-in-Oracle-ULK.html#extended)

<comment><USER5> Yep. And RHEL MRG already includes a 2.6.32 kernel on top of regular RHEL 5. This probably even uses the same .config file.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> So they have a two pronged approach:

1\. Encourage customers to adopt this kernel to run Oracle workloads. Saying it's the only "recommended" kernel for Oracle software helps greatly. Oh and it's 75% faster.

"The Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel is now the only Linux kernel Oracle recommends for use with Oracle software."

2\. Still "support" Red Hat's older kernel for other ISV workloads (really Red Hat is supporting it anyway).

"Oracle Linux continues to include Oracle's existing Red Hat Compatible Kernel. Customers can choose to run the Red Hat Compatible Kernel if they prefer strict Red Hat compatibility over a system optimized to run Oracle and other enterprise software."

Unbreakable Linux didn't really present any huge advantages before. Now it does. Why wouldn't you choose it now?

</comment><comment><USER7> Can't the other distros (and the kernel developers) just take these patches and apply them upstream if they are so wonderful? I'm not sure how having patches to a GPL'ed kernel gives you a competitive advantage..

<comment><USER6> RHEL doesn't follow mainline, so Oracle will almost always have a more modern kernel. As another commenter pointed out, most of the improvments are just from this one point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> That sure sounds like biting the hand that feeds you. When you are (essentially) a re-distributor of RHEL5, why on earth would you bash on RHEL5!?

<comment><USER6> Because they compete with Red Hat and want to steal their customers. And now they can claim they have a superior product because they are using a modern kernel. Red Hat needs to release RHEL 6 ASAP.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If anyone's interested with PostgreSQL tests on this kernel: TPS is 20% lower than the stock RHEL 2.6.18-194.11.4.el5 kernel.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wanted to start flaming oracle for hurting the IT all around, but somehow, I lost my words. My response to this would be a solid facepalm.</comment>


How to Get React SEO-Friendly by Using Next.js - <AUTHOR> https://prismic.io/blog/seo-with-react-and-nextjs <comment><USER2> just use prerender.io and don't waste your time on SSR.</comment>


Don't Interrupt Actions When Users Login - <AUTHOR> http://blog.humanmade.org/post/50755558/a-bit-of-a-problem

<comment><USER2> This is obvious but bears repeating. I still silently curse every site that makes this mistake.

I've done my part to fix it, by the way. Here's the introduction to Section 6.5 in my book _RailsSpace_ :

6.5 Friendly URL forwarding

There's one final flourish we'd like to add to our basic login functionality. One of our pet peeves is when we go to the front page of a site, click on a link for a protected page, are prompted to log in, and then get forwarded back to the front page rather than to the protected page we originally requested. This is lame, lame, lame. Obviously, the site should remember the protected page we requested and then forward us _there_ after logging in. Let's implement (and test) this feature, which we call "friendly forwarding."

<comment><USER3> One thing is that often times you also care about the POST vars that got you to that page, so you need to somehow persist that as well, which is harder since you can't get a redirect to POST easily.

So the problem is (sometimes) harder than it appears.

<comment><USER4> The sites I've designed just do the login live on the page you needed it on, via AJAX, without actually redirecting you anywhere. Of course, each displayed page has to know both its guest and user state (and be able to transition between them), but that seems like the correct approach, anyway.

<comment><USER3> That sounds like alot of work ;)

I might as well just have unfriendly signups!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> that should be a no-brainer... shame on you flickr and your lazy product team</comment>


SpaceX Falcon Heavy Muscles Way into $130M Military Contract - <AUTHOR> http://fortune.com/2018/06/22/spacex-falcon-heavy-military-launch-contract/ <comment><USER2> Great, this will build confidence on FH for non-military hopefully. I've heard that FH will not only make larger research satellite possible but also more complicated ones. (Something about folding the wings limiting satellite capabilities for smaller launch vehicles that I read). I wonder if this also means more and cheaper cubesats making it to space.

Some people might be concerned with the morality of all this . But I still see this as overall progress of humanity in their space venture.

<comment><USER3> Nobody mentioning the biggest hope for basically having ventures bundling abundant energy in space and sending it to earth?

Carbon free with nearly no infrastructure costs beside some huge foilmirrors and heat collecting powerstations?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space- based_solar_power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power)

<comment><USER4> Is there some kind of sunlight shortage on Earth? Why would this be necessary?

<comment><USER3> Building structures on earth to collect sunlight is expensive due to need for maintenance, inefficient due to weather and day/night cycles and the transportproblem (no line of sight/ cables) and needs lots of land.

Spacebased power generation can get around that.

<comment><USER5> Space stations are expensive to maintain, experience a day/night cycle in the sort of orbits you'd have to use, and can't have cables either...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > SpaceX president Glynne Shotwell

As much as I like to think this is a typo, the W and L keys are on opposite sides of the keyboard...

<comment><USER7> Quite possibly a dictation error, but this just indicates that the copy at Fortune is pretty bad.</comment></comment>


The Mob Introduced Oral Sex to Americans - <AUTHOR> http://www.ozy.com/flashback/how-the-mob-introduced-americans-to-oral-sex/61192?utm_source=FN&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pp

<comment><USER2> the article from which this one steals almost everything to repackage into a menial cheeseburger sans cheese is much more interesting:

[http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/07/hitchens200607](http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/07/hitchens200607)</comment>


Is this a first? Google voluntarily censors anti-Islam video in Libya, Egypt - <AUTHOR> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/09/youtube-blocks-access-controversial-video-egypt-and-libya <comment><AUTHOR> I know Google famously censored political speech in China until Sergey Brin made his stand [a], and it continues to censor videos in e.g. India [b] (blocking content which could provoke Hindu-Muslim violence). But in those places, the courts of those countries force them to censor; here, the censorship is voluntary, seemingly of their own initiative. Is there a precedent for this?

[a] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin#Censorship_of_Googl...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin#Censorship_of_Google_in_China)

[b] [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/21/net-us-india- viole...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/21/net-us-india-violence- internet-idUSBRE87K0NM20120821)

<comment><USER2> They censored the DNC speech and who knows how many thousands or hundreds of thousands other videos. It may have been "automatic censorship" because of their idiotic system, but that's not exactly a very good excuse for such important (political, no less) videos and on such a large scale, is it?

<comment><USER3> The DNC thing never actually happened:

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/09/05/michelle_...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/09/05/michelle_obama_dnc_speech_why_did_youtube_flag_it_for_copyright_infringement_.html)

There's always a delay between the end of a livestream and the point where you can watch the prerecorded video. In this case, YouTube merely displayed the wrong error message during that delay.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Violence should never be allowed to become a useful weapon against free speech.

When a company has built tools for self-expression that are widely used, they have a responsibility to commit to broad principles under difficult circumstances. Free speech principles aren't as widely protected across the globe as they are in the US, but that doesn't mean they are not very important to the advancement of society.

<comment><USER5> You're clouding the issue. "Free speech principles" as you describe them are not weakly protected elsewhere, they are _not held_. In particular, many -- most? -- enlightened Western democracies hold that hateful speech is not deserving of protection. Not because they're wishy-washy, but because they believe that's _right_.

You're being closed-minded if you're not willing to accept the possibility that they're right.

<comment><USER4> Your argument that I am being "closed-minded" because I believe in the value of free speech is amusing. Valuing broad free speech rights is a characteristic of an open mind.

I never said that I didn't "accept the possibility that they're right". I just don't believe that an organization should be in charge of deciding what is "hateful" and what isn't. I happen to believe that free expression is critical to our moral and scientific growth as a species.

<comment><USER5> So, again, on this issue you disagree with many very thoughtful, compassionate people, including most famously democratic governments who have lived through _actual totalitarian dictatorship_.

(Many of the less thoughtful and compassionate of these would look at American standards of public assistance, education, and criminal justice, hear you talk about "our moral and scientific growth as a species", and laugh in your face.)

Consider that they may be right and you may be wrong.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure how you made my comment about growth as a species equate to "American Standards". Also, its very "closed-minded" of you to believe that the actions of a country exactly mirrors the values of each of its citizens. Oh well, I wish you the best.

(The disagreement and dialogue in this conversation has been brought to you by Free Expression.)

<comment><USER5> > The disagreement and dialogue in this conversation has been brought to you > by Free Expression.

Much to the contrary-- try having a conversation like this on a "free" forum like 4chan and see how far you get. This kind of respectful dialogue is brought to us by pervasive peer moderation and social opprobrium, with a dash of outright censorship to taste.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This disturbs me on the grounds of "bad habit" precedent alone. Getting accustomed to self-censorship is almost as bad as having it mandated.

<comment><USER7> Hm, I don't know. This video is clearly hate speech, and I'm not sure Google should be required to keep content online that has literally caused the deaths of several people.

A 'slippery slope' argument doesn't hold up for me in this particular case.

EDIT: alright, maybe not literally. But I maintain that the video is hate speech, and that a different standard on "censorship" should apply here.

<comment><USER8> Videos don't cause people to die, and definitions of 'hate speech' are difficult. Mocking Islam seems pretty hateful, since it is at the core of the belief system of a large proportion of the world's population. But what about mocking Scientology, or Mormonism? When is a belief system so ridiculous or unpopular that it no longer deserves protection?

You say that it should be taken down because it 'caused the deaths of several people' - the implication is that belief systems deserve more protection if their adherents are more willing to commit murder in retaliation.

<comment><USER9> I agree that the murderers are obviously to blame. But the film is like a kid who pokes a beehive with a stick with all his friends around.

We know you can't control all the bees once you get them riled up, so you're still an asshole if you intentionally put others at risk.

Free speech may give the film-maker the right to be an asshole, but it doesn't change the fact that he's an asshole.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I believe the license for the film was revoked. Which means it can't be distributed. So I am not sure this was all Google's idea.

Regardless I find the erosion of free speech to be sad. We must never say or do anything to upset the Muslims...please...

<comment><USER5> What free speech? When has YouTube ever proposed not to censor videos on the basis of content?

<comment><USER10> Free speech was a founding idea of the U.S. now we can't produce, protest, or say anything that upsets a certain group of people. That is not in any way shape or form "free speech". My comment was directed at that idea, not google or youtube.

<comment><USER5> You have never had speech protections of any kind in any private forum. This is nothing new.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> In my opinion, Google (as YouTube) is not obliged to show a video. The owners of the video still have the option to upload it elsewhere, or to host it themselves, or to distribute it via a torrent.

<comment><USER12> If it's straight-out political censorship, then they should rename it OurTube instead of YouTube.

I say "if" because I'm not familiar with the video. I've seen a lot of meta reports about it, but I haven't seen a summary of the video's content.

<comment><USER13> It is basically horrible acting, insanely bad stories, worse CGI effect (really, you could not afford to have the actors walk on actual sand so you just bluescreened the entire scene???).

Oh and the content is essentially right wing christian propaganda.

<comment><USER9> I think calling it "right wing christian propoganda" is generous. It isn't trying to be persuasive... it is just a few scenes depicting Muhammad as an idiot and philanderer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Internet, being the most widely reaching medium along with the ease of publishing, becomes quite attractive to anyone who hasn't got the means ( money/influence ) to get content published on more traditional mediums like Newspaper, Magazines and TV.

Hence you will find all kinds of material on the Internet including all kinds of hate speeches against all the religions, ideologies, personalities etc. Google being an indexer of Web would naturally present such material if you go looking for it. It's not Google's fault nor should it be its worry. After all, you can't really blame or shoot the messenger.

In a way, Internet has had more of a leveling effect on the kind of content and information that is available to common people in the world ( at least for those who have some kind of access to it ).

If for any bizarre reason, Internet starts to become more censor prone, it would loose its magical value. It is the most important invention of our times. It's somehow better if we don't have control over it. Just sit back and try to recollect the amazing pace with which it has changed and how beautifully it has sustained itself. It has a evolution path of its own.

The logic inside my head says that it was correct when Google removed the video from Libya/Egypt. But there is something in my heart that says that we would loose the innocence of Internet we go down this path too often.

Remember how reckless, carefree and full of possibilities we were when we were children. Then we came of age and learnt to how behave and think and do things like Adults. On the way, we somehow became ... well, just boring.

Remember, Internet is still a child. Hope we don't force it into becoming just another boring adult.

</comment><comment><USER15> I think they censored the video because US interest is involved. The more Islamic world engages this video as a rallying point, the greater the security threat to US. Free speech has its costs too.

</comment><comment><USER16> In the USA there are limits to free speech.

You cannot incite a riot, that is a crime.

These videos are inciting riots, not a theory, it's a fact (though anything would have triggered these riots, they just wanted an excuse and it's a tiny minority who are the most vocal).

"free speech" is an illusion in the USA, it doesn't actually exist as an unrestricted right - if you disagree, try screaming "fire" in a packed movie theater and see what happens to you, or do something as asinine like threaten the president or make a joke about the TSA while waiting in line at the airport.

<comment><USER17> You have a profound misunderstanding of free speech rights in the U.S.

Yes, you cannot incite a riot. You cannot say "My followers: Riot! Smash everything!" But _because_ something you say could or does cause a riot is not reason enough to ban your speech. Otherwise you get something like the so- called "Heckler's Veto", whereby people who merely disagree with your speech can make themselves enough of a nuisance to have it silenced.

<comment><USER16> So they can tiptoe around exact instructions and say "watch this and then decide what punishment you should inflict" ?

Why are people picking youtube videos as freedom-of-speech and not the right to joke about their suitcase being a bomb to the TSA at the airport? Why is that censorship okay and not youtube?

<comment><USER17> _So they can tiptoe around exact instructions and say "watch this and then decide what punishment you should inflict" ?_

Now you're starting to shade things into a gray area. At some point you need a judge or jury to decide whether speech is incitement to violence or not. And I don't believe the video in question is (even obliquely) advocating any particular action. It's just grossly offensive to some people.

 _Why are people picking youtube videos as freedom-of-speech and not the right to joke about their suitcase being a bomb to the TSA at the airport? Why is that censorship okay and not youtube?_

Like your other examples of falsely yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater or threatening the President, there are certain forms of "expression" that can be restricted or punished, not because they're expressing particular ideas, but because they have a direct, causal connection to harm. You can come up with a thousand examples: It's not "free speech" for a doctor to write you a prescription for a lethal dose of a drug. It's not "free speech" for a police officer to tell you you're obligated to talk to him without a lawyer. It's not "free speech" to lie on the witness stand.

"Free speech" doesn't mean you can't be punished or restricted from saying _anything_ , but it does mean that absent any _direct_ harm to the rights of others, you're free to express ideas in any reasonable manner. This shouldn't be too hard to understand.

<comment><USER16> What's the direct harm if I post naked pictures of consenting adults on my porch for the neighborhood to see?

There's no direct harm right? But it's not protected free speech - it has limitations.

You do realize the video in question was heavily edited to change dialog and things like blackboards were switched out. So it was purposely tailored to cause a reaction - incite a physical reaction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I shall not try to say this is an easy problem but it reminds me of people blaming the shopper for getting their cashbox robbed after leaving money there ('it is your fault...').

</comment><comment><USER19> Considering the fact that this "innocent" video has cost 4 innocent lives and unrest at countless places, this is more about preventing anarchy than stifling free speech.</comment>


AMD Mac tipped in code (and Intel should be terrified) - <AUTHOR> https://www.slashgear.com/amd-mac-tipped-in-code-and-intel-should-be-terrified-07609088/ <comment><AUTHOR> Whether this exists as a bargaining chip for price negotiation with Intel, or if Apple actually plans to release new Macs with AMD processor, it's nice to see AMD getting some well deserved publicity.</comment>


Idea: Cloud Based IDE - <AUTHOR> If I build an IDE which allows you to program collaboratively with your team (basically Google Drive/Docs for code) would you be open to using it? Just trying to come up with project ideas people would actually use. <comment> tony-allan Some already exist, for example repl.it with team mode.

[https://repl.it/site/blog/multi](https://repl.it/site/blog/multi)

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed -- I appreciate the input. However, I feel that none have been widely adapted and most leave much to be desired in terms of user experience. What are your thoughts in respect to this?

<comment><USER2> Come work with us and improve it: [https://repl.it/jobs](https://repl.it/jobs) We're still small/founding stage (7 people) so you can have a lot of impact. Feel free to email me directly email@example.com

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I think collaborative editing/remote pairing is useful but I wouldn't abandon my current editor for it. Some approaches have used plugins that they've developed for each popular editor.

[https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CollaborativeEditing](https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CollaborativeEditing)

</comment><comment><USER4> There is already Cloud 9 and some other players. Some companies also were shutting down like Nitrous.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi. Thanks for the input. I agree that there are some other products on the market. I feel that Cloud 9 locks you into the AWS ecosystem though, as opposed to an independent IDE which allows you to choose from several different deployment options. And I looked up Nitrous. I have a few thoughts of my own about why it shut down — namely, I think they invested substantial capital to get corporate adaptation, which didn't really happen as they expected it to, resulting in a negative financial situation and stalled growth. What are your thoughts on this?

<comment><USER4> These were only 2 examples, there are like 10 other companies out there that do the same. Cloud 9 was/is open source as well so you can install it on your own servers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> You didn't mention that there are many existing projects (google 'cloud IDE') so I will say that you would need a strategy for competing with them.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. Ease of use, a more intuitive interface, etc. would be strategies for competition. Codetasty, one of the popular cloud IDEs, has about 25k users, which is a very small percent of the total number of developers in the world. So I would think there is still a large number of potential users who aren't already using a competitor's product.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> you want ideas people will use, or ideas that people will pay for?</comment>


The Cannabis Exception to the Second Amendment - <AUTHOR> http://reason.com/archives/2016/11/30/the-cannabis-exception-to-the-second-ame <comment><AUTHOR> This is the sort of nonsense gun owners have come to expect from the ATF, and part of the reason a lot of folks are suspect on these things.

The issue of federalism and states' rights is far from decided in various corners of law and politics, and this is a handy example for how those interactions happen.</comment>


Dubai Police to deploy robotic patrols - <AUTHOR> http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/emergencies/dubai-police-to-deploy-robotic-patrols-1.2049873 <comment><AUTHOR> Techmeme's version of this story's headline (they link to the same article): _Dubai Police plan to deploy self-driving miniature vehicles that will use biometrics to scan crowds and identify criminals and suspects_</comment>


Fred Wilson: Skip School and Learn to Code - <AUTHOR> http://www.betabeat.com/2011/11/15/fred-wilson-tells-would-be-entrepreneurs-to-skip-school-and-learn-to-code/

<comment><USER2> These stories hit close to home.

I'm about to graduate from business school in December and have spent a lot of my time at university scavenging for free time between school/work/social obligations to educate myself in things far more marketable/interesting/fulfilling than dataflow diagrams and gantt charts.

As someone that can spend 12 hours a day bettering my own craft on a Macbook in Starbucks, I feel that school has been a monolithic obstacle in what I truly want in life. I just didn't realize that until far too late in my degree.

</comment><comment><USER3> The HN title is misleading. The speaker visited a B-school and advised students to increase their understanding of technology, which is of course a good thing. Of course, a B school grad who has dabbled in Ruby is not really going to be qualified to "evaluate if somebody technical is good or not".</comment>


Diderot on Information Overload, and the Encyclopedia - <AUTHOR> http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=2877 <comment><AUTHOR> 18th Century Encyclopedist Denis Diderot discussing Information Overload:

 _As long as the centuries continue to unfold, the number of books will grow continually, and one can predict that a time will come when it will be almost as difficult to learn anything from books as from the direct study of the whole universe. It will be almost as convenient to search for some bit of truth concealed in nature as it will be to find it hidden away in an immense multitude of bound volumes. When that time comes, a project, until then neglected because the need for it was not felt, will have to be undertaken..._

The site itself, the History of Information, is an Internet gem and a personal fave.</comment>