Toyota Reaches $1.2B Settlement in Criminal Inquiry - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/business/toyota-reaches-1-2-billion-settlement-in-criminal-inquiry.html <comment><USER2> A times B times C equals X. If X plus $1.2B inquiry settlement is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

<comment><USER3> Exactly. Which is why people should be going to jail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While I think some of the claims of consumers about the car were overblown, and the testimony of a few consumers who basically claim the car caused them to speed down the highway (what you never heard of using the emergency break) was more amusing than "scary", I think that this does show how as software starts to do things that could threaten a consumers life that we need to have solid protocols for how that is dealt with.

Do we say "nobody use your toaster until the firmware is updated" or do we do the traditional recall thing and offer an exchange to those who registered their product, or do we go full in and use the internet to say, "your toaster will not work until it is updated".

We see some of this in Windows 8. It routinely says you need to install the update in the next hour, your PC is going to reboot, do so now or later. This is an attempt to keep your computer safe even if it creates a bad user experience.

Should cars do the same thing? Should Toasters? How unsafe does it need to be to warrant preventing use?

<comment><USER5> > what you never heard of using the emergency break

Put yours on, put it in drive, and you'll find that applying throttle will likely easily override the emergency brake. It's there to stop the car from rolling down a hill, not to fight the engine.

Hell, I once drove my parents' car about a mile without realizing it had the brake on.

<comment><USER6> Are you talking about the parking break?

That should certainly have enough force to hold a car stopped or at least stop a pair of wheels from spinning.

<comment><USER5> Not in my experience. I'd imagine it varies somewhat from car to car.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Previous article and discussion of Toyota's safety-critical firmware woes:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6636811](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6636811)

Edit: and the title got edited to be the NYT title, which obscures the relevance to Hacker News. Ah well. This settlement is directly related to the court case Toyota recently lost, with expert testimony about the poor quality of Toyota's embedded safety-critical firmware...

<comment><USER7> The people making comments about killing the engine is a monumentally bad idea. If the car has a conventional key ignition, turning the key even to the accessory position can engage the steering wheel lock. Without a running engine, you could lose power brake and steering assist. Not all power steering systems are hydraulic, some are pure electric and some are electro-hydraulic. The majority of braking systems are assisted by a booster driven off of engine vacuum. You have two or three pedal pumps before the vacuum is gone.

<comment><USER8> The handful of cars I've checked (after Bob Pease wrote about it) won't lock the column unless you remove the key. Some might lock, but only when the tranny is in park. Worth checking out.

Do you even want/need power steering assist in a runaway situation?

<comment><USER9> When a car with power-steering loses power, it doesn't become like a car without power-steering. I've had a car shutdown at highway speeds, and turning the wheel is _incredibly_ difficult. At the time I was a fairly muscled weightlifter, and I could not turn the wheel more than a few degrees (I managed to change one lane into a turn off).

mzr's comment above gives good advice: don't turn off or remove the key in a moving vehicle. Shift to neutral if the gas pedal is stuck.

<comment><USER10> This is correct. In cars with hydraulic-assisted steering, you're forcing fluid back through the pump, which is quite hard to do in addition to the fighting the bulk of your car and steering rack. In cars with electric- assisted steering, like the Prius, you're working against the electric motor using a belt and pulleys.

Which begs the question: why isn't the electric-assist motor designed to freewheel when power is lost? Losing steering assist at speed would be a more manageable situation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The really unfortunate part of this is that when the reports started surfacing of this issue, Many people reacted with SCORN.

No "lets wait for the facts" but outright derision about stupid drivers hitting the Accelerator and then blaming the car. The fact that there were many reports and many consumers affected did not seem to matter.

Well $1.2 Billion proves that not everyone was mistaken which "pedal" they hit. When will people start going to jail over this?

<comment><USER12> Scorn may be a strong word, but the reality of the situation is that a driver faced with an unintended acceleration incident can avoid disaster by applying the brake and/or putting the car in neutral. No Toyota's engine is strong enough to keep the car moving with the driver mashing the brake with all of his or her might. Previous incidents of unintended acceleration such as the infamous Audi 5000 were usually found to be caused by the driver flooring the accelerator while thinking they had their foot on the brake.

The problem comes because when your car starts doing something completely unexpected and terrifying, most people panic, so if your gas pedal gets caught on the floormat, you won't have the presence of mind to go through a mental checklist of things you can do to stop the car. My guess is that to the extent that floormat problems caused gas pedals to stick, for 99% of the drivers, they hit the brake and kicked the gas pedal free and they were fine. But 1% of the people, in their panic, hit the gas by accident or just freaked out and froze, and crashed their cars.

Now, since it appears that Toyota tried to cover up the fact that there was a legitimate engineering or design problem at play, then they probably deserve the fine. Even if panic and driver error contributed to each and every incident, it doesn't mean that Toyota wasn't responsible for creating a situation wherein a driver had to cope with a terrifying, unexpected car malfunction.

What this whole incident proves to me is that we're very cavalier about the dangers of having millions of poorly-trained, distracted operators of powerful machines zipping all over the streets of our planet. Self-driving cars can't come soon enough.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Link with no paywall:

[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDIQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2014%2F03%2F20%2Fbusiness%2Ftoyota- reaches-1-2-billion-settlement-in-criminal- inquiry.html&ei=hzsqU5vqFMOIogTtxYDgBQ&usg=AFQjCNEBLRabAimGGs7GSRqWuteMwbmOkg&bvm=bv.63316862,d.cGU)

<comment><USER14> I wish people would stop posting paywalled articles here...

<comment><USER15> hint: open in private window

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Hooray, a new batch of insanely rich lawyers.

<comment><USER17> Department of Justice lawyers are not on commission.

<comment><USER18> Not only that, but DOJ fines go straight into the Treasury, not through the agency:[http://traceblog.org/2009/02/13/fcpa-fines-where-does-all- th...](http://traceblog.org/2009/02/13/fcpa-fines-where-does-all-the-money- go).

<comment><USER19> On the other hand, and contrary to what a lot of people think about their government, lawyers for the DOJ are often at the top of their profession and if they aren't making a lot of money right now... they will be.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Does anyone code Smalltalk any more? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> ezboard, a 1998 startup, used Smalltalk for their bulletin board service. They did really well for awhile but have been declining steadily ever since 2003. Apparently they couldn't figure out how to make money from the sites with heavy traffic. After some unpopular decisions about pricing and advertising, many of their biggest customers decided to host their own boards instead, using solutions like vBulletin or phpBB.

ezboard had several different subscriber levels. The free version caused your board to be so full of popups and other intrusive ads as to be almost unusable. It was worse than Myspace (and Firefox wasn't very popular yet). The first paid level let you turn off the popups but left the banners, including a huge banner at the bottom so that if you hit the "end" key to see the latest comment you'd wind up with a banner in your face and would have to scroll back up to see the comments. The premium level let you turn off all ads, but it was more expensive to do that than simply hosting your own solution.

They still exist, but I haven't really been paying attention. I'm not sure if they still use Smalltalk or not.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezboard>

</comment><comment><USER3> One YC-funded startup is using it.

<comment><USER4> Are they using Seaside or rolling their own framework (I'm assuming they're doing a webapp)?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I got Founders At Work a few days ago and saw that one of the guys (not Paul Graham, I think) used Smalltalk for an early version of their site...

<comment><USER5> I don't know smalltalk, but got interested lately because of the 100$ laptop, which seems to build on squeak. Also there was some interesting framework for multiuser virtual worlds, I think it might be Croquet (also based on squeak): <http://croquetconsortium.org/index.php/About_the_Technology>

So I would also be curious to know if smalltalk is still worth checking out.

<comment><USER6> The $100 laptop (also known as the OLPC--One Laptop Per Child project) is not based on Squeak. It's partly based on Linux (the OS), but the stuff users see is largely written in Python. Squeak is on the laptop as one of the things students can use. I think the main reason it was put on there was for its eToys facility, which allows kids to draw objects on the screen and then program them to do things, to create their own simulations. It also has some games that run on it.

It's on there as part of the open source spirit of the system as well. Since Squeak reveals all of its code in Smalltalk, once they learn the language they can explore it and modify it however they like. The same goes for the Python stuff.

Re: Croquet

Yes, Croquet is written on the Squeak VM. It's actually based on a modification to Squeak, called "Tweak".

IMO Smalltalk is worth checking out. I've been doing so. There are different paths you could take with this. The basic level you can explore is the Smalltalk language itself. There are online books on the language you can read. There are some hardcopy books that cover the higher levels of Squeak. There's Morphic, which is the window manager for the Squeak desktop environment. There's eToys, which is a more abstract, but easy to use, scripting environment. Then there's Seaside, which is a web application framework for it. There are no books for this. The best source I've found for it are blogs that focus on Seaside.

Seaside uses some advanced programming constructs to create a programming environment that's unlike most other web frameworks out there. I haven't used it directly yet, but from what I've read about it, it's really nice. If you get into it you probably won't want to go back to what you used before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> DabbleDB is a startup using Smalltalk.

<http://dabbledb.com/>

</comment><comment><USER8> I think a better question would be, "Does anyone program in Smalltalk yet?" It seems to be becoming more popular, rather than less. As people begin to get an awareness of more advanced paradigms some of the older research languages begin to look nicer. Smalltalk is OOP done very well. Ruby is actually a lot like it, and may turn out to be a better Smalltalk than Smalltalk (some would say otherwise, of course).

</comment><comment><USER9> One my friend codes aviation simulators in Smalltalk.

</comment><comment><USER10> Smalltalk is a really excellent language. Very minimal (yet attractive and understandable syntax), and the use of blocks make very cool things possible.

Ruby is about 75% there. Unfortunately Smalltalk suffers from the same problem Common Lisp does; poor marketing/popularity and so-so implementations (compared to say Python).

</comment><comment><USER11> A friend of mine is using Squeak to prototype financial applications requiring rich user interfaces. I'm betting coding the same kinds of interfaces in Java or C++ would take a lot longer. It's something to think about when you're trying to get demonstrations ready on time.</comment>


Introducing Amazon Echo - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/

<comment><USER2> Nice. Someone out there will soon know my family better than me.

At the end of the day I'll ask "Alexa" what has happened while I was at work. ;-)</comment>


Varnish author finds "the design approach taken in SPDY deeply flawed" - <AUTHOR> https://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/trunk/phk/http20.html?

<comment><USER2> It's a bit of a dishonest headline. He is taking issue with all three of the HTTP/2.0 candidates. The only one he really cuts any slack for is the one where he participated in the draft specification.

For you to post a link to the article and call out SPDY specifically points out your personal bias. While you are obviously entitled to your own bias, trying to use something like this to spin negative publicity for SPDY is just annoying.

Much better to let people formulate their own opinions on the matter.

</comment><comment><USER3> www.varnish-cache.org/docs/trunk/phk/http20.html?#spdy</comment>


Show HN: JsonTree, a 3.53kb JavaScript tool for generating html trees from JSON - <AUTHOR> https://maxleiter.github.io/jsonTree/ <comment><USER3> You should consider removing all the other functions from the global scope, especially because they have relatively generic names like "generateTree", "toArray", "depth", and "toggleClass".

Consider using an actual class or a closure perhaps?

<comment><AUTHOR> Wrapped in a closure, thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thanks for sharing! I see your 3.5k and raise (lower?) you 1.6k

[https://github.com/cheezmeister/kapok](https://github.com/cheezmeister/kapok)

[I think it does most of what yours does]([https://github.com/Cheezmeister/kapok/blob/master/tst/kapok....](https://github.com/Cheezmeister/kapok/blob/master/tst/kapok.spec.coffee)) (EDIT: Nope, missing URL loading and XSS cleaning!)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yours is much cleaner code though; this was my first venture in javascript (and really programming) when I wrote it and am planning on refactoring it soon(tm). Great work with Kapok, the demo page is well done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I didn't realize it's a tree until I clicked it. Changing the buttons to + and - signs might help.

<comment><USER6> I'm using ⊞ and ⊟ for that.

<comment><USER7> I was confused too. It looks like an bulleted list in Chrome.

<comment><USER8> I think its cool, but def the bullets threw me. Maybe an example of the customized styling would be good.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I noticed that your json2html function assigns the same id (top) to all non- leaf tree nodes. You might want to fix that.

</comment><comment><USER10> This doesn't work in Safari on iOS. Values don't show up, no tree.

</comment><comment><USER11> I definitely expected this to be like a JSON serialization format for HTMl.

</comment><comment><USER12> Neat, but generated tree isn't keyboard accessible.

<comment><AUTHOR> keyboard accessible? are most html trees?

<comment><USER13> They definitely should be, for accessibility reasons and because it's not that difficult to support.

Here's an example of a tree widget that can be navigated by keyboard: [https://www.jstree.com/docs/html/](https://www.jstree.com/docs/html/)

<comment><USER14> I'm not a fan of javascript being used for the clicky handlers, even if the element being clicked is a natural clicky element like an anchor tag.

It's much better to rely on a toggle like input type=checkbox and CSS to visualize tree expand and collapse based on checkbox states than to install click handlers in javascript. I suspect you could make such an arrangement more accessible and keyboard navigable as well (via grouping.)

Javascript should only be used to dynamically load/unload subtrees on click in the case of especially huge or costly trees.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The menu on the linked page does not work on mobile because the fork me banner is overlayed on top on it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Removed the banner - <USER2>

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Doesn't work on mobile browser.

</comment><comment><USER17> Doesn't work on mobile? (iOS)</comment>


FCC Updating 911 for the Texting Generation, SRSLY - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/11/fcc-911-texting/ <comment><USER2> It seems silly, but texting is significantly more discreet than a call, and takes less effort to do.

If you're within earshot of a "bad guy," you can nonchalantly send a text, and it can be done a lot quicker.

Isn't reducing bystander apathy a good thing?

<comment><USER3> It would also help for situations where there is a lot of noise, or you have been injured such that you can't talk.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I would imagine that handling 100 people texting 911 would be significantly easier then handling 100 people calling it. That's probably good news for any large scale emergencies.</comment>


California Governor Vetoes Statewide 5G Antenna Standards - <AUTHOR> https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2017/10/california-governor-vetoes-statewide-5g-antenna-standards <comment><USER2> "Some critics also reportedly expressed concerns about radiation emitted by thousands of small antennas." When is this going to stop? It feels like we're going backwards in terms of people understanding science.

<comment><USER3> What lack of understanding is there though? We already know that doctors are unable to preform reproducible science, so we cannot trust them to prove that cell-phones are safe. Physics tells us that cell-phone radiation enters the body and interacts with cells. Of course, the panic that often accompanies such uncertainty is irrational and unscientific, but the steadfast belief that the radiation can do no harm is equally so.

[http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph250/lu1/](http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph250/lu1/)

<comment><USER4> There is some science we aren't still worried about reproducing.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse- square_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law)

The focus on micro towers is misguided because the possible health threat is from the handset, and more micro towers means phones can operate at lower power, which would be a good thing for the worriers.

<comment><USER3> Doen't the inverse square law show that more towers closer to the ground, even transmitting at a lower wattage, could be worse than a few towers high up and far away?

<comment><USER4> Just think about your handset, not the towers. The handset has to broadcast to those towers, at a power they can receive. As you hold that handset, to you want it to be broadcasting at low power to a nearby tower, or higher power to a tower further away? And who says that old tower is further away? It is going to be close to someone, even if it isn't you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Sounds like Brown just didn't like this version of the bill:

> "There is something of real value in having a process that results in > extending this innovative technology rapidly and efficiently," Brown wrote > in his veto message. "Nevertheless, I believe the interest which localities > have in managing rights of way requires a more balanced solution than the > one achieved in this bill."

</comment><comment><USER6> I am puzzled again by standards of American law making.

Why telecoms have rights to mount 4g equipment on public property, but not 5g (which is not even a standard yet?)

<comment><USER7> Senate Bill 649, which passed the California Legislature last month, would have restricted local governments' abilities to block antenna placement and would cap the rates that they could charge telecom companies for installations on public property, such as street lamps or traffic lights.

It feels like it's more about telecom companies trying to restrict the rent local governments can charge that is a bigger deal here.

<comment><USER8> I am not a fan of telecoms but I can't oppose then on this one. Removing restrictions allows telecoms options which lets rent to go lower, no?

<comment><USER3> But this isn't removing restrictions, this is adding a new restriction, a positive type of restriction which FORCES local governments to rent. No one should be FORCED to rent their property.

<comment><USER9> Government owned property, public property has a duty to serve the public. Capping rates and allowing antennas in certain areas provides competition in the broadband market which serves the public interest.

<comment><USER10> " _Capping rates and allowing antennas in certain areas provides competition in the broadband market..._ "

I don't believe I've seen an argument that market interference, "capping rates", is good for the free market recently.

<comment><USER11> It depends on how you define "free market", exactly. The definition that is popular nowadays originated with libertarians, and equates it with lack of government regulation, regardless of anything else. But the traditional definition also includes monopolies and other factors that stifle competition, and from that perspective, it's entirely possible for a market to be more free _because_ of government intervention (e.g. monopoly busting).

<comment><USER9> Indeed, setting certain rules can unify a market and reduce transaction costs. Calling a city, negotiating for rights to use public property, etc.

Setting caps can also reduce a municipality desire to give a 'monopoly', an absolute monopoly where you can't get comparable service elsewhere, to one provider in exchange for generous royalty rates.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is what I love about living in California. Gov is way ahead in terms of public safety and environment safety standards. Great job Gov. Brown.

</comment><comment><USER13> 5G has proven to cause a increase in tumor rates in male rats during testing. So I understand some desire to block this technology until better understood.

Cancer is increasing at an alarming rate - could be from many many factors but worth understanding more before just allowing wide scale deployment.

I'd rather live with 4G versus 5G and cancer...

<comment><USER14> > 5G has proven to cause a increase in tumor rates in male rats during > testing.

Claims like that would really benefit from a link to the specific study you're talking about.

<comment><USER15> I think this is the study on rats sanguy is referring to:

[https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/results/areas/cellphones/](https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/results/areas/cellphones/)

The American Cancer Society called it a "paradigm shift" in our understanding of the effects of non-ionizing radiation, FWIW.

<comment><USER16> The results are rushed partial results, yes with peer review, but probably spurious, as noted by at least one of the reviewers. The reviewers didn't have benefit of well organized data either, muddying their process.

In fact, if you look at the various studied rat groups, and take the reported results at face value, you would note that the male rats exposed to the most cell phone radiation had the longest lifespan, greater than the controls (which had curiously low survival rates compared to the norm in lab rats too, btw, further muddying the findings).

Not a junky study exactly, but the analysis of the data is problematic.

<comment><USER17> then can we at least wait until further research is done?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Airspace over Riga Airport closed over lost drone - <AUTHOR> https://www.leta.lv/eng/home/important/157BDF14-C483-46FB-A2A5-BB89863B4A2F/ <comment><AUTHOR> More info in a Dutch article on Tweakers (presumably from an article in Latvian that was linked): They have four planes and six vehicles looking for it, all carrying equipment that would allow them to control the drone again. One flight from China had to divert to another airport. People have reported sightings but they still can't find it.</comment>


What do you do for network admin? - <AUTHOR>

i have a networking (php/apache) issue and i am stuck on it.  (i am a programmer)  any advice on how to solve the issue?
i have googled relentlessly to no avail.
i have submitted a question on serverfault.com  http://serverfault.com/questions/184529/how-do-i-install-imagemagick-php-library-extension-on-apache
any more ideas? <comment><USER2> Ok easy.

You've got two packages that need to be installed. ImageMagick the binary and imagick the php module.

Here are the imagemagick install instructions [http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary- releases.php?ImageM...](http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary- releases.php?ImageMagick=tpdfvj0rtecc09qdu7cvmhu636#unix)

Imagick can be found here <http://pecl.php.net/package/imagick/>

You can install imagick with the command: pecl install imagick and then add extension=imagick.so to your php.ini file.

<comment><AUTHOR> chuhnk, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

<comment><USER2> No worries, hope you get it sorted. If not just respond and I'll if I can help.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> yum install ImageMagick.i386

yum install ImageMagick-devel.i386

pecl install imagick

echo "extension=imagick.so" > /etc/php.d/imagick.ini

service httpd restart

<comment><AUTHOR> pinksoda, this totally worked. i also had to install php-pear and gcc. thanks so much.</comment></comment>


The Post-Wiki World: Hybrid etherpad/wiki beats gDocs - <AUTHOR> http://starburst.hackerfriendly.com/?p=1808

<comment><USER2> Hackpad is a YC startup that provides this etherpad/wiki concept for public use. (<https://hackpad.com/>)

My team has replaced our Google Docs and Trello with Hackpad. Creating a pad is quick so you can make throwaway, single purpose pages but it also has decent formatting tools if you decide to complex reference pages. You can also turn items into checklists for quick and easy task managment.

In retrospect, this is really what Google Wave should have been.

<comment><USER3> great call. Seems like every piece is being shredded to its bones. Ycombinator and pg is really humming the disruptive tune.

I have been looking along the lines, thanks.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What language to learn? - <AUTHOR> Hello HN, I am 30, and lost hope to get success in life. I am trying to learn coding to execute a few Internet ideas. Is there any chance to have success at this age? If you had nothing, what would you have done? <comment><USER2> You've got a whole millennium to play around with tons of languages. I'd recommend everyone starts off with Python so they learn basic syntax. If you've chosen web development which is what I currently work in I would suggest moving to PHP after you're done with the basics (very similar syntax to JS). Everything will feel overwhelming at the beginning, you just have to keep on learning and trying and breaking stuff until you understand your mistakes.

People far too often mistaken boredom for difficulty.

</comment><comment><USER3> I believe the best apps are yet to be built. Go for it with enthusiasm. Help others and live from your core belief not just for money.</comment>


Pricing Surveys Are Worthless - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/03/28/pricing-surveys <comment><AUTHOR> failure in logic.. these are two very different questions:

a) How much would you pay for the new magical device iHype that will solve all your computing and media needs?

b) How much will you pay for a big iPhone (sans phone)?

<comment><USER2> Completely agree with you, but I think it needs to go a step deeper as well. What will people ACTUALLY do?

I don't care how one survey compares to another as much as how the results of a survery compare to real life.</comment></comment>


Lightest ever direct drive extruder for FDM 3D Printers launched on Kickstarter - <AUTHOR> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lykle/super-light-and-easy-to-use-extruder-for-your-3d-p <comment><AUTHOR> Hi I'm one of the co-creators of the Zesty Nimble, feel free to ask questions here.

For fellow Delta owner we hope this is something you all get a great level of use from and it opens up what filaments are printable for you, for Cartesian owners we think you can unlock faster printing speeds and better quality prints.

It's been around a year in the making, we really hope that shows through.</comment>


High-Speed Flight in an Ergodic Forest (2012) - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.0253 <comment><AUTHOR> An interesting question... How fast can a bird or drone fly through a cluttered forest?</comment>


Japanese plan to solve world's energy problems: Turn moon into a solar panel - <AUTHOR> http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/11/29/japans-crack-plan-to-solve-the-worlds-energy-problems-turn-the-moon-into-a-giant-solar-panel/

<comment><USER2> Even if this was feasible, atmospheric heating from the microwaves interacting with the atmosphere (as well as water vapor and particles in it) would be a real problem. This would be equivalent to the Sun heating the earth+atmosphere on the order of a few percent more than it already does (see below).

This seems like a pretty intractable problem with these sorts of plans to beam energy to earth.

\--- showing my work...

Microwaves attenuate in the atmosphere at about 15 dB/km or 3%/km (see [http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/4963/RLE- TR-08...](http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/4963/RLE- TR-087-14236979.pdf)). If the signal is losing power, its going somewhere: notably as energy (some converted to heat) into the atmosphere.

If you're sending 13 PetaWatts (as indicated in the original link) through 10+ km of atmosphere, that's 3.400 PetaWatts, or 26% of the power, "lost" on the way to earth. All the power that's "lost" is being absorbed by the atmosphere and contributing to atmospheric heating.

The earth gets 174 Petawatts of incoming radiation from the Sun ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_energy)), but 30% of that actually gets reflected back, so the Sun heats with 122 PW of incoming solar radiation and this plan would add 3.4 PW, 3% more.

Note that I didn't take into account the thinning of the atmosphere or the fact that not all the energy goes into heat (some of it could be absorbed in other ways). However, you still end up with some pretty significant additional heating and having microwaves absorbed by doing things like breaking chemical bonds in the atmosphere probably isn't a great thing either.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is it me or is this bull? You lose a lot of energy when you have to transfer it back to earth... Just place the panels on earth already :)

Guess Elon Musk made fun of that before.

<comment><USER2> Not only losing the energy, but heating the atmosphere with it and drastically adding to global warming. See my other response (which I didn't initially realize should have been a response to your post).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Focus on Fukushima first, and many other things that are happening here and need to be fixed, prior to solving world's energy problems and turning moon into a solar panel. WTF is wrong with people.

</comment><comment><USER5> They are going to need giant robots to build it.

</comment><comment><USER6> what are the main reasons they cant put the solar panel on earth (in japan). earthquake??

<comment><USER7> Available area which you can cover with the panels.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Not on our moon. How ugly.</comment>


Zenefits Chief Quitting and Is Said to Consider Trump Transition Team - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/02/technology/zenefits-chief-quitting-and-is-said-to-consider-trump-transition-team.html <comment><USER2> Trump Transition is a pretty short gig to quit your current job for. Maybe it's contract-to-hire.</comment>


Vanu Bose, software pioneer and MIT Corporation member, dies at 52 - <AUTHOR> http://news.mit.edu/2017/vanu-bose-software-pioneer-mit-corporation-member-dies-52-1111 <comment><USER2> This is so sad. Really, really sad. In case you didn't know, he is the son of the legendary Amar Bose, founder of the famous audio company, Bose Corporation.[1]

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

<comment><USER2> For anyone wanting to know more about Bose's humble beginnings, this documentary, made shortly after the founder passed away is really good.[1]

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6O3F8Po2UA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6O3F8Po2UA).

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> ...and as an undergraduate he lived in the dorm Senior House, which was recently shut down by the MIT Administration because students who lived there allegedly "could not succeed".

<comment><USER4> I thought he lived at ATO?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Are there any codewars like math resources - <AUTHOR> Maybe some background could help someone steer me in the right direction.
I used to like math. Things happened (war in my country namely) and I went through school with huge gaps in math knowledge. I'm 43, with 20y programming experience (self thought for the most part).
I tried Khan Academy but I'm having trouble knowing where to start, which path to take.
I'm imagining a resource similar to codewars [1] where problems are given, maybe hints for solving them (like tags with math topics) and grouped by difficulty and pre-required knowledge. I'd find a problem, do research (khan, google...) come up with solution that would be automatically tested. I could see other people's solutions and discussion about them.
[1] https://www.codewars.com/ <comment><USER2> I've found StackExchange's Code Golf site good for this [https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/](https://codegolf.stackexchange.com/)</comment>


Google takes down smartphone service targeting Chinese apps - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/3262db8c-8c31-473b-a5e8-7a5bf58e375e <comment><USER2> 'Google's policies forbid Android apps that help people to delete or disable other apps.'

This is why you root or jailbreak your phone, and it is why such functionality should be first-party supported. You should be able to install or uninstall any software or firmware you want on your own hardware.

'Google intervened on Tuesday after millions of Indians rushed to download a service that promised to help them rid their smartphones of Chinese apps.

'Remove China Apps, from the Indian developer OneTouch AppLabs, was downloaded 4.7m times in India between May 27 and June 1, according to Sensor Tower data.

'The app was briefly the most popular on India's Google Play Store before the Silicon Valley company removed it on Tuesday, according to App Annie, another app data provider. Google's policies forbid Android apps that help people to delete or disable other apps.'

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Article, without paywall: [http://archive.is/x4yEQ](http://archive.is/x4yEQ)</comment>


John Sculley on Steve Jobs - <AUTHOR> http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SBB0001424053111903285704576560420813121788/John-Sculley-on-Steve-Jobs-and-the-Experience-of-a-Lifetime <comment><USER2>
      The majority of time I was at Apple, I was basically
      focused on delivering the same kind of performance metrics
      that I delivered at Pepsi. So, for example, when I joined
      Apple we had just achieved $570 million of revenue in 1982
      and we were No. 3 in market share. When I left Apple in
      1993, we had reached $8.3 billion in revenue, Macintosh
      was the No. 1 selling PC hardware product in the world,
      Apple was the most profitable PC hardware company in the
      world and we had $2 billion of cash.

That is an interesting point in defense of his tenure there. To his credit, he admits the rot began under him (and then things really went to hell under Spindler and Amelio).

Growing revenue 14X is not too shabby, though! In an alternate reality, maybe Sculley would have been Jobs' Ballmer, the corporate type focused on growing the current product, with Jobs tasked with making sure the company didn't miss the next technology wave.

</comment><comment><USER3> >>I think the separation was driven by Steve being in a real funk because the Macintosh, which he developed, was failing in early 1985. His vision was ahead of its time, the power of the microprocessor wasn't enough to do what he wanted to do and Mac sales were falling off.

We were still very dependent on the profits of Apple II. I felt we had to push profits of Apple II and Steve wanted to lower the price of the Mac to get sales up. We went to the board to decide.

The board made a decision and they asked Steve to step down as head of the Macintosh division. He still remained as chairman of the board.

But that was an incredible blow to the man who created the product, he was extremely hurt and pained by it.

To me, coming from corporate America, I was used to people being moved from job to job, because that's how it worked. Professional executives were reassigned, terminated, promoted all the time.

That's not what you do with founders of companies. <<

Emphasis on the "That's not what you do with founders of companies. "

<comment><USER4> I think that's exactly what they used to do with many founders of companies. Over time though, the conventional wisdom on founders has started to change:

<< The conventional wisdom says a startup CEO should make way for a professional CEO once the company has achieved product-market fit. In this post, I describe why we prefer to fund companies whose founder will run the company as its CEO. >>

<http://bhorowitz.com/2010/04/28/why-we-prefer-founding-ceos/>

I think the Parable of Steve Jobs has actually had a lot to do with that reversal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> People always put Sculley down but the era that he was at Apple really opened doors for me in so many ways about twenty years ago. Hypercard showed me that you didn't have to be a programmer to make interactive media. CD-ROMs and QuickTime showed me that computers could be an entertainment medium. It was also during his run that color Macs came out and the crazy idea of built in sound cards came of age. And yes all of you can make fun of me loving my Newton -- but it was the first bold baby step in a market that didn't exist.

<comment><USER6> One of the strengths of Steve Mk II was not getting into markets early. So many hits have come from executing so well in areas only after making sure the tech and supply were in a position for success

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> He seems like a really thoughtful and honest guy. I have no idea what he was like back then... but at least he didn't get old (71) without acquiring some wisdom.

<comment> A-K True. Most of his (relatively) recent interviews have a very wistful tone to them.

<comment><USER8> We can only hope to be so circumspect after such an eventful career.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Many lessons learned from this interview. My biggest takeaway: "I appreciate more today that Apple was never just a business to Steve. Apple is Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs is Apple."

I think all founders need to strive towards this. If the company is an extension of the founders, you can bet that the need to be great will be upheld at the top level and should trickle down to all of its stakeholders.

<comment><USER10> You being your company is a terrible thing.

It means you are never able to leave or even able to look the other way for a longer time. If you get ill or some other terrible thing happens to you the company and all the people that are in it will suffer.

You should strive to build your company in a way that it will survive you for a long long time.

I understand that there is this guy called Steve Jobs whose name is synonymous with the company that he created, but he is the exception and you are very likely going to be just another confirmation of the rule.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Likelihood the NYC Power Outage Was a Software Bug? - <AUTHOR> I just realized yesterday's NYC power outage happened exactly 42 years after the 1977 NYC blackout. It got me thinking about whether yesterday's event is likely a software bug--maybe  some sort of buffer overflow that took 42 years to build up. (I have literally no idea.)<p>It seems Con Ed has no idea what caused the blackout. Do you think it could be a software bug? If so, what type of bug would take 42 years to present itself? <comment><USER2> Even if it is a software bug, it being related to the power outage 42 years ago seems _very_ unlikely.

<comment><USER3> In particular, it's very unlikely that the software that utilities run today is similar to the software that was running 42 years ago. In 1977, even a big mainframe only had a few megs of memory.[1]

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_303X#IBM_3033](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_303X#IBM_3033) (the top-of-the line IBM mainframe as of 1977 had 4 to 8 megs of RAM and 64K of cache).</comment></comment>


Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?ex=1354251600&en=9e043dc595352136&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss <comment><USER2> What a typical way for the New York Times to reduce a complicated issue like farming and trade in Africa to a single phrase: "the free market failed".

There is little free about markets in Africa, with or without subsidies for fertilizer in a particular country.

We can certainly blame ourselves though, if not the experts advocating open markets and no subsidies: the West's tariffs, restrictions on imported agricultural products, and subsidies for rich farmers are directly related to problems in Africa. Farmers in Africa have a much harder time penetrating our markets because of these.

Considering one of the first steps past subsistence farming is selling produce to global markets, these restrictions are a very big hurdle to development.

The free market advocates, the "experts" derided in the article, have the most coherent ideas on this topic.

<comment><USER3> They also ignored what caused the famine in the first place, i.e. the continued subdivision of land amongst offspring. They have temporarily staved off famine, now they need to prevent it from happening again....

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I doubt that this article gives the whole story.

One question: why could the farmers not afford the fertilizer? Seems to me that if using it yields more than it costs, it should be possible to afford it (loans?)? On the other hand, if it doesn't make sense economically, giving it to the farmers for free just ensures that they will never have profitable businesses (ie perhaps instead of farming, they should do something else).

Also, weren't many soils in Africa destroyed by the use of the wrong kind of fertilizer?

I know that is too simplistic either, as for some reason they might have no choice but to be farmers. But then I suppose politics would be to blame, not the experts.

<comment><USER5> There is an extreme lack of finance in the region, and for a land strapped farmer acquiring a loan is a near impossibility. It's hard to justify an investment for what is essentially subsistence farming, with a little surplus in good seasons (perhaps!).

Undoubtedly some soils were taxes beyond what they could handle, but consider the alternative: slash and burn agriculture, or a steady crop rotation (hardly tenable when you need a crop this year, or your population dies!)

I have to say, however, I disagree with the headline. There are economists who oppose agricultural subsidies in favor of globalization, and those who support them. In the case of Malawi and other, tiny nations, it is clear enough to most economists, even those formerly of the World Bank (say, Joseph Stiglitz) that the dangers of an economy reliant on cash crops subject to rapid price fluctuations are too dire. One plague, one drought, one bad season, and you're wiped out, and need to accept punitive terms from international lending agencies just to feed the populace. It's not like there was a consensus of experts the president was disregarding.

Incidentally, one of the reasons, insufficiently mentioned, I believe, that subsistence agriculture can make sense even in semi-arid countries, is that it has a distribution network built in. Often times there is significant corruption in the distribution channels, other times they are simply disrupted by political upheaval, other times still the infrastructure simply isn't there, or is otherwise quite costly.

The distribution of inorganic fertilizer, by contrast, is substantially easier, and it is much less vulnerable to political disruption. You need to move less of it, the demand is substantially less fixed (more is better, but less won't kill you) and less immediate (rebels and bandits can steal food and jack up prices -- not so much with fertilizer), and the economic benefit has much longer to reach everyone (a crop lasts longer than any given shipment of food).</comment></comment>


Emperor Akihito of Japan Raises Possibility of Leaving Throne - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/world/asia/japan-emperor-akihito-retirement.html <comment><USER2> One interesting factoid that the new york times did not mention is that while it was common for emperors to resign before the meiji restoration, a lot of those resignations probably were not voluntary.

The Japanese emperors are the longest reigning royal dynasty in the world, having reigned for the entire known history of the nation. But perhaps heir secret is that they did not have much power most of the time.

During the time of the shoguns and even before that it was common to force an emperor to resign before he reaches adulthood so as to ensure that there was a child emperor on the throne at all times. A child emperor of course is unlikely to use his position to seize power.

The Meiji restoration was a revolution whose stated goal was to restore the power to the emperor. Perhaps it was in view of that goal and the history of forced resignatons that they made a law that did not even give the emperor the option to resign. However, I am not certain whether the present emperor for life law dates back to the meiji restoration.

Or perhaps they put the law in after WW2 to ensure that foreign governments do not mess with the emperors.

<comment><USER3> Quick FYI - factoid: a false fact that is repeated often enough to become accepted as true.

<comment><USER4> Your little factoid is an example of the definition of factoid you're describing. But there are other definitions of factoid and I suspect the most common one is along the lines "small tidbit of information".

<comment><USER5> Actually, that's the factoid.

According to Wikipedia [1]:

> _The term was coined originally in 1973 as a neologism by American writer > Norman Mailer to mean a "piece of information that becomes accepted as a > fact even though it's not actually true, or an invented fact believed to be > true because it appears in print." Since its creation in 1973 the term has > evolved from its original meaning, in common usage, and has assumed other > meanings, particularly being used to describe a brief or trivial item of > news or information. So it is a factoid that "factoid" means something that > is true._

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

<comment><USER6> Perhaps we should disambiguate the two: factoid, brief fact. Infactoid, brief seemingly true fact that is not due to repeated use.

It's not literally as bad as the figuritive misuse of literally, where literally has come to mean figuratively and literally... This one I fight all day long.

<comment><USER7> Well it is just a fairly recently invented word, sure, but it is rather telling that it was apparently CNN that jumped on the word and used it to mean 'trivial fact'

<comment><USER6> Well, it was a reporter inside CNN, just a person like us, who through repeatedly hearing factoid assumed that it meant what it sounds like.

Ironically, maybe this was the intention of the way this word was derived. It seems like it should mean a brief/small fact, but in fact it means an untrue fact, therefore serving as a perfectly recursive example of itself.

<comment><USER8> > Well, it was a reporter inside CNN, just a person like us, who through > repeatedly hearing factoid assumed that it meant what it sounds like.

"Factoid" does mean what it sounds like (that is, it is a simple application of the common suffix "-oid" to the root "fact", both in their usual senses.)

The use CNN latched on to is _not_ what it sounds like.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9>
      "I am concerned that it will become more and more difficult
      for me to fulfill my duties as a symbolic emperor"

This sounds like the opening or the punchline for a Dilbert strip!

<comment><USER10> I see how it can sound ridiculous if we take "symbolic" into any other context. But in this case the symbolic part is a really big deal, just as the pope has a symbolic role that affects a ton of people.

<comment><USER11> Pope can actually make decisions with consequences.

<comment><USER12> Yes, the pope can actually make decisions with consequences, but as Stalin put it, "The Pope? How many divisions has he got?"

Well, he doesn't have any, the power comes through his symbolic position.

<comment><USER13> He's got one army: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard#Pontifical_Swiss_G...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard#Pontifical_Swiss_Guard)

<comment><USER12> Yes, I know, though I wonder if there will be a day when the halberds are taken away for "health and security" reasons.

(Yes, I know they also have actual handguns hidden somewhere.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The buzz in Japan is not so much about the resignation itself but about the timing: exactly when Abe is strong enough to modify the constitution. It is said that the Emperor is trying to slow the constitutional change by first pressing a change that would allow him to resign.

<comment><USER15> I don't think that is the case.

[http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2016-08-06...](http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2016-08-06/after- shock-japan-warms-up-to-emperors-possible-abdication)

> The quiet discussion reportedly started about five years ago, around the > time he had health problems

This is before Abe became PM. From this, I think the people who don't want to change the constitution is using the Emperor politically.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I propose a deal: Let the man rest in exchange for the abolishment of the constitutional monarchy. Symbolic or not, it's outmoded and incongruent with modern egalitarian society. The list of constitutional monarchies is rather embarrassingly long (37 countries).

<comment><USER17> The problem with replacing constitutional monarchs is that they know their place, but the heads of state who would replace them might not. After all, they are likely to be elected, and could therefore have a viable claim to legitimacy in the exercise of their prerogatives. The Japanese emperor has no political power, and really doesn't cost the country that much to keep around.

Remember that in parliamentary systems, the head of state and the head of government (the prime minister) are not the same person. In some countries, like Germany and Italy, the head of state is an elected president, usually an fairly elderly politician. The emperor of Japan would have to be replaced as head of state by someone holding some new office, who would do pretty much the same things the emperor does now, at a similar cost to the taxpayer. It wouldn't be the prime minister.

There is a similar aspect to the debate around House of Lords reform in the UK. A lot of people in the House of Commons don't want an elected House of Lords, because if it were elected, the Lords would have democratic legitimacy just as the Commons does, and could therefore make a reasonable case that it should have a lot more political power than it has now.

So, beware of unintended consequences.

<comment><USER16> Plenty of nations have successfully abolished constitutional monarchy in the past couple of hundred years. The role and political power of the head of state (be it Prime Minister/Chancellor or President, or a combination — doesn't matter) should be well-defined in the constutition (which of course needs changing). I don't really see any loopholes here... I find that argument to be a red herring.

As you say, in some countries, the official (purely symbolic) head of state has no real power (pointless in other words). That's OK-ish. I'd rather not have a symbolic president. _But the main point is to not make the position hereditary._

Germany's president, whilst largely ceremonial, actually has some (residual) power by the way, but it's a 5-year term. Not elected by the people, however, which is a shame. For example, Finland's president is.

<comment><USER17> On the other hand, consider the example of France. The fourth republic had a symbolic president, and the fifth republic has a very powerful president, because DeGaulle demanded executive power as a condition of assuming the presidency during the Algerian crisis of the late 1950s. That's why the fourth republic ended and the fifth republic began -- DeGaulle had a new constitution written.

The situation in Japan is pretty stable. Why mess with success? And if the emperor has no power, why does it matter if the position is hereditary?

<comment><USER16> As you yourself say, the situation in Japan is pretty stable. The events in France you mention was during wartime, in the lead-up to what could be called "colonial collapse". Hardly comparable.

It matters because a hereditary head of state position (actually, any governmental/establishmentarian position) is _a terrible symbol_ in what should be an egalitarian society, no matter if you have political power or not. I don't know how to put this more succinctly.

<comment><USER17> It may be a terrible symbol, but it seems like people get over it, if they even care very much. Constitutional monarchies, such as the Nordic countries, are among the most egalitarian countries in the world. Japan is egalitarian, both in terms of how the Japanese view their society, and how the wealth is distributed -- they are very close to European countries in that respect, and far more egalitarian than the US.

<comment><USER16> Yes, I'm from Sweden. I consider "our" monarchy to be a ignominious wart, ceremonial or not. We should always strive to improve society.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Does anyone know how much of the 2,700 year 'official genealogy' is credible?

<comment><USER17> Not a lot of it. Before the 6th century AD, things get very murky, and belong more to the discipline of archaeology than to history. Aside from some nutty right-wingers, the Japanese are not under any illusions about this.

<comment><USER19> That's still 1500 years.

<comment><USER17> It is very long. It gets a little bit murky in the 1300s because there were rival claimants to the throne, but they were all related to each other. It's very likely that the dynasty has been in the same family since the 6th century. Some historians think some of the early emperors might have been unrelated to their predecessors, but even those emperors reigned during or before the 6th century.

The throne was not always passed from father to son, but sometimes among close relatives, which means that an emperors lack of children was not a problem for the continuation of the dynasty. Furthermore, emperors have been figureheads for most of Japanese history, so there was no significant benefit to usurping the throne as there was in Europe. People who wanted to control the country wanted to be the emperor's advisers, and later the shogun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> First reported in banner headlines by the Japanese news media in July, Akihito, who has been treated for cancer and heart problems, wants to pass the title to his son Crown Prince Naruhito, 56.

</comment><comment><USER21> They should let him step down. They should have changed that law ages ago. Japans politicians should be ashamed they did not. Whether or not Japan wants to be a constitutional monarchy or not is of course their matter. But if you consider what is happening right now in Turkey and Russia, the argument against constitutional monarchy seems really thin.

</comment><comment><USER22> My take - the emperor is well educated and knows what's coming. Continuous tensions with China, printing money for some 35 years now (correct me if I'm wrong), a demography that's unsustainable, a treasury and stock market controlled by the central bank, ...

1920s/30s all over again with first a collapse of the yen and later on a war to distract the blame from the failed monetary policy and funnel the anger into some nationalist ideology.

I certainly can't blame him for not wanting to take part in that.

<comment><USER23> Haven't read much about Japan. But I'm quite sure that China is looking for someone to make a war with and they still have some grudges with Japan. If Japan on the other side is also heading in the direction of war there may really something happen. That's worrysome.

<comment><USER24> Nobody wants war in Asia. The question is how and at what rate the United States withdraws from its ultimately unsustainable position as pacific hegemon. China would like it to happen sooner. Most of the rest of Asia would like it to happen later, and to share more equitably in a post-american security coalition. To make that possible, Japan and South Korea may need to show more strategic solidarity in the short term.

<comment><USER23> If you only look at the public evidence you are right. If you get to drunken politics discussions with Chinese men at 3am at night, then it looks a little different.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Then maybe Britains Queen could resign, she looks like she's eaten a wasp whenever she appears in public or on TV.

<comment><USER26> I'm not a fan of the monarchy by any stretch of the imagination, but "the old lady looks bad" is not really a particularly persuasive argument</comment></comment>


Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years by Peter Norvig (2001) - <AUTHOR> http://norvig.com/21-days.html <comment><USER2> I would like to make the point that Dr. Norvig nowhere in this article says, "It takes 10 years or 10,000 hours to be a programmer." Dr. Norvig himself refutes that notion explicitly here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3278080>

In a brief email exchange I Had with him, he even suggested he may rewrite this essay to address the fact that it is often used (inappropriately, obviously) to bludgeon new programmers into thinking that they're not actually programmers.

I think often on HN this essay is used to create some kind of caste system based on longevity in the biz or number of hours coded, which is horse shit.

<comment><USER3> I read your link and nowhere does he refute that. In the context of his essay I believe he means it takes 10 years or 10,000 hours (more or less) to be a really good, experienced programmer. You can start playing the piano in a couple of weeks but it will take several years before you get really good. That is the spirit of his essay.

<comment><USER4> Somewhere between 2 weeks and 10 years you hit a point where you're good enough to entertain people/write useful code and perhaps even make some money doing so. The point being argued against I think is that you shouldn't tell people who are writing useful code that solves real problems that they shouldn't call themselves programmers because they haven't hit the 10 year/10000 hour mark.

<comment><USER3> >>The point being argued against I think is that you shouldn't tell people who are writing useful code that solves real problems that they shouldn't call themselves programmers because they haven't hit the 10 year/10000 hour mark.

I understand your point. That is not what the essay is doing. It is telling you that to be a true master of your craft it takes years.

Anybody can call themselves an artist if they are practicing art, but only very few get to showcase their work in art galleries. That is how the essay is using programmer in this essay. In the broader sense I agree with you, if you can code then you are a programmer.

<comment><USER5> Not quite sure if this analogy works. Art galleries are gate keepers just like record labels and calling only musicians with record contracts true masters is at the least "controversial".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think this kind of thinking can be demoralising to newbies like me. I do not care that I did not start programming at 14. I was playing with kites and chasing girls. To me they were really fun. Now that I have a lot of time to focus on coding and have discovered how much fun it is I am absolutely loving it. I just got off a five-hour flight and did nothing but write crappy Java. I _loved it_.

All I can say is that my gut tells me I will feel the same way in 10 years' time. Here's to years.

</comment><comment><USER7> It was around ten years ago that I first read this article, and I've since followed just about every piece of advice given. I have since come along ways, but am still learning and improving every day.

I think this article gives excellent advice, and it has certainly worked for me. I always recommend it to people just starting out.

</comment><comment><USER8> _Learn at least a half dozen programming languages. Include one language that supports class abstractions (like Java or C++), one that supports functional abstraction (like Lisp or ML), one that supports syntactic abstraction (like Lisp), one that supports declarative specifications (like Prolog or C++ templates), one that supports coroutines (like Icon or Scheme), and one that supports parallelism (like Sisal)._

I'd be interested in current opinions on this. e.g. is there something one should look at before Icon if they want to lean about coroutines?

<comment><USER9> Lua has built-in support for coroutines. Python and Ruby have (limited?) support for coroutines via generators/iterators (via the yield statement).

But why not Icon? It has plenty of neat features on its own, such as goal- directed execution (which I've never seen in another language). Plus it has several pretty solid (and free) introductory e-books: <http://www.cs.arizona.edu/icon/books.htm>

<comment><USER10> I think some people might see Lua has giving more bang for your buck because of its popularity in things like game scripting among other things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> "Learn at least a half dozen programming languages. Include one language that supports class abstractions (like Java or C++), one that supports functional abstraction (like Lisp or ML), one that supports syntactic abstraction (like Lisp)..."

Why learning Java or C++ if you are going to learn Lisp anyway? All Lisps I know of have their object system. If you prefer following the mature route, then Common Lisp is your best choice.

I think Assembly is missing from Norvig's list.

<comment><USER11> And Eiffel (Design by Contract and strongly-typed OO).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think Dr. Norvig defends the idea of learning by making a effort and devoting a lot of time against the infra-culture of "learning XYZ in 21 hours" and so on :-)

</comment><comment><USER13> The "power search" feature of amazon.com used in the introduction no longer exists. It appears they now have an "advanced search" (<http://www.amazon.com/b?node=241582011>), but nothing that will do a "X AND (Y OR Z)" boolean query. Anyone know how to run the same search today?

</comment><comment><USER14> I really like that the classics are in a constant rotation. It makes hacker news more like a good radio station.

</comment><comment><USER15> Slightly off-topic, but an interesting example testing out the idea of it taking 10,000 hours to become an expert is <http://thedanplan.com/>. Dan is trying to become a professional golfer and as of this month he's about 2,300 hours in.

</comment><comment><USER16> The comments seem to back up that the article is from 2001 (so does the copyright at the bottom), but it links to Gladwell's Outliers, which came out in 2008.

What I suspect happened is that the piece has been modified since it was originally published.

<comment><AUTHOR> As I couldn't find the date it was published, I deduced it must be written in 2001 from copyright at the bottom, as you pointed out. Also observing the rule everyone does here at HN while referring to old articles, I added the year. Even I have the same feeling about the modification of the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This gets posted about once a week here.

It good though...

<comment><USER18> Yes - hardly counts as "news". Why does this get posted so often, and how on earth does it get to the front page of Hacker News?

<comment><USER19> Articles can be resubmitted after a given time. Google shows me several submissions of this article from years ago but none recently, though citations of it do show up often in comments.

Why does it get to the front page? Because it's relevant and good, of course, unlike almost everything that is merely new.

I'm pleased to see more classics turning up on HN; Periodic reviews of the classics are the only way to get new visitors onto the same page as older ones.

<comment><USER20> One of problems with the resubmission is that it (intentionally or accidentally) ignores prior discussions until someone manually points out. The resubmission itself is not a problem, as you mentioned, however.

I guess a small link to the prior discussions or the HNSearch link to given URL will do a job. I personally prefer the latter, but it seems that HNSearch only indexes the domain name of the URL.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Testing Google's New Algorithm: It Really Is Better - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/testing-googles-new-algorithm-it-really-is-better/71720/ <comment><USER2> Why didn't the author test with more queries?

This doesn't sound very professional.

<comment><USER3> Agree. I've worked on search for about 10 years. One of the most frustrating things is that no matter what your view point you can always find one or two queries to justify it. Individual queries can be a useful debugging tool, but it's no way to try to assess general search quality. That can only be done by looking at user behaviour over a huge sample set (and over time).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think the best thing about this story is that a Juggernaut like Google can be convinced to review and update their core business as a result of a bunch of hubub in the blogosphere. It's great that they are listening.

<comment><USER5> Have you not noticed google's market share declining?

It's not the blogosphere, it's their duty to shareholders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> We do indeed see less MFA-like sites with no content value but I find new behaviors annoying.

Google places results attempt to outrank online business directories results who are omnipresent in many local business search phrases but often also prevent legitimate business from ranking well on the first page, sometimes even from ranking on the first page -- now search results can be replaced by Google's content leaving the first page with only few web page URLs.

Amongst other things Google is being more permissive on how they display content and begin to rely on their own data to provide search with informations.</comment>


Komodia SSL certificates are in many products - <AUTHOR> http://marcrogers.org/2015/02/19/will-the-madness-never-end-komodia-ssl-certificates-are-everywhere/ <comment><USER3> Um, this is missing even a link to an explanation of what the issue actually is, seems to just assume the reader knows. I do not and googling isn't working out. Am I being dense?

<comment><USER4> tl;dr

Komodia is a company that makes an SSL hijacking product, as described on their site:

       Our advanced SSL hijacker SDK is a brand new technology that allows you to
       access data that was encrypted using SSL and perform on the fly SSL
       decryption. The hijacker uses Komodia's Redirector platform to allow you
       easy access to the data and the ability to modify, redirect, block, and
       record the data without triggering the target browser's certification
       warning. [1]

A necessary feature of such a product appears to be the inclusion of the private SSL key in any product using their hijacking tech and the installation of komodia as a valid certificate in the OS certificate store. Therefore, anyone who wants can buy a product using Komodia, extract the private SSL key, and MITM at will any computer infected with any product using Komodia software.

Any website protected by SSL where that SSL authority isn't pinned by chrome (do other browsers have such tech?) is now trivially vulnerable to SSL hijacking by, eg, anyone in the same coffee shop or local network. And, of course, between that user and their destination site.

The current kerfuffle is due to the fact that Lenovo was caught pre-installing Superfish, an adware/spyware product -- for the users benefit! -- that, in turn, installed the Komodia ssl hijacking toolkit and broke SSL on any such infected computer.

The race is now on for every goddamn script kiddie in the entire world to the bank accounts of any suckers that trusted Lenovo. Go up to Seattle where windows laptops are more common, roll into a coffee shop, and I bet you can earn yourself some bank account logins.

ps -- this is a reason people buy macs. You get a vanilla OS install; that's currently only really available for Windows afaik from the Microsoft store.

[1] [http://www.komodia.com/](http://www.komodia.com/)

<comment><USER5> I've barely touched a Windows machine in many years, so I'm a bit out of touch. How difficult is it to do a clean, vanilla install on one of these computers these days? I imagine that's the first thing you'd want to do after pulling it out of the box.

<comment><USER6> It's trivial to do even for a complete non-techie (just click next, next, ok, type something, next, next, done) and has been for a long time. The problem is that if you bought a computer with Windows that has bundled crapware, you won't get the vanilla Windows - the installation/recovery medium will have the same crapware bundled. You need to get your hands on a clean Windows, which usually means buying it (or pirating it, as was common in the past - <USER2> another case where what you pirate is better for you than what you buy).

<comment><USER7> The last few times I've tried to install Windows on things, it was actually surprisingly horrible. The problem is, the generic install media has basically no drivers on it, so you have to go fetch it all manually, from all the respective manufacturers' web sites. It is, of course, fairly hard to download your network driver without a network driver, so you'd better have another computer and some USB storage around. Also, many of the drivers come only in the form of installer bundles that are themselves hundreds of megabytes and full of crapware.

In comparison, installing Ubuntu is a breeze, almost all the drivers you need are included with the install media and installed automatically, etc. Unless you have brand new, just-released hardware, it "just works", and even with brand new hardware there tend to be guides on the internet that are still easier than getting drivers installed on Windows.

Actual thing that happened: My mom said she needed to reformat an old laptop but didn't have the Windows media and wondered what to do. On a lark I suggested installing Ubuntu. A few weeks later, having not heard anything, I asked what happened to the laptop. She said she installed Ubuntu and it worked great. Never asked me a single question.

<comment><USER6> I wonder how long ago were you trying that. Since Windows 7 all drivers download themselves via Windows Update. So as long as you're not using a bootleg CD key for your Windows, it should install as smoothly as Ubuntu, only with more stuff working OOTB.

<comment><USER8> I would have to agree with the ease of loading vanilla windows. I've done it quite easily with both an Alienware 14 (2013) and a Sony Vaio that is 4 years old. I downloaded the proper copy of Windows from the MS site, which was Win 7 Ultimate 64bit for the Sony, and make a disk or usb stick. Then it was a few prompts and that was it. Instead of letting Windows Update load the drivers, I found my specific build on the Sony site with the correct drivers for all the bits and pieces. I did not install any of the free software, or Sony-specific software, which was easily to discern on the downloads page. Same for the Alienware. BTW, I have installed, used and programmed on OSX, Minix, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, Backbox, and others. I find the Windows/Linux/BSD/OS X comments on usage to be about preference rather than actual steps involved.

EDIT: I had the OEM Product Key on the Sony and AW, and they both registered fine without a problem, no need for pirated versions or any taxes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> slipstream- In case you're wondering, the keys/certs are different for each product.

[https://gist.github.com/Wack0/17c56b77a90073be81d3](https://gist.github.com/Wack0/17c56b77a90073be81d3)

<comment><USER9> I'm sure it isn't that hard for somebody to get their hands on the private keys for those products and I bet they used the same password.

Edit: LOL, ok so the keys are right there on that link. Nice!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I find it funny that "komodia" is Greek for "comedy".

</comment><comment><USER11> The founder of Komodia talks about how their products work (2010): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuTRzFY9CQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuTRzFY9CQ)

</comment><comment><USER12> I bet it's going to be linked to NSA, GCHQ and IDF in tomorrow's news paper.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, if you want to go down that path just visit the Komodia about page: [http://www.komodia.com/about/](http://www.komodia.com/about/)

 _Barak Weichselbaum founded Komodia, Inc. in 2000, following his military service as a programmer in the IDF's Intelligence Core._

But you don't need to worry about provenance to see that technically this is a scary thing to do.

<comment><USER13> Conscription make the military service irrelevant.

<comment><USER14> When you join the military, either through conscription or of your own free will, their first job is to train you psychologically so that your beliefs are aligned with theirs.

It usually works.

<comment><USER13> Yup, and it is a temporary effect - that is why there is a graduated rank structure. As the mental conditioning (to put it charitably) wears off, you are further removed from danger and positions where immediate obedience to orders is necessary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Honestly, this adds nothing new to the discussion. "Everywhere" with no data to back it up.

<comment><USER16> _Here's some that have been found so far:

Komodia's "Keep My Family Secure" parental control software.

Qustodio's parental control software

Kurupira Webfilter_

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> However distasteful Lenovo's business decision to bundle adware on their consumer laptops, the finger of blame should now rightly point to the third- party software provider, Komodia.

Lenovo did not vet the software properly before bundling it and heads should roll, but I do not think they are deliberately evil or malicious.

If Lenovo are to be condemned, then the entire open-source community must also condemn itself for allowing OpenSSL and Bash to have remained vulnerable for so long. Just like Lenovo, our eyes were wide shut, and it took a shock to open them.

<comment><USER18> No. You are saying that anyone who creates software with a security bug in it should be condemned. Komodia built their software with a very serious security hole, _intentionally_ , to sell a product with HTTPS sniffing abilities.

Just because Lenovo didn't build the software, doesn't mean they are not guilty of overlooking a serious security vulnerability by including software which provides no benefit to its customers. It's an insult to customers.

The bugs you find in openSSL and Bash are not insults, they are mistakes made by people who don't get money out of their work (and who don't go out of their way to sell / track information). Security is hard to build correctly, easy to break.

<comment><USER5> MITMing your own SSL connections can be done safely, and for good reasons (Charles proxy being a good example of both). These guys are doing it unsafely, and for bad reasons. However, those two parts are unrelated! This stuff could easily have been safe had they known what they were doing, or prioritized that. I don't think it's fair to say that the security hole itself is intentional. Certainly if they hadn't built the product in the first place the hole wouldn't exist, but building the product doesn't imply the hole had to be there.

The fundamental problem is that software like this greatly increases your attack surface, and thus should only be used with careful consideration if the benefits are worthwhile. Instead, Lenovo put its users at risk without informing them or providing them with any benefit.

<comment><USER17> Yes, another use-case is if you are running Privoxy on your local computer; would be great if you could MITM all local SSL connections instead of having to manually whitelist specific sites.

<comment><USER19> Here's how to decrypt ssl sessions in Wireshark

[https://jimshaver.net/2015/02/11/decrypting-tls-browser- traf...](https://jimshaver.net/2015/02/11/decrypting-tls-browser-traffic-with- wireshark-the-easy-way/)

Before that I used Burpsuite, but that uses its own self signed cert too.

[http://portswigger.net/burp/](http://portswigger.net/burp/)

Privoxy doesn't do SSL or did I miss something?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


High-Ranking Dog Provides Key Training for Military's Medical Students - happy-go-lucky https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/08/777049581/high-ranking-dog-provides-key-training-for-militarys-medical-students <comment><AUTHOR> I'm glad this article wasn't about the torture and killing of dogs that is routine in medical experimentation and training.

[https://theintercept.com/2018/05/17/inside-the-barbaric- u-s-...](https://theintercept.com/2018/05/17/inside-the-barbaric-u-s-industry- of-dog-experimentation/)

<comment><USER2> A running group acquaintance in Palo Alto worked at Stanford doing such entirely depraved dog experiments, making them sick, ostensibly to test treatments, but really to just secure funding for Stanford. It was and is disgusting, both of the humans and of the ridiculousness by the two-faced institution.

<comment><USER3> Before I got into robotics, I was working on neuroscience and engineering. I visited a very famous animal lab as I was visiting to become a graduate student, and I was just so profoundly depressed I realized I could never do it. Sorta fell into robotics after that, and while there are ethical complications in any field there is nothing remotely on the level of animal testing.</comment></comment></comment>


In Microsoft's Shadow, Seattle's Tech Scene Surges - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/us-technology-seattle-idUSTRE7A96HF20111110

<comment><USER2> When considering Seattle, also consider heading across Puget Sound. Here are some nice points for putting a company in Kitsap County.

1\. Commuting from Seattle is easy, so employees who prefer to live in the city can. (I lived in Seattle for several years while working in Poulsbo, and the ferry ride was a wonderful time each day to catch up on my technical reading--or my science fiction reading. Or go up and get breakfast at the ferry's dining area and eat it and read the newspaper).

2\. Low traffic, much more affordable housing, less noise, so employees who prefer those qualities for where they live can get them by living in Kitsap. And Seattle is just a ferry ride away for when you want the things the city offers.

Of course it is possible to live in Kitsap and commute to Seattle, but that commute sucks because a _lot_ of people do it. If you want to travel anywhere near morning or evening peak commute hours you can have long waits to get a ferry, and deal with lots of traffic.

When you are going the other way, living in Seattle and commuting to Kitsap, it is a breeze even if you are working 8 to 5. I used to arrive at the terminal minutes before the boat was scheduled to leave and have no trouble getting on.

<comment><USER3> One of the problems with the new emergent tech scene in South Lake Union is that it's not really workable for on-foot ferry commuters the same way the financial district is.

Yes, it's possible to walk from the ferry terminal to SLU, I know someone who does, but it's quite the hike.

<comment><USER4> Who is in South Lake Union besides Amazon?

Edit: Ah, missed that in the article. Salesforce and Facebook offices now.

<comment><USER5> There are a couple dozen startups in the Founders Co-op space at Boren and Republican (my startup included). The office is literally surrounded by Amazon's new campus.

It's an awesome space if you're looking for high energy and brilliant people. It also makes it easy to jump ship from Amazon if you want to join a startup :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This article only has a few of the biggest names. The real tech scene is somewhat larger: <http://www.seattle20.com/startups.aspx>

And Fremont is one more unmentioned tech neighborhood: Tableau Software, Ubermind, and Groundspeak wave hi from nextdoor to Impinj, Adobe, Google, and others...

<comment><USER7> We're in Fremont as well! Let's put a happy hour together next week at 9mm or Revel

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> We just moved Meeteor.com to Seattle, and it's been an amazing community to be a part of. Strong mix of design + developer talent, and the cost of living (and cost of hiring) is about half of the Bay Area's....

Seed Round Heaven.

</comment><comment><USER8> Seattle is crazy awesome for startups, but man, SLU has changed a lot since I last worked there a couple of years ago at a research lab (and I think it changed for the worse - way more expensive food, not much variety.)

Pioneer Square is very low key, has cheap eats, and has lots of startups.

<comment><USER9> Zynga is coming to Pioneer Square as well...

<comment><USER8> Maybe they'll come in, then leave as soon as they're all settled in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> One thing that I wonder about is the tech scene in Seattle: is it very Microsofty, or is open to things like Ruby, Linux, or Lisp?

<comment><USER11> I've been here 6 years, and my observation has been that the startup culture as a whole leans away from MS, if anything. Startups founded by ex-Microsoft employees do seem to be more likely to use Microsoft tech, but certainly not always. But remember that the wider tech scene here is much more than just Microsoft. Amazon is a big force, and Google has a respectable presence too. Also, mobile development is huge here now, and almost all of it is for iPhone or Android.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> There are some crazy smart Ruby people there. Makes me a bit envious.

</comment><comment><USER13> In the past 2 months, 3 of my friends have left Ontario to go work for large tech companies in Seattle.

</comment><comment><USER14> my previous company was based in seattle, so i've taken several trips there, in general it's a decent area, but i definitely prefer the bay area.

though i can understand for companies and employees of the state, the lack of income tax and talent pool to be quite amazing.

</comment><comment><USER15> Shh, don't let the word get out. The traffic is already bad enough around here.

</comment><comment><USER16> This is bound to happen. Microsoft is an aging giant though it still has some of the best minds in the industry.

One concern I always have hiring from such old guard companies is that the people who have worked there for long, have skills too specific to the company they come from. They need some time adjusting to different technologies and development practices.

<comment><USER3> I've seen a handful of companies with employees who couldn't get the idea that practices that are appropriate for Microsoft aren't appropriate for small startups.

That said, I would take an ex-Microsoft over ex-Boeing or ex-Washington Mutual anyday.

<comment><USER17> I'm not entirely sold that the practices that are appropriate for microsoft are even appropriate for microsoft.

Some orgs are pretty solid patterns and practices wise and some divisons are like stepping back into the early 90s.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There's a quantcast alumnus building a mobile analytics company there -- <http://www.sewichi.com> . It looks fascinating, and if any of you are looking for a cool young startup, it's probably worth a look. The founder, David, is a stand up guy who really understands the analytics space.</comment>


Diversity at Slack - <AUTHOR> https://slackhq.com/diversity-at-slack-d44aba51d4b6 <comment><USER2> I wonder what percentage of their employees have children, or come from poverty, or come from rural communities, or speak a language other than English at home, or have a criminal record, or lack formal education. Maybe we could see some age brackets too, or a distribution of political affiliations/views. Won't hold my breath for those numbers, as those are not considered components of "Diversity," but it would make it easier to take the last bit seriously:

 _We have always said we want Slack to be a place where people of all different backgrounds thrive._

<comment><USER3> There has been a historical lack of representation for women, people of colour, and LGBTQ people in the workplace. Some of the social strata you point to are covered in these brackets, and some aren't. Certainly it would be nice to see a company indicating that they take concerns about ageism seriously, along with providing support to ESL persons and/or indicating that their hiring process doesn't unfairly exclude people without a post-secondary education, but I'm not sure coming from a rural background or having a particular political affiliation is correlated with employment discrimination or exclusion in the workplace (with the obvious caveats for being a neo-Nazi or a jihadist or something).

In the aggregate, though, as a visible minority and a political 'ugly duckling' in my current workplace, I like that companies are being somewhat transparent about how they support diversity. I would imagine they'd welcome feedback such as yours.</comment></comment>


How to Make a Secret Phone Call (2015) - <AUTHOR> https://www.fastcompany.com/3044637/secret-phone-network <comment><USER2> I think there is confusion between some of the terms he is using. I don't believe this is a secret call so much as one where the parties are unidentified. The contents of the phone can be trapped, and if there is any exchange of identifying information, an investigation can be successful.

With burners at the 7-11 they seem to want buyer information, even with cash. I have yet to find an untraceable burner.

<comment> Tuna-Fish > With burners at the 7-11 they seem to want buyer information, even with > cash. I have yet to find an untraceable burner.

The way you get an untraceable burner is find the closest junkie, and pay him extra to go purchase you a phone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> In the current year, I guess the answer is simply "use Signal". I'm not sure I understand why it's so important that it has to be an actual phone call, even for a thought experiment, i.e. it _has_ to go over the phone network to a device with a phone number. If that is the case in any real scenario, it seems a reasonable guess that it's because one or two parties are somehow restricted from using other channels -- and if so, is there any reason to believe that this restriction would not in itself make it simpler to monitor that restricted party, and therefore less secure?

<comment><USER4> Even if Signal's assertion that they do not keep metadata is in fact trustworthy, a network-scale adversary (such as a nation-state) could easily figure out that you called someone and who you called by looking at the data exchanged between your phone (which they know) and the Signal servers, and looking what other connections started and ended at the same time as yours and had a similar bandwidth usage profile.

(How many Signal phone calls are even started in any given short window of time, like 1 second?)

<comment><USER5> Perhaps this would be another way to obfuscate the collection of metadata with techniques similar to anti-fingerprinting in Tor. An app like Signal could sync the time across all parties and send/receive all data in predetermined packet sizes and at predetermined delivery times across vast enough segments of their network. This would in theory make it a lot harder to infer who are the partners in a specific conversation based on timestamps and traffic volume.

The mechanism for picking the interval and packet size is debatable as long as the entropy of these values is low enough (does not allow for uniquely identifiable values). Maybe randomly from a list of predetermined values, taking into account some priority you set in advance, the size of the message, or the network conditions.

If every client/server on the network sent and received the data in synced identically looking bursts it might raise the bar for successful metadata analysis. Any chance Signal or any other app already do this?

<comment><USER6> Is approach is going to kill battery life because the phone has to be always online to receive those times transmission.

<comment><USER7> Most modern CPUs/SoCs spend most of their time (ideally) asleep or trying to go to sleep, and then waking at predefined intervals to transmit data. As long as this interval could be synchronized to some multiple of the transmission interval I don't think this would negatively impact battery life.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Speaking of which, what is the best way to create a throwaway email account?

<comment><USER9> Tor browser and the email provider of your choice. I find that cock.li makes it particularly easy to create new accounts and does not restrict Tor use.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Just use payphones

<comment><USER11> "Am heutigen Donnerstag, 28. November, wurde in Baden die letzte Schweizer Telefonkabine abmontiert."

Translates to "Today Thursday November 28 (2019) the last payphone in Switzerland was disconnected."

The cool thing with these payphones was that they had their own publicly available number so you could call them. Something I had not seen in other countries.

Source: [https://www.nzz.ch/panorama/kein-anschluss-unter-dieser- numm...](https://www.nzz.ch/panorama/kein-anschluss-unter-dieser-nummer-die- letzte-telefonkabine-ist-verschwunden-ld.1519927)

<comment><USER12> way back in the day, it use to be a thing to hang out at payphones. your friends could call you there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> > The CIA's faulty cell phone tradecraft used in the 2005 extraordinary > rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama in Italy

With "extraordinary" I hope the author means illegal (the 23 CIA operatives cowardly fled Italy to avoid being incarcerated)

<comment><USER14> Kind of like saying "extraordinary procurement" instead of "theft".

<comment><USER15> It was the least untruthful thing he could say.

<comment><USER14> Plus it sounds like someone played Hamlet extremely well.

"You should have seen that rendition... It was... extraordinary."</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Five things Roger Ebert taught me about criticizing programming languages - <AUTHOR> http://raganwald.posterous.com/five-things-roger-ebert-taught-me-about-criti <comment><USER2> That's an excellent set of principles, but something I suspect is very difficult indeed to apply in practice; I can think of unending examples of bad criticism - even, or especially, when there are strong criticicisms to be made - but I am struggling to think of any good example where, to use your analogy, the critic has something to say about a work that's outside his 'preferred genre' and even outside his personal preferences, but good in terms of the genre that it's in and a good film to recommend to its intended audience.

Or, indeed, a bad 'film' and a negative review, in the terms of the genre and the audience, rather than a specialist fan-base of Swedish art-house hipsters or Laurel & Hardy obsessives.

Feel free to start the ball rolling with (say) a critique of Visual Basic for Applications, in terms of what it's for and who will use it, rather than complaining that it isn't C++ or Ruby.</comment>