KeePassXC 2.3.0 released - <AUTHOR> https://keepassxc.org/blog/2018-02-28-2.3-released/ <comment><USER2> Previous thread about KeepPassXC 2.2.0: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14633576](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14633576)

I used KeePassXC for a period, but from these release notes, the UI/UX still isn't great. If you're on macOS, I recommend MacPass, which feels more native to the system, is compatible with existing KBDX databases and most- importantly, is also open-source: [https://github.com/MacPass/MacPass](https://github.com/MacPass/MacPass)

<comment><USER3> Also macPass is compatible with Keepass database 1.0, unlike KeepassXC.

<comment><USER4> You can import v1.0 DBs into the new app.

<comment><USER3> Yes but then it becomes a v2 database which is no longer compatible with keepass 1 on Windows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> KPXC is currently my favorite password manager. Much more portable than Keepass itself (Mono, lots of plugins just don't work).

I do recommend that anyone without PW manager atm either try KPXC or Keepass itself. It's worth it for your security.

</comment><comment> 076ae80a-3c97-4 I highly recommend [https://keeweb.info/](https://keeweb.info/) if you're looking for an attractive, easy to use, cross-platform and Open Source solution. I've been using it on Windows and MacOS for years without any major issues. It's by far the best looking front-end for keepass databases I've seen.

<comment><USER6> Unfortunately it's slow as hell. KDBX4 file, ChaCha20/Argon2 30 rounds, that takes under a second to open in KeePassXC took 10 seconds in this app.

Electron apps ...

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Since it got a lot of positive attention last time, here's a rough guide on getting started with password management, aimed at readers here who are not currently using a password manager:

[https://leclan.ch/password-managers/](https://leclan.ch/password-managers/)

TLDR: Download KeepassXC and start using it. :)

<comment><USER8> What does it do that Keepass/KeepassX cannot do? I looked at their website and nothing new shows up.

<comment><USER7> I address that at the bottom of my post. Keepass is the original, KeepassX is the Qt rewrite.

KeepassXC got Qt 5 support, a bunch of misc QOL improvement patches, is actively maintained (unlike KeepassX) and also received some nice extra features such as TOTP 2FA support. It's a superset of KeepassX, so there's no real reason to use KeepassX at this point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The best UX improvement in this release (IMHO) is pretty buried in the changelog, and I don't see it mentioned here: no more lock files!

If you use Keepass on something like Dropbox it's a blessing.

<comment><USER10> The mentioned issue has the following statement which makes me wonder whether concurrent use on sync services is supported atm:

> I was going to add tests for "concurrent" access of the same file in phase 2 > of these changes. Phase 2 is refactoring the saving process entirely to make > it asynchronous and robust to file sync services.

<comment><USER5> From my experience, it already works somewhat. Atleast, whenever I overwrote the file in Nextcloud and my desktop pulled the update, it would merge the changes automatically.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I currently use KeePass2 + Dropbox + Kee (Firefox) + MiniKeePass (iOS). Can KeePassXC + plugins replace those, and what are the advantages?

<comment><USER12> The announcement mentioned that they just released a new Firefox addon called KeepassXC-Browser.

KeepassXC doesn't work on iOS. It is just a replacement for KeePass2

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Does anyone know what the license is for this software? It looks like there are NINE different license files in the repo: [https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc)

Did they just copy paste every different license they could find into the repo?

<comment><USER14> KeePassXC maintainer here.

This comment is really funny and made me laugh.

Anyway we are following the Debian guidelines. The full copyright for each component and file is specified in the COPYING file in the root of the repository along side with each author.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> > Add support for KDBX 4.0, Argon2 and ChaCha20 [#148, #1179, #1230, #1494]

I can finally give this a shot without having to use the weird custom AES- based KDF Keepass used to use. Awesome.

Congrats on the release.

<comment><USER16> Last week I started reverse engineering the KDBX 3.1 file format _(for fun)_.

Does anyone knows where is the specification for KDBX 4.0?

EDIT: Found it — [https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc- specs](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc-specs)

<comment><USER6> I don't believe the XML format has changed at all. Just the key derivation, stream cipher, and some changes to the binary header.

<comment><USER17> The XML Format has changed. Entries and Groups now support custom data. This was only supported on the database in KDBX3.1. Also, the settings now have a modified date which makes synchronising them when merging databases a lot easier.

The other changes are done to the binary format as you say. Also to make the file smaller, attachments are now stored compressed "as is" instead of encoding them in base64 and adding them to the XML structure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Is it worth to migrate from Keepass2 to this? Any interesting user experiences?

<comment><USER19> I'm strongly considering it just based on the community surrounding each project.

KeePass 2 seems to still be hosted on Sourceforge, and I'm not even sure where to get a copy of the latest (non-release) version of the source. The [Sourceforge repo][1] seems to be an outdated SVN repo which was last updated in 2009, and I don't see any description of how to contribute code to the project anywhere. As a result I'm not really sure how to gauge the level of activity on the project itself. Similarly, the website is ancient and doesn't seem to have kept up with the times; I seem to recall it was only recently that it even got HTTPS support.

In contrast, KeePassXC is hosted on GitHub, development is done out in the open, and it's trivial to see that in just the last year there were [dozens of individual contributors][2]. The website looks clean, is user-friendly with up-to-date documentation, and a [contribution guide][3] is plainly visible in the README on GitHub.

As a result, I feel a bit better about the long-term prospects of KeePassXC over KeePass 2.

[1]: [https://sourceforge.net/p/keepass/code/HEAD/tree/](https://sourceforge.net/p/keepass/code/HEAD/tree/)

[2]: [https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/graphs/contribut...](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/graphs/contributors?from=2017-02-26&to=2018-02-28&type=c)

[3]: [https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc#contributing](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc#contributing)

<comment><USER20> source code is available at [https://keepass.info/download.html](https://keepass.info/download.html) (scroll down to "Other Downloads and Resources")

<comment><USER19> That's just a zipped snapshot of the source code as of the current release; it doesn't necessarily reflect current development on the project.

With KeePassXC for example, even though the latest release came out less than a day ago I can see that there have already been [14 commits][1] to the `develop` branch since that release. I can't find the equivalent of such a branch for KeePass 2.

[1]: [https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/compare/2.3.0......](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/compare/2.3.0...3f7f1aa47f3d94fd86bab489ec627de034bb1d10)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I was a longtime user of KeePassX. The UI was terrible, but it was free, open source and most importantly cross platform. After KeePass2 made the DB incompatible and rewrote everything in C# it stopped being a proper cross platform product and I investigated aternatices. I've since moved to enpass and I'm very happy. Enpass is a great, native app on Win/Mac/Linux and has native Android/iOS apps (with fingerprint support etc..). Great UI, no subscription fees, no cloud hosting (though it syncs to your personal dropbox, gDrive, OwnCLoud etc..). I couldn't ask for more.

<comment><USER22> Only problem with it as i see it, it's closed source.

I switched to Bitwarden for that reason alone.

With that said, Bitwarden has it's issues: [https://github.com/bitwarden/browser/issues/77](https://github.com/bitwarden/browser/issues/77)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Remove lock file [#1231] is a good one for the ones who sync their KPXC databases between devices

</comment><comment><USER24> Anybody use this along with a non-tech significant other? How does it compare to commercial password managers in terms of usability?

<comment><USER25> Usability is too low, unapproachable for non techies. Even my somewhat technical spouse found it unusable after a few months.

It could be better with good browser plugins, but then you have the same security tradeoffs as more polished services like Bitwarden or LastPass.

<comment><USER26> > _with good browser plugins_

This latest version KeePassXC has a whole new browser plugin:

[https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc- browser](https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc-browser)

So maybe it has reached that point now? Not that I've tried it, but it's at least promising that they've been working on it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'd prefer if a password would be generated by default, when you create a new entry. That's the way KeePass works and it encourages to use strong generated passwords (instead of user created passwords).

Another thing I'd like to have is a details view for each key in the list view ([https://keepassxc.org/images/screenshots/linux/screen_002.pn...](https://keepassxc.org/images/screenshots/linux/screen_002.png)). Something like the bottom panel here: [https://keepass.info/screenshots/keepass_2x/main_big.png](https://keepass.info/screenshots/keepass_2x/main_big.png) (but please more beautiful). I have a scenario where I need an additional authentifiction factor besides that password that I store in KeePassXC, too.

<comment><USER28> Actually, there is a details view. Check the settings if it's disabled.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Great replacement for keepassx which got stuck with Qt 4 forever.

</comment><comment><USER30> I really wanted to switch to using KeePassXC instead of the original one, as it's definitely a better user experience for the most part when you're flipping between OSes (Windows 10 and various Linux distros in my case). But my workflow requires I keep my kdbx in a git repo in order to sync between work and home, and I cannot get used to the missing "Synchronise with File" feature, which the original Keepass has, but KeePassXC omits.

</comment><comment><USER31> Does anyone know of an iOS client that supports Argon2? The amazing Keepass2Android already supports it, but I can't move to it until there is also an iOS solution…

</comment><comment><USER32> Anybody have thoughts about where to store the encrypted database for backup? Would it be foolish to keep the database somewhere publicly accessible?

<comment><USER33> I store the .kdbx (database) file on a network synced folder (e.g. like dropbox or gdrive). However, I use a "key file" in addition to a password. The key file is not synced and remains on computers that I control. I also have a backup copy on external media.

<comment><USER34> Aren't you worried about that fact that any program you run could potentially read all your passwords using the key file?

<comment><USER35> You can have a composite password to unlock consisting of keyfile + passphrase.

<comment><USER34> Ah, I see! That makes sense.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> I always find it interesting to see which of the new distro agnostic packages these applications provide. In this case AppImage and Snap.

It really looks like AppImage is taking the lead among these new packaging technologies. When the project does provide these sorts of packages you always see AppImages, but rarely see Snap or Flatpak based images.

</comment><comment> m-p-3 The Chrome Web Store link seems to 404.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keepassxc- browser/...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keepassxc- browser/iopaggbpplllidnfmcghoonnokmjoicf)

<comment> m-p-3 Looks like the link in the github repo isn't up to date, here's another one I've found [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keepassxc- browser/...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keepassxc- browser/oboonakemofpalcgghocfoadofidjkkk)

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Is it worth moving to this from 1Password? I mean I don't have any problems at all tho I use an old version (6 on Mac, 4 on Win), the permanent license version not this new subscription.

I was thinking to use this with Dropbox, Chrome, and iOS client (MiniKeePass?)

<comment><USER38> I suggest using Bitwarden (open source) instead. See my article: [https://greycoder.com/bitwarden-excellent-free-password- mana...](https://greycoder.com/bitwarden-excellent-free-password-manager/)

<comment><USER39> The linked article is _very_ light on details to be called a comparison.

Let me try to make it a little bit more detailed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==

Bitwarden:

\- Is essentially a service (with FLOSS client software and FLOSS server code).

\- Quite polished browser integration (to the extent browsers allow it).

\- Third party server holding the encrypted data. Proprietary (in a "completely unique, not compatible with anything else" sense) sync protocol.

\- Symmetric encryption key is encrypted with master key but it is NOT changed (with re-encrypting all the entries) when master password is changed. I'm not sure if there is an option to re-encrypt the data in case the symmetric key is compromised, although this should be doable via APIs.

\- Data is encrypted and signed, but some of the data structure (folder layout, TOTP existence, revision dates) is (theoretically) accessible to the service owners. Check out snippets at [https://github.com/jcs/bitwarden- ruby/blob/master/API.md](https://github.com/jcs/bitwarden- ruby/blob/master/API.md) for info.

\- Has some nice extras built-in, like domain equivalence logic.

\- Self-hosted option is available (official Docker images using .NET Core and Microsoft SQL Server and unofficial third-party implementation in Ruby). I'm not sure how this works with licensing.

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==

Keepass:

\- Is primarily a standalone application. Or, better say, applications, as there are multiple independent implementations for many platforms.

\- Has browser integration, but all options (KeepassXC-Browser and PassIFox) are feel somewhat less polished.

\- Has composite credentials (in addition or instead of master password it can use i.e. keyfiles). Supported mechanisms vary with implementation.

\- If the encryption keys are compromised you can trivially re-encrypt the database to avoid further leaks.

\- File format is essentially a large encrypted and signed XML file (data block) with some extensible header that defines the crypto details. [https://keepass.info/help/kb/kdbx_4.html](https://keepass.info/help/kb/kdbx_4.html)

\- You handle the sync however you want it. For KeepassXC you need make database available in a filesystem. For Keepass and Android app there are also SFTP, WebDAV, Dropbox, Google Drive and some other options available. The only sync that's in the app is a logic for merging databases.

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==

Please correct me if I got something wrong. Thanks.

<comment><USER40> I don't see anything wrong, but will add:

Bitwarden has a desktop app(electron .. sigh but is cross-platform) and has integrations with all the major browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, IE)

Bitwarden also has Mobile support (iOS, Android & UWP).

KeepassXC only does Chrome(and family) and Firefox I believe.

Running your own bitwarden server is not difficult, and there are 3 implementations that I know about:

        The original .NET: https://github.com/bitwarden/core
        The Ruby one: https://github.com/jcs/bitwarden-ruby/
        The Go one: https://github.com/VictorNine/bitwarden-go

<comment><USER5> KeepassXC supports KDBX4 so any client that can read KDBX4 can be used alongside it. KeepassXC is also definitely a desktop app, it can do autotyping and similar things.

There is Android and iOS support via keepass2android and <insert ios app name here>.

You can safely put your KDBX file on dropbox/gdrive/nextcloud/ipfs.

<comment><USER40> Yes, I wasn't trying to say KeepassXC can't in some way also do most of these things. But the experience is very different.

Bitwarden is basically identical across all the platforms. KeepassXC is not, since it's totally different apps for mobile, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> The thing that keeps me in 1Password is its Team Vault support. Nothing works quite so well for maintaining a shared password vault. If I didn't need that, I'd drop 1Password for KeePass in a heartbeat.

<comment><USER42> Why not just make a keypass db for your shared passwords, put it on dropbox and share it with your team?

Or put it in git even, if you want better traceability.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Actually it's cool that it was forked. But qt5 apps have pretty bad fonts view on my xfce desktop especially with black themes like Ark dark. That's why I am on KeepassX so far.

</comment><comment><USER44> Serious question: why should I leave KeePassX ?

<comment><USER45>
      Q: Why KeePassXC instead of KeePassX?

      A: KeePassX is an amazing password manager, but hasn't seen much active development for quite a while. Many good pull requests were never merged and the original project is missing some features which users can expect from a modern password manager. Hence, we decided to fork KeePassX to continue its development and provide you with everything you love about KeePassX plus many new features and bugfixes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> UI/UX is terrible, I suggest try MacPass or KeeWeb

</comment><comment><USER47> is it stable again? Last version was constantly crashing when modifying a new passwort entry again. This is something which is unacceptable for a password manager IMHO.

<comment><USER48> Did you file an issue over that behavior?

<comment><USER47> the bug is still there. 2.3 can still crash after creating a new entry and reedit the password. I will try to reproduce the error with a new kdbx and report the bug.</comment></comment></comment>


Make a Dodecahedron from Post-it Notes - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOOhemquss <comment><AUTHOR> Thanks to those who've up-voted this. As I write this, it's been 48 minutes, has 3 points, and is down at place 491. Clearly it's been down-voted substantially, so various people must think this is actively inappropriate for HN, equivalent to spam.

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts. Not many will see this now, it being ranked so low, but tell me - is this effectively spam? Is this actively inappropriate for HN?

People might think it is - some obviously do - but I'd like to hear the opinions, rather than just see the down-votes.

Let me know.

Thanks.

 _Edit: Now 51 minutes, 4 points, still down at 491._

<comment><USER2> This is absolutely the kind of thing I come to HN for (amongst technical discussions, interesting new projects etc). I have seen some of the singingbanana guy's videos before somewhere, full of enthusiasm and good explanations, he'd make a great teacher.

Possibly this is falling victim to overzealous flagging as people go through the list.

Keep on posting Colin, I often find the stuff you post here on HN to be interesting to me.</comment></comment>


Big list of database software - <AUTHOR> http://internetmindmap.com/database_software

<comment><USER2> There are some notable omissions: Oracle, SQL server, DB2... Is it supposed to be a list of free databases?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes there are plenty of omissions. As for free, there are plenty of commercial products on the list already.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> There are no multivalue databases on the list (e.g., OpenQM).

<comment><AUTHOR> They will be added along with object databases.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The scary part is how many of those links Firefox is telling I've actually looked at.

</comment><comment><USER5> yes! i was looking for a list like this yesterday. :D

</comment><comment><USER6> No ZODB?

</comment><comment><USER7> Wish I could upvote this twice.</comment>


Top Mobile Programming Languages Include Java, C - <AUTHOR> https://insights.dice.com/2020/08/03/top-12-mobile-programming-languages-include-java-c/ <comment><USER2> And I still sit here using a BASIC dialect for Android apps and Win software.

I know, I know but never could make the transition.

<comment><USER3> Nothing wrong with using BASIC.

Programming language chauvinism is dumb.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There are two mobile platforms: Apple iOS and Google Android. Each mobile platform has changed its preferred language: Objective-C -> Swift and Java -> Kotlin. There are two popular language-specific cross-platform mobile ecosystems: Google Dart and Microsoft C#. The article excludes the hybrid mobile/web cross-platform approaches that use JavaScript/JSX such as PWAs and React-Native. The preferred mobile platform IDEs, Xcode and Android Studio, seem to be as central to each mobile platform as the programming language.

It seems to me that the important questions each developer must ask are:

1\. target mobile platform(s)?

2\. greenfield vs. brownfield app?

3\. current skillset?

The ideal language falls out of these questions, IMHO, but there are a multitude of edge cases that may apply.</comment>


Ask HN: Is Gmail Down?  - <AUTHOR>

I am not able to check my emails and not able to use my calender and chat. Getting a 502 error.
http://imgur.com/RlNn9iM <comment><USER2> Yes it is, <http://downrightnow.com/gmail#refresh>

</comment><comment><USER3> 502\. That's an error.

The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.

Please try again in 30 seconds. That's all we know.

</comment><comment><USER4> Looking at Twitter it seems to just be down in India

</comment><comment><USER5> Not down for me.

</comment><comment><USER6> Its down for me from india</comment>


Analytics at GitHub - <AUTHOR> http://johnnunemaker.com/analytics-at-github/ <comment><USER2> Jay Kreps speaks the truth. His talk "Building LinkedIn's Real-time Data Pipeline" is along the same lines as the Log blogpost mentioned here and is also extremely informative.

</comment><comment><USER3> Fantastic read. Concise and solid decision explanations. Thanks for writing!

Was there any other reason you chose kestrel over alternatives like kafka? Did you test any others, or where you just that satisfied with kestrel?

<comment><USER4> We chose kestrel mostly just from usage/familiarity. We've been satisfied with it, but are currently researching/testing kafka.

<comment><USER5> Are you guys using either of them elsewhere or just for analytics?

<comment><USER6> We use Kestrel for our internal hooks delivery system also (based on jnunemaker's suggestion).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very good article. It aligns with our envisioned architecture for our next-gen analytics platform.

So far our decision is to keep the raw events in Cassandra, and pre-aggregate most data for fast reads. Just wondering about your decision to not store raw events in Cassandra, and use raw files for that, and using Cassandra only for storing Hadoop analysis results. Do you think this decision may affect you later if you ever decide to support real-time analytics?

</comment><comment><USER8> As an aside, do you have any info on the visual software used to run the charts? I'm guessing d3 is there somewhere., but maybe not. I've struggled to find a beautiful charting library and yours are beautiful!

<comment><USER9> we use d3 for all our charts.

<comment><USER8> any chance of you guys open-sourcing them?

<comment><USER10> Most of our graphs are pretty stock d3 code tailored for specific datasets, so I don't see much value in open sourcing them. Is there anything in particular you're interested in?

<comment><USER11> There's a need for a good charting library built on top of d3. Kind of like Highcharts, in terms of usability, but free. d3 is powerful but not as easy to use and customize as Highcharts.

<comment><USER12> Can I suggest [http://www.sibdo.com](http://www.sibdo.com) For individuals it's free and built on top of d3 with some extra functionality that Higcharts does't have. You can even drag files directly onto to the visualizations and the data will render. Also really nice UI for mobile.

<comment><USER13> Looking at the Sibdo pricing page, it looks like much higher pricing (compared to the more established competitors) at $95 a month for use on a SINGLE website with a confusing limitation to "50 users" whatever that means.

Not only that, the example graphs and charts look very basic.

<comment><USER12> Good feedback thanks

It would be interesting to know what you mean by basic as we're a start-up and would appreciate any feedback.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > For any business, the process of collecting data, measuring performance, > making changes, and reviewing if those changes were successful is really > important.

This applies for any sort of goal/process/?, whether programmatic or personal.

Very cool story, I'm looking forward to additional features. We pull a _lot_ of data about Docker from GitHub that could be more readily available. We'd be more than happy to discuss or beta any new features, if you're interested.

</comment><comment><USER15> Nice to see lots of parallels to how we have architected things at Snowplow (trackers -> collectors -> enrich -> storage -> analytics)</comment>


In 5 states, richest Americans live in a "new Gilded Age" - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/in-5-states-richest-americans-live-in-a-new-gilded-age/ <comment><USER2> _Even as the gap between the rich and everyone else widens, the quality of life for the bottom 99 percent has vastly changed since 1928._

This makes me wonder how much people care. In a global economy where the 1% are investing in markets that can reach billions of people, extreme poverty on a global scale was sliced in half in a 30 year period, and supply chains allow us to have super computers and unlimited entertainment for tiny fractions of the median wage, you can expect a lot of inequality, but life is way better for _everyone in the world_ since 1928.

Inequality is only a problem in so much that it leads to higher crime rates and (eventually) civil instability in places where its most apparent. We haven't seen much of that (yet), but don't stop looking for it.

<comment><USER3> If you want to understand wage stagnation in the US, look up the "elephant curve." In a nutshell: middle income of rich countries has stagnated because of the new need to compete with rapidly industrializing poor countries. Everyone's income around the globe tends to increase during this process (a very good thing!), except for middle wage earners in rich countries.

Meanwhile, in local politics, both sides of the aisle blame eachother for this effect, which is totally outside of either of their control.

<comment><USER4> I find the elephant curve explanation compelling. But I'm not sure it's fair to then say there's nothing that can be done to mitigate the impact of that.

Rich Scandinavian countries, for example, have a more redistributive tax system that appears to leave people broadly happier. Fine to argue the relative merits of such an intervention, of course, but worth noting it's very much an option.

<comment><USER5> Not really an option. The largest scandanavian country, sweden, is a little larger than Los Angeles and the rest are much smaller. They have little emigration and immigration, and although their gdp per capita is similar, the huge population difference means their economies/gdp are of a totally different scale.

Apples to oranges.

<comment><USER6> Your rationale for the Nordic model being inapplicable to the US is a common one among conservatives, but it baffles me.

Of course the Nordics are smaller than the US, but all of the economic variables in question should scale on a per-capita basis. Specifically, what is it about a population difference that makes a strong safety net inapplicable?

<comment><USER7> "America is bigger than X" is a thought terminating cliche to make people stop asking awkward questions like "why is quality of life better in X?"

Except it's baloney, the EU even has a bigger population than the US and has universal healthcare, public transit, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> History rhymes.

Of course, this time the robber barons know what will happen if they delve too greedily and too deep. Unions, the New Deal... can't have that. This time they are making more clever investments in propaganda, government control, and distraction.

<comment><USER9> ..and supported by the latest tech to make that all much easier :)

<comment><USER8> tech is just tech, used as a tool by both the forces of good and of evil

<comment><USER10> This is a BS cop out to avoid having to think about ethics.

Some tech is inherently good or bad. If you create platforms that spread misinformation and rage much more effectively than information and reason, you shouldn't be able to walk away saying "it's a neutral tool!"

<comment><USER11> > Some tech is inherently good or bad.

Not true. You might see a platform "spreading rage" as bad but to the people on the platform it's giving them a way to fight injustice (hence the rage -- what are they angry about).

Tech connects people. _You_ may not agree with those people but they'll be glad to have the platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not surprisingly, there's 5 places in California where the top 1% has more wealth than in 1928. Which means that the ratio of income of top 1% to income of bottom 99% is higher than it was in 1928. Which is a sign of rise in income inequality.

I would be really interested in studying the breakdown of wealth within the top 1% in all the places listed. In my experience (here in India at least), most people in the top 1% are just as worried [about income inequality] as the rest of us. It's the people at the top 20% of the 1% that can live anywhere, but sure, journalists can still call them the 1%.

<comment><USER13> I've always wondered, where did California's wealth originally come from? Was it the gold rush that started it all?

<comment><USER14> The Gold Rush did indeed make a lot of people wealthy. Not the gold itself, but rather land speculation and the business bubble.

When I randomly recall old wealth families that I'm aware of, they pretty much all started from local business tycoons (newspapers, railroads, essential consumer products, etc.) that usually diversified through real estate. No different than the rest of the US.

<comment><USER12> and no different from a lot of the rest of the world

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Just to give unspoken point of view, a scenario which i would like to pose: That Income inequality provides a kind of fiscal stability vs uncontrollable inflation.

If you overlay a chart of inflation on top of the chart of inequality you will find that maximum equality appears to correspond closely to periods of maximum inflation.

Governments from both sides of the argument have focused on reducing collective bargaining and on ensuring that efforts to rejuvenate economies, like quantitative easing via the financial sector and tax breaks are focused on the corporations and wealthy precisely because of the low impact this can have on inflation

The effect of these measures tends to pump money into the already wealthy while bulk of the population experience no-change.

<comment><USER16> Inflation isn't all bad.

The lack of inflation is making it easy to concentrate and safely hoard cash, which is cutting off the oxygen for everyone else. We've had 30 years of an ultra-safe, guaranteed strategy to make money -- move all value-added services to places with cheap labor and cheap money and export cash, facilitated by tithing a good portion of GDP to the OPEC producers. It's destroying western society.

The best thing that could happen to the west today would be a devaluation.

<comment><USER17> Yeah inflation can be good if you have debt.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This article's chronology is off a bit. It compares current income inequality to 1928. But 1928 was not part of the Gilded Age. 1870-1900 is usually the period known as the Gilded Age.

Aside from that anachronism, I used the exact same term to describe where we're at just a few weeks ago.

<comment><USER18> Yes, and it's too bad because the irony of pointing out that the 20's were part of the so-called "Progressive Era" despite having robber barons and such horrible inequity is really too good IMO.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Actual study: [https://www.epi.org/publication/the-new-gilded-age-income- in...](https://www.epi.org/publication/the-new-gilded-age-income-inequality- in-the-u-s-by-state-metropolitan-area-and-county/)

</comment><comment><USER20> For those who just want the list (which is buried annoyingly deep):

* New York

* Florida

* Connecticut

* Nevada

* Wyoming

</comment><comment><USER21> The Gilded Age refers to the last several decades of the 19th century, and yet the article compares today's data to 1928. That would be "the Roaring Twenties."

<comment><USER22> Misusing the term Gilded Age is becoming more prevalent recently within the inequality narrative. I'm guessing The Gilded Age was shown to produce more clicks and why let facts get in the way of clicks

<comment><USER23> Yeah bro Buzzfeed is totally doing AB tests on Article Headlines about Income Inequality.

<comment><USER24> They almost certainly are. Buzzfeed didn't become synonymous with clickbait by random chance. It literally spun out of a research lab studying the viral spread of online content.

<comment><USER23> Why don't you go find out how many articles they have written about inequality and tell me how the statistical power of their AB test looks. lol

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> We should have a billion dollar networth cap. If you pass it, it gets taxed extremely, like 95%.

<comment><USER26> Ugh, this again. Net worth != income.

I get the spirit of what you're saying but you can't tax net worth, you tax income.

<comment><USER27> You can absolutely tax net worth. It's not difficult at all.

You can add/increase property taxes. You can tax wealth above a certain amount. You can add/increase taxes on stock market speculation and holdings, and other financial instruments.

Whether you'd want to is a different matter, but saying you can't do it is factually incorrect.

<comment><USER18> right. The story told is that the money in the market (stocks, shares of companies, holdings, real estate, etc) is playing a part in creating wealth for everyone, and therefor better served by being left where it is.

there's 0 reason you can't say "this person is reporting holding, assets and liquid wealth of 2 billion dollars, so he owes X% back to the state." The issue is that typically the wealthy have the most influence over tax code, and they use net worth as a way to keep their money out of play.

But, like, you know, Amazon being worth so much money is really helpful to _everyone_ because...reasons.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> As someone living in one of those top places, I think the usual consensus is that cities like New York and San Francisco and Washington DC are the most expensive cities to live in yet I live in a relatively conservative state tax- wise and people out here are still getting killed by the house prices. Rent has doubled in almost 3 years as well as many low-income families being pushed out of areas that used to formally inhabit.

</comment><comment><USER29> The pairing of places associated with business and leisure should come as no surprise. The super wealthy do their business in and primarily live in the former while maintaining vacation properties in the latter. Then when they just want to coast on the returns they primarily live in the latter and charter a flight or spend a few days a week in the former as needed to for business.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm pretty sure the map at the bottom is wrong, at least in CA. The 5 CA metros listed are San Jose, San Francisco, Napa, LA, Santa Barbara, but the map shows 4 Southern CA dots (including one that looks like it's in the southern Central Valley of all places)

</comment><comment><USER30> I was shocked when in an interview yesterday David Rubenstein, The Carlyle Group co-founder and co-executive chairman of the private equity firm that owns 275 companies, mentioned that he worries about 3 things:

1) National deficit and servicing entitlements 2) Tariffs 3) Income inequality and possible social disruption

1 and 2 were not a surprise, but to me 3 was.

Here is the full interview.

[https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/07/18/carlyle-group- rubenste...](https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/07/18/carlyle-group-rubenstein- dont-see-recession-near-term.html)

</comment><comment><USER31> Money is power, and some people are much better at getting their hands on money/power than others. Regardless of whether such money/power is "deserved" (which can be argued endlessly either way), we as a society really have to question whether we want a society where the overwhelming majority of people are screwed, and a tiny minority gets to own everything/everyone, call the shots, make the laws, and order the rest of us around.

We and our children are going to be shining these people's shoes for generations to come. Is that the future we want?

</comment><comment><USER32> interesting that Seattle isn't anywhere to be found. I've always "felt" that the PNW had less old money. Anyone wanna feed my confirmation bias some more?

<comment><USER33> Eh, I'm not sure I would read into this as "Seattle is super egalitarian". Microsoft has made a lot of people (relatively) extremely wealthy, as has Amazon.

Seattle's probably catching up quickly to some of the cities on this list. Washington is just a much younger state.

<comment><USER32> Not really what im getting at. The pnw was developed later so I'd expect it to have less old money -- look at Oregon. The tech industry has certainly done a lot for the upper middle class in Seattle but the article is talking about people making 400k+ a year..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> This article doesn't discuss the elephant in the room. If there's this discrepancy in the 1% between states, and that's seen as a problem, presumably some correlation can be found where the bottom N% are less fortunate in say West Virginia than New York.

Is there any indication that that's the case?

<comment><USER8> What's the elephant in that metaphor? That the rich make the poor better off by proximity?

If so, I think you're missing the point. It's not a particularly good thing to have lots of people in "tolerable poverty" rather than total squalor. The slight reduction in suffering isn't enough.

The real elephant in the room is the long term result of massive inequality. Social unrest, violence, revolution. History is littered with these outcomes, and many of those examples end with public executions.

<comment><USER34> No, the elephant in the room is what supposed issues income inequality creates. Surely if there's such a discrepancy in this number between different states that's going to be measurable in some way.

My biases align with the sentiments of the article. I think that income inequality is bad, but that doesn't make me immune to recognizing lazy journalism.

The article does nothing to question that assumption. If an increase in income inequality makes the difference between "tolerable poverty" and "total squalor", isn't there going to be more of the latter in New York than West Virgina?

The map in this article is almost the exact opposite of the one in the article, showing an inverse correlation between income inequality and the poverty rate: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_poverty_rate)

So what exactly are the negative effects? I'm sure there's some, but the article isn't helping us talk about those.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Wyoming is the surprise entry here.

<comment><USER36> Why would Wyoming be a surprise?

Serious question.

Out here in Wisconsin we think of Wyoming as a state with a lot of wealthy landowners. But that's based mostly on seeing huge farms, (ranches), that aren't actually farmed. (When you see a huge farm that's not being farmed in Wisconsin, you just KNOW the guy's richer than Crassus.)

<comment><USER37> To be fair, the opportunity cost of not farming land in the Mississippi river valley is a lot higher than not farming land in the rain-shadow of the Rockies.

Not farming some of the most fertile land in the world makes you richer than Crassus. Not ranching on land that can barely grow enough to support a smallish herd just makes you sensitive to the wholesale prices for grazing animals.

<comment><USER38> It depends on how much land, doesn't it?

A quick search shows that the largest ranch in Wyoming is Q Creek Ranch, at 560,000 acres. That's 1/60th size of the entire state of Mississippi.

Even if the land yields 1/10th as much as the rich farmland of Mississippi delta, if it's 1/10th the price and holdings are 10x larger, then the same value is being left on the table.

<comment><USER37> ...discounting the scaling operational costs due to vastly increased distances to everything.

If you operate a small dairy farm in Wisconsin, with pastures near the barn, and a more remote hayfield that is mechanically harvested, you can definitely raise 20 cows with 40 acres, including plenty of margin for error. You would only have to reduce herd size in a region-wide, multi-year drought. The rest of the time, you're selling hay to your more-risk-tolerant neighbors. That's 200 short tons of milk per year, or 50000 gallons, with likely revenue between $150k and $200k, or $3750-$5000/acre-year, discounting the excess hay, culled beef, and veal calves.

If you're just sitting on the land, not even growing hay, you're leaving heaping piles of money on the table.

If your land has 1/10 the yield, you now need 20 acres per animal instead of 2. You can't put up just one, convenient dairy barn, so you're just growing meat. If you can get 200 pounds of beef per acre, that's maybe $1500/acre- year. That's significant, but not as significant.

The actual ratio is likely much worse than 1:10. With normal rain, a Wisconsin herd could potentially allocate 0.5 to 1 acre per cow. Out west, without irrigation, it can be 35 acres per cow, or more. So if the Q Creek Ranch could raise a herd of 16000 on 560000 acres, a Wisconsin farmer might be able to do the same with 1.5% the land area in a wet year. That's a lot less distance for the cows to walk, especially if the hay is trucked in from remote fields.

As it happens, Q Creek grazes from 6000 to 10000 cattle in any given year, and they also maintain a herd (of unspecified size) of elk, deer, and antelope for hunting. I'll estimate 2500 head of them, and call it 45 acres/animal.

Rosendale Dairy, the largest in Wisconsin, keeps 8400 cows, with 2800 acres for hay. 1/3 acre/cow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> This article, at least, talks about income, rather than wealth. Income we have a concrete measure for, at least, rather than attempts at estimation with giant unknown error bars. But income isn't a stable metric either. The IRS has been continually changing rules over time. Most notably, there has been a consistent push to crack down on "fringe benefits" and make them taxable. "Company cars" and things like that are essentially dead.

To some degree the changes in the income characteristics here reflect changes in the nature of compensation, from various tax dodges to just cash compensation. It was once easier to give executives a car for their exclusive use, rather than pay them the value of the car, since it was an allowable business expense. That is no longer the case (unless the car is intrinsic to their job) so rather than giving them a car and paying taxes on it, they just give them the money and let them buy their own car.

To what degree does this inform the changing characteristics of income in the top percentiles? That's an unknown question, but the best answer we have is just to assume that nothing has changed in the actual income distribution except the switchover from fringe benefit based compensation to taxable compensation. But that, unfortunately, renders moot the entire point of articles like this, about "worsening disparity", which is a convenient bogeyman to point to about the dangers of unchecked capitalism. So instead, we just pretend that this doesn't exist, and we continue to use made-up numbers to try to make a social point.

<comment><USER40> "Wealth" isn't a very good metric for other reasons as well. Notably, lots of people who make median-ish income save every penny for retirement and accumulate a lot of wealth, but they are often categorized as "greedy top X%". In our zeal to find someone to lay blame on, we often pick the wrong targets.

<comment><USER41> > Notably, lots of people who make median-ish income save every penny for > retirement and accumulate a lot of wealth

Not even in the same ballpark. You're not getting to $100mm in wealth on a $50k salary. But you can be born in to it overnight. Or make that in one day in the market if you're Bezos.

<comment><USER22> This is precisely why my goal is to set up my children better than I was and teach them to do the same. As long as I am constantly improving and can share that with my children I am happy. Comparing yourself to others, specifically to the super rich, is not a healthy strategy long term.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Five Technology Fundamentals That All Kids Need to Learn Now - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2015/10/31/five-technology-fundamentals-that-all-kids-need-to-learn-now/ <comment><USER2> Great post. Next month (Dec 7-13) is Hour of Code Week. Kids everywhere can practice coding.

[https://hourofcode.com/](https://hourofcode.com/)</comment>


Apple's Planning a 16 - <AUTHOR> https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-16-macbook-pro-display,38635.html <comment><USER2> Actual title is "Apple's Planning a 16" MacBook Pro, 31" Display". I guess the double quotes in the HTML title element need to be encoded.

</comment><comment><USER3> There seems to be a trend at Apple, if it's broken, don't fix it, just make it a few inches bigger!</comment>


NCIX Data Breach - <AUTHOR> https://www.privacyfly.com/articles/ncix_breach/ <comment><USER2> I'd like to know who the competitor was that bought data. For all intents and purposes, they're buying stolen credit card numbers, aren't they? Plus, I want to make sure I'm not buying anything from someone that unethical.

Also, if the ToS is so one sided that it's legal for my data to be sold in a shady deal like this, I'd say it's time for some massive regulatory change regarding data privacy. If not, everyone that bought the "stolen" data needs to be investigated by the RCMP.

<comment><USER3> I don't think this was covered by any ToS.

NCIX abandoned the data. They left it to this fate. It's more like... "Grab your personal belongings and get out. Your employer hasn't paid the rent"... than... "We need to keep the lights on and staff on-site to protect this data!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is probably the result of having a diffusion of responsibility. Essentially, a "not my problem" kind of attitude, especially with the company going bankrupt and all.

</comment><comment><USER5> I wrote my own take on this based on what I observed at their auction:

[https://www.danieldent.com/blog/ncix-able-auctions-bowra- gro...](https://www.danieldent.com/blog/ncix-able-auctions-bowra-group-data- breach/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Has this been reported to the BC privacy commissioner?

</comment><comment><USER7> Wow, what a Craigslist find!

I wonder if there is any legal entity left for the effected people to sue. Anybody know?

</comment><comment><USER8> Read the whole thing, but somehow missed the part where Travis Doering calls the FBI and the shady seller gets raided.

"Not Want to Know" might very well mean Russians/Chinese/other state actors obtaining data to get a foothold into hacking NCIX clients.</comment>


San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week - <AUTHOR> http://allthingsd.com/20120322/seesmic-lays-off-half-its-staff-as-it-pivots-back-to-social-cross-posting/?mod=googlenews

<comment><USER2> I wish Loic and his team the best of luck. It's never easy to lay friends and colleagues off, and I know that it's taken an emotional toll on Loic.

This is a reminder that even somebody of Loic's stature (he created LeWeb and is a very successful angel investor) can fail. Hard work, great product, good timing and luck -- you need them all to succeed.

<comment><USER3> Why so much sympathy for Loic, and not for people being laid off? Loic will be fine. He didn't burn his own cash, he burned VC and angel money. And given that he already has success track record, his reputation will not be damaged too much.

I hope those 18 guys were working for market salary, and not for some equity/options schema.

Otherwise, it's 18 more people that learned the hard way that it doesn't pay taking risks and salary sacrifice if your are not the one that makes decisions, and will avoid working for startups in the future.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is the 4th pivot for Seesmic? Can early investors ask for their money back if the nature of the business changes from what they originally invested in?

<comment><USER5> Nope. That's part of the risk assumed by investors.

Plus "you can't get blood from a stone"---how much of that money exists that they could pull it out? And whose money is it exactly when you have multiple investors? At best they would only be entitled to a fraction of a fraction.

It would also set a bad precedent for companies they've invested in if startsup are not allowed to adapt because they'd lose funding, making it more likely that investments fail due to stagnation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm all for failing quickly and pivoting into something better, but how does Loic Le Meur expect to attract future employees with such a track record?

<comment><USER7> With promises of mounds of equity and hoards of cash?

Startups are inherently risky. Loic made a very difficult decision (layoffs are hard). I am sure when he first hired those people it was in good faith. No one wants to fail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> OT: Ghostery picked up 19 scripts on that page. I think that is a personal record, at least for HN links. Holy Fuck!</comment>


The Stress of Being a Computer Programmer - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/syndromes-drive-coders-crazy-2014-3 <comment><USER2> It certainly can be. Practically, to reduce stress, a lot of times you have to square the feature requests of the product with the actual requirements and pad pad pad your estimates. Then work to deliver the least complicated solution. Reuse tools, frameworks, etc... Programmers should be lazy but judicious!

It is a fallacy to think that hard work alone will bring you success. It is also a fallacy to think that you will always be rewarded based on merit. It is a fallacy that the best product or solution or even having the best answer always wins (sometimes an approximation may suffice). It is a fallacy to assume that you will be promoted or get a job based on merit alone.

There is a lot of luck involved, and by that I mean being present (and skilled) for the right opportunity at the right time.</comment>


Show HN: Kodable - Programming Fundamentals for Five Year Olds - <AUTHOR> http://www.surfscore.com/#kodable

<comment><USER2> It's not clear from the screenshots how the arrows map to the fuzz movement. I'd expect it to be like Google's Turing machine doodle: <http://www.google.com/doodles/alan-turings-100th-birthday>

But I'm not 5. Maybe kids will want to know what yellow does enough to fiddle around and find out.

Thinking about it some more, I guess the clear background means go until you hit a wall, and the colours mean go until you hit this colour. Better iconography might help ( ->| instead of -> ). I'd expect kids will grasp the meaning of symbols really well, but may be easily frustrated if the symbols don't differ how they expect.

<comment><USER3> > I'd expect kids will grasp the meaning of symbols really well, but may be > easily frustrated if the symbols don't differ how they expect.

The game is, in principle, just a REPL. Kids will learn quickly by erring and iterating on their mistakes. ;-).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks cute, but it would be nice if there was more information on how the game worked -- or a gameplay video.

<comment><USER5> It's free to get, quick to download, and easy to start playing. A video is almost a waste of time.

Summary: using symbols, construct a "program" that guides an avatar thru a maze. Complete one maze to access the next, more complicated, maze. It's cute, simple, and (almost) instantly understandable by even a 3 year old.

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the description... Some of us do not have iPads. ;)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great idea, great start, kids (3 & 4) are excited to play - didn't want to go to bed.

A few bugs, like a misplaced arrow sometimes can't be moved any more.

Please make clear why a level failed! The board just kinda disappears the moment the "program" "crashes".

One big recurring issue with games for toddlers: make it very tolerant of multiple touches. Kids often will touch other fingers to the screen, lean side of hand on it, or put other hand on. Try to identify which touch point is the "real" one and focus on that, ignoring others.

Great job! Looking forward to how far the kids take this. Several times a day they ask for "ghost game" (DragonBox, which starts with a ghost as a logo); they'll be asking for this one too.

</comment><comment><USER6> I'd love to comment on it if I could actually use it. Please developers, have pity on the Android tablet users. There's only a few million of us (if you include Kindle Fire).

<comment><USER7> I'd like to comment too, but the game doesn't show up in the Japanese AppStore. Please make it available worldwide (even if they are not localized).

Developers: You are all losing sales of expats and people who do speak English outside the US every single time you don't release apps worldwide.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Great app. It's a little buggy, but my four year old caught on quickly and made it through the first 5-6 levels before I had to take it away so she could go to bed. As a developer, this made me a very proud daddy!

</comment><comment><USER9> I find easier to write commands in logo (forward 10) than to write commands in a graphical way. My cousin played adventure games at 4 with the help of a paper with commands that he typed.

<comment><USER10> I agree with you somewhat. Turing machines are difficult to abstract into sensible 'commands' or functions without some kind of compiler or intermediate step. The trouble here is that kids get no exposure to abstraction and functions, which I'd argue is more important and fundamental than conditionals and loops, which are really just specialized functions at heart.</comment></comment>


Show HN: ShareShoot – Event-based, cross-platform, photo syncing - <AUTHOR> https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shareshoot-app/id960470471?ls=1&mt=8

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the first version of our event-based, cross platfrom, photo syncing app.

My fiance and I travel, sometimes in large groups. We've emailed and texted photos, and that always sucks. Every once in a while, someone creates a dropbox. But, after the fact, people aren't as motivated to upload. And Apple has a solution, but what about the people that use Android? So, we created ShareShoot.

With ShareShoot, you create an event, invite your friends and all the photos you take, on your mobile phone camera (through our app or the native phone app) sync to your ShareShoot 'Shoot'. They self organize by shoot first, then by person in the shoot.

It's an early version, but I've been a long time HN member, so your feedback really matters.

Thanks!</comment>


Neural Implementation of Probabilistic Models of Cognition - <AUTHOR> http://arxiv.org/abs/1501.03209 <comment><USER2> It's very interesting that this reproduces some defects of human cognition, such as overweighting rare events, without explicitly putting them in. Because although they seem like defects compared to Bayes rule, they may actually be more adaptive.</comment>


MeteorJS is offering free access to this book - 24hrs - <AUTHOR> https://www.discovermeteor.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> BUT -- if you're thinking about learning Meteor, there are still some things to take into consideration. For starters, Meteor doesn't have REST support, and overall feels kinda alpha.

[https://gist.github.com/ble/4457840](https://gist.github.com/ble/4457840)

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16723780/difference- betwe...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16723780/difference-between- angular-and-meteor-where-they-overlap)</comment>


Hillary's 33,000 emails might not be 'missing' after all - <AUTHOR> https://nypost.com/2016/10/25/hillarys-33000-emails-might-not-be-missing-after-all/ <comment><USER2> I think there is strong reason to believe that Kim DotCom has them, or at least something.

In 2014, before all hell broke loose with HRC and the House Select Committee on Benghazi (before her emails became a big deal), Hillary Clinton signed Kim DotCom's extradition papers for Megaupload.com.

Kim, being one of the richest people on Earth, and one of the most technologically-savvy rich people, decided to seek revenge. Before he, or Hillary, or anyone knew the gravity of what he was about to get his hands on, Kim hacked HRC's private email server and got everything. He did this for two reasons:

1\. To get revenge against Hillary. Kim's views were that the US had nothing to do with him or his business and therefore he should not be subject to its law or political desires.

2\. To create a more transparent political system.

The final key fact is that Kim's extradition papers were signed on his birthday. To make his revenge even more succulent, Kim preemptively tweeted that he would ruin Hillary's political career on _her_ birthday, October 26th, 2016 (that's today).

Early this morning, around 1am Pacific time, Kim implied that he sent the 33k emails to Julian Assange at WikiLeaks.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>

Here's all the evidence that backs up my speculation (note, timestamps are very important here):

1\. _January 4th, 2013_ : [https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/287303543680032768](https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/287303543680032768)

"Hillary Clinton was part of the Megaupload takedown team, the real Mega conspiracy, and now she gets her own movie? Hillaryous!"

2\. _December 1st, 2014_ : [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/539567677732171777](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/539567677732171777)

"I'm not a pirate. I'm not a fugitive. I'm not a flight risk. I'm your Internet Freedom fighter AND Hillary's worst nightmare in 2016!"

3\. _July 24th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/757421624555560962](https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/757421624555560962)

"The @Wikileaks nuke to end @HillaryClinton is yet to come. @realDonaldTrump might fall in love with Internet freedom & transparency :) #Huge"

4\. _July 24th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/757422940258316289](https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/757422940258316289)

"Dear Hillary, when you are retiring this year call Chris Dodd and thank him. #boomerang @HillaryClinton @MPAA"

5\. _September 1st, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/771491468141662208](https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/771491468141662208)

"Hillary Clinton personally signed the request to extradite me from New Zealand. @HillaryClinton"

6\. _October 10th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/785646447425302532](https://twitter.com/kimdotcom/status/785646447425302532)

"Hillary Clinton signed my extradition request. I've signed her final chapter in politics. Maybe :-D"

7\. _October 25th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791131274203332609](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791131274203332609)

"Does @Wikileaks have 33,000 explosive candles for Hillary's birthday cake? Maybe?! (cake emoji)"

8\. _October 25th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791152114013724672](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791152114013724672)

"Do you really think I have the Clinton emails? Did you not listen to Hillary? Vladimir Putin = Tier 1 Hacker (shades emoji)"

9\. _October 26th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791154345664450560](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791154345664450560)

"Bleachbit(ch) can't bleach it (tears of joy emoji)"

10\. _October 26th, 2016_ : [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791174475353993216](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791174475353993216)

Video of Kim to @WikiLeaks saying "You've got mail!"

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

In conclusion, this election has been an amazing show. I'm very glad I've been able to live through it, even if it doesn't come out in my favor.

<comment><USER3> Why this tweet then from today? [https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791364506425315328](https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/791364506425315328)

Saying to use the NSA to get them?

<comment><USER2> Yes, that was quite confounding. My speculation now is that Kim turned over the emails to WikiLeaks and is trying to inform congressmen of a legal way to acquire the emails. If the emails are in fact released by WikiLeaks (that's a big if), and anyone tries to call BS, the legally-acquired copies could ensure the authenticity of the leak.

All of this is resting atop lots of speculation.</comment></comment></comment>


Flipkart and Udacity want a world without job interviews - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/28/flipkart-and-udacity-want-a-world-without-job-interviews/ <comment><USER2> It is like marriage without dating!

<comment><USER3> Hmm... on the one hand, marriage without dating is historically pretty common. It was used more for high-stakes marriage than for low-stakes marriage, which says something about the importance of dating to marriage.

On the other hand, dating is generally done over fairly long periods that allow you to gather quite a lot of information about the other person. That is similar to a job interview in no way.</comment></comment>


Google Developer Documentation Style Guide - <AUTHOR> https://developers.google.com/style/ <comment><USER2> I never considered this, but actually reserving IP addresses and telephone numbers for using in examples and fiction (as listed in the Example domains and names section) must be necessary. I'm curious how effective a prank would it be to switch an example phone number to a real one in a documentation that is read frequently.

Also, hallelujah for this: "In document titles and page headings, use sentence case. That is, capitalize only the first word."

<comment><USER3> 867-5309 is a phone number that can't be used anywhere (at least where phone numbers take that format.)

<comment><USER4> It's from an old Tommy Tutone song.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTdTwcmxyo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTdTwcmxyo)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here's the Microsoft Guide, for comparison: [https://docs.microsoft.com/en- us/style-guide](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide).

This season it's 'select ... button'.

</comment><comment><USER5> I did not realize that 'crazy' is considered Ableist language:

Not recommended: There are some crazy outliers in the data.

Recommended: There are some baffling outliers in the data.

[https://developers.google.com/style/inclusive- documentation#...](https://developers.google.com/style/inclusive- documentation#ableist-language)

<comment><USER6> That's crazy...

Hooray, low effort comments!</comment></comment>


11 geeky tech gifts for your favorite nerd - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/339729/11-geeky-tech-gifts-for-your-favorite-nerd <comment><USER2> To see the entire list, one has to experience 24 moving banner ads and _144_ sponsored story links (72 with their own banners).

I think I'll wait for the movie to come out instead.</comment>


GNU: A Heuristic for Bad Cryptography - <AUTHOR> https://soatok.blog/2020/07/08/gnu-a-heuristic-for-bad-cryptography/ <comment><USER2> > To replace GPG, you want age and minisign.

Much as I think age is a promising project, it isn't ready to replace gpg yet. It doesn't have a production ready release yet, it doesn't have an agent, and it doesn't have support for hardware keys (ex. Yubikey) yet.

</comment><comment><USER3> dupe: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23819964](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23819964)</comment>


9 Common Usability Mistakes In Web Design - <AUTHOR> http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/18/9-common-usability-blunders/

<comment><USER2> I have never missed clicking on a comments link on HN. I really dislike people who think they have some simple solution to a common problem, when large, padded UI's are often bulky and ugly (especially for sites this dense with content)

<comment><USER3> On the other hand, I miss the correct arrow daily.</comment></comment>


Google Struggles to Justify Why It's Restricting Ad Blockers in Chrome - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evy53j/google-struggles-to-justify-making-chrome-ad-blockers-worse <comment><USER2> It's not struggling to justify, it's struggling to spin it in a way that doesn't sound completely evil...

Fortunately I think the "it's for your security" argument is getting tired now, and people are starting to see through it. What Google is really trying to secure is its control and profits.

Although as someone who regularly uses several different browsers (but never Chrome, only Chromium), I prefer using a filtering proxy to stop stuff from even getting to the browser(s). Unless they start ignoring proxy settings or refusing to use the proxy's certificate (sadly, that might be the next thing they try to "secure"...), I can still control how I consume Web content.

</comment><comment><USER3> Because they're an advertising company and it isn't in their best interest to block ads. Of course that wouldn't sit well with their product, er, users.

<comment><USER4> They can very easily manage AD types, keep the stuff that drains batteries, barks at people, the worst in check.

That would be a nice balance of net happiness and making money.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why remove users' agency?

 _In computing, a user agent is software (a software agent) that is acting on behalf of a user. One common use of the term refers to a web browser that "retrieves, renders and facilitates end user interaction with Web content"._

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

</comment><comment><USER4> I am struggling to justify continuing to use Chrome.

</comment><comment><USER6> They can struggle all they want, but what I want is to switch to firefox. Competition is a wonderful thing.

<comment><USER7> No, because if you really wanted that you'd already have done it.

<comment><USER6> I have. I kept the tenses constant since it sounds better in prose

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> They are justifying it just fine, author and others seem to only want to believe critics.

</comment><comment><USER9> Cmd-Q</comment>


Adam Bain to Leave Twitter, Company Appoints Anthony Noto as COO - <AUTHOR> https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1418091/000156459016028706/twtr-ex991_6.htm <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915148](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915148).

</comment><comment><USER3> Dupe. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915148](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12915148)</comment>


Polanyi's Paradox - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polanyi%E2%80%99s_paradox <comment><USER2> My most important lesson in working with clients as a programmer, is that asking them how they want their program to work is like asking a native speaker to tell you the rules of grammar in their language. They have often lived with the rules of how their business process works for so long, it is intuitive, and no longer available to their conscious understanding, if it ever was.

Show them a scenario, though ("X, Y, and Z happen, so the program does A and B") and they can usually immediately tell you if that's the wrong or right thing for the program to do.

I have the impression that programmers, as a group, are mostly not great at understanding this, and it is a source of frustration for many of us when we program exactly what they told us to, and then it's "wrong". It is wrong. Like a linguist talking to a native speaker of another language, you often have to ask them about scenarios and piece together the actual business rules yourself.

The worst part is when the customer _thinks_ they know the rules, and then don't (consciously), and you have to help them through that cognitive dissonance of realizing that the business rules they "know" aren't actually the same as the ones they know.

<comment><USER3> _The worst part is when the customer _thinks_ they know the rules, and then don 't (consciously), and you have to help them through that cognitive dissonance of realizing that the business rules they "know" aren't actually the same as the ones they know._

A coworker of mine used to term this, "Applied Philosophy."

There was a post on HN a few years ago, where a game developer had a game where all of the users were asking for an Undo key. This would have completely broken the game! So he looked into his data, and figured out that what people were mad about was moving into a stream tile and taking damage or dying. So instead, he made it impossible to move onto a stream tile, and the problem was solved.

<comment><USER2> They knew _that_ there was a problem, but not necessarily what the problem really was, or how it should be (programmatically) solved. Sounds similar. The answer bubbles up from the subconscious ('system 1' as some put it).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've been reading Alan Watts' "the way of Zen" recently and this point forms a strong central pillar of his explanation. What we think of as our mind or our self, the conscious mind, seems to be basically a paper thin director on top of all the real functionality which is much more powerful and evolutionarily much older.

Relatedly, our use of language to describe and identify things and phenomena falls prey to the map-territory relation in a way that can warp our thinking. But I can't do his explanations justice, I can only recommend picking up the book if you're interested in these kinds of cognitive paradoxes.

<comment><USER5> Consciousness is a tiny aperture through which the universe looks at itself...

(Watts is great.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I prefer Slavoj Zizek classification into knowns and unknowns.

\- Known-Knowns: things we know that we know

\- Known-Unknowns: things that we know we don't know

\- Unkown-Unknowns: things we don't know we don't know

\- Unknown-Knowns: "The things we don't know that we know-which is precisely, the Freudian unconscious, the "knowledge which doesn't know itself," as Lacan used to say. ". This is better known as culture.

<comment><USER7> Is that Slavoj Zizek? I thought it was Johari.

<comment><USER8> I thought it was Rumsfeld. (Not joking.)

<comment><USER9> Rumseld famously classified the difference between known unknowns and unknown unknowns; Zizek typically uses Rumsfeld as a jumping-off point to elucidate the concept of unknown knowns. (Though I think Zizek means it more in the sense of belief systems, norms, and ideology, in the vein of "can't tell a fish about water"; whereas Polyani seems to refer primarily to genetic instincts, subconscious cognitive processes, motor skills learned prior to language, etc.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > activities based on tacit knowledge include recognizing a face, driving a > car, riding a bike

As far as I know, there are different classes of tacit knowledge here:

Driving a car, riding a bike etc are learned behaviour, recent in evolutionary time, and might also in a few generations not commonly learned any more, as e.g. riding a horse is uncommon now.

But recognising a face (or not being good at it) is innate in human brain structure, and not recent in evolutionary time.

<comment><USER11> One that might bridge that gap is learning a language.

It's almost certainly much more recent than recognizing a face, but still something humans have been doing for a long time, and is a near-universal human behavior. Like the others, though, it needs to be learned, has a strong cultural component, and tends to happen with the help of others.

It's also interesting because there's an entire academic field devoted to its study, and, at least from my peripheral perspective, they seem to be constantly bumping up against Polanyi's Paradox. I've seen more than one academic argue that the set of grammatical rules that we can accurately describe is a subset of the grammatical rules that we use when communicating. Which, if true, is pretty interesting, since language is a social construct - the implication is that we can fabricate and reliably transmit information that we can't actually express.

<comment><USER10> > the set of grammatical rules that we can accurately describe is a subset of > the grammatical rules that we use when communicating

Although rules do move from one camp to the other. For instance, people (myself included) find this article fascinating because it makes conscious a rule that English-speakers use unconsciously

[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/senten...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/sentence- order-adjectives-rule-elements-of-eloquence-dictionary)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Next time someone asks me how does a modern artificial neural network really work - I'll just ask them "how do you know that my face does indeed look like mine?". Or "how do you recognize people by their voices?". Or this creepy one: "can you consciously stop decoding the English I'm speaking now?". This Wikipedia page can serve as an extension of the argument.

<comment><USER13> Those are all great to think about but seem rather lacking as an answer to the question.

<comment><USER14> Especially since there isn't any good evidence that modern neural networks behave anything like our biological ones.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The article discusses the argument that statistical machine learning is a resolution to the paradox - as it shows that an agent can learn something without being given explicit instruction. I think this is basically a sound argument, and I find Polanyi pretty unconvincing.

It's worth noting that a similar argument (albeit without a demonstration as concrete as modern ML) was actually advanced in the 1960s by Wilfrid Sellars. [0]

> There is all the difference in the world between knowing how to ride a > bicycle and knowing that a steady pressure by the legs of a balanced person > on the pedals would result in forward motion ...It can be argued that > anything which can be properly called 'knowing how to do something' > presupposes a body of knowledge that; or, to put it differently, knowledge > of truth or facts. If this were so, then the statement that 'ducks know how > to swim' would be as metaphorical as the statement that they know that water > supports them.

[0] Philosophy and the Scientific Image of Man - Wilfrid Sellars [http://www.ditext.com/sellars/psim.html](http://www.ditext.com/sellars/psim.html)

</comment><comment><USER16> Poliany was central to my social science master degree thesis. How do you transfer tacit knowledge across international cultural borders?

<comment><USER17> I would think by working together face-to-face. Learning by doing from a "master" knowing his stuff. Like an apprenticeship.

What answer did you find?

<comment><USER16> Well it was like what you mention. Tacit knowledge must be transferred by showing, hands on learning, but was surprisingly little affected by culture and borders in global companies which was a dimension I was investigating.

After all the work of putting together a thesis on the subject, it all boils down to the example of how to you train a new chef to be as good as his "master".

This is still a hot topic amongst those who continue to research the Social science around Innovation, economics, sociological, management studies and so on. I enjoyed the topic, but being chained to a laptop for 6 months of thesis writing not do much.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This paradox is pretty well explained by Kahneman's two systems I think. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow)

<comment><USER19> Those seem to be categories of action, rather than knowledge. Many of the examples of both types depend on tacit knowledge, and are distinguished by type 2 requiring some explicit mental intervention to initiate or sustain (e.g. sustain a higher than normal walking rate.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Harry Collins developed a more nuanced framework for discussing tacit knowledge which I find quite provocative and useful:

[https://i.imgur.com/tp3eLb4.png](https://i.imgur.com/tp3eLb4.png)

[https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo84...](https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo8461024.html)

</comment><comment><USER21> I don't understand why this is a paradox. Isn't it just obvious that no system can contain a complete model of itself? That would be an infinite regress and hence would require infinite information.

<comment><USER22> A human contains code that can recreate a complete model of that human....

Maybe you're saying that a human can't fit into a human? I agree it's not a paradox, but not for the reasons you seem to be implying.

<comment><USER21> > A human contains code that can recreate a complete model of that human

That's true, but irrelevant. We're talking about _modeling_ a system here, not _reproducing_ one. Those are not the same thing.

<comment><USER23> Sufficiently advanced modeling is indistinguishable from reproduction.

<comment><USER24> Wouldn't that be more like, infinitely advanced modeling is indistinguishable from reproduction?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Why is this named 'paradox' since it doesn't express a paradox?</comment>


Coda is a next-generation spreadsheet designed to make Excel a thing of the past - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16497444/coda-spreadsheet-krypton-shishir-mehrotra <comment><USER2> Doesn't look like a spreadsheet to me.

It falls more into the space that are occupied by Podio[1] and Zoho Creator[2] - where you basically create small apps to support your business workflow.

[1] [https://podio.com](https://podio.com) [2] [https://www.zoho.eu/creator/](https://www.zoho.eu/creator/)

<comment><USER3> or airtable

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Personally, I still don't like these web apps. I want something that run local. I am not sure if only runs in the cloud or will there be a local version or not.

<comment><USER5> Currently it only runs on the desktop.</comment></comment>