Self-replicating alien probes could already be here - <AUTHOR> http://phys.org/news/2013-07-self-replicating-alien-probes.html <comment><USER2> > ... and may still be here but undetectable to our current technologies.

I recently saw a nature doc where they were raising Panda cubs. Because the species isn't doing that well and breeding in captivity is problematic they try to keep them unfamiliar with humans [0]. Keeping them undomesticated, so to speak. The caretakers wear Panda costumes every time they have to interact with the cubs. They do the same when raising endangered birds: hand puppets reduces imprinting with humans [1].

In that respect, I think it's overkill for alien tech to rely on advanced tech to make themselves undetectable. Look up at the sky. See those Boeing and Airbus planes? That's how easy it is. Disguise your spacecraft as a reflective metal tube that leaves a trail of water vapor and you're done.

Disclaimer: I don't actually believe they're among us.

[0] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fXBRKWmICU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fXBRKWmICU)

[1] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XNk...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=XNkV02P8Ysc#t=73s)

<comment><USER3> That's how easy it is to fool us, that doesn't mean the standard would hold true for other potential civilizations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Well there is a particular self-replicating set of devices that we already know in detail. If we're going down this road, have they bothered to think that maybe we're the self-replicating alien probes?

Disclaimer: Don't believe it for a second, but fun to speculate. Personally I think the Drake equation, the "Great Filter", etc. are just mathematical laziness. The chance of life arising is likely just infinitesimally small. Rare earth hypothesis all the way.

<comment><USER5> You can also think that "Life" is everything. Puddle of mud is life, it have streams, layers, densities, changes, reacting to environment.

How does one cell in your body knows about you? How does that cell understand your perception?

Our understanding about life could be exactly like that one small cell perceives life. I think Life is not a chance, it is just a process that pops out wherever it can in whatever form it can. Diversity of life is dictated by environment in it.

A ocean is so complex form of life also. Rocks around Saturn is very complex form of life.

All it takes is just definition.

<comment><USER6> "Life" usually refers to an exothermic, self-sustaining phenomenon that can process, integrate and react to information.

DNA, proteins, membranes, cells, etc. are IMO implementation details.

<comment><USER2> "Life" is like "species": different schools/universities/professors hold different definitions.

Example in this context: a (bio) virus. It has no metabolism, without a host cell it's completely static. The academic world is kinda split when you ask someone in the field whether a virus is a living organism or not. According to one school of thought it's as much alive as a rock.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Does it have to be really that "high tech" to be "undetectable"? Today we're happy if we can detect asteroids of thousands of tons as they're floating towards us. A probe meant for interstellar travel just doesn't have the energy to keep flashing all the time. I seriously doubt that we can detect a few tons of unspecified material, traveling at high speed in some distance from Earth, with big enough probability. Thus, the only statement we can make is "no probe designed to make contact was seen in our system in the last <100 years". This does not sound as such a huge paradox to me.

</comment><comment><USER8> Arrogant solution to Fermi paradox why we don't see life is that we might be one of the first civilizations. Life is hard. It took third of the age of universe for life do develop to the point of touching anything outside the Earth. And before that to have chemistry we needed first stars to turn into novas and dust from those novas to mix and re-condense into new stars. It ought to take some time. Some time for our galaxy to form before that... There's still a lot of time so it's as I said arrogant claim but we might belong to the first generation of civilizations in our universe.

<comment><USER9> Or worse. We might belong to the last, too late to the party.

Imagine we develop a bit of tech and find out that space has already been colonized and exploited. That all the fun is going on strong in the core. That we are too far away from that core, that there isn't enough energy to harvest to even travel there or even send something there. That we are born too late and too far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Can you really slingshot around a star? Doesn't that require the star to be moving relative to your destination?

But aren't the stars more or less moving together? Normally you expect the outer vs inner ones to move at different speeds, but the whole issue with the galactic rotation curve is that they are all moving at the same speed.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GalacticRotation2.svg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GalacticRotation2.svg)

</comment><comment><USER8> > there have been no probe-building civilizations in the Milky Way in the last > few million years or that the probes are so hi-tech we are unable to detect > them

I think whoever build such probes is so hi-tech that we won't be able to detect them.

Can we detect Russell's Teapot yet? We are proud of our telescopes but we are basically blind to small objects. Especially since such probe could just make a pass through solar system at 10% light speed.

<comment><USER11> _Russell 's Teapot_

I'd never heard of that before. Turns out it's a metaphor for atheism / agnosticism. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot):

 _[Bertrand] Russell wrote that if he claims that a teapot orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars, it is nonsensical for him to expect others to believe him on the grounds that they cannot prove him wrong._

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> <semi-spoiler>If _" self-replicating alien probes"_ are your thing, I highly recommend Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson, an excellent SF classic that is currently on sale on [https://www.humblebundle.com/](https://www.humblebundle.com/) as part of the Humble eBook Bundle 2</semi-spoiler>

<comment><USER13> I second this. I just finished the last book of the trilogy last week and it was great.

<comment><USER12> Oh really? How were episodes 2 and 3? I'm mostly hearing _" good, but not as good as Spin"_ comments. I'll give them a look then, thanks. Hey, or maybe just wait till they pop up in an upcoming Humble Bundle :P

<comment><USER14> Axis and Vortex are interesting stories, but very different from the first one. They become maybe a little bit less interesting with each iteration, but are still entertaining. The first book is full of mystery and the personal dynamics of a few people over a large section of their lives and none of the other books are like that, although some amount of mystery is a piece of each. I definitely didn't regret reading Vortex or Axis.

<comment><USER13> This exactly. Axis was good and Vortex didn't turn into what I was hoping for until the very end of the book, but they were both worth it still.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> With advanced tech, there is no need for them to build probes. Eg. use wormholes to peek in to any location in the universe, or some other teleportation system. Probably that's why you can't see them. Source: Sci-fi films.

</comment><comment><USER16> So, to summarize:

1.) There is no other life form in the galaxy 2.) There is, but their probes are undetectable 3.) There is, but the probes hide before we reach maturity 3.) All life forms in the universe are of the same biological age as us (Moore's law)

Did I miss anything?

ad 1.) well, extremely unlikely with a lot of philosophical rammifications ad 2.) possible - we should find out soon ad 3.) unlikely - if there is more than one alien civilization doing this, one of them would not have had the desire to hide from us ad 4.) looks more and more like the real deal.

<comment><USER17> "well, extremely unlikely with a lot of philosophical rammifications"

Whether it's likely or unlikely is just a guess, we don't have a good estimate of the probability. I believe we're the only civilization in the universe.

What do you mean by philosophical rammifications?

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> _> the fact that we have not detected or seen any evidence of alien probes in the solar system suggests there have been no probe-building civilizations in the Milky Way in the last few million years_

How does that compute exactly?

There are ~300 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is ~100k light years across. I can't even begin to think about the travelling salesman problem involved, but even with many probes, many civilizations, and travelling close to the speed of light, I'm guessing it would take some serious time to get around to visiting each star.

<comment><USER19> Self-replicating, though. Exponential growth in number of probes.

<comment><USER18> Sure, but the conclusion drawn was that it indicated "no probe-building civilizations"

<comment><USER8> I think "probe" in that conclusion was a shorthand for "self-replicating space probe built for the purpose of utilizing exponential growth for scouting galaxy in reasonable time"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I think the high tech his article is talking about is a few orders of magnitude greater than the imagination and thoughts of the comments mentioned so far. Think of technology that assemble from dust, factory probes that can detect elements and generate children from the bare elements in interstellar space. Or technology that could create and collapse Stars.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is a really interesting idea presented in a miserable article. It feels like it's just rehashing sci-fi tropes. and there's no discussion of the " _The new calculations, reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology_ "

</comment><comment><USER22> I have always been of the mind that if they wanted to come here they would have already and it wouldn't be pleasant.

</comment><comment><USER23> As long as they're programmed correctly, and not like the probes in Star Control II, I have no issue.

</comment><comment><USER24> wouldn't capturing enough mass to create a duplicate probe at least halve your speed?

<comment><USER8> Probe would probably accelerate up to its max speed compensating for speed loss.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> _Cancer_ has long been cured. But big pharma companies will loose their profits if they release the cure. And since we don't see any cure, that proves that big pharma companies hold it secret. Hence _cancer_ has been cured.

THEY ARE HERE!

</comment><comment><USER26> Don't want to take us too far out into pseudo-science land, but any kind of contact with an alien probe would most likely be intermittent and not reproducible. For those reasons, even if we observed it in nearby planetary space or in the atmosphere I'm not sure anybody would take the observation seriously. Along those lines, I've always thought the Rendlesham Forest incident[1] sounded the most to me like a story of an autonomous, perhaps self-replicating probe.

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

</comment><comment><USER27> Sometimes I wonder why we don't do this ourselves...

If we start now (and I think we can reach faster than 10% of c) we can learn about 3 stars I guess in our lifetime!

</comment><comment><USER28> Viruses?

<comment><USER8> Did you see recently any virus that is able to propel itself through interstellar space or replicate there? Viruses are just tiny chemical programs that hijack replication system existing in their environment. But there has to be some replication system to hijack.

<comment><USER28> Viruses could travel via asteroids.

<comment><USER8> Travel, but not replicate. The only idea I can come up with to fit viruses into exponentially self-replicating alien probe goes like this:

Life is abundant in universe, chemistry everywhere leads to DNA, and life mostly comes out of DNA. Smart aliens designed viruses to travel by asteroids. Those asteroids at some points meet planets with life. Viruses hijack this life to replicate themselves and change the life to develop intelligence. Intelligence that will eventually develop and use technology powerful enough to blow up whole planet. That event will release cloud of asteroids containing viruses that will infect other life bearing planets.

I don't like this idea. It's slow and has many assumptions that I don't believe are true.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Well, if you break narrow thinking that only high tech(electricity/metal) civilizations can explore galaxies. Everything is forces interacting each other and one object can only interact with so many other object, but totally not interact with anything else beyond its capabilities of understand, perceive/see/hear. Everything could be crawling of life we do not perceive/understand/detect.

Humans operate in very narrow band of frequencies, thanks to technology we widened the band but it also presented us with new problem/revelations. Some made religion from science and ran into a wall.

"Earth" was so intelligent to grow people. If Seed is intelligent to grow plant, why not earth?</comment>


CrunchPad dead? Delayed by higher-than-expected costs? - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/are-rising-costs-killing-the-crunchpad-2009-11

<comment><USER2> "And if it's going to cost $600 or $700 for a CrunchPad, which only supports Web surfing, it's going to be tricky to compete with better devices from tech giants that cost just a few hundred dollars more. (For instance, the forthcoming Apple tablet, which could cost less than $1,000.)"

Wow, they're speculating on a potential price, and then proceed to denounce said price based on a speculation of a price of a product that has yet to be announced?

</comment><comment><USER3> Unlikely. Michael spoke before a small group of people less than a month ago, when I asked about CrunchPad. He said that it's coming along and that "Atom sucks." So, he's probably waiting for Chrome OS running on the new ARM processor (Cortex A9?) He mentioned that he has sunk $1M+ TC money in the project.

I'd love a bookpad that has two screens that fold together like a book. One screen is LCD that can serve as keyboard/(multi)touchpad/video screen and the other e-ink screen for reading books.

<comment><USER4> That is actually the worst news I've heard about it. :(

Waiting for Chome OS? A risk if the rumors of the Apple Tablet are true.

$1M+TC money.. but how MUCH TC money - and _still_ no product; that's a worry.

Essentially he's saying I've spent more than $1M on technology that I don't want to use anymore and I am waiting for Google "vapour ware" to materialise to use on the new one.

<comment><USER5> $1M+ to me means one million and more.

<comment><USER4> Yeh I couldnt figure on that; how MUCH is the +TC money. It could be 100,000 or another million... it has to be the latter surely.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Its probably the same old "made in china" story most people face trying to get stuff built there. They'll promise you a rocket ship to the moon for $20 the first day, but the more you invest yourself in the project, the more the price will go up.

At a company I worked for once, we called it "the ransom". This was the extra money the supplier would demand at the very end for "unforeseen costs" to release your completed units.

In china, the signed contract is just the beginning of negotiations. You're not done until the completed devices are in your warehouse in the US.

</comment><comment><USER7> Too bad. I, and many others, would love one of these.

I am confused that they didn't use a cheaper, more power efficient processor in this, but I guess when you want to be able to play back flash video, you're stuck.

</comment><comment><USER8> I have no idea wether the cost is holding this back but I've always been doubtful about this "pad" format for devices - it just doesn't seem like good design.

\- It's too big to be operated with two thumbs (i.e. Blackberry and iPhone)

\- It lacks a physical keyboard so I suspect that typing anything isn't going to be a positive experience.

\- It lays flat which isn't a good viewing angle, which means that I will need a stand (unless it has one built in - don't know),

\- I suspect it's too heavy to hold up like a Kindle.

Maybe I'm wrong about these things but it seems like a lot to pull off and I don't think the TC guys are the ones to do it. Now, Apple might be a different case, we'll have to wait and see.

<comment><USER9> I doubt that it's too heavy to hold up as that would defeat the purpose. I imagine that a device like this would be more pleasant to keep in your lap as you browse the Internet or such then a traditional laptop. Plus, you could always mount it on a mechanical arm or on the wall. I can imagine having such a device hanging in my kitchen, so I could check my email, or look up recipes while cooking.

<comment><USER8> With it in your lap, flat, your head tilts down, bending the neck. This puts strain on the muscles at the base of the neck, which tires them. The muscles under the shoulder blades will then step in to try and compensate, tiring them, etc., etc. This is why it's uncomfortable to to read, sitting up, with a book lying flat on your lap. With a laptop the screen juts up at an angle from the lap (~45 degrees) which allows you to look at the screen longer without becoming tired (less neck strain). Of course if you're just half propped up on the couch this might not be the case. Admittedly it's probably harder to accidentally knock this off your lap while reaching for your coffee/beer/whatever.

I could see it on the wall, but if it's for mounting, why worry about making it light? You can save on material costs by going heavier.

<comment><USER9> _This is why it's uncomfortable to to read, sitting up, with a book lying flat on your lap._

Who reads like that? I was imagining sitting in a recliner and holding it like a newspaper. If it's light enough, that would work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I actually think the crunchpad will fail, but the only cool thing about it is the possibility of a launch party. The valley needs more parties in general.</comment>


A very useful tutorial about how to run Alluxio, Spark, and S3 together - <AUTHOR> http://www.alluxio.com/2016/04/getting-started-with-alluxio-and-spark/ <comment><USER2> Looks great!</comment>


Spring Break Of Code, Sure - <AUTHOR> http://whispersystems.org/blog/sure/

<comment><USER2> Lookin' good.</comment>


My personal website now has a terminal - <AUTHOR> http://rafael.pt/?source=hn

<comment><USER2> Your tab for autocomplete isn't working. Amusing though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually, it's not implemented yet!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> kind of cool, but i don't get the utility of it other than being a party trick for hackers, and its probably confusing to non-terminal users.

<comment><USER4> Some things are just for fun.

<comment><USER3> i apologize -- didn't mean to sound judgmental. i do think it is fun, and i think that building stuff for fun is (a) important, and (b) hones your skills for other stuff.

also, live life for fun. i realize now that the comment came off as disparaging, but i don't mean to be discouraging.

hack on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> source code available here, if you're interested: <http://github.com/rafaqueque>

this was made just for fun.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't see this as replacing bash or zsh any time soon.

:)

</comment><comment><USER6> so I was amused by this so I made this on my personal blog: <http://ttran.me>

<comment><AUTHOR> Amazing! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> ok yes, why did i not think of this before! damn

</comment><comment><USER8> rm -rf /</comment>


AI assisted code completion for C++ - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/vcblog/2018/12/05/cppintellicode/ <comment> Const-me That's very nice and I'll probably be using it a lot, after VS2019 will stabilize (it's just a preview now).

However, the fact that this thing works so well, says a lot about the design of C++ standard library. They should have encapsulated the pair of iterators into a single structure, and implement implicit casts from vectors/arrays to that object. Requiring to type begin/end every single time is counterproductive.

<comment><USER2> Ranges has already been merged into C++20. Now you can use std::sort(v);

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > IntelliCode uses machine learning to train over thousands of real-world > projects including open-source projects on GitHub.

Is it legal to use a bunch of open-source projects in what looks like a proprietary plugin?

<comment><USER4> Depends on the licenses of said projects. It's pretty easy to whitelist MIT/Apache licensed code.

Even still, it's unclear whether an abstract machine learning model that "saw" copyrighted IP during the training process is infringing on said IP. A self- driving car sees many billboards during test rides.

<comment><USER5> Those licenses still require you to display acknowledgements, copies of the original license, disclaimers etc.

<comment><USER6> They require you to do that when?

When you include the source code in a project? Or distribute binaries created in whole or in part from the source code?

The licenses say exactly what the requirements are, and when you are obligated to follow those requirements. What do they say about training AI models on the code?

<comment><USER7> > Distribute binaries created in whole or in part from the source code.

How exactly is that different from what's happening here?

<comment><USER8> Think of this more along the lines of when you read a code description of how something works and then describe it to someone else. In the same way that you don't have to provide copies of the license(s) of whatever you read, you shouldn't have to do that here, because the model is simplying learning and then inferring.

<comment><USER9> It's not as simple as that though. What if I train an AI to output a book given its title. With a sufficiently expressive and overfit network it could actually memorise the training data exactly.

That means my network now includes an exact copy of those books (encoded in a weird way but that is irrelevant). Should I be able to distribute my weights and ignore the copyright on the original books? Of course not!

In this case it is very unlikely that the network weights store much data from each individual github project, but it's definitely a sliding scale.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So is this basically like a Markov chain attached to a C++ analyzer? If so, then I think the title is a bit gratuitous with the whole "AI" thing, but I can't say it's not a convenient feature to have in an IDE.

</comment><comment><USER11> This might use AI but it's nothing but marketing here. Isn't any sufficiently 'trained' program AI under this definition? If I put enough possible paths in my matching system, I get this. Intellicode is just a minor improvement on intellisense that could have been made years ago without any kind of AI branding.

<comment><USER9> All AI is more or less sophisticated pattern matching though. Why complain about this one?

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Am I missing, where is the AI in this? Or are we being more broad here?

<comment><USER9> It predicts the next word based on the previous ones. A classic AI task.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> That's great but I hate how they mark suggestions with a star and add an extra comment. It should just work, not add UI clutter and noise

</comment><comment><USER14> Anyone know about similar but open-source projects that do code completion (or assist in some way) upon training on stackexchange data?

<comment><USER15> Tabnine does it on your project

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Bad for interview practice.

<comment><USER17> You cannot pass antiquated interviews anyway by working on the technology. You have to rote learn the APIs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I despise code autocomplete features. I could not stand using Jedi in Emacs. It just slows me down way too much to have to interact with an autocompleter. I'll never understand why anyone would want this.

I've found code autocompletion to be particularly troublesome and hindering on large legacy code bases, where the suggestions not only prevent you from quickly typing out the method, class, etc. that you were trying to type, but also add a hindering layer of misdirection to trying to learn the architecture and code layout and form a mental model of the code organization.

Code autocompleters have only ever been pure waste to me, across a wide range of projects of various ages, states of code complexity, states of maintenance.

<comment><USER19> I've never found any of the autocompletion packages emacs had useful, mainly because their implementation continuously broke and they never felt solid. The story is completely different in visual studio code or visual studio for that matter.

<comment><USER18> Most autocomplete tools I've worked with were very solid and well implemented.

I did not find them useful because autocompletion while writing code is itself just not a useful tool conceptually, regardless of the quality of the tool.

Autocompletion for coding just doesn't have any mainstream use cases or situations in which it can possibly be helpful. As a result, even very well made autocompletion tools cause trouble and hinder productivity.

On the other hand there can be niche, non-mainstream uses, like accessibility use cases for disabled people who have to use key entry mechanisms that make non-autocompletion key entry overly burdensome or slow.</comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework - <AUTHOR> https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/framework/ <comment><AUTHOR> Quoting Corey Quinn (lastweekinaws.com):

I apparently went to a whole lot of unnecessary work to build out a cohesive, original model for how to build a cloud environment that paid attention to varying aspects and constraints. Instead I could have just pulled a Microsoft Azure and ripped AWS off wholesale to create the "Microsoft Azure Well- Architected Framework". Seriously, this thing is such a blatant rip-off that I expect to see weird copy and paste artifacts.

AWS Well Architected Framework: [https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well- architected/](https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/well-architected/)</comment>


Ask HN: Why is modern webdesign so ugly? - <AUTHOR> I have noticed that webdesign is becoming more and more ugly. For example, I can not read in Medium.com. The font is too large. Why are not there more websites with similar design to Reddit, Hacker News and Wikipedia? <comment><USER2> One person thinks the text is too big another thinks it is too small. That's why they created the ctrl plus/minus key combinations and the reverse pinch.

Are they perfect? No. But they're a big help.

</comment><comment><USER3> Consider that ugly is subjective and that your tastes may not match those of others.

Generally speaking, larger font sizes are preferred by many (IIRC, Bootstrap, MailChimp both recommend 16+px for body text) for readability. What specifically about smaller text is more readable toyou?

</comment><comment><USER4> Hacker News is pretty poor on mobile. A lot of it is because developers/designers don't give it any thought.

They think everyone has a superfast broadband connection, the same monitor/resolution as themselves, the same OS and browser setup etc.

There are browser plugins you can get (or write yourself) to give you more control of your experience though.</comment>


The Okinawa missiles of October 1962 - <AUTHOR> http://thebulletin.org/okinawa-missiles-october8826 <comment><USER3> "Why target non-belligerent countries?"

Worth noting that until not long before the Cuban missile crisis there was only one single unconditional plan for the US fighting a nuclear war: the first version of SIOP -

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Integrated_Operational_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Integrated_Operational_Plan#The_first_SIOP)

This targeted the Soviets, China, Warsaw Pact countries and even the likes of Yugoslavia and Albania. There was an exchange between General Power and David Shoup, Commandant of the Marine Corps, that went as follows:

 _" What would happen if Beijing was not fighting; was there an option to leave Chinese targets out of the attack plan?" Power was reported to have said that he hoped no one would think of that "because it would really screw up the plan"—that is, the plan was supposed to be executed as a whole. Apparently Shoup then observed that "any plan that kills millions of Chinese when it isn't even their war is not a good plan. This is not the American way."_

Edit: For anyone interested in the Cuban Missile Crisis I can strongly recommend "One Minute To Midnight" by Michael Dobbs - it is full of episodes like this (some even more alarming).

<comment><USER4> General Power was well-known to be _batshit fucking insane_. Even General LeMay thought he was unstable and aggressive, and LeMay himself was the guy who oversaw the war against the Japanese Home Islands. When the guy who burned the best part of a million people alive with firebombings and then nuked the remains thinks you're a bit of a loose cannon, well...

He is often viewed as the likely inspiration for Gen. Buck Turgidson in the film Dr. Strangelove. A quote from Power, when the RAND Corporation raised the proposal of a counterforce strike instead of striking at Soviet cities:

      "Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea
      is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war if there are two Americans
      and one Russian left alive, we win!"

In the words of Gen. Horace Wade, a subordinate who served under Gen Powers:

      I used to worry about General Power. I used to worry that General Power
      was not stable. I used to worry about the fact that he had control over
      so many weapons and weapon systems and could, under certain conditions,
      launch the force. Back in the days before we had real positive control
      [i.e., PAL locks], SAC had the power to do a lot of things, and it
      was in his hands, and he knew it.

SAC pushed back very strongly against this intrusion. The first Permissive Action Links were installed in 1959 and the bulk of them in 1962, but the 8-digit security codes were set to "0000 0000" until around 1977, because SAC was afraid that they would be unable to fire the weapons if needed.

It's a goddamn miracle we didn't go over the edge, either accidentally or with those guys at the controls. In one case, a B-52 crashed in North Carolina in 1961. The bomb went through its full arming sequence, being stopped only by a single low-voltage switch. That switch later became known for being unreliable and failing to interrupt its signal properly.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash)

The Russians had some close calls of their own, notably when the sun glinted off the clouds and tripped their launch warnings during ABLE ARCHER 83.

<comment><USER5> I wonder how much of this was a scare tactic. In theory the USSR would be more apprehensive if they believed the man in control of the US weapons was a bit crazy.

<comment><USER3> That was Nixon's "Madman Theory":

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

<comment><USER6> Precisely. Comes from games theory: if the other guy is thought to be irrational, it really backs you into a bit of a corner, playing it as safe as possible.

Nixon had bombers flying to the edge of Soviet airspace, 24/7, all fully loaded, all to make the Russians think he was insanely aggressive.

<comment><USER7> The obvious problem here is of course the other side might fully believe you are so unhinged that an attack is only a matter of time (not "if" but "when") and launch a pre-emptive attack at you.

With the Soviet memory of Hitler's shenanigans, the madman tactic was incredibly destabilizing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The entire thing is worth a read, but here's a short summary:

John Bordne claims that missile launch crews in okinawa received nuclear missile launch orders via calm encoded voice comms, which seemed suspect, since they were given at defcon 2, not defcon 1. According to the claim they ended up contacting the sender of the codes and requested codes to either stand down or upgrade defcon, at which point the sender issued stand down with considerable stress in his voice. Bordne also claims that to his knowledge no real consequences for this ever happened.

He's asking for corroboration to help with his own old memories and to straighten out history.

<comment><USER9> I'd also include that they received the coded message twice showing that it's unlikely it was misheard or misread on either end. That was my initial reaction/theory, that the code was close to the confirmed order but one side messed up some how. With a second confirmation it seems like the 'NOP' (dummy) code either accidentally matched the LAUNCH code or the correct code was given to (or procured by) the major who transmitted the mid-shift messages.

It's an interesting question of how do you ensure you never accidentally transmit the correct code without the sender knowing the correct code and being able to command a launch single-handedly. Even if the code is really long, generating random NOP codes doesn't give the level of safety I'd like when accidental collisions can end the world.

<comment><USER10> Maybe the book was sorted alphabetically, such that the code for LAUNCH MISSILES was listed next to the code for LUNCH TIME or something.

<comment><USER9> My understanding is that the correct launch authorization code would be locked in a safe until the command post had received a message authorizing them to launch. It's safes and authorization confirmations all the way down as I understand it.

<comment><USER11> I am sure the system was designed to resist intentional manipulation by intermediates, but what about plain old telephone-game mishaps? If LAUNCH and LUNCH TIME are represented by one-time-pad blobs that are right next to each other on a list, it doesn't matter how many two-person-locks or feet of steel prevent the operator from learning which blob is the LAUNCH blob because an off-by-one mistake is still easy to make as ever.

<comment><USER9> I was saying that the launch codes would only be available if the CP had received their own launch codes and there wouldn't be a list with the launch codes and lunch codes to make that error.

<comment><USER10> The question is whether the codes were sufficiently far apart that you couldn't stumble onto one by accident, or whether they were similar enough that you could generate LAUNCH MISSILES by accident with a typo, even if you never went near the safe and had no idea what your message actually meant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interesting -- a prior 2012 story relating to Bordne. I guess in hind sight he knew more than he was letting onto then if this all turns out to have some truth to it.

[http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/07/08/general/okinawas...](http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2012/07/08/general/okinawas- first-nuclear-missile-men-break-silence/)

Bordne also recounted some of it earlier this year in March but it didn't seem to get picked up much:

[http://japanfocus.org/events/view/249](http://japanfocus.org/events/view/249)

edit: Bordne himself posted on another site that this was the crew

      Crew #1 (Wave Makers) (1960 through 1963) Launch Officer - Capt. William Bassett
      Crew Chief SSgt William "Bill" Voorhees
      Mech. #1 A2C Eugene "Geno" Boozer
      Mech. #2 A2C John "JC" Bordne (Guest book signer #135)
      Mech. #3 A2C Michael "Mike" Schaubach
      Mech. #4 A2C William "Bill" O'Hara (Guest book signer #25)
      Mech. #5 A2C Richard "Rick" Marshal

[http://www.mace-b.com/38tmw/kadena/Kadena-2.htm](http://www.mace-b.com/38tmw/kadena/Kadena-2.htm)

</comment><comment><USER13> Whenever I can spare the time, I try to make mobile apps and computer games. I think it can add value to the world.

But compared to calling the shots in the dark on a imminent nuclear holocaust? Geez louise. If this story is true, this guy did far, far more for the world than any app or gizmo I could hope to see developed by me or others. It seems our destructive capabilities (which are practically infinite) in some sense far outweigh our creative capabilities. It's too bad nobody throws a few million dollars at this guy or his family like money is thrown at promising startups. Even if having saved the world is a sunk benefit (a la sunk cost), it would be well-deserved.

Equally interesting, his Soviet counterpart: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Arkhipov)

<comment><USER3> It would be good to have a monument somewhere with the names of as many people as possible who acted sanely during those dangerous days - the least we can do is remember them and take it as a lesson.

<comment><USER14> I am actually starting to sort-of observe the Stanislav Petrov Day[0] - <USER2> of September. It seems worth it to add to the list the Vasili Arkhipov Day, the 27th of October, and John Bordne day, the 28th of October. Maybe we should actually make a list of such days, in memory of people who actually saved (a big part of) the world, or had a significant contribution towards its continued prosperity.

Come to think of it, today's the 27th. Happy Vasili Arkhipov Day, HN!

[0] - [http://blog.jaibot.com/there-is-a- button/](http://blog.jaibot.com/there-is-a-button/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Perhaps counterintuitively, but I actually find this somewhat reassuring - another example of regular soldiers declining to initiate a nuclear war. Yeah, the magnitude of the mistake is awful, but the final failsafe (ie, human conscience) seems to work. See also Vasili Arkhipov, Stanislav Petrov, etc.

<comment><USER16> But consider survivorship bias.

<comment><USER17> It seems more like the anthropic principal than survivorship bias -- since we're here talking about it, we must live in a universe where the fail-safes work.

<comment><USER18> I don't think that even total nuclear war would actually wipe out human life on Earth. Keep in mind, 0.1% of a billion people is a whole million people.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> For those interested, the Eric Schlosser book is a superb, in depth look at the entire history of nuclear control. Very very good read.

[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Command-Control-Eric- Schlosser/dp/01...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Command-Control-Eric- Schlosser/dp/0141037911/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8)

</comment><comment><USER20> As many times as the world has come close to nuclear war and mutually assured destruction since the end of WW2, it's actually one of the most reassuring things about humanity that people refused orders to fire missiles every time.

I'm always reminded of "Talking to god..."[1] when I read about these close calls with nuclear weapons. The most important paragraph in the entire short story is the following: "The only ones who reach level two are those who learn to accept and to live with their most dangerous knowledge. Each and every individual in such a species must eventually become capable of destroying their entire species at any time. Yet they must learn to control themselves to the degree that they can survive even such deadly insight. And frankly, they're the only ones we really want to see leaving their solar systems. Species that haven't achieved that maturity could not be allowed to infect the rest of the universe, but fortunately that has never required my intervention. The knowledge always does the trick".

1: [http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal](http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal)

<comment><USER21> _As many times as the world has come close to nuclear war and mutually assured destruction since the end of WW2, it 's actually one of the most reassuring things about humanity that people refused orders to fire missiles every time_

If you accept the account in the linked story, this episode itself is a counterexample:

"...the situation of one launch crew was particularly stark: All its targets were in Russia. Its launch officer, a lieutenant, did not acknowledge the authority of the senior field officer—i.e. Capt. Bassett—to override the now- repeated order of the major. The second launch officer at that site reported to Bassett that the lieutenant had ordered his crew to proceed with the launch of its missiles..."

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Just makes me so very, very glad that the right decisions were made by so many people in those trying times.

I'm sure there are plenty of individual heroes whose small contributions individually and collectively prevented nuclear war that we'll never hear about.

</comment><comment><USER23> Absolutely incredible. I really hope the Freedom of Information Act requests get somewhere and we get to hear how a screw up of this magnitude happened.

</comment><comment><USER24> But don't worry, all the people in charge of our nuclear missiles now are constantly caught cheating at their tests.

I believe I read recently the way the military solved this huge scandal is by making the tests easier and simply pass/fail.

[http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22508088-92-nucle...](http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/30/22508088-92-nuclear- missile-officers-implicated-in-cheating-scandal-air-force-says)

[http://www.defenseone.com/management/2014/04/after- cheating-...](http://www.defenseone.com/management/2014/04/after-cheating- scandal-air-force-switches-pass-fail-nuclear-missileers/83173/)

</comment><comment><USER25> I contact my U.S. Representative requesting the Air Force release records pertaining to the incident. We need to know that facts.

</comment><comment><USER26> Interesting coincidence – TAC Missileers, "a US Air Force, Cold War veterans group, whose members proudly served our country, as part of the Mace or Matador cruise missile programs." (quoted from their website) is having a reunion next week in Orlando, Florida.

</comment><comment><USER27> As someone who was stationed on Okinawa some years later, I find this quite interesting and had seen even a few parallels to this story during my time there, albeit not with nuclear warheads involved.

</comment><comment><USER28> Argh. I wish the game "East vs West" was a reality to test all these things! :D

</comment><comment><USER29> cf. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident)

</comment><comment><USER30> ok, hold on. Could these 1960s era missiles really be retargeted like this? I always assumed that they were programmed for a single target and changing the target was a big deal.

<comment><USER31> The article does not mention any retargeting.

<comment><USER30> Didn't it talk about transmission specifying targets to hit?</comment></comment></comment>


Why haven't more successful tech startups emerged from Los Angeles? - <AUTHOR> http://www.quora.com/Why-havent-more-successful-tech-startups-emerged-from-Los-Angeles

<comment><USER2> It like asking - why haven't more successful movie production emerged from San Francisco?

It's just not the place for it.</comment>


The Importance of Choosing the Correct Mastodon Instance - <AUTHOR> https://carlchenet.com/the-importance-of-choosing-the-correct-mastodon-instance/ <comment><USER2> Definitely an important thing to remember. Mastodon being decentralised means every instance has its own rules and norms, and you'll need to choose the one that best aligns with your own (or set one up).

Is it more complicated than using a centralised alternative? Sure, a tiny bit. But it's a necessary part of such a system, and provides a better solution than 'let a single person or company dictate everything that's allowed on the network'. A small instance owner is a lot more reasonable than a Silicon Valley CEO trying to 'avoid offending' as many people as possible.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed, I think the quick success of Mastodon shows that more and more people are aware of the limitation of Twitter, especially related to the fact it is both a Silicon Valley company and strongly centralized.</comment></comment>


So far in 2018, SpaceX has launched a rocket every 13 days - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/spacex-reaches-the-promised-land-of-launching-every-two-weeks/ <comment><USER2> You know, very few times am I reminded that we live in my youth's idea of the future. Reading this headline was one of those times.</comment>


The dissection of a simple "hello world" ELF file - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/mewrev/dissection <comment><USER2> Another ELF diagram also made the rounds a few years ago: [https://code.google.com/p/corkami/wiki/ELF101](https://code.google.com/p/corkami/wiki/ELF101)

It's more of a 1-page poster and doesn't have the longer explanations in the submitted github article.

<comment><USER3> I was hoping someone would post this, because I had lost the bookmark! Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here's a similar write up I did about Mach-O (iOS / OS X): [https://www.objc.io/issues/6-build-tools/mach-o- executables/](https://www.objc.io/issues/6-build-tools/mach-o-executables/)

<comment><USER5> Awesome, thanks for sharing this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The last sentence of the first paragraph really struck me

>In general, no single section has both write and execute permissions as this could compromise the security of the system.

<comment><USER7> Is that actually enforced in modern linux kernels? I thought it would be possible to call

        mmap(..., PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE | PROT_EXEC, ...)

<comment><USER8> OpenBSD kernel enforces it (even inside the kernel, not just user mode processes):

[http://marc.info/?l=openbsd- tech&m=142120787308107&w=2](http://marc.info/?l=openbsd- tech&m=142120787308107&w=2)

<comment><USER6> Mike Larkin re:W^X a few days ago:

[https://youtu.be/A7vtAAeW6zo](https://youtu.be/A7vtAAeW6zo)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Pokemon Go Decoded Protobuf - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/anonymous/077d6dea82d58b8febde54ae9729b1bf <comment><USER2> There are some interesting bits in here, such as that Incense, which attracts Pokemon to your current location, is 5x more effective when you're moving vs standing still.

        Items {
          TemplateId: "ITEM_INCENSE_ORDINARY"
          Item {
            UniqueId: 401
            ItemType: ITEM_TYPE_INCENSE
            Category: ITEM_CATEGORY_INCENSE
            Incense {
              IncenseLifetimeSeconds: 1800
              StandingTimeBetweenEncountersSec: 300
              MovingTimeBetweenEncounterSec: 60
              DistanceRequiredForShorterIntervalMeters: 200
            }
          }
        }</comment>


After Equifax breach, anger but no action in Congress - <AUTHOR> https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/01/equifax-data-breach-congress-action-319631 <comment><USER2> Yeah, that's why I bought Equifax call options a little bit after the breach was announced. Made good money on those options, and it pisses me off. It pisses me off that after an event that should bankrupt a company such as Equifax, I lay hard-earned on the table knowing that I have an extremely good chance of a healthy ROI simply because of vested interests and status quo.

Like other political hot topics, this is one of those things that causes me to ask, "okay, then, how bad _does_ it have to get before populist outrage brings about change?" Something worse happens, and this is the time, right? Nope. And so on from one event to the next.

OTOH, in this case maybe the invalidation of vast amounts of data will alone bring about changes out of necessity. There will probably be a rough patch of lawsuits, debate, and perhaps a new law or two, but perhaps it will eventually shake out something better.

<comment><USER3> I bought EFX after the incident and made a bundle on it too, but I don't share your outrage.

Does the breach call for some punitive response? Definitely. Does it justify destroying a $14B company? No. That's an overly emotional, witch-hunting type of response.

HN of all places should be sympathetic to what happened to Equifax; they neglected to update a framework which had a vulnerability granting full remote code execution. That's game over from an info sec standpoint, and how many developers here can state, with 100% confidence, that every library and every framework and piece of application code in their own work is totally bulletproof and will never fall victim to something similar?

The breach should be used by everyone as a lesson, and as I stated earlier Equifax should receive some punitive action (arguably already delivered by the hit to their stock price and the public floggings from the congressional hearings). But saying that Equifax should be bankrupted by it, or that the executives or developers should be thrown in jail? Be careful what you wish for. Today Equifax, tomorrow you.

<comment><USER4> I think the key part of the outrage against Equifax, and part of why it is more outrageous than most breaches, is not only was customer data revealed, but also data about people who want nothing to do with Equifax. There is no action victims could have taken to avoid this breach.

In most serious breaches, there is a certain amount of "well, you have to be careful who you give your information to..." even though it's not the victims fault. This factor is not present in the Equifax situation. Equifax is allowed to hold and market a product based on data of individuals who never gave consent, but has no responsibility to protect that data or repercussions when they fail.

Arguably this breach has put the final nail in the coffin for using SSN's as secure identifiers. Granted, it was a horrible and mostly-already-broken system to begin with. But I think that this flawed system was still worth in excess of $14B - and Equifax's negligence effectively destroyed that value. I agree bankrupting Equifax would be heavy-handed, but it would be nice to at least see some punitive action that would discourage such negligence in the future and provide an economic disincentive to possessing vast quantities of private data.

<comment><USER5> I'm not an American, so I don't know. How much of Equifax's business and value was driven by credit checks and anything else having to do with SSNs? Because if the whole SSN system had a $14 billion value, which was then destroyed by Equifax's negligence, and Equifax had the majority of its business doing this stuff, wouldn't that make Equifax bankrupt? So either Equifax makes a lot of money doing other stuff, or the $14 billion in value wasn't destroyed by Equifax's negligence. I imagine it's the latter, that SSN is still being used for everything because oil tankers can't change their momentum so quickly. If you meant that SSNs can safely be predicted to be not used for identification a decade or two from now, who's to say this was the catalyst? Any system eventually gets revamped, even government systems, especially if they were already broken in the first place. There are many examples worldwide of ID systems and laws changing all the time. In fact, I just read that majority of states are supposed to require Americans to use a passport for flying now. The Real ID Act? Just a bunch of states were too slow to get it done, so they've been given an extension, but even in the US, there's work being done to revamp identification in some areas. I'm not saying that it's good or bad, I'm saying that it seems to happen eventually. Why wouldn't SSN also change up even if Equifax never happened?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> In other words, there will have to be a bigger, more painful incident before anything gets done. In part, because a large committee composed mostly of lawyers is not probably the right group to even determine what needs to be done, in this particular case.

<comment><USER7> > a large committee composed mostly of lawyers is not probably the right group > to even determine what needs to be done, in this particular case

Whelp... this is who is deciding what gets done in pretty much all cases.

<comment><USER6> True, in regards to laws, but in some cases their expertise helps. For example, tort reform might be an issue where a bunch of lawyers do have relevant expertise that the rest of us lack, to see possible unintended consequences, and also what is possible given the rest of the system.

But, in the case of IT security, their experience and expertise is, at best, not helpful.

<comment><AUTHOR> However, what if keeping customer information secure was a contractual obligation as part of offering products for sale, or services for hire? Isn't a generic concept like that well-understood for lawyers and other people familiar with law?

<comment><USER8> > However, what if keeping customer information secure was a contractual > obligation as part of offering products for sale, or services for hire?

"keeping customer information secure" is not a binary. Most companies that are breached don't know about it until their dat hits the black market. Yahoo! revised their data brach estimates upwards half a dozen times from 100million+ to ~3billion+. The plaintiffs would have to affirmatively prove that a breach happened to the defendant when most defendants don't even know that it happened.

It is even harder to contractually enforce when the victim claims it was a nation-state-actor/APT since no company could hold out against a determined APT indefinitely.

I'm hopeful that cybersecurity insurance policies will move the needle towards accountability and increased prevention (insurance policies will require good- faith efforts at security policies+procedures+tools+employee actions or they won't pay out).

<comment><AUTHOR> OK, what about: If a company storing private customer information gets breached (sufficient evidence is found of said breach), then the company must make itself fully available for a third-party investigation to confirm the existence of said breach. If the third-party investigator finds evidence of a breach, then said breach happened. If not, then there was no breach. If one third-party investigator is an insufficiently reliable number, then what about the best two out of three?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's pretty amazing just how much data Equifax has on consumers. They also own TheWorkNumber which contains data from HR/payroll of any company using the service (everything from pay, title, insurance info, union affiliation etc). I'm not sure what hackers got away with but potentially much more than just some SSNs.

Then there are countless other credit analytics companies hoarding all kinds of other specialized data. It's scary to think about.

As a PSA: check out the list [1] of credit reporting companies that the CFPB puts out. It has the names and contact info for most and you can get copies of your full reports from them upon request (most are either required or do so voluntarily). It's a lot of effort to hit all of them but pretty eye opening and, frankly crazy, to see just how much is tracked. There are databases for how often, and where, you return items to stores/businesses as one example.

[1]([http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201604_cfpb_list-of- consu...](http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201604_cfpb_list-of-consumer- reporting-companies.pdf)) List Of Consumer Reporting Companies

</comment><comment><USER10> Infuriating. We need digital consumer protection laws to put increased pressure on companies to take cyber security seriously.

<comment><USER11> True, but we mainly need a better way to validate identities than information that is easily stolen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> That is because they are attempting to solve the wrong problem

Congress needs to do 3 things

1\. Find away to limit and prohibit SSN from being used for Identity.

2\. Give People Ownership over their PII, end the concept of "who collects it owns it"

3\. Make companies liable for damages when they lose control over PII that is collected

Congress does NOT, should not, and likely can not create rules and regulations to govern data storage, security, etc. They should stop trying as that is not a problem they need to solve nor is it a problem that should be "fixed" in law

</comment><comment><USER13> Given how technically inept and thoroughly entrenched the major institutions of our financial system are, I'm almost at the point where I'm waiting until Russia or North Korea reveals that they've been planting malware for years in all of our major banks and that they're going to go ahead and push a big red button and just take all our money. Or maybe that's already happening and they're being smart by not talking about it.

<comment><USER14> Thankfully since we aren't all using Bitcoin, all such transactions can be reversed.

<comment><USER13> But you can't spend any Bitcoin unless you possess some wallet's secret key. Explain to me how that poses a comparable risk to the egg baskets that are today's financial institutions. If your secret key isn't compromised, there's just no way your coins can be transferred. Furthermore, in the event that any kind of mass fraud takes place which exploits some flaw in the protocol itself (contrasted with a flaw in an exchange platform or something similar), the ledger could be hard-forked. It was done after Ethereum's DAO debacle with /relatively/ little consequence.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Bear in mind we're at an odd time politically where the GOP controls the White House, the House and the Senate.

There is a very small window to essentially pass legislation unchecked and that hasn't been easy with a 52-48 (with a tie breaker) majority in the Senate. We saw several failed attempts at repealing Obamacare.

What's more that majority is about to shrink to 51-49.

My point here is the GOP currently has no time for anything bipartisan. That doesn't mean they'll address this of course. But it's just not as important as the donor class agenda is right now.

Once Doug Jones is seated and we start to approach the midterms expect to see more unifying issues instead of, say, hugely unpopular tax bills for billionaires.

<comment><USER6> Also, eventually, a data breach that inconveniences or outrages a bunch of millionaires will happen.

<comment><USER16> What would that breach look like? I'm asking sincerely, because I can't fathom what kind of data breach that would be that wouldn't be able to be "smoothed" in a mater of days.

\- Black card number stolen? Card frozen.

\- FDIC insured account attempted to be flushed. Banks flag and or fraud protected.

<comment><USER17> FDIC has a per-person insurance liability limit of $250,000 per bank. It's _possible_ you could find an idiot with more than that in a single bank, presumably in CDs, with no other insurance coverage on it. You need some sort of strange reverse Nigerian Prince scheme to cash that out without a paper trail ("I'm executing his will and he explicitly stated to hand out all of his assets, damn the losses, as $20 bills and fresh turkeys to orphans and other passersby on Christmas Day." Maybe call it a "Christmas Carol scheme"?). It's unlikely to be worth the time investment in terms of being a useful bank robbery, but it certainly would send a weird message to someone.

<comment><USER18> No rich person is keeping money unprotected like that. Most banks offer FDIC maximization solutions.

<comment><USER17> Hence the emphasis on "possible". But yes, an exceedingly unlikely confederation of dunces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is it known how many people have actually gotten their identities stolen so far as a result of this attack? I would imagine it would not end up high on Congress's priority list if the number is still low.

<comment><USER11> Known? As of now, 0. Some people are blaming the Equifax breach for identity theft, but it's highly unlikely that was the case, they're just picking the easiest target.

<comment><USER19> How about "known" in the sense of "there's a significant uptick of ID theft cases here after the breach statistically that sure suggests it was the cause, but we obviously can't necessarily pin down any individual cases on any individual breach"?

a.k.a.: how much evidence is there of actual harm having resulted from the breach?

<comment><USER11> Again, pretty much 0. I haven't seen a single reputable report of any statistically significant increases in ID Theft.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Did anyone manage to successfully obtain a police report number as a result of this fuck up by equifax?</comment>


Inside America's deadliest fraternity - <AUTHOR> http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/it-reminded-me-of-guantanamo-bay-it-was-like-torture-inside-americas-deadliest-fraternity-9032072.html

<comment><USER2> Poorly editorialized title.

<comment><USER3> The full title of the article is _' It reminded me of Guantanamo Bay. It was like torture': Inside America's deadliest fraternity_</comment></comment>


Information Consumerism: The Price of Hypocrisy - <AUTHOR> http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/ueberwachung/information-consumerism-the-price-of-hypocrisy-12292374.html <comment><USER2> We begin therefore where they are determined not to end, with the question whether any form of democratic self-government, anywhere, is consistent with the kind of massive, pervasive, surveillance into which the Unites States government has led not only us but the world.

This should not actually be a complicated inquiry.

[http://snowdenandthefuture.info/events.html](http://snowdenandthefuture.info/events.html)

[http://benjamin.sonntag.fr/Moglen-at-Re-Publica-Freedom- of-t...](http://benjamin.sonntag.fr/Moglen-at-Re-Publica-Freedom-of-thought- requires-free-media)

<comment><USER3> It's Sun Tzu 101: information is power. Massive, pre-emptive data warehousing is a weapon of unprecedented scale, which tilts the balance of power between <s>government</s> institutions and citizens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The most striking thing about this article is probably the main image. It almost perfectly captures implicitly all of the outrage of the tech community over the NSA dragnet. All the hypocrisy in one neat picture.

<comment><USER5> I was also struck by that image, but the rest of the article is very good too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> IANAL but I know plenty:

US jurisprudence has a primary flaw when comes to privacy: individuals have no rights to most of their own data. Once it is "out there," it's available to be bought and sold without much limitation. A friend is working on a paper in this area to find a way out of this quagmire, but I think it will take a great outrage (ie a heinous crime) to make any progress.

<comment><USER7> There's a horrid and eroding legal concept called a "reasonable expectation of privacy."

Unfortunately, it is not referred to in the positive in most cases. On the contrary, it is invoked in the negative based on some legal precedent that eliminates that "reasonable expectation."

<comment><USER3> I've long wondered if there isn't a potential legal hack hiding there: Providers that advertise an expectation of privacy, webmail with a "This is a private message" checkbox, those (generally pointless) email footers that clarify that the message is intended for its recipient only, etc. (IANAL...)

Obviously, in the current court system it wouldn't do much good on its own, but it could form the backbone of a single precedent-setting case.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Lorempdf.com – Create sample PDFs quick and easy - <AUTHOR> https://www.lorempdf.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hey! I built a little site to create dummy PDF files. This can be useful for media professionals, especially those working in process automation.

For various reasons you do not want to use real customer data, so you often start up InDesign, create a document with whatever text or image in it and write a PDF from this. Obviously this always takes some time.

To make this process easier, I have finalized lorempdf.com at the weekend. It has been in a "90% done" status for quite some time, but I still had to approve my app for production mode with Unsplash. As I have finally finished this, this little project is good to go.

Read more here: [https://www.flomei.de/en/blog/2020/08/17/lorempdf-create- sam...](https://www.flomei.de/en/blog/2020/08/17/lorempdf-create-sample-pdfs- quick-and-easy/)

Or just give it a try, it's really easy to use. ;-)

Oh, I forgot: Any feedback is welcome, I'm really happy if you used it and write me a few lines on what I could make better.</comment>


_why: "Not all code needs to be a factory, some of it can just be origami." - <AUTHOR> http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/camping-list/2008-May/000719.html

<comment><AUTHOR> _"Instead of saying the obfuscation 'just makes development/releasing harder,' try saying obfuscation 'just makes flippancy/esotericism easier.'"_

— _why / [http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/camping- list/2008-May/000673....](http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/camping- list/2008-May/000673.html)

<comment><USER2> It's gone over a year, and I'm still embarrased of how silly that proposal was.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This reminds me of my favorite _why quote, paraphrased:

"Camping is magic, plus some other stuff."

(camping is an anagram of magicnp)

<comment><USER4> I'd rather say magicpn ;-) (see potion's source)

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> FYI, I'm cleaning up the documentation right now, so we can finally release this thing. It's taken way too long time when you don't have a guy who says "okay, release it!"

</comment><comment><USER5> Indeed, but beware:

Origami = art

Factory = work.

Do you want to make money or art?

<comment><USER6> I would rather make art than money. Money is wasted away on details. But art, oh art, is beautiful. Art can do things that money never can.

<comment><USER7> Just like money can do things art never will ... boring, ugly, world-changing things ... which can be very beautiful.</comment></comment></comment>


Slowpal: Free your transaction history from Paypal Hell - <AUTHOR> https://slowpal.com/

<comment><USER2> Useful if you want to trust your entire PayPal transaction history to another company.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thank god.</comment>


Visiting San Fran – Looking to meet with startups - <AUTHOR>

I am visiting San Fran in Sept this year and I am looking to meet up with some start ups.<p>I am a senior dev/devops engineer that only worked for startups. Currently in Melb, AU might be looking to move to US. <comment><USER2> Have you thought of doing some research? There are lots of startups, but which ones would you be interested in working for? Which ones could benefit from your skills and experience?

Perhaps connecting with people in your field, e.g. through forums for the products / frameworks / languages / whatever you use might open some doors.

You might also want to edit your post, put some information in there that would attract the attention of would-be employers. As it currently stands, I think quite a few people would be put off by it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Typo in title, might want to edit it.

<comment><USER4> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ way to go

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> How do you plan to move to the US?

<comment><USER6> The E3 visa for Australians makes it really easy for us to move to the US.

<comment><USER5> Ah, really? If you don't mind, what degree to you have and what's the 'specialty occupation'?

<comment><USER6> Yeah, sorry - you do need a bachelor's degree. It needs to be somewhat relevant to your job but doesn't have to be exactly - they also take into account your work experience.

For example, I did my bachelor in CS but I'm a designer & that was ok.

"Specialty occupation" just means anything requiring a degree really. So someone wanting to come to the US & get a job in a cafe would likely be void for example.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The quickest way to get things done and make change - <AUTHOR> http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/05/the-quickest-way-to-get-things-done-and-make-change-and.html

<comment><USER2> Thrasymachus is not going to be happy about this.

<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/callicles-thrasymachus/></comment>


What progress can I make on my startup before outsourcing it or finding a CTO? - <AUTHOR> Hello guys, As I believe the era of the napkin pitch is bypassed. Today, most talented technical people are hard to convince to join you in building your startup idea, unless you have enough data and evidence of its success, in other words traction. As a non-technical founder, I'm working currently on my tech startup idea. In fact, I didn't even try looking for a CTO co-founder as I believe there still much work to do from my side as I've built nothing yet, which makes me not entitled to try convince a developer to join me. On the other hand, I'm also thinking of outsourcing the MVP dev to a dev shop but before that, I'm trying to figure out what kind of progress I can make before taking that step. Therefore, would love to get your feedback on this.
Q: What kind of progress and milestones can an idea-stage founder achieve before outsourcing to invest in the dev (financial risk) or having enough data to convince a CTO?
Thanks, <comment><USER2> Validate your idea first. You do not need an MVP or any software for this. Go to businesses/consumers, pitch the product and find if there is a fit. See if they would be willing to sign up for it, what features they need, what makes it compelling to them (is it cost savings, revenue generation etc).

If you can find say 20-30 businesses that say yes then you probably have an idea. If it is consumer focused spend some money on advertising it on social media see what the response is. You can setup a signup page without any technical know how, just some clicking around on a website that generates/hosts landing pages.

Once you have this you have an idea. Then, personally, mock up the idea in some wireframe tool, take it back to users and see what they say. Does it make sense, is it easy to follow are they more likely to buy now. Go back to ones that said no thanks, they are even more important then the ones that said yes. Redesign and evolve this features/wireframe model to something people seem excited about.

So if you do that, by now you have a basic design, an initial feature set and you have defined a market opportunity with real feedback. If you have this you will find people that want to help you make it real.

My 2 cents, do not focus on learning how to write code. Sorry, I love what I do, but almost every time I started a company/project by writing code it fails. When I start with market, people and opportunity I have had 10000 times more success. You can hire your weaknesses. Amazingly engineered products wind up on the floor going no where more then they go somewhere. Why? Simple, they didn't do the market and research first, they built something before understanding the opportunity.

</comment><comment><USER3> If your ambition is to run a software company, you should learn how to write software. There are many programming courses that can teach you enough to build prototype web apps in 2-3 months.

When the startup succeeds and you hire a technical team, knowing how to program will continue to make a huge difference in your ability to recruit and manage that team.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the advice. I do believe it's the case, yet at this stage I'm more likely to focus on the market and the users "Getting outside the building" as Steve Blank coined the term. But I take " building a prototype from your answer ". Do you think there any other milestone(s) to achieve ?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What skills make you a successful SRE - <AUTHOR> Dear HNers,
What are some skills that makes you successful SRE and what's it being in this role and how much stress it is. Last how can you transition from Software Engineer to SRE<p>Lastly why don't companies offer SRE roles as a new grad <comment><USER2> Observing successful SREs in my companies, most of them have the ability to manage their emotions under the extreme pressure of a serious production outage. You might even wonder why they are not stressing out.

If you have not heard of the Google SRE book, I think it is a good introduction to the systems thinking SRE mindset.

At Google, SREs are recruited from the ranks of the best engineers. SRE positions at the top tech companies are typically not offered to new graduates because of the trust and responsibility required. If you want to accelerate the process, join a startup that is Cloud native or an established company that is transitioning to the cloud. These types of companies will be more eager to hire a junior who is teachable and coachable.

[https://landing.google.com/sre/sre- book/chapters/preface/](https://landing.google.com/sre/sre- book/chapters/preface/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Got it thanks for the advice and it makes a lot of sense if company hires a junior they can eventually train them

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I am not an SRE, but in my years of working with them as a developer the unifying trait seems to be the ability to answer all requests with one of the following:

1\. "Not now."

2\. "No."

3\. "Hell no."

4\. "Are you insane? Go away."

(this is sarcasm, it's supposed to be funny, I love you SREs)</comment>


Countries which issue the death penalty for drug trafficking - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_for_drug_trafficking

<comment><USER2> Yeah, I know the point of the post is make the US look just as bad as those other countries, but if you read the explanation, you can clearly see that you won't get the death penalty for just drug trafficking in the US.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a good recent benchmark pitting Flash against Javascript? - <AUTHOR>

I was curious as to whether JS was faster or slower than Flash, what with all the work that's been going into JS recently.<p>Is there a decent benchmark out there comparing the two (across browsers, obviously)? <comment><USER2> <http://bubblemark.com/flex.htm></comment>


Infinity Skirt - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo3SG2iNSXg <comment><AUTHOR> Some more images at [https://imgur.com/a/N8MZd](https://imgur.com/a/N8MZd) (potentially NSFW links)</comment>


Introducing PyTorch across Google Cloud - <AUTHOR> https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ai-machine-learning/introducing-pytorch-across-google-cloud <comment><USER2> If you're looking into getting started with Deep Learning in the cloud/GPUs, I strongly recommend using Google's Deep Learning VMs (either the PyTorch one as described in the article or the TensorFlow variant). It saves a lot of time setting up the CUDA dependency hell, and handles Jupyter administration/security correctly out of the box.

The only bad thing about them is that they don't support preemptible instances out of the box, but I filed a request for that functionality.

<comment> rm_-rf_slash Thank you for introducing me to this. I used Google Cloud with Nvidia GPUs for scientific computing wirh CUDA in the past and found it to be a painless procedure, but knowing there are pre-baked VMs optimized for machine learning makes me feel even better about using Google for ML work.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: How to format self-published eBooks? - <AUTHOR> I'm looking for people who have already published a (technical) eBook to multiple platforms. These platforms need different file formats such as .epub and .mobi.
1) Which tools can you recommend to convert to .epub and .mobi?
2) How do these tools deal with code syntax highlighting? (highlight changed lines of code, format to nice code blocks etc.)
3) What input file format do these tools use?
4) How flexible can you adjust the output in these tools? E.g. you have a longer block of code and don't want to split it up between two pages. <comment><USER2> I use Markdown for everything. If you're interested I have a a free guide that shows you the open source tools I use for releasing pdf, epub, mobi and html books based on Markdown.

The tools I use cover all points in your list.

[https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/configure-your-code-editor- to...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/configure-your-code-editor-to-be-a-very- productive-writing-tool)

</comment><comment><USER3> In order to be able to convert in multiple formats, you need a base format that's universal and well documented: that's text format. But you need to be able to add formatting & more, so the format could be either LaTeX or Markdown.

To convert formats, pandoc[1] looks to be the standard.

[1] [http://pandoc.org/](http://pandoc.org/)</comment>


AOL Lays Off "Double Digit" Number Of Employees - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/14/aol-double-digit-layoffs/

<comment><USER2> _Update: Just for some additional context, it's probably worth pointing out that AOL's headcount as of December 31, 2013, was around 5,100 people._

If double digit means "10-19%", this is significant. If double digit means "Up to 90 people" it's less than 2% and not so significant.

<comment><USER3> Those are some unexpected upper bounds. Any reason you didn't use "10-99%" and "up to 99 people"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this a real news report?

AOL is reporting that AOL may be laying off between 10 and 99 people out of 5,100?

"I've reached out to the company and will update if I hear back." => wat?

</comment><comment><USER5> Is the "digital prophet" one of them?

<comment><USER6> No, he would have seen it coming</comment></comment>


What No One Tells You About Noise Cancelling Headphones - <AUTHOR> https://www.pointchaser.com/noise-cancelling-headphones-ear-pain/ <comment><USER2> This is so strange to read about. I've worn my QC35 (and QC25 before them) almost every day for about 8-10 hours a day, for years, and not once have I experienced any kind of discomfort related to their use. I'm on the completely opposite camp, where I'll sometimes even have them on just for the noise- cancelling effect, but nothing playing. I don't need it (not even surrounded by noise most of the time), I'm just used to it.

To hear that people are feeling "searing ear pain" seems so... weird. These are by far the most comfortable and enjoyable headphones I've had, and they hurt people.

<comment><USER3> I'm really confused, as the author talks about their "searing ear pain" and then says

> When I activated the noise cancelling button, things got worse. The ear pain > got more severe and so did the pain close to my jaw.

I'm really confused as to the claim being specific to noise cancelling headphones given the ear pain happened when that feature was off.

<comment><USER4> I thought the same.

<comment><USER5> I didn't try those specific headphones but another pair I had always had noise cancelation on. The button to turn NC on was actually just turning it up higher.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Google cache link as it won't load for me [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:/...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.pointchaser.com/noise- cancelling-headphones-ear-pain/)

</comment><comment><USER7> > Does everyone else just put up with the discomfort? Noise exposure doesn't > seem as bad as the searing ear pain that comes from wearing noise cancelling > headphones.

Not everyone else gets searing ear pain.

<comment><USER8> Exactly. I've never experienced it from mine, nor have I heard of this problem. No doubt it is real for some, but it isn't that the rest of us are just not telling others about our pain.

<comment><USER9> I've used noise cancelling headphones for thousands of hours by now, luckily no issues. My latest pair is Sony 1000xm3. I love them so much, it would be a huge bummer if I was afffected by the pain issue and had to give them up.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I do not find this. My problem is that my headphones press the upper-half of my ear into my head. After a couple of hours it gets sore. Simply taking the headphones off for a few minutes usually relieves the pain, and I can continue. I think I've got used to it: when I first started using my headphones, my ears would begin to hurt after ~20 minutes.

<comment><USER11> The headphones are too small. For "best results" nothing about the headphones should ever touch any part of your ear. The soft foam padding should surround your ear making a seal with your skull. The 'clamping force' may also be too tight if you get headaches. The desired clamping force should enough to keep everything in-place if you briskly turn your head side-to-side but loose enough to dislodge if you try to turn your head quickly.

Without a real metric/measurement I'd compare it to the 'normal' speed you turn your head to do a should-check-before-turning on a calm sunday drive, vs the 'Quickly twist and look if the monster is still chasing me' shoulder- check.

After 5 seconds you should be able to 'feel' the headphones at all. They should stop existing and you are left with the sweet blissful embrace of your favorite music.

<comment><USER12> I own two larger pairs of headphones. I haven't had issues with clamping force. I agree with the sentiment they shouldn't rest on your ears. The largest pair I can go 10 hours with no complaints

<comment><USER13> Yeah, in the modern era, I can't understand how on-ear headphones made it out of the lab. Walkman days: sure. Today? DIWhy?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I'm not hearing the evidence here. This guy got some headaches and found a bunch of anecdotes to corroborate his account. Are we to believe that noise cancelling headphones can cause ear infections just from this story? There are a lot of potential causes for the discomfort discussed in this article besides the noise cancelling feature, as other commenters have mentioned: headphones too tight, ears too big, etc. And although there very well might be some people that experience negative effects from NC headphones, there is nothing to suggest that everyone else will experience any negative effects. And of course there is no data to be found. The title is unnecessarily aggressive for the content here.

</comment><comment><USER15> Not loading here but [http://web.archive.org/web/20190220061538/https://www.pointc...](http://web.archive.org/web/20190220061538/https://www.pointchaser.com/noise- cancelling-headphones-ear-pain/)

If anyone wants to block outside noise without noise-cancelling algorithms: try in-ear monitors and replace the tips with foam tips designed for isolation (perhaps in a larger size for more sound blocking) - you effectively get a combination earplug/headphone.

<comment><USER16> I definitely prefer noise isolation to noise cancellation. I found a pair of Shure SE215s with Comply Isolation tips perform far better than the Bose QC25s I tried to replace them with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I feel vague pressure when I wear my Bose QuietComforts. like "sitting in an airplane on the initial climb" type pressure. Generally, it's not too bad, though sometimes I get paranoid and wonder if I'm undetectably blowing out my ears by subjecting them to constant ambient counternoise.

<comment><USER18> I get that feeling a little, too, but noise-cancelling headphones have an added bonus for me that makes it all worthwhile: they completely negate my tinnitus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I use earplugs and then put some "can" headphones which reduce the noise that the earplugs need to reject. The big headphones aren't connected to anything but apart from being soft and reducing the noise a lot discourage people from bugging me. I just used this setup on a plane and it worked amazingly well.

As a bonus the foam plugs _touch_ the headphones so if I _do_ choose to play something it is nice and clear.

(Same as the author, I use some Beats Solo 3 that I picked up in an Apple freebie givaway)

</comment><comment><USER20> I don't own any , but I think it's harsh low frequency stuff. Sound pressure, even if you don't hear it.

When I tried them it felt the same as low frequencies on expensive speakers. Expensive speakers are prone to cause listening fatigue, while the cause is not certain, any audio-guy can tell you about it.

from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_fatigue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_fatigue) :

"Listener fatigue (also known as listening fatigue or ear fatigue) is a phenomenon that occurs after prolonged exposure to an auditory stimulus. Symptoms include tiredness, discomfort, pain, and loss of sensitivity. Listener fatigue is not a clinically recognized state, but is a term used by many professionals. The cause for listener fatigue is still not yet fully understood. It is thought to be an extension of the quantifiable psychological perception of sound. Common groups at risk of becoming victim to this phenomenon include avid listeners of music and others who listen or work with loud noise on a constant basis, such as musicians, construction workers and military personnel." (and open-office workers....)

</comment><comment><USER21> I have these headphones and definitely feel a weird pressure that I don't like whenever I have noise canceling on, so I keep it turned off or the setting very low.

</comment><comment><USER22> Some headphones mechanically clamp too tightly and your head will hurt after a while. Another possible reason is that the sustained weight of the wireless+noise canceling headphones eventually injured the author's neck muscle, similar to stiff neck.

Sample size of 1: My old man's pretty happy with the Sony XM2 (Bose QC35's only competitor) and hasn't experience any pain.

</comment><comment><USER23> My QC25's make me feel like my ears are blocked or pressurised in the same way you experience when travelling in an elevator. I find myself intentionally swallowing out of instinct. Not quite headache inducing but definitely feels weird until I get used to it each time

</comment><comment><USER24> I can't say I've ever had trouble with wearing noise cancelling headphones. I wear a pair every weekday for about an hour or so while I walk outside (my walking path is right next to a highway and the constant sound of cars zooming by makes it very difficult for me to relax), although admittedly they're a much cheaper pair than Bose.

Ear fatigue itself is something I'm intimately acquainted with, however. I have a couple of daily cans I use around the house, all over-ear, and pretty much none of them can stay on for more than an hour or two without causing my ears some level of discomfort. I don't know how anyone can stand on-ear headphones--those are agony after just 15 minutes or so. Maybe I have large ears.

</comment><comment><USER25> This is the first time I've noticed someone has had a similar experience to mine with noise-cancelling headphones.

I first tried them years and years ago, and noticed a weird "pressure" feeling when I put them on.

I just figured they were not for me and concentrated on earplugs, earbuds and over-the-ear closed earphones.

For earplugs, the 3M classic superfit 33 earplugs (33 nrr) are comfortable and quiet.

For earbuds, any klipsch in-ear headphones with the oval silicone insert works well - comfortable and an excellent seal.

</comment><comment><USER26> I wonder if it correlates with feeling ear pain during airplane landings?

<comment><USER27> Ear pain during plane landings has to to with an increase in air pressure in the cabin causing a disequilibrium.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you consider that you hear sound (waves) carrying a certain frequency and amplitude, this sound has a total energy. Add anti noise to it and you add additional energy. Of course the energy has to go somewhere, while it propagates through air basically the air molecules carry it. Of course then it goes into your body. Wave Physics 101, you can look it up when you google for destructive interference.

Of course that's just Physics and not Biology/Medicine. I'd be curious to hear more about it.

</comment><comment><USER29> I wonder if this same very low frequency noise from wind farms (those huge swirling electricity generators) is the thing that seems to aggravate some people (and animals) in a similar manner?

</comment><comment><USER30> I've had weird ear pains before with old NC technology but haven't had the problem with the new Sony or Bose headphones. I highly recommend the author to try the new Sony XM3. Blows away both the XM2 and QC35 in terms of comfort and NC.

</comment><comment><USER31> The article doesn't seem to point out that this only happens to some people.

I don't have this issue. But yeah there should be refund policies in place for people who are affected.

</comment><comment><USER32> I wear my Sennheiser PXC 550 most days for more than 8 hours a day. I've never had pain or discomfort from it.

</comment><comment><USER33> This happened to me, had to return them :(

</comment><comment><USER34> I only wear mine while on a plane — the environment is sufficiently hostile that they can't make it worse.

</comment><comment><USER35> Maybe off topic , but this feels like a crypto marketing article.

<comment><USER36> This reads like a SEO article for "Bose QuietComfort 35" (just count how often it is needlessly spelled out) and - oh wonder - contains referral links to the same product they warn against in the article.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> The clickbait title should be changed.</comment>


Command Line Network Diagnostic Tool – v0.2.1 New Feature: LAN Discovery - <AUTHOR> myLG, my looking glass is open source software utility which combines the functions of the different network probes in one network diagnostic tool.
http://mylg.io
https://github.com/mehrdadrad/mylg
Features:
Popular looking glasses (ping/trace/bgp) like Telia, Level3
More than 200 countries DNS Lookup information
Local fast ping and trace
Packet analyzer - TCP/IP and other packets
Local HTTP/HTTPS ping (GET, POST, HEAD)
RIPE information (ASN, IP/CIDR)
PeeringDB information
Port scanning fast
Network LAN Discovery
Web dashboard
Support vi and emacs mode, almost all basic features
CLI auto complete and history features <comment><USER2> The "proper" way to show this off (and ask for feedback) is "Show HN", but not for every new little feature and not three times in a week.

At least you stopped creating new fake accounts to upvote and comment on your submission, though [0].

[0]: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12183536](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12183536)</comment>


Uber lays off 3700 employees via Zoom - <AUTHOR> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8301471/Watch-3-500-Uber-employees-told-laid-three-minute-ZOOM-call.html <comment> drevil-v2 > 'They were going based on a lottery, like Russian roulette. The severance > package is generous, but they're treating us like they treat the drivers,' > she continued, referring to Uber's less than stellar reputation in fairly > compensating their independent contractors.

Maybe I am old but it seems to me that woman is super entitled. By her own words the severance package is generous; what else does she want?

<comment><USER2> >but they're treating us like they treat the drivers.

So it's fine to treat drivers bad?

Who enabled this treatment of drivers?

I prefer being fired/layed off through a text message, it will save me not having to make weird faces and hide emotions when dealing with the person who laid me off.

<comment><USER3> Why save them the emotional torment? They should feel uncomfortable

<comment><USER4> some poor HR person? it's their job...

<comment><USER5> It's not some poor HR person. The HR person loves to fire people, for lots of different reasons. Here are just three reasons.

1\. The HR person craves drama. They live for it. It's the reason they are an HR person. Firing people is drama.

2\. Firing people gives the the HR person a sense of power over others and sense of being important. They are really just doing the bidding of someone higher up, but that is why it makes them feel important because they are "in the know" when most others are not.

3\. It gives them a feeling of being in control and immune to being fired since they often manipulate and control the outcomes.

If someone wanted to help people then they wouldn't have chosen HR as a profession. HR isn't there to help the employees. They are there to help and protect the company.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Maybe it's almost a good sign it's only 14% of the company -- I don't know anyone that's been taking Ubers since March

</comment><comment><USER6> > 'Apparently someone at the CEO level leaked that this was gonna happen, so > they expedited it.'

> The employee tells DailyMail.com that more layoffs at Uber are expected.

Leaks at the executive level + lack of trust by employees for the future means those who can leave will. This part is a problem of their own making.

</comment><comment><USER7> > They're treating us like they treat the drivers

I feel even more uncomfortable reading this sentence.

Maybe I'm overreacted but feels like many historical political events like "We help them deal with <an ethnic group>. But we didn't expect they treating us the same way after that."

</comment><comment><USER8> Some tech companies are simply not sustainable and won't last a year in the new reality.

<comment><USER9> Uber has $8B in cash.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, but for how long?

s/1/10/

<comment><USER9> As with running away from the bear, they just need to outrun the other guy.

How long does Lyft have? When can Uber raise its prices to become EBITDA positive?

<comment><USER10> Wall St was pleased with Lyft's growth, not pleased with Uber's growth but did not see surprises.

Easier to impress when you start from a smaller amount and don't have a bunch of pet projects to shed.

People are obsessed with this rideshare/gig economy winner take all idea almost like they have to believe it... actually that explains a lot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That is one horrible website, I can't believe that garbage was posted on HN.

<comment><USER12> Surely theres a better source for this news than this sort of tabloid trash? Just looking at the article's title - it's so sensationalist and clickbaity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This remind me movie: Up in the air where George Cloney and the company he works for want to lay of people using Cisco Webex.

</comment><comment><USER14> Well, I'd rather get laid off over zoom than email, also, I was laid off in 3 minutes in-person. Is that better? I would have preferred they just called me that morning so i could have stayed home. Maybe that's just me. It sucks to be laid off any way you look at it.

<comment><USER15> Laid off, one-on-one, over Zoom would be okay with me. Then I could ask questions that are specific to me and (hopefully) get answers.

A mass call with thousands of people though? I don't see how that's ever okay.

<comment><USER16> Presumably there is a lot of management being laid off as well that managed those 3,500 people. There probably isn't enough HR to manage that volume of layoffs 1:1. No point in dragging it out over multiple days, dealing with rumors, etc.

I watched the call in the article. Given the severance they're getting I think they did the most humane thing possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Zoom or not the news is bad. In person probably is worse, the decision is final.

</comment><comment><USER18> I really don't get this criticism of "laying off over Zoom." What are they supposed to do, visit them in person at their home and infect them with Covid while laying them off? All meetings are over Zoom now.

<comment><USER19> A manager 1:1 or immediate-working-team video call would have been more respectful way to end a working relationship, no? Something that includes some amount of personal communication/conversation rather than a mass broadcast anonymous message?

Treating someone as a person, rather than a resource. If it were happening to you, what would you hope for?

<comment><USER20> I'd be happy with the generous severance package and move on with my life. But do you honestly care about a generic exit interview? Do you think any employer cares that much? Seems like a total waste of time for everyone involved given the circumstances.

<comment><USER10> I honestly don't think these are issues, they get some journalist to find the one person in 3700 complaining on twitter</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Microsoft makes it official: We're all in with Android | Computerworld Blogs - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.computerworld.com/windows-phone/23604/microsoft-makes-it-official-were-all-android <comment><USER2> >Any doubt that Microsoft sees Android as an important part of its future should be erased with a just-announced deal with an Indian handset maker to manufacture dual-boot Windows-Android phones, and with Microsoft asking HTC to include Windows Phone as a dual-boot option on its Android phones.

It sounds more like they're making a phone suited to what people in India want than completely giving up on a platform they invested so much time and money in.

</comment><comment><USER3> Cheap trick to boost Windows Phone market share numbers?</comment>