Cluster-Level Container Deployment with Fleet - <AUTHOR> http://coreos.com/blog/cluster-level-container-orchestration/ <comment><USER2> Interesting to see how this evolves in comparison to Apache Mesos/YARN. There are definitely similarities with etcd<->zookeeper, fleet<->mesos, docker<->cgroups...

<comment><USER3> There are a few efforts to support docker (and other) containers in Mesos under ([https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MESOS-816](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MESOS-816))

As part of this, a couple of new docker efforts were released today:

[https://github.com/tarnfeld/mesos-docker- containerizer](https://github.com/tarnfeld/mesos-docker-containerizer)

[https://github.com/mesosphere/medea](https://github.com/mesosphere/medea)

I'm pretty excited to see fleet. These types of distributed systems are a natural complement for containerized infrastructure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Do you guys have any idea how to support docker containers that are going to use persistance (like database containers)? Or is fleet to low level for that and do you expect higher level tools to supply information like that in meta data?

Very interesting stuff!

<comment><AUTHOR> We're leaving it up to the user. Ideally this is a replicated database that handles failover automatically, but it can be an attached storage device, NFS share, etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I see this and think: "another from scratch distributed system without proven reliability/stability". Personally I use corosync/pacemaker for my container orchestration.

<comment><USER6> I've heard of those systems but never knew anyone who used them. Any good writeups or demos to try?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I think the big gap with docker is logging. If you're going down the coreos route you'd probably want your logs centralising somewhere. That means that you need to configure your containers to run something like supervisord and rsyslog to log to a remote server which is a bit of a hassle, especially if you were making use of public images since you'll need to add all this boilerplate in yourself and rebuild the images.

Alternatively I guess you could log to the host if there are config options to log directly to syslog and you could then ship them from there.

I spent a couple of weeks writing a python app and the same again trying to sort out a flexible logging system. Ah well, I guess it's still under development, but it'd be great if they prioritised this since it's one of the major things stopping me using docker (and obviously I'm so important they should reprioritise around me!)

I really wish coreos was bundled with a package manager though. Not having telnet or the ability to apt-get install things easily makes any sort of debugging and real-world use infeasible for me... :-(

<comment><AUTHOR> Does the current systemd journal not work for you today? On CoreOS, your app outputs to stdout which should log into docker which feeds logs into the journal which fleet exposes with fleetctl journal myapp.unit.

I realize that this isn't a proper logging product or anything, but it should be enough to hold you over. If this isn't working for you or you have a different use-case, hop in #coreos on Freenode and we can try to figure something out.

<comment><USER8> I've been looking into using logstash similar to how it's described here [http://denibertovic.com/post/docker-and-logstash-smarter- log...](http://denibertovic.com/post/docker-and-logstash-smarter-log- management-for-your-containers/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Note that this is not the same fleet as (also a deployment tool): [https://github.com/substack/fleet](https://github.com/substack/fleet)

</comment><comment><USER10> I love this.

How are (non-public) Docker images handled (as in where are they stored)?

Do they need to be built on each machine before use?

<comment><AUTHOR> If you run a private index (ex. index.mycompany.com) docker will automatically fetch it just like the public index. Protecting this index/registry with authentication is an entirely different beast though...

In a unit file, you would substitute `docker run coreos/subgun` with docker run index.mycompany.com:1234/subgun`. Docker handles the rest as long it can communicate with that network address.</comment></comment>


Microsoft ends support for Windows XP and Office 2003 - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/04/08/microsoft-ends-support-windows-xp-office-2003/ <comment><USER2> Except for our government who are paying MS an exorbitant amount of money to keep support up... [http://www.zdnet.com/dutch-government-pays-millions-to- exten...](http://www.zdnet.com/dutch-government-pays-millions-to-extend- microsoft-xp-support-7000028116/)

<comment><USER3> You are not alone. The UK government is doing something similar.

[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/07/uk- governm...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/07/uk-government- microsoft-windows-xp-public-sector)

<comment><USER4> Looks like Microsoft dropped the ball on this one - it's a government, they could probably have charged billions. Hopefully, the UK government will realise this, and either a) go open source b) get their house in order much earlier next time.

<comment><USER5> How open source will fix it for an organization that can't bother to move from a decade old operating system? In 10 years we'll reading about the UK govt having trouble moving away from Ubuntu LTS 14.04.

They only have option b) if they won't to avoid this in the future. Open source or not.

<comment><USER4> Upgrading an OS OS is a lot cheaper than upgrading a proprietary one.

<comment><USER6> Yep, if they run into any issues, just post to the Ubuntu forums, and lazer420 will tell you how to fix it!

<comment><USER7> Or there's always the paid Canonical support. But the thought of David Cameron hunched over a laptop having some tea and getting assistance from lazer420 in saving the NHS from the next heartbleed is priceless.

<comment><USER8> No, they ask their IT department. The difference being, they can fix issues with the OS themselves (or hire someone to). With something closed like Windows, there's only one place to go for support.

<comment><USER6> If you are a major customer, like many national governments are, you can get the source code to a lot of Windows.

<comment><USER9> Access to the source code is one thing, but you'd need also developers who are familiar enough with the source to be able to actually make changes. With OSS, there is a large community from which you recruit these folks, with Windows, not so much (outside of MS).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, which is essentially a stripped down Windows XP SP3, will be supported with security updates until 2019. Realistically, as an individual you can't buy it but as far as I can tell you can use the evaluation version ([http://www.microsoft.com/en- us/download/details.aspx?id=1119...](http://www.microsoft.com/en- us/download/details.aspx?id=11196)) for up to 120 days for free, which may be useful for VMs and the like.

</comment><comment><USER11> Where I work we still have business specific apps that run only on XP and our suppliers have no plan on upgrading them (unless we fund the entire project, which they will happily resell full price to over companies).

This is a clear example of what the lack of competition does

<comment><USER12> What makes them specific to XP instead of just Windows?

<comment><USER13> Probably code that relies on implementation details and only works by coincidence.

We had a bug in our application that only manifested on Windows 8 and later.

The problem was that we were passing NULL instead of some other sentinel value (MSDN said to use a specific sentinel value). XP/Vista/7 took NULL anyway and the effect was the same as the sentinel value but in Windows 8 it did something different.

<comment><USER14> I remember Microsoft had "strict" builds of libraries (and Windows itself, IIRC) that did parameter checks. You would boot the machine with that software and run your program (more slowly) and some functions that would work on a consumer OS would generate errors on it.

Do they still do it?

<comment><USER13> Yes, you can download the checked build from the MSDN Subscriber Downloads.

But last time I checked the .NET Framework abused some Win32 API calls [1] so if you had some WinForms application you'd end up with loads of errors in code that wasn't yours.

Might be fixed, it's been a while since I looked.

[1] [http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/3...](http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/306816/system- windows-forms-control-wmpaint-always-calls-beginpaint)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Technically security updates are released at 10am PST on Patch Tuesday. [http://amirunningxp.com/](http://amirunningxp.com/) got this wrong (they used midnight instead).

<comment><USER16> It prints "You are NOT running Windows XP" on x64 XP.

<comment><USER15> That is because it is actually based on Server 2003.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I would like to read an article about whether or not an up-to-date anti-virus is going to protect users (how and why) as a lot of IT people defend that position.

<comment><USER8> Exactly. Any AV worth it's salt should pick up something that a security update should have fixed.

<comment><USER17> But that's the catch: I am not convinced AV vendors have the resources, the complete knowledge and the access to Windows inner workings to fill in MS role.

And what about the legal rights ? Would they be allowed to patch a security kernel breach, or a lib, made up of closed proprietary code in binary format (an extreme and unlikely case but that's what I read when IT people tell users "we'll just use an anti-virus to circumvent the lack of MS updates") ?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Which versions of Internet Explorer are supported on Windows beyond XP? Is it now 'officially' impossible to support IE6 users anymore?

<comment><USER18> The IE6 compatibility issue should be mostly a thing of the past now, except for some corporate settings and china. But I feel IE8 will stay with us for a long time with a few annoying percentage points that can't always be ignored - and by now it's almost as bad as IE6 was 8 years ago. The only thing that makes the situation better than before is the much higher adoption of FF and Chrome, which at least keeps IE8 users at single digit rates for consumer websites.

<comment><USER19> Why would 8 be a problem? There is nothing supported that can't run higher and the situation that made IE6 end up being so entrenched, that MS sat on IE development for so long and IE6 was the only IE for many years, didn't happen with anything after that.

<comment><USER20> IE8 is a problem because many big enterprises still run it. I know of several big US corporations that, even though they run Windows 7 now, still deploy it with IE8 for compatibility with legacy applications.

Once you start dealing with big corporations, it's not as simple as "oh it's time to update".

<comment><USER19> Unless you're targeting enterprise customers, is that really much of a problem?

<comment><USER18> It's not just enterprise. For consumer websites the usage is going to hover around 3-5% (IE6,7,8 combined) for a long time - if you target less technically inclined people probably more. Tablets and Smartphones probably help more than Win7+ adoption in that area, but there's still going to be a significant amount of people using browsers on older computers.

<comment><USER19> > hover around 3-5% (IE6,7,8 combined)

I do not see the point of worrying about this. If enterprise (put forward as the major user of these) is the worry then you might have to care. If it's random users that just don't feel like running Windows Update, well, these people aren't going to be spending much money anyway.

Worrying about [insert version of IE here] hanging around forever seems to be nothing but complaining for the sake of complaining now that IE6 is completely out of the picture.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> > Internet Explorer 8 was released on October 25, 2001.

... That's not right.

<comment><USER15> Yea, it was IE6 that was released when XP RTMed.

<comment><USER22> Was it? I thought XP used IE 5.5.

EDIT: My bad, it didn't.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Today On April 8 2014, the decade long support from Microsoft for Windows XP will be terminated. This means no more security updates, patches, or technical support for the popular OS, which is still running on 30% of all computers. It's very interesting to see how it affect the XP user who are using it, after the end of XP support era. Research by EHI intelligence revels that 85% of England's healthcare system IT systems were still using Windows XP.

<comment><USER24> That's an English healthcare IT problem, not something you can blame MS for. And let's face it, IT project management and risk management has never been stellar in the NHS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> While I don't blame Microsoft for ending support (they have been very accomodating already), but I find it strange of them to leave so many users stranded. Especially now there's several alternatives to Windows, all requiring a similar learning curve and migration pains to that of moving to Windows 7 or 8.

Personally, when people have asked me about it I usually point them to Linux Mint, using their existing computer - not because I'm a fan of Linux, but I'd feel bad advising them to spend 100's on a new computer, when their current one works perfectly (physically).

Apart from someone who plays The Sims 2, I've had no complaints.

<comment><USER25> Most people don't realize it but Apple does this all the time. Goos luck running most 5+ year old mac on the latest Mac OS X ;)

<comment><USER4> OS X Mavericks today runs on some machines that are 7 years old. True, that's still not great, but better than you claimed.

<comment><USER25> Define "some". The percentage is very low even at the 5 year mark ;)

<comment><USER4> Seriously? More than the "none" which the original post implied.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I've heard a few people saying that they're staying with Windows XP in their company internally. The idea being that as the internal computers share a single access point to the Internet that they can filter everything incoming there.

This doesn't really sound correct and obviously it won't help for physically bringing in USB sticks etc but I'm still interested to know what others think here?

Is there about to be a large number of 3rd party firewalls trying to protect internet computers from Windows XP exploits?

<comment><USER27> Malware detection in a firewall/proxy is already very common. See Blue Coat, FireEye etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> We have internal web based apps that require IE 7 and Windows XP due to Active X controls. We've moved to Windows 7 with virtual XP machines. To prevent internet access we've stopped any traffic at the firewall with the virtual machines.

We think this will work to prevent internet based attacks, but realize we're still vulnerable to physical attacks through media. It was the best we can do given our reliance on the older system.

Any other holes in this other than the physical issue?

</comment><comment><USER29> Interesting, the company I work for has made a real push to get off of XP, but not a peep about Office 2003. I guess they don't want to spend that money.

</comment><comment><USER30> Time to switch to Linux on old PCs.

<comment><USER31> uh, no.

Quite a few people on XP are there because its what they know. It also is all they need. Personal example, I would love to replace my mom's computer but she likes her version of Office which was the version we installed when she obtained her PC, which runs XP. I suspect she isn't alone in not wanting to change something that works.

For many people tech is just the annoyance they have to put with to do what they want to do. Top that off with hundred dollar or more to upgrade and why should people do it? At least Apple got it right, FINALLY, after many years of charging for OS upgrades to not doing so.

Having helped organizations with donated computers I am not sure there is a real alternative. Linux? Really? Its hard enough sourcing decent used machines for people, I certainly am not game to loading Linux and then teaching them to use it. Perhaps if there were one install and software was available at the store... do you understand?

<comment><USER4> So you're going to leave your non-technical mom using an unpatched OS connected to the public Internet? Let me know how that works out.

<comment><USER32> Yeah, that's pretty much the current situation anyway with a lot of folks.

<comment><USER4> Would be interesting to know. Based on anecdotal reports, I would guess that we are now today in a situation in which more people than ever are running an unpatched, Internet-connected computer - I'm hypothesising that XP is by far the most 'un-upgraded' OS we've had since mass adoption of the Internet.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> This should not be news for hackers

<comment><USER13> I believe there are a lot of people here interested in dropping support for IE8 and this is just one more nail in the coffin.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Dear Microsoft, please open source WinXP.

<comment><USER35> That is never going to happen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Microsoft ends support for Windows XP to prevent noobs from using IE6.

</comment><comment><USER37> "Alternatively, you can choose to use a different operating system, such as one of the many Linux variants, or even purchase a new computer running OS X or Chrome OS. If you prefer mobile operating systems as a replacement to your machine, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry OS are all viable options, but you'll naturally have to buy a new device."

I really appreciated this comment and the following part about IE8 and Chrome. Well done MS.

<comment><USER38> The article isn't written by anyone at MS.

<comment><USER37> You're right, my bad 😊 lol, that was a bit too open eh ?</comment></comment></comment>


Europe's record heat melted Swiss glaciers - <AUTHOR> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/08/europes-record-heat-melted-swiss-glaciers <comment><USER2> Is there anyone that has attempted to make an interactive map where you can see when the latest record temperature was set or something along those lines? It seems like records are being set every other day, which might not be very surprising considering the changes being done to our climate.

<comment><USER3> I follow the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extent on nsidc.org:

Arctic warms the most when the climate change happens, it is expected that we'll see there the most of records most often broken.

Overview:

[https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/](https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/)

The interactive charting:

[https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive- sea-...](https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice- graph/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's an opportunity to find more people like Ötzi the iceman. Move quickly.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi)

</comment><comment><USER5> surely 2 weeks is not a heat wave? a heat wave lasts 2-3 days

<comment><USER6> It's always meant a week upwards for me, but I guess it probably varies regionally what people expect it to mean.</comment></comment>


Hans Reiser - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser <comment><USER2> Probably posted because of _" with a tentative parole eligibility date of January 2020."_</comment>


Google faces $50 million lawsuit over Android location tracking - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/google-faces-50-million-lawsuit-over-android-location-tracking.ars <comment><USER2> Summary: Android users can opt-in to having cell/wifi info tagged and reported hourly. Said opt-in is not clearly called out as including position reporting of this nature.

Its more invasive than iOS's tracking, in that its reported more frequently And it is tagged to the particular device id.</comment>


Our World Is Going Full 'Black Mirror' - <AUTHOR> https://backchannel.com/our-world-is-going-full-black-mirror-946212a98184#.5qhncp8nz <comment><USER2> This basically is a set of summarizations of episodes Black Mirror. You should really watch Black Mirror before you read this piece. The idea of good SciFi is that is supposed to parallel reality so that you can suspend your disbelief and all the article does is attempt to make those connections that the authors put in intentionally.

</comment><comment><USER3> I remember asking someone why Cyberpunk died and he said, a dystopian and orwellian future where we lose our individuality in favor of technical advancement? Why would anyone be interested in that as fiction, it's what we're living today.

<comment><USER4> The great purge on twitter has begun. [http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/11/15/twitter-s...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/11/15/twitter- suspends-alt-right-accounts/93943194/)

<comment><USER5> A few days late and dollars short there.

Meanwhile, it's not the partisan purge you think it is:

Kevin Allred posted "would conservatives care as much abt the 2nd amendment if guns killed more white people? a question meant to expose double standard" [https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798751660340195328](https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798751660340195328)

and gets the police coming to him [https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798729156557205504](https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798729156557205504) and twitter ordering him to take it down (but not the quote??) [https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798925131288641536](https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798925131288641536)

<comment><USER6> Is there more to this story? I'm blown away. That's insane and very troubling.

EDIT: It seems that the poster above may have left out some important details. According to an alleged screenshot linked below, the tweet actually said: "Will the 2nd amendment be as cool when _I_ buy a gun start shooting at random white people?"

This is not obviously just an abstract political point. It could understandably be interpreted as a direct threat.

<comment><USER7> [https://twitter.com/Travesham/status/798941639909609472](https://twitter.com/Travesham/status/798941639909609472)

Here are the since deleted tweets. I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

<comment><USER5> How do we know those are the actual deleted tweets?

(Now we have a truth problem don't we? I could be lying, the guy posting the screenshots could be lying, the original poster could be lying. Turtles all the way down)

I mean, there's some MSM coverage of this which says essentially what I did: [http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rutgers-professor- psych-...](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rutgers-professor-psych-eval- threatening-tweets-article-1.2875736)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > in the past week, as we reel from the 2016 presidential election

Unless of course, you voted for him.

I'm just gonna leave this here, he says it better than I could:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLG9g7BcjKs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLG9g7BcjKs)

<comment><USER9> A lot of Trump voters did it just to spite liberals. Small things like whether the candidate would do a good job running the government didn't really enter into the picture because hate of "the other side" is the only thing that mattered.

And it continues now, I was just reading someone saying that the choice of Bannon is great because it upset liberals. Apparently that's the only qualification you need to run the government of the world's largest economy and military.

This logic, if liberals hate it it is good, is going to be the ruin of the republic.

<comment><USER10> I like liberals. I am a liberal. Even still, I voted Trump, because of how corrupt the Clintons are.

<comment><USER11> You may want to reevaluate your stance after you look more closely at the evidence. For example, the supposed "smoking gun" emails about her rigging the primary. Do you know what everyone failed to report on those? The date the emails were sent. They were all sent _after_ Sanders had already lost. Clinton was already the nominee. Of course they would talk about how they are going to help her in the general -- because she was already the candidate.

It was important details like that that were intentionally left out of the reporting to make her look worse.

Edit: Not that it should matter, but I voted for and contributed to the Sanders campaign. I wanted him to win, but I also believe in facts.

<comment><USER12> Why then were some of them about targeting Bernie Sanders re: his Jewishness, for example?

I downvoted you for a very good reason.

<comment><USER11> Because he had already lost and they were trying to get him out of the race because at that point he was just dragging the party down. Using his Jewishness was wrong, but not corrupt.

<comment><USER13> What about the one discussing getting the New York primary moved up if Clinton were to get a big challenger so that she could get an early victory and kill that momentum? What about the ones discussing moving the Illinois primary back so that moderate republicans could not get early victories (and further the narrative that the right is extremist)? And what about the ones where Donna Brazile fed debate questions? And what about the ones showing clear collusion across the board with the media to appease Clinton and push the preferred narrative against her competition?

Were any of those indicative of corruption?

<comment><USER11> As someone who works in IT, I know how easy it is to forge emails. So far all those emails have been denied by their senders.

Using DKIM to "prove" they are real only works if you assume the attacker doesn't have access to the private key. If someone hacked the mail server, then they probably have the private key.

I'm saying it didn't happen, but I'm saying that everyone needs to be a little more critical in their analysis of the "evidence" presented.

<comment><USER10> You're right that the emails could have been forged. I take this as a serious possibility.

You say that "all those emails have been denied by their senders". I'm not sure what you're referring to. Would you mind linking it? I've been following the news rather closely, and I've never heard any sender of a leaked email say something to the effect of "I did not send this". The only thing they say is that they won't comment on veracity.

Also, the Wikileaks organization has never leaked forged documents before and have never lied. The Clintons and their cronies are caught in lies repeatedly. While it's not proof, you have to take things like credibility into account when evaluating who's lying _this_ time.

However, for me, my mind was already made up before any emails were leaked based on the Clintons' previous scandals. If it were proven that the email leaks were entirely fabricated, I would definitely update my opinion of Wikileaks, but my opinion of the Clintons would remain unchanged.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Myself I prefer optimistic SF such as classic Asimov and Clarke. I don't mind things going wrong because mistakes are normal. But there ought to be resolution and problems solved by hard-won knowledge and the efforts of good people. If you think that is immoral or unrealistic consider whether you would read your children bedtime stories with no good guys and/or no happy endings. Consider how such children might grow up. Then consider the effect on society of unrelenting pessimism in SF.

</comment><comment><USER15> Scifi has always been a source of "what-if" predictions, warning us of potential failure modes of new technologies. (As Larry Niven said, it's not enough to predict the car, you have to predict the traffic jam.) It's not surprising that we didn't heed every warning.

<comment><USER16> I can only guess that Black Mirror coming to Netflix is the first time a lot of people have ever seen decent science fiction. Before that it was what, Battlestar Galactica?, which is basically a soap opera with b-roll of a spaceship.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The Waldo moment would be used to compare any iconoclast in this marketing article. Trump is just the most well-known target of the day.

</comment><comment><USER18> Is this an advertisement for black mirror? All I see is one intro paragraph bashing Trump and then a summary of popular episodes. Nice stealth advertisement.

<comment><USER19> Bit of an anti-advertisement: the article contains spoilers for a lot of the episodes, making watching them for the twist a bit pointless.

I still want to watch Black Mirror at some point; I'm lucky that I have a terrible memory for spoilers ;)

<comment><USER20> there is close to none twist in them, apart a couple, you really know where they are going

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Oh man, Black Mirror is becoming the highbrow version of Harry Potter/Game of Thrones metaphors.

</comment><comment><USER22> After watching S3E1 "Nosedive" : [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5497778/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5497778/)

It was eerie to watch a video about Klout score : [https://klout.com/corp/score](https://klout.com/corp/score)

The guy mentioned how people with high Klout scores would get free upgrades, etc.

</comment><comment> at-fates-hands >> in the past week, as we reel from the 2016 presidential election, the world of Black Mirror seems nearer than ever to our current reality—less a warning than a crystal ball.

Not everyone is "reeling" from the presidential election and choosing now to look at the parallels because of it is, well, a bit myopic considering this things have been taking place for so long that suddenly they just realized there were a ton of parallels between the show and reality?

</comment><comment> hash-set I fail to see the connection to Trump, frankly. The world over, people are getting sick of elitists, oligarchs, and a crony system that is impoverishing them while making hollow promises. It's all very obvious why these nascent populist movements have come about. Only the hard left doesn't get it.

<comment><USER23> If you think the Trump administration won't AT BEST be the most crony capitalist administration that has ever existed with a high degree of nepotism thrown in for good measure, then you haven't been paying attention to the transition so far.

<comment><USER24> Neither have you. I suggest you refresh your browser because the situation is dveeloping by the day, from Christie, to letting Christie make picks, to booting Christie, to then booting everyone he picked... things are changing fast.

<comment><USER25> And i hate to deviate.. but.. by all reports, Jared Kushner kicked Christie off.

Jared Kushner's dad was jailed by Chris Christie...[1]

But sure, go on about that not paying attention part...

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I think Black Mirror is a terrible ham-fisted show. The assertion by the article that real life is coming close to the worlds of black mirror is ridiculous.

<comment><USER27> Holy Crap someone else doesn't get the hype for that show. It isn't just me.

I find it pretty shallow as well. People compare it to the Twilight Zone all the time and I really can't see it. Black Mirror isn't really as deep and it deals with the issues it tries to examine pretty poorly.

<comment><USER28> I had no idea downvotes were used for blocking negative reviews of our fav shows. Have an up.

BTW, never seen he show, came here to get some edification. What I got is more one-sided equality for all who agree and a lot of people who see the future b/c the media told them which portents are truer than others.

<comment><USER29> What? The criticisms that are getting downvoted are pure assertions with no reasoning to back them up. I'm pretty sure that if these posters had provided more than 1 line proclaiming their distaste, they wouldn't be receiving downvotes.

<comment><USER28> run4yourlives2 posted 3 lines of his take on seeing the show. Preceeded by an agreement to the OP. Looks like he is indeed a part of the discussion, albeit an unpopular _opinion_.

edit: he or she.

edit 2: manfromuranus's(lulz) opinion provoked posts of disagreement and what alternatives are available. Again, a meaningful discussion with substance.

<comment><USER29> run4yourlives2 posted an unpopular, unsupported opinion yes. Half of one sentence dedicated to that opinion and the rest about another subject. Completely understandable why that would get downvotes.

manfromuranus provoking meaningful discussion does not make that post worthy. If I post trolling nonsense and someone calls me out with an informative post, I somehow don't deserve downvotes? That's some ends justify the means logic there.

<comment><USER28> I concede that is your opinion for R4YL2's post though still disagree to it's worth, the other subject was a comparison to Black Mirror content & execution; guess that is why there is no sole arbiter of value here.

As for MFU's post, yeah, I cannot defend it in itself. It is solely his opinion that was not supported in any meaningful way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> more like idiocracy</comment>


A New Orleans dish called yakamein is said to right even the worst hangovers - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180529-new-orleans-secret-hangover-cure <comment><USER2> The title suggested this would be about the dish's ability to cure a hangover, but it was mostly a human interest piece about its history and a chef who's known for making it. The only paragraph to address its role as a hangover cure is buried at the bottom:

> It turns out that this belief in yakamein's transformative effects is more > than faith. In a conference talk a few years ago, food scientist Alyson E > Mitchell said that, indeed, yakamein likely helps hangovers. Eggs have > cysteine, an amino acid that helps scrub acetaldehyde (one of alcohol's > toxic by-products) from the body. The fatty meat can help slow down the > absorption of alcohol, making yakamein an equally good choice before a night > out as it is after. The salty broth replaces the sodium lost during all > those alcohol-induced trips to the toilet; it also encourages you to drink > more water, fighting dehydration.

No data is provided. Based on this, I would think any salty meal with eggs and fatty meat would work.

<comment><USER3> Yeah. Based on reading this, I'm going to try Pho next hangover. (The article linked to a scientist's report which listed general characteristics of foods that may help hanogvers. Eggs, salty broth, fatty meat were all on the list)

[https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/20...](https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2013/april/on- yak-a-mein-soup-aka-old-sober.html)

<comment><USER4> Grab any fast food joint's egg + bacon/sausage type breakfast sandwiches.

Eggs, more than enough salt, fatty meat, costs like $2.

<comment><USER3> Lacks the broth. That mayb have some qualities that help?

In any case, egg and bacon breakfasts haven't cured hangovers for me, sadly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> just as nearly every culture converges on "meat onna stick" (and some progress to "sausages inna bun"), nearly everyone converges on salty spicy soup with carbs. This variant sounds a lot like the creole version of pho.

<comment><USER6> Scottish cuisine tends to converge on everything being covered in batter, deep-fried and sprayed with mystery 'sauce'.

NB I am Scottish, have consumed as many suppers as the next person and perfectly aware that Scotland does produce some lovely food that _hasn 't_ been deep-fried.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Many years ago, at a party with a bunch of pharmaceutical reps they all were touting the 'off label' use of Lipitor. Apparently, if you take it before drinking heavily, it makes hangovers much less severe. Something about coating the stomach. I never tried it myself.

</comment><comment><USER8> The best treatment for a hangover is Asprin and coffee, and if available, a greasy breakfast.

Try it.

</comment><comment><USER9> They invented bad ramen?

<comment><USER10> That's what it looks/sounds like to me. Any sort of "hangover cure" effects make more sense in that light, given the prevalence of high-quality late night ramen shops all across alcohol-soaked Japan.</comment></comment>


SBFT: A Scalable Decentralized Trust Infrastructure for Blockchains - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.01626 <comment><USER2> "Permissioned" ledgers have existed and failed many times before the invention of bitcoin. This is not decentralized. None of the BFT protocols are.

<comment><USER3> You can combine BFT with dPOS for full decentralization.

<comment><USER4> dPOS for full decentralization.

Any form of Proof of Stake isn't really decentralized, often as a result of a single or small group of users who have minted the entire supply. Other users are then expected to purchase the supply rather than generate it themselves. The sale price on exchanges is often spoofed due to the nature of the low liquidity and ease of wash trading.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is there any code available to replicate these findings? I couldn't find a link in the PDF, only other repo refs e.g. the relic lib they used.</comment>


Late 40s, no job offers. Could a PhD help? - <AUTHOR> My skills are current. I've been a practicing full stack developer / data engineer for many years. I'll admit I'm not as fast as I used to be (I blame it on being more risk adverse and taking more time to think things through). After 8 failed interviews, I'm starting to think my career may be over. So, would getting a PhD help at all? <comment><USER2> IMO unless you have a very specific field in mind which you believe will be extremely interested in your skills 3-5 years from now, I'd say "Hell no."

I say this as someone with a PhD (and as someone who's field quickly became irrelevant only a few years after graduation).

<comment><USER3> What field was that that became irrelevant?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Unlikely. The assumption is that if you get a Ph.D, you're going to want to use it and get paid commensurately for it. Very few businesses have problems they need a Ph.D to solve.

Depending on where you get your Ph.D from, it may not even get you much respect; academics are very status conscious people.

</comment><comment><USER5> Enterra Solutions is looking for a Data Engineer. Apply.

</comment><comment><USER6> No.

First, it would take you 5 years to get one.

Second. The goal of a PhD is to learn the limit of scientific knowledge at a very specific narrow area, and then make a novel contribution (which would be very limited, due to time constraint). Hence, it would not contribute to your general skill set.

Third. PhD research can be very frustrating and extremely risky since you are venturing to the unknown and at the same time, must produce constant results in order to get published.

So, overall, a Ph.D. mainly proves that you have the stamina and the capability to do risky intellectual work.

What I suggest is that you follow the market demand and go into the hyped area. Today I would recommend Kubernetes and microservices. Since the demand is far greater than the supply you should be able to get a job (at least as a consultant).

</comment><comment><USER7> Since you're getting interviews, your best ROI will come from practicing interview skills such as solving algorithm problems, practicing pair programming, white boarding, doing system design problems, telling your story, and talking about previous work. Target the right roles and the right companies. Get referrals from friends, acquaintances, and people you meet networking. The job search has a lot of randomness, and is ultimately a numbers game. Keep grinding and you'll get offers.

</comment><comment><USER8> Are you failing on the algorithm part? My girlfriend failed 80 interviews before landing a big offer.

There's also always project management with your experience :)

<comment><AUTHOR> I definitely didn't perform well on the first few algorithm tests. I was rusty, and the questions took me by surprise. But, after doing more prep, I believe I nailed most of the later ones.

80 Interviews! Wow, I am out of touch.

<comment><USER9> 8 interviews isn't a ton. You did prep and nailed algos - so what was the problem? 40 isn't too old for sure at most places. It could be lack of relevant "showables" in which case you can go for a mid level position somewhere. Generally if you can pass algos you'll get offers unless there's personality red flags. Still - interview more.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, passing algos but still failing either means there's something deeply wrong with the company or some other behavioral question is causing issues.

Or ageism, appearance-ism, etc, but generally this market can't afford to be unfair like this right now in my opinion

<comment><USER9> Correct - experienced full stack dev that passes algos and no experience or personality red flags? You hire.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you go for a PhD, do it because you want to expand your knowledge and education for the enlightenment of others. I know a few PhD folks in Cybersecurity and they're one or two pay grades above me. Keep in mind they're at the high end of this pay band, though. And they're awesome to work with. The degree by itself will not garner you much more attention and could possibly categorize you as over-qualified much more frequently. The true mark of a person will always be their personality and ability to relate with a team. I'm almost 50. I work with a bunch of young (20's - 30's) people. And the influence they bring is refreshing. This is my second career, too. Your skills are transferable to an entirely new field as well. If I could do what you do I'd be significantly better at my job.

</comment><comment><USER11> No, unless you specialize in a very tight subject that companies are clamoring to develop. Even then it's an iffy way to go unless you have the research that empowers your position.

Your best bet is to continue and figure out where you are failing. Take the time you have to create a portfolio that highlights your skills by taking on a few contract jobs even if you think they pay too little but choose carefully.

It used to be that certificates had little value over experience but these days they give you an edge over those that don't have them so I would start to see what certificates are most sought and get them.

By the way, 8 interview is not that many. You are giving up way too soon.

</comment><comment><USER9> Even perfect interviewees have a 50% chance of passing any given interview. Interview more.

</comment><comment><USER12> It depends on what you want to do. Do you want to do machine learning, data science, or say statistics? Do you want to research and develop new types of databases? Do you enjoy math or at least applied math? .. then pursue a PhD. I would personally go for statistics or engineering since that will give you a bunch of skills that are lifetime skills.

An MBA would open up higher level management where you might be able to find something there. Sometimes I think med school might be worth it; we always need more doctors and you can work until you are 75 if you want. A lot of state med schools these days will waive tuition provided you serve in a rural community of that state after your residency for a few years. You definitely will get job security and high pay. I know a lot of later in life doctors for instance.

There's also entrepreneurship and starting your own company as well. Government contracts can be a way to get started.

Life is risk, but if you keep interviewing I am sure you will land something. The programming market is still expanding.

<comment><USER13> > A lot of state med schools these days will waive tuition provided you serve > in a rural community of that state after your residency for a few years. You > definitely will get job security and high pay. I know a lot of later in life > doctors for instance.

Any schools on the west coast? That sounds like a fair deal.

<comment><USER12> Kaisers new med school will be tuition free. NYU on the East coast. A bunch of others in between. The military will also put you through med school with a service commitment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> If possible, take sometime off and practice DS/Alog problems on leetcode. I don't know your location, but, there are plenty of data engineering jobs available (in general). But you need to practice DS/Algo for clearing most interviews.

</comment><comment><USER15> Data Engineering is far from saturated, so I'd highlight my experience and focus on that, instead. And don't forget you just need to succeed once.

</comment><comment> polski-g Have you ever hired anyone? Did you even look at the educational background of the candidate? Because I don't, I only look at the experience and skills.

</comment><comment><USER16> What kinds of positions are you interviewing for, and what was the #1 thing the companies you interviewed with wanted in a hire?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure - in all cases, I asked for feedback afterward, but all had policies of not giving feedback.

I only interviewed at places where I believed that I met most of the criteria. A couple were full-stack Angular / Node roles. The rest were Spark / Scala / Warehouse related.

<comment><USER17> Try applying here if you know Scala [https://boards.greenhouse.io/algorithmia/jobs/4202846002?gh_...](https://boards.greenhouse.io/algorithmia/jobs/4202846002?gh_jid=4202846002)

Assuming you are American there's TripleByte but who knows what the offers will be</comment></comment></comment>


Magnus Carlsen – "I am chaotic and lazy" (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://en.chessbase.com/post/magnus-carlsen-on-his-che-career <comment><USER3> The brevity and bluntness in his responses is pretty amusing. I'm surprised he so candidly rates his own abilities and the abilities of his peers - I feel like many people would dodge those questions in public interviews.

<comment><USER4> > _I 'm surprised he so candidly rates his own abilities and the abilities of > his peers_ //

In chess though you have a ranking, you have past games to compare. It would be silly for him to say "oh, I'm not that good" as there's a measured value which [possibly incorrectly] says he's the world number one. Similarly he spends a lot of his time assessing his opponents, their games, their characters.

I found it interesting that he said Kasparov can judge which opening a player will play taking in to account their mood. It would be nice to test that claim some how.

<comment> V-2 There's also rating inflation, though, which makes cross-era comparisons flawed.

And besides, many players have their nemesis. Sheer numbers don't reflect that.

Eg. Anand used to be one of the strongest players in the world, but overshadowed, some say intimidated, by Kasparov before the latter retired.

Given Anand's rating, he performed quite poorly against Kasparov.

<comment><USER5> Are you aware of any attempt to compare cross generationally based on game trees? Find game positions that both players have faced and see who made the better move?

<comment> V-2 Yes,

[http://en.chessbase.com/post/computers-choose-who-was-the- st...](http://en.chessbase.com/post/computers-choose-who-was-the-strongest- player-)

I remember there was a heated debate as for whether or not Crafty was a strong enough engine for the task.

I don't have all the links at hand, but it shouldn't be difficult to find various parts of this discussion.

[http://en.chessbase.com/post/using-che-engines-to- estimate-h...](http://en.chessbase.com/post/using-che-engines-to-estimate- human-skill)

Authors of the research argued that contrary to what common sense implies, even if it Crafty _is_ weaker than some evaluated players could have been, results are still legit.

Of course this approach doesn't give full justice to players - while some might have strived for winning by perfect play, others could deliberately play inferior moves just to create complications and provoke their opponents into making mistakes _worse than their own_ , by getting them into time trouble, making them uneasy etc. (eg. Tal was famous for that).

A game - oversimplifying a bit - is won by the player who made less mistakes than the opponent, not by the one who made less mistakes on an absolute scale. So both strategies are valid as far as sport is concerned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think there's a great analogy for why he cares so little about his intelligence: do you think Michael Jordan sat around admiring his build, his height, etc? In a competitive environment, it's best to accept that some of your abilities are fixed, so you can focus on training what can be bettered.

<comment><USER7> That's not a good analogy. For all I know after a day's training Jordan sat around admiring his build and height.

I think reverse Dunning-Kruger is much more likely in Magnus's case.

<comment><USER8> Actually I think what you're referencing is still Dunning-Kruger: "Conversely, highly skilled individuals tend to underestimate their relative competence, erroneously assuming that tasks which are easy for them are also easy for others." (from wiki)

<comment><USER9> More specifically, it's the Downing effect: "One of the main effects of illusory superiority in IQ is the Downing effect. This describes the tendency of people with a below average IQ to overestimate their IQ, and of people with an above average IQ to underestimate their IQ." (also from wiki)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't find his disclaimers about his intelligence persuasive. He's obviously a pretty smart guy; at least, he was quite the smart kid.

That said, I had monumentally high IQ scores as a little kid, and they are surely vastly lower in adulthood. So I'm not very eager to be retested either. ;)

<comment> V-2 Being smart is one thing, but does intelligence account for his chess accomplishments?

The urban legend of Kasparov's IQ being in the 190 range is still purported, but once he was actually examined (an initiative of "Der Spiegel" magazine) it turned out his IQ was 135 or so.

This is highly intelligent, of course, but that's like 1 in 100 or 1 in 150, so people with higher IQ are still dime a dozen.

Personally I'm of an opinion that IQ doesn't mean much - it's a "dexterous fingers" thing. You surely need dexterous fingers to become an accomplished neurosurgeon or a violinist, but this trait is pointless by itself, and 1 in a 1000 level of dexterity is good enough, so you don't gain anything by going beyond that.

<comment><USER11> > Personally I'm of an opinion that IQ doesn't mean much

Opinions certainly vary there! My first "real" programming job interview began with an IQ test, and passing it was basically what got me an offer. The company owner scored the test in front of me, and said "Not bad.. five points above the minimum I'd consider hiring for a developer position."

<comment><USER12> Did you find that work environment to have been positively affected by the owner's strict standards for IQ?

I ask because I tend to agree with the OP. IQ tests assign points based on specific types of questions, which I'd argue aren't valuable in all circumstances. I think the point Magnus was making is that he doesn't think IQ is directly relevant to Chess, despite any correlation between those with high IQs and those who have been successful at the game.

I have worked with plenty of people with high IQs in academics and I can't imagine trying to work with them in an office. If anything, the job to which you are referring would have me worried due to such such strict adherence to an objective score that can fluctuate over time. Isn't five points right around the normal confidence interval for IQ tests?

<comment><USER11> It's a great question, but I can't answer it because I declined the offer. ;) My impression of the office was that it was being run like a fiefdom, and not a fiefdom I wanted to join - the IQ test was one of several things that gave me that idea. He seemed to have a lot of smart people in the office, but I can't imagine who was talking to the customers. (And if it was anyone I met, including the owner, then I can't imagine how they _kept_ any customers..)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> He briefly talks about Kasparov here as they were training together at the time. They later broke up.

I wonder if some of the conflict they felt was was really Magnus's more organic, natural approach clashing with Kasparov's more like systematic and rigid type of training, which he no doubt inherited from Botvinnik. This isn't to say Magnus doesn't work hard at his game but on a chess approach scale of, say, Capablanca to Botvinnik, he would very much tilt towards the former.

edit: Actually he specifically talks about that; somehow I skipped it upon first reading.

<comment><USER14> This past two weeks, I have been reading Kasparov's "Life Imitates Chess" and your comment certainly rings true. He spends a fair number of pages discussing about Botvinnik's rigid and systematic training system and how that helped instill a strong work ethic in him. There is also a section on Casablanca and how his laziness cost him his crown to Alekhine, who was Botvinnik's predecessor.

If history serves right, I am predicting Carlsen will lose the throne to Caruana in 2016!

<comment><USER15> At this point in time, it is probably more for Carlsen to lose than to Caruana winning. If Carlsen feels good, he will train a lot; hopefully it will be an exciting match.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Sometimes you wonder.

 _I was not particularly interested; I was bad and soon stopped again._

 _I don't know why I learnt all the countries of the world off by heart, including their capitals and populations. Chess was probably just another pastime._

 _I'm not a disciplined thinker. Organisation is not my thing; I am chaotic and tend to be lazy. My trainer recognised that and as a rule allowed me to practise whatever I felt like at the time._

 _When I was 13, my parents took me out of school for a year. They travelled around the world with me and my sisters, and on the way they taught us. That was fantastic, much more effective than sitting in school._

<comment><USER17> What are you saying? That defining one's identity by the intensity, quantity and quality of the work that one does, might not the best way to live a life and be really good at something?

;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I think there might be a correlation between being lazy and being creative. I've seen this pattern in many other greats (and in my not so great self :)

Aaron Sorkin talks about procrastinating a lot between writing sessions. Lots of painters and artists procrastinate as well.

I think its a matter of digestion, your mind is focused on a "task" and churning in the background, but you don't actively work on it except when you "feel like it". I saw some scientific article to this affect that the downtime is actually very valuable for the brain to form creative thought.

<comment><USER19> There's a good quote from one of the German generals involved in the plot to kill Hitler, Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein- Equord](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord)), on that subject:

 _I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent -- their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy -- they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent -- he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief._

<comment><USER20> How did this work out for him?

<comment><USER21> He warned against the rise of Hitler, actively conspired against the Nazis at great personal risk, and helped Jews avoid deportation or arrest. He died of natural causes in 1943.

You could say that he tried to do the right thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Interesting how he says that extremely high IQ may even be a disadvantage:

 _And that's precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason the Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that. At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics in Oxford; he was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess... Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am._

And that his big shtick is his focus, intuition, and domain expertise - <USER2> his IQ:

 _No. In terms of our playing skills we are not that far apart. There are many things I am better at than he is. And vice versa. Kasparov can calculate more alternatives, whereas my intuition is better. I immediately know how to rate a situation and what plan is necessary. I am clearly superior to him in that respect._

<comment><USER23> I find it odd and funny that he considers a career in mathematics a distraction. He later says there's more in life than chess, but in this quote he doesn't seem to realize that.

I doubt I'd want to be world champion if it required giving up all those "distractions".

<comment><USER24> Sounds to me like he's speaking descriptively, not normatively. He doesn't say that Nunn _shouldn 't_ have gone down the path that he did; just that Nunn _could_ have been world champion, if that had been all he'd focused on.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> My favourite quote: "I listen to music on the Internet, but don't download any songs. It's all totally legal. Many people may find that boring, but I think it is important."

<comment><USER26> I like how he cited "a silly rap song" by Lil Jon as an example of "gloomy music."

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'd love to see Carlsen play a modern game like Hearthstone or Magic. Even just to hear his thoughts on them.

<comment><USER28> I would guess that he'd feel like there is too much chance. The issue with a game like Magic is that you can play perfectly and still lose. And I say this as someone who loves the game.

EDIT: I read further and it seems like he enjoys poker. So I guess it's possible that he'd enjoy MTG.

<comment><USER27> I suspect you're right. But for people who can't dedicate all their time to a game, the randomness in some games (like poker and MTG) can level the playing field. It allows a lesser player to win from time to time, but good players will win more often.

To me, this is more "fun". With chess, it's just brutal. Unless both players are evenly matched, it's a steamrolling. No fun for either player. At the top tiers though, I can see it being very interesting. But then again, I find watching top players play Hearthstone to also be very interesting. Especially when you consider the meta-strategizing of picking certain cards for their decks.

<comment><USER29> Interesting coincidence - I bumped into a game design article earlier today about balancing luck and skill in games. [http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/when-i-win- its-...](http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/when-i-win-its-skill- when-you-win-its-luck--gamedev-322)

The article discusses how different players prefer different ratios of luck vs skill, so making the most "fun" game in this regard really depends on who your target audience is. Similar to your thoughts on randomness. :)

<comment><USER30> David Sirlin has a lot of great articles on designing competitive games: [http://www.sirlin.net/article-archive/](http://www.sirlin.net/article- archive/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> _When I am feeling good, I train a lot. When I feel bad, I don't bother._

I can definitely relate to that when it comes to my studies, too bad it's not yielding any good results.

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm currently reading a fascinating book on world-class performance, "The Art of Learning" by Josh Waizkind, a chess and martial arts champion. It gives some really great insights into the world-class players' psychology. Highly recommended!

<comment> V-2 Yeah, Waitzkin is a good read. I've got this book, too.

I first heard about him when I got Chessmaster, which came with his video tutorials. And these were the best I've ever seen, in terms of insightfulness and pedagogical skills.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> His quote was "tend to be lazy". When he feels good he trains a lot. No amount of brilliant talent, that is lazy, is sufficient to be world champion in any endeavor. There's too much competition from the others who want to be champion.

</comment><comment><USER33> I wonder what his 4 letter personality type is.</comment>


On Interviewing Software Engineers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@yousuffauzan/on-interviewing-91e2e66aa082 <comment><USER2> Watching people code won't solve the interview "problem".

</comment><comment><USER3> This is a medium.com link, which is advertising for

[https://codebunk.com/](https://codebunk.com/)

<comment><USER4> Quite a few times this week I've seen articles posted from Medium that read like the sort of low content marketing fluff you get on LinkedIn. I used associate articles posted there with quality and depth, this sort of blogspam is helping to dilute this association.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I have used this tool multiple times for taking interviews. I like it</comment>


Fitzo: Smart and social fitness app to help you get your workout discipline - <AUTHOR> https://www.fitzo.com <comment><AUTHOR> Fitzo is a workout discipline app that works in three simple steps: 1. Enter your status e.g. weight, height, fitness goals and availability; 2. Pick one of our free personalized fitness plans; 3. Start tracking your workouts and follow your fitness schedule with reminders. You can workout with your friends or meet new partners within the app and track your progress together.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> We are looking for feedback and how to improve. Also early adopters can install and test our android app and report bugs :)</comment>


Ask HN: What do you do on your commute? - <AUTHOR>

Hi!
I'm busy building an iPhone app, which is optimised for commuters and I was wondering what sort of things people like to fill their commuting time with?  If you use public transport - are there any apps that you find particularly useful or enjoyable?  If you drive, do you usually switch on the radio or stream music from your mobile?
Just a curious bee, me.
Thx :) <comment><USER2> I commute by public transport, and I mostly read books on a Kindle. If I was to use my phone, I'll probably solve sudoku or something. Or maybe read RSSes.

<comment><USER3> When I commuted (which thankfully isn't very often at all anymore,) I read.

I find that whenever I get myself wrapped up in a project, it's hard for me to take time away from it to do anything else. Thankfully, my body has checks built in (hunger pangs, sleepiness, etc.) to make sure that I'm keeping up with the basics, but I have to set time aside for exercise and stretching or I won't do it.

For me at least, I can't work on the DC metro. It's too crowded, too noisy, but I can read on my Kindle. It's great because it lets me occupy the otherwise wasted time on something that I likely wouldn't get to do without the metro.

If I'm between books, or have a short commute, I'll do crossword puzzles on my phone[1] or play Words with Friends.

If I'm not commuting, I'm lucky to get a half hour a day to read when I go to bed.

[1] - [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.totsp.cros...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.totsp.crossword.shortyz&hl=en) (Not affiliated, but I really like this crossword puzzle app.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I drive. On good days I sing with the radio. On bad days I will myself to keep the car pointed toward work.

</comment><comment><USER5> I drive to work. It's only about 20-25 minutes, depending on traffic. Traffic where I live isn't bad though, so it doesn't fluctuate too much.

Typically I either listen to the radio (only in the mornings, I'm sick of radio music so I really only listen to morning shows), or find something to listen to on my Audible for iPhone app (Currently listening to World War Z, which has taken me almost a week of commutes to get half way through).

</comment><comment><USER6> Depends on my mood but when I commute its usually at least an hour so I typically read on my kindle, RSS on iPhone or if I am in the middle of an interesting project (or working towards a deadline) I will sometimes try to work. I typically find the time quite productive in this situation, as I use it to do the annoying stuff that I can time box to the commute time.

</comment><comment><USER7> I also take public transit to work everyday. I spend my time streaming music and reading. One thing I will say, if you are developing a commute app make sure that when you turn it on it doesn't keep other apps ie Pandora, from continuing to play music.

Nothing makes me delete an app faster than when I can't listen to Pandora and play with another app.

</comment><comment><USER8> I commute just about daily on the Chicago 'L.' Lately, I find myself doing very little for the 45 minutes, aside from sitting quietly and loosely observing my surroundings (e.g., scenery outside the window, flowing of passengers in and out). I suppose there's some meditative quality to it all, in that I only concern myself with the present moment.

</comment><comment><USER9> I commute on the train everyday in London. Most of the time I will read books, mostly non technical. Recently I have started taking my laptop with me and coding on my side project. When I don't have either a book or laptop with me I will catch up on emails or hacker news on my phone.

</comment><comment><USER10> I listen to my recycled songs in my iPhone. Too lazy to upload new ones (can't find a lotta Japanese music in iTunes either).

On bad days, I just doze off, and try not to get angry at humanity.

</comment><comment><USER11> Listen to the news. Five minutes of that and I'm at work.

Small town life: we may not have all the opportunities of a big city, but the commute is a heckuva lot shorter.

</comment><comment><USER12> Briefly contemplate the day ahead, it only takes about five minutes to get to work.

</comment><comment><USER13> iTunesU. Stanford, Harvard, CMU, Madison College,... I'll be starting the CalTech machine learning course on Monday morning.

</comment><comment><USER14> Sleep. When I took the bus to college, that was all I had the energy to do. I would also try to read or do homework, but I could never get much done on the bus.

The public transit in my area is awful. The ride to school was an hour and a half plus a twenty minute walk to the bus stop, whereas driving there takes a half hour. The buses used to be one to two hours apart, but they've cut routes since I stopped riding. I'm glad I got a car.

<comment><USER15> Same here. I consider a productive use of meditation time.</comment></comment>


Debugging Fundamentals - <AUTHOR> https://www.ryankemper.io/post/2020-02-29-debugging/ <comment><AUTHOR> _Disclaimer_ : I wrote this.

The intro already says this, but this article is about the high-level mindset of effective debuggers, as opposed to a list of useful specific tricks. I think the latter article is extremely valuable but (a) I don't quite have the raw experience to do such an article justice, and (b) I think the high-level philosophy of debugging has broader relevance across different languages, frameworks, or even disciplines (that is to say, one thing that struck me while writing this article is that the approach isn't just relevant to Software Engineers but really anyone who needs to identify and solve problems more generally).</comment>


Ask HN: Should I sign my new job contract prior to my interview trip refund? - <AUTHOR> So I did a trip to another country for taking an interview. Prior booking my tickets the company (which has around 500 employees) promised that they would pay for my trip. I did well in the interview and they offered me the position. At the end of the interview they gave me a paper, that I had to fill out with my IBAN and my total traveling costs. This happened 12 days ago and I until now I got no news regarding that matter. In the meantime they sent me my work contract.
I have no prior experience on how these situations are handled and how much time a refund would on average need. My biggest concern is that in case they don't refund my traveling costs they would not have kept their word. In turn signing a contract with a company that does not keep its word seems like a red flag for future issues.
How should I handle the situation? Should I wait until they completed the refund and not sign the contract? Should I ask them? Should I be open with them regarding my concern? <comment><USER2> I suggest that you call them and ask when they pay the expenses. Note that 12 days is not an awful long time.

</comment><comment><USER3> Normally the refund will be handled by another unit then HR (usually accounting unit). They are doing this once in a month or so.

So it is totally normal to take longer then 12 days.</comment>


How Bayesian Probability Models Can Make CLV Predictions 12x More Accurate - <AUTHOR> http://blog.custora.com/2012/02/how-bayesian-probability-models-can-make-clv-predictions-12x-more-accurate/ <comment><USER2> I was a fan of Gelman-style Bayesian modeling for a while, but it's a lot of work when you don't have a True Model.

Have you tried machine learning techniques? You have a ton of predictors available for each customer --- gender, age, price of the first purchase, whether they bought before Christmas, etc. None of those fit neatly into standard models. Why not throw them all into one big linear regression for CLV, then move on to more sophisticated techniques?

<comment><USER3> Lead data scientist at Custora here.

The problem with linear regression (or any machine learning technique) in CLV prediction is extrapolation. Since we are making a predictive measure, we are projecting out what customers will spend in the future.

You can't construct a valid training dataset to project a 2 year CLV if you business is not two years old. You need to make some assumptions about how customer's ordering will continue. We have found that assuming that customer behavior follows the latent attrition model is a robust assumption for most of our clients.

Even if the business has been around for a long time, we have found that customer behavior tends to change over time. In that early adopters are often far more valuable than more recent customers, so using the earlier adopters as the training set leads to misleading results.

To use a machine learning framework, you need to make the assumption that customers who join recently strongly resemble customers with similar attributes who joined in the past. We have found that this is often not a valid assumption, and so we make the simplifying assumptions about customer behavior to add power to our models.

<comment><USER4> The model you describe in your post seems to be assuming identifiability across customers regardless of when the relationship started. If you are not making inferences about new customers based on similar customers with prior attributes, how are you doing it? The ways I can think to would force great naivete on the inferences about new customers.

<comment><USER3> We use the gamma prior and assume that shape parameter remains constant across time, and the scale parameter varies month to month. For each new month there are only two parameters that need to be estimated, one for the attrition rate and one for the purchase rate, so we rarely run into identifiability issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The title of the article really hooked me. My background:

      1. I have a degree in mathematics
      2. I've been writing software since high school
      3. I've had to do more CLV calculations than I can count
      4. I've co-founded a retail startup (http://everlane.com)

So, take this critique with an open heart.

Here's a summary of the points below, for those short of attention. The article is caught between writing for a technical and non-technical audience. There are too many technical terms for a non-technical person to make real sense of it, and not enough detail for a technical person to use the article as a reference.

First, and overall, I'm not sure who the target audience is. The topic is technical enough that I'd guess it's for the head of analytics or a data scientist inside a retail company.

If that's the case, the article is really light on detail. There's nothing I can apply immediately to my work, except to Google for some of the phrases in the blog to learn more. There aren't even links to external papers with more detail.

If it's more for marketing people, well, it's too technical. Bayesean? Gamma distribution?

Second, assuming I'm in your target audience, give me the math! Spell it out plainly, even if you don't tell me "why" it works. For me "plainly" means "mathematically" coupled with a plain-English explanation. You can link to external papers for that. But I'm not afraid of a summation or an argmax. In fact, it's much easier for me to understand than someone writing it out in plain English. You throw out "gamma distribution" but don't even link to the definition, explain what it is, or explain how λ and μ fit into it.

"The gamma distribution is a perfect candidate, since it characterizes most customer bases very well."

Why does it characterize most customer bases very well? I _really_ _really_ want to know. The fact that it's a gamma distribution is almost incidental to the deeper point about what distributions characters which features of customer behavior, and why.

Because of my background I know some of those things and can easily figure out the rest, but you're not making it easy for me.

It's like you go into detail on the soft stuff (where I care less about detail), and about detail on the hard stuff (which is exactly where I want detail).

Third, numbers! The margin of error chart is mostly irrelevant. In any case, it's not detailed enough for me to use to compare these different methods, and at best serves as a way for a non-technical marketer to say, "No, the Bayesean way is better. Look at this chart." Give me a concrete example of applying this technique first, and then give me a concrete example of comparing it to the other techniques.

Fourth, the typeface on the blog is just awful. If you're producing scientific content I'd recommend using a serif typeface. Georgia is ok, but something like Garamond or Century Schoolbook are more similar to Computer Modern (the default LaTeX typeface).

<comment><USER3> We often struggle writing for both audiences, and your feedback is well taken.

Here's a brief rundown of the math, more details can be found in the papers linked below [1,2].

We assume a latent attrition model, that is customers purchase with exponentially distributed interpurchase times, and have a constant probability of dying. We then assume that the rate parameters of these two distributions are gamma distributed.

The gamma distribution is the first choice of distribution because it is the conjugate prior for the exponential distribution. For the Pareto/NBD it means that we can write the likelihood function without having to use quadrature to solve the integral. It is possible than another distribution would work even better, though it would likely be more computationally intensive.

Another nice characteristic over, say, the log-normal is that when the shape parameter is less than 1, lim_{x -> 0} = \Infty. This is a nice feature for many customer bases who have many infrequent customers, or many one-time customers.

For the percent error numbers, we picked a representative sample of our clients who had over two years of data, and ran the three models with a holdout set of the most recent year. We then compared the performance of the Pareto/NBD compared to ARPU and compared with picking the year old cohort. I uploaded a boxplot of the data, which you might find more informative [3].

Happy to chat more about the math here or by email (firstname.lastname@example.com). Also would love to hear more about your retail startup and your CLV issues around that.

[1] <http://www.jstor.org/pss/2631608>

[2] [http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/Fader_...](http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/Fader_hardie_jerath_jim_07.pdf)

[3] [http://blog.custora.com/custora- content/uploads/2012/02/esti...](http://blog.custora.com/custora- content/uploads/2012/02/estimation_errors.png) (Note, the boxplot was generated a few months ago from different data, and we've updated the numbers for the blog post)

<comment><USER5> These details are great! But also too technical for me to follow immediately since I'm not a statistician. It's enough information to point me in the right direction, though.

It's hard for me to express my writerly intuition, here. The key is to (1) define your target audience as concretely as possible and (2) understand what shared vocabulary you have at your disposal.

Saying "Bayesean" or "gamma distribution" is going to put you out of reach of anyone non-technical. Saying "conjugate prior" or "shape parameter" is going to put you out of reach of anyone who isn't a practiced statistician.

I'd aim somewhere in the middle. Technical people who aren't afraid of following a well-outlined, mathematical description of a problem they encounter regularly. "Why a gamma distribution?" would be a good footnote, for example, linking to a paper or another blog post of yours that explains it in more detail.

I find the articles that do the best are ones which take a somewhat- complicated topic and explain it, step-by-step, to an intelligent, technical audience. Pretend you were giving a lecture to a room full of HN members -- all technical and versed in basic mathematics, but not practiced statisticians. Write something that is not just a one-off, but could serve as reference material months and years from now.

I'm probably at the upper-end of this target audience in terms of mathematical maturity, in the sense that when you say "conjugate prior" I know what you mean but can't remember the definition off the top of my head. However, I could look it up and understand it instantly. I'd have a harder time understanding why being the conjugate prior of the exponential distribution implies that the gamma distribution is well-suited for modeling customer behavior on an e-commerce site.

(I'd really like to know, though.)

To this day I have people link to articles I wrote 3-4 years ago when talking about certain topics (A/B testing, viral marketing, etc.).

Example: <http://blog.socialcam.com/mobile-ab-testing-made-easy>

This isn't to say the article SocialCam linked to is something fantastic. The content is really basic stuff anyone who has taken one or two statistics classes knows. It's success is more in how it is written and explained than the content. In other words: digestibility and clarity are features.

Anyhow, I'm done yammering. Nice article! I've printed out a handful of academic papers related to the topic.

Cheers!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I believe the model they're using is called Pareto/NBD and is fleshed out a bit more here:

[http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/Fader_...](http://marketing.wharton.upenn.edu/documents/research/Fader_hardie_jerath_jim_07.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Indeed. Here is the original paper if you are interested in more details.

<http://www.jstor.org/pss/2631608>

<comment><USER6> Thanks! Interesting articles by the way.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are your favorite computer science papers of 2019? - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> With a sense of recency bias, I would say 'On the Measure of Intelligence' by Francois Chollet was an amazing read.</comment>


Ask HN: Why do you do what you do? - <AUTHOR>

When I was a kid I used to drive my parents nuts by playing the "Why?" game. For the unlightened, you start by asking a simple question ("Why does it snow?") and then when you get an answer, you ask why again ("Why does the rain freeze?") and so on until they can no longer give a satisfactory explanation.
Hacker News: Why do you do what you do?
Is it independence? Achievement? Fortune? Security? Excitement? Family? What is it? Why are those things important to you? Will you be happy when you've achieved them? Are there easier ways to do accomplish those things than what you're doing now?
I ask because I can't answer these questions without slightly contradicting myself. I'm hoping your wisdom will help lead me and others like me closer to those important answers. <comment><USER2> * Because I've tried a lot of other things and they don't hold my interest.

* Because... must... write... code....

* Because I want to solve the money problem

* Because life is too short to be a wage slave

* Because I like hanging out with other smart people.

* Because I like building things

* Because I like the creativity and freedom that I get from writing my own code.

* Because I love the satisfaction of others getting use out of what I've made.

* Because I like building community (Hackers and Founders)

* Because the ass can't kick itself

</comment><comment><USER3> Achievement - because I yearn to create and innovate always, it's just a matter of finding the time.

Excitement - because I am ready to break out of the confines of college and make a difference.

Independence (team) - because the agility and dynamic I have felt working toward an agreed upon and challenging goal is addictive.

Fortune - because my ultimate hope is to be able to reinvest in people.

Family - sadly, these ambitions make me take leave of my family (moving), but I will change that.

</comment><comment><USER4> I would rephrase what you called contradictions as range of orientation.

Early in trilogy we used to have this talent development programs identifying our orientation. One would identify highest and lowest orientation.

Most fresh grads would be Challenge oriented with least orientation towards Balance (work-life/family) and the dial does rotate couple of years down.

I think I am Achievement oriented, followed by Excitement followed by Independence/Fortune.

</comment><comment><USER5> To satisfy some inherent need to leave a mark on the world and to make something from nothing.

Mostly, to see what _can_ be done.

</comment><comment><USER6> independence. i do the work i do now in hopes of being able to position myself to have the ability to do anything that i want to do. my major goal is to be able to travel the world, living for extended periods in different places.

</comment><comment><USER7> One word: Conscience

<comment><AUTHOR> What do you mean?

<comment><USER7> My conscience questions me what did I accomplish in my life.</comment></comment></comment>


Zappos responds to Andrew Wilkinson's "You're Killing Me Zappos" letter - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos/2009/09/16/an-open-letter-response-to-youre-killing-me-zappos

<comment><USER2> A thoughtful and intelligent response. Like the recent critique of the American Airlines website (one of the worst sites on the Internet), the response was basically "we know, but it takes longer to implement than it does to draw". The difference is that Zappos has made some visible progress in the last year, while AA.com has barely changed in five years.

<comment><USER3> The Zappos guys seem to be thoughtful all-round. A lot of companies sponsor a mile or two of highway, they have something like the last 20 miles heading in to Las Vegas (not sure exactly but I drove in from LA over the summer and I was passing their signs for 20-30 minutes).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In all honesty, I did not consider the two versions of the site to be different enough to create such a big stink over. The second version looks "brighter, glossier", not really better designed. The overall site is still a mess and a jumble. Does anyone honestly scroll all the way to the bottom for either of these? Half the stuff on both versions looks like its doubleclick ads or something.

<comment><USER5> That was the point Andrew was making with his post, I think.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> If a man's design critiques generate a lot of links and discussion but reveal that the author has no concept of the design process of large sites, does his reputation ultimately benefit or suffer. Tune in next time, but my guess is any publicity is good publicity.

</comment><comment><USER7> I say A/B test the redesign against the current design for one week.

If the redesign gets more sales/conversions than normal, Andrew gets to keep the extra money ... if not, he has to pay the difference :)

<comment><USER8> That's not a good idea - in my experience launching a redesign almost always causes a dip in conversions for the first couple of weeks before people get used to it and start buying again.

That's exactly why a slow design evolution is better than redesign for big companies.

<comment><USER7> Despite the fact my comment was mostly tongue in cheek, I don't agree with you–at least not in this sense.

Shoes aren't something that consumers buy every week. New customers to Zappos wouldn't know the difference, and I doubt repeat Zappos customers would be so confused/disoriented as to not make a purchase (or need time to get acclimated).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> meh.

the original post to me seemed unnecessary, as does this reply.

<comment><USER10> Every time I see a post like this or a craigslist redesign, etc I think the exact same thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> To the Andrew: I didn't know at first I could click on the img and see a full- size page. I was wondering what I was supposed to infer from looking at a "head shot".

I like the original. He removed the shortcuts to "what's new", top sellers etc. That does not seem like an improvement. I've not shopped at Zappos but I use similar links on Newegg all the time.

Just adding gradients and whitespace is not enough to improve a site. :)

<comment><USER12> But really, Andrew's redesign isn't the point.

He wasn't saying his design was definitely the way to go, he simply took a stab at it as an example.

The points he made in the text of his letter aren't invalidated by any arguable shortcomings of his design.

Also, while you're right that he removed certain front page elements, he specifically said in the text that his design "doesn't reflect all of the functionality and content currently in the Zeta". The point was to make a general design for the sake of his argument, not to meticulously integrate every single piece of functionality into his design.</comment></comment>


A new Ruby on Rails Tutorial chapter is out: Chapter 11 User microposts - <AUTHOR> http://www.railstutorial.org/chapters/user-microposts#top

<comment><USER2> Thanks for all the hard work mhartl!

<comment><AUTHOR> You're very welcome!</comment></comment>


'Don't Act So Surprised, Your Highness': 'Star Wars' on the Subway - <AUTHOR> http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/dont-act-so-surprised-your-highness-star-wars-on-the-subway/?src=twr

<comment><USER2> Certainly fun. I love improv and Improv Everywhere. No question.

However, this should be on Reddit, not here.

<comment><USER3> Pointless nitpick: reciting a scene from Star Wars isn't exactly improv, is it? They should leave it to Scripted Entertainment Everywhere.

<comment><USER4> From their FAQ (<http://improveverywhere.com/faq/>):

>We are not claiming that what we are doing is improv. The majority of Improv Everywhere Agents met each other through the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, the nation's most awesome improv theatre and school. The name reflects our idea of taking some of the skills we learned at UCB and bringing them to life in public places. We stay in character at all costs and interact with members of the public with no script beyond the mission's idea. We have no clue how people are going to react to us, and that is where the improvisation comes in. Sometimes people misread our URL as "Improve Everywhere." We think that's probably a better name for what we try to do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Isn't it illegal for civilians to photograph Imperial Stormtroopers on duty?</comment>