When Their Shifts End, Uber Drivers Set Up Camp in Parking Lots Across the U.S. - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-23/when-their-shifts-end-uber-drivers-set-up-camp-in-parking-lots-across-the-u-s <comment><USER3> I live in small-town Kansas but commute to San Francisco occasionally for my job, which is based there. I just got back from a trip last week and noticed something startling about the Uber drivers that ferried me around: never before have I seen drivers this bad. Twice in one week, my drivers nearly ran over a pedestrian. On one of those incidents, a guy was walking across a crosswalk in North Beach in broad daylight. Everybody in this Uber Pool was screaming "stop!" as the driver ran right up on this poor guy but the driver seemed oblivious, like the guy was invisible. The only explanation, I think, is that our driver was extremely fatigued.

I predict that rideshare-pedestrian deaths are going to skyrocket in 2017 as more drivers take desperate measures to try to get by.

<comment><USER4> I heard anecdotally that drivers with ratings below 4.6 have their Uber driver accounts shutdown.

In this instance, how would the rating work for drivers in an UberPool? Does each person's vote count for only 1/n, or is each one a full vote? If it's full votes for all riders in a single UberPool ride, all it probably takes are a couple of mediocre UberPool experiences and the driver is selected out of the driving pool.

<comment><USER5> > I heard anecdotally that drivers with ratings below 4.6 have their Uber > driver accounts shutdown.

Uber and Lyft say they do this, but I've personally seen drivers with lower ratings kicking around. Anyone know what's up with that?

<comment><USER6> It's closer to stack ranking than a strict cutoff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A lot of times when Uber comes up and people say that Uber should do more to compensate their drivers. Also, a different person posts that Uber is subsidizing rides to stay afloat. If we combine these two premises then we begin to understand that Uber is probably doing all the subsidizing that they consider reasonable and is burning through investors money to do this and that their actions are STILL not able to provide for a reasonable job.

<comment><USER8> I think part of the problem is wanting 'driver' to always be a reasonable job, when shift-length limits are also preventing drivers from working the mammoth shifts that made it pay like a reasonable job before. People working 70+ hours to get by were really working something like 2 - 3 low-paying jobs all along, now they have to be different jobs.

<comment><USER9> I think the problem is the idea that you should have to work 70+ hours a week just to afford the necessities of life. It's not healthy or sustainable over the long term.

<comment><USER10> I don't think you can solve that problem. In the article, there's mention that the drivers don't seem _unhappy_ about their job, just tired.

I think if you give people the _option_ to work 70+ hour weeks to make a little extra money, there's always going to be a minority of people that _will_

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This isn't right. I know "drivers can choose," and nobody is forcing these people to live and work like this. It still feels wrong. One driver mentioned in the article leased his car from Uber and sleeps in it because it's the only way he can make enough to afford the payments. Seems like indentured servitude to me. Uber owes its drivers more.

<comment><USER12> > Uber owes its drivers more.

Why? Not trying to be snarky; why do they owe their drivers anything but incentive to work for them (which seems sufficient, or we wouldn't even be having this conversation int he first place).

Expecting companies to be morally upstanding is silly and a modern invention by the right. The right way to solve this is now by complaining about what Uber "owes" its drivers but in legislation. But we don't want to legislate businesses, we want to stay "nimble" and "flexible", so this is what we get as a result. Don't complain about lying in the bed we've made.

<comment><USER13> > why do they owe their drivers anything but incentive to work for them (which > seems sufficient, or we wouldn't even be having this conversation int he > first place).

History is pretty clear on this point: Without protection, workers are at too great a disadvantage when negotiating with large businesses. Look at working conditions before unions became powerful and laws and regulations were passed - they were brutal and wrong.

<comment><USER14> Nahh. The agency the corps hired, the Pinkertons, had full rights to murder people for not doing their job! I mean, this is laissez faire capitalism - <USER2> course the ones with the money have rights over other humans! /s

Yeah, summed up libertarian beliefs and their logical conclusion in a nutshell.

<comment><USER13> _I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space-- were it not that I have bad dreams._

It's the bad dreams that always get you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if it would make sense in some cities to set-up "internet café" or capsule hotel-like accommodations[1]. Dense urban areas in other countries have these "overflow" spaces which diverged somewhat from their original design have come to serve either laborers, workers from other cities as well as people stranded by train schedules.

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

<comment><USER16> I'm picturing something like an "Uber stop" somewhat similar to a truck- stop... combine a gas-station and restaurant with some of those Japanese "capsule hotel" sleeping pods[1], add wifi and maybe even a few coin-op washing machines / dryers.

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

<comment><USER17> I honestly don't know why the US doesn't have these capsule hotels. I can see so many upsides and very few downsides.

"But the homeless might sleep in them". Better there than on the streets, no?

<comment><USER18> Cheap short-term (nightly to weekly) housing used to be all over the United States in the form of dormitories (YMCA was huge), SROs (single room occupancy), cage hotels, flophouses, and boarding houses. Because of zoning and building code changes this kind of housing essentially stopped being built after WWII. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flophouse#Cage_hotels_in_the_U...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flophouse#Cage_hotels_in_the_United_States)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> And this is _with_ heavy Uber subsidies... if Uber manages to make a profit off of market rate while still paying their fixed costs (big if), it's going to be even worse for drivers.

<comment><USER20> They just have to stay afloat until they can cut out the drivers entirely.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> > The company proudly proclaims that the share of drivers who work less than > 10 hours a week has climbed to more than 60 percent

I'm very interested in these kinds of stats. I'd imagine this is like any other distribution - long, long tailed; with lots of drivers who have driven once, twice, or what have you. Give me the stats on heavy drivers. What fraction of drivers work > 40 hours a week? What fraction of miles driven are driven by heavy drivers? What fraction of <10 hour a week drivers have other jobs? How many hours a week does an Uber driver without another job drive on average?

The company is giving us just the slice that looks good. I'm sure if you started diving into these questions, it wouldn't be pretty.

<comment><USER22> You are asking the right question. And Uber will never share answers to such questions :)

Even if 90% of Uber drivers drive <10 hr a week, its quite possible that more than 90% of the total ride time is be drivers who drive ~24 hrs a day.

In India, most Uber drivers I spoke to had a common thread. They buy new car, slog day and night to pay off the monthly payments, which means sleep for 3-4 hrs, work for 12 - 14 hrs.

Sleeping they do, wherever they'd find a safe place to park the car, and sign out of the Uber app. Basically no life of their own, until they pay off the car.

For many, lured by Uber's scheme of 'leasing to buy' cars scheme, once they have had the car for a month, its difficult to get out of that scheme because of loss aversion, and hope of independence after slogging for 3 to 4 years.

<comment><USER21> It is indentured slavery. I hate to say it, but my fellow tech workers are embarrassing us. We need to stand up for these workers. How many people that work at Uber would disagree with this practice but never speak up about it?

<comment><USER23> What though, is wrong with it?

As far as I can see, simply that the same company helps them get the loan is the same one that pays them to drive. And also that they probably buy new cars and are upside down on the loan as soon as they drive off the lot.

<comment><USER22> I agree with you that these drivers are getting loans only because Uber and its partners are willing give, and in return gobble up a huge share of the driver's earnings.

But, isn't that like asking 'whats wrong in giving subprime loans?'

The way I see it, at least for Uber drivers in US getting such loans from Santander+Uber, its a raw deal.

In 4-6 years if they pay off the car as earnings continue to slide, they'll be holding onto a car which has 200K+ to 400K+ miles on it and worth not much. And in 4 years there's a very very good possibility that short haul rides could be fully autonomous.

<comment><USER23> Well, it's certainly a deal than neither of us would take, but if the person bought intelligently and drove conservatively, it could be a win for them.

Certainly to the point where I don't want to forbid them making that contract if they see fit. And the fact that Uber profits as well doesn't change the driver's rights in dealing with them. If the driver got a separate loan from the bank we wouldn't be having this discussion. Smart or not, it's their right.

The issue is all in the one company having too much control - like miners in a company town being under the thumb of a landlord and boss who were the same and shared information about the employee. That does bother me and I might want to pass a law to forbid that, to ensure there's a wall between those roles.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> In Dickens' time kids were chained to the machines and beds were rented per shift, so they were always kept warm.

Now it's also adults in the prime of their earning years and the bed is now gone, the baron robbers of Silicon Valley took the last perk of the working man.

I wonder how this age will be remembered in a couple of centuries.

</comment><comment><USER25> It's not just about the $80000 salary. It's about the company perks, like organized camping trips.

</comment><comment><USER26> I just read an article about obsolete features in homes. One was garages. They claimed the rise of ride sharing and self driving cars would mean people need less space to store their cars. My first thought was that those things would not mean less driving going on, perhaps fewer total cars, but then where would those self driving and uber cars be stored?

<comment><USER27> Well storage space would first and foremost decline substantially as cars spend a huge amount of time on the road. So instead of sitting in a parking spot 23 hours a day, it would sit there maybe 6-8 hours a day (at night)

So where does it stay during those 6-8 hours? Well why not out in the streets in residential areas where it's as close as possible to people who would likely be commuting early in the morning. The streets would be fairly empty and it wouldn't be an issue because self driving cars would easily maneuver themselves.

This would be a scenario where all cars are owned by some organization (e.g. uber, the government, etc.) and then rented per trip by users. The result is cost savings for everyone involved.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> "... and how long to drive."

Hopefully there won't be many fatigue related accidents. But no worries for Uber, the drivers aren't employees!

</comment><comment><USER29> The sharing economy for parking lots and bathrooms.

</comment><comment><USER30> I love uber. When we were snowed in and my wife needed to get to the airport, an uber driver in a Tahoe got the job done.

However, all the financial news I read about is how much money uber is losing.

My question is, where does it go? Insurance? Legal municipal wrangling? Embezzlement?

Also, looks like a startup opportunity for providing Uber drivers a safe place to spend the night (self storage style).

<comment><USER31> Paying drivers more than they are making from customers.

<comment><USER30> So it's a game of "who can lose money the longest?"

I guess the customer's win for as long as the VCs want to pour money into it. It's hard for me to believe that's a winning strategy... even if you outlast the competition, eventually you have to start making money and as soon as you raise prices again, competition can start back up.

I'm probably underestimating network effects.

<comment><USER27> Simply because you are burning cash, doesn't mean that the value of your company is falling.

I know it's tempting to see it that way, especially since uber is as large as it is, but the winning strategy is also to survive as the dominant player until self-driving cars are commonplace.

Then you replace the drivers with cars, and thanks to your network you have a huge first mover advantage in the driverless taxi industry. It's during the initial period of this stage that you would see the most profits, and then as more companies enter the market you would begin to have to compete on price and quality.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Awesome! India here we come!

</comment><comment><USER33> There isn't enough competition even though Lyft is trying and the regulation attempts are ineffective.

Maybe an app or something could make regulation more effective somehow.

<comment><USER34> "We're the Uber of Uber regulations!"</comment></comment>


(Case Study) Electronic Arts Symbol, Negative Effect on Ads - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ads.pof.com/2012/04/09/brand-reputation-has-an-effect-on-your-electronic-arts-need-for-speed-world-results/

<comment><USER2> Maybe everyone already associates EA with driving games, so if the logo is missing, the ad is more interested because it could be "something else".</comment>


Anatomy of a QR Code - <AUTHOR> http://www.qrme.co.uk/qr-code-resources/understanding-a-qr-code.html

<comment><USER2> The problem I had with QR codes is it doesn't say "QR Code" anywhere on it! I looked at the QR codes on my bathroom detergent bottles, and didn't know it was that until I read about QR codes in a newspaper.

<comment><USER3> A UPC-A barcode doesn't label itself as such either. They look bizarre until you see what happens with a barcode scanner and then they're easily identifiable and quite normal. It's no different with QR codes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> heh. I have a moleskin I draw QR codes in by hand when I need to zone out.

so far, none are readable with my phone. maybe graph paper next time.

</comment><comment><USER5> I get the data structure, but is there some metadata? How does it know the contents are, say, an URL, or a vcard?

<comment><USER6> I think it is just: store bytes and let the reader decide how to deal with them. Starts with "http", it's a URL. Starts with "BEGIN:VCARD", it's a vcard. Primitive but it works well enough I guess.</comment></comment>


Designing Analytics for Growth Measurement - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@productgrowth/designing-analytics-for-growth-measurement-1131d81260f3 <comment><AUTHOR> Author here, happy to answer any Q's.</comment>


No bullshit guide to math and physics - <AUTHOR> http://minireference.com <comment><USER2> I read the first 10 pages of the pdf. I'm not sure who you think your target audience is, but this book doesn't seem to serve any of them.

You gloss over huge sections of algebra, and in doing so, ignore incredibly common mistakes that students make. Take a look at the top of page 9, 6 \sqrt{x} - 7 = [...]. You solve that out, but give no reason as to why you got rid of the 7 first, the 6 second, and the radical third. This is not an easy concept, nor is it an academic distinction.

Math might be easy for you, but it probably isn't for your target audience. You're assuming entirely too much about what your readers will know.

Beyond that, some of your math (and math history) has flaws.

"So this is what number meant during the whole middle ages. The notion of 2.5 goats didn't make any sense to the people of those days. They would have been totally confused by the menu at Rotisserie Romados which offers 1/4 of a chicken."

This is entirely untrue. Even most illiterate peasants knew the basics of fractional parts in the middle ages. 2.5 goats didn't make sense, but 2.5 stone of barley did. The church prohibited usury, but lending still happened, so they had some knowledge of percentages as well. Despite the fall of Rome and the horrible loss of knowledge that followed, math wasn't completely lost. In 725, monks knew enough mathematics to predict the date of Easter (based on the lunar cycle, mind you) years in advance. And math flourished in medieval Islam.

Heck, if my memory serves, fractions were invented in Ancient Sumer, ~4000 years earlier.

"We can move a function f to the left by h units by subtracting h from x and using that as the input argument: g(x) = f(x − h)."

This actually translates the function to the right. This is also where I stopped reading.

I really want this to be good. I love finding wonderful new resources for teaching mathematics. I'm sure you put a serious effort into the text. But I fear your no bullshit guide is just going to scare the shit out of its readers.

<comment><USER3> The Bible, for example, uses fractions. In Lev. 5:16 - "He must make restitution for what he has failed to do in regard to the holy things, add a fifth of the value to that and give it all to the priest, who will make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be forgiven."

But I'm with pflats' judgement. I see text like "Indeed, on computers systems which don't have a hardware multiplication circuit, every time you write ab the computer will repeatedly add the number a for a total of b iterations." and wonder first, won't the target audience be confused by "hardware multiplication circuit", and second, is this actually true? I'm pretty sure they use shift-and-add.

Or, there's a use of "=" to say that "a/b = ... = one bth of a" then on the same page there's a triple bar "≡" used for the same thing. Will your target audience understand the notation shift?

The language "It is worth clarifying what" and "It is interesting to note that" and "We will now illustrate how the equations of kinematics are used to solve physics problems" are part of the same stultifying language you complain about. There's a bunch of places where you can simplify text like "the expression 5×32 +13 is to be interpreted" to "the expression 5×32 +13 is interpreted" -- the "to be" is useless. And the voice changes from "we get" to "you get".

Why is x-1 different from f-1 ? That is, the first is 1/x and the second is the function inverse. As far as I see, you don't explain that those "-1"s mean different things. Nor do you say that "f" is another type of variable naming pattern, which describes a functions.

Suppose your student wants to actually do the Moroccan example as an experiment. It will fail, because of air friction. Yet friction isn't brought up here. Newton's laws are not intuitive, because we are used to a world which is full of friction, and frictional forces aren't easy to describe. But the text assumes that the clarity of Newton's laws will be self-apparent, even if it doesn't match expectations.

The Moroccan example also uses "44.145[m]". Who measures their balcony height down to the millimeter? The precision was chosen so the answer would be exactly 3[s], but other examples aren't that fussy. In any case, the answer should be 3.00". Significant figures are hard for students to understand, and I don't see any guidance that a fall of 44 meters should not be answered 2.9950690022496134[s], even if that's what the computer gives.

Finally, good on you for using SI for the file size instead of base 2 __10 units. However, [Mb] is megabit, not megabyte. You should use [MB].

<comment><USER4> Traditional Jewish sources would translate that as _25%_. It does say one- fifth, but it's a fifth in the sense that you pay 125%, and 25% is one fifth of what you pay. There have been shifts in a lot of mathematical concepts over time and that's just one example. For instance, at some points in history people did use fractions, but favored using one in the numerator - 3/5 would have been expressed as 1/2 plus 1/10.

<comment><USER3> My goal was to find counter-examples to the phrase "The notion of 2.5 goats didn't make any sense to the people of those days. They would have been totally confused by the menu at Rotisserie Romados which offers 1/4 of a chicken."

<comment><USER4> Sure, just nitpicking.

How about half a baby? <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Solomon>

<comment><USER3> That would have been a perfect response! I can't believe I forgot about it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I applaud the idea, but I think this book needs some serious work before it is suitable for your intended audience.

For example, in Section 1.1 you explain how to go about solving the equation x^2 - 4 = 45, a topic which (I would venture) most 16 year olds should be comfortable with.

Then in Section 1.2 you, out of nowhere, introduce set-theoretical ideas and notation. Even seemingly innocent notation like

        {0, 1, 2, 3, ...}

to denote the natural numbers can be confusing for someone who hasn't seen it before. In this case it's clear that the dots are supposed to indicate "continue in the obvious way". But then you write

        Q = { -1.5, 1/3, 22/7, 0.125, ... }

in which the dots, presumably, mean something different. Then, at the bottom of the page, you suddenly start using the notation "∈" to denote set membership, as in

        if x,y ∈ N, then (x+y) ∈ N.

First, what does this weird "∈" symbol mean? Second, what does it mean to write "x,y ∈ N"? Is that x∈N and y∈N? Or is it some special object "x,y" that is ∈N? Or is it two statements, "x" on its own, and "y∈N"?

The next couple of paragraphs contain both historical and mathematical inaccuracies (can you _really_ always divide two rational numbers to get another rational number?). I'll stop there.

Like I say, I applaud what you're trying to do. I think you have a noble aim. But if the preview is anything to go by, your textbook in its current form is falling short of that aim.

<comment><USER6> _can you really always divide two rational numbers to get another rational number?_

I'll not give a formal proof, but intuitively the answer is surely "yes"!

<comment><USER7> Yes, and it's pretty easy to prove. Multiplying any rational number by the inverse of another gives you a new rational number. (Zero doesn't have an inverse).

A rational number is a number that can be represented as one integer divided by another. Take two rational numbers, A = a/b, and B = c/d. If B has an inverse, then A/B = a/b * d/c = ad/bc. ad and bc are both integers, so A/B is rational.

<comment><USER5> My point was that you can only divide one rational by another to produce a new rational _if the denominator is nonzero_.

This is not what it says in the book, so there's potential for a newbie to get confused (and anyone reading the book in order to learn from it is, by definition, a newbie).

<comment><USER7> Oh, then that seems like a pretty pedantic worry. You can't divide by zero in any context; even children know that. It's such an obvious exception that it didn't even occur to me that's what you thought was wrong with the statement.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I appreciate the goal and the bold tone. I volunteer time to tutor middle and high school kids in math. It would be nice to have a fresh approach available, and a hard copy or four would be nice.

Would it be possible to create a version without the 'bullshit' language? Outside of the cover there are two 'bullshits' in the first chapter. It doesn't bother me but I don't think the directors of my program or parents would be very happy about it.

I'm sure the kids would like it but in a program such as ours, adding unnecessary friction to the relationship with parents is not a good idea. The older kids are spending time in our program that could be used to work jobs to help support their family (and it is a real pressure on these kids and families), so anything that threatens that is a non-starter.

<comment><USER8> Just to clarify and since the author is being cool and replying to individual comments...

The reason I asked about a 'clean' version is this: we serve kids from relatively low-income households. The goal is to increase high school graduation rates and college attendance. This is a long-term goal that conflicts with short-term needs. Often times it might be better to have a 13-17 year old boy or girl go to work with a family member, instead of spending time being tutored or participating in athletics.

In this situation, I can't send a kid home with this book if they want to check out the new approach. I love profanity and curse more than I should, but there are certain situations and audiences where it's not appropriate. Perhaps much of the audience for this book could use a cleaner approach.

Thanks and good luck!!

<comment><AUTHOR> I totally agree with you.

I am definitely going to do a cleaned up version with less attitude. I will start by cleaning up the examples. The theory sections are mostly OK. Please send me an email so I can keep you updated on that front.

<comment><USER9> I hope you are going to keep the cleaned up version separate. Some of us (me at least) would like the book in current form. :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh for sure ;)

For v4.0 of the book, I am thinking of making it customizable. Before you order the book, you will be able to adjust the level of "attitude" with a slider.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I hesitated to post this, since I think clearer, shorter, better written textbooks are an admirable goal, and I keep a (short) list of good text books I have found over the years. But based on the preview on the website, I'm going to keep referring those who ask me to Gelfand's wonderful basic math texts instead (Algebra, Method of Coordinates, Functions and Their Graphs, Trigonometry -- anyone who wants further pointers to these, private message me).

There are also some howlers in the preview text, such as "after thinking very hard the mathematicians were able to classify all the different number like objects into sets" and then lists the naturals, integers, rationals, reals, and complex numbers. Except that these are nested subsets of each other, not disjoint, and the four normed division algebras are the reals, complexes numbers, quaternions, and octionions, so if you're going to talk about all the number like objects without including those last two, you're off the mark.

I haven't seen the physics sections, but I will say that teaching physics is actually remarkably difficult. I tend to recommend 1960s editions of Halliday and Resnick (not the recent ones!), though I will probably switch to recommending Karl Wiemann's work (<http://c21.phas.ubc.ca/>).

I absolutely agree that mechanics and the differential and integral calculus should be taught together, though. They don't make any sense without each other.

<comment><USER11> > I tend to recommend 1960s editions of Halliday and Resnick (not the recent > ones!)

I'm curious why. I remember reading the second edition back in 1998. Recently, I got one of the new editions (8th) but the new ones seem too verbose. What went wrong?

<comment><USER10> In textbook publishing, it's very important to put out a new edition every year or two. Otherwise your sales will disappear, since everyone will buy the book used. For a book like Halliday and Resnick that's been around since the 1960s, it doesn't take a very large number of people selling theirs to satisfy the demand of all current physics students.

So you put out a new edition in which you shuffle all the exercises so that students can't do their homework, and you have someone mess with the text and the formatting to make it look like a real change. You add glossy pictures, because you get a much bigger visual impact from changing the pictures than from actually changing content.

For an old book, this is a problem because often the authors are dead or retired, or think the book is just fine. Now you have to find someone who would like his name added to a classic text who will sign off on the job. Today it's Halliday, Resnick, and Crane. For Arfken's old mathematical methods for physics text, it was Weber.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Personally looking forward to the ebook coming out! I was actually just this morning going through and signing up to a bunch of mathematics related Coursera courses. For those interested, quite a few are starting soon:

[Jan 7th] Calculus: Single Variable - <https://www.coursera.org/course/calcsing>

[Jan 7th] Calculus One - <https://www.coursera.org/course/calc1>

[Jan 28th] Algebra - <https://www.coursera.org/course/algebra>

[Jan 28th] Pre-Calculus - <https://www.coursera.org/course/precalculus>

</comment><comment><USER13> I would adjust the tone for the "I am in Arts" section. Saying "I think you have math issues" is not the kind of welcome you want to give to people who do, in fact, have math issues.

I like the end, where you emphasize that math is a great exercise in abstract thinking and modeling. But I would start with something more neutral saying something like, "Many people had suboptimal experiences with math in school because it was often presented well, and some teaching styles don't work for some people. And some may have just always found other things more interesting. However, my goal with this book was to make math more accessible and interesting to many people by presenting material in more a more intuitive manner and emphasizing the core skills of abstract thinking and mathematical modeling of the real world."

That's definitely not perfect, but it's something to start with. Try to imagine that you're someone who never found math all that interesting and always thought that literature or history or art was far more interesting and meaningful, and that possibly you had some bad experiences with math and got the idea that you're not good at it. Now try to imagine what might trigger those bad feelings about math and turn you off to a book, versus what might make you decide to give it a chance. If you don't trust your ability to imagine this way, try to find a close friend who is in this situation and will be honest with you.

<comment><USER14> I disagree. Looking at the title, & reading over the preview of the book, I think that the concise, anti-politically correct tone the author uses is one of his best selling points. After all the book is titled "no bullshit". And there's already plenty of texts that use ostensibly comforting words to artists.

<comment><USER13> There is a difference between being somewhat edgy and improper ("no bullshit") and actively working against one's aims by including copy that is confrontational and discouraging to the most insecure segment of one's audience ("you have a math problem; you need therapy"). Those whom it does not bother might appreciate this continuation of his tone, but it is horribly damaging with the audience that it claims to target.

I have some experience encouraging groups who tend to be less sure of their abilities in an academic subject to study that subject and am friends with many people who are much more involved in these efforts, and I know that being confrontational is counterproductive and that you have to be very careful about how you suggest to them that they have a "problem", even if you are telling them that they can overcome that problem. You want to stay positive and show empathy toward their struggles, emphasizing that the struggles are not any failing or inherent shortcoming on their part and are very common.

<comment><AUTHOR> Updated Arts section to:

PS: I know a lot of people who say that they absolutely hate math because they think, for some reason, that they are not good at it. You should consider giving math another try. Math is not just about algebra ...

I like the abrasive comment "you have issues", but it is better to stay positive rather than point fingers. Everyone has issues ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I would have to disagree with the general statement that "textbooks suck". Stewart's calculus ("the violin book") is really a great textbook, and it's used very widely. Serway Jewett is a superb Physics textbook. The examples, in particular, are excellent (sometimes humorous or intriguing.)

Also, textbooks are long. But most courses don't use the entire textbook. I took 3 math courses and 2 physics courses in first year using those two textbooks and we didn't use every section, nor did we have to read every page.

I think having example problems which have stood the test of time (more than 20 years for those 2 textbooks, I think) is worthwhile.

<comment><USER16> I'm taking the Serway and Jewett physics right now, and I actually hate it. Their explanations of tricky concepts kind of suck. For example, it doesn't even try to explain _why_ a hot gas is less ordered than a cool one (it's the same amount of information, the same number of real numbers, right?). I only got a vague understanding after scouring Wikipedia and later portions of the chapter. Stewart is pretty decent though, AFAICT.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Author here. Some comments before I go catch up on sleep.

1/ The response by the community was amazing. You guys are great! Especially the ones who are nitpicking and fact checking me! I love it. <http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/miniref/HN_wave_Jan1_Jan2.png>

2/ By popular demand, I created a PDF version of the book -- mostly changed the font and added more space on each page. Preview is here: <http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/miniref/noBSmath_preview.pdf> PDF is available on gumroad: <http://gum.co/noBSmath>

3/ Will write up a detailed post about the experience later today here: <http://minireference.com/blog/>

4/ The notation "∈" stands for "is an element of" and is covered later on in the book. See <http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/miniref/set_notation.pdf> for more info.

Thank you everyone for the feedback and the support.

<comment><USER17> @ivan_ah I just placed an order for a print copy, am I also entitled to a PDF version?

<comment><AUTHOR> I am looking into how to bundle the two, but it isn't obvious since I use lulu.com for the print version and gumroad for the PDF.

If you send me a proof of purchase of the print version (screenshot of lulu receipt that shows your email), I would be glad to send you the PDF.

<comment><USER18> Fantastic, I'll send you an email. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I actually clicked "Buy Now" before I realized this was a physical textbook and cancelled. To me, it's almost inexcusable to market this sort of text to this type of audience and not have a digital copy.

Shouldn't the barriers to entry be much lower for the author to get this out electronically?

I see that the author is responding to comments here, so if you're like me and will buy it if it comes out electronically, please let him know in the comments that he can count on your purchase.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have the PDF version ready and will setup a shopping cart (ejunkie?) very soon (like tonight) because several people asked for this.

Reading math in print is really good: you can flip back and forth through the pages.

How much should the PDF cost? 29$ sounds a bit steep for a PDF no?

<comment><USER20> For reference have a look at the % price difference for other book sellers, like O'Reilly: <http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596802363.do>

I'd be selling it for $24 for Ebook (and make it available in PDF/Epub/Mobi to cover all readers), $29 for print, $32 for Print + Ebook.

<comment><USER21> Please listen to this guy's suggestion of making the price for both only marginally higher than the price for the Print version alone. One of the quickest ways to kill my interest in in purchasing a book is by expecting someone to pay a non-trivial amount of money for a digital copy after they just purchased a hard copy at full retail.

As far as pricing the ebook alone, I think it should be somewhere around 14.99 to 19.99.

If it helps, I am probably a good example of your target customer. I didn't take my education seriously until I was out of high school for a few years, and now I find myself trying to catch up with all of the stuff I should have learned when I was younger.

<comment><USER22> Why is it acceptable in 2013 to charge ANYTHING for a digital copy when also buying the dead-tree?

<comment><USER23> If it were a one-off download, it probably wouldn't be. But I quite like the system O'Reilly uses: $5 for an ebook if you own the dead-tree version, because you can download it as many times as you like, in all different formats, and they maintain it with errata updates etc. for life.

The lifetime ability to download the most-current version of a book in any current format is, IMO, worth a few dollars more than a free but unmaintained ebook in what may very easily become a legacy format within a few years.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Here's a picture from the examples:

[http://minireference.com/miniref/lib/tpl/miniref/landings/im...](http://minireference.com/miniref/lib/tpl/miniref/landings/images/download- plot-annotated-derivative.png)

I'm not a big fan of that picture. We're trying to compute f'(400), judging by the text (scroll down a bit on the first page). What the image suggests, afaict, is that f'(400) that can be computed as the limit [f(x+h) - f(x-h)]/2h with x=400 and h -> 0 (in the picture, we see the case h=80). At least the graphic appears to connect the two somehow.

Nothing to that effect is mentioned in the text... just the cookbook recipe 'at^n becomes ant^{n-1}'. So why is there even a triangle here? Two things are fishy here. The limit and the triangle.

The limit: Taking the aforementioned limit for the derivative is rather weird. If the function is differentiable, you'll get the right result, namely f'(x). If you consider the limit for the function x -> |x| at x=0 e.g., you'll get a limit as well, even though that function is not differentiable.

The triangle: I would expect it to connect the three points [x-h,f(x-h)], [x+h,f(x-h)], [x+h,f(x+h)]. Instead, we get three points whose X-coordinates match the ones I mentioned with Y-coordinates that are chosen to have the slope of the triangle match the slope of the function. Why? (If this were about the mean-value theorem... but it's not!)

So what I'm left with is a plot with a triangle, no text that explains any of that, and nothing I can make of it myself.

<comment><AUTHOR> > I'm not a big fan of that picture. We're > trying to compute f'(400), >

Well, technically speaking, you are not supposed to talk about derivatives in the picture answer. I am just trying to connect the notion of "download rate" with the "slope of the file size function".

The triangle with the hypotenuse touching the function (tangent line) is a way to compute the slope from the graph. As such the actual size of the triangle is not important -- so long as it helps you compute the rise-over-run.

So to answer your question -- the triangle is not meant to illustrate the derivative calculation. Indeed, it would be quite difficult to show an infinitely small triangle ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> The pitch "textbooks suck" seems so disrespectful and tasteless, it literally makes me avoid that book. Most of my uni textbooks did not suck at all.

<comment><USER26> I teach college biology, and I've never seen a textbook in my discipline that wasn't written in a soporific and meandering style. Some are worse than others, but I've never seen a textbook I thought was good.

If I needed to fill a gap in my knowledge or learn a new subject I would never resort to a textbook until I had exhausted every other available option.

<comment><USER27> That may well be true in your discipline, but there are some excellent, concise texts in undergraduate mathematics. For example, Apostol's Calculus or Spivak's Calculus on Manifolds. Not the most accessible texts by a longshot, but not your average Pearson or Wiley drivel either.

<comment><USER28> Adding on to eigenvector's point, there's a certain beauty in a self-contained mathematics textbook.

<comment><USER29> likewise, the explanation for how the concepts flow together. drawing these connections is usually the last step for me in the "a-ha" moment, and too few resources explain the connections between concepts really well. khan academy being a strong exception.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> About the conceptual map in the website ( [http://minireference.com/miniref/lib/tpl/miniref/landings/im...](http://minireference.com/miniref/lib/tpl/miniref/landings/images/concept_map_light.png) ) - Does anyone please know a similar map for CS concepts?

Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER31> The website isn't readable in IE9.

<comment> mansoor-s <http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/>

<https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/>

<comment><USER16> I'm sure halo knows there are other browsers. Remarking that a website is unreadable in a widely-used browser is a legitimate comment that doesn't deserve snark.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed.

The getElementById got me! Will jQuerify that ASAP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I don't think that there is a need for the liberal use of swearing in a mathematics book ("shit" appears 5 times in your sample PDF alone, two of which are in the title). In my opinion, it makes it sound very amateur and unprofessional.

> "Check this shit out:"

Could be "Consider this example:"

> Now get ready for some crazy shit. Using your...

Now for something even more interesting. Using your...

<comment><AUTHOR> > that there is a need for the liberal use of swearing in a mathematics book

You are right that there is no //need//, but I find that a little swearing goes a long way to make the student who is scared of the subject feel more comfortable. "This is not a math book", they will think -- this is informal narrative like a blog post.

A cleaned up version is in the works. ETA March because I have to finish Linear Algebra and E&M first.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> random idea - consider making some examples/sections from the book also available as an IPython notebook. IPython+matplotlib+numpy+scipy is a perfect quartet for getting some ideas across in an interactive, intuitive way. best of all the reader doesnt have to setup anything. just include some URLs in your book.

see: <http://ipython.org>

<comment><USER34> Yes! I've been away from math for so long that having code that translates the math notation would be really helpful!

</comment></comment><comment> v-yadli Why this is on Hacker News, while the download rate in his example would follow f(t)=k\cdot t^2? Mine only follows f(t)=C+k\cdot rand().

We need better, deeper, broader understanding of math and physics. This _fast food_ -styled stuff is really not for us. Why? Think you're going into approximated algorithms without knowing the wonderful essentials of constant e? Think you're going into pattern recognition without a throughout understanding of linear/quadratic/etc systems?

A thick textbook only to charge you $150? That sounds like "6-pack abs the quick way" advertisement... XD

Guys! Please stop joking!

<comment><USER16>
      A thick textbook only to charge you $150? That sounds
      like "6-pack abs the quick way" advertisement... XD

Have you been to college recently? I'm in college right now, and I absolutely believe it. Maybe it's not quite that simple, but only because the publishers are being slightly more devious. College textbooks are a racket.

<comment> v-yadli I received my undergrad education in China. We've got some really good math textbooks, and they're very cheap. Yes I know textbooks in English are very expensive. But during my PhD education I mainly rely on free resources. (For example, Vazirani has written some very comprehensive materials about math and algorithms, search for it. If I don't remember it wrong, somebody posted his algorithm book a month ago on HN)

On the other hand, for what purpose would you like to choose a book that you call "racket"? If forced by your school, then it's done, no choice. If it's your willpower to learn something, why don't do some mining and research first before diving into a pile of junk? :-)

<comment><USER16> I actually got away without the book for my first semester of physics, but basically yes, it's forced by the school. That's why they can get away with a racket.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Ivan, could you share a little about your toolchain writing this book? There's been a lot of traffic on HN around self publishing and I think it would be of interest.

P.S. I'll buy it in ebook form!

<comment><AUTHOR> OK, so I have a blog post in the works but since that is taking too long I will say a few words here briefly. Basically I use:

        dokuwiki | dokutexit | sed (cleanup) | pdflatex

DokuWiki is a file-system based wiki which I run on localhost. Each section is one .txt file. To generate the book I made a master file which includes all necessary sections. The plugin dokutexit then produces the .tex output. Dokutexit does a good job, but I still there is some cleanup necessary (via sed). I also do some manual touchups by adding the front matter / back matter stuff (via \input{subfile.tex}) and then pdflatex does its magic.

The latex document class is extbook -- the regular book class does not have the 9pt option.

@READERS Sorry for inflicting upon you the 9pt font. I know it is tiny, but look at how small and portable the book is now ;)

____

I am still researching how to generate .epub and .mobi form latex files. If anyone has pointers to articles which discuss this, I would be very interested to hear. PM me, or post them here so that everyone can learn. (plasTeX? MathJax? MathML?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I would buy it, but it appears you don't have an ebook version? I can't really keep physical books because they take up too much space (small apartment).

<comment><AUTHOR> @cameronh90 @veeti @Who828 I hear you guys.

I will have the PDF version ready by later tonight. How much should the PDF cost? Is a DRM-free PDF good enough or should I do the .epub format?

(in the meantime, check out the free preview: <http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/miniref/miniref_v3_preview.pdf> about one third of the book is there)

<comment><USER35> An ebook being cheaper isn't a big deal for me, since my view is the price more to do with the content than the format. For other people it does seem to be more significant though. Maybe it should be the price of the physical book less the costs of printing/binding/etc. such that you get the same amount of money in the pocket at the end? (I don't know if that's how it works, having never published a book!)

PDF is good for PC viewing and will work on pretty much everything, though EPUB and Kindle formats will make things better on e-readers and phones/tablets since they support re-flowable content, but I guess would probably require more work on your part to support.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> On page 126 it is implied that if a person collides with two objects, the object with the most momentum will do that person the most harm.

This is nonsense. I am likely to survive being hit by a car at 10 mph, but I will certainly be killed if I'm hit by a 1 kg projectile travelling at 2000 m/s, even though it has less than half the momentum.

</comment><comment><USER37> Sounds like a fascinating book. I'll be purchasing it as soon as the ebook is available.

Note: I didn't even know this book existed ten minutes ago, but now I'm annoyed that I have to wait until tomorrow for the ebook version. Sometimes my demand for instant gratification shocks even me.

</comment><comment><USER38> I was just discussing writing this same exact book for/with my wife. Se^(2^(x))^e does not interest her. The standard in my past has been mathematics books that use equations that do not/rarely occur in nature. The concepts are priceless, but the problems/solutions do not use common integers.

Breaking a problem down six times to actually start applying the principle I am learning is my largest downfall. It makes me lose interest in the subject at hand. I would rather understand and be able to reference the concepts.

Like many others, an ebook would be more delightful. Yet, I may buy the paperback this weekend.

</comment><comment><USER39> Congrats on getting your book published Ivan! Starting the New Year right by being at the top of HN.

Did you end up giving Jarryd an editor credit?

I wish you continued success.

</comment><comment><USER40> Nice! I'd buy ebook when it's out. BTW, I also recommend "The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity" (<http://www.stevenstrogatz.com/the_joy_of_x.html>). This amazing book rekindled my interest in Mathematics. Now, I've got a couple of math books in my 'to-read' list.

</comment><comment><USER41> This is pretty interesting stuff. Out of curiosity, have you thought of an interactive book? It brings higher level concepts alive.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am a big fan of "choose your own adventure" kind of books, and I will try to do something with that soon.

For the physics part, I also have a simple physics game engine which is in the works. Instead of answering questions about different //points// of the motion the user would have to specify the js function which describes the entire motion. There will be not "grades" just test suites your code has to pass ;)

What do you have in mind exactly when you say "interactive book"?

<comment><USER41> I was thinking of graphs and equations where you could test different values, see how the outcome varies. When you learn with a graphic/equation you can manipulate, the experience stays with you

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> While I applaud the self-publishing, promising to teach "all of math and physics" in two weeks is preposterous at best.

</comment><comment><USER43> If you make this promising book available in eBook format you are guaranteed at least a few sales from HN readers, and indeed very likely from many other readers who prefer digital books over paper books.

I would advise that you make the digital copy of the book available as soon as possible—I am an interested buyer as well.

</comment><comment><USER44> Based on the comments I've read and reading a bit of the preview - I am curious as to how polished this version is. I'm hesitant in buying the paperback copy especially, if there are errors.

Otherwise, this looks incredible. Exactly what I've wanted when wanting to learn math!

<comment><AUTHOR> This is the third iteration of the book, so I think I have gotten the typos- per-page down to an almost non-existant level. I am sure there are some left, but it is definitely not a first draft.

<comment><USER45> FYI. the top of the page number 4 ...addition an subtraction... you are missing a 'd'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> From the example it looks like he doesn't connect the graphical answer to the calculus answer or to the obvious answer. I really hope he actually explains it in the book, because physicists are notoriously bad at being mathematically correct.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thx for the feedback. I am just added the following paragraph to clarify.

It is important to see the connections between the three different ways of finding the answer: the intuitive notion of download speed that we are all familiar with, the graphical notion of slope and the more abstract calculus notion of function derivative.

<comment><USER46> I meant that I hope you explain elsewhere in the book _why_ these notions are related. Too often in physics people just accept how things work out without understanding why mathematically. For instance, the whole point of introducing limits is to make the "obvious/graphical" answer of "download speed" rigorous, but students rarely make that connection regardless of how many times the professor or textbook reiterates it (most likely because they don't read the textbook or go to class to begin with).

Do you in your book mention that calculating the exact download speed is impossible (and why this is the case)? Do you mention that the download speed one sees in their web browser is an approximation via a limit? These are the kind of important connections that get lost in the bullshit and the calculations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Only read a few pages, but I would eliminate a lot of the introductory formalism. Most people don't need to be confused by the different sets of numbers, or common uses of variable names, or how to alter the shape of functions.

</comment><comment><USER48> The book seems to be very comfortable to read on e-ink reader. I'm going to try the preview on the kindle 4.

BTW, what does the preview include? It seems to have just random sections of the book.

</comment><comment><USER6> Your concept map has a typo...

<http://cnd.mcgill.ca/~ivan/miniref/mech_in_7_pages.pdf>

Page 8 - it reads "manitupation".

</comment><comment><USER49> Ok, there seems to be plenty of issues stated about this book, and I am going to guess that there are excellent alternatives to this book.

Anyone want to suggest some?

</comment><comment><USER41> The concept map is fantastic!

<comment><USER50> Agreed! I am pleasantly surprised that someone else is doing this! I have been drawing "concept maps" for myself for the knowledge they taught in high school and undergrad school. I have always thought I was the only one to draw such things :) I am a very visual person and these maps help me memorize stuff but also understand how everything fits together.

<comment><USER41> That is great to hear. I use it for understanding concepts when learning. It is a great tool. Have you tried <http://www.instagrok.com>

<comment><USER50> I did not know it. It would be nice if one could travel through graphs by just clicking on nodes, expanding other neighboring nodes, etc. Too bad it seems to only allow browsing up to 2 nodes away from the central node...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> formal notation and esoteric naming conventions is _exactly_ the bullshit i was expecting to be left out. i'm not sure this will actually work for the audience it was intended for.

</comment><comment><USER52> there is a free draft copy online if you search the name if you want to check out what the books like before your purchase

</comment><comment><USER53> ...why would anyone use/recommend this over the Khan Academy resources?

<comment><USER53> why the downvote? I was just hoping to hear the opinion of someone who took a good look at both

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> OK cool but, Khan Academy.

<comment><USER6> Not everyone works well with Khan Academy, incredibly awesome though it is. A textbook is actually my preferred method of learning.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> Math;DR

</comment><comment><USER56> but pretty much a bullshit ad</comment>


Is Your Business Too Noisy? - <AUTHOR> http://juliantreasure.blogspot.com/2008/07/noise-costs-retail-millions.html <comment><USER2> Great post. As a sound engineer and someone who does sound for film, I'm blessed with good hearing and cursed with extreme sensitivity to noise. Most people don't think about it, but it has an enormous impact on mood and productivity, whether you operate a public place like a store or just have a radio in the corner of the office. An ugly sound environment (eg 3 sets of desktop speakers playing different TV feeds at low volume around an office) is horribly stressful and causes my productivity to evaporate. If there's a voice in the background (eg a TV or a podcast) I find it very hard to tune it out while I'm supposed to be reading.

Conversely, adding some natural noise (such as a little water toy, if the water is louder than the electric motor) can help smooth out the rough edges of otherwise unpleasant noise. And fairly inexpensive things like hard disk sleeves can significantly reduce the ambient noise in your office.

Don't get me started on sound in retail environments. I have fantasies about calling in an airstrike on the local 'easy listening' station; and actively seek to minimize my time in any store where it is played. By contrast, low- volume classical music will cause me to slow down and linger. There are two different 7-11 stores I regularly go into (I'm a big fan of their coffee) which have their radios tuned to the 'lite rock' and 'classic fm' stations, and you can likely guess which one I spend more at.

Safeway has a good strategy in this respect. They play generic pop, but it's very quiet, and they make occasional shopping announcements (of the 'great discounts on bread all this week' type), but only one at a time and so infrequently that it feels informative rather than obnoxious. Also, in the vegetable section they have a little gizmo that flickers the cabinet lights and plays a quiet thunder sound every time the automatic mister goes off, about once every 60 seconds. It's very unobtrusive. This was amusing the first few times, but I freely admit I've internalized as a reminder to buy vegetables every time I go there.

<comment><AUTHOR> He spoke at TED: <http://on.ted.com/48>

And you might like "Designer forget sound design": [http://juliantreasure.blogspot.com/2007/09/where-has- sonic-a...](http://juliantreasure.blogspot.com/2007/09/where-has-sonic- architecture-gone.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm glad other people feel this way too. My wife is hearing impaired and one of our main criteria for grading restaurants is the noise level. We recently walked into a new neighborhood restaurant with high expectations, and we turned around and walked out before being seated because the noise level was so high (hard surfaces and close tables everywhere). And don't get me started on my office environment--checking voice mail over your speakerphone? Really?

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting article; I suspect that that mapping from "brick/mortar -> sound" to "online -> visual" also holds true.</comment>


FBI Arrests SpaceX Employee, Allegedly Ran Silk Road 2.0 - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com.au/fbi-silk-road-seized-arrests-2014-11/

<comment><USER2> Interesting that retweeting something is used as a part of the argument.</comment>


Here's what happened when I tried to develop a new drug for a deadly cancer - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/heres-what-happened-when-i-tried-to-develop-a-new-drug-for-a-deadly-cancer/2019/01/11/697cf9f6-039f-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html <comment><USER2> This website has a non GDPR compliant wall which coerces you to accept terms.</comment>


Vice leaves EXIF location in Guatemala on photo of McAfee - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/12/03/vice-leaves-metadata-in-photo-of-john-mcafee-pinpointing-him-to-a-location-in-guatemala/2012/

<comment><AUTHOR> Considering the guy is is/was a computer security researcher, I wouldn't put it past them to have planted this.</comment>


India has electronic voting; why can't the U.S.? - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2107388/ <comment><USER2> This is from 2004.

</comment><comment> barry-cotter Because the USA has the appropiate level of paranoia.</comment>


Linksys WRT routers won't block open source firmware despite FCC rules - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/linksys-wrt-routers-wont-block-open-source-firmware-despite-fcc-rules <comment><USER2> The article title makes it sound like they're going against the FCC rules. The article itself however states they're complying the the FCC rules but are taking the more work for them option of just locking out the radio parameters portion.</comment>


[video] EEVblog #959 – How Much I Make on YouTube REVEALED - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8qdOAEQnps <comment><AUTHOR> I've thought about making YouTube videos before, as have many here have, I'm sure. The main deterrent for me has been the matter of supporting myself while spending so much time on YouTube. Leaving it at that, I went about my days wondering what it would take to be successful and exactly what success could look like. Then, one of my favorite YouTubers shared his results! Anyways, thanks for sharing Dave. Good on you! I hope it encourages others to explore making educational content.</comment>


Timing nutrition around exercise and rest - <AUTHOR> I am looking for articles or research related to the optimization of timing the ingest of nutrients around periods of rest and exercise.
Basic idea is this:
You work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday early AM.  Let's say you lift for a couple of hours from 6 AM until 8 PM.
When should you ingest nutrients in order to optimally provide the body with what it needs to repair and grow?  What nutrient mix is necessary and in what quantities in relation to body mass?
It seems reasonable to assume that the body will not benefit from anything you ate 24 hours earlier, say, Sunday's breakfast for a Monday 6:00AM workout.  How, then, should nutrition timing, mix and quantity change during rest days in order to, again, optimize for the delivery of what the body needs and not overshoot.
The hypothesis here is that eating the same meals every day with total disregard of the physical activity taking place does not seem sensible or optimal.
If you work out hard on Monday morning and will sit in front of a computer, couch, sleep for most of the 48 hours following your workout surely you don't need nutrients at the same intensity, volume and mix as you did a few hours before and a few hours after the workout.
Does anyone know of literature/research in this area.  Not necessarily interested in "gym wisdom" from the likes of typical bodybuilding sites.  Most of that stuff isn't reliable enough to take seriously. <comment><USER2> I ran track in college and the most critical rule we followed was that after a workout, you have 45 minutes to get your protein intake. This promotes optimal muscle recovery. At the time we would drink a supplement called Endurox with a 4:1 carbs:protein ratio immediately after workout. It was great because we didn't get to dinner until about 90-120 minutes after workout.

Now that I graduated and no longer compete, I keep it simple. I usually run about six miles with a stop in the middle to do body weight workouts at a calisthenics park (pull-ups, dips, push-ups, l sits, etc). When I get back, I drink a chocolate milk immediately to hold me over while I shower and prepare a more substantial meal. Chocolate milk is a great source of protein. For the meal, I usually have some combination of chicken, pasta, salad and vegetables.

Other than that, the only hard rule I follow is to eat breakfast every day, usually scrambled eggs with cheese. And some fruit throughout the rest of the day.

On days when I don't exercise, I usually eat similar foods but in smaller quantities. I basically just listen to my body and if I'm hungry, I eat more. If I'm not, I eat less.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am also very curious and will hope for a response from someone far more knowledgeable.

However, from my own research and experience I actually think there is no real answer someone else can give you. All of our bodies are different. Beyond that, the dietary advice we all choose to follow is even more different. I have a friend who basically fasts yet works out twice a day. I myself do something reminiscent of intermittent fasting with a touch of keto macros and do fairly well. Others follow a more "typical" diet and do just fine in their own ways.

My point is, get some basics and then just see what works for you.

<comment><AUTHOR> At some level there's also the definition of "working out".

I am on a lifting program where strength is the goal, not bulking out. We add 5 lbs every workout session (15 lbs per week) to every exercise. In a couple of cases this has come down to 2.5 lbs per day as it has gotten harder to maintain the prior pace.

The point is that this is very different from someone who gets on the treadmill every day to run for one hour. That's more of a steady state routine where balancing nutrition is far easier.

In my case I need to eat more. A lot more. No other way to maintain the pace of strength gains.

What I am after is an approach to nutritional optimization that allows me to feed my system as much as it needs to be able to do the work during workout days yet not over feed it during the 46 hour rest period.

In other words, feed for the 2 hour workout as well as whatever is necessary for recovery + muscle growth but don't over-feed because you could go backwards during those 46 hours.

<comment><USER3> Yeah the funny thing is, one particular kid, in my previous comment, that barely eats at all is the one doing the most insane workouts. We're talking 6-8 miles of really fast cardio runs or days of pretty heavy lifting. Everyone is so different.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You may find plenty of results if you search for "[macronutrient keyword] intake timing" on PubMed. But as mentioned in another comment it may be worthwhile to find trainers or dieticians who have been doing this for a long time and see if they had written up anything based on their findings with their clients. You get the best of both the anecdotal and controlled experiment worlds.

</comment><comment><USER5> I think you may have to rely on experienced trainers rather than research papers as the research may not have been done or be poorly designed. The other option is to experiment on yourself and find what works for you.

One thing I would expect, though, is that unless you're a professional athlete chasing that last 1% of performance, the difference in effects is unlikely to be noticeable.

<comment><AUTHOR> This is what I am starting to see. It looks like most "research" out there is the typical "20 college students for one semester" case with flawed data and questionable approaches.</comment></comment>


The way you learn C++ - <AUTHOR> http://newyearphd.tumblr.com/post/107793158916/the-way-you-learn-c

<comment><USER2> > why on Earth I must know what parameters should I have for compilation from > the very beginning if just want to print something?

Herein lay the trouble of learning higher-level languages first, which hide all of the complexity and real work from the programmer. I'm not sure the author recognizes how much goes on under-the-hood while "just" printing something, and it's out of order to blame C++ for exposing the complexity when C++ is a language specifically designed to allow for complex, close-to-the- metal programming.

</comment><comment><USER3> Some things of top quality and value are not noticed immediately. Just because someone tells you a Lamborghini, Buggati or Rolls Royce are top of the line and like no other car you have experienced you will not be able to comprehend what they are saying until you have learned to drive the car and have experienced it for yourself. The favorite languages and operating systems of many are built in C and/or C++ because of many of their exceptional qualities for the jobs they are being used for. Instead of saying it is hard it is better to choose the right tool for the job or what you are capable of learning for what you want to do.

You do not learn C or C++ if your goal is to become a regular Joe developer and you are not heavily focused on high performance and security. If you are more focused on security and performance there is a good chance you learned C and C++ so you could create modules for the web server, middle ware, operating system, etc. that you are using to improve performance and or security. You also need to know C and C++ to troubleshoot bugs or performance issues that may occur which will require you to go under the hood and review the source code for the language which is normally in C or C++, and if your using a debugger you will need to know some assembly from time to time.

It is always ill advised and frowned upon to become another copy paster and not understand what you are doing especially when using a programming language with full access to everything the operating system has to offer. It is like going to a job interviewing saying you know C++ and have never programmed any production quality code in C++ and the only thing you have done is some tutorials online. When some tough problems come up you will not be able to troubleshoot the problem first and be on hold waiting for someone to update your question online with something you hope is correct but you will unfortunately not be able to trust and verify the solution.

It is always the best course of action to take something you see as hard and take it as a challenge to learn it and become proficient so you are at least at an intermediate stage and are not struggling with the basics of the language. This will give you the ability to talk with others on a more professional level to solve any problems that will come up so the conversation will be constructive. It also feels good when you look back at something you thought was so hard and develop highly secure and high performance applications that you thought were not possible when you wrote your first few lines of code.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't think the points raised are valid. There are /many/ great tutorials online on learning C++. It is not the job of the tool to try and guess what its user wants to do.

<comment><AUTHOR> Indeed, there are many sources where you can learn C++, but I think most of them fail to convince a beginner that it's worth trying to learn the language. When you see the results immediately, it encourages you to learn how it works.

<comment><USER4> Something I have been struggling with is the non formal approach to computer programming. Lately I find myself more and more convinced that if I had learned Programming in a more formal context I would have seen results faster than not. While I agree that seeing results is important to the learning loop I think that correctly learning is the way to do that. Programming produces code, solutions to problems produce results.

So if you want to see results you will have to first find a problem and solve it without thinking on how to program it. Sure 'outputting text' is a valid problem, however not very useful. "Reading a text file" might be a bit more on par and will immediately give you several tutorials on how to achieve that. And the way to go is to solve problems and not to 'program' you will just find yourself in a corner, unsure on what to do next. One could e.g. search on how to pass over a parameter to a program, how c++ handles file inputs, I/O Streams.

<comment><AUTHOR> Different approaches to learning lead to different results. The approach I recommend is more about Get Things Done manner, hoping that it will create enough incentives to delve in "theory" of the language after you got some results.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I found this a very personal and honest explanation about the limitations of one approach to learning a programming language or framework. Without prejudice, lets call it the "agile approach" to learning-> you want to get started quickly and then iterate to a better place.

In my own experience, I've always been dissatisfied with this approach. It builds too slowly, and you either reinvent the wheels that already exist in the language, or fail to take full advantage of transformational abilities of the language. Assuming you already know how to program in language X, you end up "Writing X in Y" (as in, "writing Java in Ruby"). I do prefer the alternative, which is to spend some time reading the language manual and references, fully understand the language before going off to do some damage. Learning is process that is never completed; however the "RUP" approach to learning gives you a much more strongly connected belief network on which to hang concepts you'll be introduced to in the future. This is opposed to having to take new lessons as standalone facts to be memorised: see the article's confusion regarding pointers and references.

However, we often don't get to spend that time upfront learning things. Sometimes the project deadline requires you to pick up that new framework and get something working -right now-. Alternatively sometimes I need to work with something that I don't want to spend all that energy learning, and it's easier to just hack along, rather than actually commit to a deep learning of the framework.

There are two questions this raises for me. 1) As an engineer who claims to value craftsmanship, how do I reconcile with the fact that I don't really know at least a few of the tools I use? Is the _right_ action to actually invest my own time in learning new frameworks, no matter how skeptical I might be of their value outside this one project? This risk-reward calculus is especially exacerbated in an ecosystem with a lot of churn in frameworks and libraries. In such a situation, what is the _right_ approach for me?

2) As a producer of knowledge tools for other developers (libraries, APIs, maybe one day programming languages), how should I define my interfaces knowing that some of my users will not bother to learn them? Do I have a responsibility towards them?

Slightly more speculatively, I wonder how this would affect language design? One of pg's aphorisms is that tools designed for use by people the designers consider inferior will generally be poor quality. However, that doesn't stop such tools from being popular. I don't think we've truly plumbed the depths of a language "designed for lazy and/or sloppy people", and I'm willing to bet that executed well, such a language could be very popular.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree with you. For me it's crucial to get results as fast as possible and I found this approach is the most satisfying and productive. The problem with C++ (unlike python, for example) that it is really hard to experiment with the language: you change one minor detail of the code, and you have to rewrite big chunk of the program eventually. That's why I first want to get results and then read how it works.

By the way, could you briefly describe RP approach?

<comment><USER3> This is not a problem with the language but the one programming in the language not having a more in depth understanding of the language. Rushing for results without working out a proper solution or really understanding how to get from point A to B to get those results may end up with a false result. How do you prove and verify your work if you are taking short cuts to get something you hope is the correct answer. How do you know what you just copied and pasted is the most efficient way of solving the problem. When moving to C or C++ there are normally faster ways to accomplish tasks then what is possible with higher level languages due to the built-in limits of the higher level language.

It is similar to learning Calculus, Statistics, Number Theory, etc. you start at the beginning with basic math and move up the later, trying to skip these foundation and using what you find online without the capability to verify is a grave mistake. Those that skip the base foundation will be those that make grave errors in the future that can cost lives, time and or money.

Once you take the required time to learn C and or C++ you will eventually understand the power you have at your fingertips and what you once thought was hard or cumbersome will no longer be that way. A benefit of learning C and or C++ is that you will understand the languages they are built in better. Especially if you want to optimize the higher level code for performance or if you unfortunately find a security hole you will be able to assist with submitting a more detailed security report.

I see you are focused on seeing results as fast as possible, if you learn C and or C++ more in depth you will get the results faster when you run your professional grade code. On your note about having to rewrite a big chunk of the program eventually this is not true if you know what you want to do, design it properly up front and insure it is not heavily coupled with other parts of your code. C++ is a great language to get deep into object oriented programming and C for functional programming, learning both in depth will open your mind up to more battle-tested solutions that you can apply in higher level programming languages.

Just give it time you will see the light and it will help you in both lower and higher level programming languages.</comment></comment></comment>


UK's 'hidden disgrace': mental health problems can lead to 42% pay gap - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/06/mental-health-pay-gap-depression-panic-attacks <comment><USER2> > Commission analysis of men who suffer from mental impairment, including > learning difficulties and mental health problems, has concluded that they > are more likely to earn less as a result of working part-time, being in low- > paid jobs or having few educational qualifications.

While I empathize with anyone with a mental or any other disability, make no mistake: the goal here is equality of outcome instead of opportunity.

No shit one is going to earn less if they work part time in a remedial occupation.

This is no different than feminists who ignore the fact that their wage gap myth has been debunked time and again.

They simply push the agenda in an attempt to frame the argument away from ability and outcome to obtain more preferential hiring, subsidies, and discriminatory laws that neutralize the advantages obtained from those that typically work longer hours in higher paid fields.</comment>


Myspace data breach - <AUTHOR> Notice of Data Breach
You may have heard reports recently about a security incident involving Myspace. We would like to make sure you have the facts about what happened, what information was involved and the steps we are taking to protect your information.
What Happened?
Shortly before the Memorial Day weekend (late May 2016), we became aware that stolen Myspace user login data was being made available in an online hacker forum. The data stolen included user login data from a portion of accounts that were created prior to June 11, 2013 on the old Myspace platform.
We believe the data breach is attributed to Russian Cyberhacker 'Peace.' This same individual is responsible for other recent criminal attacks such as those on LinkedIn and Tumblr, and has claimed on the paid hacker search engine LeakedSource that the data is from a past breach. This is an ongoing investigation, and we will share more information as it becomes available.
What Information Was Involved?
Email addresses, Myspace usernames, and Myspace passwords for the affected Myspace accounts created prior to June 11, 2013 on the old Myspace platform are at risk. As you know, Myspace does not collect, use or store any credit card information or user financial information of any kind. No user financial information was therefore involved in this incident; the only information exposed was users' email address and Myspace username and password. <comment><USER2> Related discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787862](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11787862)</comment>


Sam Harris: Science can answer moral questions [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right.html <comment><USER2> Hmm, I've got to say I'm not really convinced. It seems like what he's actually talking about is science answering _factual_ questions, which can only be interpreted as answering moral questions if you've already arrived at some assumptions about morality via non-scientific, philosophical means. In particular, there is not a single thing he says in this talk that is genuinely a scientific answer to a genuinely moral question, unless you supplement the science with additional non-scientifically-validated axioms, which tell you why a particular empirical fact about the world, which is just a fact, should be interpreted using terms like "morality".

Science can, as he points out, constrain the possible philosophical positions one could consistently take, by providing facts that moral philosophies can't be inconsistent with (e.g. some kinds of utilitarianism might be ruled out, if they assume humans work in a way that, empirically, they don't). But that's somewhat different, and has been something people have discussed for a while (empirically studying morality was one of the things Nietzsche got famous for).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wellbeing of conscious creatures sounds like a good fitness function to optimize for, but clearly many people disagree, most religions for example optimize for the afterlife.</comment>


Kevinism - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevinism <comment><USER2> My name is Kevin. I'm 27 and I'm from (west) germany. Most people I get to know will bring the topic up. I got a master's degree in physics and I have heard people say something like 'your name doesn't fit your profile at all' more times than I can count. I've seen girls in my sphere discard guys on Tinder partly due to being named Kevin. People do joke about the name and that's ok. It's not terrible but it isn't great either.

<comment><USER3> same. being named kevin is a hard life in germany, but sometimes i can't help but wonder if it actually benefited me in some way. it tought me a great lesson about people being spiteful without realising it, just because it's been established by the social environment that you live in. while some people are just consciously being dickheads, others might have this negative stigma associated with the name Kevin without ever meeting a person named Kevin. to me this is fascinating and in my opionion extends in some ways to people being racist or homophobic without ever meeting people of the "other group".

<comment><USER4> _> ... people being racist or homophobic without ever meeting people of the "other group"._

In my limited experience, this is the norm, not an exception.

<comment><USER5> What is even more entertaining is that when they do know people from the other group, they have a habit of treating them as shining exceptions to the rule, not questioning whether or not the rule is even valid.

<comment><USER6> > they have a habit of treating them as shining exceptions to the rule, not > questioning whether or not the rule is even valid.

That doesn't stop with the -ism's, I routinely run into programmers learning about DRY and cargo-culting the hell out of it. People seize onto absolute rules and superficiality, failing to consider deeper conceptual dissimilarities that would negate the application of the rule.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What's missing in this article is the aspect of escapism. The mentioned names Ronny and Mandy were especially popular in East Germany for kids born in the late 70ies, early 80ies. I think many parents picked "exotic" names for their kids in some sense of longing for the places they could never hope to see. Maybe some simple way to be part of a larger world?

I could see the same mechanism in socio-economic disadvantaged parents. Their world is limited by money, not borders, but they still want to be part of the larger world.

</comment><comment><USER8> The funny thing is that Kevin is not a very praised name in general either:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/StoriesAboutKevin/](https://www.reddit.com/r/StoriesAboutKevin/)

"What is a Kevin?

A Kevin is someone who consistently or greatly shows a complete lack of intelligence through incompetence of social and societal norms, or is purposefully antagonistic in their poor decision making. Remember the kid in your class who would constantly get in trouble for really dumb things? He was probably a Kevin. Family members, friends, coworkers, and classmates can all become Kevins."

<comment><USER9> As a Brit, this is the Kevin that springs to mind

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

Or perhaps an example is better

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dLuEY6jN6gY](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dLuEY6jN6gY)

<comment><USER10> Growing up, "kev" was a synonym for chav, townie, ned. At my waaaaaay-over- privileged rugby-playing school, we called football "kevball".

<comment><USER11> Where I grew up, before chavs they were called 'Car Park Kevs' (though in my wife's town they were called 'Barrys'

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Fellow Kevin here. While I was doing a fellowship [0] at the US Census Bureau last summer, I noticed a peculiar abundance of other Kevins working there. As a joke, I created this presentation [1] about this phenomenon, which I ended up accidentally showing the chief marketing officer.

He loved it.

[0] [https://www.codingitforward.com/fellowship](https://www.codingitforward.com/fellowship)

[1] [https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/117Q3zuyWulkDGcGXp4Bd...](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/117Q3zuyWulkDGcGXp4BdJP36Tx72Wk9CQEv8-Sen64Y/edit?usp=sharing)

<comment><USER13> you guys should unionize

<comment><USER14> where do I sign up?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> You're better off sticking with the long established names of your culture. My parents picked really boring names (as I thought) for our family. We were named after our grandparents. We used to regularly chastise them for this when we were young. Now I'm glad of it. I could have been called Calvyn.

</comment><comment><USER16> In some french-speaking countries, script-kiddies are sometime called Kévin. I'm not sure if is a reference to the famous Kevin Mitnick or to Kevin from the movie Home Alone or some kind of Kevinism.

These last years, I also hear people using "Jean-Kévin" instead.

</comment><comment><USER17> "Kevin is not a name but a diagnosis" is a well known saying amongst school teachers here in Germany.

<comment><USER18> »Kevin ist kein Name, sondern eine Diagnose!«

Who says Germans don't have a sense of humour?

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I can confirm that it applies to other countries of the region. I think it's a result of this wild fascination with America that came after the fall of Soviet Union. People westernised quickly and without much reflection upon the process and are giving idiotic names to their kids. "Brajan" (phonetic for Brian) and "Dżesika" (Jessica) are already memes in Poland.

</comment><comment> King-Aaron > The word "Alpha-Kevin" (combination of Alpha male and the given name), as > being representative of a particularly unintelligent young person

Alpha-Kevin is a term I'll have to use more often

<comment><USER20> This is the first time I heard that about the name Kevin! I've heard a similar stereotype about "Chad" though.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> In Hungary the equivalent would be Roma families naming their children after foreign soap opera characters (e.g. Bobby [Ewing] in the 90s), footballers and other famous people, especially Latin American ones. By law names have to conform to Hungarian orthography (except if the parents have immigrant background)

Examples: Rikárdó, Armandó, Rodrigó, Dzsenifer (Jennifer), Dzsesszika (Jessica), Brájen (Brian), Dzsásztin (Justin), Brendon, Szamanta, Eszmeralda

Seems to be a universal thing across many countries that people in low socio- economic classes (black people in the US or Roma in Eastern Europe) give more, let's say, "unusual" names to their kids.

</comment><comment><USER22> Naming things is hard. Naming people is harder. Many (most?) expecting parents spend hours researching names online or in "1000 baby name ideas"-books. My parents love my name. I hate it.

There are too many of us for names to be a unique identifier. First names are too generic to say anything about us, and they're usually assigned at birth, before any of our traits are known.

Family names are even worse; here's your father's last name glued on to yours, for no apparent reason. Or maybe your mother's. Or, if you want, in Belgium, a hyphenated version of both parents', but excluding any hyphenated part of theirs. This somehow implies that family is important, but only a small part of your family? I don't get that in a modern context.

Iain M Banks had an interesting take on multi-part names in The Culture, with the naming scheme at least featuring a chosen name. But sadly also including things you have no control over, like place of birth and parentage.

Letting everyone pick their own name would be nice. That's apparently already possible in some parts of the world, but not everywhere. And often you can only change it if your name is truly ridiculous or if you share a name with a serial killer or some such.

<comment><USER18> It depends on the jurisdiction. In the Netherlands changing your given name(s) is possible if you can convince a judge of its negative impact on you. Gender transitioning is an obvious rationale, but a well-worded explanation of why your current name doesn't match who you are or damages you (e.g., past traumatic experiences, abuse, but also a name simply not suiting you) tends to suffice.

It's not something you can get done at a whim or frequently of course. The judge will weigh the needs of society (i.e., to be able to consistently refer to citizens by a constant name in various types of records) against your personal motivation for changing names.

<comment><USER23> The US is much more liberal about this. You have to pay a fee and put in some paperwork and make an announcement in a news paper with a certain amount of readers and a judge will deny requests that violate a very limited set of common sense criteria.

Sometimes the judges can get a bit lazy about actually filtering requests. Jesus Christ literally lives in New York.

<comment><USER18> Why would a judge in a nation that separates state and religion care about someone calling himself Jesus Christ? Jesus is a common given name, and Christ a common enough surname.

(Or Kris Kringle for that matter.)

<comment><USER23> It's not about "calling himself" Jesus Christ so much as convincing others that he is literally Jesus Christ. Basically it's a form of fraud (or maybe insanity, who knows)

One of the common sense criteria is you're not allowed to assume the identity of well known public figures or entities.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> From a UK perspective, Kevin is not a very popular name either, and has a bunch of negative associations.

"Kev" has been slang for someone from a low socioeconomic background, possibly violent, often paired with "Sharon" or "Tracy" as a female equivalent.

So as an aspirational western name I'm not sure it works! At least for the English...

<comment><USER25> Yep, back in the 1980s and 90s "kev" was indeed used as a somewhat derogatory term in the UK.

The stereotypical kev was supposed to be seen wearing white, fluffy socks and black shoes (terrible faux pas that) and driving a Ford Capri (badly).

At the time this greatly amused me as a child because my well to do Irish grandfather, uncle and cousin were all called Kevin and nothing at all like the stereotype. Not sure if the term "kev" existed as a mild insult in Ireland but they were all aware of us using it... :D

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> It also applies here in France, especially northern/eastern parts close to Germany.

Well, not for Chantal, which is not a very exotic name here.

<comment><USER27> Living as a (expat) Kevin in The Netherlands for many years and I've never heard this. Might be that my friends are just polite. Interested to know if this is well-known to those who grew up in The Netherlands.

<comment><USER28> Do you have an accent (preferably from the Anglosphere) that gives you away as an expat? The stigma (at least in Germany) basically doesn't apply to native English speakers (or at least much, much less so). Nobody here makes fun of Kevin Costner for being named Kevin. The stigma is specifically about lower class Germans frequently choosing certain foreign names for their kids.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> There was a funny story going on in 2005: Ferrero changed the face on the packaging of the popular "Kinderschokolade" and many buyers didn't like the new face and were hence calling the boy "Kevin". There was even a campaign "weg mit Kevin" with 20.000 supporters, which handed over a petition to Ferrero.

[https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/kinderschokolade- wuetender...](https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/kinderschokolade-wuetender- protest-gegen-das-neue-gesicht-a-389061.html)

Translation:

[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwirtschaft%2Fkinderschokolade- wuetender-protest-gegen-das-neue-gesicht-a-389061.html)

</comment><comment><USER30> Interesting. I moved to Germany several years ago and just assumed that the Kevins were because of an interest in Anglo names. I didn't know they had a stigma attached to them.

I'm trying to think of something equivalent from Canada, when I was younger, but nothing is really springing to mind.

</comment><comment><USER31> I wonder how memes relate to this, like 'scumbag steve' and the various 'karen' jokes.

<comment><USER32> Yeah, the Karen/Chad/Becky phenomenon really makes me cringe. You'd think with recent culture shifts towards "wholesomeness" and "acceptance", turning someone's name into an insult wouldn't have caught on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> I found this on my desk one day in the 90s...

[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/16/opinion/observer-the- kevi...](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/16/opinion/observer-the-kevin- excess.html)

</comment><comment><USER34> The article mentions a Uncyclopedia satire article helped kick off media coverage of this phenomenon. Here is the article:

[https://de.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Kevinismus](https://de.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/Kevinismus)

</comment><comment><USER35> Another strange difference between countries' perceptions is the Swedish princess Estelle's name.

I was on vacation in Sweden shortly thereafter, and while just about every German thought the name atrocious, befitting a prostitute, all the Swedes found it charming.

</comment><comment><USER36> The article also mentioned Horst as having a particular association - what was the association?

<comment><USER37> Stupidity or clumsiness. Apparently it can't be tracked to any specific origin, the name just went completely out of fashion and the association seems to have emerged around 2000.

Here's a German article about it: [https://www.welt.de/kultur/article163980590/Der-Herbst- des-H...](https://www.welt.de/kultur/article163980590/Der-Herbst-des-Horst- wie-ein-Name-zum-Witz-wurde.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Sounds a lot like Kyle in English speaking countries.

<comment><USER39> Perhaps apart from Scotland where it is a fairly common part of place names (e.g. Kyle of Lochalsh) - having said that, I don't think it's a very common first name here, perhaps because of that?

<comment><USER40> I'm English and I've also never heard of the name Kyle having any kind of prejudice, might just be an American thing?

<comment><USER41> I've never heard of a negative stereotype about Kyle in America either.

<comment><USER42> Apparently you have yet to fall into the area 51 memehole.

The Kyle's are on the vanguard with their +10 Monster Energy buff

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Fellow (German) Kevin here. I like how this topic is frequently being brought up again in loose intervals as if it is important to remind everyone every once in a while.

I can confirm that there is indeed a stigma associated with the name. As a white young male though, being grumpy about such thing would be quite disproportionate. In that sense, it sort of makes me get an idea of what it could be like to be ridiculed for something one has no control or responsibility about.

</comment><comment><USER44> Oh, it refers not only to German people( Ukrainian people tend to give their children exotic names too.</comment>


Intel's Behavior Is Pathetic – Core I9 10980XE Review - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuaiqcjf0bs <comment><USER2> Not surprised at all. Back from the days of 28 Cores of Bullshit "5GHz" parlor trick up to this, as a private citizen I've lost all respect for Intel.</comment>


What Successful People Do With The First Hour Of Their Work Day - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastcompany.com/3000619/what-successful-people-do-first-hour-their-work-day

<comment><USER2> Hmm, what you choose to do the first hour of work can often inform your inner nature. Dave Hitz, one of the founders of NetApp, had put it into three groups:

1) If you look at the output of the build you're focused inward on what you are doing.

2) If you look at your email in general you're focussed on what the company is doing around you.

3) If you look at the web/blogs you are focused on what the world is doing around you.

Always thought that was pretty neat.</comment>


A list of resources for learning Go language - <AUTHOR> <comment><AUTHOR> Hello everyone I just curated a list of resource for learning go language. I thought, this extraordinary times might be helpful for you to spare time to learn new skills. You need to sign up for check to list but it's totally free.

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