Ask HN: How does Twitter implement following and followers between users? - <AUTHOR> I have always been curious as to how twitter implemented this in their user model. How do they keep track of who the user is following and who is following the user? <comment><USER2> In 2010, Twitter was using a graph database, FlockDB, instead of a relational database to implement their social graph where relationships like following and followers are represented as edges between nodes that represent people. It's since been deprecated, and I'm not sure what type of database they're using today. Anyway, they have a nice write-up blog post [1] and FlockDB is open source [2].

[1]: [https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/a/2010/introducin...](https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/a/2010/introducing- flockdb.html)

[2]: [https://github.com/twitter-archive/flockdb](https://github.com/twitter- archive/flockdb)

</comment><comment><USER3> \--- USER TABLE ---

| USER_ID |

| USERNAME |

| NB_FOLLOWERS |

| TWEETS -> List of TWEET_ID's |

| FOLLOWING -> List of USER_ID's |

| FOLLOWED_BY -> List of USER_ID's |

etc.

NB_FOLLOWERS, FOLLOWING and FOLLOWED_BY are updated when a USER follows/unfollows another USER.

</comment><comment><USER4> User1 follows User2

User1 follows User3

User3 follows User1

User3 follows User5

...</comment>


Student Hackers: DO NOT Intern...BUILD. - <AUTHOR> http://aashaykumar.com/2013/04/10/if-you-are-an-entrepreneurial-minded-cs-major-dont-intern-build/

<comment><USER2> While I generally agree with this sentiment, I think there are other good reasons to intern at big companies: getting contacts, learning from more experienced engineers, learning industry practices that you would never pick up through tutorials, and getting active criticism on your code from other professionals. The peril with being self-taught is that you'll pick up a few bad habits along the way.

Money is also an issue. _A viable option for students is to try and freelance during one of their summers._ You would need to spend some time before the summer trying to drum up a few months worth of work, but this might offer an acceptable compromise: if you're the sole freelancer, you'll have full ownership of the product, you'll learn a tiny bit about being entrepreneurial, and you'll also have spare time to work on your own projects. You might even make more than you would interning (assuming you're a Facebook-caliber intern).

Maybe the best "path" for a student to take is to spend his/her first two summers at a big tech company and a startup, and then spend his/her last summer freelancing and working on personal projects.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm sorry, but if I had had the opportunity to be an intern at Facebook when I was in college, I would have done so in a heartbeat. It doesn't matter if they implement the feature they put me on. The contacts and experience gained are the main reason for interning.

</comment><comment><USER4> While I understand that for entrepreneurial CS students, interning at a startup or building something awesome over a summer is ideal, I think that

1) the vast majority of students would be unable to find a sexy startup to work with and 2) you are vastly undervaluing the benefit of learning best practices and industry standards, which you will get plenty of at a decent- sized company.

Far better (and likely) IMHO to get a job at a (probably medium-sized rather than large) company where you will get to do both new coding as well as code maintenance (learning to read someone else's code is a vastly undervalued skill that you won't learn "building something awesome"), learn as much as possible from their senior engineers, and then start building something cool on the side that isn't a stinking heap of unmaintainable feces like most undergraduate-level code I've ever seen.

If you're a Rock Star Ninja who happens to be able to write quality code straight out of school, good for you, but I think most software developers out there would rather work with someone who's spent a year or two in apprentice mode as low man on some company's totem pole, rather than some hotshot out of school who probably turns up his nose at RDBMS's and Java.

</comment><comment><USER5> I spent many of my student holidays hacking on stuff. That was really great and I learned many technologies/languages that we never touched at university.

But I also did two internships, one at a big, one at a small company. They were incredibly valuable : I learned about real-world (unit) testing, code reviews (by people more competent than me), working with a big infrastructure, having deadlines, etc... Those are all skills that are really useful for any programmer and they're helping me now that I'm working on a project that I hope will become a startup.

</comment><comment><USER6> > Take risks and have fun.

I'd love to take risks and have fun, but when you're in college, looking for good, steady, well-paid, full-time summer employment, it's just not very appealing to take risks with your finances. I'm there right now (although an ECE major, not CS) and I wouldn't trade anything for the paid co-op placement I have right now.

</comment><comment><USER7> _let me make myself clear that I am ONLY referring to the CS majors who claim to be entrepreneurial at heart._

I know very few CS majors who can decide how entrepreneurial when they are that young. Everyone is pretty much entrepreneurial when you are in college - you want to create the next facebook or send the next rocket to space, but actually having the guts to do that is another story.

 _When graph search came out, he said he had worked on the Graph Search Project but the specific part that he had worked on was not implemented at all. How disappointing, huh?_

Not disappointing at all. He did build something and in the process he most likely learned a myriad of intangible skills (project management, working with people, social skills, communication skills, etc) Those lessons are invaluable to the real business world.

Many of the skills required in today's jobs (not just the bubble of SV we all sit in here at HN) are learned at big companies, doing nothing but working with other people. Communication skills are often misunderstood and often seen as secondary to technical skills. As many experienced will attest to, many of today's software errors aren't a result of poor technical ability but rather poor communication. No offense to the OP, but his writing skills are clearly not great. In the land of startups, I'd be scared as an investor/customer (any stakeholder for that matter) trying to properly communicate with him.

EDIT: Also forgot to add this: _"Professional networks were important to the success of their current businesses for 73 percent of the entrepreneurs. In comparison, 62 percent felt the same way about personal networks."_ [1] That's something you will definitely get in a big company. [1][http://www.kauffman.org/research-and-policy/the-anatomy- of-a...](http://www.kauffman.org/research-and-policy/the-anatomy-of-an- entrepreneur.aspx#)

</comment><comment><USER8> An internship is effectively getting paid to learn. Maybe there are better choices for the company to work with but hey, you may never get another chance to learn how Facebook builds things. If you get an opportunity to get a look at software development in a household name take it. Hell if someone offered to have me come code with them at their company for a day on one of my days off I would take it in a second. It's incredibly valuable to get a chance to look at a company's practices, culture, and the general feel of things there. You're not committing for years, you're committing for a summer. Enjoy it. If you decide later that being an entrepreneur isn't working for you for whatever reason having a big name on your resume and contacts in the industry can be a huge leg up.

</comment><comment><USER9> Great post. The internships at big name brands are perfect if you want a good job at a good company after school. However, the best jobs at the best companies (which may be your own) are going to be reserved for those that learned in 3 months what takes people at a large company 1-2 years to learn.

As Adam Pritzker from GA said, "The cost of building technology is dropping so low that people can actually afford to take the risk to learn by doing something that, in our minds, is a much more effective way to learn than anything else."

</comment><comment><USER10> I started developing Android apps in 2009, teaching myself gradually by building a GitHub client (as the official app did not exist then). Three years later (2012), I graduated from high school. I was offered a chance to intern for the summer at GitHub, but a few things got in the way of me doing that.

However, nearing the end of July I stumbled into my first contract job after helping out in #android-dev on Freenode. I'm now almost a year out of high school, still indecisive as to whether I'm going to college in the Fall (the same things that prevented me from interning at GitHub prevented me from going to college last year), and I am gradually building up my portfolio. Every recruiter I've talked to over the past few months have made a point to note how filled-out my resume is for someone my age. I guess my point is that I probably would not have been in that chat room at that time had I been interning in California.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm a student hacker currently in my third year of a 4 year masters course. Last summer I interned at a startup in London working on iOS apps, some from the ground up, some just updates. It was a good experience, although I had to work on my side project during my lunchtimes, evenings and weekends.

This summer I plan to work with a buddy of mine on my CS course. We have an idea in mind that I've already been working on (www.housequest.co.uk), but really we just want to work on something for three months and try to create something useful.

In the end, I'd say it's a good idea to obtain an internship for one of your summers in university. Although you don't get much time to work on other cool stuff, I believe you'll benefit from it in other ways. It's a good fall back plan for when you leave university, as past experience accounts for a lot. Secondly, you learn a lot. I was building iOS apps before my internship, but building them professionally was completely different. I was doing silly things. Lastly, it's good for networking with professionals.

The other summers you can then use to build even better software.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm somewhat confused by the observation that the first choice for CS majors is to be an entrepreneur. Shouldn't the motivation for CS be either theory (academics) or practice (build stuff), but not "starting a business"?

Being an entrepreneur is something that is either your primary ambition, in which case you don't start studying CS, or something that grows out of the ambition to use your skills and knowledge to make something happen.

Studying CS with the ambition to become an entrepreneur seems like it's based on the notion that "that's were the easy money is". In my experience, those kind of people aren't good at either being a maker or an entrepreneur.

<comment><USER13> The "easy" money is everywhere and nowhere, expect maybe for drugs and infomercials.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The problem is I _needed_ my summer internships at university to be able to afford to live for the next year.

"Building" over the summer would have been really fun, and the benefits of a 9-5 was that when I got home I worked on some of my projects which I had ignored during the school year.

</comment><comment><USER15> What did I learn from this article? I learned that a college junior at the University of Michigan will stop talking to me, and won't be impressed with my resume, if I take a summer internship. Great.

Obviously, a student could learn a lot working on a personal project over a summer. That could be a great way to go.

On the other hand, the initial exposure to the operations of a successful company bombards an intern with valuable information. He or she will discover that some things function extremely well and some things don't quite make sense, learn basic business etiquette, learn how things scale, etc. All of this information can be extremely valuable when you're ready to grow your own company.

I'm sick posts telling young people to "DO this, NOT that, or ELSE!" What works for you might not work for someone else. There isn't one path to success. This an extremely limiting view of the world.

<comment><USER16> Not only is it extremely limiting, there are so many explicit assumptions and so little reasoning in this article, it's barely even anecdotal. If it were, that's still one person's experience/opinion; as someone else predictably pointed out in this thread, Mark Zuckerberg. No, you're not him, and even if you were _it wouldn't matter_ , because if he'd come along and someone had popularized an FB-like product first, chances are he'd still be just as obscure as most of us here.

Further: _I've talked to more CS majors who say, "I want to be an entrepreneur" than I care to share..._

Then they may be in the wrong program, unless they mean "I want to be a YC alum" or "I want to be a technical co-founder." An "entrepreneur" is someone who deals in business, _not_ just a programmer who doesn't work for anyone else. If that's their goal, they shouldn't be in CS. In the reasonably likely case they _do_ want to be something more specific and technical, hopefully they've thought about it further before committing to such a statement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> As another University of Michigan student, this extreme enterpreneurial mindset seems incredibly arrogant to me. "I have nothing to learn from those more experienced than me, I can do everything by myself, and as a 20-year-old, I understand how to solve the world's most important problems."

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry if I came off that way, but I am definitely not trying to nor do I see it from many people as explicitly as you stated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Same thing applies to politics. Don't beg for change. Make it. (And right now we need more P2P.)

</comment><comment><USER19> In Norway I have yet to meet a fellow informatics student who has interned at all, ever.

Finding a summer job (with good pay) is easy here. If you are on your final year of bachelors or first year of masters then not getting a summer job is literally impossible if you actually want one (ie. apply). Companies will even take you in with rubbish grades if you seem ok, just to test you for two months in order to see if you might be suitable for the company once you graduate.

</comment><comment><USER20> I disagree. I've always loved programming and building things in my free time, but I had no idea how a technical business operated.

Interning for a tech company gave me an invaluable opportunity to network and learn about business strategy, workflow, etc.

I think young programmers need to learn through experience how a successful company operates before they try to start one on their own.

</comment><comment><USER21> Full disclosure, I'm looking for an intern in Madrid starting ASAP. So if you are interested don't hesitate to contact me :) (details on my profile) we work with Ruby, we are agile and we will mentor you :)

I'll say... do an internship but be careful where and with who. Working in a small startup for a handful of months will show you how a company works inside-out, and probably will allow you to do networking with interesting people. Go where you can get a good mentor.

Of course, if you intern in a big-corp just to be a code-monkey it might not be that fruitful (even though you might still learn about 'real life programming' or big architecture).

<comment><USER22> +1, a part-time internship doesn't mean you can't keep working on your side projects!

And there are a lot of cool offers and places where you can learn a lot on Madrid (I myself started last week at Vizzuality), yet too many uninterested students that end up selling their souls to Indra/Everis/Accenture :(

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Interning was a great start for me and helped me meet a ton of people. The difference was I interned at a startup. The problem is that they are sometimes hard to find, and you'll probably have to travel. Many students I've talked to don't know where to find smaller companies that offer internships. The big companies give the most money to colleges and in turn that's what most students are exposed too.

</comment><comment><USER24> As a student, I agree, but it's not this simple. My parents still expect me to get a job, and I need something to do other than just sit in my room all day on my computer. It's nice to have people to talk to, and I don't have any friends who are entrepreneurial and hackers who can be a good cofounder or whatever. It doesn't seem like there are any great solutions to these problems, but maybe I'm not looking/thinking hard enough.

</comment><comment><USER25> Intren.

You won't be able to do this later in life while time to build you'll have plenty.

</comment><comment><USER26> What about the value of experience seeing how the big boys handle large software projects? Getting the chance to work with and be mentored by more experienced developers? Knowing what the inside of a profitable software business looks like?

</comment><comment><USER27> although in an ideal world this is excellent advice; however many students aren't fortunate enough to have their school bankrolled for them and need to work throughout the summer to pay for their education.

Big companies offer pretty outstanding pay when you're interning, helping you pay for college.

I do agree that building is something which is invaluable; however while in college before you've really been proven and shown off development skills to work at a startup or have funds to work on a new idea you're really forced into a corner for working on side things in your spare time.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I figured this would happen. In the comments already posted, it is obvious people aren't reading my entire post and missing key details. 'Twas expected, I guess (sigh). I figure since it is my post, I'll address some of the comments below:

"Working for someone else is not all bad, even if building your own thing is your ultimate goal." -Kyllo

I am not saying it's bad at all! It's perfectly fine to work for someone else but if you are entrepreneurial-minded, it's best to intern at either a startup or a completely unrelated field to what you are used to, SO that you may be able to find an area in that industry where software/hardware can optimize it.

"There is a huge difference between that. A good job will have some nice engineers there, that might be willing to help you out and push you to learn how to code correctly." -stevoo

So the main reason to intern is to just become a better coder? Doubtful. Just to be completely blunt, the main reason college students intern is to have a secure job after graduation.

"Interning was a great start for me and helped me meet a ton of people. The difference was I interned at a startup." -blakeshall

Yeah I explicitly say this in my post! Working for a startup is completely reasonable as you will hopefully be able to directly help with the companies' organic idea.

"it's just not very appealing to take risks with your finances" -iansinke

There is very little risk taking with finances in the sense that you really don't have to spend anything to build. What you are losing is the money that COULD be made doing a summer internship. Being an entrepreneur is risky, though, so this risk will have to be taken at some point if you want to exercise that desire, right? Better now in college than after where you really will be taking risks with your finances (living expenses while trying to have a startup).

My Takeaway: This post should be titled differently because it seems that people are just reading the title and not the actual post.

I also may have not taken into account the money aspect as much (I promise I am not a snob)...I guess if money is an issue and you need to work, then interning is fine but at least do it at a company that will help to enhance your entrepreneurial mind! I actually do make explicit mention that working elsewhere IS reasonable.

<comment><USER28> I think your post would be better received with a bit more facts and a bit less anecdotal evidence. Moreover, you have a clear bias that big companies are bad and startups are good. Having worked professionally for both, it's not that black and white.

There are wide variations in company culture and work habits and my advice is to not be immediately turned on or off simply by the size or life stage of a company. You need to ask much more in depth questions to understand if the company is a good fit for what you're looking for at a particular stage in your life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Such condescending tone for someone that hasn't done much for himself (or even lived long enough to do so). You might wanna lay off the sage advice until you actually become a sage. Or, maybe you could express your opinion on the matter without the snide remarks and presumptuous attitude towards those that disagree with you.

<comment><AUTHOR> I apologize if I came across as condescending, was not my intention at all. I just took a side and went with it--my motivation for this post was from hearing friends tell me that they didn't get much out of their internship at big companies because they were just told to be code monkeys. Again, sorry for coming off as condescending.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Can you really not think of any good reasons for students to intern at a large engineering company other than the paycheck/a fear of being unemployed?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not at all, there are probably plenty of good reasons including learning/getting the opportunity to work with other bright individuals.

HOWEVER, I make it clear in my post that I am only referring to 'entrepreneurial-minded' CS majors. These are students who presumably want to have their own startup or simply enjoy taking an organic idea and building upon it. Doing an internship at a large engineering company, in most cases, is not going to help/encourage you to be entrepreneurial spirited and do this. At least not as much trying to build something on your own. Another option that I present is to work at a company that is completely unrelated to your field and see if there is room in which software and/or hardware can help optimize that area.

<comment><USER31> If successful entrepreneurship just required proper spirit, then Mao's policies in 20th century China would have all worked [1].

There's a lot that's good about your advice and intention, but don't forget that large companies tend to be large because they're extremely good at what they do. Interning at a few companies (diversity is good) can teach you what "being good" looks like in a way reading a blog post can not, because you learn by doing and seeing.

[1] (A gross approximation of his message was essentially that with proper Maoist thought, everything else would righteously fall into place.. but then it turns out that enthusiasm alone doesn't give you the skills to make proper steel (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward)>).

<comment><USER13> I guess that's more motivation x ability. If you know how to, but don't want to, you're not going to. If you want to, but don't know how to, you're out of luck too.

I don't agree with the large companies are large because they work well hypothesis either. It wouldn't cover disruptive startups gobbling up larger companies market share, nor would it cover companies which are small, but very good at what they are doing. Google did search better than Yahoo, and it dethroned it. Was Yahoo larger than Google when Google started out? Yes. Was it better? Not neccesairily. And no matter how good your flight checking app is, you'll never become as large as Google, which doesn't mean you're doing a worse job than them.

Also, size breeds inefficiency because it averages. If your a 2 person startup, and one of you has no clue at all, you'll fail. If it's a 2000 people corporation, incompetence can and will slip through the pores (Else I honestly can't explain how some programmers got their jobs). The same way a large company can teach you what "being good" looks like, it can also teach you what "being bad" looks like, but they believe it's "being good". Organisational size is no guarantee for quality, the same way popularity isn't. Else Java would be the best language.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Build what, though? Most of the ideas young programmers come up with on their own are unoriginal--the world doesn't really need another to-do list app. Getting a job or internship first can expose you to actual business problems and domain knowledge, plus give you some good contacts and references, and help you save up some money to use when bootstrapping your own product. Working for someone else is not all bad, even if building your own thing is your ultimate goal.

<comment> daniel-levin 'actual business problems and domain knowledge'

This is critically important. In the past few months, I've done a lot of networking with the tech entrepreneurs in my city. After speaking to these guys, I became aware of problems I didn't even know existed. It turns out that corporate South Africa (and probably the world over) have a massive number of problems they need solved. For example: fleet management, business reports, operations (like using Voronoi diagrams to see which restaurant chain 'dominates' an area). This surprised me because as someone without exposure to a real business environment, I couldn't conceive why people would actually buy reports products and resource planning software. If you asked almost any CS major to explain what a 'enterprise resource planning application' should do I can quite safely bet that they won't be able to accurately describe what problems it addresses and how it solves them (assuming the grad has no first- hand experience in dealing with this kind of problem).

I realised how as an individual I have been exposed to mainly B2C companies. Now, having been introduced to real, profitable B2B companies, I see that the domain of problems to solve and businesses to build is huge. 'Get out of the building' really summarises this concept well. Get exposure to real business problems and you _will_ find someone who has an unsolved problem that you can attack. A nice example of this (not a _business_ problem but a real one nonetheless) is the other day I had to collect my calculus test. There were 1000+ people contending with each other to find their paper in 50 semi-sorted piles. It was chaotic. I know that there is a better way to do this (fast and efficient distribution of unique papers to 1000+ people) - I'm currently thinking about how to solve this problem. The takeaway idea here is that there are tons and tons of problems out there and exposure to the real world will give you the opportunity to see these problems and begin solving them.

<comment><USER13> I don't believe you can get that cross polination at Sun Microsystems (or other big name IT Company) though. Yes, they'll be working on problems that other companies need to have solved, but they'll be working on these problems. So if you are an enterpreneurially minded CS Student, then that means they got a headstart on these problems, along with a bigger budget and more coders to solve them. I would approach the problem as follows. If I'd intern, I'd first find an internship in a totally unrelated field (like metalworking or gardening)and see whether I can help to implement systems to make work easier. And if it works, you have a first product which the company you intern at won't try to sell.

PS: Divide 1000 papers into stacks of 1000 and give to 10 people to subdivide into stacks of 100, which divide between themselves and 9 other people. Let all those people further subdivide the sheets till everyone has someones sheet. Put out an alphabetical list of those 1000 people where they can write some way to contact them. Or let them write their email adress/phone number on the paper next time you have a test. This way, everyone has to deliver 1 paper to one other person and receives 1 paper. There's most likely a better solution, but I can't think of one right now.

<comment><AUTHOR> "If I'd intern, I'd first find an internship in a totally unrelated field (like metalworking or gardening)and see whether I can help to implement systems to make work easier. And if it works, you have a first product which the company you intern at won't try to sell."

Thank you. I stated this as well but was missed by so many 'readers', glad you mentioned it here!

<comment><USER13> I mean you don't even need to intern anywhere to get your hands itchy with other peoples problems. I mean yes, the usual startup folklore is "Fix something you do", but I make to do lists. Should I code up another digital todo list? I personally think that's just a simplification of "Fix something you want to fix, and fix something you understand". And because less people graze in those slightly off pastures, the grass might be lusher over there.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Intel Unveils New Server Chip With 32 Cores - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,197620/printable.html

<comment><USER2> See also this press release: [http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/2010053...](http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100531comp.htm)</comment>


Why is video editing so horrible today? - <AUTHOR> https://blog.rememberlenny.com/2020/09/15/why-is-video-editing-so-horrible-today/ <comment><USER2> These wishes seem stupid. Editing real time content doesn't lend itself to canned ai fantasies. If you could impliment these things video editing would turn into generic crap. Perhaps you should stay away from video editing "work" another 15 years. Maynard G. Krebs- "Work!"</comment>


New design of 99tests homepage launched - <AUTHOR> http://www.99tests.com 6665 Testers <comment><USER2> Great, very clear. NoScript user, so had to do some right clicking to see the 3-step section, but the rest didn't require that. Is it converting well? Got a screenshot of the old design?</comment>


Ask HN: leaving a company in silicon valley. - <AUTHOR>

Hey HN, i 'd appreciate some advice.
Right out of college, I was offered a software job at a certain silicon valley company. I was wowed by the salary, perks, and benefits so i eagerly accepted. I've been working here for under a year now, when I was approached by recruiters at another silicon valley company. I'm fairly content working where I currently am, and my coworkers are great people. But I've always wanted to work at the second company and I know they'll offer more compensation to boot.
The problem is, I don't want to leave the first company because I feel obligated to finish my current projects. But i wonder: Is there ever a good time to leave a company? I feel conflicted as this is the first fulltime job I've had out of college... <comment><USER2> I agree with what everyone here said, but I also must give a counter-point.

Being at a company for less than a year (or even less than two years) can ultimately cause you issues. When I thought I had a job secured, and was at it for half a year, I was "let go". Now, to my resume, I had to add "Company X — 0.5 years".

My track record thus far had been between 0.5 and 1.5 years at companies, either as a contractor or full-time employee. When it came time to interview at places, I actually had interviewers flat-out say "you are a risk to us" because I didn't keep a position at any company for 3 or more years, and their rationale is that I wouldn't hold a position with them much longer than anywhere else.

I know for at least one position, where I went through the grueling interview process and did well, I was rejected, solely based off of this fact.

So before you start hopping companies, keep in mind what it will look like on your resume and how a future employer might interpret it, especially if things don't happen to work out at the company you might get an offer from.

Lastly, I might note and you might already know this, that just because a recruiter contacts you doesn't mean a company is very keen to hire you from the get-go. They are looking for "talent", and thought you were worthy of a try. I've had both recruiters and VCs approach me as technical recruiters, and most of their efforts ended up being fruitless in actually landing some offers (95% of the time it was because I was just not a good fit for the position—my interests and experiences did not match up—and the other 5% was because I didn't meet some set of qualifications, such as a particular degree, prior experience, etc.).

<comment><USER3> Is this cultural to the US? I've never known it to be an issue here in Australia, and it's always quite a surprise to see someone with a longer than 2 year stint in the first 5-7 years of experience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's your current employer's job to retain you. It is not your job to be loyal to them.

<comment><USER5> These words are so true. Employment is a mutually beneficial economic relationship. Employers want you to believe they hold all of the power; however, this is very far from reality in early stage companies.

Employers gotta pay to play. Sometimes pay is much more than cash dispersed twice a month.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'd say it's unreasonable (though understandable) to feel any guilt/obligation beyond your contracted/legally required notice projects. Look at the other side - it would be considered unethical for an investor-backed company to keep staff on out of obligation rather than business sense.

As you're interested in working at the other company it probably makes sense to do so - otherwise you may end up resenting your current job for the "what could have been" opportunity. That your obligation to finish your projects is your main doubt reinforces this.

Make sure you have a firm offer from the new company first (you may want to hold off on accepting this offer until you've talked with your current company though), and then have the talk with your current company.

You obviously have no hard feelings towards your current company and enjoyed the opportunity working with them so it's quite likely you'll stay good contacts for down the track. Particularly so if you're able to work something reasonable out for a handover strategy that works for both you and the two companies.

Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER6> It's totally OK to leave. There is no need to "finish" complete projects which can take years.

Just take care to finish off the current phase of each project -- you'll have to decide in context what that means -- and hand off to colleages.

Good relationships and open communications are the key.

</comment><comment><USER7> I was recently in a similar situation, although not in SV; you are feeling a lot of unnecessary guilt(?), from a logical standpoint you probably realize it is not justified, but that does not mean you aren't experiencing the emotions. You just have to suck it up, and approach it like a chess game, plan your strategy, and ignore the emotional aspect, not to say you can actually flip a switch and not feel them, but do your best to just ignore them, and only let your brain do the work. To help with this, employers don't necessarily need you as much as you probably assume they do. They go through this a lot more than you, so it's not a big deal. If you are really afraid of burning bridges, give 4-6 weeks notice (that's what I did), and reaffirm, that you will help in any way you can (sitting in on interviews, helping the new hire train if they find one quickly enough, teaching current employees some stuff that will ease the transition irt what you were working on).

</comment><comment><USER5> It sounds like there are two things at play here: (1) You really want to work at this new offer, and (2) the new offer would net you more money.

With respect to (1), your work is going to be the best when you enjoy what you do. You state that you are content where you are now. Does your current job get you out of bed in the morning? Do you wake up wanting to go to work? Would the second job get you out of bed in the morning? Work on the thing you are most passionate about.

With respect to (2), employment is a two-way street. You have every right to cut off your employer as your employer has the right to cut off you. I've been through two rounds of cutbacks. I got hit once. I don't believe in company loyalty at all. You have to think of your career as a business. If all else is equal (in this case it might not be), and the pay is better, you should go for the higher pay. Don't fall into the trap of letting your employer "own" you.

</comment><comment><USER8> Honestly I'd leave the moment I feel like I'm wasting my time. If you're not learning anything or there's no real room for growth (learning potential), then i'd leave. At this stage where you are it's more important to learn as much as possible from every job situation than pure salary. The compensation being higher is an added benefit but I would definitely focus on a job that challenges you (both your skills and your person).

</comment><comment><USER9> Do you feel like you could talk about that to your current employer ? "I wan't to leave, so let's plan something to make it painless for both of us" It's better than just tell them "i'm leaving in two weeks, that was great", and you still have the option to do it that way if things go wrong with the first way.

Note : i've only worked in the valley for a few months and it was a long time ago, so take my advice with caution.</comment>


When the Great Alpaca Bubble Burst - <AUTHOR> https://priceonomics.com/when-the-great-alpaca-bubble-burst/ <comment><USER2> I'll add another animal to the list of previous agricultural speculative bubbles - emu: [http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-02-15/news/1998046051_...](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-02-15/news/1998046051_1_big- bird-emu-grayson-county)

> It's a long way from the emu craze of the early 1990s, when a productive > breeding pair fetched $50,000 or more.

> Those Texas-sized prices and promoters' heady promises that low-cholesterol > emu meat would become a grocery-store staple convinced thousands of Texans > to jump into the fledgling industry.

> In 1994, just before the market crashed, one study predicted that 2.5 > million of the gangly, flightless Australian imports would be raised > nationwide by 1998. Texas promoters boasted that half those birds would be > Texans.

> Then the emu bubble burst.

> Within weeks, back-yard ranchers and big operators alike were stuck with > birds they couldn't sell and feed bills of at least $100 a year per bird.</comment>


METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SHOCKWAVE ATTENUATION VIA ELECTROMAGNETIC ARC - <AUTHOR> http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week11/OG/html/1412-3/US08981261-20150317.html <comment><USER2> And this is how we get kinetic barriers? :P</comment>


Are central banks losing their big bet? - <AUTHOR> https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/central-banks-unconventional-policy-bet-by-mohamed-a-el-erian-2019-07 <comment><USER2> Don't blame central banks so much.

They only directly control one lever in the economy, interest rates augmented by QE-purchase of company bonds in Europe & US.

In retrospect, they've been caught in a downward spiral of interest rates because politicians have been unable to add pro-growth policies.

Unfortunately the "wealth effect" of shares in the US, even after Trump's unaffordable tax-cuts, has been channelled towards shareholders (via dividends & buybacks) rather than wage increases or capital investment.

Something's wrong when companies can't find worthwhile ways to spend money investing in their own future, but instead direct profits and BORROWINGS into share buy-backs.

I do suspect one of the factors encouraging buybacks is that executive remuneration is often based on the share price. I've tried searching but haven't found anything suggesting executive remuneration excluding the effects of buybacks on share prices.</comment>


Airbnb Engineering - <AUTHOR> http://airbnb.io/ <comment><USER2> Seems like it is getting to be a trend to write your own workflow engine and open source it. Spotify has luigi, LinkedIn has Azkaban and Airbnb has Airflow. I wonder at what market capitalization companies start rolling their own language like .net, go and swift?

<comment><USER3> Don't forget Chronos.

[http://mesos.github.io/chronos/](http://mesos.github.io/chronos/)

<comment><USER4> Isn't Chronos more of a distributed scheduler ("fault tolerant cron") than a workflow engine?

<comment><USER3> Distributed job scheduler is, in a larger sense, a workflow engine. It will need to understand what is the next job to trigger, handle different situation where job fails\timeouts and do the retry if specified.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Engineering Culture" photo makes me think of a call center. Why would I want to do something as brain intensive and doesn't do well with disruption as software engineering in the environment depicted?

<comment><USER5> I'm fine with down voting, I still ask the question, how many engineers would be happy with the closeness of workstations portrayed? As someone who was reached out to by a couple of recruiters for companies w/ similar setups in the last couple of days, I don't see this as a selling point. Maybe it is just an image, but down votes and no comments to contrary say a lot.

<comment><USER6> > I'm fine with down voting

Wow. So brave!

<comment><USER5> I'd like to understand why as knowledge workers a portrayed environment where you have minimal space between you and an open environment it a good working environment? The photo used by the AirBnB add portrays an extreme of the popular open office concept.

In the last two years I've worked in "open office as portrayed", a more isolated open office, as well as at home. I know my preference.

I still ask why is this a motivator on the cover of the digital equivalent of a glossy magazine?

This has nothing to do with the company (I use airbnb regularly), but the portrayal of environments.

A justification, I get emails regularly, I have no commute. The recruiters that reach out to me I simply ask, "so, I have no commute, can you encourage me to further engage with that first hurdle." So far, none can. Simple question, I've got a great job, sell me on what you have. Reality is most established companies at this point just want bodies to fill positions.

Disclaimer - I've passed on two founding CTO positions (over the last 2-3 years) because my risk averseness wasn't in sync at the time asked.

I see this post as a recruiting glossy and asked my questions as such.

<comment><USER7> Because we aren't respected the way other knowledge workers are. Look at the abuse heaped on us by the press or the anti-tech worker protests in SF.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What I don't get about these kinds of jobs is, its already built. Its already scaled. You already created the architecture.

How interesting could those kinds of jobs really be?

And if you really need or want world class talent, why would you limit the pool to people who want to commute into San Francisco?

<comment><USER9> I remember that an engineer we tried to hire at Google in 2000 turned down the offer for the same reason -- he thought that all of the interesting problems were probably already solved :)

The reality is typically the opposite. Most startups are technically straightforward to start with and only get really advanced with scale.

<comment><USER10> Exactly. Currently working a project that started out as a simple django application with Mongo db (don't ask me, wasn't my decision). It used Parse, heroku, and some other platforms. I'm in the process of building what will replace parse (file storage) using Go, Redis, postgre, and nginx. Then when in done with that, the main api will get turned over to the same basic architecture, though with other parts to balance load, etc. This is more complex because now we have to do a lot more maintenance. Which means that more code will get written to automate things. More programs talking to each other and more different parts moving at different speeds. I love it, but it's complex. And then you realize you are in charge of doing it all. :)

<comment><USER4> That does sound like exciting greenfield though; sounds like a refactoring/scale out project.

<comment><USER10> It is exciting! I'm in charge of scaling a business to support an explosion of users. I say business because I'm also building / extending the sale & marketing systems, the internal communications, and some other stuff I have planned out. It's a lot of work but we need it and good tools help me move quickly. I love scaling businesses as a whole.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> A lot of negative reactions here. My impression of engineering at Facebook has been the work ethic seen in Josh Perez's "Alt" Flux library for React.

He's been very responsive and helpful to my own projects in the same problem space.

Maybe lots of people are in better situations than I'd expect, but working at Airbnb on projects similar to that on a platform tons of people use sounds cool to me!

</comment><comment><USER12> FWIW, your "meet the nerds" segment is fantastic, original marketing. I expect it to catch on. Above all one wants interesting, inspiring, admirable coworkers.

</comment><comment><USER4> "Meet Our Engineers" would've been much better copy.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, the "nerd" thing again. It's obvious some PR guy with us-vs-them mentality prepared this content.

<comment><USER14> This is patently untrue. "Nerds" is a self-selected moniker that we've worn with great pride for more than five years.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> They should call it AirBnE.

</comment><comment><USER16> Wait, as a quirky nerd that learned BASIC at 5, I can't fathom not wanting to spend the weekend with my peers hacking on projects and yes, just maybe, changing the world. But not before I meme-bomb Larry and start a nerf war! Being an adult is neat.

<comment><USER17> can't tell if this is brilliant sarcasm

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Wow, a weekend hackathon where employees worked all night ([https://www.airbnb.com/careers/departments/engineering](https://www.airbnb.com/careers/departments/engineering)). Capital is getting smarter every year! Now you can make workers think that _they_ were the ones who decided to do unpaid overtime.

(And if it wasn't "required", don't kid yourself---of course it was required.)

<comment><USER18> I used to be an engineer at Airbnb. It's not, in fact, the case that people are doing "unpaid overtime". My favorite example of this: there are a great number of people who work there who were MORE than willing to take a free Saturday/Sunday and host their OWN hackathon with their work-friends when the company-supported dates proved inconvienient for a lot of us. While it's true that a lot of the projects were company focused, a great deal were purely "stupid shit nobody needs and general shenanigans" projects. It's not the kind of place where people feel forced into working in a silly way. It's an awesome place full of rather clever people.

/endrant

<comment><USER19> > It's not the kind of place where people feel forced into working in a silly > way.

After reading your post, I'm having a hard time seeing how this is the case. Perhaps people are not directly forced into doing weekend "hackathons", but I'd imagine there is quite a bit of indirect pressure to show up for these things for fear of not being seen as a team player. Although, maybe my own personal experiences have just made me too cynical.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "Meet the Nerds"

<comment><USER21> That made me cringe a little. Especially when the rest of the page seemed pretty professional (save for the now industry-standard cartoon icons everywhere).</comment></comment>


Kayak-angst among the Eskimo of Greenland: a study in sensory deprivation (1963) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.gwern.net/docs/1963-gussow.pdf

<comment><USER2> book looks like scanned(including type) but text is selectable. how does it work?

<comment><USER3> I'm confused. What is setting you off?

That seems to be scanned, yes. Then you run a full page OCR engine to extract the text _with bounding rectangles_ and create a PDF with the page being the input image, embedding the OCR results as invisible text at the recognized positions.

It's something I do day in/day out in this line of business, requires no skill apart from a decent engine and a 'create your own PDF' library (iText/iTextSharp is cool, go and buy a license. Not affiliated, but I'm a happy user).</comment></comment>


'Top kill' method 'slows BP oil leak' in Gulf of Mexico - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10174861.stm

<comment><USER2> So, BP wouldn't allow anyone other than them to inspect the leak and give an estimate of the flow rate, the 5,000 number is "unreliable", but they know for sure that it is less than before. I hope it's true but mark me down as skeptical.

</comment><comment><USER3> The actual headline says "slows", not "stops". (Has it changed?)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes it has. When I submitted it, I just removed the "BBC News" prefix in the title and nothing else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The short slideshow at the bottom of the article is one of the better concise explanations I've seen of the process.

</comment><comment><USER5> If this story in WSJ is proves accurate, BP has a lot of culpability.

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870471700457526...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704717004575268302434395796.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news)

<comment><USER6> There's some other unsubstantiated stories that Schlumberger pulled their guys off the rig just before it blew up:

[http://adropofrain.net/2010/05/rumor-schlumberger-exits- deep...](http://adropofrain.net/2010/05/rumor-schlumberger-exits-deep-horizon- hours-before-blowout/)

<comment><USER7> That's interesting. I worked for Schlumberger for a couple of years. They are a good company in their core business of oil services (their software division is horrible, but that's another story). They particularly emphasize safety. I have no idea whether the story you linked to is true, but if the chief SLB person on site made a decision that his people were at risk, it would be consistent with the company's culture to get them out of there at their own expense.

<comment><USER6> I've been looking, but there has to be a list of who was on the platform (survivors and deceased) when it exploded.

EDIT: There _are_ links that confirm SLB folk were off the rig, but SLB isn't saying it was any kind of emergency evacuation at this point. It was a "scheduled flight".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Anyone know why this wasn't tried earlier? Lower estimated chance of success than other previous strategies? Would have precluded other options if it failed? Some other kind of complication?

<comment><USER9> I'm not an expert. I'm just passing along what I hear Prof. Bea of UC Berkeley saying (and that makes intuitive sense to me).

One of the big risks of the top-kill procedure is a kind of "you push in here, it pops out there" problem. There's a big pipe down into the ground, right? It's constructed in segments. We have _limited_ amounts of information about what condition it's in.

There is risk that they throw mud down, that does indeed slow or stop the current flows, but the flows find a new path busting through the pipes or the joints between segments - and the net result is a flow just as bad or worse as before the top kill but even harder to fix.

That they've only so far "slowed" the flow doesn't give me much encouragement yet. Both plots ("it works" and "it fails and makes things worse") start that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here's a link to Adm. Allen's talk with NPR referenced in the article. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo- way/2010/05/there_are_indica...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo- way/2010/05/there_are_indications_top_kill.html)

</comment><comment><USER11> queue Fox News to say that Obama should have insisted that this be done 4 weeks ago.

<comment><USER12> I must admit, I don't understand this. What do US presidents, or for what it's worth, US governments, know about how to stop oil spills 5000 feet below the surface of the sea?

What reason is there to assume that BP is not trying the best it can to stop the spill, and to them being the best experts on the subject?

Also, hasn't the government called in a panel of independent experts already?

<comment><USER13> It's simple. When things are going well, everybody spends all their time calling government the problem, cutting funding, shredding regulations and defanging any government enforcement agencies.

Then when things go bad, everyone's pissed that the government isn't omnipotent.

<comment><USER14> > It's simple.

You're forgetting that Obama and the Dems campaigned on "we're far more competent than Bush and the Repubs. If you elect us, sea levels will fall, [etc]."

It's sort of like the "huge financial firms aren't giving money to Obama, that money comes from their executives" argument. While true, you never hear it about money going to Repubs.

<comment><USER13> Yeah, and the Republicans campaigned on "all you need to know about energy is drill baby drill".

So do you think the government should have done more to prevent this? Or that this isn't a big deal and that the private sector is handling it fine?

<comment><USER14> > So do you think the government should have done more to prevent this? Or > that this isn't a big deal and that the private sector is handling it fine?

mu.

I don't think that the govt could have done more to prevent this without causing other, more significant problems.

It is a big deal. I think that the private sector is doing a better job of fixing the leak than govt would have.

I note that govt had reasonable plans for dealing with the effects of leaks yet didn't bother. (For example, burning, which should have been started on day 1 and would have helped significantly, was pre-cleared in the 1990s for exactly that reason. Note that it never happened in any meaningful way.) It's unclear why I should blame the private sector for that.

<comment><USER13> Well, fair enough. It does actually sound like most people involved are doing their best job, except for the safety inspectors who let the thing get built that way in the first place.

<comment><USER14> > It does actually sound like most people involved are doing their best job, > except for the safety inspectors who let the thing get built that way in the > first place.

Not at all. The cleanup and reaction people failed horribly, and most of them were in govt.

<comment><USER13> Citation needed.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


FlightSim Co threatens users comments about DRM pw logger/system32 obfuscator - <AUTHOR> https://torrentfreak.com/flight-sim-company-threatens-reddit-mods-over-libellous-drm-posts-180604/ <comment><USER2> I mean it should be obvious to the flightsim community that this company can't be trusted. Yet outside of reddit/r/flightsim most people ignore the news. Some even defend the company for it.

Now I don't claim to be a security expert but I did some digging and it appears to me that the cmdhost.exe is just a reroute to the commandline which they install under admin priveleges to elevate their permissions whenever they want without alerting the user. Which no flightsim addon should ever need. There are much better and safer ways to implement a licensing system.

It is saddening to see such a passion of mine get destroyed by greedy devs and power hungry "community managers". There have been dozens of incidents where a user gets their license banned or account banned on the dev forums for disagreeing. Flight sim devs and forums can't take critique and it's hurting the community. This is just another example of it.

<comment><USER3> This sounds like a huge security hole waiting to happen if their software is able to arbitrarily take admin privileges.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Surprised these guys are still around after the chrome password dumper fiasco last time. Slimeballs.</comment>


Porting Alpine Linux to RISC-V - <AUTHOR> https://drewdevault.com/2018/12/20/Porting-Alpine-Linux-to-RISC-V.html <comment><USER2> Something that has been bugging me for a while: Why is cross compiling so hard? After all, compilers are just C programs (or C++/Go/Rust/… programs). It's not like a target implementation is using some magic instructions from the host to generate the assembly, or that it is harder to calculate some 32bit offsets for the compiled program, when the compiler is running on a 64bit host environment.

Or is it about the helper programs / scripts around the core compilation process that are too often hard coded to read out the configuration from the host system? So basically there is no technical hurdle, just the social norm that target arch == host arch, and thus make procedures aren't sufficiently tested for cross compilation from the get go?

<comment><USER3> Go compiler is built in Go, big difference ( all of Go is built in Go). Cross- compiling in Go is the easiest of any languages as far as I know.

Ex: GOOS=windows go build .

GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm go build .

And you can run that from any os / arch, I can build a single Windows binary from my Raspberry Pi with the above example.

[https://golang.org/doc/install/source#environment](https://golang.org/doc/install/source#environment)

<comment><USER4> As opposed to C/C++ compilers being built in C/C++?

EDIT: Try to build NetBSD for some esoteric platform from the comfort of your desktop machine. Remember to pick up your jaw from the floow when you're done. ;-) My point is, it does not have to be hard.

<comment><USER3> Rust compiler is LLVM afaik so C++, same for the JVM / C#. Having your entire runtime / tools in the same language make it easier.

<comment><USER5> This is true for Rust, however, given that LLVM is the project doing the codegen, it's a little bit special; cross-compiling it to the platforms it supports is a bit easier than a random C++ library, since it's the one with the support in the first place.

Rust projects make much more use of C libraries than Go projects do, though, so for things other than the Rust compiler, this is still a good point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wrote a short paper for HPEC that included some power and performance benchmarks and analysis on the HiFive Unleashed U540 SoC [0]. The SoC isn't open source as some suggest although I believe the core is based on the open source Rocket Chip Generator [1]. It seems the greatest weakness was in the slow memory interface. The details of memory controller and configuration were proprietary when I tried to find out why it wasn't performing well.

[0] [http://www.ieee- hpec.org/2018/2018program/index_htm_files/15...](http://www.ieee- hpec.org/2018/2018program/index_htm_files/150.pdf)

[1] [https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket- chip](https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-chip)

<comment><USER7> From [0] above:

 _The STREAM benchmark [6] was also compiled and executed, confirming that DRAM performance is limited to less than 1.6 GB /s on this platform. It's unclear if this is a problem with the cache hierarchy, memory controller, or the configuration of the DDR Controller Control Registers_

Wow, that's unspeakably terrible. That's about 10-20% of the b/w one should get from 2400 mem (depending on how many channels the mem controller uses).

I hope this is some simple misconfiguration that can be fixed in firmware or in the kernel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> A few questions:

\- In which fab is the CPU manufactured?

\- How much slower does it compile stuff than a mainstream CPU? (Author only says "somewhat slower", but could have been more precise)

\- Is the RISC-V architecture free from Spectre-like bugs?

\- What does the memory hierarchy look like?

<comment><USER9> It's built on TSMC's 28nm process.

It's an in-order 64 bit 4 core processor (actually 5 cores, because there's a small 32 bit core which does nothing normally). Think Cortex A53. It's very usable for development (I have two of them), and we even have people using them for desktop running GNOME. But it's not a Xeon. The main issue is the cost and lack of SATA on the development board (there's a daughter board providing that, at extra cost). Everything is open source.

This chip is free of speculation bugs because it doesn't do speculation. However the architecture itself is not in any way better or worse than others, and a RISC-V core with a different microarchitecture might well be vulnerable, although since these attacks are now well-known steps should be taken by designers to avoid them.

Memory architecture is very simple, it has small L1 and L2 caches and main memory. There's also a chiplink connection which takes the memory bus off- chip. You can read more here: [https://www.sifive.com/chip- designer#fu540](https://www.sifive.com/chip-designer#fu540)

<comment><USER10> Thanks for the explanations. Do you know if people have attempted interfacing with Chiplink using homebrew FPGA solutions?

<comment><USER9> The daughterboard is relevant here:

[https://www.crowdsupply.com/microsemi/hifive-unleashed- expan...](https://www.crowdsupply.com/microsemi/hifive-unleashed-expansion- board)

It takes the Chiplink connection and routes it to a PCIe bridge. There's also a large FPGA on there, but I'm not quite clear how it's all connected up.

I don't know much about what people are using this for. Also the whole setup costs like $4000 so I guess it's not quite ready for casual home users just yet. If you want to go the FPGA route, then it might be better looking at a Virtex-7 and putting the RISC-V rocketchip core on there, along with whatever local customizations you want to try out.

<comment><USER11> Do you know if it is possible to actually purchase the daughter board? As far as I can tell they only made a limited supply for the crowdfunding program.

<comment><USER9> We have one at Red Hat, but I don't know if they're making more of them. We're expecting new RISC-V hardware in 2019.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I would be very interested on some background on how the musl bugs were discovered and debugged !

<comment><USER13> strace, mainly, and the help of the experts in #riscv on freenode.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Thanks for the post and nice work, Drew! I look forward to Linux/BSD-capable non-x86 boards becoming easier to find and cheaper to buy over time. This one is not the cheapest board but since I'm indefinitely in line for a Pine64 (and can't find much else) I may take a look at this.

</comment><comment><USER15> The author states:

>"I'm working on making this hardware available to builds.sr.ht users in the next few months, where I intend to use it to automate the remainder of the Alpine Linux port and make it available to any other operating systems (including non-Linux) and userspace software which are interested in working on a RISC-V port."

Is this author also the designer of the board? Or do they made they're working on making the software available?

This looks really exciting, looking forward to following the progress.

<comment><USER16> The author means making compute time on the hardware available to run CI builds on their service. If you care about porting your software to RISC-V enough to want to test that software there, hardware is probably a more accurate harness than qemu.

<comment><USER17> I'd love to see time being given to Gentoo. They're basically up there with Debian in terms of supporting "alternative" architectures

According to the Handbook. They currently support

Alpha, AMD64, ARM, ARM64 HPPA/PA-RISC, IA64, MIPS, PPC, PPC64, SPARC and x86 (i486 and i686)

<comment><USER18> Beyond even. A while ago Debian dropped support for Alpha, IA64 and PA-RISC. Even SPARC isn't supported anymore.

[https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch02s01.html.en](https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/ch02s01.html.en)

<comment><USER19> You gotta love an arch that can reorder dependent reads.

<comment><USER15> Which arch permits reordering of dependent reads? Might you have any resources you could share? Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "This board is cool."

What exactly is cool about this board?

<comment><USER9> It's all open source.

<comment><USER21> It's also surprisingly nice. 8G of DDR4 EEC RAM, 4 surprisingly fast CPU cores, and a gigabit ethernet port - it all adds up to a really pleasant board to work with.

<comment><USER22> That is nice, though at $999, expectations would be pretty high.

<comment><USER13> Well, it's the also first RISC-V CPU available to the general public. I expect prices to come down in the future, but I was definitely surprised with the quality of the "first" CPU.

<comment><USER20> That CPU has one of the worst instruction sets ever: the mnemonics are even worse than intel, which was hereto considered the stupidest up until this point. That's an achievement. They will have to be hidden by compilers because they're otherwise complicated and a pain in the ass to program.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I tried Alpine and immediately stopped when I saw how old the packages were. How do people use it...?

<comment><USER24> >How do people use it...?

You don't. It's a baked in reminder that logging into a container is a sin worthy of punishment.

<comment><USER25> Alpine is a pretty good standalone distribution IMHO. Main upsides are musl and apk, which makes it lightweight and fast.</comment></comment></comment>


Humans Are From Earth, Financial Markets Might As Well Be From Mars - <AUTHOR> http://phaseleap.com/articles/humans-are-from-earth-financial-markets-might-as-well-be-from-mars/

<comment><AUTHOR> Key graf:

The recent "flash crash" might have a simple, understandable explanation, or it might not, but it, and every other large-scale financial phenomenon, has to be studied with the same analytical care and lack of anthropomorphizing expectations with which you would study any other large and complex non-human phenomenon. We only understand the broadest strokes of the global climate system, are just beginning to map the precise way in which everything fits together in cells, and although we know almost every atom of every chip, developing, debugging and deploying software is equal parts science, black art, and disaster management. The global financial markets are probably not much less complex than any of those, and certainly not more human. With just a few years of experience with them, one of the few things we can say with certainty is this: we don't understand them, and when we do, the explanation probably won't make sense to most of us, and it won't fit neatly in a newspaper column.</comment>


V for Vendetta and the Rise of Anonymous - by Alan Moore - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16968689 <comment><USER2> Obligatory quote from the movie:

<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/quotes?qt=qt0450655>

      There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I
      suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones,
      and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because
      while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation,
      words will always retain their power. Words offer the means
      to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation
      of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly
      wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and
      injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you
      had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw
      fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance
      coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.
      How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there
      are those more responsible than others, and they will be
      held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're
      looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I
      know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't
      be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems
      which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your
      common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic
      you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He
      promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he
      demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

<comment><USER3> As an extremely unpleasant man once said:

"...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

He was wrong about just about everything else, but in this one statement I fear he may have told the truth.

<comment><USER4> It is all too easy to pretend that people have no say in the actions of their commonwealth, and much too difficult to believe that patriotism, pacifism, idealism, and conservatism each have something important to say.

I am unimpressed with your cynicism.

<comment><USER5> "Cynic" is what the idealist calls the realist.

<comment><USER6> The capacity for accurate observation is often called, "cynicism" by those who haven't got it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The thing I find interesting / amusing about the "Guy Fawkes" masks from the movie, is the extent to which they have been embraced by at least 3 or 4 fairly different, even seemingly opposing, groups. Looking around, I've seen these masks associated with:

1\. Radical libertarian / anti-government types

2\. Tea Partiers

3\. The OWS movement

4\. Anonymous

The moral of this story may just be that these groups have more in common that you would suspect at first blush.

<comment><USER8> Namely: none of them have taken the time to learn about what a completely detestable theocratic proto-fascist Guy Fawkes was

<comment><USER9> But to their credit, that's not the point. This is touched upon in the novel-- that it's the idea of rebellion that Guy Fawkes has become a symbol of, not what he was fighting for but that he was fighting at all.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Ah, Alan Moore. I love the man.

Here's a lovely interview with him, from "Mythmakers and Lawbreakers", a work on anarchist fiction writers:

[http://www.birdsbeforethestorm.net/2009/02/mythmakers- lawbre...](http://www.birdsbeforethestorm.net/2009/02/mythmakers-lawbreakers- alan-moore-on-anarchism/)

The book:

<http://www.birdsbeforethestorm.net/mmlb/>

Some of the interviews are better than others, but the Ursula K. Le Guin and Alan Moore ones really stood out for me.

<comment><USER11> I don't think it's overstating things to say that Moore's influence changed the face of the comic industry forever (no pun intended). The man is a true visionary, pushing the boundary of whatever medium he chooses. I look forward to reading his novels.

Here is another good and recent interview:

[http://www.honestpublishing.com/news/honest-alan-moore- inter...](http://www.honestpublishing.com/news/honest-alan-moore-interview- part-1-publishing-and-kindle/)

<comment><USER12> > I don't think it's overstating things to say that Moore's influence changed > the face of the comic industry forever (no pun intended).

What, for the better or worse? The comic industry is in no state to be proud of; they sell at least 100 times less than they used to and their entire audience is 30 year old white men because they have no ability to attract new readers.

That's the American-style comic industry; the Japanese one is doing well.

<comment><USER13> Moore et al. kept the industry relevant for more than they should have. VfV and Watchmen are a few of those works that keep selling 20 years later, while 99% of the US comic production is crap and gets forgotten after six months. The market is what it is because there are too few Moores and Ellises and Gaimans , and too many self-referential comic-fans-turned-writers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Btw, I'm a Romanian and tomorrow I'll also be joining the protest. I'm in the process of co-opting some of my neighbors. Please do so too.

</comment><comment><USER15> "Our present financial ethos no longer even resembles conventional capitalism, which at least implies a brutal Darwinian free-for-all, however one-sided and unfair. Instead, we have a situation where the banks seem to be an untouchable monarchy beyond the reach of governmental restraint, much like the profligate court of Charles I."

I couldn't agree more.

</comment><comment><USER16> It's hard for me to align myself with Anonymous because I really don't like how they give support to the ideas I agree with, but, man, it sure does look exciting from where I'm standing.

</comment><comment><USER17> Just saw an awesome documentary on Anonymous at the Slamdance Film Festival (Sundance's indie younger sibling). Interesting and well made. Would recommend it for anyone who is interested in Anonymous/Hacktivism.

<http://wearelegionthedocumentary.com/>

</comment><comment><USER18> Who has the copyright on the Guy Fawkes masks?

UPDATE: Forget it, the design belongs to Time Warner.

<comment><USER19> mine has a label inside indicating it was made under license from the movie rights owners.

<comment><USER20> Obviously, the moral thing is to make your own. ;-)

Mass-production, however, has some interesting advantages. It's harder to trace it back to its owner, for instance.

<comment><USER19> quite the opposite. it makes it rather easy to cross-reference amazon orders of said mask with politically active online accounts via isp records to identify suitable candidates for future re-education internment camps on the topic of IP and state rights. could be done using the ironically libertarian- funded Palantir, i suppose.

<comment><USER21> You could also purchase it locally with cash at a costume/mask shop...

<comment><USER20> Extra points if you buy a fake version made in China and brought illegally into your country of choice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Tangential Alan Moore - Alternative thought for the day at [http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9669000/9669590....](http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9669000/9669590.stm)

</comment><comment><USER4> Interestingly, Alan Moore manages to miss the point and be spot-on at the same time.

Nowhere does he seem to cotton to the nature of Anonymous, the disavowal of identity that accompanies taking up the mask: even though _he himself_ demonstrated the succession of V.

But that's perhaps to be expected; the movie necessarily completed the image of the mask by making it abundantly clear that it is when the _group_ takes up the mask that the mask has power. You cannot punish one if you must punish all.

At the same time, he is clearly in tune with the movement. "Today's response to similar oppressions seems to be one that is intelligent, constantly evolving and considerably more humane."

All in all I read (if I may) V for Valediction from a man who thanks the movement for validating his work, and encourages the next generation just as an intellectual parent ought.

And also like a good intellectual parent, he points to his own heritage... "Some ghosts never go away..."

<comment><USER23> > _Nowhere does he seem to cotton to the nature of Anonymous_

By "cotton" did you mean "caught on"?

<comment><USER24> Colloquial American English expression, used appropriately. "To cotton to" is to understand and possibly enjoy a phenomenon -- it's always a positive connotation.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Anonymous is a childish sudo-terrorist group that has thrown multiple digital temper-tantrums because they haven't gotten their way.

Even if I support their views, I would never want to be associated with them.

<comment><USER25> I also will not follow anyone that silences your opinion merely because they disagree. This isn't the purpose of down voting, but it's obvious to me that the supporters of anonymous feel this way.

<comment><USER26> You most likely aren't downvoted because people want to "silence" your opinion, but because your expression of it is aggressive, unfriendly and borders on ad hominem. That's why I myself downvoted you, at least.

It's fine being critical of Anonymous. Just accusing them of being "terrorists" and "having no balls" is neither constructive criticism nor an opinion worth discussing.

<comment><USER25> "It's fine being critical of Anonymous. Just accusing them of being "terrorists" and "having no balls" is neither constructive criticism nor an opinion worth discussing."

It's called an opinion. Garbage is spewed about the US government weekly on HN and nobody calles it "ad hominem" (which you also can't just throw around).

I provided proof. Here is another example:

[http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/anonymous- hack...](http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/anonymous-hacker-group- threatens-reign-of-terror-against-israel-1.412118)

They sound like terrorists, act like terrorists, so I'm going to call them what they are. I don't care if you disagree.

<comment><USER27> For Anonymous to be "terrorists", don't they have to successfully scare someone? Or, you know, kill people? Stealing code and DDoSing websites, boy, I sure am quaking in my boots.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN:  Would anyone be interested in a Hacker News wiki? - <AUTHOR>

I just saw this comment by pg:  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1329415
I can understand pg's point of view on this.  On the other hand though, I honestly wasn't aware of searchyc until I saw that thread.  It seems to me that if pg won't make an official place to post links to things like that, there should be an unofficial place.
On the other hand, I can't really think of much else to put there other than a couple of iPhone apps and the link to searchyc.  So is there enough content out there to justify a wiki? <comment><USER2> I'd love to see a wiki aimed at HN newcomers, with a page on frequent topics and a list of the most relevant threads on that topic. Of course, in order for such a resource to really be useful, newcomers would have to be made aware of it. That is, it would have to become "official" and be linked to prominently from HN.

<comment><USER3> > I'd love to see a wiki aimed at HN newcomers, with a page on frequent topics > and a list of the most relevant threads on that topic.

I had an idea a while ago, that this could be the _primary_ interface for a social news site: instead of having new posts get voted on individually and appear without context, which then has to be added in the comments, you'd have "news threads" on certain topics (e.g. "the iPad" would be _one thread_.). You'd post an article to a thread (different from posting a comment—it would appear at the top with all the other articles under the thread's discussion) and it would get voted on, only allowed to "come under discussion" of the thread once it passed a certain threshold.

* The front page of the site would be threads sorted by aggregate score of their article posts, weighted by the time of their most recent contributed article (so posting a good link would bump the thread.)

* Articles could be submitted individually (into the "uncategorized" thread, I suppose) and then moved into threads by moderation (which would give moderators an opportunity to create a new thread when a discussion doesn't already have a place—a possible insertion point for spam otherwise.)

* Every thread comment would be in reply to _both_ a user (with root-level comments being "to" the submitter) _and_ an article within the thread. Comments would still be threaded, so someone could add a new article to "cite" their comment upon as evidence for/against someone else's comment on a previous article in the thread. Comments in cite of articles that hadn't passed the voting threshold would be greyed out.

* "Spam posts" and "advertisements" would simply be threads, able to rise to the top if something in them happens to merit it.

* A "best of" post is simply a post of one of the thread's comments as an article to the thread, and ties that comment's karma score to the thread's aggregate score (allowing threads that have brilliant discussion, but bad articles/links, to rise.)

Anyone want to steal/implement this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sure, I'd love to see all of the companies that YC has funded, what they're doing now, if they folded, were acquired, or more in depth details than what Crunchbase gives about them.

<comment><USER5> I started this off: <http://www.startupwiki.co.uk/investor/ycombinator>

Never really took off though.

<comment><USER6> Cool man, I never even realized you had that!

Now, maybe if we asked pg to put a link... (oh, well never mind, it was only a joke).

But yes, that's a great thing to have around, one thing that springs to mind right away is a more expansive guide for newbies that we can point to when people are new, confused or both.

<comment><USER5> > Cool man, I never even realized you had that!

Heh :) I posted it once or twice - it got a rash of several additions and then quietened down, a bit too much for me to manually add in all the historical data sadly...

I'll happily add pages and bits and pieces if it's helpful (in a more HN specific way)... fire away with any suggestions.

<comment><USER6> \- newbie guide

\- gems section (great stuff, not unlike 'bestcomments', but plenty of really great stuff never gets the votes it deserves) that will be a great resource in and of itself

\- hints and tips

\- a set of links to articles about YC start-ups, integrated on the page about that start-up

<comment><USER5> Ok, stay tuned :) (might take a day or so to get to it)

<comment><USER7> Feel free to grab the list of ycombinator start-ups from my blog ([http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2009/12/analyzing-y- combinator...](http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2009/12/analyzing-y- combinator.html)) if it'll help.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> On a related note, <http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/> serves the #startups channel, which is really the unofficial HN IRC channel on Freenode.

</comment><comment><USER9> There's also this: <http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive></comment>


Your Linux browser is too old - <AUTHOR>

Lately I have nag messages everywhere I go: "Your browser is too old." If you're wondering, I have Debian Wheezy. (Going to check if I have all the backports.)<p>In general, do you think Linux has trouble keeping browsers up to date? Do Ubuntu & Fedora folks have this problem too? <comment><USER2> This is from using Debian stable, and normal. Debian has 4 "branches"

1\. Old stable, the previous stable version and only receives security updates.

2\. Stable, the current stable version. There is a massive amount of stability testing and security hardening that go into ever package before its allowed in this branch. This is usually a very long process and the packages are usually old.

3\. Testing, This is where packages live while they are being tested for stable. This branch may be broken, but is generally working during the release cycle, and may not receive security updates in timely manner. 4\. Un-stable, This is bleeding and mostly in broken state...

During the release cycle, packages are selected and brought closer and closer to 'stable' and move though the branches. At a certain time, the package version are frozen in a feature freeze, and are not allowed to have feature updates, only stability and security hardening. When are the packages are ready, the debian team releases alpha and beta builds to test everything. Then, and only then is a new stable released.

If every thing had the Q&A of debian, nothing would crash, but everything would be old.

This is the reason why so many people use one of the many distro based up of debian testing. Ubuntu, Linux Mint and many more are based off of testing, with newer packages and there own feature freeze. The ubuntu cycle tries work like clock work every 6 months and debian has more of "when its ready" mind set.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hi, Debian Iceweasel maintainer here.

Debian Wheezy currently has version 31.3 (ESR) and will soon get 31.4 through stable-updates. Stable-security already has that version. In case you wonder what ESR is: [https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/organizations/](https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/organizations/)

Generally speaking, Debian stable always receives the last ESR versions these days, except at the end of an ESR cycle, where Mozilla actually releases two ESR versions. So, for instance, at the end of life of ESR 24, Mozilla released both 24.8 and 31.0, and Debian stable received 24.8. The next update was to 31.1.

I can understand nagging for very old versions, but Web sites nagging about current ESR versions are being rude.

If you are interested in fresher Iceweasel backports, check out [http://mozilla.debian.net/](http://mozilla.debian.net/).

And if you'd rather have the Firy logo instead of the icy one, and know how to build Debian packages, just download the Iceweasel sources, and build with the following environment variable set: PRODUCT_NAME=firefox.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just realized the problem, I had been launching Iceweasel from Openbox instead of the CLI.

Somehow obmenu is launching an older version of Iceweasel (version 13) and I never noticed till now :-/

If I launch "iceweasel" from a terminal I get version 31.

Oops!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> You should have iceweasel 31 according to [https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/iceweasel](https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/iceweasel)

Which websites refuse to work?

You could always just add the linux mint repositories and install the real firefox that way. [http://superuser.com/questions/322376/how-to-install-the- rea...](http://superuser.com/questions/322376/how-to-install-the-real-firefox- on-debian) is old but the instructions in the top-rated answer still work.

<comment><AUTHOR> I upgraded to Wheezy yesterday, I thought everything was up to date. I had "deb [http://mozilla.debian.net/](http://mozilla.debian.net/) wheezy-backports iceweasel-release" in my sources.list. My Iceweasel user agent at this moment says "Firefox/13.0"!

Nothing refused to work, just nag messages on various websites. But Firebug, the highest I could go was something like version 1.5 and the older versions starting junking up my context menu. Figured it was time to upgrade and start a Hacker News rant ;-)

<comment><USER4> Make sure you have wheezy/security as well. The vuln tracker often indicates issues fixed in wheezy/security iceweasel packages a lot more quickly than wheezy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > Do Ubuntu & Fedora folks have this problem too?

I do not. I have to imagine Iceweasel is fairly old at this point considering Debian is usually behind whereas Fedora and Ubuntu are closer to bleeding edge --in fact thats a large part of why Iceweasel exists[0].

0: [https://wiki.debian.org/Iceweasel](https://wiki.debian.org/Iceweasel)

</comment><comment><USER6> I do. I'm running Ubuntu 12.10 because I have been too lazy to do the upgrade properly.

I get those messages if I am using FF. It's on 29 and I even tried to do the "old version" hack but it didn't work for me.

Chrome has, for some reason, decided to can upgraded to the current version-- 41. (I might be running beta, I can't remember.)

</comment><comment><USER7> I check browser stats occasionally, and a high percentage of "obsolete" browser users come from browsers with a navigator.platform of Linux. E.g. obsolete Firefox (3.5), old Chromium etc etc.

For Firefox we have a nag show at top of browser window for a few seconds if you are not on current ESR - [https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/organizations/faq/](https://www.mozilla.org/en- US/firefox/organizations/faq/) \- the nag is there because it isn't worth our time testing obsolete versions for a handful of users (single page JavaScript/Ajax app, so new features can introduce breaks. in old browsers).

</comment><comment><USER8> Some websites just assume your browser is old because it doesn't match chrome or firefox exactly, even though you have a perfectly fine browser.

</comment><comment><USER9> You can use an up-to-date backport. See [http://mozilla.debian.net/](http://mozilla.debian.net/)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Maybe it's because I have Debian stable.

At this moment I'm upgrading Debian to Jessie which according to this [https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/](https://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/) is still "testing".

Typically I would just wait for the next stable version of Debian but for web development I want to get the latest Firebug.

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe I could still get Aurora with Wheezy? No idea what version Aurora is...

[http://mozilla.debian.net/](http://mozilla.debian.net/)

I have been down this road before, it's just a pain.

<comment><USER4> The mint packaging of the real Mozilla Firefox (tm) works for me, on jessie at least.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I had the same nagging issue so I went ahead and installed the real firefox after some trial and error. Now, the browser itself gets notifications for an update but gets stuck on the downloading. Still trying to figure this out.

</comment><comment><USER11> fedora always releases the newest firefox within a week of the actual firefox release.</comment>


The Browser You Loved To Hate - <AUTHOR> http://www.browseryoulovedtohate.com.au/ <comment><USER2> The website you love to hate about the browser you loved to hate: [https://vimeo.com/70004797](https://vimeo.com/70004797)</comment>


How you use FastMail - <AUTHOR> https://blog.fastmail.com/2015/12/18/how-you-use-fastmail/ <comment><USER2> It seems like they could have combined many of these graphs if they would have used a different type...</comment>


Commercializing the first direct-diode laser bright enough to cut and weld metal - <AUTHOR> http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2014/startup-teradiode-invents-direct-diode-laser-bright-enough-to-cut-weld-0723 <comment><USER2> This is huge, it means that laser cutters will be even cheaper than they are now, and that much more ubiquitous. Laser cutters are already making their way into small scale shops and hackerspaces, this'll just hasten that. But it also has a ton of applications elsewhere. Likely it will lower the cost and increase access to the minimum set of machine tools necessary to sustain a developed economy, which has implications for the entirety of the developing world as well as further afield in things like Mars colonization.

Additionally, it makes things such as low-footprint or modular factories, configurable/programmable or wholly automated factories, and self-replicating factories more of a possibility in the near future.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, that might happen, in 20 years when the patents expire. Before that, this will be much higher cost than tube lasers which anyone can make and repair.

<comment><USER4> What would be the point of a business inventing a laser that is cheaper and more efficient than current lasers if they weren't going to be cheaper to own than other lasers?

<comment><USER3> Reduced weight, reduced power consumption (power infrastructure is expensive to set up even where power is cheap), reduced size, better reliability (diode lasers have no loss of gas pressure issues), better power density. All reasons to go for this setup even if it's much more expensive than gas lasers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Looks like multi-core asynchronous with load balancer wins even in the laser world.

</comment><comment><USER6> Cool, but I wouldn't call it a single diode LASER since it is forming an incoherent beam from several diodes. Now if you could get a single, coherent beam at several kW, that would be really cool.

</comment><comment><USER7> So now we only need better batteries, and we'll soon be able to cut and weld metal with our phone?? :D

<comment><USER8> Wouldn't about 12kg of laptop batteries provide 4kW?( wikipedia: ~250-~340 W/kg ) Put them in a backpack.

<comment><USER9> My limited experience with lasers is the heatsink problem is significant, so worry about dissipating a couple KW of heat in your hand or backpack, not carrying around a mere couple KWh of energy.

I imagine it would sound and feel much like holding an industrial heat gun for awhile. This might be a problem.

<comment><USER10> Hmm, now I'm imagining something like _Reason_ ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash#Reason](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash#Reason)). A backpack sized battery, but needs a water-submersed heatsink.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I wonder what these kinds of huge gains in laser technology might mean for fusion and beamed energy rocket propulsion?

<comment><USER12> Not much for now, I don't think. They haven't improved on the intensity or accuracy of lasers in general, just the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of them. Large scale experimental projects like you mentioned don't generally care about efficiency as much as intensity and accuracy. When fusion becomes mainstream it might matter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This seems a quite dangerous toy to me... a portable laser strong enough to cut through metal.

<comment><USER14> Blu-ray lasers are already dangerous to humans and quite portable.</comment></comment>