Eight bird species are first confirmed avian extinctions this decade - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/04/first-eight-bird-extinctions-of-the-21st-century-confirmed <comment><USER2> I used to think more laws would be the answer to so many enviromental issues, surpassing the effects of individual choice. But the habitat loss described in this article is mainly attributed to illegal logging, which means personal greed drives up the price on the black market for things such as rare animal and plant species and exotic woods. Maybe the penalties for contraband aren't high enough? Or maybe we should completely block the import of rainforest species of wood, regardless of whether it was legally harvested. Outside of a massive armed defense from illegal loggers, what can stop them?

<comment><USER3> If you care more about trees and birds than you do about the humans who are living in poverty who rely on illegal logging to survive, you won't really create a system with the right incentives.

Outside of that, I helped with a project that uses old cell phones to help triangulate loggers by listening to their saws, which can be helpful.

<comment><USER2> Poverty is not justification to excuse bad or illegal behavior. If you follow your line of thinking, you'd have to give someone a pass for just about any sort of environmental abuse, archaeological pillaging, improper waste management, poaching of endangered animals, etc.

At some point you have to draw a line. Must we solve global poverty at 100% before we enact environmental protections? Or should we allow the only habitable planet we have for generations to continue on a death spiral and explain to our great-grandkids "well people were poor..."

<comment><USER4> _Poverty is not justification to excuse bad or illegal behavior._

Entire books have been written on the very subject. Plenty of Russian works on the topic, though you might want to start with the classic primer: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables).

Though I'm making my point in a trite way, I think the problem is that you want to start from the bottom up. Hugo, for one, brought to light that it is a multi-layered problem and starting at the bottom, though easy and most common, might not be the right approach.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Found an interesting article on an illegally traded Spix's maccaw, and the effort to return him home and find him a mate.

[https://www.audubon.org/magazine/november- december-2015/can-...](https://www.audubon.org/magazine/november- december-2015/can-two-frozen-testicles-bring-back)

</comment><comment><USER6> Looking up the cryptic treehunter, it seems it was only discovered end of 2014, so hopefully it's just being elusive.

<comment> duncan-donuts The article says it was found in 2002 and hasn't been seen since 2007. Where did you read that?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> What's it going to take?

<comment><USER8> You can take solace in the nature of geographic time. Eventually humans will be gone and nature will replenish itself. Life finds a way.

<comment><USER9> Consider that climate change caused by advanced civilizations may be "the great filter". The stars really are empty. We had a chance, but we failed just like all the others. Maybe life doesn't find a way.

<comment><USER10> Intelligent life does not find a way. But what is the root cause? Why don't we care enough? Money?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> how many new species are created a year? has this been studied?

</comment><comment><USER12> We're going over the cliff, it looks like.

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2018/04/19/half- of-t...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2018/04/19/half-of-the-great- barrier-reef-coral-has-died-since-2016/#1ca2e1d45f9f)

The planet is not taking kindly to our waste, pollution, poisons, and rampant destruction. We're knocking out the base of the foodchain that supports us.

Sadhguru put it well:

"One half of your breathing apparatus is hanging out _there_! If you experience this, do I have to tell you, don't cut the tree?" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qnmaD6Kl1g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qnmaD6Kl1g)

<comment><USER13> If you burn all fossil fuel, you still have oxygen to breath. There were animals like sharks before trees even developed.

Sooner or later, we will go all in on synthetic life. Apart from destroying a library of global process optima and beneficial molecules, why should we worry about destroying nature? If we can live on mars we can also live on a sterile earth. We stupidly destroy very expensive knowledge but we don't destroy life.

<comment><USER14> > If we can live on mars

We can't live on Mars, nor can we live on a sterile Earth.

<comment><USER13> We will be able to do so soon:

* NASA Launches $1m Competition to Turn Mars CO2 into Sugar[1]

Energy and food, what else would you need? When the threat of death becomes more pressing, more resources will be put into that research to synthesize all necessary nutritions.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17918909](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17918909)

<comment><USER15> Sitting in a wasteland sipping on nutrient sludge sounds very depressing. Yes, your body may continue functioning, but I would hesitate to call that "living".

<comment><USER16> As long as you have a computer and the internet, this sounds like a dream life for a gamer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Extinction is a normal part of the process:

"More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to have died out."

<comment><USER18> What is unnatural is that the rate of extinction associated with human growth is comparable to other mass die-offs, like an asteroid hitting the earth. Given how little we understand these systems, we could easily end up among the casualties if there is large-scale ecological collapse.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Is Rosen and relational biology nuts? - <AUTHOR> I've been reading about Rosen's work[0] for a day or two and can't get it out of my head. He authored Life Itself[1], Anticipatory Systems[2] and  few other books and papers, and started a branch of relational biology[3]. From my understanding, he used category theory to describe living things. The central premise is "throw away the matter and study relationships".
I'm well-versed neither in biology nor in mathematics and I can't understand if this field is totally nuts or full of awesome. It doesn't look like the field of relational biology itself is very active, but he is certainly being cited[4] by folks studying and modelling complexity.
Is this stuff legit? Why is there so little people working directly in his field? Does the mainstream biology ignore him because of obscure mathematical language in which he conveys his ideas, or are his ideas considered unworthy?
[0]: http://planetmath.org/sites/default/files/texpdf/40938.pdf
[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Life-Itself-Comprehensive-Fabrication-Complexity/dp/0231075650
[2]: http://www.amazon.com/Anticipatory-Systems-Philosophical-Methodological-International/dp/008031158X
[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_and_theoretical_biology#Relational_biology
[4]: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=18217259493743889095&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5&hl=en <comment><USER3> From his Wikipedia page:

 _Rosen believed that the contemporary model of physics - which he thought to be based on an outdated Cartesian and Newtonian world of mechanisms - <USER2> inadequate to explain or describe the behavior of biological systems; that is, one could not properly answer the fundamental question "What is life?"_

"Mainstream biology" isn't particularly interested in the "What is life?" question (ADDED: rather, it's an interesting philosophical question brought up when viruses are seriously taught), and is quite productive with its current reductionist approaches. That would include, for example, MIT's Biology department, infamous, as of the '80s at least, for not looking much above the level of the cell.

I'd look at two things: there's a semi-joke item or two about how mainstream biologists would never understand a radio based on their methods, and look at the ones trying to understand the brain, or why MIT created a Brain and Cognitive Sciences department ([http://bcs.mit.edu/aboutbcs/history.html](http://bcs.mit.edu/aboutbcs/history.html)) or some of the reasons why e.g. Jerry Lettvin was in the EECS department instead of biology ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Lettvin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Lettvin)).</comment>


Stealth Search Engine - <AUTHOR> http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/MModQC9fp1A/

<comment><USER2> It's an interesting concept, but all it is a pretty wrapper with nice promises around a call to the Google search API. Check the network pane of your browser's inspector.

[http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0...](http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/services/search/web?v=1.0&callback=jsonp1329370189057&q=test&rsz=8&start=0)</comment>


"Which word begins with "y" and looks like an axe in this picture?" - <AUTHOR> https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins-with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture <comment><USER2> This reminds me of the scene in Silicon Valley where Peter Gregory notices the popularity of Burger King, the number of sesame seeds they use, and remembers that sesame seeds only grow in Myanmar, Brazil, and Indonesia - the former two of which have large Cicada populations that emerge at different times. After some research, he finds that this is about to occur simultaneously in both countries for the first time in a couple of centuries. Apparently Indonesia doesn't have cicadas, so he purchases some surprisingly cheap Indonesian sesame seed futures based on the expectation that the price will spike next year.

Whoever did the detective work in the top answer to this article should get into investing, if they aren't already.

<comment><USER3> which episode?

<comment> rkuykendall-com The pilot.

<comment><USER4> It's not the pilot, but it's definitely in the first few episodes.

<comment> rkuykendall-com Oh sorry, thanks for the correction, I really did confidently believe it was the final scene in the pilot for some reason. Wish I could delete my comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is the kind of deep investigation of a super specific issue I always enjoy reading. This is what I thought the internet would be, 20 years ago.

<comment><USER6> It's a sign of a "cognitive surplus", because we have more educated people now than we have jobs for them to do. Also it's a sign of how these sites get people to work for them for free, and concentrate huge amounts of other people's work for their own benefit. This poster got nothing for all that work, but SE still gets advertising revenue driven by interest in the content.

<comment><USER7> another example that there is not enough work to go around is that if you go into any downtown anywhere in the world at 7 pm to 8 p.m. you will see people drinking beer in bars.

These same people could still be working, since there is no reason they shouldn't be in an office, factory, etc, for a full 14-hour workday. Clearly there is just not enough work to go around, which manifests itself as people sitting around drinking or going on fun Internet sleuthing that nobody would mistake for work.

(well, except that one guy.)

<comment><USER6> I'm not arguing from first principles here. Workforce participation is down. This is just a symptom. I'm not against having free time, but against companies who ask you to work for them for free. If people had the ability to make money with their time and effort, that guy would be more likely to be paid for his post.

<comment><USER8> SE provides a venue for these types of discussions, and in exchange does a small amount of advertising to make the venture profitable. How is that exploitative in any sense of the word? Do you have the same attitude towards social clubs that charge fees?

<comment><USER6> I don't go to SE for the "venue". I usually get there via a Google search, which means the only draw is the content. And hopefully Google would give me the same info if it were on any other site that paid their writers.

<comment><USER8> you don't go for the venue, but others do - the asker and the answerer who generated the content in the first place. You're just getting the benefit of their exchange due to SE's existence. I don't understand why you have an issue with SE hosting content in exchange for permission to advertise on it. I have to pay amazon/digitalocean to host my content - if it costs something for a host to provide it then they can either make the money back somehow or constantly lose money.

<comment><USER6> But the only thing SE has to offer is other people's content. And I don't have a problem with them making money, but with not sharing any with the people who are the reason the site gets money. They're not even middlemen who take a cut, they're getting 100% of the revenue.

<comment><USER8> but that implies that content is the only valuable thing, and distribution and hosting are negligible. If anything, it's the other way around - content is abundant and quality distribution is the hard problem. That's the reason the marketing industry is one of the largest around.

If people want to try to make money from their Q&As they can post them on their own site and either charge for access or advertise, but then they'll need to market it to get revenue so then they become like an SE but only for their own content and they'll make very little money anyway. That's basically the position of a professional blogger and very few of those make any real money.

<comment><USER6> Right, that's pretty much my whole point. Money gets concentrated. Employment is low.

<comment><USER8> yeah - people who provide services become successful. It's a pretty good system as long as we can keep the less successful people out of poverty. Equality of outcome is possibly the worst idea in history.

<comment><USER6> But we're not keeping them out of poverty. Facebook has a homeless encampment directly across the street. [https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2017/mar/31/facebook-cam...](https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2017/mar/31/facebook-campus-homeless-tent-city-menlo-park-california) Are you in favor of any kind of equality?

<comment><USER8> of course - equality under the law. People like to act like equality of outcome is a natural extension from legal equality but it simply isn't.

I know we don't keep people out of poverty right now, and that's something that needs to be fixed. But if you think equality of outcome (i.e. eliminating economic disparity) is the solution to that then you may want to read up on the USSR and Maoist China. Capitalism is pretty good at raising the living standard of the whole population, even if it does end up creating billionaires at the same time.

<comment><USER6> I'm in favor of democracy. I think the government should represent each person's interests equally no matter how rich they are. I think the only reason we didn't have a violent worker's revolution in America is that we were able to pass the socialist platform democratically.

<comment><USER8> welfare existed long before socialism and is pretty distinct. Systems of welfare were passed democratically, as they should be. The main reason the West in general didn't have any worker's revolutions (excluding Spain) is that the capitalism+welfare situation we have actually works really well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> A long time ago I worked as a "designer" for somebody who owned a chain of medium retail stores in Mexico and a also biggish printshop. When there was a (printed) product was selling very well, he would go to me and ask me to make one as similar as possible so he can manufacture it and get more of the profits.

He did it all the time and didn't care at all for the quality of the product. At first I tried to make the illustrations myself or actually try to do an original spin on the product, but he put pressure to just pull a clip art and call it a day.

Some times I tried to hide some in-jokes or innappropiate stuff just to see if anybody noticed. For example, he once got me to to copy a whole book on some catholic saint, on a hurry, and refuse to pay some one to proff-read it. So I intentionally replaced some words here and there to change the meaning and I even changed the name of the saint to "Batman" in the middle of the book. Nobody ever noticed.

So my guess is that whoever designed this ball is on a similar situation and did put even less effort into doing it, than whoever has the third top answer in the Stackoverflow post. Or maybe she even put a swedish axe just to see if anybody would notice.

</comment><comment><USER10> The top answer is a picture of the use of Yxa in a Swedish alphabet learning book, yet there's still people here clinging to the yellow paint tube theory.

Incredible. Not sure what cognitive bias is at play here (or more charitably: perhaps they didn't scroll down).

EDIT: Some say these are pictures of a paint tube and some yellow paint: [https://jimthechairmaker.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/my- carving...](https://jimthechairmaker.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/my-carving-axe/)

The fact that an axe is used in the exact same way in the Swedish book is very strong evidence. There's prior art.

<comment><USER11> That top answer is hardly conclusive - it's definitely a possibility, but given the weird choices in the art for the "axe" (bendy handle, not a defined edge at the bottom) - I buy it could have been a yellow paint tube.

Nouns beginning with Y are not exactly easy to come across (the official "Yo- Yo" is hardly as common as the other words on the ball), and as has been pointed out, it's entirely possible the art was worked on by multiple people and changed or whatever.

Maybe the wrong-language thing is more likely (the U-boat choice is the thing that makes me lean this way the most), but I don't think the yellow paint tube idea is completely impossible.

<comment><USER12> > I buy it could have been a yellow paint tube.

I don't know how anyone would come to that conclusion. It's "definitely not possibly" (adverb chaining, really?) a tube squirting yellow in image. If ascribing modern symbolism to images rather than what's portrayed plainly, there's no reason that any of the images are symbolic of words starting with the appropriate letters.

<comment><USER11> I mean, it's clearly not a well designed piece, otherwise this whole discussion wouldn't be here.

I could easily say "no one would ever draw an axe with a bendy handle". The intent is obviously unclear given all this discussion.

[http://www.myiconfinder.com/uploads/iconsets/256-256-77393dd...](http://www.myiconfinder.com/uploads/iconsets/256-256-77393dd836ed2cb4f04c8af2a03f9818.png)

A paint tube for colour is an icon that exists and gets used. The representation on the ball isn't far enough off I would rule it out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Assuming this was made in China, there are two sources of confusion that could lead to this mix up.

1\. The letter 'A' and an upside down Y-shaped character share the same key on a Chinese/English key board. This could lead to an unintended subconscious relationship between these symbol shapes.[1]

2\. The orientation of these characters abruptly changed on the ball graphic between W and Q, leaving the orientation of the Y-shaped letter unclear to someone with minimal familiarity of Latin letters. An upside down Y is also easy to confuse with the letter A if you are not familiar.

This all assumes that Axe was the first common-'A' word selected. Perhaps they postponed the choice of the common-'Y' word given it is challenging. After misattributing Y for A, then someone just added an Apple graphic.

[1] [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/St...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Standard_Taiwanese_Keyboard_Layout.svg/420px- Standard_Taiwanese_Keyboard_Layout.svg.png)

<comment><USER13> ⅄xe

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I found the BALL manufacturer!!!! [https://www.alibaba.com/product- detail/Alphabets-print-ball_...](https://www.alibaba.com/product- detail/Alphabets-print-ball_573748097.html) (not able to comment on the original thread on the page bc I do not have the 50 points needed. Pls post a link there to further the discovery)

<comment><USER15> Posted as a comment on the main answer: [https://english.stackexchange.com/a/395385/63201](https://english.stackexchange.com/a/395385/63201)

<comment><USER16> Direct link to the comment: [https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which- wor...](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/395382/which-word-begins- with-y-and-looks-like-an-axe-in-this-picture/395385#comment941032_395385) (For future reference, you can get that link by clicking the timestamp next to the comment.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This was such a delightful read. A quote from the wonderful Okja recently released on Netflix: "Never mistranslate!"... unless you make balls for toddlers!

<comment><USER18> In fairness, there aren't a lot of good choices for Y.

year yell yacht yellow yearling yeti yoga

I'd probably go with yoga, myself.

<comment><USER19> Looking at posters online, I find the most common, in order, are Yo-Yo, Yacht, Yak, and Yellow.

<comment><USER20> Why not a yatagan?

<comment><USER18> Too obscure.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> You look at the axe and wonder: "why?" :)

</comment><comment><USER22> Yule. For Yuletide

<comment><USER23> I'm thrilled that you created an account to post specifically this comment. It is, indeed, a yule answer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Tube of paint squeezing out some yellow sounds reasonable.

<comment><USER25> 25 physical. 1 abstract. Internet throws Occam's razor out the window.

<comment><USER26> 25 English, 1 Swedish.

I see no harm in overthinking things considering the subject is rather amusing. I see an axe.

<comment><USER27> U-Boat instead of submarine makes that 24 to 2, rather.

No one this side of WWII uses the term U-Boat in America. U is much more commonly associated with Umbrella in kids' books here.

<comment><USER26> Agreed. I actually considered pointing out that in my original comment.

As an American with a fascination in documentaries I have heard the term a lot but most consider it to be very specific to military submarines operated by Germany in the first and second world wars only. I suppose the term Unterseeboot still sees usage outside of the States these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> One of the best guerilla marketing tactics I've seen in a while.

<comment><USER29> Yep, those Chinese bootleggers of a Swedish children's toy are gonna be rolling in it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I thought the Worm was a Maggot.

<comment><USER31> My initial impression was mealworm.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Now let's see if we can solve one of /r/whatisthisthing's most longstanding mysteries: What does the J stand for on this blanket?

[https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/58o43m/hel...](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/58o43m/help_what_does_j_stand_for/)

<comment><USER33> What is N?

<comment><USER32> nest

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Happily I see that my pet theory involving yaks is represented in the answers; I can now go back to work.

</comment><comment><USER35> "Y? You Axe..."

</comment><comment><USER36> I've always found English SE to be interesting, because it varies between questions like this with extremely well thought up answers and questions that are so-so.

</comment><comment><USER37> We've all been trolled by a toy artist...

</comment><comment><USER38> It may still be an axe, but with a silent Y in the front. A 'yaxe', if you will.

</comment><comment><USER39> Holy schnikes. I'd love to have that much free time ... and powers of insight.

</comment><comment><USER40> Looks like yellow paint being sprayed out of the top of a spray paint can

</comment><comment><USER41> And now, back to my thesis.

</comment><comment><USER14> SOLVED!!!! [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673626](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14673626)

<comment><USER42> Can you post it again? That link just leads to a comment which says "[dead]". I'm new to HN. I may be doing something wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Don't y'all have y'own axes?

</comment><comment><USER44> yellow brick road? Could be a castle at the end.

</comment><comment><USER45> Yoke?

<comment><USER29> Does the picture look anything like a yoke?

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> The answer is one of the top comments:

> Yellow. Looks like a squiggle of yellow oil paint squeezing out of a short, > fat tube.

<comment><USER47> Possible, but there's ample evidence around the Yxa (Swedish name for axe) theory. Even use in a similar context: [https://i.stack.imgur.com/LNTu2.jpg](https://i.stack.imgur.com/LNTu2.jpg) [https://i.stack.imgur.com/xzaQ9.jpg](https://i.stack.imgur.com/xzaQ9.jpg) And it matches the "U" for "U-Boat", which apparently would be more common in Swedish (Ubåt) to refer to a submarine. It does require you believe whoever made the ball mixed Swedish and English, which seems possible given that it is a Chinese knockoff of a Hedstrom product.

<comment><USER48> "Ubåt" is the most common word for submarine in Swedish, and there is also a little used longer version "undervattensbåt" which also starts with "U".</comment></comment></comment>


Self-control saps memory resources - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/science/neurophilosophy/2015/sep/07/self-control-saps-memory-resources <comment><USER2> >These findings strongly suggest that self-control and memory encoding share common brain structures and mechanisms, and compete with each other for them

So basically, the very moment you're trying to keep yourself from acting on an urge, you're using neurons that would otherwise be used to retrieve a memory? Or am I misunderstanding something?

<comment><USER3> > that would otherwise be used to retrieve a memory

Also to create a memory. Self control basically uses up part of working memory which has limited measurable amount of neurons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I think "self-control" applies only in the context of the (much disputed) marshmallow experiment. Where adults are involved, some other kind of process should be identified. I'm thinking of this experiment as observation vs some kind of processing, like decision-making, where the input data are secondary to the result.

</comment><comment><USER5> I remember reading about something similar in "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Daniel Kahneman.

<comment><USER2> You're probably thinking of ego depletion.</comment></comment>


I downloaded an app. And suddenly, was part of the Cajun Navy - <AUTHOR> http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/I-downloaded-an-app-And-suddenly-I-was-talking-12172506.php <comment><USER2> I can see a future for apps and systems like this. Non-profits volunteer rescue. But 911 operators go through some pretty intense training on staying calm and dealing with emotions during calls. It's nice to think that anyone can jump in and help, but in reality that isn't such a good idea. For instance a 911 operator would more than likely be better equipped to handle the mother thinking about heading to the attic to escape the raising waters. Not just talking the mother out of it, but handling the aftermath if not. The other thing is a system like that needs to be fault tolerant of a dispatcher signing off, and be able to filter out bogus calls.

</comment><comment> bjelkeman-again It is very hard to understand what it is like in situations like this, but this was a vivid account.</comment>


Sublime Text 2 is the new (and better) Emacs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/grundprinzip/sublemacspro

<comment><USER2> This never ending debate of which editor is better than the other has been going on and on over the years.

Every developer has their own preference. Many prefer TextMate over other text editors. Others just like e on windows.

I have been following the development of Sublime Text 2 and TextMate 2 closely for some time now, and it is for sure a better editor than many others. Sublime has come a long way from the initial version.

But from the terminal I just like the same old vim.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think Emacs' longevity is in itself a strong evidence it's not _that_ easy to improve on it.</comment>


Hands On: Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920 - <AUTHOR> http://www.gearlog.com/2010/03/hands_on_fake_intel_core_i7-92_1.php

<comment><USER2> I posted a much more entertaining forum thread yesterday about this, but no upvotes... bah. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1179578>

</comment><comment><USER3> [edit: please ignore; don't want to delete because then the responses will seem odd, but this no longer makes sense given the new title]

New title from ilamont isn't smart. It's inconsistent.

[Something can be counterfeit _and_ lead. Like, for example, a fake Intel Core i7-920 processor. Also, HN traditionally keeps titles.]

<comment><AUTHOR> "working counterfeit" didn't quite fit. Do you have a better suggestion? It's worth making the distinction -- see <http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918> for example of working counterfeit chips made during "ghost" shifts at Chinese factories.

<comment><USER3> How about "Hands On: Unboxing the Fake Intel Core i7-920"? (but fwiw I do - now - see the distinction you were trying to make).

[edit: maybe "third shift" is more popular than "ghost shift"? [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/...](http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/05/01/8375455/index.htm)]

<comment><AUTHOR> Changed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Newegg is going to lose a bundle on this fiasco. Serves them right for not bothering to do any QC on a big-ticket item that they're getting from a fly- by-night warehouser. I'm honestly surprised they weren't buying these from Intel directly.

<comment><USER5> Newegg has a very loyal customer base that generally appreciates the extremely low lead times, fast ship times and speedy RMA's. From the reviews I see, they also seem to usually be pretty understanding when they receive a problematic product.

I don't think Newegg will suffer that much.

As for your criticism, one of their upsides is speed. You can't do a lot of QC on sealed products and keep up speed.

<comment><USER4> Even if they don't lose a single customer, they still lose money. The upstream supplier isn't going to write them a check out of the kindness of its heart; it's probably already gutted and shut down. The counterfeiters already have their money, and ultimately it's the retailer that takes the hit.

<comment><USER6> Unless like most companies they pay suppliers after 30 to 90 days. (Net 30 or Net 90.)

I think CPUs sell quickly enough that this delay will catch the check before it's sent.

I wonder if the supplier was in on it - they might not have been.

I really hope someone follows the money trail right down to the bottom. I have a feeling newegg won't - it costs too much for it to be worth it to them. But I hope Intel does it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Am I the only one who's shocked that there's actually enough of a market out there for these kinds of fakes that somewhere there's a factory producing these?</comment>


Ask YC: What do you think about Startuply? - <AUTHOR>

Our new site for startup jobs launched on TC early this morning, and we'd love to hear what you think. Play around with it, and you can easily reach us through the feedback box on the left side of the site (thanks to the Anyvite guys). <comment><USER2> As I go along...

1) First thing I care about is localising the jobs to my area. I live in London, and most jobs on this site are irrelevant. I was only able to localise to London from the "Startup Companies" tab.

2) Only one job in London, but oh well, I guess it's still a new site. Surprised not to see Songkick on there, considering a) they're YC-funded, b) they're looking for rails hackers atm.

3) Clicking on the map brought me to the company description (I suppose because i had to browse by company to drill down to London), and i had to find a link on the right hand side to figure out what the job was. If there's only one job opening, it should really be displayed too, surely?

4) Interestingly, I clicked on the "Head of engineering" job for Covestor, and was surprised to find that although the company is in NY, the job is in central London... Why wasn't it on the map?

I think it would really help your traction with international users to: 1) Make it easy to drill down by geography.

2) Allow jobs to be attached to locations, not just companies

3) Make a guess at determining the visitor's country (very easy with libraries like GeoIP) and automatically drill down to their country by default.

Hope this helps.

<comment><USER3> i think they should do something like Eluta ( <http://www.eluta.ca/> ) -- very simple and straightforward job search with location..

<comment><USER2> I disagree. I think with a market like start-up jobs, browsing is more important than searching. If I was looking for a new job in a start-up, I'd probably approach companies because they seem interesting and say they have openings, not because they have a job that matches some keywords.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Some things I would revisit or work on...

1) Searching by location. Its nice to be able to do it in the search box, but I think job seekers are trained to look for an explicit location search area.

2) Put the post date on the listing page. Its nice to know when the listings start to get stale.

2a) Sort by listing date or range.

3) The company profile page should have the listings in the main column. More prominent there, as compared to the side bar which has "not as important" information. (This is a job site, get them right to it!)

4) Love the apply functionaity! No silly sign up and nonsense. I would make the cover letter input box into a text area, or make it expandable. Its hard to proof read a lot of content in an input box.

Overall everything looks great! My least favorite thing about job sites are all the postings by recruiting agencies. On that note you BAN them!

</comment><comment><USER5> You're getting a lot of comments about how it needs to be easier to search by location, and I admit I was going to post one, too. Thinking about it, though, it's a mistake. Searching by location is the kind of searching you do on regular job sites, where the goal is to convenitenly get out of your current lousy job and into a less bad one.

If startups are about passion and commitment, why even list location? Founders need that kind of dedication, but I guess that's a pretty small market so you may also need to help companies find early employees. Hm.

Maybe the whole concept of a job listing is the problem here. It's not a job, right, it's a startup? How do you present startups that makes them different than any other workplace? Instead of jobs, you could just list companies. Pull in news items from their blog, use daylife.com to pull in stories about them. Maybe I'm just retartgeting visualcv.com for companies.

I'd like to see a site that sells me on how great it is to work at a company I can be passionate about, and I fill in my interests to find a company that could be a calling for me. Right now Startuply just another job site that happens to have the word "startups" at the top.

Also, your favicon looks a like the Firefox error icon at a

<comment><AUTHOR> We're with you on this - the startup itself is tremendously important.

All the startups on Startuply have company profiles, where they can talk about their mission, team, work environment, etc., upload pictures of their office, import company and team blog feeds, and more.

Think we're headed in the right direction?

<comment><USER5> I spent a few more minutes poking around and saw the company profiles I missed before (oops). But I still don't see anything that differentiates from other job sites except that you (deliberately) have fewer jobs listed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The back/forward buttons don't work with pagination on Safari 3.1.2

Interesting, you don't see too many folks on ASP.NET

What made you choose that platform?

      curl -I http://www.startuply.com/
      HTTP/1.1 200 OK
      Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:57:46 GMT
      Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
      X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
      X-Powered-By: PleskWin
      X-AspNet-Version: 2.0.50727
      Set-Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=xxxxxxxxx; path=/; HttpOnly
      Cache-Control: private
      Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
      Content-Length: 72915

<comment><USER7> I would like hear this too. I used to be a huge fan of this asp.net....not so much anymore for a number of reasons

<comment><USER8> I'm using that now. I'm interested to hear why you became disenchanted with it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It does slightly worry me that the bubble is growing and getting frothier. When you start seeing companies starting up to serve companies starting up, you have to wonder. Is there _that_ large a market for such a niche? Do monster etc do such a bad job?

The site itself looks cool though. Although I don't understand the business model. Recruiters and job sites etc would expect a large commission on each successful pairing, but I can't see anything like that on startuply.

Sorry to be slightly down on it, but I can't quite see how it can grow that big, or make revenue. Are you planning to expand out of the 'startup niche' and take on the big job sites? If so what will you do better than them?

<comment><USER10> A site like this will live or die by the community. If Startuply can gather a group of clever hackers around their site, startups would gladly pay to advertise jobs to them. (You can see the site trying to sow the community seeds with their startup news section.)

Hijacking the HN community would be a tremendous step in this direction, which means the YC funding should be a big boost to Startuply.

<comment><AUTHOR> In a very real way, we built Startuply for you. What do you think? Are these good jobs at cool startups? Can you see yourself as a key part of some of these teams?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The page is about 1200px wide. That's a bit too much for me. I'd have browse with the window maximized to see the whole page...

Perhaps you could put the search box and the browse filters on top of the page and use a vertical layout?

<comment><USER11> You should also consider adding a filter for "fulltime yes/no" and "telecommute yes/no".

<comment><AUTHOR> Advanced search is coming soon (as in 1-3 days)!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hi, this idea definitely fills an important need. There are a few things that could improve the execution:

1) I should tell the site where I am searching for jobs only once. After that, it should use this as a default.

2) There is room for innovation on the _contents_ for each job listing. For instance, it would be cool if a listing included a profile of a really smart engineer who currently works for the company. Smart people attract other smart people, etc. How about space for a video 'tour' of the company?

3) The location based search should be smart enough to give job postings outside an area if none come up (eg, searching for ruby in Los Gatos gives nothing, but the search could be widened to a 20 mile radius automatically for instance).

4) A site like this would be awesome if it could figure out my tastes in jobs (based on feedback I provide for each listing I read), and use this to bring new listings to my attention.

5) One general problem is I feel that I still have to go to 3 different job boards to be up to date on the more interesting opportunities. How can Startuply help?

One final note: It seems that you don't have listings from recruiters. This is a good thing.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yep, recruiters aren't allowed to post on Startuply - we keep a pretty close eye on who's posting. Part of the idea here is that we want to be a (asymptotically approaching complete) directory of startup jobs. That way, you wouldn't have to go to 3 job boards...unless you want to work for American Express.

Advanced search - including customizable location radii - are coming in the next few days!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Minor notes:

1) On the About page, under the For Job Seekers heading, the "perfect startup" link is 404ing.

2) There still seems to be references to Jowba hanging about.

3) The Startup Companies list is excellent, but there may be an issue with gaming due to alphabetical listing. The culprit I refer to is BusyEvent, or !BusyEvent! as their listing would have you believe.

Hope that helps.

</comment><comment><USER14> It would be nice to have European startup community represented more there - or perhaps brand another site to serve folks with EU-wide working capability.

Easier said than done perhaps, given the cultural and linguistic diversity but as a soon-to-be jobhopper towards Central Europe with natural affinity towards startups, this sort of thing would be sweet.

</comment><comment><USER15> What's your thought that this appears to infringe on US patent 5978768? [http://www.google.com/patents?id=hJgYAAAAEBAJ&dq=job+des...](http://www.google.com/patents?id=hJgYAAAAEBAJ&dq=job+description+seeker+listing+database+search&as_psrg=1)

</comment><comment><USER16> no space for a 'stealth' startup without entering in dummy info.

<comment><USER17> The hiring strategy for a "stealth" startup is to already have a good team (and maybe to hire from their friends). Why should any good candidate take an interest in working for you, based on a website blurb, if you're not willing to share basic information on what you're doing?

<comment><USER18> They could describe something about it, without disclosing everything.

<comment><AUTHOR> There are quite a few companies in "stealth mode" on Startuply. Generally, I think, providing a company name and some details about your team and office won't threaten your venture too much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> By the way, I think Startuply should have a company profile on Startuply. Even if you're not hiring, it's probably a good idea to get a profile posted.

Good luck to the Startuply folks from a fellow startup fanatic.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the 4th and 5th column are overlapping each other in Safari (my browser's width is about 1000 px wide).

</comment><comment><USER19> This is the first YC startup I've seen a while that seems to have picked ASP.NET as the development platform.

Not a criticism (I did this too at one point, but have since switched), just an observation.

</comment><comment><USER21> I like your search. Very fast, and I can type locations which is nice, because for a second there when I first hit your site I was about to ask "So...how do I find jobs in my town?"

</comment><comment><USER22> Doesn't work for me (ff3, ubuntu). The next page and page numbers don't do anything. I have to hit reload, and then it moves to the next page. Very strange.

</comment><comment><USER23> Sorry... I'm new to this... where is your site!?

</comment><comment><USER24> H I

I've just saw horizontal scroll...

</comment><comment><USER25> actual url would help much, oh well I will google it

</comment><comment><USER26> i cant find any jobs in atlanta ;-/</comment>


The Chrome extension that hides your screen in plain sight - <AUTHOR> https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/06/08/the-chrome-extension-that-hides-your-screen-in-plain-sight/ <comment><USER2> Should be CSS only so it works with stylish. Also making use of the CSS blend mode multiply would be good. It's hard to read, even with red glasses right now.

</comment><comment><USER2> stylish adaption: [https://userstyles.org/styles/128819/secret-vision- requires-...](https://userstyles.org/styles/128819/secret-vision-requires- some-red-glasses)</comment>


Can a Physics grad get hired as a programmer? - <AUTHOR>

I graduated with a BS in physics and applied math from a reputable state school, but I only took 1 C++ course as an undergrad and completed just 1 physics project using C++.
I was recently hired by a game company for a software engineer position, but I was fired within 2 months. They told me that because they are a small company (about 10 employees), they couldn't afford to offer me training and had to terminate me. They suggested that I enroll in institutes/programs that teach programming skills to people like me.
Are they right? Or do I just need to study some more on my own, maybe for a few months and I can get a programming job?
How much better would I look if I enrolled in an Applied Math MS program? I'm open to working in data mining, AI, statistics, etc. I don't have to work only as a programmer <comment><USER2> Ask Yonatan Zunger.</comment>


Stock markets closed Tuesday as well - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/29/us-markets-stocks-idUSBRE89L0A420121029

<comment><AUTHOR> Apparently it is definitively closed: <http://www.cnbc.com/id/49589936></comment>


µA/MHz is only the beginning - <AUTHOR> http://blog.brush.co.nz/2011/11/low-power-design/

<comment><USER2> 150uA/MHz is tiny. Amazing tech!</comment>


What is Life? - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_Life%3F

<comment><USER2> The book is a very interesting read. It's easy to take our modern understanding of genetics for granted. "What is Life?" contains Schrödinger's musings on what kind of matter could be responsible for heredity; an "aperiodic crystal," as he refers to it. I found fascinating both the things that he got right and the places where he was way off base.

<comment><USER3> It's one of the books that I'm currently reading :)

It's from 1944 so it may be a little bit outdated, but there are plenty of physic laws that has not changed that much since then.

I've yet to finish the book, but I like the ideas that life is self-organizing agents that make order taking it from the disordered environment (negative entropy inside the agent but surely greater entropy in the outside). And that we need new laws to explain that behaviour.

Stephen Wolfram NKS may be right about some of this things.</comment></comment>


Extreme Diets Can Quickly Alter Gut Bacteria - <AUTHOR> http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2013/12/extreme-diets-can-quickly-alter-gut-bacteria?rss=1

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure if good or bad, but something for potential soylent consumers to consider.</comment>


Show HN: I started a weekly newsletter to help with digital productivity - <AUTHOR> https://thetechletter.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! It's been a couple months now, but every week I share a digital tool I use that has helped me get things done better/faster.

It has mostly been personal experience, but in my day-to-day I found myself sharing so many of these to people one-by-one, that I figured a newsletter was a better way to reach more people-- plus, I seem to enjoy writing. From note taking apps to finding royalty-free content online for your own personal projects.

Many of the tools you'll be familiar with, and others I encounter on the daily tech-forums (giving credit where credit is due). You can see a list of previous articles on [https://thetechletter.com/archive](https://thetechletter.com/archive) and expect new emails every Monday at 11:00 EST.

I appreciate support or feedback!</comment>


What's the best way to get publicity for a startup?  - <AUTHOR> http://www.criticrania.com/users.php?id=2

<comment><AUTHOR> Hacker News is a great community, but not really the audience we are looking to attract. With little to no funding, what're the best ways to get people to just take a look?

<comment><USER2> We went through exactly this at Page99Test.com, a 'micro-critique' writing community. (Well, in fact, I doubt any startup under 3 years doesn't go through the same thing, even those with funding.) Here's what we learned, briefly:

DON'T UNDERESTIMATE TWITTER

Prior to our launch (i.e., when we had just a sign-up page), we used Twitter a lot to get the word out. I was totally floored by how well it worked. Cost nothing more than time -- which is admittedly a resource in short supply for startups. Worth every minute spent. A lot of bloggers and journalists online found us and wrote about us before we'd even launched; in fact, The Guardian (big UK paper) wrote a full spread on us that continues to pay off, six months later.

We have a new 'startup' in the works. Although we don't see ourselves launching until mid- to late-summer, we're already starting to tweet about it.

DON'T DO PRESS RELEASES

If you want to pitch some writers, pitch them directly. No one seems to give a crep about press releases sent out over the wire. Very expensive if you're bootstrapping.

TRY TO GET HN TRAFFIC, TOO

Around the time we launched, one of the HN contributors (Shereef at bettermeans) wrote a post about us and sent some fab amounts of HN traffic our way. Of course, that traffic showed up just to check us out and then left, never to return again. Which was fine. A handful of uber-smart peeps from the HN community actually gave us stellar feedback that we used to optimize the site early on.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's interesting that you say Hacker, because it is really the avenue we've used least. Facebook was a good start, because friends can invite friends, and so on. But it tends to seem like spam there which is an immediate turn off.

How did you go about contacting the writers? Did you have prior relationships with them or some sort of contact?

Thanks a lot for the great response!

<comment><USER2> The reference to reaching out directly to writers was actually based less on P99T and more on a different startup we used to own, a realtor rating site. In that case, we found a writer for a major newspaper that we wanted to write a story on us --- just looked him up online and called him up --- and pitched the story over the phone. We followed up by sending him a press release we'd written... so we did actually write a press release, we just didn't -- and still haven't -- found it valuable to send it out over the newswire.

Good luck!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Skeleton app that could be deployed to mulitple PaaS without configuration? - <AUTHOR>

Is there some skeleton webapplications written in Ruby or Java that could be deployed to multiple PaaS services like heroku, jelastic, amazon, openshift or cloudfoundry without configuration? More specifically I would like to have a skeleton Sinatra application with rake tasks for creating application and postgres instances on a number of different PaaS services. For java a set of maven tasks would do. If this doesn't exist, it would be interesting to create it and put up on github. <comment><AUTHOR> I feel this could give focus to what should be most important about cloud computing; scalability, respons time, availability and pricing.</comment>


Startup Bootstrap Funding: Unemployment - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=34682 <comment><USER2> He's being glib throughout (and the content obviously provides no direct commentary about startups), but I've spent serious thought on the question of "buying one's freedom", as I phrase it. The ultimate goal of working really should be either 1) The pure enjoyment of work itself, or 2) Not working, and so getting your life back. There are various elective methods:

1) Having a successful business, and cashing out young enough to enjoy life.

2) Gambling and winning.

3) Saving enough money to live on the interest.

The latter is the only sure-thing available to people. When you really do the math, however, you see that "saving" isn't really the heart of it. A rough calculation suggests that for every 50 dollars of expense per month you have, you need 10000 dollars in a typical safe bond fund. (This is optimistic, actually.)

So, if your total expenses are 1000 dollars a month, you need 200,000 dollars invested. The typical person is lucky to save 10,000 a year. Thus (not including interest on the money) it takes 20 years to save up that much. With interest, it might take about half as much.

The point is: For every 50 dollars of expense that you require while _not working_ you will need to work an additional .5 through 1.0 years, depending on interest earnings. Thus: If you re-work the numbers and say,

"Well, in my retirement, I can discard cable (at 50/month)"

...that one small concession allows you to retire up to a year earlier, on average. If you can live a Thoreau-esque lifestyle, you can retire many, many years earlier than otherwise. This is not so unreasonable when you consider that humans aren't biologically intended to live amidst luxury.

<comment><USER3> The real trick is doing something you enjoy to make that money, and then doing a bit of work during your 'retirement' since you enjoy it.

So, I would suggest you only need 100k in your scenario if you plan on working on and off with some contracting/consulting. If you are adequately motivated you could do that in 3-5 years on your average salary.

I think I fall into the category of people who can't just cruise in a 'normal' job. I just get too bored and can't deal with wasting the majority of my time just putting in time. Long story short, I was only a year out of university when I figured that out and left my easy job with great pay and leading a team of 5 to go into the startup game.

So while I can identify with some of the concepts in this article - I really don't tackle the issue with the same approach.

<comment><USER4> "The real trick is doing something you enjoy to make that money"

Well, one problem with that is that taking something you enjoy doing for itself and depending on it for your paycheck may cause you to enjoy it less. Possibly a lot less. There's a reason for the phrase "turned it into work". I started playing around with Linux as a hobby, and the same with Python. After I was making a living doing system administration and programming in Python, I found those activities far less attractive. Fortunately, I was able to find fun in things like Common Lisp, but writing actual production software in CL turned that into work, too. In order for something to be fun, it has to be optional, basically. I'm sure there are people for whom this isn't true; if that's you, count yourself lucky. :)

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately that isn't me - but there are some ways around it. I enjoy tinkering, prototyping, breaking new ground like your average geek. So I try to stick to that as much as possible.

There are some times that I am forced to do some things that turn into work - but I try to minimize it. Hopefully if my longer term plans come to fruition I can avoid it entirely :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> A good lesson on why not to hire employees.

Or to own a grocery store, apparently.

</comment><comment><USER6> As with most websites, the comments are even better reading than the article (which is excellent). One that stuck out:

 _This guy is going to be in legal trouble. He certified every 2 weeks he was looking for work and admitted he wasn't. I work for the state unemployment office. This is going to be investigated. Jail time!_

Wow, dude... lighten up :)

<comment><USER7> The comments are outrageously hilarious. It is unbelievable how much energy is spent by some people to prove that someone is "wrong"!

It reminds me this cartoon: <http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png>

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you enjoyed this, I can also recommend a book called "A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember" -- really quite a riot and makes you thankful for loving and enjoying being in front of a computer creating stuff. At least, that's what it did for me.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This might not work so well for people just out of school but for hackers wanting out of a lame (but relatively high-paying) job, I say... Go wild!</comment>


Google Supports the News Industry - <AUTHOR> https://australia.googleblog.com/2020/09/how-google-supports-news-industry.html <comment><USER2> This argument fails when you consider Google pushing AMP on news organizations. It is akin to a news stand telling newspaper publishers "if you print your paper using my font and paper, I'll put you front and center, otherwise enjoy your paper's new placement on the back shelves".

<comment><USER3> I'm not sure I follow what you're referring to here. I have some concerns about Google's UI for AMP, but as far as I know they don't downrank sites for not using it.

<comment><USER4> > _Google Search indexes AMP pages to provide a fast, reliable web experience. > When an AMP page is available, it can be featured on mobile search as part > of rich results and carousels. While AMP itself isn 't a ranking factor, > speed is a ranking factor for Google Search. Google Search applies the same > standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used_

Google can render their own proprietary page format more rapidly than a normal page, when it's been loaded down with advertising and tracking anyways.

That performance difference results in a ranking boost for sites using AMP versus their normal site. They could get the same ranking boost by simply using first-party ads and dropping all the tracking cruft, but for whatever reason AMP is an easier sale to them.

The fight against AMP is difficult because Google is leveraging publisher greed for tracking data to sell them on a lock-in proprietary format, and trying to argue against AMP from a web health perspective goes nowhere because it's not focusing on the problem of publisher greed for tracking data.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The arguments are quite solid but I'm having a hard time swallowing that pill, what are the valid counter arguments here ? Not just "Google bad" but some actual examples of Google screwing with journalism. I feel like news agencies are using Google as a scapegoat, saying that what Google is doing (indexing their content) is wrong, but I'm not sure they'd be better off if Google decided to return a blank page for any news related search worldwide. We'd have to actually open their homepage yeah, or use RSS, which wouldn't be the end of the world as a user, but their articles would see way less traffic. Sounds to me like their argument is "business was better before the internet, Google is the internet, therefore Google should pay us for the damage".

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a really hard problem because news is inherently biased, political in nature and the incentives are on all sides huge.

EU Copyright Directive is requiring tech giants to license the right to reproduce copyrighted material on their own websites. It could make it impossible for Google to display brief snippets and photos from news stories in its search results without paying the news sites.

As a consumer, I find it difficult to form a clear opinion about it:

At one side, I don't want Google to become too powerful and can filter what reaches me as "news". It is also not fair that Google is earning disproportionate amount of money by facilitating search on the content of news agencies while they aren't getting anything.

At the other side, I want to easily find different sources for news with different perspectives and I don't want to be dependent to a couple of big news agencies like AP and Reuters.

I guess there is simply no black and white solution and that a balance needs to be struck with policy for distributing the power in a weighted way between the different actors.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sorry Google, but you've burned all of your good will long ago with the news business. The industry is decimated and you've taken all of the ad revenue while prioritizing a business model that all but forces the newspapers to give away their content.

I would never trust any plan from Google, especially one that claims to be "supporting" the news industry.

</comment><comment><USER8> Google investigated Google and found nothing wrong.

</comment><comment><USER9> It's a very bizarre and false claim that Google doesn't "use" news content and that they are doing this as some sort of altruistic system of "allowing these publishers to make money by showing their own ads". Google itself serves ads, runs a massive ad network and makes a ton of money in the process. Every point in this process that they touch, be it search results or AMP pages or even destination pages that use Google Analytics are of some benefit to Google either directly as ad revenue or indirectly as data capture.</comment>


Kodi: Open source TV app inspires full-blown copyright panic in the UK - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/kodi-fully-loaded-boxes-are-they-legal/ <comment><USER3> These stories are incredibly incendiary, fueled by Murdoch's News UK Group. Whilst I think you would be an idiot to run unknown software on your home network (even if it means you get free TV) there have been no prosecutions against individual users yet.

Sky's sport and movie subscriber base are obviously taking a hit from people moving to pirated content. That is why you are seeing hyperbolic stories about 10 years in prison for watching football on a Kodi box.

I would not be surprised to find that the same media groups [successfully] lobbied for the 2017 Digital Economy Act amendments.

<comment><USER4> "Run unknown software"? Kodi is open source and community written.

<comment><USER5> I think they were referring to the 3rd party add-ons that provide unlicenced sources. Granted, those add-ons are likely open-source too, so it's a matter of doing your homework or having a source or curator that you trust.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Give consumers a legal service that's better than the illegal alternative.

<comment><USER7> They can't. They've already proven they can't do good UX even under a paid service so the only thing left to compete on is price and reliability and then they're competing against free and voluntarily hosted distributed redundancy. There's no value that can be added to that (other than removing the risk of criminal punishment).

<comment><USER8> Sure they can. They can provide an ad-free (well let's say ad-lite), HD, low latency stream for an affordable price, without awful hidden charges or long contracts.

It's been a long time since I tried the illegal streaming websites, but when I did, they were awful experiences; low quality streams with heavy buffering, multiple timeouts, full screen pop up ads. Some of them required a captcha before trying each stream, and if it didn't work, tough luck.

Compared to Netflix, where (assuming they have the content) you get a HD stream, no interruptions, minimal ads, at a reasonable price point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> >> Pubs are a favoured target of FACT. Subscriptions allowing them to screen live sports are expensive, making Kodi boxes attractive.

Is this the situation in the US too? I wonder why pubs have shitty cableTV with downgraded picture when they could just get an antenna and have awesome HD. Is it not OK to publicly show that which is broadcast? That seems absurd.

<comment><USER10> Just using an antenna, you would only be able to get a few games, mostly from local teams. People want to see games from all over, which local TV stations don't generally offer.

<comment><USER9> Sure, but I've seen plenty of businesses that have cable and just show the local news. I can understand a big place wanting to have a variety of sports content, but even those that don't tend to have cable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I watch pirated TV using Kodi on my Amazon Fire TV in the USA.

There are some free Kodi add-ons for on-demand TV (i.e., free Netflix clones), but I use Kodi as a replacement for live sports. For $13/month, I get hundreds of live channels.

AMA.

<comment><USER8> Curious why you pay for it? If you're openly admitting to pirating it, why not just pirate it for free? it's not like the licence owners are getting any of your $13/month.

<comment><USER11> I'm paying for better quality streams, not because I think the license holders get a cut of the profits.

If there was a similar legal IPTV service that got the license holders paid, I would choose that (even at a higher price point). My current alternative is Comcast which I have had nightmarish experiences with.

It looks like this is an industry that is finally maturing (with Sling TV and others) so it might be different next year.

<comment><USER8> Fair enough. I don't agree but I understand your view. Thanks for responding.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've been using Kodi/XBMC for years, and can't believe anyone actually uses the streaming services... when I'd tried it the quality all really sucked.

Recently got an NVidia Shield TV, which I've been using kodi for my local/network media, and it's been okay (may retire/reuse my htpc). What I've enjoyed about the shield is that it supports netflix, amazon video, directtv now, sling and pretty much every legal streaming service out there. Of course, once you add a few of them up, you aren't saving much over cable.

What does irk me though is all the "channels" with "free" apps that you have to verify your cable sub for... I mean, aren't they still going to show the ads anyway? wtf does it really matter... Not to mention the craptastic experience that was the latest superbowl. If the companies make online streaming actually better, and/or not charge an arm and a leg, it will get more legit users.

The international licensing issues are way worse though... there are teams of employees and developers and netflix just to handle/track international licensing issues, windows, dates, etc.

<comment><USER13> Android TV supports directtv now?

<comment><USER12> Maybe not... _sigh_ , saw a support thread where it was mentioned that the device should have been added, grr. Had been debating on getting a sling or dtv account.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I moved to the UK a few years ago, I'm still really surprised with the state of TV here. Between this and things like "TV licence" \- It's just an embarrassment really.

<comment><USER6> Yes, TV here is shit, but the TV licence is completely optional if you're not the applicable content, you can opt-out online: [http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need- one/topics/te...](http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need- one/topics/telling-us-you-dont-need-a-tv-licence)

<comment><USER15> Not that that does anything other than tell them you exist.

I'm working on renovating a property currently, have been for a year and a bit. It's uninhabited. There's no TV, no internet connection; just drills and saws. There isn't even running water.

I notified them that the property was unoccupied in response to their first letter, 18 months ago.

They said that they didn't believe me, and an enforcement officer would be over. One came while I was away and left a "I'll be back with bailiffs" note, and about six months ago, I had them show up on my doorstep _with police in tow_. The cops seemed highly bemused to have been dragged to a property which didn't even have windows at the time, never mind a bloody television. They left, he said not a problem, no more letters.

Since then I've collected about 15 more "we know you have a television!" letters from the doorstep there, and yet another note from a different visiting enforcement officer.

Based on this and a previous similar experience a decade ago, I can't help but conclude that they spend every penny they collect on arse-about-tit enforcement.

Whole system is daft.

<comment><USER16> I haven't had a license since 2006 when I binned my Sky box. I don't watch any live telly and when the new rules about needing a license for BBC iPlayer came into force I just stopped using it (I only ever watched top gear and a bit of Masterchef, so no great loss).

So anyway, I kept getting letters from TV licensing. I called them up and told them to remove me from their database which they did. One year later the letters were back (except addressed to "The Occupier"). I get a letter every month with varying degrees of threatening outcomes if I don't contact TVL again. It pisses me off that a private company (it's managed by Capita) is allowed to send harassing letters like this despite being told not to.

I did once get a TVL "enforcement officer" come knock on my door. After he identified himself I politely told him that I didn't need to let him in (they have no powers) and that I wouldn't be confirming or denying if I have any TV equipment (you don't need to). At that point he just walked away. That was about three years ago so I'm no doubt due for another visit.

<comment><USER15> I'd assumed it was capita, who seem to run the entire uk at this point - <USER2> state exists for their profit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The state of legal TV and film content in the UK is abysmal.

I think it's really important that we consider that just because there's no legal way for me to watch say "The Americans" season 5 legally in the UK[0], I'm not entitled to pirate it. That is the content distributors mistake.

Saying that me downloading it doesn't hurt them doesn't track either because I'll be seeding a file to others who might have legal alternatives.

I've had to adjust how important watching stuff can be to me. Is it really that important that I get to watch some TV? Worth breaking the law for?

[0][https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/the- americans](https://www.justwatch.com/uk/tv-series/the-americans)

<comment><USER18> > I'll be seeding a file to others who might have legal alternatives

It doesn't seem fair to me to make the seeder responsible for the illegal usage of the leacher. If it's legal for some people to connect to a torrent, then any crime committed by someone who connects and downloads something they are not allowed to download should be on them, not on the seeder. The alternative is to insist that the seeder is responsible for checking that each of their peers have the rights to the content, which is impractical.

<comment><USER9> The seeder is the one distributing the content, thereby violating the copyright. Viewing is not illegal, making the copy is.

<comment><USER19> the kodi addons I've seen tend to connect to websites which host the content and display ads. Given that these don't involve seeding does that mean that the viewers aren't violating copyright, only the hosts?

<comment><USER20> That's my understanding of how the law works in the US. In the UK though it sounds like you're breaking the law if you watch the stream as well.

<comment><USER3> That's how things _used_ to be in the UK.

UK copyright law _was_ aimed at counterfeiters (seedy Joe who sells knock-off T-Shirts, CDs and tapes down the local pub).

Now with the Digital Economy amendments, we have an extremely vague mention of "violating copyright".

Are you violating copyright when consuming, or just when distributing? The act does not say.

I expect there will be a few test cases to work this out but in the meantime, the press is having a field-day by promoting the worst case scenario for even minor infractions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> The future of these pirate TV devices is so uncertain that I don't understand why people are willing to pay so much for them.

I recently saw something called an ISTV that was selling for around $400. I can't imagine investing that kind of money in a product that can be shutdown in under a year.

<comment><USER22> They're around £40 on Amazon (one-off cost), so not very expensive.

I avoid piracy, and I'm personally spending way more than that on a monthly basis for multiple legal services that provide less content.

I have acquaintances who have the Kodi box, and they work impressively well, so I can see why they're very compelling.

<comment><USER12> Maybe I just don't have the right connections, or know the right plugins... but when I've looked, the quality has been abysmal, consistency horrible, and just not worth the hassle... maybe just me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I knew these pirate IPTV streams were in trouble when I noticed people springing up everywhere wanting to buy Amazon TV sticks to have it "hacked" to include Kodi streaming plugins. There's actually a market for pre-loaded Amazon TV sticks with Kodi.</comment>


Why Cryptosystems Fail (1993) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/wcf.html <comment><AUTHOR> This story has been upvoted a fair bit without any discussion, so to kick that off a bit: the author is Ross Anderson, a well known cryptographer at Cambridge and author of the excellent _Security Engineering._ The article is a particularly good read for several reasons:

1\. Anderson begins with an explanation of the fundamentally unique challenge of security engineering (especially in the context of cryptography) - that is to say: it's inherently more difficult to develop software designed to withstand hostile environments and users. This requires a set of skills and analyses that are not necessarily required in many other domains of software engineering.

2\. He provides interesting historical examples (from a contemporary perspective!) of real world cryptographic failures in the context of banking software, especially ATMs. At the time this was written (1993), ATM fraud was in its relative infancy and an understanding of ATM software compromise was not pervasive like it is in the modern day. These days you can see ATM fraud at a typical BlackHat or DEFCON conference every year, but back then Anderson was providing a commentary that was not well known. ATM fraud was starting to become a headlining issue in the United Kingdom at the time, but the author had known about it since the 80s as a security consultant for various financial institutions.

3\. Anderson distinguishes between cryptosystem _design_ failures, cryptosystem _implementation_ failures and non-cryptographic _infrastructure_ failures. He provides examples of each (complete with technical descriptions of how certain algorithms work) to demonstrate the nuances of different security attacks, and to show that while a great deal of focus can be put into the research and development of a virtually perfect cryptosystem, it can fall apart in algorithm implementation or software infrastructure. This is a great perspective on the discussion because of its historical context: the 1990s were a decade in which the government no longer had a significant intellectual advantage over industry and academia in the field of cryptography (unlike, say, the late 70s). It was straightforward (if not "easy") to develop safe, custom cryptosystems from a design perspective, in that you could legally and safely do it without the government and without licensing from one or two quasi-government entities. But the software engineering standards for safely implementing and supporting these designs were not yet as mature; moreover, the focus on rigorous cryptographic implementation (as opposed to rigorous mathematical design in isolation) was not as pervasive then as it is now. This happens to line up with Paul Kocher's research, which essentially invented the field of side channel analysis and implementation security failures.

4\. The article even touches on the political and industrial challenges to making real security improvements in consumer banking software. As mentioned before, ATM fraud was a headlining issue in the United Kingdom, and the consequent erosion of consumer trust in the financial sector was becoming a real problem for politicians In turn, the government was putting pressure on companies to enact security improvements. Anderson's article is a response to this zeitgeist; he first explores the _ineffective_ ways the public and private sectors interact to enact security changes, then proceeds to make proposals on how the two could cooperate to meaningfully improve security standards in the future.

</comment><comment><USER2> Here's what he has to say about so-called "Trusted Computing".

"1\. What is TC - this `trusted computing' business?

The Trusted Computing Group (TCG) is an alliance of Microsoft, Intel, IBM, HP and AMD which promotes a standard for a `more secure' PC. Their definition of `security' is controversial; machines built according to their specification will be more trustworthy from the point of view of software vendors and the content industry, but will be _less trustworthy_ from the point of view of their owners. In effect, the TCG specification will transfer the ultimate control of your PC from you to whoever wrote the software it happens to be running. (Yes, even more so than at present.)"

[http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa- faq.html](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/tcpa-faq.html)

<comment><USER3> > In effect, the TCG specification will transfer the ultimate control of your > PC from you to whoever wrote the software it happens to be running.

It doesn't sound like a bad idea if user has a freedom of choice what software to run.</comment></comment>


Looking for feedback on this Internet forum idea I've been working on - <AUTHOR> http://zizindrin.com/home/index

<comment><USER2> Do the tags get applied to users as well? What is this about unit vectors? You mention a torus - but I bet it isn't.

It's not at all clear what the mechanics are, and I find it hard to locate tags I'm interested in from the tag cloud - that problem will get worse.

But I'm interested in the experiment.

Added in edit: Won't let me login with my username - it claims it's too long.

Added in edit: Not sure if it has a point, or a focus. To get traction I suspect you will need a subject.

Added in edit: Are we supposed to post links, text, or something else?

Added in edit: What's "Entropy"? The mechanics are completely unclear. Many people won't care - I do.

Added in edit: OK, found the FAQ. I'm going away and will read it later.

Added in edit: I don't think the v_i are in S^1. Aren't the v_i in [-1,1] ?? That's not S^1. I guess I need to read the paper, but I can't now.

I'll wait for your replies.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi! Thanks for taking the time. Here are some answers:

The long username shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Yes, I want it to be a discussion forum, people can post links, questions, comments. I also want it to be novel.

The entropy formula is described in the FAQ, it might not be totally scientific sound but I believe it somewhat describes the informational content of the thread.

Regarding the unit circle; [-1,1] is isomorphic to S1 if we identify -1 and 1 as the same point.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Mainly trying to figure out what are the rough edges and the stuff that gets in peoples'way when using the site.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Thanks.

</comment><comment><USER3> Orange is overused. It comes across as garish, clownish, halloween-ish. I find it so distracting I can't manage to focus on reading the "headlines" (or whatever they are) that I am supposed to be reading. I would highly recommend you grab some of the lovely shades of blue and green from your header/logo and use that more liberally and use orange with a good deal more restraint. I like orange, but both orange and yellow are problematic when overused (so said my class in Cartography for GIS eons ago and so says my poor strained eyes from checking out your site).

<comment><AUTHOR> You are totally right. Please check it out now and let me know what you think of the new design and color.

Remember to refresh your browser, it may cache the css.

<comment><USER3> Much, much better.</comment></comment></comment>


67 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/05/climate/trump-environment-rules-reversed.html <comment><AUTHOR> Worth the read. I keep wondering "What are Trump and his minions thinking". Most of the regulations being eliminated are in place to improve the quality of life and the environment. Why the rush to degrade the quality of life?

</comment><comment><USER2> The NYT is typically vague about which specific rule change they refer to in each case (they could have easily made each element the appropriate link to the _Federal Register_ with appropriate details, and counting things like the never-ratified Paris climate agreement as a "rule change" is just plain intellectually dishonest), but the _vast_ majority of Obama-administration rules that have been changed or undone thus far were only put in place in the last 2 months of the administration, after he was a "lame duck". Any such regulations viewed as meaningful and beneficial should have been implemented in the _first_ 10 weeks of his administration, not when his administration was 99% over with. Lame-duck regs are generally just political payoffs.</comment>


Ask HN: Reporting Services, but not Visual Studio-based? - <AUTHOR> Say I have a pile of customer data and would like to generate PDFs with individual offers based on the data and some logic.<p>I've done this quite swiftly in the past in MS SQL Server Reporting Services, but surely there has to exist a similar product not tied to Visual Studio? <comment><USER2> This might help: [https://www.holistics.io/features/scheduled-email- reporting/](https://www.holistics.io/features/scheduled-email-reporting/)

It can generate a PDF with some data and charts. You can also schedule emails to share these PDFs with customers. Adding a customer filter and you'll get something like Mail Merge / Crystal Reports.

p/s: I work here.

</comment><comment><USER3> Few pointers

[https://www.tableau.com/](https://www.tableau.com/)

[https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/](https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/)

[https://redash.io/](https://redash.io/)

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


Ask HN: Have you tried learning Functional Programming? - sonic-hedgehog What have been your biggest issues / challenges with the existing learning material? <comment><AUTHOR> Mine was finding a personal project easy enough to do in Haskell.

<comment> sonic-hedgehog Thanks - so what did you do in the end? Did you find a suitable project?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not yet, hence the challenge ;-) I probably am going to try to rewrite the static blog generator I wrote in Haskell early next year.

[0] [https://github.com/john-bokma/tumblelog](https://github.com/john- bokma/tumblelog)

<comment> sonic-hedgehog Got it - can I ask why you want to work on a personal project? Is it because you feel like you haven't worked on practical / realistic examples while you were learning the language?</comment></comment></comment></comment>