Pluralsight raises $135M to expand online learning for professionals - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/27/pluralsight-grabs-135m-to-expand-online-learning-for-professionals/

<comment><USER2> Signed up for Pluralsight this month, and I'm getting a fair amount of value from it so far, but I don't feel like that value is going to be a straight line over time.

I feel pretty confident that it's going to decline as I consume more material of interest to me and less material that I'm interested is created simultaneously.

At $29 / month it's a good value for me now, but in a couple of months I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop my membership until something comes a long that I must watch. (This time Hanselman and Conery's Art of Public Speaking got me to sign up.)

</comment><comment> rational-future IMHO 3 months of hard work on Pluralsight courses can give one more practical programming skills than any 3 year Bachelor degree in CS. Debugging, CRUD, somewhat new JS/mobile frameworks are what the majority of software developers need to know for their 9 to 5 job.

<comment><USER3> I highly doubt that any online service has an order of magnitude better performance than a uni.

<comment><USER4> I think for specific new techs pluralsight will beat a university. Univerity are not going to teach you how to use d3.js

<comment><USER5> This is essentially the "Computer Science vs. Programming" debate, although Uni gives some programming experience and Pluralsight gives some computer science. Yevgeniy Brikman maintains a great blog and wrote about this[1].

[1] [http://brikis98.blogspot.com/2014/05/dont-learn-to-code- lear...](http://brikis98.blogspot.com/2014/05/dont-learn-to-code-learn-to- think.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is fantastic news. Of all the sites I've tried within a similar vein, Pluralsight is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. I will still go back and hit a book for certain topics but if you want to get up and running fast it's unbeatable.

Plus you can take courses in a series (say from beginner to advanced) and it feels like one large course even if it's different authors.

I know it has it's detractors but I love this site and it's worth every penny for me.

</comment><comment><USER5> Sites like Safari Books Online and Pluralsight have transformed the way I learn new technologies and techniques. That being said, I find myself getting 3x or 4x the value out of Safari Books Online.

Something about those Pluralsight videos makes it harder for me to extract piecemeal knowledge, versus finding the relevant content in a book. Still for $29/month it's an unbelievable value.

My only other issue is I feel their beta site makes it harder to find courses and is a step backward. Hopefully they'll remedy that.

<comment> rational-future Hmmm that's interesting. Almost any study I've seen implies that the most efficient way of learning is see-do. I think what makes Pluralsight and similar training videos work for me is having multiple big monitors (3x 27'') with the training video, IDE and browser easily visible at any time.

<comment><USER5> I hear you on that. I guess Pluralsight is like a "course on demand" and requires an hour or more of sit-down time, whereas Safari is really "ad hoc learning".

<comment><USER7> As Tim said, Safari is actually _both_ (2000+ on-demand video courses _plus_ all the books and a bunch of conference videos). And in our usage data, we see most people do both things -- short "ad hoc" learning, especially during the work day, with longer sessions of activity, both in video and books, in the evenings. The trend is especially pronounced with mobile devices, as mobile usage peaks on the weekend and includes a much longer average session length than we see on the desktop.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Around 6 months back, when there were hardly any books on AngularJS and related JavaScript technologies (Jasmine, Karma, etc), I was got a running start on my project after going through several courses on AngularJS and JavaScript on Pluralsight. Writing a book takes way more time than creating a video tutorial and, I think, in this rapidly developing programming landscape Pluralsight provides the right edge when it comes to learning new libraries, frameworks and techniques.

</comment><comment><USER9> I had pluralsight membership for a month. Although the materials looks exhaustive I felt none of them went into great depth. They are good for first time use and know something in short time but beyond that there is nothing of value. And there are innumerable websites on the internet that teaches these stuff for free(maybe not all video streaming sites).

</comment><comment><USER10> These are the guys that bought Peepcode right? Those are some fantastic teaching tools. Glad to see them pushing forward.

</comment><comment><USER11> Nice, Pluralsignt have great courses about concrete products so it's really fast to pick a tech /language/framework. I however think the production value is inferior to Lynda.com, especially the sound recording. They should invest in that.

</comment><comment><USER12> Blog from Pluralsight on "Company culture discussions" [http://culture.pluralsight.com/](http://culture.pluralsight.com/)

I find the blog to be worth reading.</comment>


6 Fun Facts About Emails That You Never Knew - <AUTHOR> https://www.mailbutler.io/blog/6-fun-facts-about-email/ <comment><USER2> Not fun at all. Boring trivia, that's all.</comment>


The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1935) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/popper-logic-scientific-discovery.pdf <comment><USER2> I think this book receives a lot of criticism from people who do not understand the fundamental point popper was trying to make.

I think the point can be best summarized as:

1\. Claims on infinite sets can only be supported by rules of inference valid for the set.

2\. We do not have rules of inference for reality.

I was listening to some debate over the weekend where someone claimed science can only tell us what is false and not what is true. But this is a massive misunderstanding of falsifyability as a criteria for demarcation between science and non science.

If we use the word real for what is in the science side of the demarcation line...

Then, without rules of inference (which again we, any claim about what is real can only be said to be true or false if it is backed up by an actual measurement. So if I say all dogs have 4 legs, I can only defend it as true if I test it against the set of all dogs, the first dog that does not have 4 legs though would make further testing less useful, maybe you want to check some more dogs to make sure you are not testing wrong, but once exception to a claim on an infinite set makes the claim invalid. Or as popper would say, it falsifies the claim.

So for any dog, we cannot say for sure if it has 4 legs or if it does not have 4 legs if we don't measure it. We cannot say the claim that it has 4 legs is true or false before we measure it.

So science does not tell us what is false. It tells us that claims about infinite sets of things which are real cannot be said to valid, because we don't have rules of inference, and while they may be valid we should try our best to find exceptions to these claims so that we do not keep on relying on them if they are not valid.

<comment><USER3> This idea was somewhat more formalized in E.T. Jaynes' posthumous book, Probability Theory: The Logic of Science (2003), with the idea that truth in science is a matter of probability -- confirmatory evidence increases our estimate that the theory is likely correct, but individual exceptions (like the proverbial three-legged dog, or in reality the existence of experimental error and the like doesn't mean we throw out a theory when only a few cases disagree with it).

<comment><USER2> I think this conflates problems we have with measuring reality with how we should deal with it.

If we know for sure that there is a 3 legged dog then we can say for sure a claim that all dogs have 4 legs is not valid.

Sure, we cannot know if we measured correctly or if some treachery is afoot - but if we could know for sure - then we we would know for sure the claim is not valid.

I don't think popper ever claimed the first time we got an exception to a claim on indefinite sets it should be thrown out.

I guess I left this out of my earlier post, but he also made some other point that if there is no test of our reality we can make that could invalidate it given a specific outcome of the test then our test is not scientific. Does not mean it is wrong, or should be discarded, but it just is not science. Also maybe some things where we can falsify it with test is not science, but definitely if we cannot falsify it - it is not science.

<comment><USER3> I think the case of the three-legged dog shows the difference between mathematics and science. In maths, finding even one exception to a hypothesis (like claiming that all odd numbers are prime) disproves the hypothesis. But obviously dogs are really 4-legged animals and the fact you can find one that lost one of its legs isn't very scientifically informative. You'd have to show that there is a whole breed of dogs that only has three legs by default for it to be a meaningful observation.

<comment><USER2> > I think the case of the three-legged dog shows the difference between > mathematics and science.

With math we have rules of inference that allow us to know that claims on infinite sets are valid, for science we do not have rules of inference so any claim on an infinite set can become invalid with one more test.

<comment><USER3> But that just isn't the way science works. That's why a probabilistic way of viewing it makes more sense than simple falsification. No serious theory in science is ever going to be overturned with "just one test". At most, one's estimate of the theory's truth is going to be slightly reduced when a counterexample is found, as every scientific theory is just a model of the world, and obviously can't cover every minor exception. If it turns out that many exceptions are found, then yes, the theory has a problem and needs to be fixed.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How would you invest in yourself with $10,000 - <AUTHOR> I'm a 35 year old programmer. My background is Wall Street and Google. I'm quitting my job in a few months and taking some time off. I have enough money saved up to not have to work for 8 months to a year. More if i do consulting work part-time. I don't really want to travel fulltime - did a lot of that last year for work. Other than that, i don't have any family constraints so i'm not tied to a particular location.
I've decided to set aside a max of $10,000 during this time for personal improvement. My primary background is in distributed systems but I've taught myself large bits of machine learning (at the level of Andrew Ng's classes on youtube - not the coursera stuff) as well. Initially I was thinking of getting my second master's - this time in machine learning but those are more like 30-50,000 and a 1-2 year commitment. I'm learning things like Android/IOS programming right now but those kinds of subjects i tend to pick up quite quickly from the internet and books so i'm not sure if I would pay for classes on those subjects.
I was also thinking of stuff that's not related to computers like taking part of an mba curriculum or taking lessons in public speaking, negotiation, marketing etc. As a 35 year old coder, i'm also thinking about what's next in my career - i like hacking a lot, but I don't know if I should be investing in more management skills/credentials since i'm not sure i'll be able to get a engineering job at 50 (evidence showing otherwise for 50 year olds on HN notwithstanding).
So, I thought i would ask the HN community for ideas - how would you improve yourself with 10,000$ (or less :))and 8 months ? <comment><USER2> The programmer -> MBA track is a popular one, and unless you want to make a move into finance, I have not heard a lot of compelling good things about it. The best thing people usually have to say about it is that it's a networking opportunity.

</comment><comment><USER3> Do exactly what I tell my teens to do. Figure out what you want to do. Go hang out with those who already do it. Its not about spending money or age; it is about being useful to those who need passionate people in their field. Time is your greatest asset in this regard. Be known, be available, and good things will happen.

</comment><comment><USER4> I would attend the programming boot camp to which I was accepted but will not be able to afford.

In your case, it sounds like you spend much of your time and energy achieving. Instead of using the break to steady yourself for the next leap, why not take time to wander a little? Go experience unique people and places. Set out to change your perspective. Play. It could help you discover what you want or what's next in your career, giving you something to work toward, rather than blindly collecting 'skills' and 'credentials' that may or may not be what you need to take the next step.

<comment><USER5> Which bootcamp? What would you learn at a bootcamp that you couldn't for free on your own volition?

Not criticising, genuinely curious as I've considered attending one myself.

<comment><USER6> Speaking as someone who used to work at a company that several bootcamps had pitched for recruitment purposes, and having met several grads from bootcamps, I would say that these bootcamps are most certainly not for you. They are almost all universally geared towards beginners. In that sense these bootcamps do add a lot of value. It is really hard to teach yourself to code if you lack any foundation in coding, let alone teaching yourself X or Y technologies.

There is really nothing these bootcamps can offer you except for a boost in your motivation (such a boost is not worth $12-17k+). To give you a sense of what I mean, Dev Bootcmap, for example, spends half of its time on teaching their students Ruby and programming fundamentals, which makes sense if you've never/barely coded before, but does not make sense for someone with experience who can teach him/herself Ruby and most of its advanced concepts over a (focused) weekend. Even Hack Reactor, which bills itself as being more intensive and faster-paced, spends a lot of time on basic language/CS fundamentals.

These programs don't really improve your job prospects beyond the improvements that are due to a beginner learning new concepts, nor do they really provide any sort of networking opportunities beyond the kind of networking you can achieve by hanging out at engineering meetups once a week - the average wage at these programs is almost universally in the $85k area, which sounds like a lot but is essentially entry level for the SF area.

The same applies to most online course material out there, which is geared towards beginners.

<comment><USER7> You sound like you have a fair amount of knowledge on the subject so I'd be massively appreciative if you could give me any advice...

I'm planning to move from the UK to the States next year (American wife, so hopefully shouldn't be too much hassle) and combine it with a career change from project manager (please don't hate me!) to developer. I have a CS degree and similar Masters, but coding has been primarily a hobby since I graduated (i.e. I can make pretty much what I can think of given enough time, but I'm shaky on the core concepts: big-oh, data structures, design patterns and algorithms).

My plan was basically to (re)learn as much as I can between now and early-mid next year (focusing on RoR) and build up my GH portfolio, then jump into Dev Bootcamp to fill in the gaps and get some introductions hopefully leading into a job. However, after reading your comment it makes me wonder if it'd be $12k wasted?

Any advice or input would be worth at least a pint!

<comment><USER6> Without knowing the extent of your coding experience and the extent to which your CS degree taught you the fundamentals, it's difficult to tell.

Some thoughts:

1\. Dev Bootcamp in specific seems to be geared to beginners. Which is great for a beginner but not so great for someone with even some experience.

2\. I've sat in on some of these programs, and even in programs that bill themselves as faster-paced the majority of students will be beginners. Which means that to a certain extent many things will have to be geared towards the lowest common denominator and a lot of time will be spent going over things that you already grasp well, while comparatively less time will be spent going over more complex topics.

3\. The programs do help with introductions and they do a lot of heavy legwork in reaching out to employers. However, at the same time, the process of getting a job is, as I imagine (I have no personal experience with getting a job through this process), very much like a career fair type affair. I doubt the introductions will be the kind of quality/personal introductions that provide an advantage in applying. The introductions alone are nearly certainly not worth $12k+.

4\. I think that as long as you have a marketable core skill (iOS, Android, Rails, Django, frontend JS, backend JS, etc), you should be able to attain the same job connections by attending engineering meetups and events in SF.

<comment><USER7> Many thanks for the input, mate - I very much appreciate it. It's extremely helpful getting a more objective viewpoint on bootcamps, since the majority of information out there is from alumni and will always be positive.

My degree was faiyly comprehensive, it's just that since I graduated I have become pretty rusty on the fundamentals, but I guess that's something that should come back to me with a bit of revision.

I guess my main worry was the difficulty of finding a job in a new country with no prior connections and no real professional experience, but I guess I've got around a year to make myself marketable and attempt to build up a few connections from across the pond (maybe I can find a few Rails OS projects willing to take on an eager learner).

Thanks again!

<comment><USER6> Yes. And maybe even consider saving some money and then coming over to Silicon Valley for a period of time in order to network and get job introductions by attending meetups and such. SF is the place to be for networking (at least for small-medium-large sized startups), but it is VERY expensive. The networking opportunities in Palo Alto/Mountain View are comparatively fewer. If you do make the decision to move over to SV, be sure to post an Ask HN about recommendations as to where the best and most affordable places to live in SV are.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What are your goals? For the next year? Five years? 20? Retire at 40? Start your own business? Start a family? Get in shape? Become a professor? Your goals will help to shape you self-investments. If you don't have goals, perhaps take some time think some through. Without a goal framework, determining the ROI of your alternatives will be difficult.

</comment><comment><USER9> If I was you, I would probably pick up some hardware and do EE projects. I absolutely love electronics and hardware, but can't afford to buy any of the equipment involved so I saturate my free time with programming. College is like a horrible curse for EE fans, all this free time but don't have any money to afford the equipment required to fill up that free time with interesting projects.

There's loads of exciting stuff you can do with hardware. Some projects I really want to tackle include stuff like fancy led-embedded business cards, disposable USB sticks, and an autonomous drone that can deliver take-out. There's sooooo much cool stuff you can do, but the equipment required is pretty expensive, and mistakes can be costly.

If you want ideas, hackaday is loaded with them. <http://hackaday.com/>

</comment><comment><USER10> Depending upon your present condition, spend some of that time (and it shouldn't require too much of the money) on your physical health.

Not only will it improve your current cognitive function, it will enhance the likelihood of additional months and years of (higher) productivity and satisfaction on the tail end you your youth as well as your life.

</comment><comment><USER11> My wife and I hired an investment coach for less than $5000. Now we have our first investment property (cash flows around $10K annual) and a plan for early retirement.

Knowledge is valuable, knowledge that helps me create free time is even more valuable to me...

</comment><comment><USER12> I'd buy server hardware on eBay, rent some colo space to host them in, install OpenStack on them & rent VPS' to clients who need cloud services.

</comment><comment><USER13> I would take some courses on online marketing : how to increase conversion rate , landing pages , email marketing ...

</comment><comment><USER14> Do you want to make yourself more valuable to future employers or do you want to build something for yourself?

</comment><comment><USER15> I would travel, period.</comment>


Ask HN: Which language for writing a fast, distributable command-line tool? - <AUTHOR> I need to build a command-line tool to perform some fairly heavy computation. I would like end-users to be able to easily run the tool on their own systems.
I have written a proof-of-concept in Python, but it is unacceptably slow: 100 times slower than an implementation of the core algorithm in C++. Also, it would be awkward to distribute to end-users: the best option seems to be a tool such as PyInstaller which essentially creates a large, self-extracting archive. Running the Python code using PyPy fixes the performance issue (only 4x slower than C++), but makes distribution almost impossible.
So, I am looking for another language in which to write the production version of this tool. Which other language(s) would you recommend?
I would rather avoid writing the whole tool in a complex language like C++. Are there any other Python-like, dynamic languages which are faster and easier to distribute? <comment><USER2> I've previously used Go to develop a command-line tool and it worked quite well. I particularly liked the fact that I could cross-compile it so that I had a single static binary that could target various platforms/OSes without the need to compile explicitly on those platforms. I also think that Nim and Crystal could be quite good for this. Crystal, in particular has a remarkable scripting language feel, because of the extensive type inference, despite being natively compiled. It's also faster than Go, which is itself quite fast. Nim is no slouch performance wise either though and has the most pythonic like syntax of the languages I've described here.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't doubt that python is slower than a compiled language, but have you tried to do any profiling on your python code? Sometimes little changes could have a huge impact.

[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/582336/how-can-you- profil...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/582336/how-can-you-profile-a- python-script)

I used the command line option described in the suggested answer. It was easy. Most profilers are hard, but this worked fine the first time.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've been in this same boat a few times (e.g. looking to replace a slow Python tool that has big dependencies like PyQt5). The quick and easy solution (even for someone with very little JS experience) was to rewrite the application in Node.js and bundle it up as a single executable with nexe [0].

[0]: [https://github.com/jaredallard/nexe](https://github.com/jaredallard/nexe)

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm using newLISP for command-line tools and scripting. I love that it's capable of doing bayes calculation, parallel and distributed processing support is built-in and it runs on embedded systems too.

</comment><comment><USER6> Go is definitely a good option. Also try Rust, its a system programming language that is the closest to C. It will be super fast if you don't abuse the functional constructs that the language provides :)

<comment><USER7> Is it possible to distribute Rust `app` as easy as Go? I mean can you write one code and run on all platforms with zero dependencies?

P.S. I'm not proGo, just have near to zero knowledge about Rust.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> You are looking for Nim: Python-like syntax, faster than Go, statically compiled.

</comment><comment><USER9> Although not a dynamic language, I think Go meets all of your needs.

It is statically compiled - you get one executable without any dependencies.

Its speed is much closer to C than to Python.

Type system and syntax is very simple.

</comment><comment><USER10> I also would suggest Go. Coming form Python writing Go came pretty naturally so you should have no problem taking your POC code and rewriting it in Go.

</comment><comment><USER11> I would say Go. Stick with the standard library and you compiling for all the supported platforms is pretty straight-forward.

</comment><comment><USER12> Go, D, maybe Nim may be worth checking out for this.

</comment><comment><USER13> Any compiled language that you already know how to use.</comment>


The Singularity is Near movie now available - <AUTHOR> http://store.singularity.com/

<comment><USER2> Interested in any reviews HN users might have. I'm sitting on the fence with this one.</comment>


From failing high school calculus to acing engineering math - <AUTHOR> http://www.howtowinatmath.com/book <comment><USER2> Clickbait - someone is selling a book.</comment>


Ask HN: What's the story behind your username? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> In the early days of the web, many people used America Online as their first ISP, including me. Even then, signing up meant creating a unique username. I must have tried 10 or 12 names, all of which were rejected as having already been taken. Finally, in frustration, I used the name of a then-popular steak house, substituting 'z' for 's' where ever it appeared. To be sure of its uniqueness, I doubled each 'z'. It worked and I've continued using it for the last 35 years.

</comment><comment><USER3> My former startup, wprapido.com . I had a previous YN username where I forgot the password. Applied to YCombinator and needed a username. Stayed with it. Sold the underlying tech behind WPRapido, but retained its identity (domain, many usernames all over, etc.) and even had a Ltd. company that I used for it till like 6 months ago

</comment><comment><USER4> A pretty boring one: My first name with anglicised umlaut in addition to both middle and last initial of my full name.

I'm not exactly sure where I first used it but I've been doing so consistently for several years now. It even is the domain name for my business.

</comment><comment><USER5> Oh, this will probably make me sound way older than I actually am.

Still, it's a shortened version of the username I used for Lycos Mail about two decades ago that I've stuck with ever since.

</comment><comment><USER6> I had started (and then dropped rather quickly) the anime Bungo Stray Dogs, whose characters are named after classic Japanese authors. The main character of the show is named after Atsushi Nakajima.

</comment><comment><USER7> Unfinished graphic novel about a group of scientist leaving Earth. There is an AI who happens to be the narrator.

</comment><comment><USER8> I used wgl for decades and started out with that here. Forgot the password and started over with wglb

</comment><comment><USER9> Timbo is my name, early twitter account of my username is GPS stamp of my location.

</comment><comment><USER10> Game character name, just made it up. And decided I liked it.</comment>


New Reality: No One Wants A Cheap PC Anymore - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2012/08/new-reality-no-one-wants-a-cheap-pc-anymore.php <comment><USER2> Its not about the PC but more about the marketing behind the brand. If people get a reasonably priced machine which runs either Windows or Linux that they can use effectively and with confidence, who the wants to burn money on mac. I think its just that people are being blinded by the marketing propaganda of who we know :). If you save a 1000$ on your early or every other yearly purchase trust me ... you are saving much more for your gas, for food and for outing. The article is another ridiculous propoganda article.</comment>


Telegram will share data with law enforcement authorities - <AUTHOR> https://telegram.org/privacy <comment><USER2> "If Telegram receives a court order that confirms you're a terror suspect, we may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities."

Is that surprising for any company or different from what they said previously?

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it is normal for a company to do these kind of things, but not Telegram.</comment>


US workers waste $2.8 billion/yr by failing to shut off their PCs at the end of the day - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=leaving-pcs-on-overnight-wastes-bil-2009-03-30 <comment><USER2> Mostly because computers boot so slowly.

<comment><USER3> I'd love the counter point article -- "Workers make their companies lose 2.8 billion a year in wasted productivity waiting for their computers to boot"</comment></comment>


No Plan Survives First Contact With Customers - <AUTHOR> http://steveblank.com/2010/04/08/no-plan-survives-first-contact-with-customers-%e2%80%93-business-plans-versus-business-models/ <comment><USER2> Excellent article, and it gets to a point that has often been debated here: the value of business plans.

I tend to agree with the author: a business plan is worse than useless if your goal is to follow it blindly; the value comes from the process of planning, and any document produced needs to be viewed as provisional and open to revision.

</comment><comment><USER3> Thank you for making me feel better about my half baked business plan. I as well spent 2 Months writing a 30 page business plan just to throw it in the corner.

Once I realized my assumptions about our target audience were as unproven as the "model consumer" in economic theories, I know that can't be right.

</comment><comment><USER4> Maybe instead of a business plan, it should be a business journal. Keep a log of what you know, and a long of what you know you don't know.

<comment><USER5> This is similar to what I am doing right now with Chowculate. I keep a TiddlyWiki which I use to contain 'what I know' about the business plan. This includes what I want to do and have done; I use it as a task management system.

I never considered trying to list what I don't know... Sounds like a useful exercise! Should be very enlightening about pointing me at what I should be trying to learn.

Now if I only I could do something about what I don't know that I don't know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> "Unless you have tested the assumptions in your business model first, outside the building, your business plan is just creative writing."

Here is one of the key elements stated "testing your assumptions". Often all the valuable time spend on business plans has limited value if the assumptions are wrong.</comment>


Linux developments - <AUTHOR> http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linux-10th-anniversary/index.html

<comment><USER2> No package management?

<comment><USER3> i think the idea is to restrict it to advances in the last 10 years?</comment></comment>


A Man Who Turned Night into Day (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9a3y8d/the-man-who-turned-night-into-day <comment><USER2> Aha, is this why there was a weird period in the 90s where scifi movies used satellites to reflect sun off to the ground to use as weapons (GoldenEye and the 1970s precursor, Diamonds are Forever), Batman and Robin (using satellites to heat up Mr Freeze)</comment>


Ask HN: Why the HN Nginx error for articles below 9M? - <AUTHOR>

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8999999 not working https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9000000 working
The pages I have tried above 9000000 works and below that number doesn't.
Frustrating when using Google to search for HN articles! <comment><USER2> We turned old articles off a few hours ago as an emergency measure because the site was being crawled aggressively and our poor single-core Racket process couldn't keep up. Previous solutions that have served us well until now, such as IP-address rate limiting, appear no longer to suffice. If you noticed HN being unusually slow earlier today, that was why.

Sorry for the inconvenience! We've turned everything back on for the time being.

Our interim solution will probably be to cache the html for old articles, since nothing about old threads ever changes. This is not a perfect solution because, for those older articles, logged-in users won't see their usernames in the top right, nor will they see which items they voted for or the orange asterisk beside their own posts. But everything else should be there. Edit: oh, and those of you with a custom top color won't see that (on older items) either. :(

We have a better solution in mind that will restore the per-logged-in account details to the old threads, but that will take longer.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the detailed answer. Caching is a good idea. Another idea is provide the content as static JSON to crawl over. I presume there is a lot of crawling from other nerds wanting to make their own HN interface or search.

I'm impressed it runs off a single core it's a very popular site!

<comment><USER3> We offer a lot of data (in JSON and XML) via our Firebase powered API:

[https://github.com/HackerNews/API](https://github.com/HackerNews/API)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Sorry, we went down under load and figured it was better to prioritize current discussion. Working on resolving the problem.</comment>


Music Geeks Are Retrofitting Old iPods to Keep the Perfect MP3 Player Alive - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/read/music-geeks-are-retrofitting-old-ipods-to-keep-the-perfect-mp3-player-alive <comment><USER2> A much easier and cheaper solution would be to get a device that is still sold first hand, like a Sansa Clip and buy a microSD card...saves a few hundred, lasts longer, not limited by iTunes syncing, can copy / paste files & folder, can install Rockbox [1] (some iPods also support this 3rd party firmware), lossless (not ALAC) audio.

1\. [http://rockbox.org/](http://rockbox.org/)

<comment><USER3> The Sansa Clip sounds like a good idea, but the storage is limited. For instance, the Clip Jam is limited to 40 GB (8 built-in plus 32 on the card). These refurbished iPods go up to 256 GB.

You could split your music among multiple cards, but that's not convenient.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, but the problem I have with the iPod thing is that while 256GB is a lot more than 40GB, it's still only a fraction of my collection so I'd still have to spend time deciding what to put on it. 40GB is enough to go months of normal usage without hearing the same track twice. So I have a python script that loads every 5 star rated track onto the Sansa (using up a good chunk of that 40GB) and generates an m3u of all of them, pre-shuffled. I feel like that's the best compromise I can make for having less than 100% on a single portable device and 40GB is plenty for that. More than 40GB and there's not real improvement for me up until about a TB.</comment></comment></comment>


The Importance of Acoustics in Food Storage - <AUTHOR> http://www.ediblegeography.com/the-importance-of-acoustics-in-food-storage/ <comment><USER2> While the physical CD isn't currently available even through Ebay, through the wonders of modern technology you can still listen to the full album online:

      High-sensitivity recordings of various types of insect
      pests released for the 5th International working conference
      on stored product protection, 1990.

      This is the full and unedited version of the recording.

      INRA. Insect noise in stored foodstuffs.
      "Ces vibrations caracteristiques, plus proches de la
      musique que du bruit, trahissent la presence de tous ces
      convives invisibles qui ne peuvent se tenir silencieux.
      A.J. Andrieu et F. Fleurat-Lessard."

      01. Detecting pests in stored foodstuffs and wood.
      02. Rice weevil larvae in rice.
      03. Angoumois grain moth larvae in maize.
      04. Grain weevil larvae in barley.
      05. Communication signals of termites in wood.

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

<comment><USER3> The opposite of rain samples on your mind.

<comment><USER4> Try 2 minutes 4 seconds in...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FISDgcaBSYQ#t=2m4s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FISDgcaBSYQ#t=2m4s)

<comment><USER3> I listened to the first quarter. All this squeaks and creaks have just enough rhythm to induce living form presence lurking closer, which stresses me out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Enjoyed the writing style, and had to laugh at; "A fairly select group of entomologists, including several specialists at the USDA's Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research Unit, have thus spent the past twenty years investigating the acoustic detection of insect noise."

I love how incredibly broad and infinitely "specializable" our economy is. Scale enables such wonderful focus.

<comment><USER5> Cowen's law: whatever it is, there's a literature on it. All those hundreds of thousands of research papers published each year have to be on _something_...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm elated at the thought that this ties together my diverse experience: music production, software engineering, and a job as a bulk-foods manager who had to deal with spotting worms in the bins. Wow.

<comment><USER7> > a job as a bulk-foods manager who had to deal with spotting worms in the > bins. Wow.

That reminds me of a story about chocolate manufacture that I'd just as soon forget.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> > Deep in the archives of San Francisco-based Aquarius Records, buried between > several days' worth of "laptop glitchery" and "brutal industro-crunch," lies > this gem: Insect Noise in Stored Foodstuffs,

Aquarius Records is awesome.</comment>


A Typeface Designed to Revive the Endangered Cherokee Language - <AUTHOR> https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/a-typeface-designed-to-revive-the-endangered-cherokee-language-typetuesday/ <comment><USER3> FWIW, Windows has had a built-in Cherokee font since Vista, several years before this font (2014). Windows 8 added another font and, more importantly, a partial Cherokee localization of the UI.

srcs: [1] [http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2012/12/18/microsoft- add...](http://blogs.microsoft.com/firehose/2012/12/18/microsoft-adds-the- cherokee-language-to-windows-8/)

[2] [http://www.cherokee.org/languagetech/en- us/windows8cherokee....](http://www.cherokee.org/languagetech/en- us/windows8cherokee.aspx)

</comment><comment><USER4> Nice effort on behalf of the Cherokee Nation Language Technology Office - <USER2> didn't know such a thing would exist, but I'm glad it does.

Similar cultural modernisation issues abound just over the water in Ireland, although Unicode apparently regards Gaelic script as a font variant of Latin. I did notice that a font called CeltScript is linked to in the links section here [0] and has been around a good while. I can imagine the script also had an influence on Tolkien, to say the least [1].

Maybe some of the more ancient cultures of the world should come together more often, celebrate their joint heritage and influence on the world. I'd support a Celtic-First Nations powwow-ceol session, even if not many others would!

\--

[0] - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_type](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_type)

[1] - [http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Celtic](http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Celtic)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is really cool! I'm a conlanger and I'd love a tutorial on creating fonts.

Cherokee Wikipedia looks like it's just getting started: [https://chr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%8E%A4%E1%8E%B5%E1%8E%AE%E...](https://chr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%8E%A4%E1%8E%B5%E1%8E%AE%E1%8E%B5%E1%8F%8D%E1%8F%97)

<comment><USER6> FontForge has a tutorial: [http://designwithfontforge.com/en- US/index.html](http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/index.html) There's also a basic introduction to font design in David Peterson's book: [http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Language-Invention-World- Build...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Language-Invention-World- Building/dp/0143126466)

I've been meaning to learn how to create fonts for my own conlanging purposes for a few months now, but haven't quite gotten around to it yet.

</comment></comment><comment> david-given Unifont supports Cherokee, BTW.

U+13A0..U+13FF: [http://unifoundry.com/png/plane00/uni0013.png](http://unifoundry.com/png/plane00/uni0013.png)

U+AB70..U+ABBF: [http://unifoundry.com/png/plane00/uni00AB.png](http://unifoundry.com/png/plane00/uni00AB.png)

</comment><comment><USER7> Perhaps it makes more sense to contribute this as part of the Google Noto project that is building typefaces for lesser known languages.

There is a very high chance that this will be included into Android by default, so you get the advantage of that reach.

</comment><comment><USER8> Would love to know if there is a way for people to learn the Cherokee language. There's a Cherokee reserve within an hour of my house and I'd love to learn the language.

<comment><USER9> This was ten years ago, but I had a company that made streaming distance learning software and one of our first customers was the Cherokee Nation, who used it for teaching the language online. It seemed to me that teaching the language was a priority.

A bit of looking reveals they now publish archives on YouTube, for example: [https://youtu.be/2DE691WwWac](https://youtu.be/2DE691WwWac) \-- they do seem to get badly out of sync as they go (fact of life in flash video, with no timebase reference, dropped frames basically mean your video gets shorter.)

List of archives here: [http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/Language/OnlineLangua...](http://www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/Language/OnlineLanguageClasses/LessonArchives.aspx)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> With all efforts to preserve endangered languages, there's an implicit assumption that they should be preserved in the heads of human beings. What value does this language and being able to write it have? I've heard people say "preserves the culture", but is there any concrete value to it? Does it help feed people or entertain people, or anything that English wouldn't do just as well?

</comment><comment><USER11> I have at least three Cherokee fonts on my system; wonder why they make it seem like there weren't any. "Its own font" sounds a bit patronizing.</comment>


Party Hacking: Grand St. Builds a Google+ Party Mode Photobooth - <AUTHOR> http://grandst.tumblr.com/post/41711166142/party-hacking-grand-st-builds-a-google-party-mode

<comment><USER2> For my annual holiday party, I just set up my Nexus 7 on a tall bar chair in an area with decent lighting, opened up Instagram, and let people have at it. Was hooked up to my Facebook, so people could post as the party went on.

Setup: [http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- prn1/31539_10101310184...](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- prn1/31539_10101310184421744_2082836394_n.jpg) Setup 2: [http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- snc6/184455_1010131018...](http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos- snc6/184455_10101310184456674_1282306962_n.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER3> This party mode they used sounds a lot like the original goal of color before they changed their business to....buzzwords? I dont even know. But this sounds very cool. To Sad that it will probably never be really used as there are just to few people on G+.

<comment><USER4> Yeah there have been a few apps that have attempted things like this (including Color to an extent).

As for G+ -- another reason that this is so great is that you can make the events private so only the people involved in the even can see the pictures later. And everyone with gmail can then access the photos if they are invited.

While I agree with you that people don't usually use G+, I would say most of the people who came to these parties asked to be invited to the G+ event so they could get @ the pictures or upload their own. They also allow for everyone to download the full size image (in our case ~4MB) while facebook compresses everything you upload.

<comment><USER3> The question I am asking myself is, are those cool features enough for people to join G+. They wouldn't even have to switch from FB but G+ for Use Cases like this sounds just to cool (hi-res pictures, event coverage...)

As it has been stated a million times before, I dont know anyone of my non- techie friends who even considered signing up G+, I would bet most of them dont even know what this is.

There were a couple of articles a few months back (facebook IPO perhaps? I dont remember) that facebook 'doesn't get mobile'. Whether this is true or not, I sense there is is some missed opportunity by google here to promote their services. Sponsor big events and parties (SXSW, nightclubs, concerts) to establish themself as a better picture sharing service.

For me, the only use case currently for G+ is as a 'better skype' for videochat with multiple people. Perhaps its time to attack other seemingly niche use cases and grow from there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Good work. For comparison, this is what pros do with their photobooth: [http://www.theimageisfound.com/crazybooth/index2.php#/galler...](http://www.theimageisfound.com/crazybooth/index2.php#/gallery1/1/) (flash, sorry)</comment>


A Classical Math Problem Gets Pulled into the Modern World - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-classical-math-problem-gets-pulled-into-the-modern-world-20180523/ <comment><USER2> I first came across names of authors from Control Design along Trajectories with Sums of Squares Programming [https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.0888](https://arxiv.org/abs/1210.0888) which mainly used SoS as a tool. It seems they are doing (probably as a necessity) research on SoS itself!

</comment><comment><USER3> The article takes a while to get to the heart of the matter, so, even though I do work in this area, it took a solid three paragraphs to realize that this was talking about sum of squares (SoS) optimization.

The whole field is interesting because a lot of problems can be phrased as optimization over non-negative polynomials (e.g. finding Lyapunov functions for systems which gives you stability results). The problem? Optimizing over non-negative polynomials is NP hard and non-convex. On the other hand, we know SoS polynomials are (a) nonnegative and (b) easy to optimize over (this is equivalent to a semi-definite program, which is a convex program and therefore "easy" to solve), so we optimize over those instead.

The problem, of course, is that there are non-negative polynomials which are not SoS polynomials, but it turns out this latter class is large enough to be useful in many cases.

The authors of the current paper show that, in fact, you do not need to solve a semi-definite program (SDP), but instead can phrase the original problem as a sequence of linear programs. To give you an idea, the best known bounds right now for SDPs are roughly O(n^3) in practice (with large leading constants) where n is the number of variables (assuming a small number of constraints), while for linear programs these bounds are O(mn^2), where m is the number of constraints.

For large n, the blowup in computational time is spectacular. To give you an idea: solving a linear program with a thousand variables and roughly ten thousand constraints takes around 3 seconds on my 2015 MBP 13". Solving an SDP with 10 variables and ten thousand constraints takes upwards of twenty minutes (these 10k constraints are really just one equality constraint, but the matrices in the constraint are 100x100).

Of course, having structure in your SDP can make life a lot easier (it turns out that sparse SDPs are extremely fast to solve, if the sparsity pattern is a special case called Chordal sparsity). For further fun, a lot of NP-hard problems can be phrased as simple nonnegative polynomial programs, and their respective SoS relaxations form what is called a "hierarchy" of relaxations. You can get whatever accuracy you want on these problems, except that you pay with an exponential blowup of variables or constraints.

———

Apologies in advance for the (likely many) typos since I'm walking and typing this on my phone.

EDIT: one of the professors I've taught for has a great set of slides on SoS and respective relaxation. If you have a little bit of background in optimization, I would highly recommend them [0]!

[0]: [https://stanford.edu/class/ee364b/lectures/sos_slides.pdf](https://stanford.edu/class/ee364b/lectures/sos_slides.pdf)

<comment><USER4> Do you have any textbooks recommendations for learning about semidefinite programming targeted at the level of, say, a math grad student?

<comment><USER3> The usual good starting point is Boyd's _Convex Optimization_ , for a relatively rigorous but also quite practical book. The second usual, quite a bit more rigorous case is Rockafellar's _Convex Analysis_ , but this one deals only with general analysis as opposed to also including applications and algorithms. I highly recommend Boyd's book, even for a mathematician ;) since it gives a lot of great motivation and is superbly written in a relatively casual yet clear style.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > iron-clad proof that drone aircraft and autonomous cars won't crash into > trees or veer into oncoming traffic

Utter bollocks.

</comment><comment><USER6> The example application is really dumb. The challenge for autonomous driving isn't so much planning a course through the world, it's creating a model of the world in the first place.

<comment><USER3> Agreed, the example presented in the article isn't even an (actually useful) application of the original problem. SoS is useful for generating certificates of the stability of controls, rather than generating actual trajectories. That latter part is relatively easy via some simple heuristics.

Point being: it is possible to generate trajectories using SoS, but we have much better algorithms to do that. Rather, it's hard to certify that controls which follow those trajectories are stable, esp. as they become more complicated than simple ones whose stability is easily proven (like PID, for example).

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting potential applications in Robust Optimization

<comment><USER8> How so?

<comment><USER7> Since the fully adaptable solution of an Robust Optimization problem is typically intractable, people try to approximate it with decision rules. Linear, piecewise linear, binary, and less frequently with polynomial rules. This paper seems to help the polynomial case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The article did not seem clear to as to whether polynomial (non)negativity is needed to FIND THE BEST PATH, or to know if there IS a valid path.

<comment><USER3> Both are true. If there is such a path, then it can be found and is returned, otherwise a verifiable certificate that there is no such path is returned.</comment></comment>


How to Fight Unconscious Bias and Become a Better Ally - <AUTHOR> https://spin.atomicobject.com/2015/06/08/unconscious-bias-software/ <comment><USER2> This characteristically mixes two different political projects that have varying levels of support in the more general community:

One is __bias __: take, for example, the archetypal example of orchestra musicians sampling their work behind a curtain so directors can be less unfair when hiring: gender distributions have indeed significantly shifted, because we 've removed gender out of view for a critical moment. This, of course, doesn't work if said director is a raging misogynist who will scream "no! no women!" when the curtain reveals the looks of whom he had approved.

The other is __underrepresentation __. This takes as a given that {women, racial minorities, the mentally ill...} should be represented in important positions in rough proportion to their general share of the population. Now, there are reasons to support this in some cases: preventing that injustices from one generation pass on to the next, for example, or ensuring that the unique contribution that epileptic cyclops can give to the world of cinema. But:

\-- __not everyone that 's in opposition to bias is also in opposition to underrepresentation per se __. It 's just dishonest to mix the two; particularly in tech circles that have had a long, there's-one-right-answer culture that might not be perceived as benefiting from increased diversity at all. There's also the wider issue of whether diversity should be means to an end or an end unto itself.

(I mean, these are positions that exist. What bothers me is the Trojan horse mechanics at play; it predisposes me against one side when I really haven't thought enough about the subject to have a proper opinion.)

<comment><USER3> It's a good idea to clearly articulate the two situations and how they interact, but it isn't like you can decouple them in practice so some mixing is natural.

<comment><USER2> Well, not in the stuff of policy, but yes in its feedback rules.

There's (1) symptom/diagnosis distinction (sure, treating the disease eventually cures the symptoms, but we're evaluating it against associated causality and prognosis concepts) and (2) a matter of ethical structure (i.e. deontology vs. consequentialism).

#1 is why they should be separated in theoretical terms. #2 is why they're distinct political programs.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Age bias is so obvious that its actually celebrated. Look at this example from Jetbrains Jobs page [https://www.jetbrains.com/company/jobs/](https://www.jetbrains.com/company/jobs/)

      We offer:
       Fascinating work in a friendly, young team

<comment><USER5> Fluid intelligence peaks by the early 20s and then declines with age, so "age bias" is rational. When the law mandates non-economic behavior, some people will ignore the law.

<comment><USER6> Even if that's true (citation needed), "fluid intelligence" isn't the end-all of important intelligence at work. You need people who aren't distracted by the newest shiny reinvention of some old thing. You need mastery, which can only be gained by time in the trenches.

<comment><USER5> From the Wikipedia, which has references:

'Fluid intelligence, like reaction time, typically peaks in young adulthood and then steadily declines. This decline may be related to local atrophy of the brain in the right cerebellum. Other researchers have suggested that a lack of practice, along with age-related changes in the brain may contribute to the decline.'

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The article is confusing a _prior_ with a _bias_. They aren't the same thing. A prior is a belief you hold before any evidence is present. A bias is a failure to properly update your beliefs after obtaining evidence.

Believing a woman at a tech conference is a recruiter (before interacting with her) is merely a prior. In my experience it's also a reasonably accurate one. If one were to fail to change that opinion after a woman claims she is a developer, that would be a bias.

<comment><USER8> If we were only concerned with making accurate predictions, then all of that would be fine.

But the point of the article is less about the accuracy of our predictions, and more about the effects that our priors may have on others.

If a female technologist attends a tech conference and gets asked 100 times "are you in HR?", it's very likely that she'll feel unwelcome and discouraged. And her reaction to the questions will have absolutely nothing to do with whether the people doing the asking had a "prior" or a "bias".

Creating a welcoming atmosphere for women in technology means that you avoid asking that question _despite_ the fact that the prior may be accurate.

<comment><USER7> If that's what the article is arguing, it should just say so. I.e., it should say "you should make bad decisions, hold incorrect beliefs, and waste time talking to recruiters in order to make female developers happier".

I'm not arguing with the actual message, I'm merely calling for accurate language.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> So - does anyone have a good understanding of the quality science behind those implicit association tests?

To be honest - I tend to take any psychology results with a grain of salt... given the crisis of replicability that it is currently facing.

<comment><USER10> The amount of testing behind association tests is pretty large, it's uncontroversial at this point.

<comment><USER9> I've been reading some overviews - I'm already disturbed.

The assumption is that the difference in response times between the association of categories reveals preferences. And they tested by using groups that were expected beforehand to have certain preferences (boys liking insects more than flowers and vice versa for girls correlated with their reaction times).

But when faced with circumstances where these reactions DON'T correlate with self-reports, the conclusion is that the test reveals unconscious biases. If they confirmed their hypothesis about reaction times with groups that correlated - what entitles them to infer this further variable of unconscious bias to defend their hypothesis where the correlation fails?

Uggh... I can see it's going to take an enormous amount of time to find in the enormous literature a decent answer to this question. I can't be bothered.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> There are some other things you can do that don't rely on your effort level to police your own thoughts:

\- don't speak, let those you want to support speak instead

\- remove names from resumes on first few passes

</comment><comment><USER12> Could this be something that is a bit of a mix of age/gender bias? I can't help but think that someone 40+ years old would be more likely to speak those kind of things.

For men of my age (my perspective/experiences), the examples look more like this:

\- "That young person over there? Must be an intern or just came into the field"

\- "Back in my day we did it with punch cards, boy"

\- "So easy even your grandparents could do it."

<comment><USER13> I'm young, 6'6 and work in IT. The two statements I hear the most are 1. Do you play Basketball and 2. I remember when punchcards... blah blah blah...

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> EDIT: Semantics follow. Also, trigger warning -- someone has an opinion on the Internet. Since it isn't identical to yours, butthurt may ensue.

I don't want to be a _better ally_ , and it's condescending for anyone to demand it.

Definition:

The enemy of your enemy is your ally. (Remix of "the enemy of your enemy is your friend".)

If I and another person are fighting a common enemy, I don't suddenly earn the privilege of telling them how to conduct themselves in their own affairs. Nor does it similarly empower them to make demands of me.

We agree that the enemy we're fighting is a problem. That's all being an ally means. It doesn't imply any sort of deeper relationship, just a common goal.

The concept of "a better ally" is not compatible here.

"Well, we're on the same side, but you're not good enough of an ally for my standards."

<comment><USER15> First of all, who is demanding it? This article is telling people who do want to help people who are underrepresented and face discrimination in technology a way in which they can do better.

I, for one, like knowing how to do better. Even if I'm doing an adequate job, I appreciate when my employees tell me that I could be more productive if I changed how I worked. I enjoy acting on that change and becoming better, and seeing how changing my actions makes things run more smoothly. This situation is not very different.

I think the brunt of what you're saying comes down to saying 'I don't want to be a better ally' \-- why not?

When you're working on a team or towards a shared agenda, you should try and communicate and best understand how to interact with the people that you're working with -- this is just basic teamwork... When you're a member of the group that's part of the problem, you should probably grant more weight to what the group that is suffering discrimination/bias is saying.

Let me decode what 'you're not a good enough ally for my standards' means -- it means you're still being a dick, and not listening to what people are saying. It means you're still part of the problem. The things that were talked about in this article are things that my fiancee faces in her job as an SDE at Amazon with an unbelievable, near daily frequency, and it really irks me when people decide to put their head in the sand about it.

<comment><USER14> > I think the brunt of what you're saying comes down to saying 'I don't want > to be a better ally' \-- why not?

No, I'm arguing against the use of the word "ally".

I'll do whatever I can to help people who are discriminated against, but as soon as the measuring stick of "quality of alliance" comes out, I check right the fuck out and hop on the express train to Nopesville. I refuse to have any part in this stupid torture of the English language.

<comment><USER15> What would you prefer to call it? If you'd prefer to use feminism as an abstraction you can break it down as follows:

Feminism is a women's movement for women by women. I am not a woman, so I cannot be a feminist, but I can be a feminist ally.

The same thread of logic follows for the other movements.

As we're talking about the movement of feminism, the "quality of alliance" can be clearly shown by the alignment of your attitudes with the movement's and your support for women you see facing issues related to patriarchal systems/biases. I fail to see how this is a torture of the English language. The same is done with international politics -- clearly we have ways that countries can be better allies to the U.S., if we're making the U.S. the center of focus. Whether or not we should do that is a different discussion.

<comment><USER14> > Feminism is a women's movement for women by women. I am not a woman, so I > cannot be a feminist, but I can be a feminist ally.

> What would you prefer to call it?

I'd prefer the use of the compound noun "feminist ally" over the generic and ambiguous noun "ally".

> I fail to see how this is a torture of the English language.

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

Slight exaggeration for the sake of humor.

<comment><USER15> That's a fair point. Ambiguous use of ally does presume a lot, and does make things a bit more murky.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask Hackers: What to do after successfully build Firefox 3.5? - <AUTHOR>

I recently downloaded Firefox trunk from Mercurial repository of Mozilla. I have managed to build Firefox successfully on my windows XP machine. Any suggestion for a beginner to Firefox code base? I'm specifically looking to the GUI code. Thanks <comment><USER2> What's your goal?</comment>


Ask HN: Would you join a social network run by a non-profit? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> The tracking and data mining is only one problem, another is having my data locked in a silo. What I'd like from a social network is for it to be more like an RSS reader: my posts should be followable via RSS, and my news feed should just be an RSS reader from which I can follow others on the same network and from outside the network. That's a pretty simple way to get me interested.

I also would like if messaging would be handled by something like an email address (like Facebook added and then removed once upon a time), or better yet a derivative of email that's easier to self-host and encrypted by default (maybe something like matrix.org).

To me, working to break down the huge silos is the best thing a non-profit social network could bring. And, to be completely honest, I'm not sure I'd even join it, because in this system I'd be able to participate without joining the network so I could just self-host my website (and RSS feed) and use my own feed reader as I do now.

EDIT to expand on this after thinking about it a bit. Since podcasting has been the most successful use case for RSS so far, perhaps a good way to go forward with the above idea would be to allow attaching arbitrary files to posts, and to embed images/audio/video (as they're be embedded on Facebook). This would make it easy to host a podcast/video feed, or image feed on the network while still being a part of the larger open podcasting/video/visual art communities, and it'd be easy to follow. This could provide a decent avenue for advertising the network to certain segments of potential users. And (as long as you embedded items with simple img/audio/video html tags) communities like the free software community and the open web community would probably be pretty ecstatic about it at the very least.

<comment><AUTHOR> you'd make a great microsoft exec. embrace and extend. it's a good idea btw.

<comment><USER2> I'll put you down as a reference next time I apply to Microsoft! :)

If you're working on a social network, can you share more about what you're thinking about building and what stage you're at?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> A non-profit is run by real people and a social network needs an infrastructure. There are a lot of bills to be paid. The money paying the bills was obviously earned by someone doing things for profit or is donated by a lottery winner. I don't trust lottery winners, especially when they want to manage my personal data "for free".

If you're not paying for the product, you are the product. That's why I only use social networks with a realistic monthly/annual fee, like Xing.com or meetup.com.

<comment><USER4> What about Firefox, Linux, jQuery? Am I their product?

A lot of Facebook's infrastructure is about advertising and tracking. Also, if you could run some kind of P2P social network you distribute a lot of the costs.

So I disagree that the choice is between a large corporate-owned social network or no social network at all. A non-profit network is feasible, if tremendously difficult.

<comment><USER3> As a Linux user I have to admit this is a good argument.

I like how DHH thinks about it. Make a simple product (with his own words: it is not rocket surgery) which solves problems, do it for-profit and put a price on it. After earning your salary and paying your bills you can still do rocket surgery for fun and give back to the community. Or do it also for profit promoting yourself as a professional or even your product. That's totally fine for me because in Rework he even points out that this is the part of the Basecamp marketing strategy (Out-teach your competition).

If someone brands his social network as "non-profit" only to put ads on my screen hoping for my paid op-out, that is not OK for me. I trust humans who work for real money and sometimes give back to the community but I don't trust saints.

Anyhow, we may be different and that is totally OK.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not trying to come off as a true saint. I just believe marketplaces shouldn't be run by corporations. All these corporations are sucking the life out of the economy by imposing monopolistic taxes on everyone in their "networks".

Why because VC only fund monopolies and the stock market rewards giant hoards of cash off-shore. Is it fueled by jealousy, some, but imagine if all the businesses your talking about didn't have to pay 70 cents a click to advertise and they were rotated or some other more user friendly way display ads. or if you bought enough through a marketplace to cover your own costs you didn't need to see any ads.

Non-profits aren't bound to maximize profits they just have to cover costs.

I think it would be more of a protocol than a service.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Most of us even joined one by a for-profit. The problem is how to get my friends to move with me anywhere. Locked-in, network-effect, hen and egg problems

</comment><comment><USER6> I'm waiting for a distributed system, any non-profit has to comply with government censorship.

<comment><AUTHOR> The problem with completely anonymous encrypted "speech"(assuming speech enables transactions) is it comes with some nasty side effects. Murder for hire, child porn, terrorism recruitment among others. Does any government have it right absolutely not.

But, to me those are the types of battles you would need to be willing to die for as well as your sons and daughters because your enemies are.

<comment><USER7> Why not treat anonymity as opt-in?

Not everyone is paranoid about government espionage, data mining, etc, but if you are, then you'll have to deal with the additional baggage that anonymity brings to the table.

<comment><AUTHOR> how could you be sure the site/app wasn't a honeypot for government.

<comment><USER7> You can't, it is impossible to build a decentralized and distributed database which prevents access to bad actors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> No I'm bored of social networks. My email and phone number really are sufficient

</comment><comment><USER9> That depends on whether there are enough real people on it, and it is a vicious circle because everyone would think the same. That said, if you can create one without all the stuff people hate about current social networks, you might make it attractive for enough people to join and set the ball rolling, and I might consider joining. (I am not being facetious.) So it being run by pro profit or non profit is a non issue.

</comment><comment><USER10> As long as I am sure that I am not the product and the non-profit manages to overcome the network effect.

Bonus points for using or interfacing to standards like e-mail, RSS, IRC and the like. Additionally if most of the infrastructure is peer-to-peer. For example a social network based on WebRTC. This way a lot of centralized infrastructure goes away.

</comment><comment><USER11> Yes, as long as I am okay with how such social network treats its user and its data.

I am still quite saddened hat Snake, the cryptographic social network, didn't get the appropriate funding when proposed on indiegogo. [https://snake.li/](https://snake.li/)

<comment><USER12> I'm really disappointed that I had never heard of it until now. That looks like something I would actually join.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Non-profit is an orthogonal matter.

I think I'd much rather join a network where I'm in control of data. With tech-progress in p2p and the blockchains, I think the building blocks are already present for this kind of a network. If this were run by a non-profit, all the better.

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't care either way as long as there are people I care about socializing with on the service.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm pretty sure a lot of people feel they way you do.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> what would you like to see different from FB, LinkedIn etc.

<comment><USER15> probably the wrong question to ask. As has been pointed out, the key feature is "are my friends on it or is it easy to get them on it?" I can't think of a feature that would get the average FB user to switch.

<comment><AUTHOR> if even someone comes up with a feature facebook it needs to not implement it after it catches on. pinterest, periscope, etc. not saying I have a good plan just interested in other peoples thoughts.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> if you pay me $5 i'll join :-)</comment>


What's Wrong with Healthcare.gov: A Technical Run-Down - <AUTHOR> http://www.additiveanalytics.com/blog/whats-wrong-healthcare-gov-technical-run/

<comment><USER2> > The site is 500 million lines of code—an astonishing size for a web service, > let alone a new one.

I wish people would stop repeating this.

<comment><USER3> "For comparison, a space shuttle"

What is a space shuttle? Do they mean a space shuttle cargo bay full of backup tapes or microsd cards, which at orbit speed is pretty good bandwidth? Do they mean the PASS implementation, or the separately developed BFS implementation, or both added together, or which ever is larger (probably PASS?)? I can assume they don't even know the main computer doesn't run the engines directly, they have their own dedicated controllers. Along with pretty much every other system and payload that hooks up to electrical power. Does he mean the original mechanical avionics or the 90s glass cockpit upgrade? Oh wait, I bet I know, he pulled out a random number that sounded nice. That's the ticket.

And obviously 'bamacare was implemented in HAL/S just like the shuttle computers, so that's a Very meaningful direct comparison.

(Edited to add, I think I figured out how he came up with 400Kloc for the shuttle. PASS ran in quadruplicate on 4 of 5 processors (he's probably ignoring the BFS implementation) so to someone who doesn't know anything about computers, that means 4 computers each with 100Kloc. Now HAL/S has a strange source format where you can specify sub/super scripts on separate lines, so each "line of code" takes up 3 lines of text (superscript, text, and subscript) so thats 33K or so what we'd call LOC. Now each AP-101 has a general processor which does the work and an IO processor. The IO processor, critically, has about 25K words of ram, which is suspiciously rounding error compatible with the 33K or so lines of code we're hearing about. It is of course bogus and meaningless numerology, which means its perfect for the article.)</comment></comment>


Module Hub – The Redis Modules Marketplace - <AUTHOR> http://redismodules.com/ <comment><USER2> Interesting that they chose AGPL as the license for their modules (as opposed to BSD for core redis).

It's good to see such an important project adopt a viral copyleft license. Hope this will help the redis developers to monetize on the huge momentum they've built in the past years.

</comment><comment><USER3> Anybody tried the graphicsmagick module?

[http://redismodules.com/modules/graphicsmagick-2/](http://redismodules.com/modules/graphicsmagick-2/)

Curious how it stacks up against imagemagick in terms of features and performance.

</comment><comment><USER4> Where can we find the source code for the AGPL modules from Redis Labs? I checked [https://github.com/RedisLabs?tab=repositories](https://github.com/RedisLabs?tab=repositories) but didn't see them.

<comment><USER5> Different org: [https://github.com/RedisLabsModules](https://github.com/RedisLabsModules)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Do anyone have an updated ETA on when the new release of redis, with support of these modules will be available?

Working on a project that would greatly benefit for a custom redis module.

</comment><comment><USER7> Great website. Doesn't work without javascript and can't open the details view of a module in a new tab.

<comment><USER5> ty - looking into it

<comment><USER5> Updates pushed online - thanks again.

<comment><USER7> Great update. Thanks

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I assume by "marketplace" you'll also be able to sell/buy ?

<comment><USER5> That's one of the ideas. Developers who wish to monetize off their work will be able to do so and immediately have their modules available from the biggest Redis distribution channels.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Are these modules all enabled on RedisCloud plans?

<comment><USER5> As modules are still not GA, no. Going forward, modules from the Hub will be available for open source Redis, Redis Cloud and Redis Labs Enterprise Cluster.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Weird times coming. Either way, i like the idea

<comment><USER11> I agree. I'm particularly interested in the full text search module. A lot of libraries that manipulate data structures in Redis could benefit from being able to modify data as a Redis module.

<comment><USER12> Author of that module here. I'm recovering from jet lag after flying back from redisconf, and hope to open it in a couple of days. Mostly cleanup and some documentation left.

<comment><USER5> FoA here - it is gonna be awesome #FTFTW :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Land of No RF - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32758042

<comment><USER2> I just tried to submit this only to find out it had already been submitted. Interesting article.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agreed. I guess HN in general does not share our sentiment, though NPR did the same story in 2013.</comment></comment>


Trump says Tim Cook made 'good case' that trade war helps Samsung over Apple - sneeze-slayer https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/18/20811555/trump-tim-cook-tariffs-samsung-china-trade-war <comment><AUTHOR> This meeting was _after_ the recent announcement that tariffs wouldn't be applied to phones?

Wonder what more apple was after.</comment>


Ithkuil, an invented language (for humans) - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/12/24/121224fa_fact_foer?currentPage=all

<comment><USER2> as intriguing as it might seem at first, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which suggests that the language you speak is closely related to the way you actually think and that enhancing the language will enhance your cognitive abilities, stands on weak grounds, and for all who, like myself, are intrigued by it, I'd suggest an insightful reading: The Language Instinct, by Stephen Pinker.

In this brilliant book, you will find, among other things, good arguments that might lead you to reconsider the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

That said, I still find conlanging a very fine and amusing intellectual endeavour and among conlangs I find Ithkuil to be one of the most interesting examples (my nick is just a tribute to it, I am in no other way related to it).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Language_Instinct>

</comment><comment><USER3> The interesting question is why the constructed languages never gain wider acceptance. The only example of (semi-) constructed language that became first language for a lot of people I can think of is Ivrit:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revival_of_the_Hebrew_language></comment>


DRM is going to live long - <AUTHOR> http://foftv.com/2013/09/23/digital-rights-managment-vs-free-content/

<comment><USER2> > DRM [will] exist as long as the content exists [for] any form of > entertainment that is digitally transmitted.

It's a bit more complicated than that.

True, HDCP shows a pretty aggressive spread of content protection into wires. BluRay doubled down on protecting physical discs even during the DeCSS art movement, when most of us were starting to view such efforts as futile.

Smashwords and other indie ebook publishers vs. Amazon and Google Books... it's a mixed field in eBooks, with DRM admittedly still largely dominant.

That's not wholly dissimilar to the status of AAC vs. mp3 in the marketplace for the first six years of iTunes though. DRM lost that round.

Will that happen again though? It's really impossible to know.

That exception relied on the particular marketplace factors at the time, such as Amazon's desire to spend a large amount of money to challenge Apple's monopoly, relying on the working examples of other unencumbered music sellers, like eMusic, to convince music publishers DRM wasn't necessary, and the widespread use of mp3s prior to the development of the mature digital music market.

We sometimes make the mistake of forecasting about technology based on first principles, imagining a utopia or dystopia enabled by technology, then running with it. It's easy to ignore the many contingencies involved, such as human institutions, cultural factors, even chance.

Tangential, but relevant, a recent Freakonomics podcast on "The Folly of Prediction:" [http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/14/new-freakonomics-radio- po...](http://freakonomics.com/2011/09/14/new-freakonomics-radio-podcast-the- folly-of-prediction/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment and the link. Considering the situation the market has been since some time resulted in my prediction. I am not saying we would be stuck with DRM alone. Some sort of protection mechanism will be in place. The problem is that we cannot compare music industry to video or broadcast industry. The amount of money involved in each of these industries varies much. The expensive your product is you would want to protect it.</comment></comment>


Creepy guys inspire Seattle women to make a new dating app - <AUTHOR> http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024665918_sirendatingappxml.html <comment><USER2> Siren is great! I got in pretty early (friend is friends with the people who founded it) and it's been nice to use. Answering questions of the day usually works for matching with people, and the community also puts on some excellent events. One of them had an architect present on the history of erotic spaces, and another presentation on the influence of Leigh Bowery[0] on costume design (seriously, you start to see stuff inspired by him everywhere). It was a step outside the techie bubble which I haven't seen often.

In general I think the sex-positive nature of Siren will help it in the dating apps scene. Recognition of the asymmetry of experience between women and men on straight dating apps is implemented well, including a recommendation system between women. Fills a void between OkCupid and Tinder.

[0][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Bowery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Bowery)

</comment><comment><USER3> What an awful decade this is to be a single man. Men have been so vilified that now mere acts of courtship (not the strawman examples in the article), are considered misogyny.

With rising trends of authoritarianism in the western world, it's almost like we're getting our own anti-sex league a la 1984.

This isn't progress: it's repression.

<comment><USER4> >Men have been so vilified that now mere acts of courtship

Please provide examples.

 _Strawman:_ a person compared to a straw image; a sham. a sham argument set up to be defeated.

How exactly are the examples in the article, which the app author states she experienced in her own life, shams or arguments set up to be defeated?

<comment><USER5> When talking about vilification, I think the poster is referring to articles like this:

[http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious- wavefunction...](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious- wavefunction/2014/07/11/richard-feynman-sexism-and-changing-perceptions-of-a- scientific-icon/)

that say things like

>What startled me the most was the fact that when he was a young, boyish looking professor at Cornell, Feynman used to pretend to be a student so he could ask undergraduate women out. I suspect that this kind of behavior on the part of a contemporary professor would almost certainly lead to harsh disciplinary action, as it should. The behavior was clearly, egregiously wrong and when I read about it my view of Feynman definitely went down a notch, and a large notch at that.

Oh no! He was attracted to and dated women! How terrible!

<comment><USER6> >> Oh no! He was attracted to and dated women! How terrible!

No one is taking him down a notch for being attracted to/dating women. It's his chosen techniques in doing so.

I'm going to say on a whole, most females enjoy being considered attractive and enjoy being dated. There just happens to be quite a few ways you can fuck up going about it. Deception is one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > Lee hopes to change the nature of the messages and put women in the driver's > seat, which is what Siren was originally going to be called.

What a </ expletive> joke. Women are already completely in the driver's seat, as evidenced by the statistics presented in the article.

> Lee said: "In 2014, it's very hard for a woman to be both professional and > sexual."

Funny because in 2014, it's very hard for men to have sex at all if they have standards.

Let's be clear: Women have insane leverage over dating and this site is merely an attempt to better capitalize on this leverage. "Let's make men jump through a bunch of hoops, because they are at such a disadvantage that they will have to."

I'm not saying that any of that is the explicit intention of the site creator, but only that it is the "invisible hand" of the dating market at work. No pun intended.

</comment><comment><USER8> > [Siren] allows women to peruse men's pictures and their answers to the > "Question of the Day" ("You found a magic lamp and get three wishes. What > are they?") and view their Video Challenges ("Show us a hidden gem in > Seattle"). If a woman is suitably impressed by a man's answers, she can make > herself visible to him. Only then can he see what she looks like.

So they fixed the use case where the woman's photo is exposed, but leave the same problem for guys?

I've had a couple creepy female stalkers, and honestly, would prefer the same protection they're offering women. It's certainly the case that dating sites are dominated by creepy men, but a high ratio doesn't necessarily translate to a lack of problematic female actors. As a side issue, the fundamental gender imbalance of the website actually legitimizes the problematic world view that creates many of these problematic guys in the first place - namely that relations are a game in which women hold the power and they just need to play a numbers game if they want to win, with perhaps adjusting their wording to slip by filters.

Further, I don't think this app actually solves the problem it attempts to: it actually lowers the effort on the part of bad actors, since they only need to maintain one profile rather than messaging many women. I'm not sure how they're proposing to have women sort through a large number of profiles that are made by bad actors any more than they could sort through a large number of messages made by bad actors, nor do I think that filtering the profiles is a fundamentally easier task than filtering the messages would have been. (Actually, I think the opposite: that it's easier to make a misleading profile than a misleading message.)

Glad to see another sexist project pitched as a solution to social problems.

Ed:

I actually want to tone down my comment a bit, but will leave the original wording as is. I don't mean to condemn the authors, because they're addressing a complicated and sensitive issue without any known solutions. That being said, while I think their hearts were in the right place, their execution seems to focus primarily on /their/ issues, while completely ignoring the issues faced by the other side of the equation. Programming things that solve your problems and not other peoples is hardly unique to this case or a new development (heck, it might be the hallmark of software), but it's disappointing in this case, because they clearly have many well thought out features, that unfortunately, I'm completely unable to take advantage of to solve my problems or my issues with online dating.

Let me say that again: the inherent sexism of the app is particularly disappointing, because while it does many of the things I'd want in a dating app, it refuses to let me use them and instead frames me as enemy-until- proven-otherwise.

I just don't understand, at a fundamental level, why both sides don't have their pictures hidden and only be allowed to interact via their video/question/etc interface until both sides approve. (Well, I have one conjecture, but I'm reluctant to ascribe it as true: that they're tacitly admitting women want eye candy, not just personality, and that their app isn't meant to serve the interests of men.)

<comment><USER9> the term sexism is reduced to meaninglessness when you're applying it to men not being allowed to see womens' pictures without permission

<comment><USER8> My apologies, I probably should've used the phrase "gender discrimination" or "discriminating based on gender", since there is no large scale institution discrimination accompanying it, though this particular app is institutionalizing different roles based on gender.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Has no site tried to apply the standard techniques used by email providers to deal with spam? Ex. Spam filter trained to recognize spammers and harrasers.

</comment><comment><USER11> Slutty girls inspire Seattle men to make a new hookup app.

Problem?</comment>