PlayStation 3 Hacker Must Allow Sony to Inspect His Hard Drive - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/playstation3-hacker-files/

<comment><USER2> Streisand effect[1] for the win.

Top comments on both this wired article and other linked ones has the code[2].

This judge is sorely out of touch with what's going on.

Also, _"Sony is also asking Judge Illston to order Google to surrender the IP addresses [.pdf] and other identifying information of those who have viewed or commented about the jailbreak video on Hotz' private YouTube page. The game maker is also demanding that Twitter provide the identities of a host of hackers who first unveiled a limited version of the hack in December."_ ...take from that what you will.

Searching[3] for the strings in question[4] yields 11k+ results.

[1]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect>

[2]: [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/playstation3-hacker...](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/02/playstation3-hacker- files/#comment-144418485)

[3]: [http://www.google.com/search?&q=erk:+C0+CE+FE+84+C2+27+F...](http://www.google.com/search?&q=erk:+C0+CE+FE+84+C2+27+F7+5B+D0+7A+7E+B8+46+50+9F+93+B2+38+E7+70+DA+CB+9F+F4+A3+88+F8+12+48+2B+E2+1Briv:+47+EE+74+54+E4+77+4C+C9+B8+96+0C+7B+59+F4+C1+4Dpub:+C2+D4+AA+F3+19+35+50+19+AF+99+D4+4E+2B+58+CA+29+25+2C+89+12+3D+11+D6+21+8F+40+B1+38+CA+B2+9B+71+01+F3+AE+B7+2A+97+50+19R:+80+6E+07+8F+A1+52+97+90+CE+1A+AE+02+BA+DD+6F+AA+A6+AF+74+17n:+E1+3A+7E+BC+3A+CC+EB+1C+B5+6C+C8+60+FC+AB+DB+6A+04+8C+55+E1K:+BA+90+55+91+68+61+B9+77+ED+CB+ED+92+00+50+92+F6+6C+7A+3D+8DDa:+C5+B2+BF+A1+A4+13+DD+16+F2+6D+31+C0+F2+ED+47+20+DC+FB+06+70)

[4]:

erk: C0 CE FE 84 C2 27 F7 5B D0 7A 7E B8 46 50 9F 93 B2 38 E7 70 DA CB 9F F4 A3 88 F8 12 48 2B E2 1B

riv: 47 EE 74 54 E4 77 4C C9 B8 96 0C 7B 59 F4 C1 4D

pub: C2 D4 AA F3 19 35 50 19 AF 99 D4 4E 2B 58 CA 29 25 2C 89 12 3D 11 D6 21 8F 40 B1 38 CA B2 9B 71 01 F3 AE B7 2A 97 50 19

R: 80 6E 07 8F A1 52 97 90 CE 1A AE 02 BA DD 6F AA A6 AF 74 17

n: E1 3A 7E BC 3A CC EB 1C B5 6C C8 60 FC AB DB 6A 04 8C 55 E1

K: BA 90 55 91 68 61 B9 77 ED CB ED 92 00 50 92 F6 6C 7A 3D 8D

Da: C5 B2 BF A1 A4 13 DD 16 F2 6D 31 C0 F2 ED 47 20 DC FB 06 70

<comment><USER3> Even Kevin Butler, VP at PlayStation, retweeted the PS3 dongle key: <http://twitpic.com/3xwe6h>

Edit: OK, he's not really a VP. He's a character played by Jerry Lambert. The advertising company Deutsch/LA controls his Twitter feed. And check out the titles he gives himself in their ads: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgwNyb80L0s&playnext=1...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgwNyb80L0s&playnext=1&list=PLA42396DF11854E22)

<comment><USER4> Fake VP, I should note. He's an advertising construct.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is discovery for a trial, right? What's newsworthy about this? You don't have a right to be free from search and seizure _period_ , only to be free from _unreasonable_ search and seizure, which is to say: (1) demands to compromise your privacy and security have to be mitigate by due process, and (2) Congress can't in the long run be allowed to enact laws that unduly compromise that due process.

It isn't the DMCA _per se_ that's allowing Sony to search the guy's drive, is it? It's civil law procedure. Companies routinely have to fork over years and years worth of mail spools for similar reasons.

<comment><USER6> This was exactly what I dove into the comments to say. You're 100% correct; this is routine discovery.

Look, do I like the merits of Sony's arguments? Absolutely not. Do I hope this kid wins? Yes. But there's nothing that nuts going on so far; save your anger for the verdict.

As an aside, who ever is advising Sony is an idiot. The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit.

<comment><USER7> _As an aside, who ever is advising Sony is an idiot. The bad publicity this is getting Sony has already far outweighed the value of any verdict they get (in both monetary and deterrent value), and anyone could have seen that before they even filed the lawsuit._

Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped buying games? Nearly nobody, and the lawyers are on salary anyway.

The risk that Sony takes by allowing "hacking" to happen is that nobody will write software for their platform, and then the platform dies. Content- creating megacorps want uber-strict DRM, or they take their ball and go home (or to Microsoft). It's stupid of them, but Sony doesn't want to go to a meeting with a content house and say, "anyone can pirate your stuff if they want to".

Hence all the DRM schemes that don't work. They are not to prevent you from copying things, they are so Sony (or Amazon, or Hulu, or...) can tell the content creators "oh yeah, your shit will be secure". It's not, but they made the bean counters happy.

So really, this seems like the right action for a psychopathic corporation to take. Maximize BS and maximize profits.

It's a shame someone with a clue is caught in the middle.

<comment><USER8> > Not sure I agree. Who is not buying a PS3 because of this? Who has stopped > buying games?

I've boycotted Sony since the rootkit. I guess I might be "nearly nobody" but I have put Sony products back on the shelf several times in the past few years.

<comment><USER9> With almost 50 million units sold, I can assure you that the consumers that a fraction of a fraction of those consumers know what a "rootkit" is. The costs of the lawsuit are likely much greater than the opportunity cost in lost sales due to bad publicity, so they are well aware of the costs involved. I don't agree with their stance regarding this issue, but you can't blame them for wanting to protect their platform.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Ah kids, gather here by the fire with me, and let me tell you a story of the olden times when you bought a car and could do whatever the hell you wanted with it. Because when you bought the car, you made it your property. You could modify it in whatever way you want. Sure, there were rules if you wanted to take it our for a ride, because others could get hurt. But if you were doing it just for the fun at home, no-one could stop you. You could even go over to your neighbor's house and help him change his car, too. Those were the times.

<comment><USER11> Not only that, but you could run a business where all you did was modify cars for other people!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> > The judge also backed off on an order that Hotz "retrieve" the code from > anybody who he may have forwarded it to.

Good to see the judge is knowledgeable in this area! I'm sure this will end well.

<comment><USER5> If, by "end well", you mean "the judge readily conceded that there was no practical way for this to happen and apologized for the ill-thought-out demand", then know (by reading just a few sentences further) that this already happened.

<comment><USER13> It's a little disturbing the order was ever made, though, because the fact that information can't be retrieved isn't some unique computer complication, it's just generally true. There aren't any media in which you can uncommunicate. (A couple of computer media try to hack it in but they can't recover copies either.) If I were being tried by a judge who did that, I would realize that I've basically already lost, pretty much no matter what happens next.

(Which in this case is probably a null issue. This is an open-and-shut DMCA violation. I disagree with the DMCA but that doesn't change the fact that it's an open-and-shut DMCA violation.)

<comment><USER5> I'm not even a little bit disturbed the order was made. I'm thrilled that the judge backed off and apologized for making the request. Tells me that she's actually listening to the defendant; will be helpful down the road.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The accused has to led the accuser inspect his data? Scary!

I sure hope they use forensic standards such as not the actual hard drive but an image of it. Otherwise the chances to plant some evidence are truly disturbing.

<comment><USER15> Sony won't be involved directly with any part of the forensics.

Their attorneys will contract with a forensics firm who will make an image of the drives (using a write-blocked device like the ones made by Wiebetech or an Encase Fastbloc).

Analysis will not be performed on the actual drive, but on the image.

The defendant's attorney will also receive a copy of this image, ensuring that chain of custody was followed (or else they can sure to try and argue that the evidence has been tampered with).

The images will be checksummed, and I would argue that the odds of evidence being tampered are pretty slim in this instance.

<comment><USER16> > I would argue that the odds of evidence being tampered are pretty slim in > this instance.

Very slim. Not least because if the defendant's legal team get wind of it that's it for any evidence from the drive, period.

Too much risk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> What a f* initiative from The Master of Rootkits Company.

Never ever again I'm going to purchase a Sony product.

<comment><USER7> Not much of a compromise. Who wants a computer that can't run Linux, an MP3 player that only plays ATRAC, and a digital camera that can't take SD cards?

Sony is an evil company, and their products don't make up for it.

<comment><USER18> Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> 52 comments. tptacek has made 48 of them.

</comment><comment><USER20> Sounds like a use case for a TrueCrypt hidden volume.

</comment><comment><USER21> And if he encrypts the data behind true crypt and refuses to give the key, what then? Will he be thrown in jail?</comment>


Twilio Powered Superbowl Drinking Game - <AUTHOR> http://superbowldrinkinggame.com/

<comment><USER2> I like the concept, the only thing that I'm wondering after reading it is what the metrics are for when you will send out the messages.</comment>


SpaceX gets good news from the Air Force on the Zuma mission - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/spacex-gets-good-news-from-the-air-force-on-the-zuma-mission/ <comment> King-Aaron Five dollars says Zuma detached correctly, the mission went to plan, and we'll probably find out about what it actually was years in the future.

<comment><USER2> Nobody has spotted it yet if that is the case:

[http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2018/index.html](http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2018/index.html)

<comment> King-Aaron I love the enthusiasts in the space community - exceptionally good data from them!

You make an extremely valid point though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not just SpaceX critics, but many media outlets, including Ars and The Verge, who weren't willing to give up a headline that was more compelling for readers to click.</comment>


Show HN: BlueOak Server Maximizes the Value of Swagger API for Node.js Devs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/BlueOakJS/blueoak-server <comment><AUTHOR> Take a look at our newly released express.js-based, "swagger-matic", server runtime for Node.js.

BlueOak Server is "swagger-matic" because it maximizes the value of your Swagger API by using it to drive runtime behavior: It loads your Swagger API, connects the paths it defines to your implementation code, exposes that API to the network, and validates that every request is well-formed per that API.

We've got a lot of value from using it on our projects, and hope you will too, or, at least your criticism will help us make it better for us :-)

</comment><comment><USER2> We've built something similar with RAML in Python. It's called Ramses: [https://github.com/ramses-tech/ramses](https://github.com/ramses-tech/ramses)

I like the "single source of truth" concept. It makes a lot of sense IMO.

Does it generate the handlers for you or do you have to write them by hand and hook to the Swagger definition?

<comment><AUTHOR> You write your own handler and use the combination of the `operationId` field and an additional `x-handler` field to location your function. You can think of it like this: `pathHandler = require('${project- root}/handlers/${x-handler}').${operationId}`

The server provides dependency injection so that when you implement your handler-level function it can access several re-usable services to do the "real work". Generally my handlers are limited to getting the parameters off the request, passing them on to a (chain of) service(s) and getting the response back out to the client.

I hope the wiki has some good additional info if you're interested: [https://github.com/blueoakjs/blueoak- server/wiki](https://github.com/blueoakjs/blueoak-server/wiki)</comment></comment>


Happy Birthday to the Suit - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/node/17722802?story_id=17722802

<comment><USER2> As a younger man, I worked in the concrete construction business for exactly 10 hours.

In the morning, we unloaded and placed an entire truckload of foundation forms by hand. In the afternoon, we dug out the ground for a new garage pour, by hand. Then, a full truckload of gravel showed up, and we spread it, by hand.

I fell asleep in the truck on the way back to the yard.

The next day, the owner approached me, gave me $100 dollars cash, and thanked me for my service. That was it. Career over.

I spent the $100 on a new suit. I didn't know what I was going to do for a job, but I knew I wanted that suit as my work clothes.

<comment><USER3> To clarify, you quit, or he fired you because you fell asleep?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I used to work for Bear Stearns. I was thinking of quitting before the crisis hit but had to stay and watch after the day our stock value dropped to $2 a share.

By the time I left I really hated working there. I tell some of the story here: <http://j2labs.net/blog/2010/jan/11/economies-pools-and-piss/>

Anyway, when I moved out of the apartment I had, near Wall St, I threw out my suits. I told myself I'd never take a job that required a suit. The suit felt like a hollow nod between business men that the appearance of success was to be regarded just as highly as the ability to succeed.

I'm less hostile to suits today, but I much prefer to do business with the types of people that also don't like wearing them.

<comment><USER5> Most of the time I work as a contract software and hardware engineer. I usually wear Jeans and a T-shirt for that.

Sometimes I take a short contract doing my old job of management consultant. Then I tell the client I'll wear a suit if they want me to, but I charge $30 per hour more if I do (around a 20% premium). I make it clear that they get the same advice and analysis no matter what I wear. Every client has paid the extra. I'm sure it says something about something, but I'm not really sure what.

<comment><USER6> I really have to disagree with this attitude.

Suits are the great equalizer of clothing. They're designed to downplay the wearer's bodily proportions, and it's very hard to look bad in one. Most people can't tell the difference between a cheap suit, well-tailored, and an expensive one. The suit-and-tie pattern visually draws the eyes toward the wearer's face. Aside from these things, they have very little detail, and that's why they were the post-Depression standard businesswear in America, replacing things like morning coats and top hats and stripey pants.

Computer guys usually don't wear suits because they don't want to spend the extra time and money on them. That's fine. But it should be understood that the typical business casual getup is often visually more distracting than a suit, and does not emphasize the face over the body like a suit does.

You'd be better off just charging everyone $30 extra, and always wearing the suit.

<comment><USER7> I take it you _have_ to wear a suit for work then?

<comment><USER8> I'm not obligated to wear a suit to work, and I don't mainly for reasons of economy and the fact that I'm too lazy to take care them properly. Despite that, I still agree with everything that is said in the grandparent post.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Interesting history of the suit. But while the article sees a future for the suit, to me the suit is history. Suits once denoted upper class, and sumptuary laws prevented lower classes from looking upper. Now suits denote lower middle management in an old economy company. No one aspires to that. Jeans, sweats and t-shirts are the new class separator, indicating which of us have earned the freedom from having to wear suits.

<comment><USER10> Thorstein Veblen, in _The Theory of the Leisure Class_ , has an insight that I think you've missed: Suits make lower-class labor work impossible for the wearer, and are therefore intrinsically a signal of higher class.

That sumptuary laws are gone is not a weakening of the class distinction implied by suits, but a demonstration of their effectiveness.

 _> >No one aspires to that. Jeans, sweats and t-shirts are the new class separator, indicating which of us have earned the freedom from having to wear suits._

The key thing here is that there is a difference between aspiration and ability. Clothes unsuitable for labor merely indicate a commitment to an information occupation. Suits, expensive clothes that look good and are unsuitable for labor, also indicate a social commitment to the organization, a social commitment necessary to advance within the ranks.

In many, if not most, software firms, the way to success is upward through management. For a while, it was through stock options or stock grants. In the latter two scenarios, no social commitment was necessary, so come-as-you-are became the norm.

Come-as-you-are seems to survive for two other reasons. Firstly, the class distinction between partners & the board vs the line-level programmers has to do with ownership, and no amount of coding, whether performed in jeans or in a suit, can help you over that barrier within the organization. Secondly and consequently, the route across that social divide, for the line-level programmer, is via a start-up effort undertaken as a side project, outside the social structure of the worker's organization.

These trends are not heading in a direction that portends an infinite ocean of denim and sweats, but rather for a re-emergence of business casual or even smart casual in the workplace for programmers, and again for suits in the managing establishment. Suits are a signifier that someone is adept at controlling other humans and getting them to perform work for them. The ability to get computers to do useful (capital-capturing) work has upended this temporarily. As this algorithmic market commoditizes, or at least as the exploitable niches fill, the ability to control people instead of machines will become more important again. Even without commoditization and niche- capture, the fitness advantage of being able to control and manage an organization still portends a crystallization of an owning class, complete with ownership regalia, the suit.

The short of it is this: If you program for another organization and don't have an amazing side-project, you might consider the slacks-and-jacket smart casual look if you want to move ahead.

<comment><USER11> _These trends are not heading in a direction that portends an infinite ocean of denim and sweats, but rather for a re-emergence of business casual or even smart casual in the workplace for programmers, and again for suits in the managing establishment._

Says you. You must be exposed to very different workplaces than me. I've yet to work at a place in the last ten years where any of suits, business casual, or smart casual is practiced, or encouraged. Pretty much, normal street clothes are perfectly fine.

<comment><USER12> I wonder how accurately HN can discuss the general trend from business to casual, considering the heavy concentration in the later.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I watched a TV documentary a few months back, which took a look inside the various tailors' establishments of Savile Row. Consider this: back then, these shops were the startups and entrepreneurs of their day, coming to the street with a few bolts of cloth and next to no money in their hands, spotting the needs of the customers and moving in to sell them a product specifically suited to their needs.

The age of many of these stores speaks volumes of their capacity to read the market over the decades. Anyone who's ever set up a business and wanted it to last could do well to look at these businesses' example.

</comment><comment><USER14> Relevant? <http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html>

<comment><USER15> Naturally, this could be a clever PR campaign - and I would be more suspicious, apart from it appearing in this edition of the Economist :

The Christmas Economist is a special two-week version : the content of a regular issue makes up about 50%, the other 50% consists of special multi-page articles written by staff writers when the urge took hold (but were too long to put into a regular edition). This is somewhat akin to Google's 20% time : The writers are given an opportunity to publish pieces that they've written _for the love of writing_.

Of course, this could be my own rose-coloured glasses (I've been a religious Economist reader for 15 years).

<comment><USER16> "The writers are given an opportunity to publish pieces that they've written for the love of writing."

Wow.

For Christmas I bought the wife a subscription to The Economist.

I wanted something to wrap, so I picked up the current issue at Barnes&Noble (surprisingly, neither Walgreen nor Safeway had it). It happened to be the year-end double-issue.

I saw the suit article; now I'm curious about the other articles, since I bet their authors have made them interesting by virtue of their own enthusiasm.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I love fashion history. There is so much social history tied up in it.

Excerpts:

 _Savile Row was inhabited largely by surgeons before the tailors moved in during the 19th century, and their influence can be seen in the "surgeon's cuff". On the most expensive suits the cuff buttons, which mirror the pips of military rank, can be undone, allowing the sleeve to be rolled back. This let surgeons attend patients spouting blood without removing their coats—an important distinction that set them apart from shirt-sleeved tradesmen of the lower orders. Surgeon's shirts, with detachable cuffs, are still made to order by London tailors._

And:

 _Colours and cuts come—the fashion a decade ago was for four-button jackets—and go. Yet the modern world has transformed the suit's interior. Pockets for train and bus tickets appeared with the commuter. Pen pockets and pockets for mobile phones have followed. Mr Munday has fielded inquiries about internal pockets to hold an iPad. No problem, he says. They are not so very different to the large "hare" pockets on the inside of field coats worn by country gents that will hold birds and rabbits felled with a shotgun._

<comment><USER18> Form follows function.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> The Suit is Back!

</comment><comment><USER20> Another PR Hit for Men's Wearhouse, eh?

<comment><USER21> If it was, I do not mind. It was an interesting article of the kind that we want on hn. It should not matter who wrote it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> that was enlightening</comment>


How the founders of Brex built a billion-dollar business in less than 2 years - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/05/how-the-22-year-old-founders-of-brex-built-a-billion-dollar-business-in-less-than-2-years/ <comment><USER2> Many of the posters in this thread miss the point, perhaps because they have not tried to get a credit card for their startup or small business.

Even if you have millions in the bank, the process of getting a card is long and tedious. It took me weeks, hours of phone calls, visits to the bank, and affected my personal credit. In the end a well-known card provider gave us a $5000 limit. We sometimes put that much on the card in a few days, and autopay is monthly, so someone had to manually monitor the card balance just to keep the card working.

The experience of being a small business that wants to use a credit card sucks. It's not even a little surprising to me that Brex is doing great.

</comment><comment><USER3> So where does the revenue come from? A slice of the transaction fees run on the cards or interest on rolling balance? I can't imagine the balances over 30 days being that high (the targets have VC money to pay their bills right?) and the transaction fees can't be that much either.

I can see why they'd need a lot of capital but I fail to see the business model for actually generating (big) income.

<comment><USER4> they're aiming for acquisition. these days you don't need to make money as long as there's a need for something you can often give it away for free using VC money and then get acquired for your exit

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I don't understand this, what is their business model exactly? Aren't they just giving out loans like a VC with other VC money? Why can't the VCs invest directly without Brex taking their cut?

<comment><USER6> Brex is a charge card; they're not really making loans, just letting businesses wire up their bank account balances to credit card acceptance infrastructure (which is much widely adopted than debit card infrastructure). Like any other player in the payment card business, they get a cut of the transaction fee charged to merchants.

<comment><USER7> Don't they still take the risk for one month? Startups aren't all stable. Some might get into problems during that month and not be able to pay, no? Or is this just a debit card?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It seems to me it's similar to [http://pleo.io](http://pleo.io) but they haven't raised that much money yet. Why is that?

<comment><USER9> Different markets and products. Pleo is not in US yet. Pleo does not underwrite. Pleo requires balance in account for cards to work, hence it is a prepaid solution. Brex actually underwrites and works like usual corporate cards do.

<comment><USER10> Exactly - they (paleo) don't really have a business model. They are just a computerized way of documenting employees use of their cash allowances.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> And nobody suggested they change the name?

You have a Brex card, you offer to pay for something: "Sure, I'll just Brex it..."

<comment><USER12> There's a billboard when you get off the 101 at Octavia for Brex. It says something like "Just Brex-it. The card, not the political fiasco." Maybe they've tested it and I'm in the minority, but I thought it was pretty odd.

<comment><USER13> That's memorable. Which might be the most important factor.

<comment><USER12> True, it is memorable. I talked to someone who works at an ad agency and had worked with State Farm in the past yesterday. She had the most articulate explanation of memorability over quality I'd heard. I'm sure I'll mangle it, but essentially, as long as the ad isn't actively bad, memorable is far more important than being good (although the platonic ideal would be memorably good).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> That's impressive.

I always wanted to have an approval-flow for payments for company cards, would be a great addition.

I'd be fine issuing cards to everybody in the company as long as I can prevent the expense before it happens (and revoke credit card numbers when off- boarding employees).

my 0.02 cents

<comment><USER15> AFAIK, there's a timeout for card transaction (something like a few seconds) approval that's preventing such functionality from existing

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It seems kind of crazy to see VC funding for a startup that focuses on selling services to other startups that need VC money to exist...

<comment><USER17> That's kind of how VC works nowadays. I was reading an article about Softbank's Vision Fund; the article mentioned that Masayoshi Son, the CEO of Softbank advised his companies to give each other discounts and special deals. I guess this is something which YC has also been doing for a while.

It definitely sounds like it's going to create bubbles. If companies help each other too much, then their success becomes increasingly artificial; all these companies become less efficient as a group and it's only a matter of time before companies outside of that cushy ecosystem catch up.

I think that eventually we'll get to a point when we collectively realize that the software development practices that we've adopted over the past decade are actually much less efficient than many other alternative approaches. For the past decade, the most efficient approaches and tools have been overlooked almost completely because they were developed outside of any VC ecosystems; so they didn't get any exposure or chance to prove themselves.

<comment><USER18> This is actually a deeply engrained practice in Japanese business culture - "keiretsu", or interlocking companies.

<comment><USER19> So... "synergy"?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> It's an interesting concept for sure. But one thing that seemed confusing was how exactly do they handle underwriting? Do they credit check the applicants? Employees? Check the business bank accounts?

Granting credit is a sophisticated market, is this just a case where they look for founders that have perfect credit and assume they're probably OK? Do they even use standard CRA's at all?

Like what's the basic underwriting premise?

</comment><comment><USER21> Not to be confused with Bre-X. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bre-X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bre-X)

Subject of the film Gold. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_(2016_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_\(2016_film\))

</comment><comment><USER22> This isn't a "billion-dollar business"; it's an overhyped company that gives credit cards to startups that raised money at a billion-dollar valuation.

They may have already reached their entire market for their existing business; the billion-dollar valuation only makes sense if they can plan to grow into other credit card markets.

</comment><comment><USER23> You can't patent a credit product. As soon as other lenders see this business, their margins will be competed away. That 2BN valuation looks very artificial.

<comment><USER24> You think this time big financial institutions are going to maneuver quickly enough to become viable competitors in this market before a startup establishes a decent foothold with a comfy moat?

That has literally never happened before to my knowledge. See online payments with Paypal, robo-investing with Betterment, crypto-currency with Coinbase, etc.

The more likely scenario would be other startups rising up to compete with them, but it seems like these guys have a decent head start with 100 million funding and what looks like a compelling product judging from their traction.

<comment><USER23> I take your point re the ability of banks to innovate. But the Brex product is not technological. They are simply saying, we'll lend against cash collateral. That's the type of things banks _might_ be better at.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> A financial company is going to extend 10x as much credit as established institutions ( _without_ collateral) to random startup execs? And two other selling points being that they're writing a financial platform from scratch and you'll get your card more quickly so your business doesn't fail from waiting on the mailman to deliver a normal business credit card?

The APR would have to be sky-high and would start accruing the day after. There's a reason banks don't give a shitload of money to just anyone who can pay ~$1,000 form a corporation.

Are they going to write fraud detection from the ground-up too? Same with all of the customer support apps that allow reps to deal with issues?

This makes _no sense_ to me. The risk here seems stratospheric unless "Visa Commercial" is already offering all of these, and Brex is just re-branding it.

Edit: Pagar.me would count as financial experience. I missed that sentence in the article.

<comment><USER26> > is going to extend 10x as much credit as established institutions (without > collateral) to random startup execs?

There functionally is collateral. They monitor your bank account, you need min $50K in cash in it, and they only extend credit that's something like a quarter of your cash balance. It's a charge card, so you can't carry a balance.

It makes a lot of sense for cash-rich startups. The model doesn't work (in this form) for many small businesses.

<comment><USER20> So basically it's a product for valley startup type companies that just closed rounds of financing, but don't yet have sophisticated financial controls and cash management and banking relationships?

That makes a lot more sense, but is that really a large addressable market? Is the idea to beat Amex with reporting?

<comment><USER26> I think the idea is "cash is all the trust we need." It's parallel to Square or Stripe. "Is getting a merchant account really that hard?" Yes, it turns out it is. It's the same thing with credit cards - you shouldn't have to personally guarantee your company's credit.

It also competes directly with the expense market. If everybody can have a controlled company card, why do you need expense software?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The perfect card for the UK after March 2019. I will just BrexIT the expenses.

</comment><comment><USER28> Isn't issuing credit cards to Startups, almost like equivalent to issuing cards to gamblers in Vegas?

<comment><USER29> Gamblers who were just handed millions of dollars... seems like a recipe for a rich casino.</comment></comment>


ADS-B Exchange – Co-op of unfiltered flight data - <AUTHOR> https://www.adsbexchange.com/ <comment><USER2> I have a receiver that I use to feed the ADS-B Exchange network. In return I get an API key that I use to power a collection of twitter bots that tweet whenever they detect, in realtime, aircraft circling over various metro areas:

[https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA) [https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesSF](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesSF) [https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesDC](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesDC)

The bots have detected police and news helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, military aircraft ([https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesSF/status/1227832420918935552](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesSF/status/1227832420918935552)), blimps ([https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA/status/1213310909302493184](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA/status/1213310909302493184)), autogryos ([https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA/status/1216464781869121536](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA/status/1216464781869121536)), power line inspection helicopters ([https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA/status/1210280545952776193](https://twitter.com/SkyCirclesLA/status/1210280545952776193)), and helicopters filming race cars ([https://twitter.com/lemonodor/status/1228100397337702400](https://twitter.com/lemonodor/status/1228100397337702400)).

ADS-B Exchange is the only completely uncensored, global aircraft tracking network. And it's powered by a considerable amount of specialized open source software. Even the multilateration client ([https://github.com/adsbxchange/mlat- client](https://github.com/adsbxchange/mlat-client)) and server ([https://github.com/adsbxchange/mlat- server](https://github.com/adsbxchange/mlat-server)) code that can determine an aircraft's position even when it's not broadcasting its coordinates, using the time-of-arrival information from multiple receivers, is online. tar1090 ([https://github.com/wiedehopf/tar1090](https://github.com/wiedehopf/tar1090)) is a much more efficient replacement for the old Virtual Radar Server front- end that is currently under development, and can be tried at [https://tar1090.adsbexchange.com/](https://tar1090.adsbexchange.com/)

<comment><USER3> While an unfiltered network is cool, am I the only one who thinks it's utterly reasonable for aircraft owners to want some basic level of privacy? I always have found it strange that communities of folks who very much don't want to be tracked themselves are also very interested in aggressively tracking others.

<comment><USER4> If we're speaking about privacy, then ADS-B is just one element of concern. The FAA is now finalizing new Remote ID regulations that will require all unmanned aircraft over 0.55 pounds to be identified and tracked in real time, with data shared back to authorized data aggregators. This is a major concern to hobbyists (think first person quad-copter racing), because the details of the proposed rules make it virtually impossible for hobbyists to fly amateur built aircraft, while giving cart blanch to commercial drone operators (ie delivery services) to fly anywhere assuming they have the resources to comply with the new Remote ID rules. The FAA is essentially saying they have the authority to regulate all navigable airspace, and since UAVs can fly inches from the ground, they are claiming authority to regulate who flies an inch above your own property. The rules are open for comment right now [https://www.faa.gov/uas/research_development/remote_id/](https://www.faa.gov/uas/research_development/remote_id/). A good summary is to read DJI's point of view. [https://content.dji.com/we- strongly-support-drone-remote-id-...](https://content.dji.com/we-strongly- support-drone-remote-id-but-not-like-this/)

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure where everyone else comes down on these navigational tracking techniques? Here's my view.

There are times when I do want to let everyone know where I am and who I am. This allows others to avoid running their vehicle into mine and improve rescue efforts if I'm in danger. So I think these sorts of digital beacons and aggregators can be a great improvement to support that mission.

If the nav beacon is mandated for safety reasons, I do not think that I should be required to give my personal information if I choose not to, and if there is a navigational concern, I don't think I should give more information than I need to to enable safe navigation. I think it's enough to provide telemetry (e.g. there is a boat, plane, car or drone at location x, y, and z).

I personally believe that people should own their data and forcing people to give more information than required to accomplish the task (e.g. navigation) is a problem for me. DJI's position is closer to what I'd prefer to see in this case.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Context: As of the beginning of 2020 all aircraft are required to have ADS-B out capability. This means that they periodically broadcast their GPS position unencrypted, along with their speed, altitude, heading and tail number.

Most networks like Flight Aware allow owners to blacklist aircraft such that their tracks do not appear on the site. This is typical of corporate aviation departments and private jet owners as they don't want their movements to be available to rivals/hedge funds or the media. Additionally military aircraft are typically not reported.

Edit: also, for those who are unaware, unlike license plates which are _generally_ unsearchable, tail-numbers as reported by ADS-B are publicly searchable with registration and history information available on the FAA website:

[https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?N...](https://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N887WM)

<comment><USER6> Not quite all aircraft are required to have ADS-B in all situations, there are a number of edge cases out there. But close enough, I suppose, and most planes people would want to track are required to have it.

However, there's also a new privacy initiative that allows aircraft to fly under temporary ids. The FAA will still know who they are, but for 3rd parties it will become much more difficult to determine.

[https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all- news/2019/december/2...](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all- news/2019/december/24/ads-b-privacy-now-available)

<comment><USER7> I hope not. Unlike car license plates, if you own a plane what you're doing with it is very much in the publics interest to know, _especially_ if you don't want people to know.

They can have their privacy while they aren't flying polluting multi-million dollar planes through the country and above our buildings.

<comment><USER8> First, airplanes come in a lot of different sizes, and many don't cost anywhere near millions. A quick search online shows that you can find a used Cessna 172 starting at $35k - and is about the same size as a car.

Second, just because an airplane is over your building, doesn't mean it's going to crash into it. Even in an emergency, airplanes can keep gliding. A car is more likely to hit you while you're on the sidewalk - does that mean you get to know the name and address of every person driving local streets?

Third, I don't see how pollution has anything to do with privacy.

I can see an argument for being able to report an airplane doing something unsafe. But that's literally what the FAA exists for, and they have ways to look up who's flying an aircraft — anonymous or not. I don't see a good argument to releasing owners' names and addresses publicly so people can do law enforcement themselves.

<comment><USER7> I brought up pollution to point out that, although certainly worth it, society is paying a pricy to let people fly aeroplanes around as they wish. Since people owning planes are not just regular citizens, society should hence have some level of visibility into what people are doing with them.

Similar things apply to e.g. Amateur Radio. We've given people a big chunk of spectrum, and in exchange we expect transparency on what it's being used for. With few planes being owned by individuals, the case should be even stronger for aeroplanes, since the privacy argument applies less.

<comment><USER8> Personally, requiring a public address for amateur radio is a big problem and I'd argue needs to be changed.

It makes you a target for doxing and swatting, and causes an unending amount of spam mail that you can't unsubscribe from.

It made sense in the older days when people routinely mailed paper QSL cards. The FCC also relies on amateur radio operators to self-police each other, which is relatively unique as far as enforcement goes (see: ARRL official observers - but even in that case, if you do something sufficiently wrong then the FCC will get involved and could look up your address).

On the other hand... QSL cards are pretty cool.

<comment><USER9> In the US the address you give the FCC when you apply for a ham license does not have to be the address of where you live. It just has to be an address where you receive mail. I used my PO box.

<comment><USER10> When I found out Tim Allen has a ham license, I looked up his callsign record. He uses his production company's address.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If one is not using the services of air traffic control (ATC) by flying either IFR or using flight following, i.e., flying VFR, and if one's transponder supports the functionality, it is possible to fly in an anonymous fashion (while still giving position information):

* [https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/february/p...](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/february/pilot/ads-b-incognito)

What happens is that the transponder generates a random self-assigned temporary ICAO ID number. This is for UAT only.

* [https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-acts-to-preserve-ads...](https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-acts-to-preserve-ads-b-data-privacy/)

So people can tell _that_ someone is flying in a particular position, but _not who_.

</comment><comment><USER2> And if anyone wants to help contribute data, there are a few ways to get started.

1\. The minimal: Raspberry Pi and an RTL-SDR dongle. You can even use the small stock antenna that often comes with a dongle, if you put it near a window.

2\. A real 1090 MHz antenna, plus filter + amp will greatly increase your performance, and cost less than $100.

Weidehopf has a shopping list: [https://github.com/wiedehopf/adsb- wiki/wiki/adsb-receiver-sh...](https://github.com/wiedehopf/adsb- wiki/wiki/adsb-receiver-shopping-list)

As does flightaware: [https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build](https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/build)

Software-wise, you have a couple nearly-turnkey solutions. The easiest thing is just to follow the guide at [https://www.adsbexchange.com/how-to- feed/](https://www.adsbexchange.com/how-to-feed/) You can even use their custom Raspberry Pi image, and instantly have dashboards and maps and all the cool stuff.

<comment><USER12> Any "one click buy" resources where I can simply pay for a device to be shipped and put it on my network to ship data back? I have several locations in the US I could colocate such devices.

<comment><USER13> There are a number of places, ADS-B Exchange sells a preconfigured kit on their website. If the location is one with weak coverage they may even send one to you for free, definitely worth reaching out to them if nothing more then to ask about a bulk discount.

<comment><USER12> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think I'm willing to take one of my RTL-SDR dongles, hook it up to the Raspberry Pi, and start giving them a regular feed. If only just to identify a few pesky helicopters that fly over the house that aren't showing up on flightradar24 like everything else. I can appreciate this service.

<comment><USER15> Does anyone know if it's possible to tee the data into multiple feeds? I'd like to feed to fr24 just for purposes of getting the better account, but also to this because the info is better. I could run two dongles i guess.

<comment><USER16> Yes, you can feed several places. My raspbian is feeding adsbexchange as well as flightaware, fr24, radarbox, planefinder and open sky network.

<comment><USER15> Sweet. I just googled everything at the end there and found this, look reasonable?: [http://gordon.celesta.me/2018/04/13/raspberry-pi-real- time-f...](http://gordon.celesta.me/2018/04/13/raspberry-pi-real-time-flight- tracker-updated.html)

<comment><USER16> Skimming those instructions, they don't look bad. The github repo linked above is James' from adsbexchange, so between the two you should be set.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> ADS-B Exchange also gives data to the Center for Advanced Defense Studies' (C4ADS) Project Peregrine, with the goal to "expose the airborne movements of corrupt global elites, dodgy public officials, and a vast array of illicit and criminal actors including wildlife traffickers and conflict financiers."

[https://easychair.org/publications/download/wbQQ](https://easychair.org/publications/download/wbQQ)

<comment> adsbx-james Don't forget the United Nations, OCCRP, and investigative journalists globally!

[https://dictatoralert.org/](https://dictatoralert.org/) [https://tech.occrp.org/](https://tech.occrp.org/) [https://marketplace.officialstatistics.org/partner/adsb_exch...](https://marketplace.officialstatistics.org/partner/adsb_exchange/)

[https://gijn.org/planespotting-a-guide-to-tracking- aircraft-...](https://gijn.org/planespotting-a-guide-to-tracking-aircraft- around-the-world/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> There's a similar open sharing service for tracking ships in the water: [http://www.aishub.net/](http://www.aishub.net/)

AIS technology works similar to ADS-B, but the details of being on the water make reception a different problem than for planes. There's three or so major ground-based AIS tracking services out there that compete, and while AISHub isn't the biggest it is the most open.

<comment><USER18> I've been participating in AISHub for a few years and really enjoy it. One of my projects is @sfships, a Twitter bot that announces major ships entering and leaving SF Bay: [https://twitter.com/sfships](https://twitter.com/sfships)

I also built a Python AIS parsing library with a bunch of command-line tools (e.g., aisgrep, ais2json): [https://github.com/wpietri/simpleais](https://github.com/wpietri/simpleais)

If anybody ends up using this, please let me know. On Twitter, I'm @williampietri. I have also been keeping a copy of all the AIS data for the last few years, and am happy to share it.

<comment><USER19> Very cool Twitter feed! Would you consider adding a second account that doesn't include cargo/tanker ships so I can follow and turn on notifications?

<comment><USER18> Interesting! Which kinds of ships do you want, then? Just cruise ships? Tell me a bit more about why you'd want to be notified about them.

<comment><USER19> Military, search and rescue, police boats, cable layers, fire boats, icebreakers, etc.

The sort where I could subscribe to notifications and get a few messages a day and go "huh, that is cool".

<comment><USER18> The trouble here is that AIS is a pretty blunt instrument as far as ship classification goes. If you go here and scroll down to Table 11, you'll see what they transmit: [https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/AIVDM.html#_type_5_static_and_vo...](https://gpsd.gitlab.io/gpsd/AIVDM.html#_type_5_static_and_voyage_related_data)

Ships like you describe are also often weirder with what they transmit. Cargo and cruise ships go from known port to known port in reasonably predictable ways. (Reasonably predictable meaning that 50 or so regexes can usually extract a little sense from what some sailor types into a bridge console.) But a lot of data from smaller, less predictable ships is much less regular.

Now that it has been running a while, I should definitely go back and see what else I can extract from the data. But one of my problems is that this stuff is poorly documented. What I really need is connections to maritime experts who can look at the data and say, "Oh, that ship is..."

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> It's surprising to me that AOPA and NBAA have still been pushing the privacy angle on this stuff so much still. I guess that's part of their lobbying mission though.

As someone else pointed out all of these executives carry cell phones and as the recent NY Times series pointed out the things are leaking out location data everywhere. Competitors and hedge funds likely aren't using ADS-B data to track movements when they can get significantly better data elsewhere.

I wonder if high level executives have any kind of training and protocols for avoiding cell phone location tracking.

<comment><USER21> You don't need to be a high level executive to not want to broadcast your location and identity in realtime for anyone to see.

This isn't about your _choices_ with mobile devices, this is mandated by the government, and the broadcasted data is literally open to anyone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> I ran across an administrative way to hide the ownership of an aircraft today. Something showed up as blocked on one of the other trackers, ADS-B Exchange gave me an N number that was for an aircraft owned by some sort of trust company. That trust company listed anonymity as one of the features of their service.

<comment><USER23> Yeah I see plenty of jets flying into Atlanta that're owned by Wells Fargo Trust

<comment><USER20> Fortunately, more and more of them are owned by DAL instead of a bank.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> adsbx-james [https://adsbexchange.com/data/](https://adsbexchange.com/data/)

Setup a reliable feeder sending data to ADSBexchange.com and get a REST API key that would cost you $100,000+ a month from FlightAware or FlightRadar24. Non-commercial enthusiast use only. And please be kind to API, no sending 10,000 requests a second.

[https://tar1090.adsbexchange.com/](https://tar1090.adsbexchange.com/)

All this data at your finger tips, are you hackers or not!

Let's make something useful and fun!

</comment><comment><USER24> Eric Rosenwald used this information to track the movements of Jeffrey Epstein's plane. Among other things, he found that the plane was in Riyadh on the eve of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, at the same time Jeff Bezos was there to meet with MBS:

[http://www.ericrosenwaldphotography.com/jeffrey-epstein- busi...](http://www.ericrosenwaldphotography.com/jeffrey-epstein-business- jets-report)

[https://www.insider.com/epstein-riyadh-saudi-arabia- private-...](https://www.insider.com/epstein-riyadh-saudi-arabia-private- jet-2019-9)

The TrueAnon podcast had an interesting discussion with him where he speaks at length about ADS-B:

[https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-36-in-33247305](https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-36-in-33247305)

<comment> adsbx-james ADSBx was happy to help with that and more!

[https://www.businessinsider.com/us-intelligence-drones- over-...](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-intelligence-drones-over-the- black-sea-getting-russian-response-2018-4)

[https://www.businessinsider.com/us-sanctions-cause- russian-t...](https://www.businessinsider.com/us-sanctions-cause-russian- tycoon-oleg-deripaska-to-lose-private-jets-2018-5)

[https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epsteins-private-jet- flight-...](https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epsteins-private-jet-flight- data-2019-7/commerce-on-business-insider)

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Oh, this will be fun. We somewhat often get Helicopters near my house. Setting up a dongle / tapping the feed will let me build a heads up tracker so I can anticipate them and prep daughter to spot them (because she loves aircraft).

</comment><comment><USER26> For anyone interested in something similar but for sea vessels check [https://www.aishub.net/rpiais](https://www.aishub.net/rpiais)

Also...the DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) recently published the first API spec for shipping lines to provide tracking info to the public [https://github.com/dcsaorg/DCSA-OpenAPI](https://github.com/dcsaorg/DCSA- OpenAPI)

Glad to see industries moving towards more open standardized API.

</comment><comment><USER27> I would like to set one of these up. Is there an extensive guide that explains where to put the sensor, how to setup the pi, etc?

<comment><USER28> I've been using a Pi for a while to track ADS-B and AIS. If you haven't purchased the hardware yet head over to [https://www.nooelec.com/store/](https://www.nooelec.com/store/) to get the SDR dongles. And then grab the latest Dump1090 [https://github.com/antirez/dump1090](https://github.com/antirez/dump1090)

As for guides. It's a pretty big community so just use the keywords from above [RTL-SDR, ADSB, DUMP1090] and you should get a lot of guides on tracking aircraft.

<comment><USER23> Please don't use antirez dump1090, that is the original code base and has long since been forked into much more thorough projects.

This is a popular and up-to-date fork: [https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090](https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090)

<comment><USER28> Thanks for the link. I typically link to the original project and leave it to the user to discovery forks that may be better tailored for their use.

<comment> adsbx-james LOL link to 12 year old code that is not updated :D

Whens someone asks for a glass of water, do you also drive them to the mountains and point at the rain clouds?

[https://github.com/mictronics/readsb](https://github.com/mictronics/readsb)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Also for those interested, check out the FAA's SWIM streaming API. it's a firehose but lots of cool stuff you can do with it.

[https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/swim/](https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/swim/)

</comment><comment><USER30> The license plate of an auto is clear-text and can be visible by any individual happened to be around. Is it okay to deploy a network of cameras with real-time plate detection software ($100 setup) to record and broadcast positions of all cars in the world? Is it at least legal?

<comment><USER31> A license plate is akin to a person talking on the street — audible to a few others, yes, but not meant for everyone perhaps. An ADS-B transmission is akin to someone putting the same words in a radio ad. Recording the latter seems completely different to me, privacy wise.

<comment><USER30> Person talking on a street wants to be heard by peers from one meter. Plane flying in the sky should be "heard" by other planes from tens of kilometers. It is a technical necessity, not a voluntary privacy surrender.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I scanned the waves around my home for aircrafts and it was fairly common to see an airplane in the sky that wasn't broadcasting any signal

</comment><comment><USER33> Does anyone use this data to calculate the insurance price for General Aviation (small private jets)?

<comment> adsbx-james Yes and No. It has been attempted by a company in the UK, that would raise your rates of you fly in conditions that they deem risky. I think market is so niche and unprofitable that this large data analysis is seem as an unneeded expense for underwriting.

<comment><AUTHOR> I definitely see things going in this direction eventually however. They've been trying to push it with cars for a while now, doing it with aircraft is trivial by comparison

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Does anyone know of a similar thing for Wi-Fi stumble output? The wigle.net database is not public.

</comment><comment><USER35> I like this. I think this data should be open-sourced, and recorded forever, without the ability to be changed. Maybe a good use for blockchain? (Please don't downvote!)

FWIW: I have been streaming FR24 my ADS-B data for a few years. In return they give you a business account ($50/mo value).

Back to the main point: Even the FR24 business-class account data is filtered. Given that this is an open protocol to begin with, I think the data should be recored "straight up" and made available to the public as a common service (benefit).

Future thoughts: Imagine if we had tons of people incentivized to deploy these? We could make "cyber" phased arrays on a massive scale by doing time of arrival analysis and so on. It could supplement the FAA primary/secondary radar system on a huge level. Perhaps even provide dense ATC control for drone operations where deploying primary/secondary radars is not feasible.

Just my $.02!

<comment><USER36> > I have been streaming FR24 my ADS-B data for a few years. In return they > give you a business account ($50/mo value).

I haven't done it myself, but if you are located somewhere that their network doesn't have good coverage, they'll even send you a free receiver and antenna to get you started: [https://www.flightradar24.com/apply-for- receiver](https://www.flightradar24.com/apply-for-receiver)

<comment><USER13> So will ADS-B Exchange.</comment></comment></comment>


ITunes 11 Download Will Be Available Tomorrow   - <AUTHOR> http://cydiaism.com/itunes-11-download-will-be-available-tomorrow/

<comment><USER2> That "article" is shit. It has no information on it at all.

I found Apple's web-site a little useful: <http://www.apple.com/itunes/new- itunes/>

The new iTunes looks terrible. It looks like they are Metro-fying the UI (i.e. removing all of the productive bits and then claiming the simplicity is a good trade-off).

<comment><USER3> I don't believe anything is actually being removed. Judging by the screenshots on the preview site, it appears that all existing functionality is still available, with some of it placed differently than in iTunes 10.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Having both an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3 as well as a Macbook Air and a fat iPod Nano (best thing ever), I found it interesting that from all those keynotes we had this year, knowing iTunes would get reimagined got me much more excited than everything else they announced. I feel like we have peaked on those technologies as for most people (like myself) everything is just good enough.

In more detail, I feel like the iPhone 4 (until I updated it to iOS 6) was fast enough that I didn't feel like buying a new one. The iPad 3 got the retina display which is just amazing to read. It could be lighter but, for its use, it's good enough for me not to want a new one. (I will eventually buy an iPad Mini once it gets retina though.) My Macbook Air is still incredible fast and I don't think going retina now is necessary thus saving me some money. Finally, there was never an iPod like the fat Nano. I could get more storage but it still works perfectly.

My birthday was last week and I usually buy a gift for myself but this year it felt like everything is just fine and I don't need anything else in my life. Good times I guess.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've found myself slowly slipping away from iTunes to manage my library and I'm not seeing anything that's really going to hold me for much longer.

It's a shame as I remember being excited when I started using iTunes way-back- when.</comment>


How to Squeeze a Huge Ship Down a Tiny River - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2014/09/conveyance-quantum-of-the-seas/ <comment><USER3> I once assisted getting a barge into a port. Technically it was a barge, because it didn't have its own engines, but it was an FPSO[0] and it was 310 metres long and 80 metres wide - you could fit three football fields in its footprint.

My job was to provide real-time live radar from the land-based VTS[1]. It had been decided that only relying on GPS was a risk, and that independent radar images would be necessary to confirm position, course, and speed. We were transmitting live radar from Port Control over a 19.2k baud VHS data link to my laptop on the barge. Using the radar data we re-calibrated and cross- checked the GPS positioning to make sure there was no drift, error, or distortion. There was some interesting math going on underneath.

Modern radars sample at 50 MHz, giving a 3m inter-sample distance. Getting that 50 MBytes/sec data down a 19.2k bits/sec channel was a challenge. There were some easy gains (inter-pulse dead-time, blanking) but we still needed a radar image the pilots and captains could rely on, especially coming in from open water.

There's a picture of it coming in to the river[2] and a video[3] of the vessel, having been fitted, leaving the river. When it came in it didn't have all the super-structure, and the highest point was the heliport, which is where I stood for much of the time.

An interesting job.

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

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_traffic_service](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_traffic_service)

[2] [http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/bonga-fpso/bonga- fps...](http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/bonga-fpso/bonga-fpso1.html)

[3] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKLXiHPNu8A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKLXiHPNu8A)

<comment><USER4> Cool story!

> Modern radars sample at 50 MHz, giving a 3m inter-sample distance. Getting > that 50 MBytes/sec data down a 19.2k bits/sec channel was a challenge

Surely you would do the processing for target extraction on the radar's side of that link, and send much less frequent samples from the estimated track over the slow link? Tracking on scanning radars can be tricky, but I suspect that would something so big and so slow the processing would be quite simple. It's also a bit surprising that ports don't do this with secondary radar (like airports do). Using the ship's signals with PCL or similar technology would definately be feasible.

Radar is a technology with great promise. The advances in computing power, signal processing, and radio technology over the last decade or so is a radar revolution waiting to happen.

<comment><USER3>
      > Surely you would do the processing for target
      > extraction on the radar's side of that link,
      > and send much less frequent samples from the
      > estimated track over the slow link?

That's the obvious thing to try, and it works well in ideal conditions when there are only large targets, and no clutter. Lots of people track at the radar head and only send what they believe to be the stuff that matters.

We work in contexts where there can be personal water-craft in areas of moderate clutter, and plot extractors have a very poor record and even worse reputation for finding the real targets that are most at risk of being run down by vessels.

We transmit the actual radar video so the operators can put the Mark I eyeball on the image. Customers like that, and we regularly out-perform our competitors at getting customers to find and identify small targets at risk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> There is a second story to it: about a decade ago, the shipyard owners realized that they had already reached the maximum ship size that they could transfer from the shipyard to the sea. So they announced that they would transfer the shipyard to the city of Eemshaven downstream the Ems river - <USER2> sensible decision you might think, however, Eemshaven is unfortunately already in the Netherlands. The state government, not wanting to lose a major employer in a rather poor area of the state, built a storm surge barrier to the tune of around 400 mio Euros, arguing it would be for flood prevention. Conveniently, it also allows blocking the outgoing tide, leaving the river at high tide for more than a couple of hours, allowing for larger ships to travel to the sea. At apparently quite an ecological cost.

Well, surprisingly the shipyard stayed in Lower Saxony. So much for European integration.

But it seems like they reached maximum ship size yet again, wondering what they are coming up with next.

</comment><comment><USER5> I regularly visit Port Aransas Texas, often fishing the shipping channel that goes to Corpus Christi. The channel can not handle the biggest of tankers, the supertankers. But even so, i can not overstate the size of these ships. It never ceases to amazes me. When you are in the channel you have to take into account them coming through the channel, and i dont mean simply getting out of there way, the channel is plenty wide to hold two(as they go both ways) with much space on both sides. I mean the effect they have on the channel, specifically when they are coming in (full of cargo). When full they draft a full 10-15' more of water. Displacing this much water causes mini tsunami in the channel. If you are to close to the bank you could either find yourself beached or slammed against something.

Its really a spectacle when they come by, even after seeing it hundreds of times i still stop and watch.

One thing not mentioned in this article which is a HUGE factor with moving these large ships is wind drift. Any boat /ship will act as a sail, but the bigger you get the harder it is to control. As anyone who has piloted any vessel can tell you it only takes seconds to get out of control. When moving these huge ships through such tight quarters i can only imagine how difficult it is to control.

<comment><USER6> I once got to experience the other end of that: Being _on_ a ship while it's going through a tiny canal. In my case, it was the Kiel Canal in Germany.

(When you're standing on the deck of a ship, you can't see the small gap -- between ship and land -- unless you stretch your neck over the rail and look down.)

So imagine this: You've spent many days on the open sea, with nothing but water in every direction. It's become so normal to you that you forget there's other life out there, beyond the steel hull.

Then one morning you wake up from a deep sleep and step outside, and... You're surrounded by land! You can't see the canal beneath you, but you can see the beautiful park you're in, with joggers, mothers with strollers, and couples holding hands.

It's very bizarre, and I'm not sure I'd get used to it either.

<comment><USER7> Even transiting the Panama Canal in a smallish (210 foot USCG medium endurance cutter) is kind of weird. One day you're underway making way in the Pacific, the next day you've got mules pulling you through locks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It does not always go as planned. In 2006 boat caused major blackout in Europe, more then 15M people were without electricity.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_blackout](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_European_blackout)

</comment><comment><USER9> _"Everything is unusual on this trip," says Bernard Meyer, managing partner of the firm.

Meyer is the great-great-great-grandson of Willm Rolf Meyer. He founded the company in 1795, choosing a spot in Papenburg so construction projects would be safe from storms._

In his wildest dreams, I doubt Willm Rolf Meyer could have ever imagined this as a legacy. Or that his family business would survive 219 years and apply its experience this way. Remarkable.

<comment><USER10> I assume that this firm counts as one of the German "Mittelstand".

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

<comment><USER9> Interesting read. Thank you for posting it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > a full moon (or no moon) is ideal to ensure the water was at its deepest.

Here's a fun word: syzygy.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_\(astronomy\))

<comment><USER12> That's odd. I typed it in and nothing happened.

<comment><USER13> You have to type it three times.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> A nice time lapse video can be found here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PHJ...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PHJWbhq4qTE#t=84)

</comment><comment><USER14> Scroll down to the Medusa Challenger navigating the Chicago river in 72.

[http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-20131028-st- mar...](http://galleries.apps.chicagotribune.com/chi-20131028-st-marys-medusa- challenger-pictures/)

Talk about a tight fit. That must have been incredibly stressful.

</comment><comment><USER15> Not quite the same but big ships in the Corinth Canal in Greece just look fantastic

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6xOPAetZuQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6xOPAetZuQ) [http://hhvferry.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2009/05/orientex...](http://hhvferry.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2009/05/orientexpress_corinth2.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER16> The article reminds me of the "fitting a ladder around a corner" problem that I saw in numerical analysis class years ago. Expanded forms of this problem include the food trolley and sofa problems... take a look at

[http://www.researchgate.net/publication/220154823_Moving_a_F...](http://www.researchgate.net/publication/220154823_Moving_a_Food_Trolley_Around_a_Corner/links/0deec528ccc410c9cf000000)

</comment><comment><USER17> Reminds me of the A380, every one of which has to be squeezed through the tiny French town of Levignac on its way to assembly. [http://www.cnet.com/pictures/tiny-french-village-meet- giant-...](http://www.cnet.com/pictures/tiny-french-village-meet-giant- airbus-a380-photos/)

</comment><comment><USER18> Unrelated, bit it irks me that in 2014 there are three countries left that have not adapted to the metric system: Liberia, Burma, and the United States. So when I read

"1,141 feet long with room for more than 4,000 passengers"

I have to mentally translate it to:

"348 meters long with room for more than 20-score passengers"

<comment><USER19> A score is 20 so 20-score would be 400, not 4,000. Is that the joke?

<comment><USER20> I'm guessing the joke that that a "score" is an obscure unit of measure.

<comment><USER19> Little-used? Sure. Obscure, unknown? "Four score and seven years ago ..."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> >It is a beast of a ship, 1,141 feet long with room for more than 4,000 passengers

"I want to be crammed on a ship with 4,000 other people" said no one ever.

I wonder how these cruise ships make money between the cost of fuel, food, and expensive mishaps.

<comment><USER22> With all the decks, it's likely roughly as much square footage per person as a mall or a resort.

<comment><USER23> Judging from my experience on a cruise several years ago, the only major issues are arriving on/leaving the ship in port (and they somehow managed that process so that it wasn't that big of a deal) and scheduling dinner in the evening (there were two or three seatings and, by god, you had to be there on time).</comment></comment></comment>


BODY, a pioneer in WebRTC, brings live group fitness to the world - <AUTHOR> https://www.getbodyapp.com/launch <comment><AUTHOR> We built BODY to bring group fitness to the world. BODY is a first-of-its kind fitness & wellness experience that brings high-end group fitness classes and personal coaching to users in real time -- wherever they have an internet connection -- at a price almost anyone can afford. Everyone gets to take a free intro class – no credit card required.

A few quick thoughts for context: \--- For only $30 / month, we've created a full service health ecosystem, which includes a $50 starter kit, a 24/7 wellness hotline, unlimited classes, a personal coach that helps you optimize your fitness.

\--- Justin and I are both engineers. Justin is a coach and I am a fitness consumer. We built this to be a perfect solution for coaches and consumers. We know what coaches need to teach well and and what consumers need to workout well and so we built that solution.

\--- Lots of streaming and DVD services already exist, but these are all a 'one-way street', so the instructor can't see any of the participants, which is dangerous and delivers suboptimal results. Many of the new ones are trying to retrofit the same type of experience with different delivery channels (dvd, streaming, mobile, etc). None of them are very fun or engaging. Many celebrities are now trying to pump out even more videos or streaming services. They can't grow with you, and generally don't help you learn new skills. BODY does.

\--- Our program is a combination of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and functional training. Why is strength / functional training so important you ask? In a recent study (link below) overweight subjects were assigned to three groups: diet-only, diet plus 30-50 minutes of pure aerobics, and diet plus aerobics plus weights. The diet group lost 14.6 pounds of fat in 12 weeks. The aerobic group lost only one more pound (15.6 pounds) than the diet group. The weight training group lost 21.1 pounds of fat (44% and 35% more than diet and aerobic only groups respectively). Basically, the addition of aerobic training didn't result in any real world significant fat loss over dieting alone. However, the addition of resistance training greatly accelerated fat loss results. ([http://www.t-nation.com/training/hierarchy-of- fat-loss](http://www.t-nation.com/training/hierarchy-of-fat-loss)).

Ask me anything! If you have any private comments or issues, don't hesitate to email me at firstname.lastname@example.com. Feedback is appreciated!

</comment><comment><USER2> This is awesome. Hosting 12 quality feeds simultaneously is no small feat - and adding shared music and other class features is icing on the cake</comment>


Scientist apologizes for his sexist shirt - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2014/11/14/scientist-apologizes-for-his-sexist-shirt-but-the-internet-still-wants-women-to-shut-up-and-die/?hpid=z10

<comment><USER2> not defending the shirt - but find it ludicrous that people spend time on this in the face of corruption/crime/unethical behavior etc.

<comment><USER3> It is a much more easy debate and highly convertible matter.</comment></comment>


Senators challenge AT&T's exclusive iPhone deal - <AUTHOR> http://www.itworld.com/government/69474/senators-challenge-atts-exclusive-iphone-deal <comment><USER2> If I'm not mistaken Apple approached numerous carriers, many of them turned their noes up to requests Apple made so specific iPhone features could function as intended, such as visual voice mail and more importantly, complete freedom with the AppStore. For all its faults... prior to the AppStore, mobile software and distribution was a complete joke.

While AT&T service leaves much to be desired, they took a risk and therefor should be rewarded appropriately IMO. For years consumers have been at the mercy of non-innovative phone manufactures and subpar mobile service. Apple + AT&T is a driving force, this is one of those times the gov't should just leave capitalism alone.

</comment><comment><USER3> _"I believe consumers benefit from exclusive deals in three ways: innovation, lower cost and more choice," said Paul Roth, president of retail sales and services for AT &T._

That is pretty bold statement to make under oath. But I am most impressed he was able to say that with a straight face.

<comment><USER4> Being able to say such things with a straight face is a job requirement for a second-tier senior executive.

Note that the "I believe" is also useful when you have to say something under oath - you can always be wrong about what you believe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I hate AT&T as much as the next iPhone owner but is this really something they need to concern themselves with?

</comment><comment><USER6> Consumers in no way benefit. Verizon had argued that the carriers wouldn't put the marketing behind devices if they weren't exclusives. Well, phone companies would hawk their wares.

It's monopolistic competition (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition>). They each want to be a little different so that they'll attract a subset of the population and be able to charge a little more. Without exclusive devices, each carrier has a lower ability to differentiate themselves from each other and less of a chance to charge consumers higher prices.

The more differentiation, the less you have to compete on price.

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't care that much for iPhone (here in Brazil telcos have legal obligation to unlock devices if the owner asks for it), but if that allows Palm to quickly release an unlocked GSM Pre, I am in.</comment>


Custom Elements v1: Reusable Web Components - <AUTHOR> https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/architecture/building-components/customelements <comment><USER2> Components with extensibility through inheritance written in a prototype-based language. Having worked with around a dozen component-based systems over the years I'm not particularly enthusiastic.

I think it would be much better for the web if browsers had a sane API for extending _behaviors_ of any tag via attributes. This would make things easily composable and eliminate most problems of traditional component-based systems.

        <button does-stuff does-more-stuff></button>

It would be even better if people working on these specs spent some time reading research papers on how a sane component-based system _could_ work. For example: [http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~mt/thesis/mt-thesis- Contents.ht...](http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~mt/thesis/mt-thesis- Contents.html) A lot of interesting ideas regarding extensible behaviors and ease of understanding.

Edit: And yes, I'm aware of is="" functionality. It's not exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, if the specs were designed the way I mentioned, there would be no need for making anything special for built-in elements as opposed to the new ones.

<comment><USER3> > It would be even better if people working on these specs spent some time > reading research papers on how a sane component-based system could work.

I don't know the people working on these specs, but presuming that they aren't aware of research in the area, and moreover of what has worked in practice and what hasn't, is audacious.

<comment><USER2> It's true that I don't know for sure, but I haven't seen any citations, or verbal references, or any similarities in the APIs that would indicate familiarity with the relevant research I had in mind.

Also, a lot of research in this field is done through working proof-of-concept systems, so there is no point in implying that those designs don't work "in practice".

<comment><USER3> By working in practice I don't mean "unimplementable or not", I mean the difference between CORBA and gRPC: One can argue endlessly about the benefits of one vs the other, but it's practical experience what's informed the latter of how and why the former sucked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This article has been added 5 days ago [1], in case anyone is wondering how recent it is.

[1]: [https://github.com/google/WebFundamentals/commits/master/src...](https://github.com/google/WebFundamentals/commits/master/src/content/en/fundamentals/architecture/building- components/customelements.md)

</comment><comment><USER5> This is the kicker for me:

> At time of writing, no browser has implemented customized built-in elements. > Chrome plans to implement them (status) but other browsers have expressed > distaste for implementing the is="" syntax.

I would love to just be able to "fix" the normalization around several built- in elements.

</comment><comment><USER6> Interesting. Only in Chrome 54/Safari 10.1/Opera 46 so far. [http://caniuse.com/#search=web%20components](http://caniuse.com/#search=web%20components)

But there's a polyfill, and more discussion here:

[https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/architecture/...](https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/architecture/building- components/customelements#historysupport)

</comment><comment><USER7> Excellent tutorial, as usual from Eric Bidelman. It's a lot of information to digest though, one should take time with all the different bits and pieces covered in this article.

</comment><comment><USER8> You can use custom elements also in golang :)

[https://github.com/microo8/golymer](https://github.com/microo8/golymer)

</comment><comment><USER9> I've had some success with Custom Elements, using skate.js as a higher level interface.

This piano keyboard element: [https://micahscopes.github.io/all-around- keyboard/](https://micahscopes.github.io/all-around-keyboard/)

Some elements for quickly drawing graphs in html: [https://micahscopes.github.io/tangled-web- components/example...](https://micahscopes.github.io/tangled-web- components/examples/)

(It still needs some more convenient ways of defining the graph structure, as well as an interface to do force layouts.)

I haven't worked on either project in a while. I kinda got tired working with the development version of skate.js while the custom elements spec was changing so fast. It's an excellent library, but things were moving too quickly for me to keep up.

Today, I'd probably just do it in plain javascript, since the spec is more stable now.

</comment><comment><USER10> Is it possible to nest custom elements? I suppose it should be, but how would it be seen in DOM?

<my-container> <some-child some-attr></some-child> </my-container>

How can I get notifications in my-container when someone from outside adds another child to it?

<comment><USER11> Yes, it would be see by the DOM as Shadow DOM I believe. [https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/architecture/...](https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/architecture/building- components/shadowdom)

You can get notifications through the mutation observer API: [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/MutationObs...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/API/MutationObserver)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Customs Elements is what would make me quite happy with UI design on the browser side.

Now just have to wait a few years to be able to use it, or hope the polyfills actually cover all the browsers versions we might need to target.

</comment><comment><USER13> could it replace React ?

<comment><USER14> We've been using Web Components + Virtual DOM to build our web apps for the last year at Mixpanel: [https://github.com/mixpanel/panel](https://github.com/mixpanel/panel). The biggest issues have been dealing with polyfill issues (especially Shadow DOM leakage) and versioning elements (given the global namespace issue of "registerElement")

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> please correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that custom elements still do nothing about dependency hell (it's not possible to use same lib in different versions)

<comment><USER16> Why would they be expected to?

<comment><USER2> It's one of the biggest problems in fronted development right now and it's something conceivably _can_ be addressed by the... well, let's call it "guiding structural paradigm" for the lack of a less pretentious term.

<comment><USER16> I don't know, in my frontend experience dependency hell is less about conflicting dependencies and more about literally installing 690 packages after one `npm install <package>`.

Fixes need to happen in the broader npm ecosystem, not the standard for creating reusable components.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Cool! I can't wait for Google to abandon this!

</comment><comment><USER18> Custom Elements v1. Designed by committee: [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DALwpYnUAAESRjr.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DALwpYnUAAESRjr.jpg)

Polymer. Designed by people who actually do web development: [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DALwpYWVoAAIvkQ.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DALwpYWVoAAIvkQ.jpg)

<comment><USER19> Custom Elements is the low-level API that allows you to do all kinds of things.

Polymer is designed to sit on top of that as a higher-level API.

This is how things should be. Otherwise you get designed into an undesirable corner. (Example: I can imagine improvements to the Polymer code achieved with decorators and TypeScript, for example, which would require a somewhat different API. To need a translation layer over that for evermore is undesirable.)

<comment><USER20> I seem to recall IndexedDB was designed with the same thinking and that hasn't worked out so well.

(Not talking about Custom Elements here since I don't know enough about it - the comment is levelled at the process).

It's all too easy for people in a committee to manufacture the idea of some mythical figures further along the conveyer belt who will magically make something useful out of a giant specification with gaping holes.

<comment><USER16> Polymer was released and worked on as a library while the spec was being worked on. Polymer 0.x and 1.x targeted a version that was only implemented in Chrome, which was used to build the eventual standard, and Polymer 2.x targets the final standard.

The API for web components isn't that bad. You have to stamp DOM templates yourself using whatever process, you have to handle attributes and properties yourself, and that's about it. Lots of boilerplate, but a library like Polymer can take a simple, opinionated approach to handle it for you.

From my experience Web Components have been pretty pleasant to use with or without Polymer, it's just a matter of wiring everything up if you go vanilla.

<comment><USER18> > The API for web components isn't that bad.

> Lots of boilerplate

If there's lots of boilerplate, the API is bad.

<comment><USER16> ServiceWorker vs Application Cache, I'll take ServiceWorker every time.

When you're talking about a low level primitive, boilerplate is preferable. It means you have options. You can throw Polymer or any other library on top and get what you want out of the standard, while someone else can come with different requirements and not be boxed in by your own.

If you can distill your argument to one sentence, it probably isn't blindly applicable to all circumstances. Yes that was one sentence.

<comment><USER18> DOM APIs (which Custom Elements are) are not really "low-level". They are low- level in the sense that they are cumbersome imperative boilerplate compared to basically anything else on the platform.

The main problem with boilerplate in DOM APIs is not that they are "low- level". It's that w3c never makes any effort to address the _developer_ experience when using these APIs.

This is why you end up writing 10 lines of code just to sync properties and attributes in Custom Elements where a single `{reflectToAttributes: true}` would suffice _and_ remain low-level.

This is the problem across the board, not just Custom Elements. The goal of a platform (and the web _is_ a platform) isn't just to provide cumbersome low- level APIs, but also a set of sane defaults _and_ a set of APIs that address the majority of a developer's needs. w3c can barely provide the former, and has never been able to provide the latter.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>