The Murky Future of Nuclear Power in the United States - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/business/energy-environment/nuclear-power-westinghouse-toshiba.html <comment><USER2> Nuclear energy is clean and to some extent cheap.

But, if a war breaks out and someone bombs a nuclear reactor, it will be messy to clean up the mess.

<comment><USER3> > But, if a war breaks out and someone bombs a nuclear reactor, it will be > messy to clean up the mess.

Still will be environmentally cleaner than a coal plant with no war breaking out and nobody bombing it.

...Even when we add the war itself to the nuke side.

(...Well, unless we do have a nuclear war. Then all bets are off.)

Edit: What, do I look flippant? Here are statistics:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_di...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaths_due_to_the_Chernobyl_disaster)

> A United Nations study estimates the final total of premature deaths > associated with the disaster will be around 4000, mostly from an estimated > 3% increase in cancers which are already common causes of death in the > region.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster_casualties)

> Predicted future cancer deaths due to accumulated radiation exposures in the > population living near Fukushima have ranged in the academic literature from > none to hundreds.

Compare this with:

[http://news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution- causes-200000-e...](http://news.mit.edu/2013/study-air-pollution- causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-us-0829)

> Air pollution causes 200,000 early deaths each year in the U.S. (...) > Emissions from road transportation are the most significant contributor, > causing 53,000 premature deaths, followed closely by power generation, with > 52,000.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/world/asia/china-coal- hea...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/world/asia/china-coal-health-smog- pollution.html?_r=0)

> Burning coal has the worst health impact of any source of air pollution in > China and caused 366,000 premature deaths in 2013, Chinese and American > researchers said on Thursday.

In short, (a year of operating coal plants, without accidents) > (worst nuclear disaster mankind has witnessed), by an order of magnitude (or two).

<comment><USER4> I initially downvoted, undid it, then wrote this reply.

A fleet of many coal plants operating normally kills more people than one nuclear plant accident. A nuclear reactor that is bombed during war (or otherwise suffers catastrophic loss of containment) is _not_ environmentally cleaner than one coal plant of comparable capacity operating normally. Nuclear power is safe by the numbers, but you have to use the right numbers.

If reactor containment failed more often then reactors wouldn't be any better for human health than fossil power plants. It's because they are designed and run with such care that they have such a good environmental and safety record, on average. I was reacting partially to something that you haven't said that I've heard all too often in discussions like these: _reactors are so safe, we should get rid of these burdensome regulations so they can be affordable too._ It's the "burdensome" attention to detail that makes nuclear so safe. If the nuclear industry had the same cavalier cowboy attitude to safety as the coal mining industry, it would be an environmental disaster.

But you didn't actually call for deregulation, and just making a poorly worded numerical comparison isn't enough for a downvote. I apologize for that.

<comment><USER5> We had a massive uncontrolled release of radioactivity at Fukushima and before then Three Mile Island and Windscale and Chalk River and no one died.

They don't even need exclusion zones as big as they have if you think we should let people live in Denver.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I like to assess energy sources by the numbers, and by the numbers nuclear power is safe enough ( _far_ safer than continuing to burn fossils). By the numbers, new reactor builds are also slow and expensive, with the one notable exception of South Korea's KEPCO. (China and Russia sometimes also get cited as examples of countries that can still do nuclear power "right," but neither is particularly transparent with domestic projects nor particularly inexpensive/quick with projects they offer to build abroad.) Ten years ago Japan and France looked like they did nuclear right also. Then Fukushima tanked the Japanese nuclear industry and the ongoing disaster of EPR construction took France off the list.

France's fame as a country that did nuclear right is also a bit tainted by recent revelations of problems with component quality and forged quality control reports: [http://www.powermag.com/frances-nuclear-storm-many-power- pla...](http://www.powermag.com/frances-nuclear-storm-many-power-plants-down- due-to-quality-concerns/)

I should probably also mention falsified nuclear documentation in South Korea that surfaced a few years ago, in fairness to France: [http://www.world- nuclear-news.org/RS-Indictments_for_South_K...](http://www.world-nuclear- news.org/RS-Indictments_for_South_Korea_forgery_scandal-1010137.html)

 _Maybe_ small modular reactors will make nuclear power attractive again. Or _maybe_ even big, expensive, slow reactors will seem relatively attractive some decades from now after national grids are already saturated with as much renewable electricity as they can reasonably use. (Though even that is subject to receding horizons if bulk electricity storage gets cheaper over time.) It's really hard to see anything that will make nuclear power more competitive over the next 10 years in Japan, the Americas, Oceania, or Europe. (South Korea, China, and the Middle East and North Africa -- I expect to see continued if not particularly fast nuclear growth in these regions.)

I had thought that the AP1000 looked like a pretty incrmental, conservative, easy-to-build choice for new reactors. Builds are well behind schedule in both the US and China, and the costs are escalating too. My personal guess is that the 4 reactors now under construction in the US will not make the 2020 deadline to qualify for the new-reactor tax credits that have been available since 2005. My guess is also that all the institutions that got burned building these 4 will dissuade new US orders, so any lessons painfully learned on this first wave will not ease the construction of another wave of reactors; the lesson learned will just be "don't try to build reactors."

China's leadership can plan for the long term because there are no electoral politics nor elections. The same goes for Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Egypt where I also expect to see nuclear growth. In the heyday of France's nuclear build- out, there was something similar offering stability: EDF was a state owned electricity monopoly for all of France, and didn't have to worry about competition or the short term. Since the monopoly ended in 1999 France has only started building one new reactor, the disastrously late and over-budget Flamanville-3. With a monopoly I could imagine this being a painful lesson that nonetheless eases construction of more EPRs. Without a monopoly I think that this expensive education will be wasted, like the skills relearned from the current AP1000 projects will be wasted in the US.

Just add these nuclear industry woes to the very long list of reasons that the world is not on track to stabilize the climate with emissions cuts alone, and will need active carbon dioxide removal measures later this century or sometime in the 22nd, assuming that industrial civilization remains intact.

<comment><USER6> Thank you for your well-written comment.

I just want to that I think it's unlikely new big reactors will have a place in a grid with plenty of renewables. You're going to have a hard time making the ends meet up if you can't sell all the power the reactor produces, and that won't happen as it can't beat the marginal costs of wind turbines or solar panels.

Burning biomass, biogas or some sort of mass storage will be much cheaper.

Regarding the latter, in Denmark the former CTO of Siemens Wind Power has devised a plan for heated stone storage. So you heat the stone with electricity to around 600 degrees C and can thus use the heat to drive a turbine later. Last I heard another company in Denmark recently got EU funding to build a demonstration plant. (Not saying this will be the future, just putting it out there for people who think the only alternatives are hydro and chemical batteries.)

<comment><USER4> My personal guess is that you are right and that large reactors will not find any more popularity after renewable penetration reaches high levels. But I want to keep alternative scenarios in mind even if I consider them unlikely. Ten years ago I also thought that fluid hydrocarbon prices (both oil and gas) were going to stay high, if they didn't just keep climbing, but the shale revolution upended that expectation. If any of the miraculous-on-paper new reactor designs being pitched by evangelists ever perform up to expectations in real life that could make nuclear power a low-cost electricity source again.

I know that public opinion and environmental activism are often cited as reasons for nuclear power's failure to thrive in the developed world, and there's some truth to that. But I also think that if new reactor designs ever live up to the hype of producing the cheapest electricity around, they will become widespread despite opposition from activists. For a parallel, again look at the shale revolution. Fracking is vocally opposed by environmentalists and celebrities (many ordinary members of the public too), but it still grew rapidly because it actually delivered lower cost energy to buyers. The fact that nuclear keeps failing to deliver low costs/predictable construction schedules is a bigger factor in its weak market prospects than opposition by Greenpeace. Greenpeace opposes _many_ things and usually fails to stop them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm not against nuclear power, but the U.S. was a pioneer in this tech and it still required massive support from the weapons industry to even get as much implementation as it has. I don't believe this is solely on either the tech or the anti-nuke power movement, but rather has to do with how large and distributed the U.S. is geographically, which makes each plant being a custom build job in many places with not enough nearby consumers to give any savings from scale.

Add to that, the fact that you have so many levels of government approval before you can break ground, and the high initial cost to build a plant, and you're basically left with a system that can only gain traction with some organisation like the military pushing it through.

</comment><comment><USER8> Too bad this article mentions nothing about the future of LFTR reactors (Thorium).

<comment><USER9> Thorium reactors have too much going on inside the reactor, and a radioactive chemical plant outside it. The history of nuclear reactors indicates that plants with anything complex going on inside run into problems. Sodium reactors have sodium fires. Helium reactors leak. Pebble bed reactors jam. Boring old water reactors are about all that can be made to work for decades.

Running a radioactive chemical plant usually results in a toxic waste site. All three US reprocessing plants are now major toxic waste sites.

<comment><USER10>
      Boring old water reactors are about all that can be made to work for decades.

A sodium-cooled breeder reactor worked continuously for 30 years and survived a (planned) _hard power-down of all external cooling apparatus_ in 1986[0] to demonstrate its design safety.

After being shut down by the Clinton administration in 1994 (as was its follow-on IFR program), disassembly showed no meaningful wear or damage to its hardware.

"In controlled testing in 1986, with the EBR-II reactor running at full power and the emergency shutdown systems disabled, the reactor's supply of electricity was intentionally turned off, causing the coolant pumps to stop. This is a worse scenario than what happened in the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. (At Fukushima, which began operation in 1971, the emergency shutdown system turned off the reactor as soon as it detected the earthquake. However the tsunami destroyed the electric generators powering the coolant pumps, which needed to continue running after the reactor shutdown. Subsequently, the core overheated and meltdown occurred.) EBR-II, in contrast, handled the event without creating a dangerous situation. EBR-II had a negative thermal coefficient of reactivity that shut down the reactor when the temperature increased due to loss of the coolant pumps; the time required to heat the large pool of sodium surrounding the reactor provided a sufficient time buffer for the passive decay heat removal system to prevent the EBR-II reactor from melting down. The safe shutdown of the EBR-II relied only on the laws of physics and did not require operator or control system intervention."

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_II)

<comment><USER11> This reactor was 1/50th the scale of a typical power reactor. The radiation, thermal-hydraulic, and chemical environment of a full-scale reactor is different. Different stress corrosion interactions, severe oscillating stresses due to thermal-hydraulic fluctuations at assembly outlets... The operational record of such reactors hardly supports them as foolproof or economical versus the best modern water reactors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'll bet that no new nuclear plants will be built in my lifetime nor in my children's lifetimes.

<comment><USER13> So strange you're downvoted when you're correct. Why spend billions on a nuclear plant that'll take a decade to build when you can deploy solar, wind, and battery storage at a lower cost and a tenth the time?

The economics simply do not work for nuclear, and I'd expect all nuclear generators in the US decommissioned by 2030.

<comment><USER14> It's not strange to see downvotes, IMO. Industry spends a tremendous amount of money and resources attacking our more sustainable energy future with rampant FUD. They want to milk their current infrastructure for as long as it's profitable for them.

Sowing Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt about alternative, more sustainable energy sources (and storage) has gone on for decades and has had a very pervasive, toxic effect on general discourse of the matters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Nuclear is still the future, just maybe not the immediate future... Unless we have a massive breakthrough in transmission and storage. I see it as gap between solar and wind to meet emergencies and peak loads.

<comment><USER16> It is the future in a parallel universe where solar panels don't cost $0.40 per watt and aren't falling at 30% per year.

<comment><USER17> That suggests they will be $0.20/watt in two years. That will make them too cheap to ignore for almost everything.</comment></comment></comment>


Every Windows 10 in-place Upgrade is a SEVERE Security risk - <AUTHOR> http://blog.win-fu.com/2016/11/every-windows-10-in-place-upgrade-is.html?m=1 <comment><USER2> dupe, previous discussion [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060017](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13060017)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, sorry!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The article is bullshit. BitLocker has to be disarmed for build upgrades, was that way since Vista. Second, you need physical access when upgrading, so the point is moot.

<comment><USER4> What does physical access matter? The threat model here is not an attack over the Internet, it's circumventing internal corporate security.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Software That Amazes You? - <AUTHOR> I am sitting here watching a video of a guy playing Cities Skylines and I am blown away by this software. I have been programming a very long time. Most of the time when I'm looking at a piece of software I can kind of roughly know how it would be implemented.
Not this game, there are so many things it does so well AND it makes the complex look easy.
What software blows you away and why? <comment><USER2> The cryptocurrency exchange software amazes me. [https://changehero.io/](https://changehero.io/) for example. ChangeHero is an instant crypto exchange. We swap your crypto at a lightning speed. I've been buying ETH via their platform for almost six months.

</comment><comment><USER3> > I am sitting here watching a video of a guy playing Cities Skylines and I am > blown away by this software.

Keep in mind it wasn't just one person who developed the game. It took a village.</comment>


The difference between correlation and conditional probability - <AUTHOR> http://versionone.vc/correlation-probability

<comment><USER2> I am also a big fun of using probabilities rather than correlations, whenever it is possible. Correlation, but itself does have an easy, actionable meaning (two variables are correlated... how much is much? what does it mean that correlation is only (or as much as?) 0.5?).

See also this ratio, P(A n B)/[P(A)P(B)]:

\- [http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/6047/does-this- quan...](http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/6047/does-this-quantity- related-to-independence-have-a-name)

I used it for some projects, in which correlation resulted in a mess:

\- [http://stared.github.io/tagoverflow/](http://stared.github.io/tagoverflow/)

\- [https://github.com/stared/wizualizacja-wolnych- lektur](https://github.com/stared/wizualizacja-wolnych-lektur)</comment>


2 keyboard halves 20 meters apart and still operational - <AUTHOR> https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/blog/2015/09/17/2-keyboard-halves-20-meters-apart <comment><USER2> Wonder who has arms long like this )</comment>


Encrypt Everything - <AUTHOR> http://encrypteverything.ca/index.php/Main_Page <comment><USER2> Installing, properly configuring and maintaining software like I2P, Tor, full- disk encryption seem difficult to me and has many non-obvious pitfalls. Instead of going through confusing tutorials and trying to get it right, I would rather use turn-key, ready-to-use solutions made by someone more versed than me.

Ubuntu allows you to set up an encrypted LVM on a whole drive with a single setting in the installer. Just grab the ISO with the alternate installer[1] and choose "use the whole disk for encrypted LVM" (or compatible) in the partitioning tool. The installer also allows for advanced configuration, like setting up swap and /tmp on partitions encrypted with one-time keys, while still making it fairly difficult to screw up.

Tails comes with preinstalled and preconfigured Tor and I2P and, what's important, with almost all other connectivity blocked. Just download it[2], verify the signatures, and put on a USB key. Right now, it's difficult to add persistent storage[3] but they're working on it. Also, as an additional precaution, physically removing the USB key will make Tails shut down and wipe memory.

[1] [http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/alternative- download#a...](http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/alternative- download#alternate) [2] <https://tails.boum.org/index.en.html> [3] [https://tails.boum.org/forum/How_do_I_do_what_unetbootin_doe...](https://tails.boum.org/forum/How_do_I_do_what_unetbootin_does/#comment- fc6a0040a29918839343a50396ef4082)

<comment><USER3> _I would rather use turn-key, ready-to-use solutions made by someone more versed than me._

Privacy doesn't work like that. It isn't set-it-and-forget-it. If you aren't constantly policing yourself, all the full-disk encryption and Tor networks in the world can't keep you anonymous.

<comment><USER4> Privacy doesn't, but encryption does. You don't want to set up Tor or I2P only to find out later that traffic you thought was encrypted actually wasn't.

<comment><USER5> Hence the need for constant policing yourself and auditing the software you use.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Hyperboles, image macros, Guy Fawkes masks, factual errors. Sounds like an average Pirate Party operation. The intentions are good for sure, but I doubt that this site is useful for a lot of people as it stands now. Of course it being a wiki it has a chance to evolve and grow into an actual gold mine of information. But I'm quite skeptical for now.

<comment><USER7> Yes. I have a fondness in my heart for manic armless lazy-eye shouting guy, but it really doesn't send the right signal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's somewhat ironic that this site doesn't support https

</comment><comment><USER9> > to counteract the increasing threat of total communications surveillance by > governments

So I guess SSL man in the middle will be coming soon? If it isn't here already, of course.

Doesn't anyone else feel that the answer to over-surveillance from the government isn't a technological arms race but a political debate about the virtues of freedom?

<comment><USER10> It's already here and it's been here for a while.

I work in the financial industry where there are some strict regulatory requirements about information flow (you know, things like like insider trading and maintaining firewalls between different parts of big banks and stuff like that) and all the large banks that I know of are performing an SSL man-in-the-middle on their gateways and have been for quite a while.

Within a corporate setting it's very easy to do - you issue your own certs which are set to be trusted by internal computers and reencrypt with those at the gateways.

<comment><USER11> That works when "the corporation" controls your desktop and the certs your browser trusts, doesn't work so well when your (personal) smartphone or iPad is connecting out of the office over the cell network.

The recent Mozilla/Trustwave (and DigiCert before) debacles make it very clear that a nation-state level adversary is almost certainly capable of SSL mitm- ing just about any internet traffic they want. Unless you're getting your data in and out of your country via encrypted packets over ham radio (and into a country you trust), there's just too few businesses a government agency would have to "lean on" to ensure your SSL encrypted packets are reliably secure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> >>>Intermediate:

>>> \- Encypting your Entire Hard Drive with Truecrypt (Mac and Windows)

Do people recommend this method, or is Apple's built-in full disk encryption sufficient?

<comment><USER13> I wouldn't trust Apple on security. They are currently producing computers with ports that have direct access to the RAM. Also, you can root a mac with physical access in about 10 seconds. (On startup CTRL-S , mount the hd, delete find and delete .Apple*, restart). There is also that issue with the Indian government. Also in the past they have had major problems with FileVault (search 'VileFault').

<comment><USER14> Unless this allows you to access a Mac that has FileVault disk encryption turned on, without the key, it's a red herring. Also, today's FileVault is a completely different technology than the previous home dir encryption (which AFAIK was never broken, but had some frustrating limitations, mainly regarding backup).

<comment><USER13> You can retrieve the key if the computer is turned on by dumping the memory from a Firewire or Thunderbolt port. If these ports are disabled you could use the Cold Boot Attack. This is the same with all computers, it's just that Apple continue to make them with Thunderbolt.

There may be other ways...

'Unlocking FileVault': <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doGzuOYCNJE>

<comment><USER15> Apple has made some progress on protecting from DMA attacks -- when the screen locker is enabled, you can't do it. The kernel uses Intel VT-d for this; I'm not sure if Linux or Windows do the same yet.

I knocked Apple a bit for security issues 2006-2009, but they've made a serious effort to fix things starting sometime in 2010 or 2011. I mean, iOS and the iPhone platform is probably one of the most secure mobile OSes now (RIM edges it out, but RIM sucks). OS X has added other security features as well, starting with 10.6.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This would be a lot nicer if the dm-crypt tutorial for GNU/Linux wasn't directly copied from the ArchLinux Wiki, but without actually fixing links and explanations...

It's not bad to collect these things, but it's not really well done, and one could have linked better resources, such as Markus Gattol's site about dm- crypt for linux[1], or at least the original resources...

[1]: <http://www.markus-gattol.name/ws/dm-crypt_luks.html>

</comment><comment><USER17> From the page called "Filling Out Webforms": _...So many websites began asking you questions that seemed innocuous, but were actually designed to allow you to be controlled; so that Chinese authorities could make sure you were unable to view photos of Tiananmen Square, American authorities could make sure you were unable to view magazines published by "enemy" countries, and corporations were able to gather all your information to sell you as a data-package._

I consider myself rather paranoid, but I think this might be a litte exaggerated. However, this is all definitely possible, and if the governments haven't already begun mass surveillance, they probably will.

<comment><USER18> Certainly the UK seems to have taken a giant leap in this direction recently (unless this is a misguided April fool article):

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745>

I think you are deluding yourself though if you believe that most major govts are not doing wholesale digital trawling to the best of their (advanced) abilitites already, regardless of whatever legislation is currently in place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Here are some tips from the EFF on encryption: <https://ssd.eff.org/tech/encryption></comment>


US auto industry installed 135K robots and added 230K jobs - <AUTHOR> http://robohub.org/us-auto-industry-installed-135000-robots-and-added-230000-jobs/ <comment><USER3> I can definitely confirm that robots are even replacing low-wage workers here in Guangdong Province area of China, especially in these dirty manual labor jobs that nobody likes to do anyway, like part painting production lines and surface grinding and polishing for die-cast parts. The local provincial government is actually encouraging this and has tax credits in place for companies that are automating in these somewhat-dirty factories, like the grinding-polishing factories. The factory owner of our primary die-casting partner even pitched me to invest in starting another company making these industrial robots. There is going to be a lot of low cost but capable robots coming in the next few years.

<comment><USER4> If China comes up with a reasonably "correct" way to navigate this transition to sophisticated automated manufacturing, they should be able to easily leapfrog the US because their political structure doesn't have to go through the more difficult problem of negotiating between affected parties. Western countries would have to politically argue for multiple years before making the smallest change.

<comment><USER5> It just has the issue of hundreds of millions of unemployed workers, a big issue then it is in the U.S. since it has been going thru this same issue for 20 years. In China it will happen much faster.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "In the last six years, (2010–2015), according to the IFR (International Federation of Robotics), US industry has installed around 135,000 new industrial robots. The principal driver is automation in the car industry. During this same period, (2010–2015), the number of employees in the automotive sector increased by 230,000."

Correlation isn't causation.

<comment><USER7> perhaps not, but the more automated a factory is the less the labor costs matter to the whole. For this reason, I think automation is the key to bringing back manufacturing and manufacturing jobs to the US.

Not that total war, of a conventional nature, is likely to repeat itself, but the US won WWII largely on the back of its unparalleled manufacturing capabilities.

<comment><USER8> The US won world war 2 because the British gave us a shit ton of IP, which we then built in our factories, which weren't being bombed to shit like the rest of Europe, because of two gigantic oceans separating us from war.

To repeat the poster above you, correlation doesn't equal causation.

<comment><USER9> You're right that the fact that US factories weren't being bombed was critical, but it's important not to underestimate the scale here. The USA was a world powerhouse before wwii, with a higher gdp than all axis countries combined. Switching to a high-throughput wartime manufacturing powerhouse was straightforward.

<comment><USER8> I understand we produced a TON of stuff, and I don't mean to belittle it, but to credit the success of the war on our ability to manufacture is an oversimplification of the actual events.

Of course we had more stable manufacturing post world war 1, where we took only 10% of the losses of the other developed nations, and 2% of the worlds population was wiped out. It's not surprising that a country who lost only 0.13% of its people was able to move faster and build more stuff than a country who lost 13% of its total population.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Ah Great!. so they created 230K jobs between 2010-2015. but: there was a ~200K jobs loss during the 2008 recession. So only 30K additional jobs between say 2010-2015.

How do robots enter the picture ? Hard to tell from the data.

<comment><USER11> Actually according to the US Bureau of Labor there were 340,000 jobs lost in the auto industry from 2007 to 2009. So it's actually a net loss of 110,000.

[http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/04/art5full.pdf](http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2011/04/art5full.pdf)

<comment><USER12> Also, some of the recent gains were driven by an unsustainable subprime auto loans - another mini-bubble about to burst.

[http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/09/30/losses-jump-for- su...](http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/09/30/losses-jump-for-subprime- auto-loans/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Key issue is that a lot of the discussions about robots (the hardware kind) and jobs are not based on numbers and facts. I think we need more data - <USER2> is a start.

</comment><comment><USER14> The economy has gotten better. The price of oil has greatly dropped which has improved car sales. That could be the reason too. We really need to do some regression analysis to figure out what is the reason for the increase.

</comment><comment><USER15> US gained 230K jobs and 135K robots, other countries probably lost 1 million jobs to compensate. Automation goes full speed ahead, but what about sharing in the benefits?

<comment><USER16> Yes I suspect this too.

Look at a small part, in a small area and you see positive.

A lot of things are moving back home because of automation, devastating some countries.

Garment workers are about to be fucked. Robots are getting cheaper than cheap labour. So why not process it next door to the subsidized cotton.

But even from a selfish point of view, things currently at home are also going to be devastated.

One industries small renaissance at home is probably coupled with another's larger destruction.

<comment><USER17> I'm wondering why garment production wasn't automated years ago.

<comment><USER18> Lots of it is, but a big driver for why automating garment work being more costly than other kinds of automation is soft things, like cloth, are harder to deal with consistently than hard things like metal.

It folds and distorts in shape in much less normal patterns, requiring more sophisticated algorithms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> did it create blue collar jobs or only white collars?

<comment><USER20> Can't possibly be 230k blue collar jobs. GM and Ford both employ about 50,000 hourly workers each in the USA, with FCA coming in around 30,000.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> So why did it decrease in 2015 for auto robots?

</comment><comment><USER21> At a time when automation is under fire for decimating employment, we get a report that implies robots = jobs.

Moving on from this waste of time...</comment>


Show HN: Write Chrome Extensions in Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/fabioberger/chrome <comment><USER2> TLDR;

Go -> Gopherjs -> Javascript running like any other Chrome extension. Go isn't running in Chrome extensions as "native client" here.

<comment><USER3> Agreed... though it's a nice reminder that GopherJS is still an option... I was actually hoping that it was some sort of NaCl option for Go.

That said, I'd also love to see the ability to write native node.js modules via go. Channels would be a pretty natural interface for native modules from node via go. And could probably do something via named-pipes, but a transparent integration would be so cool.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> First thought: "I swear to god if this involves compiling Go to Javascript..."

<comment><USER5> GopherScript's got you covered baby!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was hoping someone finally figured out a good way to start the Go runtime from node/c/c++. Once this feature exists it will be trivial to write Go extensions/modules for Chrome, Apache, Node, MySQL, you name it.

</comment><comment><USER7> This more or less should work with Opera extensions too.

</comment><comment><USER8> nice, but it's way easier in Dart and if you want to develop Chrome Packaged App there is even project template for this in DartEditor

</comment><comment><USER9> For developing Chrome Extension, why would anyone want to use Go over Javascript?

</comment><comment><USER10> This github naming convention (that I see often with Go code) of using the product target name as the project name is starting to annoy me.

Also does anyone have any idea why Gopherjs would be better than Clojurescript, Typescript, Coffeescript, etc?

<comment><USER11> It's better than those, if you already know Go.</comment></comment>


In-browser mini IDE and Programming Language - <AUTHOR> http://www.algorithmatic.com/new

<comment><USER2> What I see:

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-----

Hello! To view this page you need Microsoft Silverlight 3 plug-in

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-----

Sorry, fail.

<comment><USER3> I see a really neat IDE where you can even debug .

Not sure if the fail is on their side or yours.

<comment><USER4> The fail is on their side.

1\. On my Windows and Mac machines I refuse to install the Silverlight plug-in (I haven't found a site that legitimately needs it yet). 2\. On my Ubuntu machine (where I generally read HN), there _is_ no Silverlight plug-in (and Moonlight isn't advanced enough even if I wanted it). I'm not sure Chrome for Linux could deal with anything but the Flash plug-in yet anyway.

<comment><USER3> >1\. On my Windows and Mac machines I refuse to install the Silverlight plug- in

Wow .. you refuse to install it because .. why ? It's MS ? it's a small plugin man get over it.

I constantly see this : ohhhh it's silverlight, nevermind what the application does - let's throw stones at it cause it's silverlight.

<comment><USER4> I refuse to install it because I haven't been convinced by people that I trust that there's anything that _demands_ Silverlight. There's enough quality content that uses Flash that it's inescapable.

I'm not against installing Microsoft products on my system; I just upgraded the WMV codecs from Flip4Mac (now owned by Microsoft) last night. I've got Mac:Office. I'm just not interested in installing an inessential plug-in for something that I'm going to visit just once and probably never play with again.

You also didn't address the point that Silverlight just isn't cross-platform enough. Flash cross-platform support sucks (I can use it on Linux), but Silverlight cross-platform is nonexistent (as "Moonlight" is still essentially a Silverlight v1 implementation).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm not sure why the homepage is search-enginey and I'm not sure why so many of the examples give syntax errors, but this is a very cool thing, or rather it has the potential to be very cool. I love the idea of generating simple GUIs for web apps from code. I also love the idea of being able to develop and use programs from within the browser. I would like to see this broken free from Silverlight (there's no reason it can't all be Javascript on the front end) and cleaned up some, but ultimately this is really freaking cool.

<comment><AUTHOR> Many thanks. The errors were the result of me refactoring the parser's code last week. Just fixed it and deployed. This is what you get for not having appropriate unit-testing code coverage ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Requires Silverlight 3, eh?

How does it compare to: <http://research.sun.com/projects/lively/>

<comment><USER5> It's trying to do something totally different from what I can tell. It uses a limited form of interaction that works well with the web instead of trying to replicate the desktop on the web. It's also much more responsive. The dependency on Silverlight is somewhat disappointing, but this is really cool.

<comment><USER7> I'm actually working on something similar for a DSL used by my employer. We started with Javascript, but recently decided to port to Silverlight. I'm not entirely pleased with the decision, but within the context of the app, it makes sense--the DSL is used to generate screen flows on devices using WPF. By using Silverlight, we didn't have to define the existing WPF controls in Javascript in order to render the scripts from the IDE--we can just leverage (for the most part) the existing controls which are defined with XAML.

Personally, I don't particularly like developing via Silverlight--many of the tools required by VS2008 are buggy, and often there is precious little documentation as to how the tools work under the hood.

<comment><USER5> Is there any way to get to the algorithm view from the IDE?

<comment><USER5> Because um... I just want to play with it. I don't particularly care about the algorithms. I just like the tech.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Looks like javascript...smells like javascript - only without the cool stuff that javascript does. I guess the in-browser thing is kind of neat?

</comment><comment><USER9> Seaside (Smalltalk web framework) provides something similar to this, where you can access the Smalltalk browser (i.e. IDE & Debugger) directly in the web browser. Whether or not you'd actually develop this way, is another question.

Unfortunately I cannot find a running example openly available on the web, probably because you could easily crash the server if you wanted to.

</comment><comment><USER10> Someone once tried to explain to me why a browser-based IDE was a good idea, but he never managed to convince me. Could anyone here help me understand some reasons why we would want it, besides quick tests and demos?

</comment><comment><USER11> Great, wonderful, um... what language is this?!

<comment><AUTHOR> It's Algorithmatic! see [http://www.algorithmatic.com/wiki/display/algorithmatic- refe...](http://www.algorithmatic.com/wiki/display/algorithmatic-reference- manual)

<comment><USER11> You mean yet another company trying to get me to learn yet another language they created specifically for their product? I'll pass. :P

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The text editor is a bit clunky. I use the home and end keys extensively while I program, so their lack of functionality really bothers me. The intelisense is cool, but when I press tab it does not complete the word.</comment>


Hacker steals 17M users' data from restaurant app Zomato - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4518060/Hackers-steal-17-million-users-data-Indian-restaurant-app-Zomato.html <comment><USER2> To clarify, the hacker was actually a researcher who put the data online to draw Zomato's attention of a vulnerability he'd disclosed to them more than a year ago.

Here's the more interesting part: As per some sources the data used MD5 with a 2(!) character salt.

EDIT: Here's some more info from Zomato's side: [http://blog.zomato.com/post/160986258541/security-update- wha...](http://blog.zomato.com/post/160986258541/security-update-what-really- happened-and-what)

<comment><USER3> _In hindsight, what helped us contain the extent of the breach?_

You didn't contain a breach. You're security was a joke.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It was clarified later that the "hacker" was a security professional who put up all that data on the Dark Web to draw Zomato's attention to loopholes in its systems.

[http://blog.zomato.com/post/160986258541/security-update- wha...](http://blog.zomato.com/post/160986258541/security-update-what-really- happened-and-what\(http://blog.zomato.com/post/160986258541/security-update- what-really-happened-and-what\))

Edit - Turns out the OP's article mentions the same thing. Might as well confess a personal bias - every time I see a Daily Mail article, I can't help but think about how they served as a Nazi mouthpiece for years before the war, so _all_ their stuff's got to be inaccurate/biased.

<comment><USER5> > [Daily Mail] served as a Nazi mouthpiece for years before the war

> [Therefore,] all their stuff's got to be inaccurate/biased.

That conclusion doesn't really follow from the premise.

<comment><USER6> I agree, but as someone who hates daily mail because I don't find it credible nor to have much depth; it does speak them being historically pretty shit as wel

<comment><USER7> If you want some more historical fun, go back and look up which newspapers were supportive of Japanese internment :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


SMS logins: an illusion of security - <AUTHOR> http://danielpocock.com/sms-logins-an-illusion-of-security

<comment><USER2> I think this article is blatantly missing the point. Adding two-factor auth is the best way to stop shared compromised credentials (we all know people who don't use a random password everywhere) being reused on every common login form on the internet. Companies like Facebook are not going to issue everyone with authenticated tokens or smart cards. SMS though being a simple hurdle for a determined hacker it is effective at stopping en masse attacks on compromised credentials.

Using SMS as two factor auth for a bank does seem stupid to me as I expect hackers to be more determined to crack my bank account than my Facebook account. Banks have the resources and the long account setup times to allow them to use proper auth tokens.

Is there a better solution that SMS for low risk sites like Facebook or Twitter or my blog etc? Something with the same easy of use portability etc. Is the Google Auth token app any better?

EDIT: login not logic in first paragraph

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it's important to distinguish between the use of SMS in two-factor authentication vs. single-factor. The author is referring to single-factor authentication in the form of SMS one-time passwords. He has some great points, but I don't think they discredit the effectiveness of SMS as a component of two-factor authentication.

<comment><USER4> Discrediting the security of SMS tokens applies whether or not they're a single factor or part of a multi-factor system. If logging in to my account requires a password and an SMS token, and SMS tokens are so easily compromised, my account is effectively protected by only a password. While compromising the token alone doesn't give an attacker access to my account, I can't consider my account to be protected by multiple factors.

<comment><USER3> SMS security tokens have significant weaknesses; yes. The reason for multi- factor authentication is to compensate for the weaknesses of any single factor. This works reasonably well as long as the factors aren't so weak as to be trivially surmounted.

If there existed a single authentication factor that was at once practical and perfectly secure, then there would be no need for multi-factor auth.

<comment><USER4> The point of the article is that SMS as a security factor is weak enough as to be trivially surmounted.

<comment><USER3> Weak, yes. But trivial? The article does not convince me of that.

> _In this context, the telephone network itself may no longer be the weakest > link in the chain. The diligent attacker only needs to look for the cloud > operator with an unplugged security hole and use their system as a stepping > stone to read any SMS they want, when they want._

This is the most practical attack described in the article. Attack vectors like this will occasionally open up, but I would not call it _trivial_.

<comment><USER5> I agree. That quote basically describes any technical attack on a service. You could write any article stating XYZ tech is insecure if you're sounding the alarm based on "future unknown vulnerabilities".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Since the original link seems to be down: [https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:daniel...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:danielpocock.com/sms- logins-an-illusion-of-security)

</comment><comment><USER7> While I don't strongly disagree with any of the points made regarding the security of the SMS network, I do feel that the article is inordinately preoccupied with banking, and dismisses SMS authentication out of hand because it isn't good enough for your bank. In the case of a bank, I agree that a security token certainly is the right tool for the job. But what about other login services?

It doesn't really matter to me, as a developer, whether SMS is impregnable. It matters whether it is harder to break than user-originated passwords. Users are notoriously bad at picking good passwords, and are easily socially engineered.

We can implement password policies to attempt to mitigate this, but what we end up doing is frustrating our users, who will struggle to remember the 8 character minimum, alphanumeric, at least one capital letter, at least one piece of punctuation password we have forced them to choose.

What ends up happening is that users either forget their "strong" passwords, and have to reset them via email or SMS every time. Or they write their passwords down or store them all on a spreadsheet. Or they reuse then same strong password across multiple services (and even correct horse battery staple doesn't avoid that one).

SMS authentication may not be perfect, but single-use passwords, with nothing for the user to remember, is an improvement on weak user-originated passwords. For my money, at least!

<comment><USER8> _We can implement password policies to attempt to mitigate this, but what we end up doing is frustrating our users, who will struggle to remember the 8 character minimum, alphanumeric, at least one capital letter, at least one piece of punctuation password we have forced them to choose._

        >>> math.log((26+26+10+32) ** 8, 2)
        52.4367108134211

So a "perfect" 8-character password has about 52 bits entropy.

        $ wc -l /usr/share/dict/american-english
        99171 /usr/share/dict/american-english

        >>> math.log(99171,2) * 3
        49.792892048685374

3 random dictionary words has almost 50 bits. 4 words would have about 66 bits.

Couldn't average-user password strength be _hugely_ improved by giving better password instructions (if your signup / passwork-change page is SSL as it should be, maybe even provide a few dozen random words as possibilities)?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Why aren't smart cards more popular? Is there even an API for web pages to make use of smart cards (I'm not a web developer)? I know yubikey, but I do not understand the concept. A simple smart card token should be sufficient (like the yubikey NEO). I do not own a smart phone, but it would make sense to have smart cards built in, register your phone's public key to your service and use a challenge-response like authentication for second factor.

<comment><USER10> It's a price and usability problem.

The basic functionality (SSL Client Certificates) is built in to all major browsers and servers. Enabling it up takes only a few hours and doesn't require any third-party software or hardware at all.

Actually getting your users to buy a smart card reader, find a card that has drivers for their browser/OS combination, buy that card, and spend half an hour setting it all up? Good luck with that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Relevant to the topic: a map of the state of GSM insecurity:

[http://gsmmap.org/](http://gsmmap.org/)</comment>


Solution to student loans - <AUTHOR> https://mathscientist.herokuapp.com/signup <comment><AUTHOR> Actual Link: [https://mathscientist.herokuapp.com/](https://mathscientist.herokuapp.com/)

</comment><comment><USER2> The solution to student loans is to create an account on your site?

<comment><AUTHOR> No. Click the about mathscientist link.

<comment><USER2> Can you edit the title so it does not go directly to your signup page? As it is, it looks a little spammy (to me at least).

Maybe the article or page is fantastic. But if you send me to a signup page before I even know what this site/article/service is, then I just going to move on to something else.

<comment><AUTHOR> I tried adding the original webpage but hacker news would not accept it for some reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> tldr?

<comment><AUTHOR> The idea is to link a e-learning website to a freelancing website. Users can take courses uploaded by universities which contain course videos and course notes explaining concepts. Users can then apply what they learn in the real world by completing tasks for companies in the freelancing site. This way users can get jobs without having to pay tens and thousand of dollars in student loans</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Dyn attack and Dirty Cow correlation? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Probably more like Mirai IoT botnet

[https://www.tecklyfe.com/linux-trojan-linux-mirai-source- cod...](https://www.tecklyfe.com/linux-trojan-linux-mirai-source-code-leaked/)</comment>


Share and play any song in iMessage for free - <AUTHOR> http://spinlist.fm/songshare <comment><AUTHOR> We are really excited to introduce Spinlist SongShare today. It's a really fast and easy way to find a song and share it with someone. That's it. No accounts required. No sharing files. Just simple sharing of songs.</comment>


Checking the LAPD's crime classifications - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/datadesk/lapd-crime-classification-analysis <comment><AUTHOR> The story behind the code: "LAPD underreported serious assaults, skewing crime stats for 8 years" [http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-crime- stats-2015...](http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-crime- stats-20151015-story.html)</comment>


Show HN: The Whole Code Catalog - <AUTHOR> Today I am releasing two years of research that I did with a new programming language startup, Dark[1].
The Whole Code Catalog[2] is a review of two-dozen programming-ish tools, designed to inspire the creators of our next generation of computational interfaces. In other words, this is not a review of more traditional programming languages we already know a lot about, like Python and C, but of interesting but less-well-known ones for programmers, like Smalltalk, Eve, Retool, and Zapier.
If you're a programming languages and devtools nerd, come join the Future of Coding Community [3]!
[1] - https://darklang.com
[2] - https://futureofcoding.org/catalog/
[3] - https://futureofcoding.org/community <comment><USER2> I got to see early versions of this, and it's really awesome. Every tool out there has cool features that deserve to be part of our workflow, and its great to see the potential of how we _could_ be building software. I recommend anyone to go through a bunch of these - they're fascinating!

</comment><comment><USER3> This is fantastic. Thanks for putting this together.</comment>


Ask HN: I offered free promo codes for my iphone app but.... - <AUTHOR>

Hi All
Yesterday I wanted to give away some promo codes to my new iPhone app but only one person wanted one.
Was it inappropriate to offer this on Hacker News? There were no catches or tricks. It was a genuine offer. I just thought it would be a good thing to do (for me and HN readers)
Any suggestions on what to do/ not to do would be much appreciated :)
Here's the original post:
<comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>-----
Ask HN: Anyone want a Free promo code for my iPhone app?
Would anyone like a promo code to test my company's iPhone app? I have ten to give away valid in the U.S. app store.
It would be really cool if you could write a review on the app store afterwards. Be honest.... but be nice :)
Go to http://www.joubee.com and fill out the form and I'll send you a code. Thanks so much guys. </comment><comment><USER2> I think you might have gotten a better response if you mentioned in the HN title what kind of app it was.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think it's a great idea, and can't see anything wrong with offering like- minded thinkers a chance to test it out.

If I had more time I'd definitely give it a shot. Surely there's some folks who would gladly give it a chance!

</comment><comment><USER4> _Anyone want a Free promo code for my iPhone app?_

I'd take one, but I don't have an iPhone/iPod Touch!

Maybe Sunday was a bad day to catch people...I tend to look at HN mostly at work :)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Wow.... great response so far. I've had a nice post from Darren and two more people have requested codes.

Thanks so much for the support guys :)

Keeps the requests coming

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I've had a nice post from Darren and byoung</comment>


Large botnet cause of recent Tor network overload - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fox-it.com/2013/09/05/large-botnet-cause-of-recent-tor-network-overload/

<comment><USER2> > Typically, it is fairly clear what the purpose of malware is, such as > banking, clickfraud, ransomware or fake anti-virus malware. In this case > however it is a bit more difficult.

I think the article answers its own question the paragraph previous:

> While some bots continue to operate using the standard HTTP connectivity, > some versions of the malware use a peer-to-peer network to communicate (KAD > based).

Tor and Kademlia are both rather complex systems. To use one or the other, but not both, in different versions of your botnet, would suggest to me that this is a botnet creator _split-testing the effectiveness and scalability of different command-and-control technologies_.

<comment> X-Istence Even criminals need to do A/B testing!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I wonder if it is conceivable that a government agency that wouldn't like what Tor offers, could reduce Tor's attractiveness by bombing it from a botnet, much like what they've done by arresting people who host a tor node for traffic that runs across it.

With that said, I accept that this is much less likely explanation than just some Russian group just using it to facilitate their usual crime.

<comment><USER4> So far the new users are showing little activity (according to the article), so that seems unlikely.

<comment><USER5> I don't think the little activity disproves that theory beyond a reasonable doubt. If it really was a govt agency wanting to flood the network, they may be waiting for a particular event to initiate the flood.

<comment><USER6> As is the nature of conspiracy theories, it is _impossible_ to definitively disprove.

<comment><USER7> When you eliminate the falsifiable, whatever remains, however improbable, must be a conspiracy theory

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Could the anonymity of tor users be compromized by these presumed bots ? As for bitcoin which could be subverted if one users holds more than 50% of the bitcoins.

<comment><USER9> Is there any commercial logic to hacking tor, though?

<comment><USER10> They are connecting as users -- it's more than likely that the only thing that is to be gained is a fully anonymous non-takedownable C&C</comment></comment></comment>


Keyboard-driven Window Management in OS X - <AUTHOR> http://zacharypinter.com/2009/06/15/keyboard-driven-window-management-in-osx.html

<comment><USER2> Maybe OS X 10.7 will ship with XMonad's tiling integrated into WindowServer :)

<comment><USER3> That would be the single best thing to happen to my computing environment ever.</comment></comment>


Minecraft arrives on the Nintendo Switch - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/12/minecraft-arrives-on-the-nintendo-switch/ <comment><USER2> I just picked it up last night, its pretty weird to think that this game I bought way back in 2010 is still relevant. Indie hits like super meat boy and limbo came out in 2010, Triple As like God of War 3 and Fallout NV. But this java applet somehow has outlived them all. There arn't many 8 year old+ games that still have this much traction.

I wonder how it holds onto it's user base, or was it just dumb blind luck that it hit big with the youtube boom

<comment><USER3> Minecraft isn't just a game anymore. It is a cultural touchstone. An entire generation has been introduced to video games through Minecraft.

Furthermore, the gameplay effectively can go on forever. Especially with mods on PC, there are very few limits to what can be done. Entire separate games (e.g. Hunger Games mod) have been implemented.

Also, it's one of the best-selling games of all time. That helps. No one bats an eye when, say, Puyo Puyo Tetris gets released and ported. (Yes, I just compared Minecraft to Tetris.)

<comment><USER4> > An entire generation has been introduced to video games through Minecraft.

Absolutely, but I would take it one step farther. Minecraft has introduced them to concepts beyond only video games: architecture, circuit design, and people management, to name a few.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >or up to four can play together in a split-screen view on the TV from a single console

I didn't even expect that, honestly.

Also I wonder if minecraft still runs java underneath - probably yes, but you never know.

<comment><USER6> Why Java doesn't work on Nintendo Switch? Only for political reasons (forbidden by Nintendo)? They fear JIT or GC?

<comment><USER7> GC is the killer of hard real time constraints

<comment><USER6> Why then Minecraft works perfectly on PC (even worked perfectly in 2009)?

<comment><USER7> I personally never checked the fps when playing Minecraft but Minecraft was not extremely computationally intensive. Despite that they still needed to port it to a non GC language to get it running on phones

<comment><USER8> Beyond just getting it running on phones, C++ is the industry standard for cross-platform games.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Cool, maybe they can make some more so people can actually get them

<comment><USER10> I was able to find one at Wal Mart and two at Target using iStockNow.com. The only store it seemeed to have issue with properly tracking was GameStop. (For the record, I only bought one of those three, I'm not interested in scalping.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've tried to play the iPad and iPhone portable versions of Minecraft, and only having touch-screen input just didn't cut it for me.

The Switch has real gaming inputs, and I think that's going to make a huge difference in the basic comfort and playability of the game.

<comment><USER12> I've stopped playing Zelda on my TV completely. The handheld mode is just so good. I can't believe that I have no complaints! This is going to be big for Minecraft.</comment></comment>


Entropic announced at jsconfeu, a federated NPM replacement - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/una/status/1134874256989392896 <comment><USER2> Bypass Twitter, straight to the source:

[https://github.com/entropic-dev/entropic](https://github.com/entropic- dev/entropic)

Motivation and detailed docs here: [https://github.com/entropic- dev/entropic/tree/master/docs](https://github.com/entropic- dev/entropic/tree/master/docs)

\---

Also want to mention a similar effort: [https://open- registry.dev/](https://open-registry.dev/)</comment>


Theatres Won't Cancel Or Refund Future Mike Daisey Shows - <AUTHOR> http://52tiger.net/theaters-wont-cancel-refund-future-mike-daisey-shows/

<comment><USER2> This story shows the fundamental difference between the principles of Ira Glass and everyone at This American Life & Chicago Public Radio versus some dude that really doesn't care what brought you into this "relationship", thinks you're just stuck with him.

Well, as it turns out, people aren't really "stuck" with Mike Daisey, except for a non-refundable ticket that won't be a recurring sale. He lost all integrity and trust in his stories, regardless of how well he does tell them.

And I can assure you that the saying «There is no such thing as bad publicity» might apply to the dumb celebrities followers (with no due respect) but doesn't really apply to every field, especially when journalistic standards are expected.

My guess is that everyone knows and understands the mistake made by Mr Ira Glass and the Producers at This American Life was one of _trust_.

And the basic point here is, that I keep my full trust in Mr. Ira, This American Life's Producers and Chicago Public Radio, because humans can make mistakes (and in fact learn/correct/improve when they do so), but those that have principles and integrity know to recognize and correct any mistakes. So was the case here.

In regards to Mr. Mike Daisey, there's no trusting him ever again, unless he's telling unicorn stories.

</comment><comment><USER3> Of course not, Daisey gets all the publicity for his shows, reaching out to an audience that share his views and This American Life gets to clean up the mess. He will probably end up more popular as a result. C'est la vie.

</comment><comment><USER4> They shouldn't have to offer refunds. People decided to watch on their own, they shouldn't hold the theater accountable. Do some research before taking Daisey as fact. It took someone to finally do that to get down to the truth. Hopefully everyone that paid money for Daisey's show learned their lesson.</comment>


Spy used AI-generated face to connect with targets - <AUTHOR> https://apnews.com/bc2f19097a4c4fffaa00de6770b8a60d <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20170966](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20170966)</comment>


Free Software Debate Antipatterns - <AUTHOR> http://robmyers.org/weblog/2009/09/free-software-debate-antipatterns.html

<comment><USER2> Echoing wmf, there's a bit of pro-GPL bias here.

 _"I'd rather my software was used in a hundred proprietary projects than by a dozen people who are truly free to use it." -- Then you are interested in popularity, not freedom._

It's all about whose freedom you want to preserve, not popularity contests. Copyleft licenses ensure the freedom of software recipients. Permissive licenses ensure the freedom of software developers.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is somewhat useful, but a little terse. It would be nice if each anti- pattern included a link to a more detailed discussion.

Also, I detect pro-GPL bias.</comment>


The first 3D-printed human stem cells - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/147647-the-first-3d-printed-human-stem-cells

<comment><USER2> Interesting, but not as new as they'd like you to think (article below from 2004, and the article mentions organ printing first being mentioned in 1999).

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12679063>

Tissue engineering has been the "next big thing" in biotech for a while, and 3D printing-style techniques have been a part of it for some time. It seems that its only recently been picked up by mainstream media.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, here's a TED talk from 2011 about it: [http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidn...](http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_printing_a_human_kidney.html)

I remember seeing this talk in person (spoiler alert) and midway through they dragged this up kid on stage who has been living with a bladder built via similar means for 10 years! Closest I've felt to Rip Van Winkle in my life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I expect we've got a pretty large domestic market here in Scotland for replacement livers.

</comment><comment><USER5> Even as a Product Designer I tend to sigh when I see articles about 3D printing, especially when they start saying that everything in the future will be printed.

However this is very exciting! This is using 3D printing where it truly will make a difference. I suspect its a good few tens of years off though...

</comment><comment><USER6> I hate how they redirect to a "better" mobile experience page, and as soon as I see this is happening, I just hit back... How about you? PS. I use iPad mostly to read HN

</comment><comment><USER7> "Researchers in ..."

I anxiously await for the day when that phrase starts with countries like Bolivia, Mongolia, Sudan, etc. It seems like there are only a few places where world class research is being done. When the rest of the world comes online, hopefully news like this happens daily.

<comment><USER8> relevant visualization of where research happens: [http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.8087.1355853889!/image/c...](http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.8087.1355853889!/image/cube%20map_web.jpg_gen/derivatives/lightbox/cube%20map_web.jpg)

<comment><USER9> I'd like to see the same visualization, but for the distribution of the nationalities/origin of the actual paper authors.

i.e. of the ~300K papers published in the US, how many of those papers were authored and co-authored by immigrants (H1-B, or naturalized) etc.

I suspect that a greater % of these papers were written by foreign born researchers.

<comment><USER10> I would expect the general trends to be about the same, though all less pronounced.

Say 25% of the researchers in the US were born in the US: The US column would drop significantly but since that other 75% is probably spread more or less evenly across the other columns, they would only all rise a little.

The only _really_ dramatic change I would expect would be to mainland China. It probably wouldn't loose much, but would likely gain quite a lot.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Confused: I read that title as creating cells. Instead they are printing using cells as the ink.

</comment><comment><USER12> Just by printing a full human heart we'd be able to work until age 80 without feeling tired all day ..?</comment>


Are we living in a Simulation? – The Saint - <AUTHOR> http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2016/10/22/are-we-living-in-a-simulation/ <comment><USER2> Also:

There is a lot of suffering in this world.

High levels of social conscientiousness (mutual aid) is a positive selecting factor in evolution of highly intelligent species (Darwin/Kropotkin).

Therefore, no intelligence smart enough to build a universal simulation would do so. IMNSHO.

<comment><USER3> Human perception is highly relative - our capacity to feel suffering is necessary for joy to be meaningful. Kind of like there would be no far without near, and no up without down.

What if this isn't just a simulation, but a game, and we're avatars? A game needs challenge and conflict, nobody wants to play a game that is basically "press start to win."

<comment><USER2> Why are people born into such disparagingly disparate circumstances? Pretty shitty game. Why are some born healthy, and others sick. This mode of thinking is... illogical. It also encourages an unhealthy, almost fundamentalist disconnect from all thinking/feeling things. The disturbing, fascist aspect of Zen or Shinto (nothing is real, there are no consequences because there is nothing), or the 50 virgins afterlife of the funda'islamism, is all very very dark disconnected thinking. Makes me despair somewhat. Like he says in the article, another form of religion.

<comment><USER3> Controlling the circumstances people are born into would require controlling the circumstances up until their birth, which would mean mean the "game" was fully deterministic. If the game was deterministic, it wouldn't be like playing a game, it would be like watching a movie you already know by heart - i.e. not so engaging. The fact that you are free to act, and the outcome is uncertain - that is what makes for a compelling experience.

Additionally, you assume poor people in third world countries are automatically miserable. In actuality, they're only miserable when they're hungry, sick, mistreated, or made to feel want by having affluence rubbed in their faces - kind of like us. It is true that their odds of being hungry or sick are higher, and in some unstable countries there is a lot of mistreatment going on. That being said, I've been around a fair number of third-world villagers, and my experience is that in general they are just as happy as your typical first-world american.

<comment><USER2> Have you had a chronic illness?

No advanced civilization would find it ethically acceptable to put people through the suffering many go through on a day to day basis.

My own life has been plagued by chronic, treatment resistant depression. I can't do things other people do, because my stress response does not allow for recovery. If I was born in a third world country, hell, even some place like Eastern Europe where it is almost impossible to find work at the moment, I'd have had to have killed myself long ago. Simply unable to survive. Even worse some place like Syria, where for the last 4 and a half years have been having the equivalent of a Paris Terrorist attack every single day. People are forced into shitty boats, into countries that don't want them, to escape bombs made in the countries that don't want them.

Suicide is the one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In countries privileged enough to have data collection and less cultural taboos on the issue, the largest groups that suicide are also the most likely to be the most disadvantaged. In some Aboriginal communities, for instance, child suicide is a common occurrence.

Do you know what it is like to be a parent and to lose your child in any kind of way? My god! What kind of a monster would _create_ a world like this?

OK... step back..

Let's say we discovered a scientist was deliberately rearing children genetically engineered to have some kind of un-treatable illness. IT WOULD BE UNACCEPTABLE. Now multiply by millions every year.

How do you not understand that that is unacceptable and unethical?

You think the holocaust would be a interesting game? Maybe pop into a body just as it's being gassed? Or maybe to observe?

Doctor Mengele type shit right there, son.

edit: I am not complaining, or bitter about my own situation, however, I WOULD NOT WISH IT ON MY OWN WORSE ENEMY. I do not believe in the death penalty, nor seeking vengeance by torture. Certainly wouldn't want to be the axe-weilding bag of high-functioning idiot dildos who thought up the idea to create this universe.

<comment><USER3> I have overcome ASD, crippling social anxiety to the point that I never left the house, extreme morbid obesity, homelessness, drug abuse and depression so bad not only was I contemplating suicide multiple times a day, I spent a significant amount of time researching and planning it. My game setting was extreme hard-mode.

I never gave up, and in the end I overcame it all. Now I've got a body that could make an underwear model jealous, I have an amazing career, I regularly win speech contests, I've got several inventions in the patent process, I'm about 150 pages deep in a book I'm writing, the list goes on.

For every person who endures great suffering, there is someone else out there experiencing incredible joy. You need to be able to experience one in order to have the other - our emotional systems are relative. Furthermore, the freedom that makes it a game rather than a show to be passively observed unfortunately implies the freedom to be nasty to other people. Nasty stuff like natural disasters, killer viruses and painful genetic conditions are unfortunate, but there is so much out there that is wonderful.

I don't want to be preachy, but I've been to the darkest part of the abyss, so maybe I could offer you a little bit of advice. You need to stop paying so much attention to the negative messages floating around in the world and open your eyes to the beauty that is abundant all around you. Additionally, you are stronger than you think, you can take control of your life, you don't have to be a victim.

<comment><USER2> "The water supply of south Asia comes mostly from glaciers in the Himalayas. They're melting. What happens when they disappear? There goes the water supply for South Asia. Couple billion people in India alone, an estimated 300 million _barely_ have access to water, what's going to happen to them? All over the place. Coastal cities will disappear. Extreme weather events will increase. One person per-second is now fleeing the severe effects of weather -- more than refugees right now. We're seeing a major disaster right now." \- Noam Chomsky, not to mention _all suffering and torture that has happened in the past_

I'm really glad for your cool situation. You are one of the lucky ones.

Maybe it's a simulation created by accident, as a by-product of some other process. That isn't what you're saying. What you're saying is that you think there is a possibility this is a game, or some kind of VR hologram. Your reasoning seems to be that you need to go through bad experience to then feel good ones. Which is completely flawed on its own. Social and cultural relativism has been debunked by science over and over again. We see morals emerging independent of experience. Some people will never know what it means to be a paraplegic, or blind, and on and on. The idea that one needs to pay their dues assumes some kind of karmic balance, which is garbage. Thankfully many people have a good life, but through history, all of this suffering, death, carnage -- no intelligent being alive would think that was worth a dime for your washboard abs. Stop victimising yourself by going with this ignorance is bliss bullshit. It will make you feel good in the short term, but... I think we've gotten personal enough. Let's try to keep it with the simulation thing, eh? I've done some awesome shit too. Wouldn't use that as an excuse to play Dr Mengele though. Kind of messed up.

<comment><USER3> The need to be able to experience pain to know pleasure isn't about social or cultural relativism, it's a function of how we perceive stimuli. Try putting your hand in hot water for a while, then put your hand in cold water, and repeat the procedure without first putting your hand in hot water. The cold water will feel much colder going from the hot water. Research has also demonstrated that pain that doesn't change in character or intensity is noticed less over time. Our perceptions are not based on some absolute scale but relative to other perceptions.

My argument is that in order for a game or story to be compelling, the outcome must be uncertain, and the possibility of loss or failure must exist. Nobody wants to play a game that is basically "push start to win" and nobody wants to read a story that is basically "a long time ago, in a land far far away, everybody lived happily ever after".

I'm happy to stay out of the personal, you were the one that brought up your depression. I'll leave that track with the suggestion that maybe it is worth entertaining the possibility that your depression isn't the result of some chemical imbalance resulting from a bad draw of the genetic lottery, but rather a product of your beliefs and thought process.

I don't see how I'm "victimising" myself by recognizing that there is both good and bad in the universe, and put on the cosmic scale, the good massively outweighs the bad.

<comment><USER2> OMG I'm cured. Thanks Mr Mansplain. Great therapeutic use of passive aggression! I can't tell you how useful this has been! All my own doing! Of course! You should write a monograph on the subject: "Depression is existential angst in people with whom one disagrees: how I created a universe of suffering and lifeless rocks in order to provide relative validity to my own thoroughly dealt with existential angst, which I am in complete control of, and for which is certainly not the reason for having created said universe in the first place."</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Google Exec Dan Fredinburg Killed in Nepal Earthquake - <AUTHOR> http://recode.net/2015/04/25/google-exec-dan-fredinburg-killed-in-nepal-earthquake/ <comment><USER2> His sister posted this on his Instagram page.

> This is Dans little sister Megan. I regret to inform all who loved him that > during the avalanche on Everest early this morning our Dan suffered from a > major head injury and didn't make it. We appreciate all of the love that has > been sent our way thus far and know his soul and his spirit will live on in > so many of us. All our love and thanks to those who shared this life with > our favorite hilarious strong willed man. He was and is everything to us. > Thank you.

[https://instagram.com/p/16G9prRFsR/?taken- by=danfredinburg](https://instagram.com/p/16G9prRFsR/?taken-by=danfredinburg)

</comment><comment><USER3> Wow, terrible news. Condolences to the family and loved ones.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is tragic news.

I am originally from Nepal, currently living in Minneapolis, and wanted to share with you my experience.

[https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/relief-fund-for- nepal...](https://life.indiegogo.com/fundraisers/relief-fund-for-nepal- earthquake)

Disbelief

We were woken up by a phone call in the middle of the night. Nepal had just gotten hit by a 7.9 magnitude earthquake!! We couldn't believe it.

Fear

Our thoughts immediately jumped to our families' wellbeing. We tried contacting them but couldn't get through. You tell your mind not to think about the worst, but you can't help yourself. You try to stay strong, for yourself and for those around you.

Sadness

We turned on our computers, and see the devastation engulf the country. Death and destruction all over the news. Buildings, Temples, Historical Landmarks – major portions of our country's history, culture and tradition – wiped out!

Relief

Frantic phone calls followed, and after an hour, we were able to establish that our families were safe.

Helplessness

You hear the fear in their voices, and feel helpless. You want to be there for them, but there is nothing you can do. You can only listen as your parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, grandparents recount firsthand experiences as butterflies form in the pit of your stomach –

• The ground beneath them is shaking violently, throwing them from wall to wall as they try to scramble outside to safety

• The walls of our house collapsing right before their eyes

• They cannot go back in because tremors and aftershocks continue to ripple for hours

• They sleep in their cars, only to be woken up by another tremor

• They are paralyzed in fear

Courage + Action

We consider ourselves extremely lucky that even though some of our family members suffered minor injuries, everyone is okay. But there are countless others that weren't as fortunate. Hospitals kicking out existing patients to treat critical victims. We feel very strongly, and very deeply for our country, and are determined to take action.

We spent the entire day researching the best options for collecting donations, and reaching out to our networks in Nepal to identify the best way to disburse funds to places in most need.

We are reaching out to our networks here in the US for any help we can get. The road to recovery is going to be long and painful.

We need you. Nepal needs you!!

</comment><comment><USER5> Why does everyone get a huge promotion upon death? He was a program manager, not an executive. PMs make less than engineers.</comment>


Banham avec Ballard: On style and violence (2019) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/66/dorrian.php <comment><USER2> Unrelated to the post, but I wonder how Americans pronounce and spell Banham's name.

Personal experience: My name is Behnam and I've often seen people think it's "Benham" or even "Brenan". This makes me think maybe it'd be wise to change my name (either pick an English name, or use Benham instead). I've seen many asians do this, e.g. Terry Tao, Andrew Ng, etc.

<comment><USER3> I'm confused as to what you're saying. Is Banham not just an English name? English people named after Banham (in Norfolk, where Reyner's hometown, Norwich, is) have existed for at least 400 years it seems.

Behnam I think I could spell from hearing, and pronounce, but a lot of people struggle with names in general. English phonology has so much to offer, that a lot of names can be written relatively faithfully in it; it's certainly a lot easier than trying to write western names in Japanese, or Mandarin (it's really not pronounced 亞倫, guys).

<comment><USER2> I was curious to see how people pronounce/spell less common names, esp. those that are not of English origin (such as my name). "Behnam" has an "h" in there, which most English speakers don't pronounce. Also, the second syllable should be pronounced like "numb", not "nam". I've been trying to figure out how to convey these using the English phonology. I came up with a bunch of ideas like "Behnum", "Beh-Nam", etc. but those seem awkward.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, I think probably it's never going to get easier. If you come across somebody who knows a little about pronouncing Persian names, they'll probably get it right, but there's only so much people can manage. I doubt most native Persians would be able to accurately transcribe English and Scottish names with Farsi rules, unless they had some specific exposure.

<comment><USER2> You're right. I think some English names would be hard to be transcribed with Farsi rules. Although in my experience, most of them are easily pronounced (with a bit of accent) by native Persian speakers.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What Should I do with my time - <AUTHOR>

I am a senior CS student in college who just figured out that I can graduate this December instead of May as expected. I have accepted a job I start in August and am trying to figure out what to do with myself until then. Any suggestions for projects? Books to read? Places to freelance code? <comment><USER2> You should work on stuff you genuinely find interesting with the only expectation to learn. Don't do freelance, you'll have plenty of time to work. And don't overwhelm yourself. Just do stuff you genuinely find interesting. If you are not sure what that may be, just start with anything. Here is some stuff to stretch your mind, considering you're a programmer:

Learn to code in Haskell :: [https://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell](https://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell) Unsolved Problems :: [http://mathworld.wolfram.com/UnsolvedProblems.html](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/UnsolvedProblems.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Go to 6 countries you've never been to for 1 month at a time while you learn or perfect technology skills (or eschew all of computing for 6 months).

You'll learn a ton in your first job, and you'll have guidance. Don't worry about learning a TON before then.

This will likely be your last chance to do this until you're ready to quit your job or give up on opportunities for larger responsibility at the organization.

<comment><USER4> To the OP: I know this isn't the kind of answer you were looking for, but it will probably be the most rewarding — just in ways you hadn't imagined.

You're going to get paid to learn on your first job, and you'll get an idea of what you want to learn next from that experience. Go learn about life for now because like gobengo said, you won't get another chance to drop everything and travel for six months for awhile.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am planning on doing a 4 month trip starting on east coast USA->Europe->Middle East->India->Southeast Asia->Australia/Oceania

Any suggestions of must see places or experiences.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It will be very difficult for you to get 4 full months of free time once you start working.

TRAVEL!!!!! Go backpacking. Go skydiving. Take out a loan to do it if you have to. Go to the other side of the world. DO NOT SIT IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER.

Seriously think about how you'll view your life from your deathbed.

</comment><comment><USER6> Same here! But I start working in mid-February. Wanna spend the winter hacking away? Maybe we'll get something useful out of it, perhaps even a semester at YC :P

</comment><comment><USER7> I think you should work on something that benefits someone else. Then when you get into the workforce you will remember how good that felt and are more likely to make a habit of it. Traveling would probably count actually as it makes you see things from others perspectives and realize how lucky you are.

</comment><comment><USER8> Go to himalayas :)

</comment><comment><USER9> Read SICP

</comment><comment><USER10> Work on fighting aging.</comment>


Hacker News Twitter Feeds with Hashtag Metadata - <AUTHOR> http://jeffmiller.github.com/2010/11/08/hacker-news-twitter-feeds-with-hashtag-metadata <comment><USER2> Cool, I asked Jeff about these tags last week. Thanks for documenting them! I suggested a #flamewar tag, but that might be a bit more complicated than the other tags...

<comment><USER3> In my experience if points/comments < 1 for a story there is a flamewar in the comments somewhere.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Useful! I am following the 100 twitter account :)</comment>


Apple's Refusal to Approve India's Anti-Spam App Angers Regulators - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2017-09-06/apple-refusal-to-approve-india-spam-app-antagonizes-regulator <comment><USER2> Looks like TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has an Android version of the app as well ([https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=trai.gov.in.dn...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=trai.gov.in.dnd)). Permissions requested by the Android app seem to be very broad (Reading call log, Sending & Receiving SMS etc.) If they tried the same thing with Apple, I am not surprised that Apple has blocked their app. Such permissions can be used to easily snoop on a user's activity by Government entities.

What Mr.Sharma does not seem to get is Apple is very particular about user privacy. In the past users have been tricked into giving out their private data or scammed into subscribing to really expensive subscriptions by scammy apps ([http://thehackernews.com/2017/06/apple-subscription- scam.htm...](http://thehackernews.com/2017/06/apple-subscription-scam.html))

I am not saying TRAI's app is going to scam users but Apple's concern is genuine. TRAI can work around it by changing the away the app collects the spam call data from a user's phone. They certainly don't need the entire call history.

Here's where things get odd. TRAI has a tough job on its hands too. They cannot simply allow users to report any phone numbers as spam callers without verifying it. The reason is simple. It opens up the possibility of misuse via fraudulent reports. Those who have dealt with the Indian market will recall that fraud is rampant in the system - both by users as well as businesses.</comment>


Ask HN: Why is news of Richard Stallman being suppressed? - <AUTHOR> I generally understand political stuff being shut down, but Stallman is arguably one of the founders of "hacker" culture. Seems a bit off that news of him stepping down from GNU would be off the front page.
You can see yourself:
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=true&query=gnu&sort=byPopularity&type=story <comment><USER2> The main thread appears to be flamewar-killed: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21103133](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21103133)

There is also doubt that it is an authentic message.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's been one of the most commented articles already, so it's not that it's forbidden to talk about. There's just not much point having the same discussion again when he steps down from another similar position.

</comment><comment><USER4> It was on the front page for quite a while. But more importantly, HN was really founded as a place for folks interested in startups rather than open source, and I suspect most folks here find a lot of the open source folks to be kind of cringeworthy in general. E.g. unlike Slashdot readers, I doubt most people here really want to be associated with folks like ESR or RMS.

<comment><USER5> I probably should point out that the open-source community has always been and still is fully welcome here. HN is large, it contains multitudes.

<comment><USER4> Fair. I didn't mean to disparage open source in general. My issue is that I think there are a bunch of positions that certain prominent open source folks have taken that, if you were to advocate for them in the workplace, would likely trigger a discrimination lawsuit.</comment></comment></comment>


A Guide to Hiring Programmers: The High Cost of Low Quality - <AUTHOR> http://blog.revsys.com/2007/08/a-guide-to-hiri.html

<comment><USER2> I'm becoming more and more convinced that one of the keys to getting good software is to have it developed by a software company, not by the technical department of a non software company, or even by a multifaceted 'management consulting' company. Unless developing software is a company's sole concern, hierarchies, rituals and reward structures certain to drive away the best developers, almost inevitably take root.

</comment><comment><USER3> Overall, I agree. Nut I disagree with the second half of the statement: "You don't need to hire an expert in language X, you can and should look for expert programmers that are willing to learn language X. An expert can easily cross over from being a novice in any language in a matter of a few weeks."

The first half of the sentence is right on, but I'm not sure about the second half. Based on personal experience, it takes me a while to use a new programming language well.

Of course, I wouldn't really call myself an expert programmer just yet. This is partly because I majored in Math and didn't get quite as much exposure to different programming languages as I should have (I just did all my homework in C++). But it's also partly because I actually bought the line about how a good programmer can move from one language to another easily, and figured I'd be able to pick up new languages quickly.

An excellent C++, Scheme, Perl, and Javascript hacker will learn Ruby as quickly as it takes to memorize the syntax. A genuinely smart Java hacker (who is learning there's more to this whole language thing than he first realized) will learn how to write while loops in Ruby very quickly, but it'll take a while before he/she instantly realizes when to use blocks and yield.

</comment><comment><USER4> "Finding good programmers is hard in any language." I'm not so sure. Job descriptions that include functional programming languages seem to attract high-quality candidates.

</comment><comment><USER5> I liked the argument and stance taken. This is precisely what GeniTeam is doing to faciliate startups. HR Managers and all luxuries are possible for big companies, but not for startups. GeniTeam started its services on similar concept. Feel free to comment on GeniTeam's business model ( www.geniteam.com )

<comment><USER6> I downmodded you because this sounds like an advertisement for GeniTeam without any meaningful value proposition for the members of this community. You (and your website) don't clearly state why start ups should use your services and justify those claims.

Also, your website is confusing. You have a bunch of web 2.0 buzz words on the left, but clicking on the words do not do anything. The drop down menu navigation on the right for sections 01 to 08 add friction to my user experience. After reading the copy above the fold, my main objection still is not answered: "Why should I trust GeniTeam to recruit and manage my engineers?"

I hope you take these critiques to heart, and contribute some valuable, well thought out posts in the future.

<comment><USER5> Hi Thanks for the critques. I beleive reasons for hiring virtual team with GeniTeam will have following pluses 1\. Allow enterprenuers to develop cost effective solutions, while bootstrapping 2\. I guess, trust is generally built based on success stories. For Rich Internet Application, we do have good work with various startups.

What do you think, should be done to get use a better feel of service?</comment></comment></comment>


New research in sea slugs sparks controversy about the way memories are stored - <AUTHOR> https://massivesci.com/articles/memory-sea-slug-neuroscience/ <comment><USER2> It says they injected RNA into the new sea-slugs -- did they try injecting a placebo as well? It does not specify how they did it, but I assume injecting RNA is somewhat traumatic for the sea slug and becoming more reclusive with its siphon and extremities could be a default reaction.

</comment><comment><USER3> This is interesting research, but I think it's been accepted for some time already that two identical neurons with the same chemical composition and the same neural connections will behave in the same way, and that cellular function is controlled by the RNA present in it which originates from its DNA moderated by epigenetic markers.

It doesn't disprove that synapses form memories, only shows that chemical composition also plays a part in forming memories.

</comment><comment><USER4> Super interesting experiment but not as new/groundbreaking as the article suggests. The paper is from May but I think this researcher has been exploring the topic for decades.

</comment><comment><USER5> I am not ina field so question may be dumb. How do researchers control for possible non-neural factors and non-RNA factors? E.g. continuous light shocks increase the level of stress hormone responsible for slowing down muscle relaxation. This additional hormone is transferred, alongside RNA (how do you transfer only RNA?) and that increases response time in receiving slugs.

</comment><comment><USER6> Or synaptic plasticity is just completely different in sea slugs. Maybe they don't have the luxury to rewire everything all the time and rely more on mechanisms that control neural excitation.</comment>