What are the pros and cons of different subscription methods? - <AUTHOR>

I am working on a project that requires site users to maintain a monthly subscription, like Netflix. I'm wondering if anyone has insight into the different pros and cons of when and how to ask users to enter their payment information.
It seems that if you ask for payment information during the initial signup process, you are tying your fate to how well your brochure pages sell the site and its services. The signup process is a bit more complicated, but users who sign up are more likely to actually use the service and are more likely to maintain a subscription. You won't end up with lots of short-time free users who aren't that interested.
However, if you make the signup process dead simple (i.e. no payment information required during initial account creation), you pull more users in to the site, get them using the product, and get feedback. Then, your fate is tied to whether or not users actually like your site and service. Also, it's an additional step of getting them to enter payment information after they've been enjoying the service for a period of time for free.
Anyone with direct experience of these different approaches would be greatly appreciated to contribute their two cents. <comment><USER2> At our startup (we're still stealth, so I don't want to announce it here), we found that way more people signed up when we kept the signup as frictionless as possible, because our app doesn't sound amazing in the marketing language but it really speaks for itself once you start using it (I'm thinking of my reaction to the iPhone back in 2007 - "so it's like a smartphone without a keyboard? How does that work?"). Once we get people using the app, it is very easy to get them to put in a credit card. One way we encourage them to put in a credit card is with a free trial countdown at the top of the screen that gives them special offers if they put in a credit card on certain days (e.g. 14 days left, get a freebie if you enter a credit card). One thing that is unique about our app is that it has residual value even if you don't convert, because you can opt in to still receive alerts. Each alert gives us another chance to convert a former free trial, and to date the record for latest conversion is 100 days after trial ended.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the response, you basically confirmed what my hypothesis is regarding the onboarding process. I like the idea of some kind of visual indicator on the page to remind users that they will at some point have to start paying for the app. Unfortunately for me there is no way to continue using the service in any way after your trial period expires, so it's a hard stop for the user at that moment. However if they are actually using the thing that shouldn't be a problem.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Equivalent of CodeIgniter, but in Perl? - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone encountered or written a Perl framework that is lightweight, yet at the same time includes a lot of useful (for web development) libraries, and most importantly, is fun?
Compare/contrast with PHP: In my mind, CGI => straight PHP, Catalyst (=> Rails!) => CakePHP, CGI::Application (and related plugins) => Zend Framework. CGI is too bare-bones, do-it-all-yourself. Catalyst seems all-encompasing, strict in structure, but heavyweight. And CGI::Application (with plugins, of course) has something for everyone, if you can only remember to include the library; aside from that, it lacks a clear structure for how to go about things.
What I want to find is this mapping:
? => CodeIgniter
What Perl web framework feels the most like CodeIgniter?
---
(btw, tonight I just found http://perlbuzz.com/2008/11/the-evolution-of-perl-frameworks.html, which referenced Mojo/Mojolicious; this might be the one...) <comment><AUTHOR> Update: the Mojolicious docs are pretty thin at the moment, but a series of blog posts (one is [http://www.simplicate.ca/blog/2008/12/using-mojolicious- with...](http://www.simplicate.ca/blog/2008/12/using-mojolicious-with-plain- cgi-no-mod-perl.html)) will give me enough tips to get going.

</comment><comment><USER2> I actually preferred CakePHP to CodeIgniter, and really only on the basis of aesthetics. I don't like This_Case :( I was going to say Catalyst, but Mojo looks way cooler. If I were you I'd give it a try</comment>


The Peltzman Effect: Induced Human Error  - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/07/induced-human-error/59259/

<comment><USER2> Looks like the source article is <http://blog.steinberg.org/?p=11> It's much longer and looks like it has other interesting things in it as well.

 _To prove the phenomenon even exists, one particularly inspired British researcher had volunteers ride bicycles on a closed course, with half the people wearing helmets and proper attire, and the other half clad in their underwear. Graduate students positioned on the sidelines graded the volunteers performance and tallied any unsafe maneuvers. The results showed that the unclothed group practiced much safer driving habits, thereby supporting risk compensation theory - and Britain's reputation for eccentricity_</comment>


Dividing societies into individualist and collective mentalities - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/opinion/12brooks.html?hp

<comment><USER2> Brooks is confusing collectivism with dictatorship, and they're not related. You can have a collectivist democracy, like Japan, or an individualist dictatorship, like Saddam's Iraq or Nazi Germany.

China's recent economic improvements have nothing to do with its collectivism. They're due to more freedom, both economic and personal, for its citizens. Taiwan, whose people are arguably very similar to the Chinese in cultural outlook, started prospering as they emerged from martial law under the Kuomintang to democracy. Hopefully China will follow the same path as Taiwan and South Korea in this respect.

I get the sense that Brooks wants to prove that dictatorships are just as morally legitimate as democracies, and that the people of Asia (or the Middle East, or wherever) are somehow culturally programmed to thrive under a dictatorship. He's got it backwards -- the people thrive not because of the dictatorship, but in spite of it. Once they're freed, they'll thrive all the more.

</comment><comment><USER3> Bleh

Sweeping generalization after sweeping generalization, this article not only provides no substance, but then starts bringing up some of the stupidest "what if" scenarios I've ever read.

"What if Asia all of a sudden started doing well economically?" -- Has this person been under a rock for the past 50 years? East Asia has consistently grown economically since the mid 20th century and and some nations currently rank with the nations of the Western World: Japan, Singapore, South Korea, etc.

Granted, some Asian economies have their problems, but so do many so called individualist Western economies. Mexico, for example, is easily no better off than China.

<comment><USER4> It's an 800-word op-ed column. The essence of the form is generalizations, vague trend-spotting, and suggestive questions.

You've also deceptively misquoted the article to make it easier to mock. Brooks' actual question is "What happens if collectivist societies, especially those in Asia, rise economically and come to rival the West?"

There's a lot more nuance to that question than your rephrasing, and Brooks is just as aware of Japan, Singapore, and South Korea as you are.

<comment><USER3> I didn't quote him, I paraphrased him, If the quotation marks put you off, then I'm sorry.

However, the answer is the same. 'Collectivist,' Asian societies have risen economically and do rival the West. Even the many of the Communist ones which are collectivist, not due to their Asianess, but due to a certain Western import.

<comment><USER5> One of the interesting things about the world is that it has provided a laboratory in which we can actually see. Compare East and West Germany pre- unification. Compare North and South Korea. Compare Cuba and Florida.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I would argue that the China example is somewhat invalid. Seems to me that China's economy has been expanding because they've begun to mimic "western" capitalistic principles more closely than in the past. That is, Chinese citizens are more able and willing to start up businesses for personal gain, something that wasn't really possible a couple decades ago.

Also, I picked the cow and the hay, even though I lean more towards individualism-- maybe not compared to the average American, though (I'm Chinese, born in the US).

<comment><USER7> If you're going to make a prediction of China on which you will bet, bet that China will continue to be China.

This is more that a tautology -- I suspect there is a tremendous stability to the underlying forms of culture and society in China that seems to transcend ideology. Mao just turned out to be the latest Emperor, after all. I predict that China will more or less continue to have its current borders. It will continue to have a highly centralized government. China will ultimately defeat invasions (including cultural ones) through assimilation. If democracy ever comes to China, it will be a uniquely Chinese version that will somehow manage to resemble an imperial government.

<comment><USER8> I remember learning about China in a class and one of the things that was said was that they perceived Communism slightly differently from the old USSR, they perceived it in a more Confucian light.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Yet another blah article generalizing about entire countries based on experiments done on 30 people at a time under lab conditions.Go NY Times.

<comment><USER8> I knew it would be stupid from the moment I saw that David Brooks* wrote it.

*<http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=David_Brooks>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Corporation as Feudal Estate:

<http://www.ecobooks.com/books/divineright.htm>

[http://praxisblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/the- corporation-a...](http://praxisblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/the-corporation- as-feudal-estate/)

<http://www.davidcogswell.com/Reviews/DivineRightReview.html>

</comment><comment><USER10> seems like a thinly veiled comparison of communism and capitalism to me

<comment><USER11> Corporate capitalism, though, is a rather miraculous invention. It manages to preserve the stifling collectivism and anti-creative properties of socialism, while maintaining the greed, rampant inequality, and social devolution inherent to runaway capitalism. Worst of both worlds, yay.

<comment><USER7> The stifling collectivism and anti-creative properties you refer to are more akin to Feudalism, IMO.

<comment><USER10> wow the down-modding here is definitely a case of down-modding out of disagreement. someone should fix that</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why doesn't Israel's Iron Dome defense work better? - <AUTHOR>

The rockets that Hamas fires into Israel are usually described as fairly unsophisticated. One often reads about sophisticated guided missile technology being developed. And yet Israel's "Iron Dome" lets enough rockets through to merit killing a few hundred civilians in retaliation every few years. Why is it hard to prevent Hamas's rockets from doing damage in Israeli territory using some sort of shoot-down technology? I don't propose we discuss whether that is a good long-term solution, and certainly not discuss which side is in the right. I'm interested in the technological question of why it is hard to do with a low failure rate. <comment><USER2> Hitting a small very fast thing, with a small very fast thing, is hard.</comment>


Microsoft is interesting again - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jason/microsoft-is-interesting-again-very-f9c5bef7116 <comment><USER2> Not to downplay the change taking place, but what portion of the work that MS as a company does is represented by the flashy stuff that has everyone calling it a "new Microsoft"? Did all that middle-management and infighting and bureaucratic stasis just... disappear?

In other words, nerds often heap disdain on marketing but they are as susceptible to it as anyone else. The marketing to which they are susceptible is just less recognizable as such.

<comment><USER3> They fired tens of thousands of employees, including shifting upper management thoroughly. So yes, they killed a lot of bureaucracy.

<comment><USER4> and how many of those people were from Nokia that was acquired by them?

<comment><USER5> They acquired Nokia with 30,000 employees then fired about one third of those.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's true, Microsoft is suddenly a palatable company without the greedy, vengeful, angry attitude of Steve Ballmer. With the anachronistic culture of the founders now entirely purged, I see no reason why they would not become a credible competitor in many markets. They are hungry to prove they are relevant again, giving them the incentive of a startup, while they have essentially unlimited cash.

As much as some part of me squirms when I say it, Microsoft really is a player again.

<comment><USER7> Player in what? The Surface looks interesting but its very, very expensive compared to either a laptop or a tablet. Their phones are underwhelming regardless of their massive 'mobile/cloud' first initiatives and are now the bottom-basement phone for the ultra cheap buyer. Office365 is interesting but predates Nadella's leadership. Azure never panned out to be the Windows EC2. OSX keeps eating up laptop marketshare (go to any college campus, no one has windows). Surface RT was a complete disaster. Win8 was underwhelming at best.

On the enterprise side of things, a lot of sysadmins are shocked at the low quality of security updates and the massive delay in getting them out. How many were recalled in 2014? Nadella's personal mission at MS was redoing QA and as far as I can tell, he's somehow made it worse. Tabletizing interfaces in Win8 and Server 2013 was a questionable move. Office 2013 is a pig with lipstick and is known for its horror stories. Licensing has somehow gotten more bureaucratic and expensive.

I'm not fan of Ballmer, but I think the Ballmer/Gates magic was a real thing for a time, and its obvious this magic needed Gates to work. Nadella's Steve Jobs impersonation is becoming tiresome imo. The cloud/mobile first initiative ate from MS's core competencies- rock solid and featureful enterprise software. The only thing I can say about Nadella is that he's recognizing how important a classic start menu is for enterprise users and its coming back in Win10. Out of all of MS's products, Win10 is the only thing of interest. "Me toos" like its budget tablets/phones or the buying of skype or minecraft, just seem like desperate moves from a company that has lost its way. Frankly, I'd like to see enterprise broken off from loss leaders like surface (which is sold at a loss) and all the things its giving away for free as a sort of catch up to FOSS dominated and Apple dominated areas. One just seems to be eating the other, and the one being eaten is the moneymaker. MS is just too big and is chasing so many tails. Nadella fought to keep the xbox division when investors were pissed about it last year. How much political capital did it cost for him to keep that pig?

I certainly don't think MS is going to fail anytime soon, but I don't think its somehow changed its ways. Its still too many chefs chasing too many targets, many of which are probably unhittable for such a bureaucratic giant. Windows phone goes for 50 bucks nowadays and the sales are still unimpressive. Getting this late to the mobile game is a killer. There may be no way to recover lost marketshare that mobile has taken. How many billions will Nadella burn through trying? We're almost three years into the Surface line. When does it finally pay off? When do I actually see one in public?

<comment><USER8> some good details in your assessment but entirely missing a lot of great positives especially on the products you've hit out. Azure is growing, Surface is growing and is not only a solid product but one of those products that is what a lot of people have been dreaming about that other companies just aren't ballsy enough to do. Each iteration in a short time has improved quite a bit either in performance or device spec. That's a lot of fast good work.

Xbox one is quite amazing. Sales are good, games are ramping up. Every week some new games are out or announced. I can't wait to see what they do to improve that.

Buying of Minecraft was a fantastic decision, it's not like they didn't have any video game division and suddenly bought it. I'm hoping to see more work on it but you saw how they were using it as a platform in their VR announcements, which means that they plan to expand it further and it ideally will continue to be a platform that devs will create new ideas in and from.

From just using it and having been kind of annoyed by MS Office since the 2003 days, 365 seems snappier and better than it ever has been. Certain things after getting used to seeing them end up making sense and are attractive.

OneDrive is a very nice service, I like it way better than Google, for free and paid you get a lot of storage with it and it's super easy to use and looks classy, not cheap.

windows 10 could be insanely good. don't forget the free upgrade offerings too, which is new and much welcomed.

<comment><USER7> A lot of the things you listed are losing money for MS. Yes, they're neat and from an end user perspective, nice toys, but the reality is that cashflow only come from a handful of sources and MS really is screwing up. I think maybe it just needs to find its footing, but at the end of the day, someone needs to pay the bills. Meanwhile Apple and Google are making money hand over fist in those spaces.

<comment><USER9> Amazon has never made a profit, they are a case study example of a company that never has gotten out of the red, losing money on every product and still growing to become a monster.

Xbox BTW is a good earner for Microsoft, they lose money on the console and make a killing on each game. Lumia and Surface also showed very good profits from Q3 2014 and onwards. And Windows Azure is probably the only truly profitable cloud platform out there with 25-30 bln dollars in yearly profits (not income).

Amazon is losing billions on their cloud, and on every other product they run including their store, the only time they got out of the red was 2009 after 15 years in business and that was never repeated again.

In 2014 both MSFT and Amazon had virtually the same income Amazon even made 2-3 bln. $ more. MSFT has a net profit of 28 bln, Amazon lost 250 mil.

There is more to business than just revenue streams, but as revenue goes MSFT is in a very good shape.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I didn't think this was horribly written until I saw the "move to SF" line about 8 times. Sorry, SF location isn't going to do anything for MSFT. So sick of all the fanboy shit about life in SF.

<comment><USER11> I know, what the hell is moving Bing or Xbox to SF going to do? I don't think he realizes how big these teams are, but even if that wasn't issue this sounds a lot like underpants gnomes to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Microsoft did miss the boats on open source, search, mobile, social, and cloud, but they continued to #win what they previously cared about: enterprise. No one has meaningfully entered their arena.

Now they want to play ball, which is wise... since business is unfortunately likely to pursue social, mobile, and cloud for enterprise.

</comment><comment><USER12> If you read that article, what I see is that Microsoft has been forced to do the following:

Give away everything for free

Produce it's own hardware, and at a loss (Surface may have made $1b now, but it's lost more than that over it's lifetime)

Frankly, I don't know how they are making money now a days.

<comment><USER13> They are transitioning to SAAS. Windows 10 upgrade will be "free for a year", but I take that to mean after a year you'll be paying $10 per month for Windows 10.

Office 365 is doing well already.

<comment><USER12> I may be old school but I am not keen on paying monthly fees for software that I use. That is part of the reason I refuse to upgrade to Adobe's Creative Cloud.

Microsoft can't even keep XBOX live up when someone wants to DDOS it, I don't want software that I'm renting that cant run if their servers are down.

<comment><USER14> To clarify the Windows 10 situation, they used some unfortunately vague language when they announced it, but it's not a subscription. The 1-year thing is a limited giveaway period to push Windows 7 users into upgrading quickly rather than waiting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Microsoft has always failed when they have tried to enforce their own standards in the industry. Moving away from this mistake and recognizing that promoting something that is relevant and makes sense is the only way to go forward is a huge step.

Funding new interesting ideas will always help them also secure a better seat in the open source community as most startups rely on open source technologies.

</comment><comment><USER16> _" If Android & Cyanogen both run Android Apps perfectly, and Cyanogen doesn't have to come bundled with Google's suite of services….well….hmmmm…do the math."_

Android: hate the new GUI and every game prompting me to sign in to stupid G+ or whatever it's called. Anyone tried Cyanogen on Nexus 2013 tablet?

<comment><USER17> Depending on what you dislike about the UI, you can probably make it more to your liking by using a different launcher (Nova is the one I use). It lets me make one or two minor changes to bring things more in line with my preferences but otherwise is just as fluid as the stock Google launcher.

Cyanogen is fine and has some nice features if they apply to your personal usage but the thing about games wanting to log into your Google account would likely be the same. It's the equivalent of Apple's game center or whatever it's called. It's basically a universal login for games so you can keep progress/settings saved across devices. I haven't found any yet that require it but typically it's an opt-in thing if you care about that functionality. I've only ever been asked to sign in on first run of a newly installed game so it's not nearly as obnoxious as the ones that constantly pester you to connect with Facebook or some other thing that's completely unrelated. On a Google phone I can understand using Google's games framework for your game profile but it's annoying to assume I want to use an unrelated service (Facebook) or even have an account with them.</comment></comment>


Against the larger phone - <AUTHOR> http://www.libertypages.com/clarktech/?p=289

<comment><USER2> Perhaps the solution here is for people not to tie themselves to an operating system that allows exactly _one_ hardware provider and _one_ source of software. The fact that people don't see how that generally ends astounds me. If you want choice, Apple shouldn't even be a consideration.

</comment><comment><USER3> I still use a 4S because 4" really is the best size for my small hands. I had a 5 for a while but downgraded because I was constantly almost dropping the phone while "shimmying" to reach the upper-left corner (where the back button is typically located).</comment>


An agoraphobic globetrotter who uses Street View to 'travel' - <AUTHOR> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/arts-and-culture/agoraphobic-traveller-instagram-google-street-view-photography <comment><USER2> Heh that's a pretty cool use of technology!

The best use of Google Cardboard I found was doing exactly this: Using Street View to "visit" new places.

Related: I wonder if exposure therapy is an avenue anyone's looking at with VR/AR - it seems like a (relatively) cheap way to do it.

<comment><USER3> I was just thinking that! Google Earth VR just had a recent update enabling streetview and it's an absolutely fantastic experience.

<comment> 52-6F-62 100%!

The Oculus version is really worth trying for anybody with access.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If I 'globe trot' in person then I do so by bicycle. This may be the best way to actually travel rather than see the same airports and identical AirBnB's as everyone else. This has kind of informed my belief that Street View is pretty good - it is the same perspective and speed.

I also 'send my parents' to places I would like to visit in depth, I also talk to people from the place of interest who have moved to my area. This satisfies my intellectual curiosity and saves a lot of time moving around in tin boxes.

This has advantages with places such as Syria - I may only know two people from there but I can learn lots about the story those newsreaders 'assume' just by being interested and having time to chat to the friends I have.

One thing is that maps were a large part of my early career, for science and weather forecasting. Therefore I do know a lot of places on the map, usually from space and usually with awareness of the weather forecasting challenges for that location. Knowing where someone's town is helps with the 'oh it's lovely there...' conversation that follows. Same with holidays, name the location and I am half way there on what the weather is like right now.

</comment><comment><USER5> I call this "virtual travel", and I also use Street View as part of my prep for travel. I survey the area where I want to travel, and make sure that the potential destination is worthy of site-seeing. It does lose the element of surprise, but I'm risk-averse, so I'd rather do this than have a negative surprise. Often, I'd see a lot of beautiful photos on the travel website, but the reality is often different. For example, if I see a hotel I want to visit, I check the surrounding, to see if it's suitable for jogging or biking, and also to make sure the area is not too seedy.

</comment><comment><USER6> I recently discovered that quite a bit of Ghana is covered in Street View. I feel it provides the most authentic armchair-compatible peek available, at this part of the world that differs so much from my own.

</comment><comment><USER7> Someone I know to immigrated from a different country 20+ years ago, and has never been back, was able to see his sister's new house via Street view. :)

</comment><comment><USER8> This is what my 89 year old grandfather replaced his caravan holidays with.

</comment><comment><USER9> Out of curiosity - can anyone weigh in on whether what she's doing is illegal with regard to copyright?

<comment><USER10> Violates copyright, but the PR hit to Google would be substantial (tech company sues over street view photos posted by challenged individual using it as therapy).

Google owns the Street View data, so they're under no legal obligation to pursue as they would if it was third party data they license.

Would be cheaper to bring the person on as a Google Maps evangelist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I understand and appreciate the concern for privacy, but something important was diminished when Google Maps started blurring the faces of people who appeared in Street View. I was surprised by the degree to which the previous sense of immediacy and vitality, the feeling that "you are there" was so severely crippled when the face of every human became a blur. :(

</comment><comment><USER12> Street View imagery is not that high quality though. I'd rather go with 360cities...

</comment><comment><USER13> Nice photos but it good that the word travel is in quotes because looking at curated pictures online is not travelling. Not even close.

<comment><USER14> That's kinda of the whole point, yes.</comment></comment>


Stolen laptop contains cancer research data - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20028475-1.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Crave <comment><USER2> Sorry guys, but most of the comments in this thread remind me of why we IT people have so much bad PR to overcome.

We're blaming the user for our mistake. That's like blaming the cow for leaving the pasture because one of us forgot to lock the gate.

The simple fact is that this user should have never been able to be in a position for this to happen.

Where were the IT security policies and procedures? Why was mission critical data on someone's c: drive? When (if ever) was the last audit?

We curse enterprise IT departments because they are so slow at getting things done, but they are really, really good at putting in place the things that would _never allow this to happen_. I have customers with strict policies regarding the protection of mission critical data, and I bet that none of it is as important as what was routinely put onto this laptop and paraded around town.

Public companies are responsible to their shareholders and the SEC. Private companies are responsible to their investors and creditors. Why weren't the same protections put in place to the trustees and taxpayers in this case?

Every nanosecond this researcher has to worry about performing routine IT overhead is a nanosecond not spent on critical research. The technological solutions to problems like this have been around for years. Why weren't they in place?

It's about time for IT to stop blaming the user and fix the problem.

<comment><USER3> I'm sick of this attitude of "Always be super nice and make sure you over mother your users" crap. You know what: If my car engine seizes because I haven't changed the oil, no one tells the car makers or the mechanics they didn't do thier job right. If I leave the oven on all night and get CO poisoning, no one blames the oven maker for it. If someone doesn't buy renter's insurance we don't blame the apartment owner for them losing their net-worth.

PCs have been almost ubiquitous for 20 years now. For my entire freaking life I have been hearing about how "you need to back up your data". We have consistently made better and better backup tools, like mozy, or backblaze. Yet somehow it is our fault some idiot decided "It won't happen to me!". At some point, we just have to have the users be a tiny little baby step of a bit responsible for their stuff too. Just like accounting makes people responsible for their inventory and expense reports. Just like HR makes people responsible for their own insurance stuff. Sure they help, but crap - people need to be a little grown up in their lives and actions.

Just because this person did not bother to find out about backups from her IT does not make it ITs problem. Hell, you don't even know if there was or wasn't the ability for backups in place. Most university IT shops have lots and lots of capacity and backup options in place -- and they are documented, they just don't force users to do it. You know why? Sanctimonious asshats come from the other direction then, complaining not about how IT must mother the employees, but instead must back off the draconian rules to make users feel more welcome.

tl; dr -- Users should be held to some standard of responsibility and IT is damned when they do and when they don't.

<comment><USER2> _Just because this person did not bother to find out about backups from her IT does not make it ITs problem._

It was IT's problem before this person ever came along. That's the whole point.

A few quick questions:

1\. Are you capable of implementing an IT infrastructure where it is impossible for a user to lose mission critical data? If not, then you're incompetent. Move along, please.

2\. Are you willing to implement an IT infrastructure where it is impossible for a user to lose mission critical data? If not, then you're insubordinate. Move along, please.

3\. Is it possible for a user to lose mission critical using an IT infrastructure that you have implemented and administer? If so, then you have a problem. Fix it.

Again, in an institutional environment, it is _not_ the user's responsibility to safeguard mission critical data. By definition, this is one of the primary responsibilities of IT.

(Here's a hint: Mission critical data ever on a c: drive = IT failure)

 _I'm sick of this attitude of ..._

And your customers are sick of your attitude. Thanks for demonstrating my point far more effectively that I could ever verbalize it.

<comment><USER3> Bullshit. The vehicle fleet manager doesn't make it impossible to run out of gas. The accounting department doesn't make it impossible to max the corporate credit card you have. They provide infrastructure, you have responsibilities in it too.

Further, and I'm really really suggesting you read this slow, and look up words you don't understand in the dictionary, universities just don't work this way. There is no central authority that can force this sort of behavior in them. The researchers themselves push for it, and the people who pay IT then demand it be set up that way. No matter how nice it would be to force backups -- IT can't override the fucking dean. Researchers are to be given autonomy is the usual directive. This leaves IT to provide easy access infrastructure, but not go that last step, as they are forbidden.

Are you sure your customers love your "DO AS I SAY IT IS THE ONLY WAY DAMMIT" attitude? Having dealt with sanctimonious asshats like you many times, and further talked to the mormons and jehovia's witnesses at my door, I realize my words won't sink in, but I will make a futile attempt anyway: Give up the judgemental bullshit. Your way is not the one true way. Your smug little smirk makes lots of people fucking hate you, and you know what, you don't even realize they smile and agree with you just to get you to shut up and go away.

tl; dr- go jerk off to your authority some more, the rest of us have real worlds to live in.

<comment><USER2> It would be nice if you could channel that energy into something more constructive than personally insulting me. Others far more influential have tried and failed to do much with that.

I do care, however, how your behavior affects this community. Others smarter than either one of us have worked hard to keep it what it is. Please remember the guidelines:

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

Peace.

<comment><USER3> 1\. This is how I talk. I call BS when I see it.

2\. Follow the guidelines yourself, the condescending crap doesn't fly too well, and is no more or less insulting than anything I said. Further look at the insults you directed towards me. Do you really think your insults don't count but mine do? That act you are committing there, it's called hypocrisy.

3\. It is sad you must fall back on pointing out the guidelines instead of addressing the parts about how authority doesn't work according to your claims. It is either an admission of ignorance of how things really work, or a diversionary tactic to avoid having to admit wrong. (PS -- continuing hte diversion about guidelines doesn't change this set of conclusions, no matter how you justify it, the deduction doesn't change).

4\. I've been here about as long as you have. Feel free to peruse my comment history. I gladly contribute nicely to non-moralizing discussions, and I call people out when they act disingenuous or jerky. Your attempt to change your moralizing into some sort of "look at me I'm a pillar of the community" is at best an attempt to pull some dirty politics style trick. This loses you even more of the moral high ground you pretend to argue from.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The reward is only $1,000. While their research may have offered some interesting insights into cancer, they clearly didn't have an absolute cure (for prostate cancer, which is mentioned in the article). If they had a real cure, then around this moment Merk would step in and offer a $10,000,000 reward for the return of the laptop, in exchange for the right to commercialize the technology.

I've several friends who have pursued biology in universities. They could claim that their laptops have data offering possible cures for diabetes, high blood pressure and AIDS. This is the kind of thing they will talk about when we meet for lunch. I realize, of course, that they are not on the verge of a genuine cure. But occasionally their research offers an important new insight. I sense that these researchers, in the story, had info at that level.

Otherwise, the reward would be more than $1,000.

I do think the university should do more to help researchers manage their data.

<comment><USER5> The idea that a "cure" for any type of cancer would only be on one laptop is absurd. It may work in a movie plot, but in real life, no way.

At best it would have info on how to possibly, vaguely minimise the suffering in some situations. Cancer is not something that one brilliant researcher can "cure" alone.

<comment><USER6> Besides, a researcher smart enough to cure cancer is smart enough to back up their computer.

<comment><USER7> How much time have you spent around cancer researchers? I can assure you that many of the most brilliant scientists I know are all almost entirely computer- illiterate.

If I had a dollar for every lab computer I've seen whose desktop is full of a few dozen Excel files ("data1.xls", "data2.xls", "new data.xls", "jim new data.xls"...), I would never need to apply for another grant as long as I live.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> That's grossly negligent behavior on her behalf.

Family pictures, unpublished novel and a gigabyte of emails? Fine. But research data that only exists on _one_ consumer-level machine? Work that was financed by her employer and various other organizations? Holy shit.

<comment><USER9> Surely it's grossly negligent behaviour on her employer's behalf?

<comment><USER10> I voted you up, but I wanted to note that I (we?) have no idea how her department is run, and the negligence could rest as well in her hands as it could in her employer's hands. Another post here said "Blame the IT department for not establishing rigid policies." These sentiments are good, but...

What if the IT department clearly outlined policies for how to store and secure the data? What if the researcher is one of those "This is how I have always done it, and I am ignoring you" types? Given the kinds of data claimed to be on the laptop, it sounds like a personal laptop, not a locked-down IT- given laptop. What if that was the researcher's choice, the intentional ignoring of IT policies in the name of convenience or whatever?

Either way, the article's message is good: back up your important data. Whoever is to blame, the core message obviously bears repeating.

<comment><USER11> I work in the physics department of a top university. The majority of work people in the department do involves a computer at some stage, from computational physics (likely involving supercomputers and months of compute time) at one end of the spectrum to using Excel as a data store at the other.

We do not have an IT department (we have one or two post-doctoral researchers who keep a couple of servers running for undergraduates).

We do not have IT policies, outside of university-wide intellectual property rules.

There are only personal laptops (in the sense that even though my machine was bought for me, I have full control of it and there is no oversight of how the machine is used).

To the best of my knowledge, this is true of the rest of the university (possibly even worse in other departments).

<comment><USER10> To add to the anecdotal evidence, I have contacts in the strong IT department of a top university near me. So it could indeed go either way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I work for a University and I laugh so hard every time I hear this.

For the people that say this should be an IT policy issue let me explain to you how academic people work.

Professors and researchers are KINGS and QUEENS. You CANNOT tell them what to do, nor can you force ANYTHING on them.

The only exception are the engineering professors for obvious reasons they have their shit together. Other faculty are just plain morons and think they can do everything on their own.

Professors and researchers get to buy and chose their own laptops, and they can do whatever they want. Unless they fall under the administration side, IT cannot tell them what to put on or do with the laptop.

Just to get off my chess I'll tell you one of many stories. A faculty member brought in his school paid laptop, and he obviously used it for personal reasons. This is his main work laptop with all his data (again we can't force them to follow our policy since they are not administration), so he has no backups or any antivirus scans.

His laptop had over 5000 viruses when I ran a virus scan. This is no joke, I have the screen shot somewhere. I refuse to clean and told him I will rebuild it. Which I did and put all this files back. I explain to him exactly what I did in an email, what he would lose (software etc) and he was okay with it, remember I have this in email. Only when he agreed did I go ahead with the rebuild.

He comes back and writes an email to the department chair that I had broke his laptop and had to rebuild it. Then I lost his software which he paid for and wants the school to pay for it back.

I almost kicked him in he face even if it got me fired. Luckily my boss stepped in and took care of it.

<comment><USER13> Just wanted to point out, in those situation keeping written records of communications like you did can save your ass.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> (1) whatever happened to backups?

(2) the hardware could have failed just as easy as the laptop got stolen who would get the blame then?

(3) I don't buy the premise that there is 'cancer cure data' on this laptop to begin with until after it has been recovered they come out with a cure for cancer within measurable time.

(4) If the data is on the laptop it got _on_ to the laptop somehow, either by doing experiments and recording the data or by copying it from some other medium, data does not exist in a vacuum as it's 'only copy'.

(5) $1,000 reward? really? that must be some crappy cure.

(6) What if the researcher 'lost' their laptop on purpose? That's a stretch, but with a claim this big I'd really like them to get to work on re-creating their miraculous results rather than cry over spilled milk, after all, recreating the results can't be nearly as much work as it was to do it all the first time. Assuming the experiments were real there should be a whole pile of knowledge that only needs to be verified rather than created from scratch so this is just a matter of time.

(7) I had a laptop with the design for a small and safe nuclear fusion reactor, unfortunately it got stolen...

What sickens me most about this whole thing is that the 'cure for cancer' gets trotted out again giving a whole pile of people hope that there is such a thing.

</comment><comment><USER15> People need to learn the basics of _working with a computer_. I can't imagine working for years on an important project without any backup system whatsoever. Getting your computer stolen is only one of the tens of the possible scenarios of things that could happen.

<comment><USER16> > I can't imagine working for years on an important project without any backup > system whatsoever.

I've "worked with computers" since I was a teenager, but for a long time I didn't make backups even though I knew it was something I should have been doing. It wasn't until I actually had a hard drive crash on me that I got backup religion.

<comment><USER17> I'm in the same boat (still am). I hardly ever back up my data.

My employer though, uses source control rigorously and makes deployment and usage of those tools dead easy. We also have folder redirection possible if you wanted to make your "My Documents" folder available (and backed up automatically) on the network. There's SharePoint too, but sometimes it's a PITA.

My hypothesis is this: Given OU Medicine's student computer requirements [1], I'm betting that these researchers just didn't have the patience or knowledge in integrating a Mac into their Windows-centric network.

[1] <http://www.oumedicine.com/body.cfm?id=954>

<comment><USER18> > I'm in the same boat (still am). I hardly ever back up my data.

How much data are we talking about here? <10 Gigabytes? Solutions like Dropbox are just so simple for data in that range that you'd be crazy not to use them.

<comment><USER17> The only irreplaceable data I have is photos/videos of the family. It's getting to be about 10 GB - I've got two hard drives in my PC that I'm planning to mirror the data across. At the very least it'll save me from hard drive failure. Theft/acts of god are something I haven't planned for. I have thought about burning a bunch of DVDs (of just the photos) and storing them somewhere else (work/relatives/bank).

I use dropbox to sync passwords and some docs from work/home. I'd like to use dropbox (or something like carbonite) to back up the rest, but frankly I'm too cheap/lazy to go through with it.

<comment><USER19> 10 GB is also small and cheap enough to buy a USB drive for and back it up on. It's what, $10 for a 16 gig thumbdrive or so? Afaik, they also have less concern about bit-rot than DVDs or CDs, not to mention the ease of use.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I would have thought the value of a possible cure for prostate cancer would be far more than $1000.

<comment><USER16> Was thinking the same thing. Maybe they're hoping the thief doesn't read Hacker News (or CNET) and learn that little tidbit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The more interesting question, to me at least, is whether or not the U of Oklahoma will be taking some kind of disciplinary action against her.

<comment><USER22> That would be absurd.

<comment><USER21> Why? They are, after all, her employers-- and they've got quite a bit of time and money invested in her research. I have to assume that they have some kind of standards for the care of data, and I certainly hope that keeping exactly one copy of the dataset, without backups, on a laptop which frequently travels out of the lab, is in serious contravention of a number of their policies.

<comment><USER22> You're making way too many assumptions. You can't fire someone because a laptop is stolen or lost. The University should have provided a means of centralized backup for data.

<comment><USER21> I am making assumptions. So are you, of course.

I am assuming that the University _did_ provide a means of centralized backup, and she failed to avail herself of it. This is based on the assumption that it is more likely that one researcher screwed up, than that the entire University is woefully incompetent.

Also, note that you assumed that I meant "firing" when I said "disciplinary action." I was thinking more along the lines of a note in her file, and a stern talking-to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm a student at OUHSC, and her husband, Dr. Janknecht, is one of my professors. Although failing to make a backup is obviously stupid, he is an extremely competent researcher (I don't know her). Clearly, calling the data "a cure" is a bit of hype, but that exaggeration might help in convincing the thief to bring the laptop back.

About computer knowledge in biological research, though -- the state of things is generally abysmal. The average biology Ph.D. can use Excel to find means, SDs, and do t-tests, and that's about it. Even my boss, who specializes in bioinformatics, still uses VB6+MSAccess _shudder_. Most probably don't know that hard drives CAN fail.

Yet, researchers are fiercely independent and would definitely resist any heavy-handed mandates from campus IT forcing specific OSes or regular backups.

</comment><comment><USER24> So _this_ is why cancer hasn't been cured yet. Gotcha.

</comment><comment><USER25> Not really, but kind of... the person doing Cancer Research (or other work that is socially/culturally critical to the world) who did not back up their data should be held criminally responsible.

Not so interested in the punishment as the (possibly non-existant) deterrent effect such laws/prosecution would have. It's fucking ridiculous that in 2011 people are still not backing up their data.

<comment><USER26> No idea why the parent got downvoted twice (i upvoted to counter one of them). If (and I sincerely doubt it to be the actual case, but the story suggests it is) the researcher is doing paid research and not backing it up at all, those involved in process design (or the researcher themself if there was adequate and clear process guidelines) should be held responsible for some kind of recklessness bordering on fraud. After all, they cannot prove that they have actually done any research right now and someone could similarly take millions and just "lose a laptop". It is comparable to not keeping proper financial records which is typically criminal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Time Machine. It works.

<comment><USER28> Spideroak.com works too. It automatically backups your data to the cloud (securely encrypted!). It synchronizes your data across multiple machines (and multiple OS) and you can access all past versions of your files. It's free if you don't need more than one or two GB. It's the ideal backup tool for researchers that don't generate tons of data and want a simple backup solution.

<comment><USER29> ..and, by the way, there's an automatic 50% discount for anyone with a .edu (or similar) email address. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> This kind of thing makes me wonder... how long until backups are mandatory. I mean, in Windows 10 or OS 11 (aka: IOS 5), will it just come with 10 or 20gb of online storage that's automatically backed up, without the user's input (and is difficult to disable)?

We already have crazy easy backup solutions like mozy, carbonite, backblaze etc but the majority of people don't use them. What happens when the OS makers force you to back up?

And yes... it is totally the IT people's fault for not forcing backups on their users. Sorry but as an IT guy (I am one) it's your responsibility to make sure your users don't get into this kind of a situation!

</comment><comment><USER31> I wouldn't be surprised if the owner _deliberately_ didn't create backups.

I used to work in academia. Some of the academics I knew were extremely paranoid about anybody (including SysAdmins) accessing their research. They would go to great lengths to to keep their work away from the "prying eyes of the university" (a phrase someone used once). This meant not allowing any access to their personal desktops, laptops, etc. Admins worked around the personal desktop issue by refusing to help them with the inevitable problems unless they got access. But laptops were a different story.

</comment><comment><USER32> so years of work to find the cure for cancer is on a white macbook and the guy didn't backup it? yeah right.

<comment><USER33> If you've ever worked in an academic environment you wouldn't find this story hard to believe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> This is actually the plot of Johnny Mnemonic. I can't believe anything about that movie's plot turned out to be realistic.

</comment><comment><USER35> It should be: "Stolen laptop may contain cancer cure data"

</comment><comment><USER36> If you buy a car, it comes with seat belts. Safety is not optional - it's built in.

If you buy a computer, safety of your data is seen as a luxury add-on, like leather seats.

It's crazy when you think about it.

<comment><USER11> It was a Mac, which most likely came with Time Machine - all she had to do was connect a USB drive (as far as I remember, OS X even asks if you want to use the drive for backups) and she would have had automatic versioned backups.

To be honest, I think most people need backing data up scared into them (e.g., I nearly lost a college project due a HD failure, and now I have multiple redundant backups).

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Did they set up DynDNS by any chance? <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4oB28ksiIo>

</comment><comment><USER38> Doh! Now where did that cure for cancer I had lying around here go...

</comment><comment><USER39> Step 1: Dropbox.

</comment><comment><USER40> Mozy, anyone?

</comment><comment><USER41> sounds like ouhsc.edu needs to go google!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I find it hard to believe that someone with the possible cure to cancer wouldn't bother backing it up. If this is legitimate, I think it's beyond irresponsible. Also, why such a minimal reward?

<comment><USER7> Probably because it was coming out of her own pocket, and researchers generally don't make that much (especially if she was a post-doc). I'm pretty sure that the NIH won't let you charge "stolen laptop reward" to your grant, and your university sure as heck isn't going to shell out for something like that.</comment></comment>


Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html

<comment><USER2> Previously submitted, dozens of comments:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1638492>

Topic discussed many, _many_ times:

<http://searchyc.com/submissions/language+shape?sort=by_date>

I also cross-reference other submissions here:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1814973></comment>


Realtime statistics of Haskell programs - <AUTHOR> http://ocharles.org.uk/blog/posts/2012-12-11-24-day-of-hackage-ekg.html

<comment><USER2> Heh, I misread the title as "Realtime statistics of Haskell programmers" and was expecting a study of how haskell programmers work.

I'd actually be really interested to see a study comparing the brain activity of a haskell programmer vs a smalltalk programmer. FP and OOP are such different models, I bet there would be some interesting differences in which parts of the brain light up.

<comment><USER3> how about eye movement tracking (scala vs java)

<http://www.scala-lang.org/node/3069>

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the link, sounds really cool!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love this idea. It reminds of the one thing that I think Java did better then anyone else, JMX. If only there was a standard cross language way for programs to expose metrics. kinda like collectd, but have it pull based instead of push based</comment>


Opera Desktop 18 released, with support for WebRTC - <AUTHOR> http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/opera-desktop-18-released

<comment><USER2> I assume at this point that Opera have decided to quietly drop ongoing support for Linux.

There have been no updates to the Linux browser since the last one based on their old rendering engine - none of the Chromium/Blink based versions have made it across, even in beta.

<comment><USER3> I really want to try and see what's the deal with Opera >15, but they just won't allow me.

Oh well, I'm already happy with Firefox.

<comment><USER4> From trying it on Windows, you're not missing much. It's mostly Chrome with a different skin as most of the features users liked on Opera < 12 are gone or have lost functionality. I still use Opera 12 for that reason.

Some of that functionality may return in the future, but they have said that things like bookmarks will never be like they were exactly on Opera < 12\. If they had lived up to making it Opera 12, but with a Chromium Engine, it wouldn't be a problem, but as many long term users were afraid, someone at Opera is using it as an excuse to radically change what Opera is.

<comment><USER5> Does Ctrl-F11 still work? I often found myself firing up Opera just for that one feature.

<comment><USER4> Fit to width? Nope.

Keyboard shortcuts[1] are also not customizable yet. You can mod them with a hex editor, but it would probably break or be overwritten by updates.

[1] [http://help.opera.com/opera/Windows/1284/en/fasterBrowsing.h...](http://help.opera.com/opera/Windows/1284/en/fasterBrowsing.html#keyboard)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> What does Opera offer that you don't already get with Chrome/FF + a couple plug-ins?

I mean what is compelling enough to make you choose it over the above options?

<comment><USER7> I haven't used the new one yet, but the old one had a superior tab interface to everything out there, which they called MDI (Multiple Document Interface). For serial tab abusers like myself, it was a noticeable difference that always had me scratching my head why the other browsers didn't copy the idea.

<comment><USER8> Small things like clicking a tab again to go back to the previous tab are excellent settings in the older versions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Tested in our WebRTC app for remote teams, Sqwiggle ([https://www.sqwiggle.com](https://www.sqwiggle.com)) - it works flawlessly.

From a developer standpoint it's only good news that Opera has moved to webkit at this point.

</comment><comment><USER10> getUserMedia is not WebRTC support. Let us know when you have full support for PeerConnections and DataChannels.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually, they do have that. Check it out on [http://iswebrtcready.appear.in/](http://iswebrtcready.appear.in/), or try to create a room on [https://appear.in/](https://appear.in/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> IE still has no support for WebRTC, right? Just checking.

<comment><USER12> No, I think they disagree with Google about how to implement it. I suppose having paid 8+ bill for Skype might have something to do with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> But still no support for being opera instead of a crappy chrome clone? What happened to that whole "we're not going to make the webkit based releases the official releases until we've added back all the missing features from opera 12" thing?

<comment><USER14> Market pressure.

Even so, the rate at which they're adding back the features is unbelievable - I think it 12 months they'll have all the old Opera features back sans IRC client and mail client (which they said they'd drop anyway).

Opera's future looks really promising if they can survive this very bumpy ride.</comment></comment>


The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant (2005) - <AUTHOR> http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html <comment><USER2> To some degree, I blame religion for this. Not the organized, dogmatic kind but the pervasive moral one, which whispers that it is not "right" to want more from life then your peers and your ancestors.

Also I think this is the same wider sentiment which applies not only to extending life span but to any kind of enhancement. At least in my culture, talking to a doctor about yourself without having any illness will get you a long stare.

<comment><USER3> Probably because they're pretty busy treating people who do have illnesses.

<comment><USER4> I think he was referring to what people consider to be a life-threatening illness.

Then again, who's to say what an illness is. Are illnesses only thing that have an immediate threat on your life? What about ones that stop you from doing your job? What about conditions that stop you from living your life normally?

In my country and culture, psychological and mental illnesses, which are also "real illnesses" by medical terms, are also given the same stare.

<comment><USER5> (I'm so very very sorry, but this is an off-topic comment. It seems that I can't comment on old threads, and I cannot send private messages to users either... so I'm stumped, and here I am.

You mentioned in one of your posts that you're an owner of the Natural 4000 keyboard - I just received mine from amazon (after picking up some symptoms of RSI) -- I love it, except one little thing that has me thinking that I should return this: the space bar is abnormally hard to depress. Is that so for your 4000 as well? Should I just return this keyboard and get another brand, or should I request a different 4000 without this 'defect'? Thanks, and sorry again for the odd manner of messaging.)

<comment><USER4> You can always email me, my email is in the profile.

But as for your question. No, mine is fine although it is somewhat harder than on other keyboards. You just get used to it over time. 4000s are odd, i have 2 and each have different quirks(but nothing too serious), so try replacing it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's a common perception in the academic community that they face heavy resistance from those who think that "death gives life meaning," and that ending aging would harm "human dignity."

These feelings may be strong among philosophers and ethicists and the debate may rage in journals, but I don't think there's nearly so much resistance in the general population.

The challenge is proving that dramatic longevity extension is really possible. Most of modern medicine is really treatment of symptoms, not cures. We don't understand or have effective treatments for the underlying causes of most conditions.

<comment><USER7> There are some pro-engineered-longevity ethicists. This fellow, for example, is a good example of someone mired in stereotypical ethicist viewpoints (e.g. social justice, redistribution, equality uber alles, etc) nonetheless constructing a rationale within his paradigm for all-out longevity research as fast as possible:

[http://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2009/06/idealism-meets- rea...](http://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2009/06/idealism-meets-realism- tackling-chronic.html)

<comment><USER8> Golly, a transhumanist interested in social justice issues!

If you're a humanist, you ought to be a transhumanist. Eliezer argues convincingly on this point. What is so hard about noting that if you are a transhumanist, you ought to be a humanist?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> What a coincidence. A hacker friend just pointed me towards to this related piece today:

[http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_ag...](http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html)

Worth a watch. Talks about some of the details, addresses the same logical/ethical fallacies that hold people back.

</comment><comment><USER7> For an example of how tantalizingly close researchers are to making real progress in engineering away aspects of aging, you might look at the MitoSENS project at the SENS Foundation.

Firstly: mitochondrial DNA damage is convincingly very important in aging. There's a lot of research to support this, and a great deal more research to show how greatly the composition and function of mitochondria determines lifespan differences between species:

[http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2006/10/how-age- damaged-m...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2006/10/how-age-damaged- mitochondria-cause-your-cells-to-damage-you.php)

Secondly, we can move that DNA into the nucleus where it will continue to work to produce the necessary components of mitochondrial machinery long after the DNA in the mitochondria themselves is ragged:

<http://www.sens.org/index.php?pagename=mitosens>

And lastly the work of Marisol Corral-Debrinski is basically demonstrating how to do this in practice. Here's a video presentation from SENS3 - she's much further along now:

[http://richardjschueler.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=5717...](http://richardjschueler.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=57170)

As an alternative approach, researchers back in 2005 demonstrated an approach to replace all mitochondrial DNA in an organism, doing so in mice. Out with the old, in with the new:

[http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2005/07/slightly- inside-1...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2005/07/slightly-inside-1.php)

One last item: the FDA doesn't permit the development of therapies to treat aging. Period. So there's little venture money for it, and all promising research is then shoehorned into becoming sub-par treatments for specific age- related disease or just abandoned. All meaningful progress will occur in regions of the world where regulation is less horrid.

[http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id...](http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/view_news_item.cfm?news_id=3237) [http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/05/the-portions- of-g...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/05/the-portions-of- government-focused-on-preventing-new-medicine.php) [http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/05/envisaging-a- worl...](http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2008/05/envisaging-a-world- without-the-fda.php)

</comment><comment><USER7> Moral: you get things done by getting things done, and the largest obstacles are conceptual - something that should be near and dear to many folk here.

I'm also suprised that the Fable wasn't previously posted. On the subject of the 300, you might read this detained rationale by Michael Rae:

[http://www.longevitymeme.org/articles/viewarticle.cfm?articl...](http://www.longevitymeme.org/articles/viewarticle.cfm?article_id=23)

<comment><USER10> I'd hate for someone reading your comment to miss the article because they assume it is just a piece about procrastination.

This article is a compelling story that suggests there is a moral imperative to engage in anti-aging research, and that we have become blind, in our acceptance of our current mortality, to both the suffering that it causes, and to the fact that we can now hope to do something about it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a great modern fable. It overstates the moral imperative, however, by casting people as agents of the dragon, making them actively responsible for the death of others [1].

The truth of the matter is that working to defeat mortally is supererogatory -- as a young Spock put it, an act which is morally praiseworthy but not morally obligatory.

[1] Similar in spirit to the TOS episode, "A Taste of Armageddon," <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Armageddon>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I was surprised this wasn't posted here before. I would encourage everyone here to donate to the Methusaleh Foundation. You can promise to donate $25,000 and join the "300", which we're expecting will fill up by the end of the summer. :)

<comment><USER11> Sometimes stuff gets buried.. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=402205>

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This TED talk about aging by Aubrey de Grey is very interesting: [http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_aging.html)

And please do think about cryonics once again: <http://lesswrong.com/lw/wq/you_only_live_twice/>

</comment><comment><USER13> Very similar in style to "The dragon in my garage":

<http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Dragon.htm>

</comment><comment><USER14> But what exactly is death?

What if it were a reward? What if we were all trying to avoid a beautiful reward?

<comment><USER14> Well, Sorry if i'm hurting someone's beliefs with my question. I'm still interested to know about other people's opinion on that question.

I found some interesting stuff on this page : [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near- death_experience#Character...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near- death_experience#Characteristics)

<comment><USER14> You should not downmod people just because you don't agree with them. That's the Reddit style.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I found the fable interesting, liked it even. Well written, it gave me some goosebumps at points. However where are the anti-dragonists. Surely the men on the street might not have the patience to read about an anti-dragon, they might however be willing to hear the process and how aging may be brought to an end. If our kings of our world are ignoring the petitions of our world's anti-dragonists, it seems that they have ye to take to the second stage, to raise the profile of their cause and attract donations and momentum.

In the fable, after the anti-dragonists went to the people, it seems they gathered a wide following. This might be because people really wanted to kill the dragon and also because they were told of how such a goal may realisticly be archived. We aren't told much on the other hand, only that some scientist in Oxford is working on aging. What the process is in simple layman language is not explained to combat the strong belief of many people that such people are well in a neverneverland.

I liked the fable, however I would like to see those who wrote it to practice what the anti-dragonists practised in the fable. Perhaps right now it is more important to gather momentum.</comment>


Homeless after phishing attack - <AUTHOR> https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/masterchef-finalist-caught-in-conveyancing-hacker-attack-20180622-p4zn4o.html <comment><USER2> In their shoes I would take both PEXA and the conveyancer to court because I wasn't paid, including all damages resulting from the loss of funds.

I get that they pretend that they're not liable but they are only not liable if a judge agrees with them.</comment>


Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe Demo - <AUTHOR> http://xoxo.gl/ultimate/ A playable ultimate tic-tac-toe demo, following on from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5898506 <comment><AUTHOR> I made this following the discussion at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5898506](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5898506)

</comment><comment><USER2> Well that was fast</comment>


Show HN: Data visualisation of the 5 Monuments of cycling - <AUTHOR> Hi All,
This is a small web app introducing the 5 Monuments locations and their winning history.
This is a hobby project where my technical goals were learning React and using Mapbox API. I populated manually the database so there are not many things in it, that's why there are only basic features. If I manage to find open data I may do a v2.0.
Any feedback on technical side or design appreciated! <comment><AUTHOR> [https://www.gilbertodyssey.com/](https://www.gilbertodyssey.com/)

<comment><USER2> The browser back button doesn't work as I expect. I use Firefox. But it looks like a fun project. Thanks for sharing it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Actually I didn't implement anything regarding the back button.. as I didn't think about it at all! Thanks for the feedback</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Traveled 10k km for new job and was just shouted at. What do I do? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Maybe my story can help you.

One day I had a very hard day in Germany, like you did, with people screaming, pressure etc. Being Brazilian, I'm used to people being nice and caring. A completely different picture here in Germany. I wanted to go back and say fuck it all.

I have chosen to breath a bit, think, chill. In those moments, we are basically being tested. If you are there, you are there for a reason, possibly it's an improvement in life for you, or a challenge. You need to make sure you stick on your head that this is your test, take it as a challenge.

The human mind and body has millions of years of improvements to handle CHALLENGES. We can really go through very tough shit, but you can only activate this mode if you take what you felt, this emotional response, and have a good and positive reaction.

Eventually you start to get over those problems and conquer some respect. But you can only do it, if you eat it up.

It's a bit like school. You get bullied, at some point you fight, you beat one up, the other 5 fuck you up. Then eventually you start to handle those problems and even can come out on top of it. But only if you fight.

Think about the other possibilities, stay on this company 1 year and find another job. There will be other screamers on the other job as well, but keep shovelling shit until you get what you want.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I don't even speak the local language and if I leave I have to reimburse all the relocation and visa costs. I don't want to talk to my family because I don't want them to worry and I'm honestly embarrassed to talk with my friends. I don't really know what I should do because I was never treated this way in my entire career. I'm feeling just miserable.

<comment> n-gauge From your post it's hard to work out if the reason you were shouted at was due to a work issue, or someone being rude?

If it's the later just ignore it, don't let them get your back up; if it's a work issue ask them to explain carmly what was wrong as shouting doesn't solve the problem...

<comment><AUTHOR> It was due a work issue. Basically my boss is not happy with performance.

<comment><USER3> Maybe your are still navigating the work culture in the company/region. Try to figure out how much they expect from their employees. If it's unreasonably high, don't blame yourself too much. Otherwise, try to have a constructive conversation with your peers and your manager. Hope you could find someone to talk to :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Try to stay calm and think about your current situation, and what effects any decisions you make will have long term, it is easy to make bad decisions when you are in a bad state of mind.

Even if you leave your current job, nothing guarantees that the next one will be better, and it might sound easy to leave everything and go back to your home country, but you will miss a lot by living in the new place for just a short time, the best thing I can think of is to try to talk to your manager and tell them that you are not happy about the way that they communicate with you, and even if you are performing badly that they should inform you about that and what you need to do to improve in a less offensive way, some people will change their behavior once they are confronted, hopefully that will make them treat you better in the future.

it is hard to offer any advice without any more information, if it is only your manager/team then maybe consider switching to a different team, if it is a company-wide thing then probably it is best to leave, check you current visa/status and see if it is easy to change jobs, if not then think(with a clear and calm head) about whether you can stick with your current job until you can change it or not, and what any decisions you make now will mean down the line.

one last advice if you decide to stay with it, being in a bad workplace will affect you mentally and that might have an affect on your life and relationships outside of work, try to minimize that and keep all of this at work.

</comment><comment><USER5> Hey! hope I can help, in a lot of european contries employees are quite protected. Which means that if your job is harming you, in either physical or mental ways you are protected by law.

With these things it's hard though, try to keep a record of what happens and try to not participate in it.

Depending on how widespread it is. Talking to HR might work, wherein it helps if you can take a couple colleagues with you who have had the same happend to them. (so it's not just you)

In Holland for example there are state law offcies who give advice and help out with these kinds of things. They know what your situation is and how it can be handled best. Lawyers offices might also have free first meeting to help you and provide you with some context.

You seem to have a hard time with this. I've been is a very similar position. What I would advice is you talk to you GP and get appointments with psychologists. This will also protect you later if things get worse and you don't wanna show up at work anymore. Being sick at some, with a psychologist treatment will also make sure they can't fire you. and then it's a bit of a waiting game perhaps.

Anyways, feel free to message me and I can help out. I went through a similar situation and it really messed me up. I would like to make sure it doesn't get that bad for other people.

</comment><comment><USER6> That sounds like it sucks. We'd probably need some more information to help though. Who shouted at you, what did they say, what is their working relationship to you?

Why did you travel 10000km for a job? Is it just for that job, or did you travel to that place because you want to be there and you picked this job? Can you go back.

So many questions. Maybe tell us a bit more about the situation and you'll get some better thought out responses in return. Otherwise it is guesswork.

I see you are giving some more information in the thread, but it would be good to hear a lot more. Do it in a way that protects anonymity of course.

Someone shouting at you is bad, and it's a red flag for me to think about quitting* but not necessarily enough by it's own to quit a job.

* Because even if it is a colleague not the boss, its an organization that has a culture where this is acceptable. And most likely it will happen again. And I don't have the zen abilities to let stuff like that go. infact it would ruin my physical and mental health. Workplaces where I am bullied are an instant quit for me, but thats based on a bunch of reasons that might not apply to other people.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sorry to hear you had to go through this.

Shouting is a sign of weakness on the part of your boss. Why he had a weak moment? There might be dozens of reasons big or small and we certainly can't, but maybe you can put how it happened into context a bit. Maybe your boss had a bad day or was hangry, maybe he is under some heavy professional or private stress, maybe he just got some really bad news just before this happened.

In any case, this is a total no go, and if I were you, I'd draw a line. I personally have a three strike policy if someone treats me extremely unfairly. If it happens the first time it may be annoying, but maybe I also didn't get the full picture. I'll tell the person that what happened made me extremely uncomfortable and that I need to know the context of why it happened. I will also tell the person on that first occasion, that if it happens a second time its on them and the third time we're done and I'll show no regret or mercy in cutting ties or taking appropriate action against their behavior.

This system helps me to stay calm and focussed if stuff happens as I know already how it will play out and I don't worry about the future that much.

I don't know your context, but if you're a software engineer who was hired at a company 10k away be aware that you're on the long end of the stick here. You will most likely find employment again - and hopefully know what to look out for the second time. Do not be afraid to ask direct questions, I would say that is much more socially accepted in Western Europe (most of all in Germany) than in Asian cultures - as far as I'm aware of, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Godspeed and if you want someone to talk to, feel free to reach out (mail in profile). I'm a good listener.

</comment><comment><USER8> It may not be uncommon in some regions of Bavaria/Austria to directly communicate negative emotions. It is also not uncommon to personally insult the person who caused the negative emotions.

In those regions the feedback scale is shifted as follows:

1\. No complaints: Good work done

2\. Minor insults: acceptable work delivered

3\. Heavy insults on personal level: delivered work should be enhanced

4\. Person stops talking to you: delivered work is insufficient

<comment><USER9> Why do you think the culture is this way? It does not seem optimal.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Just a perspective ... they maybe under enormous pressure themselves. See if that is true, let them know you want to do a good job. "If I'm making you so anger, what are actionable steps to where I can do better?"

If they are just jerks, well, maybe you can tough it out for a year.

</comment><comment><USER11> Really sorry to hear that. But be the better person and think rationally. Let the other person know that this was not ok behavior. If this has been a pattern then smile and act calm and start to look for a new job.

I know you have traveled far but trust me in retrospect everything will make sense. Just act smartly and not emotionally. But i understand the anger i would get if i am shouted upon.

</comment><comment><USER12> Can you tell us what country in Western Europe? Depending on the country, you should worry less or more.

Some cultures are more into this and they value straightforwardness above all else, even if that means a heated yelling match. The expectation is that you yell back (if needed). This would be expected and not considered weird or unacceptable

<comment><USER13> This is correct IMO. I have worked in cultures where raising your voice and shouting is not considered "yelling" (or demeaning) as an American might interpret it, but just considered communicating directly. Every culture is unique and you should first respect and learn about the culture.

Frankly, ask a co-worker or two for input, be up front and say hey, I had a talk with so and so the other day and I am a little unsure how to interpret it given my lack of knowledge locally. Ask them to help you interpret it, frankly if it is bad better to know now, if it is nothing they'll tell you. Also, they may offer up that this is a normal culture thing or they may say hey, this person is an asshat and this isn't normal and then at least you understand where things are at better.

I have worked a lot with various cultures and finding how to motivate and what works for them is the key thing. I have had people get seriously nervous and on edge that when they knew they screwed up I didn't yell at them so they thought their job was done for, but my style is very calm and easy going 99% of the time. I rarely raise my voice ever, just because it isn't necessary for me to communicate that way plus I'd rather figure out what went wrong and fix it than dwell on who. And if I have to terminate you, it'll never be a confrontational situation because you will know though communication long before that it is coming and you've had many opportunities to fix it, but I won't be an ass and I won't need to raise my voice. But that is not the case in other cultures, so if I was working in some Countries I'd expect a very different way of being treated, I also know I wouldn't work in some because it would be mentally taxing for me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> was looking at your other post: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18634871](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18634871)

Looks like you knew this was coming (unless the friend in the other post was you)

I know this could be hard given how your management treats employee, but the best thing you can do is make sure you bring this up in next one on one. See how the response is from the manager. If he takes it personally, dont even bother trying to give more feedback.

Changing teams within the organization can be an option, else best case would be travel back 1000KM :(

</comment><comment><USER15> No job is perfect. There will always be difficult personalities wherever you go. Just remember that you work to live, and not the other way around. Treat this as a learning exercise for your next job.

</comment><comment><USER16> When did you get this job? Has something similar happened to you before?

</comment><comment> n-gauge Are you in a call center role?

<comment><AUTHOR> Not really, I'm a software engineer.

</comment></comment><comment> BA4gDY-cqjsEPWn Start looking for a new job.

<comment><AUTHOR> Unfortunately my visa is attached to my employer for one year. If I look for a new job I have to go through the visa application process again.

<comment> BA4gDY-cqjsEPWn > If I look for a new job I have to go through the visa application process > again.

If you are a sensitive person who cannot tolerate being shouted at then I'd say it's not a big issue if you go through the visa process again. If you are truly miserable in your current situation like you said, then it's not good for your mental health to stay there longer than absolutely necessary.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> tell the person that its not acceptable, if it happens again, quit the job</comment>


Introducing Changelog 2.0 - <AUTHOR> https://changelog.com/posts/introducing-changelog-2-0 <comment><USER2> This is Adam -- EIC of changelog.com.

We're open sourcing our CMS soon. Would be glad to answer any questions or hear comments from the community here.

Thanks Joe for sharing this.

<comment><USER3> Can't wait to see the source! The new site is faaaaaaaast!</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Advice to protect the environment as a developer/designer? - <AUTHOR> After seeing this french documentary (Frères des arbres: http://shr.gs/UqAQ5pj) about a Papua lord trying to save the pristine forest of his land, I'm wondering how I could participate to help him protect his forest and our Earth. Apart from giving money or time to non-governmental organizations. Have you some advice to take a proactive posture? Eg.: search the web with ecosia.org? <comment><USER2> I've spent the last decade of my life answering this question with my day-to- day life activities. I am only 27 and have no idea what our ultimate fate will be, so take my advice for what it's worth.

The most important thing is to start with yourself and cultivate character. All your future actions will be more effective if your foundation is sound. How do your daily actions affect other lives? Think about your food, your transportation, your consumption habits. How good of a designer, developer, salesman are you? How much time do you spend a DAY learning, building, pitching? Don't waste your life trying to change the world without changing yourself first, this process will also change how you see the world as well.

So start small, stay grounded, and grow stronger with age. That's exactly what I did and am still doing. I am going to enroll in Startup School and apply to YC soon. If they don't accept me, I'm also applying to both HackReactor or Galvanize Data Science. I also plan to hang around Stanford and Berkeley to make friends following the same moral, intellectual, and creative compass. The plan is to 'get so good, they can't ignore me'. I'm going ALL IN on my hope that humanity can still live harmoniously with our home planet and expand beyond it.

If you're for real about this, over time you will get to this level of urgency and do what is needed for you to live in accordance with your conscience. Earth will be fine whether or not we decide to live harmoniously with the rest of the biosphere or not; when the Sun dies, the rest of the galaxy will take thousands of years to even notice. So try to be humble, I still struggle with this seeing the state of our planet but lead by example and whoever is ready will follow.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes. Thank you for your reply. That's the obvious way to improve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> For the earth >> Go vegan; buy local; join a coop; ditch your car;

For him >> screen his film; set up employer matching donations; reach out and see if they need your skills;

Also >> fall in love; be an awesome partner and raise awake, self- confident kids who have grown up playing outside

</comment><comment><USER4> I plan on reading _Sustainable Energy – without the hot air_ by David MacKay, maybe you would want to do the same.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll give it a try

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> My first thought is to contact to Papua Lord, or the maker of the documentary, and ask them directly. My second guess is to make money as fast as you can, so you can dedicate your time me to something that needs your skills. I am focusing on the latter myself.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great idea. Thanks

</comment></comment><comment> UK-AL Make money. Donate it.</comment>


See Which Cities Pay the Highest Software Engineering Salaries Adjusted for COL - <AUTHOR> https://skilldime.com/blog/see-which-cities-pay-the-highest-software-engineering-salaries-adjusted-for-col/ <comment><USER3> The big issue with this kind of calculation is that it assumes each dollar has the same marginal utility.

A much more useful calculation (and much harder) is how much money is left over living expenses, and how much utility (or enjoyment) is derived from that surplus. It might be nice to live in a low cost of living area, but if all the entertainment options are not appealing, it's not really useful, even if the options are cheap.

<comment><USER4> Great point, and it's also not counting total comp, which I imagine is much higher on average in California.

</comment></comment><comment> a-priori Which _American_ cities, they mean. There's a whole world out there, folks.

</comment><comment> blaser-waffle Reston, VA has has best salaries relative to COL? LOL.

Fairfax County, VA, is literally the 2nd richest county in the US; the #1 richest county is right next door. Traffic is heavy, and housing costs keep goin up. Salaries are decent, esp. in the cleared government sector, though civilian gigs are pretty lucrative too.

Don't get me wrong, you'll probably have a decent lifestyle there -- I think about moving back occasionally -- but it's nothing like Omaha or Columbus.

Source: am from there, ran data centers in Reston, Herndon, and Ashburn.

<comment><USER5> If you work in or around Reston itself, I think the situation is not so bad. There are plenty of places in Loudoun County in the 25-40 min commute range that are still relatively affordable, because they are too far away from Tysons/Arlington/DC/etc. to be a reasonable commute. They're expensive, but not nearly as expensive as a comparable commute would be in the NY, Boston, or even Atlanta areas. Overall I think the "live in Loudoun, work in Reston" is a comparatively good value compared to the other metro areas that have high software engineer salaries.

On the other hand, _living_ in Reston/Herndon and commuting to Arlington or DC is both extremely expensive and a guaranteed miserable commute. The Silver Line will probably help when it opens, but it will still be a long train ride, and you'll be at the mercy of WMATA.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Using Zillow prices within cities is a flawed methodology, because it's sensitive to how city boundaries are drawn, which varies a lot - <USER2> city boundaries only include their historic "downtown" core, while other cities include suburbs and even exurbs outside the "urban" area. For an example, compare the boundaries of Boston ([https://goo.gl/maps/8DCq5vc4vyMR8BVU8](https://goo.gl/maps/8DCq5vc4vyMR8BVU8)) with those of Jacksonville, FL ([https://goo.gl/maps/BA3sdH4X7iebiqpV9](https://goo.gl/maps/BA3sdH4X7iebiqpV9)).

Ideally, you'd prefer to compare housing prices within a fixed commuting time of the job location. This is pretty hard, so an alternative would be to use housing prices within the Metropolitan Statistical Area[1], but that's often too coarse.

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

</comment><comment> non-entity > If you want to have your cake and eat it too, go to Columbus. 130K in a city > with super low COL! And its mostly thanks to 1 company: Root Insurance > Company, which seems to be paying out some seriously high salaries.

So basically, you probably wont be getting 130k in Columbus unless you get into that company?

</comment><comment><USER6> I had no idea that so many of these places besides CA/NYC are so much more expensive per sq ft average than Texas cities. Denver is quite a bit more expensive, for example, and Reston, VA, which I assume to be a nearby area to DC, is also up there.

</comment><comment><USER7> I've not visited most of the top 10 on this list, but I wonder if what you trade for COL improvements makes up for the experience of living in those locations. (A complex question if you factor in commute times, community factors and personal interests at a minimum.)

<comment><USER8> It seems like the sweet spot is around the middle of the list - places like Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Salt Lake City, etc. Good salaries and lower cost of living than California, but you will have all the quality of life features of a bigger city. I guess that's why those middle-tier cities on this list are also at the top of the fastest growing places in the country.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is good however I want to take into account savings value also. So after paying for a basic living I save the rest. Eventually I move to a very low COL place so If the rest is much more I'm better off.

</comment><comment><USER10> How many of these weird cost of living calculators need to be made ?</comment>