Introverts at Work: Designing Spaces for People Who Hate Open-Plan Offices - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-06-16/open-plan-offices-for-people-who-hate-open-plan-offices <comment><USER2> What does this have to do with introverts? It has mainly to do with rank. You never see VPs sitting elbow by elbow in an open space office. It's just a matter of treating everybody as an adult.

<comment><USER3> 100% with you on this point. I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that even means) and I can't stand open plan offices. When I get home from a workday in an open-plan I'm much more stressed and mentally exhausted. Whereas if I'm working in peace and quiet all day in a mini-partition in the bullpen I come home feeling refreshed and satisfied with my workday.

The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy. After complaining to my boss many times I eventually started wearing earmuffs and turned my workstation towards the corner so that I couldn't see people. Of course being the control-freak psychopath that he was he mocked me in front of everyone else for wearing earmuffs and when that didn't work he started calling me into his office every 5 minutes and would get angry at me if I didn't hear him calling. Wow what a shitty boss and so glad I got out of there.

<comment><USER4> Are you sure you are extraverted?

You say,

> I'm pretty extroverted (whatever the hell that means)

But then you also say

> The extra noise and distractions in an open-plan force me to use more > willpower to focus and end up depleting my mental energy.

And that's pretty close to the definition of introversion.

You know introversion / extraversion is not about being shy vs outgoing. That is a very common misconception.

Introversion means that social interactions and situations lacking privacy cause you to become tired and experience mental energy drain.

You might _love_ hanging out with friends and being around people, it just makes you tired. Extraverts on the other hand experience an energy boost from social situations, even if they don't prefer being in some specific social situation (e.g. an extravert may hate going to work, but still feel that "buzz of activity" just from being around everyone).

It's about how your cognitive fatigue is triggered: is your fatigue triggered by social situations, or is your fatigue lessened by those situations.

The effect you describe about the fatigue your open plan space causes for you makes me strongly suspect you're much closer to the introvert side of the spectrum than you believe.

<comment><USER3> Well i'm extroverted around people. I get a huge burst of energy. I get too excited and can't focus. I just want to keep talking to people and moving around. When it's time to dig into a rats nest of JS code I need serenity and quiet. The reason I don't really buy the whole introvert/extrovert thing is that its way too broad of a distinction and presents this binary of personalities when it's really more of a continuum. I think you just made my point.

<comment><USER4> Most of the research on the introversion / extraversion workplace effects very strongly focuses on the spectrum aspect, and decidedly eschews the binarism that has held us back from correctly accommodating human beings at work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hilarious that Bloomberg published this -- a company famous for no offices and a leader who is insistent that if _he_ can work without an office, so can everyone else, with zero consideration for legitimate physiological differences between workers, like introversion vs extraversion.

</comment><comment><USER5> Why would they think that only introverts need quiet to get serious work done?</comment>


3-D Printing Maps to Help the Blind - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/3-d-printed-maps/471738/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Super interesting. My only concern is that with traditional braille, it's still printed on paper, and thus easily recycled. If you're creating building and/or city maps that changes regularly... it's not super feasible to keep printing new ones, even if the data is stored digitally and therefore easy to update. Very exciting stuff though.

<comment><USER3> Just one note: it's possible to "recycle" 3d printed things. You could reduce them to "pellets", and turn the pellets into the PLA spools you started out on. See [https://www.3dhubs.com/talk/thread/how-make-your-own- filamen...](https://www.3dhubs.com/talk/thread/how-make-your-own-filament- recycling-old-3d-prints-part-1)</comment></comment>


A topological–geometrical theory for data analysis and machine learning - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s42256-019-0087-3 <comment><USER2> Is there a link to the PDF for those without a subscription?

<comment><USER3> [https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.11832](https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.11832)</comment></comment>


Keeping it Casual - <AUTHOR> https://quillette.com/2018/10/14/keeping-it-casual/ <comment><USER2> What a tedious and uninspired article. This topic has been done to death and the author has proposed nothing new or interesting. All we get is his boring phraseology and puerile stereotypes, and a couple boudoir photos.</comment>


Don't use CoffeeScript - <AUTHOR> http://tysens.us/2013/09/06/no-coffeescript/

<comment><USER2> This is actually almost completely wrong information. The lower-level for loop is much more JS engine friendly than the Array methods (filter, map etc.). So unless you write JS like it's C, for the most part, CoffeeScript will probably generate more efficient code[1]. As shown in the jsperf by @mischani [2]

The only thing that's true is that CofeeScript generates some throwaway code because of implicit returns and the "everything is an expression" rule. However, I doubt that they would cause much overhead, specially with modern JS engines optimisation capabilities.

[1]: [http://mrale.ph/blog/2011/11/05/the-trap-of-the- performance-...](http://mrale.ph/blog/2011/11/05/the-trap-of-the-performance- sweet-spot.html)

[2]: [http://jsperf.com/don-t-use-coffeescript](http://jsperf.com/don-t-use- coffeescript)

<comment><AUTHOR> See my other comment. I too think that using .map, .filter, and .forEach are a bad idea. But also, if you see the code I would have written in the jsperf, I'd guess you say that I write JS like it's C.

So, good point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Turns out the comprehension is faster on my setup:

[http://jsperf.com/don-t-use-coffeescript](http://jsperf.com/don-t-use- coffeescript)

<comment><USER4> Function calls in JavaScript runtimes (including V8) are quite slow. Array.map/filter/forEach will always be slower than a for loop doing the same thing.

I write a lot of games and game related things in JavaScript, and this is actually a major reason why I now use CoffeeScript. Nice clean comprehension syntax _and_ better performance.

<comment><USER5> Array.map/filter/forEach aren't just slow because of function call overhead. They have different semantics than the for loop that you'd typically write (and that Coffeescript generates), because they support things like arrays with non-incremental keys. See the reference implementation at [1].

[1] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/map#compatibility)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There's no evidence presented here that there's any significant (or even negative) performance impact from the way the CoffeeScript compiles these list comprehensions. Also, if your performance is constrained by a list comprehension, there's nothing in CoffeeScript preventing you from using "Array.filter" instead. By and large CoffeeScript compiles one-to-one with JavaScript and when it doesn't, the resulting code is at least reasonably performant.

I do agree that the default return behavior is probably a bad idea. It probably came from Ruby, and I can see the appeal, but I've often created bugs by accidentally using the implicit return, then adding something to the end of a function. It's not really that big of a deal - I just as a policy always use an explicit return.

</comment><comment><USER4> Also as an aside, CoffeeScript will only bother to populate the results array if the comprehension is the last thing in the function. If there is anything else that follows and you never use the result of the comprehension, then it compiles into a simple for loop. This is because CoffeeScript can't know if you actually plan to take advantage of its implicit return in this case.

I have found I've been forced to add a dummy `return` at the end of some of my CS methods because of this. It's one of only a very few complaints I have with the language.

</comment><comment><USER7> Hey quick question, maybe you should use map instead of filter?

[http://www.dotnetspeaks.com/DisplayArticle.aspx?ID=117](http://www.dotnetspeaks.com/DisplayArticle.aspx?ID=117) (random site with example)

map is the functional equivalent of what you're trying to do there, not filter.

<comment><USER8> His criticism still stands that the JS implementation of

      (number * number for number in nums)

...is inefficient, and that it could've been translated into much more efficient JS than it was.

<comment><USER4> It's really not inefficient though. Array.map will be much slower in just about all environments.

<comment><USER7> [EDIT] - People have followed up, turns out the comprehension is faster.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> fwiw, I love coffeescript. I write a game a few weeks ago in it, but I've never shown it to anyone before. Have a look here if you're interested [http://quietcode.com/vectroid](http://quietcode.com/vectroid)

I've made no attempts at all at performance tuning yet it runs very nicely in webkit browsers and not too bad in firefox.

<comment><USER10> Very nice!

While playing I noticed I was able to go faster than my projectile, and I was slightly disappointed when I was unable to damage my own ship that way.

<comment><USER9> Yes, I was trying to reward the player for flying faster instead of just sitting on one spot. Projectile speed increases as your speed increases. I though damaging your own ship would just be cruel :)

You may also notice the view zooms out as your speed increases, so you have a much wider view

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> It seems that what you actually want is for CoffeeScript to have configurable backends. I agree that it's silly to generate IE6 compatible code when I know that I'm targeting node. This isn't a reason not to use CoffeeScript -- it's a reason to improve CoffeeScript.

Furthermore, as others have noted, your post does smack of premature optimization. Without numbers, most of the claims are all pretty meaningless. Judging by number of instructions is no longer a valid metric on any platform on any level of abstraction and hasn't been since the 1980s.

</comment><comment><USER12> I like CoffeeScript and will continue to use it where appropriate.

But I do wonder why we're stuck with all the cruft to let ECMAScript be backwards compatible. Couldn't we just one time introduce a few breaking changes to clean up the mistakes in the language's design?

And if you're really opposed to that, how about the same strict versus transitional semantics we use for HTML? I'd be happy to be writing code in a clean strict subset of JavaScript.

<comment><USER13> We already have a strict subset of JavaScript, "strict mode" – see [https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en- US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Functions_and_function_scope/Strict_mode). You activate it by putting the code `"use strict";` at the top of a script or a function.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The great thing about there being so many Javascript transpilers these days is that you can pick the right language to suit your needs.

Really want / need Google Closure / the latest ECMAScript stuff? ClojureScript supports these things pretty well.

Really like Ruby (or Python) but find yourself in Javascript land? Coffeescript is right for you.

There's some interesting buzz around getting Coffescript more Google Closure compliant, which is probably the better way to go (assuming your targeting front end JS, not Node).

But yes, there are certainly places where Coffeescript generates a crap-ton of code, where if you can pinpoint your Javascript runtime (like in Node's case) you could do more, better, and faster.

</comment><comment><USER15> This person seems to think that "less code" is "faster code".

 _Yes, I do have to give some credits to putting the number x number directly into the push call_

Are they really suggesting

        _results.push(number * number);

is significantly faster than, say

        var result = number * number;
        _results.push(result);

Because it's not.

Though I do wonder why CoffeeScript doesn't do something like this to avoid the function call:

        _results[_i] = number * number;

</comment><comment><USER16> Yet Another Coffeescript Rant</comment>


Ask HN: Is software engineering a big deal? - <AUTHOR> Context: I graduated university two years ago and have been working as a dev since then. The work is good, management is good but I just keep feeling that it's no big a deal, anyone can do it and the stuff that matters actually does not require development (e.g. meeting with clients, climbing management ladder etc).<p>Would love to know what others think. <comment><USER2> I think you are conflating software engineering and regular management. If your definition of success and job satisfaction is climbing up the corporate ladder you don't need software engineering at all. You could go into sales or marketing and climb faster. Having said that software engineering matters. If it didn't matter a lot of things we take for granted in 2019 wouldn't exist, like this message board or the tiny 'supercomputer' you carry in your hand called smartphone. MRI Imaging, Fly-by-wire software, cashless transactions.. I could go on and on.

</comment><comment><USER3> What type of apps do you build? What languages?</comment>


This Is What It Looks Like When Your Gmail Gets Hacked By China - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-your-gmail-gets-hacked-by-china-2010-12

<comment><USER2> I don't see any evidence that the attack was a government operation, and not just some script kiddie with time on his hands.</comment>


The Story Behind Jared Kushner's Curious Acceptance into Harvard - <AUTHOR> https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-kushners-curious-acceptance-into-harvard <comment><USER2> The thing I found most surprisingl about this article, is that Harvard won't admit it. I had always assumed you could go there if you paid enough. As with all Ivy League colleges. Do they really try to pretend otherwise? Who are they fooling?

<comment><USER3> The value of attending Harvard comes not from the education itself, but the signalling which indicates that you had the abilities or achievements to get accepted in the first place.

If Harvard or Yale start publicly accepting that a proportion of their students simply paid their way in, then this knowledge shifts from being an implicit understanding/public secret to one that is publicly acknowledged and widely publicized.

If the names of those who bought places are publicly announced, then this dries up the pool of future 'donors' because the signalling effect disappears when everyone knows how you got in. Conversely, if they keep the names anonymous, this demeans the value of the degree for everyone, because people will then cast their aspersions on all future ivy league grads.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Isn't it more likely Harvard threatens to reject applicants with wealthy parents if they don't make a contribution. It's the way the rest of the world works.

<comment><USER5> because that would be soliciting a bribe and extortion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> > I phoned a Harvard official, with whom I was on friendly terms. First I > asked whether the gift played any role in Jared's admission. "You know we > don't comment on individual applicants," he said. When I pressed further, he > hung up. We haven't spoken since.

Were they actually on "friendly-terms"? How did he "press further"?

I have to doubt the premise of this article:

> I also quoted administrators at Jared's high school, who described him as a > less than stellar student and expressed dismay at Harvard's decision.

Why would an an administrator comment on an individual student? What reason do we have to trust such an individual?

</comment><comment><USER7> Nowadays I try to reduce what I infer from someone's having graduated from Harvard (and most major universities). I know people cite it as a signal, but it's like the big-O notation we know and love: you often lose so much relevant detail that the exercise is of limited value. And the whole shebang is pretty much outweighed by the elephant-in-the-room that is the nasty moral environment so widespread in colleges.

</comment><comment><USER8> > About 90 percent of Jared's 2003 class at Harvard also graduated with honors

Harvard honors is a system where all students, being above average, can maintain that above average feeling.

</comment><comment><USER9> Affirmative action by another name.

<comment><USER10> don't get sloppy about how you name things. this isn't "another name" for affirmation action. the correct name for it is _patronage_. Charles Kushner is a patron of Harvard and they gave his family a favor in exchange.</comment></comment>


Dimple.js – Easy and Flexible D3 Charting - <AUTHOR> http://dimplejs.org/advanced_examples_viewer.html?id=advanced_animated_multiple_pie_bubbles

<comment><USER2> I love how easily readable that code is.</comment>


Novel lawsuit: Doctor sues parents of daughter who died from drugs he prescribed - <AUTHOR> http://www.propublica.org/article/doctors-lawsuit-targets-parents-of-patient-who-overdosed

<comment><USER2> > Under oath, Buckwalter said he did not examine Duncan on her first visit > because he "did not have time," yet prescribed her 300 tablets of Xanax, an > anti-anxiety medication, and the painkiller hydrocodone, a synthetic opiate.

Yikes! This guy is scary.</comment>


Ask HN: What's an app/service that doesn't exist that you're ready to pay for? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Easily monetizatable ideas (as a service).

</comment><comment><USER3> 1- a more stable, faster version of ubuntu/unity with customer support

2- a good linux ide for native remote developement with proper support for debugger and profiling

3 - a cheaper version of vtune with support for arm and powerpc

<comment><USER4> 2 - What about JetBrains (PyCharm, IntelliJ etc)?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> A portable and highly accurate blood pressure monitor which can take your BP at multiple times throughout the day, similar to existing wearables that measure heart rate etc.

</comment><comment><USER6> Id pay if someone created and published black lists of Public Sector employees.

</comment><comment><USER7> Neurotransmitters as a Service

<comment><USER8> Can you expand on this a bit?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> An open-source (and privacy friendly) alternative to Waze

</comment><comment><USER10> Helping me to pick my Hearthstone Arena drafts deck

<comment><USER11> heartharena.com there you go

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> A reliable builder</comment>


Four-in-one pill prevents third of heart problems: study - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/health-49434337 <comment><USER2> A read through of the methodology makes it sounds like they took solid precautions to prevent biases that could taint the results- As an MD, I'm impressed by the design of this study, and the promising results.

This may be what more studies in the future will look like: Bundle multiple interventions together to help create statistically stronger results, at the cost of less clarity around each individual treatment.

EDIT: Someone else on HN noticed there possibly was no placebo for the control group- This worries me. Also, there's no indication in the methodology that the "field team" was blinded as to treatment groups :(

<comment><USER3> > _This may be what more studies in the future will look like: Bundle multiple > interventions together to help create statistically stronger results, at the > cost of less clarity around each individual treatment_

I'm probably stating the obvious, but it may also be that multiple interventions together have a larger net effect than the interventions separately would suggest. I recently read an article by a physician arguing for many of his patients, treating ADHD with a combination of a stimulant and a non-stimulant resulted in bigger benefits with less side-effects, due to being able to have a lower dosage for each individual medication[0].

[0] [https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-medication-combination- ther...](https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-medication-combination-therapy- treatment/)

<comment><USER2> I agree that synergy is an important element, but to me a study like this could make sense even without synergy: To me, it seems better to have 4x the statistical data on 4 drugs at once than just running the individual studies, given how long a study like this takes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > Half the people were given the polypill and advice on how to improve their > lifestyle, with the other half just getting the advice.

Why didn't the other half get a placebo? Or is this sloppy editing?

Not only do they miss the placebo effect but also the daily reminder to improve their lifestyle (pill as anchor)

<comment><USER5> That's a great point about the pill as a daily reminder -- the control and intervention groups otherwise received healthy lifestyle training every 6 months.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Did the study include looking at side effects or other causes of death besides strokes and heart attacks? Low-dose aspirin alone is dangerous enough that it's probably not worth taking unless you have some other risk factors for heart problems. [https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/is-low-dose- aspi...](https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/is-low-dose-aspirin-safe- for-you)

</comment><comment><USER5> According to the abstract[1], the polypill contains hydrochlorothiazide 12.5 mg, aspirin 81 mg, atorvastatin 20 mg, and either enalapril 5 mg or valsartan 40 mg.

1: [https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736\(19\)31791-X/fulltext)

</comment><comment><USER7> The four-in-one pill is known as the 'Polypill'.

Related: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15604180](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15604180)

'The Polymeal: a more natural, safer, and probably tastier (than the Polypill) strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease by more than 75%'

<comment><USER8> It actually sounds pretty tasty: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymeal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymeal)

> They suggest a person should consume, every day: 150 mL of red wine (about > one glass), 100 g of dark chocolate, 400 g of fruits and vegetables, 2.7 g > of garlic, 68 g of almonds, as well as 118 g of fish per day four times each > week.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Proper diet, exercise, and avoiding smoking also prevents more than a third of heart problems. It's safer than blood-pressure or cholesterol medications.

<comment><USER10> I'm awfully confused why anyone would downvote this response. It seems like completely sane advice. Is it the smoking thing?

<comment><USER11> It is snark. It isn't meant to be constructive or add value to the thread, it is meant to condescend by saying something true but using that truism in order to imply it is also easy (in spite of all of the evidence to the contrary).

To quote the site's guidelines:

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and > substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

It is snarky. It isn't thoughtful or substantive.

<comment><USER12> It is rather knee-jerk dismissive, true. Snarky? I'm not sure I have the evidence to claim that.

They do have a good point, but the discussion is obviously more nuanced than that. People generally know that exercise is good for them, yet many/most people don't engage in it to a healthy degree. So some discussion of other approaches is appropriate. Let's not make "the perfect the enemy of the good" and all that.

And we don't need to be either/or here. For individuals that have even a moderately elevated risk, doing both is probably a great idea (and of course this is already broadly recommended advice). Doing just one would still be better, and most people would choose a pill over exercise. Still a win in my book.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> There will be a time in the future, when we look back on pills as a laughably crude form of treatment, similar to how we look back on bloodletting now.

Take X pill to solve Y, but side effect(s) are Z.

Your best bet in life now is to invest in your health early. It's a compounding effect. Walk regularly. Exercise. Eat healthy (mostly vegetables, fruit, reduce animal products). Sleep well.

<comment><USER14> I don't want to downplay the importance of investing in your health early, but I generally disagree with the sentiment. Pills are possibly the best form of treatment that exists (so long as there is a pill that can treat your condition, like there's no pill to treat a severed finger).

People have been taking medicines for mellenia, and pills are just medicine that has been measured and packaged in a convenient way. Its the difference between telling patients "Go find a willow tree and eat some of its bark" vs. "take two aspirin".

<comment><USER13> I don't disagree that they're the best form of treatment right now. I can see how the tone of my post definitely disregards the importance of pills right now.

I just feel like they are a disappointing "solution" to a yet fully understood problem. I'm hopeful that we (humanity) continue to invest in real cures, rather than treatments that often come with side effects.

<comment><USER14> I think you are disappointed in the practice of treating symptoms when no cure is available, rather than disliking pills as a delivery mechanism for medicine, which is how your first comment reads.

It's entirely possible that some diseases will be cured by pills, as they are just a delivery mechanism for medicine (and I would like to reiterate they are pretty great at that).

To your main point about treating symptoms vs. creating cures, yes its pretty unfortunate. But most likely, we will be finding cures for diseases one at a time, and there will always be conditions where we can only treat the symptoms.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Visualizing Modulo Bias - <AUTHOR> https://twiinsen.com/blog/visualizing-modulo-bias/ <comment><USER2> This could be really cool if this live generation of random images was merged with some of the other visualizations that exist for evaluating randomness.</comment>


Facebook security boss says its corporate network is run "like a college campus" - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/article/leaked-audio-facebook-security-boss-says-network-is-like-a-college-campus/ <comment><USER2> Really? I guess it depends on who you talk to. One of my good friends works as a consultant at Facebook, and they are always complaining to me about how sensitive Facebook is about security. Minor things are scrutinized and require threat modeling and security review before they're even considered for implementation. They say it's worse than when they worked for the DoD.

</comment><comment><USER3> This post title is really click-baity when taken out of context.</comment>


Elon: "Tesla stock is too high imo" - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256239815256797184 <comment><USER2> This submission received a fair number of upvotes in the first minutes of submission and yet never reached the front page. It's hard to believe that this isn't interesting to HN so why did it disappear?

Is it TSLA fans just flagging this so it doesn't get there? is there some other process that decides posts like this won't get to the front page?

<comment> ainar-g I think dang's comments on the previous thread explain it.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23022631](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23022631)

<comment><USER2> Thanks, that makes a fair bit of sense and it's nice to see the likely reason more clearly articulated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Right. It's time for this Twitter user to log off today.

</comment><comment><USER4> The last few tweets are nuts even for Elon Musk, I think it's likely his account has been hacked.

<comment><USER5> His tweets have been a consistent style and sentiment for the past few days.

<comment><USER4> If it turns out this tweet about Tesla share price is legitimately from Elon Musk, yikes the SEC will eat him up for sure.

<comment><USER6> he has done it before s well. SEC did not go behind him then.

<comment><USER4> From memory SEC fined Musk and Tesla and Musk tried playing hardball with them and the SEC immediately doubled the fine. They were willing to start an escalation and Musk finally backed down.

Sounded to me like he was not in a strong position last time and another blatant violation is unlikely to be an easy walk in the park.

The share price has immediately moved, this is just reckless behaviour.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Twitter exists for the rich and powerful to make complete asses of themselves.

<comment><USER8> And it's provided me with so much entertainment!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I'm finding some extreme schadenfreude in this considering in the Tesla Q1 2020 update thread posted just yesterday had people defending Musk's tweets because it didn't affect Tesla's stock and he was still earning them money.

</comment><comment><USER10> Stock is now down 7%</comment>


Remembering Lotfi Zadeh, the Inventor of Fuzzy Logic - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/remembering-lotfi-zadeh-the-inventor-of-fuzzy-logic <comment><USER2> > Still, most of Zadeh's colleagues in the West continued to express disdain. > The electrical engineer Rudolph Kálmán called fuzzy logic "a kind of > scientific permissiveness." The mathematician William Kahan dismissed it as > "the cocaine of science." But Zadeh's idea persisted. Since 1965, that > inaugural paper has accumulated nearly ninety-three thousand academic > citations, according to Google Scholar.

Reminds me of the saying that academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so low.

</comment><comment><USER3> The main problem with fuzzy logic is that there is no link from the claimed fuzzy degree-of-membership back to the real world. This means that there is no clear-cut way to build hierarchies of fuzzy logic systems, i.e., to combine fuzzy values.

In contrast, mathematical probability has a link to the real world in terms of long-run averages. The constraint that "the average or relative frequency must work out correctly" yields a calculus for combining probabilities, that we call independence, conditional probability, and Bayes' rule.

In some ways, fuzzy logic is a less powerful solution to a less-well- characterized problem.

</comment><comment><USER4> Fuzzy logic as such didn't really go anywhere, just as predicted by actual scientists and engineers. Zadeh was widely cited, but with little real-world "impact factor" outside the context of the journals themselves.

Still, I suspect that's because the core idea was ahead of its time. Fuzzy logic attacked problems that already had conventional solutions. You don't actually need fuzzy logic to minimize the time derivatives of position when starting or stopping an elevator, or to run an electric razor, or to do constraint minimization with linear programming, or in any number of other commonly-cited applications. But if you were to pin down a member of the AlphaGo team and ask him or her exactly how the machine beat Lee Sedol, the answer you'll get is going to sound a lot like "fuzzy logic," in the sense that our machines and the algorithms they implement are reaching a point where they're no longer entirely accountable to their human programmers, or understandable by them.

That makes me think that in another 50 years Zadeh's reputation may look somewhat different than it does today.

</comment><comment><USER5> I get that this is the New Yorker, but I think it's a stretch to say he invented fuzzy logic. MV-algebras had been around for decades when he published his paper, based on Lukasiewicz's work on real valued logic. They come up quite naturally in functional analysis.</comment>


A Founder's Framework for Understanding When It's Time to Move on - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewcarroll/2012/02/10/a-founders-framework-for-understanding-when-its-time-to-move-on/ <comment><USER2> Lots of double talk. Not interested in being a "product guy" in a product company? Seems like something that should have come up 5 years ago. His 3 points for leaving ('product is king' is risky, brand evolution, etc) sound like a reason for him to leave _this_ company. The only reason to try and abstract it out is to save face.

I can't think of a single time in the last 40 years when building a brand was easy. Apparel generally is crazy competitive market, and you probably won't succeed in it. You'd have to be insane to do an apparel startup, and again, I can't fathom why this thought hadn't crossed his mind in the beginning.</comment>


Electromagnetic Wave: Hacker festival on an East German fishing vessel in London - <AUTHOR> https://www.emfcamp.org/wave?hn=Hello

<comment><AUTHOR> We'll be installing a reprise of the absurd internet connection some of you may remember from Electromagnetic Field, a smaller version of the badge, and we have a starship simulator in a caravan.

Links to the network connection/badge from last year:

[http://blog.emfcamp.org/post/27143646219/emf-camp-the- site-a...](http://blog.emfcamp.org/post/27143646219/emf-camp-the-site-and- networking)

[http://blog.emfcamp.org/post/28558155390/revealing-tilda- our...](http://blog.emfcamp.org/post/28558155390/revealing-tilda-our-camp- badge)

Oh, and we still have some lightning talk slots free if anyone is interested.

</comment><comment><USER2> Oh cool, looks interesting - out of town unfortunately.

Completely OT but that's the boat they used for the disastrous Bloc weekend. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVX32i806Aw>

</comment><comment><USER3> If you ever asked "How can I trap as many hackers as possible in a confined space of unclear legal jurisdiction?"

This is your answer.

<comment><USER4> I don't expect it to actually move from the harbour, and that's definitely under the uk jurisdiction :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> No camping :( where we gonna stay?

</comment><comment><USER6> looking forward to this, emf was awesome, emw should be great.</comment>


The IBM 1401 compiles and runs FORTRAN II - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFQ3sajIdaM <comment><USER2> Love this video. I hope to become that knowledgeable some day, or at least as nostalgic.</comment>


Tell HN: You can spam every user of the frid.ge(YC S10) - <AUTHOR>

The frid.ge uses a url like http://www.frid.ge/php/profile.php?u=10613 for user profile, while there is no provision of a search box in site, you can easily find a profile by changing u=xxxx to get a profile. And you can post on their wall to , regardless of the privacy settings. Don't know if it's a bug or a feature but I found it weird. <comment><USER2> Did you talk to the owners first? Just seems weird to post it here instead of just talking to them (first). Not everyone is as bad as facebook ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> lemme write to them as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> actually it wasn't ever broken. while we are revamping our architecture the urls/params are exposed however you can only see profiles of people who are in your group (which you can do on the site directly by clicking on their names)

We restrict all access and indexing of groups to only group members. While bots or curious folks can systematically change uid numbers they won't be able to access anything in a group unless they are already members...

not a privacy bug but exposed uids which we are soon fixing

</comment><comment><USER4> Did it occur to you there might be a better venue to report this?

</comment><comment><USER5> What's the point of using frid.ge when you have fb groups?

</comment><comment><USER6> wow, has just been fixed

<comment><AUTHOR> fixed?</comment></comment>


Craigslist DNS redirected due to hacked registrar - <AUTHOR> https://lists.dns-oarc.net/pipermail/dns-operations/2014-November/012479.html

<comment><USER2> Their registrar is Network Solutions. The last update to "craigslist.org" there was at 2014-11-24T03:26:40Z, so something did happen to the records at Network Solutions recently.

<comment><USER3> Network Solutions is the worst registrar ever.

Never even search for your domain availability there, they used to temporarily squat it "for your convenience" and hold it for two weeks. We once got hit by that pretty bad.

<comment><USER4> Yeah - I'm surprised they are still in business, really. But then, I'm equally surprised that godaddy are.

<comment><USER2> Network Solutions has had a business trajectory like Myspace. Verisign bought Network Solutions in 2000 for $21 billion. Then it was sold to Pivotal Private Equity. Then it was sold to General Atlantic. Then in 2011 it was sold to Web.com, a marketing company in Jacksonville, FL for about $850 million.

Not a good history there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm Google's DNS (22.214.171.124, 188.8.131.52) and can't load images on Craigslist right now, after flushing my DNS.

<comment><USER6> Google Public DNS allows anyone to flush its caches ([https://developers.google.com/speed/public- dns/cache](https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/cache)). I've gone ahead and flushed "images.craigslist.org" which may help.

<comment><USER7> Oh, wow, that'll come in handy, thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Ah strange, I noticed cl was down earlier - I figured it was a fluke and/or something wrong with my own internet.

</comment><comment><USER9> "Craigslist DNS redirected due to hacked registrar "

Not correct. Registrar wasn't hacked their account at the particular registrar was compromised.</comment>


Ask HN: Will Yahoo BOSS New Non-Free API Hurt DuckDuckGo/meta-search-engines? - <AUTHOR>

Full Web Web Search results only $1.80  Price/1000 Queries (USD)
Limited Web Discontinued as of June 1st, 2015
https://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/#pricing <comment><AUTHOR> Link: [https://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/#pricing](https://developer.yahoo.com/boss/search/#pricing)

and [https://duck.co/help/results/sources](https://duck.co/help/results/sources) , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo)</comment>


How Your Company Can Build A Community on Twitter - <AUTHOR> http://www.twitip.com/how-your-company-can-build-a-community-on-twitter/ <comment><USER2> The ratio between amount of users in my startup and twitter mentions of it is way over 1000:1.

Twitter is _very_ far from mainstream.

The search/RSS advice is solid though - creating an RSS feed for search reults on your company name in both twitter and google is just plain common sense right there. Any ideas for other places where I need to create an RSS feed?

<comment><AUTHOR> Depends on the focus and audience, I guess.

I have a Ruby blog with about 18000 subscribers and about 400 choose to subscribe via Twitter. Hardly a great percentage, but not bad. Another has 3600 subscribers and 400ish Twitter followers too which is much stronger.

I also have a new iPhone blog with about 1500 subscribers so far, but 250 extra on Twitter - so.. a very vocal audience is there if you're willing to engage.

<comment><USER2> That's what I am talking about - some computer types might use twitter, normal people don't. Unless you are building a product for programmers twitter is too niche and all this busy activity outlined in the article will be useless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Great article. TweetDeck is certainly the best tool for managing community imo.</comment>


Open64 Compiler Version 5.0 released - <AUTHOR> http://wiki.open64.net/index.php/Open64-5.0 <comment><USER2> To those new to Open64, it is a high-quality compiler, with some good internal design and good optimization phases. SGI's former compiler team was highly respected within the compiler community.

It is unfortunate that it is not more well-known. However, it is used by a lot of compiler research groups to prototype new ideas.

</comment><comment><USER3> Indeed, does it do more than C?

C++? Objective-C? Inline Assembler?

Does it work with XCode instead of GCC or LLVM?

Can I compile an OS X app from the command-line and avoid XCode all together. use GDB to debug.

I dont know the answer to any of these and When I visit Intel, they answer all of these which makes me interested in spending money for them when maybe Open64 is a better project that I can contribute to and donate to versus big corporate Intel...

</comment><comment><USER4> Hm, never heard about Open64 before. Also, as Confusion said, from looking on their homepage, I didn't really get what it was.

Wikipedia helped a bit: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open64>

So, a C/C++ and Fortran compiler. It seems it actually doesn't do parsing itself and rather just uses some other frontend for the parsing (GCC in case of C/C++). So it seems to be just the backend including some optimizations.

I still don't really get from there how it compares to GCC or LLVM.

</comment><comment><USER5> Strange: neither <http://www.open64.net/> nor the main page of wiki.open64.net mentions anywhere that it's a C compiler (at least, that's what I infer; it's not mentioned explicitly as far as I see)

<comment><AUTHOR> I think this should be filed as a bug. The fact it's a compiler appears to be a remarkably well kept secret.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open64>

<comment><USER6> Cat [to Rimmer]: What is it?

Rimmer: It's a rent in the space-time continuum.

Cat [to Lister]: What is it?

Lister: The stasis room freezes time, you know, makes time stand still. So whenever you have a leak, it must preserve whatever it's leaked into, and it's leaked into this room.

Cat [to Rimmer]: What is it?

Rimmer: It's singularity, a point in the universe where the normal laws of space and time don't apply.

Cat [to Lister]: What is it?

Lister: It's a hole back into the past.

Cat: Oh, a magic door! Well, why didn't you say?</comment></comment></comment>


The Speed-up Loop  - <AUTHOR> http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The-Speedup-Loop.aspx <comment> daniel-cussen So you deal with your pointy-haired boss by fighting fire with fire. Morally questionable...Although for a sufficiently ignorant management, this would benefit everyone.

</comment><comment><USER2> Yeah, and I'm standing pretty close to the moon too, in relative terms.

But I'm very, very far away from it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hang on a moment, I need to pick up my jaw that dropped on the floor.</comment>


Made in Italy: Safeguarding Artisans from Counterfeiters - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/dgen/made-in-italy-8154796618e5 <comment><USER2> This is blogspam that links to a PDF behind a signup wall.</comment>


Cross-platform emoji solution - <AUTHOR> http://mwunsch.tumblr.com/post/34721548842/we-need-to-talk-about-emoji

<comment><USER2> This seems completely backwards to me:

> Do not store emoji unicodes in your database. Store the human-friendly code > and support the emoji-cheat-sheet.

I would strongly recommend doing the reverse: store and use standard Unicode throughout your application. If you want support on browsers which do not support Unicode 6 properly, use JavaScript or a web font to substitute the characters in question so you don't need to update every bit if text you've ever stored or displayed when e.g. Chrome lands emoji support in a few releases.

This approach avoids having to fix your proprietary encoding scheme later and also means that less popular user agents automatically get support as soon as they add it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree in principal, but in practice no such font is widely available. The emoji cheat sheet has emerged because a desire to use emoji exists, but both input and display are not well supported. The solution I propose, albeit imperfect, works today to display emoji input to those who would not otherwise see it.

<comment><USER2> There is at least one open font (Symbola) with emoji support and I thought Ubuntu had been adding support at some point recently.

More to the point, however, you could take the symbols you would have to create either way and package them as a web font - which would only be downloaded on devices without a better choice - or simply make your JavaScript do a simple search and replace on the Unicode character values to substitute the same HTML markup you'd need either way. Again, you could do a client side detection for this to avoid any overhead on browsers with support.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> > GitHub introduced emoji pngs throughout their application, and pull requests > are much better for it. Campfire supports emoji, and your professional > interactions are much better for it.

I think I disagree. I'm trying to think of a situation in which a pull request or a campfire chat with emoji has ever made my life better, and I just can't.

<comment><USER4> Agreed, the use of emoji or the occasional ";D" is a measure of how informal the communication is, and isn't something that'll help improve the professional tone interacting with a client. I personally don't think it has much place in business communication at all, but that's just my personal preference.

If you can't communicate successfully without emoji, then you have a large communication problem that is likely not being solved by their addition.

edit: for clarity.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why can't Chrome just fix its text rendering to use the system fonts? Emoji works natively in OS X, but not in Chrome.

<comment><USER6> seems like that issue is being worked on: <http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=62435>

Chrome has similar problems on Windows. For example, the Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols work in Firefox, Internet Explorer, and even Notepad, but not in Chrome. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Alphanumeric_Symbo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Alphanumeric_Symbols) <http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=109844>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> why oh why would anybody want to have any piece of text looking like my little's brother 1993 geocities webpage, and why do we need to clutter text encoding with this?

if you want to put pictures in your text, just put pictures in your text. html has allowed you to do this since its inception.

</comment><comment><USER8> Any chance Apple, Github, or Campfire have their emoji png icons available for download? (with a good license?) If not, what would be a nice set of emoji png's I can use for my website?

<comment><USER9> You will most likely find all the emoji you'll ever need or want at: <http://www.emoji-cheat-sheet.com/>

<comment><USER10> [https://github.com/arvida/emoji-cheat- sheet.com/blob/master/...](https://github.com/arvida/emoji-cheat- sheet.com/blob/master/LICENSE) doesn't look good. All rights reserved is not an open license at all and makes me question the legality of that repository.

<comment><USER11> Github also has a repository for their icons at <https://github.com/github/gemoji/> They have the same licence.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> i didn't know there was a cross-platform emoji problem</comment>


The ProtonMail Android app is now open source - <AUTHOR> https://protonmail.com/blog/android-open-source/ <comment><USER2> ProtonMail seems to be on a roll this month. They both released Bridge for Linux [1] and open sourced Bridge [2].

[1] [https://protonmail.com/blog/proton-bridge-linux- launch/](https://protonmail.com/blog/proton-bridge-linux-launch/)

[2] [https://protonmail.com/blog/bridge-open- source/](https://protonmail.com/blog/bridge-open-source/)

<comment><USER3> Oh, bad timing. Just a few months ago I was on the fence about Protonmail vs Fastmail (vs all others) and ended jumping to Fastmail: the privacy pro didn't seem to outweigh the cons. Now with open sourcing stuff the pros do get somewhat better... But reevaluating and switching would be troublesome.... Maybe in a few years I'll revisit it :)

<comment><USER4> The pricing is very different. Fastmail allows unlimited domains where proton is almost double the cost for two.

<comment><USER5> Yeah protonmail charging for the marginally free stuff, like domains and aliases is very disappointing. I make a new email for every account, in the form of firstname.lastname@example.com do I have to pay proton mail $24/month for that privilege?

Also not providing 20GB space as a default paid option in this day in age of $5/month/TB is also very disappointing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> First issue on the repository: [Asking for F-Droid support][1]

[1]: [https://github.com/ProtonMail/proton-mail- android/issues/1](https://github.com/ProtonMail/proton-mail-android/issues/1)

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm happy to see ProtonMail getting exposure. I moved over from gmail about a year ago, and have been quite pleased with their service.

Only downside I've seen is that there isn't a clear way to increase available data storage, independent of other billable line items (like number of users etc).

Other items on my wish list would be more customizable email filtering, I'd love to be able to create filters such as 'is this from [internet provider] and does it contain the word bill? -> inbox, else spam'

<comment><USER8> Both those things you mention as wanting exist already.

For data storage independent billing, go to Settings -> Dashboard. On Professional tier and above the data storage is a dropdown where you can increase the amount required.

For email filtering go to Settings -> Filters and create as many conditions as you want on a filter.

<comment><USER7> Interesting, I pay for the professional tier, and do not see a separate dropdown available for storage. The professional plan lists 5gb/user (at a rate of about $5/month), and the only way to scale up storage on my dashboard page is to provision more users (up to 100, so max of 500gb).

It's a non-issue now, but yeah I'd prefer to interact with my plan the way that you describe and be able to scale storage independently (and ideally at a cheaper rate).

Regarding filters, that's great! I didn't see that before and will likely utilize it heavily now that I know it exists.

<comment><USER8> Ah I see, yeah the Plus plan lets you choose the storage. Professional works differently for some reason. I bet if you contacted their support they'd consider changing it though as it doesn't quite make sense as-is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Bitwarden is another example of a company that proves you can make good profit as an open source SaaS.

</comment><comment><USER10> Previous discussions about PM

2018 - Ask HN: How secure is Protonmail really? [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18101090](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18101090)

2019 - Ask HN: FastMail vs. ProtonMail? [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19372882](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19372882)

How secure would it be to use PM if the following conditions were met?

\- you only used one of the open-source native PM apps

\- you only emailed other PM users

\- someone you trust audited the PM source code for the native apps

\- you installed from F-Droid

<comment><USER11> \- your messages always processed by proprietary/closed source server

So, it just like Telegram (or any other proprietary cloud/VPN/proxy service) - you really don't know what has happen on server side.

<comment><USER12> True, but if you _do_ audit the client software, you can verify:

* Your e2e encryption key never gets sent to the server.

* Data is actually strongly encrypted using that key before leaving the client.

Then isn't that sufficient to prove that the server _can 't_ do anything nefarious, even if it wanted to?

<comment><USER11> > _Data is actually strongly encrypted using that key before leaving the > client._

Except "strongly encrypted message" you should send some extra info for server. And I'm not sure how those two types of info separated in Proton's communication protocol, so binary diff between those "parts" could be a key to select decrypt method.

<comment><USER13> Their key encryption is fairly safe, if you use one-password mode, they could intercept your password from the webinterface if they wanted, but the password exchange is solid and doesn't reveal the password while still allowing to decrypt the key.

Two password mode is technically more secure since even if the authentication exchange is cracked, the decryption key doesn't touch anything the server can see, it's locally decrypted.

There isn't any meaningful diff you could make.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Cool. But neither the audit nor the repository explains if it's possible to create the APK in a reproducible way. Google Play distributed APKs contain their signatures, so in theory it wouldn't be possible to 1:1 reproduce the distributed ones.

However for F-droid this would allow them to sign their own APKs and provide some additional security guarantees in their supply chain.

Also a bit concerning that there is no tags yet in the repository.

<comment><USER15> >Google Play distributed APKs contain their signatures

[https://support.google.com/googleplay/android- developer/answ...](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android- developer/answer/7384423?hl=en)

>Note: Using app signing by Google Play is optional. You can still upload an APK and manage your own keys instead of using an app bundle

<comment><USER14> That is not _really_ the point. The signatures are embedded in the APK. Repacking it to remove, or add valid signatures, would be a problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This was a showstopper for me back when I decided to go with posteo.net instead. Well, better late than never, hopefully their service will become useful for more people.

</comment><comment><USER17> I hope the open sourcing helps accelerate the pace of development.

Tangentially, my needs are very minimal and I have a couple of ProtonMail accounts on the free tier that don't get much mail (the size of the mailboxes put together would be 5MB or so). I also aggressively delete unnecessary emails quickly and empty the trash. I'm waiting for multiple account support in the official mobile client for users on the free tier (this was promised quite sometime ago).

</comment><comment><USER18> Good to see that they are on a positive stream with their commitment to open sourcing their apps.

Really looking forward to when Proton has near parity with the GSuite basics.

</comment><comment><USER19> I wonder if it's possible to migrate my Gmail-powered email address while keeping my family's inboxes there. I'm interested in joining Protonmail but I can't afford to pay for everyone, nor will they understand my wish to move away from Google.

I guess it can't be done as it's at the domain level, am I right?

<comment><USER20> does everyone in your family currently have the email name they want or did they have to compromise by putting numbers at the end or use similar tricks? ...because theres probably a better chance of getting the name they want with ProtonMail.

the shorter firstname.lastname@example.com email address is a nice feature to have as well

<comment><USER19> The problem resides in the fact that I'm currently using G-Suite, so yeah everyone has the email they want and I'm using my own domain.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I switched this month from Google services to alternatives and therefore to PMs paid plan. I'm very happy so far with the Android and web app.

<comment><USER22> What is the android app? Is it an apk from outside the play store?

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> ProtonMail/VPN are great products, but after the Crypto AG fiasco I suspect it is another CIA front. We'll find out in 50 years.

<comment><USER24> I missed this. What's the fiasco?

<comment><USER23> "Crypto AG was a Swiss company specialising in communications and information security. It was secretly jointly owned by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1970 until about 1993, with the CIA continuing as sole owner until about 2018.[1] With headquarters in Steinhausen, the company was a long-established manufacturer of encryption machines and a wide variety of cipher devices."

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

Basically they were world's leading manufacturer of encrypted phones & fax machines for military use and it was revealed that they were controlled by German and US intelligence all along.

My suspicion for ProtonMail is only that it's too good to be true: A small amount per month to solve all my privacy/confidentiality needs w/o really inconveniencing me? I'm in!

<comment><USER12> At least now that all PM's non-beta apps are open source, you (or someone) can audit all their client-side apps to ensure that it doesn't matter if the sever is trying to do something nefarious. As long as your encryption key and plaintext mail never leaves the client, and the encryption being used is sound, you should be safe.

Now, if it's run by the CIA/NSA/whatever, and they have found vulnerabilities in state-of-the-art encryption algorithms that we don't know about, you're hosed. But we're still hosed even if they aren't running the mail server (that just makes it easier for them to get hold of the data), so I'm not sure that's a threat model the average person could reasonably protect against anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Nice! So when can I install this and the ProtonVPN app on F-Droid? :-)

<comment><USER26> After they submit their code to the F-Droid.org team that audits and readies it for their build server queue.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> been a user for a couple years. open source everything, maybe the community can help fix their basic bugs like not being able to import their VCF exported contacts into thunderbird.

</comment><comment><USER28> This is great to see, well done ProtonMail. I asked Fastmail if they would open source their email app on Android but was told no.

> the probability of the app to be opensourced is very unlikely

</comment><comment><USER29> Is there a way to centralize all my emails in protonmail?

Can't see an option to enter my pop3/smtp server. Or I'm blind?

<comment> kube-system ProtonMail doesn't really try to be general-purpose email client. You can either use the bridge with an email client of your choice, or you can forward your mail.

<comment><USER30> Not really the email client of your choice. In Mac OS, you can do Apple Mail and Thunderbird well, but if you try something like Airmail, it crashes the app (or other unexpected behavior). Not exactly 100% IMAP compliant for what I can tell.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> ProtonMail will become an extremely important company in the next decade. Their one risk is being bought.

</comment><comment><USER32> Great to see this! On another note: there was a six month gap (unless I'm mistaken) between the iOS version being open sourced, and this Android release. I am a bit surprised that iOS got open sourced first. Is this because it did not receive the same security audit that presumably held up the release of the Android source?

</comment><comment><USER33> > Their audit found that our app has no outstanding vulnerabilities.

Either I'm misunderstanding what they mean by "outstanding" or this is a very bold claim. Shouldn't they be saying something like "Their audit found no vulnerabilities in our app."

<comment><USER34> I think it means that they resolved any found vulnerabilities before the audit was published. Therefore none of the found vulnerabilities were _outstanding_ when they published it. In this case _outstanding_ means that the auditors have not yet verified a fix.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> It's a bummer protonmail doesn't support JMAP.

<comment><USER36> Why would they? AFAIK they don't support IMAP/SMTP either, not without that client-side "bridge" anyway.

<comment><AUTHOR> JMAP support by the ProtonMail Bridge would be nice though.

<comment><USER37> If you just want a simple way to access your mail over HTTP (without the need for standards) you could probably also run imap-api[1] pointed at the Bridge. Although admittedly it does feel a bit hacky.

Or maybe also getmail or fetchmail which will download your mail over IMAP and put it in the maildir format as files.

[1] [https://github.com/andris9/imapapi](https://github.com/andris9/imapapi)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> This is very nice!

</comment><comment><USER39> Marketing move. They've been on a downfall due to relations to Tesonet. Now started open sourcing their apps to restore reputation.

<comment><USER24> I missed this. What's the deal here?

<comment><USER40> Apparently an unfounded smear campaign against ProtonMail:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/8ww4h2/protonvpn...](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/8ww4h2/protonvpn_and_tesonet/)

<comment><USER24> I see. Thanks for the reply. The official ProtonMail response seems legit enough.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ignite RailsConf Speakers Announced - <AUTHOR> http://igniterailsconf.com/

<comment><USER2> We tried to go for a broad mix of tech, business, and philosophical/fun talks. Hope everyone from HN who's going to be in Baltimore that night comes out!</comment>


Uber wants to redefine employment, labor groups are fighting back - <AUTHOR> https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-04-08/labor-groups-ask-congress-to-reject-uber-ceo-plea <comment><USER2> There are 2 big problems with on-demand/ gig employment.

#1 Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits with employment is broken. It makes it difficult for people to work small jobs or switch jobs. In order for gig jobs to be viable, people need to be able to get survive a broken foot without going bankrupt.

#2 Gig-style businesses tend to vastly underpay employees. The early claims that Uber drivers were averaging $15-20/ hour or more were completely fabricated. The reality is most gig jobs require people use their own vehicles and don't pay them for inevitable downtime which means they are vastly underpaid. Minimum wage for gig workers should include payment for expenses (including a reasonable $0.50+ / mile for travel) and downtime between gigs.

If those things are fixed, then suddenly gig work is amazing, but that's a pretty big ask.

<comment><USER3> > Our current system of coupling healthcare and other life essential benefits > with employment is broken.

Is it not possible to purchase your own healthcare independently of an employer? And opt-out of employer healthcare? Or are only employers allowed to insure you?

If it's a matter of scale could a buyer's union buy it bulk like an employer but not linked to your employment?

<comment><USER4> Buying healthcare as an individual is very expensive, since you're not buying in bulk. Some larger unions do have healthcare for members, but it's more of a bargaining chip to keep workers paying dues.

<comment><USER5> > Buying healthcare as an individual is very expensive, since you're not > buying in bulk

This is a common refrain, but it's actually not true. Individual plans operate as a giant "group" with other individuals, and the size of that group is often larger than most employer groups.

There are a host of reasons why healthcare is expensive in the US, and the "bulk purchasing" is not really one of them.

Source: I work in health insurance.

<comment><USER6> What we really need now to level is to make individual health insurance effectively a pre-income-tax item like it is when you get it via employment.

<comment><USER5> > What we really need now to level is to make individual health insurance > effectively a pre-income-tax item like it is when you get it via employment.

The ICHRA[1], which came into effect on January 2020 is an interesting step in this direction. It allows employers to provide a pre-tax cash monthly allowance to buy health insurance on the individual market _in lieu of_ the monthly premiums they would pay anyway as part of the employer mandate to provide group health insurance directly.

There's even a YC company that offers ICHRA functionality for employers[2].

[1] [https://ichra.com/](https://ichra.com/)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527102](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22527102)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like gig work. I like the freedom. We need fewer restrictions not more.

Forcing businesses to hire only full-time workers reduces the number of jobs. They won't hire someone unless there's 2000 hours of work to fill up a year.

<comment><USER8> > I like the freedom.

You do you, but I just wanted to provide an alternative view: that freedom might be great when you're young and equally free, but IMHO it doesn't work as well when you're 40 years old trying to ensure stable income to support your family

<comment><USER9> That's less about uber or employment status and more about "disruption" in general.

Rapid innovation is great for advancing the state of the art but terrible for all the people in society who had made a life around doing work for a decade or two that is suddenly no longer a viable career.

We (as a civilization) need to take care of the people who aren't the ones making the new fortunes.

<comment><USER10> > We (as a civilization) need to take care of the people who aren't the ones > making the new fortunes.

OK, outsider here. But it's my impression that people "making the new fortunes" are a much smaller subset of the startup economy than many think. It's arguably similar to the common US middle class belief in being temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I think there are a lot of people who want to work for services like Uber. Defacto banning them like many seem to want to is counterproductive and somewhat luddite-esque. How to do it without hurting other employment is complex. But banning it isn't an answer, it's just ducking the question...

</comment><comment><USER12> There is room for something between the traditional 1099 and W2 categories.

<comment><USER2> Yes. Though I would prefer it's not designed by people who have a history of exploiting people who perform the services they sell.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Governments have created the arbitrary bipartite distinction between employees and contractors. They need to create a third category for gig workers that accommodates the flexibility that these workers desire while also giving them the labor protections they need in the asymmetric power relationship with their employer.

<comment><USER14> I don't understand the downvotes. Perhaps there's added complexity in having these two distinct contracts anyways? I think there's an argument to be make for salary augmentation via commissions. This is at least more secure and rewards demand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I like to use comparison with labor standards in other economies.

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-uber-ruling-puts-gig- wor...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-uber-ruling-puts-gig-workers- rights-in-focus-11583353513) is similar to this, since it involves employment status.

There are various restrictions imposed on ride-sharing companies across the globe.

Not necessarily labor, but related to medallions / licensure to drive taxis.

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

<comment><USER16> > Not necessarily labor

You can say that again. The result of the medallion systems was that often taxi drivers had to _pay to work_ , by renting a medallion from wealthy owners. Even in countries where the owner of the medallion couldn't rent it, they were sold at very high prices when the owner retired, making it into a middle-class privilege.

<comment><USER15> I appreciate your concerns and I think you're doing the right thing!

May I ask which countries you're referring to?

In USA, I know immigrants who are awarded medallions via lottery and who take a loan and pay off their medallion - like an investment. It potentially helps them break into the middle class.

The medallion ended up becoming an entity that was stable that the freelance economy would peg to _something_. Not saying it was perfect, but it prevented the system from being flooded with drivers.

NYC medallions used to be $1m in 2013. They're less the $200k these days. There's consequences to people who were just starting out, who saved for medallions, who now have their investment paid for over decades lost.

Working and earning something isn't privilege to me, that's gumption. Whenever I see that word online very rarely does it take into account hard work. 20 or 30 years driving 70+ hours a week? And they're an immigrant just trying to live the American dream?

Let them have happiness in life. And we should be celebrating their work and effort. They are absolute heroes for sticking to something so persistently.

Let's talk about fairness for new drivers. Doesn't necessarily have to be at the expense of others!

<comment><USER16> > NYC medallions used to be $1m in 2013.

Exactly. Which is why most of them are owned by companies (almost 1/3 by a single one: Marblegate Asset Management), not by plucky immigrants pulling themselves by their bootstraps. Those are the ones renting the medallions and not saving anything close to $1M even in 20 years. The average income of a NYC taxi driver in '93 (so long before Uber and such changed the market) was $19k/year!

Sure, in some markets the city occasionally issued some medallions for lower prices, but how is a lottery earning something through gumption? It's literally blind luck!

> 20 or 30 years driving 70+ hours a week? And they're an immigrant just > trying to live the American dream?

How can we be criticizing Uber for exploiting their workers, while promoting working 70+ hours a week? How is that not exploitative?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Piece work bad.

</comment><comment><USER18> Uber is arguing that there are two tiers of workers, with disparate levels of labor protections, and that there should be a third tier in the middle.

Let's say that employees are protected at Tier 1 and independent contractors are protected at Tier 3. Uber proposed a new category of worker with protections at Tier 2, and it claims its workers fit in that category.

I'm fine with the idea of a Tier 2, but I don't think Uber's workers fit in this category.

Uber claims that there are several things that set its workers apart from employees, but the chief things are the ability to set their own schedules and the ability to work for competing companies.

As to the scheduling, there are lots of employees out there who get to set/request their own schedules; it's just that with ride-sharing gigs, it happens at a more granular level. But while they are on the clock, they have very little control over how they get the job done, which is a key differentiator between employees and ICs.

As to working for competing companies, there are lots of employees out there who work more than one job; it's just that with ride-sharing gigs, it happens at a more granular level. But it's not as if any driver is working for Uber and Lyft _simultaneously_. They don't get paid by both platforms for the same fare. They can be on-call with both platforms at once, but they're only ever getting paid for one at a time. They're just going from one part-time job to another in more rapid intervals than in traditional part-time jobs.

In both cases, the distinction seems more like one of degree than of kind.

What I'd like to see is the creation of a Tier 2, and then phasing out Tier 3, so that independent contractors get Tier 2 labor protections. But Uber/Lyft's workers should be Tier 1 from the start, because they're employees.</comment>


Low-Code Development vs. Traditional Coding: What's the Difference? - <AUTHOR> https://blog.objectivity.co.uk/low-code-traditional-development/ <comment><USER2> I still have trouble being convinced that low-code solutions will ever be able to overtake the status quo of writing code... "with programming languages." I'm sure I'm biased as a software engineer whose job is largely doing what this argues can be abstracted away. But I feel like at any sort of scale, you'll need to a level of customization and granularity that low-code solutions can't provide.

In my opinion, this is why Squarespace is great for building proof-of-concept splash pages, or e-commerce shops or restaurants - but you don't see any web- app-based company with any sort of scale using a vanilla Squarespace site.

If someone has a differing opinion, I'd love to hear it because maybe I'm missing something - because to me, this is akin to asking hedge funds to just use Robinhood for all their trading.</comment>


Georgia election server showed signs of tampering - <AUTHOR> https://apnews.com/39dad9d39a7533efe06e0774615a6d05 <comment><USER2> This isn't at all surprising, sadly. The actions of the state regarding this server have been completely fishy from the start.

It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the votes.</comment>