Japan is Collapsing - <AUTHOR> http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2012/11/japan-is-collapsing.html

<comment> hacker-3 As far as i know japanese governemnt debt is bought by japanese savers. So the balance is off kilter sure, but it's not "collapsing". So is this just another internet libertarian ideological warrior anecdote?

<comment><USER2> Japan is certainly having problems, but I would treat this article with a grain of salt.

The author comes off as yet another entitled-yet-clueless gaijin-inna-bubble. The people he talked to are essentially the "parasite class", who spend lots of money on things like BMWs and aping American lifestyles; they're not representative of most Japanese.

[A blog called "modernmarketingjapan" doesn't exactly inspire confidence either...]

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> _I am angry at the stupid Japanese government for taking our tax money and bailing out these zombie banks and keeping the status quo intact at the expense of the people and our children's future._

Hmm, that sure sounds familiar...

<comment><USER4> democracy is failing.

people realised they can elect those who give them the most, so the politicians promise the world and give debt. not much longer until it all implodes.

(inspired by some guy in the 19th century who studied democracy since the greeks - i don't have time to look for it - he said it takes about 200 years for democracy to implode)

<comment><AUTHOR> There is also, "Democracy", by Hans Hoppe. It discuses the economics of democracy, monoarchy, and a non-state system called, "private law society".

<comment><USER5> can you give a brief summary of what the conclusions are?

<comment><AUTHOR> You can read the conclusions at Amazon: [http://www.amazon.com/Democracy- Economics-Politics-Monarchy-...](http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-Economics- Politics-Monarchy-Natural/dp/0765808684)

The full intro. chapter is available free: <http://mises.org/hoppeintro.asp></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Pow 0.3.0 released (Zero-config Rack server for OS X) - <AUTHOR> http://pow.cx/#0.3.0

<comment><AUTHOR> New in this version: improved installation and uninstallation scripts, better error pages when things go wrong, support for default virtual hosts, and support for Rack application reloading with tmp/always_restart.txt. See the full changelog here: <http://pow.cx/manual#section_6>

This version is also compatible with Showoff (<http://showoff.io/>): <http://pow.cx/manual#section_4>

Install or upgrade: curl get.pow.cx | sh

And let's just go ahead and get this out of the way now... Pow 0.3.0 is fully tinfoil-hat compliant. If you are averse to installing things the easy way using curl, feel free to build Node yourself and install Pow with npm: [https://github.com/37signals/pow/wiki/Installation#installin...](https://github.com/37signals/pow/wiki/Installation#installing_from_source)

<comment><USER2> Congrats on this release, Sam. Pow just keeps getting better!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Been using this for a bunch of Rails 2 apps and its ease of use is fantastic.

The always_reload feature is even better ... it means I can lose the sinatra_reloader gem. thats huge.

Awesome job guys!

</comment><comment><USER4> Does it support JRuby yet?

<comment><AUTHOR> Nope. Maybe once JRuby supports select() properly.</comment></comment>


How to clean your Apple Card - <AUTHOR> https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210399 <comment><USER2> I have been using Apple Card now for about two weeks and I have to say the physical card is nothing short of marketing genius by Apple.

The 2% unlimited cash back now has me using Apple Pay everywhere. At places that don't have it, I have to pull out the titanium card. Almost every place I go to people ask what is this card? Am I an Apple employee? Keep in mind, most places have never seen a titanium card before because they are typically given to extremely high net work individuals by AMEX and Visa.

After explaining what the card is. They invariably ask what is the benefit of the card. Being a nice guy, I explain them the benefits of the card.

The card is a conversation starter. It serves as an advertisement for people to sign up and it also serves as a way to get the establishment that you used the card to start accepting NFC payments.

None of this would be possible if the card was a crappy plastic material.

<comment><USER3> Just curious, why did you got this card? There are tons of Chase and other cards with much better cashback and terms. Just wondering what advantage did you saw in this card.

<comment><USER2> I have looked at many cards. But most of them have annual fees, have categories that don't give the same percentage cash back on certain purchases, or they have limits.

For example, most cards have a 2% cash back limit up to $6,000 dollars. There is the Citi Double cash card that does have unlimited but really it is 1.98 percent because you get 1% on every dollar spent and 1% on every dollar paid. However, if you apply it to your statement you have not paid the balance so it really is a bit lower than 2%. Not to mention, you need at least 25 dollars in cash back before you can use it and it expires.

Apple gives the cash back the next day. Which is insane. While Citi takes 1.5 months to give it to you. It is easy to forget about it and one of the reasons why so many people forget and it expires out.

The only exception is travel cards. If you travel a lot it might make sense to get one of those cards for the perks because your usage will offset the annual fee. In that department, Apple does provide no foreign transactions fees and I think that is good enough for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Maybe it's their way of celebrating 100 years of the Bauhaus?

To me, the weirdest thing is seeing a customer service webpage for a credit card in the design language and rhetoric of computer hardware support.

It somehow feels similar to the recently discussed WeWork criticism of them not actually being a tech company, yet masquerading as one through design.

</comment><comment><USER4> If a card made of an unusual material is enough to garner adoption, consider me impressed and maybe not of the highest of business acumen skills.

<comment><USER5> It has been a huge part of the sell here for Monzo [0] with a bright coral coloured card and Revolut [1] with black, pink and metal cards. It works!

[0] [https://monzo.com/fullmonzo/](https://monzo.com/fullmonzo/) [1] [https://www.revolut.com/introducing-revolut- metal](https://www.revolut.com/introducing-revolut-metal)

Edited to link to revolut metal including apple style video of production, featuring Jony Ive sound-a-like

<comment><USER4> Flashy cars and houses in nice neighborhoods make for nice status symbols. Who sees your credit card, beyond you and your server, cashier, etc?

<comment><USER6> I don't agree with it but people you go out with diner and pay for? There are plenty of times people see my card outside the server/cashier.

<comment><USER7> But who cares what type of card do you have? Or why do you care what server/cashier thinks about your status?

If you happen to have a real premium card, then probably people around you already know your status. They don't need to look at your credit card.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I don't remember ever cleaning my credit cards!

<comment><USER8> Exactly, just report it as lost and get a new one!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think there should have been no physical Apple Card. The design is very Apple, and surely looks and feels great. But it risks upstaging the big idea of payment flow modernization.

To stretch a bit: the iMac asserted that you don't need all those ports, and the Apple Card should assert you don't need that piece of plastic - or laser- etched titanium - in your wallet.

<comment><USER10> I think the physical card is (in part) an attempt to stimulate digital usage (especially in North America where adoption of Apple Pay is pretty low compared to other places like Europe). Give people something they're familiar with (a physical card), reward them with cashback (which they will likely use digitally), and eventually wean them off the physical card completely.

<comment><USER11> I'm surprised to hear that Apple Pay has higher adoption in Europe, given that the iPhone has lower penetration there.

<comment><USER12> iPhone adaption might be lower, but contactless adaption is through the roof. I can't remember the last shop I was at which didn't accept contactless. Even vendors at farmers markets accept contactless these days.

So since most banks support Apple Pay (and Google Pay), pretty much everybody who is comfortable with technology uses it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It will be absolutely hilarious (yet somewhat plausible) when people start making cases / skins for these cards.

<comment><USER14> "Cases" for credit cards are pretty common here in Europe (something like this: [https://www.kartyvbezpeci.cz/174-thickbox_default/pouzdro- na...](https://www.kartyvbezpeci.cz/174-thickbox_default/pouzdro-na-kreditni- karty-modre-kb-117.jpg))

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Don't get me wrong, I love Apple. This is a company that popularized GUIs, gave us hyperCard, gave us the iPod and the iPhone and now it's selling us a credit card? Really? Am I missing something? This is innovation and I'm just too old and nostalgic recognizing it as such? Help an old geezer out here.

<comment><USER3> The Apple credit card is simply an incentive to use Apple Pay. You can think of this card as Trojan horse.

Think about it: Why do you need any credit card at all? You have your phone, you can flash whatever bardcode/QR code auto generated, verified with your FaceID/TouchID. It would be ton more secure, prevent a lot of fraud and can do sophisticated things like automatic accounting, receipt keeping etc. BUT at the same time, it would dissolve the monopoly of 3 companies who are in the business of credit cards because virtually anyone can start mobile payment business this as long as POS systems were enabled for it. The widely deployed POS systems control which system of payment would become the norm. In countries where credit cards weren't the norms, mobile payments are the norms now. Other countries are left behind this revolution.

<comment><USER4> > Think about it: Why do you need any credit card at all? You have your phone,

One's phone could be dead, or near 0-percent battery. The trend is for people to forego annual upgrades (phone lifespans are increasing), but those phones are also not getting maintenance -- so the battery performance is degraded. A phone with a degraded battery might barely pull through a day, if you remember to charge it the previous evening.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> No leather wallets, how did they not test this? You'd think their coating process would protect against this.

<comment><USER17> Lots of leather wallets will discolor basically anything. I get little streaks on all my cards. It probably can get scrubbed off my "platinum" cards somehow but sure doesn't come off with casual cleaning.

<comment><USER18> Well, making the darn thing white certainly doesn't help!

Clearly they didn't learn much from all those black scuffed dirty white MacBook charging cables...

> If your titanium Apple Card comes into contact with hard surfaces or > materials, it's possible that the coating can be damaged.

This seems all but a guarantee!

This thing will be handled by dirty hands, slid in and out of machines, put into those folder things at restaurants (I've spilled salsa and other things on those more than once), and more.

I have a few metal cards... They're all dark colors, and I've never once had to think about how to keep them clean looking.

<comment><USER19> All the more reason to use the cardless apple pay then, eh? Hmm..

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball. [https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml](https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml)

</comment><comment><USER21> Really nothing surprising here. I think this is more about being able to point a finger and say, "we told you how to take care of it," when people inevitably ruin the thing.

</comment><comment><USER22> There is irony Apple has a physical card used as a token to transfer financial and transaction information.

Then again... Wallet needs an iPhone to work ;)</comment>


The Neo4j REST API. My notebook. - <AUTHOR> http://plindenbaum.blogspot.com/2011/07/neo4j-rest-api-my-notebook.html

<comment><USER2> In addition to the Neo4j REST server, you can also connect to Neo4j through Rexster ([http://neo4j-user-list.438527.n3.nabble.com/Neo-Rexster- bein...](http://neo4j-user-list.438527.n3.nabble.com/Neo-Rexster-being-ready- to-test-td792156.html)), an open-source REST server optimized for recommendations and paging (binary bindings are also in the works).

Rexster is part of the TinkerPop stack (<http://www.tinkerpop.com/>). TinkerPop is a developer group founded by Marko Rodriguez and Peter Neubauer, and Peter is also a founder and the COO of Neo4j.

Here's the basic Rexster API (<https://github.com/tinkerpop/rexster/wiki/Basic-REST-API>). In addition, Rexster has tight integration with Gremlin (<https://github.com/tinkerpop/gremlin/wiki>), the graph query language, which also came out of the TinkerPop group.

Gremlin makes traversals easy and allows you to do stuff like calculate PageRank in 2 lines. Here's a short screencast that will give you a flavor for what you can do with Gremlin (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wpTtEBK4-E_>).

There is a Python persistence framework in the works called Bulbs that connects to Neo4j through Rexster, and there is also a Web toolkit called Bulbflow (<http://bulbflow.com>) that is based on Bulbs and Flask. Both are due to be released next week.

If you are interested in the emerging graph landscape, I encourage you to join the discussions going on in the Gremlin User group (<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/gremlin-users>) -- it's not just for Gremlin stuff (anything graph-related goes).

</comment><comment><USER3> A Neo4j REST API seems strange to me. I could see, as it evolves, it being pretty useful for some use cases. Especially with these maturing graph query languages.

However, it just seems counter productive in light of the many lost benefits of the embedded approach. I quite like the software transactional domain objects wrapped around nodes and relationships.

I think it would make more sense to develop a distinct distributed graph database, rather than force Neo4j to support both embedded and server use cases.

<comment><USER2> Even though it's over REST, you can still have "transactional domain objects wrapped around nodes and relationships." Neo4j is working on providing RESTful transactions for the Neo4j REST server ([http://www.mail- firstname.lastname@example.com/msg08253.ht...](http://www.mail- email@example.com/msg08253.html)), and you can already do this with Rexster.

Here's a Bulbs (Python) example of what a domain object looks like wrapped around a node:

      from bulbs.model import  Node, Relationship
      from bulbs.datatype import Property, Integer, String

      class Person(Node):

          element_type = "person"

          name = Property(String, nullable=False)
          age  = Property(Integer)

      james = Person(name="James", age=34)
      julie = Person(name="Julie", age=28)

      Relationship.create(james,"knows",julie)

As I said in another thread, Bulbs connects to Neo4j through the Rexster REST server, and binary bindings are in the works.

But with Bulbs and Rexster you are not limited to just Neo4j -- you can connect to any Blueprints-enabled graph database (<https://github.com/tinkerpop/blueprints/wiki/>). In addition to Neo4j, this also includes TinkerGraph, Dex, OrientDB, OpenRDF Sail, and others. InfiniteGraph (<http://www.infinitegraph.com/>) has a Blueprints implementation under development (see [http://blog.infinitegraph.com/2011/02/04/infinitegraph- annou...](http://blog.infinitegraph.com/2011/02/04/infinitegraph-announces- release-1-1-with-new-indexing-options-and-improved-performance/))

<comment><USER3> With an embedded graph database, you can treat your data as if it were all in memory. If things are not in memory, they will be loaded from disk on demand, and then kept in a cache, just like virtual memory. This enables you to create persistent representations of real data structures, such as linked lists, trees, etc. You can traverse over the data, executing code in a full programming language, with your real domain model objects.

You simply can't work the same way once network latency is involved. This is doubly true when you get automatic generated queries, such as with an Active Record pattern.

Let's say that you want to traverse a linked list and apply a complex logical filter dependent on related data. You have to...

(A) Craft a very precise query -- This can be difficult if the query depends on business rules which you'd need to implement in both your main language and in your query language.

(B) Query for too much and throw away what you don't want -- In the SQL world, this is the 'OMG JOIN EVERYTHING' approach. It can work when datasets are small and infrequent, but does not scale well at all. It also requires you to do extra work upfront of declaring all the information you might possibly ever need in a particular situation.

(C) Query for too little and issue additional queries as you realize you need more info -- This is sort of the default for rich client libraries. Naive ORMs routinely produce N+1 nightmare perf bugs in many web applications.

With an embedded graph database, you just do (A) in your standard programming language, using your real domain models, without duplicating any effort, using algorithms taught to freshman year college students in their first C++ class. And everything just kinda works.

<comment><USER2> If you don't require a server environment, having direct access to data that resides in memory or on your local machine will obviously be faster. But, whether this is an option depends on your use case -- if Neo4j is backing your load-balanced Web servers, this isn't really an option, but you could create a local mirror of the database for running queries (similar to OLTP vs OLAP systems).

Gremlin is really just Groovy with domain-specific constructs. You can write multi-line Gremlin/Groovy scripts that apply complex filters and send them to the external server. You can also use any JVM langauge to create the equivalent of stored procedures on the server to pull data from multiple sources.

Another approach would be to query the external server and use TinkerGraph to keep a local in-memory cache, lazy-loading it as needed.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


I'm not young enough to know everything - <AUTHOR> http://weblog.raganwald.com/2005/10/im-not-young-enough-to-know-everything.html

<comment><USER2> I'm 39, and I understand where the "unconscious incompetence" comes from. There's a constant stream of fads that claim to be something new. You look at each one and find it's something you knew already. Repeat this for decades and you become conditioned to expect that there's nothing significant coming, ever.

It helps to be paranoid. If you constantly expect that the next big thing really _will_ change the game and make your accumulated knowledge obsolete, then you keep your guard up. I don't have any tips for cultivating paranoia.

<comment><USER3> I keep a couple scorpions loose in my house. Getting ready for work in the morning is always a thrill.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's strange - I have the same attitude to new ideas now at 42 (with a wife and young child) that I did in my early 20s. If anything, I'm more open now to transformative ideas then I was then. I've started a startup :) I think maybe the "advantage" I have now is a career in another field, so that the programming world is to me now as it would be to someone in their early 20s.

As far as the stamina argument, as a building architect, I have evolved a large ability for extreme focus and no sleep. Multiple all-nighters are not uncommon on project designs that inspire me, but in terms of sheer productivity, I think all-nighters are not a good plan unless you are riding a wave of energy and creativity, in which case to stop would be foolish.

On the LISP argument... I'm having alot of fun programming with it, and it's doing everything we could possibly want, so I don't see a need to change except for the herd instinct argument. And whats really nice, the further we evolve our application (now well over 26K lines), the easier it is to change the app and add features. :)

</comment><comment><USER5> I liked this quote:

When you're 22 ... You're "consciously incompetent." ... [But at 42,] You're at incredible risk of thinking you know things when ... You don't know, but you don't know you don't know.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've noticed 2 kinds of people on this forum. Those who want to learn and share and those who want to show everyone how much they know. I've also noticed there are "younger" and "older" members. I suspect that there is very little correlation between age and "know-it-allness". In fact, there is probably a "johari window" to be found here, the 4 types:

\- Younger/Share & Learn: Go Getters

\- Younger/Know-It-All: Naive & Insecure

\- Older/Share & Learn: Experienced

\- Older/Know-It-All: Out to Pasture

<comment><USER7> I am definitely both a Go Getter and Naive & Insecure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> The problem with age is that you know enough to know that you know diddly. The young, on the other hand, are ignorant of scope of their ignorance.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm not old enough to understand everything</comment>


Uber CEO responds to concern that Uber's SF service is decreasing in quality - <AUTHOR> https://www.facebook.com/traviskal/posts/10151956134345944 <comment><USER2> > All of Uber's old school power users have gotten used to Uber and simply > expect our service as a baseline at this point. What I mean is that as you > have gotten used to Uber, your expectations of basic fundamental service > have risen.

Yeah ... no. I got fed up with taxi service in SF about 2 years ago and started using Uber. At first I was astounded: very clean cars, very nice drivers who were accommodating and pleasant (all I want is a quiet ride without the radio blaring or the driver shouting into his phone the whole way). Best of all, the drivers were knowledgable about the city and didn't need me to tell them turn-by-turn how to do something basic like get across town. It was what I always wanted, and totally worth the extra cost vs. a regular taxi.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly when it started, but in the last few months the "black car" service has degraded to the point where it feels like the old taxi days. Usually the car is dirty, smells bad, the driver has the radio blasting loud (and doesn't exactly react all that well if I ask to turn it down or off), and the driver's attitude is frequently incredibly grouchy (I've had to listen to them complain about their jobs quite a bit lately), and worst of all, they don't know their way around the city at all.

Just to make sure I wasn't experiencing what Mr. Kalanick is suggesting in terms my expectations being calibrated differently, I have made it a point to take regular taxis a few times lately. Instead of a categorically different experience (which is how I would have described the difference between Uber and a taxi in the past), the only differences now between the taxi and the Uber "black car" service seem to be the price and the color of the outside of the car. Oh, and in some cases the regular taxi drivers actually know the city better than the Uber drivers.

I don't really blame Uber for all this, as I'm sure it's really hard to maintain that level of quality while growing at double-digit rates. But I do think they need to take a good hard look at the "black car" service and make sure the drivers know what kind of experience they are supposed to provide. It really should not feel like a taxi with a different coat of paint on the outside.

<comment><USER3> _> and worst of all, they don't know their way around the city at all._

This is my main concern. I am notoriously bad at directions and hate having a driver that I basically need to direct. Especially because that just means I'll be pulling out my Maps app instead of him using the navigation that I can clearly see sitting on his dashboard (I am SO confused by this behavior). Sometimes they'll just get frustrated with me (because I don't know how to get there!) and then finally type it in themselves as if its some huge inconvenience.

<comment><USER4> UberX drivers seem increasingly inclined to expect me to pull out the maps app and navigate for them. It is annoying. Aren't you the one being paid to drive?

I have not necessarily been to a particular destination before. Even if I have, I might want to have my attention on something (my phone, my laptop, how much I want to go to bed..) other than the road.

<comment><USER5> I've experienced this far too often in the past few months, it's starting to become a bit unbearable. Just not sure why Uber continues to onboard drivers who seem incompetent and have no sense of direction.

It'd be nice if I can get in the car and get to my destination without feeling like a got damn TOM TOM by the time I arrive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> We started using Uber this year to get to the airport. Though we are happy with the price, and very happy with the ease of scheduling, every single ride has made me uncomfortable with the safety and comfort of the service.

Over four rides to the airport this year, these things have happened:

1) Three of the times the drivers claimed the AC wasn't working, and we had to drive on the interstate with the windows down.

2) The driver missed the exit for SFO, and drove through the median to get to it

3) Two drivers did not know how to get to OAK

4) I (a pregnant woman) was traveling alone with my infant son. Driver did not help load stroller and luggage into the trunk. Threw luggage out of the trunk onto the curb when we arrived at the airport.

Transportation always kind of sucks, and maybe this is the best you can buy for $72 from Berkeley to SFO. My Uber experiences have been uniformly worse than my taxi to/from airport experiences. But they are slightly cheaper and easier to schedule.

<comment><USER7> This is the problem with Uber.

Most drivers, don't give two shits about the job. And it's hard to blame most of them if you understand the dispatcher-model they generally work under. It's very cut-throat and has high pressures.

While this isn't an excuse on Uber's part, I think it's where Uber can step in and improve things. Originally Uber's goal was too make Taxi's an app. They've succeeded with that. Now they need to improve quality, and not necessary the quality of the app, but the drivers. They have to force a cultural shift through an antiquated market, where education levels are highly variable. They should test a drivers knowledge about Uber and ensure they know what customer expect in terms of service. On the flip side, it should be very clear to the customer what they should expect in terms of service.

They also need to improve there mechanism for feedback. They need this because they _must_ force out bad drivers. It's single handily ruining their reputation.

Uber is great, the drivers are variable.

All that said, I live in a city and almost completely replaced my taxi usage with an eBike, so I hardly use the app anymore, but when I was a regular user (10-20 rides a month). Classical dispatching companies were much more reliable then Uber.

<comment><USER8> Uber claims [1] they have a " _series of rigorous screening tests, including a background check, an in-person screening, a city knowledge exam, and other ongoing quality controls_ ".

If true, that would seem to address your point about screening driver quality. But a number of people are reporting drivers who don't really know their way around the city, which suggests (if those reports are true) that the city- knowledge exam is either not rigorous enough, or somehow not testing the right thing.

[1] [http://blog.uber.com/2013/02/25/uber-sf-to-add-more- drivers-...](http://blog.uber.com/2013/02/25/uber-sf-to-add-more-drivers-to- uberx-more-cars-shorter-wait-times/)

<comment><USER9> Even if you have a perfect city knowledge exam, how do you ensure the guy driving the car is the guy who passed the exam?

<comment><USER10> London has been using The Knowledge for 150 years, it's a solved problem.

<comment><USER8> To replicate that, though, Uber would also have to replicate some of the state apparatus around it, which they may or may not be able to do (or even want to do, ideologically). The London exam is effective in part because it's backed by law: it's illegal to drive a taxi if you haven't passed a licensing exam, and it's also illegal for someone who is properly licensed to lend out their credentials to a friend who'll pick up some people on their behalf, while the licensed driver takes the day off. And as you make the exam more rigorous, those counter-pressures increase, so if Uber had an _actually_ rigorous knowledge exam, they would also have huge levels of cheating if there were no attempt at serious enforcement.

Uber _could_ try to institute both a rigorous knowledge exam, and a high level of enforcement of the rule that only people who actually passed it may drive cars under Uber's name. But they would need some credible way of doing that, like roving undercover inspectors.

<comment><USER11> You could have the app send you a picture of the person who should be picking you up. The user could then report if someone else comes to pick them up. The only problem I'd see is that it might make riders uncomfortable if it is someone different, they might not want to cause a scene or any sort of confrontation, and they want to get to their destination, but they also wouldn't want to ride with someone unlicensed.

So I'm not sure exactly how you'd get around that problem. Maybe you give people who report that they have a different driver say $20 credit, and the ride is free or something. Of course then you'll have people trying to cheat the system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's a sign of strength in a company when the CEO can talk candidly about problems like this. Every company has problems, most worse than this, but they rarely talk about them except in the blandest, most evasive way.

Conspicuous candor.

<comment><USER13> It was candid, but before I'd call it conspicuous I'd like to see him explain the driver on-boarding process and the level of knowledge it requires of city routes. This especially applies to UberX. I think it'd help everyone adjust their expectations.

<comment><USER14> Knowledge of city routes isn't THAT relevant when you can easily depend on Google Maps. Almost every time I use Uber, the drivers have used Google Maps if they didn't readily know where I wanted to go and I didn't mind them using it either. It instill confidence in me that they're following an optimized route provided by Google.

<comment><USER15> I don't know how it is for SF, but in LA, Google's routes are not necessarily optimal, _particularly_ at rush hour. I like Uber, and many of the drivers I've had have been great, but there's definitely been a handful of trips where I thought drivers relied on Google's routing when they shouldn't have.

<comment><USER14> I guess I'm speaking as someone who grew up driving in the era of smartphones and readily available GPS so even when I personally drive, I depend HEAVILY on Google maps. Like I'd really be lost without it.

I guess not relying on GPS map routing is something that I cannot fathom. It always impresses me when friends can just rattle off highway routes and directions.

<comment><USER15> > Like I'd really be lost without it.

You might be lost for a while. What would probably happen next is that you'd start to build a mental map of the relevant territory, augmenting personal experience with some kind of map, paper or digital. Then you'd start developing the habit of getting directions or studying a map before you went somewhere there was a gap in the knowledge in your head.

At least, that's how it worked for me when I moved from a city so small (and grid-based) that nobody I knew used any kind of nav aid at all... to Los Angeles. I'm a little hesitant to say it would _certainly_ work this way for _everyone_ , given that variety in people's backgrounds and brains. But I suspect navigating is something people are generally more wired for than not. Chances are, you could do it too.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> That's confusing that he pulled a response to someone else's post into a standalone post, without quoting this Noah person for context.

Here's the original complaint:

</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>

I'm a huge #Uber fan, but the service has been getting really bad lately. Anyone else experiencing these issues?

-App shows a car 2 minutes away, and when I reserve, it then says the car is 8 minutes away

-Drivers who increasingly have no knowledge of the city and/or driving routes

-Drivers who increasingly have trouble communicating in English

-After booking, the car gets further away (significantly) before it gets closer on their way to pick me up.

-Surge pricing becoming the norm--even during traditional "non-peak" hours

Again, I've been and continue to be a huge fan of Uber, but the past couple months have been disappointing. On the plus side, I had an awesome Pakistani driver yesterday who had a great story to tell about how he emigrated to America and is making twice as much driving for Uber than his old taxi. Pretty cool.

[https://www.facebook.com/noah.lichtenstein/posts/10100797782...](https://www.facebook.com/noah.lichtenstein/posts/10100797782090093)

<comment><USER17> The complaint about the time going from 2 minutes to 8 minutes and also the car getting further away before getting closer sounds like the Uber drivers are doubling as Lyft drivers or other taxi-like apps. They have every incentive to always have a passenger in the car. It sounds like they are communicating with Uber that they will pick Noah up while they are almost done delivering a passenger from another service.

<comment><USER18> What I've seen a lot of is drivers marking my ride as complete when they get within a few blocks of my destination. I originally wrote it off to the driver trying to earn a better rating in light of heavy traffic or navigation difficulties, but it seems to be becoming more routine. In a few cases they've accepted another fare before they even drop me off.

Recently I saw this for the first time on a trip to SFO, which actually makes a lot of sense - since its a fixed price, they're not giving anything up by marking my ride complete as soon as they hit the exit for SFO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> As the original poster to Facebook that Travis is responding to, I'd just like to add a few thoughts here. First, I'm an early adopter of Uber and have been + remain a big fan of the company. Second, I commend Travis for taking the time to write out his thoughts and provide a well-thought out response--even if I don't fully agree with everything he wrote. Third, I think it's a good sign for Uber that a) people care enough to be talking about it...passionately; and b) their CEO is involved in the debate. Fourth, the quality in SF has been declining for those of us with a longitudinal view over time, and even if the top-line metric of overall reviews inflates the NPS score, the fact that this is striking a chord with "power users" should be alarming. Fifth, I think this is correctable, and is not unique for a company scaling this quickly. Thanks everyone for the debate. - Noah Lichtenstein

</comment><comment><USER20> Perhaps the reason that the quality numbers have been mostly flat is because drivers have been pushing to get 5 star reviews.

In case you didn't know, as a customer of uber, the driver gives you a star rating just like you give the driver. A lot of people in SF have figured that out, and a lot of time I'll get an offer of "5 for 5." The drivers are letting you know that if you give them a 5 star rating they will give you one.

On top of that, drivers more and more push for a good rating, trying to make you feel bad if you don't give them 5 stars.

I can't recall these pressures in the past, and if they are working, then quality numbers staying flat actually mean they are quite down.

\----

That said, I am still an avid user of Uber, using it almost every day. My biggest concern is the same others have voiced, the drivers have no idea where they are in the city. I'm not talking cross streets, I'm saying a lot of time they don't even know how to get to a whole neighborhood. They also don't appear to be good 'city drivers,' and frequently seem to put bikers at risk due to that.

<comment><USER21> Why they push for five stars: apparently you get fired if your star rating falls below 4.6 or 4.7 (can't remember which.)

Source: Uber drivers, so biased, but have you ever seen a driver with a 4.5 rating?

<comment><USER22> I can confirm, I've heard this from drivers as well.

As an anecdote, the one time I left a 1-star review, the next day I had a 20-min wait to get a car. Not sure if it was bad luck or I was getting penalized for leaving a bad review...

<comment><USER10> Yeah, well, my auto shop told me they were going to send me a survey about my visit and that, "anything less than a 10 is failure," so don't discount gaming the stats on the provider end.

<comment><USER23> That seems to be part of the program for vendors like Ford, where the employee asks the customer to call them if there is anything that they can't rate perfectly so they can fix the issue for them. They use the survey as a way of flushing out issues that the customer wouldn't otherwise voice so they can deal with them. It's less about collecting stats, and more about having an extra tool to get the customer to happy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> For me, the convenience of Uber was always in the predictability of when the car would arrive. Flywheel ([http://www.flywheel.com/](http://www.flywheel.com/)) has finally effectively solved that problem for regular cabs, after half a dozen apps tried. Anecdotal conversations with taxi drivers indicate that they are pretty happy with the Flywheel service as well - it is definitely the best received app by drivers.

Using an app that seems to treat driver's more fairly is worth something to me, YMMV.

<comment><USER25> How does FlyWheel differentiate from other apps such as, HailACab in Austin, that seem to offer the same three primary benefits?

You mention the experience for cab drivers. Do they have some sort of smarter queuing or other benefits?

It seems all these apps address the consumer facing side of things, but to truly address the driver side, wouldn't it make sense to leverage data to try and better predict needs or routes so that there is less time lost waiting or traveling between fares?

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I think some of it might be self-inflicted too rather than purely a scaling issue. Anecdotal evidence here but probably relevant- I got a mail from Uber a while back, where (presumably) some automation noticed that I was taking a bunch of uber rides to the airport when I was in Boston, but never from, so it offered some Uber credit to use from the airport. I was pretty stoked that Uber had such great analytics and this past Saturday, requested an uber when I landed. Once I got picked up however, it was a different story, with the driver claiming I had "tricked him" and that it was illegal for him to pick anyone up from the airport and that Uber had specifically given him guidance not to pick anyone up from the airport. Clearly there was some miscommunication there and although he calmed down once I explained my side of the story, it still creates a bad experience (probably for both the customer and the driver). Uber support was reasonably prompt in getting back to me but it was somewhat of a non-reply and I still don't know if picking people up at Logan Airport is a supported scenario or not. However, my positive experiences with Uber far outweigh the negative ones and I think Uber still has that built-up goodwill going for it which should cushion it through these growing pains.

<comment><USER27> > and that it was illegal for him to pick anyone up from the airport and that > Uber had specifically given him guidance not to pick anyone up from the > airport

This potentially has some truth to it. Many times, to operate a passenger service to/from the airport requires the operator to purchase a (costly) license from the airport authority. Depending on bylaws etc, unlicensed operators who provide passenger service to/from the airport will be subject to fines. In other words, providing access to ground-transport operators seems to be a revenue stream for the airport, but also likely serves to protect the air passengers from cowboy/dodgy transport operators outside the terminal.

Anecdotally, I once struck up a conversation with a taxi driver in Sydney, Australia. We'd passed a pedestrian who (for some reason) was standing on airport land, some distance from the terminals, trying to hail the passing taxis. The driver remarked to me that they'd be waiting for a while, as no taxi would ever stop there: Apparently it is stipulated in the contract that the taxi company has with the airport, that they can only collect and drop fares in the designated areas outside of the terminals. If they pick up a fare at any other location on airport land, they are subject to large fines (he said $10k, but perhaps this was hyperbole). I found this an interesting insight into the level of regulation apparently applied to airport ground- transport operators.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I remain unconvinced. In Atlanta alone I find myself waiting up to 30 minutes for a UberX because nobody tells them about potential traffic conditions, and nobody knows the city routes. Maybe its different when I price up to just Uber service, but this is pretty inexcusable.

<comment><USER29> I've used Uber over a dozen times in Atlanta. I've used each of the three tiers of service as well, and in varying traffic conditions. I used Uber, and UberX whenever it was available, morning and night going to Dragon*Con in downtown Atlanta (read: bad traffic) and every time they were punctual and the trip was quick. I typically wait no more than 10 minutes for a driver of any tier.

We're both just a data point, but I'm surprised you've had such a bad experience where I now refuse taxi service in favor of Uber. The quality difference is night and day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> I prefer taking Lyft to Uber because with the former the default mode is friendly conversation. When you take an Uber the assumption is that neither of you will talk to each other, like in a Taxi or Limo. In this sense Lyft is more revolutionary than Uber because it fundamentally changes the social dynamic, not just the economics.

<comment><USER8> Huh, I've always thought of chatting as the default in taxis (though not limos). Drivers seem to usually engage in small-talk with me, at least in California and southern Europe. I'm so used to it that the first time I took a taxi in Scandinavia, where the default is no chatting, I was sort of weirded out by the awkwardly silent ride.

<comment><USER31> It sort of depends on the location, but yeah, some places in the U.S. seem to have super chatty drivers; I've heard some great stories that way.

Interestingly, this _hasn 't_ been the case any time I've taken a taxi in NYC (where taxis seem even more a fundamental part of everyday life than most places) in the last decade or two. Now the drivers usually just yell into a cellphone nonstop for the entire ride...

<comment><USER8> That's been the same for me in NYC, but the whole taxi setup in NYC feels very "high-security", with only a small window peering through a bullet-resistant barrier between the front and back seats. That makes it feel more like a limo, since the driver is in a quasi-armored compartment separate from you, and it doesn't really encourage a friendly chat. In most other parts of the world a taxi is just a regular car, without internal barriers.

Actually now I'm a bit unsure: what is the regional etiquette on whether a single passenger should sit in the back or the front? When I lived in LA, I usually just sat in front, which nobody ever complained about, but in retrospect maybe that was weird? It's definitely more conducive to smalltalk if you're in the front passenger seat, sitting next to the driver.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Anything is better than waiting an hour for a taxi to show up, and then having to call a friend because the company just forgot about you.

<comment><USER33> I have had this happen to me so when I see people concerned about waiting 8 minutes instead of 2 I have to wonder, do they want the cars to have wings? 8 minutes sounds pretty good to me.

<comment><USER34> Then tell people it's 8 minutes. I think it's the difference in reported vs reality that's frustrating users.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I wonder what kind of response we would get from the CEO of Yellow Cab if people complained that their service was degrading.

</comment><comment><USER36> It's a challenge to be a popular company that everyone would like in their market. Yet, in every single city there are differing rules that govern taxis. I'd LOVE to have Uber in Portland but the local Government is the road block. In cities that Uber is available, they're growing.

I love this company and use them any chance I can. I know that they're doing everything they can to be the best company and the best service for those that want to use them.

</comment><comment><USER37> I had a bad ride to OAK from Berkeley, wrong freeway, no AC, it was a mess. But the Uber app prompted me for feedback, and I got a personal support message and a credit when I complained.

I will Uber again, as it is easily the most convenient way to get to the airport, and I can tell that the software is rigged to continuously improve the company. After a lifetime of cab nightmares, I'll take Uber with double the warts.

</comment><comment><USER38> I've definitely had mixed experiences with Uber in San Francisco; In LA the drivers were excellent, here it seems to be hit or miss.

This seems to be a particular problem as regards UberX. With the Surge pricing making UberX more expensive, it's not really worth it for me if I have to show the guy where to go and he's not nice or accommodating in any way.

</comment><comment><USER39> I would really like to see an aggregate app that only handles the buy side of the market and let Uber, Sidecar, Lyft, taxis and others handle the sell side of the market. This way, you could have an app that shows you the rating of the companies relative to one another. Every vote for a driver would also be a vote for the company as well. If a company wasn't great, you can opt to stop seeing drivers from them.

</comment><comment><USER40> Like several others, I've had the problem where I need to give directions, despite the driver having a GPS enabled phone. Do we know why they do this? It's by no means a big inconvenience for me, but it's somewhat perplexing, at least...

PS: I'm extremely happy with Uber. My experience with calling cabs was forged on the south side of Chicago, where they seldom ever actually came. It was miserable.

</comment><comment><USER41> They are looking at average quality metrics. I think they should be looking at perc based quality metrics. That would have reflected a drop and the variability far earlier on. In this sense, it's akin to performance metrics — you want to find out what % of your users are experiencing what levels of service.

</comment><comment><USER42> Uber, at it's worst, is still far better than any experience I've had with traditional cabs.

</comment><comment><USER43> You get what you paid for.

</comment><comment><USER44> 2 and 8 minutes? Are you serious? Sure you're being promised something and getting something else, but....

At least it's better than being promised that a cab would come in 15 minutes, and then having to wait in the rain for 50 minutes instead.

<comment><USER16> Here was the original comment he was responding to:

-App shows a car 2 minutes away, and when I reserve, it then says the car is 8 minutes away

The only way that seems like it would happen is if the driver who was 2 minutes away rejected the call.</comment></comment>


Flashlight: Control your Mac with a keystroke - <AUTHOR> http://flashlight.nateparrott.com/

<comment><USER2> I guess the incumbent here is Alfred. [1]

I'm a very happy paid-Alfred user. It is one of the original apps of this kind. Some things I appreciate are that Alfred lets you quickly setup custom searches, browse the file system, search youtube, open apps, etc.

With the paid version, I've hooked in a python script so that I can enter 'yt {{youtube-link}}' and the script uses youtube-dl to download the link in the background and open a VLC window to view the video immediately.

Thank you and Way to go, Alfred guys!

[1] [http://www.alfredapp.com/](http://www.alfredapp.com/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Doesn't OS X ( _not_ Mac) already have something like this? Reachable via Ctrl+Space? How is this any different?

<comment><USER4> This is an addon for that "something" (spotlight).

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Doesn't OS X ( _not_ Mac) already have something like this?

</comment><comment><USER5> Just awesome !</comment>


Ask HN: Would you hire a beginner who is only test-driving a new career? - <AUTHOR>

Hiring an intern is a common practice, it's pros and cons discussed many times. But what about an enthusiastic beginner who already has a successful career in the other field but wants to try something different?
For example, a software developer who wants to try textiles pattern design. Or an accountant who wants to see how it feels to run an organic farm.
Traditionally, that wouldn't be looked favourably upon. But times change, and maybe such 'casual' workers could bring unique interdisciplinary perspectives to the business.
My question is, do you have experience in hiring such people? What are pros and cons? Would you specifically look for candidates of this kind? <comment><USER2> I don't think anyone does (and here's why). It takes quite a bit to be proficient as a hacker. You threw out the word "Intern". Even an intern has quite a history when you think it through. Many started tinkering in junior high or high school. Many have completed a BS In CS and then they are still only marginally ready to add value.

<comment><AUTHOR> Does this apply to all professions? I.e. can a hacker potentially create value in pattern design or gardening or marketing, if put into the right environment?</comment></comment>


Pricing updates for Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/826

<comment><USER2> I understand their reasons for doing this, and I appreciate their transparency... but the way raspberry pi has gone about selling their product is frustrating. I just want to hand over my money and get one as soon as I can possible have one. I don't want to keep having to check back and sign up for mailing lists and register my interest etc. etc. etc.

The sooner I can place an order and have my credit card charged, the sooner I can stop thinking about it and be pleasantly surprised when it arrives on my doorstep.

<comment><USER3> > _the way raspberry pi has gone about selling their product is frustrating_

Would you rather they not let anyone buy them until they had more than enough to sell to absolutely everyone who might want one?

Or is there a third option that they should have taken?

<comment><USER4> The other option would be directly selling them themselves, instead of being at the mercy of a few existing retailers.

I'm not sure that would go smoother, but at least you wouldn't have to go to each retailer and sign up for their lists or having to check their sites which one will get a new batch first.

(EDIT: I'm not saying I would think that's a good idea, but I think that's what the GP meant)

<comment><USER5> In the future you will be able to buy directly form the few existing retailers.

The only reason that you can't now is because they sold all their product. Both RS and Farnell are pretty large distributors (worldwide, not just UK) and should be able to easily meet demand. Only problem is confusion about selling to individuals not businesses, but that'll get solved.

EDIT: The foundation is a non-profit charity, where everyone involved has other jobs. That sounds sub-optimal for receiving orders, processing them, shipping them, and handling returns. It's much better that they've outsourced that to companies who are in business to sell stuff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am pleasantly surprised that this didn't turn out to be an unexpected price increase.

<comment><USER7> me too. Maybe the op can change the title to also include the "good news!" part. When I first saw the title I was actually expecting some bad news.

<comment><AUTHOR> it looks like I can't edit it, dont know why..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> > Currently we are restricted in selling to private individuals in Austria > only.

anybody knows why that's the case?

</comment><comment><USER9> Yeah. A bit disappointing. Its been weeks since the launch, and the only thing I can do is register my interest in a product that, even when available here in the USA is coming very close to being double the magic $25 I was hoping for(1).

I somewhat infamously predicted last December that if the RasPi had trouble shipping and didn't deliver on the crazy low price that made it nearly disposable that the magic could be lost.

It seems to me that they are one "Beaglebone" clone (shaving an Andy Jackson off the price) away from irrelevance. In many ways, the 'bone is already way ahead with "cape" addons and a vibrant community.

Now is the time for the foundation to fight relentlessly for their core principles. Cheap, open, available. I want to believe.

(1) I am aware that only B is for sale and the $25 is for A which should become available at some point.

<comment><USER10> > when available here in the USA is coming very close to being double the > magic $25 I was hoping for(1).

You were expecting a free-shipping model A, and instead have to pay for shipment (the horror!) and only have the model B available (exactly as they say). If there's any problem here, it lies with your expectations.

You can wait till the Model A becomes available. You can also arrange for people at your hackerspace to order 100 together to make the shipping cost negligible. Other than Apple, RP seems to be as good or better at delivering on their promises as any other vendor. And apple mostly deliver on their promises because they hardly ever make any.

<comment><USER3> > _You can also arrange for people at your hackerspace to order 100 together > to make the shipping cost negligible_

Out of interest, is this currently possible with their one-per-person restriction? If not, would be nice if there was a way for people to group together and get one-each, all in a single shipment.

<comment><USER10> I do not know, but I suspect their one-per-person restriction is "one per person, unless you can convince us that you are not a scalper, and plan to order > 100 to make our time checking out your explanation worth its while".

I suspect if a well known hackerspace (SF Noisebridge, NYC Resistor, PumpStation One, Nottinghack) made such a request, they could get it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I really wish it had VGA output, without that it's useless to me since I have no spare monitors to connect to it.

<comment><USER12> HDMI => DVI => VGA should work, no? A lot of adapters, but at least you'll get a signal out of it.

<comment><USER11> I checked - those adapters cost more than the Raspberry Pi! Around $50.

The cheap cables you may be thinking of require the device to output a VGA signal.

<comment><USER13> Not ideal, but you can get composite (CVBS) to VGA converters for about £15 on eBay.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> any one actually lay hands on this thing?

</comment><comment><USER15> I'm confused. I just put in a pre-order for three of these via Newark. Has that changed?

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm seeing this Raspberry Pi meme on HN a lot lately so I guess I should look into it?

What kind of cool things will I be able to do with it exactly?

<comment><USER16> Haters be downvotin' instead of answering my honest question.

So far I know of 0 cool uses for a Raspberry Pi. I don't have time to research every new HN trend in detail either. That's why I ask for a summary of what this thing can do for me.

<comment><USER17> _I don't have time to research every new HN trend in detail either._

So in your laziness, you expect us to do it for you?

<comment><USER16> [http://raspberrypihacks.com/raspberry-pi-hacks/some-of- the-b...](http://raspberrypihacks.com/raspberry-pi-hacks/some-of-the-best- raspberry-pi-ideas-and-uses-ive-seen-so-far/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is the most challenging project you have ever worked upon? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> For me, trying to implement an unbeatable tic tac toe game using the minimax strategy. I promised myself I wouldn't look up any hints online outside the Wikipedia page on minimax. It was several weeks of call stack overflows, reading through logged game states, and waking up at night to try ideas. The code for the final result now looks so simple and elegant, but it's very deceiving.</comment>


New Universal Blockchain App for Gigs - <AUTHOR> GoEuphrates is an exciting new universal app that allows you to offer any service (e.g. jobs, projects, tasks) anytime, anywhere, or conversely access and respond to demands for services. Whether you are in need of assistance, or one who can provide the assistance, GoEuphrates is a real-time, highly flexible, and user-friendly application that is perfect for the Gig Economy. Using blockchain technology, it's built for the enterprising. Move from completing a gig to growing a business. Take a look at some of the exciting new ways that GoEuphrates can empower you:
a. It's a bi-directional tool, roles are not restrained. Anyone can offer, or demand services. So, hire whatever service you need, and when you need it. Or, offer any service you perform. Any job, anytime, anywhere. With a single universal app, you can drop the rest.
b. Euphrates is built on blockchain. Link automated smart contracts to facilitate transactions on the fly; extend your reach, connect with new partners and new opportunities. Grow a business, not just complete a gig.
c. You can create extensions of your business naturally. The GoEuphrates platform allows multiple real-time natural language communications on a user-friendly screen. Text, image, and voice all in one place. Negotiate price and make payments directly from your calls. Adapt organically to market conditions as they exist. Call in backup for big jobs.
d. There is no second-guessing of your needs with restrictive drop-down menus that limit your roles and gigs. You decide what service is best for you. Offer your services when and where you want. Your hours of operation, specific offerings, and wages are all yours to define.
e. Employers and providers both rate one another with every job. User ratings are backed with cash - only real jobs are rated, and the system can't be gamed by buying 'likes.' Understand who you're working with. <comment><USER2> where is the source code? How would I create a node to connect to the "blockchain" without downloading the app? Otherwise, Isn't this just taskrabbit running on an inefficent database?</comment>


Ask HN: Why can't we still search local disk the way we search online? - <AUTHOR> I am looking for some old content which I know exists in a 2TB backup drive using a Windows 10 machine. Despite using a modern machine, it has taken over 25 minutes and still is looking for it. Searching a nvme SSD doesn't significantly reduce the search time either.
I am wondering why can't we search our local contents and get almost instantaneous (or reasonable) results the same way we get from online search engines. How are these latest machines any better than machines a decade ago in improving user experience (other than entangling settings and silly visual stunts)?
Is there any tool or setup that may provide significantly better search experience in local machines (windows or linux)? <comment><USER2> I have this app called Search Everything[0]. Allows you to search everything on your PC (I use Win10).

The other option is using cmd prompt:

DIR C:\myfile.txt /S

No idea how with PowerShell

[0][https://www.voidtools.com/](https://www.voidtools.com/)

<comment><USER3> Everything has CLI tool, es.exe, that you can use in shell.

But yeah, there is nothing better then Everything, on any OS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> When you search the web, the search engine has already indexed the web (and is doing so constantly). Your results come from hits in that index.

If you want fast results searching your large local disk, you need to periodically index your disk in the background.

I used such an indexer back around 2000. It was a Java program. I can't remember the name at all.

There are probably more such indexers today.

</comment><comment><USER5> For Linux, the locate command from GNU Find Utilities is pretty fast if your index is up-to-date. I also really like fzf, the fuzzy-find tool.

[https://github.com/junegunn/fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)

</comment><comment><USER6> 1) becuase you don't how to use grep et al.

2) because you don't use open formats.

3) because you do have a minimally decent data organization and have to search too much data every time.

</comment><comment><USER7> > ...using a Windows 10 machine.

Case closed.

</comment><comment><USER8> for files use everything for enterprise use M-Files ...Case closed</comment>


Wi-fi is an important threat to human health - <AUTHOR> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29573716/ <comment><USER3> it's important to note that the nih.gov domain doesn't mean this is endorsed in any way by the NIH. (In case you were very shocked, like I was.)

It's just a link to PubMed, which is an aggregator of journal articles hosted by the NIH's National Library of Medicine.

Nearly any life sciences article published in any kind of journal, good or bad, would end up with an abstract on here. Evaluate it on its own merits.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, it's published in "Environmental Research", a journal with an impact factor of 3.8. This is quite low. If the claims made by this paper are true, it has huge implications, so there's two possibilities: 'Science' and other prestigious journals are SUPPRESSING THE TRUTH due to INFLUENCE by BIG WIFI and passing up the opportunity to publish an incredibly important story, or the actual research is garbage.

<comment><USER5> Could you please not use allcaps for emphasis in HN comments?

This is in the site guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).

<comment><USER4> Sorry dang, I'm imitating the, erm, peculiar writing style you'll see when this sort of thing comes up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I find this paper rather flawed (article link: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393511...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935118300355?via%3Dihub) ).

I don't claim to be an expert on EMF effects on the human body, but I interpret his core claim to be that because the seven effect studies he cites had insufficient power to determine there was no correlation, there must be correlation because "similar" EMF studies did show a response, and therefore the effects should be considered established (ergo the fairly clickbait title). I use quotes for similar because it doesn't seem they were all _that_ similar, which is why he objects to the studies he references.

If he had simply restricted himself to saying that more research was required because previous studies were inadequate (due to small sample size, methodological issues, etc.), I think this would have been a lot more defensible. Right now it reads like tinfoil hat time.

<comment><USER7> I'm also not an expert in this field, but I agree that the conclusions presented here appear at first glance to be much too strong. For one, we should all be highly skeptical of meta analyses to begin with - there is every incentive to report "significant" results, and a documented tendency for such studies to be preferentially published, so the current literature should be enriched with respect to rejections of the null.

Also, did I miss it, or is there zero discussion about how the discussed publications were selected? A quick google search turns up lots of additional null results.

The authors also do make some correct criticisms of common statistical mistakes. For example, it is true that failure to reject a null hypothesis is not evidence for that null hypothesis in a frequentist framework. Even so, we should consider the power to reject the null, which depends on:

1\. The practical or clinical effect size 2\. The sample size

Even if we do detect statistically significant effects of EMF/WiFi, that in no way implies that the results are of practical significance. The cited studies do have small samples, but no discussion is given to the magnitude of effect which would be expected to have been detected.

They also note that previous studies should have published their data and p-values, which is true.

My takeaway is that more information is needed, and that we should hear from someone with a good grasp on all the relevant literature to see how representative these studies are. Also, this kind of thing would be clearer if we were all Bayesians, and published our data :P

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nothing new. This review just dares to aggregate and conclude on other reviews which have established that modulated, polarized, low-level microwave transmissions (like f.x. WiFi) causes effects like significant oxidative cell stress which is a known precursor to a whole host of health effects - <USER2> included. Dr. Pall offers a mechanistic explanation for the repeatedly established effects: the activation of voltage-gated calcium channels that sit in every cell membrane. Signals like WiFi can trigger those, allowing calcium to flood the cell and set off a cascade of effects leading to said oxidative stress. Add in non-stop radiation exposure and your bodies antioxidant reserves will surely deplete. So basically you now have a mechanism allowing low-level, non-ionizing radiation to indirectly cause the same damage to DNA as ionizing radiation does. There you go. Cancer epidemic explained. Is there anything you can do? Yes, first line of defense is to reduce your exposure and neutralize some of the added oxidative stress by upping your intake of antioxidants. See Dr. Yakymenko's blog for more: [http://carelessscience.com/blog2017/electrohypersensitivity-...](http://carelessscience.com/blog2017/electrohypersensitivity- oxidative-stress-healthy-diet/)

<comment><USER9> This sounds interesting. Are there big cohort studies of the effects? (How easy it is to separate this from better cancer detection methods?) What type of cancers are being induced by this? What's the effect size?

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> [https://www.nutricology.com/martin-pall- products/](https://www.nutricology.com/martin-pall-products/)

i wonder if his medicines can help?

... single-author papers scream "crank" to me.

<comment><USER11> Agreed. He also thinks electromagnetic waves cause autism (and he's not an MD).

[http://www.autismone.org/content/martin-l-pall-ba-phd- autism...](http://www.autismone.org/content/martin-l-pall-ba-phd-autism- epidemic-caused-emfs-acting-calcium-channels-and-chemicals-actin)

<comment><USER8> One of the U.S. leading autism experts (Harvard MD) has co-written papers on the plausible link between low-level electromagnetic field exposure and autism spectrum disorders. The key here is also: oxidative stress, brain inflammation and blood-brain-barrier damage - as in Dr. Palls review. Ref 1: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24095003](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24095003) Ref 2: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24113318](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24113318)

<comment><USER11> She is also a quack, and hardly one of the "leading autism experts" in the United States.

[http://sethmnookin.com/2011/04/20/researcher-who-does-not- me...](http://sethmnookin.com/2011/04/20/researcher-who-does-not-meet-the- standard-of-reliability-required-by-case-law-good-enough-for-pbss-newshour/)

[http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2016/10/1730-martha- herber...](http://americanloons.blogspot.com/2016/10/1730-martha-herbert.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Vaguely related: "EINSTEIN DIDN'T WIN the Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity. He won it for showing that you don't need to worry about radiation from your cell phone." \- [https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Einstein- Yo...](https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Einstein-Your-Cell- Phone-and-You-2707605.php)

More specifically, [http://ap.io/blog/radiofrequency/](http://ap.io/blog/radiofrequency/), The gist being if the photons don't have enough energy to affect your atoms, your don't need to worry too much. Since the power falls off proportional to 1/d^2, just don't use your router/cellphone as a pillow.

The whole "human body is complicated and it could possibly affect you in some other way" is certainly a good place to investigate, but probably really hard to demonstrate without drastically increasing the density and power to unusual levels.

<comment><USER8> "...showing that you don't need to worry about radiation from your cell phone". Dude. Will you please - PLEASE - just read the biological evidence and move on from that outdated (physicists) argument about photon energy. It is now _amply_ established that low-level microwave radiation causes oxidative stress which can damage DNA and increase your risk of inflammation and cancer. Its an indirect effect. Little to do with photon energy alone.

<comment><USER13> What evidence?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is sensationalist. Wi-Fi is a brand based around a protocol. If they're talking about low power microwave transmission, they'll have to include cell phones, microwave ovens, and everything else. Not to say RF can't be dangerous, but something like this just feeds the tin hat folks (which, BTW are just big wave guides. You'll need to wrap yourself like a potato for best results ;)

<comment><USER15> There is a difference between "sensationalist" and using a term that the general public knows. Wi-Fi means something to the average person, whereas "radio waves in the 2.4GHz band" sounds like some obscure thing that doesn't apply to daily life.

<comment><USER14> Kleenex is bleached wood pulp. But so is toilet paper, paper towels, coffee filters, newsprint, magazines, packaging, etc. It's disingenuous and exploitative reporting.

<comment><USER8> If there is a genuine health problem with WiFi exposure, would you want to be the last to know?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why Wi-Fi? What specifically makes Wi-Fi a threat but not all the other stuff using the 2.4 GHz band?

<comment><USER17> I dont think it's making any claims, for or against, other EM frequencies. It's just that their study was specific to Wi-fi, so that's what they're reporting on.

Maybe they chose wifi in particular because it's more relatable to the common person and quite ubiquitous on its own. They could draw more expansive conclusions in the future, if they want to. Or other curious scientists can pose that question and design an experiment / meta-analysis to answer it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> A related study by apparently the same author makes the following claim: "microwaves act through voltage-gated calcium channel activation to induce biological impacts at non-thermal levels, supporting a paradigm shift for microwave/lower frequency electromagnetic field action"

If that is true, then it _is_ quite significant.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879308](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25879308)

<comment><USER19> Does it say anything about how WiFi waves act on calcium channels?

<comment><USER20> It says this:

> The VGCCs each have a voltage sensor which is made up of 4 alpha helixes in > the plasma membrane, with each such helix having 5 positive charges on it, > for a total of 20 positive charges (Pall, 2015b). These voltage sensor > helixes are each called S4 helixes because each is the fourth helix in a > distinct multi-helix domain. Each of these voltage sensor charges is within > the lipid bilayer part of the plasma membrane. The electrical forces on the > voltage sensor are very high for three distinct reasons (Pall, 2015b, Pall, > 2015a, Pall, 2016a). 1. The 20 charges on the voltage sensor make the forces > on voltage sensor 20 times higher than the forces on a single charge. 2. > Because these charges are within the lipid bilayer section of the membrane > where the dielectric constant is about 1/120th of the dielectric constant of > the aqueous parts of the cell, the law of physics called Coulomb's law, > predicts that the forces on those charges will be approximately 120 times > higher than the forces on charges in the aqueous parts of the cell. 3. > Because the plasma membrane has a high electrical resistance whereas the > aqueous parts of the cell are highly conductive, the electrical gradient > across the plasma membrane is estimated to be concentrated about 3000-fold. > The combination of these effects means that comparing the forces on the > voltage sensor with the forces on singly charged groups in the aqueous parts > of the cell, the forces on the voltage sensor are approximately 20 × 120 × > 3000 = 7.2 million times higher (Pall, 2015b). The physics predicts, > therefore, extraordinarily strong forces activating the VGCCs via the > voltage sensor. It follows that the biology tells us that the VGCCs are the > main target of the EMFs and the physics tells us why they are the main > target. Thus the physics and biology are pointing in the same direction.

If I ever write a paper I hope it will be more persuasive than this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> My MIL is convinced that WiFi is the cause of all of her skin issues and headaches. She quit her job because IT refused to move one of their routers from near her office. She sleeps in a Faraday cage :-|

<comment><USER22> So her headaches should be resolved?

On the other hand, quitting her job might have done that alone ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> "Wi-Fi" covers at least two different frequencies - is the effect observable at both?

<comment><USER24> From clicking through to Journal Full Abstract of the study they only looked at 2.4Ghz and not 5.0Ghz. This is a better link for the content: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S001393511...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935118300355?via%3Dihub)

I don't know enough about wave transmissions to know if higher frequency would be more or less likely to cause issues, anyone?

<comment><USER6> In general, higher frequency implies higher energy, all things being equal. X-rays and gamma rays are very high frequency and therefore high-energy, and no one would dispute their deleterious effect on human health. However, a typical X-ray is somewhere around 30 petahertz (10^16) to 30 exahertz (10^19).

Compare to 5GHz WiFi (10^6). We're not sure if this is physiologically relevant because the relationship between energy and health effects is not linear, and different tissues react in different ways. It's worth looking into, though my personal feeling is given the ubiquity of such radiation, we should be seeing a lot more effects and they should be measurable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Ah well, I always claimed there was no harm in wifi signals .. because I lived surrounded by them for so long and had no issues...

and now I feel sick :)

</comment><comment><USER26> Without commenting on if this is legitimate or not, a new band of spectrum for unlicensed use would be nice.

</comment><comment><USER27> So are cars. The question is: Do we want to turn off Wifi for a minor health benefit?

<comment><USER28> That's the wrong question.

A better question could be: Can we replace it with something better?

Just like we are replacing combustion engines with electric engines.

<comment><USER29> Where can I buy a phone with an RJ45 plug ?

<comment><USER30> With a 2 second search: [https://www.amazon.com/FindUWill-Lightning-Ethernet- Network-...](https://www.amazon.com/FindUWill-Lightning-Ethernet-Network- Adapter-Overseas/dp/B0725PYSP3/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'm still going to use it, though. Is there even any alternative at all?

<comment><USER32> ethernet?

<comment><USER30> Let's assume I turn off all the WiFi devices in my house and only hard wire things. I can still see at least 7 WiFi networks from my neighbor's houses. Not to mention public spaces. I don't really think there is any way to avoid WiFi in most modern nations.

<comment><USER33> There are paints and other materials that can block the signals. Even wire mesh added to the insulation can block signals.

<comment><USER30> That plan works assuming I never leave my house.

<comment><USER33> Agreed, though you probably spend a bit of time in your home and at work. Driving past wifi the signal strength will vary wildly and won't likely be as strong as the one you are sleeping around. It certainly won't be as powerful as cell sites.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> If this turns out to be a hazardous effect, what could be used to mitigate VGCC activation?

Presumably lower power signaling would be effective. But what if we allocated a different band (yes, I realize that this is much, much harder than it sounds)?

</comment><comment><USER35> Uh oh... Let me pray that my radiation pad has done a good job D:

</comment><comment><USER36> Could we take suppliments to counter-ballance this?

<comment><USER37> Perhaps? Something like sunscreen? 2.4 GHz is the frequency at which water resonates so our bodies are already giant optimal absorbers of wifi energey, I wonder if anything would help.

<comment><USER38> > 2.4 GHz is the frequency at which water resonates

Answers by people who understand this better than me here [1], but 2.4GHz is not "the" resonant frequency, water has a number of frequencies it interacts with radiation. And water isn't going to behave like a tuning fork anyway, it would be more analogous to sand. Microwaves interact with water by dipole interaction, and they just unload heat.

That's why wifi isn't going to do much to your body, any cooking of you being done by radiation is trivial compared to your own body heat.

[1] [https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/169173/what- is-t...](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/169173/what-is-the- resonant-frequency-of-liquid-water#169191)</comment></comment></comment>