What Apple's Tim Cook Overlooked in His Defense of Privacy - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/technology/what-apples-tim-cook-overlooked-in-his-defense-of-privacy.html?_r=0 <comment> k-mcgrady Some really dumb points in that article. Of course Apple has to provide access to a search engine in Safari - and pretty much all search engines run from ads. It neglects to mention that they recently added the option of DuckDuckGo. And of course Apple collects information on you to help improve its products - nearly every company in existence does this.

The difference in the two approaches (Apple/Google) is HOW it uses the data and the amount of data it collects/has access to.

>> "Mr. Cook also failed to fairly explore the substantial benefits that free, ad-supported services have brought to consumers worldwide."

Of course he didn't explore it - he'd be an idiot to explain to everyone the benefits of the very thing he was trying to say wasn't good.

>> "If Apple really didn't think that its customers should trade their data for free services, you'd guess that it would build its own ad-free web search engine for its devices."

No you wouldn't. A search engine is difficult to build, expensive to build, and hard to do right. Instead they offer users Google as default (which the majority of people would want) and a more private alternative in DDG.

I could continue going through the article explaining how it is utter rubbish but it should be pretty obvious.

<comment><USER2> >> "No you wouldn't. A search engine is difficult to build, expensive to build, and hard to do right. Instead they offer users Google as default (which the majority of people would want) and a more private alternative in DDG.

Um, Apple replaced Google Maps with their own Map service which is hard to build, expensive to build and they still haven't gotten it right. Despite that, I want Apple to do the same for search so I can remove Google from my iPhone.

>> "I could continue going through the article explaining how it is utter rubbish but it should be pretty obvious."

This is why Apple fanboys have such a bad reputation on the web and spoil perceptions for those of us who own Apple products without subscribing to the fanaticism. Stop the snark. Respond to the actual argument.

<comment><USER3> You seem to be implying that because Google Maps exists, Apple is only allows to provide Google Maps integration.

Apple hasn't "replaced" Google maps, except in its own apps. Google Maps still is on the iPhone.

Plus, remember the conflict over Google maps was because Google wanted too much personal information about he users and Apple wasn't comfortable with that. Apple spent a lot of effort to replace something for the purpose of protecting users Privacy. I'm not aware of google ever going thru such extensive efforts (despite the cheap website propagandizing the contrary we saw the day of the WWDC keynote.)

>> "This is why Apple fanboys have such a bad reputation on the web and spoil perceptions for those of us who own Apple products without subscribing to the fanaticism"

I'm tired of this smear from people who hate Apple. For the record, you can stop pretending to own Apple products. You're not going to convince us your somehow objective with this lie. When you smear people defening Apple as "fanatics" then you miss the point that Apple is constantly being attacked.

It is the existence of Apple that you cannot tolerate causing you and your kind to constantly attack Apple, and this has been going on for 40 years.

Mac users just want to be left alone, instead of constantly having to defend against dishonest hit pieces like this article in the NYT.

<comment><USER4> "the conflict over Google maps was because Google wanted too much personal information about he users and Apple wasn't comfortable with that. "

Please tell us more of your insider information about the negotiations between Google and Apple regarding maps apps for iOS.

<comment><USER3> This isn't insider information, it was widely published at the time in mainstream media.

<comment><USER4> And the people the info came from were certainly not biased or trying to use the press to influence the negotiations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This article is both simplistic and disingenuous for two primary reasons:

1\. Equates all advertising with invasive data collection. 2\. Suggests that improving individual's control over their data is worse than not improving it, or worse, is hypocritical.

For point one Mr. Cook did not vilify ads nor ad supported services. He spoke against invasive data collection. Now what qualifies as invasive is certainly open for reasonable people to debate but his point is that he feels the industry has gone way too far. I read a physical newspaper this mornin with ads in it. A good portion of that paper's income is from ads and the rest through subscription. They did zero data collection on me. I say this only to demonstrate that you can have ad supported business without bein evil. The nytimes author seems to ignore this.

For point two isn't it better that Apple is improving privacy protections rather than just throwing up its hands and instead joining google in attempting to learn everything about us and the sell access to put data to advertisers who have their own best interests in mind rather than ours? Why is building a more private maps application but still enabling google searches better than not providing a map application?

In short I think it is very possible to run an ethical ad based business. Unfortunately in Silicon Valley we've adopted a default business model of grabbing as much personal information and selling it to the highest bidder rather than offering a great service with non-invasive ads or subscriptions. If Slack can do it why can't others?

</comment><comment><USER6> If you want to find fault with Apple on privacy and security, one place to start would be its apparent lack of leadership on the increasing threat from malicious USB (and no doubt Thunderbolt) devices. Likely no-one is better- placed than Apple to do something about this: it has the money and the market- share, a large engineering staff, a consumer-friendly reputation to defend and enhance, the UI expertise to come up with security provisions that users will actually understand and tolerate, and a history of clout and leadership in local-bus standards. But instead it seems to still have its head firmly stuck in the sand. Would it hurt so much to just throw a USB C condom into the box of the new MacBook, as an easy starting measure?

<comment><USER7> I'm not sure why Apple should be singled out for addressing this. Plus, you're talking about a security issue that requires physical access to a machine - something a bit different from the issues of privacy, malware, NSA snooping, etc. It would seem more sensible to focus on those working up the USB specification (Intel, HP, NEC, etc.) to deliver a standard and hardware implementations less prone to attacks. Plus, pretty much _every_ USB stack has these issues - wasn't it Linux where we starting seeing proofs of concept?

Actually, Apple has shown foresight in its hardware selection, as they have consistently selected Intel processors with Vt-d/IOMMU support (to this day, it remains difficult to find IOMMU-enabled notebook computers). This has allowed OSX to isolate Thunderbolt and neuter attacks: [http://ilostmynotes.blogspot.com/2014/11/thunderbolt-dma- att...](http://ilostmynotes.blogspot.com/2014/11/thunderbolt-dma-attacks-on- os-x.html)

Possibly a similar thing might be done for USB controllers as well...

<comment><USER8> > I'm not sure why Apple should be singled out for addressing this.

You're correct in that it's not an Apple-only security issue. I'm not sure if the person you're replying to meant to imply that. However, Apple has never been particularly concerned with pointing out security vulnerabilities. Up until three years ago they were claiming that OSX didn't get viruses and that you could be safe by doing nothing. ([http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/its- of...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/06/its-official- apple-computers-are-no-longer-virus-free/258902/)) _That 's_ why Apple gets a lot of flak from security-oriented folk. They mislead tons of people into thinking that "Macs don't get viruses". And I still hear self-proclaimed geniuses who tell me this, and why it's the reason they'll only use Apple products.

Considering Apple changed their slogan to "built to be safe" after being heavily compromised and criticized by the media, they do deserve a push to take care of hardware security issues by default. After all, security is built in, right? Shouldn't they make some proactive security efforts after advertising to their users repeatedly with the premise that their users _shouldn 't care_ about security?

> Actually, Apple has shown foresight in its hardware selection

That link you share came around four years after OSX (and Windows) had the login screen compromised with Firewire hacking devices ([http://www.hermann- uwe.de/blog/physical-memory-attacks-via-f...](http://www.hermann- uwe.de/blog/physical-memory-attacks-via-firewire-dma-part-1-overview-and- mitigation)). Of which Apple was the primary vendor involved in pushing the standard. Not only that, it's talking about more modern devices being secure from an exploit that was used to compromise early Thunderbolt-enabled computers roughly two-and-a-half years prior ([http://www.breaknenter.org/2012/02/adventures-with-daisy- in-...](http://www.breaknenter.org/2012/02/adventures-with-daisy-in- thunderbolt-dma-land-hacking-macs-through-the-thunderbolt-interface/) and [http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception/](http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception/)). The fact that Apple started utilizing IOMMU to counter DMA attacks and moved away from Firewire isn't _foresight_ \- it's _reactive_. Admitted, a good reaction. That's how a lot of security procedures end up. But let's not pretend that they're ahead of the game on security when they aren't.

> Possibly a similar thing might be done for USB controllers as wel

It's been done for USB, Firewire, Thunderbolt, any hotpluggable PCI/PCI-e expansion port/socket (because you can plug the above in unless it's disabled in the OS). Pretty much anything with DMA in it is an issue.

> Plus, you're talking about a security issue that requires physical access to > a machine

You're assuming direct malicious intent. Which might be the case for jealous spouses and high-value targets. But a far more likely consumer scenario is handing your USB stick to a friend with a compromised computer to share a file. After he plugs it in, his malware-infested computer overwrites the USB device's firmware as a new attack vector. When you get it back and use it again, your computer becomes infected.

It's not common now, but it's not really that far fetched.

<comment><USER6> > You're assuming direct malicious intent. Which might be the case for jealous > spouses and high-value targets. But a far more likely consumer scenario is > handing your USB stick to a friend with a compromised computer to share a > file. After he plugs it in, his malware-infested computer overwrites the USB > device's firmware as a new attack vector. When you get it back and use it > again, your computer becomes infected.

> It's not common now, but it's not really that far fetched.

And as the average USB device becomes "smarter" (or more like an embedded PC, in any case...) in the future I would assume it will become easier to infect without hardware access. (I am not an expert.) Or think of the many thousands of lab and internet-cafe PCs which are already out there and being used as public or semi-public charging points: those can already certainly be compromised without any hardware access. Even attacks using hardware access to a USB device don't have to be ignorably small-scale. A single compromised public USB charging point could hit hundreds of people: one could consider ATM skimming as an advance warning of what is feasible.

And more generally, access to the hardware on the far side of the USB connection is _not_ (in the general case) the same as access to the hardware on the near side. If in practise one is always as good as the other, well that's exactly the bloody problem! And it's a problem with the USB protocol etc., not the inherently-mostly-insoluble problem of direct access to the internals of the user's local machine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9>
      And that's not all. When I go to Apple's App Store,
      I'm presented with a bevy of free apps that are
      supported either in whole or in part by ads.

There are a lot of weird conclusions that this article tries to make. This is the one that strikes me as the dumbest.

Its like bemoaning Microsoft (or any OS maker) that allows people to create apps - apps that may or may not use advertising.

<comment><USER10> Aren't those pretty much the apps that apple promotes? I remember a article a while back that went over how the App Store was geared towards really cheap Apps and that was in Apple's best interest because they need many apps to sell hardware.

<comment><USER11> Is there really a difference to the end user if your store has 10M apps vs. 9M apps? I think we've hit the point of diminishing returns on the quantity front years ago.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> The point that I find hard to dismiss when talking about the differences in Apple's privacy policies versus Facebook, Twitter, Google, et.al, is that there is, in fact, a significant difference between the privacy of an email, text message, or phone call, and the privacy of a post on facebook, or a tweet. With a phone call, people require warrants, which require judges, in order to listen into a phone call, and similarly with a text message (I assume, I don't know the law about SMS vs phone calls). However, it's understood when using services like Facebook or Twitter that unless otherwise and explicitly stated, your posts/tweets are public, searchable by the public, and kept on servers that are well beyond your control.

Because of this fundamental difference in security, I think it is fair to say that Apple can make a real and authentic claim to caring about user's privacy. I believe under no circumstances should my phone calls or emails be accessible, searchable, or indexed anywhere other than by myself and the people they are distributed to. SMSs ought to be encrypted and be able to be decrypted by myself or the recipient only. These modes of communication are fundamentally different, and apple has the ability to implement these precautions, and I believe they are truly trying to do so. I don't see how it's even a fair comparison to say Apple is hypocritical compared to the social media giants and Google. They offer fundamentally different services, and should be expected to respect privacy on fundamentally different standards. I don't advocate lower bars, I want high bars for everybody. That is why I applaud Tim Cook for making it a point for Apple to adhere to a high standard of privacy protection. I genuinely hope that what he says reflects the true implementation of that policy.

</comment><comment><USER13> The article's only value in my opinion is to make us realize that yes, today, Apple guards our privacy. However, what stops them from changing policy tomorrow?

Perhaps we need privacy principles enshrined in our laws, not a benevolent player in the market.

<comment><USER14> > what stops them from changing policy tomorrow?

> [...]

> not a benevolent player in the market.

The reason they have this policy today is not because they want to be a benevolent player in the market, but because it has a negligible impact on their business model and it can't be adopted by the competition (Google). I would also argue that that's what prevents them from changing it in the future. It makes perfect sense from a business perspective.

<comment><USER15> I don't think we should say that it's either or. I think it's far more likely given their past history, that privacy is both something they care about and something that makes good business sense to them. Recall the pretty stern answer Tim Cook gave when questioned about their environmental programs: [http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/tim-cook-soundly- reje...](http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/tim-cook-soundly-rejects- politics-of-the-ncppr-suggests-group-sell-apples-s)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> People aren't going to like me for saying it but this article is right more than it's wrong. I was a provider of paid, private alternatives to ad-driven services. There were tons of us in late 90's and many in early 2000's. Almost all that didn't switch to ads went bankrupt. Customers seemed to universally want more content/service/everything... for free (or near-free)... while being OK with being spied on & sold out. They also got what they asked for: more articles, games, search, socializing, videos, and so on than have existed in all of history. Huge benefits willingly obtained by giving up privacy and control to anonymous, greedy organizations at a cost they didn't [and mostly still don't] care to think about.

Apple, on the other hand, was fine with lying to customers about security ("immune to malware!"), building leaky clouds, suing those that put Mac OS on cheaper hardware, locking in users with software toolchain choices, keeping low income users out due to high prices, discriminating against competitors in App Store, and even charging for updates. _On top of that_ , despite tens of billions in profit, they _also_ sold customers out to advertisers. They are one of the least trustworthy companies in existence for privacy-conscious individuals.

So, Tim Cook is full of shit. Apple has enough profit to build inherently private/secure OS's, toolchains, and services. This is obvious given that small to midsized firms with a tiny fraction of the money have outdone Apple in many areas of privacy and security by simply putting in effort. Most likely, Tim Cook is merely doing P.R. work to position Apple's _image_ (not reality) as more trustworthy compared to ad-driven services. Those services can't do this because they'd go bankrupt by not invading privacy.

So, let's rehash. Users have more cool and useful stuff than ever before due to ad-driven model. Users got there by repeatedly choosing to be spied on instead of paying or investing time in a private alternative. Apple's past and current track record on privacy/security are terrible. They also do advertising, although not dependent like competition. Apple's CEO says they believe in privacy/security despite them hardly practicing it. Conclusion: our situation is the from users' demand, their massive use of such services maintains our situation, a niche want private alternatives, and Apple is doing PR to make money off those people (while still selling them out).

Capitalism in action! ;)

<comment><USER17> > Apple has enough profit to build inherently private/secure OS's, toolchains, > and services.

That does rather imply that such a thing is possible and the entire history of computer science would indicate that it isn't (yet.)

<comment><USER16> There's been many examples in the past enforcing specific types of properties or immune to entire classes of attack. A few survived years of NSA pentesting. I'll give a simple example: Burrough's 1961 product with a tag on memory words. One bit said it's a pointer that processor hardware protects against forgery or improper modification. Array's were bounds-checked by hardware. One bit said something is code, execute but don't modify, enforced by processor. Function calls arguments were validated by compiler during installation and hardware during procedure call. This combination makes almost every code injection attack I've ever heard of fail while using very little hardware overhead. One exception to overhead is runtime procedure checks. Leave it out & you still knocked out almost every way to take over systems with software vulnerabilities.

There's dozens of designs doing similar things in academic literature, on the web (see crash-safe.org or Cambrige's CHERI), in government (see Sandia Secure Processor), and even commercial (see CodeSEAL architecture). Yet, the tiniest modifications (pointer/array/code protection) would give attackers considerable headaches. This must be integrated with other security methods, of course, along with toolchains (esp compilers) modified to use it and any custom software (esp assembler) modified to use it. Those changes are well within Apple's budget. They also bought an ARM license and a fab deal, meaning they can do the hardware mod.

At this point, there's no excuse for our machines to be vulnerable to pointer, buffer, or memory-based attacks given 1960's technology was immune to these by design. And we could adopt such methods relatively inexpensive today. And academic prototypes running FreeBSD and Linux only cost a few mil versus Apple's tens of billions available. Yes, it has been done, can be done, and is simply not done as usual.

<comment><USER17> > I'll give a simple example: Burrough's 1961 product

But the key there is "simple" \- I imagine that's a tiny fraction of the size and complexity of a modern smartphone ecosystem. Scaling it up to a device that can be manufactured at a profit and will sell hundreds of millions is surely more involved than "we could adopt such methods relatively inexpensive today".

<comment><USER16> That was a mainframe, actually. They're quite complex. The mechanism is simple. I have designs that apply it to a smartphone by a tiny change to the processor and its I/O system. Far as the hardware, that's it. For the software, the C (or Objective-C) compiler just has to use the appropriate tags or instructions when generating the binary. Any hand-written assembler, a tiny portion of the program, must do the same. That's it for the pointer & code protection. On a smartphone, this is the main SOC, drivers, part of the compiler, and any assembler functions. That's it.

There's no need to speculate, though. Several academic projects involving a few amateurs with six to seven digit funding have (a) modified processors for security, (b) modified toolchain to support it, and (c) ported BSD/Linux to it. Others did it for embedded systems. Their schemes are usually much more complex (see Cambrige CHERI processor). Unrealistic to think Apple can't do with 9+ digits less than what academics do with 6-7.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Facebook installed ruins the privacy play.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the point of this? Email form sending. - <AUTHOR>

I have a feedback form which emails me a message. Today I have been getting dozens of messages along the lines of, "Im so glad that the internet allwos free info like this!"
Since this is not posted publicly anywhere, why is this being done? I can think of these possibilities, but I still don't get it:
1. Spam - they think it's posted somewhere publicly, even though it's not.
2. Security vulnerability - they are probing for a way to send emails elsewhere even though the email is hardcoded.
Any ideas why this is being done? The ip address is changing every few messages. <comment><USER2> Perhaps they are hoping you will reply to the email message so they can grab your email and add it to their spam lists?

I have it happen a lot on some of my e-commerce sites.</comment>


Buckaroo: package manager for C/C++ - <AUTHOR> http://buckaroo.pm/ <comment><USER2> So I need Java to manage C "packages"? Sorry, but please try again..</comment>


"Reasonable excuses" for leaving home during lockdown [UK] - <AUTHOR> https://www.northmymms.uk/2020/04/reasonable-excuses-for-leaving-home-during-coronavirus-lockdown.html <comment><AUTHOR> This is a lovely little attempt, by a hyper-local news site, to explain UK lockdown to people. It links to the full police document, from which it has extracted its examples of "reasonable" excuses to leave the house.

Edited to add: Just noticed that the maintainer of the site also has another, called Hertfordshire Walker [1]. This has 97 walks with pictures, maps and text directions. All on public footpaths. Quite the labour of love.

[1] [https://www.hertfordshirewalker.org/](https://www.hertfordshirewalker.org/)</comment>


China's ban on the Boeing 737 Max inspires others, ramps up pressure on U.S. - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/chinas-ban-on-the-boeing-737-max-inspires-others-and-ramps-up-pressure-on-the-faa/2019/03/12/4d4bf2b0-44a3-11e9-90f0-0ccfeec87a61_story.html <comment><USER2> The actual CAA announcement itself is already on Hacker News at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368030](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19368030) .

This is already on the list in the headlined article at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19365108](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19365108) . Lengthier news coverage can be found at [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19367871](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19367871) .</comment>


Game industry vet draws ire from developers for defense of 80-hour workweeks - <AUTHOR> http://www.polygon.com/2016/4/18/11452564/would-you-want-to-work-for-this-guy <comment><USER2> Discussion of the article earlier: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11514717](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11514717)</comment>


Finally there's portection against spams and scams - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.news.com.au/techblog/index.php/news/comments/finally_theres_protection_against_spams_and_scams/

<comment><USER2> I still don't see how this net protects you from spams and scams coming through the portal. Put an orange portal on one side and a blue one on the other and, bam, spams and scams can get through easily. :(</comment>


Why Do People Hate Their Jobs - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/keep-learning-keep-growing/why-do-people-hate-their-jobs-d021a4b4ad72

<comment><USER2> Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back:

[http://www.theonion.com/articles/health-experts-recommend- st...](http://www.theonion.com/articles/health-experts-recommend-standing-up- at-desk-leavi,37957/)

If you can't, though, take a read of David Foster Wallace's 2005 Kenyon commencement address:

[http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf](http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWKenyonAddress2005.pdf)

It offers a contrasting (if not necessarily more correct) view of the day-to- day grind and other kinds of power you can exert over it beyond simply walking out.

</comment><comment><USER3> Same author, exact same story, 1 day later. If at first you don't get the clicks, try try again?

[https://medium.com/life- learning/i-quit-c975aac36408](https://medium.com/life- learning/i-quit-c975aac36408)

<comment><USER4> it was submitted two years ago:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5572765](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5572765)

and yesterday too:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9122788](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9122788)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> This made a lot more sense when I saw who the author was...</comment>


Firefly book series announced: Joss Whedon to serve as consulting editor - <AUTHOR> http://ew.com/books/2018/02/08/firefly-book-series/ <comment><USER2> Please don't post unsubstantive celebrity announcements here. Whatever they gratify, it isn't intellectual curiosity, and that's the criterion on HN.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Hoped I'd see they were working with Steven Brust, author of the excellent Vlad Taltos fantasy series, who wrote a fan fiction Firefly novel, "My Own Kind of Freedom" [http://dreamcafe.com/2008/02/05/firefly- novel/](http://dreamcafe.com/2008/02/05/firefly-novel/)

Well worth a read, though as with all things Firefly, it just leaves you wanting more...

Cory Doctorow's plug [https://boingboing.net/2008/02/18/steven-brusts- unauth.html](https://boingboing.net/2008/02/18/steven-brusts-unauth.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> I never forgave Fox for cancelling this show.

<comment><USER5> How about playing them in a different order than Joss intended? That was also a terrible sin. And moving them around the schedule so much? They seemed to really try very hard to make it fail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I hope no prequeals I hate prequeals carry the stories forward

</comment><comment><USER7> Is this just a way for Whedon to test public response to him working on a new project after all the stories about him being a scumbag came out last year? If it's quiet enough he might use it as his chance to work on a TV or film project again someday.

<comment><USER8> In the deluge of revelations about the scumminess of Hollywood types, I think his rather pedestrian foibles have been drowned out in the minds of most... I had to go google "Joss Whedon scumbag" to even remember what he was in trouble for.

<comment><USER9> If your politics differed from his you would remember, because I'm a huge Joss fan who's had to sift through a ton of insults to my beliefs in order to keep up with his work. I respect my opponents' beliefs but I am quite happy to see him suffer the blowback on his rank hypocrisy.

<comment><USER10> What a nasty load of projection and assumptions! I don't think that it takes politics to differentiate between rape, sexual assault, patterns of abuse and harassment... and cheating on a spouse. Dozens of people coming out and describing the behavior of someone like Weinstein or Spacey is on a different planet than an ex accusing someone of serial cheating.

<comment><USER7> When you have to make the "he's not as bad as ..." argument about someone, they're still pretty bad.

Sure, being a scumbag is a continuum. But it's pretty easy to argue that someone who espoused feminist beliefs (and profited off the image that gave him) while cheating on his wife is squarely on it.

<comment><USER10> _When you have to make the "he's not as bad as ..." argument about someone, they're still pretty bad._

I agree, but I didn't make that argument. I'm saying that there is a fundamental difference between scummy and criminal, and they are not part of the same continuum.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


In Literature, Who Decides When Homage Becomes Theft? - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/t-magazine/literature-homage-theft-appropriation.html <comment><USER2> It's an interesting discussion, but doesn't the argument mean that the problem is ill-defined? I mean, the simplest solution is to walk away from some literature if you don't like it. Literature exists to provide enjoyment, both for the author and the reader.</comment>


Realtime Bitcoin webGL globe – visualizing all transactions and blocks - <AUTHOR> http://blocks.wizb.it/

<comment><USER2> This is awesome, but just a small comment about "Next block expected in 7 minutes". The next expected block is always due in 10 minutes, no matter when the previous block was generated. Mining is a memoryless process.

<comment><USER3> What do you mean? If blocks are 10min apart (actually less as the network hashrate grows before the difficulty adjustment) and the last block was found 3 minutes ago, a new block is expected to be found after 7 more minutes.

<comment><AUTHOR> The 10 minutes is only an average time at which the network can solve the problem with random tries. You won't see a lot of blocks 10 minutes apart because only when measured over longer timeframes it averages to 10 minutes.

Just like when you flip 10 coins they likely won't result in: head - tail - head - tail - (...). Though on average you end up with 5 tails and 5 heads.

<comment><USER3> > You won't see a lot of blocks 10 minutes apart because only when measured > over longer timeframes it averages to 10 minutes.

That's why it says expected! To be 100% correct you could plot the cumulative density function as time progresses, but I think just printing the expected time is fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm watching a real time 3D visualisation of the generation of a distributed unregulated worldwide crypto-currency using the largest network of computers the world has ever seen.

Screw it I'm off to the Black Sun for a drink and a sword fight.

</comment><comment><USER5> A new competitor I see? ;)

I developed the same code base to do the same thing a month ago. It also front paged on Hackernews ([http://www.earthbit.net](http://www.earthbit.net) ).

I guess the main difference is you're using your own proxy for the queries, which is sturdier than a third party. A worthwhile improvement as mine crashed under the load last time = )

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah I knew I could not be the first one to come up with this idea. Nice to see an alternative as well! I love the sounds you added.

I like the fact that I provide all data for the website myself, though I'm not in a position to buy a lot of servers. So let's hope this one will hold :)

FYI: Your normal globe wasn't loading for me, I am seeing the same error that bothered my version as well. That is until @mrdoob pointed me to the error: [https://twitter.com/mrdoob/status/429292386611511296](https://twitter.com/mrdoob/status/429292386611511296)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Other feedback: I suspect there aren't really tons of transactions being relayed out of costa rica - is this possibly the origin point on your globe model or something? Are you filtering out transactions with no geocodable IP?

Really cool visualisation anyway. Like it!

<comment><AUTHOR> I am currently unable to host a big node myself so I am relying on Bitcoincharts and the relay IP they detect. All transactions coming from Bitcoincharts itself (the wallet service) have the localhost IP (127.0.0.1). After being unable to find out where the company is based I've choosen to translate that IP to their main website IP (which is hosted in Costa Rica).

If anybody knows where Blockchain.info is based please let me know and I'll fix those transaction locations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Right, so these are basically the ip addresses of the bitcoind nodes that are the entry point into the bitcoin network. They are not the addresses of the end users who are transacting in BTC. Correct?

<comment><USER8> You are partly correct. The IP is the node who first told Blockchain.info (assuming that's what this is using) about the transaction. The "entry point" to the network would be when the person sending first transmits it.

There is no way to be sure where a transaction came from, but if you have data about how long it took to reach parts of the network, you can make an educated guess (which becomes more accurate if you have more connections/nodes).

Some people specifically add Blockchain.info to their peer list, but that is bad for anonymity since all your transactions will then list your real IP in the "relayed by" field.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Doesn't work for me unfortunately, I see no textures and a lot of errors like this:

WebGL: INVALID_VALUE: texImage2D: width or height out of range

[.WebGLRenderingContext]RENDER WARNING: texture bound to texture unit 0 is not renderable. It maybe non-power-of-2 and have incompatible texture filtering or is not 'texture complete'

This is on a retina MacBook Pro. I guess there's some hw incompatibility there.

<comment><USER9> Works fine on intel and radeonsi in linux in firefox nightly and chromium.

In firefox the textures are noticeably darker for some reason.

<comment><AUTHOR> On firefox I ran into the out_of_range error with the clear image used in WebKit browser. So on Gecko browsers I load a smaller image (which is a bit darker).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I believe there is a typo. In the top left corner, it says 'Block mined at location: Unkown'. Shouldn't that be 'unknown'?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, fixed now!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Great stuff. Where do you get the data? I'm working on a geolocation-centric visualization in webgl that would be a good fit for this kind of realtime(ish) data.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

All transaction and block data is from Blockchain.info ([https://blockchain.info/api/api_websocket](https://blockchain.info/api/api_websocket)) (you can also get that from the Bitcoin network itself pretty easily) and all geo location data (ip to geo) is from freegeoip.net. All data is proxied through my own server, so I'm not hammering those services.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Don't make the cubes green.

<comment><USER13> Orange or gold will complement against the blue/green background, especially when you are popping/zooming out. They get lost in the background when the view pulls out.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've now turned them orange, which improves the visibility a ton. Though I want to fix the lighting and color them based on variables instead of making them so plain as they are now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> man I was going to start a visualization of blockchain but this is wayy cooler. KUDOS Mike!

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks!</comment></comment>


We only had one photograph of the entire Earth–until 2015 (2018) - <AUTHOR> https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-one-photograph-entire-earth-three-years-ago <comment><USER2> We also have the Pale Blue Dot shot from Voyager.

</comment><comment><USER3> How is it you can have an article with this title without mentioning Stewart Brand?

<comment><USER4> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand#NASA_images_of_E...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand#NASA_images_of_Earth)</comment></comment>


Should hackers pay attention to Silicon Valley? - <AUTHOR> http://vladislav.posterous.com/should-hackers-pay-attention-to-silicon-valle

<comment><USER2> It's important to pay attention to what other hackers are doing in your area. One of the awesome things about silicon valley is all of the people from the startups hang out there, but there are hackers everywhere and there can be meetups anywhere.

Once I started paying attention to what was going on in Orlando I met a lot of smart people. We're having a barcamp tomorrow too. <http://www.barcamporlando.org/>

There are other great things about silicon valley, but it's not the only place with hackers.</comment>


SpaceX to Fly Passengers on Private Trip Around the Moon in 2018 - <AUTHOR> http://www.space.com/35844-elon-musk-spacex-announcement-today.html <comment><USER2> Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13748302](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13748302)</comment>


Man Possessing 100,000 Unregistered SIM Cards Arrested In India - <AUTHOR> http://www.chiphazard.com/2011/07/25/man-possessing-100000-unregistered-sim-cards-arrested-india/

<comment><USER2> >> _Logically speaking, someone who just wants a SIM for his personal use, he won't be bothered about providing his authentic documents to the network, however when someone has dirty business to do, providing authentic documents is definitely on his not-to-do list._

Yet another claim of "You don't need privacy if you have nothing to hide." Does anyone know if the US requires all SIM cards to be "registered"?

<comment><USER3> There may be state-level laws on this, but in general I've never needed to provide authentication to buy a prepaid cell phone. (Although you would need to pay cash to be anonymous). I know that some lawmakers are trying to change this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While it's easy to quickly speculate that the only purpose of 100,000 "unregistered" SIM cards is to "do bad things", I have to wonder: Why does a SIM card _need_ to be registered to begin with?

<comment><USER5> SIM cards need to be registered so that the Indian police can track criminals. Personally I disagree with this. Criminals will disregard this law so it will usually only apply to law abiding citizens. Try explaining that to the Indian CBI though...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Never bought a SIM in India, but if it's anything like, say, Argentina where it takes 30 minutes and several pages of paperwork just to get a SIM... I'd opt to go with the guy that doesn't require all that paperwork too, just to avoid the hassle. Can't jump to the conclusion that all the renters are intent on "doing bad things".

</comment><comment><USER7> In Portugal you don't have to register or show any documentation to buy a SIM card, and I know it's the same thing at least in The Netherlands. You can buy a prepaid card at any phone store and you can use it right away.

</comment><comment><USER8> criminal possession of more than an ounce of Schedule 2 dr.... err... integrated circuits.

Interesting that they emphasize the "possession", not that his business itself is, very likely, unlicensed wrt. some law.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Point is even if your a criminal why do you need 100k sims? The only business which involves so many sims is VoIP

</comment><comment><USER9> What the hell was he doing with 100k SIM cards?

<comment><USER10> The article says he was renting them. It doesn't specify the means of possession, like a hundred thousand little pockets on the inside of his jacket, a burly aluminum case handcuffed to his wrist, or a peddler's cart.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> That's a lot of gmail accounts.

</comment><comment><USER12> u can expect from india</comment>


Coffee-script unchained - <AUTHOR> http://micy.in/unchained.coffee/

<comment><USER2> I can see a great idea in there (I agree, turning long D3 chains into Coffeescript is a pain), but that documentation page is _really_ hard to read, and has a lot of typos.</comment>


Ask HN: Which daily habit has affected your productivity the most? - <AUTHOR> Some of the most powerful drivers of success are our habits: what we repeatedly do every day. Even the most successful people are defined more by what they do rather than by who they are.
What are these habits? I would like to develop some good ones. And I'm willing to try several out and report back how they work.
Which daily habit has been the hardest for you to pick up (or change) and why? <comment><USER4> Absolutely nothing compares with sleep. Having about a full week of 8 hour sleep days behind me is when I'm at my absolute peak productivity. I spent years being sleep deprived (~6 hours/day). When I finally came to appreciate just how important being well rested is it absolutely changed my life.

<comment><USER5> Clicked in here to say exactly this. The only thing I would add might be obvious, that consistency is extremely important. Just getting enough actually isn't enough, consistent timing is essential.

My second most significant is probably reading in place of momentary distractions.

I'm applying nearly all my "free time" (what's left after the family, work, exercise and sleep that I consider essential) with an attack on my backlog of books.

I wiped my devices and rebuilt them with only the essentials - no more newsreaders or social apps and I've greatly limited my web browsing.

Not only am I working towards a goal and learning new things, I'm spending it on a book or two rather than 100s of throwaway articles and blog posts - <USER2> but eliminating "context-switching" as I feel like I can keep 2 or 3 concerns in mental cache and get the full value of the time I spend on each of them.

<comment><USER6> As someone who can never seem to catch up on his news-feeds or podcast lists (and I've pared those down more than once), this resonates with me. I wonder if I can cut each of those in half.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sleep. The better the previous night sleep, the better. Its not number of hours, its the type. Sometimes a short nap does wonders other times its a long hard sleep after being 'worn out'. Both can refresh you for next day.

Hardest habbit to change is time wasting. Reading HN, Reddit, News and forums where before you know it, that two minutes has morphed into an 45 minutes of mind numbing distraction. Yes I can block those pages but its more the need for a distraction than the site. Its a hard habbit to break. But its a part of my Depression, the lack of concentration.

</comment><comment><USER8> If you don't track your time, I suggest you do. Knowing there's a record of what I'm _really_ doing each day pushes/inspires me to make that record a good one.

I started out using Harvest, but since I'm less interested in 'what project(s) did I work on today' and more interested in 'how productive was I today?', I've switched to RescueTime.

RescueTime isn't new (YC 08) but they do have an updated interface, so it feels much better than the first time I played with it years back.

Pro-tip: I created a Fluid ssb pointed at my RescueTime dashboard that I then pinned to my menubar, so I can check my stats anytime. Here's the icon that makes it look good: [http://bit.ly/1bhewsA](http://bit.ly/1bhewsA)

<comment><USER9> If you're a programmer I recommend looking at [http://wakatime.com](http://wakatime.com)

<comment><USER10> I use a combination of Rescue Time, Asana and Harvest to track things. Probably overkill to use both Rescue Time and Harvest but I find that Rescue Time tracks some of things I don't when using Harvest(which I use for client reporting).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Allow yourself to be less productive at times.

I used to try and force it. If I was just not feeling it, I would suck down caffeine and charge ahead. Work generated from those blitzes always sucked.

I'm not advocating being lazy but sometimes just take some time to goof off and you'll be ready to go again.

I typically go for a run or hit the heavy bag in my garage for an hour or so and after a shower I'm much more productive than if I stayed in front of the monitor.

</comment><comment><USER12> The hardest habit to pick up for me was to become a morning person ! I was a night owl going to bed at 3-4 am and then wake up in the afternoon. To break this cycle I tried melatonin, f.lux and trying to eat less before sleeping... nothing worked. My solution was to go 24h without sleep and go to bed really early 8-9 pm and put an alarm for 6:30, then I now go to bed before 10 pm and don't have any problem to wake up really early and I find that my productivity level as increased more than ever ! (The coffee help too ;) )

I feel more healthy now instead of waking up to the night, I start my day with a bright sky !

</comment><comment><USER13> I can tell you which habit affected my productivity the most. Video games. I used to spend 4-8 hours a day, _every day_ , playing games. Back then, my drug of choice was Civilization 4, and I succumbed hard to the "one... more... turn..." effect, occasionally skipping sleep altogether.

No matter what gamers might claim, there's really no benefit in spending 8 hours a day chasing virtual goals. Cutting back on my gaming sessions resulted in me suddenly having a lot more time for things like sleeping and learning, and has truly made me a better person overall. I only regret not killing the habit sooner.

</comment><comment><USER14> I started doing Pomodoros [1] recently and I noticed a leap in my productivity. It also helps me to refresh my mind regularly and to stay focused on my tasks more easily.

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

<comment><USER15> Have you found a good mac app for this? I've tried a few but haven't gotten a good one yet.

<comment><USER16> I used this one some time ago

[https://github.com/ggustafsson/Tim](https://github.com/ggustafsson/Tim)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The biggest change I have made is drinking a good amount of water each day. Currently I'm a night owl (which I'm working on changing) and instead of drinking pop, I drink water.

Exercise and staying active makes me feel awesome, but sometimes I don't have time to make it to the gym.

</comment><comment><USER18> Lifestyle:

* Sleep ... 7.5 to 8 hrs, no more no less

* Wake up at 8/9 to maximize hours of sunlight

* Lift weights 4+ times per week... the four hrs you spend in the gym will be made up for with 10 hrs of productivity throughout the week

* Healthy diet (high protein, low carbs, low sugar, fresh food)

Computer:

* VIM

* Avoid HN

* Start working right when you get up

* Answer emails / do other menial tasks when tired

* Get rid of all notifications: phone silent/vibrate, no Gmail/fb/twitter notifications outside of the platform itself

<comment><USER19> 4 hours of lifting a week? That's a lot of time. I know myself well enough that I won't make goals/commitments that I know I won't keep, like this. I have some simple weights in my living space that are hard to ignore. I typically lift for <5 min/day; when I go to the gym I keep it under 20 min to lower the cognitive commitment. It works for me - I can bench press 250 lbs. You really don't need to spend hours at the gym to stay in shape.

<comment><USER20> A 1-hr session 4 days a week is a pretty typical lifting regiment. Personally I consider that hour a cognitive release rather than commitment, but to each his own!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'll tell you what doesn't help productivity. Being in a toxic relationship. Get out while you still can.

</comment><comment><USER22> The last three years has been an interesting time for me productivity wise.

I started a new job, and moved from Perl to Python Django. The organization was fairly new and there were two of us in an office, so not much in the way of distractions.

My productivity went up an order of magnitude, and Django made programming more interesting / fun again. There was (and still is) a lot of work to do building and maintaining the database. I generally tried to focus on the 80% that takes 20% of the time.

A year later I get an extra boss (who knows nothing about databases). He likes meetings. He is pedantic, and focuses way to much on the 20% that takes 80% of the time.We now have 4 people in the office (previously 2). I am constantly asked to switch task, and fix Excels (I have been arguing for two years that we shouldn't be using Excel for data uploads as it is so error prone).

Anyway, I think my productivity is around a quarter of what it was two years ago, and my work is a lot less satisfying. And I am on HN right now.

So for me, productivity gains: Working in a quiet office. Getting to use language / framework of my choice. Learning new interesting stuff. Focusing on one task at a time, until it is finished.

Losses: Two managers pulling in opposite directions. One cowboy coder quick fix king. The other pedantic and focusing on spelling mistakes over new functionality. Busy office. Tedious repetitive work (fixing Excels that are used for data uploads) - really kills motivation. Too many meeting. I don't get many full or even half days uninterrupted programming.

</comment><comment><USER23> Starting the day with a new TODO list. Not only does it give a clear plan for the day, it also keeps me from idling too long with distractions like reddit or HN. Whenever I'm done with a task and find myself chatting or browsing the web, I just refer to the todo list to get me back on track. It takes about 2 minutes and it's well worth it.

<comment><USER24> Yep I do this everyday. I used to think TODO lists were for people who weren't disciplined enough to get stuff done. But it keeps me concentrated on what task needs to be done instead of reading every blog post in the world.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I know a guy who swears he is more productive by starting his mornings with:

1\. drink a cup of coffee

2\. take a good shit

3\. tackle a big problem

<comment><USER25> Not a very clean topic, but shitting really does make me more productive! If I'm feeling groggy, tired, lazy it's usually when I haven't taken a shit in a while.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I tried out the trick Jack Dorsey recommended during Startup School 2013: keep a two daily lists of things to do and things not to do. Read it when you wake up, throughout the day, and before you sleep.

Here's what's on my list:

Do: take a cold shower; meditate; throw yourself in; work on hard problems. Don't: be annoyed or upset; lie down unless to rest without computer.

It's working for me pretty well so far. For me the list's main value seems to be in those small, split-second decisions: if I'm choosing between two things to work on, my mind will suddenly remember "work on hard problems," and I'll choose the harder one.

<comment><USER27> I don't mean to sound rude, but does "Don't: be annoyed or upset" really make a difference? I mean, who objectively and dispassionately decides to be annoyed or upset?

<comment><USER28> Emotions aren't a choice, but emotional awareness and control can be. When annoyed or upset, stopping to _ask_ yourself why you're annoyed or upset can be very beneficial. The old "stop, take a deep breath, and count to 10" advice from grade school has some merit. (You don't literally have to stop, take a deep breath, and count to ten. But making a conscious effort to be aware of one's emotions is a worthwhile exercise.)

<comment><USER29> I've found that literally stopping to take a breath is actually a very good practice for this situation. Helps me avoid a lot of bad moods caused by inconsequential things. Process the negative information, realize it's inconsequential, and return to a state of calm.

(I don't count to ten)

This applies for small things, but most things that people get distressed about are small.

<comment><USER28> It's amazing how well this works, at least for me.

Sometimes I even make an effort to think to myself, "How would X respond to this situation?" Replace "X" with anyone of your choice who would probably be a lot cooler than you under stress: Jesus, Spock, Batman, James Bond, Yoda, Mr. Rogers, or whoever the heck epitomizes "chill" in your worldview.

It sounds cheesy, and it probably is. But it works. Chances are, the "X" of your choice wouldn't react hastily or let small things get to him. Shit happens to everybody, but stopping in mid-emotional-flareup to process an appropriate response is a skill. And skills can be developed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Exercise regularly.

<comment><USER31> Among the countless benefits, one I've noticed is an increased ability to handle roadblocks and detours. If I haven't worked out in a while, when I run into one, I get more upset and hopeless. If I have been working out, I usually just soldier through it easier.

<comment><USER32> For me exercise giving me a chance to really think about something away from the computer (and sometimes figure it out).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> So, my list:

\- Sleeping at least 7 hours, 8 is better.

\- Waking up earlier - I thought I am a night owl, but I realized that I am not. Morning is the best time frame to be creative and productive for me (and for many people actually).

\- Always keeping my stuff ready. This means clean email folders, clean notes, clean desk etc.

\- Watching the food what I eat (I am not on a diet, but I do not eat pizza and chinese food every day e.g), the drinks also (tea instead of coffee), and keeping attention to breaks while I am working

I also pay attention to avoid disctractions while I am coding. Every morning when I sit down in front of my monitors I read my RSS feed/twitter/personal mails first. This is good to start my brain at the morning and also keeps me away from checking these at the rest of the day. A psychologist told me once at a training that your mornings should start with something they call 'warm- up'. This is mine. Some people do not need it as they can warm up while they are travelling to their office or just after they get up and yoga for example.

Ah, and one mor thing for the sleep part. I - personally - don't like when I need to fall asleep during watching a film or a part of a TV-series. It is also not the best when I just turn off the computer and jump into the bed. I always go to bed with a book in my hand. This relaxes me and when I feel I can sleep right now, I just turn off the lights (or my ipad). A few minutes of meditation is also very helpful for a good sleep.

Hope I could help!

<comment><USER34> > A few minutes of meditation is also very helpful for a good sleep.

I'm having trouble falling asleep after going to bed (~2hrs), or waking up during the night or early next day.

Would you please detail more about the meditation part?

<comment><USER33> If you are really interested I suggest reading some books on articles on this topic as I am not a real professional, haha.

What I do actually: I just close my eyes, try to relax, and concentrate on my breathing only. It is more a relaxation than a mediation maybe. Sometimes I keep thinking nice things which make warm and nice feelings, just to go away from my current state. At first it is very hard to forget the "chaos" in your head (I was always thinking about deadlines, bugs, appointmens, personal problems and stuff like this), but if you practice it will be easy.

<comment><USER34> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Turn off every alert and notification that you can and disable the clock in your menu/task bar. Get in the zone by not letting external things interrupt you all day. Programmers especially need long stretches of uninterrupted time.

Seeing a clock all day brings you out of the present moment - your mind wanders into useless thinking about how many hours until lunch, or until I go home, or even more negatively, "I've been stuck on this problem for x minutes."

</comment><comment><USER36> If I avoid all my "info junkie" websites (HN, reddit, political news) between 8am and noon, my productivity skyrockets. It's remarkable.

Most importantly, for me, is to avoid those websites even during my "breaks." If I need a quick break, I'll physically get up and away from my computer. Otherwise that "five minutes" usually ends up being closer to an hour or so.

<comment><USER37> Good for you! I started to do these "physical breaks" also this fall and it's been quite a kick to my productivity. Spending every break on HN / Reddit / FB is not actually a break anymore and it really starts to get tiring to your eyes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Working out and getting proper sleep.

I am a coder and I feel like I need to use a lot of my brain during my working hours. Working out (could be lifting weights or even just running or crossfit stuff) helps shift the focus from concentrating on algorithms and design and to just getting from point A to point B or lifting x weight. I know many friends who tried working out and couldnt get themselves to commit. The difference for me is that, I am motivated by an athletic goal that I set for myself and hence work towards it.

Sleep is probably the most important "habit" you should have. I personally find that after a good night of sleep, I am extra productive during the day and get more tasks done. I can think clearer and able to code better/faster. While number of hours of sleep is important...so is quality! An example of quality sleep is sleep where you dont wake up in the middle of the night to hit the washroom or out of panic that you missed something in your code(I used to have many of these haha).

</comment><comment><USER39> Sleep, exercise, get up at the same time each day, eat more protein in place of carbs, and drink less alcohol.

</comment><comment><USER40> The biggest moment for me was when I started thinking about productivity (or its absence) as a matter of willpower, and started to think strategically about how to make it easy. It's still a struggle to think that way: it seems like you should be able to grit your teeth, roll up your sleeves, and become productive. But that's not really how our brains work. Not mine, at least. For me, after that mindset shift, the most valuable strategies have been creating early external deadlines, drafting in longhand or into a voice recorder—and, above all and whenever possible, working closely with awesome collaborators rather than alone.

</comment><comment><USER6> An hour a day of focused work. I'm approaching a hundred straight days of work on a Kickstarter that, as my first, brought in almost a grand last week.

Sleeping more. I remain under-rested, especially since my day-jobs have always frowned on naps, but I'm making slow improvements. You may not realize how much of a difference it makes until you actually get a good night's sleep.

Getting _better_ sleep. Get tested for sleep apnea. Avoid blue lights for at least an hour before bed. Find someone or something you can cuddle with in bed. I'm serious about the latter; we're a gregarious species and sleeping alone is unnatural and stressful.

</comment><comment><USER41> I'll throw my hat in the ring:

      - Not have young kids
      - <USER3>
      - Make a todo list the night before, and give yourself an easy goal to start the day.
      - Consider your brain to be a muscle, and treat it as such: nurture it, exercise it, let it rest. Let it rest can be things like spending time with friends, or doing whatever you want.
      - Mindful meditation.

(Edit: typo, formatting)

</comment><comment><USER42> Habit Streatk, (or I think Habits for iOS). Do something once a day, everyday. E.g. small chore, commit code, read book for a few mins... etc. This, coupled with "Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days | Video on TED.com" had a huge impact on my life over the past 7-8 months and built my self-disciple (though still room for more disciple :) ).

</comment><comment><USER43> Forget sleep. Sleep less.

Have a nice morning ritual (go have a healthy breakfast outside, read the newspaper).

Start working on the most difficult task after.

</comment><comment><USER44> Sleep at minimum 7 hours (ideally 8), exercise every morning, drink lots of water.

It's simple. Execution is the hard part.

</comment><comment><USER45> A few people are saying that they are most productive by starting their day on a big problem.

I am the opposite of this. I try to tackle a small problem or two in the morning in order to improve my mental state. If I'm able to get things done quickly, then it sets the tone for the rest of the day.

</comment><comment><USER46> Wake up at 5 AM regularly (even on weekends). And go to sleep early as well. Sometimes I do more in first few hours early in the morning than throughout the rest of the day.

</comment><comment><USER47> sleep enough/well, eat enough/well, exercise enough/well, manage stress & emotional state, stay focused, don't try to do too many things (you must say No to a lot of things in order to preserve time/energy/focus/money to say Yes to the things that are more important for you, give you a higher ROI, etc.)

</comment><comment><USER48> naps, probably. they make the early afternoon a bit more like the early morning (most efficient part of my day), for me.

</comment><comment><USER49> Break something before you finish your day. Fix it first thing next morning.

</comment><comment><USER50> Honestly? Not worrying about my productivity has done wonders.

</comment><comment><USER51> #1 sleep #2 regularly exercise (weight lifting + cardio)

</comment><comment><USER52> Reading Hacker News

<comment><USER53> Ditto. Sleep and reading hacker news.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Hacker News

</comment><comment><USER55> no procrastinate setting in HN

</comment><comment><USER56> bipolar disorder

</comment><comment><USER57> \- Watching porn. That distracts me alot. I need to cut down on that.</comment>


Straws And Cups That Detect Date Rape Drugs - <AUTHOR> http://www.wgbhnews.org/post/boston-man-invents-straws-and-cups-detect-date-rape-drugs <comment><USER2> 1\. Awesome invention, straws that detect adulterants and change colour

2\. Obviously people do get drugged occasionally, the inventor seems to have had it happen to him

3\. Unfortunately there seems to be no real evidence that GHB or ketamine are often used in sexual assaults, and even Rohypnol which has the worst reputation has not often been detected. A straw that could detect a drink that's stronger than you think it is might be more useful, AFAICT the number one date-rape drug is alcohol.

(I want to be absolutely clear here, I'm not saying date rape doesn't happen, I'm not saying that some really nasty people don't deliberately get others into pliable states to take advantage of them, but AFAICT the use of drugs in the way the media likes to run scare stories about is very uncommon)

<comment><USER3> None of these "date rape drugs" even come close to comparing to alcohol.

It's the original and most effective date rape drug, and no one even really objects to people using it for that purpose.

Getting people drunk to get them to sleep with you isn't really /wrong./ Once you start using scary drugs that no one has ever heard of, then wow, that's something we can condemn. Especially since no one we know would ever do such a thing.

<comment><USER2> >> Getting people drunk to get them to sleep with you isn't really /wrong./

It is, sorry.

There's nothing wrong with two people having a few drinks and going to bed together. But it's at the very least creepy to plan to knock someone's inhibitions down that way, or to take advantage of them.

>> It's the original and most effective date rape drug, and no one even really objects to people using it for that purpose.

You've now gone beyond creepy.

<comment><USER4> I'm giving the commenter the benefit of the doubt. I don't think he means that "there's nothing wrong with getting someone hammered to try and sleep with them", he means that "society seems to have a much smaller problem with getting someone hammered to try and sleep with them despite it being the same basic idea as GHB."

<comment><USER2> Dunno. To me there's a vast differnce between getting pissed and falling into bed with someone as a mutual "WAHEY! let's go for it!" thing and "if I keep buying her drinks maybe she'll get drunk enough to take her top off". The latter seems little better than spiking them.

\--edit-- OK so I've read his other comments and it was clearly a comment on society and meant to be taken at anything but face value. I'll be the first to admit that in discussions like these I can easily suffer from a sense of humour failure, if not a complete lack of sarcasm detection.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Clubs and bars tend to be dark and the patrons inebriated. I have to imagine that those factors would go an awful long way toward nullifying any benefit of this stuff.

Also, if the technology involved is anything like the color-changing "field test" kits that cops use, false positives will be a problem.

An associate of mine was booked for "heroin possession" when an overzealous cop decided to test his aspirin during a traffic stop - he was released the instant he got a hold of a lawyer.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is a great invention that can help prevent abuse, but I'm worried bars won't buy in for a few reasons:

1) I assume the cups have to be disposable, as the strips probably don't work multiple times. Most bars I've been to don't use disposable cups.

2) Even if they did, it has to be cost effective for the bar to consider using them. If 1000 cups is $250 (0.25/cup) and you can get 10,000 normal cups for that price, that's going to probably factor into their decision.

3) The bar might be worried that having these cups might reflect poorly on their reputation. I can imagine people saying to themselves "Why is the bar using special glasses that detect date rape? Is date rape a problem at this bar?" When you introduce an item like this it might lead to speculation that there is a problem when really you're trying to be safe. It's like if you installed a metal detector at a club and put bars on the windows -- you might be doing it just to be safe, but your patrons might think "do things happen here that warrant security precautions like this"?

<comment><USER7> On number 3, people might think the opposite too. "We can go here and not have to worry!" I wonder how that would factor into how much someone drinks "Since there are no drugs to worry about, the people must be trustworthy enough to get blackout drunk around!"

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It seems to me that, rather than making straws and drinks that do this, it would be better to see if it could be incorporated into some kind of nail polish that, once dried, could detect this.

I suggest nail polish for two reasons. One is that it removes the need to carry specialized tools: once you've done your nails, you can test 10 drinks and leave the bottle at home. Not having to carry a tool is somewhat more convenient, but it also means the tool can't be forgotten, lost, stolen, or tampered with.

The other advantage is discretion. It's not difficult, with a setup like this, to test a drink without others knowing what you are doing. It could be argued that people shouldn't mind being tested, but from a pragmatic standpoint, the kind of person who spikes a drink is the kind of person who could very easily become dangerous if they know they're being put to the test. A discreet test, therefore, is a safer test, and since these tests are supposed to be all about safety, it follows that a discreet test is also a better test.

<comment><USER9> The idea is good, but it would be more targeted to women than men.

<comment><USER10> A clear coat will work with both sexes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > "Boston Man _Invents_ Straws And Cups That Detect Date Rape Drugs"

Invents? I thought this has been around for quite awhile now? I remember hearing about things like this years ago. Maybe it was just the idea, and had not yet been actually a physical product though?

<comment><USER12> heh. it was "new" in Dec 2012 as well. Same inventor: [http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/12/11/new-straw- detects...](http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2012/12/11/new-straw-detects-date- rape-drugs-drinks/w9zDzE3blWz8COnfnWWh8L/story.html)

It was also invented by scientists in Tel Aviv in August 2012: [http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/24/tel-aviv-researchers- de...](http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/08/24/tel-aviv-researchers-design-straw- to-detect-date-rape-drugs/)

Apparently also in August 2011 by the same scientists: [http://www.geekosystem.com/straw-detects- drugs/](http://www.geekosystem.com/straw-detects-drugs/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> These drugs are without consistent ingredients and are always changing. He will need to stay ontop of drug trends and the constant iteration will side track the project. His biggest challenge will be scoring the actual drug to test the sensors... The chances that he will be able to produce these cups for an amount equal to the current cost of a regular plastic cup is doubtful. Etch-it cups can't even come close to the price of a regular plastic cup so how can these sensor cups be priced to attract bulk orders from bars and clubs?

My guess is that he is banking that the patent has value to cup manufacturers but the cup manufacturers probably don't want to hire a slew of scientist for R&D. They just want to make and sell cups.

</comment><comment><USER14> Invent me a cup that tells me if my Diet Coke is actually Regular Coke, then we can talk

<comment><USER15> Taste buds?

<comment><USER14> An indicator with fewer false +/\- than taste buds

<comment><USER16> Even coke zero tastes nothing like regular coke. Aspartame has very distinct after taste - almost rotten like.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Now I know I may be stupid engineer but isn't much simpler solution to have someone trusted who to call from time to time. With everybody having smartphones an gps app that for given period of time sends messages to trusted 3rd party about your location and being able to call if something is out of order is also a solution.

Just before going upstairs she just calls to the "warden" and if she is speaking coherent ... do whatever you like. If not - the trusted party can take a cab or signal the police.

<comment><USER17> "Now I know I may be stupid engineer but isn't much simpler solution"

I'm with you on this. Nothing stupider than slapping a technical solution on a social problem and calling it good.

Hmm, going out to drink unknown substances out of other peoples cups and letting other people mix potions for you and drinking out of cups people leave laying around unsupervised for others to mess with, is unsafe now, so "open mouth and out comes ridiculous cross between rube goldberg, life magazine predictions from 75 years ago about the future, and star trek technobabble". No, its just an obsolete, dangerous, dumb way to spend your time. You wanna do something stupid, fine, have fun, but don't come crying to me about how us smart people "have" to do something about your dumb decisions.

Kinda like free love was cool before HIV. Or going drunk driving was a great idea when you drove your own horse, but really dumb idea after cars. Sorry to break it to all the whiners but like it or not we live in the 2010s so deal with it or suffer. Going out drinking means pretty scary odds of date rape. So unless you're dense as neutronium, don't do it.

Before the chorus of how dare I blame the victim, well I have the right to blame them because I'm not an idiot. Going out drinking might have been fun in ye olden daze but its not ye olden daze anymore, its dumb and dangerous and THAT is why I have the right to blame the victim. I didn't get this brilliant knowledge from a reveled religion or a secret sauce, but from incessant whining of journalist reports, any other moron out there should be able to figure out the same thing I figured out, which is not to go out drinking anymore. Too bad for the victim if they're too dumb or lazy to think like the human being they are. Actions do have consequences.

I do have genuine pity for like "the first" date rape victims, how could she have possibly known and she'd not to blame. But we've had a lot of journalism since then. Not for some idiot who went out last night with a virtual bullseye painted on their fun parts, knowing fully whats probably about to happen, knowing that when the inevitable happens, they can just blame "society" or maybe blame the "techies for not inventing a cure"... anyone to blame but themselves.

There are perfectly good social solutions to this social problem. BYOB. Carry a fashionable hip flask. Strange as it may sound, you can socialize with friends without consuming liquids of any sort (insane concept, huh?). Take up an intoxicant that's safer than alcohol and harder (impossible?) to spike, like weed. "Back when I was a kid" we got totally drunk BEFORE we went out, who wants to repeatedly pay $7 a glass for something I can get drunk on at home for 75 cents/can, especially when you're a poor student. Only get drunk with actual friends at home instead of criminal strangers at a bar who want to take advantage of you. We're all smart here, its not very hard to figure out. These "revolutionary" ideas might negatively impact someones entrenched profitable business model? Tough cookies. Cry me a river.

But don't spew random tech all over an outmoded idiotic behavior and call it brilliant. Its just obsolete thrashing about. Wanna suffer? Fine go out and do it. I'm not going to feel any pity when the inevitable happens.

Don't worry, people are still going to find the numerous other ways to act stupid and hurt themselves.

<comment><USER18> > Or going drunk driving was a great idea when you drove your own horse, but > really dumb idea after cars.

I don't think the danger to self is a big differentiatory between drunk horseback riding vs. drunk driving, rather, the difference in the external costs is.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Instead of every cup or every straw doing this, some random and unknown percentage would do it. Combined with advertising, it could be an effective deterrent in a place where this is a real problem.

People keep mentioning a bar's reputation, but at the end of the day if this is a real problem for your bar, your reputation is already screwed. This seems to me like a very pro-active way of working on fixing an already broken reputation.

</comment><comment><USER20> If you find yourself going to a venue where you think one of these would be handy, shouldn't you just not go?

<comment><USER21> It can happen anywhere, it's not just in seedy bars, I've know it to happen(at least here in the UK) in clubs with otherwise good reputations.

<comment><USER22> That makes sense, for the same reason that pickpockets rarely look like seedy hoodlum types, and instead blend in with the crowd.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> When the drink isn't drugged, these look just like straws and cups that _don 't_ detect drugs. This suggests an obvious attack: swap out the straw or cup for a plain plastic one. (Countermeasure: make the cups and straws look distinctive.)

</comment><comment><USER24> Wonder what the false positive / false negative rate is?

Either one could lead to a dangerous situation.

<comment><USER25> One of those situations is more dangerous than the other, I would say.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I happen to know (no time to look up the patent number now, sorry) that this is covered by a US, and EU patent. A friend of mine lost more than €30,000 to being sued by a firm that already holds the rights to this.

I hope he figures it out before they start trolling him. My friend's "invention" also covered a product on beer-mats and serviettes that would change colour under the same circumstances, unfortunately the patent he was facing down was so broadly written that it covered basically anything that could be used to detect daterape drugs in a drink by indicating it somehow.

Surely the patent could have been battled, but he wasn't in the financial position to do so.

</comment><comment><USER27> \- how many cups contain a drug (i.e. 0,1%; 99.9% are drug free)?

\- is the problem big enough for bars to care about?

\- do cup producers increase their rev/profit with this cup?

</comment><comment><USER28> I want a straw that tests for adulterated alcohol-- specifically for a bar serving filtered rubbing alcohol instead of the real stuff.

<comment><USER29> 15g of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol will kill you.

There's a chance, though, that you may be calling low quality ethanol alcohol rubbing alcohol, and I'm just missing it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> A better solution is to learn the behaviors that rapists use - being pushy and overbearing, not taking no for an answer, cutting out of the herd, stuff like that. If your buddy behaves like that, don't let him get away with it.

And it's useless to detect rape drugs because the biggest rape drug is _alcohol_.

</comment><comment><USER31> Why does this frequently "invented" useless item keep getting press every time it is "invented" for the dozenth time? These are really misguided devices, that give people a false sense of safety (it is even labeled "safe" on the non-spiked drink) when alcohol is far and away the most used and most dangerous date rape drug.

<comment><USER32> You could always invent your own strip that detects alcohol and displays UNSAFE. That way people will be reminded before they drink their vodka tonic that it contains alcohol.

<comment><USER31> The point was not that we need to detect alcohol. The point was that these things are counter productive to the goal of preventing date rape.

<comment><USER32> Sorry, I was being sarcastic. The goal of these things is to prevent date rape by someone unsuspectingly taking particular drugs. There's not much you are going to be able to invent if your goal is to stop date rape by preventing people from knowingly drinking alcohol.

<comment><USER31> But you just repeated the same thing. Again, I am not suggesting "stop date rape by preventing people from knowingly drinking alcohol" should be a goal. I am saying these devices are harmful. They have the opposite effect from what is intended. They create a false sense of security in regards to the problem, convincing people that as long as their drink hasn't been spiked they are fine. But 99% of date rapes involving drugs aren't from drink spiking, they are just from drinking.

<comment><USER17> Perhaps both of you would understand each others position better, by meditating on the phrase "security theater".

A straw that detects a handful of numerous dangerous substances is about as useful at its claim of producing "safety" as TSA agents molesting grandmas and teen girls at airports. I'm rather proud of this analogy.

<comment><USER32> I understand the position (and enjoy your analogy), I just simply disagree with it. I find it hard to believe that anyone who is drinking an alcoholic beverage is going to be tricked into thinking the effects of said alcohol are any different just because a straw or cup says "SAFE."

<comment><USER31> Go ask some college aged women about it and see what you find. Ignorance of the effects of alcohol is incredibly widespread. Thousands of women a year swear they had their drink spiked but actually just got black-out drunk. Convincing women that all they need to worry about is the 1% case, and that the 99% case doesn't exist is harmful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> It's genius!</comment>