Ask HN: Google translate fail - <AUTHOR>

I'm trying to imagine what could make Google Translate do this, how it works, etc. Thing is, translating "manter" (the verb "to keep" in portuguese) from Portuguese to English gives me "Facebook". If I change it to "Manter" it gives me "Keep". How would you explain this? (Screenshot http://bit.ly/ewdyWn) <comment><USER2> Google Translate wasn't engineered to translate single words, it was engineered to understand and translate entire sentences. It acts strangely when I try to translate Spanish infinitive into English, and I usually have to add "a " before them to force it to translate correctly. Use a dictionary for individual words.

<comment><AUTHOR> That explanation is plausible, but the expected words are there right below Facebook: keep, maintain, hold.. :)</comment></comment>


"Why I Do It In Public" by Alexis Martin Neely - <AUTHOR> http://www.alexismartinneely.com/why-i-do-so-much-publicly/

<comment><AUTHOR> I have considered that public tweets should be considered fair disclosure under Reg FD for a while now.</comment>


Chris Sacca says sorry for harassing women entrepreneurs - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@sacca/i-have-more-work-to-do-c775c5d56ca1 <comment><USER2> Damn. I really hope to be this reflective in times when I realize I've been wrong or done wrong. We fetishize people who strive for external greatness, but what's much harder is figuring out how to work on being better people. We're quick to forgive the clear failings of other people, because it also lets us excuse ourselves.</comment>


Keeping the Content Machine Whirring - <AUTHOR> http://thenavelobservatory.com/2015/07/25/keeping-the-content-machine-whirring/ <comment><USER2> Maybe people want to post something on Facebook about a movie they watched. Instead of writing it themselves, they find someone else who said something they agree with and share that instead. In most cases, the professionally- written article is better than whatever they'd have written themselves, and it's certainly saved them some time.

This doesn't seem all that worse than the old days when people who were illiterate hired professional writers when they really needed a letter written, except that we're all able to use this service for free.

I do the same thing, but for science articles. Perhaps I could do as a better job than a professional science writer if I did some research, but why not share the original instead, when it's not my area of expertise?

</comment><comment><USER3> Since everything is always getting worse, at some point in the future we will look back at the clickbait nonsense of 2015 with genuine nostalgia.

"Those were the days of real content. Before it all turned to crap"

Shudder.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is astonishing ly poignant and revealing and describes accurately why facebook is such a scorched earth landscape.

</comment><comment><USER5> 1\. people like to point out when others are wrong on the internet. It much harder to do so for in-depth writings. Relevant: [https://xkcd.com/386/](https://xkcd.com/386/)

2\. my newsfeed is never ending. Am I going to spend 5-10 min reading an in- depth article? and I know nobody else on Facebook will like/comment/discuss the long article with me.</comment>


Ask HN: How to install kubernetes on CoreOS - <AUTHOR> Hi,
Ive been struggling to install kubernetes on a coreOS cluster. Ive read docs after docs, but haven't found a simple example. Most examples either use ubuntu or start off with using a package manager which coreOs doesn't come installed with.
Any help or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. <comment><USER2> Reach out via [https://coreos.com/community/](https://coreos.com/community/) and see the current docs for different platforms here [https://coreos.com/kubernetes/docs/latest/](https://coreos.com/kubernetes/docs/latest/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, ive read the docs but its still not clear. Il reach out to the coreos community

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Havent tried this on coreos but it should work anywhere that has docker [https://github.com/kubernetes/kube- deploy/blob/master/docker...](https://github.com/kubernetes/kube- deploy/blob/master/docker-multinode/README.md)</comment>


Ask HN: Should there be regulations for "banning" users from platforms? - <AUTHOR> With a few companies rewriting the modern existence, should there be limits/regulations on the ban of users?<p>Something like limited 1 month/3 month/6 month/12 month(max) ban periods based on #of strikes? <comment><USER2> There should be less regulations about everything in general.

<comment><USER3> Yes please, less regulations because systems self regulate and it's in the interest of we the people. Just like the US health industry, right?

Neoliberalism at its finest.</comment></comment>


Ritchie, Stroustrup, and Gosling interview - <AUTHOR> http://www.gotw.ca/publications/c_family_interview.htm

<comment><USER2> "Well, I never had to learn C..."

-Ritchie, when asked how long it takes a programmer to become proficient in the language.</comment>


Researchers have invented a new way to thwart facial recognition - <AUTHOR> https://gizmodo.com/this-algorithm-might-make-facial-recognition-obsolete-1844591686 <comment><USER2> 13 days ago

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23917337](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23917337)

</comment><comment><USER3> PSA: if you're in California/EU (or pretend to be) you can request ClearView (the hip facial recognition AI service that law enforcement uses) to exclude you from their databases ([https://clearview.ai/privacy/requests](https://clearview.ai/privacy/requests)).

<comment><USER4> Just don't pretend so well that the California Franchise Tax Board is convinced too.

It is interesting to me though that EU citizens have far greater rights on the Internet than American citizens do. For example it's almost impossible for American tech companies to deplatform a EU citizen unless they break local law. There's a vast array of laws and regulations from libel to privacy to others I don't even know the specifics on, all of which will be interpreted by courts that are evidently hostile to American companies. For example, calling an American a Nazi is never going to pass muster in a libel suit. Calling a German a Nazi is calling them a criminal, which is clearly libelous.

<comment><USER3> Serious question, was this comment written by a bot? I can see how each word is related to the thread but as a whole it reads like word salad.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> Maha-pudma I wonder if this will be another arms race like adblocking now. The facial recognition companies find a work around to this and researchers find another work around, ad infinitum.

Meanwhile I have the best solution to thwart all facial recognition, don't upload you photos in the first place.

<comment><USER5> This also requires one to have no friends or family that upload photos of them, no corporate profile photos linked to talks given...

It certainly is possible, but the bar is high and grows higher the more people in one's life.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Maybe just placebo here, but I can notice a difference between the left and right images. The right definitely seems blurrier or harder to focus on.

<comment><USER3> Is it possible that you're an AI and we just caught you?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Now we just need this to be integrated and enabled by default in the camera app on our phones

</comment><comment><USER8> Social platforms should use such algorithms by default.</comment>


Inside the Frozen Zoo That Could Bring Extinct Animals Back to Life - <AUTHOR> http://www.gq.com/story/inside-the-frozen-zoo-that-could-bring-extinct-animals-back-to-life <comment><USER2> > This is the crux of the anti-Frozen Zoo argument: Shouldn't we fix ourselves > before we fix anything else?

I'm glad the article addresses this point. We have a lot of work to do before we can do this responsibly, if we should do it at all.

<comment><USER3> Very much in that same vein, shouldn't we treat the existing animals of the world far better before bringing whole species back into it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Beautiful article. Those that liked this, will probably also enjoy what I consider maybe Douglas Adam's best book: "Last Chance to See": [https://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-See-Douglas- Adams/dp/0345...](https://www.amazon.com/Last-Chance-See-Douglas- Adams/dp/0345371984)

There's a also a companion BBC Radio series (which I haven't heard) and a later follow up by BBC TV, with Stephen Fry, which is pretty good.

</comment><comment><USER5> De-extinction is extremely difficult. Even if you're able to preserve DNA with 100℅ accuracy you still have the issue of raising an animal that we have little knowledge of how child rearing, eco system, etc works. I suppose for the more recent extinctions we have more information that could be used to de- extinct them and then rewild them. But something like this happening for species like Wooly Mammoths is probably a long way off.

</comment><comment><USER6> Life is perpetual movement, evolution, adaptation. There is something profoundly disturbing about these projects of freezing elements of the biosphere we're busy destroying. According to some geneticists, it's a fool's errand.</comment>


Being a bad friend to David Foster Wallace - the-enemy https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/errors-are-intentional-foster-wallace/ <comment> S-E-P Subversion by sincerity

I strive to be sincere, although as my life has taught me, people can rarely be trusted. In my experience, when I do finally find someone that can be trusted, it is then that the fruits of my sincerity show.

I'm often sincere simply because it makes me smile when someone did not expect it, and watching them attempt to process/respond is something that brings me joy. Simply by exposure to sincerity, many have returned in kind; this has allowed me to help others, and even get advice for situations that one would only usually ever save for an advice columnist. (which rarely actually give you the advice you need, easier to give you want you want to hear, and it will keep you reading)

After reading this, I could not help but reflect on my own decisions when striving for sincerity. It's not exactly free of pain or the subsequent shame that can often follow, but why do I feel the need to stick with it? I think it comes down to my personality, I have rough edges and can take a royal beating, which is the kind of constitution you must have if you ever want to be sincere.

With sincerity, there is vulnerability, and while many consider that to be weakness, I count it a strength. Just don't be surprised if someone hurts you after you were sincere, it does not protect you, and to some, me included, we don't care, and neither should you. Pain is part of life; much better to be real and to be present then to be without pain and truly alone.

<comment><AUTHOR> > With sincerity, there is vulnerability, and while many consider that to be > weakness, I count it a strength.

I, too, count vulnerability a strength. There's an essay I keep meaning to write about it, but the short of it is that each of us has needs (and 'rough edges'), that can't be filled by self-sufficiency, but by connection. And vulnerability is what makes connection possible.

</comment></comment><comment><USER2> Wallace's writing never resonated with me, which is strange based on my longtime interest in Hunter S. Thompson. In many ways there are parallels in their respective fame / accolades / audiences and yet, to me, Wallace seemed inexcusably contrived compared to Thompson's seeming dismissal of convention was out of necessity (at least initially - it did become an act of sorts later).

I did find one part of this article worth considering beyond just a discussion of Wallace:

> _For twenty years, his entire career, Wallace wrestled with a question: How > much of myself am I willing to give away to get what I want?_

...followed by...

> _He got what he wanted and didn't want._

If there's any one dynamic that is willfully ignored by almost everybody in modern society - especially in the rise of Social Media Stardom (aka Soundcloud Rappers & Influencers) - this hits the nail on the head.

Wallace, to me, is more interesting as a case study of failure in success than as a literary powerhouse. Not everybody can be like Jerry Lewis and keep up an act for a lifetime.

<comment><USER3> May you live in interesting times

May you find what you are looking for

May you come to the attention of somebody important

AKA the three curses.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The people I know to whom DFW appeals tend to be those who think they're smarter than they are. There is no judgement inherent in this observation.

<comment><USER5> A lot of people who consider others as "thinking to be smarter than they are" are simply anti-intellectual in general, and tend to see any effort towards the arts, reading, philosophy, etc that's not marketable or job-related as pretension.

There is some judgement inherent in this observation.

<comment><USER6> I approve of people thinking they're smarter than they are, because that's a worthy aspiration. Compared to, say, people who think they're hipper or more attractive than they are. If it makes people read literature that stretches their mind, that's great.

Pretension can be the first step towards not needing to pretend.

<comment><USER7> Pretension tends to be satisfied with appearances---carrying the literature around rather than actually reading it.

<comment><USER8> Having it around is a prerequisite to reading it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Disrupt Winner Vurb Raises $8M To Steal Mobile Search From Google - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/07/the-rebundling/

<comment><USER2> I don't totally get this. Google put a Now search bar on the Android home screen. I type in "ice cream" and it not only reminds me of several "ice cream" searches I've done recently on the desktop browser, but brings up all sorts of hits for local ice cream including a map, reviews, Wikipedia, etc.

It's not clear what more value or convenience someone can add to this. But, I guess the investors know something I don't.

</comment><comment><USER3> It's been awhile and no clear sign they are sending out the invites yet...</comment>


Time to Intelligently Discuss Artificial Intelligence - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/backchannel/ai-wont-exterminate-us-it-will-empower-us-5b7224735bf3

<comment><USER2> What scares me about AI is the omnipresence it can give small groups. Imagine that you are a government keen on preventing a particular argument from gaining traction in the media. AI gives you a tool that can listen for the argument becoming developed in chatrooms, forums, comment threads, etc. Once detected, AI also gives you a strategy to attack the credibility of the argument. Governments apparently do something similar to this today, although it seems like a much more manual process [1]. Society will continue to see benefits from developments in AI through software like Google' Search, Apple's Siri, Spam Detection, Network Security, just to name a few. Although certain uses of AI will only be available to small and elite groups, and the fear probably stems from the one-sidedness of this powerful technology.

[1] [http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/world-cracks- internet](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/world-cracks-internet)</comment>


Life Without Axioms - <AUTHOR> http://wayofthescholar.com/life-without-axioms-science-and-the-necessity-of-induction/ <comment><USER2> People have been thinking about induction for millenia - this essay describes what its author figured out in around 5 minutes. If you're interested, read Jeffries and Popper instead.</comment>


Bing smacks Google in new usability test - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/02/11/bing-smacks-google-in-new-usability-test/

<comment><USER2> Potential confounds:

* Google submits many more searches with it's instant AJAX search-as-you-type

* Google's speed allows users to hone in on better search results by tweaking terms, whereas Bing/Yahoo users don't waste their time with a 2nd search

* Google displays the answer right on the results page with superior semantic analysis, nullifying the use of a clickthrough

* Google's tools (such as "define:", math like "4+1.078", and conversions like "45cm in inches") are well-known and people look to Google itself for answers, not secondary sites in results

* If Google's users are more "tech savvy", they may use search qualitatively differently than Bing users (related to the above explanations)

* Google users click on Google Ads more than Bing users click on Bing ads - are ad clicks tracked?

Of course, these could all be wrong. But worth looking into or acknowledging in the research if they already had.

<comment><USER3> Another one based on the logic that Google's users are more "tech savvy" (which I believe they, on average, are):

* A larger percentage of Bing users are doing "time-saving" searches, such as "hotmail" and "facebook", where they know the first result is what they want even before they search.

And extending that logic - a tech savvy audience will be more likely to have more complex results. It's not hard to give searchers want they want when they're looking for "superbowl results" or "justin bieber".

<comment><USER4> _which I believe they, on average, are_

Self-selection bias?

Here's what I observe among my non-tech friends: they have Google as their homepage. If they want Facebook, they type "Facebook" into the search box - even tho' typing it into the address bar would do the same thing. If they come across a PC that's not on Google, then they go to Google using the address bar and proceed as before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Matt's response to this: [http://www.google.com/buzz/109412257237874861202/A7d5joZ3tJJ...](http://www.google.com/buzz/109412257237874861202/A7d5joZ3tJJ/This- isnt-worth-a-full-blog-post-but-Ill-jot-a)

<comment><USER6> There's another possible source of selection bias: users may be going to Google for queries that they _know_ are a hard, because they assume that Bing won't have the answer. Of course such queries will fail more often, because they're hard.

Bing's marketing has centered around the head of the query distribution - common tasks where definite answers exist, like how to book a flight. It makes sense that such tasks would succeed much more often than long-tail ones like looking up an obscure error message.

<comment><USER7> Well if they are "going" to Google for hard queries then wouldn't they try the queries on Bing first?

Or are you saying that people spend time deciding a query is simple or hard and then choose appropriate search engine for that?

<comment><USER6> More that they have certain problem domains where they might pick a given search engine, and that those problem domains are biased toward using Bing for easy searches and Google for hard ones.

I'll frequently search for airplane tickets on Bing, for example, while I won't even go to Google for that. But when it comes to looking up obscure programming stuff, I'm not going to bother searching on Bing, I know it'll suck.

<comment><USER8> "More that they have certain problem domains where they might pick a given search engine, and that those problem domains are biased toward using Bing for easy searches and Google for hard ones."

That makes no sense. Why would you, or anyone, alternate with search engines if one of them too often fails to deliver? Why not just use Google all the time and avoid the cognitive overhead?

Does Google do a poor job, or a worse than Bing job, with airplane tickets?

<comment><USER9> I use DDG except for local sites, which it doesn't index anywhere near as well as Unca Googs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Here's an interesting comparison:

Google: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&q=Fan...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=active&q=Fantasia&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=)

Bing: [http://www.bing.com/search?q=Fantasia&go=&form=QBRE&...](http://www.bing.com/search?q=Fantasia&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n&sk=&sc=8-8)

Yahoo: [http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Agt64BoFz7.2ArgJZ_Io2BSb...](http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Agt64BoFz7.2ArgJZ_Io2BSbvZx4?p=fantasia&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701)

What stood out to me is that images and videos are not being served up front and center on Google.

No doubt more and more people are searching for video. Google really looks old-fashioned in this match-up.

<comment><USER11> My preference:

DuckDuckGo: <http://duckduckgo.com/?q=fantasia>

I prefer uncluttered and informative results at the top instead of news headlines.

<comment><USER12> I do too, but I find for non-trivial searches, I often have to make use of !g.

More than once I've spent time doing multiple searches for the answer of a tech question, re-wording the search to try and find a hit, only to have an a-ha moment and say, "oh! hey! '(original query) !g'" and bam, first page, The Answer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I initially assumed that everyone around here would have tried Bing, then I realized that may not be true. Have you guys given it a try? When Bing came out I switched my browsers to Bing for a couple of weeks and noticed essentially no difference in usability or results quality. Alas, after reinstalling operating systems and browsers, Google gradually defaulted back to the browser I use, and it's just not worth the effort to change again. I really don't prefer one over the other.

<comment><USER14> I don't use Bing for search (I'm tempted to start using DDG) but I do use their maps quite often (though not exclusively).

I really don't have any brand loyalty to any of the search/map/whatever providers - if something seems to be consistently better I'll switch (as I did from AltaVista to Google).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Does my 'search' for "skitsophrenia" as a lazy-man's way of spellcheck actually count as a query? IMHO this metric is flawed.

</comment><comment><USER16> 50% of my Google use, as a non native English speaker, is for spell checking, even for tricky native German stuff, USD to EUR conversion etc and I've also never been using a calculator beside Google for some years now. Google just does that fine.

</comment><comment><USER17> "If you are like most people in tech, the last time you used Bing was never"

Woah. I am a SE and I use Bing's image and travel search all the time!

<comment><USER18> Are you saying you are most people in tech? He did not say everybody.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> A study like this would only yield meaningful results if the user selection for all three search engines were the same and randomly selected from the general internet-enabled population.

In this case, one interpretation of these results is that google users look for something very specific and thus are less likely to be satisfied with the first result that pops up, while bing users are more casual and search for generally consumable content.

<comment><USER20> > _"bing users are more casual and search for generally consumable content."_

That would seem to be bad for Google. Bing gets to sell ads alongside casual searches such as "cheap table lamps" and Google has to try to monetize "'Company A' 143rd Ohio Brice's Crossroads."

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Wow, Google partisans need to calm down a bit.

The reduction in Big G's search engine monopoly is good for the market and good for tech in general.

</comment><comment><USER22> I am extremely disappointed with the new-fangledness in the newer Google interface changes.

The 'instant' search is just a jarring user experience in the way it does massive unpredictable updates to the screen at every keypress. Even worse is the new image search results screen - mouseover on any image makes the search field lose focus, it even does this when fetching the first page of results, so you have to click the search field again every time you do a search.

Even the suggestion search field they introduced a few years ago was a dubious value proposition - I personally got better value from the standard text field's 'previous entries' than from the suggestions.

</comment><comment><USER23> I highly doubt their tactics here. They're grabbing aggregate ISP data for users (<http://www.hitwise.com/us/about-us/how-we-do-it>) and running scripts to see if the search is followed by an address that appears on the search page. Also, it seems like they don't account for google's instant search, but it's hard to tell as their first "success" statistic was posted in October (Instant Search was released on September 8th). They do however, publish upstream traffic percentages for sites in various categories ([http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press- releases/google...](http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press- releases/google-searches-apr-10/)) prior to September. Note that in this case, the ratio between the upstream click throughs (75% for google, 15% for yahoo, and 10% for bing for health related click throughs) and the ratios of the aggregate search traffic (71.4% for google, 15% for yahoo, and 9.4% for bing during that month) allow us to extrapolate the "success" rates during this period, and it seems to suggest that everyone is in line for search results (with google being slightly ahead, at least for health. I didn't run the numbers for the other categories as we dont know the search volume for each of those, and as such you couldn't find an average statistic that was relevant). Just my two cents, but it seems like the data is highly affected by google's instant search.

</comment><comment><USER24> "'success rate' .. a measurement of how often a user executes a search, and then goes to a webpage from the set of links"

One simple example where this fails: [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=circu...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=circumference+of+the+earth)

The answer is shown three times in the results. There is no need to click on anything. Did the testers compare these results for Google and Bing?

<comment><USER25> [https://img.skitch.com/20110211-r3jmccgi1ejs24p1hbdnu69fwm.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20110211-r3jmccgi1ejs24p1hbdnu69fwm.jpg)

vs.

[https://img.skitch.com/20110211-cfdpqbca86fe1qgwdpbutdu153.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20110211-cfdpqbca86fe1qgwdpbutdu153.jpg)

Google's are better, however, they both don't show the value for me.

<comment><USER26> I see it in the second result from Google!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> From my experience back in the pre-google days was that I'd have to open up five or more links to ever see anything worthwhile and this was back in the day when page titles had zero relevance too.

Plus, I haven't seen the google front page to search in months, so that's a definite +10 for usability in my books. If I was smarter (or more pro- procrastination) I'd have a link to google news on my chrome splash screen.

</comment><comment><USER28> I call sampling error. Bing users are easily pleased with results, take anything they're shown. Google users look harder, and often refine a search.

</comment><comment><USER29> The explanation just _might_ be the fact that google submits new searches as you type

</comment><comment><USER30> I also find it interesting that a few defunct microsoft webpages (such as <http://popfly.com>) redirect you directly to bing. Naturally, you'll follow the wikipedia or equivalent link to figure out what's going on.

I doubt this would generate a large amount of click-through data, but it makes you wonder what other tricks they have up their sleeves.

</comment><comment><USER31> >It implies that the user found what they wanted

No it doesn't. It will penalize a search engine where the user base like tweaking the search & unduly boost the score of one with sheep for users that click on the first thing they see.

</comment><comment><USER32> The number of users that use Bing is much lower than the number of users that use Google.

This comparison is similar to saying that book X that has a total of 4 ratings, 5 star each is better than book Y that has 100 ratings, 4 star each.

<comment><USER23> Given the volume of both though (they grabbed these stats from 10 million searches) the statistical relevance of each should be pretty definite, even if you're using a bayesian average.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Google sucks in results recently.

</comment><comment><USER34> My greatest search success is when the information I need is in the displayed snippets. Others clearly agree: see DuckDuckGo's 'zero click info' and Google's 'One Box' results.

Next best is when the snippets make it clear I need to refine my search, rather than wasting my time wading through the result sites. Again, no clicks from the results, but a happier searcher.

So the Hitwise 'success rate' metric seems totally bogus to me – _inversely_ correlated to the quality of snippets/OneBox.

I suspect Google's snippets are still the best in the business, though an objective analysis of that would be interesting news.

<comment><USER5> When powerset launched they had very impressive snippets. Now that they've been bought by microsoft, I wonder how much of the technology has been integrated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Noticed how Yahoo! has a higher success rate than Google? That alone is proof that these numbers do not correlate to the real world experience.

</comment><comment><USER36> Must have been wrong shade of blue.

</comment><comment><USER37> i think they opened google.com because bing was not good enough to come back to!</comment>


Keyboard layouts: Dvorak better than QWERTY ? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theworldofstuff.com/dvorak/

<comment><USER2> Sigh. This again. Here's my best synopsis on the issue:

The science on both sides is completely inadequate. All studies actually performed are seriously tainted by being run by people with axes to grind. Thus, as much as we don't like anecdotal data, it's really all we have. The studies are also _very_ old, and I would worry that even if they applied to old-style typewriters that they may not apply to modern keyboards, which are much, much softer than the typewriters of the early 20th century.

There is no compelling evidence that there's a huge speed difference between Dvorak and QWERTY. People who have tried both frequently report that Dvorak does _feel_ better, though. Some do not report that it feels easier. I choose the word "feel" with care; it is subjective, but we have nothing much better to go on.

Current science can not prove whether Dvorak can prevent or mitigate RSI, but many people with existing RSI problems have reported improvement anecdotally. Given the difficulty of fixing or improving RSI, I would think these reports shouldn't be entirely dismissed, even if they aren't proof. Science _can_ prove that typing with Dvorak does empirically involve less finger and wrist motion for the same thing to be typed, so at least there is a plausible mechanism for such an effect.

Programmers often complain about the mappings of the [] and the /= keys being reversed. I would say two things: First, if it bothers you, flip it back! And second, your mileage will vary based on your language of choice. My primary language is Perl (professionally), and I once did an actual character count on those characters, and it was as close to even as you could ask.

I type in Dvorak (with Caps Lock mapped to backspace), and I have not gone back, despite the inconveniences it sometimes brings up; the wrist comfort for me wins out. Also, science can't prove it prevents RSI, but it can't prove it _doesn't_ either, so as an informed person, I am acting on the belief that it doesn't hurt and probably helps. I may be wrong. Who knows.

Finally, I think that everyone should consider fiddling with their keyboard, even if you don't choose Dvorak. There are other layouts closer to QWERTY, and other things you can try independently, like remapping Caps Lock to something useful. (I choose backspace, like I said; CTRL is a popular choice.) I'm thinking of trying flipping the digits and symbols so the "4" key gives $ and SHIFT-4 gives 4. Learning an entire new keyboard layout is hard, but learning one key switch is easy; remapping Caps Lock to Backspace takes about ten minutes to learn, and ten minutes to unlearn if you don't like it. The key is to _un_ map the real Backspace key. I have a theory that one could incrementally learn Dvorak without completely slowing yourself down by flipping one key at a time and learning it over a month or so, but this may destroy your QWERTY skills and I've never actually tried it or heard from anyone who did.

There. I think that about covers it.

</comment><comment><USER3> I switchedin my early twenties and it's been well worth it. It's not so much about speed, as it is about accuracy, and especially about comfort.

I would recommend in switching that you not move your keycaps around, or draw new letters on your keyboard, or any other mental crutch, but instead simply memorize the new layout. It won't take long, and that small step will hasten your transition.

There were a few interesting side effects during the transition. For the first couple of days, I realized that I could no longer spell some words -- my life is so terminal oriented that much of my rote spelling knowledge was based on muscle memory.

During the transition, it was an added challenge to do everything, and that sort of reminded me of how the older generation of punch card programmers often described their work. Suddenly it became more efficient to think about the problem harder before trying solutions, increasing the chance of success, rather than just firing rapidly from initial thoughts until I had bludgeoned a solution.

</comment><comment><USER4> I've considered trying different keyboard layouts, but it seems like it would hamper "portability". Nearly every device with a keyboard is QWERTY and mentally switching my muscle memory between a primary workstation and all those other things sounds exhausting.

</comment><comment><USER5> I completely agree with the bit about losing your QWERTY skills. I wasn't expecting it at all when I switched and was pretty shocked when I discovered I had to hunt and peck on most other peoples machines.

That being said the opposite is also true. I worked for quite a few years in a team environment where other people hopping over your shoulder to "just do something quick" was quite common (and quite annoying). Switching to DVORAK nipped that nonsense in the bud very well.

</comment><comment><USER6> I can type about 100WPM on Qwerty.

Tried Dvorak for a while, only could get up to 45WPM after months. Not worth it to me at all.</comment>


Magnus Carlsen beats Caruana in tie-breakers to retain World Chess crown - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/28/magnus-carlsen-beats-fabiano-caruana-in-world-chess-championship-tie-breakers <comment><USER2> Will this quieten down the outrage from Magnus' decision to offer the draw in the final classical game now? It seems that it may have been a very strategic decision, rooted in his belief that he would be clearly superior in the tie- breaker format.</comment>


You are not a developer if you.. - <AUTHOR> http://onsoftwares.com/2010/05/30/you-are-not-a-developer-if-you/

<comment><USER2> Ugh, you're probably not a good developer if you can't spell 'software'. Also, I assume 'mediocracy' is supposed to be 'mediocrity'.

The best developers I know have excellent written language skills, because they care about precision in everything.

<comment><AUTHOR> @dadadooda mediocracy stands for government or rule by a mediocre person or group. (Dictionary.com)

You're right about 'software'. Corrected that in the post.. (not the domain) Thanks.

And.. I agree with your point as well.

<comment><USER3> @satyan - absurred should be absurd, in the article. I can't help nitpicking spelling/grammar mistakes. Sadly, they seem to be so commonplace on the internet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Funny that someone would stress the importance of understanding "business needs" and in the same breath consider "We should write this piece in Java. I know Java pretty well." to be absolutely absurd.

<comment><AUTHOR> @brazzy yeah.. that stands out a bit. It just means that technology is chosen without understanding what it is for. There are so many choices available nowadays.. e.g. if one needs faster development/release cycle, you choose Rails, etc..

Thats the context. Thanks.</comment></comment>


Show HN: ProductHacker – The best of Product Hunt and Hacker News in your inbox - <AUTHOR> https://product-hacker.web.app/ <comment><USER2> I have something similar but is not a newsletter. I already get too much noise in my inbox. Definitely considered making mine a newsletter but I think in general it would become part of the overall noise.

Mine is more of a feed from several sources. I also provide read times and sentiment.

Not trying to hijack your share. This approach looks very cool. Just wanted to share in case somebody needs a solution like mine. Or maybe if you want to collaborate on something. I love when people identify a need and tackle it from different angles.

[https://kue.waveguide.io/](https://kue.waveguide.io/)

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems nice. I would subscribe to a feed, but not to a newsletter.

<comment><AUTHOR> Should have added on the site, but here is the RSS → [https://buttondown.email/producthacker/rss](https://buttondown.email/producthacker/rss)

<comment><USER3> Thanks! Subscribed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sounds cool, except I was immediately denied - > Unfortunately, we've detected this email as spammy.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, thanks for the heads up! I don't send spam - I've just sent 01 email so far. lol

I've been using the Buttondown.email service. But will move to a custom domain to improve deliverability.

<comment><USER5> I believe they were saying that your site wouldn't let them add their email to the list. Buttondown seems a bit overzealous in not getting bounces in my experience and rejects perfectly valid emails. It's a great service otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A few of the best of HN links are pointing to the wrong posts

<comment><USER3> Yes, it seems every other URL is the same as the one before.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Links in the Hacker News part point to wrong URLs.

<comment><AUTHOR> Fixed! All good for tomorrow's newsletter!</comment></comment>


Exploring the Virtual Database Engine inside SQLite - <AUTHOR> http://coderweekly.com/articles/exploring-sqlites-virtual-database-engine.html

<comment><USER2> The big change hinted at in the documentation around the 3.5 era is that SQLite switched from a stack based VM to a register based one. Note that the implementation details are not exposed to a developer using SQLite and there is a massive test suite so the change had no visible impact.

What isn't mentioned is why SQLite is using a virtual machine in the first place. The reason is that SQLite only calculates the next row of results when you ask - it does not calculate all result rows at once in advance. Each time you ask for the next row of results it has to resume from where it last left off and calculate that next row. The virtual machine is a way of saving state between those calls for the next row (amongst other things).

This is also why there isn't a method in SQLite DB adapters to get the number of result rows. SQLite has no idea other than actually calculating them all which is the same amount of effort as getting all of them.

<comment><USER3> > _Each time you ask for the next row of results it has to resume from where > it last left off and calculate that next row. The virtual machine is a way > of saving state between those calls for the next row (amongst other > things)._

They could have achieved the same effect by implementing it in a language with continuations or coroutines, or maybe just iterator functions. That might be viable today if the language is fast enough and callable from C.

C# and LuaJIT spring to mind.

<comment><USER4> But in the end, you're just trading performance for abstractions. There's not really a functional difference between writing the DB in a language running on a VM implemented in C; or writing a DB _with_ a VM implemented in C.

If performance and portability are your goals, C is going to be the logical choice.

<comment><USER5> You already have the abstractions, they're just C abstractions.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wonder if anybody has dared guestimate how much money SQLite has provided to the world in terms of time saved not hacking out buggy serialization and indexing code for software projects and just using this amazing tool instead.

I use SQLite frequently in small projects and it's absurdly invaluable. That it's free and PD almost beggars belief.

</comment><comment><USER5> Neat! Is there a way to tell the backend "run this bytecode, please"? If there is sqlite would make a great test bed to try out new query languages. Or, inversely, you could write a distributed database whose wire protocol was sqlite bytecode. Or you could write code translator to let you run sqlite queries on hadoop.

<comment><AUTHOR> Take a look at Oracle Berkeley DB:

"Berkeley DB is not exposed to the end-user. It is totally hidden below the SQLite APIs. It acts as the storage engine in place of SQLite's own BTREE. An application written to use the SQLite version 3 API can switch to Oracle Berkeley DB with no code changes, simply re-link against Berkeley DB."

[http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/overvi...](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/overview/sql-160887.html)

I haven't had time to read the full paper, but it looks very interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Informative but short article. I'd love to read more about when it's time to create a VM for your program or system. If anyone has links to more articles on VMs in practice, especially a story chronicling a transition from a non-VM architecture to a VM-based one, please post them.

</comment><comment><USER8> Now that's just one of those things I would have never guessed. Super interesting.</comment>


Collection of Machine Learning Papers with Code - <AUTHOR> https://paperswithcode.com/area/natural-language-processing <comment><USER2> The focus of this collection (within the larger collection) is toward "natural language processing" (NLP) - but there appear to be many other ML papers/code available for other domain areas, just by searching. This is actually a nice site overall (for ML examples and plenty of others).

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah true !</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which tool can be used to visualize GPU memory usage in a spark cluster? - <AUTHOR> While it can be done by using deep learning framework profiler or nvidia-smi output(http://forums.fast.ai/t/visualizing-gpu-memory-usage/1103/5) for all GPU instances but looking for any existing tool to visualise GPU memory just like ambari provide a nice dashboard for CPU memory (https://docs.hortonworks.com/HDPDocuments/Ambari-22.214.171.124/bk_ambari-operations/content/viewing_the_cluster_dashboard.html). <comment><USER2> you can perhaps implement it with [https://developer.nvidia.com/perfworks](https://developer.nvidia.com/perfworks)</comment>


Biopython Tutorial and Cookbook - <AUTHOR> http://biopython.org/DIST/docs/tutorial/Tutorial.html <comment><USER2> I've found that the etetoolkit[1] is a huge improvement over Bio.Phylo, and it's webpage has much better documentation and style than BioPython as a whole. I definitely recommend checking it out if you work with phylogenetic trees.

[1] [http://etetoolkit.org/](http://etetoolkit.org/)

<comment><USER3> An interoperability layer with BioPython is being developed at the etetoolkit:

[https://github.com/jhcepas/ete/issues/138](https://github.com/jhcepas/ete/issues/138)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why not Jupyter Notebook for tutorial? (It is so, so easier... and more beautiful.)</comment>


Why spectacles is a bad idea. And how you can reverse myopia naturally - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@faiz/why-spectacles-is-a-bad-idea-66078a52626c

<comment><USER2> "Traditional ophthalmology is based upon an assumption that eye is an immutable optical system."

Wasn't the original use of lenses for exactly the case of mutability, i.e. correcting presbyopia?

<comment><AUTHOR> Have you gone through the material thoroughly? Take time to read 'em and also the files he uploaded on the drive. It makes sense. Also, check this out. [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140513-do-glasses- weaken-y...](http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140513-do-glasses-weaken-your- eyesight)

<comment><AUTHOR> The link I posted presents a counterview. "Professor Ananth Viswanathan, Consultant Surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, believes the lack of research is probably down to the absence of any physiological reason why glasses might damage eyesight. Research needs not only to look for associations, but for plausible mechanisms." Unfortunately, its not so convincing enough as the article on medium. Its meant to be an introduction and to create a mindset. The real stuff is in the files uploaded on the drive</comment></comment></comment>


Optimizing Hash-Array Mapped Tries for Fast and Lean Immutable JVM Collections [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://michael.steindorfer.name/publications/oopsla15.pdf <comment><AUTHOR> ClojureScript implementation: [https://github.com/bendyworks/lean- map](https://github.com/bendyworks/lean-map)

Talk: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GibNOQVelFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GibNOQVelFY)</comment>


The World of Black-Ops Reputation Management - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/news/features/online-reputation-management-2013-6/ <comment><USER2> I suffered harm from a negative SEO campaign like this.

I was in a relationship with a young woman, whose father is a wealthy CEO of a public company. I will never be able to prove it, but he arranged for my name to be smeared. He ensured that when you google my name, "arrested" showed up in Google instant search. Needless to say, my clients were not thrilled.

He also got the local newspaper to carry a story about an anonymous person in a very specific field of work (mine) who allegedly was being reported for sexual harassment. Again, I can't prove anything, as no names were mentioned, only very direct hints. The newspaper article cost me more than a few friends and who knows how much business.

My lawyer advised me to avoid this guy and recommended that I terminate the relationship with the young woman. I did, and I never told her why.

I have since made several attempts to contact Google to get them to remove the negative search results, but so far I have not received a reply.

I am slowly gathering a pile of evidence of major tax evasion towards her father and his off-shore accounts on Cyprus, and one day revenge will be mine. Justice I have no hope for.

<comment><USER3> > I am slowly gathering a pile of evidence of major tax evasion towards her > father and his off-shore accounts on Cyprus, and one day revenge will be > mine. Justice I have no hope for.

You possibly just blew it.

<comment><USER4> Heck, if the dude's money really was on Cyprus, revenge may already be his.

<comment><USER5> Unless the guy is a Russian "businessman", then he lost nothing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I was on the other end of of one of these campaigns. It was extremely distressing, having fictional articles pop up every other day. The dispute was over a post I made outing a scammer. In the end (2 months and 50 posts) I folded and removed the post.

After I made peace with the scammers I was then contacted by a reputation management company that tried to extort more cash from me and started posting more articles. Thankfully it ended when I didn't respond.

It's really the lowest level of entrepreneurialism and one that should be shunned. When I have some spare money I will tell the internet that i'm an astronaut just to prove a point.

</comment><comment><USER7> Fascinating post. Reading about the somewhat amateurish construction and maintenance of these sites made me think there is a good business opportunity here automating the system -- not that I'm interested in pursuing it. I imagine the market for this service is very inefficient, as clients obviously don't like to talk about it and thus it is difficult to gauge quality.

<comment><USER8> > somewhat amateurish construction and maintenance of these sites

Maybe it's my misplaced faith in human nature but I think this kind of thing is almost self-regulating.

> not that I'm interested in pursuing it

Exactly.

It's funny how money works. I'm sure there's a lot of HN users reading this thinking "well fuck that, ten grand a month!" I guarantee you that after 6 months 99% of those people would be looking at themselves and wondering what they were doing with their lives. Getting a bit of money saves you from the wolves at the door - bills, rent, worrying about what you buy. And then you're in your nice, warm, fully paid up home and you get to face the real monster - the mirror.(†)

Which is why these rich guys are paying through the nose for this nonsense in the first place, of course. Because that guy in the mirror is taunting them. Take money for doing something you know is wrong and he'll taunt you, too.

The thing is, though, you can have as many fake philanthropy sites as you want, but you can't fool that guy in the mirror.

(†) Or the whiskey bottle. Same thing really.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is the relatively easily executed version of negative SEO: it's hard to negatively affect the SEO of a site, but easy to bury it with dozens of crafted pages - whether to hide an unfavorable result, or to discredit a competitor. $10,000 a month seems like an absurd number, but "reputation management" is a big business (albeit very quietly executed) and getting content on sufficiently high pagerank sites can be expensive.

If you look on sites like blackhatworld you'll find tons of people interested in services like this.

Seems like the business is booming, too: [https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=reputation%20managem...](https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=reputation%20management%2Conline%20reputation%20management)

<comment><USER10> This is what HBGary did for the USG....

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> The bit on the last page

"I imagined a future in which rich people create dozens of scapegoats for themselves, like [...] body doubles, and wondered how some data-mining bot might tell the difference."

reminds me of the "Friends of Privacy" in _Rainbows End_ by Vernor Vinge[1]:

"[T]he web browser was much like the ones he remembered, even though many sites couldn't be displayed properly. Google still worked. He searched for Lena Llewelyn Gu. Of course, there was plenty of information about her. Lena had been a medical doctor and rather well known in a limited, humdrum way. And yes, she had died a couple of years ago. The details were a cloud of contradiction, some agreeing with what Bob told him, some not. It was this damn Friends of Privacy. It was hard to imagine such villains, doing their best to undermine what you could find on the net. A "vandal charity" was what they called themselves."

[1] Incidentally, a must-read for anyone wondering about possible implications of Google-Glass-like VR/AR technology.

<comment><USER12> It's amazing, reading Vinge, how his writing just keeps getting better and better. Though the "deepness" novels may still be his best, I was surprised by how poetically written, perhaps because a key character was a poet, _Rainbow 's End_ was. Vinge really knows where his towel is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The flip side of this is someone with an influential blog (high PageRank) etc. can easily use this to smear someone and there's absolutely nothing the target can do about it.

For example, look at Thomas Hawk (aka Andrew Peterson).

In the past, his (occasionally mis-guided) vitriol has been aimed at various targets. It's tapered down since he was sued but it remains appalling how someone with so much pent up anger is able to adversely affect others.

[http://www.edrants.com/is-thomas-hawk-a-first-rate- jerk/](http://www.edrants.com/is-thomas-hawk-a-first-rate-jerk/)

[http://gizmodo.com/5730979/erotic-art-museum-sues- photograph...](http://gizmodo.com/5730979/erotic-art-museum-sues-photographer- for-2-million-because-its-worried-about-its-pristine-reputation)

[http://www.jeremynicholl.com/blog/2011/07/04/how- stockbroker...](http://www.jeremynicholl.com/blog/2011/07/04/how-stockbroker- andrew-peterson-aka-thomas-hawk-smeared-photographer-jay-maisel-in-andy-baio- copyright-row/)

"Shortly afterward Peterson / Hawk caved in, reached an out of court agreement with the museum, removed the allegations of fraud from his blog, and replaced the offending Flickr set with an abject apology so humiliating it's practically a Private Eye parody."

"With great power comes great responsibility"

</comment><comment><USER14> Funny thing is that many ORM companies fail at guarding own reputation:

Yet the industry has its own image problem. Even the most prominent player, Reputation.com, which charges $3,000 per year—and often many times that—to police search results for clients can't entirely cleanse its own profile. The company's first page of Google results is free of negative content, but when a user types the company name into the search box, Google's auto-complete feature often suggests "Reputation.com scam" as one of the choices. "To solve this for ourselves is not an option based on the time and money we'd have to put into it," says Michael Fertik, chief executive officer of the Redwood City (Calif.) company, which is backed by more than $67 million in venture funding. "Sometimes you can move content from page two to page five of Google, but the cost becomes so high that it's not realistic." Source: [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/fixing-the- reputations-...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/fixing-the-reputations- of-reputation-managers-02022012.html)

</comment><comment><USER15> It is much more expensive to bury your search engine results if your name is plastered on major sites, so you can pretty easily protect yourself in a couple of steps.

Never fight a battle you don't have to. From now on, pick a middle name, real or imaginary. Use this name on your resume, business social media accounts, Facebook, etc.

Use your new full name on all the obvious social networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Google +). Then you get creative - leave reviews for books in your field on Amazon using your new full name, they always kill. Make a quora account with the name. Make a meet-up account with the full name, etc.

This won't make it impossible to smear your search results, but it changes it from a couple $100 in outsourcing to a multi-thousand dollar a year project. Best advantage of this, it costs you almost nothing to change all of this to a new middle name if your enemy does spend the money. Spam anchor text can't be changed without doing the whole campaign again, even if they can change the smear websites, which many times they can't (since its published elsewhere).

</comment><comment><USER16> If future potential sources google the article author's name, they're going to find a vindictive-sounding article in which he fails to adequately protect the anonymity of sources to whom he explicitly promised it. Too bad there's no way to get something removed from google.

</comment><comment><USER17> Interesting story. I don't want to make any checks, but it seems the story itself could be false; in some way that's even more interesting. E.g. all the sites that are mentionned could exist, but have been created long ago to give this story credits.

This also makes me think to all those people that endorse me on linkedin, presumably so that I endorse them back.

<comment><USER18> Nah, they endorse you by accident, most likely. Linkedin incessantly buggers its users with requests to endorse ones connections. You almost have to make an effort NOT to endorse, if you navigate the site.

<comment><USER19> "Bugs", surely? Although you may be right...

<comment><USER18> Curious. I'm not a native speaker, but I thought "bugger" could be used in that way. Not so?

<comment><USER19> No, as a verb it pretty much only has one meaning, which you should look up :) Kudos on your English though. I'd never have guessed you aren't a native speaker.

<comment><USER18> Oh. That could be cause for an ackward situation, I guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This is basic rep management and has been around for quite some time.

I don't really find it surprising - probably because I'm so plugged into the online ad space - but I'm a little off-put by how the author so clearly puts the actual names of people out there that he found.

Surely few, if any, are totally innocent, but was that necessary? "Chad", who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has had his cover blown (if he is presumably one of those the author already listed). How would you sleep at night knowing that you had allowed a source you let speak anonymously be found out within just a few minutes of amateur sleuthing in your article? I find it abhorrent.

</comment><comment><USER21> I can't help but think that sounds like some fairly easy money.

Too bad I'd rather not help rich people that probably don't need the help, and likely need to know rich people to get into the market...

</comment><comment><USER22> A bit of self-promotion but we started a reputation management SaaS firm aimed at small/medium businesses.

[http://socialdraft.com](http://socialdraft.com)

We've been in the SMB space for a few years offering digital PR services for businesses who really don't have the tools or manpower to deal with the Web. I can't tell you how many clients we have that are pissed at Yelp or some blogger and have threaten legal action. We saw this as an opportunity because the "pain point" is real.

</comment><comment><USER23> The author should have also added Wikipedia editing and creating as well.

<comment><USER4> > But when sleuthing through the metadata, I noticed other names thrown in > incongruously: Joe Ricketts, Helen Lee Schifter, Irena Briganti, Antonio > Weiss, and Luke Weil. I also noticed the same Wikipedia editor, Belkin555, > had tidied the entries of several of them.

<comment><USER23> I meant how many of Wikipedia entites are groomed by PR firms</comment></comment></comment>


The 4 year old Linux kernel hacker - <AUTHOR> https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=690b0543a813b0ecfc51b0374c0ce6c8275435f0

<comment><USER2> And all the letters lived happily ever after.</comment>


Why cool the whole room when you can cool just your body? DIY Solution - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llzlF5Y4Py0&feature=youtu.be

<comment><USER2> doesnt the canister of water become the same temperature as your body pretty quick?</comment>


What Tim O'Reilly, Lady Gaga, and Marissa Mayer All Have In Common - <AUTHOR> http://miningthesocialweb.com/2013/11/22/what-do-tim-oreilly-lady-gaga-and-marissa-mayer-all-have-in-common/

<comment><USER3> With Twitter automation, I think it's an understatement to say that following count is not a reliable measure of influence. Your two subjects here have real world influence, and it's reasonable that they could arrive at those huge following #'s without gaming Twitter.

But I've noticed that certain popular tech news blogs (for example) - <USER2> single time they have a post, there are hundreds of Twitter accounts that retweet the content, instantaneously. And of those accounts, they ONLY tweet that outlet's content. I think investigating those most popular tech blogs' average "what happens when they post an article" via this type of Jaccard index would be an interesting exercise in exposing some tomfoolery, and enlightening in seeing how much stuff is being gamed. Knowing what we know about human nature, is there any doubt that people are going to great lengths to juice their follower counts and game the appearance of getting "engagement?"

The threads being pulled in this post have really interesting implications for type of analysis of "what's really going on" both in terms of a Twitter profile's following, and the authenticity of the "sharing" that occurs among their followers when they post something.

<comment><USER4> Very true. Followers is a very weak approximation. It's almost like utilizing just pagerank on a search engine. In many ways measuring influence is analogous to creating a search engine. You constantly have to search out and avoid the noise.

<comment><USER5> +1 mathattack -- in terms of understanding, I couldn't agree more about just measuring followers. It's like saying you understand a person by the volume of mail they send/receive without looking at what's in the envelope.

Really big fan of @SocialWebMining's work and I hope to see some articles about what's being said in tweets, and I think that we'd both like that a lot...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Please add @AngelProfessor@RebelMouse to such distinguished list. Please confirm of course via LinkIn: Dr Peter Hamilton, University of Destiny, searching People not Companies.

</comment><comment><USER6> Please consider adding Dr Peter Hamilton @LinkedIn to that list

</comment><comment><USER7> didn't know about Jaccard index. great code examples

<comment><USER8> Some "distance-metric porn" here : [http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/proxy/vignettes/overv...](http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/proxy/vignettes/overview.pdf)

proxy::dist() in R in case you want to quickly try some of them.

Frechet distance is interesting, too:

"Imagine a dog walking along one curve and the dog's owner walking along the other curve, connected by a leash. Both walk continuously along their respective curve from the prescribed start point to the prescribed end point of the curve. Both may vary their speed, and even stop, at arbitrary positions and for arbitrarily long. However, neither can backtrack. The Fréchet distance between the two curves is the length of the shortest leash (not the shortest leash that is sufficient for all walks, but the shortest leash of all the leashes) that is sufficient for traversing both curves in this manner." (from Wikipedia)

I remember trying it out as a way of quantifying how two related stocks' price movements can diverge (just as an example application).

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice!</comment></comment></comment>


Car companies are preparing to sell driver data to the highest bidder - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/02/no-one-has-a-clue-whats-happening-with-their-connected-cars-data/ <comment><USER2> > "On Tuesday, Chetan Sharma Consulting revealed that 2017 saw more new cars > added to cellular networks than new cell phones. In particular, it noted > that AT&T has been adding a million or more new cars to its network each > quarter for the last 11 quarters."

I need some insight here... do any of you have a separate wireless connection for your car? Do you pay for it as a separate line on your cell carrier? What is the purpose of having a dedicated connection for your vehicle?</comment>


Concepts that don't have good words or phrases - <AUTHOR> https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mQD9w9AFdnKHnr7wF/secondary-stressors-and-tactile-ambition <comment><USER2> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_Liff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meaning_of_Liff)</comment>


How We're Buying Online Businesses [audio] - <AUTHOR> https://empireflippers.com/800k/ <comment><USER2> Feedback for Justin & Team - these types of posts would do really well to have a written explanation of it all along with it.

For me, while I can get a lot out of podcasts, when it comes to business deal specifically (or strategies), I like to have something to look at that I can read 2 or 3 times rather than have to re-listen or take notes during a podcast.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, Joel, that's a good point.

It felt a little awkward/forced running through the details on the different scenarios. I think that would have been much more legible in a blog post or written form. :-(

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My experience with Empire Flippers: A marketplace with huge asking prices entirely dependent on the greater fool theory.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's interesting feedback, Ian. Funny, though - some say we charge WAY too much while others say we don't charge enough. Why do you think we're on the high end of the scale. (And, if that's the case, you'd definitely consider SELLING your sites with us, right?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this one of those "we'd like to buy your domain" outfits that buys domains with some traffic and fills them with ads?

<comment><USER5> No. They mostly broker transactions of people whose businesses resemble "A website with X0k monthly uniques acquired through organic SEO which is presently monetized by reviews of various products on Amazon which get the Amazon affiliate program if someone buys that or any other product consequent to clicking their link; revenues for the last 6 months averaged $1,700 on expenses of $300, dominated by outsourced content writing." (That's a point along the spectrum, probably close to their modal listing in sophistication and possibly under their median; I don't follow closely enough to have a great sense of that.)

Some people have businesses like this which for whatever reason they want to sell; other people have money which for whatever reason they prefer less than having business like this [+]. Empire Flippers operates a brokerage which matches these people together, for a cut of the transactional price.

(I listen to their podcast, which is really good, even if one's business does not resemble the above.)

[+] One of the most interesting recurring themes on their podcast is a series of user avatars for who would be interested in this -- Porfolio Paul (wants to have 10+ businesses like this and operate them like someone operates a number of fast-food franchises) and Lifestyle Larry (wants to be the owner of a business which makes $X0k a year in preference to having a day job) are two who stick out for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, Patrick - that's a pretty fair overview of what we do.

We noticed that the buyer avatars we used in a podcast (Newbie Norms, Portfolio Paul, Lifestyle Larry, Strategic, Sally, etc.) really resonated with our audience. We've since expanded on those a bit in posts, later podcast episodes, etc.</comment></comment></comment>


TalkerApp launched - <AUTHOR> http://talkerapp.tumblr.com/post/318143310/we-launched-whats-next <comment><USER2> Congrats. Nice to see more entrants to the webchat space :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Looks like a lot of chat applications are launching lately. Also check out <http://hipchat.com>

<comment><USER2> hipchat looks like download only desktop app. I don't understand why people would go that route these days.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> To the devs: have you thought about using BOSH and ejabberd? That way you wouldn't have to poll for updates.

I built a little toy app that used BOSH and ejabberd to do chats - upside is you get all the extensibility of XMPP and the downside is that you have to deal with all the extensibility of XMPP. :)

<comment><USER5> Yes we tried XMPP at first but was way to complex for our needs.

We use Orbited for comet. The backend chat server is custom and based on RabbitMQ. See our protocol on <https://talker.tenderapp.com/faqs/api/talker- protocol>

<comment><USER4> Nice work on the protocol. Very light weight.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> the site needs screenshots/info about builtin feed integration and APIs, which are the core differentiators from campfire

(this comes from someone who contributes to and writes plugins for a campfire bot:

<http://github.com/joshwand/campfire-bot>

)

<comment><USER5> Yes! That's what we're working on now, we just decided to launch before we had video/tour on the site. Thx for the suggestion.

<comment><USER3> Is it just me or is the video/tour a very tedious thing to do... I've been putting it off myself for my site.

<comment><USER7> Yes, very tedious, and always lags behind the latest version -- maybe that should be your next business. :D

<comment><USER3> Write demo scripts in Selenium and have it "play" the demo for the user on the actual app using a demo account.

Hm....quit tempting me!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Nice good luck, I am interested to see what people do with the API.

</comment><comment><USER9> No offense, but why this and not campfire? (who has a free version)

<comment><USER5> Talker is more extensible, we're focusing on API and plugins <http://talker.tenderapp.com/faqs/api>, has inline feed notification for eg.: github commits, twitter search results, tickets updates in the chat room. And a lot more to come.

Talker also has a free version (4 concurrent users) <https://talkerapp.com/signup/free>

<comment><USER10> I'm really excited about applications that provide JavaScript-based APIs.

DabbleDB is another app that does this: <http://dabbledb.com/help/guides/jsapi/>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Now this is awesome!!!</comment>


How a genius hacker made $350k exploiting DeFi - <AUTHOR> https://decrypt.co/19612/how-a-genius-hacker-made-350000-exploiting-defi <comment><USER2> The "Admin Key" would seem to be a serious security problem.</comment>


Aerospike: Architecture of a Real-Time Operational DBMS (2016) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol9/p1389-srinivasan.pdf <comment><USER2> Worth checking out if you're considering to use it: [https://aphyr.com/posts/324-jepsen- aerospike](https://aphyr.com/posts/324-jepsen-aerospike)

In a gist, very good pick if it's acceptable to lose writes in some circumstances.

</comment><comment><USER3> Last time I looked at Aerospike, I read that it was designed for very low- latency network links, and was apparently not particularly suitable for use in the cloud (where latencies is typically much spikier than in within a single rack you control). Anyone using it in production on Google Cloud or AWS, for example?

<comment><USER4> According to Aerospike's internal numbers, 40% of our paying users are on Amazon. It certainly does work in that environment, provides huge benefits compared to DynamoDB. You just have to change a couple of tuning parameters, and build your data architecture correctly ( don't build a single cluster over two AZ ).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Tarantool is supposedly faster than Aerospike under heavy load:

[https://medium.com/@rvncerr/tarantool-vs-competitors- racing-...](https://medium.com/@rvncerr/tarantool-vs-competitors-racing-in- microsoft-azure-ebde9c5d619#.2vg9tr9aj)

</comment><comment><USER6> Aerospike was the last piece of software that impressed me with both benchmark scores and architecture being so well done that I can't find any comparison in the distributed db class.

I really want to use it in production, but what scares me is its association with Redhat. The tastiest cookie in the jar - cross dc replication is already paywalled. I'm afraid it will further go through the route of becoming begware, premiumware, or "consultanthiringware" that software out of Redhat's shop tend to become over the time.

<comment><USER7> where else would we look for open source cross dc replication? Riak only does this with enterprise. cockroach doesnt do joins. Mongo I cannot trust.

<comment><USER8> Honest question - why should you be entitled to a free (as in beer) high- quality database that provides open-source cross-datacenter replication? Typically that is a feature only needed/used by large enterprises with sizable IT budgets. Considering the product is complex to develop, why should someone do it for no compensation?

<comment><USER7> Q: why should we be entitled to a posix-compliant operating system that is free? (or anything at all, really?) A: I dont feel entitled, I just wanted to know, if it exists, I might want to use it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


HN Alternatives: Where do you get your news & discussion? - <AUTHOR>

Apart from this site, where do you find interesting news & articles? And where do you go to discuss them? <comment><USER2> Finding articles depends on the subject:

\- I used to subscribe to a bunch of digg feeds, but over the past while have found digg better to skim over when I have a few moments (the noise is too much for my greader!)

\- For politics I'm on <http://memeorandum.com> regularly along with bbc, nytimes, wsj & wpost. So far, the combination gives me enough view points from enough angles. I've paid some attention to <http://commondreams.org> \- it has some great articles, but I need to get into it more.

\- I also subscribe to a bunch of blogs in different subjects (some of the top: lifehacker, daring fireball, seth godin, techcrunch) both for the original content as well as the links to the rest of the web.

\- And then to top that all off I'm spending more and more time on HN and I subscribe to the delicious hotlist feed.

As far as discussions go:

\- I tend to discuss on the sites I'm on, if I feel my comment will help the discussion AND the discussion is valuable. Its mostly some blogs, and HN that I talk/comment on.

\- A lot of discussions happen with people I know, via email or facebook or in person.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> (Answering myself to start, hope you find these resources interesting)

      * http://givemesomethingtoread.com/
      * Twitter - Friends share links that I like
      * Tumblr - As Twitter

The trouble however is discussing these links. Posting to news.yc doesn't always get upvoted, and when it does there isn't always interesting discussion and debate. Are there any alternatives?

<comment><USER3> On the Tumblr IRC a month ago, one of the Tumblr founders hinted very strongly that I shouldn't make a forum for Tumblr users, because I wouldn't be able to compete with a core built-in forum system. I'm hoping that something comes of that. Since Givemesomethingtoread is run by that same founder, it would potentially be able to use the same forum system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't usually discuss real news on the internet, just with friends and family. I read digg occasionally, used to be really into it but it's just become infantile. I occassionally follow a link on Twitter, and get my news from Google News.

I get my tech news from TechCrunch, GigaOm, AllThingsD, AlleyInsider, Mashable, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

</comment><comment><USER5> I'm interested mostly in programming news, so my list is pretty small (sites are listed in order of my preference):

1\. news.ycombinator.com. The first news site to note is that one I was reading when saw this thread. 2\. reddit.com 3\. stackoverflow.com - Yeah, it isn't news site. I've mentioned it, because it can be used to find out comments to somewhat appeared by virtue of news. 4\. dzone.com - It looks like nobody wants to discuss news on this site. Anyway, there are lots of useful links.

I'm going to extend this list by adding interesting sites which were mentioned anywhere with those ones.

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://www.aldaily.com> is quite good. No discussions, but plenty of diverse links about art, literature, and general cultural observations.</comment>


How to build your own solid, Mac Pro-like PC enclosure? - <AUTHOR>

I still prefer building my own PCs, the only problem is engineering them to be extremely solid.
For example, a few years ago I moved cross country, and naively shipped my DIY PC across country via UPS.
It arrived in completely smashed up condition, as if UPS had put it into a paint mixer on high speed for a few hours.  PSU twisted out of its setting, CPU fan broken off and banging around inside, totally ruined.
But that's because DIY parts generally aren't designed to withstand any kind of abuse, they're just designed to look not terrible and provide room for parts and enough airflow to cool them.  PSU is attached with two small screws, motherboard completely open, CPU cooler snapped on, etc.
By contrast, if you open up a Mac Pro, it's extremely solid, built with shipping in mind (as are most other mail-order PCs), and nicely organized.
Is there any way to build such a PC case yourself?  Has any DIY company realized this is a need that could be filled and provided products to do so?  Or am I just better off buying used Mac Pros and installing Linux on them? <comment><USER2> Honestly, I don't know what to tell you. The only thing that comes to mind is get a Mac-Pro case and cut it up to fit your ATX board. You can find cases online from fries machines. They generally go for $4-500. Problem is they are built like $500 cases and there is a very small market for that. A market that has the money to afford a full Mac-Pro.

Lian-Li had a case that looked similar in design and concept. And you can have a look at this one [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811164061&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction- _-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3952373&SID=)

But the ATX standard isn't really designed for optimized airflow; memory is oriented in the wrong direction, CPU is positioned right behind the, flow obstructing, drivebays, and hard drives are tucked in wherever there is space left (usually the front bottom).

Instead of any laminar airflow you get case makers sticking more fans along the sides, top, and bottom. Or they give up and do watercooling instead.

If you have the patience, get a Mac Pro case on ebay.

<comment><USER3> The case that your newegg link refers to seems to be exactly what the OP is trying to avoid: cheap, flimsy cases that won't survive being shipped. The fact is, there are a number of well built cases, but they tend to hover in the $200 to $300 range.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> What kind of case were you using? That the case you described fell apart has nothing to do with the fact that it was DIY and everything to do with the fact that it was likely a cheap POS (from the way you described it). Spend some money and you get fully toolless designs, full-body aluminum, etc. Buy a _quality_ PC case from a good manufacturer (Cooler Master, Lian Li, etc) and you won't have to worry about a thing.

Some examples of good DIY cases:

<http://www.corsair.com/products/800d/default.aspx>

[http://www.fractal-design.com/?view=product&prod=32](http://www.fractal- design.com/?view=product&prod=32)

<http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/product.php?product_id=2870>

[http://www.lian- li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=...](http://www.lian- li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=321&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62)

<comment><AUTHOR> Good links, thanks, will check those out.

My case was actually a Lian-Li case, the only ones I've ever used. Which gives you some idea of the abuse UPS put it through. But it was one of their lower- end models. And the CPU fan breaking off wasn't really LL's fault.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Don't underestimate the kind of energy that UPS will put in to destroying anything labeled fragile. It may very well be that if you had shipped a mac like that that it would have arrived in bits and pieces just the same.

Packaging something fragile for shipment is also quite an art, and not always intuitive.

<comment><AUTHOR> True. There used to be a website UnitedPackageSmashers.com where people ranted about UPS. Gone now, wonder if they got a takedown notice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Why don't you just buy a Mac Pro? I know this isn't what you asked, but isn't your time worth more than the thousand bucks you're "saving"? I used to build a new PC every three or four years and I don't miss those hassles at all!

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm leaning toward that, very good chance I'll get one for my next machine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Next time, just pay the extra $10 dollars for insurance and if they fuck it up make them pay for it. Oh, I also have an old G5 laying around if you're interested. Contact in my profile.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, appreciate it. Think I'll wait till used Mac Pro's with the Nehalem chipset come down in price.</comment></comment>


Codatlas: a web-based code search and browsing platform - <AUTHOR> https://www.codatlas.com <comment><USER2> Looks really useful. Tried to provide feedback via the site, but the "doorbell" script kept locking up my Firefox (v50 on Windows).

<comment><USER3> Codatlas team here, sorry that our feedback module is not stable and would you mind shooting us an email (firstname.lastname@example.com) instead? Would love to hear any feedback you may have for us:)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Recruiting agencies that focus on remote opportunities? - <AUTHOR> First off, thank-you for clicking on the post and taking whatever time you might to read and respond!
As an engineer in the data analysis/software industry, I'm quite blessed to have an abundance of alternatives out there to my current position and receive recruiter emails/LinkedIn/Indeed/etc. a few times a month, generally.
All of the positions I am contacted for are office-based though, but due to my personal situation and preferences, I'm not willing to give up my flexible remote position for an office. Are there agencies that recruit for remote work positions?
Indeed.com has a filter for remote jobs and there is flexjobs.com, but I've found that working with an agency can be a positive experience in finding an interesting company and getting a serious (non checklist-HR style) interview. My education is in physics and applied mathematics with software experience as a serious hobby and internships along the way. Recruiters understand that background can work in the machine learning / software engineering space while I suspect HR departments don't.
Finally, I apologize for the throw-away account, but I work for a very small firm (less than 20 people). My actually HN username is quite similar to my true name. ;) <comment><USER2> From your username, I'm going to assume you're in the US. :)

I've been working fully remote for six years now, and have recently started hunting for my next remote gig. So I've been in a similar boat.

I have had some success with reaching out to recruiting agencies in urban centers of my general region. Explain that you're an experienced remote employee, and that you are only available for remote work.

Surprisingly (having just gone through hiring two remote employees for my current team), it can actually be pretty hard to find experienced remote employees or even employees who want to be fully remote. Plenty of applicants seem to totally lose interest when they find out there's no office to go into or that they'll have to be pretty much entirely self motivated. Bizarre, but to each their own.

Actually interviewed recently for a firm who hired a recruiting agency explicitly to weed out all the applicants who aren't remote-friendly because they were tired of getting into interviews and finding out that the applicant didn't read the remote-only part of the job announcement.

</comment><comment><USER3> We at Ably Realtime have a largely remote engineering team. I've been searching for a good remote recruiter for some time now and not come across one. Unfortunately I think it's just largely easier for recruiters to focus on local markets, and sadly it seems the demand is mostly for local workers in spite of what you read in the tech media.

Top talk was mentioned and are good, however I've only used them for contract roles.

We're recruiting now too, perhaps see if it's right for you: [https://jobs.ably.io](https://jobs.ably.io)

Best of luck, remote work rocks (if you like it!).

Matt Ably [https://www.ably.io](https://www.ably.io)

</comment><comment><USER4> I just came across this startup which is a "distributed team as a service" recruitment firm. I think it's worth checking out: [https://www.turingtalent.io/](https://www.turingtalent.io/)

</comment><comment><USER5> I have helped many developers get the best remote job and startups find the best remote talent.

I can't promise to get you hired but I will definitely point you in the right direction and try my best to help you out.

Feel free to reach out. The contact info is in my profile.

</comment><comment><USER6> Have you tried [https://weworkremotely.com](https://weworkremotely.com) ?

<comment><USER7> While I like the idea of weworkremotely.com, as someone who currently lives in Australia it would be so beneficial to be able to filter by jobs that require a specific timezone or country (which on that site they are almost all required to be in the USA or on a similar timezone). Without that the site is pretty much unusable for me, with most jobs not telling me until I click in that I'm ineligible.

<comment><USER8> I live in Australia too, and I think this could be pretty dang useful! Anyone have experience on noob programmers in terms of getting remote gigs? I'm a career changer, after 15 years in corporate.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Have you tried Toptal?</comment>


Climate Change Is Having Widespread Health Impacts - <AUTHOR> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-is-having-widespread-health-impacts/ <comment><USER2> I don't see numbers in the article -- an increase in temperature of 1 degree Celsius would cause life expectancy in the U.S. to decrease by X years. I suspect that such numbers are not included because they are very small. Life expectancy has declined slightly in the U.S. in recent years, but because of "deaths of despair", including drug overdoses, not because of climate change.</comment>


Cheating to Learn: How a UCLA professor gamed a game theory midterm - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2013/04/cheating-to-learn-how-a-ucla-professor-gamed-a-game-theory-midterm

<comment><USER2> > The test itself becomes a learning experience

Maybe this sums up the entire article. Many of us in lower-status teaching positions than UCLA adopt this attitude, especially when we're in the situation where the grade we give can be changed by our employers for various reasons.</comment>