Google reCaptacha 'impossible' to solve on Firefox, not so on Chrome - <AUTHOR> I use an ISP that apparently has has IPs blacklisted as fishy. Nothing I can do about that. But I have noticed that using Firefox I am greeted with many screens of reCaptcha even if i solve them correctly. When I give up and use Chrome, not logged and all cookies cleared, it works many times without having to fill in reCatcha at all. It's not scientific but it has happened to me almost hundreds of times.<p>Anyone else noticing that using Chrome saves you from filling less reCaptcha ? <comment><USER2> Google has some sort of human detection that they don't disclose the workings of beyond the little puzzles. I'm guessing that works better on Chrome.

[https://www.dailydot.com/debug/google-new-recaptcha- system/](https://www.dailydot.com/debug/google-new-recaptcha-system/)

Personally, reCAPTCHA drives me crazy, and I've definitely noted it's been worse since I stopped using or signing into Google products and services. I've contacted several sites using it to ask them to remove it.

</comment><comment><USER3> This also happens very frequently when I'm connected through a VPN. Must be that the IP is blacklisted or something, but basically there's no way to go past the captcha because it will keep showing images to validate forever.

</comment><comment><USER4> I ocassionally seem to get locked out of captcha. The images appear, but no amount of selecting them makes it happy. It is infuriating. I end up usi g a different service that eschews googles terrible captchas.

</comment><comment><USER5> It might be a symptom of another issue altogether, such as Firefox blocking some assets or communication.

I noticed that I can pass most instances of reCAPTCHA by randomly moving my cursor across the page for 2-3 seconds before clicking on the checkbox. Usually this lets me bypass the image captcha portion, assuming the reCAPTCHA was not configured for additional security. This probably works on invisible reCAPTCHA as well.

</comment><comment><USER6> I've had it happen in Tor browser, but that seems tied to the IP address, since I can usually click "switch identity", solve one more CAPTCHA, then it'll let me in.

</comment><comment><USER7> I faced this too. I now tend to close the site if it presents a google recaptcha.

Also gmail doesn't work nicely in firefox. Lot of lag/delay compared to chrome.

</comment><comment><USER8> I can't help but wonder if this is a subtle way of making the lives of non- Chrome users harder.

</comment><comment><USER9> It happens so often to me that I'm not sure if I'm a human or a bot.

</comment><comment><USER10> Yes, it's really terrible. I usually give up rather than bother trying to solve it.</comment>


Deep learning can debug biology - <AUTHOR> http://20n.com/blog.html#most-recent <comment><USER2> I guess this is deliberately written to be cryptic, as it's an advertisement. Terms are used before they are introduced, but maybe I'm not in the target group. What's called prediction would technically be inference. Hand wavy explanations of machine learning used for differentiation of chemical analysis data seem to be the sell here.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree that this is not written with the rigor of a journal paper. Our intention was to communicate the simple wins we've had employing deep learning in comparison to the tools of the prior generation. XCMS is the most widely used library: [http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/xcms....](http://www.bioconductor.org/packages/release/bioc/html/xcms.html). It requires very painful parameter tuning. Internally, we had also built our own custom targeted analysis. In the targeted pipeline, we had to pre-specify "acetaminophen, shikimate, chorismate...". After building this deep learning workflow, we have exclusively switched over to it: no chemicals pre-specified, no parameter tuning. With about 185 engineered yeast that need analysis, with replicates, feeding conditions, and controls, these simplifications have been helpful.

We are getting easy wins over microbial data. Human data is noisier and we're testing over that now. More later.

If you have microbial data, or have used XCMS in the past and would like to compare, happy to chat. email me at saurabh@20n.

<comment><USER3> I should read some of the related papers first, but would some of these techniques potentially be useful for LC-MS/MS proteomic data?

I'll probably you with more specific questions

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It might be the lack of detail in the piece, but it's unclear to me why this isn't a hammer to kill a fly-- that is, why wouldn't a much simpler peak- finding algorithm be appropriate here? What is the NN doing that's more than just peak finding over many molecules? Is there some interdependency that I am missing, or is this just signal-processing over millions of independent traces?

<comment><USER5> As far as I understand, NN is used here to find patterns which discriminate between sample cohorts (healthy vs disease). Peak finding gives you a list of peaks, but it doesn't tell you which of them discriminate between cohorts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I find this very interesting. As a related topic, would it be possible to use deep learning to classify samples based on the quantities of pre-identified chemicals? If so, how would this work roughly? Does anybody have any ideas? Traditionally people use linear discriminant analysis, PCA, PLS, etc. I can't really wrap my head around the use of multiple neutral network layers for such problems.

<comment><AUTHOR> One possibility is as an extension of the untargeted analysis: run the analysis over different kinds of samples. The output for each sample is the list of major peaks (and intensities). Use this as the "image" to train a (shallow) network.

You might even get away without specifying pre-identified chemicals. Adding that list would only help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Who's working on ChemStructure2Vec? Could the Word2Vec approach be used to predict novel structures with functions in-between desired sets of known chemicals?

<comment><USER7> People are working on such things! [https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02415](https://arxiv.org/abs/1610.02415)

<comment><USER6> Wow! Thanks for the link.

Can we map the latent chemical space directly into a word space (can we ensure grammatical correctness? semantic correctness?)

> "We report a method to convert discrete representations of molecules to and > from a multidimensional continuous representation... We train deep neural > networks on hundreds of thousands of existing chemical structures to > construct two coupled functions: an encoder and a decoder. The encoder > converts the discrete representation of a molecule into a real-valued > continuous vector, and the decoder converts these continuous vectors back to > the discrete representation from this latent space..."

Consider the set of all chemical structures composed of between 0-6 carbon atoms, 0-4 oxygen atoms, 0-12 hydrogen atoms, 0-4 nitrogen atoms, and 0-1 "functional groups" expressed in the SMILES chemical nomenclature; for instance Alanine could be represented as O=C(O)C(N)C; Serine as C([C@@H](C(=O)O)N)O

Can we create a correspondence function that takes a given SMILES chemical structure, such as O=C(O)C(N)C, and returns a sequence of english words that encodes the same structure, such that, read left to right:

      - each atom is represented by a noun or adjective that starts with the same letter(s) as the atomic symbol; (pronouns don't count)
      - double or triple bonds are represented with prepositions
      - charge is represented numerically
      - branches are represented by subordinating conjunctions
      - verbs and articles and other parts of speech (non-subordinating conjunctions, pronouns) can be used freely for grammatical correctness

it's hard to select word strings that are semantically meaningful sentences, but haiku-like forms are easier.

So Alanine ( O=C(O)C(N)C ) might be:

      (1)  O-Adjective/Noun preposition proposition C-Adjective/Noun subordinating-conjunction O-Adjective/Noun;
      (2)  C-Adjective/Noun, subordinating-conjunction N-Adjective/Noun;
      (3)  C-Adjective/Noun.

      (1)  Oranges blossom under and above Cherries where the Orangutans roam;
      (2)  Conscious, unless Nocturnal;
      (3)  Change coming."

Clearly many interesting structures could be expressed with semantically- invalid sentences.

But conversely, how often are "interesting" sentences chemically pointless or invalid?

Could we bias sentence construction to be more interesting by constraining it with the semantic vector space of a big work of literature, such as phrases found in Infinite Jest or the collected works of Shakespeare?</comment></comment></comment>


Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford - <AUTHOR> http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2007/11/silicon-valley-comes-to-oxford.html

<comment><USER2> _"... It seems like the default plan for the MBA students is to work for investment banks or consulting firms upon graduation. But a significant number seem to be rebelling against this. Many planned to start startups instead. ..."_

It's not just about being smart and hardworking. How do MBA's hack Or do they resort to _"old-think"_ [1] and latest business fads using other peoples money? Given that a lot of startups are tech-centric with weak business skills this leads to some Q's?

\- How do MBA's create startups?

\- How can MBA skills best be used in startups?

[1] Do MBA programmes and graduates in particular foster forward thinking? ie: Throwing out old ideas and thinking up new ones? Do they have enough technical skills, curiosity & frugality to build new products or services without resorting to the _"old-think"_ business case studies they learn at school?

</comment><comment><USER3> Paul and Jessica will be at Imperial College London on the 4th of december. John, that's open to non IC students. RSVP on email@example.com

</comment><comment><USER4> the problem with this event is that non-oxford uni students couldn't go. Ah well.

<comment><USER5> you should have just turned up, they don't have big scary bouncers to throw you out - just pose as a student :)

they wouldn't let non-mba's attend the original events but we used to go anyway.

<comment><USER6> So engineering students had to sneak into an MBA-only event to hear Paul Graham speak? Wow, I'm... surprised. I'm still searching for the right metaphor, but it involves a lunatic, a head stand, a finger, someone's mother, and a string of explicatives that will exhaust the thread pool (oh there you go - it's a Java metaphor!).

<comment><USER5> well im referring to the earlier events a few years ago - this was the first one pg and jessica attended and they're far more relaxed about who can attend now.

<comment><USER6> ah, got it. that makes a lot more sense.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: news.ycombinator.{com,org}? - <AUTHOR>

What is news.ycombinator.org, and why does Google auto-complete that URL instead of news.ycombinator.com? E.g.:<p>http://i.imgur.com/pPwJX.png <comment><USER2> I don't have that. I get the .com (tested on two different Google browsers). It could be due to your browsing history that is causing that. Or at the very least, I'm unable to replicate your results.

</comment><comment><USER3> I always visit the .org. Maybe I'm just weird.

<comment><USER4> You're not alone, I always use the .org</comment></comment>


Dalendar blatantly rips off Awesomize landing page - <AUTHOR> http://tesdor.com/blog/?p=27

<comment><USER2> So let me get this straight. The complaint that Dalendar ripped off your other site is posted on tesdor.com. Tesdor.com is registered to Raymond Barron according to WhoIs information.

But look! Dalendar is also registered to Raymond Barron. So you've create a fake complaint that another site that you apparently own is ripping off a third site whose WhoIs registration info is masked by a proxy.

Nice try to generate fake buzz. Either way, both pages aren't interesting.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not reckon? I thought the original was cool. Yes, kind of pointless and I didn't give them my email, but cool!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> now that hn has pretty much jumped the shark, does anyone know of a good site with smart, technical people and interesting discussions?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Although some of the surprises are different to be fair!

</comment><comment><USER4> watch movie

</comment><comment><USER4> whatch filim</comment>


A simple technology could secure the border for a fraction of the cost of a wall - <AUTHOR> https://www.pulse.ng/bi/politics/a-simple-technology-could-secure-the-border-for-a-fraction-of-the-cost-of-a-wall-but/d3k9c6c <comment><USER2> Given the current size of the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile, it seems entirely feasible to blast a 2000-mile-long trench between the two countries. That would work.</comment>


Google won't fix a security bug that's in almost a billion Android phones - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/14/google-security-bug-billion-android-phones/?ncid=rss_truncated

<comment><USER2> > Until then, however, it might be a good idea to [...] get a new phone > altogether

As 'Brave new world' teaches us: Ending is better than mending...</comment>


Typhoon Haiyan kills 10,000 in Philippines - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/10/typhoon-haiyan-kills-10000-in-philippines-live-updates <comment><USER2> I still don't get why the US Navy hasn't put an LHD or equivalent amphibious group into the relief effort -- it would be a great humanitarian thing, plus a show of strength for one of our key Pacific allies after the "pivot to Asia" \-- a pretty clear implication that if we can put a battalion ashore to help hours after a hurricane, we can do similar things during a conflict. Extra points due to the huge number of USN sailors who come from the Philippines. It would be a super-cheap way to build US credibility in the region, help people, and deter future conflict.

<comment><USER3> It does not make sense for the government/Navy to have disaster relief ships on high alert (like the Marines are for example). The cost of maintaining that high alert status is high and the money would be much better spent nearly providing a lot more (but a little less timely) aid and support. I am sure the Navy will help, just maybe not today or tomorrow.

<comment><USER2> Right now the problem actually seems to be logistics. You can use the Marines as first responders -- what you need are helicopters and landing craft, fuel, power, comms, food, and water, which are exactly what a combat force uses in an assault as well. By downloading weapons, they could take extra supplies for civilians, and their own support.

The deterrence point of doing it instantly is that you can show just how fast and how hard an amphibious force can deploy. That's pretty much the only value of an amphibious force like the doctrinal mission of the Marines anymore; they'll never do an opposed amphibious landing with a long lead up, due to ATGMs/etc. being so effective.

One of the best things the US Military has ever done for our national security in the war on terror was helping out pretty substantially after the Kashmir 2005 earthquake -- there were helicopters in the air hours after it hit, from the US and UK forces in Afghanistan.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> """It's worth reiterating that for all the obvious destructive power of sustained wind speeds of almost 200mph, it was the associated storm surge – the rush of water into coastal areas – which caused the worst damage in Tacloban, and most likely many of the deaths. The storm surge in Tacloban was estimated at 6m, sweeping away even concrete buildings, and bringing the sort of devastation so reminiscent of the Indian Ocean tsunami."""

The primary constraint seems to be infrastructure to evacuate and shelter people. Reliable forecast of storm surge location and magnitude would save lives by allocating those resources to the correct places. Doing this well involves improved simulation methods, but also designing observational strategies, such as where to make more accurate measurements of bathymetry (one of the leading sources of uncertainty in storm surge and tsunami prediction). _Disclaimer: I work in a related field and have colleagues that develop methods for storm surge forecast._

<comment><USER5> What would you suggest is a good system/set-up that would have made a difference here?

<comment><USER6> It's hard to say. You need large hurricane-proofed buildings in the higher barangays. As a person intimately familiar with the Tacloban/Leyte area, that's hard to accomplish since the area is so low-lying where it hit hardest.

The three biggest needs to prevent a large death-toll from something like this:

1\. Education regarding effects of disasters (e.g. what a storm surge is, what areas are likely to be affected by landslides, etc.)

2\. Basic first aid medication (having seen my fair share of misadventure in the Philippines, I can confidently say that a subsidized boy scout-style training program would work wonders there)

3\. Instructions for putting together 72-hour crash bags, which should be kept in convenient locations (this is a good idea generally -- no matter where one lives a calamity could occur, and having copies of important documents/candles/matches/clean water can make a huge difference).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I came from the capital. My family lives beside Laguna lake in Taguig. Whenever there's a storm my village gets flooded (mainly due to poor flood control) and everything becomes hard in terms of dealing with your daily business. Obviously nothing in comparison to what Haiyan did to Tacloban city, but the panic induced by the thunder, the cold feeling from the rain, plus the fear of losing a lot from the waters and looters is still deeply etched in my brain.

Now I'm based in another country but I have lots of relatives in the area that was in the path of the storm. Also, this estimate came from just one area (although the worst hit). We are a hardy people but to get this every year coupled with the stress of knowing your officials are stealing a fair bit of what could have been used to help... well, kind of pulls you down.

<comment><USER8> What's worse is that these disasters have been happening regularly since 2009, when Typhoon Ketsana (known locally as Ondoy) struck the capital. What has the government done to really damage-proof the Philippines since? It was obvious right then that something like that would happen every year, and it did, yet there doesn't seem to be a concrete, long-term plan of action from the government.

<comment><USER9> Well, I was impressed to see they evacuated a large number of people this time, which hasn't always been the case. that doesn't sem like much but bear mind that the Philippines is a poor country, and second that it's essentially an archipelago made out of hundreds of small inhabited islands with fairly low average elevation (IIRC it's actually a few _thousand_ islands, but not all of them are inhabited).

I'm not sure there's a whole lot you _can_ do to 'damage proof' territory like this, other than simply abandoning outlying parts of it and hoping they act as a sea wall (and with a ~90m population, you also have the problem of where to put those people). Their options really are limited, especially in the face of record breaking weather events. Consider that if this storm had hit the Maldives it would almost certainly have wiped out the entire _country_ , permanently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> US "news" is _finally_ starting to cover this.

I mean 10K, that is just beyond devastating, it should be front page news for months. We lost 1800 with Katrina.

<comment><USER11> The 2004 Tsunami killed 250,000 people, and that only managed to stay on the news for a few weeks.

<comment><USER10> Oh my gosh I had no idea the final toll was that high.

That part of the world is being devastated.

<comment><USER12> According to the U.S. Geological Survey a total of 227,898 people died. Measured in lives lost, this it was one of the ten worst earthquakes in recorded history, as well as the single worst tsunami in history. Indonesia was the worst affected area, with most death toll estimates at around 170,000. However, another report by Siti Fadilah Supari, the Indonesian Minister of Health at the time, estimated the death total to be as high as 220,000 in Indonesia alone, giving a total of 280,000 casualties.

It is also the fifth deadliest natural disaster since 1900.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_de...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll#Ten_deadliest_natural_disasters_of_the_past_century)

A large proportion of those killed were children.

There were no deaths in The Philippines from the tsunami.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_an...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_and_tsunami)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Wow, that's an insane death toll. To put this in perspective, last year, another super typhoon, Pablo, killed close to 2000 I believe. The year before that another devastating typhoon, Sendong, killed something like 1200. The Philippines regularly gets hit with 20 typhoons each year and the typhoon season isn't over. Each of the above mentioned typhoons hit in December. This has to be among the deadliest in Philippines history and the season isn't even over yet.

I'm located in the southern end of Negros Oriental, which was under warning signal 3 (out of 4) but we were on the edge of the storm. We got off very light. If it weren't for the news, we wouldn't have even thought that we might be affected by a typhoon.

Unfortunately, the Philippines isn't like Japan, where the country can mobilize the resources to make the country highly resistant to it's own nemesis of nature, earthquakes. Many of the people here live in bamboo / wooden structures which stand no chance against a strong typhoon. The most vulnerable are also the poorest. In Dumaguete, minimum wage is the equivalent of $6 per day, but that's a well paying job. Most businesses here use loopholes to pay employees half the minimum wage. The people who have lost their entire towns in the Philippines have no resources, nothing to eat and nowhere to go. There is no no longer a functioning economy. All they can do is wait for help.

I don't know if this has anything to do with global warning, but in the five years I have lived here, our area has been hit with two devastating typhoons in the past three years. Before that, strong typhoons hitting our area were rare. Though we dodged this bullet, the above mentioned typhoons hit us head on. If this is something that the Philippines can regularly expect due to changes in weather, then large portions of the country could become unlivable without huge changes.

This is the sort of area where we could really use some innovation. Typhoons bring a double threat of high winds and floods. Add volcanoes and earthquakes (just a few weeks ago we got hit with a 7.2 earthquake) and the Philippines is among the most dangerous places to live on the planet. We need low cost structures which can shield people from high winds, floods and earthquakes. Sure, we can hide in a shelter, but we can't deal with the possibility of losing our house and possessions every year.

Edit: Changed tornado to typhoon. _Facepalm_

Edit2: Recovery also can take a long time in the Philippines. Not far from where I live is an area with temporary structures (basically a squatter area) which was setup to be temporary. A year later and this area is still full. I suppose Katrina was similar with the temporary housing situation, but in this case we are talking a flimsy bamboo / wooden structure with plastic tarps on the sides. These structures could easily get wiped out by one of the 20 yearly typhoons which hit the Philippines every year.

Also, the people of New Orleans at least have government safety nets. The mayor of our city, Dumaguete, set aside something like $9,000 as an emergency fund in anticipation of Yolanda. Like I said, not a lot of resources here.

<comment><USER14> To put things into context. 1.3 million people die and 50 million people are injured in car accidents every year.

Nature disasters are just side show in human life at this point.

<comment><USER15> This comparison is outrageous. Speaking of things out of context, fewer than three thousand people died in 9/11[0].

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_September_11_attacks)

<comment><USER16> Exactly wrong. The response to the acts of war on 9/11 are disingenuous, and not commensurate with the impact. The costs we as citizens pay for a false sense of security are orders of magnitude more than the risk presented. It is sad these people in the Phillipines died. We should help the survivors and we should help the survivors be able to withstand future problems by building better safer infrastructure and other methods. But, this is a normal event in human culture, the comparison is not outrageous, it is simply scientifically accurate. The author's choice of the word sideshow is callous, but objectively somewhat accurate. To those involved or effected by this - it's anything but a sideshow, which is where relative perspective comes in. We should have sympathy and help - but help in all ways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> My wife is in Vietnam and I've been worried for days about where the typhoon would go (South or North). Its silly but I'm relieved it's avoiding the South.

When I was telling her about the storm, I realized that people are that more exposed to natural disasters since they don't usually store food. At least in her surrounding, people buy food off the market everyday and don't have reserves, leaving them completely exposed to any disaster affecting food supplies.

</comment><comment><USER18> U.S. military will support typhoon recovery efforts in various ways.

The U.S. military announced that Secretary Chuck Hagel has directed troops to support these humanitarian missions. That includes deploying aircraft for search-and-rescue missions, bringing in aid and providing logistical support.

The U.S. force will be led by Marines out of Okinawa, Japan, according to two U.S. military officials. Other military services will participate.

[http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines- typhoon...](http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/world/asia/philippines-typhoon-us- assistance/index.html)

<comment><USER2> It was clear days before landfall that this was a huge storm; the ships should have already been enroute, and other supplies staged in Guam and Okinawa.

<comment> brown9-2 Wouldn't travelling from Okinawa to Philippines have put those ships in the path of the storm?

<comment><USER5> Not quite, japan is north of the Philippines and the storm hit the southern end. Still, I'm sure with a storm that large, it would make for a rough trip.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This could have clearly been avoided. See what India did with Phalin, with an early warning system and planned evacuation: [http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/10/13/india-cyclone- phail...](http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/10/13/india-cyclone-phailin- odisha-andhra-idINDEE99C00C20131013)

Less than 20 people died.

<comment><USER13> I don't know, there are a lot of variables. As someone else mentioned, not only was this storm stronger, but it was at the theoretical maximum strength that a storm could be. So, it's possibly among the strongest ever to hit land.

You can't get good info from the news and of course any government will has its own agenda to look good. Getting good data from 3rd world countries is also hard.

We took a direct hit (eye passed over the city) from what was at one time the equivalent of a cat 5 hurricane (Pablo) in the southern part of Negros Oriental in the Philippines last year. I don't know what strength it was by the time it got to us, but the winds were pretty damn scary. Fortunately, this typhoon was mostly wind and not much rain. The typhoon created a mess, but we were largely back to normal in one day.

The year previous to Pablo, we got hit by Sendong which seemed like the opposite of Pablo. There wasn't much wind, but the rain was heavy and steady for something like 10 hours. That rain created much more destruction and lost lives than the winds from Pablo.

So, each typhoon has its own personality. You can't do an apples to apples comparison from one storm to another. It's typical of media to make such a comparison.

The Philippines also has some logistical difficulties that India may not have. It's an archipelago of over 7,000 islands and a very poor country. India has its poor areas also, but the nation as a whole has far more resources.

The Philippines did make an effort to evacuate people and clearly the nation could have better prepared. There is always more that you can do. I don't know how this area in India compares to the Philippines, but we get hit with an average of something like 20 typhoons every year. The Philippines is among the most dangerous places on the planet for natural disasters.

Shelters a great for saving lives, and that's the most important, but it also sucks to lose your house and all your belongings. If someone is looking for a world changing innovation, then figuring out a way to make a cheap structure which could withstand the sorts of natural disasters that the Philippines gets hit with regularly would be huge.

ETA:

[http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/10/21389125-typho...](http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/10/21389125-typhoon- haiyan-us-forces-heading-to-storm-devastated-philippine-islands?lite)

> Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging seas that resembled > a tsunami, flattening buildings and drowning hundreds, according to Reuters.

This supports what I mentioned earlier. The wind is bad, but in a typhoon, it's water which really ratchets up the number of casualties. Comparing winds speeds of two different typhoons isn't necessarily comparing the most destructive components.

<comment><USER5> Thank you for this.

It's easy to make armchair judgements and comparison when not armed with all the facts.

The truth is, the country will always have issues (bureaucracy, corruption, etc) dealing with these natural disasters, but combatting poverty will go much further in avoiding loss of life. The vast majority of those affected have a hand to mouth existence and have basically no choice but to live in areas that put them in the highest risk (low lying, coastal, flood prone) in structures that are all but guaranteed to fail in a storm.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Right now the important things needed are hospital ships, helicopters, medical supplies, drinking water, food and shelters... I feel so helpless donating just cash, so many lives need to be helped.

<comment><USER20> Regarding 'just cash', I would like to quote the Red Cross:

"The best way to help a disaster victim is through a financial donation to the Red Cross. Financial contributions allow the Red Cross to purchase exactly what is needed for the disaster relief operation. Monetary donations also enable the Red Cross to purchase relief supplies close to the disaster site which avoids delays and transportation costs in getting basic necessities to disaster victims. Because the affected area has generally experienced significant economic loss, purchasing relief supplies in or close to the disaster site also helps to stimulate the weakened local economy."

[http://www.redcross.org/support/donating- fundraising/other-w...](http://www.redcross.org/support/donating- fundraising/other-ways-to-give/donating-goods)

<comment><USER10> Do not freaking donate to the Red Cross.

Find a local charity.

The Red Cross is HORRIBLY inefficient and wasteful. Your money is buying them furniture.

<comment><USER20> Firstly you can't throw claims like that around without a source, secondly I don't think now is the time to make FUD about which charity to donate to, thirdly that's tangential to what I was quoting (that cash is better than goods), and fourthly [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/10/typhoon- haiyan-...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/10/typhoon-haiyan- kills-10000-in-philippines-live-updates#block-527f6de7e4b055987af6768e)

edit: fifthly: [http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...](http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277#.Un99so05h0Q)

<comment><USER10> Maybe they behave better in other parts of the world, but the Red Cross in the USA is everyone's knee-jerk reaction to throw money at, and they have many many issues:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Red_Cross#Controversie...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Red_Cross#Controversies)

[http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/04/local/me- redcross4](http://articles.latimes.com/2006/feb/04/local/me-redcross4)

[https://www.google.com/search?q=Red+Cross+resigns](https://www.google.com/search?q=Red+Cross+resigns)

(note all the resignations are different people!)

[http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/18/red- cro...](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/18/red-cross-sandy- recovery/2508065/)

[http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/11/12/the- problem...](http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/11/12/the-problem-with- the-red-cross/)

and there was a huge scandal where they used emergency fund donations to buy furniture for their offices - having trouble finding it right now

<comment><USER21> The controversies linked in the Wikipedia article seem pretty ho-hum for an organization the size of the Red Cross. Stuff like credit checks of volunteers, following the FDA's (stupid) rule on blood from homosexual males, a dispute with Johnson + Johnson, etc. hardly support the allegation of mass corruption in the group.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> If you are trying to find someone in the Philippines in the aftermath of the typhoon, you can try using one of these sources:

PeopleLocator ([https://pl.nlm.nih.gov/](https://pl.nlm.nih.gov/))

Google PersonFinder ([http://google.org/personfinder/2013-yolanda/query?role=seek](http://google.org/personfinder/2013-yolanda/query?role=seek))

alternate source for Google PersonFinder ([http://google.org/personfinder/global/home.html](http://google.org/personfinder/global/home.html))

Red Cross request for help restoring contact ([http://familylinks.icrc.org/en/pages/home.aspx](http://familylinks.icrc.org/en/pages/home.aspx))

If you would like to donate, here are some organizations that could use your help:

Red Cross Philippines ([http://www.redcross.org.ph/donate](http://www.redcross.org.ph/donate)) via Paypal

Ayala Foundation's 'Laging Handa Fund' (Always Ready), overseas donors can use this online portal([http://feedthehungryphil.org/ayala-foundation- inc/](http://feedthehungryphil.org/ayala-foundation-inc/)) for donations

GlobalGiving.com([http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/philippines-disaster- re...](http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/philippines-disaster-response/)). Credit and debit card donations accepted.

Save the Children ([http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.885610...](http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.8856103/k.9BA3/Typhoon_Haiyan.htm)). Save the Children has a team on the ground in Tacloban working to respond to this emergency.

Now, unfortunately we wait for lack of sanitation, clean water and associated disease to take their much higher toll.

The situation report has the following information: 2,055,630 families or 9,497,847 persons were affected.

The number of confirmed casualties is still low, at 229. This number will inevitably increase drastically when response efforts proceed and communication lines are repaired.

The number of damaged houses is currently at 19,551 (13,191 have been totally destroyed)

A state of calamity has been declared in the province of Antique, as well as in Janiuay and Dumangas in the province of Iloilo

Flooding, landslides, and fallen trees blocked several roads, but most are now passable thanks to ongoing clearing operations *Several networks are still down but are in the process of being restored

<comment><USER23> We at Remitly are pitching in by waiving all fees for donations sent to the Red Cross. Please spread the word and donate via www.remitly.com directly to Red Cross Philippines. We have pre-filled all their bank info etc for your convenience.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> News reports before the typhoon hit said 4000 people had been evacuated. Why only 4000? Lack of resources?

Now that the typhoon has devastated the philippines, the international community is sending aid, money, resources. Why can't the same be done before a disaster like this hits? I'm sure the millions pouring in now could have gone a long way to evacuate people or set up shelters, dams, pumps, before it killed 10,000+

And for the financially minded bureaucrat, I'd guess preventive measures would possibly cost less as well.

<comment><USER5> I've actually read about over a million people evacuated and in shelters.

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/08/typhoon- haiyan-...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan- batters-philippines)

Sadly, it seems international aid is more efficient at post-event response. The government tried to mobilize as well as it was able, but that will never be enough. (See: Katrina, japan earthquake/tsunami).

I still have friends I haven't heard from, and have friends who haven't heard from their family. The days of shocked reflection after disasters are always filled with what-ifs and fruitless hindsight. I agree with rdl above that innovations have to be made but most importantly a plan for better wealth creation for the country's poorest who are often the hardest hit. In these modern times, it shouldn't take 10,000 lives to spur that on.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation is accepting donations via [http://brickbybrick.pdrf.org/yolanda](http://brickbybrick.pdrf.org/yolanda) here's the rest of the info on how you can help: [http://www.rappler.com/move- ph/issues/disasters/43300-relief...](http://www.rappler.com/move- ph/issues/disasters/43300-reliefph-victims-typhoon-yolanda-help)

</comment><comment><USER26> I donated a bit to: [https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon](https://www.wfp.org/donate/typhoon)

This thing needs lots of help now.

</comment><comment><USER27> can someone who is better informed than me compare the typhoon a few weeks back in orissa, India with 12 casualties and this one.

note - this isn't a rhetoric. I genuinely want to understand what is the reason for such a massive difference. I have financial interests in that exact part of India and actually have been thinking that the govt is pretty well prepared (given, well that it is India).

<comment><USER13> I mentioned this in another thread, but I will regurgitate it here.

I don't consider myself well informed. But I live in the Philippines and I have been in a high wind, light flooding typhoon and a low wind high flooding typhoon. Of the two, the high flooding typhoon caused a lot more damage and loss of life.

You can't make apples to apples comparisons on typhoons. Wind speed isn't necessarily the most destructive factor. Wind creates a lot of damage, but its flooding which creates high casualty counts. The devastating tsunamis we have recently seen is a great example of this.

From this article.

[http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/10/21389125-typho...](http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/10/21389125-typhoon- haiyan-us-forces-heading-to-storm-devastated-philippine-islands?lite)

> Most of the deaths appear to have been caused by surging seas that resembled > a tsunami, flattening buildings and drowning hundreds, according to Reuters.

It's certainly possible that the region you mentioned in India was better prepared, but I'm guessing that the flooding was worse in the 1999 storm.

The Philippines typhoon was among the strongest to ever hit hand. It neared the theoretical maximum strength of a typhoon. One of the methods used to measure the strength of a typhoon is the Dvorak scale which goes up to 8. At the peak of the storm, it hit 8 and they could no longer measure it. They could only estimate that it went up to as much as 8.2.

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

<comment><USER28> Why is there a theoretical maximum strength for a typhoon? What limits them?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> The Boston Globe has a great series of photographs of the aftermath:

[http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/11/typhoon_haiyan.html](http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/11/typhoon_haiyan.html)

</comment><comment><USER30> And we all knew for a very long time now that this kind of disaster is due to climate change.

And we all don't seem to care at all. At least not enough to changer our patterns of consumption.

</comment><comment><USER31> For those looking to help, if you know the area or are an experienced mapper, [http://tasks.hotosm.org](http://tasks.hotosm.org)

</comment><comment><USER32> Does anyone know if Batangas (more specifically: Nasugbu) was hit badly?

<comment><USER33> It wasn't hit badly

<comment><USER32> Are you there right now?

<comment><USER33> Im from neighboring provice of laguna and i think storm signal for batangas only reach signal no. 2

<comment><USER32> Laguna was signal #1, right? I hope everything is OK where you are. My brother and his family live in Nasugbu, I haven't been able to get in touch for a few days - but then again they might be traveling right now so nobody knows if they were even home.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> How can we help this disaster as software engineers? Any ideas?

<comment><USER35> Long term:

Have a look at websites like this, and see if you can make them better. [http://reliefweb.int/](http://reliefweb.int/) Better means lots of things, but "easier to use with very low or intermittent bandwidth"; "easier to use for an international audience" etc.

Take the most important Wikipedia articles (where "importance" is about STEM education) and polish them into the very best they can be, with clear easy to understand text and nice examples and best diagrams. Translate these to different languages. (Whatever is used in areas that need them, so I guess Spanish, French, Portuguese, and whatever.) This might require a form from WP.

Investigate charities that do good work. Donate to those charities. Good work means different things to different people, but probably includes "doesn't spend too much of its funds on luxury offices and big wages" and "makes a change, doesn't just continue cycles of deprivation".

Research and promote low power computing. Most people have _huge_ computers for what they actually do. Really, using social media, watching a few cat videos, and writing the occasional letter do not need gigabytes of RAM and 3 GHz quad core processors. Help with low resource Open Source projects. Never mind LXDE and XFCE, most people would be fine with JWM or IceWM. Moving people from 100 Watt desktop machines to 8 W arm (or similar) nettops would be useful for climate change.

There's bound to be some interesting but difficult to access research work around distribution - distribution of money and resources within organisations and from those orgs to the places where they're needed. Stuff crossing boundaries is an opportunity for loss. Those boundaries include geographical borders but also include regulatory boundaries for organisations. Visualisations of the journey of a donated dollar through the bureaucracies to the final endpoint would be fascinating, and possibly enraging, for many people.

Vote for people who don't do stupid things to developing nations.

Be careful when donating hardware to charity recycling. Often anything usable is sold off, with the junk being sent to places like the e-waste dump in Agbogbloshie, Accra, Ghana. Here's a programme and a clip about that dump. ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sch78)) ([http://videobam.com/rcEUM](http://videobam.com/rcEUM))

<comment><USER34> thanks for the great answer

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Cheap, easy-to-assemble, open source technologies that will help communities to protect themselves will really _change the world_ :-(

<comment><USER37> Unless you can open source a few billion cubic meters of concrete it would have done fuck all.

<comment><USER38> Assuming concrete is the _only_ solution to the problem.

<comment><USER37> When the problem is essentially damming a 100-mile wide river, yea, it's pretty much the only solution. Again, the damage here was the tsunami-scale storm surge, not so much the wind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> how about a humblebundle/indieroyale/indiegala/gog Haiyan bundle?

</comment><comment><USER40> I am from Negros Occidental, Philippines and we were spared from the destruction of Haiyan. But me and my family are continually praying for more help for the victims especially for those who lost their families. We are also thankful for people from other nations who extended their help. Filipinos will stand up and rise again! God bless us all!

</comment><comment><USER41> I'll just leave this here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxTXk1JCFw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzxTXk1JCFw)

To Americans: Is this even legit?

<comment><USER42> The data is there, everybody and check it and get its own conclusions. The one I get is disturbing</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Which companies pay in bitcoin? - <AUTHOR>

Following the recent surge in interest the number of employers that will pay in bitcoin must be increasing. If you work at, or know of a business that pays their employees in bitcoin add a comment, preferably with evidence.<p>Kentucky Police Chief to be Paid in Bitcoin http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10496993/Kentucky-police-chief-to-be-paid-in-Bitcoin.html <comment><USER2> I am more interested in whether coinbase staff gets paid in bitcoin. It would only make sense if they do</comment>


Wayback Machine now requires login - <AUTHOR> https://archive.org/web/

<comment><USER2> Which part of the site requires a login? I was able to do a bunch of things on the site without ever being asked to log in.

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, I wasn't able to access it. I am not sure now.</comment></comment>


Tutanota Mail is down (DDoS) - <AUTHOR> https://status.tutanota.com <comment><AUTHOR> Twitter Post: [https://mobile.twitter.com/TutanotaTeam/status/1305536068842...](https://mobile.twitter.com/TutanotaTeam/status/1305536068842852353)

</comment><comment><USER2> The title seems like it was written by a competitor

</comment><comment><USER3> Working for me now.</comment>


Turkey Twitter users flout Erdogan ban - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/21/turkey-twitter-users-flout-ban-erdogan?CMP=twt_gu <comment><USER2> _> In a rare act of defiance, the Turkish president, Abdullah Gül, openly criticised the ban – via his Twitter account. "The shutdown of an entire social platform is unacceptable," he tweeted. "Besides, as I have said many times before, it is technically impossible to close down communication technologies like Twitter entirely. I hope this measure will not last long._

Can any Turkish HNers comment on the credibility (clean record, etc) of the President? Is this act of defiance a play for becoming the popular leader in the next few weeks/months if the country breaks out into massive protests? Because it would seem rather risky on the president's part given that PM Erdogan has been entrenching himself as the leader since 2003 and also controls the majority in Parliament.

Wikipedia says that the office of the President is mostly ceremonial but it also states that the President is elected by citizens through a public vote (since 2007). Previously the President was elected by members of the Turkish Parliament [1].

Edit: The President also has a bunch of other tweets [2], using google translate, here is what they say:

> Social media platforms can not be closed completely approve of.

> Also, as I mentioned many times before, in the culmination of communication > technologies such as Twitter today all over the world. /.

> . /. blocking access to the platform used allround already technically > impossible.

> As violating the secrecy of the private lives of people if there are > criminal matters, but only by a court decision related pages can be turned > off.

> Hopefully this application will not last long.

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

[2] [https://twitter.com/cbabdullahgul](https://twitter.com/cbabdullahgul)

<comment><USER3> His record is clean in the sense that (unlike the prime minister) there has been no allegations or evidence of corruption involving him. He has been positioning himself as the more modern, tolerant option the conservative AKP party that has been in power over the decade.

However, it's safe to say that he talked to talk but failed to walk it. When the government started passing laws that undermine the independence of judicial system, free media, etc. he decided to tow the party line and failed to take any action, even symbolic ones, disappointing many that expected more from him.

He also has not taken any action or made any comments to address the corruption allegations against the government. It appears, he is aligned with the current administration in their struggle to hold on to power. Possible conclusions are a)he does not believe they are corrupt (despite significant evidence to the contrary) b) he believes struggle against Gulen movement is more important c) his hands are not sufficiently clean to take any action

His current position is indeed mostly ceremonial but still has impact. More importantly, there is (at least was) discussion to change the system towards a more powerful presidency along the lines of France or US. Gul was presenting himself as the more palatable and clean option (the modern conservative). It is not clear he can convince the masses on this anymore.

<comment><USER4> So, he's basically Turkish Barack Obama?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I happened to be visiting Turkey in 2010 when this idiot was seeking re- election. I kid you not, I felt like I was in a movie. There were propaganda posters literally on every single block in Istanbul with his ugly face on it. Every few minutes, a truck would drive by with people blaring through megaphones about how great this idiot was.

I bet tons of Turks voted for him simply due to the overwhelming media propaganda blitz that was his re-election campaign.

</comment><comment><USER6> Free Speech or Stone Age.

[http://blog.kozubik.com/john_kozubik/2009/06/free-speech- or-...](http://blog.kozubik.com/john_kozubik/2009/06/free-speech-or-stone- age.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> s/Streissand/Erdogan/ effect

</comment><comment><USER8> The more you tighten your grip, Tayyip, the more tweets will slip through your filters.

<comment><USER9> I think this is because stubbornness is built into the Turkish national identity. Especially when it comes to politics, if people start to feel that they are being wronged, they will be very, very stubborn about finding a way to express it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Turks are stupid .. as much as americans</comment>


Rocket launch will prove Earth is flat, California man says - <AUTHOR> http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/11/23/rocket-launch-will-prove-earth-is-flat-california-man-says.html <comment><USER2> What worries me most is how so many people can believe in obviously stupid ideas.

One would assume that some basic education is enough to debunk such crackpot ideas yourself.

On the other hand, saying the Earth is flat and scientists, media, school books, etc have been lying to me is a testimony to a big distrust in society.

We should all be asking ourselves where such big distrust is coming from.

<comment><USER3> I want to see someone get the flat earthers and the antivaxxers in a room together.</comment></comment>


FRA1 Block Storage Issue - <AUTHOR> https://status.digitalocean.com/incidents/8sk3mbgp6jgl <comment><USER2> Can confirm.

We run 26 services in production on DigitalOcean. Every single VPS in our setup uses block storage feature as a persistence layer (system logs, app logs, databases, etc).

Thanks to this architecture we can rebuild machines at will. The _function_ and _state_ are nicely separated.

The downside is that we are now fucked.

<comment><USER3> You should re-architect without network block storage as a requirement imho. Ever since that big AWS EBS outage in 2012 or whatever, I avoid it like the plague.

Databases like low-latency local storage (the newer nvme instances on aws are very good) and logs and whatnot are aggregated with other systems (fluent, logstash, etc). I actually do not miss EBS much at all really -- if I have a problem with a VM, they're disposable and redundant and I've designed out most of the SPOFs.

<comment><USER4> Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.

I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Across Google, we rely almost exclusively on networked storage (Colossus) unless we need extremely high-performance local flash. Being able to separate compute from storage is a huge part of our ability to both scale out, as well as to do live migration for GCE (where Persistent Disk, our equivalent of EBS is built upon Colossus).

Persistent Disk has never had an outage like the EBS one, but I attribute that to the Colossus and underlying teams having run this at Google for a really long time. Fwiw, the AWS folks have also massively improved EBS over the years. You can still worry, but I prefer to think about overall MTBF rather than consider networked storage in particular as the plague :).

<comment><USER5> Disclosure: I use both gce and ec2

Unfortunately unlike EBS, persistent disks (Colossus) in Google cloud share a network plane with the VM. To quote the docs.

"Each persistent disk write operation contributes to your virtual machine instance's cumulative network egress cap." [https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/performance](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/performance)

If you haven't noticed the mtu in Google cloud is < 1500 vs AWS where you can get jumbo frames (9k). I have no reason to believe persistent disks are different.

Enabling live migrations? You mean the choice of having an instance terminated with zero notice or migrate with a 60 second warning if you subscribe to the right API? Oh yeah and this is happening constantly.

Live migrations (and by connection VM attrition), persistent disks, and network performance are my least favorite aspects of google cloud today.

That being said google cloud does have alot of advantages over ec2. These are just not them.

<comment><USER4> First, I'm sorry you've had a bad time. We track our VM MTBF closely, so hearing "this is happening constantly" is really worrying. Feel free to reach out to me (email in profile), or Support so we can dig into your experience. If something is wrong, we should diagnose and fix it.

Can you say why you prefer explicitly separated egress caps? We let our networking egress be shared between all sources of traffic on purpose, because it lets you go full throttle rather than hardcap on "flavor". That is, why restrict someone that doesn't write to disk much by "stealing" several Gbps for the PD/EBS they aren't going to use?

Finally, it's true that our MTU is too damn low. But that also isn't particularly material for PD: when the guest issues a write, we handle it all behind the scenes (it's not like your guest sees the write get fragmented into packets).

<comment><USER5> Thank you for the fresh perspective and the thoughtful reply. I also appreciate the offer to reach out. Rest assured we are actively engaged during the events and have found support incredibly responsive. At a high level none of these are reasons for us to stop investing in our google cloud stack, nor have they caused any major outages. Think of them as quality of life comments.

Live migrations

To clarify "this is happening constantly". I meant we see live migrations happen frequently through the day. Going back the last 24 hours I see "hundreds" of migrations. We do have days where we will see 3 or 4x this number. The majority of these were successful and our logging, probes, and graphs show nothing exciting.

On the positive side of things, we have noticed a marked improvement in migration times, probe failures, and instance fatalities in the last 6 months. Where before we would regularly see live migrations take upwards of 15 minutes or longer. They are now at or under 2 minutes (With only a handful of exceptions barely worth mentioning).

I do appreciate the facility of live migration and the proactive approach googles takes to host maintenance. The 60 second notification window is just too damn short for some of our services to properly drain themselves. So instead, we hold on to our butts and hope for the best on those boxes.

If there was one improvement to live migration it would be to have the option of a 15 minute (or even 30 minutes.. am I being greedy?) notice.

Networking egress caps shared between instance and persistent disk

The edge case that hurts here is when you have a high bandwidth service that also writes a lot of data to a PD disk and the comcast style burst bandwidth throttling that happens on the instances (This is pure speculation and may have improved since last time this was investigated. The observation at the time was the throttling is a bit too efficient and hit the instance disproportionately). We have since migrated to either local ssd or tmpfs disks for these type of hosts in gce. Their sister services are still running fine in ec2 on ebs instances.

MTU

Yay! 1500 would be better, 9k would be great. This hurts when connectivity starts to see an increase in packet loss and the corresponding increase in packet re-transmission (and latency). Not to mention the overhead these extra packets incur (Those 20-60+ bytes just in headers add up quick).

TLDR wishlist

Longer notification window before live migration actually starts PD-optimized instances 1500/9k MTU

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As somebody who's been looking really hard at a project/side business that'd use Spaces (DO's object storage system), this makes me super, super nervous. To say nothing of _block_ storage--yikes.

Can anyone speak to quality/reliability of other object storage providers that have S3-compatible (including presigned URL) APIs? S3's pricing is absolutely ridiculous by comparison, but they have the reliability argument on their side...

<comment><USER7> I can't speak for the quality of other object storage providers, but being in the storage business I can say that if someone is running Ceph, find another provider.

<comment><USER8> What's a better open source alternative to Ceph?

<comment><USER9> There isn't a better open source alternative to Ceph.

However, improperly designed/architected you will end up with serious scaling issues.

<comment><USER10> Testing testing testing!

It's important to actually test things.

<comment><USER9> Yes it is and not just initial testing but at scale with full volume. ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have heard of a number of Ceph nightmares like this. A few years back, Logos Bible Software, who has a Ceph-based content platform (a huge library of e-books with a massive amount of meta-data), was down for a week because of a cascading Ceph cluster failure.

It really doesn't speak well of the Ceph architecture. It is highly performant, but at what cost? Failures on this scale can ruin a business.

<comment><USER12> Well, you can always partition a large cluster into many small clusters and prevent cascading failures, other issues from affecting everyone or getting too long to recover from. This is like a very basic reliability technique everyone should know.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> They've just started sending out SLA credit notices:

\-----

Hello,

On 2018-04-01 at 7:08 UTC, one of several storage clusters in our FRA1 region suffered a cascading failure. As a result, multiple redundant hosts in the storage cluster suffered an Out Of Memory (OOM) condition and crashed nearly simultaneously.

We have identified that you, or your team account, were impacted by this incident and will grant an SLA credit equal to 30% of your entire Block Storage spend for April, not just usage in FRA1. This credit will appear on your account at the end of April, and will be reflected on your April 2018 invoice.

We apologize for the incident and recognize the impact this outage had on your work and business. You can read the full detail of our public post-mortem here: [http://status.digitalocean.com/incidents/8sk3mbgp6jgl](http://status.digitalocean.com/incidents/8sk3mbgp6jgl)

Thank you, Team DigitalOcean

</comment><comment><USER14> 100% of the downtime for MomentoVPS was from ceph cluster failures....</comment>


The Monty Hall problem and what it has to do with A/B testing - <AUTHOR> http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com/split-testing-blog/the-monty-hall-problem/

<comment><USER2>
        Now, what is the comparison between [The Monty Hall] problem and the
        sample size blog?

        Well, both are about the usage of additional information
        to optimize decision making.

Am I the only one feeling disappointed with the payoff here? The answer ends up being "almost nothing".

It's the geek equivalent of TV gossip programs advertising "Find out next what crazy thing Tom Cruise said to Tiger woods . . . " with the result being "They actually didn't talk."

<comment><USER3> Kevin,

Bare in mind this article was written as a follow up on another article that amply describes the concept of statistical power.

I think a comparison between the two is justified. Both are about the use of additional information to enhance decision making and both are obviously difficult to grasp.

There is a conceptual resemblance between the problem many scientists had a long time ago understanding the dynamics of the probabilities involved in the Monty Hall Problem and the problem many marketing data analists have nowadays trying to understand the dynamics of statistical power when designing experiments.

The practical resemblance between the two is that failing to apply the logic behind the Monty Hall Problem will make you throw away half of what you could have had. Not applying the logic of statistical power makes many data analysts and thus organizations throw away half the knowlegde they could have had.

Apart from the resemblance between the two puzzles, the practical consequences of such misconceptions are quite worrying to say the least. It's for that reason I make these efforts to explain the matter.

Regards, Kees

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> All of this madness is elegantly tackled by Bayesian statistics. There are usually two roadblocks to using a Bayesian approach:

1\. It's computationally expensive.

2\. You need a prior.

#1 is not an issue at all here since the problem is tiny.

Companies like Visual Website Optimizer are in an excellent spot for #2: because they have data from many customers, they can find a very good prior.

</comment><comment><USER5> In summary: Make sure your sample size is large enough so that it is possible to get a statistically significant result.

<comment><USER3> Indeed, or, if that is not possible, consider lowering reliability. Business situations are different from academic settings where an alpha of 5% is more or less the rule. We do not look for publications in scientific journals, nor do we engage for instance in medical research – and even there -, we are in a business situation trying to optimize decision making.

Up to us to decide for an alpha of 10% or 20%, as long as we are fully aware of the consequences of such choices. I am not advocating 'going easy' on statistical significance, I am in favour of weighing consequences and such can only be properly done if one masters the dynamics of reliabilty and power of a test. That could also mean you wanted a reliability of 99% and a power of 99%, it all depends on the risks you want take with your specific research questions.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: I just started using Google Apps and Google Sites to document my life - <AUTHOR>

Is this a good platform to use, or does anyone do anything similar with different software. I'm using it as a diary, calendar, budgeting software via google sheets, and some other stuff. <comment><USER2> In my experience it is great - I use it to store a lot of common documents I don't want to carry around on a thumb drive that is easy to lose. However, my use is primarily non-public facing - storing personal documents and the like. I particularly find the spreadsheet tool in Google Drive useful for storing quick calculations I want to access on the fly, such as notes on an ongoing task or budget projections for my personal finances.

For sharing personal documents, I tend to use Dropbox more than Google Drive, though. In my experience people without tech expertise tend to get a handle on Dropbox more quickly than on Google Drive, though it largely depends upon the people you are sharing with.</comment>


Thoughts on the role of a CTO and growing a startup - <AUTHOR> http://devver.net/blog/2008/11/notes-from-the-boulder-cto-lunch-1132008/

<comment><USER2> Three titles: VP/Eng, CTO, and Chief Architect. Each one you have on your team, I predict your dev cycle is 5 months longer. If you have a CTO, VP/Eng, _and_ a "Chief Architect", then before your Junior Director of User Interface Quality Engineering has laid down his first line of JSP templating code, you're looking down the barrel of 15 months of overhead.

The role of a CTO is to have a cool title in sales and partnership meetings. Make your CTO your very best sales engineer.

</comment><comment><USER3> The only thing I'd add to this article is that in the earliest stages of the company (where there's just a handful of people), the CTO is also the VP of Engineering and also the programming lead.

<comment><USER4> True at our company of two both the CEO and CTO are the programmers. CEO does a little more with the business side of the world. CTO spends a little more time on architecture. I assume the roles will become a little different and more defined as the company grows

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> There was an article on here a while back with a great description of the CTO role:

"The CTO's primary job is to make sure the company's technology strategy serves its business strategy"</comment>


Ask HN: Why are there 2 Pythons?  (2.7 & 3.1.2) - <AUTHOR>

Looks to me like both are stable?  Which one should you use for new projects? <comment><USER2> <http://wiki.python.org/moin/Python2orPython3> was created recently to answer just such a question, quite recently in fact (some people were asking similar questions and the issue of the quality of the stock answers was raised in comp.lang.python).

<comment><USER3> <http://docs.python.org/release/3.0.1/whatsnew/3.0.html> this is down. It was linked in the above article.

Google cache: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dqDQ- qw...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:dqDQ- qwXBRQJ:docs.python.org/dev/3.0/whatsnew/3.0.html+python+3+whats+new&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you're doing something completely new that will never interact with older code bases, Python 3 seems like the best choice. This is where the language is ultimately going.

However, if you have to integrate with almost anything in 2.x land, such as 3rd party libraries, you may have no choice but to keep using 2.x for awhile. As usual, even from this older version, there are ways to voluntarily import future capabilities so that your code is as 3.x-like as possible.

</comment><comment><USER5> Both are stable. Both will continue to be stable for a long time.

The main difference lies with third party library support. There are a number of third party libraries that don't work with Python 3 yet. They will get ported eventually. If you want to use a library that doesn't support 3, then the choice is made for you.

The second difference lies with Linux distributions. On most distros you can just install the "python3" package and everything works, on a few distros you'll have to install Python 3 yourself or hunt down the right package repository (my info may be a year behind or so, I'm not sure). This also applies to third party libraries -- even if the library supports Python 3, your distro might not have a package for it, even if it has a package for that library for Python 2.

It's fairly easy (most of the time) to write code for Python 2.x that converts to Python 3 code with the bundled "2to3" converter. I do this for any script I might ever want to give to someone else or run on a computer that's not mine. Otherwise, I just write straight Python 3 code. Assuming, of course, that I don't need some library.

<comment><USER6> > They will get ported eventually.

This is what worries me about Python: Python3 has been stable for a long while now, yet major projects (SciPy, Django) remain on 2.x, with no clear deadline for being ported to Python 3.

Contrast this to Ruby, where Rails 3 is 1.8-compatible but recommends 1.9. Ruby 1.9 is being used in production even though it's not completely stable yet. In short, Ruby is clearly evolving, major libraries are constantly being updated for the latest version of the language, and everyone in the Ruby community has a strong sense of "getting better all the time."

Python 3 is a better language than Python 2. That it's taken so long to become the canonical version makes me wonder about Python's future.

<comment><USER5> I don't think the circumstances compare.

Python 3.x is different in a bunch of little ways from 2.x. Just like you say Rails 3 runs on Ruby 1.8 and 1.9, most Python libraries will run on 2.5, 2.6, or 2.7 (often 2.4 as well) without modification. Python 3.x breaks these libraries. Python 2.7 is also several months newer than Python 3.1.

It reminds me of the 2.4 -> 2.6 transition for the Linux kernel. People were using 2.4 for a long time. Heck, you can still find Linux 2.4 in the wild.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My rule of thumb as to when to use Python 3: once django is ported.

<comment><USER8> Great rule of thumb, but this also goes for a whole bunch of auxiliary Django applications and libraries like Piston, Evolution, South etc.

<comment><USER9> I think that once the Django team announces their intention to port most of the auxiliary applications will take notice and follow suit. I base this on how the (better) auxiliaries have been pretty good at keeping in sync with Django's releases.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> If you have to ask, I would highly recommend 2.x ! Nobody of note is using 3.x in production. It's nice, but not backwards compatible with the huge pool of existing code / docs; which is one of python's strongest suits, especially if you're coming to the language fresh.

The IRC /topic: ;)

""" Topic for #python: NO LOL | Don't paste in here: use <http://paste.pocoo.org/> | <http://pound-python.org/> | Include Python version in questions |

2.x or 3.x? <http://tinyurl.com/python2or3> |

Tutorial: <http://docs.python.org/tut/> | FAQ: <http://effbot.org/pyfaq/> | New Programmer? <http://tinyurl.com/thinkcspy2e> | #python-fr #python.de #python-es #python.tw #python.pl #python-br #python-nl #python-ir """

</comment><comment><USER11> why can't you look in the obvious places to answer such a question without asking that on HN? (hint: Python.org and Google)

(no ill will, but an honest counter-question)

<comment><USER12> karma?

<comment><USER13> less cynically ... perhaps the poster wanted the personal opinions of HN hackers, many of whom probably have first-hand experience with Python and might be able to give more personalized answers than what's on FAQ pages

<comment><USER11> ahhh, k.

so if that's the case, here's what I should do. i'll begin preparing a series of questions to post to HN in the coming weeks, to keep in the same spirit. Rough list to start with:

1\. where do babies come from?

2\. what is PageRank?

3\. what sorts of languages can you write iPhone apps in such that they are allowed in the Apple store?

4\. why might I want to write an app in C versus in BASIC?

i'll add more as the whim comes to me. ;)

<comment><USER14> Actually, if you went one step beyond and asked for opinions or non-obvious answers to any of those, I'd consider that perfectly suitable for the site.

For example

2\. is there an open source implementation of PageRank?

3\. any tips on how to fake handwritten Objective C so Apple will accept my app?

4\. I wrote my app in BASIC instead of Objective C and Steve Jobs said it was okay

<comment><USER11> here are some more common patterns that HN seems to find acceptable:

1\. <something-something-something> Google?

2\. <something> Facebook <something> Apple?

3\. when will <Apple|Google|Facebook|Amazon> do <my personal whim here>?

:P

<comment><USER13> here's one more to add to your list: if you do an automated text meta-analysis of "Ask HN" titles and see what words/phrases are correlated with more upvotes, then post your analysis on a blog post, i'm sure people would upvote you like crazy ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Google App Engine SDK uses Python 2.5, I had 2.6 installed and had to revert. 3 drops some features, adds some others. You can import 3.x features in 2.x from __future__, see: <http://docs.python.org/library/__future__.html>

One of the less useful features dropped is 'somestring'.encode('rot13') :P

</comment><comment><USER16> Speculatively, there are more than 2 Pythons. Python, like perl has become a family of languages. Some time ago Perl Mongers accepted that Perl 6 was not the next version of Perl but a new language in the Perl family. I suspect Python 3 is to Python 2 as Perl 6 is to Perl 5. Google's Go is also a language in the python family I think.

<comment><USER17> > Google's Go is also a language in the python family I think.

I can't imagine how that statement could be true. Please explain.

<comment><USER16> C, C++, Java, Javascript are all members of the C family of languages... even if created by different people for different reasons.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There are many more than 2 pythons. Several versions 2.6, 2.4, 2.2 happily in use in the wild. Not to mention jython, Stackless, IronPython and the like.

Use the one that fits your new project.

</comment><comment><USER19> It's more like 3, since 2.5 is still pretty popular and doesn't work with 2.7 or 3.1

</comment><comment><USER20> Python 3 is not backwards compatible with Python 2. The developers have always stated that Python 3 will be a 5 year project until the entire standard library is ported.

<comment><USER21> I think you mean to say "until third party libraries get migrated". The standard library is already migrated.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> 2.5.4</comment>


Online, 'a Reason to Keep on Going'  - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/health/02face.html <comment><USER2> [Re: Lonely old lady spending 14 hours a day socialising online]. To go off on a slight tangent, I often wonder what will happen when the people who now do open-source development as a hobby start retiring. If we/they end up hacking 14 hours a day, that would be a force to be reckoned with!

Although I am guessing mailing list discussions aren't going to get any easier with a bunch of crotchety old folks slinging it out :-)</comment>