Ask HN: 25 year old web hacker considering in person San Francisco job hunt - <AUTHOR>

Hi HN,
I'm playing around with the idea of traveling to SF to try to find a job at a tech startup, and I have several questions.
Does the job market in SF live up to the hype?
How receptive are SF startups to people either dropping by or calling to setup meetings in town?
Is a week enough time to make the trip worthwhile, get a feel for the area, and meet with a lot of companies?
If I go the AirBNB route, what neighborhood should I try and stay in for best walk-ability to the startup heavy areas?  (Alternatively, anyone want to rent their couch to me for a week? =)
Thanks for reading! Also, any other tips or links you want to throw in would be much appreciated. Things like http://paulstamatiou.com/atlanta-to-san-francisco-moving-cross-country and http://al3x.net/2009/10/04/so-youre-moving-to-san-francisco.html <comment><USER2> I just recently had to find a job. I started looking on Monday and accepted a job by Wednesday afternoon.

If you are interested in working with a recruiter let me know and I can put you in touch with the person that helped me. I won't name drop but if you would like me to put you in touch I will be more than happy to.

Questions: \- What technology stack(s) are you comfortable with? \- What type of development are you interested in the most?

Suggestions: \- Do not just take a job for the sake of moving out here. A means to an end is simply not enough in the bay. You need a life too and that costs $$. Make sure you take a job that will fulfill you financially and professionally. (I moved out here 2 years ago).

\- Get in touch with a recruiting agency about 1 week before you arrive. They will fill up your schedule with interviews.

\- Stay anywhere you can that is cheap and near Caltrain. You'll probably have to travel all over the peninsula for interviews so a central location does not apply.

\- Check Meetup.com and other user groups of interest (if you are into Node, find the node user group meeting in the bay and be there). Fill your evenings with networking events so you can meet people. Once people hear your story they will take a vested interest in your success and they will _help_ you find interviews and network. This I cannot stress enough. Use your personality and make people want you to move out here. A lot of people are transplants and will go out of the way to help a fellow transplant out.

Other than that - good luck. I think 1 week is enough for preliminary interviews but I would plan for 2 weeks if you can. With 2 weeks I am confident you will find an offer.

Regards

<comment><AUTHOR> I would quite like to talk to your recruiter, my email is firstname.lastname@example.com. Thanks for responding!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> So I stayed visited a friend last summer in San Jose. I decided that during that week, while he worked, that I would go out and see for myself how "dropping by" startups would work out. I was surprised by the reactions of some of the companies. Here is what happened when I did this, but remember this was not in San Francisco, but south (IE Mountain View, San Jose, etc.).

Established startups that were > 20 employees were very hard to talk to. They had recruiters working for them to find and hire people. Those recruiters were pretty much booked and didn't have any openings in their schedules. I was often referred to their website to apply and then wait to be contacted.

The smaller startups, those who had only a few cubicles / people, took my contact information and were going to pass it along. They didn't have recruiters (they are expensive) so they did their own recruiting. They also had places to apply online in which they referred me to.

In all I found it very difficult to just stop in and grab someone's attention. I will be moving out there at the end of this summer and hope to work on my startup. If that goes sour then I will definitely do things differently to find a job, more along the lines of what devs1010 suggested. I found more opportunities just talking to people with similar interests than just showing up in person to random startups.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have nothing to contribute to this thread, but am anxious to see the outcome of it.

I am a 25 year old just finishing up college, and am jumping right into the startup world the moment I graduate.. from Philly.

I'm curious to see how well received your Ask HN becomes, because everything I know about Silicon Valley just though the web. I'd enjoy hearing about your journey how you make it out there!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I will definitely try to updated with the results and everything I learned, so other east coasters like me can have the chance, if they want it. Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> As someone who moved back to the Bay Area recently, I spent a lot of time applying online, I mostly went out my way to avoid 3rd party recruiters as I'm grown sick of dealing with them. I wasn't out here to go in person like you are suggesting but I found that being persistent, going to company websites directly and applying was lining me up a steady stream of phone interviews. From there, its a matter of getting their interest and then they may pay for you to come out (the company that hired me covered my air fare). If you go the 3rd party recruiter route, you are most likely going to be spending a lot of time talking on the phone to these people having "fluff" conversations as they really don't know anything about programming and they are just grasping at straws trying to place you somewhere to get a commission. If you can find one that seems decent, then go with them, however be prepared to have to filter out some of these recruiters as many may be a complete waste of your time.

</comment><comment><USER6> SOMA is the best spot to stay. Also, email me! Yammer is hiring and we'd love to have you come in for lunch while you're in town.

Jeffrey Erickson UX/UI Designer @ Yammer firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, and I emailed you!</comment></comment>


This Is Exactly Why You Should Wear Sunscreen - <AUTHOR> http://www.incrediblethings.com/video/this-is-exactly-why-you-should-wear-sunscreen/

<comment><USER2> actually, no. wearing sunscreen is a great way to block production of D3 which is absolutely vital for health.

in fact, there is a direct correlation between low cancer rates and distance away from the equator (the less sun you get, the more prevalence of cancer)</comment>


Modelling explains why blues and greens are nature's brightest colors - <AUTHOR> https://phys.org/news/2020-09-blues-greens-brightest-colous-nature.html <comment><USER2> Am I misunderstanding the title there or is it simply made to be catchy but wrong?

The actual beginning of the article says this:

"Researchers have shown why intense, pure red colors in nature are mainly produced by pigments, instead of the structural color that produces bright blue and green hues."

So the research has to do with the origin of different colors in animals, not "why blue and green are nature's brightest colors". A quick look at a Scarlet Ibis or a Poison Frog should make it clear that opposing red to blue in a battle for "nature's brightest colors" would be an irrelevant endeavour anyway, and that isn't what the researchers have been doing in the first place.

<comment><USER3> Yes agreed, they say "structural color" (film interference) only works for blues and greens, and you need pigments for oranges and reds. Title should be changed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Digital photography still uses my father's filter ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer_filter)). How did it survive? He made an inevitable choice, this is bit like asking why the number two is so prevalent. Frame the question right (as he did, preparing twenty years for what looks like ten minutes of work), and this grid is the unique answer:

"Checkerboard half the squares green, turn your head, and checkerboard what's left red and blue."

What's most striking here is the prevalence of green squares. With a honeycomb pattern, one could equally distribute RGB cells. However, this would be less efficient in hardware and software. John von Neumann considered base 3 computing, but settled on binary, for a similar efficiency advantage.

From what my Dad understood of the human eye, he decided that green was the best proxy for black and white detail, so he favored green. Digital photography evolved in harmony with the human eye, just as eyes evolved in harmony with the objects of our vision. None of us take in FM radio with our eyes, and few animals see red. Some speculate that our corner of the mammal world sees red to spot ripe fruit, nature's pigment playground.

<comment><USER5> > Digital photography still uses my father's filter

Are you David by chance? If so, I've read several of your papers and just wanted to say thanks!

<comment><USER4> Yup. I owe any sense of simplicity in my work to my Dad.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> _"The researchers modeled the optical response and color appearance of nanostructures, as found in the natural world. They found that saturated, matt structural colors cannot be recreated in the red region of the visible spectrum, which might explain the absence of these hues in natural systems."_

Sounds like circular reasoning to me: "Red colors cannot be recreated in nature because (according to our modeling) nano structures found in nature cannot produce them". What do I overlook?

<comment><USER7> What do you mean? They found that red is impossible, which explains it's absence.

If red were possible, you'd have a different answer, possibly related to vision systems.

<comment><USER6> That red isn't possible with the nanostructures found in nature doesn't imply no such nanostructures could have evolved.

_If_ structures that produce red can be made, the question to answer would be why they haven't evolved.</comment></comment></comment>


HP made a laptop slightly thicker to add 3 hours of battery life - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/ces/2017/1/3/14126382/new-hp-spectre-x360-laptop-2017-announced-price-release-date-ces <comment><USER2> To put that into context, it will be 18 mm and 4.4 pounds, versus 15.5 mm and 4 pounds for the new 15" MBP. Apparently the new battery is 79 watt-hours (the old one was 64 watt-hours), versus the 76 watt-hours on the 2016 rMBP. With the power-guzzling 4K screen, it'll almost certainly get _less battery life_ than the new MBP.

Which confirms the consternation over the 2016 rMBP. It's a huge regression compared to the 99 watt-hour battery in the 2015 rMBP 15", but with few exceptions PC manufacturers were shipping 50-60 watt batteries in similar configurations. And going with power-guzzling 4K displays instead of the much more efficient 3K model in the MBP.

<comment><USER3> > 18 mm ... versus 15.5 mm

On a tangent, weight I can understand, as folks physically haul around a laptop, but I've never understood shaving a millimeter or two from the thickness of a laptop. I've heard genuine complaints about heavy laptops, or too-large form-factor (big screen or overly large bezel), but thinness seems to be just bragging rights. I've known people who bought a laptop to fit in a leather bag they already liked (rather than the other way around!), but I've never heard anyone complain that laptops are just too thick.

Am I missing something here?

<comment><USER4> In addition to what others have said here and elsewhere, I think some of it is also internal competition gone too far among mechanical designers to make the thinnest edge or the most subtle bezel. When I worked with product designers in the past, there was always a lot of oohing and ahhing whenever they'd come across a competing product with tighter tolerances than they'd seen before. Its like the product design version of needing to use the latest pre-alpha NodeJS framework or transpiled front-end language; it doesn't necessarily have a direct effect on the end user experience, but it satiates its creators own need for new and shiny.

<comment><USER5> This is like what Philippe Starck calls 'narcissistic design' \- design to impress other designers.

<comment><USER6> And I get the impression that Apple has been doing a shit ton of that over the years...

<comment><USER7> I agree, but I just bought a 15" MBP 2015 and 15,4-inch (2880 x 1800), ~2 kg, plus the battery life feels just right _to me_ (YMMV). Its ~2/3 of my previous 15" MBP 2010, the battery life is ~25% better, and the screen is noticeably brighter and crispier (partly due to the old screen being matte and 6 years old).

I didn't have to go to extremely low weight device. I didn't have to go to small battery. I didn't have to go to low or high resolution extremes. Sure, the GPU isn't great, but I decided to not play games on it from the get go. I wouldn't have my gaming equipment for it anyway (mechanical keyboard with binds, Naga mouse, headset, etc).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Wouldn't it be great if laptops had a "dewalt" powertool style bottom plate. You could decide if you want the "thin" or "thick" baseplate to balance between all-day battery life vs. ultra-thin portable 3-4 hour life.

This would give the option to create a solid "3-inch thick" battery that lasts a week. It would weigh a ton, but for some situations like remote fieldwork it could be a really great solution.

<comment><USER9> thinkpads have this. I use "the tumor" (a 9-cell battery) and it's amazing. Also, you can hibernate the computer, remove the tumor, and replace it with another tumor (or the 6-cell battery), and restart- no reboot required to switch batteries.

<comment><USER10> Not only the tumor (which also made a decent carrying handle), but also the dream bottom plate battery OP is describing: [https://www.amazon.com/Thinkpad- Battery-19-Cell-Slice/dp/B00...](https://www.amazon.com/Thinkpad- Battery-19-Cell-Slice/dp/B004UC59Q4)

<comment><USER9> I didn't know that existed....

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Why don't HP desktops and laptops get more attention in 'hacker' communities? I hardly ever see them discussed.

IME with large numbers of HP corporate (not consumer) machines, they have by far the best quality of any Windows options. They run for so long that users get frustrated, wanting shiny new equipment but having no reason to replace their old ones. An EliteBook not far away from where I'm sitting even has a tool-less case - you can pop off the cover and service it by moving one lever, no screwdriver required - on a laptop!

However, I don't have data on quality; that is hard to come by.

(I have no relationship w/ HP.)

<comment><USER12> > Why don't HP desktops and laptops get more attention in 'hacker' > communities? I hardly ever see them discussed.

Because HP did a _LOT_ of crappy things and produced a lot of crappy hardware and provided a really crappy customer experience.

I know a lot of people who are in the "I will _NEVER_ buy another HP" camp.

That reputation takes time to undo, and you have to stick with it and not screw up during that time or you are back to square one.

<comment><USER13> I can count on two hands the number of printers and consumer-level laptops from HP that have died on me. I'm sure its different in EliteBook land but I am still trying to find out what Windows laptop vendor offers the best build quality and performance.

<comment><USER11> Buy the corporate line laptops from whatever vendor you use. Speaking generally,

* Consumer products are sold based on cost; when consumers shop, that's all they look at. Corners are cut to keep costs down - that's what consumers demand.

* Corporate products are sold based on availability (reliability), serviceability, and support; that's what IT departments shop for because those line items cost businesses far more than the extra couple hundred in up front cost. Imagine the cost of just a a few hours of downtime over the entire lifetime of the computer - lost productivity, skilled labor to for repairs, parts, distraction and disruption.

Yes, corporate products cost more; if you insist on lower up front cost, the manufacturer is going to give it to you. You get what you pay for. The same goes for support; pay for premium support.

My impression of HP's consumer-level stuff is that it's cheap in every way, but I never use it. I do have a ~12 year old heavily used HP corporate line laptop not far from where I'm sitting; it works perfectly except for the trackpoint (touchpad is fine), and the finish is a bit worn where the user's palms rest.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> TL:DR - 4K screen sucks regular batteries dry - needed bigger battery for same battery life. :(

I got excited that this might be a good trend until I read this paragraph:

"Unfortunately, the claimed three hours of additional battery life aren't meant to make this laptop into some long-lasting wonder — they're really just meant to normalize its battery life. HP will only be selling the 15.6-inch x360 with a 4K display this year, and that requires a lot more power."

<comment><AUTHOR> The paragraph following yours is quite important:

"By increasing the laptop's battery capacity, HP is able to push the machine's battery life from the 9.5 hours it estimated for the 4K version of its 2016 model to about 12 hours and 45 minutes for this model. So it is adding three hours of battery life, but in doing so, it's merely matching the battery life of last year's 1080p model."

It is still a net gain over the previous year's 4K model's battery life.

<comment><USER15> I believe Apple is already making the argument but how much battery life do you really need? 8 hours seems like an easy figure to throw out because its a "work day" although most people can just plug in their laptops.

What use case needs 12+? That seems "good enough" to me for most applications. Is it building in more life so that as the battery degrades there is still acceptable battery life?

Are there more applications than I think where the laptop is actually not plugged in all day? When does that happen? Manufacturing? Some kind of in-the- field work?

I have no experience with it so honestly curious how people use laptops as more than a mobile terminal in an office setting.

<comment><USER16> The problem with Apple is that extra battery is thrown out the window for the sake of thinness above all else. Can you _imagine_ how much battery life a MacBook Pro could have if they just added back 3mm of height to the mold? Throwing away 4-6+ hours of battery life in the supposedly _professional_ models for the sake of shaving off a couple of millimetres... it's a joke.

The latest MacBook "Pro" is no longer a professional machine... it's nothing more than the new generation of MacBook Air. There is no longer a Pro line, only upgrades for the least common denominator of consumer.

Source: desperately not wanting to give up OS X (it's the only operating system I can stand), but I'm stuck in a position where I flat out refuse to shell out $4200 CAD on a new laptop, when 3 years ago the same level of upgrades cost $1000 less. Their pricing has reached unacceptable levels of greed. That, and no fucking escape key... on a "professional" machine. Give me a break.

<comment><USER17> I hope you're taking into consideration that over roughly the last 3 years the Canadian dollar depreciation has added around $1000CAD to the same levels of upgrades by itself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> How much more work would it be to put in more RAM that could only be used when plugged into AC power? My understanding of the MacBook Pro design constraint is that they had to hit <100 watt-hours while using LPDDR3. Could a laptop easily have another 16 or 32 GB of RAM that consumes more power but is only available when plugged into AC power?

I would be happy to have such a constraint. I love my MacBook Pro. I love being able to carry it around and deal with things like email when on battery. When I'm doing serious development work, I'm sitting down somewhere plugged in anyhow.

The OS could gracefully page out to swap and power down the less efficient memory when switched to battery.

<comment><USER19> Are there any existing operating systems that can handle a dynamically- changing amount of RAM?

> The OS could gracefully page out to swap and power down the less efficient > memory when switched to battery.

According to benchmarks, the SSD on the latest MacBook Pro hit 1.4GB/s. Even at this speed, it would take at least 10 seconds to flush 16GB of RAM to disk. I doubt your computer could do much while that was happening. I wouldn't call that very graceful.

<comment><USER20> Solaris on SPARC had the ability to dynamically add or remove RAM as I understand it. I believe IBM AIX (+ POWER maybe?) can do this too.

Modern Linux kernels will let you hot-add memory but won't let you hot remove it.

<comment><USER21> Yep, CPU's too. On the E4500's the CPU's and memory were on the same boards. You could remove the board after sending the right ASR commands.

Then again, you were constantly swapping boards to find the ones not affected by EDP (ecache data parity) errors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Panasonic makes a rugged laptop with 27 hours of battery life.[1]

[1] [http://business.panasonic.com/toughbook/fully-rugged- laptop-...](http://business.panasonic.com/toughbook/fully-rugged-laptop- toughbook-31.html)

<comment><USER23> _8.2 lbs. with optional media bay 2nd battery_

I'm not sure it counts when it weighs so much you could just bring a second laptop along!

<comment><USER24> Most of the weight is due to the toughened design, not the battery, actually. We are talking about laptops you can use as a weapon to bludgeon someone, then take with you to swim, and they'd still be in a working state.

Actually you can run over them with an SUV and they still work!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41lXVKSTOGQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41lXVKSTOGQ)

Of course, unlike common laptops, they don't need a case or anything. Just carry them as is with their built-in handle.

If they didn't cost so much I would consider buying one. The added weight may make them slightly less comfortable in one way, but in another way, if you think about it, they're not flimsy pieces of denting aluminum you always have to treat with care, put in protective bags during transport and the like. Using a laptop like this must feel.. liberating.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I want something that's identical in size/weight to a 2009/2010 Macbook Pro 17" (huge in comparison to today's stuff), but with all of the internal volume that was occupied by the DVD-RW drive full of battery... I bet you could fit 100Wh of battery.

<comment><USER26> I used to use (and still own) one of those PowerBook G3 laptops where you could swap the media bay for a CD-RW, a floppy, or a Zip drive, or just more batteries. With modern Li-ion battery technology in both the main battery and the media bay, that thing ran for 20+ hours. It was amazing.

<comment><USER27> Many Dell Latitudes can also accommodate a media bay battery. I had a D830 with a 1920x1200 screen and loved having the 9-cell + LiPo combo.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> When batteries surpass 72 hours, then laptop bodies can shrink below 20 mm.

<comment><USER29> You have to cap either battery life or weight/size. They capped battery life at ~10 hours and decrease size every year. Maybe one day laptops get light and thin enough and that changes.

The 2016 13" macbook pro with 70 hours of battery life would weigh ~3kg [0]. Have you ever used a light laptop (new macbook, macbook airs or ms surface to some extent)? The (lack of) weight feels really nice. The macbook would imo be the best laptop if it weren't for the keyboard. In fairness I've never owned a laptop with day long battery life so can't compare. Actually if I could buy a 100gram laptop with 1hour battery life I'd do that, the battery is less than 20% of the weight of a laptop though.

Portable 700gram 100Wh (the 13" pros are 55Wh and 50Wh) battery packs are less than $100 on amazon.

Ultimately, if you _really_ believe in battery life, line the back of your laptop with 18650's (one cell is 10Wh for less than $10), all you need is like 2 circuit boards, some solder and a bunch of electric tape. You can theoretically fit 47 on the bottom of a 13" macbook pro (you need ~35 cells for 72 hours[1]). Or get someone to manufacture a portable laptop battery case, macbook pros vent through the hinge, so heat should be less of a problem.

[0] [https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook- pro/specs/](https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook-pro/specs/) and [https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Touch+Ba...](https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Touch+Bar+Teardown/73480#s148072) means 1370grams+235grams\ _6

[1] [http://www.batteryspace.com/ProductImages/li- ion/specLI2400....](http://www.batteryspace.com/ProductImages/li- ion/specLI2400.gif) and [https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook/specs/](https://www.apple.com/ca/macbook/specs/) (281mm\_197mm)/(65mm\\*18mm) = 47

<comment><USER27> Or spend $700 on a pair of Hypermac 100wh battery packs [https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperjuice-external- batte...](https://www.hypershop.com/products/hyperjuice-external-battery-pack- for-macbook?variant=11044791238)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I wish they start doing this with phones more often

<comment> rm_-rf_slash That's the "eat your vegetables" line of smartphone marketing. Good for you but a hard sell. Besides if battery life really matters to you then you would get much more utility from an external battery that can store far more than a single smartphone charge.

<comment><USER15> Why is it hard to sell people vegetables? I agree with you but I don't actually know why. Is it just because there's no industry group running a "got carrots" campaign?

<comment><USER31> I sell people vegetables professionally. It's not difficult at all. People will pay a fair price for quality organically grown tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, chiles, peas and snow peas, and various Southern and Asian vegetables. There's too much hand work involved in root vegetables to pay easily for first world labor, but you can make it work.

The problem being invoked is that the junk food market is much bigger.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I have a 13' Air and a 13' Retina Pro.

I do not care even a little bit for the Retina screen. Makes me sad that so much energy is wasted on it.

<comment><USER33> This was the biggest factor to my switching to Ubuntu when deciding to upgrade from my 2010 MacBook Pro.

I can't stand glossy displays and I want battery life. High res displays tend to be glossy because at some point the grain on the matte coating is larger than the pixels.

On the PC side, it's easy to pick a matte 1080p display on the XPS13 and Asus UX305 and it greatly increases battery life. The 1080p XPS13 gets 14 hours! And it's matte! Win-win.

Whereas it's Tough Shit For You on a MacBook. Don't know why though, my old MacBook Pro has a matte display as a configurable option.

<comment><USER31> 1080p? Why not just go back to individual blinking LEDs? A non-retina screen is a throwback to previous centuries and should be tolerated only by the visually impaired.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I see a parallel trend for big laptops.

Like this ridiculous one (which I would love if not the price): [https://gizmodo.com/acers-absurd-curved-display-laptop- has-a...](https://gizmodo.com/acers-absurd-curved-display-laptop-has-a- predictably-hu-1790521279)

</comment><comment><USER35> Who cares how thick it is, what matters it what does it weigh? Not seeing that information.

<comment><USER36> As an alternative point of view (as to say, I'm not calling you wrong at all, just that there are other opinions on the matter): I don't care about weight at all, or how thin the thing is. I want battery life, bigger screen size, and horse power. (Apple about lost me when they killed the 17 MBP). I call my laptops "luggable".

<comment><USER35> The good thing about bringing back the 17" MBP would be all the objections over battery life and low power GPUs would be moot. Even a thin 17" is going to be huge. The last one looked like 4 cafeteria trays stacked up.

I'm just not sure that there is much of a market for it. It's fun to imagine though. Mobile Xeon, ECC memory, 32 or 64 GB DDR4-2400 RAM, RAID NVMe SSDs. Priced like a Mac Pro :)

<comment><USER37> > The last one looked like 4 cafeteria trays stacked up.

It's funny you mention that. The nickname for the 17" MBP was 'the lunch tray'.

<comment><USER27> The 17" allow me to fit a dinner plate, side dish, and drink on top of it (closed), then carry it back to my desk or to the next meeting. The 15" won't fit the side dish anymore. I miss my Silicon Valley Lunch Tray.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> It's annoying that most manufactures are only giving you 1080p or 4k options. WHY NOT SOMETHING IN BETWEEN!

Apple has the right approach IMO, 2880-by-1800 15", 2560-by-1600 13". ~48 - 67% more than 1080p.

<comment><USER27> Windows and Linux have issues with HiDPI when scaling is not just 2x. 1080p is conveniently ~1/4 of 4K, so 2X scaling for H and W makes it look normal.

Also, panel manufacturers want to pitch 4K, not 2.5k or whatever would make sense. It's the same reason we have 16:9 instead of 16:10 which many people (including me) liked much more: panel manufacturers and companies selling these to consumers care more about marketing (and selling) than how good they are to use. 100% srgb coverage is easier to sell than e.g. Backlight uniformity or low backlight bleed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> On a side note, why is it that I see battery capacity measured in both mAh and wH? One is charge, the other is energy. Which is more relevant?

</comment><comment><USER40> This is the same thing Microsoft did with the Surface Book a couple of months ago. I bought one and love the battery.

</comment><comment><USER41> I misread that as "He made a laptop slightly thicker to add 3 hours of battery life". I was waiting for the subtitle "Apple hates him" or something.</comment>


Two California hikers found a family's message in a bottle and helped save them - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/11/us/california-hikers-bottle-message-search-trnd/index.html <comment><USER2> This reminded me of this real life story of trying to find a German family that got lost in Death Valley. It's a tragic story but I found very interesting how this person tries to piece together what happened. It's a long but worthwhile read.

[https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the- hu...](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the- death-valley-germans/)

<comment><USER3> It is a fascinating story and the persistance of the author in trying to find the family is remarkable but its totally different than this story. The Germans were completely unprepared for their adventure without the correct clothing, not enough water, and apparently little or no knowledge of where they were going or where they were. The family in this story were prepared, knew exactly where they were going and where they were. They just ran into some bad luck but kept calm and did precisely the correct thing. The Germans were responsible for their own situation and paid the ultimate price.

<comment><USER4> I think this is almost a phenomenon. Europeans have trouble imagining the vastness and untouchedness of American national parks.

In Europe almost all hiking trails are close to civilization and well-marked. If you expect the same in America you're in for a surprise.

<comment><USER5> I just returned from a three week RV trip to some of the national parks out west, including Death Valley. Two of the things I noticed were (1) Europeans outnumbered Americans in the RV parks and (2) Europeans seemed far more inclined to break the national park rules. At one point we were in a guided jeep tour in Canyonlands which is some seriously treacherous driving on cliffside switchbacks. An Escalade sped by us at one point and we were all like WTF these people are insane...it's a cliff!! We caught up to them at an overlook (the Thelma and Louise Overlook) and our guide got out to scold them. He came back and was like, "No surprise, they're Italian." He went on to explain that 90% of the issues they see with people acting recklessly were Europeans who didn't seem to comprehend how dangerous these places can be.

<comment><USER3> I've been visiting Parks throughout the west for decades and have noticed the same thing. Its a virtual United Nations when you go into the Visitor's Center, gift shop, or restaurant. Personally, I think its great and love to show off what the US has that no other nation does. But, things like abusing the wildlife, putting themselves or others a risk because of stupid (and illegal) behaviors, and generally disrespecting the Park push me close to the edge. That kind of behavior isn't tolerated in the monuments and cathedrals in Europe; don't do it here.

<comment><USER5> There were multiple times when we were either in a park visitor center or the RV park's pool and I realized I was the only American. It was all (in order) German, Dutch, and French. Everyone was really friendly and we made some good friends at the pools. But we kept noticing all the people doing dumb stuff at the national parks weren't Americans. Feeding squirrels, flying drones, climbing on stuff that wasn't safe, etc. It kinda became a running joke.

<comment><USER6> If as you said Americans are outnumbered by European people it is not very surprising that most people spot doing silly things are European and not American ...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Among other reasons, this is why i have a contingency email draft that I have ready to go whenever I go out on a serious-ish hike, along these lines:

"here's who is going, this is our license plate, this is our gear, this is how much food we have, here's a very rough itinerary; if i don't update this email by such and such a time, contact the following SAR groups..."

<comment><USER8> My favorite service for this: [https://www.deadmansswitch.net](https://www.deadmansswitch.net)

<comment><USER9> Useless for backcountry safety, it won't trigger for way too long. Off the top of my head there are two apps that are actually useful: Cairn and I believe AllTrails has just added such capability. You can set a notification that will be delivered at a certain time if you don't check in with it. Cairn's capability on Android I find quite limited, I haven't tried AllTrails.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I went backpacking up arroyo seco with 2 friends on the same weekend. On our way into the campgrounds the rangers told us this story, we almost didn't believe them the story was so ridiculous on its face. Crazy to see this article in the news now.

Beautiful place to hike and camp, and if that's not your thing then check out the Tassajara zen center.

I wrote a trip recap here: [https://roymurdock.com/blogs/2019/0722ventana.php](https://roymurdock.com/blogs/2019/0722ventana.php)

</comment><comment><USER11> the news article left me wanting to know more about the hike, and i discovered this ropewiki article[0] which seems to be related, and link to a more detailed trip report[1]. i'm more of a peakbagger myself, but the photos of the canyons are fascinating (many examples in google images).

i'm guessing satellite locator beacons (such as resqlink, spot or in-reach) don't work very well in canyons. you'd need a much more monster antenna and transmitter.

[0] [http://ropewiki.com/Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_(Los_Padres)](http://ropewiki.com/Arroyo_Seco_Gorge_\(Los_Padres\)) [1] [http://www.teamsk.org/arroyo/seco.html](http://www.teamsk.org/arroyo/seco.html)

<comment><USER12> We use an in-reach for text messaging at our cabin which is in the bottom of a gulch in the rocky mountains.

It does work, but only when a satellite happens to be in the right position. This basically means you have to queue up a message and it will get sent in 5-50 min.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I grew up in Southern Utah, just a few miles from the Zion Narrows, and have read of many tragic situations that didn't end nearly as well as this group's story. (Including my own brother on an overnight scouting event). God bless the two hikers who "left before the rescue without giving their names!" I hope the family can find them so they can give them personal thanks.

</comment><comment><USER14> I don't mean to be rude but: why is this here? It would be a neat project to map out the changes in the types of stories and comments on HN over time. Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.

<comment><USER15> >> Over the years, HN has grown more and more in the direction of reddit front page and become less and less like an irc channel where people talk about technology.

Here is HN snapshot from 2008: [http://web.archive.org/web/20080105031416/https://news.ycomb...](http://web.archive.org/web/20080105031416/https://news.ycombinator.com/)

The top submissions is "Obama's Victory Speech". I don't think it's very technological, at least in common sense.

Probably the only very true HN existed in 2007, for several month. Well, these were good times..

<comment><USER16> I feel like the comments are becoming more "reddit" than the submissions themselves. Seems like way more ideological up-voting/down-voting than there used to be ~2yr ago. It seems like on every issue there's a side (varies by issue) you can't criticize unless you water down your comment with weasel words.

<comment><USER17> Sadly I think that is the by product of a larger issue where in almost all things in life have become victim to this stance of us vs. them. People pretend to want to have civil conversations around opposing views, but the reality is it's more of a "i'll listen to your view as long as you know your view is wrong" type thing instead of honestly being open to having your mind or principle changed with the right information. The other side effect is everything becomes a political point of contention at some point. It's almost like a new take on Godwin's law where not only is there a probability of Nazi's being referenced.. it's simpler that a conversation will become Democrat vs. Republican. .. Though we know that will eventually lead to comparisons of Nazis at some point too.

I don't see this in real life though, it's only on hyper exposed platforms like the news, websites, social media. In person I find most people are actually still pretty civil (though It's largely based on who you associate with).

Don't debate me on my opinion or else it's obvious you're a shill of "insert something here" ;D

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Why could they not turn around and go back the way they came? I am not a hiker.

<comment><USER19> From reading [http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/](http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/) (warning: nudity) linked from the ropewiki page, when hiking from the top, this journey is a combination of hiking, wading along the river and floating down it. It sounds like lots of fun. Turning around at the waterfall means that they would have to hike back as well as swim upstream, possibly through rapids, to get back to their starting point. It could be next to impossible.

I could see this being an easy trap to be caught out by if you had limited exposure to conditions in the area, or even if you had checked weather conditions and missed a rainfall upstream while out hiking. While they might be ashamed of needing a rescue, they thankfully made a smart choice and this is a cool story rather than a search for bodies.

<comment><USER20> > It could be next to impossible.

Do you know this of assumed? Sounds difficult for sure, but is it possible?

I mean, if you had no way forward and had two options:

1) turn around

2) throw a bottle into the waterfall and hope

I would turn around (unless as you said, is actually impossible, but I haven't been able to find anything definitive on this)

<comment><USER21> This wasn't the most robust crew. They were at a local minimum, both topographically and risk. They were safe where they were for at least a few days. Hiking out might have been beyond their ability. Having read some stories of people who didnt get out of these situations, it's not usually the first mistake that does it. It's the process of trying to get out that results in digging a bigger hole. I think they made the right call to abort rather than increase the risk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Unrelated to the article but damn, that autoplay of the video and that woman's voice scared me.

</comment><comment><USER23> It surprises me that people can't bring a PLB along when going to a non- trivial hike.

It's only $300 and it can transmit SOS both to low orbit satellites and to rescue copters, and it has shelf life of five years (no need to charge).

<comment><USER24> I think the monthly subscription fees are a turnoff to some people (although I think there are a few brands now that don't require that)

<comment><USER9> PLBs have no subscription. You must register them with the government but it's free. And mine only cost $250--watch prices on Amazon to get a better deal.

What you are thinking of are the SPOT & inReach units--those have subscription fees but provide you text messaging while off the grid. PLBs are single-shot HELP messages, they can't be customized. (Are you simply stranded like these guys, non-threatening injury that keeps you from getting yourself out, or is it a major issue--say, the guy here last year that keeled over on top of Hell Hill. It probably wouldn't have made a difference but the hour it took to get help certainly wasn't good.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> That autoplay video almost gave me a heart attack.

<comment><USER26> I would actually love if there were a browser setting that froze video (and motion image sets) until they receive mouse focus; preferably also with a payload size dependent switch to having a play button start the download.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> I always bring ham radio equipment when I hike like this. Most people don't realize mobile coverage is very limited.

</comment><comment><USER28> Nothing really poignant to say about this, other than thanks OP for posting something positive to read today.

</comment><comment><USER29> I really enjoyed this story. However I did struggle on one part:

> _Whitson, his 13-year-old son and girlfriend, Krystal Ramirez, had decided > to spend Father 's Day weekend backpacking the Arroyo Seco River._

It took me longer to parse this sentence than I should perhaps admit to. The first couple of reads lead me to believe his son and girlfriend were the same person.

<comment><USER30> Nice place for an Oxford comma.

<comment><USER31> Just an fyi, Oxford comma only applies to lists of 3 or more. I think this is just a dangling modifier.

<comment><USER32> This is a list of three: Whitson, his son, and his girlfriend.

<comment><USER33> Girlfriend of the whitson or the his son?

<comment><USER32> Beats me!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> I love stories like this. But, what if the hikers would just rather not be found?

<comment><USER35> It's just one sentence mentioning it at the end of the article. Doesn't sound like they're launching a massive campaign.

<comment><USER34> I really wasn't implying they were. I was just rhetorically asking the question. Just something to think about.</comment></comment></comment>


Heroku makes sharing SQL data as easy as URL - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/cloud/heroku-makes-sharing-sql-data-as-easy-as-url/

<comment><USER2> Man, if you could hook up a Data Clip to <http://explain.depesz.com>, how great would that be?

<comment><USER3> Good idea!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I just wiped their data by appending

        Robert'); DROP TABLE Students; --

To the URL!

Not really, but it makes you wonder strongly about security.

<http://xkcd.com/327/>

<comment><USER3> If you can make a dataclip, you have access to the database. We've audited it for privilege escalation and put some simple shooting-yourself-in-the-foot protection in, but if you REALLY REALLY want to screw yourself over you can probably find a way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The clever thing is having saved query results _and_ a way to re-run the query. Besides that it's just a nice executable SQL pastebin with a good user auth strategy (integration into an existing system).

</comment><comment><USER6> anyone know of an open source tool that approximates this? i'd love to build something like it at my company. would be used a ton.

<comment><USER7> perhaps this? <http://htsql.org/>

<comment><USER8> though not quite the same, anytime someone talks about SQL and URLs in the same sentence i think of htsql</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN Developers: Portfolios for Job Interview - <AUTHOR>

I have a job interview with a consulting firm on Wednesday, and they have implied very loosely that I should have some work samples to show them. I've never had an interview in-person before that has asked me for these things; they have all pretty much gone along with my resume and any references I may have provided. How should I prepare for this type of interview, what should I bring, etc.? I'm thinking of going to Fedex Office tomorrow and getting some screenshots of applications and sites I've done printed up on 8.5x11" paper in full color, but will this be enough? <comment><USER2> I haven't either -- I always just point people to my web site, where I maintain a portfolio. Paper is probably good in case you are meeting in an area with no computers or internet access. Better to have stuff with you and not use it than vice versa.

Could also bring code/screenshots on a USB drive too, though not everyone is going to want to load up an unknown drive.

I got a 404 on your resume page....

<comment><AUTHOR> Good catch on the resume. I just moved servers; the .htaccess files must have not transferred. It's fixed now. Thanks!

<comment><USER2> You might also try just emailing/calling them and see what they want -- could say "I wanted to show you some samples of my work," or "did you want to see samples of my work?" and then ask what format(s) they prefer it to be in, or the types of work they want to see (design, UI, backend?). At worst you're back where you started, and you might get some additional info in the process. In any event you'd probably still want some paper with you.</comment></comment></comment>


What Happened When Venture Capitalists Took Over the Golden State Warriors - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/magazine/what-happened-when-venture-capitalists-took-over-the-golden-state-warriors.html <comment><USER2> Basketball has 5 person teams. Team performance is highly sensitive to the performance of individual players, for example if your team's injury-plagued point guard stabilizes and becomes in the later half of his career, one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, you might do more than okay. I'm sure the Warriors new management has made some good decisions as well but let's call a spade a spade.

<comment><USER3> Bad ownership can absolutely ruin teams tho, regardless of talent. A couple that come to mind are Don Sterling, "Dollar" Bill Bidwill, and those goofs that are currently controlling the Sixers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> TL;DR: GSW owner since 2010 believes his brilliant management brought the team to where it is.

I beg to differ, and put the blame on the unforeseen rise of 2009 draft pick #7 to be the greatest shooter ever. \+ a class A coach (THAT I'll give to management).</comment>


MSR's Probabilistic Programming Language R2 Released - <AUTHOR> http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/r2/

<comment><USER2> I found this paper really illuminating: [http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/208236/asplos077-bornholt...](http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/208236/asplos077-bornholtA.pdf)

<comment><USER3> Our code often involves quantities which have intrinsic errors (like readings from accelerometers or photo-sensors or even just plain data like averages). The probabilistic framework enables us to computer with these kind of quantities that have uncertainties embedded in to them.

Every programmer should read this paper. It's one of the nicely written paper than pretty much anyone can understand.

<comment><USER2> Are you aware of any open source implementation of it? I am working on a Scala `Uncertain[T]` library...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Main paper here:

[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=211941](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/?id=211941)

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't see any reference to infer.net [1]. Aren't both of them related?

[1] [http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/cambridge/projects/in...](http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/cambridge/projects/infernet/)

edit: typo

<comment><USER6> They are related in that they are both probabilistic programming languages, but the similarities stop there.

First, infer.net is a DSEL of C# implemented as a library, while this is a new language. More substantially, infer.net is designed to use variational inference, which limits the class of graphical models that can be supported, while R2 seems to be based on sampling hence has no limits on the models it can represent. A more similar approach would be Church ([http://projects.csail.mit.edu/church/wiki/Church](http://projects.csail.mit.edu/church/wiki/Church)), a probabilistic language based on Scheme.

Of course, the downside of sampling is that inference is orders of magnitude slower, and there's no principled way to know when it converges, that's why many people prefer variational inference.

<comment><USER7> Of course, both variational inference and sampling-based inference are exponentially faster than actual exact probability calculations.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Hm, the obvious criticism is that it's not open source, unlike STAN and PyMC, and "only" has the advantage of being about twice as fast.

I haven't read the article thoroughly enough to know if the samples are of the same quality.

</comment><comment><USER9> The name seems to have been ideally chosen to cause confusion between it and the existing R language.

<comment><USER10> It wouldn't surprise me if they had intended it as a homage/boast - both are statistics-related, after all.</comment></comment>


uTorrent tricking users into changing default browser settings? - <AUTHOR> http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=139892 <comment><USER2> Simple: don't use uTorrent. Use Transmission instead:

[http://www.transmissionbt.com](http://www.transmissionbt.com)

<comment><AUTHOR> there are other options too :)

Deluge - [http://deluge-torrent.org/](http://deluge-torrent.org/)

Tixati - [http://www.tixati.com/](http://www.tixati.com/)

qBittorrent - [http://www.qbittorrent.org/](http://www.qbittorrent.org/)

<comment><USER3> Third for Deluge. uTorrent users will find it's interface very familiar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> First Vuze, then uTorrent. It looks like the life cycle of any popular torrent application is:

\- Starts very light, bare bones, downloads torrents and that's all

\- Gets bloated with more and more features that nobody wants

\- Partners with a shady company

\- Dies

Off to alternatives I go.

<comment><USER5> Azureus/Vuze was never lightweight, and does not appear to have died. And uTorrent didn't begin to bloat out until after it was acquired by BitTorrent, Inc..

Edit: I think by partners with shady company you mean the malware company, not BitTorrent, Inc.. Just like Vuze has 3rd-party malware. Coincidentally (?), some Vuze malware reports mention Yahoo! being surreptitiously enabled just like the article.

<comment><USER6> Agreed. Azureus was consistently the most bloated, slowest torrent client available. Vuze was an expansion of that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ah, this explains what happened to my girlfriend who was using bittorrent to download bundles of academic papers.

I couldn't figure out why all of her search and homepage settings had changed, and how they were so resilient that they were re-applied.

I did find SearchProtect, and eventually managed to remove it (uninstalls, + registry hacking, + force deleting files, + nuking the browser installs and re-installing).

But I hadn't figured out where it had come from as my girlfriend didn't believe that she'd installed anything and although I saw uTorrent I thought nothing of that since I didn't believe it installed such `add-ons`.

For those who encounter this, SearchProtect is really nasty. Really hard to remove.

<comment><USER8> Currently have the same problem on one of my machines. Luckily, I knew already about the culprit.

Really nasty stuff -- never using uTorrent again. Was already getting annoyed by latest updates and ads anyway/

To save me (still have to remove SearchProtect) and others here some time... any pointers to website or other reference on how to really remove this thing?

<comment><USER9> Once "they've" run malware on your machine it's no longer your machine and nothing can be trusted.

Wipe and re-install, then very carefully restore backups of data.

<comment><USER10> > _Once "they've" run malware on your machine it's no longer your machine and > nothing can be trusted. Wipe and re-install, then very carefully restore > backups of data. _

That is a general rule for malware that you do not know anything about.

However, the SearchProtect install bundled with µTorrent is only malware to the extent that it prevents you from changing your browser defaults. It is not believed to exhibit the other characteristics of malware. It is annoying, scammy, scummy, evil, etc. -- but it does not appear to compromise your system badly enough to require a reformat and clean install.

It's just one step beyond accidentally installing the Ask Toolbar with a new Java install. Yes, it is theoretically possible that it could've taken over your machine. But most likely not.

P.S. Take a look at the Wikipedia page for SearchProtect. Specifically, History and Talk. There's one high-up editor who's been stonewalling any attempt to add a Criticism section, on the basis that Wikipedia cannot link to user posts.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Wasn't uTorrent The Best Thing Ever when it first hit the scene? I seem to recall it was this application. It was about a 93k executable that didn't need to be installed. Just download and run. It was my go to torrent client of choice during my Windows days. Sad to see it become this.

<comment><USER12> As annoyed as I am by the reactions here (uTorrent didn't maliciously install adware behind anyone's back), I moved to Mac in 2009 and stayed there until I decided to build an HTPC for my living room. First thing I did was install uTorrent, and I was confronted with so much bloat. There are ads INSIDE the torrent list, and there are options to stream video/music. Completely unexpected.

From what I understand, there hasn't been a client that's truly taken its place.

<comment><USER13> Like others have noted, if you were happy with uTorrent in 2009, just use an older version.

There's really not much different with torrents in the last few years.

Magnet link support is the only thin I can think of.

<comment><USER14> What about security vulns

<comment><USER15> The new version runs ten ad networks' code.. I'd bet the 93k one is safer

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Switch to Deluge[1]! It's Free Software, and is so similar to uTorrent you won't notice the difference.

The day uTorrent pushed the update that tried to install a browser extension I was absolutely done with them. I do not support malware in any shape or form.

[1] [http://deluge-torrent.org/](http://deluge-torrent.org/)

</comment><comment><USER16> Surprising that no-one is talking about Yahoo and their tactics to get more users. I am sure SearchProtect and Yahoo! here have a deal to push as many default searches as possible to drive revenue.

<comment><USER17> These kind of shady deals can't be good in the long run. If you work at a company that suggests this, make sure to voice your opinion.

Someone should start a site that allows users to vote on a software company's trust factor. :)

<comment><USER18> Yahoo has been doing these "Search Distribution Deals" for many years, as long as I can remember in fact. Bing was at one point paying $20+ per toolbar install when they were trying to gain market share. Google has done paid toolbar distribution as well.

The reason it is still around is because it is so damn effective.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Wow, this is an unusual step for Yahoo. Who would think that a hijack process that tempers with user's browser settings is a good idea? Hello, Marissa Mayer?

As for uTorrent, it's been going down this path for a while, gradually introducing _crap_ into the app. And this one is the last for me, as well.

Btw, apparently, they turned off registration on the forum to ward off the mounting complains. When I go to [https://forum.utorrent.com/register.php](https://forum.utorrent.com/register.php), I'm greeted with _Get lost spammer, we don 't need your kind here._ And of course the topic is closed. Well done.

</comment><comment><USER20> This is why I love Linux. Every generic piece of software comes with no BS attached. For example, on Windows, if you want to mount an ISO you have to download some shady piece of software, the installer of which comes bundled with n toolbars. In Linux it's a matter of a simple one-line command...

<comment><USER21> Adware goes to where there are a lot of non tech savvy users. If desktop Linux gets more traction, you'll see such search hijacking on there too. Note that this story is about search hijacking on OS X, not Windows.

<comment><USER22> The use of a package manager/app store might help prevent that though. They won't be able to bundle crapware in their installers.

<comment><USER23> How? Every package manager that I've seen so far allows installations of locally downloaded packages. Some will even helpfully download all dependencies. That's a good thing in general, however, the package could just as well contain adware/spyware. And every package format that I know of supports post-install scripts, those could easily change configuration settings. Since package install runs as root that added layer of security doesn't help here.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Simple solution: go back to using the old, barebones, simple, fast utorrent v 2.2.1

[http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/](http://www.filehippo.com/download_utorrent/9859/)

runs fast, no ads, no issues, just works!

<comment><USER25> Hey thanks for piggybacking onto my response, classy.

<comment><USER26> You are marked as dead in some posts above, so only people with the right options set in their settings can see your posts. If it happened recently, it was probably for that ethnic slur starting with k I see above.

<comment><USER27> Someone must've posted an HN link on 4chan.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> If memory serves, uTorrent lost trust-ability when it got sold. IIRC, that means post version 1.6.1 it became a concern and began to needlessly bloat. Prior to that is was a brilliant bit of software.

1.6.1 is light weight, unmolested, and still worth using.

<comment><USER6> Released in Feb 2007, and the last version worth using.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> So glad someone posted on this bullshit. Not only has uTorrent started doing this, but BBEdit 10 and some other previously not super shady software has too.

<comment><USER30> What is BBEdit doing?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> This reminds me of an argument given by my friend proposing that a person has a higher tendency to do bad to the people who we know are bad. Even your good- guy-Greg has an inclination (of sorts) to bring down/harass/make money off your scumbag-Steve, even when Steve's actions were inconsequential to Greg; which I thought was an apt observation from someone who thinks a lot in absolutes. Maybe its the 'easy to get away with factor' or maybe its the karma kicking in.

My point is, torrent usage is synonymous to piracy, infringement and other illegal activities. So, perhaps it is this tendency that makes people at uTorrent think that it is not totally wrong to rip off people who are ripping off content & software makers. In my experience, I never fully trusted uTorrent. It is simply difficult to trust something that allows advertisement of malware, porn, fraudulent sites. It started off quite well, but then it has been on my watch list since quite some time now.

</comment><comment><USER32> Even Sun installs some kind of ad toolbar in Java!

<comment><USER33> yeah the Ask Toolbar is crap but at least that's opt-in... this is search hijacking.

<comment><USER34> It's opt-out, unless they changed it recently. I've lost count of how many times I've had to uncheck that checkbox.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> For people having issues finding the files that need to be removed, look for anything related to Conduit; and remove that. SearchProtect and a few of the other names are not what the software is called in all cases it seems. I had to remove this from my wifes machine yesterday, and everything was related to a Conduit installer. No mention of SearchProtect.

uTorrent is gone in our case, I've moved her over to using Qget with our Qnap NAS and while it's not as feature rich as uTorrent it's a much better option. And it's one I can watch and control a little better as well!

</comment><comment><USER36> This isn't malware. Malware is defined as software meant to disrupt or compromise your machine.

This is fuckyou-ware. Software that serves a reasonable purpose, but does it with utter contempt for the user.

<comment><USER37> Software that is persistently forcing certain setting against the user's intention does sounds like malware, though.

With this particular case, this piece of software keeps resetting the user's start page to Yahoo even after the user actively reconfigure it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Is there any response from uTorrent about this? Didn't see any posts by any admins or moderators in that thread; I was wondering if they said anything besides just closing the topic?

</comment><comment><USER39> Use qBittorrent instead if you like the feature-set of uTorrent. In particular, qBittorrent's UI is modeled after uTorrent. It is open source and works on Linux, OS X, Windows, FreeBSD and OS/2(!), supports sequential downloading (aka download in order or streaming) and has an optional web UI. [http://www.qbittorrent.org/](http://www.qbittorrent.org/)

</comment><comment><USER40> Oh, man, this one ultimately was the last straw that broke my old XP box's back. I accidentally clicked through the set-up, and I didn't really have the sysadmin chops to fix it at that point. Whatever hitched a ride on search protect slowed that machine to a crawl. I ultimately ended up installing linux on it, but it's just not the same anymore.

</comment><comment><USER41> Don't use 'official' installers manually ever, for this same reason that they try to cheat you into 'agreeing' to something - use something like [http://ninite.com/](http://ninite.com/) that run the installers with the correct no-to-optional-malware options.

</comment><comment><USER42> Use old versions of uTorrent. Before it was bought out by BitTorrent, Inc.

Now it's just another parasite on the internet.

</comment><comment><USER43> I would love to hear from Yahoo (hopefully from Marissa Mayer, or whoever authorised it at Yahoo), and from uTorrent. I was personally chearing for Yahoo's new breath of hope, under Mayer's leadership. This is a pretty crappy move. An apology would be enough.

</comment><comment><USER44> Actually qBittorrent seems to be a good alternative. Let's see how good it is compared to uTorrent.

I was looking for a simple replacement for uTorrent for a while now. I have been using linux for years now and was surprised how awful it became while I was off windows.

</comment><comment><USER45> I switched to rTorrent with ruTorrent a few years ago. I haven't used uTorrent since. It's perfect if you have an old machine laying around somewhere. Just whip out your favourite flavor of Linux and you're golden.

</comment><comment><USER46> I just tried installing and after declining the offer the installer hung. Buh bye.

</comment><comment><USER47> Just an off topic question as it was a while ago since I left the world of torrenting. Back in the day, it was mainly music and movies that most folks were trying to get. What else are being torrented these days?

<comment><USER9> TV shows, games, apps, OSs, books, audiobooks, porn.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> The only positive aspect of this, and make no mistake - this does not excuse their fishy behaviour - is that Yahoo has lead the way in defending its user's privacy against the NSA.

</comment><comment><USER48> This is exactly why I have such a love/hate relationship with BitTorrent Sync. I use it a lot, and it works so great, but I so wish it were open source.

</comment><comment><USER49> uTorrent started selling itself short quite a while ago.

I stopped using it about 2 yrs ago for similar reasons. It's a malware seeding garbage now.

</comment><comment><USER50> Report search protect to All anti-viruses, report to Yahoo!, report to their domain name provider and hosting providers.

</comment><comment><USER51> Sounds like you need you some Deluge.

[http://deluge-torrent.org/](http://deluge-torrent.org/)

</comment><comment><USER52> I have latest uTorrent 3.3 (build 29625) [32-bit] on my Windows box and there is Yahoo in Firefox.

<comment><USER52> I meant "and there is NO Yahoo"

</comment></comment><comment><USER53> Damn; and I blamed Firefox for this.

<comment><USER54> Why would Firefox do this if they get referral money from using Google as their default search?

[https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2011/12/20/mozilla-and- google-...](https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2011/12/20/mozilla-and-google-sign- new-agreement-for-default-search-in-firefox/)

<comment><USER53> Firefox was the last thing I remembered installing before this happened; I'd forgotten about uTorrent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> vezzy-fnord uTorrent is a horrendous bloat, anyway. Personally I used rTorrent for a while (minimal ncurses interface, very appealing to me) but later switched to Transmission.

I've also used Deluge, but there's nothing too special about it in my eyes.

<comment><USER55> I'm a big fan of rtorrent, I just wish that it was a proper server/client. Not a fan of daemonizing things by running them in screen.

</comment></comment><comment><USER56> I havent upgrade utorrent is years because of how bad BitTorrent Inc. made it.

</comment><comment><USER57> Not new, though. uTorrent install has been shipping with crap for a while now.

</comment><comment><USER58> Since i stopped using windowz in mac i use the official bittorrent app

<comment><AUTHOR> I have a feeling they will sneak the malware in the official bittorrent app too

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> uTorrent went bad ages ago...ive been using an old, solid version (around 2.7?) for years, no reason to change.

It was a beautiful bit of software.

</comment><comment><USER60> this is why "freeware" can't be trusted, the threat of a fork keeps open source developers honest

<comment><USER61> foobar2000 has been closed source freeware for a long time and has not resorted to anything like this.

<comment><USER62> I think you've got to look at the motives of the developers too. P2P apps appear to be more susceptible to falling to shady partners, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I never updated uTorrent, I run 2.2.1 so either find it or I can probably send you the exe.

<comment><USER63> For other readers: The consensus on the reddit thread was that 2.2.1 was the last good version.

<comment><USER64> IIRC some people even run the older 1.8. _x_ versions, for reasons which escape me at the moment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wow. People are actually angry in that thread because they didn't look closely at the setup steps.

Let's be clear here: the user was still given a choice, but the user "trusted" uTorrent to not force them to make one. Give me a break.

<comment><USER65> To be fair, utorrent used to be trustworthy before being b ought by the despicable Bittorrent Inc.

<comment><USER6> What's despicable about Bittorrent, Inc.? They seem like a very pleasant company to me. I won't be using any of their products because I generally don't use closed source stuff, but I'm grateful for their protocol.</comment></comment></comment>


Sen. McCain: How to Get Silicon Valley to Help the Pentagon - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/06/sen-mccain-get-silicon-valley-help-pentagon/

<comment><USER2> The Pentagon created Silicon Valley.

If you don't believe me look up the wikipedia for Onizuka Air Force Station. It was the first ground station for America's spy satellites and I am absolutely serious that it was placed in Sunnyvale because it was a radio- quiet location, being out in the middle of a bunch of orchards.

Right next to Onizuka is a large Lockheed campus; I'm not at liberty to confirm nor to deny that it was put there to make all the toys that were needed either by Onizuka or by its spy satellites.</comment>


Ask HN: If you were 20 again, what country would you choose? - <AUTHOR> I'm curious, if you were 20 again and could choose any country on earth to start from scratch, what country would you choose thinking it would best enable you to build an "empire" for the next 10 generations after you?
As people from different countries and backgrounds will try to answer this question, I would really appreciate a detailed answer as to why you pick any country. The goal here is to find out more about how people see things and find out often missed or unknown facts about the great countries of the world. I'm especially curious about some contrarian views. Another way to put it would be, what countries do best satisfy the criteria below, but are not so heavily marketed and kept under the radar?
I think these would be the most important factors I would take into account:

   - Friendliness toward entrepreneurship/businesses/startups
   - Serious intellectual life
   - Good education system
   - Good healthcare system
   - Good quality of life
   - Beautiful landscapes

 Please also see the list below before you answer:

   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where-to-be-born_Index
   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_most_liveable_cities
   - http://www.economist.com/news/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life
 <comment><USER2> Likely within the "Europe" (particularly the UK) but maybe Canada.

As a small time employer they take a lot of the employees issues out of your hands and place it in the hands of the state (which is GOOD because now I won't need a HR person, insurance specialist, and so on).

For example, health insurance: not the employer's problem, long term/short term disability: not the employer's problem, holiday ("vacation") time/sick leave/maternity/paternity: already defined by law (which is GOOD, since now no drama) and often times the employee is compensated from the state (e.g. maternity leave).

In the US it is incredibly uncompetitive between small and large businesses. Small businesses just cannot offer the same perks and pay (they literally pay more for the perks too), and that means you cannot hire the best.

While small time employers in europe may not be able to match pay like for like, they can almost always match "benefits." Plus the work life balance remains real so people with families can continue to remain competitive.

The only real way to even do a startup now in the US is via huge investment from a VC (just to pick up the employee pay packet). True "basement startups" are all but dead, which definitely isn't the case in much of Europe (particularly in several minority communities which are flourishing).

That all being said, if I wanted to open a "programmer sweatshop" I'd definitely do it in the US or China. Just pay new grads slightly above the minimum wage, offer no benefits, and rake in all the profits yourself -- the US allows that easily both due to the law (or lack of) and because much of the US populace feel that people exploited "deserve" it (e.g. Walmart workers) for being "lazy." You'd be a "local business hero" as opposed to Europe where you'd be hated pretty universally.

<comment><USER3> That's like boarding the Titanic when it's already sinking. Europe won't even exist in 50 years. The demographics are brutal and inevitable: young Europeans are not marrying, or marrying late, not having children, or having only one or two children, and having them late. They're rapidly being replaced by immigrants who have no interest in assimilating to the culture or adopting the language, but are having lots of children. You will still be able to find France or Germany on a map 50 years from now, but their cultures will be long gone.

<comment><USER4> > Europe won't even exist in 50 years. The demographics are brutal and > inevitable: young Europeans are not marrying, or marrying late, not having > children, or having only one or two children, and having them late. They're > rapidly being replaced by immigrants who have no interest in assimilating to > the culture or adopting the language, but are having lots of children.

Hyperbole and xenophobia in one comment.

<comment><USER3> You cannot squeeze water from a stone. If Europeans will not have children or transmit their cultures to immigrants, Europe will cease to exist. No amount of politically correct wishful thinking is going to change that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Switzerland definitely ranks very high in all your factors. It's one of the safest countries for investors, has a growing startup scene, has two of the top engineering schools in Europe/World (ETHZ, Zurich and EPFL, Lausanne), has the highest rate of Nobel prizes per capita, very solid educational and healthcare systems, amazing quality of life (Zurich, Geneva, etc, often rank as the top cities in the world), and last but not least: you have amazing lakes and mountains everywhere!

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree, Switzerland seems definitely one of the top countries in the world which keeps itself intentionally under the radar. As Taleb put it, in addition to all the obvious benefits, Switzerland seems to be an antifragile country.

In any case, as far as I know Switzerland makes it pretty hard for people to immigrate there. Do you happen to live there? What would you say would be the most effective way to immigrate there?

<comment><USER5> It's easy for members of the European Union as there are/were bi-lateral agreements. For other nationalities I think it's harder, as there are some quotas. You basically need to find a job first, but it's doable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The USA. It worked great the first time I went through my 20's. Why switch?

<comment><USER7> One of the USA's problems is the education system (and I'm not talking about its quality here). If you thing in the long term, counting in your future kids' education, you may wish to reconsider USA altogether.

Another problem is the healthcare system and the chances of one to actually afford it when the time comes - HN had a few good articles about the subject.

And there may be other somewhat lesser problems too.

<comment><USER3> In the USA you're still allowed to homeschool, at least. In many other countries, such as Germany, that makes you a criminal.

<comment><USER8> Ok, I'll take the bait. Why shouldn't it?

Germany has very good schools. By denying your child the ability to attend, you are committing an offense to the child. Why should this be allowed?

<comment><USER9> I totally agree that Germany has a pretty good system. Their forest schools are a step in the right direction. But they did invent the Prussian model of modern schools (which are a curse).

The point is, it should NEVER be illegal to refuse to send your children to a militarized system which has stunted and de-humanized every single person in the modern system. In the UK, they ever tried to make Summerhill school a bunch of criminals. Also see Steiner schools, unschooling etc etc. The evidence would indicate that doing the BEST thing for your children would make you a criminal in most first world states. If you wonder why the electorate has become more malleable, "stupid" and gullible in the last 100 years, maybe you should look into why this is. It's not because we are "devolving" or because people are stupider now. They are forced, trained and educated to be thus.

<comment><USER7> Its an interesting take on German Education. However, people admire Germany and Germans for results and for how they function as a society. Doesn't this in itself excuse the bad consequences?

<comment><USER9> It depends: is one comparing to the average society or full human potential?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The _best_ city in the world, as life quality goes, is Vienna.

That said, Vienna requires you to have good education and money to _enjoy the city_ , more than (almost) any other city. I don't know nothing about the Austrian healthcare system though.

Copenhagen is a good choice for sure. Norway and Sweden are extremely well suited when it comes to education and healthcare but the weather might get you depressed in the long run.

I would also have a look at Tallin (Estonia) given it's drive for technology, might be a future technology hub (Something like Tel-Aviv with less cultural restrictions).

First choice is Vienna though.

</comment><comment><USER7> The Europe, maybe somewhere in the south if you care about the weather. Turkey may be a good geographical choice if you won't mind living in a (predominantly) Muslim country. If however, you choose "to breathe tech", then Germany is the most suited place, although having attached the package of a little bit more expensive life compared other eastern/south-eastern and even southern alternatives.

The top 9 cities (plus a few capitals as Sydney or Paris) from the referenced Wikipedia article are good, but expensive places to live in.

</comment><comment><USER11> my vote would be japan, i lived there for a year when i was 28, i thought tokyo was an international city so i could get away with english and slowly learn the language, but not quite. if i was 20 again, i'd have the patience to learn the language. not sure about the startup scene, but the infrastructure was amazing (fiber to the home in 2007, dedicated 100 Mbps), and let's not forget ruby and tokyo cabinet founders. scenery awesome, the attention to detail and hardworking nature of the people are amazing.

</comment><comment><USER12> Beijing or Calgary.

<comment><USER13> Care to elaborate?

<comment><USER12> Beijing is now the global center of finance and industry. I bet on Tokyo, and learned Japanese. By the time I was old enough to make an impact, the market had shifted to Beijing/Shenzhen.

Calgary is an interesting place to live, with gorgeous women of many different ethnicities. There's currently a gold rush going on there, and relocating as to get in on that sweet environmental destruction would have been a good idea.

<comment><USER14> So I should move to Beijing if I want to have a startup related to finance?

What benefits do financial capitals even offer other then finding companies if you are looking for life/health/car/etc insurance.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Reagent 0.5.0 – Minimalistic ClojureScript interface to React.js - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/reagent-project/reagent

<comment><USER2> 1st Meetup for Reagent if you're in SF/Bay Area come join us on Monday!

[http://www.meetup.com/Reagent-Minimalistic-React-for- Clojure...](http://www.meetup.com/Reagent-Minimalistic-React-for- ClojureScript/)

See you there!

<comment><USER3> See ya :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How does it compare to Om?

edit: Found this write-up [http://getprismatic.com/story/1405451329953](http://getprismatic.com/story/1405451329953)

<comment><USER5> The biggest difference is that, unlike Om, Reagent does not require you to reify an interface to define a component. Instead, components are defined with functions which return a hiccup-like datastructure. If you need access to React's other lifecycle methods, you can provide metadata, but in general, you don't need to bother. Personally, I find this easier to reason about.

The other major change is that state is managed through a special, customized, reactive atom. Everytime the atom is updated, any components which use it are updated. You can have as many of these atoms as you want and you can use them from as many components as you want.

<comment><USER6> Take a look at Prismatic's om-tools(1).

It adds a defcomponent macro that removes a lot of boilerplate.

1)[https://github.com/Prismatic/om-tools](https://github.com/Prismatic/om- tools)

<comment><USER5> I actually used om-tools before I switched to reagent. Om-tools does cut out a lot of boilerplate, but I like reagent's approach more from the outset. One thing I found confusing about Om with or without om-tools, was how to manage communication between the components. The tutorials used a lot of core.async to manage that but it was clearly unnecessary.

In Reagent you can pass arbitrary parameters to component functions. You don't have to make each component correspond to a branch on your applications state's tree. You can, and you can use a cursor analog if you want to, but you don't have to and I found that very freeing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I've found reagent's simplicity very appealing. If you check the github.io page for it ([http://reagent-project.github.io/](http://reagent- project.github.io/)), you can see some short and sweet examples.

</comment><comment><USER7> Dmitri, who runs the Reagent project, is the single most responsive OSS maintainer I've ever worked with. I highly recommend the experience.

<comment><USER2> Dan Holmsand is the man behind Reagent. I believe Dimitri maintains the overall Reagent Project? Still getting to know who's who :)

<comment><USER7> You're right, I hadn't actually paid enough attention. He's responsible for the overall project (and Luminus, obviously) but doesn't actually do that much with core reagent. (Which isn't to say he isn't extremely active...)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Actual Changelog [https://github.com/reagent- project/reagent/blob/master/CHANG...](https://github.com/reagent- project/reagent/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md)</comment>


How to cut features and enjoy it. - <AUTHOR> http://arcball.com/2010/04/20-ways-to-find-the-simplest-design-how-to-cut-features-and-enjoy-it/ Simpler products are easier to maintain and use. Finding the minimal design among more complex alternatives is a process of what-if questioning. Try asking these questions about your design and its features. <comment><USER2> The list is good, but it is too long to apply to every feature without devolving into a checklist without meaningful discussion . For example 12, 22, and 23 are just variants on, "Is this just a passing fad?"

The list should be split in two: Should we ad this new feature? And should we remove this old feature? Usage tracking helps in the latter. If few people click on it and even fewer people use it, that's a sign that it is just in the way.

A futures poll asking, "which of these features should we add?", might be useful.

</comment><comment><USER3> is there anything that can be taken away from this list of actions that can only be discovered by letting your customers use the product?</comment>


SpiderOak: Petition to open source all your code - <AUTHOR> http://www.change.org/petitions/spideroak-http-www-spideroak-com-open-source-all-client-software-code-3

<comment><AUTHOR> This is a petition I launched to have SpiderOak see this as a collective request for transparency. Please sign it if you're a SpiderOak user. Even if you're not a SpiderOak user, your signature would help in raising awareness so that other providers may also think along these lines.

Cyphertite, another cloud backup service, is the only one that I know of that provides the complete source code for its applications.

<comment><USER2> How do you know what is running corresponds to the provided source?

<comment><AUTHOR> This is firstly about the client software. If you have the client program's source and you can confirm that it does encrypt files with a local key and does not transmit the key to the servers, then it's not really a big deal (although it could be) what runs on the server.

If you have the client program's source, you should be able to build it yourself and use it with the service. This could eliminate the need to use precompiled binaries that SpiderOak provides on its website.

Makes sense? Or am I missing anything else?

<comment><USER2> Sure if it's about the client then sure but as soon as SpiderOak open sources their software they start competing on price because anyone can write a backend to use another storage provider.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, price would be a big factor, but scaling such a backend, providing a stable solution, etc., are not child's play either. Cyphertite has open source clients and I'm sure they have things other than price that they can compete on.

If there's one thing that the open source model has shown, it's that not everyone wants to bother with maintaining the source or adding features or fixing bugs. However, open sourcing will provide a level of confidence on the privacy aspect like nothing else can (assuming there are people interested in examining the code for issues).

I'll stop with this comment. This submission is not going to be prominent on HN anyway, and currently the sole signature on the petition is mine.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Random RGB values that average to N; or, Pointlessness and Probability - <AUTHOR> https://kevingal.com/blog/rgb-average.html <comment><USER2> For a little project of mine [0], I want to generate a _set_ of uniformly distributed RGB values that then average to another RGB value which is known in advance. Would this be possible using the same approach?

Edit: Yes, it seems to, instead of generating and summing over RGB, it would be over all the R, G and B values separately.

Edit2: Hmmm, if the number of RGB values is large, the combinatorics involved seem to make it computationally infeasible...

[0] [https://qewasd.com/](https://qewasd.com/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Cool! I love projects involving colour, because they always have nice visualisations. Would you mind explaining your project in more detail? I'm intrigued by your site! Not sure if it's supposed to be interactive because I'm on mobile.

I haven't looked too much into the general case. You could consider a tuple (R1, R2, ..., Rn) and compute the probability distributions one at a time for R1, R2, etc. I don't want to get sucked into the exact details of how to do that, but I think it would involve some head-wrecking combinatorics in a loop. Then you could do the same for G and B.

Like you implied, this would be slow if you did it 1000s of times. That's why I pre-computed the R probability distribution in my code, which unfortunately would not be applicable to the general case because there would be too many possible distributions (exponential) to pre-compute. To generate 1 set of RGBs, however, I think it would be fine.

Alternatively, you could try a non-combinatorics interpretation. The folks on Reddit (thread linked in the article) suggested a geometric interpretation of the problem, which might work better.

There's also the approach I suggested at the end of my article: compute the number of possible tuples that average to A (one-off combinatorics), generate an index k between 1 and this number, then pass k to a magic function f that spits out the kth tuple. I'm just not sure what f would look like, hehe. It could be a recursive function. Not sure how to write f without having to do the same probability / combinatorics as before. Or looping through all possible tuples (yikes).

<comment><USER2> Thank you for your reply :)

When "entering" a pixel by pressing E, the pixel "above", which the user entered through should assume the average of all the pixels below. I thought it would be interesting to have the 16x16 pixels in the lower level diverge from the color of the pixel above when first visited, but they'd still have to average to the original color.

I googled a bit more but couldn't find any solutions, existing libraries or algorithms i could implement.

Maybe I'll try again in a few years, I'll keep the site running in the meanwhile :)</comment></comment></comment>


A hacker is selling details of 142M MGM hotel guests on the dark web - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/a-hacker-is-selling-details-of-142-million-mgm-hotel-guests-on-the-dark-web/ <comment><USER2> With all the data breaches by private companies, it's never a good idea to reveal pii to companies. To book a hotel room you will need some combination of

1\. email

2\. phone #

3\. address

4\. cc#

5\. a physical drivers license/gov ID to show at desk

6\. physical credit card

Is there an identity protection or proxy service that sits in front of all of these things that generates all the necessary information? It would generate a working CC# tied to a different address, a temporary phone # and a temporary email all at once.

Is the best course of action for now to fill out false information? I'm curious if there are people who actually do more than generate temp-mail for forced signups.

<comment><USER3> I have tossed around the idea of building something like that for a long time. The hard part is already done as you would just need to tie together a few different services like twilio and mailgun, and privacy.com (for the cc part).

But the part that has always kept me away from building it is the fact that it is bound to be used heavily by scammers and other less than savory characters and I wouldn't want the legal liability and legal burden of responding to subpoenas all the time.

<comment><USER4> Totally.

We need trusted, certified layer shielding people from all these lousy service providers who can't keep their pants on.

For all intents and purposes customer is a long numerical token for them. Take it or leave it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> $2,900 seems really low. I hope this means the data aren't very useful for identity theft.

<comment><USER4> Targeting for a quick sale to law enforcement.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Who crawls websites on a regular bases and why? - <AUTHOR> Hi folks,
I'm thinking about building a web crawling service very similar to kimonolabs. Before I do so, I'm trying to figure out who my target audience should/could be.
I started off thinking about a tool that I would personally use which is sort of a web polling trigger. For example, login to website A, sort a list by relevance, check if the first item on the relevance sorted list is greater than X, poll until true (once true, send an email/send an sms/make an api call), then login to website B, insert item from website A into an input field and submit. If I were to start off with this, who would use it the most? (Maybe a financial analyst? investor? Sales? Market Research?)
I've also been thinking about building the service particularly for data scientists/analysts. Some features would include visualizing datasets, clustering analysis, sentiment analysis, relational & and non-relational database modeling (similar to MySQL work bench) directly in the browser, integrations with IBM Watson (https://www.ibm.com/watson/developercloud/personality-insights.html)
What do you guys think? <comment><USER2> My only suggestion is you should find a problem and build a solution. It sounds like you have a solution and you want to man-handle it onto a problem.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm just wondering what problems Kimono, Apifier, and 80Legs are trying to solve.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is all great to write down as to what it could eventually become.. I think it has to be chunked to more manageable units, first. I mean, whether you have the individual skills required or not, it'll start by requesting a page and inevitably forgetting to show the respect Unicode deserves.

That's what I'm doing to learn.

\- See how a page is structured (does it use schema.org's stuff?). Its fields, URL pattern, sitemap, resource urls, selectors, etc.

\- Fetch a page. \- Parse it and extract data. \- Save data. \- Rinse, repeat.

I'm also learning about D3 and many cool things.

Check out [http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/usa/](http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/usa/)

As to your target audience, I think you'll probably serve the Many-Faced God. In a gold rush, people who sell shovels make a good living. You probably want to make something that helps with decision making or triggers buying according to price (from your description).

</comment><comment><USER4> I used to work for a company Zillabyte that had a lot of web data. Mostly marketers and sales people were looking for lead generation. Let's say you work for Mixpanel, and you want to know all the websites out there with Kissmetrics installed. Even better, a report every month showing who uninstalled their analytics tools. Others looked for more general signals than javascript snippets (weak text analysis), but that was the bulk of what people asked me for.

</comment><comment><USER5> 80legs has a customer page with a few short blurbs about why each specific customer is crawling. [http://www.80legs.com/our- customers.html](http://www.80legs.com/our-customers.html)

Competitive analysis is, I suspect, one of the more popular reasons, and not much public info on that...for obvious reasons.</comment>


Google Translate for Animals - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/translateforanimals/

<comment><USER2> There is a demo video! Hilarious.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I24bSteJpw>

<comment><USER3> I highly recommend watching it in TEXTp.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Already April 1st in the UK.

<comment><USER5> Today is the best day of the year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Could somebody with an Android phone please determine whether they went all the way through with building an Android app? It appears you can only search the marketplace from a handset.

<comment><USER7> They really did build an app: Cat to English - "Why can't they call it a door, I mean cat flap is so degrading"

<comment><USER8> Hey, that's what my cat said too! And we don't even have a cat flap, she's indoor only. Something seems fishy...

<comment><AUTHOR> or... catty?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Dr. Goolittle?

</comment><comment><USER10> It looks like Google is already keeping up with their April Fool's Day tradition...

</comment><comment><USER11> I loved Dr. Doolittle when I was a kid so this brought a smile to my face.

</comment><comment><USER12> today is going to be an easy day to ignore the distraction of the internet

</comment><comment><USER13> Don't believe a word the sheep say. They're all liars.

</comment><comment><USER14> This made my day. LOL, how cute.

</comment><comment><USER15> Google n. a company that never lets you down today ^_^

</comment><comment><USER16> What's even funnier about it is that animals do indeed use sound to communicate and that this application is both theoretically and technically feasible.

Animals do not emit sounds for the sake of emitting sounds, they do so with specific intentions, desires, and goals, and as a result of specific systems that have developed towards the end of a complex system of communication involving vocal and auditory mechanisms, sound waves, and cognitive elements giving the capacity to process and generate these patterns of sound.

It's funny to me because I know that some people would look at this application and think of it as a hilarious joke: "Understand animal sounds? Ha Ha Ha good one Google! As if! Chinese Room! Hurf Durf! IMPOSSIBLE!"

It's also funny to me because I know that some hackers will look at this and be inspired to spend their spare cycles researching and developing this application, and wind up making a small fortune when they put it on the app store.

It's also funny to me because I suspect that some crafty googlers have already done this and are using the video and google's reputation for funny April Fools Day Jokes as a viral marketing tactic for their April Fool's Day Day- After joke, where they release the fully functional application, having developed it during their allocated "pet project" time.

Good one Google!

<comment><USER17> Animal communication is definitely very complex. They all have their own language and it's often not just oral.

I've read an interesting theory that cats meow a lot at us humans because they see that we don't perceive their body language well enough. Out of frustration and because they see and hear that we speak a lot they adapt.

We're not to the point where we are able to translate live human communication smoothly. Even contextual text translation is terrible (Google translate).

I guess we're a long way from being able to translate animal communication effectively but I think it's a very intersting subject.</comment></comment>