FaceTime and the iPod Touch - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2010/06/facetime_ipod_touch <comment><USER2> Why is every DF post ending up here on HN? For comments perhaps?

Google / Google Voice / Gizmo5 or any SIP provider offers data calls. I've been messing around with this on my iPad and it's very close to being viable. There's no question it is on Android.

I hope Apple keeps moving in this direction but I doubt they'll be the first to route around the carriers. Right now all signs point to Apple being happily engaged to AT&T.

<comment><USER3> Furthermore, couldn't you replace "FaceTime" with "Skype" and the article would still make sense?

 _"[Skype], I think, is a first step in the direction of a mobile "phone" with no mobile carrier. If and when [Skype] is supported over 3G in addition to Wi- Fi, it'll be data, not voice — megabytes, not minutes."_

Skype already has a device that works on 3G: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Skypephone_Series>

And today, Skype has 529 million accounts, whereas FaceTime has 600,000 (the number of pre-ordered iPhone 4s).

It's not at all clear to me how Apple expects FaceTime to encroach on Skype's market share.

<comment><USER4> How many people own said Skype 3G device? How many people own cell phones? The point is, if you want to be making calls over the wireless network when you're out and about, chances are you won't be using a device capable of making unmetered Skype calls over 3G (at least not for very long, or with much success). You'll be using the carrier's sanctioned and costly services. You can make calls over 3G today with Skype on the iPhone, and it's free for now, but they say it'll only be free until the end of this year, and then they'll be charging for it.

[http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/05/iphone_calling_over_3g.htm...](http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/05/iphone_calling_over_3g.html)

The carriers are flexing their leverage over Apple/FaceTime and Skype to fight any free VoIP services on their networks. Look for a paid FaceTime-over-cell- data-network plan to emerge in short order, with revenues going straight to the carrier, along with Skype's.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> My little brother did not have a cellphone for most of his just-completed Freshman year of college.

He had an iPod Touch with Skype and omnipresent WiFi. He called me (on my cellphone no-less!) while walking to class.

The iPod Touch already _does_ this, even without FaceTime.

</comment><comment><USER5> If this prediction holds, Apple could add an awful lot of value to MobileMe by providing a sort of answering machine service to subscribers.

I'm close to wireless for most of the day, but when I'm not it would be nice to have FaceTime callers that couldn't reach me leave a video message that got delivered via email.

<comment><USER4> Not that it's a bad idea, it's not, but if you're doing it by email anyway, then you can just hang up, fire up the camera app, record your 'message', and email/MMS it to the recipient. In fact, you can do that today, without iOS 4, or even an iPhone 4 (with some dexterity).

<comment><USER6> That's a lot more work, though, than simply leaving a message.

<comment><USER7> An "Email this person a video message" button on the call screen doesn't seem too tough though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There's a potential downside to this for Apple though: if they start allowing users to bypass carrier services, then the monthly cost of the service will start to go down as users use fewer features, but that also means Apple will get less of a subsidy from the carriers. Most people don't want to spend $700 on a mobile phone, so I'm sure they're not going to go out of their way to decrease carrier significance to any large extent.

<comment><USER9> > Most people don't want to spend $700 on a mobile phone

Until quite recently, Apple hasn't been in the "most people want" business. Their marketshare has been going up, but I'm not convinced that they've totally changed direction from high-end.

The carrier locking has always struck me as a bit of a detour. If you look at Jobs statements circa the original iPhone he's clearly aiming at crushing the subsidized market. They've experienced a setback since then, but I don't think they're defeated.

The real story here is that all this time, we thought the renegotiations surrounding VOIP were about getting Skype et al in the app store. In reality, they probably really slipped terms in to allow Apple to do VOIP calling (even if it's only over WiFi, I doubt they were allowed to under the old noncompete clause...)

Suddenly, AT&T's rapid reversal on iPad pricing makes sense. AT&T must have gotten wind of FaceTime.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> _But surely, someday, there will be a non-phone-carrier wireless networking technology with far greater range than Wi-Fi._

This technology already exists. Here in Japan, emobile sells a "pocket wifi router" that has a 3G data connection built in. They advertise it in conjunction with an iPod touch.

WiMAX is another such technology.

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't see why Apple are making the effort. It looks like they won't be making any money from FaceTime directly, so then it's just a nice feature to help sell more Apple kit. Why not save a lot of development and infrastructure cost by pre-installing a (custom) Skype?

(I realise that that doesn't make it exclusive to Apple, but I don't see Apple beating the network effects that Skype has working for them, either)

<comment><USER12> My guess is they're not including Skype for many of the same reasons they don't include Flash. They don't want to be in a position where they are depending on one single company to fix things so they can release new products.

<comment><USER7> That sounds about right... but doesn't that scare away lots of good ideas? Don't develop an idea that would be a great selling point for the iPhone, cause Apple will see that as a possible future dependency, stall your app from getting in the store and do it themselves in the next update. If Layar really gets moving, how long till Apple "does AR right" and then kicks them off for "duplicating built-in features"?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> To make the end-run complete, Apple would have to convince carriers to treat text messages (IMs basically) as data instead of SMS.

<comment><USER14> Why? The equivalent of FaceTime for text messages exists today, and it's any IM app with push notifications. Meebo and Whatsapp come to mind.

<comment><USER15> IM requires separate logins to be exchanged, they exist on partitioned networks, etc. IM's handy and has its place, but it's not going to replace SMS.

<comment><USER16> You should try Whatsup. Based on contact list phone numbers - no login exchange required. Very SMS like in nature. The gf and I use it as a SMS replacement and it works well.

<comment><USER17> Same here. However, there's way more lag in these apps (both msgs arriving when not in the app as well as actually just starting the app) than the built in SMS app from Apple.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> This answers my question, Why doesn't Apple or Google just buy a carrier? Because they intend to put them out of business.

<comment><USER14> How can they get rid of carriers altogether? They are still the only way to get widespread wireless data service. And as long as that doesn't change, they're gonna do all they can to cling to the old model.

<comment><USER18> How did Alexander Graham Bell wind up getting rid of the entrenched Western Union in his day? Things change all the time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> A perfect phone for home. We already ditched landlines. Mobile carriers are sucking our blood while their service keeps sucking.

I, for one, applaud apple's effort to bring video call to the masses.

I hope a future Apple TV display can do video calls too. Genius!</comment>


Mercurial 3.5 Released - <AUTHOR> http://gregoryszorc.com/blog/2015/07/31/mercurial-3.5-released/

<comment><AUTHOR> I've said this in the past on HN posts about mercurial but it bears repeating: if you had bad experiences with mercurial in the past, I strongly urge you to spin up one of the latest releases. Engineers at Google, Facebook, Mozilla, and Unity contribute regularly and mercurial has become more feature rich and substantially faster over the past few years.

Mercurial does everything that git does (in fact, you can pull from or push to git repos with hg-git), has a UI that's easier to learn, and has online help that is terse and helpful. As far as killer features go, check out phases[1] and changeset evolution[2]. The latter is still at alpha level and the UI is unstable, but I use it for day-to-day work and find it incredibly useful.

[1] [https://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/Phases](https://mercurial.selenic.com/wiki/Phases)

[2] [https://bitbucket.org/marmoute/mutable- history](https://bitbucket.org/marmoute/mutable-history)

<comment><USER2> I'm also a big fan of hg revsets: [https://www.selenic.com/hg/help/revsets](https://www.selenic.com/hg/help/revsets)

Granted, it's not a commonly used feature by solo devs working on their own projects, but is useful for team repos that get large enough where you need to do audits on the codebase.

<comment><USER3> Even though I use git day-to-day, I keep around an hg-git clone specifically for revsets. What's the point of a version control system if you can't actually find anything in the history?

<comment><USER4> Thanks for the tip.

I never thought of this particular use case. Will give it try.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Every couple of months I get bummed out Mercurial lost the mindshare war years ago. I used Mercurial before Git and it was perfectly fine and easy to reason about. [http://hginit.com/](http://hginit.com/) helped me start out, and it was amazing to be able to work on code without blocking other team members.

I know Git now not because it's nice to use, but due to rote memorization and muscle memory.

<comment><USER6> There's a lot of times when the alternative may be (if one could measure these things), '20% better' than the mainstream tech.

The things is, they'd need to be '500% better' to offset the network effect of the mainstream tech.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm very excited about this release. I would like to promote my own small and insignificant contribution to it.

I made a few improvements to the template engine to make it easier to write your own templates. An example is the new built-in `hg log --template=status` or `hg log -T status` for short. For each commit it displays file additions, removals, and modifications using the same style as `hg status`. Copies are displayed if you pass the --copies/-C flag, just like `hg status` too. You can see this template in the map-cmdline.status file in the installed Mercurial templates directory:

[https://selenic.com/hg/file/tip/mercurial/templates/map- cmdl...](https://selenic.com/hg/file/tip/mercurial/templates/map- cmdline.status)

I especially like this example because it exhibits Mercurial's extensibility and overall philosophy very well. Rather than cluttering the CLI with a bunch of extra obscure options (such as a hypothetical --status option), we provide a generic mechanism where more advanced users can hook their own customisations into. We do not complicate the UI for the uncommon case.

</comment><comment><USER8> Mercurial truly rocks. Yes, Git seems to have won the mindshare of developers in the OSS world, but Mercurial is quite strong in a corporate environment. And for some reason HgLab [1] (of which I am the author of) seems to be quite popular in medical institutions.

[1]: [https://hglabhq.com](https://hglabhq.com)

</comment><comment><USER9> Some really exciting updates in here. It seems that while Git is popular for open source projects (thanks to GitHub), Mercurial is popular for internal repos and companies. That's personally how I use it.

<comment><USER10> I'd still use Mercurial if I could but every library/framework I use on a regular basis lives in a git repo so I just stopped fighting the current and learnt enough git to keep my sanity.

<comment><USER11> hg-git and hg-github

I just started using them yesterday. So far so good.

<comment><USER9> I've been using hg-git for years for almost all my git contributions. Works well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Always lovely seeing Mercurial work. It really is the elegant tool for source control.

</comment><comment><USER13> Seems like the link for downloading OS X binaries is broken.

If you tell me "just use Homebrew" I will berate you a LOT.

<comment><USER13> There is actually an issue filed for this bug. [https://bitbucket.org/segv/hg- website/issues/23/download-now...](https://bitbucket.org/segv/hg- website/issues/23/download-now-link-broken)

<comment><AUTHOR> You've got the wrong bug tracker: [http://bz.selenic.com/show_bug.cgi?id=4769](http://bz.selenic.com/show_bug.cgi?id=4769)

<comment><USER13> I didn't file that bug I just found it. Thanks for the link to the other bug though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> People still use Mercurial?

<comment><USER15> if we rewrote mercurial in clojurescript and renamed it to ninja-control everyone would be blown away by the feature list</comment></comment>


Show HN: A central location of Covid-19 related resources - <AUTHOR> https://covidinfo.netlify.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Made this for my family and friends but not sure how helpful would it be for general public. Please share your feedback.</comment>


Show HN: Paddington – Control MacOS from MIDI Devices - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/lucidstack/paddington <comment><USER2> Cool project! Will definitely have a go at this later on... :)</comment>


New at youtube - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/testtube

<comment><USER2> Very cool stuff. I've been fighting with uploading 3D videos, and one of the things there is a side-by-side video uploader which makes things super easy</comment>


Ask HN: Do you check for HTTPS before signing up for a site? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> It used to be only at sites where I have to give (often mandatory) PII and CC/payment information but these days I get annoyed when at least the login page of the site is not HTTPS.

</comment><comment><USER3> Only if I'm entering credit card or other important information.

</comment><comment><USER4> To be honest, I don't check at all, and most normal people probably don't.

</comment><comment><USER5> I use HTTPS Everywhere so I rarely check for SSL.

<comment><USER6> You can't use HTTPS everywhere if there isn't SSL...

<comment><USER7> HTTPS Everywhere with a capital E.

<https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere>

<comment><USER6> Interesting!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Urban Layers – Explore the structure of Manhattan's urban fabric - <AUTHOR> http://io.morphocode.com/urban-layers/

<comment><USER2> Very neat! It's somewhat surprising just how old most of Manhattan is.

I do find it a little ironic that towards the bottom of the About page it quotes Le Corbusier:

> _" New York is not a finished or completed city. It gushes up. On my next > trip it will be different. Those of us who have visited it are asked this > question: "When you were there in 1939, or in 1928, or in 1926, or in 1920, > was such and such already there? Oh, really, you don't know then what an > effect that makesl" Such is the rhythm of the city."_

Considering that his Radiant City urban planning philosophy, along with Robert Moses, nearly disassembled this city, and some of the most infamous blights of NYC (and a cause of continued skepticism towards urban development) were executed under his design philosophies.

</comment><comment><USER3> From the site:

> It appears that your browser is not supported! We currently support Chrome > and Firefox.

But I _am_ using Chrome!

</comment><comment><USER4> Nice!

What caused the 10-yearly spikes for 1900, 1910 & 1920 - was it some kind of construction census?</comment>


Excess Federal Debt Means No Safety Net in Coming Recession - <AUTHOR> https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/business/economy/recession-safety-net.html?smid=tw-nytimesbusiness&smtyp=cur <comment><USER2> There was an study and it's been proven that Democrats are better for the economy on every single measure than Repubs. They studied a centuries worth of data.

Trickle down effect does not work and the ironic thing is that the next recession is going to hurt the Trump voters in the heartland and south the most.

</comment><comment><USER3> With interest rates being so low, they don't have that either. What are they going to do? Lower it below zero? Just wondering how high they can get it before the next recession.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yeah. This is the primary concern I had about this tax cut. I don't mind deficits in general, but I'm not a fan of creating them for no reason.</comment>


Adam Wathan: "Canada has got to be the best place to be self-employed" - <AUTHOR> https://mobile.twitter.com/adamwathan/status/1276299742276915200 <comment><USER2> I would think this is true in quite a lot of countries. At least, in the UK you can start invoicing people without filling in any forms, you get free healthcare, and taxes are reasonable.

<comment><AUTHOR> Surprisingly, it's not. One of my good friends is from France and scrambled to find a structure that was even feasible when he was at 1.5k MRR. Now he's making more but it's _still_ almost unworkable.

His solution was to incorporate in another country (while also living abroad in a 3rd) because he couldn't afford to start his indiehacking gig in France!

I just saw this on Twitter, too: [https://mobile.twitter.com/jklepatch/status/1276528386051956...](https://mobile.twitter.com/jklepatch/status/1276528386051956736)</comment></comment>


A Navy Seal's Semester at Yale, at Age 52 - <AUTHOR> https://gen.medium.com/my-semester-with-the-snowflakes-888285f0e662 <comment><USER2> The thing that hit me after coming back from the war, was how absolutely meaningless the vast majority of life's required set of petty exercises are. I understand the elitism and the challenge of conquering Yale. There seems, however, to be a monumental difference between him and the rest; that is, 26 years of hardship, quiet observation, and directed action in shaping the world before reaching toward a philosophical understanding of it, versus young people desperately seeking that relevance for themselves, but only within the bounds of perfect physical and emotional comfort, perhaps not realizing that their pontifications are more limbic than neocortical. Downrange was my "safe space"; it gives a name to that limbic fear and drops a lot of emotional pretense otherwise. Stanford, not so much. What I found impressive there was the Sisyphean devotion to transforming ones mind into a perfect vessel of discovery, creation, and healing. I didn't really respect it until I started to see that path as a superior way of being to my own, and made my best effort to commit to it despite the overwhelming disadvantage of time. Perhaps someday I too will see the same moral superiority in the screeds of elite youth in the humanities and social sciences. He was, after all, a far greater man in his first career than I ever will be.

<comment><USER3> The trouble with the term 'elitism' is that sometimes the best is only adequate, and for many people the best that society has to give is legitimately not enough. One lifetime of learning is not enough. Another one is in order.

"We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."

\- Henry James

<comment><USER4> Thanks for sharing that powerful quote.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This man's experience & his positive report of campus culture at an Ivy League school are heartening among all the distressing stories of ideological conformity on elite college campuses. It certainly is not all students at elite schools who are trying to shut down discussion, and claims that all students are doing that are surely exaggerated.

Two things should be noted, however. First, that this is one person's account, not an examination of broader trends. For a broader, data-supported survey of anti-free-speech trends on campus and why it harms students, "The Coddling of the American Mind" is a fantastic and enlightening book. (Incidentally it cites causes from right & left wing extremists, on and off campus, it's not a story of "snowflakes bad".)

Second, it's not _necessary_ for authoritarian/illiberal activists to be in the majority in order to have a profound impact on the culture. "A small group of dedicated individuals" can affect great change even if they're in the extreme minority. If 1% of people on campus are willing to publicly condemn you and do everything they can to destroy your reputation or get you fired, and 4% are willing to go along with it, that can be enough to convince the the other 95% to keep their mouths shut.

None of this is to take away from the fact that this is a refreshing narrative of unity, openness & cultural exchange in the Ivies.

<comment><USER6> Not sure why you're getting downvoted, everything you say is pretty much on the money.

Nassim Taleb explores this exact concept in his essay titled _" The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority"_ [https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the- dict...](https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship- of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Studying with veterans is an incredible experience. I'm lucky that my school (Columbia) has a very large undergraduate vet population. It adds a dimension of experiential diversity that many colleges fail to capture, and makes real what are normally distant and easy to abstract away geopolitical decisions, like deploying troops in Afghanistan. I hope more universities follow Yale and Columbia in creating spaces for returning serviceman to integrate into collegiate life - it's good for all of us.

<comment><USER8> Also hiring. I worked with an ex Army Ranger who was by far the best leader I've seen.

<comment><USER9> I have an ex ranger on my team who is the most sexist, pompous, self important asshole I've ever met. By far the best bloviator and derailer of projects I've seen.

<comment><USER10> Ex ranger...

While I didn't serve, I did grow up with and had close family and friends that were part of navy, army and air force special forces.

The clown you describe does not last long in special forces unless he's a modern day Audie Murphy, Roy Benavidez or Chesty Puller.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> From the author's photo his purple heart was not from a minor wound. He appears to be an amputee. I imagine that the dog in class was related to this. It is heartening that these students were able to respect this man for his service, or despite it. I would hope that the same would happen if his sacrifice was less evident. I'd think it well could have. People are so much better when they meet face to face without any built in confrontation.

<comment><USER12> [https://www.stripes.com/news/navy-seal-dog-handler-how-a- fai...](https://www.stripes.com/news/navy-seal-dog-handler-how-a-failed- mission-to-rescue-bowe-bergdahl-caused-irreparable-loss-1.385511)

<comment><USER13> That story is heartbreaking

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> If you want to see what a Navy SEAL's life is like, I highly recommend this documentary: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGvvNKBGgUw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGvvNKBGgUw)

"Documentary" makes it sound sterile or clinical, but in fact it's pretty badass.

Kind of dispels the illusion that we're not pampered.

It's so good I'll probably watch it again today. The diving section is the best, IMO. Imagine someone spinning you around underwater and ripping off parts of your dive gear then having to reassemble it basically blind.

Imagine a junior code review that starts like this ([https://youtu.be/AGvvNKBGgUw?t=230](https://youtu.be/AGvvNKBGgUw?t=230)): "This entire codebase has been a joke. There hasn't been a single module that you've written during the course of this project that has even remotely resembled perfection. Everything has been sad, weak, and unreadable. And it's all because you're inside your tiny little brain, self-defeating yourself."

Admittedly that only happens during the training phase, though.

<comment><USER15> This kind of training seems like it would cause a lot of injuries. Is that just an accepted part of it?

<comment><USER14> Yes and no. It's not acceptable to overlook safety. During the documentary, there are situations where you can see the instructors prioritize the well- being of the candidates (as opposed to saying "no, keep going"). One candidate complained he was feeling dizzy, and the instructor sent the candidate to get checked even though he personally felt there was nothing wrong with him. Wish I could remember the timestamp.

There is also the concept of being rolled back due to injury. If you sprain your ankle, for example, you can't keep going. It's a persistent fear of all candidates, since it's a big setback. But the flipside is that apparently you only get rolled back to when the next class catches up to where you're at right now in training. It's one of the cooler parts in my opinion, since you can see they truly value the candidates rather than thinking of them as disposable tools (which you occasionally feel like as a programmer...)

But, ultimately, you're correct: it's inherently dangerous. Everyone signs up knowing the risks.

EDIT: Found the timestamp: [https://youtu.be/AGvvNKBGgUw?t=2266](https://youtu.be/AGvvNKBGgUw?t=2266)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The Yale Directed Studies program is no joke -- it tends to attract the most motivated humanities students and to have incredible amounts of work and reading.

Impressive that he's taking it, but he's also seeing a somewhat more serious class of students who, by extension, are less likely to be snowflakes.

<comment><USER17> > snowflakes

what does that mean ?

<comment><USER18> Read the article where he describes the meaning? It's a reference from the book/movie, Fight Club.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_(slang)#Unique_or_sp...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowflake_\(slang\)#Unique_or_special_snowflake)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> His book 'Touching the Dragon' [1] was an interesting read. I recommend it if you liked this article, gives you a perspective of where he is coming from now.

[1] [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548196/touching- the...](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/548196/touching-the-dragon- by-james-hatch-and-christian-dandrea/)

</comment><comment><USER20> This very humble author possibly impressed and changed his fellow students more than he would admit. Many modern narratives and trends simply fall apart when confronted with reality.

</comment><comment><USER21> Thank you very much for the wonderful and very insightful article.

Developing the humility and truly believing that we are all snowflakes and willingness to learn from the diversity around us is a big step forward.

I loved the analogy between leaders and bridge builders. I always considered leaders as those who build a pedestal or platform or ladder for the rest to use and grow. Very similar.

It gives me confidence and courage to take up a few courses myself and enjoy learning and not just go after grades.

</comment><comment><USER22> If you have kids that want to do things in a pretty non-conformant way (with beautiful irony) I'd recommend taking a look at VMI and The Citadel, neither requires military service afterward (although it is an option and a good one to pay for the experience) yet you will be along side some of the best current and future military leaders as teachers, classmates, and friends for life. The Federal service academies are also well regarded but there's something a little bit more rough and tumble at these two that is precious and I say that with respect even as they two are rivals.

To have you ass kicked every day, in every way imaginable (mentally, physically, athletically, motivational, trivially, lack of sleep and food, academically) while still doing a full course load is really a great start on adult life which can be just as hard and you are always prepared. I doubt the academics are anything like an ivy, just sharing another option that reminded me of the bridging of two worlds of physicality and academic pursuit.

<comment><USER23> Did you go to either of those schools?

<comment><USER22> Yes, G Co 2011 at El Cid

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Tangentially related anecdote:

As an undergrad, I got to spend a semester in the ROTC capstone for second semester seniors called "Leadership and Ethics." I remember walking in on my first day in cargo shorts and flip flops as the only civilian and non-senior student. Everyone else was in full uniform. The class was taught by a Marine Officer.

As a business student, I realized how similar the military and business can be. Most of the theory of leadership and management aims to address a fundamental goal: how do you get people to do something they may not necessarily want to do. Whether that's making widgets or killing someone, the underlying theories are quite similar.

The main difference I noticed between the two fields was the military's emphasis on trust. You were to respect a chain of command because you could trust your commanding officer. You were expected to perform your best because you could trust your teammates to do the same. The reason soldiers could rely on this trust was because their superiors had gone through the bullshit and could manage from a seat of positional and experiential authority.

In the business world, they taught management as if having positional authority would automatically create trust and inspire subordinates. MBA students graduate and come into supervisory roles without any prior experience in the underlying work and get mixed results. Part of me wonders whether this is due to ineptitude or simply inexperience.

I remember finishing that course and thinking I really should study engineering because I knew that wanted to play a role in managing and leading technical teams working on innovative problems.

Fast forward a few years and I left my role in public accounting to go into industry, but instead of going into finance or internal accounting I chose to learn development and spend a few years experiencing what it's like to be a developer, so that one day when I'm managing a technical team I can actually know when they're giving me a legitimate justification for something, and when they're just bullshitting me.

Having been a developer for a couple years now, I don't know how I could have managed a technical team without this experience. I think back to my "career plan" before I took that class and remember thinking that I'd not only be able to find a managerial position upon graduation, but that I'd be able to lead effectively as a 22 year old. What a foolish 20 year old I was!

Anyway, this is really just a roundabout way of saying I loved my class and have tremendous respect for military leadership. I would have loved to have more classes with officers and veterans, and hope my kids get that opportunity someday.

</comment><comment><USER25> He shouldn't be too impressed by his younger class mates. Having discipline to do the work and problem sets would put him ahead of most of them.

<comment><USER26> Based on the article, I'd expect that he disagrees with you.

Strongly.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Don Shipley should check for this guy's name in his database just to verify.

Meeting a SEAL is like getting struck by lightning because there are so many phonies out there stealing valor. I hope it's not the case.

<comment><USER28> It's not hard to find more info about the guy, just Google his name.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> "infamous YouTube video"

No link.

<comment><USER30> Maybe this one? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiMVx2C5_Wg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiMVx2C5_Wg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I hope we hear from him again as a Senior at Yale.

</comment><comment><USER32> I loved every part of this. This is true leadership.

</comment><comment><USER3> HN is not a safe space by this definition.

<comment><USER33> HN is certainly not a safe space. No large anonymous internet community can be.

<comment><USER3> It annoys me. Smart people should be able to deal with subjects outside their comfort zone but what I see here is the intellectual version of footguns employed more as a rule than an exception. - _People downvote things they don 't understand._ \- It's crazy. They can't even stand up for their opinions but do it anonymously, like cowards.

<comment><USER33> I think there's a confusion here:

 _Smart people should be able to deal with subjects outside their comfort zone_

"Smart" is a cognitive trait; dealing with what is outside one's comfort zone is a different developmental axis altogether. Smart people are no better able to do this than anyone else, and may even have a harder time.

<comment><USER3> I see. I mean a different smart. General intelligence. It implies you learn the traits required to solve a hard problem. It's a habit of self- optimization.

<comment><USER34> I don't actually know if general intelligence is a thing the way you're describing it. There's no reason why an insanely smart algo PhD-from-MIT person could take their algo smarts and intuitively apply it to being a compassionate human being dealing with others whose existence and experiences may be drastically different from themselves for practically no feasible reason (fate/gods/random chance).

<comment><USER3> A lot of traits commonly seen as benevolent can be attributed to evolutionary pressure. Healthy human emotions associated with these are not necessary for them to work, although they are important for living a fulfilling life.

Cooperation and diversity are both optimal so being complex social creatures we go to lenghts to communicate as widely as we may. I think it all works out quite nicely, thankfully.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> More people need to learn that if you leave your bubbles and talk to people, you'll find that they are actually indeed people too, and not caricatures you read about on outrage-bait new articles.

<comment><USER36> I've mentioned an idea to a friend of mine: a sort of welfare/basic income program where people are paid to talk to others. There is no restriction as to the topic as long as the other person consents to having the conversation: it can be as mundane talking about the weather. My reasoning behind it was just to get people who otherwise would not talk to each other to do so to actively reinforce my observation that everyone is the same in different ways and different in the all same ways.

<comment><USER37> This is the social value that we used to get from churches, fraternal organizations, bowling leagues, block parties....

<comment><USER38> Some of those things are more inclusive and diverse than the others. Fortunately there exists a modern equivalent that exposes people to a lot of different folks all at the same time: universities. For many rural teenagers, a university will be the first time they meet people from another country, who don't speak English as their first language, or a sizable number of people with a different skin color. Speaking from experience, growing up in Iowa.

<comment><USER37> And that brings us full circle back to OP.

Most university students are in their late teens and early 20's and once they graduate they never go back. Churches and other social institutions are more lifelong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> The author either has a fundamental misunderstanding of the criticisms against "safe spaces" or he's deliberately mischaracterizing them to earn the favor of his classmates.

> What she meant by "safe space" was that she was happy to be in an > environment where difficult subjects can be discussed openly, without the > risk of disrespect or harsh judgement.

If that's actually how safe spaces were implemented in practice, there'd be little backlash against them. The primary criticism against safe spaces is that they are an excuse to censor dissenting opinions. A common example is that people opposed to sex-reassignment surgery are not allowed into discussions about trangenderism because their opinions are considered "disrespectful" or even "violent" to transgender people.

<comment><USER40> Put this way, it really makes me think you don't like safe spaces because they hinder your ability to hurt transgender people.

It always seem that the only people complaining about systems designed to respect others is the people that are doing the dis-respecting, haven't seen much proof of the contrary so far.

<comment><USER41> Safe spaces is a phrase people use when they don't want to call it these environments for what they actually are, which are spaces for vulnerable members of society to have a place to discuss issues that are relevant to them, without having the already dominant voices in society interjecting, usually in a disrespectful manner.

<comment><USER42> That is not at all the definition used in the article which is the point of the OP's comment.

If the membership and topics are exclusive based on comfort then it is, by definition, not a safe space for any kind of difficult conversation. It's just a private club.

<comment><USER41> I think you're misunderstanding who these spaces are for and what purposes they serve.

Are also you saying difficult conversations cannot be had by people sharing similar interests or beliefs? And since when are all private clubs bad?

<comment><USER42> We're talking about the literal definition used in the article, and that does not match up with what you're claiming. There is no limitation on membership to "vulnerable" people, whatever that means, nor is any voice "dominant" by default.

> " _Are also you saying difficult conversations cannot be had by people > sharing similar interests or beliefs?_ "

No, but freedom for difficult conversations are the qualifier for a "safe space", not the identity of the individuals and their comfort which would be antithetical to free discussion by all.

> " _And since when are all private clubs bad?_ "

Nobody said that. The point is that a safe-space as defined in the article is not the same as a private club with limited identities and discussions.

<comment><USER41> > > What she meant by "safe space" was that she was happy to be in an > environment where difficult subjects can be discussed openly, without the > risk of disrespect or harsh judgement.

The quote literally says difficult subjects (read conversations) can be had within this space. Obviously we have different interpretations and my comment is adding my own perspective to it.

<comment><USER42> I'm not sure what your point is here. The definition of space space in the article is only limited to discussion, not identity or comfort. You claim that's not what they actually are, so you are agreeing with the OP then in pointing out how the article uses a different definition than the common usage in reality.

<comment><USER41> You're conflating several distinct points into one. By expanding on how I see the term safe space being used doesn't mean I disagree with the article and therefore agree with the OP. I don't think that's that hard to understand. I don't really find it productive to continue this discussion.

<comment><USER42> You literally disagree with the article (and agree with the op) on _the definition of a safe space_.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Where is everybody? An account of Fermi's question (1985) - <AUTHOR> http://fermatslibrary.com/s/where-is-everybody <comment><USER2> Good discussion of the Dark Forest theory and other possible answers to the Fermi Paradox: [https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/18127/dark- fo...](https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/18127/dark-forest- postulate-used-to-explain-the-fermi-paradox)

BTW, if you haven't read the _Three Body Problem_ buy it and start, like, _today_!</comment>


Apple reportedly building iPhones, iPads without Qualcomm chips - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/10/on-the-outs-with-qualcomm-apple-looking-at-intel-mediatek-for-modem-silicon/ <comment><USER2> Qualcomm has to decide which impacts its business more: loss of Apple as a customer, or drop in revenue per chip due to licensing.

Obviously, Qualcomm doesn't want either, which explains the lawsuits filed. But if Apple can turn to Intel and MediaTek as suppliers, that cuts Qualcomm completely out. What choices does Qualcomm have left other than to capitulate to and mollify Apply?

It's fascinating to watch two large corporations publicly duke it out. I think Qualcomm has overplayed their hand. I'm not sure what other customers they have (probably Androids?), but without Apple, what does Qualcomm become?

<comment><USER3> Maybe loss of Qualcomm's proprietary air interface standards as significant components of future cellular standards? The risk to Qualcomm is massive, maybe more so that the revenue from their own chips.

Apple is in a strong position to move to a horizontally integrated AP/BP model for mobile, either with ARM cores and their A8/A10 SoCs or even moving to something like RISC-V.

Now add an RF frontend and DSP cores and you could implement 5G or smallsat connectivity for the price of the RAND IP license.

Then replace the OLED with microled/qdot pixels with Primesense sensors integrated and you can even eliminate the "slot".</comment></comment>


Ketamine could help treat severe depression - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/party-drug-ketamine-could-help-treat-severe-depression-researchers-say/

<comment><USER2> Link to the original paper. There seems to be a growing body of published work on this subject.

[http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/03/17/026988111452...](http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/03/17/0269881114527361.full.pdf+html)</comment>


132-year-old rifle found propped against a national park tree - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/14/the-mystery-of-the-132-year-old-winchester-rifle-found-propped-against-a-national-park-tree/ <comment><USER2> This kind of isolation is very interesting to me. There is a lot of space out there, and there are probably a lot of acres that only get one human visitor every 5 years. I'd give myself a 1% chance of noticing the rifle if I walked past, based on this picture. So it's not at all surprising that the last time anyone looked at this tree was in the 19th century.

<comment><USER3> Highway 50, which runs near there, has been dubbed the Loneliest Road in America ([http://ponyexpressnevada.com/highway50/index2.html](http://ponyexpressnevada.com/highway50/index2.html)) and that's a relatively populated corridor in that area with small towns "only" 50+ miles apart. Great Basin in a national park but doesn't get a lot of visitors relatively speaking and most of those are either going to the caves or the summit of Wheeler Peak.

<comment><USER4> The areas right next to parking lots in National Parks are very busy, but usually once you get a mile down a trail, even in a very popular park, it's very nearly empty.

<comment><USER3> It does vary. The most popular National Parks certainly have their busy spots even a mile away from the road. But your basic point that people on/near road >> people on any trail >> people a few miles from road is absolutely true. Even somewhere like Yosemite, you can easily get away from the crush in the Valley and, especially with backpacking, can get away from most people all together.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> $25 in 1882 is about $600 today. That's like losing an iPhone.

<comment><USER6> Real per capita income was roughly 1/9 of today's...so it is more like losing something worth $5,400.

<comment><USER7> Making such corrections is interesting. I'd like to hear more comments on it.

Whether it's equivalent current value is $600 (as posted elsewhere) or $5400, both numbers are believable. The functional difference between a modern $600 rifle and a $5400 one is, to most casual observers, minimal - though the owner may have reason to pay $4800 for that difference.

<comment><USER8> In modern terms, anyone selling a $5,400 rifle would be hard pressed to sell 2,500 of them, let alone 25,000 to the civilian market. And while we're making adjustments, the US population in 1900 was just a hair over 75m, meaning that one of these was produced for every 3k people.

Don't let the raw numbers fool you - this was an everyman's gun. A good one, yes. Still though, an everyman's gun.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> You do wonder if the ower had heart attack or some other acident and there is a set of human remains nearby presumably local scavengers might make it hard to find much forensic evidence.

</comment><comment><USER10> I can't helping thinking of this:

[https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/landscape-with-gun- an...](https://www.jupiterartland.org/artwork/landscape-with-gun-and-tree)

<comment><USER11> Was my first thought too. Great place, Jupiter Artland.

<comment><USER10> Have you been to Little Sparta? I saw that Little Sparta was a big influence for the couple that created Jupiter Artland (and they have works by Ian Hamilton Finlay) - we went just before it closed for the winter and I thought it was incredible:

[http://www.littlesparta.org.uk/](http://www.littlesparta.org.uk/)

Can't wait to go back!

<comment><USER11> I had not heard of Little Sparta. It looks fantastic. Thank you! I will be visiting this summer for sure.

<comment><USER10> I didn't think I was going to like Jupiter Artland - I wouldn't describe myself as a fan of most modern art but I absolutely _loved_ it.

Little Sparta is on another level though - the whole place is a work of art.

I'm also keen to go to the _Garden of Cosmic Speculation_ \- but it's not open very often:

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

<comment><USER11> I've been the Jupiter twice and enjoyed both times. I'd known about Goldsworthy and he's why I went in the first place but have gained appreciation for others like Jencks etc.

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, had me at its name. I'll be going along there to. Cheers, pal. Thank you very much.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Not many people in that area these days: [https://firstname.lastname@example.com,-114.6965377,9z/data...](https://firstname.lastname@example.com,-114.6965377,9z/data=!5m1!1e4) \- then it must have been incredibly remote.

</comment><comment><USER13> Glad they're preserving it. That said, my bet is that with an afternoon in a machine shop it'd work perfectly!

I'm not into firearms, but rifles like this are an object lesson in how to design something so that it'll last.

</comment><comment><USER14> How old is that tree?

<comment><USER15> @rifleman44 ha! I was thinking the same thing. The tree looks like it has a small trunk. I was thinking there can't be 100 rings and if there were, it would be the whole tree.

I'm Mr. Skeptical... It's hard to believe with the tree growth and over a hundred years of weather that the gun stayed propped up like that. It does look a little wedged between two trunks but wow...

<comment><USER14> The gun could also have been laying down at one point then raised slowly as the tree grew.

<comment><USER16> Trees grow from the top - from the very tip of the branches. The trunk never moves up, the gun would not raise as the tree grew.

(Grass grows from the bottom, that's why animals can eat it without harming it.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> An unused object persisted for over a century? Would never have happened with garbage collection.

<comment><USER18> it would if you accidentally left two guns pointing at each other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> It's interesting to wonder if the owner thought anyone would find it.

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder if someone is buried under it.

</comment><comment><USER21> You just don't walk off without your gun.

</comment><comment><USER22> why do people want to goto space when There aré so many undiscovered gems on hour doorstep!

<comment><USER23> I love the irony of an "undiscovered gem" being "a place where a dude forgot some stuff"

<comment><USER24> One person's old trash is another person's incredibly valuable archaeological artifact...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Conspiracy theory: it was recently used as a murder weapon and left there to stump the investigation. This is of course not true, but fun to speculate about.</comment>


US Senators introduce legislation to cut H1B visas by 15,000 - <AUTHOR> http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visa-and-immigration/us-senators-introduce-legislation-to-cut-h1b-visas-by-15000/articleshow/50104968.cms <comment><USER2> The article itself is worth reading. It's a little more detailed and nuanced than the headline suggests.

TL;DR:

       probably won't happen in an election year

       Indian IT companies should prepare themselves
       to keeping their junior level people at home,
       while sending more senior people to the USA
       to manage the relationships

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm torn. Bill Nelson is my rep in Florida, and while I had to call him up to chew him out about trying to cut funding to the FCC for net neutrality enforcement, I find his support of this legislation to be positive.</comment>


Show HN: LemmeBeFrank – Get a 2-3 minute video of brutally honest feedback - <AUTHOR> http://lemmebefrank.com/

<comment><USER2> Would you accept repeated feedback requests?

For example: Someone paid and received feedback on an app from you, made improvements, deployed a new version. Can they then pay for more feedback? Do you imagine a limit for this, with each feedback request being paid for?

</comment><comment><USER2> This looks like an awesome idea. I'm sure software developers or startups would love to hear about issues a user finds with their apps or websites.

Plus, it can be done early on in the development process.

...please don't give me feedback on this comment, I haven't paid yet :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha, the $5 is pretty much symbolic. I try not to be an asshole unless people want me to be ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Why the custom website instead of fiverr? Or maybe you have both (did not check). How much users did you got?

<comment><AUTHOR> This was originally a hackathon project from last night, and it kind of took a couple of turns and ended up as it is now. We have zero users; the site has been live for literally five minutes.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Anyone here wanna collab on a SaaS project - <AUTHOR> Looking to collab with a fellow hacker / business person from here .. to build a SaaS service.
Currently have no idea what to build but would love to brainstorm and figure something out. Maybe we can hack something together this weekend or in the next month.
I'm a full-stack developer and I build mobile apps as well.
Feel free to contact me using the email in bio. <comment><USER2> I am also interested in a SaaS collab. Preferably bootstrapped since I believe in product/founder/market fit and honest evaluation via MVPs.

I've quit my day job and am going solo full time in February after 17 years as an employed/consultant backend dev and in recent years mobile developer. I have several ideas that I will evaluate but am also open for other projects.

I could drop you an email to connect.

Exciting times ahead!

<comment><AUTHOR> Exciting times indeed! I just replied to your email.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Let's discuss about ZeroMeetings.com?, I have an idea and prototype about this and the solution offering for market audience.

<comment><AUTHOR> Just dropped you an email</comment></comment>


How to have lunch with the brightest minds in SV? - <AUTHOR>

After several months of building a product (whilst getting feedback from users all along) I'm looking to have lunch with several top-notch programmers/evangelists in the Mobile Web area. We've got users, even traction and a really really useful and cool product.<p>What's the best way to reach these people and buy them lunch/beer? <comment><USER2> <http://letslunch.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://grubwith.us>

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> nice sites but is there a more direct and effective way to reach 1 on 1 with these guys?</comment>


The new iPad 2 will quadruple resolution but no Retina display - <AUTHOR> http://www.phonearena.com/news/The-new-iPad-2-will-quadruple-resolution-but-fall-short-of-being-a-Retina-display_id16000 <comment><USER2> From the article: "... decided instead to quadruple both directions ..."

Seriously, who starts with the number "2" and ends up confusing themselves? The whole article feels like one of the elaborate proofs of "0=1" that middle- schoolers are prone to come up with.</comment>


Using Pearl to manage your dotfiles and much more - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/pearl-core/pearl <comment><USER2> Perhaps I'm too old, but calling something to manage command line packages "Pearl" is quite confusing when most operating systems come with perl preinstalled.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's true, but even though the pronunciation looks the same they are actually two different words.

<comment><USER3> Curious why "pearl" was chosen for the name.

Also if it meets the guidelines, this might make a good "Show HN". Guidelines: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)</comment></comment></comment>