Oracle spreading FUD about CentOS - <AUTHOR> http://www.bashton.com/blog/2012/oracle-spreading-fud-about-centos/ <comment><USER2> They are already disliked in the open source community. This is not helping their case. I am not sure what they are going for. This sets them up again as a giant corporation attack the little guy. Geeks and nerds usually hate when little open source projects get attacked.

Why didn't they just offer paid support for CentOS? Why not dedicate full time engineers and donate?

Someone at Oracle needs to be fired over this.

<comment><USER3> > Why didn't they just offer paid support for CentOS? Why not dedicate full > time engineers and donate?

Ah! I think you nailed it. A key part of what makes open source work is corporations putting guys on projects, donating code, and being part of the _ecosystem_.

Oracle doesn't want to be a part of the ecosystem. They want to _be_ the ecosystem. They don't contribute to projects. They either purchase them outright if they can or start their own.

Technically, that's still open source. It's just seriously anti-social open source.

<comment><USER2> Can't tell you how many time government and military refused to pay less for our product running on CentOS and instead wanted to pay lots more for a Redhat license so they can have support. Nevermind that once setup they only have to do yum update to get the latest security patches and not much else.

There are some companies that offer CentOS support but they are not as prominent perhaps. I think Oracle should have done that, and in the process win some brownie points with the OS community.

From their point of view pissing off some idealistic OS nerds wearing T-shirts and flip-flops is nothing to worry about. However, the problem is a lot of these nerds end up making technology choices, directly or indirectly by advising their managers what is better, etc.

<comment><USER4> Ironically, as a t-shirt/flip-flop nerd myself, I was hoping that this would be something that would appeal to nerds, rather than pissing them off: "Hey, Oracle is giving me this thing that sounds useful for free".

<comment><USER2> > Hey, Oracle is giving me this thing that sounds useful for free

We already have that, it is called CentOS. If giving something for free means trying to trample another open source project, then 'No Thanks, I think I'll pass'.

<comment><USER5> Even if that other project is better?

I don't think Android's developers should feel super duper sad that they killed Meego's chances of rising from obscurity.

<comment><USER2> Not sure how to measure "better" in this case. Better for RHEL clones usually means "less changes" than other clones and close to upstream. I guess "better" is support and speed of updates. So in case of a software project you can usually just look at the features and say "oh, look, can see how they added a,b,c and now it is exactly what I want" This is a cloning project, so the best feature is how closely it tracks upstream. But one can't know that unless one switches to it first, and I am guessing, there is enough antagonism in the community that many will not make that first step.

<comment><USER5> Sure, and I agree, but that's not what you said.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The guy who made the graph which is "spreading FUD about CentOS" responds in the comment section:

[http://www.bashton.com/blog/2012/oracle-spreading-fud- about-...](http://www.bashton.com/blog/2012/oracle-spreading-fud-about- centos/#comment-591268331)

</comment><comment><USER7> The main problem is that Oracle's open source track record speaks for itself.

Now they suddenly want to play "nice", and so they do it by forking a well respected, volunteer driven distro rather than simply contributing to it and helping streamline the security update process. And then they top it all off with a negative ad campaign.

I'm sorry, but you're still not getting it, Oracle.

<comment><USER8> Did Oracle fork CentOS?

I thought they just copied RHEL, exactly how CentOS & Scientific Linux did.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Good article.

I think the key sentence is "...if you want the security updates first, the only way to get them is by paying Red Hat for support, not Oracle."

You can also add "if you want additional support, the best way is to pay the much more experienced creator RedHat, not Oracle."

<comment><USER4> For what it's worth, the thesis of the 'switch' page that the post references is "You're running CentOS, and aren't paying anyone for support, why should you consider Oracle Linux?"

If you're looking for content on "Why run Oracle Linux rather than RHEL?", I think we have a zillion documents I can point you at (oracle.com/linux being a good starting point).

<comment><USER9> To be honest i can only find marketing blabla and a very poorly written pdf. The only thing that stands out is ksplice (which in itself is a prime example for Oracle being "evil"!) and a 75% performance boost claim without proof (i read those claims often on the internet and most of the times they are vastly exagerated).

<comment><USER10> How is ksplice a prime example of Oracle being evil? I've heard nothing but good things, and it was an acquisition.

<comment><USER11> Welcome to HN. A photo uploader for hipsters is worth a billion dollars, but real engineering should be given away for free, 'cos those guys don't need to eat, right?

<comment><USER9> The "real" engineering was done by MIT students. Before Oracle bought ksplice. You probably didn't notice but the whole thing about linux and this "open source" everyone is talking about, is about contributing back and community. Not about buying and shutting down stuff. Guess what Oracle is known for and what RedHat is known for. Both make money.

<comment><USER11> Haha yeah, call me when your landlord lets you off the rent, because a website he uses runs Linux on the server. Community, right?

<comment><USER9> You still have a long way to go to learn proper trolling on the internet, my friend

<comment><USER11> You seem to be saying that the Ksplice guys don't deserve to get paid for their hard work, because "community, maaann". Which is an odd sentiment for a site based around startup companies, but ho hum. If they had been acquired by Google would that be any better?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Guess what?

I found this helpful and I'm glad it was posted regardless of whether people think it's FUD or not. And I'm going to consider running the script and switching.

Because of this statement:

"Contrast that with the CentOS/RHEL story. If you find yourself needing to buy support, have fun reinstalling your system with RHEL before anyone will talk to you."

Thoughts anyone?

I'm seeing the support cost for a single machine is $499 for a year.

[http://www.oracle.com/us/media/calculator/linuxtco/index.htm...](http://www.oracle.com/us/media/calculator/linuxtco/index.html)

(Surprising there is no link on the spiel to support..)

<comment><USER13> For comparison, here is Red Hat's pricing: [http://www.redhat.com/resourcelibrary/articles/articles- red-...](http://www.redhat.com/resourcelibrary/articles/articles-red-hat- enterprise-linux-purchasing-guide)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Pointing the the CR repository when arguing that CentOS has timely security updates seems a little disingenuous; it's opt-in and poorly publicized.

<http://wiki.centos.org/AdditionalResources/Repositories/CR/>

</comment><comment><USER14> One ironic thing is that, at present, apparently the only way to run Oracle Linux without registering an account on oracle.com (and agreeing to an awful lot of legalese) is to install CentOS first and then use Oracle's little upgrade script. Unless that somehow requires registration later on.

<comment><USER4> [https://wikis.oracle.com/display/oraclelinux/Downloading+Ora...](https://wikis.oracle.com/display/oraclelinux/Downloading+Oracle+Linux)

<comment><USER14> Interesting, thank you. I wonder why you can't get there from linux.oracle.com (or why the mirrors don't all mirror the same stuff). It'll be interesting to see what the state of Oracle Linux and those wiki pages is a year from now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Oracle is funny.

[http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/oracle-nosql- da...](http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2011/10/oracle-nosql-database/)

<comment><USER16> I still have a copy of that paper they pulled that "debunks" nosql. I don't think I'm ever getting rid of it.

<comment><USER17> They couldn't stick to that position for long. NoSQL is web scale.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I believe the best approach for Red Hat now is to re-license as much of its software as possible under GPLv3 and enjoy watching Oracle trying to handle the explicit patent grants...

</comment><comment><USER19> If Red Hat is so upset about Oracle Linux, bad enough to obfuscate code for patches, why don't they just offer RHEL for free with paid support?

Seems like a missed opportunity for RH.

<comment><USER20> RHEL sales are a profit center for RH, especially given that its targeted for enterprise deployments. The cost of the OS isn't the most significant factor in deploying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Why doesn't anybody EVEN TRY to make a comparison with Debian Stable or Ubuntu Server LTS in any of the discussions around this topic I've seen so far?! Maybe my company wants to switch from CentOS and will go with Ubuntu or Debian. Shouldn't Oracle guys try and convince me to go their way instead? (This "over-targeted" approach from the Oracle marketing guys seems more like an anti-CentOS campaign than a pro OL one in this context... and they seem to compare with RHEL only on price - 0 vs something - because they know they are otherwise out of their league).

It's not like these alternatives are not in the same league now, with the latest 2 Ubuntu Server LTS seen as rock solid by most and good commercial support available...

<comment><USER22> Debian/Ubuntu are not competing in the same space. The only reason you would've been running CentOS in the first place would be if you needed redhat compatibility, most likely so you could run a commercial application that was only supported on redhat, most likely an application from oracle themselves.

<comment><USER21> I know what you mean (though lots of people run CentOS/RHEL simply because they got used to it and Debian/Ubuntu Server was not perceived as stable enough some time ago so they first started deployment), but there's no reason for a company with Oracle's resources not to try and make a true general purpose server Linux distro... otherwise they'll just wake up to a future when their customers will ask them for debian binaries and support for them and they will have to provide this in order to keep their customer base growing, and when they'll go this way, their whole Linux business will roll faster and faster on the downward slope... I never understood why big corporations have such short sighted strategies. I understand that focusing on short them profit would make sense for a startup, but a company like Oracle should really be aiming for long term growth (after they clean their "evil" image, if they ever manage to do this)...

<comment><USER22> There's no benefit to Oracle in providing a general purpose server linux to compete with Debian, because there's no profit in it. They're providing this linux primarily so they can sell a vertically integrated stack with their applications on the top, and secondarily to get some revenue from the kind of companies that insist on big name support for anything they use. Debian does not compete in that market, and they're unlikely to have customers demand debian binaries because the kind of companies that run debian don't run oracle applications.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> How long before Oracle realizes they're giving something away for free and then tries to monetize their Linux software?

</comment><comment><USER24> "It can only be viewed as the hubris we have come to expect from Oracle"

Exact my feelings

</comment><comment><USER25> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4260716>

Significant explorations of the issues already started.

</comment><comment><USER26> Well, at least the FUD is an attempt to get people to switch from Linux to Linux, rather than Linux to Windows. Remember the "Get The Facts" campaign?

</comment><comment><USER27> A very mobile unfriendly site. Zoom is disabled for the iPhone. This renders landscape mode useless for this site.

</comment><comment><USER28> so oracle says during 2011, centos was slow with updates.

Centos responds: no we weren't.. look at this chart of 2012

CentOS was terrible with updates during 2011.. and there's no guarantee that it won't happen again (after all, it isn't paid support). 2011 is the reason why I deployed several RHEL webservers instead of centos recently.

<comment><USER29> Scientific Linux <https://www.scientificlinux.org/documentation/faq/errata>

Q. After RedHat releases a security errata, how long until it shows up in Scientific Linux's errata? A. Within a couple days.

Q. That seems like a long time for errata, why so long? A. RedHat is not perfect, and sometimes their errata completely break programs.

Q. What happens when the people recompiling the errata go on vacation? A. Because these security errata are part of Fermilab's security procedures, the entire Scientific Linux development team is not allowed to go on vacation at the same time. So there will always be at least one main developer able to do recompiles.

<comment><USER30> I really don't understand why more people don't use Scientific Linux instead of CentOS. Mostly just name recognition I wager.

<comment><USER18> AFAIK, it's different enough from RHEL that some binary-distributed software breaks. I never had much trouble with it, but I try to keep enough distance from distro details as not having to worry too much whether it is a Red Hat or a Debian I am using.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Oasis 500, a Startup Accelerator Aiming for 500 Startups in 5 years - <AUTHOR> http://arabcrunch.com/2010/06/oasis-500-a-startup-accelerator-to-launch-in-august.html

<comment><AUTHOR> it is somehow similar to YCombinator and is one of the results of Yahoo acquisition of Arabic portal Maktoob for around 140, million USD.</comment>


YouTube actively deletes anti CCP comments - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/palmerluckey/status/1265077232176775168 <comment><USER2> Recent discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23317570](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23317570)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223219](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223219)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23221264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23221264)

<comment><USER3> This one is another word.

<comment><USER4> That difference isn't enough to support a significantly different discussion, so I don't think it counts as SNI (Significant New Information), which is the test we use. See past explanations at [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22significant%20new%20information%22&sort=byDate&type=comment)

The current submission is a nice test case actually. The comments here are no different than the ones in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223219](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223219), which had over a thousand comments and was only a week and half ago.

Btw, since someone always wonders: no we're not doing this because we're communists. It's a question of curiosity and repetition not going together ([https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20repetition&sort=byDate&type=comment)). HN is for curiosity ([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)).

<comment><USER5> However tiresome it can get, there is a value, or at least meaningful information in repetition in itself. The constant desire for 'new' can be harmful as a phenomenon. I suspect many politically unpopular bills/initiatives do pretty well on repeat, when the 'newness' of the controversy has disappeared.

I do appreciate the work y'all do to keep this place nice, but I also hope you keep this in mind. I feel HN is 'influential' enough that being too ruthless about optimizing for 'new and interesting and curiosity-focused' might possibly diminish the values of HN as a spotlight/platform for important issues. I would pick the curiosity side though if I had to choose.

<comment><USER4> I think that's about right. I don't want to give the impression of being simplistic about this; it's just that if HN is influential, the best way for that influence to function is if we neither focus directly on it nor try to exclude it, but leave it in peripheral vision.

There's a related issue, which is that the better HN gets at its core thing (curiosity), the more the audience grows in quantity and/or quality, and then the more people then want to use that audience for something else. Sometimes that's to promote their company or event, sometimes it's to bring attention to some other matter—maybe more important than what's actually on the front page here. The more those things become the focus, though, the worse HN becomes at the core thing, so there's a sort of paradox where the better it gets, the worse it gets.

What seems to work is to focus on the core but not too rigidly. This is a good because rigidity turns into predictability which is bad for curiosity anyhow.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Recent and relevant [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223219](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23223219)

</comment><comment><USER7> This is even more strange than the NBA tweet that started all of the controversy at the beginning of the year.

Censoring messages about an arm of a government where YouTube is banned has me wondering what is going on behind closed doors.

<comment><USER8> I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy. But isn't the most likely explanation that individual YouTube moderators have been bought off, rather than this being a policy directed by senior Google management?

How hard would be for Chinese intelligence to recruit YouTube moderators, and offer them a briefcase filled with unmarked bitcoin in exchange for deleting the comments that they flagged?

<comment><USER9> > How hard would be for Chinese intelligence to recruit YouTube moderators

I think it's much simpler than that. There are also just millions upon millions of very nationalistic Chinese citizens (living globally) that would happily abuse the mod button.

There are Google employees... in China... that know exactly how the company works and how to game the system. Maybe they need to be "pressured" by the Chinese gov't - but I wonder if that's even necessary.

Social media is rife with people who will advocate for their country for free and without being asked to.

<comment><USER10> > abuse the mod button

If someone insults them in the comments and they report it, are they even abusing the system or are they using the reporting mechanism as intended?

<comment><USER11> I guess they're using it as intended there. But if they're using it because they don't like factual anti-china criticism, that's abuse.

<comment><USER12> It depends. YouTube's comment section doesn't have a particular editorial purpose, the closest thing it has to a mission is letting people comment on each other's videos for some vague sense of "community."

That's not an objective fact-oriented mission, and a moderation system that allows users to flag and kill comments that make them feel bad is still satisfying the constraints of the design.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think this is just a case of fighting low-quality comments rather than deliberate censoring of anti-CCP political speech.

Youtube is not supporting CCP. They regularly delete videos that are even mildly supportive of CCP, for example [https://twitter.com/rachw82451432/status/1265308476034519040](https://twitter.com/rachw82451432/status/1265308476034519040)

Another example is the 'Fighting terrorism' documentary by CGTN, which has been deleted and reuploaded many times now.

Heck, I don't even call the above examples 'pro-CCP'. They just show a different point of view that isn't anti-CCP.

I see people here claiming something along the lines of: all anti-CCP comments are valuable examples of freedom of speech. But let's be honest here. Were it any nearly any other topic, people's usual opinion of Youtube comments is that it's a cesspool. While there is indeed valuable anti-CCP commentary out there, some really is not worth reading and just degrade the quality of the website.

<comment><USER14> _> I think this is just a case of fighting low-quality comments rather than deliberate censoring of anti-CCP political speech._

As opposed to what comments? I've never seen a non-low-quality comment on YouTube.

<comment><USER15> High-effort spam. I've seen URLs advertised by combining 3 accounts worth of ascii-art.

It's almost an art form in itself, like when World of Warcraft trials didn't allow chat and spammers would just sign in to a hundred accounts and die in the shape of the domain name with all the corpses.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "Who at Google decided to censor American comments on American videos hosted in America by an American platform that is already banned in China?"

Probably no individual. There are enough Chinese pro-nationalists using YouTube to generate noticeable signal if they all, independently based on their political creed or as an organized brigade, decide to start flagging posts. Once the flagging begins, the relative rarity of the characters in question combined against the flagging signal would generate a Bayesian prior that the word in question would tend to get flagged, and would preemptively start killing those comments.

This is one of the ways to train an automatic moderation system that is capable of discovering novel words the community decides are swears, and brigading is a known pathology that those systems are susceptible to.

<comment><USER16> If there are so many Chinese people using YouTube their signal would behave no differently than people from other nationalities, no?

<comment><USER12> It's not so much a function of how many Chinese people are using it as how many instances of the word being posted result in a comment being flagged.

Intersections such as "The word is rarely used, but when it is used it happens in a political setting where someone is more likely to decide to hit the flag button" would train an ML algorithm that the word is unwelcome in general.

<comment><USER17> Couldn't you just have bot accounts that search for YT comments and key phrases and flag those? Simply enough flags results in auto removal regardless of YT's decision's on the acceptability of these words/phrases. This wouldn't be very hard to setup either.

<comment><USER12> No, no it would not. ;)

One challenge is that Google's actually got some pretty solid signal to find and kill bots. But it's not impossible to botnet their services; just harder than doing it to the average online service that doesn't have an army of engineers who've trained on the adversarial space of people trying to automate ad clicks for real-money revenue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Congress should revoke immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, for any online community the size of YouTube that imposes their own "code of conduct" independent of US law. This is a _very_ controversial idea but anything else will lead to censorship, as we're seeing again and again.

<comment><USER19> > Congress should revoke immunity under Section 230 of the Communications > Decency Act, for any online community the size of YouTube that imposes their > own "code of conduct" independent of US law.

The EFF is one of the strongest champions of freedom of speech online, and they disagree with you. [https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230](https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230)

<comment><USER20> Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, the key item on that page is a link "makes editorial judgments" to another page and is 404. Ha.

<comment><USER21> It's 404ing because the key cert for the page has expired.

<comment><USER20> That's awesome. :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Please keep upvoting.

[https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/19190975?hl=en](https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/19190975?hl=en)

<comment><USER23> I thought they said they would 'fix' this. Don't tell me eliding entries from the naughty list is some enormous engineering exercise. Only a fool would believe that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Before I got my pitchfork ready, I decided to test with a comment on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufrR98sR7XY&lc=UgyRmEKscwt_U...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufrR98sR7XY&lc=UgyRmEKscwt_UgnrC-14AaABAg) (scroll down to highlighted comment).

9 hours later it is still there...

<comment><USER25> Interesting. Looking at Palmer's claim: "Try saying anything negative about the 五毛, or even mentioning them at all. Your comment will last about 30 seconds and get deleted without warning or notice, CCP-censor style." This seems to be evidence against the broader claim that anything gets deleted, rather than just negative comments.

<comment><USER26> I wouldn't be surprised if Google's algo has some idea of how toxic a person you are based on your previous comments.

That said, I wouldn't be shocked if every comment Palmer Lucky makes is shadow-banned.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Google has major investments in China. Looking at "Youtube" in a bubble doesn't tell the whole story.

I don't think "conspiracy theory" is correct - it's simply a private business doing what's best for itself financially.

Google isn't some government institution. ...or is it?

<comment><USER27> If the CCP says "if you delete anti-CCP content on Youtube we will act more favorably towards your other enterprises in China" and Google does just that, that's a conspiracy. I'm not so sure if that's what's going on, but it seems probable enough to consider.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> This claim is misleading. Youtube doesn't just delete anti-CCP comments, they also delete pro-CCP videos. For example [https://twitter.com/rachw82451432/status/1265308476034519040](https://twitter.com/rachw82451432/status/1265308476034519040)

</comment><comment><USER28> We so badly need decentralized alternatives to these services. Unfortunately I don't see anything on the immediate horizon that is up to the task.

<comment><USER29> [https://joinpeertube.org/](https://joinpeertube.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Someone below pointed out that when other random users post these phrases, their comments are _not_ deleted.

Possible alternative explanations:

1) The CCP is autoflagging comments from _known anti-ccp users_

2) The CCP is autoflagging comments only on _chinese language videos_

etc...

Given that this doesn't reproduce (i.e. there is a comment with this phrase up for over 9 hours) I'm skeptical of the explanation above that it's an automated system inside of YouTube's backends.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufrR98sR7XY&lc=UgyRmEKscwt_U...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufrR98sR7XY&lc=UgyRmEKscwt_UgnrC-14AaABAg)

</comment><comment><USER31> Nice hypothesis. Would be a shame if someone were to test it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbV_lMS0R6U&lc=UgyIxFgZnPM8T...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbV_lMS0R6U&lc=UgyIxFgZnPM8T_OK6qN4AaABAg)

</comment><comment><USER32> The linked tweet complains that the phrase 五毛 (50 cents) gets deleted. Does the much-discussed 50-Cent Army even exist on non-Chinese sites?

I have a hard time imagining the Chinese government finding people who speak fluent English willing to post for 50 cents a comment, and I've never run across an English-language forum where such activity was apparent. The terms "五毛" and "wumao" are usually just spammed at anyone perceived as insufficiently anti-Chinese.

</comment><comment><USER33> So we're calling spam filters censorship now?

</comment><comment><USER34> YouTube says that an error caused comments to auto-delete:

[https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/26/youtube-china-comments- wum...](https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/26/youtube-china-comments-wumao-dang/)

</comment><comment><USER35> YouTube claims this is an accident [0] which I find a little hard to believe.

Is it crazy to think this is CCP state actors? [1] Both in the form of teams of people or bots reporting anything that they dislike to trigger Google's automation, or even just getting people hired by these companies to work on the inside for their interests.

[0]: [https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21270290/youtube- deleting...](https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21270290/youtube-deleting- comments-censorship-chinese-communist-party-ccp)

[1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party)

<comment><USER36> My guess is that someone pro CCP sneaked the keywords which trigger the deletion into a list of Chinese insults (i.e. on a list of purely offensive words).

At lest one of the words found first can indeed be seen as denouncing descriptions of communism. I can't judge if it's just that or quite insulting.

If this is true then the interesting question is how they sneaked it in there. From outside by social enginering? From inside by affiliated devs? Through an consultant company hired to create a list of Chinese insults?

The most ironic think is that if my guess is true then it might literally have sneaked in without anyone intention by just using a list of insults from somewhere else without cross validating it.

<comment><USER37> The "communist bandits" thing is a Taiwan vs PRC thing -- Mao was basically a bandit for like 10 years while fighting the ROC government. Or the revolutionary vanguard expropriating wealth for the people's liberation, if you'd prefer.

Seems roughly equivalent to calling someone "you syrian terrorist" to me? Not sure where to calibrate it.

<comment><USER38> 'Communist' is an ideological alignment. 'Syrian' is not.

<comment><USER37> In this context it's very clearly about the PRC, referencing specific history, not some generic hypothetical communist.

Nobody calls berkeley student marxists 'bandits'.

<comment><USER38> That context doesn't change my comment. Affiliation with the CCP, past or present, is an ideological affiliation. 'Syrian' is not. Comparable to 'Syrian bandit' would be 'Chinese bandit'. If you want a Syrian analogue to 'communist bandit', you might try 'ba'athist bandit'.

'Communist' and 'ba'athist' are ideological affiliations, as are affiliations with the Chinese Communist Party or the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party specifically.

'Syrian' and 'Chinese' are not ideological affiliations.

<comment><USER37> You're aware it's a 1-party state, right? That's an awfully fine hair to split.

The people making that comment are talking about the government and the nation, not an ideology (which is barely even followed in practice, anyways).

<comment><USER38> Despite what the CCP would like you to believe, being ethnically Chinese is not synonymous with supporting the CCP, anymore than being ethnically Syrian makes you a supporter of Syria's Ba'athist Party. This is not a "fine hair to split."

Whether these political organizations adhere to their own professed principles is completely irrelevant; neither do. Whether these political organizations tolerate opposition is completely irrelevant; neither do.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> This has been all over 4chan for a while now.

</comment><comment><USER40> Well, this is kind of horrifying.

</comment><comment><USER41> It's not just those words. They're deleting any comment with the English words "idiot communists" too.

<comment><USER20> This could be a new sport, a la Perl Golf: What's the most innocuous thing you can put in that will get something banned?

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Didn't Palmer Luckey literally pay people to defame Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign? I guess he knows all about how 50-cent army works, especially US ones.

[https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/23/oculus- pa...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/23/oculus-palmer- luckey-funding-trump-reddit-trolls)

Edit:

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/31/oculus- rif...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/03/31/oculus-rift- inventor-palmer-luckey-quits-facebook-funding-anti/)

<comment><USER43> There's literally nothing in the article about defaming Hilary Clinton. The rest of the article is merely the newspaper complaining that Lucky doesn't share their politics.

Edit: glad you noticed the discrepancy. The second article you added doesn't show any defamation either.

<comment><USER35> If you're genuinely asking, Palmer Luckey gave $10k to a group that put up an anti-Hillary billboard in 2016 (with a cartoon caricature) [0]. This group was also publishing stupid pro-trump political memes.

He was subsequently found out and forced by Zuckerberg to publish a letter pretending he supported Gary Johnson (a lie that Zuckerberg thought was more palatable than Luckey's Trump support). He ended up being sort of fired later because nobody wanted him on their team anymore.

The best information I've read about this is in Steven Levy's new book Facebook: The Inside Story [1].

[0]: [https://www.thedailybeast.com/palmer-luckey-the-facebook- nea...](https://www.thedailybeast.com/palmer-luckey-the-facebook-near- billionaire-secretly-funding-trumps-meme-machine)

[1]: [https://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Inside-Story-Steven- Levy/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Inside-Story-Steven- Levy/dp/0735213151)

<comment><USER43> Ok. Where's the defamation? That's what I was asking about.

<comment><USER35> I don't think you're really asking in good faith and this is veering extremely off-topic and pedantic (and I am not a lawyer), but here:

"""

> Although laws vary by state, in the United States a defamation action > typically requires that a plaintiff claiming defamation prove that the > defendant:

> 1\. made a false and defamatory statement concerning the plaintiff;

> 2\. shared the statement with a third party (that is, somebody other than > the person defamed by the statement);

> 3\. if the defamatory matter is of public concern, acted in a manner which > amounted at least to negligence on the part of the defendant; and

> 4\. caused damages to the plaintiff.

"""

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation#Civil_defamation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation#Civil_defamation)

Arguably all of these points are met by a "too big to jail" billboard facing the public. Though given the nature of a political candidate and free speech, I think this would be protected. Particularly because "Defenses to defamation that may defeat a lawsuit, including possible dismissal before trial, include the statement being one of opinion rather than fact or being 'fair comment and criticism'."

That said, even if it doesn't meet the technical level to convict I think it's a reasonable thing to refer to as defamation colloquially and I suspect you know that too.

For clarity on the specifics of a 'defamatory statement':

> A defamatory statement is a false statement of fact that exposes a person to > hatred, ridicule, or contempt, causes him to be shunned, or injures him in > his business or trade.

<comment><USER43> Hillary was found to have violated state secrets, but bizarrely not punished as she'd done so accidentally. Saying she's too big to jail seems accurate.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Somehow China manages to control directly or indirectly companies, individuals, and sometimes politicians, in the US on a far bigger scale than the Soviet Union did. Oddly enough on a scale even higher than under Obama.

</comment><comment><USER45> will they also ban me if I something against the CPSU?

<comment><USER45> if youtube doesn't ban me than HN might do that, they both didn't read he prague declaration [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Declaration_on_European...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Declaration_on_European_Conscience_and_Communism)

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Twitter censoring good, YouTube censoring bad.

</comment><comment><USER47> Those are not "anti-CCP comments", it's just spam. They don't convey any information or opinion.

<comment><USER48> Thanks for have some sense here. Just typing two words is not a comment. It is akin to spam on practically every platform.

<comment><USER49> The point is that those two words are (in China) associated with being against the CCP. It's kindof similar to "black lives matter". To some, it's a symbol of hate (with re. to the police). To others, it's a symbol of fighting back.

<comment><USER47> Even if you assume those comments are written by Chinese trying to fight for their rights - and I doubt it is the case - there's still a fundamental difference: #blacklivesmatter was a tag that accompanied actual content. Here, there's nothing but the "tag", copy/pasted all over the place without adding any value.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> It's amazing to me that this isn't against a US law. An American company is actively helping spread propaganda of a hostile, foreign country.

Just insane. Google's new motto should "we do what we want"

</comment><comment><USER51> I'm all ready to bring out the pitchforks, guys, but I'm confused. Didn't we all agree _literally yesterday_ that Facebook not doing enough to reduce division was a moral catastrophe? Isn't deleting what hundreds of millions of people see as a foreign propaganda slogan a textbook example of reducing division? Is the rule that we should delete only what you in particular find divisive?

</comment><comment><USER48> In other news, that should be front page, but doesn't follow the Google hate that Hacker News accepts as front page material:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322719](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322719)

<comment><USER52> That's unrelated. Do you think it's alright for YouTube to delete comments discussing the Wumao?

<comment><USER48> Do you think it is okay for Hacker News to censor and rank content based on their own agendas? Shadow ban and prevent users from posting? This post is literally complaining about something that Hacker News does frequently. I couldn't even respond to this comment for over two hours with a message saying:

> You're posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks.

This is what they do to people that don't follow their agenda. All the while, you can't even respond to comments on your own comment.

<comment><USER52> I asked if you support Google's actions here of removing discussion of the Wumao. Could you answer that question first?

<comment><USER48> It depends on the context.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


LELO HEX: The Condom, Re-Engineered - <AUTHOR> https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lelo-hex-the-world-s-first-re-engineered-condom#/ <comment><USER2> Gizmodo have done a hands on (ahem) review of it. They weren't impressed:

[http://gizmodo.com/this-honeycomb-pattern-condom-feels- like-...](http://gizmodo.com/this-honeycomb-pattern-condom-feels-like-an- overpriced-1781893407)

</comment><comment><USER3> Ok, Bill Gates is giving free money for who develops a better condom: [http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/develop-next- gener...](http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/develop-next-generation- condom-round-11)

Why does someone need crowdsourcing money? Is it a fraud?

Maybe the project criteria for "better" is different than Gate's.

<comment><USER4> Looks like this project predates the Gates foundation initiative: [http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/articles/lelo- hex-...](http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/articles/lelo-hex-condom- the-condom-of-the-future-w209866)

Lelo is already an established player in sex toys.

<comment><USER3> Ok, but why crowdsourcing? Isn't free money better? Maybe they just want the marketing.

<comment><USER5> Bingo - both sources are free money, but indiegogo is marketing, plus you get the product in the hands of users.

<comment><USER6> They're not gloves ;)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I am sure there are people who experience breakage or really hate the feeling of a condom while on, but IMO the thing to solve is the putting it on part.

1\. (the good part of condoms) = When encountering a new person the condom serves as an easy way to ask for permission without saying: "Can I have sex with you now". Instead, it's just "Should I get a condom?" Easy enough for her to say yes or no without the pressure.

2 (the bad part) When already familiar with the other person, condoms stop the entire mood and then both people have to wait. IMO, this is the worst part of using them in a relationship.

I think if I were working on a replacement for a condom, I would try to tackle that second issue.

<comment><USER5> Re: 1 - does No mean "Yes to sex, but No to condom" or "No to sex and no to condom".

<comment><USER8> I think thats the idea. You can say no to the sex w/o rejecting the person. Its perfectly reasonable to not be ready for sex in a relationship.

<comment><USER9> You're missing the real question in the comment. The response doesn't necessarily say whether the other party wants sex or not if they answer no, it leaves the two options listed above as the possible interpretations.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> There are already lots of specialty condoms on the market, the problem is their availability. Only a few brands and types are carried in stores, so you're left to order condoms in bulk on the internet and just hope that you have a lot of sex soon after. And that's if you just happen to be at home with your giant stash of custom condoms; if you're out and about somewhere, you have to run to whatever corner store is nearby.

I'm all for condom innovation, but until it's in all the stores, very few people will be using them.

Also - they said that the barrier to condoms was not access, but appeal. This isn't the case. Many (most?) teen pregnancies are the result of a lack of access to condoms. Condoms cost money, and a lot of people don't have the extra cash to spend just to keep some handy. You can get them for free from a clinic, but is there a clinic near you, and do you have the time or access to go there - as a teenager?

This is part of why the State of Maryland has recently passed a bill to cover 100% of the vasectomy, birth control, and the morning after pill for state residents. Hopefully more states will at least start dropping their draconian requirements for a doctor to prescribe you birth control as well.

<comment><USER11> That's fantastic! Good for Maryland! Hopefully it catches on. I'm not normally one for government spending and programs like this, but this is a cause I can get behind. I think reducing unintended pregnancies is a significant step toward a better society.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It's hilarious they put charlie sheen backing front and center as the marketing pitch.

<comment><USER5> Why? He is a man known for his sexual relationships throughout his career and has now contracted HIV.

<comment><USER13> He's known for being a drug addict, a misogynistic parasite and an asshole. Don't take it from me. He even says so himself. Arguably he's lost his talent, and has ended up as a true manifestation of the worst Hollywood has to offer. I find it unbelievable that a company would choose Sheen to front their product.

<comment><USER5> He was star of the highest rated (grossing?) show on television for quite a number of years up until very recently. Talent is quite subjective.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> LELO has quite the reputation for selling overpriced stuff (they had a sex toy that they marketed to wealthy bankers, claiming it was "the first pleasure object ever created to satisfy the hedonistic sexual cravings and excesses exhibited by members of the financial world." It shipped with a pair of cufflinks and a money clip.)

Chances that this is a gimmick to sell overpriced latex to people? _Very_ high.

</comment><comment><USER15> Meh...

I've always wondered about a condom that is super easy to put on and that you can't get the wrong way around. Imagine the packaging unrolls the condom onto you as you push through it so to speak. Seems like it should be infinitely doable and much easier to use?

<comment><USER16> This exists. I'm at work, but you can google pronto condom. It's been around for years and likely has a new name now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'd rather have a ripped one, than one with a hidden hole in it...

real graphene strengthened condoms funded by bill gates: [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622316...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622316303864)

</comment><comment><USER18> Ah. I kind of assumed that Kickstarter et al videos were still at the three people talking into an iPhone. I mean these guys apparently wanted to raise 12 k and probably spent half that on the video.

I always assumed I could grab my great idea and dash off a quick video and go viral - reality is such a bath of cold water</comment>


Lack of courage: How Apple still sucks up to carriers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@dannysullivan/lack-of-courage-how-apple-still-sucks-up-to-carriers-a-preorder-fail-story-c6fa79c48734#.krwtrb8vw <comment><USER2> What I hate is that my Android tablet claims to have "NO CARRIER". Like my device and my life is meaningless because I decided to own a house and a car instead of a cell phone plane.</comment>


Why submitting a YV application late isn't as bad as you think - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@jice_lavocat/applying-late-why-it-does-matter-c0ab707ee71f

<comment><USER2> The point of getting in last, after other projects have been evaluated, is strong. Just, not too far last, it would seem.

<comment><USER3> Indeed, during the last hour of the YC application, there have been 1 submission/second. !

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Thanks for having shared this post here. There is a small typo in the title :-)</comment>


Show HN: React Daily Emails – learn React with bite sized daily messages - <AUTHOR> https://nanohop.com/react-daily-emails/ <comment><USER2> Cool name! I'll share it around.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I think we're on to something with the bite sized learning - so I'm excited to see where it goes.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Devrouter – connect to local webservers with domains instead of ports - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/sgentle/devrouter <comment><USER2> Looks very useful, will be trying it out. Love the literate CoffeeScript too.</comment>


SSD Cloud Server, VPS Server, Simple Cloud Hosting by DigitalOcean - <AUTHOR> https://www.digitalocean.com/ <comment><USER2> No IPv6 in 2013. Sorry, not going to work. Also no mention of virtualization technology. Whilst is possible to oversell using any of them, OpenVZ makes it particularly easy. At this price I imagine OpenVZ is it here.

<comment><USER3> We run KVM for virtualization.</comment></comment>


Functional Programming Wisdom - <AUTHOR> https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2013/01/03/Uncle-Bob-on-Functional-Programming

<comment><USER2> _It's in LISP. Which has had fifty-five freaking years to catch on and become mainstream_

I dislike how a lot of people keep saying that Lisp is 50+ years old when they talk about Common Lisp or Clojure or whatever. Non of the modern Lisps are even close to that old. That's like saying that Ruby is 50+ years old because you can trace it back to algol and fortran. Sure, the original Lisp may be that old, but the modern dialects in the Lisp family are just that: dialects in the Lisp family. They're new languages and just because they kinda look like the original (and really only kinda) doesn't mean that they had _fifty- five freaking years to catch on_. Clojure has had only about five years, for example.</comment>


Convoy raises $62M from Bill Gates and other luminaries to transform trucking - <AUTHOR> https://www.geekwire.com/2017/convoy-raises-62m-bill-gates-luminaries-transform-trucking-industry-technology/ <comment><USER2> Speaking as the son of a trucker who spent a summer helping my dad negotiate and optimize his freight rates and schedules, the freight brokerage business is not one I would consider getting into. There is also a ton of competition in the freight brokerage space and the problems associated with shipping are due to poor warehouse management and unreliable truck drivers.

Unlike hailing rides in a taxi, manufacturing and shipping generally holds a regular schedule. If you build a reputation as someone who always shows up on time, you can make a lot of money as a truck driver (more than most programmers). After building a good reputation you cut out the broker and work with the manufacturers directly. All you need to do is find two manufacturers in a high paying industry, (pharmaceuticals, chemicals, specialized plastics) whose pickup and dropoff points are near one another and you can be set for years.

Most poorly run warehouses can be backed up for 4-6 hours before you can begin unloading. Most standard contracts allow 2 hours from the point of arrival to fully unload your truck. We would negotiate our billing like a lawyer. For any additional time after that grace period we would charge in hourly blocks at over $100 per hour. Companies try to abuse their power by wasting the time of drivers by not paying them to sit idle at their warehouses. Amazon and Walmart are notorious for these practices.

I think there is a lot more money to be made using technology to run a high tech fleet of trucks than there is a freight brokerage company. Trucking is an information game for sure but there is too much competition in the freight brokerage space and you can be easily side stepped by savvy truckers.

<comment><USER3> Why is it advantageous to a warehouse to have the trucker sit idly by for long periods of time?

<comment><USER4> I guess, it gives you extra free storage and workflow contingency. You tell the trucker you need them early. If they turn up early and you happen to have the stuff ready early great - you have some warehouse space freed up. If you're late however - no biggy - the transport is available to take it, immediately, effectively in demand when it is effectively ready. Maximum flexibility, zero additional cost.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Walmart just lightly threatened carriers & owner operators that if they work for Amazon they can expect lower priority from Walmart in the future (1)

Walmart presently represents ~14% of the total capacity of one of America's largest carriers - Swift transport - and likely similarly important elsewhere. (2)

Obvious outcome down the road is that one of these behemoths snaps up a convoy / other plays in the space to secure capacity.

But would they rather buy an "asset light" business like Convoy, that has no actual trucks / drivers / or control, or will they be more interested in an "asset heavy" carrier that has technology / driver / and trucks?

(1) [http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20170627-wal-mart- warns-m...](http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20170627-wal-mart-warns-motor- carriers-to-stop-hauling-amazon-loads-consultant-says/)

(2) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-28/it-begins- walmart-w...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-28/it-begins-walmart- warns-truckers-it-will-no-longer-work-them-if-they-move-goods-amaz)

<comment><USER6> Kind of tangential to the discussion here, but Walmart's threats are empty. Amazon is currently constrained by trucking capacity, and would gladly swallow up more.

<comment><USER7> I have said it before, and I think it applies here, Amazon is becoming Walmart far quicker than Walmart is becoming Amazon.

<comment><USER8> How do you mean?

(Perhaps a link to or c/p of a previous post would suffice)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> YC companies beware. YC "Continuity" will come talk to you to learn the ins and outs of your business and then go fund a non-YC competitor. The whole idea of the fund was to use it to support YC companies at the next stage but now they're funding companies like Convoy that compete with YC companies like Flexport, while using their access to the YC businesses to do diligence. That's fine, normal investor behavior, but you can't treat YC like trusted insiders any more (prob never should have).

<comment><USER10> Flexport and Convoy are completely different businesses. Did this actually happen to you or are you just making up drama?

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I used to work for startup called OpenMile in 2012. We were trying to do pretty much the exact same thing. We might have been too early, but it was hard. We had the tech, but the trucker and other brokers were not very tech savvy. The margins were low and there was too much hand holding.

Best of luck to them.

<comment><USER12> How far did you get? Were you delivering shipments?

<comment><USER11> we were a high tech broker. yes we did loads, but we could never figure out how to set good margins.

<comment><USER13> The article states that truckers lose up to 25% of the job price to freight brokers (obviously a ceiling). Were your margins far smaller than that?

It seems like the reputation feature and the ability for truckers to find a load on shorter notice would be incredibly valuable. I'm guessing if a broker is already making $13b in revenue, they've already experimented with some similar evolutionary changes to their negotiation process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Yes, similar systems do exist. My team made one of them:

[https://cargofone.com/en/](https://cargofone.com/en/)

In some ways, it's more challenging than building "an Uber", once you get into different cargo and body types, document management, insurance, etc. We launched in Russia first, and not being able to do electronic signatures added a set of challenges.

In any event, glad these investments are happening. Trucking is badly broken, especially in the US.

<comment><USER14> > Trucking is badly broken, especially in the US.

I'd like to see this supported, particularly the "especially" part, given the extraordinary scale of hauling going on in the US via trucking. The economic facts on the ground in the US overwhelmingly disagree with you.

If it's so broken, and the US economy relies so much on it, how is the US GDP per capita so high? Both can't be true. It's either functioning well, leading to the high reliability and predictable delivery times we see today, assisting the US in having the most powerful economy on earth, or it's badly broken (where is the supporting economic evidence?).

<comment> semi-extrinsic There are several ways trucking could be badly broken but still consistent with your statements:

a) Say today, company X sells a thing for $100, of which $15 covers shipping cost, $15 is profit and $70 is what they paid their middleman for the thing. Suppose further that shipping cost could be reduced to $11 just by properly managing trucking, increasing the profit margin by 27%. These are of course made-up numbers, but just because a business is successful doesn't mean there are no inefficiencies left.

b) It is well known that certain jobs take a huge toll on the people doing these jobs, causing early burnout, physical and/or mental health problems up to and including suicide, etc. E.g. drone pilots, people working with social media illegal content filtering have been covered in the media recently. If trucking causes lots of health issues, it's not just "badly broken" in the human compasdion sense, it also leads directly to reduced national economic output (with a 2x multiplier, you're taking away a taxpayer _and_ adding an additional user of Medicaid/whatever).

<comment><USER15> _If trucking causes lots of health issues..._

Visit a truck stop; take a look around. Truck drivers are in poorer health than late-morning Wal-Mart shoppers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Next up, they will hit up on the idea of dedicated roads for truck convoys; also, a single engine to pull them all; and finally, the creation of roads with steel rails to put the trucks on.

<comment><USER17> I would agree, but I think the problem with trains is you have to load and unload the containers onto railcars.

I've seen UPS and FedEx semis pulling 3 short trailers on interstates. I assume they're only limited by current regulations on weight and length.

<comment><USER18> Triple trailers are only legal in some states and turnpikes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I would assume YC, Greylock and others have wide access to deals and have many opportunities to invest. Knowing how VCs operate I am assuming that they looked at the top companies in the sector before deciding on this company and teams.

It seems like several companies have tried to go after this market with technology, but Convoy has the best backers and most momentum. I wish them the best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER20> Coyote already does this. Got bought by UPS for 1.8 billion 2 years ago.

Also Amazon, and Uber are working on competing products. So that 62m might not go so far.

<comment><USER21> Bezos is one of the investors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> While Convoy Driver app has slightly better reviews than Uber Freight in both app stores (iOS 4.5 stars vs 4.0 stars, Android 4.1 stars vs 3.4 stars), both Uber Freight and Cargo Driver each have 10,000-50,000 installs in the Android Store and Uber Freight has ~2.6x the number of Android and iOS reviews.

The number of installs and reviews for both is especially remarkable because Uber Freight has only been available for about a month, while Convoy Driver has been available for about 1.5 years now.

</comment><comment><USER23> On the topic of the transforming and optimizing the future of trucking, just last night I watched a so-bad-it's-good movie called "Space Truckers", which was mentioned in the "Crapularity Hermeneutics" paper and that I had to see for myself:

"(This scenario has countless precursors in popular science fiction, including for example Stuart Gordon's 1996 movie Space Truckers in which the protagonists transport square pigs that have been genetically modified to make more efficient use of limited spaceship cargo capacity.)"

[http://cramer.pleintekst.nl/essays/crapularity_hermeneutics/](http://cramer.pleintekst.nl/essays/crapularity_hermeneutics/)

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

<comment><USER24> And here's the trailer for Space Truckers [1], truly looks like a B-movie that isn't willing to admit it.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IerJF2xKwuo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IerJF2xKwuo)

<comment><USER23> I was hilarious, but I don't think they were prepared to admit it was a comedy, either.

<comment><USER24> Absolutely true. I kinda assumed the comedy category was added after the fact, but I haven't seen it, so maybe marketing didn't agree on it being a comedy.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> I was under the impression YC Continuity existed for the sake of investing in later stage YC companies. Convoy is not YC company. Is YC Continuity just a generic fund now?

<comment><USER26> Y Combinator raising $1 billion for new fund

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14820629](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14820629)

<comment><USER25> Good to know. I did not see that news.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> Ages ago Microsoft purchased another company called Convoy, the product was merged to NT4SP6 and Windows 2000 as the Network Load Balancing component.

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm wondering if "Convoy" could ever become a trademarked name, since it is so generic.

<comment><USER29> [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_(1978_film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoy_\(1978_film\))

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> China seems to be ahead here, for example see [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-22/china- s-u...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-22/china-s-uber-for- trucks-huochebang-fetches-1-billion-valuation)

</comment><comment> Paul-ish >"Like I said, I would rather have [the brokers] go through all of the headaches than me. It's bad enough what we are dealing with out here on the roads than to be worrying about that."

This seems to imply that there is something traditional brokers do that Convoy is now putting on the driver. Does anyone know what that is?

</comment><comment><USER31> A bit of tangent, But i am in the market for the Software that Convoy and CargoFone are building. We have our own FT, LTL and Final Mile Carrier network. We have negotiated custom rates with them.

What i am looking for the Software service through which i send Orders and get updates from these Carriers.

Is there a solution like that out there?

<comment><USER32> I'm in charge of Product at Freightview ([https://www.freightview.com](https://www.freightview.com)). We work exclusively with companies that have existing rates setup. Would be glad to chat.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> This type of system already exists. Their are plenty of exchanges where truckers or trucking companies can get matched with a load or pickup work.

I don't understand what makes this so transforming?

<comment><USER34> Deep pockets.

<comment><USER35> I don't know about the load boards themselves, (of which there are many), but there are a lot of companies in the logistics space. $62 million isn't that much.

Not saying whether they'll succeed, but saying deep pockets will do it doesn't make sense, IMHO.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> [https://auptix.com](https://auptix.com) has a platform that optimizes LTL. They've been up and running for a while and have good volume.

</comment><comment> real-hacker No one talks about self-driving trucks like Otto? Truck drivers' life won't be easier.

</comment><comment><USER37> I just wish they could find a way to get Mallomars to the stores in the summer

</comment><comment><USER34> _" We don't think there are any other companies that have taken the same approach"_

I distinctly remember a service/app with the same purpose in Europe in 2013.

There's Cargomatic and mentioned by mkoryak, OpenMile. And probably others. Money will definitely help here, though.

<comment><USER12> Yep, we launched one:

[https://cargofone.com/en/](https://cargofone.com/en/)

Money helps, but it isn't the only thing.

<comment><USER38> Can I pick your brain? Sooo grateful I will be... email in profile

<comment><USER12> Emailed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> That doesn't seem like a lot of money, especially for a capital intensive industry with notoriously low margins.

<comment><USER40> Shipping is only capital intensive if you intend to own the trucks, trains, or ships. Convoy appears to be more of a middleman between owner-operator truckers and shippers or manufacturers.

The problem is that many (most?) of the truckers that own their own rig are middle-aged and older, and getting them to use technology like this may be an uphill battle:

 _"I think they're relying too much on computers," said Brian Larocque, a new driver based out of Connecticut._

<comment><USER41> Yes on both. I work in tech that services the trucking industry. Getting drivers, (and dispatchers, actually), to truly trust a computer is difficult. They use a lot of apps, but trucking's got a strong culture of self-reliance, and people working in trucking probably care more about single points-of- failure than DevOps do, relying on Convoy would be a pretty big single point of failure, so they'll have to prove themselves worthy of the trust.

However, 82 million should get them there. That's a ton of money to build a business with no capital costs. The big risk for them is the incumbents deciding to move quickly - most of them have the cash, so if they realize their business model is threatened by Convoy, they'll move quickly, and be supported by their existing cash flow.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> "Uber for trucking"... Uber already has an Uber for trucking [0][1]. And it's doing very, very well.

[0] [https://www.wired.com/2017/05/uber- freight/](https://www.wired.com/2017/05/uber-freight/) [1] [https://medium.com/official-uber-freight-blog/uber- freight-l...](https://medium.com/official-uber-freight-blog/uber-freight- leveling-the-playing-field-for-americas-truck-drivers-73530215a1f1)

<comment><USER12> Uber for Freight only officially launched last month. Check their app reviews (both iPhone and Android), more than 1/3rd are one star, citing various issues.

What makes you think they are doing very well?

<comment><USER22> Just checked both apps in the iOS store and Android Store.

On the iOS Store, 4 stars out of 5 based on 31 reviews for all versions. Not enough reviews for current version. Only 4 are 1-star reviews. That's 12.9%, not 33%.

On the Android Store, 3.4 stars out of 5 based on 139 reviews. 53 are 1-star reviews, so 38%. Many of the 1-star reviews were Uber haters and people complaining about low rates. The latter I expect to become the norm once technology streamlines the industry, whether its Uber, Convoy or some other company that does it. Only a few 1-star reviews actually report a bad experience with the app that isn't related to rates.

Based on both stores, 30% are 1-star ratings, so it's about 1/3 1-star reviews across both stores. I really wish the app stores made an effort to cull obvious haters and fanboys so that only legitimate reviews were left. People gaming app store reviews are just hurting the people who would derive the most utility from choosing the best application for them.

For comparison, Convoy Driver in the Android store has 4.1 stars based on 51 reviews. In the iOS store it has 4.5 stars based on 12 ratings. Several of its 1-star reviews make the same complaint about the same low rates.

Both Uber Freight and Cargo Driver each have 10,000-50,000 installs in the Android Store, and the fact that Uber Freight has 2.6x the number of Android and iOS reviews based on only 1-month of operations versus almost 2 years seems very solid to me. Convoy's first review in the Android store is from all the way back in October 2015.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> I've been fortunate to learn about Convoy and speak with employees involved recently. Convoy is the real deal and making this Uber for Trucking idea work. They're backed by Bezos, Reidman, and many other high profile investors. If any company were to crack the 800Bn trucking market, Convoy is looking like the one.</comment>


I'm looking for job as a Python Developer. Need advices - <AUTHOR> Hi all! I'm a polish guy who loves programming and new technologies. I do Python/Django software development for some time. I'm looking for opportunity to gain my career as a Python Developer. I'm also interested in Robotics and Machine learning.
Lastly I've build an automation system for wastewater installation at Concordia University in Montreal. My background is in Environmental Engineering but i really love programming. I'm eager to learn, if i don't know something i can bet you that i know how to find the answer and i'll find the answer.
For now i just need a remote work to settle me in programming field, because i know that i'd gain much more knowledge when i'll learn through practice and work on real projects.
If you've heard about appropriate offer for me or you can advice me something i'll be more than happy. I really want to pursue my career in programming.
My skills: Python, Django Git Html and CSS Basic Javascript Postgresql
I work with: * Ubuntu * Pycharm * Virtualenv
I'd like to develop my skills.
Linkedin: https://pl.linkedin.com/in/kolodziejbartosz Website: http://bartoszkolodziej.com
Thanks for your consideration! <comment><USER2> We started getting people do some python and javascript development for us on upwork.com. After some months one of them quit their full time job and now work for us full-time remotely.

</comment><comment><USER3> Why your Website looks copy of [http://glynjackson.org/](http://glynjackson.org/)

<comment><USER4> They both used the same bootstrap theme. [https://wrapbootstrap.com/theme/designr-one-page-personal- po...](https://wrapbootstrap.com/theme/designr-one-page-personal-portfolio- WB0L1JT31)</comment></comment>


Earth Officially Home To 7 Billion Humans - <AUTHOR> http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/10/24/207259/earth-officially-home-to-7-billion-humans

<comment><USER2> Its also interesting to note how much the demographics of the world has changed and will be changing over the next 40 yrs or so.

These are outdated links, but take note of the top 10 most populated countries in 2050. The fact that Nigeria, Ethiopia and DRC are projected to enter the top 10 list will lead to interesting consequences for Africa.

<http://www.photius.com/rankings/world2050_rank.html>

<http://www.kulzick.com/pop100.htm>

Also since independence in 1947, Pakistan's population has grown to 177 million today from around 30 million (a six-fold increase). And is estimated to end up at a whopping 270 million over the next couple of decades. Similarly, Nigeria is also witnessing a population explosion starting off with around 55 million in 1971 and right now at ~150 million.

Edit: The UN has a nice website where one can get much more detailed information about population projections.

<http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/p2k0data.asp>

</comment><comment><USER3> Many people will say that humans are the exception, but I think it is nonetheless interesting to look at this from an ecological point of view. A common pattern of population growth for animals includes a period of exponential growth (as we are currently seeing), which ends with an "overshoot" where the population continues to grow past the "carrying capacity" of the environment. The population then decreases (possibly due to starvation or disease), and begins to cycle around the carrying capacity, creating an equilibrium. If one believes that this is a reasonable model to apply to the human population on Earth, the real question is: "What is the carrying capacity of Earth?"

<comment><USER4> "If one believes that this is a reasonable model to apply to the human population on Earth,"

It almost certainly isn't. The extremely strong propensity for rich countries to have fewer-than-replacement children kills this model. Animal models have no equivalent to this.

We're headed into uncharted territory with human population. Usually this is supposed to be a sort of implicitly scary thing to say, but since the charted territory here is "guaranteed major ecological catastrophe", it's net good news. Disaster is not assured! (Of course, it's still on the table. It's _always_ on the table.)

On the flip side, we're in thoroughly uncharted territory in terms of carrying capacity as well. On the relevant timeframes (decades, minimum), nobody can correctly predict what our technological carrying capacity will be. There's no guarantee it will continue going up, but contrary to the doommongers there's no guarantee it will stay static or go down significantly either; if in 40 years we've licked nuclear energy and cheap robots we could well be growing huge amounts of food in robot-tended greenhouses stacked into skyscrapers, powered by the nuclear energy, or growing meat in vats with chemical energy more efficiently than going through the full biological cycle. And while that may sound like sci-fi, those actually feel like _conservative_ extrapolations of existing trends. (Just about the only prediction I won't buy is the one where we make no further progress and everything stays the same but we keep consuming resources at the same rate, but that's the one you hear most often.)

<comment><USER5> I'm not a biologist, but surely the fewer-than-replacement birth rate could be considered as just a new way for the population to drop to carrying capacity? It may be a response unique to humans, but wouldn't the effect be the same?

<comment><USER6> It's not a response to the carrying capacity of the planet/environment, though. It's a response to the pressures and culture of human societies in developed countries.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The current conventional wisdom is that the birth rate is slowing in the industrialized world, and so overpopulation is no longer a serious concern. While this is the current demographic trend, I feel that such an assessment is short-sighted.

Natural selection (and common sense) tells us that individuals and cultures who value large families (Mormons, Catholics, etc.) will gradually out- populate those which do not. And as people who desire many children begin to make up a larger proportion of the population, it seems likely that overpopulation could resume its exponential trajectory.

<comment><USER6> Yet the culture of those "large family" groups will probably change if they start to dominate, putting less emphasis on large families. The societal impetus to having a large family could come from an insecurity about your cultural block (not the individual impetus mind you, which can sometimes be more important, eg. kids to take care of you in old age or extra kids to overcome infant death). That clan insecurity starts to disappear when you start to become the majority in whatever context you feel is appropriate to consider.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I've seen people react at this figure in horror, as if there is some fixed limit to the number of humans that earth could possibly support. But earth's resource problems are really problems of distribution, not scarcity. And at least one of those 7 billion will figure out how to enable the earth to support 8 billion and more.

<comment><USER9> Whatever the limit is, there is a limit. Because there is a limit to the earth. Whether that limit of sustainability is 2 or 50 billion is something we haven't figured out yet but that there is a limit seems to be something you can't around.

<comment><USER10> Why is the limit on earth?

<comment><USER9> Because it just so happens that this is where we are.

Earth can only sustain so many people, and since we do not currently have a viable way to get off this earth and/or to terraform other planets (hell, we can't even agree on a common plug to use for household appliances) it looks like it will remain that way for a while.

<comment><USER10> Yah, but it will also take a while to reach the limit of the earth, by that point we will hopefully be able to expand off of the earth.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm sorry for ranting in a mildly off-topic fashion, but the visualizations linked in the /. article are just horrible. A jumble of widgets with hardly a caption, and no analysis. They even have those USPTO-style gauges. Data so important deserved much, much better.

And I love the disclaimer:

 _The information contained in this web site is for entertainment and information purposes only._

You wish, SAP.

Edit. And then, there's this:

        United States of America
        Total Population: 313,089,333
        % of Oceania Population: 90.08%

—sigh—

<comment><USER12> I was expecting Gapminder to have something useful, but as cool as it is, I couldn't make anything really interesting out of the total world population. [http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly...](http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=2009$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=282;dataMax=119849$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=19;dataMax=86$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=) But at least it's less "entertainment" and more straight-up data.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I was surprised not to see more mention in the Slashdot comments and the comments here of projections that the United Nations has already done of world population to the year 2300 under different assumptions.

[http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/Wor...](http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/longrange2/WorldPop2300final.pdf)

Most projections show the world population reaching a peak a few decades from now (while most HNers and Slashdotters are still alive) and then becoming gradually less over the next two centuries.

</comment><comment><USER14> Next milestone: back to 6 billion as the developing world moves to western demographics

<comment><USER15> I'm not so sure. I agree we will eventually reach a point where the global birth rate (and later population) goes down, but I don't think we're close to it yet. I suspect we'll hit 8 or 9 Billion before we start to shrink back again.

And if we continue to extend the average age, then we may never shrink in numbers (barring a major catastrophe or mass-migration).

<comment><USER14> Interestingly that's what more or less the UN predicts, too [1]. My milestone may take a few hundred years it seems

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> The best book and perspective I've read on population, the environment, the economy, technology, and how they all overlap is Limits to Growth, the 30 year update. It takes a systems approach to these related issues, not looking at just one in isolation, though recognizing you have to make assumptions.

I'd love to talk to people about it but I've never spoken to anyone in person who has read and understood it. I've read some commentary on the web, but most of it is filled with politics and preconceived notions (often the case of any discussion on these subjects) that detract from it.

Has anyone here read it? I blogged briefly about it here -- [http://joshuaspodek.com/the_best_book_on_the_environment_eco...](http://joshuaspodek.com/the_best_book_on_the_environment_economy_and_ecology).

The Amazon link -- [http://www.amazon.com/Limits-Growth-Donella-H- Meadows/dp/193...](http://www.amazon.com/Limits-Growth-Donella-H- Meadows/dp/193149858X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319568405&sr=8-1)

</comment><comment><USER17> It blew my mind when I truly realized that a couple having two kids does not constitute a net increase in human population. What makes this amazing is wondering where all of these couples having 3-or-more kids are.

<comment><USER18> Not in the white regions of the world.

<comment><USER19> Unless you are Amish.

Assuming they maintain the birthrate they've had for the past 100+ years (and there is no reason to suspect otherwise), in 2150, the Amish run America[1].

What happens to global politics when a culture that eschews violence gains control of the world's largest nuclear arsenal? What happens to transnational industry and innovation when a culture that balks at accepting the latest technological trends dominates the public arena? Additionally, the 21st Century may be the high-point of multiculturalism in the US. In 2150, over half the population of the USA may be of Swiss-German descent.

[1]I know the link seems dubious, but the math behind the projections looks just as credible as the UN's projections. [http://www.mmo- champion.com/threads/859411-Amish-population-...](http://www.mmo- champion.com/threads/859411-Amish-population-growing-even-faster-than-thought)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> May there be many more. Through our ingenuity, we have learned how to live with less, much less. We continue to reduce the resources necessary to sustain a single human being, while repairing the damage done in prior generations. On top of everything, the increasing population is accelerating innovation. More brilliant people are coming into the world every day and their numbers are increasing, which increases the opportunities for collaboration exponentially. Amazing times!

</comment><comment><USER21> [http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/23/why- popula...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/23/why-population- growth-costs-the-earth-roger) <\- the article

</comment><comment><USER22> 7 billion people, on one planet, all clumping off into groups and pulling in different directions. I wonder how long and at what population point we seriously, as almost a whole, understand functioning as a planet and as human beings as opposed to screwing each other and raping our tiny blue dot.

</comment><comment><USER23> The problems that could be crowd-sourced with 7 billion people...</comment>


Create a Custom Piece of Blown Glass - <AUTHOR> http://benicianglassbynourot.blogspot.com/2011/01/create-custom-piece-of-blown-glass.html <comment><USER2> I like the Nourot Studio, have visited it, and own some of their glass. Nonetheless, this is not HN content; it is an advertisement/solicitation.</comment>


Show HN: Charity Bribes  - <AUTHOR>

a new concept for charitable giving that makes awesome happen.<p>http://www.charitybribes.org <comment><USER2> Post this in AMA Request threads on Reddit.com</comment>


Danish amateur submariner admits to dismembering reporter - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/danish-amateur-submariner-admits-to-dismembering-reporter/ <comment><USER2> Sick story, but it's nice he comes clean. (even forcibly)</comment>


Powermat Founder Wants to Kill the Keyboard - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-12/powermat-founder-sets-sights-on-turning-hands-into-keyboards <comment><USER2> No, no, not gonna happen. Physical keyboards are essential to all but the most basic computing tasks. The mechanical response of the keys is an ergonomic benefit that cannot be underestimated. There's a reason why hackers wax finicky about the brand and construction of their keyboard's keyswitches.

<comment><USER3> I think VR is going to change all that. Not right away but eventually.

<comment><USER4> VR may highlight the issue and make the need for a solution more urgent, but I also don't see this particular thing as a real alternative for a keyboard. Nor do I see voice as one, for that matter.

I'm holding out for a simplistic "read my mind" kind of interface, because it sure would be better than hammering away at a keyboard and all the associated RSI fun.

<comment><USER5> I'd go with adding buttons for a chorded keyboard on the VR controllers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This strikes me as another take on a chorded keyboard, but without the benefit of button feedback.

Likely anything longer than a tweet tapped out on this device will result in serious wrist strain as the fingers can't rest on the surface while tapping (much the same as using a OSK).

</comment><comment><USER6> [http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/paper/fkm.htm#U4](http://www.sigchi.org/chi97/proceedings/paper/fkm.htm#U4)</comment>


"This site is currently offline, as a small mark of respect" - <AUTHOR> https://www.django-rest-framework.org/ <comment><USER2> Also Wagtail CMS: [https://wagtail.io/](https://wagtail.io/)

And you can make your own: [https://gist.github.com/tomdyson/d3a7460ddd21fab0b9d14016e76...](https://gist.github.com/tomdyson/d3a7460ddd21fab0b9d14016e76c3364)

</comment><comment><USER3> I welcome this. The software industry should not turn a blind eye to this issue in the US. Solidarity.

</comment><comment><USER4> Is there anyone in PR or Marketing here that can explain the business sense for something like this? Serious question: Aside from "the right thing to do" how does a decision like this effect the business in the short, and long term?

</comment><comment><USER5> Round of applause to the people behind this gesture.

</comment><comment><USER6> They should not do politics. And if they start listing names, maybe include all the statistics. This is dishonest.

<comment><USER7> The fact that you call it "politics" shows that it doesn't affect you. This is literally life and death to a large portion of the population.

<comment><USER8> I don't think it's correct to say that calling it politics is somehow demeaning (however it's meant by the OP). Politics is really about the values our society wants to live by, so I think it is absolutely about politics! If we want our societies to care about the lives of all their citizens, to dismantle oppressive systems, and bring justice to the oppressed, then there is no way to do this apart from politics.

<comment><USER9> You lost us at "Politics is really about the values our society wants to live by"

<comment><USER8> What do you think politics is/are?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is great!</comment>


Show HN: My brothers first android game - <AUTHOR>

My brother is trying to rewamp his career into that of an independent game developer. This is his first attempt at an Android game. Any critique or advice for improvements are highly welcome! <comment><AUTHOR> URL: [https://market.android.com/details?id=com.remarc.marble&...](https://market.android.com/details?id=com.remarc.marble&feature=search_result)

</comment><comment><USER2> Nice simple controls. Game-play is fun pretty fun. I think no matter the game people will always say it is either too easy or too hard, so don't get discouraged.

<comment><AUTHOR> I will be sure to let him know!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Pretty nice little game, not much to play though, and gets too difficult pretty fast.

<comment><AUTHOR> Gotcha</comment></comment>


How Apple handles iTunes ToS and its changes - <AUTHOR> http://www.blahedo.org/blog/archives/001060.html

<comment><USER2> IANAL, but an agreement (EULA whatever) that cannot be read probably is not enforceable other than by legal bullying. Doesn't do any of us any good, but it is a chink in the Apple armor that may be useful in the future now that EULAs are beginning to fail (even if for the wrong reasons...)

</comment><comment><USER3> Thanks for the post! It's possible things have changed (I wrote it in early 2009), but I haven't upgraded iTunes or bought anything from iTMS since then, so I'm not sure.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> blahedo posted this link here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1660405> and I thought I resubmit it as it is quite interesting, esp. if you compare it to how Google handles such changes.</comment>


Android tablets GPL compliance summary - <AUTHOR> http://www.codon.org.uk/~mjg59/android_tablets/

<comment><AUTHOR> Some more interesting comments / the page that linked to the table: <http://www.advogato.org/person/mjg59/diary.html?start=283>

</comment><comment><USER2> Makes me feel good about picking Archos. I hope they do very well with their line of Android Tablets.

I'm looking forward to my Archos 70 that's on its way right now.

<comment><USER3> It's cool they're using Android now. I had one of the Archos AV300 range devices when they first came out (6 or 7 years ago?), which used their own proprietary OS which was fairly rubbish. I r/e'd most of the hardware, firmware format, encryption etc which was a heap of fun.

The founder of Archos emailed me to say he'd be suing me unless I stopped. Good times, good times :)

FWIW, unless they've drastically changed I thought Archos hardware was fairly cheap and ill thought out. Didn't seem anywhere near the quality of say Samsung or Apple.

<comment><USER4> What is r/e'd?

<comment><USER5> I never heard it, either; but, from context, it seems to mean "reverse engineered".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Where is the iPed? Is that the same thing as APad, which is listed?</comment>


Ask HN: Ideas For Implementing A Simple Web App? - <AUTHOR>

Hi All,
I'm interested in learning web programming, but the huge variety of frameworks and languages available makes even beginning a bit intimidating.  However, I do have an idea for a simple app I'd like to implement, so perhaps I could get some advice on what tools might be best for the job.
I'm a pretty big sports fan, and it's a nice way to keep in touch with friends spread out throughout the country.  My idea, then, is to write up a simple app that would manage an over/under competition.  Users could check one page of the site for the current lines, and then enter their guesses.  The lines would refresh periodically (every week for the NFL, every other day or so for the NBA etc).  There would then be a leaderboards page where users are ranked on the basis of their predictions.  Since we're guessing based on lines to begin with, the ranking mechanism could be very simple indeed--maybe 1 pt for each correct guess.  So I would need a way to pull in the lines and generate the page, and log user names and guesses, along with passwords, and generate leader board pages from that.
Any ideas?  I know a little scheme from a while ago but am by no means a hacker.  Does clojure make sense?  I don't know any java.
Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> I've tried languages and frameworks that my friends use because I can throw questions at them

With all the Q+A and documentation sites that exist, that might not be as big an issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> The best tool for the job is the tool that lets you finish and ship a product.

Try Python ( <http://www.python.org> ).

It's free, easy to learn, uses the latest in methodologies, has massive community support, and you can have an app up in 10 minutes.

You can also add django if you want a very well thought out framework with scaffolding, enhanced models, etc.

Check it out on YouTube: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKTZoB2Vjuk></comment>


Will Florida Kill an Innocent Man? - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/opinion/james-dailey-florida-murder.html <comment><USER2> Tampa Bay Times has a completely different take.

Here's a few paragraphs from the article (warning: it's quite graphic):

"Shelly, her twin sister Stacy and friend Stephanie Forsythe were hitchhiking near St. Petersburg the night of May 5, 1985, according to news reports. Shelly was seen dancing at a bar with Dailey and Jack Pearcy.

Dailey was from Kansas, an Air Force veteran who served three tours in Vietnam. He and Pearcy were roommates, and news reports said they all went back to the men's house. Stacy and the friend left. Shelly stayed behind.

At trial, the prosecution told jurors the two men drove Shelly to a secluded area under the bridge, intent on raping her. The 14-year-old fiercely resisted them. The medical examiner said she had 18 defensive wounds on her hands.

Dailey was soaking wet and missing his shirt when he and Pearcy returned home the morning after the murder, Pearcy's pregnant girlfriend told investigators. Dailey said they had to leave the state right then. He was captured in California and extradited back to Florida, news reports said."

[1] [https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2019/09/27/pinellas- girl...](https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2019/09/27/pinellas- girl-14-lived-a-short-hard-life-her-killer-is-set-to-die/)

<comment><USER3> It's not a different take. They outline the information from the trial as most outlets have.

Here's the NYT/Pro-Publica report on the jailhouse informant: [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/magazine/jailhouse- inform...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/magazine/jailhouse- informant.html)

That alone ought to be enough to give this man another trial.

<comment><USER2> > That alone ought to be enough to give this man another trial.

This was actually brought up by Daily's defense team [1]. The Supreme Court of the State of Florida [2] opined on this (and a few other points raised by the defense) and dismissed the arguments as meritless.

The relevant paragraphs are:

"-10 -774 (Fla. 2013)). "Moreover, we have 'repeatedly held that claims of ineffective assistance of postconviction counsel are not cognizable.' " Id. (quoting Howell, 109 So. 3d at 774). Accordingly, we affirm the circuit court's denial of relief.3. Evidence discrediting Paul Skalnik's testimonyDailey next argues that the circuit court erred in summarily dismissing his claim that newly discovered evidence discredits the testimony of Paul Skalnik, an inmate who testified against Dailey at trial. We review a circuit court's summary rejection of a postconviction claim de novo, "accepting the movant's factual allegations as true to the extent they are not refuted by the record, and affirming the ruling if the record conclusively shows that the movant is entitled to no relief." Pardo v. State, 108 So. 3d 558, 561 (Fla. 2012) (quoting Gore v. State, 91 So. 3d 769, 774 (Fla. 2012)). In support of his claim, Dailey relies on documents allegedly demonstrating that: Skalnik had made false allegations against correctional officers; Skalnik had been described by a probation officer as manipulative; Skalnik's trial testimony about his criminal history was incomplete; and that the State was considering offering him a reduced sentenced in exchange for testifying against Dailey, even though Skalnik claimed at trial that he had not made a deal with the State. Finally, Dailey claimed that Skalnik's former attorney would testify that Skalnik had received preferential treatment from the State. -11 -The circuit court found that the claim was untimely. We agree. As recognized by the circuit court, all evidence presented by Dailey "could have been discovered earlier through due diligence." The date on each document supporting this claim reflected that it was created in the 1980s. And information about any arrangement Skalnik had with the State "would have also been discoverable through due diligence around 1987," when Dailey was tried and sentenced. Dailey neglects to explain why this information could not have been discovered earlier. Instead, he argues that his postconviction counsel was ineffective for failing to previously discover it and contends that any untimeliness should be excused under Martinez and Trevino. Because this argument is meritless, we affirm the circuit court's summary dismissal of the instant claim."

[1] [https://efactssc- public.flcourts.org/CaseDocuments/2018/557/...](https://efactssc- public.flcourts.org/CaseDocuments/2018/557/2018-557_Brief_129233_INITIAL20BRIEF2DMERITS.pdf)

[2] [https://efactssc- public.flcourts.org/casedocuments/2018/557/...](https://efactssc- public.flcourts.org/casedocuments/2018/557/2018-557_disposition_147540_d05.pdf)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Make prosecutors share liability for crimes of snitches they release. Charge them for perjury if they release a perjurer after claiming that they have no such deal in place.

Prosecutors and police that use known liars to achieve convictions should be treated legally the same way someone who plants evidence is meant to be.

</comment><comment><USER5> Might as well add "again" to the headline.</comment>


Visualising the Impact of Sillicon Valley CEOs - <AUTHOR> https://peakon.com/blog/post/visualising-the-impact-of-sillicon-valley-ceos <comment><USER2> Unfortunately doesn't work well on mobile, I got stuck on the graph</comment>