Against Cop Shit - <AUTHOR> https://jeffreymoro.com/blog/2020-02-13-against-cop-shit/ <comment><USER2> Hey so this is awesome, and I'd like to add a few points. (I used to teach HS Math in NYC Public Schools).

\- End scanning[1]. Scanning is the practice of forcing students to put their possessions through x-ray machines and walk their bodies through metal detectors. Like, airport security.

\- Wrap your head around that for a sec. Everyday, you trek to school, and are immediately put in a hostile environment where you must prove your innocence to be _able_ to learn. Not to mention it's a flagrant violation of the 4th amendment (search/seizure). Oh, and this happens disproportionately to poor/minority students.

\- End police in schools, period. In NYC, we have "school safety agents" which are a subset of the NYPD[2]. School Safety, if taken as its own police department, is greater than the size of police departments in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and other police departments with <5,000 officers.

\- Furthermore, because you now have cop-lites in the building, you also have cops in the building...because, why not? Minor infractions like fighting, pot, or even "disrespecting teachers" no longer get a call home or a trip to the principal's office, but handed over to a cop.

\- Boom, the student is now in the system. This is called the school to prison pipeline[3]. It's real, very real. The pathetic feedback loop of going to school to break out of poverty only to be streamlined to jail...

      1. https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/safe-schools/school-safety
      2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Police_Department_School_Safety_Division
      3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline

[edit: formatting]

<comment><USER3> This, sadly, conforms very well with my experience of lower-income/higher- minority schools. I was a volunteer teacher (for a program teaching young ones to code with Scratch, once weekly) at a number of West Philly grade 1-12 schools for a few years, and the environment in those schools was obviously to the detriment of the students. Wonderful kids, but it's no wonder that so many won't make it to a better life when they're taught nothing of value, but are taught that they're to be feared, derided, and not cared for from a young age. I kid you not, the average SAT math score from one school I taught at was in the 300s (and of course, less than 10% of those graduating took the SAT/ACT) — you can score a 300 on the SAT math without answering a single question correctly. The students were taught _nothing_ at all. There was constant cacophony of teachers yelling all the time, I saw multiple police in the halls every day, had to be scanned myself going in. The whole thing was ridiculous, and it's only clear purpose was to imprison those wonderful children in the poverty and destitution they were born into

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Haha I just vouched it back from the grave... [EDIT:]... and now it's [flagged] again.

I suspect flaggers may not have actually read TFA. It was published in February, so it doesn't specifically refer to recent public demonstrations. It's pretty clear which side the author would take...

<comment><USER2> This is an extremely important topic. OP I think you are sort of shooting yourself (and the topic) in the foot with the use of "shit" \-- can you not use a more descriptive word please?

<comment><USER5> "Cop shit" is excellent idiomatic English for conveying what they mean. The title is clear, accurate, and attention-getting.

My general experience is that people who get wrapped around the axle over a word also wouldn't have engaged with the topic if a different word were chosen.

<comment><USER6> The title is far from "clear" or "accurate". Attention-getting for sure.

I had no idea what the premise of the article would be without clicking on it. The article's thesis: "abolish cop shit in the classroom" would make a more accurate title (albeit still inflamatory to those sensitive to the language).

<comment><USER5> Titles aren't always supposed to be perfect summaries. Nobody reasonable complains that "The Sun Also Rises" is not in fact a book about daybreak. But if you're concerned about people's "sensitivity", then presumably putting "cop shit" in the title is even more important, so that those delicate flowers know not to click.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > While I was getting my hair cut yesterday, my stylist told me about her > daughter's math teacher, who is currently punishing her daughter for falling > behind on work due to a broken arm by assigning her upwards of fifteen pages > of homework a night. The child is seven

This seems insane to me - how could an educator think this is a good thing to do to a 7 year old? There is more risk of putting them off studying and academics for life than solving their maths problem. I think as a parent I would flat out refuse to let my child do that, and if the teacher had an issue they'd have to take it up with me.

</comment><comment><USER8> I was a graduate student teacher too. The biggest difference to me about teaching in university is that everyone in the classroom wants to be there — or at least cares enough about their parents to fake it. How could they not? It costs thousands.

Secondary schools, however, are prisons for our youth, so that their parents can go to work. Something like half of the people don't want to be there on any one day. So how are we supposed to keep children forcibly confined without cop shit? This is all well and good if education is the goal of school, but people who don't want to learn do a really good job of not learning. We confine them anyway. We pass laws requiring them to be there. We make our children get written permission from their wardens to go to the toilet, but at least they get an hour out in the yard^W quad, right?

I think that all of this institutional dehumanization is harmful, like the author does. But I think that unless you let people leave, particularly the disruptive students, you can't run a school this way.

Of course, if we don't dehumanize our kids in school, we run the risk that they won't work for dehumanizing employers in the future either. When you reach university, no one makes you beg to use the toilet, no one cares if you miss a class. You're in the elite now. But for the rest of the workforce, well, you had better have an good written excuse for being sick.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm all for limiting data collection from kids, and for making our schools less like jails. But I don't think the author does a good enough job defining "cop shit" for discussion.

"Anything that presumes an adversarial relationship..." is an elegant description that might work for adult relationships, but it's harder to say what presumptions are baked into the structures you use with kids. My experience as the parent of two toddlers is that they are way happier with some forms of structure and discipline, including evaluations and positive and negative rewards. Humans actively seek that kind of "cop shit" out in their games and even personal relationships.

This essay seems to reject some pretty simple forms of structure and discipline (e.g. "badges"), which is a really presumptive thing to do. Try it at your school / on your kids and let us know how it goes. See how it interacts with kids having different needs, backgrounds and social environments. Not that there aren't many kinds of "cop shit" that is just as untested or which makes things worse, but assuming a (philosophically) simple solution is bogus.

<comment><USER4> Yes it's true that badges appeal to children. I remember they appealed to me when I was a child. I'm wiser now, and I realize they were never beneficial to me or to the other children who got fewer gold stars. Adults owe it to children, not to exploit their weaknesses in ways that are not beneficial.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I'm not sure I'm against plagiarism detection tech.

<comment><USER11> Plagiarism detection tech seems like a solving-the-wrong-problem attempt to address a symptom of how we're trying to mass-produce education to save money.

If we actually want people to learn, plagiarism detection isn't the problem, it's the industrial factory approach in the first place. Get rid of that, and instructors can know and talk with their students well enough to tell what they actually know and understand instead of having to rely on artifacts that can be faked.

But we'd have to be spending more money in the first place, vs spending money on other things (like cops?!).

<comment><USER12> I don't agree with this at all. Assessment is completely necessary to understand where a student is at, and plagiarism renders assessment ineffective.

<comment><USER11> Industrial mass-produced "assessment" is only necessary in a mostly-anonymous, un-personal system. If you have time to actually talk to a student, you can figure out pretty quickly how well they understand something.

I think of it like stack overflow. If someone borrows ideas and code from there for a code review, I'm fine with that, as long as they understand how the system is doing. Being able to do research and find information is a useful skill! But only if it's applied correctly, with understanding. So I'm going to probe on that. And it might be blindingly obvious to me that they didn't understand what they were doing, or why the pasted code isn't appropriate. And I don't need a "stack overflow detector" to see that.

<comment><USER10> Yes, if we had unlimited resources and could give each student an individualized exam, oral and written under supervision, then plagiarism detection of tech wouldn't be necessary, but if you're trying to stretch a budget...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I'm a working teacher (college) and so is my wife (high school). I agree that adversarial is, the great majority of the time, counter productive. Working with students is way better than working against them. Besides, you have to look at yourself in the mirror and think, "Am I really that person?"

I will say, though, that when you are in a meeting and claims are being made by the student and by the parents that the instructor is completely at fault, and you can produce a computer accounting showing that the student spent less than five minutes on this week's assignment, ... well there is definitely a sense of thinking that tracking isn't _entirely_ downsides.

</comment><comment><USER14> It's always interesting to note the whiggish, egalitarian overtones of the origins of the American public education system, as argued by one of its founding proponents, Horace Mann. The system was designed to teach children from all backgrounds the three Rs: reading, 'riting (sic), 'rithmetic (sic).

But even here, one wonders what results from diverging from the classical medieval trivium, which were grammar, logic and rhetoric. These were to form the foundational basis for the upper arts, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, and the seven liberal arts combined were to form the basis for studying philosophy and theology.

It would be one thing for me to anachronistically pine back to the medieval way of education, but I can't help but be curious about what we lost out on through our own factory optimized, parallel reconstruction of an education system. The system seems now to serve first as daycare and only very distantly second as means to teach foundational thinking skills.

As such, I can't help but consider an alternate universe where we actually built such an egalitarian education system that begins with grammar, logic and rhetoric, then arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy, then philosophy and theology. My college experience involved very small class sizes taught in a discursive seminar style rather than the lecture style, and I really learned to think there. I can't help but wish that we had a system that had similar priorities. And I can't help but wonder if such a system would more deeply resolve issues that surface level fixes (such as plagiarism detection tech) only seem to distract from.

</comment><comment><USER15> This author categorizes plagiarism detection and rigorous learning experiences along with "any interface with actual cops". This is under the blanket presumption that all of these things "[presume] an adversarial relationship between students and teachers", which is fundamentally wrong. He is, by his own admission in the post, an inexperienced teacher. He also does not appear to be a parent. I think he should get a lot more experience and think about his position before writing a post like this again because he is advocating for a less-educated classroom.

<comment><USER16> What? The author says he's a graduate student (consequently very likely a TA) with a 7-year old daughter.

<comment><USER17> The daughter is his stylist's, not his.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Education by conformance is the only solution that has held up for mass- produced education around the world. In any conformance environment, you'll find actors who are more and other who are less strict. The behavior cited is an outcry against absurdly strict and asymmetric methods for driving conformity.

In reality, a conformance approach is a disservice to all. I am reminded of a story about the initial cockpit designs for military jet aircraft. Designers took a data approach. They measured 140 dimensions of 4000 pilots: height weight, arm span, leg length, ... And found the average for all. The end result was that _no pilots_ fit in the cockpit, many so badly that the air force saw many unnecessary crashes.[0]

The human mind has far more variance than the physical body. Education by conformance is a fail out of the box.

[0][https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/16/when-us- air-...](https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/16/when-us-air-force- discovered-the-flaw-of-averages.html)

</comment><comment><USER16> What do you do with people who cannot operate in an unstructured environment because their schooling has been completely authoritarian? It's a tough problem.

You try to move away from worksheets and attendance taking because it's a university, students oftentimes have family or work responsibilities, so you hand out problems and administer exams, and it completely backfires. Up to now, everything was rigidly structured, now it's missing, and the kids are floundering.

You read the instructor reviews, it's like the prisoners rating the prison guards. Apparently I'm not a good prison guard because I set problems instead of handing out worksheets. There are no easy solutions.

<comment><USER5> I wish I had a good answer for you!

I think the way the one solves this with individuals is through behaviors akin to parenting and/or therapy. And in a team context, I do a lot with collaboration, feedback loops, retrospectives, and 1:1 discussions. But in a traditional classroom setting, I don't think those can be directly applied. A teacher just doesn't have time to give all their students that level of therapy, but the individual-evaluation model breaks most of the tools that make sense in a team context.

The only hope I see is a Montessori-like approach. Having seen kids go through that, they learn a level of collaboration and mutual aid that's missing in industrial-style education. With that kind of collaboration, I can see ways to apply the tricks we use with cross-functional software teams. Of course, Montessori students also learn goal-directed behaviors that suit unstructured environments, so maybe it's all of a piece.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is unreasonably inflammatory (both the language, and the way it's being associated with current anger at policing) for what is an interesting but not cutthroat topic. Swearing a lot is attention-grabbing (see the success of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck", and the pile of "Blank Blank Swe*r Blank" titles that followed), but it's the essayist's equivalent of clickbait.

I'm aware this is an older post, but how much discussion would this be getting if the title wasn't so provocative, or if it wasn't associated with current events?

</comment><comment><USER19> This is the kind of stuff you can believe in if you haven't been a student at a bad public school. There are students who for the sake of their classmates (to say nothing of the teachers' sanity) absolutely have to be handled with "cop shit" because they won't respond to anything else and will disrupt not only their own class, but every nearby class too.

<comment><USER20> Those kids need better outlets, and more support; cop shit turns it into a power struggle that entrenches their adversarial mindset.

Source: I went to a "bad" public school, take issue with abusive authority, and had a mix of bad-cop and supportive teachers. It's the supportive teachers who rolled their eyes and moved on from my antics, and rewarded efforts I put into the class (regardless if they were trollish misinterpretations of assignments -- the good ones celebrate the creativity but still give a fair grade) who actually flipped me from being a class clown. Now, I've got a PhD in math.

Take a hyperactive, disinterested, insubordinate student and you will find intelligence and creativity. You can steer that focus towards destruction by whacking them with sticks, or you can steer it towards productivity by wafting carrots. Cop shit doesn't help except when students are literally beating eachother and you need to pull them apart.

<comment><USER19> The disruptive students I'm thinking of were basically juvenile delinquents, not future math PhDs who trolled on homework sometimes. The girl who dropped acid in economics class, the girl who peed on the floor in math class, the guy who beat the shit out of another guy in the cafeteria, the two girls who were literally ripping each other's hair out in the hallway until my history teacher pulled them off of each other. There weren't that many of them, but in a class of 30 students a single one of them (just 3%) can guarantee no one learns anything.

<comment><USER20> Don't take this hindsight for granted. Nobody would have said I was a future math PhD, and several of my teachers were quite convinced that I'd never amount to shit. I was a bad student, and got in trouble for all sorts of shit. Numerous teachers gave up on me very early in my education: my third grade teacher moved my desk to face the corner as a "permanent" punishment because I was disruptive. It was a collaborative effort between my parents and a few good teachers to even get me through high school, and I had no interest in higher education. It was only after a few years bored as fuck in web development that I started to wonder if I could make something more of myself, that I went back to school.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I think it's important to draw some distinction between primary, secondary, and post-secondary education.

In primary school I am 100% for focusing on learning, and limiting the bureaucracy around it to only that which furthers the goal of learning. Punishing tardiness or unexplained absences doesn't make much sense, but noticing it does, because improving attendance is a worthy goal in pursuit of learning.

When you get to secondary school it makes some sense to put a bit more emphasis on responsibility.

And in post-secondary school, you're a customer now, so I think the teacher should only really care about what you do insofar as it might impact the service being sold to other paying customers.

<comment><USER5> Nah. The customer model is frequently corrosive to mission-driven organizations. Imagine it in medicine, for example. If I asked my doctor to prescribe me morphine because I'm the customer and I want it, they'd refuse. They should.

Education has a deep societal purpose, especially in democracies and advanced economies. Its consumers are generally immature, and are definitionally people who are ignorant about important things. Education must not be structured solely around whatever a 19-year-old happens to want.

<comment><USER4> "What the [parents] want" may not be the _best_ model for education, but it's certainly not the worst in regular use. Actually, that's true in medicine as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> "Don't move the ancient barriers" is an old proverb that cautions us towards careful consideration before we thoughtless tear down the walls around us before considering their core purpose. What has changed in the heart of humans that no longer necessitates these controls? Why do we discourage cheating? Why do attempt violence prevention within our schools? Why do we train personal responsibility as a guiding force of character?

Fair enough, if you have more effective methods of achieving these goals, then describe how they better meet the need and let us evaluate them on their merits and try them.

But let's not tear down what we don't understand

<comment><USER23> I'm pretty sure that neither "ed-tech that tracks our students' every move" nor "plagiarism detection software" can be described as an ancient barrier.

I'm not sure many of the rest of the list can be either, to be honest.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I found the excessive use of the term "cop shit" distracting. I am not a prude. It's not the profanity. Just use a pronoun every once in awhile godamnit.

</comment><comment><USER25> "Plagiarism detection software" can most certainly be misused and abused - it's quite a slippery slope, difficult to administer fairly, and likely to create unwarranted chilling effects. The author was almost certainly referring to its ease and accessibility for misuse by educational authorities.

For example - citing inconclusive results from a plagiarism detection suite as a reason to have a meeting with a student or group, would induce large amounts of anxiety and stress is most people, even if the professors intention is that 90% of cases would be thrown out after the student/group testifies. It can lead to infighting in groups in particular, even when no cheating occurs. And the in person meeting is almost certainly rather stressful for most students.

And how many educational authorities are quick to jump to judgement and words like "just admit you did it, and we'll punish you less?" Presumption of guilt is the most reliable way to sow distrust and discord, and yet it is often done by lay people, whose negative actions are amplified by their positions of authority.

Underage students in particular should not be expected to react reasonably under such adversarial circumstances.

And even if the law and society expects it, I'd argue that most adults cannot handle novel adversarial circumstances well. Police interactions, and interactions with educational authorities over matters of discipline and cheating are most certainly novel, adversarial, and hugely stressful for most people, and it is done for remarkably little gain in terms of actually catching cheating, practically speaking.

To tie it off - I've been accused of cheating twice in my academic career.

Once when I was in 6th grade, when the assistant principle and a police officer pulled me into an isolated meeting and gaslighted me to confess to my guilt for 30 minutes. In the end, they "realized" they had pulled aside the wrong student. And then, that 2nd student they pulled aside had also turned out to have not been cheating. Such gross incompetence and psychological abuse should never be allowed to happen to children going through the most formative experiences in their life.

The 2nd time, my undergrad group was called to a meeting with one week's worth of notice, that our code had been flagged by plagiarism software, and that we would have to testify if we had cheated or not, or risk having a 0. My partner was a miserable wreck for that entire week. Turns out, when we got there, the code had just flagged some unimportant boiler plate code as having been copied from somewhere else. Not even the part of the code that actually solves for the problem, just the code that initialize variables and classes. The professor was apologetic, but that week of torment was for naught.

Both of these instances were in well regarded, well funded public schools, in the heart of the California Bay Area. I imagine it would be even worse in less well off areas, and geographies where education is not taken seriously.

The article is most certainly referring to instances of it being sloppily and maliciously used in ways to intimidate students, even if plagiarism detection tech can be used in a responsible manner. If the technology requires rigorous ethical training and screening to be used by authorities properly, which is often not provided to any reasonable degree, then it should not be used at all. I would rather every cheater be let go, than have 10 innocent kids be tormented and punished for a wrong they never committed.</comment>


Linus Torvalds drops Intel and adopts 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper on his PC - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/24/linus_torvalds_adopts_amd_threadripper/ <comment><USER2> Already being discussed here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23295975](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23295975)

</comment><comment><USER3> We been hearing about Threadripper a lot. How well this works for Windows? Does it make CPU bound ML/DL/data science computation better? Any good benchmarks in this area to look at?</comment>


Machine Learning is really good at partially solving just about any problem - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/2009/08/20/machine-learning-is-really-good-at-partially-solving-just-about-any-problem/

<comment><USER2> I agree but my conclusion based on this is that, for the foreseeable future, we'll need hybrid systems that can merge expert knowledge with machine learning.

In the coming weeks there will be a lot of hand-wringing about Watson's performance on Jeopardy and what it means for humanity and jobs and so on.. I think it's important to remember that the last mile in many tasks will still require humans and that AI should be seen more as human augmentation rather than replacement.</comment>


Show HN: News Without Coronavirus - <AUTHOR> https://newswithoutcoronavirus.com/ <comment><USER2> Now all we need is a version for T.V.

</comment><comment><USER3> Love it. It became very overwhelming.</comment>


Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/blog/50-million-tinnitus-sufferers-just-got-some-bad-news-and-some-good-news <comment><USER2> I think the title's a bit clickbait. Basically it's saying there's been a paper published that says:

>Tinnitus and chronic pain [are similar]. It is now becoming increasingly clear that higher cognitive and affective brain systems are centrally involved in the pathology of both disorders.

and the article says:

>In both, there is impairment in the frontal lobe

>In tinnitus and chronic pain, these structures appear to become dysfunctional, turning "up" pain and auditory signals, leading to pain or tinnitus noise.

So not really good or bad news so much as another theory. There may be an element of that but tinnitus can start instantly after a loud noise so I'd imagine it's something lower level going wrong in that case at any rate.

<comment><USER3> >I think the title's a bit clickbait

In this case, the article's content is far more interesting than the title suggests, contrary to the usual pattern.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I have mild tinnitus, it's not really bothering me but is noticeable in quiet environments. I find it interesting that I can exacerbate it by pulling on my jaw or clenching my jaw. If I'm feeling a bit under the weather, it is also exacerbated by moving my eyes. So at least in my case, there's a definite connection to muscles around the ear.

There appears to be at least some support for this in the literature, e.g. [http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1808-86942012000600004&...](http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1808-86942012000600004&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en)

<comment><USER5> weird... I don't have tinnitus, that I know of, but if I put earbuds in that provide a lot of sound dampening and clench my jaw muscles, it makes a pretty noticeable roaring sound, kind of sounds like the inside of an airplane.

<comment><USER6> I think that's the sound of your Eustachian tubes being open.

<comment><USER4> That's an interesting theory.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> compiler-guy Certain causes of tinnitus cannot be treated, but some can. So be sure your doctor tries to understand the cause of your tinnitus.

For example, one (of many) causes of tinnitus is otosclerosis--the "stirrup" bone in your ear grows extra bone and becomes unable to vibrate properly. The primary symptom of this problem is somewhat muffled hearing, but it is often accompanied by tinnitus.

This condition comes on extremely slowly, so you may not notice the hearing loss. I finally noticed it in myself once when I put my head down on a pillow and suddenly couldn't hear the TV.

There is a good medical solutions to it though--"stapes mobilization surgery". Low risk, better hearing, and tinnitus gone.

So if you have tinnitus and somewhat muffled hearing, see a doctor and mention otosclerosis. It is definitely worth getting checked out. It can really improve your life.

</comment><comment><USER7> Whew, I thought this was going to be about the results of Auris Medical's new tinnitus drug, AM-101. The results are due to come out within the next month or so. The drug is injected into the ear, so it wouldn't effect tinnitus that originates in the brain. I've had tinnitus for about 10 years now, and it sucks that doctors know so little about it. However, there seem to be a lot of companies popping up recently that are trying to attack the problem, so I'm excited.

Another company, Otonomy, is also working on a tinnitus drug that's injected into the ear (see [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19847455](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19847455)). It's an NMDA receptor antagonist (just like AM-101), so it doesn't seem like it would work for tinnitus that originates in the brain.

</comment><comment><USER8> I had to make a new account just to post this. A few years ago I noticed tinnitus develop in one of my ears along with associated hearing loss following a very stressful period of time. After some research I went to a specialist neurosurgeon / neuroscientist who tested me for all sorts of viruses and conditions and also performed a special DMSA chelation urinalysis which let me know that I have lead poisoning. I am now working with special diet and lifestyle changes in order to attempt to draw as much of it out as I can. I am also working with a dentist who specializes in removing metal amalgam fillings which are one source of possible lead (as well as mercury) exposure. I did have some mercury in my urine profile as well but not in the danger zone like lead.

I've read several article on Tinnitus now and there is never a mention of possible heavy metal contamination. It is surprising to me because it seems like an environmental issue which has been largely swept under the rug for generations now. I hope it gets better and more information and awareness is brought forth.

</comment><comment><USER9> > _Martin's resignation in the face of tinnitus isn't rare, perhaps because > tinnitus remains poorly understood._

No. It's because you go to the doctor and you literally get sent home without being helped in any way whatsoever. Well, he looks into your ear and maybe you get some useless medication. Just save the money and time and deal with it, that's all you can do as of today.

<comment><USER2> I found the docs useless. I found earplugs helped a bit - they can prevent further damage and allow the body to recover.

<comment><USER10> I had been using various forms of white noise for years to help reduce external annoyances while I was working and trying to concentrate. That has led to what appears to be an early form of tinnitus. It doesn't cause me pain yet, sometimes it's really annoying and I no longer hear actual silence when I should. I've found relief by using gun shooting ear protection, as funny as that sounds. 34 to 37 db level protection. The ear protectors are dirt cheap to buy on Amazon and moderately comfortable. They would probably look stupid to wear in an office setting, but I work out of a home office, so no concerns there. A few hours here and there of wearing them and the tinnitus (or whatever it is at this point) is meaningfully reduced.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I've created a few iOS apps for tinnitus, if anyone is interested. The apps provide masking therapy or notch filter therapy. There does not seem to be a scientific way to predetermine what therapy, if any, will be therapeutic to you, so it helps to try a few different things. [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/serene- ears/id790457760?mt=8...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/serene- ears/id790457760?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4) [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nix- tinnitus-player/id842249...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nix-tinnitus- player/id842249978?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4)

</comment><comment><USER12> So what are the good and bad news? I didn't find it by skimming.

<comment><USER13> Bad news (there is no cure):

      "We both found the same brain structure involved in the
      cortex," he says. "Both tinnitus and chronic pain are
      chronic conditions—there is no cure."

Good news (there may be treatment):

      Rauschecker says, some believe there may be "an
      underlying brain condition that gives you tinnitus and
      depression." For this reason, Rasuchecker feels that
      dopamine and serotonin are hot candidates for drug
      therapies.

      A study in March, citing Rauschecker's paper on chronic
      pain and tinnitus, demonstrates "that the meta-
      cognitive ability to acknowledge and let go of arising
      sensory events engages a unique, self-facilitated pain
      modulatory system." In others words, meditation can
      help reduce chronic pain, and perhaps tinnitus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Search for iodine therapy. Even if you are not iodine deficient according to diagnostic tests, iodine can help a lot with tinnitus.

</comment><comment><USER15> I have it, too. It's worse when I didn't get enough sleep (which is most of the time).</comment>


Green Tea Press: Free Books by Allen B. Downey - <AUTHOR> https://greenteapress.com/wp/ <comment><USER2> Little Book of Semaphores

[https://greenteapress.com/wp/semaphores/](https://greenteapress.com/wp/semaphores/)

while not on the front page is a really good book that you should read if you are interested in multithreaded programming. It has a bunch of interesting puzzles and solutions. Even if you don't use semaphores, these exercises will be useful in increasing your understanding.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's listed in the Operating Systems section, you'll find it if you scroll down a bit

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Think Python, Think Complexity, and Think Statistics are all really excellent. Downey is an artist of CS pedagogy.

</comment><comment><USER4> Think Complexity [https://greenteapress.com/wp/think- complexity-2e/](https://greenteapress.com/wp/think-complexity-2e/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Just few hours ago, while driving, I was driving and thinking of one of the books - Little Book of Semaphores. I need to go through some the algorithms and try to formally verify them in COQ, since I'm learning how to do formal proves.

</comment><comment><USER6> Any of these worth diving into?

<comment><USER7> there's many HN articles from this domain. check out feedback there.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=greenteapress.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=greenteapress.com)</comment></comment>


The 2000 Year-Old Computer – Decoding the Antikythera Mechanism (2012) [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXjUqLMgxM <comment><USER2> I've seen a few documentaries on this device (though not sure if I've seen this one yet... just started watching), and I find it absolutely amazing. It always makes me wonder just how much technology has been developed and lost (and how many times this has happened) due to events like the burnings of the library of Alexandria (for example) and others we may not even know have happened. The fact that this device is more intricate and more accurately "machined" (for lack of a better term) than was thought possible for its age just proves we don't know just how far back some of what we consider to be modern developments go.

<comment><USER3> How much technology has been lost by intransparency and by keeping inventions in secrecy instead of sharing

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Fantastic documentary and great story! It starts off slow and teases you a bit, but it culminates nicely.

I'd love to see documentaries of this quality tell the stories of computer science's rich history in the early 20th century. I've often wondered what if someone like Ken Burns would weave it into a series that most people actually find interesting.

</comment><comment> iso8859-1 The video on the Lego implementation explains the mechanics of it: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk)

</comment><comment><USER5> Although a device of far less sophistication, I am also fascinated by an ancient Athenian sortition device, the kleroterion ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleroterion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleroterion)). It is perhaps one of the earliest examples we have a random number generator.</comment>


Tell HN: Khan Academy is hiring full-time devs - <AUTHOR> Only sending this link to HN for now. We're building our dev team, full details here: http://www.khanacademy.org/jobs/dev<p>Instructions to apply are at the bottom of that link, and if you have any specific questions feel free to email me. firstname.lastname@example.com<p>(For those unfamiliar w/ Khan Academy, check out Sal's recent TED talk: http://www.khanacademy.org/video/salman-khan-talk-at-ted-2011--from-ted-com) <comment><AUTHOR> <http://www.khanacademy.org/jobs/dev>

and

[http://www.khanacademy.org/video/salman-khan-talk-at- ted-201...](http://www.khanacademy.org/video/salman-khan-talk-at-ted-2011-- from-ted-com)

<comment><USER2> Changing the world is cool and all, but the real reason to go after this job is to work with Ben Kamens and Jason Rosoff. Kamens was the big boss of engineering at Fog Creek when I interned there and is the most humble and capable developer I've met. Jason Rosoff was also at Fog Creek with Kamens and is the kind of designer a developer loves to work with.

So, Web Ninja Rockstar Badass Developers, apply. DO IT.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> There are few other world changing endeavors that can match the scalability of impact of the Khan Academy.

Haven't encountered it, but would be great to see translations done on a larger scale to touch the wider world.

Additionally, perhaps at a later date, would be interesting to see the same topics covered by additional instructors (and rated) available on the site to provide variation in teaching styles.

Nevertheless, even today, this is the best thing going on in the education field. Kudos to Sal.

</comment><comment><USER4> Man, I'd love to contribute to Khan Academy, especially since they've given me so much already. I can't count the number of times Sal's videos have helped me in my AP Physics and Calculus classes this year. It's too bad I'm still in high school.

I actually had an idea, a couple of weeks ago, that it would be really cool to implement some kind of functionality that brought together real time chat and a "blackboard" capabilities (Canvas and node.js?) to the site, so people could discuss certain topics and simultaneously draw out diagrams/problems/etc. I feel like Q.A. for homework/learning could be done a lot better then what we have currently right now (WikiAnswers, Yahoo Answers, etc). Good luck, I'm sure tons of awesome developers will jump at this opportunity.

<comment><USER5> Grockit, a test prep startup, does this. They're setup to give test questions to be answered in a given time frame with ongoing chat between room members and there is an optional white-board for drawing on.

The drawing section isn't built by them, it's actually built by an HN poster running, I believe, ExpatSoftware. You could probably make use of his project... Actually, I checked. They're just using Twiddla. I think Twiddla is pretty much what you want. You can free hand what you want and you have an etherpad a click away. Tying it in to KA would be left.

Kamens, is there a way to view all the unanswered questions on Khan Academy? I think it might receive a fair amount of traffic if there was.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not at the moment, no. We're tackling some lower-hanging fruit, but this sort of community tool is obviously on our horizon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Oh man. If I weren't in school I'd jump on this so fast. KA has helped tremendously in my self-study. Part of the reason I chose Python as my current learning language instead of Ruby was so I can contribute exercises to their stats lectures. Could you use a (non-remote) intern this spring/summer?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, we have a couple internship spots still open. Same story, send resume/side-projects/etc to firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><USER7> I was going to ask the same question about interns (Saw a posting a few months ago about internships there). I sent my resume over.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Says a lot about HN that you are only posting it here for now.

</comment><comment><USER9> So tempting, this idea of changing the world of education is. If I wasn't neck deep in my own ventures, I'd definitely be applying.

<comment><USER10> Pretty tempted too. Having one of those Jobs & Sculley "sugar water" moments.

<comment><USER11> In case you were wondering about the reference: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sculley#1983.E2.80.9393:_S...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sculley#1983.E2.80.9393:_Sculley_at_Apple)

"Steve Jobs successfully sealed the deal with his legendary pitch to Sculley, asking him whether he preferred to "sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and change the world?"."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> A humble, semi-off-topic suggestion: develop the knowledge maps for all the (planned in the near future) courses first, then let anyone submit both video lectures and evaluation questions and answers.

<comment><USER13> I think the most compelling aspect of the Khan Academy is Sal Khan's ability to explain stuff. Diluting that with other instructors could weaken the main selling point of KA.

<comment><USER12> That's a valid point... my suggestion would be a longer-term suggestion, when KA is popular enough to attract star educators in fields Khan hasn't touched yet.

<comment><USER14> I absolutely agree with this suggestion. Another variation: bring excellent teachers in other (non-Khan) subjects together to devise learning maps, and then have the experts compete against each other to produce the lectures most favored by Khan Academy users.

Seems like this would result in much faster growth in the breadth of KA's videos.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Why don't you need to be a Lisp expert?

<comment><AUTHOR> It's the only language we don't use.

<comment><USER16> Oh great. I was afraid I would never find a place that could use my Malbolge skills.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Love your work guys! Keep up the awesome job!! Found your videos on "Valuation and Investing" priceless and so easy to comprehend.

</comment><comment><USER18> Where are you guys located?

<comment><USER19> Mountain View, CA. (Mailing address at <http://www.khanacademy.org/about/the- team>)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Do you have plans to hire any UI designers in the near future?

</comment><comment><USER21> Compare: "Khan Academy is hiring full-time profs". Who needs those? Everybody can teach, apparently.

<comment><USER22> This was modded down, possibly for incomprehensibility, but... _is_ the Khan academy planning on hiring any profs?

Is it still the one dude doing all the videos?

<comment><USER23> Well I don't know about others, but I moded it down because it was "jerk-like" behaviour. The same comment could have been written in a polite and professional manner, but the op chose to write in an insulting manner.

Following the recent thread on HN quality, I've decided to be much more aggressive in downvoting impolite comments.

<comment><USER21> "Insulting" is a gross exaggeration. That's this forum's style! Where do you think I've learned it from?

You and the parent both admit that I have a point. That's good enough for me.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Economics of Assisted Suicide - <AUTHOR> http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/economics_of_assisted_suicide/

<comment><USER2> This is the ugly but logical end point of continuing to treat the indirect effects of aging without addressing the core problem.</comment>


Facebook asserts trademark on word "book" in new user agreement - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/03/facebook-asserts-trademark-on-word-book-in-new-user-agreement.ars Facebook is trying to expand its trademark rights over the word "book" by adding the claim to a newly revised version of its "Statement of Rights and Responsibilities," the agreement all users implicitly consent to by using or accessing Facebook. The company has registered trademarks over its name and many variations of it, but not on the word "book". By inserting the trademark claim into the Facebook user agreement, the company hopes to bolster its standing in lawsuits against sites that incorporate the word "book". <comment><USER2> A. One possible attack would be that this new TOS provision is unconscionable [1], and therefore unenforceable, to the extent it purported to give FB trademark rights beyond those provided by trademark law.

This argument might be supported by a longstanding public policy (at least in the U.S.): Trademark law gives certain rights to trademark "owners," not because they have some natural-right entitlement, but to protect the _public's_ right not to be confused about the origin, sponsorship, or endorsement of the products and services they encounter in the marketplace [2]. A trademark owner can't enforce its trademark rights against another when there's no likelihood of confusion as to origin, sponsorship, or endorsement [3].

On the other hand, even if Facebook didn't prevail on a trademark _infringement_ theory (requiring proof of a likelihood of confusion), it still might succeed in a lawsuit for _dilution_ of a famous mark [4]. A court might view that as legitimizing the new FB TOS.

B. There might also be an antitrust challenge: By requiring users to agree not to use a term to which it (hypothetically) doesn't have trademark rights, Facebook might be guilty of an unlawful tie-out [5].

C. Finally, if FB doesn't require users to click on "I agree" again, and doesn't even notify them that the new TOS are in effect, then courts are unlikely to enforce the new TOS. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit already ruled to that effect in one case [6].

It'll be interesting to see what comes of this.

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

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Public_policy>

[3] [http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm...](http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/metaschool/fisher/domain/tm.htm#7)

[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_dilution>

[5] [http://www.dechert.com/library/Analyzing%20IP%20License%20-%...](http://www.dechert.com/library/Analyzing%20IP%20License%20-%20GGordon%205-02.PDF) at p. 7

[6] [http://www.theiplawblog.com/archives/-cyberspace-law- ninth-c...](http://www.theiplawblog.com/archives/-cyberspace-law-ninth- circuit-holds-modified-terms-of-use-unenforceable-where-user-not-properly- notified-of-the-changes.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> I think some of us need a bit of a primer on trademarks.

A trademark does not restrict arbitrary use of a term, but only uses that conflict with available product. Off the top of my head, consider Nestle's (former) trademark for "tollhouse". This referred to the cookie. You could not legally sell your own cookies and call them "tollhouse cookies". But you could still sell, say, a booth for collecting highway tolls, and call it a "tollhouse".

So, no Facebook is not claiming complete ownership of the word "book" -- or, if they are, then they're wrong. They are claiming that you can't use it to conflict with their usage of it. So sell some software for recording purchases, and call it "checkbook", and you're fine. But make a social website called "friendbook" without their permission, and you'll get sued. You'll lose, too; and that is not a bad thing.

P.S. The law already restricts usage of trademarks. Adding this to their license, as far as I know, changes nothing.

Disclaimer: IANAL. Input from actual lawyers would be good.

</comment><comment><USER4> That is going a bit far.

<comment><USER5> ... and a little ridiculous. "You will not use our copyrights or trademarks (including ... Face, ... Book and Wall)"

Like if using a windows machine meant that I can't have any name that involves window, micro, soft, gate, intel(ligence)...

The world 'wall'? Ever been to the Western Wall? To the old Berlin? Or listened to the Pink Floyd?

<comment><USER6> While it is ridiculous, your comparisons are also a little ridiculous. Product similarity is a large part of whether something is trademark infringing.

<comment><USER5> Maybe they seem ridiculous to you if you don't get that my comparisons were purposely exaggerated.

The point is that facebook didn't invent face, didn't invent book, and didn't invent wall (not even in the ACTUAL meaning they are used in facebook itself).

If I want to create a website with social tools that for some reason involves wall or book I don't see why I have to risk to be suit based on a user agreement (that usually nobody reads).

Say that I want to open a social network for old book lovers. I can't call you the old book or the ancient book or whatever you can think of just because facebook thinks they own the word book?

Or what if I want to use the metaphor of the berlin wall to open a thematic social network for human right causes and maybe also use the idea that you can place notes on this wall?

Do you think that in that case am I actually infringing the Facebook trademark?

Yet I'm sure they could try to sue me if I'm a Facebook user and agreed to their fluff.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Balances the goodwill they generated by coming out against employer requests for Facebook accoutn passwords, I guess...

<comment><USER5> Nope.

One thing is defending their website from massive account closing or effectively limiting their usage.

Another thing is that if I create a Facebook account then I can't use anymore the words wall, face and book without risking a lawsuit against Facebook.

<comment><USER5> By the way, do they realize that their ask people to apply through their Facebook accounts?</comment></comment></comment>


Java EE 7 Batch Processing and World of Warcraft – Part 2 - <AUTHOR> http://www.radcortez.com/java-ee-7-batch-processing-and-world-of-warcraft-part-2/

<comment><USER2> Forgive me for seeming naive, but as an avid wow player, what's the advantage of using this instead of using an addon like Auctioneer, if any?

Don't get me wrong, it's a really interesting article and I enjoyed reading it, but is there any practical use for it or is it just 'reinventing the wheel', so to speak?</comment>


The mysterious heart of the Roland TR-808 drum machine - <AUTHOR> http://secretlifeofsynthesizers.com/the-strange-heart-of-the-roland-tr-808/ <comment><USER2> It's been said that if humanity ever masters full-universe simulation, the inventor will be the Roland corporation, ending its quest to create an exact reproduction of the sound of Run DMC's 808 during a 1983 live performance in a Brooklyn dive bar.

<comment><USER3> That's a good one xD

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've owned 3 tr-808s in my life. I currently own one. I can confirm that each one sounds different. I've samples from each one. The first 2 I owned were from later in the production run. There are 2 distinct revisions of tr-808s. The early models had a shorter higher pitched snare sound and later models were a lower pitch deeper snare. My current 808 is an early revision with the high pitched snare. My current 808 has the weakest clap of the three I've owned.

I mention all of this to make a few points. 1- I don't doubt that these rejects contribute to the sound in a very specific way. But I don't think it is impossible to build an 808 that would not fool even the most seasoned experts.

2- the 808 was not exactly a hit product. The "we ran out of parts" line sounds to me like a great way to revise what the real truth of the matter is- it wasn't selling since sampled drum drum machines like the Lynndrum/Oberheim DX/sequential drumtraks were in far greater demand. Most people at the time thought the 808 was terrible sounding. It soon was widely available at thrift shops and used gear racks for 10-20% of its original 1000$ price. Ad rock of Beastie Boys fame mentions in an interview that he went to Rogue Music in NYC to get a rickenbacker guitar but instead found a used 808 for 250 bucks around 1984 or 1985. Since the tr909 was released in 84 or so with a focus on sounding more realistic, I don't think parts availability is the real reason.

3- there are solid clones available that are 100% analog and approach if not hit 100% accuracy in the sound. The Yocto kit when assembled competently is pretty much a 1:1 copy. Behringer has a forthcoming rd-808 that is analog and from the videos sounds the business.

4- the modeled 808 in the Tr08/tr8/Roland cloud 808 is in the ballpark but the cymbals snare and clap are the weakest parts of the modeling. I would say those pass the 5 minute quick listen test but once you spend time with them you realize it's not right in an annoying way. If anyone wants to read more about the tr-808 a me Robin Whittle has done some amazing work documenting the circuits, explaining how they work and gives instructions on modifying them. Now that these machines are 30 years old, I hope people don't mod them and focus on preserving them at this point- especially considering that there will soon be cheap Behringer copies to mod.

Finally just want to say it's great to see this kind of stuff on hn. I could write long winded comments on this stuff all day long.

Edit- adding link to RWs 808 mods/info [http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufacturers/Roland/TR-808/mo...](http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufacturers/Roland/TR-808/mods/)

<comment><USER5> > But I don't think it is impossible to build an 808 that would not fool even > the most seasoned experts.

This sentence hurt my head...

<comment><USER6> Imho it should be:

But I don't think it is impossible to build an 808 that would fool even the most seasoned experts.

Because there are synts with built in imperfections that are very good.

I also believe some synths synthesize the electronic components instead of the sound.

<comment><USER7> Cancelling out, we get

'I think it should be possible to build an 808...'

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I am surprised that Roland would use such an unconventional method for generating noise.

Sourcing and testing those bad transistors had to be more expensive than just buying good parts, and surely they must've known that their supply of bad parts wouldn't last forever?

<comment><USER9> I worked in a recording studio for a few years, and my impression is that for pop production, a lot of sound experiments are not reproducible. There are certainly fundamentals (e.g. understanding microphone design and placement techniques) but the random factors loom large.

Success depends less on applying principles in a straightforward way and more on being able to recognize when something is compelling and doggedly experimenting until something clicks. The story of the TR-808's design feels familiar.

<comment><USER10> You're right. The guitar sound in Dire Straits' Money for nothing is an experiment that couldn't be reproduced in another studio in NYC, even when placing microphones and speakers in the same random locations:

[https://www.soundonsound.com/people/classic-tracks-dire- stra...](https://www.soundonsound.com/people/classic-tracks-dire-straits- money-nothing)

And Phil Collins' gated reverb drums, one of THE sounds of the 80's, were discovered through another random placement of microphones, although (un)luckily this time it was easy to reproduce:

[https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/8/18/16162440/recording- stud...](https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/8/18/16162440/recording-studio- mishap-shaped-80s-music)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> its amazing how prevalent the 808 sound is in modern music... probably 80% of current rap music is based on sounds derived from the 808 kit. The combination of smoothness, "bassiness" and chattering hats and static snare really is infectious.

<comment><USER12> Here's a good look at the then-current top twenty, versus the same week in 1998.

808s everywhere.

[https://youtu.be/rn85sCVEGOw](https://youtu.be/rn85sCVEGOw)

<comment><USER13> ha, that's a good one. Speaks to the lack of diversity in current hip hop and also hip hop's dominance of pop music currently. Also tho, in '98 there is all kinds of transition happening in pop ...boy/girl bands in and out of popularity, dance music resurging but moving away from the euro thing, hip hop itself coming out of a golden era early 90's beat, and transitioning to pop centric and about to be super super influenced by the beats of Timbaland..that style..which of course, is more 808 based than what was before and dominated for years and years until finally the minimal 808 sound took over with I dunno kanye and stuff in the mid 00's? No where else to go with beats and it's lucky it has survived without much innovation. Meanwhile outside of the U.S. in places like UK influences of underground dance created innovative beats in the grime scenes and you hear things that are more creative/dancey/electronic/tribal even....which only those different producers singled out in this video of the current crop seem to be delving into. This is America beat? much closer to grime/drum'n'bass style out of the UK than mainstream U.S. production....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> There is a fun documentary called "808" (available on Amazon Prime) about the history and impact of the TR-808. It's mostly interviews with musicians and only a little technical information.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/808_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/808_\(film\))

[https://amzn.com/B06XT8M3TV](https://amzn.com/B06XT8M3TV)

<comment><USER15> It's mentioned in the article.

> How exactly Mr Kakehashi found these specific parts is not known, [...] but > you can hear him tell some of the story himself right at the end of the > excellent 2015 documentary movie "808".

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> How ironic that an engineering mistake which produced a unique "bad" batch of transistors also produced another engineering mistake. It's bad practice to make use of not reproducible parts, especially as such a unique noise source which basicaly defines a musical instrument. One of the most iconic electronic musical instruments ever created was born by engineering mistakes!

But, is there even a way to produce and reproduce a consistent physical noise source that generates the _same_ noise with each physical copy?

</comment><comment> ur-whale I wish they had actually explained how they did the noise modeling and the actual result.

<comment><USER16> Assuming the noise is stationary (meaning its probability distribution doesn't vary over time), it can be characterized entirely by its power spectrum, recorded over a time window that's long enough to represent the lowest frequencies of interest. The amplitude-versus-frequency response curve will exhibit various slopes at different frequencies, and it's these slopes that define the noise's "color" properties.

Once the spectrum is known, synthesizing the same sound is really just a matter of starting with white noise and shaping it with various lowpass, highpass, and/or bandpass filters whose skirts match the original slopes. It sounds like the 909 took that approach, generating noise by sending the output of a maximal-length shift register through some analog filters.

If the noise isn't stationary -- for instance, if its frequency content varies noticeably as the envelope progresses through its various phases, as the instrument warms up, or simply as it ages -- then it's no longer so easy to model and reproduce the sound. That's the sort of thing that can easily happen when the design relies on defective transistors.</comment></comment>


Coronavirus has caused a bicycling boom in New York City - <AUTHOR> https://grist.org/climate/coronavirus-has-caused-a-bicycling-boom-in-new-york-city/ <comment><USER2> > The city's Department of Transportation announced on Wednesday that it's > seen a 50 percent increase in bike traffic on bridges connecting Manhattan > to Brooklyn and Queens compared to last March.

It's also been regularly 5-10C warmer than average each day so far in March:

[https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/new-york/10007/march- weath...](https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/new-york/10007/march- weather/349727)

Almost entirely above freezing means no snow either.

And bridges are the first place to melt their snow/ice.

<comment><USER3> Not sure what to make of your last line. If someone has a bridge somewhere on their trip path, for most people it's somewhere in the middle, and distant from the start point where the decision of how to travel takes place. Their street being ice-free is probably more meaningful than the bridge's being ice- free.

<comment><USER4> Bridges bottleneck many more paths than random streets, though, so while they aren't special for any particular trip, they are special over all trips.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> ...if only there were dedicated bike lines. most of my commute on a bike takes those, but most of them are blocked by parked cars.

<comment><USER6> Someone recently made an app here in Germany where you can take a photo of offending cars and the app automatically forwards the information to the authorities. Perhaps someone can do something like that for NY?

Source in German: [https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/app-wegeheld- falschpark...](https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/app-wegeheld-falschparker- radfahrer-autofahrer-1.4393515) Here's an English article: [https://road.cc/content/news/258976-german-app-lets- cyclists...](https://road.cc/content/news/258976-german-app-lets-cyclists- report-drivers-parked-bike-lanes)

<comment><USER7> In New York, the "authorities" park in the bike lanes: [https://twitter.com/copsinbikelanes](https://twitter.com/copsinbikelanes)

<comment><USER8> They also joyride at reckless speeds around the borough of Queens blaring sirens and driving the wrong way down one way streets for fun. That's at night, while ON duty.

Inebriated police driving off duty are also a significant problem in the outer boroughs and are rarely prosecuted in any meaningful way for doing so...

If nothing is done about the above, seems like there's little chance that parking in bike lanes or on sidewalks in front of lunch/snack spots is going to be addressed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> What I really want to know is if there's been a stairwell boom.

Stairwells usually have the freshest air because they have to be at a positive pressure.

And people with respiratory diseases will be taking the elevator. Possibly before they even feel other symptoms.

Not sure how often stairwells are cleaned though.

<comment><USER9> > Not sure how often stairwells are cleaned though.

'Never' would be my wild guess.

<comment><USER10> Based on dead roach observations, this sounds about right.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> As another commenter mentions, last March was freezing cold and this March has been relatively warm. (I went jogging last night in Brooklyn in 63°F weather!)

But the article also doesn't mention that Citibike finally rolled out the e-bikes for good. I'm not sure how much of a difference that's making, but I wouldn't be surprised if that also accounts for an extra increase on the bridges specifically, since getting up the bridges is really their main use case.

<comment><USER12> Those e-bikes also have special cheaper pricing for trips that start or end outside of Manhattan, in order to stimulate this type of trip.

Something correlation... causation... can't remember the rest... :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I personally am using Citibike a lot more, but it's also just because it's finally warm out again.

</comment><comment><USER14> I've definitely noticed a decline in the number of people on the streets of Manhattan and riding the subway. It's been a breath of fresh air. It's easier than usual to get a seat on the train, so I've been taking full advantage of the opportunity.

I haven't really noticed a change in the number of cyclists, but the weather has gotten much better recently so it makes sense that people are biking again. It might be the virus, but it's probably just the good weather (correlation != causation).

</comment><comment><USER15> I wonder if it's better to take the subway, or use a citibike. With the shared bikes, you're farther away from other people, but you're physically touching the shared bike all the time.

<comment><USER16> The primary transmission route in inhalation in close proximity to an infected person. Yes, it can persist on surfaces, but this hand-washing meme is mostly a result of (1) it costs nothing and may help, so we should try and (2) masks are supply limited and the healthcare industry doesn't have enough. In reality, if we had an abundance of masks, masks would be more important than hand washing. As it stands, we reserve them for HC workers and infected persons. The point being, subways are worse.

<comment><USER17> I read N95 masks were basically useless when walking outside, they only mattered indoors and in confined spaces (like public transit). I'd imagine biking is even less transmission and wearing a mask with that is pretty unrealistic.

It's hard to find what is right on the internet though.

<comment><USER18> There is definitely a higher risk you inhale enough virus progeny indoors than outdoors, yes. We know from the flu that indoors the virus can stay suspended for many hours. Regular talking can project enough virus from an infected person for the air to become sufficiently contaminated, though shedding varies by individual. The more (longer) you breathe that air, the greater your chance of becoming infected. This might also explain why indoors is a greater risk than outdoors, you spend less time in the air that's contaminated, in addition to the greater diffusion/dispersion outdoors, of course.

<comment><USER19> Are you saying I could breathe in some, conveying a small amount of the virus, and not get infected? That seems to be the opposite of what highly contagious means.

<comment><USER18> Disclaimer: Not a virologist.

A virus has to achieve viral entry: it has to find a suitable host cell, and introduce its viral material.

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

Whether an aerosol hits your face, or you breathe air with suspended particles containing the virus, the virus has several challenges it needs to overcome (described in the link above). Its success is not guaranteed. An increase in virus particles improves its chance while a decrease improves your chance.

In theory, a single virus particle could achieve its goal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> But they're bicycling to some place with other people, so it's not like they're out of close contact with others. Although I suppose it's still better than having that same contact _and_ the additional contact of public transport.

<comment><USER21> No, but they're in less contact. While the infection rate is still low[1], we're not trying to eliminate the "possibility" of infection, we're trying to reduce the likelihood of a transmission event. So biking to a workplace and not sitting in a subway car is eliminating a bunch of transmission events. That reduces the R0 of the epidemic, which determines the exponent with which it will grow (or shrink). Enough measures like this and the case count starts going down over time and not up.

Defense in depth, basically. Is it enough? We just don't know. But it's absolutely not useless.

[1] This stops being true once the infection rate starts being non-negligible. That's where you have to go to hard quarantine measures that try to eliminate all non-essential contact. But we're not there yet.

<comment><USER22> We are there in Westchester, maybe Ocean/Monmouth.

<comment><USER21> Not really. There are 20M people in the metro area and 421 positive tests so far. Assume (reasonably conservatively) that those tests reflect about 10% of the active infections, and that there are about 2x as many contagious but asymptomatic cases as sick people (both the doubling rate and the incubation period seem to be about 5-6 days). That's one potential transmission event per ~2500 people right now. You'd have to be on a __lot __of subway cars to be within infection distance of that many people.

It's close enough to be worried, but not at "going in public will make you sick" yet.

( _Edit: covidtracking.com just pushed some new numbers, and NY is at 524 cases. Up 25% in a day is freakout territory -- a doubling period of just a little over 3 days. We have to hope this is an artifact of more testing capability or just a data burp._ )

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> wouldn't it be risky to ride behind a potentially infected rider? after all you'd be breathing in their exhaled air, or would the speed and wind dillute the aerosol quickly enough to make it harmless?

I read that italy banned bicycling in affected locations to avoid accidents that would further strain their already stressed health care system. sorry, no source.

<comment><USER2> > would the speed and wind dillute the aerosol quickly enough to make it > harmless?

Basically this. It's a probability thing though.

Indoors, air is stagnant and sneeze droplets can float around for a few hours.

Riding behind another cyclist requires poor luck for enough of their sneeze to impact you.

It's still cool enough for me to wear a face mask too, so that's another (hypothetical) risk reducer.

Plus, a cyclist is a good signal someone doesn't have active respiratory disease.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> Silver lining in the epidemic that more folks might get used to biking to work over the next few months due to social distancing, so that becomes more normal and cities start to adapt even further.

General city traffic will be way down and bikers will have a lot more freedom, so it feels safer, so more people adopt, etc

Could be a positive step in making the cities more liveable

</comment><comment><USER25> apparently, some other parts of the world are quite interested in USA COVID-19 outbreak, too

[https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E5%86%A0%E7%8A%B6%E7%97%8...](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E5%86%A0%E7%8A%B6%E7%97%85%E6%AF%92%E7%97%85%E7%BA%BD%E7%BA%A6%E5%B7%9E%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85)

(note the link to a Facebook page at the top)

</comment><comment><USER26> Spring is more exciting than coronavirus is scary

</comment><comment><USER27> Humans: We can't do all the green things! It's expensive! Who cares if the planet is overheating!

A WILD CORONAVIRUS APPEARS

Humans: Okay lets do all the green things.

</comment><comment><USER28> Is it true people are looting Trader Joe's there?

<comment><USER29> It's true that Trader Joe's in Manhattan are jammed with lines going out the door and shopping there is mayhem regardless of whether there's an ongoing pandemic.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Great. _More_ cyclists.

<comment><USER31> I wonder if you're the dude that chunked a full Gatorade at me for having the audacity to ride my bike on the road.

<comment><USER20> Actually that was me, you looked _really_ thirsty!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> > it was uncertain whether New Yorkers who aren't used to cycling on the > city's inconsistent network of bike lanes —which are frequently clogged by > parked or idling cars and trucks — would take the mayor's advice

The notion that New Yorkers use bike lanes is funny. I live on a major Manhattan avenue with a bike lane and there is at least three times as much bicycle traffic on the sidewalk right next to it. Even motorized scooters are more commonly seen on sidewalks than the road. When I lived in Brooklyn I learned to peek my head around the corners of pedestrian bridges because motorists and cyclists will speed around them recklessly. The food delivery gig industry has put this behavior into high gear. It's illegal, but New York laws are more like guidelines.

From my fire escape I can see a vacant lot that is used to store stolen bicycles while they are advertised on craigslist. I guess I wouldn't have to go far if I decided to buy a bike.

<comment><USER33> Which avenue is that? Whenever I am cycling I see most people in the bike lane if there is one available.

<comment><USER34> Yeah, that's never been my experience. You may see some scooters on the sidewalk. Bicycles are far more likely to be on the road than sidewalks.

Note that kids under a certain age are allowed to bike on the sidewalk.</comment></comment></comment>


U.S. Files Antitrust Suit Against AmEx - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575532074128517394.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us <comment><USER2> FTA:

 _At issue are the varied processing fees that the card companies charge merchants when customers use different cards. Cards that offer rewards such as airline miles cost merchants more, and merchants who agree to accept a company's cards must accept all of them._

[and]

 _As a civil case, the settlement isn't likely to involve any financial penalties for the companies..._

I like Amex a lot, and a lot of what I like about them is the club they very overtly wield with merchants. It's the card I feel safest using.

</comment><comment><USER3> I am a little confused on the whole antitrust angle when their market share is so low?

<comment><USER4> Anti-trust is about anti-competitive behavior, size doesn't (or shouldn't) really matter. It just so happens that big entities have more incentives and capabilities to be anti-competitive which is why anti-trust charges are often brought against big companies by smaller rivals.</comment></comment>


How do you prove your worth? - <AUTHOR>

This is as much a discussion as anything else but as a 30-something well rounded start-up marketing VP and HR person how do you prove your worth without an MBA? <comment><AUTHOR> The longer story is that I jumped ship from Med-school and since has worked for start-up's for 20 years. Avid Amiga Fan, Can prob kick your ass in Doom and definitely in Broodwar, am mid 30-s, Ex-PR-consultant and just curious!

<comment><AUTHOR> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUYI7kIR0S4></comment></comment>


Ask HN: A simple, low-tech way to reduce the package theft problem from homes? - <AUTHOR> ... or am I missing something?
Perhaps this problem is not common in your area, but here and in many urban/suburban settings in California, there is a huge problem with delivered packages being stolen from doorways and porches.
In many cases, thieve(s) simply follow delivery trucks (UPS, FedEx, USPS) and pluck packages shortly after delivery.  But it seems to me that there is a simple mechanism that would limit the other, more-common cases of trolling neighborhoods for left packages.
What if everybody left a dummy package outside their door?  For example, a simple box with a bogus label and weighty contents would do the trick; ideally, a box with retail branding (such as Amazon or others with recognizable logo).  (I am not suggesting anything toxic or dangerous, just worthless stuff that provides an appropriate look and feel.)
Am I missing something?  If such a simple countermeasure was widely practiced, the sheer risk ratio could at least provide a low-cost deterrent.
Obviously, the better solution would be bait packages with tracking devices that would alert law enforcement when moved and serve as probable cause for searches... but in my area, at least, property crime generally gets no attention from law enforcement. <comment><USER3> Always found this problem quite interesting. In the UK, parcels are rarely if ever left on the porch. If you aren't in there's a few options: a) they deliver it to a neighbour and post a card through your door saying "it's been left at number X"; b) they leave it in a safe space (typically throw it over your garden fence); or c) return it to the delivery office for you to specify when to redeliver or pick it up yourself.

Can anyone shed any light as to why (a) doesn't seem to be used in the US?

<comment><USER4> Most people don't know who their neighbours are, never mind trusting them with their packages.

<comment><USER5> We take parcels in for people we don't know (UK). Why do you need to know them?

Yes parcels sometimes go missing (suspected stolen) but delivery drivers have a pretty good idea where not to leave packages if they care.

<comment><USER6> Same here in germany. If the neighbor accepts the package, the parcel service notes his/her name on the receipt, so the responsibility has been handed to the neighbor.

If the neighbor "looses" the package, the loss can be enforced against him.

One alternative is to allow the parcel service to put the parcel in a safe space (e.g. throw it over the fence ;). Only if you allow the parcel service to do that, they will do it, because only then they are not responsibly for what happens to the package once they've put it in the "safe space".

The best invention in parcel servicing over the last few years are so called Packstationen (package stations), big cupboards with large lockable compartments. The parcel service places the packages there, sends you a text with a mobile TAN, you get the package from there whenever you have time (within the next 2 weeks or so, then it's being sent back). They are placed all over larger towns.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The solution is to not leave them outside a home. In the two European countries I have lived, if you are not home they take the package back to your local post office to pick up on your own time. Problem solved.

<comment><USER8> This isn't really a solution when you start multiplying the # of carriers (USPS/UPS/FedEx/Ontrac/etc) that deliver in the US, to the number of packages that heavy e-commerce users receive per month. It's not unusual for people with Amazon Prime accounts to have 10+ packages delivered in a month. If they would have to go to different locations to pick up all these packages, then it quickly negates much of the convenience/experience of shopping online.

<comment><USER9> Maybe it would be in all these companies interest to jointly set up distribution centers? In Sweden the postal service shut down most offices in the 90s, but instead set up shop in grocery stores everywhere. When you get a package you simply go to the closest store and pick it up. IMO this works much better than the to-the-door delivery in the US (unless you have a door man 24/7). Of course UPS/Fedex don't use these channels, but maybe they should. Getting a package from them means a lot of pain if you don't stay home from work to receive the package. If I miss the delivery I have to travel for like an hour to the pick it up, which is quite difficult since I don't have a car. It's come to the point where I won't order anything delivered by them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This makes me think about low tech solutions to the problem. What about a simple box (maybe 1 meter cube) that is unlocked until it is closed. Once closed, it must be opened with a key. A simple plate on the top can explain to the delivery man to place close the door when a package is placed inside, not very complicated. It doesn't scale to >1 package a day, but it is something.

<comment><USER11> Just an open padlock and a note to the delivery person to snap it shut when the parcel is in the box.

<comment><USER12> But then you could tell from looking at the box whether there was anything in there (if it's locked, it's got something). Probably enough to deter an opportunist, but a determined thief might bring bolt cutters (or just take the box)

<comment><USER13> If people are following around UPS trucks, they already know if something is in there, right? The bigger problem with the plan to me is what happens if you get two packages on the same day?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> An easier option is to have your items delivered to a local pickup location

Amazon offers it [https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_366591722_2?_encoding=...](https://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_366591722_2?_encoding=UTF8&node=6442600011) as well as having other pickup options in the UK (though I see in the US, there are not as many parcel dropoff services! is this an area for growth?)

Another UK example is Argos which has some partnership with eBay where you can have some purchases delivered to a local branch.

Most bricks and mortar stores will ship for free to your local store for pickup.

<comment><USER15> Amazon is testing something similar in the U.S. called Campus Pick-up Point [1]. It's a bit controversial because of competing with on-campus bookstores.

1: [http://fortune.com/2015/10/07/amazon-pick-up-college- campuse...](http://fortune.com/2015/10/07/amazon-pick-up-college-campuses/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Your solution itself is very simple, but getting everyone in a neighborhood to agree to put out fake packages is very difficult.

Also, a cardboard box that's left outside as a decoy for several days would soon deteriorate, and would need to be replaced in order to look realistic (a soggy old box on a dry day wouldn't be convincing). If someone doesn't order merchandise by mail, they would (1) have little incentive to participate in this activity and (2) have no ready source of cardboard boxes to do it with even if they wanted to.

</comment><comment><USER17> Why would you leave package on the porch?

In Poland postman has to contact someone in the home, and if nobody's there he leaves a note in the mail box "come to the post office and get your package - we will keep it for 2 weeks and then return it to the sender".

And right now there's "packageomats" operated by some other companies - <USER2> can ask for your package to be delivered there and you need a passsword to take it out [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Galeria_...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Galeria_Przymorze_w_Gda%C5%84sku_\(paczkomat_InPost\).JPG)

That's for people that don't have time when post offices are open, and aren't home when postman comes.

</comment><comment><USER18> I guess I'm a traditionalist, but since no one has suggested it yet, I'll suggest an alternative: rally to enforce the law. I'd assert that societies that accept theft as the norm, blaming the victim for failing to properly secure their goods, are on a downward slope from which they will never escape.

Instead of accepting that "property crime gets no attention", increase the risk to those would would steal packages by making it more likely that those who do so are caught and punished. Put a tracking device in a bait package, record the theft with a video camera, and report the final location to the police.

If the police fail to react to such a credible tip (especially if you can do this multiple times), turn the video and police report over to some local reporters. I think (hope?) that the reporters would have a field day, and make enough noise that those particular thieves will not be in business much longer.

</comment><comment><USER19> I don't see how this helps if the thief is following the delivery truck. Wouldn't they just take the decoy along with the real package?

</comment><comment><USER20> As other commenters from the UK have said, here you can't just leave a package outside someone's doorstep without a signature here. If the delivery company does this and you have no parcel, you just get on the phone to Amazon and tell them to send a replacement.

If theft is so common in the area and you can't simply reorder the product (for free) then surely buying some kind of secure lockbox is a better solution? Most courier companies will let you provide additional details like an entry code.

<comment><USER21> You can, and it does happen. But yes, you would get a replacement if its not there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> [http://www.paket.de/paketkasten](http://www.paket.de/paketkasten) is the private home solution, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packstation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packstation) is public

</comment><comment><USER8> From my consumer perspective (mostly Amazon Prime packages):

I've probably had 1 or 2 random lost/stolen packages over the last 6-7 years, from a handful of locations. There's more that randomly go missing for a day or so but those are usually carrier issues, and not lost, but delayed.

From my business perspective:

We're a semi-large FBA seller on Amazon and have had 100,000ish orders over the last 2 years. I've received many messages before where customers claim to have packages go missing, but a quick reply notifying the customer that we'll get x carrier to investigate usually gets a quick reply that they found the package.

To us, this is more of a numbers game where we allocate 0.x% of revenue to lost/stolen/damaged packages and then just try to minimize the losses on a case by case basis. Our main goal is to have happy customers that receive what they ordered, so if there's any delivery hiccups, we always take the liability and quickly replace or refund.

Bonus Amazon tip:

Delivery confirmation w/tracking information isn't proof of delivery for packages, and they'll refund/replace orders even if the tracking details say "Delivered". This makes sense when a package gets delivered and someone steals it before the customer takes possession of it.

As a seller on Amazon, in the event of a problem/claim, Amazon requires signature confirmation to guarantee that the package was actually received. Signature confirmation is expensive so it then only makes sense for packages valued at $300+. (Products in Electronics might be different w/higher loss rates)

IMO, damaged packages are a bigger issue, but then that becomes mostly a packaging, then carrier issue.

What's the solution? No clue, but adding friction points such as giving a package to a neighbor, or having to go somewhere else to retrieve your package just slowly adds to a negative customer experience over time and should be avoided whenever possible.

</comment><comment><USER23> a neighborhood in South Jordan, Utah is doing this exact thing.

[http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/utah-community- leaves-...](http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/utah-community-leaves-fake- packages-doorstep-thieves-35752709)

</comment><comment><USER15> My apartment complex has this problem: there is no package office but there is an outer gate.

USPS has a key to get inside the gate, but private couriers do not, so they can only leave missed delivery notes outside.

When USPS does deliver a package, they set it on the ground right inside the gate which is not all that secure either given the gate is occasionally left open by construction workers or maintenance people. The apartment allows us to send packages to their office instead, but it's impractical because their hours mirror work hours.

The best alternative I've come up with is to just ship packages to work and accept that I'll mostly miss out on Saturday deliveries.

</comment><comment><USER24> Just have them delivered to your office, or have them hold the packages at the post office?

<comment><USER25> Everyone has an office? Nope.

Couriers here refuse to leave a parcel at the post office. Couriers are such a pain..

Even if it works for me, the post office isn't a good choice for everybody. It might be a long distance away. Enjoy walking 10 kilometers (or more) while carrying a big, heavy package for half the trip?

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> The solution is to leave it to a convenience store nearby for a fee, the delivery company UPS or else should cut a deal with all the 7/11s nearby for temporary parcel holding.

Amazon locker is a good starting point, but moe Uber style convenience store joint venture would be a practical solution. There, a startup idea for anyone who care to try.

Last week, a $100 worth package was picked by a guy on cheap bike from my front door 20 minutes after the delivery. Though entirely captured on camera, there is nothing the police could do about it. Amazon might just refund the loss, what if this is eBay or newegg, surely troubling.

<comment><USER27> This exact thing is very popular in Europe, and in New Zealand they're rolling out third-party pick-up locations. Dairies (convenience stores), supermakets and shopping centres (malls) are signing up to get paid on a per-pickup basis.

You can buy something online and ask for it to be delivered to your local dairy where it'll be held for up to 10 days. You're required to show ID when picking it up, but it's so much more convenient than asking for evening or Saturday delivery when you're not sure when the courier will be around to deliver the item (although we're not getting very good estimates from analysing past delivery history for streets, 80% of the time accurate within 30 mins).

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I live in Chicago and deal with package theft at least once a year; this thought of dummy packages is not realistic and I'd never participate.

A more realistic solution: Package drop boxes. They can be either key or one- way door to help deter theft, and provide an added benefit of protecting a package against the elements.

Obviously, all packages weren't sized equal, but if you're having things delivered regularly, you can determine the type of cubic storage you'd need for a drop box to cover the majority of your deliveries.

<comment><USER28> And if package drop boxes aren't viable then fine, let's just move onto Robotic Butlers who can answer the door and accept packages

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Here's what you're missing: I do a lot of online shopping, but packages getting stolen have cost me, personally, $0. Your proposal would cost me > $0. Why should I participate?

<comment><USER30> I understand that this might be how you feel since the seller probably has refunded missing packages. Now please consider that the added cost to the seller has already been factored in on all your purchases. Therefore, if there were no stolen packages, your purchases would have been cheaper. Does that change how you feel about it?

<comment><USER31> Loss from package theft from doorsteps is still less than retail shrinkage. It's difficult to get exact numbers, but even in densely populated areas it's unlikely to reach the retail shrinkage of 1.44%.

If package theft decreased from, say...1% to 0.1%, that would not substantially impact price on the micro scale.

<comment><USER30> That's pretty much a 0.9% reduction on overall costs to the seller. Most credit cards offer 1% cashback and people love it, so I will dare to say that a 1% price reduction is very interesting.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Have you seen this guy's solution?

[http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/13580-homeowner- gets-...](http://www.insideedition.com/headlines/13580-homeowner-gets-revenge- on-package-thieves-with-a-box-full-of-dog-poop)

Pretty humorous but could lead to retaliation.

</comment><comment><USER33> UPS, at least, will deliver to my local bodega, which keeps commuter-friendly hours (open till 10pm most days). It's called "MyChoice." It's free, but you have to sign up for it. I typically use it for high-value deliveries; it's worked well so far.

<comment><USER34> What is a bodega?

<comment><USER35> A small convenience/grocery store in a dense urban area.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> In India, Flipkart ( an e-commerce company) gives you an option to leave the package with a nearby shop (which would have signed up as a partner). Maybe you could try working out something with a shop-owner nearby (and one day scale it as a solution :) )

</comment><comment><USER37> You're missing a) that it requires a lot of coordination, b) most people don't want to leave junk on their porch and c) it's not so big of a problem that it requires so much involvement from tons of people who don't even care.

</comment><comment><USER38> Could you buy a mailbox for them to drop packages into? And then you could bolt it onto something firm.

Doesn't stop people from watching for deliveries, cutting the mailbox open, and stealing packages inside; but if that happened to me I'd consider moving.

</comment><comment><USER31> If thieves are just following delivery trucks, they'd see the difference between the decoy and the real package immediately. This doesn't gain you anything but leaves a bunch of garbage on everyone's door.

</comment><comment><USER39> In France (and I suspect in many European countries), most modern buildings/renovated buildings have large mailbox in which many packages fit (e.g. books). The mailman has a 'universal key' and drop the packages there.

</comment><comment><USER40> Is this actually a real problem or just an imagined one? Anyway don't couriers normally require recipient signature? If a courier left a package on my doorstep in NZ I'd probably complain.

<comment><USER41> I think it's mainly a US thing. Here in Poland it's also unheard of that courier would leave the package unattended on the doorstep, because recipient's signature is required.

</comment></comment><comment><USER42> Expensive? Yes! Effective? Possibly. [http://www.thelandport.com](http://www.thelandport.com)

</comment><comment><USER43> > Obviously, the better solution would be bait packages with tracking devices > that would alert law enforcement when moved and serve as probable cause for > searches...

This is a start up idea. You design and sell a gadget that is put inside a parcel. You sell it to law enforcement, or to delivery companies.

</comment><comment><USER44> Low tech but not low cost - move.

<comment><USER45> to a condo with concierge</comment></comment>


How Easily Distracted Are You? - <AUTHOR> http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/01/how-easily-distracted-are-you.html <comment><USER2> Well, I clicked on this link...</comment>