Kenya Government mandates DNA-linked national ID, without data protection law - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2019/02/08/kenya-government-mandates-dna-linked-national-id-without-data-protection-law/ <comment><USER2> Kenya is part of China's belt and road initiative. I wonder if this is aided by China to lay the groundwork to push the country to be authoritarian. Just like how ZTE helps Venezuela tighten the control of her citizens. [https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special- report/venezuel...](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special- report/venezuela-zte/)

<comment><USER3> Or like US is helping authoritarian governments(i.e Saudi Arabia) or like US companies (i.e Cisco?) are helping China gov to censorship its people. It's all about the money. US is no different. Spreading freedom and democracy is secondary for the US just like spreading communism is for China.

<comment><USER2> I don't doubt that money is one of the major driving motives of almost everything we do.

My point is I fail to see how your comment, regardless of its truthfullness, adds value to the discussion.

If there already exist murderers, is it okay for you to become a murderer?

What the article suggests is without proper checks and balances in-place, the new system could easily be used against Kenya people. And I totally agree. But to stop it, we need to find out the root cause of the problem.

<comment><USER4> The post adds value because it puts the China post into perspective. There's a trend right now to make China the political Boogeyman, when the geopolitical reality is more nuanced.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) now requires all > Kenyans, immigrants, and refugees to turn over their DNA, GPS coordinates of > their residential address, retina scans, iris pattern, voice waves, and > earlobe geometry before being issued critical identification documents.

Ouch. The full identity theft package. Probably worth comparing this with the controversy over Aadhar, the Indian scheme.

<comment><USER6> Is any of this currently used in ID theft (other than residential location)? Earlobe shape isn't exactly a security question. Might screw them over in the future but hard to call this the full identity theft package.

<comment><USER7> Is "identity theft" a thing in Kenya? I mean the US meaning is tied up with easy credit, someone else borrows money in your name, and the lender asks few questions until too late for them. I had the impression that places like Kenya there was very little such consumer credit available.

Edit: I guess the other meaning is things like getting a duplicate SIM card to defeat 2FA. I'd imagine that's a problem. Can anyone comment whether such information would make this easier?

<comment><USER8> > Is "identity theft" a thing in Kenya?

Yes:

[https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001287820/phone- use...](https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001287820/phone-users-losing- millions-through-identity-theft)

<comment><USER7> OK, so breaking 2FA & emptying your account, rather than taking a loan.

Would the world with this system (and its inevitable leaks) be worse? What I mean is that replacing a system where e.g. knowing someone's mother's maiden name is enough to get you a SIM card, to one where you have to show up and have the same earlobes... even if, err, the earlobes leak, might be better?

Or does getting a SIM card involve an inside man, in which case maybe nothing changes?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > The ID card is a critical document that impacts everyday life, without it, > an individual cannot vote, purchase property, access higher education, > obtain employment, access credit, or public health, among other fundamental > rights.

It's the same in Belgium, France and I'd bet it's the same in any other European Union countries.

<comment><USER10> And then there are civilised countries that do not have national ID, yet their citizens can vote, purchase property, access higher education, obtain employment, access credit, or public health, among other fundamental rights. Hence, national ID is clearly not necessary.

<comment><USER11> In the UK we don't have national ID but try and do anything without a passport or driving licence.

<comment><USER12> Instead a weird mix of council tax bills or your last water bill's address or such is used as identification, which is hardly any better.

<comment><USER13> People can get an idea of what's used to prove ID and address from this list. [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proof-of- identity...](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proof-of-identity- checklist/proof-of-identity-checklist)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The importance of DNA data to privacy is often overstated. It's not clear from the article, but for very serious cost reasons, this "DNA data" will include a small panel of genetic markers which are suited for identification.

It is virtually impossible to derive any health information from that data. It may be possible to estimate a person's ethnic background (which sometimes may be a danger in Africa) within reason. The one certain danger to privacy would be around family relationships, which some people may want to keep hidden.

So they really need to make sure they evaluate and communicate the benefits of this kind of data collection. To me it sounds a bit like some private vendors sold them the kitchen sink...

</comment><comment><USER15> Great. A database that might be able to tag your ethnicity in a region with recurring ethnic violence.

<comment><USER14> In the hands of a trustworthy government that data would actually be useful to curb ethnic violence because you know where to deploy forces in the event something happens.

Then again, "trustworthiness" is not exactly a strength of an average African government so far.

<comment><USER16> _> "In the hands of a trustworthy government"._

Is there such a thing as a trustworthy government?

<comment><USER14> Trustworthiness is not an absolute thing. I trust my German government pretty far though, because I know I and my people can eventually hold them responsible for most things. The U.S. government, in most things, I also -mostly- trust, maybe not that far, but a lot farther than Russia or China.

And yes, I'd much rather have the NSA spy on me, than Russia and China. And that often is the choice when choosing technologies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > _Ethnic Discrimination Concerns: The collection of DNA is particularly > concerning as this information can be used to identify an individual's > ethnic identity. Given Kenya's history of politicization of ethnic identity, > collecting this data in a centralized database like NIIMS could reproduce > and exacerbate patterns of discrimination._

Imagine promoting a system so prone to abuse that you're really only one election away from an inescapable genocide whose detractors can be silenced perfectly.

<comment><USER14> You really don't need DNA information for a genocide. It may not even make a genocide or racial violence worse.

After all, racism is rarely fact-based.

<comment><USER17> > _After all, racism is rarely fact-based._

But the impression that they know people's race, whether the DNA gathered are used in that determination or not (I vote not, since it's more expensive than a machete), is likely to help the case of whatever regime thinks it up.

Also, my emphasis was more on the _detractors can be silenced perfectly_ bit. You can see the accompanying legislation coming, requiring social media and other communications infrastructure to be authenticated with the state id.

<comment><USER14> In my opinion it is much more viable to stop a government from abusing data than to stop the government having access to the data. Some biometric modalities like fingerprints, DNA and face images are quite literally "broadcast" by everyone.

In many cases, government access to certain data is not a problem if you can trust the government. If you can't trust the government, you have a bigger problem.

In the case of knowing who is which ethnicity and lives where in the African context, you can easily construct a scenario where they could round up a particular ethnicity. Or they just ask the locals.

In another scenario, if Group A is directing violence towards Group B, the government instantly knows where to send forces to stop it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Indian government is working for a framework called India Stack which they are pitching to African countries. It is biometric linked identity that helps government track their citizens easily while also owning the data (protection from American companies).

</comment><comment><USER19> Ouch, China will know everything of all Kenyans soon.

<comment><USER14> Not really. They could have all that biometric "data" but it yields very little information of value. In the majority nothing blackmailable (except maybe their children out of wedlock), and for the foreseeable future not a lot of potential for ad targeting or ecommerce...

The problems start when you have to use that Id for things like Internet Access etc. and the government starts censoring and actual surveillance.

<comment><USER20> DNA is very valuable for bioweapons...

<comment><USER14> The DNA data used for biometric identification is totally worthless for bioweapons.

Targeted bioweapons are a total oxymoron for the foreseeable future, and I doubt you'd use microsattelite markers or even SNPs.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I feel dreadful reading these types of things. The world seems to be running full speed into a dystopian future. Slow down, I say. Think about what you are doing and the consequences of your actions. NSA, POTUS lowering the bar for acceptable behavior, China monitoring, god knows what else, now this in Kenya.

<comment><USER22> Kenya is a crime hotspot with GDP per capita of $1,500. Average IQ is 80.

I don't think people there care about privacy when they are struggling to avoid being robbed and to put a roof over their heads. If these measures can make Government and policing more efficient, than so be it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Since my comment is quite long, I'm putting the most important point right at the beginning. If anyone from Kenya or with interests in Kenya is reading this comment, please immediately take this law to court (since the article says this law is unconstitutional). Start mass campaigns and get people to understand and talk about it. It may probably take time to be heard, and it may probably seem impossible to win. But learn from the grotesque blunders that India has done with Aadhaar, and use that to fuel your fight. It would be terrible to give up so much for hardly any gain (only the companies that take your money to implement the system would gain, and some people in power). India is the shameful poster child here, and there's lots to learn. Also follow the money and see who's pushing for this (likely to be large multinational companies that are in cahoots with those in power).

This is just a bit worse than Aadhaar, the biometric based "unique ID" that's been bulldozed on to people in India. The Aadhaar program ran as an executive mandate (with no legislative backing) for several years, then a poorly drafted law was brought in and passed through subterfuge by the current ruling party (BJP). Aadhaar is based on fingerprints and iris scan, but there are provisions in the backing law to include DNA or other information as and when the authority pleases.

Like this Kenyan ID, India's Aadhaar has no opt-out (the Supreme Court gave a vague ruling last year that children should be able to opt out, but that hasn't been implemented).

It seems like this Kenyan ID uses biometrics directly, which is how Aadhaar also works. If your biometrics are leaked or compromised (I'm highly amused to even write these words), then you cannot revoke the ID or get a new ID. The concept of cancelable biometrics was not considered (Nandan Nilekani, one of the founders of the famous/infamous Indian company Infosys, headed this ID program, and suffice it to say that it's been a disaster in so many ways).

Like Kenya, India still does not have a data privacy law (the one drafted by a government commission has many issues, but will become the law in the future), but the government coerced many people to get Aadhaar through lies, deceitful marketing and causing general panic.

Hundreds of thousands (or even millions, by now) have lost money because of the way Aadhaar was linked to almost everything (bank accounts, phone numbers and many more), and the government's constant coercion and panic creation for people to get it and link it was the opportunity of a lifetime for people to phish, scam and defraud people. The majority of the affected were/are not digitally literate (even many educated people aren't generally digitally literate) and are poorer and/or elderly.

Since Aadhaar was, and is continuing to be, used for government subsidies, the failure of the poorly designed, centralized system in a country with poor network infrastructure and a lot of inherent corruption resulted in many deaths, including starvation deaths of small children, and disabled and/or elderly people.

India is a place where the executive branch of the government can get away with saying that these didn't happen (denial) or that it's collateral damage ("nothing in this world is flawless, so why bother?" is the mindset). The courts won't intervene on their own even for such grave matters.

Over the years, people have pointed out several security flaws in the system, but the authority in charge of Aadhaar, UIDAI, has always been in denial mode (and still is). The reaction of UIDAI has always been to file criminal complaints against those who show the weaknesses, instead of encouraging responsible disclosure or acknowledging the efforts of such people.

Since the Indian judicial system is also very slow (it took more than three years to even start hearing the cases filed by many people against this ID), the government had it quite easy. That's why I keep using the term "bulldozed".

Those who wanted to show the security flaws many a times refrained from doing it themselves because of the repercussions. And that's why the biggest opponent examining and talking about the security issues in the Aadhaar system is a French national who goes by the name Elliot Anderson on Twitter. [1]

Even Troy Hunt pointed out many basic flaws [2], but UIDAI's response was, as usual, denial.

Mozilla, EFF and many others have written about, and against, the Aadhaar program.

I can go on and on, but this would then become a book (see my profile for a little more).

[1]: [https://twitter.com/fs0c131y](https://twitter.com/fs0c131y)

[2]: [https://www.troyhunt.com/is-indias-aadhaar-system-really- hac...](https://www.troyhunt.com/is-indias-aadhaar-system-really-hack-proof- assessing-a-publicly-observable-security-posture/)

</comment><comment><USER24> In a country that has experienced tribal clashes, is one of the most corrupt in the world (law enforcement got to be the most corrupt in the world) and on the brink of debt slavery to China it marks the end of democracy, freedom and human rights. If they carry on, I foresee increase in extrajudicial killings, over taxation and eventually a Rwanda style genocide one day.</comment>


Ask HN: You're the smartest people I know. I am struggling and need advice. - <AUTHOR> TL;DR:  I have serious motivation issues.
I'm reaching out here because I really need some advice.
I am 24 years old, and I seriously struggle with motivation to do... just about anything.  I have a midterm tomorrow in Dynamics (a mech engr course), and I have pretty much neglected the class entirely, and I am most certainly going to fail it, and I'll have to withdraw.  This isn't surprising, because I've been in this situation many, many times before.  But the issue goes much deeper.
For my entire life, I have struggled to do many basic things other people have no trouble with, like keeping my room clean or being on time.  (I am chronically late).  For high school I had bad grades, and for college I've had abysmal ones.  I took Calc 2 three times, and Calc 3 four times.  Business 1 three times, and I've repeated probably 3 or 4 engineering and other easy classes just a single time as well.
After my third year at university (a complete disaster), I investigated getting tested for ADD, and lo- and behold I "had" it, along with mild depression.  Now I live on my own, and aside from not having enough friends as I'd like / once had, I don't really have any real reasons to be depressed.  I started Adderrall a few years ago, and it showed me how backward I am.  I'll get to this later.
A recent talk with my half-sister really opened my eyes by showing me she is very much like me when it comes to getting things done.  For just about everything, I get no mental stimulation out of "doing it now," so I put it off.  And off.  And off.  I have some kind of huge mental resistance, anxiety, or pain associated with doing it (for all you neuroscientists out there).
I've reached the character limit, but I'm almost done, so finish it here: http://www.survivingsteam.com/hnthread <comment><USER2> OK. I think we all struggle with procrastination. I seriously doubt you are alone in your level of procrastination. If you ever get a chance to flick through "The Procrastination Equation" you'll get why we, as humans, are programmed to procrastinate. So don't worry it is perfectly normal behaviour.

There are no magic pills to get over this, and I speak from experience, but the first step for me was to stop being too ambitious. The next step was to set very very small tasks, one at a time. Resist making a list of all the tasks to complete the goal, just list the first and smallest task that comes to mind. Then do it and iterate.

Lastly, you don't seem to be happy with the subjects you are taking, is there any other areas that gets you properly interested - don't just do the science stuff because you think it's what to do.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the input. I've wondered about whether the engineering route is for me. Sometimes I view it as something I dislike less than everything else.

Generally I really like building and designing things, but unfortunately many of the classes in school don't revolve around that, and instead revolve around copious amounts of math and equations, which is understandable, but not something too many engineers do on a daily basis these days. I like math in general, but calculating projectile motion of a spring-launched object and the like doesn't really keep me interested.

I will try the small task lists. Thanks for that.

<comment><USER2> Is there anything like an art based product design class? It's what I did and found it great because it totally avoided all maths - the idea was that you came up with the ideas, you built the prototypes, solving engineering problems by doing and learning intuitively what works and what breaks rather than by maths. In fact the engineers often work for designers, so it's a question of where you'd like to be in the food chain.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> I had this problem when I was younger. Finally I realized I was happier when I didn't have a bunch of things to do weighing on me. I guess my advice boils down to:

1\. Simplify: Cut the fat out of your life... unnecessary complications, bills, negative people, automate everything, etc. Less is more.

2\. Focus: Go skydiving (or equiv near-death experience) occasionally, it will put all your problems into perspective immediately (as tiny).

3\. Perspective: Travel, for the same reasons.

4\. Strategy: * Do one thing-you-don't-want-to a day. * Doesn't sound like much, does it? Well, that's 7 boring things done per week and they add up quickly. If that still isn't enough, see #1.

5\. Get pro. help if you are still depressed, but you may not need to after the above.

Extra cred: Dale Carnegie's book about enjoying your life is a fun read.

</comment><comment><USER4> Dear Miserlou57,

You sound like you're struggling to live somebody else's life. There is nothing wrong with ADD or having a messy bedroom. This only means that you live more inside your head than in the present here and now. This means you're a highly intuitive individual, which could give you a serious edge. This could also be the cause of your depression. Depression can be caused by over thinking worst possible scenarios (that do not exist in reality) which leads to catastrophic thinking. Come back to reality, reality is not that bad, face it! Get to know yourself better and make sure you become a specialist at knowing yourself, this will avoid setting yourself up for failure. There is a tremendous force inside you that you must learn to master by knowing yourself or else it'll play against you. Only life experience will make you better at this. You've taken the first step by identifying it and seeking for help. Here a little inspirational video for you, good luck! <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpe-LKn-4gM>

</comment><comment><USER5> Ypu're not alone and yes everyone has this to a lesser or greater extent The key is that there is no medecine that makes this better, just ways of adjusting your outlook, setting clear goals and overcoming procrastination.

I would second offdrey referral to <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5378462>

</comment><comment><USER6> Try some strengths tests like:

<https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/Purchase/>

sounds cheesy but these are sometimes very insightful. It likely will not tell you anything new, usually just makes the obvious clear.

</comment><comment><USER7> The current top thread on HN (<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5378462>) is about procrastination. I think you may find it helpful.

<comment><AUTHOR> I definitely saw it... it is very interesting! thanks!

<comment><USER8> a mail on your profile would be good if you want some help...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think that I've got a place for you <http://www.reddit.com/r/INTP>

</comment><comment><USER10> Hi there,

I was in the same place as yours 4 years back. I am out of college now with a full-time job and almost out of debt. Here's what had worked for me. It might not work for you.

You have real world skills like building a web app and have a part time job. I had none.

I was down with 6 courses with F grades and no idea what to do with my life. I was about to quit college. I knew I was going somewhere wrong with the notion of world I had.

I took a Vipassana course. The courses are of 10 days duration, independent of religious stuff and free of charge to all those who wish to do so. Here the link : <http://www.dhamma.org/>. It is like a gym for the mind. The more you do it, the more you increase your focus, willpower and awareness. It becomes easier to deal with problems in life with a strong mind. It also forces you to look at life directly rather than deluding yourself with self pity or fantasies.

It was hard for me to realize that : 1) I am dissatisfied only when I am not getting something that I want. 2) There is a price to pay for everything I want.

For me at that moment, the most important thing was to pass out of college since I had taken a loan to study there. I was really interested to know, what I was doing different than the guys who were the toppers with all 'A's.

One of the toppers told me, he really did 3 things : 1) Attended every class and took notes of almost everything. 2) Tried to understand everything told by the Professor during the lecture or the same day itself, paraphrashing the notes if required. 3) Teach other students the stuff before the exams. (Most important since we retain 90% of the stuff we teach or apply straight away in case of programming)

I almost remember the day he told me this stuff. But did I implement it straight away? No I just could not. I could not come out of my old habits straight away. That semester I flunked in almost all of the courses.

But the next semester I decided to implement all the three from Day One. The first two were quite easy. I was really concerned about the last part.

I had reservations who would try to understand stuff from me. But I think I was repeating "Theory of Computation", just before the exams some student asked me to help with something. I asked him to come sometime in the night. I explained concepts to an audience of nine students who were taking the course. I passed that course easily.

The last two semesters were very easy after forming those habits and I easily passed all the previously flunked courses as well. I even had time to be a part of a band and teach Java programming to a group of fellow students.

I would not say the whole journey was easy. Forming new habits are difficult and it needs a lot of motivation. Regular Vipassana meditation helped. My mom helped me with all kinds of support - financial as well as emotional. Sometimes when I was really down, I reminded myself that she believed in me and no matter what happened I was going to be brave enough to survive college.

Again this is my story but it is you who has to try new stuff and habits to yourself to go from "where you are" to "where you want to be". It is your habits who make you are. You can change those habits. Other people have done so. So can you.

All the best from my side. Would really like to see you stuff making HN frontpage.

Shoot me an email about anything.

\-- Fellow HNer

</comment><comment><USER11> "I'm 24, and my life is in shambles, compared to what it could be."

That you think this is one positive step toward your idea of "life...what it could be". A lot of 24 year olds do not have such aspirations. So just aspiring to something is helpful.

"I seriously struggle with motivation to do just about anything. I have a midterm tomorrow in Dynamics (a mech engr course), and I have pretty much neglected the class entirely, and I am most certainly going to fail it, and I'll have to withdraw. This isn't surprising, because I've been in this situation many, many times before."

You were discussing how you think people on HN are smart. I think people on HN are limited. Not only do I think that, I am right, people on HN are limited. Including myself. Gnothi seauton. Know your limitations. Why do even the best coders say people shouldn't put more than, say, seven objects or variables in a function? The truth is, many functions would be better with a couple of dozen variables in them. Why do the best coders not do this? Because they are limited. They can only keep seven or eight objects in their head at once, they can't keep track of two hundred objects in their head at once. So they write code that their limited brains can understand. Bad coders write long functions with hundreds of variables, to where they can't keep the whole function in their head any more, and their code fails. Good coders write functions that their tiny 1.5kg, 1 cubic decimeter brains can handle.

You said you know you're going to fail the course you mention. Did you know before you started you would? I don't know the answer, but it seems like you did, or you should have. So why take the course? Why set yourself up to fail? You talk about motivation - nothing is more DE-motivating than setting yourself up to fail like that. Or trying to get that great Apple job you're not yet qualified for.

Just like big code has to be "broken up" into small functions, you have to "break up" your big goals. Set small, realistic, achievable goals and go from step to step. If you can't achieve these new goals, then obviously they're not small, realistic and/or achievable enough, so make them smaller, more realistic and more achievale.

Nothing is more demotivating than this cycle of "going for the gold" and failing every time. Things go incremently. There are setbacks, maybe small, achievable, realistic goal #4 will have some setback. So just deal with it and go on. If you can only concentrate for five minutes, your goal should be to concentrate for five minutes and thirty seconds. And go from there. Iterative and incremental are popular philosophies here.</comment>


Break RSA encryption with this one weird trick - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/quantum-bits/break-rsa-encryption-with-this-one-weird-trick-d955e3394870

<comment><USER2> Step 2 requires a quantum computer.

Edit: Did I misread the article? Does step 2 not require a quantum computer?

<comment><USER3> From the article:

"However, one technology can render RSA useless.

(Hint: it's a quantum computer)"

So yes, it does.</comment></comment>


Yes, Apple and Samsung Have Been Slowing Down Your Phone on Purpose - <AUTHOR> https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/xw9jek/yes-apple-and-samsung-have-been-slowing-down-your-phone-on-purpose <comment><USER2> So who gets the money from all these fines? Because the normal customer never sees a penny.

<comment><USER3> Different country but I've recieved money from FTC settlements before.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Bit surprised why its specific to Italy. EU should be penalise these comapnies for such malpractices</comment>


Ask HN: How to find people/blogs in niche topics? - <AUTHOR> While finding good blogs, in general, seems to be very hard, finding good and interesting blogs about niche topics is just blind luck to me. For example, I'm very interested in the topic of exploring new ways to teach computer science and math (taking into account different mindsets, ways people learn concepts, the importance of empathy, etc). The blogs and people I've found all come from random topics on HN and Reddit. I wonder how many links I missed over the years.<p>How do you find interesting people to follow? <comment><USER2> > How do you find interesting people to follow?

Use Twitter. At least some of those people with interesting blogs tweet and re-tweet interesting additional sources. You can also check out who they follow, and who follows them for further leads. You could also search for who is tweeting about the blogs that you do follow, and see what else they are tweeting.

Especially in the areas of teaching CS and math I think Twitter is applicable. There are a lot of people in those areas on Twitter. @benorlin, @centerofmath, @henryseg, @JohnDCook (and his many aliases) come immediately to mind.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you. 10 minutes in and I already found great resources. Ben Orlin is fantastic!</comment></comment>


France announces an "active space defense" strategy - <AUTHOR> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/07/30/french_arming_satellites/ <comment><USER2> Yes, being they were attacked in 2015, Space ISIS is also a concern to the French.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think ISIS is the stated threat here, more likely state actors (Russia, for example) targeting satellites.</comment></comment>


95% of Chinese Users Would Rather Give Up Their iPhones Than Lose WeChat - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/13/china-iphone-users-prefer-wechat/ <comment><USER2> And to think they also get more granular control over their phone's file system too by using Android or Huawei ^.^

</comment><comment><USER3> So much for the vaunted innovation of IT in China. Watch censorship in real time as posts disappear before your eyes.</comment>


Taste the ash, see our pink sun: Sydney's dead future is here - <AUTHOR> https://www.smh.com.au/national/taste-the-ash-see-our-pink-sun-sydney-s-dead-future-is-here-20191210-p53il4.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_national <comment><USER2> This was much of Northern California last year, and indeed it was awful.</comment>


Improving Malicious Document Detection in Gmail with Deep Learning - <AUTHOR> https://security.googleblog.com/2020/02/improving-malicious-document-detection.html <comment> 1-6 "We are still actively developing this technology, and right now, we only use it to scan Office documents."</comment>


A Love Letter to Plain Text - <AUTHOR> https://blog.afoolishmanifesto.com/posts/a-love-letter-to-plain-text/ <comment><USER2> Without subtracting anything from the main point on plain text, it sounds like this person is in many senses reinventing the Org file format!

<comment><USER3> org-mode is one of my favorite discoveries in recent years.

I'm now only using Markdown when I absolutely have to and live in org-mode for everything else. And I've only just began scratching the surface of org's features!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is not just Plain Text. Hugo is not that good for a bunch of text/markdown files. My advice is to look more into mkdocs which is a bunch of markdown files in a directory structure presented nicely (even implements js search).

</comment><comment><USER5> A love letter to plain text would be a bit more lovely without so much unnecessary formatting (colors, borders, and other embellishments).

<comment><USER6> "Find A Way To Call TFA Author A Hypocrite" seems to be a whole genre of news aggregator comment

<comment><USER7> Only for articles with pretentious titles.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, "love letter to plain text" \-- who does he think he is? Such gall! /s

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> ... starts by loading everything into a database.

<comment><USER10> A far cry from jekyll

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> What is 'plain text' ? Is it ASCII ? 7 or 8 bit ? EBCDIC ? UTF-8 ?

<comment><USER7> Encodings do not make text a binary format. This pedantry is uncalled for.

<comment><USER12> I'm not sure the text/binary distinction is that useful.

ASCII is much simpler than Unicode encodings, to the point where text can even become an attack vector. A fully featured UTF-8 parsing and rendering engine is a sophisticated thing.

Does it matter whether one or the other is classified as text or binary? Not as much as it matters which requires the more complex code to process.

<comment><USER13> > A fully featured UTF-8 parsing and rendering engine is a sophisticated > thing.

No, UTF8 decoding is trivial, you can do it in a few dozen lines in just about any language. It's Unicode that is a complex and moving target. But you can also just choose to implement a sane subset of Unicode for your application.

Recommended reading: [http://cat-v.org/](http://cat-v.org/), [https://github.com/cls/libutf](https://github.com/cls/libutf)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nice that I see this article just while I'm working on a theme for Hugo. I like TOML and YAML for their simple approaches. You'll usually need some kind of structure, though.

</comment><comment><USER15> As a side note: I find it amazing how many private pictures the author is sharing on his public Flickr album, which is linked on the website.

<comment><USER16> By definition the author doesn't consider them private so why is it amazing. What's more amazing is someone would go and even look at them let alone comment on their content!

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Why is this trending?

</comment><comment><USER18> Whoa that's an ugly webpage. It's so huge!

<comment><USER19> But it's so legible!</comment></comment>


Microsoft launches so.cl - <AUTHOR> http://www.so.cl/?1 <comment><USER2> Here's what I observed

\- Very slow response time to requests to the server. (4x of Facebook response time)

\- Serious usability and JavaScript problems.

\- Main point did not made clear. Just signed up, auto-followed 12 friends and still no idea what to do with it or why would I use it.

\- Back button does not work at some cases with AJAX URLs with URL hashes (.../#/foo). Breaking the web experience.

</comment><comment><USER3> > So.cl (pronounced "social")

💩 (pronounced "so-dot-cl")

Sorry, couldn't resist. Microsoft should really stop underpaying their marketing people so that they would stop producing kaka for branding. If Bing was a red flag, this is really someone having a field day. How would they _ever_ settle on "s-o-dot-k-l" being "pronounced social" is beyond me. The logo looks like a diver with snorkel tube on a side. The /S/ is completely f#cked up in terms of glyph design, it is unbalanced and appears to be falling to the left. A wordmark that looks like retarded smiley that lacks any sort of concept subtlety, and a name that sounds like a chemical compound, based off a poisonous gas that was unleashed by sneaky Germans during WWI. Perfect all over.

<comment><USER4> What's wrong with name of Bing?

<comment><USER3> Have you seen the logo?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Google execs are breathing a sigh of relief, now when asked about Google+ usage they can say "... could be worse, look at so.cl"

<comment><USER6> Except that Google+ is the new backbone of Google, not a research project.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sadly, this site has some security vulnerabilities. Although I have reported them to firstname.lastname@example.com, I am not sure if my message will reach its intended destination as the "support" forum is inaccessible to me.

Just typing this out in case a member of MS Research is reading along and wants to contact me directly.

Edit: Just got a reply after less than 5 minutes had passed. They are notified and take appropriate steps. :-)

<comment><USER8> Might want to include your email in your profile.

<comment><USER9> And perhaps something of a report?

<comment><USER7> I will post a report here as soon as the issue is resolved. Basically it is plain XSS and one more thing so nothing overwhelmingly critical for them to fix.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The technology doesn't attract people - people attract people. Microsoft have yet again missed the basic concept of social networking. Is it really that difficult to figure out?

As so.cl has no users, it can hardly be considered a social network. So far it's just a shell of a website with nothing to attract anyone into it.

If you wanna break into the social networking industry, stop creating useless technology and start creating communities.

</comment><comment><USER11> Since this is from Lili Cheng's team, I suspect this is a MSR/Labs effort as opposed to a full-blown 'product'. That team is spectacular -she built one of the first social networks to ever exist - Wallop, all the way back in 2003-2004.

<comment><USER12> > _Wallop, all the way back in 2003-2004._

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "one of the first". Friendster got 1 million users before anyone else, and was launched 2002. PlanetAll launched 1996. SixDegrees launched 1997. Friends Reunited launched 2000. SuicideGirls launched 2001. MySpace launched 2003. LinkedIn launched 2003.

Social networking features were also common in many other communities.

<comment><USER13> Well... Wallop was one of the first... thousand. ;-)

I really hate when people claim they were first on something hoping nobody remembers what came before.

Disclaimer: I helped build one of the first e-commerce applications in Brazil - a supermarket mailed CD-ROMs to clients who shopped and an application sent a text file over the phone (it was 1994 or 1995, months before the first proper ISP launched) and a program on the receiving end would process everything. Payment was money or check, paid upon receiving the merchandise. The client-side was mostly ToolBook and the back-end was Visual Basic.

That supermarket was one of the first to launch a website a year later built upon the backend processes we helped build, but with completely new software. Later in 1996 I wrote the e-commerce site for Brazil's then largest department store. At 10 orders per day, it was a huge success. I usually say it was one of the first and I'm aware of 2 other stores that came before.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work at all. The Done button after "I have read the terms.. " didn't work and then the build your popup box was loading for infinite time (yes infinite). The top bar looks very much like Google's!

</comment><comment><USER15>
        Sign in to So.cl with Facebook

Or you could, you know, just sign in to facebook directly.

<comment><USER16> Was thinking the exact same thing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> So, it's Facebook meets Pinterest meets Schemer? Looks interesting. I like how they go out of their way to assuage privacy fears on the login page ("Socl does not share your searches etc on Facebook").

Also, I hate to be that guy, but it should be "its" in the title.

</comment><comment><USER18> Incredibly difficult to use. I tried sharing a link, and it worked nothing like I expected, and involved at least 4 attempts.

</comment><comment><USER19>
        So.cl (pronounced "social") is an experimental research
        project, developed by Microsoft's FUSE Labs, focused on
        exploring the possibilities of social search for the
        purpose of learning.

Sounds surprisingly interesting... Also surprised by the "Login with Facebook" option, but I guess it makes some sense if it's just a research project.

<comment><USER20> Next we'll see 'Login in with So.cl with Facebook'.

<comment><USER21> Um, top-right, it's already there.

<comment><USER22> I think he might be referring to logging into Facebook using so.cl, which I'm guessing is not meant seriously.

<comment><USER23> Or logging into another website with so.cl after logging into so.cl with Facebook.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> > Start a video party

Don't know if anyone remembers netmeeting. Microsoft basically discovered chatroulette back in 1998 already, although the results must have freaked them out - lots of naked people. Wonder if they've changed their views this time?

<comment><USER25> Xbox live already has naked video parties on the Uno channel.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Thumbs up to their logo. The little smiley face is extremely friendly and inviting.

<comment><USER27> And a nice short url.

<comment><USER28> Not to get into the with or without www. argument, but this domain would benefit without the prefix. www.so.cl looks odd, especially when they are trying to brand it as "social". Only reason why I'm bringing it up is that they are forcing the www.

<comment><USER27> Agree, I didn't notice that last time. Not a fan of the www prefix in general in my old age.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> There is Microsoft Research label. Sound more like an experiment to me.

<comment><USER30> I thought the same thing, but also, the "research" label could be just a safety net in case it doesn't turn out very well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I just registered to say that the "remember me on this computer" checkbox on teh front page does not use a <label>. Whenever I see stuff like this (on a brand new website nonetheless!) I lose more hope we will see consistent and semantic website markup.

</comment><comment><USER32> This is just another example of why Microsoft is never going to succeed - trying to force yourself into a market almost always produces a poor product. Microsoft is always going to be losing to the startups which evolve a product from an actual want.

</comment><comment><USER33> well, whenever MS makes a product that everyone thinks is inferior and will never make it, I like to recall msn messenger, and of course ie

messenger competed vs icq which had more features, large user base, icq was the facebook of the time, yet somehow mysteriously msn messenger took over

give it time, facebook is becoming icq, ppl who are complaining about the interface are only increasing and its very possible that could switch

a note about G+ i believe a big reason why it didnt catch up and where MS may have got it better, is the branding SOCL is not windowsLive+ or hotmail+ its a completely new brand with its easy to find url ... G+ is harder to find because its integrated into the google brand

</comment><comment><USER34> Honestly, this feels pretty unpolished and lacking features.

The video parties thing seems interesting, but is essentially Hangouts without the person-to-person video chat (that I could find).

Oh well.

</comment><comment><USER35> My 'Everyone' feed seems to have stopped working. I've also just had a javascript alert popup with an error...

Also irritated I can't sign in with Twitter.

</comment><comment><USER36> The really weird thing for me at the end of the "See how it works" video is the "A new research experience for students" message.

</comment><comment><USER37> Requires javascript. Yells at me that I need to enable javascript if I go there. Doesn't explain _why_ I might want to enable javascript, or hint at what their doubtless valuable javascript-mediated experience might be, or even show me an ad or a press release. _Does_ try to load javascript libraries from other domains, so that even if I create an exception for so.cl I get the same error message.

Is this _really_ a constructive way to build custom in this day and age?

<comment><USER38> _Is this really a constructive way to build custom in this day and age?_

No offense, but is browsing without javascript enabled really a way to use the internet in this day and age?

<comment><USER39> Only paranoid geeks browse without Javascript.

<comment><USER40> Only paranoid geeks refuse to enable Javascript when prompted. ;)

For awhile there I'd surf with JS off, but enable them when I get to a site I want to see.

Now though, every site seems to have JS as a requirement so I don't even bother. It was becoming a hassle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> They literally lower the quality of competition by just duplicating other social networks.

</comment><comment><USER42> Anyone got screens? The website shows up as a blank screen on my tablet.

<comment><USER43> Seconding this. I've tried it in Chrome, Firefox, and IE9 and it fails almost every time (strange too that it's inconsistent). IE9 is actually the worst, giving just "The view named 'Anonymous' does not derive from the ViewBase class."

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> This seems like Google +1 but with the ability to comment/discuss?

<comment><USER45> The difference they are promoting is sharing search engine results, and other content:

<http://www.so.cl/about/faq>

For example, I created a post about a tabletop game I ran this weekend, and was able to search within the posting process and quickly add two images related to the status update.

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> I wonder if Google+ bashing will target so.cl now. Probably not because Microsoft was clever enough to launch it quietly and call it 'experiment' not 'Facebook killer'.

<comment><USER47> And will probably get no users, too. Also Google did call it something close to an experiment. It was the media that called it Facebook killer, just like they called Wolfram the Google killer when they launched.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> with a domain like that, I had expectations of an awesome URL shortener. I wonder how much they paid for the domain?

<comment><USER49> On Microsoft scales, very little. Particularly as a share of the project's overall branding and marketing spend.

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> Another Microsoft "me too".

</comment><comment><USER51> DOA because no mobile site.

<comment><USER52> Agree completely. I tried to check it out on nexus galaxy. Facebook login didn't work, still not sure why as the popup was disfunctional. Will probably never visit again.

<comment><USER53> Opera mini on Android I get an error in a red box:

"Error binding 'function(){}' view

ReferenceError: Undefined variable: localStorage"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> Uh, on a Sunday? Weird.

</comment><comment><USER55> Yawn.

</comment><comment><USER56> Yikes. This is a really blatant mash of Google+/FB with no mobile presence and an enormous identity crisis. They even basically straight up stole "circles" and even use "Circles" as the bullet icon for the <ul> displaying them under "Feed". The "dropdown popup" on each post looks pixel for pixel identical to G+'s, "Video Party" = Hangout (which would be hard to beat anyway as Hangouts are impressive if you've not used them lately and will soon be 100% plugin free), FB's "What's on your mind" = So.cl's "What is on your mind".

Is there anything new or original here at all, except for some bad "text as images" and other MSN/Live/Microsoft account styling cues? Good god, this is just, embarrassing.

<comment><USER57> _Is there anything new or original here at all, except for some bad "text as images" and other MSN/Live/Microsoft account styling cues? Good god, this is just, embarrassing._

Well.. my feed stream is full of random people posting barely clothed people.. My facebook random people are all fully clothed.

<comment><USER35> Are searches public?! I'm seeing the same!!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> Microsoft R&D delivers again. Name one feature in so.cl that wasn't a copy of what they already saw somebody else do, except given a slightly different name or capitalization in order to shave off the boilerplate. Is there anything left from Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon/Sony for them to copy, er, I mean, innovate in-house?

I also bet they'll claim it took a team of 50 people and cost $1B to create. Because taxes and accounting, of course.</comment>


AbstractSingletonProxyFactoryBean - <AUTHOR> https://jira.springsource.org/browse/SPR-8680?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:worklog-tabpanel

<comment><USER2> I'm so glad I don't have to write classes like this.

</comment><comment> helper-method So? Sry I don't get it...</comment>


Designed by Apple in California - <AUTHOR> http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2710-designed-by-apple-in-california# <comment><USER2> _Also, it wasn't "Made by Apple in California," it was Designed. I can't think of another company that holds design in higher esteem or even one that touts every product as designed, not made._

because they aren't made in california, they are made in china.</comment>


Good Product Manager, Bad Product Manager (1996) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://www.khoslaventures.com/wp-content/uploads/Good_Product_Manager_Bad_Product_Manager_KV.pdf <comment><USER2> The four most common problems I've had with PMs:

#1 Won't nail down the customer's actual problem, describe it clearly to you and let you come up with a solution. They will just pass on the customer's proposed solution and insist that you build it.

#2 Vague, Incomplete and unversioned specifications rife with duplication and redundant information.

#3 Inability to prioritize or break down stories coherently.

#4 Won't get their hands dirty actually testing the product. That's QA's job.

<comment><USER3> > Won't nail down the customer's actual problem, describe it clearly to you > and let you come up with a solution. They will just pass on the customer's > proposed solution and insist that you build it.

It's actually a bit worse than that. Customers almost never _know_ their problems; instead, they _understand_ their problems through the accumulated knowledge of their profession, and have a very hard time stepping out of "the way things are done" to nail down their ultimate goals.

One of our biggest challenges as developers is that software engineering is very much a meta-profession: Being fully competent in computer science is only useful if you can apply that competence to real-world problems, and that inevitably means having to become expert enough in a field to which you may never have had any exposure.

A good PM understands this and turns development into an iterative process in a tight loop with customer feedback: You push the project forward a little, check with customers, apply their feedback, and lather-rinse-repeat until you've come up with a good solution—one that typically _innovates_ on the status quo.

A bad PM tries to spec everything ahead of schedule and never really gets off the ground, her best possible outcome being automating existing processes at the tail end of a waterfall-induced nightmare.

A worse PM is overwhelmed and avoids nailing down details, seeks no customer involvement, and leaves things to fester for weeks without any feedback. I don't know anyone who enjoys being on the poor team tasked with dealing with that kind of work.

Incidentally, this is what I've always taken agile development to mean: It's not about stand-ups and kanban boards, but rather about acknowledging and embracing the fact that programming is an inherently inexact science.

<comment><USER2> All true enough.

I'm actually starting to think that the PM job should actually be a kind of 'next step up from QA' position, since so many of the skills PMs typically don't have are exactly the kinds of skills that really good QA people do.

Plus, QA really, really, really, really needs to be a profession with good career progression because without career progression you don't have good QA people and without good QA people your product will turn to shit.

Abilities like empathy with users (you get this by being in communication with them, hearing about their problems), ability to tightly specify desired system behavior (you learn this writing bug reports), ability reproduce scenarios, ability to use version control and some basic programming skills.

I think if you had a PM that could write high level failing automated test cases for developers to turn green and submitted them to developers via pull request instead of dumping dead trees on a developer's desk, developers would be in heaven.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There's also the corresponding "Good Engineer, Bad Engineer" which I like

[http://www.chrispliakas.com/2015/01/22/good-engineer-bad- eng...](http://www.chrispliakas.com/2015/01/22/good-engineer-bad-engineer/)

</comment><comment><USER5> I have worked with several project managers who cite this article and claim to live by this ideal. However in practice they do everything but what is mentioned of a good product manager in the article. I don't know if I am biased or if the product managers, like most humans it would seem, fail to see themselves in a bad light (and thus correct themselves and set anew on a better path).

I also think that this is a subjective article, which, while it tries to list down the differences between good and bad traits of a product manager, fails to strongly separate the bad traits from the good ones by using vague management speak, and in general ends up making product managers feel goody goody about just being product managers.

</comment><comment><USER6> One of the last times this popped up, I printed it out and annotated it. I wanted to see if it was possible to take something so different to my working world (risk management) and apply it. Annotating it for my situation made it clear that this document should be seen as more far-reaching than just differentiating product managers. It really is pointing out the difference between good workers and bad workers in _any_ organisation.

Every single point made has an element that can be applied to any organisation and career; Productive workers understand the context of business ("Good PMs take all important factors..."); successful workers solve the issue, not the symptom ("Good [PMs]...proper deeper into the [problem]"). Sometimes I look back at my annotated pages and score myself about whether I fall to "Bad" or to "Good". I'm still working at it.

I urge everybody to read, and apply this to their own careers. Don't pigeonhole this document just because it is defined as important to product managers. I see this as just as influential as Ray Dalio's Principles ([http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgew...](http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater- Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf))

<comment><USER7> I agree. One of my mentors recommended that I write down my own version and share it with my team. Here is my attempt: [http://kiyototamura.tumblr.com/post/130937953602/good- market...](http://kiyototamura.tumblr.com/post/130937953602/good-marketer-bad- marketer)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Interestingly, author thinks these points may not be relevant today. What has changed?

 _Warning: This document was written 15 years ago and is probably not relevant for today's product managers. I present it here merely as an example of a useful training document._

[http://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-managerbad- product-m...](http://a16z.com/2012/06/15/good-product-managerbad-product- manager/)

<comment><USER9> As an active PM, I can't really spot anything that would make any of these points irrelevant today. One thing I did note, though, is that PM concept is not so widespread as one may think. Dilution of power in large functional organizations often means that such a "small CEO" is not necessarily welcomed.

<comment><USER10> Last night I mentioned the idea of a dedicated product manager to our CEO, who responded that the CTO will ultimately be responsible for that area. It's interesting, but I'm not convinced the roles and skillsets are adequately aligned.

<comment><USER9> CTO cannot be the product manager. A product manager must align technology with market, and does so by providing the correct input to the technology group. CTO must focus on execution and innovation, while a product manager focus on what needs to be executed and how to align innovation with the market. It's different skillsets, indeed, and they are rarely aligned.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I read this the other day in Ben Horrowitz's book "The Hard Things About Hard Things" and loved the idea by other commenters here to apply it to other fields. Just [my own version]([https://github.com/ajmurmann/good-developer- bad-developer](https://github.com/ajmurmann/good-developer-bad-developer)) that represents my views on engineering. I tried to stay away from concrete, good practices like TDD or pairing that are en vogue right now. Although I have very strong opinions on some of those, they are controversial and I think they would take value away from the larger points.

I would be excited to hear people's thoughts on it!

</comment><comment><USER12> I am a product manager in the financial sector and generally I agree with this list. What I want to add is "A good PM knows how to balance competing requests from stakeholders and know when to say no". You can't please everybody.

<comment><USER13> My view is a project is only a success if all stakeholders are happy at the end. To succeed, you therefore need to: 1\. Know who all the stakeholders are 2\. Know what they expect 3\. Come up with a plan to satisfy 2 4\. As you go along, and you see reality differs from 3, you must either change 2 or change 3, or a bit of both.

A PM's job is expectation management. Delivering on expectation will most of the time include having to change the expectation to match the reality at the end of the project. It's usually easier to change expectations earlier rather than later, and also by not saying "no", but rather by saying "let's rather do this".

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is a surprisingly good writeup. Now if someone can come up with a way I can make my pm read it w/o offending him...

<comment> nommm-nommm If you have a larger office just post it in the break room.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> How is a bad product manager supposed to know they are one of the bad ones? How do you explain it to them?

</comment><comment><USER16> Posted many times yet apparently never discussed: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22Good%20Product%20Manager,%2...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22Good%20Product%20Manager,%20Bad%20Product%20Manager%22&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story&prefix=false&page=0).</comment>


Trains' Dynamic Breaking tech explained by dropping bowling balls on Jello molds - <AUTHOR> http://www.ge.com/thegeshow/rails/index.html?#ch2

<comment><USER2> I love slow motion video, always fascinating. I get what they are trying to show here, but I would rather see an actual train breaking and some way to show the energy that comes from that process.

On a side note, I always wondered why trains wasted so much energy from breaking and the whole systems they used to use. I am glad that GE and other companies are realizing that things can be better and smarter.

</comment><comment><USER3> I thought it was already routinely used by electric trains (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_brake>)</comment>


Office for iPhone and Android phones is now completely free - <AUTHOR> http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2014/03/27/office-iphone-android-phones-now-free-home-use-office-365-subscription-longer-required/?fromcat=all

<comment><USER2> I don't have office suites on my tablet because I don't type on tablets, whether they're free or not.</comment>


Efficiency Is Not Our Goal - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/the-future-of-work-1/7ab1e8476adb <comment><USER2> "they probably could have shipped three more features in the time they spent blocked waiting on agreement" \- because what we do is a race against time of volume shipping products crammed with features before everything else! This, is the kind of cowboy-developer I am trying to stay away from. (Here I am making a difference in terms between the general "programmer" and the "developer" which for me is not usually involved in later maintenance, testing and other kind of "boring" tasks that the work might require. That kind that only develops and tags it "done" jumping on something else.) This talk is focused on efficiency on development, deliberately ignoring the need for a system of development's checks and balances for other dependent tasks. I am sure that "We've all hated those jobs." and prefer a job where we'd be able to externalize the mess.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think I understand what this is trying to say, but I believe the problem lies more in each person's narrow scope of control, not some blind drive towards efficiency or ignorance of total throughput.

</comment><comment><USER4> Your argument would be much helped by actual anecdotes.

</comment><comment><USER5> Spoken like someone who has never had to operationally support hundreds of slightly different applications for a decade...

<comment><USER6> Yeah. I understand the sentiment on some level, but when you find 10+ broken implementations of the same thing in a large codebase because every team decided to do it slightly differently you start to really, really appreciate those meetings for a change.

Not to mention the (usually) resulting inconsistencies in how it works which can really annoy users.</comment></comment>


Are .NET programmers going extinct? - <AUTHOR> http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/06/devwir-net-java-html5.html

<comment><USER2> I like the idea that WFC is the "hardcore" Windows programmer language. Perhaps the author's brain would explode if I showed him the 80-line C boilerplate for setting up a simple, single-window app using the Win32 API (where the function signatures were decorated with the PASCAL #define). Ah memories.

</comment><comment><USER3> Eyeroll-worthy headlines like these are good for one thing, at least: I know not to even bother clicking through to read the article.

</comment><comment><USER4> I find it hard to believe just because C# and F# are the only first-class languages on Windows. Iron Ruby is pretty good now, but that took years to get it close to Ruby MRI. The same can be said for other languages. Newer run- times like node.js are very hard to get set up in Windows (even if you use cygwin). Pretty much any new trendy language goes to Linux first (unless Microsoft is the creator).

As long a Windows has market share it will have programmers, and most of those programmers are going to use .NET.

</comment><comment><USER5> Microsoft showed off a new option for creating UIs and now everyone is running around saying the whole .NET eco-system is going down the can.

If you believe that you are a freaking idiot!

</comment><comment><USER6> No. The sky is not falling. There's more to .NET programming than just desktop apps.

1\. Those HTML5 + JS apps will talk to web services, which will likely be written in .NET talking to SQL Server.

2\. Traditional apps still work in Win8

<comment><USER7> "web services, which will likely be written in .NET talking to SQL Server" - _cough_ , why?

<comment><USER8> Wow. As a developer with a fairly long history of not liking MS technology, I'd have to say that .NET WebServices and SQL Server are 2 things that I WISH I could use. Of all Microsoft stuff, those 2 things are fairly excellent.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Wow, the media is really biting on that RUMOR, eh? Jeez.

</comment><comment><USER10> For any headline using the form of a question, the answer to that question is usually, "no".

</comment><comment><USER11> What a bunch of garbage.</comment>


Video analysis of the eruption at Mexico's Popocatépetl volcano - <AUTHOR> http://www.empiricalzeal.com/2013/06/19/how-much-pressure-did-it-take-to-pop-the-top-off-mexicos-popocatepetl-volcano/

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I'm the author of the blog post (on twitter at @aatishb). I'd be happy to get your feedback and constructive criticism on this analysis. My take is that, given the many assumptions, I'm pretty darn surprised that it gave a reasonable answer. On the other hand, it just shows that you can go a long way with some dimensional analysis and a few crude measurements. Look forward to hearing your take on the writing, analysis, and ways that you think it could be improved overall. Cheers.</comment>


Ask HN: Book recommendation for a future Angel Investor? - <AUTHOR>

If someone wanted to become an angel investor, what books do you recommend they read? Is there something like founders at work for angels? <comment><USER2> There isn't one. You learn on the job.

<comment><AUTHOR> Understood. Just as entrepreneurship, you learn by doing. But it doesnt hurt to pick up a book or two on the way.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What are the best tech/startup events in NYC? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Depends on your goal. NYTM is the biggest monthly event but is hard to physically attend due to space limitations (there's a simulcast at NWC with a more manageable crowd).

Queens Tech Meetup has taken off as well as the Enterprise Tech Meetup.

There's a lot of smaller (<100-150 people) meetups organized on specific topics (cloud, languages, industries).

This week is @shakeshack 5 (recap of year 3: [http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/blog/2010/10/4/shakeshack-...](http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/blog/2010/10/4/shakeshack-3-recap.html) ). Unsure how to get into it.

The guys from Harvest have organized a startup walkabout, usually in the Spring.

Many startups host office hours as well (with varying degrees of openness to the public).

The other thing to do is: if there's something you're interested in and don't see an existing (or upcoming) related event, post to NYTM or NextNY that you want to organize it but could use some help (space is always a pain).</comment>


You've been using your monitor wrong this whole time - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailydot.com/technology/vertical-monitor-setup/

<comment><USER2> Am I the only one that gets overwhelmed when I use my monitor in portrait? Isolating the web ( or code ) into more bite-sized chunks gives my brain one thing to focus on at a time.

</comment><comment><USER3> You could also resize your browser window to not occupy 100% of your monitor's real estate.

But it's fine, this is a pretty good suggestion that'll increase ad sales because it'll help convince everyone that the fold is twice as far down as it actually is.

</comment><comment><USER4> No thank you! With wide screen monitors, I can have multiple windows adjacent to each other.</comment>


No, Flappy Bird developer didn't give up on $50,000 a day - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57618722-93/no-flappy-bird-developer-didnt-give-up-on-$50000-a-day/ <comment><USER2> All other interesting events surrounding this game aside, I believe this displays well how pointless online and in-app advertising has become. Who are the poor advertisers paying millions for ads that are most certainly ignored because users are busy playing a game that needs their full attention?

<comment><USER3> Sometimes I'll notice the ad because it hides the top pipe that I strangely think is free space.</comment></comment>


Which Social Network Is Down the Most? - <AUTHOR> http://www.centernetworks.com/pingdom-social-network-downtime <comment><USER2> I don't know if you'd call it a social network, but the answer is Twitter. Legendary downtime.</comment>


Sleep Is the New Status Symbol - <AUTHOR> https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/fashion/sleep-tips-and-tools.html <comment><USER2> "I want to reunite humanity with the sleep it is so bereft of." Not going to lie. I laughed out loud at this pompous bullshit. Not hating entirely though. Love the idea of sleep Entrepreneurship ... but can't say I came across any in the article who were remotely compelling.</comment>


China Is Spying On (Supposedly Encrypted) Skype Conversations - <AUTHOR> http://techdirt.com/articles/20081002/0903442435.shtml

<comment><AUTHOR> Now _this_ is evil, I always considered Skype chat a secure channel.

Perhaps gtalk will do.

<comment><USER2> How could you consider a closed-source program with some amazing obfuscation to be even remotely secure?

<http://www.secdev.org/conf/skype_BHEU06.handout.pdf>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the doc, it's interesting. However it complains mostly about Skype being opaque from an admin point of view.

I don't buy your view on software security (I know it is the prevalent one). I don't crash-test my Volvo in order to ensure it is (relatively) safe, I rely on public mechanisms for this: I trust the manufacturer to live up to his promises (or suffer reputation damage, lawsuis, etc) and NCAP tests as an objective external measure.

It's a pity an equivalent of NCAP does not exist for software. Perhaps a startup can fix this.

<comment><USER3> Unregulated, unaudited, free products that few people are qualified to understand are a disaster waiting to happen.

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/04/a_security_mar...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/04/a_security_mark.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Seymour Cray: An Appreciation (1997) - <AUTHOR> http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby/writing/PCW/cray.htm <comment><AUTHOR> > There are many legends about Seymour Cray. John Rollwagen, a colleague for > many years, tells the story of a French scientist who visited Cray's home in > Chippewa Falls. Asked what were the secrets of his success, Cray said "Well, > we have elves here, and they help me". Cray subsequently showed his visitor > a tunnel he had built under his house, explaining that when he reached an > impasse in his computer design, he would retire to the tunnel to dig. "While > I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to > my problem", he said.

<comment><USER2> > _I worked for Cray Research from 1984-1996, and I can tell you that the > story of him tunneling under his house is largely a fabrication made up by > John Rollwagen to enhance Seymour 's reputation as a quirky, visionary > genius (which he was, but not because he was digging tunnels under his > house). What actually transpired involved Seymour having some excavation > work done on his basement by contractors. As far as I know, none of them > were elves. Rollwagen also took an incident where Seymour burned a sailboat > at his lake house and turned it into a mythic tale of Cray building a new > sailboat every year, then burning it so he could design and build a new one > the following year._

[https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray- liked-t.html](https://boingboing.net/2006/08/10/seymour-cray-liked-t.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The book "The Supermen: Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer" (1997) is great.

What struck me when reading it was that the Cray 1 that Seymor Cray designed alone in his cabin.. when it went for sale in 1977 for $7.9 million it was a 64-bit single core computer running at 80 Mhz, with 8 MB RAM. This computer could probably have run Quake! In 1977! At a respectable resolution/framerate! In 1977! :)

<comment><USER4> Getting a decent frame buffer in those days was a significant challenge, though. It was like "Hey, the University of Qwghlm just got a 512x512x24 display, let's go apply to grad school there!"

About 20 years ago I was helping a guy design a vector unit for a new CPU. As I was writing the simulations, I began to appreciate Cray's 70s era designs, and the stuff that we manage to stuff into a few square millimeters of silicon these days. The future is here.

<comment><USER3> Ah.. I can imagine all kinds of weird bottlenecks making it hard to deliver a high-res bitmap at a reasonable framerate, or at all, to a screen back then.

Anyway, if you end up reading this: I really enjoyed so many of your dadhacker posts, years ago. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I lived in Colorado Springs in the 90s when Seymour Cray had his new company there. It always baffled me how negative the press coverage of his company and the Cray-4 was. I was rooting for him to make a practical gallium arsenide chip.

I think he was greatly underrated and underappreciated by the larger culture. The man was an inventive genius, maybe even on the order of an Edison. Perhaps he was not as broad in his range of inventions as Edison, but his approach to building supercomputers probably included inventions and innovations in many areas.

I still usually think of him whenever I pass the on ramp on I-25 where he was killed. They have since revised that interchange to make it safer, too late for Mr. Cray, unfortunately.

<comment><USER6> I'm not sure we will ever see another Edison like figure

<comment><USER7> You cannot compare those two. Edison rarely invented anything by himself personally, he had a team of inventors and bought many inventions. Cray did it all by himself, and had a marketing problem.

[http://factmyth.com/factoids/edison-never-invented- anything/](http://factmyth.com/factoids/edison-never-invented-anything/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> It seems incredible that the little guy could compete on that level. In the days of AWS data centers this kind of disruption seems like a fairy tale.

</comment><comment><USER9> technical work in SV has changed. geniuses with Cray's personality type aren't really valued much nowadays. it's important to be young, social, bearded and well-motivated by cafeteria food.

<comment><USER10> Maybe so, but please don't post unsubstantive comments, or snarky comments, here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)</comment></comment>


Emotion recognition technology should be banned, says an AI research institute - <AUTHOR> https://www.technologyreview.com/f/614932/emotion-recognition-technology-should-be-banned-says-ai-research-institute/ <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21795875](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21795875)

</comment><comment><USER3> clickbait title:

Should be banned >> from use in decisions that affect people's lives <<</comment>


[Archived] Show HN: Wasmer – Universal Binaries Powered by WebAssembly - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/wasmerio/wasmer <comment> lachlan-sneff Hi! This is Lachlan from the Wasmer team.

We're a new startup working on developing universal binaries using WebAssembly.

We currently can run nginx and a couple other, unmodified, pre-existing software projects compiled to wasm. Give it a try and feel free to ask questions!

<comment><USER2> so will there be a plan to support GUI applications? does it allow to access filesystem?

<comment> lachlan-sneff We're expecting that one of the apis that the WebAssembly Working group will eventually "standardize" will support creating gpu-accelerated graphics, so yes, most likely wasmer will eventually support GUI applications.

As for the filesystem, it does support all the normal, posix operations on the filesystem.

<comment><USER2> my question is more about through what api to support gui.

for example, you could wrap os native apis, or use Qt, or like electron, based on chromium and use html?</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Welcome to the Age of the Upgrade - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/31/5261042/welcome-to-the-age-of-the-upgrade

<comment><AUTHOR> Also relevant to this: the 2009 Louis CK "everything is amazing and nobody is happy" skit

[http://vimeo.com/77899816](http://vimeo.com/77899816)

[http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/revisiting-louis- cks-%E2%80...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/revisiting-louis- cks-%E2%80%9Ceverythings-amazing-nobodys-happy%E2%80%9D/)</comment>


KsqlDB: A Streaming Database - <AUTHOR> https://www.confluent.io/blog/intro-to-ksqldb-sql-database-streaming/ <comment><AUTHOR> This looks awesome!

I'm currently in the process of making my MySQL database stream it's change- data events, and I feel the pain of stitching all the apps together to make it happen.

This seems to be a killer technology.</comment>


Graphs of money made by Microsoft, Apple, and Google from 1985 till today - <AUTHOR> http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/04/09/the-money-made-by-microsoft-apple-and-google-1985-until-today/

<comment><USER2> Apple are the only primarily-hardware company of the three, which would explain their lower profit/revenue ratio.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like how all three companies have such different business models, but are still successful. Microsoft sells software. Google sells advertising. Apple sells hardware and software bundled together.

<comment><USER4> yet now they are much more overlapping: ads, mobile, marketplace, online services. It will be interesting to see what happens.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I wonder where Apple would be if Jobs had never left?

That moment in the late 90s early 2000s where revenue was down and profitability was going up is very interesting. If I didn't know that time period coincided with Jobs return, I'd say they were just milking the cash cow at that point.

</comment><comment><USER6> I think Apple will profit hugely from iPhone, iPod and iPad; however they won't take Microsoft position. Windows 7 is selling like mad. Software is more profitable when you sell it!

Google is making money from ads and search which seems to be a big promising market.

IMO, the most solid company is Microsoft. I can change my iPhone in 24 hours with Htc or N900, I can change my iPad with HP slate in less time. However, it'll take me months to decide if I should change to a Mac or Not and may be a couple of years to change to it permanently.

Google also seems to be more solid, If I chose Gmail, Google Search, Google Docs for my business, I won't change that easily.

<comment><USER7> Windows 7 is selling mainly because Vista didn't and they still have enough monopoly power for Windows to be a requirement. I don't think this will last though. Growth is in the mobile and appliance markets where Microsoft's offerings suck and they have no monopoly power. I expect their Office/Windows monopoly to crack in the next 10 years and then they're just another Sun.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Past performance is not indicative of future results. Otherwise we would all be filthy rich by now.

Sticking to the topic: Apple is well on its way to becoming the future Sony. Microsoft is throwing money at everything it can (which is a surprisingly effective strategy sometimes), and Google is throwing money and brains at interesting problems.

We live in interesting times indeed.

<comment><USER9> > Otherwise we would all be filthy rich by now.

Would you trade places with the richest man on Earth in 1900 ?

<comment><USER10> Depends on what I would swap with me. (E.g. am I allowed to keep my current age, or do I also swap the age with the rich guy from 1900? What about my health and knowledge?)</comment></comment></comment>