How to reduce 'attention residue' - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200130-the-life-hack-to-reduce-admin-and-carve-out-downtime <comment><USER2> Some good tips for us mortals. I have admired Donald Knuth for many things[footnote] but especially for his stance on email which I use here as a stand-in for distractions. I wish I had 10% of his discipline!

"Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study.

On the other hand, I need to communicate with thousands of people all over the world as I write my books. I also want to be responsive to the people who read those books and have questions or comments. My goal is to do this communication efficiently, in batch mode --- like, one day every six months. " [https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html](https://www-cs- faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html)

[footnote] I'm from the physical sciences, not CS, but the man transcends departments!

<comment><USER3> Well, most of us can't afford a secretary like him.

<comment><USER2> I think he came up at a time when departments had staff to work with faculty. Of course when one reaches his level of fame, funding comes without asking.

One downside of our computerized society is that people now have to do things because the tools supposedly exist for everything to be self serve. It marginalize the skills and talents of those who provided those valuable services in the past.

<comment><USER4> Secretaries still exist.

<comment><USER5> outside of CEOs personal assistants, I have trouble encountering any within last 5 years - and the secretarial staff was visibly getting downsized at university before that, handling mostly the mail room

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The related article in the sidebar is moderately insightful:

[https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why- procrastin...](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200121-why- procrastination-is-about-managing-emotions-not-time)

I've been working to overcome burnout that took me out of the game a year ago. What it basically came down to is that midlife crisis feelings had come to dominate my psyche. I found myself asking "what's the point?" about basic tasks that must be done.

The start of a cure turned out to be separating a task into writing the todo list for it and then doing it afterwards. The next evolution of that is to also separate your evaluation of the work from the work itself, so that you don't wallow in critical feelings as you work. Try to be zenful and just concentrate on the now.

Basically it all comes down to anxiety management. So for example, say you are cleaning and you get a text message to deal with an issue. I normally would make a mental note to remember to do it, since I lean towards intellectual pursuits. But it's better to add the item to the top of your todo list and stop thinking about it or the fear of forgetting it. Better yet, pause cleaning (since it's low-priority) and deal with the issue immediately.

I've found that mechanizing the thought processes that I had taken for granted until they failed me boosted my mood. If you think of it as a scale from 0 to 10, our default with stress is to hover below a 5 (say 3). It takes effort to get above 5. But there is a stable orbit around 7 if you can maintain it for a few weeks. I think this is why people with a positive disposition have so much difficulty understanding people with anxiety, because physically they actually feel similar, it's just that our subjective interpretation of them are different:

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

Edit: the above is a TED talk about changing this subjective reaction to stress.

Edit #2: I accidentally shared the wrong video, I was thinking of this one:

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

<comment><USER7> Interesting. Any more thoughts on the stable orbit at 7?

<comment><USER6> Well in my case, my depression/anxiety was partly (largely?) environmental. Two things really helped me, the tryptophan-serotonin connection:

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728667/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728667/)

And that I had low thyroid function because I work out heavily but don't add salt to anything, and processed food doesn't generally contain iodine. So I began taking this last week:

[https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Supplements-EnergyTM-Tyrosine- Sel...](https://www.amazon.com/NOW-Supplements-EnergyTM-Tyrosine- Selenium/dp/B0013OZCGE)

I can literally say that when I started eating bacon and ham again (I gave up pork 20 years ago for ethical reasons) that my mood went from 3 to 5 within a few days, and when I began taking iodine, it went from 5 to 7. Note that these symptoms are similar to what vegetarians and vegans encounter after about 3 years without active effort to maintain their nutrition. I hit it because I had doubled my calories for the gym, but not tryptophan or iodine specifically.

Keep in mind that I also did the work of exploring ADHD, executive dysfunction, the impossible task and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for pretty much the last year.

So without medication, the answer is holistic. Fixing nutritional gaps might boost mood 20-40%, then each mental adjustment might add 10%.

I'll know that the orbit at 7 is stable once my income stabilizes and I have a consistent track record of having few negative thoughts for some number of weeks or months. But so far so good.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Maybe having endless to-do lists is more a symptom of an underlying issue that should be handled?

</comment><comment><USER9> Huh. For about 15 years, the first thing I've done in the morning is a 25 minute "Administrivia" session, after rolling out of bed.

I used to do a full GTD system, but now honestly it's opening my todos, cleaning out my inbox into todos, tidying them up, prioritising them, and then doing the remaining twenty minutes of them.

No more than 25 minutes, occasionally less than, and I think I've not been stressed about the (sometimes very large amounts of) admin bullshit that shows up in my life.

When I had a real management job I did a second one of these for work each morning when I got in.

Anyway, same system for 15 years, with occasional embellishments. These days I take two of them a week to do my personal and company accounts and budgeting instead.

</comment><comment><USER10> This seems reminiscent of the famous psychology professor statement, to get your bedroom in order.

</comment><comment><USER11> > Focusing on one task at a time until completion

this is the essence of mindfulness

</comment><comment><USER12> > The University of Melbourne has run a GYLIO week once every semester for at > least a decade. It usually takes place around the middle of the semester in > week five or six, and while the academic programme continues, the extensive > social and partying schedule is paused to help students shift their > priorities.

The whole article falls apart right here for me, there's just no way this is true. I seriously doubt the University of Melbourne is in any way able to get its almost 50,000 enrolled students to stop partying for a week. They may run GYLIO events that week, but that doesn't mean it's going to get a bunch of college students to stop drinking.

<comment><USER13> It sounds like GYLIO is for all social events and commitments which can be a HUGE part of university life for many people.

I wouldn't equate it to just "not drinking and partying"

From the article: "Given the many stimuli of life today, with students who are juggling the many opportunities colleges offer across all the areas from sport and culture to volunteering and leadership, having a week to 'take a breath' and get things done is essential," she says.

Also, many universities have the social scene orientated around the university social clubs and the university student association(s). Events and parties are often organised and run through these. Having them suspended for a week could easily have a huge impact on the 50,000 students, depending on the social culture of the university.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Sounds very similar to GTD

<comment><USER15> What is GTD?

<comment><USER16> Getting things done, one of the widespread methodologies for organizing your life based on a book with the same name by David Allen.

<comment><USER17> I'd replace "methodologies" with "discussion topics." My ADHD doctor said something like 10% of those who attempt GTD stick with it. Turns out it's actually kind of complicated and takes quite a bit of focus!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> tl;dr do your chores

<comment><USER19> ... in batches ... then chill</comment></comment>


PRISM fallout in Europe: Don't expect the Commission to save the day - <AUTHOR> http://gigaom.com/2013/06/10/prism-fallout-in-europe-dont-expect-the-commission-to-save-the-day/

<comment><USER2> I don't. They've proved with ACTA they are quite corrupt, and are much more concerned with doing US' bidding than with EU citizens' rights. That much we already know.

I do hope the European Parliament, which has been a lot more sensible on these issues, can save day, though, and maybe replace the whole EU Commission while they are at it, too.</comment>


Hackers Breach Virginia Health Database, Demand $10 Million Dollar Ransom - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailytech.com/Hackers+Breach+Virgina+Health+Database+Demand+Ransom/article15053.htm

<comment><USER2> <http://searchyc.com/virginia?sort=by_date>

Minimum five hits over the past five days.</comment>


Dell returns to public stock market after years as private company - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/28/18159305/dell-stock-market-return-public-nyse <comment><USER2> Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18947242](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18947242).</comment>


DeepMind moves to TensorFlow - <AUTHOR> http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2016/04/deepmind-moves-to-tensorflow.html <comment><USER2> This is great news! One of the most intimidating things about getting started with deep learning if you want to understand and extend cutting-edge work is the Tower of Babel situation: aside from mastering some quite difficult and opaque concepts, you need to learn multiple frameworks in multiple languages, some of which are quite uncommon. (Want to use Torch? You have to learn Lua. Want to use Theano or Caffe? Need to learn Python too. Need to implement optimizations? Hope you've mastered C++.)

And DeepMind's research output was a major reason to need to use Torch, and hence have to learn Lua.

But by switching over to TensorFlow, this means you now have one language to learn which is supported well by all the major frameworks - Python - and you can benefit from several frameworks (Theano, Keras, TensorFlow). So the language barrier is reduced and you can focus on the framework and actual NN stuff. Further, this will also drive consolidation onto TensorFlow, reducing the framework mental overhead. As long as TF is up to the job, and it reportedly is, this will benefit the deep learning community considerably.

I'd been wondering myself what language and framework I should focus on when I start studying NNs, and this settles it for me: Python and TensorFlow.

<comment><USER3> You're overstating things a bit. There has never been a "need to learn multiple frameworks in multiple languages." As a beginner, you pick one and go with that (as evidenced by the fact that... you've picked one!). This announcement doesn't change that situation.

Nobody _needs_ to use multiple frameworks unless you're someone (not a beginner) who wants to be able to take the code from research papers or something.

<comment><USER4> Researchers need multiple frameworks because the feature sets aren't the same in each.

I haven't done anything with deep learning, but I worked in a research lab with others who did. On the image processing side, we prototyped code in OpenCV, both with Python and C++, and MATLAB (with toolboxes) regularly because of this.

At the end of the day they have a limited amount of time and just want to test their idea the fastest way they can.

<comment><USER3> I don't think this is the reason. You can do pretty much anything in Torch/Theano. But, researchers are lazy and writing code is only a means to an end. They will shamelessly copy/hack as much open source code as possible, so if a framework has some quick module for a desired algorithm, or if a researcher wrote their paper in some framework, and you want to build off that paper, then you'll just copy that.

<comment><USER4> That's definitely correct.

One related unsolved problem in that type of research is getting people to share their actual code. Especially when multiple universities are at the bleeding edge in a field, they often publish just enough [1] to prove their point without giving everyone else the same foundation to build on _easily_. Even in science it gets political... who knew.

1: i.e., just their algorithms, or their code without very useful implementation-level optimizations

<comment><USER3> In ML, you can generally email the authors and very often they will be willing to send you (their really crappy) code. Although it probably helped that I sent these emails from my academic email address.

<comment><USER5> > There has never been a "need to learn multiple frameworks in multiple > languages."

> you can generally email the authors and very often they will be willing to > send you (their really crappy) code.

Code obtained from multiple authors, or even from the same author but different time periods, is code written using multiple frameworks in multiple languages. Standardizing on Python / TensorFlow reduces the risk of cognitive load along one's journey and is likely to speed up the field. If speed is what the field was missing :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> If anyone wants to switch to TensorFlow but misses the Torch interface, you will always have Keras: [https://github.com/fchollet/keras](https://github.com/fchollet/keras)

<comment><USER7> I also recommend reading @fchollet's guide on integrating Keras and TensorFlow, especially for those wanting to implement novel components at a lower level :) [http://blog.keras.io/keras-as-a-simplified-interface-to- tens...](http://blog.keras.io/keras-as-a-simplified-interface-to-tensorflow- tutorial.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I like these comments on the Reddit discussion: it's not like DeepMind ever really open sourced anything (other than their Atari code from years ago).

Another a Google team switching over to a product maintained by another Google team makes a lot of sense for the team. They get instant development/deployment/infra support and huge control over development roadmap.

Hopefully this motivates them to open source much more...

</comment><comment><USER8> To be clear, TensorFlow is about a lot more than deep learning. It's a distributed math library, a bit like Theano. It's ultimate rivals in the Python ecosystem are Numpy and SciPy and even Sci-kit Learn. You'll see the TF team implement a lot more algorithms on top of their numerical computing eventually. (In the JVM world, I work on ND4J -- [http://ND4J.org](http://ND4J.org) \-- and we see a lot of similarities, which is why I bring this up.)

<comment><USER9> So is Torch though.

Besides, deep learning is mostly just matrix operations anyway, so you're kind of saying "TensorFlow is about a lot more than matrix operations - it's a matrix library too"...

<comment><USER8> Kind of. Deep learning is about more than matrix operations, and matrix operations are useful for applications other than deep learning, so I believe the distinction is worth making. Just like with programming languages, which may all be used for the same application, it's all about what you make easy to do, and what you make difficult. I'm saying the TF's intention is to make many things beyond DL easy, although people think of it chiefly as a DL library atm.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Stanford's CS224d: Deep Learning for Natural Language Processing uses TensorFlow. Although they have only just got up to the part where they are beginning to use it.

Here's the "Introduction to TensorFlow" lecture.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Y2_Cq2X5s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Y2_Cq2X5s)

You don't need to watch the previous 6 lectures to make sense of it but it would help if you knew a bit (but not super detail) about neural nets e.g. the terms forward propagation, backward propagation and gradient descent of neural networks mean something to you.

[http://cs224d.stanford.edu/syllabus.html](http://cs224d.stanford.edu/syllabus.html)

<comment><USER11> Slightly off topic but for anyone who is taking this course ...are the materials only related to NLP or are the techniques much more broadly applicable to other areas of deep learning (cursory look of the syllabus suggests this but would be great if someone who is actually taking this course can comment)

<comment><USER10> I've watched all 8 available videos, which is as far as my knowledge goes but it has been background on gradients, calculating derivatives, introduction to word vectors and how they relate to each other, recurrent neural nets and how to push time series through, introduction to tensor flow and finally how to scan backwards and forwards through "time" in a recurrent RNN (each word in a sentence is a time step in NLP).

Word vectors are "just" high dimensional entities - 100-300 dimensions, used as input. So the introduction to them was about how you go about building a dataset that is a collection of 50,000 column vectors each of which is 300 rows. And then how to use that to go on and build a neural net to do useful work.

The conclusion is that all the work done on syntax, grammar and word classification can effectively be replaced by having a huge corpus (e.g. all of wikipedia is small), 300 dimensions for each word and then a loss function to classify each word.

One can imagine how that would be applied to sales data of multiple products or other data.

It foes on to suggested how sentiment analysis is performed and how entity recognition would work (entities being places, names of people and companies).

The info has been general but described in terms of NLP, the techniques so far are not just for use in NLP.

I'm not an NLP person and tbh I've never even made a neural net (although I could if I had a reason) I'm just interested in the subject.

<comment><USER12> > The conclusion is that all the work done on syntax, grammar and word > classification can effectively be replaced by having a huge corpus

Is that a surprise? You don't teach a child how to speak by telling him about verbs and grammar. He will learn how to use them without having any formal idea about what they are.

<comment><USER10> Apparently it was a surprise to the AI NLP teams that spent years doing manual classification, suddenly a Deep NN out performed them without any prior knowledge. Just make a 300 dimension vector of the occurrence frequencies of word combinations and out fall the rules of language!

<comment><USER13> _Apparently it was a surprise to the AI NLP teams [...]_

Similar techniques were well known and used for years in NLP. E.g. Brown clustering has been used since the early nineties and have been shown to improve certain NLP tasks by quite an amount. NMF also been used for quite some time to obtain distributed representations of words. Also, many of the techniques used in NLP now (word embeddings, deep nets) have been known for quite a while. However, the lack of training data and computational power has prevented these techniques from taking off earlier.

 _Just make a 300 dimension vector of the occurrence frequencies of word combinations and out fall the rules of language!_

The 'rules of language' don't just fall out of word vectors. They fall out of embeddings combined with certain network topologies and _supervised_ training. In my experience (working on dependency parsing), you also typically get better results by encoding language-specific knowledge. E.g. if your language is morphologically rich or does a lot of compounding, the coverage of word vectors is going to be pretty bad (compared to e.g. English). You will have to think about morphology and compounds as well. One of our papers that was recently accepted at ACL describes a substantial improvement in parsing German when incorporating/learning explicit information about clausal structure (topological fields).

Being able to train extremely good classifiers with a large amount of automatic feature formation does not mean that all the insights that were previously gained in linguistics or computational linguistics is suddenly worthless.

(Nonetheless, it's an exciting time to be in NLP.)

<comment><USER10> I was rather over simplifying a tad and being conversational (and I'm not an expert, not even much beyond beginner).

It is indeed an exciting time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is a pleasant surprise. The more people that work on TensorFlow the better, especially as the DeepMind team will be more aligned with extending TensorFlow's research potential.

I am curious how well TensorFlow fits for many of DeepMind's tasks though. Much of their recent work has been in reinforcement algorithms and hard stochastic decision tasks (think gradient approximation via Monte Carlo simulations rather than exactly computed gradients) which TensorFlow hasn't traditionally been used for.

Has anyone seen TensorFlow efficiently used for such tasks? I'm hoping that DeepMind will release models showing me what I've been doing wrong! =]

(note: I produce novel models in TensorFlow for research but they're mostly fully differentiable end-to-end backpropagation tasks - I might have just missed how to apply it efficiently to these other domains)

</comment><comment><USER14> TensorFlow is the machine learning codebase, but typically how do machine learning research teams manage their training sets, dataset metadata and collaboration on these large datasets?

<comment><USER15> Most teams I have seen have either template scripts or boilerplate that generates datasets, and share both the generated data and the scripts via normal ways that people share data and code: disk, S3, github, emailing of notebooks, etc.

It requires a fair amount of set-up, but works surprisingly well once there is a core team and problems established.

We are building mldb.ai to help bring the data and the algorithms for ML together in a less ad-hoc manner and to help move things out of research and into prod once they are ready. Many of the hosted ML solutions (Azure ML, Amazon ML, Google Data Lab, etc) and other toolkits (eg Graphlab) are working on similar ML workflow and organizational structure problems.

<comment><USER16> Which projects you know use "disk, S3, github,..." to share their datasets? I'm curious what you think because I haven't read about any ML projects actually using hosted ML solutions like Amazon ML+S3. I've only seen Amazon recommend Amazon ML.

<comment><USER17> S3 is a good way to share files

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> NVidia's NVCC has performance & compile time issues with Tensorflow.[1]

NVCC vs GPUCC benchmarks 8% - 250% slower compilation & 3.7% - 51% slower runtimes.[2]

Google use GPUCC internally so weren't optimising for NVCC.

LLVM based GPUCC is the 1st fully open source toolchain for CUDA.

Google announced that the guts of GPUCC will make their way into CLANG.

[1] [https://plus.google.com/+VincentVanhoucke/posts/6RQmgqcmx2d](https://plus.google.com/+VincentVanhoucke/posts/6RQmgqcmx2d) [2] [http://research.google.com/pubs/pub45226.html](http://research.google.com/pubs/pub45226.html)

</comment><comment><USER19> This is a very money-where-thier-mouth-is move. Like they said, moving away from Torch is a big deal.

I know that google has been criticized for not dog-fooding GCS, does anyone know if that has changed? For example, does DeepMind use it?

<comment><USER20> I'll speak for BigQuery, since that's the product I know best. BigQuery itself is used ubiquitously at Google internally. I've offered evidence to the writer who made that argument, but unfortunately he was not willing to change his stance.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Why is it called _Tensor_ flow? Do the multi-dimensional matrices that exchange data between the nodes transform like tensors? If so, when does the need arise to transform them?

<comment><USER22> > Do the multi-dimensional matrices that exchange data between the nodes > transform like tensors?

Yes, if you design the moeel/graph that way.

> If so, when does the need arise to transform them?

The need arises whenever tensors are needed. For deep learning, most people treat them like multidimensional arrays. TensorFlow is an excellent name.

Multidimensional arrays are a thing of the past. Now we call them tensors. Get with the program or become an aging, forgotten physicist not involved in deep learning.

<comment><USER23> Haha. Hope machine learning students wont be equally annoyed by physicists misusing "their" tensors.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Anyone know whether they are primarily working on Python 2 or 3?

<comment><USER25> the library is compatible with both version of python, but I feel like python2.7 is still the mainstream one

<comment><USER26> +this. We (the TensorFlow team) use python2.7 by default, but work hard to make sure that we maintain compatibility. Our tests explicitly run on both platforms - [http://ci.tensorflow.org/](http://ci.tensorflow.org/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I guess this (switching from Torch to other deep learning libraries) will become a trend as deep learning have become more mainstream in tech companies. I say Facebook, Twitter and others who use Torch (I don't know of any others actually), will move away from torch gradually. Unless the Torch community steps its game up.

</comment><comment><USER28> I'm a layman but I find it quite interesting that a big release such as TensorFlow doesn't affect more people outside Google - or at least thats my impression. One would think, at least, that online store recommendations would become better or something like that.

<comment><USER29> TensorFlow doesn't make the algorithms more effective, it just makes them easier to describe, and recently, more quick to train / test. Also, with the kind of predictions Google is making, it's very unlikely that you'd notice improvements, since they would be gradual.

<comment><USER30> ...but if you want to make your algorithms more effective, you'd probably benefit if they were easier to describe, quicker to train and test, and you'd want to take advantage of gradual improvements. Right?

<comment><USER31> Not so, for the same reason that low level languages are more effective computationally but less easy to describe and more difficult for code development.

Lua is more low level and has an extremely isolated and fractured community relative to the current Python ecosystem. It is also non-intuitive and has negligible benefits compared to the current scientific Python ecosystem.

I find the abstractions offered by Python and its standard library to be very easy to comprehend, write, and maintain relative to Lua.

<comment><USER30> ..."easier to describe" makes it sound like it's a HIGHER level language, not a lower level language.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> So when do we get to see the alphago code?

</comment><comment><USER33> I guess they dont want to be under facebook's thumb (didnt they invent torch?)

</comment><comment><USER34> This is huge news for the AI space. May move things forward a couple of years.

</comment><comment><USER35> I think the neat thing about Google is the high degree of crossfertilization between teams. In many organizations, teams rarely share information either due to political reasons or a lack of sharing culture in the company as a whole. That being said, this framework/API change doesn't really surprise me; DeepMind was more a proof-of-concept than an actual battle tested framework, unlike TensorFlow. So in that sense this news isn't surprising at all.

</comment><comment><USER36> Should we be worried or _glad_ that a potential future Skynet is written in C++?</comment>


Pregnant Rock Stars - My Approach to Customer Service - <AUTHOR> http://natgordon.posterous.com/pregnant-rock-stars

<comment><USER2> I'm glad this works for this product.

However, I'd argue it is generally not applicable. Say you launch a free application (perhaps monetized by a supporting PRO version, in-app purchases, or ads) that gets a few thousand downloads per day. As a CEO, you can't spend your precious time replying to those (99% trivial) questions.

You may do it for a few months, or a percentage of the user questions, to gain insight into your customers. But, as a rule, I'd rather outsource it.

<comment><USER3> At some point, you will need to hand over the customer service job to someone else, but when you do, it should be someone amazing. In her case, probably a very caring mother. Someone who can fully relate to her customers, because they would be (or are) a BabyList customer themselves.

When I stopped doing all my own customer service at CD Baby, I found someone even more patient, playful, and charming than me. It sets a high bar, so that if you grow to needing an entire team of customer service people - (I had 28 full-time customer service people in the end) - then you and your first one or two really set the expectations for how caring, helpful, and charming they should be.

Definitely don't just outsource to a cheap provider or cheap person. Whoever is actively communicating with your customers should be the best of the best.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I really like the idea of pretending that all customers are Mick Jagger and think that it is fantastic, although I now have an image of a pregnant Mick Jagger in my head and I don't like that at all. It is all bulbous and wrinkly, like some grotesque anime demon. I may not sleep well tonight.</comment>


Successful companies know that UX design is never done - <AUTHOR> https://www.thence.co/ux-design/successful-companies-know-that-ux-design-is-never-done/ <comment><USER2> Forgive me, I read that title cynically as "Successful companies know that UX design doesn't get done." I've been at too many companies that throw requirements at the wall and then say "oh, yeah, and make it easy to use" and then allocate zero time to design or prototype it.</comment>


I have the coronavirus – So far, it isn't that bad - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/28/i-have-coronavirus-so-far-it-isnt-that-bad/ <comment><USER2> I think the author forgot the punchline. "As one of the first few people to arrive in the US of A under quarantine, I survived with a team of hazmat clad expert clinicians and round the clock medical care in a biocontainment facility and you can, too!"

<comment><USER3> It reminds me of some of the social media that came out of Wuhan. ...people begging for care for their loved ones, only to watch them die at home or in the waiting rooms because no respirators or beds were available.

Once respirators run out, the fatality rate jumps from 2% to 5%.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> While it's nice to hear from someone that's recovering well, this blog doesn't give me much solace since it's a form of selection bias. The people that have COVID-19 and are intubated and on a respirator in a hospital likely aren't blogging about it.

<comment><USER3> Given that 10-15% of people that get it end up in the ICU on a mechanical respirator, and that even those that survive end up with permanent lung damage, I would argue that selection bias at a time like this is almost criminally negligent reporting.

<comment><USER5> Where did you get those statistics from? And do you have a reference for that lung damage claim?

<comment><USER3> [https://covid19data.com/2020/02/14/heres-what-coronavirus- do...](https://covid19data.com/2020/02/14/heres-what-coronavirus-does-to-the- body/)

<comment><USER5> That appears to be a clickbait SEO blog. I couldn't find any primary sources for your claims. Did you have a link?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> "So far" is doing a bit of work, but ignoring that...

We know that COVID-19 has a high mortality rate (and a high rate of requiring ICU care). "High" doesn't mean 50% or higher; it means high compared to influenza or high compared to the capacity the US health system is intended to handle.

This article shouldn't be reassuring. Read this line in particular:

 _If I were at home with similar symptoms, I probably would have gone to work as usual._

That should scare the fuck out of you.

<comment><USER7> um mortality rate is something like 1% ... hardly high

<comment><USER8> The regular flu is 0.1%. The 1918 pandemic had a mortality rate of 2%, and killed 50 million people.

<comment><USER9> In 1918 the world population was 1.8B. If every single person got infected, and the mortality rate was 2%, then that's 36M.

Something wrong with your numbers.

<comment><USER10> You're nitpicking for no reason; they're close approximations. maybe it was 2.1% or 1.9% maybe it was 40 million or 60 -- record keeping 1918 globally may not have been exactly computer-perfect. There was a war being recovered from, the world was still poor, and medical science inexact.

The GP's point stands, I think.

<comment><USER9> It's not 1.9% or 2.1%, the fatality rate would have to be 10% for those numbers to work.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> 6 people from Diamond Princess are already dead.

[https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries)

<comment><USER12> Just to play devil's advocate...

3711 passengers and crew on board total. 709 tested positive for COVID-19. So sub 1% mortality for the infected. And that's in a population that's likely much older and less fit or healthy than the rest of us. And in pretty ideal conditions for the virus to spread (close quarters, shared living spaces etc).

<comment><USER13> They walk through two doors at the end of the hall, recovered or dead. For many of them, they have only started, we'll find out the real numbers when they have finished being sorted out.

Also there are a lot of people who are "recovered" and tested negative, but a few days later were testing positive again. Either the testing kits are testing for the wrong things or are defective in some way, or there is the possibility the disease is biphasal or/and retreats to a reservoir in the body.

<comment><USER12> I haven't been able to find good sources on this, not that I'm disputing it, plenty of other viruses remain in people's system long after they are "cured".

Either way, I think any hope of containing and exterminating the virus is long gone. We will likely all get this eventually. The question is whether we can manage that process so that hospitals are not overrun by the people who need inpatient care.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > Our test results had not arrived before we boarded buses for the airport

This is the part where the government really fell down. Tough on immigration, but oblivious to the need for containment when it really matters.

</comment><comment><USER15> It's not bad* for people who aren't young, old or have diabetes/lung conditions.

<comment><USER16> Unlike many outbreaks, covid-19 appears to disproportionately _favor_ the young. There have been no confirmed fatalities[1] under the age of 10.

1: [https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age- se...](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex- demographics/)

<comment><USER4> _Unlike many outbreaks, covid-19 appears to disproportionately favor the young_

That wording seems ambiguous, from the dictionary:

 _favor - feel or show approval or preference for_

While I can see how you could say that since children are spared, the disease "favors" them, that doesn't sound quite right. If I said "The serial killer favors young women", I think most people would assume that young women were his target.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> >> _I have the coronavirus. So far, it isn 't that bad._

Poor choice of words to put in the title. AIDS isn't that bad either...until it is.

</comment><comment><USER18> Great for him, but here in China things haven't been easy on all.

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/to-hell-and- ba...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/to-hell-and-back-my- three-weeks-suffering-from-coronavirus)

</comment><comment><USER19> still a harrowing experience. I am in my mid-forties and I am concerned.

<comment><USER15> Are you male and have a chronic cardiovascular or pulmonary condition?

\--- CFR (males and females) ---

50-59 years old 1.3%

40-49 years old 0.4%

30-39 years old 0.2%

Male 2.8% Female 1.7%

These are _averages_ across ages, and they maybe wildly inaccurate because of the on-going situation has unknowable data on those who are sick but won't seek help or those who will become sick before it's over.

Figure 24% higher if male, so roughly 0.5% (1/200) or 24% lower if female 0.3% (1/300) if female, and average health for both. Health condition makes it too unpredictable to guess further, but good health appears strongly correlated with good outcomes and vice-versa.

<comment><USER20> You do realize that if those death rates [0] hold up, when you take today's global population by age demographic and tally up how many people are expected to die within each age group, you get a total of 90 million dead.

Given that top epidemiologists are predicting 40-70% of adults will be infected this year, that would mean roughly 35 to 62 million people would die this year.

I would consider that a harrowing experience.

[0] I assume you got them from here [https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age- se...](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex- demographics/)

[1] [https://thehill.com/changing-america/well- being/prevention-c...](https://thehill.com/changing-america/well- being/prevention-cures/482794-officials-say-the-cdc-is-preparing-for)

<comment><USER21> That sounds like a lot of people, but it's not likely to cause real, noticeable problems in society. I think there's a good chance that our reaction to the virus is more damaging than the virus itself.

If 40-70% of people will be infected this year and 35-62 million will die, that's 1-1.5% death rate. The average person will probably know a few people that die from it, but the average person probably knows hundreds of people. This is going to be similar to the number that die from car accidents or HIV, and neither of those have wrecked society. It's going to be sad, but probably won't change life as we know it, unless we let it.

Personally, I think we're all overreacting a bit, and the overreaction is what's going to cause the problems, not the disease. The Spanish flu caused problems, but that was ~10x deadlier than COVID-19. We all just need to worry less and be a little more proactive about visiting the doctor.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I have the coronavirus- So far, I am dead.

-3,000 other people including many who were on the cruise ship with this guy.

</comment><comment><USER23> >My chest feels tight, and I have coughing spells. If I were at home with similar symptoms, I probably would have gone to work as usual.

This makes me legitimately angry. If you are sick, please stay home, I don't care if you feel "well enough to work". Keep your viruses away from me and everyone else you work with. You're not getting any brownie points for "being a trooper", everyone is just going to be annoyed at you for getting them sick.

<comment><USER6> You are also harming other people when you do; maybe your immune system is all fine and dandy, but plenty of people don't have that luxury. Going to work despite feeling sick means you think your desire to portray yourself as a hard worker takes priority over other people's lives.

<comment><USER24> Boss doesn't care if I'm sick even if the rest of the office might. Deadlines are still deadlines to him so I worked through my last 3 illnesses.

<comment><USER25> You sure you'd get in trouble, or are you just assuming? Especially if you still worked from home?

Possibly I've just hit the boss jackpot 11 times in a row, but I've never been punished for staying home when sick. When I've felt capable, I've worked from home when sick, but sometimes I haven't even done that.

Assumptions aside, the rest of the people you're endangering don't care what your boss thinks, so, maybe everyone should reevaluate their priorities. Bosses included.

<comment><USER26> The irony of judging someone for "maybe assuming" that they might get in trouble, yet completely assuming that they can work from home.

It's kind of hard to pull bricks at the building site or sell groceries at the shop from your living room, you know, cause of the distance and all that.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I'm still not sure how we can be sure that all deaths that were counted as flu were flu and not coronavirus.

Is a flu test run on the dead bodies?

<comment><USER27> Can somebody tell me why I was downvoted? This was a serious question.

I read about multiple people in the US who are not sure if they had coronavirus or not, but didn't go testing. Also it seems like flu is supposed until proven proven that a person has coronavirus.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> Most cases will be like a cold. As many as 8% may require ICU care to survive. Unless protocols improve, at least a quarter of those will die. We need a lot more ventilators, immediately. And aggressive use of existing antivirals, protease inhibitors, with thorough data collection.

<comment><USER29> Don't have links, and there is much debate. The tricky part is people die quicker than the recover, so any death and recovery totals measured on the same day are measuring different populations.

But as people learn more they are getting better ideas on the disease progression. Every number has many assumptions built into it.

Seems like very little is known about how many people have had it and were either asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic. So the actual mortality rate is highly debated, without much real info. Not enough testing kits anywhere (in particular the USA and China) is making this difficult. Even with testing it's hard because and unknown number of people can just shrug it off.

But if you do go to the hospital and they are completely overwhelmed, treating people in hallways, etc the death rate is 10%. There were times in Wuhan where this was true.

If somewhat overwhelmed, able to treat, but not put on a full ventilator, but able to do supportive care (anti-virals, fluids, oxygen, etc) looks like the mortality rate (again for those that go to the hospital) is under 5%. Wuhan has been like this for some days now.

For those that go to the hospital where they aren't overwhelmed and you can get full supportive care up to and including a full ventilator the mortality rate, again for those that go to a hospital, is under 1%. This is seen in numerous countries that have very few cases.

<comment><USER6> To add on to your point, this is an argument for taking it very seriously right now, not shrugging it off. Good policy decisions right now can save lots of lives; a million people requiring hospitalization over a year is far, far better than a million people requiring hospitalization over three months. Slowing down the rate of infection isn't just kicking the can down the road, but something that will save countless lives.

<comment><USER30> Also, the longer you can put this off, you get outside of flu season, and the better weather probably helps fight against everything.

<comment><USER29> Corona virus seems plenty happy to infect people in warmer climates.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Facebook Forcing Users To Download Messenger If They Want To Chat On Mobile - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/28/facebook-moving-messages/ <comment><USER2> I tried messenger and hated it, I don't want to see bubble's popping up ontop of everything. Might quit using facebook all together on mobile if this gets more intrusive. I already hate the pop up requests to download messenger.</comment>


Chile plans hydropower plant in the most arid place of the planet - <AUTHOR> http://www.afp.com/en/news/chile-plans-hydropower-plant-desert <comment><USER2> so I guess pumping water up to a reservoir and a turbine downhill is cheaper than capacitors/batteries to store solar power?

<comment><USER3> If you've got the geography for it, it's cheaper and has a long history of deployment which makes it a relatively safe bet.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where do most of HN users come from? - <AUTHOR> Have we ever done a demographic survey of sorts?<p>Are we more famous in USA? Or Asia? Or Europe? I'm just curious. <comment><USER2> Alexa estimates put it at:

52% US 5.2% UK 4.7% India 4% Japan 3.4% Canada

</comment><comment><USER3> Australia?

Ok, us down-under are never going to make a big impact on the total numbers. But I wonder what percentage of Ozzie Hackers read and contribute to HN.

</comment><comment><USER4> USA, was recommended by another dev.</comment>


What IRC client do you use? - <AUTHOR>

I'm relatively new to IRC. I run Windows 7 and am looking for a good IRC client. Any suggestions? <comment><USER2> I have a bunch of Linux VPS servers and run Irssi on one of them. Combined with the GNU Screen program you can access this permanently connected IRC session from wherever you are. All you need is an SSH client, such as Putty, to connect to it.

<comment><USER3> I used to do that too. But now I use _Quassel IRC_ , IMO it's pretty cool because it consists of two parts:

\- a daemon process that does the actual connection to the IRC servers. You can run this on a VPS server.

\- a GUI client that you can run from everywhere. It connects to the daemon and gets your chat history for every channel. Disconnecting the client doesn't disconnect you from IRC.

Just like with the ssh/screen solution, you can use the same IRC connection from your desktop, laptop, work, home, etc. You never need to reconnect and you can browse what was said while you were away.

The big difference is that you have a (QT based) GUI instead of a console- based client. If you have a lot of channels and servers open, this is especially useful :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Xchat on Ubuntu. You might be interested in dropping by #startups on the freenode network - some of us hang out there.

</comment><comment><USER5> I have Limechat on Mac & iPhone, which both connect to znc - so I'm "always connected".

If someone mentions my name while I'm logged into znc, then znc-notifo pushes a message to notifo (which lets all my devices know.

I'm pretty happy with it.

<comment><USER6> Hmm, somehow I hadn't heard of notifo. Thanks for the post here which made me go look it up, looks interesting

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> irssi with screen (<http://irssi.org/>)

</comment><comment><USER8> Linkinus for OS X. It is great, fast, clean, looks beautiful. Soon should have node.js scripting support as well.

<http://www.linkinus.com>

</comment><comment><USER9> Silverex[1] is what I used to use back on windows. Nowadays, irssi with screen running on a server.

[1] <http://www.silverex.org/>

</comment><comment><USER10> If you're running Windows, then I guess the best option would be mIRC.

<http://www.mirc.com/>

</comment><comment><USER11> Colloquay on mac, but I prefer mIRC for windows.

</comment><comment><USER12> <http://code.google.com/p/xchat-wdk/>

</comment><comment><USER13> ERC in Emacs

</comment><comment><USER14> I have a server placed on a co-location where i use GNU Screen and Weechat for irc

</comment><comment><USER15> <http://www.pidgin.im/>

</comment><comment><USER16> <http://irccloud.com>

</comment><comment><USER17> macirssi

If push came to shove i would actually probably look up xIRCon for Windows, if i had to use Windows (yes even though xIRCon was already abandonware in 1999, eat that mIRC).

</comment><comment><USER18> irssi on *nix, Colloquy on iPhone.

</comment><comment><USER19> Mibbit!!!</comment>


Gopher Reading List: A curated selection of blog posts on Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/enocom/gopher-reading-list <comment><USER2> Similar Rust Reading lists

[https://github.com/ctjhoa/rust-learning](https://github.com/ctjhoa/rust- learning)

[https://github.com/brson/rust- anthology/blob/master/master-l...](https://github.com/brson/rust- anthology/blob/master/master-list.md)

</comment><comment><USER3> A list of my videos, teaching programming in Go:

[https://gameswithgo.org/topics.html](https://gameswithgo.org/topics.html)

</comment><comment><USER4> Most of the links point to 3rd-party blog posts that could be taken down any time.

I think a better GitHub project would be to cache the content of those articles — in accordance with their respective copyright terms, of course. I was personally disappointed that not many books have been referenced there, nor formal papers. Good list nonetheless, for people who have no idea what to read or where to start.

<comment><USER5> As I understand it, at least in the US, there are copyright exceptions for archives.

Perhaps you can suggest to the author that they generate archives [0] for each post and provide a backup link.

[0] [https://archive.is/](https://archive.is/)

</comment></comment><comment> more-entropy May be somebody could recommend same list about Rust?

<comment><USER2> I had to search that couple of days ago

[https://github.com/ctjhoa/rust-learning](https://github.com/ctjhoa/rust- learning)

[https://github.com/brson/rust- anthology/blob/master/master-l...](https://github.com/brson/rust- anthology/blob/master/master-list.md)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> So, are those posts available via gopher://, or why is this called a gopher reading list?

<comment><USER7> Easily fixed:

\- When talking about Go the language: type it as 'GOpher'

\- When talking about the protocol Gopher: type it as 'Gopher'.

If even just the HN community adopted this, there'd be less confusion.

<comment><USER8> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)#Decline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_\(protocol\)#Decline)

"In March 2017 Veronica indexed 133 gopher servers"

[https://blog.golang.org/8years](https://blog.golang.org/8years)

"Go has been embraced by developers all over the world with approximately one million users worldwide. In the freshly published 2017 Octoverse by GitHub, Go has become the #9 most popular language, surpassing C. Go is the fastest growing language on GitHub in 2017 in the top 10 with 52% growth over the previous year. In growth, Go swapped places with Javascript, which fell to the second spot with 44%."

<comment><USER7> And? Gopher (the protocol) is not dead yet. There's an active retro community keeping it alive and developing it. Just because it's no longer mainstream doesn't mean it should be erased from our lexicon.

How about I invent something and call it COBOL, is that OK?

If we expect our industry to ever grow up, we need to respect its history, and not keep overwriting it.

<comment><USER9> They can coexist.

<comment><USER10> No.. there can only be one!</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Can you train multiple neural networks to work together? - <AUTHOR> I've been getting into ML recently, and started studying Neural Networks. The work seems to be mostly about training nets on a specified dataset, at least in the intro lessons I've covered. Training on a dataset is interesting, but what idea i wanted to do a more complex task, like classify something in multiple mediums, I.e images and sound.<p>Would it be possible to string together multiple neural networks trained on different datasets all feeding forward to some master net that operates on the bunch and comes up with a more complex decision? <comment><USER2> >multiple neural networks trained on different datasets all feeding forward to some master net

What you have described is just a larger neural net or at least is indistinguishable from one.

<comment><AUTHOR> The idea is that these are trained independently with no interconnectivity, a la [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_neural_network](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_neural_network)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> A GAN is a fascinating way of using 2 neural nets together, or rather against each other e.g. pix2pix used conditional GANs.

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

</comment><comment><USER4> It's a computer program; you can implement any features you want.</comment>


What indie game all-stars think about the iPad - <AUTHOR> http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/28/what-do-indie-gaming.html

<comment><AUTHOR> My favorite part "the possibility here to do something pretty special, which is finally getting to do what board games do - a big shared playspace that you interact with in an intuitive way"

Can imagine some really fun chess / monopoly clones with graphics - <USER2> ever play battle chess back in the day?</comment>


Frontier, an ISP in 29 states, plans to file for bankruptcy - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/frontier-an-isp-in-29-states-plans-to-file-for-bankruptcy/ <comment><USER2> A major provider in rural parts of the country. Someone will snap them up then use the rural broadband government money to pay for it all. Pretending to provide high speed internet to all these "NEW" users.

<comment><USER3> No they won't, part of the reason frontier was doomed is because their infrastructure is so bad they no longer qualify with the new rules. Their entire business model was buying up old copper infrastructure where there was no competition then claiming dollars from the fund. They'd upgrade the head end and say the speeds were now capable of 7/1 even though no customer could ever actually attain close to those speeds. I suffered through their bs for years and dumped them the second an alternative was available.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Had Frontier after ATT Uverse sold their lines to Frontier (Southern Connecticut). The service quickly went downhill and a year later I got out of my contract. They had abysmal customer service and outdated equipment that seemed to be required to use the former ATT lines. The biggest issue came down to service quality and speed. As well as lengthy outages that only increased throughout the year.

</comment><comment><USER5> Time for google to buy it and really expand google fiber.</comment>


Paid summer-internship for premed and medical students interested in radiology - <AUTHOR> https://www.mdanderson.org/education-training/degrees-programs/summer-research-programs/summer-imaging-research-program.html <comment><AUTHOR> if you apply and are interested in machine learning applications in radiology or medicine, i'd be happy to be your mentor. -Naveen Garg</comment>


The peculiarities of the US financial system make it ideal for money laundering - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1230037/the-peculiarities-of-us-financial-system-make-it-ideal-for-money-laundering/ <comment><USER2> The Manafort/Gates indictments, I think, demonstrate how easy it is to launder money into the US and how unlikely it is to get caught. These guys were pretty blatant about it and nothing happened to them, for years, laundering millions of dollars into the US. It's pretty clear that they would have gotten away with it if a precise sequence of events in the last couple of years hadn't happened.

<comment><USER3> Money laundering is a vague term used to justify intrusive government overreach. If you have $16,000 in cash and deposit $9,000 in your bank account one day and $7,000 the next, you are a criminal guilty of structuring.

<comment><USER4> That's completely false. That situation you just described is absolutely not structuring.

Here's the fact pattern that _would_ make you a criminal guilty of structuring:

"You have $16,000 in cash. Knowing that there are reporting events that trigger some additional scrutiny of transactions about $10,000 you deliberately break the deposit into two separate transactions with the purpose of avoiding that scrutiny. As such, you deposit $9,000 in your bank account one day and $7,000 the next".

That's structuring. It requires the intent of avoiding the scrutiny. If you broke your deposits into two transactions for any other reason, it is not against the law.

The definition of structuring is 31 USC § 5324.

> No person shall, __for the purpose of evading the reporting requirements of > __section 5313(a) or 5325 or any regulation prescribed under any such > section, the reporting or recordkeeping requirements imposed by any order > issued under section 5326, or the recordkeeping requirements imposed by any > regulation prescribed under section 21 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act > or section 123 of Public Law 91–508

[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5324](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5324)

<comment><USER3> Good luck proving it was not intended to avoid reporting when the DA decides to make an example of you.

<comment><USER4> Criminal charges require the DA to prove your intent, not the other way around.

If you want to cry about the lack of due process in civil forfeiture, I will be with you 100%.

Your complaint was about _criminal_ structuring, which puts a significant burden of proof on the prosecutor and not on the defendant

<comment><USER3> The Kwon case demonstrates that the government doesn't have to prove squat. They'll keep your money and bleed you in court till you fold.

<comment><USER5> According to an article in the Washington Post[1], the Kwon case resulted in an outcry that caused Congress to change its guidelines, adding the additional requirement that the IRS must show the money in question are the profits of criminal activity. That Kwon hasn't yet received his money back appears to be a bureaucratic problem, not statutory.

Even given all of this, the Kwon case has more to do with the tax court than it does the Federal criminal courts.

I do believe that money laundering laws as currently written are often abused, however I don't think the Kwon case demonstrates what you assert.

[1] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-irs- seized-59000-fr...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-irs- seized-59000-from-a-gas-station-owner-they-still-refuse-to-give-it- back/2017/10/16/57828500-b296-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The City of London's strange history is a precursor to the convenient Wall Street offshoring and laundering arrangements

'The City of London's strange history' Maurice Glasman, Labour peer and academic [https://www.ft.com/content/7c8f24fa-3aa5-11e4-bd08-00144feab...](https://www.ft.com/content/7c8f24fa-3aa5-11e4-bd08-00144feabdc0)

</comment><comment><USER7> > The international community usually looks to the US to be a leader in > criminal justice, transparency, and the rule of law.

They do?

<comment><USER8> In some areas, the US was indeed the driving force for changes that I believe anyone would describe as positive.

One example is the legality of bribing foreign officials: these bribes were outlawed with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in _1977_. In my home country of Germany, foreign bribes were not just legal, but actually tax-deductible until the late 1990s.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> not sure if starting to require a physical human being as a beneficiary for a company will do much. in post Soviet countries its a requirement and most of the shell companies are registered to some homeless guy or a shepherd who was told sign these papers here is $100. criminal enterprises wont have difficulty finding some poor guy to sign the papers for anything

</comment><comment> huy-nguyen This piece is gold:

> One report uncovered an Afghan company that was contracted to supply our > troops but was secretly owned by the Taliban.

</comment><comment><USER10> They make it ideal for the wealthy to launder money, rather. It's just a symptom of US general lack of regulation of corporations, other than regulation meant to cripple small corporations that are threatening larger corporations. Just a product of total regulatory capture, as developed in the US from the mid-1890s, secured at the end of the 1910s, and lasted until FDR fixed the economy in the 1930s. The resurgence in the late 1970s which was secured by the late 90s is still operating at peak now, but if you judge by the last time, hopefully this will come to an end soon.

</comment><comment><USER11> The principle behind money laundering laws is exactly like the one behind legislation like FOSTA.

It makes people legally responsible for others using the services they provide in connection with a crime.

It legally mandates that third party intermediaries act as deputies for regulatory agencies, and disallow private use of the services they provide.

Laws like this effectively criminalize privacy in entire categories of human activity, in the name of preempting crime.

It's an absolutely terrible way to try to manage risk, and concentrates power in the hands of governing institutions to extremely dangerous proportions.

</comment><comment><USER12> "Money laundering" is an oxymoron - the entire essence of money is that _it is fungible_. When you tie the value of some dollars to their supposed history, what you are left with is subjective points that vary based on the political connections required to redeem them. At that point, why not just stop pretending that an individual can have means independent of their standing with the bureaucracy?

Like every new regulation, the outrage driving this will be stoked using the egregious examples of powerful criminals, but the actual effects will only ever be felt by the little guy.

<comment><USER13> You honestly don't believe anybody should ever _care_ if the gold-nugget they are being handed came from a person just murdered outside their store?

Like many abstractions, that concept of a fungible, anonymous, history-less, and wholly judgement-free "value" is just a _useful fantasy._

What bothers me about your post is that it seems you think the fantasy is the true original state of the world... and that the flawed reality is "new" and artificially created by a sinister cabal.

<comment><USER12> The fundamental problem here is like your question - conflating two completely separate concepts. A shopkeeper, being a person, should care if someone just murdered someone else outside of their shop. A shopkeeper that has just completed a sale, and then found out the customer is a murdering thief, should feel no compunction about considering the cash in the drawer theirs. They should of course help bring the murderer to justice.

Abstractions are only useful if we can rely on them. Under the regime of separate ambient titles (which the concept of money laundering is intertwined with), you can never be sure _anything_ that you have is actually _yours_! So this creates a whole lot of _ambiguity_. As I alluded to, this ambiguity erodes the rule of law because it can't not lead to selective enforcement based around the gut feelings of whomever decides if a claim to reverse has merit.

And yes, lack of an ambient title most certainly is the base state of the world - it's modern communications technology that has enabled us to even fathom tracking the history of everything. But you're the one strawmanning this "sinister cabal". I would describe it as power tending to coalesce, and emergently promulgating a paradigm that relies on (and thus further necessitates) said power.

<comment><USER14> I think what you're trying to say is that ALL property can be traced back to theft. So either sale cleans all of it or sale cleans none of it. We can't have it both ways.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> My impression (and I'm not an accountant or lawyer) is that the US make it very hard for their own citizens (and anyone else) to evade US taxes, but are otherwise happy to host other people's dirty money.

</comment><comment><USER16> Luxury real-estate was looked into in 2016 and up to 30% of deals they looked into were suspicious as money laundering conduits [1]. Who knows how much this inflates real estate values or diminishes needed supply.

With Citizen's United vs FEC it is now a massive target for money laundering as well [2]. Tons of foreign money is involved with it and can get in easily with Citizens United [3]. Our politics is going to get much more crazy with not only the foreign money involved but the dark money being cleaned.

Russian oligarchs or any group under sanctions also have ways to get money laundered besides the old school ways of casinos, black market products, etc [4].

> _According to James Henry, a former chief economist at McKinsey & Company > who consulted on the Panama Papers, some $1.3 trillion in illicit capital > has poured out of Russia since the 1990s._ [4]

> _In 1998, Russia defaulted on $40 billion in debt, causing the ruble to > plummet and Russian banks to close. The ensuing financial panic sent the > country's oligarchs and mobsters scrambling to find a safe place to put > their money._ [4]

> _Among the new tenants was Eduard Nektalov, a diamond dealer from > Uzbekistan. Nektalov, who was being investigated by a Treasury Department > task force for mob-connected money laundering, bought a condo on the > seventy-ninth floor, directly below Trump's future campaign manager, > Kellyanne Conway. A month later he sold his unit for a $500,000 profit. The > following year, after rumors circulated that Nektalov was cooperating with > federal investigators, he was shot down on Sixth Avenue._ [4]

> _In 2013, police burst into Unit 63A of Trump Tower and rounded up 29 > suspects in a $100 million money-laundering scheme_ [4].

[1] [https://cnbc.com/2017/08/24/a-third-of-luxe-real-estate- deal...](https://cnbc.com/2017/08/24/a-third-of-luxe-real-estate-deals- involve-suspicious-activity.html)

[2] [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/theres-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/theres- no-way-to-follow-the-money/282394/)

[3] [https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/citizens-united- foreign-...](https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/citizens-united-foreign- money-us-elections/)

[4] [https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian- laundr...](https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat- trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate)

<comment><USER17> Art also.

[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/arts/design/art-proves- at...](https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/arts/design/art-proves-attractive- refuge-for-money-launderers.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I don't want the government having its greedy mitts on every financial transaction under the sun.

<comment><USER19> It's not black and white. There has to be some middle ground between "big brother sees all" and "the proceeds of illegal activities and rampant corruption flow freely into the pockets of wrongdoers".

<comment><USER20> That middle ground should be for the government to seize the proceeds of illegal activities after proving the illegal activities themselves in a court beyond a reasonable doubt.

The government shouldn't be allowed to take shortcuts.

<comment><USER11> And what you described is basically the principle of due process, which the creation of money laundering as a category of crime totally undermines in spirit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> The lifeblood of criminal enterprises is revenues that are primarily driven by prohibition. I think I see a better solution.

<comment><USER21> Legalize extortion rackets and kickbacks?

<comment><USER3> I clearly said primarily. An end to Prohibition leaves organized crime with a tiny fraction of its current revenues. And frees law enforcement to give extortion and kickbacks (along with actual crimes with actual victims) lots more attention.

<comment><USER22> Not all this money is drug money; a lot of the international money is the result of corruption or theft from the state.

<comment><USER3> That's clearly not a problem for the US justice system. I'd kind of like it focused on the all of the crimes with US victims that are currently too low priority to investigate, including millions of untested rape kits.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Twitter users turned 9 year-old Quaden Bayles into a scammer - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/swlh/how-twitter-users-turned-bullied-quaden-bayles-into-a-scammer-b14cb10e998a <comment><USER2> Everything about this article is social media gossip trash.

Don't put your kid online. Problem solved. This bullying is only happening because people outside of this child's real life friends can follow him, which is the parent's fault.

Then all the gossip surrounding it is just mind numbing. This article is part of the problem. Who. The. Fuck. Cares. I don't know these people. They don't have any discernible reason to be getting attention.</comment>


Ira Glass on the secret of success - <AUTHOR> http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/22/ira-glass-on-the-secret-of-success/

<comment><USER2> I don't recommend this over the version that's been on YouTube for a long time:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BI23U7U2aUY>

The kinetic typography gives me a headache, possibly because nobody should be forced to read text that is _jiggling around_ at _Ira Glass's speaking speed_. It is also redundant, obviously. Ira Glass is one of the world's most famous narrators; we can understand him just fine.

It's also necessarily abridged, and while I agree that they captured some of the best sentences in the clip, there's more to a work of art than just its topic sentence. (Woody Allen: "I took a speed reading course and read _War and Peace_ in twenty minutes. It involves Russia.") In this case, it's a shame to leave out the part where Glass pulls out a tape of his younger self to show how awful his work used to be.

</comment><comment><USER3> I went to design school at one of the most well renown schools of Design in the country. We learned a lot in a very compressed amount of time, and I was consistently impressed with the raw intelligence of my colleagues.

But the _single thing_ that I noticed differentiated people who were break-out "all stars" were people who weren't afraid to fail and kept pushing boundaries week after week of crits (critiques). Learning how to give and take critique is an essential part of any sort of creative process, but the prerequisite to evaluation and refinement is the act of raw creation.

A favorite story of mine from a product design professor:

An elementary school pottery class was split into two groups. The first group was told that they'd be graded on the volume of the ceramic pots they created. The second group was told they'd be graded on the sheer aesthetic qualities of only one ceramic pot throughout the course of the semester.

Semester after semester, the 1st group (graded on volume) would inevitably have the most aesthetically pleasing ceramic pot in the group.

Iterating and more importantly, having the right mindset to learn from those iterations is pivotal to succeeding.

<comment><USER4> That is a great story. Reminds me of The Onion's method for coming up with headlines- they just make an enormous amount and filter until they have the best.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Comedian Steve Martin has great insight in his auto-biography. I can't find my copy or an excerpt, but it's something to this effect:

>"If you don't saturate your life in a single quest, you'll dilute your focus to a point where becoming outstanding becomes out of reach."

He emphasizes dedication and tenacity, which lends a lot more credit to his often quoted line:

>"Be so good they can't ignore you".

<comment><USER6> The other takeaway I like from Steve Martin is the idea that it's easy to be great some of the time but hard to be good reliably. You can have 'on' nights, but it's handling your off nights that makes a professional.

dang, now I need to figure out where I read this.

edit: ah, found it.

>It was easy to be great. Every entertainer has a night when everything is clicking. These nights are accidental and statistical. Like lucky cards in poker, you can count on them occurring over time. What was hard was to be good, consistently good, night after night, no matter what the abominable circumstances.

[https://eebatou.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/5-creativity- tips-f...](https://eebatou.wordpress.com/2008/02/03/5-creativity-tips-from- steve-martin/)

<comment><USER7> Related - my friends were discussing the difference between professional bowlers and the really good amateur bowlers. One of theme bowled averaging 160s/170s. An amateur bowler can bowl in the 200s on their home lane but a professional bowler can bowl on the road, in any condition - any oiling pattern. Yes, they have many bowling balls (for the conditions) but the professionals can perform in any situation.

And, that is kind of the difference, between the rash of amateur coders and professional coders. Amateur coders (it is great that some of them have never code before) get a thrill from just writing something (the proverbial Hello, World or more) while professional coders can code in the context of a larger system and integrate that code. To code when the conditions aren't so great (e.g. deadlines, pressure, existing architecture).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In my free time I produce electronic music. I was just browsing DJ Lucky Date's YouTube channel and thinking "man he has put in a lot time". In the last six months or so he has blown up, but the work is there for all to see.

Edit: the link for those interested <http://www.youtube.com/user/luckydatevideos>

</comment><comment><USER9> It's hard to agree with this as vigorously as I want. Every year I look back at where I was the year before and realize I was _terrible_ back then, and when I look back at today in twelve months I'll realize that what I'm working on right now is not nearly as good as it will be then.

To anyone frustrated with their own mediocre work, keep going! You will be so much better next year.

</comment><comment><USER10> This aligns with some feelings that have been brewing up inside of me for a while. I feel like any work, as long as it is real work (not just wasting time) is valuable...and the harder you try the better it gets, the hard you try the luckier you get...luck and good work is a good start to the combination required for success.

I dont think it matters if you're a writer, software developer, mechanic...anything...time makes you better and the key is to not give up when you dont see the light at the end of the tunnel...have a little faith that its just around the bend.

</comment><comment><USER11> I try to watch this video about once a month. It never ceases to relevant to my life and work, I just wish I had seen it ten years ago when I was first starting.

Thanks for the reminder this month!

</comment><comment><USER12> tl/dr "do a lot of work even as you might feel it's not up to your expectations but persevere and it'll get better it's normal".

I dunno, tl as in too long doesn't feel appropriate here, I was surprised by the lack of content actually.</comment>


As a studying Electrical Engineer, what project should I do during winter break? - <AUTHOR>

I am currently studying Electrical Engineering.  Everything I am learning is extremely interesting to me.  Winter break is coming up, and I want to make use of the month I have off.<p>- I am pretty good with Java and C++.  Not great, but good.  Should I try to elaborate on one of those for a month?<p>- I am currently in a microcontrollers class, and loving it.  We are using Assembly to program the PIC18.  I would love to make something awesome with a microcontroller, but am not sure I have enough knowledge at this point to do so.  Would this be something I should look into?<p>- I have always been interested in hacking.  Would it be worth spending a month just reading/learning different things about hacking?  What languages should I look at?  What should I read?  What should I do to learn?<p>Programming, microcontrollers, and hacking are probably my best options at this point.  What do you guys recommend?  Why?  Which is the most fun to you? <comment><USER2> 1\. Pickup an arduino and build something - maybe a r/c truck with some IR sensors and servos that scan for an "autonomous" powered car

2\. If you can get your hands on a raspberry pi - I would highly recommend building something with it that is platform based. e.g. [http://hackaday.com/2012/08/29/party-photo-printer-built- aro...](http://hackaday.com/2012/08/29/party-photo-printer-built-around-a- raspberry-pi/)

Either way focus on 1 project and get it built from start to finish. Even if it sucks, focus on completion - just my $0.02

:)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is exactly what I was looking for. I have heard of both arduino, and raspberry pi, but I believe this is where my knowledge is lacking. What are their capabilities? Obviously I will look into them now, but what can they do? All I have done in my microcontrollers class is make an LED screen say different things, and move wheels forward and backward. Is this what these two do?</comment></comment>


Death in space: The ethics of dealing with astronauts' bodies - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/04/death_in_space_the_ethics_of_dealing_with_astronauts_bodies.single.html <comment><USER2> If I have gone to all the trouble of getting to Mars, don't you _dare_ send my body back to Earth.

And with a whole planet filled with nothing, I think you can find room for a decent cemetery - so that in a thousand years someone can look down on my headstone and say _" Here lies one of the first humans ever to set foot on Mars."_

And if I _don 't_ quite make it there, just launch my body out towards somewhere like Kepler-186f, where in a million years some alien species might discover it and have proof that life _does_ exist somewhere out there.

<comment><USER3> > _If I have gone to all the trouble of getting to Mars, don 't you dare send > my body back to Earth._

Completely agreed.

> _And if I don 't quite make it there, just launch my body out towards > somewhere like Kepler-186f (...)_

So now instead of a bigger grave or tombstone, your family will have to pay for a bigger delta-v budget ;).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> It is interesting that in western society (and perhaps society in general, I don't claim to know) cannibalism is considered one of the most horrifying things you can do... _except_ in cases where it is necessary to stay alive. Pretty much nobody faults people for resorting to cannibalism when the choice is cannibalism or death. We might dance around it and avoid talking about it, but we are pretty understanding when it comes to a life and death situation.

We see examples of this when people are stuck in the Andes or on a life raft in the middle of the ocean.

In situations where negligence of the cannibals is seen to have contributed to the circumstances that lead to the necessity of cannibalism, we are a bit less forgiving. For example the Donner Party.

<comment><USER5> I'm forgiving of anyone who eats human flesh out of necessity, regardless of the circumstances that got them there.

Donner party included.

<comment><USER6> It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people.

\-- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Ethics for Tomorrow"

<comment><USER7> Those quotes were miles beyond any other game. Someone deserves kudos for all the work they put into those.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I go two ways on this. If I'm dead, whatever I am, I'm gone. My body isn't me. Do whatever you want with it. (For example, I carry a donor card.) Stuff it out the airlock. Leave it behind on another planet. Whatever. I won't care one way or the other.

On the other hand, as Frank Herbert said in Dune, the line between humans and animals (or maybe something more like civilization and savagery?) begins with how we treat the dead. It matters, not so much for the dead person, but for society as a whole.

So maybe the answer is something like this: Treat the dead bodies with as much dignity as circumstances permit. If circumstances don't permit any particular thing, don't worry about it.

</comment><comment><USER9> > "in the highly probable event that the brave souls aboard Apollo 11 became > stranded on the moon"

Highly probable? Is this backed up by something? I've read some on Apollo 11, but never came across the idea that the astronauts being stranded was considered a likely event.

<comment><USER10> There were a number of scenarios where the mission might have failed. This was partly due to lack of information (can the lander actually remain vertical on lunar regolith where it is landing?) and partly due to weight contraints on the number of redundant systems.

For example the same cryopump that exploded on Apollo 13 could have had the same failure on the command module of Apollo 11 while the Armstrong and Aldrin were on the Moon.

Armstrong manually piloted the LEM due to a bug in the computer programming for the landing, and had to move laterally as the original landing site had too many boulders. He landed with less than 30 seconds of reserve propellent.

Errors in re-entry burns can lead to entering the atmosphere too quickly or too shallowly. Either are fatal.

There were many, many things that could have doomed the mission which supports the notion of 'highly probable'.

<comment><USER8> "Many things can go wrong" != "failure is highly probable". You also have to think about the probability of each one of those things going wrong.

<comment><USER10> In general I agree with that, however there were many single points of failure in the Apollo program that resulted loss of crew and vehicle. In a conversational article such as this one I did not feel that the characterization was unwarranted. as I recall Michael Collins said as much in his book on the mission.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-An-Astronauts- Journeys/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-An-Astronauts- Journeys/dp/0374531943/)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why is resending email from an invalid server allowed? - ezequiel-garzon

Greetings! If I save an email from email@example.com on my VPS and then pipe it into `sendmail firstname.lastname@example.com` Peter will receive the original message as if John had sent it. I'm even more surprised that you can do this between Google accounts (Gmail and Google for domains). Why is this practice allowed? Clearly Google knows the message is fake in the sense that John didn't send it to Peter. I haven't tried to abuse this feature, and that's probably why it works under my tests, but I wonder why Google lets these messages through at all. Any ideas? What would be a legitimate use for this? <comment><AUTHOR> In general, SMTP isn't authenticated. RFC733[0], for example, the first network mail RFC (AFAIK), is dated 1977 when the Internet was a much more friendly and trusting place.

This lack of authentication is what allows for all the spam with forged From: headers. You can, for example, send an e-mail from the command-line using telnet[1] and have it appear to be from any e-mail address you wish.

In the last several years there have been several attempts to address this such as DomainKeys[2], DKIM[3], SPF[4], and DMARC[5].

As for why Google allows the message through, well, you'd have to ask them.

[0]: [https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc733.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc733.txt)

[1]: [https://workaround.org/ispmail/lenny/test-mail-through- telne...](https://workaround.org/ispmail/lenny/test-mail-through-telnet)

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

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

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

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

<comment> ezequiel-garzon Thanks for your thorough reply. Yes, SMTP was designed when "everybody knew everybody" on the Interne. My major doubt is why, in the age of DKIM, SPF et al these practices are allowed. I just found out this is the easiest way to resend a message if you have a very primitive MUA, so maybe that's the reason? I doubt Google will answer me this question :)</comment></comment>


The Asteroid Hunters - <AUTHOR> http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a17822/the-asteroid-hunters/ <comment><USER2> To avoid entering your email to "Unlock" the movies: [http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/g97/the-100-b...](http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/movies/g97/the-100-best- sci-fi-movies-of-all-time/)</comment>


Ask YC: When can we expect to know our YC application status? - <AUTHOR>

I know it's supposed to be today but the waiting is starting to drive me crazy. Any ideas? <comment><USER2> I like National Geographic:

pangolins <http://youtube.com/watch?v=r2cyp8k8uuM>

pygmy seahorse <http://youtube.com/watch?v=k4q3sBuCkRQ>

critter cam, turtles: <http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_D51Ui_XMI>

These things calm me.

<comment><USER3> <http://cuteoverload.com>

<comment><USER2> Yeah, exactly. Cute overload. nature does it better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Late tonight probably.

<comment><USER4> The emails are going out now. Thanks for your patience (and please check your spam folders).

The applications were really good this time. We invited more groups to interviews than we have in the past, but we still had to turn down a lot that are probably good.

<comment><USER5> How much do you look at the news.yc username correlation in your decision making?

<comment><USER4> It's hard to quantify, but it definitely helps when you feel like you know what someone's like from reading their comments.

A text application form is such a low-bandwidth source. Reading the applications, we feel like we're just starving for information about what the people are really like. So any additional context helps a lot.

<comment><USER6> Would it be possible to specifically mail those who were rejected?I do understand it would be time consuming for you guys, it would be really helpful to all

<comment><USER4> It would be less helpful than you might think. Strange as it sounds, there's often no answer to the question of why groups are rejected. I tried to explain it here: <http://ycombinator.com/whynot.html>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My recommendation: go out and get a cool drink from some hippy juice bar, relax, and then go to bed before midnight. Read a book or watch a movie instead of checking until tomorrow morning. (I'm not being sarcastic; that's what I'm planning on doing. Blueberry-orange-pineapple smoothie ahoy!)

Finding out about the results sooner won't alter them, and the anticipation/worry is almost always worse than the reveal of whatever you're waiting for. If you resolve not to check until tomorrow morning, you'll have a more pleasant night, and be well rested to find out what's up in the morning.

<comment><USER8> Or better yet, just assume you're not getting it, because even if you get invited, you statistically still probably aren't going to be accepted. Keep building your application, chasing up contacts, figuring out the next step and planning on taking over the world with or without YC.

<comment><USER9> A year ago they kept 2 out of 3 invitees IIRC.

<comment><USER10> Yes, if you make it to the interview, your odds are excellent. In our batch roughly 50% of interviewees made it, and that number increased in subsequent batches. I've suspected that the application phase is where all of the downward pressure comes in--since they get so many, and the interview weekend only has so many slots available for talking to people. The quality of the applicants that make it to the interview has probably gone up remarkably. This time around, pg has enlisted the help of prior founders to get a better feel for applicants (and give the applicants a chance to ask all the questions they have about YC of folks who've experienced it), so it seems likely that those that make it to the interview are even more likely to be accepted.

<comment><USER8> But you still shouldn't bet on it. That was my point. It wouldn't matter if the odds later on were 90% or 10%, that's still several potentially wasted weeks. Just keep going.

<comment><USER10> I absolutely agree.

The teams most likely to get in are also the ones most likely to be working on their startup already. If you're not going to be working on your startup with or without YC, I suspect your odds of getting in are significantly lower (and probably moreso as time goes by, given the number of applicants and the number that are already started on their project--at least two that I talked to had applied and interviewed previously but not gotten in...they'd been either working on new ideas since then, or had gone on to launch something, and were back for another swing at YC with new or evolved ideas). I suspect at least one of those teams I talked to will get in this time. Stubbornness, self- confidence, risk-taking, and simple hard work are all things that YC appreciates...and they appreciate them because they're traits that lead to successful startups.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Go out with your team and eat something tasty or drink a couple of nice beers. There should be an endless amount of things to talk about regarding your startup that don't depend on yc.

Come back and check your email around midnight, then decide what your next step will be.

(this is exactly what I'm doing)

</comment><comment><USER12> Just put it in the back of your mind and continue executing everything you wrote about in your application.

</comment><comment><USER13> Shot down in flames a few minutes ago. At least they sent a well crafted email. I would love to see the specific negative feedback as to why they rejected us, but I understand that it would add to their workload.

Anyway, for me the best part of the YC process was the exercise of completing the application. It was much less daunting than sitting down to write a business plan. It forced me to codify my plans in broad terms, and that has been very helpful.

Now, back to the races.

</comment><comment><USER14> Good luck to everyone! I admit, I joined with little hopes of getting picked, so just the pleasure of learning about start-ups made it worthwhile.

Thanks YC!

</comment><comment><USER15> Thanks for reminding me. I don't even remember that they will give out the interviews today. Take it easy.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm curious what part of this sentence says notifications will be sent by April 9th. "We'll review applications by April 9 and invite the groups that seem most promising to meet us in Mountain View on the weekend of April 25-27." I kid, I kid.

</comment><comment><USER17> Don't forget to check your spam filters just in case! =P. I asked my friend who got accepted and he said that they sent it pretty late and that the email only goes to the leader on the app. Goodluck to everyone!

<comment><USER13> FWIW our rejection was sent to all founders emails.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> A watched kettle never boils.

<comment><USER19> While a watched kettle never seems to boil, my ruby script that scanned for a pg comment did signal.

<comment><USER20> You gotta share that script or give it a web address

<comment><USER19> hooande

<http://pastie.caboo.se/178157>

just replace the to and from number and excuse the lack of any error correcting. go out, get a beer, and wait.

<comment><USER21> You know that you can scan for his replies on any thread by using the <http://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments> link, right? Just in case someone starts another "YC e-mails are out!" thread?

<comment><USER19> I did not know about that feature. Thanks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Yes, go the Alpha-beta pruning approach. Assume you were rejected and don't wait till too late to find out how screwed you are. Continue working and launch 1 day earlier ;)

</comment><comment><USER23> To make the waiting easier, I assume it's going to be after midnight. That way, insanity is held at bay.

</comment><comment><USER24> Oh was suppose to be today? slipped my mine

</comment><comment><USER25> patience is a virtue and a necessity in our trade.</comment>


Herbalife "database scripting errors" led to mis-reporting Active New Members - <AUTHOR> http://ir.herbalife.com/secfiling.cfm?CIK=1180262&filingID=1193125-16-490676 <comment><USER2> Original value 33, corrected 1.8

The post should be titled: Bill Ackman has a field day

<comment><USER3> You'd think so, but the stock isn't too far off its 52-week high. Yes it glitched a little on Thursday, but it almost completely recovered by Friday close.

Ackman is probably right about the company. But many other people, e.g. Carl Icahn, are buying HLF. Maybe it's to make money, maybe it's just to fuck with Ackman for the lulz. After all, Icahn is 80 years old. He'll never live long enough to spend his billions. Why not have a little fun messing with someone he dislikes from a previous business dealing?</comment></comment>


Assemblers and Loaders (1993) - <AUTHOR> http://www.davidsalomon.name/assem.advertis/AssemAd.html <comment><USER2> Not free, but an excellent book along the same lines, is John Levine's "Linkers and Loaders":

[http://www.amazon.com/Linkers-Kaufmann-Software- Engineering-...](http://www.amazon.com/Linkers-Kaufmann-Software-Engineering- Programming/dp/1558604960)

He's been the moderator of comp.compilers since 1986, so he's got a lot of practical Q&A experience to draw on.

<comment><USER3> The author has posted a draft of that for free: [http://www.iecc.com/linker/](http://www.iecc.com/linker/)

It's mostly missing the finished illustrations.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> After I first read this book years ago, I wanted a one pass assembler.</comment>


Google tries to destroy Oracle's case, asks for judgment on Java copyrights - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/04/google-tries-to-destroy-oracles-case-asks-for-judgment-on-java-copyrights.ars

<comment><USER2> I think we can all agree that copyrighteable APIs will be really crappy.

<comment><USER3> I disagree.

If it results in companies actually spending the time to design better APIs I would absolutely support them being copyrighted.

Millions/billions of dollars is wasted each year because of terribly designed APIs. And I am a massive fan of a future where every system (internal and external) has a clean, interoperable API to build next-generation mashups. But right now that is a pipe dream.

<comment><USER4> Would this mean that it would be dangerous to read API documentation for potential competitors? Would it mean that you'd be in danger of violating copyright if you implemented a compatible implementation of someone else's API? Would it mean that you could get a copyright on an API that you designed but never implemented?

The argument as I read it seemed to be attempting to assert that implementing an API was a derivative work of that API's documentation.

It's hard to imagine the second and third order effects of such a change in the understanding of law around software. I'm trying not to be just change averse and actually imagining what that world would look like, but damn it's hard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is pretty much the same as the other story on HN right now: <http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120426075025438>

Oracle goofed and premised a lot of their copyright arguments on something that was not supported by their own copyright registrations. Unless they can find some documents that prove that they have registered what they need to, they're in big trouble, because it's too late to fix things.

I think the judge said they would be allowed to introduce any new evidence, assuming they can find anything that says they own what they need to. But unless they can do that....</comment>