New Horizons phones home - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33531811 <comment><USER2> This is the most incredible picture I have ever seen. In May, the best picture of Pluto was a couple blown up pixels. Now, it looks like a render from a Pixar movie.

[https://twitter.com/tothur/status/620601134651166720/photo/1](https://twitter.com/tothur/status/620601134651166720/photo/1)

<comment><USER3> Astro-noob here. Why can't we get better pictures from our telescopes, given that we can take what seems to be high quality pictures of things much further away? Is it because of how "small" pluto is, versus say a large galaxy or nebula.

<comment><USER4> It is exactly that: Pluto is a very tiny astronomical object. Galaxies, nebulae, and such are much further away than Pluto, but that is more than made up for by how mind-boggingly large they are. For example, The Andromeda Galaxy is about six full moons wide as viewed from Earth[1].

[1]: [http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/01/moon_and...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/01/01/moon_and_andromeda_relative_size_in_the_sky.html)

<comment><USER5> There are an estimated 1 trillion stars in the Andromeda galaxy.

<comment><USER6> It's kind of a shame humanity evolved in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

If we'd evolved in one of the Magellanic Clouds, we'd see an astounding squashed spiral view of this galaxy with direct line of sight of the bright nucleus.

<comment><USER7> Meanwhile if there are life forms in Magellanic Clouds they are probably looking at the spiral arms thinking that it is a shame that they did not evolve in a galaxy proper...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> '"With this mission, we have visited every single planet in the Solar System," said Nasa's administrator Charles Bolden.'

Uhhhhhhh... Should somebody tell him?

<comment><USER9> > Should somebody tell him?

Bolden says he still considers Pluto a planet. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11739763/Pluto...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11739763/Pluto- I-still-call-it-a-planet-says-head-of-Nasa.html)

<comment><USER10> Considering the definition of a plutoid is effectively "a planet further away than neptune", I'm inclined to shun the plutoists and agree with him.

<comment><USER11> Ceres was robbed of planetary status before it was cool.

<comment><USER12> This isn't talked about more often but its kinda funny. During roughly the American Revolution there were 10 planets.

Neptune/Pluto weren't yet discovered. Instead we had Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, George (Uranus), Ceres, Vesta, and several other minor asteroids.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It amazes me that we humans have made something that has travelled over seven billion kilometers in cold dark emptiness and sends us highly detailed photographs of things we have never seen before.

</comment><comment><USER14> Why does the BBC refuse to capitalize the letters in NASA as an acronym? Is it British grammar or do they not realize it's in all caps?

<comment><USER15> From their style guide[0]:

Acronyms

Use the abbreviated form of a title without explanation only if there is no chance of any misunderstanding (eg UN, Nato, IRA, BBC). Otherwise, spell it out in full at first reference, or introduce a label (eg the public sector union Unite).

Where you would normally pronounce the abbreviation as a string of letters - an initialism - use all capitals with no full stops or spaces (eg FA, UNHCR, NUT). However, our style is to use lower case with an initial cap for acronyms where you would normally pronounce the set of letters as a word (eg Aids, Farc, Eta, Nafta, Nasa, Opec, Apec).

[0] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/news-style- guide/art...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/news-style- guide/article/art20131010112740749)

<comment><USER14> Great answer, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Here's an enhanced version of the color photo of Pluto released today (taken on July 13th, 768,000 km): [https://i.imgur.com/BiR2WNO.png](https://i.imgur.com/BiR2WNO.png)

</comment><comment><USER17> What I find interesting is how few craters there are compared to other planets (yes I know pluto is no longer a planet). Does this reflect that meteor bombardment is rare in the outer solar system, or that there is some sort of geological process going on that is removing craters?

<comment><USER7> Initial interpretation of the first image apparently suggested an active (geologically speaking) surface. This would tend to remove visible craters. Think Venus (highly active surface) vs the Moon.

<comment><USER17> Interesting. I wonder is powering this as there is no obvious energy source - maybe tidal?

<comment><USER7> I'm not sure. I did wonder about this interpretation myself. It does not make much sense in terms our understanding of tectonics (or lack thereof) for other bodies in the solar system.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> [http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-new-horizons- phones-...](http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-new-horizons-phones-home- safe-after-pluto-flyby)

It seems strange that the highest ranked story about Pluto for the past few days has been from BBC not NASA. Check out www.nasa.gov for the original press release and updates as they come in.

</comment><comment><USER19> I assume that the probe is travelling in a straight line? I also assume that each planet is busily orbiting the sun. How on earth (pardon the pun) did they work out the exact speed the probe should travel at (I also assume it accelerates) in order to fly past each planet and moon at exactly the right point of time and space?

<comment><USER20> I think you misunderstood the statement about "visiting every single planet in the Solar System with this mission".

It's not meant to imply that this _specific_ mission visited all the planets, just that this mission completes the achievement. (In his opinion).

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I love that we have an operational "deep space network" - emotional moment as New Horizons reconnects after Pluto fly past last night [https://amp.twimg.com/v/e360e83b-b3dd-4862-9a7f-7b111b33e27d](https://amp.twimg.com/v/e360e83b-b3dd-4862-9a7f-7b111b33e27d)

</comment><comment><USER22> Totally amazing! Perhaps one day with hard work and lots of luck humanity may reach to the stars and beyond.

<comment><USER23> Ad astra per aspera.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I can't wait, hopefully they get the higher resolution ones tomorrow!

<comment><USER25> I believe tomorrow we get a higher-resolution Charon and a similar resolution picture of Pluto. The incredible Emily Lakdawalla has a full list of what's coming when:

[http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily- lakdawalla/2015/0624055...](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily- lakdawalla/2015/06240556-what-to-expect-new-horizons-pluto.html)

<comment><USER26> Nice "not-planets" montage by Emily Lakdawalla here:

[http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily- lakdawalla/2015/0714133...](http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily- lakdawalla/2015/07141338-the-not-planets.html)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> It would be awesome if artificial structures are discovered on Pluto. What would be mankind's next step, if say life is discovered on Pluto?

<comment><USER28> That's an interesting idea. On one hand I would think that something intelligent living with that little energy available per square meter would operate very slowly, such that we could communicate with it like a correspondence chess game. However, on the other hand that it alternates between pretty different climates every 250 years suggest the type of pressures that lead to different eras in Earth's history where life was predominantly smaller or more 'simple' before becoming bigger and more complex again. Maybe at low temperatures though, 250 years is a short hibernation.

<comment><USER29> This implys that the only way that organism can obtain energy would be from the sun, and not from some internal process on Pluto.

<comment><USER28> I was actually thinking of the evidence of tectonic forces, too. Like a long inhale and exhale collected by the mass of the body and realized at the borders of geologic transformation every plutonic year? There's something beautiful about the image.

An even more exotic arrangement, beyond electrochemical processes, to somehow 'metabolize' matter directly into energy would exceed the definition of life in my opinion, as though it would be life 2.0 or something, and also have a pretty fascinating impact on the universe.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> That infographic appears to have the colors for Mars and Jupiter reversed...

</comment><comment><USER31> Gaint leap</comment>


Ask HN: Is there a quarterly journal for the Internet community? - <AUTHOR>

Ask HN: Is there a quarterly journal similar to N+1, Kill Screen, or Lapham's Quarterly for the web and app design and programming community? <comment><USER2> RSS</comment>


Covid Tracker on Bing.com - <AUTHOR> https://www.bing.com/covid <comment><USER2> does not have up to date data. check [http://www.covid-19.com](http://www.covid-19.com)</comment>


Alphabet claims Uber was hiding the self-driving tech that it allegedly copied - <AUTHOR> https://www.recode.net/2017/4/21/15390074/alphabet-uber-hiding-self-driving <comment><USER2> Can't say I'm shocked to see Uber's dishonesty here. From all the other claims against them (Lyft and sexual harassment) it seems like this type of behavior is standard operating procedure.

This culture is set from the top. It's only a matter of time that Travis will step down. Sooner the better so they can start working on improving integrity throughout the organization.

In the 90's, Microsoft was skewered for a lot less.

<comment><USER3> Based on what proof. The article provided nothing in the way of evidence, just Google's claim. They could claim anything. Since when did HN stop exercising healthy skepticism?

<comment><USER2> Also based on a pattern of behavior. These issues are systemic and have been going on for years. This is the same company that ignores sexual harassment claims, illegally tracks and blackmails journalists, deploys highly questionable anti-competitive tactics at will.

<comment><USER3> I used to work at a very successful tech company that became the Goliath in its market and saw first hand how the media vilified us and interpreted every little thing we did through evil-colored glasses. I few issues were legitimate criticisms but they were textbook cases of situations where Hanlon's Razor should have been applied. Everyone assumed malice where there there was at worst poor judgement. Eventually the media cycle reached a fever pitch to drive clicks and everything was interpreted in the worst way possible to drive whatever narrative people (just like you) wanted to believe.

Cite me a single shred of evidence to support your claim that they have blackmailed a single journalist.

Uber and its closest competitor Lyft engaged in pretty much all the same competitive actions but only Uber is criticized for them. Everyone criticizes Uber for subsidization tactics to win market share and conveniently ignores that Lyft does the exact same. My observations with my former employee roughly aligns with what I've seen with Uber. 20% or so is legitimate criticism (due to poor judgement) and 80% is hyperbolic and applied to us and our competitors and applies to Uber and its competitors.

Near as I can tell this is a phenomena that applies to every single unicorn that has viable competitors. It happened to Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. near as I can tell, the only difference that I can tell between how Uber is being treated and they were treated come down to the zeitgeist when they came of age. The past 2-3 years has seen a sharp increase in polarization of the political atmosphere with a lot more social justice folks in journalistic positions than in years past and Uber is the favorite whipping boy. For example, Apple has been subject to this as well. Apple was widely criticized over labor practices of its suppliers in China despite the fact that it had and continues to have some of the best practices and policing of suppliers in the industry.

Take the Susan Fowler situation. It's a shame and it never should have happened, but in the very same week when her blog post of allegations was published, there was an actual sexual harassment case filed in an actual court against Tesla, but almost no one heard about that because the media loves Tesla.

Everyone I've spoken to that has ever worked at a successful unicorn has related similar stories of unfair criticism, especially when there were viable competitors whose investors are powerful and can drive a story through the journalists they've invested in or have strong relationships with. There's a reason why investors like Marc Andreessen have invested heavily in the career of well known Silicon Valley journalists and it's not because those journalists have an exit strategy that will net him a 10x or 100x return.

<comment><USER4> > _Cite me a single shred of evidence to support your claim that they have > blackmailed a single journalist._

Google "uber blackmail journalist". It's an almost 3-year story now. People seem to have short memory when it comes to Uber, but they've been pulling shady shit since almost day one. We've been through many of such discussions on HN since then, they're all searchable through Google and Algolia (the search bar at the bottom).

I get that media outlets can all band against particular company - I believe that's actually happened with Susan Fowler case. But Uber has a long history of frequent misbehaviour; that's not vilifying, that's what this company is.

<comment><USER3> I just did the search you suggested. It turned up results, none of which show a single example of blackmail. The best I found was a drunk executive speculatively talking about funding opposition journalism on a journalist who was allegedly extraordinarily critical of Uber. Ironically, it looks like you just illustrated one of my points since I'm pretty sure that that journalist and the journalists who broke that stories are both Marc Andreessen funded.

So again, please show me where they blackmailed a journalist because I failed to find any evidence for that. What happened in particular situation you just cited doesn't even come close to meeting the criteria for being blackmail. That said, I want to be charitable here, so I'll assume you're talking about some other incident around that time that I'm unfamiliar with. Was there some other instance you're talking about where they blackmailed a journalist as you've claimed?

<comment> vertex-four > In particular, Michael is reported to have singled out PandoDaily editor-in- > chief Sarah Lacy, suggesting that he already knew something about her and > could have his team of journalists confirm it.

First article. It's basically creating chilling effects against reporting against Uber. I'm sure every journalist, and every person, has done something they wouldn't want to wind up in an article of the New York Times - and unless a company like Uber goes up against them, those things almost always don't.

<comment><USER3> That's editorializing, not blackmail.

Here's an alternate account of that conversation by someone else that was at the dinner that suggests that it was a completely different conversation than was portrayed:

[http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6198250](http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6198250)

I did some more research and it turns out Ben works for Buzzfeed, which shortly before that conversation got a $50 million investment from A16Z, which is one of the biggest investors in Lyft. I'm not suggesting Lyft is the one playing dirty here but given all the money Andreessen has poured into journalists I wouldn't be surprised. VCs generally operate on the "no conflict, no interest maxim".

<comment><USER3> Went down the rabbit whole even further and it turns out Andreessen is the first and largest investor shareholder in PandoMedia/PandoDaily with 8%:

[https://pando.com/about/](https://pando.com/about/)

That's the media company that Emil was talking about at dinner. Does it not strike you as odd that one of the most vociferous critics of Uber years ago also has as a primary shareholder, Lyfts's biggest shareholder?

This isn't an excuse of things that have happened at Uber, but I definitely think these conflicts of interest should be receiving a lot more scrutiny since you can make any company look bad by just dedicating more resources to investigating it and painting everything you find in the worst light possible (like what happens with Apple)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Let's not jump to conclusions: Waymo maybe looking to sharp-elbow into ride- sharing. These are still allegations and there's no verdict/settlement yet.

In general, the bigger the venture, the bigger the damage of acting dishonestly and the bigger the bulls' eye for lawsuits painted on the side. Uber, being the category first-mover, is going to attract a lot of hate by being giant and uncool, even without the political endorsements.

It would be great if Lyft, Uber and Waymo did ride-sharing and were as honest/socially-responsible as possible. That would be better competition for selfish passengers like me. I prefer Lyft these days but may look at Uber again if they show they a consistent pattern of honorable behavior.

<comment><USER3> At this point I think they are trying the Microsoft/Oracle strategy. It looks like they are using a lawsuit and the discovery process are to get enough information to determine which, if any, of their patents may have been infringed and they are now trying to figure out how to extract rent from the first-mover. It's hard to assert patents against black boxes that you don't know the implementation details of. Using discovery to pry open the black box is underhanded but one way to get a look at an implementation normally hidden from view. It's a slimy tactic but given how profitable patent royalties are I can't blame them for trying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I know the law has a complicated relationship with logic, but in normal usage, Uber's claim that it is no longer interested in LIDAR, even if taken at face value, clearly has no bearing on the question of whether it was party to an earlier theft of LIDAR-related documents.

<comment><USER7> > Uber denies this and says it eventually produced the device in question. A > representative for Uber told Recode the company did not initially produce > the device because they did not think they were required to do so as its > designs had been abandoned.

In litigation, one side serves the other side "discovery requests," which are pointed requests for specifically described documents or information. Everyone produces as little as they can get away with in response to discovery requests. Here, it sounds like the discovery request was possibly susceptible to the interpretation that it was only asking for designs that Uber was still actively pursuing, or at least that's how Uber originally tried to interpret it and an employee blew up their spit at a deposition. It's hard to tell without knowing the exact wording of the discovery request.

<comment><USER8> Alternatively, some litigants produce as _much_ as they can get away with in order to flood their opponent with irrelevant documents, drive up their legal costs, and delay the case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just an observation .... locating the 20th century car industry in Detroit gave them an unfair advantage over California. Cars have to function correctly in bad weather -- rain, ice, snow, etc.

Taxicabs especially. Imagine a transport system in a city like New York or DC where taxis don't function in a rainstorm. It's in bad weather that drivers earn their pay.

I know from experience that the Tesla driver assistance stuff doesn't work in the rain. It won't engage. "Can't see well enough" is what it says.

Maybe these Sili Valley types should stop fighting over fair-weather car control stuff, and spend the same money setting up development shops somewhere besides endless-summer California.

Patents only last 20 years. It's going to take 30 to convert the transport network.

<comment><USER3> Like Pittsburgh?

<comment><USER10> Especially Pittsburgh with bridges and hills.

<comment><USER11> I think the point was that Uber's self-driving effort _is_ located in Pittsburgh, so when the parent says

> Maybe these Sili Valley types should stop fighting over fair-weather car > control stuff, and spend the same money setting up development shops > somewhere besides endless-summer California.

that's exactly what Uber's done.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> In the past year have we ever gone a single month without hearing about malfeasance, exploitation or sexual harassment within that company?

April alone has tabloid month!

Perhaps Uber's CEO should resign so the company can get some breathing room and reboot their brand.

<comment><USER13> While the news makes sensationalist headlines and online outrage, sadly it doesn't seem like consumers care about Uber's behavior.

<comment><USER14> In most of the world there are no choices. In London there's either Uber or Addison Lee, but the price is lower on Uber. When everyone is forced to play for profits plenty of companies will emerge quickly but for now Uber just burns VC money so they can dominate the market and everyone else stays away (because no one else has free money to burn).

We'll find out soon enough whether burning VC money for market penetration was a good idea or just a SV folly.

<comment><USER3> Is Uber the only one burning through VC money? Near as I can tell, all the companies are subsidizing to win market share while they figure out how to control costs and get the most bang for their subsidization buck. Can anyone point me at a single ridesharing company that isn't heavily subsidizing the fares?

Assuming they are all subsidizing fares (which I'm almost certain is the case), the question we should be asking ourselves is which ridesharing company is earning the most incremental revenue per subsidy dollar spent?

<comment><USER15> As per naked capitalism's critique, pouring money into Uber will never make fuel, cars or salaries cheaper. There is no magic point where Uber reaches a certain efficiency of scale and stops needing to subsidise every ride.

This is why I use Uber as much as possible: they're doomed, and every ride taken in a redistribution of wealth from silicon valley investors to consumers.

<comment><USER3> Fuel: not Uber's problem. Any solutions/advances benefit all market participants equally.

Cars: also not Uber's problem. Any solutions/advances benefit all market participants equally.

Salary: very much Uber's problem. Also Lyft's problem. And Didi's problem. And a taxi industry problem. Self driving tech will solve this problem in time.

So the first two will improve over time. The third impacts every player in the market.

Seeing that there is a definite need and this market isn't going to go away, it seems like Naked Capitalism is focusing on the wrong problem (or is focusing on the right problem if the problem is how to drive clicks.

The right problem is who in this market that isn't going away is going to be the best at optimizing for utilization of fixed cost assets (cars), variable costs (fuel/energy) and gets enough IP in the self driving car space to have a defensive patent portfolio.

Uber is really the only player that has a strong presence in multiple markets in addition to human transportation. They have food delivery, courier services, long-haul transportation. I wouldn't be surprised if they go after UPS/FedEx and Instacart at some point. The more diversified they are, the better the utilization they can achieve. To me that suggests that they can play the subsidization game against everyone else much more competively since instead of subsidies, they can provide their contractors with more opportunities to earn when behind the wheel.

To date, I have yet to hear a single argument why Uber is doomed that doesn't apply equally to every competitor. The only way I can see Uber being doomed is if the ridesharing market is doomed. That said, I'd love to hear more arguments about why the entire market might be doomed or why the future might favor Tesla's approach or why one of the other competitors in the market has a better shot. I don't see it. Uber near as I can tell is Amazon, Part Deux.

This biggest question on my mind iswhen investors for all these ridesharing companies tire of this war of attrition and no longer want to subsidize the purchase of market share. When that happens, Uber won't be the only company that needs to raise prices by stopping subsidization.

Again, I would love to hear more arguments that aren't simply driven by dislike for Uber by some astroturfing comment army.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I see Uber as our generation's Groupon. Wildly overvalued slowly heading to a cliff.

<comment><USER17> They do have revenue, but not profit, lost $3B last year despite seeing growth in revenue . The business goal (the product itself) is 10000x times better than Groupon. Car service is more direct. Groupon isn't a bad idea either, but the experience isn't as direct and as Uber. You see, emailing me / texting me offers is great, but I don't have time to scroll down and read the same kind of email everyday. If instead at checkout coupon/promote code is added that would have been great. I have Target, Walgreen apps on my phone. When I visit the store, I clip the coupon onto my account and then checkout. This still requires me to search on the app, but at least it's at my fingertip. It would be better off if I get the promotion regardless. The use of Uber is also in the user's hand, but spontaneous.

Anyway, I think Uber will stay, but I suspect Uber may have to scale back its global expansion. Perhaps I am short-sighted. It would be interesting to see the revenue and spending geographically.

<comment><USER18> > The business goal (the product itself) is 10000x times better than Groupon.

To illegally set up a non-compliant taxi service that doesn't pay taxes, that doesn't pay minimum wage to its employees, that has been banned already in several countries, that ignores human safety introducing illegally self- driving cars, it is not a very good business model.

<comment><USER19> Oh yes it is… to the extent that you get away with it, without consequences (in that light, getting banned is bad IF you can't also break that law and get away with it).

It's much like arbitrage, making money or gaining control of a market by exploiting weakness on the grandest scale possible. IF there are consequences for the behavior, then you've just illustrated one way to fail, perhaps on the same grand scale (see: Enron). If there are no consequences you're just doing another type of arbitrage and rather than being a poor business model you're an unmatchably superior business model that others must emulate or die.

Jury's out on whether Uber is the former or the latter. Until that's clear, the CEO will not resign or back off in the slightest, because they can't: it's a strategy of never backing down or admitting weakness in any sense, with the tone set from the top. If they can get powerful enough friends and never face consequences, they win. If they're more powerful than the law, they are the law.

We do see a tendency in modern trade agreements to hold entire countries responsible for injuring the profitability of large companies. In that light, Uber bans could be made illegal, under certain conditions, much like banning tobacco advertising can be made illegal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> "In the latest filing, Alphabet says Uber hid a lidar device Levandowski designed based on these files. The company says Uber obfuscated the existence of a piece of lidar technology at an April 12 hearing.

Uber denies this and says it eventually produced the device in question. "

</comment><comment><USER21> Is the docket for this available somewhere? I hate reports that won't link (or provide) the original source.

<comment><USER22> I just use this search[0]. I believe this is the latest filing[1]. Full docket is here[2]. Note that many of the filings arent mirrored publicly, so you would need to buy them through PACER.

[0] [https://www.documentcloud.org/public/search/Waymo](https://www.documentcloud.org/public/search/Waymo)

[1] [https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3676397-Waymo- Motion...](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3676397-Waymo-Motion-to- File-Under-Seal-4-21-2017.html#document/p1)

[2] [https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4609586/waymo-llc-v- ube...](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4609586/waymo-llc-v-uber- technologies- inc/?filed_after=&filed_before=&entry_gte=&entry_lte=&order_by=desc)

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm a bit confused — has anything developed since the lawsuit was filed in late February[0]?

[0]: [https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474305-1-Main.html](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474305-1-Main.html)

<comment><USER24> Yes, you're actually commenting on a thread which is discussing the latest updates.

From the article: "In the latest filing, Alphabet says Uber hid a lidar device Levandowski designed based on these files. The company says Uber obfuscated the existence of a piece of lidar technology at an April 12 hearing."

[https://www.recode.net/2017/4/21/15390074/alphabet-uber- hidi...](https://www.recode.net/2017/4/21/15390074/alphabet-uber-hiding-self- driving)

<comment><USER23> Sorry — that's what I get for skimming.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Is it the secret of embedding lidar at the trailer hitch in your cars so that it's sure to get smashed if someone rear ends you?</comment>


280 characters aren't enough - <AUTHOR> https://sublevel.net/re/26305/ <comment><USER2> Doesn't matter, Twitter was all about the 140 characters, nice for some they increased it, but they also removed a huge part of their identity and their value by doing so. And this only proves that Twitter doesn't stand for anything anymore and that will be the fall of it.</comment>


TensorFlow Federated: Machine Learning on Decentralized Data - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/tensorflow/federated <comment><AUTHOR> "TensorFlow Federated (TFF) is an open-source framework for machine learning and other computations on decentralized data. TFF has been developed to facilitate open research and experimentation with Federated Learning (FL), an approach to machine learning where a shared global model is trained across many participating clients that keep their training data locally. For example, FL has been used to train prediction models for mobile keyboards without uploading sensitive typing data to servers."

From [https://www.tensorflow.org/federated](https://www.tensorflow.org/federated)

This is a very exiciting project that compliments other privacy-preserving machine learning techniques (PPML) in TensorFlow:

\- Differential Privacy: [https://github.com/tensorflow/privacy](https://github.com/tensorflow/privacy)

\- Secure Multi-Party Computation: [https://github.com/mortendahl/tf- encrypted](https://github.com/mortendahl/tf-encrypted)

\- Confidential Computing (Trusted Execution Environments, Asylo, Intel SGX): [https://github.com/dropoutlabs/tf-trusted](https://github.com/dropoutlabs/tf- trusted)

</comment><comment><USER2> This has super broad applicability, beyond mobile, federated learning could become the answer to invasive, data hungry centralized applications that "need the data to make the system better"... no, you just need to learn locally & send a learning summary to a central system, not the data.

<comment><AUTHOR> 100!

This recent paper from Google combines FL with secure multi-party computation for "secure aggregation" to prevent the aggregate server from even seeing the gradients [https://export.arxiv.org/abs/1902.01046](https://export.arxiv.org/abs/1902.01046)</comment></comment>


Power generation from ambient humidity using protein nanowires - <AUTHOR> https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2010-9 <comment><USER2> So, how does it work exactly?</comment>


Mayor Bloomberg Unveils New York City Venture Fund (NYC Seed) - <AUTHOR> http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/mayor-unveils-new-york-city-venture-fund/

<comment><USER2> One has to wonder, if a government institution gets involved in a fund, what kind of regulations would be at play? Quotas for race/gender ratios?

</comment><comment><USER3> Would-be NYC founders don't need another source of seed funding, they need a community. What NYC really needs is the equivalent of the Y-Scraper and a nice space for like-minded folks to hang out and work together and mingle with potential funders and mentors.

<comment><USER4> NYC High-Tech Meetups usually have very good turn outs

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm new to NYC -- any meetups in particular that you'd recommend?

<comment><USER4> <http://newtech.meetup.com/1/>

This is the one run by the Meetup folks. Usually the first Tuesday of every month. They get 6-7 startup to demo their product. The turnout is usually great, at least 500+ people will show up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Quick summary:

"Unveiled on Monday evening as part of New York's Internet Week, NYC Seed will provide up to $200,000 of investment into New York-based technology start- ups."

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

"We encourage first-time founders. There is no set formula for why we invest in a company, but there are some qualities we would like to see. We are looking for a team with a compelling idea that makes sense today. Your team should be technically savvy, with members that possess a proven record of completing complex technology projects. We will ask to review a prototype of your product. "

Note: Must be in NYC.

<comment><USER5> Their specs sound a lot like Ycombinator's.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> their application looks suspiciously like the y-comb app ;-)

<http://www.nycseed.com/nycseed%20application.pdf>

<comment><USER3> Sort of a cross between YC and the DMV.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can only guess this is an attempt to make NYC startup scene more competitive. I think this is a really cool thing for a city to do, maybe more cities need to take note?

<comment><USER8> As a New Yorker, I'm psyched for this. I had a lengthy discussion with a coworker about how NYC is far less likely to breed the mind of an inventor. I showed him PG's recent article (<http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html>).

I hope this brings the entrepreneurial spirit to NYC. There's LOTS of creative people here but many get blinded by the dollar signs of some fairly mundane industries. I'd love to see some dollars backing innovative ventures too.

<comment><USER9> I am also in NYC, but I feel this fund will not work out. The problem is for East Coast VCs and Government funds, they are too timid to make themselves like fools. Unfortunately things are just like what PG said in his video that showed up yesterday in HN. "In technology venture funding, if you are too careful, you lose." Unfortunately, only few VCs such as Fred Wilson in East Coast have the courage to make themselves like fool once in a while but reap big rewards.

Of course, if this fund is run by Fred Wilson, then I will have more confidence, but it is not.

<comment><USER8> Hmm... I am curious. I don't have much experience in this regard, but I have a tendency to think the people of NYC would rather invest in financial instruments which a) they know very well and b) have astronomical returns without requiring everything involved in a start-up.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Kate Wilhelm, Prolific Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 89 - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/obituaries/kate-wilhelm-prolific-science-fiction-writer-dies-at-89.html <comment><AUTHOR> Actually from last week, but I saw nothing about it.</comment>


Github now publishes all DMCA takedown notices they receive here. - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/github/dmca <comment><USER2> It's interesting to note that one of the two notices in this repository is from Sony, and appears to be demanding the removal of PS3 jailbreaking tools.

The DMCA's prohibition on DRM circumvention is in a different section (17 USC 1201) from the section on copyright infringement (17 USC 512), in which the safe harbor/takedown notice stuff is defined. It's not clear to me that DRM circumvention thus qualifies as copyright infringement, or that any of the safe harbor stuff would apply to hosts of circumvention tools.

Certainly, Sony's notice doesn't identify any of their works that are being infringed, so the notice seems to be invalid according to the usual rules, specifically 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)(ii).

Can anybody more familiar with the law explain what's going on with this? Why is the procedure from 17 USC 512 being applied to a (alleged) violation of 17 USC 1201? Or is this just another flaw in Sony's handling of this mess?

<comment><USER3> Wanted to see if I could comment on the individual files, so I posted the gist of your concern as quoted text with source as comment on the commit:

[https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/d6b2d97e801dc16d2aeb25...](https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/d6b2d97e801dc16d2aeb252054579b6f4a89768c)

<comment><USER4> I would guess that github doesn't consider themselves legal experts and does not want to get involved... if they comply with the takedown they get immunity from liability here. The DMCA allows the allegedly infringing party to file counter-notice if they feel they are not infringing and the takedown notice was in error, I would bet github is leaving it to those users to defend themselves.

I am not a lawyer, but I would encourage the people targeted by these notices to find a lawyer and fight back.

Hell, that might just be what github is trying to encourage by open sourcing these notices, to get the community involved and defending against baseless DMCA takedowns.

<comment><USER2> The thing is, it's not at all clear that GitHub is protected by the DMCA safe harbor provisions here. This isn't a case of an infringing work - it's a DRM circumvention tool, and Sony hasn't asserted any copyright that has been infringed.

Procedurally, it _looks_ like a standard infringement takedown case, but as far as I can tell, it isn't covered by that law. Sony's notice probably has no more legal force than any ordinary C&D letter, and GitHub's cooperation probably doesn't get them any guarantee of immunity. Sony's C&D is simply formatted to look like a real DMCA takedown, probably to scare GitHub in to automatically complying without even asking their lawyers.

For all we know, by complying GitHub may have reduced their ability to defend themselves on the basis of the reverse-engineering exception to the circumvention prevention, without gaining any significant legal security.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What I love about this strategy is that is introduces a PR cost to the sender for sending DMCA notices.

It also increases the likelihood that the DMCA is legitimate, at least from the senders perspective because they'd rather not be seen lying in public.

Making this republishing policy standard among online companies with a standard URI like /dmca-notices/ would allow aggregation and probably reduce DMCA total cost to publishers.

<comment><USER6> It is worth pointing out that The Pirate Bay has been doing this, also combined with hilarious responses:

<http://thepiratebay.org/legal>

One of my favorites:

<http://static.thepiratebay.org/whitestripes_resp2.txt>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> My first thought was "A Git repository instead of a blog? That seems like an odd choice."

However, upon a moment's reflection: this is awesome. What if someone issued a take down notice on the takedown repository or something like that? People can fork it locally and be confident that they have the right data thanks to Git's natural hashing behavior!

</comment><comment><USER8> Instead of 404ing repos, GitHub should redirect to the relevant DCMA takedown notices. Also, I'd like GitHub's responses to be public too.

<comment><USER9> I kind of agree, but this reminds me of "if you give a mouse a cookie…" Who else does this? I'd like everyone to, but it's great that GitHub does. They do great work.

<comment><USER10> >Who else does this?

Well I think the Pirate Bay kind of started it, right?

<comment><USER9> Thanks, I was aware of that. My point was that not many websites do this.

<comment><USER10> Oh my apologies then. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This kind of transparency should be the norm, rather than the exception. Kudos.

</comment><comment><USER12> I curious why the names and contact details have been redacted from the notices?

<comment><USER13> Do you really need them?

<comment><USER12> That's a good question, but yes, having the names and contact publicly available increases transparency. The DCMA notices are requesting the removal of something available to the public, so the public should know who, specifically, is making the request.

The short answer is, if one does not want to be known for sending DMCA take down notices, then the only option is to not send them. If one is intentionally or unintentionally depriving the public of access to a legitimate work, then the public should know.

Providing the names and contact details does open the door for possible abuse, but this is highly unlikely. On the other hand, providing names and contact details also enables the public to potentially help the copyright holders by reporting related abuses, but again, this is also highly unlikely.

In other words, it doesn't hurt and it does help. Transparency is a good thing.

<comment><USER14> Do we get the names and addresses of the people who did not contest they were copyright infringers? Fair is fair.

An increase in transparency would allow members of the public, such as employers, to make better decisions on whom to trust with their intellectual property. Enterprising hackers could facilitate this exchange of valuable information by doing a mashup between this data source and LinkedIn.

Oh, sounds less fun now.

<comment><USER12> Patrick, I'm sure we'll agree that copyright infringement is a very wide- spread problem resulting in people not getting paid for their work. For notes, I strongly support the idea of people getting paid for their work but I also strongly resist abuses of the legal system.

The only recourse for fighting copyright infringement is essentially playing whack-a-mole. In desperation, both lawyers and normal individuals typically resort to sending out DMCA take down notices in bulk, and all too often, mistakes are made.

As far as I know, no one has been convicted for violating the perjury clause of the DMCA for wrongfully sending take down notices. If someone has access to a good legal research database, they might be able to prove me wrong (and yes, I'd really like to know). This means there is no real 'disincentive' for getting it wrong, and hence, it's what I would personally consider a flaw in how the law is written.

The other thing is absolutely anyone can send a real, or intentionally fake, DMCA take down notice and there is no way to either authenticate the sender or contact the relevant court since sending the notice does not require court notification (filing) or approval. Since there is no required registration of copyrights, there is no way to ascertain the legal owner of any work.

Take a close look at one of the two DMCA notices at github:

[https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/e7821a3946f212f2c774362a...](https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/e7821a3946f212f2c774362a80acbb90007f353e/2011-01-28-tera.markdown)

Q: Can you prove Bluehole Studio owns the copyright for tera?

A: nope.

Q: Can you prove this was sent by Bluehole Studio?

A: nope.

Q: Can you prove this was even sent?

A: nope.

The first thing to notice is the use of the title phrase "legal manager" which intentionally obfuscates whether or not you're dealing with a real lawyer (i.e. a real lawyer is an "officer of the court" and has obligations to the court). Had the name been given, one could find out whether or not this was sent by a lawyer.

The next thing to notice is:

"The aforementioned website is providing a private, illegal server, not authorized by Bluehole Studio Inc."

I obviously do not need the consent of Bluehole Studio Inc to run my home mail server, so what the heck are they talking about? --They are either intentionally being vague or they are totally incompetent, potentially both for the ease of sending bulk DMCA notices.

Are they accusing github of running a "game server" on their machines?

Are they accusing github of hosting source code that allows others to run their own game servers?

For the sake of argument, let's assume it is the latter; they want the removal of source code that allows people to run their own game servers. Sadly, if the source code was developed from scratch, there is no copyright infringement, and it does not matter if the open source server allows client programs copyrighted by Bluehole to connect and play. If open source server is _NOT_ a derivative work, then it is perfectly legal to distribute, and even if it is competition to a pay-to-play online gaming service.

If I created my own open source "Buzzword Bingo Card Creator" program from scratch, and I got a DMCA take down notice from you or your lawyer, I would be livid. I would fight you. I would win. And I would make you pay for your mistake dearly. Unfortunately, I'm probably the exception and it's mostly due to having a ton of lawyers in my family. It would cost me nothing to make your life legally miserable, and since you decided to throw the first legal punch at someone innocent, I'd undoubtedly make you regret it. Unlike me, many open source developers would just walk away due to not having the money, location and resources to mount a legal defense, particularly if it was for a fun project they did in their free time.

Black-listing open source developers for not having and spending the money to defend their names when wrongfully accused of infringement would be unfair. In other words, refusing to contest an all too easily sent (or faked) DMCA take down notice is not the point when an accused infringer should be named. The accusation is unproven. If the copyright holder presses a civil suit against the accused infringer, then at that point, the accused will be named in the court records. In essence, what you want "named infringers" is already happening, and they are even named when only accused rather than when the case is resolved.

The system of protecting the efforts of people making creative works is broken and the world is imperfect. This is not news to anyone. The thing is, the abuse of infringement does not justify the abuse of the legal system.

BTW: If you created an online "Buzzword Bingo Card" game based on HN articles actually read by HN users, that would be a whole lot of fun and definitely worth buying a subscription. Since there's no way to prove an article was read (other than just loading it), I'm not sure it's a workable idea. None the less, its a fun thought.

<comment><USER12> A thread for "HN Buzzword Bingo" <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2155626>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> What does RFC 1036 (USENET Message format) have to do with DMCA takedowns?

Read here in their request, for some reason the lawyer is referencing RFC 1036 [https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2011-01-28-tera.m...](https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2011-01-28-tera.markdown)

<comment><USER16> I believe, nothing. Just a wrong (and, possibly, outdated{ copypasta.

I also wonder, is it really illegal to re-implement MMORPG server?

<comment><USER17> If we look at the bnetd case as precedent, it probably is illegal under the DMCA. The justification is that it's a tool for circumventing copy protection.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> At first I thought they were doing this for humor (like the piratebay's publishing of "cease and desist" letters), but when I clicked the links to the repos and realized they did get removed, I kinda felt sad.

<comment><USER19> Don't be. The DCMA is stupid, but the fact is, people DO post copyrighted material all the time, and it IS legitimate to take it down.

We want people to copyright less, and for copyright laws to be reasonable, and punishments proportionate. Not to do away with copyright alltogether.

<comment><USER20> I just unlicense my stuff.

I don't really care because I got paid anyway.

<comment><USER21> >I don't really care because I got paid anyway.

Right, and loads of authors won't get paid without copyright. So they need it.

<comment><USER20> They never even _experiment_ with business model that doesn't relies on copyright.

<comment><USER22> Those jerks.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> With regards the contact details being redacted ...

In an ideal world this wouldn't be necessary. The dispute would be settled by rational discussion and agreement reached amicably. But the world isn't like that.

Rightly or wrongly someone will take exception and possibly pursue what they see as "justice". Publishing the contacts details might prove just a little too tempting for some.

I do think that actions such as DMCA take-down notices should be a matter of public record, and should be available in a standard place. I would even like to see a "central" repository for easy reference.

</comment><comment><USER24> I'm a bit disappointing that the referenced repositories appear to have been taken down anyway, though.

<comment><USER25> That's how the DMCA process works. The last thing we want our users to think is we're deleting repos for no reason, that's why we're publishing the takedowns from here on out.

We receive the notice, lock the repo, and inform its owner why it's been locked. At that point, they can either remove the infringing code or make a counter claim and we'll unlock it provided the original party doesn't file a court order.

More info: <http://help.github.com/dmca/>

<comment><USER26> Isn't there an allowable delay in DMCA Takedowns? Some reasonable amount of time for the target to file a counterclaim before the content is locked? The way you've described it here sounds like you lock the content before notifying the user (or simultaneously).

<comment><USER27> 48 hours is the time require for action I believe, however the claimee can respond in however long they like, but the content must be unavailable until they file a counter claim.

(IANAL)

<comment><USER28> 72 hours to take down the infringing content upon receiving a valid DMCA notice. The content owner gets notified and they can then file a valid counter-notice. Then the counter-notice gets filed with the copyright claimer and a 10-day waiting period starts. If the claimer does not file a counter- counter-notice within the 10-day waiting period the content gets reposted. If they do file a counter-counter-notice, the ball gets passed back to the content owner to file a counter-counter-counter-notice and the 10-day period and claim process starts over.

As someone who runs a site that hosts content, this is great for us. We aren't allowed any sort of leeway in interpreting the claims and in return we are exposed to no liability. We are simply the middle man and have to do what's asked of us.

<comment><USER26> So the hoster doesn't actually need to take the content down right away, but within 72 hours? That is, if the customer files the DMCA challenge within 72h, then the content will have always remained up? My questions here are with regard to continuity of availability.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> n-named github is using Github to share DMCA takedown notices with you!

</comment><comment><USER29> All the PS3 tools are hosted here now: <http://gitorious.org/ps3free>

I really wonder how that falls under DMCA at all.

</comment><comment><USER30> While Google publishes the DMCA takedown requests in relation to their search engine results, it does not publish the requests for removal of content contained within their own infrastructure.

Perhaps Github should do a little further research before feeling "inspired".

<comment><USER31> what do you mean by "content contained within their own infrastructure"? I thought they forwarded the notices they get to chilling effects (and youtube ones are just posted in place of the video itself).

edit: this page <http://www.google.com/dmca.html> has about a 50/50 split across products between "may" and "will" be forwarded to Chilling Effects.

<comment><USER30> A quick search of term "xenu dmca" should show you come of the shit that google has to deal with in respect to the DMCA.

Any complaints about content on blogger, youtube or the adsense/adwords network get taken seriously and aren't forwarded on for the worlds entertainment.

<comment><USER25> This isn't about entertainment, this is so our users know why repos are missing.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


JRR Tolkien book Beren and Lúthien published after 100 years - happy-go-lucky http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-40109396 <comment><AUTHOR> I'm always wary of posthumously published books. I mean, the author didn't publish them for a reason. Normally that reason is because they were bad.

Also, I tried to read the Silmarillion once. THAT was a struggle.

Christopher Tolkien calls himself an "editor" but I'm not sure he understands what the word means.

<comment><USER2> I love the Silmarillion. It's the Old Testament Bible of an alternate universe. It's not a novel so much as a collection of mythological stories and a narrative history, very much in the style of medieval literature.

<comment><USER3> I don't understand how people can even find the Silmarillion but somehow don't understand what it is. Its just pieced together mythology. Its not some lost LOTR sequel. Its a bit like saying, "So I ran out and bought Infinite Jest. No one told me it was long and ponderous!"

Uh, who is recommending these books to these people and why aren't they at least reading the descriptions?

<comment><USER4> I used to sometimes see random volumes from the middle of The History of Middle-earth series sitting in airport bookstores. I'd look at that and just feel sorry for anyone who thought "Oh, I loved _The Hobbit_! I'm looking for something to read on the plane: maybe this book _The Shaping of Middle-earth_ will be fun." Even _Unfinished Tales_ or _The Silmarillion_ could be more or less reasonable there, but this felt like tricking people into buying a specialized third-year college textbook.

<comment><USER5> Part of the problem -- in my opinion -- was that the publisher treated _The History of Middle-Earth_ like a typical fantasy series. Mass market paperback edition, cover art, the works. A different presentation might have made it more clear that it was a scholarly work, not a novel.

(Or perhaps that was the intent. Sigh...)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> From a letter Talkien wrote after her death ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Tolkien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Tolkien)):

"I never called Edith Luthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos."

It's sad that although she was his Muse (at least in the younger days) they did not seem to share any of the lore he created in real life. She was not an intellectual and was not interested, he was a man's man (and also religious).

"I never called Edith Luthien". What a missed opportunity!

<comment><USER7> > they did not seem to share any of the lore he created in real life. She was > not an intellectual and was not interested

Seems odd he was enamoured of her. They were of different religions, she didn't like C.S. Lewis, and didn't fit in with his work buddies wives. Maybe she was hot.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, dude, it's bizarre that a man could love a woman who doesn't share his extremely niche interests.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This is awesome as a marketing story. But I think everybody is aware that this is not really a Tolkien book but a summary of his notes written down by his son. I don't know if it's good to really present this in such an unrealistic way.

<comment><USER10> IIRC this is also a way to reset the timer to entry in the public domain in some jurisdiction. They should be ashamed of using such a dirty trick.

<comment><USER11> Given that much of this content has already been published I'm not sure this is the reason. Also the complete draft in this book is different from the one published in the Silmarillion so not sure that it would reset the copyright then?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> 288 pages according to Amazon. So enough material for six 3-hour-long movies.

<comment><USER13> Literally my first thought. The way they made three long movies from the Hobbit just killed the original story.

<comment><USER14> Maybe try the "Tolkien Edit?" Although even cut down to four hours, I still couldn't stomach it.

[https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/](https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/)

<comment><USER13> The book is a short story compare to the LOTR book trilogy. As a result, the movie cannot be that diverse and fast-pased, so it inevitable becomes boring after a while.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Not much related, but Túrin Turambar is my favorite Tolkien work.

As someone who struggled against a bad environment, I related to Túrin Turambar misadventures a lot and connected to the character much more than any other of the whole Tolkien's ouvre.

<comment><USER16> My favorite fact about Turin is that despite being the son of a son of the Second Born, and a cursed one at that, for the fire of his spirit and the injustice of his mortal fate alone was he awarded the command of all the host of the West in the prophesied Last Battle.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The little I know about Tolkien sometimes I think if he wanted to his stories to became alive.

Its said he created The Lord of The Rings world to his language be alive. I guess he loved tales. Could he be intend to his work evolve in such way as the tales he studied and taught?

<comment><USER18> I prefer your take on it absolutely.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Now available on iBooks:

Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien & Christopher Tolkien [https://itun.es/us/knBOfb.l](https://itun.es/us/knBOfb.l)

</comment><comment><USER17> I loved to read this story on Silmarillion.

It is a fantasy story about love but still being deeply inspired by Tolkien feelings from his wife. I did not knew about it when was reading and how they (Beren and Lúthien) started loving one another can be a bit fantastic but all their adventure and how they 'are' with themselves feels real and veritable.

<comment><USER20> Absolutely, it's one of his better stories. But it's not as if Christopher Tolkein has suddenly unearthed new material. He's gone and polished up some work that was published decades ago. The Tolkein literary estate is a money machine -- they've already published pretty much anything Tolkein ever wrote, no matter how disjointed or fragmentary. The tale of Beren and Luthien is well-known and memorable, and all the bits of it are in other books already.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Tolkien's writings have been one of my chief hobbies for years ([http://tolkien.slimy.com/](http://tolkien.slimy.com/)), so I've been really curious about what this new book would be and how it would be received. Having read a fair bit about it and skimmed through the 30-ish pages available for preview on Amazon... I'm still not sure. To explain that, I'll start with some background.

The previously available books by Tolkien (many edited by his son Christopher) took different forms: _The Hobbit_ and _The Lord of the Rings_ are traditional narrative stories; _The Silmarillion_ blurs together the styles of the Bible, a history textbook, and historical fiction; _Unfinished Tales_ is a collection of isolated or incomplete stories and essays along with framing commentary for each; and the twelve History of Middle-earth books are a thoroughly scholarly analysis of the complete textual history of Tolkien's invented world (which happen to include quite a lot of fascinating and enjoyable stories and fragments along the way). Christopher Tolkien has done a really admirable job of sharing his father's broader vision (at his father's request!) with as wide an audience as possible.

When _The Children of Húrin_ appeared (around 10 years ago), it was the first self-contained narrative story about Middle-earth published since Tolkien's death. Most or all of the actual text had been published before (it's a very close match to the first story in _Unfinished Tales_ ), but it was framed in a way to be much more accessible: it's quite readable by someone who hasn't read anything beyond _The Lord of the Rings_ , with no _Silmarillion_ necessary. (I wrote a short "bridge" of backstory to help with that, for people intimidated by the book's 15 pages of introductory information: [http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/HurinBridge.html](http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/HurinBridge.html)) My sense is that this book did a great job of opening some of Tolkien's broader vision to a wider audience. (And people who enjoy it might go on to read _Unfinished Tales_ or _The Silmarillion_ with a bit more interest.)

From what I can tell so far, _Beren and Lúthien_ is a very different beast. It's not a single, coherent narrative, but rather a focused "slice" of textual history from throughout the whole History of Middle-earth series. The style of Christopher Tolkien's commentary seems to be more conversational and less scholarly, but it starts with the earliest version of the story (which feels _very_ foreign to readers of _The Silmarillion_ ) and talks through its stages of evolution, evidently including its lengthy rendition as an epic poem.

So I'm not really sure what audience this is for. My sense is that it's written to be accessible to people who have only read _The Lord of the Rings_ , and it tells what is perhaps the most central story of the First Age of Middle-earth. That's very appealing! But the way in which it's presented here means that it will primarily be enjoyable to people who have a fair amount of interest in Tolkien's writing process and in keeping track of the many, many shifting names and plot lines in the story as it evolved over five decades or so. (And how many people with that interest haven't already read all of this material in its full context in the History of Middle-earth books anyway?) Maybe it can serve a useful role as a bridge between the Silmarillion/Unfinished Tales reading experience and the History of Middle- earth reading experience? Or maybe there really is a community of textual history fans who don't have the patience or interest to read a book like _The Silmarillion_? I'm very interested to hear what experiences different people have with the book, and I should probably read it myself to get a better sense of what it can be.

<comment><USER21> Thanks for linking to your site. What an amazing resource!</comment></comment>


Traction Book – A Startup Guide to Getting Customers - <AUTHOR> http://tractionbook.com/ <comment><USER2> If his book is half as good as hig blog, this will be a worthwhile read. Gabe Weinberg is one of the smartest and most thoughtful people on the Internet.</comment>


Risk factors for Covid-19 death in world's largest analysis of patient records - <AUTHOR> https://opensafely.org/press-releases/2020/05/covid-risk-factors/ <comment><AUTHOR> Media reports over the last two months mention many risk factors for dying from Covid-19. But there is very little reliable data on their relative importance.

This new study does exactly that. It compares all UK Covid-19 hospital deaths with 17m electronic patient records held by the NHS (National Health Service).

The headline conclusions aren't surprising: risk factors are older, gender, ethnic miniorities, co-morbidities like diabetes/asthma. Smoking is a mild risk reduction.

To see how the relative factors compare, check out the graph on p12 of the PDF preprint:

* [https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092999v...](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.06.20092999v1.full.pdf)

The code is on GitHub:

* [https://github.com/ebmdatalab/opensafely-risk-factors-resear...](https://github.com/ebmdatalab/opensafely-risk-factors-research)</comment>


How we can fix Intro to Engineering courses - <AUTHOR> http://www.genericmaker.com/2013/05/how-we-can-fix-intro-to-engineering.html

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure what this article is talking about. And what engineering is this talking about? Electrical, Mechanical, Chemical, Computer?

My Electrical Engineering intro course was a weeder course, designed to be so hard, undetermined people would drop out of the major. I think there are problems with this, but it doesn't sound anything like what this article is describing.

Also in EE, while the textbooks are old, the fundamentals they teach are still needed and cannot be skipped. The real problem is that there is so much more that needs to be taught, but the schools don't have the time and are ill prepared to teach all the stuff past the basics.

In Computer Engineering/Science, nothing has really changed in 40-50 years and so called modern practices repeatedly turn out to be mostly clueless BS. People were taught Object Oriented Programming would be the panacea to all problems in the 80's and 90's. Only now, people are starting to acknowledge it is not a panacea and implementation inheritance in fact violates encapsulation, plus all the messy internal mutable state causes huge problems for both maintenance (unintended side effects) and concurrency/parallelism. All the functional programming people from 50 years ago are saying 'told you so'. (Not to mention that Alan Kay who coined the term "object oriented" thinks people from the C++/Java/C# mindset completely missed the point.)

There is also the Waterfall model which for some stupid reason was taught as a software engineering solution. It's stupid because the author who originally described the "waterfall model" criticized it as "grandiose" and said it doesn't work.

I'll take Donald Knuth's "old textbooks" any day, thank you very much.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm referring to generic Introduction to Engineering courses. The ones that focus on topics around engineering; things like presenting, interviewing, etc.

(Classes that use books like Studying Engineering: A Roadmap to a Rewarding Career - ISBN 0964696924)

<comment><USER2> There was nothing like that when I went to school. Looks like a fluff course to me. (Maybe that book might be worth reading on your personal time.)

Engineering at all big schools I know about required more courses than other majors so it was much harder to graduate in 4 years, and departments looked for courses they could exempt engineering students from taking. That Intro course sounds like a prime candidate to expunge from the curriculum.</comment></comment></comment>


Avoid BetaPage[Dot]Co - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/mgav/status/1148209563633692672 <comment><AUTHOR> It's a scammy Product Hunt knockoff > they waste 30 minutes of your time submitting, THEN say they accept only 10% and it takes a month, unless you pay $98.</comment>


PostgreSQL Database Modeler - <AUTHOR> http://pgmodeler.com.br/? <comment><AUTHOR> Note the warning from the README:

"Although this is a major upgrade version of pgModeler it is recommended NOT EXPORT the models created directly to production environments. Not all possible code generation were tested in this way, is its your own risk export the models into environments that are not intended for testing. The project's author is not responsible for any possible loss of data due the inappropriate use of this tool."

<https://github.com/pgmodeler/pgmodeler#warning>

<comment><USER2> After all there aren't many high quality opensource RDBMS GUIs available. The only one I know is pgAdmin and even pgAdmin has some serious bugs. (GUI freezes easily when you have many windows open and/or do large queries; import/export barely work)

The only code I would trust is the code I generate myself... ;)

<comment><USER3> DbVisualizer (<http://www.dbvis.com/>) is an excellent cross-platform, multi- product GUI tool. Doesn't have many design tools (well not any really, but neither does PgAdmin). Java-based and not free, which gives freeloaders and snobs something to complain about. No relationship, just someone who has been happy to be a customer for many years.

<comment><USER4> > Doesn't have many design tools (well not any really,

Someone posted a link to a modelling tool.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Random thought, this is a pretty decent example of using Bootstrap out of the box. I can tell it's Bootstrap, but the splash logo draws me in.

</comment><comment><USER6> All READMEs in English, all code in Portuguese? Really?

<comment><USER7> I'd never understood while people code in their native language. It's just so.....wrong.

<comment><USER8> I'll help you.

Develop an application for support of financial and tax regulations for a certain country. You will have verbs and nouns which describe the situation clearly.

You develop an application from specifications written another language than English. They exist.

The biggest failure I keep seeing are futile attempts to translate concepts under these circumstances into English.

I agree in this case: when you want to invite collaboration on github, English (or Chinese?) would be better suited.

<comment><USER6> Even in financial / tax software it is possible to create an abstraction in which you can safely write English code and move all specific terms into some i18n module. Of course if you are not clever enough to do that it's not that bad to use /required/ language, but in this case we talk about strictly technical tool for database modeling, so no excuses - it definitely needs to be translated in order to be accessible for other GitHubbers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> For the people that have already tried it, is this finally a good Postgres client for the MacOSX? Haven't found any that comes close to Sequel Pro for MySQL.

<comment><USER10> its not Sequel Pro but you can try <http://inductionapp.com>

<comment><USER11> It's a great app, but for different purpose. Induction is mainly for viewing/analyzing _data_, where pgAdmin, while horrible looking, is for managing database schema.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> It all compiled ok, but didn't seem to create the executable in the build/ folder..

</comment><comment><USER13> Mountain Lion compilation is broken. OS not supported.

<comment><USER14> Thanks for the heads-up so I don't waste time trying to build it. Did you file an issue on their Github?</comment></comment>


PSA: Buying a .dev domain via domains.google.com is very broken - <AUTHOR> Just posting this as a PSA, if you wanted to buy a .dev domain today. If you try to buy it via domains.google.com, it will not work, and the domain will still be available to other people to by. To top it all off, your card will be charged anyway.<p>Me and my friends ended up using https://porkbun.com or https://namecheap.com to get our domains, and those worked well. This is not an ad for either of those services, those are just what happened to work for me. <comment><USER2> FWIW, I was able to buy a domain through Google Domains, but it took several hours for the purchase / registration process to complete. That said, they are obviously having issues, and YMMV.

</comment><comment><USER3> Worked for me (in the early access period).</comment>


EBay buying Milo.com - <AUTHOR> http://vator.tv/news/2010-12-02-ebay-buying-milocom-for-75m

<comment><USER2> Multiple sources:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1963247> \- milo.com

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1963126> \- vator.tv (this one)

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1963125> \- techcrunch.com

No doubt we'll see more as all the usual suspects pick up the story.</comment>


How to use Python's min() and max() with nested lists - <AUTHOR> https://dbader.org/blog/python-min-max-and-nested-lists <comment><USER2> If you're gonna re-invent the wheel, something like this is a lot more readable in my eyes.

        def my_max(sequence, key=None):
            if not key:
                return max(sequence)
            return max(key(x) for x in sequence)

Combining it with the operator module that makes it a lot nicer than the lambdas for extracting an item.

        import operator
        print(my_max([('a', 3), ('b', 2), ('c', 1)], operator.itemgetter(1)))</comment>


New Free Book: Artificial Intelligence - Foundations of Computational Agents - <AUTHOR> http://artint.info/html/ArtInt.html

<comment><USER2> Is there a PDF (just got a Kindle DX...)?

I'm not criticising, because you might want a print version and a HTML version, and I can always convert the HTML pages to a PDF.

Other than that, I'll read the 1st chapter on this laptop and see what's in there.</comment>


Context should go away for Go 2 - <AUTHOR> https://faiface.github.io/post/context-should-go-away-go2/ <comment><USER2> This repeats _" Go is a general purpose language"_, but is it?

[https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_is_the_purpose_of_the_projec...](https://golang.org/doc/faq#What_is_the_purpose_of_the_project):

 _" By its design, Go proposes an approach for the construction of system software on multicore machines."_

They also refer to [https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article](https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article) for _" A much more expansive answer to this question"_. That article states:

 _" Go is a programming language designed by Google to help solve Google's problems [...] More than most general-purpose programming languages, Go was designed to address a set of software engineering issues that we had been exposed to in the construction of large server software. "_</comment>


Implementing the Elm Architecture in Swift - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/design-x-code/elmification-of-swift-af14b7f92b30 <comment><USER2> Github: [https://github.com/momentumworks/swift- elm](https://github.com/momentumworks/swift-elm)</comment>


PHP CommonMark - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/thephpleague/commonmark

<comment><USER2> Parsedown has also been moving towards compliance with CommonMark.

[http://parsedown.org/](http://parsedown.org/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I haven't used Parsedown but I am glad things are moving to CommonMark -- it will shift the focus to performance, structure and extensibility instead of struggling with edge cases and Markdown idiosyncrasies.

PHP CommonMark's compliance is very current--CommonMark spec 0.13, Dec 15, 2014 and it will continue to keep up.

It follows the reference implementation very closely, has good support for extensibility and the code is very well structured. It's likely to become the de facto PHP implementation in my opinion.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> [https://github.com/thephpleague/commonmark/blob/master/src/U...](https://github.com/thephpleague/commonmark/blob/master/src/Util/ArrayCollection.php#L112) What is the Point of abstracting away "empty?"

<comment><USER4> I guess because you're asking a question of the object - "is this empty?"

<comment><USER5> It already implements count() and the corresponding interface so it's possible to write count($collection) as if you're writing $collection->count(). It's a valid question why this type of object needs two methods for checking the same property.

<comment><USER6> PHP does not have an interface for empty. count and empty are not equivalent. empty should be called on the underlying array and not the object.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is there a need for that much of abstraction in a simple markdown parser library?

<comment><USER8> What abstraction are you specifically referring to if I my ask?

<comment><USER9> I think parent post is just referring to the number of classes in the source.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Aha! The controversial "Standard Markdown" (is that what it used to be called?) has been renamed to "CommonMark", hopefully avoiding the controversy. (Controversial because Gruber didn't like them using the Markdown name in a standardization effort).

I'm glad. I hope to see implementations continue to spread.

<comment><USER11> Here's a whole update on the general state of markdown

[https://philsturgeon.uk/markdown/2014/11/30/state-of- markdow...](https://philsturgeon.uk/markdown/2014/11/30/state-of-markdown/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Sorry to add a critic. If you want to make your PHP classes easy to extend, refrain from private and prefer protected. Otherwise, a developer that wants to extend one of your classes will need to also override (i.e. copy and paste) into her class all private members called from the members she really wants to override.</comment>


Madrid adopts Tor and GlobaLeaks as whistleblowing tools against corruption - <AUTHOR> https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/madrid/20180710/45819706212/madrid-tendra-buzon-de-denuncias-que-permitira-acceder-desde-internet-de-manera-anonima-y-sin-conocimientos-informaticos.html <comment><USER2> What is GlobaLeaks?

<comment><USER3> [https://www.globaleaks.org/](https://www.globaleaks.org/)

> GlobaLeaks is an open-source, free software intended to enable secure and > anonymous whistleblowing initiatives.

The other main option is [https://securedrop.org/](https://securedrop.org/)

Both rely on Tor onion services.</comment></comment>


Coding like Shakespeare: practical function naming conventions - <AUTHOR> https://rainsoft.io/coding-like-shakespeare-practical-function-naming-conventions/ <comment><USER2> "The method name getAbsoluteDifference() means to get the absolute difference between the pair of numbers. The method name contains a verb get. It would not make much sense to name the method simply absoluteDifference(), because such name does not indicate any action."

I disagree. I want the property of 'absolute difference' between the two numbers. _Get_ ting that value is what I do when I make an assignment. Whether this value is cached or calculated is of little consequence to outside code provided it has no side effects on other state within the object. Should a method (member function, whatever) cause side effects within the target object, _then_ the method has become a verb. Like, 'increase(by:)' \- that's a verb, affects the state of the object ... well-named, friend.

Aside from that, I think the rest has embodied well Apple's talk about Swift API style from WWDC with a nice dose of input from this author.

Edited to add: 'getAverage()' shows up later. I fail to see how 'get' adds anything of importance considering its company 'reversed' and 'sorted' \- they should all prefix with 'get' or they should not. I'm in the 'not' camp.

<comment><USER3> It would make me sad to type getSqrt(), getMin(), getMax(), getStrLen(), getSizeOf(), get…

Putting a verb in the function name is not a bad idea, but if you find yourself identifying the verb as "get", then it's a useless three extra letters.

<comment><USER4> Back in the early days of Pascal programming for both DOS and Mac, it was common to put a 'the' prefix on just about every variable. I guess it was supposed to be more "English-like". You'd have variables like this:

      theWindow
      theUser
      theFile
      theLineCount

I hated it! I never did find out why people wanted to put in such a useless noise word in every single variable name, but I decided to never do it again.

Make every word count.

<comment><USER5> "my" was another often-seen useless prefix of that era

<comment><USER6> It still has it's uses as a class name prefix. MyFoo extends GenericFoo.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Intelligent naming may be the most underrated skill of high quality programmers, along with "simplicity".

My go-to example is the Tensorflow code base. It sounds intimidating, deep learning, etc., right? But take something like the Seq2Seq implementation, and marvel how elegant and readable the module is. Some part of that is due to the simplicity of "programmer happiness languages" like Python and Ruby (sorry Java, JavaScript), but it's also clear that the easy part for them was making it work, while the part that probably took most of their focus was engineering simplicity. To even be in that position means you're already really, really good.

I typically contrast this with another Seq2Seq implementation in another certain library (I won't call out anybody) done by a PhD student, that looks very intelligent, but with no focus on engineering simplicity or elegant naming, it is an exercise in frustration to get through.

<comment><USER8> Here's a link for reference [https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorf...](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorflow/python/ops/seq2seq.py).

It is very nice to read.

<comment><USER7> Likewise their example implementation of it: [https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorf...](https://github.com/tensorflow/tensorflow/blob/master/tensorflow/models/rnn/translate/translate.py)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Code is prose, maybe, but there are definitely lots of different types of prose, and I don't think code would be one of the types of prose that has protagonists, comedic characters, and damned villains (or if it is, it should not strive to be so). In other words please this recurring code is like great literature kick is really irritating.

maybe one off scripts should be like lyric poetry though.

<comment><USER10> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_Programming_Langua...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_Programming_Language)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> > Every function is an action

I disagree! This is a bad mindset that gets dispelled when you use a language that distinguishes between functions and actions. Writing to a database is doing something; returning the second value of a tuple isn't. There's no good reason to put a verb in the function that takes a tuple and projects out its subcomponents. "first" or "firstOf" gets the point across more concisely.

</comment><comment><USER12> I think a lot of this can be generalized as:

\- Don't force people to guess. Guessing takes time, and is an opportunity for a mistake.

\- Explicit information is better than implicit information. Abbreviations, incomplete identifiers are a form of implicit information.

\- Lying exists in programming. Identifiers that do not match their purpose can mislead programmers and introduce bugs. e.g: Including side-effects in a function is called "get", "read" or "retrieve".

\- Coupling brings more information into a scope, making it more complex and decreasing readability.

<comment><USER13> This may not be a popular opinion, but for me read and retrieve are indicative of a side-effect. I consistently use retrieve to indicate fetching things from database, or remote locations (REST, RPC, whatever). Similarly, read, in the case of a parser or whatnot, indicates that the buffer will be advanced.

Maybe I'm just too biased because I try to have const-correct/mutable-correct code?

<comment><USER14> Agreed, these words have similar connotations for me as well. I have also seen deliberate usage of set vs update to indicate changes to objects in memory only vs persistence to databases, etc.

<comment><USER15> And of course, with sufficiently aggressive optimization, there may not actually even be a change to an object in memory (or the object in memory to change) in some cases. Not so with the database.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> There is good advice indeed. I'm so into this. Also is making me miss Smalltalk which is from where I've learned to code for readability [http://sdmeta.gforge.inria.fr/FreeBooks/WithStyle/SmalltalkW...](http://sdmeta.gforge.inria.fr/FreeBooks/WithStyle/SmalltalkWithStyle.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER17> Code like Shakespeare, you say??

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_Programming_Langua...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_Programming_Language#Example_code)

</comment><comment><USER18> > The scope is to understand what the function does from its name, arguments > list and the way it is invoked.

Good names mean a great deal, but this is too much to expect from them. Understanding what a function does includes issues such as its time complexity, whether it is thread safe, what (if anything) it modifies, what exceptions it might throw and what exception safety guarantees it honors... And there may well be specific corner cases - for example, in a function with 'find' in its name, what does it do if there are zero or multiple matches to the key being sought?

</comment><comment><USER19> Use deck instead of list, card instead of item, etc.

"for each card in deck" is much better then "for each item in list" as card and deck gives much more information!</comment>


Does Computer Science Education Need to Be Tailored for Girls? - <AUTHOR> https://slashdot.org/submission/6612887/does-computer-science-education-need-to-be-tailored-for-girls <comment><USER2> In one way yes:

Just include them in positive, meaningful ways.</comment>


Ask HN: How effective is the .website TLD? - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone used the .website TLD? Is it good for seo? Do the search engines equate it to .com domains?<p>How approachable is it for users? My website would be aimed at software professionals. How will this be perceived in relation to a .com domain or a .io domain? Are TLDs significant at all? <comment><USER2> TLDs are absolutely significant, and no TLD is viewed by any majority of the internet as equivalent to .com. .io is probably way better for a technically oriented site.

The answer to all your other questions is "no".

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you kngspook. Tangentially, is .me a good TLD for personal/portfolio website?</comment></comment>


29C3 presale has started - <AUTHOR> http://events.ccc.de/2012/11/03/ticket-sale-has-opened/

<comment><USER2> I attended 25C3 four years ago and really enjoyed it.

Some thoughts if you're considering going:

1) You should go. :)

2) Being only able to speak English (aside from picking up helpful words like "ein" and "bitte" :) ) was fine. Talks are listed as being in English or German so you know which ones you'll be able to follow. (And I think the majority are in English--it tends to be the more "local issues" talks that are in German.)

3) Arrive the day before and volunteer to help set up. It's a good way to get to meet some people. (The network help desk was where I ended up much of the time--I learned that the only German word I needed to know was "Neustart". :D )

4) When a local offers you a Club Mate to drink, accept it. Then try not to spit it out when you drink it. It's a rite of passage. Quite possibly the most disgusting tasting beverage I've ever consumed. Some people claim to like it.

5) If you've been to DEFCON before, CCC is IMO a very different vibe. DEFCON seems a lot more about the parties whereas CCC seems a lot more about the hacking. (People stay hacking in the venue 24 hours a day.)

6) If someone invites you to go to Vienna and visit Metalab say yes. And if they don't, invite yourself--it's awesome and they're a great bunch of people.

7) You should go. :)

<comment><USER3> 4) Flora and other mate brands are slowly getting accepted as well. Less carbon.

<comment><USER4> Flora Power is made in Hamburg, during your visit you can go visit Ludger and Hans-Werner at <http://www.reineckes.com/> they are really welcoming people :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Having attended 28C3 last December I'm really disappointed I'll not be able to make it this year. These events are always incredibly interesting and packed with great people and ideas.

</comment><comment><USER6> I was excited when I saw that something in hexadecimal was going on sale.

Only to be disappointed when I realized it wasn't 0x10c [1].

[1] <http://0x10c.com/>

</comment><comment><USER7> Couldn't find a primer on this event. What is it?

<comment><USER8> Chaos Communications Congress, an annual hacker convention in Germany run by CCC (Chaos Computer Club). Usually notoriously hard to get tickets to, but this year they switched venues (and cities) so hopefully it won't be an issue this time around.

<comment><USER9> And notoriously hard basically means "gone in 60 seconds".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Couldn't find any info about it, but when will it be held?

<comment><USER5> <https://events.ccc.de/congress/2012/wiki/Main_Page> The conference is held every year between Christmas and New Years. The dates this year are the 27th to the 30th of December.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Anyone up for a Hacker News meetup at the congress?

</comment><comment><USER12> Wrong City, the CCC belongs to berlin :(

<comment><USER13> Have you been in berlin before? At the more famous talks you couldn't even stand at hall 1, now there shouldn't be any problems: <https://twitter.com/Kjellski/status/257147441948807168>

I've posted more pictures with floor plans and the accessibility for whellchairs is way better.

I really loved berlin and I hope we'll have as much fun in hamburg.</comment></comment>


HN: Please help me make this (or tell me if it exists) - <AUTHOR>

A small device to plug a phone landline into that also runs Asterisk and accepts SIP/VoIP phone registrations over a WiFi. Couple this with an iPhone VoIP app and iPhone now replaces a home phone.
For an extra bonus allow the SIP app to connect to the home LAN over the Internet (and I am willing to jail break my phone for this).
PS. Don't want a service like MagicJack, but rather a standalone hardware device. <comment><USER2> it's not asterisk, but here's an iphone app for magicjack SIP: [http://blog.javachap.com/index.php/how-to-make-voip-calls- on...](http://blog.javachap.com/index.php/how-to-make-voip-calls-on-iphone- using-magicjack-connection-and-siphon/)

<comment><AUTHOR> Right, I just remembered about the MagicJack. From what I understand it seems to be a service, rather than a product, isn't it? And it also won't work without an Internet connection.

That's an interesting read by the way. Pretty damn good for a "weekend project" :)

<comment><USER2> it's both. it's a hardware device with an rj-11 (normal modular phone) jack and a basic line simulator that lets you make calls using SIP. there's also a (pretty cheap) service that is billed fairly infrequently. alternatively, you can use asterisk with the magicjack device; quick googling around shows that people have figured out what's necessary to get the two working together.

the downside is that it's not wireless, so you need a separate device speaking USB either way..</comment></comment></comment>