500 Internal error at YouTube - <AUTHOR> http://imgur.com/6WIgh9J <comment><USER2> Well, you can get a 500 error from facebook via this URL.

[http://facebook.com/logout](http://facebook.com/logout)

<comment> alch- They're working on getting this fixed as soon as they can, though ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My kid got soooooo upset: "Daddy, fix it. I wanna see the Beetle monster truck". Imagine me trying to explain that 'monkeys will fix the problem for him' :-P. He was eager to wait... hoping to see the monkeys... but none came while refreshing the page. As soon as the Beetle baja buggie video loaded, all about he monkeys was forgotten.

<comment><USER4> At first I was kinda surprised at your comment (not even sure why, maybe because it lacked snark...), but then I realised it is a prime example of how our (techies) work actually affects lives, experiences etc, something we often forget.

Thanks for reminding

<comment><USER3> It made me actually realize how simple and effective it actually was. Without graphics he understood something was wrong... Out of the ordinary, but the text eased him.

BTW, he is 3 years old.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We have been doing this in all of our web applications for over a decade now. Essentially, whenever there is an error, we don't just display the error message as-is. All the technical or trace info it contains seems to scare users. So, we simply encrypt it and display a base64-encoded version of it. It also gets saved into a log file.

Users are more comfortable with this way: they simply copy/paste the text to us and we have all the info we need.

<comment><USER6> What happens if there's an error in the crypto handling system? Edit: Not a troll, I'm seriously interested in "minimum required functional systems" in the case.

<comment><USER5> There is no other dependency in the encoder/decoder functions so there is no point of failure there. Those functions were developed a long time ago and have not changed. They work with any stream of data and automatically chop off the input after the first few hundred characters. This contains more than enough info for the developers to see exactly what caused the error.

In any case, even if, as you say, if the crypto handling system failed, and it returned nothing, there was no critical information that was lost. Only information on an error message, which you will hear from the user anyway.

<comment><USER6> Aah, I was thinking you might be encoding stack traces or equivalents which you'd want to protect a lot more than the head of user submitted data which the user chooses to re-submit through a seperate channel that is about as secure (esp for the purposes (email)) as the original channel. A hard coded key would be fine for this imho as you don't have to protect the user from the user's own data.

Cool idea btw.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "If you see them, send them this information as text (screenshots frighten them)" Love this!

<comment><USER8> Seems we've scared the Google monkeys away from HN again. Now we'll never get an AMA.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Anyone know what's in that debug information the 500 error page spits out?

<comment><USER10> [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21681084/decoding- youtube...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21681084/decoding-youtubes- error-500-page)

<comment><USER11> Dang, did you type that all in manually from the image? Ouch!

<comment><USER12> Nah, I don't think so. The SO post contains a link to this HN post [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7210750](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7210750) and it contains a link to what looks like a paste bin of sorts. [http://paste.pm/raw/dme](http://paste.pm/raw/dme) but paste.pm is apparently down.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I got a similar 500 Internal error trying to watch a video (not search, not front page). First 6 characters appear to be the same for the error: [http://pastebin.com/ibxLurkr](http://pastebin.com/ibxLurkr)

I wonder if someone could make sense of the error or if it's actually encrypted.

</comment><comment><USER14> code monkey jonathan coulton: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYodWEKCuGg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYodWEKCuGg)

</comment><comment><USER15> I got it on this one : [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U16XShROI8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U16XShROI8)

<comment><USER15> Not anymore.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7210750](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7210750)

</comment><comment><USER17> Hm... wonder if there's a library that could do something similar.

It's an interesting idea encrypting your error that I haven't seen in many places.

<comment><USER18> What could the purpose of an encrypted error be? If it's a server side error it's already in their logs.

<comment><USER19> Think of it as a zero-capability web cookie. Burden of storage is on the client, so it scales nicely.

If it's symmetric-encrypted, then it's unforgeable, and it's safe to include private information, like IP address or recent video-viewing history, just in case someone posts a screenshot of it on HN.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> ..so?

</comment><comment><USER21> Spotify is down too. Didn't they move to Google Cloud recently?

<comment><USER22> Back up for me now.

<comment><USER21> Still not up for us here in Amsterdam, and support.spotify.com says: "Spotify is currently not available. We are working on a fix and will continue to provide updates."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I don't get it. Have people not seen this before?

</comment><comment><USER24> Yeah, just got that as well :(

</comment><comment><USER25> Back again.</comment>


Foolish Strategy? iPhone SW Company Opens Its Books to see the Hard Numbers - <AUTHOR> http://techneur.com/post/430123326/

<comment><USER2> A bit of an astroturfing title, don't you think?

<comment><AUTHOR> Ya, you are right. I can see how it comes off that way. I apologize for that. I should have made it clear in the headline.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice to see some other people from Lincoln on HN.

The cost of living here is fantastic.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ya, you're right! It's too bad there isn't more of a vibrant startup scene though. However, we're working to change that. Are you involved in a startup?

<comment><USER3> Nope, no startup; just working from home for my Maryland employer of several years. Nebraska actually had affordable housing. :P</comment></comment></comment>


HN Formatting Options - <AUTHOR> https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc <comment><USER2> >> Text after a blank line that is indented by two or more spaces is reproduced verbatim. (This is intended for code.)

This is constantly being (mis-)used for quotes. Verbatim is really hard to read on mobile (due to horizontal scrollbars) , so other people usually repost the quote as an umformatted answer to the original post. I like HN's minimalistic design, but that's one thing I wish was improved (e.g. by providing a different way to quote things).

<comment><USER3> _> hard to read on mobile (horizontal scrollbars_

Ironically, this very post ([https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc](https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc)) does just that!

Also, if you notice my quote at the start here is a little out of whack it's cause text select for the actual comment seems to be broken on my phone. Another niggling accessibility issue ...

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I know to many this will seem like a pointless, redundant post but having gotten used to Markdown, I find myself having to DDG this page every so often to see what formatting options are actually supported. Surely I'm not the only one?

Anyway... maybe the mods/admins can add a link to it on the submission page? currently AFAIK, the only way to find it is to use a search engine or browse the FAQ page.</comment>


Studying open-source code brings immediate benefits to your own code. - <AUTHOR> http://factore.ca/on-the-floor/29-going-to-the-source-of-open-source

<comment><USER2> Great example. About a clever technique. And implementing it in the author's own code.

Check out Dr. Spinellis' Code Reading:

"Code reading requires its own set of skills, and the ability to determine which technique to use when is crucial. In this indispensable book, Diomidis Spinellis uses more than 600 real-world examples to show you how to identify good (and bad) code: how to read it, what to look for, and how to use this knowledge to improve your own code.

Fact: If you make a habit of reading good code, you will write better code yourself."

<http://www.spinellis.gr/codereading/>

<comment><USER3> Agree, other than books and people, code can be a mentor.

With one _giant_ exception: there are too many bad code out there so be very careful.

<comment><USER4> There are also tons of good code around. Most large, successful open source projects have source code full of gems from which we can all learn. Even better, by participating to a large open source project we can also learn a lot from the processes used in it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What I think is important to keep in mind is that reading _good_ open-source code is what helps. I'd make sure a piece of code was written by a fair number of smart people and used by others before I started copying their idioms and emulating their style.

</comment><comment><USER6> Two kinds of learning, right? Learning by example (e.g. reading books, reading others' code) and learning by doing (e.g. experience building things, writing your own code).

People often do one but forget the other.

<comment><USER5> I agree 100%. I think it usually comes down to confidence: if you're not confident in your ability, it's all too tempting to try to learn "just a little bit more" and never take the plunge enough to practice. On the other end of the spectrum are the audacious "rock star developer" wannabes.

Skillful programming requires a weird mix of both attitudes.</comment></comment>


How to Quit Antidepressants: Slowly, Doctors Say - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-withdrawal-drugs.html <comment><USER2> As a teenager, I went for a brief session of counselling for depression due to low self-esteem. Along with counselling, the psychiatrist also prescribed an anti-depressant for me.

At that age, I used to believe that anti-depressants don't work and were just marketing bullshit. And that therapy through counselling was the only effective way to treat psychological issue as the "human mind was very powerful". But I took the anti-depressants. So, even though the anti- depressants worked and made me feel real good, I attributed that to the "good counselling" received that helped me resolve many issues. And so one day, I stopped taking it without telling the doctor.

The next session, I mentioned to him that I had stopped taking it as I felt it didn't seem to have any effect on me and I didn't need it. A look of concern flashed on the doctor's face as he enquired when I stopped taking it. He mentioned this particular anti-depressant shouldn't be stopped suddenly and needed to be slowly tapered off, but I dismissed his concern that since it wasn't working for me there was nothing to worry.

To make a long story short - after that session I suddenly crashed and went into a deep depression, and even quit counselling. It was only later, after a long time when I resumed counselling that I realised what had gone wrong with me - you can't quit some anti-depressants cold turkey.

<comment><USER3> Anecdotally, I have seen the same thing with anti-anxiety medication. Not sure what medication it was exactly, but some folks that are close to me have had a much higher incidence of panic attacks when they abruptly stopped taking their medication. Same deal - they thought they were fine, then a week or so later, it was just panic attack after panic attack until they refilled their prescription.

<comment><USER4> Most anxiolytics are benzodiazepines, and quitting cold turkey can quite literally kill you, especially if you've been on a significant dose over time. These drugs raise your seizure threshold, but rapidly quitting creates a backlash of lowered seizure threshold, and you can have far worse outcomes than just rebound anxiety.

<comment> Engineering-MD Benzodiazepine withdrawal can be unpleasant, but is very unlikely to kill. As far as I am aware, there is only one case of benzodiazepine withdrawal related death (which is not certain in any case).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I took an SSRI for 15 years. It took me multiple tries over a couple years to taper off. It was not a fun experience. When I tried doing it too fast, I would get terrible headaches. The final attempt took 9 months of careful tapering until I got below the therapeutic dose and just stopped.

I do regret ever starting it. I feel like I lost a part myself to it. I feel like the peaks and valleys of my emotions are gone. I never get very sad or angry, but I don't ever feel very happy either.

<comment><USER6> > I never get very sad or angry, but I don't ever feel very happy either.

That just sounds like the depression that was there before you started taking the SSRI.

At least it describes my depression perfectly. Apathy.

That's how I feel with or without the SSRI's I had taken in the past, none of which seemed to have any effect on me for whatever reason.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Some people have been able to quit antidepressants cold after using psychedelics Ayahuasca that rewires the brain synapsis.

Of course, it's only individual cases.

<comment><USER4> Taking Ayahuasca while on antidepressants is a breathtakingly bad idea, even without an intent to use the experience to "quit" them. Don't. Do. It.

<comment><USER8> Consider a well-reasoned response of why, instead of just telling people what to do.

<comment><USER4> I'm not _that_ invested in their wellbeing, and I'm not making an argument requiring citations. I'll leave it to people with access to Google to do basic research on their own health.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Is "Slowly" the advice for most (all) addictions too: e.g. Not the Miles Davis solution to heroin addiction

</comment><comment><USER10> SSRIs are extremely dangerous and life-altering. I'm definitely not the same and I was only exposed to it [Citalopram] for about a week or so. Look up post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction (PSSD) - possible permanent reduction in libido and overall sexual response. Or anhedonia - complete removal of emotions.

Vitamin D, fish oil, exercise, and improving your diet should be considered before ingesting poison.

<comment><USER2> Some anti-depressants do have the side effect of reduced libido and loss of interest in sex. But it is not known to be permanent as far as I am aware.

<comment><USER11> It can be permanent, but that's a fairly rare (but known) case.</comment></comment></comment>


Ireland's talent meltdown - <AUTHOR> http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/11494/randd/irelands-talent-meltdown

<comment><USER2> Ireland created a very strong local tech industry by offering large tax breaks and grants for tech companies - with the help of the EU. This is why places like Dell and IBM (or HP? Big tech companies either way) have massive installations in Ireland.

Now that the EU is expanding, a lot of these companies are eyeing off places like Poland.

<comment><USER3> Ireland is the preferred tax heaven for many European companies.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looking at this selfishly: As an American in my early twenties, how can I land myself a gig in Ireland? I'd love to work/live abroad for a few years.

<comment><USER5> Their work visas are actually rather difficult to get and strict.

<comment><USER6> That is unfortunate, I would dearly love to work there.

<comment><USER7> Actually, just recently a new visa scheme has been announced that would allow people from the US to travel to Ireland and Irish people to travel to the US to work for a year. I'm not sure when it will be available but it seems interesting. The Irish Times did an article on it [http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0919/122177...](http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0919/1221773888183.html)</comment></comment></comment></comment>