US tries to kill pro-breastfeeding policy - <AUTHOR> https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/07/us-puts-fierce-squeeze-on-breastfeeding-policy-shocking-health-officials/ <comment><USER2> The linked article basically restates the original NYTimes article, with less detail: [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health- breas...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health- breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html)

<comment><USER3> ... which was discussed on HN yesterday:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17484206](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17484206)

<comment><AUTHOR> Ah, I missed the previous HN discussion. Sorry for the dupe!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The odd thing is, even after 10 minutes I can't find the WHO resolution in question, only lots of opinion articles. I mean I don't care if you want to breastfeed, anywhere anytime, just wanting the whole story here. Were they banning alternatives or something?

<comment><USER2> I think it's "Item 12.6" on the agendas for the WHO assembly, so you can find lots of WHO group statements/reports regarding it but I can't find the text either.

<comment><USER5> Is it this one?

Agenda item 12.6 :

[http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_23-en.pdf](http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_23-en.pdf)

Maternal, infant and young child nutrition Safeguarding against possible conflicts of interest in nutrition programmes Draft approach for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest in the policy development and implementation of nutrition programmes at country level

Here are the resolutions:

[http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha71.html#Resolutions](http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha71.html#Resolutions)

[http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_R9-en.pdf](http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA71/A71_R9-en.pdf)

<comment><USER4> Thanks!

I mean I hate to sound judgmental, but "that fewer than one in five infants are breastfed for 12 months in high-income countries; "

I've tried to encourage people to breastfeed, it isn't well received though.

"Acknowledging that achievement of the WHO global target to increase to at least 50% the proportion of infants under 6 months of age who are exclusively breastfed by 2025 requires sustainable and adequate technical and financial resources, and supportive and protective policy and regulatory interventions as well as political will, and that this needs to be part of broader efforts to strengthen health systems;"

Yah, definitely an attack on the "formula" industry, along with the conflict of interest verbiage, but the mothers I've talked to don't care or can't breastfeed anyway, get mad at them? We are gonna start telling women what to do with their bodies now?!?

I mean I get it, the benefits are very real to the kid, just wondering what politician has the cajones to tell women to start breastfeeding more.

<comment><USER6> It looks like it boils down to two things: the proponents say the misinformation on the part of the formula industry needs to be stopped, whereas the opponents claim such a regulation would stigmatize the women who can't breastfeed. Or don't want.

But when you think about it, what you give to the baby is pretty much a private thing. The main people who can "stigmatize" you will be your family, and they can do so for a variety of reasons, not just breastfeeding. I can't imagine a stranger on a street telling a woman she should breastfeed instead of giving the baby a bottle (which may contain her own milk btw). I can't imagine a husband telling such things to his wife. But the mother's mother, or mother-in-law - they could easily say so. So it essentially boils down to whether your family is supportive or not. Preventing Nestle from spreading misinformation is a completely different thing.

<comment><USER7> > I can't imagine a stranger on a street telling a woman she should breastfeed > instead of giving the baby a bottle (which may contain her own milk btw). I > can't imagine a husband telling such things to his wife.

You would be surprised at how many people suddenly have an opinion when you have a baby.

<comment><USER6> These people can be very quickly convinced to keep their opinions to themselves by a short word or two. Really, telling parents how to raise their child is a very delicate issue.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> What's with all the immature puns in the article trivializing the subject matter?

</comment><comment><USER6> Nestle has its own page about WHO's International Code of Marketing of Breast- milk Substitutes:

[https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/health- nutrition/answers/w...](https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/health- nutrition/answers/who-code)

Basically, they say that this code is not a law so they don't follow it, but they have a different code, an internal one, and they stick to it.

</comment><comment><USER9> "The Ecuadorian delegation, for instance, was expected to introduce the resolution but was weaned off the idea after the US threatened..."

Lol. Weaned.

<comment><USER10> Could you please not post unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is your tool of choice to back up data on your GNU/Linux box? - <AUTHOR> It could be a server or desktop. There are many excellent options out there, but I wanted to her some opinions on what makes it your program of choice. <comment><USER2> I have a cron job that runs every hour and pings for any of several possible remote drives that may or may not be mounted. If it finds one it runs rsync to backup everything using hardlinks to the previous backup, saving space and doing partial de-duplication.

Then I mount and dismount USB hard drives at various locations on the network, swapping them in and out regularly. Every drive has a reasonably recent copy, thus getting redundancy with very little effort.

It was easy to set up, it's easy to run, it has significant redundancy, and every (*nix) machine is backed up.

</comment><comment><USER3> This rsync wrapper: rsnapshot [http://rsnapshot.org/](http://rsnapshot.org/)

</comment><comment><USER4> rsync -- It's quick and reliable. I set up scripts so I don't screw it up.

<comment><AUTHOR> Haven't used rsync yet but it sounds like the ultimate backup tool. What language do you script it in, bash/shell or others?</comment></comment>


"Break and Enter dropbox" attack with Amazon Key (smartlock and smartcam combo) - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/_MG_/status/960269383774842881 <comment><USER2> Title makes it sound like someone was actually robbed- a security researcher found a flaw and demonstrated it. No victims yet.

<comment><USER3> Right, the submitted title ("Amazon Key Hacked. Attacker gains unauthorized access to customer's home") broke the site guidelines by being misleading.

We've replaced it with a shortened version of the tweet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> So ironic that the video shows a sophisticated electronic attack against a cheap wooden door with glass panels, a key-in-the knob cylinder, and a mail slot. It weakens the PR impact of the video. They should have filmed it Mission Impossible style at a house with solid locks and doors. :)

As an aside: It baffles me how people spend tens of thousands of dollars on things like ornamental molding but can't spend hundreds of dollars on good physical security. One of the funnier purchases are those fancy door handles-- with names like "Aged Venetian Bronze with Georgian Entry Knob"\--that come with crappy cylinders like Kwikset or Weiser, yet cost more than high-security Medeco or Abloy deadbolts.

<comment><USER5> You can't smash a door in broad daylight but pretending to be the Amazon delivery person? No problem. People don't have high physical security because it most cases it's not needed.

<comment><USER4> > People don't have high physical security because it most cases it's not > needed.

Everything helps: better locks, solid doors, security cameras, law enforcement that cares, alarms, community involvement, etc. My theory is that people don't get better locks and rugged doors because most people can't tell good from bad, and therefore choose the cheapest. Or more typically, the builder chooses the cheapest and the buyers don't base purchasing decisions on the quality of locks and insides of doors and jambs because they can't judge it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Without any technical proof, this is just a staged video of a guy "breaking" into a home.

In his tweet, MG says: "I'm withholding details until Amazon has a chance to fix this."

</comment><comment> King-Aaron As worrying as it is, the simple fact is that someone is still much more likely to throw a brick through that glass door and manually unlock it than tamper with the electronic lock.

<comment><USER7> That doesn't make a lot of sense. Locking your front door is a good idea despite the fact that it's easy to get passed that door.

Also, if your neighbors see someone throw a brick through your front door they will probably call the police. If they see a person "delivering a package" they won't.

<comment> King-Aaron One thing you should never do is assume a felon has the capacity for making sense.

Anecdote, but two weekends ago my apartment was broken into twice in the same weekend. The first time nothing was taken, the second time they took a bottle of display scotch (read: just tea inside) and some loose change. The first time they jimmied open a window, the second time they physically broke a glass window to reach inside and open the lock.

Note, neighbours don't generally give two shits about break-ins, unless you have neighbours that are also actively engaged in the community. (Also never underestimate the apathy of others).

All a lock can do is slow someone down. If they want to get access to your home, they will. I agree with you that locking your front door is always a good idea, and certainly in some situations a thief will want to employ a lot more stealth with their actions. But there's also thieves that are up to their eyeballs on drugs and that shiny thing on your counter top is all that they care about.

<comment><USER8> > All a lock can do is slow someone down

And get a pay-out on insurance.

If there are signs of forcible entry then my policy says I'm covered. If I left a door unlocked then I'm on my own.

<comment> King-Aaron Oh for sure. I'm by no means advocating not locking your doors.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Alexa, where is my furniture?

<comment><USER10> Thanks for helping me start my monday spilling coffee all over my keyboard!!</comment></comment>


Apple Scales Back Orders for Its iPhones - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/article_email/apple-scales-back-orders-for-its-iphones-1452049390-lMyQjAxMTA2NjAyNjkwNjY0Wj <comment><USER2> [sigh]

Here's WSJ from January 2013:

 _Apple Inc. has cut its orders for components for the iPhone 5 due to weaker- than-expected demand, people familiar with the situation said Monday. Apple's orders for iPhone 5 screens for the January-March quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had previously planned to order, two of the people said._

[http://www.wsj.com/article_email/SB1000142412788732359620457...](http://www.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424127887323596204578240440691304344-lMyQjAxMTAzMDEwMzExNDMyWj.html)

So WSJ says 50% drop in orders for the January-March quarter. Yet when you look at Apple's actual results for that January to March quarter iPhone experienced a YoY _increase_.

[http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/04/23Apple-Reports- Seco...](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/04/23Apple-Reports-Second- Quarter-Results.html)

Fool me once WSJ...

Journalists should be very careful when quoting component manufacturers. Apple often buys all the components a manufacturer can make (and then buys them a factory to make more, and then buys all the machines in the world that can be used to make the parts, etc). Apple quite literally can make or break a component manufacturer (GT Advanced comes to mind...), so manufacturers willing to talk to the press usually have an angle or axe to grind.

<comment><USER3> > Fool me once WSJ...

YoY INCREASE does not mean Apple hit their expected target goal. Apple expected to sell MORE phones then it did. It still sold more then the year before but they sold less then expected.

<comment><USER4> Actually no. Apple did hit their stated target - since they hit their earnings target which is the only target they have stated.

The only 'expectations' in these stories are completely fictitious and are made up by people outside Apple.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> For an alternative analysis:

[http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-iphone-and-china- fear...](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-iphone-and-china-fears-are- overblown-says-analyst-2016-01-04)

As has been pointed out, New year predictions of falling iPhone demand due to supply chain reports is now an annual tradition. One day it will be true, but in the sense that if you keep crying wolf eventually, one day, there might well be a wolf. I suppose the Journal can claim that they are only passing on reports, which is their job as journalists, but if they want to do so with any honesty or integrity the least they can do is point out the times they Passed on reports of exactly same thing in previous years.

</comment><comment><USER6> Article is misleading and not well researched. These two comments at bottom of article reveals:

First Foxconn subsidy news is wrong:

 _The $12 million in payments referred to in this article were actually issued for the 2014 calendar year.

[http://newpaper.dahe.cn/hnsb/html/2016-01/06/content_1352344...](http://newpaper.dahe.cn/hnsb/html/2016-01/06/content_1352344.htm?div=-1)

[http://hn.ifeng.com/a/20160106/4169476_0.shtml](http://hn.ifeng.com/a/20160106/4169476_0.shtml) _

And then this comment says news websites has formed this as habit at the start of the year:

 _Doesn 't this happen every year? Headlines from March 2015: "Apple's iPhone Juggernaut Slowing Down Across The Globe"

([http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2015/03/16/apples- iph...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2015/03/16/apples-iphone- juggernaut-slowing-down-across-the-globe/) _

</comment><comment><USER4> This comes up every year and has been false every year so far.

<comment><USER7> Some year it will be true. And you have self fulfilling prophecy afterwards.

<comment><USER4> It may be true that Apple stops growing at some point, assuming we don't start colonizing space before they do creating an ever expanding market.

However it may never be true that supply chain rumors are an accurate indicator.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Largely mobile phones are feature complete. There's very little that can be added that makes it worth upgrading at this point. Unless there's some game changing new feature, expect people to upgrade less as they are completely satisfied with their phones and will keep it until it breaks.

<comment><USER9> I feel like phones are slightly larger than optimum at the moment. At least for my preferences. I guess it's tougher to fit high spec hardware into a phone with a smaller footprint.

I bought into Steve Jobs' idea phones should be usable one-handed. I think the sweet-spot for that is 4 inches or less. A premium phone at these dimensions doesn't exist anymore, the last one was probably the iPhone 5S.

I went from iPhone 3GS -> iPhone 5 -> Sony Xperia Z3 Compact and honestly the Z3 Compact is larger than I would like (4.6" screen). I'm honestly considering getting a 5S for my next phone because I don't want a phone as big as the iPhone 6.

I noticed recently that the One Plus 2 Mini is going to have a 5" screen, that seems insane for a "mini" phone.

<comment><USER10> I'm the opposite. I have a 6s now and am thinking about moving to the 6s+. I use my phone more like a tablet, plug head phones in to talk and have wireless headphones for the gym.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, that's cool too. I guess we just have different use cases.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> This doesn't seem surprising. The market for smartphones is starting to get saturated and we should expect the growth of demand to slow as we start to crest the top of the S curve. It's pretty clear that Apple is still going to sell a ton of iPhone 7s, probably at a new record rate, but the level of growth just won't be the same.

</comment><comment><USER12> I went to the Apple Store in my not-so-big town before lunch this morning to return an item I purchased at Christmas time.

Being 11am in January, there was nobody in the mall -- I grabbed a Starbucks (1 customer sitting down) and headed over to do my return. There is a rather long queue in front of the store and 2-3 Apple people taking names to let you in the store. Inside, there are probably about 100-150 customers. It's literally like standing on a train platform -- packed. In the 20 minutes that I was waiting, I counted about a half dozen iPads, 5-6 Macs and about two dozen iPhones walking out the door.

Apple is still on fire -- when I worked retail in the 90s, January-April was death. Hardly any midweek business whatsoever. They probably did more business in a half hour than the CompUSA I worked at in 1998 made in a day in January.

</comment><comment><USER13> The Wall Street Journal, in the early 1990s, reported that Apple had been bought by Sun Microsystems. They never retracted the story. This may be a generally credible newspaper, but this article sounds just like the constant stream of Apple Doom-And-Gloom I've been reading going back 30 years.

There is a reliable indicator of Apples expected sales-- and it's forward looking. This is the CapEx expenditures, which Apple forecasts out in its reports. When they expect to sell a lot of new phones, they buy more equipment to be able to make those phones. Apple hates to have lack of supply when they release a new product and there is huge demand (And Apple never has huge warehouses of unsold products they have to unload like other companies do.)

The idea that the s products are "lackluster" is silly... they have been following a tick-tock strategy for 5 years now and it has been working effectively, but every tock year we hear about how "nothings different" (because apparently to these people if the case is the same the internals must be too.)

Usually, despite the claim Apple was sold, you don't see this level of poor journalism in the WSJ. But I guess that's the nature of the "news game" now.

</comment><comment><USER14> They build it up and then they tear it down. Eventually they will be right, but something is telling me (Christmas sales forecasts) that Apple is about to demolish another quarter.

</comment><comment><USER15> I wouldn't be surprised if most bought the 6 last year due to its larger size and hence have no need to upgrade to the 6s this year. I did and enjoy the 6s, because I upgraded from the 5 (even that jump was slightly underwhelming). I bought it for the camera and screen size.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm pretty sure this same story has been told for each major rev of the iPhone. "s-years" tend to be stronger because it is a proven product design, etc., so more people buy them.

</comment><comment><USER17> Quarterly report will tell, until then, it is only speculation</comment>


Reset the Net Privacy Pack - <AUTHOR> https://pack.resetthenet.org <comment><USER2> Sure it is for a greater cause, but making people expose their websites' visitors to a third-party is not what I would have expected from a privacy movement. See [http://resetthenet.tumblr.com/post/84330794665/the-reset- the...](http://resetthenet.tumblr.com/post/84330794665/the-reset-the-net- splash-screen)

Instead of having a local javascript, they want you to make sure all your visitors load it from members.internetdefenseleague.org or fightforthefuture.github.io

The main site is not privacy protecting either. Leaking to Optimizely, Amazon, YouTube, Heroku, Cloudflare, taskforce.is, Typekit.

<comment><USER3> > Leaking to Optimizely, Amazon, YouTube, Heroku, Cloudflare, taskforce.is, > Typekit

Optimizely helps the team at FFTF A/B test wording. I was asking to remove that sooner too, but it adds a lot of value for them, so that stayed. I'm with you there.

Amazon Web Services power a lot of the internet.

YouTube only gets loaded if a user clicks "Watch Video".

Heroku only gets loaded if you submit your email in the top form.

Cloudflare helps power a lot of the internet. (HN, for example)

Taskforce.is a trusted partner, who offered to lend us Piwik hosting for this project. FFTF is hoping to set up their own server in the future.

TypeKit... that's where "Proxima Nova" is served from. The main designer at FFTF, Vasjen, made this awesome design using Proxima Nova and... we just all got attached to that font. I agree though, hosting all of the custom fonts would have rocked.

\---

The point of the site, isn't to coddle people, and tell them that this little corner of the internet is safe, but not to go anywhere else. Sorry, but the reality is, to attain privacy, users need to take action. Installing the Tor bundle, for instance, which includes NoScript. Ghostery is another good one.

Also, when you criticized the usage of AWS, Clouflare, and Heroku... were you making the point that high visibility sites should be self-hosted?

<comment><USER4> > Sorry, but the reality is, to attain privacy, users need to take action.

Sadly that is true and sadly that site is part of that problem.

I think Sprint's main point was the "please embed our javascript" part though. For what reason is that not meant to be self-hosted?

<comment><USER3> It's not sad that people need to take action. Taking action feels great, and is empowering.

Reset the Net is a step forward. A step, on a journey towards a society which stands up for itself, by taking action.

The purpose is to showcase all of the awesome companies who really care about privacy, and showing users methods by which they can increase the privacy in their electronic communications.

There's really no pressure for you to embed any JavaScript.

<comment><USER4> I think you completely misunderstood the issue which is that linking to a third-party hosted javascript exposes your visitors to that third-party.

<comment><USER3> Snowden and Schneier endorsed Reset the Net. Google, Mozilla, EFF, Twitter, and many others endorsed it. A bunch of awesome users participated, and shared how they are making positive changes as well. Feel free to share too, if you have anything positive to contribute. [https://www.resetthenet.org/#add- yourself](https://www.resetthenet.org/#add-yourself)

<comment><USER4> I give up. You dodge and dodge and dodge with grandiose marketing speak. I am disgusted.

<comment><USER3> :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> >According to Apple's Legal Process Guidelines, Facetime calls and iMessages are end-to-end encrypted. This is significant, but Textsecure and Redphone are more secure and trustworthy.

Yes but they don't exist.

TextSecure looks perfect but has been "coming soon to iPhone" for a year. It seems to be a long way off if I look at the GitHub activity ([https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure- iOS](https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure-iOS))

I'm not sure why this is, exactly. Maybe there aren't enough iOS developers willing to donate their time to open source projects?

A real pity. The only way we have a chance is if the basic tools we use are cross-platform, open-source, and verifiably end-to-end.

<comment><USER6> ChatSecure supports OTR, Xabber supports OTR, Pidgin/Adium too, so there's the multi-platform, open-source, end-to-end texting app. You just need an account on any XMPP server.

<comment><USER7> OTR only works when both parties are online. Especially with the modern mobile internet, that is something crucial!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> We begin therefore where they are determined not to end, with the question whether any form of democratic self-government, anywhere, is consistent with the kind of massive, pervasive, surveillance into which the Unites States government has led not only us but the world.

This should not actually be a complicated inquiry.

[http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/27/-sp- privac...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/27/-sp-privacy- under-attack-nsa-files-revealed-new-threats-democracy)

<comment><USER9> Kudos for mentioning this article. It is an excellent essay that more people should read.

<comment><USER8> Thank you very much, you made it worth burning all that YC karma.

"You can't solve social problems with software." – Marcus Ranum

ps: actually, it is worse: [https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc- archives/dc-18-archive....](https://www.defcon.org/html/links/dc- archives/dc-18-archive.html#Marlinspike)

[http://benjamin.sonntag.fr/Moglen-at-Re-Publica-Freedom- of-t...](http://benjamin.sonntag.fr/Moglen-at-Re-Publica-Freedom-of-thought- requires-free-media)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> _Wondering why we didn 't include (insert app here)? Read our criteria for these recommendations._

The page linked for "our criteria" doesn't mention any criteria other than:

 _We need tools that a broad community of experts can get behind._

I don't know of a single expert that would recommend Pidgin. I strongly recommend against it, whether you believe you are a "specific target of surveillance" or not.

<comment><USER3> What would you say is a better alternative, that supports OTR?

<comment><USER10> Gajim supports OTR with a plugin. Both the client and plugin are written in Python.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have a question:

What is the value of encrypted communications when your system is closed and presumably compromised (Windows, iOS, OSX)?

Also, why are they suggesting that you write down passwords? For that matter, why passwords at all? Passphrases are easier for people to remember for the same amount of entropy.

<comment><USER12> > Why passwords at all? Passphrases are easier for people to remember for the > same amount of entropy.

That is true if you compare them directly, but if you have a different pass(word|phrase) for each service it doesn't matter anymore, you can't remember more than a limited number of passphrases (unless you use common and predictable phrases I suppose, but then they're easier to crack).

<comment><USER11> In which case use a single (long) passphrase for a (n open source) password manager, and generate gibberish for passwords on websites.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Forgive if I'm missing something but how does [http://masterpasswordapp.com](http://masterpasswordapp.com) deal with sites password requirements (or rather limitations)?

</comment><comment><USER14> Taking bets its a marketing ploy for one listed paid apps.

Specifically, telling to enable the two-factor authentication _to protect against government snooping_ makes no sense whatsoever. So this is either just an amateur "OMG, they are spying on us, let's do _something secure_!!" campaign or it has secondary objectives. My bet is on latter.</comment>


Apple Really Is Going To Try To Kill Google - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-really-is-going-to-try-to-kill-google-2012-6

<comment><USER2> I don't agree with this at all. If it were true, they would be nerfing mobile safari rather than upgrading it like they did in ios6. What they are aiming for is the absolute best experience on mobile (as they always have, no matter what the platform), and right now this is through native apps.

As the web grows and matures and html5 adoption becomes more widespread, the web will overtake apps and apps will become wrappers for web interfaces.</comment>


FiOS customer discovers the limits of "unlimited" data: 77TB a month - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/05/fios-customer-discovers-the-limits-of-unlimited-data-77-tb-in-month/ <comment><USER2> I'm usually pretty sympathetic to these stories of people getting screwed on "unlimited" data with, say, 5 gig or whatever caps, but in this case... cry me a river, man.

I'm stuck in an area where my two options are Time Warner Cable, which I refuse to use due to terrible experiences with them in the past, and AT&T DSL (old school DSL, not U-Verse), which works fine but is slow and has 50 gigabyte caps (you can go over the caps but they will bill you for extra usage).

I really wish Google would put more pressure on the US ISP market (maybe partnering with Netflix and others who stand to lose on the current sorry state of ISPs here), because clearly these companies need a lot more pressure put upon them, but 77 terabytes a month is by any measure a huge outlier and I don't fault Verizon for getting involved in this particular case.

<comment><USER3> > _I really wish Google would put more pressure on the US ISP market_

You want to know what Google's biggest issue is getting fiber out?

Quote:

 _In California in particular, environmental regulations prevent companies from improving the telecommunications infrastructure, Medin said.

"Google is a big believer in protecting the environment for future generations, but certain types of state and local environmental rules make investment very difficult," he explained. " Laws like the California Environmental Quality Act can make it prohibitively expensive for companies to invest in new projects, such as our fiber project, within California.

"Many fine California city proposals for the Google Fiber project were ultimately passed over in part because of the regulatory complexity here brought about by CEQA and other rules. Other states have equivalent processes in place to protect the environment without causing such harm to business processes, and therefore create incentives for new services to be deployed there instead."_

[http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2012/08/04/how- kan...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2012/08/04/how-kansas-won- the-google-fiber-jackpot-and-why-california-never-will/)

<comment><USER2> I don't doubt that there are overbearing regulations in place in California (and I say this as someone who is pretty liberal and generally in favor of government regulation where it makes sense, but recognizes that they can go overboard), but I don't buy that Google's primary limitation is regulation, because there are many cities outside of California that would bend over backward for Google Fiber and yet they are still rolling it out at what I would consider a snail's pace.

<comment><USER3> The article I linked discusses some of that, how navigating the politics of even cities that welcome Google with open arms is troublesome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> In general, I, like most of us, hate ISPs who advertise "unlimited" data but it really is limited. However, this particular case, the guy used 77TB (jaw dropping) and it probably makes sense for Verizon to step in.

Now. going back to the unlimited thing. I really want some kind of govt control here and make it unlawful for these companies to advertise "unlimited" because lets face it, it never is. There is always a "cap" or "Throttle" (EDIT). So instead of advertising as "unlimited", why not say "Use as much as you want upto xyz GB". Yes this does not sound nice for marketing but honestly, claiming unlimited with a fine print is really getting old and boring.

<comment><USER5> Is unlimited, but throttled, still unlimited? If so my $30/mo. phone plan is unlimited. I'm not sure it is capped at all. It may drop to 1200 baud, but won't ever run out.

<comment><USER4> You know what I mean. yes we the HN crowd know all about throttling and stuff. What about the average Joe who sees the TV ad for "Unlimited data" and goes "wow I can watch youtube all day".

For example, I have an "unlimited" data plan from TMobile. But they try to explain it to me like this "After 2GB usage, you will lose the 4G speed and it will be very slow". They even send me text messages with this crap once I reach a certain "limit" on my "unlimited" plan. It cracks me up.

<comment><USER6> I have an unlimited plaan from tmobile. I carefully checked with them what they meant.

They meant unlimited reading of email or surfing, but if I used too much data (1GB per month) I wouldn't be able to watch YouTube or download large files.

It's an aggressively stupid method to sell bandwidth. Now no one knows what's allowed or expected.

<comment><USER7> Man I _wish_ you could get data plans like that in Australia. I have 1gb of data per month, but then I get overage charges which means in practice I can't use that data aggressively at all because of the risk I'll get massively screwed by going over the cap.

I would _love_ a data plan which just throttled me down to dial-up speeds or whatever. Still enough to use email/IM, and I'd be able to use my data cap more liberally. Which is of course, why it will never happen.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Pretty cool, especially when you consider that in a month of march there are 2,678,400 seconds and 77TB is ~ 77,000,000 MB. So he sustained on average throughput of 28.75 megabytes a second for the entire month.

Another interesting titbit from the article is Verizon engineer claiming the OP used 30,000% of average Verizon user. Simple calculation shows that average Verizon user uses a little over 255 Gigabytes per household per month (I assume this is combined bandwidth).

</comment><comment><USER9> Note that this isn't a "getting screwed" story, and the person it happened to isn't _complaining_ that it happened. It's really just a tech-PR piece on how far you have to go to run afoul of these limits. (Look at the paragraphs spent gushing about his setup. Those wouldn't be there if this were rabblerousing.)

</comment><comment><USER10> I like that he is totally cool with switching back to business class. He is just confused that they're freaking out over the extra 50$ a month. That 50$ a month isn't covering the difference between himself and the average consumer class customer.

</comment><comment><USER11> IMO this actually makes Verizon look pretty nice as an ISP.

If this guy was only told to upgrade to business after running a rack of servers and averaging 50 TB a month, then I'd think almost any "normal" usage would be fine.

<comment><USER12> I used to have Verizon FIOS, before moving away to somewhere without FIOS. I was on a 25 Mbit symmetric plan, but almost always got 35/35.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> > houkouonchi has been providing friends and family a personal VPN, video > streaming, and peer-to-peer file service—running a rack of seven servers > with 209TB of raw storage in his house

</comment><comment><USER14> Houkounchi is a friend of mine. Interesting to see this story show up here almost a year late.

[http://whatpulse.org/stats/bandwidth/](http://whatpulse.org/stats/bandwidth/)

</comment><comment><USER15> Previous Discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5758585](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5758585)

</comment><comment><USER16> tldr:

> residential service

> 'I have a full rack and run servers'

> 'Well, that's against our ToS.'

> 'he said I would need to switch to the business service.'

<comment><USER10> You forgot the last line: > 'No problem, switch me over. Thanks. Bye'

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I wonder if he's the reason I can get a full 50+mbps on a Verizon bandwidth test, but I get roughly 5-10mbps to basically anywhere else on the internet. (Even the Linux mirrors, like mirrors.kernel.org and mirror.anl.gov, where I used to be able to fill my connection with no problem, are now around 500KB/sec.) Get more bandwidth please, VZ.

</comment><comment><USER18> To give some perspective to how hard it is for any consumer usage to reach this amount, assume one was streaming Blu-ray quality video 24/7 for the whole month:

(3600s/h) _(24h /d)_(31d/m)*(7MB/s) = still only about 18 TB.

</comment><comment><USER19> Haha, 77 TB on a residential plan. I mean, come on, I understand 500GB, maybe 1 TB (I personally never used more than 250GB in a month), but this is ridiculous. I'm surprised Verizon didn't shut him down way earlier...

<comment><USER20> Throw in a couple 50GB game downloads, some TV, some music, file downloads and you'll easily break 250GB. Netflix HD will chew throw bandwidth pretty fast, especially if you have a couple people in the house watching at the same time.

... And game will only get larger, bitrates will only go up.

<comment><USER21> Netflix's HD is 3.8-5 Mbps, compared to Blu-Ray's 30-40 Mbps. Lots of things "want" a lot more bandwidth than they're currently getting by with, even services that seem very bandwidth hungry now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Article is from May 2013 FYI, currently not reflected in the title with a (2013).

</comment><comment><USER23> So... was this customer under the impression that the data plan was _literally_ unlimited?

<comment><USER24> If they call it unlimited, it damned well ought to be unlimited.

<comment><USER25> They call it unlimited, but you also have to stick within the TOS, which clearly forbids this sort of use case on a residential contract.

<comment><USER26> Well, I think the "unlimited" and "no heavy bandwidth usage" clauses are not compatible with each other.

He did violate ToS by running the servers though, and overall, Verizon looks really good in this story, if I were them I would consider this a free advertisement.

<comment><USER25> I'd say it's unlimited for any current residential use. Even streaming HD video 24/7 wouldn't do 77 TB/month.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Nvidia  Unveils GeForce GTX 1080 Ti: Available Week of March 5th for $699 - <AUTHOR> http://www.anandtech.com/show/11172/nvidia-unveils-geforce-gtx-1080-ti-next-week-699 <comment><USER2> Almost a Titan X pascal at a smaller price point...1 GB less memory. Good option for people getting into deep learning...</comment>


Proof that erasing information produces heat - <AUTHOR> http://www.kurzweilai.net/proof-that-erasing-information-produces-heat

<comment><AUTHOR> A question for Quantum Physics Experts: I thought that information can not be destroyed. Is erasing information and destroying it the same thing? When I remember correctly, then Stephen Hawking proved that even Black Holes can't destroy information.</comment>


Why Do You Need PGP? (1994) - <AUTHOR> https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/crypto/cypherpunks/zimmermann-why-pgp.html

<comment><USER2> Phil is still as vocal now as he was then: [http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-regulation/phil- zimmermann...](http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/e-regulation/phil-zimmermann- privacy-silent-circle-166897)

</comment><comment><USER3> I've been hacking on several side projects with GPG and OpenPGP for the past few months[1][2][3], and I've come away from it fully convinced that the lack of interest in PGP is because people don't want to unofficially extend the format. The the fundamental format and specification are really extensible and could be used as the base for most crypto apps, including Keybase/OTR/TextSecure apps. However, for some reason, people are scared to unofficially extend the OpenPGP format specification to add the features they need. Maybe it's that they don't want to extend the format, maybe it's that there's no good tools to actually do that (there really aren't).

For example, there is a "User Attribute" packet you can add to a PGP public key that can contain arbitrary data. The only official format for this packet is a jpeg image, but you can specify up to 99 more types of "attributes" on your own, and parsers that don't understand them will just ignore them. So Keybase could have extended this packet for its online identity validations, but instead it created it's own centralized PKI, signature format, and command line tool. One of my next side projects is going to be trying to add my Keybase signatures for my github to my PGP public key.

Also, there's no reason why the format can't be extended to allow for Forward Secrecy. You could very easily use OpenPGP as the base format for OTR and Axolotl. One of my next side projects is going to be implementing the same OTR and Axolotl flow using OpenPGP as the base format. That way, you could use the public keyservers to start end-to-end encrypted chat sessions (AND utilize the web of trust in the process).

I love Keybase and TextSecure just as much as the next person, but it really sucks that we're having to rely on so few people to maintain the infrastructure, protocols, and formats for the next generation of crypto apps.

[1]: [https://github.com/diafygi/publickeyjs](https://github.com/diafygi/publickeyjs)

[2]: [https://github.com/diafygi/openpgp- python](https://github.com/diafygi/openpgp-python)

[3]: [https://github.com/diafygi/keyserver- elasticsearch](https://github.com/diafygi/keyserver-elasticsearch)

</comment><comment><USER4> Join the FSF's email encryption campaign to accelerate the movement: [https://www.iwoulddo.it/en/campaigns/2949/email- encryption](https://www.iwoulddo.it/en/campaigns/2949/email-encryption)

</comment><comment><USER5> The UI is too complex, and the security of the ring of trust relies on the key signing. It would suffer poor key signing habits that no noobs understand.

Plus for key signing, I need to show my papers... What if my interlocutor is an infiltrated whatever? I just blew away my identity. Else, my key worths nothing.

Plus like decentralized certificate system it is vulnerable to a majority attack. Sometimes a local majority in time or space is sufficient.

It requires too much knowledge to be applied correctly.

Service Secret loves to know a secret is exchange and GPG is like telling "hé Deep Packet Inspection terrorist one with well known address1 is talking to well known terrorist2 with address2 and key2"

Secret services do not really care about the secret ... They care about sociograms

Well the only good use I see for GPG mail is to make the content of a mail as valid as a formal contract between two parties.

<comment><USER6> Heh, no. GPG mitigates a wide spectrum of threats. Not all threats. It's part of an over-all strategy of risk management. Your thinking of "it's a silver bullet that fails completely" is as lulzy as the people who think "it's a silver bullet that works perfectly."

Think probabilistically, not black-and-white binary logic.

<comment><USER5> Probability:

\- I experienced lots of gifted geeks doing stupid things with key signing party (like creating fake ID for their cats); \- I experienced IT specialist from the security unable to use GPG with their mailbox to send their forms to RIPE so we used clear text passwords in mail (yes they were of course security experts); \- I know for real secret services care more about who talks to whom secretly than what is the secret. And using GPG/PGP is like a smoking gun.

I did too lost all my floppy disk with my revocation key.

I do use my PGP key to sign my python packages. But this UI/UX is hellish.

So yes, GPG sux and is unusable by mere mortals, and even me who advocated for it in the late 90's think that I will not let anyone try to drag any relatives of mine close to this hell, because I would have to do the support, and this product sux big balls.

<comment><USER6> This sounds like a deeply emotional issue for you. Do keep in mind that other people have a wildly different history with GPG than yours.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Non-CS Hackers, How Did You Land Your First (dev) Job? - <AUTHOR> Being a self-taught web developer, I find it difficult and irrelevant to crack Big O and Stack&Heap interview questions. For those who don't have a CS background, what's your story on landing the first job? <comment><USER2> I have a degree in IT. My first job was through a personal connection after literally over 100 resumes I sent out (I had a huge spreadsheet of job positions and offers. Offers was almost always "REJECTED"). It was a bit different for me in that I didn't want to work in my home state anymore, and I was actively turning down any local positions. Regardless, I could only get about 2 to 3 companies to even interview a new graduate with nothing to really show on my resume. It probably doesn't really help with your situation, and it might not be what you were hoping to hear, but it's how I landed my very first dev job. Without my connection and someone vouching for me, I'm not sure what would have happened...

That out of the way, don't give up. There are lots of positions out there, and many people are hiring. Keep on trying and don't give up. Careerbuilder and other websites can help a good bit in terms of getting your name out there. Recruiters on there and other resume places have helped me find other jobs, and I am currently at a solid company with good pay. Passion helps a ton, I've found. Find something to be passionate about, both in the tech field and outside the tech field.

But just to touch one more thing - the concepts you are struggling with take practice. I had to teach myself most CS concepts, and a lot of it involved going to MIT's site or going to Harvard's site and grinding them out. I spent many many hours on YouTube and elsewhere just trying to understand the concepts and, most importantly, writing software utilizing these concepts. I still regularly quiz myself once a month on some random interview question, such as how to write a DFS or BFS from scratch, how to reverse a binary tree, or how to implement something like Dijkstra's from scratch without looking anything up. If I find myself needing to look stuff up, I make a mental note on the concept(s) I'm rusty on and do a few more exercises pertaining to the concept. If I find the stuff easy, I make sure not to review it for quite awhile (utilizing Anki is a great way to do this, by the way).

</comment><comment><USER3> Started programming PDP-11 Basic in freshman year of high school, kept going (Applesoft BASIC, 6502 ML, QBasic, a little C, MS-DOS batch) up as a hobby through college, first job out of college was an operations job, but then the programmer quit and I took up the slack (PL/1), went into computer sales (Amiga; learned ARexx, CanDo, more C), worked at a couple of business consulting jobs (more scripting stuff, MS-DOS/Win, Mac, AIX), started working with a friend doing desktop database (PAL) one-offs for various clients, started doing webdev (when the web showed up), transitioned to Delphi for the desktop stuff, then Delphi generating Perl, HTML, Javascript websites, sold the co. for 45M, out of work for a few years (kept doing more advanced web stuff, learning better javascript, html, css, related junk), now work in IT and do webdev on the side.

BTW, I have a BA Humanities :)

</comment><comment><USER4> Ex-lawyer, I've been coding since I was a teenager but then started freelancing after leaving law. Got picked up by one of my clients and have been working as a full-time dev ever since.

For the actual CS bits, I've been teaching myself. I recently got an article published in Hacker Noon on Big O which was a way for me to consolidate my learning. Algorithms and Data Structures are next!</comment>